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ducatiotiai  Series 


1 


EPOCHS 

EKCLISH  HISTORY. 

COMPLETE  EDITION. 


a) 


I 


Mwm 


liiitboiiseb  bu  t^c  Hlinister  of  drbiuatlon, 


Part  I. 

Epochs  of  English  History 

EDITED    BT    THK 

REV.  M.  CREIGHTON,   M.A, 

LITE  FELLOW  AND  TUTOR  OP  MERTON 
COLLEGE, OXFORD. 


I.— Early  England  up  to  the  Norman  Conquest.    By  Frederick 
VoRK-PowELii,  M.A.    With  four  maps. 

II.—Euijlanu  as  a  Continental  Potver,  fronv,  the  Cotiqueat  to 
MdOna  Chartn.  lOOG-vnG.  By  Louise  Ckeighton. 
Willi  II  colored  maj)  of  tb«  Doiiiiiiiou  of  tlio  Aiit;oviu 
Kings. 
III.— The  Kisf  of  the  Peo]>lr,  ami  Growth  of  Parliami'ut.from  the 
Ureut  Charter  to  the  Accession  tif  Henry  ]'II ,  t:;ir,-l4S.',. 
By  James  Kowlky,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Modern  Hist,  aud 
Lit.  Univ.  Coll ,  Bristol.    With  four  Maps. 

IV.— The  Tudors  ard  the  lieformation,  14S6-1603.  By  the  Rev. 
MuiuU-11  Creiyhtoii,  M.A.,  lute  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Mor- 
ton College,  Oxford,  Editor  of  the  series.  With  three 
mapg. 


^ 


PRICE    50    CENTS. 

TORONTO: 

ADAM     MILLER    &    CO. 

1S79. 


i' 


'tl 


0 

6 


1^1 


I-IST    OF    MAPS. 


PAGI 

Roman  Britain 13 

The  First  Home  of  the  English i? 

England  after  the  English  Conquest         ...  27 

England  undek  the  Great  English  Kings     .        .     •  ^5 


1)^ 


1/ 


cox  TK NTS. 


fAom 

t^DIGKEES  ^11 

noou    I. 

THE    BKITONS    AND    30MAN5   (B.C.    55-A.L>.  44^). 
CHArrr.H 

I.   The  Rrijons  .1 

II.   The  Roman  <"onf|iu-si  .  5 

III     Th»  Roman  Rule  m  Britain  'o 

HOOK    II. 

THE    KNGLISH    CONQUEST   (449-^CO). 

I.  Ttie  K„Kiish  .         .  16 

II.   The  I'.nglish  Conquest  .  aa 

BOOK    III 

CHRISTIANtTY       KENT    AND    NORTIIUMBEKI.ANP    (597-685) 

I     Kent 38 

1 1     Northumberland       .  .  30 

BOOK    IV. 

WESSEX    AND    THE    MAKCHIANI)    (68",    802V 

1.  The  Rise  of  Wessex  ....       39 

II    The  Church 4a 

III.   Wessex  and  •*-"  Maxcfeland  .  ....       44 


vi  Contents 


BOOK    V. 

THE    ENGLISH    AND   THE    DANES    (802-9OI/. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.   Egbert  {802-837) 48 

II.   Elhehvolf  and  his  Elder  Sons  1837-871)         ...  5a 

III.  Alfred  the  Truth-teller  (871-901 ) 55 

BOOK    VI. 

THE   GREAT   OLD-ENGLISH    KINGS    (90I-979). 

I.  Edward  the  Elder  (901-925)         .....  66 

II.   Ethclstan  the  Ste.idfast  (925-940) 69 

III.  Edmund  the  Deed-doer  (940-946)          ....  73 

IV.  Edred  the  Chosen  (946-955) 73 

V.   Edwy  (955-959) 74 

VI.   Edgar  the  Peace-winner  (959-975)    •         •         •         •     •  75 

VII.   Edward  the  Martyr  (975-979) 78 

VIII.   Changes  in  England  under  the  Great  Kings      .         .     .  80 

BOOK    VII. 

THE    DANISH    CONQUEST    (979-IO42). 

I.  Ethelred  the  Unready  (979-1016)          ....  8a 

II.   Edmund  Ironside  (ioi6)  .                   90 

III.  Canute  the  Mighty  (1016-1035)    .....  93 

IV.  Harold  Harefoot  and  Hardi-Canute  (1035-1042)      .     .  cf- 

BOOK  vm. 

THE    TWO    LAST    OLD-ENGLISH    KINGS    (IO42-I066). 

I.  Edward  the  Confes.'sor  (1042-1066)        ....  99 

II.   Harold  Godwin's  son  (1066) 106 

III.   Changes  in  England  .         .         ■         .         .         .114 

Index  of  Persons 119 

,,       Places 123 


KINGS  OF  ENGLAND. 


E^rt 

(sprung  from  Cerdic) 

8oa  I  838 


I  I 

Ethrllivlf  EtheUtan 

+  ]  H58  K.  of  Kent 


Sthrrhnld  Ethtlbfrt  Ethelrrd  Alfred  t/u  >~,nn' 

+   Vc  +866  +871  +901 


I  I 

Edward,  Elder     Elheincd,  l^dy  ol  the  Martlilaiid 
+  I    925  +    977 


r  I              I 

EthtbiaM  Edmund               Edred 

+  '>40  +  946                  +  455 

I  1 

Kd-my  Edgar 

+  959  +  975 


Ed'Mird  the  Martyr  Etkdri-d  the  Uurrndy 

+  979  (mar.  Kninia  of  Normandy) 


Edmund  I roHsidt  Alfred  Edward  the  Cen/ettor  other  sons,  and 

^    1016  +  ioj6  +   10C6  three  datighiers  m«r.  to 

'  (Emma's  son)  (Emma's  sou)  Edric,  Utred.  Wolfki-tli* 


I 


Edmund  Edward 

+  before  1056  +  1057 


EdRar  Etheling  Mar);arel 

(mar.  Malcolm  Bighead 
K.in)[  of  ScotlandX 


THE  DA^^,SH  KINGS. 


Harold  Bluetooth 
King    of    I  Denmark 


I  ! 

Sweyn  Forkbeard  Gunhild 

(King  of  Denmark  and  Englasid)  (mar.  Pallig) 
+    1214 


Canute  the  Mighty 
(King  of  Denmark,  England,  and  Norway) 
+   1035 

I 


Sweyn  Harold  Hare/oot        Hardi-Camite  Gunhild 

(King  of  Denmark)  +  1040  (son  of  Emma)  (mar.  Emp.  Henry  III.) 

+   1042  (dtr.  of  Emma) 


THE  HOUSE  OF  GODWIN. 


Godwin 

(mar.  Canute's  sister's  daughter) 

+  IOS3 


III  I                  II! 

Edith          Sweyn        Harold  Tostig            Gurth        Leofwin         Wclfnotb 

(m.  Edward  +c.  1053    (m.  Edith  (m   Judith         f  1066          +  1066 

Con/eteor)                    Elfgar'sdtr.)  Baldwin's  dtr.)                                                         • 

+  1066  +  1066 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LEOFRIC. 


Leofric 

I 
Elfgar 

I 


Edith  Fdwin  Morcw 

(mar.   i.  Griffith,  King  of  Wales 


3.  Harold  Godu'inso'i) 


THE   HOUSE   OF  NORMANDY 


Rolf  Ganger 

.'son  of  Earl  Ronwald) 

+  927 

I 

William  Longs~Mord 

+   943 

I 

Richard,  Fearless 

+   995 

I  I 

Richard,  Good  Emma 

+   1026  (mar.  i.  EthelreJ  the  Unready 
I  2.  Canute  the  Mighty 


Richard  Robert,  Magni/icent     —  Harlotia  Ogive 

+    1028  +    1035  (mar.  Herlwin)  (m.  Baldwin  Fairbeard 

I  I  of  Flanders) 


I  I  ' 

William  the  Conqueror  OJo  Robert 

(mar.  Matilda  fUishop  of  Bayeux)  (tail  of  Mortain) 
dr.  of  lialdwin  of  Flanders). 


THE  HOUSE  OF  FLANDERS. 


Balcfiviii  T. 

(mar.  Judith,  dghtr.  of  Charles  Bald 

widow  of  I.  Ktliehvolf 

2.  f.-.lulbnld] 

+   879 

I 

Baldwin  11. 

(mat.  dghtr  oi  Alfred  th^  Greats 

-t-  91S 

I 

A  mil//,  Beui 

+  065 

I 

Pnldzuiii  III. 

(^niled  with  his  father) 

+  962 

I 

Artiulf,  Voting 


Baldwin  IV.,  Fairl'eard 
(mar.  Ogive,  dghtr.  of  Richard  Good  of  Normandy) 

1 

Baldwin  v..  Kind 
+  1067 


I 


Baldwin  VI.  Good  Matilda  ludilh 

(tnar.   William  /lie  Cofigueror)     (mar.  1.  Tostig 

8.  Wolfof  Bavarji. 


EARLY    ENGLAND. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Thk  wrHlF.K  THINGS  which  we  have  to  notice  in  this  pari 
of  tht  History  of  England  are  : 

1.  What  England  was  like  and  who  awell  in  it  before 
our  forefathers  came  here  and  called  it  England. 

2.  How  our  forefathers  built  up  the  kingdom  of  Eng- 
land, driving  out  the  folk  that  dwelt  here  before  them. 

3    How  this  kingdom  grew  so  weak  that  it  was  con- 
quered Oy  foreign  kings. 


BOOK    1. 

2  HE   BR  J  TONS  AND   ROMANS. 

K.c.  55"  A.I).  409. 

CHAPTER    1. 

THE       BRITONS. 

I.  W  e  do  not  know  much  of  the  first  dwellers  in  Eng- 
land, as  no  history  tells  us  about  them  ;  but  from  the  re 
mams  of  themselves,  their  tools  and  weapons,     ^,    ^ 

,  .    ,  ,  •  '       1  lie  first 

Which  are  sometimes   dug  up,  we   have   been     dwellers  ii. 
able  to  find  out  something.    They  were  rnihcr     ''-"s'^'^- 
small  people,  like  the  Esquimauxfand   used    flint  and 


Early  England. 


BK.   I. 


bone  weapons.  They  were  great  hunters,  and  some  of 
them  were  cannibals.  They  lived  in  caves  and  on  the 
banks  of  the  seas  and  rivers  ;  and  it  is  in  caves  and  the 
great  heaps  of  shells,  which  lie  near  where  their  huts  stood, 
that  we  find  the  bones  and  remains  that  tell  us  about  them. 

In  their  days  England  was  much  colder  than  it  it 
now,  and  much  wilder.  A  great  many  wild  beasts  lived 
here,  such  as  hyaenas,  lions,  rhinoceroses,  and  elephants 
which  have  long  since  disappeared. 

We  do  not  know  when  these  people  came  to  England, 
but  it  must  have  been  a  very  long  while  ago. 

2.  The  first  people  we  hear  about  in  history  as  dwelling 

in  England,  which  they  called  Britain,  were  very  different 

folk.     The  land  in  their  time,  though  not  so 

TheBntous.  ,  ,  ,       .,  ,  ,     ,  ...      ^  ... 

cold  and  wild  as  before,  was  still  very  unlike 
the  England  of  to-day.  The  greater  part  of  it  was  covered 
with  thick  woods  or  broad  heaths  ;  and  where  the  rivers 
now  run  fast  there  were  often  great  fens  and  lakes. 
There  were  still  many  wild  beasts,  bears,  wolves,  and 
beavers,  great  elks  and  wild  cattle,  though  most  of  those 
we  spoke  of  before  had  died  out.  It  was  hotter  in  summer 
and  colder  in  winter  than  it  is  now. 

The  people  were  not  English  at  all,  but  of  the  same 
race  as  the-lrish  and  Welsh  of  to-day,  who  are  descended 
from  them.  They  were  a  rude  people,  but  were  not 
savages,  like  the  first  folk.  They  lived  in  wattled  huts 
half  sunk  in  the  ground,  without  windows  or  chimneys. 
These  huts  were  set  together  in  villages,  which  had  often 
a  wooden  paling  and  earthen  wall  round  them,  and  were 
placed  in  the  midst  of  woods,  or  on  islands  in  the  rivers 
or  marshes,  or  on  hills,  so  as  to  be  safer  against  foemen. 
Their  wealth  was  in  cattle,  and  they  tilled  the  ground 
near  their  villages,  and  grew  barley.  They  were  great 
hunters  ;  but  they  did  not  fish  in  the  sea.  In  the  south 
and  west  of  Britain  they  worked  to  find  tin  and  lead, 


CH.  I.  The  Britons.  3 

and  sold  the  metal  to  the  Phoenicians,  wno  were  the 
great  merchants  of  that  day  and  the  first  civihsed  folk 
who  knew  of  Britain.  The  Britons  also  used  to  traffic 
with  their  kinsfolk  in  Gaul.  They  had  horses,  which  they 
only  used  for  war,  when  they  drose  them  in  chariots  ; 
and  they  had  dogs  like  large  deerhounds,  which  they  used 
for  hunting.  Tlie  Britons  were  very  clever  at  all  kinds 
of  basket-work,  and  knew  how  to  make  pottery  for  house- 
hold use,  and  large  earthenware  vessels  in  which  they 
buried  their  dead.  They  did  not  know  how  to  work  iron  or 
copper,  but  used  flint  and  bone  and  horn  for  their  weapons 
and  tools.  When  they  could,  they  bought  bronze  swords 
and  axes  from  Gaul.  They  used  also  to  make  jet  ornaments. 

They  were  tall,  big  people,  and  many  of  them  had 
blue  eyes  and  light  hair.  They  left  their  hair  long,  and 
the  men  wore  large  moustachios,  but  shaved  their  beards. 
The  men  wore  shirts  and  hose  and  long  cloaks  of  plaid, 
and  the  women  kirtles  of  the  same  stuff.  But  when  the 
men  went  to  war  they  used  to  throw  off  their  cloaks  and 
rush  into  battle  half-naked,  painted  blue  with  the  juice  of 
a  herb  called  woad,  just  as  is  the  habit  of  some  savages 
now.  They  fought  with  long  swords  and  spears  and 
darts.  Their  shields  were  of  wood  covered  with  hide  and 
strengthened  with  metal. 

3.  They  were  brave  in  battle,  but  were  never  long  of 
one  mind,  and  so  their  bravery  availed  them  little.  They 
did  not  live  together  as  a  nation,  under  one  rheirgo- 
rule,  as  we  see  the  peoples  of  Europe  do  now ;  vernment. 
but  they  were  divided  into  tribes.  Each  tribe  had  its  own 
chief  and  followed  its  own  customs.  These  tribes  were 
always  at  war  with  each  other,  and  this  was  one  great 
cause  of  the  misfortunes  that  fell  upon  them. 

The  chiefs  and  kings  of  these  tribes  could  not  do  as 
they  liked.  When  any  great  thing  was  to  be  done  the 
free  men  of  the  tribe  were  all  called  together  to  consider  it, 

B  3 


4  Early  England.  bk,  l 

and  what  they  wished  was  done  ;  but  the  chiefs  led  them 
to  war,  and  had  much  power  over  them  in  peace-time. 

There  was  one  tribe  very  unHke  the  other  dwellers  in 
Britain  in  many  ways.  They  were  not  so  fickle,  but  very 
steadfast  folk  ;  and  they  wore  dark-coloured  raiment,  and 
were  dark-haired  and  dark-eyed.  They  lived  in  what  is 
now  South  Wales,  and  were  called  Silures. 

4.  We  do  not  know  how  or  when  all  these  tribes  came 
to  Britain  ;  thoiiJh  there  are  some  stories  in  old  Irish  and 
Their  Welsh  books  about  their  coming.     Nor  do  we 

coming  into  know  whether  the  savages  who  first  dwelt  in 
the  land  had  all  died  out  when  they  came  ;  but 
it  is  very  likely  they  had.  We  only  know  for  certain  that 
the  Silures  came  from  the  south  of  Europe,  and  the  Irish, 
or  Gaels,  from  the  east ;  and  after  them  the  Britons  came, 
who  drove  the  Irish  forward  to  the  west  and  north.  Ol 
the  Britons,  the  Belgians  came  last,  only  about  100  years 
before  the  birth  of  Christ. 

The  religion  of  the  Britons  was  very  strange.  There 
was  a  class  of  men  whom  they  called  Druids,  who  were 

.  .  both  prophets,   priests,   and  teachers.     They 

Religion.  1        T,    • 

had  great  power  among  the  Britons,  but  the 
Irish  do  not  seem  to  have  given  them  so  much  authority. 
They  taught  men  to  worship  the  gods,  and  that  the 
soul  of  a  man  never  died,  but  that  after  death  it  passed 
through  other  bodies,  and  that  the  wicked  were  punished 
and  the  good  rewarded  by  what  happened  to  them  in  the 
different  bodies  which  their  souls  passed  through.  They 
also  offered  sacrifices,  men  and  beasts,  to  their  gods.  If 
a  man  disobeyed  them,  lie  was  not  allowed  to  assist  at  the 
offerings,  but  was  cast  out  of  his  tribe  and  from  the  abodes 
of  men.  The  Druids  had  no  temples,  but  worshipped 
their  gods  in  dark  oak  groves  or  on  high  hills. 

The  Druids  also  in  their  schools  taught  bands  of 
scholars  all  that  they  knew  about  the  stars,  the   healing 


B.C.   55. 


The  Britons. 


powers  of  herbs,  and  the  old  songs  and  stories  of  the 
tribes.  The  chiefs  and  people  asked  the  Druids'  advice 
on  all  things,  and  gave  them  gifts  and  a  great  part  of  the 
spoil  which  they  won  in  war.  The  Uruids  were  held  as 
holy  men,  and  no  man  dare  hurt  or  rob  one. 

In  many  places  in  England,  there  are,  still  standing, 
large  stones  set  up  in  circles  or  rows.  Who  set  them  up 
we  do  not  know,  but  that  they  have  been  there  a  very 
long  time  is  certain.  There  is  a  story  told  of  one  stone 
circle,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  famous  of  all,  Stone- 
henge,  that  it  was  set  up  by  the  Britons,  about  460  A.D., 
over  some  of  their  chiefs  who  were  treacherously  slain. 
But  Stonehenge  is  one  of  the  latest  of  these  stone  rings, 
so  that  very  likely,  if  this  tale  be  true,  the  Britons  merely 
copied  the  work  of  a  much  earlier  age,  and  perhaps  even 
of  an  earlier  race. 

CHAPTER    II. 

THE   KO.MAN   CONQUEST. 
I.  Now,   the  mightiest  folk  in  the  world,  about  the 
time  we  begin  to  hear  much  about  the  Britons,  were  the 
Romans,  who  had  conquered  all  the  nations     Csesar'sfiret 
round  the  Mediterranean.     Their  greatest  man     coming, 
fifty-five  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ  was  '  ^^' 

Caiusjulius  Caesar,  who  had  been  fighting  in  Gaul,  and  had 
beaten  all  the  Gaulish  tribes  from  the  Gulf  of  Marseilles 
to  the  Channel.  He  determined  to  come  over  to  Britain 
because  the  Belgians  of  South  Britain  had  sent  help  to 
their  kinsmen  the  Belgians  in  Gaul,  with  whom  he  was 
fighting.  So  Ca;sar  set  sail  for  Britain  with  a  small 
army.  When  the  Britons,  who  were  watching  for  him, 
saw  his  fleet  draw  near  the  shore  they  came  down  and 
kept  the  Romans  from  landing,  till  a  brave  standard- 
bearer  leapt  from  the  galley  into  the  water  among  the 
Britons.    When  the  Roman  soldiers  saw  him  in  the  midst 


6  Early  England.  b.c.  54. 

of  their  foes  they  followed  him  to  save  the  standard,  and 
at  last  made  good  their  landing  and  drove  the  Britons  up 
into  the  country.  Then  Cassar  marched  through  most  of 
the  land  of  the  people  of  Kent,  fought  several  battles  and 
forced  the  tribes  near  him  to  give  hostages  and  make 
peace.  But  he  was  not  able  to  profit  by  his  success.  He 
was  alraid  of  the  bad  weather  in  the  Channel,  for  it  was 
getting  late  in  the  year.     So  he  went  back  to  Gaul. 

2.  But  when  Ccesar  was  gone  the  Britons  did  not  do  as 
they  had  promised  him  ;  so  he  came  again  next  summer 
into  Britain  with  a  larger  army  than  before.  But  the 
Cesar's  tribes  of  the  South-east  had  united  under  a 

second  brave  prince,  named   Caswallawn  (whom  the 

coming.  ^  '  ^ 

B.C.  54.  Romans  called  Cassivelaunus),  and  resisted 
the  invaders  very  boldly.  But  the  good  order  of  the 
Romans  overcame  them  at  last.  After  several  battles 
Cassivelaunus'  stronghold,  Verulam  (St.  Albans),  was 
taken  and  burnt.  The  Britons  therefore  were  again 
forced  to  make  peace.  But  the  Romans,  when  they  found 
what  a  poor  country  Britain  was,  and  that  there  was  no 
rich  plunder  and  much  hard  fighting,  were  not  inclined 
to  stay  longer.  Caesar,  too,  had  succeeded  in  frightening 
the  Britons  from  interfering  further  with  his  plans  in 
Gaul.  He  could  not  afford  to  stay  himself,  as  he  wanted 
to  keep  watch  over  his  new  conquests  in  Gaul,  and  did 
not  wish  to  be  too  far  from  Rome.  So  the  Romans  went 
back  again,  and  when  Caesar  was  next  in  Rome  he  hung 
up  a  corslet  of  British  pearls  in  the  temple  of  his  goddess, 
Venus,  as  a  memorial  of  his  victories. 

After  Caesar  left,  the  Britons  were  left  to  themselves 
for  about  ninety  years.  They  still  kept  up  their  trade 
with  Gaul,  which  was  now  a  Roman  province,  and  they 
now  coined  much  money,  copying  the  Greek  and  Roman 
money  which  they  saw  used  in  trade ;  for  before  they  had 
mofitly  used  metal  rings  and  cattle  instead  of  money. 


A. p.  43  6i.         The  Roman  Conquest .  7 

Once  during  this  time  the  Roman  Emperor  Caius,  sur- 
named  Caligula,  gathered  together  a  large  army  with  which 
to  conquer  Britain.  He  marched  as  far  as  the  coast  of 
Gaul,  facing  Britain,  but  he  never  crossed  the  Channel, 
and  the  only  spoils  he  brought  back  to  Rome  were  peb- 
bles and  shells  from  the  seashore. 

3.  In  the  reign  of  Claudius,  the  fourth  Roman  Em- 
peror, a  Roman  general  was  sent  with  an  army     The  con- 
of  Romans  and    Gauls.     He   landed    in    the     a"P'.°*^ 

Bntain, 

south,  and  after  much  hard  fighting  V'ectis  a.d.  43. 
(the  Isle  of  Wight)  was  taken,  and  the  whole  of  South 
Britain  submitted  to  Claudius,  who  came  ovei  to  receive 
the  new  conquest.  Camulodun  (Colchester)  was  taken 
and  settled  with  Roman  soldiers,  and  became  a  Roman 
town.  South  Britain  was  taken  under  the  Roman  rule, 
and  was  made  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire,  as  Gaul 
had  been.  These  Roman  provinces  were  governed  by 
officers  sent  out  by  the  Emperor. 

4.  But  in  the  north  and  midst  of  Britain,  Caradawg, 
whom  the  Romans  called  Caractacus,  still  held  out 
against  the  Romans.  After  fighting  bravely  Caractacus. 
he  was  at  last  overcome  and  driven  to  seek  "■"■  *t- 
shelter  with  his  mother-in-law,  who  betrayed  him  to  the 
Romans,  to  gain  their  favour,  and  he  was  taken  cap- 
tive to  Rome,  with  his  wife  and  children.  When  he  saw 
the  splendid  buildings  and  all  the  glory  of  the  great  city 
he  said  to  the  Emperor,  '  How  is  it  that  you  who  dwell 
in  such  grand  palaces  envy  us  poor  Britons  our  thatched 
cots .'' '  And  the  Emperor,  who  was  pleased  with  his 
boldness  and  bravery,  treated  him  kindly  at  the  prayer  of 
the  Empress.  Nevertheless,  the  Silures,  though  they  had 
lost  their  great  leader,  would  not  yield,  and  the  Roman 
general  is  said  to  have  died  of  grief  and  rage  at  not  being 
able  to  subdue  them. 

5.  Some    years    after,    while     Nero   was    P^mperor, 


\ 


8  Early  Englatid.  a.d.  6i. 

Suetonius  Pauliinus  was  appointed  Governor  in   Britain. 

Suetonius  ^"  ^•^-  ^'  '"'*^  rcsolved  to  go  over  to  Mona 
PauUinus  (Anglesey),  which  was  a  sacred  island  of  the 
dicea.  Uruids,  and  subdue  it.     For  they  had  received 

A.D.  59-62.  there  many  of  the  Britons  who  had  fled  from 
the  Roman  conquerors.  The  Druids  resisted  him  stoutly. 
The  very  women  withstood  the  landing  of  his  troops,  and 
at  one  time  nearly  drove  them  back,  frightened  at  the 
strange  sight  and  the  dreadful  noises  and  the  witchcraft 
of  the  Druids.  There  were  great  fires  lit  along  the  shore 
and  many  women  with  torches  rushing  to  and  fro  shrieking, 
while  the  Druids  called  on  their  gods  with  loud  cries  to 
help  their  warriors  and  overthrow  their  foes.  At  last, 
however,  the  Romans  landed  and  took  the  island,  cut  down 
the  groves,  and  slew  the  Druids,  casting  them  into  the 
fires  which  they  had  kindled  to  burn  their  captives  in. 
This  is  noteworthy,  because  the  Romans  hardly  ever  tried 
to  destroy  or  change  the  faith  of  any  folk  whom  they  con- 
quered. They  did  so  in  the  Druids'  case  because  they  saw 
that  if  the  Druids  were  allowed  to  teach  their  faith  and 
rouse  the  Britons  against  them  they  could  never  govern 
the  country  quietly. 

While  Suetonius  was  away,  the  Iceni  and  their  queen, 
Bodug,  whom  the  Romans  called  Boadicea,  rose  against 
the  Romans,  who  were  left  nearly  defenceless.  Boadicea 
was  the  widow  of  a  king  of  the  Icenians,  who  had  been  a 
friend  of  the  Romans,  and  had  given  them  some  of  his  pos- 
sessions. But  when  he  died  the  Romans  seized  the  inherit- 
ance of  his  daughters,  and  when  Boadicea  protested  she 
was  seized  and  scourged,  and  her  daughters  were  treated 
in  the  cruellest  way.  All  the  Britons  who  had  suffered  any 
wrong  at  the  hands  of  the  Romans  joined  her,  and  she 
soon  had  a  great  host  under  her.  She  burnt  London  and 
Camulodun  (Colchester)  and  other  Roman  settlements, 
and    slew  all    living   souls    therein,   both     Romans    and 


a 


A.D.  61-85.  T/ie  Roman  Conquest.  9 

Britons  who  had  taken  up  Roman  ways.  One  Roman 
general  tried  to  resist  her,  but  he  was  routed  and  driven 
into  his  camp.  Then  arose  a  great  panic  in  all  the  Roman 
settlements.  All  who  could  fled  south  before  the  Britons, 
and  many  even  crossed  to  Gaul.  But  at  length  news  of 
all  that  was  happening  was  brought  to  Suetonius,  and  he 
marched  back  wirh  a  large  army  to  fight  Boadicea,  and 
came  up  with  her  and  set  his  forces  in  order  against  her. 
And  Boadicea  went  through  her  army,  when  it  was  in 
battle  array,  in  a  war-chariot,  with  her  daughters.  She 
wore  a  helmet  on  her  long  fair  hair  and  a  gold  collar  on 
her  neck,  and  bore  war-weapons  in  her  hand,  and  she 
prayed  her  people  to  fight  bravely  and  avenge  her  wrongs 
and  their  own.  But  when  the  battle  was  joined  the 
Romans,  after  a  hard  fight,  won  the  day.  Fur  a  long  time 
the  Britons  would  not  flee,  and  the  Romans  slew  them 
nearly  all  on  the  field  ;  but  Boadicea  took  poison,  fearing 
capture  worse  than  death.  With  this  defeat  the  revolt 
ceased,  and  the  province,  though  fe.irfully  wasted,  was  at 
peace.  Now  when  Nero  heard  of  the  great  revolt  and 
the  causes  of  it  he  recalled  Suetonius  and  sent  out  another 
governor  in  his  room. 

6.  When  Vespasian  was  Emperor  of  Rome  he  sent  a 
very  good  governor  to  Britain,  Julius  Agricola,  who  had 
served  under  Suetonius,  fifteen  years  before.     Agricola 
He  was  the  father-in-law  of  Tacitus,  the  great     ^"''i''^' 
historian,  who  wrote  his  life,  from  which  we     a.d.  78-85. 
learn  a  great  deal  about  Britain  at  this  time.     Agricola 
\vt)n  all  South  Britain  for  the  Romans.  And  when  he  found 
that  the  Caledonians  (as  the  wild  tribes  of  the  North  were 
called)  were  always  harrying  the  lands  of  those  Britons  who 
had   e-ibmitteJ  to   the   Romans   he   built  a   Ime  of  forts 
against  them  across  the  island,  between  the  Firth  and  the 
Cl)de,  and  garnished  it  with  soldiers.    In  the  last  year  of 
his  government  he  marched  north,  and  fought  a  battle 


10  Early  England.  a,d.  121. 

with  the  Caledonians,  which  he  won,  though  their  king, 
Galgacus,  led  them  very  bravely.  Soon  after  this 
Agricola  was  recalled  to  Rome.  Seven  years  he  iniled  in 
Britain,  and  he  was  not  only  famous  as  a  general  but  for 
his  good  government.  He  tried  to  get  the  Britons  to 
take  up  Roman  ways  and  customs,  and  took  great  trouble 
in  teaching  the  sons  of  the  chiefs  the  Roman  language 
and  wisdom.  By  showing  the  Britons  that  good  as  well 
as  evil  was  to  be  got  from  their  Roman  rulers  he  brought 
them  to  live  peacefully  under  them.  He  did  not  even  try 
to  conquer  the  Caledonians,  for  their  country  was  very 
wild  and  poor,  but  only  wished  to  make  them  leave  the 
Roman  subjects  in  peace.  Agricola  sent  his  fleet  round 
Britain  to  survey  the  coasts  and  see  what  the  country  to 
the  far  north  was  like.  From  their  voyage  we  have  the 
first  accounts  of  the  geography  of  North  Britain. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   ROMAN   RULE    IN    BRITAIN. 

1.  When  Hadrianus  became  Emperor  of  Rome 
(a.d.  121)  he  went  round  his  empire,  and  put  all  the 
Hadrianus  borders  in  a  state  of  defence.  When  he  came 
nhfui^wdis.  to  Britain  he  built  a  wall  from  the  Tyne  to 
A.D.121-140.  Solway  Firth,  and  made  it  the  boundary  of 
the  province.  But  some  years  later,  when  Antoninus  was 
Emperor,  the  governor  of  Britain  built  a  wall  where  Agri- 
cola's  line  of  forts  were,  and  got  back  the  land  between 
the  walls.     Pieces  of  these  two  walls  remain  to  this  day. 

2.  Nevertheless  the  Caledonians,  or  Picts,  as  they 
were  now  called,  were  always  making  raids  southward, 
Severus.  until  the  Roman   governors   took   to   buying 

A.D.  2IO.       them  off.     This    only  made  them  come  the 
oftener.     At  last  the   Emper'^'-  himself  had  to   be   sent 


A.D.  303.      The  Roman  Rttle  m  Britain.  II 

for.  His  name  was  Severus  ;  he  was  an  old  man,  but 
very  wise  and  brave.  He  was  too  ill  to  ride,  and  was 
borne  in  a  litter  at  the  head  of  his  army.  He  marched 
right  through  North  Britain  to  the  Fentland  Firth;  and 
though  he  lost  a  great  part  of  his  army  through  the  bad 
weather  and  rough  ground  and  the  continual  fighting,  yet 
he  made  the  Caledonians  beg  for  peace  and  took  away  a 
great  part  of  their  land.  When  he  had  had  the  earthen 
wall  of  Hadrianus  strengthened  with  a  wall  of  stone 
he  was  carried  back  to  Eboracum  (York),  the  capital  of 
Britain,  and  there  he  died. 

3.  About  seventy  years  after  this  new  foes  began  to 
trouble  the  Romans.     These  were  the  Scots,  a  tribe  from 
the  north  of  Ireland,  which  they  called  Scotia.     The  Scot.s, 
These  Scots  now  ravaged  the  west  and  north     e^'hsh'  ^^'^ 
of  Britain.  ad  '9o- 

The  east  also  of  Britain  was  laid  waste  by  the  attacks 
of  the  English,  whom  the  Britons  called  Saxons.  This 
is  the  first  time  we  hear  of  Englishmen  coming  to  Britain, 
though  many  Germans  had  been  in  Britain  as  soldiers  in 
the  Roman  armies. 

4.  The  next  great  man  we  hear  of  in  Britain  was  Con- 
stantine,  who  afterwards  became  Emperor.  His  mother 
was  a  British  princess.     He  was  the  first  Em-     „ 

^  .  .  .        Constsntine 

peror  who  made  the  Christian  faith  the  faith  and  chris- 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  He  became  a  Christian  "^"'^y 
himself,  and  after  him  all  the  Emperors  save  one  were 
Christians.  We  hear  of  British  Christians  before.  When 
there  was  a  persecution  in  A. u.  303  it  is  said  that  many 
were  put  to  death  in  Britain  for  the  faith,  for  the  Emperor 
believed  the  Christians  to  be  traitors,  and  persecuted 
them.  Alban,  who  was  slain  at  Verulam,  is  said  to 
have  been  the  first  martyr  who  died  in  Britain.  In 
after  days  the  great  monastery  of  S.  Albans  arose  at 
Verulam,  where  he  was  slain.     Now,  this  bringing  in  of 


THK   TRIBES   OF   BRITAIN. 


The  Roman?  called  all  tlie  tribes  that  dwelt  in  Britain  Britons ; 
but  they  were  not  all  of  one  race. 


The  SiLURES  were  not  akin  to  the  other  folks,  but  rather  per- 
haps to  the  Basks  who  dwell  in  Spain  and  the  South  of 
France  to  this  day. 


The  other  tribes  were  all  Keltic.  Of  these  the  Gaelic  tribes 
were  akin  to  the  Irish  and  Highlanders  of  our  times.  These 
were  the 

Caledonians  (afterwards  called  Picts) 

Briganies 

Ordoz-ues. 


The  Welsh  or  Kymric  tribes  are  the  same  folk  as  the  Welsh 
people  of  to-day.     These  were  the 
Coritanians 
Trinobantes 
henians 
Cantians 
Damnoniani 
Belgians 


marks  the  Roman  roads, 
the  divisions  of  the  tnbe« 


14  Early  England.  a.d.  409. 

Christianity  is  one  of  the  most  Important  things  that  the 
Roman  rule  did  for  Britain.  Christianity  also  gave  the 
Roman  Empire  new  strength  for  a  while.  Through  the 
conversion  of  the  German  tribes,  a  very  different  fate 
befell  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  people  under  it  than 
would  have  overtaken  them  had  the  Germans  been  still 
heathen. 

5.  After  the  days  of  Constantine,  in  spite  of  all  that 
the  Romans  could  do,  things  got  worse.  At  last  the  Picts 
The  leaving  and  Scots  ravaged  the  whole  of  Britain  as 
"f'*^^  far  as   London.      Thev  were    driven    out  by 

Kotnans.  -  -' 

AD.  409.  Theodosius,  who  got  back  the  country  be- 
tween the  walls  and  called  it  Valentia,  in  honour  of 
Valentinian,  who  was  then  Emperor.  And  so  he  gave 
the  land  peace  for  a  while. 

Soon  after  this  the  heart  of  the  Roman  Empire  was 
invaded  by  the  German  tribes,  who  at  length  overthrew 
it  altogether  in  the  West  of  Europe.  And  the  Emperors 
could  not  do  much  to  keep  the  far-off  provinces  safe,  for 
they  wanted  all  their  troops  nearer  home.  As  legion  after 
legion  went  away  the  Britons  were  at  last  left  to  them- 
selves. Once  or  twice  a  legion  was  sent  back  for  a  while 
to  help  them  against  their  heathen  foes,  but  at  length  no 
more  help  could  be  got.  Though  the  Britons,  especially 
those  who  lived  in  the  towns  and  had  learned  Roman 
■.vays,  had  been  weakened  by  not  having  had  to  fight 
for  themselves,  yet  they  levied  soldiers  after  the  Roman 
fashion,  and  defended  themselves  very  stubbornly  for 
some  time.  Especially  they  tried  to  keep  the  walls.  But 
what  had  been  their  bane  before  was  so  again,  for  the 
chief  men,  now  again  kings,  quarrelled  among  themselves. 
Many  did  evil  deeds,  and  some  even  called  in  the  Picts 
and  Scots  against  their  brethren.  At  last,  it  is  said, 
Gwerthigern  (or  Vortigern),  who  was  the  greatest  king  in 
Britain,  resolved  to  copy  the  plan  the  Romans  had  used. 


A.D.  409.       TJi-e  Roinan  Rule  in  Britaiti.  15 

They  had  kept  off  the  Germans  a  long  time  by  playing 
off  one  lot  of  barbarians  against  another.  So  he  called 
two  English  chiefs,  brothers — Hengist  and  Horsa  by 
name — to  help  him  against  the  Picts  and  Scots. 

6.  The  Romans  had  been  four  hundred  years  in 
Britain  when  they  left,  and  had  made  great  changes  in 
the  land.  They  were  great  builders  and  engineers. 
Besides  the  camps  and  walls  they  had  built  many  walled 
towns,  with  houses  of  brick  and  stone,  and  large  temples 
and  churches,  and  theatres  and  public  baths,  what 
The  villas  or  country-houses  of  the  great  men  9^'^"ges  the 
too  were  often  splendidly  decorated.  It  was  wrought. 
through  their  walls  that  the  towns  came  off  better  in  the 
conquest  by  the  English  than  the  rest  of  the  country. 

The  Romans  made  good  roads  across  the  country, 
running  straight  from  town  to  town,  and  it  was  on  these 
roads  that  all  the  traffic  of  England  was  carried  on 
and  soldiers  marched  in  the  wars,  till  the  cutting  of 
canals  and  the  invention  of  railways.  Moreover,  if  the 
map  of  England  of  to-day  is  compared  with  the  map  of 
Roman  Britain  we  see  that  the  railways  often  follow  the 
line  of  the  Roman  roads.  The  Romans  also  taught  the 
Britons  many  other  arts.  Thay  also  worked  mines  of  iron 
and  lead  and  tin,  and  made  fine  pottery.  So  much  corn 
was  grown  in  Britain  that  it  was  called  the  *  Granary  of 
the  North.'  Much  trade  also  was  carried  on  at  London. 
Horses  and  big  British  dogs  were  sent  from  Britain  all 
over  the  Roman  Empire. 

But  still  we  see  that  Britain  never  became  quite 
Roman,  as  Gaul  did.  The  Britons  still  kept  up  their  old 
speech  and  customs  except  in  the  towns,  although  they 
learned  much  from  the  Romans  and  had  better  weapons 
and  tools  than  before.  This  is  why  the  Welsh  still  speak 
their  own  tongue,  and  not  a  Romance  tongue,  that  is, 
a  tongue  learnt  from  the  Romans,  as  the  French  and 


1 6  Early  England.  bk.  ii, 

Spaniards  do.  For  the  people  of  Gaul  and  Spain  learned 
the  speech  of  the  Romans,  though  they  changed  it  in 
speaking  it,  according  to  their  own  tongues  and  ways  of 
talking. 


BOOK    II. 
HOW    THE   ENGLISH    WON  BRITAIN. 

A.  D.    449-600. 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE      ENGLISH. 

1.  When  we  first  hear  of  the  English,  they  lived  in 
the  land  along  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea  that  lies  between 

North  Denmark  and  Holland.  They  belonged 
English  to  the  Same  race  as  the  Norwegians  and  Danes, 

**""*■  and  were  near  of  kin  to  the  German  tribes  who 

dwelt  in  the  land  to  the  south  of  them.  The  English  had 
come  to  their  home  on  the  North  Sea  across  lands  that 
are  now  called  Russia  and  Gennany,  through  broad  plains 
and  great  woods,  from  a  far  Jand  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Caucasus,  sometimes  fighting  other  nations  on  their  way, 
sometimes  passing  through  wastes  where  no  man  dwelt. 

2.  They  were  not  a  savage  people  but  a  nation  of 
yeomen,  living  each  in  his  own  homestead,  tilling  the 
Their  go-  ground  and  keeping  cattle.  They  did  not 
vernmenu  dwell  in  towns,  but  men  of  the  same  kin  lived 
together  in  little  knots  of  farms.  They  called  these 
villages  after  the  name  of  the  kin  that  dwelt  in  it,  as 
Ashingham,  the  home  of  the  Ashings,  or  family  of  Ash. 

Each  village  managed  its  own  affairs  ;  but  once  or 
twice  a-year  all  the  yeomen  went  up  to  a  great  meeting, 
when  the  business  of  the  nation  was  settled.  This  was 
called  \h&  folk-moot  or  meeting  of  the  tribe.     A  group  of 


C'ti.  I. 


7/i£  Enoiish. 


^7 


tt.n  or  twelve  villages  was  called  a  hundred,  because  in 
old  times  it  would  hold  about  a  hundred  households. 
Kverv  hundred  had  tk  hiindred-nioot  which  met  three  or 


four  times  a  year  and  settled  matters  that  were  of  small 
account  and  only  concerned  those  who  lived  in  that  hun- 
dred.    The  mefl  of  the  tribe  were  either  gentle  or  simple, 
S.  H.  C 


1 8  Early  England.  bk.  il 

eorls  or  ceorls,  that  is,  either  of  noble  birth  or  just  simply 
free  men.  But  though  the  gentlemen  were  looked  up  to 
they  had  no  power  over  other  free  men.  There  were 
slaves,  too,  whom  they  called  thralls,  who  used  to  work 
for  the  free  men.  They  were  well  treated,  especially 
when  they  were  not  foreigners,  or  men  who  had  lost  their 
freedom  through  debt  or  wrong- doing,  but  captives  from 
some  tribe  akin  to  them. 

There  were  no  kings  among  the  English  ;  but  when 
they  went  to  wai  they  chose  leaders  whom  they  swore  to 
obey.  Some  of  their  gentlefolk,  whom  they  called  elders 
or  aldermen,  acted  as  magistrates,  and  sat  in  the  chief 
places  in  their  meetmgs  and  presided  over  their  affairs. 
The  great  men,  too,  kept  many  followers  about  them, 
who  used  to  guard  them  and  fight  for  them,  to  whom  they 
gave  rings  of  gold  and  silver,  and  sometimes  farms  and 
cattle.  Many  gentlemen  even  used  to  take  service  with 
the  chiefs  to  win  riches  and  honour. 

3.  The  English  were  a  very  warlike  race,  and  were 
often  fighting  against  the  neighbouring  tribes  in  Ger- 
Their  many  and  Denmark.     They  were  good  seamen 

manners.  too.  In  the  Spring,  before  the  summer  field- 
work  came  on,  and  in  the  autumn,  after  the  harvest 
was  carried,  they  used  to  sail  out  and  plunder  all  round 
the  coasts  of  the  North  Sea.  It  is  said  that  it  was  while 
Hengist  and  Horsa  were  on  one  of  these  voyages  that 
they  were  asked  to  help  Vortigern  against  his  foes. 

When  the  whole  people  went  to  war  one  free  man  at 
least  from  every  household  had  to  go  to  the  meeting-place 
and  fight  under  the  great  men  who  were  chosen  as  war- 
leaders,  and  led  them  to  battle,  beside  their  guards. 

And  when  the  tribe  conquered  any  land  or  spoil  it  was 
dealt  out  by  lot,  a  share  to  every  free  man,  after  the  share 
of  the  gods  had  been  taken.  But  the  chiefs  had  bigger 
shares   than   other   men,   because   they  had   to   reward 


*H.  1.  The  English.  19 

their  followers,  who  did  not  take  a  lot  like  the  rest,  but 
looked  to  the  chief  for  their  share. 

The  English  were  very  just  folks  and  loved  the  law. 
They  used  to  settle  many  disputes  at  their  meetings,  where 
everyone  who  was  wronged  could  bring  his  complaint, 
which  was  judged  by  the  people  there,  and  the  ba  ildoers 
were  punished.  But  if  a  m.an  liked  he  could  always  fight 
against  him  who  had  wronged  him,  or  against  his  kin,  and 
so  seek  redress  for  himself  by  main  force.  Evildoers  were 
fined,  and  if  they  could  not  pay  were  put  out  of  the  law's 
protection,  and  any  man  who  would  might  slay  them  with- 
out being  punished.  There  was  a  price  fixed  for  every 
man's  life  according  to  his  rank,  which,  if  a  man  were 
slain  unlawfully,  was  paid  to  his  kinsfolk  by  his  slayer. 
This  was  called  the  ~ivere-gild,  or  price  of  a  man.  But 
those  who  had  slain  men  secretly*  and  done  the  worst 
deeds  were  hanged  or  drowned. 

Like  most  of  their  race  the  English  showed  great 
respect  to  women,  and  the  housewife  had  the  ordering 
of  the  house  and  the  women-servants.  The  husband 
might  not  interfere  in  those  matters,  but  he  ruled  in  all 
greater  things.  The  English,  too,  were  kind  to  their 
children  and  treated  them  as  men  and  women  when  they 
were  grown  up  ;  and  did  not  keep  them,  as  the  Romans 
and  Britons  kept  theirs,  in  strict  obedience  all  their  hves. 

4.  The  free  men  were  well  armed  v.-ith  swords  and 
spears  of  bronze  and  iron,  and  shields  of  linden-wood. 
The  chiefs  often  had  mail-shirts  and  helmets  Arms  and 
of  bronze  or  iron,  with  the  image  of  a  wild  dress, 
boar  on  the  top  as  a  crest,  and  some  had  helmets  of  the 
skins  of  the  heads  of  wild  beasts,  bears,  and  wolves. 
They  were  well  clad  in  linen  or  woollen  raiment,  and  the 
rich  folk  wore  red  and  blue  embroidered  tunics,  and 
great  gold  and  silver  rings  on  their  arms.  They  were 
shod  in  leather,  and  wore  leathern  belts  round  their  waists 

c  3 


20  Early  England.  mk.  n. 

with  a  sneath-knife  in  them,  as  the  Norwegians  do  now. 
The  ladies  sometimes  wore  a  bunch  of  keys  at  their  waist. 
When  the  free  man  went  from  home  he  used  always  to 
bear  his  sword  and  shield,  and  when  he  rode  on  horse- 
back he  would  carry  a  spear  also.  The  men  used  to 
tattoo  their  arms  and  breasts  with  curious  patterns,  as 
our  sailors  often  do  still. 

They  wt-re  good  smiths  and  carpenters,  and  good  at 
all  kinds  of  work  in  metal  and  wood.  The  women  were 
very  clever  at  all  kinds  of  needlework,  and  wove  beautiful 
linen.  The  English  built  wooden  houses,  and  the  chiefs 
had  great  halls.  They  were  also  good  ship-builders,  and 
their  large  boats,  which  they  called  '  keels,'  would  with- 
stand the  fierce  storms  of  the  North  Sea.  They  had 
plenty  of  horses,  and  dogs,  and  cattle,  and  sheep.  They 
used  horses  for  war  and  for  travelling,  but  for  farm-work 
they  used  oxen. 

Though  the  English  worked  very  hard  they  were  a 
very  merry  folk,  fond  of  singing  and  feasting.  They  were 
also  fond  of  sports,  such  as  hunting  and  horse-racing. 
They  also  took  pleasure  in  gambling  and  horse-fighting, 
which  they  did  not  know  the  whole  evil  of,  for  they  were 
still  heathen. 

5.  The  English  had  no  Druids,  like  the  Britons,  but 
every  man  was  priest  in  his  own  household,  and  the  chief 
was  priest  for  the  tribe.  In  some  places  they 
had  women  priests  and  soothsayers.  Their 
temples  were  in  the  great  woods  or  on  lonely  islands,  or 
at  the  meeting-places  of  the  people.  Thither  they  used  to 
bring  a  great  part  of  their  spoil,  and  burn  or  bury  it  in 
honour  of  the  gods  Sometimes  the  English  offered  men 
in  sacrifice  to  the  gods  to  gain  victory  or  power  or  long 
life,  but  this  did  not  happen  often.  Sometimes  men  would 
even  slay  themselves,  that  they  might  not  die  in  bed,  but 
by  the  sword,  like  men  slain  in  battle. 


CH.  I.  TJic  English.  2t 

Their  gods  were  Thunder  and  Hertha,  and  Tew  and 
Woden  and  Frey,  and  the  white  sun-god  Balder.  Some  of 
these  gods'  names  we  still  keep  in  the  days  of  the  week, — 
as  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  the  days  of  Tew  and  Woden. 
In  their  temples  the  holy  ring  was  kept,  on  which  men 
swore  oaths  to  tell  the  truth  at  trials,  or  vowed  before  they 
went  to  battle  to  fight  bravely.  These  temples  were  hal- 
lowed, and  no  man  dared  fight  or  quarrel  in  them.  The 
English  faith  was  that  if  a  man  did  his  duty  bravely  to 
himself  and  his  family  and  his  tribe,  and  fought  his  foes 
and  bore  trouble  and  danger  stedfastly  without  flinching, 
his  soul  would  dwell  above  the  rainbow-bridge  in  the  gods' 
bright  halls,  and  pass  the  time  there  in  fighting,  hunting, 
and  feasting  by  their  side.  But  if  a  man  was  cruel  or  base 
or  cowardly  they  thought  he  would  dwell  with  the  dark 
goddess  Hell,  in  cold  caverns  full  of  serpents,  in  the  midst 
of  ice  and  snow. 

When  a  great  man  died  his  tribesmen  used  to  raise  a 
pile  of  firewood  on  some  high  place  and  set  his  body 
on  it,  with  his  sword  in  his  hand  ar.d  his  helmet  on  his 
head  and  his  shield  by  his  side,  and  his  horse  under  him. 
Then  they  slew  the  horse  and  burnt  its  body  with  its 
master's.  The  ashes  they  put  in  an  urn  of  earthenware, 
which  they  covered  round  with  huge  stones.  Then  they 
heaped  a  high  mound  of  earth  over  it  as  a  mark  for  ever. 
Sometimes  a  man's  wife  and  slaves  were  slain  and  buried 
with  him.  But  some  of  the  English  buried  their  dead  with- 
out burning  them.  It  is  from  the  graves  in  England  and 
abroad  that  we  have  found  out  a  great  deal  about  our 
forefathers. 

The  English  knew  how  to  write  ;  but  they  had  no 
books,  and  only  used  writing  to  mark  their  weapons  and 
houses  and  boats  and  rings  and  cups  with.  They  wrote 
also  on  the  great  stones  which  they  raised  on  the  grave 
mounds  the  name  and  death  of  the  body  that  lay  below. 


22  Early  England.  bk.  ii. 

6.  There  were  three  tribes  of  Englishmen  who  came  to 
Britain.  They  all  called  themselves  and  their  tongue 
English,  but  the  Welsh  and  Irish  called  them  all  Saxons. 
The  first  tribe,  which  dwelt  in  the  north  of  Denmark  and 
over  the  south  of  Sweden  were  also  called  Jutes,  or  Goths. 
The  next,  who  dwelt  in  the  south  of  Denmark  and  in  what  is 
Tribesof  ""^^  Called  Slesvik  Holsten,  called  themselves 

English.  Angles,  or  English.     The  southernmost  tribe, 

who  dwelt  in  Friesland  and  Hanover,  were  called  Sa.vons. 
It  was  because  the  Welsh  met  with  them  first  that  they 
called  all  Englishmen  Saxons.  Very  often  peoples  have 
been  called  by  another  name  than  that  by  which  they  call 
themselves  ;  thus  the  Romans  called  the  Welsh  Britons. 
but  the  Britons  called  themselves  by  the  names  of  their 
tribes,  or  when  they  wished  to  speak  of  all  their  race  they 
called  themselves  Cyntty.  But  the  English  called  them 
'Welsh,'  or  Strangers,  as  the  Germans  now  call  the  Italians 
'  Welsh.'  But  it  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  they  nevei 
called  themselves  by  that  name. 

CHAPTER   II 

THE   ENGLISH    CONQUEST. 

I.  The  English  under  their  two  leaders,  Hengist  and 
Horsa  (Horse  and  Mare),  agreed  to  help  Vortigern,  and 
Th-  Tutes  '^^y  fought  for  the  Welsh,  against  the  Picts, 
win  Kent  and  won  several  battles.  But,  just  as  had  hap- 
■  ***■  pened  before  in  other  parts  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, the  plan  of  using  one  foe  against  another  failed.  The 
English  quarrelled  with  the  Welsh,  and  sent  over  sea 
for  more  of  their  kinsfolk,  telling  them  what  a  good  land 
Britain  was,  and  how  badly  it  was  guarded.  So,  many 
more  came  over,  with  their  wives  and  children  and  cattle. 
They  settled  first  in  Thanei  island,  whence  thev  came 
over  into  Kent  to  conquer  it.  that  thev  miehi  dwcJlther© 


A.  D.  451-577-       T lie  English  Conquest.  23 

The  Welsh  fought  against  them  ;  but  the  English  won.  In 
one  of  their  fights  Horsa  was  slain,  and  his  folk  raised  a 
great  mound  of  earth  over  his  bur\  ing-place  which  mav 
still  be  seen.  At  last  the  Welsh  fled  out  of  the  land  of 
Kent,  and  the  English  made  two  kingdoms  there,  and  set 
up  Hengist  and  his  kin  as  kings  to  rule  over  them. 

2.  Not  long  after  this  a  band  of  Saxons  under  a  leader 
named  Ella  landed  in  the  South  of  Britain,  near  Regnum 
(Chichester);  and  they  fought  against  the  Welsh     -j.^  ^. 
and  set  up  a  httle  kingdom.     But  the  great     of  Sussex. 
Roman  town  Anderida  (Pevensey),  at  the  end  '  ■*■•■ 
of  the  South  Downs,  long  held  out  against  them;  but  they 
took  it  at  last  and  slew  every  sou'  within  it  and  made  it  a 
waste  (a.d.  491).     This  kingdom  of  Ella  was  afterwards 
called  the  kingdom  of  the  South  Saxons  or  Sussex. 

3.  Another  band  of  Saxons  landed  at  Portsmouth 
and  fought  against  the  Welsh,  and  took  the  city  of  Win- 
chester, and  made  the  kingdom  of  the  West     ....    r- 

'  °  1  he  .Saxons 

Saxons,  or  Wessex,  in  the  land  that   is  now     ol  Wessex. 
called  Hampshire.     And  they  set  their  leader       '''^'  *''^^' 
Cerdic  as  king  over  them,  of  whose  blood  nearly  all  the 
kings  that  ruled  over  all  England  have  come. 

So  the  South  of  Britain  was  conquered,  and  from 
Wessex  there  afterwards  went  out  bands  of  settlers  to  the 
west  and  north,  and  drove  out  the  Welsh  and  founded 
Dorset  and  Wiltset.  Their  leaders  obeyed  the  king  ot 
Wessex.  But  these  settlers  did  not  win  their  way  easily, 
and  it  was  not  till  577  that  the  West  Saxons  got  to  the 
Bristol  Channel.  In  that  year  their  king  Ceawlin  won 
a  battle  at  Dyrham  and  got  Bath  city.  He  founded 
Somerset,  and  cut  off  the  Welsh  of  Cornwall  from  their 
kinsfolk  the  Welsh  of  Wales.  About  the  same  time  the 
West  Saxons  conquered  the  valley  of  the  Severn,  and  sat 
down  in  the  lands  whi^h  are  now  called  Herefordshire  and 
Worcestershire. 


24  Early  England.  a.d.  547. 

4.  In  547  the  Angles,  who  had  for  some  time  been 
trying  to  settle  in  Britain,  began  to  build  up  three 
kingdoms  along^  the  east  coast.  One,  called  Bernicia, 
the  'land  of  the  Braes,'  stretched  from  the  north  of  what 
we  call  Yorkshire  to  the  Firth  of  Forth,  and  from  the  coast 
ihe  English  "*^  '^'^^  North  Sea  to  the  vale  of  Clyde  and  the 
in  >>'orth-       \-\\\\s  of  Cumljerland.     The  second,  Deira,  'the 

uinb?rlanu  ,  iz-n  ■• 

and  Kast  bouth  land,  Spread  from  the  south  of  Bernicia 
England.  ^^  ^^^^  Humber,  and  ran  back  to  the  Pennine 
Hills.  These  were  called  North  English  or  Northum- 
brian kingdoms.  The  third  great  kingdom,  which  they 
called  East  Anglia,  or  East  England,  lay  further  south. 
It  had  two  divisions — the  North  folks'  and  South  folks' 
lands  (Norfolk  and  Suffolk). 

5.  Two  other  Saxon  bands  came  up  the  Thames  in 
Essex  and  their  ships  and  made  the  two  kingdoms  of 
Middlesex-,  the  East  Saxons  (Essex)  and  the  Middle 
Saxons  (Middlesex),  of  which  the  two  chief  towns  were 
the  old  Roman  cities  of  Colchester  and  London. 

6.  Still  fresh  bands  of  English  came  to  Britain  ;  and 
when  they  found  all  the  land  to  the  east  and  south  taken 
Marchland  ^^^^^^  ^^'^^t  on  past  the  Eastern  kingdom  into 
or  Mercia.  the  middle  of  Britain.  Little  by  little  they  won 
it  all  from  the  Welsh  as  far  as  the  Severn  valley,  and 
they  called  their  kingdom  Middle  England,  but  the  other 
folk  called  it  the  March,  or  border  land,  because  they 
dwelt  next  the  Welsh.  And  when  they  grew  strong  they 
took  the  Saxons  who  dwelt  in  the  Severn  Valley  into  their 
rule.     Their  chief  city  was  Leicester. 

The  English  also  made  settlements  in  Gaul  as  well  as 
in  Britain,  and  many  villages  round  Bayeux  and  Calais 
still  keep  their  old  English  names.  But  of  the  history  of 
these  English  we  do  not  know  much. 

Now,  these  conquests  took  a  very  long  time — over  150 
years     For  the  Welsh,  divided  among  themselves  as  they 


A.D.  547-600.         The  English  Congnesi.  25 

were,  yet  resisted  the  English  very  stubbornly,  and  still 
held  a  great  part  of  Britain. 

7.  The  Welsh  had  three  kingdoms  in  the  west  of  the 
island:    i.  Cumberland,  or  the   Clyde  Valley     The  Welsh 
kingdom,  from  the  Clyde  to  the  Mersey.     2.     11"^'^^"^ 
Wales,  or  Cambria.     3.  West  Wales,  that  is     Scots. 
iJevon  and  Cornwall. 

But  their  chief  power  lay  in  the  Clyde  Valley,  in  the 
North,  between  the  Walls.  There  the  great  king 
Arthur  is  said  to  have  gathered  a  band  of  brave  warriors 
and  to  have  fought  many  battles  against  the  English. 
But  after  his  death  (520)  the  English  could  not  be 
checked  any  longer,  and  the  Welsh  had  hard  work  to 
hold  their  own  in  the  west.  They  lost,  too,  all  the  land 
they  still  held  in  the  east,  round  Elmet  and  Leeds,  which 
was  added  to  Mcrcia  and  Northumberland. 

The  English  never  went  beyond  the  North  Wall,  but 
about  550  there  came  Scots  from  the  North  of  Ireland 
into  Caledonia  and  took  all  the  West  lands  and  settled 
in  them.  For  many  years  there  was  war  between  the 
.Scots  and  Picts.  At  last  the  Picts  were  forced  to  take  a 
Scottish  king,  and  Caledonia  was  called  Scotland. 

8.  The  towns  which  the  Romans  had  walled  and  forti- 
fied held  out  longer  than  the  country.  Though  many  of 
them   were   taken   and   destroved,  yet   some     „.u 

1  ,    ,  ,  ,  .  ',  the  manner 

remamed  and  became  the  chief  towns  of  the     of  the 
English  kingdoms.     But    it  was   long  before     '^°"''""'- 
many  English  folk  dwelt   in  towns,  for  they    still  liked 
farm  life  best  and  loved  to  dwell  in  the  country. 

When  the  English  came  over  to  Britain  they  brought 
with  them  their  wives  and  children  and  all  their  goods 
and  cattle.  When  they  won  the  land  they  parcelled  it  out 
into  farms  such  as  they  had  in  their  own  country. 

Now,  as  the  l^nglish  were  always  lighting  in  their  new 
land,  they  wanted  war-leaders  to  be  always  ready  to  lead 


a6  Early  Eiiglatid. 


The  three  Keltic  peoples  : — 

Pids. 

Scots  (from  Ireland). 

Welsh : 

W.  I.   Kingdom  of  Cumberland,  or  Clyde  Valley. 

W.  2.    Kingdom  of   Wales. 

W.  3.    West  Wales  (Devon  aod  Cornwall). 

The  English  Kingdoms  : — 

i:\\&  Jtites : 

J.  I.   Kingdom  of  Kent. 

J.  2.   Kingdom  of  Isle  of  Wight. 

The  Saxons : 

S.  I.    West  Saxon  Kingdom,  or  Wessex. 
S.  2.   East  Saxou  Kingdom,  or  Essex. 
S.  3.   South  Saxon  Kingdom,  or  Sussex. 
S.  4.   Middle  Saxon  Kingdom,  or  Middlesex. 

The  English  or  Angles: 

E.  I.   Berniiia,  the  Kingdom  of  'the  Braes.' 
E.  2.   Deira,  the  Kingdom  of  the  '  South.' 

(Tliese  two  made  up  Northumberland.) 
E.  3.   The  Kingdom  of  Lincoln. 
E.  4.   The  Middle  English  Kin£rdo-\;   ^ercia  or  the 

Marchland,  that  is  land  ov"  't>«  9^Mder.' 
E.  5.    The  East  English  Kingdca. 


28  Early  England.  a.d.  528-600. 

them.  So  they  made  their  aldermen  into  kings  and  gave 
them  more  power  than  they  had  had  before;  but  the 
Enghsh  who  abode  at  home  across  the  seas  never  had 
any  kings  at  all. 

One  cause  why  the  fighting  was  so  fierce  was  that 
the  English  were  still  heathen,  and  hated  the  Christian 
Welsh,  and  burnt  their  churches  and  slew  their  priests 
wherever  they  could.  So  the  Welsh  and  English  never 
were  at  peace  ;  but  nearly  all  the  Welsh  in  the  east  were 
slain  or  driven  into  the  west,  save  a  few  that  were  made 
slaves. 


BOOK    III. 


CHRISTIANITY  IN  KENT  AND 
NOR  THUMBERLAND. 

CHAPTER    I. 

CONVERSION   OF   KENT. 

I.  In  the  year  597  a  great  thing  happened  in  England 
— the  coming  of  Christian  priests  from  Rome  into  Kent, 
Welsh  mis-  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  English.  For  the 
sionaries.  English  would  never  learn  the  Christian  faith 
from  the  Welsh,  though  the  Welsh  had  been  great 
missionaries  to  other  folks.  S.  Patrick,  a  man  from  the 
Clyde,  had  gone  to  Ireland,  and  the  Irish  had  gladly 
taken  the  faith.  S.  Ninian  had  preached  to  the  Picts  in 
the  far  North.  Welsh  and  Irish  preachers  went  even  into 
Gaul  and  Germany,  for  the  Irish  wished  to  spread  the 
Gospel  which  they  had  received,  and  it  was  through  them 
that  the  Picts  were  at  last  turned  to  the  faith. 

2.  The  English  became  Christians  in  another  way. 
There  was  a  king  of  Kent  whose  name  was  Ethelbert, 
and  he  took  to  wife  Bertha,  the  daughter  of  the  Frankish 


A.n.  597.  Kent.  29 

king  of  Paris,  in  Gaul.  She  brought  in  her  tram  to 
England  a  bishop,  for  her  husband  had  promised  that 
she  should  keep  her  own  wav  of  belief     She     „      ^ 

'  -  Pope  Ore- 

built   up  a  little  church  that   had   been  ruined,     gor>- and 

and  used  to  worship  there  ;  but  none  of  the       "^  ^^ 

English  would  leave  their  old  faith.  Then  came  a  company 

of  Christian  monks   from  Rome,  and   at  their  head  one 

called  Augustine.     They  were  sent  by  Pope  Gregory  I., 

and  there  is  a  story  told  of  the  way  by  which  he  came  to 

take   such   care   for  the  souls  of  the   heathen    English. 

Before  he  was  Pope,  about  574,  he  saw  one  day  for  sale 

in  the  market  of  Rome  some  beautiful  children  with  fair 

skins  and  yellow  hair;  for  the  Romans  kept  slaves,  and 

though  the  English  had  very  few  slaves  themselves,  yet 

they  sometimes  sold  people  abroad  into  slavery.     When 

Gregory* saw   the   children   he   was  astonished  at   their 

beauty,  and  asked   the  dealer  who  they  were.     He  said 

they  were  heathen  Anglt-s,  or  English,  from  Britain,  and 

Gregory  answered,  '  They  should  be  angels,  they  are  so 

fair.'     Then  he  asked  who  was  their  king,  and  the  man 

said  '  Ella  ; '  and  Gregory  said,  '  Alleluia  should  be  the 

song  of  those  Angles,  as  it  is  of  the  angels  in  heaven.' 

And  he  became  very   sorrowful   for   pity  that  such  fair 

folk  should  dwell  in  the  darkness  of  sin,   and    he  went 

to  the  Pope  and  prayed  him  to  let  him  go  to  England  and 

preach  to  the   English.     The   Pope  gave  him  leave,  but 

the  people  of  Rome  would  not  let  him  go,  for  he  was  much 

beloved.   But  when  he  became  Pope, in  590,  he  was  mindful 

of  the  English  heathen,  and  he  sent  his  friend  Augustine 

to  England,  because  he  could  not  now  go  himself. 

3.  Augustine  came  to  king  Ethelbert  and  begged  him 

to  hearken  to  his   Gospel.     The  queen  was  glad   of  his 

coming,  and  the  king  and  his  people  heark-     Augustine. 

ened  to   the  words  of  the  monks,  and  in  time       '^■°-  597- 

were  baptized.     Augustine  crossed  to  Gaul  to  be  made  a 


30  Early  Englmid.  a.d.  597. 

bishop,  that  he  might  govern  the  Church  in  Kent.  He 
buiU  up  again,  an  old  church  in  Canterbury,  the  chief 
town  of  Kent,  and  called  it  Christ  Church,  and  made  it 
his  cathedral  ;  and  he  built  an  abbey  also,  and  set  monks 
therein.  He  laboured  very  hard  to  spread  the  Gospel 
all  over  England, and  Etheibert  helped  him  much;  for  he 
was  a  mighty  king,  and  the  other  kings  of  the  English 
looked  up  tc  him  and  were  glad  to  win  his  favour. 

4.  Once  Augustine  went  to  the  West  to  meet  the 
Welsh  bishops,  to  try  and  get  them  to  help  him. 
Augustine  They  met  under  a  great  oak,  at  a  place  now 
Welsh'^  called  Aust,  after  the  name  of  Augustine  ;  but 

priests.  the  Welsh  and  Roman  priests  could  not  agree 

in  every  point  ;  for  though  they  both  held  the  same  faith 
yet  in  small  matters  they  differed.  So  this  nieetingcame 
to  nothing,  and  Augustine  was  very  angry  with  tfie  Welsh 
because  they  would  not  join  him  in  his  work.  He  went 
on  all  his  life's  day  trying  to  make  the  English  Christians, 
and  men  called  him  'the  Apostle  of  the  English.' 

But  though  the  Kentish  men  and  the  kings  of  East 
Anglia  and  Essex  were  Christian  yet  the  rest  of  England 
was  still  heathen  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  great  Northern 
kingdom  was  converted  that  the  success  of  the  Christian 
faith  was  certain. 

CHAPTER  II. 

NORTHUMBERLAND. 

I.  We  see  England  was  made  up  of  seven  little  king- 
doms ;  and  it  was  the  same  with  the  Northmen  and 
„.      ,,.,         Danes   at  this   time.      But  little    by  little  in 

Rise  of  Nor-  ' 

thumber-  England,  as  in  Denmark  and  Norway,  one 
kingdom  got  power  over  the  others  and  joined 
them  to  itself.  For  a  long  time  it  was  not  certain  which 
of  the  little  kingdoms  would  be  the  one  to  rule  at  last. 
In  England   Northumberland  was  the  tirst  that  tried  to 


A.  D.  593-607.  Nort/mmbcrLifid.  3 1 

become  the  chief,  and  it  was  really  so  for  a  while.  After- 
wards the  Marchland,  and  at  last  the  West  Saxon  king- 
dom, as  will  be  seen,  brought  about  wiiat  the  others  had 
tried  in  vain  to  do. 

First  the  rise  of  Northumberland  to  power  must  be 
told  ;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  this  is  mixed  up  greatly 
with  the  change  of  faith  that  took  place  in  the  North. 

Perhaps  Northumberland  rose  first  because  it  was  the 
biggest  kingdom.  Perhaps  too  the  fact  that  the  chief 
seat  of  the  Roman  power  had  been  at  York  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  it.  There  was  tnuch  good  land  lying 
together  in  the  North  which  many  men  might  till. 

2.   Howbeit  there  reigned  in  593  a  king  in  Northum 
berland,  named  Ethelfrith,  a  very  mighty  man.     In  his 
days  all   the  other  kings  feared  Northumber- 
land and  did  its  king's  will,  save  Ethelbert,     a.u.  593- 
king  of  the   Kentishmen.      Ethelfrith   fought     ^'^^ 
against  the   Scots,  who   had  come  with  a  host  into  his 
kmjjdom,  and  beat  them.    They  were  so  discomfited  that 
for  many  years  after  they  dared  not  attack  the  English. 
This  battle  was  at  Dawston,  in  the  North. 

In  607  Ethelfrith  went  down  into  the  Welsh  country 
and  fought  a  great  battle  near  Chester  ;  and  the  Welsh 
tied  before  his  face.  In  that  battle  were  slain  many  monks 
who  had  come  to  pray  that  the  Welsh  might  win  the  flay. 
Ethelfrith  said  that  although  they  had  not  fought, 
they  had  done  as  much  to  defeat  him  by  their  prayers 
as  the  fighting  men  with  their  swords  and  spears,  and  he 
gave  orders  to  slay  them.  And  men  said  that  the  words 
of  Augustine  were  fulfilled  when  he  prophesied  evil  on 
the  Welsh  priests  at  Aust,  because  they  would  net 
help  him  in  his  good  work.  By  this  battle  Ethelfrith 
pushed  liis  kingdom  to  the  Western  Sea,  and  cut  off 
Cumberland  from  the  kingdoms  of  Wales  so  that  they 
vvere  never  joined  again  :  just  as  Dyrham  battle  bad  cut 


3^  Early  England.  a.d.  607-626. 

off  Cornwall  from  the  Welsh  kingdoms  and  brought  the 
West  Saxons  to  the  British  Channel.  And  now  Ethel- 
frith  was  still  more  feared  than  before.  Hut  Redwald, 
king  of  the  East  English,  would  not  give  up  Edwin  to 
Ethelfrith,  his  kinsman.  \vho  had  outlawed  him.  So 
Ethelfrith  came  against  him,  and  the  battle  was  joined  on 
the  banks  of  the  river  Idle,  and  there  Ethelfrith  fell. 

3.  Then  the  outlaw  Edwin  was  made  king  of  Nor- 
thumberland ;  and  of  him  many  famous  stories  arc  told. 
Edwin.  He  became  even  mightier  than  Ethelfrith  ;  and 

A.D.617-633.  though  he  did  not  rule  over  the  king  of  Kent 
yet  he  bade  him  give  him  his  sister  in  marriage,  and  We  did 
so.  This,  most  likely,  Edwin  did  that  he  might  nof  be 
stopped  in  his  plans  by  the  men  of  Kent,  now  that  he  and 
their  king  were  kinsmen.  And  Edwin  sent  ships  from 
Chester  to  fight  against  the  Welsh  in  Anglesey  and  Man; 
and  in  the  North  he  built  a  new  city  on  a  hill  and  called 
it  Edwin's-borough  (Edinborough),  after  his  name.  And 
he  had  a  plume  of  feathers  borne  before  him  when  he 
went  abroad,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Roman  emperor, 
and  was  called  Brytt'iiwalda,  which  seems  to  mean  'wide 
ruler,'  and  so  to  be  the  same  sort  of  name  as  Emperor. 
But  the  West  Saxons  hated  him  ;  and  Cwichelm,  their 
king,  sent  a  servant  of  his  named  Eomer  with  a  message 
of  peace  to  Edwin,  but  he  meant  evil.  And  when  Eomer 
came  before  the  king  he  suddenly  drew  a  dagger  and 
struck  at  him.  When  Lilla,  one  of  Edwin's  men,  saw 
him  lift  his  hand  he  threw  himself  before  the  king  to 
shield  him,  and  the  blade  passed  right  through  Lilla's 
body,  so  hard  was  the  blow,  and  wounded  the  king.  Then 
the  king's  followers  fell  on  Eomer  and  slew  him  in  their 
wrath  ;  but  the  king  was  little  hurt,  owing  to  the  faithful- 
ness of  Lilla. 

4.  Now  Edwin's  Kentish  wife,  Ethelburg,  had  brought 
with  her   a  comrade  of   Augustine's    named    Paullinus. 


A.D.  627.  Northumberland.  33 

The  very  night  the   king  was  stabbed,  the  queen   bare 
a  daughter,  who  was  baptized  by  PaulHnus.     p^,||,;^^^ 
She  was  the  first   Christian   child   in    North-     converts 
umberland  ;    for  the  king  and   liis  folk   were     berlaild'" 
still  heathen.     But  the  words  of  Faullinus  and      *  i'-  ^^7 
the  queen  moved  the  king  and  he  became  a  Christian  and 
his  people  with  him,  so  that   Paullinus  was  many  days 
baptizing  them  from  morning  to  night,  so  many  flocked 
to  him  desiring  to  be  saved. 

Two   stories    are   told   of  the  reasons   which  moved 
Edwin's  chief  men  to  become  Christians. 

One  of  the  aldermen,  an  old  and  wise  man,  wliile 
the  king  and  his  chiefs  were  talking  about  the  new  faith, 
spoke,  and  said,  '  O  King,  the  life  of  man  which  we  know 
on  this  earth,  if  we  set  it  by  that  life  which  we  know 
not  of,  seems  to  me  even  thus.  When  you  are  sitting 
at  meal-tide  with  your  lords  in  the  winter-time,  with  a 
great  fire  in  the  midst  of  the  hall— so  that  it  is  warm  and 
bright  within,  but  out  of  doors  there  is  cold  sleet  or  snow — 
sometimes  a  sparrow  flies  into  the  hall  through  one  door 
and  out  at  the  other.  While  it  is  in  the  hall  it  is  at 
peace  and  unhurt  by  the  winter  storm  for  a  little  space  ; 
but  It  flies  out  again  into  the  cold  gloom  whence  it  came 
and  your  eyes  behold  it  no  more.  So  the  life  ot  man 
seems  to  us,  and  we  know  not  whence  it  comes  nor 
whither  it  goes.  Therefore,  if  this  new  teacher  can  tell 
us  aught  of  this,  we  ought  methinks  to  hearken  to  his 
words.' 

There  was  also  a  chief  whose  name  was  Coifi,  and  he 
was  priest  of  the  temple  at  Godmundingham.  When  he 
heard  the  words  of  Paullinus  he  said  to  Edwin,  '  O  King, 
no  man  hath  served  the  gods  more  faithfully  than  1,  but 
1  see  many  men  preferred  before  me  and  prospering 
more.  Why,  therefore,  since  the  gods  cannot  help  us, 
should  we  serve  them  ? '    Then  he  prayed  the  king  to  give 

E.  H.  D 


34  Early  England.  a.d.  633-5. 

him  a  horse  and  lance,  and  he  arose  and  took  them  and 
rode  to  the  temple  and  flunt^  the  lance  over  the  pale  of 
the  temple,  where  no  weapon  might  come.  And  the 
people  thought  that  he  was  mad,  and  marvelled,  thinking 
that  the  gods  would  surely  slay  him.  But  he  bade  them 
break  down  the  temple  and  burn  the  gods.  And  when 
they  saw  that  he  got  no  harm  they  did  so,  and  believed 
no  more  in  the  old  gods. 

5.  Now  there  was  a  king  in  Marchland,  or  Mercia, 
named  Penda.  He  and  his  folk  were  heathen,  and  he 
Edwin's  warred  against  Edwin.  And  because  Edwin 
defeat  and       ^,^g  Strong  Penda  made  peace  with   the  king 

A.D.  633.  of  the  Welsh,  Cadwalla  ;  and  though  Cad  walla 
was  a  Christian  he  joined  him  for  hatred  of  the  English. 
These  two  kings  fought  against  Edwin  and  slew  him  at 
Heathfield  (Hatfield),  in  the  North.  When  Edwm  fell  his 
people  forsook  the  faith  and  went  back  to  their  old  gods ; 
and  Paullinus  and  Ethelburg  fled  to  Kent,  and  many  with 
them. 

6.  But  Penda  became  a  mighty  king,  and  he  joined  to 
his  kingdom  the  Saxons  who  dwelt  on  the  Severn.     But 

while  he   was  fighting  in  the  .South,  Oswald, 

Penda  and  ,  ,  .  %     J^        ,  ,        ,        j        r         , 

Oswald.  the    new    kmg    of    Northumberland,    fought 

A.D.633-642.  j^gainst  Cadwalla  and  slew  him  (635),  and 
cleared  the  North  lands  of  his  foes.  He  was  a  Christian, 
but  he  had  not  learnt  the  Christian  faith  from  the  Roman 
priests,  but  from  the  Irish  missionaries  in  lona,  whither 
he  had  l^een  driven  in  Edwin's  time  because  he  was  the  son 
of  Ethelfrith.  When  he  came  to  the  kingdom  he  brought 
in  Irish  priests  to  teach  his  people  anew  the  faith  they 
had  forsaken.  The  chief  of  these  priests  was  Aidan  ; 
and  Oswald  went  about  with  him  and  put  his  words  into 
English  for  the  people,  and  they  soon  became  Christians 
again.  And  from  Northumberland  there  went  forth 
preachers  to  the  rest  of   England  and  taught  the  Gospel 


4. D.  635-644-  Nortlmmberland.  35 

to  many.  In  Mercia  they  did  much  good.  In  East  Eng- 
land an  Irish  monk  named  Fursey  preached,  for  there, 
too,  the  people  had  gone  back  to  their  old  gods.  Even 
in  Kent,  at  Ethelbert's  death,  his  son  became  a  heathen  ; 
but  before  he  died  he  turned  Christian  again,  and  tried 
to  get  all  his  people  to  believe. 

After  seven  years  Fenda  came  North  again,  and  Os- 
wald fell  in  battle  against  him  (642).  Then  Penda  wrought 
great  ill,  and  ravaged  the  land  and  slew  the  people. 

7.  At  last  Oswy  took  the  kingdom,  and  gathered  his 
folk  to  him  and  went  to  meet  Penda.  Before  the  battle 
he  offered  him  much  gold  to  make  peace,  for     Oswy. 

he  was  sore  in  dread  of  him.  Hut  Penda  A.0.642-670. 
mocked  him.  Then  Oswy  vowed  to  make  his  daughter  a 
nun,  and  to  give  twelve  estates  to  the  Church  if  he  won 
the  day.  And  wht  n  the  fight  began  the  Marchmen  fled 
before  the  Northumbrians,  and  Penda  fell  as  he  fled  over 
the  river  which  ran  by  the  place  of  battle.  .So  the  last 
great  heathen  king  died,  i.nd  Oswy  sent  lords  to  govern 
his  land.  But  after  a  little  the  Marchmen  drove  them  out, 
setting  up  Wolfere,  a  Christian  son  of  Penda,  as  king. 

8.  Moreover,  in  Oswy's  reign,  the  Christians  all  over 
England   were   set   at   one    amongst   themselves.     This 
happened  in  this  way.  A  priest  named  Birinus,     g      ^  ^j 
who  was  sent  to  England  by  the  Pope,  had  con-      Whiiby. 
verted  Cwichehn,  the  king  who  had  sought  to       ''  '''   ■**' 
have  Edwin  slain,  and  he  set  up  a  bishopric  at  Dorchester. 
So  Wessex  also  believed.    And  when  Penda  died  S.  Chad 
was  sent  by  Aidan  in  655  to  Mercia.  and  he  turned  the 
Mercians  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  his  church  was  at 
Lichfield.      Only  the   South   Saxons  were  still   heathen. 
But  some  of  the  English  had  been  converted  by  the  Irish, 
as  Mercia,  Essex,  and   Northumberland,  and   the  others 
by  the  Roman  priests.     Now  the  Irish,  like  the  Welsh 
priests,  differed  in  many  customs  from  the  Roman  priests, 


36  Early  England.  a.d.  644-668. 

But  thougli  Oswy  held  to  the  Irish  customs  he  hadvwed 
the  daughter  of  Edwin,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  Kent 
under  the  Roman  customs.  So  Oswy  called  a  great  meet- 
ing of  all  the  bishops  and  chief  priests  to  settle  which 
customs  should  be  followed  throughout  England.  Amo.ng 
others  there  came  Wilfrith,  a  Northern  man  by  birth,  and 
he  persuaded  the  king  to  take  the  Roman  customs,  and 
all  the  people  agreed.  But  Colman,  the  bishop  of  Holy 
Island,  when  the  meeting  had  given  their  votes  against 
his  wishes  went  away  with  many  of  his  brethren  and  left 
Northumberland.  So  the  king  asked  the  Roman  priests 
to  send  him,  in  their  stead,  teachers  to  order  the  churches 
in  his  kingdom.  But  the  new  bishop  the  king  had  made 
soon  died,  and  Oswy  sent  another  priest  to  Rome  to  be 
made  bishop,  and  there  he  died.  So  the  Pope  sent  him  a 
priest  of  Tarsus,  named  Theodore,  who  went  to  England 
in  668,  and  with  the  help  of  Wilfrith  set  the  Church  in 
order.  He  set  bishops  in  each  kingdom,  who  were  under 
the  chief  bishops  (archbishops)  of  York  and  Canterbury. 
He  also  set  priests  in  each  district,  as  far  as  he  could,  to 
dwell  among  the  people.  Theodore  worked  so  hard  and 
so  well  that  when  he  died  he  left  the  Church  in  England 
ordered  in  the  sort  of  way  that  it  ever  afterwards  kept  to. 
9.  Though  many  of  the  Irish  priests  and  their  dis- 
ciples had  departed  some  still  remained.  Of  these  the 
S.  Cuih-  chief  was  Cuthbert,   who    had   been    a   mis- 

t?Vj  ^'  J        sionarv    in    Bernicia.       After   the    Svnod    of 

Hild,  and 

Ca;draon.  WHiitby,  he  went  to  the  islands  on  the  coast 
and  continued  there  steadfast  in  good  works,  so  that  he 
was  counted  a  saint. 

At  Whitby,  Hild,  a  lady  of  royal  blood,  built  a  con- 
vent, and  it  became  a  holy  place,  and  the  kings  of  the 
North  were  buried  there.  To  Hild  it  was  that  Oswy  had 
sent  his  daughter  when  he  fulfilled  his  vow.  Near  Whitby 
lived  Caedmon  the  poet,  of  whom  this  story  is  told.      He 


A.D.  644-670,  Northutnberland.  37 

was  but  a  poor  cowherd,  and  knew  not  how  to  sing  or 
play  the  harp  or  make  verses,  as  men  were  used  to  do  at 
feasts.  And  when  it  was  his  turn  to  sing  at  a  feast  he 
would  leave  the  room,  because  he  was  ashamed  of  his 
little  knowledge.  Once  when  he  had  thus  gone  sorrowful 
to  the  cattle-shed,  where  he  slept,  he  had  a  dream.  When 
he  woke  he  went  to  Hild,  the  abbess,  and  told  her  that 
he  had  been  bidden  in  a  vision  to  sing  of  holy  things, 
and  that  he  had  been  given  the  power  of  song.  Then 
Hild  told  him  a  Gospel  story,  and  he  put  it  into  verse 
and  sung  it,  and  all  were  astonished  at  the  beautiful  songs 
that  he  sung.  And  he  became  a  great  poet.  He  put  the 
stories  out  of  the  Bible  into  verse,  so  that  the  men  who 
could  not  read  might  remember  them  ;  and  we  have  some 
of  his  verses  still. 

10.  VVolfere,  the  son  of  Penda,  ruled  very  well  and 
wisely,  and  he  joined  Essex  and  .Middlesex  and  all  the 
land  as  far  as  the  Thames  to  his  kingdom.  Wolfere. 
The  South  Saxon  king  too  obeyed  his  will,  and  a. 0.657-675. 
was  often  at  his  court  ;  and  he  gave  him  the  island  of 
Wight  to  rule  under  him.  In  his  reign  many  abbeys  and 
houses  of  monks  were  founded  ;  and  he  built  Peterburgh, 
one  of  the  most  famous  abbeys  in  Enghmd.  Crowland 
Abbey,  too,  was  built  about  this  time.  The  West  Saxons 
at  this  time  had  a  brave  king  also,  under  whom  they  fought 
many  battles  against  the  Welsh  in  the  West,  and  won 
nearly  all  the  land  by  the  Mendip  Hills  and  on  the 
Parret. 

11.  When  Oswy  died  Egfrith  took  the  kingdom.  Soon 
after  Wilfrith  was  banished.  Then  he  went  to  Sussex 
and  taught  the  people,  for  though  their  king  Egfrith. 
was  Christian,  they  were  still  heathen.  They  ^■^-  670-83. 
listened  gladly  to  him,  for  he  was  very  wise  as  well  as 
good,  and  taught  them  many  useful  things  ;  amongst 
flthers  how  to  fish  in  the  deep  sea  after  the  Northern 


38  Early  England.  a.d.  670-685. 

fashion,  for  before  they  only  used  to  fish  in  the  rivers. 
And  men  called  Wilfrith  the  Apostle  of  Sussex. 

Egfrith  and  Wolfere  were  not  very  good  friends,  for 
VVolfere  wished  to  become  free  from  the  overlordship  of 
Northumberland.  They  warred  against  each  other,  and 
Egfrith  put  Wolfere's  host  to  flight,  and  made  him  make 
peace  and  give  up  Lincoln  and  the  land  round  it. 

When  he  had  made  peace  with  the  Marchmen  he 
warred  against  the  Welsh  in  Cumberland,  and  took  Car- 
lisle, and  over  it  he  set  S.  Cuthbert,  whom  he  called  from 
his  cell  in  Northumberland.  Moreover,  he  made  himself 
overlord  of  the  Vale  of  the  Clyde  ;  and  sent  ships  also  to 
ravage  Ireland,  where  they  got  great  spoil.  At  last  he 
went  against  the  Picts,  beyond  the  North  Wall,  and  there 
he  fell,  with  all  his  host,  in  a  great  battle  near  Fife  (685). 
And  S.  Cuthbert  fell  ill  when  he  heard  the  news  and  went 
back  to  his  cell,  where  he  died  two  years  after. 

When  Egfrith  was  dead  the  power  passed  from  Nor- 
thumberland, and  Wessex  and  Mercia  became  great  in 
its  stead. 

12.  There  are  several  things  to  notice  in  this  part  of 
English  History:— 

(i.)  It  is  hard  to  see  why,  when  the  greater  part  of 
..    ,  England  had  been  converted  by  the  Irish,  all 

Northum-  °  ■'  ' 

beriand  and  the  English  took  up  the  Roman  customs  in 
Church  matters.  But  the  Romans  certainly 
kept  the  Church  in  better  order  than  the  Irish.  Moreover 
the  rest  of  Western  Europe  had  taken  the  Roman  custom. 
Kent,  too,  which  was  a  strong  kingdom,  and  had  man) 
dealings  with  the  Franks,  helped  the  Romans  very  much 
(2.)  We  see  that  the  English  were  not  made  Christianr 
by  force,  as  many  heathen  nations  were,  but  they  wer« 
persuaded  by  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel.  This  made 
them  love  the  Faith  more,  and  keep  it  more  steadfastlj 
afterwards,  though  they  wavered  a  little  at  first. 


A.D.  685.  Nortliumberland.  39 

(3.)  Though  neither  Northumberland  or  Kent  was  ever 
strong  enough  to  bring  all  England  into  one,  yet  it  was  a 
help  towards  this  that  all  the  English  became  of  one  faith 
and  one  rule.  The  Church  also  tried  to  stop  cruel  war 
and  draw  all  men  together  peacefully. 

(4.)  When  the  English  became  Christians  they  did  not 
kill  or  enslave  the  Welsh  as  they  had  done  before  ;  but 
when  they  conquered  them  they  suffered  them  to  remain 
among  them,  and  made  laws  to  protect  them.  So  it 
comes  about  that,  though  in  the  rest  of  England  the 
Welsh  names  of  places  were  nearly  all  lost,  those  parts  of 
England  which  the  English  won  after  their  conversion 
are  still  called  by  Welsh  names. 


BOOK     IV. 

WESSEX  AND    THE   MARCHLAND. 

CHAPTER    I. 

A.U.    6S5-728. 
THE    RISK   OF   WESSEX. 

I.  After  tlie  death  of  Egfrith  the  strongest  of  the 
three  great  kingdoms  was  Wessex,  which  was  under  Cead- 
walla.  His  forerunners  had  beaten  back  the  The  rise  of 
Welsh,  and  had  won  new  lands  for  the  West  Wessex. 
Saxons,  till  their  realm  reached  the  borders  of  Devon. 
Under  them  Wessex  had  become  so  great  a  kingdom, 
that  it  was  able,  as  time  went  on,  to  gain  the  overlordship 
of  all  England,  and  at  last  its  kings  became  not  only 
overlords  but  kings  over  all  the  land.  And  it  is  the  story 
of  the  steps  by  which  the  kings  of  Wessex  made  the 
Marchmen's  kings  their  servants  that  will  be  written  in 
this  part  of  the  history. 


40  Early  England.  a.d.  685-688. 

2.  Ceadwalla  reigned  but  a  short  while  ;  then  he  re- 
Ceadwalla.  pcnted  him  of  his  sins,  laid  down  his  crown, 
A.  0.685-688.  and  went  to  Rome  There  he  was  baptized 
by  the  Pope,  and  there  soon  afterwards  he  died.  He 
had  been  a  Christian  and  so  had  his  brother  who  reigned 
with  him,  but  he  had  not  been  baptized  before,  nor  did 
he  seem  to  understand  the  life  of  a  true  Christian.  For 
when  he  found  that  the  Jutes  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  were 
still  most  of  them  heathen  he  fought  against  them  to 
make  them  Christians.  And  he  prevailed  against  them 
and  took  their  king  and  slew  him,  with  all  his  kin  and 
most  of  his  people.  When  Wilfrith  heard  of  it  he  begged 
him  to  spare  some  of  them,  and  he  did  so,  and  Wilfrith 
by  kindness  converted  them.  But  Ceadwalla  would  not 
spare  the  lives  of  the  Jute  king's  two  children,  for  he 
feared  that  when  they  were  grown  up  they  would  avenge 
their  father's  death  upon  him;  so  when  they  were  baptized 
he  slew  them  also.  Perhaps  it  was  for  this  evil  deed  that 
he  was  sorr\',  and  so  left  his  kingdom.  This  was  the 
only  time  that  an  Enghsh  king  ever  tried  to  turn  people 
to  the  Gospel  by  the  sword  ;  though  in  other  lands  there 
were  kings  who  did  so,  not  knowing  that  they  were  doing 
an  evil  work. 

3.  But  Ini,  who  reigned  after  him,  was  a  good  man  and 
mild  of  heart,  and  a  very  mighty  king.  He  was  obliged 
jj,i  to  wage  many  wars.  Especially  he  fought 
A.D.683-728.  with  the  Cornish  men,  who  had  then  a  brave 
king  at  their  head,  who  tried  to  drive  the  English  back. 
But  ini  prevailed  against  him. 

Ini  took  great  care  to  rule  well  the  lands  that  he  won. 
When  he  saw  that  the  bishop  of  Winchester  had  too 
great  a  charge,  he  set  up  a  bishop  in  Sherborne  to  help 
him.  And  he  built  a  house  for  holy  men  at  Glaston- 
bury, where  there  was  a  ruined  British  church,  and  this 
bouse  became  very  famous  in  after  days. 


A.D.  688.  Rise  of  Wessex.  41 

Ini  fought  too  with  the  men  of  Kent,  and  got  from 
them  a  line  for  slaying  Ceadwalkvs  brother,  whom  they 
had  burnt  in  his  house.  And  he  made  the  men  of  Essex 
and  the  East  Eni;Ush  bow  to  his  rule.  But  the  king  of 
the  Marchmen  fought  against  him,  so  that  he  was  not 
able  to  become  overlord  of  that  land  also. 

And  Ini  made  good  laws  with  the  help  of  the  wise  men 
of  his  kingdom,  so  that  his  people  might  dwell  in  peace; 
and  in  all  that  he  did  his  wife  Ethelburg  helped  him. 
She  was  a  wise  and  brave  woman  ;  and  once  when  the 
Cornish  men  had  taken  Taunton,  which  Ini  had  built, 
she  went  down  with  a  host  against  them  and  took 
back  the  town.  When  they  had  both  reigned  long 
and  gloriously  she  won  over  her  husband  to  lay  down 
his  crown,  as  Ceadwalla  had  done,  and  go  to  Rome,  to 
live  there  in  peace,  praying  and  doing  good  works  till 
they  both  -died.  There  is  a  story  told  of  ihe  way  she 
did  this.  In  those  days  the  kings'  palaces  were  not  all 
garnished  with  furniture,  but  when  the  kings  went  from 
one  of  their  great  houses  to  another  they  took  all  their 
household  goods  with  them,  and  left  the  house  empty 
behind  them.  For  they  used  to  travel  all  over  their 
realm,  and  stay  awhile  at  each  of  their  houses  to  do 
justice  to  the  folk  of  each  part  of  their  kingdom  and 
hear  all  complaints.  One  day  when  king  Ini  had  left 
one  of  his  houses,  and  his  servants  had  packed  up  all 
the  household  goods,  the  queen  prayed  him  after  a  while 
to  ride  back  to  the  hall  with  her,  and  he  did  so. 
When  they  came  there  the  house  was  bare,  and  cattle 
and  pigs  had  been  driven  into  the  empty  hall.  And  the 
king  was  astonished  at  the  changes  since  the  day  before, 
when  the  hall  was  fairly  decked  out,  and  he  and  all  his 
vahant  men  had  sat  there  at  meat  in  great  state.  Then 
the  queen  said  to  him,  '  After  this  manner  the  glory  and 
pleasant  things  of  this  world  pass  away  ;  so  that  I  hold 


42  Early  England.  a.d.  6SS-728. 

him  foolish  who  cleaves  to  the  things  of  this  world  and 
takes  no  thought  of  the  life  everlasting.  And  we,  who 
fare  gloriously  in  this  world,  should  not  forget  the  world 
that  is  to  come.'  And  the  king  was  won  by  her  word^ 
to  do  as  she  wished. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THFT.     CHURCH. 

I.  In  the  days  of  Ini  there  went  forth  from  England 
many  good  men  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen 
Mission-  Germans  and  Frisians.    For  ju^t  as  the   Irish, 

anes.  when  they  had  heard  the  Gospel  wished  tiiat 

all  men  would  hearken  to  it,  and  sent  many  mission- 
aries to  the  heathen  in  Germany  and  the  land  we  now 
call  Switzerland,  so  the  English  did  in  their  turn.  And 
they  were  the  more  moved  to  do  this  because  the  Ger- 
mans were  near  of  kin  to  themselves.  Wilfiith,  when  he 
was  cast  on  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea,  had  preached  the 
Gospel  to  the  Frisians  and  the  Sa.xons  who  had  stayed 
behind  when  their  brethren  went  to  England.  Chief 
amongst  the  English  missionaries  were  Willebrord  and 
Winfnth  (who  in  the  Latin  tongue  is  called  Boniface). 
When  Boniface  had  converted  the  Germans  in  their  own 
land,  SL't  bishops  over  them,  and  put  priests  among  them 
in  their  villages,  as  Theodore  had  done  in  England,  he 
was  made  their  first  archbishop,  and  lived  at  Mainz,  on 
the  Rhine,  in  their  midst,  and  did  much  good.  But  after 
nearly  forty  years'  work,  when  he  heard  that  many  of  the 
Frisians  were  still  heathen,  he  set  out  to  visit  them  and 
preach  to  them  also,  and  soon  after  he  died  (757).  And 
men  numbered  him  among  the  saints,  and  called  him  the 
Apostle  of  the  Germans. 

2.  In  England  also  there  were  many  great  Churchmen 
in  those  days,  and  chiefly  in   Northumberland,  where  a) 


AD.  728-757-  The  Church.  43 

this  time  there  was  peace  for  a  short  while.  One  called 
I'.enedict  taught  the  English  how  to  build  The 
fair  churches  of  stone,  for  the  English  before  of'thf'"^" 
u-ed  to  build  chiefly  with  wood,  and  were  North, 
not  skilled  in  stonework.  He  also  brought  over  glass  for 
the  church  windows,  which  the  English  did  not  know  of 
before,  but  used  horn  and  parchment  instead.  And  he 
built  houses  for  monks  to  dwell  in  to  do  good  works ;  and 
in  one  of  these,  at  Jarrow,  lived  Bede,  the  first  great  Eng- 
lish scholar.  He  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
time,  and  taught  many  disciples  and  wrote  many  books  of 
those  things  which  he  wished  them  to  know,  some  in  Eng- 
lish, and  some  in  Latin  ;  he  wrote  songs  and  hymns  also. 
And  it  is  from  one  of  his  books,  '  A  History  of  the  English 
Church,'  that  we  learn  much  about  the  Early  English. 
He  put  the  Gospel  of  S.  John  into  English  that  all  men 
might  read  it  ;  this  was  his  last  work.  When  he  died 
(754)  all  the  wise  men  m  England  mourned  for  him. 
He  had  many  friends  who  helped  him  in  his  work,  and 
the  king  of  Northumberland  was  among  them.  And  the 
good  king  Alfred,  many  years  after,  put  some  of  his 
Latin  books  ii.to  English,  so  useful  did  he  think  them  for 
all  men  to  know.  Of  other  English  Churchmen,  Wilfrith 
was  perhaps  the  greatest.  He  had  made  the  first  library 
in  England  at  York.  He  was  also  much  beloved,  though 
he  was  quick  of  temper,  for  he  did  many  good  deeds  and 
was  ne\er  idle,  but  always  would  be  doing  what  he  could 
to  help  the  people  and  preach  the  Gospel.  He  was  a  great 
traveller,  and  had  seen  many  lands,  and  everywhere  he 
went  men  honoured  him  for  his  goodness.  He  died  709. 
3.  In  Ireland  loo  at  this  time  were  many  good  and 
wise  men,  and  it  was  from  the  Irish  that  the  irish 
Northumbeiland  men  had  got  much  of  their  '-hurchmen. 
Ir;arning.  For  this  reason  Ireland  was  called  the  '  Isle 
v)f  Saints.' 


44  Early  England.  a.».  728. 

CHAPTER  HI. 

A.D.     728-802. 
WESSEX   AND   THE    MARCHLAND. 

1.  After  Ini,  there  reigned  other  kings  over  the 
Eth  lb  Id  West  Saxons,  of  whom  it  is  not  needful  to  speak 
of  the  here.     They  were  not  very  powerful,  and  in 

^^   ^^  '      their  da)s  Ethelbald,  king  of  the  Marchmen, 
was  the  mightiest  man  in  England. 

But  of  one  of  these  kings,  whose  name  was  Sebert,  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  he  reigned  ill  and  so  lost  his  king- 
dom. For  his  folk,  who  had  chosen  him  to  be  king,  took 
his  crown  from  him  and  gave  it  to  Cynwulf. 

2.  Cynwulf  was  a  brave  king  and  ruled  well.  He 
overcame  Ethelbald  in  battle  and  slew  him.  But  Offa. 
Cynwulf.  w'"*"  reigned  next  in  the  Marchland,  forced 
A.D.  757-S6.  Cynwulf  to  bow  to  him  and  do  his  will.  Cyn- 
wulf was  slain  after  a  long  reign,  and  his  death  happened 
in  this  way.  One  day  he  went  to  stay  at  the  house  of  a 
lady  at  Merton,  and  took  few  men  with  him.  And  when 
Cynhard,  brother  of  Sebert,  who  wished  to  be  king  himself, 
heard  of  it  he  gathered  together  a  band  of  those  men 
who  hated  Cynwulf  and  loved  him,  and  suddenly  beset 
the  house  where  Cynwulf  was.  When  Cynwulf  was  aware 
of  them  he  went  out  to  the  door  and  kept  it  bravely 
with  his  sword,  and  he  wounded  Cynhard  ;  but  he  was 
borne  down  by  Cynhard's  men,  for  he  was  alone,  and 
slain.  And  when  his  men  heard  the  cries  of  the  lady  they 
ran  up  and  found  their  king  dead,  and  Cynhard  standing 
by.  He  offered  them  gold  rings  and  lands  and  goods  if 
they  would  follow  him  and  help  him  to  be  king,  and 
death  if  they  would  not.  They  chose  death,  for  they 
would  never  help  their  master's  slayer.     So  Cynhard  and 


A.D.  757.        IVessex  and  the  Marddatid.  45 

his  men  fell  upon  them,  and  they  fought  till  they  were  all 
slain  save  one,  a  Welshman,  a  hostage,  and  he  was  badly 
wounded.  Then  Cynhard  locked  the  gates  and  kept  the 
hall  fast  that  night.  But  news  was  brought  to  Osric, 
Cynwulfs  alderman,  that  Cynhard  had  slain  the  king,  and 
was  at  Merton,  and  some  of  his  own  kinsfolk  with  him. 
So  he  gathered  all  the  men  he  could  and  rode  to 
Merton  in  haste,  and  there  he  found  the  gates  shut. 
Cynhard  offered  him  and  those  with  him  to  be  their  king, 
but  they  would  not,  though  Osric's  kinsmen,  who  were 
with  Cynhard,  prayed  him  to  listen  to  him.  And  (Jsric 
offered  his  kinsmen  peace  if  they  would  leave  Cynhard  ; 
but  they  said  they  would  stand  by  Cynhard  to  the  death, 
as  Cynwulfs  men  had  done  by  him.  Then  Osric  and  his 
folk  broke  down  the  gates  and  fell  upon  Cynhard  and  his 
folk,  and  they  fell  there  fighting  to  the  last,  and  only  one 
was  saved,  Osric's  godson. 

And  Bertric  was  chosen  king  by  the  Wise  Men  of  the 
kingdom,  and  he  reigned  seventeen  years  (786-802). 

3.  When  Ethelbald  fell  Bernred  took  the  March 
kingdom.  He  reigned  but  a  short  while,  for  Offa,  who 
was  of  the  royal  blood,  and  alderman  in  the  q^-^  „,  ^ 
Severn  valley,  drove  him  out  and  took  the  Marchland. 
crown.  He  had  the  most  power  of  any  man  *  "^ '  ^^^  ' 
that  had  yet  been  in  England,  for  all  the  other  kings 
bowed  to  his  rule  ;  and  now  England  was  as  one  for  the 
first  time.  Offa  led  his  host  against  the  Welsh  and  took 
one  of  their  chief  towns.  He  called  it  Shrewsbury,  and 
made  it  strong  against  them.  And  he  drew  a  great  dyke 
across  Wales,  from  the  Dee  to  the  Wye,  that  it  might  be 
a  bulwark  and  a  boundary  after  the  fashion  of  the  two 
Roman  walls.  He  married  one  of  his  daughters,  Edburg, 
to  Bertric,  and  another  to  the  king  of  Northumberland, 
that  they  might  be  the  more  easily  ready  to  do  his  will. 
Now,  Edburg,  who  married  Bertric,  was  an  evil  woman, 


46  Early  England.  a.d.  757-  796. 

and  she  hated  those  whom  her  husband  loved,  for  she 
wished  him  to  listen  only  to  her.  She  put  poison  in  a 
cup  for  a  friend  of  the  king  to  drink,  and  by  chance  Bert- 
ric  drank  of  it  also,  and  they  both  died.  When  this  was 
known  the  West  Saxons  drove  out  Edburg,  and  made  a 
law  that  no  other  king's  wife  should  have  power  or  be 
called  queen.  As  for  Edburg  she  went  to  the  court  of 
Charles  the  Great,  and  he  gave  her  an  abbey  to  rule,  but 
she  ruled  it  as  ill  as  she  had  ruled  the  West  Saxons,  so 
he  took  it  from  her.  And  she  went  to  Italy  and  wandered 
about  in  great  need  there,  begging  her  bread  till  she 
died. 

At  this  time  Charles  the  Great  was  the  king  of  the 
Franks,  and  was  the  mightiest  man  in  West  Europe- 
He  and  Offa  were  friends  at  first,  but  afterwards  they  fell 
out  because  Charles  was  jealous  of  Offa's  power  and 
would  always  help  Offa's  foes,  for  he  wished  to  be  over- 
lord in  England  himself.  Egbert  also,  who  fled  from 
Bertric — for  he  was  of  the  royal  blood  of  the  West  Saxon 
kings — was  received  at  his  court,  and  there  learned  many 
things  which  were  afterwards  of  use  to  him. 

And  when  Offa  and  the  men  of  Kent  quarrelled 
Charles  stirred  up  the  archbisop  of  Canterbury  against 
Offa.  and  promised  to  help  him  with  soldiers.  But  Offa 
put  down  the  men  of  Kent  and  set  up  an  archbishop  at 
Lichfield  to  rule  over  the  Marchmen's  Church,  as  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  ruled  over  the  Church  in 
Wessex,  and  the  archbishop  of  York  in  Northumberland. 
But  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  sorely  grieved  at 
this. 

But  Charles  and  Offa  were  made  friends  once  or 
twice  by  Alwin  or  Alcwin,  a  scholar  of  Northumberland, 
whom  Offa  had  sent  to  Charles  to  teach  him  the  learning 
of  the  English. 

In  Offa's  days  there  lived  in   England  a  great  poet 


A.n.  802.  IVfSSi'.v  and  tlie  Marchland.  47 

named  Cynwolf,  some  of  whose  songs  we  ha\e  now.  We 
have,  too,  other  poems  written  about  this  time  by  men 
whose  names  are  lost.  So  it  wou  d  seem  that  in  Ofia's 
days  men  found  peace  and  leisure  for  writing  and  making 
poetry,  which  they  had  not  again  till  long  after  his  death. 
Utfa  ruled  his  land  very  well,  and  cared  much  for  the 
good  of  his  people,  and  made  laws  for  them  by  the  help 
of  his  wise  men,  as  Ini  had  done.  He  was  good  to  men 
of  learning  and  Churchmen,  and  built  a  great  abbey  at 
Verulam,  where  S.  Alban  was  slain  in  the  Roman  time, 
and  the  town  is  called  S.  Albans  to  this  day.  But  one 
abbey  he  built  because  of  an  evil  thing  he  did.  He  slew 
Ethelbert,  king  of  the  East  English,  by  craft,  for  he 
asked  him  to  come  and  see  him  and  marry  his  daughter, 
and  when  he  came  he  had  him  murdered:  but  men  say 
that  the  queen  persuaded  him  to  do  this  evil.  And 
Ethelbert  was  held  a  saint  and  martyr  for  his  cruel  death. 
But  Offa  repented  sorely  afterwards,  and  sent  gifts  to  the 
Pope.  Soon  after  this  he  died,  and  his  son  Cenwolf 
ruled  after  him.  He  made  friends  witli  the  airhbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  when  t!ie  archbishop  of  Lichfield  died 
he  never  made  another.  He  fought  with  the  Welsh,  and 
went  far  into  Wales,  bolli  North  and  South,  after  his 
enemies.  He  also  fought  with  the  men  of  Kent.  But 
after  his  days  Egbert  became  king  of  Wesse.x,  and  brought 
the  Marchland  into  his  own  kingdom  ;  and  those  kings 
who  reigned  there  after  Cenwolf  he  drove  away. 


48  Early  England.  a.d.  802. 


BOOK    V. 

THE   ENGLISH  AND    THE   DANES. 

CHAPTER    I. 

A.D.    802-83S 
EGBERT. 

1.  Egbert  came  to  the  throne  of  Wessex  in  802,  and 
reigned  many  years.  He  put  all  the  kings  in  England 
under  him,  as  Offa  had  done  ;  but  he  was  so  power- 
ful, and  things  fell  out  so  well  for  him,  that  the  kings 
Egbert's  never  got  free  again  at  his  death,  as  they  had 
work.  done  when  Offa  died.  So  he  gained  at  last  for 
Wessex  the  overlordship  of  England  which  the  Northern 
kings  had  tried  to  win  for  Northumberland,  and  the 
kings  of  the  Marchmen  for  Marchland.  So  under  Egbert 
England  became  one  in  nile,  as  it  had  at  Whitby  become 
one  in  faith.  Moreover,  the  kings  of  Wessex  now  brought 
the  kings  of  the  Welsh  and  Scots  under  them,  and  so 
became  overlords  of  all  Britain.  There  were  still  Scotch 
and  Welsh  kings  ;  but  they  obeyed  the  English  kings  and 
acknowledged  their  rule.  So  with  the  reign  of  Egbert 
finishes  this  part  of  English  History,  in  which  has  been 
told  the  story  of  the  kingdoms  which  the  English  founded. 
The  history  which  follows  is  the  history  of  England  under 
one  king,  and  its  struggles  against  foes  who  came  from 
without. 

2.  For  in  Egbert's  reign  the  Danes  began  to  show 
themselves  bitter  foes  to  the  English,  as  will  afterwards 
„,    T^  be  seen.     The  year  that  Bertric  married  Otfa's 

I  he  Danes  ' 

and  Nor-         daughter  Edburg  three   Northern  ships  came 
wegians.  ^^  ^j^^  English  coast,  and  when  the  alderman 

of  the  place  where   they  landed  came  down   to  see  who 


A.  n.  802-838.  Egbert.  49 

they  were  they  slew  him.  This  is  the  first  time  we  hear 
of  the  Danes  and  Northmen  plundering  in  England. 
They  lived  on  the  eastern  coasts  of  the  North  Sea,  in  the 
same  way  as  the  English  had  done  before  they  came  to 
England.  They  were  of  the  same  kin  and  spoke  the 
same  tongue,  though  little  by  little  it  grew  different,  till 
now  an  Englishman  has  to  learn  Danish  as  he  would 
French.  The  reason  why  the  Danes,  as  the  English 
called  them  (for  the  Norwegians  plundered  chiefly  Scot- 
land and  Ireland  and  the  Western  Islands),  began  to 
come  about  this  time,  is  partly  because  of  their  troubles 
at  home,  and  partly  because  of  the  wars  which  Charles 
the  Great  and  his  house  waged  against  the  heathen 
Saxons  and  Danes  in  the  North. 

In  Denmark  and  Norway,  just  as  in  England,  there 
were  many  small  kingdoms,  and  now  one  king  in  each 
land  was  trying  to  put  the  small  kings  under  him.  So 
there  were  many  wars,  and  men  fought  cruelly  with  each 
other,  because  they  were  still  heathen.  So  many  of  the 
small  kings  and  chiefs  took  to  the  sea,  and  sailed  about 
with  their  followers  plundering  everywhere  they  came,  only 
sometimes  going  back  to  Norway  and  Denmark. 

But  after  about  a  hundred  years,  when  the  head  kings 
were  firmly  set  on  their  thrones,  they  ruled  more  strictly. 
Then  manygreat  men,  with  their  followers,  left  their  homes 
altogether.  Some  settled  in  the  islands  of  the  North 
Sea,  Iceland  and  the  Faroes,  and  lived  there  as  they 
had  done  at  home,  only  they  would  have  no  king,  but 
the  chiefs  ruled.  Others  went  to  England  and  Ireland 
and  Scotland  and  fought  against  the  people  of  the  land, 
and  took  part  of  their  land  and  dwelt  in  it. 

3.  Egbert  had  been  long  at  the  court  of  Charles  the 
Great    while   Bertric  was   king   of  the   West     Egbert  and 
Saxons.    And  no  doubt  what  he  had  seen  there     Charles, 
helped  him  when  he  became  king  in  England.    For  Charles 
E.  H.  ,B 


50  Early  England.  a.d.  802-838. 

was  a  great  warrior  and  statesman,  and  conquered  many 
peoples,  and  built  up  a  mi<(hty  empire,  and  of  him,  his 
valiant  men,  and  the  deeds  they  did,  many  stories  are  told. 
And  just  before  Egbert,  by  Charles's  help,  became  king  of 
the  West  Saxons,  Charles  was  crowned  by  the  Pope  Em- 
peror after  the  old  Roman  fashion,  for  he  was  now  ruler 
over  great  part  of  the  old  Roman  Empire.  Henceforth 
there  were  two  Emperors,  one  in  the  West,  the  Frank 
l^mperor,  who  lived  a  great  deal  at  Aken  (Aachen)  ;  and 
the  other  ruling  the  Eastern  part  of  the  old  Roman 
•empire  from  Constantinople. 

4.  Egbert  had  a  very  busy  reign.  First  he  fought 
with  the  Welsh  of  Cornwall,  the  old  foemen  of  the  West 
Egbert's  Saxons,  in   815  ;  then  against  the  king  of  the 

wars.  Marchmen  at   Ellandune  (825).     This  was  a 

ver\'  great  battle,  and  many  men  fell  there,  so  it  is  said 
in  the  old  rhyme  : 

Ellandune  flood  ran  red  with  blood. 

After  this  battle  the  Marchmen  were  obliged  to  bow  to 
Egbert's  rule  ;  and  though  they  resisted  him  again  they 
never  could  free  themselves.  Perhaps  this  was  be- 
cause the  Frank  kings  hated  the  Marchmen  and  would 
not  help  them,  but  also  it  was  through  the  hatred  of  the 
East  English,  for  when  they  found  the  March  kingdom 
growing  weak  they  rose  against  it,  and  sent  to  Egbert 
and  took  him  as  their  overlord.  When  the  March  king 
came  against  them  they  slew  him.  And  afterwards,  when 
the  next  king  with  a  great  host  and  five  aldermen  sought 
to.  avenge  him,  they  slew  him  and  his  aldermen  with 
him.  So  they  became  free  from  their  old  overlords  ;  but 
they  were  obliged  to  take  Egbert  as  overlord  in  their  stead. 
Egbert  also  sent  his  son  to  Kent  with  an  army,  and  he 
drove  out  the  Kentish  under-kmg,  and  was  made  king  by 


K.T>.  S02-S3S.  Egbert.  51 

his  father  in  his  stead,  and  over  Sussex  and  Essex  also. 
That  same  year  too,  the  Enghsh  won  a  victory  over  the 
Welsh  and  Danes  at  Gafulford. 

Two  years  after  '(827)  Egbert  gathered  a  great  host, 
and  went  north,  and  the  Marchmen  solemnly  took  him 
as  their  lord,  and  the  men  ot  Northumberland  when 
they  saw  his  might  did  likewise.  The  next  year  he 
went  against  the  Welsh  of  Wales,  that  he  might  give 
peace  to  the  Marchmen,  whnm  they  were  always  attack- 
ing ;  so  that  it  was  seen  that  Egbert  not  only  dared  to  rule 
but  also  to  be  of  use  to  his  subjects.  And  now  for  a  short 
while  there  was  pence. 

At  the  end  of  his  reign  Egbert  was  hr».rassed  by  the 
Danes  and  Northmen.  This  was  the  Danish  way  :  they 
would  sail  up  some  river  and  there  build  an  earthwork  fort 
on  some  island  or  safe  place  for  their  camp,  and  from  it 
they  would  row  farther  up  the  river  in  their  ships,  or  seize 
horses  and  ride  over  the  land,  and  plunder  ;  driving  off 
all  the  cattle,  and  taking  all  the  gold  and  silver  and  pre- 
cious things.  Most  of  all  they  hated  the  priests  and  slew 
them,  and  burnt  and  robbed  the  churches  wherever  they 
could  ;  for  they  remembered  how  Charles  the  (ireat  and 
his  kin  had  warred  on  their  heathen  brethren  and  slain 
them  cruelly  because  they  would  not  be  Christians. 

5.  After  this  they  ravaged  the  South  country  two  or 
three  years.  Once  Egbert  fought  with  thirty-five  ships' 
crews   at    Charmouth,  and  was  beaten,  and     ^,  , 

many  of  his  great  men  were  slain  (835).  and  Hen- 
Moreover,  the  Danes  joined  with  the  Welsh  ^'■^"'  °*"' 
against  him,  but  he  gathered  a  host  and  went  against 
them,  and  had  the  victory  over  them  at  Hengist's  Down 
(837).  Soon  after  this  he  died  (838),  full  of  honour, 
and  when  he  died  he  pai  ted  his  kingdom,  as  the  kingdom 
of  Charles  was  parted  afterwards,  among  his  sons.  Ethel- 
wolf  took  Wessex  and  became  overlord  of  Britain,  and 


52  Early  England.  a.d.  802-855. 

Ethelstan  took  the  land  which  Ethelwolfhad  ruled  before, 
Kent  and  Sussex  and  Essex,  as  under-king. 

Egbert  is  called  in  the  old  books  by  the  title  of  Biy- 
tenwalda,  as  Edwin  had  been.  This  title  is  only  given  to 
seven  kings  before  Egbert. 

6.  In  Egbert's  days  lived  a  great  Danish  king  named 
Ragnar  Rough  Breeks,  because  he  once  clothed  himself 
^  in  skins  to  fight  a  wild  beast.    Of  him  it  is  said 

Ragnar  ^ 

Rough  that  he  was  shipwrecked  in  England,  and  that 

the  under-king  of  Northumberland  took  him 
and  cast  him  alive  into  a  pit  full  of  snakes,  where,  in  spite 
of  his  sufferings,  he  sang  a  wonderful  song  telling  of  all 
his  great  deeds,  till  the  snakes  stung  him  to  death.  It 
was  to  revenge  his  death,  some  say,  that  his  sons  after- 
wards came  to  England  and  waged  a  cruel  war  against 
the  English. 

CHAPTER    II. 

A.D.  839-871. 

ETHELWOLF   AND    HIS   ELDER    SONS. 

I.  Ethelwolf  reigned  many  years,  and  nearly  all  his 
time,  like  his  father's,  was  taken  up  by  war.  First,  he  had 
Ethelwolf  ^^  ^S^*^  ^^  Danes  all  along  the  South  coast 
A.D.839-8S8.  Then  a  band  of  them  landed  in  Kent,  broke 
into  London  and  Canterbury,  and  drove  the  March 
king  away.  In  851  Ethelwolf  and  his  son  Ethelbald 
fought  the  greatest  battle  that  had  been  fought  in  the 
memory  of  man,  at  Oaklea,  in  Surrey.  There  the 
Danes  fled  before  them,  and  they  cleared  the  land  of 
them  for  a  while,  though  they  came  back  again  ;  and 
not  long  after  a  baiid  of  them  wintered  in  Sheppey,  just 
as  the  English  had  once  stayed  in  Thanet  before  they 
began  to  conquer  Britain.  In  S55,  Ethelwolf,  seeing  that 
his  kingdom  was  at  rest  for  a  little — for  he  had  won  a 


A.D.  85S.     EtJichvolf  and  his  Elder  Sons.  53 

battle  against  the  Welsh  also — went  to  Rome  as  a  pilgi  im. 
Two  years  before  he  had  sent  thither  his  little  son  Alfred, 
and  the  Pope  had  received  him  very  kindly,  and  made 
him  his  godson  and  hallowed  him  as  a  king.  After  he 
had  stayed  a  year  at  Rome,  Ethelwolf  brought  him  back 
with  him  to  England.  He  gave  the  Pope  gifts,  and  pro- 
mised to  set  aside  a  tenth  of  his  land  for  the  Church  and 
the  poor.  On  his  way  back  Ethelwolf  married  Judith,  the 
daughter  of  Charles  the  Bald,  king  of  the  West  Franks, 
and  grandson  of  Charles  the  Great.  This  Charles  after- 
wards became  Emperor,  like  his  grandfather  ;  but  now  he 
was  ruling  over  only  a  part  of  the  realm  of  Charles,  which 
had  been  divided  between  him  and  his  brothers  by  their 
father,  Louis.  It  is  said  that  when  Ethelwolf  was  coming 
home  his  son  Ethelbald  and  bishop  Alstan  made  a  plot 
against  him,  and  he  was  obliged  to  give  Ethelbald  Wes- 
sex  ;  taking  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Essex  for  himself,  for  his 
brother  Ethelstan  was  now  dead.  So  his  queen  Judith 
reigned  over  Kent  with  him,  but  over  Wessex  since 
Edburg's  days  there  was  no  queen.  Soon  after  Ethel- 
wolf died  ;  and  before  his  death,  with  the  goodwill  of  his 
wise  men,  he  divided  his  realm  among  his  sons.  To 
Ethelbert  he  gave  Kent,  and  to  the  others  Wessex,  and 
the  head-kingship  to  Ethelbald,  Ethelred,  and  Alfred, 
one  after  another  ;  but  Ethelbert  was  never  to  be  head- 
king. 

2.  So  Ethelbald  was  made  king,  and  he  ruled  for  two 
years  only.  He  married  Judith,  his  stepmother,  after  the 
custom  of  the  heathen  kings,  who  used  to  Ethelbald. 
marry  the  widow  of  the  king  who  reigned  A.D.858-860. 
before  them.  When  he  died  all  the  people  mourned 
greatly  for  him,  so  that  though  we  know  little  of  him  we 
may  believe  he  ruled  his  people  well.  But  Judith  after 
oer  husband's  death,  went  to  Gaul  and  married  the  Count 
.if  Flanders,  and  from  her  are  sprung  many  famous  folk. 


54  Early  England.  a  d.  870. 

3.  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent,  now  became  head-king, 
though  his  father  had  bid  him  be  content  with  his  own 
Ethelbert  realm.  In  his  days  the  Danes  began  to 
A.D.860-866.  phmder  again.  Once  they  broke  into  Win- 
chester, the  royal  city  of  the  West  Saxons  ;  but  the  alder- 
men came  upon  them  and  put  thom  to  flight.  They  also 
plundered  Kent  sorely.  Ethelbert  reigned  but  a  short 
while,  and  then  he  died,  and  Ethelred  was  made  king. 

4.  Soon  after  he  began  to  reign  the  sons  of  Ragnar 
Rough  Breeks  came  with  ships  and  men,  plundered  the  East 
and  North,  and  set  up  a  king  over  part  of  Northumber- 
land who  ruled  under  them  ;  but  at  York  one  of  Ragnar's 
sons  reigned.  The  sons  of  Ragnar  also  plundered  Ireland 
Ethelred  ''"^^  Scotland,  and  set  up  a  kingdom  at  Dublin, 
.\.D.866-87i.  on  the  coast  of  Ireland.  Soon  after  the  taking 
of  York  the  Danes  went  south  into  the  Marchland.  The 
people,  when  the  Danes  came,  now  began  to  try  and 
make  peace  with  them,  for  they  could  not  withstand 
them.  But  though  the  Danes  would  make  peace  for  a 
while  they  soon  began  to  plunder  agam. 

In  869,  Alfred  the  Etheling  (which  is  the  old  English 
word  for  Prince)  married  a  daughter  of  a  Lincoln  alder- 
man, who  was  of  the  blood-royal.  On  the  day  of  his 
wedding  he  was  smitten  with  a  disease  which  harassed 
him  all  his  life  after,  so  that  it  is  very  wonderful  that  he 
was  able  to  do  so  much  in  spite  of  his  illness. 

In  870  the  Danes  took  horse  and  rode  into  East 
England,  where  they  took  the  under-king  Edmund  pri- 
soner, and  because  he  would  not  become  under-king  to 
them  nor  forsake  his  faith  they  slew  him  with  arrows. 
His  body  was  buried  in  a  town  near,  which  has  been  since 
called  by  his  name,  S.  Edmundsbury.  For  he  was 
counted  a  saint,  because  he  died  through  fighting  with 
his  folk  against  the  heathen.  v\nd  the  Danes  took  East 
England  and  settled  in  it,  and  it  became  a  Danish   kiog- 


A.D.  877.     Ethclwolf  and  his  Elder  Sons.  55 

dom.     Yet  they  did  not  drive  out  the  English,  but  the 
East  English  became,  as  it  were,  Danes. 

5.  The  Danes  next  came  into  the  middle  of  England, 
where  Ethelred  and  Alfred,  his  brother,  fought  oft- 
times  with  them.  Of  one  of  these  battles  Ashdown 
there  is  a  story  told.  Two  Danish  kings  and  ^^"'e. 
five  earls  with  a  great  host  were  plundering  Middle  Eng- 
land. Against  them  came  Ethelred  and  Alfred  ;  and  the 
Danes  set  their  battle  in  array  by  a  hawthorn  that  was  on 
Ashdown,  in  Berkshire  ;  but  the  English  wore  below. 
Ethelred's  men  were  set  against  the  two  kings,  and  Alfred 
and  his  men  against  the  earls.  Before  the  battle  Ethel- 
red went  to  prayers,  and  when  the  battle  began  he  was 
still  praying.  They  called  him  out  to  the  fight,  but  he 
would  not  go  till  his  prayers  were  done,  for  he  said  he 
must  first  serve  (jod  and  then  his  fellow-men.  When 
his  prayers  were  finished  he  went  to  help  Alfred,  who  was 
fighting  like  a  wild  boar  against  the  hunters.  And  he 
brought  him  great  help,  and  slew  one  of  the  Danish  kings 
with  his  own  hand.  And  at  last  the  Danes  fled  before  the 
English,  who  chased  them  many  miles.  There  fell  also 
the  five  Danish  earls. 

But  the  Danes  were  so  many  and  strong  that  they 
fought  two  battles  soon  after  against  the  king,  in  one  of 
which  he  is  said  to  have  got  his  death-wound  ;  and  Alfred, 
his  brother,  was  made  king  in  his  stead. 

CHAPTER   III. 

ALFRED   THE   TRUTH-TELLER. 

I.  Alfred's  reign  falls  into  two  parts,  the  first  down  to 
880,  in  which  he  was  fighting  chiefly  with  the 
Danes  who  were  settling   in  the   North  and     Truth-teller. 
East   of  England   under   Ragnar's  sons  and     ao**7i-9oi- 
Gorm  ;   the  last  pan   (8!Si   to  901),  when  he  was  chiefly 


56  -       Early  England.  a.  i>.  >75 

fighting  with  Hasting  and  those  who  were  trying  to  se.tle. 
though  the  settled  Danes  helped  them  sometimes. 

Soon  after  he  became  king,  he  had  to  fight  the  Danes 
and  there  was  a  drawn  battle  ;  but  the  Danes  found  that 
it  was  hard  work  fighting  with  Alfred,  so  many  of  them 
went  away  and  plundered  other  lands,  where  the  people 
did  not  withstand  them  so  well.  Then  Alfred  fought  the 
Danes  at  sea  and  took  a  ship  of  theirs,  which  was  a  great 
thing  to  do,  for  the  Danes  had  splendid  ships,  and  men 
dreaded  them  even  more  on  sea  than  on  land. 

2.   Next  year  (876)  Halfdan,  Ragnar's  son,  settled  with 

his  Danes  in  Deira  (Yorkshire).  He  shared  it  among  them 

,     and  they  ruled  it  as  their  own.    And  the  other 

Halfdan  and  ,         ^      i  r^  i         -r^ 

ihe  Danes  Danes,  uudcr  Guthorm,  or  Gorm,  the  Dane 
York.'"  '^'"o  o^  Y.2i%X.  Anglia,  came  back  to   plunder 

A.D.  876.  Wessex.  But  Alfred  made  peace  with  them, 
:md  they  swore  oaths  to  him  on  the  holy  ring,  heathen 
fashion.  Next  year  many  of  them  broke  this  oath.  Rut 
one  of  their  fleets  was  wrecked,  so  they  did  not  attack 
Wessex  again,  but  ravaged  the  Marchland,  that  still  held 
out  for  king  Alfred,  south  of  Watling  Street. 

But  in  878  they  came  in  such  strong  bands  into  Wessex 
that  Alfred  had  to  fly  from  them  into  Somerset,  where  he 
lived  in  a  little  island,  called  Athelney  (Princes'  Island), 
among  the  marshes  which  then  covered  that  land.  There 
he  kept  himself  concealed  till  he  could  get  together 
a  force  to  drive  the  Danes  out  of  England  again.  Near 
here  was  found,  not  long  ago,  a  jewel  which  had  be- 
longed to  a  staff  or  sceptre,  and  on  it  the  words,  '  Alfred 
had  me  wrought.'  It  was  about  this  time,  when  he  v. as 
here  hiding,  that  a  story  is  told  of  him.  He  took  refuge 
with  a  poor  man  one  day  and  stayed  with  him  for  some 
time,  but  the  poor  man's  wife  did  not  know  he  was  the 
king.  She  told  the  king  to  watch,  while  she  was  out  of 
the  room,  some  cakes  which  she  put  on  the  fire  ;  but  the 


A.i).  S7S.  Alfred  tJit   Truth-teller.  57 

king  forgot  the  cakes  for  he  was  thinkine  and  nieiidin>J- 
his  bow  and  arrows.  When  the  good-wife  came  back 
the  cakes  were  spoilt.  Then  she  was  ver>'  angry,  and 
told  the  king  that  he  was  ready  to  eat  them  when  they 
were  done  but  was  too  lazy  to  help  to  do  them  properly. 
For  she  knew  not  that  he  had  been  thinking  of  greater 
things. 

