LA
President White LfSRARY
Cornell University
Cornell University Library
DA 32.T32
History of England from the earliest tim
3 1924 027 974 645
The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027974645
HISTORY OF ENGLAND
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH
OF QUEEN VICTORIA
BT
BENJAMIN TEERY, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR IN THE TTNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
CHICAGO
SCOTT, FOEESMAN AND COMPANY
1902
i-L
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY
SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANT
nOBT, O. LAW CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERB, CHICAGO
PEBPACB
It is the purpose of this book to present in a simple and con-
nected story the record of the founding, unfolding, and expansion
of English nationality. In covering so vast a field an author must
necessarily depend largely upon the work of others ; yet in select-
ing and organizing material, and in presenting well-worn themes
from new points of view he may reasonably be expected to show
some originality. He may also be expected to present with
accuracy and simplicity the ordinary body of technical material
which reader or student naturally looks for in a text-book on Eng-
lish History. He ought also to present this material supported
by such a body of narrative as shall impart some life to events
described, so that the institutions of a people shall appear not as
mere abstractions but as human things, and the great personages
of their history not as the characters of an algebraic formula but
as actual men and women. This, in a word, has been the aim of
the present work. That it has not been attained in many respects,
no one can be more conscious than the author himself. Only one
who has gone through the labor entailed by such a task can appre-
ciate the diflSculty of attaining even ordinary accuracy in the state-
ment of simple fact, to say nothing of properly balancing action
and motive, or of placing events always in their proper proportions.
In general, the plan of the book has been to weave in with a
thread of political narrative some account of the constitutional
and social development of the English people. In carrying out
this plan conventional proportions have been sacrificed somewhat.
Less space has been given to the petty squabbles of modern poli-
ticians and the mere twaddle of court gossip but more to the
development of early institutions; less to the intricate processes
of modern diplomacy, but more to Alfred and William I. and
Henry II. and Edward I. The wars of Great Britain with
IV PREFACE
Afghans or Zulus or Chinese have been barely mentioned, but an
entire chapter has been given to the Norman reduction of Eng-
land. In order, also, that each chapter may present a distinct
movement as a whole, the familiar arrangement by reigns has
been abandoned for an arrangement by topics.
No attempt has been made to give a bibliography or even a
complete body of notes. The few references which appear as
footnotes are designed simply to show reader or student, who may
not have the command of a large library, where he may easily
reach a few of the most important authorities or sources. Every
school library, however humble, should place within reach of its
students such standard works as those connected with the names
of Freeman, Greene, Eamsay, Stubbs, Taswell-Langmead, Nor-
gate, Lingard, Eound, Cunningham, Seebohm, and Gardiner, or
such collections of sources as those connected with the names of
Stubbs, Gee and Hardy, Prothero, and Gardiner. The English
Historical Review, also, will be found to be a mine of wealth to both
student and teacher, and a complete file may still be easily obtained
for a very moderate outlay. The Epoch Series will also be found
invaluable in a small library. Eeferences have been given to these
works rather than to the more formidable collections which are
beyond the reach of most students, in the hope that the references
will be actually used and thus prove of some practical value in the
more extended study of important movements. Where time per-
mits, such documents as Magna Charta, The Bill of Rights, The
Act of Union, The Bill of Union, and the several Reform Bills of
the nineteenth century should be carefully read and analyzed.
In preparing the work I have levied heavily upon my old stu-
dents, my colleagues of the Department of History in the Univer-
sity of Chicago, and upon the members of my own family. Special
credit is due to Dr. James F. Baldwin of Vassar College who has
put his extensive knowledge of the English Feudal Period at my
service by gathering for me the material upon the basis of which
I have prepared the text; he has also read the finished MS. of
this part of the work and made many valuable criticisms and sug-
gestions from which I have been glad to profit. For a similar
service in the preparation of the MS. upon the period of the
PREFACE V
Tudors and the Stuarts I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. Ralph
C. H. Catterall, and upon the Hanoverian period to Professor
Charles Truman WyckofE of the Bradley Polytechnic Institute.
I am greatly indebted, also, to my colleague, Dr. J. W. Thompson
for assistance in reading the proof of the maps and for sugges-
tions which have added greatly to their value; also to the un-
wearied service of Miss Priscilla Grace Gilbert of Chicago in
verifying quotations, the spelling of proper names, the correct-
ness of dates, and in preparing the MS. for the printer. I wish
also to mention the patient service and kindly interest of my
colleague Professor George S. Goodspeed of the University of
Chicago, and of my father, Mr. J. C. Terry of St. Paul, Minnesota,
in reading the proof of the entire work.
The University op CmcAao,
August 1, 1901.
CONTENTS
FAGB
Preface iii
List of Maps xi
List of Tables xii
PART I— TEUTONIC ENGLAND
The Era of National Foundation
From Earliest Times to 1042
CHAPTER
I. Introduction — Britain before the coming of the Teutons 1
II. The Teutonic Settlement of Britain 18
III. The Rival Confederacies of Teutonic Britain, and the Found-
ing of the National Church 33
IV. The Danish Wars — Alfred the Great and the Founding of the
English Kingdom 57
V. The Reconquest of the Danelagh and the Expansion of the
English Kingdom under the Great Kings of the House of
Alfred 78
VI. The Days of Dimstan; the Early English Kingdom passes
Meridian 93
VII. The Decline of the Early English Kingdom; the Era of
Danish Kings 106
PART II— FEUDAL ENGLAND
The Era of National Organization
From 1042 to 1297
I. The Shadow of the Norman 135
n. The Conquest of England 145
III. The Norman Reorganization of the Kingdom and the Intro-
duction of Feudalism 167
vii
nil CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
IV. The Organization of the Kingdom Continued— The English
Conquest of Normandy 184
V. Feudal Reaction and the Eeconstitution of the Kingdom 203
VI. The Growth of Popular Rights and the Loss of the Continental
Possessions of the Angevins 330
VII. The Great Charter 249
VIII. The Struggle for the Charter 266
IX. The Chartered Confirmed 294
PART III— NATIONAL ENGLAND
The Era op National Awakening
book i — social awakbnina
From 1S97 to lias
I. The New Era; Edward I. and the Beginning of the Wars
of Foreign Conquest — The Struggle of the Scots for
Independence.. , 317
II. The Barons and the Royal Favorites — The Independence of
Scotland Established 334
III. Edward III. and the Opening of the Hundred Years' War 350
IV. The Decline of Edward III. — Second Stage of Hundred Years'
War 381
V. The Peasant Revolt — The Attack of the King upon the
Constitution 403
VI. The Constitutional Kings of the House of Lancaster — The
Third Stage of the Hundred Years' War 427
VII. The Last Stage of the Hundred Years' War— The Rivalry of
Lancaster and York 450
VIII. The FaU of York and the Close of the Dynastic Struggle 474
BOOK II — RELIGIOUS EEPOBMATION
From Has to 1603
I. The Restoration of the Monarchy 494
II. The Monarchy Supreme — The Administration of Wolsey 512
III. The Ecclesiastical Revolt of England 528
IV. The Progress of the Reform 548
V. The Catholic Reaction 571
VI. Elizabeth; the Reform Established 587
VII. Elizabeth; The Duel with Spain 606
OONTEKTS IX
BOOK in — POLITIOAL REVOLUTION
From 1803 to 1689
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Breach Between King and Commons.. 618
II. The Era of Arbitrary Government 647
III. The Long Parliament and the Civil War 669
IV. The Parliament and the Army 697
V. Cromwell and the Protectorate 722
VI. The Stuart Eestoration 742
VII. The Birth of the Whig Party 760
VIII. The Whig Revolution 783
PAET IV— IMPERIAL ENGLAND
The Era op National Expansion
From 1689 to the Close of the 19th Century
I. The Beginning of Party Rule in England and the Founding of
British Foreign Policy 805
II. The Completion of the Work of the Revolution 836
in. Walpole and the First Era of Whig Rule 861
IV. The Pelhams and Pitt— The Ocean Empire Secured 885
V. George III.— The First Period of Tory Rule and the Loss of
the Amei-ican Colonies 911
VI. The Second Period of Tory Rule and the French Revolution... 941
VII. The Eastern Question and the First Era of Reform 976
VIII. Peel and the Dissolution of the Old Parties — The Crimean
War — Palmerston and British Foreign Policy 1009
IX. The Rise of the New Democracy — Gladstone and the Second
Era of Reform 1037
Index 1070
LIST OP MAPS
PAGE
Teutonic Britain about 600 36
Britain about 793 52
Partition of England by Treaty of Wedmoee 67
England: Later Expansion op Wessex 80
The Great Earldoms 118
England: 1066-1068 145
England and Scotland: 1066-1338 184
The Angevin Dominions 308
Battle op Bannockburn 338
Campaigns of Hundred Years' War 350
Battle op Crecy ,.. 365
Battle op Poitiers 377
Parts of France held by England after Treaty op Troyes 380
France by Treaty of Bretigny 380
General Map op Hundred Years' War 444
Field of Agincourt 446
The Wars of the Roses... 467
England during Tudor Period 528
Battle op Edgehill 684
England during Civil Wars and Later Stuart Period 686
Battle ofMarston Moor 689
Battle of Naseby 694
Ireland during Civil Wars and Later Stuart Period 710
Scotland during Civil Wars and Later Stuart Period 712
Battle op Dunbar 714
Europe: 1713-14 836
Battle op Blenheim orHoohstadt 840
Battle op Ramillies 844
Spanish Netherlands 850
Europe: 1789 950
Europe: 1813 970
Peninsular Campaigns op Wellesley 969
Battle op Waterloo 973
India 1038
BouTH Aprioa 1055
3d
LIST OF TABLES
PAGE
The Family of ^t.fred S'''
Rival English and Danish Royal Families 106
The Dukes of Normandy. Early Connection with the En(j-
LiSH Line 135
CONTEMPOBABIES OF EDWABD THE CONPESSOR AND WiLLIAM 1 166
The Family op the Conqueror 167
Families op Blois and Boulogne 302
Contemporaries op later Norman and Early Angevin Kings.. 229
Family op Henry II 230
Family op John Lackland 266
Prominent Contemporaries op the Era of the Charter • 293
The English Constitution from the 11th to the 14th Century 316
The Disputed Succession to the Scottish Throne 317
Contemporaries op Edward 1 333
The House op Lancaster 334
The Valois Succession 350
The Uncles of Edward III 351
The Breton Succession 361
Family of Edward III 381
Contemporaries of Edward III 403
The House of Lancaster , 427
The Descent op the Rival House op York 450
The Beauforts 474
The Woodvilles 478
The Younger Branch of the Nevilles— The De la Poles 494
Prominent Characters op the Fifteenth Century 511
Royal Descent of the Stapfobds 512
The Howards 548
The Stuart Succession 587
Prominent Contemporaries op the Later Tudors 605
Contemporaries op the Early Stuarts , ...„. 696
The Rival Lines of Stuart 805
Contemporaries of the Later Stuarts 835
Claimants to the Spanish Succession 836
Descent of the House of Hanover 861
Prominent British Statesmen of Modern Times Who Have
Entered the Peerage 1069
xii
THE
HISTORY OF ENGLAND
PART I— TEUTONIC ENGLAND
THE ERA OF NATIONAL FOUNDATION
FROM EABLIEST TIMES TO 1042
CHAPTEE I
INTRODUCTION
BRITAIN BEFORE THE COMING OF THE TEUTON'S
The entire area of the British Islands, roughly estimated, is
about one hundred and twenty thousand square miles. Of this,
England occupies less than one-half, about fifty-eight
bSof' thousand square miles; -not a very large country as
are^ms Hiodern states go. And yet, what has been lacking in
size, has been more than made up by physical conditions,
the most favorable to vigorous and prosperous national life. An
insular position, midway in the north temperate zone, provides
a climate tempered, yet invigorated by ocean breezes, and sup-
plying that most urgent of agricultural needs, an abundant
and regular rainfall. The soil is diversified with mountain,
river, and lowland; and under intelligent tillage, is generally
capable of great fertility. To resources of soil and favorable
climatic conditions, is also to be added a vast wealth in minerals,
by no means the least considerable of the national assets.
Above all, and of the greatest political importance, the continuous
1
% EARLY BRITAIN-
boundary of ocean and channel, by protecting the people from
foreign interference, has afforded opportunity for the develop-
ment of unique political and social institutions, the normal
unfolding of a healthy national life. The long seaboard, more-
oyer, set with numerous and commodious harbors, has naturally
suggested commerce and naval enterprise; offered a ready outlet
for a population straitened by inflexible natural boundaries, but
peculiarly energetic and adventure loving ; and inspired those vast
schemes of colonization, which have resulted in the founding of a
Greater Britain beyond the seas.
The population of the British Islands represents in about equal
proportions the two great branches of the Aryan race, who have
taken possession of central and western Europe, — the
The popular Qelts and the Teutons. To the first belong the Scots,
tion of the ° '
fii&n^ the Welsh, the Irish, and the Manx; to the second the
English. The Celts, who were the first to come,
found another race in occupation before them; these they
did not exterminate, but absorbed. The Teutons in turn over-
whelmed the Celts, and while they probably expelled them entirely
from the eastern parts of the island, in the west and the north,
Celt and Teuton rapidly blended, until to-day they so shade
into each other that it is difficult to tell where Celtic Britain
begins, or Teutonic Britain leaves off. Other infusions of foreign
blood from Denmark and Normandy, from Holland and France,
have since been received and lost in the larger population. Hence
the population of the British Islands to-day is the result, partly, of
a layer of population upon population, of race upon race ; and partly
of the fitting of population to population, like the pieces of a mosaic,
yet so skillfully set, that the seams of division are lost, and colors
the most violent in contrast shade into each other imperceptibly.
The history of the people of the British Islands, therefore,
begins far back beyond the Teutonic migration, when the first of
these populations appeared. Then a huge peninsula
bhS"^ "^ occupied the place of the present islands, and stretched
Hutory. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Continent, far into the northern ocean.
Its vast areas of woodland and marsh, broken here and there by
open country, afforded a home for the bison and the mammoth
EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 3
the reindeer and the wolf, and many other creatures, fierce and
strange, which have loiog since disappeared. A people who are
^^ represented to-day by the Esquimaux, fished along the
PaieoutMc sedgy rivers, or tracked the wild beasts to their lairs
among the uplands. They are known to scientists as
Paleolithic or Old Stone men. Of these, two races have been
distinguished. The oldest or first comers are called the River Drift .,
men; the second comers, the Cave men. They represent the rudest
form of human life. They made tools of flint which the Eiver
Drift men used without handles. They also protect^ their bodies
from the extremes of the weather, much more violent then than
now, with garments made of skins, rudely stitched together with the
tendons of wild beasts. Though barbarians of the lowest type, they
had some artistic sense, and attempted to ornament their weapons
, with rude imitations of the creatures which they were accustomed
to slay in the chase. Yet they had no domestic animals ; knew
nothing of spinning, or weaving ; and took no care of their dead.
Existence must have been hard and precarious at best, affording
little to develop the nobler instincts of human nature.
Then untold centuries passed away; the great peninsula was
severed froni the mainland, and cut up into the group of islands
which we know to-day; a climate better suited to
The ...
Neniifhic primitive life also succeeded. The earlier races of
Men.
men, the Old Stone men, or Pateolithic men, disap-
peared; and a new race, the WeoliiJiic, or Wew Stone men, suc-
ceeded them. These people came from the southeast, and must
have known something of sea craft. They brought with them over
the narrow seas the domestic animals now so familiar, — the dog
and the sheep, the ox, the goat, and the hog. They knew some-
thing about spinning and weaving; and reverently laid away
their dead in long chambers, built of flat stones, over which they
heaped pear-shaped mounds of earth. ¥bese mounds are still to
be seen in parts of the British Islands, and are known as lonff bar-
rows. Prom remains found in these barrows, we learn something
of the appearance of the New Stone men; they were somewhat
shorter than modern Europeans, with swarthy complexions, black
curly hair, and, probably, dark eyes. The skulls, seen from
4 EARLY BEITAIN
above, were oval; the faces, also oval; chins small, foreheads low,
and cheek bones not prominent. Kindred peoples, commonly
distinguished from later. Neolithic men as Iberians or Ivernians,
extended over all western and southern Europe. They dwelt
among the Swiss lakes, the Lake Dwellers; they were found upon
the plains of Italy and in the mountains of ancient Etruria.
Within historic times they appear in the Iberians of Spain and
the modern Basques of the Pyrenees. Their blood is repre-
sented to-day, probably, in most of the populations of western
Europe.
Hosv long these men of the long barrow and the oval skull, the
first Neolithic men, remained in undisputed possession of their
island home is not known. But sometime, perhaps
TTie Celts ' jt r
twenty centuries before the beginning of the Chris-
tian era, another people, also in the Neolithic stage, entered
Europe, and slowly drifting westward, everywhere displaced the
Iberians, breaking up their settlements, and either exterminating
the inhabitants or absorbing them. These people were the Celts,
the first great historic people of western Europe. They repre-
sented a new race — the Aryan, now for the first time seen upon
European soil. In marked contrast with the Iberians, the new-
comers were tall and muscular, with fair skin, yellow hair, and
fierce blue eyes. Their skulls were round, foreheads high and
broad, and cheek bones prominent. They treated their dead with
reverent care ; but covered the grave with a round or bell-shaped
barrow. Later, when bronze had begun to take the place of stone,
they burned their dead.
About the seventh or eighth century before the Christian
era, these people had completed the conquest of Gaul, and were
beginning to press into Britain. They did not come
migration to all at once, but in successive waves of population, each
people pushing their predecessors on before them, to be
crowded forward in turn by others who came after. In Caesar's
day the last of these migrations had been completed; but so
recently, that the last comers still kept up a close connection with
their kindred of northern Gaul. During this long period the
Celts also were passing through a very important transition. The
THE CELTS 5
first to come had used stone weapons, similar to those of the
Iberians; but the later comers had learned the secret of harden-
ing copper with tin. They knew how to make huge bronze swords,
and to protect their bodies with bronze armor and bronze shields.
They had also learned to use the chariot in war, somewhat after
the manner of the Greek nations of the Mediterranean. They
must have been very formidable opponents, even to those of their
own people who were already in Britain, and who now saw
themselves despoiled of their choicest fields and finest hunting
grounds.
While many such waves of Celtic population broke upon the
British Islands during this period, they represented only two
divisions of the race, the Ooidels or Gaels, and the
BriS""'* Britons. The Gaels are represented to-day by the
people of Ireland and the Scotch Highlands ; the Brit-
ons, by the Welsh. It is thought, too, that strains of the old
Iberian blood may be detected in the short stature, black hair,
and dark eyes which prevail in certain parts of Ireland and Scot-
land. A map of the British Islands at the close of the Celtic
migration would show in the hands of the Britons, middle and
southern Britain from the Firth of Forth to the Channel and
about one-half of Wales ; in the hands of the Goidels the modern
Cornwall, southern Wales, with Anglesey and the adjoining penin-
sula, the Scotch Highlands, Man, and Ireland.
The Celts were an exceedingly interesting people, and the
ardent researches of antiquarians have restored many of their
customs. They understood agriculture, but their chief
Customs wealth consisted in cattle. They soon discovered the
mineral resources of their new home, for which, espe-
cially the tin, they found a ready market among the peoples of the
Mediterranean. Along the channels of this ancient commerce,
the gold and silver coins of the Greek cities of the
"^^' south found their way into Britain, and the British Celts
soon began to imitate them on their own account. Many of these
imitations have been found, struck long before the era of Eoman
occupation, and bear no slight testimony to the wealth and intelli-
gence of the people who used them, the more remarkable when we
6 EAELT BRITAIK
remember that "Saxon England practically never had a gold coin-
age, and that even Norman England never saw a gold coin struck
until the year 1257."'
The Celts had kings or tribal chieftains; but they seem to have
been unable to attain any permanent political union. Like Gaul in
the time of Caesar, or Ireland in the time of the Plan-
TraaiMngs. ^^^^^^^^^ Britain was cut up into scores of petty tribal
families, each family held together by a theoretical kinship to a
tribal chief. There were laws and interpreters of laws; but beyond
the tribal family there was no judicial machinery by which inter-
tribal quarrels might be adjusted, or offenses might be punished.
Hence the tribal chieftains were ever quarreling among themselves,
and never able to secure a lasting peace.
Another institution peculiar to the Celts was the order of
Druids, a body of men of learning, who were held in great honor,
and were exempt from military service and taxation.
TheDnads. ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ repositories of the learning of the
age, which they received as oral traditions in a long and
arduous tutelage. Like most primitive peoples, the Celts offered
human sacrifices to their gods, and the Druids officiated in these
grim rites. The famous Stonehenge, the remains of which are
still to be seen in the great Salisbury plain, is generally thought to
be a monument of such ancient British worship. Beside their
sacerdotal functions, the Druids were also professional jurists ;
"they could give legal advice, enunciate the law, act as arbiters,
but could not enforce a decree." They existed both in Gaul and
Britain, and, if the later Irish ireJions or judges may be regarded
as representatives of an ancient order, probably in Ireland as well.
The authentic record of Celtic Britain begins with the perma-
nent Koman occupation, about the middle of the first century of the
Christian era. Some three centuries earlier, however,
The voyage Pytheas, a savant of the Greek city of Marseilles, was sent
of Pytheas, J ' j 3
^cmts25 out by the merchants of his city to open up new trade
relations with the people of the north coast of Europe.
The expedition was successful, and much useful information
was no doubt brought back to the Mediterranean cities ; but unfor-
' Eamsay, Foundations of England, I, p. 33.
A. D. 43] CAESAK IN BRITAIN 7
tunately the original record left by the explorer has been lost, and
all that remain are a few stray references or allusions on the pages
of his critics. When Caesar was in Gaul, he also made
Britain, B. c. two expeditions to the island ; but apparently he had no
serious thought of conquest at the time, and proposed
little more than a reconnoissance in force. His first expedition
was unmistakably a failure. On his second expedition he remained
two months, advancing beyond the Thames, and breaking up a
confederacy of tribes which the chieftain Cassivellaunus had
brought together to resist him. He also exacted a promise of
tribute ; but there is no evidence that a tribute was ever collected or
that any effort was made by the Eomans at this time to secure a
permanent footing on the island. They were soon too busy with
their own domestic affairs to give the distant Britons further
attention, and left them to sink again into the oblivion which for
so many centuries had hidden their island from the eyes of civilized
Europe; nor was it until the reign of Claudius, ninety-seven
years later, that the Romans seriously undertook to reduce the
Britons, or to establish their power beyond the Channel. Here
the recorded history of Britain begins.
A great king, Cunobelinus, the "Cymbeline" of Shakespeare,
had closed a long and prosperous reign in eastern Britain. His
capital was at Oamulodunum, among the Trinobantes,
Occasion the site of the modern Colchester. Both north and
0/ the
ciud^"^ south, the neighboring tribes had yielded to his sway.
Upon his death, however, his kingdom broke up; the
tribes were embroiled in a bloody civil war, and soon exiled chief-
tains began to appear at the court of Claudius, only too ready to
sign away questionable claims to paper thrones, in order to secure
the aid of the emperor in avenging their wrongs. Claudius deter-
mined to interfere upon pretext of the 'alliance and friendship' of
Eome with these dispossessed chieftains. He was, moreover, sadly
in need of a military reputation, while the chronic disorder of the
island promised an easy conquest — much easier than the conquest
of the incorrigible Germans, upon whom Augustus had spent
the whole strength of the empire to little purpose.
Accordingly, in the summer of the year 43 A. D., Claudius sent
8 EAKLT BKITAIN
forward an able general, Anlus Plautius, with an armament, number-
ing, both legionaries and auxiliaries, about forty thousand men. The
Britons were able to make no effective resistance to this
The Conquest force, and in a few weeks the lands of the Cantii, the
Plautius, reffion of the later Kent and Sussex,were overrun.
So glowing were the accounts returned of the
achievements of Roman prowess, that Claudius ventured to expose
his sacred person by appearing among the legionaries, and was
present when the army crossed the Thames and took possession of
Camulodunum. After sixteen days he returned to Rome to enjoy
his much-needed triumph, and to add a "Britannicus" to the
calendar of Roman national heroes. Aulus Plautius remained
behind to complete the work of conquest, and within four years the
most of Roman Britain was secured. Colonists also flocked into
the island, and in a short time the Romanizing of the new provinces
was seriously under way.
Other governors followed Aulus Plautius. There was much hard
fighting on the borders ; but for eighteen years the Roman advance
failed to pass the Severn, or the Humber. Within these
^fOHt'ln^ lines, however, there were many important changes.
^Mw— Londinium, the modern London, was rising rapidly to
be the "commercial center of the island." From the
southern ports the inevitable Roman roads converged upon her
gates. A great road led away to Glevum (Gloucester) , the Roman
outpost on the Severn. The famous "Watling Street stretched
away to Uriconium (Wroxeter), and Deva (Chester), the outpost
of Rome in the northwest. Other highways, the Icknield Street,
the Ermine Street, and the Fosse- way, then, or soon after, were
laid down to connect the remote corners of the province with the
interior and with each other. These roads were designed primarily
for military purposes ; but commerce was quick to take advantage
of the easy and safe communication offered by solid roadbeds and
continuous lines of depots and watch-stations ; and very soon, over
the Roman road, as along the line of the modern railroad, the subtle
influences of civilization began to pass outward in ever-increasing
volume, from the older cities of the coast into the western and
northern wilderness.
61] BOADICEA 9
But how fared it with the conquered people during these eight-
een years? The Celtic nature is not averse to civilization ; but it
_ , was the peculiar misfortune of the British Celts, as with
ltV'6Cfccni67lt
of the their kinsmen of Ireland, to come first in contact with
BrUffns. ...
civilization on its most unlovely side. Under such
emperors as Claudius and Nero, Eoman public service was at its
worst. Officials were shamelessly corrupt, and did not hesitate to
use their public authority to extort money from the defenseless
provincials for their own uses. Troops of private speculators,
brokers and money-lenders, had also followed the army, and
"offered fatal facilities to needy chiefs." Conscriptions, taxation,
and requisitions of all sorts, enforced by punishments which
the Britons thought fit only for slaves, were the order of
the day.
Such blind and stupid oppression of a brave people, who, though
conquered, still retained in their hands unlimited power for mis-
chief, could have but one result. In the year 61, the
Boad,icIa,ei. Iceni, a vassal tribe who dwelt in the region of the pres-
ent Norfolk, rose under the leadership of their widowed
queen, the famous Boadicea, and, joined by the Trinobantes and
other neighbors to the south, made a desperate effort to destroy
the foreigners and break the Roman yoke. In the first tide of
revolutionary ardor the insurrection bore all before it. The recently
established colony at Camulodunum was overwhelmed. Veru-
lamium, the modern St. Albans, and London were stormed and
sacked. Frightful massacres attended these successes; seventy
thousand persons, it was said, perished. The nearest legion, the
Ninth, hastened to the scene of the revolt, but only to be swept
away in the flood. Help, however, was not far off. Suetonius Paul-
linus, the governor, was already returning from the distant Mona,
the later Anglesey, where he had been engaged in an attempt upon
the warlike Ordovices. He hastened his march in the hope of
saving London; but when he found that he was too late, he fell
back to a strong position somewhere on the line of the Thames,
and there awaited the advance of the enemy. Boadicea led the
charge in her war chariot ; her people supported her with great spirit,
but their valor was no match for the dogged endurance of the
10 EARLY BRITAIN
Eomans. After the first wild and furious onslaught, their energies
were soon spent, and they were easily swept away before a well
timed counter charge of the legionaries. Boadicea ended her life
with poison. Southern Britain was not only conquered, but
crushed; and never again disputed the Roman supremacy. Yet
the rising was not without its lesson to the Eomans; and when
the overthrow of the last of the Claudian Caesars and the subse-
quent establishment of the Flavians, afforded an opportunity for a
change in the policy of the provincial administration, the Britons
were among the first to share the benefit of the new order. The
governors who now came out to the province were good men, who
sought to reconcile the people to the Eoman rule by removing the
causes of irritation.
Among the new governors was the famous Agricola, immor-
talized by the pen of his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus. He
came to Britain in the year 78, and at once under-
Britaiii^^^ took the reduction of the wild tribes of the island, who
''^'^^' had not yet recognized the Eoman rule. In three years,
he had overrun the western highlands, the later Wales; then,
turning north, he crossed the Humber and advanced to the line of
the Clyde and the Forth. It took two years more to clear the
lowlands, and in the summer of 84 he entered the mountain fast-
nesses of the Caledonians, as the Picts were then called, the only
people who still defied the authority of Eome in Britain. The
difficulties which confronted the Eomans in the unaccustomed
mountain warfare were serious, but the Caledonians greatly sim-
plified the task by massing their forces at a place known as Mons
Graupius,' where Agricola defeated them in a single pitched battle.
If we may believe his biographer, Agricola left ten thousand of
their warriors dead upon the field. It was one of the
dH^cumnavi- ^0^* brilliant victories which Eoman arms had won
ffiS, M."'^ si^'^e the day of the great Caesar. Yet it was impossible
to hold or fortify the Highlands, or secure the fruits of
victory by permanent possession, and Agricola was forced to
return to the province. The fleet, however, he sent forward to
' It is now generally agreed that Mons Graupius is not to be identified
with the Grampian Hills.
84] BOMAK CIVILIZATION
11
explore the northern coast. They turned the cape, and discovering
the Orkneys, returned by way of the Irish Sea and the Channel to
their winter station. They were the first representatives of civiliza-
tion to circumnavigate the island.
Agricola, in the meantime, was meditating great things for his
next campaign. He proposed, in short, the complete reduction, not
Recall of °^^^ °^ *® people of the Highlands, but of the Irish
Agricola, Gaels as well. But the suspicious Domitian was already
jealous of the growing fame of his brilliant lieutenant,
and determined to recall him, leaving three legions in the island,
suflScient for a guard, but not sufficient to tempt another lieuten-
ant to a career of conquest.
The Eoman advance in Britain now ceased for a season. The
government, in accordance with a policy, deliberately adopted,
sought henceforth not to make new conquests, but to
ffie'deMsiue. secure the most practicable military frontier. The
northern Gaels kept up their old active hostility, and
again and again swept into the Lowlands; the Brigantes, who dwelt
south of the Tyne, also gave the unfortunate Ninth Legion which
was stationed at York, much hard work; yet Eome persisted in
her defensive policy. Hadrian, who was a thrifty, business-like
emperor, decided that the conquests of Agricola north of the Tyne
were not worth the trouble which it cost to hold them, and aban-
doning all this region, withdrew south of the Tyne and the Sol way;
marking the new frontier by a permanent fortification,
Antomnus, the remaius of which are still to be seen.^ Antoninus
Pius, who succeeded Hadrian in 138, however, advanced
again to the old frontier, connected the Clyde and the Forth with a
second line of fortifications, and made the intervening country once
more Eoman territory. This practically ended the Eoman advance.
One hundred and twenty-four years after the battle of
lewrusfe Mons Graupius, Septimius Severus once more took up
^^T' ^^^ aggressive policy of Agricola, and made a last
attempt to complete the conquest of the island. But
' For description of the famous walls of Hadrian and his successors,
see Mommsen, The Provinces of the Eoman Empire I, pp. 200-205; and
Bamsay, Foundations of England I, pp. 75-79.
12 EARLY BRITAIN
he died before he had hardly begun his work. His successors were
too deeply occupied at home with military mutinies and barbaric
inroads, to burden themselves with the old quarrel with the High-
land Gaels.
After the death of Septimius Severus, Roman historians have
little to say of Britain for nearly a hundred years ; a fact which may
be taken to indicate that the history of the country was unevent-
ful, and hence peaceful. Agricola had begun to train the British
chieftains in the use of Latin. He had also introduced the luxuries
of the bath and the banquet. He gave liberally for the erection of
temples and courthouses, and introduced more durable
Civoization dwellings to take the place of the huts of clay and thatch.
Numerous remains of villas of the Eoman type testify
to the extent to which the Britons profited by these lessons. Some
of these villas must have been of considerable magnificence for private
dwellings. Agriculture remained the common flourishing industry
of the island; in the time of Probus, Britain sent large shipments
of grain to Italy. Additions were also made to the flora and fauna
of the island ; the chestnut and the walnut, the elm and the poplar,
the rabbit and the fallow deer, are supposed to date from this era.
Bede mentions mines of lead, iron, and coal; and in more recent
times numerous discoveries of Roman pig iron testify to the actual
output of these mines. Little, however, is known of other forms
of native industry. The Romans also brought in many customs
connected with the occupation of the soil, which scholars, in some
quarters at least, are beginning to think survived the later Teutonic
migration, and possibly formed no inconsiderable element in pre-
paring the foundation of the later medieval social system in
Britain, as well as in other parts of the west. It must not be for-
gotten, however, that the Eoman occupation of Britain was
primarily a military occupation. A military purpose dictated
the laying down of the famous roads and the planting
ffSeo/ ^^ Roman colonies. There is no evidence, moreover,
0^<MpaMm. ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ existed in Britain any such municipal
life as existed in Gaul or Spain; or that beyond the
four colonies, Camulodnnum (Colchester), Glevum (Gloucester),
Eboracum (York), and Lindum (Lincoln), any other cities received
300] PLAKTING OP CHSISTIANITT 13
the municipal franchise. The towns which the Romans occupied,
were really great camps or forts, and remained so down to the
coming of the Teutons. The upper classes of the Britons,
who were brought into direct contact with the Eoman officials,
spoke Latin, adopted Latin names, and aped Italian manners ; but
outside of the Roman camp cities, and beyond the line of the
Roman roads, the people remained still Celtic, Latin a foreign
tongue, and the Roman a stranger.
Pirst and last, therefore, the relations of the Romans to Britain
were like those of the English to India — essentially a military
occupation of a foreign country inhabited by a subject
Roman population — and with similar, results. "No new and
powerful nationality rose from the wreck of the old
independent British states. Instead, even "the remembrance of
past independence" faded away; the sense of nationality disap-
peared; individuality was destroyed; all capacity for self-help was
stifled in the languor and hopeless apathy, generated by a system
of paternalism, which insisted upon doing everything for its
dependents, and sternly frowned down every effort at self-help.
Even at its best, the Roman system of government was burdensome
and oppressive. In Britain it was never at its best. Though the
better emperors checked the plundering instincts of their subordi-
nates, the government itself was always the most grievous plun-
derer, from whose exactions there was no redress. It was always
needy, and even when it meant well, seemed never able to stay its
hand.
One ray of light there is, however, which comes to us out of
the deep gloom of these centuries of Roman military rule in Britain.
It comes, however, not from Rome or Roman institu-
tng^qf "" " tions, but from the despised and forbidden religion of
"'™ ^' the Christian. The time, and even the traditions, of
the early conquests of Christianity in this Land's End of the
ancient world, have been forgotten; evidence positive that, as in
the time of the apostles, the consolations of the Gospel here also
came first to the humble poor. The progress of Christianity, how-
ever, when once planted in Britain, must have been very rapid.
When TertuUian wrote in the early third century, he could claim
14 EAKLT BKITAIN
the Britons as a Christian people. In the year 314 the British
church was recognized as a part of the great western brotherhood
of churches, and was represented by three of her bishops at the
Council of Aries.
If we know little of the founding of British Christianity, we
know hardly more of the British church: In the year 359 its
bishops were conspicuous for their poverty among the prosperous
ecclesiastics who gathered at the Council of Rimini,
Cto?h '^'^ and were compelled to accept alms at the hand of the
emperor. With their poverty, the British churches
seem also to have united a sturdy orthodoxy, and through all the
controversies which distracted the wealthy eastern churches of this
period, adhered loyally to the teachings of Athanasius.
Three noted names have come down to us from the British
church — Pelagius, Ninian, and Patricius, the last, better known
as St. Patrick. But valuable as these lives are in
nmmsof^^ giving US types of British Christianity, they reveal little
Chm-cii^^ of the British church itself. Pelagius, the arch heretic,
lived and wrote in Italy and Palestine; Ninian and
Patrick toiled among the Gaels of the north and west — the pioneer
missionaries of Scotland and Ireland.
Of the political history of Britain, something more is known.
When Diocletian and Constantino reorganized the empire, Britain
was constituted one of the six dioceses of the great
izawmnf Western Praefecture, and placed under its own vicar,
Britain as , , ^ ^
apa/rtof or Vice prefect, with the seat of government at York.
the empire.
The region south of Hadrian's Wall was further sub-
divided into four provinces, the exact boundaries of which are not
known. In general, however, these provinces lay as follows : Britan-
nia Prima, south of the Thames; Britannia Secunda, west of
the Severn ; Flavia Caesariensis, between the Thames and the Hum-
ber; and Maxima Caesariensis, between the Humber and Hadrian's
Wall. Later, the region within the walls was known as Valentia,
and is sometimes, although improperly, designated as a province.
Each province was governed by a praeses, or president, whose
functions were entirely civil, and distinct from those of the three
great military officials who directed the defense of the island. Of
294] EARLY BARBARIAN INVADEES 15
these latter the Count of the Saxon sliore commanded the army
which guarded the eastern coast from the Wash to the Isle of
Wight, cantoned in nine permanent coast camps. Some-
officials to times the littoral Count was assisted also by a fleet of
considerable strength. The famous Carausius was
one of these counts, who by the support of his fleet was able to
throw off his allegiance to the emperor and establish himself in
Carausius Britain as a sort of pirate emperor, where he maintained
287-29*. iiis g-^v^ay for nearly eight years. His career is important
as the first hint of the possibilities of Britain as a base for a great
naval power. The Dtohe of the two Britains commanded the legions
stationed at Caerleon, Chester, and York. A third ofiBcer was
the Count of Britain, who seems to have been commander-in-
chief.
The disposition of these forces was dictated by new dangers
which began to threaten the existence of Eoman Britain as
early as the third century. Bands of wild Scots, Gaels
Barbaric who then dwelt on the east coast of Ireland, crossed
the Irish Sea, and uniting with other hordes of Gaels
from the Highlands, the old Caledonians, descended upon the
lands between the Clyde and the Severn, and after burning and
The Scots ravaging the country, retired again with troops of
andPicts. captives and herds of cattle. A still greater danger
threatened the Eoman Britons in the southeast. The successes
of Probus had cut off the Franks and other neighboring con-
federations from their long-accustomed predatory raids by land.
The sea, however, still lay open, and along this "swan road of
the water" small piratical fleets soon began to find their way
westward and descend upon the shores of Britain.
axons. ^^^ Saxons, whose terrible name appears first upon
Eoman annals about the year 160, were the most troublesome of
these marauders. In the third century they had extended over all
the region between the lower Elbe and the land of the Franks, and
' began seriously to menace the coasts of Britain and northern
Gaul.
During the long-continued helplessness of the period of the
Barrack emperors, Britain suffered much from the robbers who
16 EARLY BEITAIK
thus swept down upon her from the northern mountains and the two
seas. Carausius met the pirates on their own element, and during
The fall of ^^^ eight years' reign once more gave the land peace.
Brnnan The emperors of the House of Constantine continued
Britain. j^jg work, and for fifty years preserved the tranquillity
of the country. Bat after this family of princes had passed away,
with barbaric hordes marching and countermarching the plains of
Moesia and Gaul and Italy, with revolting generals sup-
ported by mutinous legions hatching into rival emperors,
the legitimate emperors were no longer able to give thought to a
remote outlying province like Britain. If an emperor honestly sought
to protect his distant subjects, and sent out from his scanty legions
at home a military force sufficient to help them, the chances were that
the soldiers, taking advantage of their remoteness from the capital,
would make an emperor of some favorite officer or provincial gover-
nor, and force him to lead them back again, in order to tilt with the
already distracted occupant of the throne. Emperor-making was far
more profitable than fighting barbarians on the lonely heaths of the
north. Between the years 383 and 407 this very thing happened
twice ; when the entire British garrison crossed the Channel, and with
their mushroom emperor plunged into the confusion of strife and
intrigue which marked the collapse of Eoman authority in Gaul.
The Picts and Scots and Saxons were also quick to take advantage
of the defenseless condition of the Provincials, and from all sides
began to pour into the country. A wild panic seized the people ;
all who could, the most of the Eoman population and the wealthier
class of the Britons, left the island and withdrew to the continent.
The tillers of the soil, the slave and the serf, the poor, the artisans
and mechanics only were left. All the conservative elements of
society, the so-called "respectable elements," the men who made
the laws and supported the courts, were gone. Civil authority dis-
appeared; the country rapidly reverted to barbarism and anarchy.
A crop of guerrilla kings, the representatives of violence and dis-
order, sprang up in the place of the lapsed civil order, plun-
dering the people and warring upon each other whenever the
barbarians afforded them a respite. The wail of the British
provincials reached the ears of the feeble Honorius behind the
414] END OF ROMAN POWER 17
lagoons of Ravenna. But he had no more troops to send, and bade
the Britons take care of themselves. Once again, when thirty years
later the fame of the mighty Aetins reached the island, a second
cry for help was sent out from this "Algiers of the ancient empire."
'The barbarians drive us back into the sea,' the people moaned;
'the sea drives us back upon the barbarians. We must die by the
sword or drown ; we have none to help us. ' And so Britain drifted
away from the nerveless hand that could no longer retain its grasp,
and disappeared in the deep night of the fifth century.
CHAPTER II
THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT OF BEITAIN
The first chapter of British history ends in the wild con-
fusion which followed the departure of the Koman legionaries.
Of the next two centuries, known as the era of the
Changes in Anglo-Saxon conquest, few records have surviyed to
m^A"'^'^ furnish a basis for the compilation of an authentic
the Romans, history. Yet violent and far-reaching changes are in
progress, and when the curtain rises upon the second
act of the drama the old stage setting has been entirely changed.
Where were populous cities, or swelling grain fields, are now only
dreary wastes of marsh and fen, or solemn forests of beech and
oak. A new people of strange tongue, and uncouth manners, living
the simple life of the wilderness, hunt along grass-grown Roman
roads, or camp among the silent ruins of villa or temple. There
are Britons still to be found in the western part of the island, who
speak the Celtic tongue and live under the strange old Celtic laws,
but the Roman Britons, with all that Rome had given them, have
disappeared.
The new-comers were the so-called Anglo-Saxons, the ancestors of
the present English people. They were Germans, of pure Teutonic
stock, and represented the second great wave of Aryan
Expa^m^ population to break over western Europe. When Pytheas
Eurme^^™ entered the northern seas this second group of Aryan
peoples had reached the Elbe and behind it were holding
the entire southern Baltic basin ; but when Caesar began his career
in Gaul, two hundred and seventy years later, they had long since
passed the Elbe, and were crowding upon the Celtic populations on
the west bank of the Rhine. The interposition of Rome and the
establishment of the Rhine as the eastern boundary of her trans-
alpine empire, at once checked the Germanic advance, but the
crowding of populations upon the Rhine frontier did not cease,
18
450] EAELIEST SETTLEMEKTS OF GEKMANS IN BKITAIN 19
and when at last, after five hundred years, the decline of Eoman
civilization made it impossible longer to hold the outer defenses
of the empire, Teutonic hordes began again to stream across the
boundary river and within a generation had overwhelmed all west-
ern Europe, permanently establishing themselves among the ruins
of the great cities of the west and south.
The Teutons who settled in Britain belonged to a group of
tribes who had long occupied lands on the lower Elbe and along
the Danish peninsula. Of these the Angles were known
mention of *° Tacitus ; and although the Saxons do not appear
Saxms"'^^ by name until later, it is not unlikely that they were
represented among the peoples who figured in the
ancient war of liberation when the Germans who dwelt between
the Khine and the Elbe rose against the generals of Augustus,
and threw off the Eoman yoke. Just when the Germans of
the lower Elbe began to form permanent settlements in Brit-
ain is not known; but the time apparently was much earlier
than that assigned by the traditional accounts of
Firstperma- „ . .
nmt settle- the conquest. The eastern coasts of lower Britain
Saxnm. offered an easy approach to their shallow barks, and
it is not unlikely that even before the withdrawal of
the Romans they had made a permanent lodgment upon the coast
of modern Essex, the "Saxon Shore." !N"ew arrivals continued to
swell the ranks of the first comers, and with the increasing feeble-
ness of the defense steadily pushed their way westward, taking up
land as they needed it, until at last they reached the neighborhood
of London.
Soon after the settlement of the "Saxon Shore," other bands
also succeeded in making a lodgment on the southern shore of the
Thames mouth. According to later traditions these
The Jutes
The ' people belonged to the Jutes, a tribe dwelling on the
Cantwara in %^ '^ . ^ . ^ , ^ ^ i • »
Kent, Danish peninsula, and came under two war chiefs or
ealdormen, Hengist and Horsa, who had been invited
by the Britons to assist them against their old hereditary foes the
Picts. These Jutes proved to be very troublesome allies, and, like
their kindred on the north bank of the Thames, proceeded to take
land as they needed it, pushing south and west, forcing the south-
20 THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT OF BRITAIN
ern Britons back upon London, and finally taking possession of the
entire peninsula of the ancient Cantii. The name of the dispos-
sessed Britons reappeared in the Cantwara, or men of Kent ; but
the old Durovernum gave way to Cantwarabyrig (Can-
waraandthe terbury). Other tribes of Jutes, represented m tne
Wight and later Wihtwara and Meanwara, continued along the
southern coast until they came to the sheltered waters
about Portsmouth, where they took possession of the Isle of Wight
and the mainland opposite, and extended their conquests over a
large part of the modern county of Hampshire. The Saxons also
seem to have found their way into the Channel at an early date,
and, pushing into the rivers and estuaries which were at that time
more numerous on these coasts than now, began a series of settle-
ments south of the great forest of Anderida, and probably
extended even west of the Wihtwara.
The Britons of the south did not surrender their homes
graciously to these strangers. There are grim traditions of attacks
and counter attacks, of fierce battles, of whole cities
The arst
period of massacred in the fury of storm, of a wave of fire which
surged across the island from sea to sea, nor ceased
its fury until it had bathed its flames in the western ocean ; then
followed a long period of truce, when the Germans retired to the
coast again and rested on their arms, while the Britons wasted
their strength and their resources in riotous living and civil brawls.
With the opening of the new century, the activities of the
Saxons began anew. Passing up the left bank of the Thames they
overran the regions occtipied by the modern counties of
the middle Middlesex and Hertfordshire; then passing the Chil-
terns they added the modern Buckinghamshire, Oxford-
shire, and Northamptonshire, and turning south crossed the
Thames and began the conquest of Berkshire. This region west
of the Chilterus, the middle Thames country, was the original land
of the West Saxons, the "geographical complement" of the lands
east of the Chilterns, which now by contrast began to be known
as the land of the East Saxons.'
' See English Historical Review, Oct. 1898, p. 671. Art. by Henry H.
Haworth, and also the reply by W. H. Stevenson in Review of Jan. 1899.
ANOLES IN THE NOKTH 21
When the Saxons began the conquest of the broad lowlands
which to-day stretch away from the suburbs of London to the
southwest, the modern Surrey, the "South Kingdom," is not
known, but it is fair to suppose that this region, at least the parts
north of the forest of Anderida, was conquered not by the Saxons
who had settled on the southern coast, but by the bands who had
OTerrnn the adjacent country across the Thames. Possibly the
conquest belongs to the later era when West Saxon and Cantwara
met in deadly struggle for supremacy south of the Thames.
The beginnings of the Anglian settlements are as obscure as those
of the Saxons. The Angles do not seem to have been very active
until the sixth century, when coasting along the shores
The Angles ...
in the east of the ancient Frisia in the track of the Saxons, and pass-
ing by the Thames month their fleets first found shelter
among the islands and estuaries on the coast of East Anglia,
where two distinct settlements may be traced in the familiar
Northfolk and Southfolk. The wild Fen country and the deep
indentations of the Wash, however, afforded no such easy egress
to the west as had invited the Saxons to the conquest of the
Thames basin. Later comers, therefore, according to tradition
coming in overwhelming numbers, and including first and last
a great part of the nation of the Angles,' passed on up the coast
until they reached the broad mouth of the Humber. At this time
the northern provinces of Koman Britain must have been in some
such condition as northern Italy on the eve of the Lombard migra-
tion. A century of Pictish inroads, followed by years of famine
and pestilence, had left the land depopulated and desolate.^ No
echoes of any great battles, no traditions of long and bitter strife,
such as linger about the Saxon advance in the south, have ever
reached us from this northern conquest. If any of the original
' A part of the Angles were left behind to be finally merged, in the
Thuringians.
2 An oflBcial report of the Mayor of Santa Clara County in Cuba showed
that in only three years, 1896, 1897, 1898, 80 per cent of the population had
perished. Conceive this state of affairs lasting for a hundred years, and
we have some idea of the condition of the northern part of the Roman
provinces of Britain when the Angles came. And we may also under-
stand why there was so little show of resistance.
22 THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT OF BRITAIN
population had survived the earlier Pictish inroads, they were too
feeble to resist the overwhelming numbers of the new invaders.
Two tribes, later known as Deirans and Bernicians, turned north
and took possession of the lands between the Humber and the
Firth of Forth. Other tribes turned south, and advancing along
the basin of the Trent soon appeared far down in mid-Britain,
leaving to the east, between the lower Trent and the Wash,
the modern Lincolnshire, the Gainas and the Lindiswara. Still
farther to the southeast, the Girwas found their way into the Fen
country, while other Anglian communities took up their station
about the later Leicester, where they appear as Middle Angles;
others still, the South Angles, appeared among the hills of North-
ampton, where they began to encroach upon the earlier settlements
of the West Saxons. Other, tribes worked their way out of the
Trent basin to the west, where they appear as North Angles and
West Angles.
It is perhaps to the era when the Angles were pushing rapidly
to the south that we are to ascribe the advance of the West Saxons
into the Severn country. Apparently they could not
Advance , , ■, , , . • . . i • • j. . i
(yfthe hold their own against the increasing pressure of the
West SdJcotis.
Angles upon their northern borders, and began to seek a
new extension of territory to the west and south, overrunning the
later Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and eastern Somersetshire. It is
probable also that at this time, or soon after, there occurred the
direct southward advance of the West Saxons, crossing the lower
Thames, expelling the Jutes of Kent from Surrey and Sussex, and
conquering the kindred Meanwara of Hampshire, and the Wihtwara
of Wight.
This last movement is associated by tradition with the name of
Ceawlin, the first really authentic king of the West Saxons, and
it is not improbable that the great part of these later
se^sBo^' conquests were carried on by him or his immediate pred-
ecessors. It is also not unlikely that out of the mili-
tary need of the hour there arose the first great confederation of
Teutonic tribes in Britain. At one time Ceawlin appears at war
with the young king Ethelbert of Kent, when he drives in the
western outposts of the Cantwara in Surrey and Sussex. Again
577-603] ETHELFEID THE DETASTATOE 33
he appears in the Isle of Wight, overthrowing the Wihtwara, pur-
suing their kings through the country of the Meanwara, and adding
their lands to his dominions ; probably forcing the Jutes of Wight
and Hampshire to join the West Saxon confederation. Again, he
appears in the valley of the Severn, hunting the Britons out of the
country, and in 577 winning the decisive victory of Deorham. The
old cities of Bath, Gloucester, and Cirencester fell to the spoil of
war, and their blackened ruins lay for centuries to tell of the
furious valor of Oeawlin. The victory of Deorham gave the West
Saxons the valley of the Severn, where the Hwiccas at once took
possession and extended their settlements over Gloucestershire and
Worcestershire.
While the West Saxons were thus drawing together under the
inspiration of Oeawlin's leadership and preparing for the great
The North- ^^^^ which they were to play in the future history of
cmmei-a- *^® island, the Angles north of the Humber, possibly
tum. under the pressure of the Scots upon their western bor-
der, were also learning to combine their strength for offensive and
defensive war. These Scots were representatives of the old Irish
Goidels, who some time in the fifth or sixth century had begun
to cross in greater numbers to the opposite coasts of Argyle and
Strathclyde, and had swarmed over the western • High-
StrJhciyde l^'^^ds, subduing the old Picts, probably merging with
them and forming the basis of the later Highland popu-
lation. They were no match, however, for the warlike lords of
the lowlands. A generation after Oeawlin had united the West
Saxon tribes of southern Britain, the Scot king Aidan led an army
of Scots and Picts and Britons down into the lands of the Berni-
cians. The recently confederated Berniciaus and Deirans advanced
to meet them under their king, Ethelfrid. The battle was joined
at Dawstone near Carlisle. The Scots and their allies
Bawsbme, f/f^re routed, and so great was the slaughter that for
more than a century the memory of the terrible ven-
geance of Ethelfrid "The Devastator" was enough to deter the
Scots from any further attempts upon the lands of the Bernicians.
Ten years later Ethelfrid won a second victory over the western
Britons under the walls of Chester. The city was taken and sacked,
24 THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT OF BEITAIN
and for three centuries lay in mournful ruins. The victory of
Chester gave the Northumbrian Angles possession of all the lands
between Leeds and the Irish Sea.
With these later victories of Ceawlin and Bthelfrid the era of
the Teutonic conquest and settlement of Britain ends. The
fertile lands of the old Eoman provinces were now
Eiidoferaof securely in the possession of the invaders, abundant for
and conquest, all needs for many years to come. West Wales or
Cornwall, North Wales or Wales proper, and Strath-
clyde, separated from all land communication with each other,
alone remained in the hands of the Celts. The Teutons had
already begun to call them Welsh, or Strangers,^ and under this
name the remnant of the once great people pass into modern his-
tory. The memory of their last brave stand in defense of the
inheritance of their fathers, when for once, but too late, they
dropped their quarrels and united for the common defense, long
lingered in the name of Kyviry or Allies.
Thus, by the close of the sixth century, the Teutons had estab-
lished themselves in Britain. It had taken them, however, two
hundred years to accomplish what Eoman legionaries
Thimetuod \^2i.A. accomplished in four years. This was due not to
tov^^ the stubborn resistance of the Britons, for the Britons
had long since ceased to be capable of resistance, but
wholly to the method of the Teutonic advance. The Germans had
settled in Britain as they had settled on the Ehine when Caesar
knew them, not under any common king, or in one compact horde,
but in detached tribes or kindreds ; each kindred or maegth^ mov-
ing out for itself, as it needed more room, driving the skeleton
British population on before it, taking what lands its present need
demanded, and here settling as a kind of frontier colony and giv-
ing its name to the surrounding region. Each colony was thus an
independent state, — civitas, as, Caesar or Tacitus would call it; liv-
ing under its own local laws and under the government of its own
elective chieftains, or ealdormen, but ready to unite in loose con-
' See Freeman in Encyclopedia Britannica, VIII, p. 369, for use of this
word both in Britain and on the continent.
^ Bade uses the word of the Mercian tribes.
METHOD OF THE SETTLEMENT 25
federation with neighboring and similar communities, whenever
threatened by common danger. They then selected some chief-
tain, renowned in war or in council, who led the allied hosts to
battle, and for the time exercised a regal authority. The West
Saxon Ceawlih was such a war chief, certainly not the first, but
probably the first to unite all the Saxon tribes west of the Chilterns
under one leadership. It is significant, however, that such con-
federations as those associated with the name of Ceawlin or Ethel-
frid belong to the later period of the conquest, and mark its final
stages. The great part of the territory was first abandoned by
the Britons and then seized by the Teutons, not as conquerors,
but as simple settlers ; not as a whole, but a fragmeat at a time as
the needs of a new generation dictated.
A similar instance may be found in the series of movements by
which the lands along the upper Rhine and the Danube were finally
detached from the empire and became German territory. Here,
in the rich valleys which now belong to the modern Baden and
Wurtemberg, the old Alamannia, were once flourishing settlements
of Roman colonists introduced from beyond the Rhine. During
the third century there was frequent and severe fighting on this
frontier. But long before the Germans had made a permanent
lodgment the older population had begun to recede. For a long
period there is no record of battles, or traditions of cities stormed
or sacked; and yet the recession of the older populations steadily
continued, and the Teutonic population as steadily filled in behind
them, swarming about the dwindling cities and effectually taking
possession of the land clear to the Rhine and the Swiss Lakes; and
yet so gradually withal, that no historian can tell just when this
region ceased to be Roman, or began to be wholly German. The
Marcomannic conquest of what is modern Bavaria is still more to
the point. Here, as in the case of the Angles in north and mid
Britain, the invaders, in overwhelming masses, poured into a coun-
try already depopulated by centuries of anarchy, war, famine, and
pestilence. The remnant population did not try to resist, but
retired into the remote Alpine valleys, or shut themselves up in
their few remaining cities, where, in time, by a steady process of
infiltration, the survivors of the old population disappeared in the
26 THE TEUTON^IC SETTLEMESTT OF BBITAIN"
new, assimilating to them in language, institutions, and physical
appearance.
So, apparently, Britain also was won, not by a storm, followed
by a deluge, as when the Goth swept into Italy, or the Vandal
swept oyer Gaul and Spain; but rather, after the first fiery
eruption into the Thames basin, described by Gildas, by a steady
recession of the Celtic population, attended by a corresponding
advance of the Germans. The new-comers were no such fiends
incarnate as commonly represented, fired only by a wild frenzy for
the shedding of blood, or bent only upon exterminating the original
inhabitants ; they were rather a race of herdsmen and farmers, and
as long as they were not attacked themselves, or were driven by no
pressure of expanding numbers to seek new lands, were for bar-
barians, in the main, peaceably inclined. Hence long periods appar-
ently passed, in which the new-comers remained quietly and
peacefully within the last established borders. The meager Celtic
population beyond these borders, without protection and not liking
the rough ways of their neighbors, quietly and steadily withdrew,
leaving an ever-widening belt of wilderness between them and
the dreaded strangers. When a particular Teutonic settlement
had outgrown its territories, a new swarm again moved out into
the regions beyond, sometimes driving out the depleted Britons
altogether, sometimes allowing them to remain in a servile relation,
but more likely finding only a deserted wilderness. Then the same
process went on again, the Britons steadily withdrawing as the
Teutons advanced.
Where there were cities the stages of the process, perhaps, were
somewhat different, but the results were virtually the same. Some-
times the inhabitants stood at bay behind their walls, or within the
lines of an old Roman camp, and maintained themselves in the
midst of surrounding Teutonic tribes. Sometimes, possibly in
an attempt to dislodge the new settlers from the neighborhood,
they drew down the wrath of the invaders, and in a short, quick
action lost everything; the pitiless swords of the enemy exter-
minating the inhabitants and leaving only a desolate heath to mark
the spot where once had stood a British town. This could not
have been the general experience, however, as the survival of so
EAELY ENGLISH INSTITUTION'S 27
many Roman town names at the end of this era indicates. It is
more likely that as each city was cut off from all support from the
neighboring country, its Celtic population dwindled, or, if recruited
at all, was recruited from Teutonic elements which rapidly absorbed
the remnant Celtic stock. It is to be remembered, however, that
the Germans did not love the city, and much preferred the open
country ; hence it is more likely that if a city survived, it was only
to be submitted to this process of dwindling, until little was left
save the name and a pitiful cluster of habitations suitable for the
needs of its present mongrel population, and sufficient to mark the
ancient site and preserve the ancient name.
In the north the advance was more rapid than in the south, but
there is no record of any great battles. More significant still,
during the whole early period, there is no trace of the
aOmnce formation of any great confederations of Teutonic
*^^_ tribes, such as we might expect, had the Britons ever
been able to exert any military strength. Instead, we
have on the part of the Germans the same advance in detached
bands, each band taking up its station as an independent colony,
where wood or watercourse or valley attracted them, as in the days
of Tacitus. The advance was more rapid, because the Angles came
ip far greater numbers than the Saxons, and larger areas of land
were needed at once. But there is no record of any concerted
action on the part either of Celt or Teuton, until we reach the time
of Ceawlin and Ethelfrid.
Of the ancient laws and institutions of the Teutonic tribes who
entered Britain, directly, we know no more than we do of the
events of the so-called conquest. Nothing, however, has
rnn^iisu yet been advanced to show that they differed materially
from the institutions of the Teutonic tribes who were
known to Caesar and Tacitus. Monogamy was the rule : woman-
hood was honored ; children were loved and cherished. Each tribe
or kindred was a small state by itself, sufficient to all the needs of
local government. The male members of the community, the free
warriors, were both citizens and soldiers. They met under arms
in an assembly, or folkmote, to discuss matters of general impor-
tance. In this capacity they were also a court to try serious
38 THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT OF BRITAIN
ofEenses against the customary laws of the tribe. Here, too, the
young warrior was formally initiated by appropriate ceremonies
into the company of free citizens. In this assembly also they
elected the ealdormen, the principes of Tacitus,' whose duty it
was to make regular circuits through the settlements, appre-
hending criminals and holding courts of justice. In this service
they were attended by a body of select companions, the comitatus,
who assisted in capturing and trying criminals and enforcing the
laws. These companions, the gesiths, were bound by special oath
to support their chief in the performance of his duties. They
lived at his table, and for this the other members of the tribe
brought their regular gifts ; thus recognizing the public nature of
the service of the ealdorman and his companions and the common
obligation of supporting them. In time of war the ealdorman
■with his following of gesiths formed the nucleus of the host. The
several magistrates together formed a tribal council, the germ
of the later national witenagemot. It was their custom to come
together while the free warriors were gathering for the folkmote,
as a sort of preliminary council to prepare the business which was
to be submitted to the people. Of kings in the later sense, the
early Germans of Britain had none, though the germ out of which
the king subsequently developed is to be found in the common
chieftain elected by several tribes on the eve of a general war.
His powers, however, were only temporary, and when the war was
ended his authority ceased, and the confederating tribes again fell
apart, each pursuing its independent life as before.
Of the freemen there were two classes, eorls and ceorls. The
eorl was a noble, but his nobility seems to have entitled him only
to a precedence in rank. His life also was protected by
of the a higher wergeld, the fine or indemnity which the mur-
derer or his family, paid to the family of his victim.
The ceorl was the simple freeman, whose political liberty was
attested by his right of meeting with his fellows for public business
with arms in his hands. Chattel slavery as it existed among the
Eomans was never popular among the Germans. Servitude, how-
' Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, I, p. 125.
CLASSES OF THE POPULATION 29
ever, was by no means uncommon, but it took a form of serfage,
wherein a tenant and his heirs were bound to perform certain
services for a master who was at the same time owner of the soil.
Tacitus compares the position of the German slave to that of the
Eoman colonus, who in Tacitus' day was really a free tenant whose
home was protected by law, and whose right of marriage was recog-
nized. We have no way of knowing what the relative proportion
of the unfree was to the free until the time of the Domesday
Survey ; but then the organization of English society had become
very complex compared with that of the primitive Teutonic tribes,
and the servile condition itself had been differentiated into a
series of degrees, or gradations, the distinctions of which are
obscure. It is not unlikely that the numbers of the servile popula-
tion were largely recruited from the ranks of the conquered
Britons. Servitude was also frequently prescribed by the courts as
a penalty for crime. It may be that in the more thickly populated
parts of Britain, the south and west, where Teutonic occupation
was more after the nature of a conquest, that the new population
was superimposed upon an older servile population. It may be also
that the members of this servile population were of German blood,
and represented the results of earlier Eoman conquests beyond the
Ehine and the upper Danube, when whole nations were corralled
and deported to distant parts of the empire and settled as coloni
or tenant farmers. Thousands of these unwilling settlers had
been introduced into Britain.
The civitas or tribal state was subdivided into judicial districts,
which seem at first to have had various names in different parts of
Teutonic Britain. For simplicity we may call this sub-
' division the hundred, although the name, though known
on the continent, does not appear in the laws of England until the
time of Edgar. Undoubted traces of the institution
however, are to be found as early as the time of Tacitus,
and it may be taken as one of the most characteristic features of
the early Teutonic state. Here at regular intervals, every four
weeks, as fixed by the laws of Edgar, the freemen of the district
came together in the hundredgemot, constituting a court, in which
civil suits were tried, or quarrels between neighbors were adjusted.
30 THE TEUTONIC SETTLEMENT OP BRITAIN
Below the hundred was the town or tun. The town consisted
of a cluster of detached dwellings, each with its court or door-
yard, stables, and outhouses. The adjacent lands also
belonged to the town. Here the freeman possessed a
shifting severalty in the arable land, and a share in the common
use of meadow and woodland. The town also had its popular
assembly or tungemot. The tungemot does not seem to have been
a civil court like the hundredgemot ; its functions were economic
rather than judicial.
When the period of the Anglo-Saxon codes began, private owner-
ship of land was already recognized ; yet, if the progress of Germanic
institutions on the continent be considered, we may
Ownership believe that in Britain also the lands of each settlement
of Zicmd.
were at first held by the freemen ia common; but with
the increase of population the exclusive right of individuals to par-
ticular pieces of land was allowed. The first form of tenure how-
ever was TprohMj folk-land or land held hj folk-rigid, distinguished
later from book-land or land set apart by special charter or grant.
The charter, however, suggests the influence of the priest, nor is it
unlikely that the church is largely responsible, if not for the intro-
duction, at least for the rapid extension of privileged ownership
in land among the Teutons of Britain. If so, this is only one of
the many ways, economic, social, and political in which Christianity
affected profoundly the life of the new-comers.
Before the priest came, they were a simple people, knowing
little of the arts of civilized life, but much of forest craft ; living
under their curious old laws of custom, yet far re-
ciSit moved from the condition of the mere savage. They
had their traditions and war songs; but knew noth-
ing of letters. They had also their conceptions of deity, but
worshiped God as they saw him revealed in the wild tumult of
the storm, or the wilder tumult of their own rude natures. They
knew nothing of temples, but reared their altars in the silence of
the sacred grove, or upon some lonely hill top. Here they sought
to solve the mysteries of their own lives, in ofEerings, sometimes of
human victims, more often of the animals supposed to be the
favorites of their special deities. These deities were the great
CHAKACTEB OF THE PEOPLE 31
gods Tiu, Wotan or Odin, and Donar or Thor. There were also a
multitude of lesser deities. The practical religion of the people
was made up largely of beliefs in omens of good luck or ill luck ;
in elves and fairies; "cursing stones" and "wishing wells"; nor is
it likely that "the common villagers ever rose to any sublimated
theories of deity ; or were ever conscious of more than a confused
unthinking worship of things held to be holy, whether beings or
places." There were deities for river and grove and fountain, for
the upper air and the world of the dead, for the forest and the
grain field, for the field of battle and the wedding festival, for the
home and the hearth, for the flock and the sheepfold, in short,
for everything that touched the lives of the people, or for anything
they could not understand, they had their deity.
They loved war and the chase, and constantly manifested their
contempt for a life which was hard and rigorous at best. They
lived upon milk and cheese, the flesh of their herds, and the
quarry, and the products of a limited agriculture. They could not
have been very cleanly in their habits. The word itch, as also the
common names of most of the well-known dirt diseases, are old
English names. But so are the words clean, wholesome, healthy,
hale, and hearty. Possibly the former were winter words, asso-
ciated with the dreary months when the people were compelled to
hive themselves with their cattle in close dens or caverns for pro-
tection from the weather ; while the latter were summer words,
associated with joyous days when open fields and fresh winds,
springing flowers and flowing streams invited the people to a dif-
ferent life. All in all they were very human, these first Teutonic
settlers of Britain, and not very different from what the people who
dwell upon their lands to-day would be under similar circumstances.
CHAPTER III
THE KIVAL CONBEDEEACIES OF TEUTONIC BEITAIN, AND THE
FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL CHUECH
The next stage in the history of Teutonic Britain is one of great
importance; in it English nationality assumes its first forms.
The time is still far distant when we may use with any
rwwera accuracy the words, "England" or "English." The
faundima of newcomers are still Germans ; just such Germans as were
dwelling on the Weser and the Ems, living under the
same laws and under the same tribal organization. There is also
the same bewildering succession of names without forms, of forms
without outline, of progress without unity, such as marks the
history of contemporary Teutonic life on the continent ; and yet
within this confusion, obscured by the shifting shadows, the
Teutons of Britain were molding to new habits of thought and
action, entirely alien to the old isolated tribal life, and preparing
for the advent of the nation.
By the close of the sixth century all the most fertile parts of
the island had been seized; but the crowding of population upon
population continued, and soon embroiled the new tdos-
0/ the Bessors of the soil in an endless series of intertribal
new era,
wars, waged for the possession of what they had taken
from the Britons. Leagues and counter-leagues rapidly succeeded
one another. The old tribal lines gradually dissolved, and the elected
war chief of temporary powers passed into the permanent king;
the isolated tribal settlements into the seven or eight confederacies,
the "kingdoms," of the so-called "Heptarchy." Then followed
a bitter rivalry of these "Heptarchy" kings, a fierce strife for
supremacy, which ended at last in the final triumph of the kings
of the West Saxons and the establishment of the permanent
hegemony of Wessex.
32
591-616] ETHELBEET IN KENT 33
Such in outline is the history of the new era. Its events may he
grouped about two movements : first, the growth of a habit on the
part of neighboring tribes, of acting together in great
c^'^era. confederacies, culminating at last in the permanent union
of all the tribes in a national state; and, second, the
introduction of Christianity, and the final organization of the
national church.
"When the period of settlement closed, as- we have seen, Ceawlin
was already at the head of a widely extended kingdom or con-
federation of the "West Saxon tribes. His kingdom, if
breoMiwup kingdom it can be called, included all the tribes from
of Ceawlim/s ,, „ ,,,i »o i» ,11.
KingcUmi, the Severn to the downs of Surrey, and from the basin
of the middle Thames to the sea. It is not likely that
his power rested upon other foundation than the shadowy authority
conferred by confederated tribes upon the elective war chief.
Such loose confederations were very common among the Germans
of the continent down to the close of the migrations. The counter-
parts of Ceawlin's career may be found in the Cheruscan and Mar-
coman kings of Tacitus. Possibly also, as in the case of the German
national hero, Arminius, it was the attempt of Ceawlin to transfer
the temporary authority of the war chief into the permanent and
more substantial power of a true king that led directly to his fall and
the dissolution of this early confederation of the "West Saxon tribes.
This event took place in 591, two years before Ceawlin's death.
East of the confederation, which by habit we call the kingdom
of the "West Saxons, lay the Jutish tribes, who had settled on the
south bank of the lower Thames. We have already seen
SffK.^Tfte them under the leadership of their young king Ethel-
imemrnv bert^ straggling with Ceawlin on the borders of the
^.antwara, Porest of Anderida, for the possession of the downs of
Surrey. It is not unlikely that Ethelbert also took part
in the overthrow of the "West Saxon king, though the first shock to
Ceawlin's power seems, to have come from the Hwiccas, whom he
himself had recently settled on the Severn. At all events, after
the fall of Ceawlin, Ethelbert succeeded to his prestige in south
Britain, and built up a similar confederation of the eastern tribes.
According to Bede, his dominions reached to the Humber ; that is,
34 THE CONFEDEKACIES OF TEUTONIC BEITAIN
all the East Saxon, East Anglian, Middle Anglian, South Anglian,
and a part of the West Saxon tribes entered the new confederation,
and either voluntarily, or by compulsion, recognized the overlord-
ship of Ethelbert. This second confederation lasted until the
death of Ethelbert, when it in turn also dissolved, and the tribes
east of the Chilterns regrouped themselves under the leadership
of Eaedwald, king of the Bast Angles.
The great name of Ethelbert had extended to the continent,
and enabled him to make an alliance with the family of Prankish
kings who ruled over the conquests of Clovis. The
ofchi^-'^ Germans of Britain were still pagans, but the Franks
tmmty. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ adopted Christianity. The men of the
Prankish royal house as a class, however, had been little influenced
by the teachings of Christianity; they were for the most part
graceless ruffians. But many of the women furnished examples of
sweet and noble piety, honored a difficult station by blameless lives,
and passed to their gi-aves, leaving behind them a precious memory
of good deeds and helpful influence. Sonje of these royal prin-
cesses went out from their own liomes to serve Christ in the halls
of heathen lords, where they became most efficient missionaries
of the church. Thus it happened that Bertha, the granddaughter
of Clotaire the Great, left her father's court at Paris and entered
the home of Ethelbert of Kent. By special arrangement she was
allowed to bring her chaplain, Luithard, with her. The long-
deserted British church of St. Martin at Canterbury was refitted
for his use, and the old walls looked down once more upon the
stately service of the Christian church. Here the good chaplain
chanted and preached ; here the pious queen with burdened heart
bowed and prayed, waiting for the redemption of her heathen lord
and her adopted people. How much she and her friends had to
do with rousing the church of the continent to any direct mission-
ary effort we do not know. But it is more than likely, if the truth
were known, that the coming of the first missionaries was due to
her efforts and her infiuence quite as much as to Pope Gregory's
happy knack of making Latin puns.' Certain it is that the band
'See Green, History of the English People, I, p. 37, for the well-
known story.
S97-601] INTKODUCTIOK OP CHRISTIANITY 35
of monks led by Augustine whom Gregory sent out, came under the
special patronage and protection of the neighboring Frankish kings,
and that when they at last landed at Thanet in the spring of 597,
they found Ethelbert prepared for their coming and ready to listen to
their teaching. On June 3, Whitsunday, Ethelbert himself abjured
the faith of his fathers in Wotan and Donar, and received Christian
baptism. Thousands of his subjects followed his example, and
within a year the mission had become a flourishing church. In
June, 601, Gregory sent to Augustine the archiepiscopal pallium
or pall,^ with a complete plan for the organization of the island
church. As yet, however, Christianity had not advanced beyond
the boundaries of the original Kent. Neither East Saxons, South
Saxons, nor West Saxons were ready to receive Christian teachei-s.
But the sanguine Gregory had his four square plan of organization
ready. The entire island was to be divided into two nearly equal
metropolitan sees, each with its twelve bishops ; the primate of
the northern province was to be established in York; of the
southern province in London. Augustine wisely selected Canter-
bury, under the immediate protection of Ethelbert, as a far more
eligible site for his archiepiscopal seat, and left to the future the
founding of the northern primacy, and the establishment of the
twenty-four bishoprics.
Augustine was not content with simply baptizing his new con-
verts. He brought with him a knowledge of the ways of the great
civilized world, and he and his monks taught their royal con-
verts many useful lessons. It was due to his influence, probably,
„ that about the year 600 the old- customarv laws of the
ThiG Zcfws of
Ethelbert, Cantwara were reduced to writing and put into code
form; "the first formal record of the laws of an English
people," preceding by ninety years the like record which Ine
made of the laws of the West Saxons. Thus we owe to Ethelbert
almost all our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon institutions as they
existed at the close of the era of settlement. As represented in his
laws, they remind us of the descriptions which Tacitus gave of the
Germans who lived on the borders of the empire in the first century
' The distinctive badge of the archbishop, a sort of scarf or stole worn
round the neck, with falling ends in front, marked each with three crosses.
36 THE CONPEDEEACIBS OF TEUTONIC BRITAIN
of the Christian era, and show that the Teutons of Britain had not
yet advanced very far beyond the condition of the Germans who
were first known to the Eomans. The only penalties known to
Ethelbert's laws were fines, or indemnities, covering almost every
conceivable injury to life or limb or property, and varying from the
ordinary indemnities prescribed for the wrongs of a freeman, to the
ninefold penalty prescribed for injury to the king or his property;
the elevenfold penalty prescribed for injury to a bishop, and the
twelvefold penalty prescribed in the case of him who destroyed the
"goods of God." Here we may plainly read the influence of the
priest, and see the high estate which the church had already won.
The overlordship of Ethelbert, like that of Ceawlin, passed
away with the generation to which he belonged, and the con-
federacy of Jutes, Saxons, and Angles dissolved once
reactionin more into "a chaos of warring tribes." A reaction also
set in against the church. Edbald, the new king of the
Cantwara, not only rejected his father's faith, but compelled the
Christian teachers to retire into Gaul.
When Ceawlin was closing his long career iii the southwest,
Ethelric, the king of the Bernicians, was extending his power over
the neighboring Deirans. In 593 his son Ethelfrid,
J. il6 JlVSv ., - _.,^
Normumhri- the Devastator," succeeded to the headship of the
an Kingdom, . _ ^_ , ^
united JNorthumbrian tribes. We have already seen
him at Dawston overwhelming a combined host of Scots, Picts,
and Britons; and again, a few years later, overwhelming the
Britons in a decisive engagement far down under the walls of
Chester. For twenty years this terrible king lorded it over the
north and extended his power far to the south. His efforts to
extend his power here, however, brought him face to face with the
„ „ ^ ,„ ^ew East Anglian confederation of Eaedwald. The two
armies met at Eetford in Nottinghamshire; Ethelfrid
was slain, and Eaedwald for the time secured his supremacy
south of the Humber.
The Northumbrian confederacy of Ethelfrid, which had now
outlasted two kings, did not break up at his death, but passed to
the exiled king of the Deirans, Edwin. Ethelfrid had pursued
him relentlessly from one exile to another, and it was the refusal of
617-637] CONVERSION' 01' NOKTHUMBRIA 37
Raedwald to betray his unfortunate guest which led to the war so
fatal to Ethelfrid. Edwin now returned to his people, and soon
. extended his authority even beyond that of his old
BtS^"^ enemy, Ethelfrid. He awed the Celtic princes on his
western borders, and compelled Man and Anglesey
to recognize his overlordship. The Anglian kings to the south,
breaking away from the East Anglian confederacy, also accepted his
supremacy. He also pushed his conquests to the north, and here,
on a hill overlooking the Forth, built a frontier fortress, to
which he left his name, the beginning of the modern Edinburgh.
Then the great king looked about him for a consort worthy to
share his honors. He found her in Ethelburga, the daughter of
Ethelbert ; and again a Christian princess turned her
Cimversion , , ,
of Northum- back upon her own people and entered the court of a
pagan king. The same stipulations were made as in
the case of her mother, Bertha; and again a devout princess
prayed and waited in her land of exile, and her pious chap-
lain preached and taught. Edwin, however, was not to be as easily
won as Ethelbert. He long withstood the earnest entreaties
of his wife, and the fervid arguments of her chaplain, Paulinus.
At last, under the skillful representations of the queen and the
chaplain, the birth of a daughter, a narrow escape from the
dagger of an assassin, and a successful raid upon the West
Saxons, presented themselves with such combined force to the
mind of the king as evidences of the favor and power of the Chris-
tian's God, that he consented to refer the matter to his witan, as
the counselors of the king were called. They met in solemn
assembly, the witenagemot, and listened while Paulinus presented
his case. The "tall, stooping form, slender aquiline nose and
black hair falling round a thin, worn face, were long remembered
in the north." The hearts of the grim old warriors softened as
the faithful priest, like Paul of old, talked to them of "righteous-
ness and judgment," of Christ's love and eternal life. Then an
aged ealdorman arose, and in words of rare beauty, gave voice to
the new hope which the words of the preacher had kindled: "The
life of man, 0 king," he cried, "is as a sparrow's flight through
the hall, when a man is sitting at meat in wintertide with the
38 THE CONFEDEEACIES OF TEUTOXIC BEITAIN
warm fire lighted on the hearth, but the chill rainstorm without.
The sparrow flies in at one door and tarries for a moment in the
light and heat of the hearth fire, and then flying forth from the
other, vanishes in wintry darkness whence it came. So tarries for
a moment the life of man in our sight. For what is before it and
what after it we know not. If this new teaching tell us aught
certainly of these, let us follow it."' Still thewitan hesitated,
until Coifl, the king's priest, denounced the gods whom he had
served and asked that he himself might set fire to the pagan
temple at Godmundham. Then Edwin hesitated no longer, and
on Easter Day, April 12, 627, acknowledged his submission to
the new faith in the rite of Christian baptism.
With the accession of the powerful Edwin, the conversion
of the north advanced rapidly. York was made an archi-
episcopal see, and Paulinus was established as its first
primacy archbishop. Whenever the king went through his king-
dom upon a royal progress, his bishop attended him,
and each court day was made the occasion for preaching and
baptizing. Vassal kings also followed the example of Edwin. In
628 (?) the son of his old friend Eaedwald of East Anglia sub-
mitted to baptism, and three years later Felix, a Burgundian
bishop, established himself among the East Angles. Paulinus also
preached among the Lindiswara, and built a stone church at Lin-
coln, where, in 628, he consecrated Honorius, the new archbishop
of Canterbury. A few years later the Pope formally recognized
the northern primacy by sending to Paulinus the coveted pallium.
As with Ethelbert in the south, the presence of the priest by
the side of the barbaric king told powerfully for civilization; for
Edwin, also under priestly tutelage, honestly strove to
thRmoniis^ ^i^® ^^^ people the precious boon of peace under good
brto"'^*''"'"" ^^^^ ^^'^ ^^^® administration. It was said first of him
that in his days, "a woman with her babe might walk
scatheless from sea to sea." The people tilled their fields and
gathered their harvests in quiet and safety. Men no longer feared
the thief or the robber; stakes were driven by the roadside spring,
1 Bede, Ecclesiastical History, II, 13. Quoted in Green, H. E. P. , I, p. 46.
626] PBNDA IN MERCIA 39
where the traveler found a brass cup hanging for his use, and no
thief durst carry it ofE. From the priest, too, Edwin learned to
adopt a certain pomp, until then unknown to the simple barbaric
war chief. "When he passed through the villages on his royal tours,
a standard of purple and gold preceded him ; a tuft of feathers, also,
the Eoman tufa, surmounted his spear, and was carried before him as
he walked, the symbol of the royal presence ; — forerunners of crowns
and thrones yet to come.
Thus the church, as the great civilizer, had already begun its
work in Teutonic Britain. But the conquest of the island was
not to be completed without a long and bitter struggle.
reaction in The proverbial hatred of the barbarian for foreign insti-
the North. , ,. ■, iT-r^,,,t,,.
tutions was soon awakened. In Kent, the death of
Ethelbert had been the signal for reaction. In the north, the
reaction did not wait for the death of Edwin, but was the cause of
his overthrow.
Tfte ri^e of '^^® Anglian tribes of ]mid-Britain were very early known
Mercia. ^g Mercians, or the border people. In the later sixth
century, they had begun to draw together into a confederacy sim-
ilar to those about them. But it was not until the time of their
great king Penda that this fifth league became a
formidable threat to its neighbors. Penda, moreover,
was not a common conqueror, like Ceawlin, fighting only for
dominion. He represents the protest of the adherents of the old
faith against the innovations which the foreigner had introduced.
About him gathered all the dissatisfied elements of mid-Britain,
to make a last stand for the faith of their fathers. Penda was
also a politician, as well as a pagan reactionary, and did not hesitate
to ally himself with Cadwallon, the Christian king of North Wales.
The Celtic Christians had always held aloof from their pagan
neighbors, a fact which Gildas had deplored even in his day.
They had not only refused to take any steps to convert
Th^jyreach them to Christianity, but, even after the Teutons had
andTeiomic received Christian teachers from the continent, they
stoutly refused to recognize the new church. Augus-
tine, by the help of Ethelbert, had arranged a conference with the
Welsh bishops on the banks of the Severn, in the hope of enlisting
40 THE CONPEDEKACIES OF TEUTONIC BRITAIN
them in his work of converting their neighbors. The Welsh
listened ^willingly at first, but, when they learned that cooperation
^^ meant the recognition of the supremacy of the new arch-
A."" "fiTC's bishop, and the acceptance of the innovations which two
oak,, "Avst." hundred years had added to the western church, they
stubbornly refused to accept the terms of compact, and allowed the
council to break up with hard and bitter words. "If ye will not
have peace with ns as brethren," cried the angry primate, "ye
shall have war with us as enemies ; if ye will not preach the way of
life to the Angles, you shall at their hands suffer the vengeance of
death."
Nothing had been done in the generation since to cement this
breach. The hand of the terrible Ethelfrid had fallen heavily
upon the Welsh. Their "holy men," to the number of
hcSufof ^^^ thousand, had been slain before Chester, an event
Tev^™^ which they could not fail to connect with the bitter
prophecy of Augustine. The Christian Edwin had fol-
lowed the pagan Ethelfrid, and gleaned where he had reaped ; nor
did it make his dominance more acceptable, that, unlike Ethel-
frid, he was a Christian prince. In the wild ferocity of their
neighbors, the Welsh could hardly distinguish Christian from
pagan.
The western Celts, therefore, although Christians, were ready
to unite with Panda for a joint attack on Edwin, and an expul-
Aiiiance ^^^^ '^^ Paulinus and his monks from Northambria.
ami"^"*^ The allied armies met Edwin at Hatfield, near the north
BMuf^' -^^gli^ii border. Edwin was killed, his army routed,
Hatfield. ^nd his confederacy broken up. Archbishop Paulinus,
with Ethelburga and her children, fled to Kent, where the con-
version of Edbald had recently put an end to the pagan reaction,
and once more established Christianity among the Cantwara.
Penda now succeeded to the supremacy of Edwin in mid-
Britain; and, for the first time, all the Anglian tribes west of the
Recovery of ^®'^ Country were united in one confederation. The
NoHhumbria. regions north of the Humber, however, he left to his
ally, Cadwallon, who lorded it here for twelve months with gi-eat
cruelty. The glorious Ethelfrid had left a son, Oswald, who, dur-
634-643] OSWALD AND PENDA 41
ing the triumph of Edwin, had remained in exile in lona, a Celtic
mission station, on a barren rock off the west coast of Scotland.
From his lonely exile, he heard the cry of his people under the
cruel hand of Cadwallon, and, with a sniall hut determined band,
Dmistmm descended the north Tyne ; overthrew and slew Cadwal-
*^^- Ion on Denisbnrn, not far from the Eoman wall, and
made himself supreme in all Northumbria. He then set to work
to restore the broken altars of the Christian faith. He refused to
recall Paulinus, however, for he had been identified with the rival
dynasty of Edwin, and the Bernicians had already refused to heed
his teachings. Oswald, therefore, sent to his old friends at lona
for help. The monk Aidan responded ; a man who combined tact
with purity of life and real nobility of character, and by "teaching
not otherwise than he and his followers lived," he soon won the
confidence of the Bernicians. Christianity rapidly regained its
hold in the north. At Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, Aidan estab-
lished the inevitable monastery, and, from this as a center, he
sent out his missionaries to teach the people. Aidan represented
the older form of worship; yet Oswald felt none of the hostility of
Cadwallon to the southern form of Christianity. He supported
the Lombard Birinus, who had begun a work among the West
Saxons, and was present and acted as godfather when the king
Cynegils was baptized.
The relations between Oswald and Penda remained peaceful
for many years. Apparently, Penda was forced for the time to
0 Id d "^^P ^^**' ^^® vassal relation; for, according to Bede,
Penda. Oswald brought under his dominion all the nations and
provinces of Britain. So wide-reaching was his influence, that,
even in distant Kent, the children of Edwin, the rival line of
Deira, were thought to be no longer safe, and were sent by their
mother across the Channel to her Prankish kindred for safe keep-
ing. Penda, however, was not the kind of spirit to bear long even
the loosest chains, and, in the year 642, we find him in battle
Triu h f ^^^^ ^'^ over-king on the bloody Maserfield, somewhere
Me/rcia. jq Shropshire. Oswald was defeated, and later put to
death, and Penda was left to reign as the one great king among
the Teutonic tribes.
42 THE CON^FBDEEACIES OF TEUTONIC BBITAIST
The Northumbrian tribes did not lose their independence alto-
gether upon the the fall of Oswald. They remained, however,
Second broken and diyided, until they were again united under
recovery of , Oswald's brother, Oswy. But, for thirteen years, Penda
Northumbna, i j ' ■ x xu
««* and his Mercians carried on a cruel war against the
northern kingdoms. Oswy pleaded hard for peace, but all his
efforts at reconciliation were treated with scorn by Penda. At
last, in 654, a decisive battle was fought on the Winwaed, not far
from the modern Leeds, and Penda, now eighty years old, per-
ished in the fight. The victory of Oswy, who fought against
vastly superior numbers, was probably due to the discontent of
Penda's vassal kings, who were weary of the lordly ways of the
old pagan, and dissatisfied with his long wars against their Chris-
tian brethren of the north.
With the fall of Penda, the last bulwark of paganism was swept
away. Even while he lived, his son Wulfhere had submitted to
baptism, and his Mercians had begun to follow Chris-
ChrisiFcmiiy t'^n teachers under his very eyes. When, therefore,
inMercia. ^i^j-ee years after Penda's death, Wulfhere succeeded
to the royal title in Mercia, and the last of the great confed-
eracies had thus accepted a Christian king, the strength of
paganism was broken. It survived only among the Sonth Saxons.
Sixty years had now passed since the baptism of Ethelbert, and,
although Teutonic Britain was virtually won for Christianity, there
was, as vet, no uniform rule of faith, or harmony of
The Teutonic t .1 > -i ^
churches in practice; there was no commonly accepted authority
the 7th before which rival bishops might bring their quarrels
for adjustment, or the unworthy might be tried and
punished. North of the Humber, Oswald had restored the older
form which he had learned at lona. Kent had been converted by
missionaries sent out directly by the Eoman church; the East
Anglians had been won by the Burgundian Felix, and the West
Saxons by the Lombard Birinus. There was no such serious
divergence in practice between the converts of these southern mis-
sionaries, as between them and the northern Christians, but the
universal authority of the Pope had not yet been so thoroughly
established in the minds of western Christians as to assure the
634] WILFRID 43
supremacy of his representative at Canterbury over the disciples
of Felix and Birinus. The tribal life was still strong; the spirit
of local independence still persistent and defiant. The bishop was
only the royal chaplain, and had little influence and few interests
outside of the lines which marked the limits of his master's
authority. If he recognized the primacy of the archbishop of
Canterbury at all, it was a primacy of prestige and dignity, rather
than of actual authority. Sees were overgrown and unmanage-
able. Their boundaries advanced, or receded, with the success or
failure of the arms of the royal patrons. Churchmen were not all
saints; and too often the bishops shared fully in the ambitions
rivalries of their masters, and lent their influence to conquest and
land spoiling, in order to enlarge their authority, or curtail that of
some troublesome neighbor. The bishops, moreover, did not
always wait for conquest; but interfered directly in each other's
affairs. Bitter quarrels arose over jurisdiction or precedence, to
be settled at last by an arbitrary judgment of the king, who was
often himself an interested participant in the quarrel, and
eager for a pretext under which to extend his authority. There
must have been some community of life, some feeling of com-
mon sympathy, some sense of common interest, but the idea
of unity was at best only vagnely apprehended, and burned so
feebly, that, alone and unaided, it could never have materially
counteracted the political influence of the age. Here, then, was a
great work to be done, to take advantage of the natural desire of
Christian men for unity, to bring all the churches of Teutonic
Britain into one organic system, united under one national primate.
This great work, the union and organization of the National
Church, is associated with the names of Wilfrid and Theodore.
Wilfrid was born about the year 634. At fourteen, he attracted
the attention of Eanfled, the queen of Oswy, and was sent by her
to Lindisfarne for his education. Here, the lad's mind
was fired with a desire to see the great Christian world,
of .which his people knew so little ; and especially to visit Eome,
regarded by many as the first home of Christianity in the west. His
royal patroness humored him in his visions of travel and learning,
and finally sent him on his way in company with Benedict Biscop.
44 THE CONFEDERACIES OP TEUTONIC BBITAIN
After an absence of fonr years, he returned to his people, and was
installed as abbot of Ripon. Travel and contact with the world
had opened the eyes of the young monk to the isolation of his own
people. He had looked upon the greatness of Rome; he had
caught the spirit of her mighty traditions, and bowed to the
authority of the greater Christendom. He returned, therefore,
to denounce the peculiar practices of the Celtic church as schis-
matic, and to demand that the church of Northumbria should order
itself in harmony with the common practice of other Christian
nations. There were many of the old disciples of Paulinus at
hand, ready to second the earnest words of their young champion.
The strife increased in bitterness, until, finally. King Oswy him-
self became interested, and consented to summon a meeting of
northern bishops to settle the dispute.
The synod met at Whitby. Golman, the bishop of York,
argued for the practices of the Celtic church, as the church of
their fathers. Wilfrid pleaded the universal practice of
whitliT'ee'/ t'hristendom. But Oswy at last cut the knot in a sim-
ple fashion of his own. "Is it true," he asked Colman,
"that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given to Peter by
our Lord? Has any such power been given to Columba, the
founder of the Scottish church?" "None," Colman was forced
to answer. Then said the king, "If Peter be the door-keeper, he
is the man for me." The king's logic was final. Colman and
his monks withdrew, and once more the 'Northumbrians began to
follow the customs which they had learned from Paulinus.
Four years after the famous decision at Whitby, Theodore of
Tarsus, a Greek monk, was appointed by Pope Vitalian to the
Theodore, vacant see of Canterbury. When he reached Canter-
^rciM^op b^^ry the following May, he found that a plague had
bury, 665. recently devastated the island. The church, in par-
ticular, had suffered severely; several bishops had fallen at their
posts ; and the people were awed and softened. Theodore saw his
opportunity, and began at once a visitation of the several king-
doms ; reorganizing the churches, filling vacant sees, and introduc-
ing a stricter conformity to the Roman system. In the north he
found a serious quarrel on between Wilfrid and Oswy. Wilfrid
673-680] HISTOEIC COUNCILS OF THEODORE 45
after his success at Whitby, had been chosen bishop of York, and
had gone to the continent to assure himself of a canonical conse-
cration, but, upon his return, found that Oswy had installed the
Celtic monk Chad in his place. Theodore interfered and deposed
Chad on the ground of an uncanonical consecration, and estab-
lished "Wilfrid. Chad, however, had won the heart of Theodore
by his humility, and, after reconsecration, was appointed to the
vacant see of the Mercians at Lichfield. Theodore also made
appointments to the vacant sees of Rochester, Dunwich, and Dor-
chester. Thus, in the first two years of his administration, the
new primate had filled five of the six sees of Britain.
The existing sees, however, were unwieldy ; some, as York, or
the Mercian see, were very large. In 673, Theodore invited the
bishops to meet him at Hertford, to consider the ques-
mmwo^of ^^^^ °^ reorganization. All responded except Wine, the
H^ifm^d!e73. bishop of London, who was resting under the grave
charge of simony. The gathering was not only the first
council of the English church, but the first assembly in which rep-
resentatives from all parts of the future nation met to discuss
matters of common interest. Theodore proposed to subdivide the
unwieldy sees, and place each subdivision under a particular bishop.
Each bishop, moreover, was to confine himself to his own diocese ;
the priest was to minister only in the diocese of the bishop from
whom he received his license; monks also were to remain under
their abbots. The plan of subdivision did not meet with the favor
of the bishops; but the proposition to confine the activity of
each oflScial to his proper district was accepted, and a foundation
laid for the further introduction of the orderly methods of
the Eoman church. Seven years later, 680, Theodore
held another synod at Hatfield, at which the bishops
accepted the decrees of the General Councils, and so formally
decreed the orthodoxy of the new national church.
Theodore was by no means disposed to accept the decision of
the synod of Hertford upon the question of subdividing the sees
as final, and the next year proceeded to divide the see of East
Anglia, by creating a new bishop's seat at Elmham. In 676, he
settled a long-standing quarrel of Cenwahl and Wulfhere, over the
46 THE CONI'EDEaACIES OP TEtlTON^lC BSITAlK
see of Dorchester, by finally establishing an episcopal seat at
Winchester, thus giving the "West Saxon king a bishop at his
own capital. The great see of York, however, under
TJl& VCOVQQiTh-
izationof the masterful Wilfrid, long defied Theodore's plan of
the Church. . ^. ^^ ' ^° , • u j. n xi,
reorganization. It was the most unwieldy oi all tne
sees, and included not only the lands of the Deirans and Berni-
cians, but an indefinite region beyond the Forth over which
Northumbrian kings had extended an overlordship, as well as the
Lindiswara, south of the Humber. But the popularity and influ-
ence of Wilfrid finally roused the jealousy of King Egfrid, Oswy's
successor, and the king himself determined to divide the diocese.
Wilfrid refused to yield ; but Theodore supported the king, and, in
a council at York, at which he presided, Wilfrid was deposed, and
Bernicia formally separated from York, with its own bishop at
Lindisfarne. Wilfrid possessed too much of the spirit of the later
Becket to submit to what he regarded as an unjust invasion of his
episcopal rights, and retired to Eome to appeal in person to the
Pope. On his outward journey, he was thrown upon the coast of
Frisia, and here he spent the winter preaching to the heathen
Frisians and laying the foundations for the future mission of his
pupil Willibrord. The next year he reached Eome, but, when he
returned to Northumbria with a papal decree directing that he be
reinstated, the king and his witan treated the decree with con-
tempt, and cast the unruly priest into prison. Nine months later,
he was released, and, after more wandering, finally found a field
congenial to his energetic temperament, among the heathen Saxons
of the Andred's weald. Here Wilfrid labored five years. The
people were apparently the most degraded and barbaric of any of
the Teutonic settlers of Britain. They were ignorant of the sim-
plest arts of life. The king, Ethelwald, appointed Wilfrid a resi-
dence at Selsey, where he laid the foundations of the future
bishopric.
In the meanwhile, Theodore was steadily pushing forward his
great plans for the organization of the church. At the request of
Submimkm ^^^^ Ethelred, he divided the Mercian see, which was
of Me/rcian almost as Unwieldy as that of York, by establishing a
separate bishop for the Hwiccas at Worcester, and an-
681-689] RESULTS OF THEODOEE's WOEK 47
other for the Middle Angles at Leicester. The Lindiswara, who had
lately been restored to the Mercian confederacy, also received a
separate bishop, whose seat was fixed at Sidnacester;
Bernwia Lichfield remained the episcopal seat of Mercia proper.
dixnOM, eai. , mi Jr r
Iwo years later, Theodore further divided the see of
Bernicia by establishing a bishop at Hexham for the Bernicians,
and one at Abercorn for the Picts.
In the year 686 Wilfrid made his peace with Theodore, and was
allowed to return to York and be reinstated. His submission
completed the triumph of Theodore. The plan of
Theodore's Gregory for the establishment of a great northern
career. • , i
primacy had been definitely abandoned for the plan
of uniting all the Teutonic sees under the primate of Canterbury.
After Wilfrid's return to York, one more see was established
„ among the Magesaetas at Hereford. The next year, at
Hereford, ess. ,. ° ° . . ■, . ■, rr,, -■
the advanced age of eighty-eight, Theodore passed
quietly to his well-earned rest.
Theodore is the great man of the seventh century. He created
the national church. When he came, in 669, he found six dis-
cordant sees, overgrown and unwieldy for administrative
Results of ' , , ., , , . , ^
Theodore's purposes. Waen he laid down his work twenty years
later, the six had been broken up into fifteen, and all
united under the close supervision of the archbishop of Canter-
bury. There was in all the west no ecclesiastical province which
j,^ was in better stead, or more efficiently organized. But
oTSS ^^^^y ^^ important as the work of Theodore for the
tingiand. church, was his influence upon the future political
development of the Teutonic tribes of Britain. The original
smaller tribal divisions were breaking down. The great confeder-
acies were passing into permanent federations. But the five great
states of Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex, East Anglia, and Kent
still stood over against each other as fiercely jealous and hostile as
ever. The patient teaching of the monks had done - much to
assuage the fires of ancient feuds; still, if a permanent union were
ever secured, apparently, it must be by the sword. But, under
Theodore, the church, with its perfected territorial organization,
recognizing but one country and one people, called up a new vision
48 THE CONFEDEKAOIES OE TEUTONIC BRITAIN
of unity, "clothed with a sacred form and surrounded with divine
sanction," embodied in the one national primate, and expressing
its will through the legislative action of one national coun-
cil. That this new organization was ecclesiastical, made its
influence none the less national and political. Men had not yet
differentiated church and state, and it was only a step from the
national ecclesiastical organization to a national political organiza-
tion; from the local organization of the bishoprics of Theodore to
the shire organizations of Ine ; from the national council of the
church to the national council of the state; from the national
primate to the national king.
In other ways, also, Theodore assisted in laying deep and stable
the foundations of the England to come. His penitential system
instilled into the barbaric mind a new conception of vice
encesof and Crime as sin against God; thus preparing a founda-
tion for the work of the future Glanvilles and Bractons,
in the quickening moral sense of the people. His school at Can-
terbury, under the direction of his friend, the abbot Hadrian, gave
instruction in Latin and Greek, arithmetic and astronomy, and
the themes of Holy Scripture — the forerunner of the great schools
of Jarrow and York. He also did much to diffuse a knowledge of
the stately Gregorian music, which had been as yet hardly known
outside the borders of Kent.
It must not be forgotten, however, that Theodore is not the
only great name which the church of this era has given to English
^^^^ history. We have already seen Wilfrid struggling in
Wilfrid's his own way to solve the Northumbrian church nrob-
carc&r. i mi
lems. The course of his life after the death of Theo-
dore continued as stormy as ever. He quarreled with the successors
of Egfrid and Theodore and wasted his declining years between
English synods and the papal curia in a vain attempt to recover
his lost honors. He died at Oundle in 709.
Wilfrid was one of those turbulent energetic natures, whose
lot it is to make a great stir in the world, and so get credit for an
influence and importance which they do not really deserve. His
old friend, Benedict Biscop, on the other hand, was a quiet,
unassuming man, whose merits later generations have hardly rec-
670-687] CUTHBEET AND CAEDMON 49
ognized. He was the first to introduce stained glass, bringing
glass workers from Gaul, in order to provide his own monastery
Benedict ** Wearmouth. He founded the famous monastery and
Biscop. more famous school at Jarrow, going himself to Eome to
procure books and pictures for its library. "To his enlightened
zeal, the world owes Bede, the school of York, and the great
Alcuin."
To this era belong also the names of Cuthbert, consecrated
bishop of Lindisfarne by Theodore, famous peasant preacher and
saint, who spent the greater part of his life among the
dm!een^^' I'emoter mountain settlements of Northumbria, "from
whose roughness and poverty other teachers turned
aside"; Caedmon, also, the peasant Milton, the cowherd of
Whitby, whose untutored lips, touched by divine vision, 'sang of
the creation of the world,' the 'oriffin of man ' . . .
Gaedrmm, » ., . .
dUdabaut 'of the incarnation,' 'passion and resurrection of
Christ,' ... 'of the terror of future punishment, the
horror of hell pangs, and the joys of heaven,' — ^"the first great
English song."
In the year 670, Oswy, first of English royal saints, had passed
to his grave. Egfrid, his son and successor, was a very different
man from his peace-loving father. He tore the Lindis-
a^Narm WS'^S' from Wulfhere of Mercia; he revived the long
feud with his Celtic neighbors, driving them out of
Cumbria, and taking possession of the south bank of the Solway to
the sea. But, in an evil hour, he determined to conquer the
Picts, who, it seems, were still as troublesome and incorrigible as
in the days of Agricola. He gathered his Northumbrian thanes,
and, leading them across the Forth, disappeared among the wild
glens of the Pict land. Neither he nor his army ever returned.
Nectitans- ^'^^ solitary fugitive, after long wanderings among the
mere, ess. mountains, and after incredible hardships, at last came
back to tell how King Egfrid and his thanes fell by the shores of
the North Sea, 'bitten to death' by the sword of the Pict.
Northumbria never recovered again. Her .glory lay in the
corpse-ring, which surrounded her fallen lord, "in the far-off
moorland of Nechtansmere. " For twenty years, Eldfrid, the dead
50 THE CONFEDERACIES OF TEUTONIC BKITAIN
king's brother, continued to hold Northumbria together. But,
after his death, evil days fell fast upon the North Humber lands.
The witan dominated in the councils of the nation, and
teiKr' *^^^^ quarrels filled the land with disorder. In a
^^tem- period of thirty-eight years, nine different kings rapidly
succeeded each other. Of these, three were assassin-
ated; five were formally deposed, one being afterward executed
for presuming to return from exile.
The fall of Egfrid at Nechtansmere left the Mercians and the
West Saxons sole competitors for the overlordship of Britain.
Decline of ■^'^'*' ^^ y®^' ^^® West Saxons had given little promise
Wessex. ^f their great future. Some petty conquests of Cenwahl
(643-673), on the Avon and among the Mendip hills, by which he
extended his borders to the Parret in Somerset, could hardly offset
the effect of Wulfhere's conquest in 661, when he not only drove
the West Saxons out of the North Thames basin, but tore from
them the eastern conquests of Oeawlin, including the Isle of
Wight, and added them to the lands of the king of Sussex, thus
raising a new and worthy rival to Wessex south of the Thames.
Cenwahl managed to hold the remnant of his kingdom together
until his death in 673. But, during the thirteen years following,
even this remnant was still further divided and torn by the rivalries
of petty kings. The affairs of Wessex were then, perhaps, at
their lowest ebb.
In 685, Cadwalla, one of the petty kings of the West Saxons,
fought his way to supremacy over his fellows, and once more suc-
ceeded in drawing the fragments of Cenwahl's kingdom
TTesser. together. Two years later, he ravaged Sussex, and
to death of regained what Wulf here had given to its king. Through
Sussex, he entered Kent, and, overrunning the country
in two successive years, compelled the people to acknowledge hia
lordship. In 688, Ine became king of the West Saxons. In
him the Mercian kings found a rival worthy of all
Ine, (188-726. , , . , , ^^ ° •'
their strength. He completed the conquest of Somer-
set, and secured his new territories by a wooden fort on the Tone,
the modern Taunton. In 715, he was called upon to measure his
strength with Ceolred of Mercia, at Wamborough ; and, although
715-751] IKE IN WESSEX 51
neither side could claim a victory, Ine prevented the Mercians from
gaining a foothold south of the Thames. All the country was now
his between the Thames and the sea, and from Dorset to Thanet.
"Within these borders, Ine sought to lay the foundation of a
real kingdom, by defining the power of his administrative oflBcers,
The Laws ^^^ giving uniformity to the customary law by reduc- '■
of Ine. ijjg it to a code. The shire here first appears as the
territorial unit of the judicial administration. The ealdorman is
responsible for the arrest of the criminal in his shire ; if he allows
him to escape, he forfeits his office. Military service, the fyrd, is
recLuired of all, high or low; and heavy fines, but graded to the
rank of the laggard, are prescribed for failure to respond to the
call to arms. Like the laws of Ethelbert, these of Ine also show
the influence of the priest. Sunday labor is prohibited; a merci-
ful ordinance when the labor of the community was performed largely
by serfs. The precincts of the king's palace, or a bishop's palace,
are sacred against acts of violence, and are equally protected by a
fine of one hundred and twenty shillings, — the hurg-lryce. In
these laws, the conquered Briton appears as a bondsman, —
theow wealh; but there is also mention of the Welsh freeman with
one hide of land, and of the Welsh rent-paying tenant; the king
also has his mounted Welshmen. There is also the Welsh noble,
with five hides of land.
The later days of Ine were covered with gloom. His old age
was saddened by domestic intrigue and revolt, the curse of the
early Teutonic kingdom. Then, after thirty-six years
days^^ine ®^ thankless toil, Ine threw down his work in disgust,
and, like so many of his peers, must go a pilgriming to
Eome. The peace which he sought came to him on the way.
While the fortunes of Wessex were rising, those of Mercia were
declining. There is no great king after the death of Wnlfhere
(675) until we reach the era of Ethelbald, when once
ofM^cS^ more a Mercian king threatens the independence of
ne^KT^^^' Wessex; but a defeat at the hands of a Northumbrian
king, whose lands Ethelbald had invaded, so shattered
his strength, that his hold upon the south was weakened, and he
was compelled to face a revolt of Cuthred, the new vassal king
53 THE CONFEDERACIES OF TEUTONIC BEITAIK
of Wessex. After a long struggle, Cuthred won a decisive
victory at Burford in Oxfordshire. No more glorious day
had yet dawned in West Saxon history. All the vassal kings
of the Mercian overlord, the kings of Kent, Sussex, and Essex,
besides those of his own Mercia, had followed him to that
fatal field. Opposed were the people of Wessex, marshaled under
the famous golden dragon, and fighting for independence. The
victory was final; the great Mercian confederacy was shat-
tered, and no shred of Ethelbald's power south of the Thames
remained. Six years later, 757, Ethelbald was foully slain at
night by his own people.
No account of the reigns of Ine and Ethelbald would be com-
plete that did not mention their great contemporary, Beds, the
^^^^ first English historian. He was born, probably, in the
673-735. Yery year of Theodore's historic council at Hertford.
At seven, he was put under the instruction of Benedict Biscop,
who had shortly before built his monastery at Wearmouth. Bede
very early committed himself to the quiet and uneventful life of
the scholar. He passed his years between Wearmouth and the
later foundation of Jarrow. Now and then, echoes from the busy,
turbulent world outside reached him in his quiet retreat; but
never to allure him from his patient round of "reading, teaching,
and writing." One marvels at what he accomplished. The
library, which his old master had brought from Rome for the two
monastery schools, was his sole workshop. "I am my own secre-
tary," he writes ; "I make my own notes ; I am my own librarian. "
Yet, he mastered the knowledge of the time, and left a list of
thirty-seven works to testify to his industry. He revived for
England the traditions of the older culture of the almost
forgotten classical world, and impressed the warlike thanes of
Northumbria with "the quiet grandeur of a life con-
"cajmunv%' secrated to knowledge." His reputation to-day rests
thl2S.'^ upon his "Ecclesiastical History of the Nation of
the Angles," — the beginning of authentic English
history; the only light to cast a gleam into the darkness which
separates the Britain of Gildas from the Britain of Ine and
Ethelbald.
75'J-796] OFFA IN MERCIA 53
Under the powerful OfEa, who ruled Mercia from 757-796, the
long struggle for supremacy seemed again about to be decided in favor
owa. °^ *^® middle kingdom. Of the first year of his reign,
mZerai little is known; but, in 771, we find him parceling out
zenith. j;^]^q lands of Sussex, with the kings of Wessex and Kent
acting as attesting parties; evidence that, even at this date, Offa
had established himself south of the Thames, and that Wessex had
again lost her independence. His greatest wars, however, were
waged against the Welsh, whom he drove out of the valley of the
Severn, advancing his own borders to the Wye. This conquest he
secured by the introduction of colonists and the erection of a
"Offa's frontier rampart, the famous "OfEa's Dyke," connecting
J>y'^" the lower Severn and the Dee. The line of "OfEa's
Dyke" has remained virtually the permanent boundary between
Wales and England.
Apparently, Offa accepted the threefold division of Teutonic
Britain as final, and sought to secure conformity to this
arrangement in the organization of the church, by rais-
metrnpoiitan ing the see of Lichfield to metropolitan honors, coor-
dinate in authority with Canterbury and York, the
archiepiscopal dignity of the latter having been restored in 735.
The pope granted Offa's request, and, for thirteen years, Mercia
could boast of an archbishop of its own.
Offa died in 796, and, for a few years, Mercia maintained the
position to which he had elevated her. Then, one by one, the
achievements of Offa were undone. The primacy of Lichfield
was abandoned, and the under-kings slipped back again into their
old independence. In 802, the young Egbert, of the
SPJ'JZ}' royal house of Wessex, returned from the court of
802-839, *'
Charles the Great, whither he had been driven by the
persecutions of Offa. The years which he had spent abroad
had not been lost. He had been within that charmed circle
which surrounded the mighty Frank. He had looked upon a
Teutonic monarchy at its best, and had doubtless studied deep and
long the art of ruling men; but most, the peculiar institutions
which lay at the basis of the Prankish system. How much he
brought back with him, and just what he introduced into the
54 THE CONSEDEKACIES OF TEUTONIC BRITAIN [egbert
English system, we shall never know; but the striking resem-
blances of English and Prankish institutions of the ninth century
can not all be ascribed to similarity of Teutonic origin. For the
first thirteen years of his reign, Egbert seems to hare been rally-
ing the shattered forces of his kingdom and nourishing its strength.
In 814, he began the series of operations against the West Welsh,
Cornwall, which resulted in the final subjugation of the penin-
sula. English colonization, however, stopped at the
Tamar. For centuries, the Cornishmen retained their
own dialect, and enjoyed a semi-independence. Even as late as the
seventeenth century, there survived a Cornish parliament, with
independence enough to arrest a king's sheriff and hold him until
released by a special order of the English parliament.
From West Wales, Egbert returned to protect his northern
frontiers against an advance of the Mercians. The armies met at
Eiiandm Ellandun, in Wiltshire. The Mercians were utterly
*^^- routed, and Egbert passed at once to the overlordship
of the region south of the Thames. The next year, the East
Angles imitated the example of Wessex ; renounced the Mercian
dependence, and added their strength to the growing power of
Egbert. Again and again, the allies smote the sinking Mercians.
Two successive kings, and five great ealdormen, were slain in bat-
tle. A third king found refuge in exile. When, in 839, Egbert
made a royal progress through Mercia, it was practically his,
as much as Wessex. The Northumbrians alone remained, but a
century of discord had so weakened their power, that only madness
could induce their king, Banred, to measure swords with the vic-
tor of Ellandun. The challenge of Egbert, therefore, was sufficient
to bring Eanred to his southern border, there to acknowledge the
supremacy of the king of the West Saxons, and enter the new con-
federacy as a vassal king.
By the end of 830, with the exception of Celtic Strathclyde, all
the lands south of the line of the Forth and the Solway had sub-
mitted to Egbert. Through all this magnificent region, the princes,
whether Celt or Teuton, acknowledged the overlordship of the
southern king. The vague recognition of this overlordship, how-
ever, did not constitute these vassal states into a kingdom or an
830-839] THE KINGDOM OF EGBERT 55
empire, still less into a national state.' Such terms applied here
are only confusing and misleading. Egbert had, after all, only
brought together such another confederacy as that which
o/ffte so- once obeyed Oswald or OfEa ; only larger in extent, and,
"^*n</*;mo/ for the moment, confronted by no possible rival
north or south. Yet, it had been established by the
sword, and was held together only by threat of the sword. Its
size, moreover, was a source of weakness rather than strength, and
made the advent of reaction inevitable. It possessed no new ele-
ments of permanence. The monarchy, as an institution, was
firmly established in the minds of the people. The church had
thrown around it the charm of special sanctions, borrowed from
the imagery and rites of the Old Testament. Yet, the monarchy
was not one, but many; and, although the right of the witan to
select the sovereign was generally recognized, the unwritten laws
of the tribes also recognized the claim of certain royal families,
the male members of which were known as Ethelings, to the exclu-
sive enjoyment of the royal title in their several states. Only com-
plete extermination could dissolve this claim, or save the king
who held his authority by conquest from the challenge of some
fugitive rival of the favored blood. As long as this idea of the
ineradicable nature of the hereditary claims of each royal family
survived in the laws of Mercians or East Anglians, of Northum-
bria or Kent, any consolidation of the kingdoms into an organized
state, under one sole king, and administered through all its
parts by his appointed representatives, was impossible. At best,
it could be merely a question of time before the confederacy of
Egbert, also, should break up, and the constituent kingdoms
regroup themselves about new centers.
And yet this did not happen. A new element, the Danish,
now violently obtruded itself into the history of the English
tribes, and, although the great part of the conquests of Egbert were,
for the time, torn from the grasp of his successors, though Wes-
sex itself was foully smitten, and her strength shattered; yet,
'For significance of term Bretwalde, as used by Chronicle, etc., of.
Freeman, Norman Conquest, I, Append. A. , and Stubbs, C. H. , I, pp. 180
and 181.
56 THE CONFEDEEACIES OF TEUTONIC BBITAIN [eobeet
with each, successive defeat, her kings returned to the conflict more
desperate and more determined than ever, and, at last, succeeded
TheCmfed- ^^ regaining not only their old position, but much
Egbert^om ™oi"^- ^^r, in the long struggle,' not only were all other
imviionof ^J^^ lines exterminated, and the old tribal partitions
the Dorm. as political divisions erased, but the many dominions
were at last fused into one kingdom, and the many lordships
absorbed in one kingship. In a word, Teutonic Britain became
England, and the kings of the West Saxons became kings of the
English. The progress of these changes constitutes the subject
matter of the next chapter of English history.
CHAPTER IV
THE DANISH WARS. ALFRED THE GREAT AND THE FOUNDING
OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOM
THE FAMILY OF ALFRED
Egbert, 802-839
• I
Ethelwulf, 839-855, d. 858
i
I i i I
Ethelbald, 855-860 Etlielbert, 860-860 Ethelred, 866-871 Alfred, 871-901
: ^1
Edward tlie Elder, 901-925 Ethelfleda, d. 919.
I "The Lady of the Mercians"
I I I =Ethelred, Ealdorman of
Athelstan, 925-940 Edmund, 940-946 Edred, 946-955 Mercia.
L
Edwy, 955-959 Edgar, 959-975
For two hundred years, Britain had received no fresh accessions
of Teutonic life from beyond the seas; hut, in the closing years of
the eighth century, a new ware began to break upon the eastern
shore, and, increasing in volume with the opening of the ninth century
threatened to sweep away the older Teutonic settlers, as the Angles
and Saxons had once overwhelmed and swept away the remnant of
the Britons. This new Germanic population came from the two
great peninsulas which separate the waters of the Baltic from
the waters of the North Sea. The people of Britain called them
Danes; the Irish, whose eastern coasts were harried by them as
severely as the coasts of Britain, knew them as Ostmen, or Eastmen;
the people of the continent, as Nbrthmeti. The name which they
themselves used was Vikings, or Creekmen. They were of
Teutonic stock, like the Angles and Saxons, and possessed in gen-
eral the same institutions.
57
58 THE DANISH WAKS [eobkrt
The first experience of the inhabitants of Britain with these
new troublers of the peace of the island it is said, dates back to the
year 787, when three strange crafts suddenly appeared
ancecftM before the town of Wareham, in Dorset. The simple-
JSfOVthlTlBTh
minded reeve, ignorant of the true character of the
strangers, went out to collect his port dues, and bring the sup-
posed merchants to the king, as was his duty ; but was straightway
slain for his pains. It was not, however, until six years later,
that the Northmen gave the people of Britain a fore-
taste of the mischief which they might expect at their
hands, when they swooped down upon Lindisfarne and plundered
its famous church. The next year, they returned, and Benedict
Biscop's settlements at Wearmouth and Jarrow suffered the same
fate. The Christian ruffians of the age generally passed by such
retreats. The legends of hoarded wealth failed to rouse their
cupidity to the extent of braving the wrath of the protecting
saints. But the appeals and imprecations of shaveling monks,
who had forgotten how to fight, only roused the derision of the
pagan Northmen and added to the sport of the plundering.
In the year 795, they reached Ireland, and began a series of
depredations on the eastern coast, which continued for more than
TheNorthmen^ quarter of a century. In 832, the pirate king Thorkil
in Ireland, made a permanent settlement on the north coast, and
established his capital at Armagh. About the same time, another
settlement was made at Limerick ; a little later others were made
at Dublin and, in the next century, at Waterford and Cork.
The first comers were probably from Norway, and had used
only the northern route, which lay directly across the North Sea;
imreased ac- ^^^*^ i* ^^^ *° ^^^^ ^^^^■: "0 doubt, that the lower coasts of
*DaZSUur Britain owed the long immunity from attack which fol-
chJ^Aw '°^^'l *^6 plunder of Lindisfarne and Jarrow. But,
Great, S14. after the death of Charles the Great, the people of
the Danish peninsula began to take part in these piratical expedi-
tions, picking their way along the coasts of the modern Holland and
Belgium, running their long black crafts up into each river inlet, in
search of monastery or unprotected river town for plunder. Bach
year they extended their depredations farther to the west ; spread-
833-842] THE DANES IN SOUTHERN BRITAIN 59
ing terror before them, and leaving a memory of horror behind
them. Homesteads were burned, men slaughtered, children tossed
on pikes, and women were driven away into slavery; monasteries
were rifled, churches destroyed, and priests slain at their altars.
Rumor everywhere added to the actual horrors of these scenes.
The courage of strong men melted as i*i the presence of the pes-
tilence. The pious saw the hand of God, who, out of the mysteri-
ous mists of the boundless sea, had let slip these, his avengers, to
punish his people for their sins.
First descent '^^ ^^^*' ^^ *^® ^®^^ ^^^' ^ ^®®* ^^ twenty-five vessels
Wr^ain^*^ appeared in the mouth of the Thames, and ravaged the
little island of Sheppey. In 834, another band, esti-
mated at twelve hundred strong, made a landing in Dorset.
Egbert hastened to meet them, but was virtually defeated; the next
Hengestdun, J"®^^' lio^ever, at Hengestdun, he succeeded in winning a
885. brilliant victory over a third horde, which had
descended from Ireland upon Cornwall. He was not again molested
during his reign. The memory of the slaughter at Hengestdun
was enough to keep the Danes at bay until the accession of
Ethelwulf.
With Ethelwulf, the attempts of the Danes upon south Britain
began again. The new king, like his contemporary, Louis the
Pious, was entirely unfitted for the work to which
fnmc^^a^r destiny had appointed him; a fairly respectable monk
^gberf having been spoiled in making a king. Each ealdorman
was left to do the best he conld for his own district;
and a noble record these ealdormen made, in glaring contrast
with the shameful incompetency of the king. Sometimes the
ealdormen were successful, as when Eanulf and Osric won a victory
at the month of the Parret in 848; but more frequently the
ealdorman fell in hopeless battle, as Ethelhelm at Portland, or
Herebryht in the Fen country, or he retired, beaten, to die of his
wounds, as Wulfheard after Southampton. The climax was
reached in 843, when London and Rochester were sacked, their
population scattered, and the cities left in ruin.
The suffering of those who survived these raids can hardly be
overdr^WG- Homes were broken up, the means of livelihood
60 THE DANISH WAKS [l
Ethelwulf
destroyed, and families scattered never to be reunited. In 844,
the devastations of the country had become so widely extended, that
Ethelwulf proposed a remission of the royal rents as a
f^mffting Partial relief. At the time of his death in 858, the indi-
vemie S^^^ poor, always the first to suffer in ' 'hard times, ' ' had
so increased iji numbers, that the king made special
provision in his will for feeding and clothing them at the expense
of the royal estates.
Thus far the invaders had come mostly in detached bands of a
few hundred warriors, bent only upon securing plunder, and mak-
ing off with it before a sufficient force could be gathered
EMiOTiZfs to punish them. But, in the year 850, a fleet of three
atockuy, hundred and fifty ships, carrying possibly ten or twelve
thousand men, wintered at Sheppey, and, in the early
spring, boldly entered the Thames. Canterbury, and London for
the second time, had to pay dearly for their prominence among
the cities of the southeast. Beorhtwulf , the vassal king of Mercia,
threw himself in the path of the invaders, but was defeated and his
army scattered. Then the host crossed into Surrey, but at
Ockley Ethelwulf met them at the head of the West Saxon fyrd,
and administered such a beating, that the "memory of the great
slaughter of heathen" long remained in Saxon tradition. Ethel-
wulf, however, seems to have taken little advantage of his victory,
wasting his strength in a useless war upon the Welsh; while his
ealdormen struggled alone to dislodge the Danes from Thanet and
other places where they had gained a permanent footing. When,
in 855, another horde gathered at Sheppey, preparatory to a
descent upon the neighboring coasts in the spring, the king seized
the moment to go on a pilgrimage to Eome, quite the "fad" among
the rich saints of the day. So, to Kome he went, with another
war cloud about to burst upon his people; and the witan, justly
indignant, held a meeting at Selwood, and, exercising their consti-
tutional right of deposition, the corollary of their right of election,
made Ethelbald, the eldest son, king.
Ethelwulf returned in 856, but had to content himself with an
under-kingdom made up of Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex. He
survived only two years, and then his sons followed him in quick
860-870] HEALFDEKE and IV AE THE BONELESS 61
succession. "When Ethelbald died, in 860, the second brother,
Ethelbert, was already the vassal king of Kent, but, instead of
appointing a successor in Kent, he retained both crowns,
Mhehmif ^^^ thiis the existence of Kent as a separate kingdom
came to an end. After six years, death again made way
for another of Ethelwnlf 's sons, and Ethelred became king. Dur-
ing Ethelbert's reign, the old capital, Winchester, had been taken
and sacked by the Danes, and eastern Kent overrun. The Danes,
moreover, had been showing alarming intentions of permanently
establishing themselves upon English soil. In the year 866, the
first of Ethelred's reign, a great host landed in East
Nofthum- Anglia, under the leadership of the famous chiefs,
Healfdene and Ivar. The East Anglians saved them-
selves for the time by supplying the invaders with provisions and
horses, and in the spring, saw the horde disappear to the northwest,
upon a regular inland campaign. The Danes swept through Lindsey,
devouring the country and burning what they could not carry off.
The Humber was crossed and Deira overrun. In
Nmember, ' November, York fell. Then the two rival kings of
Northumbria, Ella and Osbert, whose strife had made
their country a prey to the Danes, arranged their difEerences, and
united for the recovery of the northern capital ; but their reckless
courage only gave the enemy a better opportunity for slaughter.
Both kings were slain under the walls of York, and the Northum-
brian army, with its eight ealdormen, dispersed. Healfdene
established himself at York, and set up a puppet, one Egbert, over
the Bernicians.
In the meanwhile, Ivar, known by the curious nickname of "the
Boneless," advanced into Mercia, and established himself in
Nottingham. Mercia would have followed the fate of
Boneless." Northumbria had not Ethelred marched to the aid of
and Bast the under-king, Burgred, at the head of the West
"" "' Saxons. Alfred appears in this campaign holding high
command under his brother, and is henceforth one of the prom-
inent figures in the wars. The Danes were disheartened by the
vigorous campaigning of the West Saxon princes, and agreed to
retire across the Humber. But the year 870 saw them again on
62 THE DANISH WAES [ethklred
the war path, under the same Ivar, "the Boneless," and heading
toward Bast Anglia. The Lindiswara were reduced, and the Fen
country was overwhelmed. In Bast Anglia, the under king,
Edmund, attempted to face them, but was routed, taken, and
afterwards, in company with his bishop, Humbert of Blmham,
tied to a tree and shot to death with arrows. He is
"Edmund known in church traditions as "the Martyr, ' ' — the Bng-
lish St. Sebastian. To the panic-stricken people, the
struggle was rapidly assuming the aspect of a religious war. The
invaders turned their fury particularly upon the visible representa- '
tives of the Christian faith. Every church edifice in the line of
march was burned. The monks of Medehamstede, the later Peter-
borough, were massacred without mercy. The monks of other
monastic communities, as Oroyland and Ely, probably shared the
same fate. The bishop of Lindsey escaped only by hasty flight,
but other priests, like Humbert of Blmham, died with their
people. The episcopal sees were broken up, and the flocks scat-
tered. Nearly a century passed before Lindsey and Elmham again
saw a bishop. Dunwich never recovered.
The Danes had already prepared themselves to hold what they
had won in Bast Anglia, by constructing elaborate earthworks at
Thetford, the remains of which, even to-dav, cover
of Batoes," about thirteen acres. Their purpose, apparently, was
not to settle as colonists, but to make East Anglia a
base in operating against the richer country which lay to the
west. Accordingly, in 871, with numbers greatly strengthened by
later accessions, under Healfdene and "a host of jarls," they took
the old Koman road, the Icknield street, and advanced directly
upon Wessex. The moment was a critical one in English history.
Northumbria and East Anglia were already conquered; the
strength of Mercia was broken; only Wessex remained, the last
bulwark of England. If the West Saxons failed now, the end was
near. The opening of the year, long known as the "year of battles,"
was discouraging enough. The Danes took up a strong position
at Eeading, between the Thames and the Kennet, where they
fortified themselves, as was now their custom. Then they began
to spread out over the country in search of forage; for a medieval
87l] THE YEAE OF BATTLES . 63
army, even of civilized nations, had no other way of sustaining
itself in the field. King Ethelred and Alfred Etheling, however,
soon put a stop to the foraging by driving the Danes behind their
earthworks. They had then only to sit down to a regular siege,
and hunger would soon have compelled the Danes to treat. Such
simple tactics were followed later with great success. But the
enthusiasm of the West Saxons could not be restrained, and, in an
attempt to carry the camp by storm, they were beaten ofE with
great slaughter and compelled to retire up the Thames, where a
second battle was fought at Ashdown. Here, though forced to
fight at a great disadvantage, the A¥est SSxon princes were success-
ful, and compelled the Danes again to retire upon Reading.
Within two weeks, a third battle followed at Basing, and still a
fourth at Merton, in Surrey.
The fatigue and anxiety of such vigorous campaigning told
heavily upon King Ethelred, who finally broke under the strain,
and died about a fortnight after Merton. Alfred, who
(tf Alfred, had contributed not a little to the successes of the
871.
army, who had endeared himself to his men by the
exhibition of trae soldierly qualities, and had won their confidence
by his wisdom and skill as a leader, was at once selected as king.
Two sons survived Ethelred, but the law of strict hereditary suc-
cession had not yet been established. These were days, moreover,
when regal honors were neither to be lightly sought nor lightly
conferred ; so the young children of Ethelred were set aside, and
the young man Alfred, .probably in his twenty-sixth year, became
king, the "people's darling," the hope of the England to be.
Alfred had little time for fetes or celebrations, and at once
addressed himself to the serious problem of the hour : how to rid
his eastern kingdom of the Danes and restore again his
retire from smitten Country. Within a month, he brought his
battle-weary people to face their foes again at Wilton,
whither they had recently advanced from their old camp at Read-
ing. The Danes won the day, but the hard fighting was beginning
to tell upon their strength, for they had been forced to fight nine
pitched battles in five months. They were glad, therefore, to take
advantage of their last victory and retire from Wessex.
64 THE DANISH WAKS [al™ed
The next position of the Danish army was on the lower
Thames, near London. Here, however, the country had already
been stripped bare, and they were soon compelled to
The Danes ggek a new camp at Torksey, on the Trent, whence they
III Eastern -^ *' ' , .
arSNorth- ^^gan Operations upon Mercia, and, in a short time,
umbria, reduced all the eastern and central parts. Bnrgred,
the last Mercian king of the old line, apparently, saw
little chance of success in continuing the struggle, and took him-
self ofE to Rome to die. As in Northumbria, Healfdene set up
a puppet king over the parts of Mercia which he did not care to
take for his people ; but the parts about Leicester, Nottingham,
Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln he divided among his followers.
These towns, the famous "Five Boroughs," soon became
The-Five vifforous Centers of Danish life. We do not know the
Borouglis. ' &
terms upon which the Danes settled, but it is not likely
that they disturbed the tillers of the soil, who were now practically
serfs over all England. It is more likely that they simply ejected
the landowners and lived upon the labor of their tenants.
The memory of the old life of plunder, however, was still too
strong upon the Danes to allow them to settle down into quiet land-
lords, and, leaving a sufficient force to hold what they
Healfdene jj^d won, they Continued to lead out their armies both
completes the ' ''
themth^ north and south, to plunder the country and exhaust
the resources of the states which still survived. In
the spring of 875, Healfdene led a horde up the west coast, to
complete the pillage of Northumbria. Carlisle was left in ruins,
and so remained until restored by William Eufus more than two
hundred years later. The Britons of Strathclyde and the Picts of
Galloway bowed to the storm. Then Bernicia, which had been
spared in 867, was also compelled to yield up its treasures. Lin-
disfarne, which had recovered somewhat from the raid of 793, was
again destroyed, and every monastery from sea to sea, it is said,
shared the same fate.
The north now lay in ashes. The libraries of Jarrow and
York, associated with the great names of Bede and Alcuin, had gone
up in flames. The "art treasures" and the "book treasures" so
carefully gathered by Benedict Biscop had been either destroyed or
876] GUTHEUM IN WESSEX 66
scattered. The service of the church had been supplanted by
the bloody feasts of Odin and Thor, and the successors of Wilfrid
and Cuthhert either been slain at their altars or driven
setKemm"' °^^ ^° Wander in strange lands. Then, when there was
%an^ nothing left to plunder, the booty thirst of Healfdene
and his pirates seemed to be satisfied, and they
began in serious earnest to make themselves homes in the land
which they had desolated. To know how numerous and widely
extended these settlements were, then and later, the student has
only to take a modern map and note the town names of eastern,
middle, and northern England. Wherever he finds an English
town with the ending by, he may know that he is on the track of
Healfdene and other Danes, who, like him, came to rob and
pillage, but, weary of plunder at last, settled down into peaceable
landowners.
While Healfdene was thus clearing the ground for the planting
of Danish communities in the north, Guthrum, an East Anglian
Dane, who had succeeded Ivar, "the Boneless," gath-
tmS^"^ ered a fleet, and, in the spring of 876, took to the sea.
TTessea;, Passing around Kent and sailing westward, he made a
junction with a second fleet, coming probably from Ire-
land, and brought the combined hordes to land at Wareham, in
Dorset. Here, as at Heading, the Danes fortifled themselves, and
began to overrun the surrounding country, extending their depre-
dations over the entire region. In the spring, they advanced to
Exeter, which a band of their comrades had seized the year before.
Alfred followed warily, crippled, no doubt, by the instability and
irregularity of the fyrd, the "minute men" of early English his-
tory; avoiding pitched battles, he could yet cut off foraging
parties and prevent the Danes from getting supplies. Thus, at
Exeter, as at Wareham, hunger, the vigorous ally of Alfred, soon
compelled the Danes to move, and a part of the horde marched
into Mercia and took up a third station at Gloucester.
Medieval armies, by common consent, were accustomed to dis-
band in the winter months and return to their homes. The
Danes, however, by their custom of establishing permanent for-
tified camps, were able to winter m the field and so had a great
66 THE DANISH WAES [alfred
advantage over the temporary levies of Alfred. The English,
moreover were rendered inert by fear; they shrank from the
sufferings and perils of a winter campaign in the face
jSi^ey. of such an enemy. Furthermore, men who had left
their families for months to the care and pro-
tection of old men and boys, could well plead that they were
needed at home. Alfred, therefore, found it impossible to keep
the field, and withdrew to the deep recesses of the forests of
Somerset. Late in the winter, he established himself in a fort at
Athelney, behind the marshes of the Parret, where he was pro-
tected against any sudden advance of the Danish cavalry, but
could watch their movements and ofEer a rendezvous for his people.
Athelney was Alfred's "Valley Forge"; nor is it diflBeult for the
imagination to picture the patient waiting and the heroic suffer-
ing of the little band who still clung to their king, as they watched
and waited for the spring to open the ways of the forest and enable
the thanes of Somerset to Join their standard again.'
Soon after Easter, the fyrd of Somerset began to come
and in, and Alfred was soon enabled to leave his hiding-place
Chippenham. -i-,intir\i
and take the field. On the eastern margm of Selwood,
near Warminster, the fyrds of Wiltshire and Hampshire also Joined
him, and with this force he advanced to meet the Danes at Chip-
penham, whither they had removed from Exeter in Jan-
Edingtm, uary. At Edington, eight miles from their camp, he
took up a strong position, and waited for them to attack
him. The battle was long and bloody, but the Danes were beaten
and compelled to retire. Then, for fourteen days, Alfred besieged
them at Chippenham, and, finally, by the grim logic of
Chippenham. . . __, j'j b &
famine, brought them to accept his offer of peace.
They must leave Wessex and settle down as peaceful landowners
east of the old line of Watling Street. This land was already
'The old tale of Alfred and the burned cakes, belongs to this winter
at Athelney. Its authority, however, is somewhat doubtful; and yet it is
not unlikely that the incident or something like it, really happened, in
connection with some one of the many expeditions in which Alfred no
doubt often went out in person to seek news of the enemy or find forage
for his men.
878] ALPEED AKD GUTHEUm's PEACE 67
theirs. They had wasted it and oociipied it; now let them stay
there. They should not be disturbed, only, as a pledge of good
faith, let Guthrum, their king, acknowledge Alfred as overlord
and submit to Christian baptism. The pledge of Guthrum was
fulfilled to the letter. He and thirty of his nobles were baptized
at AUer, near Athelney. Alfred himself acted as godfather to his
new vassal, and gave him the now Christian name of Athelstan.
Godfather and neophyte then retired to Wedmore, where the
terms of the truce were formally ratified in the famous
TJiG Tvcdty
ofWedmare, "fryth," known as "Alfred and Guthrum's Peace." ^
"This is the peace," it runs, "that King Alfred and
King Guthrum, and the witan of all the nation of the Angles, and
ail the people that are in East Anglia, have all ordained, and with
oaths confirmed, for themselves and for their descendants, as well
born as for unborn, who reck of God's mercy or of ours."
By the agreement of the two kings, the boundaries of their
kingdoms were definitely fixed as follows, "up on the Thames, and
then on the Lea, and along the Lea unto its source,
of the then right to Bedford, then up on the Ouse unto Wat-
ling Street." Bach people were to keep to their own
side of the boundary. The Danes were not to seek service under
Alfred; his people were not to seek service under Guthrum; but
commercial dealings were to be allowed, and Englishmen and Danes
were to be held "equally dear" on either side of the boundary, and
to be protected by the local laws. Thus, all England east of
Watling Street was formally ceded to the Danes. Wessex, and
Western Mercia, however, had been saved. This was much. It
was more to have established some basis upon which Englishmen
and Danes might dwell together in peace.
England, east of the line of Wedmore and north to the borders
of Bernicia, soon became known as the Danelagh; that is, the
country where the law of the Danes prevailed, in dis-
w'^Te^. tinction from the country where English law prevailed.
kimd under This region, however, was not one kingdom, but many.
one Uvng. e> ' ' o ; ^./
The Danes, like the Teutonic settlers of two centuries
1 The so-called Treaty of Wedmore, as we have it, was probably made
a year, possibly several years, later. Stubbs, Select Charters, pp. 63, 64.
G8 the DANISBt WAES [alvrkb
earlier, gathered in separate communities, about centers of popu-
lation, each under its own jarl or king; but linked together in
loose confederacies. South of Watling Street, there was now one
kingdom and one king. It is, moreover, significant, that, although
Alfred continued through his reign to style himself simply "king
of the West Saxons," in the Treaty of Wedmore his people are
called "English" in distinction from the Danes. Possibly the
application of the name to the West Saxons had been brought into
general use by the Danes, who failed to distinguish between
Angles and Saxons, and knew only the name of the people with
whom they had first come in contact.^
Alfred could now undertake the great work of his reign, the
restoration and reorganization of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
Little of the old order was left; ealdormen and kings
^*"rt'fion ^^^ been swept away; peace oflScers had disappeared,
and the old rude courts for the protection of private
rights, abandoned. Sees had been broken up; churches and
monasteries destroyed, and bishops and abbots slaughtered or
driven into exile. Cities lay in ruins; whole regions were waste,
their populations destroyed or scattered by famine and the
sword. With the destruction of the church, the sources of moral
and intellectual life had also dried up. The very fibers of society
were loosened. Yet, in spite of the general wreck, there still sur-
vived the elements of the older organization, elements into which
the character of the people had already breathed its life. With
rare wisdom, Alfred seized upon these elements, and made them
the foundation of the new England.
Western Mercia was committed to Ethelred, who ruled it as a
dependent principality, under the title of ealdorman. Alfred gave
his own immediate attention to Wessex and the other
Aifredreor- kingdoms south of the Thames. Here, he sought to
(/anizea and ^ ' ^
^mi'^stem ''^fild the shattered fragments of these ancient states into
a single compact kingdom. As far back as the days of
Ine, Wessex appears to have enjoyed a somewhat thoroughly
organized shire system. But Wessex was very small then, and her
'See Gregory's letter to Augustine for early use of name "English"
{Angli) as a general term. Gee and Hardy, Documents, etc., p. 9.
ALFRED ORGANIZES THE Kliq^GDOM 69
handful of shires occupied only a small portion of the territory of
Teutonic Britain. The rest of the country was governed by
petty kings, or semi-independent ealdormen, who rilled each in his
own seven-by-nine kingdom, holding his court in the open gate and
knowing no intermediate jurisdiction between himself and the
local coiirt of the hundred. But now the old kingdoms were gone,
with king and ealdormen, their hundred courts and their gate
courts; yet the names and boundaries, and, most valuable of all, the
habit and the traditions of local cooperation for local administration
remained. Upon the lines of the old tribal kingdoms, therefore,
Alfred organized and established the new shires ; each a simple
administrative district, under the jurisdiction of its own court,
and presided over by its own steward, the scir-gerefa, whom we
know by the modern name of sheriff. By the side of the sheriff
sat also the ealdorman and the bishop. It is not possible to dis-
tinguish clearly the respective duties of these officers in the
shire, but the sheriff was "the constituting officer" of the court.
It is not likely that ealdorman and bishop were always present,
but the sheriff, as the representative of the king, must be ; without
him, there could be no shire court. It was his duty, also, to look
after the interests of his master in the care of the crown lands within
his shire, and the collection of fines and dues. It was the ealdor-
man's duty to command the military levies of the shire, — the fyrd.
He was responsible for their condition ; for the promptness with
which they took the field. It was his, also, to lead them in bat-
tle, to encourage them by his example, to hearten and cheer them
by his fortitude under trial, by his courage in the face of peril. The
sheriff was appointed by the king, but the ealdorman was elected
by the witan, of which august body he was also a member, and to
whose councils he contributed his wisdom. The bishop also had
his interests in the shire ; his people were amenable to its court ;
the innocent, the poor, and the friendless must be protected
against injustice in the name of law ; the various religious forms
connected with the crude methods of trial must be superintended
in the name of the church.
The king himself might be present in the shire court ; for this
is to be born in mind, that the shire court was the lineal successor
70 THE DANISH WAES [alfhed
of the old petty royal court. Hence, its character as a king's court
was always maintained. The king and his witan were theoretically
present in the sheriff, the ealdorman, and the bishop.
^Neither shire nor shire court was the invention of Alfred;
both had existed in Wessex for fully a hundred years before his
time. The name scir, which was used at first, prob-
AWedin ^^^7' ^° ®*''^® ®'^°^ general way as the kindred word
ah^'esustem'' ^^^f^ott in America, had been applied sometimes to
the wards of a city, sometimes to the hundreds of a
subkingdom. In Wessex, it had already come to indicate the
greater divisions of the consolidated state. In Alfred's day, there-
fore, neither the. thing nor the name was new. What he did was
to restore the ancient shires of Wessex, and reorganize alongside
of them as coordinate shires, the ancient kingdoms of Kent, and
Sussex, and Surrey, thus making them organic parts of one cen-
tralized state; but, in so doing, he gave to the shire a significance
which had not belonged to it before. The expedient, moreover,
was a happy one; for, while on the one hand it preserved the
habit of local self-government, so essential to the development of
free institutions, on the other, it afforded an opportunity for the
development of a strong central government, so essential to the
attainment of great statehood.
The association of neighboring villages into minor judicial dis-
tricts, known later in England as hundreds, was, as we have seen,
like the shires, not a new thing. These also Alfred
Alfred and . ' .
thesvstemof reorganized and harmonized, and greatly strengthened
and extended as the foundation of the shire system.
To give weight and dignity to the decisions of the hundred court,
the great landowners of the district who possessed five hides of
land or more, the thanes, were required to be present and to
assist the court in rendering just decisions. They themselves,
however, were exempt from tlie jurisdiction of the local court, and
held in their own halls a coordinate court for their people. In all
cases, the king held the presiding judges responsible for the
decisions of their respective courts, nor did he hesitate to inter-
fere or punish the judge who was neglectful of his duty or ga,ve
other evidence of his unfitness. Even the ealdorman was not
ALFRED AND THE LAWS 71
above the king's displeasure, and might be removed for connivance
at crime or injustice. The poor, the remnant of the old free
ceorls, the friendless peasantry upon whom the heavy hand of the
great magnates was apt to rest with unsparing severity, were the
special objects of the king's solicitude; "for the poor had no
friend save the king."
Side by side with a better civil organization, Alfred established
also a better military organization. By old Teutonic law, the
great body of freemen were held to military duty, and
mSme migtit be called into the field in the presence of common
OTgaSjioji. danger. But the long campaigning of the earlier years
of Alfred's reign, and the need of keeping the nation
constantly under arms, had been a severe strain upon the older
system, and it had more than once failed in an hour of greatest
peril, as in the winter of 877. Alfred sought to remedy this
weakness of the fyrd, by introducing a system of reliefs. Only a
third of the people were to be called into active service in the field
at any one time ; another third were to do garrison duty ; while
the remaining third tilled the fields and cared for the families of
those who were facing the enemy. The period of service, more-
over, was definitely fixed, and the men of each division knew just
when they were to be relieved.
With the same wise policy of adapting old institutions to the
new needs of the nation, Alfred addressed himself to a reform of
existing laws. From the codes of Ethelbert, Ine, and
the^mm"^ OfEa, supplemented by provisions taken from the
ancient Levitical Law, he compiled a new code for the
common kingdom. The only originality which he claimed for
himself was that of selection: "I gathered these laws together
and commanded many of those to be written which our fore-
fathers held, those which to me seemed good; and many of those
which to me seemed not good, I rejected.'" In these laws, how-
ever, there is a marked advance in this : whereas the general prin-
ciple of the commutation of crime for money is still recognized,
we have now a distinct law against treason, for which the death
penalty is assigned. "If any one plot against the king's life, of
'Preamble to Alfred's Laws. Stubbs, S. C, p. 62.
72 THE DANISH WAKS [altoed
himself, or by harboring of exiles, or of his men, let him be liable
in his life and in all that he has." The king, however, is not the
only member of the community whose life is protected by the
death penalty. "He who plots against his lord's life, let him be
liable in his life to him, and in all that he has." In these laws
we see the strength with which the importance of the kingly
authority is taking hold of the popular mind; we also see the
growing influence of the great landowning aristocracy. Com-
pared with one of these great lords of the soil, the life of the
landless freeman was of little importance.
E"o statesman ever appreciated more than Alfred the value of
education in elevating a people, or in creating a true national
spirit. His own education had been neglected in his
eiwiMim^ early years ; for what reason is not known. He had
been left to gather what he could in a desultory way ;
at twelve he had not yet learned his letters ; nor in his later years
was he ever able to atone for the lack of early training, always to
him a source of deep regret. Yet possibly this early neglect was
not without its compensations. For during these years when
Latin, the literary language of the ninth century, was to him a
sealed tongue, his fresh young mind must have drunk deep and
long from the homely fountains of his own English, the language
which was yet virtually without a literature, and learned to value
the priceless traditions of a past which was rapidly fading. It is
not likely that he knew much of Bede in those days, for Bede
had written in Latin; but he must have heard the gleemen sing
their half -pagan songs in his father's hall; he must have listened
to tales of brave deeds of old, of "sword play," and "shield wall,"
and "arrow flight," until the generous heart of the lad had
thrilled with patriotic emotion. Nor, in after years, when his turn
came to take up the burdens of a king, could he forget these
lessons, or fail to appreciate the value of such traditions in in-
spiring the' English with pride in their past, or confidence iil their
future. Thus Alfred, first among English kings, grasped the
importance of national history as an instrument of education, and
sought to leave to the people, in a language which the simplest of
them could understand, a record of their kings and of their own
THE NIlirTH CESTTUKT EEN^AISSANCE 73
achievements. This record, compiled under Alfred's direction,
partly from current traditions and partly from the Ecclesiastical
History of Bede, was the beginning of the famous Chron-
Saaion icle, which was destined to be continued for three hun-
dred years, forming a sort of semi - official national
diary of the greatest value in recovering the later history of
Old English kings. For the benefit of his unlearned country-
men also Alfred caused to be put in an English dress such works,
standard in his day, as Bede's history and the general history of
the world of Orosius. The king's interest in literature, however,
was by no means confined to history. He caused translations to
be made of standard philosophical and theological works as well,
of which the most important were the Consolations of Philosophy
of the unfortunate Boethius, and the Pastoral Care of Pope
Gregory I. He also made a collection of the ancient epic songs of
the English. But of these, with the exception of the epic of
Beowulf, only a few fragments have survived. In Beo-
wulf, however, we have a priceless treasure. It is not
only the earliest of English poems, antedating the era of migra-
tion;' it is also a striking picture of life and manners, far more
than the dry annals of the Chronicle, revealing the temper of the
ancient English folk.^
The compilation of the Chronicle, the translation of standard
works, and the collection of English war songs, formed only a
part of Alfred's plans for furthering the education of
century his people. Like Charles the Great, he ransacked his
renaissance. -, . . , ■, j_j_j.i-n
dominions for men who were apt to teach. J<rom
Mercia, he drew out Plegmund, who in 890 became archbishop
of Canterbury. From Wales, he brought the man who was after-
ward to become his biographer, the learned Asser. Even foreign
countries also were invited to contribute of their wealth to enrich
his schools. Saxony gave him John the "Old Saxon" and St.
Bertin gave him Grimbald. Under the inspiration of such men,
there began a genuine renaissance. The long struggle with the
' Its present form is probably the work of a Christian monk of the
eighth century.
2 See Green, H. E. P., I., pp. 17-30,
74 THE DANISH WABS [alfbed
Danes had dealt severely with the English kingdoms; the old
schools had been destroyed, their teachers and pupils scattered, and
the people had lapsed into barbaric ignorance. When Alfred
began his reign it was said that there was not a man in Wessex
who could read understandingly. When Alfred closed his reign,
English prose had been born, and the English mind had received
an inspiration which it was not to lose, until it emerged into the
full day of the modern era.
The same order which Alfred introduced into the administra-
tion of his Jiingdom, he introduced also into his own private life.
The value of ^^ ^^^^ '^° clock to warn him of the flight of the hours;
metiiodicai '^'■^^' ^^ burning a series of tapers, he contrived to divide
K/e. iiis (Jay with some accuracy. When he noticed that the
draughts caused his candles to burn unevenly at times, he pro-
tected them with a lantern made with sides of horn. The well-
ordered household, the value put upon education, the sobriety and
patient industry of the king, and the quiet seriousness with which
he took the duties of his high office, created an influence which
affected all who came in contact with him, and from the court ex-
tended outward and downward to the people.
While Alfred was thus laying broad foundations for the future
greatness of his people, the Danes of Britain were quietly set-
The Danes tling down to a peaceful life, learning much from the
AWred' slater English who dwelt among them, and forgetting much
rewn. of their old hostility. Occasionally a new band from
the continent harried Alfred's coasts. But Alfred, in reorganiz-
ing the land fyrd, had not forgotten the ship fyrd. In the year
882 his seamen sank tlairteen Danish ships at the mouth of the
Stour, one of the earliest recorded achievements of the English
navy. It is to be noted, however, that the sea had become a
strange element to the English ; the children had forgotten the
ways of their fathers, and Alfred could man his ships only by
enlisting foreigners. It is to be noted, also, that the long
exemption of Britain from such attacks was due quite as much to
the extreme feebleness of the Prankish Empire daring this period
and the richer booty promised by the monasteries and cities of the
south, as to the prestige of Alfred. Upon the first manifestation
891-895] EENEWAL OF DANISH INEOADS 75
of returning vigor in the Frankish defense, the Danes once more
began to appear on the English coast. From 891 to 895, Alfred's
hands were full. One horde under Bjorn Jaernsides descended on
the southern coast of Kent, and creeping up into the Limen, estab-
lished themselves at Appledore. After laying waste the surround-
ing shires of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, they were at last beaten
by Alfred's son Edward at Farnham in 893, and driven down the
Thames where they found shelter among the swamps of Thorny
Island, the present Westminster. Then Ethelred, Alfred's son-
in-law, the ealdorman of Mercia, fell upon them from the Mercian
side, and forced them to make terms and retire to Mersea on the
coast of Essex. Alfred himself, in the meanwhile, was occupied
with another horde under the famous Hasting, who had entered
the Thames and taken up their station at Milton, whence they
ravaged western Kent and threatened London. Alfred succeeded
in driving them from Kent, only to see them settle again on the
other side of the Thames at Benfleet still nearer London. Before
he could come at them again he was recalled to the west to save
Devonshire and Exeter from a horde of Northumbrian Danes. In
the meanwhile, the Danes of East Anglia and Essex had been
aroused by the rout of war which had entered their borders, and
many of them flocked to the banners of Hasting, so that he was
emboldened to dash by London and start "on a wild raid up the
valley of the Thames." The whole west country, however, rose
before him, and by the time he reached the Severn, he found
himself confronted by the ealdorman, Ethelred, with
Buttijiffton., the fyrds of the Mercians, the Sumorsaetas, and the
"Wilsaetas. Even the North Welsh sent their contingents
to help against the common foe. At Buttington, Hasting was
brought to bay, and the English prepared to starve him to terms,
quite after the manner of Edington and Chippenham. But when
his horses had been eaten, apparently not such an extreme hardship
for the Danes, Hasting attempted to cut his way through the
beleaguering ranks. A great battle was fought, and many of
Alfred's thanes fell, but Hasting got away to Chester, where he
wintered among the ruins of the old Eoman city. Hither Ethelred
followed him and kept him closely beleaguered until the spring of
76 THE DANISH WAKS [alfekd
895, when Hasting agaia escaped, and finally, after an attempt
upon North Wales, retired into Northumbria. Benfleet, in the
meantime, had also been cleared of the Danes, whom Hasting had
left behind, but Mersea still continued to be the Danish base on
the East Saxon coast. Hither Hasting made his way from North-
nmbria with the remnant of his army, and, joining his fleet again,
brought his ships by way of the Thames up into the Lea, and estab-
lished himself within twenty miles of London. He was, strictly,
still upon Danish territory, but Alfred could not allow this new
camp to remain just over his borders to menace the peace of Mercia.
The Londoners begaa the siege in the summer and in
harvest time Alfred arrived and took charge of the
operations. He threw a dam across the river below the camp,
and by cutting off the escape of the Danes to the sea forced the
horde to disperse, but could not prevent individual bands from slip-
ping away into Essex and East Anglia. One company succeeded
in breaking into Mercia, and repeating the career of Hasting of
the year before, reached the Welsh border, and wintered near
Bridgenorth. The next summer they retired into Northnmbria.
In the summer of 896 there were "desultory landings" on the
southern coast, but the danger was passed. The losses of the four
years had been very severe. A great number of Alfred's
Alfred''^ °^ psople had fallen; among them two bishops, three eal-
dormen, and many of the minor thanes. Vast areas of
country had also been laid waste. But Alfred's system had suc-
cessfully stood the strain, and Englishmen had learned the value
of an efficient government, loyally sustained.
Eive years later, Alfred, the greatest of early English kings,
laid down the burdens which he had carried so well. He had
reigned twenty-nine years and six months. He was
Deathand .,,,.,
character of preeminently the right man m the right place. He
imparted his own energy and courage to the English
people in the most critical period of the national history. But he
did more than this. He founded the England which we know.
By an unerring instinct, the traditions of a thousand years trace
back to him the beginnings of almost all that is great and good in
English life and character. He has been called "the model man of
CHA&ACTEE OF ALFRED tl*
the English race.'" He was "the noblest, as he was the most
complete embodiment of all that is great, all that is lovable, in the
English temper. He combined, as no other man has ever combined,
its practical energy, its patient and enduring force, its profound
sense of duty, the reserve and self-control, that steadies in it a
wide outlook and a restless daring, its temperance and fairness, its
frank geniality, its sensitiveness to affection, its poetic tenderness,
its deep and passionate religion. " ^ Like all great men, Alfred
was many-sided. Among the scholars who gathered about him,
he was one of the first, leading them in the arduous work of trans-
lation. "The singers of the court found in him a brother singer."
He could plan buildings with his craftsmen ; he could superintend
the workmen; he could instruct even his "falconers and dogkeep-
ers." Deeply religious, frail in health, and seldom free from pain,
he was no ascetic, but a thoroughgoing man of affairs, laborious,
methodical, and careful of details. He was a leader whom men
trusted with implicit confidence, because they felt that he was
directed and controlled by sterling good sense, and was able to
"bring things to pass"; he is "one of the most pleasing, and per-
haps the most perfect, character in history"; ' the king who, "as
no other man on record, has so thoroughly iinited all the virtues,
both of the ruler and of the private man." *
> Goldwin Smith, The United Kingdom, I, p. 12.
2 Green, H. E. P., I, 75.
3 Ramsay, I, 347.
* Freeman, N. C, I, 51.
CHAPTEE V
THE EECONQUEST OF THE DANELAGH AND THE EXPANSION OF
THE ENGLISH KINGDOM UNDEE THE GEEAT KINGS OF
THE HOUSE OF ALFEBD
Edward, distinguished by later historians as "the Elder," suc-
ceeded to the crown by Alfred's death. His coronation, however,
did not take place until the following spring. The
Succession of u x
Edward delay, it is thought, was due to an attempt of his cousin
Ethelwold, the son of Ethelred, the brother of Alfred,
to regain his fatlier's crown. But the people could not so soon
forget the services of Alfred, and nobly responded to the call of
his son to defend the crown against his rival. Edward, moreover,
had already been elected by the witan during his father's lifetime,
and this choice more than offset in the public mind any claim
which Ethelwold might advance, based upon the right of primogeni-
ture. Before the determined front of the nation, Ethelwold's
courage forsook him, and he fled to Northumbria, to return after
two years at the head of a Danish army. But a shrewd counter
raid of the king into the enemy's country compelled the Danes to
turn home again, and with the death of Ethelwold which shortly
followed, peace was once more restored, and all resistance to the
succession of Edward ceased.
Edward could now feel himself free to continue the great work
which his father had begun. Recent events had taught him the
insecurity of peace, as long as the Danes retained their
PT'CTJCLT'dtiOTl ^ 1. ' o
of Edward independence. The Danelagh must be conquered and
for war. ^ l
made a part of the West Saxon kingdom. But Edward
had been trained in too good a school to rush blindly into a strug-
gle for which he had not first prepared himself and his people. To
this end in the year 907, by the restoration of Chester which had
78
907-914] BECOKQUEST Ot DANELAGH BEGUIT 79
remained in ruins since the time of Ethelfrid the Devastator, he
began a series of fortifications which extended along his whole bor-
der and took ten years to complete. For the most part these for-
tifications consisted of a combination of the earthen rampart and
mound of the Danes and the old English hurg or surrounding
fence of palisades, faced by the inevitable ditch. Sometimes,
however, an ancient Eoman camp was restored. If stone walls
were used in fortifying cities, it was only in rare cases, for the era
of stone fortresses had not yet come. The Danes had taught the
English the value of such works; for it was neither superior
generalship nor superior courage which had made the Danes
formerly so difiicult to dislodge when once they had established
themselves, but their fortified camps. On the other hand, the
English heretofore had had no fortified towns, nor known aught
of the science of fortification. When once beaten in the field, the
whole country lay at the mercy of the enemy.
In 913 Ethelred, the ealdorman of Mercia, died. It was
Alfred's wish apparently that Mercia should be the portion of his
daughter, Ethelfleda, "the Lady of the Mercians."
The Lady of Edward, therefore, refused to appoint another ealdor-
man, and left the administration of Mercia in the hands
of his widowed sister; but he detached all the lower Thames basin,
including Oxford and London, and probably on account of its
importance, added it to "Wessex. Ethelfleda, however, possessed
all the genius of her house for war and administration, and upper
Mercia suffered nothing in her hands.
The Danes were not unmindful of the intent of Edward's fort-
building, and from the restoration of Chester, each new essay on
the part of the English was followed by a raid of Danes
ima^kmof ^^^° English territory. Edward, however, steadily
the Danelagh, pushed forward the fortification of the border, and in
914 the work was far enough along for him to under-
take the formal invasion of Essex. The method of advance which
Edward adopted at this time was generally followed in the subse-
quent wars, and goes far to explain the unvarying success of
his operations, and the steadiness with which the English line was
pushed out, until in ten years it reached the Humber. He first
so
ilECONQUEST OF DAKELAGH
[
Edward the Eldea
led a large force into the enemy's country and established a power-
ful camp ; then under cover of the camp he built a permanent for-
tress and garrisoned it with his own people. Thus while he lay
encamped at Maldon in 914, he erected a fort at Witham, which
made him master of all southern Essex, and thrust the Danes
back upon the
Colne.
Yet the
task was by
no means as
simple as the
ease with
which these
first successes
were won
might seem
to imply. The
Danes were
weak, because
they had nev-
er been organ-
ized into a
compact king-
dom , but it
was possible
for them, at
any time, to
unite their
forces and
offer a serious
resistance. Moreover, there was always a chance of interference
on the part of the powerful bands of their kinsmen who were
still roaming at large upon the continent. This happened soon
after the erection of Witham, when some fragments of the
hordes which had recently settled with Eolf on the lower Seine,
the later Normandy, descended upon the Bristol coast. But
Edward was not to be deterred from his greater work, and, when
915-921] PERMANENT tTNION OE MBECIA AND WE8SEX 81
he had driven the newcomers ofE to Ireland, returned again to his
systematic encroachment on the Danelagh, cautiously seizing and
fortifying station after station, and formally annexing the sur-
rounding country to Mercia or Wessex. In the year 915 he seized
advanced stations on the Ouse. The next year he fortified Bed-
ford and in 917 he took permanent possession of Maldon. The
year 918 saw a still more marked advance in middle England.
The Danes of Northampton, Leicester, and Huntingdon combined
to sweep the English back from the line of Watling Street. They
built a counter work at Tempsford, and attacked Edward's
recently erected forts at Towcester and Bedford. Edward replied
by a vigorous advance along his whole line. He himself took
Tempsford; while the Lady of " the Mercians attacked Derby
and carried it by storm. Other operations also were undertaken
by the king in Essex, in which Colchester was taken, Huntingdon
occupied, and a fort erected at Passenham. When the year 918
ended, Cambridge had submitted, and the English line had been
pushed to the "Welland.
The next year Ethelfleda took possession of Leicester and the
great part of the neighboring country submitted without a strug-
gle. This was her last success. She died at Tamworth
af^Mer^ in midsummer after a brilliant reign of eight years.
andWessex, Ethelfleda stands alone among the women of the old
English era. Many women have become great rulers, but
few have combined with rare administrative ability, equal talent
in marshalling armies and leading men in battle. Ethelfleda left a
daughter, but inasmuch as she was a mere child, Edward assumed
the administration of Mercian affairs himself. Thus the separate
government of Mercia came to an end.
Edward could now see his goal. The submission of the Five
Boroughs and the Pen country was followed by the submission of
East Anglia. The year after Ethelfleda's death the
ofEaward's English outposts were pushed across the Mersey and
established at Manchester, and the year following, 921,
Edward fortified Bakewell in the Peakland. The whole south
Humber country was now in his hands, and English colonists were
beginning to pour into the conquered territories. Then followed
83 RECONQUEST OF DANELAGH [edwaAp the Elder
a noteworthy event, which shows how the fame of Edward had gone
before him and overawed the whole north ; for here at Bakewell
came Welsh and Scots, Danes and English, to accept Edward's
authority and take him to "father and lord.'" Thus ended the
work of conquest for that generation. The northern states,
crippled by dissension and awed by the irresistible, advance of the
English lines, had no desire to press the question of supremacy
farther. Edward had secured the Humber as the northern border
of his actual kingdom ; he had also secured the recognition of his
overlordship in the regions north of the Humber. He rested con-
tent ; his work was done.
Edward survived his triumph at Bakewell barely four years.
His reign is marked by the solidity of its successes, due as much to
the sterling worth of the man as to his farsighted wis-
EAward, dom. He and his noble sister are in themselves the
best testimonies of the greatness and goodness of
Alfred. Only a good home, where all that is lovable and true and
strong in child character is strengthened and encouraged, could
produce such children. For Alfred, with true insight, had realized
how much the strength or weakness of his children might mean
to his people, and had taken as much pains in their education and
training as in any of the many public institutions which he
founded. In some respects possibly, Edward even surpassed
Alfred. He is undoubtedly the greatest military leader of the old
English period ; his unvarying success is as remarkable as the sub-
stantial nature of his conquests. He comprehended fully the spirit
of his father's great work of reorganization, and made his con-
quests the means of strengthening and extending it, forming of the
England which he had won a compact national state.
Edward had all his father's love of justice, and realized fully
the importance of "just dooms" to a contented and happy people.
He constrained his witan to support him in the main-
E&uxmi tenance of peace, and made them responsible for the
denial or delay of justice. Each gerefa was required to
' For the question of the submission of Constantine, King of Soots, in
921, see Freeman, N. C, I, 57, 118, 565; and also Wyokoff, Feudal Relations
of the Crowns of England and Scotland, pp. 1-31.
935] DACEE 83
hold his court "always once in four weeks," plainly the hundred
court, and "every suit was to have an end, and a term in which it
must be brought forward." The relations of English and Danes
were carefully regulated by a'graded wergeld. A system was also
established by which legal bargains could be made only within a
walled town and in the presence of the reeve. The law was
afterward softened somewhat by Athelstan, but the principle
which required public recognition of commercial transactions
must have been very useful among a semi-barbarous people,
and often saved them from the occasion of litigation. In Edward's
laws, also, we have the first notice of the ordeal, not a new
method of trial by any means, but from this time conspicuous
among the strange old laws of the Anglo-Saxons, curious
mingling of Christianity and barbarism. All in all, Eng-
lish society had not advanced far, when peace breaking and
perjury, robbery and murder, were still incidents of daily life
against which king and witan waged a long and weary, but not
hopeless warfare.
When Edward died, his eldest son, Athelstan, was about thirty
years of age. In his infancy Alfred had acknowledged him as his
successor, and had "invested him with the insignia of a
AmeMan, warrior and an etheling; namely, a purple mantle, a
jeweled belt, and the national Saxon sword in a golden
scabbard." For the moment it seemed that Athelstan's succes-
sion also would be disputed in the interests of an heir of Ethelred,
and that Mercia, which had declared for Athelstan, would again be
separated from Wessex. But the proposal of the West Saxon witan
to set up a separate- king came to nothing, and Athelstan the third
in line of the great West Saxon kings, took up the work of father
and grandfather.
The first year of the reign was marked by an important meeting
of northern lords at Dacre, where the Welsh kings, Howel Dha
of Dyfed and Owen of Gwent, Constantino king of
aiDamf^ Scots, and Eldred of Bamborough, came to acknowledge
the lordship of the new king. That Athelstan took the
homage seriously, as a recognition of his supremacy over the north,
is shown by the style which he now assumes. He is no longer like
84 EECONQUBST OF DANELAGH [athklstah
Alfred, "King of the West Saxons," or like his father, "King
of the Anglo-Saxons"; he is "Monarch of all Britain."
The homage of Dacre, however, does not seem to have proved a
very secure basis for a lasting peace. The attempt of Athelstan to
seize York, and possibly Bernicia, and incorporate them
Brunan- in his southern kingdom, led to complications with the
burh 937, o 7 1
king of Scots, and the formation of a great northern
coalition. A raid of Athelstan upon the east coast of Scotland in
934 led to a counter raid into England in 937. With a vast
horde of Scots, Picts, Welsh, and Danes, Constantino entered the
Humber, and, leaving his ships, marched into Lincolnshire.
Athelstan and his brother Edmund met him on the field of
Brunanburh. All day long the battle raged. All day long the
English continued to hurl themselves upon the earthworks and
palisades behind which the northerns had taken their stand.
Here gat King Aethelstan,
And eke his brother
Eadmimd Aetheling
Life-long glory
At sword's edge,
Eound Brunanburh;
Board-wall they cleft
War-lindens hewed,
Sithen sun up
At morning-tide,
God's noble candle,
Glid o'er the lands.
Till the bright being
Sank to his settle."
Such terrible war-work cost the English dear ; but the north-
ern horde was beaten, and Constantino with the wreck of his
army was glad to retire to his ships leaving behind him upon the
earthworks of Brunanburh five "young kings," among them his
own son.
' For the site of Brunanburh see Ramsay, I, p. S85. For the famous
war song, see Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with translation by Thorpe in "Rolls
Series." a. d. 937.
RESULTS OF ATHELSTAN'S REIGN 85,
Prom Brunanburh Athelstan returned home to rule in
peace, the sole king of the English from the Channel to the Tjne,
and the undisputed overlord of Britain. The degree of
Extmtof ii •! 1 ■ 1 1 • T r,
Athetstmi'8 authority which he exercised over Scot and Cumbrian
Will probably always remain a question of dispute among
scholars ; the Welsh recognized his overlordship to the extent of a
substantial tribute; their kings also appeared among the witan as
regular attendants at the English court.
The reputation of Athelstan soon passed beyond the borders of
his island kingdom. Harold of Norway sent his son Hakon to be
educated at his court. Henry the Fowler sought
ancee of Athelstan's sister, the gentle Edith, as a wife for his
Athelstan. , , . ■,
son otto, then a prince of eighteen, afterward to
become emperor and second founder of the Holy Eoman Empire.
Still another sister was married to Hugh the Great, Count of
Paris and Duke of France, whose son was the famous Hugh
Capet,' founder of the modern French monarchy. A third sister,
Edgiva, had been married in Edward's lifetime to Charles the
Simple, the only surviving representative of the old Carlovingian
dynasty. Her son was the unfortunate Louis D'Outre-Mer, who
spent fourteen years of enforced exile at the English court, and
succeeded at last to his father's throne only by the influence of
his powerful uncles.
Athelstan's death came suddenly, just at the moment when he
was beginning to reap the full results of the wisdom of father and
grandfather. He had reigned for fifteen years, and both
Death of ° , „ , , -, . , , ■, i , , •, .
Athelstan, on the field and in the council chamber had given
940
Beiuitsofhu ample proof of the possession of all the abilities of his
reign.
house. Compared with the glories of Brunanburh or
the exaltation of Dacre, the utmost achievements of Alfred or
Edward appear almost trifling. And yet, these brilliant triumphs
of Athelstan bore no such solid results as the faithful organizing
of Alfred, or the patient building of Edward, and much of his
work had to be done over again.
■Hugh Capet was the son of a second wife, Had wig, a sister of Otto,
the Great.
86 RECOITQTTBST OP DAlfELAGH [edmukd
Upon the death of Athelstan, his brother Edmund passed at
once to the throne. Edmund was a mere lad of eighteen. He had
fought by his royal brother's side at Brunanburh ; but
Edmund, j^q ];)ad had no experience in administration, and the
northern earls^ looked upon his election as an experi-
ment. They withheld their allegiance, and invited the Danish
king, Olaf of Dublin, to come over and assume the royal authority
at York. The Mercian Danes also were restless and ready to join
with the Northumbrians. Edmund promptly took the field. Olaf
marched into the south Humber country and advanced as far as
Northampton. Here his advance was checked, and he was com-
pelled to fall back, first upon Tamworth, and then toward Chester.
Edmund followed hard upon the track of Olaf, and a pitched bat-
tle appeared inevitable, when the two Archbishops, Odo of Canter-
bury and "Wulfstan of York, interfered and a peace was patched
up, which, strange to say, virtually ceded not only what Athelstan
had won, but Edward's conquests as well. Tlie English hold
upon the old Danelagh, however, was too strong to be renounced
in a day, and, shortly after the disgraceful peace of Chester,
Edmund appears once more in full possession of the Five Bor-
oughs; and by 945 Olaf had been driven out of the northern
counties as well, and all Northumbria was again under Edmund's
authority. The same year also saw Edmund in Cumberland,
harrying the countryside, and compelling its king, Donald, to
renew the homage which he had given to Athelstan.^
The next year the young king, whose reign had opened so
auspiciously, came to an untimely end in a way that well illus-
trates the wild turbulence of the time. The king was keeping the
Feast of St. Augustine at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire, when
a notorious freebooter, Leofa, who had been recently banished by
'Earl is an English spelling of the Danish ^arZ, e before a in Anglo-
Saxon having the sound of the Danish j. After the Danish wars Earl is
generally substituted for ealdorman.
^ "The allegation of a cession of Cumbria or Strathclyde to Scotland
must be dismissed as an idle boast of our chroniclers, but one quite in
accordance with the turgid pretensions of the royal charters of the
period." — Ramsay, I, p. 297.
945-955] EDRED 87
the king's order, entered the hall and insisted upon taking his
seat at the king's board. The king, indignant at the insult,
ordered his steward to expel the man. The ruffian resisted, and
the king himself joined in the struggle. A knife flashed, and
Edmund sank to the floor. The thanes dispatched the outlaw;
hut the king was dead.
Edmund's eldest son, Edwy, was still a child; and the witan,
as at the death of Ethelred, turned again from the direct line to
elect a younger brother of the late king, in this case
f^^s. Bdred. Edred was four years older than Edmund when
Edmund assumed the crown, but since childhood
Edred had been a confirmed invalid. He was surrounded, how-
ever, by the veteran counselors of his brothers and his father, and
during his reign of nine years the administration revealed no fall-
ing off in energy or efficiency. There was the usual hesitation of
the northern people in accepting the new king, but the prompt
action of the Welsh and the English, and the ready energy of the
king's ministers, not only forestalled the growth of any widely-
extended revolt, but enabled Edred to add Northumbria per-
manently to England. The Northumbrians themselves, more-
over, were weary of Danish rule, and apparently conspired
with the English to expel the last representatives of the race of
Healfdene and Ivar the Boneless. Edred, however, did not
organize the newly acquired territory as a part of the English king-
dom of the south, but united Deira and Bernicia into one vast
ealdormanry, or earldom, which he bestowed upon Osulf, the "High
Keeve of Bamborough," who had recently been of great service in
expelling the Danish kings.
Edred did not long survive the establishment of an English
ealdorman over Korthumbria. His name hardly belongs to the list
of great kings of the House of Alfred; yet he was
ofEdred's not lacking in spirit, neither was he a man to be trifled
His death, with. The arrest and imprisonment of the treacherous
"Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, had quite the ring of
the old metal. The reign, moreover, on the whole was suc-
cessful, nor did the prestige of the royal house suffer. Yet the poor
young king, weighted with a sickly body, with scarcely blood
88 RECONQUEST OF DAiiTELAGH [edeid
enough in his veins to keep them open, must have had a weary
struggle; after nine years he gave up the contest, and was laid
by the side of his brother Edmund at Glastonbury.
The recovery of the Danelagh was now completed. The ques-
tion of supremacy was permanently settled, not only between Danes
Tevtmic ^^^ English, but also between North Britain and South
Britain Britain. Henceforth, southern Britain was to direct
England. the "destinies of the island," give it its royal family,
and rule it from its southern capital. But more important still,
Teutonic Britain had become England ; in the furnace fire of for-
eign war, local differences and tribal antagonisms had disappeared,
and the once rival tribes had been fused into one people. The
tribal king of the West Saxons had become the national king of the
English.
In the presence of snch changes it was not possible for the old
simple political and social constitution to remain as it had been in
the past. The erasure of ancient tribal lines and the
Bnafeft *" concentration of all royal authority in the family of
oraanizatian Wessex, vastly increasing the personal authority and
prestige of the king, were sufficient to change the pro-
portions of the old constitution. But other changes fully as impor-
tant, and even more radical, had extended through the entire social
structure. The old free ceorls had sunk into a condition of semi-
servitude. The laws of the time, designed no doubt to protect
society against the vagrant, compelled every man to put himself
under the protection of some lord, who thus became a sort of per-
petual bail, responsible for the conduct of his man, and in case of
crime bound to produce him in court or make good the loss which
his ill-doing had caused the community. A man of good character
would find little difficulty in securing a lord, but the man who had
once lost his reputation was in a sad plight, for the lordless man
had no standing before the law. The principle was feudal, and
indicates, all too plainly, that English society was changing rapidly
from a community of independent freemen to an oligarchy of rich
landowners, where wealth was the only badge of independence. It
indicates, moreover, that the poor freeman could no longer be trusted ;
the loss of personal independence, as always, had been attended
THE GILDS 89
by a corresponding loss of self-respect and sense of responsibility.
Freemen had become servile in nature, and, therefore, servile in
condition.
With the decline of the free poor, there is also a marked advance
in the severity of the laws in dealing with petty offenders, who
naturally came from this class, or the scarcely lower
r&guiations. ^^^^^ ^^° represented the old villainage. No thief of
twelre years of age or over who stole to the amount of
twelve pence was to be spared. He was to be slain, if found guilty,
and all that he had was to be taken. The manifest thief was to
be pursued by hue and cry, and the first man who felled him to the
earth was to receive a fee of twelve pence. The population
m^. ^..^ ^Iso were invited to enroll themselves into gilds, each
The Chid. ^ . o i
under its own head or ealder. Ten gilds, again, were
to be associated together into a larger association known as the
hundred.^ The gild was to serve as a sort of home protection
association, designed to insure its members against loss by theft.
Their duty was to lead the hue and cry against the thief, and see
that the stolen property or its value was restored to the owner.
The value of the stolen property was first to be taken from the
goods of the thief ; what was left was then divided into two parts,
one of which was given to the wife of the thief, if she had had no part
in the crime ; the second part was divided equally between the king
and the gild brethren. The gild, in dealing with the thief, was
not required to appeal to legal authority, but might proceed at once
to extreme measures. In other words "lynch law" was legalized,
and its violence justified The sheriff was to be called upon only
when the offender was too strong for the gilds to deal with, or
when he sought refuge in another shire. Then the pursuit of the
criminal was handed over to the neighboring sheriff, who was
bound either to produce the thief or hunt him out of his shire.
This particular scheme originated first among the bishops and
reeves of London, but it seems to have been added as a supplement
to the public acts of Athelstan's reign, and was to be applied to
the whole kingdom. The king urges its adoption upon his bishops,
^Not to be ppufused with the territorial institution of that name.
90 EBCONQUBST OP DANELAGH [edked
ealdormen, and sheriffs, that the people may be relieved of the
annoyance of thieving.
In the laws of Athelstan, the shire court and the whole system
of procedure emerge with more and more distinctness from the
obscurity of the earlier period. General attendance
itfemod 0/ i;ipon the shire court was enforced by fines. The sheriff
The ordeal ^^g ^-^so morc definitely recognized as the king's repre-
sentative ofificer. An accused man, if not taken in the act, was
allowed to clear himself by the oath of his lord or his friends. Fail-
ing of this, he was put to his trial, which was simply an appeal to God
to work a miracle in his behalf and save him from pi^nishment, if he
were innocent; another instance which shows how overwhelmingly
the laws favored the property holder. The accuser might select
the kind of test to be applied, bi^t the law prescribed iii each case
whether the ordeal should be single or double or triple. "In the
case of the ordeal by hot iron, a fire was kindled in the church, and
a bar of iron weighing one, two, or three pounds^ •placed upon it in
the presence of an equal number of witnesses from each side. The
iron was kept upon the fire while a certain service was performed.
At the end of 'the last collect,' the iron was placed upon trestles,
the man's hand was sprinkled with holy water, and then, at a sig-
nal from the priest, he took up the iron and carried it a measured
distance of nine of his own feet; then, dropping it, he rushed to
the altar, where his hand was bound up with a sealed cloth, to be
removed at the end of three days, when his guilt or innocence
would be declared, according to the state of his hand. In the
ordeal by hot water, the accused had to take up a stone immersed
in boiling water to the depth of his wrist or elbow, as the case
might be. In the ordeal by cold water, he was let down into a
pool of water by a rope an ell and a half long. If he sank, he was
innocent. If he floated, he was guilty. " "
It may be wondered how any one could escape at such a trial,
save by the connivance or trickery of those who officiated. But
by comparing with the later laws of the Norman and Angevin
period, it appears that the ordeal was more of the nature of a penalty
' As the ordeal was to be single, douljle, or triple.
' Ramsay, I, p. 393.
INSTITUTIONS LOSE POPULAR CHARACTER 91
than a trial, and was imposed only in the case of a notorious per-
son, who could not get the requisite number of qualified guar-
antors to swear to his good character. Moreover, if the accused
succeeded in passing the test, though his life was spared, he was
compelled to leave the country.
With the change in the standing of freemen, the government
correspondingly lost its old popular character. The ancient folk-
moot never got beyond the shire court. In the consoli-
im- cUa/racter dated kingdom the witenagemot exercised all the
' functions of the popular assembly. By its counsel and
consent charters were granted, laws were formulated, kings, ealdor-
men, and bishops were chosen; by it high offenders were tried. It
represented not the people, but the great landholding aristocracy,
centered in the king and the royal family. To this fact was
undoubtedly due the growing severity of the laws which fell most
heavily upon the lower classes. At times the landholders appear
calling for laws so severe that the king refuses to grant them; as
when the witan proposed to Athelstan that a free woman who
turned thief be drowned, or that a male slave be stoned to death
and a female slave be burnt alive.
Another change which belongs to this era is significant of the
drift of the national institutions. We have seen the old ealdormen
acting as the simple chiefs of the fyrd in the shire,
the great something like the modern lords lieutenant of the
counties ; but by the time of Edmund and Edred the
ealdormen begin to appear as provincial governors, almost as sub-
kings, each in his own group of shires. Under Edred, whose
feeble health possibly made the extension of such a system a neces-
sity, in order to relieve him of the burdens of directly administer-
ing the enlarged kingdom, there are seven such provincial
governors or viceroys south of the Humber, to whom the reorgani-
zation of ISTorthumbria added still an eighth. This important
ofiice, to which the Danish term earl ' was soon to be commonly
applied, was not yet hereditary, but its semi-regal nature was
recognized in that it was generally reserved for members of the
royal family, the ethelings, and could be conferred only by the
' See note on p. 86.
92 EECONQUEST OF DANELAGH [edbed
consent of the witan. The ealdorman, or earl, supported his own
court, was protected by a wergeld equal to that of the bishop, and
surrounded himself with his own thanes. Under a strong king,
these powerful viceroys might be of real service in simplifying the
task of governing so large a territory. But under weak kings and
minors, such as now began to succeed to the throne of Alfred, the
institution was allowed to fall into the hands of ambitious and
unscrupulous men, and by undermining the royal authority
became a source of immeasurable mischief.
CHAPTEE VI
THE DAYS OF DTJNSTAN ; THE EAKLT ENGLISH KliTGDOM PASSES
MERIDIAN
As the last years of the ninth century are associated with the
great name of Alfred, the last years of the tenth century are asso-
ciated with the great name of Dunstan. This remark-
o/Sunstmi^ able man was not a king, but an ecclesiastic and a monk,
the first of a long line of churchly statesmen, of whom
are Lanfranc, Anselm, Becket, Langton, and Wolsey, who have
directed English history, and at times exerted a greater influence
upon the life of the nation than its kings.
Dunstan was born a short time before the death of Edward the
Elder.* His family, of good old West Saxon stock, lived in Glaston-
bury and had its representatives high in influence in the church.
.His education began in the monastery school of his native town.
The lad was precocious, deeply sensitive, and somewhat stormy
in disposition. He had, moreover, a most unpleasant way of
seeing visions and bringing forth for the benefit of his godless com-
panions, messages fresh hot from the other world. He was not pop-
ular. What dreamer has been from Joseph down? So Dunstan
also was vigorously hated for his pains, and finally driven from
Glastonbury by open violence.
Elfege, the bishop of Winchester, was a kinsman of Dunstan,
and to him the young scholar, smarting under the indignities
which had been heaped upon him by his fellow pupils at
neriseof Glastonbury, fled for refuge and consolation. At this
time a new religious awakening, which had begun in the
old monastery of Cluny, was arousing the Benedictine societies of
the continent, and though England had not yet responded to the
movement, here and there were pious souls who were earnestly
' The year 934, commonly given, is evidently an error.
93
94 ■ DATS OF DUNSTAN [EDninsD
longing for a better day. Of this number was Elfege, who
found in the ascetic nature of his young kinsman a fruitful soil for
the germination of his own peculiar ideas. Dunstan, however, did
not yield himself to the monastic life without a struggle. A vision
of another kind had filled his heart of late, which his monastic
guides taught him was of the devil. But at last the battle was
won. The fresh young girlish face, for such was the vision, was
banished, and the student assumed the vows which committed him
to a life of celibacy. Upon his return to his old home, his narrow
cell and his rather ostentatious asceticism soon won for him a
reputation for great sanctity. Strange stories adorned with the
ready embellishments of the credulous, were eagerly received and
repeated far and wide. Crowds came to gaze at the young monk,
who was said to have miraculous trances in his cell and see portents
in which the death of kings was foreshadowed. He was also said to
hold personal altercations with the evil one. Had not the saint once
seized the hooked nose with a pair of hot tongs and held it fast, until
the whole neighborhood had been aroused by the Satanic bellowing?
Before such irrefragable evidence Dunstan's reputation for saintli-
ness grew fast, until even the scoffers were convinced. But a fear-
less saint in those days of general laxness and indifference to the"
laws of the church, was not a comfortable neighbor; and it was
not long before the plain speech of Dunstan had made him many
bitter enemies. Among these enemies was King Edmund himself;
for Glastonbury had now for a long time been a royal residence
city, and here the king often resorted with his court. At last
Edmund drove the faithful monk away. But the young king by
no means rested easy after he had thus silenced his John the Bap-
tist; and while his conscience still rankled with its
946.
wound, a moment of great personal danger converted
him into a thoroughgoing advocate of Dunstan's views. He sent
after the exile, and with his own hands, it is said, placed him in
the abbot's chair of the old monastery of Glastonbury.
Glastonbury was at that time a fair representative of the
few English monasteries that had survived the ninth century.
Its buildings were in ruins; its livings were in the hands of
mere clerks or parish priests, married men apparently for the
946] DUNSTAN AND EDKED 95
most part, distinguished as "seculars "from the "regular clergy";
that is, from those who lived according to the stricter rule of
Benedict. Dunstan, as abbot, was free to introduce
Dunstan's
Reforms at reforms to ms heart's content: but he had evidently
Olastmibury. , , , ,
learned much from his early misfortunes and did not
attempt to apply the old Benedictine rule at once. He began his
reforms rather upon the material side first ; the recovery of lost
lands, and the repair of buildings. No one could object to this.
Then he gathered around him a company of young men, whom he
carefully trained in the well-nigh forgotten rules of the monastic
life. Thus he laid a broad foundation for the future.
In the meanwhile Edred had been advanced to the throne
made vacant by the dagger thrust of Leofa. He was not only in
full sympathy with the aims of Dunstan, finding posi-
Edred"""'"* tions for his pupils, as Bthelwold who was appointed
to the Abbey of Abingdon; but he also supported Odo,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a far more radical movement, and
encouraged the sending of English priests to the continent, where
they came directly under tjie influence of such great centers of the
new monastic reform as Fleury, and whence they returned to
spread the sacred contagion at home. Dunstan, however, was no
narrow recluse; he knew men, especially the unsanctified and
worldly sort who surrounded the court of the king; and Edred
soon found in him a most competent assistant in the administra-
tion of his kingdom. He made him virtually his treasurer. The
abbey became a royal depository. Here were placed the royal
hoard and the charters or "title deeds" to the estates which the
king held by book -right.
At this time Dunstan appears without any of the stern
angularities of the ascetic. If in his earlier days he had made
some parade of the hair shirt and leathern girdle and
Themature ,, , . „ ,, . ,
cha/rax!ter of narrow cell, he IS now a man of engaging manners and
refined tastes." Instead of shunning the society of the
ladies of the court, he has learned the art of making himself both
agreeable and useful. He can draw patterns of rare beauty for
their needle work. He is a performer on the harp of such won-
drous skill, that the ravishing tones which thrill from his fingers
96 DATS OF DUNSTAK [edbkb
seem to come from the touch of holy inspiration. He is still a great
dreamer but his dreams are no longer the vagaries of "the som-
nambulist." He is a poet, an artist, a statesman. His imagina-
tion is as vivid as ever but it no longer betrays him into "seeing
things at night." He is practical, self -controlled, and dominated
by moderation and good sense.
Apparently he had no taste for speculation or literary compo-
sition. If he ever committed himself to parchment, nothing, not
even a title, remains. Yet he was a dexterous penman
ments of and in accordance with the fashion of the times, could
ornament a manuscript with the most expert. Some
of Edred's charters are believed to be his work, besides a drawing
of Christ with the artist prostrate at his feet. He possessed also a
special skill in metal work. His cell at Glastonbury, it is said,
was equipped with forge and anvil, where he was accustomed to
toil at his favorite art far into the night. To the early medieval
mind there was always something uncanny associated with the
mysteries of the craft ; — witness the choice old legend of Wieland
the Smith, — possibly connected with the fitful glare of the forge,
the glowing iron on the anvil, the sounding blows, the showering
sparks ; and it was perhaps to this wizard-like accomplishment of
the young monk that the legend of his visit from the evil one is
due. The organ of Malmesbury and the chime of bells of Canter-
bury long remained, by no means silent testimonies of his achieve-
ments. He also knew how to model in wax and carve in wood and
bone.
It was as a statesman that Dunstan brought his practical mind
to bear directly upon the problems of the age. Here his modera-
jxmstanas ^^°^ ^^ ^® conspicuous as that sanctified worldliness
statesman. which makes him the model ecclesiastical statesman
of all times. He was in full sympathy with the ascetic revival
of his age; yet he never went to the extremes of some of his
contemporaries, but recognized the strength of the ties which
bound the married clergy to their families, and even after
he had become archbishop of Canterbury with all the power of
Edgar to support him, he attempted no ruthless warfare against
those who had already entered the married state. He sought,
955] CHOICE OF EDWY 97
rather, to bring up a generation of younger men, to take the place
of their elders as they fell at their posts, better trained, and thus
saved from their errors.
When Edmund was struck down by the outlaw he left two
sons, Edwy and Edgar. But they were too young then to be
entrusted with the royal authority, and the witan had
f^nof wisely passed them by in favor of their uncle Edred.
Now, however, Edred was dead and there was no fourth
son of the noble Edward to raise to the throne ; and the witan were
forced to turn again to Edwy, the eldest son of Edmund, then
possibly in his sixteenth year.
The choice was not happy. The conscience of Europe was
everywhere turning from the license tolerated by a more barbarous
age to a stricter life. N"ot only was celibacy enjoined
of Edwy as the most holy state for the clergy, but princes and
nobles were forbidden unions which their fathers had
regarded with no disfavor. The great Athelstan himself had been
the child of such a union, and no one had hesitated to do
him homage on that account. But the revival had now reached
England and, passing beyond the monasteries, was rapidly win-
ning the approval of the public conscience. It was exceedingly
unfortunate, therefore, at such a time when the trumpet had
been put to lips that were iron bound, and the drowsy con-
science of the nation was at last awaking, that the most available
candidate for the throne should be Edwy, a mere lad of fifteen,
willful and headstrong and, withal, directly under the influence of
Ethelgiva, a woman of evil reputation, who was solely bent upon
marrying the king to her daughter Elgiva. During the reigns of
Edmund and Edred the influence of Edward's widow,' Edgiva,
had been all powerful, nor was she inclined now to yield her
supremacy to the intriguing Ethelgiva, but brought all her influ-
ence to bear in preventing the proposed marriage. She found
powerful allies in Dunstan and Archbishop Odo and other leaders
of the ecclesiastical reform. For, as an additional objection to
the marriage, Edwy and Elgiva were related and thus came within
the degree of consanguinity forbidden by the church.
' It is too early to speak of an English queen, or a queen mother-
98 DAYS OF DUNSTAN [edwy
The quarrel came to an open rupture at the coronation feast at
Kingston, when the witan had gathered at the king's board to do
him honor. Wine was flowing freely; the boisterous
Dunstan, revelrv shook the old roof, and reechoed from distant
955.
halls. But the young king gTew weary of the cheer,
and slipped away from the royal company of his thanes to the
apartments of Ethelgiva and her daughter. When the noisy
guests noted the absence of their king, and learned whither he had
gone, they bade Dunstan fetch him. The abbot found the truant
and, after some high words, took him by the hand and drew him
back to the banqueting hall to meet his angry thanes. The boy
king could not forget the humiliation of his coronation night, and
at the instigation of Ethelgiva, soon began a deliberate attack
upon Dunstan and Edgiva. Dunstan was the greatest man of the
kingdom, and, with the exception of Odo, possibly the most influ-
ential. It was inevitable that such a man should have many
malignant and unscrupulous enemies, who would be only too
glad to join in the rout when once the hue and cry was raised.
The temporary triumph of Edwy and Ethelgiva was the signal
for all these dark spirits to pronounce themselves. Dunstan was
charged with malversation in the care of the late king's treasury.
By English custom he should be tried before the witenagemot,
but Ethelgiva had too many friends among the witan for him to
expect a fair trial at their hands, and he accordingly withdrew to
Flanders to wait for the storm to blow over. Edgiva also was
driven from the court.
Ethelgiva was now virtually the ruler of England, and her first
act v/as to secure her influence by the marriage of her daughter to
the king. She sought also to win a church partv of
Triumph of , ° , ° , , r j
the church her own by numerous grants to churches and monas-
.teries. But no government could long survive which
had been founded upon the open violation of what the reform
spirit of the age was coming to regard as the sacred law of Chris-
tendom. In 957 the great lords of Mercia and Northumbria
broke into open revolt and set up Edgar, the younger brother of
Edwy, as their king. In Wessex also the church party carried on
a relentless war against Ethelgiva, and next year Odo succeeded
959-962] ELEVATION OF DUNSTAN 99
in divorcing King Edwy and in banishing the hated mother-in-
law. We may not believe the stories of the brutal treatment of
the poor little bride ;^ but the defection of the northern earls
was quite enough to frighten the boy king, especially with
Archbishop Odo thundering terrible things in his ears; even a
stouter heart and an older head might have hesitated. In 959
after four years, most unhappy years we may believe, the wretched
young king died, and Wessex quietly passed to his brother Edgar,
who since 957 had been king over all England north of the
Thames.
Edgar had already recalled Dunstan and made him bishop of
"Worcester. In 959 the see of London was also added to his care.
And when, in the same year, the death of both Odo and
StoT"'^ Edwy left Edgar free to name his candidate for the
archiepiscopal throne, there was in all the kingdom but
one man to be considered, and Dunstan was named as Odo's suc-
cessor. Dunstan now stood next to the king in honor and influ-
ence, and the long era of peace and prosperity which attended the
sixteen years of Edgar's reign was due in no small degree to the
primate's sage counsel, and the consistent and statesmanlike policy
to which he committed the king.
Under Edgar the religious revival was not allowed to slacken.
He had hardly become seated, when the monastic drift of the
nation was greatly deepened and strengthened by the
Peaceful. appearance of a pestilence, the "sudden death," which,
JPvooress of
tMcHurch starting in the centers of population, swept the king-
dom far and wide. In 963 London also was ravaged by
a serious conflagration. Monastic thought was in the air, and the
people readily saw in these afflictions a punishment for their dis-
obedience in not conforming to the laws of the church. The king,
who had been from his youth under the influence of Dunstan, was
thoroughly possessed with this idea, and everywhere enforced the
demands of the reformers. In this he was ably seconded by
Oswald, the nephew of Odo, who had been trained at Fleury, and
in 961 had succeeded Dunstan at Worcester; and also by Ethel-
wold, the abbot of Abingdon, the former pupil of Dunstan. As a
' They belong to a period long subsequent to Odo's death.
100 DATS OF DUNSTAK [edgab tbi Piaokfot,
result of the powerful influence brought to bear by such leaders,
supported by the king and upheld by the sentiment of the people,
the married clergy were compelled to put away their wives and
conform to the ecclesiastical law. Training schools or semi-
naries for monks, with regular courses of study extending over two
or three years, were also established, and from them young men,
imbued with the new idea of the monastic life, were regularly sent
out upon missions into other fields. New abbeys were founded,
according to tradition to the number of forty, and old foundations
restored. Thus arose Eamsey in Huntingdon, associated with the
name of Oswald ; Ely and Medehamstede, the latter soon to be
known as Peterborough, both associated with the name of Ethel wold.
Edgar and Dunstan, however, had other work to do besides
that of reforming monks and building monasteries. The Danish
inroads bad ceased, but the unruly lords of the isles had
^^f'^ower *° ^^ kept in subjection. According to a respectable
but hardly credible tradition, Edgar maintained a fleet
of 3,600 sail, with which he patroled his coasts each year. It is
probable that the famous review at Chester of 973,^ in which, it is
said, Edgar was borne along in a barge rowed by six vassal kings,
was a part of one of these annual manoeuvers.
As with his predecessors, it is diflicnlt to distinguish particular
institutions which date from Edgar's reign, and yet the era was
one in which the growth of English institutions was
prasresfof"' markedly deepened and strengthened. The "West Saxon
retom'^ ' shire system was unquestionably extended to the Hum-
ber. The hundred or, as it was called north of Watling
Street, the wapentake, appears in the laws for the first time by
name, and its functions, the times of holding the court, and the
duties of its ofiicers are fixed by ordinance. The system which
Athelstan had enjoined, of organizing each community into gilds
for better protection against thieving, also appears merged in the
hundred; the subdivision or group of ten being represented
in the tithing. The system by which each man was compelled
to find a perpetual surety, who should be responsible for
him before the local court was also extended and strengthened.
^Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 973.
975] KEGULATIOK OF TKADE 101
The times of meeting of the higher courts were fixed. The
"Ordinance of the Hundred" prescribed that the hundred
court should meet "always in four weeks," but the iurh-gemot
should be held "thrice in the year," and the shire-gemot twice.
That Edgar and his advisers understood the nature of the national
institutions was attested by a law designed to protect the rights
of the local courts and prevent an unnecessary appeal to the king,
which prescribed that such appeals should be received only when
the local court had refused to recognize the plea of the plaintiff, or
when the "law was too heavy," so that a mitigation might in
justice be sought.
The king also turned his attention to commerce and trade. He
sought to give confidence and security to all honest transactions by
establishing in each borough or hundred a body of notaries or
qualified witnesses, to attest all bargains, and so protect
regulate the holder of goods from the charge of fraud or thiev-
ing. This regulation was evidently only the extension
and more practical application of the principle which Athelstan
had sought to embody in his laws, by which all transactions must
be held within a city. Another law prescribed the use of only one
kind of money in the kingdom, and one standard of weights and
measures, that of London and Winchester. These laws were
undoubtedly salutary, and reveal the rapid development of true
ideas of the function of government as represented in the kingship
of the tenth century. Some of the laws, however, were not so
wise ; as when the king by enactment attempted to keep up the
price of wool, a law like many of the laws of the era framed not in
the interest of the people, but in the interest of the great land-
owners. The law is further noteworthy, since it shows that even
at this period wool-growing had become an important English
industry.'
Edgar died on the 8th of July, 975. Although he had but just
passed his thirty-second birthday, he had been a king for eighteen
years ; sixteen of which he had ruled as sole king over
mgarfffrs. the English. His policy was one of peace. He left to
his earls the administration, each of his own earldom,
' For laws of Edgar, see Stubbs, 8. C, 68-73.
102 DAYS OF DUNSTAiq- [l
Edward the Mahtyb
while he contented himself with securing the peace and quiet of
the realm. He maintained terms of friendly intercourse with the
Celtic kings of the north ; he went so far in his efforts
Chmracter \^q conciliate the Danes, that his own people found
of reign. ' ^ -^
fault with his favoritism for "outlandish men." Dun-
stan's hand, perhaps, may be seen in this, as well as in the
dramatic f^tes and pageants by which he sought to secure for his
king that outward grandeur which belonged to him as a king over
kings. The glories of the great coronation fete at Bath and the
famous boat procession at Chester, long lingered in the traditions
of the age. But the shadow was already mounting on the dial.
Edgar " the Peaceful" is the last of the great kings of the House
of Alfred. The old West Saxon kingship was not equal to the task
to which it had been summoned. The extension of the shire sys-
tem of Wessex was a step in the right direction; but the inspira-
tion by which this vast body of shires, with their hundred courts
and borough courts, should be kept to their duties must come
from the king. The king, however, could not be everywhere.
The machinery needed constant supervision and watchfulness that
justice might be done, or the power of officials not be used to
oppress the people. This could be accomplished only by extending
the system of great earldoms which we have already seen in opera-
tion under Edred. Under Edgar and his great minister this
scheme no doubt worked well. "Twice every year the king rode
through every shire, inquiring into the law-dooms of the men in
authority, and showing himself a powerful avenger in the name of
justice." But under weaker men the results were very different.
The earls became too powerful for subjects, too independent for
ministers, and in the face of a victorious foe, were only too ready
to betray their sovereign in order to make advantageous terms for
themselves.
After the death of Edgar, England was compelled once more
to endure the reign of a minor. Edgar had left two sons, —
Edward and Ethelred. Dunstan and the other min-
WAwwrd the ,. 1 1 i , i ■ . -, ,-,
Martyr, isters of the late king favored the succession of Edward;
975-978,
but Elfrida, the second wife of Edgar and mother of
Ethelred, an ambitious and unscrupulous woman, was not willing
975] AIS^TI-MONASTIC EBACTION 103
to see her son and herself also, the partner of Edgar's greatness,
set down to a second place. The influence of Dunstan with the
witan, however, prevailed and Edward was duly crowned. But
his reign was a short one. The breach had apparently been healed,
but Elfrida only bided her time. On the 18th of March, 978,
the young king who had been hunting, stopped at his stepmother's
castle for refreshment. As he was about to ride away, the parting
cup which the laws of hospitality of the age prescribed was pre-
sented to him, but, as he took it, he was stabbed in the back by
one of Elfrida's servants. Edward's youth and the circum-
stances of his death appealed powerfully to the people, and they
saw in him a martyr sacrificed to the deep animosity of the old
anti-monastic party.
A powerful reaction had, in fact, set in against the ecclesiastical
policy of the late king, and Elfher, the Ealdorman of Mercia, had
driven out the monks of Edgar by force, and reinstated
monastic the married clergy. The earls of East Anglia and Essex
had taken the other side. Eamsey Abbey had been
garrisoned, and the fyrd called into the field to defend the "regu-
lars." Turbulent synods were held, in which the attenipt had
been made to solve the difiicnlties of the hour by a noisy war of
words, and with the usual results. In one of these synods, held at
Calne, while Dunstan was speaking, the floor of the overcrowded
room had suddenly given way, and the audience been precipi-
tated to the room below. While many were injured, some seriously,
Dunstan had managed to save himself by seizing hold of a cross
beam. To the wrought-up imagination of his friends the deliver-
ance appeared to be a miracle. To his enemies the whole sad
affair appeared to be the result of the treachery or the evil power
of the great archbishop, whom they affected to regard as a wizard.
What part the boy king Edward, who was only thirteen or four-
teen at most when he began to reign, had had in all this strife does
not appear ; save that he had been the avowed candidate
Edwardin of Dunstan, Oswald, and Ethelwold, the leaders of the
monastic party. Yet Elfher, the Earl of Mercia, whom
we have seen in the field against the monks, seems to have been
the only subject to care enough about the "martyr king" to give
104 DATS OF DUNSTAN [ethklbkl
him a royal burial, while Dunstan and Oswald within a month
after the assassination appear at Kingston, performing their parts
in the hallowing of Elfrida's son Ethelred. To Dun-
king, April stan's honor, however, it is to be said that he could not
act with Elfrida and those whose hands were stained
with the blood of assassination. From this time he disappears
from political life.
In the meantime England was sinking rapidly under the mis-
fortunes which from the first had attended the unlucky reign of
Ethelred, ^misfortunes which the age regarded as a just
Danish judgment, considering the way in which the throne had
inroads, 980. , , i.»., , 1,1,, in-
been secured. As if it were not enough that the king-
dom be riven by the strife of the secular clergy and the regular
clergy, or that men like Elfric, the son of Elfher of Mercia, whom
the people regarded as responsible for the murder of Edward,
appear among the earls, the Danish inroads which had practically
ceased since the reign of Edward the Elder, must also begin
afresh. England, under the rule of a boy and a woman, a boy of
thirteen, and a woman who was hated for her great crime, was as
helpless as in the days of Ethelwnlf . A beggarly band of Danes,
three hundred men all told, were allowed to sack Southampton
and slaughter the most of the inhabitants. From Southampton
they went to Thanet, which they ravaged in the same cruel fash-
ion. In the same year another force overran the county of Ches-
ter. In 981 there were similar ravages in Devonshire and
Cornwall. The next year the coasts of Dorset lay paralyzed and
panic-stricken, at the mercy of a small band who came in three
ships and were probably not more than one hundred and fifty
strong. Another force plundered South Wales. Then the new
invasion seems to have spent itself, and for a few years the land
was again at peace.
Within the kingdom matters were going from bad to worse.
Ethelred's advisers quarreled with Elfric of Mercia, and succeeded
^^ ^ ^, in driving him out of the country. It was a fatal
New troubles. , 1 » -m .. • •
triumph, for Elfric repaired to Denmark and joined
himself with the bitterest enemies of his country. But Ethelred
seemed doomed from the first to scatter such stumbling-blocks in
986] LAST DATS OF DUNSTAN 105
his own path. In 986 he quarj'eled with Elfstan, the Bishop of
Rochester, and to settle the difficulty called out the fyrd and
besieged the bishop in his episcopal city. Dunstan was doubly
interested and came forth from his seclusion to save the bishop.
He is the same Dunstan as of old. We catch the gleam of the old
fire in the threat of excommunication by which he strove to awe
the willful king. But when this failed, instead of carrying out
the spiritual menace, he, the same shrewd man of the world,
offered to buy off the king for £100. The king took the money
and sent home his people. Thus Ethelred, who at this time had
reached his twenty-third year, was already giving abundant evi-
dence of the character which he has left to history, curious com-
pound of "violence, weakness, and meanness." The era was at
hand when early England needed another Alfred or another
Edward the Elder, her greatest and best, but instead the irony
of fate had given her an Ethelred "the Redeless" her meanest.
Then, too, the great men of the past generation were slipping
away. In 984 England lost Ethelwold, "Father of the Monks,"
the old abbot of Abingdon, who since 963 had been bishop of
Winchester. Dunstan survived his great pupil hardly
aSmtan 986 ^^° years, dying as he had lived, with the harness on,
in good works, active to the last. He was then up-
wards of sixty-five or possibly seventy years of age and had retained
his vigor to the end. A grateful people long remembered him,
"his delight to make peace between man and man," his modera-
tion, his genial hospitality, his strict justice, his integrity, his
sage wisdom. He "was canonized in popular regard almost from
the day he died," and soon became the favorite saint of the old
English Church, and held his place until his fame was eclipsed by
the later St. Thomas of Canterbury. After Alfred he is the
greatest man of early England.
CHAPTER VII
THE DECLINE OF THE EAELT ENGLISH KINGDOM; THE EBA OF
DANISH KINGS
1 Ethelfleda
RIVAL ENGLISH AND DANISH EOYAL FAMILIES
Edgar, 959-975
= 2 Elf rida
Edward the
Martyr, 975-978
= 1 Elfleda
Ethelred the
Eedeless, 978-1016
= 2 Emma
Edmund Ironside,
1016
Alfred
the
Etheling
Edward
the
Confessor,
1043-1066
Edmimd
Edward the Outlaw
I
Edgar
the
Etheling
Margaret =
Malcom Oanmore,
King of Scots
Christina
Matilda = Henry I.
Sweyn Forkbeard
1013, 1014
I
Canute, 1016-1035
: 1 Elglva
: 2 Emma
Sweyn.
King of
Norway
Harold
Barefoot
1036-1039
Hardicanute
1039-1042
It can not be said that Ethelred was the most wicked and con-
temptible of English kings, for he must share this doubtful honor
with the Angevin John. But, if John was wicked, he
John was not weak; Ethelred was both wicked and weak.
John almost commands respect as he rouses himself
with all the old vigor of his race to battle with his enemies.
There is something heroic in the very desperation of his struggle
against insuperable odds. But Ethelred never elicits any other
feeling than one 'of contempt. He is unable to form plans of his
own ; he is unwilling to carry out those of others. He is head-
strong, rash, and incapable ; always in trouble, yet never learning
anything from his blunders. He is vicious, treacherous, and cruel;
and, withal, in an age when battle courage was the commonest of
virtues, he is a miserable coward. Like John he owed his throne
to the intriguing of an unscrupulous mother; an intrigue also which
ended in murder. Like John his baseness stifled all loyalty in his
court, and drove from his side the trusted counsellors of father and
elder brother. Like John his tyrannies brought on a foreign
106
980] DECLINE OF EK^GLISH KINGDOM 107
invasion and drove his people to disown him for a foreign prince.
Here, however, the comparison ends. John died just in the nick
of time, and saved England from foreign conquest; but Ethelred
lived on to witness the full results of his evil life, and died when it
was too late to undo the mischief. Unlike John, moreover, Ethel-
red was hardly responsible for all the misfortunes of his reign; yet,
had he been a better man and wiser king, he might have risen above
his troubles and left a name as glorious as that of any king of his
race. But, as it was, by blunders without number, through base-
ness indescribable, he contrived in a reign of thirty-seven years to
plunge England from the height to which she had been raised by
the great kings of the House of Wessex, into an abyss in which
she was saved from complete disintegration only by the iron hand
of the conqueror.
Since the days of Alfred Denmark and Norway had been pass-
ing through a series of transformations quite as significant as those
which had attended the recent development of England .
Chm-acter The era of "creek men" and "sea kings" was receding;
l)anishwars. the petty tribal states had been destroyed, and the era
of the national kingdom had begun. When, therefore,
at the close of the tenth century an English king found himself
with another Danish war on his hands, he was confronted with a
problem very difEerent from that which had so taxed the resources
of the English kingdoms in the ninth century. He was now com-
pelled to meet powerful national kings, leading not bands of petty
adventurers but disciplined and regularly organized armies, who
came not for plunder and rapine merely, but with the definite pur-
pose of conquest and annexation. It was against such an enemy
that Ethelred was now called upon to defend his kingdom.
The successive stages of the new Danish war, or rather series
of Danish wars, are easily distinguished. There had already
begun during the last days of Dunstan a series of
First Period, desultory raids quite like those of the early ninth cen-
ss^-m"/"""^' *"^y- These raids had exposed the weakness of the new
administration, and encouraged the return of more
formidable bands. They did not become serious, however, until
the thirteenth year of Ethelred's reign, when a considerable horde
108 DECLINE OP ENGLISH KINGDOM [ethkleed
landed upon the coast of East Anglia, plundered Ipswich, and a
few days later defeated Byrhtnoth, the aged earl of the East
Saxons, at Maldon.
The king, instead of attempting to punish the pirates, offered
them a bribe of £10,000 to go and leave him in peace, — "the first
fatal precedent of Danegeld." The Danes took the
mentaof bribe but did not depart; and in a few months other
' bands, scenting the booty from afar, descended upon
England and made a second truce and a second payment of Dane-
geld necessary. This time the price of peace was raised to £33,000.
The effects of the encouragement which Ethelred had given to
the freebooting trade were even more alarmingly apparent in 994,
when the two royal buccaneers, Olaf of Norway and
The raid of Sweyn "Forkbeard" of Denmark appeared in the Thames
sweyn, 994. and fell upon the southeastern shires. Their object at
this time was to levy blackmail pure and simple. By
a fury of "burnings and harryings and manslaughter," they sought
to compel Ethelred to buy them off as he had bought off the
others. But the country was impoverished by the recent levies,
and the witan hesitated to authorize a new tax. Sweyn and Olaf,
however, were not to be put off and kept up their depredations,
cruelly wasting Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, until the witan
consented to their demands and paid over a Danegeld of £16,000.
These sums, in consequence of the enormous purchasing power of
money in the tenth century, represented a real value out of all pro-
portion to the present nominal value of like sums. Moreover they
were probably levied by a direct tax upon the arable land of the
kingdom, apportioned to the several earldoms with some view to
their wealth. But under the crude methods of the time, in the
absence of any accurate knowledge of the actual wealth of the
various districts, and under the management of a king notoriously
unjust and of a court notoriously corrupt, a fair adjustment or an
economical levy was out of the question. The sums actually paid
to the Danes, in all probability, represented only a small part of
the money which was taken from the people. Discontent,
bribery of oflBcials, and at last open resistance, were sure to
attend such levies if repeated too often.
995-1003] THE NOKMAN^ MARBIAGE 109
After the payment of the Danegeld Olaf and Sweyn sailed
away; Olaf back to Norway and Sweyn into the Irish Sea, where
he appears in the next seasoa ravaging the Isle of Man.
fnlitl^^ The ensuing eight years were by no means years of
Si^'^Ms-imt V^^o^ or rest for English king or country. The
inroads, however, were not as frequent nor were they
as formidable or as widely extended. But, were the enemy many
or few, the incompetency of the government remained the same.
"Often was the fyrd gathered against the foe; but, so soon as they
should have met them, through some cause, was flight ever resolved
upon, and so the enemy ever had the victory." The Isle of Wight,
apparently, remained in their hands. There were ravages on the
Kentish coast and in Wiltshire ; there were battles in Sussex and
Devonshire. Rochester and Exeter were besieged; Waltham and
other places were burned. The king gathered his ships, bat "when
they were ready he delayed from day to day, distressing the poor
folk that were in them; and when things should have been for-
warder, so were they ever backwarder; and ever he let the foe's
army increase, and ever he drew back from the sea, and ever the
enemy went after him; and so, in the end, it served for nothing
but the folks' distress and wasting of money and emboldening the
foe." The most that Ethelred seems to have accomplished was
the recovery of the Isle of Man and the taking into his service of a
pirate chief. Earl Pallig, the brother-in-law of Sweyn.
So at last the fatal year 1003 drew on. It opened with
another disgraceful truce and the payment of a Danegeld of £24,-
000. The price of such truces was advancing. In the
u^^ioo2 preceding year an ill-advised expedition had been
The Norman gg^^ ^q Normandy to punish Duke Richard because he
marriage. '' ^
had allowed the harbors of the Seine to shelter the
Danish pirates; but, instead of bringing back the Norman duke in
chains as Ethelred had instructed his lieutenants, they brought
back the Lady Emma, the duke's sister, to be the bride of Ethel-
red. She came in the early spring and brought with her a horde
of Norman flunkies and hangers-on, — the first Norman invasion of
England, — whose insolent ways and outlandish manners boded no
good for a court already divided and torn by the bitter rivalries of
110 DECLINE OF THE KINGDOM [etheleeb
jealous factions. Emma, moreover, was a woman of spirit, beau-
tiful and cold-hearted as she was selfish. Ethelred already had a
grown-up family about him, headed by the noble etheling
Edmund. Here then was opportunity enough for clashing of
interests, intrigue, open schism, and final treason; in the end,
outweighing any temporary advantage which Ethelred might secure
by an alliance with his powerful Norman neighbor.
The Norman marriage was not the only nor the most serious
blunder which Ethelred made in this fatal year. It seems that as
a result of so many truces, as well as of a recent policy
St. Srice^s j ^ a ./
Day.Novem- adopted by Ethelred of enlisting Danes in the English
service, there had been introduced into Mercia and
Wessex a considerable Danish population. These new Danes had
not yet had time to assimilate to the English stock, as the old
Danes of the Danelagh ; but remained still a separate population,
the detestation of the English, who feared them, but durst not
attack them, and of importance enough to excite the suspicion of
the government. Soon after his marriage intelligence was brought to
the king, that this floating Danish population had formed a plot
to destroy him and the witan and seize the government. Ethelred,
whose craven spirit made him an easy prey to all rumors of this kind,
was thrown into a paroxysm of terror. He determined to strike
first, and made his plans for the extermination of the unsuspecting
Danes on the approaching St. Brioe's Day. For once the plans
of Ethelred were carried out, and with fatal completeness;
neither degree, nor age, nor sex was spared. The entire Danish
population of Mercia and Wessex was swept away.
This deed was the most stupid of all the stupid blunders of
this blundering king. The Danes were not only protected by
recent truces, but many of them also were hostages.
of'swlyn!' Ethelred, therefore, had violated laws which even pagan
barbarians held sacred. The memory of his crime long
rankled in the mind of Europe; sixty years afterward, it helped
Duke William to justify the Norman invasion of England. But
of more immediate import was the fact thait among the victims
were Gunhild, the sister of Sweyn, her husband Earl Pallig, and
their infant son. When the news reached Sweyn his wrath was ter-
1003-1009] SECOND PERIOD OP THE WAE . Ill
rible to see. He swore to be avenged on the assassin ; lie would go to
England, destroy Ethelred, and add England to his Danish kingdom.
Sweyn was as good as his word, and in the spring of 1003
began the series of operations which ended ten years later in the
establishment of a Danish king in England. He struck
of'nvmgi'^ first at Wessex, the heart of Ethelred's power. Exeter
tlriaiof ^^® carried by assault, and its walls thrown down.
looT^MOi"'"'' ■1'^''*'™ Exeter Sweyn moved eastward, plundering and
burning with ungovernable fury until he reached South-
ampton. Ethelred brought out the fyrd, but his earls upon one
pretext or another refused to fight. The next year Sweyn
descended upon the east coast, and Norwich suflEered the fate of
Exeter. Ulfcytel, one of the few true men who attended the
king, called out the local levies and threw himself in the path of
the foe. The task, however, was far too great foi* his strength;
although he gave the Danes "worse hand-play" than they had yet
met on English soil.
In 1005 for reasons unknown, Sweyn did not return. The
English, however, had little respite; for now a "hunger-need"
fell upon the doomed land, "grimmer than any man
Danegeidof had mind of," the result of so much burning of fields
and slaughter of cattle and "fyrding of men." In
1006 soon after midsummer the Danes returned and ravaged the
coasts of Kent and Sussex, until the November gales drove them
into the Isle of Wight for shelter. Ethelred as usual did noth-
ing, and with the return home of the fyrd after harvest time,
even the pretense of keeping the field was abandoned ; and when
in January the Danes, crossing from the Isle of Wight, started
upon a raid up through Hampshire and Berkshire, "kindling
their war beacons as they went," Ethelred fell back upon his old
witless policy and secured a truce by a bribe of £36,000.
Sweyn was not with the host this year, and there is no reason
to think that he was a party to the truce. He was waging war,
not for booty, but for conquest. The witan felt their
thip fyrd insecurity, and determined to call upon the nation for a
ship fyrd which would enable them to overthrow Sweyn
upon his own element, and thus for all time deliver England from
112 DECLINE OF THE KINGDOM [bthklkkb
its foes. It was determined to call upon every three hundred and
ten hides throughout England to furnish a ship of war, built and
equipped, and upon every eight hides for a helmet and coat of mail.
But when the great fleet was brought together, such a fleet as neither
Athelstan nor Edgar had possessed, Ethelred's ill luck did not for-
sake him. His leaders plotted against each other; one division of
the fleet turned upon the king's people; another division was
broken up by a storm and wrecked upon the coast of Sussex.
Then the king brought the remnant of his ships around to Lon-
don, and there laid them up to rot in the Thames. Thus the
splendid fleet, which represented so much self-denial, such heroic
sacrifice on the part of the people, and from which so much had
been expected, had turned out to be only one more miserable
fiasco ; another signal illustration of the incompetency of Ethelred.
No wonder that men, that even Ethelred himself, began to asso-
ciate this long series of ever darkening calamities with the crime
that had made him a king, or that Ethelred now accepted each
new failure with the dull apathy of a doomed man.
General despondency, the result of the growing conviction of
utter helplessness, followed the collapse of the ship fyrd, and
when in the following August a new fleet of the
Thurkiii, enemy under Thurkill, more powerful than any which
Sweyn had yet sent out, appeared off Sandwich, men
felt that the end could not long delay. Canterbury and eastern
Kent made their own terms. The southern coast was ravaged as
far as the Isle of Wight and back again. Then the enemy estab-
lished themselves near London for the winter; keeping the city in
constant alarm, and more than once threatening it with storm and
sack. Marauding bands, in the meanwhile, swept the lower
Thames valley, continually extending their operations in huge
concentric circles, until at last, as the spring advanced, they
passed the Chilterns and burned Oxford. Then they entered East
Anglia, and spent three months in the same businesslike plunder
of the eastern shires, burning Ipswich, and defeating the local
levies under Ulf cytel ; the same Ulf cytel who six years before had
given Sweyn such vigorous "hand-play." From East Anglia
Thurkill returned to the Thames again, and renewed the plunder-
1009-1013] THIRD PERIOD 01? WAR 113
ing of the middle counties. The fyrd took the field, but the
people had lost heart. The king dragged them up and down in
the wake of the Danes, but seemed "never able to bring them to
the right place in the right time." The king summoned his
witan, but the spirit of the nation was broken; sixteen counties,
one-third the area of England, had been laid waste; "no man
would lead, no man would follow, no shire would help other."
The disintegration was beyond recovery ; there was no hope save in
a new levy of Danegeld. The Danes demanded £48,000, an enor-
mous sum even for more prosperous times, but in its despair, the
government had no other choice. The enormous ransom, how-
ever, could not be paid at once, and the plundering went on.
Canterbury was sacked, and its entire population driven away to
. the ships. The Archbishop Alfheah (St. Alphege) was held for a
special ransom, aad when he nobly refused to allow the poor of
his church to be further robbed for his sake, a mob of drunken
barbarians set upon him, nor satisfied their fury until they had
done him to death.
As Easter drew on the witan returned to the king, ealdormen
and bishops bringing each his share of the tax and each feeling
that it must be the last. Then the money was paid;
Third period and the Danish host broke up. A. part with Thurkill,
Sweyn entered the service of Ethelred, but the greater num-
king, 1013. ber returned to Denmark. Sweyn, however, was not
satisfied. The strength of Wessex and East Anglia had
been shattered ; Mercia and Northumbria were drained of their
resources. All England was broken in spirit and disheartened;
her earls had proved false, and her king worthless. It was the
time, therefore, not for Sweyn to stay his hand, but to complete
the conquest which he had sworn to accomplish six years before.
Accordingly, only a few months after the breaking up of Thur-
kill's horde, Sweyn appeared off Sandwich, and passing on up the
eastern coast entered the Humber and pushed his way by the
Trent into old Danish Mercia as far as Gainsborough. Appar-
ently, everything had been arranged with the people of eastern
Mercia beforehand. On Sweyn's part, there were no plunderings
of homes, no aimless burnings of farms or cities; on the part of
114 DECLINE OF THE KIXGDOM [ethelhed
the people, there was a general flocking from all sides to forswear
Bthelred and accept Sweyn. In a short time all north and east
of Watling Street had gone over to the new king. Then with
food and horses freely supplied by his new subjects and his army
swelled by new recruits, Sweyn crossed Watling Street and entered
what of England still remained to Ethelred. The ravaging was
resumed, but the country could make no resistance. Behind the
defenses of London, Ethelred waited while his kingdom fell away
from him; and hither, at last, came Sweyn to test the loyalty of the
Londoners to their native king. Twice the Danes attempted to
enter the city, and twice they were driven back with great
slaughter, hut Ethelred was already virtually deposed. At Bath
the western thanes submitted to Sweyn, and with all England at
last holding him for "full king" naught was left for the men of
London but to make their own terms with the conqueror.
For a while Ethelred, abandoned by all save the faithful
Thurkill, lingered at Greenwich, and then withdrew to the Isle of
Wight. Here upon the last English ground which he could call
his own, he kept a sad Christmas feast, and then retired to Nor-
mandy to join Emma and her children. So ended the year 1013;
a more gloomy year had never fallen upon England ; the land was
wasted and desolate, the king an exile, and the people weary of
their sufEerings and without heart for the future.
The war, however, was not yet ended, nor were the people to
have rest. Sweyn survived the flight of Bthelred barely a month.
He had shown no disposition to reorganize the govern-
Sweyn, Feb- ment, but had spent his time in collecting Danegeld on
his own account. The single month of Danish rule had
satisfied the English; and although the host at once declared for
Canute, Sweyn 's son, the English turned to their exiled lord.
There is a forlorn pathos in their words of greeting: "No lord was
dearer than their own born lord could be, if he would rule them
rightlier than he did before." Equally pathetic is the response:
"He would be their true lord, and right what they misliked, and
forgive all that had been said against him." So Ethelred, the
abandoned king came back, and his witan received him.
Canute, in the meanwhile, with his eyes upon the more sub-
1015, 1016] LAST STAGES OF THE WAE 115
stantial Danish throne, staid not to brave the awakening nation,
but stole away in his ships and returned home. In Denmark,
howeyer, he received little encouragement ; the people had already
chosen Harold, another son of Sweyn, and he sternly refused to
share his crown with Canute.
Ethelred's days were now fast ebbing. His strength was
broken, and his health declining; yet his energy in mischief
making was apparently as active as ever. The hope
0/ the war, of the nation centered in his eldest son, the ethel-
ing Edmund ; but the king, instead of rejoicing in his
son's popularity, chose to regard him as a rival, and lent a willing
ear to the malicious tales of one Edric the Grasper, Earl of Mercia,
Edmund's bitter enemy. While the court was thus torn by the
disgraceful quarreling of father and son, news came of the reap-
pearance of Canute ofl Sandwich. His first point of attack, how-
ever, was Dorsetshire. Edmund and Edric called out the fyrd, but
the bitter enmity of the two men made any cooperation impossible.
The fyrd broke up in quite the old way without accomplishing any-
thing, and Canute was left to overrun the western counties. Then
Edric, believing no doubt that Ethelred's days were numbered,
went over to Canute and persuaded the thanes of Wessex to fol-
low his example; satisfying thereby his hatred of Edmund, and
hoping no doubt to do him a grievous injury. Edmund bravely
struggled on alone in the losing fight. A few months later
Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria, also abandoned him for Canute.
Then Edmund fell back upon London, whither friends had already
brought the dying Ethelred, a source of weakness and
Ethelred. dissension to the last. He was not an old man, pos-
sibly not much past fifty, but he had lived far too
long for the good of England; he died April 23, 1016.
London was the only stronghold which held out for Ed-
mund; but he had no thought of waiting idly behind its walls
until Canute should gather and organize the strength of
Edmund, England in order to drive him out. He proposed to
show what Englishmen could do when led again by a
brave and competent leader. And no doubt with the example of
his great ancestor before him, he retired to Selwood Forest, and
116 DECLINE OF THE KINGDOM [e
Edmund Ironside
under its shadows gathered the descendants of the men who had
fought at Edington. With a small but determined band, steadily
increasing as he advanced, he fought his way back to London,
defeating the Danes at Penselwood, again at Sherston, and finally
raising the siege of London and winning a third victory at
Brentford. The eyes of all loyal Englishmen now turned to
Edmund. At last, here was a king who knew how to lead his
people and win battles. Even the traitor Edric began to despair
of the fortunes of Canute and in an evil hour was allowed to
make his peace with Edmund.
After Brentford, Edmund followed Canute to the south bank
of the Thames, and overtaking him at Otford in Kent, forced
him to retire across the estuary into Essex. Tlien
^Mnadxm making a detour by land, Edmund again came up
with the Danes near the modern Ashingdon. The
English, confident in the skill and good fortune of their king, were
eagerly looking forward to the struggle, which each side felt must
settle the issue of the war, when occurred the fell treason, whicli
in a trice undid all the victories of the past year. At the very
moment when the English were entering the battle Edric the
Grasper halted his Mercians and refused to fight. Edmund
gallantly led forward the loyal men of Wessex, but, against
the odds which now confronted him, victory was impossible.
Yet from three o'clock until the gathering darkness of the
short October day made it no longer possible for foe to see foe,
the men of Wessex fought on. Then they withdrew and under
cover of the night the fyrd broke up. But the Danes were in no
mood to follow ; the roads were unknown, and the country hostile.
They too had suffered in the royal "hand-play" of "rank thrust-
ing at rank with sword and spear." They wei-e, moreover, "weary
of fighting and marching and working of ships," and thought no
longer of conquest, but only of truce. In a few days Edmund
would return with another army, and then certain expulsion, if
not extermination, awaited them.
But Bdric's treason was not yet complete; he now exerted his
infiuence among the witan to persuade them to demand a cessa-
tion of hostilities. Edmund protested; but his protest was over-
1016] POLICY OF CANUTE 117
The truce ruled, and at Alney near Gloucester he was compelled
to accept Canute as under-king, and cede to him all
England, saying only Wessex and East Anglia.
Edmund survived this disgraceful treaty only a few weeks.
Later accounts ascribe his death to Edric, secretly encouraged by
Canute. But it is more than likely that the events
Death of , , , .
EdmuTid, 01 the seven months past, the incessant campaign-
ing, the five pitched battles, the cruel disappoint-
ment in the moment of success, were too great a strain even for
his vigorous constitution. His death was a national calamity. His
brilliant triumphs are "the best commentary on the imbecility of
Ethelred, and show that it was not so much the degeneracy of
Englishmen as the incompetence of the government that had been
responsible for the disasters of his reign."
The death of Edmund left Canute undisputed lord of England.
He was then a young man, probably not far from his twenty-first
year. Yet with remarkable clearness of vision and
Se^Mno soundness of judgment he grasped the conditions which
confronted him. He saw that what the English needed
most was peace; but that a stable and lasting peace could be
established only by first securing his power against the machinations
of possible reactionary plotters. Accordingly, almost his first act
was to seize the archtraitor Edric and put him to death. Other
executions also followed, by no means as justifiable. The infant
sons of Edmund, whom probably he did not dare to destroy, he
sent off to Norway for safe keeping; but Edwy, a brother of
Edmund Ironsides, was outlawed and afterward slain.
When Canute had removed the men whose presence he regarded
as a menace to the peace which he would make, he stayed his hand,
a.. ' addressed himself to the task of winning the confi-
Poiiniof dence and support of the English. Though no English-
man, he understood the English nature far better than
their "own born lord." He connected his reign with the past by
proclaiming the laws of Edgar; he assured his people of fair treat-
ment by placing Englishmen and Danes upon the same footing
before the law; and to fortify his position in the only direction
from which he might expect a challenge to his right to the throne,
118
DECLIUTE OF THE KINGDOM
fCAirUTK
he sought and won the hand of the Lady Emma, the widow of
Ethelred. He sought also to strengthen the conservative elements
of English society by favoring the clergy and increasing the power
of the local landlords. He also strengthened the great earldoms,
bestowing a power upon the earls of Mercia, Northiimbria,
and East Anglia
coordinate with
the power which
he himself exer-
cised directly
over Wessex. If
he put the loy-
alty of his new-
subjects to the
test by the levy
of an enormous
Danegeld, the
end surely
would find fa-
vor in their
sight. Eor by
this tax he was
enabled to pay
off his army and
send the greater
part of it home.
Henceforth his
throne must
rest upon the
loyalty of the
English people.
In 1019 Canute was recalled to Denmark by the death of his
brother Harold. Three years of Canute's rule had made England
'S^caS^^ a united and peaceful country, and he left it without
1020. ' fear to the charge of Thurkill, whom he had made Earl
of East Anglia. He returned, however, the next year in time to
take part in the Easter feast. The so-called charter of Canute
1020-1025] THE CHAETEE OF CANUTE 119
is commonly assigned to this year. The opening paragraph is a
greeting to his people after his safe return. He then recounts
the measures whicli he has taken for the peace of the realm, and
calls upon all good people to "thank God Almighty for tlie mercy
that he has done for our help." He commands his earls to "help
the bishops to God's right and to my royal authority and to the
behoof of all the people." Edgar's law is reaffirmed as the law of
the kingdom; all unrighteousness is to be eschewed; Sunday's
festival is to be kept "from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawn-
ing"; and no man may either go to market or seek any court "on
that Holy Day. " ^
In 1033 occurred an event which shows with what pains Canute
sought to take advantage of the susceptibilities of the English.
St. Dunstan's Day had already been added to the calen-
THb trcLTislci-
tionof dar in 1018. Canute now, with great ceremony, took
Aiphege). ' up the body of the murdered Alfheah, and bore it ten-
derly from St. Paul's to Southwark, and thence by regu-
lar stages in solemn procession, through Eochester to Canterbury.
The proceedings, which took eleven days, appealed powerfully to the
national sentiment of the English, nor could the nation fail to
regard the honor done to their martyred primate as the peace offer-
ing of their foreign king. The retirement, possibly outlawry of
Thurkill, whom popular opinion, rightly or wrongly, made respon-
sible for the murder of Alfheah, we may also associate with the
translation of the Saint's bones to their last resting place.
In 1035 Canute again returned to Denmark. It was during
this second absence that he made his memorable visit to Rome,
which he so timed as to be present at the Imperial
Canute in coronation of Conrad II. The compliment which he
Italy, 1027. '^
thus paid to the new emperor was amply rewarded by a
grant of privileges of prime importance to Canute and his people;
not least of which was the abolition of the heavy tolls which it was
customary to exact of English pilgrims as they passed through
Burgundy or Switzerland on the way to Italy. They were moreover
to be protected by more equitable laws while passing through the
other dominions of the Emperor. The pope also agreed not to
iStubbs, S. C, p. 75.
120 DECLINE or THE KINGDOM [canote
demand the ruinous sums which it had been customary to exact of
the English archbishops in return for the pall.
The next year Canute took advantage of a quarrel of his old
friend Olaf the Holy of Norway with his people, and landed with a
CanuUadds ^'^^^^^ ^^ ^^^J ships, and drove Olaf out of the country.
Ttte'domin? Canute then added Norway to his cluster of kingdoms.
1ms, 102a. Two years later Olaf attempted to regain his crown,
but was defeated at Stiklestad and perished, probably in the
hattle.
After the overthrow of Olaf Canute returned to England, the
undisputed lord of the north. In the days of England's weakness,
the Scots had steadily encroached on the Northumbrian
iSmm^ border, and in the second year of Canute's reign the
Scottish king Malcolm had defeated the northern earl at
Carham and taken possession of the country between Forth and
Tweed. Canute did not seek to regain this region, but prepared
to compel Malcolm to recognize the overlordship of the king of
England, a custom which had been abandoned since the days of
Edgar. Malcolm promptly yielded ; and the country north of the
Tweed, Lothian, passed permanently into Scottish hands and soon
became the dominant influence in the northern kingdom. The
later kings made Edinburgh their capital, and here, surrounded
by an English population, they, who heretofore had been lords only
of rude Celtic tribes, soon became more English in speech and
thought than the kings of strange blood who ruled England.
In 1035 the long and peaceful reign of Canute came to an end.
He was not a great conqueror; it can not be said that he proved
himself a master of the art of war. Yet, as a states-
Results of I • 1 .1 T • •. 1
Canute's man, as a master m building up empires by the arts of
peace, he has had few equals. English towns hitherto
have played only a subordinate part in English history. They
have been conspicuous at all only as fortresses. But with Canute's
reign the English town enters upon a new era. The union of
England, Denmark, and Norway, the end of the viking era, and
the new peace and security which settled on the northern seas,
greatly stimulated mercantile adventure.- The pure English stock
were not quick to see the new opportunity which opened before
1018] CHAKACTEK OF CANUTE 131
them, but the Danish population, with that readiness of the Danes
of adapting themselves to novel surroundings so characteristic of
the race, entered at once into a new commercial activity. York
rose rapidly into a mart of considerable importance, and began to
be a very respectable competitor of London for the northern
trade. Oxford, Chester, and Bristol also became centers of
prominence.
Canute was a man of no vices and few weaknesses. He had
an ungovernable temper which when aroused rushed him head-
long into, deeds of violence, only to leave him in tears
CharMterof Qf ^eal penitence when the storm had subsided; yet too
often the repentance came over late to make amends to
the victim of his wrath. His father, Sweyn, in one of his
earlier wanderings, seems to have embraced Christianity, but his
faith was that of a barbarian; he thought that in adopting the
cross he was securing the favor of some extra wonder-working
charm to help him in his piracies. Canute's training therefore
could hardly be called Christian ; yet as soon as he came under
the direct influence of English teachers he readily yielded to
their guidance and displayed a most commendable desire to profit
by the new precepts so strange to his own people. The letter
which he sent home from Eome reveals "the noble conception"
of his kingly duties which had been born of these new influences
and goes far to explain the devotion of his later life so marked in
contrast with the brutalities of the earlier period. He wrote: "I
have vowed to God to lead a right life in all things; to rule
justly and piously my realms and subjects, and to administer just
judgment to all. If heretofore I have done aught beyond what
was just, through headiness or negligence of youth, I am ready
with God's help to amend it utterly." He warns his ofiBcers
against oppressing his people in his name: "I have no need that
money be heaped together for me by unjust demands." "Never,"
he concludes, "have I spared, nor will I spare, to spend myself
and my toil in what is needful and good for my people."
It was in keeping with the spirit of this letter that Canute had
dismissed the army of invasion in 1018, and filled the prominent
places of trust and power about him with Englishmen. And yet
132 DECLINE OF THE KINGDOM [cANnra
he dared not trust the old fyrd altogether, not perhaps because the
men who composed it were English, but because it was a fyrd,
slow to action, unwieldy, and uncertain. With his
house-carls pi^^ctical sense, therefore, he retained at immediate call
a small standing army, composed of picked troops,
well paid and well armed, the famous house-carls — in number
not exceeding six thousand men, possibly not even three thousand.
These troops were maintained by a yearly levy of Danegeld. The
institution survived the death of Canute, to be finally swept
away in the rout of Hastings. The Norman and Angevin kings
did not replace the house-carls, although mercenaries were used at
various times. The idea of a standing army has never been popu-
lar with the English; it has been tolerated at all only since the
expanding colonial possessions of England have made it a
necessity.
The laws of Canute added nothing to existing English institu-
tions. The "shire-gemot" was to be held regularly twice a year,
and the "burh-gemot" thrice a year. The lower
camS™"^ courts were protected in their rights. Appeals were to
be recognized only in default of justice. Every freeman
must "be brought into a hundred and into a tithing," institutions
which had now absorbed the gild in the completed territorial
organization of the kingdom. The king's stewards were not to
oppress the king's tenants, or take from them their goods unjustly.
The her\ot, the custom by which the lord was allowed to seize the
chattels of a deceased tenant, was fixed by rule ; henceforth only
a certain value could be taken, prescribed in accordance with the
rank of the tenant from the earl down. Canute favored the land-
lords by greatly increasing the number of private juris-
Sacand dictions, sac and soc, which had become only too
common in the unsettled days of Ethelred; a dangerous
precedent, and yet one which was entirely in keeping Avith Canute's
policy of enlisting the conservative elements of English society in
the service of the state.
Canute's "elaborate humility toward all things connected with
the church and clergy" is not in accordance with modern ideas;
yet it must be borne in mind that the church was the one power-
1035-1040] HAEOLD HAEEPOOT 123
fully organized social influence of the times, the hearty coopera-
tion of which was absolutely necessary in maintaining the peace
Canute and ^^^^^ the king SO dearly loved. It was the church
tMchurcn. jiQ^ as Alfred regarded it, the instrument of education,
the disseminator of knowledge, but the church, the instrument of
law and order.
Upon the death of Canute his three kingdoms drifted apart.
Emma had borne him one son, Hardicanute. But he left also two
other sons, the children of an English woman, Elgiva,
Swcession of , . . , , . > o >
Harold Dorne to mm in that loose union always too common
Barefoot. . •'
among sovereigns of Teutonic blood. Of these Sweyn,
the elder son, retained Norway, but was soon after dispossessed by
Magnus, the son of Olaf the Holy. Canute apparently designed
England for Hardicanute, but at the time of his death Hardi-
canute was in Denmark, and Harold, known on account of his
physical activity as Harefoot, the second son of Elgiva, attempted
to seize the kingdom. But Godwin, the Earl of the "West Saxons,
refused to acknowledge Harold and held Wessex for Hardicanute.
So matters stood in England when Alfred, the eldest of Emma's
sons by her first marriage, in an ill-advised moment landed in
Kent in the hope of rallying the English to his support. But
Ethelred's name roused no enthusiasm among the people, and
possibly by the knavery of Godwin, Alfred was seized and turned
over to Harold, who straightway put out the lad's eyes and sent
him to Ely to die of his wounds. By this treachery Godwin
seems to have made his peace with Harold.
Harold was not a strong character like Canute; yet he was not
a bad prince. The murder of Alfred was, according to the ideas
of the times, no worse than several similar crimes laid to his
father. The worst that is told against him is that he neglected
Christian rites and would go hunting on Sundays.
Harold died at Oxford after a reign of five years. His death
probably saved England from civil war; for Hardicanute, having
come to an understanding with Magnus, was already
Ha/roid, contemplating a descent upon England. A powerful
party, moreover, with Godwin at their head, had never
given up the idea of securing the crown for Emma's Danish son.
124 DEOLIKE OE THE KINGDOM [haedioahotb
When therefore it was known that Harold was dead, the witan
at once sent an invitation to Hardicanute to come and take the
crown.
The first act of the new king betrayed how little of his father's
wisdom or greatness of soul he had ■ inherited. He ordered his
brother's body to be thrown out into the marshes of the
&*S^te. Thames. His next step was to levy a Danegeld in
order to pay the men whom he had brought with him
from Denmark. The winter of 1040 was a severe one, and the
people paid the tax with great difBcnlty. Other levies followed,
and then the people refused to pay altogether. The earls and
sheriffs could do nothing. Hardicanute committed the collection
of the tax to his house-carls. Eiots followed. Blood was shed
at Worcester. Hardicanute called out the fyrd against the con-
tumacious city, and the great earls, Godwin of Wessex, Siward of
Northumbria, and Leofric of Mercia,' gathered their men at his
bidding, and for four days harried the shire and finally destroyed
the town.
At last after two years of such a reign as only such a man
could give, Hardicanute died "as he stood at his drink." He had
proved himself from the first a despicable tyrant. The
English hailed his death as a fortunate relief from a bad
bargain, and turned with no feigned joy to greet as king the mild
and pacific Edward, the surviving son of Emma and Ethelred.
'The wife of this Leofric was Godgifu, the "Lady Godiva" famous
in the legends of Coventry.
PAET II— FEUDAL ENGLAND
THE ERA OF NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
FROM 1042 TO 1297
CHAPTER I
THE SHADOW OF THE IfOEMAN
EDWABD THE CONFESSOR, 10^1066
HAROLD, lOee, JAN. 6— OCT. 14
THE DUEES OF NOKMANDY. EAELT CONNECTION WITH THE
ENGLISH LINE
Bolf the Walker, 912-927
William Longsword, 927-943
Richard I. the Fearless, 943-9%
\
Ethelred
2 Canute
1
Klchard II. the Good, 996-1006 Emma = -i J
J '^
~l I
Richard III., 1026-1028 Robert the Devil, 1028-1035
William the Conqueror,
from 1035 Duke of Normandy, from
1066 King of England. Died 1087
The reign of Edward the Confessor may be regarded as a
preparation for the Norman Conquest. The establishment of a
powerful Scandinavian state on the southern shore of
^dmvupm *^® Channel must have exerted a direct influence upon
rdm^'^'^ England sooner or later. For a time, however, the
troubled sea of Neustrian politics, the opportunities
of expansion south and west, fully occupied the attention of
the pirate chieftains or dukes who succeeded Eolf, the founder
of the Norman Duchy. But the marriage of Duke Eichard II. 's
sister to two kings of England in succession, the migration
of many of her people thither, the long residence of Ethelred's
exiled sons at the Norman court, and the numerous and lasting
friendships made by Edward among his mother's Norman friends,
quickened the interest of duke and people in the neighboring king-
125
120 THE SHADOW OF THE NOEMAN [edwakd the Cohfbssoe
dom. The spirit of intermeddling and mischief-making, more-
over, was as strong as ever at the court of these be-Frenched
descendants of the old sea-kings, and it required only some fancied
grievance, some opportunity of disputing the English succession,
to bring a new viking expedition from Normandy, more formidable
than any which had ever sailed from Norway or Denmark. This
is the shadow which, during the twenty-four years of Edward's
reign, is ever deepening, ever creeping upon England from the
south.
Edward was peculiarly unfitted for the task which he was
called upon to perform. He was born of an English father, whose
personality could never have been to him more than one
Edwardfot of the shadowy traditions of childhood. He was
his task. brought up in the home of his Norman mother, where
his father's speech was heard only as a foreign tongue; where he
was tutored by French priests, and where all his thought was
shaped by men who despised and disparaged his father's people as
a nation of half-civilized boors and rustics. At forty he was
called home to rule over this impossible people. What wonder
that he could never understand them ; that his native land was to
him always a weary land of exile and that he clung with pathetic
tenacity to the Norman friends of his youth. Edward, more-
over, was the kind of man to spend his life in leading strings.'
Although capable of a certain kind of fitful energy, he possessed'
no power of independent action, and allowed himself to be pulled
about by the rival elements ever at quarrel in his court. In all
this turmoil, the poor king, long remembered for his thin figure,
"his delicate complexion," his slender womanly hands, and his
deep devotional nature, was unable to gather to himself any per-
sonal following in the nation, or to exert any direct influence upon
its thought or its ideals. Yet no king ever took his kingly office
more seriously, or tried harder to rule as a king should. But
Edward's delicate hands were unfitted for such rough work, and
at last, weary in body and sick of soul, he threw down the tangled
skein, and left it for stronger hands to unravel. History presents
no sadder tragedy than this, when for the mere accident of birth,
it thrusts such a man as Edward the Confessor or Henry, sixth
1042] EAKL GODWIN 127
of the name, into a position where his very goodness defeats
him. Meekness was the one quality for which the medieval king
had little need.
When Edward assumed the crown, the one great man of the
kingdom was Godwin, Earl of Wessex. Leofric of Mercia, or
Si ward of Northumbria, might rival him in rank;
EarTof' but in actual influence and solid ability, Godwin was
without a peer. His eldest son, Sweyn was already
earl of the western shires of Wessex. In 1045 his second son,
Harold, was raised to the earldom of East Anglia, to which were
also added Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Essex; and the same
year his daughter Edith became the wife of Edward.
The advance of this powerful family, in the ordinary course of
things, must have caused much Jealousy and suspicion on the part
of Edward's other English subjects. But the Norman
QodiM^s ° sympathies of the king had been from the first so pro-
popuany. bounced, liis favoritism for one man in particular,
Eobert of Jamieges, so conspicuous, that the English apparently
looked with complacence upon these evidences of the growing
strength of the Earl of Wessex, seeing in him a possible foil to the
Norman influence which surrounded the king. The confidence of
the people, however, received a severe shock when a few months
after the marriage of Edith, Earl Sweyn carried off the
Earis'weyn. ^^bess of Leominster and proposed to make her his
wife. The crime was a very serious one in the eyes of
a churchly age ; yet Godwin with cool indifference to public sen-
timent, attempted to use his influence to shelter his wayward son.
Nevertheless, the young man was outlawed and forced for two
years to seek exile in the courts of Flanders and Denmark. The
father's influence, however, finally prevailed over the sensitive
conscience of Edward, and Sweyn was recalled ; but only to add
another to his list of crimes by treacherously murdering his
cousin Beorn, who had been given a part of Sweyn's earldom dur-
ing his exile. The new crime raised a storm of indignation, and
Sweyn was compelled a second time to flee for his life. The king
publicly proclaimed him "nithing" — "the deepest term of oppro-
brium known to English law." But Godwin still clung to his first-
128 THE SHADOW OF THE NORMAN [edward thk Cokfksbob
born, and not only secured a second inlawing, but persuaded the
gentle king to restore again the forfeited earldom, which had
remained vacant since the death of Beorn.
The persistent fidelity of Godwin to Sweyn had not only shaken
the confidence of the English in Godwin as a leader, but had also
Growth of compelled him to make serious sacrifices to the Norman
naffonai**'' ^^ court party in order to purchase their support in
party. i]^q witenagemot. The earldom of Hereford which
had been recently added to Harold's possessions, was given to
Ealph, the king's Norman nephew; the vacant see of Dorchester
was given to one of the king's Norman priests, Ulf, who "did
naught bishoplike," and of whom none had aught good to say;
and most important of all, upon the death of Arch-
bishop Edsige, Robert of Jumifiges, who held the
approaches of the king's ear as no other man in the kingdom, was
advanced to the important see of Canterbury. But reaction had
already set in, and Godwin was in a position to protest against
this last act of favoritism. The king however insisted, and Eob-
ert departed for Eome to secure the pall. Yet something was
gained, for the king consented to the appointment to the see of
London of SpearhaEoc, an Englishman; but when Robert returned,
he refused to consecrate Spearhafoc and appointed William, one
of the king's Norman chaplains, in his stead. Kynsige, an Eng-
lishman, but also of the royal chapel, had been recently made
primate of York.
The English or national party was now thoroughly awakened,
and their disapproval of the king's partiality for his Norman
The affair of friends was becoming every day more outspoken. This
Bmlufaneat imfortunate moment, Eustace of Boulogne, who had
Dover, 1051. married a sister of the king, seized for a visit to the
English court. Eustace, who was by nature a firebrand and aa
void of tact and judgment as of self-control, was not the man to
increase the popularity of foreigners among the English. The
crisis came when on his way home he managed to get into a brawl
with the people of Dover, in which Eustace was beaten ofE after a
pitched battle and several of his men slain. Eustace rode straight
to the king and made his complaint, and Edward without furthor
105lJ GODWIN AS OUTLAW 139
inquiry ordered Godwin, as Earl of Wessex, to destroy the city
which had treated his guest so shabbily.
Godwin was too good a politican not to see his opportunity and
seize it. He flatly refused to inarch against his own people at the
complaint of a foreigner. The king, vexed and angry,
b^fm" determined to appeal to the witan, who had been sum-
Oodwin ""** i^o^^d to meet at Gloucester on September 1. God-
win, putting himself squarely on the issue, whether
England should be governed by foreigners or Englishmen, appealed
to his people, and with Sweyn and Harold to support him
marched to Gloucester under arms. The northern earls, Leofric
and Siward, with Ralph of Hereford, also gathered their followers
and advanced to Gloucester.
The realm trembled on the brink of civil war; a taunt, a blow,
the spilling of blood, never so little, and no man could tell what, or
where the end would be. Edward was saved from the
Qodwinrnid crisis bv the iudicious advice of Leofric, who proposed
Ivis sons J J ILL
that the witan adjourn to meet at London and that in
the' interim both parties disband their forces. When the time for
the meeting came, however, Godwin and the king were as far apart
as ever; but Godwin's supporters, yielding to soberer second
thought, were by no means as ready for war as they had been at
Gloucester. When, therefore, the king refused to guarantee the
safety of Godwin and his sons, should they present themselves at
the witenagemot, Godwin saw that he was beaten and that noth-
ing was left for him but flight. The sentence of outlawry was
immediately passed as a matter of course. Even the Lady Edith
was not beyond the malice of the court party and Archbishop
Robert proposed that Edward complete the overthrow of Godwin
by securing a divorce against the daughter. To the honor of
Edward be it said, he refused to comply with the suggestion, and
contented himself with sending Edith to a convent at Wilton,
where she had been educated and where she was among friends.
The foreign party were for the time supreme in the councils of
the king, and it was doubtless with a direct view of perpetuating their
power, that they began to turn the attention of Edward to his
kinsman, Duke William of Normandy, as a possible successor.
130 THE SHADOW OF THE NOEMAN [bdwaed the Contosboe
This man whose shadow now for the first time falls across the
path of English history, deserves more than a passing notice. His
father was Duke Kobert, younger son to that Duke Eich-
"Nmmandv *^^ ^^^ Good, who sent his sister Emma as a peace
offering to Ethelred. For some reason or other, he had
won the ugly sobriquet of Eobert the Devil. But the devil in Eobert
seems to have been a harmless, good-natured sort of devil.
Though wild, impetuous, and inconstant, and although doing
many things in his later years that made churchmen stare, to his
people he was always "courteous, joyous, debonaire, and benign."
He abounded in noble deeds and loved to startle his miserly con-
temporaries by the reckless magnificence of his charities.
The mother of William was Arlette, the daughter of a tanner
of Ealaise, the sight of whose fair feet had captured the impetuous
ThemWor- Egbert's heart, as she stood in the brook which ran
w^imm'8 '•inder her father's tannery and washed the family linen.
birth. Eobert, however, had never honored Arlette by making
her his wife, and the neglect all but cost the son his duchy. The
proud nobles of Normandy were not such sticklers for the canon
law, but they could not forget the stench of the tanner's hides,
nor forgive Eobert for linking their proud ducal line with the most
detested of medieval trades. Even while Eobert lived, there were
fierce mutterings against the tanner's grandson, and when the
report was brought back of Eobert's death on his fan-
tastical pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the storm broke
against the harmless little lad of ten. For ten years the life
of the boy duke was preserved only by the constant watchfulness
of his guardians, who kept him behind stone walls like a prisoner.
In 1037 his asylum, the powerful castle of Vaudreuil, was surprised,
and Osborn, his kinsman, stabbed as he lay in bed by the boy's side.
It was in such turmoil as this, with the terrors of that awful
night at Vaudreuil indelibly stamped upon his young mind, with
the misfortune of his birth constantly fluner in his teeth,
aTui training that the character of the youna: prince was formed.
of i^ ilVidiTi Ox
From his mother he inherited the sturdy limbs and
physical strength of the peasant; from his father, the restless
energy, the latent fire of the viking race. When he reached man's
105l3 WILLIAM OF NORMANDY 131
estate, his towering form, just short of the gigantic, surmounted
by mighty shoulders, made him conspicuous among men famous
for their commanding presence. No man in his army, it was said,
could bend William's bow save William himself. Enormous
physical strength, ever under conscious control, was naturally
accompanied by great personal courage; "there was never beast
nor man" whom he feared. Surrounded from childhood by
appalling dangers, compelled to face difficulties which would have
crushed other men, the powerful mind matured rapidly with the
powerful body. As a boy, he was marked for discretion and
sagacity far beyond his years. As a man, he became taciturn and
self-reliant, but quick to accept the good counsel of others. A
thorough master of himself in an age of lawlessness and license,
he knew the secret of controlling others. A born ruler of men
was this William, a drillmaster by endowment and by training.
A child of ten, he had been left with a tainted name and defied by
the most turbulent baronage of Europe, whose castles, in contempt
of law, dotted every hillside, a constant menace to duke or peasant.
Yet, at twenty, this boy duke had crushed his enemies, recon-
quered and reorganized his duchy, extended its boundaries, and
secured again its old commanding place among the states of the
Capetiau confederation. But in the long and bitter struggle,
William had hardened to the sufferings of others; Caligula could
not be more cruel, nor Attila more violent, when the wrath of
him was once aroused. He was as pitiless as a thunderbolt;
where he struck, he blasted ; nor did the humbleness of the victim
appeal to his mercy. He was "the great and terrible duke"; in
his presence strong men trembled and women fainted.
This was the man to whom the Norman party in England now
looked for the permanent establishment of their power; and as
the first step to that end, arranged for a visit by the
wiimm. to ^^^^ to *1^® English court. The object of the mission
England, -yy^as kept a profound secret at the time, but in the light
of passing events, it can hardly be doubted that Wil-
liam was invited over by Archbishop Robert and other leaders of
the Norman party, with the express purpose of securing from
Edward some recognition of William as his heir; and that, if
132 THE SHADOW OF THE NOEMAN [bdwabd the Cootessob
Edward did not commit himself then, he did soon after "William's
return to Normandy, and sent Kobert to the court of Eouen to
announce the decision to William.
If this were the plan of the Norman party, they had evidently
OTerreached themselves. A powerful reaction set in once more
against the Norman policy of the court, and when the
Godwin, next year, Godwin and his sons returned at the head of
a fleet, the king conscious of the disaffection of his
people, was compelled to allow the Norman favorites whom he
could no longer protect, to seek safety in flight, and himself sub-
mit to the restoration of Godwin and his family. The triumph of
Godwin was as complete as the use which he sought to make of his
victory was wise and moderate. "Good laws" were pledged, and
the sentence of outlawry turned upon Robert and Ulf and all
"who had brought evil counsels into the laud." Stigand, the
English bishop of Winchester, was advanced to Robert's see of
Canterbury, and Wulfwi, another supporter of Godwin, was
appointed to Dorchester. But William of London, who was a very
different man from either Robert or Ulf, was allowed to return to
his bishopric, and since Sweyn was now dead, Ralph, the king's
nephew, was also left in possession of his earldom.
After the return of Godwin, Edward yielded himself to the
control of the English party. The old earl, however, did not long
survive to enjoy his triumph. He had come up to Winchester to
keep the Easter feast with the king, and on Monday while they
sat at meat together, the earl suddenly sank down,
Deathof probably in an apoplectic flt; he was borne from the
Apnii5,io53. room speechless and helpless, and "laid in the king's
bower," where he expired three days later. Godwin
was altogether a remarkable character. He had risen like Dun-
stan, if not from humble life, at least from the obscurity of the
lower ranks of the nobility, and had maintained himself at the
head of the witan through three successive reigns. His patriotism
is not above suspicion of self-seeking ; but what statesman of the
age, or churchman either, is not open to the same charge?
Politically the support of Sweyn was a serious blunder ; but even
Simon de Montfort committed a similar error, and paid a far more
1053-1057] THE SONS OF GODWII^r
133
serious penalty. On the other hand, Godwin seems to have
comprehended the full import of the growing influence of Nor-
mandy upon English affairs, and sought to offset it by an alliance
with Germany and Flanders, the earliest hint of the later estab-
lished policy of English statesmen. His connection with the
murder of Alfred the Etheling,^ is a dark shadow upon his life
which the modern historian with all his ingenuity can with
difficulty dispel. In opposing Edward when in a moment
of anger the king called for the destruction of Dover, Godwin
was certainly right, and in his final triumph he appears as the
forerunner of those English statesmen of a later day who know
how to overawe kings and protect the people from their
tyranny.
The English party suffered no diminution of power in conse-
quence of the death of Godwin. Harold, his second son, whose
gracious ways and forgiving temper had already won
ify^^tpf *^^ affections of the people, succeeded to the earldom of
^X^^'^^ Wessex and to all the old earl's influence among the
witan. Gyrth, the fourth son, was advanced to Harold's
earldom of East Anglia, while Essex and the adjoining counties
were given to Leofwin, a fifth son. In 1055 Siward of ISTorth-
umbria died and his son, Waltheof, who was a mere lad, was set
aside to- make room for Tostig, the third son of Godwin. With
the members of this powerful family thug entrenched in the great
earldoms, and with such Englishmen as Stigand holding the high
places of the church, the English party had little to fear save
from the event of a disputed succession. Here, however, was a
real and serious danger. It was now generally accepted that
Edward would remain childless, and in consequence of the numer-
ous recent violations of the right of hereditary succession, no man
knew what claims might be advanced to the vacant throne. It
was therefore determined by the witan to send for
Recall and . . „ -r-, ■,
death of Edward, the surviving son of Edmund Ironside, who
Edward the , . .
Etheiirw, had grown to man's estate in exile in Hungary, whither
he had been sent by the king of Sweden, and where he
' For the legend which conneots his death with the murder of Alfred,
see Ramsey, I, p. 468.
134 THE SHADOW OF THE NOKMAN^ [habolb
had married a kinswoman of Henry II. of Germany. With his
three children, Edgar, Margaret, and Christina, the Etheling
now returned to England as the recognized heir of Edward the
Confessor. But the unfortunate prince had hardly reached
England when he suddenly sickened and died, leaving the
little lad Edgar as the sole male representative of the line of
Alfred.
If therefore Edward the Confessor had ever seriously enter-
tained the plan of a Norman succession, he had evidently aban-
doned it ; but not so the man who was to have been the
mtn^oL chief agent in carrying it out. In 1064 Harold was
shipwrecked on the Norman coast and ultimately fell
into William's power. The duke was quick to take advantage of
his good fortune, and virtually forced his unwilling guest to take
an oath to support his candidacy for the English throne ; William
on his part, pledging one of his daughters to the captive earl iu
marriage. This oath of Harold was to have the gravest political
consequences, since the subsequent violation of it, secured as
it was by the most solemn sanctions which were known to the
eleventh century, necessarily embroiled Harold with the church
and roused a public sentiment in Europe in William's favor.
Upon his return, however, Harold did not for one moment
conduct himself as though he regarded the oath of any importance.
Even Edward, seemed to have forgotten William, and
Harold aUpS i ,i n -n 1 t -n;i t t 1 ■
into the after the death of Edward Etheling, turned his
thoughts for a moment upon the lad Edgiir. But
Edgar was poor, a child in years and experience, and without any
definite following. If Harold and the great house of Godwin
should support him, his claim might be made good; but Harold
now had ambitions of his own. He was, moreover, completely in
the king's confidence, and was quietly drifting into the place of
Harold greatest power. Those who were in Harold's counsels,
JamM^s, therefore, were not surprised when it was reported that
loee. the good king with his last breath had named the
powerful earl as his successor. Edward died on the 5tli of Jan-
uary, 1066, and the next day, the 6th, the witan who were
present in London, met quietly, and elected and crowned Harold,
1066] WILLIAM'S APPEAL TO EtTKOPE 135
Strange to say, however, William did not seem to know what
had been doing at "Westminster. The oath of 1064 had thoroughly
deceived him, and when he received the report of
W%lUam TT 1 n • 1
prepares for Harold s coronation, he acted like one unnerved bv news
war, ^
of sudden calamity. His first act was to dispatch a
messenger to Harold to protest against his perfidy and demand the
fulfillment of the oath. At Lillebonne he assembled his Norman
nobles, the heads of the great houses of Beaumont,
counetiof Montgomery, Fitz-Osbern, and Mortimer, names then
strange to English ears, and by appealing to the old
viking love of plunder which was by no means dead in the race,
persuaded the assembly to support him in an armed protest against
the alleged usurpation of Harold.
To Europe William submitted his case against Harold
b}%urmc'' ^-^iider the following counts :
1. The alleged bequest of his cousin Edward from
which Harold had defrauded him.
2. The perjury of Harold, which was a crime against the
church.
3. The expulsion of the Normans from England in 1052 at
the instigation of Godwin and his sons.
4. The massacre of the Danes by Ethelred on St. Brice's Day,
1003.
That William should take such pains to secure the moral sup-
port of Europe shows that public sentiment was already a recog-
nized element in international politics.
In winning the pope, Alexander II. , William found no diffi-
culty. The outlawry of Eobert of Jumieges and the election of
Stigand had already brought the English witan into
of Pope open conflict with the Eoman Curia, which had refused
' to recognize their right to depose an archbishop. And
when Stigand sought to secure from the anti-pope, Benedict IX.,
the recognition which the canonical popes denied him, he had
made the breach irreparable. When therefore William laid his
case before the pope, the papal tribunal was already prejudiced in
his favor and not only declared Harold guilty of perjury and
justified William in taking up arms, but went farther and gave the
136 THE SHADOW OF THE WOEMAN [hakold
expedition almost a semi-religious character by sending to the duke
the consecrated banner of St. Peter, together with a sacred relic
of the Apostle himself, to lead the invading host.
To win the pope was also to win the council that at that time
controlled the boy emperor, Henry IV. ; and although Germany
had been the ally of Godwin, the vassals of the empire
Attihideof / -,■-,-,, , ^%-
the Imperial were encouraged to enlist under the banner of Nor-
mandy. A pledge was farther given to William to protect
his duchy from attack during his absence; so fatal and far-reach-
ing was the hostility of the church to the party who had outlawed
Eobert, elected Stigand, and supported the perjury of Harold.
At the court of the French king, Philip I., William met with
some opposition. It required no deep political insight to discern
a menace to the future interests of the French crown in
Attitude of
the French the proposal of the Duke of Normandy, already over-
powerful for a vassal, to add to his ISTorman posses-
sions the kingdom of England. Yet William was not without
powerful friends at the French court. Philip, like Henry IV.,
was a minor, and at the head of the regency was the Count of
Flanders, William's father-in-law. While, therefore, the regency
openly commanded William to abandon his enterprise, secretly the
Count of Flanders favored it and encouraged his own vassals
to join William. Anjou also, the hereditary foe of Normandy,
strange to say, was for the time arrayed on the side of William.
Another ancient foe, Conan of Brittany, was removed by death,
just at the moment when he was meditating mischief, and his suc-
cessor, Hoel, at once sent five thousand Bretons under his own son
to fight for William.
But if fortune thus smiled strangely upon William, it as con-
spicuously frowned upon Harold. First he had to face the defec-
tion of his brother Tostig, who in the later days of
TherenegaM Edward had been driven out of Northumbria by his
own people; but holding Harold responsible for his
troubles he had retired to the home of his wife's father, the old
Count of Flanders, the father-in-law of William, where he nursed
his resentment and waited for the moment of revenge. When
tidings of the events of January reached him, he hastened to
1066] THE WATCH BY THE CHANNEL 137
Eouen, to offer his sword to his brother-in-law against his brother.
His impatience, however, would not allow him to await the slow
gathering of the greater armament, and the early spring saw him
at the head of a band of Norman and Flemish mercenaries, harry-
ing the coasts of Sussex and Kent. Harold attempted to intercept
Tostig and his pirates, but Tostig eluded him and entering the
iforth Sea passed up the English coast to the Humber, where he
fell foul of the northern earls and was driven out to sea again.