3.    Soon    things  began    to  look  brighter,   and  Alfred 
was  able  to  come   forth   as  a  king  again.     First  one  of 
Ragnar's  sons  was  slain  in  Devon,  and  his  magic  banner, 
that  had  been  worked  in  one  day  by  his  sisters,  was  taken. 
It  was  the  image  of  a  raven  embroidered  and  fixed  on  a 
pole  ;   its  wings  waved  in  the  wind,  and  wherever  it  went 
it  was  said  to  bring  victory  to  those  who  owned     Edington 
it.     Soon  after  this  victory  Alfred  gathered  a     ^'"^  ^^^''■ 
great    host    at    a    place   he    fixed,   and    then        a.d.  878. 
he  went  after  the  Danes,  and  they  fought  at  Edington, 
in  the  West  Saxon  land,  and  Alfred  won   the  day  ;  and 
there  is  still  to  be  seen  the   figure  of  a  horse  cut  in  the 
turf,  on  the  side  of  the  hill,  which  is  said  to  be  a  mark  of 
this  great  battle.     And  after  this  battle  he  followed  the 
Danes  and  shut  them  up  in  a  fortress  which  they  had 
made,  till   they  promised   to    make  peace  and  take   tiie 
Christian   faith.     For   Alfred  could  not  trust  their  oaths 
as    long    as    they    were    heathen.       So    the    Danes    and 
their  king  were  baptized,  and  Alfred   was  godfather  to 
Gorm,  and  gave  him  a  new  name,  Ethelstan,  which  had 
been  the  name  of  his  own  father's  brother.     Peace  also 
was  made   between  the  two  kings  at  Wedmore.     Corm- 
Ethelstan  was  to  keep  East  Anglia  and  the  nortli  half  of 
the    Marchland  above   Watling    Street,  and  be  Alfreds 
man  ;  and  Alfred  was  to  keep  all  the  rest.     And  that  part 
of  the  Marchland  which  Alfred  had  he  gave  to  Ethelred, 
an  alderman  of  his,  for  there  were  no  longer  kings  there  ; 
and  he  k'ave  Ethelfled,  his  eldest  daughter,  to  him  to  wife. 


58  Early  England.  a.d.  885. 

Next  year  very  few  of  the  Danes  stayed  south  of 
Wathng  Street,  but  most  of  the  Christians  went  to  Gorm- 
Ethelstan's  realm.  Those  who  were  still  heathen  went  to 
join  Hasting,  a  famous  sea-rover,  who  was  now  in  Gaul. 

So  there  was  peace  in  England  ;  but  the  Danes  from 
abroad  would  still  plunder  the  coast  now  and  then,  and 
Alfred  fought  once  against  them  at  sea. 

Now  the  Danes  ruled  Yorkshire,  East  Anglia,  and 
part  of  the  Marchland.  The  rest  of  Northumberland  and 
all  south  of  Watling  Street  was  under  Alfred  and  his 
aldermen.  But  the  Danes  who  lived  in  England  were 
now  Christians.  That  was  a  great  gain  to  the  English,  for 
they  no  longer  plundered  cruelly,  but  began  to  settle 
down  quietly  with  the  English. 

4.  In  885  the  kings  of  Wales  are  said  to  have  made 
peace  with  Alfred  and  to  have  become  his  under-kings,  and 
Alired  this  is  not  unlikely.  About  this  time  Charles 
"h^^vn'^h''^     the    Bald  became    Emperor,   but  he  reigned 

A.D.  885.  weakly  and  his  kingdom  was  divided  and  never 
brought  together  again,  and  in  the  north  of  Gaul  the 
Counts  of  Paris  ruled,  who  after  a  hundred  years  became 
kings  of  France.  They  deserved  it,  for  they  saved  Gaul 
from  the  Northmen. 

5.  There  was  at  this  tiriie  in  Norway  a  great  king 
named  Harold  Fair-hair,  who  had  smitten  the  small  kings 
Harold  ^^d  made  one  great  kingdom,  and  he  had  a 
rair-hair         friend,  earl   Ronwald,  who   had   helped   him 

and  Rolf  '  '  ^ 

Ganger.  much  in  this  work.     This  king  got  his  name 

in  this  way.  He  fell  in  love  with  a  lady  who  was  so 
proud  that  she  would  not  marry  a  small  king,  as  he  was 
then,  but  laughed  at  him  and  said  she  would  wed  him 
when  he  was  king  of  all  Norway.  He  took  this  in 
earnest  and  swore  he  would  never  cut  or  curl  his  hair  till 
he  was  head  king  of  Norway  ;  and  after  many  years"  hard 
work  he  became  so.     Then  he  combed  out  his  hair  and 


A. D.  891.  Alfred  the  Truth-teller.  59 

trimmed  it,  and  it  was  so  long  that  he  could  tuck  it  under 
his  belt,  and  it  was  as  fair  as  gold.  Tlien  he  married  ilie 
proud  lady,  and  she  became  queen,  according  to  liei 
words.  Now,  one  of  Ronwald's  sons  was  so  wild  that  ilic 
king  thrust  him  out  of  the  land.  Ilis  name  was  Rolf,  .ind 
he  was  called  Ganger,  or  Walker,  because  he  was  so  big 
and  heavy  that  he  could  not  easily  find  a  horse  to  bear 
him.  Rolf  took  to  sea- roving,  and  joined  Hasting,  a  grc.it 
rover  also,  and  they  plundered  the  coasts  of  France  ami 
England, and  began  to  beveryfamous.  .After  Alfred'sdeath. 
Rolf  took  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  North  of  France  and 
settled  there,  as  Gorm-Ethclstan  had  done  in  the  Fast  of 
England.  Men  called  that  land  Northman's  Land,  or 
Normandy;  and  Rolf,  like  Gorm,  was  baptized  with  his 
men,  by  the  name  of  Robert,  and  he  married  the  King  of 
France's  daughter.  The  Normans  soon  began  to  speak 
French,  for  they  had  not  slain  all  the  Frenchmen,  but  had 
settled  down  among  them  and  parcelled  out  the  l.ind, 
though  the  French  still  worked  on  the  land  and  paid  rent 
to  the  Normans.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  Counts  of 
Paris  no  doubt  the  Normans  would  h.ue  conc|uered  all 
the  North  of  France  ;  but  Paris  always  withstood  them, 
and  they  could  go  no  further. 

6.  Once  before  893  the  Danes  came  over  from  Hol- 
land, where  they  were  plundering,  and  tried  to  take 
Rochester,  and  ravaged  Essex ;  but  Alfred  Alfred  and 
came  to  the  Englishmen's  help  and  drove  them  Hasting, 
away.  In  886  he  rebuilt  the  walls  of  London.  In  890 
Gomi-Ethelstan  died;  which  was  an  ill  thing  for  Alfred, 
for  while  Gorm  lived  he  tried  to  keep  the  peace.  In 
891  was  fought  in  the  Netherlands  the  great  battle  of 
Logwen  or  Louvain,  between  the  Danes  and  the  East 
Frank  king,  who  discomfited  them  and  smote  them  with 
a  great  slaughter,  so  that  they  dared  not  ravage  in 
the   Frank  land  far  many  years.     This  made   them   go 


6o  izarly  England.  a.d.  893-6. 

back  to   England   and  try  and    settle  there.     So  in  893 

they   came    back    under    Hasting,    the    sea-rover,  built 

forts  of  earthwork  in  Kent,  and  tried  to  hold   the  land. 

The     Danes    of   Northumberland    and     East    England 

helped  them,  and  Alfred  was  hard  beset,   but  he  faced 

them  bold'y.     Ne.xt  year,  while  he  was  fighting  against 

one  band  in  the  West,  another  band  came  from  the  East 

of  England  up   the  Thames  and  rode  across  the  land. 

Alfred  pursued   them  and  won   a   battle,  and  they  went 

back   to  East   England.     There  they  left  their  spoil,  and 

wives  and  children — for  they  came,  like  the  English,  with 

all  their  goods,  wishing  to  make  a  new  home — and  then 

rode  across  England  to  Chester,  whence  they  could  not 

easily   be   driven.      But    in   896   the   Sussex  folk   put  to 

ilight  one  band  that  came  up  out  of  the  west.     The  next 

year  the  Danes  brought  their  ships  up  the  Lea,  and  made 

a  fort  and  sat  down  there  ;  but  the  English  made  a  great 

cutting  and  turned  the  water  another  way,  so  the  Danish 

ships  were  left  dry.     This  was  by  Alfred's  counsel,  for 

he  had  come  there  to  protect  the  corn  against  the  Danes, 

for  it  was  harvest-time.     When  the  Danes  saw  that  they 

could  not  go  back  by  the  river  they  took  horse  and  rode 

across   to   the   Severn  Valley,  and    there  made   another 

fort  and  waited  for  ships.     But  the  men  of  London  went 

up  to  fetch  the  ships  the  Danes  had  left,  and  those  that 

were  seaworthy   they  kept,  but  the  rest  they  broke  up. 

Soon  after  the   Danish  host  left  Alfred's  kingdom ;  some 

went  off  to  their  brethren  on  the   East  coast,  and  some 

went   over  sea  to  the  Seine,  where   Rolf  was  setting  up 

his  earldom. 

7,  But  Alfred  found  that  the  best  way  to  keep  oflf  the 

../■   J.  Danes   was    bv  having   good   ships   to    fight 

AlTred  s  'ir 

fleet.  them  at  sea,  and  follow  them  round  the  co^st. 

*"°"   '^        So   he  built   long  ships  against   the  ships  ol 

the  Danes,  fullnigh  twice  as  long  as  they,  and  swifter, 


A,D.  897-901.    Alfred  the  Tnith-tdlcr.  61 

steadier,  and  higher.  He  seems  to  have  been  his  own 
shipbuilder,  for  we  are  told  that  he  did  not  copy  the 
Danish  nor  Frisian  ships,  but  made  them  as  he  thought 
best  for  the  work  of  keeping  the  coasts.  Through  the 
iinskilfulness  of  their  crews  they  were  not  able  to  beat  the 
Danes  who  came  and  plundered  the  Isle  of  Wight  and 
Devon.  Yet,  thou.h  the  Danes  escaped  once  from  them, 
they  were  not  willing  to  risk  themselves  as  they  did 
before  Alfred  had  a  good  fleet  ;  and  soon  he  was  better 
able  by  this  means  to  keep  the  coast 

In  goi  he  died,  and  his  son  Edward  was  made  king. 

8.  Besides  these  wars  of  .-Mfred  and  the  great  troubles 
ot  his  reign  he  found  time  for  many  things,  so  that  he  got 
as  great  a  name  as  ever  English  king  before  Alfred's 
or  after  got.  He  was  called  the  Truth-teller,  character, 
and  the  Great.  He  was  a  very  just  king,  and  took  great 
trouble  to  make  good  law.s,  which  he  chose  out  of  the  laws 
of  Ethelbert  and  Ini  and  Offa.  Some  of  his  own  laws 
also  he  set  with  them  by  the  counsel  of  the  great  men  of 
England.  He  made  strict  laws  against  robbery,  vio- 
lence, and  evil-doing,  and  against  those  <vho  broke  the 
commandments  of  the  Church  and  the  Bible. 

He  was  a  very  learned  man  for  his  day,  and  protected 
scholars,  so  that  his  fame  spread  abroad.  In  891  there 
came  to  see  him  four  of  the  chief  scholars  of  Ireland, 
which  was  then  a  great  place  for  learning.  He  always 
had  learned  men  about  him,  such  as  Grimbald  the 
Frank,  and  Asser  the  Welshman,  who  is  said  to  have 
written  his  life.  When  Alfred  found  that  the  Danish 
war  had  driven  learning  out  of  the  North  and  destroyed 
the  schools  which  had  been  there  from  the  days  of 
Bede,  he  set  about  finding  teachers  for  his  people. 
He  did  what  he  could  to  teach  them  himself,  for  he 
set  many  books  out  of  Latin  into  English  for  them, 
that    they   might    learn    wisdom  ;     and    he    added    to 


62  Early  England. 

these  books  what  he  thought  useful  out  of  his  own 
knowledge.  He  Englished  Bede's  Church  History,  the 
Pastoral  of  Pope  Gregory,  and  the  philosophy  of  Boethius, 
and  a  book  by  Orosius,  who  wrote  of  the  world  and  its 
geography  In  his  reign  too  the  English  Chronicles  were 
put  into  shape  and  a  full  history  of  Alfred's  own  time 
written  therein. 

Alfred  was  very  careful  of  the  Church.  He  often  sent 
messengers  and  gifts  to  the  Pope,  and  there  went  mes- 
sengers from  him  to  the  Churches  in  India  and  Jerusalem. 
He  built  two  monasteries,  and  over  one  he  put  his  second 
daughter  as  abbess.  The  other  he  built  at  Athelney,  out 
of  thankfulness  for  the  great  deliverance  he  had  after  the 
evil  days  he  passed  there  in  hiding. 

He  was  fond  of  hearing  about  foreign  lands,  and  in 
his  translation  of  Orosius  he  tells  us  of  the  travels  of  two 
sea-captains  whom  he  sent  to  the  North  Sea  and  the 
Baltic.     He  was  also  very  fond  of  music. 

He  was  very  hard-working,  and  never  lost  a  moment, 
but  always  had  sf)mething  to  do,  and  he  carried  a  little 
book  with  him  to  put  down  anything  that  seemed  useful 
to  remember.  He  governed  wisely  and  chose  good 
officers,  and  took  care  of  rich  and  poor  alike.  For  he 
said  that  in  a  well-ruled  kingdom  the  priest,  the  soldier, 
and  the  yeoman  should  each  be  taken  care  of,  that  each 
might  do  his  appointed  work  as  well  as  possible. 

He  was  very  mild  of  heart  and  forgiving.  Once  when 
Hasting  had  broken  his  oath  to  him  and  was  fighting 
against  him  he  took  his  wife  and  children  prisoners ; 
but  he  sent  them  back  to  him  and  would  not  keep  them 
in  bonds.  He  was  loved  for  his  good  heart  as  well  as  for 
his  wise  head  ;  and  when  he  was  dead  men  often  wished 
that  the  days  of  good  king  Alfred,  '  England's  darling,' 
would  come  again. 

9.  Though   the    Danes  were  still   troublesome  after 


Alfred  the  Truth-teller.  63 

Alfred's  death  they  were  not  able  to  do  much  harm  for  a 
long  time,  and  under  the  kings  who  reigned 
for  tiie  next  hundred  years  England  was  '  ^*'' 
greater  and  more  peaceful  than  it  had  been  before.  The 
reasons  why  the  Danes  had  been  able  to  conquer  and 
settle  down  in  so  much  of  the  land  were  : 

(i.)  They  were  able  to  move  about  more  swiftly  in  their 
ships  than  tlic  English  could  move  along  the  roads,  and 
so  they  often  took  the  English  unawares. 

(2.)  The  land  of  England,  though  it  was  under  one  over- 
lord was  not  yet  quite  one  kingdom.  Each  part  of  the 
country  still  acted  by  itself  a  good  deal,  and  so  the  Danes, 
though  not  strong  enough  to  beat  the  great  king,  could 
often  drive  away  the  under-kings  or  aldermen. 

(3.)  The  Danes  were  near  akin  to  the  English.  So, 
though  the  English  fought  very  bravely  for  their  land  and 
their  homes,  yet  they  felt  that  if  the  Danes  would  only 
make  peace  and  dwell  among  them  quietly  as  neighbours 
they  would  be  safer  than  if  tliey  had  them  as  foes. 

(4.)  In  the  (irst  days  of  the  Danish  inroads  the  English 
king  had  no  regular  fleet  nor  army,  like  our  armies  of 
to-day  always  ready  to  fight  any  foe.  He  had  only  his 
own  guards,  and  when  he  wislicd  to  go  to  war  he  had  to 
send  round  and  summon  all  the  armed  men  of  the  king- 
dom and  wait  till  they  came  together  before  they  could  do 
.mything.  They  would  not  stay  together  very  long,  but 
went  back  to  their  business  whenever  they  had  won  a 
battle  or  lost  one,  or  had  served  as  long  as  they  thought 
fit.  But  at  the  end  of  Alfred's  reign  most  of  the  Danes 
who  had  been  seeking  a  fresh  home  had  found  one,  or 
had  gone  back,  or  had  been  slain,  and  so  there  was  rest. 


64  Early  England. 


The  Keltic  Peoples  : 

Scotland 

Cumberland  (now  put  under  the  Scottish  Kings) 

Wales  (North  and  South) 


The  English  : 

E.  I.   Essex 
E.  2.   Marchland 
E.  3.    Wessex 
E.  4.   Sussex 
E.  5.   KetU 


The  Danish  Settlements: 

D.  I.   N^orthumberland 

D.  2.    T/ie  Five  Boroughs  and  Lincoln 

D.  3.   jS'^zj-;'  England 

The  Lothians,  where  the   Danes  did  not   hold  rule,  was  piit 
At  last  under  the  Scottish  Kings. 

The  Northmen's  Settlements : 

N.  I.   The  Orkney  Earldom  and  the  Kingdom  of  Man 


N.  2.    yorthtnens  Irish  Kingdom 
N.  3.   Normandy, 


r    s 


/ENGLAND^ 

UNDCK     THC 

GREAT  ENGLISH 
^^  KINGS.  ^ 


E,H 


^6  Early  llxglaud.  a.d.  901. 

BOOK    VI. 
THE   GREAT  OLD-ENGLISH  KINGS. 

CHAPTER    1. 

EDWARD    THE    ELDER. — A.D.  90I-925. 

I.  King  Edward,  called  the  Elder,  is  said  to  have 
been  in  learning  less,  in  honour  and  worth  equal,  in  glory 
Edw.-irdarid  greater  than  his  father',  for  he  spread  his  king- 
Eihclfle^d.  ^^^^  ^^^Y\  farther  than  Alfred  had  done. 
At  first  he  had  much  trouble  ;  for  one  of  his  cousins, 
Ethelwald,  son  of  Ethelred,  wished  to  be  king  in  his 
stead.  Though  Edward  drove  him  out  of  his  kingdom 
ihe  Northern  Danes  made  him  their  king.  He  made  an 
alliance  with  Yorick,  king  of  the  Danes  in  East  England, 
and  ravaged  Kent  and  the  Marchland.  So  Edward  went 
up  against  him,  and  many  Kentishmen  with  him,  and 
there  was  a  great  battle  fought  When  Edward  was 
obliged  to  give  way  the  men  of  Kent  would  not  draw 
back,  they  were  so  angry  at  the  wasting  of  their  land, 
but  though  E.dward  sent  seven  times  to  them  to  tell  them 
of  their  danger,  they  stayed  and  fought  on.  They  could 
not  win  the  battle,  but  Ethelwald  and  Yorick  and  many 
of  the  chief  Danes  fell  ;  and  so  the  danger  was  stayed. 
Next  year  Gorm,  the  son  of  Yorick,  and  Edward  made 
p  ace,  as  Alfred  and  Gorm-Ethelstan  had  done.  They 
also  set  Watling  Street  as  a  boundary  between  their 
lands,  and  agreed  to  put  down  heathendom  among  their 
people. 

Now,  Edward  and  his  sister  Ethelfled,  the  Lady  of 
Mercia,  sot  about  fortifying  all  the  towns  along  the  border. 
The  Lady  built  up  Chester,  which  was  a  waste  citv,  and 


*.D.  912-922.        Edward  the  Elder.  6'J 

many  towns  she  walled  tiiioughout  her  land,  and  some 
new  ones  she  built ;  and  Edward  did  the  like  in  his  land. 
They  fought  many  battles  with  the  Danes  who  came 
from  without,  for  Gorm  kept  well  to  the  peace.  In  912 
Ethelred  the  alderman  died,  but  Ethelfled  governed  his 
land  after  his  death  very  bravely  and  wisely. 

2.  In  913  Charles  the  Simple,  king  of  the  West 
Franks,  gave  Normandy  to  Rolf  and  made  peace  with 
him.  Of  the  peace  between  Charles  and  Rolf  Rolf  in  Nor- 
it  is  told  that  when  Rolf  became  Charles's  '"■'"'^y- 
man,  and  swore  to  hold  Normandy  of  him,  he  was  told  to 
kiss  the  king's  slip[)cr  in  token  that  he  took  him  as  his 
lord.  But  he  said  he  would  never  do  that,  and  he  bade 
one  of  his  men  do  it  for  him.  The  man,  instead  of 
stooping  down,  lifted  up  the  king's  foot  so  that  he  fell 
backward  on  the  ground.  At  this  the  Northmen  laughed, 
for  they  thought  it  wrong  that  a  man  should  be  so 
proud. 

3.  In  915  a  large  Danish  fleet  came  to  England,  and 
the  Danes  tried  to  laud,  but  they  were  driven     .,^    ^ 

llie  Danes 

off  and  went  to  Ireland. 

And  now  there  was  war  again  between  the  English 
and  Danes  on  the  Border ;  but  the  Lady  was  everywhere 
victorious,  and  she  took  all  the  Danes'  land  up  to  York, 
and  brought  Middle  England  into  Edward's  power.  At 
last  just  as  she  was  laying  siege  to  York  she  died.  She 
had  fought  too  with  the  Welsh,  and  taken  the  Welsh 
queen  prisoner.  When  she  was  dead  Edward  jomed  the 
Marchland  to  his  kingdom  and  governed  it  himself.  As 
before,  Edward  was  victorious  over  the  Danes,  and 
though  they  tried  hard  they  could  never  take  his  new 
castles  and  walled  towns,  for  he  had  at  last  found  the  true 
way  to  stay  them.  So  one  after  another  they  came  to 
make  peace — first,  some  Danes  from  abroad,  then  the 
Danes  on  the  borders  of  Northumberland.    At  last,  in  922, 


68  Early  England.  a.d.  922-925 

the  Welsh,  who  had  tried  ia  vain  to  get  hold  of  Chester, 
took  him  as  father  and  lord.  So  did  the  Dane  king  of 
York,  and  the  Welsh  of  the  Clyde  Valley,  the  English 
lord  of  the  North  who  ruled  in  Bamborough,  and  the  king 
of  the  Scots.  So  now  Edward  ruled  over  all  Brit.iin  as 
overlord,  and  over  a  great  part  as  his  own  kingdom.  This 
happened  in  923,  and  soon  after  he  died,  and  his  sons 
took  his  kingdom  after  him,  and  first  Ethelstan  or  Athel- 
Stan,  who  was  also  a  mighty  king.  Men  called  Edward 
the  Unconquered,  because  of  his  glory  in  war. 

4.  Edward  had  many  children,  and  some  of  his 
daughters  became  queens  also,  for  they  were  married 
F.dw.irds  to  the  great  kings  over-sea — one  to  Otto  the 
children.  Emperor,    another   to    Charles    the    Simple, 

another  to  the  king  of  Aries,  and  one  to  the  great  Count 
of  Paris.  But  one  was  married  to  Sigtric,  the  Dane  king 
in  the  Noith.  When  Charles  the  Simple,  king  of  the 
West  Franks, was  driven  from  his  kingdom,  Edgif,  his  wife, 
came  to  England  with  her  little  son  Lewis,  who  was  after- 
wards king  in  his  father's  land,  and  he  was  called  Lewis 
'from  over-sea,' because  he  was  long  at  the  English  court. 

This  shows  that  the  English  kings  were  now  great 
people,  and  were  thought  much  of  abroad.  Also  it  shows 
that  the  kings  after  Egbert  took  much  care  to  be  friends 
with  the  kings  abroad.  Thus  England  was  no  more  shut 
out  from  the  rest  of  the  Western  world,  as  it  had  been 
when  there  were  man\'  small  kings  in  England. 

Edward,  like  his  father,  took  great  care  of  the  Church, 
and  one  of  his  daughters  became  a  nun.  And  he  set  a 
new  bishop  in  the  west  of  his  land,  at  Wells.  Edward 
died  in  925,  and  his  son  Ethelstan  was  made  king,  and 
there  was  great  joy  when  he  was  crowned. 


\.i).  925-937.        Ethelstan  the  Steadfast.  69 

CHAPTER    II. 

ETHELSTAN   lUE   STEADFAST.— A.D.  925-940. 

I .  Ethelstan  had  some  trouble  at  the  beginning  of  his 
reign,  for  a  cousin  of  his  tried  to  get  made  king  instead, 
but  he  was  driven  away.  Soon  the  Dane  Eihclsians 
king  Sigtric  died,  and  the  Danes'  war  broke  "■^'''*- 
out  afresh  in  the  North  ;  but  Ethelstan  took  Northumber- 
land and  joined  it  to  his  own  kingdom,  though  the  Eng- 
lish men  of  Hamborough  tried  to  withstand  him.  The 
sons  of  Sigtric  fled  to  Ireland  and  Scotland  and  tried  to 
get  help  there  against  him,  but  Ethelstan  made  the  Scot 
king  keep  the  peace.  And  now  Ethelstan  took  Exeter, 
and  made  it  strong,  and  set  Englishmen  in  it  ;  so  the 
Welsh  had  only  Cornwall  in  th<:  West. 

But  in  937  there  gathered  .1  great  host  against  him,  for 
the  Scots  and  Welsh  of  Strath  Clyde  joined  the  Danes. 
Ethelstan  and  his  brother  Edmund  marched  north  to  meet 
them,  and  they  fought  at  Biunanburg.  Of  this  battle 
there  is  a  famous  song  which  tells  how  Ethelstan  slew  the 
Scot  king's  son,  and  five  Dane  sea-kings  (kings  of  fleets), 
and  many  great  men.  All  day  they  fought,  but  when 
evening  came  the  English  won  the  light. 

Before  the  battle  it  is  said  that  ( )laf,  one  of  the  Dane 
kings,  disguised  himself  as  a  harper  and  went  into  Ethel- 
stan's  camp  to  spy  out  his  array.  But  a  soldier  who  had 
fought  for  Olaf  in  former  days  saw  him  and  thought  he 
knew  him.  So  when  the  Englishmen  gave  him  money 
for  his  playing  he  watched  him,  and  when  he  saw  him 
bury  the  money — for  Olaf  thought  it  not  kingly  to  take 
money  from  the  English  when  he  was  acting  as  a  spy — 
he  was  sure  it  was  the  king.  When  Olaf  was  gone  he  told 
Ethelstan  who  it  was.  But  Ethelstan  asked  him  why  he  had 
let  him  go,  and  the  soldier  said,  '  If  1  had  betrayed  him 


70  Early  England.  a.d.  937  940. 

whom  1  once  served  how  shouldst  thou  have  trusted  me, 
whom  I  serve  now  ?  '  And  Ethelstan  was  pleased  with  his 
answer.  15ut  Olaf  gathered  his  men  and  fell  upon  Ethel- 
stan's  camp  that  night,  and  slew  a  bishop  who  lay  where 
Ethelstan  had  lain.  For  Ethelstan  moved  his  tent  when 
he  knew  that  Olaf  had  spied  out  his  camp.  But  the 
Englishmen  woke  up,  and  at  last  drove  out  the  Danes 
and  slew  many  of  them.  After  this  great  battle  the  Scot 
and  Welsh  kings  made  peace  with  Ethelstan  again,  for 
they  feared  his  might. 

2.  Ethelstan  was  a  very  good  king,  and  we  never  hear 
of  any  evil  deed  of  his  doing,  save  that  some  say  he 
.- ,  ,  ,  caused  his  brother  Edwin  to  be  put  in  a  boat 

Lthelstan  * 

and  his  with  One    Servant   and  turned   adrift  at   sea, 

because  he  had  plotted  against  him.  Edwin 
threw  himself  overboard  in  despair  and  was  drowned,  and 
the  servant  came  to  land  and  told  of  his  death.  We 
do  not  know  certainly  that  this  is  true  ;  and  as  we  find 
Ethelstan  very  kind  to  all  his  other  kinsfolk  it  is  rather 
unlikely. 

3.  Ethelstan  had  many  friends  abroad,  as  his  father 
and  grandfather  had,  and  it  was  in  his  days  that  mes- 
F-helstan  sengcrs  Came  from  the  great  Count  of  Paris 
:ui(i  foreign      to  ask  the  hand  of  the   fairest  of  his  sisters. 

They  brought  him  many  splendid  gifts,  one  of 
which  was  the  sword  of  Constantine,  the  Emperor,  with 
his  name  in  gold  letters  graven  on  it  ;  they  brought  also 
the  spear  of  Charles  the  Great  and  a  beautiful  cup 
carved  marvellously  with  figures,  and  horses  with  fine 
trappings,  and  many  fair  jewels.  The  like  of  these  trea- 
sures had  never  been  seen  in  England  before.  The 
Northern  books  say  too  that  Harold  Fairhair  sent  his 
little  son  Hakon  to  be  brought  up  by  Ethelstan.  He  sent 
too  as  a  present  to  Ethelstan  a  great  ship  with  a  gilded 
prow  and  a   purple  sail,  and  around  the  bulwarks  was  a 


A.D.  94°  Ethclstan  the  Sfcadfasi.  /I 

row  of  shields,  gilt  and  painted  It  is  certain  lli.ii  llakun 
was  brought  up  in  England,  and  that  he  was  called  from 
that  Ethelstan's  foster-son  ;  but  some  men  say  that 
he  was  with  Gorm-Ethelstan,  the  Dane  king  of  East 
England,  and  not  with  Ethelstan,  the  English  king. 
Hakon  afterwards  became  king  in  Norway,  and  tried 
to  make  his  people  Christian,  as  he  was  ;  but  they  would 
not. 

4.  The  mother  of  Ethelstan  was  a  poor  girl,  who  was 
brought  up  by  the  nurse  of  his  father,  Edward.    One  day 
while  Edward  was  on  a  journey   he   passed     Ethelstan's 
near  the  house  of  his  old  nurse,  and  stopped     '""'^• 

and  went  to  see  her  ;  there  he  met  this  poor  girl,  and  fell 
in  love  with  her  for  her  groat  beauty.  When  Ethelstan 
was  born  his  grandfather  Alfred  was  still  alive  ;  and  when 
he  saw  him  grow  up  a  good  boy  he  became  very  fond  of 
him,  and  often  prayed  that  he  might  be  a  good  and  great 
king.  He  gave  him  a  purple  cloak  and  a  beautiful  sword 
with  a  golden  sheath  that  hung  from  a  jewelled  belt.  It 
was  then  the  custom  that  when  a  boy  grew  up  and  be- 
came a  young  man  he  was  girt  with  a  sword  and  belt 
like  a  soldier,  and  was  allowed  to  fight  by  the  side  of  tiie 
men  in  the  day  of  battle.  But  Ethelstan  was  made  a 
soldier  when  he  was  yet  a  boy  only  six  years  old. 

5.  He  was  very  handsome,  like  his  mother,  and  had 
long  hair  that  shone  like  gold.  He  was  very  kind  and 
good-natured  to  the  poor  people,  and  very  Ethelst."ai's 
ready  to  listen  to  the  priests,  to  his  nobles  he  cliaracter. 
behaved  as  a  king  should,  and  towards  iiis  enemies  he 
was  very  brave  and  steadfast.  He  was  open-handed,  and 
when  he  took  spoil  in  war  he  dealt  it  out  among  his 
followers.  He  would  never  hoard  up  riches,  but  all  he 
had  he  gave  away  that  it  might  be  used  as  wisely  as  possi- 
ble. When  he  died  all  men  mourned  for  him,  and  his 
days,  though  few,  were  glorious. 


72  Early  England.  a.  p.  940-944. 

CHAPTER   III. 
EDMUND   THE    DRED-DOER.^A.D.    940-946. 

1 .  Edmund,  his  brother,  was  made  king  after  him ;  but, 
by  the  counsel  of  the  archbishop  of  York,  the  Danes  in 

the  North  rose  against  him,  and  took  Olaf  of 

Edmund 

and  Ireland  for  their  king.     Edmund  went  against 

umtan.  them  and  won  back  the  ti\c  great  towns  in  the 
north  of  the  Marchland.  The  English  that  dwelt  therein 
and  had  been  so  long  ruled  by  the  Danes  were  very  glad, 
and  there  was  a  fine  song  written  on  this  great  deed. 

In  945  Olaf  made  peace  with  Edmund  and  was  bap- 
tized, and  Edmund  gave  him  great  gifts.  In  the  same 
year  Dunstan  was  made  abbot  of  Glastonbury.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  great  man  who  lived  near  Glastonbury,  and 
was  brought  up  at  the  abbey  there.  He  had  been  at  the 
court  of  Ethelstan;  but  some  folks  there  hated  him,  so  he 
did  not  stay  long  with  the  king,  but  was  persuaded  to 
become  a  monk.  And  now  Edmund  took  him  into  his 
favour  and  gave  him  Glastonbury  to  rule.  He  ruled  it 
well,  rebuilt  the  church,  and  kept  the  monks  in  good 
order.  He  was  a  very  wise  man  and  skilled  in  all  things, 
for  he  played  and  sung  well,  was  a  good  smith,  and  painted 
very  well.     He  was  also  wise  in  ruling  men. 

2.  In  944  Olaf  of  Ireland  died,  and  Olaf,  son  of  Sigtric, 

ruled    in    his   stead.     He  fought   against    Edmund  ;    but 

c- ,       J.         Edmund  drove  him  out,  and  joined  all  North- 
Edmunds  '  -' 

wars.  umberland  to  his  own  kingdom,  so  that  there 

were  no  more  kings  there,  but  only  earls,  or  governors  who 
ruled  for  the  kings  of  England. 

In  the  next  year  Edmund  took  Cumberland,  and  gave 
it  to  the  king  of  the  Scots  to  rule,  and  the  king  of  Scots 
promised  in  return  to  be  his  man  and  help  him  in  all  that 
be  did. 


A.  D.  946.  Edred  the  Chosen.  73 

3.  In  946  Edmund  was  slain  in  this  way.  He  was 
sitting  at  meat  with  his  men,  and  there  came  in  Leof,  an 
outlaw,  for  it  was  the  feast-day  of  S.  Augustine,  Edmund's 
and  no  man  would  hurt  him  on  that  day,  and  death, 
he  sat  down  with  the  rest.  But  the  king  was  wroth  when 
he  saw  his  boldness,  and  bade  his  cup-bearer  turn  him  out. 
When  he  tried  to  do  so  Leof  withstood  him  and  would 
have  slain  him ;  but  the  king  leaped  up  from  his  seat  and 
caught  Leof  by  his  hair  and  threw  him  down.  Then 
Leof  drew  a  knife  and  wounded  the  king  to  the  death ; 
but  the  king's  followers  slew  Leof  on  the  spot.  Dunstan 
had  the  king  buried  at  Glastonbury,  and  mourned  greatly 
for  him.  Edmund,  though  he  reigned  for  so  few  years, 
did  many  great  deeds,  so  that  men  called  him  Edmund 
the  Deed-doer. 

CHAPTER    IV. 
EDRED  THE   CHOSEN, — A.D.  946-955. 

I.  Then  reigned  Edred,  his  brother.    He  was  a  pious 
man  and  ruled  well,  though  he  was  infirm  of    Edred's 
body.    He  hearkened  to  the  words  of  Dunstan     wars- 
and  did  what  he  counselled. 

The  Danes  in  the  North  rose  against  him,  and  the 
archbishops  with  them  ;  but  Edted  fought  against  them 
for  three  years,  till  they  asked  for  peace  and  became  his 
men.  They  had  chosen  Eric,  son  of  the  king  of  Den- 
mark, to  be  their  king  ;  and  he  withstood  Edred,  but 
Edred  drove  him  out.  And  Edred  put  the  archbishop  of 
York  in  bonds  for  the  harm  he  had  wrought  against  him; 
but  after  a  little  while  he  set  him  loose. 

Edred  set  two  earls  over  Northumberland,  one  in 
the  north,  the  other  in  the  south  of  it,  to  keep  it  for 
him ;  but  that  part  of  it  which  is  called  the  Lothians, 
between  the  Firth  and  Tyne,  he  gave  to  the  king  of  Scots 


74  Early  England.  a.d.  955-9^8. 

to  hold  under  him,  in  the  same  way  as  he  held  Cumber- 
lajid  already.  Edred  was  as  generous  as  his  brother,  and 
gave  much  to  the  Church.  In  9515  he  dTed,  and  Dunstan 
and  all  England  mourned  for  him.  He  has  been  called 
the  '  Chosen,'  or  '  Excellent,'  for  his  goodness,  and  there 
have  been  levv  kings  like  him.  For  he  was,  like  his 
grandfather,  humble  and  bra\'e  and  hard-working. 


CHAPTER     V. 

EDWY.— A.D.  955-959. 

I.  When  Edred  died,  Edwy,  the  son  of  Edmund,  was 
^,     ,  crowned  king,  and  his  brother  Edgar  was  made 

Edwv  s 

troubled  undcr-king    in    the    North.     Edwy    was   very 

■"•^'S"-  headstrong,  and    quarrelled   with   those  who 

had  been  the  greatest  friends  of  Edred. 

He  married  Elfgif ;  and  Oda,  the  archbishop,  did  not 
like  this  marriage,  for  he  held  it  was  against  the  law. 
On  the  day  of  Edwy's  crowning,  when  there  were  many 
gathered  together  at  the  feast,  suddenly  the  king  arose 
from  the  midst  of  them  and  left  the  hall  and  went  to  his 
wife's  bower,  where  he  sat  with  her,  leaving  his  nobles  by 
themselves.  They  were  very  wroth  at  this,  and  bade 
Dunstan  go  and  fetch  the  king  back,  and  he  did  so. 

Soon  after  this  the  king  drove  out  Dunstan,  who  went 
to  Flanders;  but  Edgar  sent  for  him,  and  made  him  a 
bishop  in  his  part  of  England.  Edwy  had  another  reason 
for  his  dislike  of  him  :  Dunstan  and  the  best  men  of  the 
Church  at  this  time  were  trying  to  make  the  monks 
live  better,  for  they  had  grown  lazy  and  gluttonous. 
Edgar  and  the  men  of  the  North  were  pleased  with  this  ; 
but  Edwy  and  the  men  of  the  South  set  themselves 
against  it.  At  last  the  quarrel  rose  so  high  about  this, 
and    also   because   of  Edwy's   foolish    acts,    that    Edgar 


A.D.  958-960.     Edgar  tlie  Pcacc-ivinner.  75 

rose  against  his  brother  and  would  not  obey  him.  It  was 
not  till  Oda  persuaded  Edwy  to  put  aivay  his  wife  and  do 
as  he  wished  that  they  were  reconciled.  Some  say  that 
the  Marchmen  took  her  prisoner  and  treated  her  so 
cruelly  that  she  died  ;  and  some  say  this  was  done  by 
order  of  Oda,  but  others  deny  it.  Soon  after  this  Edwy 
died,  or  was  slain,  we  do  not  know  how,  and  his  brother 
became  king  of  all  England 

CHAPTER    VI 
EDGAR   THE   PEACE-WINNER.— A. D.  959-975- 

1.  Edgar's  rule  was  very  i)rosperous,  and  he  had 
peace  for  the  most  part  of  his  reign.  The  first  year  of 
his  reign   Dunstan  was  made  archbishop  of     ^ 

'^  ...       Dunstan 

Canterbury,  and  he  continued  the  king's  friend  and  his 
and  adviser  all  the  days  of  his  life.  With  him  '^''^'"^• 
were  Oswolf,  aichbishop  of  York,  the  nephew  of  Oda, 
and  Ethelwold,  bishop  of  Winchester.  These  men  also 
did  many  good  works,  for  they  were  very  wise  and  skilled 
in  all  arts,  as  Dunstan  was.  But  one  plan  they  had, 
which  was  to  turn  out  from  the  cathedrals  the  priests 
who  were  not  monks  and  put  monks  in  their  btead,  for 
they  thought  that  the  monks  from  their  strict  life  would 
do  more  good.  But  the  parish  priests  and  those  priests 
who  were  not  monks  did  not  like  this,  so  that  there  was 
a  quarrel  in  the  Church 

2.  Edgar  at  first  had  to  fight  against  the  Scots  and 
Welsh.  He  made  the  greatest  of  the  Welsh  kings  sue 
for  peace,  which  he  gave  on  condition  of  his  ^jga 
promising  to  pay  him  thr^e  hundred  wolves' 
heads  every  year.  In  those  days  there  were  still  wolves 
in  England,  and  they  were  a  great  trouble  to  the  farmers 
and  shepherds.  Once  the  men  of  the  North  revolted, 
but    Edgar  ravaged   their    land;   and   some  say    it  was 


gars 
uars. 


g  Early  England.  -■-■  973- 

^— n973Ea,a.wasso^->— nLerS 

that  the  reason  he  had  not  be^n  ^^  ^^^^^^^^ 

ne  had  done  an  ev  ,1  th m  ^^^  ^old 

Sr-      and  confessed  h.ss.n  the  a.  hb^^^  ^^^,^^ 

Eigar.  hui.  that  he  should  "0\  ^.,  ,,3s,  It  IS 

.ears,  as  a  sign  of  repentance.     Hovve^^^^     ^^^  ^^^^^ 
certain  that  there  was  a  ^^O   g  There  he  was  met 

Edgar  went  whh  h.s  .^-^^^Jti-e-^-^^-^^^  '^T 
by  the  kings^  -^■^  ,"^°^  J^ng  of  Scots,  and  the  under- 
kings,  and  Kenneth,  the  ^J^^  ^,      .^he  Southern 

kin-  of  Cumberland,  and  the  ua  .^  ^.^  ^^^.^^^ 

\2s.  These  e^ght  rowed  ^^ -^^^;,^,,  g.^^ter  state 
and  he  sat  and  ^'^^^^^l^^  held  before.  Even  the 
than  ever  any  E"g^^^J^.  ^'"f^^Ja  to  him,  and  money  was 
Danish  kings  of  Dubhn  bowed  ^^^^^  ^^^^^ 

Enghsh,  so  that  -^  j^ttd  gtod  laws.     Edgar,  like 
there  was  peace  anu  g  ^^^ 

SfS'.  ail  great  Wng;;;  »-  ;        ^^tns.an  and  *e 

Character.        laws,  and,  With  tne         p  ^^  ^^^y 

„ise  n,e„  or  England,  he  n,a^e  -->  J^;„.„  „as 

tha<  a,ey  -«f  P'-;f ,    \rn  of  Thane,  p.undere 
sternly  pun.shed.     Once  t  ^^^,^  „(  „ 

r:nrar:rnr,r;::*  *en,.  and  laid  .a.e  all  the. 

Wolfere  had  founded,  ^"''[^^     j,  ^„  Hch  with  prec.o..- 
'^nSunt  thr,t»a"  called  the  Golden  Borongh, 


A.D.  975.  Edgar  the  Peace-w inner.  jj 

Many  stories  aie  told  about  Ed^ar  which,  if  they  were 
true,  would  make  him  not  a  very  good  man;  but  whether 
they  be  true  or  not  he  was  certainly  a  good  king  and 
ruled  his  people  well,  if  he  could  not  always  rule  himself. 
He  was  a  little  man,  but  very  strong,  and  afraid  of 
nothing.  One  day  while  the  king  of  Scotland  was 
sitting  at  drink  with  his  men  he  said,  'Wonderful  it  is  to 
me  that  so  many  lands  should  obey  one  little  man.'  A 
certain  minstrel  heard  this,  and  told  it  to  Edgar,  mocking 
him.  When  Edgar  heard  it  he  sent  for  Kenneth,  saying 
that  he  had  certain  matters  to  say  to  him  alone.  When 
he  came  he  took  him  into  a  wood  apart,  and  brought  out 
two  swords,  and  ga\'e  Kenneth  one  of  them,  saying, 
'  Now  let  us  try  which  of  us  is  the  best  man,  and  see 
whether  1  am  unfit  to  rule  taller  men  than  myself. 
Neither  shalt  thou  leave  this  wood  till  we  have  proved 
this;  for  unkingly  it  is  to  say  that  at  a  feast  which  thou 
wouldst  not  hold  to  in  a  fray.'  And  Kenneth  was  as- 
tonished and  fell  at  his  feet  and  prayed  his  forgiveness, 
saying  that  he  had  spoken  but  in  jest.  Then  Edgar  was 
content  and  forgave  him. 

5.  There  is  another  story  told  of  Edgar  which,  though 
if  not  perhaps  true,  yet  there  was  a  ballad  about  it,  and 
it  is  a  famous  story.  There  was  a  beautiful  Thestoryof 
lady  in  Edgar's  daj's  whose  name  was  Elfth-  Elfthmh. 
rith,  and  the  fame  of  her  beauty  was  so  great  that  the 
king  heard  of  it.  So  he  sent  a  friend  of  his,  whose  name 
was  Ethelwold,  to  ask  her  hand  for  him  of  her  father. 
But  when  Ethelwold  saw  her  he  fell  in  love  with  her 
himself ;  so  he  told  the  king  that  sh*^  was  not  so  fair  as 
people  had  said,  and  instead  of  the  king's  marrying  her 
he  married  her  himself  After  some  time  the  truth  was 
told  the  king,  and  he  was  ver\'  wroth  ,  but  he  did  not 
show  it,  and  spoke  kindly  to  Ethelwold,  and  told  him 
he  would  come  and  see  him.     When   Ethelwold  heard 


78  Early  England.  a.d.  975. 

that  he  was  sore  afraid.  So  he  went  home  and  told  his 
wife  Elfthrith  the  whole  truth,  and  beg-ged  her  to  make 
herself  as  ugly  as  she  could,  and  dress  herself  in  mean 
raiment,  that  the  kin^^  might  not  suspect  his  deceit.  But 
she  was  very  angry  because  he  had  prevented  her  from 
being  a  king's  wife  ;  so  when  the  king  came  to  the  house 
of  Ethelwold  she  dressed  herself  in  fine  raiment  and 
made  herself  look  as  handsome  as  she  could.  When  the 
king  saw  how  fair  she  was  he  was  the  more  enraged,  and 
while  he  was  hunting  with  Ethelwold  he  thrust  a  spear 
through  him  so  that  he  died. 

Ethelwold  had  a  son  before  he  married  Elfthrith,  and 
the  young  man  was  by  when  his  father  was  slain.  When 
the  king  saw  him  he  said  to  him,  '  What  think  you  of  this 
kind  of  hunting?'  for  he  was  very  angry.  And  the  young 
man  answered  '  My  lord,  how  should  I  be  displeased  at 
what  pleases  you  ? '  The  king  was  appeased  by  his  ready 
answer,  and  his  anger  left  him.  Afterwards  he  was  very 
kind  to  him,  and  gave  him  great  gifts,  that  he  might 
atone  for  the  slaying  of  his  father.  Edgar  sent  for 
Elfthrith  and  married  her,  so  that  she  became  a  king's 
wife  after  all.  She  founded  a  house  for  nuns  also  where 
Ethelwold  was  slain,  that  the  sin  of  Edgar  might  not  fall 
upon  her. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

EDWARD   THE    MARTYR. — A.D.  975-978. 

I.  When  Edgar  died  he  left  two  sons.  Elfthrith  was 
the  mother  of  the  "younger,  whose  name  was  Ethelred; 
r,  the  name  of  the  other  was  Edward.     By  his 

Uunstan  ^ 

and  Ed-  will  he  desired  that   Edward  should  be  king  ; 

^^'^  and  though   Elfthrith  wished    that    her  little 

son,  who  was  only  seven  years  old,  should  be  king,  Dun- 
stan  and  the  Wise   Men  chose  Edward.     Before  he  was 


A.n.  975-979.     Rdzvard  the  Martyr.  79 

crowned  there  arose  a  great  quarrel  between  the  North 
and  South  of  England  about  the  monks  ;  for  Elfhere, 
alderman  of  the  English  March,  drove  out  the  monks 
and  filled  their  places  with  simple  priests  ;  but  the  great 
aldermen  of  Essex  and  East  England  gathered  a  host  to 
defend  them.  It  was  the  Northern  folk  that  had  helped 
Edgar  against  his  brother  ;  so  now  they  stood  out  for 
Edward,  while  the  Southern  folk  wished  for  Ethelred. 
Hut  Dunstan  and  Oswald,  the  two  archbishops,  prevented 
a  war,  though  Elfhere  did  many  evil  deeds  against  the 
monks  all  the  days  of  Edward. 

There  were  many  meetings  of  the  great  men  of  Eng- 
land throughout  this  reign  to  try  and  settle  things  peace- 
fully. At  one  of  these  a  strange  thing  happened.  While 
the  elders  of  England  were  sitting  together  in  an  upper 
chamber  the  floor  suddenly  fell,  save  one  beam  on 
which  Dunstan  was  standing.  So  he  was  not  hurt  ;  but 
of  the  others  some  were  sore  hurt  and  others  killed. 
After  this  men  believed  more  in  Uunstan  than  the\  did 
before,  for  they  thought  that  God  iiad  kept  him  from 
harm  for  a  sign  to  them. 

2.  in  979  an  evil  deed  was  done,  so  that  the  song  of 
that  day  says '  no  worse  deed  was  done  among  the  English 
since  they  first  sought  the  land  of  Britain.'  It  Edwards 
is  said  that  it  happened  in  this  way.  Edward  ''e^''^- 
had  been  out  hunting,  and  as  he  was  riding  home  weary 
from  the  chase  he  came  near  the  house  of  his  stepmother 
and  rode  to  it.  There  she  met  him  and  received  him 
well,  and  gave  him  to  drink,  for  he  was  very  thirsty  ;  but 
as  he  was  drinking  she  bade  one  of  her  followers  stab 
him  in  the  back,  and  he  did  so.  When  the  king  felt  that 
he  was  wounded  he  spurred  his  horse  and  rode  off  as 
fast  as  he  could  ;  but  he  was  so  faint  that  he  could  not 
sit  in  his  saddle.  So  he  fell  off,  and  his  foot  caught 
the  stirrup,  and  he  was  dragged  along  by  the  frightened 


8o  Early  England.  a.d.  979. 

horse  through  the  rugged  wood  till  he  died.  Men  said 
that  Elfthrith  and  Elfhere  had  plotted  to  slay  him  as  they 
best  could.  But  Edward  was  held  a  martyr;  and  soon 
Elfthrith  repented  her  of  her  evil  deed  and  went  into  a 
house  of  nuns,  where  she  stayed  all  her  days  praying  for 
the  forgiveness  of  her  sins.  Elfhere  afterwards  brought 
the  body  of  the  king  in  great  state  to  Shaftesbury  Minster, 
which  Alfred  had  built.  Soon  after  he  died  of  a  dreadful 
disease,  and  men  said  God  so  punished  him  for  his  sin. 

Edward  is  said  to  have  been  a  good  king  on  earth, 
and  after  his  death  a  saint  in  heaven.  He  was  fair  to 
look  on,  like  most  of  the  men  of  his  race. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
CHANGES    IN    ENGLAND   UNDER   THE   GREAT   KINGS. 

1.  Under  the  great  English  kings  many  changes  had 
come  about  in  England,  which  had  made  it  different  from 

England  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  the  small 
kingdoms.  First,  the  Church  had  brought 
men  together.  Moreover  the  monks,  who  lived  together  in 
large  houses,  with  great  lands  round  them,  had  kept  alive 
the  learning  which  king  Alfred  restored,  and  had  taught 
the  English  many  useful  things,  so  that  building  and  the 
arts  and  trades  were  all  improved.  The  monks  too  were 
great  gardeners,  and  brought  into  England  many  new 
herbs  and  plants  which  were  useful  for  medicine  or  for 
food. 

2.  Ne.\t  the  kings  had  grown  more  powerful  ;  for  not 
only  did  they  rule  over  a  people  instead  of  over  a  tribe, 

as   thev  had  done  at  first,  but  thev  had  eot 

The  King.  .'  ,     .  '  •  ^ 

greater  power  over  their  people,  and  were  more 
looked  up  to.  Edward  and  Ethelstan  had  divided  the 
Marchland  into  shires,  for  the  old  tribe  kingdoms  in  the 


i 


CH.  VIII.  Changes  in  England.  8 1 

Marchland  had  been  swept  over  by  the  Danes  and  their 
governments  destroyed.  So  these  kings  divided  the  land 
round  the  great  towns  which  they  had  fortified,  and  put  a 
sheriff  ox  shire-steward  over  each  shire  by  the  side  of  the 
alderman  to  look  after  its  rule.  The  towns  too  had  grown 
more  important,  and  more  people  dwelt  in  them.  More- 
over, now  that  so  many  kingdoms  were  joined  together, 
there  was  one  great  council  which  helped  the  king  to 
govern  the  land.  This  council  was  made  up  of  the  wise 
and  great  men  out  of  all  England,  and  wns  above  all  the 
little  councils  which  each  small  kingdom  and  each  shire 
had.  Over  it  the  king  and  the  archbishop  presided,  just 
as  the  bishop  and  the  aldermen  and  sheriff  presided  at  the 
shire-meetings  or  folk-meetings.  This  great  council  was 
called  the  Witena-gemot,  or  Meeting  of  the  Wise  Men. 

It  met  usually  once  or  twice  a  year,  and  made  laws 
and  chose  the  kings,  and  if  a  king  behaved  badly  turned 
him  out  and  put  another  in. 

3.  The  great  men  of  the  kingdom  were  difterent  too 
from  what  they  had  been.     The  officers  of  the  king's 
household  became  great  nobles,  and  the  ser- 
vants of  the  king  became  nobles  also  ;  so  that 

the  nobles  were  no  more  called  eorls,  but  //iaii,'s,  that  is  to 
say  servants.  It  was  no  longer  gentle  birth  that  made 
men  nobles,  but  service  done  to  the  king.  Out  of  these 
thanes  the  king  and  the  wise  men  chose  the  sheriffs  and 
aldermen  for  the  shires  and  under-kingdoms.  The  nobles 
too  had  grown  more  powerful,  for  many  poor  men  sought 
the  help  of  them  and  their  followers,  and  to  gain  this  they 
gave  their  lands  to  the  nobles,  who  gave  them  back  to 
them  on  condition  that  they  worked  for  them  ;  so  that 
few  small  men  now  held  their  lands  quite  freely. 

4.  In  the  villages  and  small  towns  the  old  family 
feeling  of  the  clan  had  died  out  ;  and  the  villagers  often 
made  clubs,  which  managed  their  business,  as  the  old 

E.  H.  G 


82  Early    England.  bk.  vh. 

council  of  elders  had  done.      These  clubs  were  called 
The  vil-  guilds.      They   were  made  for  helping  each 

'ages.  other,  and  for  safety  against  robbers  and  the 

like.     They  held  a  pastime  in  every  year,  which  became 
the  village  feast. 

5.  The  coming  of  the  Danes  and  their  settling  among 

the  English  helped  also  to  change  England.   It  bound  the 

English  more  together,  for  thev  were  all  ob- 

The  Danes.        ,.        ,  ,  ,  .  ',      . 

aged  to  work  together  agamst  then-  common 
foe.  The  Danes  stirred  up  the  minds  of  the  English 
among  whom  they  settled,  for  they  were  more  active 
and  restless  than  they.  They  also  prevented  the  Eng- 
lish where  they  settled  from  becoming  too  much  the 
servants  of  the  great  men,  for  they  were  too  fond  of  their 
freedom  to  let  it  go  easily. 


BOOK   vri. 

THE  DANISH  CONQUEST. 

CHAPTER  I. 

ETHELRED     THE     UNREADY. — A.D.  979-IOI6 

I.  Ethelred,  the  next  king,  was  not  at  all  like  the 

great  kings  before  him.     He  was  cruel  and  foolish,  and, 

,   ,    ,         above  all,  would  not   take  good   advice,   but 

Ethelred  ,  ,.'  ,  ,  *',  ,  ,'      . 

and  Dun-        always  listened    to  those   who    pleased   him 
"''"•  at  the  time.      He  was  called  the  '  Unready,' 

which  did  not  mean  then  what  it  would  now  mean,  but 
Ill-advised.'     Men  said   that  his  reign  was  cruel  at  its 
outset,  wretched  in  its  course,  and  disgraceful  in  its  end. 

In  the  first  ten  years  of  his  reign  Dunstan  was  alive  ; 
and  though  when  he  crowned  him  he  is  said  to  have  pro- 
phesied evil  of  him,  because  of  the  cruel  deed  by  which 


AD.  979-991.      Etiielred  the   Unready.  83 

he  came  to  the  throne,  yet  he  helped  him  with  his  advice, 
so  that  he  did  no  very  evil  thing  while  Dunstan  lived. 
When  he  was  crowned  the  South  Enj^lish  were  very  glad, 
because  they  were  against  the  monks,  and  because  the 
last  two  kings  had  been  chosen  by  the  Northern  Eng- 
lish. But  the  Northern  English  were  very  wroth,  for  they 
did  not  like  the  South  Englishmen  to  rule  over  them,  so 
they  broke  away  from  Ethelred's  government. 

When  Elfhcre  died  Elfric  was  made  alderman  of  the 
Marchmen.  He  was  a  bad  man  and  a  traitor,  and  did 
little  good  to  England.  The  king  had  a  ciuarrel  too  during 
this  time  with  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  and  Dunstan  tried 
to  pacify  the  king;  but  ho  would  not  be  stayed.  Then  Dun- 
stan sent  him  a  gift  of  money,  and  he  made  peace  with 
the  bishop.  Dunstan  was  very  wroth,  and  sent  to  the 
king  this  message  :  '  Because  thou  hast  preferred  silver 
to  righteousness  therefore  those  evils  of  which  I  spake 
shall  come  upon  thee,  but  not  while  1  live,  for  so  hath  the 
Lord  told  me.'  Dunstan  died  three  years  after  this  (9S9) 
And  the  words  which  he  spake  were  fulfilled. 

2.  Already  the  Danes  and  Northmen  had  begun  to 
attack  England  again ;  and  now  Olaf,  the  Northman, 
came  to  England  with  a  great  host  and  did 
much  evil.  But  in  991  Bertnoth,  the  alder-  '^''' ^^"'^^ 
man  of  Esse.x,  fought  a  great  battle  with  the  Danes  at 
Maldon.  There  he  fell ;  but  his  men  stood  and  fought 
over  his  body,  and  at  last  they  won  the  day  and  saved 
his  body  from  the  heathen,  as  the  Song  of  Maldon  tells  us. 

In  this  same  year  the  Wise  Men,  by  the  advice  of 
archbishop  Sigric,  did  a  very  foolish  thing — they  laid  a 
ta.\  on  the  people  and  raised  10,000/.,  which  they  gave  to 
the  Danes  to  buy  them  off.  This  tax  was  called  the 
Dane-gild  or  Dane-inoney.  The  Danes  took  the  money 
and  -went  away  for  awhile,  but  next  year  came  back 
and  ravaged  England  again  to  get  more,  and  so  it  went 

G    Z 


84  Early  England.  a.d.  991-997. 

on.  There  was  a  fleet  gathered  ;  hut  Elfric  sent  word  to 
the  Danes  of  it  and  joined  himself  to  them  when  they 
came  to  London  to  fight  the  EngHsh.  The  English  beat 
them,  and  Elfric  fled.  Then  Ethelred  put  out  the  eyes 
of  Elfric's  son  for  the  evil  deeds  of  his  father,  which  was 
a  cruel  and  unkingly  deed. 

3.  Soon  after  Olaf,  the  Northman,  was  joined  by 
Sweyn  Fork-beard,  the  king  of  Denmark.  He  had  passed 
all  his  early  days  in  fighting  with  his  father,  but  now 
that  his  father  was  dead  and  he  was  king  be  began  to 
make  war  upon  England,  and  a  sore  foe  he  was.  He  and 
Olaf  the  Olaf  beset  London  with  ships,  but  the  London- 
Norwegian      ers  beat  them  off.     Soon  after,   by  the  good 

'"^'  advice  of  Elfheg,  bishop  of  Winchester,  Ethel- 

red  made  peace  with  Olaf,  who  was  confirmed,  and 
Ethelred  became  his  god-father.  Olaf  had  been  baptized 
in  the  Scilly  Islands  ;  but  the  Norwegians  were  still 
heathen.  Ethelred  gave  him  great  gifts,  and  Olaf  swore 
to  him  that  he  would  never  ravage  England  more.  He 
kept  his  word,  and  departed  to  Ireland,  and  there  he 
married,  and  soon  after  was  made  king  of  Norway.  His 
rule  was  stormy,  for  he  tried  to  make  his  folk  Christians 
by  force;  and  they  would  not.  In  the  end  he  fell  in  a  great 
sea-fight  against  his  former  friend  Sweyn,  whom  his  people 
had  called  in  to  help  them  against  Olaf  Olaf  was  the 
strongest,  handsomest,  and  most  accomplished  man  of  his 
time.  He  was  very  steadfast  to  his  word;  but  he  was 
cruel  and  headstrong.  To  the  host  of  Sweyn  and  Olaf 
16,000/.  was  given  to  bribe  them  to  sail  away  when  peace 
was  made  with  Olaf 

4.  In  997  and  the  next  two  years  .Sweyn  came  again 
and  plundered  Wesse.x,  Sussex,  and  Kent.  At  last  the 
Ethelreds  Wise  Men  took  counsel  and  got  together  a 
other  wars.  large  fleet  ;  but  the  captains  fell  to  quarrel'ing 
among  themselves,  so  nothing  was  done. 


A.D.  luoo- 1002.   Etheired  the  Unready.  85 

Next  year  Ethelred,  instead  of  making  his  realm  safe 
against  the  Danes,  sent  his  fleet  to  fight  the  Normans. 
There  it  sped  ill  and  was  driven  back.  This  he  did 
because  the  Normans  had  received  the  Danish  ships  in 
their  ports.  He  himself  and  his  army  went  north  and 
laid  waste  Cumberland,  because  Malcolm,  the  under-king, 
would  not  pay  him  money  to  help  buy  off  the  Danes  ; 
for  Malcolm  said  that  he  was  bound  to  fight  for  the  Eng- 
lish king,  and  would  gladly  do  so,  but  he  would  not  pay 
money.  Ethelred  was  wroth,  and  perhaps  ashamed,  and 
so  he  warred  against  him. 

5.  The  quarrel  with  Normandy  was  soon  made  up,  for 
in  the  year  1002  Ethelred  married  Emma,  whom  the 
English  called  Elfgif,  the  sister  of  the  duke  of  Nor- 
mandy. She  was  very  fair,  but  she  was  not  a  good 
woman. 

That  year  the  English  paid  24,000/.  to  the  Danes  for 
peace.  So  we  see  they  had  to  give  more  and  more  each 
time,  and  it  was  of  little  avail.     Then  the  king     „,, 

.  .  1  he  mas- 

did  a  very  evil  deed,  by  the  advice  ot  one  of  his     sacre  of 

favourites,  Edric  Streona  (the  Gainer).  He  '  ""' 
had  all  the  Danes  slain  who  had  remained  in  the  South  of 
England  on  the  day  of  S.  Hrice.  It  fell  on  Saturday,  the 
day  the  Danes  used  to  bithe  ;  so  many  were  slain  defence- 
less in  the  evening  while  they  were  in  their  baths.  Arrong 
the  rest  was  slain  Gunhikl,  sister  of  Sweyn  Forkbeard,  who 
was  mai  ried  to  an  earl  in  England  named  Pallig.  They  took 
her  and  slew  her  husband  before  her,  and  thrust  spears 
through  her  son  so  that  he  died  also.  She  never  turned 
pale,  but  bore  the  dreadful  sight  bravely,  and  told  the 
English  that  this  deed  of  theirs  would  bring  great  evils 
on  their  land  also.  When  she  was  slain  men  marvelled 
that  her  face  was  not  altered  by  death,  but  that  she  looked 
as  fair  as  if  she  were  alive. 

6.  When  Sweyn  heard  the  news  of  this  he  was  wroth, 


86  Early  EnglaKd.        a.  d.  1002-1006. 

and  got  together  a  mighty  host  to  avenge  her  and  fulfil 
Sweyn's  ^hc  VOW  which  he  made  once  at  a  great  feast 

revenge.  ^^^  j^^,  wouid  drive  out  Ethelred  or  die  him- 

self. He  laid  siege  to  E.xeter,  and  Hugh,  the  French- 
man, whom  queen  Emma  had  set  over  it  (for  the  king 
had  given  it  to  her  as  a  marriage  gift),  betrayed  it  to 
him,  and  he  took  and  plundered  the  city  and  broke  down 
the  wall.  Thence  he  went  on  to  Wessex,  where  Elfric 
came  against  him.  Here  again  was  treason,  for  when  the 
armies  were  in  array  Elfric  feigned  to  be  suddenly  taken 
ill,  and  so  would  do  nothing.  Sweyn  passed  by  and 
burned  Salisbury,  and  ravaged  the  West  Saxons'  land. 

7.  But  Wolfkettle,  alderman  of  the  East  English, 
resisted  the  Danes  in  the  East.  When  they  broke  theii 
Wolfkettle.      promise  and  would  not  go  away,  but  left  their 

A.D.  1004.  ships  and  rode  up  the  country,  Wolfkettle 
ordered  men  to  go  to  the  Danish  ships  to  burn  them. 
Sweyn  was  just  hurrying  back  to  them,  when  Wolfkettle 
fell  upon  him,  and  there  was  a  hard  fight,  so  that  the 
]>anes  said  they  had  never  had  harder  work  since  they 
came  to  England  ;  but  neither  side  could  beat  the  other, 
so  they  both  drew  off.  But  because  of  the  disobedience 
of  Wolfkettle's  men  the  Danish  ships  were  left  whole, 
and  the  Danes  sailed  off  in  them  to  Denmark. 

8.  There  was  a  great  famine  all  over  England  the  next 
year,  so  that  much  folk  died  of  hunger,  and  that  famine 
Danes  and  was  long  remembered.  In  1006  the  Danes 
Scots.  came  again,  and  went  up  to  a  place  called 
Cuckhamsley,  far  into  England,  to  defy  the  old  prophecy 
which  said  that  any  foe  who  got  as  far  as  that  spot  should 
never  come  back  alive.  The  king  and  the  Wise  Men 
gave  them  36,000/.  to  go  away  that  year.  In  these  days 
Elfheg  became  archbishop,  and  Elflielm,  the  Northum- 
brian earl  of  York,  was  treacherously  slain  by  Edric ;  but 
the  king  made  Edric  earl  of  the  Marchland. 


A.i).  1006-1009.   Ethelred  the  Unready.  87 

The  Scottish  king  also  invaded  England,  but  the  earl 
Utred  of  Bamborough  drove  the  Scots  from  Durham, 
which  they  had  attacked,  and  slew  many  of  them.  He 
cut  off  their  heads  and  set  them  on  spikes  round  the 
walls  of  Durham  for  a  sign  ;  and  it  is  said  that  he  gave 
the  women  who  washed  the  heads  before  they  were  set 
up  a  cow  for  a  reward. 

9.  In  1008  Ethelred  gathered  a  great  fleet  again,  and 
ordered  that  many  new  ships  should  be  built,  and  that  all 
those  who  held  land  should  pay  for  them,  and  this  seemed 
good  to  the  wise  men.  Indeed,  if  Ethelred  had  only 
kept  a  strong  fleet  like  Edgar's  he  might  have  Eihelredb 
often  stopped  the  landing  of  the  Danes.      But     ''"'• 

a  great  quarrel  broke  out  in  the  fleet,  and  the  chief  men 
fought  among  themselves.  There  came  too  a  great  storm 
which  destroyed  many  ships,  and  some  were  burnt  in  the 
strife  (1009),  so  all  the  people's  trouble  was  brought  to 
naught.  This  was  the  last  chance  which  Ethelred  had  of 
beating  the  Danes,  for  from  now  till  he  fled  away  to  Nor- 
mandy there  was  war,  and  chiefly  with  Thorkettle,  or 
Thorkell,  till  in  1013  Sweyn  came  back. 

10.  Many  towns  were  taken  and  burnt,  and  many  men 
were  sold  into  captivity  or  slain.     The  good  archbishop 
Elfheg  was  taken  prisoner  by  Thorkell's  host,     Aichbisho 
and  they  would  have  him  pay  a  great  sum  for     Elfhegs 
his  ransom;  but  he  said  that  he  would  not  rob 

the  poor  for  the  sake  of  himself  They  were  very  angry 
with  him,  and  one  day  they  brought  him  to  a  feast, 
and  after  the  feast  when  they  were  heated  with  wine  they 
flung  at  him  bones  and  the  heads  of  the  beasts  which 
they  had  feasted  on,  till  one  of  them  pitying  him  slew 
him  with  a  blow  of  his  axe.  This  happened  at  Green- 
wich, so  the  London  people  sent  for  his  body,  which 
the  Danes  gave  up  to  them.  It  is  said  that  Thorkell 
offered  the  soldiers  all  that  he  had,  except  his  ships,  it 


8  8  Early  England.        a.  d.  1 009- 1013. 

they  would  let  Elfheg  go  unhurt;  but  they  would  not. 
When  Thorkell  saw  his  holy  death  he  went  over  to  Ethel- 
red  with  forty-five  ships  and  a  great  host,  and  served  him, 
for  he  would  no  more  be  with  heathen  men,  and  he  be- 
came a  Christian. 

Then  the  king  sent  Edric  against  the  Welsh,  and  he 
marched  through  South  Wales  and  laid  it  waste.  And 
so  Ethelred  would  ever  do  ;  when  the  Danes  came  he 
would  do  nothing  but  buy  them  off ;  but  he  would  always 
be  ready  to  fight  with  the  other  princes  of  Britain  who 
were  his  own  under-kings,  with  whom  he  should  have 
been  nt  peace. 

II.  When  Sweyn  heard  that  Thorkell  had  joined 
Ethelred  he  was  ill-pleased.  So  he  came  again  to  Eng- 
land with  his  son  Canute,  and  they  now  set  about  con- 
quering England,  according  to  Sweyn's  vow.  First  he 
got  the  men  of  the  North  to  submit  to  him.  They  had 
Sweyn  never  much  liked  Ethelred,  though   they  had 

wi'nsEng^  fought  hitherto  against  the  Danes  when  they 
l.ind.  came  as  plunderers  or  settlers  to  oust  them 

from  their  homes.  Now  that  Sweyn  came  with  fair 
promises,  wishing  to  be  king  of  England,  they  took  him 
as  their  king.  Leaving  his  son  to  rule  them  while  he 
went  south,  Sweyn  rode  right  across  England  and  over 
the  Marchland  and  took  Winchester  ;  but  Thorkell  and 
Ethelred  drove  him  from  London.  He  went  on  into 
the  far  South  and  took  all  the  West  Saxons'  land,  and 
now  he  was  king  over  all  England  save  London.  When 
Ethelred  saw  that  he  fled  in  Thorkell's  ships,  with  his 
wife  and  children,  to  his  brother-in-law^s  court  in  Nor- 
mandy; and  the  people  of  London  took  Sweyn  for  king. 

Thorkell  stayed  with  part  of  his  fleet  and  still  took 
king  Ethelred's  part  ;  but  all  he  could  do  was  to  lay 
taxes  on  the  English  to  keep  his  fleet,  so  that  they  liked 
that  ill. 


I 


A.D.  IOI3  IOI4-    Etiielred  the  Unready.  89 

Sweyn  Forkbeard  was  not  long  king,  but  died  as  he 
was  on  his  way  to  plunder  S.  Edmundsbury.  He  thought 
he  saw  S.  Edmund  ride  against  him  and  smite  him 
because  of  his  evil  errand  ;  but  no  man  saw  that  sight 
save  the  king  only,  who  fell  off  his  horse  and  was  never 
whole  again,  but  died  that  night  in  great  pain. 

12.  Then  the  Wise  Men  sent  over  to  Ethelred,  in 
Normandy,  to  ask  him  to  come  back.  They  told  him 
that  they  would  be  glad  to  have  him  as  king  again  if  he 
would  promise  to  rule  them  better;  and  he  promised  that 
he  would  do  as  they  wished  in  all  matters.  The  Wise  Men 
said  that  no  Danish  king  should  rule  England 
again,  but  that  if  any  tried  he  should  be  held  and  Canute, 
an  outlaw,  and  any  man  who  could  might  *"'  ""^' 
slay  him.  Yet  the  chief  men  of  the  Danish  host  chose 
Canute  to  be  their  king  ;  but  he  was  driven  out  by  Ethelred 
and  his  brave  son  Edmund,  who  was  called  Ironside,  and 
went  away  to  Denmark.  Ethelred  gave  the  Danes  who 
had  served  him  so  well  under  I'horkell  a  great  sum  of 
money,  so  that  men  said  the  Danes  were  as  greedy  and 
evil  friends  as  they  were  foes. 

13.  In  this  year  there  was  fought  on  Good  Friday  a 
battle  in  Ireland,  at  Clontarf,  hard  by  Dublin,  between 
the   Northmen    of   Dublin   and    the   Western     ,  .    , 

II         1  111  11-  •     .       .         .  Brians 

Islands  and  the  head  king  ot  Ireland,  Hrian.  bank. 
There  were  many  heathen  among  the  North-  '^  d'^m 
men,  but  Brian  and  his  folk  were  Christians.  The  North- 
men fled  before  the  Irish,  and  as  they  tied  one  of  them 
broke  into  the  tent  where  Brian  was  praying  for  his  men, 
for  he  was  an  old  man  and  stricken  in  years,  and  there  he 
slew  him.  So  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled  which  was  in 
men's  mouths,  that  the  Northmen  should  lose  the  battle, 
but  that  Brian  should  fall.  There  was  a  great  slaughter, 
for  it  was  a  very  high  tide,  and  many  men  were  drowned 
in  the  I.iffey.  which  ran  very  high.     This  battle  also  the 


90  Early  England.        a. 0.1014-1015. 

Northmen  took  for  a  sign  that  the  Christian  faith  was  the 
best  ;  so  after  this  those  who  were  still  heathen  turned 
from  their  old  gods  and  were  baptized. 

14.  In  1015  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Wise  Men  at 
Oxford,  and  there  Edric  wrought  another  wicked  deed. 
The  bum-  ^^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  chiefs  of  the  five  great 
ing  at  Ox-       boroughs  of  the  North  Marchland,  and  when 

their  followers  fled  to  the  great  tower  of  the 
minster  he  set  fire  to  it,  and  there  were  they  all  slain  or 
burnt.  Eldgyth,  the  widow  of  one  of  the  chiefs,  was 
spared,  and  was  set  in  keeping  as  a  prisoner.  When 
Edmund  Ironside,  the  king's  son  saw  her  he  married  her 
against  his  father's  will,  and  ruled  the  Five  Boroughs  as 
her  husband.  Edric  is  said  to  have  hated  Edmund  and 
to  have  always  acted  treacherously  towards  him.  Now, 
both  Edric  and  Utred  had  married  daughters  of  Ethelred. 
Edric  and  his  brothers  always  advised  the  king  ill ;  but 
Utred  helped  his  brother-in-law  Edmund. 

15.  Then  Ethelred  fell  sick  ;  so  Edric  led  the  West 
Saxons  against  the  Northern  English  under  Edmund. 
Ethelred's  Soon  he  went  over  to  Canute,  who  now  came 
death.  back  with  a  mighty  host,  and  they  marched 
over  the  land  plundering  it,  while  Ethelred  was  in  London 
doing  nothing.  At  last  Utred  also  joined  Canute.  And 
soon  after  Ethelred  died. 


CHAPTER    II. 

EDMUND    IRONSIDE. — A.D.     IO16. 

I.  Then  the  Marchmen  chose  Edmund  king  at 
London  ;  but  some  of  the  English  chose  Canute  as  king 
Edniund  at  Southampton.  Utred  gained  little  by  not 
and  Canute,  staying  with  Edmund,  for  Canute  sent  for  him 
as  if  he  would  speak  with  him  ;  and  when  he  was  come 


A.D.  ioi6.  Edmund  Ironside.  oi 

to  the  king's  hall,  there  suddenly  sprang  out  upon  him  a 
band  of  men  who  slew  him  and  the  men  that  were  with 
him,  forty  souls  ;  and  his  earldom  was  given  to  his 
enemies.  Then  Edric  turned  round  again  and  joined 
Edmund,  but  was  of  little  use  to  him.  Canute  and  Ed- 
mund fought  five  pitched  battles  this  year,  all  along  the 
borders  of  Wessex  ;  but  Edmund  nearly  always  won,  for 
he  was  both  brave  and  skilful.  Once  lie  met  Canute  in 
battle  and  clove  his  shield  in  two  with  iiis  sword.  But 
the  fifth  battle  at  Assandun  in  Esse.x  was  the  most 
famous.  Both  kings  were  there,  and  fought  each  under 
his  own  banner.  Edmund's  was  the  golden  dragon,  and 
<"anute's  the  magic  raven.  The  raven's  wings  moved  in 
the  wind,  which  the  Danes  took  for  a  sign  of  victory  ;  but 
when  the  battle  was  joined  the  Danes  at  last  gave  way 
before  the  English,  and  they  would  have  been  defeated 
entirely,  had  not  Edric  with  his  men  left  the  battle.  Then 
the  Danes  came  on  again,  and  in  the  end  the  English 
were  obliged  to  leave  the  field  to  them.  In  that  fight 
many  good  men  fell,  and  among  them  Wolfkettle,  the 
East  English  aLlerman.  brother-in-law  of  Edmund. 

2.  There  would  have  been  another  ba;tle,  but  the  two 
kings,  by  the  advice  of  the  Wise  Men  of  England,  agreed 
to  make   peace,  and   to   divide  the   kingdom 
between  them.      Edmund  was  to  be  the  head     Oiney. 
king,  and  to  have  the  East  and  South,  while      *  "^^  '°'* 
Canute  was  to  have  the  M.irchland  and  Northumberland. 
It   is  said  that  the  two  kings    at  first  agreed  that  they 
two  should  fight  alone,  to  see  who  should  have  all  Eng- 
land ;  but,  when  they  had  fought  a  short  while  Canute 
offered  to  share  the  realm  with  Edmund,  and  he  agreed 
thereto,  and  they  exchanged  swords  and  cloaks  and  were 
made   sworn  friends.      This   peace  which   was  made  at 
Olney-on-Sevem,  lasted  only  a  short  while,  for  Edmund 
died  suddenly,  and  men  said  that  Edric  slew  him  by  craft 


92  Early  Englaiid.  A.n.ioi6 

to  gain  the  favour  of  Canute  ;  and  this  was  the  worst  of 
all  his  evil  deeds. 

Edmund  Ironside  was  a  veiy  big  man,  bold,  quick, 
persevering  and  never  discouraged  ;  but  in  one  thing  he 
seems  to  have  been  foolish,  in  that  he  trusted  Edric,  the 
alderman  of  the  Marchland,  though  he  knew  what  evil 
deeds  he  had  wrought.  Perhaps  this  was  because  he 
could  not  help  it,  but  was  afraid  of  his  going  over  to 
Canute  again.  For  though  Edric  was  so  bad  he  seems 
to  have  been  very  powerful  in  his  own  earldom,  and 
he  was  a  man  of  such  guile  that  Edmund  may  have 
thought  it  better  to  have  him  as  a  friend  than  as  a  foe. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  too  that  we  only  have  the  stor)-  as 
lold  by  Edric's  enemies.  So  that  after  all  he  may  not 
have  been  so  bad  as  they  would  make  out.  For  that  he 
should  have  been  so  wicked,  and  yet  so  much  trusted,  it 
is  very  hard  to  believe. 


CHAPTER   III. 

CANUIE   IHE   GREAT. — A.D.   I016-I035. 

r.  Canute  began  his  reign  by  trying  to  settle  his 
EngHsh  kingdom,  for  of  all  the  kingdoms  that  he  had 
then  and  afterwards  he  loved  England  best. 
Edmund's  First  he  outlawed  those  of  the  English  blood- 
children,  royal  that  were  in  England ;  and  when  the 
wise  men  gave  him  the  care  of  the  children  of  Edmund 
Ironside  he  sent  them  to  Sweden,  to  his  half-brother 
king  James.  It  is  said  that  he  asked  him  to  slay  them  ; 
for  he  would  not  slay  them  himself  for  the  brotherhood 
that  he  had  sworn  with  their  father.  Hut  king  James 
would  not,  and  sent  them  to  Stephen,  who  was  the  first 
Christian  king  of  Hungary,  that  he  might  take  care  o\ 
them,      ^nd  they  abode  a  long  time  at  his  court. 


A.D.IOI6-JOI7-      Canute  the  Great.  93 

2.  Canute  set  earls  as  governors  over  the  land  ;  but 
he  kept  Wessex  himself,  for  there  he  chiefly  lived. 
He  gave  the  Marchiand  to  Edric  ;  to  Thorkell  he  gave 
East  England  ;  to  Eric,  when  he  had  mar-  Edric's 
ned  his  sister,  he  gave  Northumberland  ;  death, 
and  these  great  men  ruled  the  land  under  him.  But 
Edric  was  angry  because  the  king  did  not  give  him  more 
power,  and  it  is  said  that  he  told  the  king  that  he  had 
slain  Edmund  Ironside  for  his  sake.  When  Canute 
heard  these  words  he  bade  his  followers  slay  Edric, 
saying  that  he  who  had  betrayed  his  lord  for  lands  and 
gold  would  never  be  faithful  to  him.  So  Edric  was 
slain  in  the  king's  sight,  and  was  cast  out  of  the  window 
mto  the  river  that  ran  below.  Men  held  that  Canute  had 
done  very  rightly,  for  through  the  evil  deeds  of  Edric 
many  good  men  had  met  their  death  ;  and  he  was  so 
crafty  and  powerful  that  he  was  able  to  do  much  evil. 
Canute  also  soon  sent  Thorkell  from  England  into  Den- 
mark, for  he  was  so  great  a  man  that  he  feared  lest  he 
should  do  evil. 

3.  In  the  same  year,  1017,  Canute  sent  to  Normandy 
and  asked  the  duke  to  give  him  Emma,  Ethelred's 
widow,  in  marriage,  for  she  had  fled  thither  Canute  and 
with  her  children.  He  did  so  ;  and  Emma  Emma, 
came  back  and  was  again  Lady  of  the  English  ;  and  she 
bore  Canute  two  children,  Gunhild  and  Hardi-Canute. 
Gunhild  married  king  Henry,  who  was  afterwards  made 
Emperor  ;  but  Hardi-Canuie  became  king. 

4.  Canute  now   set   two   Englishmen   in  power,   who 
became  \ery  famous  men,   Leofric  and  Godwin.     Leofric 
was  made  earl  of  the  Marchmen,  and   God- 
win was  made  earl  of  Wessex,  under  the  king,     the  great 
Leofric  was  a  good  man,  and  tried  to  bring     ^^^' 
ibout  peace  in  England  whenever  the  great  men  fell  out 
Godwin  was  a  very  wise  man,  and  became  the  greatest 


94  Early  England.         a.d.  1017-1027. 

man  in  England  next  the  king,  and  his  sons  became 
earls  as  well  as  himself.  Canute  was  so  pleased  at  his 
wisdom  and  bravery  in  a  war  which  he  had  in  the  Baltic, 
one  time  when  he  was  away  from  England,  that  he 
singled  him  out  and  trusted  him  with  an  earldom. 

5.  Canute  was  not  only  king  of  England  and  Den- 
mark but  he  also  drove  out  the  king  of  Norway,  and 
„        .  was   chosen    king  there   also  ;    and  over  the 

Canute  s  ^         , 

mighty  Swedish  king  his  will  had  great  weight.     The 

power.  Scots  also  acknowledged  him  as  their  over- 

lord ;  but  he  had  to  make  war  with  them  for  attacking 
England  while  he  was  away  at  Rome.  Then  they  made 
peace  and  submitted  to  his  commands. 

6.  Canute  went  twice  to  Rome,  it  is  said,  to  atone  for 
his  evil  deeds.  While  he  was  there  in  1027  he  wrote  a 
Canute's  '^"S  letter  home  to  the  English  people,  in 
™'e.  which  he  told  them  all  about  his  journey  and 
the  kings  whom  he  had  met,  and  how  he  had  spoken 
with  the  Pope.  He  also  promised  to  rule  them  well,  and 
never  take  money  unjustly  from  them,  and  to  make  all 
his  great  men  do  right  also.  He  said  too  that  he  had  never 
spared  any  trouble  for  his  people's  good,  and  that  he 
never  would.  These  promises  he  fulfilled  ;  for  though  he 
had  done  some  cruel  things  to  the  great  men  he  had 
never  done  harm  to  his  people  since  he  was  made  king. 
He  set  good  laws  very  strictly  against  all  evildoers,  so 
that  in  after-days  his  name  became  famous  as  a  law-giver. 
To  the  Church  he  was  very  open-handed,  and  he  gave  a 
splendid  altar  covering,  embroidered  with  peacocks,  to 
Glastonbury,  where  the  body  of  king  Edmund  Ironside 
lay.  He  built  a  church  at  Assandun,  and  set  Stigand, 
who  afterwards  became  a  famous  man,  to  pray  and  preach 
in  it.  This  he  did  as  a  token  of  thankfulness  and  remem- 
brance of  the  battle  that  he  had  fought  there.  Canute 
was  a  great  friend  of  the  monks  also. 


^.n  I027-I035         Canute  the  Great.  95 

It  is  said  that  wh&n  Emma's  brother  was  dead  his 
son,  duke  Robert,  who  soon  after  reigned  in  Normandy, 
gathered  together  a  fleet  to  conquer  England,  drive  out 
Canute,  and  put  on  the  throne  Emma's  two  sons,  who 
were  still  in  Normandy  ;  but  the  weather  was  bad,  and 
such  of  the  sliips  as  were  not  destroyed  were  obliged  to 
put  back. 

7.  Canute  was  a  little  man,  but  strong  of  body,  and 
exceeding  wise  and  crafty,  so  that  no  man  knew  his  real 
mind.  He  was  very  good  to  strangers,  but  Canute's 
careful  of  his  money,  and  not  fond  of  useless  character, 
spending,  for  he  was  not  willing  to  burden  his  people. 
He  was  more  loved  by  the  English  than  by  the  Danes,  for 
he  set  Englishmen,  and  not  Danes,  as  earls  in  England  ; 
and  he  would  not  suffer  the  Danes  to  spoil  England,  as 
they  wished,  but  he  ruled  as  an  English  king  and  not  like 
a  foreign  conqueror.  He  was  fond  of  music  and  singings 
and  made  verses.  One  day  while  he  was  being  rowed  in 
his  barge  to  Ely  he  heard  the  song  of  the  monks  at  their 
service  in  the  minster  ringing  across  the  water,  so  he 
made  a  song  : — 

Merry  the  monks  of  Ely  sing 

As  by  them  rows  Canute  the  King — 

Row,  men,  to  the  land  more  near, 

That  we  these  good  monks'  song  may  hear. 

Other  verses  also  he  put  to  it  ;  and  this  song  was  held  in 
remeinbrance  by  the  monks  of  Ely,  for  he  was  a  good 
friend  to  them  and  gave  them  many-gifts. 

He  was  a  very  godly  man  at  the  end  of  his  reign. 
It  is  told  of  him  that  one  day  he  ordered  his  chair  to  be 
set  on  the  sand  by  the  sea  when  it  was  low  water. 
When  the  tide  began  to  rise  he  spoke  to  the  sea  and 
forbade  it  to  rise  ;  but  the  water  rose  till  it  washed  round 
his  chair  and  welled  his  feet  and  garments.     Then  he 


96  Early  England.         a.d.  io27-to35. 

arose  and  said  to  those  that  weie  with  him,  '  Though 
kings  be  mighty  and  rule  wide  reahiis  yet  will  not  the 
seas  obey  them  ;  therefore  to  God  alone  be  honour  and 
prraise,  for  he  rules  all  things,  and  the  wind  and  the  seas 
obey  Him.'  This  he  did  as  an  example,  lest  men  should 
honour  man  and  forget  God  who  made  them.  And 
never  after  tliat  day  would  he  wear  his  crown  ;  but  he  set 
it  on  the  head  of  the  image  of  Jesus  on  the  Cross  that  was 
in  the  old  church  at  Winchester. 

Canute  was  very  fond  of  hunting,  and  made  la\\s 
that  no  man  should  hunt  in  the  lands  which  were  under 
the  care  of  the  king. 

8.  Canute  kept  a  great  many  men  always  about  him, 

like  a  little  army,  and  men  came  from  all  the  North  lands 

to  .=erve  in  his  guards,  so  that  there  ^vere  not 

Canutes  .  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,• 

guards  and  m  all  the  world  at  that  tune  such  soldiers  as 
priesui.  iw^v.       He   made   rules    for   them    also    that 

all  things  might  be  done  in  order  ;  and  it  was  by  help 
of  this  guard  that  he  was  able  to  do  such  great  deeds  in 
war.  He  sent  to  Denmark  many  English  priests,  who 
taught  his  own  people  several  English  customs  which  he 
thought  would  be  useful  to  them  ;  for  the  English  were 
not  so  rude  a  folk  as  the  Danes  were. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

HAROLD-HAREFOOT    AND     H  ARDI-CANU  1  E. 
A.D.    IO35-I042. 

I.  Canute  had  two  other  sons  besides  Hardi-Canute, 
Harold,  called  Harefoot  for  his  swiftness,  and  Sweyn;  but 
Canute's  Emma  was  not  their  mother.     He  divided  his 

'"'^  kingdoms  among  the  three.      To  Sweyn  he 

gave  Norway,  and  to    Hardi-Canute,  Denmark,  but  he 
gave   England  to   Harold.     When   Canute  was   dead  it 


A.D.  io3';-io4o.     Harold  Hare  foot,  &c.  qy 

was  not  at  all  sure  what  men  would  do  ;  for  Godwin  and 
Emma  and  the  English  in  the  South  were  for  Hardi 
Canute  ;  but  the  men  of  the  North  and  Leofric  and  the 
seamen  of  London,  who  were  most  of  them  Danes,  would 
have  Harold  for  their  king,  as  Canute  had  wished.  It 
was  settled  at  last,  by  Leofric's  advice,  that  Harold  should 
rule  in  the  North,  and  Hardi-Canute  in  the  South.  But 
Hardi-Canute  stayed  in  Denmark,  and  his  mother  and 
Godwin  ruled  for  him  in  England. 

2.  Next  year,  1036,  Alfred  and  Edward  the  Ethelings, 
sons  of  Ethelred,  came  to  England  out  of  Normandy,  and 
a  train  of  Normans  with  them.  It  is  not  cer-  The  death 
tain  why  they  came,  for  their  mother  loved  of  Alfred. 
Hardi-Canute  rather  than  them.  Some  say  it  was  to  gain 
the  kingdom  of  the  south  part  of  England,  as  Hardi- 
Canute  was  away.  But  Godwin  stopped  them,  and  Alfred 
was  seized  by  some  men  of  Harold,  who  blinded  him 
and  brought  him  to  Ely,  where  he  died  ;  and  his  men 
they  slew  cruelly  with  torments.  But  his  mother  sent 
Edward  back  to  Normandy.  It  was  said  that  both  God- 
win and  Emma  had  a  hand  in  this  evil  deed,  though  it 
was  done  by  Harold's  men.  And  there  was  a  song  made 
about  it  which  says  no  darker  deed  had  been  done  in 
England  since  the  Danes  came. 

3.  At  last  men  grew  weary  of  waiting  for  Hardi- 
Canute,  and  his  mother  was  not  much  liked;  so  the  South 
English  also  chose  Harold  as  their  king,  and     ^ 

J  i^  ,-    T^       ,        ,        Emma 

drove  Lmma  out  of  England.  She  went  to  banished. 
Flanders, where  Baldwin  ruled, and  he  received  '''°'  '°^' 
her  kindly,  and  thither  came  her  son  Hardi-Canute  to 
visit  her.  Not  long  after  this  Harold  died  (1040),  and 
the  great  men  of  England  sent  messengers  to  Flanders 
to  pray  Hardi-Canute  to  come  and  reign  over  them;  and 
he  came  over,  and  was  crowned  king;  and  he  brought  his 
mother  back  with  him. 


98  Early  England.  a.  n.  1040. 

4.   Hardi-Canute  did  not  reign  long.     He  was  a  very 

stern  king,  and  not  much  liked.     He  ordered  the  body  ot 

his  brother  to  be  dug  up  and  cast  out  into  a 

Canute.  fen,  that  he  might  dishonour  it  as  much  as  he 

A.D.  1040.       could.     A  heavy  tax  was  laid  upon  England  to 

pay  for  the  Danes  of  the  fleet  which  he  brought  with  him. 

At  that  time  Godwin  was  accused  of  having  caused 
the  death  of  Alfred  the  Etheling ;  but  he  denied  it  on 
oath,  and  most  of  the  great  men  took  an  oath  that  they 
believed  him  guiltless.  So  nothing  was  done  to  him  ;  and 
he  gave  the  king  a  great  ship  as  a  gift,  that  he  might  not 
bear  any  anger  against  him.  It  was  beautifully  painted 
and  gilt  ;  in  it  were  eighty  soldiers,  clothed  in  red,  with 
gold  rings  on  their  arms  and  gilt  helmets  on  their  heads, 
and  on  one  shoulder  they  bore  a  Danish  axe  (for  the 
Danes  at  that  time  used  to  fight  with  great  axes,  which 
they  wielded  with  both  hands),  and  in  their  right  hand  a 
spear  of  iion.  Round  about  the  ship  were  laid  their 
shields,  painted  and  gilt.  This  was  the  finest  ship  that 
had  been  seen  in  England  since  the  ship  that  Harold 
Fairhair  sent  to  Ethelstan. 

The  king  sent  his  guard  to  gather  in  the  tax  which 
had  been  laid  upon  England;  but  the  people  at  Worcester 
rose  against  them  and  slew  two  of  them.  When  the 
king  heard  it  he  was  very  angry,  and  bade  Godwin  and 
Leofric  and  Siward,  the  Danish  earl  of  the  North,  for  earl 
Eric  was  now  dead,  ravage  Worcester.  So  they  burnt 
the  city;  but  they  let  the  people  go. 

Soon  after  this  Hardi-Canute  sent  for  his  half-brother 
Edward  to  come  to  England  to  live  with  him  and  his 
mother,  and  he  came  over. 

One  day  king  Hardi-Canute  went  to  the  wedding 
feast  of  one  of  his  great  men,  and  while  he  was  standing 
up  to  drink  he  was  seized  with  an  illness  and  fell  to  the 
earth  and  never  spoke  word  more. 


A.D.  1042.  Harold  Harefoot,  &c.  99 

He  was  a  kini^  of  whom  we  know  very  little,  and  not 
much  good.  Neither  he  nor  his  brother  Harold  left  any 
children. 


BOOK     VIII. 

THE    TWO   LAST  OLD-ENGLISH  KINGS. 

CHAPTER    I. 

EDWARD   THE   CONFESSOR.— A.D.   I042-I066. 

I.  When  Hardi-Canute  died,  Edward,  his  half-brother, 
was  chosen  king.  This  was  chiefly  done  by  the  help  of 
Godwin  and  his  men  ;  for  some  would  have 
had  Sweyn,  king  of  Denmark,  cousin  of  first  years  of 
Hardi-Canute,  as  king.  'Many  of  those  who 
had  been  against  Edward  were  outlawed  when  he  be- 
came king.  Edward  took  away  a  good  part  of  his  mother 
Emma's  riches  because  she  had  not  helped  him  in  his 
need;  but  he  suffered  her  to  live  quietly  at  Winchester. 

In  1045  Edward  married  Edith  Godwin's  daughter, 
and  thus  bound  himself  closer  to  the  house  of  Godwin. 
At  this  time  the  three  greatest  men  in  England  were 
Godwm,  Leofric,  and  Siward  the  Big,  the  carl  of  North- 
umberland ;  and  they  ruled  all  England  under  the  king. 
Hut  Edward  did  not  long  remain  friendly  to  the  house  of 
Godwin  ;  for  he  was  too  fond  of  foreigners,  and  especially 
of  the  Normans,  and  from  this  arose  great  trouble  after- 
wards. 

There  was  now  reigning  in  Norway  king  Magnus, 
who  had  been  a  friend  of  Hardi-Canute.  They  two 
had  agreed  that  whichever  of  them  died  first  the  other 
should  have   his  kingdom.     When  Magnus  got  neither 


lOO  Early  England.         a.  0.1042-1046, 

Denmark  nor  England  he  was  angry  and  gathered  a 
great  fleet  to  come  to  England  ;  but  Sweyn,  the  Danish 
king,  stopper!  him  ;  so  the  English  fleet  which  Edward 
had  summoned  had  nothing  to  do. 

2.  Godwin  had  many  children  ;  and  of  these  the  two 
eldest,  Sweyn  and   Harold,  were  now  earls  in   England, 

Harold  over   the    East   English,  and   Sweyn 
Sweyn's  over  the  West  border  over  against  the  Welsh. 

out  awo'-  Sweyn  kept  his  earldom  well,  and  defeated 
the  Welsh  when  they  attacked  the  English  ;  but  in  1046 
he  took  the  abbess  of  Leominster  away  from  her  abbey 
and  wished  tp  marry  her.  This  shocked  people  very 
much,  because  it  was  against  the  laws  of  the  Church  ;  so 
he  was  forced  to  leave  England  and  went  off  to  Flanders, 
and  his  earldom  was  given  to  Harold  his  brother,  and  to 
his  cousin  Biorn  or  Bear,  brother  of  Sweyn,  king  of  Den- 
mark, who  had  had  an  earldom  in  the  middle  of  England. 
After  he  had  been  away  but  a  little  while  he  came  home 
and  prayed  the  king  to  forgive  him  and  give  him  back 
his  earldom.  But  Harold  and  Biorn  would  not  give 
up  the  rule  of  it  to  him,  so  the  king  would  not  let  him 
stay  in  England.  Then  wSweyn  enticed  Biorn  to  come 
on  board  his  ship  and  go  with  him  to  plead  for  him 
to  the  king.  But  when  Biorn  was  on  board  he  slew  him. 
For  this  evil  deed  Sweyn  was  outlawed  by  all  the  people, 
and  most  of  his  friends  forsook  him.  And  Harold  had 
Biorn  buried  in  great  honour.  But  Sweyn  repented  of 
the  treacherous  deed  that  he  had  done  in  his  wrath,  and 
the  good  bishop  Eldred  prayed  the  king  and  the  Wise 
Men  to  forgive  him,  so  he  was  inlawed,  and  his  earldom 
was  given  back  to  him. 

3.  Now,  Sweyn  king  of  Denmark  and  king  Edward 
King  Sweyn  werc  friends;  for  they  were  related  through 
nf  Denmark,  (j^e  house  of  Godwin,  and  Sweyn  had  helped 
Edward   against   Magnus  ;   but   king    Magnus  gathered 


A.n.  1046  1050.    Edivard  the  Cotifcssor.  lOT 

another  great  host  against  Swcyn,  so  that  he  was  hard  put 
to  it  to  hold  his  own.  So  he  sent  to  pray  Edwa/d  to  help 
him.  Godwin  spoke  for  his  kinsmen,  and  would  have  fifty 
ships  sent ;  but  Leofric  and  most  of  the  Wise  Men  were 
against  this.  So  no  help  was  sent  to  Swevii;  but  when 
Henry,  the  Emperor,  quarrelled  with  Baldwin  of  Flanders, 
the  English  sent  him  help.  Sweyn  was  driven  from  his 
kingdom  ;  but  Magnus  died  not  long  after,  Lnd  hts  uncle 
Harold  Hardrada  (the  stern  of  counsel),  whc*  had  reigned 
with  him  part  of  his  reign,  reigned  alone  in  his  stead. 
Then  Sweyn  soon  got  back  his  kingdom. 

4.  In  Wales  about  this  time  there  w<re  two  great 
kings  called  Griffith,  who  were  nearly  always  hghting 
against  each  other  and  against  the  English.  WeUhand 
While  Sweyn  Godwin's  son  was  away,  the  EUred. 
South  Welsh  king  joined  the  fleet  of  the  Danish  sea- 
rovers  and  made  a  raid  into  England.  But  Eldred 
gathered  together  against  them  all  the  men  who  dwelt  on 
the  border  ;  but  the  Welsh  that  were  with  him  turned 
upon  him  and  joined  their  brethren  when  the  battle 
began,  and  he  was  defeated  and  most  of  his  men  slain. 

5.  In  1050,  Edward  made  Robert,  a  Norman  monk, 
arciibishop  of  Canterbury.  He  had  before  been  bishop 
of  London.     He  was  a  great  foe  to  Godwin     ^.y^^ 

and  his  house,  so  that  he  tilled  the  ears  of  the  (oreigners 
king  with  stories  against  them.  By  his  advice  Godwm^'  ' 
many  Normans  were  set  in  bishoprics  and  °"'''»«ed. 
high  places  in  England.  They  did  no  good,  but  built 
castles  and  strongholds,  that  they  might  be  safe  against 
any  attack  from  the  English,  and  could  oppress  them  as 
they  would. 

One  day  the  king's  brother-in-law  Eustace,  who  was 
a  Frenchman,  had  been  to  see  the  king,  and  was  riding 
back  to  the  sea  to  pass  over  to  his  own  earldom  of 
Boulogne.      W'hen    he   and    his    men    came    to    Dover 


102  Early  England.  a.d.   1050. 

they  behaved  lawlessly  and  wished  to  make  the  towns- 
men lodge  them  where  they  would.  And  one  of  them 
struck  a  townsman.  Then  a  fight  began,  and  many  were 
slain  on  either  side  ;  but  at  last  the  men  of  Dover  drove 
them  out  of  the  town.  Then  Eustace  rode  back  to  the 
king  and  complained  of  the  Dover  folk,  and  to!d  the  story 
his  own  way.  The  King  was  very  angry,  and  bade  God- 
win the  earl  go  and  punish  them.  But  Godwin  said  he 
would  not  till  they  also  had  been  heard,  and  he  told  the 
king  that  the  Frenchmen  ought  to  be  punished.  Then 
the  king  sent  for  Leofric  and  Siward  ;  and  Godwin  sum- 
moned his  folk,  and  it  was  like  to  have  come  to  a  battle 
between  the  two  armies.  But  Leofric  thought  it  better 
that  the  Wise  Men  should  be  called  together  to  settle  the 
matter.  When  the  Wise  Men  met  they  outlawed  Sweyn 
again,  and  called  Godwin  and  Harold,  his  son,  to  come 
alone  before  them  ;  but  they  would  not  come  unless  safe- 
conducts  were  given  them.  So  the  Wise  T-en  outlawed 
Godwin  and  his  kin.  Then  Godwin,  Sweyn,  and  Gurth, 
his  sons,  went  to  Flanders,  where  Tostig,  another  son  of 
his,  had  just  been  married  to  Judith,  Baldwin's  daughter. 
But  Harold  went  to  Ireland,  to  Dermot,  king  of  Leinster, 
a  great  friend  of  the  house  of  Godwin.  And  Edward  sent 
his  wife,  Godwin's  daughter,  into  a  nunnery,  and  Harold's 
earldom    he  gave   to   Elfgar  Leofric's  son. 

6.  While    Godwin    was    away    William    duke    of   Nor- 
mandy  came    to   visit    Edward   in    England,  and  the  king 
who  was  childless,   is    said    then    to  have  pro- 
Normandy       mised   him    the   kingdom    at  his   death.      This 
In  Engian  .     wiuiani   came  to   the  dukedom    when  he  was 

but  seven  years  old,  after  his  father  Kobert  who  died 
while  he  was  away  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem.  He  had 
hard  work  to  keep  his  dukedom  when  he  was  young,  for 
the  Norman  nobles  were  very  proud  and  restless,  and 
looked  down  on  him  because  his  mother  was  the  daughter 


A-D.I050.  Edward  the  Confessor.  103 

of  a  tanner.  And  when  he  grew  older,  his  neighbour 
the  king  of  France  coveted  his  duchy,  though  at  first  he 
had  helped  him,  because  he  thought  he  could  do  as  he 
liked  seeing  that  William  was  so  young.  But  by  his  great 
skill  and  bravery  he  had  overcome  all  his  foes,  and  was  now 
one  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  age.  He  was  very  tall  and 
strong,  and  a  strict  but  just  ruler,  who  had  the  gift  of 
choosing  good  men  for  his  servants,  unlike  Edward  in 
this.  He  was  very  good  to  the  Church,  and  built  splen- 
did minsters.  But  he  was  very  stern,  and  when  he  wished 
anything  he  would  have  it,  and  recked  of  no  man  or  thing 
that  stood  in  his  way.  He  was  very  fond  of  hunting,  and 
passed  as  much  of  his  time  as  he  could  spare  in  thai 
sport.  He  was  a  great  archer,  and  his  bow  few  men  but 
he  could  bend.  In  this  taste  Edward  was  like  him  ; 
for  though  he  was  a  pious  man  he  thought  more  of  hunt- 
ing than  anything  else  but  the  Church. 

7.  Things  went  ill  while  Godwin  was  away.  Griffith 
of  North  Wales  broke  into  England  ^nd  did  much 
damage  ;  and  Harold  ravaged  the  South  coast.  Godwin 
At  last  Godwin  and  Harold  gathered  a  great  inlawed 
fleet  and  sailed  to  London  ;  and  the  king  gatnered  all  the 
men  he  could  against  them.  But  Stigand  proposed  as 
before  that  the  Wise  Men  should  judge  between  them. 
They  inlawed  Godwin  and  his  kin,  and  the  queen  was 
taken  back  by  the  king.  But  Robert  the  Norman  and  the 
Frenchmen,  whom  Edward  loved,  took  horse  when  they 
heard  this  news  and  rode  through  London,  cutting  and 
hewing  at  all  in  their  way  till  they  got  to  the  river  ;  then 
they  took  ship  and  went  to  Normandy.  Stigand  was 
made  archbishop  in  Robert's  room,  for  he  was  a  great 
friend  of  Godwin.  But  Robert  was  very  angry  at  this, 
and  never  ceased  complaining  to  the  Pope  and  the 
duke  and  the  princes  abroad  of  the  loss  which  he  had 
suffered.     And  as  he  told  the  story  bis  own  way  many 


104  Early  England.        a.d 

thought  the  English  had  done  wrong  and  that  they  were 
impious  folk. 

8.  Soon  after  this,  in  1053,  it  is  said  that  Godwin  was 
sitting  at  meat  with  the  king,  and  the  king  was  being 
served  by  Harold  and  Tostig,  Godwin's  sons.  One  of 
them  slipped,  and  the  other  helped  him.  Then  said 
(Godwin,  '  So  brother  helps  brother.'  But  the  king  said, 
Godwin's  '  '^^>'  brother  would  have  helped  me  hadst  thou 
death.  not  slain  him.'  And  Godwin  said,  '  If  I  slew 
thy  brother  or  had  a  hand  in  his  death  may  this  piece  of 
bread  choke  me.'  Then  he  broke  a  piece  of  bread  and  put 
it  in  his  mouth,  but  it  stuck  in  his  throat  and  choked  him, 
and  he  fell  down  and  never  spoke  again.  And  all  men 
marvelled  that  the  words  which  he  had  spoken  were  ful- 
filled. Then  the  king  bade  them  cast  his  body  out  like  a 
dog's  for  his  false  oath  and  his  evil  deed.  But  this  story 
is  told  by  the  Normans,  who  hated  Godwin,  and  it  is  not 
likely  to  be  true.  The  English  mourned  greatly  for  Godwin, 
for  b.e  upheld  England  and  did  right  while  he  ruled,  and 
advised  the  king  well  ;  and  he  hated  the  foreigners,  whom 
they  also  hated.  Now  that  he  was  dead  all  men's  eyes 
were  turned  to  Harold,  and  he  was  made  earl  of  Wessex 
after  his  father,  and  had  the  greatest  power  all  Edwards 
days,  so  that  no  man  did  anything  against  his  will,  and 
he  advised  the  king  well. 

9.  In  those  days  Macbeth  slew  king  Duncan  and 
became  king  of  all  Scotland  in  his  place.  But  Duncan's 
kin  went  to  Siward  the  Big,  who  received  them  well,  and 
fought  for  Malcolm  against  Macbeth.  In  the  end  .Mac- 
beth was  slain,  and  Malcolm  Big-head  became  king  of 
Scotland.  In  1055  Siward  died.  When  he  felt  that  his 
death  was  near  he  arose  from  his  bed  and  called  for  his 
coat  of  mail,  and  put  it  on.  and  took  his  sword  in  his 
hand,  and  died  so,  sitting  in  his  chair  ;  for  he  said  he 
would  not  die  like  a  cow,  but  hke  a  soldier  in  mail.     His 


*.D.  1055  1063.  f^dzvard  the  Confessor.  IC5 

earldom  was  given  to  Tostig  Godwin  s  son,  f.-r  Waltheof 
the  Big,  Siward's  son,  was  as  yet  a  child. 

10.  About  this  time  earl  Elfgar,  snn  of  Leofric,  was 
twice  outlawed,  and  twice  he  got  the  Welsh  king  to  join 
him  in  attacking  England.  But  peace  was  made  by  his 
father,  who  soon  after  died  ;  and  Griffith,  king  of  Wales, 
married  Elfgars  daughter  Edith.  Earl  Harold 
was  at  this  time  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  ^^  ^^*''**'' 

And  now  Edward,  son  of  Edmund  Ironside,  and  his 
children  came  home  to  England.  But  he  died  soon  after 
he  landed,  and  his  children  were  brought  up  by  the  king. 

In  1063  there  was  a  great  war  with  Griffith,  the  Welsh 
king,  who  was  now  king  of  all  Wales,  for  he  would  not 
keep  the  peace,  but  plundered  the  English  border  ;  so 
Harold  and  Tostig  went  against  him  with  a  fleet  and  an 
army.  At  last  they  beat  him,  and  he  bowed  to  the  Eng- 
lish king.  But  his  own  folk  slew  him  soon  after  because 
of  the  trouble  he  had  brought  upon  them.  His  head  and 
the  prow  of  his  ship  were  sent  to  king  Edward  ;  and  his 
realm  was  given  to  his  brothers,  and  they  swore  to  be 
faithful  to  the  English  king. 

I  r.  About  this  time  Harold  was  out  in  a  ship  with  his 
brother,  and  was  driven   to  the  coast  of  France.     The 
earl  of  the  place  where  he  was  wrecked  put 
him   in   prison.       But   William,  the    Norman     Duke  wl- 
duke,   made   the   earl   bet    Harold   free,   and     •'^"ourt. 
brought  hun  to  his  court.     There  he  stayed  some  while 
and   helped    William  in  his  war  against   the   people   of 
Brittany.     And  William  made  him  swear  that  he  would 
help  him  to  be  king  of  England  when  Edward  died,  and 
Harold  had  to  swear  this,  for  he  was  in  William's  power. 
12.   Soon  Tostig  antl  the  Northumbrians  fell  out,  foi 
they  were  a  very  wild  and  lawless  folk,  and     Earl  Tostig 
Tostig  was  over-stern,  and  at  last  slew  some     outlawed- 
of  rhem  at  a  feast  to  which  he  bade  them.     So  the  men  d 


lo6  Eaj'ly  England.        a. d.  1063- 1066. 

Northumberland  chose  Morcar  Elfgar's  son  to  be  their  earl 
in  Tostig's  stead.  Then  Tostig  went  to  king  Edward,  to 
pray  for  his  help;  for  Edward  and  Edith  loved  him  best  ol 
all  the  house  of  Godwin.  And  Edwin,  Morcar's  brother,  who 
had  succeeded  his  father  Elfgar  in  his  earldom,  brought 
an  army  of  Marchmen  and  Welshmen  to  help  Morcar. 
Harold  tried  to  make  peace,  and  get  the  Northumber- 
land men  who  had  marched  South  to  take  back  Tostig; 
but  they  would  not.  When  the  Wise  Men  judged  the 
matter  they  outlawed  Tostig;  and  he  went  away  to  Bald- 
win, his  father-in-law  ;  but  Edward  was  veiy  wroth  at  this. 

13.  In  1066  Edward  died,  .4nd  he  was  buried  in  West- 
Edward's  miustcr  Abbey,  which  he  had  built.  And  all 
death.  men  held  him  a  saint,  and  he  was  called  Con- 

fessor for  his  zeal  for  the  Church. 

Edward  was  a  handsome  man  and  of  goodly  presence 
his  hair  and  his  beard  were  white  as  snow.  He  was  very 
pious,  and  did  his  best  to  rule  well,  and  in  his  ci.vs 
England  was  mighty  and  at  peace  from  foreign  foes.  Bu< 
he  was  weak  and  often  took  bad  advice  ;  he  %vas  quick- 
tempered also,  and  through  this  sometimes  unjust.  But 
men  loved  his  memory,  for  they  remembered  the  good 
days  when  he  was  a  king  in  the  evil  days  that  fell  on 
England  after  his  death. 

CHAPTER    II. 

HAROLD     GODWIN'S     SON. — A.D.   I066. 

I.  Before  Edward  died  he  advised  the  Wise  Men  to 
choose  Harold  king  after  him,  and  they  did  so,  and  Eldred 
Harold  and  archbishop  of  York,  Clowned  him  king.  Soon 
William.  after  he  married  Griftith's  widow,  the  sister  of 

Edwin  and  Morcar.  WhenWilliam  heard  all  this  he  was  so 
angry  that  he  could  hardly  speak,  for  he  remembered  tb« 


I 


A.D.  io66.  Harold  Godwin  s  Son.  107 

promise  of  king  Edward  and  the  oath  that  Harold  had 
sworn.  And  he  determined  to  be  king  of  England  and 
thrust  Harold  out.  So  he  persuaded  his  nobles  to  join 
him  ;  and  he  fitted  out  a  large  fleet  and  hired  soldiers  from 
all  parts  till  he  had  a  large  army.  And  he  sent  to  the 
Pope  and  told  him  how  Harold  had  broken  his  oaths. 
Also,  he  promised  the  Pope  great  gifts  and  much  gold  when 
he  became  king  of  England,  if  he  would  bless  his  enter- 
prise. The  Pope,  hearing  these  things  and  the  complaints 
of  Robert,  and  all  the  evil  stories  that  the  Normans  told 
of  the  English  and  the  house  of  Godwin,  blessed  Wil- 
liam's undertaking  and  sent  him  a  holy  banner. 

Harold,  also,  gathered  a  large  fleet  to  defend  England, 
and  it  is  said  that  the  two  fleets  fought  a  battle,  and  that 
the  English  drove  the  Normans  back. 

2.  When    Harold   was   made    king,   Tostig    went   to 
William   to   ask   help   to  get   back  his  earldom,  which 
Harold  would  not  g^ve  him.       Hut  William     xostie  and 
would  promise  nothing  ;  so  he  went  on  to  the     Kings  of 
king  of  Sweden  and  prayed  him  to  try  and     and 
conquer  England,  as  his  kinsman  Canute  had     Norway, 
done.     But  Sweyn  said  he  had  much  ado  to  keep  Den- 
mark.    Then  Tostig  went  to  Harold  Hardrada,  king  of 
Norway,  and  prayed  him  to  try  and  conquer  England, 
which    had    been    promised   to    his    nephew    Magnus. 
Harold  Hardrada  at  last  consented  ;  though  some  of  his 
great  men  advised  him  not  to  try  this  great  deed  and 
jeopard  his  life  and  kingdom  ;  for  they  said  the  guard  of 
Harold  Godwin's  son  were  the  best  soldiers  in  the  world, 
and  that  one  of  them  was  as  good  as  any  two  other  men. 

3.  King  Harold  Hardrada  was  a  very  famous  warrior; 
he  had  fought  by  the  side  of  his  brother  when   he  was 
only  fourteen,  and  was  wounded  in  the  great     Harold 
battle  where  he  fell.     He  had  passed  a  great     Hardrada. 
part  of  his  youth  in  Russia,  where  kings  of  Swedish  blood 


,  Early  England.  — ^^• 

^°  A    he  had  gone  mto  the  service  of 

^,,  ,,led.     Aftenvards  he  ^^^^  ,,  ,,d  had  com- 

the  Emperor  of  the  E--^^^;,^,,  ,,  Jerusalem  also,  and 
manded  his  guards.     He  ha  ^^^^^^^^^ean,  and  had 

fought  with  the  heathen  m  t  e  ^^^^  ^  ^^^^  ^^^ 

slafn  a  great  snake  or  crocod.le^     ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^^^^       , 
and  w>se  as  well  as  b-ve^  a         ^^^^^_     ^^  ^^ 

active  that  there  were  few  me  ^^^^  ^ 

very  rich,  for  he  had  brough  .^|^^  ^^.^^  ^^  ^^^,,,  ,,e 
roving  ;    and  he   got  s 

Emperor  of  the  East.  ^^.^  ^^^  ,he  Orkneys 

;  Harold,  with  a  grea^^  fleet,  They  landed 

.nd  Tostig  met  h>m  f^^\,,,.     Then  Edwm  and 
at  the  Tyne-mouth   a  mighty  ^^^^  ^^^^  .^  ^  ^,,,e  fight, 

Morcar  met  them ;  ^^^/;^'°    ^^      ace  with  him. 

and  the  men  of  ^"^^f  ^Tj^fj^  son  heard   of  this  he 
But  when   Harold   Godwins  ^^   ^^  ^^^^^    ^^^ 

gathered  his  guard  a-^^^^^^,  Roman  Way  against 
^      ,,         marched  noith  up  tn  ^e 

I^S::'         his  brother  and   ^be  king jj  ^^^^^^^  ,,,e 

came  on  them  ^^^7^^^^' ^'  "t  were  with  the  king  and 
::  their  ships,  and  ;^^;;^   ,tlu  on,  for  the  day  was  very 
Tostig  had  not  their  -^'^^^^^^^^  i,  sight  Tostig  coun- 
hot.     When  the  E^g^^^^,^°'\'he  ships  to  the  rest  of  the 
selled  Harold  to  go  back  to  the  s    p         ^^^^^^  ^^^^, 

Ifmy  and  fight  the  ^^f^^^  sent   messengers   to 
vada  would  not   give  way^  b^  ^.^  ^^^      Then  he 

Eystein,  his  marshal,  to   bring     F  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^ 

Tode  through  his  host  -^^^l^^^^^,^  and  he  fell ;  but 
n  array.  As  he  rode  ^l^^^o^^  ^Id  song, '  A  fall  .s 
He  got  up  and  said  ^J^^.^f^Harold  Godwin's  son  saw 
lucky  for  a  traveller.     But  whe  ^  ^^^^^  .^  ^  ^  „ 

him  fall  and  knew  ^^o  it  was,  he  ^^^^  ^^  ^^ 

an"  fair  of  face,  but  ^-  ^^^^^^  ^^f^e  two  hosts  up  to  the 
^n"^rlT-d\X^  out,'Is  Tostig  Godwms 
Northmen  s  army, 


A.D.  io66.  Harold  Godwin' s  Son.  109 

son  here  ?'   And  Tostig  came  forth.    Then  he  said, '  Harold 
offers  Tostig  peace  and  a  third  of  his   Icingdom,  for  he 
would    not    that    brother   should    fight  brother.'     Tostig 
answered,  '  What  shall  be  given  to  Harold  of  Norwav  for 
his  journey  hither."     And   Harold   said,  '  Seven   feet  of 
English  ground,  or  a  foot  over,  for  he  is  taller  than  other 
men.'     But  Tostig  answered,  '  It  shall  never  be  said  that 
Tostig  left  his  friends  in  the  lurch  for  the  offers  of  his 
foes.     We  will  either  win  England  by  our  swords  or  die 
here  like  men.'      Now,  Harold  Hardrada  was  by  them 
and  heard   all  that  was  said,  and  he  asked  who  it   was 
that  spoke  so  well.     Tostig  told  him,  '  It  was  my  brothei 
Harold.'     Then  said   the  king,  '  If  1  had  known  this  he 
should  not  have  gone  back  to  tell  of  our  folks'  death.' 
But  Tostig  said,  '  He  did  unwisely  in   this  :  but  1  might 
not  betray  my  brother  who  offered  me  such  great  things; 
and  I  would  rather  that  he  should  slay  me  than    1  him, 
if  one   of   us   two  must    die.'      Harold    Hardrada    said 
to  them   that  were  with  him,  '  That  was  a   little  man,  but 
he  sat  well  in  his  stirrups.'     Then  he  put  on   his  coat 
of  mail  and  took  his   sword  in   both  hands,  and  stood  in 
front  of  his  banner,  which  was  called  Land  Waster.    And 
the  English  fell  upon  the  Northmen  ;  but  they  kept  their 
array  till   the   fight  waxed   so   tierce  tha<  they  grew  too 
eager  and  broke  their  ranks.     Then   the   English  drove 
them  l^ck  to  the  River   Derwent  behind  them,  and  they 
fell  back  across  the  river  as  well  as  they  could.     And  the 
English  pressed  hard  on  them.     IJut  one  Northman  kept 
the  bridge  against  the  English   till  most  of  his   fellows 
were  across,  and  many   Englishmen  he  slew,  till  one  got 
under   the    bridge   and    thrust   up  a  spear  through   the 
plank,  and  it  struck  him  under  the  belt,  and  then  he  fell. 
When  the  English  got  over  the  bridge,  the  Northmen 
formed  up  again,  and  king  Harold   Hardrada  went  in 
from  of   bis  host    and  fought  so  fiercely  that  no  man 


no  Early  England.  \.d.  1066. 

could  stand  before  him,  for  he  slew  all  that  he  could 
strike  at.  At  last  an  arrow  hit  him  in  the  throat  over  his 
mail  coat,  a.id  that  was  his  death- wound.  Then  Tostig 
went  up  to  the  banner  in  his  place.  Harold  Godwin's  son 
again  offered  his  brother  peace  and  quarter  to  the  North- 
men. But  they  all  cried  out, '  We  will  take  no  peace  from 
the  English,  but  rather  fall  one  man  over  another  where 
we  stand.'  And  now  Eystein  came  up  from  the  ships 
and  the  fiercest  fight  began,  and  the  English  were  hard 
put  to  it,  till  the  Northmen  grew  so  wroth  that  they  threw 
down  their  shields  and  fought  like  madinen.  But  the 
English  kept  cool  and  fought  on  warily,  and  at  last  when 
Tostig  and  the  chief  men  were  slain  the  Northmen  gave 
way  and  Bed  to  their  ships.  And  it  was  now  evening. 
Next  day  Harold  Godwin's  son  made  peace  with  Harold's 
sons.  Then  they  put  to  sea  and  went  back  home.  And 
Harold  king  of  England  went  to  York  and  kept  a  feast 
there. 

5.  Four  days  after  "this  battle  William  landed  with  all 
his  host  at  Pevensey,  for  the  English  fleet  was  up  North 
William's  with  Harold.  He  set  up  a  castle  of  wood 
landing.  ^^^  Hastings  and  ravaged   the  land  all  round. 

When  news  of  this  was  brought  to  Harold,  he  marched 
South  to  London  with  his  guard,  bidding  Edwin  and 
Morcar  gather  their  men  and  follow  him.  But  they  held 
back  ;  for  they  thought  that  if  Harold  was  slain  they 
would  share  England  with  William.  Then  Harold 
gathered  the  men  of  Kent  and  of  London  and  many 
country  folk,  and  marched  from  London  to  Senlac,  near 
Hastings,  and  lay  on  the  hill  there  by  a  hoar  apple-tree. 
There  were  with  him  Gurth  and  Leofwin,  his  brothers,  and 
most  of  his  kin.  Gurth  begged  Harold  to  lay  waste  the 
land,  that  William  might  not  get  food  or  march  on,  and 
then  go  back  himself  to  London  and  gather  forces  there 
and  leave  him  to  fight  William,  instead  of  Harold,  because 


I 
I 


A.D. io66.  Harold  Godwins  Son.  iri 

of  the  oath  which  Harold  had  sworn.  But  Harold  said, 
*  I  was  made  king  to  cherish  this  folk  ;  how  shall  1  lay 
waste  this  land  of  theirs?  Nor  does  it  befit  an  English 
king  to  turn  from  his  foes.     Hut  ihy  advice  is  wise.' 

6.  Now,  William  and  his  men  lay  m  the  open  land 
below.  And  both  hosts  made  ready  for  the  fight  that 
was  to  be  fought  on  the  morrow.  The  Eng-  Battle  of 
lish  spent  the  night  watching  by  their  fires,  Hastings, 
singing  merrily,  and  eating  and  drinking.  The  Normans 
did  not  feast  ;  but  Odo,  bishop  of  Bayeux,  \\  illiam's 
brother,  went  through  the  host  praying  with  the  men. 
On  the  morrow  both  hosts  were  set  in  array.  Harold 
had  made  a  strong  pale  of  stakes  along  the  front  of  his 
line,  and  in  the  centre,  by  his  two  standards  (the  golden 
dragon  of  England,  and  his  own  with  ilie  image  of  a 
fighting  man  on  ii)  he  set  his  guard  and  the  men  of  Kent 
and  London.  They  were  all  armed  in  coats  of  mail,  and 
had  great  two-handed  axes  and  broadswords  and  javelins. 
But  at  the  back  and  sides  of  the  hill  he  put  his  worst  sol- 
diers and  the  country  folk,  who  were  ill-armed  with  darts 
and  slings  and  clubs.  The  English  all  fought  on  foot,  as 
was  the  custom  in  the  North.  Harold  bade  his  men  keep 
the  pale  and  drive  off  their  enemies  ;  but  he  told  them  not 
to  leave  their  posts,  or  the  Normans  would  get  inside  and 
drive  them  off  the  hill. 

William  set  his  men  in  order  also.  In  the  midst  he 
and  his  brother  were  with  the  Norman  knights,  all  on 
horseback,  clad  in  coats  of  mail,  with  long  lances  in  their 
hands,  and  broadswords  by  their  sides ;  there  too  was  the 
banner  which  the  Pope  had  hallowed.  In  front  were  the 
archers,  of  whom  he  had  a  great  many,  but  tliey  were 
on  foot  On  the  right  he  put  the  French  knights  who 
were  with  him,  and  on  the  left  the  men  of  Brittany  ;  for 
he  was  over-lord  of  Brittany.  The  first  man  that  began 
the  attack  was  a  Norman   minstrel,  who  rode  up  against 


112  Early  England.  a.  d.  1066 

the  English,  throwing  up  his  sword  and  catching  it,  and 
singing  a  war-song  of  Charles  the  Great  Emperor's  mighty 
deeds.  He  slew  two  Englishmen  who  came  forth  against 
him  before  he  was  slain  himself.  Then  the  battle  was 
joined.  The  Normans  charged  up  against  the  English; 
but  the  English  kept  the  pale  and  cut  down  man  and 
horse  with  their  great  axes.  In  vain  the  Normans 
tried  twice  over  to  break  their  line.  Then  they  began  to 
give  back,  and  men  cried  out  that  Wilham  was  slain  ;  but 
he  threw  off  his  helmet,  that  all  might  know  him  and  cried, 
'  I  live,  and  will  yet  win  the  day  by  God's  help,'  And  he 
and  his  brother  Odo  again  got  their  men  in  array  and 
charged  again  up  the  hill.  William  and  Odo  fought  ever 
foremost,  and  at  last  they  got  close  up  to  the  English 
standards.  Gurth  threw  a  spear  at  William,  which  missed 
him  and  slew  his  horse.  But  William  slew  Gurth  with 
his  sword  ;  there  fell  also  Leofwin,  his  brother,  and  many 
Normans  and  English.  But  the  Nomians  got  on  best  on 
the  right,  for  there  they  broke  down  the  pale. 

Then  William,  to  make  the  English  leave  their  post, 
ordered  his  men  to  pretend  to  flee.  And  when  the  Eng- 
lish saw  them  turn  they  disobeyed  Harold  and  rushed 
down  after  them,  leaving  the  hill  bare.  Then  the  Normans 
turned  and  smote  them  in  the  open  field  and  pressed  on 
to  the  hill-top,  where  Harold  and  his  guard  were  nearly 
alone;  but  though  they  were  now  fighting  on  level  ground 
they  could  not  drive  back  Harold  and  his  guards.  So 
William  ordered  his  archers  to  shoot  up  into  the  air,  that 
the  arrows  might  fall  upon  the  English;  for  they  could  not 
use  their  shields,  as  they  had  both  hands  to  their  axes. 
One  arrow  struck  Harold  in  the  eye,  and  he  fell  dying  at 
the  foot  of  his  standard.  Then  the  Norflians  made  a  last 
rush,  beat  off  the  English  and  broke  down  the  stan- 
dards, and  Eustace  and  three  other  knights  slew  Harold 
as  he  lay  on  the  ground  and  mangled  his  body.     But  the 


A.D. io66.  Harold  Godwin's  Soil.  ri3 

English  drew  off  hghting  to  the  last,  and  many  of  the 
Normans  that  followed  them  were  slain,  for  they  turned 
on  them  in  a  swampy  place,  where  their  horses  were  of 
no  use. 

7.  William  pitched  his  tent  among  the  dead  on  the 
height  where  the  standards  had  stood,  and  his  host 
stayed  there  all  night.  Next  day  there  came  Harold's 
many  English  women  to  bury  their  dead  ;  bunal. 
for  William  gave  them  leave;  but  though  Harold's  mother 
offered  its  weight  in  gold  for  his  body  he  would  not  give 
it  her.  But  when  it  was  found  mangled  under  a  heap  of 
dead  by  an  English  lady — Edith  Swan's-neck,  whom 
Harold  had  dearly  loved — he  bade  them  bury  it  under  a 
stone-heap  on  the  cliffs,  for  he  said,  '  He  kept  the  shore 
well  while  he  lived ;   let  him  keep  it  now  he  is  dead.' 

So  fell  the  last  Old-English  king  fighting  against 
the  foreigners.  And  after  a  while  William  was  chosen 
king  of  the  English,  for  there  was  no  man  now  that  could 
withstand  his  might  ;  and  Edgar,  the  son  of  Edward 
Etheling,  Edmund  Ironside's  son,  whom  some  would 
have  made  king,  was  hardly  old  or  wise  enough  to  rule, 
even  if  they  could  have  driven  out  William. 

Harold  was  a  good  king,  and  ruled  well  during  his 
short  reign.  He  was  a  very  active  man,  and  never  rested 
when  anything  was  to  be  done.  He  was  very  just,  too,  and 
he  was  much  beloved  by  the  English  for  his  good  rule 
and  the  way  in  which  he  put  down  the  Welsh  and  forced 
them  into  peace.  Hut,  like  his  father,  he  did  not  get  on 
well  with  the  Church;  for  he  disliked  Edward's  foreign 
priests  and  bishops,  and  did  not  favour  the  monks.  !'. 
shows  what  a  g'ood  ruler  the  English  must  have  tiiought 
him  that  they  made  him  king  ;  though  he  was  not  of  the 
royal  blood  of  the  English  kings  who  sprung  from  Woden, 
whom  men  worshipped  in  the  heathen  days,  but  only  of 
k;3  to  the  Danish  kings. 

«.  H.  I 


114  Early  England.  book  vin 

CHAPTER   III. 

CHANGES     IN     E  N  i ",  L  A  N  D . 

1.  The  battle  of  Hastings,  though  it  only  made 
William  ruler  at  first  over  part  of  England,  yet  by  the 
What  fol-  death  of  Harold  really  gave  him  his  crown. 
Harolds  Though  parts  of  England  held  out  against 
death.  him  for  years,  yet  in  the  end  he  brought  it 
all  under  him.  The  battle  of  Hastings  was  not  a  battle 
that  the  English  need  be  ashamed  of,  for  they  fought 
steadfastly;  and  if  Harold  had  only  lived  no  doubt  William's 
army  would  have  been  too  weak  to  stand  against  the  fresh 
English  levies  which  he  could  have  brought  up.  Now, 
too,  the  English  had  no  great  leader,  for  no  other  English- 
man was  as  good  a  conunander  as  Harold.  If  Harold 
had  hved  the  English  would  have  had  some  centre 
to  rally  round  ;  but  as  it  was  each  man  looked  to  his 
own  interest.  The  Northmen  stood  by  Edwin  and  Mor- 
car,  the  South  English  wished  for  Edgar  Etheling,  and 
the  East  English  would  fain  have  had  a  Danish  king. 
It  was  this  want  of  union,  and  no  want  of  bravery,  that 
overcame  them. 