His further movements during this eventful summer are traced
with difBculty. Apparently, after various unsuccessful efforts to
rouse first Malcolm of Scotland and then Sweyn of Denmark to sup-
port William, he finally repaired to the court of Harold Hardrada
of Norway, and induced him to enter the lists upon his own account
as a third applicant for the English crown. As the price of his
support, Tostig was to be restored to his northern earldom.
In the meanwhile the English Harold, knowing nothing appar-
ently of this new storm which was gathering in Norway, was
directing all his attention to the south, where he collected his ships,
and massed his troops, and waited for William to strike. On the
opposite coast, sheltered in the mouth of the Dives, there gathered
at the call of William all the martial strength of northern Europe.
The expedition had become widely popular with the young nobility,
and from all the northern feudatories of Prance and from many
of the southern as well, the wild adventurous spirits of the day
"flocked together for the war over the sea," — "an innumerable
host of horsemen, slingers, archers, and foot soldiers."^ For a
full month after all was ready, contrary winds kept the impatient
host waiting in the Dives. But in the end this proved not a
little to the advantage of William, though a grievous vexation at
the time. Harold was compelled to keep his fleet in the roads
during the whole summer. The men of the southern
Septembers, cQunties lay out "fyrding," waiting while months
dragged by and the foe did not come. The enthusiasm
of the first muster ebbed, and when early in September, pro-
^ TJpon the number of William's armament, ships, aijd men, see Oman's
History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, p. 156.
138 THE SHADOW OF THE NOKMAN [habou.
visions began to fail, Harold was compelled to dismiss the fyrd.
A week later the fleet also was disbanded.
The same wind, moreover, which was keeping William and his
host fretting in the harbors of Normandy, was now in the end of
September bringing the other Harold with Earl Tostig
Tosm'anci ^^^ ^^^ their following. Tostig with sixty ships was
Hardrada *^® ^^^^ ^° reach the Humber but was again driven
out to sea by the northern earls, and retired to Scot-
land where he was joined by Harold Hardrada. The allies then
returned, harrying the coast as they advanced. At Eiccal on
the Humber they disembarked and leaving a strong reserve with
their ships, marched upon York. Edwin of Mercia, and his
brother, Morcar, to whom the witan had given Tostig's
SeptZnber2o Northumbrian earldom, attempted to- make a stand at
Fulford, but their hasty levies were easily beaten and
compelled to retire behind the walls of the northern capital, leav-
ing all the country north of the Humber at the mercy of Tostig
and his allies.
Harold had been speedily apprised of the serious nature of the
storm which had burst upon the north, and at once abandoning
his watch by the Channel, by one of the most remark-
mwrcii'^ able forced marches on record, was already hastening to
Brfds"^'^'* °^^®* Tostig and the other Harold. He must crush
them before the arrival of William, or all would be lost.
On Sunday, September 34, York capitulated. On the same even-
ing, Harold and his men were at Tadcaster, hurrying along the old
Koman road, only a day's march away. The approach of such a
large body of men along the dusty September roads was probably
not unknown to the Norwegians at Riccal, whose bands after the
usual custom were scouring the surrounding country for forage.
Instead of holding York, therefore, the leaders ordered up their
reserves, and attempted to retire beyond' the Derwent. But
Harold, marching his men all night and pressing on through
York without stopping, overtook them at Stamford Bridge some-
time in the forenoon of Monday the 25th. The Norwegians
apparently were, in light marching order; many of them, en-
tirely unarmed. A part had already passed to the east bank of
1066] STAMFOKD BRIDGE 139
the Derwent; others were in the act of filing across the long
wooden bridge ; still others in motley groups were sitting or lying
about the grass, waiting for their turn to advance to the crossing.
The English under cover of the low sloping hill which shuts
out the plain of York from the basin of the Derwent, had stolen up
swiftly and noiselessly. The dust stirred by thousands
Stamford of rapidly moving feet first betrayed their approach to
Umber 25, the Norwegians in the valley. A party was hastily sent
to the summit to reconnoiter; and there they beheld
the advancing host, coming swiftly on, prepared for immediate
battle, "their shields and arms glistening like ice in the morning
sun." There was a cry; the galloping of horses; the blare of a
buU's-horn. Then arose the clamor of men, as the loiterers sprang
to their arms and the leaders attempted to form the shield wall.
Those who had already passed the stream turned about and began
to crowd back again across the bridge. But the gleaming helmets
and stately forms of the house-carls of Harold were already ris-
ing above the brow of the hill. A shout, a wild plunge forward,
and the battle was on. From the first clash of arms, Tostig and
Harold Hardrada had no chance of victory, little of fiight. Yet
they fought like heroes. First Harold fell and then Tostig. Then
the half-formed shield wall was carried by the English with a rush,
and the battle surged up to the bridge head. Here for full thirty
minutes a gigantic Norwegian, ax in hand, held back the whole
English army, — a deed worthy of one of Homer's heroes. Then
another mighty surge forward of the crowd before the bridge, and
it was won. For a moment, the Norwegians made a stand on the
further side of the bridge, but only for a moment ; then the host,
taken at the first unawares, with all the advantage of position
against them, kingless and leaderless, broke and fled. A wild panic
followed, and the rout soon passed into an indiscriminate massacre.
The remnant of the smitten army rallied at Eiccal ; for the
reserve had not come up in time for the battle. With the sea open
before them, they would be able even yet to make
Bemits of tUR Hafold much trouble, should he draw ofE his forces to
the south ; but with the other war cloud still hanging
over the southern coast, Harold could not wait; his return was
140 THE SHADOW OF THE NOEMAN [habold
urgent. Instead, therefore, of pushing the remnant of the smit-
ten army to extremities, he offered the leaders generous terms, and
soon saw them sail away to their homes. So ended the famous
northern campaign of Harold. The superhuman endurance of
the long march, the furious energy of the pursuit, and the com-
pleteness of the victory, proved that Englishmen had not forgot-
ten how to fight or their leaders how to lead.
The battle of Stamford Bridge was fought on the 35th of Sep-
tember. Two days later the moment came for which William
and his barons had been so long waiting. As the sun
^mmarn^ ^^'^^ "io^'^ °^ ^^^ ^'^*^' *^^ g^^^* flagship, the gift of
SevUmber'27 ^^® ^^'^^^ Matilda, with its crimson sails spread to the
freshening breeze, steered out into the channel. In
the morning the fleet with only two ships missing, which had been
sunk probably in some nocturnal combat with the scouts of the
enemy, came to anchor ofl^ the Pevensey coast, and by nine o'clock
the disembarkation had begun.
William now found himself safely landed, but face to face with
a hostile country. He knew Harold well; knew his energy and
his skill. He knew also that Harold would not vield
DWcuUies of "^
T) wiam's Without a battle. But when and where? A speedy
position. . 1 . 1 T 1 -i J
Victory, a great crushing blow which would shatter
Harold's power must be delivered at once. With his army to
maintain in a hostile country, delay would be as serious as defeat.
The 28th was spent by the Normans in the disembarkation;
then in true viking style, they drew their ships up on the beach,
and leaving them under a sufficient guard, the main
fo^H^ihiasf ^°^y moved along the shore to Hastings. William evi-
dently had not heard of the landing of Tostig and
Harold Hardrada; nor of the absence of King Harold. Instead
therefore of marching directly upon London, he began carefully
to fortify Hastings, digging a trench and constructing a mound
and wooden fort. He then undertook a systematic wasting of
the country, with the evident purpose of compelling Harold to
come forward and flght him in this strong position. So thor-
oughly was this work done, that when twenty years later, the
great Domesday Survey was made, traces of the havoc of Wil-
1066] KETURlf OF HAROLD 141
liam's men might still be seen. Woeful days were these for the
J)eople of Sussex. Village and cottage, hayrick and granary, the
harvests of the summer just ended, went up in flame and smoke.
Only the churches and the churchyards were spared.
It is not so easy to follow the movements of Harold during
these two weeks. That he could not return at once to London is
evident. If the forced march and the hard fighting of
HotS"'^ Monday had not thoroughly exhausted his men, the vic-
tory certainly must have disorganized his army for the
time. In medieval warfare the one conspicuous lack of an army,
first and last, was discipline. A victory was almost as disastrous
as a defeat. Harold therefore was still in the north when news
was brought him of the landing of William ; ^ nor could he reach
London much before October 5, and even then he must have pre-
ceded his army, which was made up mostly of infantry. William
on the other hand, apparently at the same moment heard of
the landing of the Norwegians, the overthrow at Stamford
Bridge, the arrival of Harold in London, and the swift approach
of the victorious army which was following him from the north.
William's first news, therefore, could not have been assuring, and
prudence bade him still linger behind his trenches at Hastings.
Harold in the meanwhile was gathering the southern levies and
preparing a second time to hurl himself upon his foes. His
counsellors, headed by his brother Gyrth, advised delav.
The advance ' ^ j ■> j
to the hill of They proposed to devastate the country about William
so that neither man nor beast could live, and thus com-
pel him either to surrender or retire. It was the counsel of a gen-
eral. The reply of Harold was the reply of a king. He would not
burn a single English village nor harm a single English home; he
had been set to protect his people, not to destroy them.^ Within
a week Harold was ready, and by October 12 at the latest he
marched out of London and took the great southern road which
led away to Hastings. On Friday the 13th, probably toward the
end of the afternoon, he reached the fatal hill which has since been
'Probably about October 1. According to Freeman's estimate it
would take a horseman three days to reach York from the southern coast.
2 Freeman, N. C, pp. 437-439.
143 THE SHADOW OF THE NOEMAif [haeolb
given the French name of Senlac — the name with which recent
historians have succeeded in dubbing the battle, in spite of the
custom of eight centuries.
Up to this point William had intended to force Harold to attack
him on his own ground at Hastings. But the natural strength of
the site which Harold had chosen for his camp, his evi-
in William's dent purpose of fortifying, a rumor that the northern
''*"" levies under Edwin and Morcar were approaching, and
that an English fleet was coming around by the Channel, left Wil-
liam no choice but immediate action. Harold, if once he were
securely fortified in his hill camp with all England at his back to
supply him with men and provisions, could not be dislodged.
The night was spent in the Norman camp in the impressive
religious ceremonies appointed by the medieval church for those
about to brave death. ^ With sun-up the Normans were
The eve of amove; long before the third hour they had passed
over the eight miles intervening and from the heights
of Telham faced the line of Harold upon the opposite slope. The
plan of Harold was simple. He had only to hold his ground and
wear out the enemy as they dashed themselves against his lines, and
thus compel William to retire again to his defenses at Hastings.
Accordingly Harold's heavy armed infantry, the house-carls,
selected each man for size and strength, clad in helmets and long
coats of mail, armed with javelins for hurling and the terrible two-
handed Danish ax for close counter, than whom there were no finer
troops in Europe, were extended along the whole front, arranged in
close order with their shields overlapping and forming the famous
shield -wall.'' Back of this living rampart thronged dense masses oi
half -armed yeomanry, ready to confront the advancing foe with a
continuous shower of darts, arrows, and stones. On the very
crown of the hill, at the point where the ground begins to slope to
' For the original account of the way in which the English passed the
night, see William of Malmsbury, a.d. 1066. Cf. Freeman's criticism and
explanation, N. C. Ill, 453 and 454. In all probability the English were
not expecting to fight so soon.
' For criticism of Freeman's "palisades," see Eound, Feudal England,
pp. 340 and following.
1066] SAStlN&S 143
the southeast, the spot marked to after ages by the high altar
of William's Abbey Church of Battle, were planted the two-fold
ensigns of England, the dragon of Wessex and the armed warrior
advancing to battle, the latter the personal ensign of the king.'
Here stood Harold and the men of his house surrounded each by
his personal following.
William saw that it would be useless to attempt to force his
knights, the strength of his army, upon the living shield-wall with
the broken ground and the rising hill against them. He
^anofhattu ^^^^^ S^st by ordering forward his infantry, the light-
armed archers and cross-bowmen, tempt the English to
break their formation and then by hurling forward his cavalry,
seek to pierce Harold's line. As Napoleon many centuries later at
Waterloo, William proposed to alternate incessant charges of a
powerful cavalry with a destructive fire of missiles. "Nothing
can be more maddening than such an ordeal to the infantry soldier
rooted to the spot by the necessities of his formation."^
This in a word explains the conduct of the battle. Prom nine
o'clock until twelve the English withstood the alternating attacks
of infantry and horse. Then William, who from his
miame^°^ post across the valley had been watching the slow prog-
ress of the battle, bade the archers elevate their shafts
that they might drop upon the English from above. The
increased execution was apparent at once. The English, standing
in dense masses behind the shield-line, but no longer protected by
the tall shields of the house-carls and unable to ward ofE the bolts
which dropped upon them out of the eye of the October sun, were
stung to madness, and breaking through the line of heavy infantry
surged forward, bearing the Norman bowmen and slingers before
them. In vain William sent forward his knights; they plunged
into the struggling throng, but only to add to the confusion. The
English hardly felt the shock of the cavalry, but swept on madly
carrying all before them, infantry and horse, down the slope and
across the valley and up the southern hill to the very spot where
the duke sat upon his horse. Then the battle roared around him ;
'Freeman, N. C, p. 474.
^ Oman, Art of War in the Middle Ages, p. 161.
144 THE SHADOW OF THE NORMAUT [habold
his tall form disappeared in the crush, and the cry arose, "The
duke is down!" "The duke is dead!"
It was a desperate crisis for the Wormans ; for a moment it
seemed that the day was lost. But the English advance had begun
to spend its energy as soon as it breasted the opposing
secondstage j^jn. William recovered his horse, and with bared head
of the battle. '
galloping hither and thither among the fugitives soon
brought them back to their places. Harold's men also slowly
retired to their former position, and succeeded in regaining the
formation of the morning, but they no longer retained their former
steadiness. William, moreover, had discovered their weakness,
and by skillfully combining an attack and a feigned retreat with a
well-directed, counter charge of horse, this time probably delivered
from the ilaiiks, he was at last able to thrust his horsemen through
the gaps in the English line, and the day was won. "Let us pic-
ture the English lino, stubbornly striving to the last to close its
broken ranks ; the awful scene of slaughter and confusion, as the
Old Guard of Harold, tortured by Norman arrows, found the
horsemen among them at last, slashing and piercing right and left.
Still the battle ax blindly smote, doggedly, grimly; still they
fought, till the axes dropped from their lifeless grasp, and so they
fell."i
Of those who saw Harold fall none lived to tell the story. Not
a man of his personal following fled ; not a man was taken prisoner.
His brothers, Gyrth and Leofwin, his nephews, Sweyn's sons, all
perished by his side. Many conflicting traditions concerning the
fate of the king sprang up in a later day when the people under
the Norman yoke remembered his gracious ways and just dooms;
but the men who stood upon that bloody hillside in the morning,
when the Sabbath sun rose upon the ghastly remains of the strug-
gle of Saturday, did not know what had become of Harold. A
disfigured body was found lying between Gyrth and Leofwin and
was buried by William's orders. At the time it was thought to be
the body of Harold. Probably it was ; but whether Harold or not,
it mattered little with the result. The die had been cast, and
William had won.
'Round, F. E., p. 390.
CHAPTEE II
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND
EDOAB, OCT.-DEC, 1066
WILLIAM I., 1066-1070
The night of the 14th of October William and his weary troops
lay amid the sickening horrors of the spent battle. The next day,
the Christian Sabbath, he tarried to bury his dead,
withdraws to and then withdrew to Hastings to rally the exhausted
Hastings. . . , . , „ , .
energies of his men and prepare for his next moye.
The caution of William at this time is easily explained. An unknown
country lay before him; he was without maps; he was ignorant
of distances and locations. Edwin and Morcar were not far
off with a second army, supposed to outnumber the one which he
had just overthrown.^ It is known also that William was expect-
ing reinforcements, which actually reached him shortly after the
battle and enabled him to fill up his broken ranks. Here certainly
was reason enough for delay. William incurred no risk. He was
as safe behind his earthen ramparts at Hastings as ever. It is
possible, moreover, that William thought also that now Harold
was dead the English would come to him of their own accord and
offer their allegiance."
If, however, William entertained the hope that the English
would bring the crown to him he soon found that he was seriously
mistaken. We have it upon the authority of his chap-
demamd a lain that not a Single Englishman came to Hastings to
do him homage. England was kingless ; but the people
' Edwin and Morcar must have passed through London, not many
hours after the departure of Harold ; they were so near the fatal field on
the 14th that the chroniclers did not hesitate to make their slow going
responsible for Harold's defeat. In the next century they are accused of
actually abandoning the field,
''The sole motive assigned for William's delay in the Chronicle
H, p. 168(i2. S.).
145
146 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND [eboab
had no thought of submission. Edwin and Morcar with the
northern levies had fallen back upon London, and their presence
put fresh heart into the citizens. From the more distant shires
also the reserves had continued to press into the city and swell the
ranks of the patriot army. Then came the fugitives from Hast-
ings, the wreckage of Harold's army, and the people for the first
time learned with what glory their king had died with the "corpse-
ring" about him. Their ardor broke forth in wild exultation, and
they began to call loudly for a new king to lead them against the
foreigner.
The witan hastily gathered to do what could be done to
save the state. All saw that they must accept William, or at once
elect another king to take Harold's place. But upon
Election of
Edgar _ whom should their choice fall? The Norman church-
men, of whom there were still many in the kingdom,
favored William. The Mercian and Northumbrian influence
favored Edwin, who commanded the only army in the field; but
the men of the southern shires and the men of the fleet vigorously
opposed both, until at last in sheer desperation the witan fixed
their choice upon the little lad Edgar, the grandson of Edmund
Ironside. The people, however, were greatly pleased; the bards
sang of the boy king as "England's darling"; men talked wildly
of Athelney and Edington and affected to believe that like Alfred
Edgar would overthrow the invader and win again the land.
In the meanwhile William lay quietly at Hastings gathering
his strength for the renewal of the struggle. On the 30th of
October, six days after the battle, he led his troops out
J. tic CCLITI' «ji •( "111 !•
paignin of the City and took up his march toward Eomney.
Eor instead of moving directly upon London he pro-
posed first to secure the great fortress which Harold had recently
erected at Dover. Eomney apparently attempted to resist him,
and was burned. Dover castle surrendered on his approach; but
the city suffered the fate of Romney, although William wished to
spare it. William now held the keys of England ; Dover and
Hastings were in his hands, and his communications with Nor-
mandy were secure. The moral effect of the burning of Eomney
and Dover had also gone before him ; other cities, conspicuously
1066] BERKHAMPSTEAD 147
Canterbury, hastened to get what terms they could, and in a few
weeks the whole country south of the Thames and as far west as
Winchester had formally submitted.
William spent a month before Canterbury in occupying and
organizing these regions ; but by December 1 he was again in the
saddle and moving along the old Eoman road through
qfthe Rochester toward London. Southwark, the southern
suburb of London, was taken and burned ; but with the
English fleet commanding the Thames it was impossible to cross the
river at that point. Instead, therefore, of wasting his strength in
futile attempts to throw his army into the city from the South-
wark side William moved up to the bridge of Wallingford, the old
causeway between Mercia and Wessex, and turning the river coun-
termarched to the east, and again drew near to London by way of
Berkhampstead.
The slow but irresistible advance of William had long since
begun to affect the spirits of the motley throng gathered in Lon-
don. The first enthusiasm of the people over their
Sim at Berk- child king had given way to universal depression, and
depression was fast passing into panic, ihe leaders,
who from the beginning had no confidence in each other and little
hope in the final issue, were thinking only of securing the best
terms possible from the victor, each man for himself. Some, as
Archbishop Stigand, had already met William at Wallingford and
submitted to him there. Others, as Edwin and Morcar, had with-
drawn to their own lands, hoping no doubt to be able to make
better terms with William from a distance. Even stout-hearted
old Anscar, the sheriff of Middlesex, who had dragged himself
home from Hastings sore wounded, to direct the defense of Lon-
don, saw the hopelessness of attempting to hold the city, and bowed
before the grim necessity of the hour. Messengers, moreover, were
at hand with gracious words from William : he had come not as a
foreign conqueror but as a king to claim his own ; it was his inter-
est to deal kindly with his kingdom ; his quarrel had been with
Harold and not with the people; Harold had appealed to the
sword, and Heaven had decided which man had the juster cause;
all that William asked of the people was that they submit to the
148 THE CONQUEST [williami.
arbitration of battle and accept him as a lawful candidate for the
vacant crown. The message had the desired effect, and when
William reached Berkhampstead he found waiting to receive him
a group of English nobles, including with Edgar virtually all who
were left in the city. William knew how to be gracious when
policy demanded it. The little lad Edgar, the "uncrowned king,"
he received with a kiss and pledged his word that he would be to
him a faithful lord. The leaders also. Bishop Eldred of York and
others, he spoke fair ; and they either then or soon after requested
him to assume the crown.
The request was not mere servile flattery. England was in dire
need. For two months the land had been virtually without a king.
The presence of an invading army had also added to the confusion.
Trade and commerce had come to a standstill. Men ceased their
ordinary pursuits. Every one waited for the issue. Even a for-
eign king were better than the continuance of the present suspense.
William accepted the trust, and fixed upon the approaching
Christmas feast for the coronation. He, however, hesitated to
trust himself to the men of London, and sent forward a
for detachment of his own soldiers to prepare such a for-
tress as he had already erected at Hastings, in order to
overawe the city and provide a rallying point for his people in case
of tumult or reaction.' When these preparations were completed
William entered the city.
At last the holy morning came. All London was early astir
and poured out toward Edward's stately cathedral at Westminster.
A guard of Norman troopers lined the approaches com-
Mon "ofwa- ni£>'D<ii'ig the neighboring squares. "Within the church
^1?™J-'^"'- all was in readiness; a new crown, rich with gems, was
ready for the ceremony ; a crowd of spectators of both
nations filled the minster. The great procession then swept on.
A crowd of clergy bearing crosses marched first ; then followed the
bishops; lastly, surrounded by the chief men of his own land and
of his new kingdom, came the renowned duke himself with Ealdred
' Tradition has erroneously associated this fort with the famous
Tower which was not begun until 1078.
1066] COKONATIOK OF WILLIAM 149
and Stigand on either side of him. Amid the shouts of the
people William the Conqueror passed on to the royal seat before
the high altar, there to go through the same solemn rites, which
had so lately been gone through in the same spot by his fallen
rival. The Te Deum which had been sung over Harold was now
again sung over "William, and now again in ancient form the crowd
that thronged the minster was asked whether they would that the
candidate who stood before them should be crowned king over the
land. . . . Then the assent of both nations was given in ancient
form. The voices which in the Epiphany had shouted, 'Yea, yea,
King Harold,' shouted at Christmas with no less of seeming zeal,
'Yea, yea, King William.' . . . The shout rang through the min-
ster ; it reached the ears of the Norman horsemen who kept watch
ronnd the building." ^
Then there came a change, a diversion in the ceremony, not
found in the ancient ritual. The Normans without, at best but
clumsy participants in a pageant to them so unwonted, had grown
restless and uneasy under the pressure of surging crowds; they were
irritated by jibes and taunts, the words of which they could not
interpret but the spirit of which they understood only too well ;
and when they heard the shouting within the church, to them it
was the beginning of a tumult, and seeking no doubt to divert the
people and save their duke they began to fire the neighboring
buildings. The glare of leaping flames smote upon the walls of the
old minster and pierced the groined windows ; fitful gleams darted
across the crowded aisles and reached the distant chancel where
the newly chosen king knelt before the altar. The vast audience
were filled with nameless dread; then panic seized the people
and they rushed forth to swell the greater confusion without.
Even William was not unmoved and for the moment responded to
the terror that had taken hold upon the multitude. Then the
officiating clergy crowded about him, and the solemn ceremony
went on again. In ill-disguised agitation the duke took the
ancient oath of the English king. The trembling hand of Eldred
of York, for the uncanonical Stigand had been denied the honor,
' Freeman, ^, C'., Ill, Sp^and toUowiag
150 THif CONQUEST [wilham I.
poured the holy oil upon the bowed head, placed the rod and
scepter in the royal hands, and set the diadem upon the royal head.
Thus at last everything had been done according to legal form,
and William was king of the English.
The moral effect of the coronation was apparent at once. Wil-
liam was now king; it was worse than useless to resist him
further. The northern earls were satisfied that William
fm-ma/imf would be content with nothing short of the England
f/tft^^^ of Edward. They bad little to fear from a winter
em earls. campaign, but the early spring would certainly bring
William and his Norman army upon them. His reputation also
was now well established; "debonaire to those who submitted, but
stark beyond measure to those who withstood him." Those who
hesitated, therefore, felt that precious days of grace were slipping
away. Only by immediate submission could they save their lands
and their titles. Accordingly Edwin and Morcar, with a con-
course of northern thanes and prelates, came and submitted to
William at Barking, whither he had retired soon after the corona-
tion. The king displayed the same gracious spirit which had won
the nobles at Berkhampstead. Edwin and Morcar were received
with the deference which became their station ; they were allowed
to retain their earldoms and to enjoy their former semi-inde-
pendence. No castles were bnilt in their territories ; no garrisons
were sent into their cities. William, it is said, even had a fancy
for the handsome young Mercian earl as a son-in-law.
The position of William at this time was one of great strength.
England had submitted to him; her nobles and prelates had given
him their allegiance, and the witan had regularly
WiUiam bostowed upon him the crown. Yet he was surrounded
ire 1067. , n- , ■ ■ , , 1,-1
by many conflicting interests, and could move only with
the utmost caution. He sought to explain his relation to his Eng-
lish subjects upon the gracious theory of lawful succession to
Edward the Confessor. The usurpation of Harold, as he chose to
regard it, had forced upon him an unpleasant duty. Now that the
duty had been performed he would have Englishmen forget his
part in the transaction. He came not as a foreign conqueror to
set aside their laws, but to vindicate them and establish again the
1067] POSITION OF WILLIAM
151
reign of order. But, however plausible the theory, the ugly fact
could not be covered up that William was really a conqueror and
that he held his conquest not by the loyal affection of the English
but by the support of an army of foreign mercenaries. This host
moreover one and all from the king's brother down, had been
encouraged to follow him by promises of unlimited plunder. Now
that they had spent their resources and had shed their blood, they
expected, not without reason, that the promise of William would
be fulfilled.
Here, then, was the serious problem which confronted William.
How was he to fulfill the terms of the coronation oath which he had
The option °^^^^ ^^ ^^^ presence of his new subjects and yet
eimvn'db ^^^^ *^^ other promise no less sacred, as men regarded
th^Emjiish pledges in those days, which he had given to those who
had made his coronation possible. How William began,
apparently in all good faith, to tread the narrow path thus
marked out for him, and how the shortsightedness of the English,
their unfortunate attempts at revolt, simplified the task and
enabled the king while keeping the letter of his coronation oath
to rob them of their lands and reward his followers, and thus erect
upon the very laws of England the throne of the conqueror, com-
pletes the chapter of conquest.
At the first, however, William evidently determined to give
the English no cause to complain. While he was at Barking, pos-
sibly even before leaving Westminster, he had granted
mE^mhf ^^ London its famous charter. In it he assured the
burghers that no man should be disturbed in any right
or possession which had been his before the Normans came; no
child should be defrauded of his inheritance. All rights were to
be enjoyed by the city as freely as in the days of Edward.' Out-
side of the city also William soon gave the people to understand
that they had naught to fear as long as they obeyed his laws. The
regions which he occupied were strictly policed, and all evil-doers
were severely punished. Special solicitude was manifested in pro-
tecting the traveler and the merchant as they journeyed on the
' For charter see Stubbs, S. C, p. 83.
153 CONFISCATIONS OF WILLIAM [wiluam I.
king's highway. Civil officers were exhorted not to bring the
king's service into disrepute by unseemly zeal. Military officials
were to deal with the conquered people with patience and gentle-
ness ; subordinate officers and common soldiers were forbidden to
plunder; license and even drunkenness were declared offences
against the military code. Special military courts also were estab-
lished, where complaints might be lodged and where punishment,
without regard to birth or nationality, was promptly meted out to
the unfortunate soldier who fell into evil ways.
So much William did for his conquered subjects. Yet he had
not forgotten his pledges to the men who had followed him over
seas, and in order to reward them he confiscated the
cauamoi estates of all who had gone down to Hastings with
I mm. Harold. In some counties, as Berkshire, very few of
Harold's thanes had survived the battle ; but the broken families,
doubly distraught by the loss of husband or father, found no mercy
in William's eyes; their lands were taken from them and turned
over to strange lords. So thorough was the work that when the
famous survey was made at the close of William's reign, ^ there were
whole counties" in which not a single landowner of English birth
was to be found. From these estates, the number of which reached
up into the thousands, reinforced by the enormous holdings of
Harold and his brothers, by the old crown lands, and by the per-
sonal estates of the Confessor,'' which also fell to the spoil of war,
' See p. 171. ^ Kent and Sussex.
^The old theory which explained /oZ/c-tond as "public land" in dis-
tinction from hook-land or private land, and left a large residuum of this
unclaifned land to be confiscated by William and turned into King's-land,
terra regis has been generally abandoned. Folk-land was land held by
common or customary law — folk-right — and was the ordinary form under
which the great mass of landowners held their estates. Book-land was
land held under special privileges granted by book or charter — hook-right
— and was the form under which churches, monasteries, and grandees often
held lands, although they might also hold land by folk-right. The only
public lands known to the old English state were the Crown lands or official
estates of the king, which might be held either as folk-land or book-land.
For distinction between folk-land and book-land see Vinogradoff in Eng-
lish Hist. Review, Vol. Ill, pp. 1-17, and Maitland, Domesday and Beyond
pp. 226-358.
1067] THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 153
William was enabled not only to reward his friends, but to reward
them in' a right princely way and still retain the lion's share for
himself.
In this wholesale plunder of his English subjects in order to
enrich his Norman following, technically William did not violate
his coronation oath ; for in accordance with his theory
of the _ of rightful succession those who opposed him were rebels,
and by the laws of medieval warfare had forfeited both
their lives and their goods. The transfer of proprietorship also
was not efEected in any violent or arbitrary manner, but by the
regular action of the courts and as a result of due process of law.
Later William's chaplain could say that no land which was bestowed
upon Frenchmen had been taken from Englishmen unlawfully.
William, moreover, had no thought of molesting the great body of
English landholders ; even those who held lands of lords who had
been condemned, that is, the minor thanes and the more wealthy
ceorls, were not disturbed. The confiscation and regrant gave to
the new landlord no rights or powers which the old landlord did
not possess. On rent day the new lord might exact the tithe fixed
by customary law, but not a grain more. He had simply slipped
into the place of the old lord, with all his rights aad duties
unchanged.
Another measure which also dates from this period and which
has been variously interpreted, was the so-called re-purchase of
titles, imposed upon those landholders who had not been
Be-purchase disturbed by the confiscations. William, in the begin-
ning at least, possibly did not intend the measure as a
means of extortion, but rather to hasten the return of quiet. If a
man felt any uncertainty about the title to his lands he had simply
to present himself to the royal commissioners, name his lands and
lay down his gift or fee, when he received the lands back again and
with them a title which no man could question. No show of force
was necessary on William's part. The people were evidently as
much interested as the king, and were glad to get an opportunity
to secure their titles and take up again the old peaceful course of
their lives. It is noteworthy that the transaction passed ofE with-
out conflict and without the shedding of a drop of blood.
154 EARLY POLICY OF WILLIAM [whliam I.
Affairs were thus moving smoothly enough when William unfor-
tunately determined to leave his new kingdom in the hands of his
brother, Bishop Odo, and his old friend, William Fitz-
wlmimio Osb^i'iii *s regents and return to Normandy. With the
Normandy, exception of Osulf in upper Northumbria, Northumber-
land, the northern earls had accepted William as overlord.
In the southwest Devonshire and Cornwall still held aloof. In
Herefordshire and other places on the Welsh border there still
smoldered a lingering spirit of defiance. The Welsh princes also
had refused homage. Yet the kingdom had been won, and with no
rival in the field to rally these broken fragments William had
nothing to fear, especially as he was careful to take with him to
Normandy as his guests Edwin, Morcar, and Waltheof , with Edgar
and Stigand — hostages undoubtedly for the good behavior of
the nation during his absence.
There is no evidence that William's suspicions at this time
extended further than this. He had begun forts at Hastings and
London, and had garrisoned Harold's fortress at Dover.
/?n™*oS/ to ^^ ^^^ ^^^° begun a castle at Norwich and probably at
'trusttiw Hereford. He had, moreover, made Odo earl of Kent
people. ' '
and Fitz-Osbern earl of Hereford, with special military
powers such as Harold and his brothers had once possessed under
Edward. But these measures had been prompted either by the
temporary needs of the late campaign, or by the hostility of the
Welsh and the threat of a new Danish invasion, rather than by
any purpose of overawing the people. After the insurrections of
the next two years had taught William the temper of the people,
castles shot up over the kingdom like mushrooms, and their pur-
pose was obvious enough. As yet, however, it was in accordance
with William's policy to make an ostentatious show of confidence
in his English subjects; and although he refrained from appointing
new earls to take the places of Harold and his brothers, he con-
tinued to leave Edwin and Morcar undisturbed, and apparently had
no thought of making further changes in the system under which
Edward the Confessor had held the crown.
The spring and summer William spent in his beloved Normandy
in a peaceful but somewhat vainglorious succession of fetes in
1067] DISTUEBANCBS OF 1067 155
honor of his recent successes and the safe home-coming. Affairs in
England, however, were not moving so smoothly. William had
invested one Copsige, an Englishman of rank, with the
eSotI"' earldom of Northumberland, and sent him to unseat
oSt^ Osulf and hold the northern earldom in his name. At
first Oopsige had been successful, but later he was
surprised and slain by Osulf and his supporters scattered. Here-
fordshire aJso was the scene of other reverses, where in spite of the
efforts of William Fitz-Osbern, one Edric the Wild, an English-
man, had continued to maintain himself, and in midsummer sup-
ported by the Welsh princes, Bledyn and Rhiwallon, had swept
through the shire, ravaging the country and treating the unhappy
Englishry as his enemies. A third disturbance, which was more
of the nature of an English rising, broke out at Dover, caused
directly by the stupid oppression of Odo ; and although the effort
signally failed it produced an uneasiness and suspicion among the
resident Normans which in turn reacted upon the English.
Early in December William returned. The condition of the
kingdom, as described by Ordericus, was on the whole quite satis-
Theretwnof f^^tory. "All the cities and provinces which he had
WiUvm, himself visited or had occupied with garrisons obeyed
1067. iiis yfiii ■ but on the frontiers of the kingdom, in the
northern and western districts, the same wild independence pre-
vailed which formerly made the people insubordinate, except when
they pleased, to the kings of England in the times of Edward and
his predecessors. '"In accordance with the custom of English kings,
William called together his witan to keep the Christmas
c^^Si™* '®^^* '"^^*^ ^^"^ ^* Westminster and inquire into the
2067 ■''"'' ^*' state of the kingdom. Here we see him at his best, as
with that gracious affability which so well became him
when he chose to assume it, he received the bishops and nobles ;
"when they made any request it was graciously granted, and he
listened favorably to what they reported or advised . . . some-
times he gave instructions to the Normans with equal care and
address; at others he privately warned the English to be continu-
• Ordericus Vitalis, Bk. IV, 11.
156 THE CONQUEST OF ESTGLAND [william I.
ally on their guard in all quarters against the crafty designs of their
enemies." ^
Two matters of prime importance are connected with this mid-
winter assembly of 1067. One was the trial of Eustace of Bou-
logne, who had encouraged the men of Dover in their
geu revived, recent revolt — the same Eustace who had made so
much trouble for Edward the Confessor seventeen years
before.^ Another incident generally associated with this council
was the setting of "a heavy tax on the poor people." Here with-
out question is the Danegeld again, the only tax known to English
kings. Moreover there was pretext enough for such a levy at this
time, for Canute's nephew, Sweyn of Denmark, encouraged by
English refugees, was seriously contemplating the setting up of a
rival claim to the English throne. It was probably also at this
witenagemot that William filled the vacant see of Dorchester by
the appointment of Eemigius of Fecamp, the first Norman bishop
appointed to an English see after the Conquest.
Upon the breaking up of the witenagemot "William turned his
attention to the reduction of the parts of his kingdom which still
refused to do him homage. How far the shires which
The rising in lay beyond Winchester had submitted we do not know.
west, loes. The bishops of Hereford and Glastonbury had yielded,
but the people of these western shires were by no means
reconciled to the new rule. A feud at home had withdrawn the
Welsh princes from the invasion of Hereford, but at Exeter, the
great city of the west, the discontent was assuming every day a
more formidable aspect. William learned, moreover, that the
citizens were sending out messengers through the neighboring
shires and actively preparing to take the field in the spring. He
determined, therefore, to surprise his foes by a winter campaign
and by striking at Exeter prevent the intended rising. Bridport,
Wareham, Dorchester, and Shaftsbury were burned. Twenty years
later, when the survey was made, the shire had not recovered ; at
Bridport not a house was able to pay taxes.' As William drew
1 Orderious Vitalis, Bk. IV, 11.
' For jurisdiction of William over Eustace see Freeman, N. C, p. 139.
= Freeman, N. C, IV, p. 151.
1068] BISING OF 1068 157
near Exeter a body of leading citizens met him and abjectly sub-
mitted. But the people rose in fury and refused to acknowledge
the act of capitulation. In vain William insisted on the binding
authority of the submission of the leaders; he brought before
the city one of the unfortunate hostages, and in view of the citi-
zens put out his eyes. The inhuman sight only roused the people
to greater fury. Then for eighteen days William sat down before
the city and took it at last only by reason of the Norman's superior
knowledge of siege warfare. The townsmen prayed for mercy, and
William, still the debonaire king to those who submitted, granted
the prayer. The founding of the inevitable castle followed ; the
fosse, the mound and the massive fort surmounting all, forms with
which Englishmen were fast becoming only too familiar. A con-
fiscation of lands also followed as a matter of course, but as in the
case of those in the east the humbler landholders were left undis-
turbed. The lands which belonged to the Godwin family, which
were very extensive in the western counties, were seized, but God-
win's daughter, Edward's widow, was not molested. It is to be
noted that William's army in the campaign against Exeter was
composed largely of Englishmen. The foreigners who had won
Hastings for him had now either been dismissed or distributed
through the country in permanent garrisons.
The western rising, unlike the attempt at Dover, seems to have
been something more than a local outbreak. The presence of
Harold's mother and sons within the walls of Exeter,
the rising of evidently no mere accident, gives some dignity to the
stand of the people of the west, and makes it appear
as a sort of forlorn hope of the family of Godwin. Was it more
than this? Was there any expectation of a concerted rising of the
northern earldoms as well, any widely extended plot by which all
the disaffected elements of the nation were to combine for one last
heroic stand against the Conqueror? If so the unexpected winter
campaign of William had effectually prevented the north from act-
ing, and the men of Exeter were left to brave William's wrath
alone.
So quick and sharp had been the work of the campaign that
by the end of March William was able to hold the Easter assem-
158 THE CONQUEST OE ENGLAND [williab 1
bly at Winchester. Six weeks later he was again at Westminster
where he kept the Pentecost, the third assembly of the winter.
This gathering was made eventful by the introduction of a
new feature in the court history of English kings, no less
than the public recognition of William's wife Matilda
Matilda, tlie ^ , . ^ . , , . » -n i ■ i i •
first English by a coronation. Ever since the wives or Jinglisn kings
have shared with their consorts "all the honorary dig-
nities and privileges of royalty." ^
In the summer the belated movement in the north at last broke
forth. Edwin and Morcar fled the court to put themselves at
the head of the rising. The real leaders, however,
^ntemJ^i. '^^^^ ^^^ brave Gospatrick, whom William himself had
foss"""'^' recently sent into the north to take up the work of
Copsige, and Maerlesweyn, Harold's sheriff of Lincoln,
who had brought with him out of London Edgar Etheling and his
sisters. Malcolm of Scotland had also pledged his support and was
expected to invade England in force. But from the first Edwin
and Morcar had little heart in the undertaking, and when William
began a slow but masterful march northward through Mercia,
building and fortifying as he advanced, their courage ebbed and
they were glad to be received back again into their old dependent
relation. The two earls had brought little to the patriot cause;
but they took much when they abandoned it. Their submission
disheartened and discouraged those who ought never to have
depended upon them. Malcolm's army of Scots failed to material-
ize, and finally Maerlesweyn with Edgar and his sisters retired into
Scotland to find a safe exile at the court of the Scottish king.
By the time William reached Nottingham the rising had already
subsided. York, the second city of the kingdom, quietly allowed
him to take possession and rear a Norman castle on the
timofthe high ground within the Southern quarter. Here he left
north. . T , . , .
m command three of his most trusted captains, Eobert
Eitz-Eichard, Gilbert of Ghent, and William Malet, an English-
man, and after making peace with Malcolm began the homeward
march, retiring by way of Lincoln, Cambridge, and Huntingdon,
■ Freeman, N. C, IV. p. 179.
1068] DISCOKTENT OP ENGLISH 159
in each city building a castle and establishing a permanent gar-
rison.
When William neared London disquieting news again reached
him from the west, where the sons of Harold, who had escaped
from Exeter to Ireland, had returned to the Bristol
sons in the coast with a fleet of fifty ships, manned by Irish Danes.
They first attempted to enter Bristol, but the people
gave them little encouragement. They then descended upon
Somerset, but the English levies, apparently without any Norman
help at all, rallied and drove them off.
William must have taken deep satisfaction in the results of the
summer's work. The northern earls had proved themselves devoid
of spirit, and what had promised to be a serious rising
content of had collapsed almost at the first rumor of William's
northward march. In the west the sons of Harold had
failed to awaken anything but hostile sentiment among their coun-
trymen, and had been ignobly beaten off by the English them-
selves, like any common pirates. Yet William could hardly be
blind to the fact that the country was seething with discontent,
and that the English were everywhere dissatisfied and disloyal.
They had generally yielded obedience to the new government, but
their obedience was sullen, without heart and inspired only by fear.
In reorganizing and restoring the government William had
found his greatest difficulty at the point where the administration
came into contact with the local institutions which
securing co- depended for their efiiciency upon the support of the
operation. , .„„,,.-,, . ,„ ,. _^,..
people. He first tried the experiment of ruling English-
men by Englishmen; but he could not find Englishmen of stand-
ing who were willing to bear the opprobrium of entering into the
foreign king's hire, and he was shrewd enough to see that it was
worse than useless to attempt to enforce laws by means of agents
for whom the community had no respect. Yet the laws must be
observed ; the authority of the courts must be maintained. The
king had no recourse, therefore, save to turn to his own people.
At first he had confined the Normans to the strictly military duty
of castle guarding, but little by little he now began to introduce
them into such civil ofiBces as those of sherifE and portreeve —
160 THE CONQUEST OE EISTGLAND [williah I.
the one the chief magistracy in the shire, the other the chief
magistracy in the great merchant town. Here, however, he was
confronted by a new problem. The English rapidly developed a
hatred for the Norman sheriffs and portreeves, only one degree less
bitter than their hatred for the turncoat Englishmen who had been
willing to soil their hands with the king's money. With every
day, therefore, the difficulty of punishing crime or enforcing law
was increasing. Even good men did not hesitate to protect out-
laws or baffle the king's officers in the pursuit of a criminal. The
Norman oflBcial, moreover, understood the English tongue indifEer-
ently ; he knew less about English customary law, and was inclined
to treat the rights of the people with contempt, often giving his
decisions in an arbitrary, off-hand way in defiance of all precedents
known to the people.
It was perhaps at this time, when William was struggling with
the question of local order, that there grew up the custom of requir-
ing Presentment of Englisliry} The English, in despair
o^EvMiShrv ^^ securing justice, especially when the legal adversary
happened to be a Norman often took the law into their
own hands ; secret murders increased at an alarming rate, and as
conviction was impossible, William, in order to protect his foreign-
born subjects, empowered the sheriff, in case the victim proved to
be a Frenchman and the hundred did not produce the murderer
within a week, to levy a penalty of forty-six marks upon the hun-
dred itself. The response of the English was to strip the body
and mutilate it beyond recognition. The law officers then
assumed that a body found thus disfigured must be the body of a
Frenchman, and laid the burden upon the hundred of proving by
the process of Presentment of Englishry that the victim was not
French.
Thus the feeling was rapidly gaining ground among the
English that under the Norman there was no redress. William
sought to allay the discontent by sending home more of his Nor-
' This custom which was generally established in the reign of Henry
I., was formerly supposed to date from the laws of Canute, but it is now
assigned to the early Norman period and undoubtedly grew out of the
efforts of William to protect his own people.
1069] MASSACRE AT DUEHAM 161
mans and Flemings. But this only weakened him, while it did not
materially diminish the ill-will of his new snbjects. He could not
enforce the laws ; he could not prevent Englishmen and Normans
from preying upon each other.
When William assembled the midwinter witenagemot of 1068
nothing of all this was yet apparent on the surface. The land
was everywhere quiet, save in the distant earldom of
sacreatDur- Gospatrick, and to this extreme northern earldom
William now turned his attention. For the third time
in two years he selected an earl for the troublesome province. The
new earl was one Eobert of Comines, probably a Flemish adventurer,
of whom nothing is known, save his fatal errand in quest of the dan-
gerous prize which he had drawn in the court lottery. He entered
Durham without opposition ; the adventurers who attended him
spread over the town and began to treat it as a captured city. But
the fyrd of Northumberland had quietly approached the city under
cover of the night, and in the morning, breaking down the gates,
entered the streets and began a massacre of Eobert's men. Quarter
was neither asked nor given, and in a few hours Robert and all
his knights save one had been destroyed.
The affair at Durham was the beginning of the grave troubles
of William's reign. The massacre of a paper earl and a few hun-
dred adventurers was perhaps not a serious matter, but the wild
spirit of the north was at last abroad. A series of revolts suc-
ceeded each other, each more desperate and bloody, as the utter
hopelessness of the struggle became more apparent ; William on
his part very perceptibly hardened under the repeated irritation,
and finally abandoned his policy of conciliation altogether for a
policy of brutal coercion.
' York imitated the example of Durham. William Malet, who
was now in sole command, was compelled to retire into the castle
and stand a regular siege. The rising was by no means
'nerimgin ^ merely thoughtless local tumult. The reappearance
andthe Qf Edgar and Maerlesweyn, of Gospatrick and the most
of the northern leaders gave it a fairly representative
character. William fully realized the importance of prompt and
energetic action, and roused himself to unusual exertion. He
l62 THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAlTb [williamI.
reached York by a forced march, sweeping down upon the city as
swiftly and mercilessly as a bird of prey upon its quarry. For
eight days he remained, and then retired to Winchester to hold
the Easter feast, leaving Pitz-Osbern in command. York had
yielded but the country was by no means reduced. A second
castle was reared within the city. An expedition was also sent
to Durham to punish its people but accomplished nothing. A
rally of the fyrd of Yorkshire, however, was beaten by Fitz-Osbern
not far from York, and for the moment the danger had passed.
Edgar retired to Scotland, and the leaders went into hiding.
The sons of Harold, who were again troubling the western coast,
were beaten in Devonshire by the local levies, and after the loss
of seventeen hundred men were glad to escape to their ships. It
was their last attempt ; they disappear soon afterwards in the petty
brawls of the Irish court, in which their friend and patron. King
Dermid, lost his life.
In spite of these reverses, however, when in the autumn the long-
expected fleet of Sweyn of Denmark, after various unsuccessful
attempts at landing in the south, appeared in the
of'tlwruyrth Hiimber, the Northumbrian shires rose as one man to
Autumn of greet the Dane. A second fleet from Scotland also
brought back the exiles, Edgar, Gospatrick, and Maerle-
sweyn. But greater in prestige than all, Waltheof, in whose
veins flowed the blood of Si ward, Edward's earl of Northumbria,
and who had been made earl of Northampton and Huntingdon,
possibly in the brief reign of Harold, withdrew from the court of
William and cast in his lot with the patriot cause.
In the northern capital misfortunes followed each other in
quick succession. The Danes landed September 8. On Satur-
day, the 19th, the sorrowing people of York laid away
mmZS! ^"^ *^® ^°"^^ *^^ remains of Eldred, "the last primate of'
foes?'*' the old northern stock. " His death at such a moment
was a national calamity; he could not have averted
the approaching storm; he might have tempered the wrath of
William. The very day of Eldred's funeral the Norman garrison
fired some of the houses which stood near the foss before
the castle, on the plea that these buildings might serve as a cover
1069] MASSACRE AT YORK 163
for an attacking enemy. But the flames soon got beyond the con-
trol of the incendiaries, and from the foot of the castle mound
swept across the city to the northwest, even reaching the distant
minster. The people spent a wild Sunday in the midst of tumult
and the heartrending scenes which accompany the burning of a
populous city. They thought only of saving themselves and such
movable property as they could bear away on their shoulders.
When the motley army of Danes and English appeared before the
city on Monday morning the fires were still raging.
The garrison attempted a sally, but were driven back into the
city with great slaughter. Three thousand Normans fell, dying
among the flames which their own hands had kindled.
theqarrison Waltheof was the hero of the fight. The northern
scalds long continued to sing of his mighty deeds on
that day: "How the son of Siward gave the corpses of the
Frenchmen as a choice banquet for the wolves of Northumber-
land." ^ The garrison was exterminated ; but the besiegers, instead
of preparing to make the most of their victory, acted like a lot of
children — thoughtless barbarians rather — for when no garrison
remained longer to resist them 1hey spent their fury upon the two
castles, to them the emblems of all that they had lost and suffered.
The rumor of the rising of York, the coming of the Danes, and
the destruction of the Norman garrison spread like ^wildfire. The
men of Shropshire, of Somerset, and even distant
t^revoii. Dorsetshire, thrilled at the great news from the north
which lost nothing by the distance over which it
traveled. They too had garrisons to fight and castles to raze.
Edric the Wild, with his Herefordshire men who had never yet
bowed the knee to the Norman, the men of Chester also, who had
given refuge to Harold's widow, and Bledyn, sole king of Gynedd
and Powys, with his untamed Welshmen, all gathered for one last
heroic effort to drive the Norman from the land.
The people, however, were reckoning without William, nor had
they yet fathomed the depth of cruelty of which his fierce nature
was capable when once the lion in him was thoroughly aroused.
" Freeman, N. C, IV, p. 267.
164 THE CONQUEST OE ENGLAND [william i.
He hastened from the wood of Beams, where he was himting
when the fell news came, to gather his men and strike such
blows as only William conld strike. Bishop Geoffrey
^tMvmt ^-^ Coutances was dispatched against Somerset and
Dorset with the men of London, Winchester, and
Salisbury; Englishmen against Englishmen, the hopeless feature of
the struggle to the men who believed themselves fighting for the
liberation of England. Those who were taken in arms were muti-
lated, and then dismissed with maimed and broken bodies to drag
out useless lives. Exeter not only refused to join the insurrection,
but at the head of its garrison charged upon the rebels. On the
Welsh border a combined force of English and Welsh under Edric
succeeded in burning Shrewsbury, but then dispersed. The move-
ment against Stratford was more serious, and required the presence
of William before the last embers were stamped out.
While William's lieutenants were thus putting down with a
stern hand the risings in the west, William himself with a force of
picked cavalry was hastening into the north. York
The third re- ^ •^ °
ductioiiof was a waste of blackened ruins ; his castles destroyed
the north. . ■, -r, , ■, ,
and his garrisons massacred. But when he reached the
seat of the war he found that the great northern army had dis-
persed of its own accord ; the Danes to their ships and the English
to their homes. Nothing was left for him but to hunt out the
stragglers and destroy them as he could find them. He spent
Christmas in his northern capital, and then with grim determina-
Thedevas- tion gave his attention to the work of rendering the
Northum- northern shires incapable of another revolt. For a
ter of 1070. hundred miles the country was systematically laid waste.
Houses were burned; crops, stores, ploughs, and carts were
destroyed; all cattle were slaughtered. The people were left in
the dead of the northern winter to die of cold and hunger. Even
the Norman Ordericus could not recount the awful work without
a shudder. William is no longer the king, the father of a way-
ward people; he is henceforth the grim impersonation of conquest,
and conquest too as it was understood in the eleventh century.
When seventeen years later the Domesday Survey was made up,
only one mournful word, but often repeated, was needed to describe
1070] THE PALL OE CHESTEE 165
the condition of these northern lands, once so fertile and so popu-
lous: "Waste!" "Waste!" "Waste!"
The work of conquest was now almost completed. Chester,
secure behind its mountains and protected by an unusually severe
Thefcai of winter, still remained defiant. But this fancied secur-
the chastise- ity only rendered the conquest more easy. At the head
west. of a determined band William made his way over all but
impassable mountain roads, facing blinding storms of sleet and
rain, floundering through swollen torrents, suffering incredible
hardships, and suddenly appeared before the walls of Chester.
The last fortress in England to hold out against him was taken
apparently without resistance, and destroyed, and upon the ruins
rose the Norman castle. The surrounding lands of Cheshire,
Shropshire, Derbyshire, and StafEordshire were then harried and
the population left to starve as in Yorkshire. Streams of gaunt
fugitives, starving men, women, and children, found their way
southward begging for food. The streets and churchyard of
Evesham, far away on the borders of distant Warwick, were
crowded with these pitiful victims of William's wrath. Many had
perished by the way, and those who reached Evesham were so
nearly famished that they were unable to swallow the food which
the good abbot Ethelwy gave them. The heartbreaking scenes
which were taking place in the streets of Evesham were to be seen
in the streets of every town and hamlet that lay within two or
three days' march of the stricken district.
Thus William girdled his kingdom with a wilderness. Of the
sum total of the fatalities of this dreadful winter we can only guess.
In a cold-blooded determination to destroy regardless of the suffer-
ing caused, it is doubtful if anything in the fifth century can
compare with the wickedness of William's vengeance. Surely
nothing surpasses it before the era of Spanish domination in
Europe and America.
The great work to which William had set his hand was now
accomplished. At Hastings he had won the right to present him-
„ , ^ self as a candidate for the crown of Edward the Con-
England
conqtiered. fessor. At Berkhampstead, London, and Barking, the
nation, through its leaders, had accepted him as king. But it
166
THE CONQUEST OE EKGLAND
fwiLLIAM I.
was not until the north and west had been crushed that the land
was his. There were still occasional revolts. For more than a
year the outlaw Hereward held out in the marshes
^'"'^' of Ely. The treacherous brothers, Edwin and Morcar,
the heroic Waltheof, played their last part in these insurrections.
Even the king's brother Odo and many others of his Norman
following turned against him, but the throne which they had helped
to erect was not to be shaken. England was conquered.
CONTEMPOKARIES OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND WILLIAM I.
KINGS OF FRANCE
Henry I., &. 1060
Philip I., 1060—
EMPEBOBS
Henry III", a. 1056
Henry IV., 1056—
COUNTS OF
FLANDERS
Baldwin V., father-
in-law of William,
d. 1067
Baldwin VI., 1067—
POPES
Leo IX., 1048-1054:
Victor n., 1054-1057
Stephen IX., 1057-1058
Benedict X., anti-
pope, 1058-1059
Nicolas II., 1059-1061
Alexander II. , 1061 -1073
Gregory VII., 1073-1085
Victor m., 1085-1087
KINGS OF SCOTS
Duncan I., assas-
sinated, 1040(?)
Macbeth
The Usurper,
1040(?)-1054.
Malcolm in.
Canmore, 1054—
Duncan and
Macbeth are the
well known char-
acters of Shak-
spere's play
CHAPTEE III
THE NORMAN- EEORGANIZATION OF THE KINGDOM AND THE
INTltODUCTlON OP FEUDALISM
WILLIAM L, mo-iom
THE FAMILY OF THE CONQUEEOK
■William I. = Matilda
k. 1066-1087 I daughter o£ the Count of Flanders
.1
William II.
k. 1087-1100
Robert
Duke of
Normandy
d. 1134
I
William Clito
Count of Flanders, d. 1128
William, d. 1120
Henry I. = Matilda of Scotland
k. 1100-1135 I grand d. of Edmirnd
I Ironside
Adela = Stephen
Count of
Blois
Matilda
I. Henry V. Emp.
3. (ieoffrey Planfagenet
I Count of Anjou
Henry II., k. 1154-1189
Theobald IV. Stephen = Matilda,
Count of Blois k. of Eng. I daughter of Eustace III.
1135-1164 Count of Boulogne
Henry
Bishop of
Winchester
Eustace, d. 1153
I.
William, Count of Boulogne, d. 1159
The Norman Conquest affected the development of England in
every possible way; architecture, law, finance, trade, industry,
military science, administration, in short, every phase
effects of the of national activity, felt the touch of new thought and
quickened into forms heretofore unknown to the pro-
vincial and isolated Anglo-Saxon. But most marked was the
influence of the Conquest upon the further development of English
political and social institutions. Politically England had passed
far on in the course of decline since the days of Athelstan ; the
royal authority had been undermined; the crown had been shorn
of its dignity; its eminence had faded before the waxing power
of the great earls. The Norman king at once restored to the
monarchy its old prestige ; arrested the further independent devel-
opment of the landholding class, and in spite of most bitter and
167
168 NORMAN REORGANIZATION [william I.
persistent opposition succeeded in laying again the foundations of
the throne in the supremacy of law and the restoration of the royal
authority.
The attitude of William toward the old English system was
not that of a revolutionist; he was not consciously an innovator;
he accepted the crown with the rights and limitations
mZThZ^ prescribed by the ancient customary law of England
li^hmtem. ^j^(,^^j^gg^_ Yet by inspiring the old institutions with
his own mighty personality he imparted to them new life and new
significance. Hundred-moot and shire-moot went on as before;
but their findings received a new importance. The sheriff, the
executive officer of the shire, no longer stood in awe of the local
magnate ; the king had appointed him ; the king was behind him,
and to the king alone was he responsible. The ancient police
system, once represented in the gild and later in the tithing, which
made the local community responsible for the production of the
criminal, reappeared in the frankpledge,^ but to be enforced with
vigor and thoroughness unknown to the old English courts.
The earldom of semi-regal powers survived in the counties
palatme,'^ but the vast agglomerations of estates, lordships, and
shires, the giant earldoms of the houses of Godwin, Leofric, and
Siward, which had menaced the crown in the days of Edward the
Confessor, were broken up, their privileges assumed by the crown,
and their lands distributed.
The national council, the ancient witenagemot, survived in the
great council, magnum concilium; but the occasional and spasmodic
gatherings, the occurrence of which like the meetings
Magnum of ^he later States-General of France commonly betok-
ened impending calamity, now passed into the impressive
and regular courts, which William held thrice each year whenever
he was in England. Here, amid great pomp and ceremony, he wore
his crown, "at Easter at Winchester, at Whitsuntide at Westmin-
ster, at Midwinter at Gloucester"; and here he met his gran-
' For nature, extent and date of introduction of frankpledge, see
Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, 2d Ed., Vol. I, pp. 568-571.
* Two counties palatine survived the reign of William ; Chester and
Durham.
CUEIA REGIS 169
dees in solemn assembly, "all the rich men over all England,
archbishops and suffragan bishops, abbots and earls, thanes and
knights." ^
The great council was further known as the king's court, curia
regis; but only for a short time, however, for it was soon called upon
to share its functions with another body, also a curia
Bmfe regis. The origin of this body is obscure. It seems
to have been developed partly out of the administrative
functions of the group of officials who constituted the king's house-
hold, partly out of the appellate powers of the witenagemot, and
partly out of powers assumed in direct imitation of the ducal
court of William in Normandy. It was composed of the great
administrative officers of the crown and certain of the more promi-
nent members of the baronage. At its head was the chief justiciar,
a new officer instituted by William, who presided at the sessions of
the court in the absence of the king and who further acted as
regent whenever the monarch left the kingdom. With the chief
justiciar there were associated certain other high officials beside a
group of inferior justices, also known as justiciars. Of the great
officials, of prime importance were the chancellor, an officer who
dates from the reign of Edward the Confessor, who was the king's
chief secretary and had charge of the royal seal; the chamberlain,
who was the king's chief auditor or accountant, and during the
Norman period rather outranked the chancellor in dignity "in the
judicial work of the country," being only less important than the
chief justiciar ; the treasurer also, who was the keeper of the royal
hoard which was safeguarded at Winchester, and who sat at the
famous exchequer table at Westminster to receive the accounts of
the sheriffs. Other officers of the household were the steward, the
butler, the constable and the marshal. These latter offices were very
ancient, and under various names were common to all the Teutonic
kingdoms, not only in England but also on the Continent. The
steward, who corresponded to the major domo or mayor of the
palace of the Prankish kings, was the chief officer of the royal
palace ; the butler, the Anglo-Saxon discthegn, was the caterer of
the palace; the constable and the marshal, the exact division of
' Ang. Sax. Chronicle, A. d. 1087.
170 NOKMAN KBOEGANIZATIOlir [williahI
whose duties is obscure, superintended the ordering of the feudal
array and the fyrd. Under the Norman kings and their successors
these more ancient offices soon became overshadowed by the four
great officers of state, the chief justiciar, the chamberlain, the
chancellor, and the treasurer, and sank into mere honorary titles
or hereditary decorations, the ancient duties of the offices being
performed by others.'
These officers were in constant attendance on the king. They
might be called together to give him advice as a special council of
state. As an administrative body they managed the
Duties of , assessment and collection of the crown revenues. They
were also a high judicial body, and could summon before
them any cause from the ordinary shire courts, exercising all the
supreme judicial functions of the ancient witenagemot or the
contemporary great council. And inasmuch as such judicial
business constituted necessarily a large and conspicuous part of
their activities the body soon came to be known distinctively as
the Curia Regis,^ while the larger body remained simply the great
council.
William was not more generous in conceding rights of taxation
than he was in renouncing other powers of government. The
English were not used to taxation ; the obligations of
under the freemen were summed up in the old trinoda neces-
sitas, war service, castle service, and road service ; so that
the crown legally had no right to revenues other than those
derived from the royal estates, dues from markets and ports, and
the findings of the courts. The successors of Ethelred upon one
pretext or another had continued to levy the Danegeld, but it had
always been regarded by the people as irregular and tyrannical, and
Edward the Confessor, who once imagined that he saw the devil in
the treasury sitting on the money bags, abolished the tax alto-
gether. "William, however, was too good a business man to allow
himself to be troubled by any such visions as had disturbed the
peace of the sensitive Edward, and began again to levy the Dane-
• For the development of the several offices of the king.'s household see
Stubbs, C. H., I, pp. 373-385.
" In the reign of Henry I.
1085, 1086] THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 171
geld. The old haphazard method of rating which had been in
vogue since Ethelred's day was abandoned, and by a careful survey
of the kingdom a businesslike attempt was made to get at the
actual wealth and resources of each region. This important work,
the famous Domesday Survey, was begun in 1085. Com-
day Survey, mjssioners Were sent forth into every shire of the king-
dom to collect information on oath as to the number of
manors or townships, the whole number of hides, the names of
those who held the lands, their value, the population free and
unfree, and the number of cattle, sheep, and swine upon each
estate. Englishmen cried out against the unheard-of inquest.
"It was a shame," they said, "to pry into each man's matters."
It does not appear that William levied the Danegeld directly upon
his feudal tenants, but the various aids, tallages, and other inci-
dents' of feudal tenure which he might claim as lord, were quite
safiB.cient to put the property of his barons also within his power
to tax as he willed. "Stark man he was and great awe men had
of him ... in his time men had mickle suffering and many
hardships." "Many marks of gold and many pounds of silver he
took from his people, some by right and some by mickle might for
very little need." As a result of William's methods it has been
estimated that during his reign the royal income reached the sum
of £40,000,^ an income which was enormous for the time and of
which no other prince of Europe could boast.
For the most of William's harsh measures, for his exactions
and even his cruelties, he might plead the necessities of state.
There was one measure, however, peculiarly Norman,
(Did the which could have no motive save the king's personal
pleasure. His nature was temperate in most things,
but his love of hunting amounted to a passion; "he loved the
tall deer as if he were their father." On the continent kings had
monopolized hunting as their own special sport, but in England it
had been the right of any man to slay wild beasts on his own lands.
William claimed this exclusive privilege for himself and those to
igeep. 177.
^Stubbs, C. il., l,p. 303. Later calculations throw doubt upon this
BBtimate.
173 IsTORMAN KEOKGANIZATIOK [williamI.
whom he gave a special license and "forbade the harts and also the
boars to be killed." Moreover, the existing forests according to
his ideas were not sufficient; and in order to make "mickle deer-
frith" he set aside vast tracts as forest the inhabitants of which
were placed under special courts, the forest courts, and denied the
protection of the common law. Of these forests the famous New
Forest of Hampshire contained 17,000 acres. The forest laws
were very severe ; the penalty for killing a hart or hind was blinding.
For his forest laws William was censured more by the people than
for the wasting of the north and west.
It does not appear that William attempted directly to intro-
duce into England the Norman system of landholding, or the care-
fully graded hierarchy of the Norman feudal society.
introdurthm Yet the theories and forms of English holdings in the
of feudaham. ° _ °
eleventh century were not so widely different from the
Norman that the Norman lawyers found any difficulty in explain-
ing the relations of landlord and tenant upon the principles of
Norman feudal law. English forms of landholding therefore, with-
out any specific act of the crown, easily and rapidly assimilated to
the theories and customs with which the Normans were familiar.
For two hundred years in fact England had been preparing for
this transition. The ancient free democracy had long since given
way to a landed aristocracy who controlled the govern-
/'»• ment and made laws in their own interests. In many
parts of England the old free township with its town
meeting and elective reeve still survived; but the town was
steadily giving way to another system of lordship, which so closely
resembled the Norman manorial system that the name manor may
be applied to the English institution without impropriety, just as
the Norman term county is often applied to the old English shire.^
The city as yet was hardly felt as a factor in English social life.
At the time of the Conquest the whole number of cities did not
exceed seventy, and most of these were small and poor
The city
without and altogether insignificant, even if compared with con-
temporary continental cities. Commerce was corre-
spondingly feeble and limited. Agriculture and the pursuits moi'e
'Stubbs, C. H., I, pp. 96, 396 and following.
THE MANOBIAL SYSTEM 173
or less directly connected with the tilling of the soil were not sim-
ply the only source of wealth; they were virtually the only source
of livelihood. The great mass of the population, therefore, were
of necessity engaged in agriculture, but agricultural society had
come to know virtually only one form of organization, the form
which lent itself most readily to the development of feudalism —
the manor.
By the manorial system the title to the land of the village,
waste as well as cultivated, rested not in the free community but
in a single lord, and conferred upon him civil and crim-
manor ^^^^ jurisdiction with right to service from all who
dwelt within his boundaries. The members of the
manorial community, therefore, were not landlords but tenants.
Their lands, moreover, did not lie in compact pieces as in the
American farm, but in small strips scattered widely among similar
strips belonging to fellow tenants and distinguished only by a
narrow ridge of turf or by the furrow left by the plow. Cooper-
ative cultivation, therefore, was not only advantageous but
necessary.
The tenant if free enjoyed the produce of his lands by what
was known in feudal language as socage tenure, paying his lord a
regular rent in money or in kind, or by performing
Socooe some labor service. These dues were fixed by imme-
morial custom and the obligation to pay them descended
with the land from father to son.
Beside the free tenants there was also to be found upon the
English manor another class of tenants of various grades, the mem-
bers of which were known to the feudal lawyers as
viUaim villains. In general they held their lands under more
burdensome terms than the free tenants. These bur-
dens might consist of labor on land which the proprietor of the
manor had reserved for his own use, the demesne; or of dues in
kind, or of dues in money. The villain, moreover, could not leave
the bounds of the manor without his lord's permission. He must
get permission also to marry son or daughter; to sell sheep or ox,
or cut timber. His tenure, however, was fixed; his dues could
not be increased at the will of the lord ; his marriage was recog-
174 NORMAN REORGANIZATION [williahi.
nized by law ; lie could not be torn from his family and sold like a
chattel slave. He could also own horses and cattle; he could
pasture his stock on the common and could cut firewood in the
forest. The church insisted that he should have the full enjoyment
of its holidays ; it ofEered his son the advantages of a free educa-
tion if he were worthy of it, and opened to him its highest posi-
tions. As abbot or bishop or archbishop he might become the
companion and adviser of kings.
In addition to the tenants who were directly engaged in the tilling
of the soil there were others, both free and unfree, who held merely
their houses with the surrounding plot of ground, with
unants privileges in the Common and the Waste. Of such were
the weaver, if the village were large; and the miller,
who rented his mill of the lord and shared with him its profits.
There were craftsmen besides, as the smith, who kept the village
forge; the rope-maker, who kept the village rope-walk; and the
armorer, who repaired his lord's armor. The parson also was a
conspicuous figure in all phases of village life ; likewise the clerk,
who found a field of manifold activity in a community where,
from the lord down, writing was an unknown art. Not least
important was the reeve, a villain generally, who kept the accounts
of the lord with the manor and saw to it that he received his dues
from his tenants.
Thus the English social system had already been established
upon the principle of tenure by service. The old system of
allodial tenures had passed away in England quite as
ofmiKtary completely as on the continent. It was not a diflBcult
matter, therefore, to add to the English system the
Norman tenure by military service, the characteristic feature of
feudalism; and here also the way had been directly prepared by
the special military obligations which Alfred and Edward the
Elder had imposed upon the thane class, by which, if not the
amount, at least the kind of service due from the freeman to the
king had been graded to the wealth of the subject in land.^ It
was therefore not widely at variance with precedents long since
established by English kings that William should require of his
'Stubbs, a H., I, pp. 210-213! ~
THE kkight's fee 175
great beneficiaries a quota of men-at-arms, knights, bearing some
proportion to the importance and value of the lands which he
conferred.' Those who thus held land directly of the king were
known as tenants in cliief ov tenants in capite. The tenant in
chief was left to provide for his military family as he thought best.
He might keep his quota of men-at-arms in his hall and feed them
at his table, or he might settle each man-at-arms upon a small
estate set off for him out of the domain lands and sufficient for his
support. Such a grant was known as the hniglifs fee;
Knight's i}^q grantor was the lord; the tenant was his vassal.
During the Norman period the amount of land neces-
sary to constitute a knight's fee was not fixed; it generally varied
from ten to twenty librates.^ The receiver of the knight's fee was
to hold himself in readiness to come at his lord's summons, and
thus enable him in turn to fulfill his obligations to the king. This
subgranting of lands in military tenure was knows as subinfeuda-
tion. Compared with the other custom of keeping the
SMnfaiMor men-at-arms in a body in the lord's hall, it would
readily commend itself to the man who loved peace
and quiet ; it also offered a better guarantee to the lord of the
faithfulness of his military dependents. It became quite com-
mon during the last years of "William. It must not be con-
founded with commendation, by which a free land-
Gommmda- holder, in return for a promise of protection, surren-
dered his lands to some powerful landlord and received
them again on condition of rendering feudal service. Commenda-
tion became very common in the twelfth century in the troubled
times of Stephen's reign and greatly reinforced the numbers of
the military tenantry.
In granting a fief it was very natural for a lord of ISTorman
birth and training to seek to protect himself and secure the ful- ■
1 Round, F. E., pp. 289-393. The whole number of knights thus
exacted was far less than commonly represented. In the time of
Henry II. the number did not exceed 5,000, or 6,000 at the most. During
William's reign, it was undoubtedly much less.
' A librate was an estate which rendered an income of one pound a
year.
176 KOEMAN REOEGANIZATION [williamI.
fillment of the tenant's pledges by using the forms and sanctions
with which the feudalism of the continent had long made him
familiar. In accordance with these customs the tenant
S^TO was required to kneel before his lord and placing his
¥nSttlre ^^^^^ between his lord's hands, swear to be his
"man" — homage. The lord then girded him with the
sword, and in symbol conferred upon him the estates — investiture.
The obligations thus created were personal and hereditary, but their
characteristic feature was always the military service. If the
vassal should ever refuse to arm and come at his lord's
bidding, or if he ever fought against his lord the oath
was violated and the right to the fief was forfeited — -forfeiture.
With the military service the vassal was also bound to attend
his lord's court, submit to its Jurisdiction, support its authority,
and assist in its deliberations. On the continent the
^™T' baron's men were exempt from the jurisdiction of the
king's court, and even from the duty of attendance. In
England the old popular courts had been steadily undermined by
the growth of the landed aristocracy, and by the wide extension of
the dangerous custom of granting to thanes a private ju.risdiction
over their tenants under the terms sac and soc ; a grant which
made the hall court of the manor, the conrt-baron,
Sac and coordinate with the hundred court. Nevertheless the
Soc.
principle had survived that the shire courts, as king's
courts, were entitled to a supreme Jurisdiction over all the inhabit-
ants of the shire ; and the Norman kings were not inclined to
sacrifice a principle so important to the royal treasury, or so useful in
maintaining the royal authority. It is true that William granted a
number of great baronies with full Jurisdiction, known
ubertte"^ as honors or liberties,^ and also freed the men of these
barons from all attendance at the popular courts ; yet
such grants could hardly have afEected the great body of manorial
lords, whose men remained subject to the Jurisdiction of the shire
and whose courts-baron held Jurisdiction only in feudal cases,
that is, in disputes between tenants about land. And even in
feudal cases, when a dispute arose between vassals of different
'Stubbs, C. H., I, p. 431. '
FEUDAL INCIDENTS Itl
lords, the case could be tried only in the shire court. It is to be
remembered also that while the great baronies enjoyed an exemption
from the jurisdiction of the shire court, and were in fact pieces
cut out of the jurisdiction of the shire, like the shire courts they
were subordinate to the Curia Kegis, and when Henry II. began to
send out the justices of the Curia to sit as his representatives in
the shire courts these officers forced their way also into the courts
of the great barons.
Beside military service and court service the vassal was also
liable to certain occasional exactions known as incidents. Thus
when heirs failed the tenant the fief returned to the
vncidentx. lord — csclieat. In case the deceased tenant left an
heir, when the heir took possession he was expected to
pay the lord for the renewal of the grant the equivalent of a year's
income from the estate — relief. If, however, the heir
wardiihip were a minor the lord might retain possession and
appropriate the income until the heir became oi age —
wardship. A woman might ordinarily inherit a fief in default of
male heirs, but the title passed to her husband, who regularly did
homage for the fief and represented his wife in fulfilling the
feudal obligations. The lord, however, was entitled to select the
husband, but if the ward objected to the husband of her lord's
choosing she might be released upon the payment of a fine. The
same principle was applied in the case of a widow whose husband
had died without other heirs.
There were certain other occasions also when, under the
gracious title of aids, it was customary for the lord to exact further
sums from his tenants. These occasions were fixed by
Aids. custom and were: (1) When the lord's eldest son was
knighted; (2) when his eldest daughter was married;
and (3) when the lord was captured in war and his body was to be
ransomed — an occurrence not infrequent in days of almost constant
warfare. In addition to these ordinary aids the king might solicit
from his vassals certain dona or gifts. The Norman kings also devel-
oped a similar source of revenue in the tallage, a com-
" '^^' pulsory aid levied at irregular intervals upon the
demesne lands of the crown and upon the royal towns.
l'J'8 KORMAN EE0E6ANIZATI0K [williakI.
Thus Norman military feudalism easily struck its roots into a
soil already prepared, and in a few years shot up into luxuriant
growth. The Norman king, however, remained a sov-
Wiimma ereign after the national and not after the feudal type.
natwnal and o *' -^
nM a feudal By English law whatever the rank of the individual,
whether ordinary freeman or thane, he remained always
a subject and liable to all the duties of a subject; nor had William
any thought of releasing his earls of foreign blood from these
duties ; or of allowing them to gather to themselves upon English
soil such power as he himself exercised in Normandy as a vassal
of the French king. In the twentieth year of his reign he
sought to give expression to this fact of sovereignty in a way
which no man might fail to understand. The Domesday Survey
had just been completed, and upon the basis of its returns he
summoned to meet him in the great plain before Salisbury "all his
witan and all the landowning men of property there
iafisftunf' Were over all England, whosoever men they were, and
required all to bow before him and become his men and
swear oaths of fealty to him against all other men." Against
this universal oath of allegiance no feudal oath was to be binding;
no feudal contract was to stand which imposed upon the subject
an obligation that interfered with his first duty to his king.
Hardly less important than the relations which William estab-
lished with the feudal society were the relations which he estab-
lished with the church. In the middle ages church
the'Srch"^ and state Were hardly distinguished; the functions of
the one so traversed the whole line of the activities of
the other that at times the medieval state appears to be as much
of a theocracy as the early Hebrew state. The state was the body
of believers ; the head of the state was God or Christ ; the king
was his vicegerent who had been ushered into his office by forms
borrowed from the church, and who in the royal style, the rex
dei gratia, bore a reminder of the source and limitations of his
authority. The heads of the church hierarchy sat in the national
council and exercised a controlling influence in shaping the
policy of the state; they shared in the election or deposition of
kings. They sat in the national courts and judged the highest
1070-1088] WILLIAM AND THE CHUECH 179
princes of the realm. The maintenauce of discipline within the
church, moreover, bore no slight relation to the preservation of
order within the state. The lapse of church discipline was a cer-
tain symptom of political or social anarchy. Eeligious forms,
furthermore, marked all the stages of civil procedure. The litany .
and the mass were important features of the court room as well as •
of the coronation hall of the king. Thus no reforms could be
more important or far-reaching than those by which "William
sought to bring the English church into accord with the ecclesias-
tical system of the continent.
William from the first had received a powerful moral support
from the pope, and was therefore well disposed toward the papal
system, and not at all inclined to favor the continuance
'Smnh^^^^ of the "insular and barbaric independence" which the
Knewaft"^ English church had of late enjoyed. The deposition
"hSrSi"*"* of Stigand had in all probability been early decided
upon, yet William had found it useful to retain him
until the year 1070, when he was forced to make way for the king's
old friend Lanfranc, the Abbot of St. Stephens of Caen. About the
same time the primacy of York, recently made vacant by the death
of Eldred, was filled by the appointment of Thomas of Bayeaux.
Other similar appointments followed from time to time, until by
the year 1088 Wulfstan of Worcester remained the only bishop
of English birth in the kingdom. These new men were in full
sympathy with the great contemporary reform in Europe which
had culminated in the election of Gregory VII., and soon justified
their appointment by instituting similar reforms in the English
dioceses, forbidding simony and insisting upon the celibacy of their
clergy. The church courts were made independent of the lay
courts, and discipline was enforced upon the laity as well as the
clergy. The English monasteries were also compelled to conform
to the stricter rules of the Norman abbeys.
Yet if William thus showed himself entirely in sympathy with
the spiritual aims of the church, he was careful to indicate the
lines where the ecclesiastical authority ended. If he established
the independence of the church courts he also removed the bishop
from the shire court where he had long been a conspicuous figure.
180 KORMAlSr RBOEGANIZATION [william I.
Within the church, moreoTer, William would tolerate no authority
rival to his own. No decree of a synod should be binding without
his confirmation ; barons or officers of the crown should
Tiieehurch not be Subjected to the finding of a church court with-
and the royal ,.,... t.i o ■ t
authority. oiit his permission. In the case of rival popes he
proposed to decide which pope the Church of Eng-
land should recognize, for he allowed no pope to be obeyed in
England or papal letter to be received without his consent. The
demand of Gregory VII., who at the time was vigorously pushing
his ideas of papal sovereignty within the -empire, that William
should likewise recognize him as feudal overlord, he met with a
flat refusal: "fealty he had never promised; nor had his prede-
cessors ever given it." Yet he recognized fully the spiritual
headship of the pope and acknowledged the duty of the English
church to contribute the "Peter's pence."
The ideas of William were nobly carried out. The church
rapidly attained new dignity and respect and began to exert a new
iafluence over English life and manners. A new
ncsMite 0/ cathedral was begun at Canterburv; the old cathedral
Church pniicy.ot York was repaired. The other bishops also imitated
their primates in the magnificence of the new struc-
tures which they began, or the restorations which they instituted.
Old episcopal seats, such as Lichfield and Sherborne, were
removed from the country to the neighboring centers of population.
After the year 1070 William had little further trouble with the
English. There was still much grumbling; and many bitter
words continued to find their way into secluded mon-
Sinn of the astery records, where patriotic monks sought to cherish
the memories of the old England which was passing
away; but the disastrous issue of the recent struggles, the flight
or death or apostasy of the English leaders and the failure of the
treacherous Danes to afford the long-expected help had signally
demonstrated the utter vanity of attempting to overturn the
throne of the new king by force.
William , moreover, soon began to commend himself to the sub-
ject people by the very rigor of his administration. His ways
were masterful and his measures severe, but the results were bene-
NEW COIS-DITIOKS OF ENGLISH LH'E 181
ficial. He was a hard drillmaster ; but England needed a drill-
master, and the English were the first to recognize it. Life and
property were protected as they had never been pro-
figrn^ tected under the native English kings. Even the
wmam's Chronicle is forced to recognize the "good peace that
he made in the land, so that a man might go over the
realm alone with his bosom full of gold unhurt. Nor durst any
man slay another, how great soever the evil he had done." The
English, therefore, began quietly to accept, the lot which they now
knew they could not avert, and in a short time settled down to
make the most of their new conditions.
These conditions, however, could not have been very attract-
ive at best. At the time of the Survey, as a result of the fre-
quent revolts, fully three-fourths of the estates of Ens'-
New concLi- -».'•/ o
turns of land had changed hands, and in many cases where the
Enghsh thanes had been allowed to retain their
lands they had sunk into the condition of "subtenants of a
Norman baron." When the land was at peace and plenty
reigned the lot of the ordinary tenant possibly was not hard.
But unfortunately the land was often at war, and famine and
pestilence were frequent visitors. The lord lived in the great
house on the demesne, but his people of alien blood, who
regarded him with sullen aversion as an interloper and
usurper, could feel for him and his nothing of that touching loy-
alty which so often lights up the darkness of bondage. If the
lord, moved by sincere regard for his dependents, honestly sought
to improve their condition, the chances were that he would be
misunderstood and his measures misinterpreted. The absentee
landlord also was by no means uncommon, for thousands of manors
were held by William and his friends. In such cases the lord's
agent, the bailiff, lived in the great house on the demesne, and
saw that the reeves required the tenants to fulfill their obligations.
The bailiff was selected for his thrift rather than for any goodness
of heart, and knew well that his tenure depended upon the balance
which he could show each year in his lord's favor. It was his
interest to exact the last penny, and the lord was only too well
pleased to see his returns roll up, to ask questions, or inquire into
183 NOEMAN ItBOKGANIZATIOK [williamI.
the condition of distant tenants. It was here that the Norman
yoke rested most heavily upon the English rural population.
If, however, the English were coming to be reconciled to the
rule of William, the men who had come with him into England,
who found themselves denied the privileges which they
the^baram^ and their kind were enjoying on the continent, were
by no means inclined to accept William's system with-
out a protest. In 1075 discontent passed into open revolt,
when Ealph G.uader, Earl of Norfolk, and Eoger Bret-
^ne of g^ii^ tijg gQjQ of ^ijg Conqueror's old friend William Fitz-
Osbern, Earl of Hereford, openly raised the standard
against the king. But, although they had been secretly plotting for
a year and William at the time was absent in Normandy, the revolt
was a disastrous failure. The ordinary shire levies were sufficient to
put down the rising, and in a very short time Roger was a prisoner
and Ealph in exile. England was well rid of two such characters ;
but unfortunately Waltheof, who after the great rising of 1069
had not only been pardoned and received again into royal favor
but had also been restored to his father's earldom of Northumbria,
had become implicated in the afEair, and was condemned to death
by the witan. His death appealed powerfully to the imagination
of the English writers, and the people long venerated him as a
martyr.
The rising of Ealph and Eoger would really be of little impor-
tance were it not the first of a series of armed protests on the part
of the Norman-English barons against the authority of
of&rSg ^^® Norman-English kings, which did not cease until the
reign of Henry II. , when the old baronage was at last
effectually crushed and the leaders driven to the continent. In these
insurrections it is to be noted that the strength of the king lay in
the support of the English nation, who needed no schooling to teach
them that the tyranny of the king was far less to be feared than
the tyranny of the barons, and who thus looked upon the king as
their natural protector against feudal lawlessness.
The relations of William to his own family were in keeping
with his relations to his people. Such men are feared but never
loved. William quarreled with his eldest son Eobert, and drove
1078-1087] DEATH OP THE OONQUEKOE 183
him from the kingdom. In Normandy the quarrel was renewed,
and father and son met in deadly personal combat under the walls
, ^, of Gerberoi. On the return of William from Nor-
Quarrd mm .
Prince mandy m 1082 he quarreled with his half-brother
Rob&ft 1078
Odo, who had abused the authority which the king had
conferred upon him in his absence by oppressing the poor and by
indiscriminate cruelty. William might have forgiven this, for he
certainly knew Odo by this time, and from earlier ex-
Hdo^Msz'^"' psi'i^iices knew what kind of report to expect from his
regency. But Odo, who possessed all the ambition of
his race, had been carried away by a foolish dream of securing the
papal crown by force of arms, and to this end had taken advantage
of William's absence to enlist men in England for his harebrained
scheme. It was this which roused the wrath of William and
brought him home from Normandy. And when none dared to lay
hands on the sacred person of the bishop, William went himself,
seized Odo, and packed him off to Normandy to be kept a close
prisoner at Eouen until his own death.
. In the year 1087 William entered upon the last of his many
wars. His foe was Philip I. of France, who had encouraged
Eobert in rebellion and had always been William's
of waiiam, enemy either secret or open. At the taking of Mantes
William's horse stumbled among the embers of the
burning city, and the king, whose body had grown unwieldy with
advancing age, was thrown heavily upon the iron pommel of his
saddle. He was taken to Eouen where he died after a loathsome
illness. The priests and nobles who had eaten his bread left the
body to the tender mercies of menials, who stripped even the bed
of its. furnishings and left the dead king "naked and lonely on the
floor." "Death itself took its color from the savage solitude of
his life."
CHAPTER IV
THE OEGANIZATION OF THE KINGDOM CONTINUED
THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF NORMANDY
WILLIAHII. lom-iiw.
HENRY I. 1100-1135.
It was the wish of the Conqueror that Eobert, his eldest son,
with whom he had been reconciled before his death, should succeed
him in Normandy; and that William, his second son,
wauam familiarly known as Rufus or the Red, should succeed
him in England. He had also a third son, Henry, a lad
of nineteen, who had been born in England since the Conquest.
Henry, however, he put off with a legacy of £5,000 and some
lands in the Cotentin. Robert was not satisfied with the arrange-
ment which gave England to the younger William, and proposed
to contest his candidacy for the English crown; he was supported
by the greater part of the barons, who loved Robert's easy-going
ways and saw in William too much of the father's imperious nature
for their liking. The very elements in the young man's character,
however, which the barons regarded as a menace to their liberties,
only commended him the more to Lanfranc and the church, and
to all who had the good of the nation at heart. A war of succession
followed and William, largely through the influence of Lanfranc
and by the support of the English, succeeded in driving the friends
of his brother out of the kingdom; chief of whom was his uncle, the
old mischief-maker Odo, who had been released from prison after
the Conqueror's death. Four years later William in his turn
carried the war into Robert's dominions, and proposed to oust his
brother from the duchy and secure it for himself. But the French
king, Philip I. interfered, and brought about an agreement by which
each brother renounced his claim to the domain of the other ; in
case of the death of either, the survivor was to succeed to both
184
CHAEACTEK OF THE RED KING 185
dominions. Philip was not led to this neighborly act by any love
for the Conqueror's sons, but simply by a desire to prevent Eng-
land aad Normandy from again falling into the same hands. We
shall see this policy guiding the conduct of the French kings in all
their dealings with the descendants of the Conqueror.
In figure the new king was a caricature of his father. He was
short, thick-set, powerftil in body, with ruddy face and restless
eyes, and ever liable to violent outbreaks of merriment
Character
of tiie. or anger. He had much of the abilitv of his race.
Bed King. -.7-1111
Yet he lacked his father's greatness of character; he
had nothing of his self-control ; was personally lawless and ever a
riotous liver. He moved about the country accompanied by a rout
of swashbucklers and mistresses, who shocked decent folk by their
roistering revels, and who pillaged and plundered the people; "the
poor man was not protected by his poverty, nor the rich man by
his abundance." He abounded in inconsistencies — this uproarious
king. He cared not a penny for the most solemn oath ; saints and
devils were to him so many bogies by which designing monks
frightened children and silly women ; and when men charged him
with violating his coronation oath he sneeringly rejoined, "Who is
there who can fulfill all that he promises?" Yet he had his code of
honor. When he gave his word as a knight, he kept it inviolate ;
prisoners of war were safe in his hands, and when he granted a truce
men knew that it would not be broken. He mocked at all things
sacred; yet he was not without some latent respect for the powers
of the next world. When in 1093 he fell grievously sick, believing
that death was near he called for his confessor and made noble prom-
ises of reform ; but as soon as his strength came again he went on
in the old way as graceless as ever.
In spite of his personal lawlessness none appreciated better than
William the value of a well organized administration. While Rob-
ert allowed Normandy to fall into a condition of turbu-
Fiambard. lent anarchy William sought to strengthen and extend
the vigorous administrative system of his father. He
found an able instrument in Kalph Flam bard, who had been
originally a humble clerk in his father's chapel. The man was as
able as he was unscrupulous. He had entered the church from
186 NORMAN ORGANIZATION CONTINUED [wiliiam u.
purely worldly motives, and by making himself useful to the king
had risen rapidly; secured the bishopric of Durham and finally was
made chief justiciar. Here as head of the financial and judicial
administration of the kingdom, he found ample scope for the exer-
cise of all his powers. He grasped the possibilities of English
feudalism as a source of reyenue, and pressed to the utmost the
advantages offered the crown by such incidents as relief and ward-
ship ; nor was it an uncommon thing for the royal stewards so to
impoverish a ward's estate in the interests of the treasury that
when the land was finally turned over to the heir it was exhausted
and all but worthless.
The application of feudal exactions to lay fiefs was simple
enough; but there was another large class of fiefs which by
reason of the fact that they were held by churchmen,
William II. . .
ana the were naturally exempt from such claims as those inci-
cftuvch
influericeof dent to relief, or wardship and marriage. But accord-
ing to feudal ideas the estates of a bishop or abbot were
held personally of the king, and were obligated to military
service just as lay fiefs; and to the thrifty justiciar there
appeared no reason why ecclesiastics should be exempt from the
other occasional but really more burdensome dues. The dead
bishop could leave no heir, but the king might claim the income
of the estates until a new incumbent was appointed. It was, more-
over, a very simple matter, by ways well known to the crown oflicer,
to delay such an appointment until it suited the royal pleasure to
forego the profits of the lands in question. But even here the
clerkly financier showed the king how to turn still another profit,
since he might exact from the new incumbent a handsome gift
after the manner of a relief. And as the Bed King carried out the
principle, it amounted to a virtual selling of the offices of the
church, and was the source of much corruption.
The most flagrant instance of William's violation of the rights
of the church occurred in connection with the vacancy caused by
Vacancy in *^^ death of Lanfranc in 1089, when the vast estates of
canLrbury, *^® ^®® °^ Canterbury were thrown into the king's
1083-1093. hands. For four years William refused to appoint
Lanfranc's successor, in the meanwhile appropriating the rev-
1093-1096] ANSELM 187
enues of this important see to his own wayward uses. In vain
the great council protested; it mattered little to the king
that church discipline languished and that the whole realm
suffered; nor was it until the serious illness of the year 1093
brought William to his senses that he consented to allow the
revenues of the see of Canterbury to be applied again to their
legitimate uses.
The man chosen was Anselm, abbot of Bee, the friend and
pupil of Lanf ranc ; already eminent among the theologians of the
continent, and well known and loved in England. The
onTfetom ^^^® °^^ abbot, however, hesitated to incur the responsi-
m"Ss7. bilities of such an office under such a king. "He was
a poor, weak sheep," he said, "to be yoked with the
young bull of England." But those concerned were urgent and
would take no refusal ; they dragged the abbot to the king's
bedside, and after literally forcing the pastoral staff into his
reluctant hands hurried him away to the cathedral for con-
secration. Upon his recovery William found that he had yoked
himself not with a poor sheep but a lion. Between two such
men there could be nothing in common, and it was not long
before their differences passed into an open rupture. "Treat
me as a free man," demanded the primate in words that
thrill with the true English spirit, "and I devote myself and
all I have to your service ; but if you treat me as a slave, you
shall have neither me nor mine." Such a man could not keep
silent in the presence of the orgies which disgraced William's
court ; still less could he stand by while the king and his creatures
plundered the church. A series of quarrels followed, until at
last in a burst of fury William drove the faithful primate from
the kingdom.
It will be remembered that William had agreed to leave
Normandy to Kobert on condition that he renounce his
claims to England. But in 1096 the crusading mad-
Engiandand ness Seized Eobert with thousands of other princes of
orma y. ■g^j.^pg^ j^^ wHiiam's shrewd and unsentimental
nature, the wild enthusiasm which swept the continent found little
sympathy ; yet he was not averse to helping his brother off, and
188 NOKMAN OEGANIZATION COISTTINUED [williamII.
willingly furnished 10,000 marks^ toward his equipment in return
for Normandy in pledge. So Eobert betook himself to the east,
along with the host of restless and adventurous spirits who fol-
lowed the First Crusade, while his duchy of Normandy was added
again to the English kingdom.
William had now reached his fortieth year. He was still a
young man, and no one could tell what would be the end of his
career. In England he was all-powerful; none durst
William II. defy him. He had compelled the Scottish king to re-
new homage. His barons had seized the lowlands of
Wales and its southern coasts, and their castles crowned the hill-
tops of the border. He was meditating the conquest of Ireland.
On the continent also his power and influence were rapidly extending ;
when suddenly and without warning all these great plans were cut
short and the end came. With a company of jovial companions he
had risen from the banqueting table at Winchester and gone to
hunt in the New Forest. In the pursuit of the game the party
had scattered, but when night came and they returned to the
trysting place, William was not among them. Then came a peasant
with a strange story : he had found the king lying in a glade with
an arrow piercing his heart ; the wide-open sightless eyes staring
up into the heaven which he had mocked. How was it done? Was
it the work of a clumsy hunter, whose brain had been fuddled with
drink; or, more likely perhaps, was it the work of an assassin who
had taken vengeance for unrequited wrong? The question has
never been answered. The pious saw in the mysterious taking ofl,
the judgment of God. The body was taken to Winchester and
there buried without religious ceremony and without sign of
sorrow.
At the time of William's death Robert was on his way home
from the Crusade. The success of the enterprise, in which Robert
had born a conspicuous part, the popularity which had been given
to it by its religious character, had done much to obscure the
' The mark was a theoretical denomination of money on account.
Like the American mill, it was not coined. From the 13th century it was
equal to 13s 4d current money, 10,000 marks, therefore, were equal to
£6,666 13s 4d.
HEU^EY I. 189
unpleasant memories which lingered about the early career of Kob-
ert. He was more popular than ever with the barons, and by con-
trast with the brutal tyrannies of "William, his good-
mccession natured ways appeared like positive virtues. He had
also in his favor the advantage of his early agree-
ment with William. There was, however, a new element in the
problem which neither William nor Kobert had considered when
they made their compact, and that was the national sentiment of
the English people. The English had long since abandoned the
hope of ever restoring the ancient royal line ; yet the soil was dear
to them, and the fact that the Conqueror's youngest son, Henry,
had been born in England, brought him a degree nearer than
his foreign-born brothers. When, therefore, Henry, who had
been of the fatal hunting party in the New Forest, hastened to
Winchester to secure the royal hoard, as the first step in making
good a counter claim to the throne, the English welcomed him
at once as one of themselves, and their cordial support gave to
his elevation the appearance of a national choice.
Henry on his part fully realized both the strength and the weak-
ness of his position. He saw that it would not do to perpetuate the
abuses of the Eed King's reign, and that only by a wise
Henry's policy of conciliation could he win the lasting support
of the nation. Among his first acts, therefore, were
the arrest of Flambard and the recall of Anselm. But the event
which did most to establish the confidence of the people, was the
marriage of the king with Matilda, the daughter of Margaret and
Malcolm of Scotland, and the lineal representative of Edmund
Ironside. Thus at last the nation could look forward to a day
when the sacred blood of Alfred should again be represented in the
kings of England.
Of even more direct import, was a charter which Henry
issued soon after his coronation ; the first formal acknowledgment
by a iSTorman king of any "limitation on the despotism
Thecharter established by the Conqueror." This charter was
of Henry I. j i _
simply an amplification of the coronation oath ; yet it
was of great importance, for it gave to the nation an authoritative
interpretation of the terms of the oath, made by the king himself.
190 NORMAN OEfiANIZATION CONTINUED [hknetI.
In the charter Henry promised not to make profit out of lands of
the church, either by taking advantage of vacancies or by selling
its offices ; not to abuse his rights over feudal tenants ; that reliefs
should be just and lawful ; that heiresses should not be forced to
marry against their will ; and that fines should be levied according
to the nature of an oflEense. To the nation at large he granted the
laws of Edward the Confessor as interpreted or amended by his
father. The restriction which he proposed to place upon his deal-
ings with his tenants, they in turn were to observe in dealing with
their vassals. The coiners of false money also were to be pun-
ished; but the forests were to be retained as his father had held
them.'
In spite of the unpopularity of this last provision, the people
received their new king with magnificent enthusiasm ; and when
in 1101 Eobert landed at Portsmouth in order to con-
supp(>rt test the crown, the people rallied to the support of their
"^' king as they had once rallied to the support of Harold.
The barons, however, held back, for they feared a strong admin-
istration. The pliant Eobert, whom nobody feared and who could
hardly keep the clothes on his back from the thieving favorites who
surrounded him,' would be a king much more to the liking of the
barons. Yet before the solid front of the nation Eobert quailed,
and was finally glad to renounce his claims upon the English
crown in return for the cession of Henry's fief in the Cotentin.
The retirement of Eobert left Henry free to deal with the
barons who had held aloof in the moment of threatened invasion.
Eobert de Lacy, Eobert Malet, and Ivo of Grantmesnil
ofSibeHof ^^''^ stripped of their lands and driven from the king-
Bdeame, dom. But greatest among Henry's tenants was the
terrible Eobert of Belesme, who held the important
western earldom of Shrewsbury, and who had used his power to
inaugurate a reign of terror on the border, ^orty-five charges of
treason were brought against Eobert, and when he refused to
answer the king's summons to appear and make reply to the
'Stubbs 8. C, pp. 99-103, and Lee Source Book, pp. 125, 136.
' See the remarkable illustration of the results of Robert's good nature
recorded by Will. Malmes. v. § 394.
1102-1106] TENCHEBEAY 191
charges, Henry straightway marched against him ; laid siege to the
great castle of Bridgenorth on the Welsh border ; and after three
weeks took it. The fall of Arundel and Shrewsbury followed
Bridgenorth, and Eobert was forced to retire to his continental
domains. His fall was hailed by the nation with unrestrained
delight. "Rejoice, King Henry," the people shouted, "and give
thanks to God, for you became a free king on the day when you
conquered Robert of Belesme and drove him from the land."
It would have been better for both England and Normandy if
the quarrel of the two brothers could now have been dropped, and
the duchy and the kingdom gone each their separate
carried into ways. But the barons of Duke Eobert were not satis-
fied and incited him to new intrigues against the king.
Henry who had many loyal barons who held lands on the Norman
side of the Channel and were thus exposed to Robert's tyrannies,
believed that he had sufficient cause for renewing the war. For
two years it raged without material advantage on either
Terwhebray, side; but in 1106 Henry at the head of a Norman-
Buglish army completely routed Robert's knights at
Tenchebray. The battle was fought on the 38th of September,
the fortieth anniversary of the crossing of the Channel by the
Conqueror, and was regarded by the soldiers of Henry as a re-
quital for the defeat of Hastings. Robert was taken and spent
the remaining years of his life a close prisoner at Cardiff Castle,
where he died in ]134.
The salve to English feelings, however, could hardly atone for
the new burdens which were imposed upon the monarchy as a
result of the recovery of the Norman duchy. The con-
Lmievi^ temporary French king was the wily Louis VI. , who with
the keen insight of the statesman saw that the welfare
of France demanded the separation of England and Normandy.
For twenty-five years Henry wasted the strength of his English
kingdom in maintaining his Normaa borders against the hostility
of the French, or in crushing the insurrections of Norman barons,
stirred up by French intrigue. Yet Louis was no match for Henry
either in war or diplomacy. He was both outgeneraled and out-
witted. Henry secured the favor of the pope on the one hand and
Missing Page
Missing Page
194 KORMAN" ORGANIZATION CONTINUED [heney I.
functions remained unchanged, but practically they were passing
to the body of officials who composed the king's household, which
from Henry's reign is to be known distinctively as the Curia Regis, ^
and which under Roger's management rapidly developed into a
court of all work, with business as manifold and varied as the rela-
tions of the crown to the people. His custom was to
<^ Curia confine certain sessions to particular kinds of business.
Thus the members might be summoned to give advice
upon state matters, the Ordinary Council of the king; or they
might be summoned as a simple court to hear an appeal from a
lower court, or to try a dispute between the great barons, or to
hear a charge of the king against a baron. Questions pertaining
to the royal treasury also formed no small part of the business
of the Curia, and when summoned for the consideration of such
business it was known as the Court of Exchequer. Later these
several meetings differentiate into separate committees, and finally
into distinct courts.
The local courts also demanded the attention of Henry and his
great justiciar. By the custom of granting private jurisdictions
the jurisdiction of the old courts of the hundred and the
lacaiTom-ts ^^^^'^ ^^^ \iQ6i\ Steadily contracted. Even lords who did
not hold their lands with special liberties, did not hesi-
tate to take advantage of the natural strength of their position in
the local community to enforce the fullest jurisdiction. Flambard
also had indirectly contributed to the decline of the public courts
by using them as a means of extortion, and the people had begun
to abandon them for the private courts of the feudal lords as more
likely to do them justice.
Accordingly, soon after Tenchebray, Henry set himself to
restore the public courts, and issued orders for the holding of the
courts of the shire and the hundred "according to the
reSes local f^-shion in wMch they had been held in the time of King
<:^rts, about Edward and not otherwise. " Yet so unpopular had the
shire courts become, so suspicious were the people of
the king's officers, that Henry had to repeat the order four years
later and support it by fining those who continued to disobey.
1 See p. 170.
flENRT AND THE COUETS 195
Heury also sought to strengthen the local conrts by sending
out justices from time to time from the Curia Regis to sit in the
^ , shire courts, thus emphasizing their ancient character
Hemry's , • , ■
cwcuit as king's courts. One such circuit, that of 1124, was
ivstices. J! 1 1
famous for the hanging of forty-four thieves, which
according to the Chronicle was a fair breaking of the record. Such
commissions were as yet occasional and always special. Yet the
way was indicated by which the "superstructure of Norman cen-
tralization w^io be placed over the groundwork of English local
government. '^P[t was left for the second Henry to complete the
work by arranging definite circuits and fixing the periods of visita-
tion.
In the growing power of the king's court we are to see the
growing power of the monarchy. Nor was it simply that the king
thereby had forged an effective weapon for overawing
asm/rceof the barons, but he had also developed a new source
revenue, . . ^
of income; always a primary motive at the basis
of the judicial system of tlie Norman kings.' The fines and for-
feitures decreed by the courts, gathered from the whole kingdom
and swelled into a considerable stream by the time they reached
the royal treasury, formed no inconsiderable part of its revenues.
The increase of the crown revenues through the courts did not
save the people from the burden of more direct taxation; "bitterly
they complained of the manifold taxes which never
Taxation
under ceascd. ' He who had any property was bereaved of
it, and he who had none starved with hunger." Bad
harvests, sickness, or other misfortune, might not be pleaded in
excuse for non-payment; the taxes were none the less regular,
the crown officers none the less exacting. In 1109, -when the
Princess Matilda was betrothed to the emperor, an aid of three
shillings per hide was levied not only on the baronage but on the
entire population ; the first instance of the payment of a distinctly
feudal aid by the nation.
Beside Matilda, Henry had one other lawful child, a son, who
bore the family name of William and who by reason of the
'Stubbs, C. H., I, p. 435.
196 NORMAK ORGANIZATION CONTINUED [henby I.
strain of English blood which he had inherited from his mother,
was exceedingly popular with the English. Yet he but poorly re-
quited their affection. He was thoroughly Norman in
William, his sympathies, and looked with contempt upon his
mother's people. He is not an attractive character, this
William, with all the vices of his father's family and with nothing
of his father's tact or self-control. In 1120 he had gone with his
father to Normandy, where the Norman barons had formally
accepted him as Henry's successor. But on the return a drunken
crew managed to run the ship, the "White Ship," upon a rock,
where it sank with all on board. It has been the fashion of Eng-
lish writers to lament the accident as a national calamity. It is
true England might have been saved from the civil wars of the
next reign. But then, some things are worse than civil war.
The question of succession was at once reopened. William
Clito, the son of Duke Eobert, was the last representative of the
male line of the Conqneror. He was a young man, ap-
ciwi, deafii, parently of real ability, and withal of excellent character.
Yet the long feud which he had waged with his uncle
on the ground of his father's wrongs, made it impossible for Henry
ever to accept him as his heir. The enmity of the two men was
still further embittered by a new quarrel which sprang up on the
death of Charles, the last count of Flanders. The French king
supported William Clito who claimed the succession by right of
descent from Matilda, queen of the Conqueror. Henry interfered
and incited the Flemings to revolt, but was unable to prevent
the succession. William's triumph, however, was of little profit ;
he died soon after from the effect of a slight wound, which the
rude surg'ery of the day had failed to treat properly.
Henry in the meanwhile had set his heart upon securing the
succession in England for his daughter Matilda. On January 1, 1127
the great council formally acknowledged her right and
upm'iiS-^^ swore to accept her as their future sovereign. She had
.wc^eSw!'' ^^®^ ^®^* ^ childless widow by the recent death of the
emperor, and Henry pledged his barons to find her a
husband in England. But in 1128, without consulting the barons,
he married Matilda to Geoffrey of Anjou, a bright handsome lad. Ma-
THE LIOJST OF JUSTICE 197
tilda's junior by many years. The 'English lords felt that the king
had betrayed them. The Norman lords hated the Angevins with
the 'bitterness born of a century of border warfare. Yet Henry
persisted and compelled the barons to renew their oaths to Matilda;
and when in 1133 prince Henry was born, the name of the grandson
was joined in the oath with that of the mother.
Two years later Henry I. suddenly died in the midst of his
activities. He had been a great king. He had his faults, the
somber side of his nature ; yet they were not allowed to
of'Hmru^ affect his public character. He was an indefatigable
worker, and he exacted the same diligence and industry
from all who served him. He reintroduced the lamp as an adjunct
to the public service; for the daylight hours were all too few for
his tireless energy. Like his father, he was cold and hard. He
asked no man to love him; yet he expected his people to respect
him and obey his laws. His severity won for him the title of the
"Lion of Justice." The death penalty, which had been confined
to the Forest Laws, was put into practice against thieves and rob-
bers. "Great was the awe of him." "No man durst misdo
against another." "He made peace for man and beast. Whoso
bore his burden of gold and silver, no man durst say aught to him
but good."
Henry saw that the people needed security from the oppression
of the barons and rest from war and alarm, and to this end he bent
all his splendid energies. His hand was an iron hand,
poiiey but it gave peace ; and the achievements of the country
during his reign, its material and intellectual prosperity,
fully justified his policy. The Crusades had greatly stimulated all
forms of commercial and industrial activity ; vast sums of money
had been released and put into active circulation. The close con-
nection of England with the continent, the result of the union with
Normandy, the peace which reigned in the Channel, placed the
English nation in a position to secure their full share of this new
life. English merchants extended their operations to Flanders,
Denmark, Ireland, and Brittany, and even sought connections with
the great trading and banking firms of southern Europe. The
craftsmen of the lauds south of the Channel, weavers and manu-
198 XOKMAX OKGAXIZATIOX COXTIXUED [hksbiL
facturers of varions kinds, who dwelt where barons were accas-
tomed "to go a riding" as rheir Inst for war and plunder dictated,
turned to the land of the peace-loving king, and in CTer increasing
numbers began to seek its shelter, and thus added not a little to
the development of the wealth and strength of the middle classes.
Henry was not unmindful of the significance of this industrial
revival, and showed himself willing to encourage it by granting
Charters of ^^^J charters to English towns. The chai'ters of Lon-
toinis. ^oQ and Beverley are still preserved, and fui-nish valuable
examples of the first achievements of English towns in securing local
privileges.'
The quickening of the moral and intellectual life of the people
also kept pace with the political and industrial revival. This
phase of the new life naturally found expression through
intcUcctuai mouasticism ; for the monastery was the commonly rec-
ognized agent through which society sought to realize its
better aspirations. It was the most important of civilizing agencies ;
it was not only hospital, dispensary, and asylum ; it was university
and library and printing press as well. Here in bleak cells simple-
hearted scholars toiled through weary hours, copying with infinite
pains the writings of the past. The abbey, moreover, was the iun
or hostelry of the period, and here the great folk of the age in their
tireless passings to and fro were forced often to spend a night, and
many a choice bit of courtly gossip fell upon the ears of the alert
monk, to find its way ultimately into chronicle or more pretentions
history. Men seemed to realize that stirring times were passing,
that England was moving swiftly into a new era; and they sought
to link past and future by leaving a fuller account of the present
as they saw it. About the yeai" 1120 the monks of Peterborough
secured a copy of the old Worcester chronicle, that had come down
from the days of Alfred the Great, and for thirty-four years longer
continued the entries of this famous register. Henry of Hunting-
don and William of Malmesbury, contemporaries of Henry I. and
Anselm, edso began their histories ; such works show how seriously
Englishmen were beginning to regard the actions of their public
men.
> Stubbs, S. C, pp. 107-110.
1117-1133] EDUCATION 199
Historical writing was only one of many ways in which the
quickened intellectual life of the age sought expression. Henry
himself was an educated man. He spoke English and
French as a matter of course, and could use Latin like
a clerk. He saw to it that his children also were trained in the
lore of the age. His court was familiar with the forms and faces
of famous scholars. His son, Eobert of Gloucester, was the par-
ticular friend and patron of "William of Malmesbury. At Beau-
mont, on the northern side of Oxford, Henry erected a palace, and
the neighborhood became a popular place for the gathering of
learned men. Here, sometime before the year 1117, Thibaut
d'Estampes gathered some half hundred or more scholars to whom
he gave instruction in letters. In 1133 Robert Pullin lectured on
the Scriptures, and was soon after seconded by Vacarius, who
began lectures on the civil law.' Upon the informal beginnings
made by such men grew up in time the noble group of schools
known as the University of Oxford.
In other ways also the monastery contributed to swell the tide
of new influences which was moving England. The Cluniac
reform had reached its height during the reign of the
TM Cluniac f ^st William, and his policy of appointing Normans to
rule over English abbeys, as well as the policy of intro-
ducing into England new colonies of Norman monks, had done
much to bring English monasticism into touch with the monastic
life of the continent ; yet, although the influence of these foreign
ecclesiastics over the English clergy was very great, although their
advent had inaugurated a new church-building era, the results
of which in the vagtness, ornateness, and splendor of individual
structures surpassed anything which England had yet seen,^
' The commonly accepted date, 1149, is doubtful.
2 Of these structures the most famoiis was old St. Paul's of London.
A building had been begun in 1083, but was burned in the great fire four
years later. The rebuilding was imdertaken by Bishop Maurice and took
forty years to finish. The dimensions of the completed edifice were;
length, 720 feet ; breadth, 130 feet; height of body of church, 130 feet ;
while the steeple rose to the magnificent height of 520 feet. According
to William of Malmesbury, the building was capable of containing the
"utmost conceivable number of worshipers." The structure survived
300 NOEMAN OEGtANIZATION" CONTINUED [hbnktI.
the fact that the new ecclesiastics were of foreign birth cut
them off largely from the sympathy of the nation ; nor was it until
the generation of the Conquest had passed to the grave and the
reign of Henry I. was drawing to its close, that their influence
began to reach beyond the walls of chapter or monastery to affect
the lives of the people in more direct ways.
In the year 1128 the forerunners of the Cistercian revival began
to reach England. This new order was an offshoot of the older
Benedictine brotherhood ; it had been founded by Eob-
The cisur- gj.^ of Molesme at Citeaux in 1098 ; its members adopted
the rules of Cluny and applied them unsparingly in the
regulation of food and dress. The older monasteries had become
very wealthy. Wealth had led to luxury, if not to riotous living.
The monastery was lord of manors, with vassals and revenues; it
furnished its quota of knights at the king's call. The abbot vied
with bishops in dignity and power; he had his wine cellars; he
kept his stables and kennels. There had never been lacking, how-
ever, godly men who felt that all this fine living, this ostentation
of wealth, was not in keeping with the ideals of the monastic life,
and to such elements the apostolic simplicity of the Cistercians,
their lives of voluntary poverty, and their deep religious zeal, voiced
in the stirring appeals of men like Bernard of Clairvaux, the
famous preacher of the second Crusade, came with peculiar power.
The appearance of the Cistercians in England was the signal for
the heginning of a wide-reaching religious revival. "Everywhere
in town and country men banded themselves together
Appearance for prayer ; hermits flocked to the woods ; . . . a new
in England, gpjrit of devotion woke the slumbers of the religious
houses, and penetrated alike to the home of the noble
and the trader. " ^ Nor did the revival pass away in mere devo-
tional excitement ; it left a deep and permanent mark vipon the
many vicissitudes until it was swept away in the great fire of the year
1666. Another building which also dates from this period, famous in later
years as containing the tomb of Milton, is the Church of St. Giles at Crip-
plegate, the order for the destruction of which has I'ecently (Jan., 1901)
gone forth.
1 Green, H. E. P., vol. I, p. 157.
THE CISTERCIANS 201
nation and upon the age. A new class of ecclesiastics came for-
ward who owed their positions not to political influence but to
their reputation for "holiness of life and unselfishness of aim;"
who sought to give practical expression to religious devotion in
rearing hospitals and founding schools ; who did not hesitate to
confront lawless barons, and who compelled even kings to listen to
the pleadings of the national conscience.
The churches of the Cluniac monks had abounded in decora-
tions, in beautiful windows of stained glass; their services were
'equally ornate. The asceticism of the Cistercians
mxMMun. extended to the service as well as to the luxurious lives
of the religious orders. They despised ornament both
in building and in ritual. Yet in the very simplicity of their
buildings they attained a dignity and grandeur, a beauty of form,
which the ostentatious Cluniacs missed altogether.'
It was the custom of the Cistercians also in their desire to avoid
display or ostentation to search for sites for their monastic settle-
ments in some abandoned wilderness, some lonelv spot
C'lstcrcici/niS ■/ -l
as wool- in the forest, some waste bottom-land, where they
QTOXO&VS
busied themselves in the homely but practical service of
clearing woodland or draining. fens. It was due to them that,
beginning with the twelfth century, pasture-farming derives a new
importance in the history of English industries. Large parts of
northern England had been practically unoccupied since the days
of the Conqueror, and these desolate regions afforded most favor-
able conditions for the breeding of sheep. The Cistercians discov-
ered that this form of industry promised most abundant rewards,
and turned to it as their special avocation, becoming ^ffr excellence
the sheep-raisers of medieval England, greatly encouraging wool-
growing and all the accompanying industries.
' The famous Abbey of Fountains, near Eipon, said to be the finest
ecclesiastical ruin in England, is an illustration of the Cistercian style.
It was built in the fourteenth century.
CHAPTEE V
FEUDAL KEACTION AND THE HECONSTITUTIOST OF THE KINGDOM
STEPHEN, 11351154
HENEYII., 1151-lim
FAMILIES OF BLOIS AND BOULOGNE
BT^OIS
Stephen = Adela
Ct. of Blois, youngest child
Chartres, and of the Conqueror
Champagne /ii. 1086, d. 1137
Theobald IV., Stephen Henry
tlie Great, Ct. of Mortain Bishop of
Ct. of Blois. and Boulogne, Winches-
Ohartres, and 1126; King of ter:Pavial
Champagne; England, 1135; legate
d.lisa d. 1154
I
Henry Theobald V. Stephen
Ct. of Cham- Ct. of Blois Lord of
pagne and and Chartres Sancerro
Troyes
BOULOGNE
Eustace II. = Godgifii, d. of
Ct. of Boulogne | Ethelred, the
d. (about) 1093 Kedeless
Eustace III.
Ct. of Bou-
logne, d.
1135
Stephen = M
King of
England
:Mary, g. d. Godfrey
of Malcolm of Bouil-
and Mar- lon.Duke
garet of
Scotland
atilda,
Baldwin
King of
Edessa;
after
1100
King of
of Lower
Lorraine.
First
Christian Jeriisa-
King of lem, d.
Jerusa- 1118
lem, d.
1100
Eustace William Mary, Abbess Other
d. 1153 Ct. of of Eomsey; children
Boulogne 1159 succeeded of minor
1164-1159 to Boulogne; impor-
m. Deitrioh tance
of Flanders
When the masterful Henry was no more it was hardly to be
expected that the barons would show much respect for the disposi-
tion which he had made of the succession. The barons
Tho sucGCS'
Kim of considered themselves specially grieved by what they
regarded as the late king's bad faith, and felt no obliga-
tion to keep the oath which they had made to the daughter and
the grandson. Matilda, moreover, had spent much of her life
abroad ; the people knew little of her, and that little had left a
most unfavorable impression. When, therefore, Stephen, the
Count of Mortain and Boulogne, the son of the Conqueror's
daughter, Adela, presented himself as the rival of Matilda, brave,
generous, debonaire, and already well known and popular in Eng-
308
11S5] UNFITNESS OF STEPHEN 203
land, all classes welcomed him; the towns greeted him with
enthusiasm; the great officers of Henry I. declared for him; and
the clergy, headed by Stephen's younger brother, Henry, bishop
of Winchester, entered upon an active campaign in his support.
The Norman barons hesitated, not because of any lingering loyalty
to Matilda but because they preferred Stephen's elder brother,
Theobald the Gi'eat, the powerful count of Blois, Chartres, and
Champagne. The prompt action of Stephen, however, forestalled
any movement on behalf of Theobald; Theobald himself quietly
acquiesced in what appeared to be the choice of the English
nation, and the barons almost to a man went over to Stephen.
So Stephen was crowned and not Matilda; in all England and
Normandy Matilda possessed not a single open adherent.
Stephen had hardly entered upon his first year before
good men began to realize that a serious mistake had been
made, and that he was singularly unfitted for the
stSm°^ task which he had assumed. He had made many prom-
ises : he would not use the church lands for gain ; he
would abolish the wrongs sprung of the overfree exercise of the
authority of the sheriff ; he would do away with the hated Dane-
geld; he would surrender the forests made in Henry's reign; he
would observe "the good laws and customs of Henry and Edward
the Confessor." "These things chiefly and others he vowed to God,
but he kept none of them." He was as lavish with his gifts as
with his promises ; but he bestowed them not upon those who had
first declared for him but upon those who held back and sought to
barter allegiance for a price. Among these was David of Scot-
land, who was an English baron by reason of lands which he held
in England. He made a show of declaring for Matilda, invading
England and seizing the northern castles, but allowed Stephen to
buy him off by adding Carlisle to his possessions and bestowing
upon his son Henry the earldom of Huntingdon. Such a policy
on Stephen's part was suicidal ; it whetted the appetites of others
who saw that they had yielded all too readily to the new king,
for subjects had nothing to fear from this overgenerons sovereign,
who in rewarding his servants recognized treason rather than
service.
304 FEUDAL KBACTION [Stephen
Stephen's head was none of the clearest, and yet even he could
see that things were going wrong, and that reaction was setting
in against him. But he only added blunder to blunder.
ders of To strengthen himself he introduced an army of Flemish
mercenaries; no measure could have been more fatal to
his waning popularity, which in the first place had been largely based
upon his supposed opposition to foreign iniiuence. But, as if this
blunder were not serious enough, Stephen allowed the barons whom
he regarded as his adherents to build and fortify castles of their
own, where they gathered private bands of armed retainers and
soon began to exercise over the people of the surrounding country
all the brutal tyrannies which had made the baronage of France so
justly feared and hated. Yet these concessions, while they
alienated the people, failed to win the barons ; for they were more
than offset by the strange fatuity with which Stephen insisted
upon raising certain base-born favorites to the high grade of earl;
a policy which only roused the scorn of the older baronage and
won for the king their lasting hatred and contempt.
By 1136 Stephen's hands were full of trouble. The perfidious
David had again taken up arms, while the powerful Eobert, Earl
of Gloucester, the half-brother of Matilda, had gathered
outhrrait of i]^q barons of the west and south and also declared for
civil war.
Stephen's rival. Yet Stephen's cause was by no
means desperate. He was a good soldier, and soon won marked
successes in the west, where Hereford and Shrewsbury were taken,
while his "good queen," Matilda, daughter and heiress of the
younger Eustace of Boulogne,^ not to be confounded with the
other Matilda, captured Dover. In 1138 Earl Eobert
Novthci/TlcT'
ton, the was driven from the country and some of his garrisons
Battlcofthe , j -rv -j j- o xi j i , x
Standard, were hanged. David oi Scotland also was beaten at
1138,
Northallerton in the famous Battle of the Standard, by
an army of barons and yeomanry, whom Thurstan, the aged
primate of York, had called together and dispatched under "Walter
Lespec to hold the road into Yorkshire.
All in all, the first years of the war had gone well for Stephen;
too well, in fact, for his head had been completely turned by his suc-
' See table at head of chapter.
1139] THE BREAK WITH THE CHUKCH 205
cesses, and he seized upon this moment for his fatal break with the
church. Henry's justiciar, Eoger bishop of Salisbury, was still
the great man of the kingdom, and controlled all its
me church administrative machinery. His son, a second Eoger, was
chancellor; his nephew, Nigel, the bishop of Ely, was
treasurer; still another nephew was bishop of Lincoln. It is easy
to see why Stephen should become jealous of this powerful family,
who now for a full generation had managed the "judicial and
financial biisiness of the kingdom." It is not so easy to under-
stand the strange blindness which permitted him to break with
them. Eoger had many bitter enemies among the barons, but he
had made them his enemies in the king's service. He and his
nephews had built strong castles and were accustomed to go up to
court attended by a magnificent array of retainers. This was all
contrary to law, but everywhere the barons, the very vassals of
Eoger and his kinsmen, were building castles and arming their
retainers. With vast revenues at command, therefore, and the
dignity of the state to uphold, Eoger could hardly do less. Be
this as it may, in June 1139 Stephen suddenly arrested the justiciar
and the chancellor, the two Eogers, and also the bishop of Lin-
coln, and forced them to surrender their castles. The move was a
double blunder. In the first place the "whole mechanism of the
state at once came to a stand still." In the second place the
church, which had been from the first thoroughly loyal to the king,
raised the cry of privilege, and when Stephen stubbornly held to
his purpose, the clerical leaders, headed by Henry of Winchester,
went over to the Angevin side.
Thus Stephen, in striking down Eoger, had done more than
strike down a powerful family ; he had cut away the ground from
under his own feet. The royal income at once ceased,
of Stephen's and the king was compelled to resort to the shabby expe- ■
dient of dishonest coinage. The national levies refused
to respond to his call, and he was compelled to summon from the
continent a horde of ruffian adventurers, who were willing to look
to the plunder of the battle field and the looting of the houses of
citizens for their pay. In September the Angevin Matilda arrived,
accompanied by Eobert of Gloucester, and Stephen at last found
306 FEUDAL REACTION" [stepbes
himself in the field face to face with his powerful rival, but shorn
of all the advantages which belonged to him as the crowned and
accepted king.
Matilda the ex-empress, however, did not succeed in winning
the confidence which Stephen had squandered. The barons as a
class were well pleased with the discord, and desired to
The period g^alt neither Stephen nor Matilda, "lest if the one were
of anarchy. ^
overcome, the other should be free to govern them."^
Henry of Winchester, who had been appointed papal legate a short
time before the arrest of Roger, and who held a position of influ-
ence in the church even greater than that of Theobald, the new
archbishop of Canterbury, sought to act as arbitrator; but he
was without military support and found himself compelled to
favor first one side and then the other. Castles soon began to
blossom on every hill side ; each with its independent lord, who
bullied and browbeat his neighbors, spreading the terror of his
name over the country for many miles around. And as "some
would endure no superior and some not even an equal, they fought
among themselves with deadly hatred," spoiling the fairest regions
with fire and rapine. "They greatly oppressed the wretched peo-
ple by making them work at these castles, and when the castles
were finished they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they
took those whom they suspected of having any goods, by night and
by day, seizing both men and women, and they put them in prison
for their gold and silver and tortured them with pains unspeak-
able." ^ "They were continually levying an exaction on the towns,
which they called tenserie (protection money), and when the
wretched inhabitants had no more to give, then plundered they
and burned all the towns, so that thou mightest well walk a whole
day's journey, nor ever shouldst thou find a man seated in a town,
or its lands tilled.'" Trade and agriculture were of course impos-
sible; "if three men came riding into a town, all the inhabitants
fled." "God and the saints," it was said, "were asleep. " Devil-
ish engines of torture called "rachen tages" were so cunningly con-
1 Henry of Huntingdon, p. 227.
2 William of Newbury, I, 33.
^ Ang. Sax. Chronicle, A. d. 1137.
1139-1141] DECLINE OS matilda's POWER ^07
trived, that when one was fastened about a man's neck, he could
neither "sleep, nor stand nor lie, but had to bear all the weight
of iron." Men were hung up over slow fires and left to sufEocate
in the choting smoke; they were cast alive into dungeons, swarm-
ing with rats and toads, and there left to die and rot.
In the years 1139 and 1140 Matilda and Robert succeeded in
establishing themselves in the western counties. Stephen con-
tinued to hold his own in the east. But in 1141 he was
Matilda, defeated by Robert and Ralph of Chester in an attempt
to rescue Lincoln, and himself fell into the hands of the
victors. For a short time Matilda's cause was in the ascendant ;
Oxford castle was surrendered, and London submitted. In April
Bishop Henry called a great council at Winchester and formally
acknowledged Matilda as "the Lady of the English."
There was now no question of Stephen's uafitness for his office;
he had tried to rule and had failed. It was Matilda's turn to give
evidence of even gTeater unfitness, if that were possible.
TheSro/"' ^^^ ^*® Ethelred the Redeless in petticoats. She
mimdas refused to listen to the counsel of Henry of Winchester
and drove him from her by her injustice. She insti-
tuted a wholesale confiscation of the lands of those who had sided
with Stephen; she seized the property of the church and disposed
of it to her liking ; she attempted to extort money from leading
citizens by open violence, and bluntly refused to grant the plea of
the people of London for the laws of Edward the Confessor. The
landing in Kent of the other Matilda, the queen of Stephen, with
a force of Flemings at once brought on the reaction. London
rose as one man; and "The Lady of the English" was hurled from
her high state even more rapidly than she had risen. Then she
turned her wrath upon Bishop Henry and sought to take him in
his own castle. But Stephen's queen, with her Flemings and the
men of London, compelled her to raise the siege and withdraw.
Robert of Gloucester was taken in endeavoring to cover the retreat.
The capture of Robert was the beginning of the end as far
as the dynastic struggle was concerned. In the autumn he was
exchanged for Stephen, but the fall of Oxford the next year ended
the forward movement of Matilda's party. For five years longer
208
FEUDAL REACTION [^
she remained in England; but both sides were now so exhausted
that neither could make headway against the other, or chain the
turbulent spirits which they had unloosed. Geoffrey de
■fyS^L Mandeville, who had been appointed earl of Essex by
strwgie. ^^^^ ^j^. ^^^^^^ yielded to neither and betrayed either as
it suited him. The earl of Leicester and his brother, the count
of Meulan, held the midlands, but proposed to be neutral. North
England was held by the Scottish king. So matters stood, until
the capture of Kalph of Chester in 1146, followed by the death of
Robert of Gloucester the next year, finally discouraged Matilda
and she withdrew to the continent.
After the departure of Matilda, the war was left to burn itself
out in local partizan strife; the preaching of a new Crusade drew
off some of the more restless spirits ; the clergy slowly
Subsi<unce recovered their influence and the king again guaranteed
of the storm. , i • j j
them protection. Thus gradually the storm subsided;
but England was sinking hopelessly into the hands of the feudal
baronage. Even Stephen, rash and headstrong as he was, shrank
from stirring up such a new war as would be necessary to force
upon his barons the system which had prevailed under his prede-
cessors.
While Matilda had been thus pursuing her dubious way in Eng-
land, her husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet, had with better success
been reducing the castles of Normandy. By 1144 he had
^iTmot ga-ined control of the entire duchy and was recognized
mmv of i)y Louis VII. of France as duke of Normandy ; six years
later he turned it over to Prince Henry, then in his
seventeenth year. In 1149 the young duke appeared in England,'
but little came of his visit, save a knighting at the hand of his
great-uncle, David of Scotland. His power on the continent, how-
ever, continued to increase. In 1151 Geoffrey died, and Henry
became also lord of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. In the following
spring he married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. , and
secured her magnificent heritage, Aquitaine, Poitou, Saintonge, and
Limousin. Henry had thus become lord of all western France,
' He had visited England before in 1143 and in 1147.
1151] RENEWAL OB THE STRUGGLE 309
Brittany alone excepted. He was the mightiest subject in the
west.
The jealousy of Louis VII., Henry's overlord, was thoroughly
aroused. He hated Henry because he had married Eleanor
and won her lands. He feared him because of his
'7^7} p vpvi,piijft 1
of the power. He encouraged Stephen to allow his eldest
struggle. cj j.
son Eustace to join in an attempt to wrest Normandy
from Henry's hands. A first attempt had been made in 1151
before the death of Duke Geoffrey. The second attempt, made after
the marriage of Eleanor, fared no better, although Louis was sup-
ported by Henry's younger brother Geoffrey of Anjou, Theobald
v., count of Blois, nephew of Stephen, and others of Henry's vas-
sals. Henry drove back the French king, brought his own vassals
to terms, and then turned to carry out the invasion of England for
which he had been planning for two years.
In England matters were drifting from bad to worse. The
church was now thoroughly involved in the quarrel, and was as
seriously rent asunder as the baronage. Theobald, the
tf^pOTje**™* archbishop of Canterbury, had sided with the Angevins,
while Henry Murdoc, recently won by Stephen, had
been made archbishop of York. Appeals to Eome, virtually
unknown during the early Norman period, had become absurdly
frequent. For every petty quarrel men hastened off to Eome to
get the judgment of the pope, and in January 1151 Stephen sent
Archbishop Henry to get the papal sanction for the immediate
coronation of Eustace. The coronation of the son before the death
of the reigning king had been common enough in France but had
been heretofore unknown in England. It was Stephen's last hope.
The ground was sinking beneath him. Even the barons of his own
making were growing weary of the strife and he felt that since he
could not depend upon them, a coronation at the command of the
pope might furnish a respectable claim for Eustace. But the pope
had no wish to see the confusion continue ; Stephen, moreover, had
sinned too grievously against the church to be easily forgiven.
The pope, therefore, not only refused to sanction the consecration
of Eustace, but forbade the English bishops to have anything to
do with the proposed ceremony. Armed with this prohibition
210 FEUDAL EEACTION [sibphbb
the bishops refused all the solicitations of Stephen. Stephen
became furious and threatened them with personal violence. A
few apparently indicated their willingness to submit; the rest
refused ; Theobald retired to the continent. Stephen then once
more drew the sword, took Newbury and advanced upon Walling-
ford whose garrison through all these years had refused to recog-
nize any other lord save Matilda and her son.
It was at this Juncture that Henry reached England. His
army was small/ but many men were hardly needed; all classes
were disgusted with the senseless tyranny of Stephen.
fourth ap- The Angevin garrison at Wallingf ord was saved ; Malmes-
ErHiiand, bury fell ; other places as War\vick, Leicester, Stamford,
and Nottingham either were taken outright or their
garrisons declared for Henry of their own accord.
At this point the sudden death of Eustace gave an entirely
new aspect to the struggle by removing Stephen's last hope of
securing the crown in his own family. A plan of com-
Eustace. promise had already been proposed, by which Henry
should withdraw and Stephen should recognize him as
his heir. As long as Eustace lived, Stephen had been loath to
yield, but there could be no reason now for holding out longer.
He had other children, but on account of their youth they had not
been identified with the struggle and had no following. Accord-
ingly Stephen determined to accept terms which promised him a
whole kingdom for the rest of his life in lieu of the fragment
which then acknowledged him.
The terms of the treaty are of importance because better than
the rhetorical effusions of any chronicler, they present the results
of "this period of unprecedented general misery" and
Waiungford, the longing 01 the nation tor peace. It was in fact a
definite scheme of reform, an expression of the desire of
all parties to get back again to the order and unity which had pre-
vailed under Henry I. (1) The royal rights were to be resumed
by the king. (2) All estates were to be returned to the lawful
owners who had enjoyed them in King Henry's day. (3) The
"adulterine" or unlicensed castles which had been erected during
' 140 men-at-arms and 3,000 foot. Ramsay, II, 448.
1154] DEATH OF STEPHEN 311
Stephen's reign to the number of eleven hundred and fifteen, were
to be destroyed.' (4) The king was to restock the desolate
country, employ the husbandmen, and as far as possible restore
agriculture and replace the flocks and herds in the impoverished
pastures. (5) The clergy were to have their peace and not be
unduly taxed. (6) The jurisdiction of the sheriffs was to be
revived and men were to be placed in the office who would not
make it a means of gratifying private friendship or hatred, but
would exercise due severity and give every man his own; thieves
and robbers were to be hanged. (7) The bands of mercenary sol-
diers were to be broken up and sent home ; the Flemings to be
relegated to their workshops, "there to labor for their lords, instead
of exacting labor as lords from the English." (8) The general
security was to be maintained, commerce to be encouraged, and a
uniform coinage struck. (9) Stephen was to retain the crown
during the rest of his life, but Henry was to succeed him.^
The negotiations were begun at Wallingford in the summer, but
were not concluded until the November following at Westminster.
On the 13th day of the new year Henry received the
St^uXiisi. °^*^ °^ ^^^ barons at Oxford, and in Lent returned to
the continent. The long struggle of fourteen years was
at last ended. Stephen had pledged himself to restore the king-
dom; but even at his best he would have been unfit for such a task.
He was now, moreover, a broken man; the spirit was gone out of
him; and a few months after the return of Henry he passed away,
leaving the great part of the work of restoration still undone.
Henry had just reached his twenty-first year. He was of square
frame, in later years inclining to the stout, with fiery face, short
red hair, bull neck, bowed legs; as restless and active
ofHermi^ as he was strong. He was temperate in food and drink ;
careless in dress; well versed in books; talkative, and
inquisitive, yet cautious; coarse in his tastes and unscrupulous.
He was one of the few monarchs of his time who cared for power
more than for glory or pleasure. His entire thought he devoted
' This has been the commonly accepted estimate but the number prob-
ably did not exceed a third of this.
^Stubbs, O. H.I, p. 361.
212 FEUDAL REACTION [henktII.
to business, and took delight in looking after the smallest details
himself and in experimenting with different methods. In matters
of religion lie showed a startling irreverence, mingled with curious
superstition. He would amuse himself during mass by scribbling
or whispering, occasionally breaking out into paroxysms of ungov-
ernable profanity ; yet he could be terrified by an accusing con-
science and at times sink into depths of hopeless remorse.
Energy, force, the love of order, and the masterfulness of both
races were concentrated in the fiery blood of this N"orman-
Angevin ; and he had need of it all. His first task was
of the to take up the work of restoration and reorganization as
Stephen had left it. The foreign mercenaries were
sent home. The destruction of the illegal castles continued.
The new earls who had been set up by Stephen and Matilda were
deposed, and the royal domains which had been frittered away
when the rivals were bidding against each other for support, were
taken again "into the king's hand." The king of Scotland was
forced to give up Northumberland and Cumberland. If a baron
refused to give up his lands or renounce his privileges, as in the
case of William of Aumale who had intrenched himself in the north
at Scarborough castle, the king promptly took the field and
brought the rebel to terms. So effectively in short did Henry set
his face against the further continuance of feudal practices,
private warfare or private coinage or private justice, that in an
incredibly short time the work was finished and the last traces of
the anarchy which had disgraced Stephen's reign, had been
stamped out.
Henry then set himself to restore the administrative system of
the kingdom. The great council was revived and once more
honored by the confidence of the king. The Curia
Restoration ,-, • t
of the sustem Regis was also restored and strengthened. Able men
0/ Henry I. t -, , „, -n.
were selected for office; Robert, earl of Leicester, and
Richard de Lucy became justiciars; Becket became chancellor and
Nigel of Ely, a nephew of the great Roger of Salisbury, treasurer.
The revenues soon increased threefold. The sheriffs were required
to come to the exchequer twice a year in order to render account
for the collection of taxes and the management of the king's
THE BXOHEQUEE
213
estates. Their accounts were kept by
means of "tallies" or notched sticks.
These "tallies" were issued in duplicate,
the exchequer keeping one, the sheriff
carrying the other away in his wallet. In
the exchequer chamber the officers sat
about a dark covered table and the ac-
counting was carried on before them in
full view, by means of discs or counters.
£ £ £ £ £ s d
10.000.1.000, 100.
12315(!T8
DIAGRAM OF THE EXCHEQUER TABLE.3
The resemblance of the operation to the
game of chess probably suggested the
name, exchequer. It was a primitive
method, but one which could be easily
understood by all, and was in fact nec-
essary when sheriffs generally could neither
read nor write.
The most striking figure at Henry's
council-board was his chancellor, Thomas
d Becket. Thomas was born of one of
the Norman families, which had recently
EXCHEQUER
TALLIES, OP
REIGN or
HENRY III.l
' From Introduction to Pipe Rolls — The large notches on left side of
tallies represent pounds. The smaller notches on the right side represent
shillings, the lines pence.
2 Prom Introduction to Pipe Rolls — 1-8, white wands, or chalk-lines,
marking the columns of account, a a., terminal spaces, before which sat,
on the right, the chancellor and his suite, on the left, the sheriff and suite.
214 FEUDAL REACTION [henbv II.
established itself in England. His parents had brought him up
with great care, and sent him to the continent to complete his
education. He had then returned to England and en-
Bectef^ tered the household of Archbishop Theobald, where he
rose rapidly.' He had also attracted the attention of the
young king and with the approval of Theobald was made chancellor.
He was some fifteen years the senior of Henry, and as long as Thomas
remained in the chancellorship, the two were congenial spirits with
but "one heart and one mind." They were often seen together,
riding or hunting ; now bent in earnest converse at the council-board,
and again making the passer-by stare, as they tumbled each other in
rough horse-play. Thomas unlike the king was tall and spare, dark
haired, but fair skinned and somewhat pale. His countenance was
pleasing, his manners blithe and winning, and with no suggestion
of the ascetic. He took pride in having the most snmptuous table
in England, and was exceedingly fond of fine apparel, upon which
the king loved to chafE.him. He was strong of limb and loved
vigorous hand-play. Although a churchman, he led a band of 700
men-at-arms at Toulouse and overcame a French knight in single
combat. His speech was quick and frank, yet halting somewhat
when under excitement. "In youth he had been known as a good
chess-player, a bold rider, and a keen sportsman. He hated liars
and slanderers. He was a kind friend to dumb brutes and to all
poor and helpless folk."
As chancellor, Thomas identified himself thoroughly with
Henry's schemes of reform. When the war of Toulouse was
undertaken in 1159, it was Thomas who suggested to Henry the
expedient of levying the scutage. The object of the war was to
enforce the claims of Queen Eleanor to the suzerainty of Toulouse.
Henry could hardly compel his English tenants to
Tmhia^c"^ accompany him on a war of this kind over sea. It was
and sciitmje, proposed therefore to allow a kind of commutation of
service for a money payment of two marks for each
knight's fee; an expedient by no means unknown before this
' It is said that he was at Rome when Henry Murdoo appeared to pre-
sent Stephen's case and that it was largely due to his influence that the
pope decided against the coronation of Eustace, see p. 309.
1159-1163] THOMAS A BECKET 215
period. This was the famous scutage and was paid not by the
great barons/ but by those of the king's tenants who did not have
large estates, and by under-tenants who could ill afford to leave their
farms for so long a time. The move was certainly a wise one.
The holders of small fees were given to husbandry rather than to
war, and it was in the king's interests, especially after the dis-
tractions of the recent civil wars, to encourage this class of his
tenants in the pursuits of peace, rather thau to tear them away to
engage in the hazards of a foreign campaign. The additional rev-
enue of the crown could also be turned to practical account in
enabling the king to draw to his standard the professional sol-
diers who were ever floating about Europe and were far more
efficient in^thls kind of warfare than men who left their homes
with reluctance, and who had little heart for the hardships of a
war in which they took no interest. From Henry's day the
scutage becomes more common; it foreshadows a radical change
in the methods of medieval warfare.
Unfortunately for Thomas, Henry's scheme of reform included
the church as well as the civil organization. The Conqueror had
carefully separated the two iurisdictions : and the recent
archbishop, anarchy had taught the clergy the full value of their
special privileges. When therefore Henry proposed to
bring the whole state under one system of law, he found a serious
obstacle in the jealousy with which the clergy regarded any innova-
tion which threatened to invade their peculiar immunities. In
1161 the venerable Theobald died, and Henry proposed to put at
the head of the English church none other than his fine chan-
cellor. Some of the barons remembered the scutage and grumbled ;
but the obsequious churchmen regularly elected Thomas and con-
secrated him to the vacant see of Canterbury.
Never was king more deceived in his man. Becket felt the
hollowness of his past life in the presence of the new
responsiuii- dignity to which the king proposed to raise him. "You
Tiumma's are choosing a fine dress," he exclaimed "to figure at
the head of your Canterbury monks." He felt too the
weight of the new responsibility which he must face, and shrank
' Baldwin, Scutage and KnighVs Service in England, pp. 19-57.
316 FEUDAL REACTION [henet II.
from it; "Whoever is made archbishop," he said, "must quickly
give ofiense either to God or to the king." These protestations
were the expression of no sham humility on Thomas's part;
but the voice rather of a deeper nature, which through all these
years had been in slumber, which Henry had never recognized and
which possibly Thomas himself had but vaguely comprehended.
It was this deeper nature, so unlike the gay worldling of the
court, that awoke under unwonted burdens, and made Thomas as
completely a man of the church as he had been before a man of
the world. He at once resigned his chancellorship, much to the
disgust of the king ; renounced the vain amusements of the court
and changed his whole mode of life. The same absorbing care
which he had bestowed upon his civil ofBce, he now gave to his
new duties, relieving the poor and caring for the sick. Nor
in his solicitude for the proper ministration of his office did
he neglect his private religious duties. Yet of this inner life, men
saw little; for Thomas was a magnificent archbishop. His dress
was still of the richest, his tables as of yore groaned under the
load of good things ; but the guests had changed, instead of the
gay butterflies of the court, the poor now sat down with Thomas.
However, few understood him; even in his charities men saw the
same ostentation, that had once expressed itself in fine clothes.
But when it was all over, and the assassins had fled from the pres-
ence of their victim, and the terrified monks came creeping back
into the dark chancel and took up the mangled corpse, then they
knew this man. "Beneath the splendid robes they found the hair
cloth, and saw on the body the stripes of daily secret penance."
It was not long before the king discovered the true nature of
his new archbishop. The next year after the election the king, at
a council held at Woodstock, proposed to enroll as a
TTiP couttC'il
of woochtock, part of the royal revenue, the two shillings which the
sheriffs were accustomed to take from each hide in pay-
ment of their services.' To this Thomas protested, and his
vigorous words certainly were ominous of coming storm. "We
will not give this money as revenue," he declared, "but if the
sheriffs and servants and ministers of the shires shall perform their
' Not Danegeld. See Round, F. E., p. 497 and following.
1163] THE COURTS AND THE CLERGY 217
duties as they should, we will not be lacking in contributing to
their aid." Beeket was right and Henry had to yield.
The issue between church and state, however, was not to be
joined upon the taxation of church lands, but upon the broader
question of the proper jurisdiction of the church courts.
offurmicwin ^^^^ since the church courts had been separated from
the temporal courts, it was uncertain just where lay
the boundaries which marked their respective jurisdictions.
The system of canon law also, which had been introduced into the
English church courts during the past century, had given rise to
methods of procedure, very different from those in use in the
secular courts. Appeals to Eome were encouraged and the num-
ber had greatly increased. Most serious, however, was the custom
of trying a "criminous clerk" in the court of the bishop, where if
found guilty, he had little to fear save the imposition of a penance,
or imprisonment in a monastery or a fine. At most he would only
be unfrocked and deprived of the privileges of his order. In theory
he should be degraded and handed over to the civil court; but the
churchmen were so jealous of their own independence, that they
were inclined to spare even a notorious criminal, rather than call
upon the laity to punish one of their members. The king's justiciars
alleged that since the beginning of Henry's reign "no less than
one hundred murderers and innumerable thieves and robbers" had
in this way escaped punishment.
Henry with his characteristic bluntness went straight to the
point, and proposed that henceforth clerical criminals should be
tried by the secular courts just as ordinary persons, and
proposed that while they might be degraded by their bishops, they
should be punished by the secular arm with the severity
which the law prescribed. Thomas acknowledged the abuse, but
claimed that the remedy was to be sought, not in sacrificing the
independence of the church, but by greater care in receiving those
who were presented for orders. And this he, as archbishop, had
already conscientiously set himself to do.
In 1163 the question was brought to a direct issue by the case
of Philip de Broi, who was accused of a capital crime but escaped
by claiming benefit of clergy. The impetuous king would not be
318 PECJDAL EBACTIOK [HKNny II.
put off longer and in a great council held at Westminster, put the
direct question to the bishops: Would they abide by the customs
cmmciu of ^hich prevailed in the time of Henry I. ? The churchmen,
md^cim-m- ^o^^ver, were wary and would not commit themselves, so
*™- that the discussion was renewed again at Clarendon in
the following January whenBecket finally agreed to "obey the cus-
toms of the realm." Henry then ordered the justiciar, Eichard
de Lucy, to present a list of these customs; in nine days the report
known as the Oonstitutions of Clarendon was ready.'
The discussion, however, had evidently drifted beyond the dis-
posal of criminous clerks, and taken in the whole series of qnes-
/-.„„»■*,*■„, tions raised by the ill-defined relations of church and
'jmmari^"" ^^^^^- ~^'^'^ '^^'3 Were clerkly criminals no longer to be
■'** sheltered, but all questions concerning church patronage
or church contracts or injuries claimed by clergymen against laymen,
were to be tried in the king's courts. Oiienses not capital commit-
ted by clergymen and suits relating to church lands held by spiritual
service, were to be tried in the church courts. A layman could
not be punished by the church courts. Tenants in chief or
officers of the king could not 'be excommunicated without the
king's consent. A clergyman could not appeal to Rome; nor
were archbishops, bishops, or other persons to be allowed to leave
the realm without the license of the king. No villain could be
ordained without his lord's permission; no bishop could be chosen
without the king's permission.
To Thomas the constitutions were a cunning piece of tyranny.
Whether in a moment of weakness he was induced by the bishops,
who were now all with the king, to give his formal
wfihB^'ka. assent or not is doubtful. At all events he left the
council, determined to fight for his cause to the end;
while Henry as naturally determined to use all his power to force
the stubborn primate to resign. He summoned him to appear at
a council at Northampton and then fined him for not coming. He
made him give an account of the various moneys which he had
handled as chancellor, although the justiciar, Richard de Lucy,
' Stubbs S. C. pp. 135-140. Also, Gee and Hardy, Documents, pp. 68-70.
1166-1176] ' HBNET'S REFORMS 219
had formally released him from all claims when he resigned his
office. Thomas, broken in fortune and forsaken by his fellow
clergy, believed that his life v/as in danger and fled to Flanders.
The king turned his anger upon the church of Canterbury and the
dependents of Thomas, confiscating the revenues of the see and
driving into exile the kinsmen and friends of the archbishop, to
the number of four hundred.
Henry, relieved by the voluntary exile of Becket, then went
on with his reforms. As early as the Assize of Clarendon, 1166,
he had begun again to send the Justices from the
£'^^™'*''^' Curia Regis to sit in the shire courts. Besides admin-
istering justice, they were also expected "to look after
the collection of the royal revenues, the enrollment of each person
in a frank-pledge, and to see that all proper precautions were
taken for keeping the king's peace." These justices were known
as jtistices-in-eyre, from the Latin m itinere. In 117G Henry
formally divided England into the six permanent circuits which
have remained with slight modification until recent times.
The methods of procedure also received the touch of the same
master hand. Civil causes, such as a dispute between two neigh-
bors over the boundary of their farms, or the ownership
Methods of „ . ^ -^ , , ' , , ^
legaipro- 01 a piece of wood, or the sale and purchase of cattle,
CCdUT6
had in ancient times been settled in full shire-moot by
hearing the statements on oath of persons who claimed to know
the facts ; the decision was given by the body of suitors present.
The Normans had introduced the judicial duel, or combat, in which
the disputants, or in case of women or monks or the aged, their
representatives, set to in the presence of the court and fought the
matter out. The Norman method however, was never popular
with English townspeople, who were no such lovers of broken
heads and bleeding faces as the Norman barons. Henry offered as
an alternative to those who preferred, the privilege of bringing
their disputes before a body of sworn men, who made inquiry under
oath, discovered the facts, and recorded them. Just when this wise
measure was introduced is unknown. In the Constitutions of
Clarendon, the method is prescribed for the settlement of disputes
about ecclesiastical property.
320 FEUDAL KEACTION [heney II.
The methods of criminal trial in vogue in the early twelfth cen-
tury were even more crude than those used for the settlement of
civil causes. According to the English method the
proce^R accused man was allowed first to clear himself if he
jhegrana could by the oaths of his neighbors, who simply vouched
for his good character. If he failed in this, he was put
to the ordeal. ' The trial by battle was also allowed here as in civil
cases; the accused challenging the accuser. In either case the
appeal was supposed to be made directly to God, who knowing the
hearts of men would interfere to save the innocent or punish the
guilty. Henry in the famous Assize of Clarendon rein-
ciarendim, stituted in the place of the accusations of private indi-
viduals the jury of inquest, corresponding to the modern
grand Jury, which had been discontinued in Stephen's time but
had been used apparently more or less since the days of Ethelred,
when the twelve senior thanes of each hundred were accustomed to
swear on the rood that "they would accuse no innocent man nor
conceal any guilty man. " ^ Twelve legal men were now chosen from
each hundred and four from each township, and when the justices
came in circuit these sixteen presented to them upon oath any
one in the hundred who was "notoriously a robber or murderer or
receiver of such. " This jury was not a trial jury. It simply deter-
mined whether the person accused ought to be tried or not. The
trial then took place as before; but the only ordeal allowed by the
Assize was that of cold water, which meant almost certain condem-
nation.' The indictment of the jury, however, was a very serious
matter of itself; for even if the accused succeeded in passing the
ordeal, he was compelled to leave the country within forty days; a
commendable way of ridding the community of undesirable char-
acters. If he failed he was hanged, or otherwise punished as the
judges might direct.
In 1315 the practice of the ordeal was abolished throughout
Christendom by the Fourth Lateran Council ; and as the jury of in-
' See page 90.
^StubbsA O. p. 73.
^ See page 90.
1170] THE INQUEST OP SHERIFFS 321
quest alone was inadequate to secure the ends of justice, the custom
grew up in England of supplementing it by a second jury, known as
the petit or little jury, whose function was to review
ihe'mami'^ the work of the jury of inquest in a special case and
hfi^Mie!^ either afBrm or deny its findings. It is interesting fur-
ther to notice that the trial by battle remained, and that
it was possible for the accused to select it in preference to a trial
by petit jury as late as June 1819, when it was formally abolished
by act of Parliament.*
In the management of the exchequer, Henry's purpose was to
secure a large and steady revenue, yet levied equitably so as not
to overburden any particular class. Accordingly he
ofHemry's abolished the Danegeld which had ceased to be profit-
able; but from the knights he took scutages, from
the towns which were already growing up as centers of wealth he
took tallages. The clergy who sometimes were inclined to claim
immunity from taxation, he caused to bear their share by exacting
from them special contributions under the gracious name of
"gifts," — dona. From the estates of his own domain he received
a steady stream of "ferms" paid by his custodians, and upon his
officers also occasionally he levied the dona. The itinerant justices
periodically visited the shires, holding pleas and gathering fees and
fines, all of which went into the royal treasury. Another impor-
tant income Henry derived from the Jews whom he undertook to
protect against the intolerance and jealousy of the people in return
for the payment of enormous sums of money.
Yet although Henry honestly attempted to adjust taxation
fairly, the burden rested grievously upon the necks of his people.
For this he was not altogether to blame. The sheriffs
Ths JTlQUCSt
of Sheriffs, as a bodv had been trained in the evil school of Stephen
1170.
and were not above plundering the people for their own
profit. The poor and the friendless were the most frequent suffer-
ers. They were often turned out of their homes and compelled in
order to live to take to thieving and plunder. The king's officers
were making outlaws faster than the king's courts could hang
' For the famous Thornton case of 1817, see Taswell-Langmead, 5th ed.
pp. 103-105.
223 FEUDAL REACTION [heket II.
them. Henry determined therefore to overhaul the whole system,
and in the year 1170 sent ont special commissioners to inquire
whether the sheriffs were enforcing the laws ; whether they were
taking bribes ; how much money they were receiving from the
counties and in a word to inquire into their entire official conduct.
This \yas the famous Inquest of Sheriffs, conceived and carried out
in a manner worthy of Charles the Great. It was no mere "white-
washing commission." Twenty out of twenty-seven sheriffs were
reported guilty of irregular practices and straightway deposed.
The old sheriffs, moreover, had been selected from the great barons
of the localities, some of whom held several counties and were in
a fair way of assuming the importance of the former earls. The
new appointees the king took from the exchequer; men of humble
position who depended for their professional career solely upon the
king's favor.
For six years Becket had now been in exile. He had spent his
time in a vain attempt to persuade Pope Alexander III. to espouse
his cause. But Alexander was sore pressed by the
Partial Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and was not inclined to
"f ^'TJ""* break with the English king. Instead, therefore, of tak-
aiM stctirii, o o
ing up the cudgels for Becket, he used his influence to
bring Henry and his obdurate primate to an tinder standing, but
only with partial success. Becket insisted on condemning the
obnoxious Constitutions, and the king as stubbornly refused to give
him the "kiss of peace."
Matters were drifting in this uncertain way when Henry unfor-
tunately contrived again to wound the pride of the archbishop.
He had determined after the French custom to make
mmain"'' '^'^ ^°'^' H^nry, king during his own lifetime, and thus
not only secure the peaceful succession of the crown,
something as yet unknown in the annals of the Norman kings,
but also provide for the better government of the kingdom during
his own frequent and unavoidable absences in Normandy. No one
questioned Henry's right to have his son crowned. But unfortu-
nately the privilege of crowning English kings had been by long
custom and common consent conceded to the archbishop of Can-
terbury. Henry, however, was in no mood to honor Thomas and
il70] THE MURDER OP BECKET 223
allowed Roger, the new archbishop of York, an old enemy of
Becket, to hallow the young Henry. Thomas was furious; he per-
suaded the pope to suspend Roger, and also the bishops
^nedat'^ of London and Salisbury who had taken part in the
YwMiZim'. ceremony. The king of France who was always ready
to enlist against his rival of England and was never
over-particular about the justice of his cause, was persuaded that an
affront had been intended for him personally in that his daughter,
the wife of Prince Henry, had not been crowned with her husband,
and threatened war. The elder Henry quailed before the storm,
and hastening to France attempted to conciliate Thomas, and finally
persuaded him to return to England. When Thomas arrived, how-
ever, Henry was still in France and the primate received but a cold
welcome from those in authority. He first attempted to recover
his confiscated estates, but with indifferent success ; and when he
complained, the young king laughed, refused to see him and bade
him keep to his see. The reply of Thomas was to renew the sen-
tence against Roger and the two bishops. The elder Henry at the
time was at Bures, keeping the Christmas feast. The report of the
new troubles of Becket were brought to him by the suspended
bishops and put in such way, we may believe, as to reflect most dis-
creditably upon the primate. The king heard, and in a moment of
passion let slip the fatal words: "Here is a man that has eaten my
bread ; a pitiful fellow that came to my court on a sorry hackney
and owes all he has to me, lifting his heel against me, and insult-
ing my kingdom and my kindred; and not one of the cowardly
sluggish servants I feed and pay so well has had the heart to avenge
me!" Four knights heard the hot words of the king; returned to
England, went to Canterbury, and there murdered the primate in
St. Benedict's Chapel.
Indignation and horror everywhere greeted this act of sacrilege.
Henry cleared himself by oath of all complicity in the primate's
death ; but his reforms trembled in the balance. The
murder of Constitutions of Clarendon were nominally abandoned ;
but there was no one to take up the cause of Thomas
and there the matter rested. The whole question of the supremacy
of the civil power was left open ; but to leave it open was to leave
224 FEUDAL KBACTIOK [heubtU.
the advantage in the king's hands and ultimately give him the
victory. During the lifetime of Henry, Thomas was canonized,
and his shrine, erected at Canterbury, soon became a very popular
resort for English pilgrims.
It is now time to notice the relation of the king of England to
the other parts of the British islands. From the time of William
I. the princes of Wales had acknowledged a nominal
umwmsU)f^ suzerainty, and Henry II. had carried on three wars with
im^m'r indifferent success to make these claims good. The
kings of Scotland had also acknowledged a dependence of
a vague kind. A suzerainty over Ireland had not as yet been more
than thought of. The Irish had made some headway in the arts
of civilization and had early accepted Christianity, though they had
not yet become attached to the see of Eome. In 1154 Pope
Adrian IV. as lord of all the islands of the sea, issued a bull bestow-
ing Ireland on the English king and exhorting him to extend hither
the papal authority. Henry at the time meditated a plan of con-
quest, but gave it up in deference to the objection of his mother
who thought he had quite enough to attend to at home. Ireland was
still in the old tribal stage with various rival princes constantly
warring with one another. In 1166 a prince named Dermod fled
to Henry and did homage to him in order to secure his aid.
Henry was not yet willing to undertake the quest himself, but gave
permission to such of his knights as were ready, to attempt it.
Dermod easily found allies in the adventurous nobles of the Welsh
border, who under the leadership of Richard de Clare, earl of
Strigul, better known as "Strongbow," invaded Ireland and took
possession of Leinster. Then lest such a colony if left in inde-
pendence should prove a menace to the quiet of England, Henry
asserted his authority as overlord. The outcome of the murder of
Beeket was at the time still in suspense and Henry was probably
glad of any excuse for getting out of England. He compelled
Strongbow's followers to submit to him, and besides received the
homage of all the princes of Leinster and Meath. Directly the
homage of the Irish princes was of little significance, for they
ignored it again as soon as Henry's back was turned; but a foot-
hold had been won in the island, a claim had been established
1172-1174] BETOLT OF THE BAKONS 235
which was destined to draw the Irish ever more deeply under the
shadow of their powerful neighbors.
The family life of Henry reveals the same, sad blight which
seems to have been the common lot of medieval kings. His warm
nature craved affection and loyalty in those who were
barons, im- nearest to him, but Eleanor, proud and treacherous by
1174. .
nature, was incapable of bestowing either, and her sons
were equally false and undutiful. In 1173 the king repeated the
coronation of Prince Henry. He had already secured Brittany for
his second sou, Geoffrey, by marrying him to Constance, heiress of
Brittany; and had made his third son Eichard duke of Aquitaine.
The danger in this scheme was that the sons who were never overdu-
tiful, would grow impatient of their father's control, and in hope of
realizing their inheritances would lend a ready ear to the flat-
teries of the king's many enemies. The younger Henry in par-
ticular was a foolish and heady youth who was only too willing
to believe that now he had been crowned, he ought to be really the
king. He easily fell into the hands, therefore, of those who were
jealous of Henry's greatness and who sought to use the youth as
their tool. Eleanor and the younger sons also took side against the
father. The barons of Normandy were soon deeply involved in the
rebellion, actively aided by the princes of Scotland, Flanders, and
Champaign. But the difficulties which faced Henry only brought
out all the splendid energy of his character. On the continent he
was favored by the dissensions of his enemies. In England his
justiciars, de Lucy and Glanville, served him loyally and were sup-
ported generally by the sympathies of the people. In Norfolk they
took the arch rebel, the earl of Leicester, while in the north the
royal forces led by Glanville and supported by the men of Yorkshire
gained a decisive victory over the Scots at Alnwick, taking their
king, William the Lion. At the time, Henry was going through
his seemly penance at the tomb of Becket, spending the night in
prayers and tears, and offering his back to the scourges of the
monks. The news of Alnwick was received as the sign of divine
forgiveness; the rebellion was broken, the rebels were at the king's
feet. Henry, however, was in no mood to punish ; he would shed no
blood and he made scarcely any confiscations. Yet in the interests
336 FEUDAL KE ACTION [heneyii.
of good government he insisted upon taking all the castles
into his own hands and thus completed the work which he had
begun twenty years before. Before releasing the king of Scot-
land from his prison at Falaise, he obliged him to do
Fa-Mse^in4 homage and acknowledge his supremacy over Scotland.
The sons, however, were restored to their former posi-
tions as prospective heirs to the various parts of Henry's dominions.
Yet his trouble with them was by no means ended. The younger
Henry went on with his intrigues until his death in 1183. The
unpopularity of Geoffrey in Brittany made him also a source of
constant trouble until his death in 1185. The death of Henry had
left Eichard the acknowledged heir to the throne, and the father
proposed to transfer a part of Aqnitaine to the portionless John.
But Eichard was in no mind to renounce any of his lands in the
south and made cause with Philip against the father.
Thus Henry struggled on amid the deepening gloom of declin-
ing years. Yet he had not for a moment forgotten the great work
to which he had devoted his life. In 1176 he renewed
TTic- .Asfiizc of
NnrthamiJ- the Assizc of Clarendon at Northampton, and added
other regulations for the better preservation of the
peace. In 1178 he further organized the work of the Curia Regis
by setting apart five judges and committing to them a great part
of the judicial business, which it had been customary to bring
before the Curia as a whole. This special committee developed
ultimately into two separate courts, known as the Court of King's
Bench and the Court of Common Pleas, which with the Court of
Exchequer already organized, constituted three coordinate branches
of the Curia.
The last great measure of Henry for the better ordering of the
kingdom, was the famous Assize of Arms. The Norman kings
had often found the fyrd useful both in repelling for-
Armf^fm"^ eign invasion, as at Northallerton, and also in check-
ing and overawing the barons. To encourage and
strengthen the national forces, Henry proposed that every freeman
should find arms and equipment according to his ability, estimated
by the amount of his property. The Assize directed that every
one holding a knight's fee should possess a coat of mail with hel-
1187] THE CAPTURE OF JEEUSALEM 23'?
met, shield, and lance ; every man having chattels or receiving rent
to the value of 16 marks should be armed in like manner; one who
was worth 10 marks should have a coat of mail, an iron cap, and a
lance; other freemen should provide themselves with doublet of
mail, iron cap, and lance. The lance was evidently the important
Implement of war; the bow was not yet conspicuous.
As the years of Henry's reign drew to its close, the eyes of all
Christendom were once more turned to the east. The Christian
kingdom of Jerusalem had been established in 1099, as
lif'jt?maum °°^ °^ *^® results of the First Crusade, and had led a
6j^?i6 Turks, precarious existence since, owing largely to the discords
of the Christian knights rather than to the strength of
their enemies. The surrounding Turkish states, small, and divided
against each other, had been unable singly to drive out the
strangers. But they had been united recently into a powerful
state by the Sultan Noureddin and his son Saladin, who had suc-
ceeded in combining all the vast military resources of the lands
between the Nile and the Euphrates. Henry was particularly inter-
ested, because through his grandfather Fulk of Anjou who had
married for his second wife Milicent, the heiress of Jerusalem, an
Angevin line had been established in the east. In 1186 the last male
representative of the eastern Angevins had died, and Sibyl, the
surviving daughter, had bestowed herself and her father's crown
upon Guy of Lusignan. The valiant Guy had made a noble stand
against the rising strength of Saladin, but at the battle of Tiberias,
July 1187, the last remaining strength of the Christians was swept
away, and Jerusalem with the "true cross" fell to the victor as
the spoil of battle.
The pope, Gregory VIII., had already sent out frantic appeals
for help but the danger seemed remote, the western princes were
all quarreling among themselves, and none had heeded.
A new Cm- zoo i
sadepro- Then there came the news of the brave but hopeless
stand at Tiberias, followed by the yet more astound-
ing rumor of the fall of the holy city. Europe awoke as it had
awakened a hundred years before under the fervid words of Peter
the Hermit. The pope proclaimed the Crusade, and the princes
of the west, swept along by the popular tide, dared not deny
238 FEUDAL REACTION" [henkt 11.
the demand of their people to be led once more against the
infidel.
Henry, to whom the misfortunes of Guy were almost a personal
matter, had long before begun to prepare for the Crusade, but in
1185 he had been compelled by the earnest protest of his bishops
and barons to abandon his project for the time. He now persuaded
the great council to devote to the holy cause a tenth part of the
goods of every man in England, the "Saladin tithe." ' He found,
however, that he was not yet free to move. He soon became in-
volved in a fresh quarrel with his son Richard and the young king
Philip II. of France, who suddenly invaded Henry's continental
dominions at a time when he was not only ill but had been aban-
doned by his mercenaries on account of arrears of pay. Henry
could make no resistance. He was driven out of Le Mans, the city
of his birth, and at last compelled to accept an humiliating treaty in
which he conceded the demands of Richard and Philip without
reserve. Among these concessions, he agreed that Richard's asso-
ciates should transfer their allegiance from the father to the son.
The king called for the list, and when he saw at the head the name
of John, his youngest born, whom he had not suspected of treason
and whom he dearly loved, he read no further. "I have nothing
left to care for," cried the broken-hearted man, "let all things go
their way." He did not recover from the shock, but died three
days later, attended only by Geoffrey, an illegitimate son,^ and by
William Marshal, who had been the friend and supporter of the
younger Henry and had attached himself to the father after 1183.
The sad death of Henry closed a uniformly successful life. As
head of a compact kingdom and lord of nearly half of what is now
France, his position among the princes of Europe was
wvjrtco/ second only to that of the emperor. While Henry
probably considered his continental interests of greater
importance, the work which has given him his name lay in the
island kingdom. His reign marks a great advance in the national
life of England. The monarchy had triumphantly passed through
the dangers of feudal anarchy. The king had proved himself to be
'Stubbs, S. C, p. 160.
^ Not to be confused with the father of Arthur.
THE WORK OF HENRY
329
the one great centralizing and unifying influence in the state.
The barons had been spoiled of their castles; the authority of the
laws of the realm over all classes vindicated and the supremacy of
the king's courts established upon a permanent foundation.
CONTEMPORARIES OP LATER NORMAN AND EARLY ANGEVIN KINGS.
KINGS OF FRANCE
Philip L,d. 1108
Louis VI., d. 113T
Louis VII., d. 1180
Pliilip II.,
Augustus, 1180
EMPERORS
Henry IV., d. 1106
Henry V. (son-in-
law of Henry of
England), d. 1125
Lothair IL, d!. 1137
Conrad IIL, d. 1152
Frederick I.,
Barbarossa, 1133
1087-1187
KINGS OF SCOTS
Malcolm III., d. 1093
Donald Bane, liing in
1093 and again in 1094
Duncan, 1094
Edgar, 1097-1106
Alexander I., d. 1124
David I., d. 1153
Malcolm IV., d. 1165
"WilUam the Lion, 1165
MORE PROMINENT
POPES
Urban II., d. 1099
Paschal IL, d. 1118
CalixtusIL, d. 1124
Honoriusn.,d.ll30
Innocent II., d. 1143
CelestinelL.d. 1144
Hadrian IV., 1154-
1159
Alexander III., d.
1181
Urban III , d. 1187
PROMINENT ARCHBISHOPS OP CANTERBURY
Lanfranc, d. 1089
Anselm, 1093-1109
Theobald, 1139-1161
Thomas, 1162-1170
PROMINENT CHIEF JUSTICIARS
Ralph Flambard, 1094-1100
Roger of SaUsbury, 1107-1139
Robert, Earl of Leicester, 1154-1167
Richard de Lucy, 1154-1179
Ranulf de Glanville, 1180
CHAPTBE VI
THE GROWTH 01? POPULAR RIGHTS AND THE LOSS OF THE CONTI-
NENTAL POSSESSIONS OF THE ANGEVINS
RICHARD, llW-im
JOHN, iim-au
FAMILY OF HENRY II.
Henry II.
I
I I I
Henry, Geoffrey William
d. 1183 Archbishop Longsword
of York Earl of
(illegitimate) Salisbury
(Illegitimate)
Richard
King
1189-1199
Matilda = Henry of Saxony
Otto IV. Emperor,
1209-1318
i
Joanna
m.
William II.
of Sicily
I I i
Geoffrey, John Eleanor
d. 1186 King m.
m. 1199-1216 Alfonso
Constance m. King of
of Brittany Isabella Castile
I of t
Arthur Angouleme Blanche
Duke of m.
Brittany, Louis
murdered VIII. of
1203 France
After Henry's death Eichard passed quietly to the English
throne. There were disgraceful riots ending in massacres of Jews
in various parts of the kingdom ; but they were inspired
Richard'"' bj the desire of pious subjects to relieve their excess-
^■'*''' ive loyalty, rather than to show any feeling of hostility
to the new king. In character Richard presented a marked con-
trast to his father. Henry was a soldier only by necessity. He
hated the riot and uncertainty of war. He loved order and pre-
ferred to win his triumphs over the lawlessness of the time by the
steady encroachment of good government and wise administration.
Richard was a soldier rather than an administrator ; a knight errant
rather than a statesman. His iiguro suggested great physical
power and endurance. "His fresh complexion and golden hair"
betrayed the viking blood. In dress he was showy and ostenta- ■
tious; in the use of money, extravagant; in action, impulsive.
Like Stephen he possessed the generous qualities of the soldier;
but unlike Stephen, as his career in Poitou proved, he could
enforce law and order. Yet he was full of visionary ambitions and
possessed nothing of the Angevin aptitude for practical affairs. All
230
1189] SALE OF PKITILEGES 331
in all he was a poor king. Althougli born in England, he had
spent his youth abroad and knew little of the people over whom he
was to reign. He remained always an Aqnitanian, and seemed
to regard his kingdom only as an appanage of his continental
dominions. He cared little for its interests, treating it for the
most part as a convenient source of supplies in carrying on his
continental schemes.^
Eichard had taken the cross in 1188, and his accession to the
crown offered the means of putting his long-cherished plan of
Bichard's Soi^^S ^^ ^ Orusade into immediate execution. He
methp^of found the treasury full, thanks to his father's thrift as
raising •^ '
money. much as to the recently collected Saladin tithe. But
these sums were not sufficient to enable him to carry out his plans
upon the scale which he meditated; he set himself, therefore, to
raise more money. He took fees from those whom he appointed
to office and also from those whom he permitted to retire. The
aged justiciar, Kanulf de Glanville, eminent as the first scientific
writer upon English law, was allowed to buy his way out of office that
he might take part in the Crusade. Rights and immunities were
thrown on the bargain counter in reckless profusion; "I would
sell London," the king exclaimed, "if I could find a purchaser."
In return for a payment of 10,000 marks, he released the king of
Scots from the homage which he had sworn at Palaise.
Paiaise, To those who in a moment of thoughtless enthusiasm
had taken the cross, he sold licenses to remain at home.
The general traffic of the king in sheriffdoms, justiceships, church
lands and appointments of all kinds, shocked even that age when
public office had come to be regarded largely as a matter of private
property; "all things were venal to him." "Thus the king
acquired an infinite amount of money, more than any of his pred-
ecessors is known to have had."
In order to make provision for the government of the kingdom
during his absence, Eichard placed the authority of the justiciar
jointly in the hands of Hugh of Puiset, the bishop of Durham,
who paid £3,000 for the honor, and William of Longchamp, the
' For character of Richard see Norgate, England under Angevin Kings,
II, 206-208.
332 THE GROWTH OF POPULAR RIGHTS [riohabu I.
chancellor. Longcliamp was a foreigner, and said to be of mean
birth. He had been raised over nobler heads to the chancellorship;
then made bishop of Ely, and finally justiciar. He was
proiHdesfm- lame and ugly, but skillful and unscrupulous. He
was hated by the nobles as a matter of course, and thus
had every reason to be faithful to his master.
In December 1189, Richard left England for Palestine. But his
back had hardly been turned before the two justiciars began to
quarrel at the exchequer, and Longcliamp, secretly sup-
TO^'o/'""*"* ported by the king, displaced his rival. His increased
us^iwi™'^' PO^^®^) however, brought him no popularity. He took
no pains to disguise his contempt for the English whose
language he would not speak ; he gave offense to the nobles by
placing his foreign friends and kinsmen in high positions, bestow-
ing upon them the custody of castles and towns, which he seized
under various pretexts. He lived himself in great luxury and
pomp, traveling about the country with an extravagant retinue of
fifteen hundred men.
The growing unpopularity of Longcliamp might not have
been a serious matter, had it not been for Richard's younger
brother John, who saw an opportunity for mischief,
Pvincc Jolm a j. «/ /
amischief- ' always grateful to his intriguing disposition. Richard
and John had been generally upon good terms, although
Richard was not unaware of John's treacherous nature. He
had refused to recognize him as his heir, and in the arrange-
ment which he had made for the government during his absence,
had further denied John any share in the administration. He
had also exacted a promise from John under oath, that he would
leave the kingdom for three years; but to conciliate him, had
given him control of five counties with their revenues and castles.
Against the advice of Eleanor, however, the wise precaution of
keeping John out of England had been abandoned, and he was now
lording it like a king in his five shires, and openly encouraging
the discontent of the deposed justiciar, Hugh of Durham, and the
general restlessness of the barons under the insolence of Longcliamp.
An attempt of Longchamp to replace the castellan of Lincoln
was resisted by John. For a moment it seemed that open war was
1189-1191] KICHAED AND THE THIKD CRUSADE 333
inevitable; but the quarrel was patched up, and Longchamp's
tyrannies continued. John's half-brother, GeofErey, had been
recently made archbishop of York. Like John he had
iMwchamp. ^^^^ compelled to promise under oath that he would
keep away from England daring the king's absence; but
like John also he had been released, and in August 1191 returned.
Longchamp refused to believe in the alleged release and sent his
men to arrest GeofErey in Dover church. The people, who had not
yet forgotten the brutal deed of Henry's knights at Canterbury,
beheld the archbishop, dragged by hands and feet through their
filthy streets, bareheaded, his sacred vestments torn and dis-
heveled, "clinging to his pastoral cross and excommunicating his
tormentors as he went." The unseemly sight destroyed what
little respect still lingered for Longchamp's authority. John
at once took up Geoffrey's cause, and summoning a great council
at London, forced Longchamp to leave the kingdom. Eichard, it
seems, had already heard of the difficulties of Longchamp and had
sent back to England one of his father's old and long-tried officials,
WaltSr of Coutances, archbishop of Rouen. Walter had reached
England in April. At the moment everything was
Goutamcesi, quiet and according to instructions he kept his secret
commission in his wallet. But the time had now come
to act, and producing his coinmission he quietly took Long-
champ's place at the council board. The arrangement had been
made by Eichard's authority and John and his friends were
forced to be satisfied.
In the meanwhile Eichard was having his heart's content of
intrigue and wild adventure. He and Philip of Prance had
attempted to make the Crusade together, but had
Bichard and \ ■, „ ,, ,, „ , -am- • ^ .1
the Third quarreled from the start. At Messina, where they
passed the winter of 1190 and 1191, so hot ran the
fierce war of words that they all but came to blows. In June
Eichard reached Acre where Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem
by right of his wife Sibyl, Eichard's kinswoman, had been carry-
ing on a profitless siege since 1189. Frederick Barbarossa, the
fine old septuagenarian emperor, had set out in 1190 to reach Syria
by land, but had been drowned while crossing the Calycadmus, a
334 THE GROWTH OF POPULAR RIGHTS [riohakd I.
little stream of Asia Minor. Only a small part of his army ever
reached the Holy Land, and although Philip had arrived at Acre
in April, the outlook was still very gloomy when Kichard came.
The camp was poorly arranged for the accommodation of large
bodies of men, poorly drained and swept by pestilence. The ceme-
tery near by already contained as many recruits as the armies that
bivouacked before the city ; the solemn muster including the names
of Baldwin of Canterbury, and Ranulf de Glanville, Henry's famous
jurist. The arrival of Eiehard, his skill and spirit, soon put new
life into the besiegers, and within a month- the city fell. The next
step would have been naturally the capture of Jerusalem and the
restoration of Guy. But the capture of Acre had cost 300,000
men ; the leaders were divided and jealous of each other ; the recent
death of Sibyl, also, in the eyes of the German and French leaders,
had destroyed Guy's claim to the crown. Thus a new bone of
contention was thrown into the camp and Philip and many of the
Germans went home in disgust, leaving Eiehard to carry on the
contest alone as best he could. Twice he led his troops almost
within sight of the sacred battlements ; he beat the Sultan in a
great battle at Asuf ; still with his depleted hosts he could not
secure the prize. Then came news of more mischief-making at
home where Philip who had now reached France, was secretly
lending his influence to John's schemes. Richard determined,
therefore, to make the best terms he could with Saladin and return.
He obtained a truce which was to last three years, and which
secured to Christians the privilege of visiting Jerusalem and trad-
ing in the country. This done, Eiehard set out, leaving Hubert
Walter, the crusading bishop of Salisbury, to bring home his army.
Richard's troubles were by no means over. He had intended
to land at Marseilles, but rumor of a plot of Eaymond of Toulouse
to seize him upon landing, turned him back to the sea.
The TctiiTn
avd rapture, Finally, after long buffeting by contrary winds, he was
wrecked near Eagusa and compelled to cross Germany
on foot. Everything went well until he entered the dominions of
Leopold of Austria, whom at the taking of Acre he had mortally
offended by throwing down the duke's banner from the walls.
1194] THE EANSOM OF RICHARD 235
Eicliard had donned a pilgrim's garb and had allowed his beard to
grow long. But he was recognized in spite of his disguise, and as
he approached Vienna was seized and cast into prison.
Philip no sooner heard of the good luck of Leopold, than he
began to plot deeper mischief with John. Together they cun-
ningly spread the rumor that Richard was dead, and
Philip and John was allowed to do homage for Richard's conti-
nental dominions. But neither Eleanor, nor Bishop
Geoffrey, nor Hugh of Durham could be caught by such a trick,
and when John demanded the custody of the English castles, they
defied him. Philip then attempted to rouse the king of Denmark
to invade England, while he with a French army invaded Nor-
mandy. The nobles of Aquitaine were as usiial ready to revolt,
and even in Anjou Philip found a sentiment widely prevalent
among the nobility, that their tru.6 interests lay in a closer alliance
with the French king.
In the meanwhile Richard fared but poorly in the hands of his
captors. He was, however, too valuable a prisoner to keep in secret
confinement, or to destroy. Under the strange ideas
RMMrdtn '*^bi°^ prevailed, when states might play the footpad
senry VL T/fiHi dignity, Richard's capture was in fact a great
speculation; he could be held for ransom. The busi-
ness, however, was too great for Leopold alone to handle ; so he
sold out to the Emperor Henry VI. who had grudges of his own
against Richard, and was not averse to satisfying his malice and
filling his coffers at the same time.
"While Richard was thus spending his days in the seclusion of
a German castle, John was conducting himself as though he
expected his brother would never return, seizing castles
The ransom, and defying the justiciar. Yet he did not forget to
intrigue with Philip to prevent Henry from releasing
his royal captive. All of this, of course, oaly raised the price of
ransom, which was at last fixed at the enormous sum of 150,000
marks. It was a serious burden to come in the train of so much
else, and yet the nation assumed it loyally. Each knight's fee
was bound by feudal law to pay its aid for the lord's ransom. But
the customary aid of 30 shillings per fee was inadequate to meet
236 THE GROWTH OS POPULAR EIGHTS [kichabd I.
such a ransom as this. Accordingly the aids were supplemented
by the exaction of a fourth part of the revenue or of the mova-
ble goods of every man in the kingdom. To this the Cistercians
and Gilbertines were also induced to add the fourth part of the
wool of their flocks,' and many of the more important churches
contributed their "plate and jewels." Similar exertions were also
made in the continental dominions of Kichard. Still the sum did
not reach the ransom demanded by the enterprising emperor; yet
enough had been raised to make a payment on account, and the
emperor consented to release the king after receiving hostages in
guarantee of the balance. .Among the hostages was the justiciar,
Walter of Coutances. As soon as Kichard reached England, he
summoned a great council of his barons at Nottingham, and to
complete the ransom, levied two shillings upon every ploughland
of one hundred acres, the carucage. It was also proposed
to confiscate all the wool of the Cistercians for one year,
but they were finally allowed to compensate by a money payment
instead.
As a salve to the pride of Kichard, before he left Germany the
emperor had bestowed upon him the titular crown of the kingdom
The titular '^^ Burgundy; to Kichard an acquisition of some impor-
Burjundii t^nce, since by it he became a prince of the empire.
a'rd!^H(mmie Another transaction is also connected with the ransom
forEngiand. Qf Richard which has caused English historians some
difiiculty to explain. It is said that Richard formally renounced
his English kingdom to the emperor, handing him his cap in lieu
of the crown in token of surrender, and that the emporor returned
it to him again, on condition of homage and a yearly rent of
£5,000. The arrangement was afterward annulled by the
emperor.^ So at last Kichard was free and the fabulous ransom was
paid. Henry, apparently, still had an unworthy feeling that he might
have made a better bargain. But the pope and the German princes
were indignant at the ill usage of Richard and at the violation of
his rights as a crusader, and Henry did not dare longer to ofiend
the awakening sentiment of Europe.
'Compare Norgate II, p. 326 with Stubbs, O. H., I, p. 540.
^Stubbs, O. H., I, p. 601.
1194] HTJBEET WALTER 337
Richard remained in England from March 20 until May 13,
barely two months, but long enough to finish tumbling down
John's house of cards, and then was off again to the
TticfuiTdi's
second stay continent to settle his score with Philip. With charac-
teristic generosity he pardoned John. "I forgive him,"
said the king, "and hope that I shall as easily forget his injuries
as he will my pardon." He was too shrewd, however, to put lands
or power again into John's hands. John on his part realized that
it was useless to intrigue further against his powerful brother,
and accepting a stipend which enabled him to live in a way
becoming his rank, he gave no more trouble for the rest of Eichard's
reign. After bringing John to terms, Richard then set himself
to raise new funds in order to further his schemes against Philip.
He compelled those who had made trouble during his absence to
forfeit vast sums ; sheriffs were turned out of their positions upon
various pretexts, and another sale of oflBces began; charters and
privileges were again scattered freely for money, and many towns,
imitating the recent example of London,' seized the opportunity
to gain corporate rights.
While in his German prison Richard had secured the election
of the crusader Hubert Walter to the see of Canterbury.
Hubert was no ordinary priest. He was a nephew of
w^aUer Henry's great justiciar, Ranulf de Glanville, and had
been trained in his household. He had accompanied his
venerable primate, Archbishop Baldwin, in the Crusade, and after
his death had been tacitly recognized as the chief among the
spiritual leaders of the English crusaders, and when Richard has-
tened home, it was to Hubert that he entrusted the conduct of
the returning host. As archbishop, Hubert had at once exercised
a decisive influence in checking the elements of disorder which
were seeking to take advantage of the prolonged absence of the
king; he had inspired the measures for raising the king's ransom,
and by supporting the Justiciar Walter and casting the weight of
the church against John, had materially contributed to the over-
throw of John's influence even before the release of Richard.
■ For date (1191) of granting the commune to London and for influence
of example, see Round, The Commune of London, pp. 319-360.
238 THE GEOWTH OP POPULiU EIGHTS [biohabdI.
When, therefore, the justiciar was summoned to Germany to present
himself as a hostage in order to secure the king's release, Arch-
bishop Hubert had been appointed to succeed him.
The task which was assigned the new justiciar was not an
enviable one. In order to support Richard in the war which he
proposed to wage against his continental foes, Hubert
Hubert was expected to raise funds from the already exhausted
the political kingdom and yet keep the people contented and sub-
thepeopie. missive. The justiciar, however, fully grasped the con-
ditions of his position; he knew the temper of the
English and saw that his only hope of success lay in win-
ning their confidence and active support. To this end he sought
to avoid the appearance of irregular or arbitrary extortion
by throwing the assessment of levies largely into the hands
of the people; he also gave them a more direct share in the
administration of justice, taking from the sheriffs the selec-
tion of the juries of presentment and placing it in the hands
of the "lawful men" of the shires. He also greatly enlarged
the scope of these juries, not only inviting them to adjudge pleas
of the crown, but calling upon them for support and cooperation
in almost every emergency. Constitutionally these innovations
were of the utmost importance ; they not only did much to restore
the habit of local self-government, which was rapidly passing into
a mere tradition under the deadening influence of the Norman-
Angevin system of centralization, but they also inaugurated a
course of political education which directly prepared that genera-
tion of Englishmen for the role which they were to play in the
great era at hand.
Notwithstanding these wise and statesmanlike measures, how-
ever, Hubert was not able altogether to forestall discontent. In
London the poor craftsmen, the weavers, the arrow-
tti'r'eo^u"^ smiths, the day laborers, and others, who were not land-
holders and so had no voice in making assessments or
directing the local administration, charged the burghers with
sparing their own purses at the expense of the poor. Murmurs
soon passed to open riot and bloodshed. An eccentric burgher,
William Fitz-Osbert, called also "William Longbeard," a returned
1194-1198] WILLIAM LONGBBARD 239
crusader, championed the cause of the people. He was a natural
agitator, and by proclaiming the monstrous doctrine that "every
man, poor or rich, ought to pay his share of the city's bur-
den according to his means," a doctrine which he advocated with
rare eloquence, soon made himself the special object of govern-
ment wrath. The justiciar attempted to arrest William, but he
resisted, slew one of his assailants and fled to the church of Saint
Mary-at-Bow. Hubert who might not take William in the church
without violating sanctuary, ordered the building to be fired.
The leaping flames drove William upon the soldiers waiting with-
out; he was at once struck down, and, stripped and bleeding, was
dragged through the city to the gallows at Elms ^ and there hanged
with eight of his comrades. The cause of popular liberty was to
have many such martyrs in the near future, but none more noble
and sincere, none of clearer vision than the eccentric William
Longbeard.
This exhibition of harshness did not increase the strength
of Hubert; popular disapproval continued to find expression,
and finally became so pronounced that the justiciar
^Wwh^ asked to be relieved. Eichard, however, needed him,
uncoin^ and at his special request Hubert once more took up the
ungrateful burden. In the meantime discontent was
spreading among all classes, and steadily solidified into a stubborn
determination to pay no more taxes; and when in 1198 Richard
sent over a demand not only for more money but for men as well,
even the saintly Hugh of Avalon, bishop of Lincoln, who was rever-
enced in England as no other man since the death of Anselm, pro-
tested against the unheard-of exaction. At a great council held at
Oxford he faced the justiciar with the noble words: "Ye know
well, my lords, that I am a stranger in this land, one called from
the plain life of a hermit to be bishop. But when our Lady's
Church of Lincoln was given into my unskilled hands, I set about
learning what its rights and burdens were, and these thirteen years
I have walked in all the ways of my forerunners. I know very
well that this church is bound to furnish knights for the king's
service in England, but not for service abroad. And I will go back
' The later Tyburn.
240 THE GROWTH OF POPULAE EIGHTS [RicHiEoi.
at once to my old hermit's life rather than lay fresh burdens on
this bishopric committed to my charge." Herbert, the bishop of
Salisbury, a member of the family of the great Roger, also sup-
ported Hugh, and Hubert, quailing before opposition such as this,
durst not press the demand for men, although the barons
The (ivcdt f o
carucage, finally submitted to the levy of a carucage, at the rate
of five shillings on each carucate. No one, however,
paid the tax willingly; the monks refused outright, and were
brought to terms only by threat of outlawry. Poor Hubert was
now pressed from all sides. The taxpayers held him responsible
for the exactions, and the absent king held him responsible for the
tardy payment ; while the pope on his own account sent him some
very plain-spoken advice. "It was not worthy,." he wrote, " that
an archbishop should be a judge and a taskmaster." Peeling
that'he was discredited on all sides, and undoubtedly weary of the
whole business, Hubert resigned, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, another
of Henry 11. 's men, was appointed in his place. The new justiciar
was quite as able as Hubert, but more stern and troubled by fewer
scruples. The administration, however, was suddenly confronted
with a new series of problems by the death of Richard.
Since his return to the continent Richard had been engaged in
almost constant strife with the French king. Philip, as we have
seen, had got the pot well boiling when the unwelcome
Richard on » -i-, • , -i , , i ■, , .
the continent, news ol Kicliard s release reached him. The famous
1194-1199.
message which he sent to John, "The devil is loose,
take care of yourself," attests his respect for the wild energy of
Richard's character, and that he fully expected trouble. It
was this war both of defense and revenge, that Richard had
taken up with all the cunning and unscrupulous violence of the
Angevin, and for which Hubert Walter had been exacting such
vast sums from the long-sufEering loyalty of the English. The
rebels of Aquitaine were reduced; Philip was checked on the
Norman border; and Flanders, the ally of Philip, was bought o3
by a well-timed bribe. The counts of Chartres, Champagne,
Boulogne, and others, including the most powerful vassals of Philip,
were leagued in revolt ; while by Richard's influence in the Ger-
man diet he managed to secure the election of his nephew, Otto of
1199] DEATH OF RICHARD 241
Saxony, as Henry VI. 's successor, and thus laid the foundation of
an alliance of England and the empire. In order to hold his Norman
frontier against Philip, Richard seized the church lands where "the
Seine bends suddenly at Gaillon in a great semicircle to the north,
and where the valley of Les Andelys breaks the line of cliifs along
its banks," and here on a spur of the chalk hills, connected with the
plateau in the rear by a narrow neck, at the dizzy height of three
hundred feet above the river, he reared his "Saucy Castle," the
Chateau Gaillard. Philip saw the massive fortress rising and
swore that he would take it, "were its walls of iron." Richard
as defiantly replied: "I would hold it, were its walls of butter."
The archbishop of Rouen, Richard's old justiciar, Walter of Cou-
tances, laid Normandy under an interdict; but Richard only
mocked. "Had an angel from heaven bid him abandon his work,
he would have answered with a curse." '
The completion of this great frontier fortress was to be the
preliminary to a final and crushing blow, which Richard had
prepared for Philip. Richard's allies were all ready
dutth'im ^^^ °^^y money was needed. But to get this RichaTd
was at his wit's end, for England had at last
failed him. Then came a mysterious report of a remark-
able treasure-trove, vincovered at Chaluz, exaggerated by rumor
into "twelve knights of gold seated round a golden table."
It was perhaps no more than a chess table with pieces of gold ; but
it was enough to rouse the hungry king who straightway as over-
lord, asserted his rights to the treasure-trove and claimed the
"find" whatever it might be. The Lord of Chaluz refused to
give up the treasure, and Richard came with his men-at-arms to
enforce his claim. The castle was not large and was defended only
by fifteen men, seven knights and eight serving men; yet they
held out for a day, and one of the crossbowmen who in spite of the
enemies' bolts had kept his place on the walls in hope of getting a
shot at Richard, succeeded at last in lodging an arrow in his neck.
The wound of itself was not serious, but the bad surgery of Rich-
ard's physicians as well as the king's impatience caused the wound
> See Green, H. E. P., I, pp. 187 and 188.
243 THE GROWTH OF POPULAR BICJHTS [kiohabdI.
to mortify, and in a few days Richard was dead, with almost his
last breath forgiving the poor fellow who had slain him.
Directly, Richard had had little to do with England. His per-
sonal career belongs to the continent. Only seven months all told of
the ten years of his reign, were spent in his island
ofkichm-d's kingdom, and yet no ten years of English history are
more important than these years of Richard's absentee
reign. It was an era when the results of N"orman and Angevin
rule gathered solidity and permanence; when the nation was
beginning to realize the full benefit of the policy of the two great
Henrys in crushing the baronage and reducing all elements to the
sway of the laws, and when older popular elements, by taking
advantage of the needs of the crown, were gathering new strength
in organization.
This latter movement was particularly noticeable in the
progress of the towns. The early English towns had grown up
around castles or monasteries. For the most part they
anduiemids ^^^^ merely overgrown villages where the country folk
came to find a market, and where in rude and ill-kept
huts the small merchant or the poor artisan sheltered himself and
his family. Since the Conquest, as a result of the increased foreign
trade, the seaport towns had risen to considerable importance,
and in turn had contributed not a little to the growing wealth of
the more humble towns of the interior. The kings of foreign blood
knew the value of local orgaaization in these centers of denser pop-
ulation, its necessity as an adjunct of administration, and did not
hesitate to encourage the people to assume some responsibility in
matters of local government. In this they were assisted by the
presence of gilds which had been a potent influence in English
town life from the earliest times. These gilds originally
were private associations of one kind or another organized
by citizens for mutual help. Of these the merchant gilds
very early assumed an importance and influence beyond any of the
others. Often they were strong enough to control all the affairs
of the town, assuming practically the functions of a town council.
The gild hall became virtually the city hall, and the members of the
gild were distinguished from the herd of unprivileged classes as the
THE COMMUKA 243
gOTerning or citizen body. They jealously guarded their interests
against outsiders and, save in the article of food, would tolerate
no rivalry in trade within the city market from any who were not
gild brethren.
For the most part the towns were situated on the demesnes of
the crown, and as they increased in wealth and strength, their first
thought naturally was to free themselves from the con-
Pnmleges t n ^ •
0^ towns. trol of the sheriit and secure the right of administering
the ftinctions of his office themselves. The king, more-
over, soon discovered that the people were better tax collectors than
the sheriff, and found that ft was for his interest to allow the
towns to pay a fixed maximum sum and collect it themselves in their
own way. This privilege was known as the grant of firma iurglii.
The citizens, however, were not quit of the authority of the sheriff
as long as they were under the jurisdiction of the sheriff's court.
Beside the firma burghi, therefore, the towns sought also to secure
the privilege of having courts of their own, under the charge of their
own- magistrates. But these privileges carried with them serious
duties, and in order to fulfill them properly some corporate organiza-
tion was necessary. When so organized, with its liberties defined
and confirmed in legal form by a charter, the town became a corpor-
ation, or communa. The Henrys granted many such charters with
the sincere desire no doubt of encouraging wealth and trade
and building up cities. Eichard granted a large number as we
have seen, not because he cared for the towns, but because he
needed money. . Yet the results were the same ; the charter was
just as good and the privileges as valuable and just as highly
prized, whether they came from the political foresight of the king
or from his avarice.
Of the cities benefited by this generous policy of the Norman
and Angevin kings, London was the most important as well as the
most conspicuous. It then of course bore no compari-
JVieCTti/ of gon to the present city ; but its political influence at
critical periods of the nation's history was even more
marked and important. It was the first city of the realm in size
and wealth. It was naturally the greatest center of trade ; from
all the kingdom the roads converged upon its gates, and from the
344 THE GROWTH OF POPULAR RIGHTS [hiohaedI.
broad mouth of the Thames its shipping went forth each year to
seek trade in unaccustomed seas. The buildings were thickly
set; fires, a constant menace to the medieval city, were frequent
and disastrous; the streets were narrow, poorly paved, always
dirty, and lighted only by the flickering lamp which piety kept
alive before the street corner Madonna. Pigs might be kept in the
houses, though they were not allowed to wander in the streets.
But these things were not regarded as they are now and other
cities were in as bad condition or worse. All in all, London was no
doubt a very grand affair to the rural Englishman who stumbled
through the foul smells of its tortuoiis streets for the first time.
The importance of the city very soon brought to her people unusual
privileges, and London became a sort of "standard of the amount
of self-government at which the other towns of the country might
be expected to aim. " William L gave the city its first charter;
a brief one, the provisions of which require only eight
S-ter"*'* lines of modern book print to state ; and yet it meant
much, for in these eight lines the Conqueror gave his
word to the citizens that their property should not be taken from
them, and that their privileges should be continued. In Henry
I.'s charter the Londoners were put into possession of more
extensive rights; they were granted the ferm of Middlesex "with
the right of appointing the sheriff: they were freed from the
immediate jurisdiction of any tribunal except of their own
appointment, from several universal imposts, from the obligation
to accept trial by battle, from liability to onisericordia or entire
forfeiture, as well as from tolls and local exactions.'" They were
also secured their separate franchises and their weekly courts.
Yet Henry's charter did not create the communa, but left the
city still an "accumulation of distinct and different corporate
bodies." Nor was it until Richard's reign ^ that London assumed
the character of a compact and perpetual organization under its
lord mayor and twelve aldermen, each representing one of the
twelve wards of the city.
»Stubbs, S. a, pp. 107, 108.
^For the • 'communio" of Stephen see Round, The Commune of Lon-
don, pp. 233, 324.
1199] THE SUCCESSION OE JOHN 245
The death of Eichard left the vast Angevin dominions once
more at the mercy of Philip. Richard Was childless and had
named John as his heir ; and in England where Arthur, the son of
Geoffrey, had no standing, John succeeded to the throne without
difficulty. On the contineut, however, Arthur was high in Phil-
ip's favor; for the same policy which had made the
Themcces- ^jng of Prance the friend of Prince Henry and Richard-
when they were at war with their father, but John's
friend and Richard's enemy as soon as Richard became king, now
made this same king John's most dangerous foe. In order to
cripple John, therefore, Philip took up Arthur's cause
PM^^"^ and helped him, supported by his Bretons, to make
good his claims in Anjou, Maine, and Touraine.
Normandy was safe, for John had been invested by Arch-
bishop Walter of Rouen with the insignia of the ducal office
before departing for England to receive the English crown.
Aquitaine was also saved by the ready wit of Eleanor, who com-
pelled Philip to bestow it upon her as duchess in her own
right. Philip, moreover, was by no means sure of his ground.
An attempt to put away his wife, had embroiled him with the
pope and he feared the interdict, which might prove a very
serious matter should it come while he was at war with John.
Otto of Germany and the count of Flanders also were preparing
to carry out their recent agreement with Richard and invade
Prance from the northeast. Philip, therefore, thought it safer to
bow to the storm and disarm his foes by making peace with John.
Accordingly he changed his policy; threw over Arthur entirely,
and received John's homage for AnJou and the other lands in
question. As a further pledge of the French king's friendship,
his son Louis married John's niece Blanche, the daughter of his
sister Eleanor and Alfonso of Castile.
John was now everywhere triumphant, and a better man might
have had a long and successful reign, but he was his own worst
enemy. He possessed some of the abilities, and all of
ofJohM^ the darker moral traits of his family. He had been a
bad son and a treacherous brother. He was as vicious
as William Rufus and as mean as Ethelred. He had, moreover,
346 THE GROWTH OF POPULAE BIGHTS [john
Eichard's insatiate greed for money but with nothing of that
romantic vision of great things which had gone far to justify his
extortions in the eyes of the nation.
John at first took up his brother's policy and made little
change in the administration at home. Perhaps he had already
learned the temper of the English people in his earlier
ofjohn"^^^ experiences, and knew that his only hope of success
against the wily Philip lay in keeping a united England
at his back. Geoffrey Fitz-Peter was continued as justiciar and
made earl of Essex. Archbishop Hubert was added to the council
as chancellor. William Marshal, who had been John's friend in the
quarrel with Longchamp, and who had married Eva, the heiress
of "Strongbow," was allowed to succeed to the Clare estates aiid
titles as Earl of Strigul and Pembroke.
John, however, was the creature of his passions, and soon
plunged from one infatuation into another in ntter disregard of
the enemies he might make. In 1189 he had married
inhuf'^ ""= Avice, the granddaughter of Robert of Gloucester and
piftou"'"'"^ a co-heiress of the vast estates of that family. She
was John's third cousin, and hence came within the
lines of consanguinity forbidden by the church. Still the pope
had given his dispensation and all had gone well, until John made
up his mind to marry Isabella of Angoul^me and persuaded some
Aquitanian bishops to annul his iirst marriage. The Gloucester
family was very powerful, and when John in addition to the insult,
refused to surrender the lands of Avice, the breach was irrepara-
ble. Isabella of Angouleme, moreover, was the afBanced bride of
Hugh the Brown, son of Count Hugh of La Marche, and con-
nected with Guy of Lusignan and other powerful nobles of Poitou,
and when John claimed the younger Hugh's bride, the Lusignans
in their turn were furious. But as if his offence were not serious
enough, John ordered the barons of Poitou to appear before his
court on charge of treason against the late king and
John forfeits ,.,.,,, °
Angentn himsclf , and Clear themselves by ordeal of battle. Thev
dominions. i t t,i ■ ■
at once appealed to Philip as overlord; and he hav-
ing made his peace with the pope by taking back his wife,
was delighted to have an opportunity to reopen the case against
1304] LOSS OP THE ANGEVIN DOMINIONS , 347
John, and ordered him to surrender his French fiefs to Arthur.
John refused and Philip summoned him for trial before his
court in Paris. "When the appointed day came and John failed
to appear, Philip in accordance with feudal law declared him to
be a contumacious vassal and to have forfeited by default all fiefs
which he held of the French crown.
Philip proceeded at once to carry out the decree of his court,
invaded Normandy, and began reducing its castles. Arthur in the
meanwhile had been foolish enough to be drawn into the
The murder °
of Arthur quarrel again, and with his Bretons had laid siege to
ctita LOSS Oj ._ _^^
Arwevin the castle of Mirabeau with the hope of seizing Eleanor,
dominions. t i t i
his grandmother. John who in emergency was capa-
ble of acts of heroic exertion, by a forced march surprised
Arthur, carried him ofE and ultimately lodged him at Rouen, the
last that was seen of this unfortunate prince. John was equal
to any wickedness and it is not unlikely that he compassed his
nephew's death, if he did not actually stab him with his own hand
and throw the body into the Seine, as reported by a very venerable
tradition. The murder of Arthur completed the trilogy of fatal
blunders. Philip at once proclaimed John the murderer, cited
him a second time to appear before his court and to the sentence
of forfeiture added the sentence of death. ^ The Norman castles
fell one after the other, and finally, after a year's siege, even
Chateau Gaillard passed into Philip's hands, March 1304. It
was the beginning of the end. The Seine was now open to
Philip's armies. John's vassals of Normandy refused longer to sup-
port him. In April, 1304, Eleanor died, and with her, John lost
the last tie which bound him to his continental barons. Before
the summer closed, Anjou, Touraine, and Maine had also passed
permanently into Philip's hands; the next year Poitou was
overrun and of all the splendid possessions of the Angevin kings
on the continent only scattered fragments remained, Gascony,
Guienne, and one or two strongholds in Poitou.
At the time Englishmen regarded the triumph of Philip with
a sense of deep humiliation. Yet nothing more fortunate could
have happened to the English state. Eichard's absentee reign had
"Norgate, II, p. 408.
348 THE GBOWTH OP POPULAR RIGHTS [Johk
tested and proved the splendid administratiye machinery of Henry
II. ; and men were coming to distinguish between the government
and the personality of the king. Kichard, moreover,
ti/m^o/'"'^^ had been compelled by his need of money to allow the
from the people a voice in the assessment of taxes. The shire-
con men . j^^^i^ ^Iso had beeu given control of pleas of the crown.
Taxation and representation became thus linked indissolubly in the
national mind, and the people began to take their first steps in
actual self-government. When, therefore, John was bowed out of
the continent by the wily Philip, he found himself face to face
with a nation that had passed its nonage and would no longer tol-
erate abuses which had sprung of an irresponsible kingship. The
old baronial families who like the king were also severed from con-
tinental interests, forgot their foreign parentage and once and for
all time accepted the position of English subjects of an English
king. The nation felt the accession of strength and came very
soon to recognize the baronage as a part of itself; and although
the influence of the French language and French social customs
lingered long after the era of John, the power of French political
ideas over England was broken, and the nation was left free to
develop its own peculiar institutions and in its own way. Thus
the separation of England from the continent, though forced upon
the nation against the will of its king and against the will of the
people, formed no unimportant link in the series of great events
which were preparing England for her future. It restored to her
once more the natural advantage of her position behind the
Channel; it threw her back Upon her own resources, and com-
pelled her to develop that intensive life, so marked in every people
who have been called upou to jolay a great role in human history.*
1 For review of the early Angevin era and results see Norgate, II,
chap. X, The New England.
CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT CHARTER
JOBN, 1204-me
The territorial combination created by the Norman Conquest
was now definitely broken and English feudalism had been cut off
from the source from which it had originally drawn its
ume^^ life. This event, coming so soon after the OTerthrow of
the barons and the restoration of the national courts,
was of the utmost importance, not only in forestalling any recru-
descence of political feudalism, but also in permanently establish-
ing as a part of the English constitution the principle for which
the Norman Henry and the Angevin Henry had so nobly strug-
gled,— that in England all classes are subject to the laws of the
realm. But the quarrel of king and feudal baron had hardly been
settled, when a new and more serious menace to the happiness of the
people appeared in a quarter from which they had been accustomed
heretofore to expect comfort and protection, and presented to the
nation a new problem for solution. Should the crown become an
irresponsible and lawless power; or should the king and his
ministers also be held amenable to the laws to which they had
forced the barons to submit ; and if so, by what legal machinery
could the nation compel the crown to respect its own laws, with-
out resorting to the violent methods of revolution? Here in a
word was the new problem which confronted England.
It was perhaps fortunate that John was utterly contemptible. A
nature so base, so treacherous, could inspire no sentiment of loyalty
to obscure in the minds of good men the real issue. His
aporfof*''""* tyrannies were so flagrant, so brutal ; his violation of law,
his trespasses upon the rights of all classes of his subjects,
so arbitrary and so unreasonable, that it was impossible to create a
personal party in his favor or draw about him any portion of his
249
250 THE GREAT CHABTEE [Johh
people. The king stood alone, without any of that glamour
which surrounded the second Stuart and which made him in his
death appear to many a veritable martyr. One bad man stood
alone, confronted by the nation, powerful in its integrity, ter-
rible in its calm self-possession, and determined that the king
should rule in accordance with the laws of the land, or not rule at
all.
John's troubles at home began soon after the last triumph of
Philip. On July 12, 1205, the veteran Hubert Walter died. Of
late John and his chancellor had not been upon the
The
contested best of terms; Hubert had not hesitated to protest
Canterbury, against the tyrannies of John, and John had so far
fretted under the restraints put upon him by the hon-
est old minister, that the news of his death was received with an
exultant sense of relief which he did not try to disguise. But
Hubert was also archbishop of Canterbury. Next to the crown
there was no more important office in the kingdom. What its
influence might be in shaping the destiny of the realm or in brav-
ing wayward kings had been shown in the careers of Dunstan,
Lanfranc, Anselm, Theobald, and Becket. John, therefore, fully
realized the importance of filling the vacancy with one of his own
creatures, if he would control the policy of the church. But
unfortunately for John's plans the right of electing to this impor-
tant post had long been a subject of dispute between the suffragan
bishops of the metropolitan province and the monks of Christ
Church Priory, who since the days of Augustine had acknowl-
edged the archbishop as their abbot. The king also had a right
in equity to a voice in an appointment so closely related to the
welfare of his realm, and since the Conquest had generally named
the candidate to be elected. When, therefore, John learned that
on the very night following Hubert's death, the junior monks of
Christ Church had secretly met, and had not only elected the sub-
prior, Reginald, to the primacy but had forthwith without waiting
for thai approval of the king, dispatched the archbishop-elect
to Eome to secure confirmation at the hands of the pope, John
was furious. The senior monks and the bishops were also deeply
vexed. Reginald was a babbling, shallow sort of fellow, hardly
1307, 1308] STEPHEN LANGTON 251
to be taken seriously; yet his election, if once confirmed by the
pope, apart from the question of right involved, might prove grave
enough. All parties, therefore, appealed to Eome. John, however,
first announced as his candidate John de Gray, bishop of Nor-
wich, had him elected and put in charge of the see, and then sent
him off to plead his cause at the Eoman court, trusting to win his
case by the free use of money among the officials who were sup-
posed to be in the confidence of the pope.
The low cunning of John was no match for the statesmanlike
pope. Innocent III., who had recently brought the wily Philip
Augustus to terms, and who knew John better than
The election
of Langton, John knew himself. After letting the case drag on for
a full year and a half. Innocent declared that the right
of election lay with the monks; rejected both candidates upon the
ground that neither election had been canonical, and persuaded
the proctors of the monks of Christ Church who were present, to
elect an Englishman named Stephen Langton. The nomination
by the pope was clearly a violation of the right both of the Eng-
lish church and of the English crown ; yet never was usurpation
more fully justified by the results. A better choice could not have
been made. Langton was a man singularly pure and noble in pur-
pose, of great personal dignity, wide learning, and had been recently
raised to the high dignity of cardinal. John refused to assent to the
papal choice ; and when the pope proceeded to consecrate his candi-
date notwithstanding, John swore that he would never allow
Langton to land in England.
John was now face to face with a man who was accustomed to
having his way. A wise king might have rallied his people about
The inur- ^™ ^^^ fought out the issue upon the broad principles of
diet, 1208. the independence of the English crown. But John was
not wise. He became violent, and descended to petty persecutions
of the monks of Christ Church. He threatened to drive all clergy-
men from the realm. He swore he would seize and mutilate every
Italian he found in his kingdom. The reply of Innocent to John's
furious outbreak was the interdict. This was an ecclesiastical weapon
which had been used by earlier popes with great effect. It forbade
all religious services, except baptism and extreme unction. Mar-
252 THE GREAT CHAKTER [•John
riage ceremonies could not be performed ; mass was celebrated for
the clergy alone; and the dead were buried in unhallowed ground.
It played directly upon the tenderest feelings of the people; it
appealed to the terrors of the superstitious and was expected to
create a public sentiment which would bring the king to terms.
Innocent had recently used the interdict with great effectiveness
against Philip II. ; but John paid little attention to the murmurs
of his people and at once struck back at the pope by confiscating
the property of the churchmen who obeyed the interdict. Inno-
cent replied by excommunicating John. John then
catumuf confiscated the estates of the bishops, and used the
money to strengthen his military power. He was thus
enabled to force the king of Scots to renew his homage and pay a
levy to the amount of £10,000; he reduced Ireland to order; cut
up the English district into counties, and introduced English
laws. With the same vigorous hand he turned upon Llewelyn,
Prince of AVales, and compelled him to submit. Thus John had
only fattened upon the thunders of Innocent.
Innocent, however, was now fully aroused, and in 1311
announced through his envoys, Pandulf and Durand, that as his
next and final step, he would absolve, the subjects of
The threat . • .
(jfdepimtidn. John from their allegiance, formally depose him, and
pares to summon Philip of Prance to carry out the decree.
Tficct it
John knew both men ; he knew that the threat was not
idle. He also learned that Philip was actually gathering an army
in order to be ready to invade England, the moment the pope
should give the word. At home, discontent and disaffection
were daily spreading; the church was openly hostile ; the nobles
maintained a sullen silence which but poorly concealed the web of
treason which they were weaving about the king ; the people who
had supported the elder Henry with such sturdy loyalty, looked on
with cold indifference. Yet John apparently had no thought of
yielding. His Angevin blood was up, and he began to- strike
about him in blind fury. The churchmen who defied him, he
drove from the kingdom. He did not wait for the nobles to be
detected in actual conspiracy. If a man had power to injure him,
that was sufficient; his castles were seized and his family held as
1318] JOHN SUBMITS TO THE POPE 353
hostages for his good behavior. With the people John tried a
somewhat different course, playing directly for their confidence by
remitting fines and abolishing vexatious customs, and although in
this he succeeded but indifferently, England was overawed ; his
enemies at home were paralyzed, and an "enormous host" gath-
ered at his call to resist the threatened invasion. Abroad he had
also secured an alliance with the old allies of Eichard, Otto IV.
and Ferrand, count of Flanders, who had their own quarrel with
both Philip and Innocent and stood ready to invade France the
moment Philip should sail for England. The outlook was not
inviting to Philip ; it was not altogether gloomy for John. He
was fully prepared to defy the threat of deposition as he had
defied the interdict and the excommunication, and apparently with
a fair chance of success.
Then suddenly at the very moment when the Curia had
decreed the deposition, and the legate was on the way to England,
John made that strange move which it is oustom-
frmt'^ms!"^'^ ary to interpret sometimes as an exhibition of
despicable weakness, and sometimes as an exhibition
of remarkable and farsighted statesmanship. It is said that
in spite of John's habit of scoffing at religion, he really feared
the papal excommunication; that like all base natures he was
capable of a groveling superstition, and that this weakness had been
recently played upon by an alleged prophecy of Peter of Wake-
field, a hermit, who had declared that within the year John would
cease to be king. It is altogether probable that such elements had
some influence upon John's determination, but it is also certain
that more than pope or hermit, the thing which caused John to
draw back was his assurance of a secret coalition between Philip
and his own barons. Five of his bishops and many of his nobles
had already fled the country and were with Philip. John
knew that they had many friends at home ; that the very army
which he had gathered on Barham Down was honeycombed with
treason, and that the la,nding of Philip would be the signal for
general revolt. The pope, however, was the bond which held this
coalition together; to remove the pope from the alliance, would
leave Philip without moral support for his enterprise; while to
254 THE GKEAT CHAETEE [johh
secure the active friendship of the pope, would turn Philip's Eng-
lish allies, John's subjects, from dutiful servants of the church
into rebels and schismatics. This was the problem which con-
fronted John, and with characteristic unscrupulousness he
solved it.
On the 15th of May, 1213, John met Pandulf, the papal legate,
near Dover and made his submission. He "accepted Langton as
archbishop, undertook to repay certain enormous sums
John's which he had recentlv exacted from the churches," and
homage to •' '
the pope, restore the estates which he had ruined. He then sur-
May 15^ 1213.
rendered his kingdoms to the see of Rome, and received
them again as the pope's vassal, agreeing also to pay a tribute of
1,000 marks a year.^ Innocent withdrew from the coalition and
forbade Philip to proceed.
The closing of the quarrel with the pope, however, by no means
ended John's troubles. It only cleared the field for' the greater
issue of his reign, which was now at hand. Matters on
iume of the continent had gone too far to be stopped by the
word of the pope. Fighting soon began between Philip
and the Flemings. John sought to assist his allies by sending
over his half-brother, William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, to
destroy Philip' s shipping in the harbor of Damme; but when he
called upon his barons to prepare for an invasion of France, upon
one pretext or another they refused; the northern barons pntting
themselves squarely on the ground that the king had no right to
demand military service out of the kingdom. In the
^/ sfl""' meantime a great council which was called to meet at
bam, Aug. 4, gt. Albans in August for the purpose of estimating the
damages which church property had received during the
recent quarrel, provided an opportunity for a free discussion of the
condition of the realm, the failure of the king to fulfill his prom-
ises of good government, and his numerous invasions of the legal
rights of the barons.
Most of the encroachments of which the barons complained
' See Roger of Wendover (years, 1308-1214) in Lee, Source Book of
English History, pp. 155-164.
1303-1313] JOHN'S EXACTIONS 255
were the natural results of new conditions which confronted the
crown. The old regular feudal revenues had long been inadequate
TUwrmas *° ^^^^ *^® needs of government, and the king had been
ftorons. forced to develop new sources of income in order to
defray the increasing expense of administration. Under
Henry II. the offices of state had been bought and sold like ordi-
nary fiefs ; Richard had driven a flourishing trade in the favors of
government, nor had he recognized any limit to the possibilities of
sale and purchase, save the depth of the would-be purchaser's
pocket. But John had surpassed all his predecessors in devising
new and burdensome methods of wringing money from his sub-
jects. In the first year of his reign he had raised the carucage, the
new tax upon land levied by Richard, from two to three shillings
on the carucate; the scutage, also, he raised from twenty shillings
to two marks. In 1203 he had exacted a seventh of the movable
property of the barons under pretext of the war in ISTorjnandy,
and when the barons became convinced that John did not intend to
fight, and returned home in disgust, he declared their lands for-
feited by desertion and allowed them to be redeemed again only by
the payment of an enormous fine. In 1307 the king demanded a
thirteenth of the movable property of the entire kingdom, and
when his brother Geoffrey of York protested and the church
refused outright to pay the levy, John sent Geoffrey into exile and
exacted the tax notwithstanding. In other ways also, no less
annoying, John had taken advantage of his position to plunder his
barons. The right of conferring the heiresses of his vassals in
marriage, he had used as a convenient method of enriching his own
creatures. If the heiress refused the king's choice, and sometimes
he sought out the most unlikely husband that he could find for
this very object, in accordance with feudal law the king was
entitled to exact a heavy fine. He also took advantage of the
right of wardship to plunder the property of the helpless minor,
not only exhausting the estate, but withholding it from the heir as
long as possible.
The barons, however, were not the only sufferers from John's
tyrannies. His hand had been heavy on the churchmen who had
remained faithful to the order during the quarrel with the pope.
256 THE GREAT CHAETEE [Johb
He had not hesitated to put to a cruel death an archdeacon of Nor-
wich who had withdrawn from his presence at tlie time of the
excommunication.' The people also had felt the grievous
of other burden of the carncaffe and the repeated taxation of the
movable property of the kingdom. The entire adminis-
tration of justice had been used as an engine of extortion; fines
and confiscations were frequent and the threat of them often
used to levy blackmail. John's rapacity, moreover, was not the
least unattractive element of his character. His meanness,
his treachery to his friends, his inordinate lust, are beyond
description.
The barons and the people, therefore, were not without cause of
grievance. One marvels that a warlike race should endure so long
Leaaibasis ^^'^ ^° patiently this despicable tyrant. It can be
"ta'w'o/" explained only by the wide influence and patient firm-
theharovs. ness of Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, the Justiciar. John hated
Geoffrey as he hated Hubert Walter, the best testimony to their
integrity and faithfulness ; yet GeofErey was indispensable and John
had had the shrewdness and self-control to keep Geoffrey at his
post. Matters, however, were now fast approaching a crisis; the
more serious as Geoffrey himself appears as the spokesman of the
barons. The men who surrounded the justiciar, like him, had
been trained in the school of Henry II. , and fully appreciated the
moral advantage of finding some standard, some definite legal
ground upon which to base their complaints against John. At St.
Albans, therefore, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter formally proclaimed the
laws of Henry I., as the basis "of the good customs which
were to be restored." Few knew just what these laws were;
yet the demand served as a rallying cry; and when three
weeks later, at a second meeting of the barons held
St. Paul's, at St. Paul's in London, the new archbishop, Lang-
ji-UCt. 25 1213. JT J o
ton, brought forth the forgotten charter of Henry
I., the long-needed weapon was put into the hands of the popular
party. "By this" declared the archbishop, "you can bring back
the liberties which have been lost, to their former condition." In
'Green, H. E. P., I, p. 233.
1313, 1314] THE CEISia 357
this definite form the demand of the barons was laid before the
king.^
Geoffrey Pitz-Peter did not long survive the council of London.
To the king his death was irreparable ; yet far from appreciating
his loss, John only gave utterance to the brutal words :
DmrnT' "When he gets to hell, let him go and salute Hubert
ottfk Walter; for by God's feet, now am I for the first time
king and lord of England." To the barons the death
of Pitz-Peter must have seemed like a calamity; and when John
named as his new justiciar, the foreign favorite Peter des Eoches,
the bishop of Winchester, they knew that there was none to
stand between them and the tyrant. Another council had been
summoned on November 7, to meet at Oxford. In addition to
those ordinarily called, each sheriff had been directed to send four
discreet knights from his shire to "discuss the business of the
kingdom with the king. " ^ Beyond this important provision how-
ever, we do not know that anything was accomplished, or in fact
that the council was ever actually held. So the eventful year 1213
closed. The rival parties seemed to be marking time.
On the continent, however, events were moving rapidly to a
crisis. The long talked of alliance of England with Otto IV. and the
count of Flanders, who still had their old quarrel with
aefeamat P^ilip? '^^^ about to bear fruit in a Joint invasion of
Bmmines, France. It was the critical moment in the history of
English liberty. If the allies succeeded in crushing
Philip, then John might return and settle with his barons at his
leisure. Yet the barons hardly seemed to realize what John's suc-
cess would mean to them. Some of the southern barons as loyal
as ever responded to his call and followed him to Poitou. It is
true the northern barons who had been present at St. Paul's took
their stand upon the ground assumed in 1313, and refused to serve
out of the kingdom; but their action was due to a lack of
' Lee, Source Book, p. 165 and 184-137.
^ At St. Albans the reeve and four legal men from each township in
the royal demesne had been summoned with the barons to assist in esti-
mating the damages to church property. They probably acted only as
witnesses.
358 THE GREAT CHAETBK [Johh
interest in the quarrel, rather than to any just comprehension of
the remoter issue. The great alliance, however, proved a signal
failure. On the 27th of July, 1314, the Germans, Flemings, and
English, led by Otto IV., Ferrand, and Earl William of Salisbury,
met Philip on the fatal field of Boiwines. Eerrand and
Bomi/nM, tlie earl of Salisbury were both taken; Otto retired
July 27, 12U. •' 1 • 1 1 •
with a pitiful remnant of his German knights, his
power so shattered that his iufinence at home rapidly waned before
the rising prestige of his young rival, Frederick II. In the mean-
while John had attempted a diversion in the west, in the hope of
regaining a foothold in the French provinces which he had forfeited
in 1304. He had won some unimportant advantages in Poitou;
but the defeat of his allies compelled him to retire beyond the
Loire and make a truce with Philip for five years. The great
coalition, which Eichard had built up by the expenditure of so
much English wealth, had dashed itself to pieces upon the pikemen
of Philip, and with it passed away the last hope of John of ever
wresting from the hand of Philip the lands which he had seized
ten years before. The permanent possession by the French king
of Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou was secure.
John did not return to England until the autumn. Bat he
had not forgotten the northern barons and came back with the
avowed purpose of calling them to an account. The
TJ1& TTlCCtfi/flCI
at St. Ed- barons, however, knew their man and were prepared to
meet him. Late in November they met in the minster
of St. Edmunds under the color of a pilgrimage, and secretly bound
themselves before the great altar to compel the king to restore the
liberties of the realm and confirm the act by a charter given under
his seal ; if he refused, they would withdraw theis allegiance and
appeal to arms.'
Soon after Cliristmas a deputation of the barons laid their
propositions before the king. He asked for time and promised to
respond on the first Sunday after Easter. He had,
pm-csfor however, no idea of submission and set himself to pre-
pare for resistance. He sought first to detach the
bishops from the popular cause, and on the 15th of January issued
' Lee, pp. 165, 166.
1215] THE CHARTER SIGNED 259
a charter in which he granted the church freedom from the inter-
ference of the crown in "the election of all prelates whatsover,
greater or less."^ Langton, however, was too wise and farseeing
to be caught by John's blandishments and stoutly refused to
accept any terms for the church, which did not also include the
barons. The king in the meanwhile was swelling the ranks of
his foreign mercenaries by enlistments in Brabant and Poitou; he
fortified and provisioned his castles; he required his tenants to
renew their homage and directed the oath of allegiance to be
taken by all freemen throughout England. He also sought to
secure the support of the pope by assuming the obligations of a
crusader ; an act which put him under the special protection of the
church.
In March the barons gathered at Stamford, and with a dignity and
self-possession worthy of the greatness of their cause calmly waited
for the expiration of the truce. They then marched
the charter, into Northamptonshire and on the 27th of April lay
encamped at Brackley. Here Langton and William
Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, met them as envoys from the king and
asked their demands. In reply they drew up a series of articles,
known as the "Articles of the Barons," ^ and dispatched them to the
king. John read the demands and angrily exclaimed: "Why do
they not ask for my kingdom? I will never grant such liberties as
will make me a slave." When the answer came back, the barons,
now two thousand strong and numbering representatives of the
greatest houses of England, broke camp and marched upon Lon-
don. John was still surrounded by many of the older barons;
men like William Marshal, whose sympathies were with the rising,
but who feared the anarchy of civil war and preferred to gain
their point in a quieter way by bringing pressure to bear upon the
king within the lines of the constitution. The nation, however, was
against John and when on the 24th of May "the Army of God
and the Holy Church," as the barons styled themselves, entered
London in the midst of the wildest enthusiasm, the king's most
trusted followers, even the members of his household, saw that his
' Gee and Hardy, Documents, etc., pp. 77-79.
^Stubbs, S. C, 290-396.
360 THE GREAT CHARTER [John
cause was hopeless and abandoned him. Cunning and nnscmpu-
lous as John was, supported only by Flemish mercenaries and a few
foreign favorites, he saw that further resistance would be madness,
and when the Articles of the Barons in a revised form were again
submitted to him, he signed them and attached the great seal.
This historic event took place at Runnymede, near Windsor, on
the 15th of June, 1215.
So at last was secured the priceless document, known in
distinction from all other charters as the Great Charter. The
importance of this famous document can hardly be
^hSrta exaggerated. It was "the first great legislative act of
the English nation," and, supplemented by the later
Petition of Rigid and Bill of Riglits, it constitutes the legal foun-
dation of Anglo-Saxon liberties. In form it was a grant similar to
previous charters of English kings, issued by the favor of the
crown to all "our faithful subjects." In theory it was a restate-
ment of the customary laws of feudal England as they had
been recognized by her Norman and Angevin kings. In fact it
was a list of rights and liberties forced upon the king by his sub-
jects; and since it defined in legal form the relations of king and
people, and imposed upon the subjects the task of deposing him
as a sacred duty in case he violated these relations, it virtually
asserted the principle that the king was subject to the laws of the
realm as well as his meanest vassal.
An analysis of the sixty-three articles of the Charter shows that
little had escaped the barons.^ The church was "to be free" and
have its newly granted rights. The feudal obligations
tMcnarSr °^ *^® barons' were carefully specified, and the dues
which the king might justly demand were carefully
defined and limited ; as carefully also were limited the rights of the
king over his wards. The administration of justice, which in
unscrupulous hands had only too often degenerated into tyranny,
was to conform to right and law. The penalty of crime
must conform to the grade of the offense. Judges must be
selected for their legal knowledge and probity. Suitors in com-
' For analysis of Charter and review of its contents, see Taswell-Lang-
mead, pp. 93-115.
PEIWCIPLBS OF THE CONSTITUTION 361
mon pleas should no longer be compelled to drag about over the
country in the wake of the king's court, but were to have some
fixed place to which they might resort. The king's justices also
were to visit the shires four times a year, to hear and settle dis-
putes concerning real property. Such cases, moreover, could not
be tried out of the county in which the lands in question lay.
Other articles bravely dealt with the fundamental principles of
the constitution ; principles the greatness and farreaching import
of which the barons themselves probably did not
nrtnSS'o/^ realize and which it has taken six hundred years to
ffon**^'*'" work out. In the regulation which forbade the king to
levy scntage or extraordinary aid without the consent
of the common council of the nation was involved the sole right of
the parliament to levy taxes. In the regulation which required the
king to summon to the council the archbishops, bishops, earls, and
greater barons individually, but allowed him to summon the lesser
tenants by general notification through the sheriff of each county,
was involved the subsequent separation of the two houses, as well
as the opportunity for the later development of the representative
system. In the principle that no freeman should be imprisoned or
suffer other penalty, "unless by the lawful judgment of his peers,
or by the law of the land," and that "justice should be neither
sold, nor denied, nor delayed," were involved the Habeas Corpus
act, and all the other regulations by which Englishmen and Ameri-
cans have sought to protect the individual from the abuse of the
vast powers of the state.
The national character of the Charter is shown by the gener-
osity of the provisions which included all classes within its bene-
fits. The barons agreed that the liberties which they
ciiaracterof as tenants received from the king, they in turn would
"* ' observe in dealing with their own tenants. The cities
and ■ towns also were to have their liberties and free customs.
London was to share in the limitations put upon aids and scutages.
Foreign merchants were not to be interfered with, but might come
and go without being subjected to more than the ancient customs.
One standard of weights and measures was also prescribed for the
whole kingdom. Even the villain came in for his share of protec-
263 THE GKEAT CHAKTBE [jobn
tion; his agricultural implements, like the stock of the merchant
or tradesman, were to be sheltered from the rapacity of the gOT-
ernment official. No man's grain or other property was to be
taken by royal ofBcials under the plea of right of purveyance
without payment or consent of the owner; nor could land or rent
be seized for any debt due to the crown, as long as the chattels of
the debtor were sufficient.
Such in brief was the famous Charter; the first attempt to
define in a formal way the powers of the crown and the rights of
the people. Its moderation is as remarkable as its
rff*CTiarter breadth and comprehensiveness. The barons had no
wish to weaken the crown; they fully believed that the
established customs of the nation were sufficient guarantees of
their rights, and these were all that they asked; but they
demanded that these customs be observed.
It was much that now at last king and subjects had come to a
formal understanding. The customs of England had been formu-
lated and the salutary principle established, that these
eiiforeinii customs might not be violated even by the king. But
how enforce this principle? By what guarantee could
the barons protect themselves against the notorious insincerity and
treachery of John? Former sovereigns, far better men, had not
hesitated to break the most solemn covenants, when a sufficient
pretext presented itself, and sometimes even without pretext.
The barons could not expect more of John. The system of con-
stitutional checks, so well understood and so effective to-day, had
not yet been devised, nor was other method understood, save the
appeal to the sword. And appeal to the sword there certainly
would be, if John were left to himself with all his "regal power
and dignity" intact. This was the problem, and to solve it, the
barons devised a sclaeme as naive as it was impracticable. By the
sixty-first clause of the Charter the king was made to empower the
baronage to elect a standing committee or council of twenty -five
barons, who were to keep watch upon the king and his officers,
and demand instant redress in case any of the provisions
were violated. If the king within forty days should not
give satisfactory redress, then "the five and twenty barons,
1315] WAK OF JOHK WITH THE BAEOKS 263
together with the commonalty of the whole land" were authorized
by the king to make war upon him, until the grievance should be
satisfied. The king further pledged: "as to all those in the land
who will not of their own account swear to join the five and twenty
barons in distraining and distressing us, we will issue orders to
make them take the same oath as aforesaid." This rude device
which imposed upon John's subjects rebellion as a sacred duty,
and placed over the sovereign as John declared, "four and twenty
kings," could not be satisfactory for the simple reason that no
government could long survive under such conditions.
The immediate conduct of John, however, justified all the sus-
picions of the barons and soon gave his "four and twenty kings"
their hands full. Evidently he had not been sincere
ofolpmef for a single moment; as soon as the barons had returned
to their homes, he sent off Pandulf the papal legate post
haste to persuade the pope to free him from his oath. The pope
at heart was not unfriendly to the cause of English liberties, but
he looked upon the struggle solely from the point of view of his
interests as overlord, and Pandulf easily persuaded him that the
barons in curtailing the powers of the crown, were seriously harm-
ing his interests. Moreover, technically, by feudal law any diffi-
culties between the king and his vassals ought to have been first
referred to the overlord for settlement. The pope accordingly
granted John the dispensation ; threatened the barons with excom-
munication because they had levied war upon a crusader, and
finally suspended Langton.
John in the meanwhile was busily preparing for war, and by
the end of harvest was ready to take the field. He sent a body of
foreisrn mercenaries under Palkes de Breaut6 to waste
War of
Johnandhis the lands of the barons, while he himself, ravaging as he
advanced, marched into Scotland to punish the Scot
king, Alexander, for supporting his enemies. It was a serious
moment for the Charter. The suspension of Langton removed the
only man who was able to hold together the many diverse elements
of the popular party. The more conservative of the barons, men
hke Pembroke and Chester, who had left John only at the last
moment, were inclined to draw back, while the younger men, the
264 THE GREAT CHARTBE [john
hotheads, were determined to fight the matter out. Thus the war
rapidly degenerated into a struggle of factions, in which the pop'-
nlar party continued to disintegrate and John's ranks swelled cor-
respondingly.
The barons who held out, however, were soon in a sad plight;
their estates were ruined, their castles destroyed, and their wives
and children were lying in John's dungeons as hostages,
totted to™* In their desperation they finally renounced their alle-
^S^*''" giance altogether, and invited Louis, the son of Philip,
to come over and assume the English crown. Louis, it
will be remembered, had married John's niece, Blanche of Castile,
and by feudal law, in default of John and his male heirs, Louis's
right to the English crown through his wife might be recognized.
Philip chose to regard the claim as founded upon good law and in
spite of the threats of the pope, espoused the cause of the barons,
and in November hurried ofE a detachment of 7,000 men to aid
them, reinforcing it at times during the winter and spring. John,
however, in spite of the French help, continued to make head
against his foes, and with the fall of Colchester in March, London
remained almost the only place of importance in their hands.
In May, the arrival of Prince Louis gave a new phase to
the war. Up to this point John had shown considerable military
skill. Ilis energy had been magnificent. The strength
Lm^Sif ^^^ ^'S°^ °^ ^^^ blows had appalled the stoutest. But
now John began to display that want of resolution in
the presence of great emergency, so characteristic of the man, but
a new element in the Angevin character. When he heard of the
landing of Prince Louis at Thanet, he at once broke camp and
retired to Winchester. Louis marched upon London and was
received by the people with loud acclamations. From London he
advanced upon Winchester. John's French mercenaries who con-
stituted his main strength, refused to fight against their king's
son, and John could do nothing but waste the country and
retire before Louis. Winchester fell, and Louis laid siege
to Windsor and Dover. Alexander came from Scotland to do
him homage and the northern lords followed his example; then
the southern earls began to come in and finally John's half-brother,
1316] DEATH OF JOHN 265
William of Salisbury, made his submission. John's kingdom
was fast slipping from him ; he could not bring his mercenaries
to meet Louis in the open field, although they were perfectly will-
ing to rove up and down the country in John's train, burning and
plundering English homes and butchering the people. This, how-
ever, did John little good, and soon even his friends were disgusted
with the lawlessness of his followers.
As the summer approached everything was going Louis's way.
But ere it had passed, unmistakable signs of a second reaction
began to appear. Hubert de Burgh had succeeded in
John, octo- holding Dover against every attempt of Louis ; Windsor
also held out. The barons, moreover, began to doubt the
security of their position, should Louis be too successful. Still
the fear of John was superior to all other motives and Louis's party
continued to hold together. But suddenly in the midst of new
successes of the royal party, the whole aspect of the struggle was
changed by the removal of John himself, according to tradition,
the result of a surfeit of new cider and green peaches.
"History has set upon John's character a darker and deeper
mark than she has on any other king. He was in every way the
worst of the whole list; the most vicious, the most
inMstrnv^" pi'of^^s, the most tyrannical, the most false, the most
shortsighted, the most unscrupulous."^ And yet had
John been less of a brute, had it been possible to live with
him upon any conditions, it is likely that the struggle would
never have taken such definite form, or the principles of the
Charter become so promptly established as the fundamental law of
England. It was John's hopelessly base nature, that made the
Charter a necessity, and left it to succeeding generations as the
monument of his reign.
■ Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets, p. 160.
CHAPTEE VIII
THE STKUGGLB FOR THE CHARTER
HENRYIII., 121S-m5
FAMILY OF JOHN LACKLAND
John = Isabella
k. 1199-1316 I of Angouleme
Henry III.=Eleanor Jo'an Eleinor= U WUliam Marshal jjj^^^^^
k. 1216-1272 1 of m. '2 bimon ae Monttort gg^j,, ^j
Provence Alexander H. Cornwall,
I of Scotland King of the
I I [ • Romans,
Edward I. Edmund Crouchback, Margaret=Alexander III. <J. 1271
k. 1272-1307 Earl of Lancaster, of Scotland
d. 1296
A great forward step had now been taken by England in secur-
ing a basis upon which the relations of crown and people might be
formally worked out. A precedent had been estab-
fnr the, lished ; a system or program had been accepted which
embodied in definite formulae the rights of the subject
and the powers of the government. Ideas, heretofore only vaguely
floating in men's minds, had been crystallized into the formal terms
of a public document; they could never again be lost or forgotten.
Yet the Charter was by no means secure. Its provisions, after all,
were as yet only the platform of a party. Much depended upon
John's successor; much more depended upon the clearness with
which new leaders should grasp the principles of the Charter, and
the courage with which they should uphold them. This struggle
is the theme of the next sixty years of English history.
Stephen Langton, soon after his suspension, had hastened to
Eome to put a fair statement of the quarrel before the pope and
had not yet returned. His absence was now doubly
^rmmed"t deplored. The Charter, however, found a new friend in
OcmZ%: ^ quarter where perhaps it was least expected. William
Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was the recognized head of
the conservative party of the barons who had clung to John, and,
although they had supported the demand for the Charter in 1315,,
266
1216] THE PIHST REISSUE OF THE CHAKTEB 367
had refused to make war upon him. Within ten days after his
death, therefore, they brought out and crowned at Gloucester the
young Prince Henry, John's eldest son. They also appointed Pem-
broke "governor of the king and the kingdom," but entrusted
the person of the king to the care of Peter des Roches. The
supporters of Henry, however, were not wedded to John's ways,
and it required no great foresight to see that the only hope of the
young king of ever ruling over his father's kingdom, lay in the
absolute and immediate abandonment of his father's policy. To
show the people, therefore, that John's policy had died with him,
Pembroke at once reissued the Charter, in a modified
First reissue , \-n,
nf Charter, form to be sure, but nevertheless the Charter. The
Nov. 12, 1216. , . , , 1 ,, . . „ , ,
most important change was the omission of the clauses
which made the consent of the barons necessary to the levy of an
unusual aid. The new government was at war with its own sub-
jects; a foreign prince supported by a powerful army was in the
field, and at so critical a time the new governor of the kingdom
might well hesitate to tie his hands, or acknowledge the powers of
a group of men the most of whom were in actual rebellion. Yet
the first clause of the modified charter declared that the omitted
articles were only suspended by reason of the present emergency,
and that they should be considered later. Gualo, the new papal
legate, and Peter des Roches had also borne no small part in secur-
ing the reissue of the Charter, as the first step toward the pacifica-
tion of the country. Sworn as was the one to the interests of his
papal master, and devoted as was the other to the interests of John
and his son, both saw that the moment had come for compromise
and conciliation.
The first year was fully occupied by the struggle with Louis.
The military advantage was all against Henry, but patriotic cur-
rents were running high. The old hatred of the Eng-
vMhLo^^^ lishman for the foreigner kindled again under wild
rumors of French brutality. The young king had no
personal enemies. His very youth, his misfortunes, appealed to
the awakening loyalty of the people. The independence of the
realm was at stake. The liberties of the people surely would be
far safer under one of their own princes, than under this French-
368 THE STRUGGLE FOK THE CHAETEB [heneyiii.
man, whose ancestors had always and at all times been the enemies
of England. Gualo, staunch to the interest which he had now taken
up, thundered his excommunications against those who supported
the French in their unholy cause. A new and powerful moral
influence, moving in ten thousand hidden currents, was thus rapidly
setting against Louis. In May 1217 Pembroke beat the French
in an absurd battle at Lincoln, known as "The Pair of Lincoln,"
so easy was the victory and so rich the plunder. In August the
Pair of Lincoln was eclipsed by another victory off Dover, in which
Hubert de Burgh with a small fleet of forty ships completely over-
whelmed the French fleet, and thus destroyed Louis's last chance of
getting reinforcements. The victory was due partly to the superior
seamanship of the English sailors, and partly to the simple expe-
dient of throwing quicklime into the faces of the French, as the
English bore down upon them from the weather side. This battle
of Dover practically settled the war; Louis thought only of mak-
ing his escape from the country.
The treaty of peace was signed at Lambeth, September 11,
1317. The same dignity and moderation, so characteristic of all
Treaty nf ^^^^ bears the touch of Pembroke's great soul, mark
Seiitlmher *^^^ treaty, which was "almost as important as the
11,1217. Great Charter itself." It secured a general amnesty,
and provided for the restitution of all forfeited property. Ten
thousand marks were paid to Louis to meet the expenses which he
had incurred in undertaking the war. Thus Pembroke sought to
lay the foundations of a lasting peace by restoring all parties to
the conditions which prevailed at the opening of the year 1315.
In a few weeks Louis, after receiving the absolution of the legate
as one guilty of an ecclesiastical offence, quitted the kingdom for
good.
Pembroke was now free to address himself to the reorganization
of the kingdom on the basis of the Charter. He had not only
averted the danger of another foreign conquest; he had
Second re- saved England from the horrors of long-continued
isRue of the . °
Charter, nn. domestic anarchy. The treaty of Lambeth was imme-
diately followed by a second reissue of the Charter, and
also by the issue of a supplementary charter, known as the Charter
1217] THE CHARTER OF THE FORESTS 269
of the Forests, which became almost as popular as the earlier work
of the barons. In the reissued Charter the clause restricting the
taxing power of the king was still held in abeyance ; illegal castles,
which had risen again as in the wars of Stephen's reign, were
to be destroyed; the itinerant justices were to make one instead of
four circuits a year. .The Charter of the Forests included the
forest regulations of the original charter which had been omitted
from the first reissue, and also certain new regulations which
relieved the people of many hardships. The boundaries of the
forests were always more or less indefinite, and the constant
tendency of the forest courts had been to extend these bound-
aries. By the new Charter the forests were to be restored to
the limits which had been recognized in the time of Henry
II. ; and much of the legal chicanery by which the forest courts
were accustomed to draw the helpless people into their toils,
was abolished. No measure of Earl William's administration
was more popular; and long after his death, when the cry for
the "confirmation of the charters" was raised by the nation,
it was Earl William's charters of the year 1217 that the people
demanded.
At the close of the year Gualo retired and Pandulf was again
appointed legate. Gualo had administered his high office in the
main with wisdom and discretion, and although he had
iMmitm"'^ been somewhat overeager to levy fines and confiscations
in the name of his spiritual lord, no small credit is due to
him for his staunch support of Pembroke in restoring the kingdom
to order and putting into practice the principles of the Charter.
The new legate had nothing of Gualo's keen insight into existing
conditions. He possessed, moreover, a dangerously energetic tem-
perament and was imbued with the idea that he was to govern Eng-
land as a dependent province of Rome. His overbearing disposition ,
also soon brought him into conflict with Langton who had returned
to England soon after the death of Innocent and was again at his
post. But Langton's influence with the new pope, Honorius III.,
finally prevailed ; Pandulf was recalled and Langton obtained the
promise that during his lifetime no resident legate should be
appointed in England.
270 THE STRUGGLE FOE THE CHARTER [henbtIII.
In 1319 Earl William died. He is the "grand old man" of
this era. He had been identified with every great political move-
ment since 1173. If he had supported John it was not
Deafli 0/ Pem- because he loved tyranny, but because lie feared baronial
orohe, 1219. j j i
violence. He represented the great conservative
thought of the nation, and because he was able at last to marshal
this element in support of the Charter, he made the final triumph
of the popular cause possible. His place could not be easily filled,
nor did the council attempt to appoint a new "governor."
Hubert de Burgh, the hero of Dover, had been justiciar since
1215, and the chief place in the administration naturally fell to
him. He had never been in sympathy with the restrictions of the
royal power as they had been set forth in the Charter; bat he
believed in good government, and threw himself with all the confi-
dence and vigor of a successful soldier into the task of complet-
ing the work of Earl William.
Hubert, however, was a very different man from the gentle
earl. He had nothing of his patience and little of his tact in deal-
ing with rebellious vassals. He saw, moreover, what
dcBurgh possibly William had seen before his death, that the
time for conciliation was passing and that the moment
was at hand when the new government might no longer shrink
from putting its authority to the test, but that it must deal vigor-
ously with the barons who still refused to surrender their strong-
holds. 'The feudal lords must submit to Henry III. as they had
once submitted to Henry II. ;' the foreigners whom John had put in
charge of his castles and who still held them, must be removed and
the strongholds which they had turned into instruments of
"tyranny and oppression," must be given back again to the king.
The most conspicuous of these tardy barons were William of
Aumdle and Falkes de Breante. Aumdle was of the old French-
English baronage which had rooted itself in the soil since
i-irment«in the Conquest. His grandfather was that William of
Aumale who had defied Henry of Anjou when he began
the restoration of the kingdom after the close of Stephen's stormy
reign. Falkes de Breaute was one of the horde of rufl&an adven-
turers whom John had introduced into England in order to
1319, 1330] HtJBEET DE BUEGH 271
support his tottering throne. He was a Norman by birth, but
had been driven out of Normandy for his crimes and had found
congenial occupation in marshalling John's mercenaries. John
had rewarded him by bestowing upon him a rich heiress; he had
also made him sheriff of six English connties and given into his
keeping many of his castles, including Bedford, one of the most
formidable strongholds of England. Pembroke perhaps would not
have hesitated to attack Aumdle or de Breaute had they stood
alone. But there were many other powerful barons who, like Ralph
of Chester, held aloof from the new government and would
undoubtedly have taken alarm, had the regent attempted to coerce
one of their number. There was also within the council itself a pow-
erful foreign influence, headed by the quondam justiciar of John,
Peter des Roches, who had been a knight, a politician, and a mis-
chief-maker generally, before he had taken orders, and had not so
far abandoned his old profession, that he could not use his present
position secretly to encourage the barons to defy the regent in
order to build up a foreign party in the court.
As a preliminary step to the assertion of the royal authority,
at Whitsuntide of the year 1220, Hubert with the support of
Langton had Henry recrowned at Westminster amid
Sserte*ffte great pomp and splendor. It was to be the signal that
ttu"im'^^' *^® ^^^E Ji^d been restored to full possession of the
royal dignity. Armed with a bull from Honorius which
demanded the surrender of the castles, Hubert then proceeded
against Aumale, and although he succeeded at last, it was not
until Aumdle had resisted the whole force of the government for
nearly a year. By this time, also, the other barons were fully
aroused, and appearing before the king, with- Bishop Peter as
spokesman, formally accused Hubert of treason. They then
retired to Leicester. The justiciar in the name of the king
appealed to the nation and gathered a rival force at Northampton.
Langton also entered the lists and issued a formal excommuni-
cation against the rebellious barons. This "array of force and
authority" overawed the malcontents; and one by one they sur-
rendered their castles and made their peace with the justiciar.
Falkes de Breaut6, however, remained defiant and Hubert deter-
273 THE STRUGGLE FOE THE CHAETEE [hehetIII.
mined to complete his success by either destroying him or driving
him out of the country. But he took his own time, and waited
patiently until some overt act of de Breaute or his men should
leave no question of the justice of his position. In 1234, the occa-
sion came. William, a brother of de Breaute, who held Bedford
in his name, seized and imprisoned one of the royal justices.
Hubert at once accepted the challenge, marched against Bedford,
and after two months' siege, took it and hanged William and some
eighty of his men on the walls. Such prompt and vigorous measures
thoroughly cowed the barons who still retained any sympathy
with de Breaute. De Breaut6 himself was glad to leave the coun-
try; Bishop Peter also lost his influence for the time, left the
council, and soon after departed for a Crusade.
For three years Hubert continued to rule the kingdom with
vigor and success. But in 1327 Henry, who had entered upon his
twenty-first year, declared his purpose of assuming the
ijecnmesof government himself. Personally the young king was
clean and upright, without any of his father's personal
wickedness ; but unfortunately he was possessed with an exaggerated
estimate of his own abilities as an executive, always coupled with a
slavish deference to the papacy. He was, moreover, easily led by
the favorite of the hour and inclined, like most weak natures in
high positions, to be suspicious of tlie influence of strong men.
Hubert continued to act as justiciar; but the king was incapable
of appreciating his sterling worth, or the value of his past serv-
ices.
In 1238 Hubert lost his best and wisest supporter in the death
of Langton, who as no other English statesman of the time, even
Pembroke not excepted, had risen to the full concep-
of'nubeH.'^ tion of the constitutional monarchy. He had unflinch-
ingly upheld the liberties of all classes against the king;
yet he had as staunchly defended the croTvn when the barons pro-
posed to deprive the king of his legal and just powers. As no
other man he stood for the national rights of the English people.
His death left Hubert to struggle on alone under his burdens.
The task had long since proved thankless, for the king had early
shown alarming signs of treading in his father's footsteps. His
1228, 1229] PALL OP HUBEET DE BUKGH 273
very first act was to insist that all charters or grants made in his
name during his minority, should be regarded as invalid, until
confirmation had been purchased by the beneficiary. Other acts as
ill-omened of tlie future followed. Hubert, loyal to the last,
found himself driven to adopt the policy of his predecessors,
Hubert Walter and Geoffrey Pitz-Peter; like them he deliberately
sacrificed his own popularity to save the reputation of his master.
When he could, he lightened the burdens of the people, but only
in the end to forfeit the favor of the ungrateful king.
The troubles of Hubert began soon after the death of Langton.
The pope, Gregory IX., at the time was in the midst of the
struggle with the Hohenstaufen which had been
Hul^. renewed soon after the death of Innocent III. As a
result the papal budget had enormously increased, and
the ordinary revenue of the papal see, although supplemented by
the Peter's Pence, was no longer sufficient for its needs. Henry
at his coronation in 1216, had formally done homage to Gualo as
the representative of the pope ; and again in 1320, at the second
coronation, the sponsors of the young king had thought it neces-
sary first to await the command of the papal overlord. The
tribute of 1,000 marks which John had promised had also been
regularly paid. The pope, therefore, had every reason to regard
as established the papal overlordship which had now for nearly
fifteen years passed without a challenge, and in 1229 demanded
a tenth of all property, both lay and ecclesiastical, to assist him in
prosecuting his wars. The demand brought the papal overlord-
ship home to the barons, and when the matter was brought up in
the council, voices were loudly raised in protest. The pope dared
not push the demand upon the laity, but he compelled the church
bo submit. Eventually it became the established custom for the
clergy to set aside one-tenth of their yearly income for the pope,
annates, besides the entire income of each benefice during the first
year after aip'pomtm.ent, first fruits. Popular feeling ran high, and
a quickening national sentiment found voice in a definite protest
against the impoverishment of the nation in order to carry on wars
in which England had no interest. The papal collectors were
plundered ; their stores burned. The king whose sympathies were
274 THE STRUGGLE FOE THE CHAKTBE [heneyIII.
all with the pope, was grieved and angry ; and when the justiciar
failed to punish the perpetrators of these outrages, he charged him
with conniving at the excesses of the populace. Henry in truth
was already tired of his minister. Peter des Eoches, moreover,
who had just returned from his crusading venture, and who was as
unscrupulous and ambitious as ever, easily made the king believe
that Hubert's dishonesty was the cause of the lean treasury and
that he was abetting those who were opposing the papal exac-
tions. At last in July, 1232, des Roches had the satisfaction of
seeing his old rival driven from the council, like Becket over-
whelmed with a mass of unfounded charges, and his lands taken
from him. Hubert de Burgh was the last of the great justiciars.
Inferior men succeeded him. The political functions of the oflBce
passed to the chancellor and in the next reign the office itself was
virtually abolished by the breaking up of the Curia into three
distinct and separate courts.
Peter des Roches was now supreme in the council; and when-
ever a valiTable appointment was to be filled the king apparently
preferred Peter's foreign friends, adventurers mostly,
^m^mfcr^'' ^° ^^® ^^^ people. A hundred years earlier such
ftoHtS^ conduct on the part of the king would have been
accepted as a matter of course, but the national feeling
was now too strong to allow it to pass without a protest. Earl
Ralph of Chester, the natural head of the baronage, had died in
the year of Hubert's fall. William Marshal, the younger, had
married a sister of the king and was not inclined to break with
him. William's brother Richard, however, "one of the most
accomplished knights and the most educated gentleman of the
age," put himself at the head of the national party and persuaded
the barons to refuse to attend any council called by the king at
which Bishop Peter was present, and to demand the dismissal of
the foreigners whom he had introduced into the king's service.
The king under the instigation of des Roches declared Richard a
traitor and invaded his estates. The barons insisted that he
should be tried by his peers. Peter des Roches asserted the
startling doctrine that there were no peers in England as there
were in Prance, and that the king had full right to proscribe and
1234] HEKET'S PERSONAL ADMINISTRATIOK 275
condemn. Eichard, satisfied that he would receive short shrift
with Bishop Peter as his judge, in self-defense made an alliance
with the Welsh princes. So the nation was once more drifting
toward civil war, when Eichard was decoyed into Ireland by the
cunning minister and there slain in a skirmish. But his work was
accomplished. The clergy had openly taken sides with the
barons. Langton's successor, Edmund Eich, read a list of griev-
ances to the king and declared himself ready to pronounce the
excommunication if the king refused to heed. Henry, who was a
coward at heart, saw himself at last like his father confronted by
an angry nation and durst not defy the spirit which he had raised.
He therefore dismissed des Eoches and sent off the foreigners.
Henry, however, did not propose to flatter his troublesome vas-
sals by calling any of them to his side as ministers. If he could
not select his own ministers, he would have none at all.
atSntat ^^^^ measure was a serious mistake. For hitherto the
TOmSraffore ministers had borne the brunt of the popular discon-
tent. Now the king assumed the whole responsibility
himself. He was extravagant, obstinate, and false. It was not
long before a mass of grievances had rolled up which certainly
would have appalled a wiser head. But Henry kept on, blind to
his own utter incompetence, disgusting his people by his evasions
and shortcomings, and laying up an account for the future.
These grievances centered largely about the question of money.
Henry loved power not so much for itself, as for the opportunity
which it gave him for ostentatious display. He loved
^Be^"'^^ to scatter his favors in extravagant profusion ; he loved
the glitter and show of court pageantry, and squandered
vast sums in supporting its ceremonies. He made the brilliant
alliances of the royal house, in particular, occasions for the display
of his magnificence. As a result, Henry won an unfortunate repu-
tation for wealth which was not supported by facts, but which
nevertheless tickled his vanity and led him still deeper into this
costly masquerading. The broken-down gentility of Europe who
could manufacture any claim upon his bounty fiocked to his court.
Most notorious among these were the queen's two uncles, Peter of
Savoy and Boniface, who came with a train of hungry Provengals
276 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHAKTEB [HENBrin.
at their heels, and secured offices and pensions at the king's
expense. Henry for his pains was rapidly sinking into hopeless debt.
The barons continued to grant scutages, aids, carucage, or tax
on movables as Henry demanded. But their generosity found
little encouragement in the financiering of the king,
Orowingim- -, -, « • -i • -,
pattmceof whosc debts already exceeded four times his annual
bct/fOfis
income. The barons insisted with each grant that the
king confirm the charters and promise redress and reforms ; and
Henry like all spendthrifts was always ready to promise when he
needed money, only to forget again as soon as the money was in his
hands. But the patience of the barons had its limit; the king
was drifting rapidly near to the danger line. Beyond it, was either
bankruptcy or civil war, probably both, with the possibility of
ultimate deposition.
The king at the time was preparing an expedition against Louis
IX. of Prance. He had long cherished an impracticable scheme
of regaining the French domains which his father had
tempt to lost, and had already squandered the treasures of his
footinnonthe subjects in a wasteful war with the French for this pur-
cantincnt. tit tit i- t • a
pose ; but he had accomplished nothing, and in fact owed
the continuance of his power in the parts of John's domain which had
been saved from the general wreck, only to the loyalty of the Gascons,
who did not love Henry so much as they hated and feared the French.
The Gascon barons, moreover, were turbulent and unruly by long
habit, and preferred the government which was remote and there-
fore weak ; the southern merchants also found England the best
market for their wines, the chief staple of their country. But the
English barons took little interest in the distant struggle and were
weary of the endless demands for scutage and other subsidies. It
was with little satisfaction, therefore, that in 1242 they saw their
king bent upon rushing into still another war with the French
king. The Poitivin, Hugh de la Marche, had quarreled with Louis
IX., and appealed to Henry for help. This Hugh was the man
whose bride John had once carried off, the beginning of all his
troubles. After the death of John, Hugh had successfully
renewed his suit and was now Henry's stepfather. Henry
regarded the call of Hugh as the opportunity to regain his footing
1242-1345] GKIEVANCES OF THE CLERGT 277
in Poitou, and although the English barons flatly refused to grant
the required subsidies, the headstrong king, determined to under-
take the quest, took his army to Poitou, only to be disgracefully
driven out of the country. Then, to exasperate the baronage still
further, he brought back with him a rout of hungry Poitivins, his
half-brothers and their friends, to live upon his bounty and plunder
the realm in his name.
The barons now began to see clearly that it was not enough to
protest, or refuse grants. In 1344, therefore, they presented a
formal remonstrance to the king, in which they declared
demand con- that he had not expended their grants wisely, and de-
appaintment manded that he appoint a iusticiar, a treasurer, and a
of mimisters. ,
chancellor, subject to their approval. In 1215 the
barons had demanded only that the king's officers be acquainted
with the law ; now they demand that the affairs of the kingdom be
administered by men directly responsible to the great council.
The barons were thus at last feeling their way towards a right
solution of the problem in which Langton and the elder Marshal
had failed. The time, however, was not yet ripe for a step so rad-
ical. The barons were not ready to break finally with the king,
and the king evidently would not yield to their demands until
forced by open revolt.
The state of the clergy was far less hopeful. Like the barons
they were subjected to numerous and heavy exactions ; but they
were far less able to help themselves. The king was
^he^rgy ^^^^ ^ ^^''^ ^^ *^® hands of the papal overlord, and the
English clergy might well hesitate to raise an issue with
the fiery and inexorable Gregory IX. His remorseless demands
were repeated from year to year; yet the papal treasury was
ever empty. The pope, moreover, not satisfied with direct
taxation, by the recently assumed right of naming "provisors,"
sought to reward his Italian servants by securing for them
appointments to English livings in advance of vacancies. In
1331 Gregory forbade the English bishops to "present to livings"
until provision had been made for five Italians whom he did not
even name. In 1340 the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury were
instructed to provide for three hundred Italians. In 1345 the
378 THE STEUGGLE FOK THE CHARTEE [hekky m.
new pope, Innocent IV., demanded a year's revenue from all
vacant livings, and in a formal protest, which the English bishops
subsequently presented at the council of Lyons, they declared that
they were putting 60,000 marks each year into the hands of
foreign prelates. At last the exactions became so burdensome
that even the laity complained of the impoverishment of the
country.
The only justification which can be advanced in defense of the
policy of the popes, is the desperateness of the mighty struggle
which they were carrying on against Frederick II. It
teroess fottiarij was a duel of Titans and neither party was scrupulous
about encroaching upon the rights of inferior powers. It
was a cause too, Gregory or Innocent might Justly claim, in which
the entire church was interested, and their vassals of England ought
to bear a share of the burdens as well as their vassals of Italy. To
national England, however, drawing herself together after a cen-
tury and a half of feudal strife, it seemed that she was paying
overdear for her loyalty to the Koman see, with her riches pour-
ing into its coffers, her livings handed over to foreign ecclesiastics,
many of whom did not take the trouble to come to England at all,
and her king a witless tool in the hands of a foreign hierarchy. In
the quaint words of Matthew of Paris, "the pope displayed the
harshness of a stepfather, and the church of Eome the fury of a
stepmother." Many voices were raised in protest. Even the
saintly Edmund Rich, the archbishop of Canterbury, although
like Langton he owed his appointment directly to the intrusion of
papal authority, protested against the continued usurpations of
the Roman pontifE and went into exile rather than submit. Sir
Robert Twenge, a public-spirited knight of Yorkshire, went to
Rome in order to present his protest in person. But no voice
rang clearer than that of Robert Grosseteste, the bishop of Lin-
coln, who boldly urged the clergy to resist the frequent levies, and
declared that the nominees of the pope were drawing from Eng-
land three times as much revenue as the king himself. Almost
his last words were those of the noble and manly protest of 1353.
Innocent had proposed that one of his own nephews be invested
witt a living in the diocese of Lincoln. "I decline to obey," replied
1353-1357] THE APULIAN AITAXR 279
Grosset.este; "filially and obediently, I oppose; I rebel!" Thus
were sown in the English mind the first seeds of that bitterness
which was destined two centuries later to bear fruit so fatal to
the pope's interests in England.
In 1357 afEairs began to approach a crisis. Frederick II. had
died in 1250, and Innocent IV. had followed him to the grave in
1254. Innocent's successor was Alexander IV., a mild
of^tiwmsS^^ and gentle prince, of very different spirit from either
Gregory or Innocent. The policy of the Roman see,
however, had become too firmly established; the enmities which
divided Italy had bitten too deeply into the hearts of the people
to be influenced much by the character of one pope, so that
Alexander was compelled by his position to take up the task of his
predecessors. A Hohenstaufen prince must not be allowed to
establish himself in southern Italy; a descendant of Frederick II.
must not succeed to the crown of the Sicilies. Innocent had
sought to. interest France in his cause by offering the disputed
crown to Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX. ; lie had also
gone begging to England and had actually persuaded Henry, who
was Just vain enough to be caught by the dangerous bauble, to
accept the honor for his second son Edmund, when Innocent died
and left his bargaining and his scheming for Alexander to bring
to some definite result. Henry had agreed to send an army to
take possession of the Sicilian kingdom, and when he was unable
to act, the pope had generously undertaken to carry on the war
for him, charging the expense up to his account, and with such
good results that very soon Henry's debt had been rolled up to
135,000 marks. In the meantime the pope had not hesitated to
press Henry for payment, even sending his own creditors to Eng-
land to deal directly with the sorely beset debtor. In 1257 the
urgency of Alexander finally forced the king to lay the matter
before the great council and ask for a grant of 140,000 marks.
Henry tried to arouse some enthusiasm by presenting to the
barons the little Edmund tricked out in the costume of Apulia,
but the attempt was a dismal failure. The clergy consented to
contribute 52,000 marks, but the barons remained ominously
silent.
280 THE STEUGGLE EOE THE CHARTER [hbnby m.
The king and the great council were approaching a deadlock,
and a deadlock at this moment meant bankruptcy, possibly revo-
lution. Since the fall of Hubert de Burgh the king
of'mnrS^s^'' ^^^ acted as his own chief minister. Since 1244 he
government ^^^ conducted the government without treasurer,
chancellor, or justiciar. The affairs of these important
officers had been carried on by means of a bureau of clerks, mere
registering machines, both irresponsible and inefficient. Public
business had fallen first into arrears, and then into hopeless con-
fusion. Enormous sums had been raised but the treasury was
always bare. The king could not pay even the menials about
his court, and some of them had been driven to highway rob-
bery by actual destitution. To add to the general distress the
year 1257 was attended by a failure of the crops throughout Eng-
land. Heavy and long-continued rains ruined the grain, and when
November came the harvests still lay rotting in the fields. The
price of wheat rose tenfold, and in the winter which followed
thousands of the people died of hunger. The rich had no con-
fidence in the future, and the poor, always the first to suffer on the
eve of national bankruptcy, were openly disloyal, restless, and
defiant. The discontent was universal and soon passed into savage
mutterings, the presage of coming storm.
In the past, in the case of wise kings like the first two Henrys,
it had been sufiicient to protest and exact some written guarantee
of better rule. But this method had proved utterly
farmer meth- worthless against the obstinate extravagance of Henry
straiiuiig the and the insatiable avarice of the creatures who surrounded
him. Never had charters been more elaborate or mi-
nute ; never had king more readily and graciously given his word ; but
never had king more lightly broken his word again as soon as his
people's wealth was safely housed in the royal treasury. Yet the
nation had hesitated to draw the sword. The memories of John's
wars were still fresh. The clergy were overawed by the pope ; on
the one hand, on the other, they distrusted the barons and hesi-
tated to join them in a struggle against the royal authority.
The commons as yet not only had no regu.lar representation in
the national council, but by long-accepted tradition they still
1258] THE MAD PARLIAMENT 281
regarded the king as their natural protector, and had no desire
to throw the administration altogether into the hands of the
barons.
Such was the condition of affairs when in April 1258 the barons
were summoned to a great council at London. They were still in
the same ugly mood in which they had met the king in
'of'nmf^ the preceding year. But the pope, who had little appre-
ciation of the dif3Sculties which confronted Henry, had
continued to press him for the immediate settlement of his account ;
the legate had threatened the kingdom with the interdict in case
of refusal, and the king had no recourse save to call once more
upon the barons to assist him in making good his pledge. Then
the barons who had been silent before spoke out ; they told the
king plainly that he had acted unwisely in the Sicilian affair
and without the advice of the council, and that he must end
the matter as best he could. After a month of wrangling
Henry finally promised that he would summon the barons again
at Oxford soon after Whitsuntide ; and that, if they would grant
the aid for which he asked, he would consider their grievances
and consent to the appointment of a commission of twenty-
four, twelve of whom should be taken from the royal council and
twelve from the barons, with full power to institute the necessary
reforms. The barons accepted the promise in good faith and the
assembly broke up.
The king kept his word, and early in June the barons were
summoned to meet him at Oxford. There was no mistaking the
^^ spirit of this second assembly, which was soon christened
ParUammt," by the king's adherents the "Mad Parliament." ^ The
barons met clad in full armor, and although they pre-
tended that the arming was for the "Welsh wars, no one was ignorant
of its real purpose. They first presented their grievances, a long
' The name parliament was now coming into vogue. Matthew of
Paris among English writers first uses it, parlamentum, of the meeting
of the barons at London in 1346. Gneist, Const. Hist, of England, I, p.
320, note 2a. The word at first had nothing of its later specific meaning,
but was used in some such way as the word congress is frequently used
to-day. See Taswell-Langmead, p. 194 and note 1.
383 THE STRUGGLE FOE THE OHAETEE [henbt lU.
and formidable list,' and then proceeded to the reordering of the
government. A justiciar, treasurer, and chancellor were chosen,
presumably, by the parliament. The promised committee of
twenty-four were also appointed, and proceeded to draw up the
constitution known as the Provisions of Oxford.
In accordance with the proposed constitution, the commission of
twenty-four were to appoint a second committee of four; each
twelve to select two names from the opposing twelve.
TUe Provi-
sinmat The Committee of four were then to select a per-
manent council of fifteen members. This council
was to advise the king in matters of state and to exercise a
direct supervision over his public acts. The barons were also
to appoint a second permanent committee to consist of twelve
members who were to represent the "community of the realm,"
meeting in parliament with the council of fifteen three times a
year. A second committee of twenty-four were to be empowered
to negotiate the aid which had been promised to the king. The
original twenty-four were entrusted with the reform of the church.
In each shire four discreet knights were to be appointed to watch
the conduct of the sheriffs and report at the parliaments. The
sheriffs were to be appointed for one year and their accounts
were to be strictly audited. A direct blow was aimed at the foreign
friends of the king, in that all castles were to be put at once into
the hands of native Englishmen.
The barons were taking a long step in advance of the crude
provisions made in the Great Charter for safe-guarding the nation
comtihi- against the tyrannies of the king; yet they had little
^imwlc^the' Comprehension of the principles of constitutional gov-
Provisiims. ernment. For the arbitrary government of an irre-
sponsible king, they had nothing better to substitute than the
arbitrary government of an irresponsible oligarchy. In the
method also, which they devised for selecting the men to whom this
important trust was to be committed, they betray the same
barrenness of expedient, having exhausted their ingenuity in
' See Stubbs, S. C. , p. 383. By comparing these grievances point by-
point with the provisions of the Great Charter it will be seen how little
had yet been actually secured.
1358] THE PROVISIONS OP OXPOKD 383
imitating the complicated and crude machinery of cross appoint-
ments by which it was customary to negotiate the treaties
of the era. The barons conceded the supervision of local
administration to the knights of the shire and allowed them to
report at the parliaments. Yet they evidently had no wish to allow
the knights any standing as a constituent part of the parliament,
and really showed less confidence in this large and important ele-
ment of the commonalty of the realm than Henry him-
12M. self had shown on a previous occasion,' when he had
assembled the knights through their representatives, as
an integral part of the great council. All in all, the Provisions
were constitutionally a step backward; they were designed to
fetter the king by putting the government into the hands of an
oligarchy of the great barons, rather than to extend political priv-
ileges to the community at large or to develop its political activity.
As it was, the lesser barons evidently were not satisfied, and to
quiet them, the twenty-four promised to announce further reforms
before the following Christmas.
The Provisions were accepted by the king; the several commit-
tees were appointed and the members bound by an elaborate series
of oaths to perform their respective duties. The king
The new also swore to support the Provisions and respect the
government -^ ■*■ -*■
launched, advice of the council. A flurry was caused for a moment
1258.
by the conduct of Henry's half-brothers, the Lusignans,
who refused to surrender their castles at the demand of the barons,
and, throwing themsejves into the castle of Winchester, defied the
authority of the government. After a two weeks' siege, however,
they were compelled to capitulate on July 5, and were expelled
from the kingdom, leaving the most of their ill-gotten wealth
behind them. After their departure, Edward, Henry's eldest son,
also accepted the Provisions, and the new government was fairly
launched. On the 1 8th of October, in a document drawn up in
English, French, and Latin, the king formally announced to the
world his acceptance of the Provisions and his purpose to respect
the decisions of the council.
' Taswell-Langmead, p. 194.
384 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHABTEB [heneyiil
The two men who thus far had led the barons were Richard of
Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and Simon de Montfort, Earl of Lei-
cester. Of these two men Eichard of Clare was "by
th^TmrmL ^irth, property, and descent the natural head of the
English baronage." He was also a man of great energy
and strength, but his political sympathies were narrow and con-
fined him to the interests of his class. A very different man was
Earl Simon. He came from an ancient Norman family and was
the second son of that Simon de Montfort who had lost his life
under the walls of Toulouse in the Albigensian Crusade. The
younger Simon like his father was tall and handsome; he pos-
sessed also his religious ardor, his love of roving, his fondness for
war and adventure. From his father's mother he had inherited a
claim to the English earldom of Leicester, the recognition of which
by Henry had given him a standing among the English barons.
He had risen rapidly in favor, and in 1238 had secretly married
the king's sister Eleanor, the widow of William Marshal the
younger. Thus far the career of Simon had not differed much
from that of many another foreign adventurer who came to seek
his fortune in England. His rapid rise, also, had stirred up bitter
enemies, chief of whom was the king, who was particularly dis-
pleased by the marriage with Eleanor. In 1240 Simon departed
on a Crusade and was gone two years. In 1248 he was made gov-
ernor of Gascony and gave its unruly nobles the best administra-
tion that they had known since the days of Eichard I. He
returned in 1251 to find that the king's hostility had not abated
and that the malice of his own enemies was as busy as ever. Yet
his services were too valuable to be dispensed with, and he was
sent again to Gascony as the guardian of Prince Edward. Simon's
high reputation at this time is shown by the fact that he was twice
invited to be seneschal of France. In 1254, however, he was finally
retired to remain for two years under the deep shadow of royal
displeasure. In 1256 he came back to England to throw himself
into the cause of reform, and it was largely due to his clear-sighted
leadership that such definite results had been wrought out of the
parliaments of London and Oxford. He was not, like Langton, an
Englishman; but yet, like Langton, like no Englishman of his own
1259] DIVISION IN THE PARTY OP THE BAEONS 285
times, lie rose to the full significance of the movement for the
political reorganization of the kingdom.
The year 1359 opened auspiciously enough for the new admin-
istration. After the expulsion of the foreigners the adherents of
the king were left in a hopeless minority both in the
The split in council of fifteen and in the consulting board of twelve.
tlie party cf , . n
the barons. Henry s personal influence was feeble. His son Edward
had a strong following among the lesser barons, but
they were all with Simon and the cause of reform. Richard of
Cornwall, the king's brother, who had been elected King of the
Romans in 1357 and had been spending the last two years in the
mad quest for imperial honors, returned in January of 1259, but
was compelled to swear to support the Provisions. In times past,
at great crises in the nation's history, the archbishop of Canter-
bury had generally played a most important rdle and the support
of his powerful influence was more to be desired than the support
of an army. The present incumbent, however, was Boniface of
Savoy, the queen's uncle, who was not only one of the very foreigners
whom the barons were determined to keep out of the kingdom, but
had made himself specially obnoxious by his brutal violenpe, so
marked in contrast with the gentle saintliness of his predecessor.
There was no one, therefore, to rally a king's party. Yet the king
was not long without friends. He found them, moreover, where
he had least expected, among the very barons who had driven away
his kinsmen and seized control of his government. Gloucester and
Leicester were thoroughly incompatible both in views and in tem-
perament. Gloucester was satisfied, now that the foreigners had
been expelled, and had no desire to see the reform carried farther.
Leicester, apparently, did not wish to stop until remedies had been
introduced which should make such abuses of power as had disgraced
the reigns of John and Henry henceforth impossible. Gloucester
furthermore had no sympathy with the demands of the inferior
barons, and it was probably due to him and the conservative instincts
of the powerful section of the baronage which he represented, that
the Provisions were so illiberal and that the inferior barons had
been put off with a promise. Simon, however, was evidently not
satisfied with simply exalting the powers of a few great barons at
386 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHARTER [henry III.
the expense of the crown; he contended not for the privileges
of his class bnt to secure good goyernment for the nation.
Christmas came and passed, and the council had taken no steps
to fulfill the promises made at Oxford. In February the matter
came to an open quarrel between Gloucester and Simon ;
Sims of West- but Simon apparently won, for on the 28th of March
ober, 1-359. the king published an ordinance by which the barons of
the parliament undertook "to observe towards their dependents all
the engagements which the king had undertaken to observe
towards his vassals." This pledge, however, was evidently not
definite enough to satisfy the great body of knights, ' who, led by
Prince Edward himself, demanded of the council that the specific
reforms promised at Oxford be forthcoming. There were ominous
threats of counter-revolution in the air, and the oligarchy in con-
trol of the government could only submit. In October, therefore,
they published a second or supplementary set of Provisions, known
as the Provisions of Westminster, which, while not altogether
satisfactory, served to allay the disquiet for a time.
It is not necessary to trace the further history of the govern-
ment of the barons in detail. They succeeded in bringing to a
close a Welsh war which had smouldered through the
mmt «f tiie greater part of Henry's personal reign. They withdrew
England from all share in the unfortunate Sicilian affair.
They also succeeded in settling by a definite treaty the long-stand-
ing quarrel of England and France over the lost Angevin dominions,
in which the council renounced all claims of the English
Bm-dcaux, king upon Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou; the
French king conceded Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Gascony,
with the bishoprics of Limoges, Cahors, and Perigord, all to be held
by the king of England as fiefs of the king of France. The domes-
tic administration of the council seems to have been likewise suc-
cessful. The three parliaments were held each year; the four
knights from each county regularly reported on the conduct of
the sheriffs, and the courts instead of being a source of extortion,
became again the guardians of law-abiding subjects.
So matters continued until the close of 1360. Leicester and
1 ' 'The community of the bachelors of England, ' ' Stubbs, C. if. , II, p. 83.
1260-1262] HENET DEFIES THE COUNCIL 387
Gloucester were apparently reconciled; btit the estrangement of
Leicester and the great barons was not healed, although Simon had
spent much of his time abroad since the quarrel
Siihtn^^^" of 1359. Gloucester and the king naturally drew
cameii, ug^j. together, and Edward and Simon, who had
long been close friends, as naturally found themselves
in accord. Edward, moreover, had been specially embittered
against Gloucester who it seems had been largely responsible
for the Treaty of Bordeaux, having surrendered the English
claim to Normandy against the express protest of the prince.
Gloucester also had used the intimacy of Edward and Simon
to excite the suspicion of the king and caused him to believe
that Simon was plotting to dethrone him in the interests of
his son. Henry on his part was fully aware of the unpopu-
larity of Simon with the great barons and had taken advantage of
his continued absence to foment trouble in the council and had
gathered about him a considerable party. At the opening of 1261
he believed that he was strong enough to act, and made no secret of
his determination to overthrow the Provisions of Oxford. He also
received direct encouragement from the pope, who annulled the
Provisions and released Henry and Edward from their oaths.
Edward, whose sympathies were still with the popular cause,
refused the pope's proffered assistance; but Henry seized and
fortified London Tower, brought over foreign soldiers and began
again to appoint his ministers and sheriffs quite in the old way.
Open war would have broken out immediately but neither side was
yet sure of its strength. The great barons, moreover, had become
altogether lukewarm in their support of the Provisions, and prob-
ably would not have opposed the king at all, if he had shown any
disposition to keep his foreign friends out of the country, for they
had already scented fresh booty and were beginning to return.
The liberal views of Simon also were steadily gaining ground in the
towns and in the counties, and the people were showing their dis-
approval of the king's course by open rioting in the north and
west. In 1262 the earl of Gloucester died, and Simon returned to
put himself again at the head of the popular movement. He was
joined by the son of Gloucester, the young Earl Gilbert.
288 THE STRUGGLE FOE THE CHAKTBE [hekkt IIL
As the year 1363 opened, it was evident that the country was
drifting rapidly into civil war. The party of the barons was at last
hopelessly divided. The great earls had come to
of civil war, look npon the Provisions as a shallow pretense to hide
de Montfort's despotism. Edward also had for some
time begun to mistrust, if not the motives, at least the wisdom of
the leader of the popular party, and when the young earl of
Gloucester refused to swear allegiance to him as heir to the
throne, he regarded it as cause of open breach with his party.
Simon, moreover, had made an alliance with Edward's old enemy
of Wales, Llewelyn, who had begun to attack the king's partisans
in the west. The people of London had unfortunately also won
the enmity of Edward by an utterly inexcusable insult to his
mother whom they hated as one of the detested foreigners.
Richard of Cornwall, who had not yet committed himself to either
party, for the moment managed to stave off the war by persuading
the leaders to lay their quarrel before Louis of TPrance for arbitra-
tion. Louis, however, knew little of the conditions which existed
The"Miseof ^^ England, and his decision, the Mise of Amiens, was
fmuarC' singularly unjust and one-sided. He declared that the
1264. Provisions of Oxford and all engagements connected
with them were null and void ; that Henry might appoint his own
council and employ foreigners if he would, but that previous
charters ought to be observed.
The discontented leaders were by no means satisfied with the
results of the attempt at arbitration. They declared that they
might accept the decision against the Provisions of
Rejection of „„ Tiinj.i i. •
the "jvfise of Oxtord, but that the loreigners must be expelled from
the kingdom; this item they had not consented to
arbitrate. The city of London was the first to repudiate the ver-
dict. Simon also announced that he proposed to adhere to the
Provisions of Oxford. Only a few of the great barons went with
him, but the citizens of the large towns, the native clergy, the
universities, and the great body of the people hailed his declaration
with unfeigned enthusiasm.
The rejection of the Mise of Amiens was the signal for the begin-
ning of the so called "Barons' "War. " At first the royal forces won
1264] THE BAEOKS' WAK 289
marked success in the midland counties ; Northampton was taken ;
Nottingham opened her gates, and Tutbury surrendered. Then
the war drifted south, and finally in the first week of
the "Barons' May, 1264, the two armies faced each other at Lewes.
TVdT " 1264-
The bishops of London and Worcester came to the king
with an offer of 50,000 marks if he would confirm the Provisions of
Oxford. His answer was a defiance, and a challenge to do their worst.
The next morning Earl Simon, reinforced by a body of Londoners,
led his army to the attack. Simon, good Norman that he was, had
spent the night in prayer, urging others to do the same,
^"ces. May and his spirit had found a ready response among soldiers
who felt that, like the men of 1215, they too had a right
to call themselves "The Army of God and the Holy Church." The
battle went against the king, owing largely to the eagerness of
Edward who early in the action had routed a band of Londoners
and led his men-at-arms too far in the pursuit. He returned to
the field to find the battle lost, and Henry and Richard of Corn-
wall prisoners.
The victory placed the game in Earl Simon's hands; and the
next day, a formal treaty, the Mise of Leioes, was signed in which
the king bound himself to submit the points at issue to
Mise of a new board of arbitration ; to act solely on the advice
Lewes. •'
of his counsellors "in administering justice and choos-
ing ministers;" to observe the charters and to live at moderate
expense ; that Edward and Henry, the son of Richard of Corn-
wall, be given as hostages, and that the earls of Leicester and
Gloucester be indemnified for their sacrifices in the war.
Simon himself was now apparently ready to abandon the cum-
bersome arrangement devised at Oxford ; and a month later, June
23, a great council or parliament, to which were added
The comtutt- fo^j- knights from each shire, was summoned to ratify
tlOnofU64. » ,T.,i.T,i 1
a new scheme of government. By this plan three elec-
tors were to be chosen by the parliament, and these in turn were
to name a permanent body of nine councillors. Of the nine three
were to be in constant attendance, and only by their advice could
the king act. They were to nominate the ministers of the crown
and the wardens of the castles, and their authority was to continue
290 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHAETEE [heket m.
until the new board of arbitration provided by the Mise of Lewes
had settled the points at issue. ^ The plan was adopted and Simon
was named as one of the three electors; with him were associated
the earl of Gloucester and Stephen Berksted, the bishop of
Chichester. These three men for the next year were the real gov-
ernors of England.
Simon was fully aware of the insecurity of his position, and
had little confidence in the proposed arbitration. He seized the
royal castles, therefore, and placed them in the hands of
parties after his own men. He also sought to secure the country by
appointing in each shire so called "guardians of the
peace. " The royal partisans on the Welsh border, led by the border
lord, Roger Mortimer, were still strong and defiant and were pre-
paring for the renewal of war; Queen Eleanor and the English
refugees were also raising a powerful force in Prance. The pope
too had entered the lists and was using all his influence to detach
the bishops from the support of Simon, and the legate stood ready
to hurl his anathemas at the new government.
Simon, nevertheless, bravely addressed himself to the task of
inaugurating the new order, and on the 20th of January 1265 his
famous parliament came together at London. Of the
mmFo/ms g^"^^* barons of the kingdom only five earls, including
Simon and Gloucester, and eighteen barons had been
summoned. The clergy, however, were generally represented.
The shires also had been instructed through the sheriffs to elect
in each shire court "four legal and discreet knights to attend the
king in parliament at London." As an afterthought, apparently,
a similar summons had also been sent to such cities and towns
individually as were known to be friendly to Simon, urging the
attendance of two deputies from each. As a matter of fact, tlie
list included all the most important cities of England. The parlia-
ment as thus composed sat until late in March. It had been sum-
moned to complete the arrangements entered into at Lewes. The
king swore to maintain the new form of government during his
lifetime, and published "a statement of the circumstances and
terms of pacification." Those who had lately borne arms against
»Stubbs, S. a, 414.
1265] SIMON'S PARLIAMESTT 291
the king took the oath of fealty. Edward's county of Chester
because of its military importance was transferred to Simon, for
which Edward was to receive other lands in compensation. The
charters were also confirmed and declared once more established.
Then the parliament broke up. In a few months its acts were
swept away in the counter revolution which culminated at Eves-
ham, but a new suggestion, a hint at least, had been given that the
iintitled inhabitants of the towns might be useful in the national
council. It is upon this hint, for precedent it caa hardly be
called, that the fame of this assembly of Simon rests. Represent-
atives from the shires had been summoned several times during
the ten years preceding; but no one had yet thought of inviting
representatives from the great towns to take part in the actual
deliberations of the national council. It is not clear that even
Simon appreciated fully the significance of the innovation. The
increasing wealth of the towns formed no inconsiderable basis of
the national revenue, and it was in every way important to secure
their active sympathy and support in order to counteract the
hostility of the great barons. In all probability this was Simon's
sole motive in inviting the burghers to sit with barons and bishops
and knights to deliberate upon the affairs of the kingdom. But,
however that may be, although no one now calls this assembly of
1265 the first meeting of the House of Commons, it is nevertheless
"a very notable date" ; it is the first hint of the important part yet
to be performed by the people in the government of England.
Simon was now to pay the penalty of the successful revolution-
ist. He had been in fact too successful, for if his success had not
turned his own head, it had turned the heads of his
andtiwfaii two sons. Their insolence angered Gloucester; a per-
Aiigmu, sonal 'quarrel with Earl Simon followed, in which Glou-
cester intimated that Earl Simon himself was one of the
hated foreigners who had been forbidden by the Provisions of Oxford
to share in the government of England, and when on the 38th of
May, Edward, who since the meeting of parliament, had been
retained in a sort of honorable captivity at Hereford, rode away to
join Mortimer on the Welsh border, Gloucester threw o3 all further
pretense of acting with Simon and gathered his tenants for war.
292 THE STRUGGLE FOE THE CHARTER [hekbt III.
The moment was well chosen. Earl Simon had taken the king
and marched into Wales where the king's half-brother, William of
Valence, was seeking to rally a party among his tenants of Pem-
broke. Edward and the earl of Gloucester, therefore, by seizing
the town of Gloucester, easily secured control of the Severn and
cut off Earl Simon from England. The younger Simon, who was
at the time besieging Pevensey, hearing of his father's danger
advanced to Kenilworth. The father meanwhile was hastily
returning towards Hereford, his army suffering greatly from
the privations of the long march through the Welsh hills. His
hope was to combine his force with that of his son, and by sur-
rounding Edward force him to fight at a disadvantage. Edward,
however, was fully awake to his danger and, by a forced march,
struck the younger Simon at Kenilworth and drove him with
heavy loss behind its massive walls. But the elder Simon was
fully as alert as Edward, and taking advantage of his departure
from the Severn, on the 2d of August threw his troops across the
river, and, by a long night march, on the morning of the 4th
reached Evesham where he had planned to join his son.
Edward in the meanwhile had already countermarched and
was again approaching the Severn, but had evidently failed
to meet the elder Simon. The younger Simon once more leaving
Kenilworth was also hurrying forward by forced marches, not
to overtake Edward but to keep his appointment with his father.
The two Montforts were now hardly ten miles apart and the
junction of their armies seemed certain. The weary toil of the
night, however, had told sadly on their troops and in a fatal
moment the younger Simon gave orders for his men to halt at
Alcester and prepare the morning meal. This halt proved the
ruin of Simon, for Edward "through the same memorable night
was hurrying from the Severn by country cross-lanes, to seize the
fatal gap that lay between" father and son. Through the morn-
ing mists Simon saw the troops of Edward advancing, the men
marching in long and regular ranks. He read his fate at
once; his handful of knights, supported only by an unorganized
mob of Welsh peasantry, could never stand before the disciplined
troops which were moving down upon them. "Let iis commend
1365]
DEATH OP SIMON
293
our souls to God," he cried to the brave men who stood by his side,
"for our bodies are the foe's." The Welsh gave way at the first
shock. The group of knights about the earl, among whom was
Hugh le Despenser the justiciar, fought till the last man was down.
Still Simon, like Totila of old, held off his swarming foes, until a
foul blow dealt from behind felled him to the earth, and with the
cry, "It is God's grace," the old hero yielded up his spirit.'
PKOMINENT CONTEMPOBABIES OF THE EKA OF THE CHASTER.
KINGS OS ENGLAND:
Richard 1. 1189-1199. John, 1199-1216. Henry III.,i2ie-i272.
KINGS OF FRANCE
Philip II., Augustus,
1223.
Louis VIII., d. 1236.
Louis IX., (J. 1270.
Philip III.
EMPERORS
Frederick I., Barbarossa,
d. 1190.
Henry VI., d. 1198.
Philip, d. 1209.
Otto IV., 1209-1218.
Frederick II., 1313-1250.
KINGS OI' SCOTS
William the Lion, d. 1214.
Alexander II., d. 1249.
Alexander III.
POPES
Clement III., d. 1191.
Innocent III., d. 1216.
Honorius ni., d. 1227.
Gregory IX„ d. 1241.
Innocently., 1254.
Alexander IV., d. 1361
ARCHBISHOPS OF
CANTERBURY
Baldwin, 1185-1190.
Huhert Walter, 1193-1205.
Stephen Langton, 1207-
1338
Edmiind Bich, 1234-1340.
Boniface of Bavoy, 1345-
1270.
CHIEF JUSTICIARS OF
ENGLAND
Hugh Of Puiset, 1189-1190.
William Longchamp, 1190-
1191.
Walter of Coutances, 1191-
1194.
Huhert Walter, 1194-1198.
Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, 1199-
1214.
Peter des Eoches, 1314-
1215.
Huhert de Burgh, 1215-
1333.
(The last of the great
justiciars.)
See Green's brilliant account of the battle. H. E. P. , I, pp. 303 and
304.
CHAPTER IX
THE CHAETER COSTFIKMED
HEyRY HI., 1265-1272
EDWARD I., 1272-1207
Lewes was now undone ; all that had been gained by two gen-
erations of strife apparently had been swept away; the king could
now defy the Charter, squander the treasure of his sub-
of^EvSam j®°ts> ^^^ ^^^^ *s ^i® listed. This, to all appearance,
was Henry's interpretalion of the overthrow of Simon,
and he at once set about punishing those who had recently opposed
him. Simon's vast estates were given to the king's second son,
Edmund; the towns which had favored Simon, London most con-
spicuously, were held to be at the king's mercy and their privileges
forfeited; the estates of the barons also who had followed Simon,
nearly one-half the gentry of England, were marked for forfeiture
and confiscation; and the hungry favorites of the king, without
waiting for process of law, began at once to take possession. In
September a parliament, brought together at Winchester in
the king's interests, legalized these spoliations by revoking all
charters which had been granted during the king's captivity
and by authorizing the confiscations in one gigantic act of
forfeiture.
It was impossible, however, for the king's party to pursue this
mad career of reactionary vengeance long without a challenge.
The movement for popular riaihts had stirred the people
Evidences of „ n, ,,■,-,„ ,
gathei^ng too proioundly to be abandoned after one reverse. The
VPftiCfliCi'fi
friars, who from the first had espoused the people's
cause, cherished the memory of the fallen Simon, ' 'who gave up
not only his property, but also his person, to defend the poor
from oppression;" nor was it long before miracles were reported
at his grave, — a throb from the great heart of the people, a surge
294
1266, 1267] DICTUM OF KElSriLWOETH 395
from the lower deep. Then mourning over the disaster of Eves-
ham gave way to acts of popular violence, as at St. Albans, where a
king's officer and his posse were cut to pieces by the townspeople
and their heads set up at the "four corners of the borough."
The powerful garrison of Kenilworth also continued to defy the
authority of the king, levying its contributions upon all the sur-
rounding country, while the younger Simon retired into the fast-
nesses of the Fen Country on the lower Trent, and there rallied to
his side the "disinherited," as the victims of the recent forfeit-
ures styled themselves. The sturdy burghers of the Cinque
Ports put their wives and children on board their ships, and
taking to the Channel, began to harry the southern coasts.
Llewelyn, the old ally of Simon, crossed the borders and began
to ravage Chester. Bands of outlaws also terrorized the counties
far and near.
The outlook, therefore, was not reassuring. Such leaders as
Edward and Gloucester who had once been of the popular party
_. , . and in their hearts still sympathized with some of the
Dictum of J r
Kenilworth, aims of Simon, were convinced that the kingdom could
Octoher 31, ' °
i^ee. be saved only by conciliation; the sweeping decree of
disinheritance must be recalled, or at least so modified that those
who submitted might have the opportunity of redeeming their
lands by the payment of a fine; the king also must restore the
Charters as a guarantee of good government to the people. These
measures were forced upon Henry at a parliament summoned the
following summer under the walls of Kenilworth, and were pub-
lished, October 31, 1266, in the famous Dictum of Kenilworth.
In November Kenilworth capitulated. It was not, however, until
the next year, when the earl of Gloucester suddenly
appeared in London and took possession of the city as a
pledge for the fulfillment of the king's promises, that the obtuse
mind of Henry fully realized that it was no longer possible to con-
tinue the old methods and that the new order was final. In Novem-
ber a parliament met at Marlborough and proceeded to put the
finishing touches to what was virtually a revolution by formally
adopting the Provisions of Westminster of 1259, although the
appointment of all officers of state was carefully reserved for the
296 THE CHAETEE CONFIRMED [edwabd I.
crown. Thus the great cause for which Simon had laid down his
life after all was not lost. The Charters were saved, and the
principles for which Simon had fought were again recognized as a
part of the fundamental law of England.
Quiet was now so completely restored that Edward, to whose
wisdom and firmness this happy outcome was largely due, thought
it safe to leave the kingdom and join with Louis IX. of
Crusade, France in the ill-fated Seventh and last of the Crusades.
1270-1274.
He left England in 1270; reached Tunis just after the
death of Louis ; then went to Acre where he stayed some months
but accomplished nothing of importance. In 1272 he set out upon
his return and in Sicily heard of his father's death.
The last years of the old king had been uneventful and tranquil.
His advancing age had fortunately prevented him from again
Death of attempting any active part in the administration of the
Nmvmhcr" government. He had been a good man, but a bad king
16, 1272. amj a_ dangerous tyrant. His worst weaknesses were an
overfaithfulness to unworthy friends who did not hesitate to sac-
rifice him to their own interests, an overfondness for the members
of his family, and a blind devotion to the religious forms and
authorities of his day. "Whatever be his sins," said the just
Louis, "his prayers and offerings will save his soul." His mis-
rule was due, not like John's to malicious pleasure in playing the
tyrant, but to a witless vanity which plunged him into extrava-
gance, stopped his ears to wiser counsels, and made him obsti-
nate when he should have been yielding, and yielding when
he should have been firm, — not an unusual combination in men
of his type.
Four days after the death of Henry the barons of England took
the oath of fealty to Edward, and although he did not return for
his coronation until 1274, his reign was regarded by the
The oath of ' o o j
fealty to lawyers as beginning with the date of the taking of the
EdwardL, ,, , , .,, ,. . -r-r ,.
November oath and not With his coronation. Here was something
20 1272'
new in the annals of English kings. It was not simply
that a king was acknowledged without dispute or rival, or that the
oath of fealty had come to take the place of formal election by the
great council, but that the hereditary right of the son to the sue-
CHARACTER OF EDWARD 397
cession was for the first time clearly recognized. The recognition,
however, was not yet complete; Edward's reign did not begin until
the barons had taken the oath of fealty. It will take two hnndred
years to bridge this gap.
At the time of Henry's death Edward was thirty-three years
old. He was already a veteran in war and in administration.
He had profited much by the mistakes of his father ; nor
mSwa^d^"^ had he been altogether void of sympathy with the visions
of Earl Simon. Yet he possessed what Simon had not,
a practical, common sense way of adapting his plans to facts as he
found them. His ambition was to restore the crown to its ancient
strength and dignity ; yet he saw that he could not do this with-
out the cordial support of a united people. Here in a word is the
policy of Edward's reign. He was not enamored of the idea of
encouraging the political activity of the people ; but he saw that cer-
tain privileges could no longer be withheld. He, therefore, accepted
the inevitable ; recognized what he could not deny, granted what
he could not refuse, and used the returning confidence of the nation
to secure anew the foundations of his throne. Personally he was
well fitted to arouse the loyal enthusiasm of his people. His
English name, his yellow hair, which even after it had whitened
with advancing years still waved in luxuriant masses to his
shoulders, the frank and sympathetic blue eyes, his frame, vig-
orous, muscular, and tall, so that like Saul of old he towered head
and shoulders above the young men who attended him, all associ-
ated the new king with the best traditions of the English kingship,
attracted the eye and drew out the love of his people. A warm-
hearted Englishman he was, without any of the cold selfishness or
crafty cunning of the Angevins, capable of deep affection, and
withal possessing a high sense of honor. He could follow the
bier of Earl Simon, his old companion in arms, as a sincere
mourner; he could weep over the death of his father, although it
gave him a crown. He was slow to make promises and obstinate
in yielding concessions, but an oath once given was to him a sacred
thing. His temper was violent, and when aroused he could be fierce,
cruel, and relentless. In the Song of Lewes he is "a lion in pride
and fierceness ;" "a panther in inconstancy and changeableness."
398 THE CHAKTEE CONFIRMED [edwabd I.
And yet Edward learned to govern himself, as lie learned to goyern
his people.
The first serious difficulty which faced Edward after his coro-
nation was the long-standing quarrel of the Welsh with England.
For England in the thirteenth century had a Welsh
Wales to question on her hands, as she lias an Irish question
to-day; and her efforts at settling the one then, had
been as unsatisfactory as are her efforts at settling the other now.
The Welsh princes had made a formal submission to William the
Conqueror, but they had never been brought under the actual rule
of English kings. William's successors had from time to time
invaded the country in order to enforce the obligations of the
Welsh lords, but they had never met with more than temporary
success. Secure in their mountain fastnesses, the Welsh chieftains
had continued to raid English territory as pique or lust for plunder
dictated; and English kings in order to protect the western shires
had been compelled to establish on the border a number of military
lords with almost sovereign j^owers. These were the so-called
marcher barons, whose turbulent independence became in time as
great a terror to the border lands as the chronic hostility of the
Welsh.
These unsatisfactory conditions had been specially emphasized
during the recent struggles, in which the Welsh lords had proved
themselves ever ready to encourage and assist rebellion
du^e^waTcs. "^ England. When, therefore, at Edward's coronation
Llewelyn, Earl Simon's former ally, not only refused to
appear among Edward's vassals and renew homage, but openly
defied the new king, Edward determined to settle the vexing Welsh
question once aud for all time. He first invaded Wales with an
army strong enough to bring Llewelyn to terms, and forced him to
cede the northern cantreds. He then proceeded to introduce into
the ceded district the English system of shire administration and
to enforce English laws. The Welsh naturally murmured at this
interference with their local institutions, but probably would
have accepted the new order without serious protest, had not
the English magistrates made the common mistake of treating the
less civilized people with severity and their prejudices with con-
1382-1301] STATUTE OF WALES 299
tempt. In 1282 the smouldering discontent broke out in a general
popular rising. But Edward returned to the struggle more deter-
mined than ever. Llewelyn was slain in a skirmish ; his brotlier
David held out for a year, when he too was captured, and in a
parliament held at Shrewsbury was condemned to a traitor's
death.
Edward then took possession of the conquered country as a
forfeited fief, and the work of introducing English institutions
began anew. By the Statute of Wales the principality
\va]^n84 ^^^ placed directly under tlie dominion of the crown
and divided into shires after the English model. Ed-
ward, however, profiting by his former experience, was more careful
to conciliate the feelings of the natives and chose Welshmen rather
than Englishmen for the administration of the shires. The per-
manence of the conquest was further assured by settling colonies
of Englishmen in the towns and by building castles, such as Con-
way and Carnarvon, the ruins of which still remain, silent testi-
monies to the thoroughness of Edward's work. It was Edward's
policy, also, to retain the country as a principality, distinct
from England; nor was it incorporated in the kingdom or allowed
to send representatives regularly to the national parliaments until
the reign of Henry VIII. In 1301 Edward gave the title of Prince
of Wales to his eldest living son Edward, who had been born at
Carnarvon in 1284.
The subjection of the rude courts of Wales to the English sys-
tem was only a part of a greater work whichEdward had early set
himself to accomplish. The thirteenth century was for
renaSLe Europe distinctively a legal age. The great law schools
of Bologna and other Italian cities had for a century
been preparing the way for a legal renaissance by creating and
extending an interest in the systematic and scientific study of the
Eoman Law. Under emperors like Frederick Barbarossa and his
brilliant grandson, these studies had borne practical fruit in the
introduction of more rational methods of procedure in the imperial
courts, and in the production of formal codes which supplanted the
crude laws of feudal custom that had prevailed heretofore north
of the Alps. This work had been continued in the west by such
300 THE CHAKTEE CONFIBMED [edwabdi.
princes as Louis the Just of France and Alfonso the Wise of
Castile. In England the more perfect organization of the govern-
ment, the development of the magistratical functions of the crown,
and the coordination of the courts had not been without a direct
influence in unifying the laws and reducing them to some coherent
system, and the English people could already boast of their great
legists, men like Glanville and Bracton,* who wrote law treatises
and sought to reach the underlying principles which explained and
justified the decisions of the courts. But while the legal renais-
sance ia England had thus drawn its inspiration in the first instance
from sources largely outside of the civil law, it was impossible for
the English jurists, clerks as they were, many of them educated
abroad, and all more or less steeped in the principles of the canon
law, to escape the subtle influence of Eome; for although they did
not follow the subject matter of the Eoman law, they could not
escape the charm of its orderly methods.
Edward was in full sympathy with the legal renaissance of his
age. He had had an Italian jurist for a tutor in his youth, and
was very early made to feel the constant contradiction
En^Usifialc between the relations expressed in feudal forms and
customs, and the theories which the legists taught him
lay at the basis of these relations. To this work, therefore, of unify-
ing and systematizing the irregular growths of centuries of feudal
custom Edward addressed himself, and with such energy and far-
sighted wisdom as to win for himself the title of "the English
Justinian." He broke with the precedents of the past and assumed
the right of the crown not simply to amend laws of custom, but to
create new laws ; not simply to make laws on the basis of what had
been, but on the basis of what ought to be. That is, the laws of
Edward, unlike the laws of his predecessors, are not merely amend-
ments or restatements of existing customs but are laws in the
modern sense. From his reign "the Statutes of the Realm" con-
tinue in unbroken series.
Of the statutes of Edward some are worthy of special notice, as
way-marks in the social progress of England. Among these was
' For work of Bracton, see Pollook and Maitland, History of English
Law; The Age of Bracton, I, pp. 174-335.
1276-1290] LAWS OF EDWAED 301
the famous Statute de Religiosis, issued in 1379, which prohibited
gifts of land to the church in mortmain, a form by which tenants
had been accustomed to transfer their lands to some religious cor-
poration and thus deprive the overlord of his rights.
De Bdigiosis. The law was designed not to check the growing power of
the church as much as to protect the overlord from the
excessive piety of his tenants, sometimes simulated to disguise a
deliberate purpose of fraud. Another statute, not less important
in protecting the rights of the overlord, was the Quia
%mptores Emptores, first issued in 1276, and again in 1290; an
act intended to prevent the abuse of the principle of
subinfeudation. It had been the practice of subtenants to part
with portions of their land by creating other subtenants who in
turn might continue the subdivision and subgranting indefinitely.
In this way the overlord's power was seriously diminished, and
there was constant danger that the tenants might grant away so
much land that there would not be enough left to bear the obliga-
tions of the fief. By the Statute Quia EmiJtores the new tenant
escaped from the lordship of the last grantor and became the vassal
of the original lord. This statute it was supposed would benefit
particularly the great barons, who strongly supported it in the par-
liament. Its more conspicuous effects, however, were greatly to
increase the number of tenants in chief, and thus, by breaking down
the hierarchical gradations of feudalism, hasten the time when all
should stand in the same relation to the king. An even mpre
important act appeared at Winchester in 1285, which
mncrmier I'svivcd some of the older institutions of the Anglo-
Saxon period that during the two centuries of feudal-
ism had been allowed largely to fall into decay. It regulated the
action of the hundred, revived the hue and cry, reimposed the
duties of watch and ward, and reenacted the obligation of the
fyrd which Henry II. had once reorganized in the Assize of Arms.
By this act every man was bound to aid in the pursuit of criminals
when the hue and cry was raised, and to hold himself in readiness
to serve the king under arms in case of invasion or rebellion; every
hundred also was to be responsible for the crimes committed within
its limits, and every walled town was to close its gates at sunset
302 THE CHAKTEK CONMEMEI) [edward 1.
and compel every stranger to give an account of himself before the
magistrates.
Like the first Plantagenet also Edward saw that the way to
bring the crown into touch with the nation was through a more
perfect organization of the royal courts. Henry II. had
npmmnf definitely established the Curia Kegis as the central court
Thi'fmru °^ *'^^ national judicial system. Its activities, however,
had steadily extended their scope, and the volume of busi-
ness had increased enormously. Yet up to the thirteenth century
one staff of judges had served for all departments of justice. But
in the thirteenth century the policy of differentiating the work of
the Curia, already forecasted in the reservation of certain business
for certain sittings,^ was fully carried out, and by the close of
Henry III.'s reign the ancient Curia Regis had been divided into
three separate and distinct courts: the Court of Exchequer to
hear all cases touching the revenue, the Court of Common Pleas to
receive civil cases, and the Court of King''s Bench to deal with cases
affecting the king's interests and criminal questions reserved for
his judgment. The chief justiciar, however, still remained the
bond of union of these courts until Edward finally abolished the
common presidency by giving to each court its own chief. The
common law courts, furthermore, had their limitations as instru-
ments for the redress of wrongs. Their decisions were necessarily
based upon precedent and the strict letter of the law. But in the
complexity of human actions many questions may arise to which
no existing law applies or, if applied, may work actual injustice to
the individual. Henry II. had reserved all snch cases for the
special action of the king in council; but Edward I. gave a still
wider extension to this equity jurisdiction of the crown and
referred such cases to the special care of the chancellor. Thus
there grew up abont the chancellor the fourth of the series of great
royal courts — the Court of Equity. The Chancery, however, as a
court of equity was not definitely organized until the time of
Edward III., nor was its equity jurisdiction permanently estab-
lished until the reign of Richard II.
' See p. 194.
1289] THE EOTAL KEVENTJES 303
Edward I., furthermore, understood that the strength of his
courts consisted in rendering real and not fictitious justice. He
therefore attacked unsparingly the abuses by means of
mi°mur'S which the judicial circuits had become engines of extor-
tion, hated and feared by the people. In 1289 all the
king's judges were brought forward on charges of bribery, and all
were found guilty except two. The chief justice of the Common
Pleas had amassed a fortune of 100,000 marks. Nothing could
more strikingly show the extent bf the corruption which had crept
into all branches of service during the inefficient administration of
Henry III.
Edward's love of justice was real; yet he had the faults of a
legal mind, and was too often willing in construing the law to
strain it in his own favor. While he seldom broke the
^litl?^^'" letter of the law, he often violated its spirit. Most of
his legal chicanery, however, was prompted by the
incessant demands of his treasury. It was his misfortune to find
the throne encumbered with debt, from which he was never able
entirely to extricate himself. He was by no means extravagant like
his father, but his plans for the monarchy required more money
than could be raised by the old methods. The crown domains,
moreover, had been greatly reduced by the follies of John and
Henry. The incomes from feudal dues had also declined with
feudalism. Scutages and similar levies were not worth the trouble
which it cost to collect them. The courts returned their fines to
the royal treasury, but this was not a revenue which could be
wisely developed. In his last year Henry II. had instituted a tax
on personal property; and alth9ugh as first introduced it was
designed only to secure money for the Crusade, the Saladin tithe,
it had since become the most common form of taxation. It
depended on a parliamentary grant and varied from a thirtieth to
a seventh. But such relief could be only temporary, and parlia-
ment was loath to repeat it too frequently. Edward, therefore,
was obliged to search for still other sources of revenue in order to
secure a permanent and steady income. He found the answer to
his quest in the possibilities ofEered by the rapidly developing com-
merce of England, especially by the wool trade of which England
304 THE CHAETER CONMEMED [edwakd 1
Tirtnally enjoyed the monopoly. England since the close of the
barons' war had been comparatively free from private warfare and
quite removed from the possibility of invasion. She had brought
her rural interests to a high state of prosperity and had become
the great wool-growing country of Europe. The old way of taking
a portion of the goods going in or out of the country was no longer
satisfactory to king or merchants; and accordingly in 1275 a
parliament at Westminster granted to the crown the
ciStom"i27s I'ig'it of levying an export duty upon wools, skins, and
leather, the so-called Great Custom, in return for a
renunciation by the king of his ancient right of levying upon all
goods entering or leaving the kingdom. This was the legal begin-
ning of the English customs-revenue. It is not now considered
good policy for a country to tax its exports ; but at that time, the
Flemings were absolutely dependent on England for the wool to sup-
ply their looms. So that, in this case at least, the tax had to be paid
by the foreign consumer. The king still continued from time to time
to use the right of prise in regard to other commodities.
iMirmtoria, But by the Carta Mercatoria of 1303, customs on wine,
1303.
cloth, and other articles of merchandise were formally
recognized and regulated. By the time of Edward III. these had
become a regular part of the ordinary revenue. Another
A-'il/™/"''';/ I'esort of Edward for restoring his treasury was known
as Distraint of Knightliood. In the summer of 1278 he
issued a writ compelling every freeholder who possessed an estate
of £20 a year to assume the obligations of a knight, or to pay what
amounted to a heavy fine. The advantage was twofold. Those
who obeyed increased by so much the body of knighthood. While
those who did not wish to assume the obligations of knighthood,
gladly paid the fine and by so much increased the revenue. In
1282 all persons possessing an estate of £20 a year, were ordere'd to
provide themselves with horse and armor.
In these schemes for raising money, the Jews also did not
escape the attention of the royal financier. From the time of the
Conquest they had occupied a singular place in England. In the
age of the Crusades it is not strange that they were hated as
infidels. The most shocking crimes, involving murder, sacrilege.
1290] THE EXPULSIOK OF THE JEWS 305
and even cannibalism were popularly imputed to them. The real
source of popular hatred, however, was perhaps the fact that the
Jews held virtually the monopoly of the banking busi-
the'nvmuS'^ ness of Europe. They were the money lenders and usu-
rers of the time, and by these means had accumulated
vast wealth. In the middle ages the propriety of taking interest for
the use of money was not understood, and usury, as all interest
taking was called, had been condemned by the church. Not
infrequently the hatred and suspicions of the people expressed
themselves in violent outbursts. The first year of Richard's reign
had been disgraced by a massacre at York. But the Jew always
had a strong protector in the king, who needed him for his
money's sake, since a large share of the Jew's profits was sure to
come ultimately into the royal treasury as blackmail levied under
the guise of protection. No small part of the extravagance of
Henry III. had been met by tallages levied upon Jews. Some of
the nobles also used the Jewish brokers as leeches to draw wealth
from the people, in order that they might compel the Jew to dis-
gorge later. The great men of the time like Grosseteste, Simon
de Montfort, and Edward himself shared in the popular antipathy.
Edward at first tried restriction; he would not allow the Jews to
hold real property; he compelled them also to wear a distinctive
dress, which greatly increased the grievous burden of their lot
by making the Jew always a marked man in the streets where the
hoodlum element, by no means a peculiarity of the modern city,
was always ready to take the Jew's distinctive garb as a challenge.
Even these annoyances, however, did not satisfy tlie popular
clamor, and in 1390, Edward expelled this much abused people
from the country altogether, allowing them to take only their mov-
able property with them.^ A grateful parliament granted him a
tax of a fifteenth. The great banking houses of Italy were already
coming into prominence and from this time the money business of
England fell largely into their hands.
The reforms of Edward, thus far, were reforms which any abso-
lute monarch might have instituted who was bent upon adminis-
' Thev were not allowed to return until the time of Cromwell.
306 THE CHAETEK COITFIRMED [edward I.
tering his trust upon rational principles; but sooner or later
the great underlying thought of the Charter, the right of
The new ^^^ nation not only to fair treatment by the gov-
proUem. ernmeut but to a fair share in the government, must
force itself upon Edward.
The nation as the basis of political organization was hardly
recognized in the thirteenth century. Political unity had been
sacrificed in the upgrowth of feudal classes. The
Esidt^^ multitude of petty sovereignties which had marked the
earlier stages of feudal society, had been slowly merged
in the expanding powers of the national monarchy, but the baron-
age, the great feudal landholding aristocracy, still constituted a
society by itself, with its own peculiar rights and privileges.
Alongside of this feudal community, moreover, bound to it by a
thousand intangible ties, and yet not of Jt, there had grown up
another community, the ecclesiastical, with its own aims, its own
methods, its own laws, its own courts, and finally its own complete
and well-defined organization; on the one hand, asserting its inde-
pendence of the feudal society, and on the other, its supremacy
within the feudal society. Furthermore, as the middle centuries
progressed, with the increased wealth and numbers of the urban
population, there had grown up still a third community, or rather
group of communities, which by reason of numerous privileges and
immu.nities, conferred generally by charter, had won a certain inde-
pendence of the feudal and ecclesiastical societies, and formed a
group by itself. As yet the members of this third group were
united only by the possession of common privileges; they had
less coherence than the individuals of the feudal group, and noth-
ing of the unity which was conferred upon the ecclesiastical group
by its hierarchical organization. This threefold grouping, or rather
separation, of the free elements of the nation was not peculiar to
England, but was characteristic of the feudal state wherever it
existed. The several groups were known familiarly as the Estates,
and their relative importance and dignity in each case was indi-
cated by the preeminence which was given to the ecclesiastical as
the First Estate, to the feudal as the Second Estate, and to the
burghers as the Third Estate.
THE COMMOKS 307
In England, howeyer, this threefold diyision ealrly began to
assume certain features which in time became characteristic and
which go far to explain why popular institutions developed
Unique iii ■, • -tit-i
development a strength and importance upon English sou as nowhere
in England. ° , . , . , ,«- ^,
upon the continent. As early as Magna Charta a dis-
tinction had been recognized between the great barons who were
summoned to the national council by name, and the lesser barons
who were summoned through the sheriffs in a body. But the
attendance of the body of small landholders upon the meetings of
the great council was for many reasons impracticable, and even in
John's reign the expedient had been resorted to of allowing the
knights to be represented by delegates chosen at the shire court
under the direction of the sheriff. By the close of the century this
expedient had become a regularly established custom. The eccle-
siastical or First Estate, as indicated above, had a divided interest.
Its members, however, had very early acquired a definite status
of their own. They had their special councils and separate courts, and
preferred to hold their own separate parliaments, or convocations,
and discuss and vote their grants separately. The great church-
men, however, the bishops and abbots, were also barons, or feudal
tenants of the crown, and as such continued to sit with the great
lay barons in the national council. Here then was a cross division
which cut through the two higher estates, severing the great
barons, ecclesiastical or lay, from the inferior members of their
respective orders. Now, as a matter of fact, the interests and sym-
pathies of the lower orders of both knights and clergy were far
more nearly allied to those of the towns than to those of the great
barons, and thus very soon after the crown began to summon dele-
gates from the towns, it became customary for the representatives
of the towns and the representatives of the shire to meet together
in an assembly distinct from that of the great barons. Thus the
Commons, so called, came at last to represent not simply an estate,
but the people, the nation. The lower orders of the clergy by pre-
ferring the convocation, undoubtedly lost a distinct and separate rep-
resentation in this more popular branch of the national assembly;
but in as much as their interests were really merged in those of the
towns and the shires, they too were virtually represented in the
308 THE CHARTER CONFIRMED [bdwaed 1
more numerous body. Thus the original threefold division of the
national council into separate Estates, which on the continent hard-
ened into an insurmountable obstacle to the progress of popular
institutions, in England gave way to a twofold division in which
there were really but two classes represented, — the titled nobility
and the untitled people, or the nation. In other words, in Eng-
land the original Third Estate absorbed the lower ranks of the
First and Second Estates ; and since it thus came to include the
body of the wealth and population of both city and country, the
great undivided middle class, its representatives in the national
council soon gained a unity and influence which the simple deputies
of the towns never attained upon the continent, and compelled the
crown at last to recognize their importance as the source of its
authority and the support of its power.
This final goal, however, was not reached until long after the
age of Edward I. There is no evidence that either Simon or
Edward ever had any thought of attaining such a result
mottmfn ^^ ^^^^ ' °'" *^^* ^^® expedient of summoning delegates
from the towns was consciously designed as a step
toward giving the people a more direct influence in the
government. Simon sought to find in the lower orders the support
which the barons had denied him. Edward needed nioney and
thought only of making the wealth of the country gentry and the
burghers tributary to the needs of his treasury. And even in this,
he appears like a man who is feeling his way toward a goal of which
he is at first uncertaia, stumbling at last by a series of experi-
ments upon the only possible principle by which that end might be
attained; not the high and lofty end of bestowing liberties upon the
nation, but the entirely ignoble, yet practical, end of securing new
sources of revenue for the crown. Thus in his first parlia-
paruaments ments he began by summoning the knights of the shire
of Edward. . •■■,.,., ,/ , , , ,
m addition to the prelates and barons. Sometimes,
however, he brought together only the magnates in the old way.
In 1290 the great barons met to deliberate upon a proposed statute,
and the knights came later to take part in voting a tax. In 1382,
when the expenses were unusually heavy on account of the second
Welsh war, the king sent around to the different shires and
nummonitiii
the Ujwna.
1383-1395] THE MODEL PARLIAMENT 309
boroughs to ask each community separately for its aid. The
results of these local appeals were not satisfactory, and the next
year he brought together on the same day two separate assemblies,
one at York, and one at Northampton. It is to be noted further,
that the principle imderlying the feudal state is recognized in all of
these early efforts to secure aid from the nation ; the crown had no
right to levy taxes directly upon the people, whether lord or simple,
other than those prescribed by the implied feudal contract, or as
established in the customs of each locality. If more were needed,
it could be secured only by voluntary grant on the part of each
class, or of each corporation. It is, therefore, a marked step in
advance when it is recognized that the consent of each individual
separately is not necessary to the legality of such a grant, and that
such consent may be given for him by his representatives, or by a
majority of the representatives of the class to which he belongs,
acting collectively.
This important principle was explicitly recognized in the call-
ing of the famous parliament of 1295, which on account of its
completeness was long known as the "Model Parlia-
The Model
Parliament ment. " It was a time of general anxiety. The old
Welsh question had been replaced by an even more
serious Scottish question, and the long war had begun which
was Edward's reward for interfering in a Scottish dynastic
quarrel. The Scots, moreover, had found eager allies in the
French, who had their own perpetual quarrel on with their rivals
across the Channel, and Philip IV. 's fleets were threatening the
English coasts. The king was beset on all sides. In his need he
appealed to the common interest of the nation. "It is a most just
law," he declared, "that what concerns all should be approved by
all, and that common dangers should be met by measures provided
in common." The war was neither the king's war, nor the barons'
war ; all classes were interested, and all classes ought to bear their
share of its burdens. Accordingly, he summoned not only the great
churchmen as heretofore, but also directed that there be sent one
proctor from the chapter of each cathedral, and two proctors from
the clergy of each diocese. In the same manner he summoned the
great barons as heretofore, but directed also that two knights be
310 THE CHARTER CONFIRMED [bdwabd I.
sent from each shire and that two citizens he sent from each city or
borough. For the first time all the different elements of the nation
represented by the free subjects of the king, met together in a
national council, coming, at the king's request, so constituted that
the representatives of each estate should have power to levy a
tax upon all the members of that estate. It is interesting to note
that the results fully justified the confidence of the king. The
First Estate, the clergy, voted a tenth of their movables ; the Second
Estate composed of the great barons and knights,^ an eleventh;
while the representatives of the towns outdid them all in loyalty
by voting a seventh.
In the Model Parliament Edward had established a pre-
cedent which was to be invaluable in the future. The clergy
apparently did not take kindly to the idea of merging
vaiucof their independence in a secular parliament, and pre-
ferred rather to vote their gifts through the two great
archiepiscopal convocations of Canterbury and York, so that the
lower clergy soon ceased to attend the parliaments altogether. The
towns, however, had no other common organization, and with
loyal enthusiasm they hailed the recognition of their importance
and the opportunity of bearing their share of the public burdens.
They were still separated from the knights of the shire;
their right to a share in the general deliberations of the council
was by no means clearly defined or fully recognized ; yet they had
entered parliament to stay, their wealth and the needs of the crown
were guarantees that they should receive a hearing.
Edward's relations to the church mark as complete a departure
from the policy of his father as his relations to the national
council. He was slow, however, to break with the
UK^cfncrch'^ papacy. He needed the support of the clergy, and
the popes generally were not averse to the heavy
grants which Edward continued to demand. But in 1294
Boniface VIII. began his reign; a man whose ideals of papal
prerogative were taken from the era of Innocent III. and who
seemed unconscious of the deep currents of national life which the
' The knights of the shire still deliberated and voted with the great
barons.
1296] EDWAED AND THE CHTIBCH 311
thirteenth century had set in motion. In 1296 he issued the
famous bull, Clericis Laicos, which forbade the clergy to pay
any taxes to the temporal authority. The measure was primarily
aimed at Philip IV. of France; but it afEected every state of
Europe and fairly opened the question of the place of the church
in the new national systems. Were the clergy of England or of
France a part of thg nation and liable to its duties as subjects of
the national king, or were they solely the subjects of the pope, and
as such were they and theirs exempt from the exactions of the
national government? It was really the old issue which Henry II.
and Becket had fought out, only in a new form. Then it had been
the independence of the church courts which was at stake; now
it was the independence of the church treasury. Archbishop
Winchelsey supported the papal pretension, and when in 1396 a
parliament modeled on that of the preceding year, was called at
Bury St. Edmunds, the clergy under the archbishop's leadership
refused to make a contribution and presented the pope's bull in
defense. "We have two lords," said the archbishop, "the
one spiritual, the other temporal. Obedience is due to both, but
most to the spiritual." Edward's reply was characteristic of the
man. He did not threaten like John to put out the eyes, or slib
the noses of disobedient churchmen ; he simply applied their own
doctrine. If they would not contribute to the support of the gov-
ernment, they should be treated as aliens and not have the
protection of subjects. In other words, they should have no
rights in the king's courts. The sentence amounted to a
decree of outlawry. The clergy might be robbed or mal-
treated or even murdered with impunity, for the civil author-
ity refused to punish. The results reveal how rapidly Europe
was receding from the ideals of the past. The time had been
when even emperors quailed before the ban of the church ; but
now compared with the excommunication of the king the ban
of the church was only so much stage thunder. Before the king's
ban the church bowed its head and the proudest prelate was silent.
Edward followed up the sentence of outlawry with the further
threat, that unless the clergy yielded before Easter, he would him-
self confiscate their lands, and the clergy knew the king too well
312 THE CHAETBB CONFIEMBD [edwabd 1.
to hope for one moment that his threat would not be carried out.
Winchelsey personally refused to yield and sacrificed his lay
estates, but he was wise enough to advise his clergy to make the
best terms they could individually. They were quick to profit by
the permission and soon made their peace with the king, for the most
part, paying the money under the name of gifts, sometimes passing
it through the hands of a third party and soqietimes leaving it at
a convenient place where the royal officers might find it.
The new struggle with France had reopened the old question
of service on the continent. The French king had naturally
selected Gascony as the first object of attack, and
Quarrel of Edward proposed to send his earls to defend Gascony
Edward arid , ., , . , , ., i-±- ± -r^i -,
his barons, while he m person led another expedition to Flanders.
The English barons, however, felt little interest in Gas-
cony. Wales and Scotland were near at home and the English
were always ready to respond to a call to defend their borders or
cripple their hereditary foes by counter invasion; but it mattered
little to them whether Gascony were held by an English king
or not. In an assembly of the nobles in 1297, the king laid
his plans before his earls and barons, but was met by the protest
of Eoger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, the Marshal, and Humfrey de
Bohun, Earl of Hereford, the Constable, who fell back on their
traditional rights and refused to leave England save as they fol-
lowed the king's person. "By God, Sir Earl," cried the angry
king, "you shall either go or hang." "By that same oath. Sir
King," coolly answered Bigod, "I shall neither go nor hang."
The assembly broke up in confusion. The two earls called their
people to arms and were soon at the head of fifteen hundred men.
It was the crisis of Edward's reign. His ambitious foreign
policy had imposed a serious burden upon the nation. The splen-
did response of the year 1295 had been followed by the
thebaloL protest of the clergy in 1296 ; and now in 1297 came
the yet more stubborn and dangerous protest of the
barons. For the refusal of the earls to go to Gascony was only a
pretext to cover the growing suspicion of the Estates of the king,
and the feeling that by these aids and exactions dangerous prec-
edents were to be left to the future that might one day put in
CONFIBMATION OF THE CHAETEES 313
jeopardy the rights and priyileges which the fathers had won.
The king, however, was in no mind to yield or renounce his
proposed expedition, and in order to raise the funds which the
parliament had failed to grant, he seized the wool of the mer-
chants and made requisitions upon the shires on the basis of
former grants. He also issiied orders for all who held lands of £20
a year or upwards to meet in London under arms on July 7.
Bigod and Bohun refused to move ; but the king, by promising to
confirm the charters, persuaded the leaders, who had come together
for the military levy, to consent to a grant of one-eighth of the mov-
ables of the barons and knights, and one-fifth of the towns. The
action was altogether too much in the spirit of Edward's predeces-
sors, and Bigod and Bohun at once sent to Edward a formal
protest in the name of "the whole community of the land."
They declared that the numerous tallages and other exactions were
devouring their resources, and that they were utterly ruined.
Then in remarkably bold and clear-spoken words they proceeded
to demand that the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forests
be confirmed, and pointedly hinted that with Scotland hostile it
would be wise for the king to stay at home.
The document reached Edward when he was on the point of
embarking for the war. Such outspoken words from subjects had
been common enough in his father's day, but had not
Gonfirmatwm ^gen heard before in Edward's reign. His own sense
of the Cha/r- o
blrs^Sm"^' °^ justice told him that he had gone too far, and his
better wisdom would not allow him to come to an open
rupture with his barons. Yet he was not ready to submit, or give
up his plan of invading Prance. He avoided a direct answer,
therefore, on the plea that he could not act without his council, and
that it was impossible then to bring them together. The two earls,
however, were not to be put off by evasion, and when the departure
of the king assured them that their petition was to be ignored,
they at once marched to London and forbade the royal ofiQcers to
collect the eighth, which had been granted at the London levy, and,
further, protested against the seizure of the wool. Edward had left
his son with his councillors to do the best they could in quieting the
barons. But to do this they found that they must siimmon a
314 THE CHAKTBK COKirBMED [edwaed 1
regular parliament and secure the aid in alawf ul manner. Tlie par-
liament, however, came together, not to grant the aid, but to insist
upon the promised confirmation of the charters. The original taxing
clause, which had been omitted from William Marshal's reissue of
the Great Charter, it will be remembered, had neyer been formally
restored, although the crown had since generally recognized the
principle. The earls, therefore, insisted upon the introduction of
several new clauses, by which they recognized the ordinary aids
fixed by ancient feudal custom but demand that the king should
again pledge himself not to claim as a right aids which the
people had granted of their own will, and that such aids should be
taken only by the "common consent of the realm." The king
had also taken advantage of the vast increase in the wool trade to
levy a customs-duty — the maltote,— •which, amounted to a virtual
confiscation of a large part of the profits of the trade. The earls
insisted that the king should renounce the maltote and should
pledge himself and his heirs not again "to take any such thing, or
any other, without the common consent and good will of the
commonalty of the realm." The Great Custom of 1275, however,
was to be retained. In this form the charters were confirmed by
the council in the name of the absent king, and then sent to him
at Ghent to be ratified.' The victory of the earls was final.
Edward subsequently, like John, obtained from the pope a dis-
pensation which relieved him of the obligation of keeping his
pledge, but he dared not make use of it. The barons at last had
found the right weapon by which to hold the king to his word ;
and for several years to come, they insisted upon the renewal of
the king's pledges as the condition of each grant.
The Confirmation of the Charters completed the work which
Langton and the barons had begun at Runnymede. What had
been "recognized as a usage, now became a matter of
Langton written right." Henceforth, no general tax could be
completed. •.n,-, . ,■• ,. .,
legally taken from the nation without the consent of
its representatives. The constitutional importance of this prin-
ciple can not be overestimated. It made the king dependent for
his power upon the good will of his people. It made it impossible
'Stubbs, C. H., II, p. 148.
1297] LANGTON'S WORK COMPLETED 315
for an evil king who once lost the sympathy of the nation, to
carry out his designs by legal methods. It furnished, the vantage
ground from which the nation, in working out the problem of con-
stitutional government, might take the next great upward step by
establishing the responsibility of the king's ministers to the parlia-
ment.
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+9 <D
PART m— NATIONAL ENGLAND
THE EEA OP NATIONAL AWAKENING
BOOK I— SOCIAL AWAKENING
FROM 1297 TO 1485
CHAPTER I
THE KEW ERA; EDWAED I. AND THE BEGINliriN'G OF THE WARS
OF FOREIGN CONQUEST. THE STRUGGLE OF
THE SCOTS FOR INDEPENDENCE
EDWARD;!., izn-ism
THE DISPUTED SUCCESSION TO THE SCOTTISH THRONE
David I.
Henry, Earl oflHuntingdon
William the Lion David, Earl of Huntingdon
1166-1214 I
I 1 i i
Alexandeb II. Margaret = Alan Isabella = Roljert Bruce Ada = Henry,
1214-1249 I ot Galloway I of Annandale I Baron
III Hastings
Alexander III. Devorguilla = .John Balliol Robert Bruce,
1249-1286 I d. 1295 Henry Hastings
I 1 [ I I
Margaret=Eric of Margaret John Balliol, Robert Bruce, John Hastings
I Norway of Galloway k. 1292-1296 d. 1305
Margaret, the John Comyn, Robert*!.,
Maid of Norway, murdered by k. 1306-1329
a. 1290. Bruce, 1306
A new era in English history begins with the last years of
Edward's reign. With the determination of the internal structure
of the gOTernment, English kings began to adopt what
Beginning of the modern politician would call a more brilliant policy
new era. ^ ^ f j
plunging the nation into a long series of extensive
foreign wars, which in turn reacted powerfully upon all phases of
national life, quickening national feeling, stimulating new forms
of economic activity, and ending at last in social upheaval and
civil strife. The remote issues of the era were also as marked as
317
318 THE NEW EEA [edwaiidI.
they were varied and far-reaching. The general intellectual and
moral awakening expressed itself, on the one hand, in a deepening
hatred of the foreigner and a growing estrangement from the
papacy; on the other, in the creation of a distinctive English
literature, a stronger life in the universities, and the quickening
interest of the people in public affairs. The rapid development of
the economic resources of the nation stimulated the growth of
cities and the expansion of commerce, accompanied by the disap-
pearance of villainage and the opening of the first breach between
"labor and capital." The creation of a national military spirit in
contrast with the old class militarism of feudalism, born of such
victories as Crecy and Agincourt, laid the foundation of England's
military prestige and opened the age-long struggle for the sover-
eignty of the seas. Parliament also rapidly assumed unity, form,
and dignity, becoming the controlling instrument of government;
a position which it surrendered only after the nobles had shattered
their strength in the dynastic struggles of the fifteenth century.
Premonitions of this new life had long since been felt by the
nation. The people had taken a profound interest in the consti-
tutional struggles of the thirteenth century. They had
^fnewflfe^'^ ^^^^ *^® Conflict between the unvoiced aspirations of the
age and the institutions which were supposed to embody
its best thought. At a time when the temporal glories of the
papacy were approaching zenith, when bishops had become
worldly politicians, and monasteries had declined into rich land-
owning institutions, and love of wealth and ease had obscured their
original purpose, the old primitive spirit of Christianity was strug-
gling for utterance in the saintly lives of sacrifice and
Sf™,""" service of the friars, the "Salvationists" of the thir-
teenth century. New economic and social conditions
were crowding the cities with a helpless and dependent population.
Sanitation was practically unknown. Surface wells and surface
drainage were the rule. Habitations were small, dingy, and over-
crowded. Town government was largely in the hands of the gilds
or the communes, the members of which did not fail to provide for
their own families by seeking high and airy quarters where they
reared their comfortable dwellings ; but below them lay the slums,
1224] THE FRIARS 319
never an inconsiderable part of the medieval city, where poverty
and vice gravitated in hopeless squalor. Neither the town organi-
zation nor the church felt any responsibility for the Condition of
this outcast class. Beyond the isolated efforts of individuals,
little was done to alleviate their condition. New forms of dis-
ease also appeared, conspicuously the leprosy which had been
brought back from the Crusades ; diseases that fattened in filthy
lanes and crowded quarters, appalling in hideousness and fatality.
Into these stews of wretchedness came the "Gray Brothers," the
followers of St. Francis of Assisi, who had renounced home and
kindred that they might care for the outcast poor. In 1334 the
first of the Gray Friars reached England. Heretofore the monks
had sought the silence and seclusion of the wilderness, where they
might spend their lives in a kind of selfish devotion, undisturbed
by the sad sights of the world which surrounded them. But the
brothers of St. Francis sought rather the very centers of popula-
tion, where the human hive swarmed and reeked. Hither they
came, two by two, without scrip or purse, living like the lazzaroni
whom they sought to help, sleeping under arches or lying on the
church porches among the beggars, bringing with them their Gospel
of good Samaritanism. Their chief settlement was fixed in New-
gate, near the butchers' shambles, in a spot which went by the
unsavory name of "Stinking Lane."
From the first the growth of the order was'rapid. Godly men
felt the reality of religion such as this, and many hailed the oppor-
tunity of reaching a helping hand to the suffering about
^X"'"d6 them. The people recognized the genuineness of the
new spirit that was taking hold of the church and gave
the friars their confidence without reserve. Good Bishop
Grosseteste of Lincoln wrote of their work to the pope: "0 that
your holiness could see how devoutly and humbly the people run
to hear the word of life, to confess their sins, to be instructed in
the rules for daily life ; how much profit the monks take from imi-
tation of them."
With the rapid growth of the order, its usefulness extended
into new fields. St. Francis had sought to avoid the temptations
which had turned aside the older orders, by discouraging learn-
330 THE NEW ERA [edwaed I.
ing among his followers as lie had forbidden wealth. But the
efforts of the brothers to care for the sick and improve the sani-
tary conditions which surrounded the poor, led them
Miuenee^ almost against their will to take up the study of medicine
and the physical sciences; while the wide popularity of
their preaching and their constant warfare against the strange
opinions which Crusaders had brought back from the east, com-
pelled them to study theology and logic. Into these new fields
they entered with the same consecrated fervor, and could soon
boast the greatest doctors of the age. Roger Bacon, the
precursor of the modern scientist, was of their number. Many
became teachers in the universities, where, as at Oxford, they
helped to mould the thought of the coming generation. They
were also quick to see the interest of their wards, the people, in
the great political struggles of the century, and did not hesitate to
plunge into the strife for the Charter. It was largely due to their
influence that Earl Simon was so well understood and supported
by the common people.
Side by side with the Franciscans, and hardly less famous,
toiled the Dominicans. St. Dominic, the founder of the order,
had felt the shortcoming of the church in another
The DomiTi- ,. ,. __ - ^ f, i „ -,
icam reach direction. He had seen the growth of heresv and un-
EngJand, 1221. , ,. . ,t t ■ ^ -, •,,-,
belief among the higher orders, and had justly traced
its cause to the prevailing worldliness of the church and the heart-
less indifference of its agents to the needs of the people. He pro-
posed to establish'an order of popular preachers, who should meet
heretic or infidel upon his own ground, and prove by devotion
and piety that Christianity was something more than a system by
which gorgeous bishops could be enriched or abbots fattened. The
Dominicans reached England three years before the Franciscans,
but heresy had never taken such hold upon the English as upon the
people of southern France, and hence the Dominicans, the "Black
Friars," never became as popular or as influential in England as
the Franciscans, the Gray Friars.
The universities also felt the new life. The gathering of poor
scholars at Oxford swelled rapidly during the thirteenth century.
The course of study was still meagre and narrow. Latin was the
1238-1364] THE UNIVERSITIES 331
language of the class room. Greek was practically unknown and
Aristotle reached the student only through garbled translations.
Logic was the backbone of the educational system and
SmL""*''^'^' dialectics was largely pursued for its own sake. Hair-
splitting became a science, and the search for truth was
sacrificed to the love of bandying empty words. Yet thinking men,
like Koger Bacon, felt the barrenness of the methods in vogue, and
urged not only a freer use of existing knowledge, but the search
into wider fields. Student life and student thought, always rough,
free, and hearty, was inclined to outrun the dignified pace of the
teachers, and, often in closer contact with the people than the
church, refused to be bound by existing traditions, readily respond-
ing with the reckless fervor of youth to the stimulation of new and
high ideals. Hence student influence was generally to be found on
the side of the man who durst question the right of the feudal lord
or the authority of the wealthy clergy. In 1238 the students of
Oxford openly attacked the papal legate, and in 1264 the whole
student body turned out to join the party of Earl Simon.
"While the poor were suffering and the pious friars were grap-
pling with the serious problems of the age, the rich were leading
an unreal life which they stimulated by mock sentiment
and by turning serious matters into play. The early
Crusades had provided the wild baronage of Europe with a real
sentiment in which they sought to realize the "ideal of Christian
knighthood." The champion of the cross found ample scope for
the cultivation of all the noblest traits of manhood in facing hard-
ship and danger in defense of the poor and the oppressed, often
to the sacrifice of life itself. The noblest ideals were set forth in
the solemn and impressive ceremonies by which the knight was
ushered into the duties of his order. He bound himself to
observe the laws of honor, to fight fairly, to protect the church, to
defend women, and to act with courtesy to his equals and with
deference to his superiors. But with the decline of the religious
fervor which attended the early Crusades the vows of chivalry
lost their significance. Its noble sentiment became mere senti-
mentalism, which failed to gloss the heartless brutality of the
noble. The hero became a "gentleman," who prided himself on
322 THE NEW ERA [edwaeb 1.
his class, and despised and abused those who were socially beneath
him. His iine sentiments lost their meaning in the narrow self-
ishness of a class spirit which felt no pity and recognized no duty
toward peasant or burgher. For a time the great constitutional
struggle of the thirteenth century fiirnished him with a true
moral motive, but too often his position was determined by the
selfish interest of the hour rather than by any true devotion to the
cause of liberty, and if he drew near to the commons, it was
because he needed the help of the burgher's pike or the burgher's
purse. "When the reign of Edward drew to its close the ques-
tions which had roused men like Earl Simon were settled, and
in the wars of the new century the knight rarely felt any
higher motive than glory or privilege, or worse, plunder.
Chivalry became more polished, more gorgeous, but also more
hollow, more heartless. It sought its victories not in conflicts
waged in defense of virtue or weakness or principle, but at
grand tournaments, where bodies of knights or squires joined in
combat for the purpose of displaying their skill or courage. Fre-
quently the tournament proper was varied with the joust where
two knights engaged each other with blunted spears, the one
attempting to hurl the other from his horse. Such combats were
always attended with much danger and frequently ended fatally.
The lamented Henry II. of France lost his life as a sacrifice to the
popular sport, and Edward I. of England, while on his eastern
expedition, narrowly escaped paying the same forfeit in
of cimirni," a tournament at t'halon, long known as the Little
Battle of Chalon," where after a desperate struggle
and the loss of many lives, he and his party finally came off victo-
rious. At these bloody orgies, ladies presided and awarded the
prizes. Kenilworth became famous as the place where Edwai'd
held his "Round Table" in imitation of the imaginary glories of
the fabled Arthur's court. Hither flocked the gay and frivolous
worldlings of the court, the king, his knights and their ladies,
"clad all in silk." The climax of this hollow extravagance
was reached during the reign of Edward III. ; a fitting intro-
duction to the era of luxury and cruelty which followed. Earlier
kings, like Henry XL, had forbidden tournaments altogether,
SCOTLAND ^ND THE ENGLISH CEOWN 833
but Richard had not hesitated to license them for money. Openly
encouraged by such kings as Edward I. and Edward III., the
tilt-yard remained for nearly three centuries the chief amusement
of the nobility.
The era of foreign wars began with the attempt of Edward to
subjugate Scotland. Ireland had already been partly subdued and
placed under English governors. The Welsh had been
^il!lui^<^the crushed and the cantreds organized into English shires
icoHamd*"' ^°*^ hundi'cds. These early successes of Edward as well as
his fondness for order and harmony, naturally suggested
a single sovereignty over the entire island of Britain. The way
was opened, as in the case of Wales, by a call for a more definite
interpretation of the shadowy claims which English kings had from
time to time asserted over the kings of Scotland. Edward was a
legalist by disposition, inclined always to insist upon his technical
rights, and without that finer sense of justice so marked in Louis
IX. which made the rights of others ever as sacred as his own.
Edward, moreover, was in possession of all the vast resources of the
newly harmonized state, and, fully conscious of his strength, he was
the last man to allow a mere question of metes and bounds to go
long unsettled.
In the thirteenth century the Scots were a rising people.
Goidel, Briton, Norse, and English were at last merging into a sin-
gle kingdom. The relation of their kings to the English
The sc^tisft court was necessarily intimate. They had frequently
intermarried with the English royal house; had held
lands south of the border as vassals of the English king, and as
English barons had not hesitated to take part in his quarrels.
They had also, even before the Norman Conquest, recognized in
the English king a vague right of overlordship over the Scottish
kingdom. Henry II. had brushed away all technical difficulties in
the treaty of Ealaise, by which he had compelled William the
Lion, who was then his prisoner, to become his liegeman for Scot-
land and all his other lands. But fifteen years later, for a pay-
ment of 10,000 marks, Eichard had restored to the King of Scots
the border castles which Henry had retained as security, and released
him and his heirs forever from the homage promised for Scotland.
324 THE KEW ERA. [edwaed I.
The later English kings, however, had not regarded the matter as
finally adjusted, and although, in the century following, the royal
families of the two countries had remained upon more or less
friendly terms, they had more than once raised the question of
overlordship.
In 1286 Alexander III. died. His daughter Margaret had mar-
ried Eric King of Norway, and their daughter, known as the
"Maid of Norway," was the sole descendant of Alex-
.siicccwioH,' ander. The claims of the little granddaughter, also a
1286-1292
Margaret, were recognized by the Scots. Edward, saw
at once the opportunity for a peaceful settlement of the unadjusted
claims of the English crown, and proposed the marriage of Mar-
garet to his own son, Edward of Carnarvon, then a lad about
Margaret's age. The Scottish nobles were not averse to a union so
much in accord with recent traditions of both kingdoms^ and so
promising in many mutual advantages. It was stipulated, how-
ever, by the Scottish estates that the kingdom of Scotland should
remain separate with its own laws and customs. These conditions
were formally accepted by Edward at Brigham. But
The treats! of ./ l j o
Briuhaiii, Unfortunately the little Maid of Norway did not sur-
vive to reach England, and the fine plan of Edward,
which would have brought England and Scotland under one crown
three centuries before the time of James Stuart, was blasted in the
bud.
A swarm of claimants for the vacant throne now sprang up.
A definite law of succession had never been clearly established in
Scotland, but the superior importance was generally
The judgment , . o j
of Edward, recognized of claims based on descent from David, the
1292.
earl of Huntingdon, a younger brother of William the
Lion, and a contemporary of Henry II. and his two immediate
successors. Unfortunately, however, the earl of Huntingdon was
represented by three male descendants : John Balliol, Eobert Bruce,
and John Hastings. Of these John Balliol was the grandson of
Margaret, the eldest daughter of David; John Hastings, the lord
of Abergavenny, was the grandson of a third daughter; but Bruce
' Edward's sister Margaret had been the wife of Alexander III. ; his
aunt Joan the wife of Alexander II.
1291, 1392] THE JUDGMENT OF EDWABD 325
was the son of a second daughter and so a degree nearer to David
than either. According to the cnstom of feudal inheritances,
when the holder left daughters only, the fief was divided equally
among them as co-heiresses. Hastings claimed that the law
should be applied in this case, and that heirs of David's daughters
should share the kingdom equally. Bruce and Balliol, however,
advanced each his right to the whole kingdom; based, the one
upon his nearer descent from David, and the other upon the fact
that he represented the eldest line. In the absence of precedent,
one claim was probably as valid as another. All three of the
claimants were more English than Scotch in feeling; they had also
borne their part in English politics, Bruce having been chief justice
of the King's Bench. The contestants, therefore, naturally
appealed to Edward, and in the long existing confidence which
had prevailed between the two courts, felt no hesitation in recog-
nizing him as overlord. In 1291 Edward invited the nobles of
Scotland to meet him at ISTorham, but before he would act as arbi-
trator he insisted upon a formal recognition of his position as
superior lord of the Scottish realm. Accordingly he received the
homage of the Scots, and with the aid of the court lawyers pro-
ceeded to examine the case with care and deliberation. The
decision was not rendered until the next year, when both Bruce
and Hastings were set aside and the kingdom, undivided, was
awarded to John Balliol. Balliol straightway did homage to
Edward for the kingdom and was crowned. All parties apparently
were satisfied with the result.
To Edward, however, the recognition of overlordship meant
more than a public acknowledgment of preeminence in rank.
Arguing from the well-established relations of his own
orurudicSon anthority in Aquitaine to his French overlord, he held
of English -tj^at it was his right to hear appeals from the highest
court in Scotland, and, the very first year of John Bal-
liol's reign, when four Scottish suitors appealed to Edward against
the decision of the Scottish courts he seized the opportunity to
put his claim to the test, and summoned King John to appear at
"Westminster to answer the complaint of his aggrieved subjects.
Here certainly was innoTation; an application of feudal theory
326 THE NEW EKA [edwabd 1.
which the high-spirited Scottish nobles were by no means inclined
to accept. And although Balliol went to Westminster and pro-
tested in person against the usurpation of Edward, his movements
were altogether too sluggish to satisfy the fiery spirits whom he
had left at home. His motives were suspected, and in 1395 the
nobles took the administration out of his hands altogether and put
it in the hands of a commission, in some such way as the English
nobles had assumed control of the government of Henry III.
Edward, however, was by no means free, either to support his
vassal king, or to intimidate his turbulent rear vassals of Scotland.
Philip IV., a very diifereut man from the just and
mui^Prance' P^c'^*^ Louis, was now upon the throne of France;
ambitious, treacherous, and full of guile, he only waited
an opportunity to complete the work of Philip II., by shaking the
English from their last hold on the Garonne. A special oppor-
tunity for making mischief, moreover, had been offered by the
chronic hostility of the Norman and Gascon sailors. The distinc-
tions between lawful trade and piracy were hardly as yet under-
stood, and the wine ships coming from Gascony to England were
the favorite prey of the Norman ship-masters. The Cinque Ports,
the great trading towns of southern England, naturally took the
part of the Gascons. Eeprisals were made on both sides, and in
1393 the afPair came to a head in a great sea fight in the harbor of
St. Mahe in Brittany, in which a fleet of Normans,
The action in . t „ »
st.MaM, Flemings, and lirench, engaged a fleet of English, Gas-
cons, and Irish. The Normans and their allies were
completely overwhelmed, their ships sunk, and fifteen thousand
lives sacrificed. Philip naturally was not inclined to let such a
serious matter pass unnoticed, and at once summoned Edward as
duke of Aquitaine to appear in the French court and answer for
the conduct of his Gascons. Edward neglected the summons, and
Philip declared his duchy forfeited. Ordinarily such a decision
would mean war, but Edward, warned by the growing restlessness
of the Scots, was not ready to plunge into a conflict with Philip.
He, therefore, sent over his brother Edmund, the earl of Lancas-
ter, to represent him and do what he could by negotiation. Philip
was gracious and suave, and tricked Edmund into believing that
1396] PIRST SCOTTISH WAR OF EDWARD 337
all he songht was some formal recognition of his authority,
persuading him to hand over the castles of Guienne to be held for
forty days and then returned again. But when the forty days
were up, Philip canceled the agreement with Edmund, poured his
troops into the Gascon country and entered into an active alliance
with the Scots. '
Edward could not refuse the challenge and prepared for war.
The usual Welsh outbreaks helped to rouse popular sentiment, and
when in 1295 Edward summoned his famous Model
SmttMiWar Parliament to consider the difficulties which confronted
o^Edward. j^jm^ ^^g nation responded with an alacrity and una-
nimity never before known in English history; the
burghers outdoing the nobles and the clergy in generous response
to the king's call for money. Edmund of Lancaster was dis-
patched to the Garonne, while Edward in person led an army into
Scotland and summoned Balliol to appear before him. But instead
of presenting himself, the unhappy king sent to Edward at New-
castle a formal renunciation of the homage which he had sworn in
1293. "The false fool," cried Edward, "if he will not come to us,
we will go to him." Berwick fell in March. In April, Earl
Warenne who commanded the English advance, defeated the Scots
on the plain before Dunbar. Then followed in quick succession
the surrender of Dunbar, Eoxburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling.
Finally the surrender of Balliol completed the speedy and unex-
pected triumph. Edward continued his march through the
Lowlands, receiving the keys of the Scottish strongholds and
admitting the nobles to homage. He made Earl "Warenne guard-
ian and then returned to England, taking with him to Westmin-
ster the famous stone of Scone, the traditional coronation stone of
Scottish kings.
Edward's triumph apparently was final. Scotland lay under
his feet, prostrate, destitute; her strongholds held by English
garrisons, her dethroned king a captive in a foreign prison.^ Yet
Edward had hardly turned his attention to France when disquieting
rumors began to reach him from his new conquest. Earl Warenne,
' Balliol was confined for a while in the Tower of London and then
allowed to depart for the continent where he finally died in obscurity.
338 THE jSTEW BKA [edwabdI.
although guardian of the realm, had turned the administration oyer
to two men, Cressingham the treasurer, and Ormesby the justiciar,
who were utterly incapable of understanding the Scot-
Popuim-ri^- tish people; nor was it long before the discontent
i^?""'^"' aroused by their petty tyrannies passed into widespread
revolt, and the Highlands far and near blazed with
the fires of a bloody guerrilla warfare. The wild mountain glens
and dreary upland moors offered a safe hiding to desperate outlaws.
Here they gathered in ever increasing numbers, finding leaders
among those who had felt the hand of the tyrants and lived only
for vengeance. All other leaders, however, sank into shadow by
the side of the famous Wallace, whose daring and energy awed and
terrified the English, as it inspired and heartened his own people.
Edward was absent in Flanders. The absentee guardian of Scot-
land roused himself and entering the country with a great army
approached Stirling. At Cambnskenneth a long bridge
neth, Septem- spanned the Forth, so narrow that only two mounted
hcv 1297.
men could cross it abreast. Beyond the bridge a range
of low hills reached almost to the water's edge. It was just such
a spot as Wallace and his desperate band of outlaws knew how to
make the most of. The southern army approached the bridge and
began the long and tedious crossing. Five thousand men under
the hated Cressingham were already on the other bank when the
Scots led by Wallace and Sir Andrew Murray rushed upon them.
The slaughter was frightful ; Cressingham was slain and his fol-
lowers butchered almost to a man. The main body of the English
retired. The news of the victory electrified the prostrate nation;
the lukewarm and the cautious hesitated no longer ; everywhere
the Scots rose and the English garrisons fled for their lives. Scot-
land was now again in the hands of her own people, and a provi-
sional government was organized under Wallace and Murray, who
assumed the title of "Generals of the Army of the Kingdom of
Scotland and Guardians of the Realm for King John."
Edward saw that if he would save Scotland, he must return at
once, and strangely enough Philip consented to a truce and left
Edward free to devote all his splendid energy and skill to the
recovery of Scotland. Wallace's tactics were simple and would
1298] PALKIKK 329
have succeeded, had he dealt with a less able general. The Low-
lands were harried by his orders and nothing was left that might
feed an invading army. The English were sore put to
ccmipaimof ^* ^°'' ^°°'^' ^"'^ ^ disgraceful retreat, which must have
Edward, M9«. ijggj^ final, seemed unavoidable, when Edward by
one of those brilliant movements which mark the great
general, suddenly confronted Wallace in Falkirk wood and com-
pelled him to fight against his will.
The battle is interesting because it illustrates the rapid progress
which the English M'ere making in the art of war, soon to give
them such superiority in the approaching struggle with
J^^^*'"''' Prance. Wallace had hardly any cavalry, for the Scot-
tish nobles had not taken kindly to the man of the
people. They suspected his motives also and feared the results of
his rapid successes. Wallace, therefore, was compelled to depend
almost altogether upon his pikemen. These, however, he drew
up with real skill behind a marsh, so arranged that they formed
four squares, or circles rather, connected by a line of archers. In
the rear he posted his few horsemen. Edward saw that his heavy
armed knights were useless against such a formation, and resorted
to the tactics which his great ancestor had used at Hastings, and
with similar success. The English had of late begun to develop
the long bow, which in the Welsh wars of Edward had proved its
superiority to the old short bow or the cross bow. The archer, by
the greater length of the bow and weight of his arrow, was able to
throw the entire strength of his body into the shaft, drawing the
bolt to the ear instead of the breast, and sending it with such
force that it could pierce armor or shield. Edward had brought
with him a body of archers skilled in the use of this terrible
weapon. He now ordered them into action and had them concen-
trate their fire upon the Scottish squares. The pikemen, mad-
dened by the swiftly flying shafts but unable to protect them-
selves by reason of their close formation, were soon thrown into
confusion ; then a well-timed charge of the English cavalry into
the struggling mass of men and tall spears, and Falkirk was won.
Wallace's power melted away as rapidly as it had arisen. He
escaped from Falkirk to spend the next six years in hiding ; but
330 THE NEW EKA [ebwaed L
was finally betrayed by the Scots themselves, delivered over to
Edward and put to death as a traitor. The people, however,
would not forget him. He became the hero of the
of Wallace's struggle for independence. Even the well-earned
fame of the younger Bruce paled before the favor-
ite of legend and song, the first among Scottish national
patriots.
Although Wallace had been routed and his power dispelled, it
took Edward six years to recover the lost ground. He had made
an alliance with Flanders against France, but the alli-
tionoftJie^' ^'^°® provcd expensive and unsatisfactory. The money
FcOkirk'^^^^ which the English estates had so generously voted him
in 1295 had been expended, and yet had secured no
adequate results. The towns were restless under later exactions;
the church disobedient and the barons defiant. The pope, Boni-
face VIII., also embarrassed the king by putting forth a claim as
overlord of Scotland and forbade him to interfere further with the
Scots. New leaders also came forward to carry on the work of
Wallace. In 1302 John Comyn, a nephew of Balliol, supported by
the bishop of St. Andrews, won the important battle of Eoslin and
for the moment delivered Scotland north of the Forth. Ordinary
difficulties, however, did not discourage Edward. In 1301 he had
again confirmed the charters and in return secured the promise of
the English barons to defend his claim to Scotland against the
threatened intervention of the pope. But fortunately the rival
claim of Boniface was never brought to an issue ; nor is it likely
that he meant to do more than assert his position as guardian
of the peace of Europe. At all events he was soon able to give
proof of the genuineness of his desire for peace by securing an
agreement between Edward and Philip, in accordance with which
Philip restored Gascony, and Edward, whose first wife had died in
1290, married Philip's sister; the Prince of Wales was also
betrothed to Philip's daughter Isabella. By this double marriage
it was hoped to assure the friendly relations of the two courts for
many years to come; a fatuous hope, for it was through the mar-
riage of Prince Edward and Isabella that English kings came
subsequently to lay claim to the throne of France.
1304-1307] RISING OF BBUCE 331
The Scottish barons, now that they were deserted by Philip,
felt the uselessness of continuing the struggle. At Dumfries,
Comyn, who had been acting as King John's regent,
f^tinJI^"^ met Edward and agreed to a peace ou condition that
inSeotiand, j^\^q Scottish barons should not be deprived of their
lands, but should be allowed to redeem them by the
payment of a fine. In 1304 Stirling fell and all armed resistance
ceased. In the meantime Edward was maturing plans for the
settlement of the kingdom, and a really good scheme was struck
out. But he was to meet the common experience of most ambitions
soTcreigns who attempt to foist a foreign government upon a high-
spirited and warlike people against their will. The temporary
successes of Wallace, followed by the glorious but ineffectual strug-
gle carried on by Andrew Murray and John Comyn, had appealed
powerfully to national sentiment and the people only waited for a
new leader.
This leader appeared in the young Robert Bruce, grandson of
that Robert Bruce who had been Balliol's rival. Hitherto he had
been on the English side and high in favor with Edward,
Rmng of ^j^q had trusted him and consulted him upon the reor-
Bruce, 1306. ^
ganization of the country. But in 1306 in an interview
at Dumfries with Comyn who was heir to Balliol's claims, hot
words had arisen between the two men, swords had been drawn, and
Comyn was slain. Bruce, an outlaw and a murderer, had then fled
to the mountains of Galloway, and, apparently in self-defense, had
raised the standard of revolt. In March 1306 he was able to make
his way to Scone and secure a coronation.
Edward heard of the new revolt, and roused himself to crush
it. Apparently it was not a very serious matter, and Aymer de
Valence, Edward's nephew, easily drove Bruce into the
TheiMstcam- 'W'estern islands for refuge. But Edward was now well
paignof ° ■ .
Edward, gone in years, and infirmity was fast creeping upon Inm.
His wrath was as terrible to onlookers as ever ; but the
lightnings had lost their power to blast. He hurried on after his
armies, but crippled by his years he was no match for the young
and energetic Bruce whose rapid movements easily eluded the pur-
suit of the king's lieutenants and enabled him to strike again
332 THE STEW ERA
where least expected. Edward fumed and stormed and vented his
wrath upon the luckless Scottish nobles who fell into his power.
They were put to death without mercy ; their estates confiscated
and turned over to Englishmen. The Countess of Buchan, who
had placed the crown upon Brnce's head, was put in an iron cage
and hung from the walls of Berwick castle. The efforts of
Edward, however, only added fuel to the insurrection. The war
took on more and more the character of a national rising, and in
1307 Bruce was able to take the field at the head of a
ward. July considerable force. The old king, brokeu by fifty years
of service, rose from his bed to put himself at the head
of his troops as of yore; but the effort was too much for his fail-
ing strength. He died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, July 7, 1307.
So died the great Edward; lawgiver, statesman, soldier, and
king. The closing years of his long and brilliant reign, clouded by
his unfortunate attempt to make good his lordship over
Edward's Scotland, must not obscure the real greatness of the
man or the success of his fifty years of administration.
His father had made a pitiful failure and had been saved from utter
ruin only by the cool determination of the barons and the wise
leadership of the son. When Henry died all strife had ended, and
Edward, as no Norman or Plantagenet before him, succeeded to a
peaceful and united realm. Of this harmony he made the most.
He fully grasped the elements of the problem before him ; accepted
the results of the barons' wars; kept himself in touch with the
national sentiment of the age, and sought not to check, but to
direct the efforts by which the nation was seeking to secure better
laws and a wiser service. Once he seemed to waver in his allegi-
ance to the cause of constitutional government, when for the
moment the pressure of unsuccessful foreign war had blinded him
to the possible results of his actions; but it is this very incident,
connected with the names of Bigod and Bohun, that reveals the
real greatness of Edward, — the infinite distance which separates
him from John Lackland or Henry III. for Edward was man
enough, when once he saw his mistake, to confess his error and
right the wrong. The attempt to conquer Scotland, however, was
more than a mistake of policy; it was a political crime, and bit-
GREATNESS OF EDWARD
333
terly Edward paid the penalty in the humiliation of failure which
shadowed his last days and in the fatal debt with which he fettered
the reign of his unfortunate son. Yet the attempt to conquer the
northern kingdom was not the outcome of mere vulgar hunger for
military glory ; Edward simply tried to make real and practical his
right as overlord, just as every other great national king in the
west was then doing. It is remarkable, however, that one who
had such keen appreciation of the significance of national senti-
ment in England, should have so little perception of its strength
in other lands.
KINGS OF FKANCB
Philip III., d. 1285.
Philip IV.
CONTEMPORARIES OF EDWARD I.
1272-1307
EMPERORS
Rudolph of Haps-
burg, d. 1291.
Adolphus, d. 1398.
Alherfc.
KINGS OF CASTILE
Alplionso X. , the Wise.
<i 1384. ■
Sancho IV., the Great,
d. 1205.
Feidinand IV.
KINGS OF SOOT-
LAND
Alexander III., d.
1286.
John Balliol, 7c.
1292-1296.
Robert I., k. 1306.
PROMINENT POPES
Gregory X., 1371-1276.
Nicolas ni., 1377-1281.
IMartin IV., 1381-1285.
Honorius IV., 1285-1289.
Nicolas IV., 1389-1292.
Boniface, Vin., 1294-1303.
Benedict XI., 1303-1305.
Clement V., 1305.
ARCHBISHOPS OF
CANTERBURY
Robert KUwardby, 1273-
1278.
John Peckham, 1279-1292.
Robert Winchelsey, 1294.
FAMOUS MEN
(Not princes)
Roger Bacon, d. 1272.
Dante Alighieri, b. 1265, d.
1321.
William Wallace, 6. 1274(?)
d. 1305.
Marco Polo, 6. 1254, d. 1324.
CHAPTER II
THE BARONS AND THE ROYAL FAVORITES. THE INDEPENDENCE
OP SCOTLAND ESTABLISHED
EDWARD II., im-ina
THE HOUSE OP LANCASTER
Edmund, Earl of Lancaster,
brother of Edward I.
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, Henry, Earl of Lancaster,
(J. 1338 I a. 1346
Henry, first Duke of Lancastei
Blanche m. John of Gaunt,
fourth son of Edward III.
The new king, Edward of Carnarvon, was a failure from the
first. He was frivolous, unprincipled, and utterly incapable of
handling the questions which his father's death had left
KenewTi "^ unsettled. He tied himself to a contemptible favorite
Piers Gaves- ^f jijg boyhood, a Gascon by the name of Piers Gaveston,
who encouraged him in dissipation and costly extrav-
agance, and used his inflneuce for his own ends. The foreign
birth of Gaveston, his rapid elevation, his worthlessness, roused
the enmity of the baronage, and at once created a powerful anti-
administration party among the nobility as in the days of the for-
eign favorites of Henry III.
The most bitter and dangerous opponent of Gaveston was the
king's cousin, Thomas E.arl of Lancaster, the son of Edmund
Crouchback, the once titular king of Sicily. Earl
La'/Scrt Thomas held the lordship of five earldoms, controlled
a'aveston' enormous wealth, and possessed great personal influence.
He had resented the insolent ways of the upstart Gaves-
ton and had smarted under the lashing of his sharp tongue; for
Gaveston rather prided himself on his wit, and took a silly delight
in fixing various nicknames upon the prominent members of the
334
1308] PIEKS 6ATEST0N 335
court. Thus Lancaster he had dubbed "The Hog;" Pembroke,
"Joseph the Jew;" Gloucester, "The Cuckoo;" and Warwick,
"The Black Dog of Arden." It was fine fun no doubt for Gaves-
ton and his admirers, but dangerous.
In 1308 Edward returned from France with his bride Isabella,
and held the ceremony of coronation with great magnificence. He
made the usual promises to maintain the customs of the
First fall of ' -, ■ ■, -r,
Oaveston, realm and respect its laws. But the frivolous and
insincere nature of the king was so well understood, and
the continued affront of Gaveston's presence, his reckless insolence,
was such a constant challenge to the barons, that the most sanguine
could not fail to see that trouble was at hand ; nor was it long
before the storm broke. At a great council held soon after the
coronation, the barons insisted upon the expulsion of the favorite
from the kingdom, and Edward was forced to yield.
The barons, however, had only begun their work. Earl
Thomas imagined that he was destined to play the role of a second
Montfort; and the next year, in a full parliament in
as'arefm^'^ wMch the commons were represented, he persuaded the
Estates to refuse to vote any supplies, unless the king
consented to redress certain grievances, as unjust seizures of
provisions by the king's officers under the name of purveyance,
excessive duties on wines, cloth, and other imports, irregular
coinage, and similar abuses, particularly grievous to the merchant
classes. The king had banished Gaveston as he had agreed, but
he had sent him off loaded with gifts to the governorship of
Ireland. He now offered to grant the reforms provided the favor-
ite might be allowed to return to the kingdom. The barons, how-
ever, were in no mood to be gracious and refused their consent.
Then Edward undertook to gain his point by coaxing, wheedling,
and bribery, and although the body of the barons were still stub-
born, thinking he had support enough to act without their consent,
he recalled his man. It was a fatal step for both king and
minister.
The king again drifted into his old ways of living; and Gaves-
ton, looking upon his recall as a triumph, became more irritating
than ever. When the barons assembled the next year, they came
336 THE BAKONS AND THE FAVOEITES. [edwabd n.
with the grim determination to take the government out of the
hands of the king who could so soon forget his promises. A com-
mittee of administration was appointed of twenty-one barons,
known as "Lords Ordainers;" including, beside the
^aveSm^^"^ archbishop Winchelsey, Lancaster, Pembroke, War-
wick, and Gloucester; all of whom had felt the lash
of Gaveston's tongue, and with the exception of Winchelsey, were
moved more by hatred of the favorite than by any intel-
The "Lords •j -i
Ordaincifi," ligent devotion to the cause of pure government. They
were specially commissioned to reform existing abuses
and to regulate the king's household. The report of the Lords
Ordainers, known as the "Ordinances," consisted of forty-one
articles, and dealt with current abuses, some of which were as old
as Magna Oharta. Of chief importance, however, were the excess-
ive duties which had prevailed since the beginning of the Scot-
tish wars. The Lord's Ordainers fixed the duties of the year
1275 as standard. They directed also that Gaveston be per-
manently banished, and forbade the king to appoint ministers,
go to war, or leave the kingdom without the approval of the
barons.
Edward, cowed and humbled, signed the Ordinances, but
entreated the barons to save his "brother Piers." He then went
north, where the rising power of Bruce had long since
The Ordi-
nances demanded attention. Here he no sooner found him-
self out from under the shadow of the Lords Ordain-
ers, than he defied the Ordinances and called his favorite to his
side. This new evidence of the bad faith of the king was too
much for the temper of the barons. They appealed at
oav^n °^^^ *'° ^'■i^S) took Gaveston at Scarborough and sent
him to "Wallingford under the pledge of the earl of
Pembroke to present him at the meeting of parliament. But
such fiery spirits as "Warwick, Lancaster, Hereford, and Arundel,
were too impatient to await a trial, and had the favorite seized on
the way to Wallingford and hurried off to Warwick Castle. Here
he was brought into the presence of his foes and his fate decided.
It would not do to let the fox go, they said; they would only have
to hunt him again.
1311-1313] SUCCESSES OF BRUCE 337
The murder of Gaveston was prophetic of the era at hand. It
was a new thing for politicians to butcher their fallen rivals.
From this time until the reign of Henry VII., politics
SIS-aeter becomes more and more a bloody trade. Feuds were
poiS!^^ started which were not to be allayed until many of the
finest families of England had perished. It was the hot
breath of the new era; the natural effect of continual war,
of the factitious life bred of chivalry, and of the decay of per-
sonal piety. The unhappy king was powerless to punish; he
had to content himself with receiving the feigned submission
of the men who had slain his favorite, and proclaim a general
amnesty.
The troubles of Edward with his barons, the generally crip-
pled condition of the government, will explain why so little had yet
been done to repress Bruce. The great strongholds of
Bm^^^xfe *^^ Lowlands, Roxburgh, Linlithgow, Perth, Edinburgh,
{/TiSf ^^"■'" ^^^ Stirling, still remained in English hands, but Bruce
was everywhere master of the open country. Moreover,
as the weakness of the English became more apparent, the hopes
of the Scots rose correspondingly ; their daring also increased to
such an extent that they answered Edward's invasion of 1311 by a
counter raid into the northern counties of England, and in 1312
Bruce began the systematic reduction of the English strongholds.
It was a great year in Scottish story. In January Bruce car-
ried the battlements of Perth by assault ; Roxburgh surrendered
in March; seven days later, Randolph, a son of Bruce's sister,
led a band of thirty men up the frowning cliff on whose crest
rises the huge keep of Edinburgh Castle, scaled its ramparts, and
took the garrison by surprise, — one of the most brilliant and dar-
ing enterprises of all history. A brilliant strategy at the same
time secured Linlithgow. A countryman, with the good Scotch
name of Binnie, approached the gates, on a bright morning with an
innocent looking load of hay. Under the portcullis the load
stopped and a band of sturdy Scotchmen, sword in hand, springing
out from under the hay, held the gate until their comrades could
rush in and overpower the garrison. By the opening of the next
year, only Stirling held out. The garrison were sore pressed and
338
THE BAEONS AND THE FAVORITES
fEDWAXD II.
Philip Mowbray, the governor, agreed to surrender, if they were
not relieved before June 34, 1314.
Edward had time enough to relieve the town and was in fact
deeply stirred by the new responsibility which the conditions
accepted by Mowbray imposed upon him. But he was
.^tZGntpz to , mi
relieve stir- no longer his own master. The barons were not
ling. , .
inclined to trust him with a large army. The months of
grace slipped by. The king urged and pleaded.
Still Lancaster and
his men held
aloof; yet as
the last days
approached,
they were
apparently
shamed out of
their sulky
mood and al-
lowed Edward
to act. He
came within
sight of Stirl-
ing on the 33d
of June, one
day before the
time fixed for
Mowbray 's
surrender.
Bruce had
order to
of
in
was
one
Bannock-
bum, 1314,
drawn up his men behind the Bannockburn
command the roads to Stirling. His position
great natural strength. A marsh protected his right
wing, while his left was covered by low ground, filled
here and there with pools of water. "Wherever there
was a chance for horsemen to secure a footing, he had also dug
pits and concealed them with hurdles. The formation of Bruce
was similar to that adopted by Wallace at Falkirk, but back of his
bristling circles he had a powerful body of cavalry in reserve. For
1314] BANKOCKBTJKK 339
in the seven years which had followed the death of Edward I. , Bruce
had won to his side all the discontented elements of the population,
and the younger nobility in particular had rallied to his support.
The English commanders showed little skill in marshalling their
men. The men showed little confidence in their leaders. Edward
opened the battle by sending forward his archers ; his plan being
first to riddle the Scottish array, and then hurl forward his heavy
cavalry as his father had done at Falkirk. But unfortunately he
allowed the archers to advance so far that the English horse could
not support them, and a well-timed charge by Bruce's horse from
the flank swept them from the field. Edward then sent forward
his horse, but the Scottish knights had recovered their position and
the English knights found only the dense array of spearmen to
receive them. In vain they hurled themselves upon the forest of
pikes. Their splendid courage only increased the confusion and
slaughter. Then suddenly, appearing above the high ground in the
rear of the Scots, the English caught the glitter of arms and the
waving of banners of a second army approaching. It was only
the camp followers of Bruce, his sutlers and cattle herders,
tricked out for the occasion, but the sight was too much for the
shattered nerves of the English leaders. They fully believed that
a second army was about to enter the field in support of the
Scots, and thought only of flight. The Scottish horse dashed
in among the mass of struggling fugitives and began a ruthless
slaughter. The earl of Gloucester was slain ; Hereford was taken
at Bothwell, and the king with great difficulty got away to Dun-
bar, and finally to Berwick.
Edward had left many of his barons and knights on the field of
Bannockburn ; yet for the moment he talked wildly of summoning
a new army and renewing the war. It was evident to
F^naimecess Edward's advisers, however, that the country was
utterly disheartened ; that no one had confidence either
in the king's ability or his courage, and that a second attempt
would only invite fresh disaster. Yet no one dared to propose
peace while the disgrace of Bannockburn rankled in the public
mind. The king also was obstinate in his determination to regard
Bruce as a rebel, and persisted in refusing to listen to any of his
340 THE BARONS AND THE FAVORITES [edward ii.
overtures. Bruce on his part fully appreciated the significance of
his victory, and was more than ever determined to compel the
English to recognize the independence which he had now won.
He had already seized the Isle of Man and in 1315
Sm^Fn"^ allowed his brother David to enter upon the ill-starred
ilSf"'*' attempt to wrest Ireland from the English. In 1316
Bruce himself went over to assist his brother, but soon
became satisfied that the place to strike England successfully was
not in Ireland but upon his own border. Soon after his return,
therefore, he began the systematic harrying of the northern
shires. The capture" of Berwick opened the eastern highway into
England, and every harvest time saw the Scots in the saddle,
and the English farmers fleeing for their lives ; their hay ricks and
granaries going up in flames; their cattle gracing the homeward
march of the Scots. In a single raid the Scots burned Scarborough,
Northallerton, Boroughbridge, and Skipton. In 1319 the York-
shire farmers, led by their priests in their white surplices, attempted
to make a stand at Myton, but the simple peasantry fled at the
first rush of Eandolph's men-at-arms. They were cut down like
sheep. So many of the clergy were slain that the bat-
'of^Mvion'^ tie or rather massacre was known as the "Chapter of
Myton." Still Edward refused to recognize Eobert
Bruce as king of Scotland. In 1323 he again attempted to invade
the country but only to bring the Scots to the gates of York for
his pains. It was more than ever evident that nothing was to be
gained by further war, and in 1333 Edward prudently determined
to unload part of his trouble by giving peace to the northern bor-
ders. The truce was to last thirteen years, Brace in the mean-
time to take the title of king. But upon the accession of
Edward III., four years later, Bruce seized the opportunity to
force upon England a full recognition of his claims and the accept-
ance of a permanent peace. The treaty was signed at
Northamp- Northampton in 1328. England formally recognized
Bruce as king of Scotland and renounced all claims to
the Scottish overlordship. So at last, for the time, ended the strug-
gle for Scottish independence. It had cost much ; bat it was worth
it all. The Scottish nation had come out of the fires a great peo-
1314-1318] THOMAS OF LANCASTEE 341
pie. They had learned self-reliance ; they had learned to think and
act for themselves ; they had learned that they were Scotchmen.
Above all they had received a priceless heritage in the memory of
great names and heroic deeds, the true soil of patriotism.
Edward in the meantime was steadily sinking in the pit of his
own digging. He had fled from Bannockburn with a troop of
furious Scotchmen at his heels, and a brave and warlike
F^ai-aiL people could not forgive their king for missing this rare
chance of dying like a hero. Even the royal title could
no longer impart dignity to a character so contemptible. Lancas-
ter became the dominant spirit both at the council board and in
the army. He removed old ministers and appointed new ones at
will. He fixed an allowance for the king's expenses and deter-
mined his personal friends. He was commander-in-chief of the
army. He became president of the council. But unfortunately
he proved as incompetent in administration as he had been unscru-
pulous and violent in opposition. The baronage would not endure
his despotic ways; they broke up into rival factions, and turning
their arms against each other, left the Scots to plunder and ravage
the north as they pleased. A serious failure of the harvest added
to the distress caused by domestic anarchy and foreign war, and
the people were not slow to charge the government with their
misfortunes. Men whispered that Earl Thomas had entered into
a secret league with the Scots and had agreed for a price not to
molest the enemy in the plunder of English fields and the slaughter
of English burghers. In their despair the hearts of the people
turned again to their young king. Affairs had gone better when
he was left free to bring whom he would into his council chamber.
Even Gaveston had managed things better than this. So the bal-
ance began to shift again and Edward's chance of once more con-
trolling his government began to mend. With the fall
of Berwick and the failure of the attempt to recover it
the next year, only the poor shreds of Thomas's former influence
remained.
Two new men now became prominent among the rival factions
of the baronage and, by making the cause of the despised king their
own, secured a marked advantage over their fellows.- These men
343 THE BARONS AND THE FAVOKITES [edwabd IL
were the Despensers, father and son. Unlike the fallen Gaveston,
they represented one of the fine old Norman English families of
the baronage, which for generations had been closely
pmsm-f' identified with the political history of the country.
Hugh le Despenser the elder was the son of the Hugh le
Despenser who had been justiciar under Earl Simon and had
fallen by his side at Evesham. The son had regained the royal
confidence during the reign of Edward I., and had occupied an
important place among his ministers ; he had since adhered to the
second Edward and had supported him heretofore through all his
troubles. Earl Thomas hated the man and held him as his per-
sonal enemy, while the barons affected to regard him as a traitor
to their cause. The son, Hugh le Despenser the third, was nearer
the king's age ; ambitious, avaricious, and not overscrupulous as to
the means employed to gain his ends. He had married a sister of
the earl of Gloucester, and after his death at Bannockburn had come
in for a third of his estates, becoming thus by right of his wife one
of the richest lords of England. In the new government organized
after the fall of Berwick, he had been made chamberlain, and was
thus brought into direct personal relations to the king, nor had
he hesitated to take advantage of the enforced loneliness and iso-
lation of the unhappy man to worm his way into the place of con-
fidence once held by the fallen Gaveston.
Of the unscrupulous greed of the Despensers there can be little
doubt. It is not unlikely, however, that some of the principles
adopted by the old popular party of Earl Simon's day
Fi/rstfcLll of
theDespem- had descended with the family traditions, and that the
crs 1321
later Despensers justified their ambitions, to themselves
at least, in the avowed purpose of securing a more distinct recog-
nition of the political rights of the nation as a whole, by over-
throwing the personal rule of Earl Thomas and setting up in its
stead a more direct control of the royal council by the parliament.
At all events some of the maxims ascribed to the younger Hugh
reveal a grasp of the principles of constitutional government far
in advance of his age. One element, however, the Despensers had
not fully considered ; and that was the latent hostility of the nation
to the royal favorite, in whatsoever guise he might appear. Earl
1331, 1323] THE FALL OF EAEL THOMAS 343
Thomas and his friends, therefore, found little difficulty in appeal-
ing to this deep-seated prejudice, and persuaded even the luke-
warm that a new Gaveston had arisen in the younger Hugh. So
great had become the unpopularity of the pair that in the parlia-
ment of 1331 almost the entire baronage turned upon the favor-
ites; and the lords, "peers of the realm" as they had begun to call
themselves, passed a formal sentence, decreeing the Despenser
estates forfeited and banishing the Despensers from the land.
The triumph of Thomas was as brief as the reverse was fatal.
An insult offered to the queen by Lady Badlesmere, gave the king
a pretext for raising an army. The barons joined him,
Earl ThormM, and Thomas, who had no love to spare on the Badles-
1322.
meres, held aloof. But the king finding himself at the
head of an army at last, with that energy which even the most
contemptible of the Plantagenet race were capable of displaying at
times, turned upon the friends of Thomas and proceeded to avenge
the fall of the Despensers. The border castles of Hereford,
Audley, and D'Amory were marked for destruction. Thomas now
saw his mistake, and summoning his followers, "the good lords,"
at Doncaster, prepared for open war. The king, however, had
secured the first move in the game, and Thomas with all his energy
could not regain his advantage. At Boroughbridge he was fairly
brought to bay, and in the battle which followed, his little army
was routed and himself taken. Four days later, he was
Executionof tried in his own castle of Pontefract, condemned as a
Thomas of '
Lancaster, traitor, and at once put to death. "So the blood of
Gaveston was avenged, and the tide of savage cruelty
began to flow in a broader stream." Thirty of Lancaster's adher-
ents were also executed, and many more were imprisoned, while a
vast wealth in the form of fines and forfeitures was gathered from
those whom obscurity or family influence saved from the fate of
the leaders. Earl Thomas soon became a popular hero. With
characteristic inconsistency the people, forgetting his blunders and
his despotism, lamented Boroughbridge as a second Evesham, and
Thomas as a second Montfort. The usual miracles were reported
from his tomb and his name became a watchword of liberty.
Six weeks after Boroughbridge, Edward held a parliament at
344 THE BARONS AND THE FAVOEITES [edward n.
York, and at once secured the revocation of the Ordinances and a
formal declaration of the theory of constitutional government
toward which all these struggles were tending. By this
mlnF^York, statement, all "matters to be settled for the estate of
^*^^' the king and his heirs, and for the estate of the realm
and of the people were to be treated, accorded, and established in
parliaments by the king, and by the consent of the prelates, earls
and barons, and commonalty of the realm, according as had
hitherto been accustomed;'" the government must not again be
put into the hands of an irresponsible commission as in 1311.
The Despensers were now supreme ; they had sought to win the
commons by recognizing their right as a constituent part .of the
national assembly, denying for all time the right of an oligarchy of
the great nobles to rule England, and the parliament had
responded by reversing the hostile acts which had been passed by
the lords at the instigation of Lancaster and Hereford. Yet the
unfortunate word "favorite" clung to the Despensers ; the people
saw them fattening on the estates of the slaughtered lords, and
they could not forget.
The king, however, was now without a rival. Men might
league secretly with the Scots, as did the earl of Carlisle, but they
durst not openly brave the king and his council.
faiTdT Earl Thomas had left his brother Henry as his heir,
pzotser. -^^^ |.j^g king, by refusing to confer upon him the
Lancastrian estates, had left him, for the time at least, a political
cipher. But there was one whom neither the king nor the
Despensers had taken into their calculations, the French queen
of Edward, Isabella. With all his faults Edward had not been
an unkind husband; but the close relationship of the queen to
Lancaster had forbidden the fullest confidence between the royal
pair. Isabella, moreover, hated the king's ministers, and soon
became the center of a widely extended intrigue. It is not likely
that the queen at this time had consciously determined upon
treason. She found herself the center of a group of inferior men,
who saw their ambitions balked by the fall of Lancaster and their
one chance of some day becoming bishops or ministers of state
' Taswell-Langmead, p. 355.
1323-1324] ISABELLA AND MOETIMEK 345
wane before the continued prosperity of the Despensers, and, stnng
by her husband's lack of confidence, piqued by the successes of
the men whom she hated, and puffed up by the flattery of the
creatures who fawned about her, she accepted the r61e of chief
plotter and soon became involved in the sad intrigue, which has so
deservedly blackened her name for all time.
In 1332 Isabella's brother, Philip V. of Prance, died aad the
new king Charles IV., also a brother, summoned Edward in
accordance with the custom of the feudal age to come
ofth!pM *o France and do homage for the fiefs of Ponthieu ' and
Frc^. Gascony. But the Despensers, conscious of their
growing unpopularity. Were afraid to allow Edward to
leave the kingdom. For two years negotiations dragged on,
Edward seeking to avoid giving offense to his powerful brother-in-
law, and the enemies of the Despensers bringing all influence to
bear upon Charles -to prevent a compromise. Finally a per-
emptory summons was sent by the French king, accom-
panied by a threat of forfeiture in case of longer
delay. This summons was nothing less than an ultimatum,
as the modern politician would call it, that is, a threat of war.
Then Edward in sore despair sent over his queen to plead his
cause at the French court. She parted with him on good
terms, and at the French court presented his cause with such
apparent success, that Charles agreed to allow her son Prince
Edward to represent his father, and to make over the provinces to
him in the king's stead.
The unhappy king had fallen into a most cunningly devised
trap. The young prince had hardly reached France, when all
disguise was thrown off by the queen and she openly
m^isaMia joiii^'i ^^^ king's bitterest enemies. The most danger-
ous of these was Eoger Mortimer, the lord of Wigmore,
an old friend of Lancaster, who had recently escaped from the
Tower and now found at the French court ample opportunity for
satisfying his desire for revenge. He won an unbounded influence
over the queen's mind, and used it to the undoing of the king.
'For origin of Plantagenet claims to Ponthieu, see Stubbs, Early
Plantagenets, p. 243, also below p. 364.
346 THE BARON'S AND THE FAVORITES [ebwakd II.
The young Edward, a mere lad of fourteen, was taught that his duty
to his father demanded him to break the power of the Despensers.
Even the king's brother, Edmund of Kent, was induced to join the
conspirators. The plotting at last became so open, and the scan-
dal so flagrant, that Charles out of self-respect was compelled to
drive Mortimer and the queen from the court. They found a more
congenial atmosphere at the court of Hainault, whose count was
not above sharing in the profit of the proposed invasion, and
readily furnished men and ships, while the Italian bankers fur-
nished money.
Edward knew what was going on but was helpless to defend
himself from the threatened blow. Parliament met, but refused
to act. Military musters were ordered but the people
Landing of refused to assemble. As long as the Despensers were
tembm%is26\' retained in power, no one would support the king.
In September 1.336, Isabella landed in Suffolk with
her foreign army and at once proclaimed her mission as the
"avenger of Lancaster and the sworn foe of the favorites."
Edward, who was in London at the time, called upon the citizens
for help; but no man would draw sword in the cause of the
hated ministers. He then fled westward seeking help among the
Despenser lands. The Londoners rose behind him and murdered
the unfortunate bishop of Exeter, the treasurer, who was regarded
as a creature of the Despensers. Archbishop Reynolds sought to
make the best terms he could with the queen.
The earls, the bishops, Henry of Lancaster, the king's half-
brothers, all, almost to a man, now went over to the queen. The
king fled to Gloucester, then to Wales, whence he
Se^eiwersf soi^g^t to pass into Ireland. On October 36, the queen
reached Bristol; here she took the elder Despenser,
now earl of Winchester, and hanged him forthwith. The lords
in her train declared Prince Edward "Guardian of the King-
dom," and in his name summoned a parliament. In the mean-
time the queen continued to make havoc among her husband's
friends and advisers. The young Despenser was taken with the
king on November 16, and on the 24th was hanged, drawn, and
quartered ; the king was brought to Kenilworth for safe keeping.
1327] THE CHARGES AGAINST EDWARD 347
The reign of Edward II. was now ended. The parliament
which the lords had summoned in the name of Prince Edward met
at Westminster January 7, 1337. There were those
The charges ■,-,■,
waimt to whom it Seemed that the matter had gone far enough,
and that now the Despensers had been struck down, the
king, harmless enough in himself, might be left to continue his
reign. But Mortimer, the dark lord of Wigmore, knowing that
such crime as his could never be forgiven, and that so long as the
king remained even nominally in power, his own head could never be
safe upon his shoulders, used all his influence to secure an imme-
diate deposition. What should come after deposition, had been also
fully determined no doubt; but this for the time he kept to him-
self. In the presence of the armed bands which he had brought
with him to the parliament and with the clamor of the London
mob rising without, the courage of the few friends of the fallen
king, who may have found their way to Westminster, melted, and
no voice was raised in his defense. On the other hand the high-
est dignitaries of the church so far forgot themselves as to spread
the mantle of their authority over the shameful plot. Reynolds,
the archbishop of Canterbury, declared that the voice of God spoke
in the clamor of the people. Bishop Orleton declared that the life
of the queen would not be safe if the king were released. Bishop
Stratford of Winchester presented the series of articles which
were to serve as a basis for formal abdication, declaring : first that
the king was incompetent and throughout his reign had put
himself in the power of evil counsellors, and had proved him-
self unable to distinguish "good from evil," and when the great
men of the realm had called upon him to remedy the existing evil,
he had obstinately rejected their counsel ; second, he had spent his
time in labors unseemly for a king and had neglected the business
of the kingdom ; third, by his mismanagement he had lost Scotland,
Ireland, and G&sconj; fourth, \lq had injured the church, and
destroyed many great and noble men of the land ; fifth, he had
violated his coronation oath ; sixth, he was a menace to the pros-
perity of the country in that he was without hope of amendment.
It was assumed that these charges were proved "by common
notoriety," yet the queen's advisers shrank from an act so revolu-
348 THE BAEONS AND THE FAVORITES [edwaed II.
tionary as deposition ; they preferred to secure from the broken-
spirited king a formal abdication. The matter was not difQcult.
The unhappy monarch, shorn of his friends and aban-
dimUoifde^' doned by the nation, had nothing to do but yield. It
cidedupon. gjigygij jjjjjj muoh, he said, that he had deserved so lit-
tle of his people, and he begged pardon of all who were present ;
but since it could not be otherwise, he thanked them for electing
his eldest son.
On the 20th of January the enforced abdication was completed;
the parliament renounced the homage and fealties of its mem-
bers, and the steward of the household publicly
EdvMrdn"^ broke his staff as a token that Edward IL had ceased
to reign. Of the subsequent life of Edward, but little
ever reached the ears of the public. Grim stories of insult and
actual bodily suffering at the hands of brutal keepers soon began
to be whispered about, but no hand was raised to help him. A
terror seized upon those who by kinship or gratitude might feel
called upon to interfere. On the 21st of September, eight months
after the abdication, Edward was murdered at Berkeley Castle in
some mysterious way, so cunningly and devilishly devised as to
leave no mark of violence upon his person. "Thus ended a reign
full of tragedy, a life that may be pitied, but affords no ground for
sympathy. Strange infatuation, unbridled vindictiveness, reck;
lessness beyond belief, the breach of all natural affection, of love,
of honor, and loyalty, are here; but there is none who stands
forth as a hero. There are great sins and great faults and awful
vengeance; but nothing to admire, none to be praised." '
The constitutional significance of the reign of Edward II. is of
considerable importance. The right of the nation to a voice in the
selection of the king's ministers was undoubtedly set
sigmcame^^ forth in the successive overthrow of the favorites, Gaves-
of Edward n. ^°^ ^^^ ^^^ Despensers, although it was to be a long time
before the principle would be definitely accepted, or its
full significance understood. Linked with the right of the nation to
a voice in the control of the king's ministers, or rather the justi-
fication of the principle itself, was still another idea, which since
' Stubbs, Early Plantagenets, p. 388.
MEANING OF DEPOSITION OE EDWARD II. 349
the days of John Lackland had been slowly but surely taking
definite shape in the mind of the people, that the crown was not a
piece of private property to be administered or neglected in accord-
ance with the whim or caprice of the incumbent, but that it was a
public trust, and that the accident of birth, instead of granting to
a king immunities such as no subject enjoyed, imposed rather
responsibilities which made him beyond all men the servant of the
nation, and that as a servant he was to be held to a strict and
awful accountability.
The deposition of an unfaithful king was not a new exercise of
the authority of a national council. The old English witan had
not hesitated to depose such a king as Ethelred the Eedeless.
And yet since the Norman Conquest there had been no actual case
of deposition. Had John Lackland lived, he undoubtedly would
have been dethroned and possibly put to death. The question of
a change in the succession had also been raised by the barons in
the case of Henry III. But now, whatever may be thought of the
actors or of the motives which inspired them, an English king
had been formally arraigned by the nation represented in the
parliament, declared incompetent and unworthy to reign, the
oaths of homage and fealty withdrawn, and the crown transferred
to a new king; and the sole justification of this act of the
national council was the failure of the king to fulfill the duties of
his high office.
CHAPTEK III
EDWABD III. AND THE OPENING OF THE HUNDEED YEAES' WAK
EDWARD UL, 1327-1360
THE VALOIS SUCCESSION
Louis IX., d. 1270
Philip III., 1270-1285
Philip IV., the Fair
1285-1314
1
Charles of Valois
Philip VI.
Louis X.
1314-1316
PhiUp V.
1316-1322
Charles IV. Isahella
1322-1328 m.
Edward II.
1 of England
Edward III.
1328-1360
John the Good
1350-1364
Joan
Johi
Charles V.,
the Wise
Charles of Navarre, b. 1332
Edward III. was only fourteen years of age when the successful
treason of his mother brought him to the throne. A regency,
therefore, was necessary. It pleased Isabella and Mor-
dtams'"""'^ timer, however, while retaining the real control to keep
themselves in the background and shoulder all responsi-
bility for the administration upon men like Henry of Lancaster
and the ex-king's brothers who by reason of their royal lineage
commanded the confidence of the people. Such an arrangement
detracted in nothing from the actual influence of the chief plotters
and for a time concealed from the nation the real nature of the
revolution. The position of the "guardians," as the committee of
regency was called, was thus not an enviable one. They were
responsible for a government which they could not direct. They
were compelled to submit to the insolent dictation of a man whom
neither office nor royal lineage entitled to speak. They had
struck down the king's favorite, to exalt the queen's favorite.
But the part of Mortimer in the recent plot had been too
prominent, his present influence was too marked, to permit him to
remain unnoticed in the background, nor did it take the people long
to divine his actual relation to the queen. They had never liked
350
1328-1330] PALL OP MOETIMEK 351
the man and resented his insolent ways. They were particularly
offended by the presence of a body guard of knights which he kept
ever in attendance: an ostentation which was hardly
The people i ■ i
divine the seemly in a man who was not even an earl and who had no
nominal connection with the government. Grim rumors
also began to spread as to the fate of the deposed king; men's blood
stood still at the horrible details, and they were ready to believe
the worst. There was something wrong also in the recent peace
with the Scots, in which the guardians had formally
NorthampUm, and finally recognized the independence of that realm.
arc , 1323. rpj^g peace perhaps was wise, but what had become of
the £30,000 which the Scots agreed to pay into the royal treasury?
Rumor reported that the guilty queen and her paramour had
appropriated this money to their own uses. Was it for this then
that the English must suffer the humiliation of defeat? Was it
not enough that Edward II. had thrown away Scotland? Must
this debauched Frenchwoman now openly trade in the blood of his
subjects? The people called the peace "the shameful peace," and
when the guardians, in order to keep their agreement with the Scots,
proposed to return the Stone of Scone, so great was the uproar among
the Londoners that the king's councillors dared not proceed, and
thus the famous talisman was left permanently in English hands.
Mortimer's insolence in the meantime kept pace with his grow-
ing unpopularity. His one thought seemed to be to add to his
wealth and titles. He was made Earl of March. He
MoluLer, lived in regal state. In 1329 in a moment of anger he
^**''" brought a band of armed retainers to the parliament of
Salisbury, broke into the parliament chamber, and threatened the
niembers with personal violence. At last the reproaches of the
people and the continued insolence of the favorite goaded Lancas-
ter and the king's uncles • into action, but only to be cowed into
> THE UNCLES OF EDWAED IIL
Edward I.
m. 1 Eleanor of Castile m. 2 Margaret of France
1 n
Edward IL m. Isabella of France | |
I Thomas, Edmund,
Edward III Earl of Norfolk Earl of Kent
352 THE HUNDEED TBAES' M'AE [edwabd m.
silence again, the moment the cunning villain, who was fast ter-
rorizing the whole kingdom, raised his head. Mortimer, however,
on his part was not to be satisfied with silence, and with diabolical
art set a snare for the high-minded but simple-hearted Edmund of
Kent, who was led by Mortimer's secret agents to believe that the
late king was still alive, and was thus tricked into committing him-
self to a* plan of rescue. The unfortunate earl was at once arrested
upon a charge of treason, condemned by an obsequious parliament
then sitting at Winchester, and hurried to execution. A terror
seized the nobility; no man could feel sure of his position, or
know what devilish trap might be spread for his feet. In
desperation the nobles turned to the boy king. Though a lad in
years, he felt deeply the humiliation of his position and had grown
restless under the tyrannical tutelage which his mother and
Mortimer had imposed upon him. Isabella scented mischief and
carried Mortimer off with her to Nottingham Castle; but the
young king with a band of determined men followed them, and,
secretly gaining access to the castle through an underground pas-
sage, since known as "Mortimer's Hole," seized the favorite,
and, with the cries and protests of the queen ringing in
their ears, bore him down the stairs and out into the night
and off to London, where he was straightway condemned by
the lords and hanged at the Elms. Isabella was sent to Castle
Eising where she was kept a prisoner until her death twenty-eight
years later.
The actual reign of Edward III. now began. He had "a hand-
some person, pleasant and affable manners, a fluent tongue and an
energy that contrasted most happily with the listless
Eowardiii. indolence of his unhappy father." He was, however,
no statesman like Edward I. and soon developed a
thriftless recklessness in pursuing the ends of mere personal ambi-
tion. Like Kichard I. he gloried in the glamour of costly military
pageants. He thought little of the expense and suffering which
he imposed upon friend or foe, if only he might acquit himself with
what he called honor. Yet, during the early part of his reign, he
was loved and honored by his people, who did not then understand
the heartless selfishness of his real nature.
1330-1347] EESTOEATION OF OEDEE 353
The first acts of Edward were directed to the suppression of the
disorder which had sprung up under the weak government of his
father. Armed bands of outlaws infested the highways,
^^*^"'*°" seized travelers for ransom, and overawed courts of
justice. The great nobles, as Mortimer at Salisbury in
1329, did not hesitate to employ such bands to defy the laws or
work out their criminal plots. Even the boys on the street were
infused with the prevailing spirit of disorder ; a law of the times
forbids them to amuse themselves by "knocking off the hats of
passers-by in the neighborhood of the palace of Westminster."
The Statute of Winchester of Edward I. had made each locality
responsible for all crime within its precincts ; the leading men of
each county were now in addition to assemble the people by hue
and cry, and pursue the peace-breaker "from vill to vill" and
"from hundred to hundred." The king was also to make regular
tours through the counties to see that this law was observed. The
courts of "trailbaston," which had been instituted under special
commissions by Edward I. for the purpose of dealing with gangs of
outlaws too powerful for the ordinary courts to handle, were also
revived and did good service during the first twenty years of Edward
III.'s reign. In 1347 these special courts were superseded by the
appointment of permanent local ofiQcers known as "keepers of the
peace," who soon began to be called "justices of the peace,"
becoming a recognized part of the police system of the counties.
While the young Edward was thus putting his hand to the
restoration of order within his kingdom, fresh troubles arose with
Scotland which taxed seriously the wisdom of the new
BdwardBai- administration. It had been one of the terms of the
liols attempt
i^cmscof- peace of 1328 that the estates of English nobles in
Scotland, which Bruce had confiscated, should be
restored. This promise had not been fulfilled, and the English
barons who were interested, now that the great Bruce was no more
and the kingdom left to his infant son, believed that the moment
had come for enforcing their rights, and proposed to place upon
the throne of Scotland, Edward Balliol, son of the quondam King
John. They first appealed to Edward, but he could not openly
violate the recent treaty and ostentatiously closed the border roads
354 THE HUNDEED TEAES' WAR [:
Edward III.
against them. They were left, however, to fit out their expedition
at Kavenspur and finally sail away for the coast of Fife with a small
army of 3,300 men. Their success was beyond their expectations.
They met the regent of Scotland at Dupplin Moor,
iS^^lugiist August 12, 1332, and easily defeated him. Perth, the
12.1832. capital, was then taken, and on September 24 Edward
Balliol was crowned at Scone.' An army of Scots hastily gathered
to retake Perth but disbanded again without accomplishing any-
thing, leaving the handful of English adventurers virtually in pos-
session of the great part of the kingdom. Yet five weeks after
the coronation, Balliol 's mushroom throne had crumbled before the
revival of the old Scottish national party, and he was himself a
fugitive on English soil.
The weakness of the regency, however, had been discovered,
and the recovery of what Edward II. had lost seemed now
an easy task. Edward III. was unequal to such
jercncerif temptation, especially when Balliol waited to renew
Edward III. ,.„,, t^ ■ ■,
his father's homage. Edward, therefore, recognized
Balliol as rightful king of Scotland and sent him back with an
English army to support his claim. Edward himself joined the
invaders before Berwick, and when the Scots attempted to relieve
the town, met them at Halidon Hill, where mainly
H«?*" through the efficiency of the English archery, he
administered such a crushing defeat, that for the
moment it seemed that Bannockburn had been undone and all
that the Scots had gained by a generation of sacrifice had been
lost. Balliol again assumed the royal state, and formally recog-
nized the English overlordship. He also ceded to Edward, Tweed-
dale and part of Lothian.
The second reign of Edward Balliol was hardly longer or
more satisfactory than the first. The humiliation of Scotland
was more than her proud people could endure, fired as
sfono/ IS" they were by the traditions of the glorious past. The
*"■ French king Philip VI. also was quick to see the
advantage of a vigorous Scottish alliance incase of quarrel with
^ Scone, the ancient capital, was two miles from Perth. Perth re-
mained the capital until 1436.
1332-1339] CAUSES OF HtJNDEED YEARS' WAR 355
England, and did not propose to allot\r Edward III. to entrench
himself permanently in Scotland. He sent his ships to the coast,
and while avoiding open war, managed to keep alive a party loyal
to King David. In 1339 Balliol was once more driven from the
country, and two years later David Bruce, who had been hurried off
to France in 1333, ventured to return. Edward could not again
interfere, for England and France were already drifting into the
shadows of the "Hundred Years' War," and he needed all his
strength to defend his own coasts against a threatened French
invasion. Berwick, however, remained in the possession of the
English.'
The great event of Edward's reign was now approaching, the
opening of the long duel with France. Like most great national
conflicts this struggle struck its roots far into the past.
Causes of the Ever since a vassal of the French crown had become
Years' War. king of England, it had been the accepted policy of the
French court to weaken the hold of the English king
upon his French vassals and drive him from the continent if pos-
sible. Hence the complications which had sprung from the ill-
advised attempt of Edward I. to subjugate Scotland, had been
hailed with satisfaction by his watchful neighbor across the Chan-
nel, and a new clause added to the old traditional policy of the
French court; namely, the maintenance of a close alliance with
Scotland against England and the support of the independence of
the Scottish crown at all hazards. It was not that the French
king loved the Scots ; but he saw here a chance to fetter his rival
by preparing for him a powerful diversion at home, whenever
England and France should come to blows. As we have seen it was
this alliance with France which roused John Balliol to assert himself
' The English possession was not yet permanent. Between 1332 and
1461 the Scots regained the town several times, although each time they
failed to hold it. But in 1461, Henry VI. formally ceded it to them in
gratitude for the kind treatment which they had given him after Tow-
ton, and the Scots held the place for twenty-one years. In 1481 it passed
permanently into English hands. The English, ■ however, still regarded
the town as a part of a foreign kingdom, conceding to it its own civil
and military establishment, and leaving it in fact a separate but depend-
ent state until the act of Union in 1807.
356 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [edward III.
in 1395, and gave Wallace his opportunity in 1297. It was a French
war also that had assisted Brnce in 1306, and it was the continued
friendship of France that had enabled the old Scottish party to expel
the younger Balliol at last and bring back David Bruce in triumph
to his father's throne. The earlier wars for the maintenance of
the claims of English kings south of the Channel, had never taken
any very serious hold upon the English nation. For the most
part the people, and, after the loss of Normandy, even the feudal
nobility, took no deep interest in these wars, but begrudged rather
both the time and the money which they were ever demanding.
But the Scottish wars had struck nearer home; national sentiment
had been awakened. Hence Englishmen could not overlook the
nnneighborly acts of the French, and it was not long before they
began to hate the French as bitterly as they hated the Scots. Other
causes also helped to fan the popular hatred and develop the war
spirit. England and France had already begun their commercial
rivalry, and were elbowing each other on the seas and in the marts
of the Low Countries. The merchant service of civilized nations,
moreover, was still exposed to the temptation of piracy ; the plun-
dering of merchantmen by their rivals of other nations even in
times of peace was hardly regarded as a crime. The battle in the
harbor of St. Mahe in 1293 had been the direct outgrowth of such
piracies.
In the year 1328 Charles IV., the last male of the elder line of
Capet, died. There were nieces and a sister,' the mother of
Edward III. ; but the French lawyers, in the interests
F'"'^?^!? of the collateral house of Valois, had seen fit to give a
succession. ' &
constitutional interpretation to the old Frankish law
which decreed that "no part. of the Salic land could fall to a
woman." The law of course applied only to the transmission of
private property, and even here had long since become a dead
letter. But it was sufficient for the purpose of the lawyers to serve
as the basis for a quibble in order to justify the transfer of the
crown to Philip, the son of Charles of Valois.
The new king had adopted fully the traditional policy of the
' Charles of Navarre was not born until 1333, see table p. 350.
MAKING READY FOE WAE 357
French court and proceeded to seize every opportunity of harassing
the English. He had kept the borders of Guienne in turmoil and
had continued to encourage the French piracies. He
Philip of had also renewed the former alliance of Philip IV.
With the Scots, sending, them ships, men, and money,
and in 1333 had given the exile David Bruce a cordial welcome.
Ten years of Edward III. 's reign had now passed. In spite of
the renewal of the quarrel with the Scots, at home England had
enjoyed comparative quiet and the nation had been
reaayfor restored to much of the prosperity and confidence which
™"'^' it had enjoyed under Edward I. Dupplin Moor and
Halidon Hill had done much to efface the deep humiliation of
Bannockburn, and the people, flushed with victory, were not
inclined to endure much longer the persistent interference of the
French king in insular affairs, or the ever-increasing annoyance of
French piracies. War in short had already begun. E"ot only was it
no secret that French money was equipping ships in Sicily, Genoa,
Norway, and Holland, but French ships were actually wasting
the English coast. The English also were equipping themselves
for the struggle. Parliament had adopted the quarrel as its own,
and had not only voted large grants of money, but, without a
protest, had allowed the king to violate the promise of Edward I.
concerning the raising of money by tallage. Each seaport town
also was required to furnish a quota of ships for the defense
of the coasts; a measure for which Edward III. had precedent
enough in the past. The Scottish alliance of Philip, Edward
sought to offset by an alliance with the petty principalities which
fringed the eastern borders of France ; for the most part purchas-
ing their support outright either by subsidy or by the promise of
important commercial advantages. He bought up the emperor
for a subsidy of 3,000 florins, getting 2,000 men to fight for him,
and when the German princes of the Ehine hesitated to fight under
a foreign prince, 'the emperor conferred upon Edward the title of
"Vicar General of the Empire on the Left Bank of the Rhine,"
with authority to lead the princes of the empire for seven years.
Of all these allies, the Flemings were the most important. In
the iudastrial arts they were the foremost people of Europe.
358 THE HUNDKBD YEAES' WAR [edwaud HI.
Their cities teemed with hard-headed burghers who had made for-
tunes by manufacturing English-grown wool, and had little
sympathy with the feudal maxims which controlled the
Theimpor- -r^ i , . , , . , , • n
tance of the i reuch kingdom of which they were nominally a part.
Flemings. ■' ■,
Nine cities had already formed a defensive league under
the inspiration of the famous "Brewer of Ghent," James Van
Arteveldt, and, quick to see the advantage of an alliance with the
country which furnished the wool for their looms, now readily
yielded themselves to the blandishments of Edward.
It is difficult to say, then, just when the war began or who was
more responsible. The open support which France had given to Scot-
land, the attack upon Gascony, and the plunder of Eng-
niiig^ofthe lish shipping, would be regarded by any modern state as
war, 1337. gnfficient ground for war. In 1337 Van Arteveldt came
to blows with the count of Flanders, who was a vassal of the
French king, and Edward sent over an English fleet to support
his ally, and drove the garrison of Count Louis out of Cadsand.
The next year Edward himself went to the continent to begin a
direct attack upon France using Flanders as a base. Here he was
made to feel at once the strength of Philip and the vvorthlessness
of his own allies. The frontier cities were really huge fortresses, or
fortified camps, well garrisoned for long sieges, and the two years
of 1338 and 1339 Edward spent in the vain endeavor to break
through this ring of frontier strongholds. Philip also took the field,
but stubbornly refused to be drawn into a general engagement,
satisfied to see Edward wear out the patience of his troops and
exhaust his resources in useless campaigning against stone walls.
Edward's allies also soon proved that they were more interested in
drawing his subsidies than in defeating his enemies. Even the
Flemings, upon whom Edward had most reason to depend, while
perfectly willing to march under Edward's banners and draw pay
from his treasury, hesitated when it came to fighting against their
sovereign in person. John Lackland had met tke same diflBculty
when he tried to bring his Flemish mercenaries into the field
against Prince Louis.
These and other considerations now led Edward to determine
upon a step which soon gave new color to the entire war, effectually
1337-1340] EDWABD CLAIMS PKENOH CBOWN 359
obscured its original cause, and made peace impossible until one
or both of the two nations had been entirely exhausted. This
^ ^ st^P ^*s to claim for himself the crown of France as his
Edward ad- ^
yamies claim by right of his mother Isabella. When Charles IV.
h> the French ,. - 7
crown as a died in 1338, Isabella and Mortimer, who were then in
war measure. in . i
power, while accepting the principle that a woman might
not inherit the crown of France, had yet advanced the claim of the
young Edward on the ground that a claim might be transmitted
by a daughter to her male offspring. But the claim was not pressed,
and Edward by doing homage to Philip VI. for the French pos-
sessions of the Plantagenets, had virtually recognized Philip as right-
fnl king of France. Largely, therefore, as a war measure, and at
the earnest solicitation of Van Arteveldt, Edward determined to
assert his title as king of Prance. It is difficult to understand
the logic by which Edward could convince himself that his claim
was just. Even if in 1328 he were the nearest male heir of
the elder Capetian line, he had been debarred since by the birth of
Charles of Navarre, the grandson of Louis X. Still, as a war
measure, Edward's claim was good enough, and accordingly
in January 1340,^ as a preliminary to a new campaign, he
formally declared himself king of France by right of his mother,
and quartered the arms of the leopards with those of the fleur-de-
lis, adopting the motto "God and my right." On the 8th of
February he carried his effrontery so far as to issue a charter to
the French as their king.
The war was now on in serious earnest ; the quarrel of Edward
and Philip was irreconcilable. In the early spring Edward
returned to England to levy new taxes upon his people
fm^^^-^toni ^^^ prepare for the new campaign. But Philip had
funefl'isM changed his tactics somewhat and, by gathering a fleet
of upwards of two hundred sail in the harbor of Sliiys,
proposed to prevent the return of Edward to the Low Countries.
1 Edward evidently had had this step in mind since 1337, for he had
used the title as early as October 7 of that year, but inasmuch as the
title is not found in any documents between that date and the 26th of
January, 1340, he seems to have temporarily abandoned the matter. The
better judgment of Europe was against it, and on March 5, 1340, the
pope wrote to dissuade him. See Stubbs, C. H. II, p. 400, note 1.
360 THE HUNDKED TEAES' WAE [edward II.
Edward promptly accepted the challenge and on the 34th of June
attacked Philip upon his own ground. As the English ships, with
the wind and sun at their backs, bore down upon the enemy, the
archers swept the French decks, while Edward and his knights, sword
in hand, stood ready to board the moment the shock of collision
came. The victory was as brilliant as it was complete. The
French fleet was annihilated; thirty thousand men were slain
upon the decks or drowned in the harbor. No such victory had
been won by the English at sea since the exploit of Hubert de
Burgh before Dover in 1217.
The English remained masters of the Channel for thirty years.
Not only was all fear of a French invasion dispelled; but the
entire French coast lay open for Edward to choose his
sims^"^ own time and place of attack. Yet instead of taking
advantage of his victory he sat down before the first big
French town that lay across his path, this time Tournay, and
frittered away precious months in a vain attempt to persuade
Philip to meet him like a knight and settle their quarrel in fair
combat. Philip, who had already proved himself a master in a
contest of matching patience with Edward, simply repeated the
tactics of the former campaign, and with such success that the
autumn passed and still Edward had accomplished nothing; his
supplies were exhausted and the winter was coming on. He was
glad, therefore, to secure a truce of nine months and be allowed
to return home where his presence was by this time sorely needed.
Nearly five years had now passed since the beginning of the
war ; vast sums had been squandered ; thousands of lives had been
sacrificed, and nothing had been gained. If there were
firS%f*'^'' advantages on either side, they lay with Philip rather
'ilSr^'-ist'!""'''' ^^^^ '^'t^ Edward. It is true that Edward had
destroyed the French fleet, but he had signally failed to
break through Philip's frontier. Philip's lieutenants on the other
hand had broken into Gascony and now held a part of that unhappy
country for their king. The Scots, moreover, had by the aid of
French troops recovered their cities and castles and once more
threatened the northern shires of England. Five years of war had
not sweetened the temper of the English people nor softened their
1341-1343] THE BBETOK SUOCESSION 361
hearts towards the French, but they were weary of a war which
had borne such meagre results, and had lost much of their early
enthusiasm. Parliament was growing restless; its supplies were
doled out with a niggardly hand and the members were begin-
ning to show alarming signs of a disposition to inquire into the way
in which the king's ministers were spending his money. The
emperor's support also was weakening and the pope was exerting
all his powerful influence to bring about a permanent peace.
Hence at the opening of 1343 peace did not seem to be far off,
when a new cause of quarrel arose in a dispute over the succession
to the Duchy of Brittany.
In 1341 John III. of Brittany had died childless.' His brother
Guy had died before him but had left a daughter Jeanne, the wife
of Charles of Blois, nephew of the French king. But
Iwcmto^ *^^^6 was also a half-brother of the late duke, another
r^^waiof' jojjn^ ^jjQ ^3Qj.g ^^^ ^jj-jg ^j ^^ Montfort from his
mother. Philip claimed the duchy for his niece in
accordance with the well established law of Brittany. De Mont-
fort claimed the succession as the sole male heir of his father
Arthur. Here was an application of the Salic law which was not
so pleasing to Philip. Edward, who minded little the incon-
sistency of his position when he saw an opportunity of striking
Philip in a new quarter, took up the claim of de Montfort.
Thus the war shifted to Brittany. Edward's candidate, how-
ever, made little progress and soon found his way into one
of Philip's prisons. In the autumn of 1343 Edward himself came
over, but after many trials and much suffering on the part
The truce of ^^ ^^^ troops, he was glad to accept a truce again
JamS^*' ^^ *^® ^^^^ ^^J oiit of ^ bad business. The trace was
1343. ^Q jg^g^ until Michaelmas, was to include all the con-
tending parties, and might be made permanent, if the English
> THE BRETON STTCCESSION
Arthur Duke of Brittany
John III. Guy John de Montfort
Duke of BrittaBy, I
died I'm Jeanne = Charles Count of
Blois, nephew of Philip VI.
363 THE HUNDEED YEARS' WAK [edwaud III.
parliament should consent to its terms ; for Edward had thought
it politic to defer the final decision for parliament.
Parliament met early in 1343 and agreed to lay the matter of
quarrel before the pope for arbitration, at the same time declaring
for the continuance of the war, if peace could not be
[mffcctuai jjad upon iust terms. It is difficult to believe that
peace ^ «
i^emitiatiom, Edward was doing else than playing for time. What-
ever he may have thought of his claims upon the
French crown, he had fully made up his mind to accept nothing
short of the absolute sovereignty of Guienne. Philip on the other
hand was just 'as determined that Edward should never rule French
territory save as his vassal. The negotiations, therefore, dragged
on their weary length and ended at last where they began. It
was no doubt what Edward expected; possibly what he most
desired. He had gained eighteen months of valuable time and was
ready to strike again.
Philip in the meantime had not been idle. Trouble still
smouldered in Flanders. The small towns had turned against the
cities, roused by their monopolies, and in the rioting
The war which ensued Edward's old friend Van Arteveldt had
renewed.
been slain. Philip had, also, contrived to keep alive a
powerful French party in Aquitaine, where he was steadily under-
mining Edward's influence. Edward sent hither in the summer
of 1345 a considerable army under the command of Henry, Earl of
Derby, the son of Henry of Lancaster, a commander of no mean
parts, who by a series of brilliant successes fully justified the
confidence of the king. The main expedition which was designed
for Normandy followed in the spring. It was led by Edward in
person and was composed of Irish, Welsh, and English, "a great
army of souldiours well appointed," of whom ten thousand were
bowmen.
Edward landed on the northwest coast of Normandy and without
any particular plan other than to punish the coast towns for their
piracies, began ravaging the country, pillaging the
campainn cities, and burning the shipping, but moving in a gen-
eral easterly direction with Calais possibly as his goal,
where he expected to find the Flemings in force and with them
1346] CAMPAIGN OF CBEUY 363
take the city. All went well until Edward reached Eouen, for
Philip had drawn away his soldiers to protect his southern borders
against the vigorous attack of the earl of Lancaster.^ But at Eouen
Edward found that the French had destroyed the bridges over the
Seine and he was compelled to ascend the river toward Paris in
search of another crossing. Edward's position was one of great
peril. Before him lay the high walls of Paris, with its mighty
population, formidable even in that day. Behind him lay an
exasperated people, whose lands he had ruined and where he had
himself destroyed the means of feeding an army. Philip, more-
over, had hastily returned from the south, and now lay on the
farther bank of the Seine at St. Denys, with an army which
outnumbered the English two to one. Edward was in short
caught in- a trap. But Philip, most fortunately for Edward, mis-
took the northward march for an attack upon Paris, an error in
which he was confirmed by a skillful feint of the English. He
waited therefore at St. Denys for Edward to wear himself out upon
the city gates, while his own army continued to augment by daily
arrivals from the south and east. But Edward in the meanwhile
was quietly repairing the bridge at Poissy and on the 16th of
August crossed to the east bank, and after defeating a detachment
of new recruits who were advancing to join Philip, marched away
toward Pontoise. At Airaines Edward halted for three days, while
his scouts patroled the banks of the Somme in a vain search for a
ford ; for the only bridge which the French had spared on the
lower river was at Abbeville, where Philip had had the foresight
to leave a strong garrison. Edward's position was once more
growing critical. Philip had at last broken camp at St. Denys
and was swiftly approaching Airaines with an army which now
outnumbered Edward's fully three to one, and was, moreover,
eager for battle. Edward dared not delay longer and, as a forlorn
hope, hastily broke camp and marched upon Abbeville. So hurried
was his departure, that when the French entered his camp, two
hours later, they found "meat on the spits, pasties in the mens,
and tables ready spread." Yet Edward's good fortune did not
1 Henry of Derby had become Earl of Lancaster by the death of his
father, September 33, 1345.
364 THE HUNDEED TEAES' WAE [edwabd 111.
forsake him. As lie neared Abbeville he learned of a ford at a
place called Blanche Tache, where the waters of the Somme widen
ere they pass into the sea, and where an army might find footing
at low tide. Edward easily reached the ford, but only to find him-
self confronted from the opposite bank by a force of twelve thou-
sand men drawn np under Guimar du Fay. With the powerful
army of Philip, however, pressing upon him from the rear, the
English king had no choice but to lead his troops into the river
and fight for the passage. The banks were speedily cleared by the
English archers, and Edward's men-at-arms were soon pursuing
the knights of Guimar across the fields of Ponthien. The crossing
was not won a minute too soon; Edward's rear guard had hardly
shaken the water from their garments, when the light horse of the
French advance appeared on the bank which the English had just
left. But Edward's men were now safe, the tide was already roll-
ing in again over the white shoals; and nothing was left to Philip
but to halt his army at Abbeville.
Edward now declared that he would retreat no further. He
was in Ponthien,^ surrounded by abundance; his way was open
to Calais; his army although small was formidable,
iviihcirawsto nor could Philip attack him before the morrow at the
(Jvccu
earliest. He would give his men, therefore, what
remained of the day and the night for rest, and prepare to give a
good account of himself when Philip should appear. Accord-
ingly he first sent out numerous small parties to secure forage, and
then withdrew the main body to the neighborhood of the little
village of Crecy, finally taking up a strong position on a hill slope
to the east of the town and facing Abbeville.
In the meanwhile Philip also was attempting to give his unwieldy
host an opportunity to rest at Abbeville, but with poor success.
The accommodations of the little town were altogether
Abbev-aL inadequate to the needs of so many men and the great
part slept in the open fields. Nevertheless Philip tar-
ried from Thursday until Saturday, without gaining other advan-
' The reason which Froissart assigns for this decision of Edward was
that Ponthieu had belonged to Edward's mother. Compare p. 345 note
with Longman, Life and Times of Edward III. , I, p. 254, note 1.
1346]
CEECT FIELD
3G5
tage than the accession of fresh troops to swell the size of his
already unmanageable army. On Saturday, the 26th of August,
long before sun-up the vast host was astir and soon streaming away
towards Crecy; the men marching without order, a confused
multitude of horse and foot, possessing but one prime military
quality, an eager desire to come up with the foe.
Six leagues away Edward and his men were quietly waiting on
their hillside. All told they numbered about four thousand horse
T-he English ^^^ ^^^ thousand archers, besides an irregular body of
bMOe"^ Irish and Welsh footmen. ^ The knights were dis-
mounted and drawn up in three divisions as pikemen.
The first di-
vision was
placed at the
foot of the
slope and
commanded
by Edward,
the king's
eldest son,
the beloved
Black
Prince, sup-
ported by
some of the
ablest cap-
tains in the
English service. To the left was drawn up the second division, led
by the earls of Arundel and Northampton. The third division, com-
manded by the king in person, was marshalled on higher ground in
' The nuniber of the French army was by this time probably not far
from seventy thousand men. The number of the English has long been a
subject of dispute. Estimates have varied from 8,000, determined on the
basis of the disposition of the several divisions as given by Froissart, and
33,000 as given by the Italian Villani. The treasury accounts, recently
discovered in the Herald's College, however, have now furnished the data
for a satisfactory estimate. See Wrottesley, Creoy and Calais, from the
Public Records. Reviewed by J. E. Morris in Eng. Hist. Review, 1899, p. 766.
366 THE HUNDRED TEAES' WAR [edwaedIII.
the rear as a sort of reserve corps.' Before each division the
archers were thrown out in open order; the men in the successive
ranks arranged like the pieces on a checker-board, so that each
man should have an open space before him for the full play of his
terrible bow. It is also stated, but upon questionable authority,
that between the divisions were placed very small bombards "which
with fire and a noise like God's thunder, threw little balls of iron
to frighten the horses." ^ The Irish and Welsh, armed with long,
ugly looking knives, hovered on the flanks and completed the array.
About noon Edward's preparations were fully completed and
he took up a position back of his third division near a windmill
from which he could survey the field. Below him his
Avumt se,' men stood iu their places, or sat on the ground with
their iron caps lying on the grass beside them; their
coolness and quiet order in marked contrast with the confused
chaos of martial valor that was rolling down upon them from
Abbeville. When the afternoon was well on Philip's men began to
appear and soon all the lanes and avenues leading to the English
position were choked with the increasing press of men and horses.
Philip had tried to get his troops into some order on the march, but
had only increased the confusion, and when he arrived on the field
he was fully determined to postpone the attack until the next day.
But the sight of the English, sitting there on the hillside and look-
ing down upon him with insolent indifference, was too much for his
temper; and in an outburst of anger, he bade his marshals send
forward the Genoese cross-bowmen and begin the battle. Of these
cross-bowmen Philip had brought along some six thousand to
engage the English archers. But the poor fellows were "quite
fatigued, having marched on foot that day six leagues, complertely
armed, and carrying their cross-bows," and, to add to their
discomfort, moreover, while they were getting ready for action,
there came up a terrific thunder storm, accompanied by a drench-
ing rain. When the storm had passed the Genoese were ready
and advanced with a great shout. But the cross-bow was no
' See Colby, Selections, p. 98, for Froissart's account of the Rattle.
^Villaniis the sole authority for the eraployment of these toy can-
non by the English. Longman, I, p. 250.
1346] THE BATTLE OF CRECY 367
match for the English long bow. The English archers also
fully understood their work and, rising to their feet, coolly
Tinlimbered their weapons and waited for the Genoese to come well
within range. "Then they stepped forth one pace and let fly their
arrows so hotly and so thick that it seemed snow." The long
lines of cross-bowmen faltered, swayed, then surged backward and
broke. Philip was furious and, turning to the men-at-arms who
were supposed to support the Genoese, cried: "Kill me those
runaway scoundrels." The order was the signal for the beginning
of the main battle. The men-at-arms spurred forward their heavy
horses, riding down the unfortunate Genoese, only in their turn
to meet the murderous flight of cloth-yards. Soon the field was
covered with writhing men and plunging horses. Then came the
moment of the Irish and Welsh footmen, who darting under the
rearing horses, and slashing at the huge bellies with their long
knives, added not a little to the havoc and the wild confusion.
Other bands of French knights came up, and passing around the
first battle and skirting the hedge of archers, managed at last to
get at the English men-at-arms. The press about the first divi-
sion increased and there was danger that it would be borne away by
sheer weight of superior numbers. From the height by the wind-
mill the anxious watchers with the king saw the sea of tossing
crests close around the little band which surrounded the Black
Prince, and cried to Edward to lead them to the rescue. A mes-
senger also came in hot haste asking the king to come to the help
of the captains who were with the prince. But Edward saw that
the moment had not yet come for leading out his reserve. "Let
the boy win his spurs," he coolly replied, "that the honor may be
his." So Edward waited ; moments dragged into hours, still the
battle raged on. Philip had had no control of his army from the
first, and apparently made no effort to hold his knights together or
to hurl them in masses upon the English lines. The broken bands
were left to return again and again to the onset, accomplishing
prodigious feats of valor, but only to foam themselves away against
the bristling wall of lances. Philip's brother fell with his sword
in his hand. John, the blind old king of Bohemia, Philip's ally,
asked to be led into the thick of the fray that he might strike one
368 THE HUNDRED YEAES' WAR [edwabd m.
blow at the English, and there he died. Night at last put an end
to the useless carnage. Belated bands of French continued to
arrive during the night and the next day there was some desultory-
fighting; but the French could not rally and the fighting rapidly
degenerated into a mere slaughter of fugitives by the English.
Philip, wounded in body and broken in spirit, had already fled to
Amiens vinder cover of the night, leaving behind him on the
field twelve princes of France, thirteen hundred knights, and six-
teen thousand lesser folk.^ The English loss was inconsiderable.
Once more France lay at Edward's mercy ; yet, instead of tak-
ing advantage of his victory, he repeated the mistake which he had
made after Sluys, spending the winter months of 1346
Calais, 13^, and 1347 under the walls of Calais, patiently waiting
for the burghers to eat up their store of provisions;
while Philip was left to rally his shattered strength unmolested.
France, however, was weaker now than in 1340, and a wholesome
dread of meeting the English in battle had taken the place of the
former vainglorious enthusiasm of her nobles. Yet, as the autumn
months wore on, and it became evident that the terrible invader
was to come no nearer, the people took fresh heart and began to
turn their thought to the relief of the beleaguered garrison.
Philip roused his old allies, the Scots, in the delusive hope of forcing
Edward to return home to defend his northern counties; but the
northern earls, Henry Keville and Ralph Percy, proved themselves
amply able to hold the borders, meeting the Scots at Neville's cross,
and beating them with great slaughter, taking King David himself.
An attempt of the French to relieve Calais by water met
Surrenderof »i , i • ,i • -r.i -i-
Calais, Au- With no better success. At last m the spring Philip
managed to get another army into the field; but he
could no longer bring his troops to face the English archers, and
after an ignominious retreat was compelled to leave the brave
burghers to throw themselves on Edward's mercy.
The first thought of Edward was of slaughter. The city had
allowed its harbor to be used freely by the Channel pirates and had
long proved a scourge to English commerce. He proposed, there-
' For the several estimates given above see E. Maunde Thompson's
Edition of Le Baker's Chronicle, pp. 259-362.
1347] EFFECTS OF WAR ON ENGLISH LIFE 369
fore, to read its citizens a lesson which should not be soon forgot-
ten. But better counsels prevailed, and he determined to
make Calais an ontpost of England on French soil. He first
drove out the French who would not take the oath of allegiance,
and filled their places with new colonists from England. He then
established a market for tin, lead, and cloth; repaired the walls and
settled within the city a powerful resident garrison. The town at
once took on a new life, becoming the chief channel of English
trade with the continent. It remained in English hands for two
hundred and ten years, during the most of which it enjoyed an
unexampled prosperity.
When Edward returned to England in 1347 he was at the
height of his glory and the idol of the hour. The spoils of war,
the plunder of France, poured into the kingdom. ' 'There
Edwardy was no woman," it was said, "who had not got gar-
ments, furs, feather beds, and utensils from the spoils of
Calais and other foreign cities." The country forgot the earlier
drain upon its resources. A new taste for articles of luxury and
extravagance was awakened, and swept away even the
Bcrte#ect sober -visaged clergy. It expressed itself in marvelous
upm English gowus of great length, trimmed with furs, and stiff with
embroideries; in hanging sleeves, so long that they could
be tied behind the back ; in shoes with wonderfully pointed toes
that had to be fastened to the knees with silver chains. It was
the heyday of the furrier and the clothier. A single gown would
cost the price of a duke's ransom. The king led in this extrav-
agant foppery. He decorated a select band of his knights with a
"blue garter," thus originating the famous order. He held
tournaments without number, — as many as nineteen within a six-
month, some of them lasting more than a fortnight. Hither
flocked the gay and frivolous court, to lead in the carnival and set
the people wild in their mad chase after French and Italian fash-
ions. The fondness of the people for these pageants became so
extravagant that it was forbidden to hold them without the royal
license ; a permission, however, which it was never hard to secure.
The chase also, hunting or hawking, lost nothing of its charm for
the elegant idlers who surrounded the court. Vast tracts of land
370 THE HUNDRED TEARS' "WAR [edward in.
were kept waste, and troops of gaily attired men and women swept
by in wild rout in pursuit of the quarry, trampling down tlje crops
of the peasantry and destroying the food supply of the hapless
poor.
The taste for extravagance was also revealed in the architec-
ture of the period. The old pointed arch, which had supplanted
the simple and massive architecture of the Normans,
afchit^tvre ^^^^'^J yielded to elaborate decoration, ^the "decorated
style. " The castles of the nobility changed from gloomy
strongholds into elegant palaces, which vied with each other in the
tapestries which hung from the walls or the exquisite carvings
which ornamented beds, tables, and chairs. In London the houses
of the tradesmen rose two and three stories high. Glass was also
coming into use, though only the rich and the great could
yet afford it. There were larders, too, butteries, and ward-
robes, filled with endless supplies which were the pride of the
housewife.
In other less direct ways also the war had powerfully stimulated
the development of the I'esources of the country. Edward had
very early in the struggle felt the need of new sources
effects iif the of revenue. The knights were still regarded as the
ilower of the army, but recent wars had proved the
value of archers, light cavalry, and footmen of various kinds,
besides ships and other engines of war. The duty of feudal serv-
ice, moreover, did not compel knight or yeoman to follow Edward
over the seas in his foreign war. Such service could be carried on
only by voluntary enlistment and this required money and much
of it. To furnish a foundation, therefore, for the revenues which
the war demanded, Edward sought to encourage both industry and
commerce. His methods, however, were curiously arbitrary and
inconsistent and, as the sequel proved, both false and harmful.
Yet for a time he succeeded in stimulating powerfully the eco-
nomic life of the nation. He ordered that foreign merchants be
allowed to enter the country freely and sell their wares without in-
terruption. He brought over weavers from Flanders and furnished
a market for English wool at home. And when the people began
to show an undue preference for foreign-made goods, he forbade
1333-1348] THE BLACK DEATH S?!
them to wear any cloth not made in English towns. The nobles
and the wealthy, however, he exempted from the law. To keep
control of the wool trade, he forbade the exportation of English
rams, and allowed the raw wool to be sold abroad only at author-
ized ports, or staples. Sometimes he attempted to prevent the
exportation of wool altogether. Sometimes he turned merchant
himself and used the royal authority to control the market. In
1338 he was given the right to purchase twenty thousand sacks,
or half the wool of the kingdom, fixing the rate at £3 a sack.
He "unloaded" at Antwerp for £20 a sack. He prevented
competition by forbidding other merchants to sell until he had
completed the transaction. A more harmful regulation for-
bade the people to sell or the merchants to buy wool or other
standard commodities at other places than regularly established
markets, ^ — the staples, — a measure designed solely to simplify
the levying of duties. The people were also forbidden for a long
period to trade with Scotland. Yet in spite of these arbitrary
rulings of the government, the war created a vigorous demand for
the products of all kinds of industry; wages were good; food was
abundant; prices were steady and trade, secure in the prestige of
England on the seas, flourished.
Suddenly over all this prosperity the "Black Death" cast its
shadow. This mysterious malady, it is thought, appeared first
in China about the year 1333, and following the
Death 1348, ,old trade routes extended steadily westward, reach-
ing the eastern Mediterranean the year after Crecy. In
January 1348 it broke out on the lower Ehone. In August it
appeared in England. Its ravages were appalling; no part of
the kingdom was exempt; no class was spared. The king's
daughter and the archbishop of Canterbury were among the vic-
tims of the first year. The hale and the hearty succumbed as
readily as the weak and the infirm. In some parts of Yorkshire,
one-half the priests perished ; a noble testimony of their fidelity in
the hour of the nation's trial. A nameless dread fell upon all
classes. The nation put off its festal attire and sat in the pres-
ence of its dead ; nor were voices lacking to remind the people that
such woe comes only to those who have sinned.
373 THE HUNDRED TEARS' WAR [l
Edward III.
Then the horror passed by, but the desolation remained. It
was said that of the entire population one in three had perished.
The laboring element naturally suffered most. Its
Bi^k%ath strength was shattered. Whole families had been
swept away ; in many manors rows of tenantless cot-
tages, silent and forsaken, were all that remained to tell of the
population that had disappeared. The life of the nation, however,
had been so quickened by all the experiences of the century, its
pulse was so strong and steady that prostration could not last
long. Yet the symptoms of convalescence were hardly understood
by the king or his advisers. The free life of the nation was fet-
tered by restrictions upon labor and trade, designed no doubt with
the best intent, but destined to bring new and unheard-of dis-
orders in their train.
At the opening of Edward III.'s reign, rural England appar-
ently had not passed very far beyond the condition of the rural
England of the eleventh century ; the manor was still
Buraiiifein the prevailing form of organization of the agricultural
uth century, community. ihe village lire was still simple and
isolated ; although comforts were few, there was
always plenty to eat and vagrancy was virtually unknown. The
lord lived quietly in his manor, surrounded by his family and his
household servants ; fully occupied with the homely duties of his
station. The great outer world broke in occasionally when some
preaching friar or pardoner from Eome came that way, jvith fresh
stores of gossip from court or council, not the least popular of
their wares. There were sabbaths and feast days also, when
young and old made merry and joined in the rude old country
sports. There were the great fairs too, whither the bailiffs
brought their woolpacks, and whither the good wife went with
"her man" to buy the supplies for the year to come. Some-
times, also, when the work of the summer was done and the
granaries were full, lord and villain, freeholder and artisan, clerk
and scrivener might be seen drifting along the pleasant highways,
entertaining each other by guileless tales and seeking the shrine
of some neighboring saint, for the rest of their bodies and the
good of their souls.
EPJJECTS OF THE BLACK DEATH 373
Yet even when Edward began his reign these pleasant
scenes were not without some signs of change. The long
era of domestic peace which had followed the close of the
Barons' "Wars, and had hardly been broken by the
Cnarmes m "^ ■'
Engiwhrurai troubles which had attended the reign of the
second Edward, the steady development of the cities,
the growth of corporate privileges and the extension of economic
activities into new fields, had not been without a direct and whole-
some influence upon the manor and its tenants. This influence
was manifesting itself in two very marked ways. First, the cus-
tom was steadily prevailing of allowing the tenant to exchange his
ordinary labor service into a regular money service, or rental ; the
lord on his part hiring such labor as he needed and paying regular
wages. When the villain secured the privilege of paying a stated
rent for his land in lieu of the ancient labor service, a memoran-
dum of the agreement was indorsed on the manor roll; a copy was
given to the villain, who became a copyJiolderj the land was known
as a copyliold. Second, with the increase of luxury the lord lost
his taste for the old quiet life of the manor and preferred rather
to rent the demesne outright with all that belonged to it in the
way of farm buildings, imjjlements, and stock.
The first efEect of the Hundred Years' "War had been greatly
to accelerate the changes which the long-continued tide of pros-
perity had already set in motion. The people began to
W^'^I'd th regard luxury in dressing and living as something desir-
able. Their needs, also, increased with the development
of taste, and they became dissatisfied, restless, grasping, and hard.
Then came the Black Death, and, by shattering the strength of
the laboring class, struck directly at the basis of all this prosperity.
Landlords could not get "hands" to save their rotting crops. In
their distress they competed with each other in ofEering higher
wages. This in turn reacted upon the villains who still held land
imder the old service tenure and who saw themselves thereby pro-
hibited from taking advantage of the general increase in wages.
They became dissatisfied and refused to work for their lords.
Smaller tenants left their crops standing and went out to work for
their richer neighbors. Land sank in value, and tenants who held
374 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [
Edward III.
by copyhold, could no longer keep up their rental and pay the pre-
vailing ruinous wages for help.
The distress and confusion which now fell most heavily upon
the landlords, attracted the attention of the government, and the
king attempted to remedy the evils which he did not
of govern- understand. "Seeing that a great part of the people
and principally of laborers is dead of_^ the plague, and
that some seeing the necessity of masters and the scarcity of serv-
ants, will not work unless they receive exorbitant wages, ... we
have ordained, . . . that every able-bodied man and woman of our
kingdom, . . . not living by trading or having of his, or her
own, wherewithal to live, . . . shall if so required, serve another
for the same wages as were the custom in the twentieth year of
our reign. " The parliament who represented only the landholding
class and regarded the alleviation of the distress of the landlords of
far more importance than the matter of justice to the laborers,
supported the king by passing the famous Statute of
statute of ^ Labourers,'^ in which an attempt was made to prescribe
a regular scale of wages, corresponding to the rates paid
before the appearance of the plague. The laborer who refused to
work at such wages was to be put in the stocks. If he went into
another shire in search of higher wages, he was to be branded in
the forehead. These laws, harsh and cruel as they were senseless,
only increased the sufferings of the poor and did not help the
landlords. Yet they were reenaeted again and again ; the penalties
each time increasing in severity. Still the suffering and the con-
fusion continued. Then it dawned upon the king and his econo-
mists that the cost of living had also risen, that not only had the
cost of labor advanced but the cost of everything that labor pro-
duced was also advancing, and that a man could not be expected to
accept for a week's work wages which would not keep himself and
his family for a day. So the king turned his attention to the
regulation of prices. In this he was also guided by the popular
prejudices of the hour. He turned upon the "forestallers," men
who purchased in large quantities to sell later at retail. The people
suspected the forestallers and hated them as they suspect and hate
1 See Lee, Source Book, pp. 206-308.
1349-1369] ECONOMIC DISORDERS 375
the promoters of trusts to-day and for the same reason; they
believed that the forestallers aimed to exchide other tradesmen
from buying, so that they might control the markets themselves,
"thirsting after wicked gain." "Forestalling" therefore was for-
bidden by law under pain of the pillory. Merchants also were for-
bidden to bid against each other in the fish market, lest they should
raise the price of fish. The king and his parliament might as
well have legislated against the law of gravitation, provided they
knew what the law of gravitation was. The discontent of the
laboring element only increased; the hostility of landowner and
landless hardened into hatred; and since the landowner made the
laws and wielded the power of the government, the landless man,
as in the Prance of 1789, only waited for a leader and an occasion,
to begin the burning of chateaus and the massacre of the noblesse
and their bailiffs. In the meantime the Black Death came and
went again; first in 1349, again in 1369; each time leaving an
aftermath of economic and social disorder. In vain the reeves or
manor stewards attempted to force men to work for the wages
prescribed by law. Their crops were in the field and must be
gathered. They themselves were the first to weaken and seek labor
at any price. In vain they sought to exact to the uttermost the
services of those who still lived under the older system. In vain
the government took fishmongers and forestallers in hand.
Prices continued to. rise, and wages continued to increase, and the
interference of the government only exasperated the people and
laid up trouble for the future.
The war had now languished for eight years since the fall of
Calais. There had been no formal peace, not even a truce ; yet
, neither nation had the heart to renew the struggle in
Influence of -r^ n n
thepiagvAi ^he nresence of the Black Death or the economic or
upon the ^ ,-■«,, t ., -vt -ii
«"»»"• social distresses which had followed it. Neither party,
however, had ceased to intrigue; a bitter partisan strife, also, smoul-
dered in Brittany where the question of succession was not yet
settled; open war occasionally flickered up on the Gascon border.
In 1350 'the Spanish, probably incited by Prench intrigue,
attempted a descent upon the English coast. Edward went out
with his fleet, and in the brilliant victory of "L'Espagnols sur
376 THE HUNDKED YEAES' WAK [:
Edward III.
mer" off Sluys, in which the feat of John Paul Jones ofE Flam-
borough Head was repeated three several times, once by Edward
himself, again vindicated his title of "King of the Sea."
A week before tliis famous action Philip VI. had died and
John of Normandy had succeeded him. Edward announced his
willingness to renounce his claim to the French crown,
Renewal of jf John would cede him Gascony in full sovereignty.
the wwr, 1355. •' o ./
But John rejected the offer; and both sides prepared
again for the active renewal of the war.
Edward planned to strike France in three different places at
once. One army was to land in Brittany and assist the Montforts,
a second army led by the king was to descend upon
Northern Normandy, where he expected help from the young
Charles of Navarre, son-in-law of the French king, a
dangerous and reckless youth of twenty-three who had quarreled
with John over his daughter's dowry, and was perfectly willing to
annoy his royal father-in-law by assisting Edward, although his
title to the French crown, even according to Edward's way of
reckoning, was better than Edward's. Nothing, however, came
of either of these expeditions, and Edward returned shortly to repel
a new invasion of the Scots.
In the meantime the third expedition, under the young Prince of
Wales, had landed at Bordeaux and begun a systematic plundering
of the valley of the upper Garonne, passing by the cities,
oarrmaignsof ^(j^ cutting a wide swath through the open country of
Prince 1355, Languedoc to the Mediterranean, — a veritable "march
to the sea." The successes of the first year led the
Black Prince to attempt to repeat the experiment the next year
on the Loire. He advanced across Poitou, as in the pre-
vious year ravaging the countryside and leaving a desolate
wilderness behind him. All went well, until four miles from Poi-
tiers, where the prince found himself confronted by a French
army which outnumbered him seven to one. He was far from the
Gascon frontier; his army was not only encumbered with prisoners
and spoil, but all told did not number more than twelve thousand
men. To retire was impossible; to fight was only to invite the
destruction of thousands of brave men to no purpose. He offered,
1356]
POITIERS
377
Battle of POITIERS
Sept. 19, 1356
Eisli^h latpoaition
£ J 16 "ndpoa tion
• ••• Engltah irchera
therefore, to surrender his prisoners and his spoil, and pledge his
word not to fight again for seven years, if he might be allowed to
withdraw. But John, who now at last saw an English army within
his power, refused to grant any terms otlaer than the nnconditional
surrender of the English prince and one hundred of his knights.
At this the prince and his knights determined, rather than to lay
down their arms in an unknightly way, to sell their lives as dearly
as possible.
The English with their usual skill, seeking to take all the
advantage which a strong position might afford them, had drawn
up their array on
some high ground
west of the farm of
Maupertuis, pro-
tected in front by a
dense hedge which
was broken in the
middle by what
was probably an or-
dinary farming
road. Oq the right
the hill, or plateau,
descended to a
marsh drained by
a small stream, be-
yond which the ground again rose abruptly and was covered
thickly with briars and bushes. The combination of
The English hedse, marsh, and rough ground beyond made an
formation. o' ' ,^,., , ,
excellent cover for the English archers who were
thus protected effectually from the enemy's horse. The English
knights, with the exception of a small band reserved for skirmishing,
were dismounted as at Orecy and drawn up in three divisions
which after several maneuvers were finally arranged so that Salis-
bury held the left wing, Warwick the center, and the Black Prince
the right where he could support the archers in the marsh.
King John was a better soldier than his father, but he was no
match for a Plantagenet. Some of his knights, conspicuously a
378 THE HUNDRED YBAKS' WAE [:
Edward III.
Scotchman by the name of Dudley, thought that they had dis-
covered the secret of the English strength, which they ascribed not
Thebattieof ^'^ ^^^ archery, but to the fact that the English men-
Sentemier S't-arms were accustomed to fight on foot, and per-
19, 1366. suaded John to dismount his knights also, reserving
only a small company of three hundred mounted French and a
band of mounted Germans who were to ride down the English
archers. With these men John began the battle in a vain attempt
to break through the hedge. Again he attempted to storm the
English position, sending forward the first division of his army
under the command of his eldest son, Charles Duke of Normandy.
The English arrow-flight riddled the French lines, and the division
melted away; Charles and some eight hundred of his knights
mounted their horses and fled from the field. The second division,
under command of the king's brother, Philip Duke of Orleans, also
lost heart and, apparently without striking a blow, marched from
the field, leaving John with his third and last division to meet the
counter attack of the whole English army led by the Black Prince
in person. John himself fought like a lion, but he was outgen-
eraled by Prince Edward, and his men were outfought by the Eng-
lish. At last, taken both in front and rear, the third division also
gave way. John refused to flee and with his youngest son Philip,
who fought by his side, fell into the hands of the English. The
battle had opened at nine o'clock, and by noon John was a captive
in the tent of the Black Prince.
The case of France was now pitiable enough. The disaster of
Poitiers had come, not at the close of an era of prosperity, but after
fifteen years of as bitter and cruel war as has ever
Pom^s^^'^^ desolated western Europe. Moreover, from the first,
France had been uniformly unsuccessful in the war.
She had suffered while her enemy had waxed fat and insolent.
Then she had hardly ceased mourning for her dead after the
disaster of Crecy, when the Black Death came creeping upon her
from the south, afflicting her even more sorely than it afflicted
England, for she was far less able to endure the scourge. It was
upon this already desolate land that the disaster of Poitiers had
fallen. The best of the nobility had been slain or taken ; the king
1356-1359] FEANCE APTEE POITIEES 379
was a prisoner, and the government demoralized. The Dauphin,'
who was hastily appointed regent, was an untried youth, hi's
magnificent ability as yet unknown, and men feared to trust him.
The riffraff of the two armies that had fought at Poitiers, troops
of disbanded soldiers, infested the highways, and, forming them-
selves into "free companies," fastened upon the countryside, liv-
ing by plunder and rapine. The knights and nobles, also, who had
been captured in the battle, having bargained with their captors for
their ransom, returned to wrest the money from their peasant ten-
ants, already distracted by present sufferings beyond measure. The
wildest disorder prevailed. In 1358 the peasantry, the Jacquerie,
rose against their lords, and to the fierce plundering of a lawless sol-
diery, the attacks of the English, and the destitution and misery
which had followed plague and famine,were now added the yet deeper
horrors of a servile war. The regent summoned the States-Gen-
eral, but only to increase the confusion by precipitating a war of
classes,— the nobles and clergy against the Third Estate. Petrarch,
who visited Prance about this time, wrote of the universal desola-
tion which confronted him: "I could not believe that this was
the same kingdom which I had seen so rich and flourishing.
Nothing presented itself to my eyes but a fearful solitude, an
extreme poverty, land uncultivated, homes in ruins, even the
neighborhood of Paris manifested everywhere marks of destruc-
tion and conflagration. The streets are deserted; the roads over-
grown with weeds; the whole is a vast solitude."
In the meantime John had been treated right royally by his
English captors; his entry into London was a pageant. Negotia-
tions were opened and he agreed to cede to England the
remwed, 1359. ^i^t'^^ western seaboard of France including a district
nearly equal in extent to the original Angevin domin-
ions. But the Estates were in no mood to accept terms so humili-
ating, and promptly rejected them. Edward prepared for a
renewal of the war. He flrst, however, took advantage of the
'In 1349 Philip VI. bought the domain of Humbert, Dauphin of
Vienna, and ceded the district to Charles, his grandson, who took the
name of the Dauphin, afterward the established title of the eldest son of
the King of France.
380 THE HUN^DEED TEABS' WAR [edwaed m.
death of Edward Balliol to put his relations with Scotland upon a
more secure basis by releasing David, who had been in captivity
since the day of N"eville's Cross, and acknowledging again the inde-
pendence of the kingdom. The Scots of course had to pay a round
ransom for the return of their king and a second sum in addition
in lieu of the claim which Edward renounced. In 1359 Edward
was ready to begin operations on the continent, and with an
army of one hundred thousand men started from Calais to march
upon Rheims with the idea of having himself formally crowned
king of France. He could not hope to feed such an army in a
country already thrice a desert, so he carried with him his own
provision train of eight thousand carts. The march was like a
gala day parade. The Dauphin shut himself up in Paris and left
his people to take care of themselves. Edward threw his vast host
around Eheims and waited under its walls until January 1360.
Then he was compelled to raise the siege, for his eight thousand
carts had now been eaten empty. He next turned upon Paris where
he fared worse than at Rheims. The winter was one of great
severity and the English ere long were suffering more than the
people within the city. Then at last, at the earnest entreaty of
Pope Innocent VI. , the Dauphin consented to sue for peace ; but it
was not until Edward had been fairly driven off by famine and had
begun his march toward Brittany.
The messengers of the regent, following the trail of starving
men and horses, overtook Edward at Chartres. He was ready
for peace; he could no longer blind himself to the vanity of
attempting to unite the two crowns, and agreed to renounce all
claims to the throne of France and to the ancient possessions of
his house north of the Loire. The French king was to renounce
on his part all suzerainty over the lands south of the Loire which
had once belonged to Eleanor. Ponthieu with Calais were also to
be ceded in full sovereignty to the English king, and John was to
be ransomed for 3,000,000 crowns. The treaty was signed at
Bretigny, near Chartres, May 8, 1360.
CHAPTER IV
the dbclin'e oe fdward iii. second stage of hundbed
years' war
EDWASD in., 1360- tV7
FAMILY OF EDWARD III.
Edward III. = Philippaot Hainault,
k. 1327-1377 I d. 1369.
Edward
the Black Prince,
Duke of
Aqul tains,
d. 1376
ElCHABD II.
k. 1377-1399
William
d. 1335
Lionel,
Duke of
Clarence,
d. 1368
Philippa
m. Edmund
Mortimer, Earl
of Marcli
Jolin of Gaunt,
m. Blanche of
Lancaster,
d. 1399
Henbt IV.
k. 1399-1413
Edmund,
Duke of York,
d. U02
Tliomas,
Duke of
Glouo6,ster,
d. 1397
Edward,
Duke of
York,
d. 1415
Richard,
Earl of
Camhridge,
d. 1415
Personal
decline of
Edward.
The last years of Edward III.'s reign were full of trouble.
Edward himself was called upon to pay the penalty which nature
so often exacts of prematurely developed mental and
physical powers; he was an old man long before his
time. The brilliant successes of the war, moreover,
had encouraged the baser elements of a nature which was by birth
mean, selfish, and shallow ; nor could the glamour of court pageantry
long hide the spuriousness of his character from the people, or
conceal the fact that their glorious Edward was fading into a con-
temptible little old man, decrepit in body, small of soul, and weak
of will, the prey of politicians and court parasites.
The nation also was now face to face with the inevitable results
of long-contiaued war. The people were hardening under
burdens which they could not bear. They were
fmuJS^of'^' beginning to regard the landlord, once their patron and
thepeopie. pj.(,|.gg|;(,j,^ as their worst enemy. The titled clergy
were the special objects of their hatred; not the humble
priest and the friar, who were poor and suffered as the people
381
382 SECOND STAGE OE HDKDKED YEARS' WAE [edwabd lij.
suffered, but the mighty bishops and abbots, who controlled the
goyernment, made the laws, ground their tenants, and hoarded
their wealth, or worse, sent it off to Eome to buy favors and pre-
ferment, yet lifted not a finger to relieve the distress about them.
The people, moreover, were not without leaders. New and strange
voices were raised; startling doctrines were taught, — the rumbling
of approaching upheaval.
In the year 1360 all this was still below the surface. Edward's
power was at zenith; his revenues were double what they had been
when he ascended the throne thirty-three years before;
power at his fleets rode the Channel; his armies had shattered
the military might of Prance and one-half of her ter-
ritories had been added to his kingdom. The magnificence of
Edward's court had fully kept pace with his military triumphs.
It was the most splendid in Europe. The king of Prance was his
prisoner-guest. The king of Scotland waited upon him in person
to secure some modification of the hard terms of his ransom.
The king of Cyprus came from the distant east to secure the help
of the mightiest captain of Christendom against the Turk.
It was not long, however, before the first shadows began to fall
across this fine pageant, dulling its glamour and filling the minds of
the wise with foreboding. The Treaty of Bretigny
Failure of i r. -i i • i. i
Hie Treaty of proved a Complete failure as a basis for a permanent
peace. The French people, sore burdened and dis-
traught, could not raise the enormous ransom which had been
pledged for the return of their king, and left him to die in exile.
The other terms of the treaty also were never carried out.
Edward had promptly organized the newly-acquired territories as
the Duchy of Aquitaine and had installed the Black Prince as
duke, but the French king had never formally renounced his sover-
eignty, neither had Edward renounced his claim to the French
crown. But the most serious obstacle to the success of the
treaty lay in the temper of the Aquitanians themselves. It was
too late to dismember France. The new subjects of Edward
regarded themselves as a part of Prance, and when they found that
they had been abandoned by their king and turned over to a for-
eign master, a bitter sorrow seized them. "We will obey the Eng-
1360-1367] PEDRO THE CRUEL 383
lish with onr lips," said the good people of Rochelle, "but our
hearts shall never be moved toward them." Geographically
Aquitaine belonged to the great political system which the middle
age was slowly but surely building up about the old Duchy of
Francia, and there was no reason, other than the arbitrary decision
of battle, for annexing this region to England. The fourteenth
century was the era for the growing of nations; the time for the
building of empires was not yet.
The Treaty of Bretigny, therefore, in the nature of things, was
only a truce and a very uncertain truce at that. Not so readily
was England to shake herself loose from the complica-
PedTO the
Crmiin tions which the unfortunate war with France had
entailed; not so easily could she escape the penalty
which a war of conquest always brings in its train. The old
struggle continued to rage in Brittany, and when in 1365 a crush-
ing defeat of the French party definitely settled the succession in
favor of John de Montfort, a new storm center suddenly devel-
oped south of the Pyrenees. Pedro, known by the ugly but
well merited nickname of "the Cruel," a crowned madman, had
been ruling Castile for fifteen years. He had conducted his reign
like a Dahomey chief rather than a Christian prince ; destroying
his leading nobles, assassinating his brothers, and poisoning his
wife, the gentle and unofEending Blanche of Bourbon. By this
last outrage Pedro had bitterly offended Charles V. the new king
of France, whose wife was the sister of Blanche. He had
already aroused the church, for he had not scrupled to
put bishops to death, and, to complete his measure of wicked-
ness, had entered into a formal league with the Mohammedan
ruler of Granada. Pedro had thus raised up two powerful
enemies, who might well think that any means would be justified
in putting down this Spanish Caligula, and when the Castilian
nobles found a leader in Henry of Trastamara, the illegitimate
brother of Pedro, who by the law of the church could not inherit a
crown, the pope had removed the bar by legalizing the birth, and
Charles had furnished an army by authorizing his famous captain
Bertrand du Guesclin to collect the "free companies" and lead
them into Spain. Pedro, who did not dare to trust his subjects to
384 SECOND STAGE OF HTJliTDEED YEAES' WAR [bdwaed in.
fight for him, fled before the storm to seek comfort from the
enemy of France.
In an evil hour the Black Prince received Pedro in his court at
Bordeaux. Wise counsellors, like Sir John Chandos, advised him
to have nothinsf to do vrith the evil-minded king. But
The Blacli
Prince the chivalric nature of the duke was touched by the
interferes. . n « n • tt i • i
misfortunes of a fellow prince. He also saw in the
irregularity connected with the succession of the base-born Henry
of Trastamara a threat to the rights of royalty based upon legiti-
mate succession, and persuaded Edward III. and the parliament
to consent to a proposal to restore Pedro to his throne. The
prince met Henry and his allies at Navarrete, and added another to
the series of brilliant victories which England has associated with
his name; "a victory, however, of which every decent Englishman
should be heartily ashamed." The generous and gentle Henry of
Trastamara fled to Aragjan, and the ferocious Pedro was once more
established in Castile. When in Aquitaine the royal refugee had
agreed to pay the wages of those who should enlist under the
Black Prince and had pledged the treasures of his kingdom. Bat,
now that he had his own again, he showed no disposition to keep
his promise, and left the prince and his army "not only without
money, but absolutely without food, on the burning plains of
Castile." Here the Gascons died of famine and pestilence, while
the miscreant king amused himself with fetes, wholesale slaughter,
and assassination. At last "the gallant defender of royal rights"
was glad to leave Spain, "with the loss of his soldiers
September, ^^^ gf }^[^ money and of his health, befooled and cheated
in one of the worst causes in which English blood and
English treasure have ever been squandered on the continent of
Europe. " ' He had won new glory, but he had incurred a serious
debt, with the odium, also, of fighting in a bad cause.
Henry of Trastamara returned to Castile the next year, caught
his brother in a trap and slew him; and thus the matter ended as
far as the civil war in Spain was concerned. Not so tlie Black
Prince; after straining every resource to meet the obligations
incurred by the war, the best that he could do for the still unpaid
' Burke, History of Spain, I, p. 311.
1368, 1369] THE HEARTH-TAX 386
"companies," was to offer them half pay with license to levy the
rest on the subjects of the French king. But the yonng duke
could not so easily satisfy the claims of his merce-
taxandthe naries; only a few took advantage of the permission to
enter Jbrench territory, and the prince was compelled
to cast about for some new method of raising money. In an
evil hour he was persuaded to propose the levy of a hearth-tax,
the most vexatious and unjust of all methods of taxation, since it
fell upon the humblest Aquitailian peasant who cooked his scanty
meal on his hearth fire, as well as on the rich landlord. The
nobles of Aquitaine refused to consent to the levy, and when the
duke persisted in his demand, they appealed to the king of Prance
to protect them. Charles, always wise and sure-footed, had no
intention of committing himself to a renewal of the war with the
English until he was certain of his ground. So he waited a year
to give the Aquitanians a chance to know their own mind and to
prepare himself and his people for the struggle. Then he resumed
the overlordship of Aquitaine, and summoned the duke to Paris to
answer the complaints of his vassals. The prince replied with
characteristic spirit that he would come, but only with helmet on
head and sixty thousand men at his back. The response of Charles
was a declaration of war, contemptuously sent by a kitchen scullion.
The English soon found that they had a new kind of antagonist
to deal with in the young French king; a man who despised
chivalry and its nonsense, and saw no glamour in war;
The French whose bodilv infirmities forbade him to lead armies, but
adopt new •' ......
methods of ^j^q knew men, and from the quiet seclusion of his castle
wa/r.
with unerring wisdom observed events and selected his
instruments. The French king saw, moreover, that in any cam-
paign upon his own territory the invader must sooner or later
retire baffled and beaten, if only he could be prevented from fight-
ing battles. He also fully realized the uselessness of continuing to
pit feudal levies against the trained soldiers of England, and
steadily substituted the professional soldier for the feudal knight;
placing in command not his dukes and counts, whose claim to
preferment rested merely upon their social alliances, but trained
warriors like Bertrand du Guesclin, men who were conspicuous for
386 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED TEARS' WAR [edwaed III.
tried abilities rather than for high birth, and who thoroughly
understood their business of war. For this modern method of war
vast sums were needed; these soldiers of fortune had to be paid in
hard gold; yet the shrewd business ability of Charles did not fail
him. He understood the art of economizing and getting the
most out of his limited resources, as well as the art of find-
ing men.
In 1370 the French entered Aquitaine; the Black Prince with
shattered health and wasted treasury, with the country largely in
sympathy with the invaders, could only look on, while
The French -j i -j ' j ^
recmiqitest the disaffected towns opened their gates and received
French garrisons. But when the episcopal city of
Limoges surrendered, he roused himself from his sick bed with
the desperate resolve to retake the traitorous city, and although
he was forced to conduct the siege from his litter, ho inspired his
troops with such energy that in spite of the heroic efforts of both
garrison and citizens the city fell. No mercy was shown to the
unfortunate inhabitants; men, women, and children were put to
the sword. A body of knights who had determined to sell their
lives dearly, won the compassion of Edward and were spared for
their knighthood; an act of spurious mercy, fully in keeping with
the debased chivalry of the fourteenth century. The "Mirror of
Chivalry" could spare knighthood, but look on with cold indiffer-
ence while the women and little children, who had never given any
offense, sobbed for mercy at his feet.' The massacre at Limoges
has no rival in civilized warfare. Even the Sepoys at Cawnpore
might plead their wrongs and the teaching of centuries of barbar-
ism. The recapture of Limoges was the last exploit of the Black
Prince. The next year he returned to England a dying man.
The war in the meanwhile continued; the prestige of the Eng-
lish faded; their power in the newly conquered provinces dis-
integrated. Their armies marched hither and thither,
R6V67'S6S of
English but no battles were fought. Cities that consented to
"blackmail" were spared; the rest were plundered and
burned. A bitter hatred, fed upon such scenes as those of
Limoges, took possession of the population and made them ready
to receive even the ruffians who followed du Gueselin as saviors.
L372] DISASTER AT ROCHELLB 387
In 1372 Edward sent oat an expedition under the command of
Earl John of Pembroke, who had been appointed lieutenant of
Bocheiu Aquitaine in consequence of the declining health of the
June 22, 23, Black Prince. Pembroke proposed to invade France
bj way of Rochelle; but he was so long in getting
started, that his plans were well known to the French, and when at
last he reached his destination, he found a powerful Spanish fleet
lying in wait for him in the harbor. The English fought with
great bravery, but their ships were outclassed by the huge Spanish
deckers, and after a two days' fight, their fleet was sunk, and Pem-
broke and his surviving captains were loaded with chains and borne
away to the prisons of Spain. The English had met with no such
reverse since Edward III. began his reign; the supremacy on the
seas, which they had enjoyed since Sluys, was at an end; they
could no longer support their armies in the field, and a French
invasion of England was a possibility of the near future. This
was Henry of Trastamara's requital for the support which England
had given to Pedro the Cruel.
The disaster at Eochelle, the reports of other reverses in
Aquitaine following each other in quick succession, roused Edward
to make one more attempt before the summer should end to relieve
his distressed garrisons, and on the 30th of August he himself
embarked with the Black Prince at Southampton. The fleet con-
sisted of four hundred ships and had on board four thousand men-
at-arms and ten thousand archers. The equipment had cost the
government the incredible sum of £90,000. But after five weeks
of useless struggling against contrary winds, Edward returned to
port and the expedition upon which so much had been expended'
was abandoned. The people, whose consciences rested none too
easily under the discouragement of repeated misfortune, saw in the
contrary winds a direct interposition of Providence. God they
said was now plainly for the king of France.
In the autumn and winter of 1372 the French continued to
reduce the strongholds of Aquitaine, and in the spring du Guesclin
invaded Brittany with a large army. The English made new
exertions to fit out a relief expedition and finally saw it depart in
June under the command of John of Gaunt, the king's fourth
388 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAE [edwahd III.
son. The danger of approaching Aquitaine by sea was now so
great that it was determined to land at Calais and attempt to
Jniinof relieve the southern garrisons by marching across
Fmnce"'i373 ^J'^'Oce. Charles, "that mysterious man, who never
took the field himself, nor allowed his armies to fight
if they conld avoid it," simply strengthened his castles and
watched the enemy, giving strict orders to his generals iinder no
conditions to hazard a battle. The French, also, burned over the
country before the invading army, leaving nothing to feed man
or beast. These measures were heroic but were fully justified by
the results. The march of the English resembled a retreat.
The winter canght them amid the mountains of Auvergne, and
when at last they reached Bordeaux, all that was left of the "mag-
nificent army," which had marched out of Calais six months
before, was a horde of miserable fugitives, disorganized and dis-
heartened. They had marched across Prance, a distance of six
hundred miles; they had endured incredible hardships, and all to
no purpose. The English could send no other reinforcements;
in a few months only Bordeaux and Bayonne remained in their
hands. The next year they were glad to accept a truce, which
continued in force theoretically until Edward's death.
Thus the tables had been completely reversed ; the prestige of
the English had not only been swept away, but they had been left
with hardly a foothold, where a few years before they
The dccliTUi >> ' *i ^
of Erwiish had been the unquestioned masters. Their govern-
ment, moreover, was bankrupt and their splendid king
fast sinking into the gloom of a dishonored old age. These
dhanges were not the result of a mere freak of fortune. Prance
was now better governed than England; her administration better
ordered; her armies better equipped and better disciplined; her
king was a better man. The frugality, almost parsimony of his
court was in marked contrast with the wasteful prodigality of
Edward's court; the quiet atmosphere which pervaded the sol-
itary castles where he met his counsellors and planned his cam-
paigns or directed the administration of his kingdom, with the
bickering and intrigue, the wholesale corruption and general demor-
alization which surrounded Edward.
1359, 1369] FACTION^S OP ENGLISH COURT 389
The good Queen Philippa had died in 1369, and soon after her
death Edward had become blindly infatuated with a yonng woman
of her household named Alice Ferrers. He lavished
'S^t^^"'^ 'ipo'i lier the late queen's Jewels. He paraded her
Edward's through the streets attired as "The Lady of the Sun."
He suffered her to interfere in affairs of state and sit
with the royal judges when she wished to influence their decisions.
He allowed her to lead him into the wildest extravagance, while
she secretly leagued with other favorites, as avaricious and shame-
less as herself, to speculate in the claims of the king's disheartened
creditors. The adult children of the king, who ought to have
steadied his steps to the grave, gave him little support. The
broken health of the Black Prince had compelled him to retire
from public life. Lionel Duke of Clarence, a third son,' had died
the year before Queen Philippa. John of Gaunt, the fourth son,
instead of protecting his father did not scruple to join with Alice
Ferrers and the other parasites of the court in order to wheedle
favors out of the doting old king.
The high offices of the state were in the hands of the clergy ;
but they had lost the sympathy of the people and had roused the
bitter hostility of the baronage, and particularly of the
oifhetoSt. creatures who surrounded the king. To this latter
L^ri^ur! class belonged John of Gaunt. This powerful but
unprincipled man had married Blanche, the daughter
and heiress of Henry of Lancaster, and with the titles and vast
estates he had also succeeded to the traditions of this ancient
house. He was the recognized leader of the old conservative
wing of the baronage, and was in full sympathy with its narrow
class feeling ; he saw nothing to be commended in the rising power
of the commons, and scoffed at the new ideas which had found
lodgment in the constitution; he did all that he could, moreover,
to develop hostility to the clergy, begrudging their wealth, and
claiming for himself and his friends a monopoly of the public
offices of the kingdom. Such a man could never become a great
popular leader. The people missed that high-toned self-respect
which had characterized Earl Simon, and refused to trust the
1 Edward's second son William had died in 1335.
390 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [bdwabd III.
prince even when he tried to win their favor. Yet John of Gaunt
was an exceedingly dangerous man. A powerful reactionary spirit
was everywhere quickening into action, and although no one
credited him with any patriotic motive, he was allowed to put him-
self at the head of the reaction, confuse its real interests, and use
its influence to further the factional strifes of the court.
Opposed to this Lancastrian court party was a second faction
of the barons whose natural leader was Edmund Mortimer, the earl
of March, the great-grandson of that Eoger Mortimer
fcui-hm^of^"^ who had been hanged at the Elms for his misdeeds in
The'eariof the early years of Edward's reign. He had married
"™ ■ Philippa, the daughter of the late earl of Clarence, and
had the interests of his wife and son to maintain against the ambi-
tions of John of Gaunt. He was, therefore, the natural ally of
the clerical party, represented by the chancellor, William of
Wykeham, the bishop of Winchester, who as head of the govern-
ment was the special object of the enmity of John of Gaunt and
the favorites.
Independently of these factions of the court there had also
grown up in the nation at large a vigorous and energetic party
whose purpose was ecclesiastical reform ; who protested
partif'^'^ not against the church but the abuses of the church;
not against the clergy but against their useless wealth,
their extravagance, their worldly ambition and heartless indiffer-
ence to the sufferings of the poor; not against the papacy as an
institution, but against the interference of the pope in English
affairs, and the indirect taxation of the English church through
the "provisions" which the pope was still in the habit of making
for his Italian servants. In 1351 parliament had passed
Prnvisnrs, the Statute of Provisors, which made the recipient of a
Pnimunijre, papal provision liable to imprisonment and forfeiture.
In 1353 the even more important Statute of Prm-
munire had directly attacked the appellate jurisdiction of the
Roman Curia by making it a serious crime for any English-
man to appeal from the decision of an English court to a
foreign court. In 1366, also. Urban V. had very unwisely
put a uew weapon in the hands of the reform party by making a
1366-1373] DISMISSAL OF WTKEHAM 391
formal demand upon the English king for the payment of the
tribute which John had once pledged to Innocent III. During
the great part of Henry III.'s reign this tribute had been paid,
though not regularly. Edward I. had refused, but Edward II.
had resumed the payment. Edward III. had again refused,
and for thirty years the pope had missed his annual gift of 1,000
marks from the English king. The pope was now unwise enough to
send to England a demand for the renewal of the tribute and for the
payment of the arrears in full. The moment was not well chosen.
The English government was burdened with debt; the people
were restless and dissatisfied ; a powerful and growing party among
the nobility were jealous of the monopoly of the high offices of
state by the clergy, and were eagerly waiting for some pretext for
open attack. The king submitted the pope's claim to parliament,
and although parliament made short work of it by denying the
right of King John to enter into any such compact, the discussion
aroused was most unfortunate because it helped to turn the eyes
of the nation from the much-needed reforms within the church to
the abuses which had sprung up in the borderland
characurof where the interests of church and state came into con-
tact, and deflected the activity of the reformers from
the moral to the political field, making such men as Wyclif
the tools of John of Gaunt and the other politicians, who were
bending all their energies to drive the churchmen out of the
state offices and secure them for themselves. In 1371 the opposi-
tion believed themselves strong enough to open a direct attack
upon the ecclesiastical office-holders, and persuaded parliament to
petition the crown: "Whereas the government has been carried on
by men of Holy Church, who are not Justifiable in many cases,
from which great mischief and damages have come in time past
and more may happen in time to come ; therefore, laymen being
able and sufficient, none other shall be made chancellors, barons
of the exchequer, or shall be appointed to other great offices
of state for the future." The petition shows the drift of
popular opinion at the time and prepares us for the dismissal
of William of Wykeham and his fellow ecclesiastics the next
year.
393 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDKED YEAES' WAR [edwakd III.
The new lay of&cials who took the place of the deposed ecclesi-
astics had to experience the common lot of a party long out of
office when suddenly entrusted with a vast and delicate
the new machinery, the safe management of which depends
emmen . ^^^^ experience quite as much as good will. They had
charged the ecclesiastical ministers with sluggishness in the con-
duct of the war. To justify the charge, therefore, they were
bound to take the war in hand and push it vigorously. But how
should they secure the money? They hesitated to tax the great
landholding middle class or to lay hands on the goods of commerce.
As astute politicians they shrank from incurring the odium of the
class which controlled the parliaments. They turned, therefore,
upon the hated churchmen, and proposed to raise the money
needed by a direct tax of 32s. 3d. on every parish of the kingdom,
but taken from lands "which since the eighteenth year of Edward
I. had passed into mortmain." There was this to justify such an
action: lands held in mortmain were exempt from feudal service
and hence bore no share of ordinary taxation. Transfers in mort-
main, also, had been illegal since the passage of the Statute
of Mortmain in the reign of Edward I. Tactically, however, the
measure was a seriojas blunder. By a strange miscalculation, pos-
sibly due to the lack of experience of the new financiers quite as
much as to the fault of existing statistics, the ministers overesti-
mated the number of parishes in England by about five times.
This compelled the government to increase the tax per parish
from 32s. to 116s., in order to produce the sum required by the
budget, and gave only too much ground for the cry of the church
party, that they were the objects of malicious persecution and
were being robbed in the name of the state. A singular misfor-
tune, moreover, attended the efforts of the new councillors to
prosecute the war. The fleet which was raised with the money
taken from the clergy was the one which Pembroke lost at Eochelle
in 1372. Then Edward III. led his ships out of Southampton to
be driven back again by adverse winds, and the next year John of
Gaunt led his ill-fated expedition into the heart of France. At
home in the meantime, while English ships were sunk at sea and
English soldiers were dying like fiies on the fatal march across
1376] THE GOOD PARLIAMENT 393
Prance, the court was openly parading its shame; Alice Ferrers
was allowed to traffic in her influence with the king, and her
favorites traded in the claims of his hapless creditors.
Mismanagement, extravagance, overwhelming failure, the
scandals of the court, and the evident helplessness of the king, at
last brought on the inevitable reaction. In 1376 the
™e.'^*The°"" S^^ck Prince came forth from his seclusion, and, making
men?.^"*^*"^ common cause with William of "Wykeham and the earl
of March, put himself at the head of the opposition.
In the parliament known as the "Good Parliament," which met in
April, Peter de la Mare, steward of the earl of March, who had been
elected speaker, proceeded with great boldness to discuss the misman-
agement of the government, and demanded an account of recent re-
ceipts and expenditures before new supplies should be granted. The
duke of Lancaster bullied and blustered. "What do these base and
ignoble knights attempt? Do they think they be kings or princes
of the land? I deem they know not what power I be of. I will
therefore in the morning appear unto them so glorious, and will
show such power among them, and with such vigor will terrify
them, that neither they nor theirs shall dare henceforth to provoke
me to wrath." But de la Mare was supported by men who were
not to be dazzled by the prince's glory or frightened by his blus-
ter. A new council was organized; William of Wykeham was
restored and the duke of Lancaster was sent into retirement.
The parliament then began a direct attack upon three mem-
bers of the council, Latimer, Lyons, and Neville, and also upon
Alice Perrers. "Their method of attack was almost as im-
portant as the attack itself, for the Commons proceeded by
impeaching the accused before the House of Lords. In this
method of procedure the House of Commons, as a body, appears
as prosecutors. The lords act as judges; hear the evidence
brought by the managers before the Commons, their speeches upon
it, and the answer of the accused, and finally pronounce by a
majority the verdict and sentence." Lyons had the impudence to
attempt to save himself by sending to the Black Prince a bribe
of £1,000, done up in a cask "as if it had been a barrel of
sturgeon." Latimer and Lyons were found guilty of robbing the
394 SECOND STAGE OE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [edward hi.
king under the guise of lending him money; Neville of trading in
the king's debts ; but strange to say, the most serious charge they
could make good against Alice Ferrers was a violation of an ordi-
nance which forbade a woman to practice in a court of law.
Before the sitting of the Good Parliament was concluded the
Black Prince died. His death at once brought forward the ques-
tion of the succession. The parliament greatly feared
BiackPrince, the ambition of John of Gaunt, and, believing him capa-
' ' ' ble of any crime, the Commons entreated the king to
bring them the little "Richard of Bordeaux," the son of the Black
Prince, that he might be formally honored as the heir to the crown.
They also persuaded the king to strengthen his council by the
addition of ten more members representing the popular party.
In July the Good Parliament broke up with the feeling that
all had been done well; but the members had hardly reached their
Return of liomes before John of Gaunt resumed his old place,
"oaunfto Alice Perrers was brought back, the late speaker was
power. arrested and put in prison, and a long list of charges
brought against William of Wykeham. The new members of the
council, also, were denied a seat, and of a list of one hundred and
forty petitions, embodying the grievances for which the Good
Parliament had humbly sought redress, not one received the assent
of the crown. In January 1377 a new parliament was summoned,
packed to suit the ideas of John of Gaunt, and the work of the
Good Parliament was speedily undone. The new parliament also
wrestled with the question of supplies, and signalized itself by vot-
ing a poll tax of 4d. on all persons, male or female, over fourteen
years of age, a kind of tax "hitherto unheard of."
While the party of John of Gaunt were thus carrying things
with a high hand in the council and in the parliament, convocation
was preparing to take up the cudgels in defense
WvcUf^isn °^ *^® church. The unjust attack upon Wykeham,
had roused the churchmen to strike back. They could
not reach John of Gaunt directly, but they could strike him by
attacking his ally and supporter John Wyclif. This remarkable
man had first appeared in Oxford as a student. He had soon made
himself master of the existing scholastic system and won a reputa-
1361-1376] JOHK WTCLIB 395
tion among the distinguished scholars of the university. He was
also a controversialist of rare powers. He was by temperament
witty and ever inclined to give a humorous turn to an argument ;
his mind was acute and well sharpened by long training in the
methods of the scholastic philosophy. His personal character,
also, was beyond reproach, and his genial, sunny nature had
won him many friends. In 1361 he had become master of Balliol.
He had also taken a prominent part in a conflict which had been
stirred up against the influence of the mendicant orders at the uni-
versity. In 1366 he had boldly assailed the pope's claim of feudal
supremacy over England, publicly defending the action of parlia-
ment in refusing to continue the annual tribute. Two years later
he had more formally set forth his views in his "Theory
mx^uTma °^ Dominion, ' ' the famous De Dominio Divino, in which
he asserted that all right of dominion must depend
upon true relations with God, the supreme suzerain of the uni-
verse; that kings are vicars of God as truly as popes, and that the
state is as sacred as the church. Such views had naturally
attracted a man like John of Gaunt, who was not over-shrewd even
for a politician, who, while failing to comprehend the remote logical
application of Wyclif 's theories in establishing the responsibility
of the individual and the liberty of the individvial conscience,
thought only of the support which the views of Wyclif would give
to a party built up ostensibly upon the principle of opposition to
the usurpations of churchmen in the state. "Wyclif on his part
had accepted the alliance, apparently, without question. Did he
know the real character of the man whom he thus supported?
The vicious and unscrupulous baron, who ostentatiously paraded his
principles in order to cloak his motives, and the high-minded and
single-hearted doctor to whom double dealing was an impossibility,
were surely a strange team to be yoked together. Yet, happily or
unhappily, they found themselves in accord upon the one point,
that it was high time that the fine feathers of the church should
be plucked and that the clergy should be reduced to their simple
spiritual functions. John of Gaunt, therefore, had found in Wyclif
a useful ally, and had taken him to Bruges in 1374 in order to
negotiate the truce with France and also to bring the pope to agree
396 SECOND STAGE OF HUNDRED YEAES' WAR [edwabd III.
to some adjustment of the matter of provisors, as well as to argue
in general the relation of England and the papacy.
It was natural, therefore, that Wyclif should share in the
opprobrium which had fallen upon John of Gaunt's government,
and that the clerical party should single him out for
™eJj^*«'o/ attack as a counter to the attack upon Wykeham. He
was accordingly summoned to appear before a commit-
tee of bishops at St. Paul's in London. John of Gaunt assumed
the duty of protecting him and seeing fair play. The people, who
were deeply interested in the trial because of its political bearing,
also came in great numbers and packed the hall. Wyclif was the
last to enter, and when the judges left him standing, Henry
Percy, the friend of Lancaster, who had come with him to the
trial, ordered a seat to be given to the prisoner. The judges
refused and a bitter altercation followed in which the people finally
took part; the whole affair ended in a riot. The duke of Lan-
caster fled to Kensington where he was protected by the widow of
the Black Prince, who was very popular with the Londoners.
Although the duke had come out of the affair without much dig-
nity, he had perhaps accomplished his purpose. The trial had
been broken up, and Wycliff had been saved, at least from a
formal condemnation by the ministers of the church.
The attempted trial of Wyclif was held in February. On June
31 Edward III. breathed his last, and with his death the schemes
of John of Gaunt for the time came to an end. So
^^^ail'P^' ^'id^'i i^ its fifty-first year the long reign of Edward the
irmm-iant'^' ^^^^^^- ^^s features of greatest importance, if not of
^hlfre'km^ greatest interest to the ordinary reader, are not his
dramatic campaigning and his brilliant victories; but
first, the increasing authority of parliament ; second, the beginnings
of social and religious revolution ; and third, a genuine revival of
national feeling, which found expression in a new English liter-
ature and gave new importance and dignity to the English lan-
guage.
First, the reign of Edward III. is marked by a steady increase
in the authority of parliament as a factor in the government. The
Statute of York, 1332, had definitely established the right of
1333-1377] INCREASING AUTHOEITT OF PARLIAMENT 397
the Commons to a sliare in the deliberations of parliament.
During the eai-ly part of Edward III.'s reign the knights of
Increasing *'^® ^^^^'^ ^^S^n regularly to sit with the representatives'
SS.*"^ °* ^^^ towns' and thus greatly enhanced the dignity
and importance of the inferior house, enabling it to
claim a voice in the government of the nation and to defend the
liberties of the people in a way which was not possible as long as
it was composed of simple deputies whose sole function was to
consent to taxation or to advise upon matters of trade. ^
The advance in the dignity and usefulness of the Commons was
only a phase of a general increase in the activity and authority of
parliament as a whole, largely a result of the Hundred
^Suyand Years' War. Frequent sessions were necessary; dur-
partSn? ^^^ 1°°& periods the parliaments were virtually annual.'
The well-known shiftiness of the king, his frequent
attempts to secure money contrary to the spirit of the laws as con-
firmed by Edward I., required the utmost watchfulness and devel-
oped a clearness of vision and boldness, as well, worthy of the days
of Pym and Hampden. As a result of this faithful persistence in
holding the king to the paths prescribed by the laws, three very
important constitutional principles, all bearing directly upon the
authority of parliament, and all more or less clearly expressed in
formal law, passed into definite practice: 1. No legislation could be
binding upon the nation without the concurrence of both houses.
2. The king might not "raise money by taxes, loans, or otherwise,
without the consent of parliament; any such attempt on the
king's part was henceforth illegal, and it was within the right of
the subject to resist the king's officers who sought thus to take his
property. John Hampden could not go farther. 3. The king's
ministers were directly responsible to parliament and might be
impeached.*
' This change must have taken place before 1347. See Tas well-Lang-
mead, p. 330.
^Taswell-Langmead, pp. 330, 331.
^ There are 48 recorded sessions during the 50 years of Edward III. 's
reign.
* For summary of the steps by which these principles passed into prac-
tice, see Taswell-Langmead, pp. 336-334.
398 SECOKD STAGE OP HUNDKEi) TEABS' WAE [bdwaed HI.
Second, the reign of Edward III. witnessed the beginnings of
great social and religious movements which were to result on the
one hand in the abolition of villainage in England and
religious on the other in the complete severance of England from
Edwa/rdiii.'s the great European system represented by the papacy.
Edward and his ministers had little to do with the first
of these movements, save to accelerate it by their foolish Statute
of Labourers. New conditions made villainage no longer a paying
institution and the landlord was forced to accept other relations to
the laboring class. With the second of these movements Edward
had much to do. The contiguity of the papal court to France,
the undoubted French inflnence at Avignon, involved the popes
even against their will in the hostility which a generation of war
had bred in the breasts of Englishmen against the French nation,
teaching them to look upon the papacy as a foreign institution.
The continued demands of the papacy, its interference in the
ecclesiastical affairs of England, also, opened the eyes of English-
men to the real significance of the appellate jurisdiction of the
pope's court and the claim of the pope to appoint to English liv-
ings. The Statute of Provisors and the Statute of Praemunire
are the first paragraphs of the English Declaration of Independ-
ence. It was impossible, furthermore, for such a movement to stop
simply with an attack upon the political authority of the pope.
The abuses which had crept into the church were too widespread
and ilagrant, the sufferings of the people were too acute. Men
were not lacking who dared to proceed from institutions to
doctrines, and question the foundations of the entire ecclesiastical
system. This religious revival, however, associated with the name
of Wyclif, really belongs to the next generation and must not be
confused with the estrangement.of the English government and the
papacy, which began with Edward III.
Third, the reign of Edward III. is marked by a pronounced
growth of the national spirit. The traits of nationality had begun
to develop even before the Norman Conquest and had continued
in a steady and sturdy growth. Yet some elements were still
lacking. The Englishman had a language of his own and the
beginnings of a literature, but he had not learned either to respect
1363-1393] LAKGLAKD AND PIBES PLOWMAN 399
the one or to love the other. The Latin had never yielded its place
as the language of the church and the university. The pliant and
nimble French had displaced the more uncouth English in the
court and in the schools. William the Conqueror had tried to
learn English but with poor success. Other kings had not made
the effort at all. Even Edward III. spoke English with difficulty.
Kalph Higden, a writer of the times, deplores the custom of com-
pelling English boys, against the practice of all other nations, to
construe their lessons in French ; a practice, which he declares,
had been followed since the Norman Conqnest. The French had
also invaded the law courts and the parliaments. It had taken pos-
session of the shops and was fast becoming the language of trade
and commerce. Since the beginning of the war, however, the
hostility of the English toward the French people had extended to
their language and the use of the foreign tongue had rapidly fallen
off. In 1362 the people had become so unaccustomed to the
French that the law courts were ordered by statute to conduct
their proceedings in English.' In 1363 for the first time the
chancellor opened parliament with a speech in English.
The vigor with which the English were turning to their own
tongue again is also shown in the great literary creations of the
next reign which are associated with the names of
SiSpteees Wyclif, Langland, and Chaucer. Wyclif discarded the
oftheera. ponderous Latin of the university and spoke directly to
the people in the homely speech of the plowboy and the village
smith: "Let clerks enditen in Latin, and let Frenchmen
in their French also enditen their quaint terms, for it is
kindly to their mouths, but let us show our fantaseys in such
words as were learnden of our dames tongue." Innumerable
tracts, but most of all his English Bible, masterpieces all of the
simple chaste English of the people in their best moments, show
how well Wyclif kept to his purpose.
Of William Langland little is known save his poem, "The
Vision of Piers Plowman." The poem is a running satire of the
time, presented in the form of a vision or dream, in which in
a plain "full of folk," the dreamer watches the mad struggle for
1 The records were still kept in Latin.
400 SECOND STAGE OP HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [edwaed III.
place and fidf, so Tinseemly in men oi: high calling. He deplores
the evil practices of the church; he beholds Lady Mead, — re-
ward or bribery, — obtaining bishoprics for fools; he
LangiaHd. draws droll pictures of the hunting priest, lazy, jovial.
Piers hard drinking, who comes to church just in time to
hear the Ita missa est; but finds only severe words
for the professional pardoners and the herd of knaves who traffic in
holy things. Yet he has no thought of doing away with the church,
the hierarchy, or its doctrines, and only prays for its amendment
from the pope down.
The same wholesome sense, a desire for reform rather than
revolution, is revealed in Langland's view of the political society of
his day. His sympathies are with the people, yet there is place
and need for all the great ones in the well-ordered England. The
king is necessary as the head of the state to rule the commons and
"holy kirke and clergy fro cursede men to defende." King and
parliament are the law-makers ; the knights defend the priest and
the laborer; the merchant's wealth must restore the broken bridges
and support the scholars. Even lovely ladies with their "longe
fyngres" have their tasks with the needle. But supporting all,
feeding all, is the humble plowman. Piers, bending to his daily
toil, patient as his oxen. The teaching of the poem is wholesome
and sound. The welfare of the state depends upon the harmony
and mutual support of all classes. The great have their tempta-
tions which they may avoid by marrying Lady Mead to Sir
Knight Conscience. Piers Plowman is not to be despised.
He is the main support of the state. In his humble, unadorned,
but houest life, free from the elements that lead other men astray,
Truth finds a congenial home.
Unlike Langland, Chaucer is the poet of the court. The art
and elegance of the French love poets are his, in marked contrast
with the unadorned alliterations of Langland. His
spirit, moreover, is of the Eenaissance, nor does he hesi-
tate to draw his themes from Petrarch or Boccaccio. His sym-
pathy is with the upper classes. He is neither religious reformer,
nor social reformer. He bears no burdens. He loves life for its
own sake, and sees in the foibles of those about him, themes
CHAUCEK 401
whereon to make merry rather than to mourn. His days were
passed in the midst of business and pleasure. He was courtier,
traveler, office holder, and pensioner; nor was he wanting in that
variety of fortune which so often falls to one who is dependent
upon the smile of the great for daily bread. His pictures of life
and manners, particularly of the clergy, are not therefore always
to be taken in full confidence. Like Wyclif , he was a partisan of
John of Gaunt, and reflects the views which prevailed among the
men of that following. He had, however, none of the reformer's
sincerity of purpose. Nor can we avoid suspecting the honesty
of a man who could thus lament the downfall of Pedro the
Cruel, the passing favorite of the English court :
" O noble, O worthy Pedro, glory of Spain,
Whom fortune held so high in majesty."
His best known book is the "Canterbury Tales," written prob-
ably in the later years of his life and left incomplete. He brings
together at the Tabard Inn in London, a company of
The Canter- mgjj and women from various classes of society, all bound
bury Tales. •' ' .
on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the popular Thomas k
Beeket of Canterbury. Here, then, in the stories and conversa-
tions of the pilgrims, as they lope along in the easy, rocking can-
ter, the favorite Canterbury gallop, is the England of the
fourteenth century in miniature; its dress, its foibles, its heart
songs and its laughter, its meanness and its weakness. Here is
the "very perfect gentle knight," just returned from his battles
and adventures in the wars, accompanied by his squire; the sturdy
yeoman, he who gave such good account of himself at Crecy and
Poitiers, who with professional pride keeps his good bow like an
experienced archer. There is also the hunting monk, who cares
not a groat for the rules of his order ; the mendicant friar, a sturdy
beggar, ""wanton and merry;" the summoner whose fiery face is a
terror to the children ; the pardoner with his wallet "brimful of
pardons come from Eome all hot," who can rake in more money
from a country parish than the parson can get in two months, an
arrant knave who knows more than one trick of wheedling the
coppers out of the purses of simple country folk. Then, too, there
402
SECOND STAGE OF HUKDRED TEARS' WAR [edward III.
is the brighter side of church life; the gentle, dainty prioress is
there with her courtly French lisp, her refined manners and tender
heart; the earnest parson, poor, loving, and self-sacrificing, the
salt of the church to keep it all from rotting. Of the learned
classes, the physician, the lawyer, and the Oxford student are also
there; other characters also, such as the merchant, the miller, the
cook, the reeve, and finally the plowman, suggesting the inspira-
tion of Langland, as the parson suggests Wyclif . These characters
are not allegories or mythical creatures of the past, but the real
men and women of the England of the fourteenth century, who
bore its burdens and felt its sorrows ; the men who fought out the
Hundred Years' War, who caught the glow of the morning and
made merry in the conscious sense of the new life which was
at hand; a life which they could feel, but could not comprehend.
CONTEMPORARIES OF EDWARD III.
KINGS OP FRANCE
Philip IV., a. 1314
Louis X., d. 1316
Philip v., d. 1322
Chas. IV., a. 1328
Philip VI., d. 1350
John, d. 1364
Charles V.
EMPERORS
Henry VII., d. 1313
Louis IV., d. 1347
Charles IV.
KINGS OF CASTILE
Ferdinand IV., d. 1313
Alphonso XI., d. 1360
Pedro, d. 1368
Henry II.
KINGS OF SCOT-
LAND
Kobert I., d. 1329
David II., d. 1370
Robert n.
FAMOUS MEN NOT SOVEREIGNS
Era of Babylonian Captivity,
1309-1376
Began with Clement v., 1305-
1314, and ended with Greg-
ory XL, 1370-1378, no great
popes.
ARCHBISHOPS OF
CANTERBTTBY
The only great name of the
era is that of Thomas
Bradwardin, the theolo-
gian and mathematician,
who died of the plague
forty days after his con-
secration, 1340.
James van Arteveldt, 1385-
1345.
Thomas Bradwardin, 1290-
1349.
Cola di Bienzi, 1313-1364
Stephen Marcel, d. 1358
Francesco Petrarcli, 1304-
1374
Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313-
1376
Edward Prince of Wales.
"the Black Prince,"
1330-1376
Bertrand du Guesclin,
1320P-1380
John Wyclif, 1334-1384
William Langland, 1330?-
1400?
Geoflrey Chaucer, 1340?-1400
Jean Froissart, 1337-1410
CHAPTEE V
THE PEASANT REVOLT. THE ATTACK OF THE KING
UPON THE CONSTITUTION
mOHABD II. lSn-lS99
Upon the death of Edward, John of Gaunt made no attempt to
continue his control of the government. Possibly he thought that
as the eldest living uncle of the child king his influence
reifinofBich- was assured; for although the barons manifested no dis-
ardll. Bee- .,. ' . ^ , . .,, , , ,
mciiiation position to appoint him eithei* regent or protector, and
of vaTties o a '
at once vested Richard with the full rights of a sover-
eign, yet as long as the period of the minority continued, the
powerful duke must naturally remain the first among the little
king's political tutors. The enemies of John of Gaunt on their
part were apparently as reluctant as he to push the quarrel farther,
and in the presence of the distractions which confronted the state
were ready to abandon partisan strife, in the interests of the new
reign. The accession of Richard, therefore, was the signal for a
general reconciliation of all parties. Peter de la Mare was released
from prison. The charges against William of Wykeham were
dropped, and the prelate and the duke were formally reconciled.
"When the new parliament met in October, although the mood
of the members on the whole was likewise conciliatory, they had
no thought of dropping the work which the Good Par-
OmdPalua- 'i^Di^^* ^ad begun. They were still suspicious of John
un^d°^ of Gaunt and would allow neither him nor his brothers
a place in the royal council ; yet they did not object to
his friend, Richard Fitz-Alan Earl of Arundel. The Conunons
again made de la Mare their speaker as a matter of course.
They also demanded that annual parliaments be required by law ;
that statutes once sanctioned by the crown be enrolled without
403
404 THE PEASANT REVOLT [bichaed II.
change or amendment by the council ; that the evil counsellors of
Edward be removed; that the lords name the chancellor, treasurer,
and barons of the exchequer, and that during the king's minority
these ministers be not removed without the advice of the lords.
They also voted a subsidy for the war, but demanded that the
control of the funds be put in the hands of two treasurers who
should be responsible to parliament. The men chosen were Wil-
liam Walworth and John Philipot, prominent citizens of London.
It was high time that the advisers of the young king awoke to
the serious nature of the troubles which threatened the state.
The sky was portentous with coming storm. The war
of troubles with France had not only long since ceased to be profit-
Which COTV- iT.n'T 1 j.i.1
fronted new able but had inflicted upon the people a constantly
increasing burden of taxation. The great peasant class,
who numbered one-half the population of England, upon whom, as
Langland had tried to show, the whole superstructure of state and
society rested, no longer bore their load with the old-time ox-like
patience. It is not likely that their terrible strength was more
than dimly understood either by themselves or their masters, or
that an actual rising was apprehended. Yet there was certainly
reason for disquiet in the minds of those who were directing the
government. The endless taxes were collected with ever-increas-
ing difficulty and the returns were as unsatisfactory.^ The pro-
prietary classes, instead of rallying to the support of the state, with
customary shortsightedness were inclined to unload their own
burdens upon the people. The tide of war, also, which had so long
desolated France was now at last approaching England. The very
week after Edward's death the French burned Eye; and in the
summer following they continued their depredations, striking
various exposed points on the southern coast. The Scots also
were restless and active, and the condition of the borders added
not a little to the anxiety of the ministry.
The French war was directly responsible for the beginning of
' The failure of the several levies of this period to realize the amounts
expected, was probably due to the success of a disloyal people in cheating
the collectors quite as much as to the blunders of the ministers in making
their estimates.
0}
1379, 1380] THE POLL TAX 405
the troubles of Eichard's reign, as it was for most of the trouble
of this era. John of Gaunt had persuaded the council to entrusb
him with the money, which had been recently granted by parlia-
Beginning ^ent, in Order that he might fit out a fleet and clear
"luePrM^' ^^^ Channel. The attempt was a failure as might be
'^'i38o. expected of anything committed to the care of John of
Gaunt. He then crossed to Brittany and attacked St.
Malo, but, baffled by the obstinate courage of the burghers, was again
forced to return without results. The ministry had now spent their
money, and they hesitated to ask parliament for another subsidy.
In their strait they turned to the new plan of taxing people by the
head ; a scheme which commended itself to the proprietary classes
because it promised to relieve them somewhat by compelling the
landless poor and the clergy to bear a part of the burden of taxa-
tion. The measure had been resorted to by John of Gaunt's parlia-
ment of 1377, but the levy of a groat a head had failed to return
a sum adequate to the needs of the state. It was determined,
therefore, to increase the net sum, at the same time relieving the
measure of the charge of injustice by grading the tax according
to rank. A duke was to pay £6 13s. 4d. ; an earl £4; and so
down to the villain who paid his groat as before. The clergy also
paid by a similar scale. The amount, however, owing to a very
simple blunder of the financiers, fell short of the estimate by about
one-half, and in 1380 parliament levied a third poll tax, but with
no such just graduation as in the previous year. The humblest
villain had now to pay a shilling for each member of his family of
fifteen years of age and upward, while the richest man in the king-
dom paid only a pound.
The tax was a fatal blunder. Inflammatory elements were scat-
tered everywhere; the strife of landlord and villain was increasing
in bitterness daily ; the free laborer and the wandering
inflammatory artisan, under the Statute of Labourers, were treated as
elements. y^grants ; disbanded soldiers from the wars, broken in
fortune and swelling with pride and mischief, wandered every-
where; begging friars, the newsmongers and gossips of the times,
brought the news of the day to the humblest and added their own
fiery editorials; incendiary priests, like John Ball of Kent,
406 THE PEASAN"T REVOLT [kiohard 11.
preached the rights of man to eager multitudes, and even dared to
question the whole existing social order.
When, therefore, the third poll tax was announced, it needed
only the irritation caused by the attempt of the officials to enforce
The rising Collection to cause the seething waters to overflow.
pea^anti '^^^ ^^®* Outbreak occurred near Tilbury in Essex
^**^- about the last week in May. A few days later trouble
began in Kent. By June 10, the counties of the lower Thames
were up from end to end; manors were burned, manor rolls
destroyed, and bailiffs, lawyers, and particularly obnoxious land-
lords, hunted down and murdered in cold blood. Everywhere the
same scenes of violence were enacted, though with ever changing
variety in the grim details. Then, when the special objects which
had roused the wrath of the people in their home districts had been
destroyed, the mobs, maddened by their very successes and still
unsated, from all the "home counties" began marching upon
London. The insurrection in the meanwhile continued to spread.
By the 19th of June it had reached Somerset and on the 23d it
had reached Yorkshire. There were echoes even in distant Devon
and Cornwall and in remote Chester, though the extent of the out-
breaks here is not known.
The government was helpless to protect its subjects or even to
defend itself. At the first break of the storm an expedition lay at
Plymouth ready for the French wars, but, not realizing
o/&^"^^ the importance of the crisis, the leaders had pat out to
yovemmen . ^^^^ rjij^^ ^^^j other force of any importance in the
kingdom was with Percy on the Scottish border. The nobles and
their retainers were scattered over the kingdom and owing to the
rapid spread of the insurrection it was impossible for them to
gather in any force sufficient to disperse or overawe the gathering
mobs. Without any trained police force at command, without
any standing army, the government could only look on and await
developments.
On the 12th of June an army of Kentish insurgents lay
encamped on Black Heath, within five miles of the Southwark end
of London Bridge. All day long their ranks were swelled by other
arrivals from the towns and villages of Surrey and even from the
1381] LONDOJJf IN THE HANDS OF THE MOB 407
distant wolds of Sussex. William Walworth, now mayor of London,
had no sympathy with the risings and had fully determined to keep
the insurgents out of the city, but he was oyerborne
ter'Lm.^m!^ by the advico of some of his aldermen who were
supported by the city populace, and on the 13th the
great drawbridge which cut ofE London from the Southwark side
was lowered and the peasants from the southern counties were
allowed to stream across the bridge into the city. The same even-
lag another horde which had been advancing from Essex encamped
at Mile End, while the northern heights were occupied by still
other insurgents who had come down from Hertford and St.
Albans. Here also the city authorities, more than half in sym-
pathy with the rebels, failed to keep the gates closed, and in a short
time these new streams were allowed to swell the tide of riot and
lawlessness that was already roaring through the streets of the city.
A wild afternoon and night followed. John of Gaunt, fortu-
nately for himself, had been called north by threat of new trouble
with Scotland, but his beautiful palace, the Savoy, was at
^rmim l^^nd and upon this the people first vented their wrath.
Jumei?' '^^^ Temple, the Inns of Court, and other buildings
associated in the popular mind with the hateful laws
which they hoped to overturn, were fired and all legal records
destroyed that could be found. The jails, also, were opened and
their populations turned loose to join in inaugurating the reign
of terror. From arson and plunder the rioters soon passed to
murder ; seizing their victims in church and sanctuary, and drag-
ging them forth to be dispatched in the presence of the applauding
multitude.
The council with the king had very early sought refuge behind
the strong walls of the Tower, and their asylum soon became the
focus towards which all the many streams of rioters
Miil'snii!'^ began to converge as if by common consent, clamoring
June 14. ^^j, ^j^g (Jeath of the ministers who were hiding within.
Through a sleepless night the king and his ministers "sat with
awful eye," while ever and again "the most horrible of all sounds,
the roar of a mob howling for blood, penetrated the grim walls."
The council in despair offered to parley with the insurgents, and
408 THE PEASANT REVOLT [riohabd IL
it was finally agreed that if they would retire to Mile End the
king would meet them and hear their grievances. The king was
as good as his word, and on the morning of the 14th rode out to
the rendezvous accompanied by a group of nobles, heard the
demand of the peasants for freedom and graciously granted that
they should never again "be named or held for serfs." A general
pardon was also promised, and a small army of clerks were soon at
work drawing up the necessary charters.
Within the city affairs were not going as well. Apparently
only a part of the rebels had kept the tryst with the king, and
those who staid behind, in some unaccountable way,'
of the refu- prevailed upon the guards to admit them to the Tower.
sees in the .«.i„-, on non iii i
Tower, June A frightful massacre followed of those who had not
dared to accompany the king to Mile End. Leg, the
man who had farmed the poll tax, paid for his unlucky speculation
with his life. A friar who was unfortunately recognized as a
friend of John of Gaunt was torn limb from limb. But the
noblest victims were Archbishop Sudbury, the chancellor, and Sir
Eobert Hales, the treasurer, who were dragged out to Tower Hill
and there beheaded to the delight of the jeering crowds.
By this time many of the rebels had departed for their homes,
hastening along the country roads with their precious but valueless
charters in their hands. But some of the leaders
Smithftem, apparently were not satisfied and remained behind with
many of their people in hope of securing some more
definite guarantee of protection than that offered by the simple
charters. Among these was the famous Walter Tyler'' who now
' It is not credible that the king, as a part of his agreement with
those whom he met at Mile End, himself gave the order to deliver the
refugees in the Tower to the mob. See Trevelyan, England in the Age of
Wyclif, pp. 235, 336.
2 Familiarly called Wat Tyler. Little is really known of this man
whose name it has been the fashion to give to the rising. Most of the
stories associated with his name are unknown to contemporary writers,
especially the, tradition whioli begins the revolt with the murder of the
royal collector, who had insulted Tyler's daughter. "The story . . .
must go the way of William Tell's shot." Trevelyan, Age of Wyclif,
p. 210.
1381] WALTER TTLEB 409
lor a moment becomes a conspicuous figure in the revolt. The
mobs in the meanwhile through the night of the 14th continued
their burning and slaughtering, guided no longer by any motive save
the lust for plunder and wild delight in rioting. The council saw
that another effort must be made to rid the city of the lawless
multitude and arranged for a second parley by which the king was
to meet the rebels at Smithfield on Saturday the 15th. Here, how-
ever, the business did not move as smoothly as at Mile End, pos-
sibly because the demands of Tyler, who acted as spokesman for
his fellows, were more to the point and could not so easily be put
off. Hot words passed. Mayor Walworth drew his sword and cut
down the peasant leader. A moment of uncertainty followed.
Cries for vengeance arose and arrows were set to bow-strings, when
Richard boldly spurred his horse into the thick of the press, shout-
ing, "What need you my masters? Would you shoot your king?
I will be your captain." The multitude closed around the hand-
some boy whom they had not yet learned to distrust, and in tri-
umph bore him off with them to Olerkenwell Fields. The mayor
and his party in the meanwhile dashed back to the city to gather
the loyal citizens in order to rescue the king, for whose safety they
had just cause of alarm. What happened during these few hours
when the little king sat among his humble subjects, what promises
were made, will never be known. Certain it is that the people
regarded him with touching reverence, nor is it likely that he
received other than the kindest and most respectful treatment.
They, on their part, apparently were well satisfied with their closer
acquaintance with royalty, and, when at last the armed bands
approached from the city, they made no attempt at resistance but
gave up their hostage and were peaceably dismissed to their homes.
With the collapse of the revolt in London, the excitement in
other places also rapidly subsided. Then followed the reaction, as
strong and bitter as the rising. Terrible was the
vengeance which the masters took upon their former
serfs for all the terrors which the few days of rioting and blood-
shed had inspired. The boy king's counsellors easily persuaded
him that he had no right to grant the charters of emancipation,
and he forthwith revoked them. Those who still kept the field
41.0 THE PEASANT EEYOLT [richaed II,
were ruthlessly ridden down by the king's men-at-arms, or the
retainers who followed their lords. Then the agents of the law
went to work, and those who had in any way borne a conspicuous
part in the recent rising, were hunted out by the hundreds and
punished with that pitiless brutality which has always marked the
dealings of the master with the serf, when the serf has dared to
turn. Parliament also lent its aid to the work of repression and
passed still more severe and unjust laws against the villain.
Such measures, however, were futile. Villainage was no longer
a paying institution. The enlightened conscience of the nation,
moreover, had begun to rest uneasy under a sense of
viiidinaae '"^rong done, of unjust burdens imposed. The land-
lords had for once gazed into the abyss; they had
learned the latent strength of the landless ; they did not care to
provoke a second rising. Old forms of servitude were gradually
allowed to lapse. The severer laws became a dead letter. Eman-
cipation went on again in the natural order; service was constantly
commuted for money payments. The smaller freeholders steadily
increased; wages kept rising, and with the rising wages the com-
forts of the laboring class also increased. At the outbreak of the
Eeformation villainage continued to exist in England, if at all,
only in the more remote corners which had not yet felt the touch
of the new life of the nation.
Thus began and ended the famous Peasant Revolt which for a
moment threatened to sweep away not only king, lords, and com-
mons, but the entire social system of the fourteenth
rfa&w"^""' century. In general the poll tax seems to have been
the immediate occasion of the rising ; but back of the
poll tax was the Statute of Labourers, and back of that was a long
story of unrequited wrongs, differing in detail in each locality, but
common to all in the hatred which it breathed for the great proprie-
tors, whether priest or noble. Beyond the special grievances which
the people cherished against their landlords, there seems also to have
taken shape in the popular mind some sort of confused belief that
the counsellors of the king and particularly John of Gaunt were
responsible for the mismanagement of the government, the Statute
of Labourers, the poll tax, and all the troubles which had ensued.
1381] NATURE OF THE KISING 411
Their first cry for vengeance, therefore, soon passed to a very
definite programme of political and social reform. The poll tax
was to be suppressed; the Statute of Labourers repealed; the boy
king, to whom the people were touehingly loyal throughout, must
be rescued from the hands of his evil counsellors and better
government secured ; and finally villainage was to be abolished by
the granting of complete economic and personal freedom.
The rising took hold of the lower classes, but was by no means
confined to the serfs. In Kent there were no villains and yet the
Kentish rising was the most serious and destructive of
tt^^rZtna ^'^J- '^^^ populace of the cities were deeply interested
and at the first many of the city ofiicials, as in London,
were in more or less sympathy with the insurgents. In East Anglia,
for reasons unknown, even gentlemen were to be found in their
ranks. The animus of the rising, moreover, was not directed against
the nobility or even against the proprietors as a class. In marked
contrast with the horrible atrocities committed by the Jacquerie in
France, the women and children of the nobles were not molested.
Even the men who suffered were mostly those who had won an
unenviable reputation for cruelty in a local way or had come to
represent to the people the system which they hated. The bailiffs,
the stewards, the lawyers, and the ministers of the crown were the
objects of vengeance quite as much as the nobles and the abbots.
The manor houses, barns, and granaries, and particularly the manor
rolls, which were associated in the minds of the people directly
with all that they had suffered, were also marked for destruction.
It was inevitable that the reaction which followed the Peasant
Eevolt should affect seriously the religious reform which is asso-
ciated with the name of "Wyclif. Soon after the death
1 PfOOfCSS of
TVycUf'a of Edward, a papal bull had been received in England,
directing the trial of Wyclif for "holding opinions sub-
versive of charch and state." But John of Gaunt's influence
was still strong enough to protect his old ally, and the proceedings
had been stopped by the direct interference of the government.
Wyclif, however, had thought it best to retire to Lutterworth
where the crown had presented him with a living. Here he had
devoted himself to the work of disseminating his religious views.
413 THE PEASANT REVOLT [riohaed II.
beginning the famous series of tracts in the simple homely
English of the people. It was in connection with this work
also that he began that other greater work, his translation
of the Scriptures, "the first specimen of literary English
prose written since the cessation of the Anglo-Saxon Chron-
icle." Wyclif's views of Christian doctrine, also, advanced rapidly.
He was no longer content to attack simply the abuses of
the church, but began to assail its fundamental doctrines. He
not only accepted the Bible as the sole authority in the church,
but also declared the right of the individual to interpret it for
himself, even against the authority of the fathers or the councils.
He denied, also, the miracle of the mass, seeing in the Lord's sup-
per merely a memorial service, the only merit of which lay in the
spiritual frame engendered by its sacred associations. In this he
even went beyond Luther even anticipating some of the advanced
views of the later reformers.
The promulgation of these views of Wyclif was contem
porary with the insurrection of the peasants, and men in
their excitement failed to distinguish between the mis-
^ntRcUt"^' sionaries of "Wyclif and such fiery agitators as John
"nr'm'nF^ Ball. They accused them of sympathizing with the
teachiim peasants, and made the teachings of "Wyclif respon-
sible for the excesses of the insurrection. Thus the
proprietary classes, who had heretofore favored Wyclif, began to
confound the cry for church reform with the cry for social and
political reform. Even John of Gaunt stigmatized Wyclif's fol-
lowers as "heretics against the sacrament of the altar," and bade
"\Vyclif be silent. The enemies of Wyclif, taking advantage of the
reaction, in a synod held in 1382, known as the "Council of the
Earthquake," succeeded in branding as heretical twenty-four con-
clusions taken from his writings, and drove his adherents out of
Oxford. Further than this they could not go. England had no
law yet for the burning of heretics. They tried, however, to get
Wyclif to Rome, and brought a summons from the pope; but
Wyclif's prudence, his interest in his great work as well as his fail-
ing health, kept him quietly at Lutterworth where he died in 1384.
After his death his doctrines continued to spread, and many of the
1377, 1378] THE GREAT SCHISM 413
nobility embraced his Tiews, the young wife of the king, Anne
of Bohemia, being among the number. When she died her
people carried home Wyclif's books to become the seed of the
Hassite movement of the next generation. In London partic-
ularly, the Lollards, as the followers of Wyclif were now called for
reasons unknown, increased so rapidly that it was said when five
men met on the street corner three of them were sure to be Lol-
lards. Men like Courtenay, who had succeeded to the archie-
piscopal office after the murder of Sudbury, would have undertaken
severe measures for the suppression of the dangerous heresy, but
the Commons would not take the preliminary steps in proposing
the necessary laws, and the sheriffs bluntly refused to assist the
bishops in the execution of existing laws.
The council in the meantime was wrestling with its own prob-
lems. The French, having driven the English out of Aquitaine,
had turned their attention to the overthrow of English
af"helmm^ii influence in the Low Countries. The burghers of
nosbecgiw, Flanders under Philip van Arteveldt, the son of
Edward's old ally, were again at war with their count.
But the English council moved so slowly that they allowed van
Arteveldt to be beaten in three successive engagements; in the last
of which at Eosbecque, he was slain. When the news reached Eng-
land the consternation was great. The vast commercial interests
of England in Flanders were in jeopardy and the loss of Calais was
imminent. All parties were disgusted with the laggard council
and openly denounced its sluggishness and incapacity as the sole
cause of this new misfortune. The members of the council saw
that if they would retain what little prestige they had left, they
must bestir themselves to regain the lost ground and save the
English influence in Elanders if possible. In their extremity they
turned to a strange quarter for help.
In 1376 Gregory XL had removed the papal residence from
Avignon to Eome. Upon his death in March 1378 the college
of cardinals had elected as his successor the Italian
l?i?fe^-^"' Urban VI. The election had been held in the midst
^*^*' of a pandemonium in which a howling mob played
a conspicuous part, w-ho were determined that the new pope should
414 THE PEASANT REVOLT [riohabd II.
be an Italian, if not a Eoman. The choice had been nominally at
least unanimous, but the imprudent zeal, the imperious nature,
and the ungovernable temper of Urban soon turned his cardinals
against him, so that taking advantage of the irregularity of the
election by advancing the plea of intimidation, they retired to
Fondi and elected Robert of Geneva under the title of Clement VII.
The college of cardinals was fnlly represented at Fondi, and,
although the three Italian members' refused to give their assent to
the choice of Clement, Urban was virtually left alone. The
political animosities of Europe were running too high to allow the
various governments to form an impartial judgment of the merits of
the controversy within the church. France was interested because
Clement was not only pronounced in his French sympathies, but
had been chosen virtually by the French cardinals. Soon after
his election, also, Clement retired to Avignon, which thus once
more became a papal residence, thereby committing his court
irrevocably to the French inflnence. England and the Flemings,
therefore, naturally supported Urban, and Scotland and Spain as
naturally supported Clement. The other states of Europe, also
influenced by political reasons of one kind or another, took sides
accordingly. Thus began the "Great Schism" which was to divide
western Christendom for thirty-eight years.
The rival popes soon wearied of the simple spiritual weapons
which became their office, and resorted to the methods of violence
so congenial to the age. Here was the opportunity of
Nomricifx the Jinglish council. At the very time when the news
' reached England of the fatal turn of afPairs in the Low
Countries, Urban had authorized the warlike bishop of Norwich,
Henry de Spencer, to undertake a crusade. against the French sup-
porters of Clement. The English council encouraged the enter-
prise and in a way adopted the crusade, proposing to turn the dis-
tractions of the church to their own advantage in the war with
France. Parliament also gave its sanction and from all sides
recruits flocked to the holy war. De Spencer and his crusaders
' 'Sixteen cardinals had been present at the election of Urban, of
whom eleven were French, one, a Spaniard, and four, Italians. The car-
dinal of St. Peter's died soon after the election.
1383-1385] THE ROYAL FAVORITES 415
crossed to Calais and began their onslaught upon the cities of
Count Louis in Flanders, although the Flemings were Urbanites,
a fact which reveals the real animus of the enterprise. The expedi-
tion, howeyer, accomplished nothing of moment. The captains
were bribed by the enemy and de Spencer was obliged to return
home, greatly increasing the humiliation and confusion of the
council. For the people were quick to ascribe the failure, not
to the popular bishop of Norwich, but to the council and most
to the unlucky John of Gaunt, of whom they were as unwilling
to believe anything good as in the days before the Peasant
Eevolt.
Flanders now fell under the direct control of the French, and
the English merchants were compelled to witness the ruin of their
fine trade with the Flemings. More trouble, also, was
The Scottish . c, ,,-■,■, -, t -, „r^^ t^- ^ -, ■
campaignof brewing on the Scottish border. In 1385 Kichard in
Gaunt and company with John of Gaunt, who in spite of his long
series of failures still thought himself something of a
general, crossed the borders and attempted to punish the Scots.
But it was the old experience over again ; the Scots retired, leav-
ing their fields and their cities to be destroyed. The English
advanced as far as the Forth and even burned Edinburgh, but
finding no army to fight were compelled to retire at last, not
beaten, but baffled, an outcome which, so far as the infiuence of the
council was concerned, amounted to the same thing.
Richard was now in his nineteenth year and beginning to fret
under the imperious ways of John of Gaunt, who, while not per-
sonally a member of the royal council, was nevertheless
Richard's represented by powerful friends, and had never hesi-
tated to exert his influence. The widow of the Black
Prince died the year of Eichard's Scottish expedition and the king
sadly missed her wise counsels. As an offset to the duke of Lan-
caster, he had raised his two uncles Edmund Earl of Cambridge
and Thomas Earl of Buckingham to ducal rank, making one Duke
of York and the other Duke of Gloucester. He also surrounded
himself with friends, the companions of his pleasures, whose
worthlessness only increased the suspicion and contempt which the
people were beginning to feel for the king. Of these his half-
416 THE PEASANT REVOLT [richakdIL
brothers,' the Hollands, Thomas Earl of Kent and John Earl of
Huntingdon, were the kind of men to make trouble sooner or
later ; they were violent and lawless, with little respect for dignity
or sympathy with the new traditions which the constitution had
throvyn aroand the crown. Another close friend of the young king
was Michael de la Pole, the son of a wealthy London merchant,
who had made himself very useful to Edward III. at one of those
intervals, all too frequent, when the treasury was low and the king
needed money. The son seems to have been a man of consider-
able merit and had won his way to distinction very early in the
reign of Eichard. In 1378 he had been made an admiral and
had accompanied John of Gaunt on one of his luckless expeditions.
In 1383 he had been appointed chancellor. Richard took to the
man, and finding in him a useful instrument in carrying out his
plans, made him Earl of Suffolk. The nobles, however,
did not regard the elevation of the burgher's son kindly ;
while the commons also turned against him as a renegade to their
class. But the person who stood highest in the royal affection was
Eobert de Vere, the earl of Oxford, young, gay, and reckless, and
the boon companion of the king in his pleasures. Richard showered
upon him honors and preferment ; he made him Marquis of Dublin,
the first to bear the title of marquis in England, ranking in pre-
cedence all other nobles not of the royal family. Not satisfied with
this Richard finally created him Duke of Ireland; the ducal title
heretofore having been reserved for those of royal blood.
The failure of John of Gaunt's Scottish campaign, and his con-
stant quarreling with the king had destroyed what little respect
John of men still felt for the once powerful noble. Leading
ETwtoTid™"* members of the council regarded his influence as a
1386. menace to the prospects of their favorite, Roger Mor-
timer, and determined to expel the friends of Duke John. John
of Northampton, the mayor of London, head of the duke's party
in the Commons, was imprisoned, and the duke himself was threat-
ened with arrest on a charge of treason. It was evident to all, to
none more than to the duke himself, that his game of politics at home
" The Black Prince had married Joan, daughter of the earl of Kent,
and widow of Sir Thomas Holland.
1386] THE ATTACK UPON THE COUKCIL 417
was up for the present, at least, and he determined to set out on
a madcap errand to secure the crown of Castile. He had married
for his second wife the eldest daughter of Pedro the Cruel and
now proposed in his wife's name to unseat the successful rival
dynasty. He left England, therefore, in 1386 and did not return
again for three years.
If Eichard and his council thought to strengthen their position
by the expulsion of John of Gaunt's friends, they soon found that
they were seriously mistaken. For two new men were
The forming •' . ■'
■of anew now brought into solitary prominence : Thomas Duke
of Gloucester, John of Gaunt's youngest brother, a man
fully as unscrupulous and even more dangerous, who had no ugly
memories back of him; and John of Gaunt's son, Henry of Boling-
broke, the earl of Derby. The withdrawal of John of Gaunt
made possible, also, a union of the old Lancastrians with the old
clerical party. A new party was thus formed, composed of the vari-
ous dissatisfied elements of the upper classes, who now affected to
pose as the defenders of the rights of parliament against the king
and the council.
An opportunity was soon afforded the new party for a direct
attack upon the hated favorites of the king. In the early part of
1386, the people were thrown into a spasm of alarm by
Attackupon . ^ -^ i , ,i i_i • j.
the council, a genuine war scare, due to the gathering or an arma-
ment in the harbor of Sluys for the purpose of a descent
upon England. Although the French soon abandoned the plan,
popular apprehension had been wrought to fever heat, and when
parliament met the leaders were inclined to make the government,
particularly de la Pole, the chancellor, responsible for all the
reverses of the past ten years. The recent promotion of de Vere
was also a source of irritation. The new parliament, therefore,
was in anything but a tractable mood, and soon gave evidence of
its spirit by demanding the dismissal of the chancellor. The
king, whose head had always been befogged more or less by pecul-
iar ideas of prerogative, insolently replied that he would not
dismiss the meanest scullion in his kitchen for such a request,
and bade parliament keep to its own business. But the members
stubbornly refused to consider any other question until the obnox-
418 THE PEASANT REVOLT [
Richard u.
ions de la Pole had been removed, and Eichard, who was not proof
against their determined spirit, yielded. The minister was then
impeached, fined, and imprisoned. The removal of the chancellor
was only the first step in the program of the opposition. In imi-
tation of the Good Parliament, on the plea that the revenues were
squandered and mismanaged generally, the lords proceeded to
appoint a commission of regency to control the administration,
thus practically depriving the king of his authority altogether.
They, further, called up the bogy of Edward II. by sending for the
statute under which he had been deposed, at the same time dis-
patching a friend of Gloucester to remind the king of the fate of
that unhappy monarch.
Eichard yielded for the moment but the old Plantagenet spirit
was now fairly aroused. After parliament had adjourned he
released Suffolk and summoned a meeting of the sheriffs
defleapariia- and juistices of the kingdom to meet him at Notting-
ham. He urged the sheriffs to allow no knight to be sent
to parliament "save one whom the king and the council chose."
He asked a committee of Judges, also, to pass upon the legality of
the acts of the last parliament, and without a dissenting voice,
apparently, they declared that the removal of the chancellor and
the appointment of the commission were unlawful, and that those
who had forced the king to yield against his will were liable to the
charge of treason.
The leaders of the opposition now in their turn became
alarmed, and answered the charge of the Judges by appearing at the
head of an army of 40,000 men. Eichard thought of
Tne"Lords . , , , ,, , ,. „ •, . . . ,
AppnUnnt." resistance, but the prompt action of his enemies entirely
Bridge, Dec. disconcerted him. London opened its gates, and five
lords, Gloucester, Derby, Arundel, Thomas Beauchamp
Earl of "Warwick, and Thomas Mowbray Earl of Nottingham,
entered the king's presence and "appealed of treason" five of his
late councillors : de Vere, de la Pole, Eobert Tresilian the chief
Justice, Sir Nicholas Bramber, and George Neville Archbishop of
York. In the meanwhile the enemies of Gloucester had fled from
the city in various disguises. De Yerewent into Chester and suc-
ceeded in raising an army of 5,000 men. In December he
1387-1390] THE WONDERFUL PARLIAMENT 419
approached London, but was met at Eadcot Bridge on the Thames
by Derby and Gloucester, and his little army dispersed. He him-
self escaped by swimming the riTcr and finally got away to Ireland.
The parliament, known sometimes as the "Wonderful Parlia-
ment," and sometimes as the "Merciless Parliament," met in
^^ „ February, 1388, and in a session of 132 days devoted
The Wonder- .,..,,.' -^
fuiPariia- itself to riddmg the country of the enemies of Glou-
ment, ima. ° ■'
cester. The four lay councillors of the king were con-
demned to be hanged, but only Tresilian and Bramber suffered,
since de Vere and de la Pole were safe on the continent. Neville,
the ecclesiastical member of the council, could not be condemned
to death, being a churchman, but his temporalities were seized.
Of other supporters of the king, many were banished, and some
including his old tutor Sir Simon Burley were sent to the block.
Then after Eichard had been stripped of all his earlier advisers
even to his private confessor, the parliament broke up and left the
government in the hands of Gloucester and his friends.
For some months Eichard quietly submitted to the new order,
but at a council meeting held in the following May, he suddenly
propounded to the duke of Gloucester the question of
^mmt^the ^^^ *S^" "Your highness," replied the duke, "is in your
government, twenty-second year. " "Then," replied the king, "I
must be old enough to manage my own affairs. I thank
you my lords, for the trouble you have taken in my behalf
hitherto, but I shall not require your services any longer." He
then demanded the Great Seal and the keys of the Exchequer.
Yet Eichard apparently had really learned something from his
earlier misfortunes, for he adopted a policy which was surely
moderate for a man of his character. He refused to recall de
Vere or the exiled judges. He installed William of Wykeham in
his old position as chancellor. York and Derby, also, were retained.
But Gloucester and the other members of the council were sum-
marily dismissed. Eichard was still further strengthened by the
return of John of Gaunt the same year, who, although as unpop-
ular as ever, had been apparently sobered somewhat by his many
failures and now sincerely tried to serve his young sovereign. In
1390 Henry of Derby left England for three years, to assist the
420 THE PEASANT REVOLT [riohard II.
German knights in their wars against the Lithuanians. Other lords
conspicuous in the earlier troubles also found occupation far from
the court.
The new reign was now fairly launched. There had been much
quarreling of politicians for the control of the government ; but
experience had tautrht England to expect this as an inci-
Bicharcl's ^ -^ , „ , , , „ -, ■, ■ -,.t j_i _l _li
personal dent ot the rule of a nonaged king. JNow tnat tne
king had asserted himself, this quarreling might be
expected to stop. The young king was not without elements of
popularity. The people still cherished the memory of the Black
Prince and the "fair Joan," and were ready to ojien their hearts
to the son. He was clever, handsome, and cultivated. He had
proved himself capable of meeting an emergency in the trying
days of the Peasant Kevolt, and by his recent moderation he had
also proved that he could learn from experience. Hence confi-
dence rapidly returned and for eight years Richard fully justified
the hopes of his people; no king could have done better. A new
series of truces gave some respite from the burdens of the war, and
enabled the ministers to reduce taxation. Wages continued good
and prices steady. New safeguards also were added to the Statutes
of Provisors and Praemunire. The Statute of Mortmain was
enlarged to forbid the granting of estates to laymen in trust for
religious houses, — a practice by which the older statute had been
virtually rendered a dead letter.
Richard while quite young had been married to Anne of
Bohemia. He seems to have loved her devotedly and even to have
allowed her considerable influence when once he was his
marrkuje of own master. But in 1394 Anne died, and as Richard
was still childless, Roger Mortimer Earl of March was
formally recognized as heir to the throne. The year of the
queen's death also saw the death of Constance of Castile, the
second wife of John of Gaunt. He at once married Catharine
Swynford, a sister-in-law of Chaucer, who had already born him
several children. These children and their descendants, known as
the Beauforts, will bear their full share in the dynastic struggles
of the next century. In 1396 Richard succeeded in making a
truce of twenty-eight years with France. He then went to Paris
1396] FALL OF THE LORDS APPELLANT 421
and amid great pomp married Isabella, the eight-year-old daughter
of Charles VI.
The marriage was not a happy one for king or people. For
two generations Englishmen had known little of the French court
and its ways ; but now its splendors, great even when
French emanating from so feeble a personality as Charles VI.,
Court.
burst upon this young king, who saw at last a realiza-
tion of his early dreams of kingly power and could not but com-
pare his own slavery to insolent parliaments and obstinate
ministers, with the freedom and magnificence which tradition and
custom assigned to a French monarch. It was a dangerous
dream, for Eichard's temper was none of the steadiest and had
already led him into unseemly outbreaks. He loved not con-
straint, and as England was then constituted, he could not king
it long after his new ideal, before he would run up against obdurady
sufiBcient to try a far more placid soul.
The first effects of these new ideas of kingly dignity were
noticeable in a very marked increase in the magnificence of the
trappings of court life. Kichard, like his grandfather, ,
Commons'' "^ ^^^ *^® P^'^® ™ foppish extravagance, paying, it is said,
as much as £10,000 for a single coat. The sober minded
burghers who were taxing themselves to keep up this show of
kingly magnificence did not take to it kindly, and in 1397 the
Commons presented to the Lords a formal complaint against the
extravagance of the royal household. The Lords were more than
half inclined to report upon the matter favorably, when news of it
reached the king. Before his violent outburst of wrath both
Lords and Commons gave way and humbly apologized, while Sir
Thomas Haxey, the mover of the motion, narrowly escaped death
as a traitor.
Kichard thought he had learned his strength and determined
to follow up his advantage. He was upon good terms with John
of Gaunt; he was sure of the support of his half-
iMrdsApvei- brothers, the Hollands, of Edward, the son of the duke
of York, and of Thomas Mowbray, the earl of Notting-
ham. In July, therefore, he suddenly arrested Gloucester, Arundel,
and Warwick and threw them into prison. In September he called
422 THE PBASAITT EEVOLT [richard It
at Westminster a parliament composed of his partisans. He was
also careful to see that no attempt at armed interference should
be made and stationed a band of 4,000 Cheshire archers in Palace
Yard. The old acts of 1387 and 1388 were raked up against the
three "Lords Appellant." Arundel was tried, convicted of treason,
and executed the same day ; the duke of Lancaster as Lord High
Steward pronouncing the sentence upon his old friend. Gloucester
died in prison at Calais under circumstances which suggest foul
play. Warwick was sentenced to a life imprisonment on the
Isle of Man; Archbishop Thomas Fitz-Alan, brother of Arundel,
was banished. The king's supporters were then rewarded with
grants of lands and titles, and the parliament adjourned to meet
at Shrewsbury in January. The Cheshire archers were again called
out, and Eichard's friends continued their work. The acts of
the Wonderful Parliament were annulled. Older measures were
called up, as the statutes against the Despensers, and wherever they
abridged the king's authority they were repealed. Not content
with this, as though they would put from themselves the tempta-
tion of ever pulling down the fine structure which they were rais-
ing, the parliament granted Eichard the customs on wool and
leather for the rest of his life. Then by a rare act of suicide the
parliament delegated its authority to a committee of eighteen of
the king's partisans, with John of Gaunt as president. The revo-
lution was complete. All that England had won by the struggle
of two centuries had been swept away in a single year. One can
hardly believe that this was the work of a single madman. More-
over, if Eichard were mad, the men who acted with him aud shared
the rewards of his treason to the constitution, certainly were not.