2.  For  though  the  great  English  kings  had  brought 
the  smaller  kingdoms  under  their  power,  yet  it  was  the 
.-       f,        foreign  kin^s,  and  William  most  of  all,  that 

rate  of  the  e>  n    i  ) 

Great  Earl-  made  England  one.  Even  Canute  founded 
the  power  of  the  great  families  whose  quarrels 
still  kept  the  different  parts  of  the  country  separate 
during  Edward's  reign.  But  with  Harold  the  power  of 
Godwin's  sons  fell.  Edwin  and  Morcar  were  forced 
to  submit  ;  and  Waltheof  Siward's  son  was  still  ver)' 
young.  So  that  William,  taking  care  to  prevent  the  rise 
of  any  new  families  which  might  get  a  like  power,  at  last 
made  England  completely  one.    Really  the  whole  history 


CHAP.  III.  Changes  in  England.  1 1 5 

of  England,  from  the  days  when  it  became  Christian  till 
the  Norman  Conquest,  is  the  story  of  struggles  for  this 
end,  and  this  is  what  we  have  tried  to  trace. 

It  was  a  good  thing  that  England  should  be  one  ;  for 
only  by  all  Englishmen  standing  and  working  together 
could  the  great  things  which  have  been  done  in  England 
have  been  brought  about. 

3.  The  English  had  been  gradually  getting  from  a 
state  of  things  in  which  every  man  held  his  own   land 
freely  and  every  shire  managed  its  own  busi-      p^u^aiism 
ness   by    itself   to   what   is    called   a  feudal 
government,  where   every    man    was    under   some   lord 
of  whom   he  held   his   land,  and  the  lords  were   under 
the  king,  of  whom   they  held  theirs,  on  condition  that 
they  fought  for  him  and  helped  him  in  every  way.    As  the 
lords  grew  powerful  they  became  unjust  and  oppressed 
their  tenants,  and  the  smaller  people  gradually  fell  into 
a  complete  state  of  slavery  to  the  lords,  which  caused 
many  evils.     But  William  knew  the  mischief  of  this,  and 
did  his  best  to  stop  it  in  England,  by  keeping  up  the  older 
English  laws.    Thus  he  ordered  that  every  one,  no  matter 
whose  man  he  was,  should  swear  to  obey  the  king.     For 
the  feudal  lords  held  that  if  tJiey  ma'e  war  on  the  king 
all  their  servants  must  fight  in  their  lords' quarrel,  though 
they  also  were  the  king's  subjects;  but  this  king  William 
would  not  brook,  and  he  made  all  men  swear  to  obey  him 
and  be  fiithful  to  him  whosever  lord's  they  were. 

This  and  much  other  good  which  the  coming  of 
William  did,  will  be  told  in  the  story  of  his  reign. 

4.  We  have  brought  the  History  of  England  and  the 
English  folk  down  through  si.x  hundred  years.  And  we 
see   that    our  forefathers  were  very  like  the     ^    ,     . 

....  England 

English  of  to-day.  There  was  the  lord,  like  under  the 
the  squire  and  rich  folk  of  to-day ;  and  the  yeo-  ^'"  ^'"^ 
man,  like  our  farmer  ;  and  the  thralls  and  landless  men, 


1 16  Early  England. 


BOOK  VIII. 


like  our  labourers  and  workmen.  There  were  traders  too, 
for  the  English  under  their  later  kings  began  to  go  abroad 
much  mo!>;  and  trade  with  other  lands. 

The  cities,  also,  by  the  time  of  the  Norman  Con- 
quest were  filled  with  folk :  for  the  English  as  they 
became  less  rude  began  to  live  in  towns,  and  to  trade 
more  with  foreign  countries.  Moreover,  the  coming  of  the 
Danes  and  the  great  empire  of  Canute  on  the  coasts  of 
;he  North  Sea  had  brought  the  English  to  take  more  to 
the  sea  and  a  seafaring  life,  which  they  had  given  over  a 
good  deal  when  they  came  and  settled  in  England.  The 
Danes  who  settled  here  were  great  sailors,  and  at  London 
there  were  many  of  them,  so  that  it  soon  became  the 
mightiest  city  in  England. 

There  were  parish  priests  in  every  village,  and  besides 
these  there  were  many  houses  of  monks ;  so  that  the 
Christian  religion  had  quite  as  much  power  as  it  has 
to-day,  and  perhaps  more. 

But  the  great  change  that  took  place  during  the  time 
we  have  written  of  is,  that  the  Englishman  became  the 
citizen  of  a  great  nation  instead  of  merely  the  member  of 
a  tribe  ;  that  he  learnt  to  care  not  only  for  the  welfare  of 
his  family  and  his  tribe  but  for  the  good  of  the  whole 
state  and  of  every  other  Englishman. 


To  finish,  we  see  in  this  part  of  English  History,  as 
in  all  times  afterwards,  that  all  the  real  good  work  that  was 
done  lasted,  and  brought  good  with  it  ;  and  that  good  men, 
though  they  often  fared  ill  in  their  lives  and  died  evil 
deaths,  yet  did  not  die  in  vain.  For  others  took  courage 
by  their  example  and  carried  on  the  work  they  had  been 
forced  to  leave  unfinished.  We  see  too  that  every  evil 
deed  bore  its  fruit  in  hindering  the  good  and  lessening 


CHAP.  Til.  Changes  in  Eftg land.  117 

the  happiness  of  men.  But  when  the  wicked  died  their 
names  were  held  in  hate  and  their  deeds  were  loathed  ; 
while  the  good  deeds  of  the  righteous  were  held  in  honour, 
and  their  mistakes  and  sins  were  forgiven  them  by  those 
that  lived  after  them,  because  they  had  done  their  best, 
through  good  report  and  evil,  through  dark  days  and 
dangers,  for  the  good  of  their  feliow-meri. 


INDEX    OF    PERSONS. 


A.  =  Archbishop 
Aid.    =  Alderman 

B.  =  Bishop 


C.  =  Count 

D.  =  Duke 

E.  =  Earl 


Einp.  =  Emperor 
Eth.  =  Etheling 
M.       =  Monk 


P.  =  Priest 
Q.  =  Queen 
S.    =  Saint 


AGR 

A  ORICOLA.  Julius.  9 

Aidan,  S.  34 
Albaii,  S.  II.  47 
Alcwin.  46 
Alfred,  K.  43.  53,  55.  71 

,  Eth.  97 

.■Mbtan,  B.  53 
Arthur,  K.  25 
.'\^5er,  P.  61 
Augustine,  S.  29,  73 


TJALDER,  God,  21 

L>     Baldwin  I.,  C.  97 

Bede,  P.  43 

Benedict,  P.  43 

Bernred,  K.  March.  45 

Bertha,  Q.  Kent,  28 

liertric,  K.  West  Saxons,  45,  48 

Itertnoth,  Aid.  83 

Bioni,  E.  100 

Birinus,  P.  35 

Boadicea  (Bodug),  Q.  Iceaians,  i 

Boethius.  62 

Brian,  K.  Irel.and,  89 

Brice,  S.  85 


('■'ADWALLA.  K.  Welsh,  34 
^     Caedmoii,  36 
Caesar,  Caius  Julius,  Emp.  5 
Caius  Caligula,  Emp.  7 
Canute,  K.  89,  90,  92,  96,  114 


EDM 

Caractacus  (Caradawg),  K.  Britons,  7 
Cassivelaunus  (Caswallawn).  K.  Bri- 
tons. 6 
Ceadwalla,  K.  Wet  Sa.xons,  39 
Ceawlin,  K.  West  Saxons,  23 
Cenwolf,  K    March.  47 
Cerdic,  K.  West  Saxons,  23 
Chad,  S.  35 

Charles,  Bald,  Emp.  53,  58 
Charles,  Great,  Emp.  46,  51,  70,  112 
Charles,  Simple,  K.  We.st  Franks,  67 
Claudius,  Emp.  7 
Coifi,  P.  33 

Colman,  B.  Holy  Island.  36 
Constantino,  Emp.   11,  70 
Cuthbert,  S.  36 

Cwichelm,  K.  West  Saxons,  33 
Cynhard,  Eth.  44 
Cynwolf,  K.  West  Saxons,  44 


DERMOT,  K.  Leinster,  102 
Druids,  4,  8 
Dunstan,  S.  72,  73,  74,  75,  78,  83 


pDBURG,  Q.  West  Saxous,  43,  48 
•^     Edgak,  K.  74,  75,  87 

.  Eth.   113,  114 

Edgif,  Q.  West  Franks,  6S 
Ediih,  Q.  99,  105 

,  Swan's  neck,  113 

Edmund,  S.  K.  East  Eng.  54,  80 
Et)mund,  K.  6g,  79 


Index  of  Persons. 


97.  99 


EDM 

EuMUND,  Ironsrdc,  K.  90,  92 
EUKHD,  K    73.  76 
Edric  Strcona,  E.  85,  t)\ 
Edward,  Elder,  K.  66,  u,  f'K 
Edwakd,  Martyr,  K.  rf 
Edward.  Confessor,  K.  pf     »« 
Edward,  Eth.  97 
Edwin,  K.  North.  32.  s« 

,  Eth.  70 

.  E.  106,  io8.  114 

Edwv.  K.  74 
Egiiert,  K.  47,  48.  68 
Egfrith,  K.  North.  37 
Ei.dgvth,  Q.  90 
Eldred,  A.  100,  106 
Elfgar,  E.  105 
El.FGIF,  Q.  74 
Elfheg,  A.  84 
Elflielm.  E.  £6 
Elfliere,  Aid.  80.  83 
Elfric,  Aid.  83 
Elfthkitii,  Q.  77,  78 
Emma  (Elfgif),  Q.  85,  93,  , 
F.omer,  32 
Eric,  K.  North.  73 

,  K.  gi 

Kthelbai.i.  K    Ma'ch.    44 

KlIlliLI  AI.D,   K.  53,  61 
Elhelbeit,  K.  Kent,  29,  31 

-,  .S.  K.  East  Er.glisa,  35 
I-.  I  IIELUERT,  K.  54 
Eihelburg.  Q.  North.  32 

,  Q.  West  Saxons,  4* 

EihelHed,  66 
Ethelfrith,  K.  North,  31 
Ethrlrbd,  K.  54.  67 
Ktmklred,  Unready,  K    y8    So 
Et   eired,  Aid.  67 
Ethelstan,  K.  Kent,  52 
Etiielstan,  K.  69,  80.  98 
Ethelwald,  Eth.  66 
Elhelwoid,  B.  75 

,  A.  77 

bTHI'LWOLF,  K.   51,  5a 

Eustace,  C.  loi,  112 
Eystein,  108 


pREY.  God.  21 
Fursey,  M.  35 


QALGACUS,  K.  Caledon.  10 
Godwin,  E.  03,  97,  99,  114 
Gurm- Ethelstan,  K.  Ea.st  Engli.sh,  59 

7" 
,  Yorick's  son,  K.  East  Eng.  66 


OLA 

!  Griffith,  K.Welsh,  101 
Grimbald,  M.,  61 
Gunhild.85 
Gunhild,  Q.  93 
Gurth,  £.  101,  no 
GvTHA,  Q.  viii.  2 

TJADKIANUS,  Enip.  10 

H.ikon,  K.  Norway,  70,  /i 
HalWan,  K.  North.  54,  56 
Harold  Kairhair,  K.  Norway,  58,  70,  97 
Hakolu  Godwinson,  K.  iol,  106,  114 
Hakoi.d  Harefoot,  K.  96 
Harold  Hardrada.  K,  Norway,  107 
Hakdi-Canutk,  K.  93,  96,  99 
Hasting.  56,  58 
Hell,  Goddess,  21 
Hengist,  Aid.  Kent,  15,  18,  23 
Henry  III.  Enip.  93,  101 
Hertha,  Goddess,  21 
Hiid,  S.  36 

H  ■>rs.->.  Aid.  Kent,  15.  18.  jj 
Huph,  86 

TNI,  K.  West  Saxons.  40.  44.  6. 


I,  92 


TAME.S,  K.  Swedei 
J     Judith.  Q.  53 


I^ENNETH,  K.So-tla«d   76 


T    KOF,  73 

•^     Leofric,  E.  93,  97,  99 

Leofwin,  E.  112 

lewis  froni-over-Sea,  K.  Fratikvi* 

l.illa,  32 


]V/IACIiE'lH.  K.  Scotland.  104 
Magnus,  K.  Norway,  100 
MalcoliTi,  K.  Cumberland,  85 

' ,  Bighead,  K.  Scotland,  T04 

Morvar,  E.  106,  loS,    114 


N 


EWO,  «imp.  7 
Ninian,  S.  28 


'^     Odo.  B.  Ill 

Offa,  K.  March.  ^4,  46,  48,  61 

Olaf,  K.  69  •»-•»- 


Index  of  Persons. 


OLA 

Olaf,  K.  Ireland,  72 

,  Sigtric's  son,  K.  North.  73 

,  K.  Norway,  84 

Orosius,  62 
Osric,  Aid.  45 
Oswald,  K.  North.  34 

.  A.  79 

O.swolf,  A.  75 
Oswy,  K.  North.  35 
Otto,  Emp.  68 


pALLIG,  E.  85 
^      Patrick.  S.  28 
PauUinus,  S.  32 
Penda,  K.  March.  34 
Pope  Gregory,  S.  29,  62 
Pope  Hadrian  I.  47 

Leo  III.  50 

Leo  IV.  53 


■John  XIX. 
Alexander  IL  107 


11."*  10 


■p  AGN  AR,  Rough  Breeks.  K.  Den- 

mark,    52,  54 
Redwald,  K.  Eist  English,  32 
Robert,  Magnificent,  D.  95 

,  A.  loi 

Rolf,  Ganger,  D.  59.  67 
Ronwald,  E.  58 

CEBERT,  K.  West  Saxons,  44 

"^     Sevenis,  Emp.  ii 

Sigric.  A.  83 

Sigtric,  K.  North.  68,  6y,  72 

Siward,  Big,  E.  98.  99 


YOR 

Stephen,  S.  K.  Hungary,  92 

Stigand,  A.  94,  103 

Suetonius  PauUinus,  S 

Sweyn,  K.  Denmark.  96,  99,  107 

Sweyn,  E.  loi 

SwEYN,  Forkbeard,  K.  88 


npACITUS,  9 

Tew,  God,  21 
Theodore,  A.  36,  42 
Theodosius,  Emp.  90 
Thorkell,  E.  87,  93 
Thunder  (Thor),  God, 
Tostig,  E.   I02,  107 


TJTRED,  E.  87 

yALENTINIAN,  Emp.  14 

Vortigern  (Gwerthigern),  K.  Bri 
tons,  14,  18,  22 


\AMLTHEOF,  E.  105.  114 
*  ^      Wilfrith,  S.  36,  42 
VVillebrord,  P.  42 

William,  Conqueror,  102,  106,  114 
Winfrith  (Boniface),  S.  42 
Wise  Men,  83,  91,  102,  106 
Woden,  113 

Wolfere,  K..  March.  37,  76 
Wolf  kettle.  Aid.  86.  91 


yORICK,  K.  East  English.  «6 


INDEX    OF    PLACES. 


AKE 

A  KEN  (Aachen),  50 
^^     Anglesey  (Mona),  8,  -ii 
Aries,  68 

Ashdown,  Berks,  55 
AssanJun,  Essex,  91,  94 
Atheliiey,  Somerset,   56 
Aust,  Gloucester,  30 

BAM  BOROUGH,  68 
Bath    73 
Baveux,  24,  m 
Bnltaiiy,  105,  iii 
Bruranburg,  69 

/^ALAIS,  M 

v_^     Cantrrtmry,  30,  46 
Carlisle,  38 
Charmouth,  51 
Chester,  31,  66,  76 
Chichester  (Regnum),  73 
Clontarf,  Ireland,  8g 
Colchester  (Camulodun),  7.  » 
Constantinople,  50,  108 
Crowland,  37 
Cuckhamsley,  86 


09 


r)AWSTON,  31 
^-'     Derwent,  R.  i 
Dover,  loi 
Dublin,  54,  89 
Durham,  87 
Dyrham,  23,  31 


tTDINBOROUGH,  32 

Edingtoii,  57 
Edmundsbury,  54,  89 
Ellandune,  50 
Ely.  9S,  97 
Exeter,  86 


MKR 

PAKOES,  49 

Five  Burghs,  90 
Flanders.  97,  loi,  km 


Q AEULFOKD,  51 

Glastonbury,  7a,  ji 
Greenwich,  87 


t-IASTINGS,  110.114 

'■  '      Hattield,  ^ 
Hengist's  Down.  51 
Holland.  16 
Hunj;ary,  92 


ICELAND,  49 

'■     Idle.  R.  32 

lona,  iii.  3 

Ireland,  54,  69  ;  89,  jo» 


ARROW,  43 
Jerusalem,  6«,  108 


T    EA.  R.  60 

*  "  Leeds,  25 
Leicester,  24 
Lichfield,  46 
Litfcy,  R.  89 
London,  S,  24,  84.  110 
Loihians.  73 
Louvain  (LocAen),  59 


MAIN2.  4. 
Maldon,  83 
Merton,  4 


Index  of  Places. 


NOR 


TSJORMANDY, 
•'^        103 


67.   85.  95,  97, 


OAKLEA,  Surrey,  51 
Offas  Dyke,  45 
Olney-on-Severn.  91 
Orkneys,  108 
Oxford,  90 


pARIS,  58 
•*■       Peterborough,  76 
Pevensey  (Anderida),  23,  no 
Portsmouth,  23 


ROCHESTER,  59 
Rome,  6,  53,  94 
Russia,  107 


CALISBURY.  86 
^     Scilly  IslaiiJs,  84 
Scotland,  11,  68,  75,  94,  104 
Senlac,  no 

Shaftesbury,  v.  ^  ;  vi.  6 
Sherborne,  4c 
Shrewsbiury,  4; 


YOR 

Soissons,  29 
South  .fnpton,  90 
Southern  Islands,  76 
Stamford  Bridge,  io3 


'T'AUNTON,  41 
^      Thanet,  6,  22,  5a, 
Tyne,  R.  108 


yERULAM  (S.  Albans),  6.  47 


WALES,  22,  31,  45,  48,  58,  67,  69, 
75.  88,  105 
Watling  Street,  56,  66 
Wedmore,  57 
Wells,  68 

Western  Islands  (Hebades),  49 
Westmmster,  106 
Whitby,  30 

Wight,  Isle  of  (Vectis),  7,  40.  61,  99 
Winchester,  40,  54,  84 
Worcester,  98 


"V/^ORK  (EboiacumX  ii.  43.  ♦&.  **• 
'       54.  to6 


ENGLAND   A   CONTINENTAL 
POWER 

FROM  THE  COSQl^EST  TO  MAGNA   CHARTA 
1066 12 16 

BY 

LOUISE    CREIGHTON    ' 

^TH    A    MAP, 


I 


CONTFiNTS. 


IVTRODUCTION 


PAGB 
1 


BOOK    1. 

William  the  conqueror 
(1066-1087). 

OHAPTRR 

I.  Settlement  aftf.k  ihk  C'onqukst     . 

II.  William  I.'s  Goveknment 

III.  William  I.  a.nd  111s  Sons ,6 


3 
10 


BOOK    II. 

'the  NORMAN  RULE 

(1087-1135). 

I.  Struggle  hetween  King  and  Church     ...     19 
IL  Kow  THE  Norman  Kings  Governeu  the  Land      .     ^-^ 


VI  Contents. 

BOOK    III. 
FEUDAL  ANARCHY  AMD  REFORM 

(1135-I173).       ■ 

CHAPTER  fAGB 

I.  The  Barons  in  Power 30 

II.  Settlement  of  the  Disorder         .        .        ■ '      .     •     33 

III.  Henry  II.  a.nd  Becket 35 

IV.  Henry  II.  s  Government 43 

BOOK     IV, 

HENRY  II.   AND  HIS  S0N6 

(1173-12IS). 

1.  Last  Ye.\rs  of  Henry  II 48 

II.  Richard  I. 51 

III.  Loss  OF  Normandy 54 

BOOK    V. 

THE  GREAT  CHARTER 

(1215-1216). 

I.  John's  Quarrel  with  the  Pope  .        .        .56 

II.  John's  Quarrel  with  his  Barons         .        .        .    •    59 

III.  Struggle  for  the  Great  Charter  .        .        .        .    6i 


MAP. 
Possessions  of  Anoevin  Kings         .        .        .    ai  beginning 


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ENGLAND 
A   CONTINENTAL    POWER. 


INTRODUCTION. 

During  the  years  which  we  are  going   to  talk  about 
England  went  throu<rh  ;'reat  changes.     She 

*  r    ,  1  ■         1  Important 

grew    very    powerful,    and   gained    a   strong     points  in 
government,  and  order  was   made   to  reign     '^is  epoch, 
in  the  land.     To  see  how  this  came  about  we  shall  have 
to  notice — 

1.  IV/iai  the  Norman  Conquest  did  for  Etighind.-- 
We  shall  see  that  much  good  came  to  England  from 
the  Normans,  even  though  at  first  they  treated  the 
people  hardly  and  cruelly'.  They  gave  the  English  new 
life  ;  and  the  Norman  kings,  though  harsh  and  stern, 
loved  order  and  good  government,  and  knew  how  to 
make  wise  laws. 

2.  How  the  Conqueror  and  his  sons  kept  the  Baro^is 
from  gaining  too  great  power. — This  is  a  very  important 
point.  It  shows  us  why  the  history  of  England  and 
the  history  of  France  are  so  different,     in  France   the 


2  England  a  Continental  Power. 

barons  were  almost  as  powerful  as  the  king  himself, 
and  treated  the  people  very  harshly;  but  in  England  the 
barons  were  not  allowed  to  grow  too  powerful,  and  when 
in  after-times  they  wanted  to  go  against  the  king  they 
had  to  get  the  help  of  the  people,  and  so  they  had  to 
treat  the  people  as  friends. 

3.  Hozv  the  Etiglish  atid  Normans  became  one  people. 
— The  Normans  did  not  drive  out  the  Fnglish,  as  the 
English  had  driven  out  the  Britons,  but  thej  mixed  with 
them  and  became  one  people,  and  what  was  good  and 
strong  in  them  made  the  English  people  greater  and 
stronger  than  they  had  been  before. 

4.  How  the  kin'TS  made  order  and  ^ood  zoverument 
in  the  land. — The  Norman  kings  did  not  make  sudden 
changes  in  the  government  of  the  land.  They  made  use 
of  what  seemed  to  them  good  in  the  P.nglish  customs  and 
laws  ;  but  they  brought  in  many  new  ways  of  govern- 
ment, for  they  knew  more  about  law  than  the  English 
did.  They  ordered  things  wisely  and  firmly,  and  began 
to  build  up  our  present  laws  and  ways  of  government  on 
the  old  foundation,  on  which  they  have  slowly  risen  since 
that  time. 

5.  What  steps  the  people  made  towards  governing 
themselves. — At  first  sight  it  will  seem  as  if  the  people 
themselves  had  very  little  power,  and  as  if  the  kings 
had  things  all  their  own  way.  But  we  shall  see  that 
the  Norman  kings  had  to  keep  up  the  old  English 
forms  of  freedom.  At  first  these  were  only  forms,  but 
in  time  the  people  grew  stronger,  and  learnt  how  to 
make  them  something  more.  The  people  grew  so  strong 
that  when  King  John  tried  to  govern  badly  and  treat 
them  unjustly,  they  vi'ere  able  to  make  him  promise 
them  good  government.  He  had  to  sign  the  Great 
Charter,  to  which  Eiiglishmen  have  always  looked  back 
as  one  of  the  great  step?  in  the  growth  of  their  liberties. 


BOOK     i, 
IVILLJAM     THE     CONQU  KROR. 


CHAPTER    I. 

SETILEMENT   AFTER   THE   CONQUEST. 

I.  William,  Duke  of  Normandy,  had  won  ihe  battle  of 
Hastings,  but  still  he  did  not  wish  to  come  before  tie 
English  as  a  conqueror.     He  claimed  to  be     William 
rightful  heir  of   Edward   the  Confessor,  and     ■au[e'of 
he  thought  that  now  that   Harold  was  dead,     Hastings, 
the  English  would  crowd   to   his  camp  and   hail  him  as 
their  king.     Btt  no  one  came.     The  chief  of  the  Eng- 
lish met  in  London  and  chose  for  their  king  Edgar  the 
Atheling,  the  grandson    of  Edmund   Ironside,  who  was 
a  mere  boy. 

2.  William  did  nut  march  direct  on  London.  He 
wanted  to  give  the  English  lime  to  feel  their  wealc- 
n'ess,  that  they  might  own  him  for  their  king  Submi.ssion 
themselves.  He  marched  by  the  great  cities  of  London, 
of  Dover,  Winchester,  and  Canterbury,  and  made  them 
submit  to  him,  so  that  London  stood  alone.  London 
was  very  helpless,  for  the  great  Earls  of  the  Marchland 
and  of  Northumberland,  Edwin  and  Morcar,  had  gone 
away  to  their  earldoms,  and  there  was  no  strong  man 
left  in  the  city.  At  last  the  chief  men  came  out,  and 
Edgar  the  Atheling  with  them,  and  met  William  at 
Berkliampstead.     They  bent  humble  knees  to  him  and 


4  England  a  Co-ntuiental  Power.  1067. 

begged  him  to  be  their  king.     So  WiUiam  accepted  the 
crown,  and  promised  to  be  their  loving  lord. 

3.  William  entered  London  as  the  chosen  king  of 
the  English.  On  Christmas-day  he  was  crowned  in  the 
William  Abbey  at  Westminster  by  the  Archbishop 
crowned.  of  York.  When  the  Archbishop  turned  to 
the  crowd  gathered  in  the  Abbey  and  asked  whether 
they  would  have  William  for  their  king,  they  shouted 
'Yea,  yea,  King  William!'  So  loud  was  their  shouting, 
that  the  Norman  soldiers  who  stood  outside  thought 
they  meant  some  evil,  and  set  fire  to  the  houses  round 
the  Abbey.  The  English  rushed  out  to  save  their 
homes,  and  none  were  left  within  but  William  and  the 
trembling  bishops.  In  haste  and  fear  the  crowning  was 
finished.  Meanwhile  there  was  fighting  and  bloodshed 
between  the  Normans  and  English  when  William  most 
wished  for  peace. 

Though  William  was  now  the  crowned  king  of  the 
English,  very  little  of  the  land  was  really  in  his  power. 
He  had  only  subdued  the  South-eastern  shires.  But 
little  by  little  the  English  from  otheT-  parts  came  to 
bow  before  him  and  own  him  for  their  king,  and  the 
sreat  Earls  Edwin  and  Morcar  came  with  the  rest. 
He  let  all  those  who  submitted  to  him  take  back  from 
his  hands  their  lands  and  possessions.  But  he  seized 
the  lands  of  all  those  who  had  fallen  in  the  battle  of 
Hastings,  for  he  looked  upon  them  as  traitors  who 
had  fought  against  their  rightful  king.  He  gave  these 
lands  as  rewards  to  his  own  Norman  followers. 

4.  Only  three  months  after  he  had  been  crowned,  he 
felt  so  sure  of  his  position  that  he  dared  to  leave  England 

and  go  back  to  his  own  duchv  of  Normandy, 
visltr""  He  wanted  to  show  his  people  his  new  power 

Norniandy.       ^^^  (.^  {q.\.c\\  his  wife,  whom  he  dearly  loved. 
He  took  with  him  some  of  the  chief  of  the  EngHsh,  so 


1069.  Risings  of  the  English.  5 

that  he  might  be  sure  they  did  no  mischief  whilst  he 
was  away,  and  he  took  much  spoil  of  gold  and  silver  and 
gorgeous  robes.  The  Normans  wondered  and  rejoiced 
when  they  saw  these  things,  for  the  English  had  much 
gold  and  silver,  and  knew  how  to  work  it  very  cleverly. 
The  English  women  too  were  very  skilful  with  their 
needle,  and  William  brought  home  much  of  their  beau- 
tiful embroidery,  which  he  gave  to  the  churches  and 
monasteries  in  Normandy. 

5.  But  whilst  William  was  away  troubles  began  t(> 
arise  in  England.  He  had  left  his  most  trusted  friend 
William  FitzOsberne  and  his  half-brother  ^^^^^.^  of 
Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  to  rule  in  his  name,  '^e  English. 
They  treated  the  people  harshly,  and  made  them  hate 
the  Norman  rule,  so  that  everywhere  risings  against 
William  were  planned. 

In  1067  William  had  to  come  back  to  put  down  these 
risings.  We  shall  see  that  in  his  reign  he  had  three 
great  struggles  before  he  could  make  his  power  really 
strong  :  (1)  the  struggle  with  the  native  English,  (2)  the 
struggle  with  his  own  Norman  barons,  who  wanted  more 
power  than  he  would  give  them,  (3)  the  struggle  against 
his  own  sons,  who  rebelled  against  him. 

Till  107 1  William  had  to  struggle  against  the  Eng- 
lish. They  gave  him  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  but  they 
could  not  really  put  his  power  in  danger,  for  they  had 
no  union  amongst  themselves,  and  fought  with  no  plan. 

6.  In  1069  Swend,  King  of  Denmark,  sent  a  mighty 
fleet  under  his  brother  to  help  the  English.     Swend  was 
nephew  of  the  great  Canute.     Many  of  those     winiam 
who   had    fallen   at    the   battle    of   Hastings     and  the 

....  ,    ,  .   ,      ,  Danes. 

were  his  kmsmen,  and  he  wished  to  revenge 
their    death.       But   William   bribed   the    Danish    com- 
manders, and  the  fleet  sailed  away  without   striking  a 
blow. 


6  Englaihi  a  Continental  Po'^ver.  1072. 

7.  Then  William  marched  nonhwards  to  put  down  a 
great  rising  m  Northumberland.  He  wished  to  frighten 
_  ,     the   English,  so  as  to  teach  them  not  to  rise 

narrying  of  ,  .  -r^       ,         ,•,,•, 

NorthuiA-  agamst  him  agam.  To  do  this  he  laid  waste 
berland.  ^j^^  ^^^^ole  of    the  north  of    England.      The 

houses  and  all  that  was  in  them,  the  stores  of  corn, 
even  the  living  animals,  were  burnt.  The  whole  land 
was  left  desolate.  Many  of  the  people  died  of  hunger, 
whilst  some  sold  themselves  as  slaves,  that  they  might 
get  bread.  For  nine  years  the  land  remained  untilled. 
It  was  a  terrible  deed,  and  men  said  that  the  wrath  ol 
God  was  sure  to  follow  upon  it.  But  the  north  never 
dared  to  rise  against  William  again. 

8.  One  by  one  the  risings  all  over  the  country  were 
put  down.     The  man  who  gave  William  most  trouble  was 

Hereward,  a  great  chieftain,  who  fortified  him- 
self on  an  island  in  the  fens  near  Ely,  so  that 
none  could  get  near  him.  Many  of  the  English  took 
refuge  with  him,  amongst  others  Earl  Morcar.  At  last 
William  had  to  make  a  great  causeway  of  stones  and 
trees  and  hides  over  the  fens  to  get  at  Hereward.  Then 
M  orcar  and  the  others  surrendered,  but  Hereward  es- 
caped, and  many  strange  stories  are  told  of  his  after 
life,  but  we  know  nothing  more  with  certainty  about  him. 
Morcar  was  kept  in  prison  till  his  death.  Malcolm, 
king  of  Scotland,  tried  to  help  the  English  several 
times.  Edgar  the  Atheling  and  many  others  fled  to 
his  court.  At  last  in  1072  William  marched  over  the 
border  and  made  Malcolm  submit  to  him. 

9.  In  many  of  the  towns  which  he  took  William  built 
great  castles,  in  which  he  put  soldiers  to  watch  over  the 
William's  citizens,  lest  they  should  rise  against  him. 
castles.  J,.,  London  he  built  the  Tower,  which  has 
always  been  famous  in  English  history.  He  took  away 
the  lands  of  all  the  English  who  rose  against  him,  and 


Feudalism.  7 

he  gave  them  to  his  Norman  followers,  •io  that  by  degrees 
the  lordship  of  nearly  all  the  land  passed  out  of  English 
into  Norman  hands. 

10.  Now,  all  the  men  who  got  lands  from  William 
held  them  in  x\\G/eu(falvra.y.  Lands  held  in  this  way  were 
called  Jie/s,  and  their  holders  had  to  make 

,        ,       ,       ,  ,  Feudalism. 

certam  promises  to  the  lord  who  gave  them 
these  fiefs.  They  were  called  his  vassals,  or  tenants, 
from  the  French  word  tetiir,  meaning  to  hold,  and  the 
lord  was  called  their  superior.  The  vassals  were  bound 
to  follow  their  lord  to  war,  and  to  pay  him  certain 
services,  whilst  he  in  return  took  them  under  his  pro- 
tection and  defended  them  against  their  enemies.  When 
land  was  granted  to  the  vassal  by  his  lord  he  had  to  do 
homage  to  him  for  it.  That  means  he  became  his  man, 
from  the  French  word  hovmie,  which  means  man.  The 
vassal  knelt  before  his  lord,  and,  putting  his  hands  be- 
tween his,  swore  to  be  his  man  for  life  and  death,  so  God 
help  him.  When  he  died  his  son  had  to  do  the  same 
homage,  and  then  his  father's  lands  were  given  him  by 
his  lord. 

ri.  These  feudal  customs  had  been  growing  up  all 
aver  Europe,  in  England  as  well  as  in  other  countries  ;  but 
they  had  grown  more  quickly  in  France  and  Feudalism 
Noi-mandy  than  in  England,  and  William  had  ">  France, 
there  seen  what  they  came  to  at  last.  There  the  vassals 
might  give  away  part  of  their  lands  to  their  followers,  who 
then  were  their  men  and  not  the  king's  men,  and  had  not 
to  do  homage  to  the  king  at  all.  The  great  vassals  of 
the  king,  too,  had  their  own  courts,  where  they  judged 
their  own  vassals  and  laid  on  taxes  at  their  pleasure.  In 
this  way  the  great  vassals  grew  very  powerful  and  did 
not  care  much  for  their  lord,  to  whom  little  more  than  the 
tie  of  homage  bound  them.  They  were  called  tenants 
in  chief,  because  they  held  their  lands  directly  from  the 


8  England  a  Continental  Power. 

king.  In  this  way  William  himself,  as  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy, was  a  vassal  of  the  King  of  France,  and  had  to 
do  him  homage. 

12.  William  did  not  wish  things  to  become  like  this 
in  England.  He  wanted  to  have  one  strong  government, 
William  and  which  should  rule  the  land.  He  wished  all 
feudalism.  the  law  courts  to  depend  upon  himself.  He 
let  the  barons  hold  the  land  in  the  feudal  way,  because 
it  seemed  to  him  the  best  and  simplest  way,  and  the  old 
English  ways  had  not  been  at  all  simple.  But  in  other 
ways  he  tried  to  prevent  his  barons  from  gaining  as  much 
power  as  the  barons  had  gained  in  France. 

(i.)  He  made  every  holder  of  land,  and  not  only  the 
tenants  in  chief,  take  the  oath  of  obedience  to  him  and 
become  his  man. 

{2.)  He  let  no  man  hold  much  land  together.  If  he 
gave  a  man -many  lands  he  gave  them  to  him  in  different 
counties,  so  that  he  might  not  form  one  strong  power. 
Canute  had  divided  the  country  into  great  earldoms,  but 
William  broke  these  up.  He  made  very  few  earls,  and 
governed  the  counties  by  the  sheriffs,  whom  he  chose 
himself,  and  who  could  not  leave  their  office  to  their 
sons.  He  only  made  four  great  earldoms,  where  the 
earls  were  allowed  to  have  all  the  royal  rights  and  name 
their  own  sheriffs. 

These  were  Chester  and  Shropshire,  which  were  to 
defend  the  border  from  the  Welsh  ;  Durham,  to  keep  oft 
the  Scots  ;  and  Kent,  where  the  coast  had  to  be  defended 
from  foreign  invaders.  But  Kent  and  Durham  he  gave 
to  bishops,  who  might  not  marry,  and  so  could  not  found 
great  families. 

(3.)  He  did  not  let  the  courts  of  justice  of  the  barons 
become  too  powerful.  The  barons  had  courts  of  law  for 
each  of  their  manors,  as  their  estates  were  called  ;  but 
as  William   took   care  that  their  estates   should  be  far 


107S-        Striigg/iS  xvitli  Rebellious  Barons.  9 

from    one   another   they   could    not    set    up    one   strong 
central  court. 

Now,  the  barons  did  not  like  all  this  at  all.  They 
had  never  loved  William's  rule.  They  had  followed  him 
to  England  because  they  hoped  to  get  more  lands  ana 
more  power.  They  thought  that  they  would  rise  in 
power  as  much  as  William  had  done;  and  when  they 
found  that  he  would  not  let  them  become  great  and 
powerful,  like  the  barons  in  FVance,  they  grew  discon- 
tcrited  and  seized  every  opportunity  to  resist  his  power. 

13.  At  last  two  of  the  great  Norinan  birons  made  a 
plot,   into   which  they   tried   to  draw  Waltheof.   Earl  of 
Northampton,  the  last  of  the  Eng'ish  earls,     strusgie 
Thpy   ai^reed    10   divide    England    amont?st     *u^^''^ 

'        ^  s>  -■  rebellious 

themselves,  and  that  two  of  them  should  be  b.^rons,  1075. 
dukes  and  one  king.  But  Wahheof's  heait  failed  him, 
and  he  told  all  that  they  had  plotted.  This  did  not  save 
him,  and  he  was  beheaded  as  a  traitor.  The  English 
mourned  much  for  him,  for  he  was  a  good  man  and  gave 
much  to  the  poor,  and  they  revered  him  as  a  saint  and 
as  the  last  of  iheir  j^reat  earls. 

Another  time  the  discontented  barons  in  Normandy 
made  William's  own  son,  Robert,  rebel  against  him. 
Robert  wanted  to  have  the  Uuchv  of  Normandy  for  his 
own,  even  in  his  father's  lifetime  :  but  his  father  would 
not  pait  with  ii.  In  time  the  barons  gathered  round 
Robert,  who  took  up  arms  against  his  father.  He  found 
a  friend,  too,  in  the  king  of  France,  who  feared  the  powei 
of  his  great  vassal  William. 

After  a  while  the  tears  and  prayers  of  Queen  Matilda, 
who  loved  both  husband  and  son  very  deai  ly,  brought 
about  peace  between  them.  But  it  lasted  only  for  a  time, 
and  Robert's  rebellions  and  disobedience  were  the  trouble 
of  his  father's  last  years. 

William  had  to  spend  much  time  during  his  reign  in 


10  Eiig''a?it!  a  Continental  Poiver.         108.4 

Ills  lands  in  France.  He  had  most  difficulty  with  tbe 
province  of  Maine,  which  did  not  Hke  his  rule.  H'S 
neighbour,  Fulk,  Count  of  Anjou,  made  plots  to  get 
it  from  him.  There  was  always  great  enmity  between 
the  Angevins,  as  the  people  of  Anjou  were  called,  and 
the  Normans,  and  we  shall  see  the  results  of  this  enmity 
later  on,  when  a  king  of  Angevin  blood  came  to  rule 
over  England. 

\Villiam's  absences  in  Normandy  were  not  very  good 
for  the  people  of  England.  We  have  seen  how  the  rule 
of  Odo  of  liayeux  made  the  English  discontented  in 
the  first  year  after  the  Conquest.  It  was  worse  even 
in  1082.  Odo  wished  to  be  made  Pope,  and  for  this 
end  he  tried  to  get  money  in  every  possible  way.  He 
oppressed  the  poor  and  spoiled  the  Church.  When  Wil- 
liam heard  of  this  he  was  much  angered.  He  carrje  back  to 
England  and  seized  Odo  with  his  own  hands,  for  no  othei 
man  dared  lay  hands  upon  him,  because  he  was  a  bishop 
He  had  him  carried  to  prison  at  Rouen,  where  he  stayed 
till  the  Conquerors  death. 

William  was  too  strong  for  all  his  enemies.  They  only 
struggled  against  him  that  they  might  gain  more  power 
each  for  himself,  and  had  no  common  object  for  which 
all  would  have  fought  ;  so  they  could  do  nothing  against 
William's  power. 


CHAPTER     II. 

WILLIAM'S   GOVERNMENT. 

I.  All  this  time  William  had  only  one  trusted  friend  and 
adviser.  This  was  the  man  whom  he  had  made  Arch- 
wiiiiamand  bishop  of  Canterbury,  Lanfranc,  an  Itahan. 
Lanfranc.  Lanfranc  was  one  of  the  greatest  scholars  of 

bis  day,  full  of  zeal  both  for  re''^'""'  •'    '    learning.     He 


I 


Lonfrant.  II 

• 

had  gone  to  live  in  peace  away  from  the  world  at  the 
humble  monastery  of  Bee,  in  Normandy.  But  he  was  too 
great  a  man  to  be  left  quiet.  The  fame  of  his  learning 
<lrew  many  to  Bee,  and  a  great  school  gathered  round 
him,  so  that  Bee  grew  rich  and  famous.  Then  William 
learnt  to  know  Lanfranc.  and  soon  saw  his  greatness. 
He  saw  that  whilst  he  was  as  strong  as  a  Norman,  he 
had  all  the  learning  and  cunning  wisdom  of  an  Italian. 
He  made  him  his  friend  and  adviser,  and  trusted  him 
with  all  his  plans.  When  he  built  the  great  Abbey  of 
.Si.  Stephen's  at  Caen,  he  made  Lanfranc  its  abbot ;  and 
when,  soon  after  the  Conquest,  he  had  to  choose  a  new 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  his  first  thought  was  of  Lan- 
franc. 

When  William  planned  the  Conquest  of  Kngland,  he 
spoke  much  o{  his  wish  to  reform  the  English  Church, 
The  Pope  encouraged  his  plans,  for  great  disorder  had 
crept  into  the  English  Church,  which  cared  little  for 
the  words  of  the  Pope.  Stigand,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  had  not,  they  said,  been  rightly  elected 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  Church,  so  William  put 
him  aside,  and  bade  Lanfranc  come  to  till  the  office. 

2.  Lanfranc  came  to  England  and  threw  himself  heart 
and  soul  into  the  Conqueror's  work  there.  The  two  men 
had  the  same  aims,  and  they  worked  together  vviiibmand 
to  bring  them  about.  The  change  brought  *^*^  ^"pe- 
the  English  Church  much  closer  to  Rome;  still  neither 
William  nor  Lanfranc  allowed  the  Pope  to  interfere  too 
much  in  English  matters. 

The  Popes  at  that  time  were  seeking  to  get  more  and 
more  power  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  They  claimed 
greater  powers  for  the  Papacy  than  had  ever  been  claimed 
before.  This  was  mainly  the  work  of  one  man,  Hilde- 
brand,  who,  after  being  the  intimate  friend  and  coun- 
cillor of  several  popes,  at  last  became  Pope  himself,  as 


1 2  England  a  Continental  'Power. 


'<b 


Gregory  VII.  He  and  the  Conqueror  were  the  two 
greatest  men  in  Europe,  and  Gregory  soon  found  that 
William  was  as  strong  as  himself.  William  treated  the 
Pope  with  great  respect,  but  he  meant  to  rule  his  own 
Church,  and  he  would  not  let  Gregory  interfere  in  Church 
matters  in  England  without  his  consent. 

In  all  this  Lanfranc  agreed  with  William,  but  neither 
of  them  would  allow  disorder  in  the  Church.  By  de- 
grees they  turned  most  of  the  English  bishops  out  of 
their  sees  and  filled  up  their  places  with  Normans.  Most 
of  the  new  bishops  were  wise  and  good  men,  scholars 
chosen  by  Lanfranc  for  their  learning  and  piety.  Nor- 
man abbots  also,  were  placed  over  many  of  the  abbeys; 
but  this  did  not  work  so  well,  for  the  abbeys  were  full  of 
English  monks,  who  did  not  like  to  have  a  foreigner  set 
over  them. 

3.  The  greatest  change  which  William  and  Lanfranc 
made  was  that  they  allowed  the  bishops  and  archdeacons 
Courts  of  ^o  \io\^  law  courts  of  their  own,  in  which  they 
the  Church,  might  judge  all  cases  which  had  to  do  with 
the  clergy  or  the  law  of  the  Church.  Before  the  Con- 
quest the  bishop  had  sat  with  the  sheriff  in  the  court  of 
the  shire,  and  had  helped  him  to  do  justice.  Now  the 
bishops  had  courts  of  their  own,  and  no  longer  sat  in 
the  county  courts.  In  the  bishops'  courts  they  did  justice 
according  to  the  Canons — that  is,  the  law  of  the  Church 
— not  by  the  common  law  of  the  land.  This  worked  very 
well  at  first,  when  king  and  archbishop  were  of  the  same 
mind  ;  but  it  had  great  evils,  which  showed  themselves, 
as  we  shall  see,  in  after-years,  when  the  Church  tried  to 
take  too  much  upon  herself. 

Lanfranc's  zeal  in  spiritual  matters  gave  new  life  to 
religion  in  England.  New  orders  of  monks  were  brought 
in,  and  many  new  monasteries  were  built.  On  all  sides, 
too,  new  and   beautiful   churches   began  to   rise,  for  the 


faxation  1 3 

Normans  were  well  skilled  in  building.  Their  churches 
were  strong  and  massive,  with  bold  ornaments,  and  much 
of  their  work  remains  in  England  to  this  day.  Great  part 
of  many  of  the  English  cathedrals  was  built  by  the  Nor- 
mans, and  so  were  many  parish  c  hurches.  The  finest  of 
their  churches  is  the  great  cathedral  of  Durham. 

4.  During  the  last  eleven  years  of  his  reign  William 
had  no  foe  to  fear  in  England.  He  kept  strict  peace 
throughout  the  land.  It  was  said  that  in  his  wiUmm's 
day  a  man  might  go  through  the  country  with  eovcrnment. 
his  bosom  full  of  gold  and  no  one  would  dare  to  rob  him  ; 
neither  did  any  man  dare  slay  another,  even  though  he 
had  done  him  great  evil. 

5.  Still  the  Conqueror's  hand  was  very  heavy  upon  the 
people.  Love  of  money  was  the  great  sin  laid  to  his 
charge  by  the  men  of  his  time,  and  many  and 

severe  were  the  taxes  he  laid  on  the  land.    He     '^'"'^"°"- 
raised  the  same  sums  as  the  English   kings  before  him 
had  raised   from  the  royal  estates  ;  and  besides  this  he 
made  the  people  pay  the  Danegeld  again,  which  Edward 
the  Confessor  had  done  away  with. 

6.  The  Danegeld  was  an  old  English  tax  which 
h*id  been  raised  in  times  of  danger  from  the  attacks  of 
the  Danes.     It  w^s   paid  by  all  the  holders 

of   cultivated   land  for  the  defence  of  their     ^''"^«^''^- 
country.     William  raised  the  tax,  as  it  had  often  been 
raised  before,  when  there  was  no  question  of  an  attack 
from  the  Danes,  and  he  made  it  three  times  as  great  as 
it  had  ever  been  before. 

But  besides  the  old  English  ways  of  getting  money 
William  used  the  Norman  ways  too.  These  were  feudal 
aids^  that  is  moneys  which  the  great  vassals  were  bound 
to  pay  their  lord  on  fixed  occasions,  as  on  the  marriage 
of  his  eldest  daughter  and  the  knighting  of  his  eldest  son. 
The  barons  could  only  raise  these  moneys  from  the  people 


14  England  a  Continental  Power.  10185. 

who  depended  on  them  and  worked  on  their  lands;  and 
so  all  these  heavy  burdens  fell  upon  the  poor,  and  no  class 
was  left  untaxed. 

7.  William's  great  love  for  hunting  also  brought  much 
trouble  upon  the  people.     To  make  a  good  forest  to  hunt 

in,  he  laid  waste  one  of  the  most  fertile 
parts  of  England,  from  Winchester  to  the 
seacoast,  17,000  acres  of  land.  It  was  called  the  New 
Forest,  and  has  kept  its  name  till  this  day.  He  made 
a  law  that  whoever  killed  a  hart  or  a  hind  should  be 
blinded.  '  He  forbade  killing  the  deer  and  the  boars,' 
the  old  English  chronicle  tells  us  :  'he  loved  the  tall 
stags  as  if  he  were  their  father.  The  rich  complained 
and  the  poor  murmured,  but  he  was  so  stark  that  he 
recked  nought  of  them  ;  they  must  will  all  what  the  king 
willed,  if  they  would  live.' 

8.  That  he  might  better  know  the  state  of  the  coun- 
try, and  how  much  money  and  how  many  men-at- 
Domesday  arms  he  might  raise  from  it,  William  sent 
Book.  officers  to  enquire  into  the  condition  of  each 
county.  They  caused  to  come  before  them  the  chief 
landowners  of  each  county  and  representatives  from  the 
hundreds  and  towns,  who  were  called  jurors,  because 
of  the  solemn  oa;h  they  took  to  speak'nothing  but  the 
truth.  These  jurors  told  the  names  of  all  the  manors 
and  towns  in  the  county ;  how  many  freemen  there  were 
and  how  many  serfs ;  how  much  meadow,  wood,  and  pas- 
ture, how  many  mills,  what  kinds  of  fisheries,  and  what 
was  the  value  of  each  holding"  of  land.  All  that  ''hey  told 
was  carefully  written  down  by  the  king's  officers,  and 
when  it  was  all  put  together  the  record  was  called  the 
Domesday  Book;  for  men  said  it  was  so  complete  that  it 
would  last  till  the  day  of  doom  or  judgment. 

We  can  easily  see  how  useful  the  Doroesday  Book 
was  to  William,  for  it  told  him  exactJv  'h*  state  of  the 


Williavi's  Govcrtnnent.  1 5 

country,  how  rich  it  was  and  how  it  was  cultivated,  and 
so  he  learnt  to  know  what  he  might  get  out  of  it.  To  all 
after-times  also  the  Domesday  Book  has  been  of  great 
use  and  interest.  We  can  learn  all  about  the  England 
of  the  Conqueror's  time  from  it,  what  the  people  grew  in 
the  fields,  and  how  they  lived;  from  it  any  landowner 
may  learn  who  held  his  land  in  those  days,  and  in  what 
state  it  was.  The  whole  was  done  carefully  and  well,  as 
William  had  everything  done  about  him,  for  he  liked  no 
half-measures. 

9.  William  had  no  wish  to  ve.x  the  people  by  many 
changes  in  the  government.  He  showed  great  wisdom 
ir  making  use  of  the  best  parts  of  both  the  English  and 
Norman  and  the  English  customs.  The  great  ^'or"!*" 
Strength  of  the  English  system  lay  in  the  way  mixeH. 
in  which  the  whole  country  was  bound  together  in  one 
government  by  the  different  courts,  the  shire  moots  and 
the  hundred  moots,  of  which  you  have  heard  in  the  early 
English  history.  The  strength  of  the  Norman  system 
lay  in  the  close  ties  which  bound  the  great  vassals  to  the 
king.  So  William  kept  what  was  good  in  both,  and  this 
made  his  government  very  strong. 

He  kept  up  all  the  forms  of  the  old  English  govern- 
ment, and  confirmed  the  laws  which  had  been  in  use  in 
the  days  of  King  Edward  the  Confessor.  It  was  this 
that  made  the  English  people  bear  patiently  with  his 
rule.  They  felt  that  from  the  lawlessness  of  the  barons 
they  would  have  nothing  to  gain,  and  they  saw  that 
William's  enemies  were  their  enemies.  After  the  last 
risings  of  the  English  had  been  crushed  in  1071,  they 
never  tried  again  to  take  away  the  crown  from  their 
Norman  king.  All  the  after-troubles  in  the  Conqueror's 
reign  and  in  the  reigns  of  his  sons  came  from  the  discon- 
tent of  the  Norman  barons,  and  not  from  the  English 
people  at  all. 


l6  England  a  Continental  Pozver. 

It  svas  his  stern  love  of  order  and  the  strict  obedience 
which  he  made  the  people  pay  to  his  laws,  but  most  of  all 
his  heavy  taxes,  that  made  William's  rule  so  harsh.  We 
have  said  that  he  kept  up  the  old  forms  of  government ; 
but  they  were  little  more  than  forms,  for  his  will  was  law, 
and  no  man  might  go  against  it.  But  he  did  not  wish 
one  thmg  one  day  and  another  the  next,  like  a  tyrant. 
He  ruled  himself  as  well  as  other  men,  and  his  rule  was 
wise  as  well  as  strong. 


CHAPTER    III. 
WILLIAM    L    AND    HIS   SONS. 

I.  In  body  William  was  as  strong  as  in  mind.  He  was 
of  middle  height,  with  a  fierce  countenance.  Men  trem- 
bled at  his  look  when  he  was  angry.  His  fore- 
person and  head  was  bare  of  hair.  Whether  he  was  stand- 
character,  ji^g  ^jj.  sitting  his  look  was  kingly.  So  great 
was  his  strength  of  arm,  that  when  his  horse  was  at  full 
gallop  he  could  draw  a  bow  which  no  other  man  could 
draw  standing  on  the  ground.  Till  his  death  he  never 
had  any  serious  illness.  He  loved  grandeur  and  magni- 
ficence. Three  times  a  year  he  wore  his  crown  at  the 
three  great  cities  of  Gloucester,  Winchester,  and  West- 
mmster.  Then  he  gathered  round  him  all  the  great  men 
in  the  land,  and  gave  royal  feasts  and  showed  his  power 
and  his  wealth  to  the  ambassadors  who  came  from 
foreign  lands.  Then  he  was  affable  and  bountiful  to  all, 
that  men  might  say  he  was  as  generous  as  he  was 
rich.  But  as  a  rule  he  was  a  hard  man,  and  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  men  should  have  looked  upon  him  with 
fear  and  wonder  rather  than  with  love.  The  one  tender 
side  of  his  character  that  we  read  of  is  his  love  to  his 


I 


loKj.  Williaiii  /.'s  Death.  If 

queen.  They  seem  to  have  lo\ed  and  trusted  one  another 
perfectly  all  through  their  lives,  and  when  she  died  he 
caused  a  rich  tomb  of  gold  and  gems  to  be  put  over  her 
grave  at  Caen,  and  mourned  tor  her  till  his  death. 

2.  In  his  last  years  William  grew  very  stout,  so  that  he 
was  quite  deformed  bv  his  great   size.     He  , 

"  '  .  vVilliain  I.  s- 

heard  that   the    King  of  France  made  jests     denth  and 
at   his  figure,  and  he  swore  to   be  revenged     ''"'■'*'■ 
for  this  jest. 

In  the  month  of  August,  when  the  corn  was  ripe  upon 
the  ground  and  the  orchards  and  vines  hung  heavy  with 
fruit,  he  entered  France.  To  revenge  an  idle  jest  he  laid 
the  whole  country  waste,  and  so  made  the  people  suffer 
for  their  king's  fault.  He  set  fire  to  the  city  of  Mantes  ; 
but  whilst  he  was  looking  with  joy  at  the  flames,  his 
horse  trod  on  a  burning  ember  and  stumbled.  William 
was  thrown  heavily  forward  against  the  saddle  and  wss 
so  severely  hurt  that  he  was  carried  away  to  Rouen 
only  to  die. 

On  his  deathbed  he  said  that  his  son  Robert  must 
have  Normandy,  since  he  had  promised  it  to  him  ;  but  he 
gave  it  to  him  sadly,  for  he  knew  that  he  was  proud  and 
foolish  and  would  not  rule  the  duchy  well.  He  hoped 
that  William,  his  second  son,  would  have  England.  He 
did  not  !?ame  him  ;  he  said  that  as  he  had  won  the  kingdom 
by  the  eword,  he  dared  leave  it  to  no  one  but  to  the  dis- 
posal of  God.  Then  he  thought  of  his  sins,  of  his  harsh- 
ness to  the  English,  of  the  lands  he  had  burnt  and 
plundered,  of  the  vast  numbers  he  had  slain  by  hunger 
oi  the  sword.  To  atone  for  his  sins  he  left  his  treasures 
to  the  poor  and  to  the  churches  in  his  lands.  He  gave 
oiders  that  a'l  prisoners  should  be  allowed  to  go  free,  even 
his  brot.ier  Odo  of  Rayeux. 

Ho  dictated  a  letter  to  Lanfranc  telling  him  what  he 
wished  ?ibout  thft  jjovernment  of  England,  and  gave  it  to 
his  son  'Villiam,  who  started  on  his  way  to  England  even 
EH.  C 


1 8  England  a  Continental  Pozver.  1087. 

before  his  father's  death.  To  his  youngest  son,  Henry, 
he  gave  money  from  his  hoard  and  bade  him  be  patient 
and  trust  in  the  Lord  and  let  his  elders  go  before.  At  last 
one  morning,  as  the  bell  rang  for  prime,  he  stretched  out 
his  hands  in  prayer  and  his  soul  passed  away.  He  was, 
says  the  English  chronicler,  a  '  very  wise  man  and  very 
great,  and  more  worshipful  and  stronger  than  any  of 
those  who  went  before  him.' 

As  he  lay  ill,  the  enemies  of  peace  had  rejoiced,  thmk- 
ing  that  now  they  would  be  able  to  seize  on  the  goods  of 
other  men  at  their  pleasure  ;  but  those  who  lo^'ed  peace 
were  filled  with  dread.  In  truth  the  strong  man  was 
no  sooner  deid  than  those  who  had  stood  around  his  bed 
rushed  to  their  own  homes  to  save  their  goods  from  the 
plunderers.  In  the  .oyal  chamber  everything  was  car- 
ried off,  clothes,  vessels,  and  furniture;  and  the  body  of 
the  great  man  who  had  been  so  feared  curing  his  life- 
time, was  left  alone  and  wellnigh  bai  e  on  the  floor  of  the 
chamber.  Not  a  man  of  his  household  came  forward  to 
bury  him  :  each  man  thought  only  of  himseif  At  last 
a  humble  Norman  knight,  at  his  own  expense,  took  the 
body  by  water  to  Caen,  and  there  it  was  b-uied  in  the 
Conqueror's  great  abbey  of  St.  Stephen's. 

3.  The  barons  both  in  England  and  Non  landy  would 
have  liked  to  have  for  their  king  Robert,  the  Conqueror's 
William  the  eldest  son.  But  WiUiam  the  Re<<j  as  the  se- 
Red  chosen      ^ond  son  was  called,  from  the  Cilour  of  his 

King  ot  ' 

England.  hair,   had    a    powerful   friend    in    Lanfranc. 

William  was  ready  to  do  an>  thing  to  get  the  crown  ;  and 
as  the  barons  were  against  him  he  threw  himself  upon 
the  support  of  the  English.  He  swore  to  Lanfranc  that 
he  would  rule  with  Justice  and  mercy,  would  care  for  the 
Church,  and  follow  his  advice  in  all  things.  So  Lanfran.- 
crowned  him  king,  and  his  promises  of  good  governmeU' 
bound  the  English  people  to  him. 


1089.  William  II.,  the  Red.  19 

The  barons  still  clung  to  Robert,  and  it  took  much 
fighting,  both  in  England  and  Normandy,  to  put  them 
down.  Many  of  the  great  Nonnan  barons  in  England 
lost  their  lands  and  liberty  by  rebellion.  At  last,  like 
so  many  other  men  of  his  day,  Robert  grew  eager 
to  go  to  the  East  on  the  Crusade  and  fight  to  win  back 
Christ's  Sepulchre  from  the  Saracens.  He  made  peace 
with  William,  and  left  him  his  duchy  during  his  absence 
in  return  for  a  large  sum  of  money. 


BOOK      II. 
THE     \OAWf  A  A'    R  U L  E. 


CHAPTER    I. 

STRUGGLE     BETWF.EN     KING     AND     CHURCH. 

I.  William  the  Red  was,  like  his  father,  a  strong  man, 
who  knew  how  tu  make  himself  obeyed,  but  he  had  not 
his  father's  virtues.  As  long  as  Lanfranc  lived  winiam  II. 's 
he  kept  him  in  order,  so  that  his  vices  did  government, 
not  show  themselves.  But  to  the  great  loss  of  the  country, 
Lanfranc  died  less  than  two  years  after  the  Red  King 
came  to  the  throne.  Then  William  showed  himself  in 
his  true  light— a  man  who  feared  neither  (iod  nor  men, 
who  gave  way  to  all  his  passions,  and  openly  scofled  at 
religion  and  virtue. 

F^or  his  chief  minister  and  adviser  he  chose  Ranulf 
Flambard,  a  priest,  an  able  and  crafty  man,  who  cared 
no  more  for  virtue  than  the  king  himself.^  He  used  every 
means  to  get  money  for  the  king,  who  loved  it  as  much 
as  his  father  had  done,  and  cared  not  how  he  got  it 
'  In  his  days,'  says  the  chronicler,  '  all  justice  sank  and 


20  Engiaud  a  Continental  Poxvcr.  1093. 

all  unrighteousness  arose.'  When  an  abbot  or  a  bishop 
died,  the  king  and  his  minister  did  not  choose  one  to 
fill  his  place,  but  drew  ail  the  rents  for  themselves  and 
took  all  the  money  that  belonged  to  the  office. 

After  Lanfranc's  death  nearly  four  years  passed  and 
no  new  archbishop  was  named,  till  all  men  murmured. 
Even  the  rough  barons  at  William's  court  asked  him  to 
fill  the  see.  But  he  would  not,  till  falling  very  sick  he 
feared  to  die,  and  the  thought  of  his  many  sins  came 
to  frighten  him. 

2.  It  chanced  that  at  that  time  there  was  a  holy  man 
in  the  land,  abbot  of  that  same  monastery  of  Bee  from 

which  Lanfranc  had  come,  Anselm  by  name. 

He  had  been  a  friend  of  Lanfranc's,  and  was, 
like  him,  an  Italian  and  a  learned  man.  He  had  long 
been  spoken  of  as  the  man  who  should  be  archbishop. 
So  in  his  sickness  the  frightened  king  sent  for  him  and 
told  him  that  it  was  his  will  that  he  should  fill  the  see 
of  Canterbury.  But  Anselm  had  no  wish  for  this  honour. 
He  was  a  simple  monk,  he  said,  and  wished  to  hve  in 
peace — he  had  never  mi.xed  with  the  business  .  of  the 
world.  The  bystanders  had  to  use  force  before  they 
could  make  him  take  the  cross  in  his  hands,  and  it  was 
against  his  will  that  he  was  made  archbishop. 

3.  When  the  king  got  better  of  his  sickness  he  forgot 
his  vows  to  lead  a  new  life,  and  behaved  worse  than  before, 
.      ,        ,      But  in  Anselm  he  found  a  man  bold  enoui^ii 

Anselm  ana  o 

William.  to  rcbuke   his    crimes.     When   all   the   land 

trembled  before  the  tyrant,  the  archbishop  spoke  out  for 
the  cause  of  liberty  and  good  government.  That  the  two 
should  live  in  peace  side  by  side  was  impossible.  The 
King  grew  to  hate  Anselm  and  quarrelled  with  him,  be- 
cause he  rebuked  hirn  for  his  vices,  and  because  he 
would  not  give  him  the  money  he  wanted.  Moreover, 
there  were  at  that  linie  two   1 'opes  in  Christendom,  each 


IIOO. 


Henry  /.  2\ 


claiming  to  be  the  rightful  one.  Ans.^hii  had  said  that 
he  would  obey  Urban  II.  as  Pope,  but  William  forbade 
him  to  look  upon  either  as  Pope  till  he  allowed  it. 

4.  At  last  William  grew  so  bitter  against  him  that 
Anselm  had  to  leave  the  country  and  did  not  come 
back  till  the  Red  King's  death.  For  twelve  wiiiiamll  s 
long  years  of  misery  William  ruled  over  the  oppression 
land.  The  barons  imitated  his  vices,  and  on  all  sides 
the  people  were  oppressed.  Ranulf  Flambard  found 
out  ever  new  ways  of  burdening  the  country  with  laxes. 
Law  was  almost  silent,  and  only  money  weighed  with  the 
J  udges. 

William  loved  hunting  as  much  as  his  father  had 
done,  and  his  forest  laws  were  very  cruel.  One  day 
whilst  hunting  in  the  .New  Forest  he  was  shot  by  an 
arrow  and  killed  on  the  spot.  Whether  this  was  done 
by  chance  or  on  purpose  was  never  known,  and  perhaps 
no  man  cared  to  ask,  from  joy  that  the  tyrant  was  dead. 

5.  Henry,  William's  younger  brother,  was  hunting  with 
»him  when  he   was   killed.     Robert  was   still 

away  on   the  Crusade,  and  Henry  had  him-     Henry  i. 
self   chosen   king   by    the   few   barons   who     <:hosei,  king. 
were  round  William  at  his  death. 

6.  But  Henry  knew  well  that  the  barons  really  wished 
Robert  to  be  king,  and  so  hastened  to  make  himself 
sure  of  the  people.  At  his  crowning  he  swore  Henrv  I  's 
to  give  the  land  peace,  justice,  and  equity,  ch.irter. 
Afterwards  he  gave  the  people  a  charter  in  which  he 
promised  to  free  the  Church  from  all  unju-^t  burdens, 
and  the  land  froin  all  evil  customs :  he  gave  back  to 
the  people  their  old  laws,  and  promised  to  reform  all 
the  abuses  which  had  crept  in  during  the  Red  Kings 
reign. 

We  must  remember  this  charter,  because  it  states 
very  clearly  for  the   first  time   the  rights  of  the  people. 


22  England  a  Continental  Power.  xio-i,. 

It  puts  bounds  to  the  power  of  the  king  by  sayi»<|f  that 
the  treedom  of  the  people  cannot  lawfully  be  int'  rfered 
with.  It  gave  the  people  good  hope  that  their  foublcs 
were  at  an  end. 

7.  Henry  had  been  born  in  England,  and  the  L  nglish 
people  joyfully    welcomed    him  as  in   truth  an   L  nglish 

king.     Still    g!-eater   was   their  joy   when   he 

Henry  s  00  j    j 

marriage,  took  for  his  wife  an  English  maiden,  Edith, 
"°°'  daughter  of  Malcolm,  King  of  Scotland,  and 

Margaret,  the  sister  of  Edgar  the  Atheling.  She  tool: 
the  name  of  Maude  on  her  marriage,  and  her  virtues 
made  her  very  dear  to  the  English  people,  who  spoke  of 
her  as  the  *  good  Queen  Maude.' 

8.  One  of  Henry's  first  acts  was  to  send  for  Anselm 
to  come  back.  The  archbishop  came  full  of  hope  that 
Henry  1.  and  "^^  he  might  do  something  to  reform  the 
Anselm.  Church  and  the  monasteries.  Henry  was 
willing  to  reform  the  Church,  but  he  meant  to  keep  the 
old  customs  that  had  been  in  force  in  his  father's  reiga 
He  wanted  the  bishops  and  abbots  to  do  him  homage* 
and  be  his  men,  as  the  laymen  were;  he  meant  him.sell 
to  fill  up  the  vacant  posts  in  the  Church  and  give  the 
bishops  and  abbots  the  ring  and  the  staff,  the  signs  of 
their  office.  But  Anselm  had  quite  other  views.  He 
said  that  the  election  of  the  abbots  and  bishops  belonged 
to  the  monks  and  chapters,  that  the  clergy  owed  the 
king  no  homage,  and  that  no  layman  could  give  the  ring 
and  the  staff.  On  this  point  neither  would  give  way, 
and  so  they  quarrelled.  H»nry  had  the  strong  will  of 
his  fa.ther,  and  would  give  up  none  of  his  powers.  Anselm 
felt  that  he  was  fighting  for  the  liberty  of  the  Church.  He 
had  seen  how  she  had  suffered  from  being  quite  in  the 
king's  power  in  the  last  reign. 

It  was  the  same  quarrel  that  was  then  troubling  all 
Europe,    and   is   called    the  dispute   about   investitures. 


i 


nog.  Dca'Ji  of  Ansehn.  23 

The  point  was  whether  it  was  the  lay  power  or  the 
Church  which  had  the  right  to  invest  or  clothe  a  man  in 
the  dii^mities  of  a  spiritual  office. 

We  need  not  follow  out  the  quarrel  between  Anselm 
and  Henry,  which  lasted  for  many  yenrs.  For  three 
years  Ansehn  was  banished  from  England,  because  he 
would  not  give  way  to  the  king.  At  last  they  came  to  an 
agreement  by  each  side  giving  way  a  little.  The  impor- 
tant thing  about  the  quarrel  is  that  the  Church  was  able 
to  make  so  hard  a  fight  against  such  a  strong  king  as 
Henry,  and  in  the  end  really  made  him  give  up  some- 
thing. This  showed  him  that  he  could  not  always  do  just 
as  he  willed,  and  it  taught  the  people,  too,  that  they  were 
not  so  much  at  the  king's  mercy  as  it  seemed. 

Anselm  did  not  live  quite  three  years  after  his  return 
from  exile,  but  during  that  time  Henry  listened  to  him 
when  he  spoke  of  the  sorrows  of  the  poor,  and  some- 
thing was  done  to  help  them.  Anselm  was  known  all 
over  Chiislendom  for  his  learning  and  his  piety.  Men 
mourned  much  when  he  died,  and  in  after  days  the 
Church  made  him  one  of  her  saints. 


CHAPTER    II. 
HOW   THE   NORMAN    KINGS   GOVERNED   THE   LAND. 

I.   Henry  I.  was  hardly  crowned  when  Robert  reached 
Normandv  on  his  return  from  the  Crusade.     He  listened 

s 

to  the  barons,  who  urged  him  to  try  and  take 

Struggle 

the   English   crown  from    his   brother.     The     with^Duke 
barons  saw  that  Henry's  rule  would  be  strict,     Ro'''^"- 
while  they  knew    that    Robert,  though  a   brave  soldier, 
was  weak   and    foolish.     If   they  had  Robert  for  their 
king   they  hoped  to  be  able   to  have  things  more  their 


24  England  a  Continental  Power. 

own  way.  In  the  whole  quarrel  the  barons  looked  only 
for  their  own  gain  and  cared  little  for  Robert,  but  'the 
English  held  firmly  by  Henry.  The  fighting  was  mostly 
in  Normandy,  where  at  last  Henry  won  the  great  battle 
of  Tenchebrai  (1106),  and  took  Robert  prisoner.  Henry 
1.  now  ruled  over  both  Normandy  and  England,  and  kept 
Robert  in  prison  till  his  death. 

2.  Still  he  was  not  left  undisturbed,  for  the  King  of 
France  feared  his  power,  and   the   barons   were   always 

discontented.     ♦Robert's    son   claimed    Nor- 
and"the  mandv,  and  the  King  of   France  fought  for 

baron<i.  j^j^.^^  .  ^^^  ^g  ^j^^j  young,  and  Henry  had  no 

other  rival  to  fear.  The  wars  in  France  really  strength- 
ened his  power  at  home.  He  was  able  to  seize  the 
lands  of  those  barons  who  rose  against  him,  and  in  this 
way  the  descendants  of  many  of  the  great  nien  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  Conquest  lost  'their  lands  in  England: 
Henry  did  not,  as  a  rule,  seize  their  lands  in  Normandy 
also.  He  was  afraid  that  if  he  did  so  he  woiild  drive 
them  to  seek  help  from  the  King  of  France. 

3.  These  struggles  with  the  barons  brought  much  good 
to  the  English  people.     Henry  had  to  trust  to  their  help, 

and,  that  he  might  be  sure  of  it,  he  had  to 
ancTtfie  givc  them  the  good  government  which  they 

people.  wanted,  and   give   them   back  the   old   laws 

and  customs  which  they  had  had  under  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor. It  is  in  this  reign  that  we  hnd  the  beginnings  of 
English  liberties.  It  was  not  that  Henry  loved  his  people  ; 
his  aims  were  quite  selfish.  He  wanted  them  to  help 
him,  and  he  was  wise  enough  to  take  the  right  means  to 
get  them  to  do  so.  He  began  his  reign  by  arresting 
Ranulf  Flambard,  William  the  Red's  wicked  minister, 
and  this  seemed  to  the  people  to  promise  good  govern- 
ment. He  made  friends  with  the  Church  by  filling  up 
all  the  sees  which  Williau:  \kv{  l^f'  empty,  and,  except 


Henry  I!s  Government.  2$ 

for  his  quarrel  with   Anselm,   worked   with   the  Church 
to  do  away  with  the  abuses  in  the  land. 

4.  Henr>'  was  a  hard,  scltish  man,  but  fortunately  for 
the  people  his  interests  were  the  same  as  theirs.  He 
knew  what  he  wanted,  and  he  knew  how  to     „ 

TT      1  1  •  Henry  I.  s 

get  It.  He  kept  his  anns  clearly  before  him  character, 
in  all  that  he  did.  He  wished  to  build  up  a  strong  power 
out  of  the  firm  union  of  England  and  Normandy.  Men 
did  not  love  him,  but  they  feared  and  trusted  him,  for 
they  could  see  and  understand  his  aims.  '  Great  was 
the  awe  of  him,'  says  the  chronicler  ;  '  no  man  durst 
illtreat  another  in  his  time  :  he  made  peace  for  men  and 
deer.' 

5.  The  Conqueror  had  loved  order  and  made  peace  in 
the  land.  But  time  had  tried  his  system  and  showed  the 
points  in  which  it  failed,  so  that  Henry  could 

see  where  it  would  be  well  to  make  changes,  "otem-'' ' 
In  his  plans  for  reform  his  chief  adviser  was  '"^"'■ 
Roger,  Dishop  of  Salisbury.  He  was  a  very  wise  and 
able  man,  a  Norman  by  birth,  who  had  risen  in  Henry's 
service  from  being  a  poor  clerk  to  be  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury and  chief  minister  of  the  king.  In  Henrv  l.'s 
time  these  ministers  of  the  crown  first  grew  up  lo  help 
the  king  in  all  that  he  had  to  do. 

6.  The  chief  minister  in  those  days  was  called  the 
Justiciaj:  At  first  the  Justiciar  only  existed  when  the 
king  was  away  from  England  and  some  one     -^^ 

had  to  take  his  place  there.  The  Conqueror  Ju«icbr. 
wanted  no  minister,  for  he  liked  to  look  after  everything 
himself  But  as  the  business  of  the  government  grew 
greater,  some  one  was  much  oftener  wanted  to  fill  ilie 
king's  place  and  look  after  things  for  him.  Roger  of 
Salisbury  was  Justiciar  to  the  end  of  Henry's  reign,  and 
it  is  in  his  time  that  the  justiciar  seems  to  have  grown 
to  be  chief  minister  of  the  crown. 


26  Ens;land  a  Continental  Poiver. 


'i> 


7.  In  later  times  the  Justiciar  became  only  a  judge — 
the  Lord  Chief  Justice,  as  he  is  now  called.  Most  of  his 
jj^j.  duties  then  fell  upon  the  Chancellor,  who  was 
Chancellor.  at  first  only  the  head  of  the  royal  chaplains, 
the  priests  in  the  king's  service.  They  were  the  king's 
secictaries.  He  got  his  name  from  the  screen — cancelli^ 
as  it  is  called  in  Latin — behind  which  he  and  the  chap- 
lains did  their  work.  The  Chancellor  also  became  in 
time  only  a  legal  officer,  but  is  still  a  minister  of  the 
crown. 

8.  The  Treasurer  was  simply  the  keeper  of  the  king's 
TheTrea-  treasure,  and  had  to  look  after  the  accounts, 
surer.  Still  the  officc  was  important,  and  Roger  of 
Salisbury  got  it  for  his  nephew,  the  Bishop  of  Ely. 

These  were  the  chief  men  who  did  the  business  of 
the  government  for  the  king.  They  were  generally 
clergymen,  for  the  kings  did  not  wish  to  give  these  offices 
to  any  of  the  great  barons,  for  fear  they  should  grow  too 
strong  and  hand  on  the  offices  to  their  sons. 

9.  Most  of  the  government  was  really  in  the  king's 
own  hands,  though  it  was  always  said  that  he  acted  by 
The  Great  ^^  advice  of  his  Great  Council,  the  Wite- 
Councii.  nagemot,  as  it  had  been  called  under  the 
English  kings.  But  it  had  changed  its  nature  since  the 
Conquest.  It  was  now  not  a  meeting  of  the  Wise  Men, 
but  a  court  of  the  king's  chief  barons.  It  had  only  the 
forms  of  power ;  and  though  the  king  asked  its  ad%'ice,  it 
does  n"t)t  seem  to  have  dared  to  do  more  than  agree  to 
what  he  said.  But  by  right  it  had  the  power  to  make 
laws,  and  it  was  important  for  the  growth  of  English 
freedom  that  it  kept  even  the  forms  of  its  rights;  for 
when  the  people  grew  stronger  they  could  make  these 
forms  real  powers. 

Besides  the  Great  Council  the  king  had  two  othe> 
courts,  the  Excheqiier  and  ^he  Curia  Regis. 


The  King's  Revenue.  2  J 

\o.  The  Exchequer  was  the  court  which  managed  the 
accounts  of  the  government  and  received  the  taxes. 
The  Justiciar  was  the  head  of  the  court,  y^^^  g^_ 
The  Chancellor  and  all  the  great  oflkers  of  chequer. 
the  king's  household  sat  in  it,  and  were  called  Barons  aj 
the  I'lxxheqiier.  The  Exchequer  got  its  name  from  the 
checked  cloth  which  covered  the  table  round  which  the 
barons  sat.  Its  chief  meetings  were  held  twice  a  year, 
when  the  sheriffs  came  up  from  the  counties  with  their 
accounts.  Each  sheriff  had  to  bring  up  ihe  money  due 
to  the  crown  from  his  county.  This  money  came  chicny 
from  the  rents  of  the  land  belonging  to  the  king  in  each 
county,  and  from  the  lines  paid  by  offenders  to  the  county 
courts.  The  sheriff  agreed  to  pay  the  king  for  his  dues  a 
fixed  sum,  which  was  called  the  Feriii  of  the  county.  If 
he  got  more  out  of  the  county  he  kept  it  for  himself,  if 
Icsb  he  had  to  make  it  up  out  of  his  own  purse.  Accounts 
between  the  sheriff  and  the  Exchequer  were  kept  on  a  long 
piece  of  stick,  in  which  notches  were  made  marking  the 
pounds,  shillings,  and  pence  paid  in  by  the  sheriffs;  the 
stick  was  then  split  in  half,  half  was  given  to  the  sheriff, 
and  half  kept  by  the  E.xchequer. 

1 1.  The  King's  revenue,  as  the  money  which  came  in 
every  year  to  the  king  was  called,  was  made  up  of  the 
following  payments:  i.  The  Eerm  of  the  The  King's 
counties,  which  has  just  been  explained,  avenue. 
2.  The  Uanegeld  ;  this  in  time  was  done  away  with  undei 
that  name,  but  the  kings  still  laid  a  tax  of  much  the 
same  kind  on  the  cultivated  land.  3.  The  fines  which 
had  to  be  paid  to  the  king  by  certain  kinds  of  criminals, 
and  the  fees  and  other  profits  of  the  law  courts.  4.  The 
feudal  aids.  The  vassals  of  the  king  had  to  pay  him 
fixed  sums  when  his  eldest  son  was  knighted,  when  his 
eldest  daughter  was  married,  and  when  their  lands  passed 
from  one  hand  to  another.     5.  Henry  L  got  a  great  deal 


28  England  a  Continental  Power. 

of  money  by  fining  those  who  broke  the  forest  laws 
and  killed  the  king's  game.  These  forest  laws  were 
so  very  harsh  that  they  brought  much  suffering  upon 
the  people.  All  these  different  moneys  were  paid  into 
the  Exchequer,  and  made  a  very  large  revenue  for  the 
crown. 

12.  The  Curia  Regis  was  the  King's  Court,  as  its  Latin 
name  means,  in  which  the  king  sat  at  the  head  of  his 
The  Curia  barons  to  give  justice.  It  acted  as  a  sort  of 
Regis.  committee    of  the   king's   Great   Council,  as 

the  Great  Council  did  not  meet  often.  The  usual  court, 
therefore,  was  made  up  of  the  officers  of  the  royal  house- 
hold. The  same  men  who  were  barons  of  the  Exchequer 
also  sat  in  the  Curia  Regis,  and  were  then  called  Justices. 
If  the  king  was  not  present  at  the  meetings  of  the  court, 
the  Justiciar  took  his  place  and  heard  the  cases  for  him. 
The  business  of  this  court  was  very  great.  It  had  to  hear 
the  cases  of  persons  who  had  interfered  with  the  king's 
interest;  it  had  to  settle  the  disputes  of  the  chief  vassals 
of  the  crown,  and  suits  were  brought  up  to  it  from  the 
county  courts  which  could  not  be  settled  there.  Out  of 
this  court  sprang,  in  the  next  century,  the  three  courts 
of  Westminster,  which  we  still  have  :  the  Exchequer, 
King's  Bench,  and  Common  Pleas.  Besides  being  a  court 
for  doing  justice  it  was  also  an  assembly  of  the  King's 
advisers,  and  as  such  it  still  remains  in  the  Privy 
Council. 

The  chief  reason  which  led  the  Norman  kings  to  order 
this  court  so  carefully  was  because  they  found  that  it 
brought  them  in  a  great  deal  of  money.  They  did  justice 
very  much  because  of  the  large  profits  made  by  the  fines 
which  the  oftenders  had  to  pay.  Henry,  too,  was  wise 
enough  to  see  that  the  country  would  be  safer  if  justice 
were  done  in  it,  and  so  he  would  be  able  to  tax  it  more 
easily.     So  we  see  that  the  Nonnan   kings   did  not  do 


The  Coiifity  Courts.  29 

justice  for  the  good  of  the  people,  but  because  they  found 
it  profitable  and  useful  for  themselves. 

13.  Henry  I.  felt  as  strongly  as  his  father  had  done 
how  necessary  it  was  to  keep  the  power  of  the  barons 
from  growing  too  great.  He  saw  that  the  Con-  circuit  of 
queror  had  not  gone  far  enough  in  this  way.  the  Justices. 
He  went  on  ^o  make  it  impossible  for  the  barons  to  get 
strong  powers  of  their  own  in  the  counties.  He  did  this 
by  connecting  all  the  county  courts  with  the  Curia  Regis. 
He  sent  his  justices  through  the  country  on  circuit,  as  it 
is  called.  They  went  first  to  fix  what  sums  of  money 
were  due  to  the  king.  They  sat  in  the  shiremoot,  the 
old  English  county  court.  At  first  they  only  had  to  look 
after  money  matters,  but  in  time  they  sat  as  judges  in 
the  court  as  well,  in  the  same  way  as  our  Judges  do  now 
when  they  go  on  circuit.  Their  circuits  did  not  become 
very  regular  till  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  when  we-  shall 
have  to  speak  about  them  again. 

The  important  thing  to  notice  is  how  the  whole  country 
was  bound  together  under  one  system.  Through  his 
lustices  the  king  could  make  his  power  felt  in  every  part 
of  the  kingdom. 

14.  The  county  courts  were  much  the  same  as  they  had 
l-een  in  the  days  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  They  were 
presided  over  by  the  sheriff,  who  was  chosen  -fhe  county 
by  the  king,  and  who  represented  the  king —  court.-;, 
mat  is,  stood  in  his  place — in  the  county.  Below  thtm 
tvas  the  court  of  the  hundred,  which  was  a  division  of 
:he  county;  and  lastly  came  the  manorial  courts,  the 
courts  of  the  greater  barons.  These  courts  were  all 
steps  up  to  the  Curia  Regis,  and  were  now  all  closely 
connected  with  it  by  the  circuits  of  the  justices. 

So  you  see  how  orderly  was  the  government  of  the 
Norman  king-s.  The  people  were  very  safe  under  it,  but 
Ihey  had  to  pay  dearly  foi   their  safety.    The  taxes  were 


30  England  a  Continental  Power. 

very  heavy,  and  men  often  found  it  hard  to  pay  them.   The 
king's  wars  in  Normandy   cost  large   sums, 
the  Norman      and  the  EugUsh  people  had  to  pay  for  them. 
"'''^-  The  chief  object  of  the  king   in  his  govern- 

ment of  England  was  to  keep  the  people  contented  and 
get  plenty  of  money  out  of  them.  In  this  he  succeeded, 
for  they  never  tried  to  go  against  him.  But  he  had  to 
give  them  the  liberties,  or  forms  of  liberties,  which  afte- 
wards  helped  them  to  govern  themselves. 

This  account  of  the  Norman  government  may  perhaps 
seem  very  dry  and  hard  to  understand.  But  it  is  not 
hard  to  see  why  it  should  interest  every  Englishman.  It 
tells  us  about  the  way  in  which  the  government  we  now 
have  came  to  e.xist.  Our  English  constitution  has  grown 
up  gradually  and  naturally  out  of  the  mixture  of  the  old 
English  and  the  Norman  customs.  We  have  traced  how 
the  Normans  made  use  of  the  forms  of  government  they 
found  in  the  land:  they  added  order  and  strength  to  what 
they  found,  and  put  new  life  into  it  by  their  great  energy  ; 
so  that  the  whole  nation  grew  stronger  through  them. 


BOOK     III. 
FEUDAL    ANARCHY    AND    REFORM. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    BARONS    IN    POWBR. 


I,  A  GREAT  sorrow  came  upon  Henry  I.     The  ship  in 
which   his  son  William  was   coming   hoHie    from    Nor- 


II3--  Death  of  Hejiry  I.  31 

mandy    struck   on   a  rock  and  sank,  and  all  in  it  were 
lost.     After  this  terrible  blow,  the  story  tells  us,  Henry 
never  smiled  again.     William  was  his  only  son,  to  whom 
he   had   hoped   to   leave   his   strong   power.     Death  of 
The   only  child  now  left  him   was  Matilda,     ^r.',??^^ 

^  '      William. 

who    had    been    married    to    the    Emperor     1120. 
Henry  V.,  King  of  Germany.     Henry   I.  hoped  that  she 
would  succeed  him,  but  in  those  days  it  seemed  a  strange 
thing  that  a  woman  should  rule  over  the  lawless  barons. 

Henry  did  all  in  his  power  to  make  her  sure  of  the 
crown.  He  made  all  the  barons  and  clergy  swear  to 
be  faithful  to  her,  and  he  married  her  after  the  emperor's 
death  to  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  the  son  of  the  man  he  mos* 
feared,  Fulk,  Count  of  Anjou.  You  will  remember  that 
the  Counts  of  Anjou  had  always  been  foes  of  the  Normans, 
and  so  the  Norman  barons  hated  this  marriage. 

2.  When  Henry  died  in  Normandy,  in  1 135,  all  seemed 
uncertain.  There  was  an  end  to  the  peace  and  order 
which  the  king  loved,  for   the  strong  hand     ^     .       c 

°  '  °  Stephen  of 

which  kept  the  barons  quiet  was  gone.  No  Uoulognebe- 
one  remembered  the  oaths  which  they  had  '^°'"*^  '"s- 
sworn  to  Matilda  In  the  midst  of  the  confusion  Stephen, 
Count  of  Boulogne,  son  of  the  Conqueror's  daughter, 
Adela,  persuaded  the  English  to  choose  him  to  be  their 
king. 

Stephen  was  a  brave  soldier,  very  generous  and  af- 
fable, so  that  men  readily  loved  him.  He  swore  to  give 
the  land  peace  and  good  government,  and  all  England 
took  him  for  her  king,  whilst  no  one  took  up  Matilda's 
cause. 

3.  Stephen  was  nothing  but  a  soldier;  he  had  no  idea 
how  to  govern  the  country.     All  was  disorder     Stephen's 
in  the  land.     The  barons  built  strong  castles,     misgovern- 
and  plundered  the  poor  at  their  pleasure. 

Stephen,  who  wished  to  make  tirm  friends  for  himself 


32  England  a  Continental  Pozacr.  1138. 

•m 

made  many  new  earls.  He  took  no  care,  as  the  Norman 
kiii^s  before  him  had  done,  to  keep  the  barons  from 
growing  too  powerful.  For  once  feudalism  got  the  upper 
hand  in  England,  and  the  disorder  and  suffering  that 
followed  showed  how  wise  had  been  the  government  of 
the  Conqueror  and  his  sons.  The  clergy  alone  tried  to 
make  peace  in  the  land.  But  Stephen  managed  to  make 
them  his  enemies. 

4.  Roger,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  the  great  minister  ol 
Henry  I.,  had  gone  on   being  Justiciar  under  Stephen. 

He,  too,  that  he  might  be  safe  in  those  law- 
quarrel  with  less  times,  had  built  and  fortified  castles, 
the  Church.  j^j^  nephews,  who  were  bishops  too,  had 
done  the  same,  and  they  came  to  court  with  long  trains 
of  servants  as  if  they  were  princes.  Stephen  was  afraid 
of  such  a  powerful  subject  as  Roger,  so  he  seized  him 
and  made  him  give  up  his  castles.  This  made  the  clergy 
very  angry.  Soon  afterwards  the  Empress  Matilda 
landed  in  England,  and  war  began  again.  Even  Ste- 
phen's brother  Henry,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  a  rich  and 
powerful  man,  went  over  to  Matilda's  side,  because 
Stephen  had  done  wrong  to  the  Church. 

5.  The  disgrace  of  Bishop  Roger  put  the  whole  country 
in   disorder,  for  he  alone  had  looked   after  the  govern- 

.  ment.     The  laws  were  no  longer  carried  out, 

and  justice  was  not  done  in  the  land.  For 
fourteen  years  there  was  war  between  Stephen  and 
Matilda.  First  one  side  met  with  success,  then  the 
other.  Once  Stephen  was  taken  prisoner,  but  was  let 
go  again  in  return  for  other  prisoners.  Once  Matilda 
was  so  hard-pressed  in  Oxford  by  Stephen,  that  she  had 
to  flee  over  the  frozen  floods  clad  all  in  white,  so  that 
she  might  not  be  seen  against  the  snow. 

The  barons  fought  first  on  one  side,  and  then  on  the 
other.     They  did  not  care  either  for  Stephen  or  Matilda, 


1 1 5  2 .  Hen  ry  of  A  njou .  3  5. 

but  only  wanted  to  get  power  for  themselves.  The  clergy 
spoke  up  for  peace,  but  they  were  not  strong  enough  to 
do  much. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  misery  of  the  people  was  very 
great.  One  chronicler  says:  'Some  did  what  was  right 
in  their  own  eyes,  but  many  did  what  they  knew  to  be 
wrong  all  the  more  readily,  now  that  the  fear  of  the  law 
and  the  king  was  taken  away.'  Another  says :  '  The 
barons  greatly  oppressed  the  wretched  people  by  n\aking 
them  work  at  iheir  castles.  They  took,  by  night  and  by 
day,  those  whom  they  thought  to  have  any  goods  ;  seizing 
both  men  and  women,  they  put  them  in  prison  for  their 
gold  and  silver,  and  tortured  them  with  pains  unspeak- 
able. Many  thousands  they  killed  with  hunger.  Then 
was  corn  dear,  and  cheese  and  butter,  for  there  was  nunc 
in  the  land.  Wietched  men  died  with  hunger;  some 
lived  on  alms  who  before  were  rich ;  some  fled  the 
country.  Neverwas  more  misery,and  never  acted  heathens 
worse  than  these.  .  .  .  M-.n  said  openly  that  Christ  slept 
and  his  saints.' 


CHAI'TER  II. 

SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   DISORDER. 

i.  The  country  at  last  wearied  of  the  struggle,  and  theVe 
came  to  England  a  man  who  seemed  fitted  to  bring  it  to 
an  end.  This  was  Matilda's  son,  Henry  of  y^^^  ^,j-  ^^e 
Anjou,  who  had  now  grown  to  manhood,  war. 
Already  he  held  many  lands  in  France.  His  father's 
death  had  given  him  Anjou.  From  his  mother  he  had 
Normandy,  which  Stephen  had  never  been  able  to  hold. 
He  had  married  Eleanor  of  Guienne,  the  heiress  of  the 
county  of  Poitou  and  the  great  duchy  of  Guienne.  In. 
A.  //.  D 


34  England  a  Continental  Poivei'.  1154. 

this  way  he  v.as  lord  of  a  greater  part  of  France  than 
was  the  French  king  himself. 

Henry  began  by  making  war  on  Stephen.  F.ut  the 
misery  of  the  country  stirred  up  the  clergy  to  try  and 
make  peace.  Theobald,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was 
sincerely  moved  by  a  wish  to  help  the  people,  and  Henry 
Bishop  of  Winchester  aided  him  in  persuading  Stephen 
and  Henry  to  come  to  terms. 

2.  By  the  Peace  of  Wallingford  it  was  agreed  that  Ste- 
phen should  keep  the  crown  as  long  as  he  lived,  on  con- 
dition that  it  went  to  Henry  on  his  death.    A 

Pg3.CC  Of 

Wallingford,  plan  of  reform  was  also  made,  most  likely 
"53-  by  Henry,  so  that  means  might  be  taken  to 

bring  back  order  and  lessen  the  people's  sufferings.  Ste- 
phen did  not  live  to  carry  out  this  plan,  and  probably  would 
have  been  too  weak  to  do  so.  He  died  the  year  after 
the  Peace  of  Wallingford,  and  the  crown  passed  quietly 
to  Henry. 

3.  With  Henry  II.  came  in  a  new  race  of  kings — the 
Angevin  Kings,  as  they  were  called,  because  of  their 
TheA.T'evin  descent  from  Geoffrey  of  Anjou.  From  Geof- 
kings,  1154.  frey  too  they  got  their  surname  of  Planta- 
gcnet,  because  he  had  a  habit  of  wearing  in  his  hat  a 
piece  of  broom  called  in  Latin,  Planta  Genista. 

Under  the  Angevin  kings  England  made  great  pro- 
gress. First  of  all  Heniy  II.  by  his  wisdom  made  her 
strong,  for  he  knew  how  to  make  use  of  what  the  Nor- 
man kings  had  done,  and  how  to  make  their  work  better. 
Afterwards  the  weakness  and  bad  government  of  John 
did  as  much  for  the  people  as  Henry  ll.'s  wisdom  had 
done,  for  it  taught  them  their  own  strength,  and  led  them 
to  make  it  felt. 

It  was  under  these  kings  that  England  became  one. 
She  learnt  to  feel  that  she  was  one  country,  under  one 
go\ernment.    The  Normans  and  the  Enghsh  too  became 


£154-  Henry  II.' s  Character.  35 

one  people.  They  had  married  with  one  another,  and 
very  few  families  were  still  of  pure  Norman  ^^  j^^^j  j^^ 
blood.  Men  no  longer  spoke  of 'the  Normans' ;  comes  one. 
the  two  people  shared  the  name  of  English.  French  was 
the  language  used  at  court ;  Latin  was  the  language  of  law 
and  learning,  but  English  was  the  language  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people.  If  was  used  too  by  poets,  and  the 
Norman  Conquest  did  not  stop  the  growth  of  English 
literature,  though  it  made  it  slower  for  a  time. 


CHAPTER   III. 
HENRY    II.    AND    HECKET. 

I.  Henry  1 1,  came  to  the  throne  of  England  quite  peace- 
ably. He  came  to  it  as  king  of  the  whole  Henry  11. 's 
nation,  not  brought  to  it  by  any  one  parly  diiiicuhies. 
out  of  the  nation.  Amongst  his  own  people  he  must 
know  neither  friend  nor  foe.  To  bring  peace  and  order 
into  the  land  was  his  first  object. 

This  would  have  been  a  difficult  task  for  a  wise  and 
experienced  ruler,  and  the  new  king  was  only  twenty- 
one  years  old.  But  he  seems  to  have  known  by  nature 
hoAV  to  govern  and  make  laws,  and  besides  this  he  had 
the  gift  of  knowing  how  to  choose  his  ministers  wisely, 
am  I  how  to  get  out  of  them  the  best  work  they  could  do. 

2.  Henry  II.  was  a  little  above  middle  height,  a  stout 
voA  Q,  with  a  short,  thick  neck,  and  quick  eyes  full  of  ex- 
pr^ssion;  his  round  hea^d  was  covered  with 
ck  le-clipped  reddish  hair.     He  was  a  busy     character 
m;  n,  of  active  habits ;  he  never  sat   down     ^"'^  person. 
ex  ,ept  at  meals  or  on  horseback.  He  was  rough  and  pas- 
si<  oate,  a  man  of  strong  feelings,  careless  of  his  dress 
AX  \  appearance,  though  he  liked  his  court  to  be  magniii- 

D    -i 


36  England  a  Contijiental  Power.  1155. 

cent.  He  cared  little  for  religion,  but  whispered  and 
scribbled  at  mass.  He  had  a  distinct  aim  in  life,  and 
kept  to  it  steadily:  this  was  to  strengthen  and  bind  to- 
gether the  vast  doniinions  over  which  he  ruled.  To 
do  this,  he  saw  that,  in  the  first  place,  he  must  govern 
England  as  an  English  king.  His  foreign  possessions 
were  much  larger  than  England' ;  but  he  hoped  to  keep 
them  all  together  by  wise  alliances  and  marriages.  Fo- 
reign affairs  often  called  him  away  from  England,  and 
whilst  he  was  away  his  ministers  ruled  the  country  in 
his  place.  But  he  himself  was  always  the  centre  of  all 
power.  He  remembered  everything,  he  thought  of  every- 
thing, he  cared  for  everything.  When  busy  with  foreign 
wars  he  found  time  to  think  of  reforms  in  English  law  ; 
nothing  escaped  his  eye  and  his  hand. 

3.  England  welcomed  Henry  to  the  throne,  because  he 
promised  to  bring  back  order  in  the  land.  He  gave  the 
Henry  ll.'s  people  a  charter  of  liberties  in  which  he  con- 
reform,  firmed  all  that  Henry  I.  had  granted,  and  he 
at  once  set  about  the  work  of  reform.  In  this  he  was 
helped  by  Archbishop  Theobald,  and  also  by  a  young 
English  clerk  in  Theobald's  service,  Thomas  Becket. 
Thomas  was  tall  and  handsom.e,  a  man  of  ready  wit, 
whom  the  king  soon  grew  to  like,  and  whom  he  made 
his  Chancellor.  The  two  became  intimate  friends,  who 
joked  and  laughed  together  whilst  they  managed  the 
business  of  the  country. 

In  his  first  reforms  Henry  followed  the  plan  which 
he  had  agreed  upon  with  Stephen.  He  sent  out  of  the 
country  the  foreign  troops  which  Stephen  had  brought 
to  England.  He  bade  the  barons,  destroy  the  castles, 
which  they  had  built  in  the  time  of  disorder.  When 
some  of  them  refused,  he  quickly  led  his  troops  against 
them  and   made  them  obey.      Stephen  had  granted  to 


1 


ii62.  Henry  and  Becket.  37 

many  of   the   barons  parts  of   the  royal   lands.     These 
now  had  to  be  all  given  back  to  the  king.  • 

The  courts  of  justice  began  to  work  again.  New 
sheriffs  were  put  over  most  of  the  counties,  and  once 
more  justice  was  done  in  the  land.  Under  Henry's  rule 
a  staff  of  able  men  grew  up,  fitted  to  do  justice  and 
reform  the  laws.  For  the  first  ten  years  of  the  king's 
reign  all  went  smoothly,  and  peace  and  order  reigned  in 
the  land. 

4.  In  all   Henry's  reforms   15ecket    was   at  his   right 
hand,  and  got   rich  rewards  for  his  services,  so  that  the 
ChanciUor   became  one   of  the   richest  and  'Henry and 
most  powerful  men    in   England.     Never,  it     Hecket. 
was  said,  had  the  world  seen  two  friends  so  thoroughly 
of  one  mind  as  Henry  and  Becl-:et. 

Once  as  they  rode  through  the  streets  of  London 
side  by  side  on  a  cold  winter's  day,  they  met  a  beggar 
all  in  rags.  'Would  it  not  be  charity,"  said  the  king,  '  to 
give  that  fellow  a  cloak  and  cover  him  from  the  cold?' 
Becket  agreed  ;  so  the  king,  in  jest,  plucked  from  Becket's 
shoulders,  in  spite  of  his  struggles,  his  rich  furred  mantle, 
and  threw  it  to  the  beggar.  It  was  in  this  way  that  the 
two  jested  together  like  friends  and  equals. 

Becket  lived  like  a  prince;  every  day  he  kept  an  open 
table,  to  which  every  man  was  welcome.  His  household 
was  like  that  of  a  great  baron,  and  the  nobles  sent  their 
sons  to  be  brought  up  as  pages  under  his  care,  though  he 
was  only  a  merchant's  son. 

5.  'When  Archbishop  Theobald   died,  six  years  after 
Henry   II.  became  king,  all  men  spoke  of  Becket  as  the 
man  to  succeed  him.     Henry  let  a  year  pass,     Bucket 
and   then  told  Becket  that  he  was  to  be  the     made  arch- 

,  ,  .    ,  T-,       ,  1       ,         ,  •  bishop,  1 162. 

new    archbishop.      Becket   warned   the   kmg 

that   as   archbishop  he  must  put  God  before  the  king. 


38  E)iglaf,d  a  Continental  Power.  1162. 

But  Henry  thought  that  by  choosing  the  man  whom  he 
had  raised  from  a  humble  rank  in  life  and  made  his 
friend  and  favourite,  he  would  get  an  archbishop  who 
would  obey  his  wishes,  and  so  he  would  have  the  Church 
in  his  power. 

For  the  same  reasons  the  Church  was  afraid  of  having 
Becket  for  its  head.  The  clergy  thought  that  the  kings 
friend  would  put  the  king's  interest  before  theirs,  and 
that  they  would  have  a  primate  whose  mind  was  given 
up  to  the  world. 

6.  But  when  Becket  became  archbishop  he  showed 
that  he  meant  to  live  as  one  of  the  strictest  of  the  clergy. 
■a    ,   ..  He  wore  a  haircloth  next  his  skin,  he  fasted 

Becket  s  ' 

life  .ns  arch-  and  prayed  much,  and  at  mass  often  melted 
into  passionate  tears.  He  gave  very  large 
sums  to  the  poor,  and  every  night  he  washed  the  feet  of 
thirteen  beggars.  He  no  longer  invited  knights  and 
barons  but  learned  clerks  to  his  table,  and  whilst  they 
J.te,  grave  Latin  books  were  read  aloud  to  them. 

He  gave  up  the  Chancellorship,  and  in  this  way 
seemed  to  cut  himself  oft'  from  his  old  friendship  with 
the  king.  Henry  was  not  pleased;  he  had  hoped  to  keep 
Becket  as  his  minister,  but  now  the  archbishop  seemed 
to  mean  to  act  by  himself  apart  from  the  king.  The 
two  soon  began  to  quarrel.  Henry  wanted  to  bring  the 
Church  under  his  rule,  as  he  had  brought  everything 
else.  Becket  clung  closely  to  the  rights  of  the  clergy. 
He  would  not  allow  clerks  who  had  been  guilty  of  crimes 
to  be  judged  in  the  lay  courts. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Conqueror  had  given  the 
bishops  courts  of  their  own,  and  so  had  separated  the 
Church  law  from  the  common  law  of  the  land.  The  evils 
of  this  were  now  seen.  Many  clerks  who  were  guilty  of 
crimes  and  many  laymen  who  had  harmed  clerks  were  not 
punished  at  all.     Henry  wished  to  put  a  stop  to  this  dis- 


1 164.  Henry  11.  and  Bcckct.  3Q 

order  by  bringing  them  to  trial  before  the  king's  courts. 
I5ut  Becket  refused  to  lessen  the  power  of  the  bishops' 
courts.  Henry  giew  more  and  more  angry  with  him,  but 
could  get  him  to  agree  to  nothing. 

7.  At  last,  in  January  1 164,  Henry  bade  all  the  bishops 
meet  him  at  Clarendon.  A  li-t  of  the  customs  which 
Henrv  said  the  Church  had  observed  in  the     ,^ 

Constitii- 

time  of  his  grandfather,  Henry  I.,  was  then  tionsof 
drawn  up.  This  was  called  the  Constitutions 
of  Clarendon.  They  were  much  the  same  as  the  cus- 
toms which  the  Conqueror  had  brought  in.  They  said 
that  bishops  and  abbots  should  be  chosen  before  the 
king's  officers,  with  the  king's  assent,  and  ihat  they  were 
to  hold  their  lands  like  other  feudal  vassals  and  do 
homage  to  the  king.  They  went  on  further  to  say  that 
the  king's  court  should  decide  whether  a  suit  between 
a  clerk  and  a  layman  should  be  judged  in  the  Church 
court  or  the  king's  court.  A  royal  officer  was  to  be  present 
in  the  Church  courts  to  see  that  they  did  not  go  beyond 
their  powers,  and  men  might  appeal  from  the  arch- 
bishop's to  the  king's  court. 

At  first  Becket  would  not  agree,  but  he  stood  alone. 
All  the  other  bishops  bent  to  the  king's  will,  and  at  last 
•hey  persuaded  Becket  to  put  his  seal  to  the  Constitu- 
tions. 

The  moment  afterwards  he  repented.  He  wrote  to 
the  Pope  to  ask  him  to  forgive  him  and  free  him  from  his 
oath 

8.  Then  the  king's  rage  knew  no  bounds,  and  all 
Becket's  enemies  felt  that  the  time  was  come  when  his 
power  might  be  destroyed.     He  was  bidden  to     „        ,   , 

•'  yiiarrel  of 

appear  before  the  king  at  a  great  council  held  at     Henry  II. 
Northampton.    There  was  no  one  on  his  side, 
and  .all  kinds  of  charges  were  brought  against  him.     In 
the  midst  of  his  enemies  he  showed  his  true  courage  and 


40  England  a  Continental  Power.  1170. 

pride.  As  a  sign  that  he  looked  for  mnrtyrdom,  he 
came  in  carrying  his  cross  himself,  in  spite  of  the  other 
bishops,  who  tried  to  wrest  it  from  him,  before  the  king 
a-fid  all  the  bishops  and  barons  sitting  in  council. 

He  forbade  the  bishops  to  sit  in  judgment  on  their 
primate,  and  said  that  he  appealed  to  the  judgment  of 
the  Pope.  '  My  person  and  my  Church,'  he  said,  '  I  put 
under  the  protection  of  the  Pope.' 

He  blamed  the  barons  too  for  daring  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  their  spiritual  father,  saying,  '  I  am  to  be  judged 
only  under  God  by  the  Pope.' 

Then  he  rose,  and  amid  the  murmurs  of  the  crowd 
walked  slowly  down  the  hall.  Some  took  up  straws  and 
threw  them  at  him.  One  muttered  '  Traitor.'  '  Were  it 
not  for  my  order,'  said  Becket,  fiercely,  '  you  should  rue 
that  word.'  Outside  the  people  greeted  him  with  loud 
cheers,  for  they  loved  him  for  his  charities. 

9.  So  great  was  the  anger  of  the  king  and  the  barons 
that  Becket  feared  for  his  safety  and  even  for  his  life. 
Becket's  ^'^  fled   in   disguise  that   night,  and   after  a 

flight.  journey  full  of   hardships  arrived  in   France. 

There  he  could  make  himself  known,  and  was  well 
received.  The  King  of  France,  Lewis  VII.,  hated 
Henry  II.,  and  was  glad  to  be  able  to  show  honour  to 
his  enemy.  The  Pope  was  very  much  puzzled  what  to 
do ;  his  own  position  was  not  very  sure,  and  he  owed 
much  to  the  support  of  Henry  II.  He  did  not  dare  to 
go  against  so  powerful  a  king. 

For  six  years  the  quarrel  went  on,  and  Becket  stayed 
in  exile.  Henry  at  last  got  into  difficulties  with  his 
enemies  in  France.  The  Pope,  ton,  had  grown  stronger, 
and  threatened  to  excommunicate  Henry — that  is,  to 
put  him  outside  the  communion  of  the  Church—  and  this 
would  have  given  the  king's  enemies  new  couiage.  So 
Henry  was  led  to  Tnake  a  hasty  peace  with  Becket,  who 


II70.  Becket's  Murder.  4 1 

went  back  to  England.  The  people  greeted  him  with  joy. 
But  Becket's  pride  had  not  grown  less  in  exile,  and  he 
could  not  come  back  to  forgive  and  forget.  His  first 
thought  was  to  punish  the  bishops  who  had  opposed  him 
by  excommunicating  them. 

10.  Henry  was  very  angry  when  he  heard  what  Becket 
had  done.  In  one  of  his  wild  bursts  of  passion  he  cried 
out,  '  Is  there  none  of  my  thankless  and  Becket's 
cowardly  courtiers  who  will  free  me  from  the  <i«="*'>  "7o. 
insults  of  one  lowborn  and  unruly  priest.-"  He  was  in 
France  at  the  time,  and  four  knights  on  hearing  his  words 
hastened  at  once  to  Canterbury.  At  first  they  went  to 
the  archbishop  in  his  chamber  and  spoke  to  him  angry 
and  violent  words.  But  he  defied  them,  and  they  rushed 
away  shouting  for  their  arms. 

Becket's  friends  persuaded  him  to  seek  safety  in  the 
cathedral.  There  in  the  dim  twilight  the  din  of  armed 
men  was  heard  outside,  and  soon  the  four  knights  rushed 
into  the  church  shouting,  '  Where  is  the  traitor?'  '  Behold 
me,' answered  Becket  through  the  gloom,  as  he  turned  to 
meet  them  ;  '  no  traitor,  but  a  priest  of  God.'  They  tried 
to  drag  him  from  the  church,  for  they  feared  to  do  violence 
in  the  holy  place,  but  Becket  clung  to  a  pillar.  In  the 
struggle  he  even  dashed  one  of  them  to  the  ground.  But 
they  quickly  got  the  better  of  him.  Kneeling  on  the 
steps  that  led  to  the  choir,  Becket  cried,  'Lord  receive 
my  spirit.'  Blow  after  blow  fell  upon  him,  and  not  till 
they  were  sure  their  work  was  done,  did  the  murderers 
leave  the  place. 

The  news  of  this  terrible  outrage  filled  all  Christen- 
dom with  horror.  Henry  II.  trembled  at  the  storm  that 
was  raised,  and  he  himself  was  filled  with  anger  and 
horror  at  the  deed  which  his  passionate  words  had 
caused.  Becket  was  hailed  as  a  martyr  and  was  made  a 
fiaint,  under  the  name  of  St-  Thomas  of  Canterbury.    He 


42  England  a  Contiucntal  Pozver.  1173. 

soon  became  the  most  popular  saint  in  England,  fo: 
the  common  people  had  always  loved  him,  and  manN 
miracles  were  said  to  be  done  at  his  tomb. 

By  his  influence  with  the  Pope  and  his  readiness  to 
humble  himself  in  everyway,  Henry  succeeded  in  getting 
the  Pope's  pardon.  When  next  in  England  he  made  a 
solemn  pilgrimage  to  the  martyr's  tomb,  walking  three 
miles  with  bare  feet  along  the  stony  road.  As  he  knelt 
at  the  tomb,  he  was  scourged  by  the  monks  on  his  naked 
back  as  a  sign  of  his  penitence. 

11.  But  it  was  not  only  sorrow  for  Becket's  death  that 
made  the  king  humble  himself  so  much.      He  wanted 

the  help  of  the  English  against  his  enemies  ; 
Becket's  and    ihough   the    English   liked    their    king, 

death.  neither  the  clergy  nor  the  people  would  help 

him  heartily  till  he  had  repented  of  the  murder  he  had 
caused. 

Henry's  enemies  all  chose  the  moment  after  Becket's 
murder  to  rise  against  him.  His  sons  had  long  been  dis- 
contented with  him.  because  he  did  not  give  them  enough 
power.  It  is  true  he  had  had  his  eldest  son  Henry 
crowned  King  of  England.  But  he  had  soon  shown  him 
that  he  did  not  mean  him  to  have  any  real  power. 
Young  Henry  was  so  angry  that  he  fled  to  Lewis  VIT., 
King  of  France,  who  was  very  glad  to  receive  him. 

12.  And  at  this  time,  when  he  thought  Henry  would  be 
very  weak,  Lewis  invaded  Normandy.  Henry's  younger 
Henry  II. "s  SOUS,  Richard  and  Geoffrey,  took  up  arms 
danger.  against  their  father  in  Aquitaine.  Meanwhile 
the  King  of  Scotland  entered  the  north  of  England  with  an 
army.  The  great  barons  rose  in  revolt  in  different  parts 
of  England.  At  the  same  moment  all  the  different  forces 
against  which  Henry  II.  had  to  struggle  all  his  life  rose 
against  him. 

These  were  (i)his  rebellious  sons,  helped  by  the  King 


1174  Henry  I I!s  Reforms.  43 

of  France  ;  (J)  the  King  of  the  Scots  ;   (3)  the  lebellious 
barons. 

Henry's  great  energy  saved  him  in  this  danger.  The 
English  people  and  his  ministers  were  true  to  him. 
Hardly  had  he  risen  from  his  knees  before  the  tomb  of 
vSt.  Thomas  at  Canterbury,  when  news  came  that  Ranull 
de  Glanvil  had  surprised  William  the  Lion,  King  i.f 
Scotland,  in  a  mist,  and  had  taken  him  prisoner  at 
Alnwick.  This  seemed  to  the  people  a  sign  that  the  king's 
repentance  had  been  accepted.  His  foes  had  no  common 
cause,  and  were  beaten  one  by  one  with  wonderful  speed. 
Henry  was  always  moderate  in  his  use  of  victory.  But 
though  he  spared  his  enemies  he  never  let  them  out  of 
his  hands  till  he  had  so  weakened  them  that  they  could  do 
nothing  against  him.  .After  this  revolt  the  barons  lost 
still  more  of  their  power,  and  Henry  was  more  powerful 
than  he  had  been  even  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

HENRV'.S     GOVEKNMKNT. 

I.  Henry  II.  was  a  true  lover  of  peace  and  never  went  to 
war  if  he  could  help  it ;  though  when  he  had  to  do  so  he 
showed  himself  an  excellent  soldier.  But  it  was  by  his 
wise  measures  more  than  anything  else  that  he  got  a  firm 
liold  over  all  his  possessions,  and  made  himself  the  most 
powerful  ruler  in  Europe. 

When  he  had  crushed  his  enemies  Henry  went  back 
at   once  to  his  work   of  reforming  the   Liw.     lienry's  re- 
Never  in  all   his   busy   reign  did   he  forget     [^^'^ '"  ''^^ 
this. 

2,  Like  his  grandfather,  Henry  L,  he  sent  his  Justices 
through  the  country  ;  they  were  called  itinerant  from  a 


44  Etigiaiid  a  Conrinciital  Pozver. 

Latin  word  v^hich  means  journeying  from  place  to  place. 
Itinerant  Hcnry  II.  divided  the  country  into  districts 

Justices.  or  circuits,  places  through  which  the  judges 

should  journey ;  and  several  judges  were  sent  to  go 
through  each.  They  did  not  now  go  only  to  collect  taxes, 
but  they  judged  cases  and  heard  pleas  in  the  county 
courts.  As  the  justices  were  members  of  the  Curia  Regis, 
their  circuits  brought  the  county  courts  into  close  con- 
nexion with  the  Curia  Regis. 

3.  The  greater  importance  of  the  itinerant  justices 
naturally   took   away   from   the   power   of    the    sheriffs. 

Henry  found  that  the  sheriffs  used  their 
office  to  gain  power  and  wealth  for  them- 
selves. At  one  and  the  same  time  the  king  removed 
all  the  sheriffs  from  their  offices,  and  then  had  an  inquest 
or  inquiry  made  into  the  way  in  which  they  had  done 
their  duties.  The  sheriffs  do  not  seem  to  have  met  with 
great  blame,  but  they  did  not  get  their  places  back  again. 
Henry  chose  his  new  sheriffs  from  the  officers  of  his  Ex- 
chequer, men  whom  he  knew  and  trusted.  In  this  way 
the  Curia  Regis  and  the  shires  were  brought  still  more 
closely  together ;  and  the  barons,  as  they  were  now  no 
longer  sheriffs,  lost  much  of  their  power  in  the  shires. 

These  reforms  all  tended  to  make  the  country  more 
and  more  one,  for  they  made  all  the  government  centre 
round  the  Curia  Regis,  and  let  no  independent  powers 
grow  up  in  the  shires. 

4.  It  is  to  Henry  II.'s  reforms  that  we  owe  the  first 
clear  beginnings  of  the  English  custom  of  trial  by  jury. 
Origin  of  Henr>''s  law  reforms  were  all  put  together 
juries.  into  short  codes,  lists  of  rules,  and  orders, 
which  he  called  Assizes,  and  which  were  given  out  at 
the  councils  which  he  held  so  often. 

In  one  of  these  assizes  he  ordered  that  the  sheriff 
should  name  four  knights,  who   were  to  choose  twelve 


Henry  II.'s  Annies.  45 

men  out  of  their  neighbourhood  to  give  evidence 
on  trials.  These  men  swore  to  speak  truth,  and 
were,  therefore,  called  Jurors,  from  the  Latin  juro,  'I 
swear.' 

Another  assize  ordered  that  the  twelve  jurors  from 
each  neighbourhood  and  four  from  each  township  were 
to  bring  to  trial  before  the  king's  justices,  when  they 
came  round,  all  in  their  neigiibourhood  who  were 
thought  guilty  of  any  crime. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  the  jurors  were  at  first  wit- 
nesses more  than  anything  else.  But  as  time  went  on  and 
it  was  found  that  the  jurors  often  had  not  enough  know- 
ledge about  the  niatter  in  question,  they  were  allowed  to 
call  eyewitnesses,  who  had  seen  the  thing  themselves,  to 
help  them.  So  in  time  they  came  to  fill  the  position 
which  they  do  now,  of  deciding  as  to  the  truth  of  the 
matter  from  all  that  witnesses  can  tell  them  about  it. 

5.  Henry  had  much  need  of  soldiers  far  his  foreign 
wars,  and  he  made  some  important  changes     Henry's 

in  the  way  in  which  he  got  armies  together.         armies. 

6.  You  will  remember  that  the  feudal  vassals  of  the 
crown  had  to  bring  their  followers  to  aid  the  king  in 
his  wars.  This  was  all  very  well  for  a  war  in  PIngland, 
but  it  was  different  for  foreign  wars,  when  men  had  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  country  for  long  and  dangerous  e.xpe- 
ditions.  In  early  English  times  the  man  who  did  not 
follow  his  king  to  war  had  to  pay  a  fine.  Henry  now 
brought  back  this  custom  ;  but  the  payment  of  money 
instead  of  bearing  aims,  was  no  longer  a  punishment 
but  a  favour.  The  vassal  who  did  not  wish  to  go  to 
war  paid  the  king  a  fixed  sum  of  money,  according  to 
the  amount  of  land  he  possessed.  This  was  called 
scutate,  and  with  the  money  so  raised   Henry 

hired  troops  to  fight  his  wars.     These  troops       "^"'^ee- 
were  raised  from  different  countries ;    at  that  time  they 


46  England  a  Continental  Power. 

were  mostly  Flemings,  from  Flanders.  Henry  1 1. 's  habit 
was  to  hire  troops  for  his  foreign  wars,  but  to  trust  to 
the  national  force  in  England. 

7.  ThisTiational  force  was  not  a  feudal  force.  In  raising 
it  Henry  went  back  to  the  old  custom  by  which  every 
Assize  of  freeman  was  bound  to  serve  for  the  defence 
Arms.  of  the  country.  The  Assize  of  Arms  of  1181 
fixed  the  way  in  which  each  freeman  was  bound  to  arm 
himself  when  summoned  by  the  king.  This  large  force 
the  king  could  use  as  he  willed  to  defend  his  kingdom. 

8.  It  will  be  well  to  notice  how  among  all  these  changes 
Preparation  ""'•'^de  by  Henry  II.  things  were  slowly  moving 
»f  the  pco-       on  towards  the  government  of  England  as  it 

vie  for  self-  .  .  ,-,      ■•  i  ■    ^  i 

govern-  IS  now — by  a  rarliament  which  yepresents  or 

'"^"'-  stands  1)1  tlie  place  of  the  people,  who  have 

chosen  it. 

(I.)  The  king  never  made  a  change  in  the  laws  or  did 
anything  of  importance  without  the  advice  of  his  Council. 
It  is  true  that  the  Council  seldom  dared  to  oppose  him,' 
but  still  the  fact  remains  that  he  held  very  many  councils, 
and  aslied  their  advice  on  every  point, 

(2.)  The  jurymen  were  chosen  out  of  their  neighbour- 
hood to  stand  in  the  place  of  their  neighbourhood,  and 
this  accustomed  the  people  to  see  a  few  men  representing 
many.  It  was  the  same  in  the  county  courts,  where  each 
township  was  represented  by  four  men. 

(3.)  The  Itinerant  Justices  brought  the  county  courts, 
or  shiremoots,  and  the  Curia  Regis  into  close  connexion. 
In  the  county  courts  there  was  representation,  and  the 
Curia  Regis  was  part  of  the  Great  Council,  by  the  advice 
of  which  the  king  governed.  The  bringing  together  ot 
representatives  of  the  counties  and  the  towns  to  advise 
the  king  made  in  time  our  House  of  Commons. 

The  idea  of  representation — of  one  man  standing  for 
many — had  been  present  in  early  English  customs.     It  tfi 


Growth  of  the  Toivus.  47 

by  carefully  watching  how  this  idea  grew  that  we  shall 
understand  how  the  government  of  England  as  it  now  is 
came  about. 

9.  It  was  in  the  towns  at  this  time  that  the  people  were 
most  quickly  growing  in  wealth  and  prosperity.  At  the 
time  of  the  Conquest  the  towns,  Hke  the  rest 

of  the  county,  had  been  under  the  rule  of  the  the  Lngiis.. 
sheriff.  Little  by  little  they  made  their  way  '°^^"^- 
to  independence.  They  were  allowed  to  pay  their  taxes 
direct  to  the  Exchequer,  and  not  through  the  sheriff,  and 
the  sum  of  money  demanded  from  them  was  called  the 
Fhvia  Burgi;  the  citizens  were  allowed  to  have  their 
own  magistrates  and  courts  of  law  ;  their  Guilds  also  were 
recognised  by  the  king. 

10.  These  guilds  were  in  early  times  bodies  of  men 

bound  together  by  oath  for  some  common  purpose,  such  as 

taking  part  in  some  religious  service,  and  help- 

,  ,  •      j-o^      1  •  A  \        Guilds, 

mg  one  another  when  m  difficulties.   As  trade 

increased  there  grew  up  Merchant  Guilds  of  all  the  mer- 
chants of  the  town,  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  trade. 
These  Merchant  Guilds  were  now  the  chief  body  in  the 
towns,  and  filled  the  same  sort  of  place  as  the  corpora- 
tion filled  afterwards.  Craft  Guilds  also  began  to  spring 
up,  in  which  the  members  of  any  particular  craft,  such 
as  weavers  or  goldsmiths,  bound  themselves  together  to 
watch  over  the  interests  of  their  craft,  and  allowed  no 
man  to  practise  it  who  was  not  a  member  of  the  guild. 

11.  The  different  privileges  of  the  towns  were  given 
ihem  by  the  king  in  form  of  charters,  which  were 
bought   from   him   by   the   town   with    large 

,  ™,  ,  .    ,         Charters. 

sums  ot  money.      Ihe  poorer   towns,   winch 
could  not  pay  so  much,  could  not  buy  such  great  privi- 
leges as  the  licher  ones.     The  barons  who  had  towns  in 
their  lands  followed  the  king's  example  and  sold  char- 
fjers  10  tliom.      This  was  done  very  often  at  the  time 


48  England  a  Continental  Pozver. 

of  the  Crusades,  when  the  barons  wanted  to  raise  as 
much  money  as  they  could  to  help  them  to  go  to  the 
East.  All  over  Europe  many  towns  gained  their  liber- 
ties at  that  time. 

Henry  11.  and  his  sons  greatly  favoured  the  growth 
of  the  towns,  and  did  all  they  could  for  the  good  of 
trade  and  manufacture.  As  the  towns  grew  richer  they 
could  tax  them  more  and  get  more  money  out  of  them, 
whilst  by  granting  charters  they  also  got  money.  Henry 
was  repaid  for  what  he  had  done  for  the  towns  by  the 
way  in  which  they  stood  by  him  when  the  barons  re- 
belled against  him. 

London  was,  of  course,  the  largest  and  most  impor- 
tant of  the  towns  and  had  the  greatest  privileges.  In  the 
time  of  King  John  she  obtained  her  Comumna  ;  that  is, 
the  right  herself  to  elect  the  corporation  or  body  of  men 
who  should  govern  her,  with  the  mayor  at  their  head. 


BOOK    IV. 
HENRY    II.    AND    HIS    SONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

LAST  YEARS   OF    HENRY    IT. 

I.  Henry  II.  loved  his  children  dearly,  but  he  did  not 
know  how  to  win  their  love.  The  last  si.Kteen  years  oJ 
Conquest  his  life  were  made  bitter  to  him  by  their  con- 
of  Ireland.  stant  revolts,  in  which  their  mother  encouraged 
them.  Whilst  the  elder  ones  rebelled  against  him  he 
clung  with  all  the  more  tenderness  to  the  youngest,  John. 
Many  of  the  quarrels  with  the  elder  ones  came  from 
Henry's  attempts  to  get  lands  and  money  for  John's  mar- 


1 1 5 5-  Conquest  of  Ireland.  49 

riage-portion.  For  John's  sake  most  likely  he  took  in 
hand  at  last  the  conquest  of  I  rcland,  which  he  had  long 
been  plannine,  lioping  that  John  might  at  least  be  King  ot 
Ireland.  Besides  this  Ireland  was  in  a  very  lawless 
condition,  and  needed  a  strong  ruler. 

2.  Some  few  hundred  years  earlier,  Ireland  had  been 
in  a  very  much  better  state.     In  432  St.  Patrick  had  gone 
from  Gaul  and  laboured  amongst  the  Irish  to     si.iie  of 
make  them  Christians.     This  was  more  than     inland. 

a  hundred  yea»«  before  Augustine  preached  Christianity 
to  the  English.  The  Irish  soon  became  very  zealous 
Christians.  Many  churches,  monasteries,  and  schools 
were  founded  all  over  the  land,  and  arts  and  letters 
began  to  flourish.  Foreigners  came  to  study  in  the  Irish 
schools,  and  Irish  missionaries  carried  the  Gospel  into 
distant  lands.  They  laboured  in  Northumbria,  and  they 
went  even  to  Gaul  and  Germany. 

But  when  the  Northmen  at  last  found  their  way  to 
Ireland,  they  soon  destroyed  all  the  refinement  and 
learning  they  found  there.  Ireland  became  again  wild 
and  barbarous.  There  were  several  kings  ruling  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  land,  and  struggling  together  which 
should  be  the  most  powerful.  But  these  kings  had 
little  real  power  even  in  their  own  kingdoms ;  the  clan 
system  was  very  strong  in  Ireland,  and  the  different 
clans  and  their  chieftains  were  always  fighting  together, 
and  cared  very  little  for  their  king.  So  there  was  no- 
thing but  disorder  in  the  land.  The  Popes  sent  legates 
and  missionaries,  who  tried  to  bring  back  order  and 
reform  the  abuses  of  the  Church  ;  but  it  was  of  no  good. 

3.  When  Henry  1 1,  proposed  that  he  should  lead  an 
army  into  the  land  and  conquer  it,  and  rule     Henry  11. 
the  people  well,  the  Pope  made  him  a  grant     ^""^  Ireland, 
of  Ireland,  for  he  claimed  in  a  strange  way  to  be  the 
lord  of  all  islands. 

E.  H  g 


50  England  a  Continental  Power.  1185. 

For  a  lo'-g  while  Hcniy  v.as  too  busy  to  trouble  him- 
self about  Ireland.  At  last,  in  1166,  Dermot,  an  Irish 
king,  who  had  been  worsted  in  a  struggle  with  a  rival, 
came  to  Henry  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  get  English- 
men to  help  him  win  back  his  power.  Henry  agreed, 
and  love  of  adventure  led  many  to  go  and  help  Dermot. 
Chief  amongst  these  was  Richard  de  Clare,  surnamed 
Strongbow,  Earl  of  Pembroke.  He  at  last  became  so 
powerful  in  Ireland  that  Henry  grew  alarmed.  But 
Strongbow  hastened  to  Henry's  court  and  promised  to 
hold  all  his  lands  in  Ireland  as  vassal  of  the  English 
king. 

It  was  soon  after  this,  in  1171,  that  Henry  himself 
went  to  Ireland.  Perhaps  he  was  glad  to  go  there  for 
a  while  and  let  men  have  time  to  forget  Becket's  death. 
He  kept  his  court  in  a  great  waitled  palace  outside 
Dublin.  He  ordered  castles  to  be  built  over  the  land, 
and  made  many  of  the  Irish  kings  and  chieftains  sub- 
mit to  him.  He  also  gave  away  lands  to  many  of  his 
followers.  If  he  had  been  able  to  stay,  he  would  doubt- 
less have  gained  a  firm  hold  over  the  country,  but  he  left 
Ireland  to  meet  the  legates  whom  the  Pope  had  sent  to 
bring  his  pardon  for  Becket's  murder. 

4.  Later  on  he  sent  John  there  to  be  overlord.  But  John 
did  not  know  how  td  make  friends  of  the  Irish  chieftains. 
He  laughed  at  their  rough  dresses, and  pulled 
in  Ireland,  their  long  bcards,  with  rude  jests.  He  made 
"^^'  so    many  enemies  that  he  had  to  be  called 

back  to  England.  So  far  Henry's  plans  for  John  had  not 
been  very  successful  ;  but  the  English  possessions  in 
Ireland  went  on  gradually  increasing  for  the  next  two 
hundred  years. 

Death  put  an  end  to  the  plots  of  two  of  his  other 
sons — Henry,  who  had  been  crowned  King  of  England 
under  his  father,  and  Geoffrey,  Duke  of  Brittany.  Richard 


iiSg.  Richard  I.  %\ 

• 

still  went  on  plotting  .igainst  his  father  with  PhiUp  Augtis- 
tus,  King  of  France.  At  last  they  entered  Maine,  where 
Henry  was,  with  an  army,  before  which  Henry  had  to 
riy  ;  his  flight  filled  England  and  all  Europe  with  sur- 
prise. 