The entire affair appears rather like a diabolical plot of a group of
cunning politicians to overthrow the safeguards of the constitution
for selfish ends. Eichard himself was entirely capable of leading
such a conspiracy. He was bold and daring, and possessed an
utter contempt for established principles, coupled with an
unbounded estimate of the royal prerogative, an inheritance from
his old tutor Simon Burley. If he failed, it was not because the
times were not ripe for such a revolution, but simply because he
overshot the mark ; for in sweeping away all the guarantees of law
1397] TYRANNIES OP RICHARD 423
he compelled the very men who had supported him to undo their
work in self-defense.
Here was Eichard's weakness. He could not inspire confidence
in his followers. He had liberally rewarded the men who snp-
BanisUmmt V^^^^^ ^^^ ^"* ^^'^^ ^^^J ^^^ "o* trust him. Men like
0/ BoMjiff- his cousin, Henry of Derby, now duke of Hereford, or
Thomas of Nottingham, now duke of Norfolk, knew
that the king could not forget the part which they had once taken
in "appealing" the favorites de Vere and Suffolk of treason.
Moreover as they distrusted the king they feared each other. Some
hot words of Norfolk, in which the king's veracity was questioned,
were reported by Hereford, but denied by Norfolk, The per-
manent committee to which parliament had delegated its powers
ordered the two to settle the question by single combat. But
Eichard, who thought it was a good opportunity to get rid of both
men, at the last moment forbade the combat and banished Norfolk
for life and Hereford for ten years. The act was not only one of
great injustice on Eichard's part but a serious mistake as well ; for
Hereford was deeply loved by the people and they now looked upon
him as a martyr. When he left London, the gathered crowds shed
tears, and some of the people in their devotion followed him as far
as the coast.
But, as if this were not enough, Eichard proceeded to build up
a party for the duke of Hereford, should the time come when a
party would be needed. He assembled his bodyguard
'^hard^ "^ ^^ Cheshire archers and rode through the country, com-
pelling the nobles and gentry to take an oath to support
the acts of the last parliament. He compelled his merchants, also,
to make him loans. He placed blank charters before men who
were known to possess fortunes and forced them to fix their seals,
leaving him to write in the charter what he pleased. He levied
blackmail upon the panic stricken remnant of Gloucester's friends
by compelling them to buy their pardons. He even levied upon
the shires as a whole, compelling seventeen counties to redeem
themselves from the charge of assisting the enemies of the crown.
In February 1399, John of Gaunt died, and the king added yet
another grievance to Hereford's growing list, by declaring all
424 THE PEASANT REVOLT [biohaed II.
the vast Lancastrian estates forfeited, and seizing them for his
own use.
The king, of course, was not without some specious plea by
which he sought to justify these acts of despotic power. For more
than two hundred years England had been wrestling with
ir^nd"^ °^ ^^^ Irish problem, and at the end of the' fourteenth cen-
tury could show only a few districts about Dublin, "the
English Pale" so called, as the sole result of her endeavors to
secure a footing in Ireland for English law. Neither English nor
Irish could gain upon the other. Marauding forays, midnight
alarm and slaughter, were events of daily life in this unfortunate
land, and even when the two races showed a tendency to live on
better terms, it was the policy of the government to keep them
asunder by foolish laws. Edward III. had made it a crime
for an Englishman to acquire the Irish language, or to
The statute . ° ^ . , ., ,^ , ,
nf Kilkenny, marry into an Irish family, let the laws of nature
had proved stronger than the statute laws of England,
and the change which had once taken place in Normandy, and had
again taken place in England, was steadily progressing within the
boundaries of English Ireland. The descendants of the men who
had come with Strongbow were merging in the subject race and
becoming almost more Irish than the Irish themselves. In 1386
Richard had sent Robert de Vere to Ireland, commissioned to com-
plete the conquest and bring the Irish troubles to a close. But the
Lords Appellant had defeated this scheme. Then the truce with
France had enabled the king to turn his personal attention to Ire-
land. Little, however, had been accomplished because the English
lords made as much trouble as the Irish princes, and the king could
find no loyal party to make the foundation of an English rule. In
1398, the earl of March, who had been left in charge as lieutenant
of the crown, was killed in battle, and Richard determined again
to go to Ireland in person to avenge the fall of the heir to the
crowU; and try once more to bring order out of this wretched chaos.
It was upon the plea of raising a force sufficient for this war that
Richard had entered into the course of spoliations and confisca-
tions that culminated in robbing Henry of Hereford of his family
estates.
1399] DEPOSITION OF EICHAKD 425
Soon after Whitsuntide Ei chard sailed for Irelaad, leaving the
kingdom to the care of his uncle, Edmund of York, as regent. But
, ^. ^ on July 4, Duke Henry landed at Kavenspur, accom-
Beiiru, July panied by a band of exiles as desperate and determined
as himself. He moved with the caution of a man who
knew well the nature of the dangerous game which he was playing.
He came, he announced, to claim the Lancastrian inheritance and
nothing more. The barons of the north, led by the powerful
Percies, were the first to join him. As he proceeded south the
latent discontent of the kingdom everywhere found voice; the
shires rose; London went mad in its enthusiasm. On the 37th
Edmund of York also abandoned the cause of Richard. On the
29th three of Richard's councillors, Scrope, Bushy, and Green, were
taken at Bristol and put to death.
Richard's kingdom was now lost. He hurried back with the
army which he had taken with him to Ireland, only to have it
dwindle in a single day from 30,000 men to 6,000.
Deposition „■,■■,■,-, t •
of RicUara,- Salisbury had attempted to raise an army for him in
Sept. 30, 1399. ... ii-iiT -\'i -\'
Wales, bat it had speedily dispersed under the influence
of the general panic which had seized upon all the king's friends.
Henry, who had continued to disguise his real purpose, persuaded
Richard to meet him at Flint for a conference, and Richard, who
still thought that the most that awaited him was a new council of
regency, walked into the trap. But his illusion was soon dispelled.
He was taken to London and thrown into the Tower, and on the
29th of September, the day before the time set for the meeting of
parliament, was compelled to set his seal to a formal abdication,
declaring himself incapable of governing and willing to be deposed.
When parliament came together on the 30fch Henry had the abdi-
cation ready and at once secured a formal sentence of deposition.
Thirty -three charges were brought against the king; all serious
and weighty, and bearing directly upon the great constitutional
principles which for two hundred years had been struggling for
utterance and now- were at last to be heard. In the 16th article
it was alleged that the king had declared "that his laws were in his
own mouth and that he alone could change and frame the laws of
the laud." In the 26th, "that the life of every liegeman, his
426 THE PEASANT KEVOLT [riohabd 11.
lands, goods, and chattels, lay at his royal will without sentence of
forfeiture."
Then Henry stepped forward, and crossing himself, solemnly
claimed the vacant throne: "In the name of God, I, Henry of
Lancaster, challenge this realm and the crown with all
LaZXr ^^^ appurtenances, as I am descended by right line of
^'S "** blood, from the good King Henry III. , and through
that right, that God of his grace hath sent me with
help of my kin and my friends to receive it ; the which realm was
in point to be undone by default of governance and undoing of good
laws." The plea was accepted without a dissenting voice, and the
two archbishops led the champion to the vacant throne. A great
revolution had been carried out, and, an unusual thing in those
days, no blood had been shed save of the three who were slain at
Bristol.
Edward II. had failed because he had not taken his crown seri-
ously. Eichard II. failed because he had taken his crown too
seriously. He had been brought up in the atmosphere, breathed
by the degenerate court of Edward III. Its hollow magnificence,
its pride, its extravagance in life and thought were to the boy mind
realities. Simon Burley had taught him to regard himself as
superior to men and to institutions. Ambitious and crafty uncles
had played upon his weakness to further their own ends, and at
last persuaded him to try his hand at high prerogative; and when
he found himself confronted by wills every whit as imperious as
his own, his temper, which was never under safe control, broke
forth in a frenzy of despotic violence. Then it became necessary
for the very men whose shortsightedness had made this exhibition
of tyranny possible, to unmake their Caesar in self-defense. But in
order to secure themselves and justify their treason, they were
obliged to fall back upon the "good laws" which Richard had
repudiated, and call the nation to their support. Thus what had
begun in a miserable quarrel of politicians, ended in a revolution of
the gravest constitutional significance.
CHAPTEK VI
THE CON-STITUTIONAL KINGS OF THE HOTJSB OF LANCASTER
THE THIRD STAGE OF THE HUNDRED TEAKS' WAR
HENEYW., 1399-1413
HENRY v., 1413-1422
THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER
Henkt III.
Edmund " Crouchback,"
1st earl ot Lancaster
I
I
Thomas 2d earl of Lancaster Henry 3d oarl of Lancaster,
Beheaded at Pontefract a. 1345
after Borouglibridge, 1323 |
Henry ith earl of Lancaster;
1852 1st duke of Lancaster
Blanche of Lancaster = John of
Gaunt, who by right of wife
became 2d duke of Lancas-
ter in 1360
Henry of Bolingbroke disinher-
ited by Richard 11., recoyers
estates and becomes King of
England as Henbt IV., 1899
I
HENBT v., 1413-1422 Thomas John Humphrey
I Duke of Clarence, Duke of Bedford, Duke of Gloucester,
Henkt VL, 1422-1401 killed 1421 d. 1435 d. 1447
The greatness of the House of Lancaster dates back to the thir-
teenth century ; and, in a way, may be regarded as a remote result
of the loss of the Angevin possessions. It had been the
too rtThe^ policy of the Norman and early Angevin kings to pro-
Laiwa^er ^'^^ ^^^ ^^® younger members of the royal family out
of their numerous foreign dependencies; but Henry
III., in consequence of John's misfortunes, was compelled to make
provision for the princes of the royal family at home. Accord-
ingly, he made his brother Eichard, Earl of Cornwall ; his eldest
son Edward, Earl of Chester, and upon his second son Edmund
Crouchback he conferred the earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, and
Leicester. To these vast estates of the new House of Lancaster,
427
428 LANCASTEB AND THE CONSTITUTIOIJ" [henbyIV.
Thomas, the second earl, added by marriage Lincoln and Salisbury.
In 1352 Edward III. still further exalted the family by conferring
the ducal title upon Henry, the fourth earl, as a reward for his
services in Aquitaine; a title which had been first introduced in
England in 1337, when the Black Prince was made Duke of Corn-
wall. The daughter and heiress of this Duke Henry once more
linked the fortunes of her house directly with the royal family by
marrying Edward's fourth son, John of Gaunt; and upon the
death of Henry, by feudal law, all the vast possessions of the Lan-
castrian House, as well as the new ducal title, passed to the hus-
band of Blanche. The son of this marriage was Henry of
Bolingbroke, the successor of Eichard II.
In France where a similar practice of building up the younger
branches of the royal family had also prevailed since the thirteenth
century, the policy might be justified by the desire of
rcsiiitx of the crown to surronnd itself by a powerful nobility of the
grait lineal blood royal as a balance to the infinence of the old
feudal nobility. In England, however, where the power
of the older baronage had long since been broken, and where the
crown had developed powerful administrative and judicial systems
sufficient to check any revival of feudal forms, no such plea could
be advanced. But in either case the policy was a serious blunder.
The royal dukes were too powerful to remain loyal subjects; and,
more turbulent and troublesome than the older baronage, more
dangerous also because of their nearness to the crown, were certain,
whenever an issue came to open quarrel, to famish a rallying point
for all the disaffected elements of the nation. In France the rival-
ries of the two ducal houses of Burgundy and Orleans distracted
the kingdom for a generation, and after all but placing the crown in
the hands of the English, transferred the quarrel to the larger
arena of the great Hapsburg-Valois struggle which desolated west-
ern Europe for a century. In England the ducal House of Lan-
caster, after undermining the throne of Edward II., and bringing
shame and confusion upon the declining years of Edward III.,
finally put itself at the head of an armed protest against the
usurpations of Richard II., and succeeded in supplanting the elder
line of Plantagenet altogether.
1399] POSITION OF NEW DYNASTY 429
The position of the new dynasty had both its strength and its
weakness. Henry IV. posed as the defender of "the good laws of
TJiestrengtn *^^ ^^"'^' " °^' ^^ ^^'^ language of the modern politician,
fr^lposi- °^ *^® constitution. He was, moreover, astute enough
tvm. ^Q ggg ^jjg value of this position as a political program,
and consciously adopted as the threefold policy of the Lancastrian
House, obedience to the laws, respect for parliament, and an alli-
ance with the conservative elements of the nation, represented by
the church and the nobility. During the reigns of the first two
Lancastrians the wisdom of this policy was fully justified by the
results. The nobility regarded the Lancastrian king as one of
themselves ; there were revolts of nobles but not of the nobility.
The commons also trusted the king and in the main supported him
loyally. The church saw in him the defender of its privileges and
the champion of its doctrines; gave to his needs without grudging
and made his quarrels its own.
The weakness of the Lancastrians' position lay in the fact that
they had been borne to the throne by a revolution, and not by
strict hereditary right. In a legal age, when the
authority of parliament to break the iron law of custom
was hardly yet recognized, this flaw in the Lancastrian title was a
serious matter and was certain to be challenged by the elder branch
of the royal house, as soon as the immediate issue which had
brought Henry to the throne had been forgotten. Henry appar-
ently was fully conscious that his legal title to the crown would not
bear serious scrutiny. Hence in the claim which he so dramatically
advanced in the parliament of 1399, he had ingeniously mixed up
three distinct claims, no one of which could stand alone in an ordi-
nary court of law.^ Yet the nation was favorable to Henry; all
1 In the claim by descent from Henry III. he sought apparently to
take advantage of a foolish story which had been set afloat by the flat-
terers of John of Gaunt : that Edmund Crouchback was the elder son of
Henry III. and had been set aside by reason of a physical deformity. It
was well known that Edward I. was six years the senior of Edmund, and
also that Edmund had won his nickname not on account of any actual
deformity , but by reason of the Crusaders' cross which he ever wore on
his back.
430 LANCASTER AND THE COXSTITUTION [henry IV.
classes needed him, and no one was disposed to inquire too carefully
into the question of birthright.
If Henry's position had any foundation at all in law, it lay
in the right of parliament to determine the royal succession.
This had been undoubtedly an ancient right of the
pm-uament g^'^^t council, but it had been seldom used, and then
tnfixsmces- gnly to Sanction a revolution already accomplished. In
a day, moreover, when parliaments represented not tho
nation but the faction of the baronage who for the moment con-
trolled the machinery of election, its right to make kings was a
dangerous doctrine to revive, and none understood better than
Henry himself, how easily it might be wrested to his own undoing.
To admit it, was to strike at the very stability of the government ;
hence the shrewd cunning with which Henry, while accepting the
crown at the hands of parliament, yet ignored parliament in mak-
ing his claim.
Thus after all the subterfuges of the politician have been brushed
away, it will be seen that Henry's real title rested upon the right
of successful revolution, and was strong because sup-
')/ Henry's ported by the voice of the nation represented in the parlia-
ment of 1399. A precedent had been established which
was to mean much in future centuries when the Commons should
constitute the controlling element in the parliament; but in the
early fifteenth century the nobles and not the Commons gave dig-
nity and force to the Yoice of parliament. Hence the revolution
of ] 399 was after all a victory of the later day barons over the
crown. That it was accomplished in the name of the law, must
not obscure its real character. Only so can we understand the
real weakness of the so-called constitutional rule of the House of
Lancaster or explain the pit of anarchy into which it finally plunged
the English state.
Henry was a man of fair abilities, naturally religious, temperate
in habits, well balanced in temper. He was not cruel by choice ;
but he did not hesitate to shed blood if he could not
T/ie corwili- ...
atory policy gain his end by milder measures. He was too good a
of H€H7'y, o J &
politician, moreover, not to see that the party in power
could ailord to be generous and that excessive cruelty was certain
1899, 1400] THE LAST OF THE FAVORITES 431
to breed reaction. Hence the first acts of Henry's reign are, for
the times, remarkable for self-restraint. The lords who had stood
by Eichard and abetted his usurpations and shared in the plunder,
were compelled to forfeit all that they had received from him in the
way of titles and lands since the fall of Gloucester in 1397. Some
called for their blood, but it was not in accord with Henry's policy
to push the fallen to extremes. Appeals of treason in parliament,
the "cause of so many revolutions" in the past, were forbidden.
A man charged with treason was henceforth to be tried in a reg-
ular court of law, and the crime limited to ofEenses specified by
statute.
A deputation of lords, headed by Archbishop Arundel and the
duke of York, urged Henry to put Eichard to death. This cer-
tainly could be done under the forms of law; for Eich-
m'^mrd "^ ^^"^ ^^^ '^°^ ^ subject and also resting under serious
charges preferred by parliament. But Henry probably
saw that to destroy Eichard would only transfer Eichard's claim to
the powerful family of the Mortimers who, with their connections
among the Percies, would be far more dangerous rivals than the
lonely man now shut up safely in the Lancastrian stronghold of
Pontefraet in Yorkshire.
The immediate friends and kinsmen of Eichard, however, had
neither been conciliated nor awed by the judgments of Henry and
took advantage of his leniency to plot for a counter revolution.
They proposed to surprise Henry at Windsor, cut him
miujanu- off from the support of London and proclaim Eichard.
A priest named Maudelyn, who was the ex-king's double,
was to play Eichard's part until the conspirators could find Eich-
ard himself, whose place of confinement seems to have been a
secret. At the last moment the earl of Eutland let his father into
the plot and York without a moment's delay warned Henry.
Henry by a memorable night ride hastened to London, roused the
populace, and within twenty-four hours took the field at the head
of twenty thousand men. The conspirators fled westward to
Cirencester, proclaiming Eichard as they passed along. The coun-
try people rose at the name, but not as the plotters had designed.
They flocked into Cirencester and, with the mayor leading them,
432 LANCASTER AND THE CONSTITTTTION [henet n',
attacked the house of the conspirators and compelled them to sur-
render. Kent and Salisbury were at once put to death. Hunt-
ingdon was in London but fled into Essex where he was straightway
taken and dispatched by the populace. Lord Spenser met a like
fate at Bristol, and Eichard's double was ingloriously hanged at
the Elms.
The efiect of the plot was threefold. It revealed the popularity
of Henry among the people, and determined the uselessness of
attempting a counter revolution. It gave proof of the
Effect of the hatred of the populace for the friends of Eichard, and
BUharl. revealed to the survivors how little they had to expect
if they once fell into the hands of the mob. It also
sealed the fate of Eichard. The date and manner of his death,
however, are unknown. A month after the conspiracy had col-
lapsed, a body supposed to be that of the late king was exhibited
and buried at Langley.
Henry had now triumphed over the friends of Eichard but his
troubles had only begun. Since the recognition of David by
Edward III. in 1357, the English and Scottish kings
Henry IV.
and the ' had been generally on terms of peace ; but it was impos-
sible for either king to restrain his fiery border lords,
and their ceaseless raids had kept the neighboring lands in constant
alarm. The battle of Otterbiirn, better known as "Chevy Chase,"
belongs to this period. The truce which Eichard had made had
expired in 1399, and it was very important for Henry that it be
renewed. The French court was not in any kindly mood toward
the new English king, who had dethroned Charles VI. 's son-in-law,
and had not only refused to recognize Henry, but had promptly
demanded that Eichard's child widow be sent home with her
dowry. This Henry was not prepared to do, and a renewal of the
French war was one of the probabilities of the near future. It
was of great importance, therefore, for Henry to secure a pledge
of neutrality from the Scots, and when the Scots hesitated, he
determined to bring the matter to an issue and crossed the border.
But the Scots declined to give battle, and, although Henry burned
Leith and harried much country, he was forced to return without
securing the object of his expedition.
1400-1402] OWEN GLENDOWEE 433
The failure of the attempt to overawe Scotland was humiliat-
ing enough, but the campaign liad not yet ended when a new storm
broke on the Welsh border. From the time of Edward
"oPowm^ I. 's conquest, the Welsh had remained fairly peaceful
GiendoMier and were learning to consider themselves a part of the
English kingdom. But the same lawless spirit which
had made English nobles so hard to restrain east of the Severn,
had asserted itself with even greater license among the wild glens
of the west and was borne with no good grace by a people naturally
excitable and quick to requite wrongs. Collisions between the
Welsh and their English lords were matters of daily occurrence.
In these petty conflicts a Welsh landowner, Owen Glendower,
managed to gather a band of desperate men and soon developed a
genius for the irregular warfare of the hills, and assuming the title
of Prince of Wales gave to the insurrection the dignity of a
national rising. All Henry's efforts to reduce him proved
futile. Glendower retired into the mountains, and from inacces-
sible crags defied the English until the approach of winter com-
pelled them to withdraw. Then Henry turned the borders over
to Henry Percy, whose experience and success in this kind of war-
fare in the north, where he had won the name of "Hotspur,"
peculiarly qualified him for such work. But Hotspur found his
match in Glendower. He could not protect the open country and
held even his castles with difficulty. In 1403 Glendower defeated
Edmund Mortimer, brother of the late earl of March, at Brynglas
and took Mortimer himself prisoner. Henry again took the field,
but after an inglorious campaign of three weeks, completely baffled
by his wily foe, he was glad to get his famished army out of the
wretched country.
In the meanwhile, in marked contrast with these humiliating
experiences of Henry, the Percies had won a brilliant victory over
the Scots at Homildon Hill, capturing Douglas and
mu'^uoP. Murdoch Stuart, the earl of Fife. This victory deliv-
ered the northern border, but soon brought fresh trouble
for Henry. The wars which had been thrust upon him had pre-
vented the reduction of taxation. The people, moreover, could not
forgive his repeated failures ; it mattered little to them that his
434 LANCASTER AND THE CONSTITUTION [heney iv.
poverty, the result of the niggardliness of parliament on the one
hand and of his own scrupulous observance of the laws on the
other, was largely responsible ; Henry had failed and the glory of
the popular idol was dimmed.
The storm broke where Henry perhaps had least reason to
expect it. The Percies had been among his staunchest supporters.
They had been the first to rally to his standard after
The first ris- the lauding at Kaveuspur. For two years they had
Percies, 1402. borne the brunt of the border wars ; they had fought
Henry's battles with their own retainers and had poured
out their treasure to the extent of £60,000. Henry had repaid
two-thirds of this debt but the balance of £20,000 still remained,
and although the condition in which parliament kept the royal
treasury made a further payment impossible, the Percies were
inclined to hold the king responsible, and ascribed his backwardness
to the fact that he did not appreciate their services. Homildon Hill,
also, had turned the Percy head somewhat, and when the king refused
to allow Hotspur to ransom Edmund Mortimer, who was his wife's
brother, the Percies in their anger entered into a widely extended
conspiracy for the overthrow of Henry, iu which Douglas, Morti-
mer, and Glendower, were all to take part. Under the pretext of
invading Wales, Hotspur led his border raiders into Cheshire where
he at once raised his standard, publicly charging Henry with the
murder of Eichard and further accusing him of breaking his word
iu collecting taxes contrary to law and of interfering in the elec-
tion of the parliament; he also proposed to make his little nephew,
the earl of March, king. The Cheshire men, who had always been
loyal to Eichard, rallied at Hotspur's call and
juJu'fi'mi ^ii^blsd him to march upon Shrewsbury at the
head of 14,000 men. Here Prince Henry, the
king's eldest son, was stationed, and Hotspur laid siege to the
place thinking that Glendower would join him. But the approach
of the king compelled him to retire to a position three miles north
of the city where some high ground offered an advantage to his
Cheshire archers. The king attacked him, July 21, 1403, and
gained a complete victory. The battle began at midday and did
not end until night. It was one of the most obstinately contested
1405-1407] THE EISIKG 01? THE PERCIES 435
battles fought in England in two centuries. Hotspur fell; his
uncle, Thomas Percy the earl of "Worcester, and Douglas were
taken. Two days later Thomas Percy was put to death; Hotspur's
head was set up on London Bridge and the people were allowed
the satisfaction of gazing at the ghastly trophy for a month.
Hotspur's father, the old earl of Northumberland, surrendered at
York as soon as he heard of the results of Shrewsbury.
Henry's troubles with his barons were by no means ended.
The experience of Hotspur had taught them caution,- but they were
more dangerous because they worked in secret. Henry,
T/iesecomJ however, was on his guard and in 1405 foiled an
ritnngof the ' o
P^^oies, 1405- attempt to carry o£E the earl of March, whom he was
safeguarding at Windsor. This attempt was speedily
followed by a second rising of the earl of Northumberland, whom
Henry had not only pardoned but restored to his estates. He was
supported by Thomas Mowbray Earl of Nottingham, the son of the
late duke of Norfolk, and Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York.
Henry determined to show that his magnanimity hitherto had not
been dictated by any fear of his barons and when Mowbray and
Scrope fell into his power, he at once hurried them to the block.
It was a wholesome lesson; for up to this time, a bishop's person,
it had been supposed, was sacred, and kings had hesitated to shed
a bishop's blood, although more than one had richly deserved it.
Englishmen heard of the deed with the horror which they had
once felt at the assassination of Becket ; and like Becket, Scrope
was raised into a sort of popular sanctity ; miracles were reported
at his tomb, and the failing health of the king, seally due to the
strain of so many cares and so much anxiety, was popularly
ascribed to the sacrilege of sending a bishop to public execution.
Percy fled to France, and secured a promise of French aid. In
1407 he returned by way of Scotland_and invaded his old terri-
tories at the head of a Scottish force. But the Northumberland
strongholds were now all in the hands of the king
Bramiiam ^nd onlv a few of Percy's old tenants rallied at his
Moor, 1407. •' ■'
call. Then he tried his fortunes in Yorkshire, but
the people here also were weary of these profitless risings, and left
him to be overcome and slain by the sheriff at Bramham Moor.
436 LANCASTER AND THE CONSTITUTION [Hmfiy IV.
With the fall of Northumberland Henry's troubles with his
barons ended.
The tide was now tLirning fast in the new king's favor. The
expectation of succor from France had done much to keep alive
the Welsh insurrection. In 1406 a French force finally
i wdsh^Hrw l^i^'isd at Milford Haven; but the poverty of the
Welsh, the meagerness of their wild mountain fare,
filled the Frenchmen with disgust, and they speedily returned
home again, leaving their humble allies to take care of themselves.
The Welshmen saw the hopelessness of further struggle and
laid down their arms. Glendower, however, fared better at the
hands of his countrymen than Wallace; for they refused to betray
him, and he was left to die a free man.
About the same time fortune placed the key to the Scottish
situation also in the king's hands. In 1390 Kobert III. had come
to the Scottish throne. He was a weak man ; and had
James left his despotic brother, the duke of Albany, to con-
duct the administration as it suited him. But Albany
had gone so far in his tyrannies as to seize Robert's eldest son and
throw him into Eothesay Castle, where he had starved him to
death. The poor king was in despair; in his terror he sought to
save his second son James, then a lad of twelve years, by sending
him to France ostensibly for his education. But the ship was
taken by some English seamen off Flamborough Head and the
young prince was turned over to King Henry. Henry was
delighted to hold so good a pledge for the future conduct of the
Scots, and, naively remarking that he thought he could educate the
boy as well as his cousin of France, for he knew the French tongue
quite as well as he, retained the lad in a sort of honorable captivity
at Windsor. The love of this excellent young prince and Lady Jane
Beaufort, whom he afterward married and took back with him to
share the honors and perils of his Scottish throne, forms one of the
finest chapters in the domestic history of the English court.'
There had been various rumors of a renewal of the French war
and Henry at one time no doubt regarded it as imminent.
• On the tragic death of James see Rossetti's fine ballad, The King's
Tragedy.
1405-1411] LAST DAYS OF HENKT IV. 431'
But the growing imbecility of Okarles VI. had left France a prey
to the rivalries of the two branches of the royal family, headed
„ the one by Louis Dnke of Orleans, the king's brother,
French and the other by John Duke of Burgundy, his cousin.
As the quarrel developed and the nation was again
plunged into civil war, it became more, and more evident that the
war with England would not be renewed unless the English assumed
the offensive. But for this Henry had no mind; he proposed
rather to watch the turn of events and support the weaker party.
At first he favored the Burgundians and even sent a force to
support them in 1411; but when the murder of Duke Louis of
Orleans and the further successes of the Burgundians, threatened
to overwhelm the Armagnacs, as the rival party were called,^ Henry
threw all his support on their side. It was a thoroughly selfish
policy, but justified perhaps from a statesman's point of view.
Constant anxiety had very early begun to tell upon the strength
of the king, and after 1405, he threw the burden of the administra-
tion more and more upon his eldest son, the gay and bril-
ofHmn."""^ liant "Prince Hal." Next to the Prince of Wales, the
most influential man in the kingdom was Thomas
Arundel, the archbishop, who became chancellor in 1407. In the
anomalous relation of Prince Henry to the government, who as
president of the council was virtually regent during his father's ill-
ness, it was inevitable that differences of opinion should arise, and
in 1411 father and son came to an open rupture. In these jars
Archbishop Thomas stood staunchly by the king; his opponent
was Henry Beaufort, the king's half-brother, who on the death
of William of Wykeham in 1404 had been raised to the see of
Winchester. Beaufort was the close friend of Prince Henry. In
1409 the archbishop issued a series of constitutions which for-
bade not only the translation of the Scriptures without the approval
of the bishop of the diocese, but all disputes as well upon the doc-
trines which the church regarded as established. The constitu-
tions were aimed at LoUardry; but they brought Thomas into a
quarrel with Oxford University, whose faculty objected to the
1 Named from Count Bernard of Armagnac, the leader of the Orlean-
ist party.
438 LANCASTER AND THE CONSTITUTION [heney IV.
restrictions which the archbishop proposed to put upon the intel-
lectual life of the institution. In the quarrel the university, which
was not without powerful friends, won, and the archbishop was
forced to yield his place in the council to Thomas Beaufort, the
youngest of Catharine Swynford's children. For three years
Thomas Beaufort held the chancellorship. But in 1413 the king
reasserted himself; the prince and his ministers were dismissed
and Arundel came back to power. The presidency of the council
was committed to the king's second son, Thomas Duke of
Clarence.
The next year Henry IV. died. The real interest of his reign
centers in the fact that with him, for the first time, England had
im ^ sovereign who accepted the English constitution as an
porimiceof establislied fact and honestly tried to conduct the
reign of *^
Henry IV. administration within the guarantees which the quarrels
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had transmitted to
the fifteenth. His difficulties were real and serious. His income,
about £100,000 all told, was entirely inadequate to the numerous
needs of the government. The first year of his reign, his minis-
ters could show a balance of £243; but with the outbreak of new-
wars, and the constant demand made upon the treasury in order to
support numerous garrisons in Wales, in Ireland, and in Guienne,
it was no longer possible to return a favorable balance; and year
after year the ministers were compelled to remind parliament of
the empty treasury and the ever increasing burden of debt. The
wars, moreover, which the ministers were called upon to face, were
not of the popular kind, and parliament never responded with that
enthusiastic alacrity with which it had come to the help of Edward
I. in 1295, or had plunged into the French war in 1337. It
doled out money by driblets, insisting always upon granting sup-
plies for specific objects; annoyed the ministers by inquisitive
auditing committees; and that it might be sure that its
eternal grievances received the proper attention, it waited until
the last moment before it proceeded to grant supplies at all.
Yet Henry bravely faced the conditions under which he liad
accepted the crown; took his stand squarely upon the laws, and
steadily refrained from using illegal methods in raising money, or in
1404-1410] HBIfKT IV. AND PABLIAMBNT 439
securing the ends of administration. "When his "Welsh campaign
of 1400 failed, simply because parliament would not grant funds
sufficient to keep an army in the field, he retired, baffled and
beaten, to lay the responsibility where it belonged. It was bitter
for the high spirited king; but it was wise. Only so could he
teach parliament that its responsibilities were equal to its
rights, and that if it would insist upon the one, it must shoulder
the other. It was also a part of Henry's policy to accept the prin-
ciple, so distasteful to men of the imperious type of his predeces-
sors, that his ministers must possess the confidence of parliament.
In 1404 at the request of the Commons he named twenty-two
members of parliament as his continual council ; and then, when
two years later the Commons declared that they had lost confidence
in certain members of the committee, the king called for the resig-
nation of the obnoxious ministers. In other ways also Henry fully
recognized the new principles which the revolutions of the 14th
century had introduced into the constitution. He allowed parlia-
ment to regulate the expenses of his household. In 1407 he
accepted the principle that money grants should originate in the
lower house, in order that the representatives of the smaller prop-
erty holders might fix the maximum. The right of conference of
the two houses was also recognized, and the principle further con-
ceded that neither house should report to the king until they had
come to an agreement, and then only through the speaker of the
House of Commons. Thus principles which had been sometimes
recognized in formal law, and again as formally denied, came at
last to secure the sanction of established precedent.
The same spirit which directed Henry in his dealings with
parliament, directed him also in his relations to the church. The
leaders of the church felt the insecurity of the existing
H&nry IV,
and the ' establishment before the combined onslaught of the Lol-
lards and those thrifty Commoners who could not under-
stand why the people should be so heavily taxed, when so much
property, unproductive from the point of view of the state, lay in
the hands of the church. In 1410, it was proposed to confiscate
all the property of the bishops and the religious corporations, and
apply the money in part to the endowment of new earls, knights,
440 LANCASTEK AKD THE CONSTITUTION [hehett IV.
and squires, and in part to piecing ont the yearly revenues of the
crown. The plan failed, not because of any feeling of tenderness
toward the church, but because the Commons hesitated to increase
the number of the baronage. The bishops, therefore, needed a
friend, and they found one in the orthodox and law-abiding
Henry, who not only protected them against the schemes of the
Commons, but also took steps for the extirpation of the dangerous
heresies which the clergy might well regard as responsible for the
stahitede hostile attitude of the people. In 1401, Archbishop
comburmdo A.randel secured the passage of the famous Statute de
'*>^- Haeretico Comburendo, by which the bishop was given
"authority to arrest, imprison, and try within three months" a per-
son accused of heresy, "and to call in the sheriff to burn him."
So fully was Henry in sympathy with this measure, that he did
not wait for the act to become law, but on February 26 had al-
ready sent orders to the mayor and sheriffs of London directing
them to burn alive William Sautre, on that day convicted of heresy
by the Convocation of Canterbury.' The burning of Sautre was
the beginning of that sad series of executions, which were to be-
come so common during the religious controversies of the next
century, and which are to be ascribed not to Christianity but to
the savagery of the age.
The new king had long been the favorite of the people. He
was tall, handsome, active, and delighted in feats of agility and
strength. He was so swift of foot that men told how
1413-1422." he could run down and capture a deer without dog or
weapon. He loved music; he was quick and sprightly
in conversation. He loved his frolic and was the hero of many a
wild escapade in which some late returning burgher or the night
watch was the victim. His pranks had caused his father many
anxious moments, and some of the wise shook their heads in
solemn apprehension of what might happen when this scapegrace
of eighteen should become king; but the burdens of state, to which
the young man had been called before his father's death, had appar-
'For the act and the royal writ for burning Sautre, see Gee and
Hardy, pp. 133 and 138. For the irregularity of Henry's commission see
Stubbs, C. H., Ill, 375.
1414] POLICY or HENBT V. 441
ently sobered him ; Archbishop Thomas himself could not display
more becoming dignity under the cares of office than he.
Henry V. adopted heartily the wise policy of magnanimous con-
ciliation which had contributed so markedly to the success of his
father's reign. He even ignored the recent quarrels
mmTi"^ which had divided the council board during his own
presidency, and invited Arundel as well as the Beau-
forts into his council. He honored the memory of Eichard by
bringing his supposed body from Langley to Westminster and giv-
ing it burial among the kings of England ; he restored the sons of
Hotspur and Huntingdon to their estates, and made the earl of
March his personal friend. He also continued his father's vigorous
support of Archbishop Arundel in the suppression of heresy, tak-
ing an active interest in the arrest and final execution of fine old
John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, whose influence as a member of the
House of Lords and whose widely extended popularity had all but
raised Lollardism to the dignity of a political party.
The new king, also, continued to humor parliament. He
allowed the Commons to complete the valuable group of privileges
which they had already secured, by granting the right
amdOie ' of final engrossment. Heretofore the text of the laws
had been left to the royal council to frame, and parlia-
ment had often found itself defeated after it had secured the con-
sent of the king, by some cunning framing of clauses by the king's
ministers. This trick of the council had been the frequent sub-
ject of complaint and various remedies had been sought, but under
kings like Edward III. or Eichard II. , every expedient had proved
futile. In 1414, however, the Commons successfully petitioned
"that there never be no law made and engrossed as statute law,
neither by addition or by diminution, by no manner of term or
terms, the which should change the meaning and the intent
asked."
The granting of this petition marks a very important develop-
ment in the functions of parliament. In the thirteenth century its
powers were somewhat similar to those of the States-General of
France, and were it not for its continuous history in witen-
agemot and magnum concilium, we might call it at that time
442 LANCASTER AND THE COIirSTITUTION' [henby V.
simply a States-General. Its legislative function was exercised
largely in making money grants and in "humbly petitioning" the
imrxyrtance ^^'^'^^ ^^ redress grievances ; that is, to make a law which
ofthecm^ should covcr the case in hand. The petitioners merely
cession of r j
1414. suggested the legislation; the king made the law.
But now after 1414, although the form of a "humble petition" was
still retained, these petitions in fact became real legislative enact-
ments and the king retained only the right of veto.
The establishment of this important principle, embodying the
true relation of the executive and the legislative branches of the
government in legislation, may be regarded as completing the
formative period of the English Constitution. Under the Norman
and Angevin kings the national judicial system had been slowly
elaborated and the principle established that all classes, the noble
and at last even the king, were subject to the laws of the land. In
the thirteenth century the privilege of representation in the national
council had been extended to the commons, but it was not until
1322, in the council of York, that their representatives were recog-
nized as a constituent part of that body, and their cooperation
necessary in legislation; a few years later their dignity and influ-
ence were still further enhanced by the accession of the knights of
the shire. In the meantime the voluntary withdrawal of the
church as a separate estate from the national council had left
parliament to consist of two houses rather than three; while the
efforts of parliament to secure the obedience of the crown to the
laws, still further developed and defined its powers, until from a
simple gathering of estates it had become a national parliament.
In this struggle parliament had first forced from the king a
full concession of the right of taxation; a most important right
because by the simple expedient of refusing supplies, it
Ouarantees. was possible for parliament to exact any other conces-
ofthepune." sions which might be needed to complete the guarantees
of the constitution. The next step after securing the
"right of the purse," was to secure the right of controlling the
king in the administration of the laws made by parliament. In the
thirteenth century the best that the barons could devise was to cre-
ate a committee of virtual regency, who were to overrule the king
THE PRINCIPLE OF CABINET GOVEENMBNT 443
and set him aside if necessary, as in the case of John Lackland, or
to rule in his name, as in the case of Henry III. Even in the early
fourteenth century Earl Thomas and the Lords
princ^kloT 0i''^^i'i6i'S apparently had nothing better to ofEer. The
gm&rnment. struggle had gradually shifted, however, from an attempt
to control the king, to an attempt to control the king's
ministers. The denial of this right of control was one chief cause
of the troubles of Edward II. By the close of Edward III.'s reign
the relations of king and parliament in the making of the royal
council had been somewhat definitely worked out, and upon lines
which subsequent experience has fully justified. The king might
appoint, but the Lords must confirm, while the right of impeach-
ment lay with the Commons. Edward, however, had never heartily
accepted these principles, and Richard, though for a time appalled
by the rough Justice of the Lords Appellant, had finally denied them
altogether and attempted to establish the complete autocracy of
the crown. But Henry IV. admitted fully the responsibility of his
ministers to parliament, and even went so far as to allow parlia-
ment to name them. It needed, therefore, only the full recogni-
tion of the legislative function of parliament by Henry to complete
the work which had been begun at Runnymede.
Thus by the close of the thirteenth century, the fundamental
principle of the English constitution had been established in the
formal recognition of the supremacy of the laws. By the close of
the fourteenth century the forms of the governing bodies had been
determined. In the fifteenth century the functions and powers of
these bodies were definitely fixed and limited, sometimes by
statute, sometimes by precedent. All subsequent constitutional
progress has been simply in the direction of clearer statement or
reaflarmation. ISTew applications have been found in the ever
widening sphere of English life, but no new element has been
added. The fifteenth century saw the English constitution com-
plete in all its parts.
English domestic troubles apparently were now at last settled.
All parties had accepted the present order as final, and under its
popular young king, the nation, united and prosperous, once
more turned its face to the future. The truce which Richard
444 LANCASTER AXD THE CONSTITUTION [hekbyV.
bad made with France, had not yet expired, and there was no
particular reason for renewing the war; but unfortunately for
both countries, the English king had the failing fre-
the French quently noticed m men of brilliant miiid, who are prone
to become victims of their own imagination, of chasing
visions which are not worth the catching. Henry believed sincerely
in his right to the French crown. Ambitious, bold to a fault, with a
distinct taste for military enterprise, with a young nobility grow-
ing up about him, restless and warlike, with England again united,
strong and hopeful as in the early days of Edward III., with
France ruled by an imbecile king, and shattered by the quarrels of
her nobles, Henry V. was the man to court temptation rather than
put it from him. He was, therefore, hardly seated on his throne
before he sent a demand to the king of France for the restoration
of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and the parts of Gascony which the
French still held. This was followed in April by a second demand
in which he revived the English claim upon the French crown.
Evidently from the first Henry meant to pick a quarrel with his
sore beset neighbors, and had no idea that his preposterous demands
wonld be granted ; for without waiting for an answer he began to
prepare for war, calling upon his parliament for aid, and at the
same time entering into communication with the duke of Bur-
gundy. Parliament responded generously and heartily. Its
enthusiasm reminds us of the year 1337. It voted a tax of two
tenths and two fifteenths and made over to the king the "alien
priories," that is the lands held in England by foreign monas-
teries. With these funds Henry began to collect a mercenary
army. The ordinary pay of a day laborer in England was 4d. ; but
Henry offered to his rank and file, the archers, 6d. ; to a knight 3s.
a day, but to a knight who brought other knights in his train,
that is an ordinary baron, 4s. ; to an earl 6s. 8d., and to a duke 13s.
4d. In addition to this scale, munificent for the time, he further
promised that two-thirds of all booty should be divided among the
common soldiery. ^ The bounty offered, tbe popularity of Henry, the
general conviction of the weakness of France and the assurance of suc-
cess, brought to his ranks "the very pi-ideof the country." A finer
body of soldiers have rarely departed from the shores of England.
, E K G X, A N
^^J^^^i^n-Tn^ LONDON
J^ Southampton Port-
1415] THE CAMPAIGN OP AGINCOUET 445
The troops were already gathering at Northampton, when
rnmor was brought to Henry of a conspiracy to carry ofE the earl
of March to Wales and there proclaim him king. The
Tm-kistpM. P^°* ^^^ *° ^® Sprung after Henry had left England,
while he was inyolved in the toils of a distant campaign
in the interior of France. The chief plotter was Richard Earl of
Cambridge, who had married Anne Mortimer and represented his
wife's interests as heir to the throne next after the earl of March.
Cambridge and his fellow conspirators were arrested and, upon
confession of their guilt, executed. The affair made no difference
in the friendship of Henry for the earl of March, who apparently
was not a party to the plot and had been the first to warn the
king, nor for Edward the new duke of York, the elder brother of
Cambridge. The affair, as it turned out, was of little importance
of itself, yet it served to keep Henry in mind of the shadows
which ever lurked about the Lancastrian throne.
On the 10th of August Henry began the crossing of the Chan-
nel, and landing at Chef de Caux advanced to the siege of Harfleur
The cam- ^^ *^® 17th. Unlike Edward III., he knew how to
^airuiom-t make the most of an advantage. Instead of wasting
^^J^- time in burning hayricks and slaughtering cattle, he
fixed upon certain strategic points and bent all his energies upon
securing these as a new basis of attack upon the enemy. The fall
of Harfleur, after a heroic defense of more than thirty days, at
once gave him control of the valley of the lower Seine. His army,
however, had been so wasted that he dared not attack Paris ; he
therefore retired toward Calais with the idea of joining forces with
the duke of Burgundy. His experience was much that of Edward
in 1346; the bridges were broken down before him; the country
was hostile, the inhabitants removing everything that his army
might subsist on. Weary and famished, the English approached
the Somme at Edward III.'s old ford of Blanche-Tache, only to be
compelled to retrace its banks as far as Amiens before they could
secure a crossing. At last they neared Calais to find near the
castle of Agincourt the French blocking their way in overwhelm-
ing numbers.
The English now had hardly 6,000 available men. Yet they
446
LAKCASTER AND THE CONSTITUTION
Fhenrt v.
The battle,
Oct. 25, 1415.
were buoyed up by the memory of former victories and by the mar-
yelous spirit of their leader. "I would not have a single man
more," he cried; "if God give ns victory it will be plain
that we owe it to his grace ; if not, the fewer we are,
the less loss for England." The French, outnum-
bering the English six to one and therefore overconfident, allowed
Henry to select his ground, a narrow plowed field fianked by
hedges and thickets. The archers were placed in front, each man
protected from the rush of cavalry by a six-foot stake sharpened at
the ends and
so set in the
ground as to
receive upon
its slant-
ing point
the breast
of a charging
horse. The
field was sod-
den with re-
cent rains and
so soft that the
men-at-arms
sank to the
ankle in the
moist earth.
It was almost
impassable for horse. The French accordingly refused to advance,
and drawing up their men-at-arms, the most of them on foot as at
Poitiers, stood so wedged together that the knights could with
difficulty use their swords. Two bodies of horse were marshalled
on the wings of the first rank, designed to charge the English
archers.
Henry waited in his position for hours ; but the French refused
to move. The English were without food and fight they must or
surrender. When it became evident that the French were not to
be lured into making the attack, Henry ordered forward his bow-
1415-1419] EESTJLTS OF AGINCOUET 447
men, who advanced lightly over the soft ground until they came
within range of the enemy, and then with a hearty English cheer,
sent their arrow-flight into the dense ranks before them. The
French horsemen attempted to sweep down upon the flanks, but
only to flounder and wallow in the soft earth, while the English
men-at-arms advanced and closed in upon the first line. For a few
minutes the press was terrible, when a well timed attack of
the English horse on the flanks threw the French into confusion.
The second line was broken in the same way and then the English
advanced to attack the third. It was at this moment that Henry
gave his order for the massacre of the prisoners. The deed, so
out of keeping with all that we know of Henry's character, can be
explained only by the supposition that he thought at the moment
that the enemy were about to attack him from the rear, and he
feared that the prisoners of whom the English had taken a great
many might also turn upon him. Then he attacked the third line
and the battle was won.
The immediate effect of Agincourt was to turn upon Henry the
eyes of Europe as its most brilliant captain, its most glorious
Results of kiiig- England went wild with enthusiasm ; his return
Agincourt. y^^s a triumph. No one thought of the flaw in his title
to the English throne, or the double flaw in his title to the French
throne. The Emperor Sigismund, fresh from the triumph of the
Council of Constance, where the great schism of the church had
finally been closed, came to visit him, in order that here too he
might play out his little farce of peacemaking. But with the eyes
of England dazzled by the glories of Agincourt, and parliament
lavishly voting supplies to Henry for life, peace even after the order
of Sigismund was not to be thought of ; and the emperor departed
as he came, having first been allowed to salve his pride by entering
into an alliance with the conqueror of France.
Henry in the meanwhile was preparing to take full advantage
of his victory. He raised the royal navy once more to its old
The cam- efficiency, and while the Burgundians and Armagnacs
Wormandv ^®^® fighting before Paris, began a campaign for the
1417-1419. conquest of Normandy. His treatment of the con-
quered country was firm but conciliatory. He came, he announced.
448 LAKCASTEE AND THE CONSTITUTION [henhtV.
to give peace to the land and save the people from the curse of
civil strife. He forbade his men to pillage, or to abuse the
peasantry. As city after city fell into his hands, it was a part of his
regular program to establish in each place an orderly govern-
ment, and to assure the burghers of his purpose to give them a
better protection than the French.
The steady advance of the English finally brought the Erench
nobles to their senses and led to an attempt to bring the duke of
Burgundy and the court party together. A meeting
The assassina- '^ ix ^ i , xi T • n x nr x
tionof Duke was arranged to take place upon the bridge at Montereau
John of Bur- r r o
aundy,Aiig., between Duke John and the Dauphin Charles who now
1419.
represented the stricken king. Bnt the hatred of the
Armagnac for the Burgundian was deep seated; the blood of the
duke of Orleans was still unavenged, and as the traitorous Burgun-
dian knelt before the Dauphin in the act of renewing his oath of
homage, an old servant of the duke of Orleans rushed upon him
and smote him to death. The breach between Burgundy and
Armagnac was now irreparable; the duke's son Philip, with all
his following, including the great city of Paris where Duke John
was very popular, again went over to the Eoglish, and the
Armagnac court were compelled to accept such peace as Henry was
willing to give them.
The peace was concluded at Troyes, May 21, 1420. By it the
Dauphin was excluded from the succession. Charles YI. was to
remain king in name until his death ; Henry was to
rroyec.May marry his daughter Catharine, be recognized as "heir
of France," and govern the kingdom as regent.
Henry now returned to England to crown his new queen at
Westminster and enjoy his triumph in the midst of his people.
He had succeeded where Edward III. had failed. The crown of
France was won; his son after him should wear the crown of both
nations. But Henry was about to commit the same blunder which
Edward I. had made in dealing with the Scots; he forgot the
people. If the French crown was won, France was not. The
Dauphin Charles, who was by no means inclined to sub-
mit to the disinheritance prescribed by the Treaty of Troyes, had
retired south of the Loire, whither in time flocked all the discon-
1421, 1432] DEATH OF HENRT V. 449
tented elements of the nation. The Dauphin, frivolous, dissipated,
and unworthy of the people's trust, was a poor leader for such a
forlorn hope ; yet the people clung to him as their last refuge. He
was thus strong in the very desperateness of his cause, nor were
Henry's lieutenants a match for the seasoned warriors whom the
Prince now pitted against them. His brother Thomas
March 22, Duke of Clarence was defeated and slain at Bauge and
U21.
Henry himself was forced to hasten from Westminster to
enter the field again in defense of his new crown. He drove the
Dauphin south of the Loire and then turned upon Meaux. Here he
was compelled to sit down and wait seven months, while dysentery.
Birth of *^^ scourge of the armies of the fifteenth century,
DKembere carried off his men. The only ray to brighten the tedi-
^^^- ous waiting of that long and fatal winter, was the news
of the birth of a son, who was straightway christened Henry. On
the 10th of May 1423, Meaux surrendered; but Henry had little
opportunity to rest and was at once called north again by the
renewed activity of the Dauphin. On the way he was overtaken
by the fell disease which had already laid low so many of his
people. He died at Vincennes near Paris August 31, 1422.
CHAPTER VII
THE LAST STAGE OF THE HUNDRED YEAKS' WAE.
RIVALRY OF LANCASTER AND YORK
THE
HENRY VI., 14Z2-14ei
THE DESCENT OF THE RIVAL HOUSE OF YORK
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 3d son of Edward III.,
I d. 1368
Fhilippa=Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,
great-grandson of Roger Mortimer of Edward
II. 's reign
I
Roger, Earl of
March, killed
in Ireland
13i)8
Edmund taken Elizabeth m.
by Glendower Henry Percy,
at Brynglas, "Hotspur"
m. Glendower's
daughter
Edmund, Earl of March,
1398-U24
Edward IV.,
1461-1483
Edmund, Earl of
Rutland slain
at Wakefield
1460
Edmund, Duke of York, 5th
son of Edward III.,
d. 1401
Edward, Earl of
Rutland, Duke
of York, killed
at Agincourt
1415
Anne = Richard, Earl of Cam-
I bridge executed 1415
Richard, Duke of = Cicely Neville
York, killed at
Wakefield 1460
L_
George, Duke of
('larence, mur-
dered in prison
1478 '
RICHABD III.,
1483-1485
Edward v., iJ.1483
Richard, Duke of York d. 1483
Elizabeth = Henry VII.
The death of Henry V. left his two realms to a child eight
months old. His brother John, Duke of Bedford, a man of ster-
Succesainnof ^''"^ worth and ability of high order, was appointed
Henry VI., regent of France and protector of England. When the
duties of the regency carried Bedford to France, a
second brother Humphrey Dnke of Gloucester, was to have the
title and assume the duties of protector. The arrangement was
unfortunate. Duke Humphrey was a very different man from John
of Bedford ; he had a certain kind of showy ability ; but he was
also insanely ambitious, restless and reckless; the kind of man to
450
1432-1428] PKOTECTORATE OP BEDFORD 451
make trouble unless held in by a strong hand. Henry Beaufort
Bishop of Winchester, the great-uncle of the little king, was
appointed to the chancellorship, where his personal worth and repu-
tation for sound judgment did much to outweigh the mischievous
influence of Duke Humphrey.
Two months after the death of Henry V., poor Charles VI.,
forlorn and unattended, passed away at his palace of St. Paul in
Paris. His death, however, changed in little the out-
Charles vti., look for the Dauphin, who possessed neither the men
nor the resources to enable him to compete successfully
with the English regent. Yet he assumed the title of Charles VII.
and kept up a court as gaily as he could at Bourges.
The first step of Bedford in strengthening the English hold
upon the French crown was to form an active alliance with his two
great vassals of Burgundy and Brittany, based upon a
operatSL double marriage. He thus held control of almost
Varies VII ^^® entire seacoast of France, and also secured a
fine base for operations in the regions east and west of
Paris. He then began a series of campaigns designed to wrest
from Charles his last hold north of the Loire. In 1423 his able
lieutenant, Thomas Montague, Earl of Salisbury, won a decisive
victory at Crevant, and the next year at Verneuil Bedford himself
almost eclipsed the victory of his late brother at Agincourt. In
two years nearly all the strongholds of Charles north of the Loire
were taken. Bedford also still further weakened Charles by
persuading the council to release James Stuart and enter into a
league with him, in order to withdraw the Scots from the French
alliance. The prince had been held in England for eighteen years.
During the four years which followed the victory of Verneuil,
the thoughtless ambition of Duke Humphrey did much to
BeacUon neutralize the results of Bedford's successes. He scan-
1424-1428. dalized good people, and offended the duke of Burgundy,
by marrying Jacqueline of Hainan] t, the wife of the duke of
Brabant, whose divorce was still in question and whose dominions
were expected to fall to Duke Philip. At home, also, Humphrey
quarreled with his fellow councillors, and the duke of Bedford had
to cross the Channel in order to quiet the storm. The French
452 RIVALRY OF LANCASTER AND TOEK [hekrt VL
people, who had been somewhat confused at first by the marriage
of Henry V. and the Princess Catharine and hardly knew which
was the real national party, were now beginning to see the path of
dnty, if not of interest, more clearly and to regard the Dauphin as
the champion of national independence. His misfortunes, also,
appealed to them, if his character did not. Charles, moreover,
had the experience of the past to draw from. Like Charles V.,
lie sought to replace his feudal army by a professional soldiery, and
even found another du Guesclin in the scarcely less famous Dunois.
In other ways also the tide was turning against the English. Ten
years had elapsed since the renewal of the war, and the first flush
of enthusiasm had long since ebbed in England; it was no longer
an easy matter to persuade parliaments to make annual grants, or
to enlist men for endless campaigns against stone walls, where
dysentery and camp fever were far more to be feared than French
bombards.
In 1428, it was determined by Bedford and his councillors to
make one supreme efiort to drive the Dauphin wholly south of tlie
Loire, and to secure the great town of Orleans, the
orimf^^HBs strategic value of which in carrying on subsequent
operations south of the river was well understood. It
was a serious undertaking ; the city was well manned and well pro-
visioned; its position also was one of great natural strength. The
English by the utmost endeavor could marshal an army of only
10,000 men, and this was still further weakened by the temporary
withdrawal of the duke of Burgundy. Yet with this force, in Octo-
ber 1428, they proceeded to invest the city. Early in the siege
Salisbury, the hero of Crevant, who commanded the little English
army, was killed by a cannon shot. This was a serious loss to the
English; yet the garrison were so completely demoralized that for
the most part they simply looked on while the little army of Eng-
lishmen continued to build forts and plant batteries about the city.
In the spring the French outside of the city plucked up courage
sufficient to attack a supply train, which Sir John Pastolf was con-
voying to the English camp, but were beaten off with great
slaughter. The supplies were mostly salt fish, hence the camp
wits facetiously dubbed the encounter the "Battle of the Her-
1428] JOAN OF AKO 453
rings." This was the only serious attempt made by the French to
interfere with the English during the first six months of the siege.
The court was in despair; Charles gave up hope, and thought
seriously of leaving Aqtiitaine altogether and seeking refuge in
Dauphine or possibly even in Spain or Scotland.
A great nation, lilie Balaam's ass, sometimes requires a vigorous
drubbing to give it voice, and when it finds utterance at last, it
is likely to speak in strange and startling ways. The
■national French people, not the titled nobility, had suffered long
and sadly under the war. Generations had come and
gone, and still the fire smouldered on. Frenchmen without num-
ber had fallen in battle; died of wounds and mutilation; died of
pestilence and famine. Thousands of French homes had been
destroyed; the children scattered; wives and mothers had perished
of hunger and exhaustion; still the dreadful war raged on. And
now at last the end of all this suffering apparently was at hand ;
and what^ad it all been for? Only that the foreigner might pos-
sess the land, and that the last of the French native kings might
die in exile. Whatever men might say of the chief actors, the
cause was holy. Would not God himself interfere to save his
people?
It was this spirit of pure patriotism, very different from the
self-seeking of noble and churchman, which found incarnation at
last in a simple peasant girl of Domremy, Joan of Arc.
Joan of A.TC
She had pondered long upon the woes of her people,
until the iron had entered her soul. Possibly her simple mind bent
under the strain, — in the language of a modern materialistic age
became deranged. But then all unselfish enthusiasm is of the
nature of insanity. She believed in God and his saints; she
believed in the destiny of her country ; the simple creed of all true
patriotism. She saw visions and heard voices. She had no choice
but obedience. Her sacred enthusiasm inspired those about her
with confidence, and with them she went forth to meet dangers,
the real nature of which her rustic mind but dimly comprehended.
On the 12th of February, 1429, Joan set out from Vaucoulenrs,
a king's town some thirteen miles from Domremy, to present her-
self at the court of Charles VII. She was dressed and armed
454: EIVALEY OF LANCASTEB AND YORK [hbnbt VI.
like a man ; by her side rode a few friends whom she had convinced
of the reality of her visions and who were embued with her spirit.
From Vaucouleurs on the borders of Lorraine to Chinon
from Dam- where Charles was then holding his court, the distance
was two hundred and fifty miles; the country was
infested by wandering bands of freebooters; every step was fraught
with danger. Yet she made the journey without incident.
At Chinon Joan met her first serious difficulty in gaining an
audience from the iiing and explaining her mission. Here she
Joan and found characters to deal with very different from the
Charles VII. simple peasant folk of her home. Yet the age was full
of superstition; men lived with the spirit world ever at their
elbows. Something about the strange maid in man's attire, her
eyes lightened with holy enthusiasm, or possibly some crude tests
devised by tlie churchmen in the royal suite, laid hold upon the
young king's imagination. He and those about him were satisfied
that she was sent either by God or the devil, — as man regarded
such things then, about equally powerful and equally desirable as
allies.
Accordingly it was determined to give the "wondrous maid" a
trial and put her mission to the test. At Blois she came into
direct contact with the wild and dissolute life of a
pearanceof medieval army. She felt the contradiction with her
own pure nature, and began her work by purging the
camp. She inspired the rough soldiery with her religious enthu-
siasm and brought grizzled warriors like children to the confes-
sional, which most of them had neglected for years. The army
from the depths of despair rose at once to the height of enthu-
siasm ; they believed that at last God had come to fight for them.
The English on the other hand had their own explanation of the
wonderful power of this new ally of the French; they saw in her a
\ 'hch without question, an ally of the devil, and their courage
niclted accordingly. Their leaders could no longer bring them to
face the dreadful champion of Charles.
Joan entered Orleans without difficulty and at once began a series
of vigorous sallies upon the forts with which the English had
blocked the ways into the city. The besiegers, whose numbers
1439-1431] DEATH OF JOAK OF ARC 455
from the first had been inferior to the French, were swept from
position after position, until on Sunday morning, the 8th of May,
Successor 1439, they formally raised the siege and retired from
Joan. before the city. A few days later the earl of Suffolk was
defeated and captured at Jargeau ; then Sir John Talbot was over-
whelmed at Patay; and at last on the 17th of July, Joan stood by
the altar in the great Cathedral of Eheims, the ancient coronation
city of the French kings, and saw Charles VII. crowned.
The mission of the maid was now accomplished ; but the king,
against her judgment, persuaded her to remain with the army.
She won no more successes; her simple soul was no
Decline of ,■,„,■, ■ , ■ , . , . „ ,
Joanof Arc's match for the mean intrigues and lealousies of the
camp, and in 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians
at Compiegne, betrayed it is said by her former companions in arms,
and then sold to the English. The English, who still cherished
their old theory, thought, no doubt, to break the spell and
restore the morale of their troops by destroying the alleged witch
and thus vindicating the righteousness of their own cause. Joan
was accordingly tried before a court of Norman and Burgundian
prelates who were determined to force from her the confession
of witchcraft or to destroy her, or to do both. She was con-
victed and sentenced to death by fire. The cruel command of the
court was carried out at Eouen, May 30, 1431. The execution
was a lasting disgrace to the English leaders and to their tools the
French churchmen who authorized it; to King Charles and the
French court who lifted not a finger to save the poor girl who
gave her life for France.
While English interests on the continent were passing through
these trying vicissitudes, the council and parliament at home were
more or less distracted by the continual quarreling of
atairs at Gloucester and Henry Beaufort. In 1426 so intense
was the feeling that their partisans almost came to
blows; the parliament of the year is known as the "Parliament of
Bats" because each member came armed with a bludgeon. In
1437 Beaufort made the serious mistake of allowing the pope to
raise him to the rank of cardinal, which, while it opened a larger
arena for his commanding genius in the field of European politics,
456 EITALKT OF LANCASXBE AND YORK [heney VI.
put a new weapon in the hands of his enemies at home by ena-
bling them to attack him directly as a friend of the pope, sold to
the papal interests. Gloucester insisted that he should
Temporary give up not Only his Enfflish bishopric but the chancel-
rotirement of
Beaufort. lorship as well. But before the question could be set-
tled, a service which Beaufort rendered the English
army in the field after the relief of Orleans, satisfied the waver-
ing, and for the moment shamed even his enemies into silence.
Yet he was glad to escape the hornets which Gloucester kept ever
buzzing about his ears, and after the French coronation of the
English king in 14:31 he kept away from England for two years.
On the continent in the six years which followed the death of
Joan of Arc neither party was able to gain on the other. Yet in
any prolonged struggle, time is always on the side of
of%vfgundv *^°®® '"'^° ^^^ fighting the defensive war. In 1433 the
enthusiasm of parliament for the war had ebbed alto-
gether; a debt of £160,000 had accumulated, enormous for the
times, and, do what the ministers would, it continued to mount
upwards at the rate of £20,000 a year. Exclusive of the troops
detailed for garrison duty, Bedford could command barely 8,500
men for field duty. It was evident, therefore, that if the conquest
were to be completed, it must be by the vigorous support of the
duke of Burgundy. But unfortunately Bedford had managed to
offend his powerful ally by marrying the sister of the Count of St.
Pol, Burgundy's old time enemy. Burgundy had never been
happy in the British alliance, and nothing but the fierceness of his
desire for revenge upon the men who had so foully slain his father
on the bridge of Montereau, had held him to the uncongenial task
of making war for the glorification of a foreign king. The old
wound, however, was now somewhat closed, and, smarting under
the new offense inflicted by Bedford's marriage, the duke entered
into secret negotiations with Charles VII. Pope Eugenius IV. in
the meantime had summoned a congress at Arras in the
The Congress » o -i • t ■•■■•■,
of Arras, hope 01 finding some ground upon which the peace of
Europe might be restored. The peace congress met in
August 1435, and the French were ready with a proposal which
had been secretly agreed upon beforehand with Burgundy; they
1436-1440] INCREASING STRENGTH OF PEACE PARTY 457
offered to cede to the English Normandy and Aquitaine on con-
dition that the English renounce their claims to the French crown.
The English, as was expected, promptly rejected the proposal,
and four weeks later Burgundy renounced the English alliance and
made a formal treaty with the French king. He car-
Parts declares ried with him also the city of Paris. Her population,
April, me', always turbulent, and devoted to Burgundy rather than
to the English, rose against the meager garrison which
Bedford had left in the city and opened the gates to their king.
For the first time in eighteen years, the French national party held
the capital. But a still more serious misfortune had already
befallen the English in the death of Bedford himself, who, worn
out by the long struggle, and broken-hearted over the failure of all
his plans, had survived the Congress of Arras barely three
weeks.
The peace party in England now had ample material for a
vigorous campaign in favor of putting an end to the useless war.
New leaders were brought forward in hope of finding a
Growth of man who could fill Bedford's place and lead English
in England, armies once more to victory, but only to emphasize by
their repeated failure the hopelessness of the struggle.
First, Eichard Duke of York, the son of that earl of Cambridge
who had been executed in 1415, was sent over as regent; then
Eichard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and then the duke of York
again ; finally John Beaufort, the nephew of the cardinal, tried his
fortune in conducting the losing cause. Some paltry advantages
were secured; but the conviction was steadily gaining ground in
England that it was impossible to build up an English monarchy
on French soil in defiance of the wishes of the French people.
Gloucester had done his best to embarrass the ministers in
prosecuting the war when it was successful. He now did his best
to stir up popular feeling against the peacemakers. The
Attempt of candid mind of Cardinal Beaufort recognized the use-
toremvethe lessness of Continuing the war, and he bravely put him-
self at the head of the peace party. In this he also had
the active support of the young king, whose gentle and kindly
spirit had no desire to see the aimless waste of life continue. The
458 EIVALKT OF LAKCASTEE AND YOEK [heneyVI.
two found an ally in the duke of Orleans, who had been taken at
Agincourt and had passed the intervening twenty-five years as a
prisoner of war. He was now released on condition
14dO
that he pay a ransom of £60,000 and pledge himself
never again to bear arms against England. He was also to use his
influence to secure a permanent peace; if he succeeded, the ransom
was to be remitted. Gloucester was furious; he raged and
stormed, and openly accused Beaufort of treason.
Two years later Honry VI. came of age. He was singularly
pure in spirit, amiable, devout, and above all anxious to please.
The hearts of the people turned to him with hope and
HenTU VI r r j.
Character, confidence ; yet they were doomed to bitter disappoint-
ment. A more unfortunate king never reigned. With
all his goodness, he lacked the sterling mental qualities necessary
for a ruler of men. He had been most carefully trained, too care-
fully perhaps ; for his tutors, encouraged by his eagerness, his con-
scientious devotion to duty, had laid tasks upon the young prince
which his feeble strength could not sustain ; possibly also there
lurked in the lad's constitution some germs of hereditary insanity,
the tainted blood of his French mother, which required only the
heart-breaking cares of the next few years to develop.
During his minority the young king with the desperate tenacity
of one who knew his own incompetence for independent action, had
clung to the venerable Cardinal Beaufort, and when fail-
the Miiii's ing health forced the cardinal to retire from public life,
Henry had found a new support in William de la Pole,
the earl of Suffolk. This de la Pole was the grandson of the old
chancellor of Richard II; his father had fallen at Harfleur in 1415.
SufEolk, with the real interests of the Hou.se of Lancaster at heart,
urged upon the king the policy of an early marriage, and selected for
him Margaret, the daughter of Eene Duke of Anjou, Count of Prov-
ence, and titular King of Naples and Jerusalem. But what influ-
enced Henry more than the father's titles, was the fact that
the proposed bride was a niece of Charles VII. 's queen, and
hence the marriage might prove a step towards a permanent
peace. In 1445 Suffolk managed to secure a truce for ten years.
The English agreed to withdraw the few garrisons which were still
1445-1447] THE WAR RENEWED 459
left in Anjou and Maine, and Margaret was sent over to England.
The peace party was now in the ascendant. Parliament voted its
thanks. Suffolk was made a marquis, and four years later a duke.
The marriage, as might be expected, was bitterly opposed by
Duke Humphrey and the war party; first because they were
n ,7, f opposed to making any concessions to France; and
oinuces'ter, second because Humphrey himself was not anxious to
see his own hopes of securing the crown destroyed by
the birth of an heir to Henry. But Humphrey's influence had
been on the wane of late, owing largely to the over-eagerness of his
wife Eleanor Cobham, whom he had married after the pope had rid
him of the fair Jacqueline, and who had been thoughtless enough
to consult a famous witch abou.t the future of her house. In a day
when men seriously believed in the black art such an act approached
dangerously near to treason, and the good dame soon found herself
in sore trouble. Some believed that she had actually sought to
compass the young king's death. Gloucester, however, was still
not without some following and kept up his opposition until even
Henry's patience was exhausted, and at the beginning of the year
1447, the king gave his councillors permission to arrest the trouble-
some nobleman. Five days later Gloucester was dead.
With the death of Gloucester, the last obstacle in the way of a
permanent peace was removed. Cardinal Beaufort had survived
him only six weeks ; but his declining health had for
renewed, some time back prevented him from exercising his old
influence in politics, and his loss was hardly missed by
the peace party. The real leader was now the new made marquis
of Suffolk, who proceeded in good faith to carry out the agreement
made at the time of the marriage contract. Here, however, he
met a new obstacle in the English garrisons who felt the soldiers'
reluctance to withdraw from a country which had once been won
by the blood of their comrades in arms. Their commander
Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset,^ was too much in sympathy
with their mood to restrain them, and allowed them to vent their
ill humor upon the helpless inhabitants of Pougdres. This act of
'John Beaufort had killed himself in 1444, and Edmund had suc-
ceeded to his titles and also to his command in Prance.
460 RIVALKY OJ? LANCASTER AND YORK [hknhy VI.
wanton savagery, by which a peaceful city of France was turned
over to a band of armed ruffians who called themselves English
soldiers, to be sacked as though it had been taken by the sword,
could have but one result. The two nations were again
plunged into war, and all the planning of Suffolk came to
naught.
The council were now in worse trouble than if there had been
no attempt to secure peace. The war party were not appeased by
the failure of Suffolk's plans; the peace party were
verses. inclined to hold him responsible, all parties were
14^ 1449.
angry because he had surrendered the citadels of Anjou.
The French were well prepared for a renewal of the struggle ; they
had entirely reorganized their military system, and were able to
take the field with a standing army of paid soldiers. The English
were correspondingly unprepared. Somerset could not hold his
ground with the meager garrisons under his command, and Suffolk
could not strengthen him. One by one his citadels were wrested
from him. In 1448 Le Mans fell, and in 1449 the great citadel
of Eouen also passed into French hands. The recovery of Nor-
mandy by the French was now assured.
In England all control was rapidly slipping from the feeble
hands of the council, whose misfortunes had long since lost them
the confidence of the people. The government was
"Rpfi^nTivyhfj (yf
anarchy in virtually bankrupt,^ aad without funds it could neither
reward its servants nor awe its foes. Confusion reigned
everywhere. The barons despised the threats of the council,
defied the courts, and, with the feeling that troublous times were
at hand, began hiring and arming retainers^ and forming military
' The debt had reached the unprecedented sum of £370,000.
^ The custom of keeping hired bands of liveried retainers, known as
livery of company, had been introduced soon after Edward I. by the statute
Quia Emptores had put a stop to subinfeudation. The support of such
a band was always a temptation to a bai-on to engage in acts of unlaw-
ful violence or to interfere with the courts of justice by "upholding or
maintainmg' quarrels not his own." Edward I. had forbidden mainte-
nance and Richard II. and Henry IV. had attempted to check livery of com-
pany ; but the barons apparently had paid little attention to the laws,
and in the era of anarchy now at hand the evil soon assumed alarming
1450] THE CADE REBELLION 461
leagues with neighboring freeholders and knights ; nor was it long
before swords were drawn and blood was flowing. The north was
in an uproar where the two rival branches of the Nevilles were
already fighting; experiences such as those of John Paston,
whose home at Gresham was stormed by Lord Moleyns at the head
of a thousand men, soon became the order of the day. Here was
soil prepared for fresh trouble; it needed only a leader to plunge
the nation into all the horrors of prolonged civil war.
At last the year 1450 opened; destined to be a year of national
humiliation, disorder, and much shedding of blood. In January
the council sent Bishop Moleyns down to Portsmouth
Opening of . ....
fataiyea/r, to quiet some mutinous sailors by oiEering them partial
payment on account of money due them from the gov-
ernment. They turned upon Moleyns and murdered him. Two
weeks later parliament met and opened the second tragedy of the
year vrith a direct attack upon Suffolk. Since the fall of Rouen in
the preceding October, the populace had turned all its wrath upon
the now doomed minister. He had been made the target of a
fusillade of popular ballads, noteworthy as affording the first use of
the word "Jackanapes." Henry attempted to save his old friend
and servant by sending him out of the kingdom for five years.
Suffolk left London with a howling mob at his heels, and reaching
the seaboard in safety set sail April 30, only to be overhauled,
dragged out into a small boat, and murdered under circumstances
of peculiar barbarity ; the headless trunk was cast out upon the
sands of Dover.
The government of Henry VI., now without a helmsman,
was left to drift aimlessly under the shadow of the next great crisis
of the year, — the Cade Rebellion. Kent and Sussex had
B^b 'iv^" been the most stirred by the loss of the French posses-
jS'u^o sions; the population were given either to maritiriie
pursuits or manufacturing and had profited directly by
the war. Their enmity, therefore, had been specially bitter
against Suffolk and when a rumor reached them that they were
to be held responsible for the murder, it was enough to set fire to
proportions. The existence of these small private standing armies made
such a struggle as the Wars of the Eoses possible.
463 RIVALRY OF LANCASTER AND YORK [hknby VI.
the combustibles with which this part of the country particularly-
abounded. Once started, the movement gathered strength rapidly
and soon all southern England was ablaze. Unlike the Peasant
Eevolt, this was an uprising of the middle classes. The lesser
gentry and the free yeomanry turned out with the unanimity and
order of an ordinary military muster. At Sevenoaks they were
set upon by a body of the king's men, but made so good a defense
that they beat off the troops, slaying their captain, Sir Humphrey
Stafford. A leader now for the first time appears, one Jack Cade,
who called himself John Mortimer, professing to be a son of the
late earl of March and to be acting in the interests of his alleged
cousin, Eichard the duke of York.
Henry had already found that he could not depend upon the
mutinous troops, and after allowing his treasurer Lord Saye, a sup-
porter of Suffolk, to be cast into prison, abandoned his
fhcrluif capital and fled to Coventry. Cade at once advanced
upon London, proclaiming as the grievances which had
called the people to arms the loss of France, the heavy taxation,
the extortion of the king's oflBcers, the corruption of the courts,
the exclusion of the king's kinsmen from the council, and the inter-
ference of the ministers with the election of the knights of the
shire. On the 30th of July the rebels were allowed by the citi-
zens to enter the city. At first their conduct was orderly and
businesslike. The hated treasurer. Lord Saye, and Crowmer, the
sheriff of Kent, whose exactions in his county had been a chief
occasion of local irritation, were drawn out of prison and put to,
death. At night the insurgents returned to Southwark. But on
the 5th, their cupidity got the better of their judgment, and they
began plundering the homes of the burghers. The Londoners,
who up to this point had shown only good will, were roused against
the rioters and after a severe battle on the night following finally
got possession of the bridge, opened the draw, and closed the
gates. The rioters were now thoroughly discouraged ; the more
shrewd began to slink home, those who could, getting pardons.
Cade, however, kept a small band about him and retired into
Kent, where he was soon after overtaken and slain by the new
sheriff. Outbreaks had also occurred in other eastern counties,
1450] EETtJRN OF YORK 463
as well as in the west in Wiltshire and Gloncestershire. But with
the death of Cade and the collapse of the Kentish rising, the other
disturbances also soon subsided.
The duke of York, the representative of the Mortimer claims
to the crown, had been in the meanwhile quietly biding his time
in Ireland, whither Suffolk had sent him to get him out
Yor^c^"^ of the way. It does not appear that he had been impli-
cated in any of the recent risings. He was altogether
too shrewd a politician to trust his cause to such agents as Cade
and the undisciplined mob who followed him. Yet any movement
which helped to impress upon the people the complete failure of
the present administration, advanced by so much the day when he
should be called upon to interfere and save the state. Reverses
also were crowding upon each other in France. On April 15 an
English army had been cut to pieces at Pormigny, three thousand
Englishmen slain, and the last hope of saving Normandy shattered.
The fall of Bayeux and Caen followed. It was full time, therefore,
for a strong hand and a clear head to assume control at the council
board.
In September York crossed from Ireland, and collecting a band
of 4,000 retainers from the Mortimer estates, advanced upon Lon-
don. This did not mean civil war necessarily, for it
Y^ork%%)- ^^^ then no uncommon thing for gentlemen of high
mS)'^^^' rank to parade the country attended by a small private
army. He proposed simply to force himself upon the
council and secure the controlling influence in the administration
which was due his high rank. Yet this was not an easy task ; the
old Beaufort-Suffolk party had rallied around Queen Margaret,
who in the general breakdown of her husband's government
justly feared Duke Richard on account of his nearness to the
crown and was industriously spreading rumors which made him
responsible for the late risings. Margaret's chief supporter was
Edmund Beaufort, the duke of Somerset, whose unfortunate ill
humor in 1447 had been largely responsible for the renewal of the
war in France, but who had returned home to ally himself with
Margaret, now that the Lancastrian throne itself was in danger,
and, although Richard of York succeeded in forcing a declaration
464 RIVALRY OF LANCASTER AKD YORK [henet VI.
of confidence from the king, Margaret and Beaufort managed to
keep him ont of the council for three years.
In the meanwhile the court party were sinking under the
opprobrium of having wrecked the English cause in France; the
people could not forget that Margaret was a French -
Frawf 3*51 woman, and saw in the continued reverses of English
arms only so many evidences of friendship for her
native country and of treacherous betrayal of the land of her
adoption; they believed her capable of any villainy. Edmund
Beaufort could not help her ; he had lost France, the best that
could be made of his conduct of the war, and to him passed all
the odium which had once been heaped upon poor Suffolk.
Affairs, moreover, were rapidly passing from bad to worse in
France. Cherbourg, the very last English stronghold in Nor-
mandy, had fallen just before the return of Eichard of York. The
next year Bordeaux and Bayonne also fell, and thus was
completed the ruin of the lucrative trade which English
merchants had spent three hundred years in building up in the south-
ern duchy. The Gascons were not French ; they had obeyed Eng-
lish kings as overlords since the days of Henry II. and regarded
themselves almost as a piece of England; Their appeal for help
roused the government to new activity, and for a moment the skill
and energy of John Talbot promised to restore the English hold
on the lands south of the Garonne. But in an unfortunate and
ill-judged attack upon Castillon in 1453, Talbot managed not only
to lose his own life but to wreck his army and prepare the way for
the reentry of the French into Bordeaux three months later.
With the second fall of Bordeaux, of all England's conquests on
the continent, only Calais and the outlying lands remained.
The news of Castillon very perceptibly deepened the gloom
which had been of late overspreading the kingdom. The king was
completely unnerved ; the strain of insanity in his blood
Effects upon , • , » t
parties at began to assert itself, and to rumors of deepening mis-
fortunes abroad was added yet this of the hopeless col-
lapse of the king. It was evident that a protector must be
appointed; but upon whom should the council thrust the thankless
burden? Edmund Beaufort might under ordinary circumstances
1453] FIRST PROTECTORATE OF YORK 465
be selected for such a task; but the news from Oastillon, which
had played so sorrily with the king's wits, had also dissipated the
last remaining influence of Somerset. Just then he was the most
generally hated man in England. Charges of peculation, cow-
ardice, incompetency, and darkest treachery were in the air.
There was no man of all the council, therefore, who dared face the
opprobrium of naming him as protector. Richard Duke of York was
the only other possible candidate. He had proved himself cautious
and wise ; neither could his nearest friends say that he had any
designs upon the crown, or had other motives in seeking prefer-
ment than to serve the king and the state. His prominence
among the- princes of the blood naturally gave him great personal
influence. He had, moreover, married into the powerful Neville
family, who in the fifteenth century controlled one-third of the
peerages of England, and, although at the time a bitter feud existed
between the elder branch of the Nevilles and the younger, the
younger branch, to which Richard's wife Cicely Neville belonged,
was the more powerful. The birth of Prince Edward, October 13,
145.3, also strengthened the duke's position, since, now that
Henry VI. had an heir, the enemies of York need no longer fear
him as a f u ture sovereign. All parties, therefore, looked to Rich-
ard as the one man who could save the state.
In December Somerset was seized and thrown into prison ; York
then assumed control of the government, replacing the friends of
Somerset and Margaret with his own supporters. A few
mntrofoffhe months later, in consequence of the continued illness of
gmemment, the Mug, he was formally appointed protector. York's
position apparently was now very strong. Richard, the
brother of Cicely Neville, was not only the head of the younger branch
of the Nevilles, he had also married the daughter of Thomas Mon-
tague, Earl of Salisbury, the famous captain of Henry V. who had
been killed before Orleans in 1428, and through her had succeeded
to Montague's titles. His son, also a Richard, had married the
heiress of the Beauchamps, and had likewise succeeded to the
important earldom of Warwick, and had become the greatest land-
owner in England, controlling the accumulated estates of the
Beauchamps and the Despensers. He was an energetic, restless
466 EIVALEY OF LAKCASTER AND YORK [henby VI.
spirit, and, combining with great wealth, personal talent, and en-
ergy of high order, the nature of an adventurer, was altogether a
rare lieutenant ; he was the man to devise the most stupendous
projects and carry them to a successful issue. With such sup-
porters in the high places of state York was able to begin a
vigorous administration, and soon imparted a more hopeful aspect
to everything that pertained to public affairs. His influence
was strong enough to stop a private war which had broken out
between the Nevilles and the Percies in the north. Everywhere the
government was winning respect ; an era of confidence and peace ap-
parently was at hand, when the recovery of the king, in January, 1455,
released Somerset, expelled York and the Nevilles from the council,
and brought back Margaret and her friends once more to power.
Thus far the Yorkists had conducted themselves with remark-
able moderation and self-restraint for the times, and, although
the lines separating them from the court or Lancastrian
th'^n'^^H^ "^ party were already very definitely drawn, although party
begun. May, feeling was bitter and the tension severe, there was no
1455.
reason why the counter revolution, which had placed
Margaret and Edmund Beaufort once more in control of the
council, should be marked by any more serious step than the dis-
missal of the Nevilles. Here, however, the anxiety of Margaret
for the future of her little son and her suspicions of the ultimate
purpose of York, led her to take a most unfortunate step, which at
once imparted a new and far more serious aspect to the rivalry of
the two parties. The new council had hardly established them-
selves, when they summoned a parliament to meet at Leicester,
an old Lancastrian town, "for the purpose of providing for the
safety of the king's person against his enemies." The form of
the unfortunate call, as well as the place designated for the meet-
ing, was taken by York as a threat. He at once called upon
Salisbury and Warwick to arm themselves, and the three Richards
marched upon London, "coming" as they proclaimed, "to con-
vince the king of the sinister, malicious, and fraudulent reports of
their enemies." The Wars of the Eoses^ had begun.
' The badge of York was a white rose ; the red rose of Lancaster was
not adopted until the last stage of the war.
1455]
THE SECOND PROTECTOEATB OF YORK
467
The sword was now drawn, and it was no easy matter to return
it again to the scabbard, although both sides shrank from the
The first issue. Somerset hastily gathered a force of 3,000 men,
Aibam,May ^^^' '^^^ *^® ^^^S in ^is train, advanced to St. Albans
22,i4ss. and took up his station within the city. The three
Eichards lay
without the city.
The king still
hoped to end the
matter without
bloodshed and
opened a parley
with the rebels;
but York sternly
demanded as the
first condition of
truce that his
enemies be de-
livered to him,
"to be dealt with
as t h e y d e-
served." The
king refused,
and the Yorkists
at once attacked
the town. Som-
erset was slain
and his troops
routed; the king
was powerless to
make further
resistance, and,
upon the return
of his malady in the fall, York was again appointed pro-
tector.
The recovery of the king in January put an end to the second
protectorate of York; but the king's part in public affairs was only
468 KIVALRY OF LANCASTER AND YORK [heney VI.
nominal and York's influence still remained dominant in the coun-
cil. Warwick was made captain of Calais, a most important posi-
tion, because it gave him virtually the command of the Channel. He
made use of his position to carry on a vigorous course
protectorate of privateering against Spanish, French, and Hanseatio
merchantmen, and soon became the idol of the sail-
ors and the merchants of the southern ports. The nation felt
that the troubles were now over, and that the vigorous hand at
the helm was a permanent guarantee of peace. Even the poor
king tried to see things in a more hopeful light and proposed a
great feast of reconciliation. The idea pleased such wily poli-
ticians as York and M'argaret, who were only waiting for an oppor-
tunity to secure some new advantage in tlie quarrel, which had
lost nothing of its bitterness in the three years of quiet which had
followed St. Albans. A procession marched to St.
Paul's, friend and foe walking hand in hand, Margaret
and the duke of York following the king. The victors of St.
Albans paid for masses for the souls of the men whom they had
slain, and oaths of friendship were exchajiged.
The farce of the reconciliation probably deceived no one save
the kind-hearted king, whose generous nature failed to fathom the
bitterness which separated Margaret and her enemies.
nZmlfie ^®* ^^^ might again have gone well had Margaret been
Ym-fi'^usT' content to let her quarrel rest. But the improved con-
dition of the king gave her new courage and she once
more laid her plans to destroy York. Early in 1459 she secured
the dismissal of the duke and his supporters from the council. In
September she assembled an army in the king's name and sum-
moned Salisbury to London. Although the attack was thus
directed at the Nevilles, York understood its real object and at
once took the field. In September an attempt of Lord Audley to
prevent the junction of Salisbury and York at Bloreheath, resulted
in a victory for Salisbury; bat at Ludlow the Yorkists broke up in
a panic when they found themselves confronted by overwhelming
numbers. York fled to Ireland; his son Edward Earl of March,
Salisbury, and Warwick managed to reach Dover and get away to
Calais.
1459, 1460] THE ACTS OF ATTAINDEK 469
Margaret's triumph could hardly have been more complete had
she won a pitched battle. Her enemies were now scattered and
the leaders driven out of England. The Lancastrians
mentof accordingly assembled in a parliament at Coventry and
November, under Margaret's direction took measures, as they
thought, to make permanent the results of their vic-
tory. For the first time an English parliament passed an act of
attainder; a far more terrible weapon than the old appeal of
treason, which the first parliament of Henry IV. had forbidden.
By it the property of the condemned, as well as his life, was for-
feited; furthermore, unlike the decree of an ordinary court of law,
the king could not reverse such an act ; only the power which had
passed an act of attainder could undo it. Such bills were now
brought forward against York, Salisbury, and Warwick.
The acts of attainder were a serious mistake. Margaret in
thus abusing her victory in a way that could not be undone, was
virtually forcing the revolution. York and the Nevilles
^istoJhG of 'JO
the acts of had been fighting heretofore simply for the control of
attainder. ^, ^ \r ^ n i xi ^ ^ i x
the government; Margaret now compelled them to fight
for their lives and for the rights of their children. They were,
moreover, by no means so reduced that they could not strike back.
An army of 20,000 men had broken up and slunk away at Lud-
low; but Margaret, by taking no steps to win over the scattered
followers of Richard, had left them to be drawn together again,
the moment the leaders should have recovered heart. The ram-
ifications of Neville influence were many. There were ten thousand
secret channels under the control of the three Richards which they
would not fail to operate in furthering discontent and reaction.
Warwick was still captain of Calais ; the fleet was at his disposal,
and the seaport towns of southern England, now thoroughly dis-
affected, inclined to his support.
The winter of 1459 and 1460 the exiles spent in preparing for a
descent upon England. Early in June the preparations were all
Descent of ready. Salisbury and Warwick landed in Kent and
u^cmKmo^ moved boldly upon London. Later York crossed from
1460. Ireland to Wales and entered England from the west,
where he could always count upon the support of the Morti-
470 RIVALRY OF LANCASTER AlTD YORK [henbi VI.
mer tenants. The e^il effects of Margaret's severity were fully
apparent. The Nevilles of the south flocked to the standards
of Salisbury and Warwick. The king retired to Coventry. Lon-
don, whose people had no love to waste on the French queen,
opened her gates to the rebels; assured, however, by the declara-
tion of Salisbury and Warwick that they had no quarrel with the
king, and came only to restore good government to the realm. The
wavering now flocked in from middle and eastern England, and,
early in July, Salisbury and Warwick advanced to Northampton
where the Lancastrians were marshalled in force. The battle was
fought on the 10th ; the Lancastrians were routed and the king
again taken.
From Northampton the Yorkist army returned to London. In
the person of the king, they held the key to the whole situation,
and could cast the onus of treason and rebellion against
Tlic TTovHists
agaium the authorized government upon their enemies. Their
power.
first step was to reorganize the council in the king's
name and issue a call for a parliament, which met at Westminster
in October. The new parliament, as a matter of course, was as
thoroughly Yorkist in its sympathies, as the parliament which had
met the November before at Coventry had been Lancastrian, and
its first act was naturally to undo the work of its predecessor.
While parliament was in session, York reached London,
marching from the west. The successes of his friends had appar-
ently turned his head; his actions are in marked con-
wSc^owii™ ^^'^^^ with the shrewd caution which had up to this
m^iL"""^^"' point marked his progress. He at once assumed the
airs of royalty; turned the king out of his palace, and
appearing before the astonished Lords, laid his hand upon the
throne and claimed it as his by right of birth. Richard found,
however, that he had men to deal with. The Lords remained
silent, and Warwick openly declared his surprise and his disap-
proval; he would not violate his oath to the stricken king; he
would not give the lie to every pledge which he and his father had
made to the people. Then York's better sense revived. He saw
that he had gone too far ; and graciously accepted a compromise.
The king was restored to his palace and his honors; but York was
1460] WAKEFIELD 471
to be designated as his heir in the place of Margaret's son ; he was
also to be given the title of Prince of Wales and granted an income
of 10,000 marks; the law against treason was to be extended to
include all plots against his person or authority. Parliament
sanctioned the arrangement by a formal act and the king
acquiesced.
It was now the turn of Margaret to be roused to acts of desper-
ation. The disinheritance of her son had transferred the war
from a strife of rival political factions to a war of rival
tr^mShof ™y*l houses. In the months which had followed
Mm-ga/ret, Northampton she had wandered with her little son, at
times almost alone and always in imminent peril, to
reach the land of the Scots at last, where she found refuge at the
court of her husband's kinsman, the youthful James III., grand-
son of Jane Beaufort. Here Margaret received encouragement and
assistance, and was soon able to take the field again at the head of
an army recruited from the borders ; simple farmer lads, the most
part drawn from Lancastrian and Percy lands, clad in rusty armor
and mounted upon lean steeds, but glad to follow their queen in
hope of avenging her wrongs and plundering the rich homes of the
south. York and Salisbury with a small band of six thousand men
advanced to Sandal Castle near the town of Wakefield ; their pur-
pose was to watch the marauding bands of Margaret until March
and Warwick could bring up their men. A well contrived ruse,
however, lured York into hazarding a battle at Wakefield, Decem-
ber 39, 1460. York's little army was cut to pieces ; he himself
was slain in battle ; his second son, Edmund the earl of Eutland,
a fine lad, just approaching manhood, was dispatched in cold
blood by Lord Clifford, in revenge for the death of his own father
who had fallen at St. Albans. The earl of Salisbury was taken
and beheaded the next day at Pontefract. The heads of the
fallen chiefs were borne to York and there set up over the gates ;
the bead of York adorned in derision with a paper crown.
- The rumor of Margaret's victory rapidly spread through the
north and soon brought other recruits flocking to her banners
from both sides of the border to the number of 40,000. But her
success was again to prove her undoing. She had never appro-
4:72 EIVALEY 01? LANCASTER AND YORK [hekey VI.
ciated the national sentiment which her foreign birth had arrayed
against her. Tliis sentiment was now doubly quickened over all
middle and southern England by rumors of the barbar-
a^msand^ ities perpetrated by the horde of border ruffians who fol-
st Albans, lowed at her heels. The formal alliauce with the Scots,
1461. '
moreover, had still further alienated the English, so
that for the first time the war began to assume a really national
character. Four armies were in the field; the earl of Warwick
with 30,000 men lay at St. Albans, waiting the approach of Mar-
garet who was advancing upon London by the Ermine Street,
burning the cities and laying waste the fields in her path; York's
son, Edward the earl of March, lay in the Severn valley at the
head of an army of 10,000 men of the Marches; while Owen Tudor
who had married Catharine, Henry V.'s widow, and his son Jasper,
Earl of Pembroke, were advancing with a Welsh army and threat-
ened March's rear. Edward was only in his nineteenth year, but
at such times lads become men in a day. He knew it was useless
to attempt to join Warwick with the Tudor force intact behind
him, and accordingly turned upon the Tudors, and on February
3, 14G1 beat them at Mortimer's Cross, slaying Owen Tudor.
Two weeks after this brilliant victory, February 17, 1461, Mar-
garet came upon Warwick at St. Albans, drove the Yorkists out
of the town and regained possession of the king.
The withdrawal of Warwick from St. Albans left the road to
London open. Here at last was Margaret's opportunity. Yet for
some unaccountable reason she delayed, and the last op-
secure portunity of saving the House of Lancaster was lost.
London, mi t n 11 . ,
Saturday, The Londoners were hourly expecting the arrival of the
March 8, J sr z> _
northern horde, and, trembling for the safety of their
city, had already sent "certain aldermen and commissioners . . . to
speak with the queen's council, to entreat that the northern men be
sent home to tlieir country. For the city of London did dread
sore to be robbed and spoiled." But Warwick and Edward, hav-
ing now joined forces at Chipping-Norton, had learned of Mar-
garet's blunder, and were hastening by forced marches to th:.'ow
themselves between her and the capital. On March 7, the Lon-
doners heard of their approach and at once stopped the supply
1461] EDWARD IV. PROCLAIMED 473
vans which Henry had ordered to be sent to St. Albans. The
next (lay, amid great rejoicing on the part of the populace, the
Yorkists marched through the gates into the city.
Only four months had passed since Richard of York's proposal
to assume the crown had been met by the silence of his lords and
Edward IV. the open protest of his great captain. But these four
SorcJi'sf'*' months had made a complete change in the sentiments
^*^' of men like Warwick whose kinsmen had been slain at
Wakefield and St. Albans. The nation also could not forgive the
ferocious French woman who had brought a horde of wild Scotch-
men into the heart of England, burning their cities and plunder-
ing their homes. They had nothing agaiust the gentle Henry,
but they knew that to be loyal to Henry meant. to be loyal to his
French wife. The Yorkist leaders, therefore, had no doubt
already accepted the deposition of Henry and the deration of the
earl of March as forced upon them by the logic of their position.
Accordingly, the next morning after the entry into the city,
Edward called together a council of lords and went through the
form of declaring his right to the crown, and they in response
declared Henry deposed and proclaimed Edward king. At Clerk -
enwell Fields, George Neville, the bishop of Exeter, addressed the
soldiers and explained Edward's claim to the throne. A great
meeting of the populace was also held at St. John's Guild and
when the question was formally put to the people, "Shall Edward
be your king?" the assembly shouted in tumultuous approval
"Yea, yea, King Edward!" A deputation then waited upon the
new king and formally notified him of the choice of the people.
The reign of Edward IV. had begun.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FALL OP TOEK AND THE CLOSE OF THE DYNASTIC STRUGGLE
EDWARD ir., 14ei-l4H3
ED W AMD r.,14S3
RICHARD in.. 14S3-1485
THE BEAUFOKTS
John of Gaunt = (3) Catharine Swynlord
Owen Tudor,
killed at Morti-
mer's Cross
1461
John Beaufort,
Earl of Somerset,
- d. 1410
John Beaufort,
1st Duke of Somer-
set, d. 1444
Jasper Edmimd'
Tudor Tudor.
Earl of
Kichmond,
d. 1456
Henry Beaufort,
Bishop of Winchester
and Cardinal,
d. 1447
: Margaret
Henry Beaufort,
Duke of Som-
erset, beheaded
after Hexham,
1464
Edmund Beaufort,
Duke of Somerset,
killed at 1st battle
of St. Albans,
1465
\
Edmund,
Duke of Som-
erset, be-
headed after
Tewkesbury,
1471
Thomas Beaufort
Earl of Exeter,
d. 1426
Jane = James I.,
of Scotland,
1423
John,
d. 1471
HENRY VII., 1485-15091
Margaret,
m. Humphrey,
Earl of
Strafford
y, Du
Henry, Dulte of
Buckingham
beheaded, 1483
Character
of the so-
called Parlwjr
mentary
Qovernment
nf the House
of Ltancaster.
The weakness of the House of Lancaster lay partly in the fact
that its kings never outgrew their defective title; partly in the
fact that they had accepted a crown encumbered with
enormous debts, a result of the extravagant wars and
extravagant living of their predecessors. They were
thus compelled to throw themselves without reservation
upon the support of parliament. This dependence
upon parliament, however, was not an element of strength, for the
parliaments of the fifteenth century represented, not the nation,
but a coterie of nobles, who possessed more land than the crown and
the rest of the nation combined, whose numbers had diminished,
but whose wealth and selfishness had increased, and who, in spite
of laws against livery and maintenance, had continued to augment
474
1406-1445] LANCASTKIAN ELECTION LAWS 475
their retinues of armed retainers, overawe the local courts, and
defy justice.
The House of Commons as yet exerted very little independent
influence as an instrument of government. In the fifteenth century
in particular it was completely dominated bv the House
OT)SOU/f(lt'i/Yt1 J. 1/ i/
of the of Lords ; nor had the nobles in power aav diflicultv in
Commons. ,,. ._, , ,i . ,., . , ,
getting a House to thejr likmg whenever they had
impeachments to secure, bills of attainder to pass, or confiscations
to be approved. It was an easy matter to overawe sheriffs by
packing the county courts with their "bullies;" still easier to
bribe sherifEs to send in false returns or to spring'an election upon
the people before sufficient notice had been given in the shires.
The Lancastrian kings had recognized the evil and sought a
remedy in a series of laws designed to secure the independence of
elections. Thus in 1406 it was prescribed that a parlia-
ieSfetoZmo/ iiientary election should be held always at the regular
MnSs"**'^'*" meeting of the county court next succeeding the recep-
tion of a writ. But only a few regularly attended these
courts, and it was still possible for the sherifE by passing the
notice quietly to his friends, to pack the court with an irrespon-
sible crowd of retainers and carry the election in some such way as
primaries used to be carried in some of the American cities. It
was therefore necessary to follow the law of 1406 by another law in
1430 which limited the right of election to freeholders whose lands
were worth at least 40 shillings a year; and when the sherifEs began
to bring in freeholders from neighboring counties, two years
later the right was still further limited to residents. An act of
1445 further prescribed that each sherifE should send the notice of
an election to those cities or boroughs in his county which were
entitled to return members, and that a deputation should report
the results at the court of the shire and see that the sherifE regu-
larly attached the returns of the boroughs to his return of the
election for the shire.
These laws were the result of a brave efEort on the part of the
government to rescue the Commons from the control of the noble
born politicians who were playing fast and loose in order to control
the patronage of the government; but the great lords paid little
476 THE FALL OF YORK [bdwabd IV.
more attention to laws for the regulation of parliamentary elec-
tions than they did to the laws against livery and maintenance,
and the party in power continued to get up parliaments
theEiecubns to Order as before. Moreover these very laws, insti-
o/Kncas" tuted no doubt with the best of intentions, by disfran-
chising the free copyholder and the villain, separated
the Commons still farther from the body of the people and com-
mitted it for the next four hundred years to the control of the
lords of the soil. It is no marvel, therefore, that the House of
Commons soon lost the respect of the nation and was left entirely
to the control of the politicians, or that the so-called parliamen-
tary government of the House of Lancaster, valuable as it was
in furnishing precedents for a later day, when the terms Lords and
Commons should come to have a very different meaning, during
the reign of Henry VI. rapidly developed into a tyranny of certain
great families over the crown. Here was the basis of the dynastic
revolution which followed. Here also is the explanation of the
readiness with which the people submitted to the complete over-
throw of the whole flimsy Lancastrian structure.
The reign of Edward IV. began with the proclamation of
March 9, 1461. On the same day the horde at St. Albans broke
up and began its homeward march, apparently dissatis-
^T"' , fied because Henry would not allow them to continue
rei{jn of -J
fmS'''^'' ^^^^^ plundering. Edward without stopping for a coro-
nation followed the retiring horde with the energy
which was characteristic of him in supreme moments, and over-
taking them at Towton near York, on the 28th and 29th of March,
successfully fought the most obstinate and bloody battle of the
war. The heralds counted the slain to the number of twenty-
eight thousand. Edward entered York in triumph, while Mar-
garet and Henry sought safety beyond the northern border.
From Towton Edward returned to London to be crowned, June
38th ; his brothers George and Richard, also, were created dukes
respectively of Clarence and Gloucester. In November
Towton"^ parliament met and as its first duty passed an act which
confirmed all that had been done by Edward; it then
declared the Lancastrian kings usurpers, those who had been
1461-1464] EDWARD IV. 477
active in supporting them attainted and their possessions forfeited,
and Henry and Queen Margaret traitors.
Edward was by no means an ideal king, though he possessed
many good qualities. He had a fine presence ; was tall, muscular,
and handsome, and possessed a fearless eye. He had
'bldwardiV^. S^^^^ ^^^^'1 ''^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Uniformly successful.
He loved field sports but he loved also less worthy
amusements, and knew no self-restraint when once his appetite
was aroused. He was cruel, yet not more cruel than the
age when all public men had been hardened and embittered
by ten years of civil strife. In politics Edward's abilities
were not as conspicuous as in war; he was careless in mat-
ters of business, trustful to simplicity and altogether lacking
in foresight. Yet he saw clearly the causes of the failure of
the Lancastrian government and made no secret of his hostility
to the nobles.
When Edward returned to London, he had left Warwick and
his brother, John Neville, the newly made earl of Montague, to
carry on the struggle in the north. They reduced the
Contvnuance great Percy strongholds, but were compelled to take
in'theiim-th. and retake them several times in the course of a few
months. Margaret in her desperation had given up
Berwick to the Scots in return for their aid; she had also prom-
ised to give up Calais for the support of Louis XI. Both gave her
some assistance; Louis actually sent her 2,000 men. But an
invasion of Scotland in 1462 compelled the Scots to abandon Mar-
garet's cause and expel Henry VI. from the country. Still the
fires of this fatal war, which in the ferocious vindictiveness of
both parties has had few equals in the history of civilized nations,
smouldered on. In April 1464 Montague defeated Henry of
Somerset at Hedgeley Moor and a few weeks later again at Hex-
ham. At Hexham Somerset was taken and at once put to death.
A year later Henry VI. was also taken at Waddington Hall on the
Lancastrian estates whither he had gone when the Scots had
turned him out of Scotland. A few castles still held out in
Wales, but the throne of Edward was secure so far as the House
of Lancaster was concerned.
478
THE FALL OF TOEK
[
Edward IV.
Since the battle of Towton Edward had given himself up to the
gayeties of a luxurious court, leaving the cares of government to
Warwick. Yet he was not so steeped in his life of
and War- indolence that he could not keep a watchful eye upon
his minister. Thus when he found that Warwick was
wife hunting for him in the courts of the continent he quietly
slipped off to Grafton and secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the
widow of Sir John Gray, a Lancastrian who had fallen at the
second battle of St. Albans.' The high spirited minister in the
meantime was left to go on with his negotiations until the last
moment, when Edward cut short his fine plans by announcing his
marriage. Warwick plainly had been duped, and in a way that could
not be easily forgotten. Other events followed which still further
widened the opening breach between Edward and the great Neville.
In connection with his marriage scheme, Warwick had also
developed a policy of alliance with Prance as the best security for
Edward's throne. But Edward was quite disposed to
fmmMiatiim f^^^o^ o^t the traditional policy of his predecessors and
of^arwicK jjeep Prance humble by building up Burgundy; its
magnificent court was far more to his taste than the
mean surroundings of the niggardly and spiderlike Louis XL In
1467, therefore, while Warwick was maturing his plans and was
apparently about to secure the long hoped for treaty with Louis
XL, Edward was entertaining Burgundian ambassadors and
'THE WOODVILLES
Klohard,
1st Earl
Elvers,
a. 1469
: Jacqiietta of Luxembourg:,
widow of John of
Bedford
Anthony
Lord Scales,
3d Earl Elvers,
d. 1483
Jol
ihn,
Lionel,
Bishop of
Salisbury
Eichard,
3d Earl
Elvers
Elizabeth (other daughters)
Thomas,
1st Marquis
of Dorset,
d. 1501,
ancestor of
Lady .Jane
Orey
1 m. John Grey, d. 1455
2 m. Edward IV.
Jicha
Eichard,
c(. 1483
Edward v.,
d. 1483
Eichard,
Duke of
York,
d. 1483
Elizabeth Catharine
in. William
Henry
VII.
Oourte-
nay. Earl
of Devon
(other
daugh-
ters)
1469] FIRST RISING OF THE NEVILLES 479
secretly pledging his sister Margaret to the new duke Charles the
Rash. In the meantime, also, with shrewd cunning he had taken
the precaution to build up around him a new family of nobles to
offset the power of the Nevilles. He made his father-in-law, Sir
Richard Woodville, treasurer, then raised him to the rank of earl
as Earl Rivers, and finally appointed him constable of England.
He also found husbands among the peerage for his wife's sisters,
of whom there were a round half dozen. Equally distinguished
marriages were found for the queen's brother, also a Richard Wood-
ville, and for Lord Thomas Grey, the elder of the queen's two sons
by her first marriage ; Anthony "Woodville, another brother of the
queen had already married a wealthy heiress and in her right had
become Lord Scales.
Thus in a day Edward had raised at his side a worthy rival of
the Kevilles. Warwick, who had more shrewdness perhaps than the
clever young king gave him credit for, fully comprehended
TphMinq of the object of the king's policy and began to counterplot,
proposing to marry his own daughter Isabella to the
king's brother, George Duke of Clarence. Clarence who was weak,
inconstant, and vain, jealous of the Woodvilles and anxious to be
considered the heir to the throne, readily lent himself to War-
wick's schemes. Edward attempted to block the game by forbid-
ding the marriage, but Warwick sent his family off to Calais, where
Clarence afterward joined them and the marriage ceremony was
duly performed. But the marriage of Clarence, apparently, was
only a step in a greater plan for securing the hold of the Nevilles
upon the high places in the state. The surviving Lancastrians
had suffered much ; the bitter memories of the war could not be
forgotten. The Yorkists also were growing discontented and
jealous of the preferment of the Woodvilles. Here were materials
enough for the organization of a dangerous plot.
It is not known that Warwick was implicated in the first rising
of the year 1469, which was a small affair, confined to the neigh-
„. , ,.,. borhood of York and, apparently, the result of strictly
" Wot 1 XSlTiQ
'£ "'", local causes. It was soon followed, however, by a more
14S9. widely extended movement which was joined by the
Nevilles and assumed such proportions as to defeat a royal army at
480 THE BALL OF TOKK [edwaed IV.
Edgecote on July 26, and a few days later again at Chepstow,
where Earl Kivers and his son John Woodville, were taken and
shortly after beheaded. Warwick and his new son-in-law, in the
meantime, had hurried from Calais to Kent and, calling out the
southern Nevilles, were marching north, not to assist Edward, but
to seize him before he could rally from the discomfiture of Edge-
cote. Their plans were entirely successful. Edward was taken at
Olney near Coventry and brought to Warwick Castle.
Warwick was now master of the situation ; Edward IV. was a
prisoner and the power of the Woodvilles broken. Yet Warwick's
position was by no means secure. He was still hated
inpnwer, and feared by the Lancastrians; nor could he contrive
1469.
to hold Edward long in prison, for Edward's despotic
ways had won the confidence of the great middle class, the
burghers, who were weary of the quarrels of the nobles and wanted
to see a strong government once more established. Warwick,
therefore, made the best terms he could for himself and Clarence,
and Edward was set at liberty.
Any reconciliation, however, between Edward and his old com-
panion in arms could neither be cordial nor lasting. The earl
continued his policy and Edward watched for his oppor-
Faiiureof tunity. It Came in the form of a risinsr in Lincoln-
revolt of
ciarmceand shire, apparently stirred up by Warwick himself.
WarwicK ? i ± ./ i j
1470. ' Edward met the insurgents near Stamford, March 12,
1470, and used the royal artillery with such effect that
they speedily fled. The battle is known as "Lose-coat Field," from
the frantic profusion with which the rebels threw away their coats
which were decorated with the fatal badges of their leaders, hop-
ing thereby to escape recognition. Sir Robert Welles the leader of
the insurgents was captured and beheaded. Before his death he
confessed to an extensive plot in which Edward was to be dethroned
and Clarence made king. Warwick of course was implicated and,
without waiting for the return of Edward, took his son-in-law and
fled the kingdom. Edward after his release in 1469 had issued a
general pardon, but now he had no reason for sparing his enemies,
and, contrary to his custom in the earlier wars, even descended to
victims of humble rank. The refugees of Lose-coat Field were
1470] THE SECOSTB RISING OF THE KEVILLES 481
hunted across the kingdom, and the hideous penalty which the
barbaric laws of the period prescribed for treason, exacted for great
and small ; even the luckless sailors, who were waiting at South-
ampton to take Warwick off, were seized and some twenty of them
executed. In this instance, so thoroughly was the work done,
that John Tiptoft, the earl of Worcester, who had the grewsome
matter in hand, rose above the merely commonplace, winning for
himself the nickname of "the butcher." It is also to be noticed
that Tiptoft had the reputation of being one of the most accom-
plished scholars of the times.
It was now evident to Warwick that his only chance of over-
reaching the Yorkist king was by making common cause with the
exiled Margaret and returning to England under the
The second o o
rviinaofthe Lancastrian banners. Louis XI., who was anxious to
break up the Burgundian alliance of England, exerted
his influence to bring about a reconciliation with Margaret, and
furnished Warwick with ships and men and money ; Warwick was
to invade England for the purpose of restoring Henry VI., and
Prince Edward, Margaret's son, now a lad of seventeen, was to
marry Warwick's second daughter Anne. In England Warwick
was not without his secret following, and in a few months the
Nevilles through all the many ramifications of the family were ready
for the rising. So secretly and so successfully were their plans
carried out, so swiftly at last came the revolution, that within two
weeks Edward's power had collapsed, and he himself was a
fugitive on the way to the court of Louis's rival in Burgundy.
Henry VI. was drawn out of the Tower and once more, set up as
the figure head of the government, but the real power lay in the
hands of Warwick, the " King-Maker," as men were beginning to
call the ambitious Neville.
The suddenness of Edward's fall, instead of discouraging him,
only put him on his mettle and called out those resources of energy
and skill, the possession of which he had fully revealed
o/HmruTj ** Mortimer's Cross and Towton. As his rival had
Marchun" ^PP^a-l®*! ^^ Louis XL of France, he now appealed to
Louis's enemy, Charles of Burgundy, who in self-defense
was compelled to help his ally back again to his throne. Charles,
482 THE FALL OF YORK [:
Edward IV.
however, was too sore pressed at home to render Edward much
aid, and left him largely to his own resources. With 1,500 Eng-
lishmen and 300 Germans who had been sent to him by Duke
Charles, on March 14, 1471, he landed at Eavenspur, the very
spot where Henry of Bolingbroke had landed on a similar errand
seventy-two years before. Like Henry, also, Edward declared that
he came simply to demand the lands of his father. At York he
actually took an oath that he would not again lay claim to the
crown of England. At the head of the little band of adventurers,
however, he marched steadily southward, gathering to his standard
the old retainers of his house from the north and west, and when
he reached Nottingham, where his army had swelled to
MarcJi 22. o ^ J
five thousand men, he threw off all disguise and once
more proclaimed his right to the throne. The position was one
which would have delighted a Napoleon. Back of Edward lay Lord
Montague, Warwick's brother, who had allowed the invaders to
pass Pontefract and enter the Midlands; to the east lay Oxford
who was hurrying up from Norfolk; before him lay Arch-
bishop George Neville, another brother of Warwick, guarding
London; the "King-Maker" himself lay at Warwick, while the
duke of Clarence was advancing by forced marches from Glou-
cestershire in the west. Thus from the four quarters of the com-
pass, as many armies were closing in upon Edward and his wild
adventure seemed almost run. It was a moment, however, to rouse
all the matchless energy and courage of the man ; for Edward at
times had flashes of real military genius somewhat akin to that
of the great modern captain. Suddenly changing his line of march,
he made a swift descent upon Oxford and drove him back ; without
following his fleeing foes, he turned again to the south and
advanced to Leicester, in order to face Warwick who had reached
Coventry. A battle was imminent ; it was Warwick's hour, but
in an unlucky moment he determined to wait for the arrival of
Montague and Clarence. The delay gave Edward a respite and
also gave some who wavered time to decide. Henry Percy of the
old Northumberland house, whom Edward had restored to his
earldom, had already joined him; bat on April 4, Edward's
brother, — "false, fleeting, perjured Clarence," who had been
1471] BARNET 483
grieved by the way in which Warwick had thrown him over in the
interests of Margaret's son, carried out a project long meditated,
and went over to Edward with his following. The defection of
Clarence compelled Warwick to wait for Montague, and left
Edward and Clarence free to march upon London. Archbishop
George Neville had had little success in rousing the Londoners,
many of whom were creditors of Edward and saw no hope of pay-
ment save in his return to power. Hence Edward was allowed to
enter the city without resistance, where he was speedily joined
by the Yorkists of the south in sufficient number to give him
nearly 20,000 men.
Edward entered London on Thursday, April 10, and on Sat-
urday led his army out of the city by the Watling Street to
meet Warwick at Barnet, now strengthened by the
ApHiu 1471 arrival of Lords Montague and Oxford. On the night
Sm^ay °^ April 13 the armies encamped within cannon shot
of each other. The Yorkists began the attack early in
the morning, advancing under cover of a heavy mist ; but in the
obscurity Edward had so miscalculated the position of the enemy
that his left wing was seriously outflanked by Warwick's right,
commanded by the earl in person, and borne backward by over-
whelming numbers began to retire. But unfortunately for War-
wick the livery of Oxford was marked by a star with beams, which
very much resembled the famous badge of York, the sun with
rays, and his men pressing forward after the broken left wing of
Edward and possibly losing their direction in the confusion, came
suddenly face to face with the star of Oxford, and, in the fog mis-
taking it for the Yorkist badge, began to fire upon their friends.
The retainers of Oxford, with the example of Clarence in mind,
supposing that the Nevilles had also gone over to the enemy, raised
the cry of treachery and fled. The men of Warwick and Mon-
tague, however, still held their own, and left the field at last only
after six hours of desperate fighting, and when both Warwick and
his brother had been slain.
The very day of the battle of Barnet, Margaret, who had been
held ofE for nearly three weeks by contrary winds, landed at Wey-
mouth ; but Barnet had removed the last hope of rescuing her hus-
484 THE FALL OF YORK [edwaed IV.
band, and as soon as the fatal news reached her she turned to
fight her way into Wales where she could be joined by the Welsh
supporters of her house and possibly provide a rallying
Ma^f^n' P"^'^* *°^ ^^^ defeated Lancastrians of the north. But
the citizens of Gloucester closed their gates and refused to
allow her to cross the Severn. She then hastened on to the next
crossing at Tewkesbury; but Edward was by this time close upon
her track and her men reached Tewkesbury only to be set upon by
Edward at the very moment when they were ready to begin the
crossing. The Lancastrians fought as desperate men fight, but
everywhere they were routed and everywhere the fierce Yorkists
stained their victory by wholesale slaughter. Among the slain was
Henry's son, Prince Edward, according to tradition murdered after
the battle in cold blood in the presence of King Edward himself.
Fifteen great earls sought sanctuary in the abbey church of
Tewkesbury; Edward promised to spare their lives but two days
later sent them all to the block. Among them were Edmund,
Duke of Somerset, and his youngest brother John, the last of the
male line of the Beauforts. From Tewkesbury Edward returned
to London to continue the slaughter of his foes ; on the night that
he entered the city, Henry VI. was murdered in his lonely cell in
the Tower; how was never known. George ISTeville, the church-
man, was cast into prison. Others less conspicuous, if rich, were
allowed to buy their lives by heavy ransoms; the poor were hurried
to the gallows without redress.
The four years which followed Tewkesbury were years of com-
parative quiet. Edward continued to summon parliaments as
before; he laid important measures before them and
rXnof^^ appeared to seek their consent, but the independence of
wrSi' parliament had passed away, not to be recovered again
until the men of the seventeenth century should wrest it
from the Stuarts. The nobles of England were by no means exter-
minated; but the strength of the great house of Neville, which had
overthrown the House of Lancaster and raised Edward to the
throne, had been entirely shattered, and it was not likely that any
other family would succeed to their influence; Edward would see
to that. The nearest heir of John of Gaunt, the son of Margaret
1475] PIOQUIGBTT 485
Beaufort, was a penniless exile in hiding in a foreign land; a strip-
ling youth, without money and without friends, of whom Edward
had little to fear. The people were weary of civil war; the cities,
for the most part loyal to York, were well pleased, and all were
willing to give the new dynasty a trial.
Instead, however, of turning his mind to securing the solid
advantages of peace, Edward must first try his hand in the foreign
game of politics where so much English money had
tofcespart already been sunk and where so many English lives had
%ars^^^ been squandered. He allowed Charles to draw him into
an alliance, with the virtual dismemberment of north-
ern France as its object. Charles was to extend his territories at
the expense of the eastern domains of Louis, and Edward was to
have Normandy and Aquitaine. In 1474, Edward began active
preparations to carry out his part of the engagement. The sub-
servient parliament voted its supplies, and the next year Edward
embarked, taking with him, it is said, the largest and best
equipped expedition which had yet set sail from English shores.
His plan was to land at Calais and advance directly into the heart
of France, while Burgundy and Brittany were to push in their
armies from the east and the west. The plan was ably conceived;
and had Edward's allies supported him, it is difficult to see how
Louis XL could have saved himself. But Duke Charles was
carrying on a stubborn campaign against the little town of Neuss
across the Rhine, in which he so wasted his strength that he could
bring no army to Edward's assistance. Edward, who was no man
to chase a chimera, abandoned his allies in disgust and made his
own terms with Louis. Louis, the business man on the throne,
who always preferred fighting his battles with "words and
money," had counted the cost of the new war, and coolly deter-
mined to appropriate the money, not to raising soldiers, but to
buying up his enemies. The two kings met on a
Trraty of bridge of the Somme at Picquigny, and agreed to a seven
Sept. 13, years' truce; Louis also agreed to pay Edward 75,000
crowns down and a further sum of 50,000 crowns for
the ransom of the unhappy Margaret.^ He also had magnificent
'Forfulltermsof treaty see Ramsay.LamcasferandForfc, II, pp. 413, 413.
486 THE FALL 01' TOEK [bdwaed IV.
pensions for Edward's leading nobles and a grand supper for the
common soldiers, — for Louis could spend money like water when
it came to affairs of state. The affair all in all was not creditable
and Edward suffered in the popular esteem ; but for this he cared
very little, so long as disapproval spent itself in grumbling and did
not lead to open outbreak.
The lesson which Edward had learned was not lost, and for the
rest of his reign he remained satisfied with the military laurels of
his youth, and gave himself to the work of securing the
granny of foundations of his throne. He was, however, far from
possessing the intellectual and moral qualities necessary
to make the most of his position. He was no statesman like the
first Edward; he was no organizer like the second Henry; he was
bold and clever, but he possessed none of that farsighted and
patient cunning which served his contemporary Louis XI. in lieu
of more kingly qualities. Hence he took no steps to organize the
results of his victory, or to justify the confidence of his subjects by
leaving an efficient public service behind him, and much of his
work had to be done over again. He was a strong king; but his
strength was founded upon ruthless cruelty and injustice. He
had never forgotten the treachery of his brother Clarence, and in
1478 appeared in person before the House of Lords to accuse him
of treason; the charge was sustained and a few weeks later the
unfortunate Clarence was secretly murdered in the Tower;
drowned, it was said, in a butt of Malmsey. The king who spared
not his own brother would not be more tender of lesser folk. He
had received a bankrupt treasury from his predecessors and he
seized every means within his power, fair or foul, to bring in money.
The revolution which had borne him to the throne, had put within
his hands ample means of enriching himself by simply declaring
forfeitures against his unsuccessful foes. The revolt of 1470 in
particular had placed the vast wealth of the Nevilles at his disposal
and afforded him an opportunity for new and still more extensive
confiscations.
The courts of justice also took advantage of the prevailing
suspicion of defection and conspiracy, and turned in a never
ceasing stream of revenues, gathered from thousands of petty
1483] DEATH OF EDWAED IV. 487
fines and forfeitures. Not satisfied with the old forms of exaction,
Edward's genius devised a new method of extortion known as a
"benevolence." Previous kings had exacted "forced loans" from
their subjects which might or might not be repaid. Edward dis-
carded the fiction of a loan altogether and received what he called
"free will offerings" from his loyal subjects. He even made per-
sonal solicitations and wrote letters in his own hand requesting
gifts from those who dared not refuse them. There is no record
of .any protest against these tyrannies on the part of parliament or
of any complaint from the people. It is true that Edward in his
later years called few parliaments, nor gave the nation many
opportunities to express its will in legal form ; and yet there were
times in the past when barons and people had compelled reluctant
kings to summon parliaments that the nation might register its
disapproval of him or his ministers. Of the few parliaments
which Edward summoned, none saw fit to question his measures
or to bring forth the old cries of "privilege" or "liberty." For
the first time since the day of John Lackland, the reign of an Eng-
lish king was allowed to pass without a single enactment inspired
by these magic words.
And yet full of injustice and cruelty, full of the spirit of
tyranny as the reign of Edward was, men justified it because all
felt that a strong king was the need of the hour. After
The desiTB
for a strong the extreme Weakness of the parliamentary kings, the
unutterable chaos and misery which attended the last
administration, the nation apparently beheld the pendulum swing-
ing to the other extreme, not only without regret, but with posi-
tive satisfaction.
In 1483 Edward died, worn out by dissipation and wild living
at the age of forty-two. His eldest son, known as Edward V.,
was a lad of twelve years; and although Edward's
Edwardir., despotic policy had left little to be feared from the
Lancastrian sentiment which still lingered among his
nobles, the people who had learned to dread a rule of protectors
and regents received with a new foreboding of evil the news of the
king's death; nor had they long to wait before their worst fears
were realized.
488 THE PALL OF TOEK [bdward T,
Eichard Duke of Gloucester had been commonly recognized as
the staunch supporter and confidant of the late king. He had won
great credit on the fields of Barnet and Tewkesbury,
Richard, ° , , .
Buke of where he had distinguished himself by personal daring,
and had contributed not a little to the success of his
brother's arms. He was popular, for the people dearly love a
brave man, and they had not yet had an opportunity to peer into
the shadows of Eichard's character, although some grim stories
were already afloat. Coming to man's estate in an age wheu
political necessity was held to justify the utmost savagery in the
butchering of fallen rivals, under a thin veneering of humanism,
he concealed a peculiarly hard and cruel nature, which was capable
of the blackest crimes, when such crimes were necessary to free
him from the presence of an enemy, or to clear his path of a possi-
ble rival. ^ Yet he was not devoid of natural affection and was
deeply attached to wife and son, and his spirits were visibly affected
by their early death. In t:ie last months of his life, particularly,
the sense of bereavement weighed upon him until he became the
victim of a depressing melancholy ; a feeling of utter loneliness took
possession of him. In all of which men saw the judgment of God.
No sooner had Eichard learned of his brother's death than he
began to scheme for the succession. It was an easy matter, com-
paratively, to get rid of the Woodvilles and secure for
woo&viius, himself the position of protector. The Woodvilles had
never been popular; their power which was only of
yesterday, had not yet taken sufficient root to enable them to stand
without the support of royal favor. For a protectorate, moreover,
there was the precedent of 1422. Hence no one showed any par-
ticular alarm when Eichard seized the queen's brother. Earl Elvers,
and her son. Sir Eichard Grey, and hurried them off to a northern
prison, or when it was rumored that two other Woodvilles had fled
the country or that the queen with Edward IV. 's second son
' In a later day he was represented as an ugly hunchback, due perhaps
to the commendable feeling that there must be some conneotion between
the character of a man and his physical appearance. It is probable that
one shoulder was higher than the other , but not enough to amount to
deformity, or to interfere with the most active service on the battle field.
1483] RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER 489
Richard and her five daughters had fled to sanctuary at West-
minster. The influence of the upstart Woodvilles was ended; that
was pretty well understood. It was further known that Richard
had the sanction of the council ; that they had appointed him pro-
tector and that the twenty-second of June was fixed for the coro-
nation of the little Edward V.
There were men on the council, however, who were the sworn
friends of Edward IV., and who were devoted to his children, if
not to his queen. Richard knew that as long as
aaHmcontroi ^^^^so men remained he must content himself with
7uneir^'^^' ^^^ °^°® "* protector. The marked men were Will-
iam Lord Hastings, the captain of Calais, Thomas
Rotherham, the archbishop of York, and John Morton, the
bishop of Ely. On June 13 Richard suddenly presented him-
self before the council, accused Hastings of treason and
without giving him any cliance for trial or even reply had him
dragged out into the castle yard and executed. Rotherham and
Morton were cast into prison. This summary purging of the
council was not altogether to the liking of the people, and for the
moment their confidence in their favorite was shaken. Yet sus-
picion was speedily allayed by the report which was industriously
circulated by Richard's friends, that he had discovered a danger-
ous conspiracy and that these measures were necessary to preserve
the government. Three days later by the aid of the old time-
server. Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard
persuaded the queen to send Edward's second son to join the little
king who had been put into the Tower ostensibly for his own
safety.
With everything now in his hands, with the natural protectors
of Edward IV. 's children either dead or in prison, Richard pro-
ceeded to the last step. On Sunday June 33 Dr.
Richard's Shaw, the brother of the Lord Mayor, preached a
June 26, U83. remarkable sermon from an open air pulpit in St. Paul's
Churchyard, in which he attacked the marriage of
Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, and further stated that the
children of Duke Clarence could not inherit the throne on account
of their father's attainder, and that Richard of Gloucester was
Oj
490 THE FALL OF YORK [richaed hi.
therefore the rightful heir. Three days later an irregular assembly
of Eichard's friends, which passed for a parliament, formally
asserted his title to the crown and petitioned him to assume his
rightful heritage. Eichard, after a fine show of hesitation,
accepted, and on the morning of June 26 proceeded in state to
Westminster Hall.
Eichard was fully aware of the precarious nature of his hold on
the crown, and at once endeavored by an ostentatious show of jus-
tice and good government to cause men to forget if pos-
Difflmities sible the circumstances by which he had come to the
Bwhaird. throue. His danger, however, lay not in the revival of
the shattered power of the Woodvilles or the Nevilles
or the Lancastrians, but in the disappointed ambition of the men
who had helped him to the throne, the ring of politicians who
were inspired only by corrupt motives and now expected to be
rewarded by enjoying the patronage of the government. The
most prominent among these supporters of the king was Henry
Stafford, the duke of Buckingham. He was a son of Sir Hum-
phrey Stafford and a second Margaret Beaufort, daughter of that
Edmund duke of Somerset who had been so unlucky in the last
stages of the French war, and had been killed at the first battle of
St. Albans in 1455. When therefore Eichard failed to reward
Buckingham as he thought he had a right to expect, like Warwick
he fell into a mood which prepared him for a leading part in a
counter revolution. His first thought was of pressing his own
claim to the crown ; for he was not only a Beaufort but a descend-
ant of Thomas of Gloucester as well, but at Brecknock Castle, he
was brought under the influence of Bishop Morton, his prisoner ;
and was persuaded to waive his own claim and unite with the Lan-
nuinqof castrians in pushing the claim of Henry Tudor Earl of
nam^^'irst Richmond. The rising met with no success. The earl
Bi^Son^ °^ Eichmond set out from Brittany but was turned back
1483. ]yj a, storm ; swollen streams prevented the insurgents
in England from uniting their forces and Eichard easily crushed
the isolated outbreaks, taking Buckingham himself, and sending him
straight to the block. Yet it was not Eichard's policy now to shed
blood and he pardoned the most of Buckingham's followers.
1483-1485] RICHARD'S PARLIAMENT 491
Some time during the late insurrection, or just before, while
Richard was humoring the people of York by going through the
form of a second coronation in their city, the two princes
meilZ^L "^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^S^^ °f siiice their imprisonment in
the Tower, were quietly put to death, and their bodies
buried under a stone staircase, where their bones were discovered
two centuries later, in the time of Charles II.
In 1483, however, the dreadful secret was locked up within the
grim shadows of the Tower, and Richard's popularity was still
high. In January the new king assembled a parliament,
parliament, which first confirmed the action of the irregular gather-
January 1484. . J. T T , DO
ing of June, and then passed bills of attainder against
Buckingham, Richmond, Bishop Morton, and nearly a hundred
others. But Richard displayed little eagerness in punishing his
enemies. He was bent rather upon saving his popularity at any
price, and at the petition of parliament hastened to con-
demn some of the despotic practices of Edward IV., especially
his trick of exacting benevolences and the custom of seizing the
goods of an accused man before conviction. He also played for
the support of the cities by granting greater freedom to commerce ;
while a statute, specially designed to encourage literature, forbade
any one to hinder a stranger from coming into the country to sell
books, "written or printed."
No amount of generous concession, however, could dispel the
gloom which now began to settle over the new reign. Richard's
popularity was fast ebbing; men began to understand
S^wsof ^^^ ^^^^ character. His only son Edward died in April,
?e^n^^'^ shortly after the parliament had declared him Richard's
heir ; the death of his wife Anne Neville followed in
March of the next year. The question of the succession was
thus again opened and a rumor that Richard proposed to marry
Edward IV. 's daughter, Elizabeth, aroused such indignation that
he was obliged to make a public declaration that such a step had
not been thought of.
In the meanwhile Henry, Earl of Richmond, was busily laying
his plans for a second invasion of England. Richard had used his
influence to get him expelled from Brittany, but the French court
492 THE FALL OF YORK [
Richard IU.
had given him a cordial welcome. Hither had come the exiled lords
who had been attainted by Kichard's parliament, and by July, 1485,
Henry had gathered a small fleet at Harfleur. On
Bichmmd in August 7 he landed at Milford Haven in Pembroke with
about 2,000 men, and began his march across Wales to
the Severn. He was among his own people and his army rapidly
swelled in numbers as he advanced. Men felt that the blood-
stained career of Eichard was drawing to its close and hastened to
Join the standard of Eichmond. One of Eichard's. lieutenants.
Lord William Stanley, had been put in command of the Marches,
but he secretly assured Henry of his support and allowed him to
pass on toward mid-England, following slowly in his rear. Eich-
ard in the meanwhile was concentrating his strength, and, as
Henry drew near, advanced to Bosworth, where he lay encamped
on the night of the 21st of August. He was surrounded by treach-
ery and treason; he knew not whom to trust; defection was in the
air. The night, it is said, he passed in sleepless wretchedness,
haunted by terrifying dreams and gloomy foreboding of the day to
come. He was up, however, before daybreak, and after an elo-
quent harangue to his troops, with his crown upon his head led
them to the battle. The armies met on Redmoor plain about
three miles from Bosworth. Richard's army outnumbered
Henry's two to one, and his men apparently were fast getting the
better of their antagonists, when the Stanleys went over to the
side of Henry and at once turned the balance in his
August zi favor. Eichard saw that all was over, and flinging
himself into the press was cut down in an attempt to
reach Eichmond. The battered crown, which iiad been struck
from his head by a sword cut, was found clinging to a hawthorn
bush near by, and was placed by Sir William Stanley upon the
head of the victor. Then the soldiers took up the shout and
hailed Henry king.
So fell the last of the Plantagenets, the soldier kings of Eng-
land, to give place to a new race who were to seek the ends of
End of Plan- ^°°'^ government, the peace and prosperity of the peo-
tagenetera. pjg^ not through violence, but by the surer methods of
statecraft. The national estates had passed almost impercep-
END OF PLANTAGENET ERA 493
tibly into the national parliament; but the long struggle for
parliamentary rights had so weakened and undermined the
strength of the crown, that it was no longer able to control its
great subjects, but had become the helpless instrument of their
quarrels, used first by one faction and then by the other, in order
to give to their wholesale butcheries and confiscations the cloak of
law. In time, however, the strength of the nobility was wasted,
and then the great middle class was left to assert itself. Its
strength had remained intact ; it had taken little part in the wai's
of the barons and had been spared by both sides as a matter of
policy ; yet it was weary of the ceaseless anarchy and the blood-
shedding. It longed for peace and was content to see the mon-
archy grow strong again. To Edward IV. was presented the
opportunity of ushering in this new day. The great merchant
class were loyal to the House of York, not because of any interest
in the mere abstraction of legal succession, but because they saw in
it a pledge of better government and better personal security. But
Edward had neither the moral seriousness nor the intellectual
grasp to comprehend his opportunity; he was too much of an
autocrat by nature to care much for the sympathy of the nation ;
he thought only of replacing the tyranny of the nobles by the
personal rule of an independent king, and recklessly squandered
the advantages of his position in his tyrannies and his immoral-
ities. Eichard appreciated the full value of what his predecessor
had thrown away ; but the crimes over which he had mounted to
the throne, were even more fatal than Edward's indifEerence.
He saw the new era; the light of the morning of national renais-
sance and reformation was full upon his face, but the sins which
he had committed prevented him from entering the promised land.
This was reserved for his successor, when the monarchy, sup-
ported by the loyalty of the nation and vindicated in the peace
which it wrought, should enter upon a new era of strength and
dignity.
PAET III— NATIONAL ENGLAND
THE EEA OF NATIONAL AWAKENING
BOOK II— RELIGIOUS REFORMATION
FROM 1485 TO 1603
CHAPTER I
THE EESTOEATION OF THE MONARCHY
HENRY VII., 14S5-1509
THE YOUNGER BBANCH OF THE
NEVILLES
Richard, Earl of Salisbury,
kiUed at Wakelield, 14U0
\
I
Richard, Earl of
Warwick, the
"King-Maker,"
killed at Bar-
net, 1471
I
I
John, George,
Lord Men- Archbishop
tague, killed of York
at Towton,
1461
Isabelle =
George,
Duke of Clar-
ence, d. in the
Tower, 1478
Anne,
m. Richard III.,
killed at Bos-
worth, 1485
Edward Plan-
tagenet. Earl
of Warwick,
ex. 1499
I
Margaret,
Countess of
Salisbury,
e.r. 1541
Edward,
d. 1484
THE DE LA POLES
■William, wealthy mercliant of Kingston,
I founder of family in time of Ed-
I ward III.
Michael, made earl of Suffolk in 1383, d
I in exile at Paris, 1388.
Michael, 2d earl of Suffolk, d. at Bar-
I fleur, 1415.
Alice,
grand-
daughter
of Chaucer
Michael, William, :
3d earl of 4th earl
Suffolk, d. at of Suffolk.
Agincourt, 1415 1448- 1st
duke of
Suffolk,
murdered
1450
John, = Elizabeth,
2d duke I sister of
of Suffolk, Edward
d. 1491 I IV.
John, Earl of
Lincoln, killed
at Stoke, 1487
Edmund,
d. 1513
Henry, Lord Montague,
ex. 1639
Reginald,
Archbishop of
Canterbury, d. 1558
Richard,
kiUed at
Pavla, 1525,
m. Mar-
faret of
alisbury
Geoffrey
The fifteenth century compared with the fourteenth had been
a century of great material prosperity. A fortunate succession of
favorable seasons had brought a corresponding succession of abun-
dant harvests ; the plague had ceased its ravages and the French
494
PROSPEEITT OP PIETEBNTH CENTDKT 495
war had run its course. The ciTil wars of the later period had
hardly interfered with the non-military population ; the towns had
been spared, and the slaughter on the battlefield had
ProspeHtu of for the most part been confined to the nobles and their
cenimvT " retainers. In the long era of quiet ^which followed,
under the beneficent influence of lighter taxation,
abundant food, steady prices, and good wages, the population had
recovered its losses, and at the close of the century exceeded possi-
bly by twenty-five per cent the population of the England of
Eichard II.'
Commerce was particularly vigorous and active ; a fact attested
by a long series of commercial treaties which extend through the
whole century, by which English traders sought to
S'S.. ,v. secure markets not only in the cities of their neighbors
^centmy^''^ across the Channel, but also in the Hanse towns of the
Baltic, in Castile and Portugal, and even in distant
Florence. The- materials of this trade were " wool, wheat, lead,
tin, honey, hides, saddlery, hardware, and even guns." The return
trade brought wine from Gascony, wine and sugar from Greece,
paper from Venice and Florence, silks and stuffs of various hues
and kinds, turquoises and rabies, from the Orient, furs and strong,
coarse serges and friezes from Ireland, while even distant Iceland
poured its stock-fish, eiderdown, and brimstone into Bristol. The
dockyards of the east and south were called into unwonted activ-
ity; shipbuilding flourished, and the keeping up of a fleet became
once more the accepted policy of English kings. For much of
the time the government had been bankrupt and its tenure uncer-
tain, to say nothing of the presence of actual civil war ; Henry V. ,
Henry VI., and Edward IV. had successively debased the coinage,
and yet in spite of these influences, merchant and artisan had con-
tinued to prosper. The seas were comparatively safe. The
' At the close of the eleventh century the population of England was
included in about 300, 000 families, representing possibly 3, 000, 000 souls. At
the close of the fifteenth century the population had advanced to 4,300,000,
Allowing for the inroads of the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War,
it is fair to suppose that at least one-half of this increase was due to the
favorable conditions which prevailed during the fifteenth century.
496 THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY [hknbtVII.
merchants left the government pretty much to the nobles and
neither bothered themselves nor imperiled their interests by mix-
ing up their ventures with alfairs of state, while the thrifty con-
dition of the craft-gilds, who maintained the quality of English
goods and the regularity of the output of English shops, enabled
them to secure a firm hold upon the markets of Europe.
Architecture also felt the new life, although it is indicative of
the direction in which the currents were tending, that its
triumphs lay not so much in the erection of great pub-
Th?*Per-'"' ^^'^ buildings as in the construction of better and more
Wtuie^^"''' commodious dwellings for the people. Its spirit was
practical, materialistic; its right angles and upright
lines, its flat arches, square-headed windows and broad window-
lights, its square-paneled walling and elaborate ceilings, its low
pitched roofs and towering pinnacles, features of the so-called per-
pendicular style, are in marked contrast with the lofty pointed
arches, flying buttresses and vast roof spaces of the era which had
passed.
The change in the style of architecture was not more marked
than the changes in the style of dress, particularly of the middle
classes who were developing other tastes in keeping
armor, etc. '*^^*^^ ^'^^^^ improved dwellings; the robes of churchmen
alone remained as they had been in the thirteenth cen-
tury,— -emblem of the unerring, changeless orthodoxy of the wearer.
Armor also had changed to keep pace with the improvements in
offensive warfare which had followed the introduction of gun-
powder. It had become so heavy, so elaborate, and so cumbersome
that it was rapidly approaching the limit when it would be no
longer possible for the knight to move, much less fight to advan-
tage under the increasing weight of steel. It was no unusual
occurrence for "ye brave knight," in the heat and dust and press
of battle, to die without mark of cut or thrust, ignobly smothered
under his weight of armor. On the other hand gunpowder was
coming rapidly into use, especially on the continent. The Ger-
mans on the Rhine developed a "light, well-bored hand-guu,' a
weapon which was quite a favorite with Charles of Burgundy,
who sent 300 of his "hand-gun men" to accompany Edward IV.
INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF CENTUBT 497
in his descent at Eavenspur in 1471. In England, however, the
long bow, the traditional national weapon which had won Crecy
and Poitiers, still maintained its popularity and prevented the
general introduction of ^ hand fire-arms ; yet heavy ordnance had
been adopted very early, and figured in all the important sieges of
the period, particularly at Harfleur in 1415, when the three great
guns of Henry V., "the London," "the Messagere," and the
"King's Daughter," kept up such a continuous cannonade for
thirty days, that the population at last pronounced it "unen-
durable" and were glad to capitulate. The eighteen-foot pike,
which the Swiss had used to such advantage against the chivalry
of Austria, had also become a favorite with the infantry. The
importance of drill and training in the use of arms was generally
recognized, thus making the military life a distinct profession,
and to that extent robbing the old feudal nobility of their
occupation.
The intellectual life of England had remained at a low ebb until
the close of the century. The renaissance was in full tide in Italy,
but English ears were so filled with the din of political
Theintei- strife or Commercial rivalries, that little heed was paid
of the age. to the quiet-voiced scholar, bent upon the lore of a
forgotten world. Within the seclusion of the uni-
versities where the atmosphere was freest from the distracting
influences of the day, and where much might have been accom-
plished for pure learning, the restrictions which had been placed
upon discussion since the days of Lollardism, had discouraged
research aad stifled thought. So keen was the scent of the
authorities for heresy, that even those who took up the pen to
defend the , church, as Bishop Peacock in 1459, were not always
happy in satisfying the ultraconservatism of their party and got
into sore trouble for their pains. The wise, therefore, did not
try to write, and left disputation to the half informed enthusiast.
Men were bent upon other things, more engrossing than parch-
ment scroll or panel ; even those who wrote books, as the private
historiographers of the nobles, wrote to please a very limited
constituency rather than to give utterance to great thoughts.
Volumes of correspondence, as the famous Paston letters, state
498 THE KESTORATIOK OF THE MONAKCHT [henet VIL
papers, chronicles, diaries, account books, have survived, but,
valuable as they are for the purposes of the historian, they are
hardly literature. There was poetry, and much of it; weak
imitations of Chaucer, imitations also of the French ballads,
and the popular miracle plays, or mysteries, but, although some
writers, as Eobert Henryson, still labored quite in the old spirit
of Chaucer, in general "the quality of the verse was poor and the
thought lifeless."
The new inspiration which the century was to contribute to
bookmaking was to come, not from the closet of poet or historian
or philosopher, but from the shop of the printer,
s'^'tond.*" Block printing had been known in England as early as
1350; but in the reign of Edward IV., William Caxton,
an Englishman who had formerly settled in Bruges, introduced
the new art of printing by movable type. He had already printed
abroad the Game and Play of Chess; but at Westminster, where
under the special patronage of Edward IV., he set up his press, he
attempted far more ambitious tasks: Chaucer^ s Works, the Morte
d'' Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, the Polychronicon of Higden, a
history of England to which Caxton made his own additions,
bringing the work down to date, the Sayings of the Philosophers,
translated by Lord Anthony Eivers, and the story of Reynard
the Fox. It is interesting to note that among Caxton's patrons
at this era were Tiptoft, the earl of Worcester, the same who won
the unpleasant nickname of "the butcher" by the scientific way
in which he conducted the executions of 1470, and Richard of
Gloucester himself. Caxton and his helpers did much to influence
the present form of the English language by fixing upon the mid-
land dialect as the standard book English; he also used the spelling
and inflections of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth cen-
turies, thus preserving many survivals of the old inflected
Anglo-Saxon, as the final mute e, and by reason of the over slavish
imitation of bookmakers since, committing the language to many
of the eccentricities, which make the spelling of present-day
English so hard to acquire.
All in all the age was a great age, although it abounded in
deep shadows. Its springs were commercial rather than spiritual
THE GKEATEE ERA AT HAND 499
or intellectual, and like every commercial age it was also material-
istic. Its materialism, moreover, had invaded the high places of
state and church; it had poisoned the motives of king
the^e^ and noble, and had turned politics into a bloody scram-
ble for plunder; it had obscured the vision of the
people and weakened their grasp upon the supreme principles of
righteousness and liberty; it had converted bishops and abbots
into thrifty landlords, more anxious to save sheep than to save
souls; to extend their temporal powers than to develop the
Christian graces among their people. The influence of the
church had declined correspondingly, and a spirit of irreligion
pervaded all classes. Yet if faith in God were less active, a belief
in the devil and his works was never so vigorous ; the existence
of witchcraft and the general potency of the black art were com-
monly accepted, and figured in more than one great state trial of
the century.'
At the opening of Henry VII. 's reign, however, all conditions
were prophetic of a greater era at hand. The conditions of the
older political life were passing away. The old theories
New political of the state which had served to hold the medieval
demands.
society together, strange mingling of ideas drawn in
part from the ancienb Jewish theocracy, in part from the civil law,
and in part from feudalism, were steadily yielding to new
conceptions of the relations of king and nation.^ New ele-
ments, also, had been thrust into the body politic as a result
of the decline of villainage and the development of the
free yeomanry. The wealth of the nation was no longer
confined to the manors of the great lords, but was gravitat-
ing to the cities and was fully represented in the growing
importance of the merchant class. The interests of the people,
also, were turning them less to politics and more to trade.
The traditions of recent baronial usurpation, moreover, had com-
pletely displaced the more ancient traditions of royal encroach-
' For the trial of Joan of Arc, see Colby Selections, pp. 113-117. For
case of Eleanor Cobham, see Green H. E. P., I, 560, 561.
' For summary of theories of Fortescue, the venerable jurist of Henry
VI. and Edward IV., see Stubbs C. H., vol. Ill, pp. 347-253.
500 THE EESTORATION OF THE MONAECHY [hekrt vu.
ment upon the constitution. Englishmen feared civil strife more
than all other evils and were willing to concede almost any powers
to the crown, if only they might secure the peace for which they
longed. The demand of the hour, therefore, was for protection
against the lawlessness of subjects rather than against the possi-
ble encroachments of the crown; for a crowned constable to appre-
hend and punish influential criminals, rather than for pugnacious
parliaments; for new markets rather than for foreign conquests ;
for the substantial favors of great commercial treaties rather than
the enforcement of the claims of the English crown over Prance.
The new king in appearance was spare; his face was intellec-
tual, secretive, cold and severe, suggesting the ascetic. In diplo-
macy he was cunning, patient, farsighted, and prac-
Hmi'^^vn'^ tical. He had proved himself no mean soldier ; yet like
all the great kings of England, he was not fond of war.
He was a miser not because he loved gold, but by policy ; he saw
that money was the first condition of a strong government. To
him a penny saved was far more satisfactory than a penny coaxed
from a refractory parliament. Hence his habits were frugal, and
his court presented but a shabby appearance to those who remem-
bered the days of the gay, the magnificent, the voluptuous Edward.
The policy which Henry adopted at the beginning of his reign
and persistently followed out, is itself the best illustration of the
character of the man. He proposed to win the hered-
voiimi^'^ itary foes of his house by generous treatment, yet to
hold them with a strong hand ; to strengthen the royal
authority by reducing the power of the nobles and courting the
sympathy of the people, at the same time making his administra-
tion independent of the whims of parliament by a business-like
management of the public treasury. To carry out this policy he
must eschew war; yet he did not propose for that reason to allow
England's prestige to suffer abroad; he would win his share in the
perpetual scramble of continental politicians by the gentler and less
expensive method of matrimonial alliance. This policy Henry
followed through his own reign and transmitted to his successors,
and although adopted by no one of them in full, although varied
by each to meet the ever shifting needs of national or foreign
1485, I486] LAMBERT SIMNBL 501
politics, in its essential features, it remained the characteristic
Tudor policy.
Henry called his first parliament together November 7, 1485.
He informed them that he held the crown "by just right of inher-
itance and by the judgment of God." They accepted
parViMmmf ^^^ statement of fact, and, without raising the question
Y^vemherr, Qf right, declared "that the inheritance of the crown
of England and France be, rest, remain and abide in
the person of our sovereign lord. King Henry VII., and in the
heirs of his body." They also declared the late King Eichard an
usurper, his followers traitors, and then, thinking they had
sufficiently vindicated the position of Henry, extended a general
pardon to the stirvivors. It was a politic act and did much to
inspire confidence. Then they still further voiced the earnest
desire of the nation for peace by humbly petitioning the king to
"deign to marry the Lady Elizabeth York," the daughter of
Edward IV. Henry consented, and the marriage was set for
January 18, 1486. Thus at last the claims of the two lines of
York and Lancaster were merged in the one House of Tndor.
The new monarchy was hardly established before its strength
was put to the test by a series of risings due to the restlessness of
the deposed Yorkists. In 1486 Lord Level, a York-
. ■it^9s. Lovei, shire nobleman, raised the people of Yorkshire in the
I486.
Yorkist interest. But the middle class everywhere
hurried to the king's assistance. A "marvelous great number of
esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen" gathered about Henry, and
Level and his insurgents were speedily routed.
The same year a second attempt was set on foot in Ireland.
The great nobles of the Geraldine line took up Lambert Simnel,
the son of an Oxford tradesman, and proclaimed him
Simnel, use- to be "Edward Plantagenet, " Earl of Warwick, the
son of Duke Clarence and Isabelle Neville, although the
real Edward was at the time safe in Henry's keeping in the Tower.
It seems strange that men should have believed Simnel's story;
but it must be remembered that news spread slowly, and that
it was very difficult to set the popular mind right when once
misled. The people, moreover, were ignorant and credulous, and
503 THE EESTOEATION OE THE MONARCHY [hknet VU.
delighted in the marvelous and the improbable. Margaret of
Burgundy, Edward IV. 's sister, acknowledged Simnel as her
nephew, while John de la Pole, the earl of Lincoln, son of a
second sister, openly Joined Simnel, together with Lovel who
had fled to Flanders after his previous failure. The expedition,
composed of a motley crowd of soldiers and adventurers, Germans,
Flemings, and Irish, set sail from Dublin in the early summer of
1487, and soon made a landing in Lancashire. In June Henry
met them at Stoke; Lovel and Lincoln were slain; but Simnel
was captured and set to work as a turnspit in the royal kitchen.
He was not worth the hanging. ~
The rising bore immediate fruit in the revival of the old custom
of calling together members of the king's council as a court of
special criminal ju.dicature in cases which the ordinary
The Court of courts could not reach. Henry's primary object was to
ha\^"^' put a stop to the long established abuses of livery of
company, which made such risings as those of Lovel
and Simnel possible. Parliaments had frequently petitioned
against the evil and kings had promulgated laws in response, bat
in the weakness of the ordinary courts offenders had gone
"unwhipped of justice;" the poor had been oppressed; the courts
despised, and the king defied. The evil, therefore, lay not in the
law, but in the nerveless arm which wielded the law. What was
needed was a court which would be beyond private control, and not
subject to packing or intimidation ; and to meet this need a special
committee of the king's council, composed of the chancellor, the
treasurer, the keeper of the privy seal, a bishop, and a lord of the
council, to which were added the two chief justices, was empow-
ered by special act of parliament to deal with "such offenses as
livery and maintenance, jury packing, incitement to riot," and, in
general, with all offenses where the ordinary courts failed to give
justice. Cases of serious complaint, where no redress was offered
in the ordinary courts, had frequently been addressed to the king
in council, and such matters were commonly transacted in the
room in the royal palace known as the Star Chamber where the
council ordinarily held its business sittings. What was new, there-
fore, was not a court of Star Chamber, but the creation of a special
1487] THE COUET OF STAK CHAMBER 503
committee of the council, strengtliened by the addition of the two
royal judges and empowered to deal with particular classes of
offenders.^ Henceforth when a great noble violated the laws, the
king's ofBcers seized him, brought him to Westminster, and
presented him to the Court of Star Chamber where he was tried
and condemned without jury and by secret session, and sometimes
it might be even without a hearing. Henry's old friend, the earl
of Oxford, was among the first to suffer under the new law ; he was
fined £10,000.''
Another act no less conducive to the permanence of the present
peace prescribed that the service of a de facto king should not be
construed as high treason by act of parliament or any
sbiti^%95 pi'ocess of law. A parliament could not bind its suc-
cessors, and yet the effect of the law was to remove an
incentive to joining Yorkists' plots. Another law, also servicea-
ble to the same end, prescribed that if a decision in case of a con-
fiscated estate had been once given and a fine levied with proclama-
tion in a public court of justice, then after five years no further
claims could be made.
While Henry was thus laying anew the foundations of order at
home, the managers of the young French sovereign, Charles
VIII. had been steadily reducing the remaining feu-
FrmMeover <i^tories of the French allegiance and consolidating the
Brittany, strength of the crown. Henry was not blind to the
significance of these steps ; England was deeply inter-
ested, and when in 1490 the advance of the French arms promised
the speedy reduction of Brittany, the English saw themselves
threatened not only with the loss of an old and useful ally but
also with the destruction of their trade with the Bretons, for the
lords of Brittany had given special privileges to English merchants.
Henry's merchants, therefore, were eager to prevent the absorption
of Brittany by the French crown even at the expense of war.
Henry, however, felt that his position at home was by no means
*See Prothero, Select Statutes, pp. xoviii-ovii. For some novel and
interesting facts concerning this famous court, see also Miss Scofield's
Study of the Court of Star Chamber.
' For the well-known story, see Green II, p. 70.
504 THE EESTOKATIOlir OF THE MOJTAECHT [henky VII.
SO secure, that he could afford to plunge into war with the now
powerful French monarchy. Yet the nation insisted and
through parliament virtually forced the king to interfere.
Still Henry entered into the war with anything but a whole
heart, and sent over an army of only 6,000 men, entirely
inadequate to hold the duchy. The English people were not
satisfied; the clamor for war increased, and in October 1493
Henry invaded France in person. He only pretended to make
war, however, and was content to allow Charles to buy him off,
as Louis XI. had once bought ofE Edward IV. This way of
making "war pay at both ends," for parliament had
Treaty of already voted enormous subsidies, peculiarly appealed to
AMgmt',1492. Henry's thrifty nature. The nation was chagrined
and angry, but had to accept the result.
One reason why Henry had hesitated to plunge into a foreign
war was the fear that such a war would offer a new opportunity
for the Yorkists to make trouble, and so it turned out.
irarbeck Another pretender was found the moment the king had
become involved in a foreign campaign. This new
claimant was the famous Perkin Warbeck, who asserted that he
was Kichard of York, the younger of the two princes who were
supposed to have been murdered in the Tower in 1483. As in the
case of Simnel, Margaret of Burgundy accepted this pretender also
as her nephew, and rendered him all possible assistance; while the
king of France welcomed him in hope of gaining some new advan-
tage over his enemy. Warbeck was a Fleming of Tournay, hand-
some, fascinating, well educated, of kingly bearing and noble
manners, and so well tutored in his part that some readily believed
in him. He appeared first in Ireland some time in 1492, where
he was greeted by the Irish, and acknowledged by the deputy of
the king, the earl of Kildare. From Ireland he passed to France,
and in 1493 appeared at the court of Margaret.
The fact that two pretenders could so readily get the support
of the representative of Henry in Ireland, shows how little control
he had in this part of his realms, and how little respect the earl of
Kildare had for his chief. Henry determined therefore to replace
the turbulent earl of Kildare by a more responsible deputy. The
1494, 1495] POYiflNGS's LAW 505
man whom he selected was Sir Edward Poynings, his old compan-
ion in exile, as devoted to his interests as he was able and deter-
mined. Poynings began his work by getting possession
ireiamd. of the Pale. He then compelled the Irish parliament to
Lmv!u9i^ pass a series of acts, by which it was declared : first that
the consent of the English king and council was neces-
sary to the summoning of an Irish parliament ; second, that all
bills considered by the Irish parliament must first be considered
by the English parliament; and third, that the recent laws of the
English parliament were binding upon Ireland. Here was a fit-
ting close of that century and a half of English legislation for
Ireland which began with the Statute of Kilkenny of 1367, "which
made it high treason for an English settler to adopt Irish customs,
to speak the Irish tongue, or to marry an Irish woman;" which
in 1465 made it lawful for a freeman to kill a thief on sight, or
even one whom he suspected of being a thief; and which now in
1494 deprived the Irish parliament of all. power to make its own
laws. This action efEectually robbed Warbeck of the chance of
further assistance from Ireland.
In the meantime Henry's agents had also ferreted out a number
of men at home, who were charged with being in sympathy with
Warbeck and engaged in securing for him a secret fol-
DeathofSir lowing in England. At the head of these suspects was
StaSejTjiss. Sir William Stanley, his chamberlain, the man who had
made Henry's success at Bosworth possible, and who
had crowned, him on the field of battle. Like Warwick, the King-
Maker, Stanley also had come to lament his successful treason,
and was now plotting to undo his work. By order of Henry he
was seized, tried, and executed. Whether he were guilty, or not,
will probably always remain a question; but the summary pro-
ceedings, the dignity and wide influence of the victim, were a
warning to the politicians, and efEectually intimidated the secret
adherents of Warbeck in England.
After purging his own court Henry determined to force the
Flemings to expel his enemy. The task was not difl&cult; for
although Margaret persisted in befriending her spurious nephew,
Henry knew that the policy of Flanders was determined in the
506 THE RESTOEATIOJT OF THE MOWARCHT [henbt VU.
long run by the burghers. Upon the burghers, therefore, he
brought his- displeasure to bear, proclaiming an embargo upon
all goods shipped to England from the Flemish ports.
Embargo , r ,, „ ■, . . , ■ j_ -r,
upmFiemtsh As in the Case of the American embargo against Jing-
lish goods in the early part of the nineteenth century,
the people enforcing the act suffered quite as much as those against
whom the act was directed. In Henry's case, however, the pres-
sure upon the Flemish burghers was sufficient to raise such an out-
cry that Margaret was compelled to let Warbeck go; and Duke
Philip, Margaret's grandson, secured for his compliance a com-
mercial treaty with England known as the Magnus Intercursus,
which guaranteed freedom of trade between England
intercursw, and a number of Flemish cities and was of great benefit
to both countries. The success of Henry's embargo
reveals the growing influence of commerce and the commercial
classes in shaping the foreign policy of European nations.
From Flanders Warbeck attempted to make a descent on the
coast of Kent, but was easily beaten off, and finally by way of
Ireland reached Scotland. James IV. gave the adven-
Scotiand, turer a generous welcome, acknowledged him as Edward
IV. 's son, and found a wife for him in his own kins-
woman Catharine Gordon. He even went so far as to cross the
border with his prot§ge, and begin the harrying of the Northum-
brian peasants ; but Warbeck sickened of this kind of work and
returned to Scotland in disgust. Then James grew weary of his
high-toned guest who took no pleasure in making war on simple
peasant folk and after two years saw him and his wife leave the
kingdom without regret.
The threat of northern invasion had roused parliament to
unusual effort. It granted the king the enormous subsidy of
£120,000; and also empowered him to borrow an addi-
TflB 7"isi7lCI of
the Cornish tional sum of £40,000. When, however, the ministers
attempted to collect the money, there was great dissat-
isfaction throughout England, where resistance to taxation was
coming to be almost a national tradition. In Cornwall the discon-
tent expressed itself in armed revolt ; a dangerous band of insur-
gents began the usual march upon London and were not stopped
1497-1499] END OF warbeck's cakeer 507
until they reached Blackheath. The leaders, among whom was
Lord Audley, were executed, but the common people were spared.
Warbeck, who had found little sympathy in Ireland, landed
in Cornwall some three months after Blackheath, and taking
TMendof advantage of the continued dissatisfaction of the peo-
care^^^mv- P^^' encouraged them once more to take up arms. He
^**«- attacked Eseter but was driven off by the earl of
Devonshire, and retired to Taunton. Here his courage forsook
him altogether and he fled to sanctuary at Beaulieu in the N"ew
Forest. He was taken and brought before Henry at Exeter and
humbly confessed all the pitiable fraud. Henry sent him to the
Tower and for a time treated him fairly well; but an unsuccess-
ful attempt to escape in which he tried to take with him Edward
Plantagenet, the genuine earl of Warwick, brought both the unfor-
tunate young men to the block. The execution of Warwick was
hardly justifiable; the poor young man had been shut up in the
Tower since he was a child of ten, and had never done harm to
any one. His death removed the last Yorkist of the male line.
The creation of the Court of Star Chamber was only one of
many indications of the despotic tendency of Henry's administra-
tion. Certain very definite checks upon the royal
ism of Henry authority had been clearly recognized both in custom and
in formal law before the end of the fifteenth century.
These checks may be thus enumerated : 1. A grant of parliament
was in all cases necessary to legal taxation; 3. The king might
promulgate no new law without the assent of parliament; 3. He
might imprison no subject without legal warrant and every arrest
must also be followed by speedy trial; 4. Officers and servants of
the crown were liable for every violation of the rights of subjects ;
the command of a superior, even of the king, might not be
advanced in defense ; 5. The Commons had the right to impeach
any of the king's ministers for malfeasance or other misconduct.^
Theoretically, therefore, the liberties of the nation were secure,
but in the application of law in individual cases there was still wide
opportunity for abuse. Unfortunately also the conditions under
which Henry held the crown, frequently justified such evasions
'Cf. Hallam, Constitutional Hist, of England, ed. 1880, I, p. 18.
508 THE EESTOBATIOIJ^ OF THE IIONAKCHT [hesey YII.
in the interests of peace and order. Thus in time a series of
precedents were gradually established, which practically annulled
the law of liberty, jnst when the subject most needed its protec-
tion. Parliament, moreover, not only regarded such usurpations
with favor, but supported the king in measures which a hundred
years before would have called the nation to arms. This is not
to be explained simply by the weakness of parliament, or by the
fact that the nobles no longer had within their grasp the means
of forcing the demands of parliament upon the king, but rather
by the fact that Henry VII. and his successor really represented
the policy of the great body of yeomanry and gentry who controlled
the parliaments of the sixteenth century.
It was in keeping with this same tendency that towards the
end of his reign Henry dispensed with the services of parliament
altogether. The outcry which had been raised against
The "Benci'o- o ./ ^
!enfc.s"'S the grants of 1497, had proved to him that even for
the raising of subsidies parliament was useless, and that
its authority was not sufficient to outweigh the increasing opposi-
tion of the nation to taxation. Edward IV". 's method of raising
money by benevolences was far more convenient. Henry found it
useful, however, in levying his benevolences to respect the sem-
blance of law, sometimes by securing the sanction of a council of
notables summoned for this purpose, and sometimes by securing
an authorization by parliament. For the most part his rich sub-
jects responded without pjotest, accepting the burden as a sort of
price which they were paying for the much desired peace and for
protection against other and worse kinds of spoliation.
In other ways also Henry's agents contrived not only to replen-
ish his treasury as he needed funds but to accumulate a hoard
which at his death was estimated at £1,800,000. At
thibaror!! ^^^ beginning of his reign confiscations were numerous,
'chequer''^' ^^^^ when these began to fail, the two barons of the
Exchequer, Empson and Dudley, proposed to hold all
those who had wittingly or unwittingly infringed upon ancient
feudal rights of the crown, customs most of them obsolete,
and fine the offenders. Fines were also levied without mercy
upon all criminals and rebels. Even the Oornishmen, whose
1494] THE LEAGUE AGAINST FRAKCE 509
poverty was proverbial, were compelled to pay each his shilling
fine in order to secure a pardon after the rising of 1497. Offend-
ers who were so unhappy as to be conspicuous for their wealth,
were fined proportionately.
In the later years of Henry the nations of western Europe
began the long struggle to set bounds to the ambition of French
kings. The recent rapid advance of Prance had roused
Foreiyn . ^
(Mianvesof the apprehension and jealonsy of her neighbors, and
when in 1494 the visionary Charles VIII. entered upon
his famous Italian campaign for the purpose of overthrowing the
Aragonese princes of Naples in the interest of his own shadowy
claims to the Neapolitan crown, his first startling successes led at
once to a formal counter-league of the western powers, in which
Ferdinand of Spain^ and the Hapsburg emperor, Maximilian,
bore a leading part. England was hardly concerned in the issue,
for it really mattered little to her who controlled Italy or how it
was ultimately to be divided. But English statesmen did not
yet comprehend the advantages of England's insular position,
or the wisdom of holding aloof from continental entangle-
ments, in which she had no real interest; to be without an
alliance was regarded as a position of great weakness, and hence
Henry VII. sought for a place in the new continental system.
That this place should be by the side of Hapsburg and Spain was
natural. The marriage of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian
had made the princes of this powerful house heirs to
U77.
the traditional friendships and enmities of Burgundy,
and although the alliance of Charles the Eash with the Yorkists
had led him to oppose the Lancastrians, as it had also led the
French king to support Henry at first, the fact that the Yorkist-
Lancastrian quarrel was now virtually settled and that Henry
himself had recently broken with France, the fact that it was in
every way important for Henry to maintain England's profitable
' Aragon and Castile had been united under the joint sovereignty of
Ferdinand and Isabella in 1479. To this Ferdinand had recently added
Granada by the expulsion of the Moors, 1483-1493. Navarre, the last of
the four original Spanish kingdoms, was still independent in 1494. It was
added by conquest in 1513.
510 THE EESTOEATIOK OF THE MONAECHT [henky VIL
commercial relations with Burgundy and that an alliance with
Hapsburg would put a stop to Margaret's support of her spurious
nephews and save Henry from further annoyance from pretenders
such as Simnel and Warbeck, all together induced him to join the
league as a kind of silent member.
The friendly relations of Hapsburg, Spain, and England thus
established in their first alliance against France, were to have the
gravest results in shaping the future history of Europe,
Thegreat and of England in particular. In 1496 Juana of Ara-
aiikinccs of gon the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella,
Hapsburg, . t>i .?• i t i » n^
Spain, Eng- was married to Philip, the duke of Burgundy, son of
Soodand. Maximilian and Mary. In 1501 Catharine, another
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was married to
Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII., and after Arthur's death
the next year, she was pledged to Henry's second son, afterward
Henry VIII. An attempt to detach from France her old tradi-
tional ally, Scotland, also led in 1502 to the marriage of James IV.
and Margaret, a daughter of Henry VII. Of these marriages
the Hapsburg-Spanish marriage was to save the papal supremacy
in southern Europe; but the English-Spanish marriage was to
force the severance of England from the papal system; the Scotch-
English marriage was to result in the final union of England and
Scotland under a king of the Stuart line. At the time such
results were farthest from the minds of the chief actors; Henry
thought only of securing the stability of his throne and the peace
of his kingdom, and in these he succeeded.
Henry died in 1509. He had done much for England; he had
restored the monarchy; established peace; repressed the great
nobles ; and compelled all classes to obey the laws. He was not a
great legislator; but he was a great peace-officer. From the point
of view of the constitution his administration marks the beginning
of a serious retrogression; he had little use for parliament, and
greatly strengthened and enlarged the authority of the royal
council as the chief instrument of government, making it neces-
sary, in the next century, to fight over again the quarrel between
king and parliament, shedding much blood and squandering much
wealth in order to secure the privileges which the parliaments of
RESULTS OP HENRY VII. S REIGN
511
Henry IV. and Henry V. had enjoyed. And yet just such an
administration as Henry VII. gave his people was needed at the
close of the fifteenth century to prepare England for the great
role which she was to play in the sixteenth century.
PROMINENT CHARACTERS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
KINGS OF ENGLAND.
Henry IV., 1399-1413
Henry V., 1413-1422
Henry VI., 1422-1461,
and 1470-1471
Edward IV., 1461-1483
Richard in., 1483-1485
Henry VII., 148B-1509
KINGS OF FRANCE.
EMPERORS.
SOVEREIGNS OF
SPAIN. (CAS-
Charles VI., 1380-
Sigismond, 1410-
TILE AND ARA-
1423
1438
GON).
Charles VII., 1423-
Frederick III.,
1461
1440-1493
Ferdinand the
Louis XI., 1461-
Maximilian L, 1493-
'■Catholic," 1479-
1483
1519
1516
Charles vni., 1483-
Isabella, joint sov-
1498
ereign with Fer-
Louis XII., 1498-
dinand, 1479-1504
1515
FAMOUS CHARACTERS NOT KINGS.
John Huss, (J. 1414
Joan of Arc, d. 1431
G\itenberg, a. 1468
Richard of Warwick, the "King Maker,"
d. 1471
Charles the "Rash." d. 1477
Caxton, d. 1491'
Lorenzo de Medici, d. 1492
Savonarola, d. 1496
Columbus, d. 1506
CHAPTER II
THE MONAECHT SUPREME. THE ADMINISTRATION OF WOLSET
nEXEY nil., 1509-1530
ROYAL DESCENT OF THE STAFFORDS
Edmund Stafford = Anne, daughter of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester,
I 6th sou of Edward III.
Hmiiphrey, Duke of Buckingham, killed
I at Northamiiton, 1460
Humphrey, Earl of Stafford = Margaret, daughter of Edmund,
killed at St. Albans, 1455 i Duke of Somerset who was killed
at St Albans, 1455
Henry, Duke of Buckingham, executed by
I Richard III., 1483
Edward, Duke of Buckingham, executed
I byHenry VIII., 1531
Henry, Lord Stafford, d. 1562
The accession of Henry VIII. was hailed by all classes with
confident enthusiasm. No king had presented himself to the
nation with so clear a title since the accession of Eich-
tleni^'vi& ^^^ ■'■■'■■ ' merchants and petty artisans, great nobles and
gentry, freeholders and copyholders, felt that in this
York-Lancastrian king the peace which Henry VII. had given
was finally and definitely secured. The new king, moreover, pos-
sessed in himself many elements which commended him to his
people. He was a fine youth of eighteen, tall, broad-shouldered,
handsome in form and feature, a champion with lance or long
bow. In manners he was courteous, kindly, and affable, and with-
out any suggestion of the cautious thrift of his father. In intel-
lectual ability and training he was far superior to the average king
of his day; he was learned in history and theology; versed in lit-
erature, and skilled in language and music. The men of the new
learning regarded him as one of themselves, and in him fondly
looked for the realization of their ideals. But beneath this gloss of
refinement and culture, back of the debonaire youth, the universal
favorite of noble and simple, there lay another nature of which
513
CHAEACTEE OF EENEY VIII. 513
Henry himself possibly was not conscious iu those days when his
will had not yet been crossed, or his vanity had not yet fed on the
sweets of unlimited power. "If a lion know his strength," said
Sir Thomas More, who knew the real king better than the king
knew himself , "hard were it for any man to rnlehim. " When
the unhappy Wolsey lay dying in 1530, long after men had dis-
covered the true nature of their Nero, he said of Henry: "He is
a prince of royal courage and hath a princely heart, and rather
than he will miss or want part of his appetite, he will hazard the
loss of one half of his kingdom." He was as selfish, as fond of
display, as willful as Edward IV; he could be as ruthlessly cruel.
Yet he knew nothing of Edward's indolence; he loved work, and
displayed the same resistless energy, the same ruthless will, in
pursuing the objects of state as the less worthy purposes of pleasure.
Henry recognized few obligations to those who served him.
He was "a good king" but a hard master. He knew men, read
shrewdly the character of those who surrounded him,
Attitude
towards his and, with much of Louis XI. 's cynicism, gave them little
TYliTtistCfS ' tp
credit for devotion or purity of motive. They were
his tools, honored in the using, but when broken and worthless
to be thrown away. Almost his first act was to cause the arrest
of Empson and Dudley, his father's hated barons of the Exche-
quer, whose only crime had been an over-faithful service of the
crown; it was an ominous beginning of a reign to be proverbially
disastrous to great ministers.
In his domestic policy, Henry contemplated no serious depar-
ture from his father's plans. He kept the great nobles out of
office, and surrounded the throne with a new nobility,
policy of which he himself raised from the middle class. He
made the church more than ever dependent upon the
royal will.
During the reign of Henry VII. the renaissance was in full tide
in Italy, but it had been late in reaching England. The new
king began at once to show favor to the devotees of the
Hemry VIII. ^ . ^ . . , ■, -.-u xt, x-
and the new new learning; he was charmed with the conversation
of men like More and Colet ; he was flattered to be
counted one of their number, and no doubt thought that he was
514 THE MONARCHY SUPREME [hknbv vm.
in sympathy with their ideals. He protected Colet, and cordially
welcomed to England Erasmus, the learned scholar of Eotterdam.
He encouraged the founding of grammar schools and colleges, and
supported Wolsey in his plan of appropriating the wealth of
decayed monasteries to securing better facilities for educating the
clergy.
"When Henry began his reign, his advisers regarded it of the
utmost importance to continue the foreign policy of the first
Tudor. In 1503 a special dispensation of Julius II.
TMforeian had authorized the marriage of Henry with Catharine
Hemy viTi. of Aragon, the widow of his brother Arthur, and the
June?, 1509. union had been duly celebrated soon after the death
of Henry VII. to the great delight of the people,
who saw in it a visible pledge of Henry's purpose to continue
his father's policy. If, however, they thought that their ener-
getic young sovereign would be content to accept the elder
Henry's passive but safe policy of silent partnership with Spain
and Hapsburg they soon found that they were seriously mistaken.
The anti-French league which had been organized upon the appear-
ance of the French in Italy in 1494, had degenerated
Leanue\'>n "^^"^ ^ mere scramble of the great powers over the par-
tition of Italy, in which Ferdinand had not scrupled to
make a secret league with Louis XII., Charles VIII. 's successor, in
order to get the lion's share of the spoil. But the successes of the
French had again alarmed Ferdinand and his ally. Pope Julius II.,
so that in 1511 a new league was formed, known as "The Holy
League," with the express purpose of defending the papacy and
driving the French out of Italy. Henry was invited to Join this
league and make a joint attack with Ferdinand upon the French
territories south of the Garonne. The humanists who hated war
as a menace to civilization, looked on with dismay as they beheld
this the first symptom that their patron and champion was cast
after all in the same earthen mould as the other kings of Europe, his
contemporaries ; but the opportunity of regaining the old English
foothold in Guienne, which had been held before Henry's eyes by his
cunning father-in-law as the price of his assistance, was a tempta-
tion which the headstrong young Tudor had no thought of resist-
151S, 1513] FLODDEN FIELD 515
ing. In spite of many protests, therefore, Henry entered into an
active alliance with Ferdinand, Maximilian, Julius II., and the
Kepublic of Venice, in order . to cripple France and put a stop to
her aggressions.
The first venture of Henry was not assuring. The campaign in
Guienne was a miserable fiasco ; due partly to the failure of Ferdi-
Henry's first ^^^^ to render the assistance which he had promised,
war"jM2™ ^^^ partly to a mutiny of the English soldiers, who
1513. under the discouragements and hardships of the cam-
paign lost heart and at last broke camp and sailed home without
orders. Henry was furious and determined the nest year to lead
an army into Prance in person in order to retrieve the honor of
the English name. This expedition was more successful. Admiral
Howard, at the expense of his own life, prevented the French
from interfering with the passage to Calais. The king advanced
to the frontier fortress-town of Terouenne, where he was joined
by the emperor Maximilian, who served under its walls as a volun-
teer in the English army. A French force, which attempted to
throw supplies into the city, was beaten off at Guinegate, retiring
so precipitantly that the action was called the "Battle of the
Spurs." Terouenne fell and then Tournay. In the meanwhile
it became apparent to the high-spirited king that his wily allies
vrere using him for their own purposes, allowing him to bear the
burden of the war, while they expected to share the spoil. He
drew off, therefore, and returned home in a mood such as might
be expected of a man of his nature, when once awakened to the fact
that he had been made the dupe of supposed friends.
The ostensible occasion of Henry's withdrawal was an attack
upon England by James IV. of Scotland, who, irritated by some
recent grievances, in spite of his marriage to a Tudor
Field. Sep- princess had yielded to the old traditional sympathies
of the Scots with the French, and had taken advan-
tage of Henry's absence to invade Northumberland. But the blow
had already been skillfully evaded by Catharine who had promptly
roused the council and dispatched an army to the north under the
command of Thomas Howard, the earl of Surrey, and his son, also
Thomas Howard, the brother of the late admiral. The Howards
616 THE MONARCHY SUPREME [henry Vlll.
had met the Scots on Flodden Field not far from the border and
after a most skillfully conducted battle completely routed them ;
James himself was slain and his bloodstained plaid sent as a
trophy to Henry. The death of King James left the Scottish
kingdom to the distraction of a regency and Henry had little to
fear farther from this source, but the war furnished him with a
pretext and at the close of the season he withdrew from the
continent.
The man who had done most perhaps to bring Henry into his
present frame of mind was Thomas Wolsey, who since 1509 had
been attached to the royal chapel and had attained a
WoS S-""®^* influence over the king. This remarkable man,
"perhaps the greatest of the long line of ecclesiastical
statesmen from Lanfranc to Laud," was the son of a merchant of
Ipswich. He had entered Oxford when a mere child and had
been made a Bachelor of Arts at fifteen. He had risen rapidly,
his unusual gifts having early attracted the attention of the new
king, who had a kindly feeling for men who combined with phe-
nomenal industry and energy the art of bringing things to pass.
Trained as a churchman, Wolsey was yet a man of surpassing
worldly wisdom, a politician and a statesman. "In penetration,
in aptitude for business and indefatigable labor, he had no equal."
The preparation for the French war had been largely committed
to his care, and although at heart opposed to the war, he had
thrown all his splendid energy into the work of equipping the
army, thereby contributing not a little to its successes. He had
also accompanied the expedition to the continent, had shared the
hardships of the camp before Terouenne, and had become the
king's chief and most trusted adviser.
The deep humiliation and anger which Henry felt when once
it dawned upon him that his two powerful allies were only playing
upon his vanity in order to use him as a cat's-paw, had
di'i'iiomatic gi^^n Wolsey his opportunity. He had long believed
WoheJ^iiM. *'-^^* ^^^ *^^® interests of England as well as her dig-
nity lay on the side of a French alliance, and he at once
gave all his attention to securing this object, with the result that
in a short time he not only brought about an advantageous peace
1514-1519] THOMAS WOLSEY 517
but had further secured the friendship of France by the marriage
of Louis XII. and Henry's youngest sister Mary Tudor. Henry
was delighted with the success of Wolsey's plans, and showered
upon him a sviccession of honors and preferments which would
have turned the head of a smaller man; in 1514 making him
bishop of Lincoln,' and in 1515 .archbishop of York and chancel-
lor. In 1517 he also used his influence to secure for his favorite
the cardinal's cap and had him appointed papal legate for England.
Wolsey now had a free hand, and for the next fifteen years practi-
cally shaped and directed the affairs of England both at home and
abroad .
Louis XII., unfortunately, did not long survive his Tudor mar-
riage, and his death, within three months, brought the first diplo-
matic triumph of Wolsey to nought. Francis of
dipimnM^ Angouleme succeeded to the French throne, January 1,
Wouev''"'^ 1516; a man fally as ambitious as Louis and with all
the fire and energy of a youth of twenty-two in addi-
tion. His first exploit was to recover the lost ground of France in
northern Italy, winning the brilliant victory of Marignano over
the Swiss mercenaries of the duke of Milan. The
September,' great powers at once took alarm; but the death of Fer-
dinand early the next year and the succession of Maxi-
milian's grandson, Charles of Burgundy, to the Spanish throne, as
well as the approaching reversion of the Hapsburg interests in the
east, more than offset any fear of France which may have arisen
from the success of Francis at Marignano. Wolsey, true to his
policy of favoring the weaker party, succeeded in bringing about
a new alliance of England with France, arranging that Tournay
should be restored for 600,000 crowns, and that
Lmdon, Henry's infant daughter Mary should marry the infant
son of Francis. The Scottish allies of France, also,
were not forgotten, and finally the new pope Leo X., the emperor,
and Charles of Spain were persuaded to enter the peace. It was
a great triumph for the Ipswich merchant's son who thus posed
as the successful peace-maker of Christendom.
In January 1519 all the plotting and scheming of old "Kaiser
' The year before, Henry had made Wolsey bishop of Tournay.
518 THE MONAECHT SUPEBME [henrt VIIL
Max" ' came to an end, and he followed Ferdinand, his rival and
master in craft, to the grave. Who should sacceed him
dectim"'^"^^ in the imperial office? The imperial title was not hered-
itary but lay partly in the power of the pope to grant,
and partly in the power of seven princes of the empire, called
"electors." These electors were the archbishops of Mainz,
Cologne, and Treves, the elector of Saxony, the margrave of Bran-
denburg, the king of Bohemia, and the count palatine of the
Rhine. These seven might present a candidate, who then bore
the title of "King of the Eomans" and was also titular king of
the Germans ; but he was only a sort of cle facto emperor until he
had been duly crowned and consecrated by the pope. The papal
coronation was not a mere tribute on the part of the emperor to
the position of the pope in the empire, as when the archbishop of
Canterbury is allowed to crown a king of England; it was a
confirmation by the church of the choice of the electors and was
necessary to the imperial title. Hence popes might refuse the
honor, though emperors elect^had not hesitated in such cases to
invade Italy at the head of an army in order to force the pope to
confer the title, or failing in that, to make a pope of their own.
Since the days of the Holienstaufen, however, the candidates as
simply titular German kings had ^commonly possessed so little
political power, that they were content to wait beyond the Alps
and secure by diplomacy the approval of an obstinate pope.
Of the four candidates who were presented to the electoral
college in 1519, Frederick the elector of Saxony, whose pure Ger-
man blood appealed powerfully to the national sentiment of the
people, was the popular candidate and probably could
Eh-Hion of have had the honor if he would ; Henry VIII. had no
June -^8, 1510. chance at ail, nor did any one but himself think seri-
ously of his candidacy; Francis I. had a wide reputa-
tion as a soldier which greatly commended him to the electors as
a promising champion against the Turk, whom recent successes
had brought into dangerous proximity to eastern Germany.
Francis also possessed unlimited resources for bribery which he
' For sketch of his character, see Stubbs, Lectures on Mediaeval and
Modern History, p. 385 and following.
1519-1521] ELECTlOHr OF CHARLES V.
519
was perfectly willing to use. The fourth candidate was Charles
of Spain, young, yet untried and without credit for any personal
strength of character; he was also without experience in war and
his widely scattered dominions promised to keep him so busy else-
where that he could give little attention to defending Europe
against the Turk. He was, however, greatly feared by Pope
Leo, since in the recent scramble of the powers in Italy the Span-
ish-Hapsbnrg princes had got possession of Naples, and the pope
had no desire to see their influence further exalted in the penin-
sula. The pope was also averse to the candidacy of Francis, whose
hold upon north Italy at the time was equally menacing to papal
independence, and in his heart really favored a third candidate,
possibly the elector Frederick, but in an attempt to play off the
two most powerful candidates against each other he contrived to
rouse the national sentiment of the Germans who took umbrage at
what they were pleased to regard as a papal interference with the
rights of the German electors. The pope then in alarm lest
Charles should be chosen after all, took up the candidacy of Francis,
only to precipitate the catastrophe which he most feared. On
June 28, 1519, Charles was elected without a dissenting voice.'
The pope was in no condition to resist; the religious troubles
of Germany were becoming every day more serious; with the
powerful support of the new emperor, he might check them;
but if Charles were driven into opposition, no one could fore-
see the outcome. The pope, therefore, abandoned Francis
and secretly allied himself with Charles. "It is a coinci-
dence, remarkable enough, that the edict of Worms" which
formally condemned Martin Luther and his writings.
Edict of "bears the same date as the day on which, with profound
Worms, May ■, , ■, \ -, ■,
25, 1521. secrecy, he (the pope) undertook to become the ally of
Charles against Francis." ^
Francis had been beaten ; moreover the vast increase of the
power of the Spanish-Hapsburg prince made him a more dangerous
rival of France than ever, and the alliance of Henry of England
' Upon the election of Charles V. see Creighton, History of the Papacy
during the Reformation, V, pp. 94-109.
2 Creighton, V, p. 157.
520 THE MOKAECHY SUPREME [henry Vlii.
correspondingly important to the French sovereign. But Charles
also realized the importance of the friendship of England, and
just as eagerly sought for an alliance with Henry.
Wou^eyvAt^ Wolsey, however, who was still anxious to keep the peace
FroS""'' °^ Europe, sought by holding both suitors at arms length
to preserve a sort of balance between them and post-
pone the approaching war indefinitely. Interviews were arranged
for Henry with each monarch. In May 1520 Charles visited
Henry at Canterbury ; and shortly after Henry and Francis met
in the neighborhood of Calais, where in a continual round of
tournaments, feasts and pageants, glitter and wastefulness, known
as the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," each monarch attempted to
outdo the other in giving evidences of gracious good
Fuidofthc will and confidence. Yet the famous meeting had
i5go. ' hardly broken up, before Henry again met Charles at
Gravelines. The ingenuity of Wolsey, however, was
not equal to the task of keeping the two monarchs from flying at
each other, and the next year, April, 1521, Francis invaded almost
simultaneously the territories of Burgundy and Navarre. When
Charles heard that Francis had atlast broken the peace, he saw
his advantage and exclaimed, "Thank God that I have not struck
the first blow, and that the king of France wishes to make me a
greater than I am ! Either I shall become a poor emperor, or he
a poor king." Wolsey 's policy now was to keep England out
of the quarrel as long as possible. But the commercial inter-
ests of England in the Netherlands could not be ignored, and a
second visit of Charles to England resulted in a formal alliance
with Spain and Burgundy, and the appearance of an English
army in France.
It was during this alliance with Charles, that the papacy began
to loom up before Wolsey as the possible goal of his ambition.
Both Charles and Francis had sought to win his sup-
woiseyand port by promising a friendly influence in the College of
the papal >, t i -r. . ttt i ■•■,•
hmvar. Cardinals. But Wolsey was unwilling to put himself
into the hands of men who only wanted to use him, in
order to trick his master into a course which his own judgment
condemned. There is, moreover, no reason to doubt his devotion
1525-1537] wolsby's unpopulaeitt 631
to England or to believe that he sought the papacy un-
worthily.
Wolsey, at heart, had never been in sympathy with the Span-
ish alliance, and when Francis was defeated and taken prisoner at
Pavia in 1525, he saw with alarm the growing power of
^nJ^tertcs Charles V., and set himself to work to persuade Henry
to throw his weight into the other scale for the purpose
of maintaining the balance of power. This was not a difficult
thing to do, for Henry's arms had accomplished little or nothing
in his direct attacks upon France, and the people were growing
restless under the increasing load of taxation. Henry, moreover,
was getting tired of his Spanish wife and was inclined to treat all
her friends as his enemies. In 1527 the troops of Charles V.
stormed Eome, captured the pope, Clement VII., and after an
exhibitiou of lawless violence which shocked Europe, threw the
venerable head of the Christian church into prison. Henry, who
was still a zealous Catholic, resented the personal indignity to the
pope and sent a formal protest to Charles. He was, therefore,
once more in a mood to listen to his minister, and consented for
the third time to enter into a French alliance.
The third alliance with France greatly increased the unpopu-
larity of "Wolsey. He had never been loved by the people, and
had always been more or less hated by the nobles who
^"^laHt™^' ^^ been irritated by his pride and magnificence, but
feared him because of his influence with the king.
There was also a lingering hostility to Prance among the nobles,
who cherished the old traditions of the "Hundred Years' War"
and could not take kindly to the French sympathies of the court.
The Commons also had their grievances, for the chancellor had lit-
tle use for a parliament in his system. He believed that a king
ought to be able to rule without the aid of his"people and regarded
the calling of a parliament as a confession of weakness on the part
of the crown and a source of annoyance and vexation. For the
first eight years of his chancellorship, he had managed to get
along without any parliaments at all ; but the burden of the French
war had forced the king to appeal to the people, and "Wolsey in
the king's name, but against his own inclination, had asked for
532 THE MONARCHY SUPREME [henby VUL
t-he enormous grant of £800,000; and althongh parliament had
given him only about one-quarter of the amount, the increased
burden upon the people was suflBcient to call forth a storm of
satire and invective against the unpopular minister. He was
called the "butcher's dog," a "mastiff cur;" he was described in
doggerel verse as ugly in face and form ; it was said that he had
no respect for God or man; that he took bribes of the French;
that he was illiterate, a "poor master of arts whose Latin tongue
doth hobble;" so proud and haughty that none of the great lords
durst speak at the council table in his presence. These charges
were without foundation, and yet they revealed the dangerous
mood of the people. In 1525, the king again attempted to raise
monev bv what he called "an amicable loan" which
"The ami- i, xi. u i. i i •
cabicioan," was really the old benevolence, only m a new guise.
Englishmen everywhere objected ; in many places their
ill-humor expressed itself in rioting and acts of mob violence.
Even Henry at last saw the impossibility of collecting the money
and right royally remitted any further payment. Wolsey it seems
had opposed both the tax and the amicable loan, but had been
overruled by the king. His office, however, compelled him to
superintend the levy, and thus the people had come to look upon
him as responsible for the misdoing of their king. Yet the
chancellor was not a man to shrink from the unpleasant burdens
of his office, and in a spirit of devotion of which Henry VIII. was
unworthy, he freely accepted his unpopularity as one of the inci-
dents of his position. "Because every man layeth the burden
from him," he said, "I am content to take it on me, and to endure
the fame and worse of the people, for my good will towards the
king, . . . but the eternal God knoweth all."
With the church over which the position of papal legate gave
Wolsey great power, he was no more popular than with barons
and commons. He saw the need of reform, but pro-
me^hurch^ posed to reform, not the doctrines of the church, nor
the relations of the church to the papacy, but the daily
life of the clergy. He was also in sympathy with the new educa-
tional ideals which had been brought into England by Colet and
others, and sought to convert the funds of useless and decayed
14874535] THE SUCCESSION 523
monasteries, of which there were a great many in England at the
time, into the foundations of schools and colleges. In this he
had the full sympathy of both pope and king, and was only follow-
ing the policy of William of Wykeham and other conservative
churchmen of the past, who saw that there were too many lazy
monks in the church to the number of hard students. This great
work was fairly begun in 1524 in the founding of Cardinal College
at Oxford^ and a grammar school at Ipswich. Like everything
else that Wolsey touched these foundations were established upon
a scale of magnificence unprecedented; but unfortunately Wolsey
was so busily occupied in many things that he had time to carry
forward his plans of reform just far enough to alarm the short-
sighted and not far enough to win the confidence of those who
wished for more sweeping results.
Thus Wolsey stood in the nnenviable position of a great leader
without a following, who is feared by all, but trusted by none.
It required only a sign from the king for all parties to
umoPilt- combine for his overthrow. This sign was given soon
ftelj;^^^. after the conclusion of the third alliance with France,
but it was due to no fault of Wolsey's. One by one the
possible Yorkist claimants of the throne had been removed;
Edward Plantagenet the son of Clarence had been executed in
1499; of the sons of Elizabeth, Edward IV. 's sister, John de la
Pole, the earl of Lincoln, had been killed at Stoke in 1487;
Edmund de la Pole, the duke of Suffolk, had been executed by
•Henry's order in 1513, and Eichard de la Pole, the husband of
Clarence's daughter Margaret, had been killed at Pavia in 1535.
Even the collateral branches of the Beaufort line had not been
safe from the ruthless jealousy of the king, when once the succes-
sion was in question. Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham was
the son of that Henry Duke of Buckingham who had been put to
death by Eichard III. in 1483, and hence was the grandson o'f a
Margaret Beaufort. But he was also by direct descent from
Anne, daughter of Thomas of Gloucester, a representative of the
youngest son of Edward III., and if the legitimacy of the Beau-
' Remodeled and refounded by Henry VIII. after the great cardinal's
fall, as Christ Church, the name which it still bears.
524 THE MONAKCHT SUPEEME [
Henht Vlll.
forts were questioned, had even a better right to the crown than
Henry VII. He was, moreover, wealthy and powerful, and had
been foolish enough to talk about his prospects of inheriting the
throne. It was enough to rouse the suspicions of the king, and in
1531 Buckingham was tried upon a cliarge of treason, condemned,
and promptly executed.
The succession, however, was still Henry's sensitive point; and
the fatality which had attended the children of Catharine began
to prey upon a conscience which had had at best but a
Henry pro-
pose/i th
divorce.
piwe.v the poor training, and was liable to the morbid sensitiveness
of a superstitious nature. He began, therefore, to ques-
tion the validity of the papal dispensation which had authorized
him to marry his brother's widow. Henry's tender conscience,
moreover, was greatly reinforced by a violent passion which he had
formed for a young lady of the court, Anne Boleyn, a grand-
daughter of the earl of Surrey, victor of Flodden. The new fav-
orite was not blind to the significance of the attentions of the king
but had steadfastly refused to become his mistress. The unfor-
tunate Catharine, therefore, was plainly in the way; and, although
she had always been a faithful wife and most unselfishly devoted
to her husband's interests, with characteristic willfulness, Henry
set himself to get rid of her by invoking the technicalities of the
Canon Law.
The matter was laid before Wolsey who naturally opposed a
project which promised'complications from which the wisest might
shrink. But Henry was stubbornly bent upon his pur-
andthcdi- pose and Wolsey, against judgment and conscience, con-
sented to serve his master. In 1527 the king appealed
directly to Pope Clement, asking him to relieve him of the bond
which Julius II. had sanctioned. Clement, however, was by no
means free to act. The emperor Charles was Catharine's nephew
and he had clearly indicated his purpose to support her interests
and resent as a personal affront the irreparable wrong which
Henry would have the pope commit against her and her daughter.
Charles, moreover, was actually in possession of the Holy City,
the pope was a captive, and his political power in Italy trem-
bling in the balance. In Germany, also, where the Reformation was
1529, 15S0] THE FALL OF WOLSET 535
making rapid strides, the support and friendship of Charles was
more necessary to the pope than ever. Yet on the other hand the
pope feared to offend Henry; he knevf the character of the man
and did not wish to make him an enemy. He, therefore, chose
the hardly less dangerous plan of delay and non-committal.
It was Wolsey's policy, however, to force an immediate decision
from the pope, and he accordingly pressed for permission to hear
the case in his legatine court. Clement could not
Tiw trial, refuse and despatched Cardinal Campeggio to act with
Wolsey. But Campeggio's movements were so dilatory
that the trial was not fairly opened until Jnne 1539. While Cam-
peggio was thus wearing out the patience of Henry by his policy of
obstruction and delay, Catharine, satisfied that she was not to
have just treatment in any court in which Wolsey presided,
appealed directly to Eome in hope of securing a hearing before the
pontiff himself. When, therefore, Clement at last interfered and
summoned the whole case to his own tribunal, Henry's disgust
passed to angry defiance. He knew that he had little to hope
from the pope and took his action as equivalent to an adverse
decision.
Up to this point Henry had regarded himself as a most loyal
son of the church. He had even entered the lists against the Ger-
man Luther, answering Luther's attack on the seven
woS^ "mo sacraments of the church in a reply characteristically
violent and dogmatic, called the "Defense of the Seven
Sacraments," in which he had upheld the divine origin of the
papacy and the authority of the pope in matters of doctrine. The
pope, Leo X., pleased by the high quality of the champion, if not
by the quality of his work, had bestowed upon him the title of
"Defender of the Faith," thereby much elating the royal theo-
logian, since now he had a title as high sounding as that of the
"most Christian" king of France or the "Catholic" king of Spain.
But all was now forgotten in a blaze of wrath against the pope
who had dared to thwart his plan of getting rid of his unwelcome
wife. His first step was to attack the legate of his own making.
Wolsey was in no way responsible for what had taken place; but
he was the nearest and most conspicuous representative of the
536 THE MONARCHY SUPREME [
HENuy VIII.
papal dignity. The instrument, moreover, which Henry selected
for making the attack was the old Statute of Praemunire' which
it was claimed by the crown advisers Wolsey had violated in acting
as papal legate. The attack was as mean as the method was
unjust and unfair; for Henry himself had secured the appointment
for Wolsey and had practically thrust it upon him. Wolsey, how-
ever, knew tlie temper of the king too well to think of resistance ; he
knew also the temper and envy of those who surrounded him too
well to thinlc that he could secure a fair trial in any court of the
kingdom and, gracefully accepting his fate, confessed his fault and
acknowledgedhimself liable to the full penalties of the law. Henry
was somewhat mollified by the humble spirit of his once splendid
minister, and after allowing him to endure many petty annoyances
at the hands of obsequious servants, finally issued a formal pardon,
restoring with it a part of Wolsey's property to the amount of
£6,000. Wolsey was then sent north to resume his humbler
duties of archbishop of York. Here he spent the spring and
summer of 1530, but his spirit was broken and his health rapidly
gave way. His enemies, chief among whom was Thomas Howard,
now duke of Norfolk, and Anne Boleyn, who made Wolsey respon-
sible for the failure of the divorce, still pursued him with a vindic-
tiveness which was to be satisfied only by his death. Wolsey, when
the first note of alarm had been sounded, with the purest motive
had sent an appeal by a secret agent to Francis, asking him to
intercede in his behalf. The message, however, had fallen into
the hands of Thomas Howard, and was now used as a basis for a
new and more serious charge, that of treason. The fallen chan-
cellor was at once seized and hurried south with the Tower of
London as his destination. On the way his friends, for he still
had some, tried to hearten him, but he sadly responded: "I per-
ceive more than you can imagine or know ; experience of old hath
taught me." He was already a dying man. When he reached
Leicester Abbey his strength was failing so rapidly that his
captors could take him no further. He died on the 29th of
November 1530, worn out by toil, broken by the sense of disgrace;
"a very wretch replete with misery." In his last breath he
'Stubbs, a. H., III. pp. 341, 342.
1530] THE DEATH OF WOLSEY 527
acknowledged his one great fault: "Had I but served God as
diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me
over in my gray hairs. But this is my due reward for my pains
and study, not regarding my service to God, but only my duty to
my prince."
So fell Thomas Wolsey, possibly the greatest, "certainly the
most magnificent in the line of ecclesiastical statesmen." Appear-
ing at a time when "king worship" was rapidly becoming a sort
of religion with a great body of the English people, he could be
an "absolutist," and yet a patriot; for he sincerely believed that
the exaltation of England lay in the exaltation of the monarch.
This was both the excuse and the justification of that marvelous
magnificence which distinguishes Wolsey among all the great min-
isters of great kings; "his palaces, his train of gentlemen clad in
velvet of the cardinal color, the eight antechambers rich with
hangings, through which suitors passed to his presence; the silver
crosses, the pillars and pole-axes, which were carried before him
and about him when he went abroad, the prodigal splendor of the
entertainments which he gave to king and court," all were Justi-
fied because they enhanced the glory of a master who could afford
so magnificent a subject. His history, his remarkable rise and no
less remarkable fall, reflects both the greatness and the meanness
of the king whom he served, who could create him, shower upon
him dignities and wealth, who could allow him to bear the burden
of the unpopularity which he himself had roused by his own
tyrannies and blunders, and then fling him at last as a sacrifice to
the vengeance of the people. It was the Tudor fashion.
CHAPTEE III
THE ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF ENGLAND
HESRY VIII., ISiO-lXO
The universal recognition of the authority of the pope by the
states of western Europe, is a marked feature of the later middle
ages. The lines, however, which defined the limits of
reeoflnition that authority, had never been clearly drawn. The
authiiritij in world state was in theory a kind of theocracy, of which
the real sovereign was God, or Christ. The will of
the world sovereign was made known through the ministers
of the church, expressed in the decisions of councils and synods,
but most directly through the divinely appointed head of the
church, the pope, the executor of its decrees, the interpreter
of its laws and doctrines, and the vindicator of its rights; and in
exercising the functions of this high office, popes had not hesi-
tated to rebuke princes, or threaten their kingdoms with the
interdict, or the kings themselves with excommunication or depo-
sition. In general the acts which brought king or emperor under
the papal displeasure were either offenses against the moral law
of Christendom or encroachments upon the spiritual authority of
the church. Yet owing to the hopeless entanglement of church
law and state law, the pope could not submit the representatives
of the state to church discipline without encroaching upon the
independence of the state. Pew, moreover, grasped clearly the
idea of the national state ; all Christian men were regarded as
members of one common society, represented in the one visible
church and united in the one supreme visible head; and
although there were many symptoms of independent national life
so far as the relations of kings to each other were concerned, and
thou.gh there had been from time to time vigorous protests against
the encroachments of individual popes upon the rights of nations,
men were not agreed as to just where the limits of papal authority
ended or the independent rights of the national king began.
528
THE PAPAL AUTHORITY OVER ENGLAND 629
In England the rejection of the pope's claim to feudal sover-
eignty by William the Conqueror had very early given a somewhat
clearer tone to the perpetual controversy between king
kings and and pope. John, however, had obscured matters some-
thepope.
what by the pledges which he made Innocent III.,
and Innocent's successors had sought to rule England through a
resident legate as a province of the papal empire. But Edward I.
had once more asserted the temporal independence of England,
denying the right of the pope to homage and refusing the tribute,
and Edward III. had formally and finally repudiated the pledges of
John altogether. Thus the question of temporal sovereignty had
been definitely settled, but up to the reign of Henry VIII. the gen-
eral ecclesiastical authority of the pope had never been denied by
English kings, although when it came to the application of the
principle of spiritual lordship, they had frequently reseiited the
intrusion of the papal authority as an unwarranted interference
in the affairs of the kingdom.
This authority was expressed in certain very definite claims,
each of which, at some time, had been recognized by English
kings both in theory and in practice. These claims
claims mer were: 1. The appellate jurisdiction of the papal court
over the ecclesiastical courts of England. English
churchmen had often abused this principle, and there had been
some grumbling as early as Henry II. 's time; but it was not until
the reign of Edward III. that an appeal to the pope was actually
prohibited by parliament in the famous Statute of Praemunire.
The relations between the English church and the great ecclesias-
tical system of the continent, however, were so close that the
practice had never been wholly abandoned. 3. A certain right of
taxation. The pope had since the tenth century regularly levied
a penny upon each hearth in the kingdom, the famous Peter's
Pence. ^ This tax which England had paid regularly in company
with other of the northern nations of Europe, was a matter of
considerable importance to the papal treasury. Since the time
of John XXII. (1316-1334), the pope had also claimed from each
^For the origin of Peter's Pence, see Stubbs, O. H., I, pp. 250, 351.
Cf. with Eamsay, F. E., I, p. 338.
630 THE ECOLESIAStlCAL EEVOLt OP E2^GLAND [henry vnl.
ecclesiastical holding the first fruits, or annates, that is the whole
or a certain part of the profit of the living for one year. This
was ostensibly a tax upon ecclesiastics, but indirectly it was felt
by the whole nation and was generally regarded as a serious drain
upon the national resources.' 3. The popes also claimed the
right to interfere in the disposal of bishoprics and other prefer-
ments of the English church. The free way in which they had
made use of this right, frequently appointing to English livings
foreigners who never came to England at all, had brought out
the Statute of Provisors of Edward III. , which checked but did
not stop the custom. 4. The pope from the days of Gregory
the Great had cherished and fostered the monastery, and by the
practice of granting exemptions from the jurisdiction of local
bishops, had made the monks directly dependent upon himself
and thus independent of the national church. 5. The pope, also,
exercised the right of appointing a special legate, or minister, to
represent his interests at the English court. This right English
kings had recognized, but there had always been a decided opposi-
tion to the appointment of foreigners, and the popes had found it
greatly to their interests to select a legate from the ranks of resi-
dent churchmen, and in this way had secured the services of a
long line of eminent and useful men, as Henry of Winchester,
Henry Beaufort, John Morton, and, most magnificent of all
Thomas Wolsey. 6. There was also besides these claims, all of
which the popes had exercised at various times, an important body
of forms and doctrines, which the English church held in com-
mon with the rest of Christendom, and which in a certain way
could be exemplified and justified only in a common church
subordinated to the one visible head.
Here then were very marked and very tangible lines along
which the papal authority had been accustomed to act directly
upon English life, all more or less clearly recognized by
'mngicma' °^ *^® English government at the beginning of the reign
of Henry VIII. The history of the revolt of England
from the papal system is the record of the successive steps by
' In the act of 1533 it was formally alleged that since the second year
of Henry VII., the annates had taken out of the kingdom £160,000.
PKEPAKATION FOR REVOLT 531
which Henry VIII. and his successor sundered these ties and
advanced by a series of denials and repudiations to formal and
complete independence.
Many events had prepared England for this step. Since the
thirteenth century she had had her chronic quarrel with the papal
idea, especially as it was embodied in the appellate
PfGlDO/TdtiOTh ' J. •/ J. J.
forrevouin iurisdiction of the Eoman Curia and the claim of the
England. ..,..,
pope to a voice m the disposal of English livings.
The Hundred Years' War which had strengthened English
national life, had indirectly affected the attitude of the English
people toward a system which was built upon the older imperial
idea ; an idea which ignored, if it did not directly deny, the idea
of the nation. The Great Schism, also, which for so many years
had divided the Christian world against itself, had seriously weak-
ened the idea of the one family of Christian men united in the one
papal head.
Other events taking place far remote from England had also
prepared her people for the same result. The remarkable series
of inventions and discoveries which mark the close of the Middle
Ages, the discovery of Schwarz, the invention of Gutenberg and
Fust, the successful ventures of Columbus and de Gama, the bold
theories of Copernicus, the studies of Bracciolini, Petrarch, and
a host of others, had greatly stimulated and enlarged the intellec-
tual life of the times. A second universe had opened to the here-
tofore straitened mind of Europe; men thought in lightning
flashes ; they felt the conflict of this new cosmos with the old
order, and began to question the long established ideas which lay
at the foundation of the existing organization of state and church
and society. From questioning they passed to formulation ; novel
and startling ideas were promulgated about science and art,
about theology, about God and nature and man ; a revolt against
all the existing order found voice, took form, and was accepted by
an ever increasing constituency.
In its first form this revolt was intellectual, largely negative,
and manifested itself mostly in a desire to break away from old
canons and old restraints ; the human mind faced the unknown
sea and in the wild, fierce joy of freedom thought only of throw-
532 THE ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF ESTGLAND [henkt Vlll.
ing overboard chart and compass. Then men began to seek prac-
tical results in newer and better methods of education. Yet at
the close of the first decade of the sixteenth century
ofln/^it tli6^6 had been no formal break with the old system.
Pope Leo himself could be a humanist and deeply sym-
pathize with the work of the Italian scholars and still be regarded
as worthy to be a pope.
It was in this phase that the new learning had first reached
England in the reign of Henry VII. Neither Grocyn, nor
First vhase Linacre, nor Dean Colet, nor Erasmus, nor Sir Thomas
of reforma- More, thought of Overthrowing the established order.
land. They looked with deep grief upon the rent in the
seamless robe ; but they hoped to mend it, not to throw it away
for a new coat. They wanted reformation, not revolution. Hence
they gave their thought to founding schools and colleges; they
attacked the wealth of the clergy, the useless lives of the monastic
orders, and exposed in unanswerable satire, as in Erasmus's
"Colloquy on Pilgrimages," the violations of common sense which
masqueraded under the guise of religion in some of the prevalent
superstitions. As in Italy, intelligent leaders of the church, men
like Cardinal Morton and Cardinal Wolsey, gave these earnest
men their support and sympathy, openly acknowledged the need
of reform, and used their influence to promote it in a moderate
way.
Such reformers, however, moved too slowly to control or even
direct the rapid tide of events. The radicals of one day became
the conservatives of the next. It was now no longer a
Therisim{i fgi^y scholars, but Europe that was awakening. Men
had wearied of trimming off dead branches, and began
to lay the ax at the roots of the tree. The trumpet had been put
to bolder lips, and its fierce notes, shattering the startled air, were
rudely dispelling gentle dreams of impossible Utopias by the call
to arms. The church had had its opportunity of reform ; it had
summoned the great Council of Constance for that purpose, but
had signally failed. Everywhere national life was asserting itself
in fierce national wars, in which the papacy had become involved
as a political factor, and men had refused to distinguish between
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGES. 533
the head of Christendom and the head of a petty Italian state.
The result was inevitable ; the great European ecclesiastical sys-
tem was everywhere undermined and the influence of its repre-
sentative head weakened. Its ultimate dissolution apparently
was at hand.
Great and far-reaching social changes also were preparing
men's minds for a new order. Prom the new world which had
been uncovered beyond the seas streams of precious
changes metal Very early began to pour into Europe, vastly
increasing the volume of coin in circulation, stimulat-
ing all forms of industry, expanding commerce, and appealing to
all the wild adventurous spirits of the age through the most
ignoble of human passions, the lust for gold. Prices rose enor-
mously ; the distress and actual suffering increased proportionately
of those who were still held under the older social forms, who by
the survival of feudal law were shut out from any share in the
increasing prosperity ; and soon vagrancy and all the other accom-
paniments of economic revolution made their appearance. Eng-
land had already advanced far beyond the rest of Europe in the
gradual lapse of villainage and the development of a free yeo-
manry. But she was handicapped by a vast population of free
poor, who lived as tenants upon the estates of the great landown-
ers and by reason of their very freedom were now exposed to the
greed of rapacious landlords who in the mad rush for wealth did
not hesitate to turn their tenants adrift by thousands in order to
use their lands for more remunerative forms of production. The
wool trade particularly had rapidly developed during the century,
and when the rise in prices began to unsettle the old values, the fever
of speculation struck the English rural landlords ; they went wild
over sheep raising. Vast areas were taken from cultivation for
the sheepwalk ; the old cultivators of the soil were not needed
and were everywhere turned into the highways to beg, or left to
drift into the cities to join the swelling population of the slums.
Here then was soil well prepared ; here also were seeds of revolt
against the old order, everywhere scattered broadcast. This was
the moment which Henry selected for forcing his quarrel upon
the pope.
534 THE ECCLESIASTICAL EEVOLT OE ENGLAND [heset vm.
After the fall of Wolsey Henry adopted a new policy in the
treatment of the nation. Thus far Edward IV. could not have
been more indifferent to public opinion ; for like him
Wepmpi^^ Henry had ignored parliaments and defied popular dis-
teM? """" approval. This had been without doubt largely due
to Wolsey's influence; but now with the incoming of
the new chancellor, Sir Thomas More, Henry deliberately adopted
the policy of taking the people into his confidence, and henceforth
does nothing without a parliament.
The parliament of 1529, the famous "Reform Parliament,"
met on the 3d of November and continued in existence through
a long series of sessions extending over seven years.
'pm-^nerS ^^^® ^^^^ *^® body some sense of coherence ; it also
gave some unity and continuity to its work. The
Upper House consisted of about eighty-eight members, fifty-eight
of whom were churchmen; the Lower House was composed of
about three hundred members, of whom seventy-four were sent
up by the shires, the remainder by cities and boroughs. The
members represented fairly the ideas of the governing class, the
gentry, burghers, and lawyers. Henry knew that from such a par-
liament he had nothing to fear. The laity had long complained of
the burdens which the church had imposed upon them, and had
looked with greedy eyes upon the vast wealth which had passed
into the hands of monasteries and which was yielding no adequate
return in any visible benefit to the nation.
The Reform Parliament began its first sitting within a week
after the condemnation of Wolsey. The leaders had evidently
been well tutored in the part which they were
First attack , -\ , ^ ^ , -, .mi
of the Be- expected to play and at once began the attack. They
merit upon complained that the laws of the church were enacted
without reference to the civil authority; they com-
plained of the money which men had to pay for the administration
of the sacraments, of the vexatious annoyance caused by the
smmnoners and by the long journeys to the archbishops' courts, of
the way in which the episcopal examiners put to accused persons
cunningly devised questions in order to entrap them into heretical
admissions, of the abuses incident to conferring benefices upon
1531] henry's first victory over the church 535
children, of the cost of obtaining probate of wills, and of the
excessiTe fees.' Henry in reply asked the parliament to frame
acts necessary to remedy the evils of which it complained, and
sent the petition to Archbishop Warham. "Warham laid the
paper before his bishops, and elicited a reply which displayed a
singular obtuseness to the peril of the church and an equally
singular ignorance of English institutions. Summed up the reply
meant that the churchmen acknowledged no authority in the
making of their laws save the Holy Scripture and the Catholic
Church, and that the king would do well to "temper his own laws
into conformity with these. "^
y Here then was presented a very definite issue ; but an issue in
whi^h all the advantages lay on the king's side because he was
sure to have the parliament and the nation with him.
^tOTy*'^™* Henry saw his advantage, and proposed to put the
.supremacy of state law over church law to a definite
test by declaring that the whole body of the clergy who had
acknowledged Wolsey's legatine authority, had been guilty of
violating the Statute of Praemunire and were thus liable to the
penalties of imprisonment and forfeiture. The convocation had
no thought of resistance ; they too had now learned the temper of
their Nero ; the very stupendousness of the charge amazed and
stunned; smitten with panic they thought only of submission in
order to avert the next blow, the nature of which they might
imagine. On the 24th of January 1531 convocation voted to pay
into the royal treasury the sum of £118,000 as a penalty for the
alleged crime. But Henry was not to be satisfied with a half
victory, and refused to accept the fine, unless the church should
definitely recognize him as its supreme head. Two weeks later,
therefore, they formally but reluctantly acknowledged him to be
"the singular protector and only supreme governor of the English
Church, and, as far as the law of Christ permits, its supreme
head."
1 For the Petitionof Grievances, see Gee and Hardy, Docs., pp. 145-153.
2 For Warham's reply to the King, see Gee and Hardy, Docs., pp.
154-178.
536 THE ECCLESIASTICAL EEVOLT OF ENGLAND [henby VIU.
The effect of this act of convocation was virtually to give to
Henry the authority which the pope had heretofore wielded in
the English Church. Still Henry was not yet willing
ofthedecia- to sever his kingdom altogether from the papacy. The
Peter's Pence and the first fruits continued to be regu-
larly paid, and the doctrinal authority of the universal church
recognized. So far the king had merely denied the appellate
jurisdiction of the Holy See, and secured the recognition of the
civil authority over the acts of convocation.
Parliament in the meantime had taken up the ax also, and in
response to Henry's request brought forth a series of acts which
struck at the abuses which most nearly affected the
'^^^fi529 classes which its membership represented. The fines
and fees which ecclesiastical courts might prescribe were
fixed; the practice of seizing "mortuaries," the best chattel, or
the "upmost cloth" which covered the dead body, was abolished;
clergymen were forbidden to trade for profit; plural holdings
were to be allowed only when the livings were small and were then
to be limited to four. These acts were moderate; there was no
one of them which might not have emanated from the clergy
themselves.
Beyond the walls of "Westminster, however, the reform move-
ment was rapidly assuming volume and strength, soon to place
it beyond the power of king or parliament to control.
Extemionof The revolt of England was in fact developing along
movement. three distinct but converging lines: First, the king
was moving toward a declaration of the complete inde-
pendence of the English Church and the reorganization of the
English ecclesiastical system upon a purely national basis; second,
the parliament was interested in the reform of those practices of
the church which distressed the laity in particular; but third, a
far more serious threat to the established order, there was a
rapidly increasing body of people, thoughtful and devout, but
active and determined, who had caught their inspiration from
Luther and his followers, possibly from some lingering fires of
Lollardy, and had begun an attack upon the whole system of
accepted church doctrine. Their position was a strong one, for
1534-1530] WILLIAM TTNDALE 537
they represented the quickening conscience of England, the pro-
test of the better thought of the people against the irreligion and
heartless materialism of the age, with which unfortunately the
clerical body in the interests of their special privileges and their
vast wealth had suffered themselves to be identified.
Of the leaders of this third movement, the most important was
William Tyndale, who had been a student-^at the great English
universities and there come under the influence of the
Tyndale and . tt- j_- j_- i • i
tiie English new learning. His active, practical mind very early
ScritituTes. j j
conceived the idea of giving the results of the ripened
scholarship of the age to the people in the form of an accurate
translation of the Scriptures. He soon became satisfied, however,
that such a work could not be done in England in the present
mood of the clergy, and in 1534 went to the continent, where he
met Luther at Wittenberg and finally settled down at Cologne.
But here the town authorities made trouble for him and he was
forced to retire to Worms where in 1526 he finished the octavo
edition of his New Testament, and sent over some three thousand
copies to be distributed in England. The translation of the Pen-
tateuch followed in 1530. The friends of Tyndale in the mean-
time had organized an "Association of Ghristia,n Brothers"
who made it their task to bring his translations into direct contact
with the people by a wide distribution. They were circulated
with tracts of Tyndale, Frith, and Barnes, "three worthy martyrs
and principal teachers of the Church of England. ' '
Henry had no sympathy with this phase of the reform, for he
hated Luther with all the intolerance of a narrow and obstinate
mind and was suspicious of everything that smacked of
me govern- the Lutheran flavor. The bishops also had been quick
the religious to take alarm at the appearance of Tyndale's New
re arm. Testament and published their disapproval of his trans-
lations. But while Wolsey remained in power, he had stayed their
hands from offering personal violence to the men who were thus
using the Scriptures to undermine the authority of the church.
More, however, whose legal training perhaps had inspired ill his
mind a respect for law above the simple dictates of humanity, and
who possibly, also, felt the need of vindicating the political reform
538 THE ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF ENGLAND [henbt vm.
with which he was in sympathy from the charge of any complicity
in the attack on the doctrines of the church, marshalled all the
machinery of government against the "Christian Brothers" and
began a vigorous attempt to uproot the spreading heresies. He
had, moreover, already drawn the sword of controversy and had
upheld the doctrine of Purgatory against Tyndale and others in a
tract called the "Supplication of Souls." While the king, there-
fore, still bent upon his divorce, was striving to frighten the pope
into compliance by the threat of severing the ecclesiastical system
of England from that of the continent, while the parliament was
seeking to relieve the people from the burdens of mortuaries and
the neglect of pluralists. More had lighted the fires at Smithfield
and begun sending the clearest sighted advocates of the reform to
the stake.
Between Henry and the pope matters had speedily come to a
deadlock. The pope refused to be bullied and announced his
determination not to yield ; Henry at a loss as to the
totheuni- next step, yet fully determined as ever to have his way,
appealed to the universities of Europe for an opinion
upon the crucial question, whether the pope was competent to
allow a man to marry his deceased brother's widow; that is. Was
a Papal Bull superior to the plain declaration of the Scriptures?
The universities took up the question, and amused themselves
with it after their ponderous fashion, and finally gave a decision,
each in accordance with the political preferences of their respec-
tive sovereigns, and so settled nothing. After three years more of
vexatious waiting, Henry found that he was no nearer his goal
than ever, and turned again to his Eeform Parliament
ofT/ieEe^"** ■^°^" comfort. Seeking through it to renew his attack
mS'^'*'"^'"" "^P^^ *^® P°P®- "^^ ^^^^ ^* abolished benefit of
clergy for all below the rank of deacon ; it also lim-
ited to twenty years the period for which lands could be bur-
dened with the obligation of paying for masses -for the dead.
Convocation was compelled to agree to constitute no new canons
without the king's consent and to submit the existing law to a
committee of revision made up of laymen and ecclesiastics.
Then the parliament proceeded to threaten the pope more directly
1533] THOMAS CKANMEK 539
by empowering Henry to suspend the payments of Peter's Pence
and annates whenever he saw fit. '
Thus far while the Commons had been practically unanimous
in its support of the king, in the Upper House the clergy by
reason of their great strength had exerted a powerful
croroner. conservative influence, so that at times the consent of
the Lords to measures of reform had been secured only
with great difficulty; but during the year Archbishop Warham
died and Henry hastened to replace him by a very difEerent man,
Thomas Cranmer. This man, destined to give his life, for the
independence of the English Church, was the son of a gentleman
of Aslacton, Nottinghamshire, where he was born July 2, 1489.
He had entered Cambridge at fourteen, become a fellow in 1510,
and had been ordained to the priesthood in 1533, but continued
his connection with the university as a lecturer on divinity until
1528. In this year by mere chance the young divine was thrown
into the company, of Gardiner and Pox, two of Henry's ministers,
and modestly proposed to them the plan of laying Henry's diffi-
culties before the universities. Henry with bluntness character-
istic of the man ordered Cranmer to be sent for at once, declaring
"this man I trow, has the right sow by the ear," and committed
to him the presentation of his cause before the universities of
Europe. Warham died while Cranmer was on the continent,
and Henry named him for the vacant see. In vain Cranmer pro-
tested that he had been disqualified by a recent marriage ; Henry
insisted, and upon Cranmer's return he was formally consecrated,
March 30, 1533.
Henry now had an ally in the place where one was most needed,
and by his help proceeded at once to cut the troublesome knot
presented by the Canon Law. At the beginning of
TThC divorce x •/ >_i o
declared, 1533 parliament had formally abolished the right of
appeal from, the English ecclesiastical court to Eome,
and Cranmer by direction of the king at once took up the question
of the divorce, and although Catharine denied the authority of the
archbishop's court, the marriage was straightway declared illegal.
Henry had already married Anne Boleyn early in the year; the
1 See Gee and Hardy, Does., pp. 176-186.
540 THE ECCLESIASTICAL KEVOLT OF ENGLAND [henby VIII.
marriage was now announced and the coronation of the new
queen celebrated with a state and magnificence befitting the
defiant mood of the king.
The diyorce and the marriage brought on the crisis. The
pope annulled the findings of Cranmer's court and commanded
Henry to put away Anne Boleyn before the end of
Juhni%33 September under pain of excommunication. Even
Henry paused before forcing this final issue. There
was danger of an active interference on the part of Charles V. ,
when once the fatal bull should leave the Papal Curia. The
hearts of the people of England had always been with Catharine,
they had cheered her with uncovered heads and shouted "God
bless her" as she passed to the place which had been fixed upon
for her retirement. For Anne they had little sympathy, and
even that soon passed to positive detestation as they better under-
stood her character; nor were bold spirits lacking to protest
openly against the conduct of the self-willed king. John Fisher,
the venerable bishop of Rochester, who had been Catharine's
chaplain, had boldly spoken out for her at the first trial before
Campeggio and Wolsey, and in 1532 Sir Thomas More had thrown
up the seals of his office and retired from public life, rather than
be a party to the apostasy of England. Stubborn as Henry was
he could not be oblivious to the contempt of men whom he had
once admired and respected with all the ingenuousness of youth.
Yet Henry had no thought of submission ; he would appeal to a
general council of the church first; he would form another
league to defend himself against the emissaries of this mad pope,
but submit? Never ! It was in this temper that he was brought at
last completely under the influence of men like Cranmer and
Cromwell who were bent upon forcing the separation from Rome
and who now easily led him to face the alternative, and answer
threat with threat : If the pope did not cancel his decree within
nine weeks, Henry would declare the complete independence of
England of the papal system.
At last the fateful month of September opened. On the 11th
the queen gave birth to a daughter whom they christened after
Henry's mother Elizabeth. It was a daughter in spite of the pre-
1533, 1534] THE ACT OP SUPKEMACY 541
dictions of astrologers and wizards, but the friends of Henry-
determined to make the best of it. In the spring parliament
passed an Act of Succession ' which settled the crown
EUzabeth • T^pon the children of Henry and Anne, and in the autumn
n^u^^'^ interpreted it by a second act which further authorized
Henry to compel his subjects to take an oath to sup-
port the Act of Succession. Any one, moreover, who should
utter a word to the disparagement of the king's marriage or of
his heirs, should be guilty of misprision of treason and be liable to
complete forfeiture of goods and imprisonment during the king's
pleasure. More and Fisher refused to take the oath. Fisher
was already in the Tower and More was sent to Join him.
In the meanwhile the pope had refused to cancel his decree,
and nothing was left for Henry, unless he would retire from the
conflict and restore his injured wife, but to take the
Supnma% ^^®* ®^®P- Accordingly, March 31, 1534 the convoca-
Nmember, tion of Canterbury abjured the papal supremacy; the
conTOcation of York passed a similar decree before
May 15 ; and in November parliament formally decreed that the
king was to be henceforth accounted "the only supreme head on
earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia.''''
This act, the famous Act of Supremacy,^ the English Declaration
of Independence, closes the long series of anti-papal legislation
which began with the first Statute of Praemunire in 1353, and
now definitely sundered England from the ancient ecclesiastical
system of Europe.^
In order to reconstitute the church it was necessary further to
pass supplementary acts which also date from this eventful year
oizo- ^^^ '^^y ^® regarded as corollaries of the Act of
'^A^t%^^ Supremacy. By these the annates were added to the
premacy. regular revenues of the crown,* the king was empow-
' Gee and Hardy, pp. 232-343 and 244-247.
2 Gee and Hardy, pp. 243, 344 and pp. 251, 252.
3 For other important acts of this eventful year, see Gee and Hardy,
pp. 195-257.
* They were afterward, in the reign of Queen Anne, set apart for the
increase of the revenues of poor livings.
543 THE ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF BlfGLAND [hkkrtVIII.
ered to nominate bishops, and the chapter enjoined to elect his
nominees under the penalties of Praemunire. Cromwell although
a layman was named vicar general of the kingdom,
stitut^% a position which made him president of conTocation
cLfSf **'* and brought the legislative power of that body directly
under the king's control. All the bishops of England,
also, were suspended that they might be reappointed under the
new law. No attempt, however, was yet made to change the doc-
trines of the church. The pope was no longer recognized, but
the English Church was still Catholic in local government, worship,
and doctrine.
The Act of Supremacy was received generally without opposi-
tion. The Carthusian monks of the London Charter House
dared to protest, and twelve of them were promptly
the Act of hanged as a warning to others who might be of their
way of thinking. More shining marks, however, were
offered by the two distinguished prisoners in the Tower, Fisher
and More. Fisher had begun his career as confessor of Margaret
Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII., and had faithfully served
the Tudors for three generations. Few men had exerted a wider
or nobler influence. The other victim was a typical product of
the Eenaissance. Born in 1478, the son of a crown justice, he
was early bred to the law. At Oxford he came under the influ-
ence of Colet and Erasmus, and became deeply imbued with the
spirit of the newer criticism. The "Utopia," a sort of sixteenth
century "Looking Backward," which sought to expose the evils
of the existing order, and at the same time to set forth an ideal
community to be found somewhere in "no man's land," entitled
More to a fair place in literature. He also won quite a reputation
as a lawyer, and as speaker of the House of Commons sufficiently
proved his spirit by boldly attacking Wolsey, when Wolsey was in
the heyday of his power. Henry at one time was very fond of
More, whose refinement, ready wit, and gracious open nature made
him altogether a very lovable character, and now really desired to
save his old friend. But More had raised an issue not with Henry
alone, but with the whole drift of the last ten years of English
history, and Henry was powerless; the grim logic of his position
1535] THOMAS Cromwell 54.3
virtually forced him to destroy these the truest friends of his
youth, the noblest ornaments of his reign. As to More and Fisher
there are no sublimer instances of heroic devotion to conscience
in all history; without the support of the enthusiasm of the
martyr, without the sympathy of a powerful following who might
look to them for example and inspiration in devotion, with their
eyes open, they yet went deliberately to the block rather than
deny what they felt to be truth. Fisher was executed on June
22, 1535, and More on July 6, following.
It is now time to notice the man who perhaps more than any
other is responsible for the later acts of Henry, Thomas Crom-
well, "The Hammer of the Monks," and "the first
TTioYfidS
Cromwell, great English Secretary of State." He was born at
" The Ham- ° ^ . * , , , -L
mer 0/ the Putney m the year 01 Bosworth, the son of an iron-
master. After spending some years abroad as a soldier
in Italy, and as a merchant in Antwerp, he returned to London to
begin business as an attorney, money lender, and wool speculator.
Here he fell in with Wolsey and entered into his employ, collect-
ing the revenues of the archiepiscopal see of York and also con-
ducting the various matters connected with the dissolution of the
monasteries and the founding of Wolsey's college at Oxford.
After Wolsey's fall he entered' directly into the service of the king
and soon became one of his most influential ministers. He was
able, industrious, resolute, and self-willed. He can hardly be
called a Protestant, for he probably had no personal religion ; he
favored the divorce and did not hesitate to push the king on to a
separation with Rome in order to attain it. He managed the
parliament in the king's interests, ruled in the Privy Council, and
fell heir to all the bitter hatred which the nobles once felt for
Wolsey.
Cromwell's early experience in Wolsey's service had brought
him into contact with the life of the monasteries upon their most
unattractive side ; and it was not difiicult for him to
themonas- persuade Henry that they were useless and that their
wealth ought to be brought under the control of the
crown. As a preliminary move, no doubt designed to justify the
meditated spoliation, he sent out a commission in 1535 to visit the
544 THE ECCLESIASTICAL EETOLT OF EKGLAND [henrtVUI.
various houses and report on their condition. The report, known
as the "Black Book of Monasteries," was ready when parliament
met the next year, and upon its representations parliament deter-
mined to abolish all but about thirty of the larger houses upon
which the commission had reported favorably. The others to the
number of 376 were abolished and their estates confiscated for the
crown. The inmates were free to enter one of the larger houses,
or to abandon the monastic life. To such as chose the latter a
pension was allowed, equal to the income of a common parish
priest.
While Henry was thus ploughing his way at home, ruthlessly
overturning the traditions of a thousand years, Europe looked on
aghast. The executions of More and Fisher were
rent. Risings received with deep disapproval even by the Germans,
who regarded the English movement as a spurious
reformation, drawing its inspiration from politics and trade rather
than religion. The pope, also, set about preparing his bull of
deposition ; even Francis had turned against Henry, and could he
and Charles ever agree to act in harmony, a league of western Europe
for the vindication of the church and the overthrow of the mad
king of England might become a possibility. England also was
uneasy. The unrest had begun to manifest itself in various
ways. An epileptic nun had appeared in Kent, who predicted the
king's speedy death, and had deceived even Fisher by her spuri-
ous revelations. She was executed in 1534; her fall had been the
occasion of Fisher's original imprisonment in the Tower. In 1535
intrigue was prevalent and serious outbreak threatened; but the
death of Catharine the next year, by removing the hope of those
who were expecting Charles to interfere, greatly diminished the
danger of any possible outbreak. The people, however, particularly
in the north, were becoming embittered by a series of special
grievances, some real but most of them fancied, growing
partly out of the attack upon the monasteries, partly out
of the unpopularity of Cromwell with the nobility, partly out of
an unfortunate law known as the Statute of Uses which pre-
vented landowners from making charges on their estates for
the benefit of younger sons or daughters, partly out of the cus-
1536] THE PILGKIMAGE OF GRACE 545
torn of calling suits to London for a hearing instead of allowing
them to be settled at the county courts, and partly out of the
increasing displacement of agriculture by sheep farming. A
series of revolts broke out in October of 1536 and con-
TUe Pilgrim- ,.-,-,-,-,. _ . ,
age of tinned through the winter, extending over Lincoln-
GvCiCC 1536,
shire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Westmoreland,
in which the clergy, the nobles, the gentry, and landless poor
were generally implicated. The revolt in Yorkshire, known
as the "Pilgrimage of Grace," became really formidable, and
although it also failed and the leaders, among whom were
the abbots of Fountains, Jervaulx, Barlings, and Sawley,
were put to death, the protest was not altogether lost. The
hated Statute of Uses still remained on the statute books but
the courts interpreted the law more generously. A special com-
mittee of the Priyy Council, known as the Council of
The Counca the North, were also appointed to try cases such as
created, 1537. were ordinarily brought to London, holding sittings
during four months of each year in the cities beyond
the Humber. The president of the council was virtually governor
in the north in the king's name.
The northern risings had failed not because of any lack of
people, for at one time some thousands were actually in arms,
but because the insurgents could not find a claimant
New Yorkist ^o set up against Henry about whom the disaffected
elements might rally. In 1538, however, the govern-
ment suddenly became aware of a widely extended plot, which
centered in the two Yorkist families of the Poles and the Cour-
tenays. Henry Courtenay was the grandson of Edward IV. by
his daughter Catharine. He was marquis of Exeter and possessed
great power in the west. The Poles were represented by the sons
of that Reginald Pole who had been killed at Pa via in 1525 and
Margaret, the daughter of the duke of Clarence, the countess of
Salisbury. The eldest son was Henry, Lord Montague, a warm
friend of the marquis of Exeter, and married to a Neville. The
second son was Reginald Pole who had entered the church and
was once a great favorite with the king. At first he had been in
sympathy with the divorce, but like More and Fisher had refused
546 THE ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLT OF ENGLAND [heneyVIII.
to follow Henry in seceding from the great ecclesiastical family of
Europe and had written a treatise upon "Ecclesiastical Unity."
The pope was pleased and made the author a cardinal. Henry
was not pleased and had the author attainted. The exact extent
of the plot is not known or the degree in which the several leaders
were implicated. The cardinal had entered the pope's service and
was his trusted messenger in his endeavor to rouse Charles V. to
draw the sword against England. The marquis of Exeter had
assisted the king in suppressing the " Pilgrimage of Grace" but had
openly avowed his distaste for the business. Some treasonable prep-
arations, also, were unearthed in Cornwall. A younger Pole,
Geoffrey, offered evidence against his eldest brother and his
mother, the venerable countess of Salisbury, who were probably
more or less in correspondence with the exiled cardinal. It was
known also that Charles was gathering a mysterious fleet of two
hundred sail in the Schelde. Henry acted with his usual ruthless
energy. Exeter and Montague were beheaded and Lady Salisbury
was sent to the Tower, although she was not put to death until
1541.
The risings led directly to the suppression of the remaining
monasteries. The work began in 1536 in the voluntary surrender
of the great House of Furness. Other houses followed
of the great the example of Furness when it was known that the
king stood ready to make liberal provisions for the
future support of the inmates. Their chattels were sold and
their lands, yielding a revenue estimated at £6,000,000, were turned
over to the king.
Here was an enormous wealth placed in the hands of the gov-
ernment, but the keen politicians who surrounded Henry were at no
loss as to its disposal ; they proposed to forestall reaction
» 'T''*ds % ^y making the nation a partner with the government in
teriS""'"' ^^^ spoliation of the church. A part was applied to the
creation of six new bishoprics ; a part was used in coast
fortifications ; a yet greater part passed into the hands of the new
families, the Russells, the Seymours, the Dudleys, the Cecils, and
the Cavendishes, the new reform nobility whom Henry had called
around him as a balance to the old nobility ; but the greatest part
1536] DISPOSAL OF CHUECH LANDS 547
went out in small holdings, sold ofE for a song to the neighboring
gentry, so that twenty years later when the reaction came in
under Mary and her advisers talked of restoring the monasteries,
it was said that more than twenty thousand families were inter-
ested in the retention of these lands. Nothing could have been
devised more certain to fix permanently the results of Henry's
reforms. In another way also the suppression of the monasteries
strengthened the government by removing the abbots from the
House of Lords, and thereby assuring the lay element of a per-
manent majority over the spiritual peers.' Henry, also, was care-
ful to select for his six new bishoprics men upon whose sympathies
he could depend.
With the suppression of the monastic houses, the establish-
ment of a lay majority in the House of Lords, and the passing
away of all possibility of foreign military interference, the political
revolt from Eome may be regarded as accomplished. The doc-
trinal revolt was yet to come.
' See Stubbs, Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History, pp. 309 and
810. It seems that while the spiritual lords had always been in a numer-
ical majority up to the dissolution of the monasteries, yet so far as actual
daily attendance was concerned, as shown by the records of each session,
the voting strength of the two elements was commonly more nearly
equal.
CHAPTER IV
THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM
HENRY Vni., lSi9-1547
EDWARD VI., im-tb53
THE HOWARDS
John Howard, Duke of Norfolk,
supporter of Richard III.,
killed at Bosworth, 1485
Thomas, Earl of Surrey;
later, Duke of Norfolk,
victor at FloddBD, 1513. Died 1624
J
Thomas, Duke of
I Norfolk,
d. 1554
Admiral Edward
Howard, killed
in 1513
Henry, Earl of Surrey,
I Ex. by Henry
VIII., 1547
Thomas, Duke of
Norfolk, Ex. 1572
Edmund
Howard
Catharine
Howard,
Henry VIII.'
fifth wife,
Ex. 1542
William,
Lord Howard
of Effingham
I
Admiral Charles
1 Howard of the
Armada Epoch.
Created Earl of
Nottingham 1690,
d. 1624
EUzabeth =Thomas
Howard I Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Henry VIII.'s
second wife,
Ex. 1536
I
Elizabeth,
Queen of Eng-
land, 1558-1603
At the beginning of the year 1539 Henry was as determined as
ever that the doctrines and practices of the English Church should
not "vary in any iot from the faith Catholic." But by
TTie HchviTn .j .j .t j
in the reform the Act of Supremacy he had opened the iiood gates,
and all the tremendous power of the government could
not close them again. As early as 1536 the ministers of the
church had felt the pressure of the growing dissatisfaction and in
order to meet the objections of educated people, and reach some
common ground of agreement with those who were beginning to
question the teaching of the church, by the authority of convoca-
tion had published a series of articles, ten in number,
AH^iS.isse. ™ ■^iiich they declared that the Bible and the "three
creeds'" were sole authority for all matters of faith,
and explained and enjoined as necessary to salvation the three
sacraments, — baptism, penance, and the sacrament of the altar.
• The Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian.
548
1539] THE SIX ARTICLES 549
The logical sequence of an appeal to the authority of Scriptures,
moreoTer, was a demand for the Scriptures themselves, and in
1539, convocation authorized, also, and ordered to be placed
in each church, a version known as the "Great Bible."
Btbie^issl '^^^^ ^^® ^°^ strictly a new version, but was founded
upon the work of Tyndale and Ooverdale, Tyndale's
fellow in exile, who had published the first coinplete translation
of the Scriptures in English in 1535, the year before the burning
of Tyndale at Vilvorde. The "Great Bible" was accompanied by
an introduction from the pen of Cranmer.
Here then was a distinct concession of the ministers of the
church to the new learning ; an authoritative acknowledgment of
the claims of reason to a hearing as against the dog-
Agmocm. "^^tic methods of medievalism, a public recognition of
an authority superior to that of the priesthood. But
there was also a vast body of smaller folk, radicals of excitable
nature, to whom an appeal to reason meant an appeal to license,
and who thought that the abjuration of the papal supremacy per-
mitted them to begin at once an open and violent attack upon the
doctrines and practices of the' church. The ministers of the
church felt their weakness and appealed to the king for protec-
tion. When, therefore, the new parliament came together in 1539,
it determined under the promptings of the Howards, who repre-
sented the old nobility, to publish a formal statement of doctrines
which were not to be questioned, and to put a stop to the unseemly
agitation which had of late invaded the most solemn ceremonies
of the church. The result was the famous Six Articles, which
may be taken as a fair statement of the faith of the conservative
party of reform at the time, as well as an expression of their
temper.
This "bloody act," as the radical reformers termed it, neither
Catholic nor Protestant, reasserted the supremacy of the king as
under God the head of "the whole church and congre-
Tlic Six
Articles, gation of England," but enjoined the acceptance of
JUThSi 1539 • • •
transubstantiation, communion in one kmd, the
celibacy of priests, the observance of "vows of chastity or widow-
hopd," the contjniaance of private masses, and the practice of
550 THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM [hesrtVIII.
auricular confession. Death by fire was prescribed as the penalty
for denying transubstantiation. Death was also prescribed,
although not by fire, for teaching, or preaching, or maintaining in
a public court, yiews contrary to the remaining articles; for pro-
fessing such views in other ways, that is by printing, writing, or
by word, for the first offense forfeiture was prescribed, and for
the second offense death. For those who denied the articles by
open act the penalties were likewise severe.^ The act was to go
into effect "after the twelfth day of July."
The Six Articles were a direct blow to the hopes of those who
were in sympathy with the doctrinal reforms of the Lutherans and
a warning of the serious nature of the resistance which
the '.'Sia;__ might be expected. The king apparently had wished
to temper the harshness of the law somewhat, but his
sympathies with its purpose were so well known that little help
was to be expected from him. Cranmer and Latimer had opposed
the act in parliament, but Oranmer's timidity and Latimer's declin-
ing influence forbade any expectation of shelter from this direction,
now that the act had become law. Cromwell also had been more
or less in sympathy with the attack upon the doctrines of the
church, but he was too much of a politician to attempt to inter-
fere where even the king had failed to soften the resentment of
parliament against the agitators. He remained silent therefore
while the reformation drew the sword against the reformation.
If, however, Cromwell could not stay the tide which was bear-
ing all before it in parliament, he could yet plan a bold stroke
for saving the doctrinal reform. Henry had long since
andthe^'' wearied of Anne Boleyn as he had wearied of Cathar-
aimmcT' '^^®' ^^*^ ^^^ listened eagerly to rumors of gravest mis-
conduct which her enemies were doing all they could
to spread. In the early part of 1536 she had been put through
the farce of a trial in which torture was freely used in securing
testimony, and, although she herself protested her innocence, a
court of subservient peers condemned her to death. She was
executed on May 19th, and on the 20th Henry married Jane
Seymour, to make way for whom, he had been as eager to get rid
' For the text of the Six Articles, see Gee and Hardy, pp. 303-319.
1536-1540] CROMWELL AND THE LUTHEEAN ALLIANCE 551
of the unhappy Anne as. he had ever been to get rid of Catharine.
But the blight which had rested on Henry's domestic life, was
not to be dispelled. The new queen died October 20, 1537,
having survived her predecessor little more than a year. On the
12th, however, she had given birth to the long-expected heir, after-
wards known as Edward VI., and as both Catharine and Anne
Boleyn were dead at the time of Henry's third marriage, no
legal objection could be raised to the right of the young prince to
succeed to his father's throne. Thus the question which had so
long vexed Henry's mind had been at last settled. After the
death of his third queen Henry had remained unmarried for two
„ years; yet he had not been so disconsolate that he
Henry's •' , ,
fourth could not amuse himself over the various schemes of
marriage. . .
his ministers lor finding another candidate for the
dangerous post. For the nation these had been years of great
moment. Cromwell was then at the height of his power ; his ax
dripped with the blood of the Poles and the Courtenays; the
proudest of the old Catholic nobility were swept away; the
monasteries were suppressed; the Ten Articles were put forth by
convocation and the Great Bible was published. Apparently the
reform was carrying all before it. Then the reaction spoke in the
Six Articles, and Cromwell, who had gone too far to trim to the
shifting wind, saw that only a bold step would save his work.
If an alliance could be made between Henry and Francis
and the league of German princes which had been formed at
Schmalkalden in 1530 for protection against the emperor, then
England need have no fear of an invasion by Charles ; and if in
addition, Henry could be induced to forget his obstinate hatred
of the Lutherans, to enter into a marriage alliance with some one
of the powerful German houses of the reform party, the wily
minister might hope effectually to counteract the growing influ-
ence of the men who had engineered the Six Articles through
parliament. This was Cromwell's plan, and he so far succeeded
as to get Henry's consent to a marriage with Anne, the sister of
the duke of Cleves, an important prince of the lower Ehine.
Henry was not at all pleased with his bride ; it is said that his
consternation was so great when he first beheld the plain, expres-
552 THE PKOGEESS OF THE KEFOKM [henhyVIII.
sionless face, deeply pitted with smallpox, that he could not utter
a word, and forgot altogether to take from his pocket the present
which he had brought. Yet he could not draw back, for it would
not do to offend the duke of Cleves upon whom the furtherance
of the alliance with Francis rested. The marriage, therefore, in
spite of the king's disgust was duly celebrated, January 6, 1540.
Then for a time matters moved smoothly for Cromwell ; appar-
ently he was more powerful than ever; the enforcement of
the Six Articles was suspended, the force of the reaction was
stayed.
But Cromwell was playing a dangerous game and the odds
were heavy against him. First Francis definitely announced that
he would not join the Protestant league; then the Ger-
crrmweii, mau princes hastened to make their own terms with
the emperor. Cromwell's iine scheme had collapsed
and Henry found himself left out in the cold, with a fright of a
wife on his hands. The enemies of Cromwell, the old conservative
nobility, saw their opportunity and proceeded to make the most of
it, doing all they could to quicken Henry's disgust and turn his
wrath upon the luckless minister. Convocation was ordered to
declare the marriage null ; Cromwell was arrested on a charge of
treason, condemned unheard by an Act of Attainder, and hurried
to the block.
The fall of Cromwell was the signal that Henry had thrown
himself into the arms of the party of reaction. The political
head of this party was Thomas Howard, the duke of
reaction. Norfolk. He had fought by the side of his father at
Henry and Flodden ; his brother Edward Howard, the Lord High
Howard, Admiral, had been killed in action at sea in the king's
July, 1640. . , , . . . , 1 , . ^
service, — something unique m the history of Lord High
Admirals, Duke Thomas had been prominent in the active hos-
tility of the old nobility to Wolsey and had seen his schemes of
family aggrandizement succeed in the coronation of his niece
Anne Boleyn as Queen of England, but only to be thwarted again
by the counter plotting of Cromwell. Yet he had saved himself in
the fall of the unfortunate Anne, bided his time, and now again
saw a second great minister hurled from his lofty height while
1543] SECOND PEEIOD OF HOWARD INBLUBNCE 553
a second niece, Catharine, the daughter of his brother Edmund,
became Queen of England.
The enemies of the doctrinal reform well understood what was
meant by the failure of Cromwell's scheme of a Protestant alli-
ance, and set to work in serious earnest to enforce the
p&rif)d^of^ Six Articles, with grim impartiality hurdling to Smith-
^ifiumce ^^^^ ^^® denier s of the royal supremacy and the
deniers of the doctrine of transubstantiation. For-
tunately, however, the triumph of the Howards was short.
Within two years Catharine Howard had followed her cousin
Anne Boleyn to the block and upon a similar charge. Yet the
reform did not at once recover the lost ground. Henry was not
inclined to tamper farther with doctrinal matters but preferred to
keep things as they were. Cranmer, also, had lost prestige in
the fall of Cromwell. Latimer, the bishop of Ely, who had
been the most sincere among the advisers of Henry in helping on
the doctrinal reform, had resigned on the passage of the Six
Articles, leaving Stephen Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester, a
bold and honest advocate of the old doctrines, to direct Henry as
his chief ecclesiastical adviser. It was his policy to undermine
Cranmer and oppose all further innovations.
A year after the death of Catharine Howard Henry married
for the sixth and last time. The bride was Catharine Parr, whose
discretion enabled her to please her lord and keep her
sixth mar- head on her shoulders during the remaining years of
anneParr, his reign. The marriage was without political signifi-
cance.
While the events of these years were changing the whole future
of English history, no less important and far-reaching changes
were taking place in other parts of Britain, and behind
The Tucinr the green shores of its neighbor across the Irish Sea.
WaUi,, 1S36. Wales had been virtually a part of England since the
reign of Edward I. but the border counties had been
retained in semi-independence, nor had Wales or Chester yet been
allowed a representation in parliament. Henry abolished the sepa-
rate jurisdiction of the marcher lords, enlarging the Welsh shires
and adding five new ones. He also gave Wales twenty-four repre-
554 THE PEOGRESS OF THE REFORM [henbyviil
sentatives in parliament, and Chester four, and established at
Ludlow a separate council of government, similar to that which
he established north of the Humber the next year.
Flodden had so crippled Scotland that the Scots had been able
to do little harm to England during the minority of James V. The
hostility of the clergy to Henry's church policy, how-
ever, had greatly strengthened the old French party at
the Scottish court, under whose influence the young king had at
last reached man's estate. In 1537, in spite of all attempts of
Henry to win his nephew's confidence, James had definitely com-
mitted himself to the French party by marrying Magdalen, the
daughter of the French king, and although the new queen lived
only a few months, the alliance was renewed the next year by a
marriage with Mary of the powerful family of Guise. Henry,
notwithstanding, had still sought to win the favor of his Scottish
kinsman, but in 1540 a refusal of James to meet him for a confer-
ence satisfied him that Scotland must be counted among his
enemies. In the months which followed Cromwell's fall, also,
Henry's relations to Francis were becoming every day more
strained, and he determined by striking first to anticipate the
support which James was certain to give the French in case of
war. In 1543, therefore, he sent Thomas Howard to invade the
country, but gained nothing save to bring a raid of Scots into
England in reply. The Scottish nobles, however, who were
divided among themselves, gave the raid only a half-hearted sup-
port, and the whole northern army, some ten thousand strong, dis-
gracefully fled at the approach of a few hundred border farmers.
This affair of Solway Moss broke the heart of the proud young
king of Scots; he survived his humiliation only a few days,
leaving the crown to an infant daughter a week old. The
announcement that he had an heir to his crown brought no cheer
to the dying king. "The deil take it," he exclaimed, "it came
with a lass and it will go with a lass!'" The "lass" was Mary
Stuart.
In Ireland Henry was pursuing his way with characteristic
ruthlessness. In 1534 the Fitzgeralds broke out in open revolt,
1 Green, vol. II., p. 310.
1535-1543 ] HENET VIII. AND IRELAND 555
occasioned by the arrest of the earl of Kildare. In 1535 Sir
Leonard Grey suppressed the revolt, and Henry proceeded to hunt
out and destroy every male of the Fitzgerald family.
nil. and The Irish parliament, which since the Poynings Acts
had remained under the control of the English
council, supported Henry even to the recognition of his supremacy
over the church, forbidding the use of the Irish language, the
Irish dress, and the Irish fashion of wearing the hair. Monaster-
ies were abolished ; relics and images were destroyed and English-
speaking priests were put in charge of the churches. For the
moment Henry was everywhere successful. In 1539 he had pos-
session of most of the island, and in 1541 he changed his title
from "Lord" to "King of Ireland." Henry rewarded the Irish
chiefs who supported him by giving them English titles and the
plunder of the Irish monasteries. -
In 1543 the long-expected war with France broke out and,
curiously enough, the ally of Henry was the emperor. Charles was
too good a politician to allow the memory of the wrongs
war with which had been heaped upon the unfortunate Catharine,
or the wayward religious ideas of Henry, to debar him
from the advantage of a proffered alliance against his old enemy
of France. In England the overthrow of Cromwell and the
increase of the power of the Catholic nobility naturally drew
the country toward Charles, while the influence of Francis in
Scotland and the repudiation of his earlier promises to Henry
roused again the old latent animosity of the English against the
French. Francis, moreover, had put himself outside the pale of
sympathy of all Christendom, whether Catholic or Protestant, by
making a formal alliance with the Turk. Even Protestant Ger-
many drew back in horror from an alliance with a Christian prince
who sent his fleets to help Algerian pirates in the sack of Christian
cities, and at the Diet of Spires, 1543, voted 34,000 men and a
general poll tax in order to assist the emperor in overthrowing
the "two enemies" of Christendom. Henry sent a body of six
thousand Englishmen to assist Charles on the German border,
while he himself attempted to invade Prance in person. But
Charles, true to his Spanish training, was as treacherous as ever,
556 THE PKOGKESS OF THE KEFOKM [hekby Vlll.
and while Henry was squandering the blood and treasure of his
subjects before Boulogne, Charles was making a separate treaty
with Francis at Crepy, in which Francis agreed to abandon the
Turks and unite with Charles in a joint attack upon Protestant-
ism.
Henry in the meantime was left to struggle on alone, hoping
to retain the paltry advantage which he had won. An army
which he had dispatched into Scotland under Seymour
Boulogne, and Dudley burned Leith and Edinburgh, but, beyond
reading the Scots the old lesson, really accomplished
nothing. In the summer of 1545 the French made an unsuccess-
ful attempt to secure a lodgement on the Isle of Wight and the
coast of Sussex. Boulogne, which the English had taken in 1544,
also resisted all attempts at recapture. It was possible, there-
fore, for Henry to retire with some dignity, and in June 1546 he
brought the useless war to a close by the treaty of Boulogne, in
which he agreed to surrender the city to the French after eight
years upon the payment of 5,000,000 francs. As usual in
Henry's continental alliances he had been fooled and betrayed.
He had won some advantages but had gained nothing commen-
surate with the enormous debt in which the war had involved his
government.
As soon as peace was assured the king turned his attention to
his wasted treasury. The magnificent fund which his father had
accumulated had been spent in the wars and f^tes of
eierinu nf the early years of his reign. Vast sums had poured into
his treasury from the plunder of the church in Crom-
well's days, but this treasure also had soon gone with the rest.
Financial obligations, however, were trifling matters for a king
who had so ruthlessly trampled upon far more sacred pledges.
In 1545 he levied a benevolence, but this had produced only a
small part of the enormous sum needed to satisfy the government
creditors. Then Henry resorted to the dangerous expedient of
tampering with the coinage, reducing the quantity of silver in an
ounce of coin first to ten pennyweight and finally to six. In this
way Henry was enabled to balance his accounts with his creditors,
but with most disastrous efEects upon the commercial prosperity
1536-1546] BREAK ISr THE REFORM PARTY 557
of the kingdom. The old coins of the realpi rapidly passed out
of circulation; commercial transactions with foreign countries
became almost impossible ; prices rose rapidly, while those who
depended upon wages or fixed incomes were thrown into great
distress. To add to the confusion Henry discovered a new source
of plunder in the confiscation of the chantries, hospitals, colleges,
and gilds which piety had once founded, and whose wealth still lay
in the control of the church ; and to the vast throng who had
been set adrift by the sequestrations of Cromwell, to the greater
number who could no longer earn a living at the old wage scale,
were now added still another throng of starving idlers, further to
depress the wages of the employed and fill the country with beg-
gary and robbery and the cities with crime and wretchedness.
In the meanwhile the breach between the two wings- of the
reform was constantly widening. The act of 1536 which had
given to the church the Creeds, the Ten Command-
Widening ments, and the Lord's Prayer in English, had been a
breach in tJie / t , •
reform party, great advance. The publication and authorization of
the Great Bible had been a further advance. But
since the fall of Cromwell the Six Articles bad held their bloody
sway, and in 1543 Gardiner led a direct attack upon the English
Bible, forbidding the reading of it to "husbandmen, artificers,
and journeymen, and to all women except gentlewomen." In
1546 the heresy hunters even invaded the queen's private circle
and carried off to the stake her friend, the gentle Anne Askew.
In 1546, however, the influence of the reactionaries had once
more begun to wane. Henry had again attacked the church in
the interests of his depleted treasury. He was also
reactionand growing suspicious of the Howards in the interests of
Henry's Prince Edward. The old Cromwellian party were rep-
»"«»6'™- resented by Edward Seymour, the earl of Hertford, the
little prince's uncle, and by John Dudley, Lord Lisle, son of the
finance minister of unsavory memory of Henry VII. 's time.
With them, in sympathy at least, also stood Cranmer whose won-
derful skill in turning the time -hallowed Latin prayers of the
church into pure and expressive English, had given the church its
first English Litany in 1544. Cranmer lacked the moral courage
558 THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM [heney VIII.
ever to become a leader, but his position of archbisliop was one of
great influence, and he made a powerful second where bolder
spirits led. For two years the king's health had been declining.
His once magnificent constitution was breaking ; he had become
so weak that he could no longer write his name and was com-
pelled to affix the royal assent to the acts of government by a
stamp made for the purpose. Yet the spirit burned as fiercely as
ever, and when he learned that Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey,
had quartered his arms with those of Edward the Confessor, indi-
cating his direct descent from royal blood, the old wrath which
had once been so terrible again blazed up. Surrey was
Hemy Tjih, sent to the block, and his father Duke Thomas was also
arrested and attainted the day of his son's execution.
But the next day Henry died before the failing hand could seal
the act which had condemned his last victim.
The acts of Henry VIII. are the best commentary upon his
character. Possibly in the beginning of his reign he was not at
heart a bad man. He possessed, however, an inordinate
'ofHeia^™"^" vanity, an all-consuming self-love, which under opposi-
tion developed into a savage determination always to
have his own way, come what might. Fortunately, or unfortu-
nately, his quarrel with the church found a sympathetic echo in
the national heart, estranged from the pope by an accumulation
of grievances which dated back to the thirteenth century. Here
lay the strength of a king, who at any other time would have been
resisted, if not deposed by his people. He was also strong in the
limits which he proposed to set to his work ; for Henry's idea of
reform, undoubtedly, represented the exact length to which the
average Englishman was prepared to go in breaking with the old
system. Only so can we explain the acquiescence of the country
in his brutality and his tyrannies.
The political and social results of the reign were far-reaching;
and yet for this Henry deserves possibly little credit. All Europe
was advancing by leaps and bounds, and England in spite of her
king was sure to enjoy her share of the new life. She had already
passed from a feudal state to a modern nation before Henry began
his reign; her population, her wealth, her trade and commerce,
1543] EDWARD VI. 559
had placed her among the great powers of Europe. The nobles,
also, had been shorn of political authority and the middle class
was beginning to assume its place in the control of the
Henry mthe state. The influence of the church as a political or
political and .,i ,•■,-,■, t t.i
social remits social power in the nation had already waned, and with
the loss of its influence it lost the power of protecting
its great wealth from the first greedy hand that discovered the dan-
gerous secret. Yet had Henry opposed the reform, had he set the
machinery of the state to work to crush heresy in its first forms,
as he undoubtedly would have done had he not run foul of the
legatine court, it is not at all likely that the Reformation would
have taken such firm root in England, at least in that generation.
At the time of Henry's death, the son of Jane Seymour was in
his tenth year. In character he was all that a prince should be,
upright, devout, and seriously intent upon doing good.
The one-sided training, however, to which he was sub-
jected by his guardians, soon developed traces of his father's self-
confidence, harshness, and want of feeling. He became bigoted
and superstitiously devoted to doing the work of God as he under-
stood it. The mind, moreover, forced by the unnatural work to
which it was put, matured more rapidly than the body. There
was something abnormal and unwholesome about this child with the
cold, solemn face and high forehead, with the sickly undersized
body, who shrank from the sports and companionships of child-
hood, and preferred to spend his hours poring over stately vol-
umes of theology, or discussing abstruse topics with the doctors of
the church. There is something also deeply pathetic about this
absolute little lord, who needed nothing so much as a mother ; a
peculiarly sensitive instrument, left to be strung and tuned and
played upon by designing men who thought only of using him to
carry out their wild schemes of reform, or to inaugurate an era of
public plunder and spoliation.
The death of Surrey and the arrest of Norfolk had left the
radical reform party again in control of the council, and although
Henry, in his desire to maintain the existing status, had sought
in his will to balance the two parties against each other by refusing
to give to either a control in the council, the changing temper of
560 THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM [bdwabd VI.
the nation, where under the grim tutelage of the Six Articles the
reform party had waxed in numbers and strength, presented a
temptation which such leaders as Seymour, the king's
Edward Sey- "^ ■, -r^ ii n x ■ x rm, -i
rtwur, Lord uncle, and Dudley could not resist. The council ac-
Jmmary' cordingly, paying little attention to the desire of the
dead king, made Edward Seymour, the earl of Hert-
ford, Lord Protector, and by empowering him to act even without
the council, conferred upon him an authority almost regal. Two
weeks later, under the virtuous pretense of carrying out the late
king's wishes, they made Seymour Duke of Somerset, John Dudley
Earl of Warwick, and rewarded other members of the council in
the same way with titles and honors. This unseemly haste in title
grabbing was an ominous beginning; even Wriothesley, the chan-
cellor, who belonged to the party of Norfolk and Gardiner and who
had protested against the establishment of the protectorate, was
not above being advanced to the peerage as Earl of Southampton.
The protector was undoubtedly a sincere man, a good soldier
and of proved courage ; but he was also impetuous and conspicuously
lacking in judgment. He belonged to that tactless
Dangers school of politicians who are ever taking the second
protectorate, step before the first. Nor was he long in giving a sig-
nal exhibition of his lack of that discretion which is the
first quality of statesmanship. At the time of the death of Henry,
England was at peace with all the world. But, as the winter so
eventful for the cause of the Eeformation in Germany passed, more
than one war-cloud, portentous of coming storm, drifted above
the horizon. Francis followed Henry to the grave on March 31,
and his successor, Henry II., showed alarming signs of intending
to break the last treaty with England. The emperor also was
steadily pushing his plans for the dispersion of the league of
Schmalkalden, and had not only succeeded in detaching some of
its members, but on the 22d of April had surprised the elector
John Frederick at Muhlberg, routing his army and taking prisoner
the elector himself. These events were far from England, and yet
no one could doubt that with Protestant Germany crushed, the
next object which Charles would attack would be England herself,
provided Henry II. of Prance should permit it.
1547] SOMERSET AND THE EEEOEM 561
It was at all events a time for the protector to walk warily, to
make friends and not enemies. Yet from the first he seemed bent
upon making a great Catholic alliance of all Europe
Blunders of . f ^
the protector, against England possible. He offended the French by
fortifying the harbor of Boulogne, contrary to the stipu-
lations of the last treaty. He offended the Scots by imperiously
demanding the fulfillment of a treaty which they had made with
Henry VIII. in 1543, by which the Princess Mary was to marry
Edward. And when the Scots refused to make good the agree-
ment, he crossed the border and defeated them in a
ciewfi, Sept. pitched battle at Musselburgh, or Pinkie Cleugh. The
victory brought great glory to the protector, making
him the darling of the hour, but roused the whole Scottish nation
where before there had been of late a growing sympathy with the
English Reformation, and ultimately brought about the marriage
of the young queen of Scots with the Dauphin Francis, the very
thing which this campaign was designed to avert.
At home also the protector pursued a like heedless policy. Un-
like the most of the politicians who surrounded him, he was sin-
cerely devoted to the reform, but with blind indifference
The protect- , _ ' , ,, „ ,,
or's policy to consequeuces he proposed to use the power of the
government to secure at once what a cooler judgment
would have waited for a decade at least to bring about. The
chancellor Wriothesley, the new earl of Southampton, was
excluded from the council. The bishops of England wore com-
pelled to accept a renewal of their commissions in the name of the
new king to emphasize the fact that they were to look upon
themselves as merely ordinary government officials. The old
iconoclastic spirit, which had drawn down upon the reformers the
vengeance of the reaction in the penalties of the Six Articles, had
also begun to show itself soon after the death of Henry and the
half-hearted way in which the council had proceeded against the
first offenders had encouraged rather than checked its excesses.
Finally the protector himself gave the sanction of government to
such acts by issuing a formal order for the purification of the
churches, and on May 4 announced a general visitation to take
effect throughout England. The decorated windows were to be
562 THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM [edwaed VI.
broken, the walls whitewashed, the images of saint or Savior to be
destroyed. Bishops, also, were to be questioned as to their support
of the various acts for the abolition of the papal authority and the
establishment of the royal supremacy. Protests were made, but
they were imheeded. Irresponsible mobs paraded the country
roads tricked out in sacred vestments associated in the popular
mind with the reverent worship of a thousand years. Images
and pictures were dragged out and burned in the midst of blas-
phemous revelry. Everywhere the most inflammable doctrines
were fearlessly preached.
When, therefore, parliament met in November the radical
reformers were in the ascendant. They were, moreover, aggres-
sively energetic and knew exactly what they wanted.
a"^!w '"ort '^^^ great popularity of Somerset who had just returned
ZIt^^547 ^^'^^^ li'ODi the laurels of Pinkie Cleugh, whose sym-
pathy with the ultra reform party was well understood,
was guarantee also that they would meet with very little resist-
ance. Accordingly the Six Articles, the various bills of the
Lancastrian period against Lollards, the treason acts of Henry
VIII. which condemned a man to death for calling the king a
heretic, were swept away. The profanation of the Eucharist was
to be punished by fine and imprisonment, but communion in both
kinds was enjoined, nor could the parish priest deny those who
reverently desired to communicate. The shadow of authority in
the election of bishops which Henry VIII. had left to dean and
chapter, was also taken away. Bishops henceforth were to be com-
missioned solely by the crown without any fiction of election.
The towns generally were in sympathy with these radical meas-
ures of council and parliament ; the country, where new ideas natu-
rally gain ground more slowly, at least acquiesced. The
the reform government, however, seemed bent upon making trouble
for itself, and proceeded to reenact the law of 1545,
thus placing at its disposal the property of the hospitals, colleges,
and chantries throughout England which had escaped Henry VIII. ^
A great show was made of establishing new schools out of the pro-
' Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, Eton, St. George's, and Windsor
were exempted.