The  hand  of  death  was  upon  the  conquered  king. 
The  cup  of  his  sorrow  overflowed  when  he  was  shown 
in  a  list  of  the  conspirators  against  him  the  Henry's 
name  of  his  favourite  son,  John.  '  Now,'  he  ''•-■^''i.  "89. 
said,  'let  things  go  as  they  will ;  I  care  no  more  for  myself 
or  for  the  world.'  He  was  borne  on  a  litter  to  Chinon, 
and  as  he  lay  dying  there  he  cried  out  from  time  to  time, 
'  Shame,  shame  on  a  conquered  king  ! '  At  last  he  bade 
them  carry  him  before  the  altar  of  the  chapel,  and  his 
fiery  soul  passed  away  after  he  had  taken  the  last  sacra- 
ments of  the  Church. 


CHAPTER  II. 

RICHARD    I. 

r.  Richard  succeeded  his  father  without  any  difficulty, 
though  Philip  of  France,  his  friend  before,  became  his 
foe  the  moment  his  father's  death  made  him 
King  of  England.  His  mother  kept  order 
for  him  in  England  whilst  he  settled  matters  with  Philip. 
When  he  passed  over  to  England,  his  one  wish  was  to 
go  on  the  Crusade,  and  with  this  object  to  raise  as  much 
money  as  he  could. 

Richard  was  very  little  in  England  either  before  or 
after  he  became  king.  We  do  not  even  know  whether  he 
could  speak  English.  He  was  nothing  but  a  soldier, 
with  splendid  tastes,  a  great  love  of  fine  clothes,  and 
some  feeling  for  poetry.     But  he  had   no   care   for  his 


52  England  a  Continental  Power.  1192. 

people ;  all  that  he  wanted  was  their  money.  He  loved 
adventure  and  thirsted  for  the  glory  of  victory.  Thefunit 
of  his  brave  deeds  filled  Christendom  with  wonder,  and 
made  the  English  proud  of  their  king,  though  he  cared 
nothing  for  them. 

2.  Fortunately  for  England  he  handed  her  over  to  the 
care  of  a  number  of  wise  ministers,  who  kept  good  peace 
His  minis-  and  order,  though  they  made  the  people  pay 
ters.  dearly  for  it  Richard  only  stayed  a  few 
months  in  England  and  then  started  for  the  Crusade. 
He  left  William  Longchamp,  Bishop  of  Ely,  whom  he 
made  Chancellor  and  Justiciar,  to  rule  England  in  his 
absence.  Longchamp  was  faithful  to  Richard,  but  he 
taxed  the  people  heavily,  and  the  barons  envied  his 
power  and  wealth. 

Whilst  Richard  was  away,  his  brother  John  began  to 
plot  against  him  with  the  help  of  I'hilip  of  France.  He 
got  the  barons  on  his  side,  and  then  took  away  Long- 
champ's  offices  from  him  and  made  him  leave  England. 
But  new  ministers  were  named,  and  the  Queen-mother 
Eleanor  managed  to  keep  some  order  in  the  land. 

3.  Then  news  reached  England  that  Richard  on  his 
way  back  from  the  Holy  Land  had  been  seized  and  thrown 

into  prison  bv  the  Uiike  of  Austria.     A  large 

Richard's  ^  '     ,      j    r        ,  •  r 

imprison-  ransom  was  asked  for  him,  a  sum  far  more 

ment,  1192.  \\^^x\  twice  the  whole  revenue  of  the  crown. 
The  money  was  got  together  in  England  with  great  diffi- 
culty, whilst  Philip  and  John  did  all  they  could  to  destroy 
Richard's  power  now  that  he  was  in  prison.  '  The  Devil 
is  loose  :  take  care  of  yourself,'  Philip  wrote  to  John  when 
he  heard  that  at  last  Richard  was  free.  The  Justiciar, 
Hubert  Walter,  who  was  also  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
crushed  John's  revolt.  Hubert  Walter  was  an  old  servant 
of  the  court  who  had  been  trained  under  Henry  II. 's. 
ministers.  He  was  faithful  to  the  cause  of  order  and  good 
government,  and  Richard  put  great  trust  in  him. 


1199-  Dtatli  of  Richard  I.  53 

4.  When  Richard  came  back  to  England  John  was  ba- 
nished, and  those  who  had  rebelle  1  were  punished.  The 
king  did  not  stay  long  in  Kngiand,  but  went  Klchanis 
to  make  war  against  I'hilip  in  France,  and  fcir  return,  U94. 
the  rest  of  his  reign  the  governmeni  was  left  to  Hubert 
Walter,  who  carefully  worked  out  all  Henry  ll.'s  rcfoniis. 
Richard  was  always  sending  for  money,  and  Hubert 
Walter  was  forced  to  use  every  way  that  he  lawfully 
could  forgetting  money  out  of  the  people.  England  was 
kept  very  peaceful.  A  good  many  of  the  great  b.irons 
were  away  with  the  king ;  those  who  stayed  at  home  had 
now  learnt  that  they  must  obey  the  laws  and  the  govern- 
ment, for  it  was  of  no  use  to  rebel. 

5.  Richard  was  busy  in  France  making  war  on  King 
Philip  and  punishing  those  of  his  subjects  who  had  risen 
against  him.    The  better  to  defend  Normandy     chateau 
against  the  King  of  Fr.mce,  he  began  to  build     t;.iiiUrd. 

a  great  fortress  on  the  Seine.  It  came  to  be  called 
Chateau  Gaillard,  or  .Saucy  Castle,  and  was  one  of  the 
strongest  and  hnest  fortresses  of  the  Middle  Ages.  As 
Richard  saw  its  walls  rise  he  cried  with  joy,  'How  pretty 
a  child  is  mine!'  But  Philip's  anger  was  great,  and  he 
said,  '  1  will  take  it,  were  its  walls  of  iron.'  '  I  will  hold 
it,'  answered  Richard,  '  were  the  walls  of  butler.' 

6.  Richard  was  always  in  want  of  money ;  and  hearing 
that  there  was  rich  treasure  m  the  Castle  of  Chaluz,  he  led 
his  troops  against  it.  Hut  the  castle  was  strong  Kjchard* 
and  would  not  fall.  Richard  rode  round  the  death,  1199. 
walls  in  anger,  and  as  he  rode  an  arrow  struck  him  in  the 
shoulder.  It  was  a  fatal  wound.  The  king  lay  dying 
while  the  castle  was  taken.  He  v,as  always  generous, 
and  when  the  man  who  had  shot  the  arrow  was  brought 
to  his  bedside,  he  forgave  him. 

So  ended  his  quarrelsome  and  stormy  life,  which  had 
little  effect   upon    English  history,  since  he   was  little  in 


54  England  a  Coiiti}iaital  Power.  1199. 

England  and  left  the  government  to  his  ministers.  Eng- 
land was  proud  of  his  brave  deeds,  but  he  was  in  all 
ways  a  stranger  to  her,  and  she  only  felt  his  hand  in  the 
heavy  taxes  which  burdened  her. 


CHAPTER  III. 

LOSS   OF    NORMANDY. 

I.  John  succeeded  his  brother  without  any  difficulty.  Ac- 
cording to  our  ideas  young  Arthur  of  Brittany,  the  son  of 
Succession  John's  elder  brother,  Geoffrey,  Duke  of  Brit- 
of  John.  tany,  was  the  rightful  heir.     But  in  England 

men  knew  nothing  of  him  but  his  name,  and  no  voice 
was  raised  for  him. 

2.  We  have  seen  how  John  deceived  his  father  and 
betrayed  his  brother,  and  he  had  no  idea  of  treating  the 
John's  English   any  better.      The  men  of  his   time 

character.  tell  US  nothing  but  cvil  of  him.  He  had  all 
the  faults  of  his  family  and  none  of  their  virtues.  Even 
his  vices  were  mean.  He  is  the  worst  of  all  the  kings 
who  have  ruled  over  England — a  man  for  whom  we  can 
feel  no  sympathy,  even  when  he  suffers  most.  Like 
Richard  he  loved  money,  but  unlike  him  he  was  miserly 
and  mean.  He  did  not  care  for  truth  or  honour,  but 
tried  to  get  on  by  cunning.  He  cared  neither  for  law 
nor  religion,  though  he  was  very  superstitious.  He  was 
savage  and  violent,  and  punished  his  foes  with  horrible 
cruelty.  Even  to  the  ministers  who  served  him  well  he 
showed  no  gratitude,  but  rather  dislike. 

3.  He  was    kept    at    first    from    going   far  wrong  in 
John's  England   by  the  Archbishop,  Hubert  Walter, 

ministers.  ^\^q  became  Chancellor  that  he  might 
the  more  easily  keep  John  in  order.     Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter 


I 


1203.  Loss  of  Normandy.  55 

was  Justiciar  ;  he  too  was  a  wise  minister,  who  had  been 
trained  under  Henry  II.,  and  knew  how  to  care  for  law 
and  order. 

John's  mother,  Eleanor,  was  of  great  use  to  him.  She 
was  a  very  able  woman ;  and  even  now,  though  eighty 
years  old,  was  full  of  activity  and  energy.  She  had  not 
loved  her  husband,  Henry  II.,  and  had  quarrelled  with 
him  and  brought  much  evil  upon  him.  But  she  loved 
her  sons  and  did  much  for  them.  She  helped  John  to 
keep  together  all  his  possessions  in  France,  which  were 
attacked  both  by  King  Philip  and  by  young  Arthur  of 
Brittany,  who  claimed  some  part  of  them. 

4.  John,  with  the  help  of  his  mother,  got  from  Arthur 
the  provinces  which  he  claimed.  When  Arthur  again 
took  up  arms,  he  was  defeated  by  John  and  -Q^-^xh.  of 
taken  prisoner.  He  was  carried  to  Rouen,  Arthur,  1203. 
and  there  mysteriously  disappeared.  Everyone  believed 
that  he  had  been  murdered  by  the  command  of  his 
uncle.  This  cruel  act  made  the  barons  of  Normandy 
and  the  neighbouring  provinces  all  the  more  ready  to 
turn  away  from  John  to  Philip  II.  of  France. 

Philip  II.  had  made  it  the  aim  of  his  life  to  strengthen 
the  power  of  the  Kings  of  France  by  humbling  the  great 
vassals  of  the  crown.  Now  he  seized  his  chance  of 
striking  a  blow  at  the  King  of  England,  who,  as  Duke 
of  Normandy  and  Aquitaihe,  was  the  greatest  and  most 
dangerous  of  his  vassals. 

5.  Phihp's  troops  entered  Normandy  whilst  Queen 
Eleanor  lay  dying.  Even  from  her  deathbed  she  wrote 
letters    to   the   chief  barons   of    Normandy, 

urging  them  to  be  faithful  to  her  son.      But     Normandy 
it  was  of  no   use.      The  barons  were   quite     '^°^' 
willing   to  welcome    Philip.      They  had   no  feelings   of 
loyalty  to  one  who  was  of  the  house  of  Anjou,  which  had 
always  been  their  enemy.     John  himself  was  not  a  man 


56  Eugiand  a  Continental  Pozver. 

to  bind  them  closely  round  him.  He  did  not  even  try  to 
gather  a  force  to  lead  against  Philip.  One  by  one  the 
barons  went  over  to  Philip's  side,  and  Normandy  was  lost 
without  a  struggle.  It  settled  down  quite  peaceably  to 
be  a  French  province,  for  Philip  had  the  wisdom  to  let  it 
keep  the  customs  and  liberties  which  it  most  valued. 

When  John  saw  that  Normandy  was  lost  he  fled  to 
England,  and  there  tried  to  get  together  an  army  to 
attack  Philip,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  In  the  year  1204 
England  and  Normandy  were  separated  for  ever. 

The  loss  of  Normandy  did  much  to  unite  the  English 
people.  The  Norman  barons  had  to  choose  whether  they 
would  keep  their  lands  in  England  or  in  Normandy. 
Those  who  stayed  in  England  were  quite  cut  off  from 
Normandy,  and  this  made  them  thorough  Englishm.en. 
The  king,  too,  had  to  find  his  home  only  in  England. 
He  stood  face  to  face  with  his  people,  and  had  no  other 
poNver  to  fall  back  upon.  He  was  not  far  above  them, 
the  ruler  of  a  mighty  empire,  as  Henry  II.  had  been. 
They  knew  his  strength,  and  then  learnt  to  know  their 
own  too,  and  to  feel  in  time  that  they  could  resist  him  if 
he  went  too  far. 


BOOK    V. 
THE     GREAT    CHARTER. 


CHAPTER  I. 

JOHN'S   QUARREL   WITH   THE   POPE. 

I.  King  John  had  lost  his  mother  before  he  lost  Nor- 
Johnandthe  mandy.  Not  long  afterwards,  in  1 205,  he  lost 
Church.  his   wisest   adviser,    Hubert  Walter.      After 

Hubert's  death  there  was  a  quarrel  about  the  election 


i2o8.  England  under  the  Interdict.  57 

of  a  new  archbishop.  The  younger  monks  at  Canterbur)' 
chose  one  man  ;  John,  on  hearing  this,  made  the  elder 
ones  choose  another.  Both  these  men  hurried  to  the 
Pope  at  Rome  with  their  claims.  The  Pope  at  that 
time,  Innocent  III.,  was  perhaps  the  greatest  and  wisest 
Pope  there  has  ever  been.  John  thought  he  would  get  his 
own  way  by  bribing  the  men  who  were  to  lay  the  case 
before  the  Pope.  But  Innocent  was  not  a  man  against 
whom  cunning  was  of  any  use.  He  put  aside  both  the 
men  who  claimed  to  be  archbishop  and  caused  the  monks 
of  Canterbury  to  elect  a  third,  Cardinal  Stephen  Langton. 
His  choice  was  a  wise  one.  Stephen  Langton  was  an 
Englishman,  and  one  of  the  first  scholars  of  his  day. 

2.  John's  anger  knew  no  bounds  when  he  heard  what 
the  Pope  had  done.  He  said  that  he  would  never  receive 
Langton  as  archbishop.  Innocent  used  a  ter-  .j-j,^  j,,j„. 
rible  means  to  force  him  to  submit.  He  laid  d'C  '=o8- 
the  kingdom  of  England  under  <?«  Interdict,  which  means 
that  he  forbade  the  clergy  all  through  the  land  to  do  any 
of  the  services  of  the  Church.  Only  the  baptism  of  chil- 
dren was  allowed,  and  that  in  private.  The  dead  might 
not  be  buried  in  consecrated  ground.  The  people  sud- 
denly lost  all  the  help  and  comfort  which  they  got  from 
the  clergy,  and  were  left  as  sheep  without  shepherds.  John 
was  filled  with  fury.  He  answered  by  seizing  the  lands 
of  the  clergy  who  obeyed  the  interdict.  He  treated  tlic 
clergy  as  his  enemies,  and  allowed  those  who  robbed  or 
murdered  them  to  go  unpunished. 

He  did  all  he  could  to  show  men  that  the  Pope  might 
do  his  worst — he  would  not  care ;  and  all  the  while  the 
people  suffered  for  his  obstinacy.  At  last  five  of  the 
bishops  fled  out  of  the  country,  and  loud  murmurs  of 
discontent  were  heard  amongst  the  people.  To  make 
sure  of  the  barons  John  took  the  children  of  many  of 
them  and  kept  them  as  hostages,  so  tha'  if  their  fathers 


5?  Engiand  a  Conti?ienial  Power.  1213. 

rebelled  he  could  punish  them  by  making  their  children 
suffer. 

3.  After  tn-o  years  the  Pope  went  farther  and  excom- 
municatcd ]qWv\.\  that  is,  he  put  him  out  of  the  communion 

of  the   Church,  so  that   no  Christian  should 

John  s  ex-  r       i      i  i  •  i  •  ,      ,  • 

oommunica-      hcnceforth    have  anything    to  do   with    him. 

tion.  .209.  ^^,gj^    fQj.  .}^ig    JqJ^j^   ^j^   j^Q^  j,^j.g        ^j  j^g^^  jj^ 

12 1 2,  when  the  interdict  had  lain  on  the  land  for  four 
years,  the  Pope  bade  Philip  of  France  lead  a  crusade 
against  John,  the  enemy  of  the  Church.  He  also  caused 
it  to  be  publicly  declared  that  John  was  no  longer  king, 
and  that  the  EngHsh  owed  him  no  obedience. 

4.  In  the  end  John  seemed  to  grow  afraid  ;  he  could  not 
trust  his  people,  and  he  knew  that  Philip  was  very  strong. 

He  was  very  superstitious  too,  and  was  much 
mission,  frightened  by  hearing  that  it  had  been  pro- 

"'3-  phesied  that  on  the  next  Feast  of  the  Ascen- 

sion he  would  no  longer  be  king.  His  terror  seems  to 
have  been  quite  abject.  He  gave  up  at  once  every  point 
for  which  he  had  been  struggling.  He  accepted  Stephen 
Langton  as  archbishop,  and  promised  to  give  back  the 
money  which  he  had  plundered  from  the  churches.  To 
humble  himself  utterly  he  gave  up  his  crown  to  the  Pope 
and  took  it  back  again,  doing  homage  for  it  as  if  he  were 
the  Pope's  vassal.  He  also  promised  to  pay  a  fixed  sum 
of  money  as  tribute  to  Rome  every  year. 

This  act  filled  the  people  with  disgust.  They  did  not 
like  to  see  their  country  so  humbled  before  Rome,  and 
the  general  dislike  and  distrust  of  John  giew  greater 
everj'  day. 


JoJm  and  his  Barons.  59 


CHAPTER  II. 

JOHN'S   QUARREL   VVIIH    HIS    KARONS. 

f.  The  barons  were  beginning  to  complain  verA'  much  of 
the  way  in  which  John  treated  them.  All  through  hisreig* 
they  had  been  most  heavily  taxed.  Several  lohnand 
times  he  had  bidden  them  bring  together  'he  barons. 
their  force?  to  follow  him  to  war,  and  then  had  made 
no  use  of  then..  The  northern  barons  took  the  lead  in 
complaining.  They  were  not  the  men  who  had  spnmg 
from  the  great  Norman  families  of  the  Conquest,  and 
who  had  so  often  fought  against  the  king  for  power. 
They  were  humbler  men,  who  had  grown  into  impor- 
tance later,  and  who  till  now  had  been  always  faithful  to 
the  king. 

In  12 1 3  John's  faithful  minister,  Geoffrey  FitzPeter, 
who  had  long  been  Justiciar,  died.  He  had  done  his 
best  to  keep  peace  between  his  master  and  the  barons, 
and  to  provoke  the  barons  as  little  as  possible,  whilst  he 
did  John's  bidding.  With  him  John  quite  lost  his  hold 
upon  the  barons  ;  but  the  king  felt  no  sorrow  for  the 
death  of  his  faithful  servant.  He  was  glad  to  have  lost 
him,  because  it  left  him  free  to  oppress  the  people  as  he 
liked.  When  he  heard  of  Geoffrey's  death  he  exclaimed, 
'When  he  arrives  in  hell  he  may  go  and  salute  Hubert 
Walter,  for  by  the  feet  of  God  now  for  the  first  time  am 
i  King  and  Lord  of  England.' 

The  new  Justiciar  was  Peter  des  Roches,  Bishop  ol 
Winchester,  a  native  of  Poitou,  and  the  barons  did  not 
like  the  choice  of  a  foreigner. 

2.  John  had  for  long  planned  a  great  attack  upon 
Philip  of  France.     He  had  allied  himself  with  the  Em- 


6o  England  a  Continental  Power.  12 14. 

peror  and  'ht  Count  of  Flanders,  and  hoped  that  to- 
gether they  would  be  able  to  crush  Philip.  When  his 
Opposition  quarrel  with  the  Pope  was  settled,  he  called 
to  John.  upon  the  barons  to  follow  him  to  France  and 

help  him  to  win  back  the  lands  he  had  lost  there.  The 
northern  barons  refused.  They  said  they  were  not 
bound  to  follow  the  king  out  of  England.  At  a  great 
council  held  at  St.  Albans  for  the  sake  of  settling  Church 
matters,  the  barons  and  the  clergy  spent  much  time  in 
talking  about  the  state  of  the  country  and  the  abuses  of 
the  government.  The  same  talk  went  on  in  another 
council  held  in  London  soon  after.  In  this  the  lead  was 
taken  by  Stephen  Langton.  He  was  a  true  lover  of  his 
country,  and  tried  in  every  way  to  help  the  people  and 
bring  back  order  and  good  government.  He  had  tried 
speaking  to  John  about  the  abuses  of  his  rule,  but  found 
that  it  did  no  good.  He  was  now  wilhng  to  help  the 
barons  to  force  the  king  to  reform. 

3.  John  was  enraged  when  the  barons  refused  to  follow 
him  in  his  French  war,  and  when  he  saw  how  they  and 
War  with  the  clergy  were  banded  together  against  him. 
France.  jj^j  ^g  fgi^^  j^^t  it  was  no  good  doing  anything 
to  punish  them  then.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  go  abroad 
first  and  make  war  upon  Philip.  He  trusted  that  he 
would  gain  a  great  victory  and  easily  win  back  Nor- 
mandy. Afterwards,  crowned  with  success,  he  would 
come  back  to  England  and  punish  the  barons  for  their 
disobedience.  Meanwhile,  too,  he  hoped  to  get  time  to 
part  his  enemies,  either  by  threats  or  bribes,  so  that  there 
might  not  base  strong  a  party  against  him  in  the  country. 

4.  Philip  of  France  was  attacked  by  many  enemies  at 

once,  and  was  in  great  danger,  but  this  danger 
Bouvines,  rouscd  his  Subjects  to  defend  their  king.  At 
'*'*•  the  battle  of  Bouvines,  on  the  northern  frontier 

of  France,  he  defeated  a  great  army  made  up  of  Germans, 


12 1 5-  Opposition  to  John.  6 1 

Flemish,  and  English.  John  was  in  Anjou  at  the  time. 
When  he  heard  of  the  battle  of  Houvines  he  saw  that  all 
was  lost,  and  that  he  should  be  able  to  do  nothing  against 
Philip. 


CHAPTER   III. 

STRrrir.i.K  kok   the  great  charter. 

I.  Whilst  John  was  away  the  barons  and  clergy  had  met 
together  again.  Stephen  Langton  had  brought  to  their 
notice  the  charter  which  Henry  I.  had  given  Opposition 
the  people.  It  promised  just  the  good  go-  '»  J"h"- 
vernment  which  they  wanted,  and  made  their  cause 
stronger  by  giving  them  something  clear  to  ask  and 
fight  for.  The  barons  swore  that  unless  John  would  give 
them  a  sealed  charter,  granting  them  their  laws  and 
liberties,  they  would  make  war  on  him  till  they  made 
him  do  so.  They  agreed  at  once  to  begin  to  get  a  force 
together  to  help  them  in  their  struggle  with  the  king. 
They  had  little  hope  that  they  should  be  able  to  get 
anything  from  him  except  by  force. 

In  all  this  the  clergy,  with  Langton  at  their  head, 
were  quite  at  one  with  the  barons.  John  hoped  to  be 
able  to  part  the  Church  and  the  barons.  To  do  this 
he  granted  the  Church  the  privileges  which  it  had  long 
asked  for.  ]5ut  it  was  of  no  use.  Langton  was  too  true 
a  lover  of  liberty  to  be  bribed  to  forsake  the  people's 
cause. 

2.  John  went  on  trying  to  put  off  the  struggle.   He  took 
the  vow  of  the  Crusade,  that  none  might  dare  to  take  up 
arms  against  him.     But  the  barons  were  not     Success  of 
frightened.      They  got    their   army   together     '•'^  barons, 
and  met  at  a  place  called   Brackley,  in   Northampton- 


62  England  a  Continental  Poivcr.  1215. 

shire.  The  clergy  had  not,  of  course,  taken  up  arms, 
and  had  not  been  forced  to  break  with  the  king  out- 
wardly. The  archbishop,  therefore,  was  one  of  the  men 
whom  John  sent  to  ask  the  barons  what  they  wanted. 
He  came  back  with  a  long  list  of  their  demands,  which 
John  in  anger  refused. 

Then  the  barons  marched  to  London,  and  the 
Londoners  greeted  them  with  joy.  This  was  not,  like 
the  revolts  of  the  barons  which  we  have  spoken  about 
before,  a  struggle  to  gain  power  for  themselves.  It  was 
a  struggle  to  get  good  government  for  the  whole  country, 
for  the  people  as  well  as  the  barons.  Everyone  left 
John,  even  the  n^en  of  his  court  and  household.  The 
whole  country  was  against  the  king,  who  had  shown 
himself  to  be  nothing  but  a  brutal  tyrant. 

3.  John  was  at  last  obliged  to  bid  the  barons  meet 
Runnymede,  him  at  Runnvmedc,  that  they  might  talk 
"'5-  together  about  their  demands  and  come  to 
some  agreement. 

Runnymede  was  a  meadow  through  which  the  Thames 
ran,  between  Windsor  and  Staines.  On  one  side  of  the 
river  the  barons  spread  out  their  forces  and  put  up  their 
tents.  On  the  other  side  was  the  king.  On  an  island  in 
the  middle  of  the  river,  the  messengers  from  either  side 
met  and  discussed  the  disputed  points. 

John,  deserted  on  all  sides,  was  ready  to  grant  any- 
thing that  was  asked,  though  probably  he  did  not  mean  to 
keep  his  promises.  In  one  day  he  agreed  to  the  Charter 
which  the  barons  proposed,  and  put  his  seal  to  it. 

4.  This  charter,  which  is  so  important  in  the  history 
of  English  liberty  that  it  has  always  been  called  The 
TT,   n     .        Great  Charter,  was  as   it  were  a  treaty  be- 

1  he  Oreat  ' 

Charter.  tween   the  king  and  his  people.      In   it   the 

interests  of  the  people  were  considered  side  by  side  with 
the  interests  of  the  barons      This  is  the  important  point 


1215.  The  Great  Charter.  63 

to  mark  about  it,  that  for  the  first  time  the  whole  nation, 
and  not  only  one  class  in  it,  rose  against  the  king  to  fight 
for  its  liberties. 

5.  Till  now   we  have  always  seen  the  people  on  the 
side  of  the  king  against  the  barons.    Now  the  nation  had 
become  one.     The  Normans   and  the    Eng-     unlon  of 
lish  were  one  people  :  they  felt  that  they  had     '^^  "''"°"- 
the  same  interests,  and  that  they  could  get  on  best  by 
working  together. 

Under  Henry  I.  and  Henry  II.  the  barons  had  learnt 
that  it  was  useless  tr)ing  to  get  power  for  themselves, 
like  the  great  barons  in  France ;  and  the  people  had 
learnt  what  good  government  was.  The  order  that  had 
reigned  all  over  the  country  had  educated  the  people. 
They  had  learnt  what  law  was,  what  good  government 
was.  They  had  seen  the  Church  resist  the  king  with 
success  even  when  he  seemed  most  powerful,  and  from 
this  they  had  learnt  that  they  too  might  struggle  for 
their  liberty.  So  it  came  about  that  the  nation  met  the 
king  at  Runnymede  and  forced  him  to  put  his  seal  to 
the  Great  Charter.  The  barons  in  no  way  acted  selfishly, 
and  we  do  not  see  in  the  Great  Charier  that  they  tried 
at  all  to  get  new  power  for  themselves. 

6.  The  Great  Charter  was  very  like  the  Charter  of 
Henry  I.  The  barons  had  taken  that  charter  for  their 
model.  But  the  Great  Charier  went  farther  Articles  of 
than  that  had  done,  for  since  its  day  many  the  Charter, 
new  rights  and  new  claims  had  sprung  up,  and  now  ail 
these  had  to  be  thought  of. 

First  of  all  the  Great  Charter  promised  to  the  Church 
all  its  rights,  and  said  clearly  that  the  English  Church 
was  to  be  free.  Then  it  went  on  to  promise  that  the 
king  would  not  go  beyond  his  feudal  rights  in  the  treat- 
ment of  his  vassals,  and  would  not  use  unlawful  means 
to  get  money  from  them. 


64  England  a  Continental  Power.  1215. 

7.  Its  most  important  articles  are  those  in  which 
the  king  promised  that  he  would  not  try  to  raise 
the  Great  money  from  the  nation  by  a  scutage  or 
Council.  other  aid  without  the  consent  of  the  Great 
Council.  To  this  council  were  to  be  called  by  name  all 
the  great  clergy,  the  earls,  and  the  greater  baroHs.  The 
lesser  barons  were  to  be  summoned  generally  in  a  writ 
which  was  to  be  sent  to  the  sheriff  of  their  shire.  This 
is  important,  because  it  clearly  states  that  the  consent  of 
the  council  was  to  be  given  to  all  taxes,  and  also  states 
how  the  Great  Council  was  to  be  made  up.  There  was 
nothing  new  in  it,  but  it  had  never  been  put  so  clearly 
before.  To  have  the  means  by  which  they  could  hope 
to  govern  themselves  so  clearly  put,  must  have  been  a 
great  help  in  the  future  progress  of  the  people  towards 
liberty. 

8.  Legal  abuses  were  also  put  right  by  the  Great 
Charter.  John  had  got  together  a  great  deal  of  money 
Abuses  by  laying  very  heavy  fines  upon  offending 
remedied.  persons.  This  was  now  forbidden,  and  the 
old  order  was  brought  back  ihto  the  E.xchequer  and 
the  Curia  Regis. 

An  end  was  put  to  some  of  the  forest  abuses.  The 
forests  that  John  had  made  were  to  be  destroyed,  and  all 
the  bad  customs  of  the  forest  law  were  to  be  done  away 
with. 

One  great  rule  was  clearly  laid  down,  that  no  free  man 
was  to  be  taken  and  in  any  way  punished  save  by  judg- 
ment of  \v\s  peers,  or  equals,  or  by  the  law  of  the  l^nd. 

Twenty-five  barons  were  to  be  chosen  by  the  whole 
number  of  barons  to  see  that  the  charter  was  carried 
out.  If  the  king  would  not  hearken  to  what  the)  said  to 
him,  they  might  make  war  upon  him,  so  as  to  force  him 
to  observe  the  Charter. 

9.  John  had  signed  the  Charter  because  he  could  not 


i2i6.  Death  cf  John.  65 

help  himself.  He  did  so  with  rage  in  his  heart,  and 
rode  away  from  Windsor  as  soon  as  he  could  to  see 
how  heT;ould  find  means  to  resist  the  barons.  j,,hn's  Ust 
This  time  the  Pope  was  on  his  side.  John  •*"■"';«'<=. 
had  made  himself  Innocent  II I. 's  vassal,  and  he  was 
now  rewarded  by  Innocent's  help.  Innocent  sent  letters 
to  England,  in  which  he  said  that  he  looked  upon  the 
Charter  as  unlawful  and  put  it  aside,  whilst  he  bade 
Stephen  Langton  no  longer  act  as  archbishop.  Then 
he  went  on  to  excommunicate  the  barons,  but  they  were 
not  frightened  by  this,  but  clung  to  their  cause. 

John  hired  troops  from  abroad,  and  both  sides  got 
ready  for  war  ;  for  the  barons  soon  saw  that  John  did 
not  mean  to  keep  the  Charter.  Bui  the  king's  troops 
were  the  strongest,  for  they  were  trained  to  fight  as  their 
business  in  life.  The  barons  turned  to  France  for  help. 
They  offered  the  crown  of  England  to  Lewis,  eldest  son 
of  King  Philip. 

10.  Lewis  and  the  barons  together  were  loo  strong 
for  John.  He  was  marching  southwards  to  try  and  save 
Dover,  which  held  out  for  him,  when,  as  he  Death  of 
crossed  the  Wash,  the  tide  ro^e  suddenly  and  J°^"-  "'*'■ 
carried  away  the  baggage  of  the  army,  with  the  royal 
treasure.  This  was  a  bitter  blow  to  the  king,  who  loved 
money  deaily.  Soon  after  he  was  seized  with  a  fever, 
which  was  made  much  worse  by  the  greed  with  which 
he  partook  of  a  great  banquet.  He  died  at  Newark,  in 
October  1216,  just  three  months  after  the  death  of  Pope 
Innocent  III. 

During  his  life  he  had  never  tried  to  serve  God,  and 
had  always  scoffed  at  His  name.  On  his  deathbed  fear 
seized  him,  and  he  gave  orders  that  he  was  to  be  buried 
in  the  habit  of  a  monk,  as  if  he  hoped  that  religion, 
which  he  had  scorned  during  his  life,  would  protect  him 
after  his  death. 

£.  H.  F 


66  England  a  Continental  Power. 

We  cannot  pity  him  even  for  his  miserable  end,  but 
can  only  feel  that  he  deserved  it  all.  As  he  had  loved 
no  one  and  been  true  to  no  one,  we  cannot  wonder  that 
none  loved  or  clung  to  him.  He  was  left  alone,  because 
his  utter  selfishness  and  meanness  made  all  men  shrink 
from  him.  '  Foul  as  it  is,  hell  itself  is  defiled  by  the 
fouler  presence  of  John,'  are  the  terrible  words  that  men 
of  his  time  spoke  of  him.  They  have  told  us  nothing 
which  can  inake  us  think  less  harshly  of  him. 

II.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  what  a  great  change  had 
come  over  England  since  the  days  of  William  the  Con- 
queror. Under  Henry  11.  we  have  seen  how 
the  Normans  and  English  had  become  one 
people ;  and  we  have  seen  how,  under  John,  barons, 
Church,  and  people  learned  that  they  all  had  the  same 
interests,  and  wanted  good  government  and  order. 

The  Norman  kings  had  taught  them  to  value  good 
government,  and  now  they  would  not  do  without  it.  But 
the  Great  Charter  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  change. 
It  shows  us  that  the  people  had  begun  to  wish  for  some 
share  in  the  government  themselves.  They  had  learned 
their  strength,  and  did  not  mean  any  longer  to  put  up 
with  such  a  harsh  rule  as  that  of  the  Norman  kings  had 
been.  In  the  years  that  follow  you  will  see  how  the 
people  learned  to  govern  themselves. 


INDEX    OF     PERSONS. 


A.  =  Archbisliop 

B.  =  Bishop 

C.  =  Count 


D.  =   Duke 

E.  =  Earl 
Emp.   =  Emperor 


P.  =  Pritffi 
Queen 
.   =  Saini 


t 


ADE 

ADELA,  31 

Anselm,  A.   of  Canterbury,  20, 

21-23 
Arthur,  D.  of  Brittany,  54,  55 
Austria,  D.  of,  52 


SECKET,  Thomas,  A.   of  Canter- 
bury, 36-41 


DERMOT.  so 


EDGAR  the  Atheling,  3,  6 
Edmund  Ironside,  3 
Kdward  the  Confessor,  15,  29 
Edwin,  E.  of  the  Marchland,  3, 
Eleanor  of  Guienne,  33,  52,  55 


FIT2PETER,  Geoffrey,  55,  59 
Fulk,  C.  of  Anjou,  10,  31 


GEOFFREY,  of  Anjou,  31,  34 
Geoffrey,  D.  of  Brittany,  42,  50 
Gregory  VII.,  Pope,  12 


HAROLD,  3 

Henry  I.,  i3,  21-25,  28,  31 

Henry  [I.,  33-51 

Henry  V.,  Emperor  of  Germany,  31 


Pill 

Henry,  B.  of  Winchester,  32,  ^4 
Hereward,  6 
Hildcbraiid,  11 


INNOCENT  III.,  Pope,  57,  65 


JOHN,  King,  2,  48,  50,  52,    54-66 


LAN  FRANC,   A.   of   Canterbury, 

10-12,  17,  ig,  20 
Langton,   .Stephen,  A.    of   Canter- 
bury, 57,  58.  60,  61 
Lewis  VII.,  K.  of  France,  40,  42 
Lewis,  son  of  Philip  II.  of  France,  65 
Longchamp,  William,  B.  uf  Ely,  52 


MALCOLM,  K.  of  Scotland,  6,  22 
Matilda,  Empress,  31.  32 
Matild.-i,  Q  ,  9 
Maude,  Q. ,  22 

Morcar,  E.  of  Northumberland,  3, 
4,6 


ODO.  B    of  Bayeux,  5,  10,  17 


PATRICK,  St  ,49 
Philip  Augustus,  K.  of  France,  51- 
53.  55.  56,  58,  60 


68 


hidex  of  Persons. 


RAN 


RANULF  de  Glanvil,  43 

Ranulf  Flambard,  P.  ig,  21,  »4 

Richard  I.,  42,  50-53 

Robert,  D.  of  Normandy,  9,  17,  19, 
21,  23 

Roches,  Peter  des,  B.  of  Winches- 
ter, 59 

Roger,  B.  of  Salisbury,  25,  32 


STEPHEN.  C.  of   Boulogne,   31- 

34.  36 
Stigand,  II 

Strongbow,  E.  of  Pembroke,  50 
Swend,  K.  of  Denmark,  5 


THEOBALD, 

34.  36,  37 


WIL 
A.    of  Canterburv. 


URHAN  n..  Pope,  21 


WALTER,  Hubert,   A.  of  Canter. 

bur)',  52-54,  56 
Waltheof,  E.  of  Nottingham,  9 
William  the  Conqueror,  3-18,  i; 
William  H.,  the  Red,  17,  18.  jo— ji 
William,  Prince,  30 
William  the  Lion,  K.  of  Scotland,  43 
William  Fitzosberne,  5 


INDEX    OF     PLACES. 


ALN 


ALNWICK.  43 
Anjou,  33 


BEC,  II,  20 
Berkhainpstead,  3 
Bou  vines,  60 
Brackley,  61 


CAEN,  II,  18 
Canterbury,  3 
Chalaix,  Castle  of,  53 
Chester,  6 
Clarendon,  39 
Chinon,  51 


DOVER.  3 
Durham,  6,  13 


ELY,  6 

GAILLARD,  Chateau,  53 
Gloucester,  i6 
Guicnne,  33 

HASTINGS,  5 

IRELAND.  49 

CENT.  6 


WIN 
LONDON,  3,  4,  6.  48,  60,  69 


MA) NE,  10.  51 
Mantes.  17 


NEW  FOREST.  14,  zi 

Newark,  65 

Normandy.  5,  24,  31,  53,  55 
Northampton,  39 
Northumberland.  6 


OXFORD,  32 
POITOU.  33 


ROME,  57 
Rouen,  10,  55 
Runnymede.  62 


ST.  ALBANS,  60 
Shropshire,  6 


TENCHEBRAI.  24 


WALLINGFORD,  j; 
Westminster,  4,  i5 
Winchester,  3,  14,  16 


RISE  OF  thp:  people 

xVND  GROWTH  OF  PARLIAMENT 

Vrnm   thr.    Great    Charter   to  the  Acves.swn   of  Henry    VII. 
1215—1485 


BV 


JA-IMES   ROWLEY,    M.A., 

PROFEBbOl:  f>I-  MODKRN  HISTORY  AND  UTEBATDRB 
CNIVKKSITY  COLLEGE,  BRISTOL. 


CONTENTS. 


Introcjuction    .......  i 

Table  showing  Claimants  to  the  Scottish  Throne             .  .     31 

Table  showing  Edward  III.  s  claim  to  the  French  Throne    .  42 

Descendants  of  Edward  III.        .                          .             .  .77 

Descendants  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster  .             .  Q3 


BOOK    I. 
The  Growth  of  Parliament  (12 13 -1297). 

CHAP. 

I.  Pai'liament         ......  a 

II.  The  Fight  to  keep  the  Great  Charter         .             .  .6 

III.  The  Barons'  War           .....  10 

IV.  Edward  1.  .ind  I  arliament              .             .             .  .     ao 


BOOK    II. 

Wales  and  Scotland  (1276-1328). 
I.     Wales    .....  23 


III.  Scotland  .....  27 
ni.  First  and  Second  Conquests  of  Scotland  .  .  33 
n 


VI 


Contents. 


BOOK    III. 

Thf.  Hundred  Years'  War  (1337-1453). 

CHAP. 

I.  1"he  Kings  of  England  and  of  France 

II.  First  Stage  of  the  Hundred  Yeais' War 

III.  Second  Stage  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War 

IV.  Third  Stage  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War 


PAGR 
40 

44 
52 


BOOK    IV. 

Engi.And  in  the  Fourteenth  Centurv. 

I.  Parliamentary  Progress      .... 

II.  Rising  of  thL  Couiaions 

HI.  WicUf  ...... 

IV.  The  Lollards    ..... 


58 
63 

67 


BOOK    V. 

T}iE  Wars  of  the  Roses  (1455-1485). 

I.  The  House  of  Lancaster    . 

II.  Henry  VI.  ....  . 

HI.  Wars  of  the  Roses  and  House  of  York 

IV.  Line  of  York      ..... 

Chronological  Table        .... 
Genealogical  Table  of  Plantagenet  Kings 

Index  of  Persons        .... 
Index  of  Places    ..... 


73 
78 
!i4 
87 

9.S 
103 

i09 


LIST  OF  MAPS. 

Scotland  in  the  Thirteenth  Century    . 
France  after  the  Treaty  of  1259  . 
France  after  the  Peace  of  Bretigny     . 
England  under  the  Plantagenet  Kings    . 


39 
49 
56 
9* 


RISE    OF    THE    PEOPLE 

AM" 

GROWTH    OF    PARLIAMENT. 

INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  period  of  history  which  this  little  work  deals  with, 
the  things  that  are  most  worthy  of  notice  are  these: — 

1.  How  Parliament  grew  up  into  its  present  shape. 

2.  How  Wales  was  joined  to   Englaixl  ;    and   how  an 

attempt  was  made  to  join  Scotland  also,  but  with- 
out success. 

3.  How  some  English  kings  strove  to  win  the  kingdom 

of  France  ;  and  how  the  Enghsh  people  were  thus 
drawn  into  a  war  which  lasted  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years. 
4..   How  great  changes  came  over  the   people  in  social 
matters  ;  how  Parliament  grew  stronger,  and  some 
men  tried  to  reform  the  Church. 
5.   How  the  barons,  towards  the   end  of  this   period, 
divided  into  two  parties,  and  fought  for  different 
kings  ;  and  how  the  land  was  filled  with  disorder 
and  bloodshed. 
To   show  all  these  things    as    clearly  as   possible,   ?>. 
Book  has  been  given  to  each  ;  and  in  this  Book  the  story 
of  each  has  been  told,  apart  by  itself,  as  much  as  could 
be  done.     Thus,  when  the  growth  of  parliament  is  spoken 
E.H  B 


2  Rise  of  the  People. 


Ill'- 


of,  no  notice  is  taken  of  the  other  things  which  happened 
at  the  same  time,  because  it  seems  better  to  tell  these 
under  other  heads.  So  the  reigns  of  the  different  kings 
have  not  been  kept  apart,  as  is  done  in  many  histories  ; 
and  in  passing  from  one  Book  to  another  the  order  of  time 
in  which  things  happened  is  not  followed.  It  is  seldom 
found  in  history  that  events  of  great  importance  start 
into  being  A\  at  once  ;  the  causes  that  lead  to  them  go  on 
working  for  a  long  time  before  ;  and  to  understand  the 
way  in  which  they  take  place,  it  is  often  needful  to  begin 
very  far  back  indeed.  In  this  svay  the  chief  things  that 
happened  under  each  head  have  come  to  be  told  under 
their  own  head.  But  that  the  learner  may  be  able  to  see 
the  order  in  which  the  kings  who  reigned  in  this  time 
came  after  one  another,  and  the  order  in  which  events 
happened,  a  table  has  been  put  at  the  end  which  tel)« 
both  these  things. 


BOOK    I. 

THE    GROWTH    OF    PARLIAMENT. 
1213-1297. 

CHAPTER  I. 

P.A.RLlA.MENr. 

I.  In  many  ways  the  thirteenth  century  is  the  most  inte- 
resting of  the  middle  ages.  It  was  a  century  of  great  men, 
.j,^^  great  thoughts,  and  great  deeds.     But  to  all 

thirteenth  of  English  birth  or  descent  its  great  glory  is, 
i.entur>'.  ^^^  ._  -j.  ^^  institution  which  it  is  England's 

chief  pride  to  have  founded — Parliament-  first  grew  and 
was  shaped  into  the  form  which  it  still  keeps.      We  might 


T  2 1 3  Pa  rlia  men  f.  3 

almost  think  that  this  century  had  been  set  apart  for  this 
special  purpose ;  it  had  hardly  well  begun  when  the 
movement  towards  the  building-iip  of  parliament  set  in, 
and  a  few  years  before  it  ended  Parliament  received  its 
finishing  touch  from  the  hands  of  its  most  intelligent 
builder,  Edward  I.  Parliament  is,  moreover,  the  one 
abiding  result  of  all  the  seemingly  blind  struggling  and 
fighting,  in  the  battle-field  and  elsewhere,  of  all  the  fore 
cast  and  effort,  which  niade  the  reigns  of  John,  Henry  III 
and  Edward  I.  among  tlie  most  stirring  in  our  histor)'. 

2.  In  one  sense  Parliament  was  no  new  thing  even  at 
the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Already — indeed 
it  might  be  said  from  far  earlier  limes— every-  Pari;ament : 
thing  that  goes  to  the  m.iking  of  a  perfect  *'^'^' "  "'■ 
parliament  was  to  be  found  in  [England.  By  a  parliament 
is  meant  a  national  assembly  in  wliich  all  the  classes 
which  make  up  fhe  people  of  a  country  are  brought 
together,  either  in  person  or  by  men  chosen  to  represent 
them.  When  so  met  together  they  talk  about,  and  give  a 
common  opinion  upon,  matters  of  importance  to  the  whole 
people.  To  make  this  assembly  worthy  of  the  name  of 
parliament,  no  part  of  the  kingdom,  and  no  class  of  the 
people  whose  affairs  it  deals  with,  can  be  shut  out  from 
it.  Now  it  is  clear  that  the  vast  bulk  of  the  people  can 
be  present  at  such  an  assembly  only  through  their  repre- 
sentatives—men chosen  by  them,  and  having  full  power 
to  act  for  them,  and  to  bind  them  as  completely  as  if  they 
were  themselves  present.  A  full  parliament  is  the  whole 
nation  gathered  together  to  do  the  business  of  the  state. 
To  Parliament  are  entrusted  all  the  rights  and  lawful 
powers  that  belong  to  the  nation  ;  whatever  it  does  the 
nation  does. 

3.  Now  in  the  reign  of  John,  and  earlier,  England  had 
a  Great  Council  of  the  nation,  and  had  also  councils  in  the 
shires  or  cour.ties.      At  the  national  council  men  from 

K  3 


4  Rise  of  the  People.  1213 

all  parts  of  the  country  had  a  right  to  be  present,  but 
those  who  had  this  right  could  only  be  present  themselves, 
Parliament  ^"*^  could  not  Send  representatives.  At  the 
no  new  shire-moots,  or  countv  courts,  groups  of  men 

thing  in  the  ^  ,  .         '  r     ,  ,  .        , 

.  thirteenth        Sent  from  the  various    parts   of  the  shire  for 
century.  jj,g  purpose,  represented  the  whole  free  folk  of 

the  shire,  and  did  business  for  them.  Now  Parliament 
grew  up  by  mixing  together  the  great  council  and  the 
county  courts.  When  men  were  sent  to  the  great  council 
to  represent  the  folk  of  the  shire,  in  the  same  way  as  men 
haJ  long  been  sent  to  represent  different  parts  of  the 
shire  in  the  shire  court,  then  we  have  Parliament.  This 
was  done  in  the  thirteenth  century  ;  the  men  who  helped 
most  to  do  it  were  Simon  de  Montfort  and  King  Edward  I. 
4.  The  National  Council  in  John's  time  was  a  gathering, 
at  the  king's  bidding,  of  all  who  held  their  lands  directly 
Thenational  from  the  Crown,  both  clergj-men  and  laymen, 
council.  u  ^^.jjg  Y\V&  the  Meeting  of  the  Wise  Men  in 

early  times,  only  more  people  sat  in  it,  and  they  were  the 
king's  feudal  vassals,  no  longer  merely  the  men  of  weight 
in  the  kingdom.  But  already  the  body  of  tenants-in- 
chief — as  those  who  held  their  lands  direct  from  the  king 
were  called — had  split  up  into  two  groups,  the  greater  and 
the  lesser.  The  greater  barons  held  large  lands,  and  had 
a  right  to  do  business  directly  with  the  king.  The  lesser 
barons  held  smaller  lands,  and  dealt  with  the  king  only 
through  the  sheriffs  of  their  counties.  The  greater  barons, 
being  made  up  of  the  gi'eater  nobles  and  the  chief  digni- 
taries of  the  Church,  became  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
full-grown  Parliament.  The  lesser  barons,  as  time  went 
on,  seem  to  have  mi.xed  with  the  other  folk  who  held 
lands  in  the  shires.  Their  representatives  were  the 
knights  of  the  shire  who  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

5.  But  the  Shire-moot  even  in  the  twelfth  century  was 
a  perfect  parliament  of  the  shire.     To  it  came  not  only  all 


*2i3-  Parliament.  5 

the  landholders  of  the  shire,  clerical  and  lay,  but  also 
twelve  lawful  men  from  each  borough,  and  four  men  with 
the  reeve  from  each  township.  They  were  xhe 
bound  to  meet  the  king's  justice  when  he  came  shire-moot, 
into  their  shire,  and  help  him  to  do  the  king's  business,  in 
judging  lawsuits  and  other  matters.  Thus  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  thirteenth  century  we  have  all  that  is  needed 
to  make  a  full  parliament  of  the  kind  that  now  meets  at 
Westminster.  We  have  a  national  assembly,  and  we 
have  the  custom  of  doing  the  nation's  business  through 
men  whom  the  people  have  chosen  to  act  for  them.  We 
have,  too,  little  parliaments  in  the  shires  which  might  be 
used  as  patterns  for  making  a  national  parlianient. 

6.  As  early  as  12 13,  signs  that  the  National  Council  was 
about  to  take  the  shape  of  the  Shire-moot  began  to  show 
themselves.     In  this  year  John  summoned  to     Fi^t 
the  great   council  which  he  called  at  St.  Al-     "^'t'ona' 

,  rcpreseiua- 

bans  not  only  fhe  bishops  and  the  barons,  "on. 
but  also  the  reeve  and  four  lawful  men  from  each  town 
ship  in  the  royal  demesne,  as  the  lands  the  king  kept 
in  his  own  hands  were  called.  A  few  months  later  he 
commanded  the  sheriffs  of  the  several  counties  to  'cause 
;o  come '  to  him  at  O.xford,  '  four  discreet  men '  from  each 
county,  to  'talk  with  him  '  on  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom. 
The  parliament  of  St.  Albans  is  believed  to  be  the  first 
clear  case  in  our  history  of  a  national  representative 
assembly. 

7-  It  is,  moreover,  worthy  of  notice  that  everything 
that  went  to  make  up  our  Parliament  is  of  English  origin. 
The  notion  of  givinof  certain   classes   of   the     „   ,. 

1  ,  ■        ,        ,  .    ,  Parliament 

people  a  place  m  the  highest  assembly  of  the     a  native 
nation,  by  means  of  men  chosen  to  represent     ^°"*''- 
them,  was  nothing  new.     It  was  only  the  same  principle 
that  had  been  acted  upon  in  the  local  meetings  of  the 
English  from   the  earliest   times.      The  national  council 


6  Rise  of  tJie  People.  1215. 

was  what  the  Meeting  of  the  Wise  became  after  the  Nor- 
man conquest  ;  and  the  shire-moot  was  among  the  very 
oldest  institutions  of  the  country.  But  the  word  '  parha- 
ment'  (from  the  French  word  '  parler,'  to  talk)  is  foreign, 
and  was  in  use  on  the  Continent  long  before  it  appeared 
in  England  ;  and  the  parts  that  make  it  up  were  brought 
together  by  the  way  in  which  our  foreign  kings  ruled  the 
nation.  If  the  Norman  conquest  had  not  taken  place, 
an  assembly  like  our  parliament  might  have  come  into 
being,  but  it  could  hardly  have  been  the  same  as  that 
which  we  now  have. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    FIGHT   TO   KEEP   THE   GREAT   CHARTER. 

I.  When  the  barons  parted  from  King  John  after  making 
him  sign  the  Great  Charter  in  June,  1215,  their  work  was 
not  even  half  done.  They  had  won  the  Great  Charter  ; 
r,       •  1  but  a  harder  task  was  still  before  them — to 

Baroninl 

war  breaks  keep  it.  England  had  to  endure  two  years 
"  ^^  '  '  of  civil  war,  disorder,  and  misery  before  the 
Great  Charter  could  be  made  sure.  For  John  was  as 
false  to  his  word  in  this  as  in  every  other  thing  he  did 
or  said.  A  few  months  after  the  day  of  Runnymede  he 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  an  armed  force  that  had  been 
hired  for  him  on  the  Continent  and  had  gathered  on  the 
southern  coast.  The  barons  marched  against  him  with 
their  followers  At  first  John  was  everywhere  successful. 
Pope  Innocent  took  upon  himself  to  condemn  the  con- 
duct of  the  barons  and  annul  the  Charter  ;  and  when  the 
barons  would  not  submit  to  his  judgment  he  excommuni- 
cated them.  At  the  same  time  the  great  archbishop, 
Stephen  Langton,  went  to  Rome   to  plead  before   Inno- 


I2I5-I6.         Fig  Jit  to  keep  the  Great  Charter.         y 

cent  the  nation's  cause  and  his  own  ;  but  he  was  for 
bidden  to  go  back  to  England  until  the  troubles  were 
ended.  The  barons,  too,  acted  feebly  and  began  to  look 
to  France  for  help.  John  was  thus  able  to  work  his 
wicked  will  upon  the  country  for  a  season.  He  took 
Rochester,  and  then  setting  his  brother,  the  Earl  of 
Salisbury,  with  a  part  of  his  mercenaries,  to  keep  watch 
on  London,  where  the  strength  of  his  enemies  lay,  he  led 
the  rest  northwards.  For  the  moment  there  was  nothing 
to  stop  him.  He  went  through  England,  burning  and 
ravaging  ;  entered  Scotland,  whose  king  had  taken  part 
with  the  barons,  set  Berwick  on  fire,  mercilessly  wasted 
the  Lowlands,  and  turning  southwards  while  it  was  still 
winter,  recovered  Colchester,  which  had  been  lost  in  his 
absence.  London  was  now  the  last  shelter  of  English 
freedom. 

2.  Soon,  however,  the  tide  turned.  The  barons  had 
been  for  some  time  in  treacy  with  France  ;  and  in  May, 
1 216,  the  heir  to  the  French  crown,  Lewis,  Lewis  of 
landed  in  Thanet  with  a  powerful  army,  c'imierto 
Lewis  was  the  husband  of  Henry  ll.'s  England, 
granddaughter,  Blanche  of  Castile,  and  now  came 
to  England  to  try  and  win  the  crown  which  the 
English  nobles  had  otTered  him  as  a  means  of  escaping 
from  the  power  of  John.  John,  distrusting  his  foreign 
troops  now  that  a  prince  of  their  own  race  confronted 
him,  fell  back  upon  the  western  shires  ;  and  Lewis  led 
his  army  to  London,  where  he  was  warmly  welcomed. 
For  a  time  all  went  well  with  the  barons  and  their  ally. 
John's  hirelings  deserted  him  in  great  numbers;  even  his 
brother  Salisbury  passed  over  to  the  enemy  ;  and  in  a 
few  months  little  of  his  kingdom  remained  to  him  except 
the  Welsh  marches  and  a  few  strongholds,  such  as  Dover, 
where  Hubert  de  Burgh  fought  nobly  for  a  cause  that 
seemed  utterly  lost. 


8  Rise  of  the  People.  1216. 

3.  But  John  was  not  beaten  yet.  The  barons  became 
after  a  time  suspicious  of  their  ally  and  jealous  of  French 
influence  ;  the  national  dislike  of  foreigners  began  to 
work  in  the  minds  of  the  people  ;  and  Lewis  was  losing 
ground  in  England.  John  was  able  to  march  into  the 
midland  counties,  to  drive  off  the  besiegers  of  Windsor, 
and  even  to  relieve  Lincoln.  The  relief  of  Lincoln  was, 
Death  of  however,  his  last  exploit  ;  as  he  was  on  hi:, 
John.  ^yjjy  back  he  was  seized  with  a  serious  illness 
at  Swineshead,  and  died  at  Newark  (October,  1216). 

4.  The  men  who  were  on  John's  side  at  once  set  up 
his  son  Henry,  a  lad  nine  years  old,  in  his  place.  Pope 
Henry  III.  Innoccnt  IIL  was  now  dead  ;  but  Pope  Hono- 
121^1272.  rius,  who  came  after  him,  behaved  in  the 
same  way.  His  legate,  Gualo,  crowned  the  young  king 
at  Gloucester,  recei\ed  from  him  the  oath  of  fealty  to  his 
master,  and  threw  all  the  influence  of  the  Roman  Church 
William  '"^°  ^li^  scale.  William  Marshall  the  elder, 
Marshall  the  great  Earl  of  Pembroke,  an  old  states- 
man who  had  taken  part  in  the  troubles  of  Henry  H.'s 
time,  was  chosen  '  ruler  of  the  king  and  kingdom.'  One 
of  his  first  acts  in  his  new  of^ce  was  to  re-issue  the 
Great  Charter  in  a  great  council  at  Bristol.  It  was  not, 
First  however,  quite  the  same  charter  as  that  which 
GreS"chL-  Jo^n  had  granted ;  something  was  added,  but 
ter.  still  more  was  taken  away,  the  sixty-three 
clauses  of  the  original  charter  being  cut  down  to  forty- 
two.  Most  of  the  points  which  were  left  out  were  of  small 
importance  ;  but  two  of  them  were  a  real  loss.  These 
were,  (i)  that  which  set  bounds  to  the  royal  will  in  raising 
scutages  and  aids,  and  (2)  that  which  bound  the  king  to 
call  together  the  national  council  in  a  formal  manner 
when  he  wanted  to  assess  other  than  the  lawfully  fixed 
scutages  or  aids.  The  final  clause,  however,  held  out  a 
hope  that  these  might  afterwards  be  restored. 


I2I6-I7.        Fight  to  keep  the  Great  Charter.  9 

This  acceptance  of.  the  Charter  by  the  king's  friends 
was  an  act   of  great  wisdom.     It  shook  to  its  base  the 
alliance  between  Lewis  and  the  barons,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  the  struggle  enhsted  the  papal  power  in  the  came 
of  English  freedom.       First  in  the  list  of  distinguished 
men  who  appear  as  advising  that  the  king  should  give 
way  and  agree  to  the  Charter,  was  Gualo,  the  papal  legate. 
5.  The  death  of  John  in  reality  gave  the  victory  to  the 
party  of  the  young  king,  which  now  came  to  be  looked  on 
more  and  more  as  the  national  party.     Many  who  had 
taken  up  arms  against  the  tyranny  of  the  father,  saw  no 
reason  to  continue  the  struggle  with  the  son,  especialh 
as  great   part  of  what  they  were  fighting  for  had  been 
freely  granted  them.      So  they  at  once  joined  the  king. 
A  short  truce  gave  both  sides  time  to  gather  together  all 
their  strength  for  the  decisive  struggle.     When  the  trur e 
was  over  the  main  body  of  the  French  moved,  under  the 
Count  of  Perche  and  Robert  Fitzwalter,  to  the  siege  of 
Lincoln    castle      Whilst  so   engaged  they  were  fiercely 
attacked  in    the   town  by  Pembroke's  army     ^^^  (,f  Li„. 
and  utterly  routed.      The    Count    of   Perche     <^°'".  '217. 
was  killed  ;    Fitzwalter  and    many  other   men   of  high 
rank   were   taken  ;    and   the    besieging    force    slain    or 
scattered.     So  easily  won  was  the  victory,  and  so  great 
was  the  spoil  gained  by  it,  that  it  was  called  the  Fair  of 
Lincoln  (May,  1217). 

6.  Yet  Lewis  did  not  give  up  the  contest  ;  it  needed 
another  defeat  to  drive  him  from  England.  By  the 
efiorts  of  his  wife,  Blanche,  a  fresh  force  was  raised  in 
France  and  sent  towards  the  English  coast  in  a  fleet  of 
eighty  ships,  commanded  by  Eustace  the  Monk,  a  notable 
pirate  of  the  day.  But  this  force  never  landed.  For  in 
the  meantime  Hubert  de  Burgh  had  shpped  out  of  Dover, 
gathered  together  about  forty  ships  from  the  southern 
ports,  and  pushed  after  Eustace.     He  overtook  him  off 


lO  Rise  of  the  People.  \2\i. 

Sandwich,  and  at  once  fell  upon  the  French  fleet.    Partly 

Battle  of  ^^'  skilful  seamanship,  partly  by  valour  and 

Sandwich,       daring,    he    entirely    overthrew    it    (August, 

1217). 

7.   Lewis  was  now  closely  besieged  in  London.    Seeing 

no  hope   of  relief,  he  yielded.     A   treaty   was   made  at 

Lambeth,    in    which    he    and    his     English 

1  cscc  01 

Lambeth,  followers  received  favourable  terms.  No 
■^'^'  one    of  them   was  to   suffer  for  the   part   he 

had  taken  against  the  king.  Lewis  was  to  be  paid  a 
certain  sum,  which  was  said  to  be  owed  him,  but  was, 
perhaps,  really  given  to  get  him  to  go  away  sooner. 
Second  This  treaty  was  followed  soon  afterwards  by 

re-is5ue  of       ^  second  rc-issue  of  the  Great  Charter.     Some 

Great  Char-  _    _ 

ter.  1217.  new  clauses  were  added,  raising  the  number 
to  forty-seven  ;  but  those  which  had  been  left  out  in  the 
Charter  of  12 16  were  not  restored.  Si.x  weeks  later 
another  charter,  that  of  the  Forest,  was  published. 
In  this  the  forest  clauses  of  the  Great  Charter  were 
embodied  ;  and  it  disforests,  or  puts  again  under  the 
common  law  of  England,  all  the  forests  created  in  the 
two  previous  reigns.  By  this  charter,  also,  ihe  men  who 
dwelt  within  those  forests  that  were  left  could  no  longer 
be  punished  so  brutally  for  killing  the  king's  deer  as  they 
had  formerly  been,  and  were  allowed  to  plough  their 
lands  and  do  other  things  that  were  needful  for  making 
their  farms  productive. 


CHAPTER   111. 

THE    rsAROXS'    WAR. 

I.  After  the  peace  of  Lambeth  the  land  had  rest  from 
civil  war  for  forty-six  years.  Often  during  these  \ears 
tbere  was  disorder  and  discontent  on  every  side  ;  but  from 


J 


1217-46.  The  Barons'  War.  II 

1 2 1 7  to  1 263  there  was  peace  so  far  that  no  class  of  the 
people  took  up  arms  against  injustice  in  high  places.  It 
seems  indeed  to  have  been  a  fairly  prosperous  j^^;  -• 
and  happy  time  for  the  folk  who  dwelt  in  the  Henry  ill. 
country ;  and  it  is  certainly  a  time  of  great  importance  to 
the  men  of  after-days  ;  for  in  it  gradually  giew  up  those 
forces  which  created  Parliament. 

Let  us  notice  the  important  things  which  helped  on 
tlie  growth  of  Parliament  :  (i)  There  was  a  slow  but 
steady  advance  of  the  custom  of  representatives  of  the 
people  going  to  the  great  assembly  of  the  nation.  (2) 
There  grew  up  for  the  first  time  a  practice  which 
became  very  common  and  very  useful  in  later  days — that 
of  granting  money  to  the  king  in  return  for  his  solemnly 
acknowledging  the  nation's  rights.  (3)  The  wrongs  which 
the  nobles  had  to  endure  from  the  Court  became  so 
manifold  and  were  so  galling  to  their  pride  as  to  rouse 
them  at  last  to  take  steps  to  put  a  stop  to  them. 

2.  (i)  The  first  of  these  points  is  seen  in  the  greater 
frequency  with  which  the  counties  were  called  upon  to 
choose  '  discreet  knights  '  to  instruct  the  king,  or  to  attend 
on  behalf  of  their  county  in  the  national  council.  Thus 
in  1226  it  is  directed  that  four  be  chosen  from  each 
county  to  instruct  the  king;  in  1254  two  were  to  be 
chosen  to  attend  the  great  council.  Indeed  it  may  be 
safely  said  that  before  this  period  ended,  choben  knights 
of  the  shire  had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  needful  part 
of  every  lawful  parliament.     The  word  '  par-     ... 

,  ,  ^  ,    .  ^  '^  rirst  use  of 

liament    was  hrst   used  in   1246  as  the  name     word -pariia-     ^ 
of  the  common  council  of  the  kingdom,  and     "'^"''  '^''^' 
is  at  this  time  so  often  found  in  historical  writings  that  it 
may  be  regarded  as  having  taken   the   place  of  the  old 
name  of  great  council. 

3,  (2)  Of  the  way  in  which  money  was  given  to  the 
king  in  return  for  his  granting  hberties  many  instances 


12  Rise  of  the  People.  1225-32. 

might  be  given  ;  but  one  will  be  enough.  The  last  clause 
of  the  third  re-issue  of  the  Great  Charter — which  was 
Third  made  in  1225,  and  is  noteworthy  as  giving  the 

G'^archar-  Charter  its  final  shape — states  that  in  return 
ter,  1225.  for  the  king's  grace  in  bestowing  the  liberties 
contained  in  the  charter,  his  subjects  have  given  him  '  a 
fifteenth  of  their  moveables.'  Formerly  land  only  had 
been  taxed;  but  as  wealth  increased  the  king  thought  he 
might  raise  money  from  his  people's  'goods'  as  well,  and 
sent  his  servants  every  now  and  then  throughout  the 
land  to  ask  the  towns,  freeholders,  knights,  and  even  the 
clergy  for  a  share  of  their  goods.  If  it  were  granted  him 
it  was  assessed  and  levied  by  the  king's  ofticers,  and  paid 
into  the  treasury. 

4.  (3)  The  dealings  of  the  king  with  his  nobles  must  be 
told  at  greater  length.  WiUiam  Marshall  died  in  12 19.  The 
management  of  affairs  then  passed  to  Hubert  de  Burgh,  a 
H  be  t  de  wisc,  just,  and  vigorous  ruler.  In  spite  of  many 
Burgh,  difficulties  and  much  opposition,  Hubert  beat 

1219  1232.  down  the  wild  spirits  that  the  strife  of  1215-17 
had  given  birth  to.  He  drove  out  of  the  kingdom  the  rem- 
nant of  the  armed  hirelings  whom  John  had  brought  over, 
and  did  much  to  bring  back  the  authority  of  the  law. 
He  was  not  popular,  however  ;  and  in  1232  he  lost  the 
favour  of  the  king,  who  was  now  grown  to  manhood,  and 
so  fell  from  power. 

By  this  time  Henry's  character  had  shown  itself; 
arid  he  proved  to  be,  if  not  one  of  the  worst,  yet  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  most  useless  of  our  kings.  He  had 
many  good  qualities, — was  kind-hearted,  generous,  and 
pious  ;  but  he  was  also  thriftless,  unsteady,  without  judg- 
ment, and — perhaps  from  weakness  of  purpose — too  often 
false  to  his  word. 

5.  Accordingly,   when    Peter   des  Roches,   bishop  of 
Winchester,    took    Hubert's    place    as    the   king's   chief 


1232-39-  The  Barons    Wo.r 


n 


adviser,  he  did  not  succeed  in   keeping  it  for  more  than 
a  few   years.     And    soon   after  this   we    find   Henry  un- 
dertaking to  carry  on  the  work  of  government 
without  any  settled   adviser  whatever.       For     Roches" 
twenty-four  years  ( 1 234- 1 258)  the  post  of  chief     "32-1234 
justiciar— from  the  time  of  the  Conquest  the  highest  under 
the  Crown— and  for  seventeen  years  (i  244-1 261)  that  of 
chancellor,  were  left  unfilled.     But,  like  all  men  of  feeble 
character,    Henry    loved    favourites ;    and   during   these 
years  he  seems   to   have  been   like  clay  in   the  hands  of 
foreign  adventurers,  who  flocked   to  England  from  man\ 
parts   of    the    Continent,   from    Poitou,    Provence,    and 
Savoy. 

6.  Indeed,  the  willingness  of  Henry  to  let  foreigners 
do  what  they  chose  in  England  was  his  great  wrong-doing. 
It  was  an  outrage   upon  the  feelings  and  in-     ^     . 

/•I  ■  r-        1-    .  ,  foreigner, 

terests  of  the  native  English  nobility  which  rule  Eng- 
they  could  not  forgive.  It  made  them  take  '^'* 
the  rule  of  the  country  out  of  the  king's  hands  for  a  time 
and  at  last  drove  them  to  make  war  upon  him.  Henry 
was  a  good  son,  and  was  willing  to  provide  for  his  foreign 
half-brother.  For  after  John's  death,  his  wife  Isabella 
wedded  the  Count  of  La  Marche  from  whom  John  had 
once  carried  her  off,  and  bore  liim  many  children.  Four 
of  her  sons  came  over  to  England  and  received  lands 
and  honours  that  ought  in  justice  to  have  gone  to  Eng- 
lishmen. Henry  was  also  a  good  husband  ;  and  when 
(1236)  he  married  Eleanor  of  Provence,  his  wife's  needy 
kinsmen  had  to  be  provided  for  in  England.  One 
of  her  uncles,  Boniface  of  Savoy,  became.  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  an  office  for  which  his  extreme  youth  and 
violent  temper  made  him  quite  unfit  ;  another,  Peter  of 
Savoy,  got  large  estates— among  others,  that  part  of 
modern  London  which  is  still  cilled  the  Savoy  ;  and  a 
third,  William   Vaience,   became    so   powerful   with  the 


14  Rise  of  the  People.  123958. 

king  that  onl)' his  unexpected  death  in  1239  is  belie\-ed 
to  have  saved  the  nation  from  an  earlier  outbreak  of  the 
Barons'  War.  The  success  of  these  foreigners  drew  over 
others,  who  also  prospered.  The  evil  went  on  growing 
until  the  leading  men  of  the  nation  could  bear  it  no  longer 
and  set  about  devising  means  of  checking  it. 

7.  Another  mischief  of  a  similar  kind  worked  to  the 
same  end,  and  is  important  as  having  helped  to  set  the 
^      ,  English   Church  on  the  side  of  the  national 

Papal  exac- 

tions  and  party.  The  Pope  claimed  the  right  not  only 
usurpations.  ^^  levying  money  from  the  English  clergy 
under  the  name  of  tallages,  but  also  of  providing  for  his 
Italian  servants  by  presenting  them  to  benefices  and 
preferments  in  England.  This  latter  usurped  right  he 
used  with  so  little  moderation  that  at  one  time  Italian 
clergymen  drew  every  year  from  the  revenues  of  the 
English  Church  50,000  marks,  worth  more  than  half  a 
million  of  pounds  now. 

8.  Added  to  all  this,  the  king  was  very  often  asking 
for  money,  so  that  every  class  of  the  people  felt  much  of 

their  wealth  slipping  away  from  them.    Henry 

Henrys  ,       ,      r  i  • 

want  of  Spent  a  great  deal  of  money  on  his  own  wants 

'^"  '  and  pleasures.     He  was  also  for  a  long  time 

at  war  with  France,  and  once  or  twice  tried  to  win  back 
the  dominions  of  his  forefathers  that  John  had  lost.  He 
always  failed  disgracefully  in  these  attempts,  after  spend- 
ing a  great  deal  of  money.  At  last  in  an  evil  hour  for 
himself  he  was  tempted  by  the  Pope  to  go  blindly  into  a 
scheme  for  making  his  second  son,  Edmund,  king  of  Sicily, 
and  soon  found  himself  pledged  to  pay  large  sums  to  the 
Pope  for  this  purpose.  He  twice  asked  the  great  council  for 
an  aid,  but  both  times  it  was  refused.  Then  the  angry 
barons,  believing  that  the  king's  misrule  could  not  be  met 
by  ordinary  ways,  began  a  movement  which  led  in  the 
course  of  a  few  vears  to  the  great  Barons'  War  and  to  the 


I25S.  The  Barons'   JVa?-.  1 5 

meeting  of  the  first  natiojial  assembly  that  had  in  it  all     / 
the  elements  of  a  full  parliament.     It  is  this  which  makes 
the  rising  of  the  barons  so  important. 

9.  The  soul  of  the  movement  was  Simon  de  Montfort,     • 
Earl  of  Leicester.     The  great  earl,  known  in  later  times 
among  the  common  people  as  Sir  Simon   the     c;j„^q„  ^^ 
Righteous,  was  himself  the    child  of  foreign     Montfon. 
parents.     He  was,  however,  the  grandson  o    an  English- 
woman, Amicia,  daughter  of  Robert,   Earl  of  Leicester. 
Thus,  the  great  champion  of  England  against  foreigners 
was  himself  but  one-fourth  an  Englishman.    It  is  remark- 
able, too,  that  he  belonged  originally  to  the   very  class 
which  he  afterwards  made  it  the  fixed  purpose  of  his  life 
to  withstand.     Born   early  in  the  century,  and  being  a 
younger  son,  he  came   to  England  in  -1232.     There  he 
found  favour  with  the  king,  and  found  still  greater  favour 
with  the  king's  sister,  Eleanor,  the  widowed  Countess  of 
Pembroke,   whom,   to   the   great   disgust   of  the  native 
nobility,  he  succeeded  in  making  his   wife.     Then  Henry 
began,  seemingly  without  cause,  to  dislike  and  fear  him  ; 
but  he  steadily  rose  in  the  good   opinion  of  the   nation. 
By  his  conduct  in  various   parts  of  the  world— England, 
Gascony,the  Holy  Land— he  showed  that   he  had  all  the 
qualities  of  a  great  leader  ;  and  in  1258  he  was  felt  to  be 
the  one  man  best  fitted  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  party 
of  the  barons. 

10.  The  Barons  first  took*action  in  the  parliament  that 
met  at  London  in  April,  1258.     It  was  a  stormy  meeting, 
and  lasted  for  an  unusually  long  time,  almost  a  month  ; 
but  the  upshot  was  that  the  king  agreed  to  give  to  twentv- 
four  barons  full  powers  to  reform  the  course  of  govern- 
ment. Of  these  barons  half  were  to  be  chosen 
by  himself,  half  by  the  Barons,  in  a  second     ofo'xio^l 
parliament,  which  was  fi.xed  to  meet  at  Oxford,     '^^s. 
The  Oxford  parliament   came   together   in  June.      The 


l6  Rise  of  tJic  f-^coplc.  12586 


J- 


twenty-four  were  chosen.  From  these  four  others  were 
sifted  ;  and  these  four  in  turn  named  a  council  of  fifteen, 
who  were  to  advise  the  king  in  all  things.  Two  other  com- 
mittees were  made,  one  of  them,  twelve  in  number,  to 
represent  the  commonalty  in  three  annual  parliaments. 
These  and  some  other  regulations  then  made  are  known  as 
the  Provisions  of  Oxford.  The  king  swore  to  observe 
them  ;  and  all  the  king's  friends — his  elder  son,  Edwara, 
among  them — took  the  same  oath.  The  council  of  fifteen, 
led  by  its  greatest  member,  Earl  Simon,  now  drew  to  them- 
selves all  the  king's  powers.  They  called  upon  the  foreigners 
to  give  up  the  king's  castles  ;  and  Earl  Simon  loyally 
surrendered  Kenilworth  and  Odiham.  When  the  De 
Valences — the  king's  half-brothers — resisted  the  demand, 
they  were  driven  from  the  kingdom. 

11.  For  a  time  this  council  ruled  England.  But  they 
were  slow  in  making  the  promised  reforms  ;  and  when, 
.j.|j^  towards  the  end  of  1259,  they  yielded  to  the 
baronial          pressure  put  upon  them  by  Edward  and  the 

other  barons,  and  published  a  paper  of  Re- 
forms, called  the  Provisions  of  the  Barons,  these  did  not 
give  satisfaction.  Henry  longed  to  break  loose  from  their 
control,  but  was  for  a  time  kept  in  check  by  the  refusal 
of  his  son  Edward  to  join  him  in  throwing  off  the  yoke 
of  the  council.  This  body,  therefore,  though  weakened 
by  a  quarrel  that  sprang  up  between  Earl  Simon  and 
Richard  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Gloucester,  still  held  supreme 
sway.  But  in  1261  the  king  was  released  from  his  oath 
by  the  Pope,  and  wrested  the  authority  from  the  barons, 
whereupon  De  Montfort  withdrew  to  France. 

12.  A  time  of  confusion  followed,  lasting  for  two  years, 
^.  .,  during    which    many    fruitless    efforts    were 

Civil  war  ^ 

breaks  out,  made  to  settle  the  dispute.  This  came  to  a 
'^  ^'  head  in   1263.     Richard   de   Clare    was    now 

dead  ;  his  son  Gilbert  warmly  supported  Leicester  ;  and 


.263-64.  The  Barons    War.  \y 

civil  war  broke  out  in  the  west  and  south.  There  were 
marchings  of  armies,  sieges,  and  takings  of  towns  and 
castles,  but  no  pitched  battle.  Then  an  agreement  was 
made  to  refer  the  whole  quarrel  to  King  Lewis  of  France, 
son  of  the  Lewis  who  had  come  to  England  in  1216,  and 
who  was  known  in  later  times  by  the  name  of  St.  Lewis, 
because  he  was  a  ver\'  holy  man.  Roth  sides  solemnly 
undertook  to  abide  by  his  decision,  whatever  it  might  be. 
Lewis  came  to  Amiens,  and  after  hearing  the  case  of  each, 
gave  judgment  in  January,  1264. 

13.  His  judgment,  which  was  known  as  the  Award  of 
Amiens,   was  altogether  in  favour  of  the  king.     By  it, 
the  provisions  of  O.xford  were  annulled,  Henry     Award  of 
was  allowed  to  keep  as  manv  foreigners  as  he     Amiens, 

,.,..,.  '  January, 

liked  m  his  service  ;  but  at  the  same  time  the     1264. 
Great  Charter  was  declared  to  be  binding  on  the  crown. 

14.  The  barons  easily  found  reasons  for  refusing  to 
abide  by  the  Award  ;  and  war  broke  out  a  second  time. 
While  Henry  was  making  head  in  the  midland     ,„    ,     , 

T,      ,  f, .  ,        .       .  War  breaks 

counties,  barl  bimon  was  besieging  Rochester,     out  again. 
This    was     a     valuable    post  ;     and    Henry     "^■'' 
marched  to  relieve  it.     Learning,  however,  whilst  on  his 
way,  that  the  earl  had  left   Rochester,  he  went  on  south- 
wards to  attack  the  southern   ports,  which  were  on  the 
baronial  side.     De  Montfort  followed,  and  came  up  with 
him  at  Lewes.    There,  in  May,  1264,  he  gained 
the   great  victory    which   made  possible    the     Le«es, 
meeting  of  what  is  generally  called  the  first     ^^^^'  '^^'*" 
English  parliament.     The  loss  of  the  battle  is  usually  said 
to  have  been  owing  to  the  blindness  of  Prince  Edward's 
wrath.     He  was  furious  with  the  men  of  London  for  the 
way  in  which  they  had   insulted  his  mother  some  time 
before.     Having  broken  their  division  in  the  first  onset, 
he  chased  them  for  miles  in  his  rage,  and  when  he  came 
back  found   that  the  battle  was  lost.     The  king  and  his 
E.  H.  C 


1 8  Rise  of  the  People.  1265. 

brother,  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall  —  who  had  been 
chosen  king  of  Germany  in  1257 — were  made  prisoners  ; 
and  Edward,  in  accordance  with  a  treaty  that  followed, 
called  the  Mise  of  Lewes,  gave  himself  as  a  ransom  for 
his  father. 

1 5.  Thus  de  Montfort  once  more  became  king  of  Eng- 
land in  all  but  name.  He  kept  Henry  in  his  power,  and 
^    ,  £,.  was  therefore  able  to  carry  out  such  measures 

ruJes  as  he  pleased,  without  seeming  to  set  the  king 

"^  ^"  '  aside  or  make  any  change  in  the  old  way  of 
governing.  A  parliame-nt  met  in  June,  and  put  the 
government  in  the  hands  of  the  king  and  a  council  of 
nine.  The  year  1264  was  a  very  eventful  one  ;  but  its 
most  fruitful  event  was  its  latest.  In  December  writs 
were  sent  in  the  king's  name  to  certain  churchmen,  earls, 
and  barons  ;  to  the  shires,  cities,  and  boroughs  through- 
out England,  commanding  the  former  three  to  come  in 
person,  the  latter  three  to  send  representatives,  to  a  par- 
liament that  was  to  be  held  at  London  in  the  following 
January.  This  meeting  took  place  at  the  appointed  time 
First  Eng-  in  due  course.  Thus  came  together  the  first 
hshparha-      common   council   of  the   kingdom   that  con- 

ment,  Janu-  o 

ary,  1265.  taincd  everything  which  a  full  English  parlia- 
ment ought  to  contain.  It  may  not  have  been  fairly 
summoned  :  only  23  members  of  the  lay  nobility  received 
writs,  whilst  1 17  members  of  the  higher  clergy  were  called 
to  it.  It  may  have  been  force  that  brought  it  into  being, 
as  the  king  was  not  master  of  his  actions  at  the  time.  It 
may  have  been  nothing  new,  and  perhaps  only  used  what 
had  been  already  common  on  a  smaller  scale.  But  there 
is  no  doubt  that  it  was  the  first  meeting  together  of  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  knights  of  the  shire,  and 
citizens  and  burgesses,  for  the  general  purposes  of  the 
whole  nation.  The  lower  clergy  certainly  had  no  voice 
in  it ;  but  the  lower  clergy,  though  in  name  still  a  part  of 


1265-6.  The  Barons'  War.  19 

parliament,  in   practice  have  never,  except   for  a  short 
time,  been  represented  in  it  as  a  separate  estate. 

16.  The  parhament  of  1265  sat  a  good  while,  and  did  a 
good  deal  to  strengthen  still  further  the  power  of  Leices- 
ter. But  shortly  after  it  broke  up,  his  power  began  to 
decay.  The  Earl  of  Gloucester  took  offence  at  the  con- 
duct of  his  chief,  and,  like  his  father,  went  over  to  the 
enemy.  Edward,  too,  escaped  from  his  keepers*;  and  the 
royalists,  thus  encouraged,  rose  in  arms.  The  w  b  k 
earl,  though  a  practised  warrior,  proved  no  out  a  third 
match  in  the  field  for  his  young  and  active 

foe — once  his  pupil  and  friend.     In  August  he  crossed 
the  Severn  from  Wales,  to  join  his  troops  to  those  of  his 
son  Simon,  who  had  brought  a  force  from  the  south-east 
to  meet  him.     Halting  for  a  night  at  Evesham,  he  was 
just  getting  ready  to  start  the  next  morning  when  Edward 
appeared.      Edward   had    surprised    and    scattered   the 
younger  Simon's  army  at   Kenilwortli  two  days  before  ; 
and  now  he  came  down  suddenly  to  destroy  the  elder 
Simon's  in  overwhelming  force.      He  gained     Battle  of 
his  object  ;    de    Montfort's   army   was   over-     au"*^*"' 
thrown  ;    de   Montfort   himself  and   his   son     1265. 
Henry  were  slain  (August  4,  1265). 

17.  The  day  of  Evesham  did  not  end  the  war.     The 
remnant  of  the  baronial  party,  made  desperate  by  the  re- 
fusal of  the  victors  to  grant  them  terms,  still     ,.,       ,  , 
held  out  m  Ivenilworlh  Castle  and  elsewhere.     Disin- 
Edvvard  fought  on  with  his  usual  earnestness,     '^''""'''• 
and  stormed  VVinchelsea  with  a  cruelty  not  usual  with  him  ; 
but  war  still  lingered.     The  royal  party  began  to  be  less 
stern  ;    and   towards  the  end  of   1 266   they  issued    the 
'  dictum  de  Kenilworth,'  in  which  terms  of  restoration  to 
their  honours  and  lands — hard,  indeed,  but  still  not  un- 
reasonable— were  granted   to   those   of  the   rebels    who 
would   lay   down   iheir  arms.      The   de   Montfort    family 


20  Rise  of  the  People.  1266-74 

alone  was  treated  with  great  severity  ;  every  member  of 
it  was  to  leave  the  kingdom.  Kenilworth  surrendered  : 
but  some  little  time  passed-before  the  terms  were  finally 
Barons'  war  accepted  by  all.  At  last,  in  July  1 267,  Ely, 
ends,  1267.  where  the  most  obstinate  held  out,  was 
yielded  to  the  king  ;  and  the  Barons'  war  ended,  seemingly 
in  the  utter  defeat  of  the  principles  for  which  the  great 
Earl  of  I*eicester  had  laid  down  his  life. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

EDWARD    t.    AND    PARLIAMENT. 

I.  But  de  Montfort's  cause  did  not  die  with  him.  Par- 
liament, indeed,  had  fallen  to  pieces  once  more ;  but 
„  ,   .,  J.  before  the  century  was  over  its  parts  were   to 

Rebuilding  .  \  ,  .  , 

ofparlia-  be  agam  gathered  together  mto  a  hrm  and 
ment,  12  7.  jesting  shape  by  the  very  hand  that  crushed 
de  Montfort.  In  a  few  years  (November,  1 272)King  Henry 
died  ;  and  Edward,  then  absent  on  a  crusade,  was  raised 
to  his  place.  Shortly  after  the  new  king's  return  to 
England  (August,  1274^,  the  forces  that  had  before  1265 
been  steadily  making  parliament  a  necessity  of  the  Con- 
stitution set  to  work  again,  and  never  paused  until,  in 
1295,  Edward  found  it  advisable  to  call  an  assembly 
which  represented  all  classes  of  the  nation  even  more 
thoroughly  than  that  of  1265  had  done.  Edward  loved 
power  well  and  to  have  his  own  way  ;  yet  he  loved  his 
people  too,  and  doubtless  he  would  have  helped  on  the 
growth  of  parliament,  even  if  it  had  not  served  his  own 
ends.  But  what  did  most  to  bring  about  the  great  result 
was  the  discovery  which  he  made,  that  the  consent  of  the 
various  classes  of  his  subjects  could  be  gained  to  taxation 
more  readily  through  an  assembly  in  which  tlaose  clas'ves 


1274-S3.  Edzvard  I.  and  Parliament.  2 1 

should  be  present  either  in  person  or  by  the  men  whom 
they  chose  to  act  for  them,  than  hy  any  other  way. 

2.  After  the  growmg  wealth  of  the  country  had  begun  to 
tempt  the  king  to  raise  money  for  his  usesfrom  'moveables,' 
it  became  customary  for  the  king's  officers,  whenever  the 
king  was  in  need  of  money,  to  visit  the  counties  and  towns, 
and  ask  them  to  make  him  a  grant.  Even,  then,  however, 
he  dealt  with  the  people  through  their  representatives.  The 
county  court  was  dealt  with  as  having  power  to  bind  the 
county,  the  magistrates  of  a  town  as  having  power  to  bind 
their  town,  and  the  archdeacons  as  having  power  to  bind 
the  lower  clergy.  The  knights  of  the  shire  had  come  to 
be  looked  ujron  as  a  part  of  the  national  council  or  par- 
liament ;  and  a  grant  of  money  made  by  this  body  was 
supposed  to  be  made  by  all  classes  in  the  realm  except 
the  boroughs  and  lower  clergy.  These  latter  classes  had 
still  to  be  treated  with  separately — a  course  which  caused 
much  delay  and  other  inconvenience  ;  and  a  feeling  grew 
up  that  it  would  be  much  easier  to  get  all  that  was  wanted 
from  one  assembly.  For  instance,  in  1282,  King  Edward  I., 
while  in  Wales  warring  with  Llewellyn,  first  gaineti  through 
an  agent  from  the  counties  and  boroughs  a  supply  whi>-h 
turned  out  much  smaller  than  was  needed.  When  he 
wanted  more  he  called  together,  by  writs  addressed  to 
*he  archbishops  and  sheriffs,  two  meetings  of  clerical  and 
two  of  lay  representatives  ;  those  of  the  southern  province 
at  Northampton,  those  of  the  northern  at  York.  The 
laymen  of  both  assemblies  readily  voted  him  a  thirtieth  of 
their  '  moveables.' 

3.  Still,  these  bodies  were  not  even  provincial  parlia- 
ments;   they  lacked  the  iiighcr  clergy  and  lay  nobility  to 
make  them   such.     Next   year  (1283)   Edward     Parii.iment 
brought  togetherat  .A.cton  Burnel  anothcrbody,     %^nX^ 
called  in  history  a  parliament  ;  but,  though  re-     '283- 
presentatives  of  the  shires  and  of  twenty-one  towns  sat  in 


22  Rise  of  the  People.  1283-97. 

it,  this  assembly  has  no  right  to  the  name  of  pailiament  ; 
for  not  only  were  the  clergy  of  every  rank  absent  from  it, 
but  also  the  royal  summons  was  sent  direct  to  the  towns, 
and  not  through  the  sheriff,  which  would  have  been  the 
constitutional  method.  Other  central  assemblies  followed  ; 
but  to  each  was  wanting  something  that  a  lawful  parlia- 
ment could  not  be  without. 

4.  At  last,  in  1295,  King  Edward  took  the  final  step. 
He  had  in  that  year  a  French  war  and  a  Welsh  rebellion 
Edward's  On  his  hands  ;  and  had,  moreover,  grave  cause 
pSilment  ^o  be  uneasy  about  Scotland.  To  win  the 
1295-  hearty  goodwill  of  his  own  subjects  was  an 
important  point ;  and  accordingly,  towards  the  end  01 
1295,  he  gathered  at  Westminster  an  assembly  that  was 
in  every  sense  a  national  parliament.  The  writs  calling 
it  together  were  issued  in  the  way  that  the  Constitution 
directed.  The  three  estates  were  present  ;  even  the 
lower  clergy  were  represented.  On  its  coming  together 
It  straightway  fulfilled  the  sole  duty  of  a  parliament  in 
those  days — voted  the  king  a  supply.  Edward  seems  to 
have  been  fully  aware  of  the  importance  of  the  step  he 
was  taking.  In  the  writ  addressed  to  the  archbishop  he 
uses  language  which  shows  his  sense  that  parliament  was 
to  become  a  necessary  part  of  the  State  in  England.  '  It 
is  a  most  just  law,'  he  says,  *  that  what  concerns  all  should 
be  approved  of  by  all,  and  that  common  dangers  should 
be  met  by  measures  provided  in  common.'  The  lower 
clergy  ceased  to  sit  in  parliament  after  a  time  ;  but,  with 
this  exception,  since  1295  ever)-  national  council  worthy 
to  be  called  a  parliament  has  been  made  up  of  the  same 
parts  as  that  of  1295. 

5.  Two  years  later  (1297)  the  one  thing  still  wanting  to 
give  the  finishing  touch  to  the  building-up  of  parliament — 
a  solemn  acknowledgment  by  the  king  that  it  alone  had 
power  to  tax  the  nation — was  gained.     The  gieat  Scottish 


1297-  Edivard  I.  and  ParliaDient.  23 

war  had  broken  out  ;  and  Edward,  in  his  extreme  need 
of  money,  acted  rather  tyrannically.  He  demanded  a 
1.1  rge  grant  from  the  clergy,  and  when  they  c:onfirina- 
would  not  irive  it,  withdrew  from  them  the  ''wfLi''*' 
protection  of  the  law.  He  seized  the  wool  in  1297- 
the  hands  of  the  merchants — though  only  as  a  loan — and 
did  many  other  things  which  set  at  naught  the  rights  of 
the  people.  The  barons  resisted  ;  the  Earls  of  Norfolk 
and  Hereford  refused  either  to  lead  an  army  to  Gascony 
— which,  as  marshal  and  constable,  Edward  thought  they 
were  bound  to  do -or  to  go  with  the  king  to  Flanders. 
When  Edward  went  to  Flanders  they  took  advantage  of 
his  absence  to  force  on  the  Government  at  home,  and 
finally  on  Edward  also,  a  confirmation  of  the  charters  (the 
Great  Charter  and  the  Charter  of  the  Poorest).  But  there 
were  added  seven  new  clauses,  in  which  the  king  promised, 
among  other  things,  to  take  from  his  people  no  'aids, 
tasks,  or  prises,  but  by  the  common  assent  of  the  realm 
....  saving  the  ancient  aids  and  prises  due  and  accus- 
tomed.' This  was  a  full  grant  to  parliament  of  what  has 
been  called  the  power  of  the  purse,  which  for  many  years 
simply  meant  that  without  a  vote  of  parliament  the  crown 
had  no  lawful  means  of  adding  to  its  fixed  income  raised 
from  feudal  and  other  sources. 


BOOK     II. 
WALES  AND   SCOTLAND. 
CHAPTER   I. 

WALES. 

I.  Foremost  among  the  events  that  hastened  the  growth 
of  parliament  are  the  conquest  of  Wales  (i  277-1 283), 
and  the  attempt  to  conquer  Scotland  (1296-1328).  The 
king's  income  was  too  small  to  enable  him  to  do  more 


24  Rise  of  tJie  People.  1274-6. 

than  meet  the  outlay  which  his  duties  as  a  king  made 
necessary.  When  he  wanted  to  carry  on  war,  he  had  to 
ask  his  people  to  give  him  more  money.  The  need  of 
an  easy  way  of  getting  at  the  different  classes  of  the 
people,  or  the  Estates  of  the  Reabn,  as  they  were  called, 
made  the  use  of  the  parliament  to  be  more  felt  than  it 
would  have  been  in  peaceful  times. 

2.  The  Wales  that  was  conquered  by  Edward  I.  was 
only  part  of  the  countn,-  formerly  and  now  so  called. 
Origin  of  From  the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest  it 
Welsh  war.  had  been  steadily  lessening  before  the  almost 
constant  war  which  the  Enghsh  barons,  settled  on 
its  borders,  waged  with  its  princes.  They  had  pressed 
especially  into  the  southern  parts  and  laid  hold  of  them. 
In  1277  Wales  had  shrunk  into  little  more"  than  half  its 
former  size  ;  and  even  the  ruler  of  this  region  had  been 
for  a  long  time  a  vassal  of  the  English  king,  bound  to  do 
him  homage  when  it  was  asked  from  him. 

3.  Now,  when  Edward  became  king,  he  summoned 
Llewellyn,  then  the  Prince  of  Wales,  to  come  up  to  his 
coronation  and  do  him  homage.  Llewellyn  refused. 
He  was  again  and  again  summoned,  but  in  vain.  He 
either  made  groundless  excuses,  or  would  come  only  on 
conditions  which  could  not  be  granted.  Edward  had, 
moreover,  an  old  grudge  against  him,  because  he  had 
helped  the  baronial  party  in  the  wars  of  Earl  Simon. 
Llewellyn  did  his  best  to  bring  the  quarrel  to  a  head. 
He  more  than  once  broke  across  the  borders  of  his  prin- 
cipality, and  plundered  the  lands  of  his  English  neigh- 
bours. Edward  bore  this  for  some  time  ;  but  in  1 276  he 
could  bear  it  no  longer.  He  called  together  his  great 
lords,  and  told  them  all  that  Llewellyn  had  done.  Thcc- 
lords  were  Llewellyn's  peers  or  equals,  for  they  and 
Llewellyn  alike  held  their  lands  from  King  Edward  ;  and 
by    law    they  alo>^'^  had   power  to  pass  judgment  on  a 


1276-82.  IVa/es.  2$ 

brother  peer  who  was  charged  with  having  sinned  against 
the  king.  They  gave  Edward  aiUliority  '  to  go  upon 
Llewellyn  ' ;  and  the  war  with  Wales  began. 

4.  A  single  campaign  was  enough.  In  the  summer  of 
1277  Wales  was  assailed  at  the  same  time  from  the 
south,  east,  and  north.  The  king  in  person  led  an  army 
from  Chester  to  Anglesey.  The  Welsh  prince  was 
forced  to  his  knees  without  a  battle.  Edward  was  a 
generous  foe  ;  he  was  content  with  getting  from 
Llewellyn  a  promise  to  do  homage  to  him  at  Rhuddlan 
and  at  London,  to  pay  a  fine  of  50,000/.,  and  a  yearly 
rent  of  1,000  marks  (a  mark  was  the  two-thirds  of  a 
pound).  These  sums  were  about  equal  in  value  to 
1,000,000/.  and  13,000/.  of  our  money.  He  took  back  also 
into  his  own  kingdom  some  lands  east  of  the  Conway 
which  had  been  lost  in  an  earlier  war.  The  first  and 
last  of  these  conditions  he  meant  to  be  kept  ;  the  fine 
and  the  yearly  rent  for  Anglesey  he  afterwards  gave  up. 
Llewellyn  came  to  London,  did  homage,  and  was 
allowed  to  marry  Eleanor  de  Montfort,  Earl  Simon's 
daughter.  She  had  some  time  before  fallen  into  English 
hands  when  on  her  way  to  Llewellyn,  to  whom  she  had 
been  betrothed.  The  Welsh  difficulty  seemed  thus  to  be 
fairly  ended. 

5.  It  was  not  so,  however.   In  1 282,  Llewellyn's  brother, 
Da\id,  who  had  taken  the  English  side  in  1277,  and  who 
thought  that  the  broad  lands  which  had  been     ^        , 
given  him  in  England  were  a  poor  reward  for     in  Wales, 
his   services,  burst  with  a   body  of  folhnvers 

into  Hawarden  Castle  on  Palm  Sunday.  There  he  seized 
Roger  Clifford,  one  of  the  king's  justices,  and  killed  the 
knights  and  esquires  that  were  with  him.  Then  the 
united  forces  of  David  and  Llewellyn  passed  across  the 
marches,  waste.!  the  lands,  burnt  the  homesteads,  and 
slew  the   inhabitants,  nicn  and  women,   young  and  old 


26  Rise  of  the  People.  1282-4. 

alike.  Edward  was  taken  by  surprise,  but  at  once  went 
to  Shrewsbury,  with  his  mind  made  up  to  end  his  Welsh 
troubles  by  entirely  doing  away  with  Wales  as  a  separate 
state.  Again  Wales  was  attacked  from  difierent  points 
at  the  same  time.  One  army  pierced  it  from  the  south- 
east, whilst  the  king  in  person  followed  his  old  line  of 
march  along  the  northern  coast,  and  again  entered 
Anglesey.  But  Llewellyn  still  held  out.  The  English 
primate  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  him  to  throw  himself 
on  the  king's  mercy.  A  check  which  the  English  re- 
ceiv^ed  in  making  their  way  across  the  Menai  Straits 
from  Anglesey  gave  him  fresh  courage.  In  reality  this 
^mall  success  only  led  him  to  his  ruin.  He  was  em- 
boldened by  it  to  go  southwards  and  face  the  army  which 
Mortimer  and  Gifford  were  leading  along  the  line  of  the 
Llewellyn  Wye.  Near  Builth  he  was  caught  unawares 
killed  and      ^^  ^  distance  from  his  own  men,  and  cut  down, 

Welsh  War  '  ' 

ends,  1282.  in  a  desperate  effort  to  get  back,  by  an  Eng- 
lish knight  called  Frankton.  His  fall  ended  the  war. 
When  the  summer  of  1283  came,  the  last  Welsh  castle 
had  surrendered,  and  David  was  a  prisoner.  Later  in 
the  year  a  parliament,  called  together  to  deal  with 
David's  case,  met  at  Shrewsbury.  In  its  presence  the 
Welshman  was  found  guilty  of  murder,  treason,  and 
sacrilege.  For  these  crimes  he  was  doomed  to  be 
David  of  drawn  to  the  gallows,  hanged,  disembowelled, 
Wales  exe-  and  quartered — penalties  that  were  until  very 
,  12  3.  ijj^gjy  ji^g  legal  punishment  of  treason.  He 
was  executed  accordingly. 

6.  Edward  took  great  pains  to  settle  the  future  govern- 
ment of  Wales  wisely  and  justly.  He  passed  a  whole  year 
^    ,  m  the  country  that  he  might  do  so.     His  aim 

Settlement  ^  °  •  i  •    u 

of  Wales,        was  to  rule  Wales  in  the  same  way  m  which 
'''^■'"*'  he  ruled  England,  without  actually  joining  it  to 

his  kingdom.     He  gave  his  eldest  son,  Edward— called 


1284-95-  Wales.  27 

'  of  Caernarvon,' as  having  been  born  there  in  1284 — the 
title  of  Prince  of  Wales.  He  cut  up  the  principality  into 
shires  after  the  English  fashion.  He  set  up  English  law 
so  far  as  he  thought  it  would  suit  a  folk  like  the  Welsh. 
But  Wales  was  still  kept  apart  from  England.  E.vcept 
on  two  occasions  (1322  and  1327)  it  had  no  voice  in  the 
national  parliament  until  Henry  VII 1.,  himself  of  Welsh 
descent,  gave  it,  in  1536,  the  right  of  sending  up  members 
to  the  English  House  of  Commons.  Edward's  way  of 
dealing  with  Wales  was  on  the  whole  successful.  Of 
course  the  Welsh  people  were  not  content  ;  but  they 
made  only  two  serious  risings  against  English  rule — one 
in  1295  and  one  under  Owen  Glendower  in  Henry  IV.'s 
reign.  This  proves  how  solid  and  thorough  Edward's 
workmanship  was. 


CHAPTER  II 

SCOTLAND. 


I.  Twelve  years  later  IMward   was  led,  partly  by  the 
course  of  things,  partly  of  his  own  will,  to  take  in  hand 
the  conquest  of  Scotland.    This  he  did  because     Attempt  to 
he  wished  to  join  together   all   the   parts   of    conquer 

,,   .      .      .  .       ,       °  '  Scotland, 

Britam  mto  a  smgle  state.  It  turned  out  to  be  1296-1328. 
a  much  harder  task  to  conquer  Scotland  than  to  conquer 
Wales.  He  worked  at  it  earnestly  for  the  last  eleven 
years  of  his  life  (i 296-1 307)  ;  but  when  he  died  it  was 
still  unfinished.  And  chiefly  because  of  the  feebleness 
of  those  who  came  after  him  it  never  was  finished.  In 
1328  Scotland  got  the  ruling  power  in  England  to  grant 
that  it  was  entirely  independent.  Afterwards  it  was  only 
by  the  weaker  nation  giving  the  stronger  a  king  that  at 
last,  in  1603,  the  two  kingdoms  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  same  ruler. 


28  Rise  of  the  People.  1286. 

2.  The  race  that  took  the  chief  part  in  fighting  against 
Edward  were  of  the  saine  origin  as  the  Enghsh  them- 
Who  Ed-  selves.  It  was  Lothian— as  the  country  that 
wards  Scot-     ]jg5  between  the   Tweed  and  the   Forth  was 

tisn  toes 

were.  Called — and   the   lowlands   of  Aberdeenshire 

that  sent  forth  the  most  stubborn  foes  to  Edward.  This 
Lothian  had  once  been  a  part  of  England  ;  for  the  name 
'  Scotland'  up  to  the  tenth  century  meant  only  Ireland  ; 
as  late  as  the  Conqueror's  time  it  meant  only  that  part  of 
modern  Scotland  which  stretches  from  the  Forth  to  the 
Spey.  But  in  Edward  I.'s  time  Scotland  took  in  Lothian 
as  well.  So  men  came  to  call  themselves  Scots  who  were 
really  as  much  of  English  blood  as  ilie  men  of  Kent. 
Their  speech  was  English  ;  their  form  of  government 
was  like  that  of  the  English.  They  had  even  gone 
through  a  kind  of  Norman  Conquest  ;  for  in  the 
twelfth  century  Norman  chiefs  had  gone  to  Scotland  to 
see  what  they  could  win  for  themselves.  They  had  won 
lands  and  titles  there,  and  had  got  on  so  well  that  in  a 
hundred  years  most  of  the  chief  Scottish  nobles  were 
Norman  by  birth  and  habits.  But  the  common  folk  of  the 
lowlands,  e\  en  of  those  north  of  the  Forth,  were  mostly 
Teutonic.  These  men  had  become  proud  of  their  inde- 
pendence, and  now  fought  for  it.  They  now  held  them- 
selves aloof  from  both  the  highlanders  of  the  north  and 
north-west  and  the  men  of  Galloway  on  the  west — many 
of  whom  even  took  the  English  side  in  the  quarrel  —  ;  and 
after  keeping  up  a  seemingly  hopeless  struggle  for  years, 
they  won  in  the  end. 

3.  Nor  were  the  English  and  Scots  as  yet  much  divided 
in  feeling  from  each  other.  They  were  far  from  being 
such  deadly  foes  as  they  afterwards  became.  Indeed 
things  had  rather  "gone  to  bring  them  together  than  to 
keep  them  asunder.  Most  of  the  rulers  of  Scotland  for 
200  years  had   been   English  barons  as  well  as  Scottish 


1 286.  Scotland.  2.C) 

kings.  Many  of  their  nobles  had  as  great  an  interest  in 
the  Enghsh  as  in  the  Scottish  kingdom,  since  they 
owned  broad  lands  in  both.  The  names  of  Bruce  and 
Baliol  are  often  found  in  the  roll  of  fighters  on  one  side 
or  the  other  in  the  wars  of  the  English  barons  with  their 
king.  For  100  years,  too,  there  was  unbroken  peace 
between  the  kindred  peoples,  for  it  was  King  Alexander's 
alliance  with  his  brother  barons  of  England  that  drew 
upon  Scotland  the  furious  foray  of  1216. 

4.   Some  say  that  a  Scottish  king  of  those  days   was 
something  more  than  an  English  baron,   that  he  was  a 
vassal  of  the   English  crown  for  his  Scottish      ihe 
kingdom.     We  cannot  clearly  show  that  this     *"  •called 

°  '  vassalage 

was  so  or  was  not  so.  It  is  true  that  Scottish  Scotland, 
kings  often  did  homage  and  service  to  the  English  king 
before  as  well  as  after  the  Norman  Conquest.  But  it  is  also 
certain  that  most,  if  not  ail,  of  these  held  lands  in  England  ; 
and  it  is  therefore  possible  that  their  homage  and  service 
were  for  their  English  lands  only.  Yet  many  cases  of 
this  kind  are  found— from  Malcolm,  who  'bowed  to' 
Canute  in  1031,  to  Alexander  111.,  who  became  the  liege 
man  of  Edward  I.  '  against  all  nations.'  There  is,  too, 
much  doubt  about  one  or  two  of  these  kingly  vassals 
being  English  barons  ;  so  that  it  is  most  likely  that 
some  loose  feudal  tie  did  bind  the  northern  to  the 
southern  king.  In  any  case  Edward  I.  certainly  be- 
lieved himself  to  have  good  grounds  for  claiming  some 
sort  of  supremacy  over  Scotland,  when  he  was  called 
upon  to  judge  who  had  the  best  right  to  its  throne. 

5'.  Scotland  was  enjoying  the  blessings  of  a  long  peace, 
and  was  steadily  growing  in  wealth  and  prosperity,  when 
its  king,  Alexander  III.,  the  last  male  descen-     Alexander 
dant   of  William  the  Lion,  fell  over  the  cliffs     ni.of  Scot- 

...  land  dies, 

at   Kmghorn,  and  was  killed  (1286).     All  his     1286. 
children  had  died  before  him,  and  the  next  in  succession 


30  Rise  of  the  People.  1286-91 

was  the  only  child  of  his  daughter  Margaret  and  her  hus- 
band, Eric,  king  of  Norway.  The  title  of  this  girl,  who 
was  also  called  Margaret,  was  at  once  admitted  by  the 
Scots.  Steps  were  taken  to  bring  her  to  her  kingdom  ; 
and  guardians  of  the  Scottish  realm  were  named  to  rule 
in  the  meantime. 

6.  This  state  of  things  lasted  until  1 290.  King  Edward 
does  not  appear  to  have  thought  of  interfering — indeed 
from  1286  to  1289  he  was  absent  from  his  own  kingdom 
on  Gascon  and  other  affairs.  But  in  1289  he  began  to 
take  a  lively  interest  in  a  matter  that  touched  him.  so 
nearly.  In  this  year  Eric  of  Norway  and  the  guardians 
of  Scotland  applied  to  him  for  counsel  and  help  ;  and  he 
managed  to  settle  things  in  a  way  which  pleased  all 
Treat  of  parties.  In  the  summer  of  1290  the  estates 
Brigham,  of  Scotland  met  at  Brigham  near  the  Border, 
'^^'  and  joj-fully  agreed  to  the  marriage  of  Mar- 
garet of  Norway  with  Edward  of  Caernarvon,  on  con- 
dition that  Scotland  should  always  remain  a  separate 
kingdom,  with  its  'rights,  laws,  and  liberties  '  unchanged. 
Margaret  ^^^  '^  f^^^'  "lonths  later,  the  death  of  the  child, 
dies,  1290.  Margaret,  at  Orkney — where  she  had  landed 
while  on  her  way  to  her  kingdom — threw  the  affairs  of 
Scotland  once  more  into  confusion. 

7.  Many  claimants  of  the  Scottish  throne  now  came 
forward  ;    and  it  would  seem  that  Edward  was  asked  to 

judge  which  had  the  best  ricfht.     In  1201  he 

The  Scottish     ^       '=  ^^      .  ,r--,  ,,, 

succession,  went  to  Norham,  met  the  Scottish  nobles  and 
1291-92.  commonalty  on  the   Border,  and  demanded, 

as  the  first  thing,  that  he  should  be  recognized  by  all 
to  be  the  feudal  lord  of  Scotland.  After  some  delay  the 
nobles  yielded  to  this  demand  ;  the  Commonalty  seem  to 
have  made  some  objectian,  but  no  notice  was  taken  of  it. 
At  last  the  supremacy  of  the  English  crown  over  the 
Scottish  was  placed  beyond  a  doubt.     Edward  then  took 


1291-92  Scotland.  31 

in  hand  the  great  cause,  and  he  certainly  spared  no  pains 
to  make  his  judgment  a  fair  and  lawful  one.  He  passed 
a  whole  year  in  gathering  light  on  the  subject  from  every 
quarter  and  in  every  way  he  could  think  of.  There  were 
thirteen  claimants  m  all  ;  but  of  these  only  three  had 
anything  like  a  reasonable  case.  These  were 
John  Baliol,  Robert  Bruce,  and  John  Hastings,  Hmce,  .md 
who  were  respectively  the  grandson,  son,  and  ^-'^""6^ 
grandson  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  daughters  ot 
David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  younger  brother  of  William 
the  Ltfwi,  whose  last  descendant  had  just  perished  in  the 
girl,  Margaret  of  Norway.'  According  to  later  notions, 
the  right  clearly  belonged  to  John  Baliol  ;  but  there  was 
still  some  doubt  whether  the  rule  of  succession  to  the 
Scottish  throne  was  the  same  as  th.it  to  feiid.d  lands. 
It  was  even  thought  possible  that  the  kingdom  of  Scot- 
land was  a  possession  that  ought  to  be  shared  equally 
among  the  three  claimants  ;  and  this  was  the  case  made 
by  Hastings.  But  in  I2<)2  King  Kdward,  after  having 
patiently  heard  and  carefully  weighed  the  arguments  of 
all,  gave  judgment  in  favour  of  John  Caliol.  Thereupon 
Baliol  did  homage  to  his  sovereign  at  Berwick,  and  then 
following  Edward  into  England,  again  did  homage  and 
swore  fealty  to  him  at  Newcastle. 

8.  But  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  troubles.  Though 

'  Table  showing  the  chief  claimams  to  the  Scottish  Crown. 

David  1.,  d.  ii5j. 

I 

Henry,  d.  1 152. 


William  the  Lion.  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon. 

I  I 

Alexander  II.  |  |  | 

I  Margaret.  Isabel.  Ada. 

Alexander  III.  1  |  | 

I  iJenoirgal.  Robert  Bruce  Henry  Hastnigii. 

Margaret.  1  | 

'  John  r.aliol  John  HH:>tiilt^ 

vlargaret  of  Norway. 


32  Rise  of  tlic  People.  1292-06. 

Edward  had  in  the  plainest  words  renounced  all  claim 

to    the    most    valuable    rights    of    a    feudal  sovereign, 

he  was  still  willing  to  listen  to  appeals  from 

Baliol  king  ,         „  .    ,  ... 

of  Scotland,  the  Scottish  courts  ot  justice  ;  and  cases 
1292-96.  ^f  jj^g  kind  soon  came  before  him.     For  in- 

stance, in  1293,  one  Macduft',  a  younger  son  of  the  Earl  of 
Fife,  having  been  worsted  in  a  suit  that  he  made  for 
certain  lands  before  the  Scottish  estates,  carried  his 
case  before  Edward,  as  lord  superior  of  Scotland 
Baliol  was  summoned  to  Westminster  to  answer  a 
charge  of  having  denied  justice  to  one  of  his  subjects. 
He  disobeyed  at  first  ;  but  on  a  second  summons  being 
sent  him,  he  appeared  before  the  English  court,  and  told 
it  that  he  dared  not  so  far  humble  himself  as  to  answer 
in  a  foreign  court  without  taking  the  advice  of  his  estates. 
Judgment  was  then  given  against  him,  but  was  not  put 
in  force  for  a  time. 

9.  Now  the  Scots  were  a  high-spirited  race,  and  felt 
keenly  the  way  in  which  their  king  was  treated.  Accord- 
ingly, when  Edward,  in  1295,  was  forced  into  a  war  witli 
France  to  recover  Guienne,  which  King  Philip  had  got 
from  him  by  a  trick,  die  Scots  gladly  seized  the  oppor- 
Alliance  be-  tunity.  A  sccret  all  ance  was  made  between 
tween  Scot-     Scotland    and    Fiance,    in    which    the    two 

land  and  ,  , 

France,  powers   engaged    to   give    hearty    support    to 

'^^5-  each  other  against  England.     Few  alliances 

in  history  have  lasted  so  long  as  this.  It  was  renewed 
from  time  to  time  for  almost  three  hundred  years,  and 
was  only  broken  up  by  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  After  the  treaty  was  made,  the  Scots  were 
foolish  enough  to  cross  the  border  and  ravage  Northum- 
berland. Upon  this  the  war  of  Scottish  Independence 
b^an. 


1296.  Conquests  of  Scotland.  33 

chapt?:r  hi. 

KIRST   AND   SECOND   CONQUESTS   OF   SCOILANI). 

I.  The  War  of  Scottish  Independence  lasted  for  thirty- 
two   years— from    1296  till    1328.      Early   in    1296   King 
Edward  led  a  jiowerfiil  force  northwards,  en-     War  of 
te'-ed  Scotland  and  stormed  Berwick,  puttinsr     ?'^""'j''  ''^' 

'  '  °       dependence, 

most  of  the  townspeople  to  the  sword.     By     1206-1328. 
nature  Edward  was  a  merciful  king  ;  and  it  would  not  be 
easy  to  account  for  his  ruthless  spirit  on   this  occasion. 
Halting  for  a  time  to  see  the  effect  of  the  blow  on  Baliol, 
but   receiving  only  a  formal  defiance,  he  led 

,  .  .  ^       ,  ,,„  -1       ,  Battle  of 

or  sent  his  men  agamst  Uunbar.     Whilst  be-     Dunbar, 
sieging  this  place  the  English  are  said  to  have     '^^'' 
been  attacked  by  a  host  of  Scots  and  to  have  won  a  great 
victory.     Dunbar  was  taken. 

Edward's  next  stage  was  Edinburgh,  where  the  castle 
gave  him  some  trouble,  but  yielded  after  a  siege  of  a 
week.  Still  pushing  northwards,  he  never  paused  until 
he  reached  Elgin.  Every  stronghold  fell  before  him  ;  the 
garrison  even  of  Stirling  had  not  the  heart  to  defend 
their  charge,  but  ran  away  when  Edward  approached. 
At  I5rechin  or  Montrose  King  John  delivered  himself  up, 
and  was  sent  into  England.  Wiierever  Edward  went 
he  made  all  the  great  landowners  do  him  homage,  and 
took  care  to  keep  a  formal  record  of  each  case.  Before 
summer  was  past,  the  conquest  of  Scotland  First  Con- 
was  to  all  outward  appearance  complete.  Then  §""[3  °j 
having  made  Earl  Warenne  guardian  of  Scot-  1296- 
land,  Cressingham  treasurer,  and  Ormsby  justiciar,  and 
having  put  the  places  of  strength  into  English  hands,  he 
went  back  to  England. 

2.  Yet  next  year  Scotland  was  in  arms.     In  the   first 
E.  H.  D 


34  Rise  of  the  People.  1297-98. 

months  of  1297,  William  Wallace,  the  son  of  a  knight 
who  had  a  small   estate   called    EUerslie,  in    Renfrew- 
shire,  stung  into  action  by  his    own  or  his 

William  ,  ,  1,1 

Wallace,  country  s  wrongs,  got  together  an  armed  band 
1297-98.  ^^^  began  that  career  which  has  given  him 

an  undying  name  in  history.  After  one  or  two  notable 
deeds  of  daring,  he  made  a  dash  on  Scone,  chased 
Ormsby  from  the  town,  and  seized  the  treasure  that 
lay  there.  He  was  then  joined  by  Sir  William  Douglas, 
an  outlaw  like  himself ;  and  the  movement  soon  swelled 
into  a  national  rising.  Warenne  happened  to  be  in 
England  at  this  time  ;  but  by  King  Edward's  orders  he 
went  at  once  with  all  the  force  he  could  muster  to  crush 
the  rebellion.  He  had  got  as  far  as  Stirling  Bridge,  ?Jid 
his  men  were  slowly  marching  across,  when  Wallace,  who 

had  posted  his  followers  at  Cambuskenneth, 
Cambiisken-  made  a  rush  towards  the  head  of  the  bridge, 
neih,  1297.  seized  it,  and  cut  to  pieces  those  who  had 
crossed.  Cressingham  was  killed  ;  and  the  panic- 
stricken  English  who  were  still  on  the  safe  side  of  the 
stream  fled  in  disorder.  The  strongholds  lost  so  easily 
the  year  before  were  re-taken  ;  and  Wallace  carried  the 
war  into  the  northern  counties  of  England.  Here  his 
men  killed,  burned,  and  wasted  without  mercy.  Return- 
ing to  -Scotland  he  took,  or  was  given,  the  title  of  Guardian, 
and  during  the  winter  was  all  the  king  the  countiy  had. 
In  1298,  however,  his  career  ended.  For  Edward  then 
came  himself  with  a  mighty  host,  and  though  baffled  for 
a  time  by  his  enemy,  who  made  the  country  a  desert 
before  him,  and  cautiously  avoided  a  battle,  he  got  him 

within  his  grasp  at  Falkirk.  The  patriot 
Falkirk,  army  lought  nobly,  but  was  almost  destroyed. 

'^^^'  Among  the  few  who  escaped  from  the  tield 

was  Wallace  ;  but  we  hear  no  more  of  him  for  some 
years.     His  work  for  Scotland  was  done. 


1298-1304-  Conquests  of  Scotland.  35 

3.  Falkirk  was  a  barren  victory.  Famine  drove  Edward 
back  to  England  ;  and  for  five  years  no  further  serious 
effort  was  made  to  conquer  Scotland.  There  Scotland  left 
was  certainly  some  fighting  in  Galloway,  where  ft^'^u^ijgg- 
Caerlaverock  Castle  was  besieged  and  taken     '303- 

in  1300.     It  would  seem,  too,  that  the   English  were  still 
masters  of  the  country  south  of  the  Forth.     But  in   1303 
Edward   again   invaded    Scotland.       His   troops  had  in 
February  met  with  a  slight  reverse  near  Roslin  ;  but  he 
pushed   boldly  on   nevertheless.     Marching  very  swiftly, 
he  passed  through  Edinl)urgh,  crossed  the  Forth  above 
Stirling,  and  found  no  enemy  until  he  came  to  Brechin, 
which  made  a  gallant  defence  until  its  commander  was 
killed.     Stirling  Castle  alone  held  out,  but  was  left  un- 
touched as  yet.     Next  year  the  Scottish  nobles  made  a 
formal  surrender  of  the  country  to  Edward  at  Strathorde  ; 
and   the    siege   of   Stirling    was    undertaken,     g.^  ^  ^j. 
Stirling    was    no    easy    place    to    take  ;     its     Stirling. 
governor,  Oliphant,  and  the  few  valiant  men     ^^°*' 
who  served  with  him,  withstood  the  whole  might  of  Ed- 
ward for  ninety  days.     Hunger  at  last  forced     .Second 
them  to    yield  ;   they  were  sent  to   England,     |™'Jj!f„'j  °^ 
and   a   second   time    Edward    had    .Scotland     1304- 
in  his  power. 

4.  He  .dealt  very  gently  with  it.  Taking  as  his  advisers 
three  Scotsmen  — one  of  whom  was  Robert  Bruce,  Earl  of 
Carrick,   soon  to  be  famous— he  brought  to-     „, 

.  ^  Edward  s 

gethcr  a  mixed  bocty  of  Scots  and  English,  settlement 
and  with  their  help  drew  up  a  plan  for  ruling  °f  Scothnd. 
his  conquest  that  is  marked  by  kindliness  as  well  as 
wisdom.  His  hope  was  that  the  two  peoples  would  in 
time  become  one  ;  and  his  scheme  of  government  was 
designed  to  hasten  this  happy  issue.  But  for  one  man 
there  was  now  no  mercy,  whatever  there  might  have  been 
a  year  earlier.     In    1304  Wallace  had  declined  to  place 


36  Rise  of  the  People.  1304-06. 

himself  at  the  king's  will  ;  and  when  he  was  taken  near 
Glasgow  in  1305,  he  was  sent  up  to  London,  and  after  a 
Death  of  kind  of  trial,  was  put  to  death  at  Tyburn, 
Wallace,  with  all  the  dreadful  tortures  that  the  law  of 
'303-  England  now  made  the  punishment  of  treason 

(August  1 305).  But  as  yet  Wallace  was  the  only  Scotsman 
who  died  on  the  scaffold  by  Edward's  orders.  Though 
many  of  the  nobles  and  clergy  had  sworn  fealty  again  and 
again,  and  broken  their  oaths  as  often,  not  one  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  crime. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
ROBERT   BRUCE. 


I.  Again  there  was  peace  in  Scotland  ;  but  it  was  short- 
lived. In  1 306  Robert  Brui  e,  grandson  of  the  claimant  of 
1291-92,  slipped  away  from  the  English  court, 
Bruce  and   having  slain    the  Red    Comyn,    Baliol's 

th"'^ScouLh  sister's  son,  at  Dumfries,  got  himself  crowned 
crown,  king  of  Scotland  at   Scone.      Ambition,  not 

'^    ■  patriotism,   seems    to   have   been   his    ruling 

motive  in  taking  this  step  ;  but  the  heroism  he  aftenvards 
showed  throughout  his  wonderful  career  goes  far  to  atone 
for  his  crime — if  crime  there  were — at  the  outset.  But 
?.t  first  Brace's  attempt  was  but  a  bold  stroke  for  a  crown. 
No  general  rising  took  place,  as  in  1297.  For  years  King 
Robert  was  a  mere  adventurer,  with  little  other  suppf/rt 
than  that  of  his  personal  followers  and  friends.  Indeed, 
until  1310  his  enterprise  wore  a  veiy  hopeless  look. 

2.   In  June,  Aymer  de  Valence,  Earl  of   Pembroke, 

,  grandson  of  John's  queen  by  her  second  hus- 

Methvoi,        band,  and  now  governor  of  Scotland,  suddenly 

'^°^  burst  upon   Bruce  at    Methven,  near    Perth, 

routed  hishttle  band,and  drove  him,  a  homeless  vagabond, 


1306-10.  Robert  Bruce.  37 

to  seek  shelter  in  the  West.  On  his  way  thither  he  was 
assailed  by  the  highlanders  under  John  of  Lorn,  and 
saved  himself  only  by  niarvcllous  courage  and  skill. 
Then  disaster  followed  disaster  ;  for  by  this  time  Ed- 
ward had  again  approached  the  Border  ;  and  though  the 
hand  of  death  was  slowly  closing  upon  him,  still  from  his 
couch  at  Lanercost  he  eagerly  watched  and,  so  far  as  he 
could,  guided  the  course  of  events  in  Scotland.  A  great 
change  had  come  over  him.  He  now  bre;Uhed  nothing 
but  vengeance.  Nearly  every  male  prisoner  of  rank  who 
fell  into  his  hands  was  sent  to  the  scaffold.  Three  of 
Bruce's  brothers,  and  many  other  of  his  stoutest  partisans 
thus  perished.  The  Countess  of  Buchan,  who  had  placed 
the  crown  on  Bruce's  head,  was  shut  up  in  a  cage  in 
Berwick  Castle ;  but  his  wife  and  daughter  were  honourably 
treated  in  England. 

3.  All  this  time  Bruce  was  roving  about  in  the  Western 
isles,  or  landing  on  the  mainland  only  to  be  beaten  and 
chased  back  into  his  hiding-places  by  an  English  force. 
Once  he  was  cheered  by  a  slight  success.     In  May   1307, 
he  withstood  and  drove  back    Pembroke  at     Loudon 
Loudon  Hill,  in  Ayrshire.     Yet  in  a  few  days     ^'"'  '307- 
he  was  again  a  fugitive  ;    but  in  the  following  July  King 
Edward  died  at   Burgh-on-Sands,  near  Car-     p  ,       , . 
lisle,  and  Bruce's  enterprise  became  possible,     dies,  July 
For  Edward's  son  and  successor,  Edward  II.,     '^°^' 

was  a  man  of  very  ditt'erent  mettle  from  his  father's,  and 
Bruce's  chances  became  more  encouraging. 

4.  Yet  for  the  first  three  years  after  his  sleepless  foe's 
death  he  made  but  slow  progress.  Though  he  managed 
to  keep  the  field,  he  gained  no  stronghold.  Every  fortress 
in  Scotland  was  still  in  English  hands.  But  in  1310 
Edward  11.  made  a  grand  invasion,  which  failed  because, 
owing  to  King  Robert's  resolute  policy,  the  invaders 
could  neither  find  an  enemy  nor  live  in  the  country. 


38  i?  ise  of  the  People.  1 3 1 4-2  7. 

Bruce  then  took  courage,  attempted  town  after  town  to 
such  good  purpose  that  in  13 14  he  was  master  of  every 
place  of  strength  in  his  kingdom  save  StirHng  and 
Berwick  ;  and  in  the  June  of  this  year  his  men  were 
pressing  Stirhng  so  hard  that  its  governor  engaged  to 
dehver  it  up  if  by  the  following  St.  John's  Day  (June  24) 
he  were  not  relieved. 

5.  This  roused  the  spiritless  Edward  to  a  great  effort ; 
and  on  the  eve  of  St.  John's  Day  a  huge  host  of  English, 

.  ,  led  by  their  king  in  person,  came  in  sight  of 
Bannock-  Stirling.  Hitherto  King  Robert  had  been 
U'li,  1314-  ^,gj.y  (-a^reful  not  to  fight  ;  but  he  made  up  his 
mind  to  risk  a  battle  now  rather  than  lose  his  chance  of 
getting  Stirling  ;  and  the  great  battle  of  Bannockburn 
was  the  result.  Bruce  chose  his  ground  with  sound 
judgment.  The  English  archers  were  scattered  by  a 
charge  of  Scottish  horse  ;  and  the  mounted  men-at-arms, 
huddled  tftgether  in  a  narrow  space,  through  which  alone 
the  Scots  could  be  reached,  were  easily  discomfited  by 
the  Scottish  spearmen.  Edward  and  his  men  fled  in 
wild  disorder  to  Berwick  ;  and  Stirling  surrendered  the 
same  evening. 

6.  Scottish  independence  was  now  as  good  as  won.  At 
this  time  the  English  power  was  greatly  weakened  by  the 
quarrels  of  Edward  11.  and  his  barons  ;  and  Bruce  was 
able  in  1318  to  retake  Berwick,  and  in  1322  to  lead  his 
victorious  Scots  almost  to  th£  gates  of  York.  He  more- 
Truce  of  over  forced  Edward  to  make  two  truces,  of 
1323-  which  the  latter,  made  in  1323,  was  for  thir- 
teen years,  and  whilst  it  refused  to  give,  allowed  Robert  to 
take  the  royal  title.  In  1327,  when  the  worthless 
Edward  was  dethroned,  and  his  young  son,  Edward  HI., 
was  made  king  in  his  stead,  King  Robert  broke  the 
truce,  and  sent  an  army  into  England,  which  defied  all 
the  efforts  of  the  boy  king's  counsellors  to  bring  it  to  a 


40  Rise  of  the  People.  1328-29. 

battle.  This  inroad  was  the  last  event  of  the  war.  In 
1328  a  peace  was  made  in  which  England  gave  up 
Peace  of  ^^  Robert  the  kingship  and   independence  of 

Northamp-  Scotland  which  he  had  been  so  long  fighting 
"'  '^^  ■  for.  This  is  known  as  the  Peace  of  North- 
ampton, being  so  called  from  the  place  where  the  parlia- 
Bruce  dies,  ment  met  which  gave  it  its  sanction.  1  n  the 
1329-  following  year  Robert  died,  leaving  the  crown 

to  his  son  David,  a  lad  but  five  years  old. 


BOOK     III. 
THE    HUNDRED     YEARS'    WAR. 

CHAPTER   1. 

THE   KINGS   OF   ENGLAND   AND   OF    FRANCE. 

I.  For  the  greater  part  of  the  two  centuries  and  a  half 
after  John  lost  Normandy  (1204-1453)  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land and  of  France  were  at  war  with  each  other.  This 
was  chiefly  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  English  king  still 
Ti.e  kings  held  a  large  portion  of  southern  France.  The 
of  bngland      region    called    by    English   writers    Guienne, 

keep  t)  /  o  J 

Guienne.  which  Stretched  northwards  from  the  Pyrenees 
almost  to  the  river  Charente,  still  remained  in  their 
possession.  Once  indeed  it  seemed  likely  that  they 
would  have  to  part  with  this  country  also.  In  1224 
Lewis  VIII.,  the  same  Lewis  who  was  driven  from  Eng- 
land in  12 17,  after  conquering  lower  Poitou,  pushed  his 
arms  into  Gascony  also  ;  but  it  was  recovered  shortly 
afterwards  by  William  Longsword,  Earl  of  Salisbury'. 

2.  Henry  III.  made  several  attempts  to  get  back  the 
provinces  which  his  father  had  lost  ;  and  it  was  not  until 
1259  that  the  long  quarrel  was  set  at  rest  by  a  treaty  of 
peace.    By  this  treaty,  Lewis  IX.,  of  his  own  free  will,  gave 


1259-1324-  The  Kings  of  England  and  France.  41 

back  to  Henry  III.  several  of  the  conquests  he  had 
made.  Henry  agreed  to  do  homage  for  these  pg^^-g  ^f 
and  for  Gascony,  and  to  give  up  all  claim  to  '^w 
the  others  which  his  father  and  himself  had  lost.  Thus 
the  kings  of  England  were  dukes  of  Guienne  long  after 
they  had  ceased  to  be  dukes  of  Normandy  and  counts 
of  Anjou. 