1547] PLtJN"DEK 01- GfHE CHDKCII 563
oeeds, but only eighteen or twenty were ever founded, and of these
many were left upon such meagre foundations that they were prac-
tically useless. Three hospitals also are to be ascribed to the
munificence of the protectorate. In consequence the Eeformation
was seriously weakened at the very point where up to this moment
its greatest strength lay. It had rested its case upon an appeal to
human intelligence against the dogma of the church and therefore
had encouraged education. But now the needs of the teachers
were to be sacrificed to the needs of the politicians. Fifteen years
later the speaker of the House of Commons complained that one
hundred schools were wanting "which before that time had been. "
Even Oxford and Cambridge, whose foundations had been spared
by the Act of 1547, felt the withering influence of this drying up
of the sources of their student supply; "scarce an hundred stu-
dents were left of a thousand."
At this point it might be expected confiscations would stop.
But the rapacious council turned next upon the bishoprics. Three
of the six recently founded by Henry VIII. were abol-
th"^hm-ch is'isd and their incomes appropriated. Other bishops
were compelled to surrender large portions of their
lands or their revenues in order to escape confiscation. Church
buildings were seized and converted to worldly uses; sometimes
the buildings were razed and the site devoted to a palace for a
friend of the government. St. Stephen's Chapel was turned into
a hall for holding the meetings of parliament; the College of St.
Martins le Grand was made into a tavern; Somerset proposed
even to tear down the Confessor's venerable abbey at Westmin-
ster. The influence of the clergy suffered as a matter of course.
Men refused to honor those whom they no longer respected.
Those who held the right of appointing to livings, advowson,
sought to get their share of the plunder by exacting from the
needy appointee, sometimes a lump sum, sometimes a percentage
of the yearly tithes. The character of the clergy degenerated
correspondingly. As a body they became less honorable, less scru-
pulous, less learned. The good Bishop Latimer and others like him,
who had unwittingly helped to raise this unclean spirit of plunder,
looked on in dazed consternation. Latimer complained that the
664 THE PE06BESS OF THE REFORM [bdwaed VI.
clergy were forced to put themselves into gentlemen's houses and
"serve as clerks of kitchens, surveyors, or receivers." But the
work of plunder was not to stop here. The royal eagles had
gorged to the full, but the carrion of less noble feather, vultures of
every breed, must now be served and they also gathered to the
banquet. Shrines and altar plate were stolen by base hands to find
their way to the mint to be issued in the current coin. Chalices,
Jewels, bells, and ornaments, were appropriated by greedy vestrymen,
and offered for public sale; pictures and furniture were carried off;
church buildings were turned into stables, and horses and mules
and kine munched their straw in solemn silence under the stately
arches of nave or choir loft.
Cranmer in the meanwhile was exercising his peculiar gifts in
bringing out an English prayer book in the hope of introducing
some order in the midst of the chaos by providing a
The Prayer xmiform service. In this he was assisted by a commit-
Booli and the ■'
nmnitv^549 *^® °^ churchmen of whom Nicholas Eidley, the bishop
of Kochester, is perhaps the best known. The work
received the approval of convocation and by the Act of Uniformity'
was sanctioned by parliament and substituted for the forms already
in vogue. It was an adaptation of the old Missal, or Mass Book,
and the Breviary, the book which contained the authorized prayers
of the old church for the seven canonical hours. The treatment
of the mass naturally puzzled the redactors. They finally decided
upon a compromise, which as usual in such cases satisfied no one.
They went too far to carry along those who hated the new changes,
as Bishop Bonner, and not far enough to please those who denied
the real Presence and the Encharistic sacrifice. It was necessary
to hold another "royal visitation" in order to enforce the new
service book. Bonner was deposed, and thrown into prison where
he lingered until the death of Edward.
Somerset had now been in control of the government for two
years and the effect of his high-handed policy was beginning to be
manifest upon all sides. The social disorders to which the later
acts of Henry's reign had contributed, had increased; nor had the
protector done aught to relieve the distress, save to modify some-
1 Gee and Hardy, pp. 358-366^
1549] POPULAR KISINGS 565
wliat tlie laws against vagrancy. The continued debasing of the
coinage had also augmented the commercial distress, while the
confiscation and breaking up of the foundations con-
rmction!^ "^ nected with the religious gilds had swelled the number of
those who were thrown upon public charity for support.
The increasing stringency, moreover, had reacted upon itself;
those who employed servants attempted to retrench by cutting
down the number; landlords also, in their efEort to secure less
costly methods of production, continued to enclose large areas for
sheepwalks, thus swelling the ever-increasing multitude who were
left to choose between beggary, robbery, and starvation. Eest-
lessness increased rapidly; men ceased to respect a government,
which existed only to impoverish them; they began to discredit
the reform as the cause of all their misery ; they decried the lead-
ers, too many of whom had fattened upon the plunder of the
church, as thieves and highwaymen.
Among the Protestant leaders, moreover, there were not want-
ing ambitious spirits who sought to take advantage of the unrest
for their own profit. The first of these was Lord
Thmmis Sey- Thomas Seymour of Sudeley, who had grown jealous of
March i5i9 ^^^ brother's power and had made use of his position as
admiral, it was alleged,^ to prepare for insurrection by
secretly forging cannon, laying up ammunition, aUd making friends
with the Channel pirates. He was arrested and attainted by the
same parliament that passed the Act of Uniformity.
More serious trouble followed in the summer. The effort to
introduce the Prayer Book was attended by risings in Cornwall and
Devon. Exeter was besieged by a band of 10,000 rebels
Ikm^jms"* who demanded the restoration of the Six Articles, of
the mass, and the elevation of the Host, the suppression
of the English Bible, and the recall of Cardinal Pole. They were
put down by Russell and Grey but only after two hard-fought bat-
tles, St. Mary's Olyst and Sampford Oourtenay, in which four
thousand of the western peasants were slain. Of the leaders,
among whom was an Arundel, short shrift was made. Insurrection
1 Seymour was condemned witliout trial. Hence the charges were
never proved.
566 THE PROGRESS OF THE REFOEM [edwaed VI.
had also broken out in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and other places.
The most serious rising occurred, hoH^ever, in Norfolk which
unlike the remote western counties had been a stronghold of the
Eeforination. Here the grievance of the people was not the
Prayer Book, but their poverty and suffering. A great camp was
formed at Household Hill, near Norwich, whither under the guid-
ance of a tanner named Ket the people proceeded in a very orderly
way to summon the neighboring landlords before them to answer
for their conduct in the enclosure of the neighboring commons and
the eviction of yeoman tenants. The protector was greatly
puzzled as to what course to follow, for these were his friends ; he
himself was attempting to check the greed of the landlords and
had appointed a commission to inquire into the enclosures. He,
therefore, sought to temporize and persuade the people to entrust
their cause to him ; but the rebels refused to break up the camp until
their grievances had first been righted. Fighting began, and then
the trouble was on. John Dudley, the earl of Warwick, who was
marching north with an army designed for Scotland, was ordered
to proceed against the rebels. This he did at once, routing them
with great slaughter August 27.
These events completely destroyed what was left of Somerset's
waning influence. It was evident to the most hopeful that he had
failed, not, however, from any lack of good will, but
»TOt6ctor(s""' sii^ply because he persisted in doing too many things at
oamintstro- once. After two years of administration he had to
show for his pains: the hostility of Scotland confirmed,
war with France not only imminent but practically begun about
the outposts of Boulogne, the anti-reform elements in the west .
goaded to open resistance, the tenantry of the midland and eastern
counties in revolt, and a serious breach between landlord and ten-
ants threatened, similar to the outbreaks of the fourteenth century.
The public debt also had been increased by a million and a half
pounds to which a ruinous rate of interest was daily adding its
burden.' The yearly income of the crown was about £300,000;
but the household expenses under the extravagant and visionary
management of the protector had increased from £19,000 to
'For some of this, the protector had contracted as high as 13 or 14 fo.
1549] FIRST PALL OF SOMEKSET 567
£100,000.^ Cromwell had fleeced the church, but Somerset had
flayed it; yet not for the state or the cause of reform but for him-
self and his political friends. Corruption pervaded the public
service from top to bottom. The royal mints not only continued
their dangerous output of debased coins but the royal oflScers were
allowed to do some coining on their own account. Sharington the
master of the mint at Bristol, who was implicated in the fall of
Thomas Seymour, confessed that in a few months he had thus put
out some £100,000. The commander of the skeleton regiments on
the northern border drew pay and rations for the full quota of
troops, and kept up the fraud by hiring neighboring countrymen
to fill his depleted ranks on muster days.
The council, therefore, determined to take advantage of the
unpopularity of the protector and oust him by simply falling back
I,, t^: ^^ ^, '^po'i ^hc tcrms of Henry's will. At first Somerset
Somerset, thought of resistance, but an appeal to the countrv
October, 1549. i n i . ,
revealed to him the sober truth that his only hope lay
in the mercy of the council. This unnerved him ; he confessed
his failure, and was allowed to retire in peace, though not without
a few weeks of seclusion in the Tower.
John Dudley, the earl of Warwick, who had been the chief
instrument in the overthrow of Somerset, now became the influ-
ential man of the council, but without the title or rank of protec-
tor. He was such a man as times of revolution are likely to bring
to the fore. He had by diligence and merit worked out from
under the shadow of his father's reverses, and had become distin-
guished "as a soldier, a diplomatist, and as an admiral." He had
commanded the English fleet in 1545 and won no small glory in
bringing the attempted descents of the French of that year to
naught. He had been second in command at Pinkie Cleugh. He
was shrewd, cunning, and knew how to keep his thoughts to him-
self. He was free from enthusiasm both in his faults and his vir-
tues. He affected to support the religious reform but, as the
sequel proved, his support was a matter of politics rather than
principle.
' For part of this, Somerset was hardly responsible ; as a result of
many causes, prices had risen enormously.
568 THE PKOGEESS OF THE EEEOEM [edwabd VI.
li
The council first gave its attention to untangling the skein
which had fallen to them from the impetuous fingers of Somerset.
They made peace with France though at the sacrifice of
counciiin Boiilogne. Other measures were not so commendable.
They proceeded to reduce the outstanding debt of the
crown; but unfortunately the members of the council themselves
had provided funds for the suppression of the recent revolts and
their first care was to secure repayment by allowing each councillor
to take a certain amount of bullion in fine silver to the royal mint
and receive it back again "coined and printed into money current
according to the established standard." More than £150,000
"worth of base silver coin was thrown at once into circulation,
deranging prices more than ever, shaking the exchange, driving
the gold out of the country," and adding to the multitude of dis-
tressing complicatioQS already existing. Among these is to be
noticed a failure of the harvest which greatly increased the price
of bread. The council took the matter up and attempted to fix
the price at which grain might be sold. But the measure only
exasperated the agricultural classe^ and did not relieve the dis-
tress; the council quickly withdrew the dangerous regulation.
At the time of the overthrow of Somerset the tide was already
setting strong towards the conservative policy of Henry VIII.
The commons of Devon and Cornwall had openly
afrtfmZ^ demanded the restoration of the Catholic faith and a
re-enactment of the Six Articles. But for Dudley to
put himself at the head of this movement meant the restoration of
Norfolk and Gardiner, and he very well knew that to restore Nor-
folk meant the restoration of the old nobility to power and the
speedy end of his own influence. His only hope, therefore, was
to make thorough work where Somerset had begun. Bishops like
Gardiner and Bonner were displaced by men like Eidley, Hooper,
and Coverdale. The fires of Smithfield were not allowed to
smoulder; and the world witnessed the unseemly spectacle of
Protestants burning- Protestants. In their efforts to enforce the
Uniformity Act, however, the leaders had found an ominous and
insurmountable obstacle in the courage of the Princess Mary, who
by the will of Henry and the law of parliament was the heir to the
1551,1553] SECOND PALL OP SOMERSET 569
throne. Through all the storm she had quietly but faithfully
adhered to her mother's faith, and when ordered to give up the
mass, she firmly persisted in the path of duty as she saw it. The
council durst not go further; to use violence would bring about
the long dreaded alliance of the empire with Prance and possibly
an invasion of England. To destroy Mary would give the
emperor a claim upon the crown of England, since he was of
Yorkist blood through Margaret the wife of Charles the Rash; a
claim which the pope might be expected to recognize as better at
least than that of Edward or Elizabeth, both of whom had been
born in schism. This constant threat of foreign interference is
always to be borne in mind in considering the treatment of Mary
at the hands of Somerset and Dudley.
In carrying out his schemes Dudley needed all the available
strength of the reform party, and in April 1550 Somerset was
again admitted to the council. His influence had
-D'"*^™"""' rapidly revived after his fall. Before the unquestioned
*f'somers6? sincerity of the man, the superiority of his personal
character, his nearness to the king and interest in his
welfare, men soon forgot his mistakes and began to look to him
again as the real leader of the reform. But as the autumn of
1551 came in, the reaction in his favor so alarmed Dudley that he
began to plot again for his overthrow and suddenly arrested him on
the charge of treason. And when he found that he could not con-
vict him upon this charge, he dropped it for a charge of conspiracy
against Dudley himself, and in January 1553 the quondam pro-
tector was sent to the block. ^ It was a fatal mistake for Dudley.
From that day eyes were opened to the real character of this
zealous reformer and men began to detest him.
As Dudley realized that his popularity with his party was
declining he increased his pretended enthusiasm for the purification
of the church. The success of Charles in Germany
Reforms of jj^d driven a multitude of Protestant exiles across the
sea, who brought the ultra views of the Zwinglian
school with them and soon made their influence felt at Oxford and
' Eecent attempts have been made to vindicate the character and work
of Somerset. See Pollard's, England under the Protector Somerset.
570 THE PEOGEESS OP THE EEFOEM [edwabd VI.
Cambridge. Even Cranmer was drifting fast in their wake, and
was prepared at last to deny the Eeal Presence in the mass. In
1552 the Prayer Book of 1549, known as The First Prayer Book
of Edward VI. was superseded by the Second Prayer Book of
Edward VI. which embodied many new phrases, showing the
Zwinglian drift of the editors and making it no longer possible for
the believers in transubstantiation to find shelter within its mel-
lifluous cadences. The new Prayer Book was followed by the
Forty-two Articles which presented a new statement of doctrine,
based on the Lutheran confession. The same parliament also took
time from their doctrinal discussions to pass a Poor Law
Poor Law "w^hich compelled each parish to make a systematic col-
lection for its poor, an honest but futile effort to meet
distresses which struck their roots far back into the fourteenth cen-
tury.
The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. and the Forty-two
Articles indicate the high-watfer mark of the first period of the
reform. The leaders had already outstripped the
water mark nation. The corruption of some, and the wholesale
plundering of most, had discredited their principles;
and the forces of reaction were gathering, all the more terrible and
disastrous in recoil, because for the time repressed by authority and
compelled to gather strength in secret.
CHAPTEE V
THE CATHOLIC EEACTION
EDWARD VI., 155H.
MARY, 1553-1558.
So far the reform had brought little of peace or contentment in
its train. The authority of the church as a teacher of doctrine had
been challenged ; its authority as a teacher of righteous-
mhmSi'^ ness had been broken down. Men no longer sought the
confessional, or feared the censure of teachers whom
they had ceased to revere. Eascality ruled in high places; its
example was felt through all the inferior walks of life. English
goods in the past, like English money, had won a splendid reputa-
tion in the marts of Europe, and were received everywhere without
question or suspicion. But the general topsy-turvy of moral
ideas, which had followed the loosening of religious bonds, soon
bore fruit in a decline of national honesty. The government had
led the way in putting out a dishonest coinage from the royal
mints; English merchants and manufacturers were not a whit
behind them in debasing the output of their looms. For a time
the decline in the quality of English goods, as the decline in
the quality of English money, was not understood by foreigners,
and profits increased, but only temporarily ; nor was it long before
the dishonest merchant began to reap the full reward of this
suicidal policy. Bales of English goods were to be seen rotting on
the quays of Antwerp or Venice, rejected by the consignees and
stamped by the government inspector as fraudulent. To the dis-
tress caused by the greed of the landlords was now to be added the
distress caused by the greed of the merchants, whose trade was
crippled by a decade of dishonesty more than by all the wars of
Charles or Francis. The number of the unemployed continued to
increase ; even those who had work could no longer earn enough
571
572 THE CATHOLIC KEACTIOK [bdward VI.
to keep themselves or their families. Those who suilered turned
upon those who had abundance as in some way responsible for
their misery. The proprietary class in turn were fully aware of
the growing hatred and suspicion of the people ; they felt their
insecurity and turned upon the party in power, seeing in their
reckless waste and improvidence, their confiscations and wild
financiering, their corruptions and tyrannies, the source of all the
present evil.
As Edward approached man's estate the more sanguine thought
to find in him a remedy for existing evils. The minority rule
would soon be ended and the king, of whom nOne had
Dwiu"^ "^ ®^^^' ^^^^^ aught bnt good, would put away his corrupt
or incapable ministers and relieve his people of the bur-
den of their ill-doing. But this hope was soon to be blighted.
As Edwai-d neared his sixteenth year, it became evident to his
ministers that he would never endure the cares of royalty; and
Dudley, now duke of- Northumberland, began to turn his thought
to the succession with the view of perpetuating his own authority.
By the terms of Henry's will, sanctioned by an act of parliament,
the Lady Mary was to succeed Bdward in case he should die with-
out heirs. Mary's preferences, moreover, were too well known to
leave any doubt as to what kind of men would be chosen for her
ministers; and with Howard and Gardiner in power Dudley's head
would not rest upon his shoulders for a fortnight. Dudley, there-
fore, determined upon a scheme which was as bold as it was desper-
ate and impossible of success. He persuaded Edward, ostensibly
in the interest of the Eeformation, to make a will as his father had
done before him. By this will both Mary and Elizabeth were to
be set aside as illegitimate and the succession was to pass to Lady
Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII. 's favorite sister
Mary, the queen of Louis XII. of France, who had married for her
second husband Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Edward
entered into the plan warmly. The will was signed, but there was
not time to secure the sanction of parliament. For the same holy
purpose, to save the Reformation, Edward was also persuaded to
sanction the marriage of Lady Jane to Guilford Dudley, the son of
Duke John.
1553] QUEEN JANE 573
On July 6, 1553 the boy king died. Dudley attempted to keep
the secret until he could seize Mary, who was staying at the time at
Hnnsdon in Hertfordshire, and dispatched his son
Ja^pro- liobert Dudley, better known . afterward as Earl of
Jui™io.' Leicester, to arrest her at once. But Mary's friends
were equally alert, and within twenty-four hours after
the king's death she was in full flight to join the Howards in Nor-
folk, proclaiming her reign as she passed along and calling
upon the loyal to join her. In the meanwhile ]N"orthumberland
summoned the council, announced the king's death, and proclaimed
"Queen Jane." The unfortunate girl who was to be sacrificed to
the minister's ambition, was hardly in her seventeenth year. Her
beauty, her noble and pure spirit, her innocence and her tragic
fate, have made her a universal favorite. One almost marvels that
such a flower could bloom in the atmosphere that surrounded John
Dudley. She cared nothing for the royal honors and submitted to
his plans because she was taught it was her duty. Yet she was by
no means a puppet, and stoutly refused to have Dudley's son, her
husband, crowned with her.
The issue was now fairly joined. To support Queen Jane,
meant to support Dudley and the continuance of the policy which
" Queen ^^^ brought snch woe and unrest on the land ; to sup-
"■^^Quem^' P°^* Mary meant an entire reversion of policy and, if
Mary." nothing more, the restoration of the ecclesiastical laws
of Henry VIII. The Lady Mary, moreover, "had the better
right." Apart from the question of her mother's divorce, she
had been named as the next in succession by an act of parliament
and that law had never been repealed. But above all, Lady Jane
stood for the Eeformation and Mary stood for the old faith. The
nation was weary of reformers who, after twenty years, appar-
ently still saw as much to reform as ever. The people, moreover,
no longer believed in the sincerity of Dudley, and they wanted a
change in hope of bettering the temporal state of the kingdom.
From the first then Jane had little prospect of success; however
men might respect her character, they regarded her as a crea-
ture of Dudley's and felt no fervor in her cause; even in London,
where if anywhere Dudley might expect support, his proclamation
574 THE CATHOLIC REACTION [maki
had been received by the assembled crowds in silence. The lack
of enthusiasm was ominous ; the tide of reaction was coming in,
and had the law been on Dudley's side, it is not likely that the
nation would have heeded it, when once Catharine's daughter had
raised her standard. But now the law was on Mary's side; justice
also was on her side, and the sympathies of the nation were with
her. The old duke Thomas Howard was still in the Tower; but
his sons and grandsons were up, and from far and near the country
flocked to their banner. The fleet also declared for Mary, and at
last even the Protestant lords went over to her. There was noth-
ing left for Dudley but submission; and on July 19 he aban-
doned his queen of a week, and himself proclaimed Mary at
Cambridge. The next day he was arrested and sent to the Tower.
There was no hope for him, and yet with the idea of winning some
favor with his executioners he made an abject confession: that his
Protestantism had been only a sham, that he was a good Catholic
at heart and that he had been all along playing a part. The last
was probably the most truthful statement he had ever made during
his entire false life. He failed to save himself, but did great
harm to the Protestant cause; for the simple folk, who had called
him their "Joshua," and were accustomed to trust him implicitly,
naturally began to suspect all professions and believe in no man's
sincerity. He, moreover, gave the party who were coming into
power, a very low estimate of the sincerity of the whole body of
reformers, and by leading Mary and her advisers to think that
they were all like him, doubtlessly encouraged the policy of perse-
cution. On August 3 Mary entered London. The Lady Jane
and her husband were arrested, and in November were tried and
convicted of treason. But Mary fully intended to be lenient, and
had no thought then of shedding their blood.
The choice of Mary was the expression of the desire of the
nation to retrace its steps. But how far would the reaction go?
This would be determined by the character of Mary
^^ and the policy of her ministers. How long should the
reaction endure? This would be determined by the
extent to which the people would follow their sovereign. The
outlook for the reformers, therefore, was not encouraging. The
1553] EAELT MODERATIOK OF MAKY 575
new queen was a Tudor, with all the Tudor tenacity of purpose
and blind self-will, with a dangerous possibility of ruthless cruelty
if roused or resisted. "With all the intensity of her Tudor nature,
moreoTer, Mary was devoted to her mother's faith and under
strong influence was certain to take up the full restoration of that
faith to her people as the one object of her life.
At first, however, her course was moderate enough. She had
no intention of being severe. The emperor sent her his con-
gratulations and admonished her to move cautiously,
^S^*™-^£ to be content with the free exercise for herself of her
creed, to take no step without the sanction of parlia-
ment and by no means of her own authority to attempt to set
aside the Act of Uniformity ; her first duty was to bring quiet to
her realm ; her prudence and moderation must give satisfaction to
her subjects of all opinions. Gardiner, the old bishop of Win-
ch e'ster, had been released on the day of the entry into London
and placed at the head of the council as chancellor. The policy
which he outlined for the administration conformed in all respects
to the sensible advice of the emperor. The expenses of the house-
hold were to be cut down to the scale which had prevailed in
Henry VII. 's time. The garrisons of Berwick and Calais were to
be placed on a more economical footing ; the navy reduced ; the
.irregular guard diminished. There was to be no more bribery in
the courts of Westminster and among the justices of the peace;
"they were to be restored to their authority without suffering any
matters to be ordered otherwise than as the laws should appoint. ' '
Mary's first acts were in keeping with this program. The late
king was buried with the public rites prescribed by the existing
law ; Cranmer, who was still at large, was allowed to
ationof conduct the ceremonies. The members of Edward's
council who had not supported Dudley, were left in
undisturbed possession of their places. The Protestant bishops
who had been most pronounced in their later teaching were
removed and the old Catholic bishops were restored again to their
dioceses. The return of Bonner from the Marshalsea to St. Paul's
was like a triumphal procession; "the people rang the bells for
joy." The persecution of Catholics was also stopped; religious
576 THE CATHOLIC EEACTION [mabt
disputations were forbidden, but Protestants were to be protected
from the interference of reactionary mobs.
To the great majority of the people this was well pleasing.
They hailed Mary's accession as the first step toward a return to
the policy of her father, and they did not wish to go
^"^^Iry-r f'-irther. They were not Protestants; but they did not
St*""'"^ wish to see Mary declared legitimate to the disparage-
ment of Elizabeth's claims as fixed by Henry's will.
They had, moreover, dipped too generally into the plunder of the
church to wish to see the church restored as it had been in Wol-
sey's time; they had no desire to surrender the confiscated lands,
which had now been in their hands for nearly a generation. When
therefore Mary's first parlifl,ment, the most nearly representative
of any which had been chosen in England for many years, came
together, the most radical of Edward's religious laws, the Prayer
Book, and the Act of Uniformity, were swept away; the Mass was
restored by a vote of 350 to 80 in the. Commons, and the clergy
were required to return to celibacy; but beyond this parliament
refused to go. It was satisfied with restoring the statutes of
Henry's reign; and even here it made exceptions. The Six
Articles and the older laws against the Lollards fonnd no favor.
Gardiner, the chancellor, was a thorough-going Englishman
and had no desire to see either the papal authority restored in
England, or the crown bound by a foreign alliance to
mmiandthe ^'•'® Support of Spain or Prance. But Mary was already
meStaTisss ^I'ifting out from under his influence and had fallen
under the power of other counsellors. By them she
had been induced to fix her mind upon two projects which she had
long cherished in secret; first to secure a marriage alliance with
her cousin Philip of Spain, and second to restore England com-
pletely to the papal allegiance. In the second she had been greatly
encouraged by Eenard, the imperial minister, yet he had no desire
by pushing it, to imperil the prospect of the marriage alliance.
In this he reflected both the ambition and the caution of his mas-
ter. Charles, in fact, regarded the marriage alliance as a necessary
ofl'set to the alliance of Mary Queen of Scots with Francis of-
France. It was to be his next move in the great continental
1553] THE SPANISH MAEEIAGE 577
game; the interests of England were of little moment compared
with the success of his vast schemes against his rival. But Mary
with characteristic Tudor impatience was unwilling to wait for the
unwinding of the emperor's plot, and had no sooner made up her
mind than she entered at once into secret negotiations with the
pope, and Cardinal Pole set out for England. The emperor heard
of the measure in alarm and persuaded the pope to call Pole back.
In the meanwhile the parliament in its own way was working
at the problems presented by the new reign. When it had settled
the religious question, it turned to the question of the royal mar-
riage. The members were fully determined that a foreign prince
should not sit upon the English throne even as the consort of
their queen, and on the 16th of , November the Speaker of the
Commons, in the name of parliament, formally petitioned the
queen to marry one of her own subjects. Mary was furious, and
as the parliament showed no signs of withdrawing its impertinent
advice, on December 6 she sent the members to their homes, — a
bad omen for the future.
In the council the Spanish marriage was hardly more popular.
Gardiner who was in touch with the parliament, proposed Edward
Courtenay, who as great-grandson of Edward IV. was
^ndthT''^ of the blood-royal and though a subject, worthy by
marrime bi^h to be the queen's consort. But Mary's mind was
made up, — always a serious matter for a Tudor. She,
moreover, had formed a most romantic attachment for her Spanish
kinsman, whom she had never seen, but whom she imagined to be
a paragon of all princely virtues. Gardiner knew his mistress too
well to continue his opposition, and wisely determined to prevent
so far as possible the evils which might follow the Spanish mar-
riage, by prescribing a series of stipulations, in which Charles
pledged himself that Philip should never be more than titular king
of England, that England should never be united with Spain under
one crown, that all foreigners should be excluded from command
in the English army or navy, and that England should not be
asked to assist Spain in her wars with France. The council then
yielded a reluctant consent. The marriage contracts were
signed, and the time for the wedding fixed.
578 THE CATHOLIC REACTION [mart
From the nation at large Mary got little comfort. In spite of
the concessions of Charles, Englishmen generally believed that
England was now to become a mere dependency of
opmlmmtn Spain, like Naples and the Low Countries, ruled by
marH^f^ Spanish adventurers and overawed by Spanish mus-
keteers. If Protestants and Catholics could agree to
make common cause something might be done, but the bitter
memories connected with the namas of Seymour and Dudley were
too fresh to permit the Catholics to join with their recent foes.
The Protestant leaders, or rather the wreck of the old party of
John Dudley, rallied about Henry Grey the duke of Suffolk,
Lady Jane's father. Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Sir Peter Carew,
and laid the foundation of an extensive conspiracy with the
avowed purpose of preventing the Spanish marriage but really to
depose Mary and place Elizabeth and Courtenay on the throne.
Time, however, was urgent, and the vigilance of Gardiner forced
the leaders to act before their plans were ripe. Suffolk strove to
rouse the midlands, but his connection with the late duke of
Northumberland prevented the people from rallying to his stan-
dard and he soon found himself a prisoner in the Tower. Sir
Peter Carew attempted to raise Devonshire but with no better suc-
cess, except that he managed to get away to France. "Wyatt in
the southeast got together some 15,000 Kentishmen and led them
to Southwark. Mary had no armed force at hand to defend her ;
the Londoners were in panic and more than half inclined to allow
the insm-gents to cross the bridge, but the vigorous and courage-
ous conduct of Mary, ably supported by the old duke of Norfolk,
brought them to their duty ; the bridge was held and Wyatt was
compelled to ascend to Kingston where he found a crossing and
from whence he managed to fight his way into the city. The
quest from first to last was a fool's errand; the little band who
had followed Wyatt were overwhelmed and he himself with Suffolk
and others were sent to the hlock. It was inevitable that
Suffolk's daughter the Lady Jane and her harmless
1554
husband, should be drawn down with her father and
his friends, although they had taken no part in the plot. On Feb-
ruary 12, the sentence of the year before was carried out. On the
1554] THE PAPAL ALLBGIANCB REjSTEWED 579
same day Courtenay was arrested and a wholesale slaughter of com-
mon prisoners begun. Gibbets were erected over all London, and
everywhere the eyes of the people rested on "the hideous spectacle
of hanging men." Elizabeth was sent to the Tower; Gardiner
and Eenard pressed Mary to give consent to her execution and
for a few days the ax hung above Elizabeth's head, suspended only
by a thread. Her enemies, however, could bring no proof to show
that she had been a party to the conspiracy ; the lords, moreover,
led by her kinsman, "William Howard who commanded the fleet,
were determined that guilty or not, she should not be sacrificed,
and in May she was finally released. Courtenay also was dismissed
and allowed to retire to the continent. He died at Padua 1556.
The ill-timed insurrection and the vigorous treatment of the
rebels prevented further opposition and in April a new parlia-
ment formally sanctioned the marriage contract. The
Maryamd"''' prince arrived in July and on the 35th the marriage
S'^flfefc"^"^'' ^^® celebrated. The pair were thoroughly incompat-
ible ; Mary was plain, without any attractive qualities
of mind or body, and withal Avas twelve years the senior of her
husband. Her health was already breaking ; she had grown wan
and haggard ; her spirits were easily affected ; all of which did not
tend to commend her to a husband who had tolerated the mar-
riage at all, simply as a political necessity. He met Mary's
ardent devotion with a cold indifference, which soon changed to
disgust when he found that the suspicions of parliament and
council showed no signs of abating and that he was expected to
play the part simply of gentleman usher to his queen. The next
summer he hailed the pretext furnished by the proposed abdica-
tion of his father to get himself home as speedily as possible.
While Philip remained in England he had counselled his ardent
queen to move cautiously in carrying out the second project which
was as dear to her as the Spanish marriage. Now, how-
Thepapai ever, the only influence that could have stayed her hand
newed, 1554. was withdrawn. The parliament, which had accepted
the Spanish marriage, had flatly refused to restore the
Six Articles, and a proposition to reenact the laws against Lol-
lardy had been lost somewhere between the two houses. But in
580 THE CATHOLIC REACTION [sua*
October when Mary's third parliament came together, it was soon
eTident that while a large majority had no objection to restoring
the pope, they were in no mind to renounce the possession of
church lands which had fallen to the nation by reason of its share
in Henry's acts of spoliation. Mary exerted all her influence to
bring over the reluctant members to agree to right the wrong
done. The repentance of the apostate nation v/ould have little
meaning unless it surrendered the fruits of its sin; nor would the
restoration of the papacy be of much practical value if the church
were to remain in beggary. In vain Mary and her chancellor
pleaded ; in vain Mary sought to set an example by releasing the
church lands which were held by the crown. There the matter
hung until the pope came to the rescue by formally agreeing to
ratify the possession of the church lands by the present holders,
on condition that parliament pass the laws necessary to restore the
papal supremacy. On the 39th of November parliament voted on
the question, whether the country should return to the obedience
of the Apostolic see. In the Upper House the assent was given
without opposition. In the Lower House, out of 360 members
present, only two responded with a negative vote. The next
day, St. Andrew's Day, tlie last of November 1554, the queen, the
council, and the members of both houses of parliament, repaired to
Whitehall and kneeling before Cardinal Pole, the papal legate,
who with "ecstatic impatience" had been waiting for this moment
ever since the. accession of Mary, confessed the sin of the tiation
and received absolution. England was now once more restored to
the church of the continent.
It remained for parliament to undo the hostile legislation cf
Henry VIII. It was, however, not to be so simple a matter as
the vote of November 39 seemed to indicate. "The
The'' Great papal Supremacy, the secularization of the church
ary'4,1555. property, and the authority of the Episcopal courts,"
were so inextricably interwoven, the acts or parts of
acts bearing on the question were so many, it was not until Jan-
uary 4, that the result of the work, known as the "Great Bill,"'
was formally presented to the crown. By this act all the ecclesias-
1 Gee and Hardy, pp. 385-415.
1555] THE EEACTION AT PLOOD 581
tical legislation of Henry subsequent to the year 1529 was swept
away.
The limitfe of legislative reaction were now reached and parlia-
ment refused to go farther. The two acts upon which Elizabeth's
right to the succession rested had been slated by Gar-
'ailood"*^^ diner for condemnation, but parliament refused to
touch them save as they affected the See of Rome.
It restored the authority of the bishops' courts but expressly
denied them the right "to inquiet or molest any person or per-
sons or body politic," on account of the possession of any of the
sequestered lands or other property of the church. The Act of
Mortmain was suspended for twenty years, but "the spectre of
praemunire" was left "unexercised" to haunt the clergy with all
the shadowy terrors which had been imparted to it by the decision
of Henry VIII. 's courts. In vain the clergy pleaded that the
hated law might be repealed or at least limited in its application ;
parliament would go no farther. The tide 6f reaction was at
flood.
The nation was satisfied ; enough had been done, and here mat-
ters might have rested had not Mary made up her mind to force
Englishmen to become Catholics in heart as they had
theperseou- become Catholics again by the laws of the land. As
men understood the functions of government, it was
entirely within her right to compel her subjects to subscribe to a
uniform faith. She was also justified by the customary law of
Europe in using violence against those who defied the laws and
subjecting them to death by the torture of fire. Henry VIII.
had done this and Cranmer had sanctioned it in the case of Ana-
baptists. Even Latimer had preached a commendatory sermon
when the Catholic Father Forest had been slowly tortured to death
in an open iron cradle which was kept swinging over a slow fire.
It was no more than Catholic and Protestant states were doing to
their rebellious subjects on the continent. It was nevertheless a
grave and fatal error, and did more to defeat Mary's purpose and
bring on a new Protestant reaction than all the fiery polemics of
men like John Knox and others, foreigners mostly, who had fled to
the continent again on scent of the coming storm. Mary had
582 THE CATHOLIC BE ACTION [mabt
triumphed over the laws ; she had silenced opposing theorists ; she
could not crush the rising spirit of humanity in the hearts of her
people.
For this reaction Mary herself was largely to blame. Gardiner
had favored severe measures with the heretics as with the political
rebels, but he drew back when he saw its futility.
uy for the Pole Succeeded Cranmer and his position was always
persecutions. „ . ■ „ ' , -, -,
one of great mnuence ; yet he was by no means m sym-
pathy with the persecutions. He "publicly told the clergy that the
best way of reclaiming the people was not by measures of severity,
but by reforming their own lives, ' ' and on one occasion at least
he dismissed twenty heretics with a mere submission. The Span-
ish influence, it is well known, was against the persecutions, not
for reasons of humanity, but because Philip and his advisers were
wise enough to foresee the ultimate eiiect upon the Spanish influ-
ence in England. But Mary's Tudor blood had been roused by
opposition, and with a persistence which at times looks almost like
insanity, she pursued her way. Wilfulness assumes queer guises
sometimes. In the case of the father, it appeared as vanity, self-
love, lust; in the case of the daughter, as duty, the desire to do
the will of God as a bigoted mind understood it.
On June 20, 1555 the act which restored the heresy acts of
Henry IV. and Henry V. went into effect and soon the fires of
Smithfield were again crackling merrily. Among the first vic-
tims were John Kogers, the Bible translator, and Hooper the
bishop of Gloucester. Gardiner and others, possibly Mary her-
self, did not expect any serious resistance; a few examples only
would be necessary to show the heretics that the government was
in earnest. They gave the leaders little credit for sincerity and
thought that, like Dudley, the smell of death would frighten
them into speedy acquiescence. But these were different men
whose faith was now to be put to the test ; nor could their firm-
ness be shaken by the sight of the flames. Spectators who came
to scoff and jeer, went away thoughtful and reverent. Coverdale
was saved by the interposition of the king of Denmark; but
Eidley and Latimer sealed their faith at Oxford, October 16,
1555. Latimer was now in his seventy-seventh year, hale and
1556] DEATH OP CKANMEK 583
hearty and merry to the last. "Play the man, Master Eidley,"
he shouted to his fellow, as the executioners were fastening them
to the stake, "we shall this day light such a candle in England,
as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out."
Of all Mary's victims none perhaps had merited her vengeance
more than Cranmer. She would not be a woman to forget the
part which he had taken in fastening the stain upon
Cranmer, her birth. Cranmer had been brought up for trial in
September 1555 at the time when Ridley and Latimer
were tried. But he, unlike them, was a regularly consecrated
bishop of the Catholic church and his fellow bishops feared to
proceed without special license from Rome. When at last in the
following February the requisite authority was received, Cran-
mer's courage which had never been of the stoutest failed him.
He shrank from the torture of the heretic's death, and in hope of
gaining his life recanted. His enemies, however, had no thought
of allowing their victim to escape and he was condemned not-
withstanding. As the end drew near, he recovered his spirit and
boldly facing death withdrew his unhappy denial of the Protes-
tant faith, thrusting his right hand into the flame first, "that
unworthy right hand," as he sadly exclaimed, with which he
had signed the recantation.
The whole number of executions amounted to 277. The
victims were taken almost altogether from the ranks of the com-
mon people. 1^0 one of note among the laity suffered ;
Stmtof"'"''^ and with the exception of a few ecclesiastics, such as
l^®*"**^- Eidley, Latimer, and Cranmer, none who could be
called prominent. The executions, moreover, were
confined almost entirely to the three dioceses of London, Norwich,
and Canterbury. In the rest of England all told, they did not
number more than fifty. They were enough, however, to stir a
deep spirit of hate and resentment among the people and leave
an indelible impression upon the English mind which three
hundred years have not been able to efface.
Mary felt deeply the decline of her popularity. She knew
that her people hated her and waited for her death. To add to
her sorrow and sense of loneliness, Philip, under the plea of new
584 THE CATHOLIC EEACTION [mabi
duties, had practically deserted her. She longed for the love of
the husband who never came, and who ceased at last even to
write to her. She had prayed for a child ; but her
Marys prayers had been mocked. Even God apparently had
abandoned her. She was alone and desolate. She
dared no longer trust herself in public, lest she should give way
in unseemly outbursts of hysteric passion. She fell into a
profound melancholy and great distaste of life.
Her councillors knew that the nation, goaded by the brutal
scenes which they were called upon to witness, only waited a
leader to break into open revolt. Even Bonner hesitated, con-
scious of the execrations of the people, but Mary egged him on
to do his duty. To her clouded mind all her disappointments
were due to her remissness in expelling the spirit of anti-Ohrist
from the realm. The few Spaniards who remained, also came in
for a share of the popular execrations and in their fear pathetically
appealed to their master for their recall. Still the leaders hesi-
tated to summon the people to arms. An armed insurrection
would give Philip an excuse for landing his Spanish infantry at
once and taking possession of the English strongholds. Once in
possession it would be impossible to eject him without the aid of
France. From this they shrank. It was, moreover, no longer a
secret that the unhappy queen was dying of an incurable malady,
that her time was limited, and that Elizabeth would soon mount
the throne in her place.
One attempt was made by Thomas Stafford, the grandson of
the late duke of Buckingham. In April 1557 he succeeded in
landing thirty Englishmen and one Frenchman in
Stafford's Yorkshire, and actually seized Scarborough Castle, but
1557. ' only to be immediately taken and put to death. The
attempt of itself was of little importance; but the
expedition had been fitted out in France and gave Mary therefore
a pretext for declaring war against France. Philip, who visited
England for a few weeks in March, had exerted all his influence
for this purpose, and Mary was well pleased to have one oppor-
tunity at last of gratifying her husband.
England, perhaps in all her history, was never less prepared
1558] THE LOSS OP CALAIS 585
for war. Stephen Gardiner had died at his post November 13,
1555. He had done much to restore the credit of the govern-
ment and reduce its indebtedness. But after him the
The loss of T j_ J! j_i 1 • . ■ -1
Calais, Jan- conduct 01 the administration had fallen into incom-
uary, 1558.
potent hands. Mary had been allowed to exhaust the
royal treasury in her frantic efforts to ref ound the abbeys and
restore the desecrated church buildings. Many complaints had
come from Calais of the beggared condition of its garrison and
the ruined state of its fortifications; she had been warned by
Admiral Howard of the pitiful condition of the navy. But with
the same blindness with which she had urged on the executions
of linen drapers and village priests, she had continued to pour
out the national treasure in her work of restoring the church.
She was now compelled, therefore, to levy forced loans, to lay
new duties upon imports and exports, for which the laws gave
her no sanction, and to continue the debasement of the coinage.
After so much else, these acts completely destroyed what little
credit Mary still retained with the proprietary classes, who had
not been directly affected by the persecutions. The war itself,
moreover, was exceedingly unpopular; the possibility of it was
the thing which had been feared from the first, and was the secret
of most of the popular suspicion of Philip. When, therefore,
early in the new year, the news was brought home that Calais and
Guisnes, the last foothold of the English in France, which had
been English territory for 211 years, had been taken by the duke
of Guise without an effort on the part of the incompetent minis-
ters of Mary to save them, nothing was left to complete the
general disgust and detestation of the people.
No one felt the crushing disappointment of the fall of Calais
more than Mary herself. It was to the dying woman the last sign
of the Divine disfavor and she roused herself with
Death of frantic energy to continue her work. The fiery execu-
Poir'Novem- ^ions went on with renewed vigor; the rebuilding and
her 17, 1558. reestablishing of monasteries continued. But the end
was not far off. It came on the 17th of November
1558. A few hours later her old friend Cardinal Pole also passed
away, broken-hearted it would seem under the treatment of the
586 THE CATHOLIC REACTION [mart
new pope Paul IV. who, inspired by his French sympathies, had
made Pole the victim of his hatred of Philip, first depriving him
of his legatine powers, and then, to Justify the act, charging him
with heresy.
Mary was a good woman spoiled by the fatal superstition which
confounded religion with orthodox opinion. Had she lived in
better times she might have proved a worthy queen.
ciiaracter Eeligions party hatred has made of her a monster, but
she seems to have been well educated, amiable in man-
ner, and not altogether unpleasing, until she became haggard by
disease and a breaking heart.' No monarch was ever more con-
scientious in the fulfillment of a monarch's high responsibilities;
none more sincere in the unflinching pursuit of what she deemed
to be right. It was impossible for the daughter of Catharine of
Aragon to be other than a bitter enemy of the Reformation. But
she was not cruel by nature ; few political executions would have
attended her accession to the throne, had not the foolish rebellion
of Suffolk and Wyatt driven her to measures of severity. Her
religious persecutions also were inspired not by a thirst for blood,
but by her passionate desire to save the souls of the millions of her
countrymen, who, as she sincerely believed, were in danger of
eternal damnation because of the errancy of a few religious
teachers. In this use of political power she was upheld by the
convictions of the most enlightened men of her time.
' Goldwin Smith, The United Kingdom, I. pp., 358, 359.
CHAPTER VI
ELIZABETH; THE BEFOEM ESTABLISHED
ELIZABETH lS5S-15Si
THE STUART SUCCESSION
Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VII.
m. (1) James IV. of Scotland
m. (2) Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus
James v. = Mary of Guise Margaret = Matthew Stuart, Earl
of Scotland I I of Lennox, d. 1671
Mart, = Henry Stuart, Lord Charles Stuart, Earl of
executed 1587 I Darnley I Lennox
James VI. of Scotland, 1567-1625 Arabella Stuart, died
and L of England, 1603-1625 1615
Although Elizabeth was barely twenty^five when she came to
the throne, her life had been so fraught with dangers and crowded
with experiences that she was already old in wisdom.
ESj^eOi"^ It is said, that she was very beautiful and possessed all
the accomplishments of the great lady of her day ; she
could speak Latin, Italian, or French, and could read Greek ; she
was well versed in theology, history, and other branches of the
learning of the time. She had her father's masculine will, his
shrewd knack of judging men and things, and his coarse but
direct way of expressing himself. She had her mother's coquetry
and freedom of manner, her vanity and love of admiration; she
had her father's fondness for dress and display. But unlike either,
her passions were never given the leash. She could be as par-
simonious as Henry VII. ; she could be as patient and self -con-
trolled in working toward an end. Of personal religion, she knew
nothing ; conscience with her was a matter of policy rather than of
feeling. She could lie most impudently; she could be as rough
and boisterous and profane as one of her Dover sailors. She could
be as voluble as a fishwife in the torrent of abuse which she
might pour upon the luckless minister who happened to rouse her
587
588 THE EEFOKM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
wrath, spitting in his face or making his head ring with a sound-
ing box on the ears.
In state-craft she was a master, and with marvelous insight
grasped the conditions which confronted her. And yet possibly
her tastes served her here fully as much as her native
EUMbeth shrewdness. She hated extravagance in the iise of pub-
lic funds; hence her conduct of the treasury was sparing
even to parsimoniousness, but in parsimony was salvation. She
hated extravagance in religion as well and had no sympathy with
the ultra Protestants; hence she was conservative in her religions
policy, and probably would have remained a Catholic if the church
had not disowned her. As it was, she drifted with the people,
restraining the excesses of either party, but yielding when she
must to the will of the nation. She hated the French and was
suspicious of the Spaniards; hence she wonld ally herself with
neither, but coquetted with both, deceived both, and accomplished
her end at last, keeping England out of "foreign entanglements"
and giving the country peace for twenty years. In a word she
proposed to do nothing, to allow her foreign enemies to wear
themselves out in the suicidal struggle which was distracting
Europe, while England recovered its wasted energies. This emi-
nently shrewd and characteristic policy, with rare skill and patience,
she followed steadily during a reign of forty-five years.
"When Elizabeth began her reign, the realm was in a critical
condition. The bitter memories of the past were fresh and the
agents of Mary's cruelties still held the high places in
Difflcuittes church and state. The country was in the midst of a
which faced . i -n r^ i .
Elizabeth. disastrous war With France and Scotland. The king-
dom was practically defenseless; it was without an
army, without a navy, and its fortifications were crumbling. The
treasury was empty; the currency was in confusion; trade was lan-
guishing, and taxes were heavy. During the last three years of
Mary's reign, moreover, the land had been ravaged by famine and
pestilence, and the people were still suffering. They were just in
the mood, therefore, to cast themselves with terrible energy into a
reaction which threatened to be even more violent, more terri-
ble, more destructive of life and property than the Marian per-
1558] WILLIAM CECIL 589
secution, if it did not end in civil war. The question of the succes-
sion, also, was by no means settled ; the spent storm of the fifteenth
century still hovered darkly above the horizon and the queen's
right to the throne was certain to be challenged by the Catholic
powers. Prance was sure to press the claims of Mary of Scot-
land, and the pope, strongly French in his sympathies, was cer-
tain to issue a bull of excommunication whenever the French
court gave the word. Such was the forbidding outlook when
Elizabeth took up the work of her unhappy sister.
Almost the first important act of Elizabeth was to make
William Cecil Secretary of State. He was born in 1530 in Lin-
colnshire and educated at Cambridge. He had entered
^miam into the service of Henry VIII. and after his death had
become Somerset's private secretary. Under Dudley's
administration he had held high office and, although he had
declared for Queen Jane, his life had been spared. During Mary's
reign he had remained in obscurity, finding shelter with many
others who had been of Edward's court, by conforming to the
dominant religion. Another important appointment of Elizabeth
was that of Matthew Parker, the old chaplain of her mother, to
the position left vacant by Pole's death. Both men were moder-
ate Protestants and were one with Elizabeth in her desire to
restore the tranquillity of the realm. To Mcholas Bacon, the
brother-in-law of Cecil, was committed the keeping of the Great
Seal.
The religious question demanded immediate settlement. The
nation was still Catholic, both in form and in sentiment, although
the people were weary of the church courts and their
arS^hf^ heresy trials, and were generally disgusted with the
oSfcm tyranny of priests. The new pope, Paul IV., more-
over, was apparently inclined to demand the surrender
of the church lands, and in that event the papacy also would
inevitably come in for a share in the revulsion of feeling roused by
the excesses of Mary and her pro-Spanish policy. Yet Elizabeth
hesitated to break with the papacy. She was more Catholic than
Protestant in her sympathies and had no desire to commit
England again to the Eeformation. But Anne Boleyn's daughter
590 THE EEFOEM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
could never expect the recognition of Rome. If England were
to remain Catholic, Mary of Scotland and not Elizabeth must be
accepted as the legitimate sovereign, and Paul IV., a man any-
thing but conciliatory, refused outright to recognize the right of
the new queen to the succession. If Elizabeth would reign there-
fore, she must take up again the work of her father. But here
she was confronted by the danger of excessive reaction. The
Protestant exiles were already trooping back from Germany and
the Low Countries, and, vociferous for change, were inciting the
London mob to attack the mass and all popish observances. Yet
Elizabeth would not be hurried. She insisted on having mass in
Latin, but she permitted the Epistles and Gospels, the Ten Com-
mandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, to be used in English.
She stopped the persecutions for heresy, but forbade controversy.
She refused to disturb Mary's bishops and assured Philip that she
believed in transubstantiation.
When parliament came together early in 1559 the cautious mod-
eration of Elizabeth was fully justified. The most of Mary's
ecclesiastical legislation was repealed, but of eighteen
lef/iniaiiim ^ ecolesiastical acts of Henry VIII. which had been
firstpariia- repealed by Mary, only ten were revived, and of nine of
Edward VI., only one.^ A new Act of Supremacy
declared the queen to be "over all persons and causes, as well
ecclesiastical as civil, within these dominions supreme;" but the
style "Supreme Head of the Church" was dropped. A new Act of
Uniformity also appeared ; but the Prayer Book was so ordered as
to hold to a middle course, leaving, in language studiously
ambiguous, room for the disciples of all faiths, so that Catholic
or Anglican, Lutheran or Calvinist, might find his creed in the
common form. "Such ornaments of the church and ministers
were to be retained and used, as were in the Church of England by
the authority of Parliament in the second year of King Edward
VI." These measures were not expected to satisfy the radicals
of any party ; but they might quiet the apprehension of the mod-
erate men of all parties and furnish the basis upon which English-
1 See Gee and Hardy, pp. 443-458. Cf . with Mary's Acts of Repeal,
lb., pp. 377-416.
1583] THE COUET OF HIGH COMMISSION 591
men might liye at peace with each other. No declaration of faith
was to be exacted from laymen. If a man attended church, the
requirements of conformity were satisfied. If he absented himself
from church, a fine of 12 pence for the household was prescribed.
OflQceholders, whether lay or ecclesiastical, were required to take
the oath of supremacy ; to fail was to lose their position and be
debarred forever after from entering the public service. The
ecclesiastical officer who took the oath and afterwards refused to
comply with the terms of the Act of Uniformity, was to be pun-
ished with heavy fines and temporary imprisonment for the first
and second offenses; for the third, deposition and life imprison-
ment. These requirements for the times were certainly moderate
enough; but the last provision showed that moderation was not
to be taken as weakness. Elizabeth did not mean to be trified
with.
The church as organized by Mary was not so easy to manage.
Convocation formally approved of transubstantiation and the
papal supremacy. The bishops in the House of Lords
Thereactum all spoke and voted against the Act of Supremacy, and
church when Elizabeth demanded that they should take the
oath only one of the fourteen bishops yielded. Of the
lower'clergy, however, out of 9,000 only 189 refused the oath and
threw up their posts. Of the others many, while avoiding the
oath under various pretexts, yet indicated their submission to the
new order. Elizabeth, who had no thought of driving them to
extremes, was apparently satisfied. With the power of making
episcopal appointments in her hands, she could wait for a more
gradual but surer way of securing a loyal body of ecclesiastics.
The Act of Supremacy had also empowered the queen to dele-
gate authority to commissioners who should inquire into, and
punish, all violations of the ecclesiastical laws of the
The Court of kingdom. At first Elizabeth contented herself with
High Com- . . _ . , . . i, x j. u
missUm, 1583. issuing Only occasional commissions, but there was so
much work to be done and the docket soon fell so far
in arrears that in 1583 a permanent court, the famous Court of
High Commission, was established, consisting of forty persons,
twelve of whom were bishops.
592 THE EEFOKM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
Elizabeth found on her accession that Philip II. of Spain
seriously desired to be her friend ; for since Mary Queen of Scots
was married to the Dauphin, Philip was forced to support
andPhliip Elizabeth against Mary. This necessity was England's
salvation; for England in 1568 could have coped with
neither kingdom successfully. In his anxiety to retain Elizabeth
as his ally, Philip proposed marriage. Elizabeth, however, had
no inclination to marry the cold and politic Spaniard of whom she
had seen quite enough in her sister's court! Yet it was far bet-
ter to keep Philip dangling as a suitor, than to part with him
definitely, and this perhaps pleased Philip quite as well, for until
his sviit should be dismissed, Elizabeth at least would not support
his enemies. He remained, therefore, ostensibly her friend, and
in the final treaty with "Prance, faithfully supported the English
claims.
The treaty of CAteau Cambresis, April 1559, marks the close
of the long series of political wars which had been stirred up by
the ambition of Charles VIII. Prom this date until
lyreainand the treaty of Westphalia 1648, the wars of Europe are
ditunixfoi- no longer fought for mere political advantage, but
are dominated by the issues of the great religious con-
troversy of the age. The French Henry II. survived the peace
barely three months, sacrificed to the love of his people for the
sport of the tourney. Francis II. succeeded to the throne
and Mary Queen of Scots was thus also Queen of Prance. The
union of the two crowns, however, did not last long. Francis
died in 1560 without issue and Mary returned to her own
people.
During the fifteen years in which Mary had dwelt in France, con-
ditions in Scotland had been rapidly changing. The Eeformation
had been given an enthusiastic support by both people
matinnm and nobility. The nobles still enioved their old feudal
Scotland. ... t ,., ,, -n i. , ,,
privileges, and like the English nobles of the fifteenth
century, could bring small armies of retainers into the field to defy
the crown and the courts. The church was rich and corrupt, and
naturally fearing the barons, sided with the crown in its struggle
with its great subjects. The barons, therefore, wera ready to take
1559] JOHN KNOX 593
tip the Eeformation as a new weapon against the orown, since
they could thus strike down its strongest ally ; but the bishops,
encouraged by the turn of affairs in England during Mary's reign,
were fully determined to arrest the spread of reforming heresies ia
Scotland, and had resorted to persecution. When, however, Eliza-
beth ascended the English throne, the Protestants took fresh heart.
A group of nobles signed a covenant, and styling themselves "the
Lords of the Congregation," demanded the English Prayer Book
and prepared to defend their faith.
In 1559 the Scottish Protestants received an important
accession to their ranks in the person of John Knox. Knox had
been taken at St. Andrews Castle by the French in the
John Knox, early days of Seymour's protectorate and sent to the
galleys; later he had been chaplain to Edward VI., but
on the incoming of the Catholic reaction had escaped to the con-
tinent. At Geneva he came under the direct influence of John
Calvin and adopted his views. Prom this safe retreat, also, he
issued his fiery attack upon Mary, "The Monstrous Eegiment of
"Women." He was imperious, uncompromising, and of dauntless
courage. When he returned to Scotland in 1559 he devoted all
his terrible logical powers to the attack upon the prevailing cus-
toms of the church. His eloquence was irresistible; his stinging
satire, his hard scorn, lashed the people to frenzy. At Perth the
vast congregation rose from one of his sermons to loot the cathe-
dral, smashing the windows, ripping up the pictures, and demol-
ishing the images. Prom Perth the frenzy of destruction spread
over Scotland. The Queen Eegent, Mary of Guise, attempted to
interfere; but the Lords of the Congregation sheltered and
encouraged the iconoclasts. Open war broke out. The Eegent
called upon the French court for help. The Lords turned to
Elizabeth, and proposed to her a match with the earl of Arran
who stood next to Mary Stuart in the line of succession. But the
high-spirited English queen found little to her liking in the weak-
minded earl ; moreover, the marriage would have been attended by
an immediate attempt to dethrone Mary in Arran's interest, a step
which Elizabeth knew would at once combine the Catholic powers
of Europe against her. But beyond mere reasons of state Eliza-
594 THE EEFOEM ESTABLISHED [ELizABB*a
beth had little sympathy with the excesses of the Congregation ;
she hated Presbyterianism, detested Knox, and was suspicious of
rebels of all kinds. Yet she could not permit the French to regain
control of Scotland. She agreed, therefore, against her inclina-
tion, to assist the Lords to drive out the French, but they must
remain loyal to their queen. In July 1560 the Treaty of Edin-
burgh afforded a momentary settlement, compelling the expulsion
of the French and securing toleration for the Protestants. The
Scottish reformers, however, were not the kind of men to be satis-
fied with half measures, and taking advantage of the recent death
of the Queen Eegent proceeded to attack the legal foundations of
the church, and by act of parliament swept away the old church
establishment and enjoined the Calvinistic form in its place. The
Lords thus far had supported the reform partly for political rea-
sons and partly because they desired to plunder the church as the
English Lords had done in the reigns of Henry and Edward.
When, however, the time came to enjoy the spoils, they found an
insurmountable obstacle in John Knox, who had no desire to see
the church stripped to satisfy the greed of the nobles, and threw
all his fiery energy into the new struggle between the reformed
clergy and the Lords of the Congregation.
Things were at this pass when Mary returned to her kingdom
in August 1501. She was a gay, light-hearted girl of nineteen,
highly cultured, full of the spirit of the French renais-
KmJx ""'* sance, and with an irresistible way of drawing the hearts
of those who came in contact with her, very marked in
contrast with the cold and haughty Elizabeth. Her intellectual
powers also were as marked; she could plot with Italian cunning
and possessed withal the courage and will to carry out her
schemes; but unfortunately she was not mistress of her passions.
She professed herself willing to tolerate Protestantism and asked
only that Protestants tolerate her in turn. To this the Lords
assented, but Knox, the watch-dog of the new Scottish church, cried
out in horror against it, declaring that one mass was "more fear-
ful unto him than ten thousand armed enemies." Between Knox
and such as Mary there could be neither sympathy nor compro-
mise.
1560] PEACE POLICY OP ELIZABETH 595
An era of turmoil and strife followed. Elizabeth's sympathies
were with her sister monarch ; her monarchical instincts always
strong with her, as with her father, forbade her to
Eiizabetu's encourage rebellion. But Mary claimed to be by right
Mary. of birth the legitimate heir to the English throne after
Mary Tudor, and this claim she would not surrender,
unless Elizabeth would recognize her as her successor. This,
however, Elizabeth would not do ; her Protestant subjects feared
the Scottish queen and had no wish to see another Catholic Mary
on the English throne. Elizabeth contented herself, therefore,
with encouraging the Scottish Lords in order to keep Mary busy
at home and prevent the formation of a party in her favor in
England; for the English Catholics were just as fearful of a
Protestant succession and looked to Mary for the solution of their
troubles.
The English parliament thought to settle the troublesome
question by finding a husband for Elizabeth and more than once
petitioned her on the subject ; she answered graciously
Theprnposed h^t evasively, and continued to keep her suitors waiting.
eSmk^ In 1561 it was supposed that she was about to marry
Lord Eobert Dudley, her first favorite, the handsome
but worthless son of the late duke of Northumberland.
Eor the first ten years of her reign, Elizabeth steadily persisted
in her purpose to remain at peace. "No war, my lords," was her
oft-repeated rejoinder at the council board. Her gov-
Peacepniicy ernment had been peaceful and economical. The
of Elizabeth. ^
country was recovering rapidly from the disorder which
had confronted her on her accession. She restored the coinage in
1560 and recovered the credit of the government. She
CiHnage repaired and garrisoned her fortresses and once more
restored, ^ °
September, brought the navy up to a respectable footing. More-
over, her studied policy of conciliation and her persist-
ent refusal to side with extremists had created a new national party
who put their interests as Englishmen over against those of church
or party, and who were increasing every year in strength and num-
ber. Her policy of Welding herself from foreign attack behind
the rivalry of France and Spain had also succeeded. As the
596 THE EEFORM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
Eeformation progressed and both states were weakened by revolts
of their Protestant subjects, the prospect of interference became
even more remote. It was Elizabeth's policy, moreover, without
committing herself, to encourage Protestants on the continent as in
Scotland. She particularly feared the Guises, who led the Cath-
olic nobility against the Huguenots, and who as uncles of the Scot-
tish queen were ready to support "her in pressing her claims to the
English throne. In 1562, the French queen mother, the famous
Catharine de Medici, attempted to give the Huguenots religious
toleration, but was bitterly opposed by the Guises. The result
was a civil war, in which Elizabeth gave some assistance to the
Huguenots and received Havre in pledge. The war, however, was
not creditable to English arms and in 1564 Elizabeth retired from
the struggle. And, although she continued cautiously to encour-
age the Huguenots when opportunity offered, it became more
definitely than ever her policy to keep out of war with France as
well as Spain.
The same policy which led Elizabeth to interfere in the strug-
gle of the Huguenots led her also to adopt stricter measures in
restraining her Catholic subiects at home. Their svm-
ThepnlU-yof , . ° , ■,, •, , , , . , . •,
Eiizahcth pathies were naturally roused bv the convulsion which
tOWdVd tllG "J tJ
ratiioiicsof was distracting France and their attitude was becoming
England. ■ r^, ■ ■, -r.
more aggressive. The violent Protestants were also
urging the government forward. The Act of 1562 which com-
pelled all teachers, all university students, all lawyers and all law
officers, and all members of the House of Commons, to take the
oath of supremacy, not only rid the government of annoying
obstructionists, but made the Commons more strongly Protestant
than ever. The next year parliament advanced another step in
adding to the Prayer Book the Thirty -Nirie Articles, which were
based on the forty-two articles of Edward VI. and broadly defined
the doctrines of the Anglican Church, robbing the Catholics of
the shelter of the ambiguity of Elizabeth's Prayer Book.
These measures, however, were not radical enough to satisfy
the ultra Protestants and the same year an unseemly and bitter
controversy arose within the Protestant ranks over the continued
use of vestments in the church service. Extreme Protestants,
1565] THE PURITAN'S 597
soon to be known as Puritans, objected to continuing the forms
or ceremonies, which had been inherited from the old church.
They objected to the Prayer Book, because it had been taken from
the old Mass Book ; they objected to kneeling at the
Division in Sacramental service, because the act appeared like an
tanfraf^cs adoration of the Host; they objected to the sign of
ThePuritams. (^j^e cross at baptism, because it seemed to them like
an incantation more worthy of paganism than Chris-
tianity. They objected also to the claim of archbishop or bishop to
the possession of any special spiritual powers. The great body of
Puritans had no thought at first of separating themselves from
the Anglican Church but sought to continue the reform within
the national church, replacing the episcopacy by a government of
synods and elders after the Genevan or Presbyterian model. One
section, however, known as Separatists, rejected both
aratuts' forms of church organization and taught that the only
form sanctioned in the Scriptures was the Congrega-
tional, based upon the independence of each body of believers.
Elizabeth had no sympathy with Puritanism. The quarrel
over forms and vestments exasperated her, but she needed the
Pari tans and knew that they were not to be trifled
andthe with. After an attempt in 1565 to compel them to
conform, she determined to put up with their vagaries
and to give her attention to the more serious problems which
immediately threatened her throne and which warned her to be
tolerant of Puritanism. In 1563 the famous Council of
of Trent, Trent had finished its work, It had become evident to
the leaders of the old church that it was useless to
attempt to find any common ground of compromise which would
satisfy the reformers, short of the abandonment of the papal sys-
tem and the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic Church. Yet
it was possible to reform the abuses within the church, the out-
growth of feudal influence largely, which had been a cause of grief
to good Catholics long before they had^ been made the object of
attack by Protestants. There was, however, to be no wavering in
restating the accepted doctrines of the church or in reaffirming the
papal supremacy, and upon this basis arose the movement known
598 THE BEFOEM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
as the Counter-Reformation which was destined to save Catholicism
in Europe. Its success was largely due to the devoted energy of
the "Company of Jesus," a new order, which had been
panyc^ems established by Ignatius Loyola in 1540. The members
were devoted to the restoratioa of the cliurch; and to
this end they preached, and taught, and sent out missionaries, trained
and disciplined to act with the promptness and unquestioning
obedience of the soldier. It was this powerful Catholic
Effect upon reaction on the continent, which had been thus success-
fully inaugurated, that now aroused Elizabeth by its
aggressive vigor and inclined her to look with more tolerance upon
the demand of the Puritans for stricter laws in restraining Cath-
olics.
Thus far Mary had managed to hold her own in Scotland ; but
in 1565 she determined upon a course which ultimately united
Elizabeth, England, and the Scottish people against
Mary's un- her. By marrying for her second husband Henry
love affairs. Stuart, Lord Darnley, the son of her father's half-
sister, she hoped to unite the two lines of Stuart
succession and strengthen her cause. Darnley was weak and
vicious, without capacity for politics, personally objectionable to
Elizabeth, and a Catholic. But Mary, blind to all peril, deaf to
all entreaties, for the moment was infatuated with her tall and
handsome cousin, only to repent later of her impetuous folly. The
foolish youth proved himself so unworthy of the queen's confi-
dence that she refused to allow him to be crowned at her side. He
turned for comfort to the Scottish lords, who persuaded him that
the queen's secretary, an Italian named David Rizzio, was his rival
in the queen's affections, and so worlied upon him, that, crazed
with jealousy, one evening in March 1566, supported by a band of
Protestant lords, he broke into Mary's drawing-room. The
unhappy secretary was seized, dragged from the queen's presence
and stabbed to death. In less than a year Darnley himself was
assassinated by the connivance of the earl of Bothwell, a wild, law-
less nature, who was allowed not only to secure an acquittal by
overawing his judges, but to carry off Mary and marry her,
apparently with her consent.
1567-1577] FALL OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 599
This act of Bothwell was Mary's death warrant. All Scotland
believed that she had herself planned the murder of her husband
Fallot Ma ^^^ ^^^ willingly given herself to Bothwell. The
Quemof people rose against her and in June 1567, Bothwell's
retainers having deserted him, Mary surrendered to the
Lords at Carberry Hill. Bothwell escaped to Orkney and after a
wandering life was seized by the Danes and finally died in prison in
1577. Mary was brought to Edinburgh amid the execrations of
the people, and shut up in Lochleven Castle; Darnley's son James,
a child one year old, was proclaimed King of Scotland. In May
1568 Mary succeeded in making her escape, and sum-
Mam^u^ises. ™oiiiiig ttie Catholics to her side, attempted to regain
her crown. But she was defeated at Langside near
Glasgow, and compelled once more to flee from the face of her
angry people.
In Scotland there was no longer resting place or safety for the
unhappy queen ; in her despair she determined to present herself
at the threshold of her sister sovereign and rival, and
'^Sablm appeal to her for protection and support. Elizabeth
pretended to investigate the matter and called upon the
Scottish lords to justify their act of rebellion. In reply, they pro-
duced a casket of letters, alleged to have been written by Mary to
Bothwell which if genuine proved her complicity in Darnley's
murder. Genuine or not, Mary refused to answer the charge or
to recognize the commission which had been appointed virtually to
try her. She refused also to abdicate in favor of her son, or make
any concessions to her rebellious subjects. Elizabeth could not
bring herself to give up Mary to her subjects; she dared not ofEend
them by releasing her. Almost against her will, therefore, she
was led to confine the exile at Tutbury. Mary's beauty, her wit,
her fascinating ways, her misfortunes, made her a dangerous
prisoner. Thomas Duke of Norfolk, the son of the earl of Sur-
rey, one of Henry VIII. 's last victims, had already become infatu-
ated, and encouraged by the support of a number of Catholic
nobles, including Thomas Percy Earl of Northumberland and
Charles Neville Earl of Westmoreland, proposed to marry Mary,
who was to be acknowledged as Elizabeth's successor. Elizabeth
600 THE REFORM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
promptly threw Norfolk "into prison, whereupon an insurrection led
by Northumberland and Westmoreland broke out in the Catholic
north. But Elizabeth was too quick for the malcontent nobles.
She suppressed the revolt with cruelty and severely punished those
engaged in it ; every market town between the Wharfe and Tyne was
graced with a group of hanging rebels. Northumberland escaped
to Scotland but was delivered to Elizabeth and executed in 1573.
The time had now come when no amount of skillful fencing
could longer delay the crisis which had been threatening Elizabeth
ever since her accession to the throne. In February
^"jte^feT" l^'^O P°P® P^"^ ^- issued the long expected bull of
retom^"'"'"''* excommunication and deposition, freeing all the sub-
jects of Elizabeth from their oath of allegiance and in
the minds of many not only justifying open rebellion but the
secret plot of the assassin. Elizabeth was now strong in the confi-
dence of the great part of her people ; yet this loyalty had never
been put to the test and the open declaration of war by the pope
caused no small anxiety on the part of the queen and her council-
lors, and naturally roused suspicion and distrust of all her Catholic
subjects. She had, however, little cause for alarm. Scotland
was now committed not only to the Eeformation but to an alliance
with England as well. Mary the only rival whom she might fear
was in her hands. The Catholic government of France was strug-
gling to retain its position against the rising power of the Hugue-
nots. Spain was fully occupied in maintaining her hold upon the
Netherlands, where her subjects under the lead of William of
Orange had arisen against her civil and ecclesiastical tyrannies.
Elizabeth, therefore, had nothing to fear from either France or
Spain; yet it seemed good policy to make friends if possible, and
the subject of a foreign marriage was once more broached. In 1571
the negotiations seemed at last about to bear fruit in a union
with the duke of Alen9on, the youngest brother of Charles IX. It
is not at all likely that Elizabeth was any more serious now than
before, but for eleven years she managed to retain the avowed
friendship of France; the little duke of Alengon, whom Elizabeth
playfully called her frog, came and went, her recognized suitor,
Elizabeth always contriving to find excuse for delaying the mar-
1572] THE EIDOLFI PLOT 601
riage and in the meantime enjoying the full benefit of a French
alliance as a foil to the threatening attitude of Spain. In case of
attack, either country, was to assist the other; they were also not
to interfere in Scottish affairs nor allow any one else to do so.
In 1572 the excommunication bore its first fruits in the Ridolfi
plot. Norfolk had been spared in 1569, but learning little wisdom
from failure he had continued his plotting, carrying on
p'tot^*''"^''' ^ treasonable correspondence with Duke Alva in the
Netherlands through an Italian broker named Ridolfi.
Ridolfi lived in London but his business often carried him to the
continent and it was thought that he would thus escape suspicion.
But Cecil, now Lord Burghley, early learned of the plot and
shadowed the conspirators until he had obtained evidence sufiBcient
to establish the charge of treason, fully implicating Norfolk,
Mary, and others. Norfolk was seized and put to death.
Before 1571 Elizabeth had not summoned a parliament for
nearly five years. She had avoided parliaments as the simplest
way of preventing the radical views of the Puritans
rheparUa- from Coming to the front. But it seemed necessary
after the bull of excommunication to give Europe some
new evidence of the loyalty of her people and accordingly in the
spring of 1571 she called a parliament together. It was over-
whelmingly Protestant, for the Supremacy Act had barred out the
Catholics ; nor did it take long to pass laws against the bringing
of papal bulls and other papal documents into the kingdom.
When the Ridolfi plot was exposed in 1572 parliament also promptly
petitioned for the execution of Norfolk and passed a bill of
attainder against Mary. Elizabeth, however, had no thought of
sanctioning the latter measure ; she was quite satisfied to have her
enemies know that she stood between them and the vengeance of
the nation.
After the execution of Norfolk, a long period of tranquillity
followed. Even the massacre of St. Bartholomew, though it
stirred up intense bitterness in England, was not allowed
Theeraijf to disturb Elizabeth's friendly relations with the
trmiquiUity. •'
French court. The Spaniards continued their desper-
ate struggle in the Netherlands and so far from molesting England
602 THE RBFOEM ESTABLISHED [Elizabeth
were not even able to retaliate for the injuries inflicted by English
pirates or the encouragement which Elizabeth gave to Philip's rebel-
lious subjects. Elizabeth, however, still had no wish for open war
with Spain, and in ,1575 declined the sovereignty of Holland and
Zealand, which was offered her by the Netherlanders. The rest-
lessness of the Puritans caused her no little uneasiness, not because
she doubted their loyalty, but because they were for driving on the
chariot of reform. The parliament of 1572 had proposed further
changes in the Prayer Book. The Puritan body, also, had sent in a
formal "Admonition to Parliament," in which they demanded the
abolition of episcopacy and attacked the church courts, includ-
ing the Court of High Commission. But Elizabeth was not to be
hurried and bade her parliament cease the discussion of such sub-
jects.
It was impossible, however, to keep the people from thinking
and talking, and outside of parliament the Puritans were steadily
gaining ground. The queen was particularly annoyed
Puritanism ^^ their meetings for "prophesying," where it was cus-
tomary for the clergy to take up for free discussion
some text of Scripture in which the debaters were very apt at
finding appHcations in existing political and religious conditions.
She, therefore, ordered Griadal, who had succeeded Parker in 1576,
to suppress such discussions. But Grindal was himself too much
of a Puritan to wish to see the prophesyiiigs stopped, and refused.
Elizabeth straightway suspended him from his ofiBce, and the
offensive discussions ceased.
The whole episode reveals the firm hand with which Elizabeth
controlled her church. Her policy toward it was directed entirely
crmtroinf by political motives; nor did she hesitate to plunder
mtf'tiw^ quite as ruthlessly as Somerset. She left bishoprics
cKurcn. vacant for years, while she put their revenues into her
own treasury ; she forced bishops to surrender large sums of money
from their sees as well as a large part of the lands connected with
them. The bishops remonstrated; many of Archbishop Par-
ker's letters are wails of complaint against the robbery of the
church. But complaints were useless; for Elizabeth had as little
respect for the personal dignity of her bishops as for their estates.
1577-1580] drake's voyage 603
The relations of Spain and England during these years were
often strained to the point of war. Elizabeth secretly assisted the
Beiaf f Dutch, and Philip encouraged her subjects to rebellion.
Spain and Each monarch suspected the other of plotting assassina-
tion ; nor would either have grieved if some fanatic had
attempted it. Spaniards killed Englishmen wherever they met
them, and Englishmen hunted Spaniards up and down the high
seas. Yet the two countries were nominally at peace; and the two
monarchs were constantly exchanging fair words and large prom-
ises. Elizabeth, however, continued to encourage her seamen to
prey upon Spanish commerce; her eyes glistened with pleasure at
tales of adventure in the Spanish seas, where English pirates
boarded the great galleons and turned their tons of precious metal
towards English ports. In this half legalized piracy the peo-
ple also took a deep patriotic interest; the names of Drake,
Hawkins, and Frobisher, were honored at every English fire-
side. In 1577 Drake sailed for the Pacific, sacked towns and
cities along the coast of South America, seized and scuttled
Spanish ships, and at last, after planting the English flag in Cali-
fornia and sailing clear round the world, entered Plymouth in 1580
with his ship heavily loaded with gold, silver, and precious stones.
The Spanish ambassador demanded justice, and Elizabeth protested
that he should have it, while Drake sunned himself in the wrath of
the great queen, divided his treasure with her, and laughed at the
vengeance of the Spaniard. It was piracy, pure and simple; but it
was a great school for the training of a navy, and it cost nothing.
In retaliation for English piracy, Philip offered assistance to
the Irish, who were as usual in arms against England. Queen
Mary had planned to settle 'Irish affairs by the intro-
PhiUn'to"'^ duction of English colonists and a vigorous suppres-
rreiand^^ sion of the Irish in their favor; so little had the
religious quarrel yet obscured the original race quarrel.
Her plan, however, had not been inaugurated save in the counties
of Kings and Queens. Through Elizabeth's reign the old struggle
still smouldered, and in 1580 Philip attempted to fan the embers
into new flame by sending over a large Spanish force to furnish a
rallying point for the discontented Irish. But the Spaniards were
604 THE REFORM ESTABLISHED [elizabeih
quickly routed and the danger of Spanish interference in Ireland
passed by. The English ferocity towards everything Irish, how-
ever, did not cease. Edmund Spenser, the poet, has left a piti-
ful picture of the sufferings of the people: "Out of every cor-
ner of the woods and glens they came creeping forth upon their
hands, for their legs could not bear them; they spoke like ghosts
crying out of their graves ; they did eat the dead carrions, happy
where they could find them."
Elizabeth had now reigned twenty-two years. During the first
ten years she had maintained a judicious spirit of conciliation
towards her subjects of all creeds. She had frowned
mlamf^ upon extravagance of all kinds, and as long as her
jS*""^"^ people observed the laws outwardly she left them to
themselves. But during the second decade it had become
increasingly difficult to sustain this judicious course, — due mainly
to the changing tone of Catholicism itself. Hundreds of English
subjects had fled to Spain and other Catholic countries, where they
found ready sympathy among their fellow religionists; many also
had come directly under the influence of the Company of Jesus
and committed their lives to the work of restoring Catholicism in
those countries which had lapsed from the old faith. Chief among
the English members of the order was William Allen, a graduate
of Oxford, who in 1568 had founded at Douai in the Netherlands
a college for the training of secular clergy. In 1578 he began to
send over his missionaries to England to attack Protestantism in
its stronghold. The first of these were Robert Parsons and
Edmund Campion. Parsons was cool, calculating, and self-pos-
sessed. Campion was an enthusiast, but singularly pure-minded,
modest, and gentle. Both men began their work, but each in his
own way. Parsons took to political plotting, while Campion
labored for the conversion of Englishmen. By the law it was a
dangerous thing to celebrate the mass, or to say aught against
royal supremacy; it was treason. Heretofore, however, while
Elizabeth had left the sword suspended, she had been careful not
to execute the terrible penalty. But the renewed agitation roused
the government to action. More stringent laws were passed
against the Catholics. The maximum fine which might be levied
1578]
PERSECUTIONS OF JESUITS
605
upon recusants, Catholics who refused to attend the Anglican
service, was raised to £20 a month. An active search also was
made for propagandist missionaries. Campion was taken and exe-
cuted. Parsons escaped to the continent. The sword of perse-
cution had again fallen, and from this time to the outbreak of the
civil war in the next century, the Catliolic clergy continued to
exercise their functions at the peril of their lives.
PBOMINEKT CONTEMPORARIES OF THE LATER TUDOES
PRINCES
TRANCE
Francis I., d. 1547
Henry n., d 1559
Francis II., d. 1560
Charles IX., d. 1674
Henry III., d. 1589
Henry IV., d. 1610
SPAIN
I., 1.516-1566
Philip II., d. 1598
Philip III., 1598 -
THE EMPIRE
Charles,
v., 1519-1558
Ferdinand I., 1568-1564
Maximilian II., 1564-
1576
Rudolph II., 1676 —
POPES
Clement VII., 1523-
1634
Paul III., 1534-1650
Julius III., 1650-1655
Paul IV., 1556-1559
Pius IV., 1659-1666
Pius v., 1666-1572
Gregory XIII.,
1572-1.585
Sixtus v., 1585-1590,
etc.
SCOTLAND
James V., d. 1643
Mary, 1542-1567, (d.
1687)
James VI., 1567-1626
Ivan IV., the Terrible,
d. 1584
THE NETHERLANDS
William the Silent, d.
1684
MEN NOT PRINCES
ARCHBISHOPS OP
CANTERBURY
William Warham 1504-1632
Thomas Cranmer, 1533-1.566
Reginald Pole, 1656-1558
Matthew Parker, 1659-1576
Edmund Grindal, 1576-1583
John Whitgift, 1583-1604
CHANCELLORS OE ENG-
LAND
Thomas Wolsey, 1515-1639
Sir Thomas More,1529-1533,
(d. 1535)
Thomas Wriothesley, 1644-
1647
Stephen Gardiner, 1553-
1566
Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1568-
1579
REFORMERS
Tyndale, d. 1536
Zwingli, d. 1531
Luther, d. 1646
Loyola, d. 1566
Calvin, d. 1664
SCIENTISTS, DISCOVER-
ERS, AND NAVIGATORS
Albuquerque, d. 1516
Vasco da Gama, d. 1524
Copernicus, d. 1543
Frobisher, d. 1594
Drake, d. 1696
Raleigh, d. 1618
PAINTERS
Leonardo da Vinci, d. 1519
Raphael, d 1520
Michael Angelo, d. 1663
LITERART MEN
Spenser, d. 1.599
Shakspere, 1616
Cervantes, d. 1616.
CHAPTEK VII
ELIZABETH; THE DUEL WITH SPAIN
ELIZABETH, 15H4-1W3
The year 1584 witnessed a marked change in Elizabeth's foreign
policy. For twenty-six years she had persistently refused to allow
England to be allured into war. She had continued to
craiso/ jgjj^ ^jjg struggling Netherlanders aid, but sufficient
only to keep the contest with Spain alive, and when the
Spanish complained of her perfidy, she had coolly disclaimed the
acts of her agents. In 1584, however, a crisis was rapidly
approaching in the relation of parties on the continent, and Eliza-
beth saw that self-defense required a more positive interference on
her part. The death of Alen9on in June had left the Huguenot
Henry of Navarre the heir to the French throne, and in their alarm
the French Catholics had once more taken up arms. The death
of Alengon, moreover, had virtually dissolved the long alliance of
England and France, and in the event of Catholic success France
was almost certain to Join with Spain against England. If this
were not enough to stir Elizabeth out of her negative policy, the
assassination of William of Orange on July 10, by leaving the
Netherlanders without a leader, promised to end the Dutch war in
Philip's favor, and Elizabeth knew well that with Prance distracted
by civil war and the Netherland ers crushed, Philip would turn upon '
her in order to punish her for the piracies of her people and her
encouragement to his rebellious subjects. The Dutch appealed to
Elizabeth to put herself at the head of a Protestant league. Such
a responsibility was by no means to her liking, yet she saw that at
all hazards the Dutch must be supported; the Armada was already
casting its shadows across the southern horizon.
At home, also, the friends of the imprisoned Queen of Scots,
with persistent faith in their cause, had continued to plot for the
608
1584-1586] DEATH 03? MARY QtJEElf OF SCOTS 607
destruction of Elizabeth, and the complicity of Mendoza, the
Spanish ambassador, in one of these plots had led to his dismissal
in June- When, a few weeics later, the news reached
Marian England of the success of the plot against William of
at uome. Orange, the excitement knew no bounds, and in Novem-
ber bore fruit in a widely extended patriotic league, or
association, for the defense of the queen. Catholic Englishmen as
well as Protestants joined the league and swore to defend the
queen with life and goods, and if she were assassinated, to hold
responsible the person benefited by the act. The "person"
referred to in these ambiguous terms was of course Mary Queen of
Scots. In 1585 parliament legalized the association, and in
August Elizabeth definitely broke with Spain by openly entering
into a treaty with the Dutch ; in January she sent an armed expe-
dition to the Netherlands.
Little came of this first open essay of Elizabeth against Spain.
The chief incident of the expedition was the death at Zutphen, of
the young Sir Philip Sidney distinguished as diploma-
ImtoSie* ^^^^■> soldier, and poet. His fame to-day rests upon the
igtfterJomds, Arcadia. Robert Dudley, the earl of Leicester, had
been put in command of the expedition. He was no
match, however, for the duke of Parma, the renowned soldier
who confronted him, and, returned in a few months, having done
little for the Netherlands and embarrassed the queen by accepting
in her name, but greatly to her disgust, the title and powers of
governor-general.
It would seem that the temper of the country and the increas-
ing severity of the late acts of parliament ought to have warned
Mary's friends of the danger of further plotting against
tnnpiotZ the life of Elizabeth. But in 1586 a new plot, more
Mary Queen serious than any yet unearthed, was brought to light;
the conspirators were arrested and put to death. But
unfortunately for Mary, two letters written by her to Anthony
Babington, the chief conspirator, and commending his plot, fell
into the hands of Elizabeth's secretary. Sir Francis Walsingham.
Parliament had already in the previous year, passed an act in gen-
eral but unambiguous terms, empowering the appointment of a
608 THE DUEL WITH SPAIN" [Elizabeth
commissiou to try Mary in case she should be privy to a plot for
the assassination of Elizabeth. It was evident enough that her
existence was a constant encouragement to plotters like Babington,
and with a Spanish invasion threatening, it was hardly good policy
to forbear longer. Yet there were serious legal technicalities in
the way of a trial ; Mary was not a subject of Elizabeth ; moreover
she had appealed to her as an exile. Even were she subject to the
laws of England her part in the Babington plot could hardly be
deemed by an ordinary court of law worthy of death. The com-
mission, however, found her guilty of complicity, and a few days
later parliament by formal vote petitioned that the sentence of
death be carried out. Elizabeth signed the death warrant, but
refused to authorize the execution. Finally, the council, perceiv-
ing that the queen was determined to shirk all responsibility for
the deed, gave orders for the execution, and on the 8th of Feb-
ruary 1587, Mary, after nineteen years of captivity, was beheaded
at Fotheringay. Elizabeth immediately disclaimed the act and
with unspeakable meanness, fined and dismissed Secretary Davison
who had acted as the instrument of the council. As for the
nation, the news of Mary's death was everywhere received as the
news of a victory; bells were rung and bonfires were lighted. A
great sense of relief came over the people. The last fear of civil
war had been dispelled.
If, however, the strength of conspiracy had been broken at
home by the execution of Mary, the expediency of the measure was
by no means justified by the effect abroad. The news
^/SmTs ^^ Mary's death was received at first with incredulity
aftTOad*" ^"*^ then, when rumor passed into certainty, with a
cry for vengeance. In Paris the people raved against
the perfidious queen; at Rome the pope solemnly proclaimed a
crusade against the heretic monarch; in Spain preparations were
made for a holy war against the archenemy of the Catholic faith.
Philip, moreover, had special grounds for taking up the bloody
scarf of the fallen queen. In the shadow of the scaffold she had
sent him a last message enjoining war with England as "God's
quarrel and worthy of his greatness," and named Philip's daughter,
descended from John of Gaunt by her mother Philip's third wife,
1587, 1588] THE ARMADA 609
heir to her claim to the English throne. Philip saw himself, there-
fore, confronted with a threefold quest: the avenging of innocent
'hlood, the chastisement of the spoilers of the church, and the
championship of his daughter's claim to the English throne.
Thus, while the execution of Mary had removed the danger of civil
war, it had united all Elizabeth's foreign enemies and precipitated
the struggle which had been approaching for twenty years.
Philip at once turned with serious purpose to prepare a huge
armament for the invasion of England. Elizabeth, however, had
no thought of waiting for the blow to fall before she
S'"^Sp*°" began action. Though war had not yet been declared, she
/or^war, dispatched Drake with a little fleet of twenty-four sail
to watch the Spanish coast. With a boldness that
astounded Europe he ran into the harbor of Cadiz and, in spite of
the forts, burned the ships building there for the English expedi-
tion and destroyed immense quantities of naval stores. He also
made an attempt to enter the Tagus where other ship-building was
going on. The destruction of Philip's shipping compelled him to
postpone his expedition until the next year. With the humorous
bravado characteristic of Shakspere's England, Drake called his
exploit "singeing the King of Spain's beard."
Philip pushed on his work with redoubled energy, and in 1588
the great Armada was at last ready to sail. It was Philip's plan
to have the fleet act in conjunction with the duke of
?nai'^^ Parma, who was to throw an army of 30,000 men into
strength of England fi-om the ISTetherlands. This army had
actually been gathered in the preceding year, but when
the Armada finally sailed, it had dwindled to 17,000 men. The
fleet consisted of 132 vessels of war and some 40 transports,
manned by 7,400 sailors and 19,000 soldiers. No expense had been
spared ; the expedition was also immensely popular ; the best blood
of Spain was represented on the decks. In England great dismay
took possession of all classes, when once it was known that the
huge Armada had actually spread her wings over the ocean, and
was drawing nearer with every swelling breeze. And yet the
danger was by no means as serious as the people imagined or as
tradition has reported. The armament of Philip was greatly
610 THE DUEL WITH SPAIN [ELiZABErn
inferior in real fighting eflBciency to the fleet which Elizabeth had
prepared to meet it. The English vessels were of an improved
type, developed out of the piracies of the last twenty years ; they
sailed mnch faster than the Spanish high-deckers, and were more
easily managed ; they were also better of&cered and more effectually
manned. They carried heavier guns and more of them, and could
fire three shots to the Spaniards' one. The English gunners, also,
far outclassed the Spaniards as marksmen. As one of Drake's
captains wrote, "Twelve of her Majesty's ships were a match for
all of the galleys in the king of Spain's dominions;" and here were
not twelve but 197 of these formidable crafts to meet the 133 of
Philip.
To supplement these preparations to meet the fleet at sea, an
army of 16,000 men was gathered at Tilbury to defend London, and
another army of 30,000 was mustered in the midland
of Elizabeth counties: it was also arranged that upon the first
Philip by appearance oi the Armada within the narrow seas,
beacon fires should be kindled from every hillside in the
kingdom and every shire should summon its militia into the field;
that is, practically the whole male population of England were to
be called out to confront the Spaniard, the moment he should set
foot upon English soil. The English fleet had been divided into
two squadrons; the one under Lord Henry Seymour, the youngest
son of the Protector, lay off the Netherlands blockading its ports;
the other under Lord Charles Howard, grandson of the hero of
Flodden, supported by Drake, Hawkins, and Probisher, lay at
Plymouth guarding the entrance to the Channel.
The Spanish Admiral Medina Sidonia had been ordered to
avoid Plymouth, but for some unexplained reason, on July 20, he
passed by within easy reach of the town; the Enghsh
J. lie T'ccep' , ii»"i -i»T»rti
turn of the captains at once saw their advantage and in their fleet
crafts put out in pursuit. With the weather gauge in
their favor they could follow the huge galleons at will, peppering
away at them with perfect impunity and darting swiftly out of
reach when a Spaniard turned and attempted to close. The two
fleets moved slowly up the Channel, keeping up a running fight
until they reached Calais on the 27th. Medina Sidonia expected
1588] WKECK OF THE ARMADA 611
to find Parma waiting for him at Dunkirk; but Parma was still at
Bruges and nothing was ready. This was bad enough, bat the
English had followed their quarry to cover, and now, hovering in the
offing, showed no inclination to allow the Spaniards to wait until
Parma had retrieved his neglect, or his blunder. On the night of
the 29th, taking advantage of a northeast wind, they drove a fleet
of fire ships into the harbor among the crowded Spanish ship-
ping, throwing the crews into confusion, and enabling the English
to follow up their success by a direct attack in the morning. As
night drew down, the day was going against the enemy; the same
wind which had brought in the fire ships, was steadily crowding
the Spaniards upon the Flemish shoals and the Armada bade fair
to end its career then and there, when the wind veered and
enabled the distressed galleons to stand out into the North Sea.
The Spaniards were now thoroughly disheartened ; Parma and
his army of invasion had failed them; their ammunition had been
exhausted ; the crews had suffered serious losses and
virmmd the surviving ships had been severely strained by the
experiences of the past week. All thought of descend-
ing upon the English coast was abandoned; yet they durst not
again brave the Channel in their crippled condition. There was
no help for it ; and so they sailed away into the North Sea in the
vain hope of reaching home by rounding the northern headlands of
Scotland and passing down the west coast of Ireland. The same
ill luck, however, pursued them to the end. The English had
long since exhausted the ammunition, which the government in
accordance with the miserly policy of Elizabeth had doled out in
pitiably inadequate quantities, and had given up the chase, but
gale after gale broke upon the now doomed Armada. The coasts
of Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, were littered with the wreckage.
Two thousand corpses were counted on the beach of Sligo Bay.
Of the 173 vessels which had so proudly sailed out of the harbors
of Spain in the early summer, only fifty-three, shattered and use-
less, ever reached a Spanish port again. Philip bore his misfor-
tunes with a spirit worthy of a king: "I sent you out," he said,
as the fugitives came crawling back, "to war with men and not
with elements." In England the fate of the Armada was greeted
612 THE DUEL WITH SPAIK [Elizabeth
with transports of tinbounded joy; to the faithful it seemed that
as in olden timbs, God had marshalled the "stars in their courses"
to fight for his people, and in the overthrow of the Spaniard had
vindicated the canse of the righteous.
The power of Spain had long been overstrained by the task
which she had assumed of arbitrating the destinies of two hemi-
Effectnf spheres. But until the failure of her boasted Armada
o'/ihe^^^^ the fatal secret had not been divined by her foes. Now,
Arm.ada. however, the spell of her great name was broken; the
English became more daring than ever and began a series of attacks
upon the exposed coasts, which Philip was heljjless to ward off.
He sued for peace; but the English had no thought of allowing
their prostrate foe to rise, now that they had discovered his weak-
ness and had him at their mercy ; they had too long feared him
to play the magnanimous. They smote again and again, and when
Philip died in September 1598, the war was still raging.
At home the dispelling of the Spanish phantom which had so
long overshadowed the land, gave opportunity for the full play of
party animosities; and soon it was evident that Eng-
Tiw'Mar- j^mj ija,j purchased immunity from foreign attack, only
Tracts," at the expense of that unanimity which had made her
heretofore invincible. In the very year of the overthrow
of the Armada a bitter assault was made upon the bishops in a
series of pamphlets called the "Martin Marprelate Tracts," the
authors of which were Separatists. The government replied by
active persecution; some of the Separatists were hanged and many
others were driven from the country. Puritans, anxious as they
were for reform, were bitterly opposed to the acts of the Separatists.
It was not only, however, that the various sects of the reform
began to assert themselves more persistently than ever, but parlia-
ment, the very stronghold of Tudor absolutism, also
and'^uir'^ began to show signs of restlessness and an unmistakable
ments"^^^^ disposition to reopen the contest with the crown for
ancient rights, now too long not denied but held in abey-
ance. Elizabeth had made use of parliaments more freely than
any of her predecessors since the days of Henry VI. It was not
because she loved them more, but the uncertainties of her position
1571-1601] MONOPOLIES AND PATENTS 613
had forced her to lean often upon the nation, and give to the world
arrayed against her the oft repeated evidence of the loyalty of her
people; if legal technicalities cast a shadow across her right to the
throne, she was undoubtedly the nation's choice. Elizabeth fully
appreciated the moral effect of this fact, and when once the reli-
gious question was settled, took no important step without first
giving her parliament an opportunity to set the pace. It was part
of her statecraft. The consciousness of parliament of its own dig-
nity had naturally increased as a result of this renewed activity, and
had expressed itself, as naturally, in a demand for the respect of its
ancient privileges. As early as 1571, when the queen had ordered
Strickland to absent himself from the House because he had dared
to discuss ecclesiastical reforms, the House had shown so much
feeling that she had withdrawn her command. In 1576, however,
when Peter Wentworth claimed for the House perfect freedom of
speech, he was silenced, and in 1593 the queen went so far as to
arrest certain members for discussing forbidden topics. Thus the
House was learning to reassert its old privileges of freedom from
arrest and freedom of speech, and although the first steps were
taken with evident timidity, and progress was slow, a new spirit
was quickening into life, which had been unknown in the days of
Henry VIII.
In 1601 this spirit successfully expressed itself in a yet bolder
protest on the subject of monopolies and patents. By long custom
the government claimed the authority to grant to indi-
OTiT^ten/s "^i'iu^ls or companies the sole right of making or deal-
ing in a particular article, or of carrying on a specified
trade. Thus in 1600 the Bast India Company had been given a
monopoly of the trade with the East Indies. Some monopolies
and most patents were commendable, since without them the trade
in question could not be carried on, the goods could not be manu-
factured, or the new process or invention could not be introduced.
The difficulty was that English monarchs had often granted
monopolies and patents, where they were absolutely unnecessary
and only served the purpose of filling the pockets of courtiers at
the expense of the subjects. Such was the monopoly on playing-
cards held by Sir Walter Raleigh. There were monopolies also on
614 THE DUEL WITH SPAIlf [Elizabeth
leather, salt, currants, iron, "ashes, bottles, bags, shreds of
gloves," vinegar, coal, lard, oil, fish, and a hundred other com-
modities. One angry member, on hearing the list read, had bitterly
cried out, "Is not bread there?" and insisted that "if order be not
taken for these, bread will be there before the next parliament."
In 1601 the eyes of parliament were opened to the significance of
the grievance, and the members arrayed themselves in an ominous
majority against the privileges which the queen had showered upon
her subjects. One of the commoners in a quaint arraignment of
the nuisance declared: "It bringeth the general profit into a
private hand, and the end of all is beggary and bondage of the sub-
jects." Elizabeth saw that she must yield, though at the begin-
ning of parliament she had forbidden the Commons to debate the
question. She now declared in a touching speech that the griev-
ance should be amended, thanked the members for their zeal and
kindness, and assured them of her good will and affection. "There
will never queen sit in my seat," she asserted, "with more zeal to
my country, or care to my subjects. . . . And though you have
had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in
this seat, yet you never had, or shall have, any that will be more
careful and loving."
After freeing the country from foreign danger, Elizabeth
turned upon Ireland with more determination than ever. In 1594
Bmrwof *^^ ^"^^ °* Ulster rose under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of
o^min Tyrone; Spain sent assistance the next year, and in
ireia-nd. 1598, O'Neill inflicted a serious defeat upon the English
at the Blackwater. Elizabeth sent to Ireland as her commander,
the earl of Essex, her last favorite, a showy but inferior man.
Essex was defeated by O'Neill and returned to England in disgrace.
He had come home without leave which was equivalent to
deserting his colors, and Elizabeth could not forgive the offense.
The earl was thrown into prison and, though released
Treascm ,, , ,
and death the next year, was permanently out of favor. Over-
whelmed by his disgrace, he plotted to remove the
queen's ministers by force and compel her to name others who
would be devoted to his interests. It was a dangerous scheme, for
to fail was to submit himself to the penalties of high treason.
1601-1603] SIK FEANOIS BACON 615
But Essex thought his grievances were such as to justify the wild-
est hazard, and in 1601 he rode into London at the head of a few
friends and called upon the citizens to rise in his favor. The call
to arms, however, met with no response ; he was seized, tried, and
sent to the block.
One of the queen's attorneys at the trial of the earl was Sir
Francis Bacon, who, although he had been befriended by Essex, had
now appeared against him. Bacon has been much blamed
Bacon"'^''^ for this, but without discrimination. He was a cqld,
and consequently an unpopular man ; he was witty and
sarcastic, making few friends and many enemies ; he was ambitious
and not free from the sway of the meanest passions, especially the
desire to shine as a fine gentleman. He spent so much in show
that he was forever borrowing and begging, demanding promo-
tions, rewards, and offices, and leaving his honest debts unpaid.
Notwithstanding these reprehensible features. Bacon was one of
the great men of his day and deserves a place in the memory of
mankind for his unselfish labors in the cause of science and
humanity. He was a great lawyer, a politician, a man of the
world, and above all a statesman, seeing clearly what was possible
and what was not possible, and quite as clearly the means of attain-
ing a desired end.
The queen died in 1603 at the ripe age of seventy, revered
and beloved by her people. Walsingham had preceded her in
1590 and Burghley in 1598. Her last great minister
Elizabeth, was Burghley's son Robert Cecil, later earl of Salisbury.
In his hands the queen's cause was well served, and at
her death he had made all things ready for her successor.
Elizabeth's reign raised England to the first railk of European
powers. She had been successful in war and prosperous in peace,
and, under the confidence which she created, the English
o/reign^^^ people began to seek new and richer fields for the exer-
cise of their energies. Of the men who were thus
allured to careers of exploration and adventure, the namo of Sir
"Walter Ealeigh is perhaps the best known to Americans. He
was a man of marvelous energy and ability, and has left a record
as explorer, soldier, statesman, colonizer, and scholar. But
616 THE DUEL WITH SPAIK [elizabeih
his bad qualities were quite as eminent as his good. He was cruel,
domineering, corrupt, and faithless; and at Elizabeth's death he
was probably the most unpopular man in England. He made
several attempts at colonization in America, chief of which was
the expedition to Virginia in 1584, all unsuccessful but of value in
preparing the way for the great era of colonization to follow.
Among others who tried to colonize new lands or to open new
avenues to commerce were Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who inspired
the. earlier schemes of Ealeigh ; Sir John Hawkins, who introduced
African slaves into the Spanish colonies of America; Drake also,
famous for his exploits against the Spaniards and his voyage
around the world; Frobisher, who sought for a northwest passage;
Richard Chancellor, whose efEorts to open up a northeast passage
to India brought him to Moscow in 1553 and led the next year
to the forming of the famous Moscovy Company, antedating by
forty-six years the founding of the yet more famous East India
Company. In England itself men were at no less important tasks.
Sir Thomas Gresham founded the Eoyal Exchange in 1560, and
put in operation a reform of the currency, which was successfully
carried through by Elizabeth's ministers.
The result of all this busy striving was the enrichment of Eng-
land, and the further strengthening of the middle class which
Henry VII. and Henry VIII. had done so much to foster. In
the first parliament of James, it is estimated that the House of
Coilimons represented three times the wealth of the House of Lords.
Equally great were the literary triumphs of Elizabeth's reign.
The early Tndor period had been comparatively barren. Sir
Thomas More and the Bible translators, Tyndale and
fcrtuniSof Coverdale, have already been mentioned. Oranmer's
reton'""'''''' power is shown in the Prayer Book of Edward. In
poetry Skelton was popular; "Wyatt and Surrey also
had won unfading laurels before they staked their lives in the
mad game of -politics. These, however, were only pioneers;
their work, an earnest of what was to come after in the full blaze
of renaissance which marked the latter days of Elizabeth. Of
the masters who belong to this later era, who have made this
reign an epoch in the development of English literature, no name
LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF REIGN 617
is SO universally known and honored without question, as that of
William Shakspere. But close behind him there rise a score of
others: Spenser, famous for his Faerie Queen; Raleigh, poet and
writer of elegant prose ; Marlo-w/e, the dramatist whose marvelous
lines entranced those who listened ; Ben Jonson, scholar and wit ;
Bacon, associated with the earlier triumphs of inductive science;
Sir Philip Sidney, the poet of feeling and skill ; Beaumont and
Fletcher, famous yoke-fellows in play-writing; Greene also, and
Peele, Webster, Ford, and a host of others only a little less
worthy. These are the men who helped to make Elizabeth's
reign memorable, and to perpetuate the glory of England and her
queen.
The century had been filled with fathomless turmoil and cease-
less strife. The foundations of the deep had been broken up, and
the disturbed waters in wild tumult had surged and
End of the resurged in their efforts again to secure equilibrium.
oVr^'jfj OJ ttlG rr\1
leth century. The closiug years of Elizabeth's reign marked the period
when that equilibrium was once more temporarily re-
stored. The struggle of Germany with Charles V. had ended in
1555 in the Peace of Augsburg; a treacherous peace with its legal
recognition of the Protestant states and "its wretched rule of mock
toleration." Philip and the League had failed to prevent the
accession of Henry of Navarre in France; and although Henry had
sealed his success by embracing the faith which he had been all his
life fighting, he did not forget his old allies and friends, and
in 1598, by the Edict of Nantes, secured toleration to the
French Protestants. The same year the long struggle of France
and Spain ended in the Peace of Vervins. Philip II. died within
the year, and his son Philip III. , who had none of his father's
taste for war and intrigue, whose character was the best pledge for
the continuance of the peace, succeeded him. With Philip II.
gone and France at peace with Spain, the English had little excuse
for carrying on the war farther; all active interest in the original
issues of the war had long since been lost in the new objects which
were already drawing the energies of Englishmen into other chan-
nels. Formal peace, however, was not declared until the secoiM
year of the new reign.
PART III— NATIONAL ENGLAND
THE EEA OF NATIONAL AWAKENING
BOOK III— POLITICAL REVOLUTION
FROM 1603 TO 1B89
CHAPTEK I
THE BREACH BETWEEN KING AND COMMONS
JAMES I., 1603-1625
CHARLES J., 1625-1S28
The long struggle between the king and the Commons, which
virtually began with the first parliament of James I., was the
result of an inevitable clashing of the two systems which
xtragaicof had become embodied in English laws by the close of
iDiththe the Tudor Period: the older parliamentary system of
the Lancastrian kings, and the newer system of gov-
ernment by council, inaugurated by the Tudors/ The first had
been sanctioned by a body of formal statutes, which had slowly
accumulated during the two centuries that followed the grant-
ing of the Great Charter. These statutes, however, had been
allowed to lose their force in the reaction which followed the civil
wars of the fifteenth century. The Tudor sovereigns had not
repealed them; they had simply not used them; and at the open-
ing of the seventeenth century, although the statutes still survived,
they served to furnish a theory, rather than a fact, of government.
The Tudor system of government by council had been allowed to
grow up during the sixteenth century, when the baronage were
weak and the Commons had not yet learned their strength, when
' For a review of the constitutional questions involved in the great
struggle of the seventeenth century see Prothero's Select Statutes, etc
Introduction.
618
THE INEVITABLE COKELICT 619
England was confronted by powerful foreign foes and the nation
was more anxious to preserve its strength in unity and harmony,
than to secure its liberties by emphasizing the rights of the indi-
vidual under the laws. The Tudors, moreover, never worried
themselves over the theories under which they exercised their
authority, but were quite content with a growing body of prec-
edents, which, so long as they remained unchallenged, justified
almost any extension of the royal prerogative.
It was impossible, however, for two systems so opposite in kind
to continue to exist side by side without coming into conflict
sooner or later. Even during Elizabeth's reign, after
i^iewtobfe"' ^^^ destruction of the Armada had revealed to the
nation its strength, rumblings of the coming storm are
to be heard in the protests and petitions of her later parliaments.
It was not, however, until the Stuarts, by their novel theories of
"royal prerogative" and "divine right," attempted to justify the
system which they had received from the Tudors, that the nation,
acting through its parliaments, roused itself to compel the crown
to conform its acts to the statutes of the realm, which had been
long since established, but since the close of the Wars of the Eoses
had been practically laid aside. The parliament asked for no
rights which had not been granted to the nation in the ancient
laws and customs of the land. The king proposed to exercise no
prerogatives which were not recognized in the precedents of the
past. Had the first two Stuarts been wise sovereigns of the type
of Edward I. or Elizabeth, they would have conceded the theory
and might have saved the fact; bat unfortunately for them-
selves, fortunately for the nation, they were not wise, and
attempted to meet the venerable theories of the English Constitu-
tion, which had long since assigned to the king a very definite place
in the English system, with new and monstrous theories of royal
supremacy, borrowed in part from the Eoman Civil Law, and in
part from current theological ideas of a party in the English
Church. The sixteenth century could furnish a precedent for
almost any abuse of royal authority, for almost any outrage of the
rights of subjects; bui/English kings had made too many conces-
sions to powerful refractory parliaments, they had been too often
620 KING AND COMMONS [james i.
deposed and their ministers slaughtered, to afford any standing
ground for a theory of "divine right" or of authority above the
laws of the realm.
The successor of Elizabeth with his crown became heir also to
the arbitrary system of the Tudors and the numberless abuses
which had crept in as a result of their long impunity in
Tfte^'^ violating the letter and the spirit of the laws. As the
government was ordered, its chief instrument was not
the parliament but the king's council, or Privy Council, by whose
counsel and advice the king isgued proclamations which had the
effect of laws. This council at the accession of James consisted
of about eighteen members ^ and iucluded the chief officers of
state: the Lord High Chancellor, who was the head of the legal
system of the kingdom, President of the Court of Chancery and
Chairman of the House of Lords; the Lord High Admiral, who
was commander-in-chief of the navy; the Attorney General and
the Solicitor General, who were the law officers of the crown, who
advised the king on legal questions and managed the law cases in
which the crown was involved. Following these were the several
secretaries of state, who had risen to great prominence under
Elizabeth, who attended to most of the details of administration
and conducted foreign affairs.
Another peculiar feature of the Tudor system was the existence
of a group of irregular courts, vested in each case with special
jurisdiction and to that extent invading and setting
TheTudar aside the older common law and equity courts of the
courts. ^ -^
realm. Some of these courts were very ancient, ante-
dating the Tudor period, and like the common law and equity
courts had sprung from the original judicial powers of the king's
council. It was in keeping, however, with the despotic tendency
of the Tudor reign to increase and greatly extend the powers and
jurisdictions of these courts, until at the opening of the Stuart
period fully one-third of the population of England had been
removed from the jurisdiction of the common law courts. These
irregular courts had been authorized by acts of parliament and
were as legal as the more ancient courts of law and equity; but
' Prothero, p. xoix.
THE COURTS 621
they had been left more latitude in methods of procedure and had
developed customs, which were, if not tyrannical, certainly contrary
to the spirit of English law, and often invaded rights which were
commonly supposed to be secured to all Englishmen by Magna
Charta and other subsequent ordinances and statutes. Thus it
was their custom to try cases without a jury and compel the pris-
oner to testify against himself; nor did they hesitate to use torture
to open the lips of a reluctant witness.
The most important of these Tudor courts were the famous
Court of Star Chamber, the various councils by which the north
and west were governed, and the Court of High Com-
Tudnrmurta mission. The courts of common law and equity were
and common n j
law courts. the old and familiar Court of Exchequer, the Court of
Common Pleas, the Court of King's Bench, and the
Court of Chancery; the first three had received their final form as
early as the time of Edward I. ; the fourth as early as Edward III.
When the special courts were first created, they were perhaps
justified by the conditions which called them forth. As time
passed, however, they were for the most part* no longer
the special necessary, and became more arbitrary and cruel. Men
charged with petty offenses were dragged before the
Court of Star Chamber, fined epormous sums and imprisoned for
years, or they might be punished by having the ears cut off or the
nose slit, or in other humiliating ways. Tlie Court of High Com-
mission also was not behind in iufiicting penalties as severe,
though not as barbarous, for such crimes as staying away from
church or holding a prayer meeting in a private house.
In addition to the abuses which had sprung of the extra legal
powers which parliament had conferred upon the Tudors, there
were others also, some of which were survivals of older
omer Tudor feudal customs, and some had grown up out of prec-
edents which the Tudors had established, which had
passed heretofore unquestioned. .To the former belonged the right
' As late as the administration of Wentworth in the reign of
Charles I. , the Council of the North continued to perform a real service in
dealing with the lawlessness of powerful subjects, where the authority of
the ordinary courts bi-oke down entirely.
632 KING AND COMMONS [jahes I.
of purveyance by which the officers of the crown could demand the
goods of subjects, or their services, at the crown's price. In this
connection is also to be mentioned the right of granting monopolies
and patents, which had become so great an evil in the later days
of Elizabeth. The Tudors had also, whenever it
Beiigiom pleased them, continued to exact forced loans and
grievances. ■£ '
benevolences. Other sources of grievance against the
crown had arisen from the determination of the government to
compel all the people to conform to the legal model prescribed in
the authorized church.
These were some of the points upon which it was impossible for
the crown and the nation to remain long in harmony, if the new
monarch insisted on going on in the old way. The dis-
Tiie point pute, however, over this grievance or that, must not
obscure the real point at issue. It was not merely a
struggle over particular abuses, but over the whole system of arbi-
trary government which had been built up by the Tudors, of which
the abuses were the fruit. The question of ultimate sovereignty
was really at stake. Did the king enjoy certain prerogative rights,
bestowed upon him by divine law, which made him supreme in any
conflict with the laws and customs of parliament or the liberties of
the nation? Or was the king simply a minister of the state, created
by the state, empowered to act in the name of the state, and
himself responsible to the laws of the state, as these laws had been
defined and authorized by himself in conjunction with the national
parliament?
The questions, moreover, which confronted James were not all
born of English politics or the strifes of English sectaries. He was
also king of Scotland, and king of Ireland, and each
m-nwemv Country had its government separate from that of Eng-
land although it recognized a common king. Each coun-
try, moreover, had not only its own problems to settle, it had
also another very distinct series -of questions which had arisen out
of its relations to England ; problems all of them fully as impor-
tant and puzzling as those which confronted the king in his English
domain. There were grave continental questions as well, which
were also pressing for immediate settlement, questions which had
CHARACTER OF JAMBS I. 633
grown up out of the struggle of Holland and Spain, and again of
Spain and France, in all of which England had been more or less
involved in spite of the conservative policy of Elizabeth.
It was a time, therefore, when England more than ever needed a
king who should be resourceful, sagacious, and broad enough in his
sympathies to touch all the manifold interests which
Jmie'fL^ "^ ^^^ English crown had come to represent at the opening
of the seventeenth century. But unfortunately James
I. possessed no one of these needed qualifications. He was thirty-
seven at the death of Elizabeth and had been a king since infancy;
but he belonged to that class of minds who never learn anything
and never forget anything; hence his experience in Scotland had
profited him little. He had been well educated and knew more of
the history of his own country and of neighboring peoples than
most of the statesmen of his time. But his learning had brought
him little wisdom and left him only a conceited pedant, absurdly
vain of his accomplishments, with unlimited confidence in his own
powers, and ready to be victimized by the first designing courtier
who loudly sounded his praises as "the British Solomon." His
contemporary Henry IV. of Prance called him the "wisest fool"
in Europe. He was, moreover, incapable of "taking trouble in
thought or action," and hence was irresolute, suspicious, depend-
ent, and "an easy prey to the passing feelings of the hour." He
had none of the Tudor trait of securing personal respect ; he was
tactless in managing those who opposed him; but tolerated
familiarity in men who posed as his confidential friends, who
fawned upon him and secretly despised him.
Yet there was some good in this pedant king ; he was affable,
moral, and actuated by the best of motives. In some things he
was even in advance of his times; he hated war and was
understand "intellectually tolerant, anxious to be at peace with
6 »i8 w . ^jj^gg whose opinions differed from his own. He was
above all things anxious to be a reconciler, to make peace where
there had been war before, and to draw those to live in harmony
who had hitherto glared at one another in mutual defiance. He
was penetrated with a strong sense of the evil of fanaticism."*
1 Gardiner, History of England, 1603-1642, I, pp. 48, 49.
624 KING AND COMMONS [.tames 1.
He wished particularly to treat the Catholics with lenity. He
saw also that the peace of the island depended upon the complete
union of England and Scotland, and sought this union as a definite
policy. But unfortunately, like many a wiser man of his day, he
failed utterly to understand the Puritans. A bitter experience in
Scotland had taught him to hate its officious Presbyterianism, and
to long for the land where the ecclesiastical lords were the servants
of the crown, not its masters. Hence when he entered England
he proposed to do what he could to strengthen the hands of the
bishops, and would make no concessions to the party who were cry-
ing out against the corruptions of the established clergy. He saw
in the cry for ecclesiastical reform, onl}'' an attack upon the crown
itself; as he was fond of saying, "No bishop, no king." He
thought he knew the English character and plumed himself on his
ability to give the Englishmen just what they wanted. Yet
almost his first act on entering the country was to hang an ordi-
nary pickpocket without trial. Later he assured his dismayed
parliament: "The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon
earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and
sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called
gods. ... as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so it is
seditious in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height
of his power.""
When James reached London he found the court divided into
two parties, as they favored continuing the long war with Spain or
bringing it to a close. The natural instinct of James
parties of was for peace and this threw him at once under the
influence of the powerful little man, who for nine years
remained his chief minister of state, Robert Cecil, son of the late
Lord Burghley. The leader of the war party was Sir
liaicijh Walter Raleigh who had been captain of the late queen's
guard. His qualities were of the showy kind, that'
figured best in leading forlorn hopes, or in planning novel expedi-
tions for colonial settlement. He had never been popular with his
contemporaries and his pronounced partiality for war as well as his
iProthero, S.S. pp. 293-295; also Lee, Source Book of English History,
p. 337.
THE COBHA.M PLOT 625
reputation for intrigue had kept him ont of Elizabeth's Privy
Council. In marJsed contrast with this showy man of the camp
and the sword, was the quiet little man of the cabinet
Oeeif* 8,nd the pen; a tireless worker who could turu off
enough work for a dozen ordinary men and who soon
made himself indispensable to the new sovereign. The king never
loved the little minister, but he liked his conciliatory, tactful
ways, so dear to sovereign hearts of the kind that James possessed,
and he needed him. So Cecil was retained and Raleigh dismissed.
The king and his minister at once set about making peace with
Spain, and a defensive treaty with Prance. This policy was bitterly
opposed by Raleigh and his friends, and they so far for-
^mato""™' ^°^ themselves as to discuss a plan for getting rid of
plot, 1603. Cecil by force. Lord Cobham, a friend of Raleigh, also
entertained the idea of placing Arabella Stuart ' on the
throne. There was some wild talk, in addition, of getting help
from Spain.
While Cobham and Raleigh were thus casting about in their
minds for the best way to get rid of Cecil, some of the Catholic
priests and their sympathizers, who were greatly incensed
pm.^^ ^t James because he had not lived up to certain prom-
ises of toleration which it was alleged ^ he had made
while in Scotland, were also talking over a scheme, equally wild and
impracticable, of seizing James and frightening him by threats of
personal violence into keeping his promise. This plot is known as
the bye plot in distinction from the plot of Raleigh and Cobham
which was designated as the main plot. The two plots had no
connection, ^ave as George Brooke, a brother of Lord Cobham, was
connected with both. But it pleased Cecil to arrest all concerned
and try them as though the plots were one. The evidence was
slight, and yet in the prevailing fear of revolution which had
■ become almost a mania, the people were hardly in a mood to dis-
tinguish between a desire to get rid of a popular minister and
1 See table p. 587.
2 James had declared that he would not exact the recusancy fines,
which to him was too much like making merohandise of conscience. See
Gardiner, I, pp. 99, 100.
626 KING AND COMMON'S [jamesi.
treason against the crown itself, and Cecil had no trouble in secur-
ing the conviction of Cobham, Brooke, Ealeigh, and others. Brooke
and Watson, a Catholic priest, were hanged; but Cobham, Ealeigh,
and Lord Grey de Wilton, a Puritan, were respited and sent to the
Tower.
In the meantime James had been brought face to face with the
religious problem in a still more annoying form in the shape of the
" Millenary Petition," ^ so called because purporting to
TneHamp- , , , ■' , „ /, , -, ., i,, i
tonCourt have the support of more than a thousand clergymen
January, ' of the established church. The tone of the document
was moderate enough. It represented those who desired
"not a disorderly innovation, but a due and godly reformation,"
and among other things petitioned that men appointed as clergy-
men might be better qualified to preach, or that those already in
office might be compelled to set apart a portion of their living to
maintain men who could preach ; , that the number of livings held
by individuals might be restricted ; that the prayer book be relieved
of certain terms which belonged to the older Catholic service; that
church songs and music be moderated to better edification; that
the Lord's Day be not profaned; that the "longsomeness" of the
service be abridged; and that kneeling at communion, or bowing
at the name of Jesus, or the giving of the ring in marriage be not
required. Moderate as was the tone of the document, it had
emanated from the Puritan wing of the church, and the conservative
elements at once took alarm, the two universities leading in the
tirade against those who publicly found "fault with the doctrine
or discipline of the Church of England." James undoubtedly
meant to give the petitioners a fair hearing; the demand that
clergymen should be able to preach rather appealed to his shrewd
sense ; and he appointed the 14th of January for a conference at
Hampton Court, in order to hear arguments of the contending
parties for aud against the petition. For a whole day he listened
to the discussion patiently, but at the second meeting an unfortu-
nate mention of "presbyters" by one of the disputants, roused the
king and he plunged into the debate. "Presbytery," he shouted,
"agreeth as well with monarchy as God with the devil;" he
' Gee and Hardy, pp. 508-512 ; also Gardiner, I, pp. 148-158.
1605] THE GUNPOWDEK PLOT 62?
would make the Puritans conform, or "harry them out of the
land, or else do worse." The conference from which so much was
expected, broke up in confusion. It had ended in the total defeat
of the Puritans ; nor was the wrath of the king to pass with a
harmless outburst of hot words. Early in 1605 he compelled the
Puritan clergy to vacate their pulpits. Peace within the church
was henceforth impossible.
The king's treatment of the Catholics was as reckless as his
treatment of the Puritans. James respected the old church as the
mother of the Anglican Church, and he desired that
iheCatMics. *^® Catholics should be tolerated. He honestly wished
vow^^pm to remit the payment of the "recusancy fines" and in
ms^"^^''^^' general to mitigate the action of the severer Tudor
laws.' Yet the Catholics were far from satisfied; they
wished James to restore to them all the rights of citizenship, a thing
which he could not do without the consent of parliament, and,
when in 1604 parliament compelled him to allow the "penal laws"
against Catholics to be executed, a few hotheads determined
iipou a plan which only the wildest desperation could justify even
to themselves. They proposed to blow up the House of Lords at
the moment when, at the opening of parliament, the king should go
there with his council to meet the Commons. Then having swept
away the entire Protestant government, King, Lords, and Commons,
they would raise the country and put one of James's children on
the throne. The leader was Eobert Catesby, a man of good family,
of great energy and courage, with whom were associated Thomas
Percy of the old N"orthnmberland family, Thomas Winter and
others ; not least among them was Guy Pawkes, a Yorkshire soldier
of fortune, who had fought for Spain against the Netherlanders.
The plotters got control of the cellars under the House of Lords
and here stored a quantity of gunpowder. But happily the date
for the assembling of parliament was put off, and, in need of funds,
the conspirators were tempted to enlarge the number of those who
were in the plot. One of these new members of the conspiracy,
Sir Francis Tresham, in his desire to save his brother-in-law, Lord
Monteagle, let out the dangerous secret. The day for the meeting
iProthero, S. S., pp. 17, 75, 76, 88, 89-93.
628 KING AND COMMONS [james I.
of parliament had been finally fixed for the 5th of November, but
on the night of the 4th the ministry had the cellars searched and
found Pawkes in charge of the powder barrels. The other con-
spirators were already assembled at Dunchurch in Warwickshire to
carry out their part of the plan, when they heard that Fawkes had
been discovered. They fied to Holbeche House in Worcestershire
and here made a brave fight for their lives. Oatesby, Percy, and
two others, were slain. The rest, most of them wounded, were
taken to London, and there, with Fawkes, put to death with all
the barbarity which the times permitted.
The results of the plot were disastrous to the Catholics. The
exasperated country was not inclined to make much distinction
between the few enthusiasts who had engaged in the
powder Plot desperate enterprise and the great body of their co-reli-
t&nof gionists. The country was thoroughly alarmed, and
Catholics. ? . xu * ^ ■^ . ,'.,.
in response to the cry for severer measures m addition
to the old laws, which had been burdensome enough under Eliza-
beth, parliament enacted that no Catholic should practice law or
medicine or hold any office in the government, whether civil,
military or naval ; no Catholic could inherit real estate ; live in
London, unless engaged in trade ; go more than five miles from
his home, or appear at court. His house also was to be always
open for inspection. All Catholic books were to be destroyed. It
was a criminal offense to send a child to a Catholic school in Eng-
land or abroad; while the attempt to convert a Protestant to
Catholicism was to be punished by hanging.
It took James even less time to embroil himself with his parlia-
ment than with the religionists of his realm. His first parliament
was summoned in March 1604. In his directions to the
omdwin's electors he had warned them against sending to parlia-
ment any outlaws, or bankrupts, or men noted for
superstitious blindness or turbulent manners. This was whole-
some advice but the returns were to be sent to the Court of
Chancery for review, and if any were not satisfactory they were
"to be rejected as unlawful and insufficient." Here was a very
important principle involved, which if unchallenged would prac-
iProthero, S. 8., pp. 325-331 and 280-393.
1604] GOODWIN'S CASE 629
tically leaye in the king's hands the right of settling contested
elections, and at a crisis enable him to determine altogether the
complexion of the Commons. Fortunately a test case presented
itself at once, in one Francis Goodwin, who had been sent up from
Buckinghamshire. Goodwin was an outlaw, that is, he had an
unsatisfied judgment of a court hanging oyer him, and was at once
disqualified by the Court of Chancery. A new election was ordered
and Sir John Fortescue was returned. But when parliament met,
Goodwin claimed his seat, and the Commons raised the point of
privilege and sustained him. James denied their point on the
ground that all privilege had its source in the king's grant. The
Commous, however, carried the day ; both sides withdrew their
candidates, but the king recognized the right of the Commons to
decide contested elections.
No sooner had Goodwin's case been closed than the House
found another of its privileges violated. One of its members named
Sherley had been arrested for debt,^ though according to
cam^^'^ parliamentary privilege, no member could be arrested
during the session of parliament except for treason,
felony, or breach of the peace. Another quarrel followed which
ended finally in the release of Sherley and a new recognition of the
principle of freedom from arrest.
Another matter which James had upon his heart, was the
organic union of the two kingdoms. The object was wise and
statesmanlike, but the English and Scots had not yet
James and forgotten the bitter past; the old hatreds still smoul-
dered, and neither people regarded a closer union with
any favor. Yet farseeing statesmen like Sir Francis Bacon saw
that the Union of the two countries was not only desirable but
inevitable, and used their influence to persuade the two parlia-
ments to appoint committees to consider the matter. The com-
mittees met and agreed to recommend a commercial union, by
which the tariff wall existing between the two countries should be
thrown down, and free trade established except in the matter of
English wool and Scotch cattle. The hostile border laws were also
to be abolished, and neither country was to afford asylum to the
iProthero, S. S., pp. 389, 390 and 330-335.
630 KING AND COMMONS [jamesL
criminals of the other. They also recommended that Scotsmen
born before the accession of James, the ante-nati, should be nat-
uralized in England by an act of parliament, and that Scotsmen
who were born after the accession of James, the post-nati, should
be declared naturalized from birth. This report, which was cer-
tainly moderate, and, if adopted, would have made a good begin-
ning, was returned to parliament in 1606. But James who was
impatient to have a legislative union established, managed to
prejudice his case by his tactless impatience ; he delivered long, tire-
some speeches in broad Scotch, urging the bewildered parliament
to act, and making no effort to conceal his contempt for the argu-
ments of the opposition. The parliament was not to be lectured
into compliance. There were grave questions of royal prerogative
involved. English merchants, also, were afraid to face the free
rivalry of Scottish thrift; and English politicians had no wish to
share fat offices of state with James's countrymen. Parliament,
therefore, went no farther than to abolish the old border laws which
had grown up in a time when the two nations were at constant
feud. In 1608 in the test case of Robert Colville, who had been
born in Edinburgh in 1605, the English judges, by declaring
him to be a natural subject of the king of England, admitted
all post-nati to naturalization. Here the matter rested until
the Act of Union of 1707 permanently united the two people in
one state.
During the thirty odd years in which James had been reigning
in Scotland, he had been forced to accommodate himself to the
meagre revenues of a country which was proverbiallv
Thefinanccx •' r j
nftheuew poor. He was not, however, thrifty by nature, and
when he found himself called at last to reign over a
country which had the reputation of being rich, like a poor trades-
man who suddenly finds himself a millionaire, he began to' spend
money as though he expected never to see the bottom of the new
treasure chest. He expended £100,000 upon his journey from
Scotland, the funeral of Elizabeth, and his coronation. In his
second year he squandered £436,000 and incurred debts to the
amount of £735,000. The annual income of Elizabeth had
amounted to about £300,000, and with the utmost frugality had
1606-1610] THE GREAT CONTRACT 631
barely sufficed for her needs.' The prodigality of James, therefore,
soon forced him to apply to parliament for help. But parliament
was in no mood to look leniently upon such "needless and
unreasonable" extravagance, and, instead of money, gave the king a
lecture. Cecil, now earl of Salisbury, proposed to help the king
by increasing the tax on certain imports and exports, impositions,
basing his action upon the right of the king to regulate foreign
commerce. His position was contested by a London merchant
na ed John Bate,^ but was sustained by the Court of Exchequer;
the judges ruling that the king by royal prerogative might regu-
late foreign commerce. Upon this ruling, in 1608, Salisbury, who
had recently added to the duties of secretary those of lord treas-
urer as well, issued a new book of rates, which covered almost all
articles of export or import and was intended to increase the royal
revenues by about £70,000 a year. The precedent was too danger-
ous to allow to lie long unquestioned, and the impositions were very
soon given a conspicuous place in the list of grievances which the
Stuart parliaments were drawing out against the administration.
In 1610 Salisbury brought forth another measure known as the
Great Contract,^ by which he proposed, in return for the payment
of a lump sum to be applied to the crown debts, and a
TflR (rT'Pfir
cmtrcwt, regular yearly income of £300,000, assured by a per-
manent tax, to surrender the old feudal dues and the
irregular profits of purveyance; the king also agreed to consent to
a bill against impositions. There was much to be said in favor of
this plan which promised so many mutual advantages both to king
and people, and the Commons actually agreed to the general prin-
' This revenue was derived from the crown estates, the ecclesiastical
first fruits and tenths which the crown had enjoyed since Henry VIII. 's
time, various feudal incidents, and tunnage and poundage which it was
the custom, to grant to each sovereign for life upon his accession. These
constituted the ordinary revenues of the crown and were sufficient to
meet its ordinary needs. When there were special needs, such as might
arise from war, a special parliamentary grant was necessary. Since the
fourteenth century it was customary to raise such extra funds by a gen-
eral tax on the yearly value of land and on personal property, the subsidy.
See Prothero, S.S. Introduction pp. Ixix-lxxxiv.
2Prothero, S. S., pp. 340, 343.
'Prothero, S. S., pp. 295, 396.
632 KING AND COMMONS [jamesI.
ciple of the Contract, but, unfortunately, Cecil, in order to prepare
the way for his contract, had invited the Commons to present their
grievances ; they had taken him at his word, and in the alterca-
tions which followed, the Great Contract was lost sight of in the
larger questions of law and right. James became satisfied that
nothing more could be done with his first parliament, which had
been in existence now since 1604, and on February 11, 1611, sent
them to their homes, with much ill-feeling on both sides.
Fortunately the growing distrust of king and parliament, which
had thus far marked the first years of James's reign, had not inter-
fered with a great work which since 160-4 had been
thnrized quietly Carried on by a committee of learned divines, who
the Scrip- represented both parties in the English Church. This
work was the famous "King James Version of the
Scriptures," which was completed and published in 1611, and, in
spite of an early unpopularity and of many attempts since to secure
greater accuracy of statement or more scholarly representation of
Scriptural thought, still holds its sway among English-speaking
peoples as the most popular version of the Bible.
Not less perplexing than the questions which confronted James
at home were the questions which grew up out of the English hold
upon Ireland. When Essex returned from Ireland in
1599 he had left the island in an uproar. His suc-
cessor Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, found Dublin and a few
miles of the surrounding country virtually all that remained in
the hands of the English. He was, however, a practical, thought-
ful man, with the instincts of a soldier, and within three years
had ended the revolt and regained possession of the island. A
famine, which had followed the war with frightful ravages, com-
pleted the soldier's work. The energetic deputy covered the
country with fortresses, small, but well garrisoned and provisioned,
and so overawed the Irish nobles, that the earl of Tyrone submitted,
and the earl of Desmond fled to Spain.
Mountjoy was followed by Sir Arthur Chichester who made an
able and determined effort to restore the conquered counties by
introducing the English system of government in the place of the
old tribal system. The tribal chieftains became simple landlords,
1607-1611] THE PLANTATIOK OF ULSTER 633
and their subjects tenants, who instead of the old irregular levies
were henceforth to be liable to their lords only for fixed dues or
services. Chichester also attempted to convert the
toiVetod. country to the Protestant faith, which was already
the religion by law, but which had never extended
farther than the bishops appointed by the government, — a set
of men for the most part notoriously unfit for their posts.
The deputy had the Bible and Prayer Book translated into
Irish and attempted to reform the church. But the dispossessed
Irish priests refused to leave their charges, while the English of
the Pale clung to the old faith quite as stubbornly as the Irish ;
"and the sole result of the deputy's efforts was to build up a new
Irish people out of the English and Irish upon the common basis
of religion." Other troubles were also brewing. The Irish
chieftains did not take kindly to the loss of their tribal jurisdic-
tions and their right of levy upon their clansmen-; they objected
also to the interference of the new law officers in their quarrels,
and began to prepare for war. The English hold upon the coun-
try, however, was too strong to be shaken o£E, and in 1607 Tyrone
abandoned the struggle and retired to the continent.
If Chichester could have had his way something might now
have been done for Ireland, for the people as a whole were not
altogether averse to the new order, and were beginning
tum of ^^ to understand the advantage of quiet and of the protec-
tion of the civil courts against the tyranny of their old
lords. But, unfortunately for both England and Ireland, James
and his council now determined to interfere and deliberately
adopted a gigantic plan of spoliation. They declared two-thirds '
of the north of Ireland confiscated to the crown and proceeded to
allot the lands to Scotch and English colonists. This colonization
of north Ireland, known as the "Plantation of Ulster," was car-
ried on with the usual indifference of a conquering people to the
rights of a subject nation. The choicest lands were taken for the
settlers, and the Irish were forced to content themselves with what
was left. The new settlers, of the fervid Scotch Presbyterian type
mostly, were energetic and thrifty people, and soon gave a good
account of themselves in their growing wealth and prosperity.
634 KING AND COMMONS [jajiesi.
But nothing of this prosperity was for the dispossessed Irish.
Eeduced to enforced poverty by being despoiled of their lands,
hated and distrnsted by the conquerors as "alien" and Catholic,
and despised as "barbarians," they lost all faith in English jus-
tice and handed down to the generations to come, hatred of the
English and defiance of the hand that had despoiled them, as a
sacred duty, to be observed with a devotion kindred to that with
which they cherished the religion of their fathers.
The years which immediately followed the dissolution of
James's first parliament, were full of important incident. In 1612
Salisbury died and James, like Henry III., undertook
iufavorttes ^° ^® ^^^ °^^^ chief minister. Like Henry III. also he
soon fell into the hands of unworthy favorites, much to
the disgust and scandal of the realm. The first of these was a
handsome Scotchman named Eobert Carr, whom James made first
viscount of Eochester and then earl of Somerset. Carr knew
little of business ; yet James gave him his complete confidence,
the effect of which was soon seen in the renewed confusion into
which the finances of the administration fell within a year after
Salisbury's death. In 1614 Carr's influence, began to wane before
that of anew rival for the king's favor, George Villiers ; and in
1616 his career at court was cut short in consequence of the crime
of his wife, who had succeeded in poisoning her enemy Sir Thomas
Overbury.
James, also, had ideas of his own about the proper foreign policy
for England. "He wished to put an end to religious warfare and
to persuade the Catholic powers and the Protestant
Thp 'ffyvpiifJTh
policy of powers of the continent that it was for their real inter-
est to abstain from mutual aggression. Why should
not he and his family be the centre round which this new league
of peace should form itself?" ^ The thought was noble and worthy
of James's peace-loving principles, but entirely visionary and
impracticable as all but James knew. The years 1609-1613 saw
various marriage projects advanced in which the children of
James of marriageable age were concerned and for whom at
different times alliances were proposed with the Catholic courts of
' Gardiner, II, p. 138.
1611-1624] GEORGE VILLIEES 635
Spain, Prance, and Tuscany. In these negotiations James seems
to have been the only party seriously in earnest. He was, more-
over, vigorously opposed both by Salisbury and his own eldest son
Prince Henry, especially in the plan of an alliance with Spain, and
largely by their influence in 1611 he was persuaded to consent to
a union of his daughter Elizabeth with Frederick V., Count
Palatine of the Rhine, head of the league of German princes known
as the Protestant Union. The marriage was celebrated two years
later when both Cecil and Prince Henry were in their graves.
The early death of this fine young prince seems to have been an
irreparable loss to England. He was a thorough Protestant in his
sympathies and of unusually sound sense for a Stuart. Although
he had not yet reached his twentieth year he had given the friends
of his country great reason to expect much from him. He saw what
James did not see, that England's future lay in encouraging rather
than repressing her Protestant tendencies; he saw also that
Protestant Germany was the natural ally of England, and had
accordingly greatly favored the marriage project of his sister
Elizabeth. He appreciated also the value of such men as Ealeigh,
and had said of his father's treatment of the old soldier of Eliza-
beth: "My father is the only sovereign of Europe, who would keep
such a bird in a cage." His loss was deeply felt.
After the death of Prince Henry and Cecil, James veered back
again to his earlier idea of a Catholic alliance as the best means of
„ securing a general peace. In this he was urged on by
viiiiers,Duice G-eorffe Villiers, who had succeeded Carr as the king's evil
of Bucking- o ' °
ham. genius. Villiers was advanced rapidly; in 1616 he was
created a viscount, in 1617 an earl, in 1618 a marquis, and finally
in 1633 duke of Buckingham. He had great personal magnetism;
was gallant, kind hearted, impulsive, and not averse to hard work.
He was, moreover, a very different man from the type of Gaveston
or Carr. He dreamed of great things, but lacked the practical
judgment necessary to turn them into realities. He was respon-
sible for most of the later blunders of James.
In the meanwhile the personal administration of the king had
brought matters to such a pass that he could no longer put off.
calling a parliament, and in 1614 issued writs for the election.
636 KING AKD COMMONS [jamesj.
When the new parliament came together, although it was alleged
that some of the friends of the king had "undertaken" to secure
returns favorable to his designs, it was found that the
the^aam spirit of the members was Just as intractable as ever,
Pariiammt, ^nd before they would pass an act to help the king out
toterf" °^ ^^^ difficulties, they insisted that he should listen to
their grievances. They were furious over the alleged
attempt of the "undertakers" to influence the elections; they
protested against the impositions ; they protested against the ejec-
tion of the Puritan clergy; they protested against the favorites,
and in general against most everything the king had done or had
failed to do, since he began his reign. James, however, soon
grew weary and sore under the incessant scolding of his "faithful
and loving Commons" and, fully determined if possible to get
along without this ungracious monitor in the future, dissolved his
second parliament before even a single bill had been passed. The
king's friends dubbed it in derision "The Addled Parliament."
The parliament was not the only body against whom James was
compelled to defend the prerogatives which he had received from
the Tudors. From the first he had shown a disposi-
pendenceof tion to sustain the special courts whenever they came
Dismismiof into conflict with the common law courts. The com-
mon law judges on their part felt an instinctive hos-
tility to the extra legal powers which had descended from the
Tudors. Their leader was Sir Edward Coke, eminent among the
jurists of James for his knowledge of the common law. He had
held the office of attorney general under Elizabeth, had been made
Chief Justice of Common Pleas by James in 1606 and Chief Jus-
tice of the King's Bench in 1613. Coke took his stand upon the
principle that all questions of law between the king and the
nation, that is questions of prerogative, should be submitted to the
courts. He also upheld the supremacy of the common law courts
over the extra legal courts by declaring the right of the common
law judges to limit the jurisdiction of these courts in special cases,
and in supporting this view he had not hesitated to issue an
. injunction against the court of High Commission or to reverse a
decision even of the court of Chancery. In his defense of the
1616] SIE EDWARD COKE 63'?
dignity of the common law courts the courageous chief justice had
more than once been brought face to face with the king. In one
of these altercations James had declared of Coke's position that it
placed the king under the law, "which is treason to affirm." To
which Coke had coolly replied by quoting a maxim of Bracton :
"The king ought not to be under any man, but under God and the
law.'''' In 1616 the contention between the king and his chief
justice reached a crisis in which the king flatly contended that in
any case in which the prerogative of the crown was concerned it
was the duty of the judges to stay proceedings until they had first
consulted the king. Coke saw that the whole question of the
independence of the courts was at stake and brought all his
wealth of legal learning and powers of argument to bear. James
bullied and blustered, but mere volubility of which he was always
a master, was no match for the learning of the chief justice, and
failing of other ways to silence his antagonist James dismissed him
from "the office which he had magnified so highly." By the dis-
missal of Coke "James obtained at a blow all that he had been
seeking by more devious courses." The common law judges
henceforth held their offices practically as well as theoretically at
the pleasure of the crown; "the prerogative was safe from attacks
from judges who, comparatively at least with the men who had
held office before the fall of Coke, were dependent upon the favors
and the anger of the crown."
During all these years Sir Walter Ealeigh had remained in
prison where his unfortunate plot against Cecil had brought him
in 1603. He had amused himself by writing books and
'explman devising impossible schemes for bettering the financial
o^Rak.'kih, c(,ji(jitions of the government. At last the report of
the existence of a gold mine in South America won the
ear of the king, and in 1617 Raleigh was fitted out with a ship and
sent to the Orinoco to find his marvelous mine. He was warned,
however, not to molest the Spanish or in any way embroil James
with Spain. The expedition was a pitiful failure. Raleigh's men,
apparently against his orders, attacked the Spanish town of St.
Thomas, and refusing to go farther forced him to return empty
handed. The English applauded the storming of St. Thomas and
638 KING AND COMMONS [jamesI.
saw no crime in it; but James was bent upon maintaining his
friendly relations with Spain. It was determined, therefore, to
sacrifice Ealeigh to the demand of Spain and accordingly soon
after his return the sentence of 1603 was carried out. The people
had long since forgotten the former unpopularity of Ealeigh and
looked upon him "in the tragedy of his death" almost as a
martyr. James was now the most unpopular man in England.
The immediate outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, however,
soon drew the attention of the people to other objects and ofEered
James an opportunity of recovering their confidence.
Outbreak of But he had learned nothinff by his blunders, and obsti-
tfte Thirty o ^
Tears' War nately persisted in his course of antagonizing the nation
at every step. In 1618 the Protestant assembly of
Bohemia had refused to recognize longer as their king Fer-
dinand, the head of the Austrian Hapsburgs, and had ofEered the
throne to the Protestant Prince Frederick of the Palatine. Fred-
erick accepted and was crowned August 26, 1619. Two days later
Ferdinand was elected emperor and at once brought the imperial
power to bear against his rival. James was anxious to help his
son-in-law, but it troubled him to reconcile his own position as
champion of peace and the divine right of kings with the support
of one whom he feared might be technically a rebel. He hesitated
and dallied, aad in his despair sought the interposition of Spain.
He was foolish enough to think that by securing the marriage of
Prince Charles with the Infanta of Spain, he might connect him-
self with the Catholic party in Europe and enlist Spain actively in
behalf of his daughter's husband. The Spaniards, however, had
no thought of supporting Frederick, but instead made ready to
attack the Palatinate on their own account. Yet they were will-
ing to let James hope, so long as he kept out of the war.
In 1620 Frederick suffered a serious defeat near Prague; the
Spaniards also invaded the Palatinate. It Avas evident that James
must interfere if his son-in-law were to be saved. Still
The third
parHament he hesitated. His people were furious, and from all
summoneil. .,_,. ,-,,-,•■■
sides arose the cry for war with Spam. But Bucking-
ham, who had unbounded confidence in his own powers and was
still hopeful of bringing about a general reconciliation through an
1631-1624] IMPEACHMENT OF BACON
639
English-Spanish marriage, insisted that there be no war; and yet
it was not repugnant to his plans to make use of the existing war
fever in order to put England on a war footing;— a threat which
Spain might well hesitate to challenge. Accordingly James's third
parliament was brought together in 1621. His attitude was con-
ciliatory and coaxing; he deprecated "the undertakers" whose
mistaken zeal in his cause had made so much trouble with his last
parliament ; he pleaded for time in carrying on the present negotia-
tions, but declared his intention, if the negotiations failed, of
beginning war at once in defense of his son's territory and the
Protestant religion. The Commons promptly voted the war sup-
plies, and then as there was nothing else to do, they vented their
impatience in a series of inquiries into the perennial subject of
domestic grievances. In this they were supported by the vener-
able ex-Justice Coke, who in spite of his years had come back to
the attack on the king as full of fight as ever, and determined to
carry on in the parliament the struggle which he had been forced
to drop in the courts.^ The House first attacked the old abuse of
monopolies and patents, in which James and his courtiers had been
driving a thriving trade, and although they were not abolished
until 1624, the protest was not lost. Thev then turned
Impeach- n- -n
rmntof^ upon Sir Francis Bacon, Coke's old enemy, who was
attorney general at the time of Coke's dismissal, but
had since been made chancellor, and impeached him upon
charges of corruption. Bacon confessed and threw himself upon
the mercy of the peers. The king remitted the penalty but a
valuable precedent had been established. The Commons had
recovered an old and important weapon against crown ministers
which since the impeachment of Suffolk in 1450, had been left to
rust along with other forgotten but not outworn constitutional
forms. It was found to be just as terrible and just as efficient as
ever, and from this time forward, during the whole Stuart period,
there was scarcely a parliament that did not try to mark some
minister for impeachment.
' For service of Coke in the third parliament of James and general
estimate of his character see Gardiner, IV, 40, 41.
2Prothero, S. S., p. 334.
640 KINd AND COMMONS [jamesI.
In the meanwhile parliament emboldened by its successes
began to show an alarming disposition to help the king in his
"negotiations." It learned, also, that he had proposed
wf"if OTi *° *^® Spaniards to secure toleration for English Catho-
priviiege of jics, and to show their temper the Commons decreed
free speech. ' '^
that the recusants should pay a double share towards the
war fund; they also petitioned the king to put tlie laws against
Catholics in force, and asked him to secure a Protestant bride for
his son. Encouraged by Buckingham and Gondomar, the Span-
ish ambassador, James forbade the members to discuss "myster-
ies of state" and covertly threatened the leaders by announcing
his right to punish members for their conduct as members of the
House. This direct attack upon the right of speech again brought
forward the old lion Coke, and under his leadership the Com-
mons ordered to be enrolled upon their journals the famous opin-
ion "that the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of
parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inherit-
ance of the subjects of England ; and that the arduous and urgent
affairs concerning the king, state, and defence of the realm and of
the Church of England, and the making and maintenance of laws,
and redress of grievances, which daily happen within this realm,
are proper subjects and matter of counsel and debate in parlia-
ment ; and that in the handling and proceeding of these businesses
every member of the House hath, and of right ought to have,
freedom of speech, to propound, treat, reason, and bring to con-
clusion the same. " ' In connection with these discussions are to be
noted the names of John Pym, a young member from Bedford-
shire, and Thomas Wentworth, a member from Yorkshire, names
soon to be household words in England. James sent for the
Journal and tore out the protest, and then dismissed parliament.
He also sent Coke, Phelips, and Mallory to the Tower, and confined
Pym to his house.
With the obstinate tenacity of a small mind James continued
to cling to his Spanish marriage scheme. But matters were
pressing in the Palatinate. The Protestants had placed their cause
■ Prothero, Introduction, pp. Ixxxvii-xoviii. and pp. 117 133, 355, 310-
316 and 320-339.
1624] CHARLES AND BUCKINGHAM 641
in the hands of Mansfeld, a reckless soldier of fortune, who was
not only no match for Count ■ Tilly, the general of the Catholic
League, but had alienated the friends of Frederick by
towinWpaSn. ^^^ reckless treatment of the peasantry of the Rhine
country. The Protestant Union withdrew from the
struggle ; Heidelberg and Mannheim fell ; Frederick fled to Holland
and his electoral honor was given by the Emperor Ferdinand to the
duke of Bavaria. James in his despair listened to a wild scheme
of Buckingham's, and sent him with Prince Charles to Madrid to
push the suit in person. The appearance of the two at the Span-
ish court compelled the Spaniards to throw off the mask, and even
Buckingham saw at last how useless it was to expect Spain to
unite with England against the other branch of the House of
Austria. Had the attempt been made earlier good might have
come of it, though not in the way that James had planned. But
now Spain had carried its purpose; the Palatinate was ruined;
Frederick had been punished and the Spanish court sought only
to shake off the English without a quarrel.
Buckingham and Charles returned angry and disgusted, and
as determined to make war on Spain as before they had been set
upon the alliance. The nation which had been furious
^^^otMri"^ when the object of the prince's expedition became
in power. known. Went wild with ioy when he returned without
his bride. The favorite leaped at once into unbounded
popularity. James, broken in body, the result of his ungoverned
habits of eating and drinking, and worn in mind by anxiety and
vexation, thought no longer of resistance. He left the conduct of
affairs virtually in the hands of Charles and the duke. Parlia-
ment was summoned ; few voices were raised for peace ; a large
sum of money was vote^ for the war. Parliament, however,
refused to trust the king and placed the disbursement of the
money in the hands of a commission. The lord treasurer, Mid-
dlesex, opposed the war and at the instigation of Charles and
Buckingham was impeached on a trumped-up charge of corrup-
tion. The king looked on passive but disgusted and cynical.
When he heard of Charles's part iu the impeachment of Middlesex
the old wit flashed up, and he shrewdly remarked: "He will live
G43 KING AlfD COMMONS [chables I.
to have his belly full of impeachments." The session ended in
general good humor and the members went home, well satisfied
with thotnselves and tlie young prince who was soon to be at the
head of the government in name as he was now in fact.
Buckingham and Charles now had the power in their hands,
but with inconceivable blindness, instead of letting the marriage
question rest, began negotiations with the French king
MutakeKof Louis XIII. for the purpose of securing the hand of
and Charles, his sister Henrietta Maria. James had promised
parliament not to interfere with the laws against recu-
sants, but Louis insisted upon a promise of toleration for
English Catholics. Parliament, moreover, had indicated its
desire to attack Spain directly on the seas, her only vulnerable
point; but the advisers of the king thought only of winning back
the Palatinate. Twelve thousand Englishmen were enlisted and
sent into the Rhine country and placed under the command of the
ruffian Mansfeld, where they were left to die of cold, famine, and
pestilence. To add to the general discontent the marriage treaty
with France was duly signed, and the English government pledged
itself to support the French king against his enemies, — ^an unfor-
tunate pledge which was construed by the people later as a promise
to assist the French king against his rebellious Protestant subjects.
Here was trouble enough for the future, and in the midst of the
confusion, the old king died, March 1625.
The death of James made little change in the political outlook.
The new king was a handsome, taciturn man of twenty-five, with
a full share of those external graces of royalty which his
charaMer'^ Conceited father had SO Sadly lacked. He was dignified ,
temperate, and serious ; he had, moreover, little use for
the empty-headed parasites whom his, father had kept about his
court. He was industrious ; but possessed no great ability. He
was reserved and cold. He was lacking both in frankness and
decision ; and as is common with vacillating natures was incurably
obstinate. He could neither think clearly nor express himself
clearly. It was impossible to tie him down to any promise, or
bind him to a fixed policy. And yet he prided himself on his con-
sistency. He was disposed to treat his people kindly, but had no
1635] FIRST PARLIAMEKT OF CHARLES 643
appreciation of their wants, and understood their temper even less
than his father. All in all he was entirely unfit to play the king
in such perplexing times.
The political creed of Charles was a short one ; he believed in
the "divine right of kings" and also in the "divine right of bish-
Poiic ops." There was no place for a parliament in his sys-
tem, except as a cumbersome and annoying method of
securing money for the purposes of government. He had learned
nothing from his father's blunders; he prided himself rather on
having had so good a teacher.
From the first Charles was at war with parliament. It met in
June 1625. The French marriage had taken place in May. The
Commons were not pleased, nor did they approve the
ofclartZ"^ attitude of the king toward the English Catholics,
pm^iiament. ^^^T^ ^^ '^^'S striving to protect in accordance with the
marriage contract. They were inclined to find fault,
moreover, with the management of the war; they distrusted
Charles and most his favorite Buckingham, whose influence at
court was greater than ever. When Charles asked for a liberal grant
to meet the burdens of the war, they petitioned for the enforce-
ment of the laws against recusants and gave him but a small part
of the money needed. The old tariff on leather, wine, and wool,
known as tunnage and poundage, which for one hundred and fifty
years, it had been customary to grant to every king for life,' they
voted for one year only. The bill failed to secure the assent of
the Lords, and the revenues from this source, which had become
very important in consequence of the steady growth of English
commerce, would have been cut off altogether had not the king
insisted on collecting the tax without an act of parliament.
Another grievance, fully as serious, grew up out of the promise of
Charles to assist the French in the war against Spain. He had
lent a man of war and seven merchant ships to his new allies ; but
Richelieu, the keen minister of Louis XIII. , had no intention of
entering upon a foreign war, before he had reduced the strength
of the Huguenot cities somewhat, whose semi-independence,
secured by the Edict of Nantes, might prove a serious threat to
'Prothero, Introduction, Ixxii-lxxviii, pp. 35, 36.
644 KING AND COMMOKS [ceaeles 1.
the peace of the realm. Hence the rumor quickly spread in Eng-
land, that Englishmen had been sent to help Richelieu crush
French Protestants and added greatly to the disquiet and irri-
tation of parliament. The members at last turned upon Bucking-
ham, whom they justly held responsible for the French alliance,
and attacked him by name. The king to save his minister dis-
solved his first parliament.
The parliaments were now steadily feeling their way back to
the old constitutional grounds which they had occupied in the
days of Henry IV. when they had nominated the
FuWe effort king's council. But for the king to yield to this claim
iif Charhn
tf> ccntrnl
parliament.
ti) control -yjras to renounce a right which his predecessors had
enjoyed since the days of Edward IV. Charles could
not be expected to give up, therefore, without a struggle, for the
essence of royalty in his way of thinking lay in the right of the king
to name his own ministers. Parliament controlled the situa-
tion, for it had left the king practically without funds, and he was
compelled to call his second parliament at once. He thought
if he could get rid of such leaders as Coke, Phelips, and Went-
worth, he might control tlie other members, and hit upon the
novel device of naming these men as sheriffs of their several coun-
ties, an office which debarred them from standing for reelection.
By long-established custom the appointees could not refuse this
high mark of the king's favor and esteem; but the cause suffered
in nothing for a new leader was found in Sir John Eliot, a Cornish
gentleman, with the fiery eloquence and devotion to popular rights
of a Patrick Henry; easily stirred to indignant anger, warm-
hearted and sympathetic, quick and keen, but not farsighted, and
a thorough-going radical. He had once been a friend of Buck-
ingham, but his eyes were now opened to the real worthlessness of
the minister, and the House had hardly opened when he began the
attack by demanding an inquiry into the conduct of the public
business.
The second parliament met in February 1636. During the
interval an expedition had been dispatched to Cadiz with the idea
of seizing the Spanish treasure fleet. The sailors, however, had
accomplished nothing beyond getting gloriously drunk on Spanish
1626] TYBAISTNIES OF CHARLES 645
wine, and the expedition had returned in disgrace. The House
laid the responsibility upon Buckingham; it was one more evi-
dence of the corruption and demoralization which he
Attempt to
impeach had wrought m the public service. The vote to im-
Bucliingham. . _ _,,.
peach was carried, and Eliot and Sir Dudley Digges
presented the charges of the Commons before the Lords. Charles
had protested when the vote was presented in the House, and now
in his indignation, under the pretext that the two spokesmen of
the House had used seditious language, he threw them into prison.
The other members, however, stood by their colleagues and
refused to do any business until they had been released.
The king yielded and the attack upon the favorite was re-
sumed; to escape the issue the king was again forced to dissolve
parliament.
It was now evident even to Charles that nothing was to be got
out of parliament without the dismissal of Buckingham and this
he was determined not to do. To add to his difficulty,
cGus'^^"^ he found himself threatened by war with France in
spite of his recent alliance ; he was too weak to face
the Spaniards on the seas, or to assist his ally Christian of Den-
mark, who had been defeated at Lutter, and was suffering for
lack of the help which Charles had promised. Money Charles
must have, and if the parliament would not give it to him, he
must raise it without parliament. He determined therefore to
resort to the Tudor expedient of a "free gift;" and when the
people refused to give, in his anger he resorted to the more dan-
gerous expedient of a forced loan. But here he met with resist-
ance in the courts as determined and perplexing as in the
Commons. Chief Justice Crewe of the King's Bench was dis-
missed. Those who refused the loan were thrown into prison if
rich; if poor they had soldiers billeted on them, or were pressed
into the army. Ehot and Wentworth and most of the leaders of
the Commons, who were among the intractable, also found their
way into prison. "When five of the imprisoned attempted to sue
out a writ of habeas corpus, by which the king's officer was com-
pelled to specify the reason upon which he detained the prisoner,
the king announced that it was not necessary for him to give any
646 KING AND COMMONS [ohaeles 1.
reason for imprisonigig his subjects, except that such was his good
pleasure.
To add to the excitement and confusion, war with France now
began in real earnest. The English had seized French vessels on
charge of carrying contraband goods to the Spanish
afaa-tsiit Netherlands, and the French had retaliated by seizing
the English wine fleet. Charles sent Buckingham with
an armament of 6,800 men to assist the people of LaRochelle, who
were threatened with attack by the French government. Buck-
ingham attempted to take the fort of St. Martin on the island of
Rhe which was held by the government troops and commanded
the entrance to the harbor, but after losing half his men was
compelled to retire. Buckingham had really shown some traits of
a competent commander ; but the expedition had been badly
organized and poorly equipped; his soldiers were mostly raw
recruits, pressed for the occasion. He was therefore hardly
responsible for the failure. But public opinion was now too thor-
oughly wrought up to judge him fairly. The people laid to
his charge not only the disgrace suffered by English arms but the
loss of the thousands of men who had been forced to give up their
lives in the profitless errand.
The breach between Charles and the nation was now all but
irreparable. Time might heal it, were he at peace, and were it
possible to get along without a-parliament. But he was
nature of not at peace : on the contrary he was confronted by a
hreach of
Mim and war with the two greatest powers of the west; the
country was defenseless and the treasury empty. He
must nerve himself to meet another parliament.
CHAPTEE II
THE ERA OF AEBITKAEY GOVEENMENT
CHARLES I., 1628-1640
The urgency -which compelled Charles to summon a parliament
warned him also to assume an attitude of conciliation. But the
men who had suffered by the forced loans were in no
TM third mood to be coaxed or wheedled. The campaign was
parliament , ., , , , r o
of Cha/ries I. bitter, and the returns went overwhelmingly in favor of
the popular party ; the nation evidently was with the
men who had resisted the king, and had sent them all back.
They were all there; Coke, TVentworth, Eliot, Pym, and many
others, destined to emerge from the obscurity of private life in the
exciting struggle of the near future. Their recent sufferings had
made them desperate while the consciousness of popular support
and that they spoke for the nation, made them bolder and more
dangerous than ever. A wiser man than Charles would have
moved warily ; revolution was in the air.
It did not take the leaders long to form a plan of action. Coke,
the veteran of many legal battles, was selected to attack the right
of arbitrary imprisonment as claimed by the king ; Sir
mons adopt John Eliot, as bold and irrepressible as ever, was to
apetioon lead the attack upon the right of the crown to make
forced loans ; while Wentworth, so soon to draw back
from the popular cause, but still high in public confidence and
the virtual leader of the Commons, was to attack the general
lawlessness of the servants of the crown. Their first thought was
to register the displeasure of parliament on the recent acts of the
crown in a series of resolutions based upon an appeal to the
statutes and precedents of the past. Many vigorous debates fol-
lowed in which "it became increasingly evident that statute and
precedent were not altogether on one side; a decision which
Coke himself had made in 1609, when he sat upon the bench, was
647
648 EEA OF AKBITBAKT GOVEENMBNT [ohakles I.
cited against him. It was also evident that, however the resolu-
tions might be worded, they were virtually an arraignment of
the king, and some, as Wentworth, who cared little for theories of
the constitution and much for the dignity of the administra-
tion, wished to "save the king's face" as the Chinese proverb
runs. The Commons, therefore, under Wentworth's inspira-
tion, decided to bring in a bill which, while ignoring the
question of what had been law, should set definite legal limits to
the activities of the crown for the future. Here, however, Went-
worth was defeated by the king himself, who had not yet learned
to trust the clear-sighted leader of the House and further had no
wish to be confronted by a list of prohibitions such as he knew that
Coke and Eliot would certainly present to him. He thought,
therefore, to avoid the issue, by asking the Commons whether his
"royal word and promise" were not sufficient guarantee for the
observance of the laws of the realm. The Commons were willing
to give up the bill ; but they were not satisfied with a general
"blanket" promise, and insisted that there be some definite under-
standing between king and parliament as to what were the customs
of the realm. At the suggestion of Coke, therefore, they changed
the bill to the form of a petition of right which stated the griev-
ances of the nation, recited the existing laws bearing upon each,
and called upon the king to give his word that hereafter he would
instruct his servants to obey them. That is, instead of making a
new law, the Commons proposed to fall back upon the appeal to
existing statutes. A petition really offered them a great advan-
tage over a bill, since the bill must wait until the end of the ses-
sion for the royal assent, but a petition, which was of the nature of
a trace or convention, could receive an immediate answer from the
king, and yet, when so approved by the crown, was none the less a
statute, having the effect of a reenactment of the older laws
involved. The air thus having been cleared, the Commons might
proceed with confidence to the consideration of the subsidies for
which the king asked.
Thus appeared the famous Petition of Right, an event fully as
noteworthy in the annals of English constitutional history as the
appearance of the Great Charter in the reign of John. Like the
1638] THE PETITION 01" EIGHT 649
Great Charter it purported to be simpl;f a restatement of the laws
of the realm ; like the Charter it in reality challenged the whole
drift of the English constitution for the century preced-
ofRigM, ing, and diverted it into entirely new channels; like
the Charter it marks, not the end of a struggle passed,
but the beginning of a struggle at hand ; yet, like the Charter also,
it was a great gain for the popular party, for it cleared their
minds, and set before them a definite scheme, or party platform;
that is a statement of the things which they proposed to secure.^
The chief objection of Charles to the Petition was centered
upon an article which appealed to a law of Edward III. against
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, that forbade the
signed. royal Judges to refuse the writ under any circumstances.
The king looked to the Lords for help, and for a
moment, although they supported the Petition, they threatened to
endanger its whole force by proposing to insert a clause which dis-
claimed any purpose on the part of the petitioners to detract from
"that sovereign power" wherewith the crown had been vested for
the protection of the subject. The House, however, stood firm
and the Lords withdrew the objectionable amendment. Charles
then consulted his judges, who encouraged him to think that,
although accepting the Petition, by the delays of the courts he
might yet after all defeat the habeas corpus section. Fortified by
this decision, the king yielded, but in terms so ambiguous that the
suspicions of the Commons were aroused. In their anger they
brought out the old whip, which had so often made Charles quail
before; they proceeded to draw up a formal remonstrance, and,
finally as their courage rose, attacked the duke of Buckingham by
name as "the grievance of grievances." Charles attempted to
stay action by forbidding the Commons to proceed with the
remonstrance, but at the threatened impeachment of the favorite,
he yielded, and on June 7 appeared before the Houses, and pro-
nounced the ancient formula,^ which long usage had established as
the legal mode of giving the royal assent. The members broke
' For text of Petition of Bight see Taswell-Langmead, pp. 453-456, or
Gardiner's Const. Docs, of the Puritan Revolution, pp. 1-4.
^Soit droit fait comme est desirex; "Let the law be as desired."
650 ERA OF AfiBITEARY GOVEEii^MENT [ohablks I.
into a storm of applause ; the good news ran into the streets ; can-
non were fired, and bonfires lighted. Throughout the kingdom
there was wild exultation over the victory, which all supposed had
now set the long quarrel forever at rest.
In the exuberance of good will the Commons at once granted
five subsidies, amounting to about £350,000, which they had virtu-
ally promised in case the king signed the Petition, and
arance then proceeded to consider the granting of tunnage and
tJi.T'PfLtcticri
poundage for life. Unfortunately, however, for the
continuance of this good feeling, the suspicions which the recent
conduct of the king had awakened were not quieted, and before
settling the question of tannage and poundage, the Commons
after all determined to present a remonstrance, setting forth their
opinions of the general conduct of the government, particularly
of the continued levying of the duties in question without the
sanction of parliament ; also to call for the removal of Bucking-
ham from the king's service. To prevent the delivering of this
remonstrance Charles adjourned parliament for six months.
In this memorable session parliament had also taken up the
grievances of the Puritans against the Arminians, as the anti-Cal-
vinist party in the church had now come to be called,
^itwchurch ^^"0™ Arminius a Dutch reformer who had opposed the
sway of the Genevan's theological ideas in the Low Coun-
tries. The English Arminians protested against the extreme Prot-
estantism of the Puritans, holding that the doctrines and ceremonies
of the English Church, sanctioned by the practices of a thousand
years, should be maintained, and that it was not necessary to
repudiate these in order tcrepudiate the teachings of Papal Cathol-
icism. The party had long exercised a great influence at Oxford
and had advanced rapidly under James. They leaned naturally
toward Episcopacy as the Puritans leaned toward Presbyterianism.
With the Stuarts, moreover, they had many things in common,
and in the recent quarrels were inclined to support the crown as
the Puritans were inclined to support the Commons, denouncing
the parliament and preaching the payment of the forced loan as a
duty. As soon therefore as parliament had been prorogued,
Charles hastened to show his appreciation of these voices that had
1628] WILLIAM LAUD 651
been raised in his behalf in his time of need ; he brought William
Laud from the unimportant see of Bath and Wells to the great
see of London; he rewarded others by promotions and richer
livings.
Laud was thoroughly detested by the Puritans. He was a
little, red-faced man of mean appearance, a scholar of some ability
and undoubtedly sincere; but he was also narrow-
iSndJn. niinded, obstinate, and devoid of tact. In the great
Puritan stronghold of London he was soon in hot
water. He attempted to assure greater respect for the "Com-
munion Table" by ordering it to be placed at the east end of the
churches, whereas the Puritan had adopted the practice of plac-
ing it at the side of the church, near the pulpit. The Puritans,
also, had generally adopted the practice of itinerant preaching and
lecturing. But Laud would allow no clergyman to preach save in
his own pulpit, or where he had been specially licensed by his
bishop. Some of these matters in this practical age seem trivial
enough, but to the Puritan, Laud's innovations were the first step
backward toward the old church, and the diocese soon became the
scene of bitter strife. Thus the schism which was opening in the
church became identified with the schism which was opening in
the state.
Two other events of this period also powerfully affected the
drift of parties: the defection of Wentworth from the popular
party, and the assassination of Buckingham. The reign
"WcThtwot'th ^ ^ ' ^ ^
and Bucking- of Wentworth in the Commons had ended when the
bill was dropped for the Petition, and the reign of
Eliot and Coke had begun. He had nobly led in the attempt to
defend the nation against the disorder which was sure to follow
the continued violation of the rights of subjects by the king's
officers. He now shrank from the greater disorder threatened by
what he believed to be a direct attack upon the dignity of the
crown. His lips, however, had been closed by the very power
which he had sought to serve, and, through the rest of that
memorable session, he had sat sullen and silent. Made as he
was, he could not follow in the wake of such as Coke or even
Eliot ; nor yet could he long remain silent or allow his splendid
652 ERA OF AEBITRAKY GOVEENMENT [chablesI.
powers to rust in inaction. He therefore withdrew from all
further opposition in the House and soon entered into the king's
service as heartily and energetically as he had once led in the
Commons. Charles, on his part, who now began to understand
the man, although he never fully trusted him until the very last,
admitted him to the peerage as Baron Wentworth, and finally sent
him home to Yorkshire as president of the Council of the North,
where his fearless energy performed a real service in reducing the
lawless elements of that much-distressed region. Later Charles
gave him a place in the Privy Council.
Buckingham was murdered at Portsmouth, August 23, by a
poor fanatic, named Pelton. The murder was inspired by per-
sonal spite and not by political hatred, and yet so
ofmSkinch^ unpopular was the duke, that the people took up the
ham, Aw- 23, assassin as a hero, a martyr, and followed him to the
Tower with benedictions. To Charles, Buckingham
was the real martyr.
When parliament met again in January it was soon evident
that the death of Buckingham had made no difference in the
Di,,niutionof PosiWon of parties. The struggle went on just as
Uamintof"'^' before. The question of tunnage and poundage was
Marchio ^^ °^*^® taken up. Merchants, encouraged by the
1629. remonstrance of the last session, had refused to pay
the tax on the ground that it was contrary to the Petition of
Eight, and the king's officers had seized their goods. The
House, excited and angry over what they regarded as the king's
mendacity, although nothing had been said about tunnage and
poundage in the Petition, summoned the royal officers before
them to answer the charge of collecting money illegally. Charles,
however, would not allow the officers to appear, declaring that he
alone was responsible for what had been done. Meanwhile, the
House had also beea waging warfare upon the Arminian clergy.
Charles, who as usual did not understand the real spirit of the
Commons, thought to give their ardor a chance to cool off, and
resorted to the expedient of preventing action by a series of
adjournments. But this only annoyed and irritated, and when on
March 2, 1629, the Speaker, in accordance with instructions,
1629] ELIOT'S RESOLUTIONS 653
attempted to declare the House adjourned for the third time
within a fortnight, two members, Holies and Valentine, hurled
him back into the chair and held him down while the doors were
locked against the entrance of the king's messenger. A wild
tumult followed, in the midst of which, while the Speaker struggled
and wept, while the House raged, while swords were
fesoiutmis. ^'^^ ^^^ blows Were falling, Eliot managed to present
three resolutions which declared all those who favored
Popery or Arminianism, all who supported the king in the collect-
ing of tunnage and poundage without the consent of parliament,
or even those who paid the illegal imposts, to be capital enemies
to the kingdom and the Commonwealth.' When the Speaker
refused to put the resolutions. Holies promptly put them for him,
and the House carried them by tumultuous shouts of applause.
Then the House adjourned.
The Eliot resolutions were a declaration of war; the House
had declared its purpose to hold those who supported the crown
henceforth as traitors to the kingdom and the common-
of^MtoP^'^ wealth. The king acted just as Eliot and his followers
^aimiine^ no doubt knew that he would act; he dissolved parlia-
ment on March 10,'' and arrested the men who had
been prominent in the scenes of March 3. They pleaded that they
were not answerable outside of parliament for deeds within its
walls; but the judges refused to admit the plea, fined the culprits
heavily and sent them to prison to remain until they should sub-
mit to the king. Of the ten men who were arrested all but three
soon yielded. Eliot after three years confinement succumbed to
the damp walls of the Tower, dying there of consumption in 1632,
but stout of heart and unconquered to the last. Valentine and
Strode were not released until just before the assembling of the
"Short Parliament" in 1640.
Eleven years of arbitrary tyranny were now to pass before
Charles again summoned a parliament. The period is known as
the first era of Stuart despotism. Its history is the record on the
' For text of resolution, see Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 16, 17.
^ For the king's declaration of reasons for his actions, see Gardiner,
Const. Docs., pp. 17-31.
654 ERA OF ARBITRARY QOYERNMEBTT [ohablbsI.
part of the king of a desperate struggle to secure financial independ-
ence witli little heed to the spirit of English laws ; on the part
of the nation, of a like struggle to secure its rights
The eleven -vvrithin the Constitution. In this struggle, the common
yearn of oo '
SSo ^^^ courts, subservient as they were to the crown, were
yet the only hope of the people, deprived now of the
championship of parliament. In one way, however, these years
were not without compensation. It was useless for the king to
think of taking any further part in the great war which was still
desolating the continent, and he made the best terms he could
with his enemies, coming to terms first with Prance in 1639 and
with Spain in 1630. He did not abandon the hope of saving the
Palatinate for Frederick, however, and occasionally attempted
negotiations with that end in view ; but his promises or his threats
were alike despised by men who had no respect for a prince who
had neither soldiers to fight nor money with which to equip them.
Had Charles been a thrifty monarch like Henry VII., the task
to which he now set himself would have been diificult enough.
But he was not thrifty; as Henrietta Maria said of
raising him, he was always "a poor housekeeper," and the
treasurer, Lord Weston, was soon at his wits' end to
secure money to defray the most ordinary expenses of govern-
ment. The king's ofBcers still continued to collect tunnage and
poundage, in spite of the threatening remonstrance of the last
parliament. At first the merchants protested, and some even
braved the wrath of the Privy Council, one Eichard Chambers
bitterly declaring in their presence that even in Turkey, "mer-
chants were not so screwed and wrung" by the government. Yet
as it became evident that parliament could not protect them, the
merchants submitted and made the best terms they could with the
king's collectors. The duty derived from tunnage and poundage
alone, however, was far from sufficient to meet the needs of the
court, and in 1630 the king resorted to the old expedient of
Distraint of Knighthood,' compelling all men of full age holding
lands to the value of £40 a year to receive knighthood or pay a
fine. Tunnage and poundage had irritated the great merchant
' Prothero, S. S., pp. 133, 176.
1633, 1684] FIEST LEVY OF SHIP MOKET
655
class; this expedient touched the rich landowners, who might
well plead that present conditions, so foreign to feudal customs,
had virtually annulled the old law, "which had not been put in
force for more than a century." '
In 1633 the king's ministers hit upon a still more ingenious
but offensive device for filling the royal coffers. They established
Thefor'est ^^^°^^^ ^°^^^^ '^o'-'^rts and called upon all holders of
^^a^ land, that had once been forest land, to prove their
titles. Some families had been in possession of such
estates since the thirteenth . century, but if the deed were lost or
contained a flaw, so that the owner could not make good his title
when challenged by the king, he was compelled to pay a heavy
fine ; for by English law no length of possession could give a title
against the kiug. In 1633 the king had also returned to the
granting of monopolies, although he kept within the letter of the
law of 1 624 which had forbidden such grants to individuals, by
creating corporations to enjoy the privileges of the royal grant.
Corporations began to blossom without number ; individuals by
organizing into a company and making a handsome donative to
the royal treasury, might secure the sole right of selling such
articles as coal, brick, soap,^ beer, wine, starch, or any one of a
score or more of the common objects of daily consumption.
The king's ministers in the meanwhile were ransacking the
records for other precedents which could be turned to the enrich-
ment of the treasury without a technical violation of
Thefirstlevy , , ■
of ship the law. In 1634 they hit upon the perilous expedient
money, n i ■ t ■
October 20, of levying a direct tax upon certain towns under the
guise of the ancient ship money. Charles had lately
been seriously debating a project of alliance with the Spaniards
against the Dutch. But England had no ships, and Charles had
no mind to call a parliament to ask for money for such a purpose.
William Noy, his Attorney General, pointed out to him that the
laws of England imposed upon the coast towns the duty of fur-
1 Gardiner, VII, p. 167.
"For the interesting soap monopoly — "Papal Soap," etc., see Gardiner
VII, pp. 71-76.
656 EBA OF AEBITRABT GOVERNME]>fT [chaelksI.
nishing ships for the navy in times of danger/ Some recent
piracies on the coast were thought to be of sufficient importance
to supply the conditions which justified a resort to this ancient
custom, and on October 30, 1634 Charles issued the first of the
series of famous writs. ^ By this writ the magistrates of London
and other port towns were ordered to provide a certain number of
ships of war to be ready at Portsmouth on the first of the 'follow-
ing March, and empowered to assess the inhabitants for the pur-
pose of building, equipping, and maintaining the ships and their
crews for six months. The tonnage and equipment were also
specified, but the ships ordered were so large that most of the
towns could not build them in their own yards, and they were
therefore compelled to give the money instead.
The writ of October 1034 had been limited to the coast towns;
but' the next year, August 4, Charles repeated the experiment and
upon a much larger scale, sending the writ to every
tiiird'wrltf county of England and Wales, thus virtually demanding
money since the towns of the interior could not be
expected to build ships themselves. The king justified the exten-
sion of the writ by the plea that, since the whole country was to be
benefited by strengthening the navy, the whole country ought to
bear the burden. It took no clear head to see the purport of this
levy of ship money. The tax was not large; yet a small tax could
establish a precedent, and if once fixed, there was nothing to pre-
vent the king from freeing the crown forever from parliamentary
control. The issue of a new book of rates, which added £10,000
to the royal income, also called attention to the progress which the
king was making in securing an independent royal revenue, and
when, October 9, 1636, a third levy of ship money was ordered, it
could no longer be doubted that the king proposed nothing less
than to establish in this form a permanent annual tax.
All classes united in condemning the measure, but Charles,
fortified by an earlier decision of his judges that ship money was
legal in case of danger, and supported by the sympathy of Laud
' Ships had been levied upon the coast towns by Elizabeth and as late
as 1626 by Charles himself.
' For text of writ see Gardiner, Const. Doos., 37-39.
1633-1636] ARCHBISHOP LAUD 657
and the expressed wish of "Wentworth that the system might be ex-
tended to the support of the army as well,, prepared to collect the
tax. Then some of the bolder spirits determined to
dew" CO?™''' figb* t'^6 matter out in the courts, and refused to
pay the tax until the king should sue for it. Among
these was John Hampden, a young Buckinghamshire squire.
The tax for which he was held, levied upon some lands in Stoke
Mandeville, amounted only to the pitiful sum of twenty shillings,
but he determined not to pay it, until the Court of Exchequer had
heard his case. The earlier opinion of the judges, as well as their
well known subserviency to the king, did not afford the people
much hope of a fair hearing. "What was their surprise and joy,
therefore, when it was learned that five of the twelve judges had
objected to the writs. Yet technically the victory was with the
king and he insisted that all arrears must be paid at once.
Tyranny could go no farther ; parliamentary government in Eng-
land apparently was at an end; Englishmen were to be governed
henceforth without any "king-yoking policy."
Fortunately, however, there was another cause as dear to the
hearts of the great mass of the English people as their political
liberties, in which they saw what they wanted even
rmmv^of^ more clearly and definitely, and that was their Puritan-
canterbury, jgm Charles had already identified himself with
Laud's scheme of reform in his London diocese, but in
1633 he was rash enough to make him archbishop of Canterbury.
Laud at once determined to carry out his ideas of ecclesiastical
reform in the larger sphere in which this elevation now gave him a
free hand. He raised his friends to the high places of the church,
and then with the support of the Court of High Commission
began to rule the Puritan clergy with a rod of iron. In 1634 he
reissued James's "Declaration of Sports," which permitted good
church people to engage in archery and dancing on Sunday after-
noon; a measure which deeply oSended the entire Puritan com-
munity by publicly authorizing the desecration of their one holy
day. He also revised the old custom of "metropolitan visita-
tions," traveling over his archi episcopal see, prying into the
practices of each church, large or small, sending obstinate clergy-
658 ERA OF AEBITRAET GOVERNMENT [chablesI
men before the Court of High Commission, and setting things to
rights according to "the pitch of reformation which was floating
in his own brain." The indomitable archbishop spent the three
years from 1633-1636 in the highly important service of introduc-
ing the quarrel about vestments and the proper placing of church
furniture into every little village in England, and succeeded in so
irritating and alarming the people that they were thoroughly con-
vinced that he intended nothing short of the restoration of the
authority of the pope.
During these years of unchecked tyranny the Star Chamber
also contributed its share to the disquiet and irritation of the
Puritan community. In 1628 Dr. Leighton a Scotch
ofthe'cimrt Physician who had settled in London had got up a
Oftfmser petition for the abolition of Episcopacy, which he pre-
sented to parliament. The next year he published his
petition, which he had elaborated into a book, attacking both the
king and the bishops, and laying to their charge all the sins of the
English people. In 1630 the vigorous author was sentenced by
the Star Chamber to be flogged, have his nose slit, one ear cut off,
and his face branded. Another victim of Star Chamber justice
was William Prynne, who in 1633 published a venomous attack
upon the stage which the Puritans had already marked as perni-
cious and immoral. The stage had degenerated in the era which
had followed Shakspere, and there was much ground for Puritan
hostility. But unfortunately for Prynne the king and his court
were great playgoers and thequeen had herself taken part in a pri-
vate mask. The result was that the Star Chamber took the matter
up, and Prynne was expelled from the bar, deprived of his uni-
versity degree, set in the pillory, and shorn of his ears. In 1637
Prynne again fell into the hands of the Star Chamber.
o™cnsor- Laud with his other mischievous activities -had
prSs"''^""' attempted a vigorous censorship of the press. But
secret presses continued to thrive; frequently also
books were sent to Holland for printing ; and in spite of Laud's
vigilance, a vigorous and- stirring literature, representing the
views which he was struggling to repress, was steadily gaining
circulation among the people. Among the leaders in this under-
1633-1639] WBNTWORTH IN IRELAND 659
ground warfare were the irrepressible Prynne, now more dangerous
than ever since he had lost his ears, Henry Burton a clergyman of
London, and Dr. Bastwick a physician of Colchester. The three
men were seized and received the sentence of the court. Public
feeling was roused to the boiling point. An immense crowd
cheered the "three renowned soldiers of Jesus Christ" and strewed
flowers in their way as they passed to the pillory. Not satisfied
with cutting ofE the ears of Bastwick and Burton and gleaning
Prynne's stumps, the court sent the culprits to remote prisons at
Carnarvon, Lancaster, and Launceston. Even here friends were
found to minister to the victims of prerogative, and Charles was
finally compelled to send them off to the Channel Islands in order
to get them out of all touch with their sympathizers.
In the other domains which recognized the Stuarts as sover-
eigns, the king's policy of having his own way in spite of the
preiudices or preferences of the people, as in England,
in Ireland, was succeeding wherever phvsical force, or the brutality
1633-1639 x ./ ' >j
of the courts, could overawe the people, and with the
same results. In 1632 Wentworth had been appointed Lord
Deputy of Ireland and the next year entered upon the administra-
tion of his duties in that long-abused land. Chichester had
retired in 1614, and his successors had continued the settling of
English colonists until the parts of Leinster included in Wexford,
Longford, and Westmeath, and Leitrim of Connaught, had become
anglicized in much the same way as Ulster. The last
and the ^ deputy, Falkland, had arranged with Charles in return
for certain concessions to secure him a grant of £4,000
a year in order to meet the expenses of the Irish army. By these
concessions, "Graces" as they were called, Charles agreed to allow
the Irish to take an oath of allegiance instead of the oath of
supremacy; to abolish the fine for not attending church; to
accept a title to land of sixty years standing as final even against
the crown. When Wentworth took up his duties, however, the
subsidy had not yet been passed upon by the Irish parliament ;
hence the question of the Graces was still pending.
The new deputy was a thorough-going man of affairs and prided
himself on systematic methods in which there was no play for
660 ERA OF ARBITEAET GOVERN"ME]SrT [cuarles I.
sentiment, no favor for the ricli, no compassion for the powerful.
This system he called "Thorough." He at once introduced
some much-needed and wise reforms both in the civil
Sftfe"^* service and the army, where the peculation and job-
^^TSough" ^®'-7 °^ officials had introduced general confusion.
He also attempted to impart some dignity to the State
Church, which, plundered by government officials and debarred
from the sympathy of the population, was leading a beggar's life,
loved by none and despised by all. It soon became evident, how-
ever, that Wentworth had been guided in these measures, not by
any sense of justice, but merely by reasons of policy. He per-
suaded the Irish parliament to vote a large subsidy to the crown,
and then announced that the Graces, to which the king had
given his word, should be submitted without the clause designed
to protect and assure the Iri.4i landowners. His real purpose
appeared later, when he began to make plans for a plantation of
Connaught similar to that of Ulster. Great indignation and
unrest followed; no landowner could feel sure of his title, when
the king's word could be so lightly set aside by his minister.
Wentworth was in the mitlst of these schemes for spoiling the land-
lords of Connaught, when Charles and Laud decided that they
needed him and his system of Thorough at home.
In the meanwhile the principles of Charles and Laud were
working out results in a distant quarter of the world in ways that
they little thought of. Far back in Henry VII. 's reign
opctmri™ England had thought to get her share from discovery
tiwcoioniJ^ ^^ ^^® ^^^^ world by fitting out the Cabots and sending
them off into the western seas. They brought back a
better knowledge of the great northern continent, but in the
midst of the stirring scenes of the Tudor reigns Englishmen had
little thought of the new world, save as a place to hunt for gold
mines or Spanish treasure fleets. Nevertheless the discoveries of
the Cabots served as a foundation upon which to base claims,
when in the later years of Elizabeth men like Sir Humphrey Gil-
bert and Raleigh pointed out the advantages of securing in the
new world colonies, or trading stations, similar to those which
European nations had long maintained in the Orient as the basis
1607-1640] ESTGLISH COLONIES IK NEW WOELD 661
of their oriental trade. No one yet dreamed of the advantage
which these settlements in the western wilderness would ofEer to
England in the future in furnishing a iield where her excess popu-
lation might find room, or of the new empire which was to grow
from such small seed. Still trading companies had
uementf been organized, and had proceeded to plant stations on
the western shores of the Atlantic. It was not, how-
ever, until the year 1607 in the settlement of Jamestown, that
these efforts attained any success. Almost at the same time
another colony was settled in the Barbadoes. Great difficulty, was
found in persuading Englishmen to leave their native land and
face the trials and dangers of the wilderness simply upon the pros-
pect of gain ; nor was it until the more powerful motive of religion
and love of liberty came to the help of the trading companies
that their early plantations began really to flourish. In 1620 the
famous little bandof Brownists, or Separatists, who for
T?ie pu- some years had been living in exile in Holland, encour-
aged by the patronage of the London Company, deter-
mined to try their fortunes in the new world. They landed at a
site which John Smith had already named ISTew Plymouth from
the home of the great western company. The coast was bleak and
unpromising, and the New England winter, which had already
begun, gave them but a surly welcome. From the first their life
was a hand to hand struggle with death. Eew recruits joined
them, for the life of exile had as yet little attraction for the sturdy
English yeoman. After 1629, however, the alarming strides
which the despotism of church and state were making at home, the
revelation of the weakness of parliament in the presence of a wil-
ful monarch, led many to despair of ever securing in England the
rights which the laws had promised them. A new tide, therefore,
from the great 'Puritan class very soon set in towards
The great ^)^q shore of Massachusetts Bay, and the emigrants were
of tM years gQQu numbered bv the thousands. 1 he exiles, however,
1629-16JO.
had no idea of extending the toleration to others which
they sought for themselves. It was not long before a sort of
Puritan Star Chamber in the new world was as busy whipping
backs, or slitting noses and cropping ears, as the more august body
663 ERA OF ARBITEAEY GOVBKNMENT [chables I.
at home. Yet there were some who felt the inconsistency, and
dared to raise their -voices in favor of real freedom of worship or
of religions thought. Among them was Eoger Williams who had
joined the colony in 1631, who first saw clearly that the only sure
way to secure toleration was to make matters of religion indepen-
dent of the state. The Massachusetts Bay colonists were not
ready for such radical doctrines, and finally, in 1637, drove out
Williams and five others of the same mind, to seek a new home on
the Narragansett Bay where they hegan the settlement of Khode
Island.
While the Puritans were thus seeking to escape the rod of the
church which sought to make them conform to its hated cere-
monies, it would be strange if those who stood at the
andthe^'^'^^ other extreme of the English religious community, who
mimw^i6% ^^^ borne a much heavier burden of persecution and for
a far longer time, should not also cast longing eyes to
the new world, where they might be free from the hated recusancy
laws, and where their own ministers might teach them with-
out the constant tlireat of the hangman's cord. The leaders of
this movement were the fine old Catholic family of the Calverts, at
whose head was Lord Baltimore. They named their settlement
after their Catholic queen, Maryland, and Charles had
toleration their charter so drawn as to admit full religious liberty.
by law in Here was a practical solution of the question of tolera-
tion. From the first. Catholics and Protestants dwelt
together in the colony upon equal terms, and by common consent
questions of religious difference were ignored; their first free
assembly confirmed by formal law to members of all religions, free-
dom of worship and political equality.
Laud was not pleased to see Englishmen thus escaping from
under the discipline of his Court of High Commission and
attempted to keep avowed nonconformists at home by
^/sSd persuading the council to forbid noblemen or gentry to
emtaratimi. ^^^^® ^'^'^ kingdom without the royal license and by
compelling people of lower rank to present a certificate
of conformity. This, however, did not check the flight of non-
conformists who continued to flock to the new world by the thou-
1592-1597] laud's reforms in SCOTLAND 663
sands, until the outbreak of the civil wars promised them better
things at home. They were a hardy race, these exiles for con-
science sake; uncompromising moralists, who made of religion a
system, not of loving service of one's fellow men, but of grim
prohibitions ; unlovely they were, and yet sturdy material for the
planting of a nation. It has been estimated that at the outbreak
of the American Eevolution seventy-five per cent of the people of
English blood of the northern colonies were descendants of the
men and women who had been driven out of England by the
tyranny of Charles and his little archbishop.
Laud's attention, however, was soon diverted to Scotland where
there was far more to attract his mischievous itching for reform
than in the humble colonies. In Scotland the nobles
reforms in and people, it will be remembered, had combined for
the overthrow of the ancient church. They had had
no Henry VIII. or Elizabeth to restrain their excesses, and it was
not long before the nobles and the Protestant clergy were quarrel-
ing over the division of the spoil. In this strife the nobles got
the lion's share. Bishops were retained, but they were ushered
into their of&ce without consecration and were allowed
"Tuichan no jurisdiction. Their principal function was to
^ ' draw what was left of the revenues of the church
from the people, and hand them over to the nobles. The
shrewd Scotsmen were not deceived, and in derision called
them "tulchan bishops," from the tulclian, or decoy calf, which
the Scotch farmer was accustomed to set up alongside of a
bereaved cow to persuade her to let down her milk. After a
bitter struggle of over twenty years, the people finally got rid of
the tulchan bishops and succeeded in introducing
anmnestab- Presbyterianism, pure and simple. The affairs of the
1592-ism. church were to be regulated by a General Assembly,
composed of clergymen and laymen, elected for that purpose.
From the assembly there was a regular graded series of similar
bodies leading down through provincial synods and presbyteries to
the local kirk session. James got little comfort out of these
republican bodies ; the ministers showed little respect for royalty
and fearlessly abused him from their pulpits. An attempt on his
664 EEA OP ARBITRARY GOVERNMEIS^T [chablis I.
part in 1597 to punish such insolence, brought on a tumult, and
the king was compelled to flee from Edinburgh, only to return
BeestaUish- ^^ ^ ^^^ weeks with an armed force, sufficient to restore
■mentnf order. The nobles, also, came to his help : the rule of the
episcopacy, ' ' -^ '
^^- clergy was overthrown, and the hated tulchan bishops
were brought back. In 1618 James forced through a packed
assembly a nominal acceptance of the so-called Articles of Perth,
by which communicants were to kneel to receive the
of Perth, Lord's Supper, Easter and Christmas were to be kept,
the Lord's Supper and baptism might be administered
in private houses in case of serious illness, and children be con-
firmed by bishops. Here, however, James was shrewd enough to
stop, and here matters rested, until Laud took the hard-headed
Scotsmen in hand to mould them to his ideas of uniformity. The
Church of Scotland was to be a complete copy of that of England,
a difficult end to gain even had Laud and Charles been wise men.
In October 1625 Charles had issued an Act of Kevoca-
Th& j^ct of
Bevocatidii. tion, by which the church property in the hands of the
nobles was to be turned over to the crown. The act,
although modified by a subsequent ofEer of compensation, at once
alienated the nobles, and left the king without the support of the
only party which had been willing to help him. He now attempted
to force the Prayer Book upon the ministers and increase the
power of the bishops. The cry of popery was raised, and all classes
united with the ministers in opposing the innovations.
In the summer of 1637 the attempt of the dean of Edinburgh
to use the hated forms, brought on a riot in which stones were
yj^^ thrown, cathedral windows smashed, and the bishop
"Tahies." narrowly escaped with his life. The year was spent in
a vain effort of king and people to come to some agreement, which
failed because neither would yield. In 1638 the Scots committed
their interests into the hands of four committees, or "Tables," one
for each of the four orders, the nobles, the gentry, the
The Nor- ' & J >
ttoTiai Cove- clergy, and the cities. The first fruit of the labor of
Tiant 1638
the Tables was the famous "National Covenant" by
which the people bound themselves to resist all changes in religion
"to the utmost of the power that God had put in their hands."
THE FIEST BISHOPS' WAE 665
The document was signed amidst great enthusiasm. All classes
were represented, and "such as refused were accounted no better
than papists."
Charles saw that he must yield, or lose Scotland. He was
without money ; his army was small and poorly equipped ; and in
TheAssem- ^^® condition of the English temper, which was as
oia^aow threatening as the temper of the Scots, he knew he
less. could not depend upon England in case of war. He
therefore allowed his representative, James Hamilton, to withdraw
the Prayer Book, to the great joy of the Scots. In November
1638 Hamilton summoned a General Assembly at Glasgow. The
laity predominated, and when their spirit warned Hamilton that
nothing but continued opposition was to be expected, he attempted
to dissolve them. They in turn denied his right, as a repre-
sentative of the state, to interfere in spiritual matters, and pro-
ceeded to abolish the Episcopacy. No one believed that Charles
would submit, and the Scots prepared to fight for their cause.
In the summer Charles gathered an army of twenty thousand
pressed men, taken from the northern counties, and advanced to
Berwick. The Scots faced them at Dunse Law twelve
The HTst
Bisimp's miles away, inferior in numbers but superior in training
and morale, and everything else that goes to make up an
efficient army. Many, like their leader Alexander Leslie, had
already periled their lives in the Protestant cause in Germany, and
were not afraid of powder. Charles for once took counsel with
discretion, and on the 18th of June, in the .Treaty of Berwick,
agreed to refer the grievances of the Scots to a free parliament
and assembly. When the new assembly came together, however,
it simply reenacted the acts of the assembly of Glasgow; the
parliament, from which the bishops were excluded, was about to
confirm its acts, when Charles pronounced it adjourned. The
angry Scots, in reply, denied the right of the king to adjourn
parliament without its consent, charged Charles with trickery and
deceit, and prepared again for war.
It was at this moment that Charles, at Laud's suggestion, sum-
moned Went worth from Ireland to a place in the council. From
the first the influence of the minister with the king silenced all
666 ERA OF AKBITEART GOTEENMBlirT [chablesL
other voices. He saw that Charles must force the Scots to sub-
mit, but that to do this he must have the help of the nation. A
Scottish war might asrain unite parties and lead the
Wmtworth t..t.j -j. x-
m the obdurate parliament to relent and open its purse strings.
But conciliation was necessary; and as a first step
Valentine and Strode were released from the Tower after eleven
years of imprisonment. The effect, however, was largely lost by
the appointment to the Great Seal, of Finch, the Speaker of the
parliament of 1629, the very man whom Valentine and Holies had
held in the chair while Eliot offered his famous resolutions, and
who had since made himself specially obnoxious by an unqualified
support of ship money. Wentworth also was made earl of Straf-
ford.
The fourth parliament of Charles met on the 13th of April
1640. Many changes had taken place since the last parliament
came together. Eliot had died in prison; Coke and
Tlui"Stwrt ,, " , , , ■, TTT xi 1 T
Parliament," others were also dead, and Wentworth had gone over to
the enemy. But John Hampden was there, the hero
of the ship money fight, and John Pym also was there, now sixty
years of age, a veteran in parliamentary warfare, who had sat in
every parliament since 1621. He had once held a position in the
Exchequer ; he had also a strong personal influence among the
Puritan nobility, and was thus, both by his experience in handling
state affairs, and his friendships, the most considerable personage
among the Puritan commoners. The friends of the king
attempted to make much of the threat of a Scottish invasion and
of war with Prance, since it was known that the Covenanters had,
quite in the old way, appealed to the traditional foe of England
for help. They made no effort to deny the existence of grievances,
but asked first for the voting of supplies, the passing of a tunnage
and poundage bill, in order that when the country had placed
itself on a strong footing against foreign enemies, parliament
might at leisure consider domestic grievances. But Pym,
seconded by Hampden, came at once to the point at issue and
insisted that the question of grievances be settled first before a
subsidy should be voted. Charles appealed to the Lords, and they
voted that the subsidies ought to come first; but the Commons
1640] THE SHOET PARLIAMENT 667
held to the position taken by Pym. Charles then by the advice of
Wentworth, who knew what stuff these Commons were made of,
proposed to give up ship money. Wentworth also advised Charles
to ask only for a moderate subsidy. But instead Charles asked
for nearly a million pounds to be raised by twelve different sub-
sidies. The Commons asked Charles to give up the practice by
..r, . ^ which he compelled each county to furnish what was
'Coat and ^^ t t,
conduct called "coat and conduct money" for the men whom
money." t o ^
it sent to the field. In the bloodless war, which had
just closed, Yorkshire alone had been compelled to furnish £40,000
iov the levies which the county had sent to Berwick. Charles
saw that he could do nothing with his parliament, and on May 5
decided upon a dissolution at the very moment when the Com-
mons were about to pass another petition, virtually expressing
their sympathy with the Scots, and calling upon the king to make
terms with them. The fourth parliament, known in parliamentary
history as the "Short Parliament," had sat just three weeks.
Charles was now left to face the Scots alone ; the calling of a
parliament had only helped to stir up English popular feeling and
given strength and body to the opposition. Wentworth,
EwZamti*™ '^^ dauntless as ever, would hear of no further conces-
sion ; he advised the king, therefore, to fight, to take the
money which parliament had denied him, for, since the nation's life
was at stake, he was "absolved from all rules of government. " He
also offered Charles the Irish army "to reduce this kingdom;" —
fatal words which were not forgotten. Charles hesitated to bring
over the Irish, but he began to press troops for a second
Bishops' Bishops' War. He called on the people of London for
TVci/f 1640*
a loan, but they refused it. He applied to the courts
of Denmark, Holland, Spain, and even the pope, for aid, but to
little purpose. The Scots were eager for the fray and crossing the
Tweed advanced to the Tyne where they easily scattered the half-
hearted troops of the king, who had been stationed at Newburn to
hold the passage of the river.
It was clear enough to most men that the scheme of arbitrary
government had now run its course. Yet both Charles and his
council shrank from again confronting a parliament. In their
668 EEA OP ARBITRABT GOVEENMENT [ohablesI.
dilemma they fell back upon the ancient expedient of summoning
a magnum concilium instead, in the hope of securing from the
nobles the support which they could not expect from
moflSi ^^^ representatives of the people. Charles was at York,
"smumher whither he had gone to support by his presence the
^£'mo'^^ men who were superintending the northern levies, and
here the great council was to meet him on the 24th
of September. But before the day came Charles himself had become
satisfied that he could not avoid summoning a parliament, and at
the opening session of the council announced the issue of writs
for November 3. The peers nevertheless remained in session
until October 28, and during that time performed a real service
for the king. They raised in London ixpon their own security a
loan of £60,000. They also bore no small part in securing the
Truce of Ripon, by which the Scots were to hold ISTorthumberlaad
and Durham, until a definite peace could be concluded by the advice
of an Englisn parliament. Charles, also, was to allow them
£850 a day to meet their expenses; the limit was fixed at two
months.
All parties were thus waiting for the assembling of Charles's
fifth parliament. The presence of the Scottish army was a guar-
antee that its demands should be heard. The- tyranny of Charles
I. was at an end.
CHAPTER III
THE LOKG PAKLIAMEITT AND THE CIVIL WAE
CHARLES I.. IMO-ime
The fifth and last parliament of Charles I., destined to be
famous among English parliaments as the "Long Parliament,"
assembled on the 3d of November 1640. The elections
'parliament " ^^^ been Conducted in the midst of the utmost excite-
ment. Pym, Hampden, Holies, and a score of others,
had "stumped" the counties, strengthening the faltering, rousing
the laggards, and clearing up the doubts of the "wavering. The
character of the new House fully justified these efforts. Never had
a House been gathered so overwhelmingly in sympathy with the
popular cause. The great merchant class, proverbially conserv-
ative and cautious where business interests are concerned, was
conspicuous for its meagre representation. But country gentle-
men and lawyers, university men the most of them, as proverbially
radical and uncompromising when once aroused, were there in
great numbers. As when that other famous gathering of farmers
and lawyers met at Philadelphia one hundred and thirty- six years
later, here was guarantee that there would be no compromise with
tyranny, no hedging or faltering, until the great cause for which
the people had sent their representatives to Westminster should
be secured. And yet these men were not mere revolutionary
theorists such as wrought such havoc among the institutions of
Europe in French Eevolution times. No one had any thought of
deposing Charles, much less of substituting another form of gov-
ernment in the place of the ancient goverpment by King, Lords, and
Commons. Yet all were determined that the tyranny represented
by the systems of Wentworth and Laud must come to an end. They
proposed, moreover, to do this, not by revolution, but by refor-
mation; not by destroying the king, but with the aid of the king;
669
670 THE CIVIL WAR [catBLKSI.
not by making new laws or establishing new institutions, but by
enforcing the old laws and respecting the old institutions.
From the first the natural leader of the popular party in the
House was John Pym. With him were associated John Hamp-
"Kiiw *^®^' Joli^ Selden, Denzil Holies, who had helped to
Pym." iiold Speaker Finch in the chair, William Strode who
had recently been released from the Tower, Oliver St. John who
had made a reputation as Hampden's lawyer in the ship money
case. Sir Arthur Haselrig, Sir Harry Vane, "young in years, but
in sage counsel old," who at twenty- one had been governor of
Massachusetts, and last but not least, the man of few words who
was destined to translate the speeches of Pym and Hampden into
terms of powder and lead, the great man of the era, Oliver Crom-
well. Of all these men, as a debater, as a leader of party, Pym
stood easily first ; and his enemies, paying unintentional tribute to
his powers, soon dubbed him in derision "the king of the House."
There was a prevailing belief among all parties that Went-
worth, now earl of Strafford, and Archbishop Laud had conspired
to overthrow parliamentary government and restore
The attack Catholicism. So common was the belief that neither
niinn Atraj-
iMud'^'^ man could count on the support of any party, and with
remarkable unanimity the House, as the first step
towards putting the government upon a working footing,
appointed a commission to inquire into the conduct of the two
ministers. For Strafford the case wore a serious aspect. The
popular leaders knew his ability and his energy ; they feared him
and were determined on his destruction. Yet Charles implored
Strafford to leave the army and come to London, assuring him on
his word that he "should not suffer in his person, honor, or for-
tune." Strafford was the last man to flinch before such a call,
and deliberately entering the death-trap, put himself at the head
of the council as "thorough" and dauntless as ever. Still he saw
the danger, knew that the impeachment was coming, and proposed
to Charles to make the treasonable correspondence of the popular
leaders with the Scots, the basis of a counter impeachment. Pym,
however, was too prompt for the wavering monarch and struck
first. On November 11 on the basis of a vague charge of
1641] ATTAINDER OF STKAJFOKD 671
treason, prepared by the House, Strafford was arrested by order
of the Lords and committed to the Tower. On December
18 Laud also, on motion of the same indefatigable Pym, was
impeached of high treason, and the Lords as promptly sent him to
the Tower. Pinch, now Lord Pinch, and others fled to Hol-
land.
The trial of Strafford began in March, but it was soon evident
that the charge of treason could not be established. Pym had
secured a copy of a copy ' of the notes of the elder
attainoar of Vane, purporting to give the exact words of Strafford's
Strafford. «
unfortunate advice to the council at the time of the
Pirst Bishops' War. The fatal words as reported ran: "You
have an army in Ireland, you may employ here to reduce this
kingdom." But no amount of legal hocus pocus could con-
strue the proposal to bring over the Irish army to support the
king as treason against the king. The Commons, however,
were determined to have the life of the .hated minister, and
when it became evident that the prosecution was breaking
down for lack of evidence, they resorted to a bill of attainder
which passed by a vote of 204 to 59. The Lords hesitated, but
Pym had unearthed a plot to which the queen, if not
Ptot^""" Charles himself, was privy, for bringing the northern
army to London, rescuing Strafford, and overawing the
Commons. There were also rumors of the approach of a Prench
force by sea, which was to meet the queen at Portsmouth and
unite with the king's troops. Excitement in London ran high;
the trained bands were called out; and a petition calling for the
death of StraEEord was signed by twenty thousand persons. The
Lords yielded to the excitement and passed the bill. Only the
king's signature now remained between the faithful minister and a
traitor's death. Charles for a moment hesitated, and then, seek-
ing to save his self-respect by the pitiful plea that he feared for
the safety of his wife and children and his kingdom, gave way.
It was not the first time that the nation had had an opportunity
1 The original notes had been burned by order of the King, but Vane
had first taken a copy which his son Sir Harry Vane had found among
his papers and in turn copied and brought to Pym.
672 THE CIVIL WAE [chaklesI.
to estimate the value of a king's word.' Strafford vas beheaded on
Tower Hill, May 13, 1641. The death of Strafford was a tribute
to his ability. The Puritan leaders feared him more than they
feared the king; and they destroyed him, not so much for what he
had done, but for what he might do.
In the six months which had elapsed since the arrest of
Strafford several notable acts had passed the Commons.^ Early in
the session they had recalled Prynne and his fellow
Firstreforms sufferers who had tasted the justice of the Star Cham-
Pariiament. ber, and they now proposed to make such exercises of
royal power impossible in the future by abolishing the
whole list of special courts, sweeping away in a single act the Star
Chamber, the Council of the North, the Council of Wales, the
Council of Lancaster, and the Council of Chester, and restoring
thereby one-third of the people of England to the jurisdiction of
the common law courts. The same day, July 5, 1641 Elizabeth's
Court of High Commission was also abolished. Lest
niaiMt" ministers should be encouraged in lawlessness by the
absolute control which the king held over the times for
the calling of a parliament, it was decreed that no more than
three years should henceforth elapse between parliaments, and
that when assembled, a parliament must sit for at least fifty days ;
arrangements, moreover, were made for the holding of elections
ind'ependently of the crown, should the king refuse to issue the
proper summons.^ Other abuses, also, were swept away. Ship
money was declared illegal and the decision against Hampden
reversed. Distraint of Knighthood was abolished and the forest
commission condemned. The "Impositions," and the unauthor-
ized levy of tunnage and poundage, suffered the same fate, and
the unhappy collectors were made responsible for the moneys
which they had takei^ from citizens in the name of the state, — a
most wholesome lesson to law-breaking servants of the crown in
the future. Parliament then sought to strengthen the law courts
' Lee, Source Book, pp. 357, 358.
^Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 106-132.
'Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 74-84
164l] REVOLUTIONARY DRIFT 673
by decreeing that the judges should hold office during good
behavior and not be liable to removal at the king's pleasure.
Thus far the efforts of the Long Parliament had not been
revolutionary. They had simply attacked the prerogatives which
the Stuarts had derived from precedents left by the
ary'driftof Tudors and struck them off one by one, until they had
PaHiament. shattered the whole Tndor structure and leveled it with
the dust. But the witless intrigue of the queen in the
Army Plot, which had turned all London upside down, had deeply
stirred parliament ; under the intense excitement its work began
to assume a new character, and parliament itself began to change
from a body of dignified and sober reformers into a gathering of
feverish revolutionists. The precipitation of the attainder of
Strafford was the first symptom of this change. More significant
still, on the day when Charles put his name to the bill of
attainder, he was also compelled to sign another bill which
decreed that the existing parliament should not be dissolved with-
out its own consent. The revolutionary purport of this measure
at the time was perhaps not observed; the promoters thought only
of preventing the king from carrying out his part of the Army
Plot. Yet parliament had really taken from the king the consti-
tutional right of appeal to the nation, and left him henceforth no
means of getting rid of a refractory parliament other than civil
war. They had shorn the king of the one method of controlling
parliaments, which by the laws was unquestionably his, and legis-
lated themselves into power by his side as an independent olig-
archy. As long as the nation supported the parliament, and the
king remained without a party, the full significance of the act
would not appear; but let the king once secure a considerable
party in the nation, civil war would be inevitable.
For the moment, however, no one saw the shadow. The nation
was overwhelmingly with the parliament; and parliament had acted
thus far virtually as a unit. When a minority had
Harmony of spoken, as in the opposition to the attainder of
Strafford, the disagreement had been not upon the
principle, but upon the question of the best method of procedure.
The parliament was satisfied with its work, confident in its
674 THE CIVIL WAR [ohaklks I.
strength, and had no wish to interfere with the king farther.
It voted tunnage and poundage, and arranged for a poll tax,
graduated from £100 to 6d. In August the claims of the Scots
were also satisfied, their army sent home, and the English army
disbanded.
The political questions apparently were now settled ; the king
was still without a party, and probably would haye remained so, had
not the unwise zeal of some radical Puritans thrust the
mepwrti°of religious question to the front and given it a new
re arm. prominence. Laud and men, who had acted with him,
like Mainwaring, had forfeited all consideration on the part of
parliament, and the disposition to depose and punish them was
practically unanimous. But many members, distinguishing
between the incumbent bishops and the Episcopacy, and sincerely
attached to the system established by Elizabeth, did not wish to
go farther. To many others, however, the system of Episcopacy
was so closely associated with the tyranny which they were seek-
ing to overthrow, the support, which convocation had given the
crown both by its money grants and its teachings, so marked, that
there seemed to be no middle ground. In London especially,
hostility to the Episcopacy ran so high that a petition for complete
abolition, known as the "Eoot and Branch Petition,'" received
fifteen thousand signatures, and in response to this petition, on May
27, 1641, Sir Edward Bering presented in parliament
The"'Bnot the "Root and Branch Bill." The unanimity which
Bill," 1641. had prevailed heretofore was at once threatened. Falk-
land, Digby, Hyde, and Selden, drew off from their old
companions, and made so brave a fight, that the bill had not
reached its final stages when the session closed in September.
Outside of parliament also the waves of controversy were beat-
ing high. The people were flooded with tracts for and against
the episcopal forms. Bishop Hall of Exeter published
Thetract g, "Humble Remonstrance" addressed to parliament, and
five Puritan clergymen answered him in a tract remark-
able, not so much for its contents, as for the curious pseudonym,
"Smectymnuns", which they attached, made up of their several
' Gardiner, Const. Does., pp. 67-74.
1641] THE IKCIDENT 675
initials. Prominent among those who took part in this tract war,
was John Milton, who in ponderous but sonorous prose denounced
the bishops and made Episcopacy responsible for all the failures
of the Eeformation. The result of this unfortunate strife was to
divide the ranks of the reformers and give ecclesiastical questions
a prominence over the questions of constitutional reform, which
they did not deserve.
Charles, in the meanwhile, had gone to Scotland in the hope
of securing the support of his Scottish subjects, by granting the
demands which he had before resisted to the point of
Scotland^ War. But his court was still the center of intrigue, and
dmt""lMi ^^ unfortunate affair, known as the "Incident," a plan,
formed like the Army Plot by some hot-headed courtiers,
for securing and possibly destroying the popular leaders in the late
troubles in the northern kingdom, completely defeated the pur-
pose of the king. Yet he would not give up the idea of getting
aid from Scotland and made Leslie, the leader of the Scots in the
Bishops' Wars, Earl of Leven; others he honored in similar
ways. He was not unaware, also, of the significance of the quarrel
of his enemies at home over the church question, and sought to
add fuel to the flame by sending a declaration to the English
Lords, "that he was resolved, by the grace of God, to die in the
maintenance of the discipline and doctrine of the Church of Eng-
land, as established by Elizabeth."
Parliament now began to realize the mistake of raising the
religious question. Since the death of Strafford, Charles had
done little to regain confidence ; his actions in Scotland
Bootand^ Were regarded with positive suspicion. The Eoot and
dropped, Branch Bill was therefore abandoned for the present,
and arrangements were made for storing the arms of
the northern army at Hull and guarding the Tower of London.
A. quieting appeal also was issued to the people, asking them to
witlihold action and wait for parliament to mature its plans for
the reformation of the church. A sort of committee of safety
was appointed with Pym at the head, to remain in London and
keep watch of the drift of affairs. Then, on September 9, parlia-
ment adjourned until October 20.
676 THE CIVIL WAR [chabi.ks I.
When parliament met again, it had hardly begua the busi-
ness of the session when most disquieting news reached it from
Ireland. The successors of Strafford had pushed for-
rlmit*^ ward his scheme of colonizing Connaught and were in
full sympathy with the plan of crushing the Catholics.
But Charles had been intriguing with the Catholic lords, and, by
conceding all that the Irish parliament demanded, was seeking
here, as in Scotland, to get support for an armed interference in
England. As a result of this encouragement the parliament and
people of Ireland soon passed beyond the control of the authorized
deputies of the king, and on October 23 the whole north broke out
in revolt. Everywhere the English settlers were taken by surprise
and driven from their homes with great suffering. The rebels had
rejected a proposal of wholesale massacre ; but the wrongs of the
Celtic population were many, the religious hatred was intense, and,
when once the people saw their oppressors fleeing for their lives,
their homes in flames, the temptation to acts of barbaric ferocity
was too great to be resisted.
This was the news which reached the English parliament soon
after the opening of the new session, yet it knew not how to
The Grand ^°^- ^^ ^^^ afraid to entrust the king with an army,
France Nn- ^^^^ ^^ should make common cause with the Irish for
vember, 1641. the suppression of the liberties of England. It was
decided, therefore, to ask the Scots to send a force equal to what
might be raised in England in order to counterbalance the army
which parliament was compelled to raise but which it feared would
pass into the king's hands. To Pym, Hampden, and other radical
leaders, moreover, with the Irish revolt confronting them, with
disquieting rumors of the king's perfidy coming from Scotland,
and the increasing strength of the party of reaction in the Houses,
it seemed necessary, if what had been won was to be saved, not to
allow the king to obscure, or the nation to forget, the real ground
upon which the quarrel had been begun. In November 1641,
therefore, they brought before the House a monster document of
two hundred and six clauses, known as the Gr-and Remonstrance.
This document was designed primarily as an appeal to the
nation. It was in reality a vigorous arraignment of the king and
1641] THE GEAND REMONSTEAITCE 677
defense of the parliament, accusing the king's councillors and the
bishops of deliberately attempting to overthrow the laws of the
kingdom and restore the papacy. It proposed, moreover, for the
futtire that the royal councillors should be named in accordance
with the wishes of parliament ; and that a convention or assembly
of Protestant divines, both English and foreign, be called together
"to consider all things necessary for the peace and good govern-
ment of the churches;" the results of the work of the ecclesiastical
assembly were to be confirmed by parliament and thus made the
law of the land.'
Such a measure, proposed at such a time, could have but one
result; it at once completed the division in the ranks of the parlia-
mentary party which had been threatened by the agita-
Breakinthe . , t^ , ,
mriiamen- tion over the Eoot and Branch Bill of the preceding
session. Reconciliation was henceforth impossible.
The new Episcopal party gathered its strength for the issue, and the
struggle began. On the 23d of K^ovember the battle opened at
noon and waged until the falling shadows of a bleak November day
compelled the ushers to bring in candles ; afternoon passed into
evening; still the debate thundered on. At midnight the Remon-
strance was carried by a majority of eleven votes in a house of
307 members. But so evenly were the two parties balanced,
that when a motion was made by the victors to print, that is
virtually to send out the appeal to the nation, the minority
returned to the conflict and the storm broke out again with
greater fury than ever. So intense was the excitement, that at
times twenty members were on their feet at once, shouting and
waving hats and swords like madmen. Finally at four o'clock of
the morning of the 23d, all disputed points were waived by an
adjournment,^ and this memorable session of the Long Parliament
closed. "The Civil War was all the nearer for that night's work."
Two days later the king returned to London. The reaction had
been gaining ground rapidly. The wealthier citizens of London
were restless under the heavy taxation which parliament had
' For this remarkable document and the king's reply, see Gardiner
Const. Docs., pp. 137-158.
2 The tnotion to print was not carried until Deo. 15.
678 THE CIVIL WAR [chaeles I.
recently imposed upon them, and Episcopalians everywhere saw a
threat of persecution in the program laid down by the Grand Ee-
monstrance. On the 1st of December the lengthy doc-
CTmdesin ument was presented to the king and on the 33d he re-
turned an answer, in which he acknowledged nothing and
granted nothing. In the meanwhile Charles had sought to assure
the opposition by renewing his pledge to govern according to law,
and maintain the church of Elizabeth and King James. But even
the king's friends could hardly take his promises seriously when
he continued to belie them in his acts. He placed his guard
around the Parliament House under the command of Dorset, and
December 23, the day of his reply to the Grand Remonstrance,
dismissed Balfour, the lieutenant of the Tower who had refused
to allow StrafEord to escape, appointing in his place Lunsford, a
notorious bully. The excitement at Westminster, therefore, was
not allayed ; in the palace yard collisions were frequent between
the king's guard and mobs of Puritan sympathizers, who
swarmed there whenever the cry was raised that parliament was in
danger. So great was the excitement that Charles was compelled
at last to remove Dorset's guard and turn the safe keeping of
parliament over to the magistrates of "Westminster. Lunsford also
was soon after removed from the command of the Tower.
The Grand Remonstrance had now drawn the lines sharply in
the House. The majority of the Root and Branch reformers was
small, but it was determined and could be depended
ciS^^the °^- Charles, however, still controlled the Lords by
•'Lords," Be- means of the bishops, whose solid vote would always
give him a working majority with which to defeat any
hostile measure which might pass the House. But in the pres-
ence of the boisterous mobs which daily surged about the Parlia-
ment House, blocking the ways and preventing egress or ingress,
the courage of the men of peace failed them, and, pleading that
their lives were in danger, they refused longer to attend the sit-
tings of parliament. On the 29th of December twelve bishops,
headed by Williams, the recently made archbishop of York,
formally protested against the legality of all proceedings under-
taken during their absence. To their surprise their protest was
1641] THE FIVE MEMBERS 679
answered by an impeachment; the Lords sustained the impeach-
ment and the seats were vacated. With "Williams and his
fellow bishops in the Tower, the Upper House passed permanently
under the control of the opposition.
The king was now desperate; he could no longer dissolve
parliament at will; the withdrawal of the bishops had deprived
The "five ^^^ °^ ^^'^^ 1^^^ meaus of checking the Commons in a
Janmi^'" constitutional manner. Still he vacillated. He
1642. sought to win Pym by offering him the chancellorship
of the exchequer, but two hours later gave the office to Culpepper ;
Falkland, who had headed the opposition to the Root and Branch
faction in parliament, he made Secretary of State. To add to his
disquiet, the king learned that the Commons were considering a
plan for impeaching the queen for treason. Her danger was real ;
no one knew how many of the facts connected with her intrigue
with the pope, with the leaders in the Army Plot or with the Irish
rebels, were in the hands of Pym and Hampden. Urged at last
by the imminence of the crisis, Charles determined to save the
queen by striking first, and on the 3d of January, 1643, impeached
Lord Kimbolton and five members of the House, Pym, Hampden,
Holies, Haselrig, and Strode, "for having traitorously invited a
foreign power (the Scots) to invade England." The right of the
king to impeach a member of the House was by no means clear,
and the Commons paid no attention to the, demand of the king for
the delivery of the five members. The morning passed and noth-
ing was done ; then about three in the afternoon, after the king
had given every opportunity for the five marked men to get out
of his way, he led a noisy throng of armed men through the
streets to the House and demanded the five members. Advancing
to the Speaker's chair, he turned and looked about the room.
He was not a coward. He had left his escort without and he stood
there alone facing the Commons. "Where are they?" he asked
Speaker Lenthall. But Lenthall, assuming the position of
respect in the presence of majesty which convention prescribed,
firmly but respectfully refused to use "eye or tongue," save as
the House should direct him. Again Charles looked the silent
House in the face and then retired, baffled, beaten. It was the
680 THE CIVIL WAK [chaelbs I.
falsest of all the false steps which he had yet taken during the
eighteen years of his reign. As he turned to leave the House,
the ominous silence was broken. Cries of "Privilege!" "Priv-
ilege!" attended him into the lobby. The House rose in tumult and
followed the five members into the city, where the sympathy of
the people promised them protection. Charles, however, was for
once overawed ; and not knowing what the Commons might do in
their desperation, or where they might attempt to strike next, on
the 10th of January he retired to Hampden Court, abandoning
his capital and the resources of the state to the parliament. On
the 11th the Commons returned in triumph to Westminster.
War was now certain unless the king should yield at all points.
The radical majority of the parliament had triumphed and pro-
ceeded at once to secure its triumph by assuming
Bii!''^"'"" control of the military resources of the governmeut.
It first sent a bill to the king which "disabled all
persons in holy orders from exercising any temporal jurisdiction or
authority." Charles, possibly hoping that this would quiet the
waters, consented; thus agreeing to the permanent excliision of
the bishops from the Lords. But the House was not satisfied,
and next sent him a Militia Bill, which called upon him to sur-
render to parliament the entir.e control of the militia, the only
armed force in the kingdom, by allowing parliament to appoint its
officers. The king, how.e?er, would go no farther. "No, not for
an hour!" was his angry answer. The House then
Ordmance^ determined to abandon the form of a bill and push
through the measure as an ordinance of parliament,
that is to enforce it without the king's consent. This of course
was revolution, pure and simple, and on the king's part there could
be only one reply. He had already sent his wife and children out
of the kingdom, and on August 22, he raised the royal standard
at Nottingham. It was the sign that civil war had begun.
The war which was now to desolate England for ten years is
known in English History as the "Great Eebellion" or the
"Great Civil War. " Sometimes taken with the stirring events of
the epoch which precedes and the epoch which follows, it is called
the "Puritan Revolution." The name is not inapt, for a religious
1641] ISSUES OF THE WAR 681
purpose was quite as prominent in the minds of the contending
parties as a civil purpose. The fears of a restoration of the papacy,
which pursued the Puritans, were so mixed up in
'wlr,^ml their minds with a desire to secure the civil rights which
rsj^ioMs ti^g jjj^g i^a_(j violated, that they looked upon themselves
as fighting for Protestantism fully as much as for
political liberty. The lovers of the Prayer Book and Episcopacy,
on the other hand, although they mistrusted Charles and con-
demined his past tyrannies, believed that they must support him or
be prepared to accept any restrictive laws which the Puritans
might see fit to impose. For the same reason the entire body
of English Catholics, who were certain to be persecuted if the
Puritans were allowed to rule the state, although they had no rea-
son to expect much from the Episcopal party, thought it safer to
take their stand with them and support the king. But all Puritans
of whatever stripe, Presbyterians, Independents, Separatists,
Brownists, or Anabaptists, men who believed in Eoot and Branch
measures, the great mass of the "God fearing" yeomanry, the
tradesmen of the towns, rallied to the support of the parliament.
Thus the religious lines were distinctly drawn. The political
issue, however, though confused with the religious in the minds
of most, was by no means lost sight of. Here too the
^sSf^Tilw^ radical leaders in parliament had left no middle ground
Imtl'''^"' *"^ ^^y subject of the king. On the 2d of June they
had sent to Charles at York nineteen propositions, in
which they demanded that they be allowed to name the king's council,
his officers of state, his lieutenants of fortresses, and his judges;
that he confirm the Militia Ordinance and permit them to reform
the church in accordance with their ideas; that is, parhament
virtually asked the king to surrender what was left of royal
authority, leaving him little more than the name and dignity of
king. Now there were many men, especially among the nobility,
who, while they had no sympathy with the methods of Laud or the
Court of Star Chamber, and had voted steadily with the majority
for the long list of abolitions in the first session of the Long Parlia-
ment, while they had little belief in Charles personally and had
even voted for the attainder of Wentworth, yet loved the king-
682 THE CIVIL WAR [chaeles 1.
ship with a great and patriotic love, as the symbol of ihe unity and
strength of the nation, and, with no feigned alarm, now beheld the
Puritan leaders bent apparently upon humiliating the crown to
the dust. Charles had made concessions, and these men, among
whom were Hyde and Falkland, believed that he had gone far
enough. They had made a brave fight against the Root and
Branch Bill, and again against the Grand Remonstrance, and they
now knew that the time for debate had passed. When, therefore,
Charles raised his standard in August, these men, including a
full majority of the Lords, were ranged at his side.
The social lines which divided the two camps were by no means
so clearly drawn. The ruflBers, the thorough-going courtiers,
soldiers of fortune many of them, and, like the king's
'Sme"'^"^ nephews Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, of noble
blood, the gay worldlings of the court who hated
Puritanism and despised Puritans by instinct and by training,
and who cared not a straw for the principles of religion or liberty,
were to be counted for the king. And yet it would be an error to
represent the struggle as a war of classes. There was no distinct
appeal to rival social elements as in the later French Revolution;
and, although the majority of the nobility and the gentry were
with the king, these classes were also well represented on the other
side ; their representatives furnished the generals and statesmen,
who were to conduct the counsels of the parliamentary cause to a
triumphant issue.
Geographically, also, the lines were nowhere distinctly drawn.
London was the stronghold of the Puritans, and York of the king.
The south and east were overwhelmingly for the par-
?caUimI^' liament. The north and west including AVales were
for the king. And yet during the war, there was more
or less fighting and bloodshed in almost every county in the king-
dom. All in all, however, geographically the advantage was with
the parliament. It controlled the most opulent and populous
counties and thus readily found men and money for its armies.
It controlled the great seaport populations of the south, and thus
not only carried with it the fleet, but also was able to recruit its
strength as more ships or seamen were needed. It could also
1642] DEUTING INTO WAK 683
guard the coasts, prevent the king from getting supplies by sea,
while it transported its troops at will, and threw them into any
seaport town threatened by the land forces of the king.
For three months previous to the setting up of the royal
standard the country had been steadily drifting into war. In
April Charles had attempted to get possession of the
feKm-. g^^^t arsenals of Hull, but Hotham, the parliamentary
governor, had refused him admission, and the military
stores consisting of a complete equipment for sixteen thousand
men were brought to London. In the first week of July, parlia-
ment had appointed a Committee of Safety, of which the prominent
members were the two Puritan nobles, Essex and Saye and Sele,
and the Commoners, Pym, Hampden, Holies, and Waller; ten
thousand men, also, were levied for immediate service and Essex
appointed commander-in-chief. On the 15th blood was shed at
Manchester, where Lord Strange had undertaken to interfere with
some townsmen who were attempting to carry out the Militia
Ordinance. Four days before, the House had already declared
Charles responsible for beginning war; and on the 18th of August
they had further declared those who supported the king, traitors.
During all this time there had been more or less pretense of
negotiation, but parliament had little confidence in the result, and
had continued to push forward its preparations for
SepSibS\' armed resistance. Kimbolton, Hampden, Holies, and
^*^' others, raised regiments at their own expense. The
eastern counties formed an alliance to defend parliament, known as
the Eastern Association. London, also, raised eight thousand men
and put them in the field. On September 6 the last lingering
hope of averting the conflict by negotiation was abandoned, and on
the 7th the royal governor, Goring surrendered Portsmouth and
all its stores to Sir William Waller, a member of the Committee
of Safety. Parliament now had twenty thousand men under its
orders and, two days after the capture of Portsmouth, sent Essex
forward with the purpose of immediately attacking the king at
Nottingham.
Charles, however, had no thought of risking all upon a single
encounter at this stage of the conflict; the levies from Wales and
684
THE CIVIL WAK
Fcharlks I.
The cam-
paign of
Er -
the northern counties, moreover, had not yet joined him. He had
therefore retired towards Shrewsbury on the 7th. Essex followed
him, throwing garrisons into Northampton, Coventry,
and Warwick, and took up a station at Worcester, where,
a short time before, the first serious encounter of
the war had already taken place in whicli Eupert's horse had
easily scattered one of the newly-raised cavalry regiments of the
parliament. By the 12th of October the king's western and
northern levies had reached him, and with fourteen thousand men
he thought himself strong enough to begin the march upon Lon-
don. Essex hurried after with a slightly inferior force, and on the
32d of October found the king in a strong position on Edgehill.
On the afternoon of Sunday the 33d the king led his army down
from the hill to meet his foes. Eupert again easily routed the
Puritan horse, but the Puritan infantry held their own, and when
at dtisk Eupert returned from the pursuit he found the king's
men withdrawing to Edgehill. The battle, however, was inde-
cisive, for the complete demoralization of Essex's cavalry compelled
him to retire to Warwick the next day, while the king's army once
more resumed its march, passing through Oxford and Eeading.
Yet his movements were so slow that Essex was not only able to
164S, 1643] CAMPAIGN OJ EDGEHILL 685
follow him again, but reached a strong position on his flank at
Kingston. Charles, however, did not care to try the mettle of the
sturdy Puritan infantry a second time, and instead of turning
aside to measure swords with Essex, pushed straight on to Lon-
don. At Brentford, eight miles from Westminster, Rupert again
scattered the Puritan horse, but two miles farther, at Turnham
Green, the king found the trained bands of London drawn up in
dense masses across his path. With Essex so near he feared to
chance a battle and, after a useless cannonade, retired to Oxford.
Here he established his headquarters for the rest of the war, set-
ting up a government and, January 1644, calling together a royalist
parliament, composed mostly of the members of the Long Parlia-
ment who had fled from Westminster.
Thus ended the first campaign of the war. It had been inde-
cisive and left matters about where they stood on September 7.
It had revealed to Charles, however, the determined
fmipa%n Spirit of the men who defied him ; it had also revealed
(If 1642. ^^ ^2^g Puritan leaders the immense superiority of the
royalist horse. During the winter the two armies of Essex and
Charles faced each other between Oxford and London, but nothing
was done. There were also some futile attempts at negotiation,
but no revival of confidence, due partly to the continued efforts of
Charles to get troops over from Ireland, and also to his efforts to
sow dissensions among the parliamentary leaders.
As the spring came on fighting began all over England. In
the main it went against the parliament. Some petty victories of
the early year were more than offset by later losses.
The cam- Essex took Reading: but hesitated to advance on Oxford.
paignof 1843. '^
On the 16 th of May Sir Ralph Hopton defeated the
earl of Stamford at Stratton and secured Cornwall for the king.
On the 18th of June Hampden received his death wound at Chal-
grove Field, in a futile attempt to cut off a band of raiders under
Prince Rupert; "a gallant man, an honest man, an able man, and
second to none living." On the 30th of June William Cavendish
Earl of Newcastle defeated Lord Fairfax at Adwalton Moor, a vic-
tory which left Hull, already closely besieged, the only parliamen-
tary stronghold in Yorkshire. On the 5th of July and again on
686 THE CIVIL WAR [chaeles I.
the 13th, Hopton, the victor of Stratton, defeated Waller, who had
been holding the Severn valley in order to prevent the Welsh from
reinforcing the king at Oxford, and on the 36th Kupert took
Bristol.
Charles now proposed that Newcastle and Hopton bring their
victorious armies and join with him for a march on London. But
the Cornish men would not leave their homes to the
oioxweKter, mercy of the powerful garrisons of Plymouth and
Exeter ; the Yorkshire men were as unwilling to march
south until Hull had been reduced. The garrison of Gloucester,
also, held the bridge over the lower Severn, and the Welshmen
would not march to London until the town had been taken.
Charles, therefore, contrary to his better judgment, was compelled
to engage in a series of sieges against cities for the most part with
an open seaboard. Prince Maurice, Rupert's younger brother, was
sent against Plymouth and Exeter; Newcastle pressed the siege of
Hull ; while the king with his main army marched upon Glouces-
ter. Pym called upon London for an army to relieve Gloucester,
and the trained bands promptly responded, giving him an army of
fifteen thousand men. Enpert's cavalry failed to check the advance
and on September 8 Essex marched into the city. Prom the
first the Puritans had felt a deep sense of dependence upon God;
they were fighting his battles; "God had called them to do the
work." The timely arrival of Essex, therefore, when only three
barrels of gunpowder were left in the city, was looked upon as a
special interposition of Providence, and the grateful citizens in-
scribed above the gate, "A city assaulted by men but saved by
God."
It was the crisis of the war. The relief of Gloucester saved Ply-
mouth and Hull, possibly London also; for had these cities fallen,
The crisis "^ *^^ probability London could not have resisted the
passed. combined force which the king would then have con-
centrated on the lower Thames.
Charles now mancsuvred to prevent the return of Essex to Lon-
don ; the result was the first battle of Newbury, fought on the
20th of September, twenty-seven miles from Oxford. The foot
wrestled for hours from hedgerow to hedgerow. Rupert's cavalry
1643] OLIVER CEOMWELL 687
as usual scattered the Puritan horse. He then turned upon the
Londoners, but for once his terrible cavalry had foand a foe
First battle "Worthy of their mettle. When night came the Puri-
fevtembeP' ^^^ infantry still held their ground. They had lost
20, ms, heavily but the king's losses were greater, among them
the gallant Lord Falkland. The king withdrew to Oxford, leav-
ing the way open to London.
The triumph at Newbury of the Puritans, or "Roundheads," as
the gay "Cavaliers" of Rupert had begun to call them, was fol-
lowed three weeks later by a successful sortie of the
Triumphs of . » tt n i • n m i -.t
Puritamin gamson 01 Hull, which compelled Newcastle to raise
the Novtihi
the siege. On the same day, the 11th of October, Kim-
bolton, recently become earl of Manchester, won a decisive victory
at Winceby. This battle is famous as the first to bring Oliver
Cromwell into prominence.
This remarkable man, destined to be the great man of the cen-
tury, a quiet, unobtrusive squire of Huntingdonshire, had been
sent up to the Long Parliament from Cambridge bor-
Cromweii ^^^i having already appeared at Westminster in 1638
and again in the Short Parliament in 1640. He was
not a talker ; and although he had supported Hampden and Pym
steadily in the voting, his position as a member of the Long Parlia-
ment had not been prominent. But when the time for action
came, he went down to his home to take part in the organization
of the Eastern Association. Although a cousin of Hampden and a
member of parliament, he sought for himself no higher position in
the army than that of a single captain of cavalry. He was present
at Edgehill and had managed to hold his troop together, one of the
few cavalry companies that did not flee at the first charge of the
cavaliers. He saw, moreover, the reason of the worthlessness of
the Puritan horse. "Your troops" he said to Hampden "are
most of them decayed serving men and tapsters, and such kind of
fellows, and their troops are gentlemen's sons and persons of
quality. Do you think that the spirits of such base and mean
fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen that have honor,
courage, and resolution in them?" In the months following Edge-
hill Cromwell had returned to his home and there brought together
688 THE CIVIL WAK [chaeles I.
a cavalry regiment of a very different mettle. As he himself
expressed it, he proposed to match "men of religion," against the
"king's gentlemen of honor." The result was the organization
of the famous "Ironsides;" a body of men who possessed the
loftiest religious enthusiasm, tempered and hardened by the
severest discipline. At Winceby, Cromwell and his famous regi-
ment led the van of Manchester's army. From this time he and
his men are conspicuous figures in the war; equal to Eupert's
terrible cavaliers "in dash and daring," and more than equal in
drill and self-restraint.
In December the parliament sustained a serious loss in the
death of Pym, who had become the virtual leader of the adminis-
tration but had succumbed to the anxieties and burdens
League and of his position, laying his life on the altar of English
liberty as surely as Eliot or Hampden. As his last
service he had secured the formal alliance of the parliament
with the Scots in the "Solemn League and Covenant," by which
the English bound themselves to support a Scottish army in Eng-
land, and to reform the Church of England "according to the
example of the best reformed churches," — a phrase understood by
the Scots to mean the Presbyterian Church. Vane, however, who
hated intolerance and saw clearly that "new presbyter" was "only
old priest writ large," insisted on adding the clause "and according
to the Word of God." This was a mere subterfuge, adopted in
order to leave the whole matter open, since the "Word of God"
when consulted by Independents would not favor the Presbyterian
system. The Scots, however, apprehended no difficulty because
the Presbyterian party in England was much larger than the Inde-
pendent party, and an assembly of Presbyterian divines had
already met at Westminster in July, 1643, and were busily engaged
in making a plan for the reform of the English Church on a
Presbyterian basis.
Charles also in the meanwhile had been seeking allies, and in
September had entered into a preliminary truce with the Irish,
known as the Cessation of Arms. Thus the king was in the pop-
ular mind more than ever allied with the cause of the supporters
of the pope ; while the Solemn League and Covenant also helped
1644]
MAESTOIS^ MOOR
689
to strengthen the common belief that the struggle was for Prot-
estantism against "popery, prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism,
and profaneness. " The Irish truce, however, brought
tMii^h^ very little advantage. It released the English army
TTie'cmo- which had been stationed in Ireland, but the troops had
wn of A^rms. {jg^j^jy reached England when they were routed by Pair-
fax at Nantwich, and the majority of the survivors at once took
service under the parliament.
On the 19th of January the Scots under David Leslie crossed
the border twenty thousand strong, and uniting with Fairfax, suc-
ceeded in shutting up in York Newcastle and the
^mrTjuiy army with which he had swept Yorkshire the year
^' ^^**' before. In April they were joined by Manchester with
the army of the Eastern Association. Charles fully realized
the importance of saving Newcastle, and accordingly ordered
Rupert to raise an army and advance to his relief. On the 30th
of June Rupert and his troopers reached Knaresborough on the
Nidd. When the allies heard of his approach they raised the
siege of York and, advancing across Marston Moor, took up their
station at Skip Bridge, a short distance below Krwlu-Tlx-rough.
690 THE CIVIL WAR [ohabies I.
But Eupert by a hasty flank inarch, passing the Swale at Thorn-
ton Bridge, gained the left bank of the Ouse, entered the city, and
joined Newcastle before the allies could stop him. It was a mas-
terly movement. York was saved and the king's cause was once
more in the ascendant. Eupert, however, who now commanded
both royalist armies, was determined to fight, and leading out the
combined forces, faced the allies on Marston Moor. When
Eupert had completed his formation, the day was done,
July 2. and, as the enemy were apparently quiet and determined
to act on the defensive, he decided to postpone the
battle until the morning; ranks were broken and supper was
ordered. The enemy, however, watchful and alert, looking down
upon the camp of Eupert from the higher ground which they had
held since morning, and divining his change of plan, decided to
seize the moment of inattention and attack at once. On the left
wing Cromwell's horse supported by Leslie, for the first time met
the famous cavaliers of Eupert and after a stubborn contest proved
their superiority by driving them from the field. On the right wing,
however, the Fairfaxes were beaten by Goring. The Scots in the
center were also beginning to give way ; when Cromwell, keeping his
men well in hand, returned from the pursuit of Eupert, and at once
attacked Goring and drove him from the field; then rallying
Fairfax's men he came to the relief of the Scots. This movement
decided the day. Newcastle's infantry fought desperately; some
regiments perished to a man, but they were unsupported and.
heroism could not save them. Newcastle fled to Flanders.
Eupert with his shattered cavalry succeeded in getting back to the
Severn. The allies had won the first decisive engagement of the
war; the north now passed into their hands.
In the south affairs were not going so well for the parliament.
While Leslie and Fairfax were besieging Newcastle in York, Waller
had marched out of London at the head of the trained
campaion^ bands, intending to unite with Essex for a joint attack
of 1644. upon the king at Oxford. When they learned, how-
ever, that Charles had slipped away into Worcestershire, it was
determined to leave Waller to carry on the siege, while Essex
U: -lie pope'O the southwest. Charles saw his advantage, and at
1644] LOSTWITHIEL 691
once turning upon Waller, beat him at Cropredy Bridge and so
discouraged his raw levies, that they retired to London. Charles
then hurried after Essex and surrounded him at Lost-
'A^mt^w**. ■"'ithiel. The foot were compelled to surrender; the
cavalry cut their way through to Plymouth; Essex
made his escape to London by sea.
Thus the reverses of Charles in the north were offset somewhat
by his successes in the south. If he had lost an army at Marston
Moor, the Puritans had lost an army at Lostwithiel.
Remits of jf ]je }^^^ j^g^; ^jjg northern counties, the Puritans had
lost the western counties. Leslie might have led his
Scots into southern England and more than made good the loss of
Essex's infantry, but the royalist earl of Montrose was creating
such a diversion in Scotland that Leslie dared not pass the Humber
when he might soon be needed beyond the Tweed to save the Low-
lands.
The parliamentary leaders, while thus unable to concentrate
their forces and take advantage of their great victory at Marston
Moor, were also divided among themselves as to the
atnm^me ultimate object of the war. The conduct of the war
taryUad^rs. had been entrusted to a joint committee of both king-
doms. The committee, however, was large and
unwieldy, and seriously divided upon ecclesiastical questions but
more seriously upon the final issues of the war. The Presby-
terians at heart were royalists and desired only to bring the king
to terms. The Puritan nobles, moreover, were thoroughly alarmed
at the democratic tendencies which the war was developing, and
did not wish to crush the king altogether, lest the rising tide of
revolution sweep away their privileges as well in the overthrow of
the monarchy. The Independents, however, had no sympathy
with the lingering royalist sentiment of their allies, and, while they
had not yet advanced so far as to desire the destruction of the
king, much less the monarchy, saw clearly that their lives or their
property could be. secure, only after they had completely crushed
the last vestige of royalist military power and restored peace to the
nation upon their own terms.
These dissensions were soon to bear fruit on the field of battle.
69^ THE CIVIL WAR [CHAELKSI.
After Marston Moor, Manchester and Cromwell, leaving Fairfax
witli the Scots to reduce Pomfret and Newcastle-on-Tyne and
The second watch the progress of affairs in Scotland, had marched
mwul-y- south to prevent the return of Charles from the west
dromweiiand and protect London. They met Charles at Newbury
Manchester. ^^ Qctoher. The Puritan army was greatly superior,
and only the unwillingness of Manchester to crush Charles alto-
gether, prevented Cromwell and Waller from repeating the triumph
of Marston Moor. The inertness of Manchester at once brought
the quarrel of Independents and Presbyterians to a head. Crom-
well brought charges against Manchester in the House, and Man-
chester replied by preferring counter charges against Cromwell..
The quarrel rapidly developed into a struggle to get possession of
the army.
In this struggle the Presbyterian majority apparently had their
own way at first, and on November 24, parliament sent to the king
at Oxford a series of twenty propositions to serve as a
Negotiations ,.„ ,.,. ^ 4 „^ ,-, ,.,.
at uxbHdge, basis lor negotiation. On January 30, the negotiations
were formally opened at Uxbridge, and continued for
three weeks. They failed, however, chiefly because the Presby-
terian commissioners demanded that Charles should take the cove-
nant; the demand that he should give up the command of the
militia was hardly less objectionable. The failure of negotiation
naturally produced a reaction, and parliament, with renewed deter-
mination to win, addressed itself to the reorganization of the army.
The"New ^^^ February it passed the "New Model Ordinance" and
mncI"''The foUo^ed it in April by the famous "Self -Denying Ordi-
■f^'Srdi"^ nance." By the one, it proposed to enlist a new army
nance." ^f 14^000 foot, 6,000 horse and 1,000 dragoons; the
recruits were to be taken from among the veterans of Essex and
Waller and Manchester, and were to serve to the end of the war ;
strict discipline was to be introduced and regular wages pre-
scribed. Commissions were given for merit only, and the
gentlemen officers, who had heretofore monopolized all the appoint-
ments, were compelled to share their honors with "plain russet
coated captains," who had given evidence of their ability to
command men in the tumult of battle. The officers also were
1645] EXECUTIOK^ OF LAUD 693
compelled to take the covenant. By the second ordinance it was
enacted that all officers of the army and navy who were also mem-
bers of parliament, should resign their commissions within forty
days. In this way it was proposed to weed out Manchester and
Essex, but unfortunately Cromwell also was included. Sir
Thomas Fairfax, the son of Lord Fairfax, who had proved his
ability in the northern campaigns with his father, was made
commander-in-chief. A rank of lieutenant-general, carrying
with it the command of the horse, was created but significantly
left vacant.
One other event shows the increasing strength of the extreme
party at Westminster. On the 10th of January, the little old
man, whose mischievous itching for reforms had done
liaicd, Jan- SO much to stir up the present strife, was taken from
the Tower where he had been confined since 1641, and
executed under sentence of the Lords. His death was a simple act
of vengeance. His influence had long since disappeared; unlike
StrafEord, there was no occasion to fear him. ,
Charles in the meantime, while Fairfax was organizing the
"New Model," as the reconstructed army was called, had .begun
the campaign by leaving Oxford, where he was blockaded
June 14, bv Fairfax, to attack Leicester. If successful he would
tfi4fi
gain a central position of great advantage. Fairfax
marched north with the idea of forcing a battle. On June 13
he was joined by Cromwell, who, at the solicitation of the offi-
cers and men of Fairfax's command, had been appointed by parlia-
ment to the still vacant post of lieutenant-general. The next day
was fought the battle of ISTaseby, in which the New Model com-
pletely justified the wisdom of its projectors, destroying the royal-
ist army and leaving only a shattered remnant of the horse to draw
off with Eupert and the king. But more serious to the king's
cause than the defeat, was the capture of a box of secret dis-
patches by which the whole history of his intrigues with the
French and the Irish became known, and the little lingering confi-
dence of the English in his good faith completely destroyed. Shires
where thousands had sprung to arms when the king first unfurled
his banner, refused to fight longer for the perfidious Stuart.
694
THE CIVIL WAR
Fchablbs I.
In Scotland the yictories of Montrose still gave the king some
slight hope. Montrose had left York after Marston Moor and made
his way across the border disguised as a groom. Once
Scotumd, in the Highlands he had put himself at the head of the
ie4iioSep'- Macdonalds. Then followed a series of daring and
brilliant manosuvres in which he defeated the Covenant-
ers, September 1, at Tippermuir, and again, September 13, at
Aberdeen. These victories cleared the eastern Lowlands and
brought the
Battle of NASEBY
July 14, 1645
Gordons to his
side. Early in
February he
overthrew the
Campbells un-
der Argyll at
I n V e r 1 0 c h y.
The report of
these victories
compelled Les-
lie to send two
of his best offi-
c e r s , Baillie
and Hurry, tp
revive the
drooping spir-
its of the Cov-
enanters, and
check the vic--
torious career of Montrose. They were no match, however,
for the energetic young royalist commander, and, after a long
series of manceavres, were beaten at Auldearn, May 9, again at
Alford, July 3, and finally at Kilsyth, August 15. These victories
made Montrose master of the Lowlands. But unfortunately his
Highlanders, after their custom, insisted upon going home to
secure their booty, and left him with a much weakened force to
meet David Leslie in person, who was hastening up from the south
with the veterans who had fought at Marston Moor. Montrose
1645] KOWTOSr HEATH 695
was attacked at Philiphaiigh, near Selkirk, September 13, and his
small army completely routed. In one day the fruit of all his
victories had been swept away and nothing was left for the young
commander but to get out of the country as quickly as possible.
His youth, his single-hearted devotion to the king, his rapid suc-
cesses, the suddenness and completeness of the overthrow, mark
his career as one of the most romantic chapters of the war.
The end of the war was now in sight. On July 15, a month
after Naseby, Fairfax had defeated Goring at Langport. Mont-
rose, however, at the time was still in the high-tide of
The end of
the First
Civil War.
the First ' victory and held out a promise of success, if the king
could only join forces with him. Charles accordingly
was hurrying north with his last army, when, September 24, he
was stopped near Chester and again defeated at Eowton
HMth^sep- Heath. A few days later came news of the disaster at
tfmher,24, Philipbaugh, and the king returned to Oxford, satis-
fied that his kingdom was not to be saved by the appeal
to arms. His armies had been destroyed or scattered. He had
made arrangements with Ed ward Somerset, Earl of Glamorgan, to
bring over ten thousand Irish soldiers, but Glamorgan had been
wrecked on the Lancashire coast. The Irish allies of Charles did
not appear, and the project, when known, only added to the bitter-
ness of his enemies. His scheme for securing continental help
fared no better. Henrietta Maria had succeeded in hiring the
services of ten thousand men of the duke of Lorraine, but neither
the Dutch nor the French would supply the necessary ships for
getting the duke and his mercenaries over the sea. To add to
the discomfiture of Charles, he had scarcely reached Oxford, after
the retreat from Eowton Heath, when he heard that Bristol
had been stormed and Prince Rupert had surrendered. In the
spring of 1646 the army of the west also surrendered to Fairfax,
and in June the Puritans took possession of Oxford. Although a
few detached castles still held out, Charles was in despair, and
determined to throw himself upon the old-time loyalty of the
Scots, in hope that he might find better terms with them than
with the parliament. Accordingly in May, he suddenly appeared
in the Scot camp before Newark, the last of the midland fortresses
696
THE CITIL WAE
fCUARLES 1.
to resist, and there gave himself up. They received him kindly
and sent him to Newcastle, to be kept as a sort of hostage until
the questions which the war had raised between the two kingdoms
should be settled. Harlech, the last of the royalist strongholds,
continued to hold out until the next year. The "First Civil
War" was ended.
CONTEMPOHAEIBS OF THE EAKLY STUAETS
1(103-1650
KINGS or KBANCE
Henry IV., d. 1610
Louis XIII., d. 16-13
Louis XIV.
KING OP SWEDEN
Gustavus AdolptLUs, 1611-
1632
KINGS OF DENMAHK AND
NOKWAV
Christian IV., d. 1648
Frederick IIL
BRANDENBURG
Frederick William, the
Great Elector, 1640-
THE PALATINATE
Frederick IV., the Up-
right, d. 1610
Frederick V., son-in-law
of James I., d. 1632
KINGS OF SPAIN
Philip IIL, d. 1631
Philip IV.
EMPERORS
Matthias, d. 1619
Ferdinand II., d. 1637
Ferdinand III.
POPES
Paul v., 1605-1621
Gregory XV., 1621-1623
Urban VIII., 1633-1644
Innocent X., 1644-1655
Alexander VII., 1653-1667.
EMINENT FOREIGNERS
(NOT SOVBEBIGNS)
Wallenstein, d. 1634
Richelieu, d. 1643
Descartes, d. 1650
Mazarin
Molifere
MEN EMINENT IN THE ENGLISH STRUGGLE
Francis Bacon, d. 1626
Edward Coke, d. 1634
John Eliot, d. 1632
Thomas Wentworth. Earl
of Strafford, d. 1641
John Hampden, d. 1643
Lucius Gary, Viscount
Falkland, d. 1643
John Pym, d. 1643
William Laud, Archbish'p
of Canterbury, d. 1645
Robert Devereux, Earl of
Essex, d. 1646
Ferdinando Fairfax, Bar-
on Fairfax, d. 1648
Still Living in 1650
Thomas Fairfax
Alexander Leslie, Earl of
Leven
David Leslie, Lord New-
ark
John Milton
Harry Vane
Rupert, Prince of the
Palatinate
Oliver Cromwell
Edward Hyde
Etc., etc.
CHAPTEE IV
THE PARLIAMENT AND THE AEMT
CHARLES I.. 1646-1649
TOE COMMONWEALTH, 1640-1653
The Long Parliament was now to suffer the fate of most revo-
lutionary bodies which have been compelled to call into being a
powerful army, in order to overthrow its enemies or sup-
ParUament P°^''' ^^^ authority. It became the victim of its own
mom'^^^ ci-eature; and, although a specious disguise of parlia-
mentary authority was still maintained, the government
was at first controlled, and at last administered altogether, by the
handful of officers who had won its battles and controlled the
affections and confidence of its soldiers. The successive steps by
which the New Model became the actual ruler of England, consti-
tute the subject matter of the second chapter of the Eevolution.
After the surrender of the king there was every reason to
expect a speedy and definite settlement of the troubles of the king-
doms. The parliament had conquered, and Charles
thtscot^^^ might choose between granting its demands or abdi-
cation. But unfortunately for Charles he had not
surrendered to the Scots for the purpose of ending the strife.
He hoped, rather, by appealing to the old enmity of Scotsmen and
Englishmen, to draw the Scots to his support, and thus be able
once more to put himself at the head of a royalist army. The
king soon found, however, that he had seriously underestimated
the devotion of the Scots to the popular cause. Instead of hurry-
ing home with their guest, they determined to act with the Eng-
lish parliament. In July the joint demands were presented.
Th New- Charles was to be restored to his throne, but he must
castle Propo- take the covenant himself and consent to an act impos-
i64e. iug it upon his subjects, abolish Episcopacy, consent to
the enforcement of the laws against Roman Catholics, and sur-
render the control of the militia and the fleet for twenty years.
697
698 PAELIAMENT AND THE ARMY [chaeiesI.
The friends of Charles, even the queen, urged him to moderation;
but he was blinded by the fatuous hope of securing peace without
committing himself to any definite promises, and allowed the
opportunity to slip by in aimless hedging and bandying of words.
The Scots became disgusted and, in their irritation,
January, turned the king over to the English, and went home.
They estimated the expense to which the war had put
them at £400,000; this parliament agreed to pay and at once
voted the first installment of £200,000. Charles was brought into
Northamptonshire and lodged at Holmby House.
The wise moderation of the Scots was in marked contrast with
the hard-headed turbulence of the English sectaries. The body of
divines at Westminster had now been sitting since July
ThePresby- ig43 and, sincc the Presbyterians were in overwhelm-
teria/m and ' ' -^
Mode?"' ''°§ niajority, had been steadily working out a plan,
which proposed virtually to substitute Presbyterianism
for the Laudian system. A part of their work had already been
adopted by the parliament where the Presbyterians were also in
the majority.
The New Model, however, in which Independents largely
preponderated, and in whose ranks no difference had ever been
made between the adherents of the several Puritan sects, was not
pleased, and did not hesitate to express disapproval of measures
which savored of persecution. The parliament could not mistake
the awakening spirit of insubordination, and in alarm proposed to
disband the soldiers, on the plea that, since the war had ended, it
was unnecessary to continue the expense of such a large military
establishment. There was, however, besides the religioiis interest
a very clear financial interest at stake in which every soldier
regardless of his faith was interested. There was due the New
Model, for its services to the government, an arrears of £300,000,
but parliament, in its eagerness to get rid of the now thoroughly
insubordinate army, proposed to send the soldiers home upon
the payment of one-sixth only of the arrears. The result was -to
precipitate the very mutiny which the parliamentary leaders so
much dreaded. The soldiers as one man determined not to be
disbanded until their claims for back pay had been settled in full.
1647] THE DECLARATION OF THE ARMY 699
They elected agents, known as "agitators," to look after their
interests, and prepared to resist. At first Cromwell hesitated. He
was both an officer and a member of parliament, and did all in
his power to bring about an accommodation. But when this failed,
with Fairfax he threw his whole influence on the side of his old
comrades in arms. The parliamentary leaders in great fear
turned to the king and called upon the Scots to assist them in
restoring the Stuart. The terms which they offered the king
were not known, yet thev could not carry on the
Abduction ,.,. ,1 ,-,'!,■, ■
of theinng, negotiations SO secretly that their purport could not be
JXLTirP 4 1fi47 J. ■ J.
divined, and Cromwell at once sent Cornet Joyce with a
detachment of cavalry to Holmby to secure the king's person.
Joyce's force, however, was hardly sufficient to hold the king in
case of an attempt at rescue, and on June 4, acting upon his own
responsibility, he set out with his charge for Newmarket where
the near neighborhood of the army promised better security.
Parliament was now thoroughly alarmed; but, while the mem-
bers were talking wildly of arresting Cromwell and of bringing the
TheDeciara- ^^ots to the aid of the trained bands of London in
!i™w *''^ order to destroy the New Model, the army had begun
June IS. to draw nearer to the city. The advance of the army,
as well as the indifference of the trained bauds, seemed for the
moment to bring the parliament' to its senses, and it consented
to ask the army to state its grievances. On the fifteenth of June
the Goimcil of the Army, a body composed of the general officers
and four representatives chosen from each regiment, sent out
from Fairfax's headquarters at St. Albans their reply. The
Declaration of the Army, in which they demanded an early disso-
lution of the Commons; that a limit should be fixed for the
duration of parliaments in the future, that the right of petition
be acknowledged, and that religious toleration be guaranteed within
certain limits. The Declaration was followed by an arraignment
of eleven meinbers of the House by name, and a demand for their
expulsion. Parliament was in no mood to accept measures so
humiliating, but with every passing day it became more evident
that it had no force to pit against the New Model ; the eleven
obnoxious members, among whom were Holies and Waller, were
700 PAELIAMBJTT AND THE AEMT [chaelesI.
allowed to withdraw, and certain recent resolutions hostile to the
army were ordered to be torn from the records.
For a time matters promised to mend; the "purification" of
the House had restored Presbyterians and Independents to a
somewhat more even balance, and although the army
Modfi^mters continued to lie within easy reach of the city, the
AumMe advance was stayed. The leaders, however, were still
sore tried by the mingled duplicity and indecision that,
continued to mark the counsels of parliament, which one day was
ready to grant all that the army asked and the next day destroyed
the effect of its concessions by the intrigues of its members.
Still, Cromwell and the other officers hesitated to march upon the
city, hoping against hope to settle all difficulties by peaceable means.
But on July 26, the intrigues of the Presbyterian leaders suc-
ceeded at last in bringing on a great reaction in the city ; a mob of
apprentice boys broke into the houses of parliament and compelled
the frightened members to undo the legislation of the past few
weeks, that had been more friendly to the soldiers, and to recall the
eleven members. The speakers of both Houses and many of the
Independents fled to the army. The moment which many had
foreseen had at last come. The officers hesitated no longer, and on
the 6th of August the New Model took possession of the city. Par-
liament like the king was now at its mercy.
The leaders of the army, however, particularly Fairfax, Crom-
well, and Ireton, had no wish to establish a military dictatorship, and,
in despair of securing a peaceful settlement of affairs
The Heads of .
thePropos- through the Presbyterian parliament, had already turned
directly to the king, and on the 28th had formally sub-
mitted to him a plan known as The Heads of the Proposals,^ which
had been drawn up by Ireton and adopted by the Council of the
Army on the 16th. By this plan they offered to restore the king
upon condition: 1. That parliament should be called every two
years and continue in session for at least one hundred and twenty
days. 2. That a new distribution of members of the Commons
should be made "according to some rule of proportion," which
should abolish the representation of "decayed towns." 3. That
1 Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 232-241.
1647] THE ENGAGEMENT 701
parliament should control the militia for ten years. 4. That for
the same period parliament should appoint the crown minis-
ters. 5. That the jurisdiction of bishops be abolished, but that
the Covenant should not be obligatory. 6. That all men except
papists be given liberty to worship God in their own way. 7.
That a general act of oblivion be passed.
This was the opportunity of Charles to save his crown. He
w^as, however, still infatuated with the idea of his personal impor-
tance ; he saw that another civil war was at hand, and believed
that, sooner or later, one side would be compelled to call upon the
royalists for help, and then he might make his own terms.
Accordingly he rejected The Heads of the Proposals, and continued
his secret intrigues with the Scots.
In the meanwhile all things were not progressing smoothly
even within the army. A determined band of extremists saw in
the conciliatory propositions of the leaders, the evidence
tiie'iina^ala '^^ * treachery deeper even than that of the parliament,
memt^"'"^^ and in their bitterness denounced Cromwell as a
"Judas," and clamored for the trial of Charles on the
charge of treason. Cromwell, however, was still disposed to use all
his influence to save the king. But Charles, who was not ignorant
of the clamors of the soldiers, instead of throwing himself upon
the good faith of the officers, fled from Hampton Court and finally
sought refuge with Eobert Hammond, the parliamentary governor
of the Isle of Wight. He was lodged in Carisbrooke Castle, where
he soon found that he was again a prisoner and under more
restraint even than at Hampton Court. He managed, however,
to keep up secret negotiations with a reactionary party of nobles
in Scotland, who had recently come into power, and on December
36, signed the fatal "Engagement" by which he
The Engage- "engaged" to set up Presbyterianism in England for
three years, and root out Anabaptists, Separatists,
Independents, and other heresies of all kinds.' The Scots on their
part "engaged" to invade England and cooperate with Charles in
overthrowing the existing parliament and reestablishing his
authority. Then a "full and free parliament" was to be sum-
' Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 359-364.
702 PAKLIAMEKT AND THE ARMY [ohaelhsI.
moned, in order to secure a permanent peace. The intrigue was
not known at the time, but the results were soon felt. Parlia-
ment had already sent to Charles its ultimatum, known as the
Four JSillsj these were now rejected. Parliament, angered
beyond endurance, broke with the Scots, reestablished the
Committee of Public Safety and on January 15 passed the Vote of
No Addresses by which it shut off all further communication with
the king under the penalty of high treason. It was a serious
moment. Even in London there was no small royalist reaction,
caused in part by fear of the army, and in part by the disgust of
the people at being compelled to keep up the war taxes, and also
by general dissatisfaction with the self-seeking parliament.
In the summer of 1648 risings occurred almost simultaneously
in Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wales, and the northern counties. But
the Scots were not yet ready to act, and left the
Civa War" Anglicans and Presbyterians of England to sustain the
beginnings of the revolt alone. The English people,
however, were weary of the war; few outside of the gentry and
the towns thought seriously of arming for a new struggle; while
even among those who rallied at the magic call of the king's
name, there were few capable of leadership, and nothing to match
the splendid discipline and morale of tlie New Model. On the
other hand the renewal of hostilities in England, the defection of
a great part of the fleet, and the rumor of the engagement of the
king with the Scots, at once forced parliament and army to put
by their suspicions and turn a united front to the common foe; at
the same time the party of the extremists within the army, who
had been calling for the trial of the king, became more active and
their influence irresistible. In a great prayer meeting held by the
army before departing for the war, Cromwell confessed that he
had been at fault in attempting to negotiate with Charles at all,
and the entire assembly resolved "that it was their duty, if ever
the Lord brought them back again in peace, to call Charles Stuart,
that man of blood, to an account for the blood shed in the war."
In this grim mood the New Model, more terrible than ever,
marched under Fairfax and Cromwell to put down the new
royalist uprising. Fairfax, by throwing himself before the royalist
1648] THE SECOND CIVIL WAS 703
insurgents in Kent, effectually prevented their friends in Lon-
don, from whom mnch had been expected, from making any
Operations demonstration in their favor. On Jnne 1, he forced
mkicrom- them to fight at Maidstone. The survivors retired
'^^''^- into Colchester in Essex and closed the gates in hope of
holding out until the Scots came to their relief. Cromwell in the
meanwhile had marched into Wales and, by a few rapid blows,
crushed the rising before it was fairly upon its feet. He then
hurried north to meet the Scots, who by this time had crossed
the border and united with the northern insurgents. Theirs was
no such army, however, as had followed Leslie into England six
years before. The old covenanters of the duke of Argyll's follow-
ing would have nothing to do with the friends of the "non
covenanted king," and the new army, though considerable in
number, was undrilled and poorly equipped. Hamilton, more-
over, the royalist leader, had little military skill to pit against such
a master as Cromwell. The two armies met at Preston August
17; Cromwell outgeneraled Hamilton completely, beating one
detachment on the 17th, and, by seizing the bridges over the Eib-
ble and Darwen, cut off the retreat of the remainder and com-
pletely routed them the next day at Wigan and Winwick. The
infantry laid down their arms at Warrington; the cavalry sur-
rendered at Uttoxeter. On the 27th of August Colchester
surrendered to Fairfax, and all armed resistance on the land was
at an end.
The renewal of the Civil War, the needless shedding of the
blood of their comrades, had put the New Model in a very danger-
Pride's *^^® temper. After the fall of Colchester the royalist
Purge, De- leaders, Lucas and Lisle, were immediately court mar-
cernber «, ' ' •'
i««- tialed and shot. Hamilton and other officers who took
part in the northern rising also were executed in the following
spring ; nor were the army leaders, now Eully conscious of their
power, inclined to be more constitutional in their methods of
dealing with parliament or the king. Parliament was still
inclined to renew negotiations with the idea of restoring the king,
but the army would hear of no action that had not for its object
the bringing of Charles Stuart, the "man of blood" to justice.
704 PARLIAMENT AND THE ARMY [chablesI.
The Commons, however, insisted, and on December 5 declared for a
reconciliation. At this the officers became desperate; and on the
6th Ireton directed Colonel Pride, wlio had charge of the guard
which had been placed at Westminster Hall, to exclude the chief
Presbyterian members. Pride did his work so thoroughly that
hardly sixty members were left sitting. Cromwell returned to Lon-
don that evening.