3.  This  dignity  added  little  to  their  real  strength.  The 
French  kings,  whose  vassals  they  were,  regarded  them 
with  great  jealousy,  and  were  ever  on  the  watch  for  an 
excuse  for  taking  their  French  lands  from  them.  In 
1294  Philip  IV.,  called  the  Fair,  actually  did  get  them, 
but  in  a  shamefully  dishonest  way.  He  summoned  Ed- 
ward I.  to  Paris  to  answer  for  the  conduct  of  certain 
Gascons,  subjects  of  his,  who  had  given  help  to  the  Eng- 
lish sailors  in  a  strange  kind  of  war  that  for  a  time  raged 
between  the  English  and  the  Norman  seafaring  folk. 
Edward  did  not  appear,  but  sent  his  brother  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Lancaster,  in  his  place.  Philip  said  Edward  1. 
he  was  willing  to  push  the  matter  no  farther  ^7  Gufenne 
if  Guienne  was  put  into  his  hands  for  forty  1294. 
days,  promising  to  restore  it  at  the  end  of  that  time. 
Edmund  accepted  the  ofier  ;  and  Philip's  officers  were 
put  in  possession  of  the  duchy.  But  Philip  broke  his 
word,  and  when  the  forty  days  had  passed,  still  kept 
Guienne  ;  and  Edward  was  forced  to  go  to  war  with  him. 
This  war  was  uneventful,  but  worthy  of  notice  as  having 
been  the  means  of  winning  from  Edward  the  Confirmation 
of  the  Charters.  The  upshot  of  it  was  that  Edward  got 
back  Guienne  in  1303. 

4.  Again,  in  1324,  Charles  the  Fair,  Philip's  son, 
fastened  a  quarrel  of  a  like  nature  on  Edward  II.,  took 
Guienne  into  his  hands,  and  only  gave  it  back  again  when 
young  Edward,  Earl  of  Chester,  afterwards  Edward  III., 
was  sent  over  to  do  homage  in  his  father's  place.     Alto- 


42  Rise  of  tJic  People.  1324-28. 

gether  Guienne  was  a  fruitful  source  of  trouble  to  its  duke 
in  England  ;  but  to  the  English  it  was  in  one  way  an 
advantage  that  their  kings  still  kept  a  footing  on  French 
soil.  No  single  cause  did  so  much  to  strengthen  the 
hands  of  the  newly-created  Parliament.  So  long  as  he 
had  Guienne  to  defend,  an  English  king  could  never  be 
sure  of  peace  ,  and  when  war,  or  threat  of  war,  arose,  he 
had  to  ask  his  Parliament  for  money. 

5.  But  at  no  time  did  the  Third  Estate,  as  the  Com- 
mons were  called,  gain  so  much  power  as  in  the  Hundred 
Years'  War.  When  that  war  began  it  was  the  weakest 
of  the  three  estates  ;  when  the  war  ended  it.  was  the 
Cause  of  the  Strongest.  And  it  is  very  likely  that  the 
Hundred         Hundred  Years'  War  would  never  have  taken 

place  if  Guienne  had  not  belonged  to  the  king 
of  England  ;  for  the  way  in  which  this  war  between  the 
kings  of  France  and  England  broke  out  was  the  following. 

6.  Early  in  1327  Edward  II.  was  deposed  because  he 
was  unfit  to  rule,  and  his  elder  son,  Edward,  then  only  a 
Edward  ^ad  of  fourteen,  became  king.  Until  his 
"I-  '°^\.         eighteenth  year  he  was  under  the  guidance  of 

comes  King,  ^  ■'  . 

1327.  his  mother,    Isabella   of  France,  and   Roger 

Mortimer,  who  had  planned  and  carried  out  the  overthrow 
of  his  father.  These  two  had  taken  on  themselves  the 
rule  of  the  nation,  paying  little  respect  to  the  council  of 
bishops,  earls,  and  barons  chosen  for  the  purpose.  In 
1328  the  last  of  Phihp  the  Fairs  sons,'  Charles  the  Fair, 


'  Table  showing  Edward  IIL'sclaim  to  the  French  crown. 

Philip  III. 

I  '  ^1 

Philip  IV.  (the  Fair)  Charles  of  Vaiois. 

__J I 

I 1  I  I  Philip  VI. 


Lewis  X.          Philip  V.  Charles  IV.           Isabella. 

I  (the  Fair)                 | 

Jane.  Edward  III.  of  England. 

Charles  of  Navarre. 


1328-37-     The  Kings  of  England  and  France.     43 

died,  leaving  no  son  to  succeed  him  ;  and  Edward,  as  the 
grandson  of  Philip  through  Isabella,  Philip's  daughter, 
put  in  a  claim  for  the  empty  throne.  Of  this  claim  no 
notice  seems  to  have  been  taken  ;  and  Philip  of  Valois, 
the  son  of  Philip  the  Fair's  brother,  was  accepted  as 
king.  Ne.-it  year  Edward  did  homage  to  Philip  of  \'alois 
for  Guienne,  thus  seemingly   allowing  his   future   rival  s 

tide. 

7.  In  1330  young  Edward  shook  off  the  control  of  his 
mother  and  Mortimer— sending  Mortimer  to  the  scaffold 
—and  made  himself  king  in  fact,  as  he  was  already  king 
in  name.  A  few  years  afterwards  (ighting  began  between 
some  of  his  lords  in  the  north  and  the  regency  that  held 
sway  in  Scotland  during  the  minority  of  David  Bruce  ; 
and  in  1333  Edward  was  easily  drawn  into  u.,„,^  ^f 
the  war.     Ho  won  the  battle  of  Halidon  Hill,     H?''d"n 

,        ■     •        J        Mill,  1333. 

retook  Berwick,  overran  Scotland,  joined 
Lothian  to  his  own  kingdom,  and  set  up  Edward  Baliol, 
John  Baliol's  son,  as  vassal  king  of  Scotland  north  of  the 
Friths.  The  Scots  fought  against  his  designs  with  their 
usual  dogged  courage  ;  and  he  had  himself  to  lead 
armies  more  than  once  into  their  country.  But  in  the 
main  his  work  prospered,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that 
if  he  had  not  turned  aside  from  his  task  Scotland  would 
have  been  conquered  at  last.  But  at  this  point  Philip 
of  France  stepped  in,  and,  taking  the  part  of  David  Bruce, 
io  anno\ed  Edward  that  he  revived  his  half-forgotten 
.laim  to  the  French  throne,  and  began  a  war  that  proved 
jne  of  the  longest  and  saddest  in  history.  Philip  thought 
ne  might  make  such  a  use  of  Edward's  war  in  the  north 
,is  to  win  Guienne  for  himself.  Accordingly  phiiip  of 
he  sheltered  Bruce,  who  had  been  driven  from  t^^^'fo^s  of^' 
S  otland,  sent  men  and  ships  to  aid  Bruce's  England, 
party,  threatened  to  invade  England,  and  sent  troops 
against    Guienne.     Edward   had    to  make   his  choice — 


44  Rise  of  the  People.  1337. 

either  to  go  to  war  with  France  or  to  lose  Guienne.  He 
chose  to  go  to  war  ;  and  wishing  to  gain  support  for  his 
Edward  cause,  took  the  title  and,  a  little  later,  the  arms 

thi/reich  of  ^  French  king.  His  claim,  though  skilfully 
crown.  put,  was  an   utterly  groundless  one.     It  had 

come  to  be  regarded  as  a  law  in  France,  that  not  only  no 
woman,  but  also  no  man  who  traced  his  descent  from  the 
blood  royal  through  a  woman  only,  could  wear  the  crown 
of  the  country.  This  was  called  the  Salic  law  ;  and  by 
it  Edward,  whose  link  of  connexion  with  French  royalty 
was  his  mother  Isabella,  had  plainly  not  a  shadow  of 
right.  But  Edward  took  another  view  of  the  Salic  law  ; 
he  said  that  it  kept  from  the  French  throne  women  only, 
but  not  their  sons  if  these  were  otherwise  the  nearest  of 
blood.  In  this  way  he,  as  grandson  of  Philip  IV.  (the  Fair) 
would  have  had  a  better  title  than  Philip  VI.  (of  Valois),  who 
was  only  a  son  of  Philip  the  Fair's  younger  brother.  In 
1337,  however,  there  was  a  boy,  Charles  of  Navarre,  who, 
by  Edward's  own  way  of  putting  the  law,  stood  before 
him  in  nearness  to  the  throne.  But  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  Edward  was  only  half  in  earnest  in  making 
and  pushing  on  his  claim.  More  than  once  during  the 
war  his  conduct  would  seem  to  show  that  he  used  the 
title  of  king  of  France  to  enable  him  to  drive  a  more 
gainful  bargain  with  the  enemy  when  peace  should  be 
made.  It  was  an  unlucky  step,  however,  as  it  greatly 
embittered  the  quarrel,  and  made  a  lasting  peace  next  to 
impossible. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIRST   STAGE   OF  THE    HUNDRED   YEARS'  WAR. 

I.  The  Hundred  Years'  War  may  be  divided  into    three 
parts.     The  first  stretches  from  1337  to  the  Grea.t  Peace 


I337-40.         The  Hundred  Years   War.  45 

of  1360  ;  the  second  from  [369,  when  tlie  war   broke  out 
again,  to  the  Great  Truce  of  1396  ;  the  third     The 
from  the  breaking  of  this  truce  in  141?  to  the     l?""'^5!jl 

"  -r    J  Years   War, 

final  loss  of  Bordeaux  by  Henry  VI.  in  1453.  '337  1453 
Hut  in  no  one  of  these  parts  did  the  fighting  go  on  con- 
tinuously from  year  to  year.  In  each  of  them  truces  of 
greater  or  less  length  kept  the  foes  apart  now  and  then  ; 
and  in  one  (the  third)  the  great  prize  seemed  to  have  been 
really  won  by  a  treaty  made  at  Troyes  between  the  rival 
kings,  Henry  V.  and  Charles  VI.,  in  1420. 

2.  At  first  King  Edward  III.  tried  to  assail  Philip  VI. 
from    Flanders.     He  had  made   allies  there  among  the 
wealthy  self-governed   cities,  and  had  an  es-     Edward 
pecially  trustv  friend  in   James  Van  Artevelde     I','  '." 

.  Flanders, 

— '  the  brewer  of  Ghent,'  as  his  enemies  called  1339-40. 
him  -and  among  the  feudal  princes  and  nobles  jealous  of 
France.  He  had  won  to  his  cause  even  the  Emperor  of 
the  day,  Lewis  of  Bavaria.  He  spent  much  treasure,  and 
plunged  himself  into  debt,  in  making  war  on  this  side,  but 
gained  nothing— only  a  little  glory.  Twice  (in  i  139  and 
(340)  he  led  huge  armies  southwards,  both  times  met  his 
rival,  yet  failed  to  draw  him  into  a  battle,  and  had  to  fall 
back  baffled.  He  could  not  rely  on  his  allies.  His  only 
success  was  the  naval  victory  of  Sluys — won  in  June  1340, 
over  a  French  fleet  tliat  sought  to  bar  his  way  Rattle  of 
as  he  was  going  to  Flanders  to  start  on  one  of  Sluys,  1340. 
his  marches  towards  France.  It  was  a  strange  kind  of  sea- 
battle.  Both  sides  merely  used  their  ships  as  platforms 
to  fight  from.  After  a  desperate  struggle,  which  lasted 
till  nightfall,  the  English  men-at-arms  and  archers  over- 
powered the  French,  who  were  almost  all  killed  or 
drowned.  The  defeat  was  a  crushing  one,  and  is  said  to 
have  further  strengthened  the  lordship  over  the  narrow 
seas  which  England  even  then  claimed  and  kept  until 
the  present  century.      But  when  Edward  came  back  to 


46  Rise  of  the  People.  1340-46. 

England  in  November,  he  was  sunk  in  debt,  and  as  far 
from  his  object  as  ever. 

3.  After  this  the  war  shifted  to  Britanny,where  a  dis- 
pute about  the  succession  to  the  duchy  between  John  de 
,„    .  Montfort,  the  half-brother  of  the   kite   duke, 

War  in  '  ' 

Britaiuiy,  and  Charlcs  of  Blois,  who  had  married  the  late 
'■''^'  duke's  niece  Jane,  gave  Edward  a  chance  of 

winning  friends  on  French  soil.  Charles  was  the  nephew 
of  King  Philip,  and  his  claim  was  therefore  supported 
by  France  ;  whilst  de  Montfort  sought  help  from  Edward, 
offering  to  do  homage  to  him  as  king  of  France  in  return. 
Edward  accepted  the  offer,  and  sent  aid,  going  himself 
over  to  Briianny  in  1342  with  12,000  men.  The  great 
event  of  this  stage  of  the  war  was  the  heroic  defence  of 
Hennebon  by  Jane  of  Flanders,  wife  of  de  Montfort,  who 
had  been  taken  prisoner.  Jane  kept  the  enemy  at  bay 
for  some  months,  hoping  against  hope,  and  was  at  last 
relieved  by  an  English  force  led  by  Sir  Walter  Manny,  a 
knight  of  Hainault,  who  became  very  famous  during  this 
part  of  the  war.  The  Breton  quarrel  was  not  finally 
settled  until  the  next  reign.  The  cause  of  de  Montfort 
won  in  the  end. 

4.  In  1346  was  fought  the  great  battle  of  Cressy — won- 
derful  in   many  ways,  but  especially  so  as  showing  the 

height  that  English  daring  and  force  in  war 
of  Cressy,  had  already  reached.  In  July  King  Edward 
'^■^^^  landed   in    Normandy  with  30,000  men,  and 

went  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine  towards  Paris.  His 
purpose  is  not  very  clear  :  perhaps  he  wished  to  cross  the 
river  and  join  his  Flemish  allies.  But  every  bridge  had 
been  broken  down,  and  he  found  no  means  of  getting 
across  until  he  came  to  Poissy,  not  far  from  Paris.  After 
some  delay  he  managed  to  reach  the  right  bank  at  Poissy, 
and  at  once  headed  northwards  King  Philip,  who  had 
been  lying  with  a  large  army  in  tb»  neighbourhood  of 


1346-  The  Hundred  Years'  War.  47 

Paris,  went  in  pursuit  ;  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  his 
daring  foes  could  not  escape  him.  At  the  Somme  their 
position  was  almost  desperate  ;  after  much  searching  and 
dangerous  delay,  Edward  had  found  a  ford  at  Blanche- 
tache,  but  a  full  tide  kept  his  army  motionless  on  the 
southern  bank  for  many  hours.  Had  Philip  come  up 
then,  as  he  might  easily  have  done,  it  is  thought  that  the 
English  would  have  been  cut  off  to  a  man.  Hut  he 
loitered  at  Abbeville  ;  the  tide  fell  ;  the  French  force  that 
lined  the  opposite  bank  was  routed,  and  Edward  crossed. 
But  on  reaching  Cressy  (Crdcy),  in  Ponthieu,  he  halted 
his  army,  and  waited  for  the  oncoming  of  the  French. 
On  Saturday,  August  26,  the  French  army,  said  to  have 
been  100,000  strong,  came  in  sight  ;  .md  late  in  the  day 
the  battle  began. 

5.  The  English  were  drawn  up  in  three  divisions  upon 
the  slope  of  a  hill  crowned  by  a  windmill,  near  which 
King  Edward  himself  stood.     His  eldest  son,     i^.-mie  of 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  a  vouth  of  sixteen,     Cressy, 

'  '        -  '      August  26, 

and  still  renowned  as  the  Black  Prince,  led  1346. 
the  first  of  these  divisions  ;  the  Earls  of  Northampton 
and  Arundel  the  second  ;  the  king  himself  held  the  third 
in  reserve.  The  onset  came  from  the  French  side,  and 
was  made  first  by  the  Genoese  crossbowmen.  But  these 
werf  met  and  speedily  thrown  into  confusion  by  the 
English  archers,  who  were  far  superior  to  them  in  swift- 
ness and  in  sureness  of  aim.  The  discomfiture  of  the 
Genoese  made  it  difficult  for  the  French  men-at-arms, 
who  were  next  in  order,  to  come  on  ;  but  at  last  these 
swept  the  bewildered  crossbowmen  from  their  path,  and 
with  the  Count  of  Alen^on,  King  Philip's  brother,  at  their 
head,  fell  upon  the  Prince's  division.  This  was  the  most 
awful  shock  of  the  fight.  At  one  time  young  Edward 
an'i  his  men  were  in  great  peril,  and  an  earnest  prnyer 
f*    succour  was  sent  to  the  king.       But   Edward  would 


48  Rise  of  the  People.  1346-57. 

have  his  child  '  win  his  spurs '  unaided,  that  the  honour 
of  the  day  might  be  his  alone.  In  the  end  this  onset 
was  beaten  back  also.  .'Vlenijon  made  one  more  ettbrt  to 
pierce  to  the  English  centre,  but  was  killed.  His  men 
fied  ;  the  French  army  scattered  in  all  directions  ;  and 
the  French  king  galloped  off  the  field.  When  the  fog 
that  covered  the  ground  until  late  in  the  following  day 
(Sunday)  cleared  away,  the  most  sickening  scene  of  car- 
nage was  disclosed.  On  the  French  side  alone  more  than 
30,000  had  fallen  ;  the  loss  of  the  English  is  unknown. 

6.  But  Edward,  instead  of  leading  the  victors  to  Paris, 
which  it  is  thought  he  might  easily  have  done,  marched 

on  and  laid  siege  to  Calais.     This  town   he 

Siege  of 

CaWs,  was  bent  on  having  ;  and  after  a  close  block- 

i34  -47-  j^^g^  lasting  for  eleven  months,  he  took  it  in 

August  1347.  He  drove  out  all  the  inhabitants  who 
would  not  swear  allegiance  to  him,  planted  English  in 
their  place,  gave  to  these  valuable  privileges,  and  girt  the 
city  round  with  such  strong  defences  as  to  show  that  he 
wanted  to  make  and  keep  it  purely  English.  In  time  it 
came  to  be  looked  on  as  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Eng- 
land. Henry  VHI.  even  granted  it  the  right  to  send 
members  to  parliament. 

7.  Seven   weeks  after  the  fight  of  Cressy,  and  while 

Edward  was  lying  before  Calais,  a  great  success  fell  to^  the 

Fight  of  Enghsh  on  their  own  soil.     In  the  autumn, 

Neville's         David  Bruce,  who  had  now  come  back  to  Scot- 
Cross,  Octo-  '  ^  ,      . 
ber  1346.         land,  fell  upon  the  North  of  England  with  a 

large  force.  He  was  working  great  mischief  to  the  country, 
when  Henry  Percy  and  Ralph  Neville  encountered  him 
at  a  place  near  Durham,  knowTi  as  Neville's  Cross.  The 
Scots  were  thoroughly  beaten,  and  King  David  was  him- 
self taken  prisoner.  He  was  a  captive  in  England  for 
eleven  years,  but  was,  in  1357,  ransomed  upon  a  truce. 
The  mutual  hatred  of  the  nations  made  a  lasting  peace 


1346-1355-       TJtc  Hundred  Yeais'   JVnr. 


49 


impossible.     Indeed,   no  treaty  of  peace  was  made  be- 
tween England  and  Scotland  until  Henry  VII. "s  reign. 

8.   For  eight  years  after  the  taking  of  Calais  the  war 
almost  ceased.     In  1 34.S-9  a  more  fatal  si'ourge  even  than 
war  came  upon   England— the   great   Plague,     ^e.,„[^^ 
called  the  Black  Death,  which   in  one    year     from  war. 
carried  off  little,  if  anything,  less   than  half     '^""^  ^^' 
the  population.    While  it  was  fresh  in  men's  minds,  they 


SEA 


F.HANCE    AFTER    THE   TrEATV    OF    1259. 

(The  dotted  line  encloses  the  lands  held  by  the  King  of  Kngland.) 

thought  of  other  things  than  fighting  with  France  ;  and 
the  truce  already   in   force  was  renewed    from    time    to 
time.     But  in  1355  the  work  of  destruction  began  again. 
£.  H.  £ 


50  Rise  of  the  People.  1356-60. 

In  1356  another  great  victory — that  of  Poitiers — was 
gained  by  the  English  and  Gascons.  King  Philip  had 
died  in  the  meantime,  and  his  son  John  was  now  king 
of  France.  This  year  the  Pilack  Prince,  who  was  then 
living  at  Bordeaux  as  governor  of  Gascony,  went  north- 
wards on  a  plundering  raid.  On  his  way  back  he  came 
upon  the  French  king  and  an  army  of  60,000,  who  had 
posted  themselves  across  his  path,  at  Maupertuis,  near 
Baule  of  Poitiers.  His  force  was  small — barely  12,000; 
September  Y^^  when  he  found  that  John  would  hear  of 
'356.  nothing  but  a  full  surrender,  he  drew  up  his 

men  on  a  rising  ground  girt  round  with  vineyards,  and 
offered  battle.  A  narrow  lane  was  the  only  way  by  which 
the  enemy  could  reach  them.  The  hedge  on  each  side 
of  this  he  lined  with  archers  ;  and  when  the  mounted 
men-at-arms  of  the  French  tried  to  force  a  passage  they 
fell  thick  and  fast  before  the  deadly  ha^il  of  arrows.  When 
the  archers  had  done  their  part,  Edward  issued  from  his 
position  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry,  and  after  a  stiff  bit  of 
fighting,  routed  and  chased  the  enemy  to  the  gates  of 
Poitiers.  Several  thousands  were  slain  ;  the  king,  his  son, 
and  many  nobles  were  made  prisoners.  Next  spring  the 
Black  Prince  sailed  with  his  royal  captives  to  England. 
Three  years  later  peace  came.  The  terms  that  John 
first  agreed  to  were  rejected  by  the  French  States-general 
Peace  of  ^'^  dishonourable  ;  and  King  Edward,  furious 
Bretigny,  at  uot  getting  what  he  thought  himself  sure 
*^  '^  '  of,  led  a  new  army  in  a  destroying  march 
through  northern  France  and  Burgundy,  even  threatening 
Paris.  At  Bretigny,  however,  he  accepted  a  treaty  that 
left  him  master  of  Poitou,  and  of  all  the  country  that 
spreads  from  Poitou  to  the  Pyrenees,  as  well  as  of  Calais 
and  Ponthieu,  in  as  full  sovereignty  as  that  by  which  he 
held  England  In  return  he  gave  up  his  claim  to  the 
crown  of  France  (1360). 


1367-70-        TJu  Hundred  Years'   War.  5  ^ 

CHAPTER  III. 

SCCOND    STAGE   OF  THE    HUNDRED   YEARS'   WAR. 

I.  The  peace  that  followed  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny  lasted 
for  but  nine  years.     In  1367  the  Black  Prince  was  foolvsh 
enough  to  march  an  army  across  the  Pyrenees,     Biack 
to  put  back  on  the  throne  of  Castile  the  king     (^"'jj^^cas 
who  had  bee.n  driven  out,  infamous  as  Pedro     tile.  1367. 
the  Ci-uel.     Though  he  added  to  his  glories  the  victory  of 
Najera,  won  over  Pedro's  half-brother  and  rival,  Henry  of 
Trastamare,  he  was  forced  by  the  faithlessness  of  his 
ally  to  return   to  Bordeaux,   broken  in   health  and   bur- 
dened with  debt.     In  his  need  he  laid  a    hearth-tax  on 
the  Gascons  ;  but  some  of  these  would  not   pay  it,  and 
appealed  against  the  tax  to  the  king  of  France,  as  if  he 
were  still  their  supreme  lord.     By  this  time  John  was 
dead,  and  his  son,  Charles  V.,  was  on  the  French  throne. 
Despite    the     Treaty    of    Bretigny,    Charles     peace  of 
listened  to  the  complaints  of  the  Gascons,  and     hrok^"bv 
called  upon  Prince  Edward  to  appear  before     France 
him  at  Paris.     Edward  sent  a  haughty  answer  ;  and  the 
war  broke  out  again. 

2.  Few  events  of  striking  interest  mark  this  stage.  The 
English  had  not  abated  one  jot  of  their  skill  and  daring, 
and  in  the  field  were  as  superior  to  the  foe  as     ^^ 

ever.     But  Charles  was  wiser  than  his  father     renewed, 
or  grandfather,  and,  carefully  avoiding  battles,     ^ 
left  the  English   to   waste   their   strength    on   profitless 
marchings  hither  and  thither.    The  Black  Prince,  too,  was 
already    in     the  grasp  of   the  disease  which     ., 

of  Massacre 

killed    him    in   1376,   and    after   wreaking   a     of  Limoges, 
bloody  vengeance  on  the  men  of  Limoges  who     '■'''° 
had  gone  over  to  the  enemy  soon  after  the  renewal  of  the 
war,  withdrew  to  England  in  1371. 

3.  His  brother,  John,    Duke  of  Lancaster,  to  whom 


52  Rise  of  the  People.  1370-141 5. 

he  left  his  post,  was  not  a  great  leader  in  war.  The 
war,  therefore,  now  went  altogether  in  favour  of  the 
French,  who  year  after  year  attacked  Guienne  and 
Poitou.  Though  the  English  disputed  the  ground  inch 
by  inch,  the  French  had  before  King  Edward's  death 
not  only  won  back  Poitou,  but  also  made  themselves 
masters  of  all  Guienne  save  Bordeaux  and  Bayonne, 
and  some  strong  places  on  the  river  Dordogne.  In 
Edward  '^^^  Edward  III.  died,  and  the  Black 
III.  dies,  Prince's  son,  Richard  of  Bordeaux,  came  to 
'^^''"  the  throne.  Still  the  war  went  on,  but  on  no  ■ 
settled  plan.  There  were  French  descents  on  the  English 
coast,  English  expeditions  to  France,  fighting  in  Briianny, 
threatened  French  invasions  of  England,  and  a  truce  now 
Truce  of  ^.nd  then.  Yet  in  1 396,  when  Richard  made 
'SO*-  a  truce  for  28  years  with  Charles  VI.,  the 
English  position  was  little  changed  from  what  it  had  beei. 
'n  1377- 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THIRD  STAGE  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR. 

I.  When  the  war  entered  upon  its  third  stage,  the  crown 
of  England  had  passed  to  another  line  of  kings.  In 
1399  the  people  had  risen  in  arms  against  Richard  II.. 
had  taken  the  crown  from  him,  and  given  it  to  his  cousin, 
Henry  Bolingbroke,  son  of  John,  Duke  of  Lancaster. 
Henry  IV^  reigned  until  his  death  in  141 3,  and  then  his 
son,  Henry  V.,  became  king.  Heniy  V.  was  a  man  of 
vast  ambition  and  great  ability,  and  in  1415  he  sailed 
from  Southampton  to  Normandy  with  a  large 

War  again  jo 

renewed,         army'.     Charles  VI.  of  France  was  subject  to 
''*''^'  fits  of  madness,  and  his  kingdom   was  rent 

asunder   by  the   strife   of  contending   factions.     Henry 
wislied  to  take  advantage  of  their  disunion  to  force  th' 


i4'5  The  Hundred  Years    War.  53 

French,  by  constant  warfare,  to  admit  his  title  to  their 
crown.  Yet  he  had  not  the  shadov.  of  a  claim,  not  even 
King  Edward's  ;  for  bcinj^j  a  de>cendant  only  of  Ed- 
ward's fourth  son,  he  was  not  Edward's  lieir  so  long  as 
any  member  of  the  Mortimer  family,  descendants  of 
Edward's  third  son,  Lionel,  survived.'  Nor  had  he 
Edward  s  excuse  for  going  to  war.  France  was  too 
busy  tearing  itself  to  pieces  to  have  time  to  work  mis- 
chief to  its  neighbours. 

•  2.  Henry's  first  attempt,  though  it  ended  in  failure,  was 
marked  by  the  great  victory  of  Agincourt.  On  landing 
in  Normandy  he  spent  a  long  time  in  taking 

..       T  11,11/-  1         Campaignof 

Harllcur,  and  then  led  his  force,  greatly  Agincourt. 
thinned  by  disease,  towards  Calais.  He  ''*'^' 
made  his  way  in  the  face  of  many  difficulties  to  the 
Somme,  and  it  was  only  after  a  long  and  tedious  march 
up  the  left  bank  of  this  river  that  he  was  able  to  get 
across.  But  on  coming  near  Agincourt  (Azincourt)  he 
found  in  front  of  him  a  huge  French  army,  which  he 
must  either  beat,  or  give  up  all  hope  of  ever  getting  to 
Calais.  Accordingly,  on  St.  Crispin's  day  (October  25) 
the  battle  of  Agincourt  was  fought. 

3.  Again  the  odds  were  fearfully  against  the  English. 
They  were  a  mere  handful— but  9,000  in  all— ragged, 
half-starved,  and  wayworn  ;  whilst  the  enemy  are  said 
to  have  been  60,000.  The  fight  differed,  however,  in  one 
point  from  the  fights  of  Cressy  and  Poitiers-  the  English 
gave  the  onset.  But  the  result  was  the  same.  The  rirst 
line  of  the  French  was  thrown  into  disorder  by  the  shower 
of  arrows  that  the  archers  poured  in  upon  them,  and 
was  then  broken  in  pieces  by  the  men-at-arms;     „     ,     , 

•^  -'  Battle  of 

the  second  was  routed  after  a  two  hours  con-     Agincourt, 
test    by    the    men-at-arms   alone  ;    and    the     '^"-  '♦'^• 
third,  dispirited  by  the  fate  of  the  other  two,  gave  way  at 

'  See  Table,  p.  77. 


54  Rise  of  the  People.  1415-22. 

the  first  shock.  Three  dukes,  about  a  thousand  of  the 
inferior  nobihty,  and  of  the  common  folk  a  countless 
number,  were  slain,  and  there  were  two  dukes  among 
the  prisoners.    The  English  loss  was  small  in  comparison. 

4.  Two  years  afterwards  (141 7)  Henry  returned  with  a 
force  of  ]  6,000  men-at-arms  and   16,000  archers,  and  at 

once  set  about  conquering  Normandy.  Un- 
Normandy,  like  Edward  III.,  he  wrought  in  deadly 
1417-18.  earnest  at  the  task  he  had  put  his  hand  to. 

He  was  fully  bent  on  making  himself  king  of  France, 
and  threw  his  whole  force  into  the  work.  Partly  for  this 
reason,  and  partly  because  the  furious  strife  of  French 
parties  left  him  without  an  enemy  in  tiie  field,  he  went 
much  nearer  gaining  his  object  than  Edward — indeed  in 
a  sense  he  did  gain  it.  In  two  campaigns  he  mastered 
Normandy,  with  its  strongholds,  cities,  towns,  and  seaports. 
It  cost  him  an  endless  line  of  sieges,  of  which  the  siege 
of  Rouen  in  1418  was  the  one  that  taxed  his  powers  most. 
But  he  took  the  place  notwithstanding  its  stubborn  re- 
sistance. 

5.  Next  year  (1419)  he  took  Pontoise,  and  threatened 
Paris.  And  just  as  the  two  French  parties  seemed  about 
to  combine  against  him,  John,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  the 
leader  of  one,  was  treacherously  murdered  by  the  friends 

of    the  other.     Upon   this.    Burgundy's    son, 

1  reaty  of  »  ^  o  --  ; 

Troyes,  Philip,  joined  Henry,  and  the  French  authori- 

1420.  jjgg  j.^^^  jQ  gj^.g  ^^.^y_      p^  treaty  was  made  al 

Troyes  by  which  Henry  was  to  give  up  calling  himself 
king  of  France  so  long  as  Charles  VI.  lived,  but  was  to 
rule  the  country  with  full  royal  power  under  the  title  of 
Regent  and  Heir  of  France,  and  was  to  wed  Charles's 
daughter  Catherine  Henry  survived  this  seeming  fulfil- 
Heiiry  V.  ment  of  all  his  hopes  for  only  two  years.  He 
.lies.  1422.  died  on  the  last  day  of  August  1422.  His  son 
Henry,  a  child  ten  months  old,  succeeded  to  his  kingdom. 


1422-30.         TJie  Hundred  Years    War.  55 

John,  Duke  of  Bedfuid,  his  elder  hving  brother,  took  his 
place  at  Paris. 

6.  The  war  did  not  end  with  the  Treaty  of  'Iroyes. 
Charles,  the  French  king's  son,  still  fought  for  his  rights 
as  heir — and  upon  his  father  dying,  shortly  after  Henry, 
as  king.  A  large  part  of  France  upheld  his  cause.  But 
Bedford  was  a  wise  ruler  and  skilful  general  ;  ,^^^11  Duke 
and  the  English  power  went  on  spreading  ofKedford. 
until,  by  142S,  it  had  covered  almost  the  whole  of  the 
country  north  of  the  Loire. 

7.  Next  year  the  tide  turned.  Whilst  an  English  army 
was  besieging  Orleans,  a  young  peasant  girl,  born  at 
Domremy  in  Champagne,  known    in  history 

as  Jeanne  d'Arc,  or  the  Maid,  who  believed  dArc, 
that  she  had  heard  heavenly  voices  bidding  M29-3'- 
her  go  forth  and  deliver  France,  made  her  way  with  a 
handful  of  men  into  the  city,  and  in  a  few  days  forced  the 
English  to  raise  the  siege.  She  followed  them,  stormed 
Jargeau,  and  took  their  leader,  the  Earl  of  Suffolk, 
prisoner.  She  then  pushed  on  along  the  road  to  Paris, 
met  Talbot — then  thought  to  be  the  greatest  g^^jig  ^f 
living  soldier — at  Patay,  and  beat  and  took  Pat«y,  1429. 
captive  him  also.  There  was  a  general  feeling  that  the 
Unseen  Powers  were  fighting  on  the  side  of  the  Maid, 
and  the  hearts  of  the  English  sank  within  them,  while 
the  courage  of  the  French  rose.  When,  therefore,  Jeanne 
started  on  the  second  part  of  her  divine  mission,  which 
was  to  bring  Charles  to  Kheims  to  be  crowned,  she  made 
her  way  to  that  place  almost  with  ease,  though  the  coun- 
try through  which  she  had  to  pass  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemy.  This,  the  purely  successfuj  part  of  the  Maid's 
career,  lasted  for  less  than  three  months  (April  29— July 
17,  1429).  She  now  wished  to  go  back  to  her  home,  but 
Charles  would  not  let  her.  It  would  perhaps  have  been 
better  for  all  if  he  had.     Next  year  (1430)  she  was  taken 


56 


Rise  of  the  People. 


1431- 


at  Compi^gne,  brought,  after  a  long  delay,  to  Rouen,  w  as 
Jeanne  there  charged  with  heresy  and  witchcraft  before 

burnt,  1431.  the  Court  of  the  Bishop  of  Beauvais — who  was, 
however,  pushed  on  to  the  work  by  Bedford — found  guilty, 
and    burnt   (1431;.      bhe  was  treated  basely  by  all.  Bur- 


MEDITERRWEiW 

^'  SEA 


France  after  the  Peacf  of  Eretigny. 
(The  dotted  lines  enclose  the  Dominions  of  the  King  of  England.) 

gundy,  whose  troops  niade  her  prisoner,  sold  her  to 
Bedford  ;  Bedford  sent  her  to  the  stake  ;  and  Charles 
did  not  make  the  slightest  eftort  to  save  her. 

8.  The  English  power  in  France  ne\er  recovered  the 
shock    she   crave   it.      Bedford's   wisdom  and   Charles's 


1431-53-         The  Hundred  Years'  War.  57 

slot!)  prevented  the  eiid  coming  as  soon  as  it  might  have 
clone  ;    but    the   end   was    sure.       Even    the 

...  Henry  \  I 

crowning   of    the   hid    Henry,    at     Fans,    in     crowned  at 
1 43 1,  failed   to   check  the  downward   course     ^"'■'•''-  ''*^'' 
of  EngHsh  affairs  ;   and  when,  in    1435,  Burgundy  and 
Charles  made  up  their  quarrel  at  Arras,  and  Bedford  died, 
another  serious  blow  was  dealt  to  the  English.     In  1436 
I'aris  was  lost.     For  a  time  fate  was  kept  at  bay  by  the 
valour  of  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  the  future  claimant  of 
the  crown  of  England,  and  old  John  Talbot,  the  f<iruui 
of  whom  succeeded  Bedford  as  regent.      Indeed,  English 
rule  in  France  died  hard  ;  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of 
both  Charles  and  Burgundy,  in   1444  the  strangers  still 
held    Normandy,    Maine,   and    Guienne.      But    in    1448 
Maine  was  given   up   in  accordance  with  a  pledge  th>it 
Henry  had  made  when   married  to   Margaret  of  Anjou 
three  years  before.     In   1449  Charles  led  an  army  into 
Normandy,  and  never  rested  until  he  had  re-     Normandy 
conquered  the  whole  duchy.     This  done,  he     [,y''°,>a'',tcc, 
went  straight  upon  Guienne  ;  and  ere  the  sum-     M49-50. 
mer  of  1451   was  over  Guienne  to   its  last  fortress  was 
also  his.     Next  year  (1432)  old  Talbot  and  his  son  landed 
near   Bordeaux  with    4,'Oo   men.     They  were  asked   to 
come  by  the  inhabitants  of  Guienne,  who  disliked  their  new 
masters.      They  gained  sonie  successes  at  first  ;  but  in 
)4;3,   both   father  and  son  were  killed,  and     „    ,     , 

^->-»  '  lialtle  of 

their  army   routed,  at  CastLlion.      In    a   few     Casiiilon, 
months  Bordeaux  yielded,  and  the  Hundred     ''*'^'' 
^'ears'    War  was  over.      Calais   alone   remained   to   the 
English. 


58  Rise  of  the  People.  1295-131 1 

BOOK     IV. 

ENGLAND   IN    THE    FOURTEENTH 
CENTUR  Y. 

CHAPTER    !. 

PARLIAMENTARY  PROGRESS. 
) .  During  the  fourteenth  century  and  greater  part  of  the 
Growth  of  fifteenth,  Parhament  grew  steadily  in  power 
Parliiment.  a^fj  importance.  From  the  time  when  it  hrst 
came  into  being  until  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  (1295- 
1461)  it  met  with  but  one  serious  checlc  in  its  progress — 
the  short-lived  despotism  of  Richard  II.  before  his  fall  in 
1399.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  tell  with  exactr.ess  what 
rights  and  what  duties  it  had  at  first.  It  was  supposed 
to  have  a  voice  in  the  making  of  laws  ;  yet  the  king  made 
laws  now  and  then  without  asking  its  assent.  The  king 
would  seem  to  have  often  asked  its  advice,  yet  it  cannot 
be  proved  that  he  was  bound  to  do  so,  or  to  take  its 
advice  when  given.  Though  it  was  now  and  then  called 
upon  to  sanction  the  king's  acts,  there  is  little  doubt  that 
most  of  his  acts  would  have  held  good  without  its  ap- 
proval. 

2.  But  two  things  about  Parhament  stand  out  in  a  very 
marked  way,  even  in  the  first  fifty  years  of  its  existence  : 
Powers  of  (0  When  it  was  thought  needful  to  do  any- 
Pariiament.  thing  in  a  Specially  solemn  way,  it  was  done  in 
Parliament ;  (2)  Parliament  alone  had  the  lawful  power  of 
binding  the  estates  of  the  kingdom  to  the  payment  of  a  tax. 

Let  us  take  some  instances  of  the  first  of  these 
powers.  Edward  II.  was  a  worthless  king  and  wasted 
his  substance.  His  nobles  thought  it  right  to  try  and 
put  a  stop  to  this,  and  in  1311  drew  up  a  number  of  or- 
dinances for  the  purpose.  Now,  not  only  were  these 
ordinances   accepted   by   Edward  in  Parliament,  but  in 


1322-62.  Parliamentary  Progress.  59 

Parliament  also  were  they  revoked,  when  in  1322,  Edward 
became  a  free  agent  once  more.  And  the  treaty  with 
Scotland  in  1328  was  ratified  in  Parliament.  It  may 
have  been  only  a  way  of  letting  the  nation  know  what 
nearly  concerned  itself,  or  the  presence  of  the  assembled 
Estates  may  have  been  thought  to  mal  c  things  more 
solemn.  Again,  the  sole  power  of  Parliament  to  decree 
taxes  was  notquite  surely  ti.xed.  For  a  time  the  king  was  able 
to  partly  defeat  that  power  in  two  ways.  First,  he  claimed 
the  right  of  still  drawing  supplies  of  money  now  and  then 
-  -tallages  they  were  called — from  the  towns  in  his  de- 
mesne. Then,  too,  he  sometimes  brought  together  the 
wealthiest  merchants  and  prevailed  upon  them  to  allow 
him  to  take  tolls— often  very  heavy  ones — from  wool  and 
other  articles  which  they  sent  abroad.  Both  of  these 
were,  however,  got  rid  of  in  Edward  Ill.'s  reign.  In 
r340  the  king  pledged  himself  in  the  strongest  words 
henceforth  to  levy  no  '  charge  or  aid '  but  by  the  common 
assent  of  the  estates,  '  and  that  in  parliament  ; '  and  in 
1362  he  agreed  to  a  law  abolishing  the  other  customs 
also. 

3.  On  the  whole  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  was  a  very 
healthy  time  for  Parliament.  Early  in  it  the  division  of 
that  bodv  into  two  houses  took  place.     The     „  . 

,      .    ,  '  r     I  1  •  11  I         Reign  of 

knights  of  the  shire  united  themselves  with  Edward 
the  citizens  and  burgesses  to  form  the  lower  '"• 
house.  The  bishops  and  abbots  joined  with  the  lay  peers 
to  form  the  upper  house.  In  Edward  Ill.'s  reign,  also, 
the  practice  became  usual  of  making  grants  of  money 
only  in  return  for  a  promise  to  redress  grievances  ;  and 
it  was  at  the  same  time  that  the  uncertain  rights  of  being 
alone  able  to  grant  money  to  the  king  and  having  a  voice 
in  public  affairs  became  almost  real.  During  the  war 
with  France,  King  Edward,  wishing  to  get  the  Commons 
to   approve  of  what   he  was  doing,  asked   their  advice 


6o  Rise  of  the  People.  1376. 

about  the  war.  At  first  they  answered  that  they  were  too 
simple  to  deal  with  such  high  matters  ;  but  they  were 
afterwards  bold  enough  to  give  an  opinion  in  favour  of 
peace.  In  this  way  they  came  to  have  a  real  right  to 
talk  about  all  questions  of  state  and  give  their  views 
about  them.  After  a  time,  too,  the  Commons  got  an  im- 
portant voice  in  law-making ;  laws  were  now  made  by 
the  king  '  by  the  assent,'  or  '  assent  and  prayer,'  of  the 
great  men  and  Commons  of  his  kingdom. 

4.  One  other  great  privilege  the  lower  house  gained 
in  this  reign — that  of  impeaching — that  is,  of  bringing  to 
trial  before  the  upper  house  the  seivants  of  the  crown  who 
seemed   to   them  to  have  done   wrong.      The  assembly 

,  that    first  used  this  power  is  known   as    the 

The  *  ^ood  -  . .  )       1  •    1  •  /-        rr^-\ 

parliament,'  '  good  parhanient,  which  sat  m  1376.  There 
'^^°"  was  for  the  last  few  years  of  Edward  IIl.'s 

life  a  very  angry  feeling  throughout  the  country.  The 
king,  grown  old  in  mind  before  his  time,  had  fallen  into 
evil  hands.  There  were  people  about  him  who  were 
making  themselves  rich  out  of  the  national  purse.  The 
Black  Prince  was  dying  ;  and  his  brother,  John  of  Gaunt, 
was  suspected  of  plotting  against  the  rights  of  his  son, 
Richard  of  Bordeaux.  A  bad  woman,  Alice  Ferrers, 
ruled  iu  the  king's  palace.  Many  men  in  power  stopped 
at  no  wickedness  in  trying  to  gain  their  evil  ends.  So 
from  all  these  things  grave  mischiet  was  being  wrought 
to  the  nation.  Under  the  guidance  of  one  Peter  de  la 
Mare — the  first  who  held  the  office  of  Speaker,  thougn  he 
was  not  called  by  that  name — the  Commons  at  once  picked 
out  for  punishment  the  worst  of  the  transgressors.  Lord 
Latimer,  the  chamberlain,  and  a  certain  Richard  Lyons. 
These  they  charged  with  having  bought  up  the  king's 
debts  at  a  low  price,  and  then  got  payment  in  full  from 
the  royal  revenue  ;  with  taking  bribes  from  the  king's 
enenxies.  and  with  seizing  for  their  own   use  sums  that 


'376-  Parliamentary  Progress.  6i 

oiijjht  by  right  to  have  been  paid  into  the  king's  treasury. 
The  rage  against  them  was  so  great  that  their  patron, 
John  of  Gaunt,  was  powerless  to  check  it.  They  were 
thrown  into  prison  ;  and  when  the  crimes  laid  to  their 
charge  had  been  proved,  the  Lords  sentenced  Latimer  to 
be  imprisoned  and  fined  as  the  king  should  think  fit,  and 
to  lose  his  office,  and  Lyons  to  be  stripped  of  his  wealth 
and  sent  to  the  Tower.  Alice  Ferrers,  too,  was  to  forfeit 
her  propertyand  be  banished.  There  'an  hardlybe  a  doubt 
that  the  Black  Prince  and  William  of  Wykeham,  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  who  had  once  been  chancellor,  heartily  for- 
warded these  doings  of  the  Commons.  Indeed  it  is  very 
likely  that  they  planned  and  set  them  in  motion.  In  any 
case,  the  Commons  had  clearly  a  very  strong  affection  for 
the  Prince's  family,  for  on  his  dying  (Trinity 
Sunday,  1376)  when  Parliament  was  still  sit-  prtnce  dies, 
ting,  they  prayed  that  his  son,  Richard,  should  '^7*- 
be  brought  before  them  as  heir-apparent,  which  prayer 
the  king  granted.  Finally,  as  a  means  of  guarding  the 
nation  from  such  men  as  Latimer  and  Lyons  for  the 
future,  they  entreated  the  king  to  take  into  his  council  a 
body  of  lords  on  whom  they  believed  that  they  could  rely. 
This  prayer  also  was  granted  ;  and  after  a  session  of  two 
months — the  longest  yet  known— the  'good  parliament' 
went  its  ways. 

5.  After  all,  it  had  done  very  little  good.  It  had  hardly 
gone  when  John  of  Gaunt  became  all-powerful  in  the 
state  once  more  ;  Alice  Pcrrers  returned  to  j^^n  of 
Court,  and  Latimer  was  restored  to  favour;  Gaunt, 
de  la  Mare  was  sent  to  prison  ;  and  Wykeham,  charged 
with  having,  when  chancellor,  misused  the  moneys  in  his 
hands,  lost  his  income  as  bishop,  and  was  forbidden  to 
come  within  twenty  miles  of  the  Court.  And,  worst  of  all, 
early  next  year  a  new  parliament  was  called  which  undid 
all  that  had  been  done  against  Latimer  and  Lyons,  and 


62  Rise  pf  the  People.  1376-77. 

was  quite  as  willing  to  serve  the  ends  of  John  of  Gaunt 
as  the  '  good  parliament '  had  been  to  serve  the  ends  of 
the  Black  Prince  ;  for  it  seems  to  have  been  then 
possible  for  men  in  power  to  get  members  chosen  for  the 
lower  house  who  would  act  as  they  wished — to  pack  a  par- 
liament, in  fact.  One  lasting  benefit,  however,  followed 
from  the  work  of  the  '  good  parliament  ; '  the  right  that  it 
was  the  first  to  use,  of  impeaching  the  king's  ministers 
was  not  forgotten  in  later  times,  and  became  a  very  ready 
way  of  frightening  men  who  were  willing  to  help  a  tyran- 
nical king. 

6.  A  few  months  later  King  Edward  died  (1377)  ;  and 
again  all  was  changed.  John  of  Gaunt  lost  his  power. 
Richard  tl.  ^^  ^^''^^  ^^ut  out  even  from  the  council  which 
'377-99-  the  great  men   appointed   to  rule  during  the 

minority  of  Richard,  who  was  then  but  eleven  years  old.  A 
parliament  that  was  soon  afterwards  called  by  the  new 
king  was  so  far  from  helping  Lancaster's  plans  that  the 
Commons  again  chose  Peter  de  la  Mare  for  their  speaker. 
First  parlia-  Indeed  this  parliament  acted  very^  boldly.  The 
ufcha'rd  II  Commons  asked  that  eight  members  should  be 
1377-  added  to  the  council,  that  the  great  officers  of 

state  should  be  chosen  by  Parliament  so  long  as  the  king 
was  under  age,  and  that  the  grant  of  money — a  very  large 
one—  which  they  had  made  to  the  king  should  be  paid 
into  the  hands  of  two  persons  who  should  see  that  it  was 
rightly  used.  And  all  these  demands  the  king  agreed  to. 
This  body,  moreover,  is  a  fair  type  of  all  the  parliaments 
of  the  first  twelve  years  of  Richard's  reign.  These  were 
generally  very  firm  in  their  dealings  with  the  king,  very 
stiff  in  upholding  their  own  rights,  and  often  used  great 
plainness  of  speech  in  their  addresses  and  petitions. 
During  these  twelve  years  the  power  of  the  Commons  was 
ever  growing. 


1349-  Rising  of  the  Cotmnons.  63 


CHAPTER    II. 

RISrNG   OF   THE   COMMONS. 

I.  Thf  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  a  stirring 
time  for  the  English  working  classes.  Owing  to  many 
causes — at  some  of  which  we  can  only  guess     ^  , 

-^    °  I  emper  of 

— ^_an  angry  and  fretful  spirit  had  got  the  the  lower 
mastery  over  them.  They  felt  themselves  to 
be  deeply  wronged  by  the  owners  of  lands,  who  were 
reaping  the  fruits  of  their  industry,  and  yet  wanted  to 
keep  them  in  bondage  or  to  bring  them  back  to  a  bondage 
from  which  they  had  almost  escaped.  A  great  change 
which  was  going  on  added  to  the  hardships  of  their  lot, 
and  to  their  wrath  in  consequence. 

2.  In  earlier  days  most  of  the  rustic  folk,  of  the  men 
who  tilled  the  soil,  belonged  to  the  class  called  villeins, 
who  were  bound  to  toil  with  their  hands  on  the  farms 
of  their  lord,  and  could  not  leave  his  service  as  thcv 
chose,  for  they  were  in  a  certain  sense  his  property 
quite  as  much  as  his  horses  and  dogs.  Hut  a  villein 
had  his  rights  ;  the  cottage  and  patch  of  viiiein 
ground  that  his  lord  allowed  him  in  payment     "ghts. 

of  his  labour  or  for  his  support,  became  in  course  of 
time  his  property,  which  his  lord  could  not  touch  so 
long  as  the  services  to  which  the  villein  was  bound  were 
duly  rendered.  After  a  time  many  lords  agreed  to  take 
money  in  place  of  villein  services  ;  others  set  their  villeins 
free.  The  spirit  of  the  law  and  the  influence  of  the 
Church  worked  together  to  lessen  the  evils  of  villcnage 
and  the  number  of  villeins.  So  it  came  about  that  the 
rustics  throughout  the  country  were  much  better  ofif  than 
before.  Most  of  them  were  as  good  as  free  ;  many  of  them 
were  altogether  so. 

3.  This  h;ippy  state  of  things  was  rudely  shaken  by  the 


64  Rise  of  the  People.  1349-63. 

Great  Plague  of  1349.  In  this  almost,  if  not  quite,  one- 
half  of  the  labouring  population  was  cut  off.  There  were 
The  Black  rio  longer  labourers  enough  to  till  the  soil. 
Death.  1349.  Wagcs  rose  Suddenly  to  an  unheard-of  height  ; 
and  the  great  lords  were  at  their  wits'  end  to  know  how 
-       to  get  their  farms  cultivated.     In  their  distress 

.Statute  of  ^ 

Labourers,  they  got  a  law  passed,  called  the  Statute  of 
'^^°'  Labourers,  by  which  all  men  trained  to  labour 

were  bound  under  penalties  to  work  for  the  same  wages 
as  had  been  customary  in  1347.  This  law  failed  in  its 
object ;  it  was  followed  by  others  of  a  similar  kind,  which 
were  alike  of  no  effect.  Many  of  the  great  landowners 
then  began  to  cut  up  their  huge  farms,  which  had  been 
hitherto  managed  by  bailiffs,  into  smaller  ones,  and  to  let 
these  out  on  short  leases,  indeed,  this  is  said  to  be  the 
beginning  of  the  practice  of  letting  now  in  use.  Others, 
however,  tried  to  fall  back  on  the  custom  of  villein  ser- 
vice, which  had  so  greatly  fallen  out  of  use.  Many  were 
•claimed  as  villeins  who  had  never  had  a  doubt  of  their 
freedom.  And  it  is  supposed  that  an  attempt  was  made 
at  the  same  time  by  those  who  had  taken  to  the  custom 
of  letting  their  farms,  to  return  to  the  older  way  of  farming 
by  bailiffs. 

4.  About  this  time,  also,  the  movement  set  on  foot  by 
Wiclif  began  to  find  its  way  down  into  the  mass  of  the 

people.     One  of  his  peculiar  doctrines — that 

WicUfitism         \        ^  ,        r   ,  r         1         1  1      1 J 

among  the  it  was  unlawful  for  the  clergy  to  liold  property 
people.  — ^^^g  turned   into  a  belief  that  all  property 

was  unla^vful  ;  and  many  of  the  lower  orders  thought  that 
all  men  should  be  brought  to  one  common  level.  The 
spokesman  of  this  doctrine  was  John  Ball,  who  asked — 

When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span. 
Who  was  then  a  gentleman  ? 

5.  Yet  there  might  not   have   been  any  rising  of  the 
kind  but  for  a  measure  that  parliament  was  forced  to  by  the 


n77-8i.         Rising  of  the  Commons.  65 

straits  they  were  brought  into  regarding  the  means  of 
raising   money    for   the   king.     The   last    parliament   of 
Edward  III.  had  voted  a  poll-tax  of  four  pence  a  head, 
which    was    to  be  paid   by  everyone    in   the      1  i,e  poll-tax 
land.      Again,  in    1379,  a  similar  grant    was     °f '379- 
made,  which,  however,  differed  from  that  of  1377  in  the 
fact   that  each  man  was  rated  according  to  his  rank,  a 
duke    paying   6/.    13X.   4//.  ;    an  ordinary   labourer,   four 
pence.     In   1380  Parliament  enacted  that  for     rheHoiitax 
every  person  above  the  age  of  15  there  should     °*^  '38" 
be  paid  to  the  crown  a  sum  not  less  than  twelve  pence, 
and  not  more  tluin  twenty  shillings.     It  was  this  ta.\  that 
did  the  mischief ;  in  the  June  of  the  next  year  the  com- 
mons of  almost  every  county  sprang  suddenly  to  arms. 

6.  The  outbreak  must  have  been  planned  beforehand, 
for  it  took  place  in   counties  far  apart  from  each  other 
almost  at  the  same  time.     Many  of  the  classes     Rising  of 
which  took  part   in  it  had  little  in  common,     '•'ecom- 

Ti    .  ^1  r    Tr  .  ...  mons,  June 

lictween  the  men  of  Kent,  where  villcnage  1381. 
had  never  been  known,  and  the  men  of  Essex,  who 
clamoured  to  be  freed  from  villcnage,  there  could  be  little 
sympathy.  But  it  would  seem  that  all  who  had  wrongs 
to  complain  of  agreed  to  act  together  to  avenge  or  to 
redress  them.  The  men  of  Kent  rose  under  Wat  Tyler, 
and,  moving  on  London,  burnt  the  Savoy,  the  palace  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  whom  they  specially  disliked.  At  the 
same  time  the  men  of  Essex  and  the  men  of  Hereford- 
shire also  made  for  the  capital  in  separate  bodies.  In  a 
few  days  there  was  hardly  a  shire  that  was  not  in  arms. 
There  was  great  destruction  of  legal  documents,  the  poor 
rustics  hoping  that  thus  might  perish  every  record  of  their 
past  or  present  bondagfe.  King  Richard,  who  was  then 
in  the  Tower,  rode  out  to  Mile  End,  where  the  men  of 
Essex  were,  and  heard  their  demands.  These  were  that 
bondage  and  tolls  at  markets  should  utterly  cease,  a  fixed 
E.  H.  F 


66  Rise  of  the  People.  i Spi- 

rent be  paid  lor  land  in  place  of  villein  senices,  and  a 
general  pardon  be  granted  to  those  who  had  taken  up 
Demands  arms.  All  these  the  king  promised  to  grant  ; 
of  the  and  the  men  of  Essex  went  home.      But  while 

commons.        Richard  was  at  Mile  End  the  Kentish  men 
broke  into  the  Tower  ;  seized,  dragged  out,  and  murdered 
Simon    of    Sudbury,    primate   and   chancellor,   and    Sir 
Robert  Hales,  the  treasurer  ;  and  did  many  other  acts  of 
gross  outrage.     Next  day  Richard  met  the  whole  rout  in 
Smithfield,  and  was  talking  with  them,  when  Walworth, 
the   mayor  of  London,  smote  down  Tyler,  wbj  was  at 
once  killed.     For  a  moment  Richard  and  those  with  him 
were  in  great  danger  ;  but  the  king,  boy  as  he  was,  had 
all  the  fearlessness  of  his  race.     He  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  rebels,  led  them  into  tlie  open  country,  and 
when   the   Londoners  gathered  a  force  and  surrounded 
them,  would   not   allow  them  to  be  harmed.     He  even 
gave  them  the  charters  of  freedom  they  had  asked  for. 
Then  the  men  of  Kent  also  went  home.      In  many  other 
places  throughout  England  deeds  of  outrage  and  blood- 
shed were  done  ;    but  either  the  doers  were  put  down 
with  the  strong  hand,  or  they  made  haste  to  get  home  on 
hearing  what  had  happened  in  London.     Then  an  awful 
vengeance  was  taken  on  the  hapless  rustics.     The  law 
went  to  work,  and  cut  down  its  victims  by  hundreds  and 
thousands.      Even    the  charters  of  freedom  which   had 
been  gi\en  them  were  taken  away  again.     Indeed,  the 
king   had   gone  beyond   his  powers    in   granting   them. 
Stiil,  the  lesson  was  not  l^st  on  the  landholders.     When 
tlieir  fright  had  passed  away  they  gave  over  insisting  on 
villein  service,  and  let  the  movement  towards  freedom 
take  its  course. 


1363-  Wiclif.  6y 


CHAPTER    III. 

WICI.IF. 

At  this  time  the  minds  ot  many  people  were  in  a  restless 
state  on  rehgious  matters  also.  Both  the  authority  of  the 
pope  and  the  influence  of  the  clergy  had  been  ^^^^  ^^ 
for  some  time  on  the  wane  in  Fhigland.  The  Churth 
pope  had  made  himself  unpopular  by  the  ""  °"  ^' 
claim  he  made  to  raise  whomsoever  of  his  Italian  ser- 
vants he  pleased  to  preferments  in  the  English  Church, 
and  many  laws  had  been  passed,  called  statutes  of  Pro- 
visors  or  of  Pnemunire,  to  put  an  end  to  the  evil.  More- 
over, in  1307  the  seat  of  the  papacy  was  shifted  from 
Rome  to  Avignon,  a  place  on  the  French  border.  So 
fdr  seventy  years  evcr>'  pope  was  a  P'renchman,  and  was 
believed  to  be  working  in  the  interests  of  France. 
During  the  greater  part  of  this  time  France  and  England 
were  the  bitterest  of  enemies.  England  was  not  likely 
to  stand  in  much  awe  of  a  P>ench  pope.  Accordingly 
in  1366  she  told  him  that  she  would  never  again  pay  the 
tribute  of  1,000  marks  that  John  had  promised  for  him- 
self and  his  heirs,  which  had  already  not  been  paid  for 
thirty-three  years.  And  even  the  English  clergy  had 
sunk  in  the  respect  of  the  people  since  Recket's  time. 
-Such  a  crime,  for  instance,  as  the  murder  of  Simon  of 
Sudbury,  would  in  the  twelfth  century  have  provoked  a 
cry  of  horror  from  all  parts  ;  in  the  fourteenth  century 
the  actual  murderers  were  beheaded,  and  that  was  all. 
For  this  decay  of  respect  for  them  the  clergy  were  them- 
selves much  to  blame.  The  higher  members  vvoridimess 
of  them  did  not  as  a  rule  do  their  duties  as  of  the 
they  ought.  The  great  Churchmen  loved  to  '^"^'°^' 
add  benefice  to  benefice,  sought  preferment  in  the  state, 
and  largely  forgot  their  spiritual  in  their  worldly  dutieg. 


68  Rise  of  tJie  People.  1363. 

Many  persons  took  orders  only  that  they  might  get 
what  is  known  as  the  '  benefit  of  clergy,'  and  so  not  get 
such  heavy  punishments  for  their  misdoings.  Even  the 
friars,  whose  appearance  in  England  a  century  before 
had  brought  about  a  great  religious  revival,  had  become 
as  selfish  and  as  worldly  as  the  others.  One  little  fact 
would  seem  to  show  that  the  laity  were  beginning  to  be 
Sir  Robert  ^^  learned  as  the  clergy.  In  the  reign  of 
Boiirchier  Edward  III.  the  office  of  chancellor  was  held 
chancellor,  for  the  first  time  by  a  layman,  one  Sir  Robert 
■34°-  Bourchier,  who  was  raised  to  the  pist  in  1340. 

And  we  meet  with  many  other  lay  chancellors  after  Sir 
Robert. 

A  movement  which  had  as  its  aim  the  reform  of  the 
Church  on  these  and  other  points  was  begun  about  1363. 
j^i^^  In  this  John  Wiclif  led  the  way.     Wiclif  was 

wiclif,  a   Yorkshireman  who  had   first  gained  wide 

1324-  4-  fame  for  his  learning.  As  a  teacher  at  Oxford, 
where  he  passed  the  most  active  part  of  his  life,  he  had 
the  means  of  spreading  his  views.  About  1363  he  came 
forward  as  an  assailant  of  the  wealth  and  worldly  great- 
ness of  the  clergy.  To  the  begging  friars  he  had  a 
special  dislike.  He  charged  them  with  cunning,  greed, 
and  worldliness.  After  a  time  he  became  largely  mixed 
up  with  the  political  strife  of  the  day,  being  an  ally  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  who  had  no  real  care  for  reforming  the 
Church,  as  Wiclif  had,  but  who  thought  Wiclif  would  be 
useful  in  helping  on  his  own  ends.  As  yet  the  Reformer 
had  not  made  known — perhaps  had  not  formed — those 
opinions  on  many  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  for 
which  he  was  afterwards  called  a  heretic.  He  was 
severe  upon  the  general  conduct  of  the  clergy,  declared 
that  the  property  in  their  hands  was  held  by  them  only  m 
trust  for  the  poor ;  and  that  if  they  betrayed  their  trust, 
the    State  might   take    it    from    them  ;    and   he    wished 


1363-84.  Wiclif.  69 

5piritual  men  to  keep  themselves  to  their  spiritual  duties. 
Ha  also  became  known  as  an  earnest  foe  of  the  power  of 
the  pope  in  England,  and  was  on  that  account  sent  in 
1374  to  Bruges  to  try  and  arrange  some  settlement  of 
the  papal  claims  with  the  pope's  envoys  there. 

The  higher  clergy  soon  came  to  look  on  Wiclif  as  a 
dangerous   man,  and  more   than   once  sought  to  crush 
him.  In  1377  Courtenay,  the  high-born  bishop  of  London, 
summoned  him  before  an  assembly  of  bishops     wiclifat 
at  St.   Paul's  ;  but  John  of  Gaunt  and  Lord     S'-  Paul's. 
Percy  went  with  him  to  his  trial.     High  words     '^'"' 
passed  between  Percy  and  Courtenay,  and   the  meeting 
broke    up    in  confusion.      A  second  attempt  was  made 
against  him  next  year  at  Lambeth ;  but   it  also  failed, 
because  the  Princess  of  Wales,  King  Richard's  mother, 
took    Wiclif  s   part,   and  the   Londoners  broke  into  the 
assembly.     These  things  show  that  Wiclif  had  a  power- 
ful party  at  his  back.     But  when,  a  few  years  later,  he 
began  to  utter  strange  words  about  one  or  two  of  the 
cherished  doctrines  of  the  Church,  John  of  Gaunt  and  his 
party  shook  him  off ;  and  when  Courtenay  renewed  the 
attack  upon  him  in  13S2,  the  Reformer  was  advised  by  his 
once  steadfast  friend  to  yield.      He  did  not  do  so  w  ithout 
a  struggle  ;  indeed  we  cannot  be  quite  sure  that  he  did 
so  at   all.     Many  of  his    opinions  were  condemned  by 
a  Church  synod   which    Courtenay,  now  pri-     g  ^  ,^ 
mate,  called  at  the  Blackfriars  ;  and  a  crusade     Biackfriars, 
was  begun  by  the  same  prelate  against  Wiclif  s     '^^^' 
friends  at  Oxford.     There  was  a  stiff  contest  at  the  latter 
place,  where  Wiclif  was  very  powerful  ;  but  the  Primate 
won  in  the  end.     Wiclif  explained — some  say,  recanted — 
the  utterances  that  had  given  offence,  and  withdrew  to  his 
parish  of  Lutterworth,  where  no  further  notice  was  taken 
of  him.   He  died  shortly  afterwards  (December  31,  1384). 
He    left  behind  him  one  great  work,  the   whole    Bible 


70  Rise  of  the  People.  1384-98. 

done  into  English  from  the  Latin  text  called  the  Vulgate, 
which  was  the  only  one  then  in  use.  It  was  done  partly 
by  himself  and  partly  by  men  of  learning  among  his 
followers. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    LOLLARDS. 


I.  BUTWiclii's  death  did  not  abate  the  activity  of  his 
party.  Under  the  name  of  Lollards,  they  began  to  make 
Xhe  themselves  very   busy  in  the   affairs  both  of 

Lollards.  Church  and  State,  doing  their  best  to  spread 
among  the  people  new  notions — some  of  them  very  wild, 
such  as  would  be  likely  to  unsettle  the  minds  of  simple 
men.  Theirfavouritebelief  was,  that  without  personal  grace 
no  man,  king  or  priest,  could  have  any  lawful  authority  over 
others.  They  also  declared  that  such  trades  as  minister 
to  pride  and  self-indulgence  were  sinful.  They,  more- 
over, were  bitter  against  many  of  the  doctrinos  and 
practices  of  the  Church,  such  as  transubstantiation,  fmage- 
worship,  and  pilgrimages.  Their  enemies  charged  them 
with  being  sowers  of  sedition  ;  and  certainly  they  seem 
to  have  helped  to  keep  alive  the  general  feeling  of  rest- 
lessness throughout  the  country.  One  fact  about  the 
Lollards  is  worthy  of  notice.  Though  they  were  found 
chiefly  among  the  common  people,  they  had  many  friends 
among  the  higher  classes,  and  even  at  Richard's  court. 
Indeed,  Richard's  first  wife,  Anne  of  Bohemia,  is  said  to 
have  favoured  them.  And  it  is  strange  that  those  cour- 
tiers whose  names  appear  among  the  Lollard  partisans 
were  the  earnest  upholders  of  royal  power  against  those 
that  wanted  to  keep  it  within  bounds,  while  the  higher 
clergy  generally  sided  with  those  who  withstood  the  king. 
In  1398,  when  Richard  struck  a  great  blow  lor  absolute 


1 390- 1 40 1 .  The  L  ollards. 


71 


power,  the  primate  Arundel  was  driven  into  exile  ;  two 
years  later  John  Montague,  earl  of  Salisbury,  a  violent 
Lollard,  was  beheaded  for  having  risen  in  arms  to  restore 
Richard  to  the  throne. 

2.  Yet,  though  Lollardism  was  stronger  among  King 
Richard's  friends  and  the  lowest  class  than  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  House  of  Commons  did  not  forget  its 
quarrel  with  the  pope,  who  still  went  on  defying  the 
statutes  of  Provisors  and  of  Praemunire,  appointing  his 
servants  to  preferments  in  England  just  as  he  thought 
fit.  After  making,  in  1390,  a  useless  effort  to  check  him, 
by  passing  .igain  the  earlier  laws  on  the  subject  with 
more  severe  penalties,  in   1393  Parliament  at     ^ 

1^  .J, 7/-  ...,,  .  Statute  of 

last  enacted  //le  famous  law  of  Prc\?munire.  Primimire, 
By  this  law  anyone  directly  or  indirectly  con-  '^^^' 
cerned  in  bringing  into  the  kingdom  decrees  of  the  pope, 
or  IIuTh,  AS  they  were  called,  or  who  made  himself 
an  agent  in  any  way  of  the  power  claimed  by  the  pope  in 
Kngland,  was  to  be  put  out  of  the  king's  protection  and 
forfeit  his  lands  and  goods.  This  was  the  last  important 
measure  of  the  kind. 

3.  But  if  Parliament  could  set  a  bound  to  papal 
power,  it  could  also  be  stern— indeed  cruel— in  its  dealings 
with  the  Lollards.  Whether  it  was,  as  some  think,  that 
Richard  largely  owed  his  fall,  and  Henry  IV.  his  crown, 
to  the  alarm  of  the  clergy  at  the  spread  oi  Lollardism, 
Henry,  soon  after  his  election  to  the  throne, 

allowed  a  law  of  frightful  severity  to  be  passed  he^'resj^^'"*' 
for  suppressing  heresy.  This  law,  passed  in  '''°'' 
1 40 1,  gave  the  bishops  power  to  arrest  and  try  persons 
suspected  of  heresy  ;  and  if  they  found  them  guilty,  to  hand 
them  over  to  the  sheriff,  ma>  or,  or  bailiff,  who  was  bound 
to  have  them  burned  before  the  people.  A  heretic  how- 
ever, might  once  sa\e  himself  by  recanting  ;  but  there 
was  no  mercy  for  those  who  fell  back  into  heresy  again. 


72  Rise  of  the  People.  1401-17. 

The  ftrst  to  suffer  under  this  law  was  one  William  Sawtree, 
William  a  priest.     It  was  not  finally  done  away  with 

Sawtree.  wx\'i\\  the  first  year  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

4.  Lollardism  hved  on  for  some  time  longer.  In  141 3 
it  boasted  that  it  had  100,000  followers.  But  in  this  year 
It  made  its  last  effort  to  do  something  great,  and  failed 
Sir  John  Utterly.     Henry  V.  was  hardly  crowned,  when 

Oldcastle,        Sir  John  Oldcastle,  the  leader  of  the  Lollards 
'*'^'  at  the  time,  being  a  man  of  great  earnestness 

and  zeal  in  the  cause,  was  brought  before  the  Church 
authorities  on  a  charge  of  having  desigijs  against  the 
peace  of  both  Church  and  State.  He  was  condemned,  but 
managed  to  escape  from  his  prison  in  the  Tower.  A 
strange  affair  followed,  the  facts  of  which  are  not  fully 
known.  The  king  told  his  Parliament  afterwards  that  the 
party  had  planned  a  general  rising  against  society.  If 
this  was  ever  thought  of,  Henry  crushed  it  by  suddenly 
seizing  the  walls  of  London  on  the  night  fixed  for  the 
attempt,  and  then  appearing  with  an  armed  band  in  St. 
Giles's  fields,  where  the  Lollard  muster  was  to  take  place. 
He  found  about  a  hundred  gathered  there,  and  arrested 
Executed,  niost  of  them,  many  of  whom  were  after- 
'417-  wards    hanged.       Oldcastle    got    off   safe  to 

Wales,  but  in  1417  was  retaken,  hanged,  and  burnt. 


BOOK    V. 
THE    WARS  OF  THE  ROSES. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE   HOUSE   OF   LANCASTER. 

I.  The  Warsof  the  Roses  began  in  1455  and  ended  in  14S5  ; 
but  many  of  the  causes  from  which  they  sprang  belong 
to  a   much  earlier  time.     Side  by  side  with  the  steady 


I4S5-  The  House  of  Lancaster.  73 

growth  of  the  power  of  Parliament,  kingship  was  growing 
too.  The  simple  notions  about  a  king,  which  had  satis- 
fied Alfred  and  even  William,  gave  place  to     ^       ,    , 

,,,.  ,-,1,  Growth  of 

much  loftier  ones,  which  looked  upon  the  king  the  notion  of 
no  longer  as  merely  the  first  man  among  the  ^'"s^^'p- 
people,  but  as  having  sometliing  in  his  character  that  lifted 
him  far  above  other  folk  and  gave  him  a  sort  of  sacredness. 
This  change  marked  itself  in  several  ways.  Richard  I. 
began  to  use  the  plural  'we'  in  his  charters  ;  John  took 
the  title  of  '  king  of  England,'  instead  of  the  older  '  king 
of  the  English,'  as  if  he  were  owner  of  every  acre  of  soil 
in  the  country.  Four  days  after  the  death  of  Henry  III. 
his  son  Edward  was  accepted  as  full  king,  though  the 
practice  had  hitherto  been  to  date  the  beginning  of  a  new 
king's  reign  from  the  day  of  his  coronation.  At  last  there 
arose  the  custom  of  allowing  only  a  single  day  to  divide 
a  new  reign  from  the  one  before  it.  Men  had  come  to 
believe  that  the  throne  of  England  was  the  property  of  a 
family,  and  that  on  a  king's  death  his  place  Kingship 
must  needs  pass  to  his  lawful  heir.     There  was     ^'^^^'^'^  o" 

'  as  an 

henceforth  no  form  of  election  to  the  crown  inheritance, 
in  ordinary  cases.  Some  one  person  was  supposed  to  have 
what  was  called  a  right  to  the  crown,  and  that  person 
was  almost  at  once  hailed  as  king.  If,  then,  a  time  should 
come  when  the  reigning  king  had  not  the  supposed  right, 
find  was  of  a  weaker  nature  than  the  man  who  had,  much 
quarrelling,  perhaps  even  civil  war,  might  be  expected. 

2.  Now  this  was  exactly  the  state  of  things  in  1455  ;  but 
to  understand  how  it  all  came  about,  we  must  go  back  to 
a  much  earlier  time.  From  the  reign  of  John  there  was  a 
powerful  party  among  the  barons  who  kept  watch  on  the 
king  and  would  not  let  him  have  his  own 
way  in  all  things.  After  the  rise  of  Parliament  Lan,  asirian 
these  barons  usually  made  the  two  houses,  P"*"^- 
especially  the  lower,  their  place  of  action.     This  party  13 


74  Rise  of  the  People.  1296-1361. 

sometimes  cailed  the  Lancastrian  party,  because  the  Lan- 
castrian family  now  and  then  gave  it  a  leader. 

3.  Thehalf-royal,  and  at  last  altogether  royal,  Housed 
Lancaster  sprang  from  Edmund,  younger  son  of  Henry 
T,    „  III.,  who  had  at  the  same  time  the  earldoms 

Ine  House  ' 

of  of  Lancaster  and  Leicester.     To  these  his  son 

Thomas  added  three  more — Lincoln,  Derby, 
and  Salisbury  ;  and  in  the  reign  of  his  cousin,  Edward 
1 1.,  overshadowed  the  throne  itself  by  the  greatness  of  his 
Thomas,  power  and  influence.     He  led,  but  with  little 

caster,  dted  wisdom  or  public  spirit,  the  baronial  party  in 
'32^-  their  quarrels  with  Edward  11.  and  his  favour- 

ites, Gaveston  and  the  Despensers  ;  but  getting  beaten 
;'.nd  taken  prisoner  at  Boroughbridge  in  1322,  he  was 
iieheaded.  He  left  no  children,  but  his  brother  Henry 
afterwards  received  the  earldom  of  Leicester.  Roger 
Mortimer  then  became  the  head  of  the  Lancastrian  party  ; 
3Qd  as  such  overthrew,  in  1327,  Edward  IL,  and  got 
Ucnry,  Edward  IIL  raised  to  the  throne.    The  fall  of 

c'te°r*!d'ied  Edward  H.  restored  Henry  to  three  more  of 
'  45-  his  brother's  earldoms,  and  gave  him  the  first 

!'■  ace  both  in  the  council  that  was  entrusted  with  the  rule 
o  England  in  the  minority  of  the  new  king,  and  among 
t)  e  nobility.  It  was,  however,  in  the  person  of  his  son, 
a' so  a  Henry,  that  his  house  reached  its  greatest  splen- 
]^..„^  dour  before  it  became  royal.     For  this  Henry 

ra  1  and  won  high  renown  in  the  French  wars,  gaining, 

duke  of  ,        r    TA      ,  1.  J      r  ,       •  c 

lancaster,  as  earl  of  Derby,  the  wonderful  victory  of 
-:ed  1361.  Aubcroche,  in  1345,  over  fearful  odds.  In 
1 35 1  he  was  made  first  duke  of  Lancaster.  He  had  no 
John  of  ^""^  '  ^"^^  ^'^  second  daughter,  Blanche,  mar- 

Gaunt,  ried  John  of  Gaunt,  and  brought  her  husband, 

Lancaster.  upon  her  father's  and  elder  sister's  death, 
1340-99.  jjjg  headship,  honours,  and  lands  of  the  great 

duchy.     Duke  John  left — at  least,  for  a  time     the   path 


I374-S9-  TJie  House  of  Lancaster.  75 

in  politics  usually  taken  by  his  house;  between  1374 
and  1 38 1  he  was  the  champion  of  the  evil  deeds  and 
misrule  at  court  which  the  '  good  parliament '  had  in  vain 
striven  to  curb. 

4.  His  son,  Henry  Bolingbroke,  did  not  follow  in  his 
father's  steps,  but  returned  to  the  ways  of  his  mother's 
forefathers.     He  was,  when  still  very  young,     Henry  Boi- 
found  rn.  the  front  ranks  of  those  who  were     ingbruke, 
trying  to  make  head  against  King  Richard  II. 's     '^     ''''^' 
wilfulness  and  wastefulness.     In  13S6,  being  then  called 
Karl  of  Derby,  he  joined  with  his  uncle,  the   Uuke  of 
Gloucester,  Edward  III.'s  youngest  son,  in  driving  from 
power  and  punishing  Michael  de  la  Pole,  earl  of  Suffolk, 
Robert  de  Vere,  earl  of  Oxford,  and  other  favourites  of 
the  king,  and  forcing  Richard  to  take  as  advisers  men 
more  agreeable  to  the  Commons.     De  la  Pole  was  im- 
peached, found  guilty  of  various  crimes,  and  sentenced  to 
lose  almost   all   he   had,    and    to   be   imprisoned  ;    and 
Richard  had  to  submit  to  a  council  of  regency,  ..   ^ 
which  ruled  in  his  name.     Next  year  he  tried     Regency, 
with  all  his  might  to  throw  off  the  yoke.     But     *^      ^' 
his  plans  failed.     His  friends  were  charged  with  treason. 
An  attempt  made  by  De  Vere,  now  duke  of  Ireland,  to 
free  his  master  from  restraint  by  force  was     .,   ,    . 

^  Kadcot 

defeated  at  Radcot  Bridge  ;  and  Gloucester,  Bridge, 
Derby,  and  the  rest  made  Richard  call  a  par-  '^  ^" 
liament.  In  1388  this  parliament  met,  and  dealt,  under 
Gloucester's  guidance,  so  cruelly  with  the  king's  partisans 
that  it  got  the  name  of  the  'merciless  parliament.'  Many 
it  put  to  death  ;  others  it  banished  ;  all  who  came  within 
its  reach  it  punished  in  some  way. 

5.  For  a  year  longer  Richard  was  king  only  in  name  ; 
the  reality  of  power  was  in  the  hands  of  his  uncle.  But 
in  1380  he  recovered  his  power  by  a  bold  stroke,  and 
for  eight  years  ruled  with  mildness  and  judgment.     He 


"jfS  Rise  of  the  People.  1389-99. 

called  many  parliaments,  seemed  eager  to  please  them, 
took  no  vengeance  on  the  men  who  had  sent  his  friends 
Richird  II.  ^'^  ^^  gallows  or  the  block  and  made  a  slave 
as  a  consti-  of  himself,  and  gave  office  to  men  trusted 
king,  by  the  nation.     Durmg  these  years  the  Com- 

1389-97-  mons  were  as  meek  and  ready  to  please  the 

king  as  they  had  before  been  stern  and  desirous  to  curb 
him  ;  and  the  current  of  affairs  went  smoothly  on. 

6.  In  1397  Richard  entered  on  a  new  course.  The 
year  before  he  had  gone  to  France  to  marry  the  French 
Richard  II  l^'rio's  daughter,  Isabella.  It  is  thought  that 
as  a  despot,  he  was  so  taken  with  the  charms  of  absolute 
'^  ^  ^^'  power  as  seen  at  the  French  court  that  he 
resolved  to  try  and  set  it  up  in  England.  In  any  case 
most  of  his  former  enemies  were  suddenly  seized  and 
thrown  into  prison  by  his  orders,  Gloucester  being  sent 
to  Calais.  Before  a  parliament  called  for  the  purpose 
the  earls  of  Arundel  and  Warwick  were  charged  with 
treason  ;  the  former  was  beheaded,  and  the  latter  doomed 
to  imprisonment  for  life.  Gloucester  died,  perhaps  by 
violence,  at  Calais  ;  and  the  primate  Arundel,  brother  of 
the  earl,  was  impeached  and  banished.  To  crown  all,  next 
year  the  same  parliament  laid  the  liberties  of  the  nation 
at  the  king's  feet.  It  voted  him  a  tax  on  wool,  woolfells, 
and  leather  for  life,  and  handed  over  its  powers  to  a  body 
of  twelve  peers  and  six  commoners,  all  friends  of  the 
king.     Richard  was  now  master  of  England. 

7.  Henry,  earl  of  Derby,  had  taken  the  king's  side  in 
this  affair,  and  was  created  duke  of  Hereford  for  his  ser- 
Ranishment  vices.  Soon  after,  having  accused  Mowbray, 
l/ihf""^  duke  of  Norfolk,  of  speaking  treasonable 
broke,  1398.  words  against  the  king,  he  was  challenged  by 
Mowbray  to  mortal  combat.  But  just  as  the  two  were 
about  to  close,  they  were  called  before  the  king,  who  was 
present,  and  banished  the  kingdom — Mowbray  for  life, 
Henr}' for  ten  years.     This  was   in    1398  ;  and   in    1399 


ll 


»399-  The  How^e  of  LatirasUr.  77 

John    of     Gaunt     died.      Richard    at    once     took     tlic 
Lancaster  estates    to    himself,    though    he  had   given    a 
solemn   promise    to  his  cousin  to  leave   them  untouched. 
He   then  went   to   Ireland.     During  his  absence  Henry 
Bolingbroke   landed  with  a  few  followers  at     „ 
Ravensptu-g,  and  being  joined  by  the  Percies     come?  back- 
and  the  Nevilles,  easily  overthrew  the  men  to     '^'^ 
whom  Richard  had  entrusted  his  kingdom.  The  king, com 
ingback  from  Ireland,  was  made  captive  in  North  Wales, 
and  after  being  forced  to  issue  from   Cliesler  writs  for  a 
new  parliament,  was  carried   to   London.     Richard  then 
resigned    the   crown.     Ne.\t    day   (September  30,    1399) 
the    parliament   met,   and,  after   listening   to     Deihrone- 
thirty-three  charges  agamst  Richard,  declared     '"?"'  °^ 
him  deposed.    Thereupon  Henry  of  Lancaster'    an'.^  cieciion 
claimed  the  now  vacant  throne  in  a  set  speech     Se^*^"?^' 
'  as    being    descended    in   the  right    line    of     '399- 
descent  from  Henry  IIL'— words  that  seemingly  accepted 
as  true   a  foolish   tale  that    Edmund   of   Lancaster  had 
really  been  the  elder  son  of  Henry   ]]L,  but   had  been 
set  aside  because  he  was  humpbacked--a  notion  that  his 
surname,  Crouchback,put  intomen's  heads.   Hisclaimwas 
admitted,  and  he  became  king.     Hut  at  thaftime  what- 
ever right  descent  couid  give  to  the  vacant  throne  clearly 
belonged  to  the  young  earl  of  March,  great-grandson   of 
Lionel,  duke  of  Clarence,  third  son  of  Edward  IIL' 

'  Table  showing  dpscendants  of  Edward  III. 
Edward  III. 


I  I  , 

Lionel,  3rd  son  :  John  of  Gaunt.  4th  son  :  Edmund,  5th  son 

PhiHppa.  Henry  IV. 

I  I 

Roger  Mortimer.  Henry  V. 


I  I  Henry  VI 

II 

Richard,  duke  of  York 


Edmund  Anrie  Mortimer,  who  married  Richard,  earl  of  Cambridge 

Mortimer    earl  of  March^  1 


7S  Rise  of  the  People.  1399-1421 

8.  Henry  IV.  reigned  for  fourteen  years, and  had  many 
troubles  therein.  The  friends  of  Richard  rose  in  arms, 
j^^  jy  The  Percies  again  and  again  rebelled  ;  and 
king,  Wales,  under  Owen  Glendower,  defied  Henry's 
1393-1413-  power  for  several  years.  But  Richard's  friends 
were  destroyed.  Richard  himself  died  an  unknown 
death  in  prison.  Harry  Hotspur,  one  leader  of  the 
Percies,  was  beaten  and  killed  at  Shrewsbury  in  1403 
Hotspur's  father,  the  earl  of  Northumberland,  met  the 
same  fate  at  Bramham  Moor  in  1408  ;  and  Owen 
Glendower  was  overcome  at  last  by  Henry's  valiant  son, 
Henry  of  Monmouth. 

9.  In  141 3  Henr)' of  Monmouth  himself  became  king  as 
Henry  V.  His  reign  is  almost  entirely  taken  up  with  the 
„        ,,         events  of  the  great  French  war  into  which  he 

Henry  V.  ^ 

kiiij^,  threw  himself  with  his  v/hole  force.  Yet  even  he 

I4I3-I42Z-  ^^,^g  once  called  on  to  deal  with  a  plot  against 
his  crown  and  life.  In  1415,  while  he  was  at  Southampton 
making  ready  to  start  for  France,  he  learned  that  his 
cousin  Richard,  earl  of  Cambridge,  grandson  of  Edward 
III.,  through  that  king's  hfth  son,  Edmund,  duke  of  York, 
was  conspirijig  with  other  men  of  rank  to  make  the  Earl 
of  March  king.  Richard  and  the  other  conspirators  were 
tried,  found  guilty,  and  put  to  death  ;  but  the  affair 
showed  that  there  were  still  sleeping  forces  in  England 
that  might  some  tinie  be  roused  by  events  into  fearful 
activity. 

CHAPTER  II. 
HENRY   VI. 

I.  Henry  of  Windsor  succeeded  his  father  in  1422.  His 
reign  of  thirty-nine  years  was  little  more  than  a  minority 
from  beginning  to  end;  at  first  his  youth,  afterwards  his 
gentleness  of  character  or  weakness  of  intellect,  made 


t/« 


Henry  VI.  79 


liim  unfit  for  his  post.  The  State  thus  became  a  battle- 
field for  rival  nobles,  each  of  whom  strove  for  the  mastery, 
merely  from   love  of  power  or  a  desire  to  see     „        ,,, 

■;  r  Heiir)'  VI. 

his  enemies  humbled.      England,  in  fact,  was     •<'"«, 
clearly  on  her  way  to  some  great  struggle  such      '* 
as  the  Wars  of  the  Roses — a  grand  fight,  not  for  principles 
but  for  rnen,  in  which  the  whole  question  would  be  who 
should  rule  England,  not  how  England  should  be  ruled. 

2.  Henry  s  reign  was  a  time  when  great  families  had 
more  of  their  way  in  English  state  affairs  than  they  had 
ever  had  before.  The  king  was  helpless  in  qhe  great 
the  hands  of  his  uncle,  Humphrey,  duke  of  fat"'''". 
Gloucester,  the  Beauforts,  the  De  la  Poles,  the  Staffords, 
the  Nevilles,  and  the  family  of  Richard,  duke  of  York. 
Duke  Humphrey  was  the  youngest  son  of  Humphrey, 
Henry     IV.,    and    as    the     nearest    of    kin     ^.'keoi 

Oloucesier, 

m  England  to  the  young  kmg  while  his  died,  1447. 
brother  Bedford  was  absent  in  France,  as  he  gene- 
rally was,  he  thought  the  first  place  in  the  govern- 
ment to  be  naturally  his  due.  Parliament,  too,  had 
made  him  *  Protector  of  the  Realm  and  Church  of  Eng- 
land ' — a  title  which  he  took  very  unwillingly,  for  he  longed 
to  be  regent — and  gave  him  a  council  of  nineteen  to  con- 
trol his  actions.  But  in  using  even  this  scanty  measure 
of  power  he  found  himself  thwarted  by  Henry     ,-.    ^.    , 

,,  .  ■'  -'       Cardinal 

Heaufort,  bishop   of  Winchester,  then    chan-     Beaufort, 
cellor  and  a'terwards  cardinal.     Beaufort  was     ^'^^'  "'''^' 
the  ablest  of  John   of  Gaunt's  three  sons   by  Catherine 
Swinfotd,  all  of  whom  were  born  before  wedlock,  but  were 
made  legitimate  by  royal  patent  and  an  Act  of  Parliameo*. 
in    Richard  Il.'s  reign.'     His  eldest  brother.     The  House 
John,     was    created    earl    of    Somerset,    his     of  Beaufort, 
youngest.  Thomas,  duke  of  E.xeter.     Henry  Beaufort  had 
thus  a  powerful  connexion.     Gloucester  and   he  were  the 

'  See  p   93. 


8o  Rise  of  the  People.  1425-45. 

bitterest  foes.  They  fought  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
with  their  tongues  at  the  council-board  and  elsewhere  ; 
while  their  followers  attacked  one  another  with  stouter 
weapons  in  the  streets  of  London,  on  London  Bridge, 
and  at  the  gates  of  the  Tower.  Bedford  worked  hard  to 
make  them  friends,  and  in  1425  brought  them  together 
.  n   ,-        .     in  a  parliament  held  at  Leicester,  where  thev 

Parliament  f^  '  .' 

of  bats,"  went  through  the  forms  of  a   reconciHation. 

423.  ^j^^  name  by  which  this  parliament  is  known 

in  history — '  parliament  of  bats ' — is  a  proof  of  the  cha- 
racter of  the  time  and  of  the  spirit  in  which  Gloucester 
and  his  uncle  were  made  to  seek  each  other's  friendship  ; 
for  the  servants  of  Members  having  been  forbidden  to 
carry  arms  to  this  meeting,  brought  with  them  clubs  in- 
stead. Afterwards,  when  clubs  also  were  denied  them,  > 
they  hid  stones  and  bits  of  lead  in  their  sleeves.  After 
this  Beaufort  left  England  for  a  short  time  ;  but  on  his 
return  the  war  was  carried  on  again  as  bitterly  as  ever. 
Gloucester  worked  hard  to  ruin  his  rival,  but  in  spite  of 
great  advantages  failed  in  the  end. 

3.  When  men  are  in  such  a  temper  they  readily  find 
subjects  to  quarrel  about.  Beaufort  was  in  favour  of 
peace  with  France  while  England  had  still  conquests  to 
keep.  Gloucester  wished  to  carry  on  the  war  until  the 
\Vhole  of  France  should  be  conquered.  This,  indeed, 
became  the  chief  point  of  dispute  between  them  ;  and 
Beaufort  generally  got  the  better  of  his  rival  in  every 
part  of  it.  In  1440  he  was  able  to  carry  the  council  with 
him  when  he  supported  the  prayer  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans — 
a  prisoner  in  England  ever  since  the  battle  of  Agincourt— 
that  he  might  be  allowed  to  ransom  himself.  In  1444  he 
was  in  favour  of  making  a  truce  with  France,  and  in 
1445,  of  King  Henry's  wedding  Margaret  of  Anjou  even 
at  the  cost  of  giving  up  Anjou  to  ber  father  Rene'  ;  and 
he  prevailed  in  all. 


I447-I450.  Henry  VI.  8 1 

4.  ^wo  years  later  (1447)  both  Gloucesterand  Beaufort 
passed  away  witliin  two  months  of  each  other,  and  left 
their  places  to  others.  The  nobility  now  split  into  two 
factions— that  of  Queen    Margaret,  of  which     ,,.  „ 

^       ,        ,,    ,  ,    ,  ^  William  de 

De  la   Pole,  duke   of   Sulfolk,  and    Edmund     la  I'oie, 
Beaufort,  duke  of  Somerset,  were  the  leading     Snfroik[ 
men,  and  that  of  Richard  Plantagenet,  duke     '^'""^-  ''♦^o- 
of  York,  whose  fast  friends  were  Richard  Neville,  earl  of 
Salisbury,  and  his  son,  Richard  Neville,  earl  of  Warwick. 
These  three  Richards  were  bound  together  by  the  very 
strongest  family  ties,  for  Cicely,  the  sister  of  the  elder 
and  aunt  of  the  younger  of  the  Nevilles,  was  the  wife  of 
Plantagenet. 

5.  The  appearance  of  this  prince  marks  the  near  ap- 
proach of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  He  was  the  son  of 
ihe  earl  of   Cambridge  who  died  by  the  axe     ^-^  , 

in  141 5,  and,  more  important  still,  of  Anne  Pl-intacenet 
Mortimer,  sister  of  the  youth  who  in  1399  york.d^icd, 
stood  next  to  the  throno  after  Richard  II.  ^'^'^■ 
As  this  youth  and  his  only  brother  were  now  dead  with- 
out issue,  Richard  of  York  inherited  whatever  right  to 
the  crown  the  being  first  in  lineal  descent  from  Edward 
III.  could  give;  for  his  ancestor,  Lionel,  was  Edward  lll.'s 
third  son,  while  Henry  VI.'s  ancestor,  John  of  Gaunt,  was 
Edward  III .'s  fourth  son.  Yet  if  the  usage  of  earlier 
times  were  to  settle  the  question,  the  lawful  right  was 
clearly  on  Henry's  side.  His  grandfather  had  been 
chosen  king  by  parliament,  and  more  than  one  Act  had 
settled  the  crown  in  his  family,  which  had  now  been  the 
kingly  line  for  more  than  half  a  century.  The  whole 
English  nobility  had  sworn  fealty  to  him.  But  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  usage  of  earlier  times 
could  not  settle  such  a  question  when  such  a  king  as 
Henry  VI.  sat  on  the  throne  of  Edward  I. 

6.  At  first  York  does  not  seem  to  have  thought  of  claim- 
E.H.  n 


82  Rise  of  tJic  People.  1450. 

ing  the  crown.  He  merely  longed  for  power,  .ooked  on 
York's  aims,  it  as  his  due,  and  was  in  a  rage  at  seeing  it  in 
in  the  hands  of  Suffolk  and  Somerset.  He  and  his  allies, 
the  Nevilles,  watched  the  course  of  events,  eager  to  get  a 
chance  of  crushing  the  men  whom  they  hated.  Suffolk 
and  Somerset  had  become  very  unpopular — Suffolk  be- 
cause he  was  the  envoy  who  made  the  bargain  to  give  up 
Anjou  and  Maine,  Somerset  because  he  was  in  command 
when  Normandy  was  lost.  In  1450  an  mipeachment  over- 
threw Suft'olk,  who  was  then  lawlessly  seized  and  beheaded 
at  sea  when  he  was  on  his  way  to  exile  on  the 

SuRblk  _.  ,r,  !••  -Til 

inurderedat  Contment.  York  was  at  this  tmie  in  Ireland  as 
iea,  1450.  Lieutenant ;  and  there  is  no  proof  that  he  had 
any  share  in  bringing  about  Suffolk's  fall  and  death. 

7.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  general  uneasiness  which  prevailed, 
that  after  this  event  the  commons  of  Kent  rose  in  arms 

,  .  under  one  John  Cade,  and  marched  upon 
ing  in  Kent,  London.  They  are  said  to  have  been 
''*^°'  frightened  at  a  report  that  the  court  intended 

to  punish  severely  the  men  of  Kent  because  the  ships 
that  had  waylaid  Suffolk  had  sailed  from  Kent,  and  the 
unlucky  nobleman's  headless  body  had  been  thrown 
ashore  on  The  coast  of  Kent.  Their  rising  had  the  usual 
fate  of  such  enterprises.  After  some  successes,  a  victory 
at  Sevenoaks,  in  which  Stafford,  who  commanded  against 
Cade,  was  killed,  a  short  stay  in  Southwark,  and  an  occa 
sional  visit  to  London,  the  rebels  were  partly  beaten, 
partly  persuaded  to  give  up  their  enterprise.  Cade  tried 
to  escape,  but  was  overtaken  and  kilJed,  and  a  few 
others  were  put  to  death.  But  there  was  little  blood  shed 
after  the  affair  was  over. 

8.  Somerset  now  took  Suffolk's  place,  and  for  three 
years  ('1450-53)  kept,  with  the  queen's  help,  the  reins  of 
power  in  his  own  hands.  He  had  little  peace,  however, 
during    this    time.     In    1450   York  came  back  from   Ire- 


I4SO-I453-  Hairy  VI.  83 

land,  entered    London  at  the   head  of  4,000  men,  and 
making  his  way  into  Henry's  presence,  com-     Ejn,u„j 
plained  of  m;)ny  wrongs  and  slights  done   to     Beaufort, 
him.     Henry  answered  mildly,  and  promised     Som.i^t, 
to  call  a  parliament.      He  kept   his  promise.     '^^'^^'  '■•ss- 
The  commons  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  York  ; 
and  Somerset  was  sent  to  prison.     It  was  even  moved 
that  York  should  be  declared  heir  to  the  crown,  as  no 
chi  d  had  been  as  yet  born  to  the  king.     Vet  in  a  short 
time  Somerset  was  released,  and  was  as  high  in  the  king's 
favour   as  ever,   whilst   York   withdrew  to  his  castle  of 
Ludlow.     In   1452  York  was  persuaded  to  visit  the  king, 
and  then  was  made  prisoner.   But  Somerset  was  afraid  to 
go  any  farther  against  one  so  powerful,  and  having  forced 
him  to  make  a  public  statement  of  his  loyalty,  allowed 
him  to  go  free. 

9.  Next  year  (1453;  the  queen  gave  birth  to  a  son,  and 
Plantagenet's  hopes  of  a  peaceful  succession     PHnce 
to  the  throne  came  to  an  end  ;  for  between     '••^"ardof 

J  II  .       ,  I-.incastcr 

1447  and  1453,  Henry  had  been  the  only  bum.  1433. 
living  descendant  of  Henry  IV.,  on  whose  heirs  the 
crown  had  been  settled  by  act  of  parliament  in  1406. 
If  he  were  to  die  without  issue,  York  could  not  ha\e  been 
kept  out  of  the  succession.  It  is  possible  that  York's  dis- 
like of  Somerset  may  have  arisen  from  a  suspicion  that 
he,  as  next  in  descent  from  John  of  Gaunt  after  the  king, 
had  also  an  eye  to  tiie  crown.  But  two  months  before 
the  birth  of  his  son,  the  king  fell  ill,  and  lost  his  wits  ; 
and  Someiset  was  driven  from  power.  The  council  sent 
him  to  the  Tower,  and  empowered  York  to  open  Pailia- 
ment  as  the  king's  lieutenant.  Henry's  intel 
lect  seemed  to  have  utterly  gone  ;  and  the  loseTi"^"'^' 
Lords  (as  yet  the  Commons  were  not  allowed  "'"■'^'  '•♦53- 
to  have  a  voice  on  such  a  question  as  the  Regency)  made 
York  Protector  of  the  realm.     He  did  not  enjoy  the  office 

c  3 


84  Rise  0/  the  People.  HSS 

long  In  1455  the  king's  reason  suddenly  came  back  to 
him.  York  ceased  to  be  Protector  ;  and  Margaret  and 
Somerset  returned  to  power.  York  lost  even  his  govern- 
ment of  Calais  ;  and  his  friends  were  driven  from  office. 
Such  treatment  he  felt  to  be  unbearable  ;  and  accordingly 
he  marched  with  the  earls  of  Salisbury  and  Warwick  on 
London,  and  began  the  Wars  of  the  Roses. 


CHAPTER  III. 

WARS   OF   THE    ROSES    AND    HOUSE   OF    YORK. 

I.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  were  so  called  from  the  York- 
ists having  taken  a  white,  the  Lancastrians  a  red  rose  as 
their  badge.  The  first  battle  of  the  war  was  fought  in  1455, 
at  St.  Albans,  the  last  in  1485,  near  Bosworth.  Between 
General  thesc  two  cvcnts  as  many  as  ten  other  battles 

theVVars  of  '•^°'^  place.  They  were  different  in  many 
the  Roses.  ways  from  other  wars.  They  were  wars  of 
noble  houses.  The  mass  of  the  people  took  no  great 
part  in  them  ;  and  thus,  though  more  blood  was  shed  by 
them  on  the  field  and  on  the  scaffold  than  at  any  other 
time  in  England,  the  nation  did  not  suffer  very  much 
from  them.  No  institutions  were  endangered  by  them. 
The  life  of  the  country  went  on  as  usual.  Ever)'  English- 
man dwelt  secure  under  the  shelte'r  of  the  laws.  But 
they  made  great  destruction  among  the  noble  houses. 
The  ranks  of  these  were  already  thinned  by  the  troubles 
of  the  days  of  Edward  II.  and  Richard  II.  In  the  Wars 
of  the  Roses  they  well-nigh  perished  altogether,  for  in 
these  wars  little  mercy  was  shown  by  either  party.  The 
men  of  rank  who  fell  into  the  hands  of  their  foes  after  a 
defeat  were  sent  straight  to  the  scaffold.  In  this  respect 
they  are  a  great  contrast  both  to  the  wars  of  the  thirteenth 


M55-J459-  Wars  of  the  Roses.  «5 

and  to  those  of  the  seventeenth  century.  One  unhappy 
result  followed  from  them,— the  king's  power  became  al- 
most the  only  strong  thing  in  the  state.  Standing  no  longer 
in  awe  of  the  noble  class,  who  had  often  curbed  his 
authority,  he  was  able  for  a  time  to  work  his  will  without 
any  check. 

2.  On  reaching  St.  Albans,  York  found  that  the  kingand 
Somerset  were  lying  with  a  force  inside  the  town.     After 
a  short  pause   he  attacked  them,  and  by  the     pj  , 
help  of  Warwick,  gained  a  complete  victory.     St.  Albans, 
Somerset  and  three  other  lords  were  killed.     '''"■ 
York  went  on  to  London,  canying  the  king  with  him,  and 
at  once  took  the  management  of  affairs  to  himself     Later 
in  the  year  the  king  fell  ill  of  his  former  disease  ;  and 
York  became  again  Protector.     In  a  few  months  Henry 
again  recovered,  and  York  again  ceased  to  be  Protector. 
But  he  still  continued  to  be  the  foremost  man   in  the 
State  under  the  king. 

3.  It  was  a  very  uneasy  time,  however.  The  other 
faction  was  watching  eagerly  for  a  chance  against  the 
Yorkists.  In  1458  the  two  parties  made  a  great  show  of 
being  reconciled  ;  but  parted  only  to  hate  each  other 
more  than  ever.  At  last  the  storm  burst.  How  it  came 
ibout  cannot  be  e.xactly  known  ;  but  in  1459  '^e  Yorkists 
and  Lancastrians  were  again  in  arms  against  each  other. 
After  a  victory  at  Bloreheath,  Salisbury  joined     ...  , 

his  troops  to  those  of   Vork  and   Warwick  ;      Klore'heath, 
and  the  combined  force  awaited  the  approach     '''^^" 
of    the   king's    army   at    Ludford,    near    Ludlow.      But 
frightened  at  a  part  of  their  force  going  over  to  Henry, 
the  leaders  suddenly  fled,  and  sought  shelter     pught  of 
—York  rn  Ireland,  Salisbury  and  Warwick  at     j^'°'''^'st 
Calais,  of  which  place  the  latter  was  governor.     iTsg^'"' 
A  parliament,  held  the  same^yearat  Coventry,  proclaimed 
them  all  traitors. 


86  R  ise  of  the  People.  1 460- 1 46 1 . 

4.  In  the  following  summer  (1460)  there  was  another 
sudden  change.  Warwick  and  Salisbury  landed  at  Sand- 
wich, and  marched  upon  London,  gathering  troops  as 
they  went.  Finding  the  king  gone,  they  followed  on  his 
Fi^htof  track,  and  overtook  him  at  Northampton. 
Northamp-       Here  there  was  another  battle  ;    Henry  was 

ton,  1460.  ,  J        ,  .  1  .,         1  1    , 

beaten  and  taken  prisoner,  while  the  duke  ot 
Buckingham,  three  other  peers, and  three  hundred  knights 
and  gentlemen  fell  on  the  Lancastrian  side.  A  meeting  of 
parliament  at  Westminster  followed,  at  which  Richard  of 
York  claims  York  laid  before  the  lords  a  formal  statement 
ihe  crown,  of  his  claim  to  the  crown.  The  lords  were 
'''°°'  very  unwilling  to   take  up  the  question  ;  but 

on  being  pressed  for  an  answer  they  said  that  York's 
claim  was  well  founded,  but  advised  that  Henry  should  be 
allowed  to  keep  the  crown  during  his  life.  This  was 
agreed  to  :  Henry  was  to  remain  king,  and  York  was  to 
succeed  on  Henry's  death.  But  Margaret,  who  had  fled 
to  Scotland  after  the  battle  of  Northampton,  crossed  the 
border  and  began  to  make  head  in  the  north.  York  and 
Salisbury  marched  to  crush  her,  but  verrturing  into  the 
Fight  of  field  with  a  very  small  force,  were  themselveB 

vl^k^fiain'  crushed  at  Wakefield  on  December  30,  1460. 
1460.  York  was  among  the  slain  ;    Salisbury  was 

beheaded  by  the  victors  the  next  day. 

5.  The  quarrel  was  now  taken  up  by  York's  eldest  son, 
Edward,  earl  of  March,  who  on  hearing  of  his  father's 
death,  gathered  round  him  the  wild  spirits  of  the  Welsh 
Marches,  always  loyal  to  his  house,  and  moved  upon 
Fi  htsof  London.  When  on  his  way  he  had  to  fight 
Mortimer's  at  Mortimer's  Cross  to  free  his  army  from  tlie 
St.  Albans,  Lancastrian  force,  led  by  Jasper  Tudor,  which 
'*^''  kept  following  him.  He  beat  Tudor,  and 
pushed  on  to  London.  Whilst  these  things  were  going 
on,  Margaret  and  her  partisans  were  also  on  their  way  to 


14^.1-1463.  Line  of  York.  87 

London,  and  before  Edward  came  up  had  fought  with 
and  overcome  Warwick  at  St.  Albans,  and  recovered  the 
king's  person.  But  Edward  was  able  to  join  his  xncn 
with  what  remained  of  Warwick's  army  ;  and  even  Mar- 
garet was  not  daring  enough  to  attack  this  new  torte. 
She  fell  back  northwards  ;  Edward  then  entered  London 
in  triumph,  and  was  hailed  as  king  (March  1461). 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LINE   OF   YORK. 

I.  Edward  IV.  reigned  for  22  years  (1461-1483)  ;  for  five 
months  of  which    he    was,  however,   an   exile  from   his 
kingdom.     The  first  event  of  his  reign  was     ^ ,       ,  ,,. 
the  bloodiest  fight  of  the  war  ;    for  the   Lan-     king,  1461- 
castrian   leaders    still    held    the    north  ;    and     '■*  ^' 
Edward  and   Warwick   hastened  against   them  with   an 
army  of  49,000  men.     On   Palm  Sunday  the     ^^  ^j     ^ 
rival  forces  met  at  Towton,  in  southern  York-     Towton, 
shire.     The  slaughter  that  ensued  surpassed     '■* 
anything  of  the  kind  that  had  ever  taken  place  in  England. 
Forty  thousand  are  said  to  have  fallen  on  the  field.     The 
Yorkists  won  the  day.     Henry,  Margaret,  their  son   Ed- 
ward, Somerset,  and  the  other  noble  friends  of  the  Red 
Rose  made  for   Scotland,  while   Edward  entered  York. 
Again  there  was  a  meeting  of  parliament,  in  which  Ed- 
ward's kingship  was  fully  recognized.     The  three   Lan- 
castrian  kings  were  declared  usurpers  ;  and  the  leading 
Lancastrian  nobles  were  proclaimed  traitors. 

2.  For  more  than  nine  years  (i  461- 1470)  Edward  was 
able  to  keep  the  crown  he  had  won  without  meeting  with 
any  serious  reverse.  He  had  one  sleepless  foe — Mar- 
garet.    She  sought  allies  in  Scotland  and  in  France,  and 


88  Rise  of  the  People.  r 464- 1469. 

twice  led  an    armed  force   into  northern  England.     She 

was  beaten  in  both  attempts  ;  and  in  the  second — which 

,,  •  ,  was  made  in  1464 — her  friends  were  twice  over- 
Margaret  s  ^  ^ 

invasions  of  thrown  by  John  Neville,  marquis  of  Monta- 
-ngan  .  g^g^  ^  brother  of  Warwick's.  In  1465  the 
hapless  Henry,  who  had  lain  in  hiding  for  some  time,  was 
found  in  Yorkshire  and  brought  to  London. 

3.  Indeed,  Edward's  throne  would  have  been  quite 
secure  had  he  not  driven  Warwick  into  the  ranks  of  his 
foes.  How  the  deadly  quarrel  between  the  king  and  his 
too   powerful   subject   came   about   cannot  be  certainl) 

known;  but  it  was,  in  all  likelihood, a  result  of 

Warwick  '  '  '  ' 

and  Edward  Edward's  marriage  with  Elizabeth  Woodville 
quarre  .  widow  of  Sir  John  Grey,  whom  he  had  met 

by  accident,  and  secretly  wedded,  in  1464.  The  lady  had 
many  kinsfolk — children,  father,  brothers,  sisters.  These 
gathered  round  Edward's  throne,  rose  high  in  royal  favour, 
and  seemed  to  have  thrust  aside  those  who  had  stood 
oy  the  Yorkist  cause  in  i'.s  darkest  hour,  and  won  the 
king  his  crown.  A  coldness  sprang  up  between  Edward 
and  Warwick.  The  king  was  jealous  of  a  subject  whose 
influence  was  greater  than  his  own,  and  who  was  popu- 
larly called  '  the  king-maker.'  The  subject  was  in  a  rage 
with  the  king  on  account  of  real  or  fancied  wrongs.  The 
cloud  that  had  risen  between  the  cousins  grew  blacker 
and  blacker.  Moreover,  Warwick  had  given  offence  to 
Edward  on  a  point  on  which  he  felt  very  strongly.  He 
had,  in  1469,  married  Isabella,  the  eldest  of  his  daughters 
(he  had  no  male  children),  to  the  king's  eldest  living 
brother,  .George,  duke  of  Clarence,  who  was  as  yet  the 
next  male  heir  to  the  throne.  .  The  breach  went  on 
widening,  until  at  last  we  find  Warwick  and  Clarence 
exiles  in  France,  and  making  an  alliance  with  Margaret 
to  restore  Henry  to  the  throne. 

4.  Accordingly,  Warwick,  bringing  his  son-in-law  with 


1470-1478.  Line  of  York.  89 

him,  in   the  autumn   of  1470,  sailed   from    France   and 
landed   at    Dartmouth.     There  was  a   general    rush   of 
fighting  men  to  his  standard.     With  these  he     Warwick 
went  northwards   in   search  of  Edward,  who     u'"°''^\„ 

,       ,  ...  Henry  v  I., 

had  gone  thither  to  put  down  a  rising.  1470. 
Edward  finding  himself  almost  without  a  follower,  his 
men  having  gone  over  in  great  numbers  to  Warwick,  fled 
to  King's  Lynn,  and  thence  sailed  away  to  Holland. 
He  sought  a  refuge  with  Charles  the  Bold,  duke  of 
Burgundy,  who  was  the  husband  of  his  sister  Margaret. 
Thus  the  Red  Rose  triumphed  once  more.  Henrv  was 
drawn  from  the  Tower  and  set  again  on  the  throne.  He 
did  not  enjoy  it  long  ;  for  in  a  few  months  Edward  re- 
appeared, having  landed  at  Ravenspurg  T; March  1471); 
marching  southwards,  he  was  joined  on  the  way  by  the 
fickle  Clarence,  and  soon  found  himself  in  London. 
Thence  issuing,  he  engaged  Warwick  at  Battles  of 
Barnet  on  Easter  Sunday,  and  overthrew  him.     .'t'^''"*'  ^"** 

.  '  lewkes- 

Warwick  and  his  brother  Montague  were  bury,  1471. 
killed.  Another  victory,  won  three  weeks  later  at  Tewkes- 
bury over  Margaret,  who  had  landed  in  England  the  very 
day  of  Warwick's  death,  left  Edward  apparently  without 
a  single  person  to  fear ;  for  the  lad  Edward  was  slain 
at  Tewkesbury,  Henry  shortly  afterwards  died  the 
mysterious  death  usual  with  dethroned  kings  in  England, 
and  Margaret  was  a  prisoner. 

5.  Little  notice  need  be  taken  of  the  rest  of  the  events 
of  Edward's  reign.     In  1475  he  invaded  France,  but  only 
to  make  the  peace  of  Pecquigny  with  Lewis 
XL,  in  which  Lewis  a-reed  to  pay  him  75,000     Pecquisny, 
crowns  at   once  and  50,000   yearly.     It    «as     ''*^^' 
then  that   Lewis  ransomed   Margaret  of  Anjou,  for  she 
was  his  kinswoman.      In  1478  George  of  Clarence  was 
tried    before   the    Lords,   found   guilty   of  treason,   and 
suffered  death  in  the  Tower  ;  and  between  1480  and  1483 


90  Rise  of  the  People.  j^s-,. 

there  was  a  war  with  Scotland  in  which  the  king's 
youngest  brother,  Richard,  duke  of  Gloucester,  recovered 
Edward  IV.  Berwick  from  the  Scots  (it  had  been  lost  in 
dies,  1483.  ,^51)  for  the  last  time.  In  April  1483,  King 
Edward  died. 

6.  He  left  behind  him  two  sons,  Edward  and  Richard, 
the  one  twelve,  the  other  ten  years  old.  Richard  of 
Edward  V.,  Glouccstcr  was  their  only  surviving  uncle, 
'''^''-  and  therefore  their  natural  guardian.   Richard 

was  an  able  man,  but  crafty  and  unprincipled  ;  and  there 
Richard  '^  little    doubt   that  soon  after  his  brother's 

duke  of '  death  he  thought  of  seizing  the  crown  for  him- 
self In  any  case  the  history  of  the  so-called 
reign  of  Edward  V. — which  lasted  for  only  two  months 
and  a  half— is  a  mere  record  of  the  bold  strokes  Richard 
made  to  clear  his  path  to  the  throne  and  his  stealthy 
approaches  along  it.  When  Edward  IV.  died,  Gloucester 
was  in  the  north,  and  young  Edward  at  Ludlow,  in  the 
keeping  of  Earl  Rivers,  his  mother's  brother,  and  Sir 
Richard  Grey,  her  son.  On  hearing  of  the  king's  death, 
both  Richard  and  Edward  set  out,  each  with  his  friends, 
for  London.  They  met  on  the  way  ;  and  Richard  had 
Rivers  and  Grey  arrested  and  sent  northwards.  On 
reaching  London  he  placed  the  lad  in  the  Tower,  to  be 
kept  there  until  the  day  fixed  for  his  coronation,  and  was 
himself  named  Protector  of  the  kingdom.  The  queen's 
kinsmen  had  been  greatly  disliked  by  the  old  nobility, 
who  looked  on  them  as  upstarts  ;  and  though 
Richard's  doings  with  regard  to  them  had  no  colour  of 
law  or  justice,  no  one  spoke  against  them.  Next,  Lord 
Hastings,  a  man  not  likely  to  be  shaken  in  his  loyalty  to 
Lo  d  H  s  ^^  children  of  his  late  master.  King  Edv^ard, 
tings  mur-  \vas  One  day  beheaded  within  the  Tower 
grounds  on  Richard's  mere  order.  At  the 
same  time  Miuton,  bishop  of  Ely,  and  Lord  Stanley  were 


Line  of  York. 


91 


92  Rise  of  the  People.  1483- 

laid  hold  of  and  kept  in  prison.  The  queen  dowager, 
who  had  fled  for  refuge  to  a  holy  place,  was  persuaded 
to  give  up  her  son,  York  ;  and  he  was  at  once  sent  tp 
join  his  brother  in  the  Tower.  Rivers,  Grey,  and  their 
friends  were  put  to  death  in  the  north  ;  and  armed  men 
from  Yorkshire  began  to  muster  in  London.  Then  one 
Dr.  Shaw  was  put  up  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  to  tell  the  people 
that  King  Edward  had  never  been  really  married  to  Dame 
Elizabeth  Grey,  as  he  had  befoje  been  contracted  to  a 
Lady  Eleanor  Butler  ;  ind  that  his  children  were  there- 
fore not  his  lawful  heirs.  At  last  the  duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, himself  a  descendant  of  Edward  III.  through  that 
duke  of  Gloucester  who  died  at  Calais  in  1397,  went  to 
the  Guildhall  and  made  before  the  mayor  and  citizens 
there  assembled  a  full  statement  of  Richard's  title.  It 
mej  with  some  show  of  approval  ;  and  next  day  Richard 
was  asked  to  take  the  crown  by  a  body  of  men  acting 
en  behalf  of  what  they  called  '  the  three  Estates  of 
the  Realm  of  England  ; '  and  after  a  little  display  or 
coyness,  he  accepted.  A  parliament  had  been  called 
for  that  day  ;  and  it  is  likely  that  many  of  those  who 
offered  the  crown  were  members  of  the  Lords  or  Com- 
mons. The  petition  stated  that  King  Edward's  children 
were  'bastards,'  Clarence's  attainted,  and  that  Richard 
was  therefore  the  undoubted  heir  of  Richard,  duke  of 
York. 

7.  Richard  III.  reigned  for  little  more  than  two  years. 
One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  have  his  nephews  murdered, 
p,.  ,     ,  The  truth  of  the  story,  that  they  were  smothered 

III.,  1483-  in  the  Tower  by  Miles  Forest  and  John 
'^  ^'  Dighton,  leaves  little  to   be  explained  in  the 

history  of  the  day  ;  its  falsehood  would  leave  a  good  deal. 
He  was  next  called  on  to  deal  with  a  plot  and  rising  in 
which  his  former  friend,  Buckingham,  took  an  active 
part.     The  rising  failed  ;  and  Buckingham  was  taken  and 


1483-1485.  Line  of  York.  93 

beheaded.     But  the  plan  that  Buckingham   had  tried  to 
carry  out  lived  on,  and  led  before  long  to   Richard's  de- 
struction.    There  was  then  living  in  exile  in  Britanny  one 
Henry     Tudor,   earl   of   Richmond,   who,    owing  to  the 
havoc  that  war  and  murder  had  made  of  the  Lancastrian 
family,  had  become  its  foremost  member  of  English  birth. 
He   was   the  son   of  Margaret   Beaufort  and     Henry 
Edmund    Tudor,   and  inherited,  through  his     "^u^or. 
mother,  the  headship  of  the    House  of  Beaufort,  sprung 
from  John  of  Gaunt  and  Catherine  Swinford.'     Richard's 
crimes  had  lost  him  the  love  of  many  of  the  old  friends 
of  his  house  ;  and   an   alliance  was  now   made   between 
these  and  the  remaining  friends  of  the  Lancastrian  cause. 
It  was  agreed  between  them  that  their  long  feud  should 
be  healed  by  the  marriage  of  Henry  Tudor  with  Elizabeth 
of  York,  the  daughter  of  Edward    IV.-,  and  that  at  the 
same  time  Richard  should  be  assailed  by  an  invasion  from 
abroad  and  a  rising  in   England.     The  first     B.->tile  of 
attempt    came   to    nothing ;    but    the   second     amkus"^' 
succeeded.     In   the  summer  of   14S5,    Henry     '4«s- 
landed  at   Milford   Haven  in  South  Wales,  and   after  a 
somewhat  roundabout  march,  engaged  Richard  at  Bos- 
worth  on  August  22.     Richard  fell  on  the  field,  and  with 
him  the  Plantagenet  line  of  kings  ended. 


'  Table  showing  the  royal  descent  of  the  Tudors. 

John  of  Gaunt  (by  Catherine  Swinford). 


John  Beaufort,  earl  of  Somerset.      Henry  Beaufort     Thomas,  d.  of  Exctpr 
j (cardinal). 

John,  duke  of  Somerset.  Edmund,  duke  of  Somerset 

I  (killed    I    1455). 

Margaret,  m.  Edmund  Tudor.  |  | 

I  Henry  Edmund 

I  (behe.ided  1464).         (beheaded  1471) 

Henry  Tudor,  earl  of  Richmond. 


94  Rise  of  the  People. 

We  have  now  got  to  the  end  of  a  very  stirring  time. 

Many  things  were  done  in  it  which  we  must  disapprove 

of;  but  one  good  thing  was  gained  by  the  English  people 

during  it.  This  was  the  winning  of  the  liberties 

Summary.  ,  .   ,  .  ,     .  ,  ,       ,  - 

v.'hich  we  now  enjoy.  It  is  true  that  the  km? 
was  quite  as  strong  at  the  end  of  this  time  as  he  had  been 
at  the  beginning.  .So  many  noble  families  were  swept 
away  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  that  the  kiug  was  no  longer 
afraid  of  the  nobility  and  was  able  to  do  almost  anything 
he  liked.  But  the  work  done  by  Simon  de  Montfort  and 
Edward  1.,  like  all  true  work,  did  not  die.  Parliament 
still  lived  ;  and  though  for  a  long  time  it  was  well  content 
to  let  the  king  have  his  way  in  most  things,  yet  it  still 
kept  all  its  powers.  Without  its  consent  no  money  could 
be  lawfully  taken  from  the  people  and  no  laws  could  be 
made. 

The  wars  with  France  and  Scotland  had  a  good  deal 
to  do  with  making  Parliament  so  strong.  In  theinselves 
these  wars  were  barren  of  everything  but  evil;  but  indi- 
rectly they  did  much  good.  For  from  Parliament  only 
could  the  king  get  the  means  of  carrying  them  on.  Par- 
liament had  therefore  to  be  called  very  often ;  and  thus 
the  power  of  the  Commons  became  great.  So  it  came 
about  that  the  one  abiding  result  of  these  two  hundred 
and  seventy  years  was  that  the  people  had  found  out  the 
way  of  governing  themselves. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    TABLE. 


The  events  are  here  given,  not  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  found 
in  the  book,  tut  in  the  order  in  which  they  happened. 


1215.  The  Great  Charter  is  granted 
i2i6.      Lewis  of  France  comes  to  England 

King  John  dies  ..... 

Hknry  III.,  1216-1272. 

1216.  The  Great  Charter  is  shortened  and  confirmed  . 

12 17.  The  French  are  beaten  at  Lincoln  and  at  Sandwich. 
The  Treaty  of  I-anibeth  is  made 

1219.      Wilham  Marshall  dies      .... 
225.      The  Great  Charter  is  given  its  final  shape     . 

Gascony  is  won  back  from  the  French  by  William 
Longsword         ..... 
1232.       Hubert  de  Burgh  falls  from  power    . 

Simon  de  Montfort  comes  to  England     . 
1236.       King  Henry  marries  Eleanor  of  Provence    . 

1238.  Simon  de  Montfort  marries  Eleanor,  King  Henrj's 

sister  .  .  .  .  . 

1239.  Edward,  afterwards  Edward  I.,  is  born  . 

1242.       King  Henry  tries  to  win  back  Poitou,  but  is  beaten 

by  Lewis  IX.  at  TailUbourg 
1346.      1  he  word  '  Parliament    '"'  first  used  in  England 


FAGS 

6 

7 
8 


8 
9 

TO 
12 

12 

40 
12 
15 
13 

15 


40 


96  Chronological  Table. 


PAC 


1254.       King  Henry  accepts  from  the   Popp  the  kingdom 

of  Sicily  for  his  son  Edmund    ...  14 

Knights  of  the  shire  are  called  to  Parliament  .       1 1 

1258.       Parliaments  meet  at  London  and  Oxford             .  15 

Provisions  of  Oxford  are  drawn  up  .             .  .16 

The  Barons  take  the  Royal  power  to  themselves  16 

1263.  The  Barons'  war  begins    ....  16 

1264.  Lewis  of  France  issues  the  Awa-ti  of  Amien';  .       xy 
Si.non  de  Montfort  beats  Henry  at  Le'.va            ,  17 

126^.       The  towns   and  boroughs  send  representatives  to 

Parliament  .             .             .             .             .  .18 

Simon  de  Montfort  is  beaten  and  killed  at  Evesham     19 

1266.  King  Henry  grants  the  Dictum  de  Kenilworth    .  19 

1267.  Ely  is  taken  ;  and  the  Barons'  war  ends  .  .  20 
1270.  Edward  goes  on  a  crusade  ...  .  20 
1272.       Henry  UL  dies           .             .             .             .  .20 

Edward  L,  1272-1307. 

1272.      The  English  nobles  swear  fealty  to  Edward  while 

still  away  from  England     .  .  .  .74 

1274.       Edward  comes  back  to  England  ...  30 

1277.       Edward  invades    Wales.     Llewellyn    yields  to    his 

power  .  .  .  .  .  25 

1282.  Llewellyn  and  his  brother  David  rebel.      Edward 

again  invades  Wales.     Llewellyn  is  killed       .  26 

1283.  A  parliament  is  held  at   Acton    Burnel.     David   of 

Wales  dies  a  traitor's  death  .  .  21,  26 

1284.  Wales  is  placed  under  the  crown  of  England  .  27 
1286.      Alexander  in.  of  Scotland  dies         .             .             .29 

1290.  The  Treaty  of  Brigham  is  made  ...  30 
The  maid  of  Norway  dies  .  .  •  .  •  3'^ 
The  Jews  are  driven  from  England 

1291.  Edward  is  asked  to  judge   between  the  claimants 

of  the  Scottish  throne        .  .  .  .30 

1292.  Edward  gives  judgment  in  favour  of  John  Baliol  31 

1294.  Philip    of   France  wins    Guienne  from  Edward  by 

falsehood.      War  breaks  out  with  France  .       40 

1295.  Wales  rebels,  but  is  soon  overcome  by  Edward  .  27 
The  first  full  parliament  meets           .             .             .22 


Chro7iological  Table.  97 


1295.  Scotland  and  France  make  an  alliance  against 

Edward              .....  32 

1296.  The  War  of  Scottish  Independence  begins   .            .  33 
Battle  of  Dunbar  is  fought  ;  and  Scotland  is  con- 
quered by  Exlward         ....  33 

1 297.  The  Scots  rise  in  arms  under  William  Wallace  .  ^4 
Edward  crosses  to  Flanders  to  make  war  on 

Philip  of  France            ....  34 

The  English  are  beaten  at  Cambuskenneih   .            .  34 

The  Confirmation  of  the  Charters  is  granted       .  23 

1298.  King  Edward  again  invades  Scotland.     Wallace 

is  beaten  at  Falkirk            .             .             .             ■  3A 

The  war  with  France  ends                         .  41 

1303.  King  Edward  invades  Scotland  for  the  third  time  .  35 
Scotland  is  again  conquered         •             •             •  35 

1304.  Stirling  is  besieged  and  taken  by  Edward     .             .  35 

1306.  Robert  Bruce  takes  up  arms  in  Scotland  .  36 
Robert  Bruce  is  beaten  at  Methven  .             .             .36 

1307.  Edward  I.  dies     .....  37 

Edward  II.,  1307-1327. 

1307.  Exlward  II.  leaves  the  war  with  Bnice  .         .  -37 

1308.  Piers  Gaveston,  Edward's  favourite,  makes  himself 

hateful  to  the  barons,  and  is  banished               .  74 

1309.  Gaveston  is  allowed  to  come  back     .  .  .74 

1310.  Edward  consents  to  the  appointment  of  the   Lords 

Ordaincrs  .  .  .  -58 

Edward  leads  an  army  into  Scotland  without  success  37 

1312.      Gaveston  is  put  to  death  by  the  Earl  of  Lancaster 

and  other  barons     .  .  .  .  -74 

1314.       Robert  Bruce  overthrows  Edward'sarmy  at  Bannock- 
burn       ......  38 

1318.  Berwick  is  won  back  to  Scotland  by  Robert  Bruce  38 

1319.  A  truce  for  two  years  is  made  with  Bruce     .             .  38 

1322.  The  Lancastrian  party  is  beaten  at  Boroughbridge.  74 
Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  is  put  to  death  .  ~\ 
ISdward  invades  Scotland.     Bruce  invades  England  38 

1323.  A  trucefor  thirteen  years  is  made  with  Robert  Bruce  .  38 

1324.  Troubles   arise   between    Edward   and    Charles  of 

France  about  Guienne                    .            .            •  a\ 
E.  H.                                           H 


98  Chronological  Table. 

PAOK 

1325.  Queen   Isabella   plots  with    Roger    Mortimer    for 

Edward's  overthrow      ....  42 

1326.  Isabella  and  Mortimer  land  in  England        .  .       43 

1327.  Edward  II.  is  dethroned  and  his  son  Edward  set  up 

in  his  place        .....  74 

Edward  III.,  1327-1377. 

1327.  The  Scots  break  the  truce  and  invade  England  .       38 
Edward  II.  is  murdered  in  Berkeley  Castle 

1328.  Peace  is  made  with  Scotland  at  Northampton  .       40 

1329.  Robert  Bruce  dies              ....  40 

1330.  Roger  Mortimer  is  overthrown  and  hanged  .  43 
1332.  War  breaks  out  in  Scotland  again  .  .  43 
'fSSS-      The  Scots  are  beaten  by  Edward  at  Halidon  Hill ; 

and  Berwick  is  again  taken  by  the  English      .  43 

"337-      The  Hundred  Years'  War  begins       .  .  .44 

1340.       King  Edward  wins  the  naval  battle  of  Sluys       .  45 

1342.      Jane  of  Flanders  is  besieged  in  Hennebon,  but  is 

relieved  by  the  English  under  Sir  Walter  Manny        46 

1346.  King  Edward  and  his  son,  the  Black  Prince,  win  a 

great  victory  at  Cressy        .  .  .  -47 

The  Scots  are  beaten  at  Neville  s  Cross  .  .  48 

1347.  King  Edward  takes  Calais  from  the  French  .  48 
1349.  The  Great  Plague  sweeps  over  England  .  49,  64 
1356.  The  Black  Prince  wins  the  fight  of  Poitiers  .  50 
1357-      John,   King  of  France,    is  brought   a   prisoner  to 

England              .....  50 

1360.  The  Great  Peace  is  made  at  Bretigny            .             .  50 

1361.  The  Great  Plague  comes  back  to  England  .  49 
1364.  King  John  of  France  dies  in  England  .  .  sx 
1366  Edward  refuses  to  pay  tribute  to  the  Pope  .  67 
1367.      The   Black   Prince  invades  Castile  ;  and  overthrows 

Henry  of  Trastamare  at  A'a/'«riz     .  .  -Si 

1369.  The  Hundred  Years'  War  breaks  out  afresh        .  52 

1370.  The  Black   Prince  orders  the   massacre  of  the  men 

of  Limoges  .  .  .  .  -Si 

1372-3.  The  English  lose  ground  in  F'rance  .  .  60 

1376       The  Good  Parliament  tries  to  reform  the  government.  .    60 

The  Black  Prince  dies  .  .  .  .61 


Chronological  Table.  C)C)^ 


PAGE 


6S 


1377.      A  poll-tax  IS  laid  on  the  people    ...  65 

Edward  III.  dies       .  .  .  .  52,  62 

Richard  II.,  1377-1399. 

1380.  Another  poll-tax  is  laid  on  the  people  .  .       65 

1381.  The  Commons  rise   under   Wat   Tyler  and  other 

leaders  •••.._ 

1382.  The  first  law  against  heresy  is  passed  .  .       71 
1384.      John  Wiclif  dies                •            ...  69 

1386.  The  Duke  of  Gloucester  forms  a  party  against  the 

King.     Tiie  royal  powers  are  given  to  a  Council 

of  Regency  .  .  .  .  •7'; 

1387.  Richard  tries  to  regain  his  power.      His  friends  are 

scattered  at  Radcot  Bridge       .  .  .  7c 

1388.  The  Wonderful,  or  Merciless,  Pariiament  puts  many 

of  Richard's  friends  to  death  .  ,  -75 

1389.  King  Richard  takes  back  the  power  into  his  own 

hands     ......  -g 

1393-  The  Law  of  Praemunire  is  passed      .             .  .71 

1394-  I^-ing  RicliardJeads  an  army  to  Ireland  .             .  77 
The  Lollards  become  troublesome    .             .  -70 

1397.  King  Richard  takes  vengeance  on  his  enemies,  and 

makes  himself  a  despot  ...  76 

1398.  Henry  Bolingbroke  and  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  quarrel 

and  are  banished     . 
X399.       Henry  Bolingbroke  comes  back  to  England.  Richard 

is  dethroned,  and  Henry  is  chosen  king  .  77 


76 


71 


THE  LANCASTRIAN  KINGS. 
Henky  IV.,  1399-1413. 

1401.  A  law   is   pjissed   for  burning  heretics.      William 

Sawtree  is  burnt      ..... 
Owen  Glendower  takes  up  arms  in  Wales  .  78 

1402.  The  Percies  beat  the  Douglas  at  Homildon  Hill     .       78 

1403.  The    Percies   rebel   against    King   Henry,    but   are 

beaten  at  Shrewsbury    ....  78 

1405.      Scrope,  ,\rchbishop  of  York,    is  beheaded  by  the 

order  of  King  Henry  .  .  .78 


100  Chronological  Table. 

PAGB 

1408.       Percy,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  is  killed  at  Bram- 

ham  Moor  .....  78 

1413.      Henry  IV.  dies  .  .  .  .  .78 

Henry  V.,  1413-1422. 

14x4.       King  Henry  attaclis  the   Lollards.     Their  leader. 

Sir  John  Oldcastle,  escapes       ...  72 

1415.       King  Henry  makes  war  on  France,  takes    Harfleur, 

and  wins  the  fight  of  A^incourt    .  .  53.  S4 

1417.  King  Henry  again  invades  France,  and   begins  the 

conquest  of  Normandy  ...  54 

1418.  Rouen  is  besieged  by  King  Henry    .  .  -54 
Sir  John  Oldcastle  falls  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 

and  is  put  to  death        ....  72 

1419.  King  Henry  finishes  his  conquest  of  Normandy      .       54 
John,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  is  murdered  ;  and  his  son, 

Philip,  joins  the  English  ...  54 

1420.  Henry  and  Charles  VI.  of  France  make  the  Peace  of 

Troves        .  .  .  .  .  -54 

1421.  The  English  are  beaten  by  the  French  at  Beaugd 

1422.  Henry  V.  dies  .  .  .  .  -55 

Henry  VI.,  1422-1461. 

1422.      Charles  VI.  of  France  dies  •  •  •  SS 

1424.  The  English  beat  the  French  at  Vemeuil. 

1425.  The  '  Parliament  of  Bats '  tries  to  reconcile  Beaufort 

and  Gloucester  .  .  .  .  8».. 

1429.  Orleans  is  besieged  by  the  Earl  of  Salisbury  .       51 
Jeanne  D'Arc   drives  the  English  from  before  Or- 
leans ;  takes  Jargeau  ;  beats  the  English  at  Fatay, 

and  conducts  CharlesV  1 1,  to  Rheims  to  be  crowned       55 

1430.  Jeanne  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Burgundians         55,  56 

1431.  [eanne  is  burnt  at  Rouen  ...  56 
Henry  VI.  is  cro\vned  at  Paris           .             .             ■       5? 

1435.  A  General  Congress  is  held  at  Arras.    Philip  of  Bur- 

gundy and  Charles  VII.  become  friends           .  57 

Duke  of  Bedford  dies             .             .             .  '57 

1436.  The  English  lose  Paris     ....  57 
1444.      A  true        mad    with  France              .             .  -57 


Chronological  Table.  lOl 

rAGE 

i^S-  King  Henry  marries  Margaret  of  Anjou  .  .     57,80 

1447.  The  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  Cardinal  Beaufort  die        8i 

1449-50.  The  French  win  back  Nomiandy  from  the  English        57 

1450.  The  Duke  of  Suffolk  is  banished,  but  is  murdered 

on  his  way  to  the  Continent  .  .  .82 

The  men  of  Kent  rise  in  arms  under  John  Cade  8a 

1451.  The  French  win  Guienne  from  the  English  .  .       57 

1453.  Talbot,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  is  beaten  and  killed  at 

Castillon  .....  57 

King  Henry  loses  his  wits      .  .  .  -83 

1454.  The  Duke  of  York  is  made  Protector  of  the  king- 

dom       ......  84 

1455.  King  Henry  recovers  .  .  .  -8^ 
The  first  battle  of  .SV.  Albans  is  fought,  and  the  Wars 

of  the  Roses  begin         ....  85 

1458.  The  Yorkists  and  Lancastrians  make  a  public  jjro- 

fession  of  friendship  .  .  .  -85 

1459.  The  Yorkist  liaders  flte  from  England    .  .  85 

1460.  The  Yorkist  leaders  come  back  and  drive  the  Queen 

and  her  fi lends  from  the  kingdom  .  .       86 

The  Duke  of  York  is  killed  at  Wakejield  .  86 

1461.  The  battles  of  Mortimer's   Cross  and  Second  St. 

Albatis  are  fought  .  .  .  .86 

Edward,  Earl  of  March,  becomes  King  .  .  87 


THE    YORKIST  KINGS. 
Edward  IV.,  1461-1483. 

1461.       King  Edward  wins  the  battle  of  Tou'ton  and  chases 

the  Lanc.isirian  leaders  from  England       .  .       87 

1464.       The  Lancastrians  make  head  in  the  North,  but  are 

beaten  at  Hedgtley  Moor  and  Hexham  .  88 

King  Edward  marries  Dame  Elizabeth  Grey  .       88 

1466.       Henry  VL  is  taken  and  brought  to  London         .  88 

1.^69.      Troubles  break  out  against  King  Edward  in  several 

parts  of  England    .  .  .  .  -89 

1470.  The  Earl  of  Warwick  goes  over  to  the  Lancastrians, 
chases  Edward  from  England,  and  places 
Henry  VL  upon  the  throne      .  .  .88,  89 


I02  Chronological  Table. 


PAGK 


147 1.       Edward  comes  back  to  England  and  beats  the  Lan- 
castrians at  Barnet  and  Tewkesbury          .             .  89 
Henry  VI.  dies  in  the  Tower        ...  89 

1474.  King  Edward  raises  benevolences 

1475.  King  Edward  invades  France,  but  makes  peace  at 

Pccquigny  .....  89 

1478.       George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  is  put  to  death  .  .  89 

1480.      War  breaks  out  with  Scotland     ...  90 

1482.  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  takes  Berwick  .  90 

1483.  Edward  IV.  dies  ....  90 

Edward  V.,  April  to  July  1483. 

1483.  Lord  Hastings,  Earl  Rivers,  and  other  friends  of 
Edward  V.,  are  put  to  death  The  crown  is 
offered  to  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester    .  .       90 

Richard  III.,  1483-1485. 

1483.  Edward  V.  and  his  brother  are  murdered  .  9a 
Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond,  agrees  to  marry 

Elizabeth  of  York  .  .  .  .  -93 

Buckingham  rises  in  arms,  but  is  taken  and  beheaded      9*^ 

1484.  Parliament  makes  many  good  laws 

1485.  Henry  Tudor  lands  in  Wales.     Richard  iS  beaten 

and  killed  near  Bosworth  .  .  .  •       98 


I03 


THE  PLANTACENET   KINGS   OF  ENGLAND. 


Hknky  11. 
(Sprung  bolh  from  William  the  Conqueror  and  from  Eduiuod  Ironside.) 

I  I  Eleanor,  ui.  K.  of  Ca:>iile. 


Clanche,  ni.  Lewis  of  t'nuic« 
Henry  111.  (1216-1272)  | 

KicharU,  king  of  Germany. 


Edward  I.  (1272-1307)  | 

I  Edmund,  E.  of  Lancaster. 

Edward  II.  (1307-1327)  Henry,  E.  of  Lanca.si.er. 

I  I 

Edward  III.  {vyiq-i-yiT)  Henry,  U.  of  Lancaster. 


Kdward  (Black  Prince        Lionel,  D.  of  Clarence.  John  of  Gaiutt,  whom.  Blanche. 

Richard  I H,\yn-\Z'i       Philippa.  //wjry /K.  (1399-1413). 

I  1 

Roger  Mortimer.  Henry  V.    1413-1422), 

I  I 

Anne  Mortimer.  Henry  yi.  (1422-1461). 

I  I 

Richard,  D.  of  York.  Edward  (killed  at 

Tewkesbury). 


Edward  I  y.  (1461-1483). 

I 


Edward  K.  (1483). 


Elizabeth  of  York,  who  married 
Henry  Tudor. 


RLkard  III.  1483-1485). 


INDEX    OF    PERSONS. 


ALE 

Alen^on,  Count  of,  47,  48 
Alexander  III.,  King  of  Scots,  29 
Alfred,  King,  73 

Amicia,  Countess  of  Leicester,  15 
Anne  of  Bohemia,  70 
Artevelde,  James  Van,  45 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  47 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  76 
Arundel,  Primate,  71,  76 


Baliol,  John,  29,  31,  32,  33,  36 

Baliol,  Edwnrd,  43 

Ball,  John,  64 

Beaufort,  Edmund,  81,  82,  S3,  84,  85 

Beaufort.  Henry,  79,  80 

Beaufort,  John,  79 

Beaufort,  Margaret,  93 

Be.'iufort,  Thomas,  79 

Beauvais,  Bishop  of,  56 

Bedford,  John,  Duke  of,  55-57,  79,  80 

Blanche  of  Castile,  7,  9 

Blanche  of  Lancaster,  74 

Boniface  of  Savoy,  13 

Bourchier,  Sir  Robert,  68 

Bruce,  David,  40,  43,  4S 

Bruce,  Robert,  31 

Bruce,  Robert,  35,  36,  37,  38,  40 

Buchan,  Countess  of,  37 

Burgh,  Hubert  de,  7,  9,  12 

Butler,  Lady  Eleanor,  92 


Cade,  John,  82 
Canute,  King,  29 
Catherine,   Queen,  54 
Charles  of  Bluis,  46 
Charles  of  Navarre,  44 
Charles  the  Bold,  89 
Charles  the  Fair,  41,  42 


EUS 

Charles  V.,  51 

Charles  VL,  45,  52,  54 

Charles  VIL,  55-57 

Clare,  Gilbert  de,  16,  19 

Clare,  Richard  de,  16 

Clarence,  George,  Dulie  of,  89,  go 

CliMurd,  Riiger,  25 

Comyn,  the  Red,  3 

Cornwall,  Earl  of,  18 

Courtenay,  Archbishop,  69 

Cressingham,  33,  34 


D'Arc,  Jeanne,  55,  56 

David,  Earl  ol   Huntingdon,  31 

David  of  Wales,  25,  26 

De  la  Pole,  William,  81 

Despensers,  The,  74 

Dighton,  John,  92 

Douglas,  Sir  \Villiam,  34 


Edmund,   Ear!  of  Lancaster,   14,  41 

74.  77 
Edward  I,  King,  3,  4,  16-38,  41,  73 
Edward  IL,    King,  26,  27,  30,  37-43, 

58,  59.  74 
Edward  IIL,  King,  38,  41,  53,  59, 

62,  65,  68,  74 
Edward,    Black  Prince,  47,  49-52,  60- 

62 
Edward  IV.,  King,  58,  87,  88 
Edward  V.,  King,  90 
Edward,  Son  of  Henry  VI.,  87,  89 
Eleanor,  Countess  of  Leicester,  15 
Eleanor  of  Provence,  13 
Elizabeth  of  York,  93 
Elizabeth  Woodville,  Queen,  88,  99 
Eric,  King  of  Norway,  30 
Eustace  the  Monk,  9 


Index  of  Persons. 


FIT 

f  itzwalter,  Robert,  9 
Forrest,  Miles,  92 
Frankton,  Adam,  26 


Gaveston,  Piers,  74 

Gifford,  26 

Glendower,  Owen,  27,  78 

Gloucester,  Thomas,  Duke  oi,  75-6,  92 

Gloucester  Humphrey,  Duke  of,  79-81 

Grey,  Sir  John,  88 

Grey,  Sir  Richard,  90,  92 

Gualo,  Papal  Legate,  8,  9 


Hales,  Sir  Robert,  66 

Hastings,  Lord,  90 

Hastings,  John,  31 

Henry  IL,  King,  8 

Henry    HI.,    King,  3,  8,  12-18,  20,  40, 

41,  7J..  74.  77 
Henry  IV.,  King,  27,  52,  71,  75-7,  79, 

83 
Henry  V.,  King,  27,  52,  71,  75,  76,  77, 

79.  83 
Henry  VL,  King,  45,  54-7,  78-81,83, 

85 
Henry,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  74 
Henry,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  74 
Henry  of  Trastamare,  51 
Hereford,  Earl  of,  23 
Honorius,  Pope,  8 
Hotspur,  Harry,  78 


Innocent  IIL,  Pope, 6,  7,  8 
Isabella  of  Ajigouleme,  13 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Edward  IL,  43,  44 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Richard  II. ,76 


Jane  of  Brittany,  46 

Jane  of  Flanders,  46 

John,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  54,  56 

John,  King,  3,  5-9,  12-14,  33 

John,  King  of  Prance,  50 

John  of  Gaunt,  51,  52,  60,  62 

John  of  Lorn,  37 

Lancaster,  Thomas,  Earl  of,  74 

Langton,  Stephen,  6 

Latimer,  Lord,  60-62 

Lewis,  Emperor,  45 

Lewis  VIll  ,  of  France,  7-10,  40 

Lewis  IX.,  Saint,  17,  41 


PER 

Lewis  XL,  89 

Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  53. 
Llewellyn,  21,  24-26 
Lollards,  The,  70,  72 
Longsword,  William,  40 
Lyons,  Rickird,  60,  62 


Macdufl  of  Fife,  32 

Malcolm.  King  of  Scots,  29 

Manny,  Sir  Walter,  46 

Marche,  Count  of  La.  13 

Margaret,  Duchess,  89 

Margaret  of  Anjou,  57,  80,  81,  84,  86- 

89 
Margaret  of  Norway,  30,  31 
Marshall,  Wllliaiii,  8,  12 
Monlfort,  PMeanor  de,  25 
Montfort,  Henry  de,  19 
Montfort,  Simon  de,  4,  15,  20 
Montfort,  Simon  tic,  the  younger,  19 
Mortimer,  Anne,  77,  Si 
Mortimer,  Edmund,  Earl  of  M.rch,  77 
Mortimer,  Edmund,  26 
Mortimer,  Roger,  i2,  43,  74 
Morton,  John,  90 


Neville,  Cicely,  81 

Neville,  Isabella,  38 

Neville,  John,    Marquis  of  Montaru, 

88-89 
Neville,  Ralph,  Earl  of  Westmoreland, 

48.  77 
Neville,   Richard,    Earl  of   Salisburj-, 

81,  84-86 
Neville,  Richard,  Earl  of  Warwick,  ?i, 

84-80 
NorfolK,  Earl  of,  23 
Norfolk,  Duke  of,  76 
Northampton,  Earl  of,  47 


Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  72 
Oliphant,  William,  35 
Orleans,  Duke  of,  80 
Ormsby,  Justiciar,  33,  34 
Oxford,  Earl  of,  75 


Pedro,  the  Cruel,  51 

Perche,  Count  of,  9 

Percy,  Earl  of  Northumberl.-vnd,  78 

Percy,  Henry,  48 

Percy,  Lord,  69 

Perrers,  Alice,  60,  61 


Index  of  Persons. 


PET 

Peter  de  la  Mare,  60-62 
Peter  of  Savoy,  13 
Philip  of  Burgundy,  54,  56,  57 
Philip  of  Valois,  43,  44,  47,  50 
Philip  the  Fair,  32,  41 


Ren<?  of  Anjou,  80 

Richard  I..  King,  73 

Richard   11.,   King,  52.  58-62,  65,  66, 

69-71.  75.  76,  79 
Richard  III.,  90,  92 
Richard,  Duke  of  York,  57,  77-84 
Richard,  Earl  of  Cambridge,  77,  78,  81 
Richard  of  Bordeaux,  52,  60,  61 
Rivers,  Earl,  90,  92 
Roches,  Peter  de,  12 


Salisbury,  Earl  of,  71 

Sawtree,  William,  72 

Shaw,  Dr.,  92 

Simon  of  Sudbury,  66.  67 

Stafford,  82 

Stafford,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  93 


WIL 

Stanley,  Lord,  90 
Suftblk,  Duke  of,  82 
Suffolk,  Earl  of,  55 
Swinford,  Catherine,  79,  93 


Talbot,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  55,  57 

Tudor,  Edmund,  93 

Tudor,  Henry,  Earl  of  Richmond,  o^ 

Tudor,  Jasper,  86 

Tyler,  Wat,  65,  66 


Valence,  Ajiner  de,  36 
Valence,  William,  13 


Wales,  Princess  of,  69 
Wallace,  William,  34,  35 
Walworth,  William,  66 
Warenne,  Earl,  33,  34 
Wiclif,  John,  64,  68,  69 
William  of  Wykeham,  61 
William  the  Conqueror,  73 
William  the  Lion,  39 


INDEX    OF    PLACES. 


ABB 


GUI 


Abbeville,  47 
Aberdeenshire,  28 
Acton  Burncl,  »i 
Agincourt,  53,  80 
Amiens,  17 
Ajiglesey,  25,  26 
Anjou,  48,  80,  8a 
Arras,  57 
Auberoche,  74 
Avignon,  67 
Ayrshire,  37 


Hannockbum,  38 

Harnet,  89 

Bayonne,  52 

Berwick,  7,  31,  33,  37,  38,  43,  90 

Blackfiiars,  69 

Blanchetache,  47 

Bloreheath,  85 

Bordeaux,  45,  50,  51,  52,  57 

Boroughbrldge,  74 

Bosworth,  84,  93 

Rramham  Moor,  78 

Brechin,  33,  35 

Bretigny,  50,  51 

Brigham,  30, 

Bristol,  8  ^ 

Britanny,46,  52,  93 

Bruges,  6g 

fiuilth,  26 

Burgh-on-Sands,  37 

Burgundy,  50 


Caerlaverock,  Castle.  35 
Calais,  48-53,  57,  84,  85,  9a 
Cambuskenneth,  ^4 
Carlisle,  37 
Castile,  ji 


Castillon,  57 
Charente,  The,  40 
Chester,  25,  77 
Colchester,  7 
Compiegne,  56 
Conway,  25 
Coventry,  85 
Cressy,  46-48,  53 


Dartmouth,  89 
Domremy,  55 
Dordogne,  The,  52 
Dover,  7,  9 
Dumfries,  36 
Dunbar,  33 
Durham,  48 

Edinburgh,  33,  35 
Elgin,  33 
Elierslie,  34 
Ely,  20 
Essex,  65,  66 
Evesham,  19 


Falkirk,  34 

Flanders,  23,  4j 

France,   1,  7,  9,  14,  16,  3a,  39,  41-59. 

67,  80.  89 
Forth,  The,  28,  35 


Galloway,  28,  35 

eascony,  15,  23,  40^41,  50 
hent,  4S 
Glasgow,  36 
Gloucester,  8 
Guienne,  3a,  40,  41,  42,  43,  44 


Index  of  Places. 


HAI 

Hainault,  4S 
Haiidon  Hill,  43 
Harfleur,  53 
Hawarden  Castle,  25 
Hennebon,  46 
Hertfordshire,  65 
Holland,  89 
Holy  Land   15 


Ireland,  «8,  83,  85 


largeau,  55 


Kenilworth,  16,  19,  10 
Kent,  aS.  65,  66,  82 
Kinghom,  29 
King's  Lynn,  89 


Lambeth,  10,  6g 

Lanercost,  37 

Leicester,  80 

Lewes.  17,  18 

Limoges,  51 

Lincoln,  8,  g 

Loire.  The,  55 

London,   7,   10,   13,   15,  17,  18,  25,  36, 

65,  66,  72,  80,  83,  89 
Lothian.  7,  28,  43 
Loudon  Hill,  37 
Ludford,  85 

Ludlow  Ca-itle,  83,  85,  90 
Lutterworth,  69 


Maine.  57,  82 
Maupertuis,  50 
Menai  Straits,  26 
Methven,  36 
Mile  End.  65,  66 
Milford  Haven.  93 
Montrose,  33 
Mortimer's  Cross,  86 


Najera,  50 

Neville's  Cross,  48 

Newark,  8 

Newcastle,  31 

Norham,  30 

Normandy,  40,  41,  52,  53,  57 


SWI 

Northampton,  21,  40,  86 
Northumberland,  3a 


Odiham.  16 
Orkney,  30 
Orleans,  55 
Oxford,  5,  13, 16,  17,  68.  69 


Paris,  41,  46-49,  50,  55-57 
Patay,  55 
Pecquigny,  89 
Perth,  36 
Poissy,  46 
Poitiers,  49,  53 
Poitou,  13,  40.  50,  S' 
Ponthieu,  47,  50 
Pontoise,  54 
Provence,  13 
Pyrenees,  40,  50 


Radcot  Bridge,  75 
Ravenspurg,  77,  89 
Renfrewshire,  34 
Rheims,  55 
Rhuddlan,  25 
Rochester,  7,  17 
Rome,  6,  67 
Roslin,  35 
Rouen,  54,  56 
Runnymede,  6 


St.  Albann,  5,  84,  85.  87 
St.  Giles's  Fields,  72 
St.  Paul's,  69.  91 
Sandwich,  10,  86 
Savoy,  13,  65 
Scone,  34,  36 
Scotland,  i,   7, 
^9.  59,  87,  90 
Seine,  The.  46 
Sevenoaks,  82 
Shrewsbury,  26,  78 
Sluys,  45 
Smithfield.  66 
Somme,  The.  47,  53 
South.-impton,  52,  78 
Spey,  The,  28 
Stirling.  33,  35,  38 
Strathorde,  35 
Swineshead,  8 


'■'■    i 


22,  23,  27-40.   43.  48. 


Index  of  Places. 


TEW 

Tewkesbury,  8g 

Thanet,  7 

1  bwer.  The,  66,  72,  83,  89,  92 

Towton,  87 

Troyes.  45.  55 

Tweed,  iTie,  28 

Tyburn,  36 


Wakefield,  «•! 


YOR 

Wales,  I,  23-27,  72 
Westminster,  22,  32,  86 
Wir.chelsea,  19 
Winchester,  12 
Windsor,  8 
Wye,  The,  26 


Vork.  21.  38.  83,  84,  dy 


THE    TUDORS 

AND 

THE     REFORMATION 

1485-^1603. 

BY 

*J\I.    CRHIGHTON,    M.A., 

LATE  FELLUW  AND  TUTOR  OF  MERTON  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 
"WITH  THBEE  MAPS. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction i 

Table  of  DK6CENDANrs  of  Henkv  VII 43 

Table  showing  MaIvV's  claim  to  the  lisGLisH  throne    60 


BOOK    I 

GJiOWTA    OS   THE   POWER    OF   I'HE   C.VOWN. 
(1485-1530). 

CHAPTER 

I.     Henry  VII 3 

II.     Henry  VIII.  and  Wolsey  , 10 

BOOK    II. 

THE   REFORMATION. 

',1530  1547)- 

T.     Separation  from  the  Pope 19 

n.     Henry  VIII.  and  Cromwell 24 

m.    Reform  of  Doc"rRiNE  ..,,..    29 


vi  Content:,, 

BOOK    III. 

RELIGIOUS  STRUGGLES. 

(1547-1559)- 

CHAPTER  TAGB 

I.     Protestant  Misrule 36 

II.     Catholicism  brought  back 44 

IIL    Religious  Settlement  under  Elizabeth      .        .     si 


BOOK    IV. 

ENGLAND    BECOMES  PROTESTANT. 
(1559-1588). 

I.     England  and  Scotland 56 

II.     Troubles  in  England 63 

III.     England  and  Spain 72 

BOOK    ▼- 

LATER    YEARS   OF  ELIZABETH. 
(1 588-1 603). 

I.     England  after  the  Armada 78 

II.    Troubles  of  Elizabeth's  last  years       .        .        .Si 

INDBX 8g 


LIST  OF  MAPS. 

TiiR  F-.RiTisH  Isles  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  to  face  p.    i 

Eokope  in  the  Sixteenth  Century         .        .  .        .45 

English  Discoveries  in  the  West  .        .        .  ,        .    79 


w 


THE    TUDORS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  time  to  which   we   liave  now  come   many  j^^reat 
cnanges  came  over  England,  which  began  to  make  for 
itself  the  national  character  which  it  still  has.     chriMKesin 
We  have  seen  that  in  the  last  half  of  the     ^''^'and 

ce  1  I    K  -^       ■,  under  the 

hfteenth  century,  (i)  England  had  lost  its  pos-  Tudors. 
sessions  in  France;  (2)  the  English  barons  had  been  almost' 
destroyed  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Two  things  fol- 
lowed from  these  :  (i)  England  tried  to  be  peaceable, 
and  wished  to  settle  her  own  affairs  at  home,  instead  of 
middling  in  the  affairs  of  other  nations.  (2)  The  power 
which  the  barons  had  had  now  went  to  the  king,  who 
became  very  strong. 

IJut  there  were  other  things  also  which  did  much  to 
change  England. 

(i)  The  writings  of  the  old  Greeks  and  Romans 
began  to  be  read  much  more  widely,  and  made  men 
think  more,  and  think  differently  from  what  they  had 
done  before.  Printing  also  was  found  out,  and  made 
books  plentiful  and  cheap  :  before  this  time  ihey  had 
all  been  written,  or  printed  from  wooden  blocks,  and  so 
were  few  and  dear.  Thus  knowledge  was  spread  among 
the  people  more  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 

(2)    This  new   learning  made    people  wish   to  think 
E.  H.  K 


2  The  Tiidors. 

more  for  themselves,  and  they  were  not  so  wilhng  to  obey 
the  Pope  in  matters  of  rehgion.  They  came  to  see,  too, 
that  many  of  the  things  which  he  told  them  to  beheve 
were  not  found  in  the  Bible,  which  book  they  had  now 
begun  to  read  for  themselves.  So  some  countries, 
amongst  which  England  was  one,  left  off  obeying  the 
Pope  in  religion. 

(3)  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World,  and  men 
began  to  take  more  to  the  sea.  The  English  especially 
did  so,  and  found  out  new  lands  in  North  America,  and 
tried  to  make  settlements  on  them.  Ever  since  this  time 
the  English  have  been  great  seamen,  and  have  made 
many  settlements  (or  colonies)  in  far-off  lands. 

All  these  great  changes  came  about  in  England  under 
the  sovereigns  of  the  house  of  Tudor,  as  they  were 
called,  because  Henry  VII.'s  father  came  of  a  Welsh 
family — the  Tudors.  We  have  to  see  how  England 
passed  through  all  these  great  changes;  and  how  she 
g^rew  stronger  and  greater  by  doing  so. 


BOOK    I 

GROWTH    OF  THE   POWER   OF   THE 
CROWN. 


CHAPTER    I. 

HENRY    VII.— J485-1509 

I.  Thk  people  of  England  were  very  we.iry  of  the  loner 
fighting  of  the  Wars  of  the   Roses.       They  were  glad 
when  Henry  of  Richmond  prom  sed  to  marry     Henr/  vil. 
Elizaljeth,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Edward  IV.,     frowned, 

...  "  '      October 

and  so  jom  together  the  two  houses  of  York  '485 
and  Lancaster,  and  bring  the  sad  civil  wars  to  an  end. 
From  the  first  Henry  showed  that  he  meant  to  be  king 
by  his  own  right.  He  had  himself  crowned,  October 
1485,  and  then  called  Parliament  together.  He  told 
them  that  he  '  had  come  to  the  throne  by  the  just  title  of 
inheritance  and  by  the  judgment  of  God  who  had  given 
him  victory.'  He  did  not  marry  Elizabeth  till  he  saw 
that  all  men  took  him  for  their  king.  He  would  not  owe 
any  of  his  right  to  his  wife,  nor  would  he  look  upon  her 
as  having  a  title  equal  to  his  own. 

2.  But  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  gone  on  too  long  to 
be  quieted  all  at  once.  The  Yorkists  were  angry  that 
the  king  did  not  give  his  wife  more  power.  Rising  of 
In  i486,  as  Henry  was  making  a  progress  Lordl.ovel. 
through  the  Northern  shires,  there  was  a  feeble  rising 
of  the  Yorkists  under  Lord  Lovel.  The  king's  troops 
came  together  so  soon  that  the  rebels  had  to  flee.     But 


4  The  Tudor i.  14S7. 

Henry's  reign  was  never  free  from  plots  ag_iiist  him,  and 
many  of  these  plots  wer&  made  with  great  care  and 
cunning.  There  was  still  living,  as  a  prisoner  in  the 
Lambert  Tower,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  son  of  the  Duke 

Siinnel.  ^f  Clarence,    Edward    IV.'s   brother.       The 

Yorkists  set  up  a  boy,  called  Lambert  Simnel,  the  son  of 
a  joiner  in  Oxford,  who  pretended  that  he  was  the  real 
Earl  of  Warwick.  Many  people  believed  that  he  was, 
and  he  was  crowned  at  Dublin  as  King  Edward  VI.  The 
chief  family  in  Ireland,  that  of  the  Geraldines,  who  were 
Earls  of  Kildare,  had  been  on  the  side  of  the  Yorkists. 
They  now  welcomed  this  pretender,  who  invaded  Eng- 
land, but  was  beaten  in  battle  at  Stoke,  near  Newark 
(June  1487).  Many  of  the  chief  nobles  who  were  with 
him  were  killed  in  the  battle.  He  himself  was  taken 
prisoner,  but  was  pardoned  by  the  king,  who  made  him 
a  scullion  in  his  kitchen. 

3.  The  king  learnt  from  this  that  he  must  be  more 
careful  what  he  did,  and  must  not  make  the  Yorkists 
Power  of  sngry-  He  had  his  queen,  Elizabeth,  crowned 
the  nobles.  (November  1487),  and  from  this  time  showed 
her  greater  honour.  He  saw  also  that  he  could  keep 
his  kingdom  quiet  only  by  making  the  power  of  his 
nobles  less,  and  by  making  good  laws  to  keep  them  in 
order.  There  were  not  many  great  nobles  left  in  the 
land,  for  many  had  been  killed  in  the  bloody  battles  of 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Not  more  than  thirty  of  the  old 
nobles  had  been  Left  alive.  Henry  VII.  saw  that  if  he 
wished  to  keep  his  kingdom  in  peace  he  must  prev^ent 
these  nobles  from  making  any  disturbance. 

4.  The  nobles  in  former  times  had  kept  in  their  ser- 
vice a  great  number  of  armed  men,  who  were  bound  to 

obey  them,  and  weic  ready  to  fight  for  them 

e  ainers.         whenever   they  wished.      When  the   nobles 

went  about  thev  had  around  them  these  '  retainers,'  as 


1487-  Court  of  the  Star  Chamber.  5 

they  were  called,  who  wore  their  lord's  livery,  and  were 
disorderly  and  breakers  of  the  peace.  Out  of  these 
retainers  the  nobles  could  raise  an  army  to  fight  against 
,the  king  whenever  they  pleased.  Moreover  the  nobles 
had  a  custom,  called  maintenance.,  of  binding  themselves 
together  to  maintain  or  support  one  another  by  every 
means  in  their  power,  whether  right  or  wrong. 

5.  Now  that  the  nobles  were  few  in  number  and  could 
not  do  much  against  the  king,  he  determined  to  put 
down  these  evil  customs.  Laws  had  been  passed  against 
ihem  in  former  reigns,  but  had  never  been  carried  out. 
Henry  VII.  made  a  special  court  to  try  and  punish  all 
nobks  who  broke  the  laws  against  '  mainte- 

.         .  .  Court  of 

nances '  and  the  'giving  of  liveries.'  This  new  the  Star 
court  was,  like  the  other  law  courts,  a  sort  of  ^  *""  '"" 
Committee  of  the  King's  Privy  Council.  Its  judges  were 
the  cliief  mmisters  of  the  king,  who  would  be  likely  to 
carry  out  the  laws  and  not  be  atraid  of  the  nobles,  ir 
was  called  tlie  Court  ol  the  -Star  Chamber,  because  it  sat 
in  a  room  of  which  the  ceiling  was  ornamented  with 
stars. 

This  Star  Chamber  Court  was  at  first  useful  in  making 
the  great  nobles  obey  the  laws  ;  but  later  on  it  tried  all 
kinds  of  cases  which  it  was  not  meant  to  try,  and 
punished  men  who  by  word  or  by  writing  offended  the 
king  or  his  ministers.  In  this  way  it  grew  very  hateful 
to  the  people ;  for  men  brought  to  trial  before  it  were 
judged  guilty  not  by  a  jury,  but  by  the  judges,  who  wished 
only  to  please  the  king. 

6.  Henry  V 11.  wished  to  keep  down  rebellions,  to  give 
his  land  peace,  to  make  all  men  keep  the  laws,  and  to 
rule  as  a  strong  king.  He  used  to  say  that  a  Henry  Vll.'s 
king  who  wished  to  be  strong  must  always  taxation. 
have  money,  and  he  took  care  to  get  together  as  much 
money  as  he  could.     But  some  of  the  people  were  not 


The  Til  dors. 


1492. 


willing  to  pay  taxes.  Twice  there  were  rebellions  when 
the  king  tried  to  gather  subsidies,  which  were  sums  of 
naoney  granted  by  Parliament  and  levied  on  all  men's 
property. 

7.  So  Henry  VII.  tried  to  get  money  in  other  ways 
than  through  Parliament,  (i)  He  would  make  his  minis- 
Benevo-  ters  Send  for  rich  men  and  ask  them  to  give  him 
lences.  money,  and  when  they  promised,  because  they 
did  not  hke  to  say  '  No  '  to  tlie  king,  he  would  send  and 
take  it.  Thus  Archbishop  Morton  used  to  send  for  mer- 
chants whom  he  thought  to  be  rich  and  ask  them  for 
money.  If  they  lived  handsomely  he  told  them  that  it 
was  plain  they  were  rich  enough  to  afford  to  help  the 
king.  If  they  lived  poorly  he  said  they  must  be  saving 
money  very  fast,  and  so  could  easily  spare  some.  This 
way  of  catching  men,  whatever  they  did,  was  known  as 
'  Morton's  fork.'  A  law  was  passed  that  what  had  once 
been  promised  as  a  gift  to  the  king  should  be  gathered  as 
if  it  were  a  tax.  These  gifts  were  called  benevolences, 
and  were  hated  by  the  rich.  (2)  Some  of  the  judges 
sought  out  many  old  laws  which  had  been  forgotten  during 
the  wild  times  of  the  civil  wars,  and  had  men  lined  for 
having  broken  them.  Henry  VII.  also  sought  out  all  the 
old  rights  of  the  crown,  and  made  men  pay  him  for  every 
little  privilege  he  granted  them. 

8.  His  strictness  in  carrying  out  the  law  helped  him 
to  get  money.  A  story  is  told  that  one  day  the  king 
visited  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  who  gathered  all  his  retainers 
to  do  him  honour.  Then  the  king  asked  it  all  these 
were  his  household  servants.  When  the  earl  answered 
that  they  were  his  retainers  who  had  come  to  see  the 
king,  Henry  said  :  '  My  lord,  I  thank  you  for  my  good 
cheer,  but  I  may  not  endure  to  have  my  laws  broken  in 
my  sight  ;  my  attorney  must  speak  with  you.'  It  is  said 
that  the  earl  had  to  pay  more  than  10,000/.  for  this  offence. 


1497-  Per  kin  War  beck.  y 

9.  In  this  way  the  king  became  rich  and  powerful,  but 
he  did  not  win  his  people's  love.  He  made  his  nobles 
obey  him  and  he  made  all  men  keep  the  laws. 

He  tried  to  keep  peace  abroad  ;  and  though  and  Parlia- 
he  threatened  war  with  France  he  did  so  '"^"'' 
only  as  a  means  to  get  money  from  his  people,  and  also 
from  the  French  king.  As  he  got  money  in  other  ways  he 
•found  that  he  could  do  without  often  calling  his  Parliament 
together,  and  during  the  last  thirteen  years  of  his  reign 
(1496-1509)  only  one  Parhament  met.  He  knew  that  he 
had  many  enemies  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  was 
careful  and  cautious  in  all  that  he  did.  He  watched  all 
the  men  who  he  thought  were  likely  to  rise  against  him, 
and  when  he  got  them  into  his  power  he  punished  them. 

10.  Still  with  all  his  care  and  wisdom  Henry  VII.  was 
never  free  from  plots  and  risings  against  him.  Though 
Lambert  Simnel  had  failed,  another  impostor 

Perkin  War- 

soon  rose  up.  A  young  man,  whose  real  beck,  1492- 
name  was  Peter  Osbeck,  though  in  England  '"♦'''• 
he  was  known  as  Perkin  Warbeck,  the  son  of  a  citizen 
of  Tournay,  in  Flanders,  landed  in  Ireland  in  1492.  He 
gave  out  that  he  was  Richard,  second  son  of  Edward  IV., 
who  was  believed  to  have  been  murdered  in  the  Tower 
in  1483.  As  just  at  this  time  Henry  VII.  was  threaten- 
ing to  make  war  on  France,  the  French  king  was  glad 
to  have  some  one  who  could  be  set  up  against  him. 
Many  men  in  England  as  well  as  in  Ireland  believed  in 
Warbeck,  who  was  helped  by  the  king's  enemies  abroad. 
The  Scottish  king  also,  James  IV.,  received  him  at  his 
court,  and  even  gave  him  in  marriage  a  lady  who  was 
nearly  related  to  himself.  Plots  were  made  in  Warbeck's 
favour  in  England.  Even  Sir  William  Stanley,  who  had 
won  for  Henry  the  battle  of  Bosworth,  was  put  to  death 
on  the  charge  of  plotting  to  help  Warbeck. 

11.  For  five  years  (1492-97)  England  was  kept  un- 


8  The  Tudors.  1497- 

quiet.  tienry  made  peace  with  all  his  enemies  abroad, 
and  put  down  the  risings  that  were  made  against  him  at 
home.  The  Scottish  king  twice  led  an  army  into  England, 
but  was  driven  back.  At  last  in  1497  he  too  made  a  truce 
with  Henry  VII.,  and  a  few  years  later  a  peace  also. 
Warbeck  was  driven  to  make  his  last  attempt.  Gather- 
ing troops  in  Ireland,  he  landed  in  Cornwall  and  laid 
siege  to  Exeter;  but  his  troops  fell  off,  and  he  fled  away 
when  the  royal  army  drew  near  (1497).  He  was  taken 
prisoner,  and,  after  confessing  before  the  people  who  he 
really  was,  was  confined  in  the  Tower.  There  he  made 
another  plot  among  the  prisoners  :  it  was  found  out,  and 
he  was  put  to  death  in  1499. 

There  were  other  plots  against  Henry  VII.  which  we 
need  not  speak  of ;  but  each  plot  which  the  king  put 
down  made  him  stronger  to  meet  the  next  that  came. 
Some  of  the  nobles  took  part  in  these  risings,  and  were 
put  to  death.  Their  money  was  taken  by  the  king,  and 
the  power  of  the  nobles  as  a  class  grew  less  and  less. 
For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  reign  Henry  VII.  lived  in 
peace. 

12.  But  besides  keeping  peace  at  home  Henry  VH. 
also  wished  to  keep  peace  abroad.  In  1492  he  made  a 
Henr  VII '  ^^''^^'^X  ^ith  France,  and  the  French  king 
foreign  agreed  to  pay  him  money.  In  1499  he  made 
poicy.  a  treaty  with  Scotland,  and  in  1502  gave  his 
daughter  Margaret  in  marriage  to  King  James  IV.  This 
was  a  great  matter;  for  the  Scots  had  been  friends  to  the 
French  and  foes  to  the  Enghsh  since  the  time  of  Edwaid 
I.,  and  this  marriage  of  Margaret  with  James  IV.  again 
brought  the  English  and  Scots  together,  so  that  by  means 
of  it,  a  hundred  years  afterwards,  the  Scottish  king,  James 
VI.,  became  king  of  England  as  well. 

13.  Henry  VII.  made  a  treaty  also  with  Ferdinand, 
king  of  Spain,  for  he  wished  to  be  at  peace  on  every  side 


1502.  Character  of  Henry  VII.  9 

His  eldest  son,  Prince  Arthur,  was  married  (Nov.  1501), 
to  Katharine,  daughter  of  Ferdinand ;  but  in  April 
1503  Prince  Arthur  died,  at  the  age  of.  Henry  vii. 
16.  Henry  VII.,  however,  wished  to  be  and  Spam. 
friends  with  Spain,  and  in  those  days  it  was  thought  that 
marriages  between  their  families  was  the  best  way  oi 
keeping  kings  friends.  So  it  was  agreed  that  Katharine 
siiould  stay  in  England,  and  should  be  married  to  Prince 
Henry,  who  was  afterwards  King  Henry  VII  I.  The 
Pope  gave  leave  that  Prince  Henry  should  marry  his 
brother's  widow,  and  when  he  became  king  he  did  so. 
We  shall  sc^>  how  great  a  matter  this  marriage  afterwards 
became. 

14.  Moreover,  Henry  VII.  tried  to  bring  Ireland  into 
greater  obedience  to  England.  He  sent  there  as  his  deputy 
Sir  Edward   Poynings,  who  made  a  law,  in     Henry  vii. 

]  495,  which  is  called  after  his  name '  Poyning's  ^^  Ireland, 
law.'  By  this  the  laws  which  had  been  lately  passed  in 
England  were  made  to  hold  in  Ireland  also;  and  from 
that  time  no  Parliament  was  to  sit  in  Ireland  except  by 
the  king's  permission,  nor  was  ii  to  make  laws  unless 
the  king  and  his  English  council  had  approved  of  them. 
In  this  way  Ireland  was  brought  under  the  kings  power 
more  than  it  had  been  before. 

15.  The  people  of  England  had  a  great  respect  for 
Henry  VII.  as  a  wise  king,  but  they  did  not  love  him,  for 
he  was  cold  and  distant.  Yet  they  trusted  him  character  of 
because  he  gave  them  peace  and  rest  after  Henry  vii. 
the  civil  wars,  and  made  men  obey  the  laws  as  in  former 
times.  This  was  what  all  men  v/anted,  for  they  were 
weary  of  disorder.  Moreover,  men  knew  that  Henry  VII. 
was  wise,  and  was  always  busy  with  plans  for  the  good 
of  the  land.  He  gathered  round  him  all  the  wisest  men 
to  give  him  counsel.  He  spent  no  money  foolishly  and 
cared  not  for  grandeur,  but  he  saved  all  the  money  he 


lO  The  Tudors. 


1509- 


could,  and  when  he  died  it  is  said  that  he  left  behind 
him  1,800,000/. 

16.  In  Ihe  greater  quiet  of  his  reign  trade  began  to 
flourish  again  in  England,  and  the  king  did  what  he  could 
English  to  help  it.     In  1497  a  great  deed  was  done, 

trade.  john  Cabot,  a  Venetian,  who  dwelt  at  Bristol, 

got  leave  from  the  king  to  go  and  seek  for  new  lands  in 
the  Western  Sea.  He  and  his  son  Sebastian  are  said  to 
have  made  more  than  one  voyage.  They  are  said  to  have 
found  out  Labrador  and  sailed  along  the  coast  of  North 
America  to  Maryland.  Through  them  it  came  about 
tliat  Englishmen  learned  to  know  North  America,  and 
sent  out  ships  thither,  and  made  settlements  in  later 
times. 

As  Henry  VII.  grew  older  he  seems  to  have  grown 
niure  greedy  for  money  ;  so  that  the  people  murmured 
greatly  against  his  two  judges,  Empson  and  Dudley, 
who  did  all  that  they  could  to  raise  money  for  their 
master.  When  Henry  VII.  died  in  1509  few  men  were 
sorry,  for  though  his  caution  and  care  had  given  them 
peace  he  made  them  pay  dearly  for  it. 


CHAPTER    II. 

HENRY    VIII.    .AND   WOLSEY. 

I.  When  Henry  VIII.  came  to  the  throne  all  men  were 
glad.  The  young  king  was  just  eighteen  years  old,  tall, 
Char.icterof  handsome,  of  a  fair,  ruddy  complexion,  skilful 
Henry  Vili.  j^  all  games  and  feats  of  strength,  fond  of 
learning,  and  kindly  and  affable  to  all.  Men  were 
pleatsed  that  the  hard  nale  of  Henry  VII.  was  at  an  end, 
and  hoped  for  more  peaceful  and  more  joyous  days  under 


1 5 12.  Henry  VIII' s  Wars.  IT 

his  son.  Henry  VIII.  was  at  once  popular  ;  and  though, 
especially  in  his  later  days,  he  did  many  evil  deeds,  his 
people  never  quite  ceased  to  love  him,  and  he  never  lost 
those  gifts  which  drew  men  to  him  and  made  them 
willing  to  serve  him.  No  king  was  served  more  faithfully 
by  his  ministers,  and  yet  no  king  was  more  willing  to  set 
his  ministers  aside  or  put  them  to  death  when  they 
ceased  to  please  him.  He  was  fond  of  popularity,  as  all 
the  Tudors  were,  and  when  his  ministers  became  un- 
popular through  doing  his  will  he  gave  them  up  to  the 
hatred  which  they  had  drawn  upon  themselves.  One 
of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  order  the  wicked  men 
who  had  helped  his  father  to  wring  money  from  the 
people,  Empson  and  Dudley,  to  be  arrested.  They  were 
hated  by  the  people  for  the  way  in  which  they  had 
raised  money  to  please  the  greedy  Henry  VII.  Henry 
VIII.  gained  popularity  by  having  them  put  to  death  on 
the  charge  of  having  plotted  to  seize  his  person  and  keep 
him  in  their  power. 

2.  The  young  king  was  eager  at  once  to  do  something  K 
to  win  a  great  name  in   Europe      He  lost  no  time  in 
making  sure  of  the  alliance  with  Spain  which     ,. 
his  father  had  made  before.     So  he  married     viii.'s 
Katharine,  the  daughter  of  the  Spanish  king,     ■"^''""g^- 
though  she  was  his  brother  Arthur's  widow.     He  wished 
to  be  friendly  with    Spain,  for  under   King    Lewis  XI. 
France  had  become  one  nation  and  was  very  powerful  in 
Europe.     Spain  was  a  very  great  nation  too,  and  only  by 
joining  with  Spain   could  England  hope  to  do  anything 
against  France. 

•  3.   Henry  VIII.  wished  to  show  himself  a  great  soldier, 
and  to  join  in  the  wars  which  were  then  going  on  in  Italy. 
There  France,  Spain,  the  Emperor,  the  Pope,     Henry 
and  the  Italian  cities  were  all  fighting  to  win     vill.'swars. 
some  part  of  Italy  for  themselves,     Henry  VIII.  entered 


12  The  Til  dors. 


i5»3- 


into  these  wars  as  though  they  were  an  amusement. 
He  wished  to  show  off  his  riches  and  his  skill,  and  en- 
gaged in  war  as  if  it  were  a  game.  So  in  1513  he  made 
an  invasion  of  France  through  Flanders,  and  took  the  city 
of  Tournay.  But  Henry  had  no  real  plan  of  carrying  on 
a  war,  and  the  French  raised  up  the  Scots  against  him. 

4.  The  alliance  which  Henry  VII.  had  made  with  Scot- 
land was  broken  by  the  Scots  when  Henry  VHI.  went  to 
War  with  War  with  France.  In  spite  of  the  marriage 
Scotland.  of  James  IV.  of  Scotland  to  Henry  VIII.'s 

sister  the  old  feelings  towards  France  were  stronger  than 
the  new  friendship  with  England.  In  August  15 13,  while 
Henry  was  abroad,  a  Scottish  army,  led  by  the  king, 
Battle  of  crossed    the  Borders.     The   Earl  of  Surrey 

September  went  to  meet  it,  and  found  it  encamped  on 
»5i.^-  the  hill  of  Flodden,  by  the   little  river   Till, 

ivhich  runs  into  the  Tweed.  Surrey  crossed  the  Till 
".orth  of  the  Scottish  army  and  joined  battle.  The 
English  archers  drove  away  the  Highlanders  who  were 
set  against  them  and  fell  on  the  rear  of  the  Scottish  army, 
which  was  successful  against  Surrey.  The  Scots  were 
now  attacked  both  in  front  and  in  the  rear,  and  so  were 
defeated  with  great  slaughter.  King  James  IV.  was 
among  the  slain. 

Soon  after  this  Henry  VIII.  made  peace  with  France, 
and  in  Scotland  his  sister  Margaret  was  left  regent  for 
her  young  son,  James  V.  She  was  naturally  in  favour  of 
England,  but  soon  displeased  the  Scottish  nobles  by 
marr)4ng  the  Earl  of  Angus.  So  for  many  years  Scotland 
was  unquiet,  and  did  not  trouble  England. 

5.  There  had  been  with  Henry,  in  his  campaign  Jn 
France,  a  man  who  soon  became  more  powerful  m 
Rise  of  England.      This    was    Thomas    Wolsey,    a 

Woisey.  clergyman,  son  of  a  citizen  of  Norwich.     He 

had   been  a  chaplain  of  Heniy  VTl.,  and   Henry   Vlll. 


il 


J515.  Thomas   Wolsey  1 3 

now  took  hiiM  as  his  friend.  Wolsey  had  shown  such 
wisdom  in  finding  food  for  the  troops  that  Henry  learned 
to  trust  him  more  and  more,  till  Wolsey  became  his  only 
minister.  In  1514  he  was  made  Archbishop  of  York,  and 
soon  afterwards  Chancellor.  In  151  5  the  Pope  made  him 
a  Cardinal,  and  next  year  made  him  Papal  Lci^atc  in 
England,  that  is,  gave  him  the  power  of  overlooking  the 
FInglish  Church  as  if  he  stood  in  the  Pope's  place  in 
England.  Wolsey  was  then  more  powerful  than  any 
subject  had  been  in  England  before.  As  Chancellor  he 
was  the  chief  officer  of  the  State  :  as  Legate  he  had  the 
fullest  power  over  the  Church.  The  king  trusted  him  in 
all  that  he  did,  and  so  all  that  was  done  in  the  land  was 
done  by  him. 

6.  Wolsey  was  a  very  wise  man,  more  wise  than  good, 
and  he  was  a  learned  man  as  well.  He  had  very  great 
riches  ;  for  he  drew  the  money  of  many  character 
bishoprics,  and  received  also  presents  fmrn  -fWolsey. 
the  kings  of  France  and  Spain,  who  wished  him  to  help 
them  with  his  master.  He  spent  his  money  with  great 
pomp  and  grandeur.  Two  of  the  houses  which  he  buill 
were  afterwards  made  royal  palaces  —  these  were 
Hampton  Court  and  York  House,  which  was  afterwards 
called  Whitcl:all.  He  was  fond  of  "learned  men  and 
liked  to  gather  them  round  him.  He  wished  to  make 
men  more  learned  in  England  ;  for  in  those  days 
Englishmen  were  not  so  learned  as  were  the  men  of 
Italy,  Germany,  Spain,  or  France.  To  do  this  Wolsey 
founded  a  school  at  Ipswich.  He  also  began  to  build  ?i 
great  college  at  O.xford,  which  is  now  called  Christ 
Church,  and  is  the  largest  and  richest  of  all  the  colleges. 

7.  But  it  was  in  his  dealings  with  foreign  nations  that 
Wolsey   showed  his  wisdom  most.      He   so     Wuhey  as  a 
treated  them  that  he  made  them  anxious  to     politician. 
have  England  us  their  friend,  and  they  were  willing  to 


i4  The  Tudors.  1516- 

do  roany  things  to  win  her  friendship.  In  15 16  a  young 
king,  Francis  I.,  came  to  the  throne  of  France.  Ke 
wished  to  make  conquests  in  Italy,  but  -could  not  do  so 
unless  Henry  left  France  in  peace.  Charles, 
France  and  the  voung  kmg  of  Spam,  wished  to  prevent 
Spain.  Francis  from  making  his  conquests,  and  tried 

to  get  Henry  on  his  side.  In  1519  the  Emperor  Maximilian 
died,  and  the  princes  of  Germany  had  to  elect  another 
emperor.  Both  Francis  and  Charles  tried  to  get  them- 
selves elected,  and  spent  much  money  in  bribing  the 
electors  ;  but  at  last  Charles  won  them  over,  and  is 
known  after  this  as  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  At  one 
time  Henry  VIII.  thought  that  he  might  be  chosen 
Emperor,  but  really  he  had  no  chance. 

After  this  there  was  constant  fighting  between  the 
emperor  and  the  king  of  France.  We  have  seen  how 
strong  a  power  the  king  of  France  had  become.  But 
Charles  V.  seemed  likely  to  become  even  stronger. 
He  had  inherited  Spain  from  his  mother,  and  the  rich 
country  of  the  Netherlands  from  his  father ;  last  of  all, 
he  had  been  chosen  emperor,  and  so  was  ruler  of  Ger- 
many. He  claimed  also  lands  in  France  and  Italy 
which  Francis  I.  held,  and  so  there  was  war  between 
them. 

Wolsey  knew  how  to  u^e  this  time  of  war  very 
cleverly,  so  as  to  win  all  that  he  could  for  his  master. 
Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.  both  v.anted  the  help  ol 
England,  and  promised  great  things  to  get  it.  Wolsey 
managed  to  play  them  off  one  against  the  other,  and 
made  them  both  show  great  respect  to  England,  so  that 
England  at  this  time  was  thought  more  of  in  Europe 
than  she  had  been  since  the  days  of  Henry  V.  English- 
men learned  to  think  more  of  themselves,  to  look  beyond 
England  itself,  and  to  see  that  they  might  do  great  things 
in  the  world. 


1525.  Henry  VIII.  and  France.  15 

8.  Henry  VIII.  spent  a  gre^t  deal  of  money,  for  he 
was  fond  of  doing  things  in  a  grand  way.  The  place  where 
he  met   Francis,   in    1520,  near  Guisnes,  was 

called  the  '  Field  of  the  Cloth   of  Gold,'  for     cloth  of 
everything  was  done   with  great   splendour.     ^°'''' 
The  two  kings  lived  in  palaces  built  of  wood  and  covered 
with  silk  hangings,  and  the  days  were  spent  in  feastings 
and  in  mimic  battles,  which   were  called  iouruatncnts, 
between  knights  on  horseback. 

9.  To  get  money  for  the  king  the  people  were  taxed 
heavily,  and  Wolsey  used  every  means  to  get  them  to  pay. 
In  1523  he  went  to  the  Parliament  and  asked  Wolsey's 
them  to  grant  a  tax  of  four  shillings  in  the  'axation. 
pound  on  all  lands  and  goods.  He  hoped  that  by  being 
there  himself  they  would  not  dare  to  refuse.  But  the  House 
would  not  answer  till  they  had  taken  counsel  by  them- 
selves. Wolsey  was  obliged  to  go  away,  and  the  House 
voted  less  than  half  what  Wolsey  had  asked.  At  other 
times  Wolsey  raised  money  by  benevolences  and  by  forced 
loans.  He  also  asked  for  money,  without  getting  any  grant 
from  Parliament,  and  sent  round  commissioners  to  gather 
it.  Men  used  to  pay  because  they  were  afraid  to  refuse. 
But  in  1525  there  was  almost  a  rebellion  in  Suffolk,  and 
the  king  had  to  withdraw  his  demands. 

10  Henry  VIII.  wanted  money  in  that  year  for  an 
attack  on  France:  for  a  plot  was  made  against  Francis  I. 
in  his  own  land,  and  Henrv  VIII.  hoped  to  win     „        ,„,, 

,         ,  r    1        I-        1-    1    '  •      T-  Henry  Vlll. 

back  some  of  the  Lnglish  provmces  m  r  ranee     and  France, 
during    the    confusion.      Francis   I.   was  de-     '^^^' 
feated  and  taken  prisoner  at  Pavia,  in    Italy  (February 
1525),    by    the    emperor's    generals,   and    Henry    VIII. 
wished  the  emperor  to  set  up  another  king  in  France  who 
should  be  Henry's  vassal.     But  Charles  V.  did  not  want  to 
make  the  king  of  England  too  powerful  ;  he  kept  Francis 
I.  in  prison  and  tried  to  get  him  to  give  up    parts  ol 


1 6  The  Tudors. 


1526- 


France  to  himself,  and  would  do  nothing  for  Henry.  So 
Henry  and  Wolsey  began  to  be  friends  with  Francis  1., 
and  no  longer  trusted  in  Charles  V. 

II.  Now,  Queen  Katharine  was  the  aunt  of  Charles  V., 
and  Henry  VIII.  had  married  her  to  make  sure  of  the 
Henry  friendship     of     Spain.        But     things     had 

conteiftvJhh  changed,  and  he  no  longer  wished  to  be 
his  queen.  friendly  to  Spain;  so  that  his  wife  was  no 
longer  useful  to  him  in  that  way.  Moreover,  though 
they  had  been  married  for  eighteen  years,  they  had  no 
son  alive,  but  only  a  daughter,  Mary,  who  afterwards 
became  queen.  This  made  men  doubtful  who  would  be 
Doubts  ^'"o  ^^^^"^  Henry  ;    and  when  they  remem^ 

Eoout  the         bered  the  wars  that  had  been  waged  before 

succession.  ,  ,  ,        ,  ,     ,        ,  .  . 

to  settle  who  should  be  kmg ,  they  were 
afraid  what  might  happen.  Henry  was  very  jealous  of 
anyone  who  might  claim  the  crown  after  him.  Already, 
in  1 52 1,  one  of  the  chief  lords  in  England,  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  had  been  put  to  death  as  a  traitor.  He 
was  descended  from  Edward  III.,  and  was  charged  with 
saying  that  when  Henry  died  he  would  seize  the  crown. 
He  was  found  guilty  by  his  peers.  Indeed,  everyone 
who  was  charged  with  treason  against  Henry  VIII. 
throughout  his  reign  was  found  guilty  and  condemned. 
Partly  men  loved  the  king,  partly  they  were  afraid  of 
him ;  but  chiefly  they  saw  that  if  he  died  there  would  be 
disquiet,  and  that  no  man  must  be  allowed  to  make  plans 
to  get  the  crown  after  his  death. 

12.  So  Henrv  VIII.  was  more  powerful  than  any  king 
had  ever  been  in  England  before  him,  and  thought  that 
Henry  VIII.  he  might  do  what  he  pleased.  He  wished 
awly'his"'  ^^  P"^  away  his  wife,  Katharine,  for  she 
'^'ife-  was  older  than  himself,   and   he  had  fallen 

very  much   in  love  with  a  young  lady  of  the  court,  Arine 
Boleyn.     Moreover,  Katharine  had  brought   him  no  sod 


15  »7.  Henry  VIII.  atid  the  Pope.  17 

that  li^'cd  more  than  a  few  weeks,  and  he  no  longer 
wanted  \o  keep  up  his  friendship  witli  her  nephew, 
Charles  V  Wolsey,  whose  only  wish  was  to  do  his 
master's  bidding,  undertook  to  get  his  marriage  with 
Katharine  set  aside  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  break  the 
laws  of  the  Church,  which  in  those  days  dealt  with  all 
questions  about  marriage. 

13.  For  Henry's  marriage  with  Katharine,  who  was 
the  widow  of  his  brother  Arthur,  the  Pope's  leave,  or  dis- 
pensation^ as  it  was  called,  had  been  needed. 
The  laws  of  the  Church  forbid  a  man  to  and  the 
marry  his  brother's  widow  ;  but  the  Pope,  if  ^°P^" 
he  thought  good  enough  reasons  Were  given,  might  dis- 
pense with  these  laws  in  some  cases.  Wolsey  now 
wanted  the  Pope  to  say  that  the  dispensation  which  a 
previous  Pope  had  given  was  not  lawful.  He  thought 
that  the  Pope  owed  so  much  to  Henry  that  he  would 
give  way  in  this  matter.  Already  the  Pope's  authority 
had  been  attacked  by  Luther  in  Germany,  and  Henry 
VI II.  had  written  a  book  against  Luther,  in  return  for 
which  the  Pope  gave  him  the  title  of  '  Defender  of  the 
Faith,'  which  the  English  kings  have  kept  up  to  this  day. 
Wolsey  thought  that  the  Pope  would  be  willing  to  do 
what  Henry  wished,  and  so  the  marriage  with  Katharine 
might  be  set  aside  without  giving  offence  to  anyone,  or 
making  it  needful  to  change  the  laws  of  the  Church. 

14.  But  things  fell  out  badly  for  Henry  VU 1.  Charles 
V.'s  army  in  Italy  took  the  city  of  Rome  in  1527,  and 
kept  the  Pope  prisoner  for  some  time.  When  .,.j^^  „ 
he  got  free  Pope  Clement  VI 1.  was  very  will  not  help 
much  afraid  of  the  emperor.  Henry  VIII.  "^'"^ 
was  far  off,  but  the  emperor's  army  was  in  Italy.  Parts 
of  Germany  were  throwing  off  the  Pope's  headship,  and 
the  emperor  was  ruler  of  Germany,  and  alone  could  bring 
these  parts  back  lo  obey  the  Pope  Clement  VII.  dared 
E.  H.  C 


t8  The  Tudprs. 


1^20. 


not  offend  Charles  V.  by  setting  aside  his  aunts  marriage. 
Yet  he  tried  to  please  Henry  VIII.  by  sending  over  a 
legate,  Cardinal  Campeggio,  who,  together  with  Wolsey, 
was  to  look  into  the  matter.  Campeggio  tried  to  get 
Katharine  to  withdraw  of  her  own  accord  and  go  into  a 
nunnen^  The  king  and  Wolsey  tried  in  many  base 
ways  to  deceive  and  frighten  her.  But  she  stood  firm 
and  asked  to  have  the  question  tried  by  the  Pope  himself. 
The  Pope  could  not  with  justice  refuse  this,  and  Cam- 
peggio went  back  to  Rome.  The  English  people  were 
not  pleased  at  seeing  their  king  brought  before  the  court 
of  the  Legate,  still  less  would  they  have  wished  to  see 
their  king's  cause  tried  at  Rome.  Henry  was  very  angry 
at  Wolsey  for  having  advised  him  to  do  as  he  had  done. 
Wolsey's  office  of  Chancellor  was  taken  from  him  (1529). 
The  king  turned  against  his  favourite  the  moment  his 
plans  failed,  and  Wolse/s  enemies  were  bent  on  ruining 
him. 

15.  He  was  prosecuted  under  the  Statute  of  Praemunire 
on  the  charge  of  having  acted  as  Pope's  legate  in  England, 
Fall  of  Wol-  which  that  statute  forbade  any  Englishman 
sey,  1529.  to  do.  He  threw  himself  on  the  king's 
mercy,  gave  up  all  his  riches  to  the  king,  and  withdrew 
to  his  see  of  York.  But  his  enemies  did  not  let  him  rest 
there.  Charges  of  treason  were  raised  against  him,  and 
he  was  arrested,  to  be  taken  to  the  Tower.  Grief  brought 
on  illness,  and  he  died  at  Leicester,  on  his  way  to 
London  (November  29,  1530).  His  last  words  were  : 
'  If  I  had  served  God  as  diligently  as  I  have  served  the 
king,  He  would  not  have  given  me  over  in  my  grey 
hairs.'  Yet  he  loved  the  king  to  the  last,  and  said  of 
him  :  ■'  He  is  a  prince  of  royal  spirit  and  hath  a  princely 
heart;  and  rather  than  he  will  miss  or  want  part  of  his 
appetite  he  will  hazard  the  loss  ofhalf  of  his  kingdom.' 

Wolsey's  words  came  true.     Henr\'  VIII.  wrs  ready 


1530.  Meaning  of  the  Reformation.  19 

to  make  any  change  in  the  kingdom  which  would  help 
him  to  do  what  he  wanted — to  get  rid  of  his  wife  and 
marry  Anne  Boleyn. 


BOOK    II. 
THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SEPARATION    FROM   THE    POPE. 

I.  King  Henry  Vlll.'s  wish  to  put  away  his  wife  led 
him  to  quarrel  with  the   Pope,  and   so   helped   to  bring 
about  some  changes  in  the  English  Church, 
which  are  generally  called  the  Reformation.        RefonUtion 

Now,  different  things  went  to  bring  about     ""*• 
the  Reformation,  and  we  must  try  and  keep  them  se^^a 
rate. 

(i)  All  men  wished  to  reform  the  clergy,  especially 
the  monks,  who  had  grown  rich  and  lazy,  and  were  dis- 
orderly in  many  ways. 

(2)  Many  men  in  England  disliked  the  Pope's  inter- 
ference in  the  land  and  were  willing  to  lessen  the  Pope's 
power  in  England. 

(3)  A  few  men  wished  to  see  the  beliefs  of  the  Church 
made  simpler,  and  more  like  what  they  thought  the 
Apostles  had  taught. 

The  Reformation  came  about  in  England  as  the  men 
who  wanted  each  of  these  things  got  their  own  way.  At 
first  the  king  and  the  greater  part  of  the  people  wanted 
only  the  first  two  of  these  three  things,  l)ut  at  last  the 
third  was  brought  about  as  weU. 


2o  The  Tudors.  147^ 

2.  A  reform  of  the  clergy  was  very  much  needed,  and 
men  had  long  tried  for  it  ;  but  in  earlier  reigns  the  king 
Reform  of  had  joined  with  the  clergy,  and  nothing  had 
theclergy.  beendone.  In  Henry  VIII. 's  reign  the  king 
was  strong  enough  to  do  as  he  liked,  and  did  not  need 
the  help  of  the  clergy.  Moreo.  cr,  the  Wars  of  the  Roses 
had  killed  off  most  of  the  u!d  families  ;  and  so  new 
families,  sprung  from  the  middle  classes,  were  rising  up. 
These  men  were  more  willing  for  change  than  the  old 
nobles  had  been.  They  had  no  kinsfolk  among  the 
clergy,  as  the  nobles  had,  and  so  did  not  care  so  much  for 
the  Church.  Besides,  greater  knowledge  was  coming  to 
all  the  people,  and  they  were  beginning  to  think  more. 
In  1476  Ca.xton  had  set  up  the  first  printing  press  in 
England.  Each  copy  of  a  book  had  before  been  written 
out  by  hand;  now  many  copies  could  be  printed  in  a  few 
hours. 

3.  The  '  new  learning '  made  men  laugh  at  the  follies 
of  the  monks  and  priests,  and  many  books  were  written 
Growth  of  about  them ;  the  cleverest  by  Erasmus,  a 
learning.  learned  man  from  Holland,  who  lived  much 
in  England,  where  he  became  a  great  friend  of  Sir 
Thomas  More.  Some  Englishmen  also  began  to  study 
Greek,  and  to  read  the  New  Testament  in  the  language 
in  which  it  was  written.  Chief  amongst  these  was  John 
Colet,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  who  founded  St.  Paul's  School 
(15 19),  over  the  door  of  which  he  put  an  image  of  the 
Child  Jesus,  and  beneath  was  written.  '  Hear  ye  Him.' 
He  wrote  a  Latin  grammar  for  the  use  of  his  school, 
and  at  the  beginning  he  bids  his  scholars  learn  it  Avell, 
that  they  may  '  come  to  be  good  clerks.  And  lift  up 
your  little  white'  hands  for  me,  which  prayeth  for  you  to 
God.' 

4.  Men  like  these  wanted  to  make  the  monks  and 
clergy  better,  and  wanted  also  to  see  the  riches  of  the 


J 


1529.  Dislike  to  the  Pope.  21 

Church  spent  in  furthering  learning.  Cardinal  Wolsey 
made  some  reforms.  As  Papal  Legate  he  put  an  end  to 
many  small  monasteries,  wliich  were  not  well  conducted  or 
were  not  in    useful   places.      He  took   their     ,,  ^ 

,        ,  ,  "^    ^  ,     ,  .  , ,  Kefocms  of 

lands  and  money  to  found  his  college  at  Cardinal 
Oxford  and  his  school  at  Ipswich.  When  "■^^*'' 
Wolsey  fell  his  work  in  this  way  did  not  stop  with  him. 
In  1529,  when  Parliament  was  called  together  again,  a 
bill  was  passed  to  make  the  clergy  live  in  their  parishes, 
and  not  hold  more  than  one  living  at  once,  unless  the 
living  they  held  was  very  poor,  and  do  other  things 
which  were  right.  It  was  clear  that  the  bad  customs  of 
the  clergy  were  going  to  be  done  away  with. 

5.  Besides  the  wish  to  reform  the  clergy,  many  men 
wished  that  the  Church  in  England  should  be  free  from 
the  power  of  the  Pope.  Kver  since  the  reign 
of  John  the  Popes  had  been  disliked  in  the  Pope  in 
England,  and  laws  had  been  often  passed  to  ^"g'^'l- 
prevent  them  from  interfering  in  English  affairs.  The 
Popes  became  Heads  of  the  Church  in  Europe  in  oM 
times,  because  they  were  wise  and  good  men,  and 
helped  the  clergy  and  people  against  the  king  in  times 
when  he  wished  to  oppress  them.  But  the  Popes  had 
fallen  from  their  old  greatness.  In  the  fourteenth 
century  the  Popes  had  been  under  the  power  of  the 
French  king,  and  so  the  people  of  England  distrusted 
them.  When  they  escaped  from  the  French  king's 
power  there  was  a  dispute  about  who  should  be  Pope, 
and  for  a  lime  there  weue  two  or  three  Popes  at  once, 
quarrelling  with  each  other.  This  confusion  was  stopped 
by  a  council  of  bishops  from  ail  Europe  held  at  Constance, 
in  1 41 7,  when  a  new  Pope  was  chosen.  Since  that 
time  the  Popes  had  lived  like  Italian  princes,  carrying 
on  wars  in  Italy,  or  favouring  art  or  learning,  as  Italian 
princes  did  in  those  Ja)s       Some  of   them  had    been 


22  The  Tudor s.  i53i_ 

wicked  men,  and  none  of  them  had  done  such  things  as 
the  head  of  the  Church  ought  to  do.  So  men  did  not 
look  up  to  them  as  they  had  done  of  old.  Thev  no 
longer  protected  the  clergy  and  the  people  from  the 
king,  but  they  taxed  the  clergy  themselves,  and  made 
the  people  pay  them  money  in  many  ways.  So  men  in 
England  often  spoke  against  the  Popes,  and  many 
thought  that  the  English  Church  would  get  on  better 
without  the  Pope's  help. 

6.  When  King  Henry  VIII.  found  that  Pope  Clement 
VII.  would  not  help  him  to  get  rid  of  his  wife  he  thought 

,,„^      he  would  get  what  he  wanted  at  home  from 

Heniy  V  111. 

and  Pope  his    own  people — most   of    them    would    be 

Clement VII.  ^iijjng  enough  to  see  their  Church  national 
and  not  under  the  Pope.  Henr)'  did  not  at  first  want  to 
break  with  the  Pope  ;  for  he  thought,  as  was  true,  that 
the  king's  power  and  the  Pope's  power  helped  one 
another.  First  he  tried  to  get  the  Pope  to  do  what  he 
wanted  by  gathering  the  opinions  of  learned  men  all  over 
Europe,  especially  at  the  Universities,  about  the  law- 
fulness of  his  marriage  with  his  brothers  widow.  Though 
he  spent  much  money  in  bi'ibing  men  to  say  what  he 
wanted,  he  could  not  get  more  than  half  of  the  Uni- 
versities in  his  favour.  The  Pope  was  still  under  the 
power  of  the  emperor,  and  could  not  give  way  to  Henry's 
wish. 

7.  So  Henry  laid  a  plan  to  frighten  the  Pope.  Car- 
dinal Wolsey  had  been  accused  of  breaking  the  Statute 
Thekingand  o^  PrjEiTiunire  becausc  he  became  Pope's 
thecierg>'.  legate  in  England.  In  1531  all  the  clergy  in 
England  were  accused  of  having  shared  in  Wolsey's 
crime,  because  they  had  dealt  with  him  as  Pope's 
legate.  To  avoid  the  loss  of  all  their  wealth  they  met 
and  oftered  to  pay  the  king,  18,000/.,  which  in  those  days 
was  equal  to  ten    times   as   much    as  now.      T^e  king 


»533-         -^  National  Church  in  England.  23 

refused  to  take  it  unless  they  called  him,  in  the  bill 
which  granted  him  the  money,  by  the  name  of '  supreme 
bead  of  the  Church.'  The  clergy  rather  unwillingly 
agreed. 

8.  Next  year,  153-,  Parliament  parsed  more  laws  to 
reform  the  clergy.  They  set  bounds  to  what  was  called 
the  '  benefit  of  clergy,'  by  which  many  men  ParUament 
who  were  not  clergymen  were  tried  for  their  °^  'ss^- 
wrong  doings  in  the  church  courts,  and  not  in  the 
king's  courts.  They  stopped  the  monasteries  from 
having  any  more  money  left  to  them.  The  clergy  also 
took  courage  and  asked  to  be  freed  from  paying  a  tax 
to  the  Pope  which  was  called  Annates, ox  first  fruits, 2l\\^ 
was  the  tirst  year's  income  of  every  ecclesiastical  office. 
Parliament  forbade  the  payment  of  this  for  the  future. 
The  clergy  also  gave  up  the  right,  which  they  had  had 
before,  of  making  laws  for  themselves,  in  their  own 
assembly  of  Convocation.  Henceforth  the  resolutions  of 
Convocation  must  have  the  consent  of  the  king.  Henry 
hoped  that  after  showing  his  power  in  this  way  the  Pope 
would  give  way  to  him.  But  matters  had  now  gone  too 
far.  The  Pope  could  not  give  way  without  giving  up  his 
claim  to  any  real  power.  He  forbade  Henry's  divorce 
from  Katharine,  but  Henry  married  Anne  Boleyn  secretly 
in  January  1533. 

9.  An  Act  of  Parliameni  was  passed  stating  that  the 
English  Church  could  settle  its  own  matters,  and  for- 
bidding any  appeal  from  the  court  of  the 
archbishop  to  the  Pope.  The  king  had  just  Church  made 
chosen  a  new  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  "^"°"'''  • 
Thomas  Cranmer,  who  had  written  in  favour  of  his 
divorce,  and  had  been  useful  to  him  in  getting  the 
opinions  of  the  Universities.  Cranmer,  as  archbishop, 
called  Queen  Kathai'ine  before  his  court  ;  and  when  she 
would  not  come   he  decided  in  favour  of  hex  divorce 


24  The  Tiuiors. 


'SS-l- 


Katharine  was  set  aside,  and  Anne  Boleyn  was  recog- 
nised as  queen. 

The  king  had  now  entirely  quarrelled  with  the  Pope. 
In  1534  Parliament  did  still  more  to  separate  the  English 
Church  from  the  Pope  and  make  it  a  national  Church. 
The  Pope  was  to  have  nothing  to  say  to  any  appoint- 
ments in  the  English  Church,  and  no  more  payments 
were  to  be  made  to  him.  The  Pope's  power  in  England 
was  quite  at  an  end. 


CHAPTER    II. 
HENRY   VHI,   AND   CROMWELL. 

I.  The  king's  chief  adviser  after  the  fall  of  Wolsey  was 
Thomas  Cromwell.  He  had  been  engaged  in  business, 
Thomas  ^i"*  which  he  had  made  money,   and  entered 

Cromwell.  Parliament.  Wolsey  saw  his  talents,  and  took 
him  into  his  service.  When  Wolsey  fell,  Cromwell  was  re- 
commended by  him  to  the  king,  and  directed  all  the  king's 
measures  in  separating  from  the  Pope.  Those  measures 
were  successful,  and  Cromwell  became  as  powerful  in 
England  as  Wolsey  had  been  before.  He  was  a  man 
with  a  hard  head  and  a  hard  heart,  who  set  himself  to 
serve  the  king,  and  did  all  he  could  to  make  the  king 
all-powerful  in  the  land.  He  saw  that  to  get  rid  of  the 
Pope  and  put  the  Church  under  the  king  would  do  away 
with  the  only  thing  left  in  England  that  could  hold  out 
against  the  king. 

2.  Not  all  men  in  England  wished  the  Church  to  be 
The  Nun  separated  from  the  Pope,  and  there  was  some 

of  Kent.  discontent  at  what  had  been  done.  But  Crom- 

■well  had  spies  all  n^'^r  the  !and,  who  told  him  of  those 


«534- 


Henry  VI 11.  and  Cromwell.  25 


who  murmured.  They  were  at  once  brought  to  triai. 
that  other  men  might  fear.  A  poor  girl  in  Kent,  called 
the  '  Nun  of  Kent,'  was  thought  to  have  the  gift  of 
prophecy.  She  foretold  the  king's  death  and  the  triumph 
of  the  Pope,  and  many  men  believed  in  her.  She  was 
put  to  death  (1534),  and  many  great  men  were  accused 
of  having  taken  part  in  her  plot  to  stir  up  men  against 
the  king.  Amongst  others  Bishop  Fisher  of  Rochester 
was  accused  of  having  helped  her. 

3.  As  there  was  so  much  discontent  in  the  land,  Henry 
felt  that  he  must  fix  who  should  rule  after  his  death. 
The  new  queen  had  borne  a  daughter,  who  Act  of  Sue- 
afterwards  reigned  as  Queen  Elizabeth.  An  cession,  1514. 
Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  making  the  children  of 
Anne  Boleyn  the  lawful  heirs  of  the  king,  and  saying 
that  his  marriage  with  Katharine  was  unlawful  from  the 
beginning.  When  this  Act  had  been  passed  men  were 
called  upon  to  swear  to  obey  it,  so  that  there  need  be  no 
fear  of  disturbance  if  Henry  VIII.  died.  All  men  wished 
to  be  sure  of  peace,  and  to  be  free  from  fear  of  war  after 
the  king's  death;  so  they  were  willing  that  the  king 
should  do  many  cruel  and  harsh  acts  to  those  who 
seemed  likely  to  break  the  peace.  Sir  Thomas  More, 
who  had  been  made  Chancellor  after  Wolsey  fell,  and 
was  a  great  scholar  known  through  all  Europe  for  his 
learning,  would  not  take  the  oath,  and  was  sent  to  prison. 
He  did  not  object  to  the  change  in  the  succession  to  the 
throne,  but  he  could  not  do  anything  which  set  aside  the 
Pope's  authority. 

4.  Henry  and  Cromwell  were  determined  to  carry  out 
the    changes  which   they  had  begim.      Parliament    was 
greatly  made  up  of  men  who  were  friends  or 
servants  of  the  king,  and  did  what  he  wanted.     viTiA 
The  king  had  no  pity,  but  did  all  he  could  to     ^=^^*»"<»s. 
force   men  to  obey  him.     If  England  did   not  hold  tC 


26  i  he  Tudors. 


1534- 


gether,  and  if  Englishmen  were  not  willing  to  go  all  on 
the  same  way,  there  was  danger  of  foreign  invasion  as 
well  as  of  civil  war  at  home.  Henry  VIII.  was  cruel. 
and  sometimes  acted  like  a  tyrant,  but  he  had  a  clear 
aim  in  what  he  did.  England  must  be  kept  united,  in 
spite  of  the  changes.  Men  must  be  made  to  think  the 
same  thmg  ;  for  if  they  did  not,  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
the  peace  of  the  land.  Henry  did  not  shrink  from  going 
on  as  boldly  as  he  had  begun.  It  was  no  small  thing  to 
separate  from  the  Pope  ;  but  all  men  in  the  land  must 
be  made  to  do  it. 

5.  •  So  in  1534  an  Act  was  passed  declaring  it  to  be  high 
treason  to  question  the  king's  supremacy  over  the  Church, 
l^^oyal  Any  man  could  be  called  upon  at  any  time 
supremacy.  ^q  take  an  oath  that  he  agreed  to  it.  The 
monks  of  the  Charterhouse  first  suftered  for  their  refusal ; 
the  prior  and  si.\  of  his  monks  were  executed,  their 
monastery  was  broken  up,  and  most  of  the  others  died  in 
prison.  Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas  More  were  both 
beheaded.  It  was  clear  that  none  who  refused  to  obey 
were  to  be  spared. 

6.  It  was  natural  that  the  monks  should  not  agree  with 

the  changes  that  had  been  made  in  the  Church.     As  they 

^.  ,  .  lived  together  in  their  monasteries  they  were 
Dissolution  ,-,    ,  ,  ,     ■       ,  ,        •    ■  •   ,  , 

of  the  smaller  not  likely  to  alter  their  old  opinions  quickly, 

monasteries,  ^j^^^  ^^^.^  ^^^^  powerful  among  the  people, 

and  were  less  in  the  king's  power  than  the  ordinary 
clergy.  Cromwell  was  made  the  king's  minister  in 
Church  matters,  with  the  name  of  Vicar-General.  He 
lost  no  time  in  sending  men  to  enquire  into  the  state  ot 
the  monasteries.  These  men  brought  back  many  stories 
of  the  disorder  and  evil  lives  of  the  monks,  which  were 
laid  before  Parliament.  In  1536  an  Act  was  passed 
putting  an  end  to  all  the  smaller  monasteries  which  had 
less  than  200/.  a  year.     All  their  property  went  to  the 


1536  Discontent  and  Distress.  27 

king,  and   the  monks   were  taken   to  the   iargei    monas- 
teries, or  allowed  to  dwell  where  they  pleased. 

7.  Thus  the  Church  in  England  was  being  reformed, 
and  its  wealth  and  powerwere  going  to  the  king,  so  that  the 
king  had  become  more  powerful  in  the  land  ^owa  of 
than  he  had  ever  been  before.  Everything  Henry  viii. 
that  had  been  done  was  to  the  proht  of  the  kings  power, 
and  there  was  nothing  to  check  him.  In  1536  Anne 
Boleyn  was  accused  of  having  been  taitliless  to  tlie  king. 
She  was  found  guilty  and  condemned  to  death.  The 
day  after  her  execution  the  king  married  another  wife, 
Jane  Seymour.  Again  the  succession  to  the  crown  was 
altered  by  Act  of  Parliament.  The  king  was  allowed  to 
name  his  successor  in  his  will.  It  would  seem  that  there 
was  nothing  which  Parliament  would  not  allow  him 
to  do. 

8.  But  many  men  were  greatly  discontented  at  these 
changes,  especially  in  the  North,  where  the  people  held 
most  hrmly  by  the  old  Church,  and  were  not  DUcomciu 
so  much  under  the  king  s  influence.  The  ^'"*  distress, 
party  of  the  Yorkists  had  hoped  to  seize  the  crown  after 
the  king's  death,  and  felt  that  their  hopes  were  gone  after 
the  last  Act  of  Parliament,  which  ga\e  him  the  power  to 
name  his  oan  successor.  Many  of  the  old  nobles  were 
angryat  the  power  of  Cromwell,  who  was  not  a  man  of  noble 
birth.  The  people  in  many  places  grieved  at  the  fall  of 
the  monasteries,  from  which  they  got  many  acts  of  kind- 
ness. There  was  also  great  distress' among  the  people. 
Since  the  fall  of  the  old  nobility  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses 
land  had  been  changing  hands.  Men  of  the  middle 
classes,  who  had  made  money  in  trade,  bought  land,  and 
wished  to  make  money  out  of  it.  The)'  were  harder 
landlords  than  the  old  nobles  or  the  monks  had  been. 
Much  land  that  had  been  used  for  growing  corn  was 
now  used  for  feeding  sheep,  and  fewer  labourers  were 


28  The  Tudors. 


1536- 


..  anted  to  take  care  of  sheep  than  had  been  wanted  for 
tii;;ng  the  land.  This  threw  many  out  of  work  and  made 
wages  lower  ;  and  as  less  corn  was  grown,  bread  became 
dearer.  Though  the  king  was  not  to  blame  for  this,  yet 
the  people  threw  all  the  blame  on  his  government. 

9.  So  in  1 536  there  were  risings  against  the  king — first 
in   Lincolnshire,  under  the  Abbot  of  Barlings.     At  the 
.     .  sight  of  the  kings  troops,  under  the  Duke  of 

ofGrace,'  Norfolk,  the  rebel  army  broke  up,  and  its 
*^^  ■  ringleaders  were  punished.     Soon  after  there 

was  a  great  rising  of  the  people  and  nobles  in  Yorkshire, 
led  by  a  young  lawyer,  Robert  Aske.  The  rebels,  who 
had  for  their  banner  a  painting  of  Christ  crucified,  took 
York,  Hull,  and  Pontefract,  and  marched  southwards  to 
the  Don.  Their  rising  was  called  the  '  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace,'  and  they  wished  to  get  the  king  to  put  away 
Cromwell  and  bring  back  the  old  religion.  The  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  the  chief  of  the  old  nobles,  went  against  them 
and  promised  them  pardon  and  a  parliament  to  be  held 
at  Y'ork  to  consider  their  grievances.  But  when  the 
rebel  army  had  broken  up  nothing  was  done  by  the 
king  ;  and  ne.\t  year  their  leaders  were  seized  and  put  to 
death  for  high  treason.  One  more  source  of  danger  only 
remained.  There  was  fear  of  a  rising  in  the  West,  where 
the  Yorkist  party  was  strong  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Marquis  of  Exeter,  a  grandson  of  Edward  IV.  The 
birth  of  a  son  to  King  Henry,  in  October  1537,  seemed 
to  shut  out  the  Yorkists  from  all  hopes  of  the  succession. 
The  Marquis  of  Exeter  and  his  friends  were  arrested, 
and  on  the  evidence  of  liaving  spoken  treasonable  words 
were  condemned  to  death. 

10.  Thus  the  king  had  triumphed  over  all  his  foes. 
Cromwell's  spies  were  spread  over  the  land,  and  men 
were  afraid  even  to  speak  against  him.  He  felt  strong 
enough  to  go  on   with  his  work    and  to  put  down    aU 


JS39- 


Reform  of  Doctrine.  29 


the  monasteries  that  were  still  in  the  land.    Man)'  of  them 

were  forced  to  give  up  their  lands  to  the  king.    At  last,  in 

1539,  an   Act  of   Parliament   put  an  end  to  .    . 

.  ,,       T,     •  .        ,  •  Dissoliitioii 

them  all.     Their  property  went  to  the  king,     ofthecreater 

who  founded  a  few  new  bishoprics  out  of  '^""^'^"•'•i" 
\hem,  but  most  of  their  money  was  spent  on  his  own 
pleasures.  Their  lands  were  given  away  or  sold  for 
small  sums  to  the  new  nobles.  Much  of  the  lands  of  the 
Church  now  passed  into  the  hands  of  laymen,  so  that 
many  more  families  began  to  rise  in  wealth  and  impor- 
tance. Moreover,  when  the  monasteries  had  been  put 
down  a  great  change  came  over  Parliament.  The  greater 
abbots,  as  the  heads  of  the  monasteries  were  called,  had 
seats  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Now  that  they  were  gone 
the  House  of  Lords  became  much  smaller,  and  the  power 
of  the  Church  in  Parliament,  and  so  in  making  la-.vs, 
was  much  less  than  it  had  been  before. 


CHAPTER    in. 
RKFORM    OF   DOCTRINE. 

I.  We  have  seen  so  far  the  steps  which  had  been  taken 
in  England  (1)  to  reform  the  clergy,  (2)  to  make  the 
English  Church  a  national  Church.  We  have  next  to 
see  what  steps  were  taken  (3)  to  reform  the  doctrines  or 
beliefs  of  the  old  Church. 

Many  men  had  taught  that  the  beliefs  of  the  Church 
in  their  day  had  grown  different  froni  the  beliefs  which 
the   Apostles    had    taught.     The  chief   man     ^   . 

,       ,      J  ,  .  .    .         -  ,   .      „       ,        ,       Desire  for 

wlio  had  set  this  opinion  forward  m  Lnghmd  r^-form  of 
was  John  Wiclif,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IH,  ^°"""=- 
In  the  history  of  those  times  may  be  found   the  causes 


30  The  Tiidors.  1535. 

why  men  were  afraid  to  listen  to  him.  He  left  followers 
after  him,  who  were  called  Lollards^  and  were  per- 
secuted by  the  kings  who  came  after  Edward  III  , 
because  they  thought  that  their  opinions  were  wrong. 
Still  something  of  their  feeling  remained  in  England, 
and  when  once  changes  in  Church  matters  began  to  be 
made  there  were  men  to  speak  out  more  boldly  their 
opinion  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  ought  to  be 
changed  as  well. 

2.  Moreover,  in  Germany  Martin  Luther  had  taught 
that  many  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Roman  Church  were 

wrong,    and    many    men    had    believed  his 

Protestant-  . 

ism  in  Ger-  tcachmg.  His  followers  were  called  Protest- 
""^"^^  ants,  because  they  had  protested  against  the 

decree  of  the  Diet  of  Speyer  in  1529,  commanding  the 
mass  to  be  said  in  all  churches.  Henry  VIII.  had 
written  a  book  against  Luther,  and  did  not  agree  with 
him,  nor  did  he  wish  to  change  the  beliefs  of  the  English 
Church.  But  in  fighting  against  the  authority  of  the 
Pope  he  was  obliged  to  set  up  the  authority  of  the  Bible, 
as  the  Protestants  had  done  in  Germany.  So  Protestant 
opinions  began  to  be  openly  held  in  England,  and  Pro- 
testant books  were  spread  in  the  land. 

3.  In  1536  ten  Articles  of  Religion  were  passed  by  the 
Convocation  of  the  Clergy,  which  were  in  some  way  like 
The  Bible  vvhat  the  German  Protestants  believed.  The 
in  English.  Bible,  whicli  had  been  done  into  Enghsh  by 
William  Tyndale,  afterwards  corrected  by  Miles  Cover- 
dale,  was  put  into  every  church.  Some  of  the  old  feasts 
of  the  Church  were  done  away  with,  as  being  needless. 
Images  were  taken  down,  so  that  they  might  not  be 
worshipped  by  the  ignorant.  The  shrines  of  saints  were 
stripped  ;  even  the  great  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury was  pulled  down,  and  the  saint's  bones  were  taken. 
awa)-. 


15-^0.  Persecution  of  the  Protestants.  J? 

4.  Henry  wished  to  see  all  superstitious  beliefs  done 
away  with,  but  he  still  believed  the  doctrines  of  the  old 
Church  and  did  not  ajrree  with  the  German     ^ 

rJOIITTi  of 

Protestants.  Most  men  in  England  wished  the  Pro- 
the  same  ;  but  there  was  a  small  body  of  '^^""t^- 
English  Protestants  who  greatly  wished  to  have  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  entirely  reformed.  They  had 
grown  bold  as  they  saw  the  changes  which  the  king  was 
making.  They  said  and  did  many  things  which  angered 
those  who  did  not  think  as  they  did.  Many  things  which 
most  people  thought  to  be  holy,  and  so  to  be  reverenced, 
the  Protestants  thought  to  be  superstitious  and  to  be 
laughed  at.  S6  men  grew  to  dislike  the  Protestants,  who 
said  and  did  many  foolish  things.  The  king  became 
angiy  with  them,  for  he  thought  they  were  disorderly 
in  wishing  to  go  farther  than  he  would  allow.  In  1J39 
Parliament  passed  the  Bill  of  Six  Articles,  which  was 
so  called  because  it  went  against  the  Protestants  in  six 
points  of  their  teaching.  Priests  were  not  allowed  to 
marry,  and  men  were  ordered  to  confess  their  sins  to  a 
priest. 

5.  Some  who  WDuld  not  obey  the  Six  Articles  were  put 
to  death.     Henry  was  afraid  of  the  disorders  which  had 
taken  place  in  Germany  after  Luther's  teach-     Persecutions 
ing    had  been    spread    among    the    people.     "g'stMts'^'^ 
There  the  poor  people  had  risen  against  the     1539- 

rich.  Men  had  set  themselves  above  the  law,  for  they 
said  the  law  was  only  made  for  the  wicked,  but  they 
were  holy.  Men  were  carried  away  by  their  new  religious 
beliefs,  and  thought  that  nothing  else  was  wanted  except 
these  religious  beliefs.  They  forgot  that  what  men  do 
depends  a  great  deal  on  what  they  see  other  men  doing 
around  them,  and  that  laws  are  therefore  needful  in  a  state 
to  make  men  hold  together  and  do  the  same  things  for 
one  another's  good.     So  it  came  about  that  Henry  per- 


3  a  The  Til  dors. 


154a 


secuted  those  who  would  not  obey  the  laws  about  matters 
of  religious  belief. 

6.  There  were  then  two  parties  in  the  land — one  that 
wished  to  keep  as  closely  as  might  be  to  the  old  Church,  the 
P:mies  in  Other  wanting  to  make  such  changes  in  the 
England.  doctrines  of  the  Church  as  Luther  had  made 
in  some  parts  of  Germany.  At  the  head  of  the  first  of 
these  parties  stood  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  at  the  head  of 
the  other  were  Cromwell  and  Archbishop  Cranmer. 

7.  Cromwel!  still  had  great  plans  before  him  of  carry- 
ing out  the  work  which  he  had  begun.  He  wanted  to  make 
Cromwell  England  strong  in  Europe,  as  the  head  of 
and  the  ^  ^^  nations  which  had  separated  from  the 

German  '^ 

Protestants.  Pope.  He  tried  to  gather  them  all  together 
against  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  who  was  the  head  of 
all  the  peoples  that  still  held  to  the  Pope.  Cromwell 
wished  to  bind  Henry  VIII.  to  the  Protestant  princes  of 
Germany.  Though  the  emperor  ruled  over  all  Germany 
yet  ever)'  prince  ruled  his  own  state  under  the  emperor. 
Now  the  emperor  threatened  to  make  war  against  those 
who  followed  Luther  and  were  called  Protestants.  Crom- 
well hoped  to  get  the  king  of  France,  who  had  been  so 
long  at  war  with  the  emperor,  to  join  with  Henry  and  the 
German  Protestants  :  then  they  would  together  be  strong 
enough  to  beat  the  emperor. 

8.  So  in  1540  Cromwell  brought  about  a  marriage  be- 
tween Henry  and  Anne  of  Cleves,  who  was  a  kinswoman 
FallofCrom-  ^^  ^^^  Elector  of  Saxony,  then  the  chief  of 
well,  1540.  the  German  Protestant  princes.  But  his 
great  plans  failed.  The  king  of  France  made  peace  with 
the  emperor  instead  of  joining  with  Henry.  The  German 
princes  were  afraid  of  the  emperor,  and  he  won  them 
over  to  make  peace  with  him.  Moreover,  Henry  dis- 
liked his  wife  so  much  that  he  would  not  live  with  her. 
She  was  soon  put  a\va\-,  and  was  content  with  the  money 


154C.  Fall  of  Cromziiell.  33 

which  was  paid  her.  Croni'vcil  had  told  him  she  was 
beautiful,  and  Henry  was  disappointed  in  her.  He  was 
angry  with  Cromwell,  who  had  many  enemies  eager  to 
speak  against  him.  He  was  accused  of  having  deceived 
the  king  and  done  things  in  his  n;'me  without  his  know- 
ledge. He  was  not  even  allowed  to  plead  his  cause  ;  for 
he  was  not  brought  to  trial,  but  was  condemned  to  death 
t>y  Parliament  by  a  Bill  of  Attainder,  that  is,  an  Act  of 
Parliament  declaring  a  man  guilty  of  treason  and  con- 
demning him  to  death. 

9.  Cromwell  had  few  friends.  He  had  entirely  given 
himself  up  to  work  for  the  k  ng,  and  had  ma'e  enemies 
of  the  nobles,  the  people,  and  those  who  lield 

1  1  1   ,-.  1  .•  11-  1  ■  CromweH's 

to  the  old  Lhurcn.  \  ct  the  kmg  gave  nnn  work  in 
ovL-r  to  his  foes  the  moment  his  plans  failed,  '-"g'-'^""- 
No  length  of  service  could  make  a  man  sure  of  the  king's 
favour.  Cromwell  was  put  to  death  in  1540,  and  men 
were  glad  when  he  fell,  for  he  had  ruled  harshly,  and  men 
had  feared  him  greatly  ;  yet  he  had  carried  out  tv\o  great 
works  for  England  -^hc  had  reformed  the  English  Church 
and  had  dom;  away  with  the  power  of  the  Pope  in  Eng- 
land ;  moreover,  he  had  put  into  the  hands  of  the  king 
all  the  power  which  had  been  taken  away  from  the  Pope 
and  the  c'ergy.  These  great  changes  had  been  brought 
about  without  any  war  at  home  or  abroad. 

to.   Still  there  was  the  question  how  far  the  changes  in 
the  beliefs  of  the  old   Ciuirch  should  be  allowed  to  go  in 
England.     This  was  the  question  that  tV.led 
up  the  rest  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VTIl.     The     of  reli^ous 
tv.-o   parties,  those  «ho   wished   for  changes     i'^*''""-"^- 
in  belief  and  those  who  did  not,  were  struggUng  against 
one    another.      The    king    seemed  to  lean  first  to  one 
side  and   then  to  the  other.     After   Cromwell's  fall  his 
chief  minister  was  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  head  of  the 
Oid   nobles,  who  was  in  favour  of  the   old  Church.     The 


34  The  Tudors. 


1540- 


king  married  his  niece,  Katharine  Howard,  in  1540  ;  but 
she  was  found  to  have  been  a  bad  woman  before  her 
marriage,  and  was  condemned  to  death  for  treason  in 
1 541.  In  1543  the  king  married  Katharine  Parr,  who 
was  in  favour  of  the  Protestants.  They  slowly  gained 
power.  The  Litany  and  a  few  prayers  were  put  into 
English  to  be  used  in  churches  instead  of  the  old  services. 
The  Protestants  were  stil!  persecuted  at  times,  but  they 
gradually  grew  stronger. 

II.  The  head  of  the  reforming  party  was  the  Earl  of 
Hertford,  brother  of  Queen  Jane  Seymour,  and  therefore 
Rise  of  the  uncle  of  Princc  Edward,  the  king's  only  son 
ki'dowcT"  ^"*^  '"'^'^  ^°  ^^^  throne.  Hertford  became 
1343-1547-  more  powerful  with  the  king  as  he  foimd 
that  his  life  was  drawing  to  an  end.  His  wish  then  was 
that  his  son  should  peaceably  succeed  him,  and  that  the 
kingdom  should  be  ruled  for  him  until  he  grew  old  enough 
to  rule  it  for  himself  He  naturally  thought  that  tl^je 
prince's  uncle  was  most  likely  to  be  faithful  to  him.  The 
Duke  of  Norfolk  was  suspected  of  wishing  to  seize  the 
regency  while  the  young  prince  was  still  under  age.  He 
and  his  son,  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  were  thrown  into  prison, 
and  Surrey  was  executed.  Norfolk  was  still  in  prison 
Death  of  when  the  king   died,  January  28,   1547.     In 

Henrj'  VIII.  j^jg  will  he  named  a  council  of  sixteen  mem- 
bers who  were  to  rule  the  kingdom  till  his  son  came  of 
age.  This  council  was  chosen  from  men  of  both  parties  ; 
but  the  Earl  of  Hertford  was  put  at  its  head. 

12.  The  country  was  so  much  accustomed  to  be  ruled 
by  one  man  that  Hertford  found  it  easy  to  get  himself 
Protector  made  head  of  the  Government,  with  the  title  of 
Somerset.  <  Protcctor  of  the  Realm.'  He  was  also  made 
Duke  of  Somerset,  as  was  said,  by  the  king's  will. 

13.  The  Protector  Somerset  was  in  favour  of  Protes- 
tantism, and  he  and  Archbishop  Cranmer  lost  no  time  in 


1547-  Protector  Somerset.  35 

making  the  changes  they  wanted.  The  English  Church 
had  been  separated  from  the  rule  of  the  Pope :  it  was 
now  to  be  cleansed  from  all  the  errors  which 

,         _,  ,  ,  ,  •        •  rrogrcss  of 

the  Protestants  thought  there  were  m  its  the  Refor- 
beliefs.  Changes  were  quickly  made  which  '"■''"°'>- 
could  not  fail  to  shock  those  who  had  been  brought  up 
to  the  services  of  the  old  Church.  Images  were  every- 
where pulled  down.  The  pictures  which  were  painted 
on  church  walls  were  covered  with  whitewash.  The  old 
services  were  laughed  at,  and  sermons  were  preached 
against  them.  Old  customs  were  broken  all  at  once. 
Archbishop  Cranmer  set  an  example  of  eating  meat  in 
Lent.  The  Prayer  Book,  which  had  been  made  before, 
was  now  added  to  and  made  such  as  we  now  use  it  in 
the  English  Church.  Commissions  were  sent  all  over 
the  country  to  see  that  all  images  and  paintings  were 
taken  away  from  the  churches,  and  to  make  the  clergy 
use  the  new  Prayer  Book. 

These  changes  could  not  be  made  without  grieving 
many  people  in  England.  By  far  the  greater  number  of 
Englislmien  did  not  wish  for  them.  They  somer<;efs 
were  made,  however,  all  at  once  ;  and  tliey  dangers, 
could  only  be  made  sure  if  the  men  who  had  made  them 
behaved  very  wisely  in  all  else  that  they  did.  The 
Reformation  was  not  a  question  which  had  to  do  with 
the  people  of  England  alone.  It  had  become  the  chief 
question  among  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  the  Catho- 
lic and  Protestant  peoples  were  likely  to  go  to  war  with 
one  another  about  it.  It  needed  a  wise  man  to  settle 
this  question  in  England.  But  Somerset  and  the  chiefs  of 
the  Protestants  were  not  wise,  and  we  have  to  see  how 
ihev  made  confusion. 


36  The  Tudors. 

BOOK    III. 
RELIGIOUS  STRUGGLES. 


1530- 


CHAPTER  I. 

PROTESTANT   MISRULE. 

I.  We  have  seen  how  the  religious  changes  in  England 
were  begun  by  men  like  'Wolsey,  who  had  been  taught 
Political  by  the  '  new  learning,'  and  wished  to  improve 

oHhe  Refor-  things  SO  as  to  make  them  fit  in  with  the 
niation.  greater  knowledge  which  men   had  gained. 

The  changes  which  they  began  as  a  means  of  improving 
the  old  Church  the  Protestants  wished  to  carry  farther 
into  matters  of  belief  In  the  parts  of  Germany  where 
the  Protestants  had  their  own  way,  it  was  seen  that  their 
opinions  went  farther  than  matters  of  religious  belief 
The  old  Church  had  been  so  much  bound  up  with  the 
State  that  a  change  in  one  seemed  likely  to  lead  to 
changes  in  the  other.  The  Protestant  parts  and  the 
Catholic  parts  seemed  likely  to  separate  from  one 
another  in  government  as  well  as  in  religion.  The 
emperor,  who  was  the  ruler  of  Germany,  was  waiting  till 
he  was  strong  enough  to  use  force  to  make  the  Protestant 
states  coine  back  to  the  old  system. 

Henry  VIII.  had  not  let  the  Protestants  have  their 
own  way,  as  he  did  not  want  to  have  England  divided 
and  his  own  power  lessened.  Many  men  were  frightened 
at  what  they  saw  taking  place  in  Germany.  The  Pope 
and  the  chief  bishops  in  Europe  set  themselves  against 
all  change,  for  they  were  afraid  that  it  might  go  too  far. 
The  men  of  learning,  who  did  not  wish  to  go  as  far  as  the 
Protestants,  grew  afi-aid  also  :   as  men  grew  more  angry 


1546.  Henry  VIII.  and  Scotland.  37 

they  did  not  listen  to  tliem.  So  the  moderate  men,  who 
had  begun  these  changes,  ceased  to  have  any  power.  All 
through  Europe  were  the  two  parties  of  the  Catholics 
and  the  Protestants,  who  seemed  likely  soon  to  go  to  war 
against  one  another. 

2.  In  this  state  of  things  England  would  be  very  weak 
if  it  were  divided.  Henry  VIII.  had  tried  to  keep  the 
country  united,  but  Somerset's  violent  Difficulties 
changes  made  many  people  dissatisfied,  of  Somerset. 
Besides,  ihey  made  England  an  entirely  Protestant 
country,  and  so  more  likely  to  be  attacked  by  Catholic 
states.  Yet  the  bulk  of  the  people  did  not  care  about 
Protestantism,  and  would  not  be  ready  to  tight  for  it  with 
goodwill.  If  Somerset  were  to  succeed  he  must  act 
very  wisely  in  making  England  strong  in  other  ways. 

3.  Now,  o'.ic  way  in  which  Henry  VIII.  had  tried  to 
make  England  strong  was  by  being  at  peace  with  Scot- 
land, and  by  trying  to  win  over  the  Scots  to 

like  England  and  join  with  it  in  what  it  did.  ancrS^ot- 
lic  tried  to  get  King  James  V.  to  reform  the  '^'id.  1530-46- 
Scottish  Church  in  the  same  way  as  the  English  Church 
hid  been  reformed.  But  James  V.  was  afraid  to  do  so. 
The  nobles  in  Scotland  were  very  powerful,  and  the 
bishops  were  the  men  who  helped  the  king  most.  James 
V.  did  not  dare  to  quarrel  with  his  bishops,  so  he  would 
not  do  as  Henry  counselled.  On  the  contrary,  he  mar- 
ried a  wife  from  France,  and  made  an  alliance  with 
the  French  king.  In  November  1542  he  sent  an  army 
oi  10,000  men  against  England;  but  it  entirely  failed, 
because  the  nobles  were  angry  at  an  upstart  being  made 
euininander,  and  his  troops  fell  into  disorder.  They 
took  to  rtighl  before  a  few  Enghshmen,  and  losing  them- 
selves in  the  marsh-land  beside  the  Solway  Firth,  were 
killed  or  made  prisoners.  Hence  the  battle  was  called 
Uie  Battle  of  Solway  Moss.     The  king  died  of  grief  at 


38  The   Ttidors.  i:;46 

his  defeat,  and  Henry  Vlll.  tried  to  t;et  his  son,  Prince 
Edward,  married  to  Mary,  the  dauiL,^hter  of  the  Scottish 
king,  and  heiress  to  the  throne.  He  got  on  his  side  a 
party  among  the  Scots,  who  were  in  favor.r  of  the  Refor- 
mation. Some  of  them  entered  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews 
and  put  to  death  Cardinal  Beaton,  the  leader  of  the 
Catholic  party,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Scottish 
Government  (May  1546).  They  were  stirred  to  do  this 
because  Cardinal  Beaton  had  ordered  one  of  the  Protes- 
tant preachers  to  be  burned.  After  killing  the  Cardinal 
they  shut  themselves  up  in  the  castle,  which  was  very 
strong,  and  sent  for  help  to  the  King  of  England. 

4.   Henry  VIII.  hoped  that  he  might  use  these  troub'fs 

in   Scotland  as  a  way  of  getting  the  Scots  to  do  what  he 

wished.      But  after  his  death  Somerset  did 

Somerset  rii.  n  ^  -iin 

and  Scot-  foolishiv.     Hc  made  a  treaty  with  the   Pro- 

land,  1547-8.  testants,  but  he  sent  no  suldiers  to  help  them. 
Meanwhile  the  French  sent  soldiers,  by  whose  help  the 
castle  of  St.  Andrews  was  taken,  and  the  Protestants 
were  beaten  for  a  tiiae.  Then  Somerset  gathered 
together  an  army  to  try  and  force  the  Scots  to  give  their 
young  queen  in  marriage  to  the  young  King  of  England, 
Edward  \T.  He  beat  the  Scots  in  a  battle  fought  at 
Pinkie-cleugh,  near  Edinburgh  (September  1547).  JNIany 
of  the  Scots  were  slain,  and  their  land  was  laid  waste. 
Somerset  did  not  stay  in  Scotland  after  the  battle,  as  he 
was  afraid  to  be  away  from  England.  He  had  used 
enough  force  to  make  the  Scots  hate  the  English,  and 
not  enough  to  make  them  do  as  he  wished.  Next  year 
the  young  Queen  Mary  was  sent  to  France,  where  she 
was  betrothed  to  the  heir  to  the  French  throne.  Somer- 
set had  made  the  Scots  become  again  the  close  friends 
of  France  and  the  enemies  of  the  English,  which  was  just 
what  Henry  VII.  and  Henry  VIII.  had  been  trying  to 
prevent. 


1549-  Rising  of  the  Commons.  39 

5.  Soon  there  were  troubles  at  home.  We  have  seen 
Jiat  much  of  the  land  in  England  had  changed  hands  in 
iate  years,  and  that  many  men  could  find  no  Discoi.tent 
work  under  the  new  landlords.  Thus  there  '"  England, 
nad  grown  up  a  large  class  of  vagrants,  who  begged  or 
5tole.  Laws  were  passed  against  thenr  ;  but  it  was  of  no 
•ISC  to  make  laws  that  men  should  work,  and  to  punish 
them  for  not  working,  when  there  was  no  work  for  thera 
to  do.  A  hard  law  was  passed  in  1 547  against  these 
\agrants,  which  made  many  men  discohtcnted.  Many 
men  were  ill-pleased  at  the  changes  made  in  their 
churches,  which  they  did  not  understand.  But  the  chief 
tiling  the  poor  complained  of  was  the  enclosure  of  com- 
mons by  the  new  landlords.  These  pieces  of  common  land 
the  people  had  used  before;  but  now  the  landtords  set 
hedges  round  them,  and  added  them  to  their  own  fields. 
So  many  poor  people  lost  their  means  of  livelihood  in  this 
way. 

6.  Thus  there  was  great  discontent  in  the  land,  and 
Somerset  tried  to  set  it  at  rest  by  sending  round  commis- 
sioners to  enquire  about  the  commons.  The  Rising  in 
people  thought  he  was  on  their  side,  and  at  'S49. 
last  took  up  arms  in  Cornwall  and  Devonshire,  and  in 
Norfolk  (154^).  In  Devonshire  the  rebels  besieged 
Exeter,  and  were  on  t!ie  point  of  taking  it,  when  Lord 
Grey  brought  soldiers  to  its  relief  and  defeated  the  rebels 
un  Clif'^on  Down,  and  afterwards  at  Bridgewater.  In 
Norfolk  they  were  very  strong  under  a  leader  called 
Robert  Ket,  a  tanner,  but  were  at  last  put  down  by  the 
Earl  of  Warwick.  The  nobles  blamed  Somerset  for 
having  caused  this  rising,  because  he  led  the  people  to 
hope  that  he  would  be  on  their  side.  The  rebels  had 
been  beaten,  not  by  Somerset,  but  by  Warwick,  who  was 
now  stronger  in  the  council  than  was  Somerset. 

',.  Besi<-es    this,    Somerset  was    unpopular  for  other 


40  The   Tudors. 


1540- 


reasons.      His  brother.  Lord  Seymour,  had  plotted  to  get 
the  government  into  his  own  hands.       His   plots  were 
discovered,    and   he   v.-as    put   to    death    b'- 
unpopu-  Parliament.      Still   the    people   looked    with 

laruy.  some  anger  on  Somerset,  who  could   in   this 

way  bring  his  brother  to  Che  block.  Somerset  also  ga"e 
otfence  by  his  grandeur.  He  built  a  palace  in  London 
in  the  place  which  still  goes  by  the  name  of  Somerset 
House.  To  build  it  he  pulled  down  churches,  so  tnar 
men  murmured  at  his  want  of  reverence. 

8.  For  all  these  reasons  men  had  ceased  to  care  for 
.Somerset.  The  man  ■  who  was  most  powerful  in  the 
Kail  of  council  after  him.  was  John  Dudley,  Earl  of 
Somerset.  Warwick.  He  was  the  son  of  that  Dudley 
who  had  been  put  to  death  when  Henry  VIII.  came  to 
the  throne,  for  the  way  in  v.'hich  he  had  robbed  the 
people  to  please  Henry  VII.  Yet  though  Henry  VIII.  had 
put  the  father  to  death  he  had  raised  the  son,  and  had  left 
him  one  of  the  e.Kecutors  of  his  will.  Warwick  had  gra- 
dually become  strong  in  the  council,  and  when  Somerset 
was  no  longer  trusted  Warwick  led  most  of  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  council  to  attack  him.  Somerset  strove  to  keep 
his  power;  but  m:n  fell  away  from  him.  He  was  obliged 
to  give  way  and  to  resign  his  office  (December  1549). 

9.  At  first  men  -hoped  that  the  council  would  now 
change  what  Somerset  had  done.  But  Warwick  does 
Character  of  "ot  Seem  to  have  felt  himself  strong  enough 
Warwick.  ^o  do  SO.  He  was  a  man  who  cared  little 
about  religion,  and  had  little  love  for  his  country  :  he 
sought  only  his  own  interests,  and  tried  to  do  what  was 
best  for  himself.  In  this  he  was  unlike  Somerset,  who 
was  in  earnest  in  all  he  did,  and  wished  to  set  up  Pi^otes- 
tantism  in  England  because  he  believed  in  it.  Still  So- 
merset and  Warwick  both  go\erned  England  badjv  foj 
Somerset  was  as  unwise  as  Warwick  was  selfish. 


I 


1552.  Death  oj  Sovh-rsct.  4 1 

10.  Warwick  did  much  the  same  things  as  Somerset 
had  done.  In  1548  France  had  gone  to  war  with 
England.      But   Warwick   now    made   peace 

with  France,  and  gave  up  to  it  Boulogne,  umrr"'^""" 
which  Henry  VIII.  had  taken  in  1544,  and  ^^="^'ck. 
kept  at  the  end  of  the  war.  He  favoured  the  Protestants 
in  religious  matters,  and  they  had  things  more  and  more 
their  own  way.  Many  men  came  over  from  Germany 
and  taught  the  new  doctrines.  The  bishops  who  held 
more  of  the  old  beliefs,  such  as  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, and  Bonner,  Bisliop  of  London,  were  thrown 
into  prison,  and  then  bishops  were  put  in  their  place. 
Cranmer  made  '  Articles  of  Religion,'  which  all  the  clergy 
had  to  sign.  All  images  and  paintings  were  destroyed  in 
churches,  and  no  services  might  be  used  except  those 
which  had  been  set  forth  in  the  Prayer  Book. 

11.  Now,  many  of  these  changes  might  be  good  in 
themselves,  but  they  were  not  made  in  a  good  way.  The 
nobles  only  wanted  to  get  more  of  the  Church  ^^^<^^^  ^f  j^,. 
lands  for  themselves.  The  Protestants  did  Reformers, 
not  deal  kindly  with  those  of  the  old  way  of  thinking, 
and  did  not  show  them  much  of  the  spirit  of  Christian 
love.  The)'  behaved  like  a  party  which  had  won  the  day, 
and  did  not  try  to  spread  their  opinions  by  kindness  and 
gentleness,  but  rather  by  force.  Many  men,  also,  who 
led  wicked  lives  pretended  to  be  anxious  to  spread  Pro- 
testant opinions,  and  brought  disgrace  on  them  by  their 
evil  deeds. 

12.  Warwick,  who  had  now  taken  the  title  of  Duke  01 
Northumberland,  was  soon  disliked  by  the  people  more 
than  Somerset  had  been,  and  Somerset  again  pg^jh  of 
began  to  gather  his  friends  round  him,  and  Someisei. 
hoped  to  get  back  his  power.  He  was  taken  prisoner 
and  brought  to  trial.  Being  convicted  of  felony  he  was 
condemned  to  death,  and  was  oeheaded  in  January  1552. 


42  The  Tudors. 


1552. 


In  those  days  a  great  minister  of  state  who  had  lost  his 
office  could  scarcely  hope  10  live  in  safety.  He  must 
keep  in  power,  or  must  expect  death. 

13.  After  this  Northumberland  had  no  one  whom  he 
need  fear  ;  but  the  young  king's  failing  health  gave  him 

cause   for  alarm.      Edward   VI.   had  always 
berland's  been  a  weakly  boy.     He  had  tried  to  take  part 

P  °''  in  the  business  of  the  state,  and  this  had  made 

his  health  grow  weaker.  It  was  clear  that  he  could  not 
hve  much  longer.  By  the  Act  of  Succession,  passed  in 
1 544,  the  next  to  succeed  to  the  throne,  if  Edward  died 
without  children,  was  the  Princtss  Mary,  daughter  of 
Henry  VII 1.  by  Queen  Katharine,  his  first  wife.  Mary  was 
not  likely  to  be  in  favour  01  Protestantism.  The  quarrel 
with  the  Pope  had  come  about  because  he  had  refused  his 
consent  to  her  mother's  divorce.  Mary  still  held  to  the  old 
religious  services,  though  the  council  had  tried  to  force  her 
to  give  up  using  the  mass  service.  She  turned  for  help  to 
her  powerful  kinsman,  the  Emperor  Charles  V,,  who 
threatened  England  with  war.  Mar)-  was  left  alone,  and 
was  known  to  be  devoted  to  the  Pope  and  to  the  Em- 
peior. 

14.  Northumberland  saw  that    if   Mary  came  to  the 
throne  he  would  be  ruined,  and  all  his  plans  would  be 

undone.     He  determined  to  trv  and  prevent 

Question  of  ,  .  „  ,  ,  •,,,        i  i  i  '     • 

thesiicces-  tnis.  Edward  VI.,  though  Only  Sixteen  years 
"°"'  old,  had  his  own  opinions  and  hked  to  have  his 

own  way.  He  was  very  much  in  favour  of  Protestantism, 
and  so  did  not  wish  that  his  sister  Mary  should  come  after 
him  and  undo  all  that  had  been  done.  Northumberland 
persuaded  him  that  he  had  power  to  settle  by  will  who 
should  succeed  him,  as  his  father  had  done.  Henry  VIII. , 
however,  had  had  that  power  given  by  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, which  Edward  VI.  was  going  to  set  aside. 

15.  Edward  VI.  made  his  judges  draw  up  n  paper  in 


'553- 


Lady  Jane  Grey.  43 


which  his  two  sisters,  Mary  and  Ehzabeth,  were  passed 
over  and  the  throne  was  left  to  his  cousin,  Lady  jane 
Grey.  This  paper  was  signed  by  all  the  great  men 
round  the  king.  The  next  heir  by  Henry  VIII.'s  will 
was  Lady  Jane's  mother,  the  Duchess  of  Suftolk  ;  but 
she  was  willing  to  give  way  to  her  daughter.  Henry 
VTII.  had  left  the  throne,  if  all  his  children  should  die 
without  issue,  to  the  descendants  of  his  younger  sister, 
Mary,  passing  over  altogether  his  elder  sister,  Margaret.' 
Edward  VL  now  gave  the  throne,  after  his  own  death,  to 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  the  eldest  granddaughter  of  Mary. 
Northumberland  had,  a  few  weeks  before,  married  Lady 
Jane  to  his  son.  Lord  Guildfoid  Dudley  ;  and  hoped  in 
this  way  to  keep  the  power  in  his  own  hands  after 
Edward's  death.  Most  men  did  not  like  this  arrange- 
ment, and  many  of  the  chief  men  who  signed  it  did  so 
very  unwillingly, 

16.  When  Edward  VL  died  (July  1553)  Queen  Jane 
was  proclaimed.  But  men  did  not  like  to  see  the  old 
customs  set  aside  in  this  way,  and  would  Lajy  j^ne 
have  none  but  their  lawful  queen  to  reign  *^'''=y- 
over  them.  Mary  managed  to  make  her  escape  when 
Northumberland  sent  to  have  her  brought  to  London. 
Men  gathered  round  her,  and  Northumberland  was  dis- 
liked by  almost  all.  When  he  marched  against  Mary  his 
soldiers  fell  away  from  him.     The  chief  nobles  gathered 

1  Genealogical  table  of  descendants  c  .y  VII. 

Henry  VII.  =  Elizabeth  of  -    ^ 


I  I  I 

]Ame%\\ .=  Margaret.  Henry  VIII.  VI/arj'=  Charles  Brandon 

of  Scotland.   I  I  I    Duke  of  Suffolk. 


James  V.  |  |  |      Frances  =   Henry  Grey 

of  Scotland.  Ed-ward  VI.    Mary.  Elizabeth.  I  Duke  of  Suffolk. 

Mary  Lord  Guildford  Dudidv  =Lady  Jane  Grey. 

Queen  of  Scots.  son  of  Duke  of  Northumberland 


44  The    Tudors. 


1553- 


round  Mar)',  and  Northumberland  found  it  hopeless  to 
hold  out  any  longer.  At  Cambridge,  whither  he  had 
gone  to  seize  Mary,  he  himself  proclaimed  Mary  queen, 
and  soon  after  was  taken  prisoner. 

1 7.  He  and  som.e  of  his  friends  were  brought  to  trial 
and  condemned  for  high  treason.  His  selfishness  showed 
^     ,    ,  itself  greatlv  in  his  last  hours.     In  hopes  of 

T>eath  of  •  J  '     ,     ,  T^  • 

Northum-  escapmg  death  he  put  away  Protestantism, 
berland.  ^^^  ^^,^^   ^^   ^^^   scaffold   he    Said   to   the 

people  that  he  had  always  been  in  his  heart  a  Catholic. 
We  cannot  wonder  that  the  changes  in  religion  which 
had  been  made  by  such  men  as  this  were  not  believed  in 
very  much  by  the  people.  The  changes  which  had  been 
made  since  the  death  of  Henry  VIII.  had  pleased  very 
few.  The  men  who  had  made  them  were  neither  wise 
nor  good.  The  people  were  glad  to  think  that  under 
Queen  Mary  they  would  go  back  to  the  old  religion, 
which  most  of  them  liked  better  than  the  changes  which 
had  been  latelv  made. 


CHAPTER  II. 
CATHOLICISM    BROUGHT   BACK. 

I.  Mary,  from  the  beginning  of  her  reign,  was  anxious  to 
bring  back  into  England  the  old  religion.  She  trusted 
to  her  cousin,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  to 
backthe'oid  help  her  by  his  advice.  She  began  by 
services.  bringing  back  the  old  services  for  her  own 

use,  and  many  of  the  clergy  followed  the  example  she  set 
and  brought  them  back  into  their  churches.  The  bishops 
made  in  the  last  reign  were  turned  out  of  their  sees  and 
the  old  bishops  were  brought  back.  Archbishop  Cran- 
mer  wrote  against  the  mass  service  which  was  again  used 
in  Canterbury  Cathedral.      He  was  sent  to  the  Tower 


The  shaded  portion  of  ihc  riiap  shows  ihi.  •\\tent  of  the  Au=lro-Spanish 
empire  :  but  Charles  V.  did  not  rule  over  Portuga!,  nor  Philip  II.  over 
Gtrmany. 


46  The   T^idors.  1553. 

and  other  of  the  Protestant  bishops  with  him.  Gardiner, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  was  taken  from  the  Tower  and 
made  Lord  Chancellor.  Cranmer,  Lady  Jane,  and  her 
husband  were  tried  for  high  treason  and  were  found 
guilty,  but  were  not  put  to  death  just  yet. 

When  Parliament  met  it  did  away  with  all  the  re- 
ligious changes  which  had  been  made  during  the  last 
reign,  and  things  were  brought  back  to  the  state  in  which 
they  were  at  the  death  of  Henry  VIII. 

2.  So  far  the  people  were  glad  at  what  Mary  had 
done ;  but  it  would  not  be  such  an  easy  matter  to  bring  back 

the  English  Church  to  obey  the  Pope,  and 
choice  of  a  SO  Set  up  the  old  State  of  things.  Yet  Mary 
husband.  wanted  to  do  this,  and  to  join  herself  entirely 

with  Spain.  There  was  a  general  feeling  that  Mary 
should  marry  an  Englishman,  and  Gardiner  would  have 
liked  her  to  take  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon  ;  but  Mary 
would  have  no  other  husband  but  Philip,  the  son  and 
heir  of  Charles  V. 

3.  Men  in  England  did  not  like  this  marriage.  They 
had  no  wish  to  ha\e  a  king  from  abroad,  and  Philip 
would  soon  be  King  of  Spain,  and  so  the  most  powerful 
king  in  Europe.  Spain  was  entirely  on  the  side  of  tlie 
Pope,  and  Philip  would  be  likely  to  do  his  best  for 
Catholicism.  It  is  true  that  Philip  was  to  have  nothing 
more  than  the  title  of  King  in  England  ;  he  Avas  to  have 
no  power  whatever  over  the  government.  Still  men 
were  afraid  of  the  marriage,  and  there  was  much  dis- 
content. A  plan  was  formed  by  those  who  \\ere  in  favout 
of  Protestantism  and  those  who  disliked  a  marriage  with 
Spain  ta  set  up  Elizabeth  as  queen  and  marry  her  to 
the  Earl  of  Devon,  who  was  son  of  the  Marquis  of 
Exeter  beheaded  by  Henry  VI 1 1.,  and  thus  a  descendant 
of  Edward  IV.  In  Devonshire  and  Cornwall  the  rising 
was    unsuccessful,    out    in     Kent    Sir    Thomas    Wyatt 


1554- 


Persecution  of  the  Protestants.  47 


gathered  a    lar^e    force    and  marched  againbt    London. 
Mary   threw  heiself  vipon   the  goodwill  of  the   citizens, 
who  rose  to  defend  her.     W'yatt  hoped  that     Wyatt'sre- 
they  would  rise  in  his  favour.     He  marched     beliion. 
into  London,  but  his  troops  fell  away,  and  he  was  taken 
prisoner  (P'ebruary  1554). 

After  this  Mary  felt  that  her  throne  was  safe.  Lady 
Jane  Grey  and  her  husband  were  put  to  death.  Elizabeth 
was  threatened  and  sent  to  the  Tower  ;  but  it  was  no; 
thought  wise  to  proceed  against  her.  In  July  Philip 
landed  in  England  and  was  married  to  Mary. 

4.  It  was  now  easy  to  set  up  again  the  headship  of  the 

Pope  over  the  English  Church,  as  the   Pope  was  willing 

that  the  lands  bclonffins:  to  the  monasteries     

,        ,,  ,  ,  f  ,     .  Hc-idshipof 

should  not  be  taken  from  their  new  owners     ti.e  Pope 

and  given  back  to  the  Church.  Cardinal  -''sain  set  up. 
Pole,  grandson  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  had  refused 
to  agree  to  Henry  VIII. "s  divorce  and  had  fled  to  Rome 
was  now  sent  to  England  as  Papal  legate.  Men  received 
him  with  respect,  and  Parliament  agreed  to  unite  the 
English  Church  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  Pole  so- 
lemnly absolved  the  land  from  its  sin  of  schism.  Philip 
and  Mary,  together  with  all  the  members  of  Parliament, 
knelt  before  him  as  he  did  so.  The  headship  of  the 
Pope  over  the  English  Church  was  again  allowed,  and 
all  Acts  of  Parliamciit  against  it  were  done  away. 

5.  The  restored  clergy  were  resolved  to  use  their  vic- 
tory. The  old  laws  against  the  Lollards  which  had  been 
made  in  Henry  I  V.'s  reign,  but  had  been  done     „ 

.  ,      .       T-  J  .    ".  ,       .  .  Persecution 

away  with  in   Edward  VI.  s  time,  were  again     of  the  Pro- 
put  in  force.     Men  were  to  be  driven  back     '^^'^nts. 
to  the  old  religion.     Persecution  was  at  once  begun,  and 
the  leading  Protestants  were  marked  out  for  death.    They 
were  brought  to  trial  before  the  bishops,  and  if  they  would 
not  change  their  opinions  were  condemned  to  be  burned. 


48  The   Tudors. 


1555- 


The  chief  Protestant  teachers  were  put  to  death  in  the 
places  where  they  had  taught,  so  that  all  men  might  be 
afraid.  During  the  years  from  1555  to  1558  these  per- 
secutions always  went  on,  sometimes  more  fiercely  than 
at  others. 

6.  The  most  famous  of  those  who  were  put  to  death  for 
their  opinions  were  the  Bishops  Ridley  and  Latimer  and 

Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  were  all  burned 
Ridley  and  at  Oxford.  Ridley  and  Latimer  suffered  to- 
Latimer  gether,  in    October    1555.      'Play  the    man, 

Master  Ridley,'  .  said  Latimer,  as  the  fire  w^s  being 
lighted  :  '  we  shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle  in  England 
as  by  fhe  grace  of  God  shall  never  be  put  out.'  Cranmer 
was  kept  longer  in  prison,  and  was  led  to  hope  that  his 
hfe  would  be  spared  if  he  laid  aside  his  opinions.  He 
wrote  through  fear  and  unsaid  what  he  had  said  in  his 
Death  of  teaching ;  but  he  was  condemned  to  death 

Cranmer.  ^11  the  same.  He  saw  his  cowardice  and 
tried  to  do  away  with  its  ill  results  at  the  last.  He  de- 
clared to  the  people  his  firm  belief  in  Protestantism,  and 
when  at  the  stake  held  his  right  hand  to  be  burned  first 
in  the  fire,  saying  that  his  hand  had  offended  in  writing 
what  his  heart  had  not  believed. 

7.  Yet  these  persecutions  did  not  have  the  effect  which 
Mary  and  the  bishops  hoped  for.  Men  were  not  so  much 
frightened  by  thun  as  roused  to  anger.  _  Those  who 
suffered  death  won  the  sympathy  of  the  crowd  by  their 
quiet  courage.  Most  Englishmen  did  not  agi^ee  with  the 
Protestants,  but  still  did  not  think  it  right  that  they 
should  be  burned  for  their  opinions.  The  persecution, 
instead  of  putting  down  Protestantism,  rather  made  men 
think  more  of  it. 