The parliament, now no longer a parliament, but only the
maimed instrument of the army, which later its enemies in derision
styled the "Kump, '" determined to proceed with the
'S^MtSa™'^" *"^^ ^^ ^^^ king; and on January 1, 1649 proposed to
§^^'iice%r create a special High Court of Justice for that pur-
mMn'"^ pose. The few lords who remained at Westminster,
who had not yet lost all sense of self-respect, protested
and refused their consent. Their consent, however, was a matter
of little moment. The day had gone when the army could be
deterred from its purpose by any mere technicalities. Cromwell
fairly expressed the contempt of his comrades for forms when he
declared: "We will cut off the king's head with the crown upon
it;" and the Commons, now the mere mouthpiece of the army, in
reply to the opposition of the Lords, announced that "the people
were under God the source of all power, and that the House of
Commons being chosen by the people, formed the superior power
in England, having no need of either king, or House of Lords."
They then proceeded to establish the High Court of Justice, con-
sisting of one hundred and thirty commissioners.^ Cromwell of
course was a member of this court, as also Fairfax, Ireton, Harri-
son, and Hutchinson ; John Bradshaw was made president.
The first meeting of the High Court of Justice was held on
the 9th of January. Many of the commissioners had no relish for
their task, and when on the 20th Charles was finally
Tvial dnd
death of the brought in to Westminster Hall, only sixty members
remained at their post. Fairfax and Sir Henry Vane
were among those who had retired. Charles denied the authority
" The term was first used in 1059 upon the restoration of the Long
Parliament.
'Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 368-370.
1649] EXECUTION OF THE KING 705
of the unusual tribunal and refused to plead. The judges, how-
ever, went through the mockery of hearing evidence in order to
prove that Charles Stuart had raised an army against the parlia-
ment and taken part in the Civil M^ar. On the 37th the court
gave its decision, declaring Charles Stuart to be "a tyrant, traitor,
murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation,"
and fixed the death penalty. Fifty-nine members of the court
set their names to the death warrant.' On the 30th of January
the condemned king was led out to Whitehall to die. Men beheld
his quiet mien and gentle dignity, and forgot his crimes against
the public law of the land. And when the tragedy was over, and
the masked executioner held up the gory trophy of his art and
shouted to the horror stricken crowd, "Behold the head of a
traitor," the people were ready to believe that they had witnessed
the death of a martyr to the church and the constitution. "Within
a few days a book appeared under the striking title, Eikon
Basilihe, "theEoyal Image," which purported to have been writ-
ten by the king himself during his captivity.^ The book did much
to increase the growing impression of the piety and sincerity of
the king's character, and enthrone him in the hearts of many with
almost religious devotion. Even the skill and eloquence of Milton,
who replied in the interests of the Independents in the Mkonb-
Idastes, "the Image Breaker," could not dispel the halo which
the tragedy of his death had placed around the head of the fallen
king. Eleven years, however, were to elapse before the reaction
should bear fruit in the Eestoration. The "man of blood" was
gone, but the man of iron had arisen in his place.
If the Independent minority who had struck down the king,
thought that this act would contribute to the settlement of the
troubles of the hour, they soon found that they were
offa^u^^^ seriously mistaken. With the New Model at their
back, they had little to fear in the way of revolt, but
by what salves were they to heal the gaping wound which they
had left in the body of th« constitution? By what steps were
they to abandon the unconstitutional ground upon which they
' Gardiner, Const. Docs. , pp. 287-391.
' The book is attributed to John Gauden, afterward bishop of Exeter.
706 PARLIAMENT AND THE ABMY [the commonwealtb
themselyes had been standing during the past twelve months,
and restore the state once more to the rule of law and order?
This would have been difficult enough, had they represented the
majority of the nation, or were they themselves united in opinion,
or free from jealousies or suspicions. But unfortunately the
nation was no longer with' them, and they themselves were broken
up into almost as many parties as there were leaders. There was
a party of visionary Kepublicans, headed by Vane, who saw in the
present moment a chance to exploit their theories. There were
the Levellers who wanted to see a thorough-going democracy
introduced in politics and in society. There were Monarchists,
Army men, and all shades and varieties of each, all striving for
power as a means of realizing their ideals. There was, moreover,
a small group of practical men, most prominent among whom was
Cromwell, who had no theories to exploit, but who yet had little
sympathy with outworn forms, and wished to use the de facto
government as it then existed as the means of restoring order and
peace.
In their ideas upon religion and church government, the party
in power were even more hopelessly divided than upon political
issues. George Fox and his disciples of the "inner
Religious light," Continued to puzzle and exasperate the author-
ities ; Unitarianism had taken firm root, and the Bap-
tists were fast becoming one of the most powerful wings of the
Independent body. Liberty of conscience and freedom in specula-
tion, also, had produced a new crop of strange sects, of whom noth-
ing remains to-day save their uncouth names. The "Familists,"
the "Banters," the "Muggletonians," and "the Fifth Monarchy
Men," had each their fervent and fanatical disciples. The Mes-
siah, also, was announced at various points.
The economic life of the nation had suffered seriously as a
result of the Civil War. Thousands of individuals had been
ruined; public works had been abandoned, in cases
S^fltoiMon destroyed altogether; among those that had suffered
seriously was the great work begun by the earl of Bed-
ford in 1634 for the draining of the Fen country. Thousands
of acres had been thrown out of cultivation. Little respect
1649] THE AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE 707
was shown to the civil law; crime and violence had increased
steadily; murder, arson, and highway robbery, were common events
of daily life. These were oaly symptoms of a deeper malady, the
general decay of civilization. The best intellects had given their
attention to the all-absorbing struggle of the war and were bent
upon destruction rather than creation. Puritanism, moreover, in
its grim determination to save the present from the evils of the
past, had passed more and more under the sway of an unlovely
asceticism, which made war upon art as it had made war upon the
k'ing, with all the intolerance and lack of discrimination of the
religious devotee. Parliament had enjoined by ordinance the
defacement of the statues in the churches and the destruction of
the market crosses, the breaking of stained windows and the over-
throw of high altars. Even music had not escaped these enemies
of all that appealed to the artistic sense; and literature, if it would
meet the favor of the ofl&cial censor, must eschew all attempts at
wit or beauty, and deck itself in the meaningless cant and dribble
of the day, — the accepted symbols of godliness.
It was time, therefore, that a strong and efficient government
should be established, founded upon law and supported by the
loyalty of the people. But how was this possible when the laws
plainly prescribed "King, Lords, and Commons" as the most con-
spicuous instruments of legal government, and "King, Lords, and
Commons" had been swept away; when the great mass of the
people were not loyal and the army was the only power in the land
capable of exercising any authority at all, which from the nature
of the case must be illegal and revolutionary.
In January while the king's case was still pending, the council
of officers had presented to the body, which still called itself a
parliament, a plan for reconstructing the government,
ignnresljw called the "Agreement of the People."' The first
o/HiePeo™ article of this plan proposed the dissolution of the
^"^ existing parliament in the coming April; but the
Rump had its own program to carry out, and quietly ignoring
the demand of the officers for an early dissolution, on February
13, appointed a Council of State to exercise the executive func-
» Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 270-282.
708 PARLIAMENT A^JSTD THE ARMY [the Oommokwbalth
tions of government. On March 17 it proceeded to abolish the
office of king, and declared any one who attempted to assist the
heirs of Charles Stuart to regain the crown, to be traitors to the
state. On March 19 it also abolished the Hoi„3e o''' Lords, declaring
it to be "useless and dangerous," and on May li^, it declared "the
people of England and of all the dominons and territories there-
unto belonging ... to be a Commonwealth and Free State by the
supreme authority of this nation."^ If, however, the Rump had
apparently ignored the Agreement in refusing to abolish itself
also among the rest of the wreckage of Charles's reign, the
leaders had no wish to cut loose from the army. Not only were
Cromwell and Fairfax made members of the Council of State, but
in the ordinance of March 17, the Eump formally pledged "to
put a period to the sitting of this present parliament as soon as
may possibly stand with the safety of the people that hath
betrusted them," and of "the government now settled in the way
of a Commonwealth. ' '
This hesitation of the Rump to vote its own death warrant,
was not due altogether to an unworthy desire on the part of its
members to cling to power as long as possible. The
and the danger to the "betrusting" people was real, to say
nothing of the new Commonwealth. If they should
allow the people to elect a new parliament, in their present temper
there could be no question as to what kind of parliament would
be returned ; — a parliament which would at once undo all that had
been done, proclaim Charles II., reestablish Episcopacy, and begin
a long series of confiscations, executions, and a general persecution
of Independents. The men in the army, however, who had
secured the adoption of the Agreement by the council of officers,
were not satisfied. They represented the dangerous element known
as Levellers, who, under the guidance of men like "Free-born
John Lilburne," had been made to see the real drift of affairs, and
declared that the laws were overthrown and "the military power
thrust into the very office and seat of civil authority. ' ' This was
true enough, but, unfortunately for their influence, Lilburne and
his followers had begun the propaganda of an uncompromising
' For this series of documents, see Gardiner, pp. 294-297.
1649] THE LEVELLERS "■ 709
and impossible democracy, which was to be adopted, not only in
the state, but in the army, and which would certainly result in the
subversion of all order, social or military. That Cromwell, who
had heretofore been regarded as the mouthpiece of the army, was
made a member of the Council of State, did not increase the
popularity of the Kump with the Levellers, for Cromwell had
now become the special object of their scorn and suspicion. "You
will scarce sjoeak to Cromwell," declared the arch Leveller, Lil-
burne, "but he will lay his hand on his breast, elevate his eyes,
and call God to record. He will weep, howl, and repent, even
while he doth smite you under the fifth rib." The council, how-
ever, feared the Levellers more than they feared any possible
ambition of Cromwell, and turned to him as the one man who
was able to save the state and society from these seventeenth cen-
tury anarchists. "You must break these people in pieces," said
Cromwell, "if you do not, they will break you." Here is the
secret of Cromwell's later power. The air was quivering with
revolution yet to come; the wildest theories were abroad; theories
which threatened the very foundations of society. The state was
drifting without a helmsman ; a strong man was needed to save
the old social order from total wreck. In spite, therefore, of
the warning of the Levellers, who shrieked that Cromwell would
make himself king, all the conservative elements still in power
turned ' to him, the child of the revolution, and called upon him
to save them from the forces which they themselves had unchained.
The discontent was widespread; mutinous outbreaks
took place in London, Banbury, and Salisbury. But
Cromwell and Fairfax, under the commission of the council, crushed
them with an unsparing hand. Yet there were only three execu-
tions,— a cornet and two corporals. Lilburne already was in the
Tower and in October was tried on the charge of stirring up treason
in the army, but acquitted. The rest of the mutineers were received
again into the ranks. Cromwell, with his practical common sense,
his deep conservative instincts, saw that, with Ireland in uproar,
Scotland hostile, and the great mass of the English people disloyal
and ready to take advantage of the first sign of weakness on the
part of the government, it was no time to be discussing theories of
710 PARLIAMENT AND THE ARMY [the Comhonwealth
goverrment, or quarreling as to the ultimate forms by which the
state should be administered. The Enmp, therefore, was left to
continue its revolutionary powers for four years longer, while he
turned with the New Model to complete the work which it had
begun.
The Irish, it will be remembered, had begun a revolt in 1641
which had soon drifted into a war of Catholics against Protestants,
of the original Celtic inhabitants and the old Anglo-
intmecmi N"orman aristocracy against Anglicans and Puritans.
jwT' ^^^' ^^^ ^^^ outbreak of the Civil War in England had en-
tirely changed the earlier character of the struggle. In
1642 a "General Assembly of the Catholic Confederates" was held
at Kilkenny, — a sort of !N"ational Irish Parliament. It entrusted
the government to a "Supreme Council" and made Owen O'Neil
commander-in-chief. It was with this government that Charles
concluded the Cessation of 1643, that stirred up so much bitter-
ness at home. In 1645 Charles sent to Ireland, as his agent, the
earl of Glamorgan, to get the Catholic Confederates to send help
to him in England. In return, by the "Glamorgan Treaty," he
virtually consented to the reestablishment of the Catholic Church
in Ireland. During these years of trouble, the unenviable post of
king's deputy, or lieutenant, had been held by a high-minded Irish
noble, James Butler, who was first Earl, and then Marquis, and
finally Duke, of Ormond. He was able and popular, a' staunch
royalist, and kept up a brave fight against overwhelming odds. In
1647 Dublin was surrendered to the Puritans and Ormond retired
to England. Then, also, the Anglo-Norman Lords and the
native Irishry began to fall out over the question of the restoration
of the papal authority. The death of the king, however, had at
once healed all differences. Ormond had returned the year before
and, under pledge of removing the disabilities of the Irish Cath-
olics, had already rallied the Catholic Lords and the Protestant
royalists to his support. When news reached him of the end of
the fatal tragedy at Whitehall, he had proclaimed Charles II., and
even the Ulster Presbyterians had joined his standard. He was
further strengthened by the accession of royalist refugees from
England; the fleet, also, the greater part of which had gone over
during
CIVIL WARS
and
LATER STUART TERIOD
1649] CROMWELL IN IRELAND 711
to the king at the outbreak of the second Civil War, was brought
around to the coast by Prince Rupert and awaited to assure the
new King Charles a safe landing whenever he should appear.
The parliamentary general, George Monk, still held Dundalk, and
the gallant Colonel Michael Jones held Dublin; hut these two
posts were almost the only footholds which the Commonwealth
liad continued to retain, and even these were besieged by the Irish
in overwhelming numbers. If Ireland, therefore, were to be saved
to the Commonwealth, and the reaction in England prevented from
securing here an important base for the future, action must be
taken at once.
The government turned to Cromwell and found him and his
Ironsides just as ready to fight royalists in Ireland as in Eng-
land. When, however, Cromwell landed on the 15th
of August, the crisis was already passed. Dundalk had
Ireland, 1649. fallen, but Colonel Jones had made a sortie with
his little garrison of five thousand men and so com-
pletely shattered Ormond's force, that when Cromwell appeared,
the Irish, instead of meeting him in the open field, retired behind
the high walls of such fortresses as Drogheda and Wexford, in hope
of tiring him out by a series of vexatious sieges. But they hardly
kuew the man with whom they were now dealing. On the 3d of
September Cromwell appeared before Drogheda, and on the 10th
summoned its garrison of 2,800 men, the flower of Ormond's
English soldiery, to surrender. The garrison refused, and the
next day Cromwell took the place by assault. No quarter was
given; every man in arms was slaughtered outright, save a few
who were shipped off as slaves to the sugar plantations of the Bar-
badoes. The men of the cassock who were found in the city
suffered the fate of the soldiers. Cromwell's excuse for this mas-
sacre was that it would deter others from resistance and, by short-
ening the war, "tend to prevent the effusion of blood in the
future." The next month the garrison of Wexford suffered the
fate of the defenders of Drogheda. It was not necessary to repeat
the bloody lesson a third time. To most of the garrisons the sum-
mons to surrender was sufficient. While Cromwell was thus
vigorously putting down the royalists on the land, Blake was push-
'J'12 PARLIAMENT AND THE AKAiy [this Commonwealth
ing the royalist navy upon the Irish seas until Rupert was glad to
retire to Portugal. In March Cromwell returned home at the
urgent summons of parliament, and left the completion of his work
to Ireton. The English who remained suffered severely from
fever; some of their best men died ; among them Jones, and finally
Ireton himself. But the hope of the Stuarts of securing help in
Ireland had vanished ; and with the Stuart passed also the last
chance of a successful Irish revolt. The Catholic form of worship
was suppressed ; the lands of the Celtic proprietors were confiscated
and turned over to Puritan veterans or sold to speculators,
"Undertakers," who promised to find settlers. An iron rule was
introduced, rapine and murder punished, and peace once more
reigned over the desolate country.
Cromwell had been called home by the threat of a new war
with Scotland. After the overthrow of Hamilton at Preston,
Argyll, supported by the old Covenanters, who had here-
charies and tofore acted with the English parliament, once more
gamed control oi the government and renewed for the
moment the old understanding. The Scots, however, were not
pleased by the late drift of affairs in England and when they heard
of the execution of the king, as they were an independent people,
they at once invited the Prince of Wales to be their king, but stipu-
lated that he take the Covenant. Prince Charles was at this time
about twenty years old, with a well established reputation for
general frivolousness and insincerity. He was witty, keen, and
with many intellectual qualities of a high order, but utterly lack-
ing in the moral fiber necessary to success in a desperate under-
taking. Between him and the Scottish Covenanters there could
be little in common ; nor was he eager to seize a crown tagged
with their hated Covenant. He preferred, therefore, to make an
effort to secure the prize in such a way, that he should be bound
by no promise. Accordingly he secretly commissioned Monfrose
to try his fortunes again in the Highlands, and raise if possible
the old royalists whom he had so often led to victory in 1645.
The clans, however, showed little enthusiasm for the rising,
and the few men whom Montrose brought with him from
Holland and the Orkneys, were easily dispersed at Corbiesdale.
SCOTLAND
during
CIVIL WARS
and
LATEK STUAKT PEEIOD
3 MANZ'ChicaKO
1650] CEOMWELL IS SCOTLAND 71?.
Montrose was soon after betrayed by a Highland chieftain, brought
to Edinburgh, and there hanged at the Market Cross. Charles
CorUesdaie ^^^ mean enough to repudiate the high-souled warrior,
^prai7, ' who had so nobly laid down life in his service, and,
seeing that there was no chance of securing the
crown by means of a royalist rising, accepted the terms of the
Covenanters swallowing the National Covenant as well as the
Solemn League and Covenant. He gave his word, moreover,
to act always with the parliament and to establish Presbyterianism
both in England and in Ireland. He landed at Speymouth the
month after Montrose's death.
The Eump in the meanwhile had been following the drift of
events in Scotland with watchful heed ; they knew that Charles
would never be satisfied with Scotland alone, and
(^Fairfax, determined to strike at once and expel him before he
supreme had gathered the strength of his little kingdom. Fair-
fax, who up to this point had retained his commission
in the army, objected to violating the Solemn League and
Covenant upon the ground of mere "human probabilities," and
threw up his commission rather than lead in a war against his old
allies. Cromwell was at once advanced to the vacant post of Lord
General.
In July 1650 Cromwell crossed the border with an army of six-
teen thousand men supported by the fleet, which followed the
coast to furnish them with supplies on the march, for
s^"S"f™ ^^® Scots as usual had completely wasted the country.
He found the Scots under the command of David
Leslie, in a strong position near Leith, but, after manoeuvering for
a month without dislodging them, he was compelled to. retire to
Dunbar. Leslie followed him warily and seized the Hill of Doon
above Dunbar, at the same time sending a detachment to seize
Cockburnspath, a sort of Thermopylse, where the Lammermnir
range comes down to the sea, leaving scarcely room for a coach
to pass ; the way was so narrow that a handful of determined men
might hold it against an army. There were only two ways for
Cromwell to get out of the difficulty; he might storm the enemy's
position on Doon Hill, or he might embark his troops and steal
714
PARLIAMENT AND THE ARMY [the Commonwealth
away by sea. But fortunately for Cromwell, Leslie, who had
grown overconfident, possibly, and feared only the escape of the
English, on September 2, moved down into the low ground by
the sea in order to get within striking distance should the enemy
attempt to decamp^ Cromwell saw his advantage and under cover
of the night following, which was dark and stormy, brought his
army into position to attack Leslie's right wing on the flank. The
attack began at four in the morning ; the Scots were taken entirely
^ortji^
OON HILL
Iff /ff^
firg^i
by surprise; many of the officers had sought shelter from the
storm in neighboring farmhouses and were not with their regi-
ments. The right wing was doubled back upon the center and soon
the whole body was thrown into hopeless confusion. At daybreak
the entire Scottish army was scattered among the Lammermuir
hills, and Cromwell's road to Edinburgh lay open. It was one of
the most masterly actions of the war and displayed Cromwell's
military genius at its best. He had turned what, on the evening
1651] WORCESTER 715
of the 2d of September, promised to be a humiliating defeat into a
splendid victory.^ Edinburgh opened its gates and before the end
of the year all southern Scotland lay at the mercy of the English.
From Dunbar Leslie retired to Stirling where he again took up
a position too strong to be assailed in front and in close communi-
^^ , . cation with the northern districts which lav behind
Charles in- . ■'
vaa^ Eng- him. Oromwell m order to turn Leslie's position
lOinO,, 1651, _ -
crossed the Forth, and placed himself in his rear.
The movement, however, left the road into England open ; Leslie
thought he saw an opportunity, by making a rush for the border,
of getting into England before Cromwell and encouraging a gen-
eral rising in the name of Charles II. , who had been crowned King
of Scotland at Scone in January. In August, therefore, Leslie
suddenly broke camp, and began a series of forced marches for
the border. Cromwell, leaving Monk in Scotland, hurried after
Leslie with his main body, sending Lambert ahead to turn him
from London. Lambert easily outmarched the Scots and, passing
Leslie while he was still in Cheshire, seized all the roads to Lon-
don. Leslie w^s thus forced into the valley of the Severn. Here
in the past the Stuarts could always count upon a strong following,
but the English of the Severn had no liking for this king who
came upon them at the head of an army of Scotsmen. Fairfax
came from his retirement to put himself at the head of the
militia. Everywhere the country was rising, and on September
3d, just one year after Dunbar, Leslie found himself at Worcester,
confronted by Cromwell with thirty thousand men. His own
force did not exceed eleven thousand. The Scots faced these
tremendous odds and fought with the heroism of despair. Leslie,
Derby, and Lauderdale were taken. Only a remnant of the army
managed to get back to Scotland. Charles, assisted by English
royalists, who had refused to fight for him, escaped from the
field, and, after six weeks of wandering, through a series of
romantic adventures which have long since attracted the eye of
the novelist, at last reached Brighton and got away to France.
The submission of Scotland followed ; the Presbyterian Assemblies
' For a recent important contribution upon Dunbar, see Firth, The
Battle of Dunbar, in Transactions of Royal Historical Society, 1900.
7in PARLIAMENT AND THE ARMY [the Commonwealth
■were suppressed, and Argyll, after holding out a year in his castle
of Inverary, agreed that Scotland should be united with England
into a Commonwealth without king or lords. Cromwell, after "the
crowning mercy," as. he styled the victory of Worcester, returned
to London and quietly assumed his old duties in connection with
the several committees of the council.
While Cromwell had been establishing the authority of the
Commonwealth within the British Islands, Admiral Blake, hardly
less eminent in naval warfare, had been extending its-
The CoTn-
mmweaith prestige upon the seas. He had driven Rupert from tlie
Irish coast, followed him to the Tagus, and finally com-
pelled him to cross the Atlantic, where Eupert hoped to find shelter
among the English harbors in the West Indies. When, however,
Rupert appeared in the western seas at the end of May 1653, he
found that the last colony had submitted to the Commonwealth
and that the English ports in the new world also were closed to
him. Rupert had no recourse left save to throw himself upon the
hospitality of the French. He was received of course, for the
French have always loved Englishmen who fight against England.
As soon as his squadron was refitted, he again faced the open sea,
looking for English merchantmen ; a career of piracy was virtually
all that was left for the dashing cavalier. But the storms of the
tropics, however, were to prove more fatal than the guns of Blake,
and after losing the great part of his fleet in a hurricane off the
rocks of Anegadas, he returned to Europe early the next year, to
disband his crews and sell his few surviving ships to the French.
Wherever the English flag floated, on land or sea, the Common-
wealth was now recognized.
The Commonwealth had never been popular in the courts of
Europe. Yet Spain had no motive for interfering in the domestic
affairs of England and soon recognized the new govern-
mmwcaith meut. The young king of France, on the other hand,
mEwope. -^yas a cousin of the exiled Stuart, and the sympathies
of the court were easily enlisted in his favor. French and English
merchantmen, also, as usual in troubled times, had begun to prey
upon each other, and the English had licensed this piracy by issu-
ing regular letters of reprisal. The French government was
1650, 165l] ENGLAND AND THE DDTCH 717
grieved very naturally, and refused to recognize the Common-
wealth unless the letters of reprisal were withdrawn.
In the Hague it might be expected that England would find
friends. But a series of grievances, sprung of commercial rivalry
and dating back as far as the reign of James I., had
a"fla£/u6."'' ^^®^ nourished by both people, and had kept alive a
feeling of bitterness, which had more than once been
fanned into acts of open hostility. The Stadholder William II.,
moreover, was the son-in-law of Charles I., and had given asylum
to English royalists as freely as the French ; some of the hot-headed
followers of Montrose, who had fled hither after Philiphaugh and
had been roused by the execution of the king, in May 1649 had
murdered the envoy of the new-made republic, three days after
his arrival at the Hague. The Dutch government, instead of offer-
ing redress for this outrage, presented a formal remonstrance
against the execution of the king. In 1650 William II. died, and
although the Hollanders refused to continue the office of Stad-
holder, the change did not increase the influence of England, since
the supreme authority in the States-General of the Seven Prov-
inces, rested in the hands of a body of rich merchants, who par-
ticularly cherished all the old grudges and more than ever feared
the commercial activity of the English. In 1651 the Dutch saw
these fears fully Justified in the passage by the English parliament
of the famous act known afterward as the First N^avigation Act.
By this act foreign vessels were forbidden to bring into an English
port any goods other than those produced in their own countries.
The measure was not aimed particularly at the Dutch, but was
designed rather to favor the English carrying trade. But it
affected the Dutch most, for they had become the common car-
riers of Europe, and were vigorous competitors of the English in
their own ports. Henceforth no Dutch merchantmen could bring
into England, or take out to the English colonies, anything save
the products of the Low Countries. A far more serious cause of
quarrel lay in the claim of the English privateers of the right to
seize and bring into port for trial Dutch vessels suspected of carry-
ing French goods. English sailors, moreover, were not over nice
in handling Dutchmen, and it was no uncommon thing to put
718 PARLIAMENT AND THE AEMY [the Commonwealih
them to the torture to force a false acknowledgment of French
goods. In 1652 these seizures rapidly increased, and the Dutch
saw their carrying trade, which was the chief source of their
wealth, in danger of utter destruction. Another cause of irrita-
tion, also, was given by the English revival of the old Plantagenet
claim to sovereignty over the British seas. The Dutch were not
to fish in the seas withoiit paying a tribute for the privilege, and
flag and sail must be dipped whenever a Dutch vessel passed an
English flag within these waters. The most serious of these
grievances, however, was the claim of a right to seize Dutch ves-
sels in search for French goods. The English were undoubtedly
acting within the old law; for the principle, which is now com-
monly accepted, that the flag covers the goods except in case of
contraband of war had been only recently introduced by the Dutch
themselves in their treaty with Spain of 1648.
At the opening of 1652, therefore, the two countries were
rapidly drifting into war. The Dutch have always been a
proverbially patient people, but the English tyranny on
Mowm- *^^ ^®^^ ^^® ^^^^ passing beyond the limits even of a
Dutchman's patience. Yet the Dutch navy was but
poorly prepared for war and the government hesitated to instruct
its admiral, the famous van Tromp, to resist. However, when
questioned about his custom of .dipping the flag, his answer had
an ominous sound: "When the English are the stronger, then we
lower the flag, otherwise not." The government evidently was
satisfied and left the old sea dog to settle the matter in his own
way.
The English council had been by no means a unit in pressing
these obnoxious measures upon the Dutchmen. The army as
usual was jealous of the navy and had little interest in
cromwtuL a War which must be fought at sea. To Cromwell and
Dutch war. ^j^j^gj-g^ g, war with the Dutch seemed almost like a war
upon their own kindred; at one time a Utopian scheme. of uniting
the two republics into one great commonwealth, had found con-
siderable favor with the council, and envoys had been actually
sent to the Hague to broach the matter. Vane and others, how-
ever, who were deeply interested in building up English commerce
16o3] THE FIRST DUTCH WAK 719
and looked upon the war as the surest way of accomplishing this
end, carried their point, and the Dutch were left the alternative,
either to fight or submit.
In May hostilities were begun by Blake and Van Tromp off Folk-
stone. In July parliament declared war. Several minor engage-
ments occurred during the summer and early autumn
iMtSl^war without any particular advantage on either side, but on
ilS*"'*^"'' the 30th of November 1663 Van Tromp, after eight
hours of hard fighting off Dungeness, with ninety ships
defeated Blake with forty ships. The blow was so serious that the
English feared that a blockade of the Thames would follow. The
peace party, toward which Cromwell himself leaned, who depre-
cated a war with their fellow Protestant republic as the height of
folly for both countries, urged a speedy peace, but Vane and Mar-
tin were still all-powerful in the Eump and the council, and
instead of suing for peace, sent out a new fleet under Blake, Dean,
and Monk. On the 18th of February, ofE Portland Bill, the Eng-
lish fell in with Van Tromp in convoy of the Bordeaux fleet, and,
in a running fight of three days, completely discomfited him,
capturing eleven ships of war and thirty merchantmen.
The reversal of the fortunes of war, however, came too late to
save the Eump. It had never been popular; nor had it been able
to court popularity by diminishing taxation. It had
d^"^mfac- attempted to save those who were loyal to the Common-
tmnwiihthe wealth from some of the burdens of the war by despoil-
ing the "Malignants," as the royalists were called, either
confiscating their estates outright or imposing a ruinous compo-
sition. But the injustice of these acts had only reacted upon the
Rump, and charges of corruption and favoritism, too well founded
in many instances, were freely circulated and believed. Outside
of Westminster, moreover, certain wild plans of reform were daily
winning new adherents, particularly in the army. Conspicuous
among these reformers were the Fifth Monarchy Men, to whom
belonged some men of considerable influence, as Major General
Harrison. They believed that the second coming of Christ was at
hand, and that it was the duty of the godly to use force in ushering
in that event by establishing the rule of the saints on earth. The
720 PARLIAMENT AKD THE AEMY [the OoMMONWKiLiH
propagation of such views naturally increased the general dissatis-
faction with the Eump, whose rule had now come to be regarded
as responsible for the slow pace with which the hoped-for social and
religious reforms had appeared. The members cared little for the
dissatisfaction of the country, but they knew that they conld not
defy the sentiment which was growing in the army. Wlien, there-
fore, the battle of Worcester brought the army home again, and
the leaders once more began to take an active part in politics, the
Eump was forced to act, and in November 1651, it definitely fixed
upon November 3, 1654, as the day when it would formally retire.
The members then turned their attention to closing up their work
and preparing for their successors. In February 1652 they passed
an act of oblivion which was to cover all offenses of both parties
prior to the battle of Worcester. They made provision, also, for
the payment of all sums due the soldiers. They still feared a
free, popular election, however, such as the army demanded, and
in August Sir Henry Vane introduced a measure by which the
Ijrcsout members were to retain tbeir seats and new writs were
to be issued only for those election districts which had been deprived
of representation by Pride's Purge, or by death, or other cause;
the new members further were to be approved by the old Eump.
The "Perpetuation Bill," as it was called in derision by the
enemies of the Eump, which proposed not to elect a new parlia-
ment, but simply to recruit the old one, naturally did
IiveUod'" ^'^^ satisfy the army. The leaders protested, and in
iefl'^^"' hope of reaching a compromise, a series of informal
conferences were held in which the matter was dis-
cussed freely between Vane, Whitelock, and others of the Eump,
and Cromwell, Harrison, and other representatives of the army. On
the evening of April 19, 1053, a conference had been held at Crom-
well's lodgings and had broken up as usual without an agreement,
but with a tacit understanding that another conference should be
held before final measures were taken. When, therefore, the next
morning, word was brought to Cromwell that parliament was
about to pass the bill after all, he summoned a company of the
men who had long learned to obey him without a question, and
went with them to the parliament house. Leaving his men in the
1653] THE RUMP EXPELLED 721
lobby he entered the House. As he belonged there and was
dressed in citizen's clothes, his entry probably attracted little
notice. For a while he listened to the debate and waited ; but
when the motion was made for the third reading, he arose and
began to speak. At first his manner was quiet and under full
control. But as he continued to speak of the injustice, the self-
seeking, and abuse of high power, of the men who sat before him,
he warmed to his work and with soldier like bluntness singled out
Vane, Martin, and others as the objects of direct attack. The first
surprise of the members passed off, and Sir Peter Wentworth
arose to call the daring debater to order, but Cromwell turned
upon him and shouted, "Come, come, sir! we have had enough of
this ! I will put an end to your prating !" Then facing the door, he
bade Harrison call the soldiers. The doors flew open; arms
gleamed in the old hall, and the Rump was ignominiously turned
out into the world. Neither the Eump nor the Long Parlia-
ment, however, was yet to pass into history. Under the law of
its own making none but the Long Parliament could dissolve the
Long Parliament,
CHAPTER V
CEOMWELL AND THE PKOTECTOEATB
OLIVER CROMWELL, 1653-1658
RICHARD CROMWELL, 1658-1659
Cromwell's position was now a difficult one. All the old recog-
nized agents of goyernment had been swept away ; King, Lords,
and finally Commons, each in succession had been
cramweif swept into the pit of its own digging. Cromwell was
the general of the army ; but when had a general gov-
erned England by right of his military commission? Even the
Eump had been sanctioned in the minds of thousands of English-
men by some last clinging shreds of legality, associated with the
sacred name of parliament which it still bore and with the legis-
lative functions which it had continued to exercise; — name and
functions which doubtless had obscured in the minds of many the
real fact that since the death of the king the actual governor of
England had not bee)i parliament at all, but the army. But now
the bald truth could no longer be disguised ; the revolution had
degenerated into a successful military mutiny; the army had
turned upon its legal superiors, driven them from power, and
assumed direct control of all the resources of the state. In the
nature of things, however, this new order could not be permanent;
mere physical force alone, without legal authority, could not long
command the obedience of Englishmen. But what should take
its place? Could a form of government be devised, which would
satisfy the popular respect for law, save Cromwell from the oppro-
brium of instituting military rule, and thus, by anticipating the
inevitable reaction, save the Commonwealth?
This was the problem which confronted Cromwell when, on that
memorable April morning of 1653, he returned to his lodgings
with the key to the Parliament Hall in his pocket. Some hoped,
and perhaps expected, that Cromwell would make himself king.
723
1653] THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL t23
They saw no hope for the country, no protection for business or
trade, unless a strong hand should seize and direct the state ; and
„ . who could do this better than Cromwell? It was due
Var'unis
views of the no doubt to this very natural enthusiasm for the sue-
S'htudiT'ift'y}
cessful general that Cromwell's portrait, adorned with
three crowns, mysteriously appeared in the London Stock Ex-
change, with these significant lines written underneath :
"Ascend three thrones, great Captain and Divine:
By the wiU of God, Oh Lion, for th'are thine." '
Bat such a consummation of the revolution could only be sup-
ported and maintained by the army, and Cromwell was too shrewd
to adopt a course which would commit him altogether to the
army as the sole support of his authority. The army was as full
of visionaries and "cranks" as an Independent "prophesying"
meeting; the great mass of the soldiers, moreover, had no wish to
see the Eump replaced by a one-man power. Some of the gen-
erals, as Ludlow in Ireland, much as they disliked the Eump, had
openly expressed the strongest disapproval of the act of the 23d ;
and others who acquiesced, were known to disapprove, while states-
men like Vane, Martin, and Bradshaw, who had been turned out
with the Eump, were deeply offended and might be expected to
make trouble sooner or later. Some hoped that Cromwell would
restore the old order by bringing back the Stuarts ; others, that he
would call a free parliament ; but whatever view men took of the
future, all saw that for the moment Cromwell was master of the
situation and it was for him to say what should replace the Eump.
Fortunately for the peace of England, Cromwell had no
theories to exploit, but, with the same practical sagacity with
which he had won his battles, addressed the new
sifmai cmm- task which Confronted him. On April 39 he called
about him a provisional Council of State, consisting of
seven men from the army and three civilians. The "Decem-
virate," as the royalists called the new council, was apparently as
representative a body as Cromwell, under the circumstances, was
1 There were ten lines in all. For full stanza see Gardiner, Common-
wealth and Protectorate, II, p. 338.
'J'24 THE PROTBCTOKATE [outer Ceomweli
able to bring together. He offered a seat to Fairfax, and would
have invited Vane also, if the ofi&cers had permitted it. As
constituted, the council was sharply divided into two parties : the
friends of Cromwell, who wished at once to make him protector if
not king ; and the men who suspected Cromwell, of whom the leader
was Harrison who was irrevocably opposed to a one-man govern-
fiaent and wished to put the administration in the hands of "the
saints." But the man who held the balance of power, was "Bot-
tomless" Lambert; — an epithet which Cromwell had fixed on him
because of his sphinx like reticence in expressing his real views.
He had great influence among the common soldiers, and even
among the royalists, who conceived the idea that he was secretly
in favor of bringing back the Stuarts.
Much as Cromwell disliked Harrison's plan of turning the
government over to a Sanhedrim of pious fanatics, the uncertainty
which attended Lambert, the desirability of securing
caiunga the support of Harrison and his followers, induced him
at last to consent to giving the "saints" a trial. The
Independent ministers in each county of England were invited in
the name of the General and the Council of the Army, to consult
with their congregations and submit the names of such persons as
they considered fit to sit in parliament; the nominees must be
faithful, fear God, and hate "covetousness," — the Puritan's name
for political corruption. On the 28th of May the replies were all
in, and the council proceeded to select 129 representatives for Eng-
land. To them were added five for Ireland and six for Scotland.
"For the first time in history a body was to meet in the name of
the three peoples."
The Council of State, now increased to thirteen members,
busied itself in the meantime with the ordinary routine of govern-
ment. There was much to be done in the way, of
mefoumSf. reform, but Cromwell and the other members evidently
had fully accepted the merely provisional nature of
their powers, and refrained from prejudicing or anticipating any
of the measures of the nominees to whom they intended to commit
the real work of government. One departure from this policy is
worthy of notice. Bear-baiting and bull-baiting had long since
1653] THE SrOMINATED PARLIAMENT 735
aroused the disapproval of the Puritan conscience, not because the
custom gave "pleasure to the spectators," but because it fostered
immorality. The provisional council, therefore, -while
mppre^^d!" "Waiting for the assembling of the new parliament,
thought the matter urgent enough to act at once, and
accordingly ordered the obnoxious custom to be suppressed, and
appointed a committee, of which Colonel Pride was a member, to
carry the order into efEect.
The body of nominated commissioners, for parliament it can
hardly be called, at last assembled on July 4. One of the mem-
The "Nomi- ^^^^ from London was a Baptist preacher, leather mer-
"i^Be ^ chant, and politician, who was apparently well known
Pairiiammt." jj^ i\q (Aty, and whose unfortunate name, Praise-God
Barbone, doubtless had already been the subject of many a merry
jest. At all events the name was now too much for the wags, who
straightway christened the assembly "Barebone's Parliament."
As might be expected from the method of selection, the great body
of the nominees were men of the very highest integrity. Some
possessed real ability; but the most were lacking in practical wis-
dom. In his address at the opening session, Cromwell told them
that they had been invited to rule England because they were
godly. It was soon to be proved, however, that godliness, at least
of their kind, was not the fittest qualification for the office of
legislator in such troubled times.
On July 5 the nominees took up their quarters in the old
House of Commons and proceeded to organize. Francis Rous, the
T, ., ^ author of the metrical version of the Psalms so long
Failure cf °
tfteJVomi- nsedin the Puritan churches, was elected Speaker: and
mmt. Cromwell, Lambert, Harrison, and Desborongh were
invited to take seats as members. On the 6th the commission
voted to call itself a parliament, and later continued the authority
of the existing Council of State to November 3d, at the same
time increasing the number of councillors to thirty-one. Crom-
well, being a member both of the parliament and the council, as
well as General of the army, retained his position of central influ-
ence. Harrison, however, was the natural leader of the enthusiasts
in the House, and it was not long before he had gathered about
736 THE PKOTECTORATE [(
Olivkb Ckomwbll
him a considerable_party, not a majority, bu earnest, aggressiye,
and strong enough to have their way in most ordinary sessions,
when the full membership was not present.^ After the routine of
organizing the government was completed, the members addressed
themselves to the serious reforms which demanded their attention.
Very soon, however, it became evident to the outsiders, if not to
themselves, that they were peculiarly unfitted for the work to
which they had been appointed. In all their number was not to
be found a single practicing lawyer; lawyers apparently were
scarce among "the godly kind." Nevertheless, Barebone's
Parliament went at its work with sublime self-confidence. Most
of the proposed reforms, however, it must be admitted, although
all more or less radical, were certainly sound, and have since been
adopted by succeeding parliaments even to the abolition of the
Court of Chancery. Thus they proposed to establish county
courts for the recovery of small debts ; they abolished imprison-
ment for debt ; they declared in favor of paying salaries to judges,
instead of supporting them by fees ; they compelled the registra-
tion of marriages, births, and deaths; made marriage a civil rite;
attempted to simplify land tenures, and desired to establish an
improved system of poor houses. They proposed, also, to do away
with the appointment to church livings by private persons, as well
as the whole system of tithes. Such reforms, sensible as they seem
to-day, were too vigorous for the seventeenth century. The law-
yers, the clergy, the country gentry, Lambert, even Cromwell him-
self at last, looked on in consternation. Yet Cromwell, the only
man who had the power to interfere, hesitated. It would not do
to invade the Parliament House with soldiers a second time. Some
of his friends, however, including Lambert, who had now thrown all
his support on the side of Cromwell, decided to relieve the General
of his embarrassment, and on the 13th of December by preconcerted
arrangement came together at an unusually early hour and, vot-
ing to give back their authority to Cromwell, declared the assembly
at an end. When the other members arrived, they found that they
had been dissolved by their own act and nothing was left for them
' A list published in Gardiner, II, , 359 makes the number of the
"moderates" 84; of the "advanced party" 60.
1653] THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVEEKMENT 727
but to acquiesce and go home. The whole nation gave a sigh of
relief ; the lawyers of the Inns of Court celebrated the event with
boisterous rejoicings.
It is too much to believe that Cromwell, shrewd as he undoubt-
edly was, had foreseen how the experiment of Harrison and the
„ , saints would turn out ; but had he foreseen it, he could
Thelnstru- n , i , . ,
ment of not have adopted a course which would have contributed
Government.
more to his own strength, or more certainly driven the
men of property to him for protection against the possibilities of
further revolution, which lurked in the vagaries of radicals like
Harrison. Even Lambert saw that the only hope of saving the
state lay in Cromwell. "When, therefore, on December 16, Lam-
bert came forward with a scheme which placed monarchical power
in the hands of Cromwell, all except the extreme sectaries and
those who had opposed the dissolution of the Long Parliament,
were ready to accept it as the wisest possible solution of the pres-
ent difficulty. This plan, embodied in "The Instrument of Gov-
ernment,"^ is particularly interesting to an American, because it
based political authority, not upon the law of custom, but upon a
written constitution as in the United States, and, if not the first,"
is certainly the second of its kind of modern times. It provided for
the three kingdoms a common government to consist of a chief
executive to be styled the Lord Protector ; a Council of State of
not more than twenty-one members, nor less than thirteen ; and a
parliament of one House, consisting of 460 members, thirty of
whom were assigned to Ireland and thirty to Scotland. Oliver
Cromwell was named in the document as the first Lord Protector,
and was further declared to hold the office for life. The office,
however, was not to be hereditary, and upon his death, the coun-
cil were to appoint a successor. The members of the Council of
State, also, were named in the document to the number of fifteen.
In case of death or removal of a member for any cause, the parlia-
ment was to submit to the council six names, from which they in
turn were to select two ; from these the protector should appoint
iSee Gardiner, Const. Docs., pp. 314-335.
" American writers are accustomed to claim this honor for the Funda-
mental Orders of Connecticut of 1638-89.
728 THE PEOTECTOEATB [oliteb Cbomwell
one to fill the vacancy. In case of corruption or malfeasance, a
joint committee of parliament and council were to investigate and
pronounce punishment, "which punishment might not be pardoned
or remitted by the Lord Protector." The parliament was to be
elected by a new apportionment based upon population, in which
the "small boroughs" were to be no longer allowed a representa-
tion. Those who possessed a property of the value of £300 were
to be electors in the shires, provided they were not Catholics, or
had not fought against parliament. The Lord Protector, assisted
by the Council of State, was to exercise full executive power,
including the command of the army and navy. Before the meeting
of the first parliament the council might also issue ordinances
which should have the force of law until parliament could take
action upon the same. In general, parliament was to be the sole
law-making body, having full legislative power, save as limited by
the terms of the Instrument. Bills were to be presented to the
protector for his consent. If he saw fit to object, the parliament
was bound to consider his opinion, but he had no right of absolute
veto. His consent, moreover, must be given within twenty days,
or "satisfaction to the Parliament within the time limited," other-
wise such acts became law without the consent of the protector.
A new parliament must be elected every three years, and in case
the proper officers failed to issue the writs within the prescribed
time, then the sherifE and local officers were to proceed without
writs and hold elections as though writs had been issued. The
power of dissolution rested with the protector, but no parliament
could be dissolved until it had been in session for at least five
months. All who professed "faith iji G-od by Jesus Christ" were
to be protected in the exercise of their religion as long as they did
not interfere with others or disturb the public peace, "provided
this liberty be not extended to Popery or Prelacy." So far there
is nothing in this constitution which Washington, in all his unself-
ish integrity and magnanimous confidence in the judgment of the
people, might not have given under similar circumstances. But
the meat of the nut, of which all the other forty-one articles are
after all only the husk, lies in the XXVII Article, which reveals
the same old military boot still planted upon the neck of the
1653] THE PEOTECTOEATE ESTABLISHED 739
prostrate nation, which no amount of polishing or furbishing can
disguise or make more attractive. By this article it was prescribed
that a standing army of 30,000 men was to be regularly sup-
ported by parliament, likewise "a convenient number of ships for
guarding of the seas;" £200,000 per annum were to be raised
to meet the ordinary expenses of government, not to be "taken
away or diminished, nor the way agreed upon for raising the same
altered, but by the consent of the Lord Protector and the
parliament." Ostensibly the Instrument of Government was
designed "to set up a sort of strictly limited monarchy and a
strictly limited parliament, mutually dependent on each other, so
as to prevent the danger of either party becoming supreme." In
reality it did nothing of the sort, but put almost unlimited power
into the hands of Cromwell. When parliament was in session, a
check, apparently, was placed at his side, but the fact that parlia-
ment was forbidden, without his consent to reduce the standing
army, enormous for these times, and that the army was placed by
formal law entirely under his control, completely nullified the
independent authority of parliament, and, in reality, reduced any
opposition which it might offer, to the nature of advice or at
best a protest. The council, however, adopted the Instrument,
and, on the 16th of December 1653, Cromwell was solemnly inau-
gurated in Westminster Hall.
There were not lacking those who saw through the tissue of the
new constitution which the friends of Cromwell had given the
Commonwealth. Some of them were the politicians
theinstru- who had opposed the dissolution of the Long Parlia-
ment, but they were without influence and the new pro-
tector could afford to ignore them. But when Harrison and the
officers of his way of thinking declared that they had been deceived
and cheated, the case was more serious, and the protector at once
clapped Harrison and his friends into prison and deprived them of
their commissions. Whatever others might think, Cromwell evi-
dently had taken the Instrument of Government seriously, and
henceforth there was to be no trifling with his dignity or question-
ing of his motives. In general, the nation apparently was satis-
fied ; if the Stuarts could not be brought back, the mad career of
730 THE PEOTECTOEATE ['
Olivee Cbokwell
revolution at least was stayed and a strong hand grasped the
reins.
The Instrument of Government provided that the first par-
liament should meet in the following September. During the
intervening months Cromwell turned to the task of jus-
tration of tifving the new arrangement in the minds of the public
the Protector j o o
by the efficiency and moderation of the measures which
he adopted for the peace and relief of the country. The Dutch
War naturally demanded his first attention. The war had never
been popular ; its advocates had advanced the plea that it was to
favor British commerce, but its effect had been to destroy
Mch^ar British commerce almost entirely. Moreover, Crom-
well himself had never favored the war, so that when
the victory of February 1653 had been followed by a second vic-
tory in June, and a third in July, in which Van Tromp was killed,
the way was open for closing the war upon terms most favorable
to England. Unfortunately, however, during the days of the
Nominated Parliament, the proposal of terms on the English
side lay with the Council of State where Cromwell had by no
means held a free hand, although his influence was always great,
and the council would be satisfied with nothing but a complete
submission and amalgamation of the Netherlands with Eng-
land. This was later changed to a proposal of alliance against all
states which sustained the Inquisition, in which the two great
Protestant naval states were to indemnify themselves by formally
partitioning the colonial fields of Asia and America; England was
to surrender her East India Company's possessions to the Dutch,
and they in turn were to assist England in driving the Spaniards out
of the Western Hemisphere. Finally, however, even these demands
were pared down to a simple defensive alliance, a recognition of
England's supremacy in the British seas, and a secret clause by
which the Estates of Holland were to exclude the House of
Orange permanently from the stadholderate. Claims for dam-
ages which had been incurred by both sides, not only during the
war, but during the long period of trade rivalry preceding, were,
for the most part, to be adjusted by commissioners. On April 19,
1654 the treaty was ratified by the protector.
1654] BEFORIIS OF CROMWELL 731
The Dutch War and the negotiations which followed, reveal the
approach of an era in which the advantages of trade and commerce,
rather than religious enmities, push to the front as the
athana"' gi'^at cause of international struggle. The old objects
of warfare have not yet been altogether pnt aside, but
they no longer dominate. The light of the morning is in the
words in which Cromwell outlined to the Dutch commissioners the
advantages of a policy of alliance for both people : The interests of
both nations consisted in the welfare of commerce and navigation;
the industry of the Dutch ought not to be prevented, but the
English could not be deprived of the advantages which nature had
given them in the way of good harbors and geographical situation ;
the world was wide enough for both peoples; if they could only
"thoroughly well understand each other," their countries would
become the markets of the world and dictate their will to Europe.
"With the same clear-sighted energy the protector turned to
domestic affairs. The church naturally first attracted his atten-
tion. Here anarchy had reigned for years. Each con-
ama me gregation followed the form or service which it chose,
and livings were held by all sorts of clergymen, from
the followers of the old Anglican form to the radical Independents.
Parliament had practically replaced the Covenant by the "Engage-
ment," by which a clergyman simply bound himself to he faithful
to the Commonwealth. Many abuses had crept in, however, and
many unworthy men had taken advantage of the absence of super-
vision to secure livings. But this was no part of Cromwell's
idea of toleration, and in March 1654, he created by ordinance
a commission of thirty-five members, called "Triers," to pass upon
the personal character and sufficiency of all nominees for livings. A
second ordinance, issued in August, appointed commissioners in each
county to eject men of scandalous lives who already held livings.
The protector also turned his attention to the courts and
appointed a mixed commission of lawyers and laymen to consider
the present abuses and difficulties, and reduce the over-
Legai erown bulk of the Common Law to some practical
form. To relieve the Court of Chancery, which had
escaped the "Root and Branch" work of the ISTominated Parlia^
733 THE PEOTEGTOEATB ['
Oliveb Cbomwell
ment, he empowered other courts to try equity cases until the
docket had been cleared.
In Ireland Cromwell steadily pursued the later English policy
which had been inaugurated by Chichester and Falkland. His
lieutenant, Fleetwood, and after him Cromwell's son
adnSstro- Henry, ruled with an iron hand. The men who were
freiand implicated in the earlier massacres were hanged or
banished and their estates confiscated. The confisca-
tions at the expense of Catholics continued steadily to the
advantage of the English soldiery and the Adventurers. Crom-
well would "meddle with no man's conscience," as he wrote
to the governor of New Eoss in 1649, yet apparently in his
scheme of toleration he had no place for the Mass. The
Catholic religion was virtually proscribed and the persecu-
tions of the priests continued. The Irish parliament, also, was
abolished.
The same vigor was shown by the protector in the administra-
tion of Scottish affairs. Here the Eump had placed an able lieu-
tenant in George Monk, who after the disaster off
and Scot- Dungeness had been transferred to the navy where he
served during the rest of the war as "General at Sea,"
and proved himself as able as upon land. After the close of
the war Cromwell sent him back to his old command in Scotland,
where much rough work still remained to be done in the reduction
of the Highland clansmen who had rallied about General Middle-
ton and were making a forlorn stand for Charles II. Monk proved
himself an adept at mountain warfare and it was not long before
he compelled the last clansman to lay by his claymore and wait for
better times for his beloved "Charlie." Presbyterianism was
dethroned and all Protestant faiths were placed upon an equal
footing before the laws. By the bigoted Scots, however, toleration
was regarded with little favor ; nor could the benefit which Scot-
land received from the Navigation Act, or the right of free trading
with the English colonies, the substantial results of which were
manifested by an unexampled era of peace and prosperity, make
the Scotsman see in the Oromwellian rule anything more than "a
wicked paltering with error and sin."
1654] Cromwell's must parliament 733
For nine months, now, the affairs of the new government had
been progressing most successfully. An unpopular war had been
ended ; abroad the English flag was respected as it had
Crmmei's ^°* ^^^^ ^^^'^^ *^® "^^J^ °^ Elizabeth ; at home peace and
tfc"'"*^*™" quiet reigned; the laws were honored, and trade and
commerce were rapidly recovering from the paralysis
which had attended the Civil War. The supreme test of the new
constitution, however, was yet to come.
The first Protectorate parliament met on September 3, 1654.
The protector had carried out his agreement in good faith, and
the new parliament represented fairly the several
Crmnwell's » . ,• ■, t-. i
firstpariia- Protestant factions of the state : Presbyterians, Eoval-
meni.
ists. Republicans, and Oromwellians. Bradshaw and
Haselrig were there, and Vane was denied a seat only by his own
reluctance to submit to the Protectorate. As soon as the mem-
bers were assembled, the Presbyterians and Republicans joined
forces to strike at the root of Cromwell's authority, claiming the
right to revise the Instrument of Government, and denying to the
protector the coordinate authority sanctioned by the existing
settlement. Cromwell reminded the members of the conditions
upon which they had accepted office, and insisted that each mem-
ber should pledge himself not to attempt to alter the form of gov-
ernment. About two hundred and thirty members signed the
agreement; the rest were excluded from the House. The most
of those who refused to pledge themselves were Independents.
The Presbyterians were thus left in control, and, while not nomi-
nally attacking the Instrument, yet continued to discuss its terms,
specially limiting the provisions for securing religious toleration,
and going out of their way to take up the case of a demented
Quaker, named Biddle, who had managed to give special offense by
the way in which he aired his views. Five lunar months had now
passed and nothing had been done. Even the voting of much-
needed supplies for the army and navy had been neglected, and
Cromwell in despair determined to take advantage of the right
conferred upon him by the Instrument,' and on January 23,
1655, dissolved his first parliament.
1 Cromwell has been accused of violating the Instrument here; but
734 THE PROTECtOKATE ['
OLITER CROMWELt
Cromwell had acted technically within the powers conferred
upon him by the new constitution. Yet he lost many friends.
The unlovely jangle of the military spur had been heard
absSeniie ^g^i^j ^^^ however small the sympathy which men
might have with the conduct of the parliament, it was
apparent to all that any parliament could be but a paper parlia-
ment so long as a word from the protector was sufficient to send
the members packing again. Plots broke out among the Levellers
in the army. The royalists were greatly encouraged; in March
it was necessary to use the military to put down an insurrec-
tion at Salisbury. The leaders were executed. Merchants, also,
refused to pay the imposts, on the plea that the government had
no right to levy taxes without an act of parliament, and appealed
to the courts. But Cromwell promptly dismissed the Judges
whose loyalty he had reason to doubt, exactly as Charles I. had
done in the days of Hampden and ship money. He went a
step beyond Charles or even Wentworth, and virtually placed all
England under martial law ; dividing the country into eleven dis-
tricts and placing over each a major general, responsible only to
the protector and the council. A tax of ten per cent was levied
upon the royalists to defray the expenses of the new military gov-
ernors and their assistants. Cromwell, further, turned upon the
Episcopalian clergy, whom he, with jiistice perhaps, suspected of
sympathizing with the recent revolts, and forbade them to teach in
a public or private school, or to preach or to administer the sacra-
ment, or to use the Prayer Book. The major generals also carried
things with a high hand, organizing the militia, collecting taxes,
and imprisoning the enemies of the government without resort to
civil forms, and in a short time peace and order were restored.
Englishmen had refused to accept the compromise which the
army had ofEered, which, as Cromwell doubtless wished, in time
might possibly have established a constitutional government in
fact as well as in theory ; they were now compelled to obey Crom-
well as a military despot.
Blaokstone, and after him Hallam, long ago pointed out that by English
law a "month" was always to be taken as a lunar month unless other-
wise specified.
1654-1656] THE SPAKISH WAfe '^35
In the autumn of 1654 war had virtually begun between the
Commonwealth and Spain. The causes of the war are not easily
understood. The weakness of Spain was well known to
TheSpamish European statesmen; Spain, moreover, was a Catholic
country, and Cromwell's Puritan conscience would feel
none of those qualms which disturbed him when news was brought
of the victories of Blake and Monk over the Protestant Dutch-
men. But there were other reasons for war which any modern
statesmen would wholly approve, such as the stubborn refusal of
Spain to recognize the right of England to trade in the West Indies
even with her own colonies, or the refusal to exempt Englishmen
from the laws of the Inquisition. The latter fact alone, perhaps, is
sufiBcient explanation. For whatever vacillation Cromwell may
have shown in supporting other principles which are supposed to
be characteristic of his foreign policy, upon this point he was
always definite: Protestant Englishmen abroad were not to be
interfered with on account of their religion. The fact, further-
more, that France agreed to grant toleration to Englishmen, is
sufiBcient to explain the French alliance of 1657 which gave England
Dunkirk, and brought a division of the New Model to the conti-
nent to show Frenchmen and Spaniards what war was like.
The chief incidents of the Spanish War are soon told. In
1655 Penn and Venables took Jamaica and added it permanently
to the list of English possessions in the New World.
inddentsof In February 1656, Spain formally declared war, and in
wm-. April 1657 Blake performed his famous feat at Santa
Cruz which rivaled Drake's exploit of 1587. Pass-
ing the batteries which guarded the entrance he sailed into the
harbor, and, after a stubborn fight, burned and sank a fleet of
sixteen Spanish galleons, and then retired without the loss of
a ship.
In the meanwhile Cromwell had been compelled by the needs
of his foreign war to summon another parliament. It met in
September 1656 and may be fairly taken as represent-
The second ^ ^j ^
■parliament ing the height of Cromwellian influence. The vigorous
foreign policy of Cromwell, the declaration of war by
the Spanish king, the exploits of Blake, a procession of twenty-
736 THE PROTECTORATE [
Oliver Ceomwbll
eight cart loads of bullion, the plunder of the Spanish treasure
fleet, grinding and creaking through the streets of London on
their way to the Tower, had revived again traditions which had
come down from the days of Elizabeth, and appealed powerfully
to the patriotic sentiment of all classes; at the same time sub-
stantial peace and prosperity at home had gone far to reconcile
many of the malcontents to the new order. Nevertheless the
council found it necessary to deny seats to about one hundred of
the returned members whose anti-Cromwellian sentiments were
regarded as a menace to good order, leaving the new parliament
so thoroughly Cromwellian that for several months nothing hap-
pened to disturb the placid current of routine. The members
showed their sympathy with the protector by voting large supplies
and declaring plots against his life to be treason. Cromwell on
his part was not behind them in giving evidence of his good faith
and confidence. When they refused to approve the act of the
council which had created the "government by major generals,"
he promptly recognized the right of interference as prescribed in
the Instrument and withdrew the major generals.
In March 1657, however, all earlier efEusions of confidence were
outdone. The parliament, as a part of a general plan known as
the Petition and Advice, by which it was proposed to
andAdv^e^ reorganize the government somewhat more in accord-
ance with ancient English traditions, formally agreed
by a vote of 123 to 63, to confer upon the protector the title of
king. Cromwell was not only to assume the title of king with
power to nominate his successor, but parliament was henceforth to
consist of two houses,- — an elected "House of Commons," and a
second, styled the ' ' Other House, ' ' the members of which were to
be appointed by the king for life. Additions to the Council of
State were to be made by the king with the consent of the council
and parliament. It was also proposed to give to the government
a yearly income of £1,300,000 to be continued during the life of
the king. Toleration was to be assured to all except Papists,
Prelatists, and blasphemers.
Out of respect for his old comrades in arms, who had no wish
to serve a "King Oliver" any more than they had to serve a King
1657] THE PETITIOK AND ADVICE 'H^'t'
Charles, Cromwell refused to accept the royal title, and his par-
liament dropped the offensive word from the new constitution.
In this form Cromwell accepted the Petition, and
mmtT^™" °^ J^'^® ^6' 1657, was solemnly installed for the
Ihs^iSm' second time as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
Cromwell was now king in everything except in name ;
the title, the very crown, had been offered to him and it had
been his to decline it. Strange to say, moreover, Presbyterians,
Eoyalists, and some of the nobles, honestly desired to see
the Petir the change wrought. A king, it was said, was neces-
sary in order to govern England ; all the laws and insti-
tutions presupposed a king, depended on a king, and could not he
fitly administered without a king. But the army said, No ; and
even Cromwell must bow to the army. So he pushed the tempting
bauble from him, for he dared not step out from the strong plank
upon which he had stood so securely these many years, and trust
himself to a party composed of men who had been for the most
part his enemies. But even as it was, he soon found he had taken
a step which he could not retrace. Lambert, the author of the
original Instrument, claimed that he had been deceived and
refused to take the oath of allegiance. But more serious trouble
followed when the parliament reassembled for its sec-
DissoiuUm ond session in January 1658. The members who had
parliament, been excluded from the first session had been allowed
to return. A number of Cromwell's friends, also, had
been transferred to the new House of Lords. Thus an assembly
which six months before had offered a crown to Cromwell, was
transformed into a body pugnaciously hostile to kings and lords on
principle. Haselrig opened an attack upon the new House of
Lords; the Commons sustained him, refusing to recognize "the
Other House" or transact any business with them. The govern-
ment was at once thrown into confusion ; everything came to a
standstill ; and on February 4 Cromwell in great disgust dis-
solved his second parliament. He warned the members that they
were only playing into the hands of the king of Scots ; as for him-
self he was sick of the whole business, and declared with a pathos
which has the ring of sincerity: "I would have been glad to have
738 THE PROTECTORATE [olivee Ckohweli,
lived under my woodside, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather
than undertake such a government."
The strong man, in short, was breaking under the load which
he had assumed. Ills which he had contracted among the north-
ern lowlands in the campaign of Dunbar had ever since
Cromwell, been hard upon his track. On August 6 his favorite
daughter Elizabeth Claypole died. The unremitting care
which he had given her in her last illness, and the new burden of
grief which entirely overwhelmed him, were too much for his
failing strength; he followed her by just four weeks, dying on his
lucky day, the double anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester.
Thus passed the man whom the world is just beginning to
understand. He was a practical, hard-fisted, iron man, yet
capable of tenderness almost feminine. In will, he
CronSSeii"^ was gigantic, inflexible; in intellect, slow, unimagi-
native, but profound ; in thought, conservative, yet
progressive; in purpose, sincere and upright; yet, in spite of all,
he was doomed at last to stand alone, because in an age of fanati-
cism he was the only fanatic who remained sane. In his idea of
religious toleration he was a man of the nineteenth century. He
succored the Quakers. He tried to save the poor madman
James Naylor, who imagined himself the Messiah. He tried to
protect the Unitarians, from whom the ordinary Puritan drew
back in horror as blasphemers ; he allowed Episcopalians to live in
peace ; he permitted the Jews to return to England, for the first
time since their expulsion in the reign of Edward I. He promised
Mazarin that, as soon as possible, he would secure toleration for
Catholics also. As Cromwell belongs to the nineteenth century
in his ideas of religious toleration, in his political toleration he
belongs to the twentieth century. "He was a republican who had
no hatred for monarchy as an institution ; he was a monarchist
who helped to establish a republic as the only refuge from the
tyranny of a bad king. He was a radical who hated radicalism, a
Leveller who hoped to bring back a House of Lords. " At a time
when the revolution was forcing all sorts of political theories into
luxuriant growth, he remained without theories himself, and
sought to select from the wreckage of the older system, only
PERSOITAL TEAITS OP CROMWELL 739
what "was durable, and what promised best to restore order and
peace and liberty to the England which he loved. It is no marvel
that men who thought that they held a monopoly of truth,
regarded him sometimes as wicked and self-seeking, sometimes as
a time-serving hypocrite, but always as lukewarm.
He is described as of "great and majestic deportment and
courtly presence." He loved the manly sports of hunting and
horsemanship. He loved music, delighted in art, and
tmttT''^^ was fond of surrounding himself with learned men.
On public occasions none could be more dignified; yet
he knew also how to unbend when within the inner circle of
frieadship; he could make doggerel verses to amuse his children,
could crack rough jokes or smoke a pipe with his friends. He
hated afEectation. "Paint me as I am," he said to Lely, "rough-
ness, pimples, and warts, otherwise I will not pay you a farthing."
Like "Washington, "his temper was terrible when aroused;" then
strong men trembled in his presence. In religion he was sincere
and ardent; in private life he was simple and loving. He had
nothing of ISTapoleon's vanity in his public achievements; he
thought little of his place in history; he was not "the child of
destiny," but simply "a mean instrument to do God's people
some good."
At forty-two he was a plain Huntingdonshire squire. Yet at
forty-three he took up the study of war and soon secured a place
among the world's greatest captains. At fifty he
turned to politics and soon won for himself a place
among ' 'the most vigorous and resourceful of statesmen. ' ' Guided
by the sure instincts of a great, strong nature, enthusiastic, yet
always practical, he advanced step by step to that position from
which for him there was no escape save death. It is true that he
won his place by the sword, that he ruled by the sword ; and yet
only the sword could save England from anarchy and secure the
fruit of that liberty for which a generation of Englishmen had
struggled.
On the death of Cromwell, his eldest son Richard passed quietly
to the vacant post of protector. Thurloe, the protector's secre-
tary, who had most to do with bringing forward the new Orom-
740 THE PROTECTORATE [richard Cromwell
well, boasted "that not a dog wagged his tongue, so great was
the calm." And yet the threat to the peace of England lay in
the neutral character of the man whom Thurloe had
Richard n . » -, -k-t
Cromwell, done most to bring forward. JNo man could be more
unfitted for the post for which he had been chosen. He
knew nothing either of war or politics ; he was idle, easy-going,
and without enthusiasm, indifferent to any business more serious
than hunting or horse racing.
In January 1659, the third protectorate parliament assembled.
The members from England and Wales had been elected by the
old constituencies as represented in the Long Parlia-
The thi/rd
protectorate meiit, rotten boroughs and all. The thirty members for
January, ' Ireland and the thirty for Scotland, however, had been
chosen as in the first two protectorate parliaments.
The parliament in the main favored the new protector, but the
army was disappointed that one should be placed over it who
was no soldier, and who did not even belong to the "godly kind."
Fleetwood and Desborough, the one, Kichard's brother-in-law, and
the other, his uncle, proposed to take from the protector his mili-
tary powers by making Fleetwood commander-in-chief. Richard
demurred; the Commons sought to strengthen his opposition.
But, when the officers came to him and offered him the choice of
the support of the army or the parliament, he was forced to yield,
and on April 22 dissolved his parliament, even before it had voted
the usual supplies.
The dismissal of the third protectorate parliament was a fatal
mistake. Richard was not strong enough to face the storm which
an attempt to levy taxes without parliamentary sanc-
rStored"^ tion would create. So a parliament of some kind must
vrotectm^ate ^^ called, and in May the Rump, which Cromwell had
so summarily driven out in 1653, was allowed to return
to Westminster. Thus the revolution had begun to retrace its
steps. Vane, Bradshaw, Scot, and Haselrig, ardent republicans
all, became at once the men of the hour. This undoubtedly was
what the army wanted, for the old republican spirit, which Oliver
had repressed with so much difficulty, was once more supreme
among the soldiers. The Rump very naturally addressed itself to
1659] THE RUMP EESTOEED 74.1
the restoration of the republic, and after making arrangements to
pay the protector's debts, insisted that he lay down his of&ce, and
he, apparently nothing loath to be rid of an honor which had
brought him only trouble and sleepless nights, left Whitehall on
May 25, never to return. He retired into private life, too
harmless to be molested in the several revolutions which followed,
and died at last at a green old age in 1713.
While the Eump was thus winding up the affairs of the pro-
tectorate in a bloodless counter revolution, the war which repre-
sents Cromwell's foreign policy was coming to a successful
close. In 1657 Cromwell had agreed to send over
fe/i'^ar^™" ®^^ thousand of his Ironsides to join the French in
an attack upon what was left of Spain's possessions in
the Low Countries. Mardyke was soon taken and in 1658 the vic-
tory of the Dunes forced the surrender of Dunkirk, and the next
year Spain made her peace with France by the Treaty of the
Pyrenees. England received Dunkirk, and France, Eoussillon and
Artois, as the spoils of the war. It has been customary to censure
Cromwell's intervention as a serious blunder. The results cer-
tainly favored France far more than England, and possibly laid
the foundations of the future power of Louis XIV., raising up in
the place of moribund, bankrupt Spain a new rival to England in
the France of the eighteenth century. Yet only prophetic wis-
dom could have foreseen this issue in the middle of the sixteenth
century. All the traditions of the century past pointed to Spain
and not to France as the foe of England ; to cripple Spain was to
assure the future not only of England but of Protestant Europe.
CHAPTER VI
THE STUART RESTOKATIOlir
THE COMMONWEALTH, 1659, imo
CHABLES II., 1860-1667
The restoration of the Stuarts followed the abandonment of
the protectorate as a political necessity. The Etimp, reduced to
about forty members, was again in power, and although
uon^voiit' ^^ straightway assumed all its former airs, declaring
wai meces- ^he acts of the protectorate illegal, and commanding
the major generals to refund the taxes which they had
collected, no one took the fussy little oligarchy seriously, nor
could any stretch of friendly imagination regard it longer as a
parliament, or devise any theory by which it might be regarded as
a legal government. By whom then should the authority of the
state be exercised? Should a new Instrument of Government he
struck out and some new experiment of military rule be tried? If
the great Oliver were still alive, this might be possible; but he
was gone and the mould was broken. Moreover, in the collapse and
utter prostration which had followed the over -tension and over-
excitement of revolution, in the complete failure of so many
schemes for curing the ills of church and state, the nation had
lost confidence in itself. More serious still, it had lost that splen-
did moral energy which had inspired it to attempt great things, and
now sighed for the old tutelage. Hence, long before the year 1659
had run out, the hopelessness of attempting to continue the Com-
monwealth was generally apparent, and the most had begun to
look for the return of the Stuarts and the reestablishment of the
old monarchy as the quickest way out of a bad business; — the
surest way of establishing order and confidence upon a permanent
foundation.
742
1659] MONK MAKCHES UPON LONDON 743
In the Slimmer some dignity was imparted to the Enmp by the
prompt suppression of a royalist rising in Cheshire, where Sir
George Booth, a Presbyterian, and a member of the
'S^cWmof' Long Parliament, had managed to get a considerable
''ocWber''ie59 ^"^^^^ i^^^o ^^6 field. Lambert, however, was the real
hero of the war, and an ill-advised attempt to remove
him and Desborough, revealed the slender platform upon which
the new power of the Rump actually rested. Lambert simply
marched his men down to Westminster, and turned the self-styled
parliament out with even less ceremony than Cromwell had used in
1653. Lambert and Fleetwood then essayed to play over again
the role of the Great Protector. But the feeble imitation of the
roar of the dead lion only excited derision and contempt. The
authority of the self-appointed leaders was defied; their right to
collect taxes denied ; and at last even their own soldiers grew rest-
less and disgusted with the farce. Then the leaders fell into an
aimless wrangle among themselves, and finally in December Fleet-
wood in sheer desperation again brought back the Eump-
In the meanwhile disquieting rumors were reaching London
from Scotland, where George Monk was still in command, sup-
ported by the old Commonwealth army of occupation.
marches from He was a silent man, who knew how to keep his coun-
sels; a simple soldier, neither politician nor fanatic, but
shrewd enough to see what the outcome of so much indecision and
weakness must be. At the outbreak of the Civil War he had been
in the king's service in Ireland, had crossed over with the army in
1644, and, after the defeat at Nantwich, with many others had
taken service under the parliament. His ability was recognized
by Cromwell; he rose rapidly and bore no unimportant part in
establishing the prestige of the Commonwealth. He had steadily
supported Cromwell but he was not pleased with the drift of affairs
at Westminster after the protector's death and was also not slow
to express his disapproval of the conduct of the generals. On
January 1, 1660 he crossed the border. Lambert advanced to
Newcastle to hold the Tyne, but his soldiers refused to support
him and showed their ill. will by frequent desertions; and when
in addition to these discouragements Lambert learned that Fair-
744 THE RESTORATION [chablesH.
fax had raised the Yorkshire militia in his rear, he saw that
resistance was useless and allowed Monk to march upon London.
When Monk entered the city, he found it in wild uproar. Its
representatives had been among the Presbyterian majority who had
been expelled from the Long Parliament in 1648' and
stojTO Hie *^® °^^y council had now taken the broad ground that,
lAmoParlia- since they were denied representation in parliament,
they would pay no taxes until the vacancies had been
filled. Monk saw the justice of their claim; he felt also that only
by a new parliament could the existing difficulties be settled. On
February 16, therefore, he declared for a free and full parliament
and compelled the Eump to call back the excluded members. The
moderate party were thus again brought into power. They pro-
ceeded to appoint Monk commander-in-chief of the army and
Montague admiral of the navy, imprisoned Lambert and Vane,
ordered the election of a new parliament, and then, March 16,
1660, voted their own dissolution. Thus at last the Long Parlia-
ment by its own act, was properly dismissed into history; and
for the first time in twenty years the legal voters of England had
an opportunity to express their opinions in a free general election.
There could be little doubt as to what kind of government the
new parliament would favor. But no effort was made to control
the elections or commit the members. Monk had kept
uonoi^BreAa, ^^^ ^^"^ counsels, declaring that if his shirt knew what
was in his head, he would burn his shirt. Charles in
the meanwhile was at Breda in North Brabant, surrounded by a
little court of exiles who had continued to cling to the Stuart
House in the midst of its misfortunes. Their turn was at last
coming. Charles, however, was under the control of wise coun-
sellors, and on April 4 he issued from his asylum the famous
Declaration which still farther cleared the air and helped to win
the confidence of the hesitating. He promised a general pardon,
but left exceptions to be made by parliament as well as the final
disposition of confiscated estates. He also pledged himself to
support a measure for the full payment of the arrears which were
due Monk's soldiers and to receive them into his service. He
promised further that "no man should be disquieted for differences
1660] THE CONVBNTIOK PAELIAMENT 745
of opinion in matters of religion which do not disturb the peace of
the realm," and that he would accept any act which parliament
might pass with this object in view.
The new parliament, which assembled on the 26th of April, is
known as the "Convention Parliament" because the writs had not
been issued in the king's name and to that extent were
mmgffthe technically irregular. The Lords, with the exception
PaHiammt °^ *^® bishops, who had been legally excluded by
statute, assembled in their old accustomed place. Here
the cavalier spirit naturally ran high; but in the Commons, since
the Malignants, or radical cavaliers, were still disqualified, the
more conservative royalists, represented mostly by the Presby-
terians and moderate Episcopalians, were in the majority. The
Declaration of Breda, in which Charles had virtually left the future
adjustment of affairs to parliament, particularly appealed to this
body, who, while it wished to get away from Cromwellianism,
had no wish to see the principles of Laud or StrafEord reinstated.
In spite, therefore, of an attempted revolt by Lambert who had
escaped from the Tower, in spite of the protests of Haselrig and
Ludlow, in spite of the tracts of Milton who frantically urged
upon the people the advantages of the republican form of govern-
ment, in spite even of the efforts of Fairfax and Manchester who
would hold Charles ofE until more definite pledges had been
secured, the parliament declared that "according to the ancient
and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the government is and
ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons," and invited Charles
Stuart to assume the royal authority.
On the 38th of May 1660, his thirtieth birthday, Charles
entered London. He is described as tall, dark, with prominent
features ; not handsome, yet fascinating in manner and
characUr brilliant in speech, abounding in patience and good
GharuTA" humor, and of marvelous tact. But under all this
charming exterior he concealed a nature which was
selfish, unscrupulous, deceitful, and capable of the grossest
debauchery. For ten years, however, he had now been before the
public, and these baser elements of his nature were well under-
stood. Cromwell had said, when asked to treat with him, "He is
746 THE KESTOKATIOlf [cbarles II.
SO damnably debauched, that he would ruin us all." Yet Charles
was no fool; under an exterior which made him appear always
trifling and indifferent, he concealed a natural sagacity, certainly
an unusual trait in a Stuart. He had also been tutored to good
purpose by the events of his chequered career, and had no wish
to "set out on his travels again." He had studied well his
father's career, and saw that his father's mistake lay in allowing
himself to appear as the responsible agent in carrying out his
policy of repression. He deliberately adopted, therefore, the
wiser, if not the more honorable policy, of throwing all respon-
sibility upon his ministers, and keeping himself iu such a position,
that he might at any time disclaim their acts. This policy he
had already inaugurated when he had so heartlessly left poor
Montrose to suffer for his devotion in 1650.
At his coronation Charles made Edward Hyde, his old tutor
and the companion of his wanderings, Earl of Clarendon and
advanced him to the position of chancellor. At this
'nf'charus^'^^ time Hyde was fifty-one years old. He had been a
member of the Long Parliament and had voted for the
attainder of Strafford. But like Falkland and others, he was
devoted to the Anglican Church, and had quarreled with the
radical reformers over the Eoot and Branch Bill, thus making the
first division in the Long Parliament and ultimately creating a
king's party. Of others who received the new king's favors were
Monk who was made Duke of Albemarle, and Charles's brother,
James Duke of York, who was made Lord High Admiral. James
was a convert to Catholicism and as devoted to religion as the king
was indifferent. With him was associated the Commonwealth
admiral, Montague, who was made Earl of Sandwich. Anthony
Ashley Cooper, another Commonwealth man, was made Chancellor
of the Exchequer and raised to the peerage as Lord Ashley.
The Convention Parliament at once took up the business of
adjusting the kingdom to the new order, proceeding upon the
lines suggested by the Declaration of Breda. An Act of Indem-
nity and Oblivion, covering all offenses committed since the out-
break of the Civil War, prepared for the proclamation of a general
amnesty, from which only those were excluded who had brought
1660] THE CONVBN'TION^ PARLIAMENT 747
the late king to his death. The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, Pride,
and Bradshaw were takeu from their graves and hung in chains
from tall gibbets, while London roared with applause.
tucmlen- ^J^y Blake, who had died on the way home from Vera
m^it"'^^^"'' Cruz, the mother of Cromwell, and others were torn
from their resting places at Westminster and thrown
into a common pit. Then, having glutted their ghoulish vengeance
on the dead, the avengers turned upon the living. Twenty-nine
were held for trial. Harrison and nine others were condemned
to death. Martin was imprisoned in Chepstow Castle where he
died in 1681. Haselrig and Lenthall were declared incapable of
office for the rest of their lives; Whitelock was left to die in
obscurity. Lambert and Vane, who were not regicides, were
spared for the present. The marvel is that more did not suffer;
but Charles took no delight in blood-shedding for its own sake.
He was shrewd enough, moreover, to see that moderation would
make him no enemies while an unseemly vindictiveness might.
A far more difficult question to settle was the disposal of the
claims to the forfeited estates. Those who had fought for the
father and shared the exile of the son surely ought
hm£^^^^^'^ not to be left in penury. Yet the new king, after the
promise of indemnity and oblivion, could not deprive the
present holders of lands which had in most instances been obtained
by open purchase. Moreover, the men who had restored Charles
were in many cases the very men who had profited most by the
parliamentary forfeitures. In general no rule was established and
the individual cavaliers were left to fight the matter out in the
courts and get what redress they could. To them the Eestoration
had offered only a cold cake; bitterly they commented on the
humanity of the Convention Parliament; the Act of Indemnity
they called "an Act of Indemnity for the king's enemies and an
Act of Oblivion for his friends. "
The difficult task of paying off and dismissing the old Orom-
wellian soldiers was next taken in hand and entrusted to Monk.
He performed his work so well that in a very short time the
veterans of the Commonwealth wars had returned to their old
peaceful occupations. The prejndice against a standing army was
748 THE EESTOEATION [chaelesII.
as strong as ever, and it was at first intended to disband all the
regiments, but an outbreak of a small band of Fifth Monarchy
enthusiasts, who by the violence and suddenness of
ftf c™nwl ^^^^^ attack terrorized London for a few hours, impressed
Sde*/*"' upon the government the importance of having a body
of disciplined men within call. Three regiments,
therefore, in all about five thousand men, were retained. These
regiments were Monk's own regiment, the famous "Cold Stream
Guards," a newly organized regiment known as "The King's
Horse Guards," and a third regiment stationed as a garrison at
Dunkirk. They were uniformed in the famous scarlet coat, which
had already been worn by Cromwell's Ironsides in the French
campaign. With the artillery they formed the nucleus out of
which has developed the modern regular army of the British
Empire. In order still further to remove all temptation to revolt,
parliament directed the dismantling of the walls and fortresses of
all the inland towns of England. The walls of Oxford, York, and
Chester, however, were spared for the sake of the loyalty of these
cities to the late king.
The Convention Parliament was by no means a body of mere
blind reactionaries. They had no wish to restore again the
machinery of the old arbitrary government of Charles
Bemiutkm'^ I., which the Long Parliament had swept away. The
Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission were
left to rest in their graves. No effort was made to revive ship
money or benevolences or forced loans ; no one raised the question
of the right of the crown to levy taxes without the consent of the
nation given through its representatives. Even the Privy Council
might not venture again to issue its ordinances as laws upon sub-
jects where parliament had spoken. So, also, the vast body of out-
worn feudal precedents which Charles I. bad sought to revive in
the interests of his treasury, were now formally and finally abol-
ished; and the old medieval system of subsidies was abandoned
for the system of regular assessments which the Commonwealth
had introduced. To indemnify the king for the surrender of
feudal revenues, he received an hereditary excise on liqviors, which
then amounted to about £300,000. Thus, although the Common-
1660] THE CAVALIER PARLIAMENT 749
wealth had gone, the work of Coke and Eliot, of Hampden, Pym,
Vane, and Cromwell, was not to be undone. England had at last
shaken herself loose from feudalism and the middle ages; her
people had established their right to make their own laws and levy
their own taxes for the needs of government. The entire tissue of
prerogative theories had been riven and blown away in the storms
of the Eevolution. Hereafter, when law is violated by the crown
or its officei-s, it is done by fraud or open violence, but not under
the pretext of superior right.
On December 29, 1660, Charles dissolved his first parliament, —
his "healing and blessed parliament" as he called it; and on May
8, his second parliament met. The royalist reaction in
Pariiammt, the country had now progressed so far that very few of
the moderate men of the first parliament had been
returned. Instead, a body of bitter reactionaries came together,
"more jealous for royalty than the king, more Jealous for Episco-
pacy than the bishops, " and determined to take vengeance on their
old enemies and ignore all the acts of the Long Parliament which
had not been sanctioned by the formal assent of King, Lords, and
Commons. Of the acts which had been passed before 1642 and
had received the sanction of the king, only two were repealed; but
the repeal of these two, the Triennial Act and the act which
excluded the bishops from the House of Lords, laid the foundation
of the second Stuart Despotism. Two other acts also revealed the
drift of the new parliament. It was declared that the command
of the militia lay in the hands of the king and, further, that even a
defensive war against the king was unlawful.
So eager was the new parliament for vengeance that the gov-
ernment could with difiQculty persuade it to confirm the various
conciliatory measures of the last parliament. It was
Sir Henry determined to have blood ; and Lambert and Vane
were brought to trial on a charge of treason. Lambert
escaped the death penalty, only to be imprisoned for life, but
Vane was condemned to a traitor's death. That more victims did
not suifer was due, not to the temper of parliament, but to Charles
himself, who had no sympathy with what his over ardent friends
called "Justice."
750 THE RESTORATION [charles II.
The burning question of the hour was still the old question of
church settlement. The majority of the nation, perhaps, would
have been well pleased with a settlement upon the basis
setiienS'of °^ ®°°^^ ^'^^^ P^^^ ^® Cromwell had favored, known as
Mom^^*'^"" the "Comprehension," because it comprehended all the
various Protestant bodies, leaving the bishop to be
simply an overseer of the church, associated in his diocese with a
council of presbyters but shorn of all authority as lord. Charles
had practically declared for such a scheme when he was playing
for the support of the Presbyterians. As far as his own religious
preferences were concerned he leaned towards Catholicism; his
dissolute life, moreover, pxit an insurmountable barrier between
himself and the leaders of the Presbyterian party. Presbyterian-
ism, he had said, was "no religion for a gentleman." If he must
choose, Episcopacy from his point of view would be the least
objectionable. Charles, therefore, now that he had won his throne
again, could have no other motive save the honor of his word,
which never weighed heavily with him, in resisting the efforts of
Clarendon and his Cavalier Parliament, who were determined to
restore the whole Anglican system. Their purpose was embodied
in a series of tyrannical acts known as the "Clarendon
ScSc.™' Code."^ Of these the "Corporation Act," passed in
1661, required all local borough officials to receive the
communion according to the rites of the church, take the oathis
of supremacy, allegiance, and nonresistance, and renounce th.e
Covenant; the/'Act of Uniformity," passed in May 1662 , required
all beneficed clergy to use the Prayer Book, and further threatened
to deprive of their livings all who, not having been ordained by a
bishop, should fail to secure such ordination before the 34th of
August following, — St. Bartholomew's Day.
"When the fatal day of August arrived, some two thousand men,
rather than be faithless to conscience, turned their backs upon
their pleasant homes and went out, many of them witb families, to
iThey were The Corporation Act, 1661, The Act of Uniformity, 1663,
The Conventicle Act, 1664, and The Five Mile Act, 1665. See Gee and
Hardy, pp. 594-633.
1663] THE DISSENTEES 751
penury and actual want; for beyond a few months' salary no other
relief was given. The two thousand clergymen included Pres-
TUtmrna- byterians, Independents, and Baptists, "probably the
todyof^ most zealous ministers of the gospel in England,"
"DisserOers." henceforth to be merged in the great body of "Dissen-
ters." Of dominant Puritanism we hear no more. Even the
Presbyterian renounced all hope of enforcing his scheme of gov-
ernment upon the nation, and looked only for some form of tolera-
tion by which he might be left in peace in his pecuhar form of
worship.
It was impossible, however, to keep such men from preaching
or attempting to minister to those of their flock who clung to
them in their misfortune. Yet even here the hostility
o/SS^nZs. °* ^^^ Cavalier Parliament followed them. The "Con-
venticle Act" of May 1664 declared that any meeting of
more than five . persons for religious worship in ways other than
those prescribed by the church was an "illegal conventicle;" the
first offense to be punished by fine and imprisonment, the second
offense by a heavier fine and longer imprisonment, and the third
offense by a fine of £100, or transportation for seven years. The
Conventicle Act was followed in October 1665 by the "Five Mile
Act" which forbade the dissenting clergyman to teach in any school,
or to come within five miles of any corporate town or any place
where he had once been pastor. The local magistrates, that is the
Cavalier squires, who were empowered to convict without a jury
and condemn even to the sentence of transportation, administered
the acts with cruel zeal. Spies and informers did not hesitate to
use the cloak of piety in order to ply their nefarious trade. The
Dissenters would not yield their right of worshiping God in their
own way. Thousands were cast into the filthy and unhealthy dens
which passed for prisons, where the weak and the infirm quickly
succumbed and the strong came forth after a few months
J'"'*" S'ffi broken in body if not in spirit. John Bunyan, the vil-
'^Ogrim's i^gg pastor of Bedford, passed eleven years in the vil-
lage jail. It was during this period that he sent forth
his "Pilgrim's Progress" to comfort and direct his fellows in
persecution on their way to the Celestial City. The lot of the
753 THE RESTORATION [chaeles It.
Quakers was particularly hard. Their gentle manners, coupled
with the most indomitable obstinacy in refusing to take the ordi-
nary court oaths, at first puzzled and then roused the fury of the
country squires. Some four hundred of them at one time lay in
the London jails, and a thousand or more in the other prisons of
the country.
Laud himself could hardly have done more. Yet there is this
diflference to be noted between the work of Laud and that of
Clarendon. The Clarendon Code was due not so much
Laud and to religious animosity as to political animosity. The
Clairendim. , . .j_t j. t
Laudian persecutions were carried on without parlia-
ment and contrary to the laws, but the Eestoration persecutions
were carried on by the special sanction of parliament and under
the laws. The Laudian persecu.tions were supported by the king
and his bishops, and continued in spite of the protest of the
nation ; the Restoration persecutions were supported by a power-
ful national party who had their way in spite of a good-natured
king, who was too shrewd to interfere, but who of himself would
have preferred toleration. Laud, moreover, aimed to make the
church independent of parliament, but the authors of the Restora-
tion persecutions were interested rather in asserting the authority
of the restored parliament over those elements of the nation which
they justly regarded as responsible for the excesses of the Civil
War. Although eager to irestore the church as the buttress of
Cavalierism, they had no desire to put the clergy back upon the
pedestal from which the Puritans had once thrown them dovm.
The very parliament which passed the Clarendon Code, in 1662
took from the Convocation the right of ecclesiastical taxation and
vested it in the House of Commons, where clergymen were not
allowed to sit ; thus merging the last of the group of powers, which
had constituted the dignity of the once great First Estate, in the
fiscal and political powers of the body which had come to repre-
sent the common nation.
The age in fact was anything but a religious age. The nation
was drifting rapidly from its old moorings, and coming to look
upon all theological divergences, not by any means with indiffer-
ence, but as a matter of personal politics rather than personal reli-
1661] THE EESTOBATION IN IRELAND 753
gion. The real religion of the governing class, the only religion
in fact which ever took hold upon the imagination of the Cavalier,
Decline of ^^® ^ ^°^* ^^ king-worship, which all bat apotheosized
lifeo/""'* ^^^ ^^*^ king and forced the church, in return for sup-
Erwiand. pQj.^ ^nd protection, to take up the propaganda of mon-
archy as the form of government specially pleasing to God, with the
accompanying doctrines of divine right, passive obedience, and
nonresi stance.
In Ireland the restoration of royal authority was a simple mat-
ter, but the conflict of cross interests made the final adjustment of
claims and titles even more difficult than in England.
The Restara- t j.i ^ j. i j.i 1.1. 1. ■ j. 7,
tioninire- In the first place there was the great garrison of Orom-
wellian veterans and their friends, who had settled in
the most choice parts of the island. Then there were the loyal
Cavaliers who had sacrificed all for the king, and who naturally
expected to be rewarded to the extent, at least, of getting back the
lands which they had lost in consequence of their loyalty. In the
third place there were a few royal favorites as the king's brother
James Duke of York, Albemarle, and others, to whom the
king had made large promises of Irish lands ; and finally there was
the older Celtic Catholic population, who had reason to think that
their loyalty to the Stuarts deserved protection at least. The
high-minded Ormond, the Lord Lieutenant, nobly wrestled with
the problem. He dared not disturb the old Cromwellian soldiers,
lest he rouse them to open revolt, and by the Act of Settlement,
1661, confirmed them in their present possessions as well as the
English Adventurers who had settled under the pledge of Charles
I. A new adjustment, four years later, evened matters up some-
what between the Cromwellian settlers and the royalists ; but the
Catholic Irish population were left in possession of less than ona-
third of the island. An even more serious matter for Ireland was
the dissolution of the union, an act which committed England to
her later Irish policy, with all the vexing questions growing out
of it, depriving Ireland of the benefit of the Navigation Act and
preparing the way for a systematic and deliberate policy of fatten-
ing English farmers and merchants at the expense of Ireland.
This policy began to bear fruit in 1665 when the English parlia-
754 THE EESTORATIOX [chaklks II.
ment forbade the Irish to export to England either cattle, or meat,
or butter, thus cutting off Ireland from the j^ossibility of develop-
ing as a grazing country, for which both soil and climate specially
adapted her. The restoration of the Irish parliament further
prepared the seeds of future bitterness by placing the Celtic
Catholic population at the mercy of laws made by the Protestant
minority, who now held the great part of the lands of the island
and controlled the local parliament. The Anglican Church,
hated alike by Irish Presbyterian and Irish Catholic, was also
brought back to add still another element of discord and misery in.
the future. Yet in spite of the wrongs of the people, in spite of
disturbances caused by "Eapparees" and "Tories," ' for twenty-
five years after the return of the Stuarts the land was substantially
at peace and there was much prosperity for the Protestant settlers
of the north, although little for the subject Celts of the south and
west.
The Scots had never liked the Cromwellian union, partly
because Cromwell had maintained it in a somewhat arbitrary way,
and partly because the Scots were still by tradition
Scotland. .-^. ■'„,_,,. , „, ■'
suspicious 01 the English. The abandonment of the
union, therefore, followed at once upon the withdrawal of Monk's
army, and Scotland again became a separate state, bound to
England only by the possession of a common king. Like Ire-
land she lost the benefit of the Navigation Act, the privilege
of trade without restriction in the English colonies as well as
freedom of trade with England, but she got back her precious
ministry and her parliament. All acts passed subsequent to 1632
were swept away by the "Eescissory Act." The bishops were
restored, but without their powers or the fatal Liturgy of Laud.
The royalists, however, were not willing to stop with mere reac-
tionary legislation. The blood of Montrose was still unavenged,
and, to satisfy the cry for vengeance, Argyll was arrested in Lon-
don and hurried back to be put to death upon the nominal charge
of complicity in the death of Charles I. The Presbyterian clergy,
' Bands of desperate outlaws, who sought to avenge the wrongs of
the Irish people by preying upon the settlers of English blood.
1663] THE EESTORATTON IN SCOTLAND 755
who had protested against the promise of toleration given in the
Declaration of Breda, found themselves like their English brethren
compelled either to accept the hated Episcopacy or to face a life
burdened with persecution or, at best, penury. All political power,
both administrative and legislative, passed into the hands of a com-
mittee, nominated by the crown and composed of a set of men
among whom the ruffians, Middleton and Lauderdale, soon became
conspicuous, whose native coarseness and overbearing brutality
Were not improved by a habit of almost perpetual drunkenness.
"It was a mad, roaring time." Middleton and Lauderdale let
loose their troopers to hunt down the Covenanters among the
western hills and moorlands. The spirit of these Covenanters,
however, was quite different from that of the inoffensive Quaker
or even the nonconformist of the south. Persecution did not
make them meek; the preacher's cloak as often covered a sword
or pistol as a Bible, and the stealthy gathering for prayer was
more than once the prelude to a fierce battle with the king's men.
The spirit of such men could not be broken, even when the High-
landers were sent into their homes to dragoon them into submis-
sion.
The Restoration made little difierence in the foreign policy of
England so far as alliances were concerned, but its spirit was very
different. Clear-headed Englishmen, including Claren-
uonandfor^ ^^^ himself, already saw the menace to England of the
e^npoiieyof growing power of Erance, but Charles saw only the
immediate benefit which the support of the French
monarchy promised him. In 1663 he married the Catholic princess,
Catharine, who was a sister of the king of Portugal, the old ally
of France against Spain. Bombay and Tangier came to England as
the price which Portugal paid for this alliance. The English
were not pleased with the increase of their Catholic allies, and
when, the same year, Charles parted with Dunkirk, the Great Pro-
tector's last acquisition, selling it to the French for £250,000,
even the blindest of royalists felt some chagrin in comparing the
subservient position assumed by his beloved king with that inde-
pendent dignity which Cromwell had maintained in the face of
other nations.
756 THE EESTOEATIOK [chableb 11
Charles had received popular support in an attack which the
Convention Parliament had made upon the carrying trade of
Holland in renewing the old "Navigation Act" of the
commercial Eump. Charles, also, was determined that his sister's
HMand"^ son should be restored to the Stadholdership, from
n'a"ws65- which the Dutch Eepublicans, the brothers De Witt,
were keeping him. Old trade jealousies, too, hardly-
allayed by a treaty which Clarendon made in 1662, burned as
fiercely as ever. Hostilities soon began both in Africa and in
America, wherever English and Dutch merchants or colonists came
into contact. Clarendon struggled against the war spirit, but the
merchant influence was too strong foj- him, and for two years the
English and Dutch carried on a desperate contest on the seas.
The English navy Vas paralyzed by mismanagement and knavery,
and vast sums were squandered to no purpose. The heroes of the
war on the English side were the veterans Rupert and Albemarle;
on the Dutch side De Euyter. The war closed with the peace of
Breda, July 1667, leaving England in possession of New Amster-
dam, which had been taken by Admiral Holmes early in the war.
It was rechristened New York in honor of the king's brother, the
Lord High Admiral, and at once took a high place among the
important English colonies in the New World. Charles's ally,
Louis of France, had supported the Dutch in the war, first because
the merchant oligarchy who ruled Holland and opposed the Prince
of Orange, were French both in policy and in sympathy, and
second because he did not wish to have his English protege grow
so strong that he could not be controlled.
While England was engaged in the Dutch War, there occurred
one of those visitations, always mysterious in an era when little was
known of the simplest laws of sanitation, but to-day
FkLgul^esB. i"eadily ascribed to the open sewers, lack of drainage,
polluted water, and filthy tenements, the common
features of life in a European city down to the present century.
In the summer of 1665, it is estimated, over one hundred thou-
sand persons perished in London; whole families were swept
away ; business was abandoned and all who could, fled the city.
The streets were deserted by day, and at night the silence was
1666, 1667] THE GKEAT FIRE 757
broken only by the dismal creaking of the dead-cart, and the yet
more dismal cry of the driver, as from time to time he stopped
his cart and summoned the terrified watchers within to bring out
their dead. In marked contrast with the conduct of the Episco-
palian clergy, the dissenting clergymen, Presbyterian, Bap-
tist, and Independent, returned to the doomed city to minister
to their old parishioners in their day of mourning. Some even
preached from the vacant j)ulpits of the deserted city churches.
When the terror had passed, and the skulkers returned, the only
reward which parliament vouchsafed to the heroic men who had
braved death in the performance of duty was the "Five Mile
Act."
London had hardly recovered from the paralysis which attended
the plague, when there fell upon the city another calamity, which
was in all probability a blessing in disguise and prevented
The Great o o r
Fire^septem- the return of the pestilence. At two o'clock of the
morning of September 2, 1666, a fire, the result of a
mere accident, broke out in a bake shojD in Pudding Lane; a
violent gale was blowing, and the flames rapidly swept through the
city. The fire raged for four days, burning eighty-nine churches,
including St. Paul's Cathedral, and 13,200 houses, leaving two
hundred thousand persons homeless, and subsiding only after
four-fifths of Old London had been laid in ashes. Curiously
enough the Catholics were charged with burning the city, and a
monument was erected to commemorate the awful crime. The
charge rested upon no evidence ; the Dissenting ministers or the
king might have been accused with equal justice. It shows how
deeply the old enmity and suspicion, born of the sixteenth century,
had eaten into the very blood of the nation. Hatred of Catholics
was the birthright of the new generation of Englishmen.
Thus far Clarendon had in the main been responsible for the
conduct of the Restoration government. He was an able man of
affairs and a loyal minister; but he was not a great
uiarendm, statesman nor a successful politician. The Presby-
terians could never forgive him for the Clarendon
Code; the royalists could not forget his honest adhesion to the Act
of Indemnity. From Charles, however, he might reasonably
758 THE RESTOKATION" [chariesII.
expect a cordial support; his long tried friendship, his real service
to the Stuarts in exile, his no less real service in organizing and
establishing the restored government upon a solid basis, could not
be ignored by a man who had any sense of personal honor. There
was little, however, in common between the high-minded royalist,
who drew his conceptions of duty and loyalty from the age of
Elizabeth, and the dissolute and easy-going king of thirty, who
was more bent upon getting funds with which to keep his mis-
tresses in good humor than he was upon preserving England's
prestige abroad or equipping fleets to fight her battles. Claren-
don, moreover, never took any pains to conceal his disapproval of
the unclean creatures who surrounded the king, nor of the license
of the court which the king so shamelessly encouraged. An open
breach between the king and his faithful minister had
miioFinduh^^'^^^^^^ ^^ December 1GG2, when the king, taking
MM^' advantage of the adjournment of parliament, published
a declaration softening somewhat the harshness of the
recent Act of Uniformity by permitting individuals to violate the
law without punishment. Charles had little sympathy with the
humble Dissenters, but he hoped to protect the prominent Catholics
of his court. When parliament met again, it at once compelled
the king to withdraw his declaration. In this first serious quarrel
between Charles and parliament. Clarendon took sides against
the king and openly opposed him in the House of Lords. As
long as Clarendon had the support of parliament, however, the
king feared to interfere with his minister. But a late misfor-
tune of the Dutch "War, in which a Dutch fleet had entered the
Medway and burned an English fleet at Chatham, the disgraceful
sale of Dunkirk, for both of which Charles was to blame and not
Clarendon, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, for which neither
was to blame, turned the popular tide against the minister. Even
the parliament, royalist as it was, had grown weary of a man who
had declared that "its power was more, or less, or nothing, as the
king pleased to make it. ' ' When, therefore, on the 10th of October
1667, Clarendon was impeached at the bar of the House of Lords
as the scapegoat for the disasters of the Dutch War, he stood
alone. Of the twenty-one articles brought against him, no one
1667] THE FALL OF CLARENDON 759
was really serious; and yet, knowing the men with whom he had
to deal, he saw that his only safety lay in flight. On the con-
tinent he spent his last days in completing his celehrated work,
■ 'The History of the Great Eebellion. " He died in 1674.
The fall of Clarendon marks the close of a distinct period in
the reign of Charles II. Clarendon had sought to restore the king-
ship; but to restore the old kingship of the Tudor period was no
longer possible, for the king must henceforth govern in the pres-
ence of a parliament. At first this was not understood; the parlia-
ment was more loyal to the kingship idea than Charles himself.
But "the honeymoon of the Kestoration was now over and only an
uneasy wedlock remained;" the Cavalier Parliament had lost its
"impulsive loyalty," and soon degenerated into the parliament
known by the less honorable, but no less merited, name of the
"Pensionary Parliament," whose loyalty could never be depended
on by the king without a preliminary course of careful nursing
and manipulation. The king on his part shaped his policy more
and more definitely -towards the restoration of the Catholic
Church, while the parliament rallied what little sense of self-
respect remained, to defy him and impeach his ministers.
CHAPTEE VII
THE BIRTH OF THE WHIR PARTY
CHARLES 11.. ieS7-t6li5
The history of the last eighteen years of the reign of Charles
II. turns upon the efforts of the king, first, to secure toleration
for the Catholics, and second, to defeat the schemes of a
'wMa%mty POwerful party of reaction, which proposed to exclude
his brother from the succession on account of his
adhesion to the Catholic faith. The purpose of Charles appeals
powerfully to the love of fair play of the present age ; especially
since, in order to secure the equal standing before the laws of
his co-reiigionists, he was willing to confer the same boon upon
Protestant Dissenters. But unfortunately, when Charles saw that
he could not gain his ends through regular constitutional methods,
he resorted to the devious ways of secret treaties with the French,
and thus in the minds of Englishmen identified himself and his
cause with the sins of Louis XIV. against the public law of
Europe, and brought on a powerful anti-Catholic, anti-French
reaction, which in time gave birth to a new political party sworn to
exclude Catholics of whatever degree from all part in the govern-
ment at home, and to check the aggressions of Louis XIV. abroad
by setting bounds to the further expansion of France.
After the fall of Clarendon Charles undertook for a time to be
his own chief minister. He found the council, however, which
now consisted of about fifty members, too unwieldy for
'•Cabal," easy manipulation, and dropped into a habit of con-
sulting informally a group of special favorites, a council
within the council, before submitting matters of importance to
the larger body. Five men enjoyed this special confidence during
most of the time between the impeachment of Clarendon and the
beginning of the career of Danby ; Clifford, Arlington, Bucking-
760
1668] THE CABAL 761
ham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. When arrayed in this order, the
initial letters spelled the unfortunate word "Oabal," which was at
once fastened upon the junto as appropriately descriptive of their
aims and underhand methods. Of the five, two, ClifEord and
Arlington, were Catholic at least in sympathy ; one, Lauderdale,
was the renegade Covenanter who since 1663 had been virtually
dictator in Scotland; one, the cleverest of them all, Lord Ashley,
was a renegade Commonwealth man, who as plain Anthony Ashley
Cooper had served in the Barebones Parliament, a sort of political
infidel who had tried all parties and believed in none ; and last,
the son of the old favorite of Charles I., George Villiers Duke of
Buckingham, "the maddest, wittiest, most profligate man in Eng-
land." ^ Men of such widely divergent principles, and of no prin-
ciples at all, could never form a strong coalition; they could not
form a ministry in the modern sense, for they rarely acted together
and never had the confidence of parliament; they did not consti-
tute a secret council, for the king never trusted them all at once.
They were simply a group of favorites such as had surrounded
Edward II. or Eichard II., who owed their power largely to
personal and individual influence over the king. They were
the kind of men who are commonly produced by revolution,
thorough-going spoilsmen, bound to no policy, always watching
for the least veering of the wind, and ready to trim sail accord-
ingly-
Soon after the Cabal came into power, Louis XIV. began to
push forward his ambitious scheme of enlarging France at the
expense of those territories of Spain, Lorraine, and the
Th& Trivia •
AUiance Empire, which lav between him and the Khine. He
of 1668
found a plausible pretext for seizing the Spanish
Netherlands in the plea that these lands, in consequence of the
death of Philip IV. of Spain, had "devolved" upon his daughter^
the French Queen, to the exclusion of her younger brother, the
sickly Spanish king, also a Charles II. In the war which fol-
lowed, known as the "War of Devolution," the French easily
• For Macaulay's brilliant portraits of the members of the Cabal, see
"Essay on Sir William Temple. "
762 BIRTH OF WHIG PARTY [charlesII.
overran Flanders. The Dutch, however, had no desire to see the
powerful French monarchy advance to their very doors, and in
1668, through the ofiSces of Sir William Temple, succeeded in
securing an alliance with England and Sweden against the further
aggressions of France. The menace was sufficient ; Louis had his
own colonial possessions to protect; he had no wish to enter into
a war in which the two most powerful navies of Europe would be
arrayed against him; and by the Treaty of Aachen, 1668, grace-
fully restoring a great part of the territories which he had seized,
ostensibly yielded his claims upon the Spanish Netherlands. Yet
Louis had changed, not his purpose, but only his method of
attack. He saw that before he could seize the Spanish Nether-
lands he must crush Holland, and accordingly, to attain
The Secret o j ^
Treaty of this end, he first bought Sweden and England out of
the Triple Alliance; he also secured the non-interfer-
ence of the Empire by promising upon the death of his sickly
brother-in-law, the Spanish Charles IL, to share with Leopold,
the emperor, the plunder of Spain. In England the course of
events greatly favored Louis. In 1668 Charles, supported by
the entire Cabal, attempted to persuade parliament to enact a
"Comprehension Bill," designed to "comprehend" some of the
nonconformist bodies within the established Church and secure
general toleration. Parliament, however, not only rejected the
Comprehension Bill, but in 1670 reenacted the Second Con-
venticle Act, and increased the severity of some of its measures.
Charles, therefore, in despair of securing toleration for Catholics
by constitutional measures, after a secret consultation with the duke
of York, Arundel, and the two Catholic members of the Cabal,
determined to appeal to Louis. Here was Louis's opportunity, and
he quickly took advantage of it. In June 1670 the two powers
signed the secret Treaty of Dover, in which Charles agreed to
unite with Louis in making war upon the Dutch, and Louis agreed
to pay him £230, 000. per annum and give him control of thirty
French ships. Charles, furthermore, was to declare himself a
Catholic, "as soon as the affairs of his kingdom should permit."
Louis on his part if needed was to support Charles in England
with six thousand French troops and a further subsidy of
1673] THE TREATY OF DOVEE 763
£134,000. If Charles of Spain died without male issue, Charles
of England was to support Louis in seizing the Spanish domin-
ions, and receiTe in payment Ostend, Minorca, and certain terri-
tories in America. Charles was fully aware of the dangerous
nature of his contract with Louis and carefully kept the secret
even from the non-Catholic members of the Cabal, tricking them
with a sham treaty, which was published in 1672 as the real
Treaty of Dover.
At the opening of 1672 Louis and Charles were ready to carry
out their joint plot against the Netherlands and against the laws
of England. Parliament had not been in session for
Affp/fn.Tit, to
carry out ten months and although it had provided liberally
Treaty of for the English fleet before adjournment, additional
funds were necessary for the meditated attack upon
Holland. At Clifford's suggestion Charles adopted an expedient,
called "the Stop of the Exchequer," which Colbert, Louis's
The "Stop great finance minister, had recently used with success.
Exchequer," The plan was to fatten the treasury by the simple expe-
1672. ' dient of not paying out the interest due upon loans
which the goldsmiths, the bankers of the era, had lent to the gov-
ernment on the security of the revenues. The money did not
belong to the goldsmiths but to the people, "widows and
orphans" many of them, who had entrusted this money to the
goldsmiths in the capacity of bankers. The result, however, was
not exactly what Charles had planned ; the depositors were ruined
of course, but the credit of the government, also, was shattered.
The panic was so great, that two days later Charles had to promise
that at least one-half of the accrued interest should be paid.
Nevertheless, the "locking of the Exchequer" left in the treasury
about £1,300,000 for present need. For this brilliant financial
operation Clifford was raised to the peerage and appointed Lord
High Treasurer.
On March 16, Charles undertook a still more unpopular
measure, in issuing a second Declaration of Indulgence in which
he ' ' suspended the execution of all and all manners of penal laws
in matters ecclesiastical against whatsoever sort of nonconformists
or recusants."' In this, unlike the attempt of ten years earlier,
764 BIRTH OF WHIG PARTY [chaklesH
Charles was supported by his chief ministers ; in reward he made
Ashley Earl of Shaftesbury, and before the year was out also
SecrnidDec- appointed him Lord Chancellor. Two days before the
fndX^nle Declaration, the English Admiral Holmes attacked the
March IS,' Dutch Smjrrna fleet which, unsuspicious of danger,
was leisurely pursuing its way up the Channel, and
on March 28, war was declared. It was like a thunder clap from
a clear sky; the Dutch were unprepared and taken entirely by sur-
prise. The French rapidly overran the southern prov-
of England inces, and might have taken Amsterdam had they not
upmthe wasted their time on the less important border towns.
When they reached the sea provinces De Witt, the Grand
Pensioner, cut the dikes and by flooding the country forced the
French to withdraw. The people, however, believed that De Witt
and his brother, who had been heretofore pronounced in their
French sympathies, were responsible for the war and its miseries.
Eiots broke out in the cities; De Witt was torn to pieces by a
furious mob; the government of merchant princes which had
ruled the country for twenty-two years was overthrown and the
Stadhol derate restored.
The new Stadholder was William, Prince of Orange. On his
father's side he was a great-grandson of the famous William the
Silent ; on his mother's side he was a grandson of Charles
^OmZe. ■'-■ °^ England, and after the children of James Duke
of York, the next heir to the Euglish throne. He is
described as a sickly, thoughtful young maa of twenty-two; cold,
unattractive, and distant in manner, but a daring statesman and
capable of devising and carrying out the greatest political combi-
nations. Some of his countrymen were for giving up the struggle
with France altogether, and, putting their families and their
wealth on board their ships, migrating as a nation to their pos-
sessions in Java. But William had no thought of turning his
back upon the dreary little land which his fathers had won from
the Spaniard; sooner than yield, he declared to Buckingham, he
would die on the last dike.
While the French found themselves thus baf&ed on the .land,
the English were not rendering them much assistance on the seas.
1672] THE TEST ACT 765
In June 1672 the duke of York had barely held' his own against
De Ruyter in Southwold Bay on the coast of Suffolk. In 1673
the Dutch retook 'New York and renamed it after their
iX^ar. lieroic Stadholder, New Orange. In August they
won a substantial victory off the Texel.
At the opening of 1673 the English parliament assembled after
a recess of twenty-two months. It found its work very definitely
cut out. The old anti-Catholic feeling was thoroughly aroused,
and the members began an attack both upon the Declaration of
Indulgence and upon the Dutch "War. They did not question
the king's right to pardon an individual who had been convicted
of violating a law, but they denied his right to grant a wholesale
pardon before the commission of crime ; a right which amounted
virtually to the power of annulling any law which parliament
might pass. Even the Protestant nonconformists joined in the
protest and refused to accept relief at the expense of the funda-
mental principle of the English Constitution, which required that
all laws be made by the consent of King, Lords, and Commons.
"I had much rather see the Dissenters suffer by the rigor of the
law, though I suffer with them," said the heroic Alderman Love,
"than see all the Laws of England trampled under the foot of the
Prerogative." Charles saw that it was useless to persist; the
Protestant members of the Cabal, especially Shaftesbury who had
by this time got some inkling of the real nature of the league
with Louis, urged the recall of the offensive proclamation, and on
March 8, it was withdrawn.
Parliament, however, had no thought of stopping simply with
the withdrawal of the Declaration. The people were furious and
parliament determined to strike back at the king and
Act'" and the ^^^^ Catholic ministers by passing a "Test Act," which
Safta!*''^ provided that all persons holding any office under the
crown, must at once take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy, publicly receive the sacrament according to the
Anglican custom, and disavow belief in transubstantiation. This
act, unlike most previous acts of the kind, made the test com-
pulsory and made no exception in favor of peers. The act effec-
tually put an end to the influence of the Cabal. By the terms of
766 BIRTH OF WHIG PARTY [ohaelesH.
the Test Act the Catholic members were forced to withdraw.
Shaftesbury, who was now thoroughly aroused by the trick
which had been played upon him by the sham Treaty of Dover,
had supported the Test Act, and was dismissed in November.
Buckingham was dismissed under pretext of the opposition of
the Commons, but really because he had fallen under the disfavor
of one of the king's mistresses. The duke of York also, who in
1669 had publicly announced his conversion to the Catholic faith,
was debarred by the Test Act and was forced to resign the position
of Lord High Admiral. This was the most signal triumph of the
opposition. The next step of parliament, after demolishing the
Cabal, was to put a stop to the Dutch "War, and in 1674 they
compelled Charles to withdraw from the French alliance and
accept the Peace of Westminster.
Louis's plans were working out on the continent with hardly
better success. Instead of having Holland at liis mercy, he had
found himself ultimately confronted by a powerful
Frairh- ^ coalitiou, made up of Holland, Brandenburg, Spain,
and the Empire, with the possibility that it would
soon be joined by his late allies. This coalition was the work of
the new Stadholder, who had devoted all his splendid powers to
arousing Europe against French ascendency. He had not been
successful in war, however, and despite his heroic efforts the
French continued to win victories. Louis might succeed, therefore,
if he could only keep the English from actively joining the league
against him. To this he gave his whole attention. Sir Thomas
Osborne, who was made Earl of Danby in 1674 and had succeeded
to a position of control in the government after the collapse of the
Cabal, accepted the principles of the Triple Alliance, and prob-
ably would have led parliament into an active espousal of the
cause of the Dutch, had not the Protestant parliament feared to
trust the king with the command of an army, lest he use it to carry
out the plan, for which they now generally gave him credit, of
trying to force Catholicism upon England. Louis, however,
could hardly feel safe against the threatened interference of Eng-
land, and, to secure Charles, made with him a new secret treaty in
which he agreed to pay the English king £100,000 a year on
1676-1678] DANBT 767
condition that he make no engagement with any foreign power
without his consent. The danger, however, was still very great,
that the anti-French sentiment of parliament would
throw all caution to the winds and force Charles to begin
war, in spite of his promises or the bribes which he had taken.
In 1677 an English army was actually assembled to be used against
France, and in November Danby secured the marriage of Mary,
the eldest daughter of the duke of York, to Louis's arch enemy,
William, the Stadholder. Louis saw, therefore, that it was useless
to seek to control the foreign policy of England longer, and in
1678 succeeded in securing the Treaty of Nimwegen, which put
an end to the war but left in his hands Franohe-Comte, the "free
county" of Burgundy, and twelve of the cities of the Spanish
Netherlands, including Cambrai and Ypres.
Danby had been in power now five years. He had managed to
keep his place by the cleverest time-serving. He had, moreover,
coolly adopted bribery as a regular means of encourag-
vomr ™ ^"S ^ reluctant parliament, not only freely using the
royal patronage, but directly and unblushingly setting
aside a certain part of the royal income each year for buying
parliamentary votes. Clifford had used bribery, it is said, as a
means of influencing parliamentary action, but Danby reduced
corruption to a system. It is also to be noticed as a curious coin-
cidence, that about this time the English constituencies ceased
paying regular salaries to their representatives in parliament.
Seats were so much in demand at the by-elections that no direct
pecuniary compensation was necessary to bring forward aspirants
for political honors; it was pretty well understood that a seat in
parliament carried with it ample rewards far beyond any petty
wages offered by tax burdened constituencies.
By a skillful manipulation of his "system of influence" Danby
had managed to gather to his support a considerable party, very
respectable in numbers if not in character, known as the "Court
Party, ' ' whose ostensible platform was the support of the Church
of England, the strengthening of the royal prerogative, and a
friendly attitude toward the Dutch. There was little sincerity,
however, in their pretensions ; and their leader did not hesitate to
768 BIRTH OF WHIG PARTY [charlks U.
use his alleged friendship for the Dutch as a means of blackmail-
ing Louis, even acting as Charles's agent in negotiating the secret
treaties of this era. The Court Party, however, were
The "Court ^^y ^q means left to have their own way, or to secure
Party and ^ ^
gJ^jCoumtn/ all the plunder for themselves. There had been no gen-
eral election since 1661, but the change in the temper
of the country had been reflected somewhat by a corresponding
change in the temper of many members of the Cavalier Parliament;
vacancies also had occurred from time to time and new members
had been returned who represented even more directly the changing
sentiment of the people. The struggle over the Declaration of
Indulgence and the Test Act had also given to the opposition
some coherence, revealed to the leaders their strength, and fur-
nished them with a definite platform. In distinction from the
Court Party they were called the "Country Party."
The first serious tilt of the Country Party with the government
occurred in 1675. Danby thought to get rid of the men in parlia-
ment whom he could not reach by his system of influ-
2''!? ^o«- ence by securing a sort of political Test Act, known as
Bin. April thg "Placemens" or "Nonresistance Bill," which
proposed to require every officer in church or state, and
every member of parliament, to declare upon oath, that it was
unlawful to take up arms in the king's name against the king's
person or those commissioned by the king, and that "he would
not at any time endeavor the alteration of the government in
church or state." The bill was defeated largely by the efforts of
Shaftesbury, who upon retiring from the council had taken his
place in the House of Lords, and, putting all his abilities of debate
and intrigue at the service of the Country Party, had from the
first been recognized as a leader. He was beaten in the Lords by
the vote of the bishops, but only to carry on the fight in the
Commons, where, supported by the opposition leaders, he managed
to get the two Houses embroiled over a question of privilege, and
raise such a storm that Charles was obliged to prorogue parlia-
ment before the bill was put to a final vote.
In November, four months later, parliament again came
together; but the quarrel was renewed as bitterly as ever, and
1678] TITtTS GATES 769
Charles quickly adjourned tlie House, this time for fifteen months.
The agitation outside of parliament, however, still continued.
The chief center of disturbance were the coffee houses ;
homef^ an institution which had come in with the introduc-
tion of the new beverage from Turkey. At these
houses wits and politicians gathered to regale themselves with
the brain clearing drink, and discuss the issues of the day. In
December Charles attempted to close the coffee houses on the
ground that they encouraged '-false, malicious, and scandalous
reports. " But the attempt raised such an uproar that the procla-
mation was hastily withdrawn. "When parliament assembled again
in 1677 the Country Party, believing that their strength would
be greatly increased by a new general election, attempted to force
a dissolution, 'but the leaders only got into the Tower for their
pains. Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton were soon released,
but Shaftesbury was locked up for more than a year. With all this
by-play, the frequent and prolonged adjournments, the imprison-
ment of Shaiftesbury, Louis had much to do. His money worked
the secret wires ;^to what extent will never be known. Charles
was evidently fast losing control of his Long Parliament; yet
Louis did not want a new parliament, for he well knew that in the
present temper of the country, its first act would be to declare
war against Prance. Charles did not want a new parliament for
he was equally certain that a new House of Commons would at
once begin a vigorous attack upon the Catholics. Hence Louis
bribed freely and Charles was perfectly willing to take his money.
At this stage of the quarrel a new weapon was suddenly put in
Shaftesbury's hands. In August, 1678, one Titus Gates, a clerical
adventurer, who had been first Separatist, then Angli-
ptoto/ can, and finally a pretended convert to Catholicism,
Titus OcLtes ./ ±
came forward with a most astonishing story of a
Catholic plot, in which Charles was to be murdered and the duke
of York made king, London was to be burned, the Protestants
butchered, and the old faith established by French soldiers. Gates
named, also, a number of people who were privy to the plot, finally
even the que^n herself. The story carried its refutation in its
very extravagance; but in the excited condition of the popular
770 BIRTH 0? WHIG PARTY [chaei.es II.
mind, men were ready to believe anything. Othier knavish in-
formers as Bedloe and Dangerfield also took advantage of the
general panic, and joined Gates in the profitable trade of swearing
away the lives of Catholics; the jails were filled with suspects;
judges browbeat juries into giving verdicts, and a number of
victims were sent to the gallows.
When parliament met in October the excitement was still at
its height, and Shaftesbury cunningly seized the moment to secure
the passage of a "Parliamentary Test Act," which
The fall nf excluded "Papists" from both Houses of Parliament.
The duke of York was excepted on his own motion,
but only by two votes. Five Catholic lords, also, were sent to
the Tower. The opposition then turned upon Danby, and in
December impeached him upon evidence of a letter' furnished by
the French king himself, who hated Danby and regarded him as
his enemy. In this letter, acting under the direction of Charles,
Danby had instructed the English ambassador to ask for money
for his master. Charles was eager to save Danby and also to pre-
vent inquiry, which might lead to anything but pleasant results for
himself, and finding that only a dissolution would do it, dissolved
the Cavalier Parliament on the 24th of January 1679. Eighteen
years of misgovernment, the suspicions connected with the Dover
Treaty,' a common belief in the purpose of Charles and his brother
to restore Catholicism to' England by French aid, had long since
cured the Cavalier Parliament of its gushing royalism. To the
last, however, it retained its old bitterness against all kinds of
nonconformists, and no small part of its later enmity to Charles
was due to the conviction of his intended treachery to the Angli-
can Church.
The apprehensions of Charles and Louis were now fully
realized. When the new parliament came together in March, out
of nearly five hundred members, there were not thirty who could
be depended on to support the king. It was well known that
beside the attack upon Danby, there would be a direct attack
' The existence of the secret treaty of Dover was not definitely estab-
lished until the 19th century.
1679] IMPEACHMENT OP DAXBY 771
upon the king's brother and an effort made to exclude him from
the succession. This to Charles was now the all-important issue,
and to save his brother, he determined to yield upon
pm-iiament all minor points, m hope of disarming bis enemies by
' conciliation. This policy, so characteristic of the
third Stuart, will explain the victories of the Country Party dur-
ing the next few months and the serious opposition which they
finally met in the "Exclusion Bill."
The impeachment of Danby was therefore permitted to be
resumed, and although the speedy dissolution of the third parlia-
ment prevented the trial from running its course, it
i3«nZ)i/'s lasted long enough to establish several new principles
of grave importance from a constitutional point of view.
First, it was determined that bishops might sit in the House of
Lords during a trial which involved the death sentence, but
might not remain when the time came for passing the sentence ;
second, that an impeachment might be carried over a dissolution.
But third and most important, it was determined that a direct
order of the king might not be pleaded as a valid defense,
thus establishing the individual responsibility of the minister to
parliament under the law. Fourth, when Danby, pushed to the
wall, finally produced a royal pardon, this also was swept away,
both Houses declaring that a pardon conld not stop an impeach-
ment. The trial, however, was never completed. The dissolution
in May left Danby in the Tower, where he remained until 1684,
when Charles released him on bail.
In the second point also Charles bowed to the overwhelming
majority of the Country Party. He allowed them to attempt a
government, not of their own, but in their own way.
'scMmeof re- '^^^ P^^^ ^^^ suggested by William Temple, who had
"tuco^u^ returned from his brilliant career as minister to the
Netherlands, to throw all his influence with the Country
Party. The new council as organized included fifteen great offi-
cers of state and fifteen gentlemen of independent fortunes. Their
wealth was to place them beyond the temptation of petty bribery,
their personal influence and dignity were to save them from the
petty clamors and attacks of the Commons. The scheme, how-
772 BIETH OP WHIG PAETT [cHiBLEsIL
ever, did not work very well, because in tte first place, a council
of thirty was too unwieldy, and enabled Charles to resort again to
the old Cabal methods ; in the second place, the members, unlike
the modern cabinet, were not bound to support any one political
platform, but held widely divergent views upon almost every topic
that was presented for their consideration, effectually preventing
them from adopting any consistent plan ; and then in the third
place, Shaftesbury was made the president. Charles would not
give him his confidence, and the minister used his of&ce not to
serve the king but to humiliate and baffle him.
The third important point upon which Charles yielded was the
famous "Habeas Corpus Act," "for the better securing the liberty
of the subiect and for preventing imprisonment beyond
The Habeas ,, ,, mi • ■ i. i. t j.- i i iv
Corpus Act, the seas. This important act was particularly the
work of Shaftesbury and was long known as the
' ' Shaftesbury Act. " By it the various subterfuges by which the
crown officers were accustomed to hinder the getting of a writ of
habeas corpus were forbidden under severe penalties, and jailers
were enjoined to obey the writ at once. The custom, which had
sprung up since the Eestoration, of sending political prisoners to
places outside the jurisdiction of the English courts, as Ireland,
or the Channel Islands, in order to avoid the writ, was also forbid-
den. Charles did not like the act, but he was desperately in need
of popularity, and gave his consent in hope of atoning somewhat in
the popular eyes for his former misdeeds.
The compliance of Charles in these less important matters,
however, did not save him from being compelled to face the attack
upon his brother. Men were still terrified at the
The Exclu-
Sim Bill, thought of' what might happen, should an avowed
"Papist" like the duke of York become king. In
vain Charles offered to consent to any moderate measure, which
would not "tend to impeach the right of succession, nor the
descent of the crown in the true line." In the presence of the
terror which had seized upon the nation, the Commons were will-
ing to deny the doctrine of divine right altogether and on the 21st
of May 1679, pushed to a second reading an Exclusion Bill,
designed "to disable the duke of York to inherit the Imperial
1679] PETITIONEES AND ABHORRBRS 773
Crown of England." The second reading was carried by a
majority of 79 votes, and five days later Charles dismissed his third
parliament.
This step Charles had taken by the advice of the inner junto
of his council ; that is of William Temple, Robert Spencer Earl
of Sunderland, George Savile Earl of Halifax, and
poH^of Arthur Capel Earl of Essex, who persuaded him that a
a^uramerit ^^^ appeal to the country would return a more tract-
able parliament. Shaftesbury, who though President,
of the Council was not in the confidence of the king, was ' furious.
He swore that he would have the head of the man who had advised
dissolution; yet when the results of the elections were known,
it was found that the fourth parliament was going to be even
harder to handle than the one which Charles had just dismissed.
Charles did not dare to allow them to assemble at all, and by
a series of postponements managed to fight off the issue for a
whole year.
In October 1679, Shaftesbury was again dismissed from the min-
istry. Without a government position, and without a parliament,
for parliament was not then in session, he fell back
TfiR cJhfist&Ti^
ingofthe ^ upon the tactics of Pym in 1640, and inspired a series
of petitions which began to pour into London from all
parts of the country, entreating the king to assemble the parlia-
ment in order to transact the business of the kingdom. Some of
these petitions originated in noisy assemblies, where hot-headed
agitators thought to frighten the king by a show of violent temper,
and in December Charles by proclamation reinforced an act of 1661
against "tumultuous petitioning." The Court Party, also, were
not idle, and counter assemblies were held and counter addresses
sent up to London, "abhorring unseemly interference" with the
prerogative of the king to assemble parliaments when he would.
Thus arose the names which the two parties now assumed, "Peti-
tioners" and "Abhorrers," soon to give way to the better known
"Whigs" and "Tories," which have stuck to them and their
political descendants ever since. The later names were at first
nicknames, which ardent orators flung at each other in the heat
of debate or public denunciation. The word "Whig," or "Whiga-
774 BIRTH OF WHIG PAKTT [charlesII.
more," was the name by which the bitter Covenanters, the sour
faced bigots of southwestern Scotland, were known; while the
name Tories associated the defenders of James's rights with the
Irish brigands, who infested the wild regions of Ireland and ter-
rorized their Protestant rulers by their midnight burnings and
murders. The names were new, but the parties had existed since
the fall of Clarendon.
Lauderdale, true to his later associations in the Cabal, had so
changed the earlier attitude of the Restoration government in
The Scots Scotland that in 1669 he allowed the Covenanting min-
"BtacTc isters to return to their posts under a special Declara-
induigence." tion of Indulgence from the king. But the
hard-headed Covenanters of the western Lowlands did not like the
Scotch Declaration any better than their English brethren liked its
southern fellow ; they called it the ' ' Black Indulgence, ' ' and refused
to give up their "field conventicles." The government first tried
to suppress the illegal meetings through the courts, but failing in
this, in 1677 sent John Graham of Claverhonse into the Clyde
valley with a band of 8,000 Highlanders to see what could be done
by the more direct methods of martial law. Claverhonse, how-
ever, succeeded no better than the king's justices, and after the
people had been submitted for two years to the depredations and
outrageous cruelties of his crew of semi-barbarians, they were
more defiant than ever.
A brave and obstinate people had now been irritated beyond
endurance, and when, on June 3, 1679, Claverhonse himself was
defeated by an armed congregation which he had
The Cam- j_ -, i_ -,• -r%
eronian attempted to disperse at Drumclog, it was the signal
for a general rising of the people of the western hills.
Just one month before, James Sharp, the archbishop of St.
Andrews, who was the chief representative in Scotland of the
hated prelacy of the south, had been murdered on Magus Moor
by a fanatical band of Covenanters. The government, there-
fore, was not in a gentle mood and determined to crush the
rebels without mercy. Assistance was asked from England and
a force of fifteen thousand men was sent over the border in
response.
1679, 1680] THE KILLING TIME 775
Shaftesbury at the time was still a member of the council and
had used his influence to secure the command of the army for
James James Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of
Mmmmth Charles, a dissolute, reckless young man, but with many
Briag^june ^^ ^^® father's winning ways ; he was politically a Protes-
22, 1679. tant, and thus in favor with the Country Party who
were beginning to regard him as a possible successor of Charles.
Monmouth put down the rebellion with brilliant success, defeating
the insurgents at Bothwell Brigg, and at once became widely pop-
ular at home; even in Scotland he won many friends.
The increased popularity of Monmouth, showed Charles that
he had made a mistake in sending him into Scotland. He there-
fore got him out of the country as soon as possible and
The^Ttiii- gg^t the duke of York to take his place. But this was
ing time." '^
only mending one blunder by committing a greater
blunder. Scotland in the year 1680 was not the place in which
to give a free hand to a man of the narrow and vindictive nature
of James, if he were to win popularity. He set to work at once
in his own fashion to end Covenanting, giving to Scottish history
the era which northern historians have grimly named the "killing
time." The Covenanters, however, did not blanch in the pres-
ence of torture or execution. In 1680 Richard Cameron their
warlike preacher-leader, who had been prominent in the earlier
days of trial, returned and devoted his fiery eloquence to rousing
the people against the oppressor; denouncing the perfidy and
cruelty of the king and calling upon the people to draw the sword
in the name of God. In the famous "Sanquhair Declaration,"
which he issued in June 1680, he proclaimed that the "perjury
and breach of the Covenant" by Charles and James had absolved
Scotsmen from all bonds of allegiance. Cameron was finally
surprised and slain, his armed retinue dispersed, but his fiery
denunciation of the Stuarts was not forgotten by those who heard
him, and was to bear its fruit later.
In December 1679 Monmouth returned to England without the
king's consent, and the Whig leaders attempted to make the most
of his passing popularity. Bells and bonfires welcomed him to
London as the idol of the people. Gossip began to whisper marvel-
776 BIRTH OP WHIG PAKTT [charlesII.
ous stories about a certain "black box" which contained the
proofs of his mother's marriage to the king. Shaftesbury and his
Monmmtth friends raised the cry that the brilliant young prince
"stwTc ^^^ ^° ^® dispossessed simply because he was a Protes-
S'™-" tant. In vain the king protested and in the presence of
the council solemnly denied under oath the fable of the marriage.
The people persisted in their belief and, to add to the excitement,
on June 26, 1680, Shaftesbury accompanied by fourteen prominent
Whigs, went before the Grand Jury at "Westminster and formally
presented the duke of York as a "Popish recusant." Nothing
came of this open attack on the duke, however, except to add to
the disgust of Charles and to arouse anew the hatred of the Tories
for the Whigs.
On October 21, 1680, the fourth parliament of Charles II. was
at last allowed to assemble. Upon the breakup of Temple's
Thefnurth reorganized council, Halifax, who boasted that he was
^f^cfarfes neither Whig nor Tory but a "trimmer" between the
Excimion' *^° factions, had retained the chief confidence of the
Bill. king. He now attempted to conciliate the Whig Com-
mons, by proposing, instead of the Exclusion Bill, that parliament
should enact that during the reign of a Catholic king no ecclesi-
astical, civil, or military appointment, should be made without the
consent of parliament or, when parliament was not in session, with-
out the consent of a permanent committee of forty-one, appointed by
the two Houses. But the Commons would have nothing but the
Exclusion Bill and carried it almost unanimously. To the sur-
prise of every one, however, the Lords rejected the bill by a vote
of 63 to 30.
This victory for the king was the result of a great speech by
Halifax, who, while admitting the motive of the Exclusion Bill,
presented the cause of Mary and her able husband ; set-
mfL%Zf ^^^S forth that they were both of them Protestants and
^iSn^mii' f^^ ^0^® closely identified with the cause of Protestant
resistance to Catholic aggression than the dissolute
duke of Monmouth; that at best the reign of James would be
short, and then the crown might pass to William and Mary with-
out doing violence to the cause of legitimate succession. The
1681-1685] THE SECOND STUAKT TTRASTNT 777
Commons were not pleased ; they demanded the expulsion of Halifax
from the ministry, refused to yote any supplies to the crown,
and attempted to fasten the Great Fire of London upon the
Catholics. Their storming, however, frightened no one ; Halifax
had effectually divided the councils of the enemies of James and
broken the solid front of the Whigs. The tide was already turn-
ing, and when Lord Stafford was sent to the block, the last victim
of the Gates panic, the crowds at the execution openly expressed
their belief in his innocence. On the 10th of January Charles
adjourned parliament and on the 18th finally dissolved it.
Charles, however, needed supplies and in March ventured to
summon the third of his short parliaments at Oxford, where the
royal influence was far stronger than at London and
parliament where Shaftesbury would be deprived of much of hiS'
n.. March bliister. But the Whig members, still undaunted, came
up to Oxford attended by bands of armed followers,
determined to push the Exclusion Bill at all hazards. Men
remembered the stirring scenes of 1642, and believed that a new
civil war was at hand. Charles offered to consent to the perpetual
banishment of the duke of York and that the Prince of Orange
should be named as regent, if only James might be allowed to
retain the name of king. Nothing but absolute and final
exclusion would satisfy the belligerent Whig majority. On the
eighth day of the session, Charles, satisfied that the Commons
would accept no compromise and that they were intent upon rush-
ing through the Exclusion Bill at whatever cost, dissolved his fifth
parliament. This was the last of the Exclusion Bill. It was also
the last attempt of Charles II. to manage a parliament.
Charles and his Tory friends were now masters of the situa-
tion; the Whigs had been overthrown; Monmouth's hopes had
The Tom been destroyed and the duke of York saved. The posi-
mie"Second ^^^^ °^ Charles at this time has been compared to that
Tymnny of his father in 1639; but in reahty there is very little
1681-1685. resemblance, save in the despotic character of the next
and last era of his reign, which is Justly called the Second Stuart
Tyranny. In the first place Charles had a far better cause than
his father. Moreover, unlike his father, he had a standing army
778 BIKTH OF WHIG PARTY [chaklesU.
at his command, small but well ordered, and recently increased
by the return of the Tangier garrison. Lonis, also, had become
alarmed at the prospect of uniting England and Holland under
the regency of William or the accession of Mary, and had
hastened to furnish Charles with another subsidy on condition that
no parliament be called again for three years. Charles was thus
independent, and found himself able to rule without resorting to
his father's offensive methods of raising a revenue. But most,
Charles II. was supported by a powerful political party in the
nation, whose strength was increasing daily; the result of the dis-
gust and resentment, which was felt as soon as men fully appre-
ciated the worthlessness of the disclosures of Gates and his fellow
informers, and began to understand how Shaftesbury and his sup-
porters had used these creatures to play upon the terror of the
populace for partisan ends.
The Second Stuart Tyranny, however, began very much like
the first. Charles first issued a Declaration in which he attempted
to iustify his recent acts, and then proceeded to marshal
The cJos6 of
sha/tssbury's the courts to punish his discomfited foes. The first
victim was Stephen College, whose only crime was an
over loose tongue. An Oxford Tory jury convicted him of treason
and the Tory judge sentenced him to be hanged. Neither Charles
nor James, however, would rest as long as the archplotter, Shaftes-
bury, went free. In July Shaftesbury was arrested and thrown into
the Tower, but the sheriff of Middlesex was careful to secure a
Whig Grand Jury, and when the case was presented in Novem-
ber, the Grand Jury refused to bring in an indictment. While
Shaftesbury was in prison, vainly calling for the privilege assured
him by his own Habeas Corpus Act, Dryden, the courtier -poet of
the Restoration, brought out his "Absalom and Achitophel," in
which he painted Shaftesbury, the Achitophel, as a monster of craft,
deceit, and, audacious cunning, while Monmouth, his Absalom,
is the headless dupe, whom the unscrupulous intriguer leads
astray. As long as the Whigs ruled in the city, Shaftesbury was
safe, but in 1681 the court by underhand means secured the elec-
tion of a Tory mayor, and followed this in 1G82 by the appoint-
ment of Tory sheriffs. Shaftesbury saw that London was no longer
1683] THE EYE HOUSE PLOT 779
safe, and made good his escape to Holland, where he died in the
following January.
Before his departure from London, Shaftesbury had planned an
insurrection in Monmouth's favor. But Monmouth did not
receive the encouragement in the west which was
The Bye
Howe Plot, expected, and the other conspirators failed to act at the
June, less. , , -,, ,
last moment; Monmouth was arrested and the scheme
collapsed. But the next summer, certain overzealous Whigs
planned to assassinate Charles and James as they returned to
London from the summer races at Newmarket, at a place known
as the "Eye House," near Hadesdon in Hertfordshire. The
princes, however, returned a day sooner than the plotters had
expected and thus the plot failed. It was the work of a group of
obscure Whigs, but it was so mixed up with the last conspiracy of
Shaftesbury that many nobler men were easily implicated by the
excited Tories and their lives sacrificed. Among them was Lord
William Eussell, the early leader of the Country Party in the
Commons, the son of the earl of Bedford, a man of blameless
character and lamented even by his foes; Algernon Sidney, also,
who still clung to the old ideas of the Commonwealth. Essex had
been arrested, but destroyed himself with his own hands, in order,
it is said, to prevent the trial and so save his family estates from
forfeiture. The trials, in which the brutal methods of the
infamous Judge Jeffreys first became prominent, were parodies of
Justice. Sidney was condemned upon the evidence of an unpub-
lished treatise in which he commended the insurrections against
Nero, interpreted by the judges as approving an insurrection
against Charles II. Monmouth also was arrested, but his father's
love for him saved him and he was allowed to make a confession
and retire to Holland.
While the royal judges were thus hunting the enemies of the
king to earth, Charles was turning his attention to securing a Tory
AttacTc of parliament, upon which he might call when Louis's sub-
cnaries sidies should cease. The county electors, under the
upon the ■' '
charters. influence of the reaction, could be trusted to return
Tories to parliament; but in the boroughs the right of electing to
parliament was generally in the hands of the town corporations,
780 BIETH OF WHIG PARTY [chaeles II.
which were not only Whig strongholds bnt close bodies as well,
with the right of filling vacancies ia the membership whenever
they occurred. Hence the town corporations remained strongly
Whig in spite of the gathering reaction and would be pretty sure
to return Whigs to parliament whenever a call should be issued.
Judge Saunders, a justice of the Jeffreys type, proposed to Charles
to recall the charters of the corporations by a writ quo warranto,
and to restore them again with Tory boards. In 1683, accord-
ingly, proceedings were begun against London and followed up by
attacks upon every Whig stronghold of the kingdom. Even places
like Leeds, which sent no delegate to parliament, and the distant
American colonies, which could hardly exercise any influence at
all upon the political atmosphere of England, were compelled to
give up their charters, so thorough and far-reaching were Charles's
plans and so determined was he to scotch the Whig serpent. In
returning the Toryized charters, Charles further reserved the
right of confirming the elections of municipal ofiBcers, and even of
naming the officers, if the elections were not satisfactory.
Charles was now as absolute as a king could be who held his
crown under the forms of law. Yet he could not discard
altogether the theory of constitutional restrictions. Even Jeffreys,
who boasted that he had made all the charters "like the walls of
Jericho fall down flat," had, in spoiling the cities of their time-
honored privileges, resorted to the forms of law. But although
in theory a constitutional monarch still, Charles, like the Tudors,
had reached a point where he need not be overscrupulous. The
Triennial Act of 1641 had been repealed, but the Second Triennial
Act, 1664, had again prescribed that more than three years should
not intervene between parliaments. Charles, however, had no
thought of burdening himself even with a Tory parliament, until
it was actually necessary, and directly violated the law by neglect-
ing to call a parliament in 1684. So, too, Danby, who during these
years of trouble had been almost forgotten in the Tower,
Charles released, and in open defiance of the Test Act recalled his
brother to the council and once more established him as Lord
High Admiral.
At the opening of the year 1685, Charles was approaching his
1685] DEATH OF CHARLES II. 781
fifty-fifth birthday. He was never more popular among his
people. He had won in the long straggle with the Whig reac-
Deathof ^^'^^ ^^^ could afford to enjoy his triumph. His court
F^rua.'nf'' '^^^ never more gay ; its revels never madder, nor more
6,1685. profane, nor more dissolute. Never had the fear of
God been more completely banished from "the glorious gallery
of Whitehall." The king was in the best of health, hale and
hearty at fifty-five, when on February 2 he was suddenly
smitten with apoplexy and died four days later, with his last
breath confessing his secret allegiance to the faith of the Catholic
Church.
Charles narrowly missed being a great king. Once, in the days
when he was on better terms with Shaftesbury, he had said to the
archplotter: "Shaftesbury, you are the greatest rogue
Charus"^ in my dominion." "Of a subject, your majesty,"
replied Shaftesbury, "I believe I am." For ten years
these two masters of the art of chicanery had been matching their
wits, and Charles had won. There needs no better test of the
masterly ability of the man who under a veil of indifference and
frivolity concealed a consummate talent for intrigue and a calcu-
lating cynicism, a shrewd ability to read men and use them,
baffling his enemies and surprising his friends. His coolness and
perfect self-control, his courage in the presence of dangers where
his greatest statesmen lost their heads, his strength of purpose
were as marked as his final triumph was brilliant and overwhelm-
ing. Yet with all his ability, of sense of honor, of personal prin-
ciple, he knew nothing. Had he possessed with his ability any
corresponding moral sense, he might have made one of the great-
est kings that England has ever honored with.her crown.
CHAPTEE VIII
THE WHIG EEVOLUTION
JAMES IL, ieHb-llib9
Charles II. had left no childreR by his wife, Catharine of
Braganza, and since all opposition to his brother's succession had
been silenced in the overthrow of the "Whigs, James
Jamlfu""^ now passed quietly to the vacant throne. The new
reign began under fairly favorable auspices. James
was not altogether unpopular, although many still regarded his
accession to the throne as a national calamity. The people, more-
over, had no wish to venture again upon the uncertain
heainning waters of civil strife. The widely accepted doctrines
of "divine right" and "nonresistance" had apparently
forestalled reaction, and there was no reason, in existing condi-
tions at least, why James II. should not round out the full num-
ber of his years as king of England. His first acts, also, helped
to inspire confidence. Soon after his brother's death he met the
Privy Council and pledged himself to "preserve the government
in both church and state as then by law established." Halifax
thanked the king in the name of the council, and the council
published the speech as a royal proclamation. Even London
received the word in good faith ; the people felt that they had
misunderstood the prince, and had been too quick to listen to
the base maligning of his enemies. "We have the word of a
king," they cried, "and of a king who has never been worse
than his word." So great was the loyal enthusiasm of the hour
that the people looked on with indifEerence while Titus Gates and
his accomplices, Dangerfield and Bedloe, were fined, publicly
lashed into unconsciousness, and imprisoned for life. It was in
accord with the popular mood to regard this punishment as none
too severe for such base criminals. Even the exaction of the cus-
783
1685] BEGINNING OF TROUBLE 783
toms, which by law should have ceased with the death of Charles,
was recognized by the most outspoken "Whigs as necessary in the
interests of commerce as well as the state, and accepted without
complaint. And when mass was once more publicly celebrated at
Whitehall, though some demurred and others raised their voices
in protest, the most felt that this was the king's matter, and that
his conscience must be respected. When the first parliament
assembled in May, the Houses proceeded to give this universal
loyal sentiment a still more definite expression; they voted the
new king for life a grant of £1,900,000 per annum, which
exceeded by £500,000 the income which the fulsome loyalty of the
Eestoration Parliament had seen fit to bestow upon Charles II.
The crime of treason , was extended to embrace any attempt to
change the natural law of succession. A petition asking for the
enforcement of the laws against nonconformists, also, was thrown
out, and even Shaftesbury's Habeas Corpus Act was probably saved
only by the landing of Monmouth, which caused an immediate
adjournment.
The troubles of the new reign began first in Scotland. A band
of Whig exiles had infested the Dutch court, and the Stadholder,
not unwilling to show his good will towards his father-
o/irmbi^ in-law, compelled the exiles to leave Holland. They
retom™"*' gathered at Brussels, and here devised a mad scheme
of attempting to raise Scotland and England in the
name of Monmouth as the rightful heir of Charles II. Argyll,
son of the covenanting Argyll who had been put to death at the
Eestoration, sailed first, intending to raise his clans-
ofArgyiito men, the Campbells. But his movements were so
dilatory that the deputies of James early learned of his
arrival, and, by throwing the Campbell chieftains into prison and
seizing the outlets of the Highlands, efEectually prevented him
from securing the help upon which he had counted. The Camp-
bells, however, faithfully responded to Argyll's call; but he was so
thoroughly outgeneraled, that the poor fellows were dispersed and
sent to their homes without having an opportunity to swing their
claymores for their beloved "Maccallum More,"^ and Argyll him-
' The narae by which Argyll was known to his clansmen.
784 THE WHIG EEVOLtTTION [jamksU.
seli was made a prisoner. On the 30tli of June he was led through
Edinburgh, "bareheaded, his hands tied behind his back, and
followed by the hangman." It was not necessary to stop for a
trial ; he was already resting under an earlier sentence, and was
forthwith executed. The other leaders who accompanied him,
among them Rumbold, an old Commonwealth man, prominent
among the real authors of the Eye House plot, suffered the same
fate.
On the 11th of Jnne, six days after the capture of Argyll, the
second of these ill-managed and ill-fated expeditions, led by Mon-
mouth in person, landed at Lyme in Dorsetshire. In
Mmmauth, a proclamation, cleverly put, the leader demanded tol-
eration for Protestants, the repeal of the Corporation
Acts, and the restoration of the charters. Some two thousand
men joined him from the neighboring region, and with them he
entered the manufacturing districts of Somerset, and advanced
to Taunton. His ranks were soon swelled by the clothiers of
Somerset, the miners of the Mendip Hills, and the simple folk of
the country side, but the supply of arms which he had brought
with him was soon exhausted, and pitchforks, flails, and scythes,
the peaceful imjilements of husbandry, had to do duty for pike
and gun. The nobility and the gentry held aloof. They had
little faith iri Monmouth's claim to be a legal son of the dead
king; they were also more intelligent, and foresaw what must
happen as soon as the rabble which followed "King Monmouth"
should come face to face with the king's regulars.
The plan of Monmouth was to push on to Cheshire, where he
was assured of support. But at Philip's-Norton, he was turned
back by the king's troops, and compelled to retire
Julys, 6, ' upon Bridge water. He was closely followed by the
royal army under command of Louis Duras Earl of
Feversham, and John Churchill. Monmouth knew that as he
could not advance, he must fight at once, and on the night of July
5, determined to take advantage of a dense fog which had set-
tled down over the half reclaimed marshes of the Sedgemoor flats,
and make a desperate attempt to surprise Feversham and Churchill
as they lay in their camps. The undertaking was one of great
1685] SEDGEMOOE 785
danger; Monmouth's troops were without discipline and unac-
customed to the voices of their officers ; the country was cut up
by broad, deep ditches, well filled with water; it was so dark that
a pikeman could not see his fellow who marched in the rank before
him; the enemy, moreover, were experienced campaigners, and
knew well their trade ; there was not one chance in a thousand of
success. Yet in the very boldness of the enterprise, there was
hope, and as the event proved, Monmouth's plan was not altogether
foolhardy. But in the moment when his men were rushing upon
the foe, a broad canal, filled with black water to the brim, sud-
denly revealed itself in the darkness, stretching along their whole
front and effectually preventing any further progress. Lord
Grey with Monmouth's cavalry fled, but the infantry stood their
ground and delivered their feeble fire at the regulars across the
moat, who, from behind its safe cover, answered with deadly ,
precision. Still the raw farm lads held their own until Fever-
sham brought up his artillery. Then they broke and fled.
Monmouth, who had early left the field, was taken a few days
later in the N^ew Forest and brought to London. Parliament had
already passed an act of attainder, so that there was no obstacle
in the way of an immediate execution. He was beheaded on
Tower Hill, July 15.
After the battle Kirke, the colonel of the Tangier regiment,
who had learned his trade in warring with Moslems, had succeeded
Feversham to the command, and let loose his "Lambs"
'L^mhs"and ^^P°^ *^^® peasants of the west, following the fugitives
AtsiS'""ms *° their homes and hanging them, without form of trial,
over their own door steps. Nothing was to be seen, it
was said, but "forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets, and ghostly car-
casses. The trees were loaden almost as thick with quarters as
leaves; the houses and steeples covered as close with heads, as at
other times with crows or ravens." The jails, also, were crowded
with the trembling victims. James, however, was not satisfied,
and sent out a commission of five judges, headed by the terrible
Jeffreys, to finish Kirke's work. The circuit was long known as
the "Bloody Assize." More than 300 were hanged, and upwards
of 800 more deported and sold as slaves to the planters in the
78G THE WHIG REVOLUTION [james II.
Barbadoes and Jamaica. At Winchester the commission stopped
to try and execute Alice Lisle, who had been guilty of giving
shelter to one of the fugitives as he fled from the battle. She
was advanced in years, and a widow of one of Cromwell's lords.
Another victim was Elizabeth Grant, who was convicted of a like
charge, and burned alive at Tyburn. When Jeffreys returned, as
a reward for his work, he was made Lord Chancellor.
The influence of these successes upon the king's mind was
soon apparent. The failure of Monmouth had proved that the
day had gone by when insurgents might hope to cope
il'^on James successfully with the troops of the king. Only trained
soldiers could meet the "regulars" of the government.
The nation, moreover, was now apparently all Tory. The doctrine
of nonresistance had become the accepted political tenet, not of
.a party, but of the English people. James knew, also, that in an
emergency he might, like his brother, depend upon the support
of the French king who had already sent him, as an earnest of his
good will, a dole of £67,000. His obstinacy and intolerance of
opposition, which were always marked traits, increased accord-
ingly; he began to cherish visions of the ultimate restoration of
the Catholic faith in England, and saw himself again in possession
of those prerogatives which the crown had once enjoyed in the
days of Elizabeth and his grandfather; nor was it long before he
had definitely framed a policy of aggression towards the laws and
the ecclesiastical establishment of England, belying his recent
fair words, and putting the nonresistance principles of his
staunchest Tory friends to the test.
During the summer, while Jeffreys was browbeating terrified
witnesses and bullying frightened juries into giving their consent
to the burning of old women and the hanging of sim-
umlTtht P^^ peasant folk, the spirit of passive endurance which
Ncmtes, was. ^^^ '^^ ^^.te taken possession of the nation, received a
yet more disquieting shock from the progress of events
across the Channel. Since the time of Henry IV. the Protestants
of France had rested securely under the protecting shadow of the
Edict of Nantes. But in the summer of 1685, Louis XIV. saw fit,
not only to recall this Edict, but actively to enter the lists against
1685] POSITION OF JAMES 787
the newly outlawed Huguenots, and summoned all the machinery
of the state to crush religious dissent. It was one of the most
foolish of all Louis's acts of tyranny, and dealt a blow
Fronc"^"" to the prosperity of his kingdom, from which it never
recovered. According to Evelyn, the famous diarist,
"even the Papists did not approve of it." To Louis's ally, the
new king of England, it was even more serious. Troops of
refugees, who a short time before had been among the most pros-
perous of Louis's subjects, but now were stripped of all save their
lives, began to reach England. They were at once taken in and
cared for by their fellow Protestants, and the story of their wrongs
quickened the latent distrust wliich, in spite of the prevailing
Tory doctrines. Englishmen had always felt for their Catholic king.
They did not stop to make distinctions, but confounded the tyranny
of the French king with the faith which was still proscribed in
England by the accumulated laws and traditions of a century.
When the parliament, which had given such evidence of its
loyalty in the spring, assembled in November, its temper had
perceptibly changed. James asked for the repeal of
temper of the Test Act and for an increase in the standing army,
but met with a refusal so peremptory that he did not
propose a third measure, which he also had in mind, the repeal of
the Habeas Corpus Act. Even the coimcil had taken on some-
thing of the new spirit which was abroad; so that the king
thought himself called upon to dismiss Halifax, the old champion
of legitimate succession. Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Eochester, the
brother-in-law of the king, also had protested against some recent
acts, which might be regarded as a public sanction of the mass,
and, although Hyde was retained for a short time longer, he fell
under the king's displeasure.
The contention of James was specious enough: that subjects
capable of being useful to the state ought not to be debarred from
public service by reason of their creed, and that all
Thepnstiim religious tests as a qualification for office ought to be
of James. & t. o
removed. The motive of James, however, as the
sequel proved, was not so commendable. He had no intention of
giving the great nonconformist body a share in the government
788 THE WHIG REVOLUTION [jamks II.
equal to their influence, or commensurate with their ability. He
proposed, rather, to free himself from the shackles of the religious
test in order that he might use the patronage of the crown to
entrench the Catholics in the public offices, and thus, by sur-
rounding himself with a group of Catholic officials, control the
state to his liking. It is difficult to believe that the man who
inaugurated the "killing time" in Scotland, ^ever had any real
sympathy with the principles of liberty of conscience, or freedom
of worship, or that he proposed to shelter the Protestant non-
conformists for other than ulterior motives.
James had now had his first quarrel with parliament and had
met his first rebuff. Under similar circiimstances his predecessor
would have quietly dropped the matter and waited for
The Test
Act and the the present revulsion of feeling to pass away. But the
obstinate nature of James was aroused, and after a
brief session of three weeks, he prorogued parliament, and
invoked the law courts to assist him in overthrowing the Test
Act. He had already given his confidence to four men who were
in full sympathy with his motives and had had more influence with
him than his councillors of state. These men were Richard Tal-
bot Earl of Tyrconnel, who was familiarly known in the court as
"Lying Dick Talbot," Henry Jermyn, Edward Petre, a Jesuit,
and Kobert Spencer Earl of Sunderland, a cold hearted, corrupt
man, who believed in nothing but himself, and was ready to turn
Catholic to please the king if that were the next thing on the
slate. It was by the advice of these men that James proceeded
to attack the Test Act through his dispensing power, looking to
the subservient judges of the Kings Court to give his position the
sanction of law. A friendly suit was arranged by which an action
was brought against Sir Edward Hales, a Catholic colonel, by
Godden, his coachman, on the charge of accepting a commission
in the army in disobedience to the Test Act. The
ca,w™f decision was given in June 1686. Of the bench of
twelve Judges, eleven supported the Dispensing Power
of the king. Chief Justice Herbert declared that in as much as
the laws of England were the king's laws, it was for him to dis-
pense with penal laws in particular cases, whenever he saw fit.
1686] ATTACK OS THE CHURCH 789
Upon the basis of this astounding decision, which threatened the
entire legislative authority of parliament, James proceeded at
once to fill all possible places in the army and the civil service
with his co-religionists.
In order to entrench himself in the state church the king fol-
lowed a somewhat similar method. As the royal prerogative
empowered him to suspend the action of the Test Act
mthe^"^ in secular cases, it was claimed also that the authority
S"''' which the Act of Supremacy conferred upon the king,
empowered him to suspend the Act of Uniformity of
Charles II. The process, however, of waiting for vacancies in
church livings in order to fill them with Catholics, proved too slow
to satisfy James, who was now thoroughly warmed to his work. On
July 14, 1686, he instituted by patent a "Commission for the Trial
of Ecclesiastical Causes," expressly empowering it to exercise its
authority, "notwithstanding any law or statute to the contrary."
The jurisdiction of the new court did not extend to the laity, but
so far as the clergy were concerned it was virtually a revival of
the old Court of High Commission. It was composed of seven
members. Jeffreys, the Lord Chancellor, was president, and no
session could be held without him. The king of course had no
legal right to create such a court ; it was not only a direct usur-
pation of powers which parliament had once by law explicitly
denied the crown ; it was also a flagrant invasion of the rights
which Tory churchmen had secured for themselves as a reward for
their support of the Stuart Restoration. The first act of the new
court, also, showed that the seven commissioners were fully deter-
mined to sing to the score which the king had set them. Dr.
Sharp, Dean of Norwich, had preached a sermon in which he
denied that obedience to the papal authority was necessary to
membership in the body of the Catholic Church. Henry Comp-
ton, Bishop of London, was instructed to call Dr. Sharp to account
for his unseasonable word's. Compton, however, refused and was
at once suspended by the new Court of High Commission. The
old Court of High Commission of Elizabeth had been set up to
protect the legal church of the realm against the annoying
attacks of nonconformist fanatics. The new court of James was
])nrcs to meet
resistance.
790 THE WHIG KEVOLUTION [james II.
established evidently to bind the tongues of churchmen and pre-
vent any unseemly attacks upon the religious system represented
by the king.
In the spring the movements of the king became yet more
menacing, and popular suspicion and discontent continued to rise
accordingly. The refusal of parliament to allow James
James pre- to increase his standing army compelled him to look
elsewhere for increased military support, should it be
needed. Ireland offered a most favorable recruiting
ground for such a Catholic army. But it was necessary to have a
Lord Deputy in Ireland who would not be unnerved by any Eng-
lish sympathies, when the king should need the help of an Irish
army in England. "There is work to be done in Ireland," said
James, "which no Englishman can do." Acccordingly in Feb-
ruary the elder Hyde, Lord Clarendon, was recalled, and Talbot
was sent out in his place. The younger Hyde, Lord Rochester,
was removed from the council. The temper of London James
feared somewhat, and marched an army of 13,000 men to Houn-
slow Heath and there encamped them in order to overawe
the city. In the meanwhile he continued to fill all the high
places in church and state and army with Catholics, or with
lukewarm Protestants who held religious principles lightly and
responded to no call save that of selfish interest.
James now felt himself strong enough to begin the direct
attack upon the restrictive religious legislation of the past two
generations. On April 4, 1687, he issued his famous
mn^fin^"'' Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended by royal
dutoence, proclamation all the laws against Catholic or Protestant
Dissenters. The Declaration on the one hand was a
defiance to the old high church party who had given birth to the
Clarendon Code; on the other it was a direct bid for the support
of Protestant Dissenters. James evidently thought that the
Tories would live up to their principle of nonresistance, and that
the Protestant nonconformists would gladly acquiesce in a meas-
ure so clearly in their interests. But he was soon to find that in
both cases he had gravely misread human nature. When he
attempted to present a Benedictine monk to the University of
1687] THE DEOLAEATION OF INDULGElirCE 791
Cambridge for the degree of Master of Arts, the authorities flatly
refused to confer the degree unless the candidate should take the
oath prescribed by law ; and it was necessary for the Commission
for the Trial of Ecclesiastical Causes to take Dr. Peckell, the vice
chancellor of the university, in hand. The occurrence of a vacancy
in the presidency of the Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford,
gave James another opportunity to enforce his peculiar views of
religious liberty, and Oxford, an opportunity to practice its favor-
ite doctrine of nonresistance. James attempted to force upon
the Fellows, Samuel Parker, the recently appointed bishop of
Oxford, who was in sympathy with James's religious views. But
the Fellows, instead of submitting, elected Dr. Hough, their own
candidate. Here again the Commission was called upon to inter-
fere; and Dr. Hough and the Fellows who supported him were
sumniarily turned out. The nonconforming bodies were no
better pleased with James's efforts in their behalf. The promise of
toleration deceived them no more than in the time of Charles II.
With the exception of a few, as the Quaker, William Penn, all took
their stand with the Tory churchmen. Thus the aggressions of
James were slowly but surely consolidating against him a deter-
mined body of resistance, in which Whigs and Tories, regardless of
political differences, and Anglican churchmen and nonconformists,
regardless of religious differences, stood together for the inviola-
bility of the laws of the land.
On the surface, however, the affairs of James were progressing
well enough. With men like Jeffreys on the bench, with men like
Sunderland and Petre to advise him, and men like Tal-
thecarpora- bot, Feversham, and Churchill in command of the
army, apparently he had nothing . to fear. James's
position, however, had still one vulnerable point, and he now gave
his attention to the strengthening of this point. On July 2, 1687
he dissolved his first parliament, which he had not allowed to sit
since December 1685, and at once set about getting together a
new parliament better to his liking. He detailed certain of the
Privy Council, and sent them around to "regulate" the corpora-
tions. His eyes were not yet open to the real temper of the Prot-
estant nonconformists, and he still fondly believed that if they had
792 THE WHIG REVOLUTION [jakes II.
the opportunity, they would join the Catholics in electing the kind
of men he wanted for his parliament. The Tory members who had
been added to the corporations in 1683, therefore, were carefully
excluded, and Protestant nonconformists put in their places.
The justices and deputy-lieutenants of the counties, who refused to
promise compliance with the wishes of the king, were also removed.
Nearly one-half the lords-lieutenant were allowed to resign in order
that Catholics and Dissenters might be appointed to their places.
Nonresistance had now reached its limit. The remodeling of
the corporations and the filling of the county oflBces with the
religious friends of James spread consternation every-
Deciaratton ^^^^^- ^o high ran the feeling, that when the work
aenc^^' ^^^ done, and the membership of the corporations was
remodeled to the king's liking, even his obtuse mind
began to comprehend the real temper of the nonconformist t)odies,
and he dared not issue a call for the new parliament. Yet he had
no thought of yielding, and on April 35, 1688, with the sanction
of his Privy Council, he reissued the Declaration of Indulgence
and ordered it to be read in all the churches ; in London, on the
last two Sundays of May, and in the rest of the kingdom, on the
first two Sundays of June. If the measure were designed to put
the doctrine of nonresistance to the test, James ought to have
been satisfied. When the first Sunday appointed in May came,
only four of the clergy of London read the Declaration, and in
each case the congregation refused to stay to hear the proclama-
tion. But far more serious than the action of individual clergy-
men or congregations, was a formal petition which on the 18th of
May was presented to the king by seven bishops, in which they
besought him not to force them or their clergy to break the law.
The seven bishops were Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, Ken
of Bath and Wells, White of Peterborough, Trelawney of Bristol,
Lloyd of St. Asaph, Turner of Ely, and Lake of Chichester.
When James was confronted by the petition, he was furious at
what he was pleased to regard as the raising of the standard of
rebellion, and bitterly taunted the petitioners as good churchmen
who questioned the Dispensing Power of the king. Tlie act of
the bishops, however, was soon to bear fruit. Tory churchmen,
1688] THE SEVEN- BISHOPS 793
now that their bishops h-ad protested, no longer hesitated, and
when the first Sunday of June came, scarcely any one consented
to read the Declaration. James turned his wrath upon the seven
bishops, and on the 8th of June, sent them to the Tower, on a
charge of publishing a seditious libel. The people gathered in
vast crowds to see the seven quiet faced men pass
and trial of under guard to the great state prison, and as they
passed along shouted after them benedictions and pray-
ers for their safety. The trial was brought on before the Court of
Kings Bench on June 29. The crown lawyers in order to prove
the indictment, descended to trickery in which the clerk of the
court and Sunderland joined. Late at night the jury, which had
been chosen in accordance with the corrupt methods of the day,
retired to consider their verdict. Few people in London slept
that night. The city, at fever heat, waited while the jury
deliberated, and when in the morning the foreman, to the sur-
prise of all, pronounced the talismanic "Not guilty," the words
were caught up by the watchers and in a few minutes were
shouted by waiting multitudes in the streets; the whole city,
Whigs and Tories, churchmen and dissenters, went wild with joy.
Even the soldiers on Hounslow Heath, who had been called to
arms to suppress mob violence if need be, caught the contagion
and shouted and cheered themselves hoarse with the townsmen.
The news ran like wildfire along the country roads, and village
after village caught up the joyous shout of triumph. Even from
distant Cornwall came back the refrain of the Cornish miners who
loved the sturdy Bishop of Bristol as one of their own race :
" And shall Trelawney die, my boys ? and shall Trelawney die ?
Then thirty thousand Cornish men will know the reason why."
The bishops were not the only cause of all this popular excite-
ment. Two days after the arrest of the bishops, Mary of Modena,
the second wife of James, had given birth to a son,
of James James Francis Edward. Under the intense excitement
Francis Ed- „ ,, , -it i i t j.
ward Stuart, of the moment, men were willing to believe any extrav-
agance, and the fact that none but James's Catholic
friends were present to greet the prince on his arrival, gave color
to the story, which was soon widely believed, that the prince was
794 THE WHIG EEVOLUTIOU" [james 11.
not a royal child at all, but had been . smuggled into the palace
by a Jesuit trick, in order to defeat the succession of James's
eldest daughter, the Princess of Orange. The rumor was without
foundation; but the appearance, at such a time, of a direct heir
to the throne, who would be certain to be reared in the faith of
the father and mother, precipitated the crisis. The Protestant
nation had up to this point endured James, because they thought
his reign could not in the course of nature last long. But now
they saw the promise of a Catholic rule indefinitely prolonged,
unless prevented by immediate action. The leaders, however, were
wary. The fate of Monmouth's revolt had shown the uselessness
of pitting untrained men against the regular army of the king.
They turned, therefore, to the only man who could help them, who
had a trained army at command and whose interests might incline
him to prevent the theatened Catholic succession. On the day
after the acquittal of the bishops, seven men, regardless of any
previous party affiliations, sent an invitation to William to bring
a Dutch army into England and save the nation from the rule of
popery. Of the seven men the earls of Devonshire and Shrews-
bury, Henry Sydney* brother of the late Algernon Sydney, and
Admiral Edward Russell, cousin of the late Lord William
Russell, were Whigs. The Tories were represented by Danby,
Charles II. 's old minister. Lord Lumley, and Henry Compton,
the suspended bishop of London. The message it is said, was
carried to William by Admiral Herbert disguised as a common
seaman.
When the letter of the seven reached William he was just fac-
ing another great war with Louis XIV. In 1686 he had com-
pleted the coalition against France, known as the
whicucon"^ League of Augsburg. It included all the great powers
^wuuam °^ Western Europe; Spain, the emperor, the North
German princes, Sweden, and the United Netherlands.
In 1687 Bavaria, Saxony, the leading princes of Italy, and even
the pope, secretly promised their support. The league had been
formed without regard to ecclesiastical lines and had been inspired
solely by the aggressions of Louis upon his weaker neighbors.
The letter of the seven, therefore, offered a tempting opportunity
1688] THE LEAGUE OF AUGSBUEe 795
to ■William; by dethroning James he might detach England and
Scotland from their quasi alliance with France, and by adding
them to the League complete the cordon of hostile powers which
he had been drawing about Louis. It was an opportunity to be
greeted with fierce joy by a man who beheld at last the realization
of the passion of his life within his grasp. And yet the dan-
gers were great. A direct attack upon James must appear to
William's Catholic allies as a direct attack upon their religion,
aad might lead to the disruption of the league which he had built
up at the cost of infinite pains and patience. Louis, also, could
not be expected to look on in apathy, while William overthrew
James and added England to the enemies of France. Simply the
gathering of an army would be enough to arouse the wary Louis's
suspicion, and the moment the Dutch fleet faced the Channel
-Louis might be expected to throw an army into Holland. But an
even more serious diflBculty lay at home. The federal government
of the United Netherlands was a cumbrous affair resembling
somewhat the government of the United States of America under
the Articles of Confederation. It was designed to foster local
liberties rather than to support a powerful national government.
The Stadholder had no authority to levy taxes or raise troops or
declare war without the consent of the States-General. The States-
General, moreover, was not a compact body like the present
American Congress, but a loose convention of envoys or delegates
sent from the various provincial states all mutually independent.
But further, a fact still more fatal to concerted action, each pro-
vincial state was in like manner simply a confederation of smaller
states, each of which reserved the right to pass upon the acts of its
representatives. Before the Stadholder could act constitution-
ally, therefore, he must take every city of the confederation into
his confidence and secure its consent. Secrecy was of course
impossible. The old pro- French oligarchy still had a powerful
following in many of the cities, especially in Amsterdam, and
French gold might be expected to play an important part in rous-
ing the old party of the De "Witts to vigorous opposition. It was
a task from which a man even of William's patience and deter-
mination might shrink.
796 THE WHIG REVOLUTION [jameb IL
With strange blindness, however, Louis himself persisted in
removing all obstacles from the path of William. In the first
place, Louis selected this moment to open a quarrel
gJj^JJ^^^ with the pope somewhat similar to that of the old quar-
■with the j-gjg of ^jje English kings with the pope over annates.
He had compelled the French clergy to support him ;
and in 1682, they had formally declared in a council at St. Ger-
mains, that kings were not subject to the pope in things temporal.
In other words the French monarch was in some such position as
Henry VIII. in 163,3, when he was sending Protestants to the
stake for denying the authority of papal doctrines, and Catholics,
for upholding the authority of the pope. In 1688 the quarrel
passed into open rupture. The archiepiscopal see of Cologne was
vacant. The pope. Innocent XI. , and the emperor had united upon
a candidate, but Louis, who had no wish to lose the control which
he had recently secured on the Lower Ehine, proposed with the
support of a French army to set up at Cologne his ally Ftirsten-
berg, Bishop of Strasburg. The pope, also, had not only disap-
proved of the foolhardy course of James in England, but was
deeply offended by his partiality for the Jesuits, who for some
time had been in ill odor with the Holy See. Instead, therefore,
of opposing William, the pope was ready to support him with
his blessings; he had shrewdly discerned that the interests of
Europe lay in crippling the power of Louis and staying the hand
of James.
With the same blindness Louis persisted in strengthening the
anti-French sentiment among the Dutch burghers, by foolishly
forbidding his own people the use of Dutch linens and
Louis XIV. ° -^ -^
ana the woolen goods or even the eatmg of Dutch herrings
unless they had been cured with French salt. And as
if this were not enough, by beginning an attack upon the Pala-
tinate far from the Dutch borders, he not only saved William from
the fear of immediate invasion, but enabled him to rely with con-
fidence upon the support of the "Great Elector," Frederick
William of Brandenburg, who although he lay on his death bed,
yet sent forward enough troops to hold Louis in check and thus
protect the Netherlands.
1688] ENGLISH SEKTIMENT AFERONTED 797
So far Louis was doing all that he could to help William; yet
it would be strange if James also could not lend a hand in the last
moment. Louis had offered James the support of his
Lou^and flggt, and announced to Europe that any measures
directed against James would be regarded as a declara-
tion of war against Prance. But James with touching national
pride repudiated the insinuation that a king of England was a
dependent upon Prance like the elector of Cologne ; he needed no
French ships and would take care of himself without French aid.
Louis took the snub, left James to himself, and bent all his ener-
gies upon establishing Fiirstenberg in Cologne.
Thus, one by one, all possible obstacles which might arise in
William's path from sources out of England, were removed.
William, however, might still question how the Eng-
fronu&g- ^^^ would regard a foreign interference, supported
^sentiment^^ ^^ ^ foreign army. Would not the old national senti-
ment, regardless of party or religious division, rally to
the support of James at the last moment, as it had once rallied to
the support of Elizabeth when Catholic and Protestant forgot
their differences in the presence of the Spanish Armada? But
here also James did not fail him. James was not pleased by the
way in which his English soldiers on Hounslow Heath had
approved the acquittal of the seven bishops. He broke up the
camp, therefore, and scattered the English troops in detachments
about the country, while he brought over a body of Irish sol-
diers to overawe the capital. English national prejudices were
thus already thoroughly aroused, but in a way which would lead
the people to hail the landing of an army of Protestant Dutch-
men almost as fellow countrymen. In addition to this affront to
national pride, always tender upon the subject of an invasion of
England by Irish soldiers, James gave yet another fillip to Wil-
liam's cause by ordering that the names of all clergymen who had
refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence, be returned to the
Ecclesiastical Commission. Some 10,000 of the English clergy
thus saw themselves threatened with the tender mercies of Jeff-
reys and his Court of High Commission. This order, with the
appearance of Irish Catholic soldiers in the camp before London,
798 THE WHIG REVOLUTION [jamesII.
completely demolished what little there was left of nonresistance
sentiment. All England was ready to receive William and his
foreign soldiers with open arms. Even Sunderland saw that the
days of high Tory rule were over, and with Churchill sought to
make friends with William by sending him secret information of
the progress of affairs at Whitehall.
Thus "with stern delight William looked on while his adver-
saries toiled to clear obstacle after obstacle from his path." Even
Amsterdam, where French influence was always strong,
Concessions ^^d whose oligarchy were ever suspicious of the des-
potic tendencies of the House of Orange, raised no
objection when the States-General was called upon to give its
consent to the proposed expedition. James had heard first of
the warlike preparations of William from Louis, but had been
inclined to credit the report to Louis's desire to scare him into
an alliance with France in the opening struggle with the pope.
But other rumors had followed fast, and at last the unpleasant
truth was forced upon his obtuse mind that unless he could secure
the support of his own much wronged people, nothing could save
him. In the forlorn hope, therefore, of conciliating his Eng-
lish enemies, James began a series of sweeping concessions; the
lords-lieutenant and magistrates were restored ; Bishop Compton
was allowed to resume his duties; London and other cities and
boroughs were hurriedly given back their old charters; the
Ecclesiastical Commission was dissolved ; even Dr. Hough and the
Fellows of Magdalen were reinstated. He further announced that
he depended solely on the loyalty of his subjects, and offered to
give satisfactory evidence of the genuineness of the new Prince
James. Li his frantic efforts to win the support of his people, he
even published a general pardon. But it was too late ; the devil
was evidently hard sick and no one would believe now in his profes-
sions of repentance.
On the 10th of October William issued from his palace at Loo
a declaration designed to justify his actions in the eyes of Europe
as much as to disarm the suspicions of the English. He reviewed
the arbitrary acts of James, proclaimed his own right of inter-
vention as the husband of the heiress to the English crown, and
1688] LANDING OF WILLIAM 799
assured the people of England that he came only to secure a free
parliament, pledging himself to abide by its decision. On the
16th of October he set sail with some 600 transports,
So/i"™" ^^^ *bout 50 men-of-war as a convoy. Contrary
wSS."^ winds, however, drove him back, and he did not succeed
in reaching England until November 5. He landed at
Brix-ham in Torbay,and with the little army of 13,000 which he
had brought with him, marched to Exeter, where he waited for
the gentry of the west to join him. Few, however, came to him
at first ; the memories of Sedgemoor and the Bloody Assizes were
too fresh upon the minds of the western people to permit them to
respond lightly to a first call to arms. But after two weeks the
outlook began to brighten ; good news also reached William from
the north, where Danby and Devonshire were raising the people
in his name and had taken possession of York and Nottingham.
James in the meanwhile had roused himself to repel the inva-
sion. He had depended upon his fleet to prevent the landing of
William, but the storm which had delayed William had
Defectionin ,,,,,.
ramfcs of held the king s ships m tbe Thames. The king had
ICiTlQ.
also gathered an army of about 40,000 men, which lay
at Salisbury, where he joined them on the 19th, preparatory to
disputing the eastward march of William. William's army bore
no comparison to that of James, but like Henry VII. under similar
circumstances, he was assured of wide spread disaffection in the
camp of his adversaries and boldly pushed forward. At Winchester
the advance-guards met and a slight skirmish ensued, in which
James's troops were routed. Here also the defection of James's
supporters began, when Viscount Cornbury went over to William.
He was followed soon after by Churchill. At Andover, Prince
George of Denmark, husband of the king's second daughter Anne,
also left the royal army. James was disheartened by these deser-
tions, and accepting the fact that he could not depend upon
his army, began his retreat upon London. When he reached Lon-
don he learned that Anne herself, escorted by Bishop Compton,
had joined the northern insurgents. "G-od help me," cried the
ruined man, as he wrung his hands, "my own children have
deserted me."
800 THE WHIG REVOLUTION" [jamesU.
The defection of his children seems to have broken the spirit
of the king, and he thought now only of saving his throne by yield-
ing. He promised the Lords to call a parliament and
jamesin directed Lord Chancellor Jeffreys to draw up the writs.
first fiiaht- He also agreed to negotiate with William and appointed
Halifax with two other commissioners to represent him
at a conference. The commission met William at Hungerford
December 8, but instead of awaiting the result of the conference,
or the meeting of parliament, on the morning of the 10th, the king
sent away his wife and son, and at thi-ee o'clock of the morning
of the 11th himself stole away to the coast, having first, with a
childish idea of making as much trouble as possible, burned the
writs for the call of parliament, thrown the Great Seal into the
Thames, and left orders for Feversham to disband the troops.
As soon as the flight of the king was known, the Lords
assumed the government of the city, and attempted to preserve
The "iri h Order, pending the unfolding of the next act of the
Nigur revolution. In a few hours, liowever, the populace
12-is, 1638. also had learned of the flight of the king, and for a
night and day London lay in the hands of the mob, who vented
their fury in a senseless looting of the chapels and better houses
which belonged to their Catholic fellow citizens ; even the embas-
sies of the Catholic powers did not escape. Then followed a night
of panic, long known as the "Irish night," the terrors of which
were as senseless as the former fury. The rumor had spread that
the disbanded Irish regiments were marching to sack the city, and
during long hours London waited behind closed barricades,
startled by every unwonted sound and expecting each moment to
learn that the massacre had already begun in the streets. In the
early morning of the 13th JeSreys had been found hiding in a
waterside tavern at Wapping where in the disguise of a sailor he
was watching his chance to get away, and only the interposition
• of the authorities, who bore him ofE to the Tower, had saved him
from being torn to pieces by the infuriated mob. A diligent
search was also made for Petre, but he had made his escape with
better success. Finally by the exertions of the mayor and the
city officials supported by the Lords, the anarchy was allayed
1688, 1689] THE CONVENTIOK 801
and a messenger sent to William to invite him to march into the
town.
James, in the meantime, accompanied by Sir Edward Hales, the
man whose friendly suit with his coachman had broken down the
Test Act, had first made his way to Vauxhall and then,
fliuMof disguised as an ordinary country gentleman, had got a
ship and started down the river. But near Shippey he
had been overhauled by some common seamen, whose suspicions
were aroused by the evident desire of the party to escape notice.
They were not certain whether they had caught a smuggler or a
runaway priest, and brought the king to Feversham. Here he was
recognized and returned to Whitehall. William was not pleased
with the return and sternly insisted that the king leave Whitehall,
and on the 18th of December sent his Dutch guards to escort him
to Kochester, where he had every opportunity to escape if he
wished it. James took the hint, and on the morning of December
23, left England forever, joining his wife and son in France.
Louis gave him a courteous greeting, assigned the palace of St.
Germains for his use and allotted him a pension of £40,000.
On the day that James left London, William entered the city
and took up his quarters in St. James Palace. The streets every-
where were gay with orange ribbons ; courtiers flocked
Y^^iT^ *" ^^ ^^^ palace to make their peace with the coming man.
Some urged William to claim the crown at once by right
of conquest ; but he wisely remembered the pledge which he had
made at 'Loo, and by the advice of an irregular assembly composed
of the Lords and some gentlemen- who had been members of par-
liament in Charles II. 's time, determined to call a Convention as
Monk had done under similar circumstances thirty years before.
The new parliament, known as "the Convention," met January
22, 1689. Its first work was to give legal sanction to the pres-
ent order. It was not as easy to come to an agreement
Convention in determining the future government of the kingdom.
January ' The Whigs were in a majority 'in the House, but the
22 1689 •
', ' Tory sentiment among the Lords was still strong. The
Commons easily carried two resolutions ; the first declared that
James had broken the original contract of king and people, that
802 THE WHIG EEVOLUTIOS [.Tames II.
by withdrawing himself from the kingdom he had virtually abdi-
cated, and that therefore the throne was vacant; the second, that
experience had taught that it was "not consistent either with the
safety or welfare of the kingdom to be governed by a popish
prince." The second proposition was the principle of the Exclu-
sion Bill, but the old Tory Lords, who had denied the theory in
1681, could not now deny the fact. It was carried unanimously.
The first proposition, however, was not to be so easily disposed of.
The Tory lords refused to accept a declaration which conceded the
whole Whig theory of a contract between king and people as the
basis of government. After many conferences and various inef-
fectual efforts to change the unfortunate words so as to satisfy
everybody, the Lords finally gave way and the Whig resolutions
were adopted in their original form. But when the theory of the
abdication had been agreed upon, the theory of the new succession
was still to be settled. The Tories fought for the right of here-
ditary succession ; and to satisfy them it was about to be conceded,
that by the abdication of James, Mary as his heir was by that fact
queen, since the throne could never be "vacant." William was to
be named regent. Here, however, a new obstacle was found in
William himself, who refused, as he put it, to be made "his
wife's gentleman usher;" nor was Mary content to accept a
position, which would make her husband her subject. There
was, therefore, no resource left but to accept fully and without
qualification the Whig doctrine of the right of parliament to deter-
mine the succession, and William and Mary were namjed joint
sovereigns, but "the entire, perfect, and full exercise of the royal
power and government" was placed wholly in William's hands.
The revolution was now complete. Not only were the Whigs
in power, but the Whig theory of the state had been formally
embodied in the constitutional law of England. A very
The "Decla- . , , , , . , ^ , ., ^■'
ratinnnf important work, however, remained to be done. In
1660 the Presbyterians had made no conditions with
Charles II. and bitterly had they repented of their folly. The
Whigs did not intend to repeat the blunder. Accordingly a com-
mittee of the Commons hastily drew up a "Declaration of Right,"
which they submitted to William not as a new law, but as a sim-
1689] NATURE OF THE REVOLUTION 803
pie statement of the rights of Englishmen as they already existed
under the laws of the land. It reviewed the violation of these
laws by James, and so served also as a formal justification of the
Revolution. The hurried work of the committee was accepted
by both houses almost as it stood. William and Mary ratified the
act, and on February 13 they were formally tendered the crown
and proclaimed King and Queen of England.
At last England's era of revolution had ended with the victory
of the parliament and the Protestant religion. In the revolution
of 1649, the parliament had failed because the Puri-
^SS" ^^^ ^i'lg of the Protestant body had attacked the
^iMBcmd^iess. Episcopal wing and so given the king a party. In their
attempt further to secure their power the Puritans had
been compelled to assume unconstitutional grounds, and thus had
arrayed against themselves the native respect of EDglishmen for
the laws and traditions of the past. In the Revolution of 1688 the
king stood out alone, the enemy of the established church and the
enemy of the laws. Charles II. had gathered about the crown a
powerful party, the fundamental tenets of whose political faith
were: first, that the king ruled by "indefeasible hereditary divine
right;" and second, that to resist him was "wicked and unchris-
tian." But James by his pitiable ignorance of human nature, by
his still more pitiable obstinacy, in four short years had managed
to squander this wealth of loyalty, and when he came to face the
nation, was politically bankrupt.
The revolution, also, which expelled James was not a revolution
in the sense that the struggle of the Long Parliament with Charles
I. was a revolution. It did not result in any change in
therevoiu- the form of government. But though no change was
deposed made in the form, a very marked change was made in
the theory of government. The social and religions
institutions of England remained unaltered, but the views which
Englishmen took of these institutions, and of their relations to
the king and to themselves, were no longer what they had been
at the close of Charles II. 's reign. Ostensibly a dynasty com-
mitted to the Catholic faith had been rejected for a dynasty
committed to the Protestant faith. Yet the movement was
804 THE WHIG REVOLUTION" [jamesH.
quite as much political as religious; it was inspired quite as
much by hatred and suspicion of Louis XIV. and the theories of
monarchy which he represented, as by hatred or suspicion of
the pope. Its parentage dated back not to the Thirty-nine
Articles or the Eoot and Branch Bill, but to the Triple
Alliance, the Test Act, and the Exclusion Bill. Its tri-
umph in the transfer of the crown to William and Mary by act
of parliament, established as a part of the fundamental law of Eng-
land those principles which had been the rallying cry of the infant
Whig party in the days of Shaftesbury and Russell, but which had
been rejected in the defeat of the Exclusion Bill, and stamped as
treason in the exile of Shaftesbury and the execution of Russell
and Sidney. In the place of the Tory doctrines of "divine right"
and "nonresistance" the nation had accepted, as the only work-
able theory for a constitutional monarchy, the Whig doctrine,
that the king is only an official who rules by the consent of the
nation, and who may be removed by the same power, if he fail in
the work to which he is called.
PAET IV— IMPERIAL ENGLAND
THE BEA OP NATIONAL EXPANSION
ie89 TO THE CLOSE OF THE wTH CENTURY
CHAPTER I
IHE BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE IN ENGLAND AND THE
FOUNDING OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY
WILLIAM AND MART, 16X9-1694
WILLIAM IIL, 1614-1702.
THE RIVAL LINES OF STUART >
Mary II., 1658- 1687
James I., 1587-1625
L_ ,
Henry, d. 1612 Charles I., 1625-1649 FreQeriok of = Elizaveta
I Palatinate |
Charles II., James 11, Mary= William Henr!etta=Philip, Rupert Maurice Soonia
1649-1685 1685-1701 of Orange Duke of m
Orleans Elector
(d. 1701) of Hanover
James III., Anne, Mart= William III., Anne Marla=Victor Amadeus I
1701-1765. 1702-1714 1689-1702 | of Savoy, First GEORGE I.,
_l King of Sardinia 1714
Charles III., Henry IX., Charles Emanuel III.
1765-1788 1788-1807 |
Victor Amadeus
I
Charles IV., 1807-1819 Victor, 1819-1824
Francis IV., T>uke=Mary III., 1824-1840
of JVIodena |
I I
Francis I., 1840-1875 Elizabeth of Austria=Ferdinand,
I d. 1849
Louis of BaTaria=Jlfar!/ IV., 1875-?
Robert, Prince of Wales,
b. 1869
' The names in italics indicate the so-called legitimate sovereigns of
Great Britain ; the dates, the time when each was lawfully entitled to the
crown according to the Jacobite theory.
^ Mary Queen of Scots according to the legitimists' theory was Mary
II. of England.
805
806 BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE [william and Maby
The period included between the accession of William and Mary
and the death of Anne presents a continuous theme whether viewed
from its constitutional or its international aspects.
Cmtimdtv Prom the one point of view, the history of the period is
(rfthe era of i- > j ±
William and iT[^q record of the successes of the Whig leaders in secur-
ing the results of the Revolution at home; from the
other, it is the record of the successes of William and the generals
of Anne in securing the results of the Eevolutiou abroad.
At heart both William and his successor were in sympathy with
the Tory ideas of royal prerogative, and little inclined to accept
the series of restrictions with which their parliaments
William and sought to fence them round. But the Toryism of the
Anne forced o -^
the^&Ml ^^^ °-^ Charles and James still cast its shadow across
the Ilevolution and left no place within the pale of
"divine right" and "nonresistance" for the "Dutch usurper"
and his wife or her sister, the undutifnl children, whose crime
was not justified, but made blacker, by their nearness to the father
and brother whom they had supplanted. Hence both William
and Anne, like Elizabeth, though in sympathy with the conserva-
tive elements of their time, were compelled by their position to
cast in their lot with the radicalism which they abhorred, and
submit to the parliamentary yoke, albeit never with meekness.
And just as Elizabetli, though at first more than half Catholic, by
the logic of her position, was forced to establish and defend Prot-
estantism in England, so William and Anne, also, although Tory
at heart, were forced to further the great Whig idea of parlia-
mentary government.
The Whig leaders on tlie other hand by no means grasped
the full significance of their recent triumph ; they hesitated to
give their full confidence to the new king, in the first
Attitude of °, , , , . , . , '
the Whig place because he was king, and m the second place
because he was "Dutch William;" nor could they
ever forgive him for the crime of not having been born an
Englishman. They had at first, moreover, only a half heart in
his foreign wars; and yet, as the logic of the king's position
compelled him at last to court their favor, so their position com-
pelled them also not only to support him bu.t to accept his foreign
RESULTS OF CONCESSIONS 807
wars as well. Thus it came about that the half Tory king and
the all Tory queen consented to the strengthening of the parlia-
ment at home, and the Whig parliament consented to the strength-
ening of the crown abroad.
The results of this mutual surrender of sympathies were far-
reaching. In the first place, there was introduced into the
customary law of the English Constitution the principle
Cmcess^ns °^ party rule which led up naturally to the full accept-
ance of the cabinet system in the reign of the first
Hanoverian king. In the second place England was ushered into
the arena of European political strife as a controlling power; the
now antiquated insular policy of the Tudors was displaced by the
broader and more aggressive policy of modern times, and the
nation led out by easy stages, through her constantly expanding
commerce and waxing colonies, to the establishment of the ocean
empire. Of these results, the first may be regarded as the culmi-
nation of the era of struggle passed, the final triumph of the
national parliament over the irresponsible monarchy; the perma-
nent substitution of the king by parliamentary sanction for the
king by divine right; of the government by statutory law, for the
government by prerogative. The second may be regarded as the
opening act of the era of struggle to come, which was to continue,
with intermissions of varying length, to the final triumph at
"Waterloo, and end at last in the establishment of the permanent
naval and commercial supremacy of England among the great
powers of Europe.
The first impetus towards this larger life into which the English
race were now to be fully ushered, came from the commercial and
naval enterprise which marked the closing years of the
BBoiitTiittos
ofmndem reign of the great Elizabeth. It was then full time that
commercial Englishmen awoke, if they were to have their share of
the trade of the new worlds which the discoveries of
Columbus and da Gama had opened up. • The only territory
beyond their own borders which they eiiectively held were Ireland
and the Channel Islands. Even the Isle of Man, which had passed
under the overlordship of the English king as a result of the Scot-
tish wars of Edward I., was still held in the semi-independent
808 BEGIN"NIKG OF PARTY RULE [william and Mart
relation of a medieval vassal kingdom.' Everywhere the ground
was preempted by ambitious and jealous rivals. Spain, although
she had already entered upon her decline, still maintained her
stubborn monopoly of the "Western seas, closing her colonial ports
to all foreign nations and treating their merchantmen as pirates,
whenever found in western waters. The Dutch had successfully
entered the field held by the decaying commerce of Portugal, dot-
ting the shores of the Indian Ocean, of Africa, and America with
their trading stations, while their carriers fretted the waters of
every sea and crowded English vessels even in their own home
ports. In the latter days of Elizabeth's reign, however, English
seamen and merchants had fully made up their minds to have
their share of the world's trade, and henceforth paid little heed
to claims based upon the preemptions of Dutch or Spanish. In
1600 the English East India Company entered the eastern seas
and challenged the Dutch on their own ground. In 1613 they
set up their first factory at Surat. In 1639 they built another
station at Madras on the Coromandel Coast, and in 1668 they
became possessed of the island of Bombay.^ Its insular position and
magnificent harbor furnished a new starting point in the history
of English enterprise in India. In 1690, in William's reign, the
East India Company also got possession of three villages on the
Hugli known as the Presidency Towns, the site of the later
Calcutta. They made little effort,- however, to displace the Dutch
in Ceylon or the archipelago. The teeming interior offered a far
more promising field for commercial enterprise, and in a short time
comparatively, the English had extended their traflfic over the
greater part of India. In other lands, also, foot to foot, English
seamen and merchants wrested his trade from the ubiquitous
Dutchman. In Eussia, which was then counted among the bar-
barous countries of the world, the English had been pioneers in
the founding of the Muscovy Company in the reign of Mary, and
although confronted with many discouragements since, they had
' This relation continued until 1765.
2 This was a part of the marriage portion which Catharine of Bra-
ganza brought to Charles II. in 1661. In 1668 he transferred it to the
East India Company.
1612-1633] ENGLAND IN WESTERN HEMI8PHEKE 809
held their own. In the Baltic trade, however, the Eastland Com-
pany was confronted by Dutch traders. So too the Royal African
Company, which was specially befriended by Charles II. , carried
on a fierce struggle with the Dutch for the control of the slave
trade with the "West Indian Colonies.
In the western seas also, the English had their triumphs.
English buccaneers, "the first apostles of free trade," waged a
relentless war upon the Spanish monopolists. English
EjwJandin colonists sought ont the fertile islands of the Lesser
Hemisphere. Antilles, which the Spaniard had passed by altogether
in his search for gold. In 1612 Bermuda was settled.
In 1635 the first English landed at Barbadoes and St. Chris-
topher, sharing the latter with the French, and in 1638 colonists
began to overflow into the neighboring Nevis and Barbuda; in
1633, into Antigua and Montserrat. It was to these islands that
Cromwell and the Long Parliament shipped off the thousands of
Scotsmen and Irishmen who were taken in the later battles of the
Civil War, leaving them to wear out their lives as white bond slaves.
Bristol merchants also carried on a nefarious trafiic with these ports
in white slaves, which they obtained by a heartless system of kid-
napping among the poorer laboring classes in England. Here also
the Eoyal African Company found a ready market for their black
slaves. The greatest triumphs of English trading and colonization
enterprise, however, were reserved for the east coast of North
America, where in the seventeenth century were planted the
famous group of colonies which were destined to grow up into the
United States of America.
There was little in the beginnings of these later attempts, to
foreshadow this destiny. The Spaniards and the French had
already been before the English in the south and north. The Eng-
lish had scarcely appeared in the James Eiver, before the Dutch-
men also appeared in the Hudson and coolly took possession of the
finest harbor on the whole coast, naming the surrounding region
New Netherlands, while the Swedes soon after planted their
standard on the lower Delaware. Then came the opening acts of
the great political struggles of the seventeenth century at home;
but instead of weakening colonial enterprise, these struggles gave
810 BEGINNING OF PAETY E0LE [wilmaji and Maey
a new impetus to the colonies of England in the New World and
soon enabled them to outstrip all rivals. In 1655 the war of
Cromwell with Spaia added the rich island of Jamaica to what
England already possessed in the West Indies. Even the navigation
laws, although resented by the colonists at first, by strengthening
English commerce, in the end greatly strengthened the English
colonial settlements. Charles II. as well as Cromwell fully
appreciated the advantages to the crown and the nation of a
vigorous colonial policy. His Dutch wars completed the line of
English colonies on the coast by securing the New Netherlands
and the Jerseys as permanent English possessions. His encourage-
ment and support led to the settlement of the Carolinas in 1663,
and to Penn's famous experiment on the Delaware in 1681. In
1670, at the instance of Prince Rupert, Charles chartered the
Hudson Bay Company, giving it a monopoly of trade and settle-
ment in the region about the great northern inlet, which it named
Ruperfs Land in honor of its princely patron.
Thus when William began his reign English enterprise had
already laid a noble foundation for the development of future
empire. Though late in the field, the English were
meFreiich"'^ everywhere winning their way by superior strength,
superior energy and ability, too often supported by
"evil daring" or stimulated by most unscrupulous greed. They
had long since left Portugal far behind in the race; they had
crippled the Dutch carrying trade by the "Navigation Acts;" they
had also fought the Dutchmen on the seas, destroying their com-
merce and robbing them of their colonies; and in 1689 only Spain
could hoast of colonies which equalled the English either in extent
or importance. But now a new danger began to threaten these
thrifty offshoots of the parent tree. France as yet had lagged
behind the other colonizing nations of Europe. She had planted
some trading stations along the St. Lawrence, and her pioneers
had penetrated far west into the regions of the Great Lakes and
the upper Mississippi. She had also managed to secure a footing
here and there in other parts of the world. But her wars at home,
the ambition of her kings to build up a great European power, had
occupied her adventurous spirits in home fields and left her colonies
1664-1681] THE FKEITCH IN THE NEW WORLD 811
to languish; few of them had passed beyond the trading station
stage. Louis XIV., however, as a part of his general plan for
the expansion of French influence, had determined that France also
should talie her place among the great commercial and colonizing
powers. His personal reign had hardly opened before he began to
cast greedy eyes upon the Indies, and in 1664 he chartered the
Frencli East India Company. In 1681 La Salle pushed across
from Lake Michigan to the Illinois and, passing down to the Mis-
sissippi, finally reached the Gulf of Mexico, claiming for his sov-
ereign the whole country under the name of Louisiana. To secure
this vast territory would enable the French to dominate the con-
tinent of North America. On all sides French enterprise was
quickening with life, and although at the accession of William,
Louis's plans were not yet fully developed, English merchants were
beginning to fear the French, as they had once feared the Spaniard
and later had feared the Dutch. It took no seer, therefore, to dis-
cern the nature and extent of the next struggle. The era of reli-
gious wars had passed ; the era of commercial wars had already
begun. The medieval wars, moreover, had been petty, confined
to feudal forays and tedious besiegements of fortress cities. The
wars of the early modern period had been national wars in which
great armies had been mobilized, and pitched battles had been
fought ; but compared with the struggle of the era at hand the
arena had been limited, the results insignificant. Now the ocean
as well as the continents, was to be the field of battle; the firing
line was to girdle the globe, and the spoil of battle was to be the
commercial supremacy of the world.
At the time of his accession, William was forty years old. Like
his great namesake, the Norman William, he had never had a
boyhood. He had entered the world in the midst of
chm-aeterof jutrigue and revolution. His shoulders were early
shaped to the cares of state. At thirty he was a vet-
eran, tried in council and experienced in war; at forty he was a
sage, with an insight into the political and social movements of
his times which was almost prophetic. No abler man ever ascended
the English throne. Yet he was cold, reserved, as were all his
race, the effect of which was heightened by an indifferent com-
812 BEGINNING OF PAETY RULE [wiiuam and Mabt
mandof the English tongue. He did not know how to -arouse
enthusiasm. He lived among a people who were nationally bigoted,
yet he made no effort to disguise his preference for the land of his
birth, or to hide his lack of affection for the land of his adoption.
His health was frail ; his body was frequently racked with an
asthmatic cough, which compelled him to seek seclusion whenever
the cares of state or of war gave him the opportunity. The
part of the affable master, therefore, which the disreputable
Charles II. could play with such grace and to such purpose, was
not in William's repertoire, and, although after Mary's death he
made several trips through the country and succeeded in arousing
some show of enthusiasm, he was never a popular monarch.
The task, moreover, which confronted "William was by no
means simple. Whigs as well as Tories hesitated to commit them-
selves to the unqualified support of the new monarch ;
Diffl-mities ^ the Whigs on principle were as unwilling to strengthen
posititm. his hands as they had been to strengthen the hands of
his predecessor; the Tories out of sympathy with the
king whom they had helped to undo, did not wish to see the king
de facto, so thoroughly established in his position as to remove
all hope of the return of the king by divine right. Then, too,
the men with whom William had to deal were the politicians of
the Restoration, and the corrupt practices of a generation could
not be unlearned in a day. He found himself surrounded by a
set of vile fellows who must be managed by bribery, or not at all.
The reaction, also, which is always sure to attend any violent
popular upheaval, followed in this case almost before James was
out of the kingdom, and the Tory leaders would probably have
taken active steps to bring on a counter revolution at once, had it
not been for James's persistent loyalty to the Catholic faith. As
it was, during William's entire reign there was much desultory
plotting, a wide spread treason of spirit, if not of overt act, and a
general feeling of dissatisfaction, that at times influenced even
the loyal Whigs.
William, like Charles II., began his reign with a Convention
which declared itself a parliament. The members were of course
overwhelmingly Whig, as the first Convention parliament had
1689] THE BILL OF KIGHTS 813
been overwhelmingly royalist, and soon outstripped the king in
their desire to punish old enemies. They managed, however, to
place upon the statute books some excellent laws by
cmventton wliich the principles of the Revolution were definitely
Ti^Bmof" secured. They abolished "Hearth Money," which had
W&, 1689. ^^^^ levied since 1653. They showed their Whiggism by
fixing the revenues of the crown at one-third less
than the amount which a Tory parliament had given to James,
and also by limiting the grant in time. William felt deeply the
lack of confidence and protested, but to no purpose. The Whigs,
and after them the Tories, persisted in the custom of limited
grants in order to compel the king to keep the promise of hold-
ing frequent parliaments, which he had made in accepting the
Declaratioti of Eights. A similar security was also devised in fix-
ing the time limit to the military powers of the crown. By the
Declaration of Rights it was declared to be unlawful to keep up a
standing army in time of peace without the consent of parliament.
It was also declared unlawful to suspend the ordinary civil courts
in order to enforce military discipline. The mutiny of a Scottish
regiment, however, showed the danger of adhering too literally to
this restriction; and parliament was forced to pass the "Mutiny
Act" which fully authorized the courts martial, but by limiting the
act to six months saved the valuable principle of the Declaration.
Experience has fully justified the wisdom of these measures, and
each year since, with some exceptions, the Mutiny Act and the
money bills have been regularly renewed. This important series
of constitutional legislation was completed in October 1689 by the
passage of the famous Bill of Eights, which made the Declaration
of Eights of February a part of the fundamental law of England.
The religious problem was as difficult to settle as ever. The
Catholics had clung to James, and, in the nature of things, had
little to expect from the new order, save an increased
twnAct, seventy m the recusancy laws. The Protestant noncon-
1689
formists, however, had stood-by the state church in the
day of trial, and they certainly had some reason to expect a light-
ening of the burdens which a cavalier parliament had thrust upon
them. But magnanimity was not a weakness of the Whig leaders.
814 BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE [william ato Maby
The king, who was tolerant both by nature and by policy, desired
to see the Test Act abolished, but the Whigs gave him little encour-
agement. Daniel Finch, the earl of Nottingham, sought to solye
the difficulty by broadening the church establishment so as to
include the less radical Dissenters, but met with no success. A
Toleration Act, also largely the work of Nottingham, succeeded
better. By this act^ Protestant dissenters were allowed freedom
of worship on condition that their meetings be held in registered
meeting houses with doors open to all, that the worshipers take
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and that the minister
subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles, excepting those parts
which dealt with the authority of the church. Baptists were
permitted to omit also the article which affirmed infant bap-
tism. Quakers were to be allowed by the courts to aflBrm
instead of taking the oath. Catholics and Unitarians were
excepted from the benefits of the act. The act has been broadened
from time to time since; but the old Test Act and its fellow the
Corporation Act remained on the statute books until 1838. Dis-
sidents, whether Catholic or Protestant, were not admitted to the
uniyersities until 1871. The Toleration Act received the assent
of William and became law in May 1689.
While the moderates were thus trying to find some standing
for nonconformists within the laws, the ranks of nonconformity
received a new accession from the very men who had
^ors^ most bitterly opposed the Toleration Act. Under the
lead of Archbishop Sancroft, a body of about three
hundred clergymen, including all the nonjuring bishops of 1689
except Trelawney, refused to take the new oaths of allegiance and
supremacy. The government waited a year for these "unrecon-
structed" Tories to accept the new conditions, and then deprived
them of their livings. The nonjurors insisted on regarding
themselves as the true Church of England, and continued as a
distinct body until the death of their last bishop in 1805.
Long before parliament had completed the adjustment of the
laws of England to the new conditions, it had become evident that
to establish the Eevolution in the other parts of the Stuart domin-
' Gee and Hardy, Docs. , p. 654.
1689, 1690] LONDONDERKT AND ENNISKILLENr 815
ions, something more vigorous was needed than the enactment of
good laws. Tyrconnel had assumed the duties of Lord Deputy
^ in Ireland in 1687. He hastened the worlc of placing
The Bern- ,..,,. i- s>
lutton in the civil and military offices in the hands of the Catholics :
Ireland. ^ , . . .
a Catholic judiciary, also, reconstructed the Corpora-
tions. This work had now continued for two years and with such
success that when in March 1689 James came to Ireland in hope of
saving one of his kingdoms at least, he found the Catholic popula-
tion in full control of the administration, and the parliament which
he assembled at Dublin, at once proceeded to register in formal
enactment, not so much their loyalty to James, as their hatred of
his enemies. They denied the right of an English parliament to
bind an Irish parliament. They abolished the appellate jurisdic-
tion of the English courts over the Irish courts. They repealed
also the Restoration Acts of Settlement and of Explanation.
They then massed together in the "Great Act of Attainder," "the
law without a parallel in the history of civilized countries," the
names of 3,445 Protestants, who without trial and without hearing
were thus condemned to death, their property confiscated, and
their families reduced to penury. Yet this measure seems to have
been inspired by political rather than by religious hatred. It was,
in fact, a sort of compromise with those who were urging James to
authorize a general massacre of all the Protestants in the island, —
a "work of utility and piety" specially urged by the French envoy
Avaux.
The Protestants, however, fully believed that the massacre was
about to take place, and from all southern and eastern Ireland
began flocking into the northern counties, where the
^Umdim- overwhelming Protestant strength of Londonderry and
'srmLkiMn ^nniskillen promised- them a refuge in the coming
storm. At Londonderry the population had defied the
newly established Catholic Corporation of Tyrconnel, elected Prot-
estant governors, and declared for King William. For 105 days,
an Irish army of 25,000 men under Richard Hamilton was held
at bay from behind the crumbling walls; and when at last on
July 30, Colonel Kirke, now in better business than when he was
hanging Devonshire peasants, broke the boom which Hamilton had
816 BEGINNING OF PAETY EULB [william akd MaiiY
thrown across the river and relieved the city, only two days'
rations remained. The Ii'ish army at once raised the siege and
began to retire towards the south. On August 2, the men of
Enniskillen, who had passed through a similar siege, defeated their
opponents under Justin M'Carthy at Newtown Butler. William,
who all this time had heen hampered by the treason, the corrup-
tion, and inefficiency of his officials at home, had been able to do
nothing beyond sending out the relief expedition under Kirke;
but in the autumn he managed to get over a small army of English
and Dutch under the command of his great Marshal Schomberg.
The camp fever, however, prostrated Schomberg's men; the
winter came and nothing was accomplished. Yet the northern
counties had been saved, and when in June William
Battle of himself landed at Belfast with an Anglo-Dutch army of
jvMi 1, 1690. 36,000 men, affairs at once took on a new aspect. The
Irish had not lent themselves readily to military disci-
pline and, although Louis had sent over 5,000 Frenchmen to assist
his ally, the army of James was no match for its opponent, either
in number or discipline or equipment. The Irish, however, had
taken up a strong position on the Boyne and here William attacked
them on July 1, 1690. His men boldly plunged into the river and
fought their way to the other bank, dispersing the enemy and win-
ning a complete victory. Nothing but the loss of Schomberg and
the fine work of the Irish cavalry and of the French under Lauzun,
prevented William from annihilating the Irish infantry.
James had withdrawn from the field early in the action. At
Dublin he showed his appreciation of the brave men who had rallied
about him in his last effort to save his crown, by announc-
Jam^"^ ing to the Corporation of the city that the Irish were all
lAmeri^i cowards. After delivering himself of this important
information he fled to Prance. At Limerick the Irish,
although deserted by the king who was unworthy of their loyalty,
made a brave stand; a brilliant sally, led by Patrick Sarsfield,
destroyed William's siege train and virtually forced him to raise
the siege. In September he returned to England, leaving the
direction of further operations in the hands of Ginkel, one of his
Dutch officers. At the end of the year, however, in spite of some
1691] TREATY OF LIMERICK 817
successes of Churchill, now earl of Marlborough, who had led an
independent commaad in the south, fully one-half the island was
still in Irish hands. The next year Louis sent oyer St. Euth to
help Tyrconnel, and the struggle reopened with vigor on both
sides. Ginkel carried the line of the Shannon with great difficulty,
capturing Athlone, only to find the enemy again confronting him
at Aughrim. Here St. Ruth fell and the Irish lost 6,000 men.
Galway also was taken and in August only Limerick remained.
After two months of hard fighting the brave Sarsfield, who had
succeeded Tyrconnel, was compelled to surrender. Limerick
capitulated on October 3. The terms were generous and in very
different temper from James's Act of Attainder. All Irish offi-
cers and soldiers who desired, were to be conveyed to Prance free
of charge, with all their personal property. Certain religious and
social immunities, also, were guaranteed. The military terms of
the treaty were carried out. Thirty-four thousand Irish soldiers
and their families withdrew to Prance, where the most of them
took service under the Prench king and nobly sustained the honors
of their race and of their foster country as members of the
famous "Irish Brigade." The civil terms of the treaty, however,
were never fulfilled. Upwards of four thousand families
viniationof were deprived of lands, which aggregated over 1,000,000
of Limerick, acres. The Irish parliament, once more in the hands
of the Protestant minority, then set itself to stamp out
Catholicism altogether. In 1695 all officers of the government
and all professional men were required to take an Oath of Abjura-
tion, by which they denied the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Catholic schoolmasters were forbidden to teach; Catholic parents
were forbidden to ^end their children abroad to be educated;
priests or monks were ordered to leave the island, and those who
returned were to be hanged. Catholics could not make wills;
they could not succeed to property. If a son became Protestant,
he inherited all the property to the exclusion of brothers and sisters
who remained true to their faith. When Catholic parents died,
their children, if minors, were handed over to the care of Protes-
tant guardians. This legislation, known as the "Penal Code," was
the work of the be-Protestanted parliament of Ireland, and was
81S BEGIVXING OF PARTY RULE [william akd Mark
designed to secure the permanent ascendency of the Protestant
English minority. This much Protestant Ireland was doing for
Catholic Ireland. The English parliament, dominated by the
greed of English landowners and mannfacturers, could not be
expected to be more merciful. In 1665 they had excluded Ireland
from the benefit of the Navigation Act, and further had for-
bidden Ireland to send to England live stock or grain. In 1699
parliament imposed a ruinous duty upon all Irish woolens
brought into England. The effects of this selfish policy toward
Ireland, the result of the wretched jealousy of English farmers
and manufacturers, may be seen in the two centuries of poverty
which have since been the lot of the Irish, who, dwelling in a
land fitted by nature for grazing, might have grown prosperous
and contented if allowed to supply the swarming cities of England
with meat and the products of the dairy. Instead they have been
committed to small farms, to the spade instead of the plow,
to the potato, a most treacherous -substitute for grain in a wet,
heavy soil, and to the accompaniments of extreme poverty, — fre-
quent famines and a wretched existence in dreary hovels. It is
hardly to be wondered that Ireland soon became a land of smug-
glers, "a recruiting ground for the armies of Catholic Europe, and
a seed plot of disaffection!"
Scotland made no such determined resistance as Ireland to
the new Stuart king. Yet her people had had no more share in
sending the invitation to William, and the withdrawal
TheBe-vniu- of troops by James gave occasion for outbreaks and
tiim in Sent- . . , . , _
land, 1688-II2. uprisings, which caused grave anxiety at the Council
Board of the new government. On the 14th of March,
1689, a convention, summoned at William's suggestion, met at
Edinburgh to consider the situation. The Whigs were in a pow-
erful majority, and on March 18, James's representative Graham
of Claverhouse, now Viscount of Dundee, left the city. As
soon as Dundee was gone, the convention offered the crown to
William; but first secured themselves, by drawing up a Scottish
Declaration of Eights, called the "Claim of Eights." On May 11,
William and Mary formally accepted the crown and took the Scot-
tish coronation oath. The ceremony was held at Whitehall in
1689] KILLIECRANKIE 810
the presence of Scottish commissioners. In accepting the Claim
of Eights William virtually promised to abolish "Prelacy," and
accordingly the next year, the old Presbyterian system of govern-
ment was once more, and this time permanently, restored in the
national kirk of Scotland.
In the Highlands Dundee rallied the old Tory clans which had
once gathered at the call of another Graham, the ill-fated Mar-
Dundeem 1^'^ '^^ Montrose. On July 27, after the troops of
irniM^^ the new government had successfully toiled up the pass
CT-S'ie °^ Killiecrankie, they were suddenly set upon by Dun-
Juiy 27,1689. ,jg(j gj^^ -^i^Q clansmen, and scattered with considerable
slaughter. Dundee, however, was slain in the first shock of the
battle, and the Highlanders, instead of attempting to follow up
their victory, disbanded and returned to their homes. All
immediate danger was thus at an end. But the temper of the
Highlanders was so well known, that William could hope for no
peace until the country was either reduced or pacified. To reduce
it by force of arms was a serious task from which William might
well shrink. The country, however, was wretchedly poor and
many of the clansmen were in debt. William determined, there-
fore, first to try what power gold would have in securing the good
will of the people. £15,000 were set apart for this purpose, and
every chieftain who should come in of his own accord and take the
oath before January 1, 1692 was to receive a share. The high-
spirited Highlanders made it a point of honor not to hasten to
accept terms which they dared not refuse. In this struggle to
be last, Mac Ian Macdonald won; he did not take the oath
until six days after the time appointed. He returned to his
home, thinking that his allegiance had been accepted, well
satisfied with himself. The Campbells, however, the old Whig
clan of Argyll, were bitterly hostile to the Macdonalds of Glen-
coe, and seized upon the opportunity to persuade William's advis-
ers, the Dalrymples, to exterminate the whole Glencoe
February clan. In an evil hour for William's reputation he gave
13 1692
his consent. In the dead of winter a file of English
soldiers entered the glen and were received as friends by the
unsuspecting Macdonalds. At midnight they arose, set fire to the
820 BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE [william and Mart
houses of their entertainers and began an indiscriminate massacre.
Many were cut down in cold blood, many more, who escaped the
massacre, perished of cold and hunger in the mountains. The most
that can be said for William, is that when he signed the order
for the execution of a whole clan, he did not know how the order
was to be carried out.
The active support which Louis gave to James made it easy for
William to secure the primary object of his interference in English
affairs, — that is, to add England to the League of
The War of Augsburg. In May 1689 England formally declared
Succession, war against France, and in August a body of English
troops under Marlborough shared in a defeat of the
allies at Walconrt. The ostensible object of the war was to con-
fine Louis to the boundaries of his kingdom as prescribed by the
Treaty of the Pyrenees. But the English fought also for the
special purpose of keeping James out of England and putting an
end to the Catholic-French influence which had so long dominated
in English politics; and thus the war is known to Englishmen as
the "War of the English Succession." It was marked by an
almost unbroken series of French victories upon land. On the
sea also it opened under the most gloomy prospects for the Eng-
lish. On June 30, 1690, the day before the battle of the Boyne,
Admiral Arthur Herbert, now Lord Torrington, lost the battle of
Beachy Head. So complete was the disaster that for two
?ima\oo y^ars the French controlled the Channel and the Eng-
lish were in constant fear of invasion. Had William
failed at the Boyne, and had James been a little more discreet
in publishing lists of the Englishmen whom he proposed to hang
when he "came to his own again," it is very likely that James
would have regained his throne. So fair, in fact, were his prospects
that many of the servants of William, among them Marlborough
and Admiral Kussell, by entering into secret correspond-
LaHoaue ^^^^ ^'^^ James, had begun to prepare themselves for
May 16,1692. another revolution. Fortunately, however, a victory of
Eussell off La Hogue once more adjusted the scale in
favor of England and restored English supremacy in the Chan-
nel. It is characteristic of the lurid atmosphere which hung over
1690] THE ACT OF GRACE 831
the English politics of the day, that at the time of his victory
Eussell was in actual correspondence with James, and excused him-
self for wrecking the fleet of Louis by the plea that his professional
reputation was at stake. In contrast with the brilliant success of
his treacherous admiral, William himself was beaten in August
1693 at Steinkirk and again in July at Landen.
In the meanwhile William was carrying on a weary struggle at
home with headstrong parliaments and perfidious ministers. So
„, „ disheartened was he that more than once he threatened
TflG COTW&fh-
Han Pariia- to throw up the game, leave the English to settle their
ment dU- , . , ^ ° ' °
missed, Jan- quarrel With James and Louis as best they might, and
uary 27, 1690. ■',. ,...,_.,, ., ^^ •' -,
retire to his tulip beds at Loo. In January, 1690 he
finally broke with the Convention Parliament. The vindictiveness
of the Whigs had been thoroughly roused by the foolish violence of
the parliament which James had called at Dublin, and nothing
would satisfy them but vengeance for all that they had suffered
since 1681. William had hoped for the passage of a "Bill of
General Indemnity," but the angry Whigs introduced so many
exceptions that the pretence of amnesty was a farce. Accord-
ingly on the 37th the Convention Parliament was dismissed.
The new parliament revealed the marked increase of Tory sen-
timent in the country, and William, to ensure friendly coopera-
tion with his ministry, dismissed some of the radical
second Whigs and filled their places with Tories. Danby,
parliament. . ttt-h- i i • i.
now Marquis of Caermarthen, became William s chieJt
adviser, while Godolphin and Shrewsbury were retired. The Tory
parliament was a little more generous with William than his late
Whig parliament. Eight hundred thousand pounds were granted
for life, and £600,000, derived from the customs, were granted
for five years. Prom these sums, £700,000 were set apart to
meet the king's personal expenses, which then included the
salaries of all purely civil officials. This appropriation came to be
known as the "Civil List." William was also grati-
"Act of
Cfrace," ijfaj fied by the passing of an "Act of Grace" which prom-
ised amnesty for all past political offenses. The few
exceptions were practically nominal; they included about thirty
people, of whom some were safe in Prance with James, and others,
832 BEGINNING OP PABTT RULE [william and Maey
the surviving members of the commission who had sent Charles I.
to the block, had long since likewise taken themselves safely out
of England.
The years 1693 and 1694 are marked by a series of remarkable
financial measures, the wisdom of which has been justified by
the experience of two centuries. These measures were, first the
founding of the National Debt, and second the establishment of
the Bank of England.
The drafts which the war was making upon the treasury,
compelled William to face the alternative of bankruptcy or of ask-
The. found- ing for fresh grants from parliament. Various expedi-
Natlonai ^^^^ ^^^ ^^®" tried for augmenting the income of the
Debt. government without overmuch straining of existing
laws. The Long Parliament had exchanged the old medieval
subsidy for a regular property-tax. But the property-tax had
gradually degenerated into a simple land-tax. In 1692 a new
valuation of lands that were subject to the tax was made,
increasing the revenues from this source from £500,000 to
£2,000,000. In 1691 a poll tax was levied; in 1694 a series of
stamp duties was for the first time systematically arranged and
carried out. The duty varied from Id. to £2, and was levied upon
wills, marriage certificates, and other legal documents. The poll
tax did not pay, and was soon given up.' The stamp duty, how-
ever, survived the war, and has remained ever since a profitable
source of an ever increasing branch of the English revenues. These
expedients helped ; but it would take many such rills to meet the
constant demand of the war. What was needed was a full stream
sufficient to meet the war needs of the hour. The country was
prosperous in spite of the war. Money was really abundant for
all kinds of private business enterprise. How could the govern-
ment coax a larger amount of it out of the coffers of the strong
headed burghers, without arousing their suspicions or raising the
old cry that had been so fatal to Charles I.? Charles Montague,
a young Whig connected with the treasury, proposed the « simple
expedient of borrowing the money, not by the old fashioned and
unbusiness like method of a short loan on the royal credit at a
high rate of interest, but of a long loan at a low rate of interest.
1694] DEATH OF MART 833
In 1693 the scheme was inaugurated by a loan of £1,000,000,
which was to be repaid by a complicated system of life annuities.
Thus came into existence the National Debt, so called in distinc-
tion from the old royal debts, which were always regarded as inse-
cure and had been doubly unpopular since the Stop of the Exchequer
of Charles II. The popularity among the merchants of London
of the new loan as an investment, was the best assurance of the
final success of a war, in which, as Louis had acknowledged, the
"last pistole" would win.
Encouraged by the success of his loan, the next year Montague
came forward with another scheme which had been devised by a
Scotch banker, William Paterson. By this plan, for
mentofthe which Montague secured the consent of parliament,
Enniand, those who Subscribed to a guarantee loan of £1,200,000
July, 27, 1694. ^ . ° , J J
at 8 per cent., were incorporated as the Governor and
Company of the Bank of England." The bank, in a word, proposed
to monopolize the banking business which the goldsmiths had
heretofore carried on with the governnient, and give its depositors
better security by reason of its chartered privileges. To William
the benefit was two-fold; it gave him a means of securing ready
money, which was limited only by the confidence of the people ; it
also gave him the assured snpport of the capitalists, who had pur-
chased the stock of the bank, and of the vast army of depositors,
who knew that if James ever got back to London, not a pound of
their money, either of principal or interest, would they ever see
again.
The year 1694 closed in deep mourning for king and people.
On the 28th of December the gentle Mary, after a brief illness,
succumbed to the smallpox. Her death filled many
x[mv%6- ^^^^ *^® gravest apprehension. For, although she had
"^ember 28, jgft the government of the kingdom entirely to her hus-
band, her gracious and tactful ways, as well as her
nearness to the direct Stuart line, had done much to strengthen
William where he most needed help. William had been sincerely
devoted to his queen, and his pathetic loneliness appealed for
sympathy wherever jealousy of Dutch influence had not stifled
all noble sentiment.
824 BEGINNING OF PAETT RULE [william III.
Other events, also, helped to bring about a revulsion of popu-
lar feeling in the king's favor. Six days before the death of the
The^'Trien- qi-ieeQ, he gave his consent to a "Triennial Act," which
DMember ^® ^^^ Vetoed five years before when presented to him
22, ISM. by ]iis ^hig parliament. By its terms, henceforth no
parliament could remain in power longer than three years. By
the Triennial Act of Charles II. it had been already decreed
that the king should not allow more than three years to elapse
without a parliament.
The powerful Whig opposition in William's second parliament
had borne no small part in securing these measures. It was due
to the Whigs, also, that, in the months following Mary's
ofths^nrfes "ieath, there was unearthed a shameful and widespread
th^wh^s'"^ corruption which had poisoned all the springs of pub-
lic service. The East India Company had obtained a
renewal of its charter in 1693. It was now discovered that the
old company had distributed £80,000 in securing the support of
those in power. Danby, the head of the party, who had recently
been made Duke of Leeds, was implicated, and although the
impeachment failed, solely by reason of the mysterious disappear-
ance of the chief witness, and the discredited minister retained
his position for some time longer, his influence was shattered.
Another prominent Tory, Sir John Trevor the Speaker of the
House, who had been an old henchman of Jeffreys and was now
the chief dispenser of Tory corruption funds, also came to grief.
Another event of considerable importance dates also from the
closing session of William's second parliament. During the reign
of Charles I., the government had sustained a rigid cen-
Freedom of i • ^ , i mi /• , , ■
thepress sorship 01 the press. The unfortunate experiences of the
luckless Prynne fully prove that it was a serious matter
to fall foul of this authority. After the Restoration by the
" Licensing Act " of 16G3, parliament had not only authorized the
crown to renew this arbitrary watch upon the output of the press,
but had limited the whole number of master printers to twenty,
and further had prescribed that no printing could be done at all,
save in London, York, and the two universities. This act had
been renewed since from time to time, The last renewal expired
1695] FKBEDOM OF THE PRESS 825
May 7, 1695, and parliament refused to repeat it. Thus, almost
without comment, was at last won the cause of the free press, for
which Milton had striven in his day, and in defense of which he
had written his famous Areopagitica. Thereafter a man might
publish in England without official restriction, — subject only to
action at common law should his publication prove to be "libelous,
seditious, or blasphemous. ' '
In August 1695 William scored his first real success against
the French on land. In 1693 Namur had been taken by the
French and fortified by Louis's great engineer Vauban.
Tapunof It was garrisoned by 16,000 men. But in 1695, in
cmd'o/the"' Spite of Louis's efforts to hold the place, it was retaken
merit Si*"" ^^ William. This reversal of French arms, the first on
land in half a century, was received by the English
with a burst of enthusiasm, and when William returned in October
he found himself at last a popjilar hero. He determined to take
advantage of the change of sentiment of the people towards himself,
as well as of the disfavor into which the recent disclosures had
brought the Tory leaders, to dismiss his second parliament and
appeal again to the nation. The step was fully Justified by the
result ; the electors returned not only a Whig parliament, but a
parliament fully in sympathy with the king in promoting the war.
It was about this time that William began to reconstruct his
ministry upon a plan suggested to him by Sunderland, who had
not changed his coat so many times that he could not
T?ie iiTSt
Whifi still be useful to the party in power. The frequency
with which treasonable plots among the Tory leaders
had been brought to light, the assurance which William felt of
the treachery of some and the unworthiness of others, had led him
to depend more and more upon the Whigs, in spite of his dis-
trust of their radicalism. At first, like Washington, he had
thought to ignore party differences, and, by selecting for each post
the most capable man, not only reward both parties impartially,
but secure a thoroughly representative ministry. The plan, how-
ever, had worked no better than when Washington had Hamilton
and Jefferson ever quarreling at his council board, and to secure
peace, William was compelled to select men who at least could
836 BEGINNING OF PARTY KULB [william 111.
give promise of working together. The changes which he made
during the tenure of his second parliament had revealed the great
advantage also of having for advisers men who could command
the sympathy and confidence of a majority in the Commons.
When it became evident, therefore, that the Whigs were to
return to power, William made a clean sweep of the Tory
members of his council and filled their places with pronounced
Whigs. Thus the first distinctively Whig ministry came into exist-
ence, and the principle of party government was fairly inaugurated.
Of this, the first Whig ministry of the many to follow in the
next two centuries, Wharton, the author of Lillibullero, the mau
y^g who boasted that he had whistled a king out of Eng-
'•Junto." land, was the party manager. He was without scruple
in private life and without conscience in public life. He was a
profligate himself, and never hesitated to corrupt others for his
own ends. Swift called him "a universal villain." Yet Wharton
had one "black virtue:" through ill repute and good repute, he
was intensely devoted to his party. He knew, moreover, all the
outs and ins of political management; he abounded in evil daring,
and in spite of his vices was personally liked by the people. Ho is
the first of modern political "bosses." Associated with Wharton
in the management of the party were Somers, Russell, and Mon-
tague, constituting what was called the "Junto." Russell had no
more conscience than Wharton, but was without his devotion to
party or his genius for party leadership. Somers was "the good
man of the machine." Yet even his virtues were somewhat sharply
defined, and shone rather by contrast with their setting, as so often
happens in the case of the good man in the modern political
junto; some shades of grey may look white by the side of black.
Montague, the fourth man of the Junto, was the Robert Morris
of the Revolution. He had served through the earlier parliaments
in a subordinate position at the Treasury, and in reward for his
service he had been made, first. Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
finally. First Lord of the Treasury. It was due to his fine genius,
not only that the new government was put upon a safe financial
footing, but also that the solid foundations were laid upon which
British financial policy has since rested.
1696] THE KECOINAGB ACT 837
Among the first acts of the new parliament was a measure
designed to regulate trials for treason, making it impossible to con-
y^g vict men upon such evidence as had sent William Eussell
ActfjS. ^^^ Sidney to the block in 1683. The prisoner was to
2696. ^e presented with a copy of the charges against him,
and a list of the panel ; he was also to be allowed the services of a
lawyer. Further he could not be convicted without the sworn
testimony of two witnesses.
While this wise and humane measure was before parliament,
some forty desperate adherents of the exiled Stuart were planning
to assassinate William as the first step in preparing for active
interference on the part of Louis. The plot was discovered in
February, 1696, and added greatly to the increasing popularity of
the king. The Houses voted to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act,
in order to enable the government to detain suspects until suffi-
cient evidence might be found against them. They also voted that
the tenure of a parliament should not expire at the death of the
king. The members of the Commons formed a "Loyal Associa-
tion," which was sworn to avenge William's murder, and to main-
tain the Bill of Rights. Out of 5-30 members 420 took the oath,
a fact which shows the strength of William's support in the
Lower House. This miserable plot was responsible also for the
last death by Act of Attainder. Several of the suspects had been
executed under the terms of the new Treasons Act. But in the
ease of Sir John Fenwick, of whose guilt apparently there was no
question, the disappearance of one of the two witnesses for the
state, made his conviction impossible. The Whig leaders, however
determined not to allow the man to escape upon a mere techni-
cality; and on January 11, 1697, after a struggle of two months
succeeded in getting through the Houses an Act of Attainder.
To the triumphs of the year 1696, is to be added yet another,
the greatest of the brilliant measures of William's finance minis-
ter. In his scheme of raising money upon the govern-
The"Becoin- t, -.^ , in, i, t^ ■,, ■
age Act," ment credit, Montague had met no small dimculty in
the fluctuating value of the coins themselves. Not only
had the government debased the coinage in the past, but in spite
of severe laws, coins in circulation had been clipped and battered
838 BEGINNING OF PARTY EULB [williamIII.
until they were beyond recognition. The coins of full intrinsic
value, that is the new coins from the mint, speedily disappeared;
many were sent abroad to meet the foreign bills of English mer-
chants. As a result, investments were always uncertain at best,
and were made with an ever increasing timidity. Long time loans
were refused altogether, for no one knew in what kind of money
they would be paid. In 1696 parliament passed the "Eecoinage
Act," by which on May 24 mutilated coin was to cease to be legal
tender. The government in the meantime was to redeem the
clipped pieces, paying out in return a new coin, circled with the
milled edge, a recently invented device to prevent clipping. A
new loan of £1,200,000 was necessary to meet the expense of the
redemption and the recoinage.
On October 20, 1696, Montague put the finishing touches to
his great plan for placing the national credit upon a sound basis,
Montague's ^^ presenting to parliament three resolutions: first,
Resolutions. f;i^at the Commons should support William against all
foreign or domestic enemies ; second, that the standard of money
should be altered neither in fineness, nor in weight, nor in
denomination; third, that all deficiencies in parliamentary grants
made since the king's accession, should be made good. The first
resolution brought out the unprecedented grant of nearly £5,000,
000 for the war. The second resolution was opposed by some
well meaning financiers who believed that a debasement of the
coinage would help the government, but was finally carried. The
third resolution, which pledged parliament to make good defi-
ciencies amounting to more than £5,000,000, was followed by the
"General Mortgage," which pledged the general revenue of the state
to make good the nation's liabilities, should the taxes specially
designated at any time fail to meet the object specified.
The principles of sound policy here laid down, which at
once effectually restored English credit, have remained undis-
Effectsof turbed ever since, — the foundation of the magnificent
fih^M" strength of the modern British state. Louis had
measures. already admitted that final victory lay not with the
heaviest battalions but with the longest purse. His financiers
were trying all manner of expedients to match this splendid
1697] ETSWICK 829
showing of financial strength of William's government; but they
failed utterly to comprehend the very first element necessary to
the development of the financial resources of a state, — the con-
fidence of the people in the integrity of the government and in its
ability to keep its promises.
In the autumn of 1696, therefore, the time was not far off
when Louis must confess himself beaten. The futility of the
Jacobite plots for the restoration of James, the growing
ByswicH, strength of William in England, his recent successes
abroad, the utter exhaustion of France, and the sheer
weight of Louis's foes, who pressed him upon every side, at last
opened his eyes to the hopelessness of the struggle, and in Jan-
uary he was glad to open negotiations with England. In the fol-
lowing autumn the series of treaties known as the Peace of
Eyswick, put an end to the struggle of nine years. To the Eng-
lish the thing of chief importance in the treaty with Louis, was
the formal recognition of William as King of England, and of
Anne as his successor. Louis might continue to shelter James,
but he pledged himself no longer to support his pretentions to the
English crown. To satisfy the League Louis agreed to surrender all
territory which he had taken since the Treaty of Nimwegen, with
the exception of Strasburg. It was the first serious check to
outward expansion which France had received in a hundred years.
The Peace of Eyswick marks the beginning of a new era in the
reign of William. The nation caught a glimpse of the full signifi-
cance of the plans which their king had carried through
A new era in to a triumphant peace, and for the moment English-
reiffn."™ * men realized that they were living under the reign of
one of the greatest of English kings. The Whig par-
liament caught the contagion of enthusiasm and set to work
to pay the bills which the war had incurred, doubling the tariff
on many articles and securing a new loan of £3,000,000 through
the English Gompayiy, — a company of London merchants who
for several years had been trading in the East Indies and now
received a charter, on condition of floating the government loan.
William, however, was not destined to taste the sweets of popu-
larity long. Ever since the close of the Hundred Years' War, the
830 BEGINNING OF PARTY RULE [william III.
Tudor policy, which on the one hand forbade foreign states to inter-
fere in British afEairs, and on the other forbade England to become
a party in any of the purely continental quarrels, had
icaiamdi- been virtually the accepted political creed of the
of wiUiaivs nation. Like the American Monroe doctrine, the Tudor
accession, to -i , ■ ,
Engiixh policy had never passed into formal law, and yet it
had always formed a powerful reactionary influence
for peace, whenever English ministers seemed inclined to take
part in continental quarrels. Now when the war of the English
Succession had been brought to a successful conclusion, what most
Englishmen did not understand was that in accepting the head of
the Augsburg League as their king, with him they had also
adopted the great continental quarrel with France, which had
now been raging for a hundred years and was by no means
ended. In other words England had forever abandoned her insular
isolation, and in spite of herself had become a continental power,
and a deeply interested party as well in maintaining the existing
political balance of Europe. William saw this; it was in fact for
this very purpose that he had accepted the English crown and
brought England into line with the League. When, therefore,
in order to put the country again upon a peace footing, parlia-
ment determined to cut down William's army from 80,000 men
to 10,000 and also to allow the Mutiny Act to lapse, it met a very
determined resistance on the part of the king. The childless
Charles II. of Spain, the innocent cause of so much strife, was
nearing his end at last. The son of Louis XIV. was the nearest
of three heirs to the Spanish throne, and William had no reason
to think that Louis with the enormous possessions of the Spanish
house at stake, would hesitate a moment in setting either the
Dauphin Louis or one of the Dauphin's sons upon the Spanish
throne. It was altogether advisable, therefore, as the most
certain way to prevent war, to keep the government upon a war
footing until the crisis should be passed. But the Whig parlia-
ment, moved by the traditional suspicion of great standing armies,
appealed to the accumulating national debt, which had already
reached the appalling sum of £14,000,000, and to the unpreced-
ented taxation which was no longer necessary now that the country
1698] FIRST PAETITION TREATY 831
was at peace, and demanded a reduction of expenses. This posi-
tion was certainly plausible, and when William protested, when
he pleaded the danger of future war, he found but scant sympathy
among a people who were not yet awake to the new conditions, and
were still inclined to regard the quarrel of "William with Louis as
none of theirs. In January 1698, accordingly, parliament granted
funds sufficient only to keep on foot 10,000 soldiers and 13,000
sailors, and William was compelled to accept these provisions.
In the meantime William was carrying on secret negotiations
with Louis, in order if possible to make a peaceful adjustment
of the Spanish succession. Beside the Bourbon princes.
First Parti- Joseph the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, who was an
with FraiKe. infant of five years, and the Emperor Leopold were
also directly interested ; and on October 11, 1698, France,
England, and the Netherlands formally agreed that in case Charles
IL died childless, the infant Joseph was to have Spain, the Span-
ish Netherlands, and the provinces of Spain in America and the
Indies; Louis the Dauphin was to have Naples, Sicily, and the
Tuscan ports with the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in the
Pyrenees ; while the second son of Leopold, the Archduke Charles,
was to have Luxemburg and Milan.
The necessary secrecy of these negotiations, which had been
carried on during the whole summer at William's palace at Loo,
naturally aroused a good deal of suspicion in England.
^i^wiand '^^^ nation was weary of war ; and they thought the
surest way to guarantee peace was to continue to cut
down the army. In the new parliament, therefore, which- had
been summoned by the provisions of the Triennial Act, the Tory
influence was once more in the ascendant and parliament proceeded
to reduce the army still further. It insisted, moreover, that none
but men of English birth should be enrolled, thus ungraciously
compelling William to send home his favorite Dutch guards. The
Commons further humiliated William by vigorously attacking
Montague and Eussell. Ultimately they compelled them to throw
up their commissions, and thus broke up the Junto which had
come to be hated and suspected almost as much as the Cabal.
Not satisfied with these successes the Commons also attacked
833 BEGINIiri2>rG of party rule [wiLLiAM hi.
William at another tender point by proposing a commission to
investigate the manner in which he had disposed of the forfeited
Irish lands. The measure was forced upon the Lords by "tack-
ing" it to the regular appropriation bill, which the Lords were
compelled to accept or reject as a whole. Accordingly the com-
mission was appointed, and in the autumn of 1699 they were ready
to report. It was found that 1,700,000 acres had been confiscated,
of which about one-fourth had been restored to the original owners
and the rest had been given to William's favorites, several of
whom were foreigners. During the session of 1699 and 1700,
parliament did little else than discuss these grants; and finally,
by forcing a "Resumption Bill" upon the Lords by the same tactics
which they had used in the autumn, compelled the king to consent
to the vesting of all such land grants in the hands of parliament.
While the English parliament thus seemed bent on humiliating
their king and destroying the moral effect of his previous successes,
the question of the Spanish succession was again thrown
Partmrn^ into confusion by the death of the little prince of
S'"'*'?'' -.„ Bavaria, and in March, 1700, a second Partition Treaty
March, 1700. ) j ; j
was arranged by William and Louis in which the Arch-
duke Charles was to have Spain, the Spanish Indies, and the
Spanish Netherlands, while the Dauphin was to have Milan in
addition to what had been assigned him by the first treaty, to bo
exchanged later for the Duchy of Lorraine. The second treaty
gave little satisfaction to anybody. The emperor was not pleased
with a plan which forced him to exchange Lorraine for Milan;
while Louis used his influence to persuade Charles II. to disregard
the treaty altogether and name as his sole heir Philip of Anjon,
son of the Dauphin. The Spaniards, moreover, were specially
incensed, when they learned that their old foes, England and
Holland and Prance, proposed to dismember their empire. "Poor
old Lord Strutt fell into a great rage when he heard that his
runaway servant Nick Erog, his clothier John Bull, and his old
enemy Louis Baboon had drawn out his will for him."' On
November 1, 1700, a month after the signing of the will, Charles
' Dr. Arbuthnot in a pamphlet of the time. The probable origin of
the nickname, John Bull.
1701] ACT OF SETTLEMENT 833
died, and on the 15th Louis threw over the second Partition
Treaty and accepted the Spanish crown for Philip. William and
his friend Heinsius, the Pensionary of Holland, bitterly upbraided
Louis for his perfidy. But Louis paid little attention to their
scoldings. He had correctly calculated that in the present state
of public affairs in England, it would be impossible for William to
induce the nation to take up arms, and in April 1701, William
was compelled to recognize Louis's grandson as Philip V. of Spain.
While the death of Charles had thus raised again the question
of the Spanish succession, in the preceding July the death of
William of Gloucester, the only surviving son of the
Tiw"Actof Princess Anne, had also raised again the old question
June 12, 1701. of the English succession. From the point of view of
the average Englishman, the question was of far
greater importance than the succession to the Spanish throne.
Parliament, although still Tory, took the matter in hand and in
June, 1701, passed the "Act of Settlement," ^ by which Sophia of
Hanover, granddaughter of James I. , was named as the next heir
to the throne. The attitude of parliament towards William's
foreign schemes is shown by the provision which forbade the king
without its consent to go to war for the defense of any dominion
which did not belong to the crown of England, or to leave the
kingdom, or to appoint to the Privy Council any but native Eng-
lishmen. The sovereign must also be a communicant in the
established Church of England. The universal acceptance of
Whig principles even by the Tories is further shown in the pro-
vision which forbade any holder of any office under the crown, or
of any place of profit, or of any pension, to serve as a member of
the House of Commons. The judges were to hold office during
good behavior, were to be placed upon salaries, and could be
removed from office only upon the request of both Houses of par-
liament. Further, "no pardon under the Great Seal was to be
pleadable to axi impeachment by the Commons." The Act of
Settlement is another important waymark in the progress of the
formal constitutional law of England. Even the Tories had
accepted the results of the Revolution as final, and had virtually
' Lee, Source Book, p. 431.
834 BEGIN^JSriNG OF PAETT EULE [william 111.
advanced to the ground once taken by Enssell and Shaftesbury.
They had not only affirmed the right of parliament to fix the suc-
cession by law, as against any claim based upon divine right by
inheritance, they had also, by making the judiciary independent of
royal control, struck from the king's hands the last weapon by
which he might attack the liberties of the subject.
While the Tory parliament had been venting its malice upon
William, and driving from office the few Whigs who still remained
in his ministry, the country was already stirring with
Jacobite sigus of reaction. On June 17 the impeachment of
Somers, the last of the Whig ministers, broke down for
lack of evidence. Ominous petitions, also, began to come to the
Commons from various parts of the country, praying that "his
majesty might be enabled powerfully to assist his allies before it
be too late." The nation was in fact slowly coming to its senses.
The Franco-Spanish alliance threatened to throw open to French
commercial enterprise, the door which Spain had heretofore closed
to the whole world. Louis, moreover, had in February thrown
French troops into all the Dutch barrier towns which the Treaty
of Ryswick had turned over to Dutch occupation, and had coolly
announced that the previous renunciation, which Philip had made
of his claims to the French crown, was void. If more evidence
were needed to assure the nation that William was right in his
attitude of suspicion toward the French king, it was given by
Louis himself, when on the death of James II. in September he
promptly recognized the son of James as King of England. The
nation took fire at what they regarded as the perfidy and insolence
of Louis, and once more turned to the Whigs for guidance. The
new parliament met in December and at once passed a Bill of
Attainder against the new "James III. ;" and by another bill
compelled all civil officers, ecclesiastics, members of universities,
and school masters to renounce upon oath "the pre-
'xiiiance^'^'^ tended king. ' ' William had already begun measures
Auqust28, for the renewal of the struggle with France. In Sep-
tember, he had committed England to the "Grand
Alliance," a new coalition which was to carry on the work of the
old League of Augsburg, and had sent over Marlborough with
1702]
DEATH OF WILLIAM
835
every soldier he could muster to help the Dutch hold their frontiers.
But suddenly in the midst of the busy preparations for the war,
the noble spirit which had foreseen from the beginning the renewal
of the struggle, and had pleaded in vain for the support of short-
sighted parliaments in order to avert the calamity, had taken its
flight. In February 1702 the king had been thrown
William, from his horse. The fall itself was not serious but the
sickly body, worn out by toil of mind and vexation of
spirit, rapidly succumbed to the fever which followed the shock.
The conduct of the war passed into other hands, but the work of
William was accomplished.
CONTEMPOBAKIES OF THE LATEK STUARTS
1650-1714
KING OF FEAKCE EMPEBOBS KINGS OF SPAIN BTISSIA
Louis XIV., S. 1715 Ferdinana IIL, (?. 1657 Philip IV., A 1665 Peter the Great, <«. 1725
Leopold I., d. 1705 Charles II., a. 1700
Charles VI., d. 1740 Philip V.. d. 1746
EMINENT
FOREIGNBBS
(not Sovereigns)
Mazarin, d. 1661
Moliere, d. 1673
Colbert, d. 1683
Corneille, a. 1688
Eacine, d. 1699
BBAHBENBTJEG,
PBDSSIA
Frederick William,
"the Great Elector, "
d.iess
Frederick I.,
King o( Prussia,
d. 1713
Frederick WilUam I.,
d. 1740
EMINENT ENGLISHMEN
Clarendon, d. 1674
Shaftesbury, d. 1683
Bunyan, d. 1688
Dryden, d. 1700
Locke, d. 1704
Addison, d. 1719
Marlborough, d. 1732
Newton, d. 1727
Defoe, d. 1731
Pope, d. 1744
Swift, d. 1745
Charles XL, d. 1697
Charles XII., d. 1718
CHAPTER II
THE COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF THE EETOLTJTION
ANNE. 1702-1714
CLAIMANTS TO SPANISH SUCCESSION
Philip III.,
King of Spain
1598-1631
: Margaret of Hapsburg
Philip IV., 1631-1665
: Ferdinand II.,
Emperor 1637-1657
(1) Elizabeth of Bourhon,-
d. 1645
■ (3) Maria Anna
Louis XIV..
King of
France,
1643-1715
: Maria Theresa
Leopold I., Em-
m. peror
I 1658-1705
Charles II.,
of Spain,
1665-1700
I
Louis, the Dauphin, d. 1711
I
Louis, Duke
of Burgundy,
d. 1713
Louis XV.,
ft,, 1715-1774
Philip, Duke of
Anjou and
Philip V. of
Spain,
1700-1746
Margaret Theresa (1) — ' — (3) Eleanor,
Maria Antonia, | ' ^|
m. Maximilian, .Joseph I., Charles
Elector of 1706-1711 VI.,
Bavaria 1711-1740
Joseph Ferdinand,
d. 1699
By the terms of the Revolution Settlement, Anne the youngest
daughter of James II. succeeded to the crown of William III. At
Queen Anne ^^^ *™® ^^ William's death she was thirty-seven years
1702-1714. oi(j_ ghe had been early married to Prince George of
Denmark, an empty headed toper, of whom Charles II. once declared
that he had tried him drunk and tried him sober, and found noth-
ing in him. The couple had had a number of children, but none
of them had survived. Anne herself, the "good Queen Anne," was
a well meaning, kindly natured woman, but dull and easily led,
although liable to dangerous fits of obstinacy if not carefully
managed. At heart she was a Tory ; and yet, as with William, her
position finally compelled her, if not to enter the Whig camp, at
least to tolerate a Whig ministry and to support Whig measures.
836
LADY MARLBOROUGH 837
Thus in spite of herself Anne was forced to take up the work of
the Revolution.
In this course, however, the new queen was directed not by any
intelligent grasp of the political elements which confronted her,
Sarah ^^^ ^J ^^® ambitious instincts of a clear-sighted, beau-
iMdy^ari- *^^"^ Woman, who had gained a complete ascendancy
hnrougu. q^qj. ^j-jg mind of the princess long before she became
queen, and who steadily used her influence to advance the interests
of herself and her husband, the brilliant earl of Marlborough.
This woman who began her career as simple Sarah Jennings, a
penniless lady in waiting, was an interesting compound of imperious
pride, arrogant wilfullness, seductive beauty, and shrewish temper.
By her good natured mistress she was regarded with idolatrous affec-
tion, and admitted to an intimacy becoming only in equals, where
the august titles prescribed by the stately court etiquette of the
eighteenth century were dropped, and the subject became "Mrs.
Freeman" and the sovereign "Mrs. Morley." Now the imperious
"Mrs. Freeman" was no more a Whig at heart than her mistress,
hut her keener wit grasped the situation as Anne's slow moving
mind could not. She saw, moreover, the possibilities which the
war ofEered to her husband's ambition. While the beautiful Sarah
reigned, therefore, the new government was committed to the
policy of William, and her gifted husband, fully the equal of
William in diplomacy "and his unquestioned superior on the battle
field, found ample scope for the free exercise of his splendid talents
as chief of the Grand Alliance.
The last parliament of William, which by the act of 1696
remained in session after his death, continued preparations for war
and on Mav 4 formally declared against France. Lady
John •' ^ . , , I. 1 ■,
Churchill, Sarah's influence was suflBcient to secure tor her hus-
Maribor<nwn. band an important place in the counsels of the queen,
and his prominence at once marked him for high command. At
the time he was fifty-two years old, an age when the work of most
men is done. It is true that he had been familiar with camps
since boyhood and had seen much hard service, but he had never
before been entrusted with the sole command of a large army. He
had, moreover, during several years of William's reign remained
838 WORK OF KEVOLUTIOJSr COMPLETED [anne
under a cloud of disfavor which he had brought upon himself by-
reason of a treasonable correspondence with the exiled Stuart,
and which ought to have retired permanently any ordinary man.
The persistent friendship of Anne, however, had brought the favor-
ite forward again even before William's death, and now secured
for him the position of commander-in-chief of the allied armies of
England and the Dutch Eepublic. Never was favoritism more
signally justified by the results. For out of this treacherous court-
ier the war soon developed a military genius with few equals and
no superior in the eighteenth century. Yet marvelous as was Marl-
borough's skill in winning victories, no less marvelous was his skill
in managing timid councils or stupid allies. In charm of person
and grace of manner, the English commander was irresistible.
With inexhaustible patience he combined matchless tact and a com-
posure which was never ruffled. He was never in a hurry, never
vexed, never worried. Whether on the battlefield, where his
troops were mowed down by the thousands before his eyes, or in the
council chamber, where the atmosphere was heavy with stupidity
or lurid with treachery, the same indolent calm pervaded his man-
ner. Patience was his sovereign cure for all ills. "Patience," he
loved to say, "will overcome all things." Morally, however, this
man of marvelous intellect, of unique genius, was no whit above
the level of the average politician of the Restoration. He was
prudently familiar with the vices which disgraced the "gentleman"
of his time, a slave to the meanest avarice, a time-server who was
shamefully faithless to obligation, a traitor to two kings; and yet
for ten years by sheer intellectual force he exerted an influence in
Europe which "the crown of Great Britain had not given to
William III."
The position of parties at home was naturally influenced by the
struggle to which William had committed the nation. The
enthusiasm which had elected William's last Whig
andtheimr Parliament rapidly cooled when the gigantic nature of
the contest began to be understood. The nation
shrank from new burdens of taxation ; it shrank from the new
perils which confronted its commerce on the seas. The first par-
liament of Anne, therefore, showed very marked Tory gains. Marl-
1703, 1703] MAKLBOEOUGH ON THE EHINE 839
Jjorough's misplaced Tory sympathies also favored the gathering
of a Tory ministry, so that it was not long before the weight of
the increased Tory strength in the government began to be felt in
the laggard support which the ministry gave to the war. Eng-
land, however, could hardly withdraw, now that Louis's armies
were in the field. The fate of the Dutch Republic also was a
matter of some moment, for English commerce in the Netherlands
was at stake. Yet to the ostensible purpose of the war, the res-
toration of the Spanish throne to a Hapsburg dynasty, the Tory
ministry were wholly indifferent; they regarded the quarrel as
something with which England had no business to meddle. It
was not long, therefore, before the leaders had agreed upon what
may be called the Tory policy of conducting the war. Operations
at sea were to be confined to protecting English commerce and
English colonies; operations on land were to be confined to the
defense of the Dutch border, while the emperor was to take care
of himself and secure the Spanish crown for his son if he could.
This policy would keep down expenditure, incur few risks, and
enable England to withdraw at an early opportunity.
The activities of the English, therefore, were directed at first to
the Netherland borders, where the French already held most of the
Spanish territory; and Marlborough, much to his dis-
MoAribor- taste, was forced to content himself with a series of
oiigh on the '
'ra^'i^s*"*' ^i^S^^ ^y which he won the border fortresses. This
work, though trying to the patience of the English
commander, was nevertheless most valuable from a military point of
view. It cut off the French from the lower Ehine and freed Hol-
land from all danger of invasion. For this brilliant work, the
result of two years of hard campaigning, Marlborough was raised
to ducal honors.
These early successes of Marlborough were in marked contrast
with the fortunes of the allies in other quarters. In 1703 the
imperial army under Prince Eugene of Savoy barely
of the allies, escaped annihilation in northern Italy. A premature
attempt upon the coast of Spain met with no better
success. On the middle Rhine the French and their Bavarian allies
completely outgeneraled Louis, Margrave of Baden, and opened a
840
WOBK OF RBVOLDTIOK COMPLETED
[-
way by the Danube into the very heart of the emperor's Austrian
dominions. The next year ofEered somewhat better results. In
October Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, joined the alliance, and
in December Portugal cast in her lot with the enemies of Prance.
The geographical position of these new allies was of considera-
ble importance, and yet there was great danger that the war would
be ended before any advantage could be taken of the
ofE^^Sm ^®^ accession of strength to the Grand Alliance. Aus-
tria was in fact now entirely isolated from her allies
and exposed to the direct attack of the French through Bavaria.
If Louis could once throw an army of French and Bavarians
A J of tl e Allies
r tCZ3
franco Bauar a Army
Lattlc ol BLENHCI'^I
or HOCHbTADT
August 3-13, 1704
around the Austrian capital, he might force the emperor, the
nominal head of the league, to terms, and end the war. This was
Louis's plan for the campaign of the year 1704. Marlborough saw
the danger, and coolly ignoring the instructions of his government,
resolved to save the emperor at all costs. To allay the timid
fears of the Dutch, he made them believe that he intended to
make a campaign on the Moselle, where Villeroy lay at Trier. But
instead of entering the Moselle valley, he boldly pushed on to the
1704] BLENHEIM 841
Main, marched up the romantic valley of the Neckar and, thread-
ing the passes of the Black Forest, joined Prince Eugene at
Ulm, and on the 13th of August confronted the French and
Bavarians near Hochstadt on the Danube. 'The enemy, who were
superior in numbers and artillery, held a strong position on the
southern slopes of the Nebelthal, with their right
BimhJlm resting on the Danube near the little village of Blen-
2jm°js*j7m' ^^i^- Eugene on the allied right was unable to reacb
the enemy who were protected by a low marshy ground
in their front; but on the left Marlborough, after a series of costly
repulses, succeeded in breaking the French center and compelliug
the 14,000 French troops who held the village of Blenheim to
surrender. Of the splendid army which Louis had massed on the
Danube in the early summer, hardly 20,000, less than one-half,
succeeded in getting back to the Ehine.
The immediate results of the victory were the rescue of Vienna,
the expulsion of the French from Bavaria, and the clearing of
Elsass and the Lower Moselle. The moral and political effects of
the battle were even greater ; the prestige of French arms, which
rested upon fifty years of almost unbroken victory, was dispelled ;
the English public repudiated the cautious policy of the Tory min-
isters and demanded a more vigorous prosecution of the war,
worthy of the victor of Blenheim.
It was high time for the nation to interfere. The Tories had
early taken advantage of their strength in the new government to
attempt to secure permanent control of the Commons
Efforts g the ^y \}^q qJ^ trick of excluding nonconformists from the
tS^mmr municipal corporations. Protestant nonconformists
had discovered that they could evade the law by receiv-
ing the sacrament once a year according to the ritual of the
Church of England, and still remain for the rest of the time
in active connection with their separate congregations. As the
Protestant nonconformists generally were Whigs, this custom of
"occasional conformity" had added greatly to the strength of the
Whig party. Hence if the corporations could be purged of these
Whig occasional conformists, the Tory politicians might secure an
indefinite tenure of power. Some good men undoubtedly felt that
842 WOEK OP EEVOLUTION COMPLETED [aknb
the church was drabbling herself in thus allowing unscrupulous
politicians to profane her sacraments, and when the Tory Notting-
ham raised the cry, "the church in danger," the High Church
element in natioi; and parliament had been quick to catch the
alarm and rally to the support of the Tory leaders. Anne, also,
who was a devout "church woman," sincerely desired to see the
church free from the reproach of helping dissenting politicians.
In November 1703, therefore, Henry St. John introduced the
"Occasional Conformity Bill," which prescribed that any one who
attended a dissenting meeting house, after having qualified for
ofiBce, should be at once dismissed and heavily fined.
Marlborough, although a Tory and although he had been largely
responsible for the forming of Anne's Tory ministry, had no wish
to see a measure carry which might be fatal to his
Ma/rl-
borough schemes of prosecuting the war. Yet he had not dared
theuiira to Oppose the Tories openly, and had contented him-
self with secretly backing the opposition of the Whig
Lords, who were strong enough to throw out St. John's bill when
it came to them from the Commons. He endeavored to conceal
his real sentiments and silence the cry of unfriendliness to the
church by persuading the queen to surrender the annates, which
the crown had enjoyed since the time of Henry VIII. This fund,
still known as "Queen Anne's Bounty," was devoted to the sup-
'•Queen P°''* °^ small benefices. The Commons, however, had
Bounty " guessed Maiiborough's secret and took a mean revenge
1704. foj- their defeat by refusing to add a grant of money to
his recent ducal title and by throwing every possible obstacle in his
way in the prosecution of the war. Marlborough saw that he could
expect little support as long as such rabid Tories as Nottingham
and Rochester remained in the ministry, and used his influence to
replace them by more moderate men, but Tories still, as Robert
Harley and Henry St. John. Parliament, however, was still
against Marlborough. During the months which preceded Blen-
heim, the attack of the ultra Tories had been specially bitter, and
when they learned of the march into the interior of Germany,
they were furious and swore that they would bring the duke to
the block. A defeat, or even a partial success, would probably
1704, 1705] CAPTUKB OF GIBRALTAR 843
have put an end to Marlborough's career then and there. Instead,
however, came back the news, first a rumor and then a certainty,
of the greatest victory which English arms had won on the
continent since the days of Agincourt. Maryborough saw his
opportunity, and by the support of his wife persuaded Anne to
appeal to the country. When the new parliament assembled in
1705, a powerful Whig majority showed conclusively that the
nation approved of Blenheim. Marlborough, who had now drifted
far from his old Tory moorings, hastened to put himself in liae
with the reaction by forming a coalition between the moderate
Tories and the old Whig Junto. That he did not go farther
was due probably to his respect for the queen's antipathy to
Whigs. For Anne was by no means a cipher in politics.
The center of interest in the war during the year after Blenheim
drifted to Spain. Marlborough was secure from the attack of the
Tories at home, but abroad he was doomed to meet with
TTif' wciT
in Spain, disappointment. He planned first to attack Prance by
the Moselle, but he could not induce the imperial gen-
erals to take their armies so far from home. Then he thought to
penetrate the French lines on the Dyle and attack Villeroy at
Waterloo, but the dgputies of the Dutch States refused to support
him. So the year was frittered away and nothing was done. In
Italy there was also the same record of divided counsels and aimless
timidity. From Spain, however, the allies got more comfort. In
1703 the Anglo-Dutch fleet had begun operations on the coast,
bombarding Cadiz and destroying a treasure fleet in Vigo Bay.
Little, however, had been gained until about four weeks before the
Battle of Blenheim, when Admiral Eooke surprised and took
Gibraltar. The next year, 1705, Admiral Leake strengthened the
Capture of foothold of England on the peninsula, by defeating
2it iS?"'' *^® French fleet, first ofE Malaga and again almost
3, 1704. under the shadow of Gibraltar. Later, Charles Mor-
daunt, the eccentric earl of Peterborough, made a daring but
successful attack on Barcelona, and on the basis of this success
Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia accepted the Archduke Charles
as "Charles III." of, Spain.
The Dutch States now began to realize the mistake which they
844
WOBK OF BEVOLUTION COMPLETED
[-
had made in fettering the eagle, and when the year 1706 opened,
left Marlborough free to strike the enemy where he would. On
the 23d of May he found the French army under com-
^aufs^oe ™^^"i Pf Villeroy posted about the little village of Ra-
millies, about thirty miles from Brussels. The French
were drawn up on high ground protected by a marsh and extending
along the arc of a bent bow, facing inward. The English and
Dutch occupied the line of the taut string. Marlborough seized
French Army
the opportunity offered by this formation, and taking advantage
of the inner and shorter line, began a series of feints along the
whole front, under cover of which he massed his troops on his left
wing ; then hurling himself upon the French right, in a brilliant
charge which he led in person, overwhelmed the enemies' right
wing, and doubling back the center and left, was soon chasing the
scattered fugitives into Brussels. The execution of this masterly
manoeuver took less than an hour and a half. The French lost
15,000 men, their guns and their baggage, and left the line of
1706, 1707] UNIOlir OF ElfGLAND AKD SCOTLAND 845
the Scheldt open to the allies. Marlborough moved on to Brussels,
the capital of the Spanish Netherlands, and proclaimed "Charles
III." Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, and Antwerp yielded, and by the
end of the campaign, of all the Spanish Netherland cities only
Mons and Namur continued to hold out for King Philip.
This auspicious opening of the year 1 706 was soon followed by
like successes in Italy where Prince Eugene defeated a French
army at Casale, saved Turin, and opened the way for an Austrian
army to enter Naples in October and proclaim "Charles III." in
the capital of Spanish Italy. Charles had already been pro-
claimed by Peterborough in Madrid in June.
At home Marlborough's "composite ministry" had added still
another triumph which contributed not a little to the moral weight
of England abroad, by terminating the old personal union
Theunton- of England and Scotland and uniting the two people
andScotiamd. into One organic state. Such a union had been dreamed
of by Edward I., and its importance fully grasped
by James I. ; it had existed for a few years under the Protector,
but had been abandoned again at the Eestoration. In 1660 the
Scots were the most ardent advocates of separation, but independ-
ence had brought them little comfort. They found themselves
shut out from the advantages of the Navigation Acts ; they lost
their trade with England and her colonies ; their commerce was
ruined. The Restoration government, moreover, which was bad
enough in England, had been worse in Scotland, where a council
of jobbers had exploited the country with the aid of thumbscrew
and dragonnade; corruption had poisoned the courts of justice;
the national religion had been driven to the hills and the hated
Anglicanism of the south again forced upon the people.
William had been wise enough to leave the Scots to their Pres-
byterianism ; but he had earnestly desired political union. Events,
however, instead of supporting the king or allaying the
Scotland suspicions of the Scots, had conspired to increase their
after the
Revolution, discontent. The restoration of the Presbyterian
Church had strengthened the old hostility to the south
by appealing again to the smouldering ecclesiastical hatreds of the
century. The tragedy of Glencoe, for which a feud of two High-
846 WORK OF EEVOLUTIOSr COMPLETED [annb
land elans was largely responsible, was regarded as the crime of
an English king against Scotland.
In 1695 William Paterson, the erratic genius who had devised
the Bank of England, set afloat another scheme which was to
give Scotland her share of the colonial trade of the
Company, world and make the promoters fabulously rich. His
scheme was to plant a colony of Scotsmen on the
Isthmus of Darien, and by securing an easy and safe transit across
the isthmus provide a far more direct and satisfactory communi-
cation between Asia and Europe than the long and dangerous pas-
sage around the Cape of Good Hope. It is the fashion of historical
writers to laugh at poor Paterson's dream. But it was the dream
of a genius, not of a madman. He saw what the modern pro-
moters of the various isthmian canal schemes have since seen, that
if once the traffic of the two oceans could be diverted to the
isthmian route, there would be untold wealth in the control and
handling of it. Poor poverty ridden Scotland got one glimpse of
the seer's vision, and went as daft as the French of the last
generation over the Panama canal. Unfortunately for Paterson
and the multitude of Scotsmen who invested their small hoard-
ings in his project, Scotland, unaided, had neither the wealth nor
the industries to set such a scheme fairly on its feet. The Eng-
lish, ever jealous and suspicious for their own trade supremacy,
had no thought of turning from the established sea routes in
order to encourage Scottish colonists or enrich Scottish capitalists.