8.  It  was  Mary  herself  who  urged  on  this  persecution. 
She  cared  above  all  other  things  for  her  mother's  religion 
and   for   her   mothers    country.     She    thought   more   of 


I 


1558.  Mary  and  the  Church.  49 

Spain  than  of  England,  and  never  knew  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  the  English  people.  She  believed  it  to 
be  her  highest  duty  to  bring  back  the  old 
religion  into  England,  and  she  thought  it  the  perse- 
right  to  v\se  all  her  power  to  do  so.  When  '^""°"^- 
the  bishops  wished  to  cease  from  persecuting  she  bade 
them  go  on.  The  more  she  saw  her  attempts  f.til  the  more 
she  believed  it  to  be  her  duty  to  show  greater  zeal.  She  be- 
lieved that  it  was  a  holy  cause  for  which  she  was  striving, 
and  she  thought  that  the  great  reason  which  kept  it  back 
was  because  people  were  not  enough  in  earnest.  So  it 
was  that  the  queen  herself  was  the  chief  in  carrying  on 
persecution.  Though  she  was  good  and  kind  in  other 
things  she  still  got  from  those  who  came  after  the  name 
of '  Bloody  Mary,'  and  by  her  persecution  she  deserved  it. 
9.  In  this  way  the  people  came  to  hate  Mary's  govern- 
ment. Her  ill-health  made  men  look  for  a  change.  Her 
chief  adviser  on  religious  things  was  Cardinal 
Pole,  who  after  Cranmer"s  death  was  made  tho  cimrch 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  who  was  of  ^^'^■ 
the  same  mind  as  the  Queen  about  bringing  back  the  old 
religion.  The  queen  went  still  farther  in  her  wish  to 
please  the  Pope.  She  wished  to  give  back  to  the  Church 
much  of  its  property  which  had  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  crown.  Parlian\ent  was  with  great  difficulty  got  to 
consent  to  this.  Mary  also  set  up  the  monks  and  friars 
in  some  of  the  places  from  which  they  had  been  driven, 
and  gave  them  back  lands.  Men  were  afraid  that  the 
Church  lands  would  soon  have  to  be  given  back;  and 
as  these  had  already  been  divided  amongst  40,000 
owners,  to  give  them  back  would  make  a  great  disturb- 
ance. So  the  queen  and  her  wishes  to  bring  back  the 
old  state  of  things  grew  more  and  more  disliked,  and 
plots  were  made  against  her.  They  were,  however,  made 
without  much  care,  and  were  easily  put  down. 
B.  H.  E 


50  The   Tudor s.  1556- 

10.  Soon,  however,  troubles  arose  abroad  which  made 
the  people  of  England  still  more  discontented  with  Mary's 
War  with  government.  Charles  V.  gave  up  his  king- 
France,  doms  toJiis  son  Philip  in  1556  and  went  to 
end  his  life  in  quiet  in  a  monastery  in  Spain.  Philip  II. 
made  war  agamst  France,  and  England  was  persuaded 
to  help  him.  In  1557  he  gained  a  great  victory  over  the 
French  at  St.  Quentin.  The  French  wished  to  do  some- 
thing in  return.  They  saw  that  the  town  of  Calais,  which 
was  the  last  English  possession  in  France,  was  not  pro- 
perly guarded.  The  Government  of  Mary  was  so  busy 
with  religious  matters  that  it  paid  little  heed  to  the 
army  or  to  the  navy.  So  when  the  French  attacked 
Calais  in  the  first  week  of  1558  it  fell  almost  at  once  into 
their  hands,  and  the  last  of  all  the  English  possessions 
in  France  was  lost. 

Men  looked  on  this  as  a  great  disgrace,  and  England 
roused  itself  to  make  war  ;  but  little  was  done. 

11.  Moreover,  in  this  war  between  France  and  Spain 
the  Pope  had  taken  the  side  of  France,  and  so  was  against 
_  England.     Mary  found  herself  after   all  op- 

The  Pope  &■  ;  ,,,1. 

opposed  to  posed  to  the  Pope,  though  she  had  been 
Mary.  trj'ing  to  do  everything  she  could  in  England 

in  his  behalf  The  Pope  quarrelled  with  the  archbishop, 
Pole,  and  took  from  him  his  office  of  Papal  Legate,  on 
which  much  of  his  power  depended.  Mary  was  obliged 
to  do  as  her  father  had  done  and  prevent  the  Pope's 
letters  from  being  brought  into  England.  At  the  same 
time  she  went  on  still  more  zealously  with  the  persecu- 
tions as  she  found  difficulties  growing  around  her. 

12.  Thus  her  reign  closed  in  disappointment  to  herself 

and  disgrace  to  her  people.     England  had 

Gloom  of  ,  ^    ° .  ,  J    ■       J    ,  J  V     J 

Mar>"slast  lost  Calais,  was  plunged  m  debt,  and  had  no 
■^y*  soldiers  or  ships  in  proper  order.     The  queen, 

after  bringing  on  herself  the  people's  hatred  by  what  she 


1558.  Accession  of  Elizabeth.  51 

had  done  to  bring  back  the  power  of  the  Fope,  found 
lierself  and  her  chief  ministers  distrusted  and  disliked  b\ 
the  Pope.  The  persecutions  had  chiven  nian\  iiua\  from 
England.  Some  of  those  who  fled  after  the  failure  of 
Wyatt's  rising  sailed  in  the  Channel  as  pirates,  and  did 
harm  to  the  trade  of  Spain.  Mary  had  no  child,  and  was 
left  alone  by  her  husband,  whom  she  loved  very  fondly, 
but  who  cared  little  for  her.  Her  health  was  failing,  and 
after  Gardiner's  death,  in  1555,  she  had  no  friend  whom 
she  could  trust  except  Pole.  She  could  look  forward  to 
nothing  except  the  overthrow  of  all  her  plans  when 
Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne.  Her  people  disliked  her, 
and  were  waiting  eagerly  for  her  death.  She  died  in 
November  1538,  worn  out  by  sorrow.  Pole,  who  was 
also  ill  at  the  same  time,  died  on  the  next  day. 

13.  No  one  made  any  opposition  to  the  coming  to 
the  throne  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth.     As  she  was  the 
daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn   it   was  likely  that     ^lizab'eih 
she  would  wish   to  do   quite  different  things     comes  to 
from  the  daughter  of  Katharine  of  Arragon.     November 
She    had    been    carefully    watched     during     '^^^^ 
Mary's  reign,  and  after  Wyatt's   rebellion   her  life  had 
been  for  a  time  in  danger,  but  Wyatt  would  not  bear 
witness  against  her.      She  had  learned  from  this  how  to 
behave  with  caution.     Men  were  glad  when  she  came  to 
the  throne,  for  they  hoped  that  she  would  put  an  end  to 
the  troubles  of  the  last  two  reigns,  and  would  again  bring 
quiet  into  the  land. 


CHAPTER    III. 
RELIGIOUS   SETTLEMENT   UNDER    ELIZABETH. 

I.  The  people   of   England  had   not  liked  the  way   in 
which  the  old  religion  had  been  brought  back  ;  for  it  had 


15  2  The  Tudors. 


i3S9- 


seemed  to  them  to  put  their  country  under  the  power  of 
other  countries,  and  no  longer  to  leave  it  as  free  to  act  for 
Dislike  of  itself  as  it  had  been  before.  The  Pope  and 
Catholicism.  ^^  King  of  Spain  had  meddled  with  affairs 
in  England,  and  the  counlr)'  had  suffered  nothing  but  loss 
in  consequence.  So  men  were  ready  to  see  the  authority 
of  the  Pope  again  overthrown,  for  they  thought  that  so 
they  might  have  greater  freedom. 

2  P>ut  it  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  bring  back  Pro- 
testantism peaceably.  Philip  II.  was  determined  to  put 
Difficulties  down  Protestantism  everywhere,  and  so  would 
backpfo-^  not  be  friendly  with  a  Protestant  country, 
testantism.  England  was  still  at  war  with  France,  and 
the  heir  to  the  French  crown  was  married  to  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots.  Some  men  in  England,  who  belonged  to  the 
strongly  Catholic  party,  would  willingly  have  seen  Mary 
of  Scotland  made  Queen  of  England  instead  of  Elizabeth. 
Mary'  was  the  granddaughter  of  Henry  VIII.'s  sister 
Margaret;  and  though  she  had  been  passed  over  in  Henry 
VIII.'s  will,  many  men  in  England  thought  that  she  was 
their  rightful  queen,  for  ihey  believed  that  Elizabeth  was 
not  born  of  a  lawful  marriage. 

If  Elizabeth  brought  back  Protestantism  she  could 
not  help  quarrelling  with  France  and  Spain.  Her  only 
hope  was  that,  as  France  and  Spain  were  enemies  to  one 
ariother,  she  might  manage  to  keep  Spain  on  her  side 
at  first.  Though  Philip  II.  wanted  England  to  remain 
Catholic  he  did  not  want  to  see  Mary  on  the  throne  of 
England,  for  she  would  bring  England  to  the  side  of 
France,  so  that  it  would  be  against  him.  At  first  he 
offered  to  marry  Elizabeth,  but  she  refused  to  follow  her 
sister's  example,  as  she  had  seen  the  evils  it  had  caused. 
She  tried,  however,  to  keep  Philip  on  friendly  terms,  and 
made  peace  with  France,  giving  up  Calais  to  it  (1559). 

'  See  genealogical  tabic,  p.  43. 


1559  Religious  Changes.  53 

3.  Thus  it  vv;is  that  Elizabeth  wished  to  behave  cau- 
tiously about  religion.     She  herself  did  not  agree  with  all 
that  the  Protestants  had  done  in  Edward  VI.'s 
reign,     bhe  did  not   want  to  do  away   with     religious 
tlie  old  Church,  as  they  had  done ;  but  she     ^'*'"' 
wanted   to  make    such   changes   in   it  as   would  satisfy 
moderate   men,  and  she  wanted  to  set  up  a  form,  of  re- 
ligion which  everybody  could  take  part  in.     She  saw  how 
needful  it  was  *that  the   country  should  remain  one,  and 
should  not  be  split  up  into  religious  parties. 

At  first  Elizabeth  went  to  the  old  service  of  the  mass, 
but  she  ordered  the  bishop  not  to  lift  the  cup  over  his 
head  for  the  people  to  worship,  as  the  old  custom  was  : 
when  he  did  so  she  left  the  church.  Next  she  allowed 
the  Lessons,  the  Litany,  and  the  Creed  to  be  read  in 
churches  in  the  English  tongue.  Meanwhile  a  commit- 
tee was  appointed  to  look  over  the  Prayer  Book  and 
make  changes  in  it. 

4.  When  Parliament  met  in  January  1559  religious 
questions  were  at  once  taken  up.  The  revenues  which 
Mary  had  given  back  to  the  Church  were  now 

again  given  to  the  crown.  The  title  of  '  Su-  Changes? 
pieme  Head  of  the  Church'  was  again  given  '559- 
to  the  queen,  but  she  refused  it,  and  would  only  agree  to  a 
law  which  made  the  crown  '  in  all  causes,  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  civil,  supreme.'  In  this  way  she  hoped  not  to 
offend  the  Catholics,  while  at  the  same  time  she  got  rid 
of  the  power  of  the  Pope.  To  carry  out  the  power  of 
the  crown  in  Church  matters  a  body  of  commissioners 
were  appointed,  who  were  afterwards  called  the  '  High 
Commission  Court,'  and  who  helped  the  Stuart  kings 
to  do  harsh  and  illegal  acts  in  later  times.  All  the  clergy 
ami  all  who  held  office  under  the  queen  were  to  take  an 
oath  to  accept  the  royal  supremacy. 

5.  Next,  the  Prayer  Book  in  which  the  commissioners 


/ 


54  The  Tudors.  1559 

had  made  some  changes  was  laid  before  Parliament,  and 
was  ordered  to  be  used  in  all  churches.  An  Act  called 
the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  also  passed  order- 
tion  from  the  ing  that  no  Other  services  should  be  used  than 
Papacy.  those  laid  down  in  the  Prayer  Book.      Thus 

the  old  services  were  again  got  rid  of,  and  the  Church 
of  England  was  again  separated  from  the  Roman  Church, 
which  was  never  again  set  up  in  England. 

6.  The  clergy  did  not  at  once  agree  to' these  changes. 
It  happened,  however,  that  many  of  the  old  bishops  had 
Bishops  and  died  just  before  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne, 
clergy.  New  oncs  were  put  in  their  places  who  liked 
the  changes.  Those  of  the  old  bishops  who  would  not 
accept  them  were  turned  out  of  their  sees.  The  new 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Matthe^v  Parker,  was  of  the 
same  mind  as  the  queen  in  religious  matters,  and  wished 
with  her  to  carry  out  the  changes  peaceably.  Only  two 
of  the  old  bishops  ren.ained,  but  most  of  the  lower 
clergy  subm.itted  to  the  change — only  eighty  gave  up 
their  livings  Still  most  of  them  were  really  in  favour  of 
the  old  religion,  and  Elizabeth  had  to  trust  to  her  bishops 
to  keep  them  in  order. 

'  Many  changes  were  made  in  small  matters  which  it 
was  hard  to  carry  out  as  quietly  as  Elizabeth  wished. 
One  of  these  was  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  which  the 
old  religion  had  not  allowed.  Now,  when  the  clergy 
began  to  mari'y  they  did  not  always  marry  fitting  wives, 
and  so  gave  great  offence.  Elizabeth,  to  prevent  this, 
would  only  allow  them  to  marry  after  getting  permission, 
and  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  was  not  made  lawful  till 
the  next  reign. 

7.  In  this  way  Elizabeth  hoped  that  she  had  set  up  a 
form  of  religion  which  would  satisfy  most  of  her  subjects. 
She.  had  made  a  Church  of  England  separate  from  the 
Church   of   Rome.      No    Pope    nor   foreign   king    could 


!5S9-  l^fi^  CJmrch  of  Englaiid.  55 

interfere  in  religious  matters  in  the  land.     The  old  reK- 
gion  had  been  freed  from  superstitions,  but  had  not  been 
done  away  with.     Those  who  believed  in  the     The  Chunh 
old  religion  were  bidden  to  be  thankful  that     ""^  tngland 

,        .  as  set  up  by 

SO  much  of  It  was  left.  Those  who  beHeved  in  Elizabeth, 
the  new  were  bidden  to  be  thankful  that  they  had  "ot  so 
much  of  what  they  wanted.  The  chief  minister  of  Eliza- 
beth who  advised  her  in  all  those  matters,  and  by  his 
caution  carried  them  into  effect,  was  William  Cecil,  after- 
wards Lord  Burleigh.  He  had  helped  Elizabeth  before 
she  came  to  the  throne  among  the  many  dangers  which 
lay  around  her.  Up  to  his  death  in  1598  he  was  always 
the  queen's  chief  adviser,  and  must  share  with  her  the 
praise  for  wisdom  and  prudence  in  all  that  she  did. 

8.  The  dangers  which  threatened  the  land  made  men 
rest  content  for  a  while  with  what  Elizabeth  had  done. 
They  saw  that  it  was  the  best  way  of  keeping  England's 
the  country  quiet  and  safe.  There  were  so  dangers, 
many  dangers  to  be  faced  that  it  was  foolish  to  quarrel. 
Mary,  who  became  in  July  1559  Queen  of  France,  had 
begun  to  call  herself  Queen  of  England  also.  It  seemed 
likely  that  France  would  make  Avar  upon  England  in 
Mary's  name.  If  France  conquered,  Caiholicism  would 
be  brought  back,  and  England  would  be  ruled  as  if  it 
were  a  part  of  France.  This  thought  made  men  of 
different  opinions  willing  to  stand  by  Elizabeth  and  rest 
content  with  the  form  of  religion  which  she  had  set  up 
in  England.  It  was  better  than  Catholicism  and  the 
rule  of  the  French  01  the  Spaniards. 


\ 


S6  The  Tudors. 

BOOK    IV. 
ENGLAND   BECOMES  PROTESTANT. 


1547 


CHAPTER    I. 

ENGLAND   AND    SCOTLAND. 

I.  Elizabeth  was  opposed  by  the  French,  who  were  in 
alliance  with  Scotland.  This  was  very  dangerous  to  her, 
as  the  French  could  land  troops  in  Scotland 
France  and  — Indeed,  had  troops  there  already — and  so 
Scotland.  might   invade   England^  which  was  in  a  very 

defenceless  state.  It  had  neither  troops  nor  generals, 
and  the  last  two  reigns  had  done  nothing  to  keep  up  the 
fortresses.  To  keep  off  this  danger  Elizabeth  determined 
to  give  help  to  the  party  among  the  Scots  which  was 
opposed  to  their  queen  and  to  the  French  influence. 
This  party  was  strongly  Protestant ;  and  Elizabeth's 
chief  minister,  Sir  WilUam  Cecil,  who  was  afterwards 
made  Lord  Burleigh,  did  all  he  could  to  set  England  at 
the  head  of  all  the  Protestants  ia  Europe. 

2.  The  desire  for  a  reformation  of  the  Church  in  Scot- 
land had  come  from  the  corrupt  state  of  the  Church  itself. 
Reformation  The  Scottish  kings  had  never  got  much 
in  Scotland,  power  ovcr  their  nobles — they  tried  to  do 
so  by  getting  the  Church  on  their  side.  So  the 
chief  offices  in  the  Chu>-ch  were  given  to  younger  sons  of 
the  nobles,  to  attach  them  to  the  king.  Many  of  them 
were  very  unfit  for  their  offices  and  led  unholy  lives,  so 
that  people  did  not  look  on  them  with  respect,  but  wished 
to  have  the  Church  set  right. 

3.  The  reforming  party  grew  in  Scotland,  following  the 
example  set  them  in  England  ;  but  w«  have  seen  how 


1539.  Reformation  in   Scotland.  57 

the  battle  of  Pinkie  had  set  the  Scots  against  England, 
and  had  made  them  more  ready  to  ally  with  France. 
The  Scottish  bishops  when  they  thought  Scotland 
that  they  were  protected  by  France  were  more  ^"'^  France, 
bold  to  persecute  the  Protestant  teachers,  and  so  grew 
more  disliked.  The  Scots  also  soon  became  more  afraid 
of  France  than  of  England.  They  wanted  to  govern 
themselves,  as  they  had  always  done,  so  they  did  not 
like  the  notion  of  being  ruled  by  France,  which  they 
thought  very  likely  to  come  to  pass. 

4.  Chief  among  the  Protestant  teachers  in  Scotland 
was  John  Knox.  He  was  one  of  those  who  in  1547  held 
the  castle  of  St.  Andrews  against  the  French  after  the 
murder  of  Cardinal  Beaton.  When  the  castle  was  taken 
he  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  the  French  galleys.  On  his 
release  he  came  to  England  and  took  part  with  the 
English  reformers  under  Edward  VI.  In  1559  he  came 
back  to  Scotland  from  Geneva  and  taught.  His  infl'.ience 
grew  greater  and  many  gathered  around  him.  In  Decem- 
ber 1557  some  of  the  Scottish  lords  had  met  y\x'-.x.  Cove- 
together  and  entered  into  a  bo)id  or  covenant     "^"'• 

to  uphold  (jod's  word  and  defend  His  congregation  to 
the  death.  Next  year,  when  a  Protestant  preacher  was 
burned  for  his  opinions,  these  '  Lords  of  the  Congregation^ 
as  they  were  called,  threatened  to  take  up  arms. 

5.  Scotland  was  governed  at  this  time  by  the  queen- 
mother,  Mary  of  Guise,  a  French  woman,  who  bore  the 
title  of  Regent.  She  was  opposed  to  the  Disturbances 
Reformation,  and  tried  to  put  down  Protest-  '"  Scotland, 
ant  preaching.  A  sermon  of  Knox's  at  Perth  led  to  a 
riot,   in  which  miagcs  weie  destroyed   in   the  churches, 

I  and  many  monasteries  were   attacked   and  set   on  fire. 
JThe   Regent   could   not   mak"  up  her  mind  what  to  do. 
[She  promised  to  pardon  the   ,jjople  of  Perth,  but  after- 
wards sent  French   troops  into  the  town.     The   Lords  of 


58  The  Tudors.  1559. 

the  Congregation  took  up  arms,  and  in  June  1559  took 
possession  of  Edinburgh.  Scotland  was  divided  into 
two  parties.  On  the  one  side  was  the  crown  and  the 
clergy,  who  were  helped  by  France.  On  the  other  side 
were  the  nobles  and  the  Protestants.  If  they  were  to 
hold  their  own  they  must  get  help  against  the  power  of 
the  French. 

6.  So  it  was  that  the  Scottish  lords  came  to  ask  help 
from  Elizabeth.  She  did  not  wish  to  set  an  example  of 
Elizabeth  helping  rebels  who  were  fighting  against  the 
Scottish^  crown  ;  but  it  was  most  needful  for  England 
lords.  not  to  let  Scotland  be  joined  to  France,  and 
this  was  the  only  way  to  hinder  it.  In  1560  a  treaty  was 
made  at  Berwick  between  Elizabeth  iind  the  Scottish 
lords.  They  bound  themselves  to  unite  to  drive  the 
French  out  of  Scotland.  The  French  held  out  in  the 
castle  of  Leith,  which  was  besieged  by  the  troops  of  the 
English  and  the  Scots.  But  in  July  1560, after  the  death 
Treaty  of  °f  ^^^6  Regent,  peace  was  made  by  the  Treaty 
Edinburgh.  ^f  Edinburgh,  by  which  it  was  settled  that  the 
Frer.ch  troops  should  be  withdrawn  from  Scotland,  and 
that  the  King  and  Queen  of  France  should  no  longer  make 
any  claim  to  the  crown  of  England.  The  government  of 
Scotland  during  the  queen's  absence  was  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  a  council. 

7.  In  August  1560  the  Scottish  Parliament  met,  and 
settled     religious    matters   entirely   as    the    Protestants 

wished.  The  mass  service  was  forbidden,  the 
comes  Pro-  authority  of  the  Pope  was  set  aside,  and  the 
testant.  teaching  of  a  great  French  religious  teacher 

at   Cicneva,  John   Calvin,  was   taken  as  the   rule  of  faith 
and  conduct  of  the  Scottish  Church. 

Thus  England  had  escaped  from  its  first  danger — 
that  France  and  Scotland  would  be  joined  together,  and 
that  the  French  would  attack  England  from  the  side  of 


iS6i.  Mary,   Queen  of  Scots.  59 

Scotland.  Instead  of  this  Scotland,  by  the  help  of  Eng- 
land, had  become  a  Protestant  nation,  and  so  had  been 
made  a  defence  to  England  rather  than  a  danger. 

8.  Still  the  treaty  of  Edinburgh  had  not  made  Eliza- 
beth safe  from  France.     King  Francis  II.  and  his  wife 
refused  to  agree  to  it.     War  was  again  likely     Troubles  in 
to  break  out  in  Scotland ;  but  in   December     France. 

1 560  Francis  1 1,  died,  and  Mary  was  left  a  widow  at  the  age 
of  eighteen.  Moreover,  there  were  now  religious  troubles 
in  France  also.  The  Httgueytots,  as  the  French  Protest- 
ants were  called,  became  very  bold  in  their  demands, 
and  for  some  time  France  was  busied  with  its  own  affairs. 
Elizabeth  gave  help  to  the  Huguenots  from  time  to  time 
to  enable  them  to  go  on  with  the  struggle,  though  she 
did  not  openly  take  their  side. 

9.  There  was  still  danger  from  Mary  of  Scotland. 
Elizabeth  would  have  liked  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with 
her.  But  Mary  would  not  accept  the  treaty  Mary  goes 
of  Edinburgh,  and  Elizabeth  would  not  allow  '"  Scotland. 
her  to  return  home  through  England.  Mary  sailed  to 
Scotland  in  August  1561,  and  though  she  remained  a 
Catholic  still  managed  to  keep  at  first  on  good  terms 
with  her  Protestant  subjects  and  did  nothing  against 
them.  She  did  as  she  was  advised  by  her  half-brother, 
James  Stuart,  whom  she  made  Earl  of  Murray. 

10.  Mary  had  many  firm  friends  in  Scotland.  Some 
men  in  England  also  thought  that  she  was  the  rightful 
queen  of  the  land,  and  the  Catholics  looked  to  M^ry  and 
her  to  bring  back  the  old  religion.  Many  Elizabeth, 
wished  to  get  Elizabeth  to  say  that  she  was  the  next  heir 
to  the  throne.  Elizabeth  was  not  wilHng  to  do  so  till 
Mary  had  laid  aside  all  claims  to  it  during  her  own  life- 
time. This  Mary  would  not  do,  as  she  hoped  that  some 
foreign  power  or  a  Catholic  rising  in  England  might  help 
to  set  her  on  the  English  throne.     In  this  way  ihe  two 


6o  The  Tudors. 


1565- 


queens  became  bitter  enemies,  though  they  kept  on  good 
terms  outwardly. 

11.  Much  depended  on  Mary's  marriage,  and  at  one 
time  there  was  talk  of  her  marrying  Don  Carlos,  son  of 
,,  Philip  II.  of  Spain.     This  would  have  made 

Mary  mar-  '^  '^ 

riesDic-Jfy  Spam  eager  to  set  her  on  the  English  throne. 
'^''  and  would  have  been  very  dangerous  to  Eliza- 

beth. It  was  broken  off  because  Don  Carlos  was  too  young. 
Blizabeth  tried  to  get  Mary  to  marry  a  Protestant,  but  at 
last,  in  1565,  Mary  settled  the  matter  by  marrying  her 
cousin,  Henry  Stuart,  Lord  Darnley.^  She  gained  by 
this  marriage  no  new  power,  but  she  strengthened  her 
claim  on  England,  as  Darnley  was  the  grandson  of 
Henry  VIII.'s  sister  Margaret. 

12.  Darnley  became  a  Catholic  after  his  marriage, 
and  many  Scottish  nobles  followed  his  example.  Mary 
,.      ,    ,         looked  for  help  to  the  Pope  and  the  King  of 

ii'iary  s  plans  . 

against  Spam,  by  which  she  would  be  strong  enough 

ng  and.  ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  power  of  the  crown  in  Scotland, 

make  war  against  England,  and  put  down  Protestantism. 
Many  of  the  Scottish  lords,  even  her  half-brother,  the 
Earl  of  Murray,  were  alarmed  at  the  look  of  affairs,  and 
took  up  arms,  hoping  for  help  from  England.      They  got 

'  Genealogical  table  showing  Mary's  claim  to  the  English  throne. 
Henry  VII. 


James  IV.  of  Scot- =  Margaret = Archibald 

land  I  I    Earl  of  Angus 

Mary  of  Guise  =  James  V.         Margaret  =  Matthew  Stuart, 
I  I  Earl  of  Lennox 

Fi?.ncis  II.  =  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots  =   Henry 

of  France  Lord  Darnley 


CathariDe  of  =  Henry  Vin.=  Anne  Bo!eyn=    Jane 
Arragon      I  I  I  Seymour 

Mary  Elizabeth  Edward  V'l. 


ii;66.  Mary  and  Darnley.  (5l 

none,  and  were  forced  to  flee  across  the  Border,  as  Marjf'* 
friends  gathered  round  her. 

13.  But  Mary's  plans  were  suddenly  upset  by  her 
husband,  who  was  a  weak  and  foolish  man,  and  wished 
for  more  power  than  he  had.  Moreover  Murder  of 
he  became  jealous  of  a  secretary  of  the  J^'^^zio,  1366. 
queen,  David  Rizzio,  an  Italian,  who  helped  the  queen  in 
writing  letters  to  her  friends  abroad.  At  last  Darnley 
made  a  plot  to  get  rid  of  Rizzio.  Some  of  the  nobles  who 
were  his  friends  helped  him,  and  in  March  1566  Rizzio 
was  murdered  at  the  palace  of  Holy  rood  as  he  was 
being  dragged  away  from  the  queen's  presence.  Darnley 
hoped  to  get  the  queen  in  his  power ;  but  she  won  him 
over  and  escaped  to  Dunbar.  There  her  friends  gathered 
round  her,  and  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  murder 
had  to  flee.  Murray  and  the  banished  lords  came  back, 
and  Mary  took  them  again  into  favour.  Soon  there  was 
quiet  in  Scotland  again  ;  but  the  queen  thought  it  wiser 
to  act  cautiously  and  to  put  off  for  a  time  her  plan  of 
bringing  back  Catholicism. 

14.  In  June  1566  a  son  was  born  to  Mary,  who  after- 

R'ards  became  King  of  England  as  well  as  Scotland.    Mary 

had  a  stronger  claim  on  England,  now  that  she     Murder  of 

had  a  son  who  could  reign  after  her,  while     r'amiey- 

Elizabeth  was  still  unmarried.      But  she  soon  fell  into 

new  troubles.     She  had  never  liked  her  husband,  and  the 

murder  of  Rizzio  was  a  thing  she  could  never  forgive. 

One  of  the  Scottish  nobles,  the  earl  of  Bothwell,  was  a 

great   favourite   with   her,   and  hoped   to   marry  her   if 

Darnley  were  only  out  of  the  way.      In  February  1567 

tho  house  in  which   Darnley  was  lying  ill  was  blown  up 

by  gunpowder  and  Darnley  was  killed. 

There  was  little  doubt  that  Bothwell  had     Mary  mar- 

r  1         ■>        "es  Both- 
done  this  ;  but   he  was  too  powerful    to   be     well,  1567. 

punished.     Soon  he  contrived  to  get  the  queen  into  his 


62  The  Tudor s.  1567. 

power,  and  she  agreed  to  marry  him.  Bothwell  already 
had  a  wife,  but  she  v/as  set  aside  ;  and  in  May  1567 
Mary  was  married  to  him. 

15.  Tliis  angered  the  Scottish  nobles,  who  were  afraid 
that  Bothwell  would  try  to  set  up  the  power  of  the  crown 

against  them.     Through  fear  of  this  they  had 

Mao' forced  f,  jjtt-  j  j^ 

to  lay  aside  already  murdered  Rizzio,  and  agreed  to  the 
the  crown.  murder  of  Darnley.  Now  they  rose  against 
Bothwell,  and  the  people  were  entirely  on  their  side. 
They  looked  with  horror  on  Bothwell  and  Mary  for  the 
wicked  deeds  they  believed  them  to  have  done  to  bring 
about  their  marriage.  So  Bothwell  found  that  the  troops 
he  had  raised  would  not  fight  for  him,  and  he  had  to  flee 
away  out  of  the  land.  Mary  fell  into  the  hands  of  her 
nobles,  who  made  her  a  prisoner.  She  was  put  in  a  strong 
castle  in  the  middle  of  Loch  Leven,  and  was  forced  to 
lay  aside  the  crown.  Her  young  son  was  made  king  as 
James  VI.,  and  the  Earl  of  Murray  was  made  Regent. 

16.  Mary,  however,  soon  managed  to  make  her  escape 
from  her  prison,  and  many  who  did  not  like  the  rule  ot 

Murrav  gathered   round    her.       Her    forces 

Mar^r  flies  to  :     5"  ,     .        ,         , 

England,  were  defeated   in    battle    at    Langside,  near 

'5^^-  Glasgow,   in    May    1568,   and    Mary  had  to 

choose  between  falling  into  the  hands  of  her  nobles  or 
tleeing  to  England.  She  chose  to  trust  to  Elizabeth,  and 
fled  across  Solway  Frith  to  Workington,  whence  she  went 
to  Carlisle. 

Thus  Mary's  plans  had  entirely  failed,  chiefly  through 
her  own  faults.  Elizabeth  saw  the  enemy  who  had 
threatened  her  throne  driven  to  flee  to  her  for  refuge. 
Again  had  Protestantism  won  the  upper  hand  in  Scot- 
land, and  Elizabeth  was  free  from  danger  on  that  side. 


63 


CHAPTER  II. 

TROUBLES    IN    ENGLAND. 

I,  The  presence  of  Mary  in  England  was  very  trouble- 
some to  Elizabeth.  She  did  not  wish  to  help  to  put  her 
back  in  Scotland,  nor  did  she  wish  to  let  her  go     ^,.    ,    , 

—  r  ,  •  Elizabelh 

to  France.  At  first  siie  talked  about  making  keeps  Mary 
Mary  and  her  nobles  friends  again.  But  this  p"^*"'"- 
she  could  not  do.  The  Scottish  lords  brought  forward 
letters  which  they  said  had  been  written  by  Mary  to 
Bothwell,  and  which,  if  Mary  really  did  write  them, 
proved  her  to  have  plotted  her  husband's  murder.  These 
letters  were  most  likely  not  really  written  by  Mary,  but 
they  made  men  believe  that  Mary  was  guilty.  Elizabeth 
would  not  see  her,  nor  would  she  let  her  go.  Mary  had 
come  into  England  of  her  own  accord  to  ask  for  help. 
Elizabeth  gave  her  no  help,  but  kept  her  as  a  prisoner. 
She  thought  that  by  wailing  she  would  see  what  was 
wisest  to  do. 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  wise  in  the  end  for 
Elizabeth  to  keep  Mary  in  England,  and  it  was  not  right 
of  her  to  do  so.  But  Ehzabeth  seldom  acted  straight- 
forwardly. She  always  wished  to  do  as  little  as  possible, 
and  wait  to  see  what  would  happen  next.  She  would 
neither  help  Mary  nor  the  Scottish  lords,  but  wanted  to 
keep  them  both  under  her  power  as  much  as  she  could. 

2.  But  Mary  was  quite  as  dangerous  to  Elizabeih  when 
she  was  a  prisoner  in  England  as  she  had  been  before. 
Some  Englishmen  looked  on  her  as  the  right- 

r   ,  1         11       ,  1.        1.  1  Marydan- 

lul  queen — nearly  all   thought  that  she  was     gerous  in 
the  rightful  successor  to  Elizabeth.     So  plots     England. 
were  made  from  time  to  time  in  her  favour,  by  those, 
in  England  or  abroad,  who  wished  to  see  Catholicism 
brought  back.     First  there  was  a  plan  for  marrying  Mary 


64  The  Tiidors.  1569- 

to  the  Duke  ol  Norfolk,  the  chief  amongst  the  English 
nobles.  This  plan  was  found  out  before  it  was  ready,  ana 
the  Northern  nobles,  who  were  in  arms  to  free  Mary, 
failed  in  their  attempt.  In  November  1569  the  Earls  of 
Northumberland  and  Westmoreland  gathered  their  forces 
and  set  up  the  mass  service  in  the  places  which  they 
entered.  The  Earl  of  Warwick  went  against  them,  and 
the  rebels  fled.  The  rising  in  Mary's  favour  entirely 
failed,  and  the  rebels  were  severely  punished. 

3.  The  Pope  looked  on  Elizabeth  as  the  great  enemy  to 
the  Catholic  religion,  and  did  all  he  could  to  stir  up  the 

Catholics  in  England   to  rise  up  against  her. 

Elizabeth  ex-  re. 

communi-  In  February  1570  he  excommunicated  Eliza- 

"'^'^-  beth,  that  is,  he  put  her  outside  of  the  Church. 

He  declared  her  to  be  no  longer  Queen  of  England,  and 
o'  dered  her  subjects  not  to  obey  her.  No  one  paid  much 
heed  to  this ;  but  it  set  the  English  people  still  more 
against  the  Pope  than  they  had  been  before.  In  1571 
Parliament  made  laws  against  the  Catholics.  It  was 
made  high  treason  to  call  the  queen  a  heretic  or  to  bring 
into  England  any  papers  from  the  Pope  ;  and  the  clergy 
were  made  to  keep  the  Church  laws  more  strictly  than 
they  had  done.  England  wished  to  draw  all  its  people 
more  closely  together.  The  more  it  was  threatened  by 
Catholics  abroad  the  more  it  must  strengthen  its  own 
Church  and  make  all  men  obey  it. 

4.  But  it  was  found  to  be  hard  to  do  this.  It  is  true 
that  a  great  part  of  the  people  had  agreed  to  the  form  of 
Religious  Church  teaching  and  Church  services  which 
difficulties.  j^^j  been  set  up  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign. 
Many  men  agreed  to  it  for  a  time  because  they  hoped  to 
change  it  in  the  way  in  which  they  wanted.  The  Catho- 
lics hoped  that  it  m.ight  be  brought  gi-adually  nearer  to 
their  opinions.  The  Protestants  also  who  had  fled 
abroad   in    Mary's   reign  were  not  content,  when    they 


1571. 


Ridolfis  Plot.  65 


came  back,  to  find  so  much  of  the  old  services  and  the 
old  beliefs  still  kept  up.  They  hoped  to  get  rid  of  them 
in  time.  But  both  the  Catholics  and  the  Puriians,  as 
these  extreme  Protestants  were  called,  found  that  their 
hopes  were  disappointed.  England  went  farther  away 
from  Catholicism,  and  after  l^lizabeth's  excommunication 
by  the  Pope  was  entirely  opposed  to  it.  Similarly  the 
Puritans  found  that  they  could  not  make  the  changes 
which  they  wished.  Elizabeth  did  not  want  to  cut  off 
herself  and  England  from  the  old  Church  altogether.  The 
Puritans  also  were  ordered  to  oley  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
and  conduct  the  services  us  they  were  laid  down  in  the 
Prayer  Book.  Many  of  the  clergy  would  not  wear  the 
surplice,  and  gave  up  their  livings  rather  than  do  so.  In 
this  way  Protestant  dissenters  began  to  grow  up  in 
England. 

5.  These  troubles  in  England,  and  the  fierce  way  in 
which  the  Kings  of  Spain  and  France,  were  trying  to  put 
down  the  Protestants  in  their  kingdoms,  Ridolfi's 
encouraged  the  English  Catholics  to  plot  p'°'- 
against  the  queen.  In  1571  the  plan  was  again  set  on 
foot  that  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  should  marry  Mary  Stuart. 
An  Italian  banker  in  England,  by  name  Ridolfi,  carried 
on  the  plot.  He  wished  to  get  help  from  the  Pope  and 
the  King  of  Spain,  who  gave  him  money  and  promised 
to  send  soldiers,  if  only  Elizabeth  were  captured  by  the 
friends  of  Norfolk. 

The  plot,  however,  was  found  out  by  Cecil,  and  the  chief 
people  concerned  in  it  were  made  prisoners.    Norfolk  was 
brought  to  trial  for  high  treason,  and  was  con-     '^^^.^\^  of 
demned  to  death.     The  Spanish  Ambassador     the  Nether- 
was  ordered  to  leave  England,  and  war  with     against 
Spain  seemed  likely.      But  Spain  was  soon     Spain, 
kept  busy  with  other  matters.     The  people  of  the  Nether- 
lands had  long  been  governed  harshly  by  Spain,  and  the 
£..  H.  ¥ 


66  The  Tudor s.  1572- 


Protestants  amongst  them  had  suftered  grievous  perse 
cution.  In  1572  a  rebellion  against  Spain  began  therey 
which  led  in  the  end  to  the  separation  of  part  of  the 
Netherlands  from  the  power  of  Spain.  They  formed 
themselves  into  the  Dutch  Repubhc. 

6.  Jubi  as  Elizabeth  had  managed  to  get  the  better  of 
France  by  giving  help  to  the  Scottish  lords  who  rose  in 
^    arms  against  their  queen,  so  now  she  g:a\'e 

English  help  ,  i     i     •        ,       »-      ,        , 

to  the  Ne-  help  to  the  rebels  m  the  N  etherlands,  and  thus 
therlands.  ^^^^  ^^  ^!^\x\<g  of  Spain  enough  to  do  in  his 
own  dominions.  In  this  way  England  kept  clear  of  the 
war  with  Spain  for  some  years  to  come.  Meanwhile  the 
English  seamen  did  much  harm  to  Spain.  Men  had 
begun  to  take  more  to  the  sea,  and  ships  put  out  from 
Portsmouth  which  seized  the  Spanish  vessels  on  their  road 
home  from  the  West  Indies.  Chief  amongst  these  rob- 
bers of  the  sea  was  Sir  John  Hawkins,  to  whom  the  queen 
sometimes  lent  money  and  whose  profits  she  shared.  In 
this  way  a  race  of  English  seamen  was  being  trained  up 
who  were  full  of  courage  and  ready  for  any  adventure. 
Their  bra^very  filled  the  Spaniards  with  alarm,  and  made 
them  rather  afraid  of  England. 

7.  During  all  these  troubles  England  had  at  all  events 
been  at  peace,  while  all  over  Europe  men  were  at  war. 
Prosperity  English  trade  had  got  much  good  by  this. 
ofEnglaiia.  Many  workmen  had  fled  from  the  Low  Coun- 
tries to  England,  and  the  English  learned  from  them 
how  to  make  cloth  and  silk  better  than  they  had  done 
before.  The>  learned  also  how  to  dye  their  cloth  at 
home  ;  for  before  they  had  sent  much  of  it  to  be  dyed  in 
Flanders.  So  there  was  more  work  for  men  to  do  in 
England,  and  there  was  not  so  much  distress  amongst 
the  poor  as  there  had  been  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  VI . 
and  Mary.  The  labourers  settled  down  quietly  to  the 
new  ways  of  farming.      The  poor  were  taken    care   of 


/ 


»577- 


Troubles  in  Ireland  67 


by  collections  made  in  the  churches.  This  was  a  great 
improvement,  as  ihey  had  been  left  almost  uncared  for 
since  the  monasteries  were  pulled  down  ;  for  in  old  times 
the  poor  used  to  be  fed  by  the  monks.  The  collection 
in  churches  grew  in  time  to  be  a  regular  payment  or  rate, 
and  so  the  '  Poor  Law '  grew  up,  which  provided  that 
everyone  sliould  pay  to  support  the  poor  in  the  district 
where  he  lived.  Then,  as  the  poor  were  taken  care  of, 
the  robbers  and  thieves  who  robbed  travellers  on  the 
roads  were  gradually  put  down  by  the  law.  In  all  these 
ways  the  English  people  began  to  be  better  off,  and  so 
took  more  interest  in  the  things  that  were  going  on. 
They. saw  that  the  Catholic  States  of  Europe  wanted  to 
bring  England  under  their  power.  So  men  grew  to  fear 
and  to  dislike  the  Papists  in  England,  and  this  is  what  is 
meant  when  we  say  that  England  became  a  Protestant 
country. 

8.  The  Catholic  plots  in  England  still  went  on.  In 
1577  Philip  II. 's  half-brother,  Don  John  of  Austria,  was 
Governor  of  the  Netherlands,  and  made  a  catholic 
plan  to  invade  England,  marry  Mary  Stuart,  p'=">s. 
and  rule  the  land  as  the  King  of  .Spain  wished.  He  could 
not,  however,  gather  together  an  army  large  enough,  as 
his  brother  did  not  entirely  trust  him,  and  would  not 
help  him  enough. 

9.  Then  the  enemies  of  England  tried  to  attack  her 
through  Ireland,  where  the  English  power  had  always 
been  weakest.     The  conquest  of  Ireland  in 

,       ,  ,  r   ^\  -1       Ireland. 

Henry  ll.'s  reign  had  not  been  fully  carried 
out,  so  as  to  bring  law  and  order  into  the  land.  Only  in 
the  English  Pale,  as  the  counties  round  Dublin  were 
called,  was  there  anything  like  order.  Outside  that  the 
Irish  and  the  English  settlers  were  perpetually  at  war. 
The  English  settlers  fell  into  the  ways  of  the  Irish  and 
vere  as  lawless  as  they      So  Ireland  was  always  a  trouble 


6S  The  Tndors.  1565- 

to  the  iMiglisli  kings.  Sometimes  they  sent  forces  there 
and  acted  vigorously  for  a  while  ;  but  they  never  did  so 
for  a  long  enough  time  to  do  any  good.  The  Irish  looked 
on  the  English  as  tyrants,  and  were  always  ready  to  rise 
against  them. 

10.  The  Reformation  in  England  had  increased  the 
enmity  between  the  Irish  and  the  English.  The  Irish 
„.  .      .  did  not  agree  with  changes  in  religion  which 

Risings  in  11-  1  ,  r 

Ireland,  were  brought  m  suddenly  from  outside.     The 

15  5 -15  9-  religious  chancres  in  England  were  taken  to 
Ireland  and  were  carried  out  by  force.  But  this  force 
was  not  used  very  strongly.  Elizabeth  did  not  wish  to 
spend  much  money  in  Ireland,  and  so  her  deputies-could 
do  little.  The  people  grew  more  discontented,  and 
gathered  round  the  chieftains  who  were  most  opposed  to 
England.  In  1565  there  was  a  rebellion  in  Ulster  under 
Shan  O'Neil,  who  claimed  the  Earldom  of  Tyrone.  This 
rising  was  put  down  by  .Sir  Henry  Sidney,  who  wished 
to  have  more  English  sent  over  to  colonise  the  province 
of  Munster  and  bring  it  under  English  rule.  Some 
English  went  there,  and  the  Irish  rose  against  them  in 
1569.  There  was  much  lighting  before  peace  was  re- 
stored, and  the  Irish  began  to  look  to  the  King  of  Spain 
to  help  them  against  the  English  and  secure  for  them  th^ 
old  religion.  ^ 

11.  At  last,  in  1579,  some  Irish  exiles  got  troops  from 
the  Pope  and  from  Spain  and  landed  in  Ireland,  where  a 
Rising  in  rising  again  took  place  under  their  powerful 
^579-  Earl  of  Desmond.  It  was  nearly  put  down, 
when  the  arrival  of  800  -Spanish  and  Italian  troops  again 
gave  it  life.  They  built  a  fort  at  Smerwick,  in  Kerry, 
where  they  were  attacked  by  the  Deputy,  Lord  Grey  de 
Wilton.  They  were  taken  prisoners  and  all  were  put  to 
death  in  1580.  The  English  had  begun  to  hate  the 
Spaniards,  and   showed   them  no  mercy.     After  this  no 


1582.  Troubles  in   Scotland.  69 

more  troops  were  sent,  and  the   rebellion  was  gradually 
put  down. 

12.  But  meanwhile  Philip  II.  had  become  more  power- 
ful, so  that  he  was  still  more  feared  in  Europe.  He 
claimed  in  i  580  the  kingdom  of  Portugal,  and  Power  of 
when  he  had  taken  possession  of  it  seemed  i-'hiiip  li- 
likely  to  have  more  money  and  troops  to  carry  out  his 
plgns.  Elizabeth  was  so  much  afraid  of  this  that  she 
planned  to  ally  herself  with  France  against  Spain.  She 
talked  of  marrying  the  younger  brother  of  the  King  of 
France,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  though  he  was  twenty  years 
younger  than  herself  Put  the  English  people  liked 
France  as  little  as  they  liked  Spain,  and  the  marriage 
was  laid  aside. 

1 3.  Soon  there  was  danger  to  England  froin  the  side 
of  Scotland  once  more.  A  young  man,  Esme  Stuart,  who 
was  heir  to  the  earldom  of  Lennox,  and  had  Scotland, 
been  brought  up  in  France  among  the  leaders  isjS-isS-;- 
of  the  Catholic  party,  was  sent  by  them  to  Scotland  in 
1578.  He  soon  won  the  confidence  of  the  young  king, 
and  did  all  he  could  to  stir  up  the  old  party  which  had 
been  in  favour  of  France.  The  Regent,  Morton,  was 
brought  to  trial  for  having  had  a  share  in  Darnley's 
murder,  and  was  put  to  death  in  1581.  The  French 
party  had  got  the  power  into  their  hands,  and  were  ready, 
if  they  could  get  help  from  Spain,  to  invade  England. 
But  again  the  Protestant  nobles  of  Scotland  rtse  to  put 
down  the  plans  laid  against  them.  Headed  by  the  F.arl 
of  Govvrie  they  seized  the  young  king,  who  had  been 
invited  to  a  hunting-party  at  the  castle  of  Ruthven. 
James  VI.  was  in  the  hands  of  his  nobles,  and  Lennox 
was  ordered  to  leave  Scotland.  The  Catholic  plan  to 
attack  England  again  came  to  nothing. 

14.  But  in  England  itself,  though  there  was  no  open 
war,  a  secret  war  was  at  this  time  going  on  to  bring  back 


7^  Tke  Tudors. 


1579- 


the  people  to  the  old  faith.  Men's  passions  had  grown 
fiercer  about  religious  matters  during  the  long  struggle 
Jesuit  of  the  last  years.     Many  young  men  had  left 

colleges.  England  to  be  educated  abroad.     A  college 

was  built  specially  for  the  English  Cathohcs  at  Douay, 
which  was  afterwards  removed  to  Rheims  ;  and  in  1579 
another  college  was  founded  by  the  Pope  in  Rome.  These 
young  Englishmen  were  taught  by  the  Jesuits,  who  were 
men  belonging  to  a  new  religious  order  which  had  been 
founded  in  1541,  to  work  for  the  Pope.  The  Jesuits  did 
everything  they  could  to  strengthen  the  power  of  the 
Pope  in  Europe  :  they  got  a  great  hold  over  men's  minds 
by  their  teaching  ;  and  as  they  trained  young  men  to 
uphold  the  old  beliefs,  they  were  the  bitterest  enemies 
Protestantism  had  yet  had  to  meet. 

15.  The  college  at  Rome  soon  sent  to  England  those 
whom  it  had  trained.  In  1580  a  company  of  thirteen 
The  Jesuits  pnests  Came  to  England  that  they  might  do 
in  England.  what  they  could  to  win  back  men  to  the  old 
faith.  Their  leader  was  Edward  Campion,  an  English- 
man. Up  to  this  time  the  Catholics  in  England  had  not 
refused  to  go  to  the  new  services  :  they  had  contented 
themselves  with  keeping  to  the  old  beliefs  in  their  hearts, 
while  outwardly  they  obeyed  the  law.  Now  these  Jesuit 
priests  came  to  give  them  back  the  old  services.  They 
travelled  through  the  country  in  disguise  and  had  secret 
meetings  of  the  Catholics  for  worship.  The  Cathohcs, 
being  so  encouraged,  began  to  refuse  to  attend  the  ser- 
vices in  the  churches.  Printing-presses  were  also  secretly 
set  up,  and  little  books  were  printed  in  great  numbers  in 
defence  of  the  old  religion  and  against  the  queen  and 
her  government.  There  was  set  up  in  England  an  open 
opposition  to  the  queen  in  behalf  of  the  Pope. 

16.  This  led  to  greater  strictness  in  carrying  out  the 
laws  which  called  upon  everyone  to  go  to  the  serv-ices  laid 


1583.  Th-oginorton' s  Plot.  71 

down  in  the  Prayer  Book.  The  priests  were  taken 
prisoners,  and  Campion  and  some  others  were  put 
to   death    for   treason.      It  was   made  hisrh     , 

.  .  Laws  against 

treason  for  anyone  to  receive  these  priests  the  Catho- 
into  his  house,  or  to  go  to  their  secret  services.  "^^" 
The  Catholics  were  now  quite  separated  from  the  Pro- 
testants, and  were  opposed  to  them.  It  was  hard  to  see 
how  a  CathoHc  could  be  looked  upon  as  a  loyal  subject 
of  the  queen  when  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  obey  the 
Pope,  who  had  declared  that  Elizabeth  was  no  longer 
queen.  The  priests  were  always  looking  for  help  from 
Spain,  and  plotted  the  murder  of  the  queen  with  the 
Ambassador  of  Spain,  who  was  in  London.  There  were 
the  discontented  Catholics  at  home,  the  friends  of  Mary 
Stuart,  and  the  Catholic  party  throughout  Europe  gene- 
rally, who  were  all  joined  together  to  do  all.  they  could 
against  Elizabeth. 

17.  Thus  men  had  now  come  to  hate  one  another 
bitterly  for  their  religious  differences.  They  did  not  shrink 
from  the  thought  of  treacherously  killing  one  Throgmor- 
another,  and  the  idea  of  getting  a  statesman  '°"'*  Wot- 
or  a  sovereign  out  of  the  way  by  murder  became  quite 
common.  In  1583  a  plot  was  discovered  for  murdering 
Elizabeth  and  setting  Mary  Stuart  on  the  throne  in  her 
place.  A  Catholic,  Francis  Throgmoiton,  was  at  the 
bottom  of  it.  He  was  seized,  and  afterwards  was  put  to 
death.  Amongst  his  papers  was  found  a  list  of  those 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  plot  against  the  queen,  and 
many  things  which  showed  that  the  Spanish  Ambassador 
had  known  of  it. 

18.  Elizabeth  learned  from  this  how  many  and  great 
were  the  dangers  which  surrounded  her  and  England. 
The  greatest  of  her  enemies  was  the  King  of  Spain,  who 
had  lately  been  growing  more  powerful.  It  was  clear  to 
Elizabeth  that  she  could  not  hope  to  win  over  Spain  to 


72  The  Tiidors.  1584- 

her  side.  Her  chief  ministers  had  long  l^een  urging  her 
to  open  war  with  Spain,  and  it  clearly  could  not  be  put 
off  much  longer.  In  1584  the  Spanish  Ambassador  was 
sent  out  of  England  because  he  had  taken  part  in  the 
plots  against  Elizabeth,  and  this  was  a  sign  to  Spain  that 
England  meant  to  resist  further  attempts. 

Moreover,  the   chief  men   of  England    drew    closer 

round  the  queen.     In   1584  an  association  was  formed 

.   .  for  the  protection  of  Elizabeth's  life.     Those 

Association  .    . 

to  protect  who  joined  it  declared  that  they  would  pursue 

to  the  death  all  who  should  try  to  hurt  the 
queen,  and  also  anyone  in  whose  behalf  they  did  so.  In 
this  way  the  plotters  were  told  that  if  they  succeeded  in 
killing  Elizabeth,  Mary  Stuart  would  at  once  be  put  to 
death  as  well. 


CHAPTER    III. 

ENGLAND   AND   SPAIN. 

I.  After  seventeen  years  of  peace  Elizabeth  was  at  length 

driven  to  prepare  for  war  with  Spain,  before  Spain  had 

g^rown  so  powerful  as  to  crush  her  altogether. 

Help  sent  to       f.,  .         ^    .        ,  ,  .  ,     , 

the  Nether-  She  dctcrmmed  at  last  to  give  open  help 
lands.  J.Q  ^j^g  Netherlands,  who  had  revolted  from 

Philip  II.,  and  who  were  now  hard  pressed  by  him.  At 
the  end  of  1585  the  Earl  of  Leicester  was  sent  with  a 
body  of  English  troops  to  the  Netherlands.  Elizabeth 
never  hoped  that  the  Netherlanders  would  hold  their 
own  against  Philip's  soldiers,  and  would  have  been  willing 
to  give  up  their  cause  if  she  could  have  made  peace  for 
herself  The  English  troops  did  little  in  the  Netherlands, 
as  Elizabeth  did  not  send  them  proper  pay,  nor  allow 
their  general  to  have  much  power.  She  still  wished  to 
put  off  war  if  possible. 

The  English  in  the  Netherlands  tried  to  take  the  cit> 


1586.  Babington  s  Plot.  73 

of  Zutphen,  and  in  the  siege  Sir  Philip  Sidney  was 
wounded,  and  soon  after  died.  He  was  much  mourned 
for  all  over  Europe,  as  he  was  a  great  scholar  as  well  as 
a  brave  soldier  and  a  courteous  gentleman.  As  he  lay 
wounded  on  the  field  some  water  was  brought  to  him, 
but  seeing  a  dying  soldier  near  him  he  gave  it  to  him, 
saying,  '  Your  need  is  the  greater.' 

2.  The  Spaniards  were  made  very  angry  just  at  this 
time  by  an  expedition  undertaken  by  Sir  Francis  Drake  to 
the  West  Indies.  He  took  three  of  their  finest  cities  and 
coasted  along   their   shores,  plundering  and 

laying  waste  all  that  he  could.  Already  Drake  lhe^Sp.^nish 
had  sailed  round  the  world  (i  577-1581)  and  ^'^"''  '5^5- 
had  done  much  harm  to  Spain.  He  came  back  to  Eng- 
land with  his  spoils,  and  the  Queen  visited  him  in  his  ship 
and  knighted  him.  The  Spaniards  felt  that  their  trade 
was  not  safe  and  demanded  of  the  king  that  the  seas 
should  be  secure  for  their  ships.  Philip  \\.  felt  that  to 
protect  the  trade  of  Spain  he  must  put  down  the  power 
of  the  English  at  sea. 

3.  Though  war  was  being  prepared  against  England. 
still  that  did  not  p\it  an  end  to  the  plots  which  were  made 
there.  The  priests  at  Pxhcims  persuaded  Babin-ton's 
some  young  Englishmen  to  think  that  the  best  P'^'.  'sse. 
thing  they  could  do  for  their  religion  was  to  put  Elizabeth 
to  death.  Another  plan  was  made  of  killing  the  queen, 
freeing  Mary  from  prison,  and  setting  her  on  the  throne 
by  Spanish  help.  A  young  man,  Anthony  Babington, 
was  at  the  head  of  this  plot,  and  Mary  was  told  that  it 
was  being  carried  on.  She  consented  to  it,  and  letters 
passed  between  her  and  those  engaged  in  the  plan. 

But  the  plot  had  been  found  out,  and  was  used  by 
the  Secretary  of  State,  Sir  Francis  Walsing-     Mary  t.ikes 
ham,  as  a  means  of  bringing   Mary  to  her     p^"  '"  "• 
ruin.      He  contrived  by  his»  spies  to  get  hold  of  Mary's 


74  The  Tudor s.  1^86. 

letters  and  make  copies  both  of  the  letters  she  got  and  of 
the  answers  she  sent.  WTien  proof  enough  had  been  got 
against  Mary  all  her  papers  were  seized  and  she  was 
made  a  strict  prisoner  in  Fotheringay  Castle.  The  con- 
spirators were  caught,  tried,  and  executed,  and  some  of 
them  confessed  before  being  put  to  death. 

4.  The  proof  against  Mary  was  laid  before  the  Priv» 
Council,  and  it  was  settled  that  she  should  be  brought  te 

trial.  A  commission  of  peers  and  lawyers 
brouglu  to  was  appointed  to  try  her,  according  to  the 
'"^'  provisions   of  the   Act  passed   in    1585,  for 

having  plotted  against  the  queen's  life.  This  commission 
decided  that  she  came  under  the  power  of  the  Act  of 
Parliament,  inasmuch  as  she  was  guilty  of  aiming  at  the 
queen's  death.  Finally,  Parliament  met  and  gave  its  ap- 
proval to  the  decision  of  the  commission  (November  1 586). 

5.  Still  Elizabeth  was  unwilling  to  consent  to  .Mar)''s 
death.  Mary  was  a  queen  who  had  sought  her  pro- 
Death  of  tection,  and  Elizabeth  feared  the  etiect  which 
Mary.  j^gj-  (jgath  might  produce  in  Europe.  Her 
ministers  and  the  people  were  very  anxious  to  get  Mary 
out  of  the  way.  As  long  as  she  lived  there  would  be  no 
end  to  the  plots  against  the  queen.  Elizabeth  wanted  to 
get  rid  of  Mary  without  doing  so  openly.  She  signed  the 
warrant  for  Marys  death,  and  Mary  was  at  once  executed 
at  Fotheringay,  in  February  1 587.  Elizabeth  afterwards 
declared  she  never  meant  the  warrant  to  be  used,  and 
tried  to  throw  the  blame  of  her  execution  on  her  secretary. 

6.  Men  were  glad  when  Mary  was  put  to  death.  So 
long  as  she  lived  plots  were  always  being  made  in  her 
Results  of  behalf,  and  the  Catholics  were  always  looking 
her  death.  forward  to  her  succession.  Now  that  she 
was  dead  men  hoped  there  would  be  greater  quiet  in  the 
land.  If  war  was  to  come  it  would  be  against  a  foreign 
king  who  was  trying  to   conquer   England  for  himself, 


1587.  Thf  Spanish  Armada.  75 

and  would  no  longer  be  carried  on  in  M.iry's  name. 
Philip  II.  was  more  eager  now  to  invade  England,  for  he 
could  now  claim  it  for  himself,  and  need  not  fight  for 
Mary.  But  the  other  powers  of  Europe  thought  that 
Spain  was  already  too  strong,  and  had  wo  « ish  to  see 
her  made  any  stronger.  Moreover,  James  V'l.  of  Scot- 
land was  set  against  an  attempt  which  would  do  away 
with  his  chance  of  succeeding  to  the  English  crown.  So 
it  was  that  when  the  great  attack  of  the  Spaniards  came, 
England  was  freer  than  she  had  been  for  many  years 
from  foes  within  and  on  her  borders. 

7.  Philip  II.  set  himself  to  work  to  raise  a  fleet  tor  the 
invasion  of  England.  It  was  long  before  it  was  ready. 
In  April  1587  Drake  sailed  into  the  harbour  The  Armada 
of  Cadiz,  destroyed  forty  of  the  Spanish  sets  sail, 
ships,  and  burned  a  large  store  of  provisions  which  the 
Spaniards  had  got  ready  for  their  fleet.  It  was  not  till 
May  1588  that  the  '  in\incible  Armada,'  as  the  Spaniards 
called  their  fleet  of  132  ships,  was  ready  to  put  to  sea. 
Philip's  plan  was  tiuii  his  fleet  should  sail  to  Dunkirk 
and  there  be  joined  by  a  force  of  soldiers  from  the 
Netherlands.  In  this  way  an  army  of  50,000  men  would 
be  prepared  to  ravage  England. 

8.  The  long  delay  of  the  Spaniards  was  useful  to 
England,  where  many  preparations  had  to  be  made. 
Neither  ships  nor  soldiers  were  plentiful.  Preparations 
The  royal  navy  had  only  thirty-four  ships  in  '"  England, 
readiness,  and  they  were  much  smaller  than  the  Spanish 
ships.  But  the  seaport  towns  got  ready  their  merchant- 
men, and  private  gentlemen  manned  such  ships  as  they 
could  to  help  their  country  in  her  need.  On  shore  also 
the  musters  of  the  counties  were  called  out  and  drilled. 
Everyone  was  anxious  to  do  what  he  could  to  drive  back 
Philip.  The  chief  among  the  Catholics  came  to  serve 
their  country  with  zeal ;  for  though   they  wished  the  old 


/6  The  Tudors.  1587. 

religion  back  again  they  were  too  true  Englishmen  to 
wish  to  see  their  country  conquered  by  Philip. 

9.  On  Sunday,  July  2X,  the  Armada  came  in  sight  of 
the  Enghsh  coast  off  Plymouth.  The  English  Admiral, 
^^     .       ,       Charles  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  did  not 

The  Armada  ^  ' 

in  the  dare  to   attack  the  huge  Spanish  fleet.     He 

Channe .  followed  them  up  the   Channel,  hanging  on 

their  rear  and  doing  them  such  damage  as  he  could. 
He  knew  the  Channel  better  than  the  Spaniards,  and  in 
his  small  and  handy  vessels  could  fall  upon  them  and 
sail  away  again  at  his  pleasure.  For  a  week  the  Armada 
sailed  slowly  up  the  Channel,  and  on  Saturday,  July  27, 
anchored  off  Calais  ;  there  the  Spanish  Admiral  awaited 
the  coming  of  the  troops  from  the  Netherlands  under 
their  great  general,  Alexander  of  Parma. 

10.  But  the  troops  from  the  Netherlands  did  not  come, 
as  they  were  prevented  from  sailing  by  a  fleet  of  Dutch 
The  Armada  ^^^  English  vessels  which  cruised  off  the 
dispersed.  coast.  On  the  evening  of  Sunday,  July  28, 
the  English  Admiral  resolved  to  drive  the  Spanish  ships 
into  the  open  sea,  where  he  could  better  fight  with  them. 
Six  of  the  oldest  ships  were  filled  with  things  that  burned 
easily,  and  were  sent  flaming  against  the  .Spanish  fleet. 
The  wind  carried  them  on,  and  the  Spaniards,  alarmed 
as  they  saw  them  coming,  cut  their  cables  and  fell  into 
confusion.  Thus  they  were  driven  out  of  their  harbour 
and  had  to  sail  northwards  along  the  Flemish  coast. 
The  English  followed  and  did  much  damage  by  the 
straightness  and  swiftness  with  which  they  fired  their 
guns,  while  the  Spaniards  shot  over  the  English  vessels. 
A  gale  sprung  up  and  the  Spanish  fleet  sailed  helplessly 
northwards,  losing  ship  after  ship  from  the  English  guns. 
The  English  followed  them  as  long  as  they  had  any  shot 
left.  The  gale  increased  in  violence,  and  the  Spaniards 
fled  round  the  north  of  Scotland,  to  return  home  again. 
Many  of  their  ships  were  wrecked  oft'  the  Hebrides  and 


1587.  Naval  War  with  Spain.  77 

the  Irish  coast.     Out  of  the  hundred  and  thirty-two  ships 
which  sailed  from  Spain  only  fifty-three  returned. 

1 1.  i  hus  the  attack  of  Spain  on  F.nghind,  which  had 
been  so  lung  feared,  entirely  failed.  It  was  a  greater  failure 
than   anyone    knew  at  the  time.     Philip  II. 

hoped  to  make  .mother  attempt  in  time;  but  (reH^from 
he  never  found  another  chance.  The  war  of  •"'^ar  of  Spain, 
religion  passed  from  England  to  France,  and  for  the  rest 
of  his  reign  Phil^  II.  was  busy  in  helping  the  Catholic 
party  in  France,  who  were  trying  to  keep  Henry  IV. 
from  being  made  king,  as  he  was  then  a  Protestant, 
though  he  afterwards  became  a  Catholic. 

12.  Besides  this  the  failure  of  the  Armada  made  Eng- 
land know  how  strong  she  was.  The  great  danger  which 
all  had  gone  through  drew  all  Englishmen  Results  on 
together.  A  national  hatred  of  Spain  filled  England, 
their  minds.  They  were  ready  to  do  everything  they 
tould  against  Spain.  Hatred  of  Spain  and  Catholicism 
made  England  more  decidedly  Protestant  than  it  had 
been  before.  'i'he  Catholic  party  no  longer  plotted 
against  Elizabeth.  Many  of  them  joined  the  national 
Church,  with  which  Englishmen  in  general  grew  more 
content  when  they  saw  how  it  could  keep  them  united. 

13.  Englishmen  were  no  longer  afraid  of  being 
attacked  by  Spain,  but  rather  were  determined  to  attack  it 
in  turn.  Year  by  year  expeditions  were  made  Naval  war 
against  the  power  of  Spaiti  in  some  quarter  or  "'"*^  Spain, 
another.  Hatred  of  Spain  went  on  growing  among  the 
English  people,  and  English  ships  lost  no  chance  of 
doing  all  the  harm  they  could  to  the  power  of  Spain.  A 
constant  war  went  on  at  sea,  in  which  the  English  were 
almost  always  successful,  and  brought  booty  home  to 
England.  In  this  wild  way  English  seamanship  was 
growing  up,  and  England  was  making  good  her  claim  to 
be  the  mistress  of  the  sea. 

It  was  not  the  actual  loss  to  Spain  in  the   defeat  of 


7?  The  Tudors.  1588. 

the  Armada  which  made  that  defeat  important.  But 
after  that  time  the  Enghsh  felt  themselves  a  match  for 
the  Spaniards ;  henceforth  they  made  it  their  settled 
purpose  to  beat  down  what  had  hitherto  been  the  chief 
power  in  Europe.  The  attempt  to  force  Catholicism  on 
England  from  without  had  failed,  and  the  English  people 
felt  more  than  before  that  Protestantism  was  necessary 
for  their  national  independence. 

# 


BOOK    V. 

LATER    YEARS   OF  ELIZABETH. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ENGLAND   AFTER   THE   ARMADA. 

I.  AFTi-.R  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  England  was  free  from 
the  load  of  troubles  which  had  seemed  to  weigh  her  down 
Spain  grows  ^'^^  ''^^^  ^-^^t  thirty  years.  She  was  again 
weaker.  united,  and   the   dread   of  dangers  at  home 

and  abroad  had  passed  away.  i'he  war  against  the 
power  of  Spain  went  on  in  the  Netherlands  and  in 
France.  The  Protestant  Netherlands  slowly  made  good 
theii  revolt  against  Philip  II.  ;  the  moderate  party  in 
France  slowly  got  the  better  of  the  e.\treme  Catholics 
who  were  helped  by  Philip  II.  Every  year  after  1588 
made  England's  petition  stronger  and  showed  that  tiie 
influence  of  Spain  was  growing  weaker. 

2.  So  it  was  that  the  energies  of  Englishmen  began  to 
show  themselves  more  strongly.  They  became  more 
and   more   fond    of    the    sea,  because  they  wanted   to 


1588.       English  Settlements  in  the  West. 


79 


find  out  new  lands  in  the  far-off  West,  about  which  so 
many  stories  had  been  told.     The  fact  that 
the  Pope  h;id  given  to  the  Spaniards  and  Por-     grows" 
tuguese  all   the  lands  which  might  be  found     ^"'""g"- 
out  in  the  New  World  made  expeditions  ihiljier  seem  like 


crusades  to  the  Protestant  English  of  Elizabeth's  time. 
This  desire  to  do  harm  to  Spain  began  to  grow  into  a 
wish  to  found  colonies  in  the  New  World.  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  first  made  a  settlement  in  1584,  to  which  the 
name  of  'Virginia'  was  given,  in  honour  of  the  Virgin 
Queen.  This  settlement  was  not  at  first  successful, 
though   it   afterwards    flourished,      English    discoverers 


8o  The  Tudors. 


BK.  V 


sailed  on  every  side.  Much  of  North  America  was  found 
out  by  the  Enghsh,  who  were  trying  to  discover  a  north- 
west passage  to  India.  In  this  way  Enghsh  trade  and 
enterprise  began  to  increase  very  c^uickly. 

3.  Besides  this  the  country  had  grown  much  richer, 
and  men  began  to  wish  for  more  comfortable  homes.  The 
Growth  of  l^i^d  had  been  long  free  from  civil  war,  so 
comfort.  ,-,-|gii  were  not  afraid  of  having  their  houses 
pulled  down,  and  began  to  build  better  houses  than  they 
had  had  before.  Instead  of  the  castles  of  the  feudal  barons, 
which  were  built  to  fight  out  of,  there  sprang  up  the 
country  house  of  the  rich  gentleman.  Many  of  the  finest 
houses  in  England  were  built  in  Elizabeth's  time,  and  so 
are  said  to  be  built  in  the  Elizabethan  style  of  architec- 
ture. Not  only  were  the  rich  more  comfortable  but  the 
poor  also.  Every  class  of  trader  and  farmer  began  to 
grow  richer,  and  so  to  live  better.  The  very  poor  were 
provided  for  by  law:  in  1601  the  Poor  Law  was  settled  as 
it  remained  till  1832.  Workhouses  were  to  be  built  in 
every  county,  and  a  rate  was  to  be  collected  by  overseers 
of  the  poor  from  all  the  people,  to  give  the  means  of 
living  to  the  poor  in  their  district. 

4.  But  the  growth  of  the  people  showed  itself  in  other 
ways  besides  wealth.  At  no  time  in  English  history  were 
Elizabeth's  there  more  great  men  in  England  than  in 
court.  Elizabeth's  reign.  Amongst  her  ministers 
were  many  whose  names  are  still  remembered  for  their 
wisdom,  especially  William  Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh.  His 
prudence  and  caution  did  much  for  England,  and  Eliza- 
beth always  trusted  him  above  all  others  so  long  as  he 
lived.  To  Elizabeth's  court  came  all  the  young  men  who 
wished  to  gain  honour.  Elizabeth  was  truly  the  centre 
of  English  society,  and  her  court  was  always  splendid. 

5.  But  above  all  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  is  famous  in  our 
Jjistory  as   being  the  time  wheT>  the  greatest  of  Englisb 


Religions  Discord.  8 1 

writers  tlourished.  Men's  minds  had  been  stirred  by 
the  great  events  tliat  had  been  going  on,  and  English 
they  had  much  to  think  about,  and  also  »"ters. 
a  quiet  time  to  think  in.  So  we  cannot  wonder  that  men 
wrote  and  read  more  than  they  had  been  used  to  do. 
Among  the  writers  of  Elizabeth's  time  the  greatest  was 
William  Shakespeare,  whose  plays  show  us  how  much 
men  thought  and  knew  in  those  davs.  Theatres  had  now 
begun  to  be  set  up  in  England,  and  there  were  many 
writers  of  plays,  though  none  so  great  as  Shakespeare. 
Another  great  poet,  too,  was  Edmund  Spenser,  whose 
'  Faerie  Queen '  puts  before  us  the  moral  virtues  in  the 
forms  of  knights  going  out  to  fight  against  wrong.  It 
would  take  too  long  to  tell  even  the  names  of  the  other 
great  writers  in  England  at  this  time  ;  but  in  almost 
every  kind  of  writing  and  every  branch  of  learning  there 
were  some  men  who  wrote  what  will  alwavs  be  read. 


CHAPTER    II. 
TROUBLES   OK    ELIZABETH'S    LAST   YEARS. 

I.  Though  England  was  at  last  freed  from  the  fear  of 
Spain,  which  had  so  long  weighed  her  down,  she  had 
still  a  good  deal  to  disquiet  her.  There  were  still  diffi- 
culties to  be  settled  at  home. 

The  defeat  of  the  Armada  had  lessened  the  power  of 
the  Catholics  in  England;  but  the  way  in  which  Eliza- 
beth behaved  in  Church  matters  increased  the  number 
of  the  Puritans.  She  was  more  than  ever  Religious 
resolved  to  have  a  Church  in  England  which  discord, 
should  be  neither  Popish  nor  Puritan.  The  Court  of 
High  Commission,  which  had  entire  power  in  church 
matters,  tried  and  punished  those  who  would  not  carry 
out  the  worship  of  God  as  it  was  set  down  in  the  Prayer 
E.  H.  G 


82  The  Tudors.  1596- 

Bdok.  Elizabeth  chose  bishops  who  were  opposed  to  the 
Puritans,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  put  thein  down 
by  force.  It  was  not,  however,  successful,  and  was  a 
source  of  discord  in  England,  which  grew  more  and 
more,  as  there  were  many  on  the  side  of  the  Puritans. 

2.  More  than  this,  there  were  two  parties  among  Eliza- 
beth's ministers  and  friends.  Many  of  her  old  ministers 
Political  died  soon  after  the  defeat  of  the  Armada, 
parlies.  a.nd  vounger  men  became  powerful  with  the 
queen.  Burleigh  and  the  older  men  who  had  seen  all 
the  growth  of  the  struggle  with  Spain  wished  to  bring 
that  struggle  to  an  end  and  to  make  peace  with  Spain. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  younger  men  wished  to  carry  on 
the  war  against  Spain,  as  they  wanted  to  have  chances  of 
doing  great  things  and  winning  great  names  for  them- 
selves. Chief  amongst  these  was  Robert  Devereu.x,  Earl 
Cm  Essex,  of  whom  the  queen  was  very  fond.  These  two 
paTties  were  always  struggling  to  get  the  upper  hand  in 
the  Queen's  Council. 

3.  In  1596  Essex  had  his  own  way  and  sailed  against 
Cadiz,  which  was  sacked,  and  the  ships  in  its  harbour 
War  with  were  all  destroyed.  Next  year  (1597)  Essex 
Spain.  went  to  cut  oft"  the  Spanish  fleet  which  was 
bringing  back  treasure  from  the  Indies.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, succeed,  and  this  was  the  last  great  expedition  made 
against  Spain  ;  for  in  1590  Philip  II.  died,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  Philip  IV.,  who  was  not  fitted  to  do 
much  for  himself,  and  was  in  the  hands  of  a  peaceful 
minister.  In  the  same  year  also  Lord  Burleigh  died,  and 
Essex,  who  had  hoped  that  he  would  be  the  queen's  ad- 
viser, found  that  she  listened  more  willingly  to  the  counsels 
of  Burleigh's  son,  Robert  Cecil,  who  gave  her  the  same 
sort  of  advice  as  his  father  had  given.  The  quarrels  in 
the  Queen's  Council  became  more  bitter  than  they  had 
been  before. 


1599.  Disgrace  of  Essex.  S3 

4.  There  was  also  a  serious  rising  of  the  nation  in  Ire- 
land, where  men  hoped  to  get  help  from  Spain  and  from 
the  Pope.  Hugh  O'Neil.who  had  been  faithful  Troubles  in 
to  England  in  the  last  revolt  and  had  been  Ireland 
made  Earl  of  Tyrone  as  a  reward,  was  at  the  head  of  this 
new  rising.  At  first  he  was  successful,  and  in  April 
1598  defeated  the  English  on  the  river  Blackwater,  not 
far  from  Armagh.  It  wr.s  felt  in  England  that  no  time 
must  be  lost  in  putting  down  the  rebels.  Troops  were 
sent  over,  in  1599,  under  E^sex.  as  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
Ireland.  The  enemies  of  Essex  were  giad  to  have  him 
out  of  England,  and  as  he  had  wished  that  war  should  be 
carried  on  against  Spain,  he  could  not  refuse  to  take  rhe 
command  when  it  was  offered  to  him. 

5.  But  Essex,  wh  n  he  reached  Ireland,  did  not  march 
against  Tyrone  at  once.  Instead  of  going  to  Ulster, 
which  was  Tyrone's  stronghold,  he  wasted  his  strength  in 
small  expeditions  in  Munster  and  Leinster.  When  he 
did  march  north  his  troops  were  worn  out  and  refused 
to  fight.  Instead  of  fighting  with  Tyrone  he  made  peace 
with  him,  granting  him  very  fixvourable  terms.  E^sex  in 
Then  he  left  Ireland  and  crossed  over  to  Ireland. 
England,  that  he  might  persuade  Elizabeth  to  agree  to 
what  he  had  done.  Pie  hoped  that  the  queen's  fondness 
for  liim  was  stnmg  enough  to  lead  her  to  agree  to  any- 
thing that  he  might  propose. 

6.  So  in  September  1 509  Essex  hastily  came  back  to 
England  and  went  at  once  to  the  quetn.  At  first  she 
received  him  with  kindness  ;  but  when  she  thought  of 
what  he  had  done  she  became  very  angry  with  him. 
He  was  kept  in  custody,  and  his  doings  were  Dis<'race 
examined  by  the  Queen's  Council.  He  had  of  Essex, 
all  his  offices  taken  away  from  him,  and  was  bidden  to 
keep  himself  a  prisoner  in  his  own  house.  He  was  sus- 
pected of  wishing  to  get  the  government  into  his  own 

c  9 


84  The  Tudor s  1601- 

hands   ana   lO  raise  up  a  party  in  Ireland  in    his  own 
favour. 

7.  For  a  time  Essex  lived  quietly;  but  at  last  he  resolved 
to  try  and  get  his  power  back  again.  He  was  so  popular 
Rising  of  that  he  thought  men  would  do  anything  he 
Essex.  wished.  In  February  1601  he  assembled 
at  his  house  some  of  his  friends  in  arms.  Some  of 
the  queens  ministers  who  went  to  ask  the  reason  were 
made  prisoners.  Essex  marched  with  his  followers 
through  the  City,  hoping  that  the  people  would  take  up 
arms  in  his  behalf.  In  this  he  was  entirely  mistaken  :  no 
one  moved  to  support  him.  He  had  to  flee  to  his  own 
house  before  the  royal  troops,  and  was  made  prisoner. 
He  was  brought  to  trial,  and  was  found  guilty  of  high 
treason. 

8.  Essex  wished  to  frighten  the  queen  by  showing  her 
how  strong  he  was.  He  had  many  of  the  Puritans  and 
the  soldier  class  on  his  side.  He  thought  that  they 
would  rise,  and  by  their  rising  force  the  queen  to  take 
him  back  into  her  favour  and  afterwards  do  what  he 
Death  of  wished.  But  the  English  people  held  by 
Essex.  tj^e  laws,  and  those  who  were  on  the  side  ot 
Essex  still  would  not  help  him  to  break  the  laws.  Now 
that  he  was  condemned  to  death  the  queen  could  not 
save  him.  Though  she  was  fond  of  him  still  he  had 
been  guilty  in  the  same  way  as  had  Mary  Stuart  ;  and 
if  one  had  not  been  spared,  neither  could  the  other  be. 
Essex  was  executed  in  February  1601. 

9.  Meanwhile  Lord  Mountjoy  succeeded  Essex  in  Ire- 
land, and  made  Tyrone  submit,  though  troops  were  sent 
from  Spain  to  help  him,  Tyrone  laid  down  his  arms  on 
condition  that  his  lands  should  be  left  him,  and  there 
was  peace  again  in  Ireland  just  after  the  queen's  death. 

10.  The  last  years  of  Elizabeth  were  saddened  by  tl\e 
death   of  Essex,    which  grieved  her   very  much.      The 


1603.  Farliaineiit  lender  the  Tndors.  85 

people  had  loved  him  and  were  sorry  for  his  death.    The 

queen    was    now  old,  and    saw   around   her  a  younger 

generation,  which  had  grown  up  in  the  peace 

which  Elizabeth  had  won  foi  them,  and  did  not     unpopular 

now  agree  with  her  and  her  ways  of  looking     ^^  ^*'' 

at  things.      She  saw  herself  growing  less  popular,  and 

Parliament  was  growing  bolder  in  its  dealings  with  her. 

II.  Little  has  been  said  about  Parliament  under  the 
Tudor  kings,  because  Parliament  was  not  so  important 
as  the  Crown  and  its  ministers.      The  roval 

I       ,  ,  ,        r^     ,  ■  Parliament 

power  had  grown  greater  under  the  Tudors,  under  the 
and  the  great  things  that  were  happening  in  '^"''°'■^• 
England  made  it  needful  that  there  should  be  one  head. 
Henry  VII.  had  been  busy  in  bringing  back  peace  after 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses  and  putting  down  the  power  of 
the  nobles.  Henry  VIII.  separated  England  from  the 
Papacy.  Under  Edward  VI.  the  Reformation  of  the 
Church  was  vigorously  carried  on.  Mary  found  the 
people  disgusted  witli  this,  and  tried  to  bring  back  the  old 
faith.  Elizabeth  had  worked  hard  to  bring  back  religious 
peace,  and  had  strengthened  the  nation  to  stand  out 
against  the  power  of  Spain.  Each  of  these  rulers  had  a 
very  hard  task  to  do  :  each  of  them  had  the  greater  part 
of  their  people  on  their  side  in  doing  it.  So  it  was  that 
they  were  trusted  by  their  people  and  by  their  Parlia- 
ments. Their  Parliaments  were  almost  always  ready  to 
help  them  to  do  what  they  and  the  people  wanted  to  have 
done. 

So,  though  Parliament  seemed  to  obey  the  sovereign, 
we  must  remember  that  one  great  reason  of  this  was, 
that  Parliament  trusted  him.  Moreover,  the  breaking 
away  from  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the  setting  up  of 
new  things  in  the  English  Church  made  the  Parliament 
really  stronger.  In  all  this  the  crown  had  to  fall  back 
upon   the  Parliament  and  do  all  that  it  wanted  to  do  by 


86  TJie  Tiidors.  1601 

means  of  Acts  of  Parliament  ;  for  no  king  would  have 
dared  to  set  aside  the  Pope  simply  by  his  own  will. 
Really  during  all  this  Tudor  period  we  may  say  that 
Parliament  mostly  did  what  the  crown  wished,  buf  that 
the  crown  recognised  more  fully  than  had  been  -^lone 
before  the  authoi  ity  of  Parliament. 

1 2.  It  is  worth  noticing  that  all  these  Tudor  sovereigns 
lost  the  love  of  the  people  at  the  end  of  their  reigns,  and 
,.,       .  that  Parhamcnt  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of 

Character  t- 

of  the  quarrelling  with  them  when  they  died.   Henry 

VII.  was  so  disliked  for  his  heavy  taxation 
that  Henry  VIII.  found  it  wise  to  put  his  ministers  to 
death.  Henry  VIII.  had  grown  so  oppressive  that  many 
men  looked  eagerly  for  his  death.  The  doings  o;'  the 
Reformers  under  Edward  VI.  were  so  unpopular  that 
Mary's  changes  were  received  with  joy.  Mary  in  time 
grew  to  be  so  hated  for  her  persecutions  that  a  rebellion 
was  near  when  she  died.  Now  too  Elizabeth,  when  she 
had  done  the  great  work  which  lay  before  her  at  the 
beginning  of  her  reign,  was  no  longer  as  much  loved  by^ 
her  people  as  before,  and  Parliament  began  to  interfere 
with  her  doings. 

13.  The  expenses  of  the  Irish  war  gave  Parliament  in 
1 60 1   a  chance  of  objecting  to  one  of  the  queen's  ways 

of  raising  monev.     She  used  to  reward  her 

Parliament  .  ,  .      '        .  ,  .    .  , 

and  mono-  courticrs  and  lavourites  by  givmgtnem  iiiono- 
poi'ei^.  polies  of  certain  articles — that  is,  letting  them 

alone  have  the  right  to  sell  some  one  article,  so  that  they 
could  ask  for  it  any  price  they  chose.  An  Act  was 
brought  before  Parliament  to  do  away  with  these.  Rut 
Elizabeth  knew  how  to  give  way.  She  sent  a  message 
saying  that  all  grants  which  were  against  the  law  should 
at  once  be  done  away  with.  The  Commons  sent  to  thank 
her,  and  she  answered  that  she  had  no  thought  in  her 
heart  except  for  the  good  of  her  people.     It  was  a  boast 


1603.  Snnimixy  ■  87 

in  which  there  was  much  truth.  ElHz.ibeth  was  always 
most  careful  of  her  country's  good,  and  the  welfare  of 
England  was  closely  bound  up  with  her  o\\x\. 

14.  There  is  nothing  else  to  tell  in  Elizabeth's  reign. 
The  Cjueen  grew  gloomy  and  sad  as  she  grew  older.  She 
seems  to  have  felt  herself  friendless  in  her  Death  of 
old  age  and  knew  that  everyone  was  think-  Elizabeth, 
ing  about  her  successor.  She  died  in  March  1603, 
in  the  seventieth  year  of  her  age  and  the  forty-sixth 
of  her  reign. 


The  years  that  we  have  gone  through  were  most  im- 
portant for  England  ;  in  them  she  first  of  all  took  up 
the  position   which   she  still  holds  amongst 

,  .  i-    -r-  IT  \ '  I  I        Summary. 

tne  other  nations  of  Europe.  Henry  \  11. 
gave  peace  and  order  at  home  and  set  England  in  a 
strong  and  independent  position  as  regarded  foreign  states. 
Henry  VIII.  set  the  land  free  from  the  prnver  of  the 
Pope  and  made  the  Church  in  England  English  only. 
Elizabeth  made  sure  for  her  country  what  her  father  and 
grandfather  had  begun.  She  beat  back  Rome  and  Spain 
alike  and  set  the  power  and  freedom  of  England  on  a  firm 
and  safe  foundation.  Meanwhile,  the  English  people 
rose  with  their  higher  position.  Everything  that  we  are 
most  proud  of  as  a  nation  sprung  up  more  strongly  in 
Elizabeth's  reign.  English  courage,  bravery,  and  adven- 
ture were  known  all  over  Europe.  English  seamanship 
became  famous.  Colonies  were  sent  out  to  far-off  lands, 
'i'rade  flourished,  and  riches  and  comfurt  increased. 
.Above  all,  high  and  noble  thoughts  filled  men's  hearts, 
and  led  them  to  write  lovely  and  noble  works  in  verse 
and  prose.  An  eager  desire  for  knowledge  filled  all 
men's  minds.  England  had  grown  fit  to  do  greater 
things  than  she  had  ever  done  before. 


t  N  D  E  X. 


AME 

AMERICA,  So 

Angus,  Earl  of,  12 

Anjou,  Duke  of,  69 

Annates,  23 

Armada,  the,  75-78,  81 

Aim--i£;h,  83 

Arrnui,  I'rmce,  b,  9,  ii 

Aaicles  of  Religion,  30,  41 

Aske,  Robert,  28 

Attainder,  Bill  of,  33 

Austria,  Don  John  of,  67 


BABINGTON,  Anthony,  73 

Barlings,  Abbot  of,  28 

Beaton,  Cardinal,  38,  57 

Benevolences,  6,  15 

Berwick,  treaty  of,  58 

Blackwater,  river,  83 

Boleyn,  Anne,  16,  19,  23,  27,  51 

Bonner,  Bishop,  41 

Bosworth,  7 

Bothwell,  Earl  of,  61-62 

Boulogne,  41 

Bridgewater,  39 

Buckingham,  Duke  of,  16 

Burleigh,  Lord,  55,   56,  65,  80,  82 


CABOT,  John,  lo 
Cadiz,  75,  82 
Calais,  50.  52,  76 
Calvin,  John,  58 
Cambridge,  44 
Campeggio,  Cardinal,  17 
Campion.  Edward,  70,  71 
Carlos,  Don,  60 
Caxton,  John,  20 

E.  H. 


DUN 

Cecil,  Robert,  82 

Cecil,   William,  Lord  Burleigh.  55, 

56,  65,  80,  82 
Charles  V.,  Emperor,   14,  15,  17,  33. 

42,  44    "io 
Charter. muse,  monks  of  the,  26 
Christ  Church.  13 
Clarence,  Duke  of,  4,  47 
Clement  VII..  Pope,  17.  22 
Clerg^',  benefit  of,  23 
Cleves,  Anne  of,   32,  33 
Clifton  Down,  39 
Colet,  John,  20 

Commission,  Court  of  High,  53,  81 
Congregation,  Lords  of  the,  57 
Constance,  Council  of,  21 
Convocation.  23 
Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon,  46 
Covenant,  the,  57 
Coverdale,  Miles,  30 
Cranmer,    Thomas,   23,    32,   34,   44 

46,  48 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  24-28,  32,  33 


DARNLEY,  Lord,  60,  61 
'  Defender  of  the  Faith,'  17 
Desmond,  E.-irl  of,  68 
Devonshire,  rising  in,  39 
Dispensation,  Papal,  17 
Dissenters,  origin  01,  65 
Don.  river,  28 
Douay,  70 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  73,  75 
Dudley,  John,  10,  11 
Dudley,  Lord  Guildford,  4 
Dunbar,  61 
Dunkirk,  75 


H 


)! 


Index. 


EDI 

EDINBURGH,  treaty  of,  58 

Edward  III.,  16 

Edward  IV.,  3,  4,  7 

Edward  VI.,  34,  42,  43,  85,  86 

Elizabeth  of  York,  Queen  of  Henry 

^,V".3.  4 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  25,  51-86 

Empson,  10,  ii 

Essex,  Earl  of,  82-84 

Exeter,  8 

Exeter,  Marquis  of,  28,  46 


NOR 
Jesuits,  the,  70 
John,  King  of  England,  21 


KATHARINE  of  Aragon,  9, 
.  •?.  18,  23,  24,  42,  SI 
Kent,  Nun  of,  25 
Kerry,  68 
Ket,  Robert,  39 
Kildarc,  Earl  of,  4 
K/iO>.  John,  57 


It,  t6 


FERDINAND,  King  of  Spain,  8,  9 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  15 
Fisher,  Kishop,  25,  26 
Flodden,  battle  of,  12 
Fotheringay  Castle,  74 
Francis  I.,  14,  15 
Francis  II.,  59 


GARDINER,  Bishop,  41,  46,  51 

C-neva,  57,  58 

Geraldines,  the,  4 

Gciwrie,  Earl  of,  69 

Grey,  Lady  Jane,  43,  46,  ^^ 

Grey,  Lord,  39 

Grey  de  Wilton,  Lord,  68 

Guise,  Mary  of,  57 

Guisnes,  15 


HAMPTON  COURT,  13 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  66 
Hebrides,  the.  77 
Henrv  II.,  67 
Henr^  VII.,  3-10,  85,  86 
Henry  VIII.,  10-34,  85,  86 
Henry  IV.,  of  France,  77 
Hertford,  Earl  of,  34 
Holyrood,  61 
Howard,  Katharine,  34 
Howard,  Charles   Lord,  of   Effing- 
ham, 76 
Huguenots,  59 


IPSWICH,  13,  21 
Ireland,  9 


JAMES  IV.,  King  of  Scotland,  7,  8, 

13 
James  V.,  King  of  Scotland,  12,  37 
lames  VI.,  of  Scotland,  62,  69,  75 


LABRADOR.  10 
Langside,  62 
Latimer,  Bishop,  4 
Legate,  Papal.  13 
Leicester,  18 
Leicester,  Enrl  of,  ?» 
Leith,  58 
Lewis  XI.,  II 
Liveries,  5 
Loch  Leven,  62 
Lollards,  the,  30,  47 
Lovel,  Lord.  3 
Luther,  17,  30,  31 


MAINTENANCE,  5 

Margaret,     Princess,     married     to 

James  IV.,  8,  12 
Mary.  Queen  of  Englcuid,  16,  +2-51, 

85,  86 
Mary,    Queen   of  .Scots,    38,   5-.!  55, 

$9-(>'i-  f>7.  7 '-74 
Maryland,  lo 

Maximilian  I.,  Emperor,  14 
Monasteries,  dissolution  of,  26,  29 
Monopolies,  86 
More.  Sir  Thomas,  20,  25,  26 
Morton,  Archbishop,  6 
Morion,  Regent  of  Scotland,  69 
Mountjoy,  Lord,  84 
Murray,  Earl  of,  59-62 


NETHERLANDS,     revolt   of,    65 

72 
Newark,  4 
New  World,  the,  79 
Norfolk,  Duke  of,  28,  32,  33,  34 

Duke  of,  64,  65 

Northumberland,  Duke  of,  41-44 

Earl  of,  64 

Norwich,  13 


Index. 


o'ne 


OfNEIL,  Hugh.  83 

Shan.  68 

Osbeck,  Peter,  7 
Oxford,  13,  21,  48 
— Earl  of,  6 


PARKER.  Archbishop,  54 
Parliameiu    under    Henry    VII.,    7. 
Under   Henry  VIII.,   15-     Under 
the  Tudors,  85 
Parma,  Alexander  of,  76 
Parr,  Katharine,  34 
Pavia,  battle  of,  15 
Perth,  57 
Philip   II.,  ol   Sp.iin,  46,   47.  50.  52. 

69,  72.  73.  75.  77.  78..8Z 
Pinkie-cieugh,  battle  of,  38 
Plymouth,  76 
Pole,  Cardinal,  47,  49,  5°.  5i 

Ponlefract.  28 

Poor  Law,  67 

Popes,  21,  22 

Portsmouth,  66 

Portugal,  seized  by  Philip  H,  69 

Poynings,  Sir  Edward,  9 

Praemunire,  statute  of,  18,  22 

Praycr-buok,  the,  35,  53.  7°.  ^i 

Privy  Council.  5 

Protestants,  the.  30,  31,  36,  41 

Puritans,  the.  81.  84 


KAEEIGH.  Sir  Walter.  79 
Reformation,  the,  19 
Retainers,  4 
Rheims,  70,  73 
Rid!-v,  Bishop,  48 
Ridol'fi,  65 

Riz/.lo,  David,  61,  62 
Ruthven.  69 


SAXOXY,  Elector  of,  32 
Seymour,  Jane.  27 
Sevmonr,  Lord,  40 
Shakespeare,  William,  81 
Sidney,  Sir  Henry,  68 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  73 
Simnel,  Lambert,  4 
Six  Articles,  Bill  of,  3' 
Smevwick,  68 
Solway  Firth,  62 


ZUT 

Solway  Moss,  oattle  of,  37 

Somerset,  Duke  of.  Protector,  34-4 

Somerset  House,  40 

Spenser,   Edmund.  81 

Speyer,  Diet  of,  30 

St.  Andrews,  30,  57 

St.  Paul's  School,  20 

St.  Quenlin,  battle  of,  50 

St.  1  homas  of  Canterbur>',  30 

Stanley,  Sir  William,  7 

Star  Chamber,  Court  of  the,  5 

Stoke,  4 

Stuart,  Esme,  69 

Subsidies,  6 

Succes.sion,  Acts  of,  25,  27,  42 

Supremacy,  Royal,  2b,  53 

.Surrey,  Earl  of,  12,  34 


THROGMORTON,  Francis,  71 

Till,  river,  12 

Tournaments,  15 

Tournay,  7,  »2 

Tweed,  river,  12 

Tyndall,  William,  30 

Tyrone,   Earl  of,  68,  83,  84 


UNIFORMITY,  Act  of,  54-6^ 


VICAR-GENERAL,  26 
Virginia,  79 

WALSINGHAM,  Sir  Franci.      r 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  7 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  4,  39.  44.  6' 

Westmoreland,  Earl  of,  64 

Wicllf,  John,  29 

Whitehall,  13 

Wolsey,  Thomas,   12,   13,  15.  «7,  '« 

21 
Workington,  62 
V.'yatt,  Sir  Thomas,  46,  47.  S« 


YORK,  2& 
York  House,  13 


ZUTPHEN.  siege  of,  73 


3iiitfjoiiseb  b»  the  jftlinistcr  of  (L-Ducatiou. 
Part  II. 

Epochs  of  English  History 

EDITED     BY     THE 

REV.  M.  CREIGHTON,  M.A, 

LATE  FELLOW  AND  TDTOB  OF  MEBTON 
COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 


v.— Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy,  from  1603  to  1688.   By 
Bertha  M.  Cokdebt. 

VI.-  The  Settlement  of  the  CoiiMitution  from  1689-1781.  By 
James  Bowley,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Modem  History  and 
Literature,  University  College,  Bristol. 

VII.— England  during  the  American  and  European  Wur.s,  from 
1765-1S20.  By  O.  W.  Tancock,  M.A.,  Assistant  Master 
King's  School,  Sherborne,  Dorset. 

VIII.— Modern  Enoland,  from  18^0-1875.    By  Oscar  Bkowking 
M.A.,  l-'ellow  of  Kitig's  College,  Cambridge. 


PRICE    50    CENTS. 

TORONTO: 

ADAM    MILLER    &    CO. 

1879. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGI 

Introduction .1 


BOOK    I 

Causes  of  Quakrel  between  the  King  and  the 
Parliament  (1603-1623). 

CHAP. 

I.     Puritans  and  Roman  Catholics 2 

II.     Th"  Spanish  Marriage  Treaty.         .....       6 

III.     The  King  and  the  Parliament      .         .         .         .         .    .       9 


BOOK    11. 

The  Rule  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  (1623-1628). 

I.     A  War  Policy 12 

II.     The  Petition  of  Right 15 

BOOK     III. 

Government  without  Parliaments  (1629-1640). 

I.  Dissolution  of  Parliament  in  1629     .....  19 

II.  Laud  and  the  Puritans         .         .         .         .         .         .     .  22 

III.  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth  .......  25 

IV.  Ship  Money  and  the  Tnal  of  Hampden       .         .         .    .  27 


vi  Contents. 

BOOK    IV. 
The  Long  Parliament  and  the  Civil  Wak  (1640-164^. 

CHAP.  rA3B 

I.     The  Trial  of  Strafford 30 

11.     The  Grand   Remonstrarrte  and  Impeachment  of  the  five 

Members      .         .         .         .  .         .         .         •    •  33 

III.  The  Civil  War  ........  37 

IV.  The  Army  and  the  Parliament     .....  44 

BOOK    V. 

The  Commonwealth  and  the  Protectorate  (1649-1600). 

I.     The  Commonwealth         .....'.  47 

II.     The  Protectorate Sf> 

III.     War  and  Commerce 54 

BOOK    VI. 

The  Reign  of  Charles   II.  (1660-1685). 

I.     The  Restoration 58 

II.     Opposition  between  King  and  Parliament         .         .         •  63 

III.  Exclusion  Bills  and  the  Popish  Plot 69 

IV.  Reaction  against  the  Whigs 78 

BOOK   VII. 

The  Reign  of  James  II.  (i68e;-x588/ 

I.     Catholics  and  Protestants .  74 

II.     The  Revolution 77 

Conclusion •         •         •    •  79 

Index  of  Persons 81 

Index  of  Places 83 

MAPS. 

England  and  Wales  during  the  Civil  War         .         .         .        .  38 

Puritan  Settlements  in  New  England 55 


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THE 

STRUGGLE  AGAINST  ABSOLUTE  MONARCHY 


INTRODUCTION. 

A  GREAT  question  was  fought  out  in  England  while  the 
Stuarts  reigned.  It  was  this  :  was  the  chief  power  in  the 
country  to  be  the  power  of  the  king  or  the  power  of  the 
Parliament  ;  in  other  words,  were  the  English  to  be  a  self- 
governed  people  or  were  they  to  be  governed  according  to 
the  will  of  one  man  ? 

The  Tudors  had  ruled  during  a  century  of  change  and 
danger,  when  it  was  needful  that  the  king  should  have 
much  power  in  his  hand,  so  that  order  might  prevail  at 
home  and  foreign  princes  be  kept  trom  meddling  in  Eng- 
lish affairs.  But  when  the  fear  of  foreign  foes  was  past,  and 
the  king  did  things  which  the  people  did  not  want  to  see 
done,  they  were  not  willing  to  let  him  have  so  much  power 
as  the  Tudor  kijigs  had  had.  The  points  which  we  shall 
have  especially  to  notice  in  reading  this  book  are — 

(i)  How  the  Stuarts  made  use  of  the  powers  which 
the  Tudors  had  left  them  to  act  against  the  wishes  of  the 
people. 

(2)  How  the  Parliament  tried  to  force  the  Stuarts  to 
carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  people. 

(3)  How  the  Stuarts  tried  to  free  themselves  from  the 
control  of  Parliament. 

K.  H,  B 


2  Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1603. 

(4)  How  the  struggle  between  king  and  Parliament 
was  at  last  brought  to  an  end  by  the  gift  of  the  crown  to 
a  prince  who  was  willing  to  do  the  things  which  the  Par- 
liament wished  to  be  done. 


BOOK    I. 

1603-1623. 


CAUSES    OF  QUARREL  BETWEEN    THE 
KING  AND  THE  PARLIAMENT. 

CHAPTER  I. 

PURITANS   AND   ROMAN   CATHOLICS. 

I.  Great  changes  have  come  over  England  since  1603, 
when  James  1.  became  king.  Ideas  which  are  now  nearly 
Men  not  free  as  common  as  the  air  we  breathe  were  then 
as  they  new  and  rare,  or  even  unknown.     Thus  people 

please.  now  think  that  each  man  must  be  left  to  wor- 

ship God  after  his  own  fashion.  Then  people  thought 
that  all  men,  who  obeyed  the  same  king,  must  worship  God 
after  the  same  fashion.  The  Act  of  Uniformity,  passed 
by  Parliament  in  1 559.  had  ordered  that  the  services  laid 
down  in  the  Prayer  Book  should  be  held  in  every  church 
in  England.  No  other  services  might  be  held  even  in  a 
room  with  closed  doors. 

2.  Though  all  Protestants  had  separated  from  the  old 
Church,  they  had  not  all  taken  up  the  same  religious  beliefs, 
•pijg  In  England  there  were  men  called  Puritans,  who 

Puritans.  wished  to  make  the  service  of  the  Church  of 
England  more  unlike  the  service  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
than  the  reforaiers  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  had  left  it. 
They  complained  that  forms  and  ceremonies  were  still  in 


1603.  James  and  the  Puritans.  3 

use  which  were  not  according  to  the  Bible.  Thus  there 
were  many  clergymen  who  did  not  like  to  make  the  sign  of 
the  cross  when  they  baptized  a  child,  or  to  wear  a  surplice 
during  the  chuich  services. 

Queen  Elizabeth  did  not  wish  for  any  more  changes, 
and  so  chose  archbishops  and  bishops  to  govern  the 
Church  of  Fngland  who  were  no  friends  to  the  Puritans. 
They  thought  that  the  Church  services  needed  no  change 
and  that  the  Puritans  were  making  an  outcry  aljout  trifles. 
So  they  turned  out  of  their  livings  ministers  who  did  not 
use  the  ceremonies  laid  down  in  the  Prayer  Book. 

The  people,  as  a  body,  liked  the  services  of  their 
Church.  Still  they  wished  that  something  should  be  done 
to  content  the  Puritans.  It  was  not  easy  to  find  enough 
good  and  able  men  to  be  parish  ministers,  and  as  the 
ministers  who  held  with  the  Puritans  were  usually  very 
able  and  zealous,  it  seemed  a  great  pity  that  they  should 
lose  their  livings  because  they  did  not  like  to  wear  a  sur- 
plice. So  when  James  came  to  the  throne  men  hoped 
that  he  would  let  laws  be  made  by  Parliament  ordering 
(i)  that  ministers  should  not  be  turned  out  of  their  livings 
for  not  using  all  the  ceremonies  laid  down  in  the  Prayer 
Book,  and  (2)  that  every  parish  should  have  a  good  and 
able  man  as  minister. 

3.  James  was  already  king  of  Scotland  when  he  came 
to  the  English  throne.  He  was  son  of  Mary  Stuart,  Queen 
of  Scots,  whom  Elizabeth  beheaded,  and  great- 
grandson  of  Margartt,  sister  of  Henry  VI H. 
Scotland  and  England  were  thus  brought  together  under 
the  rule  of  one  king,  but  each  country  still  had  its  own 
Parliament,  its  own  Church,  and  its  own  laws. 

4.  James  was  thirty-six  years  old.   He  had  read  a  good 
deal,  could  talk   well,   and   often    said  witty     j^mes  and 
things   much  to  the  point.     But  he  had  two     the  Puritans 
great  faults  which  prevented  his  being  a  wise  king.     He 


4  Struggle  against  Absolute  Mojiarchy.  1603- 

was  cowardly  and  he  was  selfish.  He  always  thought, 
not  of  what  was  best  for  his  people,  but  of  what  was  best 
for  himself,  and  so  he  often  made  great  mistakes  and  did 
a  great  deal  of  harm.  This  was  the  case  in  his  dealings 
with  the  Puritan  clergy,  of  whom,  as  it  happened,  he  was 
afraid.  The  reformers  in  Scotland  had  done  away  with 
those  ceremonies  with  which  the  English  Puritans  found 
fault.  They  had  done  more.  They  had  also  done  away 
with  bishops,  and  set  up  a  Church  which  was  governed 
by  assemblies  of  ministers  and  elders.  These  elders  were 
sometimes  called  presbyters,  from  a  Greek  word  meaning 
elder,  and  hence  the  Church  they  helped  to  govern  was 
called  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Now  the  archbishops 
and  bishops,  who  governed  the  English  Church,  were 
appointed  by  the  king,  and  so  were  men  whom  the  king 
ccLild  trust  to  carrj'  out  his  wishes.  But  the  elders  and 
ministers,  who  governed  the  Church  of  Scotland,  had  their 
power  from  the  people,  and  had  often  gone  against  the 
king's  wishes.  James,  therefore,  now  fancied  that  the 
Puritan  ministers  in  England  were  wishing  to  do  away 
with  bishops  and  to  get  power  into  their  own  hands.  So 
although  he  let  the  questions  in  dispute  between  the 
bishops  and  the  Puritans  be  talked  over  in  his  presence 
at  Hampton  Court,  at  the  end  he  made  no  such  changes 
as  would  satisfy  the  Puritans,  and  even  told  the  bishops 
to  be  stricter  with  them  than  before.  Nor  when  Parlia- 
ment m.et,  in  1604,  would  he  let  the  members  meddle  in 
any  way  in  Church  matters.  But  Parliament  was  not 
content  with  what  the  king  had  done,  and  this  question  of 
the  treatment  of  Puritans  became  one  of  the  questions 
about  which  the  king  and  his  Parliaments  could  not  agree. 
5.  Though  the  Parliament  wished  to  do  something  for 
the  Puritans,  it  had  no  mercy  on  men  who  still  clung  to 
the  old  Church.  Not  only  was  the  Catholic  faith  held  to 
be  harmful  to  the  minds  of  men,  but  Catholics  themselves 


1605.  Gunpowder  Plot.  5 

were  looked  upon  as  bad  subjects.  Some  had  plotted 
against  Elizabeth's  life  and  government  ;  others  had  joined 
the  new  Catholic  order  of  Jesuits  and  gone     , 

...  .     .  Laws 

about  the  country  m  disguise,  stirring  up  against 
Catholics  to  keep  firm  to  their  faith.  These  Catholics. 
Jesuits  were  much  feared,  for  they  were  thought  to  be  the 
friends  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  Catholic  king  of  Spain. 
So  it  had  come  about  that,  while  Elizabeth  reigned,  one 
law  after  another  had  been  made  against  Catholics. 
Catholics  who  stayed  away  from  church  were  heavily 
fined  ;  those  who  hid  priests  in  their  houses  wei-e  cast  into 
prison.  Many  Jesuits  and  priests  were  put  to  death  as 
traitors  because  they  would  not  deny  that  the  Pope  had  a 
right  to  meddle  in  England  in  matters  which  concerned 
rehgion. 

6.  Whether  these  laws  were  always  fully  carried  out 
depended  much  on  the  will  of  the  king.  The  Parliament 
and  the  king  together  made  laws,  but  it  was  ounpowdet 
the  king  and  his  officers  who  put  them  in  P''^'- 
force.  When  James  became  king  he  did  not  wish  to  deal 
harshly  with  Catholics.  He  knew  that  though  some  had 
plotted  against  Elizabeth,  yet  that  the  greater  number  had 
been  true  to  her,  and  he  thought  that,  if  he  showed 
them  mercy,  Catholics  would  be  obedient  subjects  to  him- 
self. But  he  had  not  reigned  long  when  a  plot  was  dis- 
covered which  made  the  Parliament  wish  more  than  before 
to  see  the  king  always  put  the  laws  in  force.  A  band  of 
desperate  men  formed  a  plan  of  blowing  up  Parliament 
House  on  November  5,  1605,  when  Parliament  was  to  be 
opened  in  state  by  the  king.  With  this  purpose  they 
hired  a  cellar  under  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  which  they 
filled  with  ban-els  of  gunpowder  hidden  under  bundles 
of  faggots.  James'  ministers  found  out  something  about 
the  plot,  and  on  the  evening  of  November  4,  Guido,  or 
Guy,   Fawkes    was    taken  with    a  lantern   in   his  hand, 


6  Struggle  against  A  bsohite  Monarchy.    1614- 

keeping  watch  and  ward  amongst  the  faggots.  Though 
there  were  only  some  fifteen  conspirators,  yet  all  English 
Catliolics  suffered  because  of  their  crime.  For  harsher 
laws  were  passed  against  Catholics,  and  James  for  some 
years  to  come  put  the  laws  in  force. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE   SPANISH   MARRIAGE   TREATY. 

I.  James  was  not  always  a  wise  king,  but  in  one  thing  he 
was  wiser  than  his  neighbours.  He  was  not  fond  of  war, 
and  wished  that  Catholic  and  Protestant  States  could 
learn  to  live  in  peace.  England  aad  Spain  were  at  war 
when  he  came  to  the  throne,  but  he  very  soon  made 
peace  between  them.  Afterwards,  in  the  year  1614,  he 
wanted  to  marry  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  Infanta 
The  Span-  Maria,  a  daughter  of  Philip  III.,  the  king  of 
ish  Match.  Spain.  He  thought  that  England  and  Spain, 
if  they  acted  together  as  friends,  would  be  able  to  prevent 
wars  from  breaking  out  on  the  Continent  between  Catho- 
lics and  Protestants.  This  scheme  seemed  to  James  very 
clever,  but  it  v/as  really  a  gi-eat  mistake.  For  Philip  III., 
king  of  Spain,  was  the  head  of  the  Catholic  princes,  and 
he  only  cared  to  let  the  marriage  be  talked  about  in  the 
hope  of  getting  James  to  agree  not  to  put  the  laws  in 
force  against  English  Catholics.  Still,  as  time  went  on, 
James  did  not  find  this  out,  but  only  set  his  heart  more 
and  more  on  bringing  this  match  about. 

2.  Rather  than  run  the  chance  of  quarrelling  with  the 
king  of  Spain,  James  did  an  act  which  brought  on  him 
Sir  weaker  ^^  Scom  of  his  subjects.  While  Elizabeth 
Raleigh.  reigned  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  had  won  himself 
a  great  name  as  courtier,  traveller,  coloniser,  and  historian. 
But  shortly  after  her  death,  he  was  mixed  up  in  some 


i6i7.  ^i>'  Wa/ti-r  RaleigJi.  y 

plot  against  James,  and  though  there  was  little  to  show 
that  he  had  done  anything  wrong,  he  was  sentenced  to  die 
as  a  traitor  (1603).  James,  however,  did  not  cause  Ra- 
leigh to  be  put  to  death,  but  kept  him  a  prisoner  in  the 
Tower. 

3.  After  thirteen  years  had  gone  by  Raleigh,  who  was 
weary  of  his  long  imprisonment,  let  it  come  to  the  king's 
ear  that    near  the  river  Orinoco  in    Guiana     Raleigh's 
there  was   a   mine  which,  if  worked,  mi^ht     expedition 

'  "  to  ouiana, 

yield   rich  store  of  gold.      James   was    poor  1617 

and  much  in  debt,  and  the  thought  of  being  the  owner 
of  a  gold-mine  was  very  pleasant  to  him.  So  he  let 
Raleigh  sail  in  command  of  a  tleet  of  thirteen  vessels  to 
seek  the  mine,  but  told  him  that  he  was  on  no  account  to 
tight  the  Spaniards.  But  it  was  not  easy  to  avoid  fighting 
the  Spaniards,  for  they  claimed  the  West  India  Islands 
and  all  the  continent  of  South  America  as  their  own, 
and  whenever  the  vessels  of  other  nations  came  to  make 
discoveries  or  trade  with  the  Indians,  they  attacked  them 
and  murdered  their  crews.  Raleigh  knew  this,  but  he  knew 
James  too,  and  he  thought  that  if  only  he  brought  back 
gold  he  should  be  forgiven,  even  though  he  had  fought  the 
Spaniards.  When  his  fleet  reached  the  Orinoco,  Raleigh 
sent  a  party  of  explorers  up  the  country  to  seek  for  the 
mine.  He  could  not  go  himself,  for  he  had  fallen  very  ill, 
but,  along  with  others,  he  placed  in  command  his  son 
Walter,  and  Keymis,  a  trusted  friend,  and  he  bade  them 
not  to  fight  the  Spaniards  unless  in  self-defence.  Now 
the  Spaniards  had  built  a  village,  called  St.  Thomas, 
on  the  Orinoco,  made  of  stakes  covered  with  leaves  of 
trees.  They  knew  the  English  were  coming,  so  they  laid 
an  ambush  and  fell  upon  their  camp  by  night.  The 
English  fought  bravely,  and  drove  the  Spaniards  back, 
and  took  possession  of  their  village.  But  young  Walter 
Raleigh  was  killed   in  the  fight.     Then   Keymis  led  a 


8         struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1618. 

party  yet  farther  up  the  Orinoco  in  search  for  the  mine. 
But  the  Spaniards  and  Indians  waylaid  them  and  killed 
many.  So  Keymis'  heart  failed  him,  and  he  went  back 
to  St.  Thomas,  and  all  the  English  returned  to  their 
commander  and  their  fleet.  But  first  they  set  fire  to  the 
village,  for  they  wished  to  be  revenged  on  the  Spaniards. 
When  this  tale  was  told  to  Raleigh,  he  reproached 
Keymis  with  bitter  words,  because  he  had  not  found  out 
the  mine  and  brought  back  gold  to  show  the  king.  Then 
Keymis,  in  despair,  for  he  saw  that  ruin  had  befallen 
both  himself  and  his  master,  went  into  his  cabin  and 
stabbed  himself  to  the  heart.  But  Raleigh  came  back  to 
England,  and  the  sentence  of  death  which  had  been 
passed  against  him  fifteen  years  ago  was  carried  out  and 
he  was  beheaded  on  the  scaffold.  And  this  James  did  to 
please  the  king  of  Spain.     (1618). 

4.  Soon  a  war  broke  out  between  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants  on  the  Continent,  and  the  worth  of  this 
Thirty  alliance  with  Spain,  for  which  the  king  had 

Years'  War.  j^gj.  giygn  Raleigh's  head,  was  put  to  the  test. 
The  war  was  called  the  Thirty  Years'  War  from  the  length 
of  time  which  it  lasted  (1618-1648).  James's  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  had  married,  in  1613,  Frederic,  the  Prince  of 
the  Palatinate,  one  of  the  states  of  the  Empire,  lying 
along  the  Upper  Rhine.  This  prince  was  the  Protestant 
leader  who  was  most  concerned  in  the  war.  For  the 
people  of  Bohemia,  wishing  a  Protestant  to  reign  over 
them,  had  chosen  him  for  their  king  instead  of  their 
former  king,  Ferdinand,  who  was  a  Catholic.  But  Fer- 
dinand, who  was  also  Archduke  of  Austria  and  Emperor, 
raised  large  armies  and  drove  Frederic  first  out  of 
Bohemia  and  afterwards  out  of  the  Palatinate  also. 
Philip  of  Spain  was  related  to  Ferdinand.  James,  there- 
fore, wished  Philip  to  get  Ferdinand  to  make  peace 
with   the    Protestants   and   give  the  Palatinate  back  to 


i6i8.  The  King  and  tJic  Par/iament.  9 

Frederic.  Philip  made  fair  promises,  but  all  the  time 
his  own  armies  were  fighting  on  the  side  of  the 
Catholics.  Meanwhile  men  in  England  complained 
bitterly  of  their  king's  fondness  for  Spain.  They  would 
have  liked  James  to  fight  Spain  and  marry  the  Prince 
to  a  Protestant  lady,  for  they  thought  that  a  marriage 
with  a  Catholic  and  a  Spaniard  would  bring  their  country 
into  many  dangers.  The  Parliament,  therefore,  through 
dislike  of  the  match,  became  very  eager  that  James  should 
put  the  laws  in  force  against  Catholics,  whilst  James,  lest 
he  should  make  Philip  angry,  would  not  do  so. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE    KING   AND   THE    PARLIAMENT. 

I.  We  have  found  the  king  and  the  Parliament  holding 
different  opinions  on  three  important  questions  :  (i)  the 
treatment  of  Puritans,  (2)  the  treatment  of  Powers  oi 
Catholics,  (3)  the  Spanish  Marriage  Treaty,  the  king. 
When  the  king  and  the  Parliament  disagreed  one  or  the 
other  must  give  way.  It  was  a  question  which  would  be 
stronger.     Let  us  see  what  powers  each  held. 

The  power  of  the  king  was  then  much  greater  than  it  is 
now.  Queen  Victoria  only  chooses  as  her  ministers  men 
whom  the  Parliament  is  willing  to  support.  The  minis- 
ters, thus  chosen,  carry  on  the  government  as  the  House 
of  Commons  wishes,  though  in  the  name  of  the  queen. 
Parliament  meets  every  year,  and  every  year  the  minis- 
ters have  to  explain  what  they  have  done  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  and  have  to  get  their  consent  to 
their  acts. 

James  I.  chose  his  ministers  solely  to  please  himself. 
He  expected  them  to  carry  out  his  wishes  without  heed- 
ijig  the  wishes  of  the  Parliament.     He  never  thought  of 


lo        Struggle  against  Absolute  MonarcJiy.    1603- 

explaining  his  acts  to  his  Parhament,  nor  did  he  call 
together  a  Parliament  every  year,  but  only  when  it 
seemed  good  to  himself. 

2.  But  though  James  had  a  great  deal  of  power,  the 
nation  had  rights  and  liberties  to  set  against  the  powers 
Rights  of  of  the  crown,  (i)  The  king  could  make  no 
the  people.  laws  without  consent  of  Parliament.  (2)  He 
could  take  no  taxes  without  consent  of  Parliament.  (3) 
He  was  bound  to  act  according  to  the  law  ;  for  instance, 
he  could  not  put  a  subject  into  prison  except  according 
to  due  course  of  law.  From  this  right  of  the  people  not 
to  be  taxed  without  their  own  consent  it  followed  that 
the  House  of  Commons  was  able  to  control  the  king's 
actions.  The  king  had  not  money  enough  of  his  own  to 
pay  for  the  expenses  of  his  court  and  government  ;  so 
when  he  wanted  more  money,  as  was  often  the  case,  he 
had  to  call  a  Parliament  and  ask  for  a  grant.  Then  the 
Parliament,  before  giving  him  money,  could  ask  him  to  do 
something  which  they  wanted  to  have  done. 

3.  In  the  times  of  the  Plantagenets  the  House  of  Lords 
had  far  more  power  than  the  House  of  Commons.  But 
Position  of  it  was  the  House  of  Commons  which  now  took 
the  Com^^'^  the  first  place.  For  the  members,  who  were 
mens.  generally  merchants  and  country  gentlemen, 
now  more  than  equalled  the  nobles  in  wealth,  know- 
ledge and  influence.  It  was  quite  natuial,  therefore,  that 
the  gentlemen  who  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  should 
form  opinions  of  their  own  on  affairs  of  state,  and  like  to  tell 
the  king  if  they  thought  he  was  going  wrong.  But  it  was  also 
natural  that  the  king  should  think  himself  wiser  than  the 
Commons,  and  dislike  to  have  his  actions  talked  about. 
If  the  king  and  the  Commons,  therefore,  were  to  work 
together,  it  was  needful  that  they  should  trust  one  another, 
and  have  the  same  ideas  of  what  were  the  right  things  to 
do  in  dealing  with  the  great  questions  of  their  day. 


1623.  jfajucs'  Favourites.  1 1 

But  we  have  seen  that  James  did  not  do  what  his 
people  wanted  him  to  do.  He  thus  began  a  struggle 
which  was  to  last  for  more  than  eighty  years.  The  Stuart 
kings,  one  after  anotlicr,  all  tried  to  free  themselves  from 
the  control  of  Parliament.  Parliament,  on  its  side,  strove 
to  maintain  its  position,  and  force  the  king  to  submit  his 
wishes  to  its  wishes,  it  is  the  course  of  this  .struggle 
between  kingand  Parliament  which  we  shall  have  to  follow. 

4.  The  Commons  used  to  beg  James  to  set  right  what 
they  thought  amiss  in  his  government,  nnd  when  they  did 
not   get  an  answer  they  liked,  gave  liini  no     ,  , 

"  .in  J. lines  .111 J 

money.  James  thought  them  very  rude  for  liis  Parii.i- 
meddling.  He  wished  to  have  as  few  meet-  '"*^""'- 
ings  of  Parliament  as  possible  ;  so  he  began  in  one  way 
and  another  to  take  his  subjects'  money  without  first 
asking  their  consent.  Tliough  in  defence  of  his  conduct 
he  could  say  that  Klizaljclh  had  sometimes  done  the  same 
thing,  yet  the  people  were  not  willing  that  he  should  dft 
as  she  had  done.  For  they  had  trusted  Elizabeth,  and 
knew  that  she  spent  their  money  well.  They  did  not, 
however,  trust  James,  and  each  time  Parliament  met,  it 
became  more  than  ever  discontented  with  him. 

5.  Sir  Francis  liacon,  who  was  a  very  learned  man, 
was  one  of  James'  ministers.  He  often  gave  the  king  good 
advice.  But  James  did  not  follow  good  advice;     j-,,nes' 

he  believed  in  his  own  wisdom  and  went  his  'avourites. 
own  way,  or  else  chose  unworthy  m-^n  to  help  him  by 
their  counsel.  The  one  of  these  favourites  who  got  most 
power  was  George  Viihers,  a  young  man  wliose  handsome 
face  and  pleasant  manner  first  caught  the  king's  fancy 
C1615).  Very  soon  James  could  refuse  him  nothing.  Many 
offices  and  honours  were  given  him,  as  well  as  the  title  ot 
Duke  of  Buckingham. 

6.  Under  the  rule  of  these  favourites,  drunkenness, 
briber}',  and  vice  of  all    kinds  was  common  at  James' 


12       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1621- 

court.     Bacon  himself,  in  spite  of  his  learning,  gave  way 
to  the  same  ill  deeds  as  those  around  him.     He  was  Lord 
Chancellor,  and  sat  as  judge  in  the  Court  of 
ment  of  Chanccrv.     In    1621  the  House  of  Commons 

Bacon  impcacJied  him,    that   is,   accused  him  before 

the  House  of  Lords  for  having  taken  gifts  from  persons 
over  whose  cases  he  had  to  sit  as  judge.  The  House  of 
Lords  found  him  guilty  of  bribery  and  corruption,  and 
sentenced  him  to  pay  a  large  fine  and  never  to  hold  office 
again.  Very  likely  Bacon  did  not  look  on  these  presents 
as  bribes,  and  did  not  give  sentences  in  favour  of  those 
who  made  him  gifts.  But  it  was  a  wrong  thing  for  a 
judge  to  take  gifts  at  all.  Bacon's  own  remark  was  :  '  I 
was  the  justest  judge  that  was  in  England  these  fifty 
years,  but  it  was  the  justest  sentence  in  Parliament  that 
was  these  two  hundred  years.' 

In  the  trial  of  Bacon  the  House  of  Commons  acted  the 
part  of  accuser,  the  House  of  Lords  the  part  of  judge. 
Two  hundred  years  ago  there  had  been  like  cases  of  im- 
peachment. It  was  a  great  thing  that  this  old  practice 
was  again  brought  into  use,  for  it  opened  a  way  by 
which  the  Commons  were  able  to  force  the  king's  minis- 
ters to  answer  to  Parliament  for  what  they  did. 


BOOK    II. 


1623-1628. 


THE    RULE    OF    THE    DUKE    OF 
BUCKINGHAM. 

CHAPTER  I. 

1623-1626.      A  WAR   POLICY. 

I.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  lived  with  the  king,  and 
with  Charles,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  with  familiar  friends. 


1623.  Plans  of  Biichingham.  1 3 

They   called   one    nnother    by   nicknames,  Buckingham 
beintj  '  Steenie,'  the  Prince  of  Wales  '  Babv     „      •  l 

'^  '  -        Spanish 

Charles,'  the  king  himself  their  '  dear  Dad  and  match 
Gossip.'  In  1623, when  the  terms  of  the  Spanish 
marriage  tre.tty  were  nearly  agreed  on,  '  Steenie  '  and 
'  Baby  Charles '  got  James'  leave  and  went  to  Spain  in 
disguise,  meaning  to  bring  back  with  them  the  bride 
about  whom  there  had  been  so  much  talk  for  tlie  past  eight 
years.  Philip  I\'.,  at  that  time  king  of  Spain,  received 
them  \'ery  gracious!);  but  ihe  wooing  did  not  turnout 
well  in  the  end  The  Infanta  did  not  like  Charles  be- 
cause he  was  a  Protestant.  Once  when  he  jumped  over 
a  wall  into  a  garden  wliere  she  was  walking,  the  young 
lady  screamed  and  ran  away.  Moreover  the  Spanish 
ministers  did  not  care  to  bring  the  match  about,  unless 
England  was  to  be  made  a  Catholic  country.  So  now 
they  angered  Charles  by  saying  that  the  Infanta  must 
stay  in  Spain  a  year  after  the  marriage,  as  a  pledge 
that  James  would  get  rid  of  the  laws  against  English 
Catholics.  At  the  same  time  they  would  not  do  what 
Charles  wanted  of  them,  and  fight  the  Emperor  in  order 
to  win  back  the  Palatinate  for  Frederic,  James'  Pro- 
testant son-in-law.  So  Charles  and  Buckingham  came 
back  to  England  in  an  angry  ttmpcr,  forced  James,  to 
his  sorrow,  to  break  off  the  treaty,  and  threatened  .Spain 
with  war. 

2.   Buckingham  was  bold,  ambitious,  and   very  sure 
that  he  :ould  do  all  he  wished  to  do  ;  but  he  was  ignorant, 
headstrong,  and    not   very  cle\er.      He  was     pj^^^^  ^^ 
now  really  the  ruler  of  England.     Charles  was     Kucking- 
ready  to  follow  him  wherever  he  led  the  way, 
and  if  James  went  against  his  wishes  he  scolded  until  the 
old  man  yielded.     So  Buckingham  thought  he  could  do 
what   he   chose,  and  he   made  many  great  plans.     He 
wanted   to   form   alliances    with  France,  Denmark,  and 


14       Strjiggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1624- 

Holland,  punish  Spain,  send  armies  into  Germany,  and 
get  back  the  Palatinate  for  James"  son-in-law. 

3.  Parliament  met  in  February  1634.  The  Commons 
wished  the  king  to  make  war  on  Spain  by  sea ;  so  they 
Last  Parlia-  K^^'^  buTi  a  grant  of  money.  But  it  was  under- 
ment  of  stood  that  the  money  was  not  to  be  used  for 

lames  I.  .         .  .  ,  .         _     . 

sendmg  armies  mto  Germany,  but  for  nttmg 
out  a  fleet.  They  also  got  a  solemn  promise  from  James 
^nd  Charles  that  if  the  Prince  should  marry  a  Catholic, 
nothing  should  be  said  in  the  mairiage  treaty  about  the 
English  Catholics.  These  promises  were  not  kept.  An 
Army  was  raised  and  sent  across  the  Channel  to  march 
'h rough  Holland  into  Germany.  About  the  same  time 
lames  and  Charles  agreed  that  the  laws  against  the  Eng- 
lish Catholics  should  not  be  put  into  force,  and  on  these 
vf-rms  Charles  in  1625  married  Henrietta  Maria,  sister  of 
^-cwis  XIII.,  king  of  France. 

4.  In  March  1625  James  I.  died,  and  Charles  I.  came 
to  the  throne.  Charles  very  speedily  dissolved  his  two  first 
F'rivrariia-  Parliaments,  for  he  found  that  the  Commons 
iMe.its  of         would  not  give  him  monev.     The  Commons 

CSa\'esI 

refused  because  they  had  no  trust  in  Buck- 
ingliatn.  Not  only  had  he  led  the  king  to  break  his 
word,  but  all  his  undertakings  turned  out  ill.  The 
soldiers  sent  to  Holland  died  of  cold  and  hunger.  A 
fleet  sent  against  Spain  sailed  into  the  harbour  of  Cadiz, 
but  afterwards  came  back  without  having  fought  an 
enemy;  on  the  voyage  home  the  soldiers  and  sailors  died 
by  hundreds  through  the  bad  food  which  had  been  given 
them  (162:;). 

5.  In  .«pite  of  this  ill  success,  Buckingham  was  very  sure 
that  he  s'^ould  win  in  the  end,  and  Charles  gave  way  to 
,„       ..,         hnn,  so  neither  of  them  thought   of  making 

War  wuH  *  *> 

France.  oeacc  bc^aus^  the  PArliament  would  nbt  give 

uicncy.     Thev  h^d  not  urofep  ih.eir  wprd  t^  the  Corn- 


1626.  The  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus.  15 

mons  without  a  reason.  When  they  promised  Lewis  XIII. 
not  to  put  the  laws  in  force  against  Catholics,  they  had 
thought  that  he  would  aid  them  in  the  war  in  Germany  ; 
but  now,  as  Lewis  had  not  given  them  the  aid  they  hoped 
for,  they  were  bold  enough  to  lind  causes  of  quarrel  with 
him  and  to  go  to  war  with  France  (1626). 