The Spaniards, also, aroused by the threatened invasion of their
rights, waged relentless war, and 1 eaguing with the deadly climate,
soon dispelled the dreams of the unhappy wretches who went out
to gain a fortune in the new world, only to find a grave. The
Scots, who could not see that the enterprise was doomed to fail from
the first, were inclined to ascribe the failure to anything except
the true cause, and laid all the blame upon English infiuence.
The loss of so much good Scotch money was followed by a
paroxysm of resentment, which rapidly passed into a dangerous
attitude of settled hostility to England.
The wiser leaders on both sides of the border fully realized the
danger of allowing the reviving spirit of animosity to grow
1704, 1705] TEE BILL OF SECURITY 847
uncliecked, and in the interests oJ; peace began again to consider seri-
ously the question of the organic union of the two kingdoms. The
first commissioners, howeyer, separated without results,
The ^^liill of ' ' Jr 5
Semirity." and when the Scottish parliament met in May, 1703
the worst fears threatened to be realized. The anti-
English elements pushed through a series of articles aimed directly
at the existing union, declaring that the Preshyterian Church "is
the only church in the kingdom," and demanding further that
the officers of state in Scotland be appointed by the Scottish
estates. They forbade any sovereign of England after Anne to make
peace or war without the consent of the Scottish parliament; they
declared that if during Anne's reign freedom of trade and free-
dom, of religion were not guaranteed to Scotland, the successor of
Anne, while of the Protestant line, must not be the same as the
successor to the English crown, thus threatening to part com-
pany with England altogether. Anne of course refused her con-
sent to these measures; but in 1704 the last article, known as the
"Bill of Securi ty, ' ' was again presented to her, and accepted in hope
of conciliation. The English, however, were in no conciliatory
mood, and met threat with threat. In the fall of 1705 parliament
passed an "Alien Bill" which threatened to take from the
mf "^7cr" Scots the rights which they had enjoyed since the time
of James I. , by once more treating them as aliens. The
importing of their staples', cattle, sheep, coal, and linen, was also
prohihited, and the border fortresses restored and fortified. The
act was to go into effect after Christmas, 1705. These acts, which
portended war, brought to their senses the men on either side of
the border who were still amenable to reason, and in April, 1706, a
new body of commissioners was appointed, thirty-one on each side.
The recent prestige of English arms abroad which deprived Scotland
of all hope of help from France, as well as the tact and patience of
Godolphin, Somers, and Montague, carried the day for peace ; and
in December tvfenty-flve articles of union were formally accepted
by the commissioners and submitted to their respective parlia-
ments.
The two most difficult points to settle had been the represen-
tation to he allowed Scotland in the English Commons, and the
848 WOKK OS EETOLUTION COMPLETED [anne
relation of the Scots to the English national debt. The English
House of Commons in 1706 numbered 513. If the Scots were
admitted upon the basis of population they would be
union. entitled to 69 members, but if they were admitted
upon the basis of wealth they would be entitled only to 13 mem-
bers. The one adjustment would be as unfair to the English tax
payers, as the other would be unsatisfactory to the Scots. A com-
promise was therefore agreed upon and the number fixed at 45, 30
of whom were to be chosen by counties, and 15 by boroughs.^
Beside the representation in the Commons, the Scots were to be
entitled also to 16 peers in the Upper House, who should be
elected by the Scottish peers at the beginning of each parliament.
A yet more serious question lay in the English debt, which now
amounted to upwards of £20,000,000, while the Scottish debt
amounted to £160,000. Here also skill and patience carried the
day. The English agreed to pay the Scots £398,000, with which
to pay off their national debt and close up the affairs of the
Darien Company, while the Scots assumed their share of the Eng-
lish national debt. Other points were not so difficult to settle. The
two peoples were to form one kingdom to be known henceforth as
"Great Britain ;" the sovereign was to be determined as already pre-
scribed by the Act of Settlement. Each new sovereign must swear
to maintain the Presbyterian Church as the established Church of
Scotland. The laws of trade, excise, and customs, were to be
common to both kingdoms ; other laws of Scotland were to remain
unchanged, but subject to revision by the parliament of the
United Kingdom. The judicial system of Scotland was also to
remain unchanged, but an appeal might be lodged from the
Scottish court of Session to the House of Lords. Scotsmen,
moreover, were to have all trade privileges enjoyed by Englishmen.
Coins, weights, and measures were to conform to English standards.
At last all questions were settled, and all claims adjusted, and
on January 16, 1707 the Scottish parliament accepted the condi-
tions of union by a vote of 110 to 69; the English parliament
' This arrangement remained until 1832 when the representation was
raised by the Reform Bill to 53. By the second Reform BiU 1868, it was
increased to 60. In 1884 it was further increased to 73.
1707] THE ACT OF UNIOK 849
accepted them on March 6.' On May 1 the famous "Union Jack,"
which had been designed by James I., representing the union of the
Themiore *^*^ peoples by the blending of the cross of St. George
effected, i7(yr. -^t^j t^e cross of St. Andrews, was for the first time
flung out to the breeze. The first British parliament met in October.
The jealous suspicions of the Scottish clergy of the English
bishops, Scottish patriotism so called, narrow and shortsighted,
English Jacobitism, which saw its last hope blasted.
Advantage English commercial interests, and Anglican church
of the imion . ; o
to Scotland, interests, all had fought the union in its inception
and made as much trouble as possible after it had
become an accomplished fact. But what was • done could not be
undone, and in the presence of the substantial advantages which
came to both peoples, opposition soon ceased. Glasgow opened a
flourishing trade with the American colonies and before the gen-
eration had passed could boast of sixty-seven vessels engaged in
the American trade. The trade in linens and woolens sprang
into new life. Products hitherto of little value, with new markets
soon became sources of national wealth. Agriculture also assumed
a new appearance, and though it failed to keep pace with the
growing warehouses of Glasgow, or the shipyards of the Clyde,
the new prosperity was felt and appreciated. Civilization followed
hard upon the heels of new wealth. The people began to live in
better, cleaner, and more comfortable houses. The old hereditary
jurisdiction of the Highland chieftains gave way to the laws and
law courts of the south. Military roads threaded their way
among the mountain gorges; rocks which once echoed with the
scream of the northern eagle, or the shouts of rival clansmen at
slaughter, soon began to respond to the hum of peaceful factories
or the shout of the plowman or the shepherd.
While Englishmen at home were thus securing the results of
victory, the tide was already turning against the allies on the con-
tinent. In the winter of 1706 and 1707, Louis had
the allies, made overtures of peace, offering to give the Dutch
the barrier fortresses and leave Charles in possession
of Spain and the Indies, if only Philip might be allowed to keep
' Lee, Source Book, p. 445.
850 WORK OF REVOLUTION COMPLETED [^""^
Milan and the Sicilies. But the allies, now confident of com-
plete success, had no thought of allowing Louis a part of the loaf,
which had been virtually snatched from his hands. A new
element, however, upon which the allies apparently had not reck-
oned, was now thrown into the scales. The Castilians them-
selves rallied to the support of the dispossessed Bourbon and early
in the year, with the help of a new French army, brought Philip
back to Madrid in the wake of the retreating Hapsburger. Eugene
in Italy was hardly more successful than Charles in Spain, and
even Marlborough made but indifferent progress in Flanders.
The next year, 1708, opened dubiously for the allies. A
threatened descent of the Pretender upon the Scottish coast
retained Marlborough in England until it was certain
^'di ''uof'noa *^*^ *^® Stuart prince had returned again to Dunkirk.
AVhen the Duke reached the Netherlands he found the
towns which he had won two years before voluntarily opening
their gates to the French. Ghent and Bruges had already received
French garrisons, and to save Oudenarde, the duke crossed the
Scheldt and on July 11 forced the French to fight him before the
town. He had only 80,000 men to pit against the 100,000 of the
French marshals, Burgundy and Vendome. But the opposing
generals were jealous of each other and so confused their subal-
terns by contradictory orders, that Marlborough was permitted to
outflank and cut off a whole detachment. It was no such victory
as Blenheim or Eamillies, but it was enough to check the
advance of Louis. Marlborough would have moved upon Paris
at' once in order to force Louis to terms under the walls of his
capital, but the timidity of the Dutch and English statesmen kept
him upon the borders and compelled him to be content with the
capture of Lille, the strongest of all Louis's magnificent frontier
fortresses. Louis had long since lost his zest for the war. His
marshals evidently were no match for the terrible "Malbrook."
Each campaign, moreover, rolled the tide of war nearer to the
French capital. The next battle would undoubtedly be fought on
French soil. France, moreover, was exhausted; her resources
spent; the sufferings of her people terrible. Louis, accordingly,
sent Torcy in the spring to treat for peace. He would yield all
1709] MALPLAQUET 851
that the allies were contending for ; he would submit to the exclu-
sion of Philip from Spain, allow the Dutch to hold ten fortresses
on the border, and retire to the old boundaries which Prance
held in 1648 at the time of the Peace of Westphalia. He would
also acknowledge Anne, drive James the Pretender out of Prance,
and destroy the fortifications of Dunkirk, which had been the
favorite port of the Prench privateers. The allies, however, were
not satisfied. Possibly they distrusted Louis; possibly, moved by
a sense of justice, they proposed to compel Louis to undo his
own work; possibly Marlborough was .not inclined to surrender
his profitable post of commander-in-chief; but whatever the
motive, in an evil hour they refused to accept Louis's overtures,
unless he would consent to send his own French armies to drive
his grandson out of Spain and restore the kingdom to the Austrian
prince. It was bitter medicine and Louis refused to take it. "If
I must wage war," he declared, "I prefer to wage it against my
enemies rather than my children." The nation, suffering and
burdened though it was, rallied with fine spirit to the support
of the aged monarch. Something of the old national pride
flashed up; and late in the summer of 1709, he was able to
throw Marshal Villars with an army of 70,000 men into
Flanders, in the hope of saving the wreck of the French border
cities. Tournay had fallen, and Marlborough and Eugene were
before Mons. "With 80,000 men they at once advanced to meet
Villars and on September 11 found him posted in a strong
position at the village of Malplaquet. Marlborough with his
usual cold blooded determination to win, massed his troops and
hurled them upon the Prench center, the weak point in Villars'
line. He won the day but it cost him 31,000 men, twice the loss
of the French. The enemy, moreover, retired in good order.
Mons fell, but it was the only reward of the dearly bought victory.
At home the Whigs had been steadily gaining ground. The
first parliament of Qreat Britain which had been called together
in October 1707, saw the fall of the coalition ministry; Anne,
in spite of her aversion to Whigs in general, in February 1708 was
compelled to see even such moderate Tories as Harley and St. John
replaced by the representatives of the old Whig Junto, Wharton,
852 WOEK OF EEVOLUTIOIf COMPLETED [akne
Somers, and Eussell, now Earl of Oxford. Anne was not pleased.
She did not object to party government when a Tory parliament
allowed her to select congenial Tory ministers, but to
Junto be compelled now to face at her Council Board these
power, 1708- disguised republicans, as she regarded the ultra Whigs,
to her was slavery. She turned to Godolphin who
still kept his place at the head of the council largely on account
of his friendship for Marlborough, and besought him to free her
from the presence of these obnoxious ministers. But for three
years she had to submit. When she showed signs of breaking
away, the imperious Sarah stormed and went into hysterics, and
Marlborough threatened to offer his resignation. So the queen
bore her chains as meekly as her Stuart nature would allow,
bravely keeping up her self respect by presiding in person at
every meeting of her council, and insisting that every measure
presented by her ministers should first be laid before her.
In 1711, however, the good queen was permitted to see her
distasteful fetters broken. The nation had grown weary of vic-
tories that brought no peace, and when news came of
SecondfaU the slaughter at Malplaquet, the feeling of triumph
Junto. was stifled in the horror of the "deluge of blood."
Marlborough and his Whig ministers were made respon-
sible for the prolongation of the conflict, and under the inspiration
of the hungry politicians of the opposition, the people were willing
to believe Marlborough and his Junto capable of any villainy in
order to further their own schemes, nor did it increase their
popularity, that soon after Malplaquet, it began to be rumored
that a third overture had been rejected in which Louis had vir-
tually conceded everything except the one point of sending
Frenchmen into Spain to fight his grandson.
While matters were thus rapidly approaching the boiling point,
a trivial affair, such as in ordinary times would have passed
probably without notice, brought on the crisis. Dr.
oMe,' j7iof" * Sacheverell, a popular clergyman of Tory sympathies,
in a public address went oat of his way to attack the
Revolution, the Protestant saccession, and the Whig administra-
tion. The Whigs thought that, in consideration of the existing
1710] BALL OF MARLBOROUGH 853
tension, such boldness ought not to pass unnoticed, and deter-
mined to discipline the meddlesome preacher. Instead of leaving
him to the courts, however, they foolishly resorted to the cum-
bersome machinery of impeachment. The trial occupied parlia-
ment for more than three weeks, and ended in a virtual acquittal.
A nominal suspension of three years meant nothing in the pres-
ence of the new and powerful friends whom the martyrdom of the
noisy doctor brought to his support. To Anne the champion of
old-time Toryism was a hero, and she marked him at once for
preferment. She also welcomed the unmistakable evidences of
the incoming tide, and without waiting for the return of the new
parliament, dismissed Sunderland, son of the old earl of James
II. 's time, Godolphin, and others. Harley was brought back as
chief of the administration. St. John became Secretary of State,
and Rochester, Lord President. Godolphin's son and Sunderland
had married daughters of Marlborough, so that the dismissal of"
the two ministers was the beginning of the disruption of the
"Family Party," as the ministry of Marlborough was called by
his enemies.
A marked change had also come over the household of the
queen. Harley had placed at her side his kinswoman, Abigail
Hill, Mrs. Masham, whose gentle demeanor aiid quiet,
ch^ "^h-m tactful ways, in such contrast with the explosions to
which the stormy Sarah was liable, had steadily won
the confidence and affection of her mistress, and had finally dis-
placed the older favorite altogether. The rupture came soon
after the close of the Sacheverell trial, when the imperious duchess
left the court for good. As Harley foresaw, the fall of Marlbor-
ough soon followed the rebirement of his wife. "With the ministry
and the Commons against him, the queen's favor gone, and peace
at hand, his brilliant talents were no longer needed. For ten
years he had been the virtual ruler of England, and had con-
trolled the march of affairs on the continent as no emperor since
the days of Charles V. But his influence had rested upon the
universal fear of Louis ; and now that he had dispelled the bogy-
man, his own influence was gone. A host of libelers, in whose
mean souls there was little appreciation for the duke's greatness,
854 WORK OF REVOLUTION^ COMPLETED [ame
set their imaginations to work to invent charges of peculation,
fraud, and even cowardice. The people who had long since
turned from their idol, listened eagerly to these counsels of his
enemies, and waited for his dismissal as eagerly as they had once
joined in triumphal processions to St. Paul's in his honor. In
vain he attempted to make peace with the now all powerful
Tories. His overtures only lost him the respect of his remaining
Whig friends, and enabled the Tories effectually to defeat his
plans for the further conduct of the war. Yet when he returned
to England at the close of the campaign of 1711, he had influence
enough left to induce the Whig Lords to declare against peace.
The Tory ministry, however, by the simple expedient of creating
twelve new Tory peers, were able to swamp the Whig majority
in the Lords, secure Marlborough's dismissal, and condemn him
on a charge of peculation to the amount of £250,000.
With the fall of the duke all serious opposition to the peace
on the part of England ceased. The death of the Emperor
Joseph in April 1711, had put the main point at issue
TheTi-ratiCK , ^ ^ ^ ' ,,. . .
of Utrecht, between li ranee and the allies in an entire] v new light.
1713.
The Archduke Charles had not only succeded to the
hereditary domain of the Austrian House of Hapsburg, but he was
also chosen to succeed his brother as emperor. It was obviously
inconsistent, therefore, for the allies to continue a war which had
been undertaken to preserve the balance of power in Europe, in
order further to expand the already vast domain of the House
of Hapsburg. The recent birth of an heir to the elder brother of
Philip of Spain, also greatly diminished the possibility of Philip's
ever succeding to the French throne. The cause of the balance
of power could be far better served, now that France had been
seriously crippled, by leaving the Bourbon king on the Spanish
throne. Accordingly, in March 1713 the series of treaties, known
as the Peace of Utrecht, were signed by the plenipotentiaries of
all the powers concerned, with the exception of the Emperor.
These treaties were of vast moment not only to England and
her colonies, but to all western Europe, and cast their shadows
clear across the eighteenth century and far into the nineteenth.
France agreed:
1714] THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT 855
1. To recognize the Hanoverian suocession.
2. To cede to England St. Christopher, the French claim to
the Hudson Bay territories, Acadia,^ and NewfoLmdland.
3. To pledge herself to accept from Spain no commercial priv-
ilege which would give her any advantage in her trade with Spain
or the Spanish Indies.
4. To renounce her claim of the right to seize a neutral vessel
carrying the property of a hostile power.
5. To restore his lands to the Duke of Savoy, and recognize
him as King of Sicily.
6. To recognize the Elector of Brandenburg as King of Prus-
sia and consent to the enlargement of his domain in the west.
Spain agreed :
1. To cede Gibraltar and Minorca permanently to England.
3. Not to alienate any of her South American possessions to
France or any other European power.
3. To confirm a recent Assiento by which the exclusive right
of importing negro slaves into the Spanish Indies had been con-
ceded to Great Britain, and to allow one English ship of 500 tons
to trade yearly with the Spanish colonies.
On March 6, 1714 the generals of Louis and Charles, also, made
a definite treaty at Kastadfc. And in Septeoiber following, the
whole empire acceded to a general treaty at Baden in Switzerland.
By this treaty the Ehine became the definite boundary between
France and South Germany; the upper Palatinate passed into the
permanent possession of Bavaria; Austria was confirmed in her
Italian possessions, and was allowed to annex the Spanish Nether-
lands, subject to a joint occupation of the barrier cities with the
Dutch.
The gain to Great Britain was very great. The commercial
privileges which were accorded her, alone more than compensated
for the enormous debt of £34,000,000, which the war
1/ (iff IP (yf a
Peace of had saddled upon posterity. The Protestant succession
6r^Mt_ was safe. The possession of Gibraltar and Minorca,
" *"' Port Mahon, secured the entrance to the Mediterra-
nean. The withdrawal of the French claim to the Hudson Bay
■ Nova Scotia.
856 WORK OF KEVOLUTION COMPLETED [ansk
territories adjusted the balance of power in North America,
although Canada and the Mississippi valley were still to be fought
for. The war, also, kept France from securing a partnership in
the Spanish monopoly in the West Indies; and scored a new
advantage for England in its commercial rivalry with the Dutch,
by obtaining in the Spanish Indies besides other privileges the
control of the slave trade.
The "Good Queen Anne" did not long survive to enjoy the
peace which she so dearly loved. She died August 1, 1714, a
month before the last of the treaties was signed. The
Death of g^in of the Tories had been substantial and their
Anne, o
^^w«« 1, return to power, apparently, was to be permanent. In
1711 parliament had enacted a "Property Qualification
Bill," which forbade any one who did not possess an income from
land of at least £600 a year to sit in the House of Commons for
a county, or an income of £300 a year, for a borough. The
restriction did much to perpetuate the power of the landed aristoc-
racy, strengthening them against the rising influence of the
commercial classes; it remained unchanged until 1858. In 1711,
also, the Occasional Conformity Bill became a law, and thus, for
a time at least, Whig nonconformists were excluded from the
boroughs. Even the extreme Tories, the Jacobites, took heart,
and under the inspiration of Bolingbroke's' leadership laid their
plans to deliver the crown upon the death of Anne to her dis-
possessed brother. But the end came before the Tory leaders
were ready to act, and George of Hanover passed quietly to the
English throne.
Before Anne is dismissed, the England over which she ruled
should receive a passing notice. During the seventeenth century
the population had steadily increased. London, as
of'Anne''^^ always, was the one great city of the kingdom. Fully
one-tenth of the population were hived among her nar-
row and ill-smelling streets. The commercial influences of the
age had also markedly increased the population of the great seaport
towns of the south and west. Yet Bristol, the second city of the
' Henry St. John was made Viscount Bolingbroke a short time before
Anne's death.
THE ENGLAND OF ANNE 857
kingdom, could boast of only one seventeenth of the population of
the great Thames port. In spite of its prosperity, however, Lon-
don was not a pleasant place to live in. The great fire of Charles
II. 's reign had offered the opportunity of securing wider streets
and better drainage, and the government had formally commis-
sioned the famous architect of the Restoration, Sir Christopher
Wren, to furnish plans for the new city. In the haste to rebuild,
however, Wren's plans had been ignored, and in the reign of Anne
the city with its teeming population of 700,000 souls was just as
dirty and unhealthful as ever; the death rate exceeded the birth
rate each year, sometimes in plague years reaching the appalling
tot^l of 80,000. The ancient watch service, the duties of which
were sustained by old men whom age and rheumatism had
incapacitated for ordinary labor, had long since been outgrown.
Roistering young men of fashion made night hideous with their
wild pranks, roaring through the streets, driving honest folk in
terror into their homes, and upsetting the watch or beating him
with his own staff should he attempt to interfere. Footpads
lurked in the dark shadows; thieving and housebreaking were
common, and robbing was frequently attended by murder. For,
in consequence of the severe penalties which the harsh code of the
day prescribed even for trivial offenses, the thief, if discovered,
was generally certain to kill his victim rather than fall into the
clutches of the law. The sword or rapier was a part of the dress
of ever.y gentleman; while "your good man" went equipped with
a stout oaken cudgel or bludgeon, in the handling of which he was
an artist.
The condition of the poorer classes of the kingdom was far
worse in Anne's reign than at the present time. Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth had tried branding, ear piercing, and whip-
ping to stop vagrancy. Elizabeth had allowed the
"tramp" to be seized and reduced to servitude by any one who
should put a collar on him. Charles II. had sent his vagrants
to the colonies. In Queen Anne's reign they were pressed into
the army and carried off to the continent to furnish marks for
French cannon. The Poor Laws of Henry VIII. as left by Eliz-
abeth, still remained in force. Each parish was compelled to look
858 WORK OF EBVOLUTION COMPLETED [anse
after its own poor, keep np its "poor house," find work for those
who could work, and apprentice the children. The number of
"freeborn Englishmen" who were cared for in this way is start-
ling,— 1,300,000, or one-fifth of the whole population. At the
present time the proportion is about one to thirty.
England was still an agricultural country; the great staple was
grain. Prices depended upon the harvest, and fluctuations were
frequent and violent. In 1699 wheat rose to 56s a
ThestapUs; quarter, but in 1703 an abundant harvest brought it
wool. down again to 35s. Wool was second in importance
to grain. Even in the old Plantagenet days the English
meadows had been famous for their sheep. i
Manufacturing was still in its infancy, due partly to the con-
servatism of the people, and partly to the crude appliances used.
Edward III. had brought over weavers from the
Mamifac- Netherlands to show his people how to manufacture
cotton! iron.' their own wool. The Reformation, also, had greatly
reinforced the colonies of foreign cloth workers.
Englishmen, however, were loath to believe that as good cloth
could be made in their own looms as on the continent, and in the
sixteenth century it was found necessary for parliament to protect
and encourage the home industry by special laws. The manu-
facture of English cloth, thus favored, was steadily advancing.
Leeds, though insignificant compared with the modern city,
was already recognized as the center of the trade. The cotton
industry was far behind the woolen, yet in William's reign the
manufacture of cotton was of sufficient importance to secure
the prohibition of Indian muslins and chintzes. The fibre
was brought from the colonies to be made up in England. In
1701 the exportation of cotton goods from England amounted to
£33,000.
The coal fields were as yet hardly laid open. Coal was used for
cooking and heating, but iron smelting had to depend upon the
forest oak. Sheffield was already famous for its cutlery, although
the output was small. The weaviug of silk, the making of glass,
paper, and hats, received a direct impetus from the thoiisands of
Huguenots who were driven out of Prance by the tyranny of Louis
THE ENGLAND OF ANSTE 859
XIV., and had brought with them to England their knowledge
of these useful and important industries.
The condition of the English laborer was far below the pres-
ent; yet he was much better off than his brother on the continent.
His pay was lOd a day : a soldier received 8d. A French
soldier received 3d. There was nothing, however, to
encourage small savings; there were neither savings banks nor
opportunities for small investments. Yet the living of the laborer
was good ; meat was much cheaper than now, compared with the
rate of wages. 'J'ea and coffee had not yet come into common use.
Wine was beyond the laborer ; for beverage his choice was limited
to spirits, cider, beer, milk, or water. Beer was the favorite.
The quantity consumed per annum is startling; a quart a day,
it was estimated, was brewed for every man, woman, and child in
England. _
Tea had been brought into the country early in the seventeenth
century by the Dutch, but it was still regarded as a great luxury,
a gift for kings. Mr. Pepys mentions in his diary his
first cup of tea as an occasion of some moment. In
the eighteenth century, howerer, with the expansion of trade, tea
drinking extended rapidly though the price was still high yarying
with the quality from 13 to 20 shillings per pound.
Coffee entered England a .little later than tea, having been
first introduced at Oxford by a Cretan student just before the
meeting of the Long Parliament. Its use, however,
spread rapidly, and the coffee house soon became
a social power.
Anne's reign is famous for its brilliant authors. "There is
probably no period so short, in which so many famous works have
been given to the world. ' ' It has been called the
tmA^e^^' "Augustan Age" of English Literature; an Augustan
ttt^ature ^§®' liowever, without its Augustus or its Maecenas.
And yet though great patrons were not conspicuous,
successful authorship had never before paid so well. Addison
made his fortune by a single poem. Pope, Swift, Defoe, all the
great literary lights of the age knew how to make themselves use-
ful to the politicians who dealt in patronage, and freely devoted
860 WORK OF EEVOLUTIOSr COMPLETED ['^'■'•™
their splendid talents to the party warfare of the day. Swift's
Drapier Letters in 1734 forced George I.'s ministers to with-
draw a project for furnishing Ireland with a new coinage known
as "Wood's Pence," while Defoe's True Born Englishman first
opened the eyes of his fellow citizens to the real greatness of
William's service to England.
The introduction of Party government made the newspaper
necessary. The occasional pamphlet had performed a real ser-
Eariynews- '^i°® i '^'■^^ '^ '^^^ i^ every way desirable to secure a large
papers. ^-^^ regular circle of readers in order to present the
purposes and plans of rival party leaders to the public. It was in
this service that pens such as were wielded by Swift or Addison,
Bolingbroke or Defoe could be of most service. Thus in 1709 was
born Steele's Tatler, more journal of literary criticism than news-
paper, to give way in 1711 to the more famous Spectator of Addison
and Steele. This last was a more ambitious sheet; it appeared
daily and performed the work both of the modern magazine and
the' modern newspaper, combining dignified discussions of Milton's
Paradise Lost, or the ancient ballad of Chevy Chase, or reflec-
tions on Westminster Abbey, or a discussion of the Exchange or
the Bank of England, with criticisms of the outrageous hoops
worn by the ladies of the period or of the custom of wearing
patches on the face. In the next era the party organ pure and
simple appears in the famous Craftsman,
CHAPTER III
WALPOLE AND THE EIBST ERA OF WHIG KULB
OEOSGE I., X71i-1727
QEORQE U., 1727-1742
DESCENT OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER
James I.
., I
Charles I. Elizabetli=FreaerlckV., Elector
I of the Palatine
Sopliia=Ernest Augustus,
d. 1714 I Elector of Hanover
GrEOBGE I.
King of England 17U-1727
I
George II., 1727-1760
Frederick, Prince of Wales
d. 1761
Geokge IH., 1760-1820
I
George IV. William IV. Edward, Duke of Kent Ernest Augustus, King
1820-1830 1830-1837 | of Hanover 1837-1851
ViCTOBIA=Prince Albert of
1837-1901 Saxe Coburg
With the accession of the House of Hanover the political waters,
which had been kept stirred up for more than a generation,
speedily cleared. As long as Anne remained upon her father's
throne, there was hope that at the last moment the affection of
the people might be turned to the dispossessed prince, who what-
ever his faults was not responsible for the father's blunders and
above all things was not a foreigner. But with Anne gone, and
the House of Hanover actually in possession, all hope of a repeti-
tion of the peaceful restoration of 1660 vanished. Scarcely more
promising was the prospect of regaining the Stuart thronja..,by
violence. The downfall of the supremacy which France nad so
long enjoyed in Europe, the opening of new issues, which drove
the French government to seek an alliance with the Hanoverian
king, instead of plotting for his overthrow, denied the Jacobites all
further hope of French support. If Scotland were still independ-
86]
862 FIRST EEA-OF WHIG KULE [QkobqeI.
exit, the Jacobite sympathies of the Highland clans might be
used to advantage, and a foothold be won here for the Stuarts in
spite of the apathy of their old ally of France. But the organic
union of England and Scotland had greatly diminished the
probability of final success in any attempt to rouse the clansmen,
and although the thing was tried the year after the accession of
George, it resulted in complete disaster.
<-,^JBut more serious still for the future of the Jacobite cause, the
last years of the recent wars had witnessed a very marked change
in the temper of the English people ; partly the effect
inamrence of the lassitude which naturally followed so many years
themes °-^ ^^S^-^ tension, and partly the effect of tlie new oppor-
tunities of commercial enterprise, which drew the energy
of the nation iuto other channels than those of politics and war.
The age of sentiment had passed ; an age of cynical indifference
was at hand, wherein fervor was regarded with suspicion and
devotion as hypocrisy, wherein the easy-going indifference which
the Restoration had applied to morals was now applied to politics.
"For forms of government let fools contest,
Whate'er is best administered is best."
A worthy sentiment perhaps, as the courtier poet of Anne's
reign meant it, but unfortunately, to the average politician of
the time, "best" meant that he got his share of the government
patronage, or worse, public plunder, and no questions were asked.
"Patriots!" sneered Walpole, the great minister of George I., "I
can make any number- of them in a moment." Theories of state
or church, or doctrines of royal right, no longer affected men as
much as the fact of power and the immediate prospect of personal
profit. Englishmen were no longer willing to die for a sentiment,
but they would girdle the globe in pursuit of trade. Hence the
Jacobite found little support for his now antiquated doctrine of
king-right by divine appointment; but Hanoverian George,
although never loved, hardly respected, although a foreigner who
knew little of English and less of English institutions, stood for
the new material prosperity which had followed the successful
issue of the late war; and the nation, more bent upon money-get-
ting than king-making, had no wish to disturb him.
1715] END OF OLD TORY PARTY 863
The same causes which stifled the last hopes of the Jacobites,
also permanently retired the old Tories as an active element in
the political life of the nation. With William or Anne
Endofthe °^ *^® throne, whose political sympathies were colored
partymd ^^^^ Something of the old ideas of royal prerogative,
frSSo/ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^*^^^^ P^*^"^^ ^°^ ^ P^^^y *^^* st'OO'i foi" the
the whiga. defense of royal authority against the encroachments
of parliament, or of the Anglican Church against the
encroachments of nonconformists. With George, however, the
Tory's brief was gone. The new king was fully aware of the debt
which he owed the Whigs, and, without taking trouble to com-
prehend the English Constitution or enter into the merits of party
controversy, he committed himself unreservedly to the control of
the Whig leaders and allowed them to fill the places of the govern-
ment with their partisans. Furthermore, he knew so little English
that he left the council chamber to his ministers and accepted
their decisions with full confidence that they understood better
than he what was best for the crown and best for the nation. The
more violent Tories like Bolingbroke and Ormonde fled to the con-
tinent. Some like Sir William Wyndham remained to gather
together the wreck of the party in the forlorn hope of holding the
Jacobite wing together. But this only hastened the passing of
the older Toryism. The great bulk of the party had never seri-
ously desired the Stuart restoration. They understood full well
that a Jacobite triumph would mean the repudiation of the national
debt and the destruction of the public credit. Even the clergy
and the country squire felt their ardor cool in the presence of the
new and vast interests of the commercial classes ; interests which
were not so widely divorced from their own that they could afford
to imperil them for the sake of sentiment.
The story was fully told by the results of the first general
election of the new reign. Barely fifty members of the old Tory
Dissolution following were returned. Bolingbroke heard the news
v^Jrty^°^^ across the channel and from his safe retreat wrote,
March,i7i5. "The Tory party is gone." It was i he quietus of older
Toryism, written by the man who more than any other living
Englishman represented its aims and its spirit. The party now
864 FIRST ERA OP WHIG RULE [geoeoeI.
had no excuse for existence, and no one saw the fact more clearly
than Bolingbroke, or felt more certainly that a revival of Toryism
would be not only useless but aimless. With Ormonde, therefore,
he turned to find occupation in the train of the exiled Stuart;
while the men who had formed the body of the party folded their
tents and abandoned the field, leaving the Whigs to quarrel among
themselves over the spoils of victory.
The overwhelming character of the Whig victory and the long,
unbroken tenure of Whig rale which followed, were of the gravest
importance in the future history of the constitution, in
tvmai si^- the permanent establishment of those principles for
the Whig which Eussell had laid down his life and Shaftesbury
had gone into exile. In the long era of Whig supremacy
the theories of the Kevolution fast hardened into custom and cus-
tom soon passed into unwritten law. The old constitution,
unchanged in form, was gradually supplanted by a new constitu-
tion of conventions, or understandings, not recognized by the statute
law, yet intrenched in the habit of political thought of the nation.
In the theory of the constitution the executive power still lay in
the hands of the king, but in the new unwritten constitution it
was left in the hands of a small committee of ministers, the cab-
inet, who held their position by reason of the confidence and sup-
port of a majority of the House of Commons. The House of Lords,
also, lost its coordinate power as a legislative body. The ministry,
controlled by the Commons, and itself iu control of the executive,
had learned the trick of forcing its measures upon the Upper
House, by resorting to the expedient which the Tories first devised,
of creating enough new peers to swamp the opposition ; a measure
which it has been hardly necessary to use since, for the threat gener-
ally has been sufficient to compel the opposition lords to acquiesce
when once confronted by a united and determined House of
Commons.
The supremacy of the Whig party, however, was by no means
an unmixed good. The moral tone of the era was too feeble to
resist the ordinary efEects of overconfidence on the part of the
accredited leaders of the triumphant party. The peaceful waters
of the political pool became stagnant ; security bred corruption to
CHAEACTEK, OJ? WHIG RULE 865
which the local institutions of the eighteenth century all too read-
ily lent themselves. In the counties freeholders had votes ; but under
Character *^® Continued concentration of estates the number of
ruie^ ^^^ freeholders was rapidly diminishing. In the boroughs
the franchise was fixed by no general principle. In a
few towns manhood suffrage prevailed; in more, household suffrage;
in most, the franchise had fallen into the hands of self -perpetuating
corporations. The proportion of representation was even more
arbitrary and irregular ; an obscure Cornish village could boast of
as many members in parliament as one of the great shires of the
kingdom. Outside of London, Westminster, Bristol, and a few
other towns, where some electoral freedom still existed, the local
administration lay in the hands of a close oligarchy, who in the
absence of any moral motive readily yielded to the control of the
great Whig proprietors, and thus easily fell a victim to bribery.
So common was corruption, so profound the sleep of public con-
science, that the barter of seats in parliament carried with it little
opprobrium. For the most part the trading was done without
attempts at disguise or concealment. Even the staid old town of
Oxford thought it not beneath her dignity to advertise her seats
for sale. Rival families spent vast sums in electoral contests.
West Indian planters and East Indian merchants poured out
money like water when their vested interests demanded a free
hand in an approaching parliament. Parliament, moreover,
always sat with closed doors ; the report of its debates was forbid-
den, and if perchance some rumors of the nefarious log rolling
within ever got beyond the walls, a swarm of subsidized scribblers
sat with pens ready dipped in honey or venom to defend patrons
or attack their detractors.
The clergy, which in ordinary times may be counted upon to
sound the first note of warning against corruption and wickedness
in high places, manifested all the moral lassitude which
^hecurgy pervaded other ranks of public service. The church
"slept and rotted in peace." The establishment was
still revered as a semi -political institution; but the clergy as a body
were despised. The great landowners used their right of appoint-
ment to church livings to supply snug incomes for younger sons,
866 FIKST ERA OF WHIG EULE [geoeoe I.
who though in orders retained all the Tices and faults of their class,
drawing the tithes, often of more than one parish, and leaving the
work to half fed curates. The great house had its chaplain, who was
only a higher grade of menial, who was expected to leave the table
when the sweets were served; who fell an easy victim to the amiable
manners of his fellow servants and generally ended by marrying a
waiting maid. Bishoprics were listed as political patronage to bo
gained by lobbying and intrigue, nor were the characters of the
men who succeeded in winning the prizes above the methods used.
The bishop lived in his palace, and rode to his cathedral in coach
and four, attended by servants in livery. His parish clergy or his
curates he left to struggle in wretched poverty, too often furnish-
ing the type of ecclesiastical vagabond familiar to the readers of
the eighteenth century novels. The bishop himself moved in the
highest circles, intrigued, fawned, palavered, and apologized when
he mentioned his wife in good society. Yet all the clergy were not
time-servers ; there were among them still many men eminent for
piety and learning, who gave themselves freely and with purest
motive to the service of the church ; but such men were respected
not for their cloth but for themselves. The preaching, however,
even of the best, was tinctured with the prevailing rationalism.
It was dull and lifeless, and devoted largely to answering the
cavils of the fashionable deism of the times, rather than to
feeding the devotional spirit of the people or laying the founda-
tions of personal righteousness. Butler's "Analogy" fairly repre-
sents the direction in which the best thought of the church was
exerting its energy. Few of the great churchmen of the age,
however, were leading the thoughtful, useful life of the revered
Bishop of Bristol.^ Churches were abandoned to decay; the
people, left with teachers'whfom they had ceased to respect, or with
no teachers at all, lapsed into a state which bordered on heathen-
ism. Among the nonconformists religious life was of far higher
tone, but their number was diminishing and the old fervor cool-
ing ; enthusiasm was not popular.
' The Analogy was published in 1736. Butler was made Bishop of
Bristol A» 1788.
GENERAL CHARACTEK OE ERA 867
In general there is little in the era of the first Georges to
attract the lover of his kind; .court annals abound in materials for
General *'^® gossip, or the Sensation monger; politics are hope-
chanwur lessly corrupt; religion is a hollow cant or a lifeless
deism ; the home life of the people, declining. The age
of heroism, the age of sublime themes whether in literature or life,
has passed. The age that could produce "The Paradise Lost,"
has given way to the age that can produce "The Eape of the
Lock;" the age that could produce "The Pilgrim's Progress," to
an age that can produce "The Travels of Lemuel Gulliver;" the
age that could produce Oliver Cromwell has given way to an age
that can produce Eobert Walpole.
Yet though morally decadent, though to the lover of goodness
or greatness, a dreary wilderness where selfishness, insincerity, and
cynicism reign, the era of the Georges was yet a preparation for
the greater era to come. In the commercial treaties which
were secured as a result of the war of the Spanish succession, and
in the later treaties of the era of Chatham, English statesmen laid
anew the foundations of England's commercial greatness, enlarg-
ing and strengthening the entire scope of colonial enterprise and
preparing for the advent of a new England beyond the seas. Of
even greater importance, both to the new England to be, as well as
to the old England of the United Kingdom, was the final acceptance
in the political creed of the nation of those principles of parlia-
mentary government which the Whig leaders had wrought out of
their great revolution. Yet the moral life of England was not
dead, not even paralyzed; it was only sleeping, worn out, utterly
exhausted by the struggle of the century passed. England needed
rest to prepare for the era of Whitfield and the Wesleys, of Wil-
berforce and Howard, of Bright and Cobden.
The great Whig leaders were fully represented in the first min-
istry of George I. Marlborough, the recognized chief of the party,
was there, but his strength was broken and his splendid career vir-
tually ended. ^ The labor of organizing the new government fell
to younger and more vigorous men. Lord Townshend, as Northern
' Marlborough lived on in premature dotage until 1733, a mournful
wreck of the once splendid duke.
868 FIRST EEA OF WHIG KULB [geoege I.
Secretary of State, ^ was virtually chief minister; -with him were
associated Shrewsbury, Sunderland, Pulteney, and Eobert Wal-
pole. The last, about whose career the reigns of the
TheTowm- fij.gt two Georges center, was born of Yorkshire parent-
w^ia oh'^^'' ^S^ °^ S°°*^ family. He had come to manhood in the
stifling atmosphere which marked the period of the later
Stuarts, and had learned to suspect goodness and despise senti-
ment with the contempt of a hardened politician. He was
endowed with sound judgment, although prone to be misled at
times by a habit of cynicism, which he shared with most of the
prominent men of his age. His business abilities, however, were
of a high order and his influence even in the reign of Anne was of
moment sufficient to secure him the position of Secretary of War
in the Whig ministry which Marlborough and Godolphin called to
their support in 1708. He took office at the accession of George
as Paymaster of the Forces, but later, October 1715, was advanced
to the more important position of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The parliament which met in March, 1715, reviewed and con-
demned the negotiations by which the Tories had forced the
Treaty of Utrecht upon the country. They also passed
Vindictive- j •j t.
nesxofthe Bills of Attainder against Bolingbroke and Ormonde;
while Harley, now Earl of Oxford, the late Lord High
Treasurer of Anne, was impeached and sent to the Tower. The
prosecution, however, was without other ground than party vin-
dictiveness, and after dragging along for two years, the case was
finally dropped. A belated attempt of tlie Jacobites to
J dcobites ./AX -L
attempt of raise Scotland in the name of "James VII," still
17 15-
further increased the strength of the Whigs. In Eng-
land Jacobitism was dead; and although Lord Derwentwater, a
grandson of Charles II., and a few country gentlemen took up
arms in Northumberland and Lancashire, the great mass of the
Tory gentry looked on with indifferent apathy, while the Whig
^ The Secretary of State for the Northern Department dealt with the
Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. The Secretary for
the Southern Department dealt with France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain,
Portugal, and Turkey. Both dealt with home affairs. In 1783 the North-
ern Secretary became the Foreign Secretary, and the Southern Secretary
became the Home Secretary.
1716] THE SEPTENNIAL ACT 869
government set itself in motion to crush the rising. On November
13, 1715 the English Jacobites were compelled to lay down their
arms at Preston on the Kibble. On the same day the Scottish
Jacobites nnder command of John Erskine Earl of Mar, "Bob-
bing John," were effectively checked in an indecisive action at
Sheriflmuir. In December James appeared on the scene, but he
had no faith in his cause and was without the courage to put him-
self at the head of a forlorn hope. On the 4th of February with
Mar, he sailed away again, leaving Derwentwater and his com-
panions in arms to make the easiest terms they could with the
hangman.
This ill-fated and ill-managed expedition proved two things :
first that the Jacobite leaders were utterly reckless and incom-
petent and unworthy of confidence; and second, that
maiAct," the English gentry did not intend to risk their necks
Mav 1716 o J
\ ' for any Stuart Pretender ; — facts which greatly strength-
ened the Whigs and their Hanoverian dynasty. Yet so little
enthusiasm was there over the phlegmatic George and his ugly
mistresses, that in the spring of 1716 the Whig leaders determined
not to risk the return of a Tory majority when the three years
lipiit prescribed by law shou^ld have expired, but to make sure of
fetaining the power in their own hands by extending the parlia-
mentary term to seven years. The act, known as the "Septennial
Act," brought out the severest criticism; and yet, that it still
remains the law of England, may be taken as fair evidence that
the wisdom of a longer parliamentary term has been justified by
experience.
The Whigs were destined to suffer the lot of most great
parties when left without opposition. They soon began to quarrel
among themselves; and in 1717 finally split into two
^higparty f^ictions, the One rallying around Townshend and
Walpole, and the other around Stanhope and Sunder-
land. The cause of the quarrel was the question of the attitude
which England should take toward the wars of the Hanoverian
Electorate. Since the beginning of the century, Sweden had been
at war with Denmark and Norway. In 1715 Denmark sold
Bremen and Verden to the Elector George. This purchase
870 PIRST ERA OF WHIG BULB [Geobbe I.
involved Hanover in the great northern quarrel, since Denmark
had only recently acquired these regions by conquest, and the king
of Svreden was by no means inclined to renounce his claims. The
Act of Settlement of 1701 had sought to protect England against
complications which might arise from the position of Hanover
upon the continent by forbidding the king to involve England in
war for his foreign possessions without the consent of parliament.
When, therefore, in 1716 George proposed to send an English-fleet
into the Baltic to defend his new acquisitions, he met a deter-
mined opposition in the Townshend faction. As a result Towus-
hend was forced out of his secretaryship, and compelled to accept
the viceroyalty of Ireland, while Stanhope, who was in sympathy
with the king, became the Secretary of State for the Northern
Department. In 1717 Stanhope succeeded in concluding a Triple
Alliance between England, France, and Holland, and virtually
committed England to the support of Hanover against Sweden.
Townshend, Walpole, and Methuen withdrew from the ministry,
and joining with the Prince of "Wales, began a furious opposition
in parliament against the foreign policy of the government.
Both Stanhope and Sunderland, the First Lord of the Treasury,
were able men, and under their leadership the Whig policy of
undoing the work of the Tories continued even more
hope^minis- 'vigorously than under Townshend. In January 1719
poiiey^"™^ they swept away the Occasional Conformity Act, and
even proposed to abolish the old Test Act in favor of
the nonconformists ; but public opinion was not yet ready to throw
the door wide open, though willing to open it enough for Protes-
tant dissenters of easy conscience to squeeze through. Another
measure of the Stanhope ministry also failed, which if carried,
by restoring to the House of Lords its power as a coordinate
branch of the legislature, would have completely changed the char-
acter of the English Constitution. This measure, the "Peerage
Bill," proposed to take from the crown the right of creating peers
at will, by limiting the niimber which could be made at any one
time to six, and replacing the sixteen elective Scottish peers by
twenty-five hereditary peers. Largely owing to the vigorous
attacks of Walpole the Peerage Bill was defeated by a vote of 369
1718-1721] FOREIGN POLICY OF STANHOPE 871
to 177. The opposition had now proved its strength, and Stan-
hope to save himself was glad to accept a reconciliation with his old
colleagues. In 1730 both Walpole and Townshend were taken
back into office.
The foreign policy of the Stanhope ministry was even more
thoroughgoing in its Whiggism than its domestic policy. In
the Triple Alliance we once more greet the genius of
S^t^ the third William. Prance had been compelled not
pS" °"^y *° abandon the policy of Louis XIV., but to
reverse it altogether. The Eegent Orleans, who was
interested in securing his own succession in case the young King
Louis XV. should die without direct issue, and therefore needed
the friendship of England, was entirely willing not only to assure
England and Holland of the separation of the crowns of France
and Spain, but also to pledge himself to expel the Pretender from
French territory and support the Hanoverian succession. The
Spanish Minister Alberoni still further threw the" game into
the hands of the Whig ministers by seizing Sardinia in 1717, and
Sicily in 1718, thus reopening issues once settled by the Treaty
of Utrecht, and driving the emperor to cast in his lot with the
Triple Alliance. Spain, like France seventeen years earlier, was
now isolated; but unlike France, she had neither resources nor
prestige on her side, and when in 1718 the English Admiral Byng
destroyed her fleet off Cape Pesaro, with her territories invaded
both by England and France, she was glad to make peace, and
accept the partition of the Spanish dominions as prescribed by
the Treaty of Utrecht, leaving Sicily to the emperor, and Sardinia
to the House of Savoy.
The same good fortune attended the Stanhope ministry in deal-
ing with the Baltic states. In December 1718 the romantic
Charles XII. was shot before Frederikshald in Norway,
nortiiern and Sweden, no longer feared, soon dropped back into
its old position of second rate importance. One by one
the northern powers made peace; some like England passed into
active alliance with Sweden against Russia, which was already the
great threatening power of the north. In 1721 Peter the Great,
also, consented to lay down his arms, and by the Treaty of Nystad
872 EIEST ERA OF WHIG RULE [geokoe I.
completed the quieting of the Baltic. Thus once more the policy
of William had been vindicated, and equilibrium had been restored
in Europe.
The triumph of the Stanhope ministry seemed complete. Eng-
land was respected; the conventions of Utrecht reenacted and the
peace of Europe placed upon a firmer foundation thau
seaBfbWe- ®^^^- ^'•^* °^ the Very triumph of the ministry, how-
ofmslan- ®'^6^' ■^'^s to come its undoing. As the continual suc-
hope minis- ^ess of the allied arms assured the issue of the Spanish
war, and Englishmen began to understand that the
House of Hanover had come to stay, public confidence increased
rapidly, and in the assurance of good times coming, a feverish
desire to get in ahead of the tide by means of happy investments
took possession of the people. In the main the fever of specula-
tion was directed toAvard mercantile adventures in Spanish waters.
For two centuries Englishmen had been taught to believe ia the
untold wealth of the Spanish seas; it was part of the accepted com-
mercial creed of the age. But up to the signing of the Treaties of
Utrecht, Englishmen had entered these seas only as poachers with
their lives in their hands. Still the rewards were correspondingly
great, and with the declining ability of Spain to patrol these
waters and maintain her old-time monopoly, this illicit trade had
steadily increased. In the year 1711, Harley, then of Anne's Tory
ministry, had sought to turn this trade to account, by funding a
floating debt of £10,000,000 upon the basis of securing by grant
of parliament the monopoly to a company known as the South Sea
Company. Two years later this child of the Tory administration
was further endowed with the Assiento, which had been wrung
from Spain as one of the conditions of the Treaty of Utrecht. In
the meantime, while the great companies continued to coin wealth
out of the commercial advantages which had been won for them by
English blood, the public debt had continued to pile up until it
had reached the grand sum total of £36,000,000. Each ministry
in turn had wrestled with the vexatious problem, and by every
possible scheme known to the financiers of the eighteenth century,
had sought to lighten the ever-increasing burden. When, therefore,
in 1719, the directors of the South Sea Company came forward
1720] SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 873
with a scheme to buy up the outstanding securities of the govern-
ment to the amount of £32,000,000, paying the present holders in
South Sea stock, and agreeing to a reduction of the interest from
seven and eight to five per cent, and after 1737 to four per cent,
Aislabie, the Lord Treasurer, eagerly accepted the proposal and
consented to use the influence of the government to assure the
public of the prosperity of the company, or in modern phrase to
"boom" its stock, in order that the present holders of the govern-
ment annuities might be induced more readily to exchange these
safe investments for South Sea stock. Large sums accordingly
were spent in bribing ministers and "fixing" members of parlia-
ment, in order to secure a formal approval of the scheme. The
Bank of England, also, had to be reckoned with as a vigorous rival
for government credit, and when it entered the field offering, in
addition to the lower rate of interest, a direct cash bonus, the
South Sea Company took up the challenge, and outbid its rival by
promising a bonus of £7,500,000.
In 1720 parliament gave its approval and South Sea stock at
once rose enormously. Its shares jumped from £100 to £1,000.
The fever of speculation seized the public, and disap-
oj the pointed bidders, not to be baffled in their eager expecta-
tion of sudden wealth, plunged into all kinds of "wild
cat" schemes of turning speedy fortunes. Specious "bubble com-
panies" multiplied rapidly; the public were in a gullible mood, and
madly invested in projects for "importing jackasses from Spain,"
in projects for securing perpetual motion, and for making salt water
fresh; one concern went into the market to sell stock "for an
undertaking which should in due time be revealed." The South
Sea Company began to fear for its own credit, and attacked some
of the bubble companies as illegal. Then the reaction came, and
the whole edifice of cards came tumbling down. South Sea stock
"slumped" from £1,000 a share to £135. Universal panic and
distress followed. Many rogues had profited; but many
the stanhope hoDest people had been caught and saw their property
THiTvisttinj
swept away of a night. The government in particular
became an object of general execration. The Stanhope ministry
was attacked. Aislabie was expelled from parliament upon a
874 FIRST EEA OF WHIG EULE [gkokge I.
charge of "infamous corruption." Craggs the Postmaster Gen-
eral committed suicide. Stanhope, while defending himself in the
House of Lords, fell down in an apoplectic fit and died nexb day.
Sunderland was charged with corruption but was acquitted. His
name, however, was too closely associated with the luckless min-
istry; he was compelled to retire.^
Walpole and Townshend, fortunately for themselves, were not
members of the ministry when the scheme was first set on foot.
Tfjivmiiend's ^'^'Ipole had openly denounced it, and sought to expose
ndrSstni '^^ folly. Men who had been deaf then, now turned to
Walpole ]3Jiii foj. assistance. He was made First Lord of the
8aves the
wrecK, mi. Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, while
Townshend was advanced to Stanhope's position of Secretary of
State. The new ministry set to work to restore public credit.
The directors of the company were compelled to forfeit £2,000,000
from their private estates; the government renounced its claims
to the promised bonus, most of which had not yet been paid. Thus
the company, by meeting its debts, was enabled to continue its legit-
imate line of business and was soon again upon a solid basis. The
government regained the public confidence and quiet was restored.
Of the men to whom the administration was now entrusted
Walpole was unquestionably the ablest. He understood commerce
and finance, and clearly grasped the importance of
voUmf"'^ "making the exportation of English manufactures, and
the importation of the commodities used in the manu-
facturing of them, as practicable and easy as possible." This
policy, which by Walpole's inspiration was thus laid down in the
address of the king to his second parliament, explains both the
success of Walpole and the long tenure of power which he now
enjoyed. In 1721 he induced parliament to admit thirty-eight
diSerent articles of raw material free of duty. The following year
he abolished upwards of a hundred export duties. He also intro-
duced the system by which imported goods are allowed to remain
' Charles Spencer, third earl of Sunderland, not to be confused with
his more famous or rather infamous father, Robert Spencer, second earl of
Sunderland, the minister successively of Charles II., James II., and
William III., who had retired in 1697.
1730] PEACE POLICY OP WALPOLE 875
in warehouse in bond until sold by the importer. Upon some raw
materials as silk, he allowed a rebate when exported again in the
manufactured form. He also allowed the colonies to import lum-
ber free. In 1730 he permitted the Carolinas to export their rice
to any part of Europe; and shortly the rice of America, which
before could be sold only in the mother country, drove the rice of
Egypt and Italy from the European market. Above all, he
realized the full importance of peace to any durable national pros-
perity. "The most pernicious circumstances," he said, "in which
this country can be, are those of war; as we must be losers while it
lasts, and can not be great gainers when it ends. " Elizabeth her-
self was not more determined to keep England at peace, and to the
very end of his career, in spite of the never ceasing pressure
exerted by a determined "Jingo" opposition, the great minister
held to his peace policy.
The increasing prosperity of the country soon Justified the
soundness of these measures. The annual exports of England
doubled in thirty years. In George 11. 's reign the
waipoie'8 exports of Pennsylvania increased from £15,000 to half
policy. . ,
a million. The trade of Jamaica at the close of the
century equaled that of all the American colonies put together
at the beginning of George I. 's reign. The other colonies shared
in this prosperity in accordance with the importance of their prod-
ucts, and began to pour a new wealth into the lap of the mother
country. The increase in population, also a symptom of pros-
perity, kept pace with the development of new sources of wealth.
Manchester and Birmingham doubled in a generation. Liverpool
sprung at one bound, — it sounds like a tale of the American west,
— from an unknown country town to the third port in the kingdom.
Land, also, increased in value and rents rose proportionately. In
Burke's time rents had risen fifty per cent over the prices which
had prevailed at the beginning of the century.
The same sound businesslike principles were applied to the
management of the several offices of the government. In spite of
Thrift of the increase of wealth upon all sides, the most rigid
istratwn. economy was followed in the expenditure of funds ; the
debt was steadily reduced and taxes lessened wherever possible.
876 FIEST ERA OF WHIG EULE [gkorokL
At the death of George I. in 1737, the public debt had been
reduced by £20,000,000.
After the collapse of the South Sea Bubble, the remaining years
of the first George's reign passed quietly enough. When the
machinery ran so smoothly and so noiselessly, there was
ofGany7i ^i^tle for parliament to do; less for the professional
agitators. In 1734 there was but one division in the
House of Commons. In 1732 another Jacobite plot was unearthed,
known as the Atterbury Plot, from one of its principal promoters,
Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Eochester. But although many
arrests were made and the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended for
a year, there was only one execution. So profound was the sense
of security that Boliugbroke was permitted to return the next
year. The year of Bolingbroke's return was also marked by a quar-
rel in the ministry which resulted in the retirement of Carteret to
the viceroyalty of Ireland; Thomas Pelham Duke of Newcastle
first came into prominence as his successor in the Southern Secre-
taryship. Henry Pelham, a brother of Newcastle, was made Sec-
retary at War.
On June 10, 1727 George I. was suddenly stricken while
traveling in Hanover. It has been the fashion of gossippy essayists
and others, to poke much fun at the first George and
George I., his "May pole" and his "Elephant;" but for the time
tTutlC 10 1727
he was by no means a bad king. He was not a striking
personality, either physically or intellectually ; yet he was diligent
in business, quiet, and cautious. It is true that he was without
enthusiasm himself and without ability to awaken it in others.
Bnt enthusiasm in the early eighteenth century was at a discount;
the sentiment of loyalty was fast disappearing; the veil had been
hard stripped from monarchy, and Englishmen were coming to
look at the thing in the cold practical sense of Defoe's couplet:
"Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things;
The good of subjects, is the end of kings."
What was wanted was a lay figure upon which to hang the crown
and trappings of royalty, and stupid, phlegmatic George, who
cared not a stiver for the dignities of the crown so dear to the
1735-1730] TOWNSHEJTD AND WALPOLE 877
Stuart heart, who was content to let his ministers conduct the
government as long as they let him visit his beloved Herrenhausen
occasionally and confer fat titles upon his ugly mistresses, was all
in all just the man for the emergency.
The accession of George II. made little difference in the drift
of English politics. The new king was a vigorous hater, "full of
fire and temper," and an utter "stranger to benev-
cessfoji of olence." He had hated his father while he lived; he
hated the English as a race of "king killers and repub-
licans." He liated his father's great minister, and thought to get
along without him. But his clever wife, Caroline of Anspach, an
honest, true-hearted woman, who understood the English as her
husband did not, and knew the value of Walpole, used her influ-
ence so wisely, that the second Townshend ministry was continued
virtually without a break.
Since the collapse of the Stanhope ministry, Townshend had
in the main continued to direct foreign affairs. His course, how-
ever, had not run over smoothly. The proud Elizabeth
TowmUend of Farnese, whom Carlyle has dubbed the "Termagant
of Spain," who ruled not only her husband but his
kingdom as well, smarting under the humiliation of Spanish
defeat, in 1735 succeeded in persuading the emperor to enter into
an alliance with Spain against France and England, with the two-
fold object of striking at England's commercial supremacy in
India and China by bolstering up the Ostend East India Company,
and of robbing England of her gains in the Mediterranean by
recovering Gibraltar. The reply of Townshend was the counter
League of Hanover, in which England, France, and Prussia, joined
later by Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, united to confront the
new union of Spain and Austria. Walpole had opposed the League
of Hanover, and with Cardinal Fleury, the able minister of Louis
XV., continued to struggle for peace. The war spirit, however,
was again quickening in the nation and wily politicians were, as
always, at hand to fau the glowing embers into flames for purely
political purposes. Townshend soon had a vigorous and noisy fol-
lowing; in 1730 the tension became so great that George had to
decide which of the two ministers should be retained. He held on
878 FIRST ERA OF WHIG RULE [George II.
to Walpole, and Townshend retired to his country seat in Norfolk,
— forsaking politics for turnips.
The era which was marked by the growing estrangement of
Walpole and Townshend, is famous for the growth of the new Tory
party. Bolingbroke's brief experience as a Jacobite
The birth of
theneiv plotter had Satisfied him of the uselessness of support-
ing longer the lost cause, and he had returned to plunge
once more into the political arena as a reconstructed Tory. He
accepted the-Hanoverian succession, but proposed by uniting the
discontented Whigs, the scattered fragments of the old Tory party,
and such Jacobites as would join them, to organize a thorough-
going party of opposition. In this he was ably supported by
Carteret, Pulteney, Wyndham, and others. They were known as
the Hanoverian or Constitutional Tories. Their principles, how-
ever, are not so easy to describe; but upon one point they were
thoroughly united. They were against the government; their
object was to overthrow the Townshend ministry by making- as
much mischief as possible. In December 1726 they started the
famous Craftsman, an opposition newspaper, whose columns for
ten years continued each week to exploit the ideas of the new
Toryism, fiercely attacking at every point the foreign and domestic
policy of the government. In the opposition literature of the
period is to be found Bolingbroke's famous pamphlet On the
Idea of a Patriot King and Thomson's still more famous song
Rule Britannia, destined to sing its way into the heart of the
English nation.
The war cloud which had been raised by the Treaty of Vienna,
and which threatened at one time to devastate all Europe, soon
blew over. Gibraltar was besieged for a time by the
cloud dis- Spaniards, and an English fleet blockaded Porto Bello
in South America. The emperor, however, became
satisfied that his Osteud plan could never succeed in the face of
the hostility of the sea powers; while the scheming of Spain in the
Mediterranean roused his fears for his own Italian possessions so
that he was far more inclined to fight Spain than assist her against
England and France. He had a project, also, which was much
nearer to his heart than even the Ostend East India Company, and
1729-1732] THE FIEST BRITISH PRIME MINISTER 879
that was the succession of his daughter Maria Theresa to the
undivided Hapsburg possessions. In return, therefore, for a
promise of supporting her succession, which had already been
legalized within the empire by a Pragmatic Sanction, the emperor
consented to yield the point of dispute which had arisen between
him and Elizabeth of Farnese over the succession of her son Don
Carlos to the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza, and the
Treatyof next year, 1731, the Second Treaty ofVienna, concluded
Visnnci 1731. i^ ■• ' u j 7
by the emperor with England, Holland, and Spain,
laid the trouble which the Pirst Treaty of Vienna had raised. By
the Treaty of Seville of 1729 between England, France, and Spain^
Spain had virtually yielded her claims to Gibraltar and Minorca,
and confirmed the trading privileges which had been given to
England by the Treaty of Utrecht. The Second Treaty .of Vienna
was largely the work of Walpole. Although at one time nearly
every state of Europe, small Or great, had been marshalled upon
one side or the other, his patience, his farsighted determination
to avoid war, had at last won ; and what had threatened to be one
of the most bloody and destructive of European wars, passed off
mostly in a harmless excliange of protocols.
The dismissal of Townshend left Walpole the unquestioned
head of the ministry. William and Anne had been compelled to
adopt the policy of securing a ministry in touch with
thefirst ' the prevailing spirit of the Commons, but in both cases
the sovereign had remained the head of the ministry;
the ministers, moreover, were often not congenial among themselves,
and seldom united upon any one policy. But under the Han-
overian princes it became necessary to find a substitute for this
royal head by exalting to the position of supreme authority
within the cabinet, one minister who for the sake of harmony and
unanimity should be allowed virtually to select his colleagues, and
should be responsible for the conduct of their departments as well
as his own. The principle of collective responsibility to parlia-
ment was not yet understood or insisted upon, and for a long time
to come j)arliament continued to deal with individuals rather than
with the cabinet as a whole. And yet as the first to insist upon
the principle of political unanimity and of active cooperation
880 FIRST ERA OF WHIG RULE [geokoe II.
within the ministry, Walpole is justly called the first British Prime
Minister.
The practical wisdom of Walpole is shown in nothing so clearly
as in his management of the much Tcxed question of toleration.
The excitement which had attended the "Whig attack on
Mempuo ^^- Sacheverell in 1710, the rioting, and finally the
Zieration overthrow of the Whig party, had taught him the danger
of interfering with the traditions of the Established
Church, and although he supported the repeal of the Occasional
Conformity Act in 1719, he was not inclined to go further, but
contented himself with securing the Annual Indemnity Act, by
which the government virtually connived at violations of the law
on the part of nonconforming office holders. Twice he refused to
support a measure designed to repeal the Test Act, and in 1736 he
withdrew a bill which proposed to relieve the Quakers of the dis-
abilities under which they had so long and so unjustly suffered.
In both cases his reasons were the same: he did not wish to
awaken "the sleeping dogs" of ecclesiastical intolerance. Yet the
spirit of toleration was steadily growing. In 1736 the death pen-
alties for witchci'aft were abolished. In 1733 the Protestant ref-
ugees from Salzburg and Cambray were received with open arms,
and the next year Oglethorpe was permitted to establish his philan-
thropic colony in America.
Walpole himself was too much of a worldling to show any
active sympathy with the more direct phases of religious or reform-
ing activity. He had no place for what he called the
financZire- " Ugly enthusiasm" of the Wesleys. He was far more
'Excue Bill" "deeply interested in the bettering of the commercial life
of England, and was steadily feeling his way to more .
scientific methods of securing national revenues. In 1733 he pro-
posed to reduce the direct land tax from four shillings on the
pound to one, and to make up the deficiency by an excise on salt.
The excise '^'^^ ^^™® 1^^^, also, he proposed to apply the excise
'wiacco'^^'^ principle to wine and tobacco; that is, instead of col-
proposed. lecting the duties at seaports when the goods, entered
the country, mistoms, he proposed to collect the duty when the
goods were distributed within the country, the excise. The
1734] THE EXCISE BILL 881
great advantage of the excise over the customs is that it
reduces smuggling and enables the government to save a large
revenue which would be otherwise lost. It also favors legitimate
commerce by protecting it from competition with illicit importa-
tions. It was estimated at the time that of the £800,000 which
was due the government on tobacco alone, scarcely one-fourth
found its way to the government coffers. But unfortunately ever
since the era of the Kump there had existed a latent prejudice
against the excise. The opposition made the most of their oppor-
tunity, and after a bitter struggle of three weeks, in which Wal-
pole's majority sank from sixty to seventeen, forced him to with-
draw the obuoxious though wise measure.
In the defeat of the Excise Bill the opposition scored their first
great triumph, and in the general election which followed in 1734
they proceeded to make the most of it. The numer-
tmSr^nce ^^^^ S^™ ^'^ parliament was slight, and yet they were
mposition beginning to see their way more clearly, and were able
to go before the country as the advocates of somewhat
more definite principles-. The chief of these was that the king
ought to be the king of the nation, and not the tool of a party,
and that the business of the state ought to be in the hands of a
group of the best men of all parties and not of one man. Prom
Bolingbroke's pamphlet the opposition got the name of "Patriots;"
not a bad name for a party, who were bent upon making capital
by parading sentiment as against the cold-blooded commercial
motives which had thus far guided Walpole in shaping public
policy. The old Jacobites, also, were dropping out one by one, and
with each death the dread of a Stuart restoration lost its hold upon
the public mind. Men began to regard the new party with more
favor, and to recognize the fact that an attack upon Whig min-
isters did not necessarily mean an attack upon the Protestant suc-
cession. This feeling was confirmed when upon the retirement of
Bolingbroke, the public saw the Prince of Wales, Frederick Louis,
putting himself at the head of the opposition and gathering to his
camp all the discontented elements, including not only older men, like
Chesterfield whom Walpole had dropped from his ministry because
he had not agreed with him on the Excise Bill, grizzled fighters
882 FIRST ERA OF WHIG RULE [geoegeU.
like Pulteney or Wyndham or "Downright" Shippen, the acknowl-
edged leader of what was left of the old Tories, but the new gener-
ation of younger politicians also, "the boys" as Walpole
contemptuously called them, yet "boys" from whom he was soon
to hear, for of them was William Pitt, "the terrible cornet of
horse."
In 1736 the ministry was further annoyed by disturbances
in Scotland known as the "Porteous Eiots," which grew out of
the "Gin Act" of that year. In 1703, Paul Methuen,
Aa''Sndthe ^^^ English minister at Lisbon, had succeeded in
fltoisTrae persuading Portugal to join with England in a sort of
reciprocity treaty, in which Portugal agreed to allow
English woolens to be admitted to Portugal duty free, and Eng-
land agreed to allow Portuguese wines to enter with a duty always
one-third less than the French wines. As a result of this treaty
the heavier port wine very soon supplanted the light French
clarets as the drink of the English gentry, and had not a little to
do with the hard drinking of the fashionable set of the eighteenth
century. The laborer, however, who was not to be behind his
betters, found solace in his gin, which could make him just "as
drunk as a lord," and for far less money than the fashionable port.
The general low state of morals, also, helped to increase the popular
vice of the era. In the hope, therefore, of checking somewhat the
use of high spirits, as well as to make an article of such common
consumption a source of revenue, by the Gin Act the government
sought to impose a heavy license upon the sale of gin. The people
did not take to the new act kindly. In Edinburgh when an illicit
seller named Wilson was executed, the crowd attacked the city
guard with stones. Porteous the captain gave the order to fire.
Several of the populace were killed. Porteous was tried for mur-
der and condemned to death but reprieved. The mob then stormed
the prison, and lynched the impetuous captain. Walpole with
good judgment did not try to punish the rioters, but compelled
Edinburgh to pay to the widow an indemnity of £2,000.
In the meanwhile Walpole had ample opportunity abroad to
carry out his peace policy, which virtually amounted to the old Tory
policy of non-interference. In 1733 there broke out upon the con-
1735-1739] WAR WITH SPAIN 883
tinent another one of those lamentable succession wars which
wrought such havoc in Europe during the first half of the eight-
eenth century; this time the quarrel was over the Polish
ttepS"-'^ succession. Walpole, in spite of the solicitations of
^^f-tvlT" Russia and Austria, stoutly held aloof ; and while Aus-
tria, Germany, and Eussia were bending all their efforts
to crush the Bourbons, Walpole could boast that among the fifty
thousand slain not an Englishman was to be numbered.
In 1735 the War of the Polish Succession came to a close and
the Third Treaty of Vienna once more adjusted the rival claims of
the European states. The close of the Polish war.
Estrangement '
of England however, left Walpole to face a dansrerous issue of his
and France. . . ^
own, in which England was to appear not as second
but as principal. Since the death of the Regent of Orleans and
the birth of an heir to Louis XV., France had drawn away from
England and once more approached the other branch of the Bour-
bon family. While the Polish War was in progress, the two Bour-
bon governments had entered into a solemn compact, known
sometimes as the "Treaty of the Escurial" and sometimes as the
"Bourbon Family Compact," in which Spain agreed to assist France
in case England took sides with Eussia and Austria in the Polish
War, and France pledged to join Spain in opposing the further
commercial expansion of England. When the Third Treaty of
Vienna freed the hands of the Bourbons, Spain prepared to carry
out the terms of the Family Compact. She complained of the
violations of the Treaty of Utrecht, by which the English were
allowed, besides the privilege of the assiento, to send one ship a
year with a general cargo to the Spanish-American ports. The
English, however, had disregarded the limitation, and the govern-
ment had allowed a profitable smuggling trade to develop in these
waters. English merchants on their part complained of the
tyranny of the Spanish customs patrol, and of the seizing and
searching of English ships. A merchant captain, named
Jenkins, carried about with him his ear, done up in cot-
ton, as a trophy of Spanish brutality. Popular feeling ran high,
and in 1739 Walpole was at last compelled very much against his
will to declare war against Spain.
884 FIRST ERA OF WHIG RULE [geoeoeII.
The Spanish "War, however, was soon forgotten in the prospect
of a greater struggle, which was precipitated by the death of the
emperor in October 1740, and the immediate outbreak
Succession, of War between Austria and Prussia. The sluggish way
in which Walpole had conducted the Spanish War, the
barrenness of the war of events, the well known peace policy of
the minister, and his virtual abandonment of Austria, the old ally
of England in the Polish Succession War, were now used by the
opposition with telling force. The general election of 1741, in
which Thomson's E^cle Britannia, with its refrain
"Britons never, never, never shall be slaves,"
played an important part, went against the government to the extent
that the Walpole majority was cut down to sixteen. When the
new parliament met in December, a determined struggle
Walpole, was begun against the now unpopular minister. He was
still strong enough to prevent an impeachment ; but the
strength of the opposition proved to him that it was impossible
longer to control the House, and in February 1743, he resigned.
The king stood by him to the last, and upon his resignation raised
him to the peerage as Earl of Oxford. His day of usefulness, how-
ever, was gone. He had long suffered from ill health and sur-
vived his fall only three years. He died in 1745.
It is Walpole's glory that he saw clearly that what England
most needed was peace, and that for twenty years he persistently
followed out this policy. To accomplish this he aban-
wa^poif doned the old Whig ground, war with France and
active interference in European politics, and camped
upon the old Tory ground, alliance with France and non-inter-
ference. "His fall," says Eanke, "was the fall of the political
system based upon the union of Hanover and the Eegent of
France." "His ministry," says Hassall, "forms a parenthesis in
the oft-recurring struggle between England and France, which,
beginning in 1688, continued till 1815."
CHAPTER IV
THE PELHAMS AND PITT. THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED
OEOBaE n., 1742-t7e0
OEOBOE III., 1760-1763
The fall of "Walpole was. the signal that the age of cynicism was
at last drawing to its close. The "Patriots" had appealed to the
quickening belief of the nation in goodness, and
SignificaTUie t , n t ■, , ,
nffaiiof although to the older members of the group, the hard-
ened politicians, this ostentation of patriotism was little
more than a new trick of the game, the people were coming to
believe in the disinterestedness of their leaders, and had loyally
answered their appeal.
Outside of parliament there were many evidences of this better
life of the nation. About the time of the death of George I., a
few earnest Oxford men had united in a club to discuss
arouD^^'^^ religious questions. Their interest in religious matters
soon took a very practical tnm; they went out from
their meetings to visit the sick and the poor, and the prisoners in
the Oxford jail. The leader in this movement was John "Wesley,
son of Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire. He was
ably supported by his younger brother Charles, and by George
Whitefield, the son of a Gloucester innkeeper. In 1735, the Wes-
leys went out to Oglethorpe's new colony in America, to conse-
crate their zeal to missionary work among the Indians. But the
enterprise was not successful and they returned in 1738, to begin
a greater work among the heathen at home. Here they were
joined by their old friend "Whitefield. Their fervor, their zeal,
their plain and searching preaching moved in strange ways the
simple folk who gathered by the thousands to hear them. The
clergy of the day, accustomed to the sober and decorous, but life-
885
886 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [okoege II.
less methods of the generation past, could not understand these
new voices crying in the wilderness, and refused to allow the
preachers to use their churches. Then the Wesleys turned to the
fields, the "byways and hedges," and began those tireless mis-
sionary journeys over the land by which they stirred England as
she had not been stirred since the early days of the Reformation.
Sometimes they were hooted and pelted by brutal mobs; often they
were in danger of their lives; nevertheless they persevered, tireless
in their efforts to awaken England to a better life.
Wesley, however, was far more than a mere religious agitator.
He saw with a statesman's insight, that what had been won, could
be retained only by organization, and accordingly began
ofthf"'^^^ to lay the foundation of an organized society, the mem-
mthomt ijerg ^f ^hich were soon known as "Methodists." The
Churcn.
organization grew rapidly; its usefulness expanded
and deepened with every year. At the time of John Wesley's
death, 1791, it numbered more than a hundred thousand adher-
ents. Wesley himself did not wish t-o break with the mother
church ; but it was no longer possible to keep the new wine in the
old bottles, and soon after his death the Methodist body withdrew
entirely from the established Church.
Whitefield, unlike the Wesleys, was a Calvinist of the older Puri-
tan school. He had, moreover, none of Wesley's forethought or
genius as an organizer. As the Arminianism of the
dttmommmt Lesleys became more pronounced, he drew off and
"E^ktnd. attached himself to the Countess of Huntingdon, a
woman of deep piety and earnest devotion, who
attempted to establish a Calvinistic wing of the Methodist move-
ment. In England, however, Calvinistic Methodism never suc-
ceeded in taking root. But in Wales, where a similar awakening
had been in progress since the beginning of the century, Calvinistic
Methodism spread rapidly, and in 1811 also separated from the
Established Church. In Scotland and Ireland, where religious con-
ditions differed widely from those in England, Methodism received
little encouragement, but in the new world it readily found a
home; and here foundations were laid, deep and broad, upon
which the modern American church has since grown up.
1742] METHODISM 887
Great as were the direct influences of the Methodist movement,
its influence outside the ranks of Methodism proper was even
greater. The English clergy felt the general toning up
^ffi^m{ '^^ *^® religious atmosphere ; the gambling, fox hunting,
absentee clergyman of the age of Sterne gave way to
men like Toplady, the author of Eock of Ages, or John Newton,
the "converted slave dealer." The open profligacy that
had disgraced the upper classes began to hide its face ; literature
ceased to be foul, and with a new inspiration became itself an
instrument of further progress. The new life breathed a spirit of
unwonted philanthropy into English society, invading the prisons,
and recognizing the rights of the victims of justice. It invaded
the penal codes as well and infused here a clemency before
unknown to English law. Even the black man was not forgotten,
and the movement set on foot which was ultimately to result in
the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. The
state, also, found itself confronted with a new duty in the educa-
tion of the masses and the protection of the victims of commercial
greed.
The fall of Walpole made little change in the personnel of the
ministry. The great peace minister had long since ceased to lead,
and so slightly had the modern idea of cabinet govern-
ministry, ment taken hold of the political mind, that when he
left the ministry, of those who held high ofBce under
him, only Harrington the Secretary of State, saw fit to resign with
his chief. Of the two offices which "Walpole had held, Spencer
Compton, now Lord Wilmington, a nonentity who owed his pre-
ferment solely to royal favoritism, was made Lord Treasurer, and
Sandys was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. The place vacated
by Harrington was given to Carteret, who was the master mind of
the group. He was a man of mettle, with a taste for grand coali-
tions, who believed that he was called upon to "make kings and
emperors and maintain the balance of power in Europe." He
was, however, unfortunately given to drink and when in his cups
he was without reason or discretion. At a time when all Europe
was rushing to arms, a more unsafe man could not have been
chosen to direct the foreign affairs of England.
888 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [geobob tt
It is not necessary to enter into the "tangled web of armed
law suits" known as the War of the Austrian Succession; in order
to understand the position of England and the results
fh^wlfof^ attained, it is sufficient to state the general motives of
fucf^slm^^ the war. When the emperor Charles VI. succeeded to
the Hapsburg possessions, he made a will by which
all his hereditary dominions should pass to his son and after him
to his eldest daughter. Charles had not only persuaded the Ger-
man Diet to accept this will as a law of the empire, but in the
several treaties which he made with foreign powers during his
reign, he secured also the consent of Spain, Eussia, Prussia, Great
Britain, and France. When he died, therefore, in October 1740,
since his only son had preceded him by some years, the Hapsburg
dominions were to pass by the law of the empire and the guar-
antee of Europe, "whole and undivided, to his daughter Maria
Theresa. " It also seemed probable that she would secure the
imperial crown for her husband Francis of Lorraine. The tempta-
tion, however, offered by a possible dismemberment of Austria,
was too strong for the princes who could advance any claims to
Hapsburg territories, and within two months of the death of
Charles, an appeal was made to arms. Frederick II. , the young
King of Prussia, set the ball rolling by invading Silesia in Decem-
ber 1740 and in a few months all Europe was in commotion.
Even those princes who had no claims in the case, were compelled
to embrace one side or the other, as they saw themselves threatened
by the advantages promised to old hereditary rivals. George II.
belonged to this latter class. As Elector of Hanover, he had no
wish to see Prussia, his old rival in north Germany, exalted at
the expense of Austria, and was eager to champion the cause of
the Austrian queen.
In the meanwhile Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, who
claimed the whole of the Hapsburg dominions, had succeeded in
drawing most of the German states into a league with
Europe ° "
invnived in, France, for the maintenance of his claim, and in 1741
began war on his own account. Frederick had also
drawn near to France, though he much preferred to head a league
of the German princes himself. Maria Theresa, on the other hand,
1742] WAR OF AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION 889
found a ready ally in Russia; for the Eussian sovereign was no
better pleased than the Elector of Hanover to see Prussia increas-
ing its strength. To prevent Eussia from attacking him in the
rear, Frederick had by French influence succeeded in getting
Sweden to attack Eussia. In May Spain also joined the Bavarian
league and agreed to attack the Austrian possessions in Italy.
Finally in January 1742, the Elector of Bavaria obtained the
imperial crown as Charles VII. Thus the attack of Frederick
upon Silesia had within eighteen months arrayed all Europe in two
hostile camps.
The pot was thus well boiling, when in February 1742 Walpole
retired to the peerage, and Carteret, with exalted ideas of his own
ability and of his personal importance in working; out the
Carteret ^ . «-,-,,-, ,-,. . ,
involves destiny of England, assumed direction of the foreign
policy of England, and although England still had the
war with Spain on her hands, plunged into the m^lee. The influ-
ence of this new accession of strength to the Austrian cause was at
once felt. In August the English Admiral Mathews destroyed a
Spanish fleet in the harbor of Saint Tropez, effectually preventing
Spain from interfering with Austria in northern Italy. The
indomitable queen, who had pacified Frederick by the cession of
Silesia, with renewed energy turned upon the French and Bava-
rianSj who had recently entered Bohemia, and by the end of the
year had expelled them and regained control of the country.
The next year opened with even more signal successes for the
Austrian and her allies. In 1742 she had stood at bay behind her
boundaries. She now assumed the offensive, entering
tims^fi743 Bavaria and driving Charles from his own Electorate,
while an army of English, Hessians, and Hanoverians
beat the French at Dettingen^ on the Main. As a result of these
successes Germany was cleared and an Austro-English army held
the line of the Ehine.
• George II. commanded the allies ; the last instance where an English
king has commanded an army in person. The battle, however, was an
absurd affair. The victory was due to the endurance of the English,
rather than to the generalship of the king.
890 THE OCEAK EMPIRE SECURED [gkorgeH.
Thus far Carteret's program had been carried out with results
that Marlborough might have envied. But unfortunately, just
at the moment when an honorable peace lay within his
Th& jiAistvo-
Sardinian grasp, he was Seized with an inspiration, for the bril-
September liance of which more can be said than for its sanity.
George II. had favored the war because he feared
Prussia; but Carteret had feared the new ascendency which the
war promised to the older enemy of England. He was not satis-
fied, therefore, with simply vindicating the integrity of the Haps-
bnrg inheritance; he proposed to complete the humiliation of
France by forming against her a counter league of England,
Austria, and Prussia. This was not an easy matter ; the wound
which Frederick had dealt to Austrian pride was too grievous to he
easily healed or forgotten. Yet the overconfident Carteret believed
that he knew how to salve the injured pride of his southern ally,
and proposed that Austria and Sardinia enter into a league, by
which the Austrians were to seize Naples and hand it over to the
Elector of Bavaria. He, in turn, was to cede Bavaria to Maria
Theresa. Thus the Austrian queen was to be reconciled to the loss
of Silesia, by being allowed to extend her power in south Germany.
Carteret, however, had not calculated upon the possible prefer-
ences of the third member of the proposed alliance against France,
who had his own notions about the future arrangement
Opposition » i -n
to Carteret's of the map of Europe, and saw m the proposed exten-
sion of Austrian influence in Germany as well as in the
exaltation of Hanover, a menace to the future of Prussia. The
English minister had failed, also, to calculate upon the preferences
of the other German princes, who had no wish to encourage their
powerful neighbors in the idea that Germany was a cheese, to be
carved and devoured at will. Carteret, moreover, had forgotten
Spain altogether, who had no idea of renouncing her claim upon
Naples, for the purpose of healing the breach between Maria
Theresa and Frederick.
Carteret's scheme, therefore, instead of humbling France, sim-
ply sent all Europe into a turmoil again, and postponed peace
indefinitely. Spain drew nearer to France, renewing the Family
Compact, and agreeing to make common cause with her against
1744, 1745] THE PELHAM MINISTKY 891
her enemies. When the Austrian army set out for Italy in the
spring, Frederick at once invaded Bohemia, beginning the second
The second ^^^^^'^'^ '"'^^' ^^^ ^^ ^^J ^i^h other German princes
Siiesian formally joined the Franco - Spanish league. At
home, also, a serious reaction set in against Carteret.
Public coniidence in his judgment and ability as a leader was shat-
tered. The minister, moreover, was personally disliked for his
imperious ways, and what little influence he had left, rapidly
waned before the onset of the Pelhams,' who seized the moment to
get rid of their unpopular colleague.
Carteret had clung to the old policy, so dear to George II., of
favoring Hanover, but the Pelhams, under the pretext of favor-
ing England instead of Hanover, had proposed to revert
m«ftr^"™ again to the policy of William and Anne and make the
Netherlands the base of English operations on the con-
tinent. Upon this issue the quarrel finally reached a crisis.
Carteret, now Lord Granville, resigned, and Harrington, the
former colleague of Walpole, returned to his old post of
Secretary of State. In January 1745, by the Treaty of Warsaw
the Netherlands were formally admitted to a league with England,
Austria, and Saxony-Poland. In one other respect, also, Pelham,
who was the recognized head of the new ministry, showed his dis-
position to return to the old ideas of William's reign. Instead
of making his administration a strictly party ministry he sought
to strengthen it by taking men not only from the opposition
Whigs, as Chesterfield and Pitt, but from the Tory ranks as well.
Although the new ministers had come into power as a protest
against Carteret's war policy, they were forced for a time to
shoulder the burden of the war, nor were they
ministry more successful. The western Netherlands, which
the Treaty of Utrecht had given to Austria, as
usual presented a tempting point of attack to France.
Maria Theresa was so busily occupied with Frederick, that
she was compelled to entrust the defense of these territories
■ Wilmington had died in 1743 and Henry Pelham had succeeded to
the post of First Lord of the Treasury.
893 THE OCEAN" EMPIEB SECURED [geobgeII.
to her allies, and thus threw the burden of saving the Austrian
Netherlands almost wholly upon England. The Dutch were in
no condition for war; the barrier fortresses, which had been
entrusted to their keeping, had fallen into decay, and their armies
were far from a war footing. Of the eight fortresses
barrier four fell in five weeks, and while Louis XV. marched
June and south to save Elsass from an attack of Charles of Lor-
"^' ' raine, Marshal Saxe began the siege of Tournay. The
allies aroused themselves, and in May 1745, George II. 's son Wil-
liam Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, advanced with an army of
English, Dutch, and Hanoverians, to relieve the city. They were
met by Saxe at Pontenoy on the 11th and suffered a serious
repulse. Tournay, Ghent, Ostend, and other Netherland towns fell
to the French as the spoil of victory. The cause of the allies had
fared no better in the fighting in Germany. In 1744 Charles of
Lorraine had been driven out of Elsass and gradually forced back
across Bavaria. In October Seckendorf had entered the Bavarian
capital and restored Charles VII. to his ancestral estates. In
June of the next year Charles of Lorraine fell into the hands of
Frederick at Hohenfriedburg and was driven out of Silesia; on
September 30 he was again beaten at Soor in Bohemia, leaving
Frederick to punish Saxony for its temerity in joining his enemies.
In the meanwhile a new, and, at the time, apparently a
more serious danger threatened England at home and compelled
^^^^ her for the moment to leave the Dutch and Hanoverians
itfempu *° ^°^^ °^ *'^® French as best they could by them-
1744-1746. selves. In February 1744, Charles Edward, the son of
the Stuart Pretender, "James III.," had set sail for England, con-
voyed by a French fleet under command of the famous Marshal
Saxe; but the expedition first fell foul of the English Admiral
Norris and then was still further misused by storms, so that
Prince Charles had to return to France for a fresh start. The
French at the time were turning all their energies to the Austrian
Netherlands, and it was not easy to induce Louis to devote any
more money to an experiment that had so often failed. But
Charles Edward was not to be discouraged, and taking advantage of
the victory of Fontenoy, accompanied by seven companions, he
1745] THE PRETENDER 893
managed to get ofE in a single ship, and after spending six weeks
in the Hebrides landed on the wild coast of western Scotland.
For three weeks the cause of the little band of adventu-
July 25, 1745. 1 , -, , , ,
rers looked black enough ; yet when the royal standard
was finally raised in Glenfinnan the Stuart could count fifteen hun-
dred clansmen in his following. Slipping by Cope, who was approach-
ing with three thousand regulars, on September 3
he entered Perth, and on the 17th at the Town Cross in
Edinburgh proclaimed "James VIII." Four days later he routed
Cope at Preston Pans. His army now numbered six thousand
men, but the Lowlanders held aloof and the Highlanders hesitated
to march further south. But the tact and patience of Charles at
last won the clausmen, and after two months' waiting he deter-
mined to make a dash into England. By marching down the west
side of the island, he avoided an army of ten thousand men who
held the Tyne at Newcastle, and reached Derby on December 4.
It was already evident, however, to no one more than to the
daring leader himself, that the venture was hopeless. He had
expected to be joined by the Jacobites of England but
mif/tnl' although he had marched through the old Jacobite
i^^^ counties hardly a man had stirred. The people came
out "to see the pretty soldiers pass;" but hardly two
hundred men joined the Prince from the time that he left Scot-
land. Manchester had lighted its windows in his honor as he
passed through, and had sped him on his way with a gift of two
thousand ponnds, but the husbands and fathers were too busy with
other things, to turn aside to peril their lives in a struggle in
which their interest had long since ceased to be other than a mere
matter of traditional sentiment. The policy of Walpole had done
its work. , Peace, prosperity, and security had given Englishmen
something better to fight for than the time-worn claims of a for-
gotten dynasty.
The Prince was now in the heart of England with only his five
thousand Highlanders to depend upon, while from all sides powerful
armies were rushing to close in upon him. There was only one
thing for him to do. On December G, he raised his camp and
began the return march, eluding his foes and reaching Glasgow
894 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [gkokge U.
twenty days later. Here new reinforcements from the Highlands
raised his army to nine thousand men, and on January 17 at Fal-
kirk he turned and attacked General Hawley, who had
the Jacobite followed him from England. Again the rush of the
Highlanders bore all before them; but their bravery
was useless. Other English armies were advancing from the
south. The Highlanders themselves had lost heart, and when on
April 16, the Prince faced Cumberland near CuUoden, he could
marshal only five thousand men. Three times the Highlanders
charged; but their wild rush had no terrors for the seasoned
troops, veterans of the continental wars, who now confronted
them. Charles fled from the battlefield, leaving his clansmen to
be hunted down by the soldiers of Cumberland, who did their
bloody work so thoroughly that their leader was known ever after-
ward as the "Butcher." After a series of adventures Charles
finally reached France in the autumn. He died at Rome in 1788.
He left a brother. Cardinal Henry of York, who survived him
nearly twenty years. With the death of the latter in 1807 the
direct line of the "legitimate Stuarts" ended.
Jacobitism was now dead and buried. The government, how-
ever, in its fright determined to strike vigorously; some eighty
of the followers of Charles were brought to the gallows; three
hundred and fifty were transported; three Scottish lords were
beheaded and some forty other persons of rank attainted. The
Highland chiefs were compelled to surrender their hereditary
jurisdictions to the crown in return for a money payment. The
people were forbidden to wear the tartan. Feudal Scotland passed
away and "the sheriff's writ soon ran through the Highlands with
as little resistance as in the streets of London."
The defeat of the English in the Netherlands and the appear-
ance of the Pretender had only strengthened the purpose of the
Pelhams to end the war, and on December 35, 1745, in
withdraws ^^^ "Convention of Hanover," England made her peace
namiwars. "^^^^ Prussia and left Maria Theresa to fight out her
quarrel by herself, more than ever determined to win
back Silesia, now that the plan of giving her Bavaria had failed.
In the Netherlands, however, the struggle with France still lin-
1750] THE CALEKDAR BILL 895
gered on until 1748, when the "Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,"
(Aachen) restored the old status quo,— England giving up her con-
quests by sea and Prance her conquests by land. The quarrel of
England and Spain was also included in the Aachen settlement,
but the two governments continued to bicker over the question of
indemnity until 1750, when the "Treaty of Madrid" finally settled
their long-time trade quarrel.
After the Treaty of Aachen the Pelham ministry moved on
quietly enough until the death of Henry Pelham in
The Pelham 1754. The public debt had reached the unprecedented
ministry and ^
hame affairs. Sum of £78,000,000 ; bat m 1760 Pelham succeeded in
reducing the interest from four and five to three per
cent, thus greatly diminishing the annual burden. By reason of
this saving the government was able to devote some funds to the
encouragement of learning; a measure which resulted
Beginning of . ... „ , , . n • -, ,
theBntish m the acquisition of the collections which have formed
the nucleus of the British Museum. Pelham, also,
sympathized with Walpole's policy of religious toleration. In 1751
an effort was made to secure a bill for the naturalization of the
Protestant French refugees who, upon the renewal of persecution
by the French authorities in 1750, had begun again to flock to Eng-
land. In 1753 a bill was passed by which resident Jews were to
be naturalized. In the next session, however, owing to a revival
of popular prejudices, encouraged by the jealousy of British mer-
chants, it was repealed. In 1751 Chesterfield intro-
darmiv'mi ^^^°^^ ^lis "Calendar Bill," by which the Mw Style, as
the Gregorian calendar was called in England, was made
legal. By this bill the English year was to begin henceforth on
January 1 instead of March 25, and the eleven days between
September 3 and September 13 inclusive were cut out of the
Calendar. The measure aroused a good deal of feeling at the
time. Pelham opposed the new Calendar as a "newfangled"
idea, although Gregory XIII. had devised it in 1583, and the
Catholic countries of Europe had virtually been using it ever since.
The opposition politicians, in the general stagnation of politics,
seized upon it as an "issue" in the general election of 1754, and
tried to rouse the country with the cry, "Give us back our eleven
896 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [gboegeII.
days." Another important measure of the era was the "Marriage
Act" of 1753, by which only such marriages were recognized as
legal as were performed by a regular clergyman of the Anglican
Church after the banns had been published for three successive
Sundays in the parishes of the bride and bridegroom. A penalty
of seven years' transportation imposed on the celebrant put an
end to the romantic marriages so long associated with the name
of the Fleet.
In 1751 the death of Frederick Prince of Wales greatly weak-
ened the Whig opposition, and the king felt himself strong enough
to compel the Pelhams to allow Earl Granville to
Grarwine return as President of the Council, while Bedford,
the Southern Secretary, gave way to Holdernesse. On
March 6, 1754, Henry Pelham closed his long and useful career.
He had been a timid man, without any of Carteret's brilliant dash.
But his timidity had served him a good turn; for it led him
to surround himself with a corps of able men, who imparted an
unwonted solidity and strength to his ministry as a whole, at the
same time that the reaction from Carteret's methods enabled him
to restore the saner and surer peace policy of Walpole.
Thomas Pelham, the duke of Newcastle, succeeded to Henry
Pelham's place as First Lord of the Treasury. After a brief trial
of Sir Thomas Eobinson as Secretary of State, the
The New-
castle min- position was given to Henry Fox. Pitt who had
opposed Eobinson lost his position in the ministry. The
new ministry, however, was already sailing in troubled waters.
France and England, so effectually kept apart at home by the
Channel, "the accursed ditch" as Maria Theresa had called it,
were already beginning to crowd each other along their outposts
in the new world and in India.
England's American colonies had been growing rapidly during
the century and their population already mounted up to nearly
cnnditionof one-fourth of that of the mother country. Their wealth
inthe'iiew^ ^^^ increasing even faster than their population. In
world. ^ije northern colonies this wealth was still pre.tty
evenly distributed. The democracy of wealth was also attended
by a democracy in education; illiteracy was virtually unknown.
1753] ENGLAND AND FEANCE IN NEW WOELD 897
Inreligiousbeliefs the colonists varied widely, but their differences
took on nothing of the political pugnacity of the old world. The
mother country had for the most part left them to themselves,
content to monopolize their trade with the old world. The colo-
nists were satisfied; the right of monopoly was the commonly
accepted doctrine of Europe, and restriction in trade was fully
compensated by the protection which the colonists enjoyed as
British subjects. They led a free and independent life, proud of
their institu.tions and proud of their birthright as Englishmen.
From the first the relation of the English colonists to their
French neighbors had been one of suspicion. Each new outbreak
in Europe had had its echoes in the western wilderness,
fraSirf"^ where the three great wars which had followed the
woha" Revolution were known respectively as "William and
Mary's War," "Queen Anne's War," and "King
George's War." Heretofore, however, these colonial wars had
been largely sympathetic and had no real occasion in conditions
existing in the new world. But soon after the Treaty of Aachen
the French began to show alarming signs of making good their
claims to the great Mississippi basin by assuming an aggressive
attitude towards the few English colonists who had had the hardi-
hood to penetrate the Alleghanies and settle about the upper
streams of the Ohio and the Kentucky. The French had already
built two lines of forts and block houses; the one extending from
the present site of Chicago along the Illinois to the Mississippi,
and the. other from the present site of Detroit along the line of the
Wabash to the Ohio. They now began a third line from the
eastern end of Lake Erie to the point where the two great rivers
of western Pennsylvania unite to form the Ohio. Here in 1753,
Duquesne, the new governor of Canada, built the fort which bore
' his name. The English ministry were not blind to the signifi-
cance of these encroachments and encouraged the colonial govern-
ors to assert their claims to the disputed territories. The more
remote colonial governments, however, were by no means inclined
to enter into an expensive war for objects in which they regarded
themselves as hardly concerned. Even Pennsylvania was inclined
to content itself with the region east of the mountains rather than
898 THE OCEAN" EMPIRE SECUfiBD [geouge II.
violate the religions principles of its Quaker popiilation by going
to war. A feeble attempt of Virginia to reduce Fort Duquesne in
1754 still further satisfied the home government that its active
assistance was needed, and in 1756 it determined in concert with
the colonies to take active means to break down the new fence
which Duquesne had drawn across their western frontier. The
British officers, however, unacquainted with frontier fighting, were
no match for the French and their Indian allies. On July 9,
1755, the British General Braddock, while marching to attack
Fort Duquesne, was taken in ambuscade and lost more than one
half of his little army of fifteen hundred men. The erection of
Fort William Henry on Lake George to confront the French fort
at Ticonderoga, and the deportation of the French settlers of
Acadia which had fallen to the English as a result of the "War of
the Spanish Succession, could not atone for Braddock's defeat.
The government could not shut its eyes to the seriousness of the
situation. England was again confronted by a war with France.
Since the accession of the Georges, in every struggle of Eng-
land on the continent the vulnerable point of England lay, not in
America or India, but in Hanover, and although in the
The CoTiv&Ti-
tiunof n'esf- act which had made George I. king, English statesmen
minuter, , , , -,. , . t>' &^
January, had attempted to disclaim any responsibility for the
continental possessions of his house, the enemies of
England were not inclined to respect the disclaimer, or distinguish
between the possessions of the King of England and the possessions
of the Elector of Hanover. Carteret had boldly accepted these
conditions and made a league between England and Hanover the
pivot of his foreign policy; a measure which pleased no one more
than George II. himself. But the nation had repudiated Carteret
and his policy, and the Pelhams had returned to the older policy
of depending upon Holland rather than Hanover as a base of oper-
ation against Prance. The Dutch, however, had proved but a
broken reed, and in 1755, the Newcastle ministry was as hard put
to it as ever for an efficient ally on the continent. In a war with
France, Austria, the long time enemy of the Bourbons and ally of
England, might be depended on; but if Austria entered the lists,
Prussia would be sure to arm wp^nst Austria, and the necessity
1756] THE SEVEN YEAES' WAB 899
of protecting Hanover would again confront the English. If,
however, Prussia could be persuaded to unite with England against
France, the old time feud of Prance and Austria might prevent
Austria from joining with Prance. But George, as Elector of Han-
over, had no wish to see Prussia, his rival in north Germany,
strengthened by a league with England, and proposed instead to
subsidize Eussia to defeud Hanover. Here a new difficulty con-
fronted the ministry, for Prederick declared that he woiild never
suffer Eussian troops to enter German territory, and even Newcastle
refused to support the king iu a measure which was sure to add
the now powerful military state of Prussia to the enemies of Eng-
land. The proposal to subsidize Eussia, therefore, was finally
abandoned, and George was compelled to enter into the "Conven-
tion of "Westminster," by which both Hanover and Prussia were to
remain neutral in case of a war with France.
The English ministers, however, were not left long to congrat-
ulate themselves on the success of their diplomacy. They had not
taken into account the bitterness of Maria Theresa's
alliance of feelings towards Frederick. No sooner had she heard
France'and of the Convention of Westminster than she at once
Russia, 1756. ,. , , T T. • ,» ,
dispatched messengers to Pans to oiier her support to
her old foe. She was already certain of the support of Eussia,
whose wayward Czarina Elizabeth had suffered from the caustic
wit of her brilliant neighbor and made no secret of her desire to
overwhelm Prussia, and in fact for ten years had been in secret
league with Austria against Frederick. When, therefore, on April
22 the Eussian minister formally proposed to Austria to unite
the arms of the two powers for the dismemberment of Prussia,
the Eussian government was simply pursuing a policy long since
consciously adopted. Thus if the English ministers had assured
themselves of the safety of Hanover, they had little but mischief
to expect from the secret messages which were passing between
Vienna and the capitals of France and Eussia.
Thus began the "Seven Years' War." The outlook for Eng-
land was gloomy enough. Braddock's defeat was still fresh in
the popular mind. Boscawen had attempted to prevent the French
from sending reinforcements to Canada and had failed. In India
900 THE OCEAK EMPIRE SECURED [georoeII.
there had just closed a long and bloody struggle between the agents
of the English company and the agents of the French com-
pany, in which the English had held their own with
The Seven great dlflBculty and had been saved only by the daring
Y'ears' War ^ ^ ^ ^ o
begun. of the young ensign Eobert Olive. The ministry in
their efforts to save Hanover had won Prussia, but they
had lost Austria and made an enemy of Eussia, who had no cause
of quarrel with England whatever save her new friendship for
Frederick. Moreover, while the ministry were thus botching the
whole matter of a foreign alliance, little was done to prepare for
the immediate strain of the war ; not only were incompetent men left
in command of the fleets, but when 1756 opened, the government
did not have three regiments in England that were fit for service.
France, on the other hand, with a vigor and energy that reminds
one of the great days of Louis XIV. , was not only fully prepared,
but was moving promptly and swiftly to take full advantage of the
dilatory English ministry. In April 1756 the duke of Richelieu
began the siege of Port Mahon in Minorca, the "key of the Medi-
terranean," at that time regarded of more importance than
Gibraltar. Admiral John Byng, the son of the Admiral Byng
who had won such honors for the English flag in 1718, was sent
to relieve the garrison, but retired to Gibraltar, and allowed the
whole island to pass into French hands. Evil news also came from
America where in August Montcalm had captured Port Oswego on
Lake Ontario. But, if this were depressing, from India came
news that roused Englishmen to madness. Surajah
surajah Dowlah had become Nawab of Bengal early in 1756.
Dowlah;the ^^ j. .t. <ii j. ,, i n j
"Black Hale He was a sworn enemy 01 the batmen as he caliea
1756. ' the Europeans, and roused by the long struggle between
the English and French which had jast closed in June,
he laid siege to Calcutta and forced it to surrender in four days.
Happily the women had been taken on board the ships in the river
and had already sailed away with the governor. But the little
garrison of 146 men were shut up for safe keeping in the old gar-
rison prison, a strong room twenty feet square and ventilated only
by two small iron barred windows. Here without air or water, the
prisoners were left through the stifling hours of an Indian midsum-
1757] THE NEWCASTLE-PITT MIBTISTKT 901
mer night. In the morning only twenty -three of the one hundred
and forty-six men were alive. When the story reached England of
that night of horror in the "Black Hole of Calcutta," where strong
men in the agony of suffocation wrestled in the darkness and
trampled upon each other in a mad struggle to get near the two
holes that served for windows, the people in their wrath turned
upon the duke of Newcastle, whose incompetence they made
responsible for the long series of blunders and misfortunes.
In November Newcastle resigned, and the enthusiastic support
of the great commercial class practically forced upon the king
"William Pitt, the one man whom the nation had come
zaiimlf^he to look upon as able to save England from going the
PiUm^utry. Way of her possessions in the Mediterranean. The
Whig oligarchy, however, who had so long ruled Eng-
land, were suspicious of the brilliant minister, who, although he
had been in parliament since 1735, was still a poor man. His
integrity was a constant rebuke to his corrupt colleagues, nor
did he try to conceal his contempt for them and their methods.
The king, also, did not take to the haughty minister, nor could
he forget his violent opposition to the Eussian subsidy treaties.
The nation was for Pitt ; but it was still the day of seven-year
parliaments, and the principle of giving the people an opportunity
to express their opinion at a crisis by a new election had not yet
been adopted. Newcastle, moreover, the late minister, who under-
stood and practiced the old Danby methods of "influence," was the
expert master of the House, and used his power so effectually that
in April 1757 the king ventured to dismiss Pitt and recall New-
castle. Then followed a bitter struggle of three months which ended
at last in a compromise, in which Newcastle remained Lord of the
Treasury, but Pitt and Holdernesse beca.me the Secretaries of State.
As thus organized, the new ministry was one of great strength.
Pitt, with a foresight and enthusiasm all but inspired, fully grasped
the opportunity which opened before England in the
the new direction of colonial expansion and conquest. When
the coolest statesmen were gloomily discussing the loss
of the colonies altogether and the collapse of England's prestige
among the powers of Europe, Pitt saw England rising from the
903 THB OCEAN EMPIRE SECtTRED [geoeseU.
struggle, her glory iindimmed, her prestige unmatched, and
her colonial empire without a rival. He saw too, what had been
hidden from the petty politicians of his day who had for a genera-
tion been knocking their heads together in the murky atmosphere
of parliamentary quarrels, that the salvation of Britain lay in
adopting a more generous attitude toward the greater Britain
beyond the seas, in treating British communities everywhere as
members of the governing firm and not as subject peoples to be
ruled as servants or to be exploited for the enrichment of a tew
monopolists at home. So broad were his sympathies that he
could find place in this larger family even for Hanover; he
declared that Hanover was as dear to him as Hampshire, that he
knew no local attachment, and that it was a matter of indifference
to him where a Briton was cradled. Nor did his lofty faith in the
destiny of his country, or the fervor of his enthusiasm outrun his
ability to inspire others or command the elements of success. He
possessed a marvelous skill in selecting his agents. His courage
was infections, and no man left his presence without something of
his confidence. Newcastle was bad company, and it seems strange
at first thought that a man of Pitt's undoubted integrity should
ever consent to accept such a running mate. But Pitt's weakness
lay in dealing with the House. Though called the ''Great Com-
moner," no acknowledged leader ever had less personal influence
than he among the politicians of his day; and yet to succeed as a
minister, he must have the steady support of the Commons. He
left Newcastle, therefore, to manage the House, while he, to use
his own expression, "borrowed Newcastle's majority" to save the
British Empire.
The alliance of Prussia had as yet not been of any service to
England. It had not even saved Hanover. In August 1756
Frederick had struck at the nearest of his possible
The war on enemies, the elector of Saxony, taking Dresden and
tfic conti- if ' o
nent.nse. compelling the surrender of the Saxon army at Pirna.
The act was legally a serious violation of the laws of
the empire; for Saxony had not yet openly joined the enemies of
Frederick. But Frederick had received conclusive evidence that
the moment the elector dared he would join the foes of Prussia.
1757] THE PAKTITION TREATIES 903
Frederick's eaemies raised a great cry in order to make the most
of wliat they were pleased to style the waiitoa aggi-ession of the
Prussian king, and in 1757 succeeded in putting him under the
ban of the Empire.*
Frederick's showy victories, therefore, had oaly raised up new
enemies and hastened the scheming of the old. In February Eus-
The Parti- ^'^ ^^^ Austria at last agreed upon the terms of a Par-
tion Treaties, tition Treaty, and in May Austria and France signed a
similar treaty at Versailles. Saxony-Poland, Sweden,
and the elector of the Palatine, as well as Austria, France, and
Eussia, were to be the beneficiaries. Frederick had not been
ignorant of the purport of the diplomatic haggling which had been
going on at Paris and Vienna, and if he had struck without waiting
for his enemies to complete their plans, it was to secure the first
advantage in the unequal conflict which he knew was at hand and
was inevitable. He was not deterred, therefore, by the outcry which
his attack on Saxony had raised, and followed it up in the spring
by the invasion of Bohemia. On May 6 he won a hard fought
battle before Prague, but in June he was defeated by Daun at
Kolin and compelled to withdraw. His enemies followed him into
his own territories. Daun and Charles of Lorraine swept into
Silesia, while a Eussian army of 100,000 men poured into eastern
Prussia, taking Memel and defeating Frederick's Marshal Lehwald
at Gross-Jagersdorf on August 30. The Swedes, also, who had
joined in the war, were pouring into Pomerania. The French in
the meanwhile had advanced from the west, seizing the possessions
of the Prussian monarch on the lower Ehiue, entering western
Hanover, defeating the duke of Cumberland at Hastenbeck July
26, and finally driving him back to the Elbe, where they compelled
him in the "Contention of Closter-Seven" to agree to disband his
army altogether.
"While Frederick's enemies were thus pressing upon him from
all points of the compass and the erasure of Prussia from the map
of Europe seemed at hand, his allies were repeating the series
' The Emperor Charles VII. had died in Jan. 1745 and Maria Theresa's
husband, Francis, had been elected to succeed him, (Sept. 13) in spite of
the opposition of Frederick.
904 THE OCEAN' BMPIBE SECCJRED [oeobok II.
of failures of the preceding year. The unlucky Byng was court-
martialed and shot on his own quarter-deck, — as Voltaire observed,
Further "^'^ encourage the rest." An expedition under Hawke
dfefflsSrs ^^"^ Mordaunt against Kochefort ended in ignominious
1757. disaster. Loudon and Holbourne set out to take
Quebec but accomplished nothing. In August Port William
Henry, after a brave defense by the gallant Colonel Monro, was
forced to capitulate, and a part of the garrison were massacred by
a lot of drunken savages who had broken away from the control of
Montcalm and his officers.
It was at this darkest hour of the struggle, when Hanover had
been forced to pledge itself to a disgraceful neutrality, when Prus-
sia had been overrun, when the navy of England had
theUde'irsr ^^^^ driven from the Mediterranean, when her troops
had been expelled from the Ohio country and the last
vestige of her power had been destroyed within the basin of the
St. Lawrence, that the unseemly quarrel between the Whig
leaders was healed, and Pitt, given a free hand in the conduct of
the war, began to marshal the mighty strength of the empire and
impart something of his own feverish energy, his enthusiasm, and
his sublime courage, to the armies and navies of Britain. The
strings thrilled with a new touch. Frederick recognized the hand
of a master and exclaimed, "At last England has brought forth
aman. " Yet the first successes were quite independent of any
influence of Pitt or his fellow ministers. At the very darkest
moment of Frederick's career, when England was paralyzed and
Hanover disarmed, when his own kingdom was overrun from the
east and the south, and his enemies were actually levying requisi-
tions in the streets of Berlin, the cloud suddenly rifted at Eoss-
bach; on November 5, 1757, Frederick swept down upon a com-
bined French and Austrian army of twice the size of his own and
completely overwhelmed it. A month later a second victory at
Leuthen recovered Breslau and saved Silesia. In the meanwhile
swift sailing ships were bringing great news from India. Olive,
whom ill health had compelled to return to England, was again on
his way to the scene of his earlier triumphs, when the Seven Years'
War opened. At Madras he heard of the Black Hole of Cal-
1757] PLASSEX 905
cutta and at once prepared to show Surajah Dowlah how
Englishmen could fight when once their blood was roused. After
a few, sharp, quick blows, by which he recoyered both Calcutta
and Hugli, in February he compelled the terrified Nawab to make
peace. The French, however, and not the English, were still the
great people of India,' and the rumor of the new war encouraged
Surajah Dowlah to think that with their support he had no
occasion to fear his recent foes. But Clive, without waiting for
the treacherous N"awab to strike, at once began hostilities on his
own account and in May took Chandernagor. The Nawab sum-
moned his vassal princes to arms, and on the 22d of June lay
encamped on the plains of Plassey; a vast host of 35,000 foot and
15,000 horse, supported by 50 cannon. To oppose them Olive
could muster only 800 Europeans and some 3,000 Sepoys, or native
Indian troops, and 8 cannon. A council of war advised a retreat;
but Olive knew that the hosts of Surajah Dowlah were honeycombed
with dissatisfaction and treason ; he held in his own hands the
strings of an extensive plot among the Bengalese, and, knowing that
if these men were to be trusted he really had nothing to fear, on
the morning of the 33d he advanced to give battle to his huge
antagonist. The vast host which covered the plain was thrown
into confusion as soon as the English cannon shot began to
ricochet among the dense ranks, and at the first charge of the
English broke and fled. The moral eSect of the victory upon
the oriental mind was final. The superiority of the English sol-
diers and of European methods of war over the Indian was accepted,
and from henceforth the supremacy of the English in the Orient
was unquestioned.
Pitt's policy was simple. He proposed to support Frederick
by restoring the military strength of Hanover and by pouring Eng-
lish gold into the wasted treasury of Prussia, while he
^**|^« himself gathered all the fighting strength of the British
Empire to meet Fi'ance on the seas and wherever their
colonial interests came into contact. Accordingly he persuaded
George to repudiate the Coavention of Closter-Seven while he
gathered an army of English and Hanoverians on the Elbe under
Ferdinand of Brunswick, one of the ablest of Frederick's generals;
906 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [gkobob II.
in April he agreed in a new subsidy treaty to furnish Frederick
with £670,000 a year. In America, he planned for a grand series
of attacks along the whole line of frontier. The uniform success
of these enterprises vindicated their wisdom. On July 8, Aber-
crombie failed in the attack on Ticonderoga. But on the 36th,
Boscawen and Amherst took Louisburg and as a result the English
secured both Cape Breton Island and St. John, now Prince
Edward Island. In August Bradstreet with a colonial army cap-
tured Frontenac, and in Norember Forbes took Bort Duquesne
and renamed it Fort Pitt. In other parts of the world the same
intelligent vigor brought equal laurels to the English arms. In
May the English seized Fort St. Louis in Senegal, and in Decem-
ber added Goree Island off Cape Verde. Expeditions were also
dispatched directly against the arsenals of St. Malo and Cherbourg.
The French saved St. Malo, but Cherbourg and its stores were
destroyed. In June the Prince of Brunswick defeated the French
at Crefeld and drove them out of western Germany. Frederick
in the meantime continued to hold his own, on August 35 beating
the Russians at Zorndorf on the Oder, and though surprised by
Daun at Hochkirchen in October, finally drove the Austrians out
of Saxony.
The next year, however, was gloomy enough for Prussia.
From all sides Frederick's powerful neighbors advanced to attack
his little kingdom. On August 13, a combined Aus-
Minden, trian-Russian army routed him at Kunersdorf . A few
Quiberon, days later Daun took Dresden, and an attempt of the
Prussians to regain their lost ground met with a terri-
ble punishment. Yet Frederick had no thought of submission,
and winter found him still at bay behind his frontiers, as plucky
and determined as ever, while his enemies were practically back to
the point from which they had started in the spring. Moreover, if
the year had gone hard against Frederick, the tide of fortune had
rolled in strong for England. The year 1759 was the year of
Minden, Quebec, and Quiberon. France had planned to match
the mighty armament which Austria and Russia were to pour into
Prussia, by throwing an army of 50,000 men into Hanover.
Prince Ferdinand was compelled to retire before the advancing
1759, 1760] THE YEAE OF QUEBEC 907
army, losing many men at Bergen on April 13. But in August,
although greatly outnumbered, he confronted the French Marshals,
Contades and Broglie, at Mindea. The chief feature of the battle
was a noble charge of six English regiments, which broke the
French center and in an hour's time decided the fortunes of the
day. The French army, completely shattered, was compelled to
fall back on the Ehine, and Hanover was again saved. So rapidly
came the victories now that Englishmen ceased to wonder; Byng
and Minorca, Braddock and Fort Dnquesne, were forgotten in the
marvelous news that came from Madras, from Ceylon, from
Guadeloupe, from Havre, which Rodney bombarded for fifty hours,
destroying an entire fleet which was equipping for a descent upon
England, from Lagos in Portugal where Boscawen sank the French
Mediterranean fleet, and again from Quiberon Bay, where on
November 20, Sir Edward Hawke in spite of rocky reefs and
rolling seas, engaged and annihilated the French Channel fleet.
Then the bells had hardly ceased ringing when from America
came the news of the triumph of the year, the capture of Quebec
by Wolfe on September 18.
The English had now passed from a war of defense to one of
conquest. It was Pitt's purpose to exterminate the sea power of
France and appropriate her colonial possessions wher-
Chcmgein ever they fell into the hands of the English. The
the war, 1760. next year the flagging enemy was pushed more
remorselessly than ever. On January 22 Count Lally,
the son of an Irish refugee, who after the retirement of Dupleix
had been made the French Governor-General of India, was defeated
by Colonel Eyre Coote at Wandewash, and in 1761 the siege and
capture of Pondicherry virtually ended the French occupation
of the Karnatik. Although the trading stations were restored in
the subsequent treaty of peace, the now well established supremacy
of England on the sea put an end to all further competition in
India. England was mistress in the Orient. In America the
French with their forts gone, Quebec taken, and Montcalm dead,
made but a feeble resistance, and with the surrender of Montreal
on September 8, 1760, the French occupation of Canada also
came to an end.
908 THE OCEAN" EMPIRE SECUKED [geoege III.
On the continent, however, England's ally was beginning to
show unmistakable signs of exhaustion. Prussia could not stand
the terrible strain much longer. England might continue her
supplies of money, but she could not restore the young manhood
of Prussia, with whose graves a score of battlefields were fur-
rowed. Prince Ferdinand kept up the fight in Westphalia, but he
was forced to allow the French to winter in western Germany.
Frederick himself could not turn rapidly enough from frontier to
frontier to meet his many enemies, and the very moment when far
away in the south he was retaking Leipsic and overwhelming Daua
at Torgau, the Kussians were ravaging Brandenburg and occupying
Berlin.
Torgau, November 1760, was the last pitched battle of the war
on the continent. George II. had died October 25, 1760, and with
the new king an entirely new phase was given to English politics.
George III. shrank from the war of conquest which Pitt was now
waging; but more serious than his opposition to Pitt's policy of
"coloring the map red," was his determination to end the long
reign of the Whig oligarchy and rescue the crown from the tyranny
of the constitutional conventions by which the Whigs had main-
tained their power. He had been nurtured in the atmosphere of
Bolingbroke's "Patriot King," and believed in his right to govern
as well as his right to reign. He believed, also, that if he would
escape slavery to a faction he must place himself above parties.
Prom the first, therefore, the new king was opposed to the
Newcastle-Pitt ministry, and was determined to end both the
armaments of Pitt and the methods of Newcastle. His
Newcaloe- c^isf adviser was John Stuart, Earl of Bute, his old
pm minis- tutor, a Tory of the Bolingbroke type, who regarded the
overthrow of the Whig power of paramount importance
to all other issues. In March, upon the retirement of Holdernesse,
Pitt's colleague in the Secretaryship, Bute was put in his place.
Between Pitt and Bute there could be no harmony and on October
5, 1761 Pitt offered his resignation. "He had been called to
the ministry," he said, "by the voice of the people and as he was
accountable to them, he would not remain responsible for meas-
ures which he was not allowed to guide." In May 1763, upon the
1761-1763] THE TREATY OF PARIS 909
withdrawal of the subsidies from Prussia, which had so long
formed the basis of the Newcastle-Pitt policy, Newcastle also
retired.
Thus ended one of the strongest ministries that England has
ever known; but its work was already done. In August 1761
The dawn ^P^i°' ^^^ ^J ^^^ new king, Charles III., renewed the
"iftelhird ^^"^ily compact with Prance, but her assistance counted
p'omii^Cmn ^'**^^ ^^ *''^® balance against the overwhelming supe-
paculugmt riority of England. In August 1763 Eodney took
Havana and in October Draper took Manila. It was
evident that it was useless to carry the war further; the interfer-
ence of Spain had only dragged down her colonial empire with
rn^ „, . ^ the wreck of the French. In November preliminaries
The Treaty of . '^
Pwns,Febru- ot peace were signed at Pontainebleau, and on February
ary lo, 1763. . ^
10th following, were finally accepted at Paris by the
three western powers. Great Britain, Prance, and Spain. By the
terms of these treaties (1) France ceded to England Canada and
Cape Breton Island, the Island of Granada in the West Indies, and
her possessions in Africa on the Senegal; the Mississippi was
recognized as the boundary between Louisiana and the British
colonies. (2) Spain ceded Florida to England, having already
received Louisiana from France as indemnity. (3) England
restored to France Goree in Africa, the Islands of Martinique,
Bellisle, St. Lucia, and her French conquests in India ; to Spain,
all conquests in Cuba including Havana. Manila was restored
without any equivalent as the news of its fall did not arrive till
after the peace preliminaries had been signed.
Elizabeth of Russia, the old enemy of Frederick, died in Jan-
uary 1762. Her successor was the young and brilliant Peter III.
who was an enthusiastic admirer of Frederick and has-
Huber^tirg, tened to transfer the support of Eussia from Austria to
eb. IS, 1763. pj,„ggja^_ gj^i^ i^Q Russia-Prussian alliance had hardly
been concluded when Peter was murdered by his German wife,
who succeeded him as Catharine II. and at once reversed the past
policy of Eussia by withdrawing from all interference in German
affairs. France had long since become too weak to help Austria,
and Austria alone could scarcely hope to cope with Prussia.
910 THE OCEAN EMPIRE SECURED [o
CrEOnGE III.
Prussia on the other hand was bleeding at every vein and had no
vi^ish to carry her duel with Austria farther. Accordingly on
February 15, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, at
the Saxon castle of Hubertsburg Prussia and Austria also agreed
to lay down their arms. The territorial lines were restored virtually
as they had existed at the beginning of the war. But Prussia
remained in possession of Silesia; her claim to rank among the
great powers of Europe had been established.
Thus at last the war which had been begun by the aggression
of France in the new world, which had destroyed the light in
hundreds of thousands of European homes, which had
sevenTcars' devoured untold wealth, was ended. What had been
^"'^' gained! By the powers on the continent nothing; but
by England everything. Spain was allowed to get back her
colonies, but France, who had been the cause of all the trouble,
had lost her splendid empire beyond the seas ; while England at
once mounted to the supremacy which she has since enjoyed as
the one great ocean power of the world. Yet England also had not
been without fault in the matter and her day of humiliation and
punishment, coming from a source from which she least expected
it, was not far off. Her complete triumph over France in the new
world, made the American Eevolution not only possible, but inevit-
able. In 1763 the French statesman Vergennes declared that in
winning Canada England had removed the only check which could
keep her American colonies in awe; "She will call upon them to
contribute towards supporting the burdens which they have
helped to bring upon her; they will answer by striking off all
dependence."
CHAPTEK V
6E0EGE III. THE FIEST PERIOD OF TORT RULE AND THE LOSS OF
THE AMERICAN COLONIES
OEORGE ni., ne3-VH3
The sixty years of the reign of George III. is the era in which
the England of the Eestoration passes into the England which we
know to-day. The England of 1760 was not very
George iii.'s different from the England of 1660. The foreign
rewn a tran- j! ±i r^ ■,
siticm period, wars 01 the Commonwealth and the early Eestoration
era had left England in control of the carrying trade
which had once enriched the Dutch. The wars which had followed
the Eevolution had also tended to enrich the commercial classes,
greatly extending and deepening all channels of commercial enter-
prise. Manufacturing industry had grown steadily, particularly
in the half century which had followed the death of "William, and
the center of population had continued to move from the region
of the southern seaport towns to the new manufacturing towns
of the north. Yet the great bulk of the population were still
earning a livelihood in the old way, either by farming or trading.
The rough goods worn by the common people were largely made
in England; but production was limited by old methods. The
machines which were used for making cotton goods, were hardly
in advance of those used in India. The iron furnaces of Sussex
and Surrey' were still stoked with wood from the neighboring
forests. There was coal in abundance stored away in the rocks,
but there was no machinery by which it could be mined to
advantage. The primitive means of communication still in vogue,
were as serious a drawback to the development of industry or
trade as the lack of machinery or coal. Goods were still trans-
ferred to or from inland towns by pack horses in the hill country
or by ponderous wains in the low country. The condition of the
roads, wretched at all times, but at certain seasons altogether
911
913 EIEST PERIOD OF TORY RULE [geobob HI.
impassable, added greatly to the difficulty and expense of trans-
portation. The huge wagons dug the roads into ugly ruts or
stirred them into bottomless quags. The road menders dumped
into such places endless cart loads of loose stones, but only to add
to the discomfort of the passengers or encourage the profanity of
the drivers. The model of Bunyan's Slough of Despond could be
found upon most any of the great transinsular highways, swim-
ming with fathomless mud and fringed with broken cart wheels or
abandoned wains.
In the early years of George III.'s reign, however, all this
began to change. A remarkable series of inventions greatly
increased the efficiency of labor, while numerous and
infninnm^ widely extended improvements in the means of trans-
vmHina^ portation correspondingly facilitated the distribution of
the increased output. The flying shuttle which had
been invented by John Kay in 1733, had doubled the productive
power of the weaver ; but the weaver was still handicapped by the
difficulties which attended the old methods of spinning, by which
his yarn was supplied. A generation passed and the art of cloth-
making seemed to have reached the limit of improvement, when in
1769 a series of advances was inaugurated in the invention by a
Bolton barber named Richard Arkwright, of a system of spinning
by revolving rollers. The next year James Hargreaves, a weaver
of Blackburn, took out a patent for his spinning jenny, which
multiplied the efficiency of the old hand spinning a hundred fold.
Nine years later Samuel Crompton combined the ideas of Ark-
wright and Hargreaves in his "mule" and added the spindle car-
riage, which prevented the annoying breaking of threads. These
improvements, used first in the manufacture of cotton, were
gradually applied to woollen manufacturing as well.
The first efiect of these improvements in the art of spinning
was to produce a great deal of anxiety and even actual distress.
Yarn making soon outstripped weaving. The spinners
Application ot.tS. •
nf steam to lound it difficult to dispose of their products; prices
fell, and the old fashioned hand spinners, unable to com-
pete, began to be crowded out. Eelief came in a corresponding
revolution in the art of weaving, which followed the remarkable
1764-1785] IMPORTANT INVENTIONS 913
inventions that date from the year 1785. The steam engine had
already been in use for some time as an adjunct to mining, where
it furnished the power for the pumps. It was, however, a chimsy,
impractical, primitive sort of machine, and each year cost a small
fortune in fuel. In 1764 the attention of James Watt, an instru-
ment maker of Glasgow, had been called to the machine then in
use, and after ten years of vexatious disappointments, he finally
succeeded in making the improvements which have given us the
useful machine of modern commerce. Of one of his earlier esperi-
ments he writes in grim humor : ' ' The velocity, violence, magnitude,
and horrible noise of the engine gave universal satisfaction to all
beholders." In the twenty years which followed. Watt's perfected
machine came into general use, furnishing the motive power in
almost all kinds of manufacturing industry, in weaving among the
first. In 1785, Edmund Cartwright, a Yorkshire clergyman,
took out a patent for a power loom ; a clumsy machine at first,
which required the attention of two men, even when running at
a low rate, but it kept the mules busy. Later he perfected his
machine, and it began to be felt as a new power in all kinds of
textile industries. Afterwards he also patented a wool-combing
machine which greatly improved the quality of the wool and did
the work of twenty hand combers.
The extensive introduction of labor saving machinery at once
disturbed the old industrial equilibrium. Workmen saw their
livelihood taken from them, and turned their fury upon
Snctairesuits the new inventions. Spinning Jennys and power looms
machinery, were smashed by infuriated mobs. At a time when
Cartwright had just received an order from a Manches-
ter firm for four hundred of his power looms, his factory was
burned, probably the work of incendiaries, and a bill was actually
presented in parliament, which forbade the use of his wool-comb-
ing machine under severe penalties. The improved methods of
manufacturing, however, very soon increased the demand for
labor. New enterprises invaded the quiet moorland valleys of the
west and north, where the cheap coal and abundant water supply
offered special advantages. Older sites, as Norwich, Leeds, and
Halifax, rapidly increased their output. The population, also,
914 FIRST PBKIOD OF TOEY RULE [george III.
naturally drifted to tliese centers, doubling and trebling in a very
few years.
It was upon the iron trade that Watt's great invention perhaps
had the most direct influence. In 1740 the entire production of
England did not exceed 17,350 tons. The engine of
Prnduction Watt at once made the deep mining of coal practicable
and thus removed the last difficulty in the way of iron
smelting. The years 1755 to 1762 saw works started in Stirling-
shire, in South Wales, and in the neighborhood of Birmingham,
where Watt himself became a partner in the Soho works. By the
end of the century the annual output of England had reached
170,000 tons.
Other industries also shared in the new era. The cheaper
manufacture of iron affected in turn every other line where iron
tools or iron machinery were used. In 1763 the potteries of South
Staffordshire, where Josiah Wedgewood succeeded in producing
the famous "Queens Ware," had begun to attract attention. In
1785 these potteries employed 15,000 men. In 1773 plate glass
making was begun in Lancashire.
The increasing volume of trade, the shifting of population to
new methods of gaining a livelihood, the changing social condi-
tions, in turn demanded better jnethods of communica-
Effe^upon ^qq or exchange. During the first fourteen years of
George III. 's reign parliament passed 453 separate acts
for repairing roads. The turnpike, or toll road, became general,
and before the end of the century smooth, hard roads stretched •
away from all the great cities, along which stage coaches made
regular and, for the time, rapid trips, carrying mail and passengers
■with dispatch and some comfort ; over four hundred towns could
boast of one mail a day.
One wonders that the long and close acquaintance of the Eng-
lish with the Dutch had never suggested the adoption as an English
institution of the canal, which was as well suited to
buumna some parts of England as to Holland. It was not, how-
ever, until 1761 that the islanders seriously took to
canalling, when Francis Duke of Bridgewater with the help of
the self educated engineer Brindley, built a canal from his Worsley
1761-1793] THE INBUSTEIAL REVOLUTION 915
collieries to Manchester. Later he extended his canal to the
Mersey, thus connecting Manchester and Liverpool, and diminish-
ing the price of coal in Manchester from seven pence per hundred
to three and one-half pence. The example of the successful work-
ing of this ship canal and the profits which came to the enterpris-
ing dnke, who was thus made independent of the whims of the
Mersey, were not lost upon the- public. In a short time a canal-
building craze took possession of investors in some such way
as the railroad building craze has from time to time caught the
American public. Within George's reign nearly 3,000 miles of
canals were constructed; 165 acts sufficiently testify to the interest
of parliament. The chief of these great works were the ship canal
between the Forth and the Clyde, begun in 1768 and completed
in 1790; the EUesmere Canal, begun in 1793, connecting the
Severn and the Mersey, by crossing the valley of the Dee over a
marvelous viaducb whose arches were sprung seventy feet above the
river; and the great ship canal which enabled ships to reach
Gloucester from the lower Severn. These waterways were to the
industrial England of the last two Georges what the railways
have been to the England of Victoria, or to the America of the
later nineteenth century. They furnished the means by which heavy
goods, especially machinery, could be transported to distant points
safely, easily, and cheaply.
The developjuent of new lines of industrial activity acted
directly upon the entire English social structure. The volume of
trade steadily increased, but the increase called out a
Social aspects fierce, keen spirit of competition. The wise, the cun-
revolution. ning, and thrifty survived ; while the stupid, the lazy,
and the thriftless were crowded to the wall. The suc-
cessful operators began to combine forces ;' the master workman,
working in his own cottage, assisted by one or two journeymen
and an apprentice lad or two, gave way to the wealthy manufac-
turer who reared a huge factory and gathered into it a small army
of men, women, and children, who toiled long hours feeding his
machines while he sat in his office dividing his attention between
his balance sheet and the market. The picture is not an attractive
one; the new "captain of industry" was often hard, illiterate,
916 FIRST PERIOD OF TORT RULE [geoeoe III.
without heart or culture; he looked upon his workmen as he
looked upon his machines, — to be easily worn out and to be as
easily replaced. The workmen were poor and ignorant ; all their
surroundings were brutalizing. They were without schools and
without churches. Their working days were spent in dreary
hours of toil in dark, ill smelling, dingy factories ; their nights in
shabby, ill kept, and unhealthy brick cottages; their Sundays in
the public house. For this weary multitude the state did nothing,
save to recruit their ranks from the children of the poor-houses,
who were regularly transported to the slavery of the factory as
soon as they were able thus to relieve the public of their keep.
The state had no thought of protecting the factory hands from the
greed of the master; the new towns were not represented in par-
liament ; labor was not yet organized, and the toiling multitude
had no means known to the constitution by which they could
command the attention of the men who made the laws and quar-
reled over the patronage of the government. Yet these workmen
were not so sotted that they could not think. In a blind, vague
way, they realized that something was wrong somewhere, but they
could not tell just what or where. Hence they offered a ready
field for the agitator, eagerly listening to the most dangerous and
violent doctrines which at least promised to punish their oppressors.
Side by side with the development of the industrial life of
England there was also progressing a like revolution in the agri-
cultural life of the people. The causes were virtually
remhdion^"'"' ^^^ same: the increase in population, the greater
demand for the products of farm labor, and the encour-
agment to capital to concentrate in the interests of economy and
larger profits. At the beginning of George III.'s reign, by the
old system which had been handed down from generation to
generation, probably from days which preceded the Norman Con-
quest, the land about a village was still cultivated in common.
The farmers had little skill, little capital with which to keep up
stock and tools, and little inducement to improve the land.
Drainage was impossible; winter crops could not be grown; sheep
and cattle were left to herd promiscuously; disease generated
easily ; and any improvement of live stock was not to be thought of.
1785-1793] ARTHUR YOUNG 917
The increase of population, however, soon began materially to
affect the demand for farm products, and not only encouraged the
adoption of improved methods, but also hastened the
Agri^u^e. ^^^^ of capital toward agricultural industry. Waste
lands were brought under cultivation; the open field
system began to be abandoned and the rights to the commons
extinguished. Marling became general; a fourfold rotation of
crops took the place of the old wasteful three field system ; the
culture of the turnip, corn, and rye grass, was introduced. Scien-
tific methods of breeding also were adopted. In 1785 the famous
Leicestershire sheep appeared, "giving two pounds of mutton,
where there was only one before." The long horned "Dishley
breed" of cattle also won a worthy reputation; later to be sup-
planted by the more famous "Durham," the short horn breed of
the Tees valley.
For the spread of more intelligent ideas on the subject of agri-
culture, much credit is due to the agricultural and economic
writer, Arthur Young. He traveled extensively in
'vmma England, "Wales, Ireland, and Prance; observed closely
and scientifically the agricultural conditions of the era;
made extensive experiments himself; gathered useful statistics,
and sought to diffuse a more scientific knowledge of agriculture
through the country. In 1793 he was appointed Secretary of the
Board of Agriculture.
The improvements were very great, but there was also much
loss and suffering. New ideas had invaded the old stolid life of
the country side; but they brought changes in their
fe^rw'mmed ^'^^''^ ^® marked as those introduced by the factory sys-
b^eeonomic tem in the cities. The old farmer had led an independ-
ent, contented life; his fields were small,' but he could
eke out his meagre earnings by setting up a small factory in his
house. He was generally sure of his market. The government
encouraged exportation of grain and when the price fell below 48
shillings a quarter, added a bounty of 5 shillings. But now the
' The average acreage to each farmer was about eighteen acres of
arable land and ten acres of meadow.
918 MRST PERIOD OF TORT RULE [geokge m.
capitalist farmer came in; small farms disappeared and with
them the common field farmer, who became a "hired day laborer."
Three thousand "Enclosure Acts" were passed in the
'^reAcU""'of ^^^S^ "^ George III. By the middle of the next century
rrton'^ ^'''^'^ seven million acres had been taken from the people and
turned into private property. Like the factory, the
farm was conducted more scientifically, with better tools and with
better results, but the average agricultural laborer had no share
in the fruits of this prosperity. The expense of living was
increasing, but the awful pressure of subsistence compelled the
laborer to compete with his fellow, until at last it became neces-
sary for the state to add to his wages by way of a poor law dole.
At the opening of the next century it was estimated that one
seventh of the population received relief under the poor law. A
strange phenomenon! England was getting richer but pauperism
was increasing at an appalling rate.
The anomaly, however, is not hard to explain. Abnormal
conditions, favored by unjust laws, enabled the employer to
monopolize all the profits. The old yeomanry were
expiained'^^^ goue and the small squire was following him rapidly.
The land was passing into the hands of an ever nar-
rowing circle of wealthy land owners, who made laws in their own
interests, shut out competition of foreign food stuffs while they
forced their laborers to work for wages below the possibility of
living, and then, when they had pauperized them, called upon the
state to piece out their wages with a dole by way of charity.
There were not wanting those who read intelligently the signs
of the times, and boldly sought to put the finger on the cause of
the accumulating miseries of the people. In 1776
Adam^mm. ^^^^ Smith, a Professor in tbe University of Glasgow,
published his Wealth of Nations, in which he proposed
to throw down the artificial restrictions which human laws were
throwing around the life of the nation, causing the congestion
and the poverty; only by free trade could a healthy condition
be restored once more. He was widely read and studied, and his
views soon began to affect the policy of statesmen like the younger
Pitt, who tried to carry them out, when he came to be Prime
THE EN^GLAND OE GE0E6E III. 919
Minister of England. Other voices were not so hopeful. In
1798 Malthus sought to show that the evil lay in overpopulation,
and that improved methods of production were of little use, when
the rapidly increasing population was ever eating itself poor.
It was over this new world, stirring with unwonted life, that
George III. was called to reign. The eighteenth century system
was breaking up. The old trading and farming Eng-
overioiiicT^ land was merging in the industrial Great Britain. The
uncalled ' factory system was increasing the population of the
to reign. towns and in turn opening new avenues for the accumu-
lation of private wealth, undermining the strength and influence
of the older rural population, widening the gap between wealth and
poverty, drawing the laboring classes into the stifling atmosphere
of the factory town and the workshop, bringing in new conditions
and raising new problems, in the light of which the maxims of the
older statesmen appeared shallow and puerile; their principles,
outworn cant; their boasted policies, useless rubbish.
At the time of his royal grandfather's death George III. was
twenty-two years old. The nation hailed his accession with bois-
terous enthusiasm. Unlike his Hanoverian predeces-
Oem-gefii^ sors he was thoroughly English both in his tastes and
his habits. His courtesy won friends; his personal
purity won confldence and esteem. He could "name every ship
in the English navy; had the articles of war at his finger's ends;
paid his bills every quarter; wore none but clothes of English
manufacture," and "like a decent Christian" attended church
every Sunday, Prayer Book in hand, accompanied by his wife and
attended by his numerous children as soon as they were old enough to
sit out the service without disturbing the slumber of their august
father. Yet this monarch of homely habits, whose irreproachable
life was so marked in contrast with the stupid libertinism of his
predecessor, had his serious defects. His education had not been
neglected, but it had been faulty. With a right royal license he
persisted in spelling the mother tongue in his own way. Some of
his eccentricities would delight the modern spelling reformer.
Thus "bottles" under the royal hand was always "botills," but
"champagne" masqueraded as "shannipane." His ideas were a
920 FIBST PERIOD OF TOET RULE [
Georgb III.
curious deposit of ignorance, bigotry, and stupidity. He was,
moreover, hopelessly, incurably obstinate; a trait which he owed
to the unfortunate combination of a narrow intellect "with strong
will, high courage, and vigorous character."
"When the new king began his reign he undertook the praise-
worthy task of breaking up the ring of old Whig families which
had controlled the government since the days of Anne.
o'^g!ni. S® ^*^1®<^ himself a Whig of the Kevolution. He had
no sympathy with the principle of party government ;
he believed that as king it was his duty to ignore parties alto-
gether, to select the best men for his ministry, and, by control-
ling them himself, restore to the cr-own the power which the Whig
leaders had so long usurped. In this program George partly suc-
ceeded and partly failed. He broke up the old Whig ring;
vindicated the right of the sovereign to choose what ministers he
would, and once more made the royal power a reality. To accom-
plish this end he was compelled to draw near to the Tories, who
had been freed from the blight of Jacobitism, and now most nearly
represented the ideas of the king himself. It took the slow mind
of George, however, some time to grasp the real conditions which
confronted him; but by 1770 he had learned his lesson; and from
1770 to the end of his reign, in fact until 1830, the Tory rule
was virtually unbroken.'
Outside of parliament it had been long understood that the
Houses were in the hands of a corrupt ring, and that they no longer
represented the will of the nation; the old distinctions
vartu™^'^ between Whig and Tory, also, had lost their meaning,
and the people discovered with delight that at last
England again had a king who proposed to rule as well as reign.
Within parliament, George found little trouble in drawing about
himself a party devoted to his ideas; for high as was his ultimate
aim, although he hated the corrupt rule of the wealthy Whig fam-
ilies as much as Pitt, he did not hesitate to adopt Newcastle's
methods in making friends. When bribery failed, he used intimi-
dation. Discontented Whigs, like the elder Pox, who thought that
> There were two brief interims, 1782-1784 and 1806-1808, when George
was forced to accept ministers of the Whig faith.
1763] JOHN WILKES 931
they had not received their due share of public plunder, hailed
with delight the rising of the new sun in the political firmament
and hastened to secure each his orbit in the new group of satellites.
The Tories ranged themselves on the king's side as a matter of
course. It was not long before the "King's Friends" began to be
known as a secret influence in parliament, always to be reckoned
with.
Bute's administration was a short one. In 1763, within two
months of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, he gave way to
George Grenville. Grenville was honest himself, but
Bedford min- he was Compelled to yoke with the duke of Bedford for
' the sake of his following in the Commons, which he
maintained by all the corrupt methods of Walpole and Newcastle.
Two serious blunders have rendered Grenville's administration
memorable, the Wilkes Affair and the Stamp Act. Since the
expiration of the Licensing Act of 1695, the govern-
The gmem ,it j_j_i. ^f^^ ... .
mentandthe ment had contented itself with restricting the activity
press. - o J
of "the press" by levying upon each newspaper a^duty,
which had increased from one penny in 1713 to four pence in
1760. The Whig oligarchy was too strongly intrenched to worry
itself over any criticism which came from parties outside of parlia-
ment, although a breach of the law of libel or of the privilege of
parliament might be severely handled by the courts. But in the
storms which followed the accession of George, the governing
oligarchy became more sensitive and soon showed symptoms of
returning to older methods of interfering with the freedom of the
press.
In June 1763 John Wilkes, a worthless demagogue, likewise
member of the House of Commons, began an opposition newspaper
which he called The North Briton. In the famous
andtue "No. 45," which appeared in April 1763,* he attacked
Britrni, a recent royal address in which the king had com-
No. 45." . .
mended the Peace of Paris to his parliament. Wilkes,
assuming that the speech was the work of the king's ministers,
declared it to be "the most abandoned instance of ministerial
' Lee, Source Book, pp. 467-473.
923 FIRST PERIOD OP TORT RULE [oeoboe in.
effrontery ever attempted to be imposed upon mankind." The
king was deeply offended by what he regarded as a personal attack,
and insisted that the Secretary of State, Lord Halifax, should issue
a general warrant for all concerned in the issue of the offensive
No. 45 of The North Briton. Some forty-nine persons, including
the publishers, printers, and lastly "Wilkes himself, were drawn
into the official net.
So far the course of the government had been easy enough, but
when the king wished to punish the insolent pamphleteer by
imposing upon him something more than a simple
uie courts^ arrest, he was made at once conscious of the wide differ-
ence between the England of the later eighteenth cen-
tury and the England of the days of Stuart tyranny. To punish
Wilkes he must resort to the courts. The judges, moreover, were
no longer the creatures of the king. The act of 1701 had taken
from the crown the right to dismiss Judges at pleasure; George
III. himself, at the beginning of his reign, had abandoned the
ancient custom by which the commissions of the judges were
regarded as lapsing with the death of the last king, and, further,
had separated the salaries of the judges from the civil list, thus
sweeping away almost the last vestige of the old dependent Judi-
ciary. When, therefore, Wilkes appealed to the courts, his
appeal was treated very differently from the way in which such
appeals were treated in the days of Judge Jeffreys. In May,
upon a writ of habeas corpus, Wilkes secured a hearing before
Chief Justice Pratt of the Common Pleas, and upon pleading
his privilege as a member of parliament was released. Justice
Pratt, also, condemned the general warrant as illegal, and in
July several of the printers recovered damages. Later, Wilkes
himself received £1,000 damages from the Under-Secretary of State,
Wood, who had carried out the directions of his chief in seizing
Wilkes's paper. He began suit against Halifax, also, for illegal
imprisonment and won after a fight of six years.
Wilkes was now the popular hero of the hour. Even Pitt sup-
ported him upon the broad ground that an illegal arrest was an
invasion of the liberties of the people. The king, however, was
not satisfied, and by his influence in the House persuaded the
1765] THE STAMP ACT 923
Commons to enter the lists where the courts had failed him. They
declared the unfortunate No. 45 to he "a false, scandalous, and
seditious libel," refused to allow the privilege of parlia-
Sto»enf "^ent to cover the culprit, and ended by formally expel-
ling him from the House. Wilkes had also fallen foul of
the Upper House where he was brought to book for printing and
privately circulating a coarse parody on Pope's "Essay on Man,"
called an "Essay on Woman," and also for printing a blasphemous
imitation of the "Veni Creator." The Lords declared the publica-
tions a breach of privilege and a "scandalous, obscene, and
impious libel." But unfortunately for the effect of these
well merited reproofs, the chief accuser of Wilkes was the profli-
gate Lord Sandwich, renowned for his prolonged bouts at the
gambling table, which he would not leave even for meals, and
where his servant was accustomed to bring him the light refection
which still bears his name. The people, who were fully convinced
of the corruption of parliament, regarded the formal denuncia-
tion of their idol as one more evidence of his worth. The govern-
ment, encouraged by the acts of the two Houses, resumed the
prosecution upon the charge of libel, and Wilkes, no longer pro-
tected by the privilege of a member of parliament, fled to the
continent, allowing his case to go against him by default. In
February 1764, he was formally outlawed by decree of the court.
The government had carried its point, but every step taken had
been "ill advised, vindictive, and substantially unjust," increasing
its discredit with the people and awakening a dangerous spirit of
insubordination.
The second serious blunder of the Grenville-Bedford ministry
was the passage of the famous "Stamp Act. " The recent wars had
raised the national debt to £130,000,000. The minis-
Act," March, try accepted the obligation of reducing this burden,
now that peace had been restored, but the method
which Grenville proposed was unfortunately as annoying to a large
part of the British Empire as the old ship money of Charles I. He
proposed (1) to establish in America a portion of the British regular
army amounting to 10,000 men. To support this resident gar-
rison he proposed (2) to tax the colonists by requiring "all bills,
924 FIRST PERIOD OP TORT RULE [geoeoe u
bonds, policies of insurance, newspapers, broadsides, and legs
documents to be written on stamped paper sold in public offices.
He also proposed (3) to enforce strictly the laws against smug
gling.^ No one was surprised more than Grenville himself at th
reception of his proposals by the colonies. Parliament had Ion
been accustomed to regulate colonial port duties. The loyalty c
the Americans had been abundantly proved by their devotion t
the common cause in the war which had just closed. The wai
moreover, had been begun in order to defend the colonies agains
the aggressions of France ; and no part of the empire had profite
more by its successes. The Stamp Act, however, had raised
question which was by no means new in the colonies : What righ
had the distant British parliament, a body in which American
were not represented, to levy an internal tax upon America with
out asking the consent of her people? Here was the crucial poin<
Other grievances were not wanting, but all sank into minor impoi
tance beside the greater grievance of "taxation without represer
tation."
Before the full signiiicance of Grenville's measures, howevei
became apparent in England, his ministry had come to an end
The immediate cause of his fall was an attempt t
The
"Beyeiwy exclude the name of the kings mother from a ' 'Eegenc
BilV'andtne _,.„,, ,.,,,, ,^ , xi i ■,
Rockingham Bill which had been made necessary by the shadow o
insanity which was already hanging over the king. Th
House refused to allow the omission, and the king, to get rid o
the minister whom he could not forgive for the proposed sligh
to his mother, after vainly seeking Pitt's support, in July 1^6
threw himself into the arms of the old Whig ring. The sue
cesser of Newcastle was the' marquis of Rockingham who wa
selected to head the new ministry, but although he did not favo
the corrupt methods of the old Whig regime, his conservatisr
denied him the support of the liberal wing of the party, and hi
ministry soon went to pieces. It survived long enough, howevei
to undo some of the mischief caused by his predecessors. I
persuaded the House to condemn general warrants, although th
formal bill was rejected by the Lords; it also restored commif
' Lee, Source Book, pp. 474, 475.
1766] THE PITT-GEAFTON MINISTKT 925
sions to certain officers in the army who were members of par-
liament and had been deprived of their commissions by the
king, because they had not voted to suit him. But most impor-
tant of all, the Eockingham ministry secured the repeal of the
Stamp Act, although it left an opening for future trouble in
the accompanying "Declaratory Act," in which the authority of
parliament over the colonies in legislation and taxation was formally
asserted.
After a year Rockingham was retired and a new ministry
was formed under the nominal head of Pitt. Much was expected
of this ministry. The king understood Pitt better
Pitt-Grafton ^^^'^ ^^ 1760. He saw that Pitt was as hostile to party
ministry, government as himself; that he hated the old Whig
oligarchy, and that he really wished to curtail the
power of the Commons in the interests of a purer administra-
tion. Pitt, however, stood upon ground where George III. 's nar-
row mind would not allow him to follow. For Pitt had fully
grasped the corollaries of the Revolution, the freedom of the press
and the right of Englishmen to the protection of English laws
wherever they dwelt under the English flag. Hence Pitt fully
recognized the significance of rising political consciousness in the
American colonists, and boldly championed their claims to the
full privileges of Englishmen. Illness, however, prevented him
from taking in the administration the active part which belonged
to him. His dislike of party government, moreover, had led him
to make up his ministry of men chosen from different political fac-
tion's. As Burke described it, it was "a piece of diversified mosaic,
patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans, Whigs and
Tories, treacherous friends and open enemies; so that it was a
curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch or stand on." Pitt
selected for himself the unimportant position of Privy Seal,
largely because the lighter duties of the office were better fitted
to the condition of his health ; but the position brought him into
the peerage as Earl of Chatham and thus deprived him of much
of the popular esteem and confidence which had been his in the
days when he gloried in the name of "The Great Commoner."
While he was at home shut up in his room, subject to alternate
936 FIRST PERIOD OF TORY RULE [geobgeII
fits of intense nervous irritation and despondency, the wreck c
his former self, his ministers were upsetting his most cherishe
schemes. He had denounced the Stamp Act, fought for th
repeal, and bitterly opposed the Declaratory Act; and yet in 176
his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, turned one
more to Grenville's plan of taxing America, and procured th
passage of the "American Duties Bill," an act which imposed
series of customs and duties on certain articles imported int
America, as white lead, painters' colors, paper, and tea. Like th
Stamp Act, this act was designed not to regulate trade but t
raise revenue. As with the Stamp Act, in order to justify th
measure, it was proposed to apply the revenues to the expenses c
colonial government. The next year the ministry still fnrthe
attempted to show its good will towards the Americans by th
appointment of a Secretary of State for the colonies. Since th
reign of William the affairs of the colonies _had been left to
committee of the Privy Council, known as the "Board of Trad
and Plantation." This committee, however, had no standing i
the ministry proper, and in the pressure of many things, th
colonies had been left pretty much to themselves. Grenville'
unfortunate attempt to do something for the colonies, it is said
was due to the fact that he insisted on reading the mail fror
America.
In the general election of 1768, Wilkes, who had recent!
returned from France, again came to the surface as a popula
agitator, demanding a reform of the entire parliameri
cSain^ tary representative system. There was certainly groun'
enough for Wilkes's contention that the new and grow
ing towns of the north and west should be represented. It wa
further estimated that in the whole population of 8,000,000, ther
were not 160,000 men who possessed the franchise. Man;
boroughs were virtually owned by individual families and wer
treated as a part of the family estates. The only way by whicl
parliament could be freed from its thraldom to the crown, or froi
the corrupt practices of the borough owners, was to enlarge th
franchise. It was unfortunate that so good a cause had so base
champion.
1768] ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS 927
Wilkes was returned by the voters of Middlesex. On the first
day of the session, April 27, 1768, he gave himself up to the Court
of Kings Bench and, being refused bail, was sent to
fieidsr"^'* prison while the question of outlawry was argued. A
deeply interested crowd of people gathered in St.
George's Fields outside the prison walls. Lord Weymouth, the Sec-
retary of State, apprehending an attack by the mob, sent word to
the Scotch regiment in charge of the prison to fire on the crowds
in order to disperse them. Five or six people were killed and a
number wounded. Wilkes, who lay helpless within the prison
while his friends were shot down outside, vented his wrath by
sending to the St. James Chronicle a copy of Weymouth's direc-
tions to the troops with some scathing comments of his own, in
which he referred to the results of Weymouth's work as "the
horrid massacre of St. George's Fields." The whole affair did
not tend to increase the favor with which the government
regarded Wilkes, and when on June 8, Chief Justice Mansfield
reversed the sentence of outlawry as illegal, and released the
prisoner, it was only that he might commit him again on the
original charge of libel, and sentence him to twenty-two months'
imprisonment and a fine of £1,000.
The king, in the meanwhile, supported by parliament renewed
his efforts against Wilkes with increased vindictiveness. The Lords
saw fit to construe the letter to St. James Chronicle as
attakim "a seditious libel," and called upon the Commons to
unite with them in punishing the demagogue. The
Commons responded by once more expelling Wilkes and adding to
the old charges, the new one of a libelous attack upon the Secre-
tary of State, the enormity of which was increased, since at the time
of the offense Wilkes was under sentence of the court. The
electors of Middlesex replied by reelecting Wilkes. The next
day, upon the ground that a condemned man could not be eligible,
the Commons declared the election void. A third election was
then held in which Wilkes received 1,143 votes, and his opponent.
Colonel Luttrell, only 296 votes. The Commons awarded the seat
to Luttrell.
Whatever may have been the justice Of the original case against
938 FIRST PERIOD OF TORY RULE [qeoroe I
Wilkes, the Commons were now palpably in the wrong. Vigoroi
champions, also, who saw that beyond Wilkes the really great caus
of the right of constituencies to choose their own re]
behalf of resentatives was at stake, rose to sustain the dems
Wilkes.
The •'Junius gogue. Among them were Burke and Grenville, bi
letters." o o o '
most, the mysterious satirist who masqueraded und(
the name of "Junius," who during all the year 1769 kept assai!
ing the king and his ministers, painting in darkest colors th
preyailing corruption and weakness of the government, and rousin
his victims to fury by his merciless castigations.^ A series of lib(
prosecutions followed; but the secret of Junius 's identity was s
well kept that to this day the authorship of the mysterious letters i
not certain, although it is now generally ascribed to Sir Phili
Francis, who became prominent in the later attacks on Warre:
Hastings. The people were deeply moved, and monster petition
were sent up to parliament from different parts of the kingdom
one from Yorkshire, presented by Eockingham, was said to con
tain the names of 10,000 freeholders. London made Wilkes ai
alderman, and about the same time he won his long delayed sui
against Halifax, in which he secured a verdict of £4,000.
The government had won technically, but its vindictive injus
tice had called English radicalism into being, and parliamen
although responsible only to a very limited constit
Theheginning , •. ,. n -, i. » i
nf agitation uency, yet saw itself compelled to face an awakenee
mentary public opinion that voiced itself in monster petitions
through the press, and from the platform. Prom 1769
a memorable date, until the outbreak of the French Kevolution
the demand of the nation for parliamentary reform steadily in
creased in seriousness and-persistence.
In the meanwhile the Chatham ministry from which so mucl
had been expected was rapidly going to pieces. In Septembei
1767 Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
ch^tham^ died and was succeeded by Lord North. Other mem-
mimstry mo ^®^® resigned, and their places were filled by new men.
In October 1768 Chatham, the nominal head of the
ministry, disgusted with the attitude of his ministers toward
'Colby, Selections, etc., p. 256.
1770] LORD NOETH 929
the stirring questions of the hour, also resigned, and committed
himself to the cause of parliamentary reform. Q-rafton, his suc-
cessor, managed to keep things going for two years longer, when he
too resigned, to give way to Lord North.
In Lord North the king found a minister after his own heart.
He is described as a "coarse and clumsy looking man, near-
sighted, with a wide mouth, thick lips, and inflated
Lord North, visage;" yet he had a sunny disposition, an unruffled
temper, tact, and wit. He possessed, also, with much
ability a large experience in the affairs of government, nor were
the many disasters which are associated with the twelve years of
his administration, due to lack of judgment on the part of the
minister, as much as to the persistent interference of the king,
with which North in his easy-going good nature only too readily
acquiesced. For he accepted without reserve the principle that
as the king's appointee, he belonged to the king, and that he
was bound to carry out the king's policy rather than his owu or
that of any party. He allowed the king to interfere in all
home, foreign, and colonial affairs and to direct the policy of the
cabinet about as he pleased, while his colleagues conducted them-
selves simply as heads of departments, sticking to their desks,
and doing their best to carry out the king's wishes.
During the long era of the North ministry English politics
were concentrated chiefly on the important constitutional issues
which had grown out of the Wilkes case and the situa-
«/o™« ^-'"^ ■'^ America. The policy of the party of reform
gradually shaped itself into a definite demand for the
curtailment of the privileges of the Commons, and for more direct
responsibility to their constituents. Grenville in 1770, just before
his death, introduced a measure which transferred the decision of
disputed election cases to a special committee of thirteen, which
examined witnesses under oath and swore to decide according to
evidence. His plan remained in force until 1868 when the parlia-
ment once more returned to the practice of the fourteenth century
and relegated the settlement of disputed elections to the courts.
Another measure, which swept away a vast amount of fraud,
denied the right of servants of members of the House, to share in
930 FIEST PERIOD OF TOEY RULE [gkoecse III.
the privilege of immunity from arrest. A ruling of Justice
Mansfield in one of Wilkes's libel trials, in which he had allowed
the jury to pass upon the fact of publication only, and had
i/ibeiAct," reserved to the judge the right to determine the libel-
ous character of the published matter, remained in
force until the law of libel was amended by the "Fox Act" in 1793.
In 1771 Wilkes took a prominent part in defeating an attempt of
the Commons to punish a London printer named Miller, who had
recently begun to publish the reports of their debates. In their
efforts to arrest Miller the Commons became embroiled with the
authorities of London. The arrest of the mayor. Brass Crosby,
was the signal for the outbreak of riots; mobs paraded the streets,
and the Commons in alarm at the storm which their efforts to
arrest a simple printer had raised, quietly receded from their
position. Since then the right of the public to know what is
doing in parliament has been tacitly conceded.
There were other measures, also, of a different character
which reflect the times in another light. In 1772 North
secured the passage of the "Royal Marriage Act"
Marriage by which a member 01 the royal family must secure
the king's consent before contracting a legal mar-
riage. The act is still law.
In 1773 the East India Company had fallen into dire straits.
Bengal had been desolated by a famine that was followed by the
usual pestilence. Half the population, it was said.
The "jBeoM- r r 7
latinfiAct," perished. Madras, also, was devastated by wars hardly
Death of less disastrous; the funds of the company were so
reduced that they were forced to appeal to parliament
for relief. A committee of inquiry was appointed which took up
the subject of Indian administration, and upon the basis of their
work North presented the famous "Eegulating Act," which was
to have such dire consequences in another part of the British
Empire. By this act the company were allowed to export their
bonded tea direct to America free of the ordinary English duties,
but subject to a slight duty at the American ports. He also
granted the company the loan of £1,000,000, but took out of
their hands a part of their political authority by establishing a
1774-1780] THE GORDON RIOTS 931
supreme court, appointing through parliament a new council, and
making the governor of Bengal Governor- General of India. War-
ren Hastings under this law became the first Governor-General of
India. In the discussions which attended the passage of the
Eegulating Act, Olive, who had been raised to the peerage,
came in for a full share of censure on the basis of the alleged
corruption which had attended his administration in the East,
and although the formal act of censure was softened by a formal
recognition of his "great and meritorious service" to England,
the condemnation of the House so preyed upon his mind, that
he hroke under the strain and soon after took his life with his
own hand, November 22, 1774, dying at the age of forty-nine.
The position of the Catholics in England early demanded the
attention of government. The sentiment of toleration was stead-
ily growing; moreover the old conditions which had
KtotfjMo'" given birth to the existing code had changed, and to
many statesmen it seemed that the time had come to
lighten the hardens of their oppressed fellow countrymen. In
1778 Sir George Saville introduced the "Relief Act" for the
repeal of the act of 1700 which had forbidden the celebration of the
mass under severe penalties and had debarred Catholics from
acquiring a title to land, save by descent. Saville's bill passed
without serious opposition, but in the next session a proposal to
apply a similar measure to Scotland at once aroused all the latent
traditional hostility of the Scots to the Catholics, and rapidly
developed a vigorous opposition, culminating in a series of riots,
in which Catholics and the Protestants who favored toleration
were the victims. The agitation spread to England where it
found a leader in the young and fanatical Lord George Gordon.
On Friday June 2, 1780 a crowd of 60,000 people gathered about
the Parliament House with a petition for the repeal of the Relief
Act, and when parliament showed no disposition to comply, with
cries of "No Popery" turned to the looting and burning of pub-
lic and private buildings. Jails were destroyed and criminals
liberated. The city authorities were helpless, and for several days
the city lay at the mercy of the mob. Wilkes, who was now an
alderman of London and had a considerable following among the
932 FIRST PERIOD OF TORT RULE [oeorokIII.
people, proved so useful in suppressing the disturbance that the
Privy Council thanked him formally. The demonstrations failed
altogether to force the repeal and in the end really strengthened
the cause of toleration.
During this period two men had come into special prominence,
Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox. Burke was born in Ire-
land in 1729. His father was a Protestant attorney
Buri™'^ of prominence and his mother a Catholic. He attended
Dublin University, but met with indifferent success as
a student, taking little interest in the prescribed studies. He
studied law but disliking it, chose the uncertain profession
of letters. His father in disgust withdrew his allowance. The
act of the father was the making of the young man, who was
thus thrown upon his own resources and compelled to grapple
with life in serious earnest. He began by practicing oratory in
the debating societies of Convent Garden and by writing for book-
sellers. He did not enter the political arena until nearly forty;
"I was not swaddled and rocked and dandled into a legislator,"
he wrote just before his death. In the House he was at once
recognized as a man of power. Inferior to Fox as a debater and
surpassed by Pitt in fire and majesty of declamation, he excelled
all in correctness of diction, in range of knowledge, in power of
imagination, and in depth of philosophical reflection. There was
apparently no limit to his power of applying himself long and
arduously to any matter which he took in hand. He spent
fourteen years in the effort to master the affairs of India, and suc-
ceeded after "laborious effort in laying the foundations, once and
for all, of a moral, just, philanthropic, and responsible public
opinion in England with reference to India, and in doing so per-
formed perhaps the most magnificent service that any statesman
has ever had it in his power to render to humanity."
The accession of Charles James Fox to the Whig party was
mainly due to the teaching and influence of Burke. Fox entered
parliament in 1768 before he was legally qualified, not having com-
pleted his twentieth year. He had accepted his politics from his
father, the Henry Fox of George II. 's time, and accordingly had
first joined the Tory ranks. The story of his private life is
1770-1774] THE BOSTON MASSACRE 933
highly discreditable. Gaming was a passion which, notwithstand-
ing a large inheritance and the repeated assistance of friends, kept
him in a state of chronic bankruptcy. He drank; he
James Fox ^^^ profligate ; yet he possessed a charm of manner, a
sweetness of temper, which endeared him to his friends
and evoked the admiration of his opponents. "He is a man," said
Burke, "made to be loved, of the most artless, candid, open, and
benevolent disposition; disinterested in the extreme, of a temper
mild and placable to a fault, without one drop of gall in his whole
constitutionr" He was dismissed from the Tory ministry in 1774
as the result of a personal quarrel with Lord North, and
although he did not ally himself at onoe with the "Whigs, he began
to attack the policy of the government toward America.
While the better elements witbin parliament and without, were
thundering away at the corruption of North's administration, the
situation in America was every day becoming more crit-
Tpe "Boston ical. The spirit of resistance, which had subsided for
Massacre," '^ '
^arch 5, a season after the repeal of the Stamp Act, was blazing
up again more fiercely than ever. The colonial gov-
ernors were constantly quarreling with the colonial legislatures ;
and when parliament proposed to bring to England for trial men
accused of treason, whom colonial Juries refused to convict, the
colonists answered by a sort of boycott of English merchants,
such as they had attempted after the passage of the Stamp Act,
agreeing not to import or use English goods. The soldiers
quartered in America were also a source of constant friction, and
finally came into open conflict with a mob of men and boys in the
streets of Boston. Several of the mob were shot down. The first
to fall was Orispus Attucks, a colored man.
Even Lord North hesitated' to push matters further, and deter-
mining to try conciliation, repealed the duties of Townshend,
except that on tea, and allowed the act by which
Attempt at soldiers were quartered on the colonists to expire.
The government pledged itself, also, to raise no further
revenues in America. These measures for a time promised to
improve the situation; but the underlying causes of discontent
remained. Occasional outbreaks of lawlessness, the attitude of
934 FIRST PERIOD OF TORT RULE [qbobge in.
the resident representatives of the crown toward their fellow col-
onists, the treatment of Franklin who was the accredited agent of
several of the colonies at the English court, kept the public mind
irritated and fanned the growing spirit of opposition.
The "Boston . j x i, j i, j. • j i.i .
Tea Party." The American tea duty had been retained, partly to
assert the right of the British government to tax the
colonies, and partly because it was more of the nature of a trade
regulation and did not affect English manufactures. The colo-
nists, however, refused to use the tea. The removal of the English
export duty of 13 cents per pound in the interest of the East India
Company still further complicated matters, by threatening every
small merchant who had already bought his tea. "When the tea
ships arrived, for the most part, they were sent back with their
holds unopened. Some, however, did not get off so easily; in
Boston a company of citizens, disguised as Indians, boarded the
vessels and threw their entire cargoes into the sea.
Parliament was naturally exasperated at the untoward results of
its efforts at conciliation, and responded to the act of the citizens
of Boston by a series of measures known in America as
The "Intoler-
abUActs," the "Intolerable Acts." The harbor of Boston was
closed, a severe blow to the prosperity of the contuma-
cious city; the charter of Massachusetts was remodeled so as to
place the powers of government largely in the hands of the crown
and its appointees ; the right of the people to hold public meet-
ings was abridged. It was provided, also, that any one indicted for
murder or any capital offense, committed while aiding a magistrate
to suppress disturbances, might be sent for trial to any other
colony or to Great Britain. General Gage was appointed military
Governor of Massachusetts and empowered to quarter soldiers
upon the inhabitants.
The attack upon Boston at once roused the sympathies of the
other colonies. Although Boston had first drawn the wrath of
parliament, all felt that the cause was common. The old rivals
of Boston, Salem and Marblehead, offered the Boston merchants
the use of their wharves and warehouses without cost. Other places
sent supplies of rice and corn to feed the Boston poor. Virginia
sent resolutions of sympathy and other colonies imitated her exam-
1774] FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS 935
pie. A system of committees organized resistance, and a "Solemn
League and Covenant" was formed by which the colonies bound
themselves to have no commercial intercourse with
c^fStoi ^^®^* Britain until the unjust acts were withdrawn.
ocmress, j^ movement for a general Congress was set on foot, and
on September 5, 1774, delegates met at Philadelphia,
representing every colony except distant Georgia. They drew
up a series of addresses to the colonies, to the Canadians, and
to the king and people of England. They also framed a decla-
ration of rights setting fortl* the points at issue in a clear and
statesmanlike manner. They had no wish to separate from the
mother country ; they acknowledged the general legislative author-
ity of parliament and its right to impose such commercial regula-
tions as might be deemed for the best good of the empire. But
rather than submit to taxation by parliament, or to acts which
violated their liberties, they would appeal to the sword. They
adjourned to meet in the following May to consider the king's
reply to the address and determine upon the next step.
The colonists were now rapidly drifting into the War of the
Revolution. "The die is now cast," wrote George III.; "the
colonists must either submit or triumph." The Eng-
Confli/iting or- ■ i -, -• n ■• ■ -, -, -,
counsels lish omcials who surrounded the kmg laughed at the
idea of resisting a British army. They remembered the
dissensions and jealousies which had crippled the colonists at the
outbreak of the last war and did not believe them capable of any
continued concerted action. "The Americans will be lions while
we are lambs," General Gage assured the king; "but if we take
the resolute part, tliey will undoubtedly prove very meek."
Some, however, saw with a clearer eye the serious nature of the
impending conflict. Burke and Chatham recognized the sound-
ness of the principle upon which the colonists had taken their
stand, and boldly raised their voices for the cause of liberty.
These colonists were Englishmen and were entitled to the rights
of Englishmen ; the fact that they had been cradled in America
did not justify parliament in withholding these rights. "I rejoice
that America has resisted," Chatham cried. "Three millions of
people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to sub-
936 PIEST PERIOD OF TORT RULE [george m.
mit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves
of the rest." He moved an address to the kiug, praying him to
remove the British troops as soon as possible, as the first step
towards "a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in
America.'" Other measures of conciliation were proposed, but
before parliament could make up its mind to act, the war had
begun.
On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage sent out the
unfortunate expedition to destroy the stores at Concord that
resulted in the battle onithe green in the quiet village
L^^i"^ton"^ of Lexington; a small band of farmers and mechan-
ics, who had hurried from their plows and their forges
at the first alarm, stood for one moment to face the British regu-
lars and then fled. They left sixteen of their number lying on
the green behind them, some shot to death and others writhing in
the agony of ghastly wounds. It was not a battle, hardly a skir-
mish, but it was enough to call the young nation to arms. The
whole countryside rose, and when the English, after accomplish-
ing their task, began the homeward march from Concord, from all
sides the infuriated farmers began pouring in a deadly fire upon
the retiring columns. From barns, from haystacks, from hedges,
from stonewalls, they kept up an incessant fire, and nothing but
the approach of a relief party of nine hundred men saved the
detachment from complete annihilation.
The news of the day's fighting spread rapidly, and from all
eastern Massachusetts the hardy yeomanry began to pour into the
improvised camps about Boston, and Gage found him-
Junetr'rns ^^^^ compelled to face a regular siege. On the 17th of
June the insurgents attempted to fortify the peninsula
which stretches around Boston harbor to the left. The result
was the action known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. Fifteen
hundred inexperienced troops, after toiling all night to cast up
intrenchments, found themselves in the morning, weary with toil
and faint for lack of food, exposed to a galling fire from the Eng-
lish ships, and then compelled to face a direct attack of the
English infantry. Boldly they stood their ground; twice they
' Lee, Source Book, p. 479.
1776] AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 937
scattered the English columns and drove them down the slope ;
and th'en, when their powder was gone, they faced the advancing
regulars with stones and clubbed guns, and retired only at the
point of the bayonet. Under the conditions the attempt to fortify
and hold such a position would be condemned by all the rules of
war and the brave fellows were severely punished for their temerity,
or, rather, their ignorance of the military science. Yet the act
had most important results. The Americans had proved that they
, were not the cowardly, raw yokels who would throw down their
guns and run at the first smell of powder, such as English oflBcials
had so often represented. The prestige of the English army was
shaken and its morale weakened.
The battle of Bunker Hill, also, greatly strengthened the war
spirit in the colonies. The second Continental Congress had
met as agreed in May. They had come together osten-
Contfnenm ^^^^J ^^ ^ peace convention ; but found themselves com-
ccm^ress, pelled to assume the functions of a governing body and
shoulder the responsibility of conducting a war. Yet
they bravely faced the issue. On June 15, 1775 they appointed
George Washington, who had seen severe service in Braddock's
ill-fated campaign, commander-in-chief of the colonial armies,
and at once inaugurated a series of vigorous measures for making
the military strength of the colonies felt by England. Ticonderoga
and Crown Point, the gateway to Canada, were surprised and cap-
tured. And though an invasion of Canada failed, it was more
than counterbalanced by the success of Washington in compell-
ing Gage's successor Howe to evacuate Boston in March, 1776.
These events had powerfully accelerated the drift of Amer-
ican opinion toward independence. When the first Congress
came together few thought of independence as either
TheDeciara- possible or desirable. The colonies instructed the
twm of Inie- ^
pmdence, delegates, while securing the redress of grievances, to
labor, as Massachusetts put it, for "the restoration of
union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, most
ardently desired by all good men. ' ' But the lingering loyalty of
the people was fast ebbing under the pressure of the contest; and
when the king, unable to persuade Englishmen to enlist in the
938 FIKST PEEIOD OF TOKY BULE [gkoboe III.
nefarious war which his own stupidity had raised, began to buy
up Hessian peasants and ship them to America in order to shoot
down Americans, there was no place longer for old fashioned
loyalty. Nor was all the indignation felt by Englishmen on this
side the water. Chatham, never more terrible to those who were
sinning against liberty than in these later days, rose from his sick
bed to hobble into the old hall which he had so long honored by
his noble championship of the cause of the Greater Britain and
with almost his last breath protested against the suicidal course
of the government. "You cannot conquer America," he cried;
"if I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a foreign
troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms,
never, never never!" In America the rising indignation swept
all before it, and on the night of July 4, 1776, amidst the most
intense anxiety, the Continental Congress gave the memorable
Declaration of Independence to the world.
The months which followed were marked by varying fortunes
on either side, until the victory of "the Americans at Saratoga
effectually turned the tide. Congress, through its
Octoberii agent Silas Deane, had already secured material aid
ftTresuUs fi'om France in money, arms, and equipment; but the
disaster to the English arms at Saratoga encouraged
the French government to make a treaty of alliance with the
colonists by which they were recognized as independent states, and
England was forbed to begin war with France. In 1779 Spain also
declared war on Great Britain, and in 1780 the northern powers
entered into an "armed neutrality" to resist England's assumption
of the right of search. England thus saw herself not only baffled in
her attempts to reduce the colonies, but seriously menaced by the
general attitude of the European powers, from Russia to Spain.
The situation of England was now extremely critical. Northern
Europe was hostile and war had actually begun with Holland. The
French navy, which had been enlarged and strengthened
Fresh diM-
cuiuesfctr bv Louis XVI. , was proving itself more than a match for
England. ^^'' , , , ' ^ _ ^'^ ., , . , . „
England on the seas. Ireland, which was m a far worse
condition politically and commercially than the colonies had ever
been, was also on the verge of revolt. Five-sixths of the popula-
1781] END OP AMERICAN WAR 939
tion were Catholic. Of the remaining one-sixth the Presbyterian
settlers of Ulster formed one-half, but were as completely
excluded from participation in the goyernment as were the
Catholics. Only members of the Established Church were allowed
to share in the administration of government or of Justice, and
even this handful of the population were controlled by a few
wealthy and corrupt landowners. The Irish parliament was the
mouthpiece of the Privy Council in England; English laws had
long since destroyed Irish commerce and agriculture in
wimtion ^^® interests of English merchants and landlords. Yet
the new movement which now shook Ireland was not
inspired by the suffering and poverty of the misgoverned ma-
jority, but by the ruling class who believed that the time had come
to demand legislative independence. It was sustained, moreover,
by the eloquence of Grattan and Flood in parliament and by an
armed force of 80,000 volunteers whom the English government
had called out to provide defense for Ireland under threat of a
French invasion. It was no time to think of resistance, and
Lord North, taught at last by his experience with the Amer-
ican colonies, yielded and the burdensome restrictions under
which Irish commerce had struggled for a hundred years,
were removed. The succeeding ministry abandoned the English
claim to legislative and judicial supremacy, and for eighteen
years Ireland enjoyed a kind of Home Rule. The government,
however, was still conducted in the interests of the Protestant
minority.
In 1781, when Cornwallis, who had been shut up in Yorktown
by a combined American and French force, was at last compelled to
surrender, the climax was reached in the American
, American struggle. When the news reached England, Lord
""^' North abandoned all hope of a successful termination
of the war; "Oh God," he cried, "it is all over." The unhappy
minister had attempted to resign before, but the king had con-
tinued to cling to him with the persistent obstinacy which had
already brought so much misfortune in its train; and even now he
would have prolonged the struggle, but the sentiment of the
country had set so strongly against North, that George was forced
940 JIEST PEEIOD OF TOKY RULE [gbobgeIII.
at last to yield, and on March 20, 1783 the North ministry came
to an end. The same bitter alternative compelled the king to
accept a Whig ministry, though it implied the over-
sorth. Sec- throw of the system which he had been so long striving
ham minis- to build up. Rockingham again became the head of
the administration with Pox and William Petty, Lord
Shelburne, leader of the Chatham Whigs, as the most important
members. The avowed purpose of the ministry was to secure
peace on the basis of the indeiDendence of the American colonies.
But the ministry was weakened by dissensions. The king
intrigued with Shelburne against the other members. Shelburne,
who disliked Fox personally, wished to take'ixp Walpole's old
policy of alliance with France, delaying peace with America till
France could be included in its terms. Fox wished England to
join in a defensive alliance with Eussia and Prussia, and favored
an immediate peace with America. After fifteen weeks of fruit-
less discussion Rockingham died. He was succeeded by
Shelburne Shelburne ; Fox, Burke, and Ashburton withdrew. At
the same time the negotiations for peace received a favor-
able impulse from a victory which Rodney won over de Grasse in the
West Indies, and also from the failure of a combined French and
Spanish attack on Gibraltar, the culmination of a three years' siege.
France and Spain were convinced that England might still prove a
dangerous enemy, and in January 1783 agreed to preliminaries
at Versailles. Similar articles had been accepted by Great Britain
and the United States in the preceding November, and on Septem-
ber 3, 1783, formal treaties between Great Britain, the
Po^f^^of United States, Prance, and Spain, were signed at Paris
and Versailles. Great Britain ceded to France Tobago
in the West Indies, and the Senegal region in Africa; Spain
retained Minorca and Florida; the independence of the United
States was recognized and the boundaries of the new nation were
established. Though England had regained her control of the
sea, the loss of her American colonies was a heavy blow and
seemed to many even of her own people to have deprived her of
her position as a great world power.
CHAPTER VI
THE SECOK^D PERIOD OF TOKT KULE AND THE FKENCH
EEVOLUTION
OEOEOE UI., 1783-1815
For twelve years George III. had now been king after his own
ideal, he had not only reigned, he had governed. The results,
however, were by no means such as to commend a
Personal » , . ,
ruUnfKirm fvirther trial of the experiment. The crown had lost
abandoned. i i» • ■ . . ,
one-half its territories ; its hold upon Ireland and India
had been seriously threatened, if not weakened; England had been
humbled before her old traditional foes in Europe, and her public
debt had been increased to £350,000,000. Even North, who had
so often sacrificed his own judgment in supporting the Tory idea of
king government, now went over to the "king's enemies," openly
declaring that henceforth the appearance of power was all that
was left for a king of England. King-power in England was
dead. The decree of Fox, that the king must never again be
allowed to be his own Prime Minister, was accepted as final ; the
government by departments was tacitly abandoned and the cabinet
system of Walpole accepted as a permanent feature of the unwrit-
ten constitution.
The tenure of the new Whig ministry, however, was destined
to be short. Fox, Burke, and Ashburton, who had resigned when
Lord Shelburne became Prime Minister, now joined
ministry, forces with the North Tories, and in February succeeded
1782 1783
in forcing Shelburne out of office. The Whigs had been
in office barely ten months ; yet they had undone much of the
mischief wrought by the George III. -North ministry. They had
accepted the results of the American War and made peace with
the United Colonies and their allies ; they had quieted Ireland by
granting legislative and judicial independence ; they had also done
941
943 ' SECOND PERIOD OF TORY RULE [geoboeIII.
tardy justice to Wilkes by expunging the proceedings of the Mid-
dlesex election case. During the twelve hungry years of opposi-
tion, the party cry had been for ecoaomic and parliamentary
reform, and the Whig ministers had signalized their return to
power by cutting away many of the barnacles that had fastened
upon the public service as a result of George III.'s personal
methods of winning "friends;" they had debarred revenue oflBcers "
from voting at parliamentary elections and secured the exclusion
of government contractors from the House of Commons ; they had
restricted the regular pension list and abolished secret pensions
and useless offices. Yet when the reform ministers hastened to
give pensions to their friends in order to make the most of the
old system before the new pension law should come into opera-
tion, it was evident to the people that the politicians, true to the
traditions of the gild, were only playing at reform as a bid for
popular favor. It was something, however, that politicians were
beginning to fear the public pillory and that they recognized the
necessity of at least seeming to be honest.
Any feelings of disappointment which the public may have
felt with the conduct of the Whig ministry were soon forgotten
in the positive shock which followed the announcement
The Fox- of a coalition of the high-toned Pox Whigs and the
tion, 1783. North Tories under the nominal leadership of the duke
of Portland, but with Pox and North as Secretaries of
State. The new ministers cited the precedent of the Pitt-New-
castle coalition, and appealed to the present necessity of uniting
all factions to save the state. The people refused to believe that
two such bitter political foes as Fox and North, who for twelve
years back had filled the air with the din of personal recrimina-
tion, had joined hands for any other purpose than to keep them-
selves in power and more securely control public patronage. The
new coalition ministry, therefore, though for the time strong in
the Commons, began its career under a cloud of popular disfavor.
The king, moreover, was against it. He had always detested
Pox, and would not forgive North for his recent desertion. He
had for five weeks struggled for his right to select his own minis-
ters, but had been compelled at last to accept the men who com-
1783] WILLIAM PITT THE SECOND fl43
manded the votes of parliament. He fretted and worried under
what he called his "thraldom," and told the new ministers to the
face that they need never expect his support. This was no idle
threat, for the king still retained a considerable personal influence,
particularly in the House of Lords, and upon the presentation of
Fox's "India Bill," secured its defeat in the Lords, and taking
advantage of the increasing disfavor of the coalition, on December
18 ordered Fox and North to deliver up their portfolios.
The bill itself was not objectionable. The Bast India Com-
pany as a result of the powers originally conferred upon it,
had developed tyranny in its worst form, that of an
"India Bill '• irresponsible private corporation which exercised all the
power of a sovereign state, maintaining armies, making
treaties of peace or levying war, and disposing of the property
and lives of millions of helpless subjects, without other object
than the enrichment of the distant stockholders at home. Men
like Burke who had much to do with framing the Pox Bill, had
felt deeply the wrongs under which the East Indians suffered,
and saw no hope of improving their condition until the political
powers of the company were put in the hands of commissioners
responsible to parliament. But the public refused to believe in
the sincerity of Pox's philanthropy, and saw in the measure only
one more scheme to increase enormously the patronage which was
already at the disposal of the coalition. Hence the Indians had
to wait until a champion should present himself whose hands were
clean.
The great Chatham had died in 1778 in the midst of the
American War, his last speech a protest against "the dismember-
ment of this ancient and most noble monarchy."
wauam Pitt When his speech was ended he fell back in a fit, and
the Second. -^
was carried home to die a few days later. May 11. His
eldest son, who bore his title, was a man of second-rate powers,
but the younger son, born in 1759, who bore the father's name, had
inherited not only his high-souled integrity but much of his power
as a leader, although without his fire. Prom childhood the
younger Pitt had been trained by his august father for public life.
Under such tutelage the susceptible mind matured fast and the
944 SECOND PERIOD OF TORY RULE [georok III.
youth soon developed remarkable powers as a debater and leader.
He was scarcely out of his teens when he first entered parlia-
ment, and soon became prominent as an earnest advocate of
parliamentary reform. When Fox resigned from the Shelbnrne
ministry in 1782, Pitt, although then but twenty-three, was
appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and now, a year later, upon
the fall of the coalition he was invited by the king to form a new
ministry.
The appointment was greeted by the hoary-headed politi-
cians with shouts of derisive laughter. The new government was
dubbed "the mince pie administration;" it was made
strength of iq ]^q devoured before the Christmas holidays were over.
The king, it was said, had entrusted the empire to "a
schoolboy, who ought to be seat back to school." Yet for
seventeen years this schoolboy was to maintain his place at the
head of the government, and carry England safely through one of
the most trying periods of her whole history. Derision soon
turned to admiration; "He is not a chip of the old block,"
exclaimed Burke, when he had learned the worth of the man,
"he is the old block itself . " Here in a word was the secret of
the phenomenal career of this precocious youth. He was his
father's successor in more ways than one; he had succeeded not
only to his name and much of his ability, but with a tact and
business knowledge of his own, he had also fallen heir to his
father's popularity. All the glorious traditions associated with
the career of the father, his championship of parliamentary
reform, of the rights of Britons, of the dignity of the crown
against the rule of the old Whig oligarchy, and of the integrity
and dignity of the British empire, all now passed to William Pitt
the younger.
In the appointment of Pitt, the king apparently had reasserted
the outworn Tory doctrine of his right to name his own minister
in spite of the opposition of the Commons, and for the
and Pitt moment the popularity of the new minister made the
elevation of Pitt appear like a real triumph of the king.
But George soon found that in Pitt he had no such pliant servant
as in North; William Pitt and not George III. was now Prime
1784] APPEAL OF PITT TO THE C0U2S'TRT 945
Minister of England. Yet loath as George was to give up his old
ideas of personal government, he was compelled to cling to Pitt.
It was, moreover, the wisest thing to do; for it brought the nation
to the support of the king against the parliament, and matched
the coalition of Whig and Tory politicians by a counter coalition
of king and people ; and king and people won.
For some months Pitt's position was precarious. The coalition
fully expected shortly to return to power. Pitt could not per-
suade a single member of influence in the Commons to
pttt^he^"^ enter his cabinet, and was compelled to take his minis-
coimtn/, ^ej.g from the Lords. In the Commons he stood almost
alone, — a young man of twenty-fonr confronted by such
leaders as Fox, Iforth, Burke, Sheridan, and Erskine. Again
and again he was defeated by large majorities, yet he would not
resign. With the support of the king he might appeal to the
nation, but the temper of the people was not yet assured, and
the young minister hesitated to commit his cause to a popular
election without something more definite than a mere personal
issue. Here, however. Fox unintentionally came to his support.
Fox feared a dissolution, and in order to be beforehand, called in
question the right of the crown to dissolve parliament without the
consent of the Commons. The position of Fox at once fur-
nished the issue for which Pitt waited, and in the spring of 1784
he determined to appeal to the country. The people saw in the
opposition of the politicians only a determination to make the
Commons independent not only of the king but also of the
nation ; in Pitt they saw the champion of the interests of the
nation against the politicians, or what in America would be called
"the ring," or "the machine." The victory of Pitt was over-
whelming; the opposition lost one hundred and sixty members,
and Pitt with a free hand addressed himself to the great work of
restoring the resources of the country wasted by the recent war.
The Whigs had had their opportunity and had abused it. After
twelve years of opposition, in which they had made reform the rally-
ing cry of the party, the nation had taken them at their word and
placed them in power. But the old instincts of the politician
had proved too strong for the leaders, and the people in disgust
946 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RULE [oEORaElII.
had hurled them from power, and turned to the young man, who
with the king and his great name made a party all by himself.
Pitt now had six years of unbroken peace in which to set his
house in order. He had posed heretofore as a reformer, but in
office his enthusiasm for reform gradually gave way to
The six years the safer maxims of the practical statesman. Among
1784-1796. his first measures he took up the Indian question, and
iu 1784 proposed a new India Bill, which left the gov-
ernment and the patronage of the company still in its hands,
but placed over it a responsible board of control, subject to
removal by the crown. This arrangement continued iu force until
the abolition of the company in 1858 after the Sepoy Mutiny.
In 1785 Pitt approached the dangerous question of parliamentary
reform in the same judicious way. His plan, however, which
proposed to buy up the rotten boroughs and the exclusive corpor-
ations in the interests of an extended franchise, met with little
support from the radical reformers, while the king and Pitt's
Tory supporters, who were suspicious of all reform measures by
instinct, also opposed the bill, and it was lost. Pitt, apparently,
was satisfied that the times were not ripe for parliamentary reform,
and although it was the cause to which he had first given his
heart, he now dropped the subject in order to turn to other
reforms in which he had the support of his party.' Here also
he was not always to have his way. In 1785 he was again defeated
in a measure which proposed to establish free trade and commer-
cial equality between Ireland and England. But in 1786 in secur-
ing a commercial treaty with France, which abolished most of the
protective duties between the two countries, he was more success-
ful. In both these measures Pitt was directly influenced by the
free trade views of Adam Smith, to which he had long since been
a convert and which he now tried to put into practical operation.
In 1791 he divided Canada into two provinces and gave the people
representative institutions.
• Pitt in private always called himself a Whig, and yet he was sup-
ported by the Tories and was appointed to office in defiance of the Whig
doctrine that a minister should always have the support of parliament.
1788] TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS 947
It was upon his own office, that of the treasury, that Pitt
brought his splendid business abilities to bear with the most
marked results. The legion of sinecure offices con-
fefiynm^^ nected with the customs was swept away; the collecting
of duties was simplified ; smuggling, which robbed the
government annually of upwards of two million pounds, was
discouraged, partly by reducing certain duties and partly by trans-
ferring others to the excise list; the franking privilege which had
been grossly abused by members of parliament, was restricted;
treasurers and paymasters who had been allowed to leave office
with large accounts unsettled, were brought to book, and the
entire system of administering the finances was reorganized and
put on a sound basis. When taunted by Burke with prying into
holes and corners after "vermin abuses," Pitt declared that he
would not be justified in omitting "any exertion that might tend
in the most minute particulars, to promote that economy on
which the recovery of the state from its present depressed situa-
tion so much depended."
The event, however, about which public interest specially
centered during the first period of Pitt's administration, was the
impeachment of Warren Hastings upon the charge of
Warren high crimes and misdemeanors connected with his
1-1/1 'if'ifi.fi s
Indian administration. He had returned to England
in 1785 and was almost immediately attacked by his defeated rival,
Philip Francis, the supposed author of the "Junius" letters, and
by Burke and Sheridan. The trial began before the House of
Lords in 1788, and dragged on for seven years, when Hastings,
embittered in spirit and with diminished fortune, was finally
acquitted.
The great moral awakening which had been stirring England
since the beginning of the careers of Wesley and Whitfield, the
influence of which had been felt even within the murky
prSom atmosphere of corruption and bribery which surrounded
reform. ^^^^ court, was now beginning to make itself felt in two
very practical directions, — prison reform and opposition to the
slave trade. The prisons of England in the eighteenth century
were a reproach to civilization, to say nothing of Christianity.
948 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RULE ['
George III.
To aToid the window tax, originally imposed in 1696, prisons had
been built with little or no light; they were, moreover, always
overcrowded, filthy, and haunted by contagion. The "jail fever"
executed more criminals, it was said, than the hangman. It was
not unusual for both judge and jury to contract the fever during
the course of a trial, and atone with their lives for the inhumanity
of the system of justice which they represented. Jails were let
upon a sort of contract system, and the jailers sought by means of
petty persecutions, more or less brutal, to wring the largest pos-
sible fees from the victims whom justice placed at their mercy.
The debtor and the hardened criminal, the innocent and the
guilty, male and female, old and young, were herded together
without sufficient food, air, or water. Even those who were
acquitted, or who were discharged by the grand jury, might be
dragged back to prison and held until they could satisfy the
monstrous charges of the ogre whom the state had put in charge
of the jail.
The public had not been altogether blind to these abuses; as
early as 1726 parliament had been forced by certain disclosures
connected with the Fleet Prison to undertake an inquiry. It does
not appear, however, that much came of these investigations,
and it was not until fifty years later that the matter received the
jnhn serious consideration which it deserved. In 1773
Howard. John Howard, a quiet gentleman of Bedfordshire, was
appointed sheriff of the county. His duties brought him into
contact with the miseries of the jail population. Inquiry and
travel soon revealed to him that what was going on at Bedford was
the common experience of jail life over all the British Islands.
The man, who up to this moment had been leading the useless
life of a valetudinarian, had at last found his mission. He hence-
forth devoted his fortune and his life to the noble purpose of
confronting England and Europe with the wrongs which society
daily heaped upon the innocent and helpless. He visited the
prisons; he went alone and unattended into the pesthouses of
Constantinople, where he could hire neither physician nor dragoman
to follow him; he put himself on board an infected ship bound for
Venice, that by personal experience he might know the horrors of
1774-1783] JOHN- HOWARD 949
the Venetian lazaretto. After twenty-seven years of arduous toil
and incessant danger he died at last of camp fever in Russia. Of
him and his work Bentham wrote: "In the scale of moral
desert the labors of the legislator and the writer are as far below
his as earth is below heaven. His kingdom was of a better world ;
he died a martyr, after living an apostle."
In England Howard was very early permitted to see some
results of his work. In 1774 he was summoned before parlia-
ment to give testimony upon the condition of the
f^m^n^ English jails, and his disclosures had much to do in
Botany Baj/ inducing parliament to undertake the reforms which
followed, chief of which was the abolition of jailers' fees
and of the numerous abuses which had sprung of the custom.
Justices of the peace, also, were required to see that jails were
kept in a sanitary condition and that proper infirmaries were
provided for the sick. In 1788, as the result of an effort to secure
a more healthful location for the English convict colony, Botany
Bay on the southern coast of Australia was selected, and the first
load of convict colonists gent out to begin the English possession
of the continent of the southern seas. Captain Cook had explored
this coast nearly twenty years before and upon the basis of this
exploration the English founded a claim to the whole island,
although it had been long known to Europeans.
It is not surprising that while the conscience of England was
thus awakening to its obligations toward the helpless and the
unfortunate, some mentors should arise to call attention
Thesiave ^o the horrors of the African slave trade. Up to the
trade. ^ ^
third quarter of the century the Quakers had stood
almost alone in denouncing the traffic in human flesh. Wesley, it
is true, had denounced it; but men like "Whitefield favored it,
and John Newton, long after his conversion to the Evangelical
faith, continued to command his slaver. Yet the consciences of
good people could not rest easy under the accumulating horrors
of the trade, rumors of which from time to time reached Eng-
land.^ In 1773 Chief Justice Mansfield gave his famous decision
' In 1783 the master of a slave ship found that his cargo was infected
with contagion and deliberately threw 182 negroes overboard, because if
1791] PITT AKD THE FKENCH REVOLUTION 951
mon interests, and for mutual defense and guarantee against every
hostile attack." In the north the protest of the Alliance was
successful; but in his efforts to mediate between Eussia and
Turkey, Pitt, who was the head of the Alliance, was not so suc-
cessful, although he succeeded in detaching Austria from the
support of Eussia.
The Triple Alliance, however, was soon to be called upon to
grapple with a series of problems very different from those sug-
gested by the aggressions of Eussia in the Baltic or the
fx^eofoLxt Euxine. Within a few months after the formation of
^^*Jj the Alliance, the first notes of coming revolution were
BraSS. sounded through France. Yet. up to the time of the
attempted flight of the French king in June 1791, the
course of events in France elicited approval rather than alarm in
England. The fall of the Bastille had been hailed with positive
enthusiasm, and democratic societies, warmly sympathetic with
the principles of the Eevolution, had begun to come into prom-
inence. Yet such movements owed their strength largely to
academic interest, rather than to political discontent, and it soon
became evident that the natural conservatism of the English
people was taking alarm at the rapidity with which the radical
element was winning control across the Channel.^ Pitt, however,
who looked upon the Eevolution with coldness, but not with
distrust, had no thought of interfering; he desired the continu-
ance of peace in order to carry out his plans of financial reform
and of commercial and industrial expansion. The menace to the
peace of Europe was still supposed to lie in the east, and in the
presence of the ambitious schemes of Catharine, England no more
than Austria or Prussia had any wish to tie her hands by inter-
fering in the domestic affairs of France.
With the year 1791, however, the confiagration in France
developed so rapidly that her neighbors saw that to protect their
own property, they must turn firemen and lend a hand to their
Bourbon fellow; in August Frederick William of Prussia and
the Emperor Leopold II. met at Pilnitz and declared against the
• As early as 1790 Burke had sounded a note of warning in his "Reflec-
tions on the French Revolution."
953 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RULE [geobge III
Eevolution. The wrath of the revolutionary party in France was
particularly aroused against Austria because of the well-known
sympathies of her court with the hated Marie Antoin-
thewargthe etto, and although the Declaration of Pilnitz was with-
pubMcacrainsj drawn within two months after the convention, in April
following Prance declared war. In September the
National Convention abolished the Bourbon monarchy, and declared
France a Eepublic. In December Louis XVI. was tried and on
January 21, 1793, executed. In October following, his Austrian
queen suffered the same fate. The death of the weak but innocent
king, the prison massacres, and the other atrocities that followed
each other so rapidly during this dreadful year, filled Europe and
especially England with horror. At the same time the advance
of the French upon Holland made war with England inevitable.
In the hysteria of revolution frenzy which had seized upon France
she had, in fact, run amuck into the whole circle of neighboring
states and compelled them to arm in self-defense. Thus the
young Eepublic soon had a serious war upon her hands; Holland,
Prussia, and Austria attacked her on the north-east and east;
Sardinia and Spain upon the south, and England upon the sea;
while within her borders dangerous insurrections against revolu-
tionary tyranny had already sprung up iu La Vendee and Brittany
and in the great southern cities of Marseilles and Lyons. For
this strange war of infatuation France was poorly prepared; her
recruits were raw and without discipline, and fled in wild panic at
the first attack of the allies. Yet her energy quickened with
resistance, and before the year closed her armies had driven the
allies from her northern frontier; Toulon had fallen, and the
domestic revolts had been stamped out. The next year, 1794, saw
Holland not only overrun and conquered, but organized upon the
French model into the"Batavian Eepublic," and her arms turned
upon her late allies. Only at the seaboard was the victorious march
of the young Eepublic checked; on the "Glorious First of June,"
1794, Admiral Howe caught the French fleet oil Ushant, and all but
annihilated it. England easily took possession of the French East
Indies, and when Holland was forced to join France, England also
seized the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Java, and the Spice Islands.
1795] THE FIRST COALITIOJT 953
But the picking up of distant islands in the southern seas could
not materially affect the great continental struggle. The allies,
moreover, were fully as much inclined to fly at each
Failure of other as to continue a contest in which France had
the first coali-
tion, 1795. proved fully able to defend herself. Austria and Prus-
sia still cherished the old enmities born of the struggle
of Frederick and Maria Theresa; both feared Russia, and when
the Polish revolt of 1794 under Kosciuszko led up to the
third partition of that unhappy country in the following year, the
two powers, although subsidized by England, withdrew their
troops from the Rhine. Austria and Sardinia kept up the strug-
gle in Italy; but it was evident that the coalition had broken
down. In April 1795 Prussia made peace with France at Basle,
and in July Spain also made her terms. A belated royalist rising
in La Vendee did nothing to turn the scales ; it was overwhelmed
by Hoche at Quiberon on July 20, and the prisoners, including
many of the emigre, were massacred in cold blood.
In England the reaction against the Revohition increased in
intensity with the successes of the French. Parliament passed
laws against suspected aliens, and against treasonable
English con- * , -xi -o mi. • ■ i.-
servative correspondence with France. The various societies,
also, which had been formed in sympathy with the
objects of the Revolution, if not with its methods, were put under
the ban. In the general panic the Habeas Corpus Act was sus-
pended, and finally in 1794 the leaders of the "London Corres-
ponding Society" were tried for high treason. The panic, however,
was subsiding and the leaders of the society were acquitted.
In the meanwhile the Committee of Public Safety continued
its reign of terror within the boundaries of France, until at last
the members began to turn their fury upon each other.
End of the No man was safe from suspicion, and to be suspected
'ArTorfi795. was to be devoted to the guillotine. The reaction
began in 1794; the death of Robespierre and the fall
of the Jacobins, followed by the establishment of the Directory in
1795, gave a new phase to the Revolution.
The defection of Prussia and Spain left Britain, Austria, and
Sardinia to carry on the struggle alone. The cause of the allies,
954 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT EULB [gkoeoe III.
however, was by no means hopeless. The Republic had long
since exhausted its financial resources, and the Directory had very
early proved its inabilitv to solve the vexatious prob-
The appear- , •' , . , „ i . , m, • ■ , » • •
ance of Bon- lems which confronted it. The spirit of its armies was
Italy, 1796, still good; yet half-starved, half -clad, ill-paid regi-
ments, without proper arms or equipment, could not
hope to keep the field before the well appointed armies which the
allies, supported by English gold, continued to put in the field
against them. But at this moment, the waning prestige of the
Directory was reinforced by the splendid genius of Napoleon
Bonaparte, a young Corsican officer of twenty-seven, who had
recently been put in command of the French army in Italy. At
the head of the ragged troops of the Republic, by a series of
brilliant movements, remarkable for their rapidity and vigor, he
forced Sardinia to sue for peace, drove the Austrians out of
Italy and compelled the frightened emperor to accept the Peace
of Campo-Formio, October 1797. He had already entrenched
the French in Italy by organizing the conquered territories into
vassal republics under a French protectorate.
While Britain was thus shorn of her last ally upon the land,
she still maintained her command of the seas. But the transfer of
the support of Spain to the side of the Republic in
mmssof' August 1796, had once more raised the naval power of
SS'jT*?"* France, already reinforced by the alliance of the Dutch,
to a respectable footing, and enabled it to compare not
unfavorably, in numbers at least, with the navy of Great Britain.
It takes something more than ships and men, however, to win bat-
tles at sea. On February 14, 1797 Sir John Jervis with fifteen
ships defeated a combined fleet of twenty-seven French and Span-
ish ships off Cape St. Vincent, and on October 11, Duncan defeated
the Dutch off Oamperdown. These successes were of the utmost
importance, because if the French could once succeed in breaking
through the wall of ocean, they were certain to make trouble in
Ireland, if they did not attempt a direct invasion of England
from France.
England was now feeling the severe depression that is
always incident to any prolonged war. Her great minister had
1793-1796] EFFECT OF WAR IN ENGLAND 955
not desired the war; he had little sympathy with that undiscrim-
inating hostility towards France which inspired the great
majority of Englishmen. The war, moreover, had nn-
warupit'' ^^^^ J" P''''''' *^6 ""'"''l^ o^ ^'s financial reforms. Taxation
Ir&i ""'* ^^^ increased and the debt had been swelled by new
loans. In 1793 more than one hundred English banks
had failed, and in 1797 the Bank of England had been forced
to suspend specie payment. The navy, upon which so much
depended, was growing mutinous and discontented. The service
was badly managed; the" men were suffering from scanty and
unwholesome rations; their pay was poor, and the very year
of St. Vincent and Camperdown, formidable mutinies broke
out at Spithead and the Nore. Ireland, also, was a constant
source of anxiety. The reforms which had followed the American
War had proved a disappointment, and instead of giving to Ire-
land a satisfactory government had only riveted more closely the
hold of the corrupt local oligarchy. The Catholic peasantry,
whose wrongs were hardly less than those of the French peas-
antry, formed secret organizations, like the "Peep of Day Boys,"
and terrorized the ruling minority by their secret outrages. The
Anglican Protestants in turn, under the encouragement of the
government, organized societies of "Orangemen" and repaid out-
rage with outrage. Attempts at reform, connected with the
names of Grattan and Fitz-William, were made, but to no purpose.
In 1796 the "Society of United Irishmen," in which Presbyterians
of Ulster made common cause with the Catholics of the middle
and upper classes, in despair of securing redress from England,
sent Wolfe Tone to France to appeal for aid. The Directory
welcomed the appeal, and in December dispatched 20,000 men
under Hoche to assist an Irish revolt. A storm dispersed the ves-
sels and Hoche was obliged to return. The leaders in Ireland were
seized; an insurgent camp at Vinegar Hill was carried by assault,
and the danger was over. The Directory, in the meanwhile, made
a second attempt, but although the French force landed, the crisis
was passed, and after a few successes the French surrendered to
Oornwallis, the Lord Lieutenant. The increasing pressure at
home and the constant threat of trouble in Ireland, were not
956 SECON'D PERIOD OF TOET EULE [GEoitOElII.
without their influence upon Pitt, and although public opinion
still ran strong against any thought of peace, he determined to
seek some opening for an understanding with France. All efforts,
however, failed, chiefly because Pitt would not consent to allow
Prance to retain her acquisitions in the Netherlands,
The two implacable foes then once more addressed themselyes
to the struggle. Bonaparte, whose recent successes had made him
an all powerful influence in Prance, persuaded the
^a.pojeonin Directory to enter upon a scheme which even to-day
looks more like the wild vagary of a dreamer than the
sober plan of a man of affairs. He proposed to attack England in
India, by first securing a base in Egypt and Syria. Yet visionary
as the scheme appears, it might have succeeded, had it not been
for the active vigilance of Nelson, who on August 1, 1798, anni-
hilated the Prench fleet in Aboukir Bay and thus severed Bona-
parte's communications with Prance. Victorions as was the little
army of invasion, without reinforcements, and without connection
with Prance, final success was impossible. After overrunning
Egypt, destroying the Mameluke power, and invading Syria,
Bonaparte was at last compelled to retrace his steps, and leaving
his army in Egypt in command of the brave Kleber, he ran the
gauntlet of the English fleet, and in November 1799 reached
France in safety.
Pitt, in the meanwhile, had fallen back u.pon his old tactics
and sought to reach Prance by forming another coalition, in which
England, Eussia, and Austria were the chief members.
The Second Catharine II. had died in 1796, and her successor, Paul
1798,1799.' I., had abandoned her policy of aggrandizement in the
east, to join the western powers against France. Tur-
key, roused by the attack of the French upon Egypt and Syria,
had also joined the league. Prussia, however, refused to abandon
her neutrality. The attack was begun upon the whole line of the
recent conquests of France. In Italy and western Germany, the
Austrian and Russian armies were everywhere successful, and
had soon undone the work of Bonaparte. Only in Holland and in
Switzerland, which had been organized in 1798 as the "Helvetic
Eepublic," the French managed to hold their own.
1799, 1800] THE BILL OF UNION 957
At this point Bonaparte landed. The Directory was thor-
oughly discredited ; its corruption was a matter of common belief ;
its incompetence had been fully established. Bona-
of^sBm- P^i't'e grasped the situation at once. He first unseated
ttr%^i799.'^' *^^^ Directory and secured for himself as "First Con-
sul," the authority of a virtpal dictator; he then
turned upon the enemies of France. He succeeded in detaching
from the alliance the Czar Paul, whose enthusiastic admiration
for "the man of the people," rendered him an easy victim to the
blandishments of the First Consul. Bonaparte then crossed the
Great St. Bernard and in June 1800 fell upon the Austrians at
Marengo, while Moreau won an even more overwhelming victory
over a second Austrian army at Hohenlinden. The strength of
Austria was broken, and at Luneville, February 1801, the emperor
was glad to accept peace on the terms offered by the First Consul.
Thus a second coalition had dashed itself to pieces upon the
young Republic, and England was left again single-handed to
face her enemy. Her position was worse than it had
^'■f^tont! ^®^^ ^'^ ^'^^'^- "1'° *^^ °*^®^ burdens incident to the
war, was to be added the disheartening influence of a
depreciating paper currency. The land tax had risen to 4s in
the pound, and in 1799 an income tax had been added, which
taxed all incomes above £60 a year. Abroad, also, a reckless disre-
gard of the rights of neutrals had led the Baltic powers, Sweden,
Denmark, and Prussia, under the leadership of Czar Paul, to
revive the armed neutrality of the period of the American war.
This action was ominous ; Bonaparte was known to be intriguing
with the sea powers against England, and Pitt saw himself in
turn threatened with a dangerous coalition.
Ireland was still a subject of deep anxiety to English states-
men. The failure of the attempt to govern Ireland by an inde-
pendent Irish parliament had only emphasized the need
"BiM^of' *'^ ^^ some more satisfactory plan of conciliating the hostile
2800^"'" elements in order to save Ireland if possible. Pitt
accordingly brought forward a plan of legislative
union, which resembled the union that already existed between
England and Scotland. It was accepted by the Irish parliament
958 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RULE [qkoegk III.
in February 1800, by the British parliament in July, and went
into force on the 1st of January 1801, creating "The United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." The Irish were to be
represented in the common parliament by four spiritual lords,
twenty-eight temporal peers, chosen by the Irish peerage for life,
and one hundred members for the Commons, chosen sixty-four for
the counties, thirty-five for the boroughs, and one for the University
of Dublin. The Anglican Church of Ireland was to be united to
the State Church of England. Taxation was to be distributed
proportionately ; the national debts of the two countries were to
be kept separate ; and no restrictions were to be laid on commerce
between the two countries.-'
By the terms of the "Bill of Union" Ireland apparently was
receiving somewhat more generous treatment than Scotland in
1707. But unfortunately the great mass of the popu-
tiimofPitt, lation in Ireland were disfranchised by their religious
Feb. 1601. .
faith. It was a part of Pitt's general plan of conciha-
tion, however, to follow the union by emancipating the Irish
Catholics. But George was persuaded to believe that the conces-
sions proposed by Pitt would force him to violate his coronation
oath, and Pitt saw himself checked with his plan of union only
half realized. He knew the king; he knew that it was useless
either to argue or plead, and like the man of spirit that he was,
resigned.
The successor of Pitt, Henry Addington, his old time friend,
not being specially committed to the French war, was free to take
steps towards securing the much needed peace. Recent
TUe peace of , i i ■, -, -% -, i ■
Amiens, events had already paved the way by impressing upon
March, 1802. ixiii . ■' . ^ ° ^.
Bonaparte the hopelessness of carrying on a war in
which he could not strike his antagonist. In 1800 the English
had got possession of Malta; in March of the next year Abercrom-
biehad defeated the French at Alexandria, and by midsummer the
French had surrendered their last stronghold in Egypt. Eng-
land, moreover, had taken the armed neutrality of the northern
powers as a threat of war and had promptly sent Admiral Parker,
with Nelson as second in command, to seize the Danish fleet in
1 Lee, Source Boole, pp. 483-497.
1803] AMIENS 959
the harbor of Copenhagen. In March Napoleon's friend Czar Paul
was assassinated; this, with the loss of the Danish fleet, put an
end to Napoleon's dream of a northern coalition against England.
In June the British government recognized the Justice of the
claims of the northern states by conceding the disputed points,
chief of which was her claim of the right to seize neutral ships if
bound for an enemy's port that was under a nominal blockade.
With these concessions the armed neutrality dissolved. England
was thus once more lord of the seas, but she could not strike
France without continental allies, and Napoleon could not strike
England without the support of the naval powers. Both sides,
moreover, needed a breathing spell. In March 1803 the much
needed truce was concluded at Amiens. The recent acquisitions
of Prance and the extension of her power in Eiirope were
conceded. England restored to France and her allies, Spain and
Holland, all her conquests except Trinidad and Ceylon. She prom-
ised, also, to restore Malta to the Knights of St. John. The king
of England renounced the title of King of France, which he had
held since the time of Edward III., and the Bourbon lilies hence-
forth disappeared from the royal arms of England. England, also,
recognized the French Republic. France, in turn, renounced all
claims founded upon her unsuccessful Egyptian expedition. The
peace with its one-sided concessions was severely criticised by
Pitt's friends, but it was welcome in England, for taxation was
heavy and the amount of the debt had become appalling. Sheri-
dan called it "a peace which everyone would be glad of, but which
nobody would be proud of." Yet men hoped it might be sincere
and permanent.
Thus far France had been fighting ostensibly to extend the
principles of the Eevolution. Whatever may be thought of the
leaders or their methods, the motive of the men who
French fought in the ranks was high and holy, — to liberate the
people of Europe from the slavery of the old order.
Before that sublime impulse the abuses of a thousand years had
been swept away. States had been overthrown, but peoples had
been redeemed. Old feudal lines of partition had been obliterated,
nations had been unified, and the whole political system of Europe
960 SECOND PBEIOD OP TORT RULE [georgeUI.
made more compact. England had looked on approTingly during
the early stages of the Revolution ; but the frenzied earnestness of
the heralds of "the rights of man" had first offended her and then
filled her with alarm. She saw in the triumph of the Eevolution
not only the overthrow of religious and social order, but the
destruction of the European balance which Englishmen had been
toiling to establish since the days of William III., and which they
regarded as so essential to their commercial and industrial pros-
perity. In Napoleon, moreover, the propaganda of revolution
rapidly assumed a new phase; he entertained no benevolent
schemes for the liberation of the oppressed ; but thought only of
gathering all the tremendous energy which the Eevolution had
generated, and directing it to the crushing of England and the
reducing of Europe to timid submission to the dictates of France.
Unconsciously the Eevolution had drifted back again to the Louis
XIV. policy, but in an intensified and exaggerated form. Thus,
whatever disquieting compunctions the conscience of England may
have felt early in the struggle, had speedily passed away when the
people began to comprehend the real nature of the conflict, — the
struggle of a free people with an uncompromising despot. It was
this struggle which England now faced.
To Bonaparte the peace of Amiens was merely a truce to give
him time to prepare for his next move. The Addington ministry
was timid and committed to peace; yet even Adding-
w^lm'^ ton was stung by the insolence of the First Consul, and
believing that the renewal of the war was inevitable,
refused to surrender Malta. Bonaparte naturally mijde much of
the breach of the recent peace, and in May 1803 again declared war.
Bonaparte, for France was now Bonaparte, was apparently
stronger than ever. In August 1802 he had been made Consul
for life, and on May 18, 1804, he was proclaimed
torlZaitZ ^"apoleon I., Hereditary Emperor of the French.
isof '""™''' Toward the end of 1804 he persuaded Spain again to
join France against England. lie had already made
extensive plans for a direct invasion of England and had man-
aged to stir up revolts in Ireland and India. The rising in Ire-
land, however, spent itself in a city riot in Dublin, and the leader,
1805] TRAFALGAR 961
Robert Bmmett, was hanged. France was equally powerless to
help the native princes in India, where Richard Wellesley, Lord
Mornington, the English'Governor-General, put down each rising
with a Tigorous hand. He was aided by a noble corps of oflBcers,
among whom was the governor's famous brother Arthur. By the
end of 1804 all India outside of the Indus valley and Rajputana,
had passed under the English yoke. But the serious threat to
England came not from Ireland, much less from India, but from
Boulogne, where Napoleon was massing a splendid army of one
hundred and fifty thousand men with evident intent of a direct
descent upon the English coast. Could he but control the Channel
for a few hours, and bring his matchless military strength to bear
directly upon England, he might dictate what terms he pleased
to his rival. The English were fully awake to their danger. An
army of three hundred thousand volunteers was mustered into
service, and held at convenient posts where they could be readily
massed upon a threatened point. In May Pitt was again called
upon to assume the duties of Prime Minister. Through the
spring Napoleon pushed forward his preparations, only to postpone
the final attempt to the next season.
When the year 1805 opened, Napoleon seemed at last ready for
action. His plan was well laid; the scattered ships, shut up in
the various harbors of France, were to break the blockade and
with the Spanish fleet rendezvous at some port in the "West Indies
in hope that Nelson would follow them. They would then make
a dash for the English Channel, and with their combined strength
might possibly hold it long enough to enable Napoleon's transports
to empty their troops into the island. The first part of the plan
was successfully carried out. Nelson not only gave chase, but
the French Admiral Villeneuve managed to elude him and get
back to the Spanish coast again early in July. Nelson, however,
had divined the real nature of the manoeuver and sent
October 21, timely Warning to the government, so that Sir Robert
Calder with fifteen ships was able to meet the allies
off Cape Finisterre. Calder was unable to prevent the return of
the French fleet, but Villeneuve thought best to retire to Cadiz
where he remained inactive for two mouths ; and when he left
962 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RULE [george III.
Cadiz in October, it was only to fall in with Nelson "in Trafalgar
Bay" and lose Ms entire fleet. The victory of Trafalgar was
decisive; its results permanent; but it cost the life of England's
brave admiral. His historic battle message, "England expects
every man to do his duty," was characteristic of his sturdy patri-
otism.
The English, in the meanwhile, were busily plying negotiations
preliminary to the formation of a new coalition. The reckless
disregard which Napoleon had displayed for the feel-
The Third a »'
Coautinn. insfs of the powers made thfr task easv. Prussia, though
A.ii,st£rlitz ox ./ ' o
and Press- deeply vexed by the establishment of a French force at
burg.
the mouth of the Elbe, remained neutral; but Alex-
ander of Russia was ready to accede to the proposal of England,
and in 1805 entered into the Anglo-Russian Treaty which pur-
posed to form a European league capable of placing five hundred
thousand men in the field. No peace was to be made with Prance
except by common consent. England, on her part, agreed to
furnish subsidies to each of the allies. The immediate object of
the coalition, as in the league of William III. in 1701, was the
recovery of French conquests and the establishment of barriers
against French ambition. Austria desired peace, but when she
saw that war was inevitable, joined the allies, and sent General
Mack to occupy Bavaria, whose elector was friendly to Napoleon.
But Napoleon was already moving swiftly forward to support his
ally, and before October closed had surrounded Mack at Ulm and
forced him to surrender with twenty-five thousand men. He then
pi;|l§sed on to Vienna, driving the Austrians northward to a junc-
tion with their Russian allies; and on December 2, defeated the
combined armies at Austerlitz in the historic "Battle
December i, of the Three Emperors. " The Russians retired; and
Francis to save himself, on December 26, signed the
Peace of Pressburg, by which he ce^ed his Italian possessions to
the French, and the Tyrol to Bavaria.
In less than three months after Trafalgar, death robbed Eng-
land of her greatest leader. Pitt had been steadily sinking under
the cares of his position, prematurely aged at forty-six; and when
the news of the awful disaster at Austerlitz, following so closely
BEATIt OF PiM 963
that of Ulin, reached him, he never recovered from the shock. He
died on the 33d of January. His position had been "one of almost
tragic irony. An economist heaping up millions of
Death of debt: a peace minister dragged into the costliest of
Fl ft J ft Tlli- o o
ary'23,i8oe. wars; he is the very type of the baffled statesman." He
loved peace, yet he saw that with Napoleon there
could be no compromise; the fight must be to a finish. He had
built up coalition after coalition, only to see them shattered before
the marvelous skill of this master of war craft. Pressburg he
thought was the end. "Eoll np the map of Europe," he said, "it
will not be wanted for ten years." Yet the struggle was by no
means over. Trafalgar was after all to be more enduring than
Austerlitz.
The moment, however, was critical. By ceding his conquest
of Hanover to Prussia, Napoleon had bribed the Prussian king to
ioin him against the coalition. Before the end of 1805
Napoleon ,,i,t,.,,
supreme in he had placed his brother Joseph upon the ancient
Europe.
throne of Naples. In the summer following, he organ-
ized the German States into the "Confederation of the Rhine"
under a French protectorate, for which he had prepared the way two
years earlier by abolishing the host of petty independent feudatories
that had heretofore made any larger union impossible. The same
year witnessed the formal abandonment by the emperor of the
now meaningless titles of the Holy Roman Empire. Thus Napoleon
had all western, central, and southern Europe at his feet. Spain
and even Turkey were friendly. Only Britain and Russia remained
formidable. •*
In England party strife was hushed by the death of Pitt.
Whigs and Tories united in the "Ministry of All the Talents;"
Grenville became Prime Minister and Eox and Adding-
"MinMryof ton, now Lord Sidmouth, Secretaries of State. Pox
AlltheTal- , ' , ^, ■ • , j
ents," 1806. had opposed the war on principle, and saw no reason
why the two countries could not come to some fair and
rational understanding. But Napoleon soon disabused his mind
of its peace theories, and before Eox's death in September, he saw
what Pitt had long since seen, that nothing would satisfy Napoleon
but the destruction of the British Empire.
964 SECOND PERIOD OF TOET RULE [oeorgeIU.
The treatment which N"apoleon meted out to his new ally,
Prussia, was fully calculated to drive to desperation a brave people
who had not yet forgotten the day of the Great Fred-
The sacrifice ,, ^ -.r-i^^n^-, -• in . j!-r>
of Prussia erick. In March 1806 he closed the ports oi rrussia
iy of Tilsit, and Hanover to English vessels. England retorted by
seizing some four hundred Prussian vessels that lay in
her harbors, and by sweeping Prussian commerce from the
seas. Notwithstanding these sacrifices Napoleon coolly proposed
to concede Fox's demand that the restitution of Hanover to the
king of England should be the first condition of peace. Prussia
was thus unwillingly put at odds with England, at the very
moment when national honor compelled her to meet Napoleon's
insolence and tyranny with a declaration of war. She was poorly
prepared for war ; she was without allies, and her military organi-
zation was an antiquated shell. At Jena and Auerstadt Napoleon
rudely dispelled the inflated conceit of the Prussian marshals, and
in October entered Berlin in triumph. The fortresses of Prussia
were surrendered with shameful haste. Yet Frederick William
refused to yield to Napoleon's exorbitant demands, and assured of
Russian support continued the war. Help, however, came too
late. The murderous though indecisive battle of Eylau, followed
by the victory of the French at Priedland, brought both Alexand'er
and Frederick William to consent to the Peace of Tilsit, July
1807. British ships and British trade were excluded from Prus-
sian harbors, and Prussia was spoiled of half her territory, part of
which, with Hanover, was erected into the kingdom of Westphalia,
kta secret treaty the Russian emperor agreed to an alliance with
France against England, should she refuse to accept the terms
dictated by himself; as a reward, he was to be allowed to extend
Russian influence in Sweden and the Ottoman Empire.
England was now once more left to oppose Napoleon single-
handed. She had proved herself invincible in every direct attack
Thc'Conti- ^V^^ ^^^ seas ; but with the new Russian alliance
tem^\m' Napoleon virtually controlled the entire seaboard of
1807. Europe, and at last it was possible to reach a vulner-
able point in his enemy's harness. If he could only exclude the
English from the ports of Europe, he might strike a telling blow
1806, 1807] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM 965
at English commerce and industry, and bring the nation to its
knees. In November 1806 he took the first step in putting into
effect his so called "Continental System," by publishing a series
of decrees from Berlin which declared the British Isles in a state
of blockade, forbade all commerce between Great Britain or her
colonies and the territories occupied by Prance or her allies, and
ordered the confiscation of all British merchandise wherever
found. In January 1807, England retaliated with her "First
Orders in Council," declaring the ports of France and her allies
in a state of blockade and neutral vessels trading between them
lawful prize.
The struggle had now passed from a war of navies and armies
to a duel by starvation, to see which people could endure hunger
the longer. In this grim conflict, however, the
Stoento?" advantages still rested with the English. They still
System. y^^^ their colonial trade, which, while nothing com-
pared with what it is to-day and much diminished by the recent
American war from what it had been in the eighteenth century, was
still of considerable importance. The prohibition of trade, more-
over, so raised the price of English goods, that the rewards of
smuggling were increased enormously and it was impossible for
Napoleon to draw the meshes so tight that the smuggler could not
get through, or the English manufacturer find an outlet for
his goods. The English people, also, were deeply interested
in the war, and were far more willing to suffer in what they
regarded as the cause of religion and humanity against the
French military tyrant, than the people of the continent, who had
taken little interest in the struggle apart from their governments
and now began to execrate the name of Napoleon for the losses and
sufferings occasioned by the commercid ruin of Europe. In one
respect Napoleon succeeded; the English carrying trade was
ruined for the time, and neutral commerce left English ships. The
Americans, whose position had thus far exempted them from
taking any part in the struggle, were the chief gainers.
Not long after the Orders in Council the Grenville ministry
came to an end. The ministers had proposed to abolish the military
disqualifications of Catholics; but the king compelled them to
966 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT R'ULE [geoboe III.
withdraw the measure, and when they refused to pledge themselves
not to reopen the question of disability, he dismissed both min-
istry and parliament, and appealed to the country. The result
was to entrench the Tories more strongly than ever in
Gremiiie control of the government. One memorable act of
mimstry- j-eform dates from the Ministry of All the Talents;
in March 1807, Great Britain formally abolished the slave
trade.
The new administration was headed by the inefficient duke of
Portland, but included Canning and Castlereagh as Secretaries,
neither of whom was lacking in the fire and energy
ThePorUand that were needed in the government if England were
theviniation to succeed. Kussia was now Napoleon's avowed ally;
of neutrals. Sweden was forced to renounce her neutrality, and
Denmark also was apparently to be dragged into the
coalition against England. Canning acted promptly. He sent a
fleet to Copenhagen to demand the surrender of the Danish fleet
under pledge of returning it at the end of the war. When the
demand was refused, the bombardment of Copenhagen followed ;
the Danish fleet was taken and with it large supplies of naval
stores. Canning followed this bold move of September by a still
more daring step in November when he issued a second series of
Orders in Council, closing to the ships of all nations every port in
Europe from which English ships were excluded, and rendering all
vessels bound thither liable to seizure, unless they had first
touched at a British port. In December Napoleon replied in the
"Milan Decree," which made neutral vessels liable to seizure if
they touched at a British port, or submitted to be searched by
British cruisers. These orders, which not only threatened the
economic rain of every state in western Europe, but brought the
infant American Republic at last within the sphere of the war,
completed the Continental System. Britain in her desperate effort
to retaliate upon her powerful antagonist, had fully matched his
tyranny in disregarding the rights of neutral powers.
Napoleon's plot to secure naval assistance in the north having
been frustrated by the prompt action of Canning, his next move
was to force Portugal to turn upon her long time friends and
1808] THE PENINSULAR WAR 967
join the Continental System. Portugal refused and the war
which followed inTolved the entire peninsula. The royal family of
. Portugal fled to Brazil, and Lisbon passed into French
Napolemiin ■, -, -r, -r-,
thePenin- hands. But Portugal had no sooner been overrun than
aula.
JNapoleon turned upon his allies, the witless Bour-
bons of Spain, deposed Charles IV, , and made his own brother
Joseph king.
Heretofore Napoleon had handled the principalities and powers
of Europe with the indifference with which a chess player uses
Uprising of his pieces, sweeping ancient families from the board or
stainS^^ ' parcelling out kingdoms as the exigencies of the game
suiar War. demanded. He had, however, utterly ignored one ele-
ment in the problem, the nation, and this omission was now to
prove his ruin. The Spanish people rose as one man to fight for
independence and national honor, and to avenge the wrong, which
had been done to their national sovereign. England was nominally
at war with Spain, but when the news of the uprising against
Napoleon reached England, Canning declared, "Any nation oppos-
ing France becomes instantly our ally." Help was sent at once,
and on August 1, 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley with eighteen thou-
sand British troops landed at Mondego Bay in Portugal, and within
three weeks had won the important battles of Eorica and Vimiero.
While Vimiero was in progress Sir Henry Burrard, an old officer of
no distinction but Wellesley's superior in command, landed and
assumed direction of the English invasion of Portugal. Against
the advice of Wellesley he entered into the Convention of Cintra,
by which he allowed Junot, the French general, to retire peaceably
into France. The English public were justly indignant when they
learned of the escape of the French ; the officers were brought to
trial and the command of the peninsular army was turned over to
Sir John Moore. Moore was a gallant officer, but in his attempt
to cooperate with the Spanish peasants, he got little support, and
found himself at last confronted by Napoleon himself with an
army of two hundred thousand men. He made a skillful retreat
of two hundred and fifty miles to Corunna on the coast, and at last
got his little army safely out of the country, though at the cost of
his own life. He was buried on the ramparts of Corunna.
968 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RULE [qeorob m.
Napoleon had left Soult to pursue Moore and end what he con-
temptuously called "the war of monks and peasants," while he
himself turned to meet a new rising of the Austrians.
of'w'aaram '^^^ Austrians looked to England to make a diversion in
cherm'^im their favor by attacking Antwerp. But before the expe-
dition had left England, Napoleon had overwhelmed the
Austrians at Wagram, and when at last the English army, forty
thousand strong, landed in Holland, they were sacrificed to the
stupid incompetency of their commander, the earl of Chatham,
Pitt's elder brother, who left fifteen thousand men to die in the
fever haunted marshes of the island of Walcheren.
Wellesley, in the meanwhile, had returned to command in the
Peninsula. In July 1809 after two days' fighting, he won a com-
Thewith- plete victory over the French at Talavera, for which he
RM^Sfrom ^^® created Viscount Wellington. His losses, how-
nSiOatsw- 6ver, were so serious that he was compelled to retire to
tern. Portugal before the advance of fresh troops under
Soult. The failure of England to make the promised diversion
left Austria at the mercy of Napoleon, and in October, 1809, she
was compelled to accept the humiliating Treaty of Vienna, and
see her territories still further partitioned among France and her
allies. Yet, although the half-hearted support of Britain had
done little for Austria, her example had stimulated the rising spirit
of patriotism among the Germans ; while the very treaty which
marks the depths of Austria's humiliation, was the means ulti-
mately of alienating Russia and throwing her influence against
Napoleon. In December 1810, Alexander withdrew from
Napoleon's commercial system, which had proved ruinous to
Eussian trade, opened his harbors to neutral vessels, and imposed
duties on many French products. Neither Russia nor France
was in haste for war, but both countries saw that war was
unavoidable and continued making vast preparations during the
year 1811.
In Portugal Wellington was still living up to his reputation as
the "hooked nose beggar that licks the French," a title which had
been given him after Talavera by his admiring soldiers. In Sep-
tember 1810, Massena, who stood highest in military reputation
1810-1812]
THE LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS
969
among all Napoleon's marshals, entered Portugal with seventy
thousand men, only to be driven out again with a loss of thirty
thousand men. This triumph Wellington owed largely to his fore-
thought in shutting off Lisbon from the rest of Por-
frf Torres tugal by a double line of impregnable barriers which
extended from the Tagus to the sea, known as the Lines
of Torres Vedras. He had also systematically wasted the outlying
country from which the enemy must draw their support. As the
French retired Wellington advanced, only to be confronted by the
approach of another French army from Spain under Soult, and
compelled once more to retire within his lines. Thus Wellington
and Napoleon's marshals wrestled back and forth over the desolate
peninsula during the year 1811. Fortresses were taken and
retaken; the assault of the British on Badajoz in April 1812,
stands out almost alone in the annals of war for the fury of the
attack and the desperation of the resistance.
970 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT RtTLE [geobgeIIL
"While Wellington was thus sustaining the honor of Britain in
the Peninsula, the cabinet became the scene of disgraceful quarrel-
ing between Canning and Castlereagh, which in 1809
England' ^nded in a duel and the resignation of both ministers.
The same month Portland, also, retired on account of
failing health, and Spencer Perceval, "an industrious mediocrity of
the narrowest type," became Prime Minister. In 1810 George
III. celebrated his "Jubilee." Immediately after he succumbed to
the malady which had haunted him since 1788, and which now
virtually became permanent for the rest of his life. In February
1811 parliament conferred on the Prince of Wales the regency with
powers restricted as in 1788, but the next year in the prolonged
illness of the king, the restrictions were removed. In May 1813
Perceval was assassinated in the lobby of the Commons by a mer-
chant named Bellingham, a poor madman, who had lost his wits
in consequence of misfortunes which had come upon him as a
result of the war. It was hoped in some quarters that the Whigs
might return to power now that George III. 's reign had virtually
ended, but the Whigs were pledged to Catholic Emancipation,
and for this the country was not yet ready. The Tory ministry,
therefore, was reorganized under Eobert Jenkinson, Lord Liver-
pool; Castlereagh was placed in charge of the Foreign Office,
and Sidmouth, of the Home Office.
One of Castlereagh 's first acts was to procure the repeal of
Canning's Orders in Council which had added the United States
to the enemies of England. The close of the American
war^withthe Revolution had by no means ended the bitter feeling
stotes* which existed between England and America. The
mother country had grudgingly recognized the new
Republic in the Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1794. The
continental struggle, moreover, had raised many new points of
dispute, and the old bitterness revived. The orders and decrees
of Great Britain and France were met by JefEerson's embargo pol-
icy, which accomplished little save the ruin of American merchants.
Under Madison's administration a more vigorous policy was urged
by Calhoun, Clay, and Crawford, the young and enthusiastic lead-
ers of a war party. The act known as "Macon's Bill No. 2" pro-
1813-1816] THE AMEEICAN WAK OP 1812 971
vided that if either Great Britain or France should revoke its
orders or decrees the United States would prohibit trade with the
other. Napoleon was quick to see his opportunity and by an
apparent fulfillment of the conditions of the act induced the
United States to reviTC the nonimportation act against Great
Britain. It was this new danger, the possibility of a junction
between ISTapoleon and the United States and the consequent ruin
of English industry, that hastened Oastlereagh's action. But
it was already too late. On the 18th of June, five days after the
repeal of the Orders in Council, the United States declared war
against Great Britain. In the campaigns of the two years which
followed there was little to be proud of either in the American
invasions of Canada or in the British raid on Washington. But on
the Great Lakes and at sea the young American navy won some
brilliant victories over her mature rival, while at New Orleans
on January 8, 1815, Jackson retrieved the faults of incapable
military leaders by defeating the veterans of the Peninsular War.
Peace, which had already been made at Ghent, December 34,
1814, settled none of the questions which had occasioned the war,
but in the changed conditions which followed Waterloo, they faded
rapidly into insignificance.
While America was thus fighting Napoleon's battles in the
western hemisphere, he had already entered upon the fatal con-
test with Eussia. In the late spring of 1812 he massed
Campaign, four hundred and fifty thousand men on the Russian
frontier, and in June crossed the Niemen. Austria
and Prussia had sent their contingents, and the neighboring
countries were swept bare in order to furnish supplies. Alexan-
der fully understood the defensive strength of Russia, and quietly
retired as the French advanced, knowing that every day's march
into his territories must increase the dijfficulties of feeding the
vast host which followed Napoleon. In early September Alexan-
der yielded to the clamors of the Russians sufficiently to risk a
battle at Borodino, in which he lost thirty thousand men; yet
although the French losses were still greater, he failed to arrest
the tide of invasion and continued his withdrawal towards Mos-
cow. On the 14th of September Napoleon entered the Holy City,
972 SECOND PERIOD OF TOKY KULB [geoege IIL
only to find it silent and deserted. Five days later it was swept
by fire, probably the work of the Eussians. Napoleon could ad-
vance no farther; the Czar showed no intention of proposing
peace, and on October 19, the French began the fatal retreat.
On November 6, the Kussian winter set in with intense cold, blind-
ing storms, and heavy snows. When Napoleon reached the Niemen
on December 13, only a sad and shattered remnant of the magnificent
army that had crossed in June remained. Napoleon, the invincible,
had been beaten at last, not by the Eussians, but by Eussia.
At the border Napoleon was met by reinforcements and turned
again to strike his foes, but the spell of Napoleon's name had
been broken and everywhere the friends of liberty took
Coalition, fresh heart. In February the Treaty of Kalisch,
which placed Prussia by the side of Eussia and Sweden,
inaugurated a fourth coalition. In June Britain and Austria
joined, and before the end of the year most of the German states
had risen to take their share in the glorious "War of Liberation."
In August, in a series of battles fought around Dresden, Napoleon
won his last victory on German soil. Yet, though he managed to
hold his foes at bay for a little longer, he failed utterly to break
the iron ring which was closing about him. At Leipsic, in a
three days' battle, October lC-18, he was fairly overwhelmed by
the numbers which his enemies poured upon him, and compelled to
resume his retreat toward the Ehine. At Frankfort he refused
an offer of peace, and early in January 1814 the allies crossed the
Ehine. At the same time Wellington was slowly fighting his way
through the Pyrenees, and early in the year entered France from
the south. In March the allies approached Paris; a few days
later Napoleon abdicated and retired to the island of Elba, while
the Bourbons were once more restored to the French throne.
Napoleon was now beaten. The great shadow which had so
long hung over Europe was dispelled. It remained for the allies
The Fifth ^° meet and undo his work. Accordingly in Septem-
isiiis"^''' ^^^' * congress of the powers met at Vienna. But the
paign^of commissioners had hardly begun their work, T^hen
Waterloo. Europe was startled from its dream of peace by
the news that Napoleon had landed in France, that the Second
1815]
WATBELOO
973
Bourbon Monarchy had been swept away, and that Napoleon
was again Emperor of the French. The ambassadors of the
four great powers at Vienna, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and
Russia, at once abandoned their diplomatic quarreling to form a
fifth coalition in order to destroy the common enemy before he
could gather the strength of Prance. Napoleon's veterans rallied
to his support and in a few weeks he had gathered a powerful
army and was marching toward the Belgian border. He hoped
Battle of
WATERLOO
June 18, 1810
Showing positions of armies
at IJ a.m. ad p m
by the rapidity of his movements to crush his many foes in detail
before they could concentrate their strength. On June 16 he
beat the Prussian Bliicher at Ligny before he had time to unite
with the mixed Anglo-Belgian army with which Wellington held
the road to Brussels. On the 18th Napoleon advanced to meet
"Wellington who had taken up a strong position on the slope of Mont
St. Jean near Waterloo. For seven hours the "Iron Dnke" dog-
gedly held his position, while Napoleon hurled his cavalry and
infantry upon the British squares. After the battle of the 16th
974 SECOND PERIOD OF TORT BULB [qeorgk III.
Napoleon had sent Grouchy after Bliicher to keep the Prussians
from reforming, but Grouchy had failed to execute his mission, and
towards evening of the 18th Wellington from his beset position on
Mont St. Jean saw the long dark line. of the Prussians breaking from
the woods on his left. With a shout the English squares, which
had stood on the defensive during that long terrible day, advanced
upon their foes. Napoleon's weary troops could not withstand the
fresh masses that were now hurled upon them. The Old Guard
was ordered into action; for a moment the tide of battle was
stayed; but their splendid discipline, their matchless courage,
availed nothing before the odds which now confronted them. In a
few moments the last army of Napoleon was a wild mob of panic-
smitten fugitives, choking the roads and thronging the ravines
which led from the battlefield. Napoleon fled to Paris, abdicated
a second time, and then surrendered himself to the commander of
the British warship Bellerophon. He was finally sent
to the lonely rock off the coast of Africa, where he
died in 1831. Louis XVIII. was again brought back, and France,
beside paying a war indemnity of £28,000,000, was compelled to
support an army of occupation for five years. Her territories were
reduced to the old lines which had prevailed before the begin-
ning of the war of 1792. Naples, also, was restored to its Bourbon
kings. Holland and the old Austrian Netherlands were raised into
a kingdom under the House of Orange. The princes of Germany
were united into a German Confederation. The king of Sardinia
received Genoa and Upper Savoy. Great Britain restored Java to the
Dutch but retained Heligoland, Tobago, St. Lucia, Ceylon, and
Cape Colony, the beginning of her power in South Africa. Her
hold in the Mediterranean was secured by the retention of Malta
and by the inauguration of a protectorate over the Ionian Islands.
Thus ended at last the Second Hundred Years' War between
England and Prance. Napoleon had been compelled to take up the
old struggle with the rising power of Great Britain which Louis
XIV. had begun in 1689, and had failed for the same reason
that Louis had failed. Pitt had been forced to resume the
work of William and Marlborough and had succeeded as they had
succeeded, and for the same reason. The national policy of
1689-1815] THE SECOND HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 975
France had always been one of concentration and suppression.
She had developed a vast centralized state, all powerful on the
The relation ^^^^> ^^^ in the eighteenth century, apparently with-
ii^nuiwan' ^^^'^ a peer in Europe. But her- people had not developed
%e% ^ih^' t^^i'* resources correspondingly ; they had not learned
cOTto^""' **^ ^^'P themselves. Their poverty presented a pitiful
contrast with the luxury, the pomp, the magnificence, of
the court of their Bourbon kings. England on the other hand had
followed a very different policy. She was shut off from expansion at
home, but the sea lay open to her. She had built up her navy and
steadily extended her commercial activities into new lands; and
while she had distributed political power among her people, she
had sent forth her excess population to establish new Eng-
lands beyond the seas. Her people, therefore, unlike the great
mass of the French, were growing ever more resourceful, energetic,
and capable of self-help. Hence, in all the early stages of the
long struggle England had been successful, driving France
out of India and North America, and setting barriers to French
ambition at home. But at the end of the century, after a
hundred years of bitter conflict, two events threatened to undo
all that had been done and restore again the supremacy of France
in Europe; the one was the American Eevolution, which cutoff
half the territory of the British Empire and for the moment
obscured the prestige which had been won by a hundred years of
successful war; the other was the French Eevolution, which
aroused the French from the sleep of centuries, and threatened to
bring them at a single bound alongside of the English. But
France unfortunately for herself could not reorganize her navy as
readily as she could reorganize her army, and on the seas England
easily maintained her position. Moreover, even on the land, it
was impossible for the French people to sustain for a long period
the tremendous exertion which had won their first battles, and
when the hectic energy of the great uprising had at last spent
itself, France, doubly exhausted, sank into nerveless apathy. The
end came ; France was again remanded to her old boundaries, and
the supremacy of England as the great maritime and commercial
power of the world was definitely secured.
CHAPTEE VII
THE EASTERN QUESTION AND THE FIEST ERA OF REFORM
GEORGE IIL, lH15-liaO
GEORGE IV., lamiHSO
WILLIAM IV., J(«0-3«37
VICTORIA, 1S.V-1H41
During the generation which preceded Waterloo English history
had centered more and more in the great continental struggle.
All questions of domestic reform, moral or political,
Water^oon ^^^ been tabled by common consent and the energies
EngUshpub- of the nation been concentrated upon the one all
engrossing topic, — the defeat of France and the over-
throw of Napoleon. But at Waterloo the spell was broken; liber-
alism, which had come to be regarded as unpatriotic, almost
treason, began again to raise its head, and the people of Great
Britain turned once more to consider the reforms which the
French Revolution had arrested.
The first signs of reaction appeared soon after Waterloo, as
soon as the nation began to adjust itself to the new conditions
created by the peace. If the war had arrested English
distress^'' economic life in some directions, it had abnormally
following stimulated it in others. The productive activities of
peace. ^
a great part of Europe had been paralyzed by the long
struggle, and in spite of the Napoleonic decrees the demand for
English goods and especially for English food-stuffs had continued
to increase. The rising prices of grain had led many an English
landlord to plough up pastures and turn into cultivation areas from
which under ordinary conditions the yield would not be sufficient
to pay the cost. With the dawn of peace, this unusual stimulus
was lost; the continental armies were broken up and absorbed
once more in the manifold callings of peace; Europe began
again to provide for her wants herself, and England was left with
millions of capital invested in enterprises that were no longer
remunerative. Stocks fell; values began to shrink; concerns shut
976
1815-1817] THE CORN LAW gYi?
down, and stagnation followed. Thousands were thrown out of
work; other thousands who had been employed in the numerous
activities more directly connected with the war, were thrown back
upon England without means and without employment.
The decline in the demand for grain and the inevitable shrink-
age in land values had not been unforeseen, and in 1815 parliament,
where the influence of the landlords was always strong,
"ilaw'^ofiau. ^^^ promptly passed a "Corn Law," by which the
importation of foreign-grown grain was prohibited
whenever the price of British wheat should fall below eighty shill-
ings a quarter. When the price of British-grown wheat should
fall below sixty-seven shillings a quarter, the importation of
colonial wheat also was prohibited. This of course was class
legislation of a most reprehensible kind; instead of forestalling
the approaching distress parliament had merely shifted the burden
of the "hard times" from the shoulders of those who were most
able to bear it, the landlords, to the shoulders of those who were
least able, the day laborers and the factory hands.
A general failure of the crops in 1816 added greatly to the
accumulating distress of the people. At eighty shillings, foreign-
grown grain was admitted, but the price of wheat
trw&Ies continued to rise until in 1817 it reached the almost pro-
hibitive figure of ninety-six shillings a quarter. After
two years of uncertain employment and low wages, in thousands
of cases of no employment at all, the English laborer at last saw
himself confronted with a bread famine. He could not, like the
French peasant in the days of the great Louis, lie down and die;
and so he roused himself to mend matters, but in a blind, aimless
way. Mobs of wretched farm hands burned the hoarded grain of
the farmer ; other mobs of factory workers turned upon the better
favored establishments, smashing the newly devised labor-saving
machines which were regarded as responsible for the troubles of
the laborer, and burning the plants. Monster meetings, also,
were held at various places; fiery agitators incited the people
against the government and the proprietary classes, and wild
schemes were proposed of marching upon London and compelling
parliament to redress the wrongs of the people.
978 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [geobokUI.
The old conservative ministry, which since 1812 had been
directed by Eobert Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool, was still in power.
The ministers, who had not yet passed out from under
The reforms ■,■,,. ■• ■ . 'ij •i.i. j.t.
of Tories the spell 01 the grim memories associated witn tne
and Whigs. ^ "t^,. „ n,i ij ijj
French Revolution, at first naturally thought only oi
repression. Meetings of "radicals" were branded as "seditious;"
magistrates were instructed to arrest all persons accused of libel-
ous publications, and in March 1817 the Habeas Corpus Act was
suspended. Yet the party in power could not close their ears
altogether to the cry of the people ; the ministers soon saw that
something more than simple repression was needed and in a char-
acteristic Tory fashion set to work. In 1817 they secured the
removal of the disability which forbade Catholics and noncon-
forming Protestants to hold commissions in the army; in 1818
they appropriated £1,000,000 to the building of new churches; in
1819 they secured a bill which provided for the resumption of
specie payment in 1822. The Whigs with somewhat clearer
insight into the causes of existing disorders directed their efforts
to the reduction of the war burdens, which still rested heavily upon
the necks of the middle and lower classes. In 1816 Brougham
led a movement to compel the government to abandon the income
tax which had been greatly increased as a war measure, but which
the ministry wished to continue. The Whigs also attacked the
repressive measures by which the ministry had sought to check
the dissemination of political literature. The people quickly
responded to these signs of sympathy among the Whig leaders,
and in the general election of 1818 the Whigs could show consider-
able gains in the counties and in boroughs such as London and
Westminster, where the popular element had more direct control
of the franchise.
The more radical elements outside of parliament, however,
were not satisfied with the slow pace of the regular Whig leaders.
Pariiamen- ^®^ °^ '^^^^^ vision, like William Cobbett, the editor of
f^etert'o™' *^e Weekly Political Register, saw that under the
^"»- existing restricted franchise, it was useless to talk
of relief, and sought to direct the present agitation toward
securing parliamentary reform. Monster meetings were called
1880] THE SIX ACTS 979
in the unrepresented towns and the people were encouraged to
elect what were called "Legislatorial Attorneys and Kepresenta-
tives," who were to demand seats in parliament in the name of
their constituents. The movement accomplished little more than
to bring into prominence again the anomalies of the existing
franchise. An unfortunate affair at Manchester, where some fifty
thousand people who had gathered in St. Peter's fields were
stampeded by the military/ created widespread indignation and
greatly quickened the awakening sympathies of the nation with
the laboring classes. The government, however, felt justified in
adopting still more vigorous measures of repression, and in
December Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, secured the pas-
sage of the "Six Acts," the most important of which
Acts'"^^ provided that public meetings could be held only after
six days' notice had been given to the resident Justice
of the Peace and that none but freeholders or residents might
attend under penalty of fine or imprisonment. Any meeting at
which the people shotild be incited to hatred, or contempt of the
king's person, or of the government, or of the constitution, was
declared unlawful ; justices were given special powers in dispersing
such meetings or arresting the speakers, and were not to be held
responsible for the results of any violence which they might see
fit to use. It was also forbidden under penalty of two years'
imprisonment to attend such a meeting with arms, flags, banners,
or other emblems calculated to rouse the people. Organizations
were forbidden to practice military drilling; magistrates were
empowered to search for arms and seize them wherever found.
In the midst of the turmoil poor old George III., now in his
eighty-second year, passed away, and his son, the fourth of the
Georges, who as regent had been virtually king since
Qeorg^iiL, 1812, Succeeded to the full honors of royalty. The
Qem-geir., new king was already heartily detested by the greater
part of his people. He had spent his youth in dis-
gusting dissipation; in 1795 he had married Caroline of Brunswick
'Many of the people were injured in tlie crusli; some were killed.
The affair was called the massacre of "Peterloo," in imitation of "Water-
loo."
980 THE FIRST BBA OF REFORM [geoeqe IV.
with the idea of turning his marriage to the payment of personal
debts which he had accumulated to the amount of £800,000. No
woman of spirit, however, could long endure such an utterly vic-
ious character as the Prince of Wales, and soon after the birth of
a daughter, the two had permanently separated. The public,
for the most part, took the queen's side, and the unsuccessful
efforts of the king to blacken her reputation sufficiently to
induce parliament to grant him a divorce, added not a little to the
increasing burden of his unpopularity. She died soon after the
coronation in which her husband had denied her a part, wearied
and broken by the struggle to secure a recognition that was
rightfully hers. The king at the time was on a royal exhibition
tour to Dublin. When he heard that death had been kinder to
him than his parliament, in his delight he got roaring drunk on
"goose pie and whiskey;" when he arrived at Dublin he had to be
helped to his lodgings.
George had other evidences of the unpopularity of himself and
his Tory ministry, even more disquieting than the mourning
multitude that followed his dishonored wife to her
the govern- grave. He had hardly begun his reign when Sidmouth
unearthed a plot to murder the whole Tory ministry,
fire the barracks, and raid the Bank and the Tower. Some six of
the leaders were tried and executed in February. In April
another radical plot was also foiled at Glasgow, where the revo-
lutionists were taken with arms in their hands, and blood was shed.
These affairs proved to the men who were responsible for the
government the seriousness of the rumblings which they heard
beneath their feet, and satisfied them that they could
ized Tot-™'" ^^"^^^ allay the prevalent discontent by building churches
S-S; ^^ enforcing the Six Acts. In 1821, therefore, some
important changes were begun in the ministry. Sid-
mouth, the Home Secretary, whose name had been identified with
the Six Acts, gave way to Robert Peel, the only man among the old
Tories with practical sense and clear intelligence sufficient to grasp
the full meaning of present conditions. Canning, who also belonged
to the liberal wing of the Tories but had left the ministry rather
than mix himself up with the shameful attack of the king upon
1815-1833] THE HOLT ALLIAIfCE 981
Queen Caroline, was sought ; but the most that the king would
give him was the Governor-Generalship of India. But fortunately
just as he was about to start for India, the suicide of Oastlereagh,
now Lord Londonderry, the old manager of the Commons, forced
the king to turn to the only other Tory who could manage the
House, and Canning once more entered the ministry as Secretary
for Foreign Affairs and leader of the Commons. Huskisson
became President of the Board of Trade; Frederick Robinson,
known as "Prosperity Eobinson," because of his policy of always
talking up prosperity, became Chancellor of the Exchequer; and
Henry Temple, better known as Lord Palmerston, became Secre-
tary at "War. Liverpool remained nominally Prime Minister; but
he was entirely overshadowed by the influence of Canning, whose
liberal tendencies not only gave him the support of those Tories
who still called Pitt their leader, but also of the moderate Whigs,
with whom in all questions except the one of parliamentary reform.
Canning virtually stood upon common ground. These changes in
the ministry gave the Liverpool administration and the Tory party
a new lease of life, and under the wise leadership of Canning, Peel,
and Huskisson, entirely reversed the older reactionary policy of
Liverpool, abroad withdrawing England from the support of the
repressive policy which the powers had formally adopted, at home
reopening the question of Catholic Emancipation, freeing trade
from the foolish restrictions which class interests had thrown
around it, and completely reforming the whole spirit of English
criminal law.
After the second fall of Napoleon the work of the Congress of
Vienna was resumed at Paris, and Europe was finally adjusted to
the new conditions. Italy was turned over to its petty
and theHoiy despots ; Milan and Venice were given to Austria whose
AJMoimcc
help was necessary to keep the newly restored crowns
upon the unsteady heads of the Italian monarchs. In Germany,
also, some important changes were made, although it was not
possible to restore the old empire or the medieval institutions
which I^apoleon had swept away. Hanover was given back to the
English king; and Prussia in compensation, was allowed to extend
in the region of the lower Rhine. The German States were united
983 THE FIRST BEA OV KEFOKM [geobge IV.
into a loose confederation which included both Prussia and Aus-
tria with a capital at Frankfurt. The Grand Duchy of Warsaw
was assigned to the Czar under the promise of a constitution.
Holland and Belgium were united into the kingdom of the Nether-
lands with the Prince of Orange for king. Subsequently the sover-
eigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, had invited the other princes
of Europe to Join them in the famous "Holy Alliance" for the pur-
pose of exercising a sort of protectorate over the domestic affairs
of the weaker states and assuriag the recognition of "Christian
principles" in the government of Europe. But unfortunately,
with Metternich, the reactionary minister of Austria, for high
priest, the new princely cult under the specious cant of enforcing
Christian principles had become simply a league of the despotic
governments of Europe against the liberal tendencies Of the new
nationalism which had been born of the Napoleonic Wars. Cas-
tlereagh had refused to enter the x\lliance, but assured Metternich
and Nesselrode, the Russian minister, that England would not
interfere with them in carrying out its purpose.
When Canning became Foreign Secretary the Holy Alliance
had been working its will in Europe, unchecked for seven years.
Fortified by the specious maxim, that with those "whom
Canning and God had rendered responsible for power" lay the sole
Alliance. right of making changes in the legislation or adminis-
tration of states, the leaguing powers had not only
stamped out any reappearance of liberalism in their own domin-
ions, but had dispatched armies to overthrow the newly established
constitutions of Italy and Spain, and were seriously meditating
an interference in Portugal, which had imitated the example of
Spain in adopting a free constitution, and in the Spanish- Ameri-
can colonies, where the people had taken advantage of the dis-
tractions of the mother country to declare their independence.
Canning at once set his face against the further recognition of the
dangerous doctrine of the right of any prince or group of princes
to interfere in the domestic concerns of an independent people.
The mischief in Italy was already done; but he commissioned
Wellington to protest at the Congress of Verona against any
further interference of the powers in Spain, and when his protest
1831-1829] THE GREEK REVOLT 983
was ignored, he proceeded to recognize the Spanish -American
Eepublics.
The death of John VI. , the constitutional king of Portugal, gave
Canning the opportunity of interfering still more vigorously with
the plans of the Holy Alliance. Don Pedro, the eldest
t^er^in^ son of John and heir to the vacant throne, had put
Pm-tti^ai, himself at the head of a successful movement for estab-
Its /So m
lishing the independence of Brazil, and having no wish
to give up his American empire, he assigned the Portuguese
crown to his seven year old daughter under the regency of his
sister Isabella. Don Miguel, however, a second son of the recent
king, under the inspiration of the restored absolutist prince of
Spain, began a struggle for the overthrow of the liberal govern-
ment in his own interests. On Friday, the 18th of December, news
reached Canning of the new turn of affairs in Portugal ; and on
Tuesday following, "the troops of England were on their march for
embarkation." As a result of this vigorous show of teeth the
Spaniards withdrew, and the liberal government of Portugal for
the time was saved.
The almost contemporary uprising of Greece against Turkish
despotism afforded Canning still another opportunity of putting
his new foreign policy in force. In Italy and Spain the
The Greek Object of popular uprisings had been constitutional
Revolt, 1821-29. reform; but in Greece, as in South America, the object
had been national independence. Greece, moreover, in
a peculiar way appealed to the romantic sentiment of Europe ; her
struggle recalled that other heroic struggle of the ancient days
when Greece stood almost alone as the outer bulwark of Europe
against Asiatic conquest. The Greeks, also, were a Christian
people; the Turkish rule was notoriously corrupt and cruel. The
contest, moreover, was pitifully unequal; the Greeks were poor,
without organization, without arms, and without a navy. The
peculiar formation of their country, the deep indentations from
the sea, the narrow isthmus and the many islands, afforded
Turkey every possible opportunity to use her ships to the best
advantage and concentrate her troops at will, while it prevented any
concerted action on the part of the many fragments of the Greek
984 THE FIRST BEA OF REFORM [geoegb IV.
people. In their despair the Greeks appealed to Czar Alexander,
whose support they might expect by reason of the religious sym-
pathy of the Russians as fellow members of the Greek Church.
But Alexander was too deeply committed to the cause of reaction-
ary despotism, to heed the cry of his suffering co-religionists, and
in heartless words that were inspired by Metternich, replied,
"The sovereigns are determined to discountenance rebellion,
however and whenever it shows itself." It was impossible, how-
ever, to stifle the generous sentiment of the people of Europe.
Greek unions were formed ; money was freely contributed to the
support' of the patriots, and individuals hastened to offer their
lives and their fortunes to the cause of Greek freedom. Among
these was the wayward poet, George Gordon Byron, who forsook a
vicious and useless life in Italy to die a hero's death among the
fever stricken swamps of Missolonghi. Thomas Cochrane, the
soldier of fortune who had retired from defeat and disgrace at
home to take part in the Spanish-American wars, also went to
Greece to assist her in organizing her infant navy. The English
government displayed its sympathy by recognizing the Greeks as
belligerents.
The death of Alexander in 1825 and the succession of his
brother Nicholas I. put a new aspect on the relations of the powers
to the affairs of Greece. Nicholas, who had little sym-
ofthepow- pathy with his brother's idea of government by "Chris-
Treaty 0/ tian principles," and who saw the possible advantage
of an extension of Eussiau influence in southeastern
Europe at the expense of Turkey, eagerly accepted Canning's
offer to unite in a joint demand upon Turkey in order to force
her to accept mediation. The Sultan, however, while willing to put
off the powers by vague promises, had no thought of stopping the
progress of his lieutenant, the Egyptian prince Ibrahim Pasha,
who was engaged, not in conquering, but in exterminating the popu-
lation of the Morea. The powers saw that if Greece were to be
saved, something more serious than an offer of mediation must be
attempted, and on July 6, 1827, England, Russia, and Prance
entered into the Treaty of London by which they agreed to insist
upon an armistice and intervene by force if necessary. A powerful
1828] canning's policy 985
allied fleet under the command of the English Admiral Codrington
■was sent to the coast of Messinia, with the curious instructions
to enforce an armistice by cannon shot but "not in a hostile
spirit." Codrington persuaded Ibrahim to agree to a truce for
twenty days, but it was not so easy to control the wild spirits
which the war of extermination had unchained. Cochrane and
his band of Greek patriots paid little attention to the armistice,
and when Ibrahim heard of the fall of Patras he once more let
loose his savage Egyptians upon the Peloponnesus. Codrington
acted promptly, and on the 30th of October sailed into the Bay of
Navarino, where lay the combined Turkish-Egyptian fleet of
"sixty men of war," carrying twice the armament of the allied
squadron. An accident brought on a general action and the
Turkish fleet was annihilated. The overwhelming success of
Codrington, however, the unexpected thoroughness of his work, was
hardly regarded by the western powers with satisfaction. The
English ministry, weakened by the recent death of Canning,
seemed appalled at the results of its friendly intentions, and the
king by the inspiration of Wellington, the new premier, spoke of
Favarino as "a most untoward event." England, in fact, had at
last awakened to the possible results of the growth of Russian
influence in the eastern Mediterranean, and the ministers were
inclined to forget the justice of the cause of the Greeks, in a rising
suspicion of the ulterior motives of Nicholas. England and France,
therefore, refused to interfere further, but Russia had no thought of
retiring from the conflict. In August 1829 she dispatched her
first army across the Balkans, and in September, in the Treaty
of Adrianople, compelled Turkey to grant the independence of
Greece.
The battle of Navarino was fought on October 30, 1828.
Canning had died on August 8. His work, however, was done.
He had protected and fostered the rising spirit of
camning's nationalism on the continent. He had saved Europe
from the reactionary influence of the Holy Alliance,
which at one time had included every Christian power in Europe
except Great Britain and the pope. He had restored Great
Britain to her old controlling position in European politics. His
986 THE FIRST EKA OF EEFOEM [george IV.
motives were undoubtedly inspired by English interests, as when
by coming to the support of the United States in upholding
the Monroe Doctrine, he effectually checked the designs of the
Holy Alliance, of Eussia in particular, upon the new world. Yet
whatever his motive, the results were sound and lasting ; the open
door was not to be again closed to Europe.
While Canning had been upholding the cause of liberal ideas
abroad, his liberal Tory colleagues were steadily pushing forward
the cause of conservative reform at home, doing all
TheUberai that Tories could do to cure the industrial and social
S^rafto^.™"" ills of the era, and still remain Tories. Peel, the able
Home Secretary, would not support Canning in his
desire to secure Catholic Emancipation ; yet by moderate admin-
istration and sensible economic reforms, he did much to allay
the existing irritation and prepare the way for a better understand-
ing, especially between the middle and lower classes. His influence
was particularly felt in the reformation of the criminal laws of
England, in which he abolished barbarous punishments and limited
the death penalty to serious offenses. Eobinson, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and Huskisson, the farsighted President of
the Board of Trade, were moving forward in the direction of
greater freedom of labor and trade. The incessant irritation
which the progress of industrial revolution had caused between
capital and labor, had led to the enactment of maay unjust laws,
by which combinations of workingmen had been forbidden and
the migration of the laborer to seek work or better wages ham-
pered. In 1824 many of these laws were repealed. In 1825 the
right of labor to organize in self-defense was recognized in a law
which attempted to distinguish between legal and illegal com-
binations. Huskisson in particular was seeking to realize Pitt's
dream of a free commercial policy for England. In 1823 he got
through his "Reciprocity of Duties Bill" by which equality of
trade was offered to the ships of all nations who would grant the
same to Great Britain. The act greatly lessened the restraining
influence of the old Navigation Acts, which were still in force, and
opened the way for a wider application of the doctrine of free
trade.
1823-1827] ElSrD OF LIVERPOOL MINISTRY 987
The liberal sympathies of the later Liverpool ministry are also
to be seen in its attitude toward the old question of slavery. Men
began to see that economically slavery was a mistake.
TheiAver- In 1823 an attempt was made to prevent the flogging
pool ministry oo o
and slavery, of women. The West Indian planters protested and
talked wildly of independence. Riots followed in
Barbadoes and other places. John Smith, a Congregational mis-
sionary and a friend of the negroes, was imprisoned and left to die
in jail; the planters sent home a petition that no new missionaries
be sent out, and protested against any attempt to educate the
negroes. The result of the agitation was greatly to increase aboli-
tion sentiment in England ; it gave a new life to the movement that
lesulted ten years later in the abolition of slavery throughout the
colonies of the British Empire.
The years 1834 and 1825 saw a great revival of prosperity. But
unfortunately the hopefulness of trade soon outran discretion.
Overeager investors rushed into speculations which con-
c^ierciai ^j^i^^g ^j^ ^^^ justify, and it was not long before the
crash came. Many banks failed, and the renewed dis-
tress of the poor brought on another series of riots and attempts at
breaking up the machinery of which the laboring classes were ever
jealous. The harvest of 1836, also, proved to be a failure, and
added greatly to the distress of the poor, in so much that the gov-
ernment seriously contemplated the suspension of the corn laws.
In February 1837 ill health had compelled Liverpool to retire,
and Canning had continued the administration "on the lines of
enlightened Toryism" until his own death in the fol-
Goderich, and lowing August. The king then first tried "Prosperity
Prtrm^ ' Eobinson," now Lord Goderich, whose nicknames had
ims ers. apparently kept pace with his titles, and who was now
known as "Goody Goderich." Goderich, however, was a weak
man and proved utterly unable to manage the conflicting elements
of his cabinet. In January the king turned to a very different
man, and invited Wellington to form a ministry. Wellington and
Peel had broken with Canning upon the question of Catholic
Emancipation, but the new ministry could not do without the
support of the Canning Tories. Canning's old friends, therefore,
988 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [george IV.
Huskisson, Palmerston, Grant, and Lamb, remained in possession
of their oflBces, and the question of Catholic Emancipation was
left open for each minister to consider as he saw fit.
The new ministry thus started out tacitly committed to the
liberal policy of Canning. But Wellington had really little sym-
pathy with Canning's position and had no idea of
Split in the dropping into the place of nonentity that Liverpool
1818. ' had held so long. When, therefore, Huskisson made
the statement at Liverpool that "he had positive
pledges that His Grace would tread in all respects in the footsteps
of Mr. Canning," the duke angrily resented the assumption of his
subordinate to outline his policy for him. The opening breach in
the Tory ranks was still further aided in February by the success-
ful attempt of Lord John Eussell to push through the Commons a
proposal to repeal the old Test and Corporation Acts. The Can-
ningites voted against their colleagues, and Peel saved the minis-
try only by bringing forward as a compromise, a modified form of
the Test Act, which prescribed instead of the old test, a simple
declaration in which the maker promised "on the faith of a Chris-
tian, never to injure or subvert the Established Church." The
principle implied in the repeal was thus recognized; and Dissen-
ters, after a struggle of one hundred and fifty years were at last
accorded the legal right to hold civil office.
The Tory ministry had been saved by the tact of Peel, but even
his ingenuity could not devise compromises enough to hold such
ill-assorted elements together when they met the grand
^ry^form '^^'^^ °^ Parliamentary Reform. The general election
of 1826 had been marked by shamefully corrupt
methods, the most flagrant offenders being the boroughs of
Penryn and East Retford. In the latter each elector was accus-
tomed to receive forty guineas, besides having free access "for
refreshment" to public houses kept open by the candidates. At
Penryn the candidates had attempted to abate the nuisance by
directing "the town crier to declare that the practice previously
resorted to of making the electors 'comfortable' would be discon-
tinued." But the electors became sulky and refused to vote at
all, unless they could have their accustomed "comforts." The
1827-1829] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION 989
liberals in parliament took the matter up, and in 1837 and 1828
bills were presented which proposed to disfranchise East Eetford
and Penryn altogether and give their seats to Manchester and
Birmingham. The Penryn Bill passed the Commons but was
thrown out by the Lords. On the East Eetford Bill the Can-
ningites took a determined stand against Wellington and Peel,
and Huskisson at once put his resignation in the hands of his
chief. His friends, Palmerston, Lamb, Grant, and Dudley, fol-
lowed him. Wellington was thus left alone with Peel to organize
his ministry upon purely high Tory lines.
Wellington was now supreme in his ministry and he ruled it
as he had ruled his aides on the battlefield. "The duke is king of
England," declared George IV. But supreme as the
Catholic duke might be at his Council Board, he could not control
umST the elements of reform that were gathering without.
The Act of Lord Eussell, which had relieved Dissenters
from the annoyance of the Test Act, naturally suggested the
relief of the other wing of the Christian community, who since
the days of the early Stuarts had suffered under still more grievous
laws ; and in May, Francis Burdett offered a measure for the
relief of Catholics. The bill succeeded in the Commons, but
failed in the Lords. It was impossible, however, to let the matter
rest here. In 1823 Daniel O'Connell had organized the "Catholic
Association" for the purpose of securing the Emancipation of
Catholic Ireland. In 1825 the association had been suppressed.
O'Connell, however, had managed to hold the members together,
and when, three years later, the prohibition was removed, the
influence of the association became stronger than ever, and
O'Connell seized the first opportunity of showing the government its
strength. In 1838 Fitzgerald, a member from County Clare, was
appointed President of the Board of Trade and in accordance with
the law, had to vacate his seat and stand again for reelection.
O'Connell, however, chose to stand for the vacant seat and was
returned by a triumphant majority. But O'Connell was a
Catholic and could not legally sit in parliament. Here then was
a serious issue presented, and the government had to choose
between putting Ireland under martial law or removing the cause
990
THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [wiliiahIV.
of discontent. With the growing popularity of the idea of Catho-
lic Emancipation in England, with Whigs and Canningites united
to support it, Wellington and Peel determined to make a Tirtue
of necessity and lead their party in undertaking the necessary
reform. As the measure came from the hands of Peel it substi-
tuted for the old oaths of supremacy, allegiance, and abjuration,
a new form, which a Catholic might take without doing violence
to his conscience, admitting him to membership in corporations,
and to all political offices except those of Regent, Lord Chancellor
in England or Ireland, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. As a
conservative safe guard the qualification of an elector in Ireland
was raised from forty shillings to ten pounds. The bill readily
passed the Commons, but was carried through the Lords only by
the influence of Wellington.*
Wellington was now to suffer the fate of a leader who in drift-
ing from old party moorings severs himself from old friends but
does not go far enough to win new friends. The high
Fall of the. Tories could not forgive him for his support of Catho-
m-^liitnj^ lie Emancipation; the Canningites were offended by his
treatment of Huskisson, and the Whigs disliked his
reversal of Canning's foreign policy in allowing Don Miguel to
a(!Complish his scheme of usurpation in Portugal. The death of
George IV. in June 1830 aad the succession of his popular
brother, as William IV., whose democratic sympathies were well
known, also encouraged the gathering forces of reform. In July
Charles X. , the last of the Bourbons, was driven from Prance, and
a liberal government instituted in the name of the constitutional
king, Louis Philippe. The orderliness and moderation of the new
French revolutiou, in such marked contrast with the wild excesses
of the first revolution, did much to disarm the suspicions of the
conservative classes of reformatory measures, while the distress of
the poorer classes of the great manufacturing districts called
renewed attention to the inconsistencies of the English representa-
tive system. When, therefore, in the autumn of 1830, at the
opening of the first parliament of William IV., in response to a
motion of Lord Grey, Wellington reasserted his opposition to
' Lee Source Book, pp. 497-513.
1830] PARLIAMENTARY EEPORM 991
reform, and his confidence in the existing legislative system, it
was understood that the fall of the Wellington ministry was at
hand. Before the end of the following month the resignations
were received.
Lord Charles Grey, the veteran Whig champion of parliamen-
tary reform, who had ^presented his first reform measure thirty-
seven years before, was summoned to form a ministry.
m^^^m Huskisson had been recently killed in an accident at the
Womlfim. opening of the Manchester and Liverpool railway, but
the other Canningites, Goderich, Palmerston, and
Lamb, now Viscount Melbourne, were invited to places as a mat-
ter of course, while the Whigs were represented by Althorp, Ens-
sell, and Brougham. The ministry, therefore, to all intents was
not only a Whig ministry, but was pledged to the cause of parlia-
mentary reform, and Eussell was instructed at once to prepare a
sketch for a proper bill. On March 1, 1831 the bill was presented
to parliament; it was supported, as Grey declared, by "the unani-
mous consent of the whole government." It proposed to disfran-
chise sixty English boroughs, deprive forty-seven others of one
member each, and distribute among the larger towns and counties
the seats that should be gained . It proposed, also, to allow hold-
ers of houses of £10 a year rental value to elect to parliament
in place of the corporations which had heretofore enjoyed the
exclusive franchise in most English towns. Oomprehensive^as the
bill was, however, it did not satisfy the extreme radicals who were
already raising a cry for manhood suffrage; the Tories received
it with shouts of derision. On the 21st of March, in a House in
which 603 members voted, the bill was saved on the second read-
ing by one vote, only to be lost in the committee. The ministry,
however, was strong in the support of the good natured, simple-
hearted, and affable king, who was deeply touched by the suffer-
ings of his people and really wanted to have something done;
It was strong, also, in the support of the counties and of those
boroughs where the more democratic franchise prevailed. The
opposition was naturally entrenched in the rotten boroughs which
were fighting for life; some of which, as Old Sarum or Gatton,
had lost their ancient population altogether, yet continued to
992 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [wiluam IV.
send representatives to parliament. The ministry determined to
appeal to the country, and on April 32 the king prorogued parlia-
ment as the first step towards dissolution.
As the ministry had foreseen it swept the counties and larger
boroughs ; a second bill was speedily brought forward, and in spite
of long and tedious tactics of delay on the part of the
to%""M™ opposition, passed the Commons by a vote of three
iords'^jssi tiindred and forty- five to two hundred and thirty-six.
The attitude of the Lords was still doubtful ; their con-
servative sympathies, however, were known, and to fortify the
popular cause sixteen new peers had been created in hope of
diminishing the hostile majority. The bishops, however, almost
to a man were opposed to any change in the existing order, and
when the vote was taken, of the forty-one votes of the hostile
majority, twenty-one were from the church.
In the meanwhile the agitation of the public had continued to
increase in extent and violence. The fashion of forming "Political
Unions," or societies, in which the middle and lower
^unpar-"^' ^lasses leagued for the agitation of reform, had extended
fef^rm.'^^ to all the greater towns ; fervid orators began to talk
of using physical force, and vague hints were thrown
out of the possibility of raising armies. At Birmingliam on
October 3 the people declared that they would refuse to pay taxes
if the bill were thrown out by the Lords. In Bristol an infuriated
mob attacked the carriage of the Tory Justice Wetheral, who had
come to the city to hold the assizes, and gave further evidence
of the popular displeasure by destroying the bishop's palace, the
Custom House, and the Excise Office. The military tried to dis-
perse the mob, and in the struggle twelve people were killed and
nearly a hundred wounded; the commandant, Colonel Brereton,
committed suicide. In November an attempt was made to unite
the many political unions by organizing at London a "National
Union" and inviting all the individual unions to send up deputies.
But even the Whig government now became alarmed and warned
the leaders to desist.
In December parliament resumed its sitting; the Commons
at once began upon a third bill, and pushed it through the
1832] THE BEFORM BILL CARRIED 993
preliminary stages before the Christmas holidays. It reached
the third reading on March 33 and in April appeared in the
The third ^^^rds. Here the fight was carried on with renewed
munthe bitterness. Lord Grey fought for the measure to
Lords, 1832. 1 • 1 1 1
which he had given his life, devoting to the struggle
all the powers of that "lofty and animated eloquence" of which
he was such a master. Wellington on the other hand rallied
against it all the conservative sympathies of the aristocracy ; even
the king seemed to waver. Yet in the face of the continued oppo-
sition the courage of the Lords was not equal to the strain, and on
April 14 allowed the bill to pass the second reading by a majority
of nine votes. The victory, however, was not yet won. On May 7
Lord Lyndhurst proposed to postpone the disfranchising of the
small boroughs, and carried his point by a majority large enough
to threaten the final success of the bill.
Beyond the walls of parliament the agitation increased with
each lengthening moment of suspense. A gathering of Unions
was held at Birmingham in which it was estimated that
rniiv^seT' °^^ hundred and fifty thousand people were present.
Sumd'wh '^^^ ^^^* concourse was wrought up to the point of
violence ; men talked freely of the ultimate extinction
of the privileged orders if the bill should be rejected; and a
proposition to march upon London was formally approved by
resolution. The ministry, in the meanwhile, as a last resort
was bringing pressure to bear upon the king to induce him to
create enough new peers, about fifty, to swamp the opposition in
the Lords. Before such a step, which Wellington declared would
be the end of the constitution, the king hesitated; Grey
promptly resigned. The king then turned to Wellington and
offered him the premiership, on condition that he would undertake
some kind of reform. Wellington gave his word, but after a week
spent in a futile effort to form a ministry, gave up the task and
the king was obliged once more to return to Lord Grey. Grey
again assumed of&ce, but he had first exacted from the king a
written pledge to create a sufficient number of new peers to carry
the bill. The threat, however, was all that was needed; Welling-
ton accompanied by a large body of the peers withdrew, and the
994 THE FIEST EEA OF EEFORM [william IV.
bill received the nominal assent of the Lords by a vote of 106
to 32.
As the Reform Bill finally passed, fifty-six boroughs that had
a population of less than two thousand were totally disfranchised;
thirty-two boroughs that had a population of less than
four thousand were allowed one member each. One
hundred and forty-three seats were thus released. They were
redistributed among twenty-two newly created boroughs em-
powered to return two members each, and twenty-one to return
one each ; sixty -five seats were divided among the counties, and
thirteen were left to be assigned to Scotland and Ireland. The
ancient irregular borough franchise was displaced by a new £10
household franchise, but resident freemen who had possessed the
franchise before 1831 were allowed to retain their votes. In the
counties the franchise was extended to copyholders and lease-
holders, and to tenants at will who paid a rental of at least £50 a
year. The time to be given to a county election was reduced from
fifteen to two days ; borough elections were reduced to one day.
Bills were also passed by which, of the seats reserved for Scotland
and Ireland, Scotland received eight and Ireland received five.
The franchise was remodelled in both countries upon lines some-
what similar to those adopted in England.
Thus another great stride had been taken in the progress of
representative government. The Revolution of 1688 had settled
Comtitu- ^^^ position of the king in the new constitution, but it
n^ance'of ^^^ ^®^^ parliament virtually in the hands of a limited
Mil. oligarchy, independent of the nation and out of touch
with the great middle class. The Reform of 1832 dethroned the
oligarchy and transferred the control of parliament to the farmers
and shopkeepers. The workingmen, however, the great laboring
class, who had done so much to force the issue upon the government,
were apparently farther from the goal than ever. Yet much had
been gained; the absurd inconsistencies and inequalities of the
old borough system had been swept away, and Englishmen of the
same social grade everywhere enjoyed the same political privileges.
It was much, also, that the right of the great middle class had
been formally recognized. The Whigs protested that the act was
1832] THE IRISH TITHE WAR 995
final, that no further approach towards a political recognition of
the democracy was to be thought of ; and yet in the continued
spread of democratic ideas, with the majority of the people of
Great Britain still disfranchised, in the nature of things, the
Eeform of 1833 could not be a finality; it could not be more than
a stage in the adyance to full manhood suffrage.
The results of the election of 1833 were anxiously awaited by
all parties. The new limit of two days for the county election
placed a decided check on rioting and drunkenness,
fi^ctton of and proved a helpful feature of the Eeform Act. Some
"new men," notably Cobbett, the agitator, and Gully,
an ex-prizefighter, were returned; but on the whole the election
justified the extension of the franchise to the middle classes in
spite of the sneer of Richard Grenville at what he was pleased to
call "the presumption, impertinence, and self sufficiency of the
new members."
The energy which the Reform Bill agitation had called out,
was by no means spent, and the ministers- soon found themselves
confronted with a list of serious and far reaching issues
Jvete issues. i . , ,i . .,- . in ,, t ,
The Irish which their position as reform leaders compelled them
"Tithe War." . ^
to consider. The state of Ireland naturally first
claimed attention, where a "Tithe War" had sprung up as a
result of the refusal of the Irish peasantry to pay longer the rates
which were prescribed by law for the support of the Anglican
clergy. The extreme destitution increased the difficulty and the
collection of tithes had become quite impossible. A "Coercion
Act" was proposed and passed in spite of O'Connell's opposition.
The act gave special powers to the officers of the law in order to
repress the lawlessness which in parts of Ireland had created almost
a reign of terror. This was followed by a "Church Bill" which
attempted to diminish the burdens of the people by cutting down
the number of Irish bishops and reducing the incomes of the
remaining; it also held out hope of the final extinction of the
tithe system.
The slavery question, demanded the attention of the reform
parliament. Stanley, the chief secretary for Ireland, whose
policy of "a quick succession of kicks and kindness," had made
996 THE FIfiST ERA OF REFORM [
William IV.
him thoroughly detested by the Irish people, was transferred
to the Colonial Office where he found ample opportunity to exer-
cise his fiery spirit in handling the slave question. Pie
■^°^^°f came before parliament with a proposition to redeem
^wust, the slaves by paying their owners £20,000,000. The
act was to take effect April 1, 1834. The reform
parliament was strongly abolitionist ; and the passionate eloquence
of Stanley in picturing the cruelties and injustice which charac-
terized slavery in the colonies, aided by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton,
upon whose shoulders had fallen the mantle of Wilberforee, met a
ready response, and in August 1833 the "Emancipation Act"
became a law. Wilberforee lived to hear of the second reading
of the bill; he died July 29.
The relief of the black slave could not fail to call attention to
the sufferings of the white slaves at home, the tens of thousands
of British children who were toiling out their lives to
Factory • i -n i- i
legislation, enrich English investors. Some attempts at improving
the condition of factory children had been made in
1802, and again in 1819. But the act of 1833, presented by
Lord Ashley, known as the ' ' Third Factory Act, ' ' differed from the
others in that it applied to all industries, forbidding the employ-
ment of children under nine years of age altogether, and of women
or of young people under eighteen, for more than twelve hours a
day. Provisions, also, were to be made for the education of
factory children.
Another measure introduced by the Grey ministry proposed
changes in the Poor Laws. A commission of inquiry had been
appointed in 1832, and its report, received in 1834,
'ilwlZna- ^mply proved the urgent need of reform. An act of
mmt^of," i79g i^ad provided for giving individual relief to the
poor. The laborer's wages were thus eked out by a
pittance from the government. The greed of the manufacturers,
however, soon found a way to take advantage of the charity of the
government and by paying only pauper wages made it impossible
for an independent worker to live at all. The effect of such
legislation was to encourage pauperism and steadily increase the
burden to the state, until in 1833 the total cost of poor relief
1834] FALL OF THE KEFORM MINISTRY 997
exceeded eight million pounds, a grievous burden for a population
of fourteen million. The new law virtually returned to principles
laid down in Elizabeth's reign; it drew a line between poverty
and pauperism, and sought to relieve the former without creating
the latter. Parishes were combined into unions with one work-
house, instead of several and relief was given as a rule only to those
who were destitute and willing to submit to the test of going to
the workhouse for it. This measure reduced the poor rates by
upwards of three million pounds in three years.
Meanwhile the influence of the Grey ministry had already
begun to wane. Few ministries have ever been more useful;
none have ever introduced so many sensible reforms
the grey in SO short a time. It had not only successfully
handled the question of parliamentary reform, the Irish
question, the slavery question, the factory question, and the Poor
Laws ; it had also reconstructed the Bank of England, and renewed
the East India Company's charter for twenty years, and had
ended its commercial monopoly by throwing the China trade ' open
to all competitors. Abroad, also, the policy of Palmerston, the For-
eign Secretary, had been quite as successful. The reforms, however,
which the ministry had inaugurated at home had been too heroic;
they had followed each other with such bewildering rapidity,
that public opinion began to take alarm and the conservative
elements gathered new strength. Grey, moreover, had a feeling
that his work was done; he was weary of office, and in July 1834
formally tendered his resignation. The king turned to Peel; but
Peel was sufficiently shrewd to see that the Tories were not yet
strong enough to support him, and the Grey ministry was allowed
to remain with "William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, as Premier.
The arrangement, however, could only be temporary ; the Whigs
were breaking up into as many factions as there were new ideas to
be exploited in the heads of the various leaders. And when in
November Althorp resigned to take the place opened to him in
the House of Lords by the death of his father. Earl Spencer, the
king determined to dismiss the Whig ministry altogether, and
turned again to Robert Peel.
' The Indian trade had been thrown open in 1813.
998 THE FIEST BBA OF RBFOBM [williamIV.
The first measure of the new minister was to secure the dis-
missal of the reform parliament, in order to gain for his adminis-
tration the advantage of the rising reactionary sympa-
minitry, thies of the nation. In the "Tamworth Manifesto,"
he announced as his policy, conservative reform. The
manifesto was greeted with general satisfaction, and there were
some gains in the counties, but when the new parliament met in
February 1835, it was evident that Peel was still confronted by
a determined majority. The Liberals, moreover, whether "Whigs,
or Eadicals, were angry at the dismissal of the Melbourne min-
istry; they regarded the act as arbitrary and without justifica-
tion. The leaders entered into a formal compact at the house
of Lord Lichfield to avenge themselves for the affront, and
steadily defeated every reform measure which Peel introduced.
With such an opposition, the speedy overthrow of Peel was a
foregone conclusion. The day had gone by when a minister could
hope to maintain himself in the face of a determined majority
simply because he was the king's choice. After a brave fight of
six weeks Peel gave up the struggle and resigned.
The defeat of Peel and the refusal of Grey to form a ministry
forced on William the bitter necessity of recalling Melbourne to
ofiice, with Palmerston as Foreign Secretary and Eus-
^mdmln^ sell as Home Secretary and leader of the Commons.
istry,is3o- As so Organized the ministry was not strong; and yet
it worthily addressed itself to the work of completing
the cycle of reforms which has made the reign of William IV.
famous, but with which William himself had so little to do. The act
of 1832 had left the corporations of the old boroughs in the hands
of the self-elected ring, who, though deprived of their electoral
monopoly, still administered local affairs to their own profit or pleas-
ure. Another act, therefore, was necessary to complete the act of
1833, and in 1835 parliament transferred the control of borough
government from the corporations to representatives elected by
the resident ratepayers; they applied the measure to one hundred
and seventy-eight boroughs. London, however, was not included.
Measures for the reform of municipalities and the tithe system in
Ireland were also proposed in the Commons but defeated in the
1837-1840] ACCESSION OP VICTOEIA 999
Lords. A Tithe Commutation Act for England, which permitted
the commutation of tithes in kind into a money payment, succeeded
better. The same year the division lists of the House of Com-
mons were published for the first time by the House itself.
In June 1837 "William IV. died and was succeeded by Victoria,
the daughter of George III. 's fourth son, the duke of Kent. In
^ Hanover, the law allowed the crown to pass to male
Accession of , . ,
Queen Vic- heirs Only, SO that Ernest Duke of Cumberland, the
toria, 1837. i_
fifth SOU of George III., succeeded to the continental
possessions of the House of Hanover; and Hanover once more
swung clear of its connection with the English crown. Victoria
had just passed her eighteenth birthday; her youth, her grace,
her dignity, the essential goodness of her character, appealed
powerfully to the patriotism and sympathy of all her subjects.
Her accession was received with universal enthusiasm. She
regarded Melbourne, moreover, with confidence and filial affection ;
so that the change of rulers added somewhat to the strength of
the Whig ministry; the ministers at least were no longer harassed
by the hostility of William IV.
In November the young queen met her first parliament. Her
opening address called attention to the condition of Canada and
Ireland, where affairs had for some time worn a serious aspect.
The troubles in Canada were political and dated back to the
eighteenth century. Pitt's Canada Bill of 1791 had divided the
old French province into two separate provinces,
Canada, each With its own governor-general, a legislative coun-
cil, and a representative legislative assembly. The
council was appointed by the crown and was responsible only
to the Colonial Ofiice. The result was to concentrate political
power in each province in the hands of a few wealthy families;
the administration became corrupt and ruinously extravagant. In
the spring and summer of 1837 matters came to a deadlock
between the provincial representative assemblies and the respective
councils. The Canadians demanded that the appropriation of
the funds raised by taxation be put wholly in the hands of their
representatives; that the council be changed to an elective body ;
and that with the exception of the governor, the members of the
1000 THE FIEST ERA OF EEFOEM [vioioeia
executive staff be responsible to the provincial parliament. The
British Colonial governments have since been reconstituted sub-
stantially upon these lines, but in 1837 public opinion had not yet
reached the point where the complete autonomy of the colonies
could be regarded with favor. Loj-d Russell, therefore, offered a
series of resolutions which were intended to be conciliatory, in
which he recognized the existence of abuses, but unfortunately
asserted the impossibility of granting to the provinces a control of
the executive ministers of government.
The Canadians were not satisfied, and when the provincial
governors attempted to use repressive measures, in order to bring
to terms such leaders as Papineau, the Speaker of the
TtLAH T'T'PCt'lO'i'L
in Canada, Assembly of the Lower Province, the provinces broke
out in insurrection. Although the rebellion was easily
suppressed, the British government was seriously alarmed. The
revolt had found many sympathizers along the American frontier
and there was grave danger of complications with the United
States. The American vessel Caroline had been used to take pro-
visions from the American shore to a body of insurgents who were
operating from Navy island in the Niagara Eiver. The British
officials had seized the boat in American waters, set it on fire, and
sent it over the falls.
The ministry saw that a serious mistake had been made. The
Russell resolutions were hastily withdrawn and Lord Durham, an
able and energetic character, was dispatched to Canada
The union of as a Special commissioner with unusual powers. Great
the Canadas, -r% i ,
3B40. as were his powers Durham managed to exceed them,
and the opposition forced the ministry to recall him.
Durham had remained in the country long enough, however, to
discover that there were other causes of trouble that lay back of
the constitutional question. The population of Upper Canada
consisted largely of English-; Lower Canada consisted of French.
The two provinces were jealous of each other, and the two races
were upon anything but friendly terms. Pitt's unfortunate divi-
sion into an English Canada and a French Canada had only
emphasized the race differences, and encouraged race jealousies.
What the Canadas needed, fully as much as constitutional reform,
1838] THE IRISH POOB LAW 1001
was such a political union as in time would make of the two peo-
ples one nation. Durham's report was accepted and was made the
basis of the Canada Bill of 1840. By this bill the two Canadas
were united under one governor-general, a legislative council,
consisting of life members nominated by the crown, and a repre-
sentative assembly. The responsibility of the ministry to the
provincial parliament was not granted in the bill, but the principle
has been since fully established by practice. The appropriation
of public funds, also, with the exception of a fixed civil list, was
entrusted to the popular branch of the provincial parliament.
The affairs of Ireland, in the meanwhile, had proved fully as
vexatious to the ministry, if not as urgent, as the affairs of Canada.
A commission of inquiry had laid bare a condition of
The Irish . , . ^ , ■, , . „ ,
Poor Law, misery which exceeded the expectations even of the
Irish members, and in 1838 parliament to mend mat-
ters sought to extend the English workboase system to Ireland.
It was taken for granted that an able bodied Irishman who wanted
work could find it and that the ordinary living of the Irish poor
was to be preferred to life in the workhouse. The suffering of
the Irish, however, was due to the fact, not that the people were
unwilling to work, but that they had outgrown the ability of their
little island to feed them. The law, therefore, added little to the
credit of the ministry. Instead of allaying the sufferings of the
Irish, it only added to the distress of the destitute, and put a new
premium on pauperism.
From the Poor Law the ministry proceeded to take up the
questions of tithes and corporations. In both cases it succeeded
in putting new laws on the statute books, but only
mr^ "iri^h ^ft®^ it ^^^ given unmistakable signs of its declining
Munteipai strength by accepting from the conservative opposition
amendments which made the laws virtually conserva-
tive measures.
The nineteenth century had brought with it a further develop-
ment of the inventive genius which marked the close of the eight-
eenth. The canal system of Brindley and the improved roads of
Telford and Macadam had done much to encourage industry by
providing better facilities of exchange. Yet the question was
1002 THE FIKST BRA OP REEOEM [viciobia
very early asked whether steam could not be used as the motive
power in locomotion. The question was answered in part by
Fulton in America in 1811, and by Bell in Scotland in
Newinvenr 1812, and long before Victoria had begun her reign,
English shipyards were turning out their first essays
at steam craft. The application of steam to land travel, however,
had met with an apparently insuperable obstacle in the absence of
a roadbed of the requisite smoothness and solidity. Some wild
attempts had been made on country roads, to the consternation of
the rural population and the inevitable destruction of engineer
and crew. But although a suggestion lay at hand in the horse
tramways which were in common use in the mining regions, all
efforts to get at a practical solution of the problem had proved
fruitless, until George Stephenson, the son of a poor collier of
Northumberland, and a self-educated man, as the result of many
experiments finally constructed an engine which would run on a
prepared track. In 1825 he opened the Stockton and Darlington
railway for the conveyance of both passengers and freight. Five
years later he opened the Manchester and Liverpool line when his
engines outstripped all competitors, attaining a speed of thirty-six
miles an hour. It was on this occasion that Huskisson, who was
present with Wellington and Peel, met with the unfortunate acci-
dent which resulted in his death.
Thus far, the industrial development of England and the reforms
of parliament apparently had benefited only the upper classes.
The poor laborer found himself as in the eighteenth
The Char- , , -i, • ■ •, , ■, .
twts,isa8, century still swinging between moderate prosperity and
abject poverty. The Poor Law, which cut him off from
state help, seemed particularly harsh. Food was dear, work scarce,
wages low, and his home, especially if in the city, filthy and over-
crowded. Sometimes a whole family, parents and children, occu-
pied a single cellar which was generally wet and foul. It is said
that in Manchester one-tenth of the population lived in these dens
below the street. The working people, although generally ignor-
ant, yet had their own ideas as to the reforms needed, and in
1838, in a meeting near Birmingham, they drew up a national
petition, or "People's Charter," which is remarkable both for its
1837-1839] THE CHARTISTS 1003
moderation and for its reasonableness. They demanded (1)
annual parliaments, (2) universal suffrage, (3) vote by ballot, (4)
abolition of the property qualification for members of parliament,
and (5) payment for service in parliament. A demand for equal
electoral districts had been originally included in the list but was
later withdrawn. In June 1839 the charter supported, it was said,
by a million signatures, was presented to the House of Commons,
but only to be rejected. The people expressed their disappoint-
ment in rioting and other lawless acts ; but they were easily put
down and the great movement from which so much had been
expected subsided.
The era of the Chartist agitation was marked, also, by a revival
of the old agitation against the Corn Laws. During ten years of
prosperity, the Corn Laws had dropped out of sight,
aaitatiim^ but the series of unfavorable seasons which began in
Sr* c^»™ 1837 had once more called attention to the fact that the
price of bread was raised by artificial means, and that
much of the ensuing distress was needless and was due directly to
the selfishness of landholders and their tenants. Associations were
formed in London and other places in order to begin a systematic
agitation against the unjust laws. Prominent in the movement
was Eichard Cobden, a calico printer of Manchester, who had
traveled much, observed keenly, and gathered a vast amount of
valuable information concerning the social conditions which pre-
vailed in Europe and America. Another man of the era, no less
noteworthy, was the Quaker manufacturer of Eochdale, John
Bright, whose marvelous oratory and deep sympathy for the people
made him for years a conspicuous political force. During the
Melbourne ministry the direct influence of these men was exerted
altogether outside of parliament. Within parliament the cause was
represented by Charles Villiers who persisted in offering each year a
bill for the abolition of the restrictions upon the bread of the poor.
Since 1830, with the exception of a few months, the conduct of
foreign affairs had remained in the hands- of Lord Palmerston. In
the main his relations with France had been friendly, although he
had stoutly opposed the project of annexing Belgium. He had
also stood with Louis Philippe in favoring the claims of Isabella,
1004 THE FIRST EKA OF REFORM [victoria
the daughter of Ferdinand VII. of Spain, who as representing
a constitutional party against the absolutist Don Carlos, her
uncle, naturally carried the sympathies of the consti-
Theforeign tutional king of France. In handling the eastern ques-
p'aimerston. tion, however, a far more delicate problem. Palmers-
ton found it not so easy to keep on good terms
with his neighbor. The barbarism of Turkey probably was no
greater ; her ferocious cruelties no more flagrant than in earlier
centuries, but the Christian states of Europe now knew more
about them and their people were beginning to demand that the
common nuisance be abated. It was, however, not such a simple
matter as the Treaty of London and the battle of Navarino seemed
to indicate, because while the western powers despised the Turk,
they distrusted and feared Eussia. The aim of Palmerston's
policy, therefore, was not to reduce Turkey but to free her from
the shadow of Eussia, which had steadily deepened as a result of
the war of Greek liberation. Moreover, in the subsequent revolt
of Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, Eussia, as the price of her
support, had secured a pledge from Turkey to close the Dar-
danelles to the warships of other nations whenever Eussia should
be at war. Turkey, Palmerston believed, if kept under western
influence might be led to give a respectable government to her
own people and support England against the encroachments of
Eussia in the east. Thiers, the wily minister of Louis Philippe,
had at first supported England, but in order to secure French
influence in Syria he had of late begun to encourage Mehemet Ali
in his attempt to wrest that country from the Sultan. Palmers-
ton took alarm at once, and declared that England could not allow
France to control the road to India. In July 1840 he succeeded
in forming an alliance with Eussia, Prussia, Austria, and Turkey,
nominally to end the revolt of Mehemet Ali, but really to
put a stop to French intrigues in Egypt and Syria. Thiers
desired war, but Louis Philippe had no idea of imperiling his
throne, in order to support the schemes of his minister, and
readily accepted the resignation of Thiers. Guizot, an advocate
of peace and an ardent admirer of English institutions, took his
place. An Anglo-Austrian squadron captured Acre and forced
1840-1843] THE OPIUM WAR 1005
Mehemet Ali to terms, compelling him to restore the Sultan's
fleet which had deserted to the rebels, and to promise to content
himself with Egypt, his hereditary possession. In the final settle-
ment made by the powers, the ancient ruling of the Porte was
restored; the Dardanelles was again closed to warships of all
nations, unless the Sultan himself should be at war.
In his conduct of affairs in the remoter east Palmerston was
likewise successful, although the result can hardly be said to
redound to the credit of England. In 1840 England be-
™<?r wfr S^^ ^^^ fi^st "^^^ with China, which was fought virtually
S"sk?. *° ^'^^'^^ Indian opium upon the Chinese. The minis-
try had nobly laid down the principle that "her maj-
esty's government could not interfere for the purpose of enabling
British subjects to violate the laws of the country with which
they trade;" but unfortunately the government did not have the
courage to stand by this sound principle, and allowed itself to
be dragged into the war on the plea that it had already begun.
The Chinese of course could make no effective resistance, and in
1842 were compelled to cede the Island of Hong Kong, to open
five ports to British trade, and pay a heavy bill of indemnity.
Until 1839 the postal system had remained untouched by the
reforming mania of the generation. Some improvements had been
introduced since the beginning of George III. 's reign,
ma^ani h"-'' *h^ system was still far behind the needs of the
refmm. ^S®- The poor were practically excluded from letter-
writing, and the idea that the price must vary with the
distance also precluded the use of the mails for business or politics.
In 1837 Eowland Hill began investigating the postal system and
soon was able to formulate the principles which lie at the basis of
the modern system, that is, that the cost of carrying a letter does
not vary with the distance, and that up to a certain point it costs
the governinent no more to carry many letters than one. Hill,
accordingly, proposed to charge one uniform rate; to reduce the
price to one penny, and to secure prepayment by the use of a
stamp. His plan was adopted by the government in 1839.^ The
1 The stamp was first printed on the envelope. In 1840 the familiar
adhesive was devised.
1006 THE FIRST ERA OF REFORM [victokia
increased facility in the use of the mails came in just in time to
aid powerfully in the Corn Law agitation.
In the same year the government made an important advance
in the encouragement of public education. Since 1833 parliament
had regularly appropriated £20,000 for this purpose.
P"Wiced«- But in 1839 it raised the annual grant to £30,000,
and taking the administration of the fund from the
treasury put it in the hands of a special committee of the Privy
Council. Yet parliament was by no means awake to the needs
of the three million English children, of whom fully one-half were
growing up in a state of utter ignorance. The very year in which
it raised its appropriations for the education of the children of
England to the magnificent sum of £30,000, it voted £70,000 for
building stables for the queen's horses.
An event of prime importance to the happiness of the young
queen that is associated with the last days of the Melbourne min-
istry, was her marriage on February 10, 1840 to the
riageoft.he young prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Albert,
as he is commonly known, was a singularly felicitous
combination of the scholar, the poet, and the man of affairs; the
kind of man who could sit alone at the organ and play to himself
by the hour, who delighted in the singing of birds, in the happy,
placid, calm days of a quiet, unostentatious home life, who loved
letters, knew history, grasped the great problems of political
science, was interested in farming, in machinery, in the industrial
arts, and in a word touched with a deep, true sympathy the many-
sided life in which he moved. His was one of those calm, sweet
natures, free from vice or foible, inspired by an all-pervading
sense of duty, in whose presence weak men become strong and
the wearied and careworn, confident. With rare good sense he
accepted a position which a smaller man might have found
humiliating, constituting himself a sort of "minister of art and
education without portfolio," holding severely aloof from all party
afiiliations, and for the rest, conducting himself as a sort of private
secretary and unofBcial counsellor of the queen. "I study the
politics of the day with great industry," he wrote. "I speak
quite openly to the ministers on all subjects, and endeavor quietly
1840-1861] PRINCE ALBERT 1007
to be of as much use to Victoria as I can. In foreign affairs I
think I have done some good." He grasped fully the spirit of
the English constitution and comprehended as none of the Han-
overian monarchs had, that henceforth the strength of the English
monarchy lay in the character of the monarch, and that if the
monarchy were to rise in the esteem of the nation, the monarch
must be a good man. He grasped, also, as neither Wellington
nor the easy-going Melbourne had, the significance of the new drift
given to English politics by the reforms of the last decade, and
exerted his influence to bring the monarchy into touch with the
new era which had opened. It is needless to say that such a
man was deeply loved and respected for his own sake by the young
queen, who needed just such a sage and disinterested counsellor,
one whom she could trust when her ministers failed her, and that
when he died in 1861, his death was mourned by the people as a
national calamity.
The Melbourne ministry had long since exhausted the new
stock of popularity that had come to it from the accession of
the young queen, and had been for some time steadily
uuofme^ losing ground. Even the brightest spot in its late
miS^nT ii'story, the able handling of the Turkish question by
Palmerston, did not escape criticism. It was said that
he had been unnecessarily meddlesome, and that he had lost the
friendship of France for his pains. In May 1839 the ministry had
brought forward a bill which proposed to suspend the constitu-
tion of Jamaica for five years. The occasion of such a bill, so
contrary to all the traditions of the Whig party, was the lamenta-
ble condition in which Jamaica had fallen as a result of the
obstinate determination of the planters to defeat the object of the
recent abolition of slavery. The bill made such a poor showing
upon the second reading that Melbourne at once sent in his resig-
nation. Peel was called on to undertake the government, but
refused, unless the queen should dismiss with the ministers the
sisters and wives whom Melbourne had placed about the young
sovereign as "Ladies of the Bedchamber." The queen naturally
objected to have her family circle broken up. "They would treat
me like a girl" she indignantly exclaimed; "I will show them that
1008 THE FIRST EEA OF EEFOEM [victoria
I am Queen of England." So she turned again to Melbourne,
who had been her tutor in the first trying years of her reign and
upon whose fatherly sympathy and counsel she had learned to rely,
and for two years longer her favor alone kept him and his fellow
ministers in power.
In 1841, however, even the support of the queen could not
sustain longer the failing strength of the Melbourne ministry.
Melbourne, indolent and easy-going, had long since
Melbourne ceased to lead even the members of his own party.
The pendulum, moreover, which had been so long
swinging towards reform, had already begun the backward sweep,
and when Melbourne appealed to the country upon a proposition
to substitute a moderate duty for the old Corn Law tax, the conserv-
atives rallied the agrarian interests, and came back to Westminster
with a majority of 81 members in the new parliament. Melbourne
promptly resigned and Peel was again invited to undertake the
government.
CHAPTEE VIII
PEEL AND THE DISSOLTTTIOIS' OF THE OLD PAETIES. THE CKIMEAN
WAK. PALMBESTON AND BEITISH EOEEIGN POLICY
ncTOBiA, lan-ims
The remaining years of Victoria's reign fall into two strongly
marked periods. The first period closes with the death of Pal-
merston in 1865, and is marked by the dissolution of
TJtc &t}ochs of
Victoria's the old Whig and Tory parties, and the reorganization
of the political elements of the nation about the new
issues which have since divided Liberals and Conservatives. The
second period is marked by the struggle of the new parties to
control and direct the policy of Great Britain, and by the results
thus far attained.
Peel began his administration in September 1841. Nominally
the appointment was a Tory triumph. Peel, however, was a
thorough-going business man, and inclined to approach
p^**™ "^ public questions from a practical rather thaa from a
sentimental point of view. He had stood out against
the Eef orm Bill of 1832 to the last ; but, like Wellington, he had
then accepted the results as final, and, abandoning the name of
Tory which had become associated in the minds of many with the
older reactionary elements which the nation had repudiated, under
the new name of "Conservatives," he had rallied his
shattered ranks, and taken his stand upon what was vir-
tually conservative Whig ground. On many points, however, he
was still far in advance of the great mass of his party which still
represented the landlords rather than the millowners and man-
ufacturers, and was haunted by the traditions of Oastlereagh and
Addington.
1009
1010 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PAKTIES [victoria
The first efforts of the new ministry were addressed to a
reorganization of the national finances, which had been left in a
lamentable condition by the outgoing Whigs. In many
tariff and in- cases the existing tariff was virtually prohibitive and the
tha Income treasury had been steadily depleted by the diminishing
returns. Peel, therefore, selected 750 articles of com-
mon consumption and by reducing the tariff hoped to encourage
importation, and thus lay the foundation for a subsequent increase
in the national revenues. He believed, also, that the great gain
to the consumers, would more than atone for the direct loss to the
protected interests. He saw, moreover, that the first effect upon
the treasury would be to deplete still further the present income,
and proposed to tide over the interval by an Income Tax, but under
pledge that it should be dropped at the close of five years. The
pledge, however, was never redeemed. Before the five years had
expired. Peel was out of office, and, in the steady advance of Eng-
land towards free trade since, his successors have never been able
to dispense with the increasingly important revenue derived from
this source.
The Peel administration fell heir also to the annoyance caused
by the troublesome agitations which had been gathering new
strength during the later days of the Melbourne minis-
agaS!m^^ try. The Chartists were still holding monster meetings
and sending up their monster petitions to parliament.
The tones of these petitions, moreover, were growing more per-
sistent. But Peel was not a minister to be coerced into action,
and after a petition with a million signatures had been ignomin-
iously turned out of parliament without so much as a hearing, the
Chartists subsided again for a season.
A far more serious agitation appeared in Ireland, where
O'Connell had been for some time stirring up the country upon a
Peel and the V^^V^^^^^^^ to repeal the Act of Union and reestablish
flm'' "lT'- ^"^^ ■''^^^^ parliament. His plan was, by holding monster
txim. Daniel
O'iJimne
Irelmid.
u'ijcmneiun meetings at different historic places, to keep the matter
before the English government until it should be
forced to yield to moral pressure and comply with. the demands
of a long-suffering people. He disclaimed all thought of vio-
1842-1847] DAKIEL O'CONKELL 1011
ience, or of seeking his ends by unlawful measures. He held
in unquestioned sway over the great mass of the Irish people and
controlled the vote of the Irish representatives in parliament.
Neither Whigs nor Tories, however, were ready to grant Home
Rule to L-eland for the sake of securing the Irish vote, so that
thus far the enthusiasm of the great leader had accomplished little
more than to keep his cause before- the public. But in 1842 a
body of younger enthusiasts, to whom the ponderous methods of
O'Connell seemed slow as well as aimless, broke away in a separate
party which they called the "Young Ireland Party." They
adopted the maxims and watchword of the United Irishmen of
'98, and proposed to secure by arms what they could not gain by
peaceful measures. The chiefs were Charles Gavan Duffy, Smith
O'Brien, Thomas Davis, John Dillon, and Thomas Meagher. The
party was small, their cause hopeless, and by their rashness they
soon brought the larger but more innocent movement of O'Con-
nell into discredit with the government. O'Connell had secured
a great meeting at Clontarf , but the government thought it time
to interfere and forbade the meeting. O'Connell, true to his prin-
ciple of securing his ends by moral suasion only, yielded, and
issued a proclamation recalling the summons. He was arrested,
however, tried and convicted on a charge of conspiracy. An
appeal was made to the House of Lords, and the Lords had the
wisdom to reverse the decision of the lower court. But the hold
of O'Connell on the Irish people was broken. The Young Ireland
Party left him in disgust. The people refused longer to support
useless meetings that evaporated in fine speeches, and turned to
the hotheads, who only waited an opportunity to attempt to win
by violence what O'Connell had failed to secure by milder meas-
ures. O'Connell finally retired to Italy where he died in 1847.
The agitation, however, had not been altogether fruitless.
Peel saw that something must be radically wrong where, there was
so much disquiet, and appointed a commission to
ures for ' inquire into the working of the Irish land system. He
also made a public grant to the Catholic College of
Maynooth to assist in the better education of the priesthood, and
established three secular colleges at Belfast, Cork, and Galway,
1012 DISSOLUTION OB THE OLD PARTIES [viotobu
known as Queen's Colleges where Catholic and Protestant youth
might be trained side by side. These measures were not suffered
to pass unchallenged. At the idea of using public money to help
educate Catholic priests, "the Orangeman raised his war-whoop,"
while neither Catholics nor Protestants were satisfied with the
Queen's Colleges, which they were pleased to denounce as "God-
less and atheistical." Of even more importance were the results
of the commission in revealing to the public by an authoritative
report the deep reproach of the Irish land system. Nothing could
be done yet, however ; Peel's party were against him. The dead
inertia of old Tory bigotry could not be overcome in a day.
In the early days of Peel's ministry, also, the Webster-
Ashburton Treaty brought to a peaceful issue the long dispute
with the United States over the boundary of Canada
United and Maine. The Maine boundary, however, was hardly
boundary settled before the good understanding between the two
questions, ^ ...
countries was again threatened by a similar dispute
over the Oregon boundary in the northwest. But after a good
deal of bluster and noisy talk on the part of American politicians,
whose common sense had been wafted away on the rhythmic jingle
of their "fifty-four forty or fight," the people came back to earth
and accepted the present boundary, giving the English Vancouver
Island and allowing them to share in the navigation of the
Columbia River.
Peel was compelled auring his early years to give a good deal
of his attention to colonial matters. The outward expansion of
England had never ceased during all the early decades
'^roaresl ^^ ^^^ century. The Napoleonic wars had greatly
broadened and extended the sphere of colonial enter-
prise. South Australia had been colonized in 1836 and its capital
named Adelaide in honor of the Queen of William IV. In 1837
the Dutch, who had not taken kindly to English rule in the old
Cape settlement, had turned their backs upon the colony and passed
over the northern boundary into Natal. Here they had remained
independent until 1843, when the English once more took posses-
sion. In 1839 the English had established themselves at Aden at
the mouth of the Red Sea. In 1840 they began a permanent settle-
1840-1849] COLON-IAL PR0QEES8 1013
ment in New Zealand. In India, also, the English had been
steadily pushing forward. The general disorganization and mutual
jealousies of the native States had created some such political con-
ditions as the Romans found in Gaul in Caesar's time, and English
ofiBcials found little difficulty, by appealing to the selfish interests
of individual princes, in persuading them to submit to a protec-
torate, or alliance, as the Romans would have called it, which
swallowed them up as soon as their continued independence became
an inconvenience to the English Indian government. Yet the loss
of independence was not without some solid advantages. Under
Lord William Bentinck the suttee was abolished and the thugs
broken up. Bentinck, also, gave his support to Christian missions,
which the company had discouraged from policy. He introduced
the steamboat on the Ganges and proposed a scheme of carrying
mails to Europe by way of the Red Sea.
In the thirties a new menace to English influence in India
appeared in the extension of Russian influence in the Afghan
country and led directly to the unfortunate attempt of
Afghanistan ^ord Auckland, Bentinck's successor, to set up in
Afghanistan a vassal prince, who should be committed
to English interests. For two years, 1839-1841, this vassal prince,
Shah Shuja, was kept upon his precarious throne by the presence
of English garrisons in the cities of Kandahar and Kabul, only
to be murdered at last by his subjects, while his allies were driven
out of the country. The retiring British army with some 12,000
camp followers was cut off in the mountain passes. Only one
European, a Dr. Bryden, succeeded in making his way to Jelalabad
with the awful story. The English returned of course to carry
on a war of vengeance, but only to retire again and leave Afghan-
istan to the rightful ruler. Dost Mohammed, whose supposed Rus-
sian sympathies had made all the trouble. The Afghan War was
hardly over before a destructive war with, the Sikhs of the Punjab
began. After some of the hardest fighting which the English have
ever met in India, in 1849, under the rigorous administration of
Dalhousie, the power of the Sikhs was finally broken ; the impor-
tant Punjab was annexed, and Lahore and the whole region of the
"Five Rivers" passed under British rule.
1014 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PASTIES [victoria
In 1843 the dissatisfaction of a powerful party in the Scottish
Church with the system of lay patronage led to open revolt. Five
hundred clergymen, headed by Thomas Chalmers, left
Church of the State Church and organized the Free Presbyterian
Church of Scotland. Within eight years the attend-
ants of the Free Church outnumbered those who attended the old
Established Church. Almost simultaneously another protest
against the lifelessness of a State Church was making itself felt
in England. The English movement advanced in a very different
direction from that of the Free Church in Scotland. Like the
The Tractor ^^sleyan movement, it began in Oxford where a few
rianmovc- earnest men, among whose names those of Keble, New-
England. man, and Pusey, are prominent, sought to stimulate
the spiritual life of the country and check the growing liberalism
of English religious thought, by leading the church back to the
forms and ideals of a primitive Christianity. They sought to
bring the church public under the influence of their views by the
publication of a series of Tracts for the Times. Pusey remained
in the English Church, but Newman and many others finally left
the English Church altogether and entered the Catholic com-
munion.
Peel's attempts to reduce tariffs thus far had not affected the
Corn Laws. From 1841 to 1846 the agitation had been kept before
the public by Cobden and Bright, and their meetings,
Lawagita- especially those held in Covent Garden Theatre in 1843,
had attracted considerable attention. Yet crops had
been good, the price of grain moderate, and public interest had
flagged. But in 1845 the attention of the public was again directed
to the matter by a complete failure of the crops and a correspond-
ing rise in the price of bread. In Ireland where the heavy rains
had completely destroyed the potato crop, the case was even more
serious than in England. With millions of people starving for
cheap bread. Peel felt that it was no time to talk of "interests,"
and proposed that the council declare the ports open for the free
importation of bread stuffs. He was overruled, however, by the
opposition of Stanley and Wellington, and abandoned his humane
proposition. Then the Whig leaders, who had been as much
1845] REPEAL OF COKN LAWS 1015
opposed to the repeal of the Corn Laws as the Tories, took the
matter up. It was not a time, however, to allow party considera-
tions to dictate a policy, and in spite of the stolid indifference of the
great mass of the Tories, Peel himself determined to champion the
cause of free bread. Many of his colleagues, including Wellington,
agreed to stand by him. But the representatives of the great
wheat-growing shires, who thought they beheld in the repeal of
the Corn Laws the ruin of their constituents, and of the old Tory
families, whose wealth lay still in agricultural lands, stoutly
opposed him. They were led by-Benjamin Disraeli, a man whom
the House had not yet taken seriously. He was of Jewish descent ;
he had been known to the public as a writer of some "curious,
high-flown novels," and to his friends for his gorgeous taste in the
matter of dress. About this man with the strange oriental mind
the Tory protectionists rallied. They taunted Peel as a traitor to
his party, as a recreant to the real interests of the country. They
predicted the direst calamities; rents would be lowered; land
would be worthless, and every farmer who held land by a lease
would be bankrupt; vast areas would be thrown out of cultivation
and thousands of agricultural laborers would be added to the mul-
titudes who were already crying for bread. Yet in spite of the
stubborn fight of Disraeli and his supporters. Peel, by the help of
his personal following, the free traders, and the great
me Com body of the Whigs, carried his measure. The existing
duties were to be reduced rapidly during a period of
three years and then to remain fixed at one shilling per quarter,
which was to be retained as a registration duty. In the case of
Ireland even the registration duty was at first suspended and
finally abolished. As usual, none of the dire calamities that the
opponents of the bill had predicted ever appeared. The price
of grain fell rapidly to the normal level, but the growth in the
town populations, the continued prosperity of the manufactur-
ing industries, and the ever-increasing multitude of those who
depended upon the farmer for subsistence, kept up the demand
for all kinds of farm products. It was not until 1870 when the
extension of the American railway system and the increased facili-
ties for navigation on the Great Lakes brought the western grain
1016 DISSOLUTION OP THE OLD PAETIES [victobia
fields of America into close toucli with the British home markets,
that English farmers began to feel any serious competition with
the foreign farmer.
Peel had carried his point and abolished the Corn Laws ; but
his humanity had disrupted his party. Too many bitter things
had been said on both sides to be easily forgotten or
Disruption of ,.,,,„ . ,, ,, -r.,, i,-ii
the Tory lightly forgiv^en ; and when, later. Peel brought in the
"Arms Act," which was designed to repress the law-
lessness that had arisen in Ireland as the result of so much suffer-
ing, Disraeli and his followers, knowing that the measure would be
opposed by the Irish members and by many of the Whigs upon
principle, took the opportunity for revenge, and by going over to
the opposition, defeated Peel so hopelessly that he at once resigned.
The breach was so serious and the real sympathies of the Peelites,
as with the Canningites in 1828, were so much with the more
liberal and progressive Whigs, that in time most of Peel's follow-
ers were merged in the ranks of their old enemies. Among these
were George Hamilton Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, and William
Ewart Gladstone. The disruption of the Tory party was final ;
broken and divided it went out of office, virtually to stay out until
1874, when it returned again in the new "Conservatives" under the
lead of Disraeli.
Lord John Russell, whose name had been so long associated
with the cause of reform and who had been among the first of the
Whig leaders to announce his conversion to the repeal
TJiB Russell
ministry, of the Corn Laws, was the natural standard bearer of
1846-1852.
the new liberal party formed of progressive Whigs and
Peelite Tories. Lord Palmerston became Foreign Secretary;
Earl Grey, son of the old Whig reformer, became Colonial and
War Secretary, and Macaulay, the historian, became Paymaster
of the Forces. The ministry, however, was not strong; Eussell
was not really an able man, and Palmerston, the strong man of
the ministry, who had been originally a Canningite Tory, had not
the full confidence of the Liberals.
Ireland, as usual, demanded all the spare attention of the
government; a repetition of the disaster of 1845 had again
brought one-half the population of the island to the verge of star-
1845-1848] THE FAMINE IN IRELAND 1017
vation. The government wrestled bravely with the problem; the
Arms Act, which the Whigs when in opposition had defeated, was
taken up and carried with the help of Peel, whose mag-
fe'ireiamd! nanimity shines ont in this connection in marked con-
trast with the vindictiveness of the man who had
dethroned him. An "Encumbered Estates Court" was set up with
the hope partly of enabling bankrupt landlords to sell a portion of
their lands and pay off some of their liabilities, and partly of intro-
ducing a new class of landlords who would bring in fresh enterprise
and capital. To relieve the immediate distress relief works were
established, and finally the government undertook the actual feed-
ing of the population, opening soup-kitchens and free food depots
in all parts of the famine-smitten country.
In the meanwhile, the Irish landlords had got hold of a danger-
ous half-truth: that the cutting up of their estates into small
farms had been the cause of most of the trouble. As
o/^reiand^ soon as the famine was over, therefore, in their own way
they set about mending matters, uniting the small
farms into large farms, raising rents, and evicting unnecessary
tenants. The landlords, in many cases absentees, who knew
little of their tenants and cared only for the rent rolls, urged on
their agents in the work of forcible eviction, and reaped in return
for their ruthless haste and cruelty a harvest of fire and pillage,
of wanton destruction of life and property. In a few years the
work of reorganizing Ireland had reduced its population from
8,000,000 to 5,000,000.
The year 1848 was a year of revolution over all Europe. Louis
Philippe, the constitutional king of Prance, was driven from his
throne to die in exile. In November Louis Napoleon,
revolution, a hungry fortune seeker, became President of the
second French republic. In Prance the revolution
had been inspired largely by the upgrowth of new socialistic ideas,
but in the other parts of Europe it drew its inspiration from the
long-repressed spirit of nationalism. In Hungary, under the
fiery Kossuth, the people rose to assert their independence of
Austria and to establish a free constitution, and were suppressed
only by the intervention of Eussia. In Italy the people of Lom-
1018 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [viotoeia
barely and Venetia rose against Austrian rule, and supported by
Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, seemed on the point of establish-
ing a free national government when the Sardinians were beaten
by the Austrian Eadetzky at Novara, and Charles Albert was
forced to abdicate; Mazzini and other patriot leaders succeeded
in establishing a republic at Eome only to be overthrown by
the interference of the new Napoleon. In Germany the desire for
free institutions went hand in hand with a desire for national
unity, and although the time for national union had not yet come,
many of the states succeeded. in securing constitutions.
It would be strange if England and particularly Ireland, where
the experience of the past two years had been so severe, should
not show some sympathy with the revolutionary activity
Mono™ smYit ^^ich was abroad once more in Europe. In England,
midlfeiand however, the movement evaporated in a farcical attempt
of the Chartists to invade parliament with another one
of their monster petitions. In Ireland the deliberate attempts of
the Young Ireland Party to goad the people into revolt, for a
time caused some anxiety; but the people had been so crushed by
their sufferings, that they had no heart for a strife of arms, and
the attempt ended with the transportation of the leaders, Mitchell,
Meagher, and O'Brien.
A more congenial field for the activity of the Liberal ministry
presented itself in the colonies, where it was not compelled to
prejudice its cause by repressive measures. In 1849
The Rwiseii Eussell introduced into the Australian colonies, a sys-
ttiecoionies. tem of local self-government, similar to that which the
Melbourne ministry had introduced in Canada in 1840.
The home government reserved to itself simply a control over foreign
affairs with the responsibility of providing for the common defense;
the colonies undertook to administer local affairs, levy and collect
customs, and raise and equip the local militia. In a general way
the form of the local government was a close imitation of that of
the mother country. The governors, who were appointed by the
queen, represented the constitutional sovereign, and like her they
acted through a body of ministers responsible to a bicameral
legislative body. The same year, also, saw the successful repeal
1843-1847] FACTOET LEGISLATION 1019
of the last of the old Navigation Acts. The commerce of Eng-
land with her colonies or oi one colony with another, must still
be carried on in British bottoms. The Canadians objected to the
monopoly of British shipowners and claimed a right to get trans-
portation at the lowest rate offered in the general market, in this
case the American, which offered to underbid the English ship-
owners. Lord Grey, the Colonial Secretary, supported the claim
as a fair application of the free trade principle, which England
had adopted in the repeal of the Corn Laws; he saw in the meas-
ure, moreover, "the best security for the attachment of the North
American colonies to the British crown."
The Eussell ministry further proved its devotion to the cause
of the people by completing a series of humane laws designed to
protect the victims of industry. In 1842 Lord Ashley
isiatton, Supplemented his Factory Bill of 1833, with a second bill
designed to regulate the labor of children and women in
mines and collieries. A parliamentary investigation had revealed
a startling state of affairs. The mines were wet; the heat
intense; the men dispensed with clothing altogether; the women
wore only coarse trousers made of gunny sacking. Children, also,
were sej; to work in the mines at six, five, and four years of age.
The women and children were hitched to the coal carts by a chain
attached to a heavy band about the waist. Here in endless dark-
ness, far beyond the reach of the rays of the sun, they toiled
through weary hours, frequently on alternate days for twenty-four
hours at a stretch, tugging at the heavy carts, and often com-
pelled by the low passages to crawl upon hands and knees. The
slave plantations in the West Indies in their palmiest days were
charged with nothing more degrading or brutalizing. The Lords
modified the bill somewhat ; but the main features were secured,
making it no longer lawful to employ women and children under
ground, or to keep children between ten and thirteen at work for
more than three days a week. In 1844 the working time of chil-
dren was reduced to six and a half hours a day, in order to give
time for attending school. In 1847 the work of those under
eighteen was reduced from twelve to ten hours a day and to eight
on Saturdays. In these wise and humane laws the protectionist
1020 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [vioioma
often seemed more devoted to the cause of humanity than men
like Bright and Cobden, who blinded by their derotion to the
cold-blooded principles of the Manchester School, were inclined
to regard any remedial action on the part of the government as an
interference with the divine law of competition.
It was the glory of Kussell's free trade ministry to devise and
carry out the first great World's Fair. A huge building of glass
and iron, designed by Joseph Paxton and known as the
Pak^P'msi Crystal Palace, was raised in Hyde Park, and here the
nations of Europe were invited to put on exhibition in
friendly rivalry the best results of their attainments in arts and
manufactures. Prince Albert acted as President of the exposition
and found in the farthering of such a scheme, full scope for the
exercise of that broad and liberal sympathy which was so charac-
teristic of the man. The exposition was a success as it deserved
to be; the more backward nations of Europe were brought face to
face with the civilization of their more advanced neighbors and
received a new stimulus in all the arts of life.
Its great world's fair was destined to be the last triumph of
the Eussell ministry. The end, however, came not because Eng-
lishmen were weary of the liberal Whigs, as the sequel
b"'^^ %'min pi'oved, but because the liberal leaders could not live
istry.Febru- together without quarreling. Palmerston had been
left to conduct foreign affairs, generally, in his own way;
but he had been headstrong, impetuous, inclined to bluster in
dealing with weaker nations, and over quick to dispatch the war-
ships of England to assert the dignity of the flag. In 1850
an Athenian mob had sacked the house of Don Pacifico, a Jew of
Gibraltar, who claimed to be a British subject. Palmerston,
instead of resorting to the quieter methods of diplomacy to secure
redress, promptly blockaded the Piraeus. At home many were
displeased, particularly the queen. The next year, however, the
conduct of the minister passed the bounds of further endurance,
when without consulting his colleagues he gave his approval to
the work of the corrupt ring of politicians who had overturned the
second French republic and made Louis Napoleon emperor. The
queen was deeply offended and Russell in order to disclaim
1850, 1853] THE FIRST DERBY MINISTRY 1021
responsibility for the act was compelled to get rid of his oflBcious
coUeagne. Knssell himself, however, was not so secure in his
position that he conld defy the minister who regarded his chief as
the principal cause of his overthrow. In 1850 he had failed to
arrest a measure, presented by Locke King, which proposed to
assimilate the county and borough franchises, and had promptly
resigned; but the recent death of Peel and the declining strength
of Wellington had left the opposition without a leader of sufficient
influence to undertake a ministry, and Russell was persuaded to
remain in office. The conversion of Palmerston, therefore, from
a supporter to a bitter foe was a doubly serious matter, and when
in February, 1852, Russell brought in a bill to strengthen the
militia, Palmerston seized the opportunity to carry an amendment
against the government, and forced Russell to resign. "I have
had my tit-for-tat with John Russell," he boasted; "I turned
him out on Friday last."
The Peelites, deprived of their leader, were not strong enough
to undertake a ministry, and the queen turned to Edward Stan-
ley, since 1851 Lord Derby, who organized a govern-
Thenrst ment with Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Deriyminis- jgjj^gj. ^f ^^^q Commons. Although the Conservatives
had gained recently, they were not yet strong enough
to face the Liberals and Peelites combined. Disraeli's chief
political capital had been the sufferings and wrongs which the
free traders had brought upon the farmers by repealing the Corn
Laws ; and although parliament by a test vote of four hundred and
sixty-eight to fifty- three had bound itself to support Peel's free
trade position as the policy of the nation, when Disraeli brought
forward his budget, while cunningly pretending to accept free
trade as a finality, by a skillfully rearranged scheme of taxation
he proposed to give an undue advantage to the farming commu-
nities over the towns. At once the Liberals took alarm and a bitter
fight began, in which the new Chancellor was finally beaten;
Derby at once resigned.
It was full time for the organization of a strong ministry, and
the queen turned to George Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, who had
been Peel's foreign secretary, and had commanded the respect not
1022 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [vioTOBii
only of his old companions but of the Whigs as well. The result
was a coalition ministry, in which Gladstone became Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Lord John Eussell Foreign Secretary,
Thecnaiitton and Palmerston Home • Secretary. The new ministry
mimstry of j j
D^fm^r ^^^^ particularly happy in the man who had undertaken
1852 toJanu- the organization of the finances of the government.
Ho had a remarkable power of imparting something
of his own virility to the most indifferent of subjects. Under
his wizard-like touch, columns of figures glowed with interest;
the darkest corners of his office were compelled to disclose their
mysteries, and the dullest of his colleagues, to grasp the financial
problems which confronted the state. Yet there was nothing
novel or startling in the policy which he proposed ; it was simply
the traditional policy already adopted by Peel, — to continue
the reduction of duties and retain the income tax until the increase
of trade should restore the income of the treasury. In its treat-
ment of foreign affairs, the new ministry was not so happy and
soon managed to embroil the nation in a costly and profitless war,
which added much to the glory of English arms but little to the
credit of English diplomacy.
Czar Nicholas had never given up his early scheme of securing
"the key to the Russian house," and now that his friend Lord
Aberdeen had become Prime Minister, he seemed to
rauaea of the. think that the time had come for a movement against
War. the Ottoman Empire. "The sick man" he said, "is in
extremities ; the time has come for a clear understand-
ing between England and Eussia. " The Czar, however, had not
calculated upon the influence of the new French emperor, who
had an ambition of his own to fulfill in making the Bonaparte
throne again a power in Europe, and had seized upon a quarrel
between the Greek and Latin monks over the guardianship of the
Holy Places in Palestine as a pretext for intervention in Turkey.
For two years the diplomatists quarreled over the matter; the
emperor of the French and the Czar each claimed to be the
natural protector of the Christian subjects of the Porte and each
refused to allow the other to interfere.
The English ministry was divided, and while the ministers
1853-1855] THE CRIMEAN WAR 1023
quarreled, Russia determined to act and, by taking forcible posses-
sion of the Turkish states on the Danube, secure a guarantee
Beginning of *^^ ^^^ better government of the fourteen million Chris-
mIs'^sm *^^^ subjects of the Sultan. Such high-handed action
of course meant war; but Nicholas believed that'
the Turk could make little resistance, England would not inter-
fere, and the French emperor would not dare to expose his brand
new throne to the hazards of a foreign war. He did not
appreciate, however, the deep-seated fear of Russia which was
the one tenet common to all the political creeds of the west.
The advance to the Danube at once roused Austria and Prussia,
who were not pleased at the extension of the Russian boundary
in their direction. Nicholas had the wisdom to withdraw
before he came to open rupture with his near neighbors, but
elsewhere Russians and Turks were already fighting. A Turkish
fleet had been destroyed at Sinope, and Nicholas had secured the
Black Sea. A Russian army had entered Bulgaria and the Czar's
soldiers were swarming about the border fortresses of the Sultan.
As the Czar had foreseen, the French emperor was afraid to
act alone ; but the Aberdeen ministry could not hold back while
the Ottoman empire was overwhelmed before their eyes, and in
spite of himself Aberdeen was forced into a war for which neither
he nor the English were prepared.
On March 37, 1854, England and France declared war, and late
in the summer their armaments entered the Black Sea, to unite
with the Turks and begin a combined attack upon
War, 1854, Sebastopol, Russia's great southern fortress in the
Crimean peninsula. The allies landed in September
1854, and after defeating the governor of the Crimea in the battle
of the Alma, began the siege. From the first the conduct of the
siege was marked by divided councils, continued blundering, and
stupid inefiiciency on the part of the allied commanders, but by
the most heroic endurance and brilliant daring on the part of the
troops, the French and the Turks being not one whit behind the
English in displaying all the finest qualities of the soldier. The
winter of 1854 found the allies without tents, without hospital
supplies, without even suitable food. They had been seriously
1024 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [victokia
crippled, also, by the hard but aimless fighting of the autumn which
had given the names of Balaclava and Inkerman to English war
history. Something was done by the heroic Florence Nightingale
in restoring order in the plague smitten hospitals ; still the sick
and the wounded perished by thousands. In England, the suffer-
ings of the soldiers, which as usual were charged to the
made Prfme inefficiency of the ministry, roused an outburst of indig-
fmf^^^"^' ^^tio^; Aberdeen was forced to resign, and Palmerston,
the Home Secretary, whose pugnacious promptness in
the Don Pacifico episode was remembered with more favor now
that England was in trouble, was advanced to the first place in
the government.
Palmerston, who had been virtually shelved as Home Secretary,
now found full scope for his magnificent energy, and soon infused
order and efficiency in all the branches of service con-
ofthe war, nected with the war. The allies plucked up new heart;
Russia was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain
a war in a region so remote from the seat of government and yet
so accessible to her foes, and was showing unmistakable signs of
exhaustion; the death of Nicholas in March and the accession of
Alexander II. still further encouraged the hope of a speedy issue of
the struggle. Neither side, however, was willing to make the
necessary concessions, and with the opening of the season the
fighting before Sebastopol was renewed. The affairs of the allies
were now in very different stead from what they had been in the
autumn. The efficiency of the British army had been greatly
increased. The French poured in reinforcements, and Sardinia,
who had joined the alliance in January, also sent her contingent,
a small but efficient army of 15,000 men. The
Scvrdmia strength of the allies left them free to push forward
Jan. 26,1855.' their siege works without fear of attack. In June
they began the series of direct assaults which after
varying success, resulted at last on Sept. 8 in the storming of the
Malakofl and the Little Eedan by the French under Marshal
McMahon; the English succeeded in entering the Great Redan
but failed to hold it. The capture of the Malakoff forced
the Russians to retire. In the night following, Gortchakoff the
1856] THE PEACE OF PAEIS 1035
commander, blew np the works whicli still remained in his hands,
sunk his ships, and retired to the north side of the harbor, destroy-
ing his bridge of boats behind him.
The fall of Sebastopol virtually ended the war. There were
some minor engagements at sea, and on November 27 the great
Turkish fortress of Kars on the Armenian frontier,
?arfe*"*^°' after a heroic resistance of six months, surrendered to
Sr"''*"' MuraviefE. All parties, however, were eager to end a
war which right thinking men generally regarded as the
result of blundering diplomacy and, hence, unnecessary. When,
therefore, on the 35th of February, the representatives of the pow-
ers met in congress at Paris, no serious obstacle lay in the way of a
settlement, notwithstanding the many interests at stake, and in a
month's time their work was done. Sebastopol was restored to
Russia but not to be again fortified. The Danube was declared free,
and the Black Sea thrown open to the merchantmen of all nations,
but no warship of Russia or Turkey or any other power might enter
its waters. The Danubian principalities, Moldavia, Wallachia, and
Servia, were placed under the protection of the powers. The
powers, further, exacted a promise from the Sultan to allow his
Christian subjects to enjoy privileges similar to those of his
Mohammedan subjects. The congress also took advantage of the
occasion to agree to abandon privateering and to acknowledge the
right of a neutral flag to protect all goods except munitions of war.
Thus the Crimean War ended in the complete success of the
allies, in so far as treaties and protocols could concede the points
at issue. But unfortunately Russia has since shown
Results of UQ intention of abandoning her earlier policy, and the
the war. ^ r j ^
Turk has proved himself as incorrigible a sinner as
ever against the laws of civilization. No sooner had the western
powers become involved in the struggle of 1870, than Russia
coolly renounced the neutralization of the Black Sea, proceeded
to rebuild and fortify Sebastopol, and to-day patrols its Baltic shores
with one of the most powerful fleets of Europe; nor has she hesi-
tated to interfere again in the internal affairs of Turkey or openly
wage war against Turkey in the interests of the Christian subjects
of the Turk.
1026 DISSOLUTION^ OF THE OLD PARTIES [viotoeia
.Palmerston was now supreme. He had not been a great Home
Minister; he had never quite outgrown his early Tory training and
was always more or less suspicious of projects of
Theaftor- domestic reform. He had, however, very definite ideas
math of the ' ,-, i -. n i t
crirman about English influence abroad; and England, dazzled
by the success of the Crimean War, the hollowness of
which was not then apparent, was not disinclined to a "brilliant
foreign policy." Until his death, therefore, in 1865, with the
exception of a temporary reaction in 1858, Palmerston was left to
conduct the government as he pleased. Wor was it long before
the soldiers and sailors of Britain found that there was more work
cut out for them. The Crimean struggle was in fact followed by
an aftermath of petty wars, in all of which England was more or
less interested. First the Shah of Persia, directly
War, 1858, inspired by Eussian influence, had taken advantage of
the distraction of England to invade Afghanistan and
take Herat. The Shah well understood that this advance toward
India meant war, and as soon as the Treaty of Paris freed the
hands of Palmerston, the Shah was forced to abandon Herat and
was glad to accept such terms as Palmerston saw fit to enforce.
The Persian war had hardly closed before the Palmerston gov-
ernment became involved in a quarrel with China over the arrest
of some Chinese pirates, who had taken the precaution
The second to shelter themselves under the British flag. The ius-
Vhxnese War. _ o J
tice of Palmerston's position was by no means apparent,
even to his own followers. The Conservatives under Disraeli's
lead opposed the war as a matter of course ; but, Gladstone and
Russell, Cobden and Bright, with a considerable following of
Peelites and Liberals, also supported the opposition in its protest
against the course of the pugnacious chief of the Liberals and
managed to pass a vote of disapproval. Palmerston, however,
appealed to the country, and the people showed their continued
confidence in the minister by returning a decided majority.
Before the new war was well under way Palmerston found him-
self with a far more serious matter on his hands. The Sepoys, the
native professional soldiers of India, had for some time been grow-
ing restless under English rule. The Indian caste system did not
1848-1856] THE INDIAN MUTINY 10^7
lend itself readily to the exigencies of military etiquette. Men who
believed that their bliss or misery during unnumbered ages to
come depended on the preservation of the exclusiveness
Mutiny, prescribed by the religious traditions of a thousand
Co/uses. ~ */ cj
years, were m no mood to submit quietly to the petty
requirements of barrack life, often imposed with unnecessary
offensiveness by some reckless "Mulvaney" or hot -headed
"Ortheris," to whom the "regulations," when administered upon
the members of the subject race, were as unalterable as the laws of
the Modes and Persians, good for the soul and "an honor to the
service. " The Bengal army in particular had long been disaffected.
It was composed of superb fellows, endowed with fine soldierly
qualities; but under a corrupt system, discipline had become
irregular and spasmodic, and the respect of the soldiers for the
comparatively small number of European officers was rapidly
diminishing.
In the last twenty years, moreover, western civilization had
made startling inroads in India. From 1848 to 1856 the brilliant
Dalhousie had ruled India with a daring hand. He
India, 1848- had not only conquered the Sikhs of the Punjab and, in
1849, formally annexed their territories, but he had also,
in 1853, fought out the second Burmese war to a successful issue
and annexed Lower Burmah. He had, moreover, formally adopted
the policy of annexing the protected states, whenever the extinc-
tion of the direct line of a ruling house gave him the opportunity,
refusing longer to recognize the Hindu custom of adoption. In
this way he had seized and annexed three of the states of the once
great Mahratta confederation, Sattara in 1849, and Nagpore and
Jhansi in 1863. Poonah, another of the Mahratta states, that
had made trouble in 1817, had already been annexed, and the last
of the Peishwas had been established at Bithoor as a regular pen-
sioner of the East India Company. In 1853 the Peishwa died,
and his adopted son, the infamous Nana Sahib, claimed the patron-
age of the company as heir by Hindu law. Dalhousie, however,
had felt no obligation to continue the pension longer and left Nana
without his portion. In 1856 Dalhousie had abolished the out-
rageous despotism which the kings of Oudh had carried on since
1028 DISSOLUTIOK OF THE OLD PARTIES [viotobu
1819; but in annexing their vast territories, he managed to
antagonize the wealthy landed aristocracy of the kingdom.
Not less radical had been Dalhousie's management of the domes-
tic relations of his government; the great missionary societies had
been encouraged to multiply their activities ; the railroad and the
telegraph had been introduced and rapidly extended ; the Ganges
Canal had been completed ; and the Indian civil service had been
thrown open to all British subjects, regardless of color or religion.
These measures were commendable; but the energetic governor
had not accounted sufficiently for the immobility of the oriental
inind, and the rapidity with which his innovations had succeeded
one another, had roused among, the natives a feeling of uncer-
tainty and resentment. The masses were deeply attached to the
old order both by interest and by sentiment, and saw with no
kindly feeling the progress of a revolution which threatened to
overthrow the system which they had received from their fathers.
Exaggerated accounts, also, of the mismanagement of the Crimean
War began to reach India, and were eagerly seized upon by the
disaffected elements, still further exaggerated, and industriously
circulated as evidence of the declining prestige of England and the
approaching downfall of British rule.
Thus the mine was well prepared, when in the spring of 1857
the new Enfield rifle was introduced into the English service. In
order to load, it was necessary for the soldier to tear
M^toT''"'^ off the end of the paper cartridge with his teeth. But
unfortunately, in order to lubricate the cartridge and
the better protect the powder from the dampness, the makers had
used paper well soaked in grease. In this grease the suspicions of
the Sepoys discovered a diabolical mixture of cow's fat and hog's
lard, designed, as they thought, to force them to do violence to
their religious faith, since neither Hindoo nor Mohammedan could
touch the cartridge with his lips without defilement. In vain
the authorities attempted to assure the troops of the innocence of
the oiled paper, or to withdraw the cause of disturbance. Mutinous
outbreaks spread from barrack to barrack, until in a short time
all the middle and upper Ganges was in uproar.
Delhi, which was the residence of the aged descendant of the
u.\;iz-Chio!iE') 00
1856] EXTBN-T OP MTJTISTT 1039
Grand Mogul, became the center of the revolt ia the north. The
population of the newly annexed kingdom of Oudh rose in the
name of their king, who was still a prisoner at Calcutta,
mIS/ *'^ aid flocked to the siege of Lucknow, where Sir Henry
Lawrence had withdrawn the resident garrison, consist-
ing of a single regiment, into the Residency buildings in hope of
holding out until relieved. At Cawnpore Nana Sahib placed
himself at the head of the mutineers and also began the siege of
the resident garrison. Everywhere the Sepoys inaugurated the
rising by murdering the English officers and their families. At
Delhi there was no foreign garrison, and the Sepoys had little
trouble in overpowering the resident officers and their servants.
At Cawnpore the garrison capitulated only to be massacred, but
by some freak of pity or policy, some one hundred and thirty of
the women and children were saved by order of Nana.
Fortunately for the English the presidencies of the Lower
Ganges were not affected. The Ghurkas of Nepal and the Sikhs
of the Punjab also remained faithful, while the rulers
£S*f o"-^ "'^ of Gwalior and Indore refused to ioin their mutinous
troops. Fortunately, also, the British troops who had
been occupied in the Persian war were returning ; the army des-
tined for the Chinese war was on the ocean, and when the trans-
ports reached Cape Town, Sir George Grey, the governor at the
Cape, assumed the responsibility of sending them to India. Thus,
from all sides ample means were within reach for speedily crush-
ing the revolt. The new governor-general. Lord Canning, son of
the former minister, acted promptly and vigorously. By enlisting
Sikhs and mustering the resident garrisons of the Punjab, he was
able to dispatch an army from the northwest under John Nichol-
son against Delhi. The siege, however, lasted from May to Sep-
tember; and the city finally had to be carried by assault. In the
meanwhile Henry Havelock, a soldier of the Cromwellian type,
was fighting his way from lower Bengal to Cawnpore. His entire
force amounted only to 1,500 men. Between the 7th and 16th of
July iu spite of the fierce heat, he marched one hundred and
twenty-six miles and fought four engagements in the desperate'
hope of rescuing Nana's victims. But on news of Havelock's
1030 DISSOLUTION OV THE OLD PARTIES [vioiobia
approacli two Sepoys with arms bared to the elbow and drawn
swords entered the prison where the women and children who had
been spared from the former massacre were crowded
Caimpore, together. When the next day Havelock's men entered
the place the victims were gone, but the blood-plashed
wainscoting and the reeking floors told of the pitiful struggle.
The bodies were found in a well near by, where they had been
thrown, the dead and the still living. At the awful sight hard
visaged men broke down. They had fought over those terrible
hundred and twenty-six miles in the intense heat of an Indian
summer, to see this.
Colonel Neill remained to punish those who were responsible
for the awful crime, while Havelock, with fresh troops that raised
his column to 3,000 men, pressed on to Lucknow,
iM^rww where the little garrison of 1,000 men from behind the
walls of the Residency were standing off the whole male
population of Oudh. The gallant Lawrence had been mortally
wounded on June 1, and had committed the defense to General
Inglis, with a dying injunction never to surrender. Havelock's
progress in the face of the overwhelming odds against him was
necessarily slow, and it was not until September 25 that he at
last succeeded in fighting his way through the streets of the city
and reaching the Residency, where the British flag still floated.
His little band was too feeble to raise the siege, but he brought
new strength and assurance to the besieged, and enabled them to
keep up the defense. The siege was not raised until November
17, when Sir Colin Campbell with the reinforcements which
had been sent from England, at last reached the city. The brave
Havelock died on the 34th.
Campbell was compelled to withdraw with the garrison to
Cawnpore, before which he fought a successful battle on December
6. In the spring he again marched upon Lucknow and
G^e of me carrying the city by storm, followed the retreating insur-
gents to Bareilly, and there in May 1858 delivered a
final, crushing blow. While Campbell was thus stamping out the
war in Oudh, Sir Hugh Rose had advanced from the Bombay
Presidency against the Mahrattas, and on June 16 fought the
1858] END 0]? EAST INDIA COMPANY 1031
last battle of the war before Gwalior. Thus ended this ferocious
struggle between civilization and barbarism, in which the civilized
European proved that he could be quite as merciless if not as
treacherous, as his cruel enemy, marring his victories by ruthless
massacres, blowing prominent prisoners to pieces at the cannon's
mouth and hanging meaner folk by the hundred. Yet if the
triumph of the victor was marked by acts of vengeance unknown
to civilized warfare, his provocation was great. One bitter drop
of disappointment, however, remained. The English never suc-
ceeded in catching Nana Sahib. He eluded his pursuers to the
last, and probably died in the jungles of Nepal.
Public sentiment at home was satisfied that the time had come
for the abolition of the East India Company, and in 1858 the
transient Derby ministry formally dissolved it and
Ena of the transferred its political authority directly to the crown.
East India , , n r^
Company. which was to act through a Secretary of State for India.
The general administration was placed in the hands of
a viceroy, although each province still retained its separate local
government. The company's navy was abolished, but its army
was merged in the army of the empire. Lord Canning, the last
governor-general of the company, became the first Viceroy of India,
and remained in oflB.ce until 1862. The queen, further, in order to
quiet the country and allay the suspicions of the neighboring
princes, formally disclaimed by proclamation any desire to seek
new accessions of territory, and promised to maintain all existing
treaties, to admit qualified Indians to oflBce, to pardon all rebels
who had not been connected with the massacres, to grant full
religious toleration and to respect the ancient customs of her
subjects.
The English government, in the meanwhile, had not forgotten
the quarrel with China, although operations for the moment
had been delayed by the more serious struggle in India. In the
The second Summer of 1858 Canton was bombarded, the Taku forts,
w'^^ss- ■'''iiich held the approach to Pekin, were seized, and the
is6g. Chinese forced to consent to the Treaty of Tientsin by
which they opened a number of new ports to the English traders
and allowed a British ambassador to take up his residence at
1032 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PAETIES [victoeia
Pekin. In 1859 the war was again renewed; France, also, joined
with England, and in 1860 they compelled the Chinese to confirm
the recent treaty and pay a war indemnity of £4,000,000.
Before the China war had been well under way, the great war
premier had temporarily come to grief at home. Curiously enough,
the reason for dissatisfaction was not that he was too
affair^ms ^°^*^ ^"^ dealing with foreign powers, but that he was
not bold enough. Orsini, an Italian refugee, had taken
advantage of the safe harborage which London afforded him, to
hatch a plot for the assassination of the emperor of the French.
The bomb had missed the emperor; but it killed or wounded
some one hundred and fifty bystanders. Public opinion in Prance
was greatly wrought up over the dastardly act, and the emperor,
reasonably enough, demanded such a change in the laws of England
as should make similar plots impossible in the future. Under
ordinary circumstances the sympathies of the English people would
probably have supported a minister who proposed to punish such
an inexcusable crime as Orsini's, but the furious attack of the
French press and the vainglorious boasting of some French col-
onels, who sent a formal address to the emperor asking him to
permit his army to "destroy the infamous haunt where such
infernal plots are hatched," roused the bitterest feelings in Eng-
land, and when Palmerston brought in a "Conspiracy to Murder
Bill," which made such a crime a penal offense whether commit-
ted in England or out of England, the opposition took advantage
of the popular clamor to denounce what they stigmatized as the
cringing policy of the minister. His bill was beaten and he was
forced to resign.
The logical outcome of the resignation of Palmerston was a
return to a conservative administration, and the queen recalled
Derby and Disraeli. While the war scare lasted the
Derby's new ministry had some showing of strength in the tre-
istry, 1853-9. mendous enthusiasm with which the whole nation took
to drilling and organizing volunteer companies, — a
patriotic but harmless activity, in which the ministers shrewdly
encouraged the people. The ministry, however, never had the
confidence of the Commons sufficient to command a majority,
1859-1865] THE AMEEICAN CIVIL WAR 1033
and although Disraeli sought to gain favor with the Liberals by
bringing in a bill which proposed to extend the £10 household
franchise of the boroughs to the counties, his effort to "educate
his party" as he called it, was not taken seriously. His proposal
to give the franchise to university graduates, physicians, and law-
yers, regardless of property qualifications, and to any one who could
show a balance of £60 in a savings bank, was derided as a proposal
to create "fancy franchises." The bill was lost on the second
reading. An appeal was then made to the country and a new
parliament summoned, but the very first division proved that the
ministry was without the necessary majority and Derby and his
colleagues resigned.
The French war scare had now blown over, and the sober
second thought of the people once more turned to the great leader
who had brought them out of the Crimean War, and
Paimerstnn'8 carried them through the trying period of the Mutiny.
secondminis- _, , -,■-,, i, ..
try, 1859-1865. Palmerston accordingly returned, to remain in power
until his death in 1865. These years were years of
great anxiety; there were stirring times abroad, and although
after the Chinese War, England remained at peace with the world,
her foreign relations called for the exercise of a clear head and a
steady hand.
The year 1859 saw the interference of Napoleon III. in Italy,
the overthrow of the Austrians at Magenta and Solferino, and the
rapid advance of Italy to national unity under the lead
seemed, of the king of Sardinia and his able minister, Cavour.
The year 1861 saw this movement finally consummated
when an Italian parliament formally declared Victor Emmanuel
King of Italy.
The same year saw the outbreak of the American Civil War.
England was deeply interested from the first. The blockading of
the southern ports cut o£E her cotton mills from their
oamCiva supplv of raw cotton and forced them to shut down:
War 1861-65. ^^ •' '
Attire of T^yages were stopped; thousands of operatives were
people. thrown out of work and their families brought to the
verge of starvation. All related business also suffered ; and noth-
ing but the generous gifts of private charity saved the great Lan-
1034 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [victobia
cashire mill district from distress as serious as that caused in
Ireland by the potato famine. The relations of the two govern-
ments remained, therefore, under serious tension during the whole
course of the war. A noisy party who cared little for other than
English interests, would have Palmerston actively interfere in
order to separate the warring sections, but the starving operatives,
although they believed that it would be a simple matter to send a
British fleet to America, break the blockade and secure cotton and
work in abundance, saw more clearly the real issue at stake, and
determined that they would go without work and suffer, rather
than be relieved by supporting the cause of slavery.
The Palmerston ministry aif ected to respect the laws prescribed
by civilized nations in such cases; but hastened to recognize the
Confederate States as belligerents at the first oppor-
Attituae of tunity. It certainly was not a friendly act, and
ton Ministry, aroused great bitterness in the north. Yet the English
had a right to place their sympathies where they
would, and as the laws of nations go, the Confederate States
could be justly recognized as belligerents. In 1861 the relations
of the two governments were strained almost to the point of war
as a result of the action of Captain Wilkes, a United States naval
oflBcer, whose name had been heretofore associated with a peaceful
and all but forgotten exploring expedition in the southern Pacific.
Wilkes had overhauled the British steamer Trent and taken from
her Mason and Slidell, two Confederate envoys who had been
sent by the Confederate government to England. The overzeal
of Captain Wilkes undoubtedly put the Federal government in
the wrong, and Palmerston promptly seized the opportunity to
assert the majesty of the British fiag, a course which probably any
other foreign state not particularly friendly to the United States
would have taken under the circumstances, poured troops into
Canada and made a great bluster of his determination to have
reparation or fight. Lincoln and Seward did the only thing to
be done under the circumstances; they restored the arrested
envoys and offered the apologies prescribed by the convention of
nations under such cases. If, however, the British ministers
were inclined to an ostentatious punctiliousness in observing the
1865-1873] ALABAMA CLAIMS 1035
laws of nations in dealing with the Federal government, they were
not so -careful in dealing with the Confederate cruisers which
from time to time were fitted out in English ports for the purpose
of preying upon Northern commerce. The United States at the
time could not take action, but when the war was over the matter
was taken up and pushed to a final settlement in the
*'A.l(ibciin(i ~
ciaitm" Geneva award of 1873; the Southern sympathies of
aettUd, 1872. •' -^
Palmerston's ministry cost the British government the
sum of £3,000,000.
Before the American "War had closed, another war cloud had
begun to rise in Germany. The desire for national unity which
had been first quickened by the "War of Liberation in
ofOerman 1813, had survived in spite of the repressive measures
unity, .
of the Metternichian system. In 1834 a very signifi-
cant step had been taken in the direction of closer union by the
formation of the Zollverein, in which the German states Joined in
a customs union for the purpose of securing free trade among
themselves. Yet Austria, which was really an aggregation of
many nationalities, had little interest in encouraging the desire for
German national unity ; and as long as she remained the dominant
influence among the group of German states, the cause of national
union could make little progress. But in 1861 William I. became
king of Prussia. N"o such man had ascended the German throne
since the days of the Great Frederick. He was a thorough Ger-
man in all his sympathies, an untiring worker, and possessed a
mind able to grasp correctly all the conditions of the problem
which confronted Germany, and a soul great enough to enter into
the deep longing of the German people for unity. "William, also,
had the discernment to draw to his side two of the most remark-
able men of the century, Bismarck and von Moltke. Through the
one he addressed himself to the diplomatic problem; through the
other to the military problem. As a result it was not long before
Austria had been outwitted in the council chamber and out-
fought on the battle field, and was at last respectfully bowed out
of the German family house altogether, leaving "William and Bis-
marck to carry out their plans for securing German unity.
As in the American "War Palmerston showed little appreciation
1036 DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD PARTIES [viotoeia
of the real merit of the struggle, and in the first stages which fell
within his ministry, was inclined to interfere. In this case, how-
ever, as in the almost contemporary troubles in Poland,
mfstnw^^ in which Palmerston also thought himself called upon
Sity^""""' *° meddle, the ofBoious minister received a humiliating
snub, and after blustering somewhat was compelled
to sit still and witness the making of German states out of the
duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
On October 18, 1865 Palmerston died at his post, at the ripe
age of eighty-one. In spite of his many faults, his fondness for
"Jingo" methods, his frequent rashness in speech and
Death of action, his over confidence and frequent inclination to
Palmerston, . ton i •
ises. needless meddlmg in the quarrels of others, he is yet
the great figure of the middle years of Victoria's reign.
No other minister since the death of "William Pitt had so long
enjoyed the confidence of the English nation.
CHAPTEE IX
THE RISE OF THE NEW DEMOCEACT. GLADSTONE AKD THE
SECOND ERA OE EEEOEM
TIOTOBIA, ISBd-iaOl
The death of Palmerston marks the beginning of a new era in
English politics. The Whigs of the middle class, who had carried
through the Reform Bill of 1832, had long: since ceased
The growth , , . .
(ifiAberai- to represent the advanced political thought of the
nation. They had taken their stand upon the results
of that redoubtable struggle, and were as reluctant as the old
Tories to consider any further extension of political rights among
the people ; their venerable chief, Lord John Russell, the hero of
the fight of 1832, had won the nickname of "Finality John" by
the persistent way in which upon any and all occasions he had
continued to assert the "finality" of that measure. Yet shrewder
men like Disraeli had seen that further reform was inevitable, and
even Lord Russell at last had been compelled to leave his "final-
ity" pedestal. A new revolution, in fact, had been quietly
enlarging the whole sphere of English thought. The extensive"^
introduction of the railroad and the steamboat, the penny post
and the electric telegraph, the vast increase in the number and
quality of books, the multiplication and cheapening of newspapers,
the enlargement of existing ideals of education and the adoption
of more rational methods, the granting of self government to the
colonies, and the growth of a sense of unity and mutual interest
among the widely extended members of the empire, had bred new
conditions and brought in a whirl of new ideas. In this vigorous
atmosphere had developed a new liberalism, founded upon con-
fidence in the democracy and faith in the British Empire; a
liberalism which, while it did not shrink from assuming the
1037
1038 THE SECOND ERA OP REFORM [vicioeia
responsibility of empire, insisted that in administering the vast
trust the government treat all with honesty and equal fairness,
and that in order to guarantee an administration which should be
fair to all, the government be so constituted as to represent all.
While Palmerston lived, his long continued popularity, his
commanding personality, as well as the deep respect in which he
was held by the younger members of his party,
uheraiand restrained the restless activity of his more radical fol-
whi^s drift- lowers. Yet long before his death it had become evi-
vng apart, ^
dent that the two wings of his party were rapidly
drifting apart. The conservative wing that represented the old
Whigs who had fought to bring the government into touch with
the middle class, shrank from the idea of a government by the
people, as Wellington and the older Tories had once shrunk from
any interference with the "G-od given" system in vogue before
1832. The liberal wing of the party, on the other hand, was
drifting dangerously near the Chartist ground, boldly facing the
responsibility of extending the suffrage, but with the snffrage,
proposing also to extend the facilities of public education and
rear a generation who should be worthy of the great trust of self
government.
While the wings of the Whig party had been thus steadily
drifting apart, the Tories had been moving as steadily forward
toward conservative Whig ground. The older Toryism,
ffteTortes'to ''^^i'^l^ ^^^ rallied its shattered columns about the
Whigl^ou^ standard of Peel after the defeat of 1832, only to draw
back and abandon him when he began the fight against
the Corn Laws, could no longer shut their eyes to the abuses, the
suffering and misery, inflicted by the ancient class laws upon the
toiling masses of England and Ireland. The older immobile pol-
icy, the blank quietus which ancient Toryism had for every project
of reform, had, therefore, long since been abandoned for a more
generous policy of conservative reform, and although the leaders
hesitated to raise the Liberal's cry of "government by the people,"
they fully and cordially espoused the cause of "government for the
people." Thus, even within the Conservative ranks the old stupid
and selfish conservatism, which had drawn its breath in the atmos-
1853-1865] GLADSTONE AITD THE NEW LIBERALS 1039
phere of privilege and vested interests, was rapidly giving way to
an "enlightened paternalism."
The new liberalism had found a natural spokesman in Glad-
stone. He possessed a peculiarly organized mind, wonderfully
gifted by nature and enlarged by studies in many
the fields. He was deeply sympathetic, upright, just,
the new incapable of simulation, and uncompromising in his
hatred of all sham or charlatanry. During his long
and successful career as administrator of the exchequer, he had
been steadily progressing as a liberal leader. He had not hesitated,
as new conditions offered the opportunity, in presenting his annual
budget, to apply the free trade principle which since Peel's day
had been an accepted tenet of the Whig party. Thus, in the
famous budget of 1853, while retaining the income tax, he had
boldly proposed the further reduction or repeal of the duties on
some 270 different articles, in the retention of every one of which
some powerful "interest" was concerned. In 1857 he had
opposed his chief in the China War, and had joined the opposition
in registering the disapproval of parliament. Again, in 1861, he
had led a determined fight against the old heavy tax on paper, and
carried his point at last in the teeth of a serious opposition in the
Lords. He had also recognized the justice of the demand of the
unrepresented classes for a more generous recognition in parlia-
ment, but while men like Disraeli and Eussell were raising the
cry of reform largely for political effect, he had been quietly
probing existing evils and had come at last to the conviction that
further parliamentary reform was not only inevitable but that it-
was the only sure and permanent means of betterment; and that
it was to be regarded not as so much political treacle for catching
voters, but as a great and holy cause to be advanced at the cost of
place or preferment, if need be. The radical elements of the
party, therefore, naturally looked to him as their leader. Palmer-
ston had recognized his strength and predicted that he would be
his successor, but had significantly added, "When he gets my
place, we shall have strange doings."
On the death of Palmerston little change was made in the min-
istry. His war seci^tary. Lord John Russell, whose name had long
1040 THE SECOKD ERA OF REF()EM [viotobia
been identified with the triumphs of the "Whig party, was advanced
to the vacant premiership, but Gladstone was now the con-
trolling influence in the cabinet. It was ominous for
MinStn"^^ the continued harmony of the Whig party. Eussell
Bill ^/me^ himself had for ten years been committed to moderate
reform, and it was not difficult for Gladstone to per-
suade his chief to consent to reopen the dangerous issue. In
the measure which was presented, Gladstone proposed to reduce
the franchise qualification in counties to the possession of a £14
holding and in boroughs to the possession of a £7 house ; further,
any man who could show a deposit in a savings bank of £50, of
two years' standing, was also to be allowed to vote. The measure
certainly was moderate enough; at the utmost it could add only
about four hundred thousand voters to those already enjoying the
franchise. Its moderation, however, was its undoing. The
radicals felt little enthusiasm in supporting it, while the Whigs
of the Palmerston following broke away from their colleagues and
united with the opposition. Eussell resigned, and Derby and
Disraeli came back to office. Derby, however, was now well along
in years, and the real management of the party fell largely to
Disraeli. In February, 1868, Derby retired altogether.
The Conservatives had come into power as the result of the
opposition to Gladstone's reform bill; but they in their turn were
forced to face the dangerous problem and devise some measure
which, while satisfying the popular demand, might yet avoid
arousing the fears of the Conservatives who had no desire to
increase the influence of the democracy in the House. Disraeli
fully expected that the Liberals would oppose him simply as a
matter of party spite; but he knew also that he would have no
little ditficulty in holding his own Conservatives
Disraeu and together. He was careful, therefore, to outline his posi-
parliamen- t • ^ „ ■ .
tary reform, tion, which may be taken as a fair presentation of the
platform of the new Conservative party. He was not
opposed to reform, "for in a progressive country, change is
inevitable;" the part of a Conservative leader is not to oppose all
reform, but to see that reforms "are carried out in deference to
the customs and traditions of the people. ' ' But as he understood
1867, 1868] THE EEFOKM BILL OF 1867 1041
these traditions, the government of England was founded upon
the distinctions of classes; the franchise was a privilege, not a
right, and should be bestowed only upon those who were fit to
exercise such a high trust. He hoped that it might never be the
fate of his country to live under a democracy.
The measure which Disraeli finally proposed was a curiously
complex scheme, devised with characteristic cunning to fool the
people and quiet the alarm of his followers. It pre-
Disraeii's tended to give what it really withheld; it proposed to
XtCjOTm JoiiVh ITT 1 1 n 1 i«
of 1867. extend the vote to a large class of the workmgmen,
but by a complicated scheme of double voting for the
"higher classes," it proposed really to swamp the influence of the
workingmen at the polls by the correspondingly increased influence
of the wealthier classes. Not satisfied with this, Disraeli vir-
tually proposed, also, to put into the hands of the wealthier classes
in each parish the power to admit to the franchise as they saw fit.
The plan was further cumbered by the old array of "fancy fran-
chises" that had once before been laughed out of parliament.
The House, however, felt the urgency of immediate action, and
refused to support Gladstone in his proposal to make a minis-
terial issue of the bill. Disraeli himself, although vague threats
were thrown out of appealing to the country, had no idea of push-
ing his elaborate scheme of "safeguards" to the alternative of
victory or resignation, and declared himself very willing to receive
suggestions or amendments from the House, a hint which the
House was not slow to avail itself of, leaving the bill in its
final form really more radical than the one which had turned out
the Eussell ministry in 1866.
The amended bill, shorn of its safeguards and fancy franchises,
received the royal assent August 15, 1867. The next year by
other similar acts the principle of the bill was also
morm""^ applied to Scotland and Ireland. As in the acts of
Mff?'" ■'**^' 1832, real property was still regarded as the basis of the
franchise; a man to vote must either own real property
or rent real property. In application, however, the principle was
greatly extended. In boroughs, in England and Scotland, any
householder whose house was of sufl&cient value to be assessed for
1042 THE SECOND EEA OF KEFOKM [viotoeia
the local poor rates could vote; in Ireland, where a lower assess-
ment prevailed, the property must pay a poor tax upon an assessed
valuation of at least £4. In boroughs, in the three kingdoms,
all male lodgers who could show a residence of one year and
who paid at least £10 a year for unfurnished lodgings, could
vote. In the counties the franchise was extended to all who
owned land of an annual value of £5; but tenants in order to vote,
in England or Ireland, must occupy land of at least £13 a year
rental value; in Scotland, of at least £14 a year. Scotland, also,
was allowed seven additional members, raising its representation in
the House to sixty. Ireland was left as fixed by the acts of 1833.
A successful attempt, also, was made to readjust the represen-
tation in parliament in accordance with the growth of population.
Eleven boroughs were disfranchised; thirty-five of less than 10,000
inhabitants lost one member each; the vacant seats were divided
between London and the great northern shires. The new prin-
ciple of minority representation was also recognized; wherever
three members were to be returned, the voter was allowed to vote
for two only. The "Second Reform Acts," as they are called,
mark an important stage in the progress of Great Britain towards
democracy. In the boroughs virtually any man who could earn
a living was entitled to vote; while in the counties the farm
laborer was almost the only man left without the franchise.
Disraeli in adopting household suffrage had thus stolen the pow-
der of the Liberal party, and they had not dared to oppose him.
The Conservatives, however, were not pleased; Derby had called
it a leap in the dark; others of Disraeli's colleagues had resigned
in disgust, among them the Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon,
and the Secretary for India, Lord Cranbourne.^
While press and public were eagerly watching the first stages
of the contest for parliamentary reform, a matter of hardly less
moment to the future of the empire had quietly pushed its way
through parliament and had become a law almost unnoticed. This
measure was the now famous "British American Colonies Confed-
eration Act," which empowered the British Colonies of North
'Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, Viscount Cranbourne, but
after April 12, 1868, Marquis of Salisbury.
1867, 1868] CANADIAN FEDERATION l043
America to form themselves into a federation to be known as the
"Dominion of Canada. " By this act, in November, the two Canadas
which had been united in 1840, were organized with
Amerfcm^^ Nova Scotia and New Brnnswick under a federal gov-
fedS^oMcm^ erament with full powers for the regulation of "Cur-
fsfiae^"'"'^ rency, Customs, Excise, and Kevenue generally ; for the
adoption of a uniform postal system ; and for the man-
agement and maintenance of public works and properties of the
Dominion ; for the adoption of a plan of military organization and
defense; for the introduction of uniform laws respecting the
naturalization of aliens and the assimilation of criminal law."^
Not of least importance among the duties imposed by the act
upon the Dominion Parliament was the construction of the Inter-
colonial Railway. Later were added Manitoba and British Colum-
bia with the Northwest Territory, which extended the jurisdiction
of the Dominion Government to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.
The foreign relations of the Derby-Disraeli ministry were quiet
enough. Austria was expelled from Germany by Prussia and
from Italy by Victor Emanuel; but England was no
The Ahus- j j .
sinianwar longer concerned in the misfortunes of her ancient ally.
of 1868
In the year 1868, an expedition numbering 13,000 troops
from the Indian army was sent under General Napier to compel
Theodore, an Abyssinian king, to release some British subjects
whom he had imprisoned. The prisoners were released and the
column retired as quickly as possible. King Theodore, a brave
and reckless barbarian, slew himself in chagrin at being humiliated
before his people.
A series of outbreaks in Ireland, in the meanwhile, had once
more forced the Irish problem into the foreground. Since the
potato famine and the breaking up of the Young Ireland
"Pentom" party, the land had been comparatively quiet. The
3863-67. ' thousands of Irishmen, however, who had come to
America had not forgotten the kindred whom they had left behind.
In 1863 a secret society was organized with a membership both in
1 From speech of the Governor-General on opening the first Parlia-
ment of the Confederation, Nov. 7, 1§67. Annual Register, 1867, Part I.,
pp. 281 and 383.
1044 THE SECOND EEA OF EEFORM [Victoria
Ireland and the United States, called the "Irish Republican
Brotherhood," but better known by the more popular name of
"Fenians," an Anglicized form of the name of the followers of
Finn, or Feona, the legendary king of Erin, who occupied some
such place in Irish legend as King Arthur's knights in British
legend. The purpose of the order was revolutionary; and in 1865,
when Eussell was Prime Minister, their plans were divulged and
several arrests were made. 0 'Donovan Eossa, an editor of the
"Irish People," was sentenced to a life imprisonment. The Habeas
Corpus Act was suspended in Ireland and many Irish leaders fled
to America. Here they laid plans for an invasion of Canada in
the hope of embroiling Great Britain and the United States in a
quarrel on their account. In May 1866 some twelve hundred men
crossed the Niagara river. The expedition was poorly managed
and easily discouraged by the determined front of the local militia;
while the disavowal of the United States Government took from
the leaders their only possible hope of success. Other revolts no
more successful followed in Ireland. The next year
December, j^ December an attempt was made to rescue several
Fenian prisoners from Clerkenwell by blowing out the
walls of the prison. The attempt was unsuccessful, but many
innocent persons were killed or injured by the explosion, and
London was thoroughly frightened.
The Liberal^ leaders fully believed that they could quiet Ireland
only by removing the causes of grievance, the chief of which at
the time were the enforced support of the Protestant
aiadsume Episcopal Church of Ireland by the Irish peasantry,
rmmstry, ^^^ jjjjg system of rack rents, by which the tenantry
were left to the mercy of the landlords. Disraeli
stoutly resisted every proposition to disestablish the Irish Protes-
tant Church, and after an unsuccessful appeal to the new constitu-
encies that had been created by his recent reform bills, in
December 1868 he resigned, and Gladstone became Prime Min-
ister. Gladstone's majority enabled him at once to carry out
his proposed plan of disestablishment; the church courts were
abolished and the Irish bishops were deprived of their seats in the
House of Lords; the churches, cathedrals, parsonages, and all
1860-1870] THE IRISH LAND ACT 1045
private endowments which had been given to the Irish Episcopal
Church since 1660, were left in its hands, but it became henceforth
a free church ; the clergy, also, were compensated for their life
interests. The anomaly of the Irish Episcopal establishment was
generally conceded, and the great body of English Protestants as
well as Catholics recognized the wisdom and justice of the Act of
„,_ . , ^ Disestablishment. A far more serious problem, how-
The acl of
Disestablish- ever, confronted Gladstone in the Irish land ques-
ment. t t i t ■ -i-i , n
tion. In Ireland, as m England, rents were fixed by free
competition. In Ireland, however, the competition among land-
lords for tenants was largely theoretical, while the competition
among tenants for land was a grim fact. Hence in Ireland it was
quite impossible for the tenant to meet his landlord on equal
terms. The landlord, therefore, generally made what terms he
chose with, his would-be tenant, compelling him, ordinarily, to
make all improvements, even to the erection of buildings, and sub-
jecting him to eviction on six months notice. If the tenant should
prove to be thrifty and enterprising and should seek to improve
his land, the temptation was strong for the landlord to exact in
increased rents all that the improvements were worth, or, since
the improvements belonged to the landlord,' to evict upon the
slightest pretext, or upon no pretext at all, in order to get the full
advantage of his improved estates.
In 1870 Gladstone bravely took in hand the knotty Irish land
question. He proposed to recognize the claim of an outgoing
tenant to receive some compensation for improvements ;
Land Act" tenants, also, who were evicted for any cause other
than nonpayment of rent, were to be entitled to dam-
ages. He further proposed, by lending public money to those who
wished to buy their farms to put it into the hands of Irish ten-
ants to escape permanently from the tyranny of the landlord.
Gladstone had great confidence in the "Land Act" and fully
believed that he had settled the Irish land question. But he
had not yet fathomed the depths of the greed of the landlord.
' This was the general custom. In the north of Ireland where the
"Ulster custom" prevailed, the outgoing tenant might sell his improve-
ments to the incoming tenant.
1046 THE SECOND ERA OF EEFOKM [victoria
The landlord simi)ly raised the rent of the undesirable tenant
until it passed beyond his ability to pay, and then turned him out
upon the charge of nonpayment, when, by the condition of the
Land Act, the tenant forfeited all interest in his improvements.
The purchase clause of the act likewise proved to be of little
value, since landlords were never willing to sell.
The same year saw the inauguration by the Liberal ministry
of another reform which was destined to be more fruitful in
results. It was felt that the simple extension of the
P*"J!S^'"™" franchise was not sufficient; but that it ought to be
iS'o^''*' followed by some consistent and far reaching plan
for public education. William E. Forster, the vice-
president of the council, took up the matter and succeeded in
pushing through the "Elementary Education Act." Since 1839
the education grant had been regularly administered by the com-
mittee of the Privy Council. The grant had been increased from
time to time until in 1859 it had reached £1,000,000. This
money had been used in supporting training colleges for teachers,
building schoolhouses, and maintaining schools. In 1862 an
unwise measure had made grants for the maintenance of schools
conditional on the success of the pupils in passing prescribed
tests. This was a good thing for the best schools, but the dis-
tricts that were most in need of help were shut out by the tests
and for ten years there was little increase in the annual appropria-
tion. Forster now proposed to allow any district to elect its
own school board and levy a local rate tosupport its school ; it might
also compel the attendance of the children. Teachers were to be
allowed to read and explain the Bible; but the time for such an
exercise must be fixed and regular, and parents who wished might
keep their children away. In no instance, however, was the
teaching of the catechism or the creed of any particular church
to be allowed. The bill was bitterly opposed by some Dissenters,
but on the whole was well received and marks a most important
advance in English public school education.
In 1871 Cardwell, Gladstone's war minister, presented the
first of a series of important army reforms, one of which proposed
to abolish the old absurd system of purchasing army commissions.
1871-1873] THE JUDICATURE ACT 1047
The army influence, naturally conservative in such a matter, made
a desperate fight, and so obstructed the bill that .the ministry
Army "^^^ obliged to gain its object by advising the
reforms. queen to cancel the royal warrant by which the pur-
chase of commissions had been authorized. An "Army Enlist-
ment Act" shortened the term of service from twenty-one years
to six years with the regiment and six years in the reserve.
Direct control over the militia and volunteers, which, since the
reign of Mary, had been vested in the lords-lieutenant of the
counties, was now placed in the hands of the crown and was fol-
lowed by a reorganization of the army upon a territorial basis.
The regiments were named from their counties ; the militia and
volunteers of the county became battalions of the county regi-
ment. The commander-in-chief of the army was placed directly
under the control of the war ofiBce.
In 1872 the government attempted to prevent bribery at elec-
tion by the "Ballot Act," which by making the voting for mem-
The"BaUot ^®^® °^ parliament secret, prevented the buyer of votes
Act" from knowing whether the voter had fulfilled his part
of the agreement or not. In 1873 Lord Selbourne, the Chan-
cellor, brought forward the "Judicature Act" which
catureAct," merged the old courts of Common Pleas, Kings Bench,
Exchequer, and Chancery, into one Supreme Court of
Judicature, but still subject to the ultimate appellate authority of
the House of Lords. The result has been greatly to cheapen and
simplify the processes of law, by removing the old lines which
centuries of custom had drawn between the ancient courts.
While the Gladstone ministry was thus in almost bewildering
rapidity bringing forward reforms at home, most important events
were crowding upon each other on the continent. The Franco-
Prussian War had broken out in 1870, and before the march of the
German legions the second French empire had melted away.
The overthrow of Napoleon and the establishment of the present
French Republic, however, were not the most significant results of
the war. All Germany had rallied to the support of King Wil-
liam of Prussia; an intense national enthusiasm had taken posses-
sion of all classes, and would be satisfied only by the union of all
1048 THE SECOND ERA OF EEFOEM [viotobia
the German states in a great German federal state with the King
of Prussia as. its hereditary sovereign. The King of Italy was
also quick to seize the opportunity offered by the troubles of
France. He moved upon Rome, and putting an end to the tem-
poral power of the pope made the ancient city, at last, the capital
of a united Italy. These two events, the unification of Germany
and the unification of Italy, mark the culmination of the two most
significant movements in continental history since the close of the
first Napoleonic era.
In its attitude toward these foreign struggles, the Gladstone
ministry, in accordance with modern Liberal ideas, had attempted
to carry out a high-minded and unselfish policy. Granville, the
Foreign Secretary, insisted upon the neutrality of Belgium ; but
when Kussia announced her determination to repudiate the pledges
which she had made at Paris in 1856, with France and Germany
at war, there was nothing left for England but to submit and
quietly strike out of the treaty the clauses which Eussia had
declared invalid. The same ministry saw also the long pending
dispute with the United States over the Alabama claims, settled by
the Geneva award, June, 1873.
The first ministry of Gladstone had now run a remarkable
career. He had taken up and carried to a successful issue about
every reform which had thus far occupied the attention
The fall of ^^ *'^® generation, and there was danger, apparently, that
s?OTie'minfc^* ^® *^® la.ea,A of a reform ministry, he would soon be
try, 1874. without a brief. Disraeli, with his inimitable power
of phrase-making, had sneeringly alluded to the
thorough way in which the ministry had cleared off the reform
docket by referring to the ministers as they sat on the treasury
bench before him, as "a row of extinct volcanoes." The country,
moreover, was weary of reform. Many severely criticized Glad-
stone's foreign policy as weak and truckling. Many Dissenters,
also, were not pleased with the Elementary Education Bill, and
when in 1873, in order to find some neutral ground upon which all
parties in Ireland might stand without quarreling, Gladstone pro-
posed to establish a secular University at Dublin, in which neither
theology, nor history, nor philosophy, should be taught, the very
1874-1877] DISRAELI IN POWER 1049
elements whom he sought to serve turned upon him and defeated
the bill. Gladstone at once resigned, and although the refusal of
Disraeli to take office kept Gladstone in power a few months
longer, when the Conservative gains in the election of 1874 left no
further doubt as to the drift of public sentiment, Gladstone again
resigned and Disraeli once more came into power.
Disraeli had now been before the country thirty years. His
party, however, had always been in the minority and although at
three different times the Conservatives under the nom-
Sympathy of .
thenatwn mal leadership of Derby had been permitted to form a
V)iOi conserv- ...
ativeprogres- ministry, it was always as a sort of ' stop-gap ministry"
and had never been allowed to stay long enough to
accomplish anything. The reform bill of 1867 had really been
the work of the Liberal opposition, and the Conservative ministry
had simply submitted. Now, however, it was evident that the
great mass of the people were coming to look with suspicion upon
further reforms and that the times were ripe for a successful min-
istry based upon a policy of "rest from violent changes," "good
administration," practical improvements, and a more vigorous
foreign policy in which the larger interests of the empire should
be the first care.
The outbreak of new troubles between the Turks and their
European subjects soon afforded the ministry a chance to show
what it could do in the way of protecting English
Theoutbreak interests abroad. In 1875 the Christian population of
tween Russia Herzegovina rose against the Turks; the neighboring
1877. ' provinces also were soon thrown into wild ferment. The
Turks began to put down these uprisings with their
customary ferocity, and their cruelties, particularly those per-
petrated in Bulgaria, once more stirred the resentment of Europe.
The most natural thing under the circumstances would have been
for the British ministry to give Russia a free hand in forcing the
Turk to grant the reforms which the provinces in revolt demanded.
But the ministers, still und-er the sway of the Conservative tradi-
tions of the past, saw in such a coarse the inevitable overthrow of
the Turkish empire and a vast accession of power if not of actual
territory for Russia in southeastern Europe. Yet in the present
1050 THE SECOND ERA OE HBEORM [victobia
state of public opinioa it would not do to repeat the Crimean War
and a second time protect Turkey against the demands of Russia.
The only hope, therefore, of a happy solution of the puzzling
question was to secure the cooperation of all the powers in enforc-
ing reforms upon Turkey. The attempt was made, but failed,
owing partly to the stolid determination of the Turkish govern-
ment not to yield, and partly to the refusal of England to agree to
some definite aggressive action on the part of the powers. This
was a blunder diplomatically, since it left the Eussian government
to declare war upon Turkey on her own account, and precipitated
the very issue which the Conservative ministry wished to avoid.
In June 1877 the Eussians crossed the Danube, and began the
occupation of Bulgaria. The Turks made a brave stand at Plevna
and from behind its vast earthworks held the Eussian army at bay
until December, when their works were finally carried by assault
and the Eussians poured through the passes of the Balkans.- Con-
stantinople was practically without defenses and its occupation by
the Eussians seemed imminent. If Turkey were saved, action
must be taken at once, and accordingly Disraeli, who had been
raised to the peerage in 1876 as Earl of Beaconsfield, dispatched
a -powerful English fleet into the eastern Mediterranean, called out
the reserves in England, and ordered Sepoy regiments from India
to Malta. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Derby, who was not in
sympathy with a course that promised war between England and
Eussia, resigned, and Lord Salisbury was put in his place.
In the meanwhile, on March 3, 1878, Eussia and Turkey had
already agreed upon a peace at San Stefano, the conspicuous fea-
ture of which was the proposed formation of an inde-
San Stefano, r, ■, ■ n \
March .?, pendent Bulgaria out of the regions lying between the
Danube and the upper Aegean. To this Beaconsfield
objected because, in the first place, such a state would cut European
Turkey in two, and in the second place would virtually bring
Russia to the Aegean, since from the first the new state must
necessarily be devoted to Eussian interests. He accordingly con-
tinued his preparations for war; the opposition protested and
Gladstone with his fiery appeals awoke the country. Yet Beacons-
field for once had his way; he forced Russia to consent to submit
1878] THE CONGRESS OF BEELIN 1051
the treaty of San Stefano to the approval or modification of a con-
gress of the powers to be called at Berlin. The now famous
congress met in June 1878 ; Beaconsfield and Salisbury
The Congress ■>
of Berlin. represented Great Britain. Before the meeting, how-
June,lST8. -n, ■ I ^ ^ &' "
ever, Kussia and Great Britain had come to an under-
standing by which the proposed Bulgaria was to be broken up as fol-
lows: (1) Bulgaria between the Balkans and the Danube was to have
autonomy but was to be tributary to Turkey ; (2) Bulgaria south of
the Balkans, Eastern Eoumelia, was to be allowed administrative
autonomy, but under a Christian Pasha ; (3) Montenegro, Servia,
and Eoumania were to be independent and to receive new acces-
sions of territory; (4) Eussia was to be allowed to extend her fron-
tiers to the mouth of tbe Danube and be given Kars and Batoum
in Asia, though Batoum was not to be fortified ; (5) Turkey was to
carry out reforms which for the future should secure her Christian
subjects in Crete and Armenia. In return for this friendly inter-
ference and for the further guarantee of the protection of the
Asiatic dominions of the Turk against Eussia, the Porte gave Eng-
land control of the island of Cyprus, thus adding one more to the
list of English milestones on the way to India up the Mediter-
ranean. The Congress of Berlin did little more than ratify the
terms of the amended Treaty of San Stefano; Beaconsfield returned
highly satisfied with his work, haying, as he declared, "secured
peace with honor." In the main object of his policy he had suc-
ceeded; he had secured British interests in the east. But to this
he had sacrificed the interests of the Christian population who
still groaned under the tyranny of the Turk ; he had made pos-
sible all the later atrocities in Armenia and Crete, and prepared
the way for future war between Greece and Turkey. Yet it is
fair to ask, if Eussia were not to be allowed to take possession of
Constantinople and herself expel the Turk from Europe, what more
could have been accomplished?
The Beaconsfield ministry had now reached high-water mark.
The noisy bluster of the "Jingoes" who had supported the min-
ister's high-handed dealing with Eussia, their boastful talk of the
power of English armies, or the prestige of the English navy, their
vaunting confidence in the future of the British Empire and their
1052 THE SECOND EBA OF EEFOEM [viotoeia
cold-blooded assumption of the paramount importance of its inter-
ests to all considerations of Justice or right in dealing with other
nations, could not long prevent the conscience of the
Decline!^ British people from getting a hearing, especially with
influence. such a mentor as Gladstone to rouse it to new activity.
The studied ostentation with which Beaconsfield had
conducted his administration, the fanfare of trumpets with which
each new achievement had been announced to the public, had for
a time influenced a certain class of minds. But the interest of
the people was now flagging; a wave of commercial depression
swept over the country ; nor could the addition of the ostentatious
"Empress of India" to the simple but majestic titles which gener-
ations of Englishmen, heretofore, had thought good enough for
their sovereigns, or the eflort to establish English influence in
Afghanistan, where an English army was sent to force an envoy
upon the reluctant Ameer, simply because he had seen fit to receive
one from Russia, or an attempt to draw the South African States
into a confederation after the Canadian pattern, or the annexation
of the Transvaal, or a war with the Zulus, prevent the attention of
the public from turning once more to the consideration of urgent
needs at home. In the election of March 1880 Beaconsfield
attempted to rally the Conservatives by appealing to their old time
fear of radicalism, painting in lurid colors the mischief that would
follow should the Radicals again come into power. But Gladstone
in his magnificent Midlothian campaign, in which he exposed with
telling effect the many vulnerable points of Beaconsfield's foreign
policy, carried everything before him, and returned to office with
a powerful Liberal majority. Beaconsfield died the next year,
leaving the leadership of his party to the Marquis of Salisbury.
Gladstone was now stronger than when he had taken office
twelve years before. He had a clear majority of fifty votes over
the Conservatives and Irish Home Eulers combined.
Qiadstane's He Secured the Radicals of his own party by giving posi-
try,is8o-85. tions to Bright, iawcett, and Dilke, while he made
Joseph Chamberlain, "the reforming mayor of Birm-
ingham," President of the Board of Trade. Dilke and Chamber-
lain were Radicals of the new school, who unlike the followers of
1880-1885] Gladstone's second ministbt 1053
the Manchester school, believed in a vigorous interference on the
part of the state, not only as a remedy in domestic evils, bnt also in
colonial and foreign affairs. The "extinct volcanoes," which had
so aroused Disraeli's mirth in 1873, were soon in fnll eruption
again. The "Burials Act" tore away almost the only
New reforms. . . ■'
remaining shred of the tissue of legislation by which
ancient bigotry had once sought to bind the limbs of nonconform-
ity, allowing the nonconformists the use of churchyards for
funeral purposes. By the "Employers' Liability Act," the
employer was made responsible for the results of carelessness or
negligence in subjecting workmen to unnecessary danger. By the
"Grand Game Act," the crops of tenants were preserved from the
inroads of such pests as the hares and rabbits that had been here-
tofore protected for the master's hunting. Ireland, also, where
experience had revealed the weak points of the earlier Liberal
legislation, early attracted the attention of the ministry, which
in almost its first legislation attempted to secure a law_
that would allow a tenant who was evicted for nonpayment of
rent to recover "compensation for disturbance." The Lords
defeated this important provision, but the next year
TTie "Second the "Second Irish Land Act" was more successful.
Act." This act formally recognized the co-proprietorship of
the tenant in the land which he tilled, and allowed him
to sell his interest to the highest bidder ; it established a land
court to fix rent by judicial action, the action to be revised every
fifteen years; it further gave the tenant a right to apply to this
court at any time. These regulations, which in many respects
were a distinct return to older feudal ideas, show the despair of
the ministers of ever -dealing with the Irish trouble justly or satis-
factorily by applying principles which ordinarily regulate the rela-
tions of landlord and tenant.
These measures, acceptable as they would have been in 1870, did
not satisfy the Irish leaders who wanted to abolish "landlordism"
^ altogether. They had organized a "Land League," by
TUe "Land ° •' .,,. ,., , .
League" which they proposed to gain their end through a system
of terrorism, waylaying landlord or agent or constable, and leav-
ing the dead body as a mute testimony of the danger of offend-
1054 THE SECOND ERA OF BEFOEM [victoeu
ing the League. A far more efficient as well as less dangerous
method of intimidation was demised in the "boycott," so called
from the name of the first yictim, Captain Boycott, the agent of
Lord Barne. Side by side with the war against landlords, the old
agitation for Home Eule was also revived, finding its champion
in Charles Stewart Parnell, a man of ability and resolution, and
without scruples in selecting methods. Home Eule, however, for
the time was hopelessly confused in the public mind with Land
Leaguism, and leaders like Parnell naturally fell under the dis-
approval which was aroused by the murders and outrages ascribed
to the League. Forster, the Irish secretary, was goaded to des-
peration by the inability of the government to bring the perpe-
trators of the secret murders to justice, and in 1881 in spite of
bitter opposition pushed through parliament his "Protection for
Life and Property Act," which empowered the government to
arrest and imprison without trial persons "reasonably suspected."
Parnell, Dillon, and some fifty more of the Irish leaders were
arrested and thrown into Kilmainham jail. The Land League
responded by issuing a manifesto which forbade tenants to pay
rent altogether. The government replied by a direct attack upon
the League itself as "an illegal and criminal association."
Gladstone, apparently, now thought that his subordinate had
gone too far, and in 1882 released Parnell and his fellow prisoners
from Kilmainham jail ; he had first, however, come to an
The PTioenix understanding with them that they would support the
ders, 1882. government in its effort to introduce liberal measures
and bring order out of the chaos. Forster resigned in
disgust, and Lord Frederick Cavendish was appointed to succeed
him. The new secretary had hardly arrived in Ireland before he,
with the permanent Under- secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, was
set upon in Phoenix Park by representatives of a secret society
called the "Invincibles," and stabbed to death. All thought of
conciliation was abandoned. A "Prevention of Crimes Act,"
authorized the government to examine witnesses secretly and to
try suspected persons before a special jury. A "gag law" was
also passed by the Commons for its own government, designed
to check tlie obstructive tactics which Parnell had adopted in the
1881]
THE BOEH WAR
1065
House and which, supported by the Irish vote, he had used to con-
siderable purpose.
While the ministers were thus heroically grappling with the
Irish problem, they were compelled to face another series of no
less perplexing problems connected with the wars
'wir^"Maov. *^^* ^^^ ^^^^l®^ *o ^^^"^ ^^ ^ T&&n\i of the high-
w*™?'*"''' li^'ii'^e'i foreign policy of Beacousfield. The heart of
the great Liberal premier was not in these wars;
yet to withdraw from them required great moral courage as well
as wisdom. The Afghans had overwhelmed a British army at
Maiwan, but in 1880 the famous march of General Roberts,
"Bobs," from Kabul to Kandahar and the defeat of the
Afghans at Pir Paimal, afforded an opportanity to retire from
the country with dignity, and the Afghans were left to them-
1050 THE SECOND EKA OP REFORM [victobia
selves. The annexation of the Transvaal, also, had been followed
by a revolt of the Boers, who had no desire to lose their independ-
ence for the sake of consolidating Englisli power in South Africa.
The British soldier made but a poor showing in conflict with the
Boer, who was far better skilled in the art of frontier warfare, and
after a series of disasters, an English army was cut to pieces at
Majuba Hill and their commander Sir George Oolley killed. A
large English force under General Wood was at hand, but Glad-
stone was unwilling to continue the further waste of human life in
a struggle in which he from the first felt that right was on the side
of the Boers, and accordingly ended the war by granting them
substantial independence. Unfortunately, for the sake of salving
British pride he retained a vague suzerainty over the Transvaal.
As the sequel has shown this was a mistake. It would have been
better either to liave renounced all authority or to have pressed
the war to the last issue.
A still more formidable trouble confronted the government in
Egypt. In 1863, Ismail, the grandson of the old Mehemet Ali of
the Palmerston days, had become Viceroy, or Khedive,
Egypt, Eng- of Egypt. He was a progressive man and anxious to
land and the . , , , . - . . .
Suez Canal, introduce western enterprise and civilization into
Egypt. He encouraged Ferdinand de Lesseps in his
scheme of cutting a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez and saw
the great work finally opened in 1869. Ismail's daring schemes,
however, had run far ahead of his ability as a financier. The
wretched peasantry of Egypt, the fellaJdn, upon whom rested the
crushing burden of his telegraphs and railroads, his harbors and
his canals, his army and his fleets, were entirely unable to meet
the ever increasing demands of the government, and in 1875 the
Khedive was compelled to sell to England his share in the canal.
The money, however, only brought a temporary relief; and in
1879 Ismail tried to shake himself loose from foreign control, but
failed, and was deposed in favor of his son, Tewfik; England and
Prance entered into a dual protectorate, or control of the country.
This was the condition of things when Gladstone assumed power
in 1880. The native Egyptians resented the subjection of their
country to foreigners; they were jealous of the French and Eng-
1882-1884] ENGLAND IN EGYPT 1057
lish army oflBoers and engineers, who as usual had begun to displace
the natives in the employ of their own government, and in 1882
the discontented elements rallied about an Egyptian soldier, known
to the world as Arabi Pasha, organized an insurrection, and seized
the forts which commanded the harbor and city of Alexandria.
The Khedive was powerless to protect his people; rioting, pillage,
and violence followed in the city. Prance, who was ill at ease over
the growing influence of England in Egypt, refused to assist in
maintaining order and left England to settle affairs as best she
could. An English fleet was sent to Alexandria, and in July
Admiral Seymour bombarded the city; troops were landed, and
finally in September General Wolseley wound up the
^t^Aiex- affairs of Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir. The Khedive's nom-
'jiiv''i882 ^'^a'^ authority was restored, but Egypt has remained
since virtually under English control, and when the
day comes for the dismemberment of the Sultan's dominions,
Egypt with enough of Syria to secure the canal, will probably be
England's share of the partition, thus adding the last stepping
stone through the Mediterranean to India.
The end, however, was not yet; the weakening of the Khe-
dive's power had encouraged a great religious uprising among the
Mohammedan population of the upper Nile. The
Gordon's ' movement gathered about a mysterious fanatic known
as the Maluli, or "the expected prophet," who accord-
ing to certain Mohammedan sects is to appear on the earth in the
last days and reduce the whole world to the reign of righteousness
after the Mohammedan idea. In November, 1883, an Egyptian
army under an English officer known as Hicks Pasha,
vemb^i " was defeated by the Mahdi and Hicks slain, and the
whole Soudan virtually passed into the hands of the
fanatics. Gladstone had no wish to assume responsibility for the
government of the wild and lawless Soudan, yet he could not
leave the few Egyptian garrisons that still remained faithful to be
exterminated by the fanatical followers of the Mahdi, and in Jan-
uary 1884 dispatched Charles George Gordon on his fatal errand
to arrange for the withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons from the
Soudan. Gordon, who had begun his career as an engineer
1058 THE SECOND ERA OF BEEOEM [viotobli
officer, had had a wide experience with the barbaric races of the
Orient. In 186i he had performed a great service for the Chinese
government in putting an end to the Taiping revolt; a service
which had fastened upon him the name of "Chinese Gordon."
He was well known in the Sondan, where, from 1874 to 1879, as
representative of the Egyptian government, he had made strenuous
, efforts to put a stop to the slave trade. He reached Khartoum
unarmed and almost unattended. He saw at once that it was use-
less to attempt to treat with the Mahdi and sent for military-
assistance. Gladstone, however, still shrank from the enterprise,
and hesitated to send an army to the Soudan, until the Mahdi's
hordes began to close upon the city and the popular outcry
against leaving Gordon to his fate compelled him to act. In
August 1884 General Wolseley was sent up the Nile
woiseUy with a relieving force. After five months of super-
Khartnum, human toil, On the 28th of January 1885, a flying
18S5. ' column which Wolseley had sent ahead, reached Khar-
toum, only to find that the city had been betrayed
two days before and Gordon slain. After some pretense of a
more energetic handling of the Soudan question, the English
troops were withdrawn to the Egyptian frontier, and the remain-
ing garrisons left to make the best terms they could with the
Mahdi.
The natural reaction which attended the unfortunate outcome
of the Soudan affair, greatly weakened the hold of the Gladstone
administration upon the country. Bat the appearance
The"Third, of "The Third Eeform Act" in 1884 and the agitation
ReformAct," n • i » n t . , , .
1684. which loilowed, regained something of the confidence
of the Liberal element in the nation. By this act,
which completed the work begun in 1832, the counties were
given the same franchise as the boroughs, thus virtually making
household suffrage the law of England. Boroughs with less than
15,000 inhabitants were deprived of separate representation in
parliament; boroughs with less than 50,000 were cut down to one
representative ; each boroughs with a population between 50,000 and
165,000, received two members each. The representation of Scot-
land in the Commons was raised to 72, but Ireland was left as in
1885] SALISBURY'S FIEST MINISTRY 1059
1868.' The act marks a great advance toward uniform electoral
districts with uniform representation on the basis of population.
The goyernment, thus far, had carried out its reform program
with triumphant success. Gladstone, however, by his continued
Defeat of hostility to Home Rule had roused the enmity of the
ouiOMone ^^^^^ Nationals, and in the very session which adopted
Minisiry. the Redistribution Bill, they seized the opportunity,
offered by some unimportant details of the budget, to
transfer their voting strength to the opposition. The defeated
measure was a proposal to put a new tax on beer and spirits, and
was without political significance ; but the vote revealed the fact
that the Nationals held the balance of power and were prepared to
force the government either to compromise or to resign. (Jlad-
stone chose the latter course.
The Conservatives were thus returned to power; but their
position was precarious. They were dependent upon the good-will
of the Irish Nationals for their majority, and this
Salisbury's support must necessarily be uncertain. Lord Salisbury,
ivfs t TfiiTtistfriJ
1885. ' the new premier, was fully as much opposed to Home
Rule as Gladstone; yet he had not been identified
with the recent repressive measures of the Liberal ministry and
was able to make conciliatory advances to his new allies by drop-
ping the Crimes Act and by appropriating a large sum under the
"Ashbourne Act" to assist Irish peasants in buying their farms.
The general election of November, however, made little change in
the relation of parties. In Ireland the recently extended franchise
told for Home Rule and increased the Nationals in parliament to
eighty-six; but in England and Scotland, where the Liberals
• Parliament as thus constituted still remains. Of the Commons there
are, in all, 670 members, assigned as follows : To England and Wales 495, to
Scotland 73, and to Ireland 103. Of these members, further, 377 repre-
sent counties, 284 represent boroughs, and 9 represent universities. The
membership of the House of Lords is constantly varying. At present it
consists of about 580 members. Of these, 26 are Lords Spiritual, 16 are
Scottish representative peers elected for the present parliament, 28 are
Irish representative peers elected for life; the remaining are peers of
the United Kingdom.
1060 THE SECOND ERA OF REFORM [viotobia
received the support of the newly-enfranchised lahorers, the
National gains were fully met by corresponding Liberal gains.
In the meanwhile, the announcement had been made from
various sources that Gladstone himself had embraced the cause
aiadntone °^ Home Rule. The rumor was vigorously denied
B^e^"Third ^^ ^^^ Liberal press, and when parliament assembled
Fefirao?^'- ^'^ consider the queen's address, much doubt still
July, 1886. existed as to Gladstone's position. The Nationals,
however, were already suspicious of their new friends, and the
announcement by Lord Salisbury that he proposed to suppress the
National League, which had taken the place of the old Land
League, was enough to send them all packing again to the Liberal
benches. They soon found that their confidence this time was
not misplaced. Gladstone returned to power and Home Eule was
formally added to the platform of the Liberal party.
It was certain that all the Liberal members would not follow
their chief in the espousal of Home Eule ; but how serious the
defection would be, and whether the accession of the
0/ lAberai Irish vote would sufRcientlv recruit the depleted ranks
party.
to enable them to hold their own, remained to be seen.
Hartington and Goschen and sixteen other Liberals had already
refused to assist in the overthrow of the Salisbury government.
Others waited in the hope that Gladstone might yet be able
to hold the party together and at the same time satisfy the
demands of the Irish members. But when the expected Home
Rule Bill at last appeared, Chamberlain, Bright, Trevelyan,
and some ninety others also withdrew. They refused, however,
to be merged in the ranks of the Conservatives, and standing by
the old Whig policy of the legislative union of the two kingdoms,
adopted the name of the "Liberal Unionists."
The Bill proposed to give the Irish a local parliament, pro-
hibited from endowing or disabling any religious body. It cut
ofE the Irish from all representation in the imperial parliament,
but required Ireland to pay her share toward the expenses of the
imperial government. A "Land Purchase Bill" was added that
proposed to advance from the imperial treasury £50,000,000 to
be used by the Irish government to assist the tenants in buying
1886, 1887] FIRST HOME RULE BILL 1061
their farms under the Ashbourne Act. At the second reading
the bill was thrown out largely by the vote of the Union Liberals,
although many of the Irish Nationalists also voted
Fi^Homt ^^*^ ^^^ opposition because of the proposed exclusion
Sf ^^"' ^^ *^® I^i^^ tvom the imperial parliament. Gladstone
then appealed to the country. The excitement was
intense; rival candidates attacked each other with the utmost
bitterness, and after one of the most heated campaigns of modern
times the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists were sent back
with a combined majority of 118 votes over the Irish and Liberal
Home Rulers.
Salisbury had now returned in triumph and Home Eule appar-
ently was dead. Something, however, must be done for Ireland,
where the peasantry were growing desperate under their
f^or^min- Sufferings. The plan of fixing rent by judicial action
newirSh" had only increased the burdens of the tenants, since the
Lmd Act, rates were fixed at a money valuation and the prices of
farm products had steadily declined. Thus, where it
took one pig to pay the rent in 1881, it took two pigs in 1886.
Salisbury who had promised to the electors "a government that
would not flinch," although he had dropped the Crimes Act when
he needed the Irish votes, now proposed to make the Act perpet-
ual, and carried the measure in spite of the opposition of Glad-
stone and the Home Eulers. Hand in hand with this measure,
however, the government passed a new Land Act, by which judicial
rents that had been fixed before 1886, were to be revised; lease-
holders, also, that is those who held land under contracts, who
had been excluded from the benefit of the act of 1881, were
included. The act was passed, although a similar act proposed
by Parnell the year before had been defeated. In 1888, £10,000,000
were added to the sum appropriated for the purchase of Irish
farms under the Ashbourne Act, and the next year parliament
formally took in hand some much needed public works in Ireland,
such as the construction of a system of drainage and the intro-
duction of railroads.
In the meanwhile, Home Eule was seriously suffering in the
public estimation as the result of a personal attack upon Par-
1063 THE SECOND BRA OF REFORM [victoria
nell. A series of articles were published in the Times under the
head Parnellism and Crime, in which an attempt was made to
show by means of fac-simile letters, that Parnell had
AtiacTiwpon been connected with the Phoenix Park murders. The
Parnell.
letters were proved afterward to be forgeries and
Parnell secured damages to the amount of £5,000. But in 1890
he became further involved in a divorce suit, which had the efiEect
of completely destroying the confidence of the public and led to a
defection in the ranks of his party in favor of Justin McCarthy.
Parnell, however, refused to yield his position as leader, and the
disruption of the party was probably saved only by his timely
death in 1891.
The government was by no means so engrossed with the Irish
question that it did not find time for many other useful acts.
In 1887 the empire celebrated the queen's Jubilee in
u"uiaiton *'^® midst of great rejoicing. In 1888 Goschen,
cif Salisbury t]-,g j^g-^y Chancellor of the Exchequer, carried out a
ministry. ^ '
plan by which the interest on the public debt was
reduced from 3, to 3^ per cent. In 1889 the government author-
ized the building of seventy new warships at an expense of
£21,500,000. In 1890 and 1891, important educational measures
were adopted, which proportioned grants to the needs of districts
and made elementary education free in England and "Wales. In
1888 elective county governments were introduced patterned after
the elective Corporation Councils of 1835,^ and in 1890 a sum of
money was applied to such councils of counties as were willing to
undertake the establishment of technical and intermediate schools.
In the general election of 1892 Gladstone again came be-
fore the country, but upon a somewhat broader platform than
in 1886, known as the Newcastle Platform, and the
ministrauon Liberals were returned to parliament with a majority of
stone"'w9g forty votes. Salisbury resigned and Gladstone resumed
office for the fourth and last time. Gladstone at once
presented his second Home Rule Bill which differed from the first
largely in giving the Irish a representation in the imperial parlia-
ment. At first he proposed to allow the Irish members to vote
' See page 998.
1892-1894] EETIEEMBNT OF GLADSTONE 1063
upon imperial questions only; but the injustice of this restriction
was so apparent that it was speedily abandoned, and the bill was
so amended that the votes of the Irish members should be fully
equal to those of other members of parliament. After three
months of vigorous discussion the bill finally passed the House.
The Lords, however, rejected it by a vote of 419 to 41. Before
such a majority even Gladstone flinched, and although in the
Newcastle Program he had pledged himself "to mend or end" the
House of Lords, he refused to raise the gauntlet; only by a revo-
lution could he have met such an overwhelming opposition.
Home Eule, accordingly, was abandoned, and the ministry
turned to meet other pledges which it had made to the people.
Chief of them in importance was the creation of Parish
'Parish i -■->
Cmmciu and District Councils, completing the system of local
JjXLlf 1892 •
self-government begun by the Act of 1835. By this
act "Parish Councils" were established in all the larger parishes,
and "Parish Meetings" in the smaller parishes; the parishes, also,
were grouped into districts and over each district was placed a
"District Council." Thus a regular chain of local elective gov-
erning bodies was instituted, rising from the parish councils
through the district and the county councils to the imperial
parliament ; 'a system which to an American may be illustrated
by the somewhat similar chain of town, county, state, and nation.'
Gladstone was now approaching his eighty-flfth year. His
service had been almost continuous since 1833, and if ever a serv-
ant had earned the right to rest from his labors, he
Retirement • n i • i i r ■ ^
of Glad- had. He still carried his burden of years with rare
grace and dignity; the marvelous intellect was
undlmmed; the lofty courage, which had never faltered in the
paths of righteousness and justice, still faced the future, with
the upward look, the clear-eyed faith of old; and yet in the course
of nature the end could not be far off. Gladstone determined,
therefore, to resign, and on March 3, 1894, took leave of his col-
leagues and retired to the peace of his beautiful home at Hawarden
■ Of course when we pass the county the comparison will not bear
pressing, for the relations of state and nation in America are very dif-
ferent from those of the English county and the imperial parliament.
1064 THE SECOND EEA OF KEFOEM [victobia
Castle. Here he died four years later, May 19, 1898;— the
"Grand Old Man" to the last.
Upon the retirement of Gladstone his duties were turned over
to his foreign secretary, Archibald Philip Primrose, better known
as Lord Eosebery, who made few changes in the cabinet
heru minis- and thus virtually continued the Gladstone ministry.
i89i-June The program which the new premier announced was
formidable but practical, following lines already laid
down by his chief, even to the continued shelving of Home Rule.
It soon became evident, however, that with the retirement of
Gladstone the spirit had departed which had so long held the
Liberal party together. Other views, also, were beginning to be
heard outside the walls of the Parliament House; the ghost of the
old Chartist movement was abroad again; Socialism was daily
gaining its adherents ; new claims were pressing for a hearing, as
strange to the Liberals of the sixties and the eighties, as parlia-
mentary reform had been to the followers of Peel and Wellington.
Hardly ten days after the retirement of Gladstone, Henry Labon-
chere formally presented to the Commons a resolution that pro-
posed, in plain words, to abolish the legislative functions of the
House of Lords. The resolution was carried by two votes. The
attendance was small, the resolution was unexpected, and the vote
could not be taken in any sense as an expression of the opinion of
the Lower House; yet the fact that such a resolution could pre-
vail in any assembly of the House, carried with it an ominous
threat for the future, and served to quicken fears which had
been allayed somewhat by Gladstone's moderation. The Irish
National party, moreover, had been shattered by the fall of Par-
nell, and their divided forces could no longer be counted as an
element of Liberal strength. The strength of the ministry, there-
fore, was rapidly waning; and in June 1895, an adverse vote upon
a question of comparative unimportance forced Eosebery to resign.
Upon the resignation of Eosebery, "Salisbury was for the third
time invited to form a ministry. He had little reason to expect
support from a parliament whose liberal majority had forced him
to resign three years before, and at once appealed to the nation.
The results fully revealed the strength of the Conservative reac-
1895-1901] THE THIRD SALISBURY MINISTRY 1065
;ion. In the new House, out of 588 members, the Conservative
ministry commanded 411 votes. The campaign, however, had
been fought out chiefly on the issue of Home Eule, and
fenativere- inasmuch as the Liberal Unionists had returned sev-
wjto?»o/ enty-one members, in making up his Cabinet Lord Salis-
bury saw fit to strengthen his position still further by
recognizing this element in the appointment of Joseph Chamberlain
is Colonial Secretary, Goschen as First Lord of the Admiralty
wid Spencer Compton Cavendish, the duke of Devonshire,* as
President of the Council. Lord Salisbury himself assumed the
duties of foreign secretary, and James Arthur Balfour, his nephew,
became First Lord of the Treasury and leader of the Com-
mons.
The third Salisbury ministry is thus strictly a coalition minis-
try; and, as with most of the coalition ministries of the past, it
has not only proved unusually strong, but has also
[Aberal ^ , , ,, -, ,,-,,,
lendencyof advanced to the very ground now held by the party
third mm- which it has nominally supplanted. Its Liberal tend-
encies have been singularly illustrated by its attitude
toward Irish Home Rule. While its opposition to the establish-
ment of a separate Irish parliament has remained as uncompromis-
ing as ever, it has fully acknowledged the justice of
9avernment Irish discontent, and by the "Local Government Act"
A.ct"Au- of 1898, has extended to Ireland the system of govern-
ment by means of local councils, recently established in
Great Britain, thus really adopting the principles of the Union
Liberals rather than the Conservatives, and granting to Ireland a
position within the empire which approximates nearly to that
at Scotland and Wales.
The attitude of the Salisbury ministry towards the colonies,
ilso, is far different from the position of the earlier Conservatives ;
. ^ ,. it is more liberal even than that of the Gladstone min-
^ederatvm jgtry of 1867. Thus the six Australian states have
January i, J
1901. ijeen allowed an absolutely free hand in forming the
federal constitution that went into effect on the first day of the
aew century, although the new constitution is not only more
' Before 1891, Marquis of Hartington.
1066 THE SECOND ERA 03? KEPOEM ' [vioioeia
democratic than the Canada Federation Act, but in some impor-
tant features it is more democratic even than the Constitution of
the United States.
The foreign administration of Lord Salisbury, in its patience
and moderation, has also resembled the conduct of that ofiBce by
the Liberals rather than the Conservatives, and for the
policy of same reason has been severely criticised. Even Con-
servatives have not failed to rail at their chief, for
vj'hat they have been pleased to call a vacillating, truckling policy.
They have remembered the glorious days of the Berlin Congress,
and have not failed to contrast the forbearance of Salisbury with
the somewhat ostentatious bluster of the old-time chief of the
Jingoes. Yet in spite of the criticism, as far as the issue has yet
been revealed, as in the Venezuela afPair, the wisdom of Lord
Salisbury's position has certainly been vindicated. In general,
while paying little heed to the bogies which in the days of Palm-
erston or Beaconsfield used to send English politicians into such
paroxysms of alarm, and persistently refusing to go to war simply
to avert some hypothetical danger to the empire in the future, he
has yet steadily insisted upon the integrity of the empire, the
respect of existing treaties by foreign nations, and the duty of
the government to protect its subjects, aud has been content to
advance the interests of the empire upon the more substantial
basis of commercial treaties and international friendships.
It is too early to write the history of the present Boer war, or
to attempt to pass judgment upon its causes or to tabulate its
results. It is interesting, however, to note that in the
The Second °^® ^^^^ where Lord Salisbury has allowed himself to
Boer war. \)q forced from his policy of moderation and forbear-
ance, he has been more severely criticised than for all
the other measures of his administration put together. But
whatever the rest of the world may think, or whatever may be the
ultimate verdict of history, the people of Great Britain have cer-
tainly given their judgment in the recent elections of 1900, and
the Salisbury ministry crosses the threshold of the new century,
apparently stronger than ever in the confidence of the nation.
From present indications he is destined to remain in power as long
1901] DEATH or QUEEN- TICTOEIA 1067
as his advancing years will permit him to perform the duties of his
high ofBce.
On the 23d of January 1901, the long reign of Queen Victoria
came to an end. She had entered the sixty-fourth year of her
reign and was completing the eighty-second year of her
Queen°fic- ^S^' ^'^ *^® length of her reign, few monarchs have
um^'^'^Moi surpassed her ; in the solid achievement of her reign, no
monarch can rival her. It is trne that the greatness
of England daring this long period has been due to ten thousand
forces, working many of them in unseen and even humble chan-
nels, and that with much of this achievement, directly and person-
ally, Victoria has had little to do. This fact, however, is not by
any means to be ascribed to the personal nonentity of the sover-
eign, but to the complexity of modern national life and to the very
multiplicity of the sources from which it springs. But if a list of
these sources were to be drawn out, of the elements that have
moulded and directed British character, that have contributed
most to British greatness during the past sixty years, there must
be mentioned among the first the goodness, the personal nobility,
the sweet womanhood of her who has so long borne the title of
Queen, who has imparted a new dignity to monarchy, and made
the sovereign once more an object of patriotic affection.
With the new king, Edward VII. , who enters into the posses-
sion of this priceless inheritance of affection and loyalty, to all
appearances there begins a new era in the development
hegimwith of British history. Since Gladstone's retirement, the
Edward VII. , . , , t -j.- j. j i •
party in power has shown no disposition to undo his
work. But just as the Conservatives of 1841 accepted the work
of the first era of reform as a finality, and joining with the Con-
servative Whigs advanced to Whig ground under the leadership of
Peel, so the Conservatives of to-day, uniting with the less radical
wing of the Liberals, have accepted the reforms of the Gladstone
period, and under the leadership of Salisbury and Chamberlain
have boldly faced the future.
The goal, moreover, is not so remote that it may not be
already discerned ; — the release of the dependent populations of
the British Empire from their political nonage and the union of
1068 THE SECOND ERA OF REFORM [edwabdVU.
all in a vast system of self-governing federations, all the members
of wbich shall have equal political rights and equal standing before
the laws. This is democracy pure and simple; the very
and the new democracy which Lord John Eussell so vehemently
Imperialism. .,. , . _ . ^„„^ , i-i-r. r. ^ -, -, • -• ■
disclaimed m 1833 and which Beaconsfield decried in
1867. And yet to-day only the blindest of Conservative prejudice
can look upon the approach of Great Britain to a government
by the people with other than confidence. For if democracy is
making rapid strides, public education is likewise advancing,
redeeming the people of Great Britain from the curse of illiteracy
and preparing them for the trust of self-government.
In the colonies the advance of the democracy was long feared
as the presage of the ultimate dissolution of the empire. But
the people of the widely-extended dependencies have proved them-
selves quite as capable of a vigorous, liealthy loyalty to the empire,
quite as susceptible to pride in the British name as the old-fash-
ioned land-oligarchy that once ruled within the narrow seas. If
democracy has advanced, the principle of federation has also
advanced. The empire is "no longer the empire of England, or
the empire of Great Britain, but the. empire of all the British
possessions," an empire resting not upon force but upon loyalty
and mutual interest, an empire in which is to be recognized in the
future as the fundamental law of its constitution, — absolute equal-
ity of rights among all its members.
PHOMINENT BRITISH STATESMEN OF MODERN TIMES WHO HAVE
ENTERED THE PEERAGE.
When date of assuming title Is Important It is given In parentheses. Courtesy titles
are given in quotation marks.
Aberdeen, E. of * George Hamilton Gordon d. 1860.
Albemarle, D. of, (1660) George Monk d. 1670.
Althorp, see Spencer
Ashlej, see Shaftisbury ....'.'.'.'.' .....
Beacousfleld, E. of, (1876) Benjamin Disraeli (i. 1881.
Bollngbroke, v., (17U) Henry St. John d. 1751.
Bute, E. of John Stuart d. 1792
Carmarthen, see Leeds
Castlereagh, see Londonderry "
Chatham, E. of ■William Pitt d. 1778.
Chesterfield, E. of Philip Dormer Stanhope d. 1773.
Clarendon, E. of, (1660) Edward Hyde (2.1674.
Clyde, B.,(1858) Colin Campbell d. 1863.
Dalhousle, E. of, (1860) Fox Maule Ramsay (1882), Baron Paumure d. 1874.
Danby, see Leeds
Derby, E. of, (1851) Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, Baron Stanley.^. 1869.
Devonshire, D. of, (1891) Spencer Compton Cavendish, "Marquis of Hart-
ington"
Gleuelg, B., (1835) Charles Grant d. 1866.
Goderieh, see Eipon
Grey, E Charles Grey, Viscount Howlck d. 1845.
Granville, E., (1744) John Carteret, Baron Carteret d. 1763.
Guilford, E. of, (1690) Frederick North, "Lord North" d. 1792.
Hartington. see Devonshire
Halifax, M. of. George Savile d. 1695.
Halifax, E. of Charles Montague, Baron Halifax, (1700) d. 1730.
Howick, see Grey
Lansdowne, M. of, (1784) William Petty, Earl of Shelbume, (1761) d. 1805.
Lansdowne, M. of Henry Petty-FitzMaurice d. 1863.
Latimer, see Leeds
Londonderry, M. of, (1821) Robert Stewart, "Viscount Castlereagh" d. 1823.
Leeds, D. of Thomas Osborne, Lord Latimer, Earl of Danby,
Marquis of Carmarthen d. 1696.
Mahon, see Stanhope
Marlborough, D. of, (1702) John (3hurchill, Earl of Marlborough, (1689) . ..d. 1733.
Melbourne, V WUllam Lamb <?. 1848.
Melville, v., (1802) Henry Dundas d. 1811.
Newcastle, D. of Thomas Pelham d. 1768.
North, see O-uilford
Nottingham, see Winchelsea
Oxford, E . of , (171 1) Robert Barley d. 1724.
Palmerston, V Henry John Temple d. 1865.
Panmure, see Ifalhousie
Portland, D. of WUllam Henry Cavendish Bentinck d. 1809.
Ripon, E. of, (1833) Frederick John Robinson, Viscount Goderieh,
(1827) d. 1859.
Eookmgham, M. of Charles Watson Weutworth d, 1782.
Rosebery, E. of Archibald Philip Primrose
Russell, E., (1861) John RusseU, "Lord John Russell" d. 1878.
Salisbury, M. of, (1868) Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, "Lord
Robert Cecil," "Viscount Cranbourne" (1865).
Sandwich, E. of John Montague d. 1792.
Shaftesbury, E. of, (1672) Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley d. 1683.
Shelbume, E. of, see Lansdowne
Shrewsbury, D. of, (1694) Charles Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury d. 1718.
Sldmouth. v., (1805) Henry Addington d. 1844.
Spencer, E., (1834) John Charles Spencer, "Viscount Althorp" d. 1845.
Stanhope, E Philip Henry Stanhope, "Lord Mahon" d. 1875.
Sunderland, E. of, (1643) Robert Spencer d. 1702.
WelUneton, D. of, (1814) Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington, (1809,)
Earl and Marquis of Wellington, (1813) . . ..(«. 1852.
Winchelsea, E. of Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham d. 1730.
* D. = Duke. M. = Marquis. E. = Earl. V. = Viscount. B. = Baron.
INDEX
Aachen, Treaty of, 895.
Aberdeen, see Gordon.
Abyssinian war, 1043.
Addington, Henry, Viscount Sid-
mouth, prime minister, 958;
secures peace with France, 959 ;
member of ministry of All the
Talents, 963 ; of Liverpool min-
istry, 970; the Six Acts, 979;
resigns, 980.
Addison, Joseph, 860.
Afghanistan, war in, 1013, 1086.
Agincourt, battle of, 446.
Agrarian revolution, in George
III. 's reign, 916.
Agricola in Britain, 10-12.
Aidan, 23, 41.
Aids, feudal, defined, 177.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 895.
Alabama claims, 1035, 1048.
Albert, Prince Consort, 1006, 1007,
1020.
Alouin, 64.
Alexander I., czar of Russia, rela-
tions with Napoleon, 963-966,
968, 971, 972.
II., czar, closes war with Eng-
land, 1024, 1025; war with Tur-
key, 1049-1051.
III., king of Scotland, 324.
Alexandria, bombardment of, 1057.
Alfheah, archbishop of Canter-
bury, 113, 119.
Alfred, king of England, wars with
Danes, 63, 65-68; government
of, 68, 74-76; death and char-
acter, 76, 77.
Alien Bill, 847.
Alma, siege and battle of the, 1023.
Alney, Truce of, 117.
A.lthorp, Viscount, see Spencer.
America, early English settlements
in, 809, 896 ; wars with French
in, 897, 898; condition of colo-
nies, 923, 925, 926, 933, 934; the
Revolution, 935-940; civil war
in, attitude of English people
toward, 1033, 1034.
American Duties' Bill, 926; re-
pealed, 938.
Amicable Loan, the, of Henry
VIII., 523.
Amiens, Mise of, 288.
Peace of, 958.
Amity and Commerce, treaty of,
970.
Angles, settlements of, in Britain,
19, 21, 32.
Anglicana Ecelesia, 541.
Annates, defined, 373; seized by
Henry VIII., 539; restored to
church by Anne (Queen Anne's
Bounty), 843.
Anne, Queen, accession of, 836;
political sympathies of, 887,
853; relations to church, 843;
death, 856; England under,
856-860.
Boleyn, see Boleyn.
of Bohemia, wife of Richard II.,
418; relation to Lollards, 413,
430.
of Cleves, wife of Henry VIII.,
551, 552.
Neville, see Neville.
Annual Indemnity Act, 880.
Anselm, archbishop of Canter-
bury, 187, 192, 193.
Antoninus, wall of, 11.
Appellant, Lords, rising of, 418;
fall of, 421.
Aquitaine, acquired by Henry II.,
208; wars of English in, 209,
314, 226, 240, 363; reorganized
by Edward III., 382; adminis-
tration of Black Prince in, 883-
886; recovered by Prance, 464.
Arabi Pasha, 1057.
Architecture, Cistercian, 201;
changing styles of, 870, 496.
Argyle, Archibald, earl of, 694,
703, 754.
1070
INDEX
1071
Argyle, Archibald, marquis of, re-
bellion of, 783, 784.
Arkwright, Richard, inventor of
spinning by rollers, 912.
Armada, the Spanish, 609-613.
Armagnaos, origin of name of
party, 437, 447.
Arminians, the, party in English
church, 650.
Arms Act, the, 1016, 1017.
Army, Council of the, 699.
Declaration of the, 699.
Enlistment Act, 1047.
Plot, 671.
English, regular, beginning of,
748.
Arras, Congress of, 456.
Arteveldt, James van, "the Brevs^er
of Ghent," 358, 359.
Philip Van, successor of former
slain at Rosbecque, 413.
Arthur of Brittany, 345, 247.
Prince of Wales, son of Henry
VII., marries Catharine of
Aragon, 510.
Articles, the Forty-two, 570.
the Six, 549, 550; repealed, 576.
the Ten, 548.
the Thirty-nine, 596, 814.
Arundel, see Fitz-Alan.
Thomas, archbishop, 437, 440.
Ashbourne Act, the, 1059, 1061.
Ashburton, 940, 941.
Ashdown, battle of, 63.
Ashingdon, battle of, 116.
Assembly, the General, of Scot-
land, 663.
Asser, biographer of Alfred, 73.
Assiento, the, 855, 873, 883.
Assize of Arms, the, 336.
of Clarendon, 320. .
of Northampton, 336.
Athelney, 66.
Athelstan, 83, 85.
Auckland, Lord, in India, 1013.
Augsburg, League of 794, 795, 829,
830, 834.
Peace of, 617.
Augustine, St., in Britain, 35; con-
ference at Augustine's oak, 40.
AumAle, William of, 370, 271.
Austerlitz, battle of, 962.
Australia, South, settlements in,
1013, 1018, 1019.
Australian Federation, 1065.
Austria, see under vsrars of Spanish
succession; wars of Austrian
succession ; Seven years' war ;
French Revolution; and Napo-
leon.
Austrian succession, the war of the,
Babington Plot, 607.
Bacon, Francis, Sir, 616: impeached,
639.
Bacon, Roger, 330.
Bailiff, the, in the manor, 181.
Balaclava, battle of, 1024.
Balfour, James Arthur, 1065.
Ball, John, popular agitator, 405.
Balliol, Edward, king of Scotland,
354; expulsion of from Scot-
land, 355.
John, claimant to Scottish
throne, 334; does homage to
Edward I., 325; breaks with
Edward I., 327; death, 327,
note.
Ballot Act, 1047.
Bank of England, founded, 833.
Bannockburn, battle of, 338, 339.
Barbadoes, colonized, 809.
Barebone's Parliament, see Nomi-
nated Parliament.
Barnet, battle of, 483.
Barons' war, 888-391.
Basing, battle of, 63.
Batavian Republic, 953.
Bauge, battle of, 449.
Beachy Head, battle of, 830.
Beaconsfield, see Disraeli.
Beauchamp, Richard, earl of War-
wick, 457.
Thomas, earl of Warwick, 418;
431, 432.
Beaufort, Edmund, duke of Somer-
set, minister of Henry VI., 459;
reverses of in France, 460 ; sup-
ports king against ■ Yorkists,
463, 466; death, 467.
Henry, duke of Somerset, 477.
Henry, bishop of Winchester,
451, 456; cardinal, 455; favors
peace, 457; death of, 458, 459.
Lady Jane, marries James I. of
Scotland, 436.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 617.
Becket, Thomas, early life, 314;
archbishop, 215, 316; at Coun-
1072
INDEX
cil of Woodstock, 316; quarrel
with Henry 11., 217-322; death,
333.
Bede, at Wearmoutli, 52; "Ecclesi-
astical History" of, 53.
Bedford, John, duke of, regent of
France and protector of Eng-
land, 450 ; French campaigns of,
451, 450; death of, 457.
-Grenville ministry, 931.
Belesme, Robert of, 190, 191.
Belfast College, 1011.
Benedict Biscop, 43, 49, 53, 64.
Benevolences of Edward IV., 487;
abolished by Rioliafd III., 491;
Henry VIII., 523; Charles I.,
645.
Bentinck, William, duke of Port-
land, prime minister, 966; re-
tires 970.
William, Lord, in India, 1013.
Beowulf, 73.
Berlin, Congress of, 1051.
Decrees, the, 985.
Bermuda, colonized, 809.
Bernicia, see of, divided, 47.
Bertha, wife of Ethelbert of Kent,
34.
Berwick, won by English, 355 and
note.
Bible, the Great, 549.
Translations: Alfred, 73 ; WycHfif,
413; Tyndale, 537; Coverdale,
549 ; authorized version, ©33.
Bigod, Roger, earl of Norfolk, 313.
Bill, the Great, 580.
Bishops' War, the first, 665.
the second, 667.
Bismarck, 1035.
Black Death, 371, 373, 375.
Black Friars, see Franciscans.
Black Prince, Edward the, at Crecy,
367; campaigns of, 376-878;
interferes in Spain, 384 ; last war
in France, 385-386; death, 394.
Blake, Admiral, 716, 719, 735, 747.
Blenheim, battle of, 841.
Bloody Assizes, the, 785.
Blount, Charles, Lord Mountjoy,
in Ireland, 632.
Bllicher at Ligny, 973; Waterloo,
974.
Boadicea, 9, 10.
Boer War, the first, 1055, 1056.
the second, 1066.
Boethius, "Consolations of Philos-
ophy," 73.
Bohun, Humfrey de, earl of Here-
ford, 312.
Bolingbroke, see St. John, and
Henry IV. of England.
Boleyn, Anne, 534, 527, 539, 540;
541, 550.
Bonaparte, Napoleon, in Italy, 954;
in Egypt, 956; First Consul,
957 ; Peace of Amiens, 959 ; be-
comes emperor of the French,
960; proposed invasion of Eng-
land, 961; Austerlitz, 963; su-
preme in Europe, 963 ; the Con-
tinental system, 964 - 966 ;
Peninsular War, 967; over-
throw of Austria, 968; Russian
campaign, 971, 973; Elba, 972;
Waterloo, 973; St. Helena, 974.
Boniface VIII , pope, quarrel with
Edward I., 310; claims Scot-
tish overlordship, 330.
Bonner, bishop, 564, 575, 584.
Book-land, 30, 153, note.
Boston Massacre, 933.
Tea Party, 934.
Bosworth, battle of, 493.
Botany Bay, convict colony estab-
lished, 949.
Bothwell Brigg, battle of, 775.
Both well, earl of, murders Darnley,
598; marries Mary Queen of
Scots, 598; death, 599.
Boulogne, Treaty of, 556.
Bourbon Family Compacts, 883, 890,
909.
Bouvines, battle of, 358.
Boycott, origin of name, 1054.
Boyne, battle of the, 816.
Braddock's campaign, 898.
Bramham Moor, battle of, 435.
Breaute, Faulkes, de, 363, 370, 371.
Breda, Declaration of, 744.
Peace of, 756.
Bretigny, Treaty of, 380, 882.
Bretwalda, 55, note.
Bridgewater, Francis, duke of,
builder of Manchester-Liver-
pool canal, 914, 915.
Brigham, Treaty of, 324.
Bright, John, 1008, 1052.
Britain, early, population of, 2-7;
under Romans, 7-17; Roman-
izing of, 8 ; Roman policy in, 9;
INDEX
1073
revolt of Boadioea, 9, 10; or-
ganization of, by Romans, 14,
15; decline of Roman power in,
British American Colonies Con-
federation Act, 1042, 1043.
British Museum, beginning of, 895.
Brougham, Henry, Lord, 991.
Bruce, Robert, the elder, claimant
to Scottish throne, 334.
Robert, the younger, see Robert
I., king of Scotland.
Brunanburh, battle of, 84.
Buckingham, see Stafford and Vil-
liers.
Bull, John, origin of name, 833 and
note.
Bunker Hill, battle of, 936.
Bunyan, John, his "Pilgrim's Prog-
ress," 751.
Burgh, Hubert de, justiciar of
Henry III., 270; suppresses
barons, 271 ; recrowns Henry
III., 271; his fall, 373-374.
Burghley, see Cecil.
Burgundy, Charles, duke of, ally
of Edward IV., 485.
Philip, duke of, ally of Henry
V. , and Bedford, 448.
John, duke of, ally of Henry V.,
444, 445 ; murdered at bridge of
Montereau, 448.
Burke, Edmund, interest in India,
932; sympathy with Ameri-
cans, 935; "Whig leader, 940,
Q41, 943, 944, 945, 950; takes
part in attack on Warren Hast-
ings, 947.
Burials Act, 1053.
Bute, John Stuart, earl of, minister
of George III., 908, 921.
Butler, James, duke of Ormond,
lord - lieutenant of Ireland,
,710; the act of settlement,
753
Bishop of Bristol, "the Analogy,"
866.
Buttington, battle of, 75.
Bye Plot, the, 635.
Byng, George, Admiral, wins bat-
tle of Cape Pesaro, 871.
John, Admiral, fails at Minorca,
900; shot, 904.
Byron, Lord George, joins Greek
insurgents, 984.
Cabal, the, 760.
Cabinet government, beginning of,
443, 761, 835, 879.
Cade Rebellion, 461, 468.
Cadiz, Drake's expedition to, 609.
Cadwalla, 50.
Cadwallon, 39, 40.
Caedmon, 47.
Caesar in Britain, 7.
Calais, siege of, by Edward III.,
368; importance of possession,
369; loss of, 585.
Calcutta, beginning of English pos-
session of, 808; Black Hole of,
900, 901.
Calder, Admiral Robert, meets Vil-
leneuve off Finisterre, 961.
Calendar Bill, Chesterfield's, 895.
Calverts, the, found colony in
Maryland, 662.
Cambridge, Richard, earl of, con-
spiracy of, against Henry V.,
445.
Cambuskenneth, battle of, 338.
Cameron, Richard, leader of Scots
in revolt against Charles II.,
774, 775.
Campbell, Sir Colin, Lord Clyde,
raises siege of Lucknow, 1030.
Campeggio, cardinal, papal legate,
535.
Camperdown, battle of, 954.
Campion, Edmund, Jesuit mission-
ary to England, 604; death,
605.
Campo Formio, treaty of, 954.
Canada, struggle of English and
French for, 897, 898, 907; early
discontent of people of, 946,
999; insurrection in, 1000; the
Caroline affair, 1000; Pitt's Bill,
999; union of, 1000, 1043, 1043;
Fenian invasion of, 1044.
Canning, George, foreign secre-
tary, 966, 967; resigns, 980; re-
called, becomes leader of Com-
mons, 981; opposes Holy Alli-
ance, 981-986; favors Catholic
emancipation, 986 ; interferes
in Greece, 984; prime minister
and death, 987.
Canterbury, early Jutish settle-
ment of, 47; establishment of
Christian mission at, 34; be-
comes seat of archbishop, 85.
1074
INDEX
"Canterbury Tales," 401, 402.
Canute, struggle with Edmund
Ironsides, 114, 115; succeeds to
English throne, 117; policy of,
117; charter of, 118, 119; in
Italy, 119; death and results of
reign, 120, 121 ; laws of, 122.
Cape Colony, seized by British, 952 ;
permanent annexation of, 974.
Carausius, 15, 16.
Cardinal CoUege, later Christ
Church College, founded by
Wolsey, 523.
Caroline of Anspach, queen of
George II., influence of, 877.
of Brunswick, wife of George
IV.. 979; death, 980.
Carr, Robert, viscount of Roches-
ter, earl of Somerset, favorite
of James I. , 634.
Carta Mercatoria, 304.
Carteret, John, Earl Granville,
ministry of, 887 ; involves Eng-
land in war of Austrian suc-
cession, 889; his Austro-Sar-
dinian treaty, 890 ; resigns, 891.
Cartwright, Edmund, inventor of
power loom, 913.
Carucage, levied, 286, 240.
Cassivellanus, 7.
Castlereagh, see Stewart.
Cateau Cambresis, 592.
Catesby, Robert, leader in Gun-
powder Plot, 637.
Catharine of Aragon, marries
Arthur Prince of Wales, 510;
Henry VIII., 514; divorced,
524, 525, 539; death, 551.
of France, queen of Henry V., 448.
of Portugal, queen of Charles II.,
755.
Catholic Emancipation, Indul-
gences of Charles II., 758, 764;
the Hales Case, 788; Indul-
gences of James II., 790, 792;
opposed by Gordon rioters, 931 ;
favored by Pitt for Ireland, 958 ;
military disability removed
from Catholics, 978; opposed
by WeUington, 987; the Act of,
989.
Cavendish, Frederick, Lord, 1054.
Spencer Compton, duke of
Devonshire, marquis of Hart-
Ington, 1060.
Cawnpore, massacre at, 1029, 1030.
Caxton, William, English printer,
499.
Ceawlin, conquests of, 22, 23, 25,
33.
Cecil, Robert, earl of Salisbury,
minister of Elizabeth, 615; of
James I., 624; defeats Cobham
Plot, 625; financial policy of,
631 ; foreign policy of, 635 ;
part in marriage of Princess
Elizabeth, 635.
Robert Arthur, viscount Cran-
bourne, marquis of Salisbury,
refuses to support Disraeli's
reform bill, 1042 ; foreign secre-
tary, 1050; first ministry of,
1059; second ministry of, 1061,
1062; third ministry of, 1064,
1067; foreign policy of, 1066.
William, Lord Burghley, secre-
tary of state under Elizabeth,
589; defeats the Ridolfi Plot,
601; death, 615.
Celts, in Europe, 3; migrations to
Britain, 4; customs of, 4-6.
Ceorl, defined, 28.
Cessation of Arms, the, 688, 689.
Chad, 45.
Chalmers, Thomas, Free Church
movement in Scotland, 1014.
Chalons, Little battle of, 322.
Chamberlain, Joseph, president of
Board of Trade, 1052, 1053;
colonial secretary, 1065.
Chapter of Myton, 340.
Charles Edward, "the Young Pre-
tender," invades Scotland, 892;
failure of and death, 894.
v., emperor, king of Spain, 517;
elected emperor, 519; ally of
Henry VIII., 520, 521; wars in
Italy, 521 ; abdication of, 579.
VI. , emperor (archduke Charles),
claimant to Spanish crown,
831, 832, 843, 849; elected em-
peror, 854; death, 888.
VII., emperor (elector of Bava-
ria), claimant to Austrian suc-
cession, 888; elected emperor,
889.
of Biirgundy, see Burgundy.
I. of England, journey to Madrid,
641 ; accession, 642 ; character
and policy, 642, 643 ; first quar-
INDEX
1075
rel with parliament, 643-646;
troubles with his third parlia-
ment, 647-652 ; first era of Stuart
despotism, 653 - 666 ; troubles
with Scotland, 663-668 ; in Scot-
land, 675 ; plots with Irish lords,
676 ; attempts to impeach five
members, 678-680; civil war,
681-696; a prisoner, 696, 697;
intrigues with Scots, 701;
second civil war, 703, 703 ; trial
and execution of, 704, 705.
Charles II. of England, in Scotland,
712; invades England, 715, 716;
issues Declaration of Breda,
744: restoration of, 745; char-
acter and policy, 745, 746 ; mar-
ries Catharine of Portugal, 755 ;
renews commercial attack
upon Holland, 756; personal
rule of, 760 ; Treaty of Dover,
762; allies with Louis XIV.
against Holland, 762-765 ; strug-
gle against Exclusion Bill, 771,
772 ; second era of Stuart tyr-
anny, 778-781; attacks the
charters, 780; death, 781; abil-
ity of, 781.
V. of France, first Dauphin, 379 ;
wars with Edward III., 378,
380, 883, 385, 386, 388.
VI. of France, condition of
France under, 448; death of,
451.
VII. of France, murder of John
of Burgundy, 451 ; assisted by
Joan Of Arc, 454, 455 ; crowned
at Rheims, 455.
VIII. of France, his wars in Italy,
509; wars with Henry VII.,
504.
IX. of France, religious wars of,
596, 600.
X. of France, deposed, 990.
II. of Spain, relations to war of
Devolution, 761, 762; to parti-
tion treaties, 830, 831 ; declares
Philip of Anjou his heir, 832;
death, 833.
III. of Spain, war with England,
909, 910.
IV. of Spain, deposed by Napo-
leon, 967.
XII. of Sweden, death of, 871.
Charter, the Great, 260-363; strug-
gle for, 266-293; confirmed by
Edward!., 814.
of the Forests, the, 369.
Chartist agitation, 1003, 1008, 1010,
1018.
Chatham, see Pitt.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 399, 400; the
"Canterbury Tales," 401, 402.
Chester, battle of, 23, 24.
Chevy Chase, see Otterburn.
Chichester, Sir Arthur, in Ireland,
633, 633.
China, first war with, 1005 ; second
war with, 1036, 1031, 1033.
Chippenham, battle of, 66.
Chivalry, 331-333.
Christian Brothers, the, 537, 538.
Christianity, planting of in early
Britain, 13, 14; reintroduction
in Teutonic Britain, 84, 35, 43.
Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 73, 181.
Churchill, John, duke of Marlbor-
ough, in service of James II.,
784; deserts James II., 799; in
Ireland, 817, 830; influence
under Anne, 837-839 ; character
of, 838; military career of,
839-841, 844, 845, 851; breaks
with Tories, 843, 843; disgraced,
853 ; end of career, 867.
Sarah, Lady Marlborough, influ-
ence over Anne, 837 ; dismissed,
853.
Cistercians, in England, 300, 301.
City, the, 79, 89, 151, 198, 342-344;
growth of, 172; see also London.
Civil hst, adopted, 821.
Civil war, the first, 681-695; the
second, 702.
Clare, Richard de, "Strong-bow,"
earl of Strigul and Pembroke,
invades Ireland, 224.
Richard of, earl of Gloucester,
friend of Simon de Montfort,
384; opposes Simon, 385, 387.
Gilbert of, earl of Gloucester, aUy
of de Montfort, 287; joins his
enemies, 391 ; defeats Simon at
Evesham, 391-393, forces Henry
III. to accept terms of the bar-
ons, 395.
Gilbert of, earl of Gloucester,
335 ; one of the Lords Ordain-
ers, 836; slain at Bannockburn,
339.
1076
INDEX
Clarence, George, duke of, 476, 479,
480; deserts Warwick, 483;
death, 486.
Clarendon, assize of, 330.
Code, 750.
Constitution of, 318.
Edward Hyde, earl of, see Hyde.
Claverhouse, John Graham of.
Viscount Dundee, see Gra-
ham.
Claudius, emperor, in Britain, 7, 8.
Clement VI., pope, see Schism, the
Great.
VII , pope, 531 ; action in divorce
case of Henry VIII., 534, 525.
Clergy, low moral tone of, in time
of Georges, 865.
Clericis Laieos, the Bull, 311.
Clive, Robert, Lord, successes in
India, 900; conquers Bengal,
905; death, 931.
Closter-seven, convention of, 90B.
Cluniac movement, the influence of
the, in England, 199.
Clyde, see Campbell.
Coalition against France, the first,
953 ; the second, 956 ; the third,
963; the fourth, 973; the fifth,
973, 973.
Ministry, the, 942; overthrown,
943.
Cobbett, William, agitates for par-
liamentary reform, 978 ; elected
to parliament under Reform
Bill of 1832, 995.
Cobden, Richard, prominent in at-
tack on Corn Laws, 1003.
Cobham Plot, the, 635.
Cochrane, Thomas, assists Greek
insurgents, 984; forces battle
of Navarino, 985.
Coercion Act, 995.
Coffee, first introduced In England,
859; houses under Charles II.,
769.
Coinage, early adulteration of, 205,
313, 556, 567, 568, 575; restored
by Elizabeth, 595; by WilMam
III., 827, 828; specie payment
suspended during French Revo-
lution, 955; resumed, 978.
Coke, Sir Edward, chief justice,
supports independence of
courts, 636; dismissed, 637; re-
news struggle in parliament,
639-641 ; attacks judicial abuses,
647, 648; death, 666.
Cold Stream Guards, origin of, 748.
Colonies, English, in western hem-
isphere, 809, 896; French, in
western hemisphere, 810; rela-
tions of English and French,
897; progress of English, 1013,
1013.
Commons, development of the.
Council of St. Albans, 354; of
Oxford, 257; Montfort's parlia-
ment, 290; the model parlia-
ment, 307-309; the parliament
of York, 344 ; later years of Ed-
ward III., 397; under Lancas-
trian kings, 430, 441, 442, 443.
475, 476 ; nature of struggle of,
with Stuarts, 618-633; see also
parliament.
Conimuna, the, 243.
Commendation, defined, 175.
Commerce, English, growth of, 304,
494, 495, 807, 808, 809.
Commonwealth, proclaimed, 708;
on the seas, 716; respected in
Europe, 716, 717; war with
Spain, 735 ; war with Holland,
719-730.
Company of Jesus, see Jesuits.
Comprehension Act, the, 750.
Comyn, John, victor at Roslin, 330 ;
death, 331.
Congregation, Lords of the, 593.
Conservatives, origin of party, 1009.
Continental system, 954 ; effect of,
965; completion of, 966; failure
of, 968.
Contract, the Great, 631.
Conventicle Act, the, 751.
Cook, Captain, discoveries of, 949.
Cooper, Anthony Ashley, earl of
Shaftesbury, member of Cabal,
761 ; lord chancellor, 764; leader
of Country Party, 768; im-
prisoned, 769 ; the Habeas Cor-
pus Act, 772; favors Mon-
mouth, 775, 776, 779; struggle
for Exclusion Bill, 771; end of
career, 778, 779.
Coote, Colonel Eyre, defeats Count
Lally at Wandewash, 907.
Copenhagen, battle of, 958, 959
Copyholder, the, 373.
Corbiesdale, battle of, 713, 713.
INDEX
1077
Corn Law of 1815, 976, 977.
Corn Laws, agitation against, 1003,
1014; repealed, 1015.
Cornwall, conquered by West Sax-
ons, 54.
Cornwallis, Lord, in America, 939;
in Ireland, 955.
Corporation Act, 750.
Corporations, attacked by Charles
IL, 779,780; by James XL, 791,
793; reform of the, 991-994.
Cotton famine, the, 1033, 1034.
Council of Clarendon, the, Henry
XL's, 318.
Lillibourne, the, William X.'s,
135.
Oxford, the, John's, 357.
Oxford, the, Henry HI.'s, 381.
Salisbury, the, William I. 's, 171.
St. Albans, the, John's, 354.
St. Paul's, the, John's, 356.
Westminster, William I.'s, 155.
Westminster, Henry II. 's, 818.
Woodstock, Henry IX. 's, 316 ; con-
tinued under parliament, see
also Magnum Concilium.
Counties palatine, established by
William I., 168.
County Councils, 1063.
Court-baron, the, 176.
Counts, the royal, 194, 313, 303, 630,
631 ; see also judicature Act.
Courtenay, Edward, conspires
against Queen Mary, 577, 578;
death, 579.
Courts, local, decline of, 194; source
of royal revenue, 195.
Covenant, the Scottish National,
664.
Covenanters, persecutions of, 755.
Cranmer, Thomas, archbishop of
Canterbury, aids Henry VIII.
in divorce, 539, 550; favors
Protestantism, 557 ; issues
Prayer Book, 564; death, 583.
"Craftsman" the, 860, 878.
Crecy, battle of, 365-367.
Crimean War, 1033-1036.
Crompton, Samuel, inventor of the
spinning mule, 913.
Cromwell, Oliver, member from
Huntingdonshire, 687 ; organ-
izes the Ironsides, 688 ; at Mars-
ton Moor, 690; Naseby, 693;
seizes Charles I., 699; Preston,
703; crushes Levellers, 709; in
Ireland, 711, 713; Dunbar, 714;
crushes rising of Scots, 715;
attitude toward Dutch war,
718; expels the Rump, 731;
position after expulsion of
Rump, 733, 723; the Nominated
Parliament, 734 ; lord protector,
737-739; reforms of, 731, 733
his parliaments, 733, 735, 737
absolute rule of, 734 ; death, 738
character and personal traits
738, 739.
Richard, succeeds Oliver as lord
protector, 739 ; failure of, 741.
Thomas, secretary of state to
Henry VIII., 543; favors re-
forms, 544-551; his Lutheran
alliance, 551; fall and death,
533
Crusades, 188, 337, 333, 384, 396,
414.
Crystal Palace, 1030.
Cumberland, Ernest, duke of, be-
comes king of Hanover, 999.
•George, duke of, Fontenoy, 893;
Hastenbeck, 903; CoUoden, 894;
Closter-seven, 903.
Cunobelinus, 7.
Curia Regis, 169, 170, 194, 313.
Custom, the Great, 304.
Cuthred, 54.
Dacre, homage of, 83.
Dalhousie, Lord, in India, 1013
annexations of, 1037, 1038.
Danby, see Osborn.
Danegeld, first payment of, 108
second, 109; third. 111; abol
ished by Edward the Confessor,
170; revived by William I.
156, 170, 171.
Danelagh, the, established, 63, 67.
Danes, the, in England, 55, 56, 57,
63-65, 74, 75, 107-115.
Danish kings in early England,
106-134.
Darien Company, the, 846.
Darnley, Henry Stuart, Lord, mar-
ries Mary Queen of Scots, 898:
David I., king of Scotland, ally of
Matilda of Anjou, 304.
II., king of Scotland, 355, 368,
433.
Dauphin, the, origin of title, 379.
1078
INDEX
Dawstone, battle of, 23.
Debt, the national, founded, 822.
Decemvirate, the, 723.
Declaratory Act, the, 925.
Delhi, capture of, 1029.
Demesne, the, 173.
Dennisburn, battle of, 41.
Deorham, battle of, 23.
Derby, see Stanley.
Dermot of Leicester, Irish chief-
tain, 224.
Derwentwater, revolt of, 868.
Desmond, see Fitzgerald.
Despenser, Hugh le, justiciar of
Henry III., killed at Evesham,
293.
Hugh le, the elder, 342 ; triumph
of, 844; death of, 346.
Hugh le, the younger, 342 ; influ-
ence of, 344; fall of, 346.
Dettingen, battle of, 889.
Devereaux, Robert, earl of Essex,
favorite of Elizabeth, in Ire-
land, 614; intrigue and death,
615.
Robert, second earl of Essex,
parliamentary general, cam-
paign of Edgehill, 684 ; relieves
Gloucester, 686; at Newbury,
686 ; at Lostwithiel, 691 ; loses
position by Self-Denying Ordi-
nance, 693.
Devolution, war of, 761.
De Witt, grand pensioner of Hol-
land, 756, 764.
Disestablishment, the Act of, 1045.
Disraeli, Benjamin, earl of Beacons-
field, opposes repeal of Corn
Laws, 1015, 1016; member of
first Derby ministry, 1021 ; of
second Derby ministry, 1032,
1033 ; prime minister, 1040 ; re-
form bill of, 1040, 1041 ; opposes
Irish disestablishment, 1044; re-
signs, 1044; second ministry,
policy in Russia-Turkish war,
1049, 1050, 1051: decline of in-
fluence, 1052; death, 1052.
Dissenters, founding of body of,
751, 752, 756; see also Claren-
don Code, and the Corporation
Act.
Distraint of knighthood, 304, 672.
Divine right of kings, 619, 622, 803,
804, 806.
Domesday Survey, the, 171.
Dominicans, the, in England, 320.
Dona, defined, 177.
Dost Mohammed, regains Afghanis-
tan, 1013.
Douglas, Archibald, earl of, cap-
tured at Homildon Hill, 433;
part in first rising of the Per-
cies, 434, 435.
Dover, treaties of, 762, 763.
Drake, Sir Francis, voyages of, 608;
expedition to Cadiz, 609, 616.
Drapier Letters, the, 860.
Druids, the, 6.
Dryden, John, his "Absalom and
Achitophel," 778.
Ducal families, disastrous results
of creating, 428.
Dudley, Edmund, minister of
Henry VII., 508; death, 513.
John, earl of Warwick, 560 ; suc-
ceeds Somerset in council, 567 ;
his Protestantism, 568; his re-
forms, 569; duke of Northum-
berland, 572; proclaims "Queen
Jane," 573; fall and death, 574.
Guilford, man-ies Lady Jane
Grey, 572; death, 578.
Robert, earl of Leicester, favorite
of Elizabeth, 537 ; expedition to
Holland, 607.
Dunbar, battle of, 718, 714
Dundee, see Graham.
Dunois, general of Charles VII. of
France, 452.
Dunkirk, acquisition of, 735, 741;
sale of, 755.
Dunstan, early career of, 93-95; at
Glastonbury, 95 ; character and
accomplishments, 95, 96; ex-
pelled from Wessex, 98; arch-
bishop, 99; part in monastic
controversy, 103; death, 105.
Dupplin Moor, battle of, 354.
Duquesne, Fort, built 897, 898;
Braddock's campaign against,
898 : captured and renamed by
English, 906.
Dutch, the, see Netherlands and
Holland,
the first war, 717, 738; the
second, 756.
Earldoms, founding of the great,
91.
IKDEX
lO'^d
East Anglia, early settlement of,
21; introduction of Chris-
tianity, 38; confederation of
Eaedwald, 34, 36 ; see Danes in
England.
Eastern (question, the, origin of,
950; influence of French Revo-
lution on, 951, 956; reopened
by Greek revolt, 984; Palmer-
s t o n ' s policy toward, 1004 ;
Afghan wars, 1018, 1026; the
Crimean war, 1033 ; the Russia-
Turkish war, 1049, 1050.
East India Company, the, 613, 808,
830, 1031 ; see also Clive, Hast-
ings, Dalhousie, Mutiny,
the French, 811.
Eastland Company, 809.
Ecclesiastical courts, organized by
William I., 179, 180; supported
by Beoket, 317, 318 ; powers of,
restricted by Edward III., 390.
Edbald, 36, 40.
Edgar, the Peaceful, accession to
crown, 98; conduct of reign,
99, 101; death, 101; character
of reign, 103.
Etheling, elected king, 146.
Edgehill, battle of, 684.
Edinburgh, founding of, 37.
Edington, battle of, 66.
Edith, queen of Edward the Con-
fessor, 137, 139.
Edmund Crouchback, earl of Lan-
caster, 394, 437, 439.
king of East Anglia, the Martyr,
63.
king of West Saxons, 86-89, 96.
Ironside, 115-117.
Edred, 87 ; relations to Dunstan, 95.
Edric, the Grasper, 115, 116, 117.
Education, public, grant of 1839,
1006; Forster's Elementary
Education Act, 1046.
Edward I., in Barons' War, 286-
391; wins Evesham, 393; cru-
sade of, 396 ; character and suc-
cession, 397; Welsh campaign,
398, 399; reforms of, 300-310; re-
lations to church, 310 ; quarrels
with barons, 313-315; confirms
charters, 314; arbitrator in
Scottish succession, 335; war
of, with France, 336; Scottish
wars of, 337-333; death of, 333.
Edward II., first prince of Wales,
350; accession to English
crown, 335; troubled reign of,
336-348; deposition and death,
348.
III., appointed guardian of the
kingdom, 846; accession of,
350; seizes and executes Mor-
timer, 352; character of, 353;
restores order in kingdom, 353 ;
interferes in Scottish affairs,
354; begins Hundred Years'
War, 355-369; claims French
crown, 359 ; Crecy, 363-367 ; in-
fluence of war on England, 369-
375; campaigns of Black Prince,
376-380; decline of prestige,
881-396; death, 396.
IV., Mortimer's Cross, 473; pro-
claimed, 473; first reign, 476-
480; character, 477; expelled
by Warwick, 480, 481; return
of, 483; second reign, 486;
death, 487.
v., supplanted by Richard III.,
488, 489; murdered in the
Tower, 491.
VI., 551, 557, 559, 585.
VIL, accession of , 1067; new era
begins with his reign, 1068.
prince of Wales, son of Henry
VI., 465, 481; slain at Tewkes-
bury, 484.
the Confessor, accession, 135;
character, 136; reign, 135-134;
death, 134.
the Elder, accession of, 77; re-
conquest of Danelagh, 78-81;
death of, 82; laws of , 82.
the Etheling, recall and death,
183, 134.
the Martyr, 102, 103.
Edwin, king of Northumbria, 36-39.
earl of Mercia, 138, 146, 150.
Edwy, accession of, 97 ; death, 99.
Egbert, 53, 54, 55, 59, 61.
Egfrid, 46, 49.
Egypt, Napoleon in, 956; English
secure control of, 1056, 1057.
"Eikon Basilike," appearance of,
705.
Eliot, Sir John, 644, 645, attacks
the crown, 647 ; his resolutions,
653; imprisonment and death,
653.
1080
INDEX
Elizabeth, queen, birth, 641; im-
prisoned, 579; character and
policy, 587, 588; religious sym-
pathies, 589, 590 ; policy
toward Philip of Spain, 592;
peace policy, 595, 596; toward
Catholics, 596; relations with
Mary Queen of Scots, 595, 599 ;
excommunication of, 600, 601;
authority over church, 602;
wars of, 603, 606, 612; persecu-
tion under, 604 ; death, 615.
of York, marries Henry VII., 501.
Elizabethan age, the, 615, 616.
Ellandune, battle of, 54.
EUesmere canal, constructed, 915.
Emma, Norman wife of Ethelred,
109, 110; of Canute, 133, 124.
Emmet, Robert, Irish patriot, 961.
Employers' Lialsility Act, 1053.
Empson, Richard, minister of
Henry VII., 508; death, 513.
Enclosure Acts of George III.'s
reign, 918.
Engagement, the, 701.
English, increased use of, language,
growth of, literature in four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries,
398-402.
Enniskillen, siege of, 815, 816.
Eorl, the, 28.
Escheat and forfeiture, 177.
Escurial, Treaty of, the, see Bour-
bon Family Compact.
Essex, see Devereaux.
Estates, the, 306, 307.
Etaples, Treaty of, 504.
Ethelbald, 51, 62, 60.
Ethelbert, of Kent, 33, 34; laws of ,
35, 36.
Ethelburga, instrumental in intro-
ducing Christianity into North-
umberland, 37.
Ethelfrid,of Northumbria, 23, 24, 36.
Ethelings, 55.
Ethelred the Redeless, accession of,
104; character of , 105-107 ; mar-
riage of, 109; Danish wars of,
107-115; deposed and restored,
114; death, 115.
Ethel wulf, father of Alfred, 59, 60.
Eugene of Savoy, commands im-
perial army in Italy, 839 ; joins
Marlborough at Blenheim, 841 ;
later campaign of, 845, 850.
Eugenius IV., pope, calls Congress
of Arras, 456.
Eustace of Boulogne, visit to Eng-
land, 128.
son of Stephen, 309, 210.
Evesham, battle of, 291-293.
Exchequer, court of, see Courts
Eoyal.
table, method of computation at,
313
stop of the, 763..
Excise, and customs, 880.
Bill, the, 880.
Exclusion Bill, the, 772, 777.
Factory legislation, 996, 1019.
Fairfax, Ferdinand, Lord, parlia-
mentary general, 685, 686.
Sir Thomas, at Hull, 686, 687;
Nantwich, 689; at Marston
Moor, 690; at Langport, 695;
placed in command of New
Model, 699; wins Naseby, 700;
suppresses royalists, 703; re-
tires, 713; raises northern
counties to resist Charles II.,
716 ; supports Monk, 744.
Falaise, Treaty of, 226.
Falkirk, battle of, 329.
Familists, the, 706.
Family party, the, 853.
Fawkes, Guy, 627.
Felix of Burgundy, missionary to
East Anglians, 38.
Fenians, the, 1044.
Fenwiok, Sir John, last death by
attainder, 827.
Ferdinand of Aragon, conquers
Grenada, 509, note ; unites with
Maximilian against Charles
VIII. of France, 509; ally of
Henry VII., 510; of Henry
VIII., 515; death, 617.
of Brunswick, marshal of Fred-
erick II. , 905 ; wins Crefeld and
Minden, 906, 907, 908.
Feudal customs, 176, 177.
reaction, 202-239.
Feudalism, introduced, 172.
Fifth Monarchy Men, the, 706.
Finch, Daniel, speaker of House,
652, 653, 666, 671.
earl of Nottingham, the Tolera-
tion Act, 814 ; favors Occasional
Conformity Bill 842.
IKDEX
1081
Fire, the Great, of 1666, 757.
First Fruits, see Annates.
Fisher, John, bishop of Rochester,
540-543.
Fitz-Alan, Richard, earl of Arundel,
. 403, 410, 431, 433.
Fitzgerald, Garrett, earl of Des-
mond, revolt of, 632.
Fitz-Osbern, lieutenant of WilHam
I., 154, 155, 183.
Fitz-Osbert, William, "Long-
beard," popular agitator, 238,
239.
Fitz-Peter, Geoffrey, justiciar of
John and Richard I., 340, 246,
356, 357.
Fitzroy, Augustus, duke of Graf-
ton, ministry of, 935-929.
Five Boroughs, the, of Mercia, 64;
conquest of, 81.
Five Mile Act, the, 751.
Flambard, Ralph, minister of Wil-
hamll., 185, 186.
Flanders, alliance of court of, veith
William I., 136; alliance with
Edward III., 356, 358; cam-
paigns of Marlborough in, 839,
850, 851 ; see also Burgundy and
Netherlands.
Flodden, battle of, 516.
Folk-land, 30, 152.
Fontenoy, battle of, 892.
ForestaUers, the, 376, 377.
Forest courts, the, 172.
laws, 171.
Forests, charter of the, 269.
Forfeiture, 176.
Forster, William E., his Education
Act, 1046; his Protection for
Life and Property Act, 1054.
Four Bills, the, 703.
Fox, Charles James, 932; Libel
Act, 930 ; sympathy with
America, 933; Whig leader,
940, 941 ; in coalition ministry,
943; his India Bill, 943; in min-
istry of All the Talents, 963;
death, 963.
Francis I., emperor, election of,
903, note.
II., wars with France, 953, 953,
954, 956, 963; renounces im-
perial title, 963.
I. of France, 517; candidate
for imperial honors, 518; wars
with Charles V., 519-531; the
Field of Cloth of Gold, 530;
wars with Henry VIII., 555,
556; death, 560.
Sir Philip, supposed author of
Junius letters, 938 ; attack upon
Warren Hastings, 947.
Franciscans, the, in England, 319,
330.
Frankpledge, the, 168.
Frederick I., emperor, Barbarossa,
332, 333.
II., emperor, wars with popes,
378; death, 379.
elector of Saxony; candidate for
imperial honors, 578.
Louis, Prince of Wales, joins op-
position, 881 ; death, 886.
II. of Prussia, wars of, with Maria
Theresa, 888, 889, 890, 891;
in Seven years' war, 899-910;
death, 950.
William of Prussia, declares
against French Republic, 951,
953; wars with Napoleon, 963,
964, 973, 973, 974.
Free trade, advocated by Adam
Smith, 918; adopted by Wil-
liam Pitt, 946; furthered by
Huskisson, 981; by Peel, 1014;
by Gladstone, 1039.
French Republic, wars with Europe,
953, 953, 954.
French Revolution, early attitude
of Great Britain toward, 951;
eflEect upon England and Ire-
land, 955 ; change in character
of movement, 959.
Fyrd, the ancient land, 27, 28, 71;
reorganized by Henry II., 236,
227.
the ship, 74, 111, 113.
Gaels, division of Celts, 5, 15.
Gage, general, in Boston, 934-937.
Gaillard Chateau, 341.
Gardiner, Stephen, bishop of Win-
chester, supports conservative
reform, 553 ; deposed by Somer-
set, 568; adviser of Mary, 575,
577, 579, 581, 583; death, 585.
Gaveston, Piers, favorite of Edward
II,, 334; first fall of, 335; second
fall, and death, 336.
1082
INDEX
Geoffrey, duke of Brittany, son of
Henry II., 225, 333.
Plantagenet, count of Anjou,
father of Henry II., 208.
son of Henry II., archbishop of
York, opposes Longchamp, 228,
233 235
Geneva Award, the, 1035, 1048.
George I., accession of, 856; Eng-
land at time of accession, 861-
867; reign of, 867-876; last
years and death, 876.
II., as prince of Wales, 870; ac-
cession of, 877; supports Wal-
pole, 884 ; favors Austrian war,
890; repudiates convention of
Gloster-seven, 905; death of,
908.
III. , accession and policy of, 908 ;
England under, 911-919; char-
acter of, 919; the "king's
friends," 930; attempts to pun-
ish Wilkes, 923, 927; attitude
toward America, 935; personal
rule abandoned, 941; opposes
Catholic emancipation, 966;
madness of, 970; death of, 979.
IV., appointed regent, 970; acces-
sion, 979; unpopularity of, 979-
980; reign, 979-989; death, 990.
prince of Denmark, husband of
Anne, abandons James II., 799 ;
nonentity of, 836.
German unity, beginning of, 1035.
Oesiths, the, 28.
Gibraltar, taken by English, 843.
Gild, the, 9, 343,
Gin Act, the, 883.
Ginkel, Dutch commander of Wil-
liam III., in Ireland, 816, 817.
Gladstone, William Ewart, 1016
chancellor of exchequer, 1082
spokesman of Liberals, 1039
Reform Bill of, 1040; first min-
istry, 1044; dealing with Irish
question, 1045; reforms under,
1046, 1047; foreign policy, 1048;
fall of first ministry, 1048;
second ministry, 1052; new re-
forms, 1053, 1054, 1058; the
Soudan, 1057, 1058; defeat of
second ministry, 1039; con-
verted to Home Rule, 1060;
third ministry of, 1060; first
Home Rule Bill, 1061; fourth
ministry of, 1062 ; second Home
Rule Bill, 1063; retirement,
1063; death, 1064.
Glanville, Ranulf de, justiciar of
Richard I., 281, 334, 300.
Glenooe, massacre of, 819, 830.
Glendower, Owen, revolt of, 433;
submits to Henry IV., 436.
Gloucester, siege of, by Charles I.,
686.
see Clare.
Humphrey, duke of, brother of
Henry V., 450, 451, 456; death,
459.
Thomas, duke of, 415, 417 ; expels
Richard II. 's favorites, 418;
dismissed from council, 419,
431 ; death, 433.
Goderich, see Robinson.
Godiva, wife of Leof ric of Mercia,
124. _
Godolphin, in ministry of Anne,
847, 853,
Godwin, earl of Wessex, 123, 124;
popularitv of, 137, 138; out-
lawed, 139; return of, 132;
death and character of, 132,
133; sons of, 133.
Goodwin's case, 629.
Gordon, Charles George, "Chinese
Gordon," in the Soudan, 1058.
George Hamilton, earl of Aber-
deen, 1016; prime minister,
1032, 1023.
Riots, 931.
Goring, royal governor of Ports-
mouth, 683; at Marston Moor,
690; defeated by Fairfax, 695.
Grace, Act of, 831.
Graces, the, 659.
Grafton, see Pitzroy.
Graham, John, of Claverhouse,
viscount of Dundee, attempts
to suppress Covenanters, 774;
supports Jacobites in Scotland,
818; death, 819.
Grand Alliance, the, 834.
Game Act, 1053.
Granville, earl, see Carteret.
Great Britain, see Union, Act of.
Great Council, see Magnum Con-
cilium.
Greek Revolt, the, 983-985.
Gregory I. , pope, interested in Eng-
lish missions, 84, 35.
INDEX
1083
Grregory Vlt, pope, relations to
William I., 179, 180.
IX. , pope, relations to Henry III. ,
373, 277.
XI., pope, removes papal resi-
dence from Avienon to Rome,
413.
XIII., devises Gregorian Calen-
dar, 895.
Orenville, George, minister of
George III, 931; the Wilkes
case, 931-933; the Stamp Act,
933; theEegency Bill, 934; bill
transferring disputed election
cases to special committee of
House, 939.
William, Lord, prime minister,
963; defeated in proposal to
remove military disqualifioa-
tions from Catholics, 966 ; abol-
ishes slave trade, 906.
Gresham, Sir Thomas, founder of
Royal Exchange, 616.
Grey, Charles, Lord, Whig lea,der
and advocate of parliamentary
reform, 990; prime minister,
991; the Reform Bill, 991-994;
slavery abolished, 966; Poor
Laws reformed, 996, 997;
resigns, 997; success of min-
istry, 997.
Henry, duke of Suffolk, rises
against Mary, 578.
Lady Jane, marries Guilford
Dudley, 673 ; proclaimed queen,
573; death, 578.
Grosseteste, Robert, bishop of Lin-
coln, 378, 319.
Gualo, papal legate to Henry III.,
367, 368, 369.
Guesolin, Bertrand du, 383, 385, 386,
387, 453.
Gunpowder, use of, 365-367, 487.
Plot, the, 637, 628.
Guthrum, Danish king, submits to
Alfred, 65, 67.
Guy of Lusignan, 337, 333.
Habeas Corpus Act, the, 773 ; sus-
pended, 837, 953, 1044.
Hadrian's wall, 11.
Haeretieo Comburendo, the Bill, 440.
Hales case, 788.
Halidon Hill, battle of, 354.
Halifax, see Montague and Saville.
Hamilton, James, representative of
Charles I. in Scotland, 665;
beaten at Preston, 703.
Hampden, John, refuses to pay ship
money, 657 ; parliamentary
leader, 670,676, 679; death of,
685.
Hampton Court Conference, 636.
Hanover, Convention of, 894.
House of, succeeds to English
throne, 856, 861.
separated from English crown,
999.
Hardicanute, 133, 134.
Harfleur, battle of, 445.
Hargreaves, James, inventor of
spinning jenny, 918.
Harley, Robert, earl of Oxford,
856, 868, 873.
Harold Hardrada, 137, 139.
Harefoot, 133.
of Denmark, 115.
son of Godwin, 137, 138, 134; king
of England, 134 ; northern cam-
paign of, 138-140; loses battle
of Hastings, 141-144.
Harrison, parliamentary general,
731, 734, 747.
Hartington, marquis of, see Caven-
dish.
Hasting, Danish chieftain, 75, 76.
Hastings, battle of 143-144.
John, claimant to Scottish
throne, 834.
Warren, governor - general of
India, 931 ; trial of, 947.
Hatfield, battle of, 40.
Synod of, 45.
Havelook, Henry, march of. to
Cawnpore, 1039, 1030; relieves
Luoknow, 1030.
Heads of the Proposals, the, 700.
Healfdene, 61, 63, 64, 65.
Hearth tax, 385, 813.
Hengist and Horsa, traditional con-
quest of Kent by, 19.
Hengistdun, battle of, 59.
Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles
I., 643, 654; intrigues of, 695,
671. 680.
Henry, bishop of Winchester, aids
Stephen, 803 ; aids Matilda, 305.
cardinal of York, last of elder
line of Stuarts, 894.
eldest son of Henry II. of Eng-
1084
INDEX
land, crowned, 223; rebels
against father, 235.
Henry IV., emperor, attitude of
court of, to Norman invasion
of England, 135.
v., emperor, son-in-law of Henry
I. of England, 195, 196.
VI., emperor, imprisons Richard
I, 235.
prince of Wales, son of James I. ,
early death of, 635.
I. of England, accession of, 189;
policy of, 189, 197 ; charter of,
189, 190 ; war with brother Rob-
ert, 190; with Louis VI., of
France, 191 ; quarrel with
Anselm, 192 ; judicial courts of,
194, 195; taxation under, 195;
death and character of, 197;
education during his reign, 199.
II. of England, power in Nor-
mandy, 208, 309; accession to
English throne, 210, 211 ; reor-
ganization of kingdom, 212, 213,
219, 220; quarrel with Beoket,
216-223; with his barons, 225,
236 ; proposes crusade, 227, 328 :
death of, 228.
III. of England, coronation of,
266, 271; assumes government,
272; quarrels with barons, 274-
277; war with Louis IX., 376;
misgovernment of, 275-281 ; the
Provisions of Oxford, 383; of
Westminster, 386; barons con-
trol government, 285-388; the
Mise of Amiens, 388 ; war with
barons, 288-293; the Mise of
Lewes, 289; reaction, 295;
death, 396.
IV. of England, prominent
among baronage of Richard II. ,
417, 418, 433; deposes Richard
II., and secures succession, 425,
426; position of, 433-487; re-
presses risings of nobles, 431,
484, 485; invasion of Scotland,
483; of Wales, 433; death of,
488; relations with church,
439.
V. of England at Shrewsbury,
484; acts as Henry IV. 's min-
ister, 435; accession of, 440;
persecutes Lollards, 441 ; re-
news war with France, 444;
Yorkist plot against, 445 ; Agin ■
court, 445-447; marriage of,
448 ; triumph of, 448 ; death of,
449.
Henry VI., birth of, 449; accession
of, 450 ; character of, 458 ; mar-
riage of, 458; renewal of
French war, 459; the year
1450, 461-463; Yorkist troubles,
463, 465-478; renews war in
France, 464; supplanted by Ed-
ward IV., 473; second reign of,
481-484; murder of, 484.
VII. of England, Lancastrian
heir, 490; overthrows Richard
III. at Bosworth, 493; marries
Elizabeth of York, 501; char-
acter and policy of, 500; sup-
presses Yorkist risings, 501,
504-507; foreign policy of, 504,
506, 509, 510; despotism of, 507,
508; death of, 510.
VIII. of England, marries Cath-
arine of Aragon, 510, 514;
character of, 513 ; foreign policy
of, 514; French war, 515; last
French war of, 555; alliance
with Charles V. of Spain, 520 ;
with France, 517, 521 ; divorce
of, 534, 589 ; quarrel with papacy,
524-534; marries Anne Boleyn,
540; secures succession for
daughter Elizabeth, 541 ; sup-
presses Pilgrimage of Grace,
545; the monasteries, 546, 547;
third marriage, 550; fourth and
fifth marriages, 552 ; tyranny in
Ireland, 555; invasion of Scot-
land, 554; death, 558.
II. of France, death of, 832,
593.
IV. of France, of Navarre, reli-
gious war of, 606; converted
toCatholicism,617; issues Edict
of Nantes, 617.
of Trastaraara, wars with Black
Prince, 383, 884 ; murders Pedro
the Cruel, 384; accedes to
throne of, 384.
Hereward, the outlaw, resists Wil-
liam I., 166.
Heriot, the, 133.
Herrings, battle of the, 453.
Hertford, Synod of, 45.
Hexham, battle of, 477.
INDEX
1085
High Commission, court of, insti-
tuted by Elizabeth, 591; abol-
ished by Long Parliament, 677,
673; powers revived by James
II., 789.
Hill, Sir Rowland, postal reforms
of, 1005, 1006.
Hoohe, general, expedition to Ire-
land, 955.
Hogue, La, battle of, 820.
HohenUnden, battle of ,957.
Holland, see Netherlands.
Edmund, earl of Kent, conspires
against Edward II. , 346 ; death,
353.
Thomas, earl of Kent, supports
EiohardlL, 416, 417; rising of ,
against Henry IV., 432.
John, earl of Huntingdon, 416.
417 ; rising of, 482.
Holy Alliance, the, 982, 983, 984,
986.
League, the, 514.
Homage, 176.
Home Rule, in Ireland in eight-
eenth century, 939 ; advocated
by ParneU, 1054; by Gladstone,
1060; Gladstone's bills, 1060,
1061, 1062.
Homildon Hill, battle of, 433.
Honors, 176.
House-carls, instituted by Canute,
123; at Stamford Bridge, 139;
at Hastings, 142-144.
Hovrard, Catharine, queen of Henry
VIII., 553.
John, efforts at prison reform,
948, 949.
of Effingham, Charles, lord, ad-
miral of Elizabeth, 610.
Henry, earl of Surrey, executed
by Henry VIII., 558.
Thomas, duke of Norfolk, at Flod-
den, 515, 524; enemy of Wolsey,
537; represents reactionary re-
form party, 548, 549 ; triumphs
over Cromwell, 553, 553; im-
prisoned by Henry VIII., 558;
supports Mary, 574.
Thomas, duke of Norfolk, 599,
601.
Howe, admiral, wins Ushant,
953.
Hubert de Burgh, see Burgh.
Hubert Walter, see Walter.
Hubertsburg, peace of, 909.
Hugh of Avalon, bishop of Lincoln,
389.
of Puiset, bishop of Durham, jus-
ticiar, 331.
the Brave, 346, 376.
Hundred, the, 89.
years' war, causes of, 355; first
stage of, 858-380; second stage
of, 383-888 ; third stage of, 444-
449; last stage of, 451-464.
Huskisson, William, president of
Board of Trade, 981 ; his Reci-
procity of Duties Bill, 986; re-
signs, 991; death, 991.
Hyde, Edward, earl of Clarendon,
chancellor of Charles II., 746;
Clarendon Code, 750, 752; op-
poses Dutch war, 756 ; fall and
death, 757-759.
Imperialism, the modern, 1068.
Incident, the, 675.
Income tax, adopted by Pitt, 957,
978; by Peel, 1010; sustained
by Gladstone, 1039.
Independence, American Declara-
tion of, 987.
Independents, disputes with Pres-
byterians, 698; offer terms to
Charles I. , 700 ; assume control
of government, 708, 704.
India, beginning of English settle-
ment in, 808; Olive in, 899, 900,
905; causes of mutiny, 1037;
outlDreak and extent of, 1038,
1039 ; results of war, 1031.
Indulgence, first declaration of
Charles II., 758; second, 764;
first of James II., 790; second
of James IL, 793.
the Black, in Scotland, 774.
Industrial revolution, the, 911-916.
Ine, king of West Saxons, 50 ; laws
of, 51.
Inkerman, battle of, 1024.
Innocent III., pope, the quarrel
with John, 351-258; John does
homage to, 354.
IV. , pope, relations to Hen'Ty III. ,
273, 378, 379.
Inquest, see Arms and Sheriffs.
Instrument of Government, the,
737-739.
1086
INDEX
Interdict, the, imposed on England,
251.
Intolerable Acts, the American,934.
Investiture, quarrel over, 176.
Invincibles, the Irish, 1056.
Ireland, Norsemen in, 58; expedi-
tion of Strongbow, 334; chief-
tain submits to Henry II. , 324 ;
assisted by Scots against Ed-
ward III., 340; condition of, in
time of Richard II. , 421 ; revolt
under Henry VIII., 505; the
Poynings Acts, 505 ; under Eliz-
abeth, 603, 614; Chichester in,
633, 633; the Plantation of
Ulster, James I., 633, 633; dur-
ing the civil war, 710; Crom-
well in, 710-712; the Restoration
in, 753 ; the Revolution in, 815-
818; Home Rule in, 939; the
union, 955, 957; the famine,
depopulation by, 517; landlord-
ism, 1053, 1054; rise of Home
Rule party, 1054; Gladstone's
measures for, 1060-1062; Salis-
bury's measures for, 1065.
Ireton, parliamentary general, 700,
704, 712.
Irish Land Acts, see Land Act.
Irish night, the, 800.
Iron mining in England in eight-
eenth century, 911, 914.
Ironsides, the, name given by
Prince Rupert at Marston Moor,
688.
Isabella, queen of Edward II., 335,
345, 346-348, 352.
Italian unity, secured, 1033.
Jacobites, conspire against William
HI., 813, 827, 834; hopelessness
of their cause, 861-863; rising
of in 1715, 868; rising of in 1745,
892-894.
Jamaica, seized by Cromwell, 810.
James I. of Scotland, held as pris-
oner by Henry IV., 436 ; marries
Jane Beaufort, 436; release of,
451.
IV. of Scotland, invades Eng-
land, 515.
V. of Scotland, loses Solway
Moss, 554.
I. of England, James VI. of Scot-
land, 599 ; England at his acces-
sion, 618-633; his character,
633, 624; offends Puritans and
Catholics, 636, 627; offends the
Commons, 628, 629, 636, 637,
639, 640; seeks union of Eng-
land and Scotland, 629, 630;
version of Scriptures, 632; Ul-
ster Plantation, 633; favorites
of, 634, 635; foreign policy, 634;
opposed by courts, 636, 637;
death, 642.
James II. of England, attacked by
Whigs on Exclusion Bill, 772;
the "killing time," 775; acces-
sion, 783; Monmouth's rising,
783-785; tyranny of, 785, 786;
attacks church, 789; favors
Catholics, 787-794; rouses Eng-
lish national sentiment, 797;
invasion of William of Orange,
798-800; flees to France, 801 ; in
Ireland, 815, 816; death, 834.
Jamestown, the settlement of, 661.
Jarrow, 49, 64.
Jeffreys, judge, attacks corpora-
tions under Charles II., 779,
780; the Bloody Assize, 785,
789; on the Irish night, 800.
Jena, battle of, 964.
Jenkins's ear, 883.
Jenkinson, Robert, Lord Liverpool,
prime minister, 970; reaction-
ary policy, 978; change in
later policy, 980, 981, 987.
Jervis, Sir John, admiral, defeats
French off St. Vincent, 954.
Jesuits, influence of order, 598 ; per-
secuted by Elizabeth, 604, 605.
Jews, expelled from England by
Edward I., 305.
Joan of Arc, 453; at court of
Charles VII., 454; raises siege
of Orleans, 454 ; capture, trial,
and death, 455.
John, king of England (Lackland),
conspires against Henry H.,
888 ; quarrels with Longohamp,
333, 833 ; plots against Richard
I., 335; accession, 245; charac-
ter, 345 ; comparison with Etli-
elred, 106; loses possessions in
France, 846, 247; quarrel with
Innocent III., 250, 251 ; struggle
with barons, 354-264 ; the Great
Charter, 260 ; death, 265.
INDEX
1087
John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,
fourth son of Edward III., his
French campaign, 388 ; intrigues
of, 389, 890, 398; in Richard
II. 's reign, 894, 896, 403, 407.
411 ; Scottish campaign of, 415 ;
attempts to secure Spanish
crown, 417 ; in council of Rich-
ard II., 423; death, 438.
king of France, captured at Poi
tiers, 377, 378 ; failure of ransom
of, 379, 380.
Jonson, Ben, 617.
Judicature Act, the, 1047.
Junius letters, the, 938.
Junto, the Whig, 836; fall of, 831;
return to power, 853.
Justices of the peace, origin of, 353.
Justices-in-eyre, first appointed,319.
Jutes, the, conquest of Kent, 19-31.
Kabul, British disaster at, 1013.
Kalisch, Treaty of, 973.
Kay, John, inventor of flying shut-
tle, 913.
Kenilworth, Dictum of, 395.
Kent, kingdom of, settled by Jutes,
19-31; accepts Christianity, 34,
85, 43; annexed to Wessex, 61.
see Holland.
Khartoum, captured by the Mahdi,
1058.
KilUecrankie, battle of, 819.
King George's "War, 897.
Knight's fees, the, 175.
Knox, John, Scottish reformer, 593,
• 594.
Kymry, see Welsh.
Labourers, Statute of, 374, 375.
Lamb, William, viscount Mel-
bourne, member of Wellington
ministry, 988, 989; joins Grey
ministry, 991; prime minister,
997, 998 ; Canada question, 1000,
1001 ; Irish question, 1001 ; kept
in office by Victoria, 1006 ; fall
of ministry, 1008.
Lambert, parliamentary general,
715, 734, 747, 749.
Lambeth, Treaty of, 268.
Lancaster, house of, 427, 438.
John, duke of, see John of Gaunt.
Thomas, earl of, 334; opposes
Gaveston, 335, 336; in council
of Edward II., 341, 342; his
fall, 343.
Land Act, the Irish, 1045, 1046,
1058, 1060.
Landen, battle of, 831.
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canter-
bury, 179, 184, 186.
Langland, William, 399; "The Vis-
ion of Piers Plowmaji, " 400.
Langton, Stephen, elected to see of
Canterbury, 354 ; supports bar-
ons in struggle for the charter,
356; suspended, 363; obtains re-
call of Pandulf, 369; death of ,
•272.
Lansdowne. marquis of, see Petty.
Latimer, Hugh, bishop of Ely,
under Henry VIII,, 550, 553;
under Edward VI,, 568, 564;
under Mary, 581 ; death, 583.
Laud, William, archbishop of Can-
terbury, in London, 651 ; re-
forms of, 657, 658, 662, 663;
impeachment of, 671 ; execu-
tion of, 693 ; his work compared
with Clarendon's, 753.
Lauderdale, 755 ; member of Cabal,
761, 774.
Lawrence, Sir Henry, at Luoknow,
1039, 1030.
League of Hanover, 817.
Leeds, duke of, see Osborne.
Leicester, see Dudley and Montfort.
Leo X., pope, and the imperial
election of 1519, 518; ally of
Charles v., 519.
Leopold II., emperor in convention
of Pilnitz, 951.
of Austria, imprisons Richard 1. ,
285.
Leslie, Alexander, earl of Leven,
Scottish general in civil wars,
665, 675.
David, Scottish general in civil
wars, 689-691 ; 694, 713-715.
Levellers, the, 708, 709.
Lexington, battle of, 936.
Lewes, battle of, 389.
Mise of, 389.
Liberal party, the, organization
and growth of, 1009, 1018, 1031,
1087-1039; disrupted, 1060.
Union party, the, formed, 1060.
Liberties, see Honors.
Librate, the, 175.
1088
INDEX
Lichfield, archiepisoopal see
formed, 53.
Lilbourne, "Freeborn John," 708,
709.
Lillebonne, Council of, 135.
LillibuUero, 836.
Limerick, Treaty of, 816.
Lincoln, the fair of, 268.
John de la Pole, earl of, see Pole.
Litany, the first English, 557.
Liverpool, see Jenkinson.
Llewelyn, prince of Wales, ally of
Montfort, 288; war with Ed-
ward I., 298; death of, 299.
Lollards, 398, 899, 411-413; perse-
cuted by Henry IV., 439, 440;
by Henry V., 441.
London, in Roman Britain, 8;
sacked by Boadicea, 9; makes ,
stand against William I., 146-
148 ; during coronation of Wil-
liam I., 148-150; charters of,
151, 198; under Richard L, 288,
289, 242-244; supports barons
against John, 264; against
Henry III. , 288, 289 ; in Peasant
Revolt, 406-409; in Cade Revolt,
461, 462; supports parliament
against Charles I., 683; the
Great Plague of, 756 ; the Great
Fire of, 757; the Irish night,
800; in Anne's time, 856, 857;
Gordon riots, 931; supports
Wilkes, 927, 928.
Treaty of, 984.
Londonderry, siege of, 815.
Longchamp, William of, justiciar
. of Richard I., 232, 333.
Long Parliament, see Parliament.
Loo, Declaration of, 799.
Lords-lieutenant, 680, 683.
'•Lose-Coat Field," battle of, 480.
Lostwithiel, battle of, 691.
Lothian, session of, 120.
Louis VIII., assists barons against
John, 264; retires from Eng-
land, 268.
IX., war with Henry III., 276;
arbitration of, 288.
XI., aids Warwick against Ed-
ward IV., 481; war with Ed-
ward IV., 485.
XII., wars with Henry VIII.,
514; marriage with Mary Tu-
dor, 517.
Louis XIII. , war of Charles I, with,
642, 643, 646.
XIV. , assists Dutch against
Charles II., 756; policy of
French aggression, 761. 762;
Treaties of Dover, 768; Dutch
war, 764-767 ; persecutes Hugue-
nots, 787; quarrel with pope,
796 ; aids James II. , 816 ; accepts
Peace of Ryswick, 829 ; renews
war with England, 884, 835 ;
Treaty of Utrecht, 854, 855.
XV., see Bourbon Family Com-
pacts, and Austrian succession,
war of.
XVI., aids Americans, 938; at-
tempted flight of, 951; death,
952.
XVIII., restored to French
throne, 972 ; second restoration
of, 974.
Philippe, 990. 1004, 1017.
Lovel, rising of, 501.
Loyal Association, the, 827.
Loyola, Ignatius, 598.
Lucknow, siege of, 1029, 1030.
Macon's Bill, No. 3., 970.
Madrid, Treaty of, 895.
Magenta, battle of, 1083.
Magna Charta, see Charter.
Magnum Concilium, 168; change in
nature of, 193, the last, 667,
see Council.
Magnus Inter ciirsus, 506.
Mahdi, the, in Egypt, 1057.
Mahon, see Stanhope.
Port, acquired by British, 855;
lost by Byng, 900.
Main Plot, the, 635.
Majuba Hill, battle of, 1056.
Malcolm Canmore, king of Scot-
land, wars with William I.,
158; does homage to William
II., 180.
Malplaquet, battle of, 851.
Malta, acquired by Britain, 958, 960.
Malthus, theory of population, 919.
Maltote, the, 314.
Manchester, earl of, see Montague.
Manor, the, 172, 173.
Mansfield, chief justice, 927, 930;
famous decision upon slavery,
949, 950.
March, see Mortimer.
INDEX
1089
Mare, Peter de la, 393, 403.
Marengo, battle of, 957.
Margaret, of Anjou, marries Henry
VI., 4.58; her influence, 463; in
Wars of the Roses, 466-485.
the Maid of Norway, 324.
Maria Theresa, in war of Austrian
succession, 888-894; the Seven
years' war, 899.
Marie Antoinette,[execution of, 953.
Marignano, battle" of, 517.
Mark, the value of the, 188, note.
Marlborough, see Churchill.
Marprelate Tracts, the, 613.
Marriage Act, the, 896.
Marshal, William, earl of Pem-
broke, 359, 363 ; appointed gov-
ernor of England, 266; reissues
the charter, 267, 268; issues
Charter of the Forests, 269; his
death, 270.
Richard, earl of Pembroke, 274,
275.
William, the younger, earl of
Pembroke, 274.
Marston Moor, battle of, 689, 690.
Martin Marprelate Tracts, 612.
Mary, queen of England, 568, 569;
573-574; early moderation of,
575, 576; marries Philip of
Spain, 577-579; restores papal
authority, 580; persecutions of,
581-583, 585; war with France,
loses Calais, 584; death, 585,
586.
daughter of James II., marriage
of, 767 ; shares orow^n w^ith Wil-
liam, 803; crowned, 803; death,
833.
queen of Soots, marries Francis
II., 561, 593; returns to Scot-
land, 593; religious quarrels,
594; marries Darnley, 598;
Bothwell, 598; flight to Eng-
land, 599; theRidolfi plot, 601;
death, 608.
Maryland, settled by Calverts, 662 ;
religious toleration in, 663.
Maserfield, battle of, 41.
Matilda, daughter of Henry I. ;
marries Henry V. of Germany
195 ; made Henry I. 's successor
and marries Geoffrey of Anjou,
196; fails in securing the suc-
cession to English crown, 203,
203; wars with Stephen, 304-
308.
Matilda, queen of William I. , 158.
queen of Stephen, 304; defeats
Matilda of Anjou, 307.
McCarthy, Justin, Irish commander
at Newtown Butler, 816.
Justin, Irish leader, 1063.
Meanwara, see Jutes.
Mehemet Ali, revolt of, 1004.
Melbourne, see Lamb.
Mercia, rise of, 39, 41 ; Christianity
in, 43; divisions of, 46; second
rise of, 51 ; Ethelfleda in, 79-81.
Merton, the battle of, 63.
Methodism, rise and influence of,
886, 887.
Methuen Treaty, 883, see also Gin
Act and Porteous Riots.
Metternich, Austrian minister, see
Holy Alliance.
Milan Decree, the, 966.
Militia Ordinance, 680.
Milled edge, the, adopted, 838.
Millenary Petition, the, 636.
Milton, John, in tract war, 675;
author of " Eikonoklastes, " 705 ;
advocates freedom of the press,
835.
Minden, battle of, 906, 907.
Minorca, see Port Mahon.
Moltke von, 1035.
Monasteries, the ea!rly, 34, 35, 40,
4r, 49, 58, 63; in time of Dun-
stan, 93-105 ; in time of Henry
I., 198-301; in thirteenth cen-
tury, 318-331; for suppression
of, see Cromwell, Thomas, also
reign of Edward VI.
Monk, George, duke of Albemarle,
711, 715, 719, 733, 744, 746.
Monmouth, James, duke of, wins
Bothwell Brigg, 775; the Black
Box, 776; connection with Rye
House Plot, 779; rebellion of,
784; death, 785.
Monopolies, attacked by parliament
of Elizabeth, 613, 614; by par-
liaments of James I., 639;
abuses of under Charles I., 655.
Mons Graupius, battle of, 10.
Montague, Edward, Lord Kimbol-
ton, earl of Manchester, parlia-
mentary general, 683 ; at
Winoeby, 687; Marston Moor,
1090
INDEX
689 ; at Newbury, 692 ; removed
from command, 693.
Charles, minister of William III. ,
his administration of the treas-
ury, 832, 823; member of Junto,
826; the resolutions of, 828;
attacked by Tories, 831.
Admiral, earl of Sandwich, 746.
John, earl of Sandwich, attacks
Wilkes, 923.
Thomas, earl of Salisbury, 451;
slain at Orleans, 452. •
Montcalm, French governor in
America, 900, 904, 907.
Montfort, Simon de, earl of Leices-
ter, 284, 285; leads barons in
war with Henry II., 287; at
Lewes, 289; his parliament,
290; death of, 291-293.
John de, claimant to duchy of
Brittany, 361; supported by
Edward III., 383.
Montrose, earl of, supports Charles
I., 689, 690, 694, 695.
Moore, Sir John, in Peninsular
War, 967.
Morcar, 138, 146, 150.
More, Sir Thomas, chancellor of
Henry VIII., 535; persecutes
Protestants, 538 ; refuses to sup-
port Henry VIII. , in revolt from
the church, 540; the "Utopia,"
542; death, 543.
Mortimer, Edmund, earl of March,
390.
Edmund, captured by Glendower,
433, 434.
Roger, lord of Wigmore, 345 ; plots
witt Isabella against Edward
IL, 346, 347; tyranny of, 350-
352; death of, 352.
Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 472.
Mortmain, statute of, 420.
Morton, John, bishop of Ely, mem-
ber of council of Edward IV.,
489; conspires against Richard
III., 490, 491; cardinal, 533.
Moscow, burning of, 971, 973.
Mountjoy, see Blount.
Mousehold Hill, battle of, 566.
Mowbray, Thomas, earl of Notting-
ham, duke of Norfolk, one of
the Lords Appellant, 418, 431 ;
exiled by Richard II., 423.
Muggletonians, the, 706.
Municipal Bill, the Irish, 1001.
Muscovy Company, the, 808.
Mutiny Act, the, 813.
Namur, taken by William III., 825.
Nana Sahib, part in Indian Mutiny,
1027, 1029, 1031.
Nantes, Edict of, 617; revoked, 686.
Napoleon I., see Bonaparte.
III., Louis, president of Second
French Republic, 1017 ; emperor
of the French, 1020; part in
Crimean war, 1023; the Orsini
affair, 1033 ; interferes in Italy,
1033.
Napoleonic wars, relation of to wars
of eighteenth century, 975.
Naseby, battle of, 693.
Natal, colonization of, 1012.
Navarino, battle of, 985.
Navigation Acts, the, 717, 756, 845,
1019.
Nechtansmere, battle of, 49.
Nelson, admiral, 956, 958, 961, 963.
Neolithic men, the, 3, 4.
Netherlands, see under Flanders
and Burgundy; relations to
Elizabeth, 600-603, 600, 607 ; re-
lations to the commonwealth,
717-719, 730; to Charles II., 756,
761-766; to James II., 783, 794,
795 ; for alliance with England,
see the several succession wars
of the eighteenth century;
Spanish, ceded to Austria, 855 ;
overrun by French, 950, 953,
954; raised to a kingdom, 974.
Neville, Anne, wife of Richard III.,
488.
Richard, earl of Salisbury, ally of
Richard of York, 465, 466-470;
executed, 471.
Richard, earl of Warwick, the
"king maker," 465, 466; wins
St. Albans, 467; Northampton,
470; defeated at second battle
of St. Albans, 473; conquers
Percy strongholds, 477; quarrel
with Edward IV., 478; turns
against Edward IV., 479-483,
death at Barnet, 483.
Neville's Cross, battle of, 368.
Newburn, battle of, 667.
Newbury, battle of, first, 687; the
second, 693.
INDEX
1091
Newcastle, see Pelham.
New England, early settlements in
661, 663.
New Model, the, organized, 693; at
Naseby, 693, 694; refuses to dis-
band, 698, 699 ; takes possession
of London, 700 ; supports Crom-
well, 730-738; disbands, 748.
the, ordinance, 693.
New Orleans, the battle of, 971.
New Style, adopted by English,
the, 895.
New York, settled by Dutch as New
Amsterdam, 809 ; taken by Eng-
lish and named New York, 756.
Newtown Butler, battle of, 816.
Nimwegen, Treaty of, 767.
Nioian, Celtic missionary, 14.
Nonconformists, see under Sepa-
ratists, Puritans, Hampton
Court Conference, Laud, Clar-
endon Code, Dissenters, In-
dulgence, and Occasional Con-
formity.
Nonjurors, the, 814.
Nonresistanoe Bill, the, 768.
Norfolk, see Howard, Mowbray, and
Bigod.
Norman conquest of England, see
William I.
Normandy, relations to Ethelred,
the Redeless, 109, 110, 114; to
Edward the Confessor, 126, 131
132; wars of William II. in, 184
reunion with England, 187, 188
wars of Henry I., 191, 193; lost
by John, 246, 247; won by
Henry V., 447, 448; regained
by Charles VII., 459, 460, 464.
North, Frederick, Lord North, min-
ister of George III., 928, 929;
the Regulating Act, 930; at-
tem.pt to conciliate American
colonies, 933 ; grants legislative
independence to Ireland, 939;
resigns, 940; member of the
coalition ministry, 943.
Northallerton, battle of, 304.
Northampton, assize of, the, 336.
Northmen, the, 58, 59, see also
Danes.
Northumberland, earls of, see Percy.
Northumbrian Confederacy^ 33 ;
first kingdom of, 36 ; conversion
of, 37; influence of monks in.
38; recovery of, 40; second re-
covery of, 43 ; decline of, 50.
Northumbrian risings against Wil-
liam I, 161-165.
Nottingham, see Knch and Mow-
bray.
Nova Scotia, ceded to England,
855; annexed to Canada, 1043.
Dates, Titus, plot, the, 769, 782.
Occasional Conformity Bill, 842;
repealed, 880.
Ockley, battle of, 60.
O'Connell, Daniel, enters parlia-
ment, 989, 990 ; opposes Coercion
Act, 995; popular meetings in
Ireland, 1010, 1011 ; death, 1011.
Oda, archbishop of Canterbury, 95,
98, divorces Edwy, 99.
Odo, half brother of William I.,
regent, 154 ; quarrels with Wil-
liam I., 183; driven out by
William II,, 184.
Oflfa, king of Mercia, 53.
Offa's dyke, 53.
Oldoastle, John, Lord Cobhani,
burned as heretic, 441.
O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, rising of,
614.
Orangemen, organization of the,
955.
Ordainers, Lords, 336.
Ordeal, the, 90 ; abolition of, 221.
Orders in council, the first, 965 ; the
second, 966.
Ordinary council, the, 194.
Orleans, siege of, 452, 454.
Ormond, see Butler.
Orsini, the Don, affair, 1032.
Osborne, Sir Thomas, earl of Danby,
766; his "system of influence,"
767 ; supports Nonresistance
Bill, 768; relations to Louis
XIV., 770; fall of, 770, 771; re-
lease of from Tower, 780; in-
trigues against James II., 795;
minister of William III., 821.
Oswald, 41.
Oswy, 42-45.
Otford, battle of, 116.
Otterburn, battle of, 432.
Oxford, Provisions of, 282, 283.
earl of, see Harley and Vere.
the University of, 330, 321, 334,
533, 563 and note, 563, 885, 1014
1092
INDEX
Paleolithic men, in Britain, 3.
Pallium, bishop's, the, 35.
Palmerston, Lord, see Temple.
Pandulf, papal legate to king John,
363, 269.
Papal authority, attacked by Wyc-
lif , 395 ; universally recognized,
528 ; claims over England, 529 ;
revolt of England from, 530 and
following ; see also under Wil-
liam I., Henry II., John, Henry
III.
Paris, Treaties of, 909, 940, 1035.
Parish Councils Bill, 1063.
Parker, Matthew, archbishop of
Canterbury, 589, 603.
Parliament, the Addled, 636.
Barebones, see Nominated Parlia-
ment.
of Bats, the, 455.
the Cavalier, 749 ; persecutions of
dissenters, 751; becomes the
Pensionary, 759.
the convention, 745 ; acts of, 747.
the second convention, 801, 803,
821.
the Good, 393, 403, 404.
the Long, 669; reforms of, 672;
revolutionary drift of, 673, 692;
see also Rump, the.
the Mad, 281.
the Model, 309.
Montfort's, 290.
the Nominated, 735-727.
the Pensionary, 759.
the Reform, 534, 536, 538.
the Short, 660.
the Wonderful, 419.
first appearance of name, 381;
growth of, increase in activity
and authority, 397; the right
to fix succession, 430; develop-
ment under Henry V., 441-443;
parliaments of house of Lan-
caster, 474-476; Elizabeth's deal-
ings with, 590 ; recovers power
of impeachment, 639; quarrels
with James I. , 628 ; early strife
of Charles I. with, 643; de-
thrones and executes Charles
I., 669-704 ; important principles
arising from Danby's case, 771 ;
secures control of crown grants,
833; significance of Whig rev-
olution in growth of power of,
863, 864; the Wilkes case, 923;
reform of, agitated, 928; de-
bates published, 930; reform
agitation renewed, 978, 988;
the Reform Bill of 1832, 991-
994; the second Reform Bill,
1041, 1043; the third Reform
Bill, 1058, 1059; as constituted
in 1901, 1059 ; see also Witenage-
mot. Council, Magnum Conci-
lium, and Commons.
Parnell, Charles Stewart, Home
Rule leader, 1054, 1063.
Parr, Catharine, 553.
Parsons, Robert, Jesuit agent, 604.
Partitions, Spanish, treaties, 831,
833.
Patay, battle of, 455.
Paterson, William, devises plan of
Bank of England, 823; origin-
ates scheme of Darien com-
pany, 846.
Patrick, St., Irish missionary, 14.
Patriots, the, 881, 885.
Paul, czar of Russia, ally of Bona-
j)arte, 957 ; assassination of, 959.
Paulinus, first archbishop of York,
37, 38.
Peasant Revolt, the, 406-410.
Pedro the Cruel, of Castile, 383;
restored by Black Prince, 384,
killed by Henry of Trastamara,
384.
Peel, Sir Robert, home secretary,
980; opposes Catholic emanci-
pation, 986; compromises on
Test Act, 988 ; first ministry of,
998; second ministry of, 1008;
position of, 1009; restores in-
come tax, 1010; dealings with
Ireland, 1010, 1011 ; repeals Corn
Laws, 1015; resigns, 1016; the
Arms Act, 1016, 1017; death of,
1031.
Pelham, Henry, minister of George
II., 891; his war policy, 891,
894; home policy, 895; opposes
Calendar Bill, 895; death, 896.
Thomas, duke of Newcastle, min-
ister of George II., 896; fall of,
901 ; his corrupt methods, 901,
903; joins with the elder Pitt,
901 ; end of career, 909.
Pembroke, see Marshal, Valence,
and Clare.
INDEX
1093
Penal Code, 817.
Penda, 39-42.
Peninsular War, 967.
Perceval, Spencer, prime minister,
970.
Percy, Henry, earl of Northumber-
land, rising of against Henry
IV., 435.
Henry, "Hotspur," 396, 433; re-
volt of, 434; slain at Shrews-
bury, 435.
Thomas, earl of Worcester, slain
at Shrewsbury, 435.
Perrers, Alice, intrigues against
Edward III., 389, 393, 394.
Persian war, the, 1026.
Perth, the Articles of, 664.
Pesaro, Cape, battle of, 871.
Peter the Great, of Russia, 871, 909.
Peter's Pence, 181, 536.
Peterloo, massacre of, 978, 979.
Petition and Advice, the, 736, 737.
Petition of Right, the, 648, 649.
Petitioners and Abhorrers, early
names of Whigs and Tories,
773.
Petty, William, eai-1 of Shelburne,
minister of George III., 940,
941.
Philip I. of France, relations with
William I., 136.
II., of France, aids Richard I.
against Henry II., 338; in the
third crusade, 333, 334; plots
with John against Richard, 335 ;
wars with Richard I., 340,
341.
IV. of France, war with Edward
I., 311, 336.
VI. of France, aids Scotland
against England, 354 ; war with
Edward III., 357-369; death,
376.
II., of Spain, marries Mary of
England, 579; proposes mar-
riage with Elizabeth, 593 ; raises
Irish against Elizabeth, 603;
war with England, 606-613;
death, 613, 617.
Philiphaugh, battle of, 694, 695.
Philippa of Hainault, queen of Ed-
ward III., 389.
Phoenix Park murder, the, 1054.
Picquigny, Treaty of, 483.
?iots, the ancient, 15, 16.
Pilgrimage of Grace, the, 545.
Pilgrims, see Separatists.
Piluitz, convention of, 951.
Pinkie Cleugh, battle of, 561.
Pitt, William, earl of Chatham,
attacks Carteret, 883, 896; first
ministry, 901, 908; successful
policy of, 905, 906 ; second min-
istry, 934, 939 ; sympathy with
American colonists, 935, 938 ;
death of, 943.
William, prime minister, 944;
strength of, 944; peaceful na-
ture of early part of adminis-
tration, 945, 946; reforms of,
946-949; foreign policy of, 950;
early attitude toward French
Revolution, 951, 956; organizes
coalition against France, 956,
957 ; resignation of, 958 ; second
ministry of, 961; third coali-
tion, 963; death, 963, 963.
Pius v., bull of, against Elizabeth,
600.
Plague, the Great, of 1665, 756.
Plassey, battle of, 905.
Poitiers, battle of, 378.
Pole, Henry, Lord Montague, in-
trigue of, 545, 546.
John de la, earl of Lincoln, revolt
of, against Henry VII., 303;
slain at Stoke, 308.
Michael de la, earl of Suffolk,
minister of Richard II., 416;
dismissed, 418.
Reginald, papal legate, 545; at-
tainted by Henry VIII., 546;
returns to England under Mary,
577, 580; archbishop of Canter-
bury, 582; death of, 585.
William de la, earl of Suffolk,
458, 459; impeached and mur-
dered, 461.
Polish succession, war of the, 883.
Poor Law, the first, 570; amend-
ment act, 996.
Porteous riots, the, 883.
Portland, see Bentinck.
Postal reform, 1005, 1006.
Poyning's Acts, the, 505.
Praemunire, Statute of, 390, 398,
430, 536.
Prayer Book of Edward VI., the
first, 564; the second, 570: re-
pealed, 576.
1094
INDEX
Presbyterians, see under Reforma-
tion in Scotland, Puritans, Civil
"Wars, the. Long Parliament,
Restoration, Clarendon Code,
Dissenters.
Presentment of Englishry, 160.
Press, freedom of, secured, 824.
Pressburg, Treaty of, 963.
Preston, battle of, 703.
Preston Pans, battle of, 893.
Pretender, see Stuart.
Pride's purge, 703.
Primrose, Archibald Philip, earl of
Rosebery, successor of Glad-
stone, 1064.
Printing in England; early, 498.
Prison reform, see Howard.
Protection for Life and Property
Act, 1054.
Provisors, Statute of, 390, 398, 420.
Prynne, William, before Court of
Star Chamber, 658, 659.
Punjab, conquest of, 1013.
Puritanism, growth of, 602.
Puritans, the, 564, 576, 597, 602, 612,
624-627, 650, 657, 661, 662, 666,
674, 675; see also Separatists,
Nonconformists, and Dissent-
ers.
Pym, John, parliamentary leader,
640, 647, 666, 670, 671, 688.
Pyrenees, Treaty of the, 741.
Pythias, voyage of, 6, 7.
Quakers, persecution of, 752.
Quebec, capture of, 907.
Queen Anne's bounty, 842.
war, 897.
Quia Emptores, the statute of, 301.
Quiberon Bay, battle of, 907.
Radcot Bridge, battle of, 418.
Raedwald, king of East Anglia, 34,
36.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 613, 616; ad-
vocates war with Spain, 624;
imprisoned, 626; South Ameri-
can expedition of, 637; death
of, 688.
Ramillies, battle of, 844.
Ranters, the, 706.
Rapparees, the, 754.
Reading, battle of, 63.
Recissory Act, the, 754.
Recoinage Act, the, 827.
Recusants, 564, 591, 605.
Reform Bills, the, first, 994; the sec-
ond, 1041, 1042; the third, 1058.
Reformation, the, in England, in-
troduction of, 528-547 ; progress
of, 549-570; Catholic reaction,
571-685; established, 587-605.
the, in Scotland, 592.
Regulating Act, the, 930.
Relief, 117.
Relief Act, the, 931.
Religiosis, the. Statute de, 301.
Remonstrance, the Grand, 676.
Restoration, the Stuart, 745 ; in Ire-
land, 753 ; in Scotland, 754.
Resumption Bill, the, 882.
Retford, battle of, 36.
Revenues of the crown under Eliza-
beth, 681.
Revocation, the Act of, 664
Rich, Edmund, archbishop of Can-
terbury, 275, 278.
Richard I. , conspires against Henry
II., 225, 328; accession of, 280;
in the third crusade, 231, 234;
character of, 231 ; imprisonment
and ransom of, 235, 236; reign
of, 236-340; death of , 231.
II., troublous reign of, 404-435; in
the Peasant Revolt, 409 ; defies
parliament, 418; assumes the
govei-nment, 419; second mar-
riage of, 420; his Irish cam-
paign, 424 ; is deposed, 425 ; im-
prisoned, 481 ; death of, 433.
III., as duke of Gloucester,
schemes to secure the succes-
sion, 488; succeeds, 489, 490;
his reign, 490, 491 ; slain at Bos-
worth, 492.
Richmond, see Henry VII. of Eng-
land.
Ridley, Nicholas, bishop of Roches-
ter, 564; death, 582, 583.
Ridolfi plot, the, 601.
Right, petition of, 648-650.
Rights, Bill of, 813.
claim of, 818.
declaration of, 802, 813.
Rivers, see Woodville.
Rizzio, David, murder of, 598.
Robert of Jumieges, archbishop of
Canterbury, 128, 129, 133.
of Normandy, eldest son of Con-
queror, 182, 183; loses Nor-
tKDEX
1095
mandy, 107; quarrels with
Henry I., 190, 191; death, 191.
Robert I. , king of Scotland, corona-
tion, 331 ; wars with Edward I. ,
337-333; with Edward II., 338,
339; secures independence of
Scotland, 436.
III., of Scotland, 436.
Roberts, general, "Bobs," 1056.
Robinson, Frederick, viscount Gode-
rich, chancellor of the ex-
chequer, 981; prime minister,
987 ; member of Grey ministry,
991.
RocheUe, La, battle of, 387; Buck-
ingham's expedition to, 646.
Roches, Peter des, bishop of Win-
chester, justiciar of John, 357;
favorite of Henry III., 367, 371,
373, 374; dismissed from coun-
cil, 375.
Rockingham, marquis of, see Went-
worth.
Roger, the Poor, bishop of Salisbury,
193; quarrel with Stephen, 205.
Roman walls, the, in Britain, 11.
Root and Branch Bill, 674, 675.
Rosebery, see Primrose.
Roses, the wars of, 466-493.
Rossbach, battle of, 904.
Rotten boroughs, disfranchisement
of, see Reform Bills.
Rowton Heath, battle of, 695.
Royal African Company, 809.
Royal Marriage Act, the, 930.
"Rule Brittania," origin of song,
878, 888.
Rump, the, 704; ignores the agree-
ment of the people, 707 ; unpop-
ularity of, 719; expelled by
CromweU, 720, 721; restored,
740; second expulsion and res-
toration, 743.
Rupert, prince, 682, 684, 685, 686,
688, 689, 690, 695, 711, 716, 756.
Rural life in England in four-
teenth century, 373, 373.
Russell, admiral Edward, wins La
Hogue, 830.
John, earl, attacks Test and Cor-
poration acts, 988; member of
Grey ministry, 991 ; prime min-
ister, 1016; colonial policy of,
1018; factory reforms, 1019;
fall of, 1030, 1031.
Russell, Lord William, Whig leader,
executed, 779.
Rye House Plot, the, 779.
Ryswick, peace of, 839.
Sac and Soo, 123, 176.
Sacherevell's case, 853.
Saint Albans, battle of, 467; sec-
ond battle of, 472.
Brice's Day, massacre of, 110.
Saladin tithe, the, 237, 338.
Salisbury, see Cecil, Montague,
Neville.
William Longsword, earl of, 354,
358, 364.
Sancroft, William, archbishop of
Canterbury, of "the seven
bishops," 793; deposed as non-
juror, 814.
Sandwich, see Montague.
Sanquhair Declaration, the, 775.
San Stefano, Treaty of, 1051.
Saratoga, battle of, 938.
Sautre, William, first heretic burnt
in England, 440.
Saville, George, marquis of Hali-
fax, 773 ; defeats the Exclusion
Bill, 777; supports William III ,
777.
Saxons, early conquests of, 15-32.
Schism, the Great, 413.
Scotland, ancient people of, 15,
16; see also Caledonians, and
Picts; relations of Norman
and Angevin kings to, see un-
der contemporary Scottish
Tiings; the Reformation in, see
Elizabeth ; the Revolution in, see
under names of Stuart Mugs;
union with England, 845, 846;
free church movement in, 1014.
Scrope, Richard le, archbishop of
York, plots against Henry IV.,
435.
Scutage, the, 214.
Sebastopol, siege of, 1033, 1034.
Secretaries of state, the, 868.
Security, Bill of, the, 847.
Sedgemoor, battle of, 784.
Self-denying Ordinance, the, 693.
Senlac, see Hastings.
Separatists, the, 597; persecutions
of, 613; the settlement at New
Plymouth, 661.
Sepoy mutiny, see Indian mutiny.
1096
INDEX
Septennial Act, the, 869.
Settlement, Act of, the, 833.
Seven bishops, the trial of, 793, 794.
Seven years' war, the, begun, 899, 900.
Seymour, Jane, wife of Henry
VIII., 550.
Edward, duke of Somerset, 560;
lord protector, 560; his prot-
estantism, 561-564; invasion of
Scotland, 561 ; fall and execu-
tion of, 567, 569.
Seymour, Thomas, intrigues of,
565.
Shaftesbury, see Cooper.
Shakespeare, William, 616, 617.
Shelburne, see Petty.
Sheriff, the, 69.
Sheriflfmuir, battle of, 869.
Sheriffs, Inquest of, 221, 222.
Ship money, levies of, 655, 656;
Hampden's case, 657; declared
illegal by Long Parliament, 672.
Shire, origin of, 69, 70.
Shrewsbury, battle of, 434.
Sidmouth, see Addington.
Sidney, Algernon, Whig leader, 779.
Sir Philip, 607, 617.
Simnel, Lambert, the pretender, 501.
Six Acts, the, 979.
Six Articles, the, 549, 550.
Slavery, 616; the assiento, 855,
872, 883; slave trade, society
for abolition of , 950; Mansfield's
decision, 949, 950; slave trade
abolished in colonies, 966- the
Emancipation Act, 996.
Sluys, battle of, 359, 360.
Smith, Adam, author of "Wealth of
Nations," influence of, 918.
John, missionary to negroes of
Jamaica, 987.
Soho, iron works, established, 914.
Solemn League and Covenant, the,
688.
Solferino, battle of, 1033.
Somerset, see Beaufort, Seymour,
and Carr.
Soudan, the, see Mahdi.
South Sea Company, (the South
Sea Bubble), 872-874.
Spain, see under different Spanish
kings, Armada, Utrecht.
Spanish succession, the war of the,
causes of, 832, 835 ; for progress
of see under Churchill.
"Spectator," the, 860.
Snenoer, John Charles, viscount
Althorp, 996, 1019.
Henry de, bishop of Norwich,
crusade of, 414.
Robert, earl of Sunderland, coun-
cillor of Charles II., 773; of
James II., 788.
Charles, earl of Sunderland, 853,
868, 869; involved in South Sea
Bubble, 874.
Spenser, Edmund, the poet, 617,
634.
Spurs, battle of the, 515.
St. George's Fields, massacre of,
927.
St. John, Henry, viscount Boling-
broke, 842, 853, 856, 863, 868,
872, 878, 881.
St. Mahe, battle of, 326.
Stadholderate, the, restored, 764.
Stafford, Edward, duke of Buck-
ingham, lineage of, 523 ; execu-
tion of, 524.
Henry duke of, supports Richard
III., 484; revolt and death, 490.
Stamford Bridge, battle of, 139, 140.
Stamip Act, the, 923; repealed, 925.
Standard, battle of the. 204.
Stanhope, James, earl, minister of
George I. , 869 ; his foreign pol-
icy, 870-872; fall of ministry of,
873; death, 874.
Philip Dormer, earl of Chester-
field, 895.
Stanley, Edward, earl of Derbjf,
secretary for Ireland, 995 ; colo-
nial secretary, abolishes slave
trade, 996; first ministry of,
1021 ; second ministry of, 1032,
1033; third ministry of, 1040,
1042.
Star Chamber, court of, 502 ; abuses
of, under Charles I., 658; abol-
ished by Long Parliament, 672.
Stephen, king of England, 202, 203 ; '
civil war begun, 204; breaks
with the church, 205 ; Walling-
ford, 210; death, 211.
Stephenson, George, inventor of
locomotive, 1002.
Stewart, Robert, viscount Castle-
reagh, member of Portland
ministry, 966; of Liverpool
ministry, 970; refused to enter
INDEX
1097
Holy Alliance, 982; death of,
981.
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury,
133, 133, 147, 149, 154, 179.
Stoke, battle of, 503.
Stonehenge, ruins of, 6.
Strafford, see Wentworth.
Strongbow, see Clare.
Stuart, see under names of sover-
eigns of house.
John, earl of Bute, minister of
George III., 908, 921.
Murdock, earl of Fyfe, 413.
Subinfeudation, 175.
Subsidy, origin of, 631, note.
Succession, the war of the English,
820, 839, 830.
Suez canal, comes under British
control, 1056.
Suffolk, see Pole and Grey.
Sunderland, see Spencer.
Supremacy, Act of, 541, 543, 590.
Surajah Dowlah, nawab of Bengal,
besieges Calcutta, 900; over-
throw by Clive, 904, 905.
Surrey, see Howard.
Suttee, abolished in India, 1013.
Sweyn Forkbeard, raid of. 111, 113,
114.
son of earl Godwin, 137.
Tables, the Scottish, 664.
Talavera, battle of, 968.
Talbot, Eichard, earl of Tyrcon-
nel, 788, 815.
Talents , the ministry of All the,
963.
Tallage, 177.
Tamworth Manifesto, the, 977.
"Tatler," the, established, 860.
Tel-el-Kebir, battle of, 1057.
Temple, Henry, Tisoount Palmer-
ston, secretary of war, 981, 988 ;
Tory member of Grey ministry,
991 ; foreign secretary in Mel-
bourne ministry, 1003; policy
of, 1004; supports opium war,
1005 ; foreign secretary in Eus-
seU ministry, 1016, 1030, 1021 ;
in Aberdeen ministry, 1023;
prime minister, 1024; second
Chinese war, 1036, 1031; in
Orsini affair, 1033 ; second min-
istry of, 1033; attitude toward
American civil war, 1034; the
Alabama, 1035 ; attempted
interference in struggle for Ger-
man unity, 1036; death, 1036.
Temple, William, scheme for recon-
struction of royal council, 771.
Ten Articles, the, 548.
Tenants in capite, 175.
Tenchebray, battle of, 191.
Tenure, socage, 173.
military, 174.
Test Act, the, 765; attacked by
James II., 788.
Teutonic Britain, institutions, 27;
rival confederacies, 33; Chris-
tianity in, 43.
Teutons, advance of the, 34-37 ; cus-
toms of, 30, 31.
Tewksbury, battle of, 484.
Thames, the, 70, 88, 174.
Theodore, archbishop of Canter-
bury, 44-48.
Thirty-nine Articles, the, 596, 814.
Thirty years' war, outbreak of, 638 ;
relation of England to, see un-
der James I.
Thugs, the, abolished in India, 1013.
Thurkill, the Dane, 113, 113.
Tilsit, Treaty of, 964
Tithe Bill, the Irish, 1001.
Tithe war, the Irish, 995.
Torres Vedras, the lines of, 969.
Tory party, origin of name, 773;
strength under James II., 786;
intrigues under William III.,
see under Jacobites ; disruption
of the ancient, 863; birth of
the Hanoverian or new, 878;
first period of rule, 911-940;
second period of rule, 941-945;
reforms of, 978; disruption of,
1014, 1016; replaced by Con-
servative party, 1038.
Tostig, son of Godwin, 133, 137-139.
Toulouse, Henry II. 's war of, 214.
Tower, the, 30, 243, 243; see also
city.
Townshend, Charles, lord, minis-
ter of George I., 868, 869; asso-
ciated with Walpole, 870-874;
quarrel with Walpole, 877; re-
tires, 878.
Towton, battle of, 476.
Tractarian movement, the, 1014.
Trafalgar, battle of, 961, 963.
Trailbaston, courts of, 353.
1098
INDEX
Transvaal, annexation of the, 1052.
Trastamara, Henry of, 383, 384.
Treasons Act, the, 837.
Trent Affair, the, 1084.
Trent, the council of, 597.
Triennial Acts, 673, 749, 834.
Triers, committee of, 731.
Trinoda neoessitas, the, 170.
Triple Alliance, the, 761.
Tromp, von, Dutch admiral, 718,
730.
Troyes, Treaty of, 448.
"True Born Englishmen," the, of
Defoe, 860.
Tudor policy, the, 500.
House of, see under names of
sovereigns of.
system, the, 630.
Tulchan feishops, the, 663.
Tyler, Walter, connected vrith
Peasant Revolt, 408, 409.
Tyndale, William, translator of
scriptures, 537, 549.
Tyroonnel, see Talbot.
Uhtred, earl of Northumbria, 115.
Ulfcytel, Norman, bishop of Dur-
ham, 111, 113.
Ulster, Plantation of, the, 633.
Undertakers, the, 712.
Uniformity, tlie Acts of, 564, 576,
590.
Union Jack, first appearance of, 849.
the, of England and Scotland,
845-849.
United Irishmen, the society of,
955.
United States of America, second
war with Great Britain, 970,
973; boundary questions, 1013;
Caroline affair, 1000; Pakners-
ton ministry and the civil war,
1034.
Urban V., demands payment of
tribute from Edward III. , 390.
VI., see schism.
Uses, Statute of, 544.
Ushant, battle of, 953.
Utrecht, Treaties of, 854, 855, 883.
Valence, Aymer de, earl of Pem-
broke, 331.
Van Arteveldt, see Arteveldt.
Vane, Sir Henry, the younger, 670,
688, 718, 734, 747, 749.
Vassal, the, 175.
Vere, Robert de, earl of Oxford,
marquis of Dublin, duke of
Ireland, 416-419.
Verneuil, battle of, 451.
Versailles, Treaty of, 940.
Victoria, accession of, 999 ; marries
Prince Albert, 1006; epochs of
reign, 1009; death of, influence
of, 1067.
Vienna, congress, 972, 981.
Treaties of, 877, 879, 883, 968.
Vikings, see Danes and Northmen.
Villain, the, 173; emancipation of,
410 ; see also Peasant Revolt.
Villiers, Greorge, duke of Bucking-
ham, minister of James II., 635,
641, 645, 646; assassination of,
653.
George, duke of Buckingham,
member of Cabal, 731, 766.
Charles, prominent in attack upon
Corn Laws, 1003.
Vimiero, battle of, 967.
Vincent, battle of St. , 954.
Vinegar Hill, battle of, 955.
Walcheren, Chatham's expedition
to, 968.
Wagram, battle of, 968.
Wakefield, battle of, 471.
Wales, Statute of, 399.
first prince of, 299.
not conquered by Saxons, 24;
" wars with Northumbria, 33, 36,
37 ; vassal to Edward the Elder,
83; of Athelstan, 83; princes of,
in alliance with Montfort, 388;
conquered and organized by Ed-
ward I., 298, 399; wars with
Henry IV., 433,436; reorganized
by Henry VIII., 553.
Wallace, William, rising of, 338;
loses Falkii-k, 329; death of, 330.
Waller, Sir William, parliamentary
general, 683-685, 690.
Wallingford, peace of, 310, 211.
Walpole, Sir Robert, minister of
George I., 868, 869; attacks for-
eign policy of government, 870 ;
in Townshend's second minis-
try, 874; quarrels with Town-
shend, 875; "first prime minis-
ter of England," 879; favors
toleration, 880 ; the Excise Bill,
INDEX
1099
880; his policy of peace, 882,
883 ; war with Spain, 883 ; serv-
ice to England, 884.
Walsingham, minister of Eliza-
beth, 607.
Walter of Coutances, archbishop of
Rouen, justiciar of Richard I. ,
338; lays interdict on Nor-
mandy, 341.
Walter, Hubert, archbishop of Can-
terbury, 334, 337; justiciar of
Richard I., 338-340; death of,
350.
Waltheof , earl of Northumberland,
rebelUon of, 163, 163; death of,
166.
Walworth, William, mayor of Lon-
don, auditor of popular levy,
404: in Peasant Revolt, 406, 407.
Wandewash, battle of, 907.
Warbeck, Perkin, pretender, 504-
507.
Wardship, 177.
Warenne, John, wins Dunbar, 337;
regent of Scotland, 337 ; beaten
at Cambuskenneth, 328.
Warwick, see Beauohamp, Neville,
and Dudley.
Washington, George, commander
of colonial armies, 937 ; at York-
town, 939.
Waterloo, battle of, 973; effect on
England, 976.
Watt, James, improves steam en-
gine, 913, 914.
Wedgewood, Josiah, potter, 914.
Wedmore, Treaty of, 67.
Wellesley, Arthur, duke of Welling-
ton, in India, 961 ; in Penin-
sular war, 967 - 969 ; invades
France, 973; wins Waterloo,
973, 974; prime minister, 987;
opposes Catholic emancipation,
987, 988; accepts, 990; fall of
ministry, 990, 991; attempts to
form a second ministry, 993,
death, 1031.
Richard, lord Mornington, in In-
dia, 961.
Wentworth, Charles Watson, mar-
quis of Rockingham, minister
of George III.. 934; the Declar-
atory Act, 935 ; second ministry
and death, 940.
Wergeld, 38.
Wesley, Charles, associated with
John, in Methodist movement,
885.
John, leader in religious reforms,
885; founds Methodist church,
886; influence of Methodist
m.ovement, 887.
Wessex, early conquests of West
Saxons, 33, 23, 33 ; organization
of kingdom by Ine, 50, 51 ; su-
preme under Egbert, 53-56.
Westminster Abbey, 148.
Confession, the, 698.
Convention of, 898, 899.
Provisions of, 386.
Thomas, earl of Strafford, 640:
attacks the abuses of the crown,
647; joins king's party, 651;
lord deputy of Ireland, 660;
added to the council, 666; im-
peachment of, 670, 671; death,
673.
Wharton, Whig leader, member of
Junto, 826, 831, 853.
Whig revolution, 783-804; nature
of, 803, 804.
party, rise of, origin of name,
773 ; William and Anne forced
to support, 806; first ministry,
825; character of rule of, 865;
constitutional significance of
triumph, 863, 864 ; split in party,
869; reforms of, 978; later
schism of party, 1038; see also
under Shaftesbury, Exclusion
BiU, Russell, Somers, Mon-
tague, Wharton, Junto, Marl-
borough, Townshend, W a 1-
pole, Newcastle, Rockingham,
Shelburne, Grey, Melbourne.
Whitby, Synod of, 44.
White ship, sinking of the, 196.
Whitefield, George, leader in reli-
gious reform, 885, 886 ; supports
Calvinistic wing of Methodist
movement, 886.
Wihtwara, settle in Isle of Wight,
see Jutes.
Wilberforce, see slavery.
Wilfred, bishop of York, 43, 48.
Wilkes, John, 931, 933, 933, 926-931.
William I., the Conqueror, parent-
age of, 130 ; character and early
training, 130, 131 ; invades Eng-
land, 140; campaign of Hast-
1100
IN'DEX
ings, 144-148; coronation of,
148-150; position of, after, 150,
151 ; London receives a charter,
151, 244; organization of gov-
ernment, 151, 152; confiscations
of, 132, 153; policy, 154; re-
duces England, 156-165; taxa-
tion under, 170; the oath at
Salisbury, 178; policy toward
the chxirch, 178-180; new con-
ditions under, 181 ; quarrel with
barons, 182 ; witli his sons, 183 ;
death of, 183.
William II., Rufus, accession of,
184; character, 185; treatment
of the church, 186, 187 ; reunion
of England and Normandy, 187 ;
death of, 188.
III., stadholder, 764; marries
Mary of York, 767; difficulties
of proposed invasion of Eng-
land, 794, 795 ; invasion of Eng-
land, 799-801; coronation of,
803; character of, 811; difficul-
ties of position of, 812 ; dealings
with religious question, 812-
814; in Ireland, 816; opposition
to in Scotland, 818-820; war of
English succession, 820-825; the
partition treaties, 831, 832;
death, 835.
IV., accession of, 990; supports
reform, 991 ; death of, 999.
I., emperor of Germany, 1035.
and Mary's war, 897.
Clito, 196.
Henry, Fort, erected 898, cap-
tured by Montcalm, 904.
Longbeard, see Fitz-Osbert.
Longs word, see Salisbury.
son of Henry I. , 196.
the Lion, king of Scotland, 225,
226, 231, 252.
the Silent, 764.
Williams, Roger, founds Rhode
Island, 662.
Wilmington, see Compton.
Winchelsey, archbishop of Canter-
bury, 311, 312, 336.
Winchester, Statute of, the, 301.
Winwood, battle of, 42.
Witenagemot, defined, 28, 91, 111,
128, 168, 169.
Wolfe, general, captures Quebec,
907.
Wolsey, Thomas, minister of Henry
VIII., 514, 516; diplomatic tri-
umphs of, 516, 517 ; relations to
Francis I. and Charles V. , 520 ;
decline of popularity of, 521,
522; reforms of, 522, 523; sup-
ports Henry VIII., in seeking
divorce, 524 ; fall of, 525 ; death,
526, 527.
Wood's Pence, 860.
Woodville, Anthony, lord Scales,
earl Rivers, 479, death of, 488.
Sir Richard, earl Rivers, treas-
urer and constable of England,
479, death of, 480.
Elizabeth, marries Edward IV.,
478; family of, overthrown by
Richard III., 488, 489.
Worcester, battle of, 715.
Worms, diet of, 519.
Wren, Sir Christopher, plans of, for
upbuilding London, 857.
Wulfhere, 42, 49, 50.
Wyat, Sir Thomas, earl of Suffolk,
578.
Wyclif , John, 394 ; theories of social
order, 395 ; trial of, 396 ; his re-
forms, 398, 399, 411-413.
Wykeham, William of, bishop of
Winchester, minister of Ed-
ward III., 391, 394, 419, 437.
York, monastery of, 64.
Edmund, duke of, 415.
Richard, duke of, 457, 463; re-
turn, 464 ; seizes control of gov-
erment, 465; in war of the
Roses, 466-471 ; slain, 471.
Yorktown, capitulation of, 939.
Young, Arthur, secretary of board
of agriculture, 917.
Ireland party, the, 1011, 1018.
ZoUverein, 1035.
Zulus, war with the, 1052.
Zutphen, battle of, 607.
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