CHAPTER    11. 

THK,    PEIIIION    OK   RIGHT.     1627,1628. 

I.  That  he  might  be  able   to  carry  on    this   new    war, 
Charles  tried  to  raise  large  sums  of  money  without  con- 
sent of  Parliament.   He  did  so  under  pretence     -jhe  writ 
of  a  loan,  though  there  was  no  chance   that     of  Habeas 

1.1  11  1       •  11  tor  (ills. 

the  lenders  would  ever  get  their  money  back 
again.  The  ta.\  was  called  a  forced  loan,  for  men 
who  refused  to  lend  the  king  money  were  thrown  into 
prison.  Now  as  there  were  Acts  of  Parliament  forbidding 
the  king  to  take  his  subjects'  money  at  his  pleasure,  so 
there  were  Acts  of  Parliament  forbidding  him  to  shut 
his  subjects  up  in  prison  at  his  pleasure.  The  Great 
(."liartcr,  granted  by  King  John,  had  said  that  no  free- 
man should  be  sent  to  prison  save  by  tiie  law  of 
the  land.  When,  therefore,  any  person  was  sent  to 
prison,  a  warrant  stating  his  offence  was  given  to  his 
gaoler.  The  prisoner  or  his  friends  could  then  ask  the 
judges  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  for  a  urit  of  Habeas 
I'.orpus.  These  words,  meaning  '  produce  the  body/ 
were  the  first  words  of  the  writ,  which  was  simply  an 
order  to  the  gaoler  bidding  him  bring  his  prisoner  and 
the  warrant  before  the  Court.  Then  the  judges,  after  they 
had  seen  what  offence  was  named  in  the  warrant,  would 
either  send  the  prisoner  back  to  prison,  there  to  await  the 


1 6       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1627- 

time  of  his  trial,  or  set  him  at  liberty,  if  he  promised  to 
come  and  answer  to  his  charge  at  the  time  of  trial.  If 
the  prisoner  was  sent  back  to  prison,  he  could  a-k  the 
judges  to  name  a  day  for  his  trial,  so  that  he  could  not 
be  Icept  shut  up  for  a  very  long  time. 

2.  Five  gentlemen  whom  Charles  sent  to  prison  for  re- 
fusing to  pay  the  loan  money  got  a  writ  of  Habeas  ('orpiis, 
Imprison-  -^"^^  SO  Came  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench. 
ment  with-       -p^g  judcres  looked  at  the  warrant  brought  by 

out  cause  jo  a  j 

given.  .  the  gaoler,  and  found  that  they  were  sent  to 
prison  by  the  king's  order,  but  that  no  cause  was  given. 
What  then  were  the  judges  to  do  ?  As  no  reason  was  set 
iown  on  the  warrant,  tliey  could  not  tell  whether  they 
ought  to  set  the  prisoners  at  liberty  or  send  them  back 
to  prison.  What  was  even  worse,  the  prisoners  could 
not  get  any  day  named  for  their  trial. 

The  lawyers  who  pleaded  for  the  prisoners  said  that, 
since  no  cause  of  imprisonment  was  given, -they  ought  to 
be  set  at  liberty  ;  otherwise  the  king  might  keep  them 
shut  up  in  prison  till  the  day  of  their  death.  This,  they 
said,  was  contrary  to  the  Great  Charter,  and  did  away 
with  the  liberties  of  Englishmen.  The  court  was  crowded 
with  listeners,  who  clapped  their  hands  and  shouted  ap- 
plause when  they  heard  tlie  lawyers  say  things  like  this. 

But  the  lawyers  who  pleaded  on  Charles'  side  said 
that  kings  of  England  had  often  sent  men  to  prison  with- 
out giving  any  reason,  and  that  what  former  kings  had 
done,  Charles  might  also  do.  It  was  true  that  former 
kings  had  done  so,  and  in  times  of  danger  when  there 
were  fears  of  plots,  as  at  the  time  of  the  Gunpowdt  r  Plot, 
it  might  be  needful  to  imprison  men  without  giving  a 
reason.  But  this  now  seemed  an  unlawful  thing  for 
Charles  to  do,  because  it  was  not  men  who  were  plotting 
against  him  whom  he  shut  up,  but  good  subjects  wla#» 
refused  to  give  him  money  to  which  he  had  no  i-ight. 


•628.  The  Petition  of  Right.  jy 

The  Judges,  however,  did  not  set  the  five  gentlemen 
at  hberty,  but  sent  them  back  to  prison  ;  for  they  were 
afraid  of  angering  the  King. 

3.  Buckingham  sailed  with  a  large  fleet  in  1627  to  the 
west  coast  of  France,  and  landed  on  the  island  of  Rh^ ; 
but  after  staying  a  few  months  on  tlie  island     ^      ,.  . 
he  had  to  sail  home  agam,  because  he    was     to  the  isle 
short  of  supplies,  and  had  lost  many  of  his     °*^'^''^' 
men. 

4.  Buckingham  had  persuaded  the  Protestant  town  of 
La  Rochelle,  lying  on  the  mainland  opposite  the   Island 
of  Rhe,  to  take  part  with  the  English.    Charles     Charles" 
felt  in  honour  bound  to  help  this  town,  which     f-''"'''  ^'"'' 

,      .  ,         ,     ,  lianient, 

was  now  bemg  closely  besieged  by  Lewis.    So,     '628. 
in  hope  of  getting  a  grant  of  money,  he  first  let  out  of 
prison  the  refusers  of  the  loan  money,  and  afterwards 
called  his  third  Parliament  (1628).     The  Commons  had 
many  things  to  complain  of,  but  these  three  things  above 
all  others  :— the  forced  loan  ;  the  imprisonments  without 
cause  given  ;  the  refusal  of  the  judges  to  set  the  prisoners 
at  liberty.     One  of  the  chief  men  in  the  house  was  Sir 
John   Eliot,  ;in(l  he  spoke  out  like  a  man  for  the  liberties 
of  Englishmen.    '  Upon  this  dispute,'  he  said,  '  not  alone 
our  lands  and  goods  are  engaged,  but  all  that  we  call 
ours.     These  rights    these   privileges,  which   made  our 
fathers  freemen,  :ire  in  question.     If  they  be  not  the  more 
carefully  preserved,  they  will,  I  fear,  render  us  less  free, 
less  worthy  than  our  fathers.'     Sir  Thomas  Wcntworth 
was  also  a  chief  m;in   in  the  house,  and  a  good  speaker. 
He  wanted,  however,  to  get  a  great  name  and  power  for 
himself,  and  he  cared  less  about  the  liberties  of  Englan-1 
than  Eliot.    As  he  did  not  like  the  wars  with  France  and 
Spain,   he   now  spoke   against    the   unlawful  means   by 
which  Charles  had  got  together  money  to  carry  them  on. 
'  What  is  it,'  he  said,  '  that  we  have  to  make  sure  ?     New 
E.  If.  C 


i8        Struggle  against  Absolute  MonarcJiy.    1628. 

things?  No;  our  ancient,  sober,  and  vital  liberties,  by 
strengthening  the  laws  of  our  ancestors,  by  setting  such 
a  stamp  upon  them  that  no  lawless  spirit  shall  dare 
hereafter  to  in\'ade  them.' 

5.  The  Commons  after  listening  to  words  like  these 
drew  up  a  new  law.  It  was  called  a  Petition  of  Right, 
ThePetition  ^nd  was  meant  not  to  get  them  new  liberties, 
01  Right.  ]3^,f  jQ  |3g  ^  guard  round  the  old.  This  peti- 
tion asked  the  king  to  say  : — 

(i.)  That  no  freeman  should  have  to  pay  any  loan,  tax, 
or  such-like  cliarge  without  common  consent  by  Act  of 
Parliament. 

(2.)  That  no  freeman  should  be  sent  to  prison  without 
a  cause  being  shown. 

The  House  of  Lords  agreed  to  the  petition,  and 
Charles  gave  it  the  royal  assent.  In  return  the  Parlia- 
ment gave  him  a  grant  of  money,  and  the  Session  was 
afterwards  brought  to  an  end. 

6.  In  August,  1628,  Buckingham  was  about  to  sail 
with  a  fleet  to  Kochelle,  when  a  man  named  Felton 
,,     ,      ,       stabbed  him  to  the  heart.     For  this  murder 

Murkier  of  •     i  ,  ,  i 

Hucking-  Fclton  was  tried  and  hanged  ;  but  the  people 
''^'"'  rejoiced  at  the  duke's  death,  and  looked  on 

Felton  as  a  martyr. 

The  fleet  sailed,  but  could  not  make  its  way  into  the 
harbour  of  Rochelle  ;  so,  after  thousands  had  died  of 
hunger,  the  city  surrendered  to  Lewis.  Nor  was  this  the 
only  place  which  had  looked  to  Charles  and  Buckingham 
for  help,  and  had  found  that  they  could  do  nothing.  The 
King  of  Denmark  had  been  promised  a  large  sum  of 
money  to  help  him  in  making  war  against  the  Catholics 
in  Germany  ;  but  no  money  was  sent,  and  he  was  beaten 
in  war. 

After  Buckingham's  death  Charles  made  peace,  first 
with  France  in  1629,  and  then  with  Spain  in  1630. 


j629.      Dissolution  of  ParliainaU  ill  1629.         19 


BOOK   III. 
I 629- I 640. 

GOVERNMENT    WITHOUT    PARLIA- 
MENTS. 

CHAPTER    I. 

DISSOLUTION   OK    PARLIAMKNT   IN    1629. 

I.  Though  the  Petition  of  Right  had  been  passed,  and 
though  Buckingham  was  dead,  yet  the  king  and  the 
Commons  could  not  agree  Ijcttcr  than  tiicy  Cusioms 
had  done  before.  They  disputed  about  tiie  J^""" 
meaning  of  the  Petition  of  Right.  The  Commons  said 
that  the  king  henceforth  could  take  no  taxes  without 
consent  of  Parliament.  Hut  it  happened  that  the  customs 
duties,  that  is,  taxes  laid  on  goods  sent  out  of  or  brought 
into  the  country,  had  not  been  mentioned  by  name  in 
the  petition.  So  Charles  said  that  he  still  had  a  right  to 
take  these  duties  without  consent  of  Parliament. 

2.  There  was  a  second  question  about  which  the  king 
and  the  Commons  could  not  agree.  It  was  a  very  important 
one.  We  saw  that  when  James  came  to  the  High 
throne  he  persecuted  Puritans,  and  would  not  <-'h"rchm;;n 
let  the  Parliament  make  laws  to  set  right  what  isis- 
they  thought  amiss  in  the  Church.  Since  that  time  new 
differences  had  arisen  between  the  bishops  and  the  Com- 
mons. At  first  they  had  only  disagreed  about  the  treat- 
ment of  Puritans.  Afterwards  they  began  to  disagree 
about  matters  of  religious  behef.  The  English  prayer- 
book  had  much  in  it  which  was  the  same  as  the  service 
tvMk  of  the  old  Church  ;  it  had  also  many  things  which 


20        Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1629, 

were  put  in  it  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  During 
the  last  thirty  years  new  teachers  had  arisen  in  England, 
who  seemed  to  wish  to  look  only  at  those  things  in  the 
prayer-book  which  were  like  the  old  service  book,  and  so 
were  like  the  beliefs  held  by  the  Church  of  Rome.  They 
seemed  to  wish  to  pass  over  all  the  changes  that  had 
been  made  and  hold  them  to  be  but  small.  Most  Eng- 
lishmen thought  that  the  changes  made  at  the  Reforma- 
tion were  great  and  important  changes,  and  they  did  not 
like  these  new  teachers.  But  the  king  listened  to  them 
gl.tdly,  and  made  some  of  them  bishops,  so  that  they  had 
great  power  over  the  Church.  These  new  teachers  we 
should  now  call  High-churchmen.  Those  who  were 
against  them  were  then  called  Calvinists,  because  they 
held  the  beliefs  of  the  reformer  Calvin,  who  in  the  last 
century  had  set  up  a  Protestant  Church  at  Geneva. 

It  was  thought  to  be  part  of  the  duty  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  put  down  all  false  doctrine.  No  books  might 
be  published  except  such  as  got  the  leave  of  the  king^s 
ministers.  The  High-churchmen,  therefore,  wished  that 
the  king  should  forbid  the  Calvinists  to  teach  and  preach, 
while  the  Calvinists  wished  that  the  king  should  forbid 
the  High-churchmen  to  teach  and  preach. 

Charles  would  have  done  well  if  he  had  not  taken  the 
side  of  either  of  these  two  parties  ;  but  he  was  drawn  to 
the  side  of  the  High-churchmen.  In  all  the  disputes 
which  had  arisen  between  himself  and  the  Commons  they 
had  taken  his  part,  trying  to  set  up  the  royal  power,  and 
pull  down  the  power  of  Parliaments.  Kings,  they  said, 
were  given  their  power  by  God  ;  subjects,  therefore, 
ought  to  obey  their  prince's  commands,  even  though  they 
were  contrary  to  Acts  of  Parliament.  It  was  partly  be- 
cause the  High-churchmen  said  things  like  this  in  books 
and  sermons  that  the  Commons  wished  so  much  to  put 
them  to  silence,  for  they  believed  that  those  men  were 


1629.  ^ I'-c  Kings  Dcclaiatiuii.  21 

most  true  to  their  king  who  obeyed  the  laws  and  would 
not  pay  unlawful  taxes. 

3.  Shortly  before  Parliament  met  again  in  1629,  Charles 
published  a  declaration  which  still  stands  in  (he  Prayer- 
book,  in  front  of  the  Articles.  In  this  he  ihe  Kind's 
said  that  henceforth  no  man,  whether  High-  Jtc'-T-aiion. 
churchman  or  Calvinist,  was  to  preach  or  write  on  doc- 
trines about  which  men  did  not  agree.  Perhaps  Charles 
thought  this  was  fair  to  both  parties,  but  it  was  not  really 
so.  The  men  who  would  judge  what  was  right  to  preach 
and  what  was  not  were  the  bishops.  These  were  High- 
churchmen  who  would  be  on  the  side  of  those  who 
preached  what  liicy  themselves  believed. 

4.  So,  when  Parliament  met  again,  the  discord  was 
greater  than  ever.  The  Commons  called  on  the  king  to 
forbid   the    High-churchmen    to    preach   and     r>-     1    • 

'^  Dissolution 

write,  and  leave  their  own  friends,  the  Calvin-  of  Parli.i- 
ists,  at  liberty  to  preach  and  write  what  they  '"""'■ 
pleased.  They  also  said  that  the  Petition  of  Right  had 
been  broken  because  the  customs-duties  were  taken  with- 
out consent  of  Parliament.  One  day  the  Speaker,  who 
was  the  king's  friend,  wanted  to  leave  the  house  rather  than 
let  the  members  pass  a  vote  against  the  taking  of  customs- 
duties  not  granted  by  Parliament.  l"wo  members  held 
him  down  by  force  in  his  chair,  while  a  third  called  out, 
'that  they  were  traitors  who  should  bring  in  changes  in 
religion,  or  who  should  take  or  pay  customs-duties  not 
granted  by  Parliament.'  'Aye,  aye,'  members  shouted 
on  all  sides,  and  then  left  the  House  amidst  noise  and 
confusion.  After  this  Charles  dissolved  the  Parliament, 
and  made  up  his  mind  not  to  call  another  for  a  long  time 
to  come. 


Struggle  agavst  Absolute  Monarchy .    1629- 


CHAITER    II. 

LAUD   AND   THE    PURITANS. 

I.  L  U  VRLES  1.  was  a  lovin;^  husband  and  father,  and  lived 
ver\'  happily  with  his  wife  and  children.  He  was  fond  ot 
collecting  pictures,  statues,  and  other  works  of  art.  Of 
Character  books  he  knew  quite  as  much  as  most  gentle- 
of  Charles  I.  ixxq^  of  his  time.  He  was  very  attentive  to 
business.  But  though  Charles  was  neither  ignorant,  nor 
lazy,  nor  stupid,  he  would  never  make  a  good  king.  He 
kept  too  much  to  his  own  opinions,  and  would  not 
listen  to  others  nor  trust  them.  He  did  not  care  about 
being  liked  by  his  subjects.  His  chief  care  was  to  make 
himself  obeyed.  He  knew  that  Elizabeth  had  ruled  very 
much  as  she  liked  and  lie  meant  to  do  the  same.  He 
quite  forgot  that  Elizabeth  had  sought  the  good-will  of 
her  subjects,  who  obeyed  her  because  she  did  wliat  they 
wanted  to  be  done. 

2.  The  minister  whom  Charles  trusted  to  govern  the 
Church  was  Laud,  Bishop  of  London,  who,  in  1633,  was 
The  views  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Laud  was 
of  Laud.  jj^g  leader  of  the  High-church  part)-,  whom  the 
Commons  had  wished  to  put  to  silence.  He  was  a  little 
man,  very  active,  and  very  earnest,  but  without  pity  for 
those  who  did  not  think  as  he  did  or  do  as  he  told  them. 
He  had  a  good  deal  of  learning,  and  was  willing  to  let 
learned  men  hold  opinions  of  their  own  ;  but  he  despised 
the  people  too  much  to  think  that  they  could  judge  for 
themselves  what  was  true  or  false  in  religion.  Land 
ilso  was  in  favour  of  forms  and  ceremonies.  He  did 
not  like  that  each  man  should  do  what  was  right  in  his 
own  eyes.  All  must  do  alike.  Each  minister  must  bow  his 
head  when  he  read  the  name  of  Jesus.  None  must  take 
the  sacrament  sitting,  as  many  men  then  did,  but  each 


!64o.  Laud  and  the  Puritans.  23 

man  on  his  knees.  Ministers  and  congregations  must  be 
encouraged  to  adorn  their  churches  with  painted  windows, 
imager;,  and  crosses,  to  set  up  altars  and  perform  cere- 
monies for  long  unknown  in  Protestant  England. 

3.  The  Calvinists  thought  very  differently  from  Laud. 
It  did  not  seem  to  them  that  the  meanest  man,  woman, 
or  child  was  too  ignorant  to  understand  all     The  view-; 
that  had  lo  do  with  his  happiness  or  misery     of,  the 

.    ,.,       ,  .  Calvmists. 

in  another  woild.  They  disliked  ceremonies, 
and  would  as  soon  have  worshipped  in  a  barn  as  in  a 
cathedral.  God,  they  said,  did  not  live  in  temples  made 
with  hands.  His  temple  was  the  heart  of  the  worshipper. 
They  did  not  care  about  order,  nor  could  the  service  be 
too  simple  to  please  them. 

4.  It  became  common  to  call  all  persons  Puritans  who 
did  not  like  the  changes  which  Laud  and  his  friends  were 
bringing  in.     Many   more   people,   therefore,     Calvinists 
were  now  called   Puritans  than  in  the  time  of    called  Puri- 

'tans 

James  L  Theywtfie  of  all  classes -gentlemen, 
farmers,  and  artisans.  They  were  remarkable  for  living 
a  serious  and  quiet  life,  setting  their  faces  against  the 
fashionable  vices  of  their  cLiy — drinking,  swearing,  and 
gambling.  Amongst  the  Puritans  were  found  men  who 
held  very  strict  notions  of  the  kind  of  life  they  ought  to 
lead.  They  saw  sin  and  vice  mixed  up  with  the  amuse- 
ments and  pleasures  of  the  world,  so  they  called  all 
pleasures  and  amusements  sinful.  They  dressed  in  plain 
black  clothes,  and  cut  tlieir  hair  short,  to  mark  them- 
selves distinct  from  the  men  of  the  world,  who  dressed 
gaily  in  velvets,  and  lace,  and  satin.  Ihcy  went  too  far 
in  what  they  thought  they  ought  to  do,  and  judged  other 
men  too  hardly  ;  but  they  were  quite  honest,  and  ready  to- 
suffer  much  rather  than  do  anything  which  they  thought 
wrong. 

We  have  seen  what  diflerent  opinions  Laud  and  the 


24       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.  1629- 

Puritans  held.  The  ]\iritans  looked  on  Laud  as  little 
else  than  a  Papist  in  disguise.  Laud  looked  on  the  Puri- 
tans as  men  who  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  Church. 
Now  that  the  Parliament  was  gone  he  was  master,  and 
he  set  to  work  to  model  churches,  services,  ministers  and 
worshippers  all  after  his  own  plan. 

5.  Laud  had  means  by  which  he  was  able  to  force  the 
Puritans  to  do  as  he  wished.  The  Act  of  Supremacy, 
Courts  of  passed  in  1558,  made  Queen  Elizabeth  chief 
High  Com-     ruler  of  the  Church  of  England  in  place  of  the 

mission  , 

and  .Star  Pope.  It  also  gave  her  power  to  set  up  com- 
Chamber.  missioncrs  for  the  punishment  of  those  who 
separated  from  the  Church.  These  commissioners  formed 
what  was  called  the  Court  of  High  Commission.  They 
now  turned  out  of  his  living  the  minister  who  did  not 
bov^  when  he  read  the  name  of  Jesus,  or  preached  on  for- 
bidden doctrines.  The  layman  who  kept  his  hat  on  in 
church,  or  would  not  take  the  sacrament  on  his  knees, 
they  fined,  or  perhaps  put  in  prison.  A  second  court 
punished  more  severely  than  the  High  .Commission.  It 
was  called  the  .Star  Chamber,  because  the  walls  of  the 
room  at  Westminster  in  which  it  sat  were  painted  with 
stars.  This  court  had  been  set  up  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
Vn.  to  try  men  who  were  too  powerful  to  be  brought  to 
trial  in  the  other  courts.  Its  powers  were  now  turned 
against  the  Puritans  or  any  others  who,  by  anything  they 
said,  or  did,  or  wrote,  displeased  the  king  and  his 
ministers.  The  judges  were  the  king's  ministers,  Laud 
himself  being  one  of  them.  Men  were  fined  by  the  Star 
Chamber,  or  put  in  prison,  or  whipped  through  the 
streets,  or  branded  with  hot  irons,  or  their  ears  were  cut 
off.  When  these  sentences  were  carried  out,  the  people, 
who  thought  the  sufferers  were  in  the  right,  and  felt  great 
pity  for  them,  would  stain  handkerchiefs  in  their  blood  as 
in  the  blood  of  martyrs. 


1640.  -V//-  TJioinns  Wciitu'orth.  25 

6.  When   the   riirii.ms  saw  how   strange  ceremonies 
were  brouolit  into  the  services  of  the  Knghsh  Church,  and 
how  the  king  no  longer  called  together  Parlia      p„ritans  In 
ments,    they  thought  tiiat  the  Catholic  faith     New  Eng- 
would  be  set  up  in  England,  and  that  the  old 
liberties  of   Englishmen    would  be  taken  away    by  the 
king.     So  many  thousands  sailed  across  the  Atlantic  to 
the  coast  of  North  America.  There  they  settled  in  a  land 
which  they  called  '  New  Plngland,"  where  they  governed 
themselves  and  worshipped  God  in  their  own  way. 


CHAPTER  III. 

SIR    THOMAS   WENTWORTH. 

1.  Besides  Laud,  Charles  had  another  councillor  whom 
he  trusted.  This  was  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  now  Lord 
Wentworlh,  and  afterwards  Earl  of  Strafford.  sirThonus 
Wentworth  was  a  tall,  dark  man,  with  a  com-  Wcntwonh 
manding  voice  and  manner.  In  1628  he  had  joined  with 
Eliot  in  getting  the  king  to  give  his  consent  to  the  Peti- 
tion of  Right,  because  he  thought  Ijuckingham  ruled  very 
badly.  But  since  Buckingham's  death  he  had  himsclt 
become  a  minister  of  the  king,  and  now  his  chief  desire 
was  to  make  Charles  powerful  in  all  things,  and  free  him 
from  his  subjects'  control.  Wentworth  had  a  great  belief 
in  himself  and  in  his  own  wisdom,  and  looked  down  upon 
the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  thinking  that  if 
the  king  always  had  to  follow  their  wishes,  the  country 
would  never  be  well  or  wisely  ruled.  As  to  Parliaments, 
Wentworth  did  not  wish  to  do  away  with  them  ;  they 
might  in  an  humble  manner  lay  their  wishes  before  the 
king,  but  they  were  not  to  make  their  grants  of  money 
depend  on  getting  what  they  wanted.     Until  the  gentle- 


26       Struggle  against  Absolute  MoiiarcJiy.    1633. 

men  of  England  should  have  learned  to  ol^ey,  Wentworlh 
did  not  counsel  Charles  to  call  a  Parliament  to^^^ethcr. 

2.  Now  Wentworth  was  proud  and  would  have  his  own 
way  ;  and  he  did  many  harsh  and  unjust  acts  in  carrying 
Wentworth  "^wt  his  ends.  So  he  was  soon  much  hated  by 
111  Ireland.  the  people.  Neither  was  he  liked  by  his  fellow 
ministers  and  men  at  the  king's  court.  For  he  set  his  face 
against  those  who  wasted  the  king's  money,  and  left  the 
king  poor  while  they  themselves  grew  rich.  Wentworth, 
however,  did  not  stay  long  in  England.  In  1633  he  went 
to  Ireland  to  rule  that  country  as  Lord  Deputy.  There 
it  was  more  easy  for  him  to  get  men  to  yield  to  him  than 
in  England;  for  the  native  population  of  Irish  Catholics 
and  the  English  and  Scottish  Protestants,  who  had  settled 
in  Ireland,  hated  one  another,  and  did  not  w-ish  for  the 
same  things,  so  that  they  could  not  act  together  as  Eng- 
lishmen did.  Moreover  in  Ireland  Wentworth  acted  as 
king  in  place  of  Charles,  and  thus  he  had  more  power  in 
his  hands  than  in  England.  He  did  not  let  his  officers 
take  the  king's  money.  He  kept  strict  order  throughout 
tlie  country,  and  did  not  let  the  rich  man  wrong  the  poor 
man.  He  even  called  a  Parliament  and  got  a  grant  of 
money.  But  the  people,  though  they  could  not  resist  the 
deputy,  yet  hated  him.  For  he  broke  his  faith  with  the 
Parliament,  ill-treated  those  who  offended  him,  and  cared 
not  how  unjustly  or  harshly  he  acted,  so  long  as  he  made 
all  men  ol)ey  his  will. 

3.  While  W^entworth  was  trying  to  make  the  power  of 
the  king  greater  than  it  had  ever  been  before,  Eliot  was 
Eliot  in  standing  up  in  the  cause  of  the    Parliament, 

tte  rower.  ]^g  ^^^  some  of  his  friends  were  accused  by 
Charles  of  having  caused  a  riot  in  the  House  of  Commons 
on  the  day  when  the  Speaker  was  held  down  in  his  chair. 
The  judges  said  that  they  must  pay  fines  and  stay  in  prison 
-so  long  as  it  should  please  the  king.     One  by  one,  as  they 


i634-        Ship  Money      Trial  of  Hampden.  27 

owned  their  fault  and  prayed  for  pardon,  Charles  let  them 
be  set  at  liberty.  But  Eliot  would  not  give  way.  A  future 
Parliament  alone,  he  said,  could  judge  whether  anything 
he  had  said  or  done  had  been  to  blame.  The  judges  had 
no  right  to  meddle  in  the  matter;  for  if  members  could 
be  brought  to  punishment  by  the  king  for  what  they  said 
or  did  within  Parliament  House  they  would  be  afraid  to 
say  what  they  really  thought.  Then  Parliaments  would 
soon  cease  to  be  free,  and  would  be  no  longer  able  to 
stand  against  the  king,  if  he  ruled  contrary  to  the  laws 
and  liberties  of  the  country. 

After  Eliot  had  been  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  about 
three  years  (1629-1632)  he  fell  very  ill,  and  sent  to  the 
king  asking  that  he  might  be  set  at  liberty  until  he  got 
back  his  health.  But  Charles  chose  that  the  man  who 
would  not  give  way  should  die,  and  not  long  afterwards 
Eliot  died  in  the  Tower  (1632). 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SHIP   MONEY   AND   THF,  TRIAL  OF  HAMPDEN,  1634-1640. 

I.  Charles  had  no  money  with  which  to  build  ships  to 
protect  the  coasts.  So  pirates  did  much  harm  to  trade, 
while  the  Turks,  from  Algiers  in  Africa,  used  yearly  to 
carry  off  hundreds  of  fishermen  as  slaves.  Charles 
wished  to  put  an  end  to  this  state  of  things.  He  was 
also  thinking  of  joining  Spain  in  making  war  on  France. 
His  difficulty  was  to  get  money  for  raising  a 
navy,  without  calling  a  parliament.  In  times  'p money, 
of  danger,  as  for  instance  when  the  Armada  sailed  against 
England,  the  king  had  called  on  the  port  towns  to  send 
him  vessels  for  defence  of  the  ki;igdoni.  Charles  thought 
he  could  not  do  better  than  follow  this  example  (1634). 


28        Struggle  against  Adsohcte  Monarchy.    1635- 

Afterwards  he  went  farther  and  did  what  former  kings 
had  not  done.  Every  year  he  made  every  county  0/ 
England  and  Wales  give  him  money,  called  ship-mone>, 
for  raising  a  navy,  for  guard  of  the  seas. 

2.  Men  paid  the  new  ta.\  very  unwillingly,  because 
there  was  no  real  or  sudden  danger  which  made  it  needful 
for  the  king  to  take  money  without  first  asking  leave  uf 
Parliament.  One  of  those  who  would  not  pay  was  John 
Hampden,  a  gentleman  of  Ikickinghamshire.  The  case 
Trial  of  between  him  and  the  king  was  tried  before  tne 
Hampden.  twelve  judgcs  at  Westminster.  Two  of  them 
said  boldly  that  many  Acts  of  Parliament,  and,  above  all, 
tlie  Petition  of  Right,  had  taken  away  from  the  king  the 
power  of  raising  taxes  without  consent  of  Parliament. 
But  others  said  that  Acts  of  Parliament  could  not  bind 
the  king,  and  that,  therefore,  when  he  thought  it  needful, 
he  might  take  taxes  at  his  pleasure.  As  seven  judges 
were  for  the  king  and  only  five  for  Hampden,  ship  money 
was  thus  declared  to  be  a  lawful  tax  (1638). 

3.  The  king  had  always  had  rights  and  powers  of  his 
own,  which  lawyers  called  his  royal  prerogative.  But 
The  prero-  until  now  the  right  to  set  aside  Acts  of  Par- 
abovethe'  liament,  whenever  he  thought  it  needful  to 
Law.  do  so,  had  not  been  counted  one  of  them. 
No  one  would  have  said  so  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth. 
The  notion  had  grown  up  by  degrees,  under  the  rule 
of  James  and  Charles.  The  High-churchmen  said  that 
kings  had  their  power  from  God,  and  that  their  power 
was  above  Acts  of  Parliament,  just  as  divine  things  are 
above  human  things.  Lawyers,  who  looked  to  the  king 
lu  give  them  places,  said  the  same  kind  of  things  in 
courts  of  law,  and  thus  at  last  the  judges  laid  it  down  as 
part  of  the  l.aw  that  no  Acts  of  Parliament  could  bind  the 
king.  Henceforth,  therefore,  Charles  could  set  aside  the 
laws  if  he  thought  it  needful. 


1640.  Rebel lioji  hi  Scotland  29 

The  people  saw  clearly  that  this  view  of  the  judges 
put  an  end  to  their  liberties,  and  they  would  not  pay  it  any 
respect.  'Ihe  judges,  they  said,  had  explained  the  law 
wrongly,  and  given  false  judgment  to  please  the  king. 
There  was  much  reason  in  what  the  people  said.  Charles 
had  the  power  of  placing  judges  in  office  and  turning  them 
out  of  office  at  his  pleasure.  He  had  set  up  as  judges 
men  who  thought  as  he  did  himself,  and  the  people  did 
not  trust  them. 

4.  We  have  seen  that  England  was  discontented  ;  we 
have  seen  also  that  Ireland  was  discontented.  We  must 
now  look  at  Scotland  and  see  what  was  passing  there. 
Laud  wished  to  change  the  Church  of  Scotland  and 
n<ake  it  like  the  Church  of  England.  He  did  not  heed 
that  the  Scots  did  not  like  the  C'uirch  to  be     „  ^  „      ■ 

I     J  1        1  •    1  11,1  Kebellion  in 

ruled  by  bishops  and  looked  on  many  of  the  Scotland. 
ceremonies  in  use  in  the  English  Ciiunh  as  superstitions. 
On  the  day  when  a  prayer-book,  like  the  Knglish  prayer- 
book,  was  ordered  to  be  read  in  all  churches  in  Scotland, 
a  riot  broke  out  in  Edinburgh  (1637).  Soon  the  whole 
country  rose  against  the  changes,  and  the  people  began 
to  arm  to  force  the  king  to  give  way  to  their  wishes.  If 
Charles  had  had  plenty  of  money,  and  even  a  small  stand- 
ing army,  he  might  ha\e  ])ut  dow^n  the  Scots.  But  he  had 
no  money,  while  his  soldiers  were  only  peasants  and 
artisans  who  were  pressed  into  his  service.  These 
looked  on  the  Sects  as  friends,  for,  like  them,  they  hated 
Laud.  They  killed  their  officers  if  they  thought  them  to 
be  Catholics,  and  ran  away  by  hundreds.  In  the  spring 
of  1640,  Charles  called  a  Parliament,  and  dissolved  it 
in  three  weeks,  because  it  would  not  give  him  money  at 
once.  The  same  year  the  Scots  crossed  the  border  and 
marched  into  Yorkshire.  Charles  was  there  with  an 
army  ;  but  it  was  an  army  of  unwilling  soldiers  who  did 
not  care  to  fight.     The  Scots  and  the  English  knew  that 


30        Striiggli^  against  Absoiutc  Monarchy.    1640. 

their  cause  wriS  one,  so  they  both  began  to  call  on  the 
king  to  summon  a  Parliament  in  England.  Charles  had 
to  give  way,  and  in  November,  1640,  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment met. 


BOOK   IV. 
1 640- 1 649. 

THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT  AND    THE 
CIVIL    WAR. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  TRI.'VL  OF   STRAFFORD,    1640-1641. 

I.  The  Long  Parliament  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
of  all  Parliaments  which  have  ever  met  in  England.  It 
The  Lon  ^^'^^  ^'^  turning  point  of  Charles'  reign.  Up 
Parliament,  to  this  time  he  had  been  growing  stronger  ; 
but  this  Parliament  broke  the  king's  power,  so  that  it 
was  never  again  what  it  had  been  before,  and  from  this 
time  forward  no  king  could  set  aside  the  laws  as  Charles 
had  done. 

2.  After  the  rebellion  broke  out  in  Scotland,  Went- 

worth  came  back  to   England,  and   Charles  made  him 

Earl  ot    Strafford.     Strafford    knew   that   his 

Impeach- 
ment of  friends  were  few  and  his  foes  many,    so    he 

Strafiord.        thought  that  it  would  be  better  if  he  stayed 

away  from   London  at  the  opening  of  Parliament.     But 

Charles  did  not  like  to  be  without  his  minister's  help.    He 

therefore  bade  Strafford  come,  saying  that  '  as  he  was  king 

of  England,  the  Parliament  should  not  touch  a  hair  of  his 

head.'     So  Strafford  came  to  stand  by  his  master  and  help 

him  to  keep  the  members  of  the  Parliament  in  due  awe. 


1 64 1.  The  Trial  of  Strafford.  3 1 

But  the  members  very  well  knew  that  they  had  no  enemj 
so  able  and  so  dangerous  as  Strafford.  On  the  day  after  he 
came  to  London  the  House  of  Commons  went  in  a  body  to 
the.  House  of  Lords,  and  there  impeached  him  of  high 
treason.  His  trial  in  Westminster  Hall  lasted  many 
days.  The  members  of  the  House  of  Lords  were  there  as 
judges,  and  the  members  of  the  Commons  as  accusers. 
The  king  and  queen  sat  apart  in  a  little  gallery  with  a 
curtain  in  front  of  it,  but  the  king  with  his  own  hand  tore 
down  the  curtain,  that  he  might  the  better  hear  and  see 
what  passed  beneath. 

Strafford  was  accused  of  having  tried  to  destroy  the 
laws  and  liberties  of  his  country,  and  of  having  been  an 
enemy  to  Parliaments,  and  having  done  many  things  con- 
trary to  the  law  both  in  Ireland  and  in  England,  and  for 
these  offences  he  was  charged  with  high  treason.  Straf- 
ford defended  himself  very  ably,  but  it  was  not  possible 
that  he  should  defend  himself  so  as  to  satisfy  his  accusers. 
They  had  no  pity  for  him.  For  he  had  been  Charles' 
chief  adviser  while  Charles  ruled  without  Parliaments, 
and  while  many  cruel  and  unjust  acts  were  done  in 
Charles'  name.  For  this  the  Commons  wished  to  put 
him  to  death,  that  others  might  loarn  not  to  do  like  him. 

3.  The  Commons  were  fearful  lest  Charles  should  find 
some  way  of  getting  Strafford  out  of  the  Tower,  and  saving 
his  life.  So,  to  hasten  on  his  death,  they  passed  j>j||  ^^ 
a  bill  through  their  House  which  condemned  Attainder, 
him  to  die  as  a  traitor.  Such  bills,  condemning  men  to 
die,  were  called  Bills  of  Attainder,  because  every  traitor 
or  felon,  against  whom  sentence  of  death  is  pronounced, 
is  said  to  be  attainted,  or  stained.  The  bill  which 
attainted  Strafford  was  sent  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
where  it  was  passed  also ;  for  it  was  easier  to  pass  a  bill 
declaring  Strafford  to  be  a  traitor  than  to  go  on  sitting 
as  judges  over  his  acts  one  by  one.     The  king's  consent 


32        Struggle  against  Absolute  MonarcJiy.    1641. 

was  still  needful  to  make  the  bill  law.  Charles  felt  that 
he  would  be  doing  an  evil  deed  if  he  took  part  in 
Strafford's  death,  for  he  l)clievcd  tliat  in  all  thint^s  Straf- 
ford had  served  him  well  and  faithfully.  But  he  was  in 
great  fear  and  misery,  and  knew  not  what  to  do.  An 
angry  crowd  gathered  round  the  palace  at  Whitehall, 
shouting  for  justice  on  traitors.  His  wife,  frightened  at 
the  noise,  pressed  him  to  pass  the  bill.  His  councillors 
told  him  it  was  his  duty  to  please  his  Parliament.  There 
came  a  letter  to  him  from  Strafford  himself,  bidding  him 
no  longer  delay  to  make  his  peace  with  his  people. 
'  Sire,'  it  said,  '  my  consent  shall  more  acquit  you  herein 
to  God  than  all  the  world  can  do  beside.  To  a  willing 
man  there  is  no  injury  done.'  So  Charles  gave  his  con- 
sent to  the  bill  ;  but  when  this  was  told  to  Strafford  he 
exclaimed,  '  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes  nor  in  the  sons 
of  men,  for  in  them  there  is  no  salvation.'  He  was  be- 
headed the  next  day  (1641). 

4    The  Parliament  wished  to  take  from  Charles  the 

means  of  ever  ruling  again  as  he  had  ruled 

while  Strafford  was  his  minister.     So  they  got 

him  to  consent  to  many  new  laws,  of  which  these  were 

the  chief : — 

(i).  The  Triennial  Act,  requiring  that  a  new  Parlia- 
ment should  meet  at  least  once  every  three  years,  and 
that  if  the  king  did  not  call  a  Parliament  together,  still 
the  members  should  be  elected,  and  the  Parliament 
meet  all  the  same. 

(2).  An  act  forbidding  the  king  to  take  customs  duties 
without  consent  of  Parliament. 

(3).  An  act  saying  that  the  raising  of  ship  money  was 
contrary  to  the  laws  and  liberties  of  the  kingdom  and  the 
Petition  of  Right,  and  that  the  judgment  given  in  Hamp- 
den's case  was  against  the  law. 

^4).  An  act  doing  away  with  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber. 


1 64 1.  The  Plans  of  CJiarles.  33 

(5).  An  act  doing  away  with  liic  Court  of  Hi.<:;h  Com- 
mission. 

5.  Laud,  like  Strafford,  was  impeached  of  hii,di  treason, 
niid,  though  PiOt  linnight  to  trial,  was  kept  a  prisoner 
in  the  Tower.  His  work  was  undone,  as  far  as  Puritans  in 
might  be.  Forms  and  ceremonies  in  public  po^'^r. 
worship  were  again  neglected  ;  crucifixes,  images,  and 
other  ornaments  were  torn  down  from  churches  and 
often  broken  to  pieces.  Nor  did  the  desire  of  change  stop 
merely  at  undoing  what  Laud  had  done.  The  bishops 
had  made  such  a  harsh  use  of  their  power,  that  many 
Puritans  now  wished  to  do  away  with  l>ishops  altogether, 
and  to  set  up  in  their  stead  assemblies  of  ministers  and 
elders  to  rule  the  Church.  These  Presbyteiians  were  very 
numerous  in  London  and  other  towns,  and  many  mem- 
bers of  Parliament  were  on  their  side.  .Still  it  was  very 
doubtful  whether  they  would  be  able  to  get  what  they 
wanted,  for  there  were  many  who  thought  that  enough  had 
been  done,  and  did  not  wish  for  further  change. 


CHAPTER   II. 


THE   GRAND  RKMONSTRANCF.,  AND    lArPf.ACHMENT  OF 
THE    FIVE  .MEMBERS.      (1641-1642.) 

I.  If  Charles  kept  the  now  laws  faithfully,  he  could  never 
rule  again  as  he  had  ruled  before.  He  would  have  to 
meet  Parliament  regularly.   He  would  ha\e  to     .,.,     , 

,  .    ,       ,  1  he  plans  of 

get  money  only  with  the  consent  of  the  House     Churk-s. 
of  Commons.     There  would  be  no  HiL;h  Commission  and 
no  Star  Chamber  to  put  down  men  who  found  fault  with 
what  he  did.     In  short  Charles  would  have  to  rule  as  the 
House  of  Commons  wished. 

Charles,  though  he  had  passed  the  new  laws,  did  not 
E.  H.  o 


34       Struggle  agauist  Absolute  Monarchy.    1641. 

mean  to  follow  the  wishes  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He 
might  perhaps  keep  the  laws  until  they  stood  in  his  way; 
then  he  would  find  some  means  of  setting  them  aside, 
just  as  he  had  set  aside  the  Petition  of  Right.  His  wish  in 
the  first  place  was  to  get  ridof  the  present  Parliament. 
He  could  not  dissolve  it  at  his  own  will.  At  the  time  of 
Strafford's  trial  he  had  agreed  to  a  plan  to  bring  up 
armed  men  to  London,  who  would  set  Strafford  free  and 
keep  the  Parliament  in  order.  This  plan  had  become 
known  to  the  Parliament,  which  got  Charles  to  consent  to 
a  law,  saying  that  this  Parliament  should  not  be  dissolved 
without  its  own  consent.  Charles  was  now  at  a  loss  how 
to  get  the  Parliament  to  dissolve  itself  Sometimes  he 
thought  of  making  the  leaders  of  the  Commons  his  minis- 
ters, in  the  hope  that  they  would  help  him  to  bring  about 
a  dissolution  ;  but  when  he  found  that,  even  if  he  made 
them  his  ministers,  they  yet  would  never  obey  his  will,  he 
made  up  his  mind  to  accuse  them  of  treason.  For  when 
its  leaders  were  in  prison,  or  dead,  he  hoped  to  be  able 
easily  to  rid  himself  of  the  Parliament,  and  get  again  all 
the  power  which  he  had  lost. 

2.  John  Pym  was  looked  up  to  as  the  chief  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  He  had  sat  in  many  Parlia- 
ments, and  was  now  more  than  fifty  years  old. 
He  had  a  strong  head  and  a  strong  body,  and 
could  work,  if  needful,  all  the  day  and  half  the  night  as 
well.  He  spoke  well,  so  that  men  listened  eagerly  to  his 
words  and  believed  in  them.  In  time  of  danger  he  was 
never  frightened,  but  always  saw  the  best  course  to  take 
and  how  best  to  calm  the  fears  of  others. 

Pym  knew  well  that  dangers  were  soon  to  come,  for, 
though  he  could  not  tell  exactly  what  the  king's  plans 
were,  he  felt  sure  that  by  force  or  fraud  Charles  would 
undo  all  that  Parliament  had  done,  unless  some  way  were 
tound  to  prevent  him.     So  Pym  wished  that  councillors, 


i64i-  '^^'^  Grand  Remonstrance.  35 

judges,  and  all  officers  of  state  should  be  set  up  by  the 
Parliament  and  not  by  the  king.  ■  Then  these  would  be 
men  whom  the  Parliament  could  trust,  and  though  thev 
would  still  rule  in  the  name  of  the  king  they  would  follow 
the  wishes  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

3.  A  party  friendly  to  the  king  was  forming  botii  in  the 
Parliament  and  amonf;st  the  people.  Some  men  thought 
that  Charles  would  keep  faithfully  the  laws  ^  RoyalUt 
which  he  had  passed,  whilst  others  were  party, 
against  the  changes  which  the  Presbyterians  wanted  to 
make  in  the  Church.  .So  all  these  stood  together  in  op- 
posing Pym. 

4.  In  the  summer  of  1641  Charles  went  to  Scotland 
and  gave  the  Scots  all  they  asked  for,  thinking  that  when 
Scotland  was  quiet  and  content  he  should  i..^.i,eiii^„ 
better  be  able  to  carry  out  his  plans  in  Eng-  >"  irebnd. 
land.  While  he  was  still  away,  terrible  tidings  came  from 
Ireland.  The  Irish  Catholics  had  risen  in  arms  and  killed 
the  Protestant  settlers  men,  women,  and  children.  Many 
men  in  England  thought  that  Charles  had  been  seeking 
friends  in  Ireland  amongst  the  Catholics,  and  had  had 
a  hand  in  this  rising,  so  now  they  w^ere  more  fearful  of 
trusting  him  than  before. 

5.  Pvm  sought  a  way  of  telhng  the  nation  that  no  faith 
could  be  placed  in  Charles.  A  long  remonstrance,  called 
the  Grand  Remonstrance,  was  broui;ht  into  the     ^,,    ^. 

■  .  I  he  <  .rand 

House  of  Commons.  This  drew  a  black  picture  Remon- 
of  Charles'  goxernment  since  he  tirst  came  to  ''"■•^'="=- 
the  throne.  Then  it  told  of  the  good  laws  which  the 
Parliament  had  made,  and  said  that  henceforth  the  king's 
minis.ters,  must  be  men  in  whom  the  Parliament  could 
trust.  There  was  mucli  talk  in  the  House  of  Commons 
between  the  friends  of  Charles  and  the  followers  of  Pym 
about  the  passing  of  this  remonstrance.  Parliament  used 
then  to  sit  only  in  the  day-time  ;  but  they  talked  about 


$6       Struggle  as^ainst  Ahsohite  Monarcliy.     1641. 

the  remonstrance  till  pa;;t  midnight.  When  at  last  the 
remonstrance  was  passed,  a  member  asked  that  it  should 
be  printed,  and  thus  put  into  the  hands  of  the  people. 
When  the  king's  friends  answered  him  angrily,  word? 
ran  very  high,  and  sword  hilts  were  handled.  Hampden 
spoke  a  few  words  which  calmed  the  tumult,  and  the 
House  broke  up  for  that  time  (November,  1641);  but  after- 
wards the  remonstrance  was  printed,  and  the  people 
were  thus  told  that  the  Commons  had  no  trust  in  the 
king. 

6.  When  Charles  came  back  to  London,  there  gathered 
round  him  at  Whitehall  some  five  hundred  gentlemen  as 
Impeach-  a  guard  to  his  person  The  Parliament  had  a 
five"m°em^''  guard  of  London  citizens,  which  the  king  took 
bers.  away.     The  Commons  felt  fearful  of  danger, 

so  they  asked  the  king  to  let  them  have  their  guard  back 
agam.  Charles  would  not  do  this,  but  told  them  that 
their  safety  was  as  much  his  care  as  the  safety  of  his 
children.  The  same  day  the  king's  law  officer,  the 
Attorney-General,  came  into  the  House  of  Lords,  and  im- 
peached of  high  treason  one  member  of  the  Lords  and 
five  members  of  the  Commons,  including  Pym  and 
Hampden.  Lords  and  Commons  alike  refused  to  give 
up  the  accused  members.  The  next  morning  there  was 
a  stir  and  bustle  at  W'hitehall,  where  the  king's  guard 
were  arming  and  collecting  together,  for  the  king  was 
about  to  march  to  the  House  of  Commons  and  take  the 
five  members  out  by  force.  The  queen  urged  him  on. 
'  Go,  coward,'  said  she,  '  pull  those  rogues  out  by  the 
ears  ! '  A  friend  brought  the  tidings  in  haste  to  the  Com- 
mons, and  the  five  members  left  their  seats  and  fled  to 
the  city  of  London,  just  a  few  minutes  before  Chai-les 
came.  Charles  left  his  guard  at  the  door,  walked  .up 
the  House,  and  asked  Lenthali,  the  Speaker  of  the  House, 
where  the  accused  members  were.     Lenthali  fell  on  his 


1642.  The  Civil  War.  -^y 

knees,  and  said,  '  May  it  please  your  Majesty,  I  have 
neither  eyes  to  see,  nor  tongue  to  speaic  in  tiiis  place,  but 
as  the  House  is  pleased  to  command  me.'  The  king  first 
looked  round  the  House,  and  then  said,  '  Well,  since  I  see 
all  the  birds  are  flown,  I  expect  from  you  that  you  shall 
send  them  unto  me  as  soon  as  they  return  hither,  other- 
wise I  must  take  my  own  course  to  find  them.'  He 
then  left  the  House,  and  went  back  to  Whitehall  with  his 
guard  (January,  1642). 


CHAPTER    111. 

THE   Civil,   WAR.      (1642-1646.) 

I.  After  the  failure  of  his  attempt  to  seize  the  five  mem- 
bers Charles  left  London,  meaning  to  get  rid  of  the  Parlia- 
ment by  force  of  arms.     Though  there  was  no     „      ,. 

•'  "  Royalists 

standing  army  in    England,  everv  county  had     a"tl  Parlia 

r.-  11  III  11     1  ■  inentari.'ins. 

Its  mihlia,  which  could  be  called  out  in  times 
of  danger.  The  officers  of  this  force  were  set  up  by  the 
king.  Pym  and  his  friends  had  no  longer  any  faith  what- 
ever in  Charles,  so,  to  take  from  him  the  means  of  doing 
harm,  they  asked  that  Parliament  should  henceforth  set 
up  the  officers  of  the  militia  and  all  ministers  of  state. 
Charles  refused,  and  war  lugan  between  the  king  and 
the  Parliament  in  the  summer  of  1642.  Those  joined 
the  king  who  thought  that  the  Parliament  was  unfairly 
trying  to  get  power  into  its  hands.  Those  joined  the  P.n- 
liament  who  would  no  longer  trust  Charles.  Friends  of 
the  bishops  were  on  the  king's  sid?  ;  Presbyterians  on  the 
side  of  the  Parliament.  The  citizens  of  London  were 
Presbyterians,  and  firm  friends  to  the  I'arliament.  This 
was  very  important,  because  London  was  by  far  the 
largest  and  wealthiest  city  in  England,  and  so  was  able  to 


38       Struggle  agnmst  Absolute  Moiiardiy.     1642. 

find  plenty  of  money  with  which  to  pay  the  Parliament's 
armies.  Noblemen  generally  fought  for  the  king,  farmers 
and  artisans  for  the  Parliament.     The  king  made  O.xford 


ENGLAND 

AMD 

DURING    THC 
C  IVIt,  ■V^'AR. 


his  head-quarters.  In  the  west  oi  l^ngland  men  wert 
mostly  on  the  king's  side  ;  in  the  east,  they  were  mostly 
on  the  side  of  the  Parliament. 

The  line  across  the  map  divides  the  country  which 


1 643-  Solfvin  League  and  Covenant.  39 

was  lor  the  king  from  the  country  which  was  for  the  Par- 
liament. In  those  counties  throu.^h  which  the  hne  runs 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  tighling,  as  well  as  in  Devon, 
Somerset,  and  Wiltshire,  where  the  Parliament  had  garri- 
sons in  many  towns.  The  Hrst  pitched  battle  was  fought 
at  lidgehill,  in  Warwickshire  (October,  1642;.  Both  sides 
claimed  a  victory.  In  1643  ihe  Royalists  gained  many 
successes.  This  was  in  great  part  owing  to  the  dash  and 
daring  of  their  horsemen.  These  were  country  gentlemen 
and  their  sons,  who  took  a  pride  in  their  horses,  their  arms, 
and  the  cause  for  which  they  fought.  The  people  called 
them  'Cavaliers.'  Their  leader  was  Prince  Rupert,  Charles' 
nephew,  the  son  of  that  Prince  Frederic  of  the  Palatinate, 
for  whom  men  wanted  James  to  fight  when  he  was 
driven  from  his  lands.  The  Parliament's  horse-soldiers 
were  not  so  good,  for  they  were  mostly  shopkeepers  who 
were  not  used  to  riding,  or  farmers  mounted  on  horses 
fresh  from  the  plough,  which  took  fright  at  the  sound  of  a 
pistol  shot.  The  Parliament's  troops  were  nicknamed 
'  Roundheads,'  perhaps  because  they  wore  their  hair 
short,  while  the  Cavaliers  wore  theirs  long. 

2."  In  the  spring  of  1643  the  Parliament  held  all  the 
towns  in  the  west  of  England  which  have  a  line  under 
them  in  the  map.  But  dunng  the  summer  and     ..  , 

>^  o  Solemn 

autumn  Charles  took  most  of  these,  besides  l^eaguc  ami 
Newark  and  other  places  on  the  Parliament's 
si  ic  of  the  line,  so  that  men  thought  that  he  would  be  able 
to  march  on  London.  Gloucester,  however,  still  held  out 
bravely,  and  while  Charles  was  besieging  it,  the  Parliament 
got  an  army  together  andseiit  it  into  the  west  under  the  Earl 
of  Esse.x.  Essex  raised  the  siege  of  Gloucester,  and  after- 
wards met  and  fought  Charles  at  Newbury,  in  Berkshire, 
and  so  stopped  his  way  to  London.  Meanwhile  Pym  was 
persuading  the  .Scots  to  join  the  side  of  the  Parliament 


40       Striigglc  against  Abschitc  Monarchy.    1643^ 

The  Scots  wished  to  see  a  Presbyterian  Church  like  their 
own  set  up  in  England.  They  therefore  agreed  to  send 
an  army  to  fight  against  the  king,  on  condition  that  the 
three  Churches  in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  should 
have  the  same  prayer-book,  and  be  governed  in  the 
same  way.  This  treaty  was  called  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant. 

3.  Pym  died  in  December,  1643,  a  little  before  the 
Scottish  army  came  into  England.  Hampden,  who  was  a 
Death  of  colonel  in  the  l\arliamentary  army,  had  died 
Pym  and         a  few  months  earlier  of  a  wound  received  in 

a  skirmish  fought  at  Chalgrove,  not  far  from 
his  own  home  at  the  village  of  Hampden,  in  Buckingham- 
shire. 

4.  When  the  war  first  broke  out  those  members  of 
Parliament  who  did  not  wish  to  do  away  with  bishops 
Aims  of  ^oo\i  the  king's  side  and  left  London.  After 
the  Presby-     they  were  gone  the  Presbyterians  had  much 

more  power  in  Parliament  than  before.  They 
wanted  to  set  up  assemblies  of  ministers  and  elders  in 
place  of  bishops.  They  wanted  further  to  force  everyone 
to  think  as  they  did  about  religion,  to  worship  as  they  did, 
and  to  obey  their  Church  Assemblies.  If  they  could  have 
had  their  own  way.  they  would  have  shown  themselves 
quite  as  much  bent  on  making  others  do  as  they  did  as 
Laud  had  been,  and  perhaps  aS  cruel.  The  old  arch- 
bishop got  no  mercy  from  them.  After  being  kept  a  pri- 
soner for  four  years  he  was  put  to  death  as  a  traitor. 

5.  As  it  happened,  however,  it  was  not  easy  for  the 
Presbyterians  to  have  everything  their  own  way.  For 
Aims  of  the  there  was  a  party  amongst  their  own  friends 
Sectarians.  yi\^o  did  not  care  about  setting  up  a  Presby- 
terian Church  in  England,  and  the  longer  the  war  lasted 
the  stronger  this  party  grew.  They  were  called  Inde- 
pendents.     They   said  that  each  separate  congregation 


i644-  Aims  of  the  Sectarians.  4 1 

ought  to  be  left  to  worship  as  it  pleased,  and  to  settle  its 
own  affairs  by  itself,  without  being  meddled  with  either 
by  bishops,  or  assemblies  of  elders,  or  any  other  power 
whatever.  The  Independents  were  often  called  ^SVt/rtr/V7«j 
because  they  were  divided  into  sects,  each  sect  holding 
.'jome  special  doctrine  of  its  own.  Thus  there  were  the 
Anabaptists  who  did  not  baptize  infants,  and  the  Quakers 
who  thought  it  wrong  to  take  oaths.  Now,  what  we  have 
to  notice  more  especially  about  these  Independents  and 
Sectarians  is  that  they  had  got  a  real  idea  of  toleration, 
that  is,  of  letting  other  men  hold  their  own  opinions 
instead  of  trying  to  force  everyone  else  to  think  and  do 
as  they  thought  and  did  themselves.  Thus  they  said  to 
the  Presbyterians  :  have  your  Presbyterian  Church  if  you 
will,  only  keep  it  to  yourselves,  and  leave  us  free  to  wor- 
ship as  wc  will  and  leach  our  own  doctrines. 

As  far  back  as  the  time  of  Elizabeth  .Sectarians  had 
been  heard  of.  But  then  they  had  been  few  in  number, 
poor,  and  looked  down  upon.  Now,  in  these  times  of  war 
and  change,  many  men  became  Sectarians.  .Artisans  in 
those  towns  where  wool— then  the  chief  article  of  manu- 
facture in  P^ngland— was  woven  into  cloth  were  Sectarians. 
So,  too,  were  small  fanners,  who  owned  land  of  their 
own,  of  whom  there  were  then  many  in  England.  These 
Sectarians  were  not  like  other  folk;  they  were  more 
earnest  men,  and  lived  even  more  serious  lives  than  did 
the  Puritans,  whom  we  have  spoken  about  before.  They 
knew  their  BiWes  almost  by  heart,  and  often  preached 
themselves,  for  they  made  no  difference  between  ministers 
and  laymen. 

6.  The  leader  of  the  Independents  in  the  Mouse  of 
Commons  was  Oliver  Cromwell,  a  gentleman  of  Cam- 
bridgeshire. Cromwell  always  had  his  heart  set  on  wiiat 
he  was  about,  and  wished  to  do  his  work  as  well  as  possi- 
ble.   Pym's  plan  of  bringing  the  war  to  an  end  was  to  call 


42       Struggle  against  A  bsolicte  Monarchy.     1644. 

in  the  Scots ;  but  Cromwell  had  another  plan  of  his  own. 
'Your  troops,'  he  said  one  day  to  his  cousin,  John  Hamp- 
CronnvcU  ^^'^\  'are  most  of  them  old,  decayed  serving- 
ami  the  men,  and  tapsters,  and  such  kind  of  fellows  ; 

do  you  think  that  the  spirits  of  such  base  and 
mean  fellows  will  ever  be  able  to  encounter  gentlemen 
that  have  honour  and  courage  in  them  ?  You  mus:  gel 
men  of  a  spirit,  and  take  it  not  ill  what  I  say — I  know 
you  will  not— of  a  spirit  that  is  likely  to  go  as  far  as  gen- 
tlemen will  go,  or  else  you  will  be  beaten  still.'  Crom- 
wells  home  was  in  the  eastern  counties,  where  there  were 
many  manufacturing  towns,  and  where  small  farmers 
were  more  in  number  than  in  other  parts  of  England. 
So  he  set  about  to  find  the  men  he  wanted  amongst  Sec- 
tarians, and  his  horse-soldiers  were  soon  known  as  the 
best  troops  in  the  army.  They  were  called  the  Ironsides. 
At  fi.rst  Cromwell  was  only  a  captain  ;  but  in  1644  he  was 
made  lieutenant-general  of  a  new  army,  which  he  had 
mainly  raised  himself  in  the  eastern  counties.  We  have 
next  to  see  what  this  army  did. 

7.  There  was  agre.it  battle  fought  late  one  July  evening, 
in  the  year  1644,  on  Marston  Moor,  a  few  miles  west  of 
Battle  of  York.  The  Scottish  army  was  there,  and 
Marston  CromwelFs  army,  besides  other  forces  of  the 

Parliament.  The  Royalist  right  wing  was  led 
by  Prince  Rupert.  On  every  battle-field  up  to  this  time 
his  Cavaliers  had  scattered  the  Parliament's  horse  before 
them.  Opposite  to  Rupert  was  set  the  army  from  the 
eastern  counties  and  a  body  of  Scottish  horse.  It  was 
seven  o'clock  before  the  armies  joined  battle.  Rupert  at 
the  head  of  a  body  of  Cavaliers  charged  Cromwell's  own 
troop  of  three  hundred  horse.  A  shot  grazed  Cromwell's 
neck.  '  A  miss  is  as  good  as  a  mile,'  he  cried,  and  press- 
ing on  broke  through  the  ranks  of  the  enemy.  Soon 
Rupert's  whole   wing,  horse  and  foot,  was  in  full  flight. 


1645-  '^^^^  Battle  of  Naschy.  43 

and  the  Ironsides  hard  in  chase  of  the  Cavaliers.  Aftei 
a  space  Cromwell  called  his  men  together,  turned  back, 
and  fell  on  the  Royalist  centre  and  left  wing  in  the  rear. 
These  had  been  beating  back  the  centre  and  right  wing 
of  the  Parliament's  army,  but  now,  with  foes  in  front 
and  behind,  they  were  broken,  routed,  and  cut  down 
in  their  flight  all  the  way  to  York.  This  was  a  great 
victory,  for  it  destroyed  a  laVge  army  of  the  kings,  and 
brought  all  the  north  country  under  the  power  of  the 
Parliament. 

8.  A  few  months  after  this  battle  was  fought  a  great 
thing  was  done  at  London.     Parliament  now  thought  it 
good  that  the  Earl  of  Essex  and  other  Presby-     -| .  _,  j^^ 
terian  generals  should  make  way  for  more  able     Model 
and  active  men.     Henceforth  there  was  to  be     ^'''"''" 

but  one  army.  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  a  friend  of  Crom- 
well, was  made  by  Parliament  commandcr-mchief  He 
was  a  spirited  and  honourable  gentleman,  loved  by  his 
soldiers.  Cromwell  himself  was  lieutenant-general.  So 
from  this  time  the  army  became  the  army  of  the  Inde- 
pendents. All  drunken,  lazy,  plundering  soldiers  were 
turned  away,  and  the  ranks  were  hlicd  with  Sectarians, 
who  fought  to  win  for  themselves  the  right  to  worship  in 
their  own  way. 

9.  In  June,  1645,  ih'^  New  Model  army,  as  it  was 
called,  met  the  Royalists,  led  by  Charles,  near  Naseby,  a 
village  in  Northamptonshire.  In  both  armies  \iM,\.\e.  of 
the  horse  were  on  the  wings  and  the  foot  ^f^seby. 
soldiers  drawn  up  in  the  centre.  Prince  Rupert  and  the 
Cavaliers,  who  were  on  the  right  of  Charles'  army,  beat 
back  the  enemy's  horse  that  was  set  agaii.st  them,  and 
then,  as  was  their  wont,  rode  oft"  the  field,  chasing  the  fugi- 
tives or  looking  after  plunder.  Meanwhile,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  battle-field,  Cromwell  and  the  Ironsides,  having 
first  routed  Charles'  left  wing  of  horse,  turned  nnd  fell  upon 


44        Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1646- 

the  flank  of  his  centre.  Up  to  this  time  the  foot  soldiers 
on  neither  side  had  given  way.  But  now  the  king^s  men, 
charged  by  the  enemy  in  front  and  flank,  were  at  last 
broken  and  turned  to  flight.  Rupert  came  back  only  to  see 
his  friends  beaten.  '  Face  about  once,'  Charles  cried  ; 
'  give  one  charge  more  and  recover  the  day;'  but  he  could 
no  longer  get  his  men  to  rally,  and  so  had  to  join  the  flight. 
After  this  battle  the  war  was  soon  brought  to  an  end,  for 
many  Royalists  were  killed  and  many  taken  prisoners, 
and  Charles  could  never  again  get  a  large  army  together. 
Fairfax  led  his  troops  into  the  west,  and  forced  one 
Royalist  garrison  to  surrender  after  another.  Charles, 
rather  than  give  himself  up  to  the  Parliament,  sought  a 
refuge  with  the  Scottish  army  (April,  1646). 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ARMY   AND   THE   PARLIAMENT.      (1646-1649.) 

I.  Charles  had  been  fairly  beaten,  still  he  had  no 
thought  of  giving  way  and  consenting  to  rule  on  his 
The  aims  of  enemies'  terms.  He  would  not  agree  to  let 
Charles.  ^j^g  Parliament  set  up  officers  of  the  militia 

and  ministers  of  state.  He  would  not  promise  the  Pres- 
byterians to  set  up  a  Presbyterian  Church  in  England  ; 
he  would  not  promise  the  soldiers  to  let  Sectarians  have 
freedom  to  worship  in  their  own  way.  His  plan  was  to 
spend  time  talking  over  terms  ;  meanwhile  to  stir  up 
the  dislike  which  the  Presbyterians  felt  to  the  Indepen- 
dents, to  get  them  to  fight  one  another,  and  while 
they  fought  he  hoped  that  he  should  get  back  all  he  had 
lost. 

2.  When  the  Scots  found  that  Charles  would  not  agree 
to  set  up  a  Presbyterian  Church  in  England,  they  gave  him 


1 649-  '^^^^  Second  Civil  War.  4«{ 

up  to  the  English  Parliament,  and  wont  back  to  their 
own  country  (Janua<y,  1647).  Many  nioiuhs  went  by, 
while  the  Parliament  and  the  army  ofliccrs  second  civil 
and  the  king  talked  over  terms.  Possibly,  if  "''"^• 
Charles  had  been  honest,  some  agreement  might  have 
been  come  to.  But  all  the  lime  he  was  really  wishing  to 
get  the  two  parties  to  light  one  another.  More  than  once 
the  citizens  of  London  and  the  soldiers  nearly  came  to 
blows.  At  last  Charles  managed  to  call  in  the  Scot-j. 
The  Scots  were  angry  because  the  Independents  had  got 
so  much  power  in  luigland.  So  they  agreed  to  bring  an 
army  into  England  to  fight  for  Charles,  and  Charles  in 
return  promised  them  that  he  would  set  up  a  Presby- 
terian Church  ill  England  for  three  years,  and  would  nut 
let  Sectarians  worship  in  their  own  way. 

The  Scots  marched  into  England  m  the  spring  of 
164S,  and  the  English  Royalists  rose  at  the  same  tune. 
But  this  new  war  did  not  last  many  months.  Cromwell 
gave  the  Scots  two  great  defeats  at  Preston  and  Warring- 
ton in  Lancashire  (August,  164.8).  Fairfax  put  down  the 
Royalists. 

The  soldiers  came  back  to  London  bent  on  putting 
Charles  to  death,  for  they  thought  that  he  was  a  bad, 
deceitful  man,  and  that  so  long  as  he  lived  he  would  be 
always  plotting  to  get  back  his  lost  pc\/er  and  stirring  up 
nsv.'  wars.  Kings,  they  said,  had  their  power  from  the 
people  ;  if  they  used  it  ill  the  people  could  take  it  away 
from  them,  and  punish  them  for  their  evil  deeds. 

3,  In  the  Parliament  the  Presbyterians  were  more  in 
number  than  the  Independents  and  other  friends  of  the 
army.  They  still  looked  on  Charles  as  their  pride's 
lawful  king,  whose  throne  and  life  were  sacred.  P"rg«- 
So  they  were  horrified  at  the  thought  of  putting  him  to 
death.  The  soldiers,  however,  meant  to  put  out  of  the 
House  of  Commons   those  who  would   not   do  as  the) 


46       Struggle  (igainst  Absnliitf.  MonarcJiy.   1649 

wanted,  for  they  desired  to  act  not  in  their  own  name, 
but  in  the  name  of  the  Parhament.  An  officer,  Colonel 
Pride,  set  soldiers  at  the  door  of  the  Commons  House, 
and  roughly  turned  away  more  than  a  hundred  Presby- 
terians. These  days  were  henceforth  known  as  the  days 
of  Pride's  purge.  Some  fifty-three  members  only  were 
left,  who  named  135  persons  to  form  a  high  court  of  jus- 
tice and  try  the  king  as  guilty  of  treason. 

4.  The  trial  from  first  to  last  had  only  a  form  of  justice, 
by  which  the  soldiers  hid  from  themselves  the  violence 
The  kill  's  °^  what  they  were  doing.  They  might  just  as 
trial  and  well  have    shot  Charles  without   giving  him 

any  trial,  as  have  turned  a  hundred  members 
out  of  the  House  of  Commons.  When  Charles  came 
before  the  court,  Westminster  Hall  was  thronged  with 
peeple  weeping  and  praying  for  him.  He  would  not 
speak  a  word  in  his  own  defence,  saying  truly  enough 
that  the  court  had  no  right  to  try  him  in  the  name  of  the 
people  of  England,  because  the  people  of  England  had 
not  set  it  up.  Some  of  the  friends  of  the  army  would 
sooner  have  seen  Charles  put  away  from  being  king, 
than  put  to  death.  Of  the  135  members  of  the  court, 
only  sixty-three  were  there.  Cromwell  was  one  of  them, 
but  Fairfax  stayed  away.  When  his  name  was  called, 
a  woman's  voice — it  was  his  wife's — called  out,  '  He  is 
not  here  and  never  will  be  ;  you  do  wrong  to  name  him.' 
Charles  was  beheaded  on  a  scaffold  built  in  the  open 
street,  outside  the  palace  of  Whitehall  (Jan.  1649.)  He 
met  his  death  very  calmly  and  quietly,  for  he  believed 
that  he  died  in  a  good  cause,  and  that  he  had  been  right 
even  in  practising  deceit  to  get  back  his  crown.  It  was 
just  that  practice  of  deceit,  however,  which  made  the 
soldiers  put  him  to  death.  The  people  pitied  the  fate  of 
their  king,  and  from  the  moment  of  liis  death  forgave  the 
things  that  he  had  done  which  once  had  angered  them. 


1050.  The  Coinmonivealth  47 

BOOK   V. 

1649  1660. 

THE    COMJfONWEALrH  AND    THE 
PKOTECTORA  TE. 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE   COMMONWEALTH.      (1649-1653.) 

I.  The  fifty  or  sixty  members  who  still  sat  in  the  House 
of  Commons  now  did  away  with  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  called  the  government  a  Commonwealth. 
They  had  many  enemies.  In  England,  as  lrel2nTan°d 
wcil  as  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  men  grieved  S=°''^°'l- 
that  the  king  had  been  put  to  death,  and  would  now 
have  liked  to  place  on  the  throne  his  eldest  son,  a 
second  Charles,  who  had  tied  to  the  Continent  for  safety. 
He  could  not  be  set  up  in  England  as  king,  for  the  army 
would  have  no  king.  But  in  Ireland  I'rotestants  and 
Catholics  joined  together  in  sending  for  Prince  Charles 
to  come  amongst  them.  While  he  was  still  on  his^ay, 
Cromwell  went  to  Ireland  with  an  army.  He  took  by 
storm  the  two  towns  of  Drogheda  and  Wexford,  and  slew 
all  the  fighting  men  who  were  in  them.  After  this  he  got 
the  greater  part  of  Ireland  under  his  power  and  then  came 
back  to  England  (May,  1650).  Charles  had  changed  his 
mind  when  he  heard  what  was  being  done  in  Ireland, 
and  had  gone  instead  to  Scotland,  where  the  Scots  took 
him  to  be  their  king.  Fairfax  did  not  care  to  fight 
the  Scots,  so  Cromwell  was  made  general  in  his  place. 
He  marched  into  Scotland,  and  in  the  autumn  gained 
a  great  victory  near  Dunbar  (September,  1650).  The 
next  year  Charles  marched  into  England,  leaving  Crom- 


48        Straggle  against  Abs'jLiitc  Monarchy.    1649- 

well  behind  him  in  Scotland.  He  hoped  that  the  people 
would  rise  in  arms  to  tight  for  him.  But  they  did  not 
do  so  because  they  were  weary  of  civil  war,  and  did  not 
believe  that  he  would  be  able  to  beat  Cromwell.  Mean- 
while Cromwell  followed  him  cli)se,  and  surrounded  him 
in  Worcester  by  double  his  numbers.  The  battle  raged 
on  two  sides  of  the  town  at  once.  The  Scots  fought 
bravely,  but  in  the  end  the  English  forced  their  way  into 
the  streets,  cut  down  the  Scots  by  hundreds,  and  utterly 
defeated  them  (September,  165 1).  Charles  had  to  ride 
hard  for  his  life.  He  reached  the  house  of  a  Catholic 
gentleman,  cut  off  his  long  hair,  put  on  peasant's  clothes, 
and  hid  himself  for  a  whole  day  amid  the  branches  of  a 
large  oak,  whence  he  saw  the  soldiers  pass  by  who  were 
searching  about  for  himself.  After  running  man\  risks  he 
reached  the  coast  of  Sussex,  and  found  a  vessel  which 
bore  him  in  safety  to  France. 

Standing  armies  were  now  kept  up  both  in  Ireland 
and  Scotland,  so  that  these  two  countries  had  to  submit 
in  all  things  to  the  will  of  their  conquerors. 

2.  The  officers  of  the  army  and  the  members  of  the 
Commons  both  wished  to  set  up  a  just  and  good  govern- 
Tlie  officers  ment,in  which  the  people  should  share  by  elect- 
^'^l  'J?L=  in?  members  of  Parliament  at  stated  times, 
disagree.  But  they  could  not  agree  what  was  the  right 
thing  to  be  done.  The  Commons  said  that  they  must  go 
on  ruling  until  the  people  had  got  to  be  wiser  than  to  wish 
for  a  Stuart  king.  Cromwell  and  his  fellow- officers  said 
that  this  House  ought  to  dissolve  itself,  and  make  way  for 
an  entirely  new  assembly.  They  thought  that  it  had  sat 
too  long  already,  and  had  too  much  power  in  its  hands. 
The  members  ruled  free  of  all  control,  for  there  was  none 
who  had  a  right  to  call  them  to  answer  for  what  they  did; 
and  though  many  of  them  acted  honourably  and  justly, 
yet  the   House  as  a  body  did  not   use   its  powtrs  well. 


1653-  Barebonc's  Parliament.  49 

Heavy  taxes  were  raised  and  the  money  was  wasted,  and 
many  harsh  and  unjust  acts  were  done. 

3.  As  the  Commons  would  not  dissolve  themselves, 
Cromwell  took  a  guard  of  soldiers  and  went  to  Parlia- 
ment House  one  day  in  A.pril,  1653.  He  left  the  soldiers 
outside,  but  came  himself  into  '.lie  House.  At  first  he 
praised  the  members,  but  as  he  spoke  he  got  ^-j^^  Lon 
angry  and  e.vcited,  and  soon  began  charging  Parliament 
them   with  injustice,    s«lf-seeking,  and    other 

faults.  The  members  angrily  interrupted  him.  '  The 
Lord  hath  done  with  you,'  he  cried ;  '  1  tell  you,  you  are 
no  Parliament,  you  must  give  place  to  better  men.'  Then 
he  called  in  the  soldiers  to  turn  the  members  out  by  force, 
if  they  would  not  go  of  themselves.  '  What  shall  we  do 
with  this  bauble  ?  '  he  said,  taking  up  the  mace  which  lay 
on  the  table  of  the  House  of  Commons;  and  then  handing 
it  to  a  soldier  said,  '  Take  it  away.'  After  this  the  mem- 
bers left  the  House,  reproaching  Cromwell  as  they  went. 

4.  The  same  year  Cromwell  and  the  officers  called  to- 
gether an  assembly  of  165  persons,  which  was  nicknamed 
Barebone's  Parliament,  from  the  name  of  one  Barebone's 
of  the  members,  Praise  God  Barebone,  a  Parliament, 
leather-seller  in  Fleet  .Street.  Most  of  the  members  were 
Sectarians.  They  wanted,  as  did  many  of  the  soldiers, 
to  make  changes  in  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  country. 
Their  fault  was  that  they  tried  to  do  more  than  then 
could  be  done,  and  to  destroy  rather  than  to  mend. 
Some  of  the  members  themselves  were  against  the 
changes  which  their  companions  were  making,  and  after 
a  short  time  the  House  gave  back  its  powers  into  the 
hands  of  Cromwell  (December,  1653). 


if.  y.  E 


Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1653- 
CHAPTER    II. 

THE   PROTECTORATE.      (1653-1658.) 

r.  Independents,  officers,  and  other  late  friends  of  the 
Commonwealth,  now  agreed  in  thinking  that  the  only 
Oomwell  '^^'^y  to  set  up  a  good  and  settled  government 
Protector.  ^^,,^g  j-^  ^lake  Cromwellruler.  So,  in  December, 
1653,  Cromwell,  already  general  of  the  army,  became 
head  of  the  State  also,  wi;h  the  title  of  Protector.  He 
agieed  to  keep  the  laws  and  to  call  Parliaments  regu- 
larly. 

2.  Cromwell  was  of  middle  height,  his  features  were 
rough,  and  his  skin  tanned   brown  by  wind  and  weather. 

C-omweir  ^^  ^^"^^  ^  '^'^"  °*^  strong  feelings,  very  loving 
rharacter  to  h's  wife  and  children,  easily  made  angry  at 
the  sight  of  wrong  or  injustice,  believing  all 
that  he  believed  down  to  the  very  bottom  of  his  soul. 
He  seemed  by  nature  born  to  rule.  He  knew  how  to 
make  himself  obeyed  and  feared  ;  he  knew  also  how  to 
win  men's  trust  and  love.  He  was  not  easily  deceived 
for  he  quickly  read  the  minds  of  others.  Though  eager 
to  set  right  what  he  thought  to  be  amiss,  he  was  never 
carried  away  by  his  zeal,  for  he  saw  that  changes  could 
not  last  unless  the  people  themselves  wished  for  them. 
As  a  ruler,  Cromwell  set  before  him  two  chief  aims  ;  the 
one  was  to  guard  for  Sectarians  the  right  to  worship  in 
their  own  way  and  teach  their  own  beliefs  ;  the  other  was 
to  set  up  a  good  and  free  government  which  should  win 
the  good-will  of  all  men,  even  if  possible  of  Royalists. 

The  Protector  had  not  many  friends.  Not  only  were 
the  old  Royalists,  and  the  new  Royalists,  the  Presby- 
terians, against  him,  but  he  found  enemies  amongst 
men  who  were  on  the  same  side  as  himself.     Thus  there 


I 
I 


1655.  The  Protectorate.  5 1 

were  members  of  the  Long  Parliament  wno  rould  not 
forgive  iiini  for  hiving  turned  them  out,  but  looked  on 
him  as  a  barl  man  who  sous^ht  power  for  Jiimself. 

3.  When  Cromwell  met  his  first  Parliament,  there  was 
only  one  House,  a  House  of  Commons.  He  and  it  could 
not  agree  together,  and  he  dissolved   it  with- 

out  Its  making  a  single  law  or  giving  hun  any  iirst  Parlia- 
money  (January,  1655).  '"''"'• 

4.  After  this  Cromwell   paid  no  heed  to  the  laws,  but 
took  taxes  of  his  own  will,  and  set  officers  of  the  army  to 
keep  order   in  place  of  the  ordinary  magis-     Cromweil 
trates.     And,  as  there  were  many  plots  and     '■"''^?  ^^V^" 

'  •'    ^  out  heed  to 

conspiracies  against  bodi  his  life^and  govern-     law. 
ment,  he  often  put  persons  in  prison  without  giving  any 
reason.     Indeed  the  Petition  of  Right  was  broken  every 
day. 

5.  But  this  was  not  the  way  in  which  Cromwell  wished 
to  rule.    The  desire  of  his  heart  was  to  set  up  a  free  govern- 
ment, in  which  the  people  should  take  part.    So     cronivirell's 
he  called  a  second  Parliament  in  December,     secon  1  Par- 

1656.  To  make  sure  that  it  should  agree  with  '^'"^"  ' 
him,  he  turned  out  of  the  House  a  hundred  members,  who 
were  his  enemies.  Then  the  Parliament  voted  taxes  and 
made  laws.  It  even  wished  to  give  the  Protector  the  title 
of  king.  Left  to  himself  Cromwell  might  have  taken  it, 
for  he  thought  the  people  would  sooner  have  a  king,  as  in 
old  times,  than  a  protector  to  reign  over  them.  But  the 
officers  and  soldiers  would  not  hear  of  his  domg  so.  They 
had  they  said  fought  against  one  king,  and  they  would 
not  have  another.  Cromwell  told  them  that  the  title  was 
a  mere  feather  in  a  man's  hat,  and  that  there  was  no 
good  reason  for  their  objections  ;  but  he  had  to  refuse 
the  title  of  King,  for  he  dared  not  anger  his  soldiers.. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  this  Parliament,  in  1658, 
Cromwell   let    the    hundred    members   who  were   before 

B  3 


52       Struggle  against  Absolute  M'marchy.    1653- 

shat  out  take  their  seats.  Then  he  and  the  ParUament 
disagreed,  and  he  dissolved  it  before  it  had  sat  three 
weeks. 

6.  Cromwell  could  not  get  the  nation  to  support  him 
in  his  place.  Still  as  a  ruler  he  was  very  successful.  His 
Successor  hand  and  eye  were  everywhere.  He  crushed 
Cromwell's      plots,  and    kept   good   order  throughout   the 

govern-  r  ;  r       o 

ment.  land.     He  picked  out  able^  men  for  his  com- 

manders, judges,  and  other  officers.  He  planned  wise 
measures  for  putting  right  what  was  wrong  in  the  law 
and  in  the  Church,  also  for  setting  forward  education, 
and  increasing  trade.  Amongst  other  things,  he  called 
to  sit  in  each  of  his  R^irliaments  members  from  Ireland 
and  Scotland,  so  that  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland 
were  all  brought  together  under  one  rule  as  they  are  to- 
day. The  Protector's  rule  besides  being  wise  was  also 
just,  and  in  the  main  merciful  ;  for,  though  his  temper 
was  hasty,  Cromwell  was  also  generous  and  forgiving. 
His  wish  always   was.  to  win  his   enemies   over   to  his 

side. 

7.  The  Puritans,  who  had  now  been  ruling  in  England 
for  some  twelve  years,  had  made  use  of  power  to  try  and 
Chan  es  '^^^'^^  ^'^^'^^  people  to  live  the  same  serious, 
madeby^he  quiet  life  they  liked  to  live  themselves.  The 
Puritans.  \^QXig  Parliament  had  shut  up  the  theatres, 
and  ordered  actors  to  be  whipped.  Laws  had  been  made 
punishing  the  country  folk  who  held  wrestling  matches 
on  their  village  green,  or  raised  May-poles  and  danced 
round  them,  as  had  been  the  fashion  of  their  fathers  for 
centuries.  No  kind  of  game  might  be  played  on  Sunday. 
Even  Christmas-day  was  changed  from  a  feast  into  a 
solemn  fast.     Gamblers,  swearers,  and   drunkards  were 

fined  heavily. 

The  Puritans  had  made  great  changes,  too.  in  the  go- 
vernment and  services  of  the  Church.  The  office  cf  bishop 


i6s8.  Rule  of  the  Piiriians.  53 

h:id  been  done  away  with.  The  use  of  the  common 
prayer-book  had  been  made  a  crime.  Ministers  who  were 
against  those  changes  had  been  forced  to  leave  ihcir 
Hving-.  Their  places  had  been  taken  by  Presbyterians 
and  Independents,  who  carried  on  the  services  in  a  plain 
and  simple  manner.  Though  a  true  idea  of  letting  others 
think  and  act  for  themselves  had  sprung  up  amongst 
Puritans,  it  was  only  partly  carried  out.  Ouakers  and 
other  Sectarians  might  set  up  meeting-houses  of  their 
own,  but  neither  Episcopalians  nor  Catholics  were  free 
to  worship  as  ihcy  pleased.  Cromwell,  while  he  was 
protector,  let  Episcopalians  and  Catholics  hold  services 
of  their  own  in  private,  but  few  of  his  party  were  willing 
to  do  so. 

8.  Thus  we  see  that  the  Puritans,  like  Laud,  could 
not  leave  others  to  do  what  they  thought  best  for  them- 
selves. Hence  they  too  were  now  much  dis-  The  Puri- 
liked  by  the  people.  Hundreds,  who  had  tansdisliked 
iisliked  the  rhanges  made  by  Laud,  disliked  quite  .js 
much  the  changes  made  by  them.  Young  folks,  who  had 
grown  up  since  the  war  began,  did  not  see  why  they 
should  not  choose  their  own  kind  of  life.  The  petiple 
generally  were  wishing  for  the  old  form  of  Church  service 
back  again. 

9.  Still,  whatever  were  the  faults  of  the  Puritans,  they 
had  done  really  good  work.  They  had  hated  vice,  and 
called  on  all   men  to  do  their  duty,  and  had 

.    •  i  ..       •     T  .1       •        .1  J  /■/-    •  lolin  Milton 

striven  to  act  rightly  m  the  every-day  affans  " 
of  life.  And  if  we  would  think  of  a  Puritan  such  as  he 
was  at  his  best,  we  may  think  of  John  Milton.  Milton 
was  the  poet  of  the  Puritans.  He  was  born  in  i6o8,  just 
eight  years  before  Shakespeare  died.  From  his  earliest 
childhood  he  was  a  lover  of  learning,  and  he  was  a  lover 
also  of  all  that  was  beautiful  in  nature  and  in  art,  but 
most  of  all  he  loved  truth  and  purity.     He  thought  that 


a 


54       Struggle  against  Absolute  MonarcJiy.    1649- 

the  most  beautiful  thing  there  was  was  a  human  soul  kept 
free  from  sin,  and  that  the  greatest  victory  a  man  could 
gain  was  a  victory  over  his  own  evil  desires.  When  the 
civil  war  broke  out  Milton  took  part  with  the  Long  Par- 
liament against  the  king.  Then  instead  of  poetry  he 
wrote  books  in  prose,  in  which  he  treated  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  and  other  questions  of  that  time. 
He  found  great  fault  with  ihe  bishops  and  with  the  Pres- 
byterians because  they  would  have  men  do  as  they  did, 
and  think  as  they  thought.  He  also  called  on  the  Parlia- 
ment to  let  men  write  and  publish  what  they  pleased. 
Tlie  Parliament,  he  said,  ought  not  to  fear  because  men 
thought  new  thoughts  and  held  new  beliefs,  for  this  did 
but  show  that  England,  '  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep,' 
was  rousing  herself  to  do  great  deeds.  After  Cromwell's 
death,  when  a  Stuart  was  on  the  throne,  Milton  could  no 
more  write  on  questions  which  had  to  do  witli  the  govern- 
ment of  Church  or  State.  Then  he  again  wrote  poems. 
But  his  later  poems  are  graver  in  spirit  than  his  earlier 
ones,  for  the  times  he  had  lived  through  had  inade  him  a 
graver  man,  and  he  wrote  while  h.is  friends  were  dying 
on  the  scaffold,  and  the  work  which  they  had  done  was 
being  undone. 


CHAPTER    III. 
WAR   AND    COMMERCE 


I.  During  the  tirst  ten  years  of  the  reign  of  James  I-., 
English  merchants  made  use  of  the  new  route  by  the 
N  ith  Cape  of  Good  Hope   to  trade  with   India  and 

American        the  East   India  islands.      It  was  also  during 
the  reign  of  James  I.  that  colonies  were  tirst 
planted  on  the  coast  of  North  America.     The  New  Eng- 
land States  were  colonised  bv  Puritans.    The  hrst  comers 


i66o. 


War  and  Commerce. 


53 


were  a  little  band  of  persecuted  Sectarians,  who  saiied  in 
the  '  May  Flower  '  to  the  coast  t.f  what  is  now  Massa- 
chusetts. They  there  founded  a  town  which  they 
called  Plymouth,  after  the  name  of  t!  e  last  EngHsh  port 
at  which  they  touched  (1620).  After  these  '  Pilgrim 
Fathers  '  had  cleared  the  way,  there  soon  came  to  New 
England  a  stream  of  Puritan  emigrants.  Between  the 
years  1629  and  1640,  while  Charles  was  ruling  without 
Parliaments,  20,000  Englishmen  sought  new  homes  in 
the  West. 


[  PVRITAN 
\SKTTr.K.Ml!Xrs 


^^^t:w  KSCj.AXii. 


'MassachtJictU  Bay 


^r^' 


•:-;.o 


ntaukPl 


2.  The  Dutch,  who  were  a  nation  of  seamen  and 
tr.iders,  grew  jealous  at  the  spread  of  English  commerce, 
which  took  place  after  the  founding  of  these  War  wUh 
colonies  and  the  opening  of  the  trade  with  Holland. 
India.  Soon  after  the  king's  deatii  a  war  broke  out 
between  England  and  Holland,  which  lasted  two  years 
(1652-1653).  In  the  end  the  Dutch  were  beaten.  Crom- 
AcU,  as  soon  as  he  became  protector,  made  peace  with 
then!. 


56       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1651- 

3.  Foreign  princes  would  n^it  at  first  lool-c  on  the  men 
who  put  their  king  to  death  as  lawtul  rulers.  Ikit  after  the 
„  „         Dutch   were  beaten,  thev  began  to  dread  the 

Cromwell  '  '  '^ 

and  foreign  power  of  the  English  navy,  and  eagerly  sought 
princes.  ^^^  friendship  of  England.     When  Cromwell 

was  protector,  he  was  much  feared,  for  he  had  a  large 
fleet,  and  a  standing  army,  and  had  given  proof  of  his 
wisdom  and  valour.  In  all  his  dealings  with  foreign 
princes  Croniwell  set  before  him  the  aim  of  doing  all  he 
could  for  the  good  of  Protestants,  and  sometimes  he  was 
able  to  do  a  great  dtal.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  tried  by 
means  of  a  cruel  persecution  to  force  the  Vaudois,  his 
Protestant  subjects  living  in  the  Alpine  valleys,  to  become 
Catholics.  Lewis  XIV.,  the  king  of  France,  wanted  to 
make  an  alliance  with  England,  but  Cromwell  would  sign 
no  treaty  unless  Lewis  tirst  got  the  duke  to  stop  the 
persecution.  So  the  duke  had  to  give  way  and  let  his 
subjects  worship  God  as  they  chose  (1655). 

4.  France  and  Spain  were  ri\al  powers  and  often  at 
war  with  one  another.  Cromwell  took  the  side  of  France 
War  with  against  Spain.  For  when  he  Avanted  the  king 
Spam.  Qf  Spain  to  give  Englishmen  leave  to  trade  to 
the  West  Indies  and  use  their  Bibles  in  his  dominions, 
the  Spanish  ambassador  said,  that  to  ask  these  things 
'  was  to  ask  his  master's  two  eyes.'  In  the  war  which 
followed,  the  island  of  Jamaica  was  taken  from  Spain 
and  turned  into  an  English  colony  (1655).  In  1657 
Cromwell  sent  6,000  troops  to  help  Lewis  XIV.  in  making 
war  in  the  Netherlands  against  the  king  of  Spain.  In 
return  Lewis  besieged  Dunkirk,  which  was  held  by  a 
Spanish  gatrison,  and  when  the  town  surrendered  made 
it  over  to  England  (165S). 

5.  Though  most  men  would  still  ha\-e  liked  to  set 
Prince  Charles  on  the  throne,  yet  they  were  content  to 
submit  to  the  Protector,  because  they  found  that  he  ruled 


i66o.  Charles  exiled  to  England.  57 

well  at  home,  and  got  for  their  country  a  great  name 
abroad.  But  it  was  now  that  Cromwell's  rule  was  brought 
to  an  end  by  death.  Soon  after  Dunkirk  was  Beat!-  of 
made  over  by  Lewis,  Cromwell's  health  broke  ^^''^er-  ^ 
down.  On  his  death-bed  his  thoughts  ran  on  what  would 
be  the  future  of  England  after  he  was  gone.  '  1  would 
be  willing,' he  said, 'to  live  to  be  further  serviceable  to 
God  and  His  people,  but  my  work  is  done.  But  God 
will  be  with  His  people.'  He  died  in  September,  1658, 
at  the  age  of  59. 

6.  Richard  Cromwell,  Oliver's  eldest  son,  became  pro- 
tector on  his  father's  death.      He  was   a  good-natured 
young  man,  who  meant  well,  but  did  not  know      ,,.  ,     , 
how  to  make  himself  obeyed.     The   officers     Cromwdi 
did  not  care  for  him  because  he  was  no  soldier,       '■°'^'^"^'' 
After  a  few  months  they  took  power  into  their  own  hands, 
and  called  together  those  members   of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment  who  had  put  the  king  to  death,  and  whom  Oliver 
had  turned  out  in  1653.     The  people  in  scorn  nicknamed 
them  the  Rump.     The  members  of  the  Rump  soon  quar- 
relled with  the  officers,  and  for  a  time  the  country  seemed 
to  be  without  any  proper  government  at  all. 

7.  When  the  people   saw  all   these   changes   taking 
place,  and  the  soldiers  doing  as  they  would,  pulling  down 
one  government  and   setting  up  another,  they     q\^^^\^^ 
became   more    eager    than    before    to    have     called  io 
Charles  Stuart  to  reign  over  them.     And,  as     '^"e'='"'^- 

it  happened.  General  Monk,  who  cominanded  the  army 
in  Scotland,  was  willing  to  carry  out  their  wishes,  for  he 
saw  that  there  was  no  one  who  could  rule  as  Oliver  had 
ruled,  and  that  it  was  not  well  for  the  soldiers  to  be 
masters  in  England.  Monk  marched  from  Scotland 
at  the  head  of  such  troops  as  bethought  he  could  trust. 
When  he  got  to  London  he  sent  unto  the  Ht)use  of 
Commons,  to  take  their  seats  bv  the  side  of  the  members 


5S       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1660- 

of  the  Rump,  lliose  Presbyterians  whom  Colonel  Pride 
had  turned  out  in  December  1648.  These  dissolved  the 
Parliament,  thus  at  last  bringing  it  to  an  end  by  its  own 
act-(Marcli,  1660).  A  new  Parliament  met,  which  asked 
Charles  Stuart  to  come  to  England.  The  soldiers  had 
no  leader  in  whom  they  could  trust,  so  they  submitted 
sullenly  to  see  Charles  brought  back.  '  It  is  my  own 
fault,'  said  the  new  king,  '  that  I  have  not  come  back 
sooner,  for  1  find  nobody  who  does  not  tell  me  he  has 
always  wished  for  my  return'  (May,  1660). 


BOOK   VI. 

1660-1685. 

THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLES   11. 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE   RESTORATION.      (1660-1667.) 

I.  Old  Royalists,  Presbyterians,  as  well  as  many  of 
Oliver's  supporters,  had  all  joined  together  in  making 
The  oldi  rs  Charles  II.  king.  Only  the  soldiers,  the 
sent  to  their  members  of  the  Rump,  and  a  few  other  men 
had  stood  aloof  These  were  not  very  many 
in  number.  The  soldiers,  however,  were  dangerous  be- 
cause they  had  arms  in  their  hands  and  knew  how  to 
fight.  So  the  Parliament  voted  a  grant  of  money,  and 
the  whole  army,  excepting  three  regiments,  was  at  once 
paid  off  and  the  soldiers  were  sent  to  their  homes.  Men 
who  had  taken  any  pari  in  the  trial  and  execution  of 
Charles  I.  were  imprisoned  for  life  or  put  to  death. 

2.  While  the  Puritans  ruled,  a  sober  and  quiet  manner 


i66;.  TJic  Cavalier  Parliavicnt.  59 

of  life  had  been  the  fashion.      Wlien  Charles  came  back 
a  ga>    end   careless    life   came   into   fashion,     change  in 
This  was  especially  the  case  in  London.    The     manners, 
new  king,  who  was  fond  of  pleasure,  led  openly  a  bad  life, 
and  his  ministers  and  courtiers  followed  his  example. 

3.  Other  changes,  too,  took  place  after  the  return  of 
Charles.  Only  those  laws  to  which  Charles  I.  had  given 
his  consent  were  any  longer  held  to  be  bind-  , 
ing.  So  all  the  laws  made  by  the  Loi.g  Parlia-  .^galll^t 
uient  by  itself,  or  by  Cromwell  and  his  Parlia- 
ments, came  to  an  end.  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland 
again  had  their  separate  Parliaments  ;  the  bishops  were 
again  the  governors  of  the  Church,  and  it  was  again  a 
crime  to  be  present  at  any  service  where  the  common 
prayer-book  was  not  used.  In  the  Parliament  which 
called  Charles  to  England  many  l'resb)terians  had 
seats.  Charles  soon  dissolved  this  Parliament  and  called 
a  second.  It  met  in  1661,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  was  not 
dissolved  for  many  years.  It  is  called  the  Cavalier  Parlia- 
ment, because  nearly  all  the  members  belonged  to  families 
who  had  from  the  Hrst  breaking  out  cf  the  civil  war  taken 
the  side  of  the  king.  All  Puritans  were  hateful  to  them 
as  the  destroyers  of  their  Church.  So  now  they  passed 
harsh  laws  to  keep  down  the  Puritans,  and  prevent  them 
from  ever  again  getting  power  into  their  hands.  Ihey 
shut  Puritans  out  from  holding  offices  in  towns  ;  they 
fined,  put  in  prison,  and  even  transported  those  who  met 
to  worship  together  in  their  own  way.  Ministers  who 
would  not  give  '  their  assent  and  consent'  to  everything 
that  was  in  the  prayer-book,  lost  their  livings,  nor  might 
they  keep  schools,  or  live  in  towns  sending  members 
to  Parliament,  unless  they  would  say  it  was  unlawful  to 
act  like  the  Long  Parliament  and  take  up  arms  against 
a  king. 

Though  a  dark  day  had  come  for  the  Puritans,  their 


6o       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1660- 

enemies  could  not  undo  ail  that  they  had  done.  Their 
teaching,  their  ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  were  still 
cherished  even  by  many  who  were  content  with  the  ser- 
vices of  the  established  Church.  Of  all  the  writers  of 
the  Restoration,  two  Puritans  have  had  the  largest  num- 
ber of  readers.  It  was  during  these  years  of  persecution 
that  John  Bunyan,  a  Sectarian  in  prison  in  Bedford  Gaol, 
wrote  the 'Pilgrim's  Progress';  and  that  Milton,  now  blind 
and  old,  wrote  his  great  poems  of  *  Paradise  Lost '  and 
'  Paradise  Regained.' 

4.  From  this  time  Puritans  had  to  give  up  all  hope  of 
making  the  Church  of  England  their  Church,  as  they 
t,    •.  had   done    under  the    Long  Parliament  and 

Puritans  *=• 

r:ilied  Dis-  Oliver  So  now  Presbyterians  as  well  as  Sec- 
tarians asked  for  liberty  to  go  their  own  way, 
and  leave  the  established  Church  alone.  Henceforth, 
therefore,  they  were  no  longer  called  Puritans  but  iJis- 
senters,  because  they  wished  to  dissent  from  the  worship 
of  the  established  Church,  and  have  chapels  of  their 
own.  Though  the  Dissenters  now  were  persecuted,  we 
shall  see  in  the  end  how  they  got  what  they  asked  for. 

5.  Government  by  a  king  and  Parliament  seemed  to 
the  members  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament  the  best  form  of 
Views  of  government  possible.  All  the  changes  and 
the  Parlia-       sufferings  which  the  country  had  gone  through 

since  1641  they  laid  to  the  score  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  which  had  taken  up  arms  against  Charles  L 
But  though  the  members  were  very  fond  of  their  king, 
they  thought  a  great  deal  of  themselves  besides,  and 
meant  that  Parliaments  should  have  just  as  much  power 
as  they  ever  had  before.  So  they  were  not  willing  to  let 
Charles  have  a  large  standing  army  like  Oliver,  nor  did 
they  give  him  money  enough  of  his  own  to  set  him  free 
from  the  need  of  asking  Parliament  for  more. 

6.  We  must  see  what  Charles  was  like,  and  what  were 


i667. 


Charles  II.  6 1 


the  aims  whu  h  lie   set  before  him.     Charles  was  thirty 
years  old  when   he  came  to  the  throne.     He     character 
liked  to  take  life  easily,  and  to  enjoy  himself,     and  aimsof 

.  ,  .  Cliarlts  II. 

He  was  a  clever  and  witty  talker  ;  his  man- 
ners were  pleasant,  and  he  was  always  liked  by  the 
people  in  London,  who  were  glad  to  see  him  sauntering  in 
St.  James'  Park,  feeding  the  ducks  and  playing  with  his 
spaniels.  Charles  was,  however,  a  thorouglily  selfish  man. 
He  did  not  care  what  means  he  took  to  gain  his  ends. 
He  often  deceived  his  ministers  as  to  what  he  really 
meant  to  do,  for  he  was  a  clever  deceiver.  He  thought 
that  everyone  was  either  a  dupe  or  a  hypocrite. 

Charles  could  not  hope  to  rule  without  Parliaments. 
Still  he  wished  to  be  free  of  the  control  of  Parliament 
and  to  be  able  to  spend  money,  and  have  his  own  way, 
without  being  called  to  answer  for  what  he  did  by  the 
Commons.  He  wished  also  to  have  a  standing  army 
hke  his  cousin,  Lewis  XIV.,  the  king  of  France. 

About  religion  Charles  cared  little,  but,  in  his  heart, 
he  seems  to  have  thought  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
form  of  religion  was  the  best.  If  he  could  get  tolera- 
tion for  Catholics  by  giving  toleration  to  Dissenters  also 
he  was  willing  to  do  so.  Still  Charles  IL  was  not  a  man 
who  runs  into  danger.  Plenty  of  money,  toleration  for 
Catholics,  a  standing  army-  these  were  the  three  things 
which  he  thought  most  worth  getting,  but  he  would  not 
risk  his  crown  for  them  or  for  anything  else.  As  he  was 
once  heard  to  say,  he  did  not  mean  to  go  on  his  travels 
again.  It  was  always  well  to  give  way  and  wait  until  the 
right  time  came. 

7.   In  the  course  of  a  very  few  years  the  Parliament 
began    to    go    against    the    king.       In    1664     War  with 
Charles  went  to  war  with  the  Dutch.     At  first     'he  Dutch, 
\he  English  gained  the  advantage,  but  after-     '  °''''    ^' 
wards  they  were   less   successful.      This  displeased  the 


^2       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    1660- 

Commons,  who  had  voted  large  sums  for  carrying  on  the 
war.  They  thought,  and  thought  truly,  that  the  king  spent 
the  money  on  his  own  amusements  at  Whitehall,  instead 
of  fitting  out  ships  and  paying  his  soldiers  and  sailors  ; 
so  they  made  Charles  let  them  look  through  his  account 
books  to  see  how  the  money  which  they  gave  him  was 
spent.  In  1667,  while  Charlas'  fleet  was  laid  up  for  want 
of  repairs,  the  Dutch  sailed  up  the  Medway  as  far  as 
Chatham  and  burned  three  English  menof-war.  After 
this,  peace  had  to  be  made  with  the  Dutch  upon  their 
own  terms. 

8.  While  the  Dutch  war  lasted,  two  great  calamities 
befell  London.  Owing  to  the  neglected  state  of  the  streets, 
The  Pla  e  ^''^^  ^^  dirty  habits  of  the  people,  towns  and 
and  the  villages  were  often  visited  wi!h  plagues.   None, 

however,  within  man's  memory  was  so  fatal 
to  life  as  the  Great  Plague  of  1665.  It  was  reckoned  that 
one  out'  of  every  ten  of  the  inhabitants  of  London  died. 
The  Great  Plague  was  followed  by  a  great  fire.  For  three 
days  and  three  nights  the  flames  burned  on  without 
stopping,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  two-thirds  of  London 
was  in  ashes.  The  old  houses  had  been  of  timber  ;  the 
new  houses  were  built  of  brick.  The  present  domed 
church  of  St.  Paul  was  built  on  the  site  of  the  old 
cathedral,  which  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  part  where 
the  fire  raged  (1666). 

9.  Heavy  taxes,  the  Dutch  war,  the  plague  and  the 
fire  all  came  together,  bringing  much  distress  after  them, 
f  „   r  The  king's  chief  minister  had  to  answer.    This 

Fall  of  o 

Clarendon.  was  the  Lord  Chancellor,  Edward  Hyde,  Earl 
of  Clarendon.  In  his  youth  Hyde  had  sat  in  the  Long 
Parliament,  and  had  taken  part  in  the  impeachment  of 
Strafford.  He  had  afterwards  become  a  Royalist,  and  was 
with  Charles  II.  in  his  exile.  He  was  now  much  disliked, 
both  because  he  had  got  Charles  to  sell  Dunkirk  to  Lewis 


1667.  TJie  Treaty  of  Dover.  63 

XIV.,  and  because  he  had  gone  against  the  enquiry  made 
by  the  Commons  into  the  king's  accounts.  Charles  him- 
self was  tired  of  his  minister;  for  though  Clarendon  did 
not  wish  that  the  king  should  have  to  give  way  to  the 
wishes  of  the  Commons,  his  notions  were  too  old-fashioned 
to  let  him  like  the  thought  of  keeping  up  a  standing  army, 
or  of  letting  Catholics  or  Dissenters  worship  as  they 
chose.  Being  impeached  by  the  Commons  of  high  treason 
(1667),  he  fled  to  France,  where  he  soon  afterwards  died. 


CHAPTPZR  II. 

OPPOSITION    BETWEEN    KING   AND    PARLIAMENT. 
(1668-1678.) 

I.  To  understand  what  took  place  in  England,  we  must 
see  what  was  passing  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel. 
A   hundred   years   ago   Spain   had   been    the     The  Triple 
most  powerful  country  on  the  Continent.    But     'V''->"'(;e  aiH 

■^  .  ^  I  reaty  of 

since  that  time  France  had  risen  to  hold  the  l>over. 
place  once  held  by  Spain.  Lewis  XIV.  was  very  power- 
ful and  very  ambitious.  He  wanted  to  conquer  the 
Netherlands,  which  belonged  to  Spain,  as  well  as  other 
territories  bordering  France  on  the  east  and  north-east, 
and  thus  to  make  his  kingdom  reach  to  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine.  iMen  in  England  greatly  feared  the  power  of 
Lewis.  They  were  therefore  glad  when  in  1668  Cliarles 
made  an  alliance,  called  the  Triple  Alliance,  between 
England,  Holland,  and  Swi  den,  to  force  Lewis  to  make 
peace  witli  Spain.  Charles,  however,  did  not  really  care, 
ab  ut  standing  against  Lewis  nearly  so  much  as  about 
having  plenty  of  money,  and  being  free  of  the  control  of 
Parliament.  Lewis  soon  found  this  out,  and  he  and 
Charles  made  an  agreement  together.     Lewis  agreed  to 


64       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.    i66i^ 

give  Charles  money,  and  Charles  agreed  to  join  Lewis  in 
making  war  on  Holland  by  land  and  sea,  and  to  declare 
himself  a  Catholic.  This  treaty,  which  was  made  at 
Dover,  was  of  course  kept  secret ;  only  two  of  the  king's 
ministers,  who  themselves  were  Catholics,  knew  of  it 
(1670). 

2.  Charles  never  dared  call  himself  a  Catholic.  Still 
he  thought  he  might  do  something  for  Catholics.  So  he 
^    ,      .        published  what  was  called  a  Declaration  of 

Declaration       ,      ,    ,  .  ,  ,        1       ^      ,      ,■  , 

of  Indul-  Inciul:ence,  saymg  that  both  Catholics  and 
gence.  Disscntcrs  might  worship  in  their  own  way. 

People  at  once  asked  what  right  the  king  had  to  set  aside 
or  suspend  all  the  Acts  of  Parliament  which  forbade 
Dissenters  and  Catholics  to  worship  in  their  own  way. 
The  next  time  Parliament  met,  the  Commons  called  the 
Declaration  unlawful,  and  would  not  give  Charles  any 
money  until  he  withdrew  it  (1673). 

3.  At  the  same  time  that  Charles  published  the  Declar- 
ation of  Indulgence  he  went  to  war  with  Holland  (1672). 
The  Tesf  Though  the  secret  treaty  was  not  known  of, 
Act.  everybody  thought  that  some  league  had  been 
made  between  Charles,  Lewis,  and  the  Catholics  to  let 
Charles  rule  by  means  of  a  standing  army,  and  crverthrow 
the  Protestant  religion.  Charles  was  getting  together  an 
army  to  invade  Holland.  It  was  said  that  the  officers 
were  all  Catholics.  The  Commons  wished  to  drive  them 
out  of  office.  So  they  got  Charles  to  give  his  consent  to 
a  law,  which  said  that  all  persons  holding  office  in  the 
state  were  to  take  'he  sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  swear  that  they  did  not  be- 
lieve the  Romish  doctrine  of  the  presence  of  our  Lord's 
body  and  blood  in  the  bread  and  wine  (1673^  This  new 
law  went  by  the  name  of  the  Test  .Act,  for  it  tested  who 
were  Catholics.  James,  the  Duke  of  York,  the  king's 
brother,  was  a  Catholic.    So  he  had  to  give  up  his  post  of 


i 


i()74-  Opposition  in   Parliament.  65 

Lord  Admiral.  Many  other  o'ticers  had  to  give  up  their 
posts.  When  it  was  seen  how  many  Catholics  had  been 
in  office  Protestants  became  more  frightened  than  before. 
The  Commons  would  no  longer  give  money  for  making 
war  on  the  Dutch,  a  Protestant  people,  manfully  fighting 
Lewis  in  spite  of  great  odds.  So  to  content  them  Charles 
had  to  make  peace  with  Holland,  and  turn  two  of  his 
ministers  out  of  office  (1674). 

4.  The  king's  attempt  to  give  Catholics  liberty  of 
worship  had  failed,  and  had  only  made  Protestants  dislike 
and  fear  them  more  than  before.  For  men  o.iposition 
thought  that  Charles  was  a  Catholic,  and  that  •"  ParUa- 
his  aim  was  to  govern  by  the  aid  of  Catholics 
without  heeding  the  wishes  of  Parliament.  The  more 
eager,  therefore,  he  showed  himself  to  do  something  for 
Catholics,  the  more  eager  the  Parliament  became  to  keep 
the  laws  in  force.  On  the  other  hand,  IJissenters  were 
not  feared  so  much  as  they  had  been  fourteen  years  agi>. 
it  was  seen  that  Charles  was  trying  to  get  their  aid  against 
the  Parliament  by  setting  aside  the  laws  ag.iinst  them. 
Many  Churchmen,  therefore,  had  come  round  to  think 
that  it  would  be  well  for  Protestants  to  overlook  differ- 
ences between  themselves  and  stand  together  as  friends, 
for  the  sake  of  the  Protestant  faith  and  the  power  of 
Parliament.  Even  in  the  Cavalier  Parliament  the  Dis- 
senters found  fiiends,  willing  to  pass  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment in  their  favour.  There  were  also  other  signs  of 
change.  People  were  so  afraid  of  what  Charles  might 
do,  that  they  again  began  to  say  that  it  was  lawful  to  take 
up  arms  in  defence  of  the  Protestant  religion,  of  laws 
and  liberties.  So  the  Cavalier  Parliament  split  into  two 
parties.  I  he  larger  party  still  held  that  it  was  unlawful 
to  take  up  arms  against  a  king;  but  the  smaller  parly, 
which  was  also  friendly  to  the  Dissenters,  held  that  it 
was  lawful  to  go  against  a  kmg,  if  he  used  his  power  lu. 
E.  H.  K 


66       St7-uggle  against  Absolute  MoTiarchy.    1675- 

The  leader  of  this  smaller  party  was  Antony  Ashley 
Cooper.  He  was  a  little  man,  of  a  restless  spirit,  very 
clever,  very  ambitious,  and,  like  other  statesmen  of  his 
time,  very  heedless  what  he  did  to  gain  his  ends.  Once 
he  had  served  Cromwell,  but  after  the  Restoration  he  had 
become  Charles'  minister,  and  had  been  made  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury.  Charles  kept  secret  from  him  that  he  had 
promised  Lewis  to  declare  himself  a  Catholic,  for  he 
knew  that,  dlihough  Shaftesbury  wanted  to  do  somethmg 
for  Dissenters,  he  did  not  like  Catholics.  Perhaps 
Shaftesbury  found  out  what  the  king  had  done,  but  at 
any  rate  he  suddenly  took  part  against  him,  speaking  in 
Parliament  against  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  and 
the  war  with  Holland.  Clvnles  turned  him  out  of  office, 
and  then  he  became  the  I  m  ler  of  Charles'  opponents  in 
Parliament. 

5.  There  was  now  a  great  thing  which  Shaftesbury 
wished  to  do.  Charles  had  no  children  by  his  wife 
The  aims  of  Catherine  of  Braganza,  a  princess  of  Portugal. 
Sbaftes-  The  heir  to  the  throne  was  the  king's  brother, 

James,  the  Duke  of  York,  who  had  declared 
himself  a  Catholic.  Shaftesbury  made  up  his  mind  that, 
if  he  could  help  it,  no  Catholic  should  sit  on  the  English 
throne.  But  it  was  hard  to  shut  James  out.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  Commons  were,  it  was  true,  in  a  very  ill- 
temper  with  Charles,  because  they  thought  him  a  bad 
Frotes:ant.  Still,  most  of  them  believed  that  kings  had 
their  power  from  God,  and  that  it  was  wrong  to  take  it 
away  from  them.  However  much  afraid  of  Catholics, 
therefore,  they  would  never  pass  an  Act  of  Parliament 
to  shut  James,  the  next  heir,  out  from  the  throne.  So 
Shaftesbury  set  to  work  to  force  Charles  to  dissolve  this 
Parliament  and  call  a  new  one,  for  he  thought  that,  when 
new  elections  were  held,  t:,e  electors  would  choose  mem- 
bers who  would  do  the  things  whu  h  he  wished  done 


167S.  Charles  a?id  J.eivis.  6y 

6.  We  must  see  what  Charles  and  Lev/is  were  about. 
Charles  had  money  given  him  by  Lewis  every  year,  on 
condition  that  he  did  not  tro  to  war  with  ,.,  , 
France.  After  a  time,  however,  he  be.i^an  to  quarrels 
draw  further  away  from  Lewis  and  nearer  to 
his  own  Parliament.  His  brother  James  had  married 
Anne  Hyde,  the  daughter  of  that  Earl  of  Clarendon  who 
was  impeached  in  1067.  Their  children,  Mary  and  Anne, 
had  been  brought  up  Protestants.  Charles  now  agreed 
to  a  marriage  between  Mary  and  William,  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  his  nephew  (1677),  who  had  lately  become  Stadt- 
holder,  or  President  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  and  who  was 
Lewis'  ablest  and  most  bitter  enemy.  Charles  after- 
wards told  the  Commons  that  he  was  ready  to  go  to  war 
with  Lewis,  if  needful,  to  force  him  to  make  peace  with 
Spain.  The  Commons  were  glad  at  the  thought  of  a  war 
with  France,  and  voted  the  king  a  large  sum  of  money. 
It  is  hard  to  say  whether  Charles  reallv  meant  to  go  to 
war  with  France.  But  he  got  a  grant  of  money,  and  an 
excuse  for  raising  an  army  to  use  against  the  Parliament, 
if  need  were. 

7.  When  Lewis  saw  Charles  making  up  to  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  talking  of  war  with  France,  he  became  angry 
and  alarmed.     The   F'.arl    of   Danbv,   at  this     ,      ■       , 

-  '  Lewis  and 

time  Charles'  chief  minister,  often  bribed  ti":  Opposi- 
members  of  Parliament  not  to  act  against  the 
king's  wishes.  So,  to  ward  off  danger,  Lewis  did  the  same 
thmg,  giving  money  to  the  followers  of  Shaftesbury,  and 
promising  to  try  and  get  Charles  to  dissolve  the  Parlia- 
ment, if  they  would  stop  his  going  to  war  with  France. 

8.  As  soon  as  Charles  had  got  together  an  army,  men 
were  frightened  kst  he  should  use  it  agninst  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  would  gladly  have  seen  the  soldiers     TliePopisti 
sent   home  again.     But  when  the  Commons     p'""' 
wanted  Charles  to  do  thi;  he  refused,  saying  he  neeoeu 


6S       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarch]'.    1678  - 

the  army  to  keep  the  country  in  a  state  of  defence.  While 
people  were  in  this  uneasy  and  suspicious  state  of  mind, 
a  man,  named  Titus  Oates  came  forward  with  a  lonj^ 
story  about  a  Popish  plot  .(1678).  The  king,  he  said,  was 
going  to  bi  murdered  and  the  f'atholics  to  make  them- 
selves rulers.  Now  this  story  was  most  likely  untrue  from 
beginning  to  end.  }3ut  it  was  believed,  because  it  fell  in 
v/ith  what  everybody  was  thinking  at  the  time,  that  there 
was  some  plot  against  the  Parliament  and  the  Protestant 
faith.  Oates  had  only  to  say  here  is  the  plot,  and  all  were 
ready  to  join  in  the  cry. 

9.  When  ParHament  met  again,  Shaftesbury  made  use 
of  the  terror  the  members  were  in  to  get  a  new  Test  Act 
Catholics  passed,  which  would  shut  Catholics  out  of  the 
the  Hou°/  House  of  Lords.  While  Elizabeth  was  queen, 
oi  Lords.  an  Act  of  Parliament  had  been  made  ordering 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  take  the  oath  of 
Supremacy,  which  said  that  the  queen  was  supreme 
governor  of  the  realm,  and  that  the  pope  had  no  pov/er 
in  it.  But  members  of  the  House  of  Lords  had  not  had 
to  take  this  oath.  So  now,  by  the  new  Act,  all  members 
of  Parliament  had  to  take  the  oath,  and  to  say  besides  that 
the  worship  of  Saints  was  idolatrous,  and  that  they  did  not 
believe  the  doctrine  of  the  presence  of  Christ's  body  and 
blood  in  the  bread  and  wine.  The  Lords,  while  the  bill 
was  passing  through  their  House,  put  in  some  words  to  say 
that  the  Duke  of  York  need  not  say  this,  but  other  Catho- 
H:  Peers  had  henceforth  to  deny  their  religion  or  stay 
away  from  Parliament. 

10.  Lewis  now  took  his  revenge  on  Charles  for 
threatening  France  with  war.  The  Earl  of  Danby  had 
,,.     ,    .         written  very  unwilHngly, by  Charles' command, 

Uissohition  •'  a  J 1     J  > 

of  I'urlia-        a  letter  asking  Lewis  to  give  Charles  money. 

Lewis    now    had    this    letter   laid    before  the 

Commons,  who  at  once  impeached  Danby.     Charles,  to 


1679.  Exclusion  Bills.  69 

save  his  minister,  did  the  thing  which  Shaflcbbury  wished 
him  to  do,  and  dissolved  the  Parliament  (December, 
1(378). 

II.  Abnit  this  time  two  words  came  into  use,  which 
long  lasted  as  the  names  of  two  parties  in  England.  Those 
who  said  that  James,  though  a  Catholic,  ought  whigs  anU 
to  reign  were  nicknamed  Tories^  after  some  '""es. 
bands  of  wild  Irish  Catholics,  called  Tories.  Those  who 
wish:d  to  shut  James  out  from  the  throne,  because  he 
was  not  a  Protestant,  were  nicknamed  //7;/^x,  after  some 
bands  of  Presbyterians  called  Whiggamores,  who  v\'ere  in 
arms  in  Scotland.  The  Tories,  or  people  who  wished 
James  to  reign,  were  the  clergy  of  the  established  Church, 
and  all  others  who  said  that  kings  had  their  power 
from  God,  and  might  not  be  withstood  by  force  of  arms. 
The  Whigs,  or  people  who  wished  James  not  to  reign,  were 
the  Dissenters,  and  all  others  who  held  that  kings  might 
be  withstood  by  force  of  arms,  if  laws  and  liberties  were 
in  danger. 


CHAPTER   III. 

EXCLUSION    HILLS   AND    IHK    POPISH    PLOT.   (1679-1681.) 

I.  Charles  called  another  Parliament  in  1679.  The  peo- 
ple were  so  afraid  of  Catholics  that  every-  Exclusion 
where  the  electors  chose  Whigs  to  sit  in  the  l^'l's- 
House  of  Commons.  Charles  tried  to  gain  the  good-will 
of  the  Parliament  by  turning  Danby  out  of  office,  and 
sending  his  soldiers  home  again.  But  nothing  would 
satisfy  the  Connnons  but  the  passing  of  an  Act  of  farlia- 
ment  to  shut  James  out  from  the  throne.  Charles  dissolved 
the  I'arliament  and  called  a  second,  which  proved  of  just 
the  same  temper  as  the  hrst.  He  dissolved  the  second 
and  called  a  tJiird.     It  was  to  meet  at  Oxford  instead  of 


70       Struggle  against  Ahsohite  MonarcJiy.    1679- 

London,  wliere  tlie  ^^  liig  pnrty  was  very  strong.  WTien 
it  was  opened,  bands  of  London  citizens  rnme  up  to 
Oxford  wearing  ribands,  on  which  were  tlie  words  'No 
Popery,  no  Slavery  ! '  The  great  \\niig  lords  brought  up 
their  tenants  in  arms.  The  king  on  his  side  came  at- 
tended by  his  guards.  It  seemed  as  if  a  civil  war  vas  on 
the  point  of  breaking  out,  and  Charles  dissolved  the  Par- 
liament before  it  had  sat  three  weeks  (1681). 

2.  No  exclusion  bill  hal  passed  the  House  of  Lordo 
in  any  of  these  three  Parliaments,  and  already  the  Whigs 
ShaftesbuiT  ^^^  ""''  ^"  ™any  friends  as  before.  For,  be- 
and  Mon-        sides  thc  shutting  out  of  James,  men  had  to 

mouth.  1       1         r       1  1  1        .  ■  • 

think   of  whom    they   were   to   make  kmg  m 

James'  stead.      Shaftesbury  put  forward  as  future    king 

the  Duke  of  .Monmouth.      Monmouth  was  Charles'  son, 

but  his  m.other  had  never  been  married  to  Charles,  so 

that  he  had  no  claim  to  the  throne.     The  countiy  people 

were,  it  was  true,  fond  of  him,  and  when  he  travelled  would 

gather  in  crowds  to  welcome  him.     But  Shaftesbury  was 

not  wise  in  wishing  to  make  Monmouth  king      Mary,  the 

wife  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  was  the  heir  ne.xt  after  her 

father  James.     She  was  a  Protestant,  and  many  of  the 

Whigs  were  unwilling  to  pass  her  by.    Then,  again,  there 

were  many  people  who  when  they  were  very  much  afraid 

of  Cathohcs  took  the  part  of  the  Whigs,  but  when  they 

n'ere  very  much  afraid  of   Dissenters   took  the  part  of 

the  Tories.     These  now  went  over  to  the  Tories,  for  they 

feared  lest  the  Dissenters  should  get  too  much  power,  and 

thought  that  of  the  two   they  would  sooner  have  James 

than  Monmouth  to  reign  over  them. 

3.  When  it  was  found  that  Oates  was  honoured  and 
rewarded  for  having  found  out  a  dangerous  plot,  more 
The  Popish  "^'^'^  Came  forward  with  stories  against  the 
plot.  Catholics.  All  the  time  that  the  Exclusion 
Bills  were  bemg  fought  over  numbers  of  Catholics  were 


i68i.  The  Popish  Plot.  7 1 

being  tried  and  put  to  death  for  treason.  It  did  not 
matter  how  unlikely  the  stories  brought  against  them 
were,  for  the  jurymen  believed  them  guilty  before  they 
were  tried,  and  the  judges  took  the  part  of  their  accusers. 
Shaftesbury,  though  he  knew  that  Oates  was  a  liar,  did 
all  he  could  to  keep  alive  the  fear  of  the  people.  Charles, 
like  Sh.iftesbury,  did  not  believe  in  Oates'  stories.  But  he 
did  not  try  to  save  the  Catholics.  For  he  thought  the 
more  innocent  blood  the  Whigs  shed,  the  more  surely 
would  people  come  round  in  time  to  take  his  side.  He 
judged  quite  rightly.  The  cruelty  and  violence  with 
which  Shaftesbury  acted  in  the  end  told  against  him. 
Men  were  getting  ashamed  of  ever  having  trusted  in  the 
word  of  Oates  and  his  fellows.  Juries  began  to  say  that 
the  prisoners  were  innocent,  and  the  crowd,  which  used  to 
shout  with  joy  when  a  Catholic  was  sent  to  the  scaffold, 
now  shouted  with  juy  when  one  was  set  at  liberty.  When 
Lord  Stafford,  an  old  man  of  upwards  of  seventy,  told 
the  people  from  the  scaffold  that  he  was  innocent,  they 
answered  him  with  shouts  of  '  God  bless  you,  my  lord  I' 
'  We  believe  you,  my  lord  I " 

4.  Though  the  Whigs  did  not  get  James  shut  out  from 
reigning,  they  got  Charles'  consent  to  one  very  important 
law,  called  the //^/^tvii' C<7r/!i/^j- Act.    The  Peti-     .,.,     ,,  , 

'  '  1  he  liabios 

tion  of  Right  had  said  that  no  man  was  to  be  Corpus  Act. 
put  in  prison  without  a  cause  being  given,  in  order  that 
he  might  not  be  kept  in  prison  and  ne^er  brought  to  trial. 
But  the  king's  ministers  had  still  found  ways  of  doing  this. 
So  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  now  said  that  the  judges  were 
to  give  writs  oi Habeas  Corpus  to  prisoners  who  asked  for 
them,  and  to  set  them  at  liberty  if  they  could  be  trusted 
to  come  at  the  proper  time  and  answer  to  the  crimes  laid 
to  their  charge.  Ciaolers  were  always,  on  receiving  writs 
of  Habeas  Corpus,  to  bring  their  prisoners  before  the 
judges,  except   those   accused  of  treason,   murder,   and 


J 2       Struggle  against  Absolute  McuarcJiy.    1681- 

other  crimes  called  felonies.  But  in  order  that  such  might 
not  be  kept  in  prison  for  long,  their  trial  was  to  take  place 
within  a  certain  time  or  else  they  too  were  to  be  set  at 
liberty.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  did  not  lay  down  anything 
new,  for  it  was  an  old  right  of  Englishmen  not  to  be  kept 
in  prison  at  the  pleasure  of  the  king.  But  it  laid  down  the 
law  in  such  clear  and  plain  words  that  henceforth  the 
king  and  his  ministers  could  not  claim  the  right  to  set  it 
aside  in  any  case  (1679). 


CHAPTER   IV. 

REACTION    AGAINST   THE   WHIGS.      (1681-1685.) 

I.  Charles  now  again  had  money  every  year  from  Lewis 
on  condition  that  he  did  not  go  to  war  with  France.  He 
Charle?  was  thus  able  to  rule  for  four  years  without 

ou'rParHa-  Calling  another  Parliament  together.  Mean- 
ments.  while  he  tried  to  make  his  own  power  stronger, 

and  to  put  down  the  Whigs. 

2.  Many  towns  had  got  charters  from  former  kings 
giving  them  privileges,  such  as  the  right  of  setting  up 
Charters  their  own  mayors  and  magistrates.  The 
taken  away.  Whigs  had  much  power  in  thcsc  places.  So 
now  London  and  other  towns  were  accused  of  having 
made  a  wrong  use  of  their  privileges,  and  their  charters 
were  taken  away  from  them.  Charles  indeed  gave  them 
back  nevv  charters,  but  he  took  care  that  the  mayors, 
aldermen,  and  other  officers  should  all  be  Tories.  He  also 
took  care  that  only  the  chief  people,  whom  he  could 
easily  influence,  should  be  let  vote  at  the  election  of 
members  of  Parliament.  After  making  these  changes  he 
might  hope  at  a  future  day  to  meet  a  House  of  Commons 
from  which  the  Whig  party  should  be  almost  quite  shut 


1685.  Reaction  against  the  Whigs.  73 

out.  Meanwhile,  Whigs  were  brought  to  trial  on  various 
charges.  Many  were  fined,  imprisoned,  and  put  to 
death.  Shaftesbury  fled  to  Holland,  where  he  died  soon 
afterwards. 

3.  The  Whigs  grieved  over  the  failure  of  their  plans. 
James  was  not  shut  out  from  reigning.  The  king,  though 
not  doing  anything  that  was  exactly  unlawful —  ,  whig  con- 
fer it  was  the  judges  who  said  he  had  a  right  ^piracies. 
to  take  away  the  charters  —was  yet  robbing  the  towns  of 
any  real  liberty  either  in  the  choice  of  their  own  officers, 
or  of  members  of  Parliament.  Lord  William  Russell  was 
one  of  the  chief  leaders  of  the  Whig  party.  He  used  to 
meet  with  some  of  his  friends  and  talk  over  plans  of 
rising  in  arms.  Shaftesbury  had  amongst  his  followers 
old  soldiers  of  Cromwell's  army.  These  knew  of  the 
meetings  of  the  Whig  leaders,  and  thought  that  they  would 
help  on  their  plans  by  making  a  plot  of  their  own,  to 
waylay  Charles  and  his  brother,  perhaps  to  shoot  them,  as 
they  passed  from  Newmarket  to  London  by  a  lonely 
farm-house,  called  the  Rye  House,  in  Hertfordshire.  The 
plans  of  these  conspirators,  as  well  as  the  meetings  of 
the  Whig  leaders,  were  betrayed  to  the  king's  ministers. 
Russell  was  tried  for  treason.  Though  he  had  known 
nothing  of  the  Rye  House  Plot,  and  though  the  fact  that 
he  had  ever  thought  of  rebellion  was  not  clearly  pro\ed 
against  him,  the  jury  still  found  him  guilty.  Russell 
would  not  own  that  he  had  done  anything  wrong.  The 
people,  he  thought,  had  a  right  to  stand  up  for  their 
religion  and  liberties  when  these  were  taken  from  them 
on  any  pretence.  Charles  held  that  the  man  who  thouL;ht 
thus  was  too  dangerous  to  let  live.  'If  I  do  not  take  his 
life,'  he  said,  '  he  will  soon  take  mine.'  So  Russell  was 
put  to  death  in  1683. 

Charles  died  in  February,  1685,  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  James. 


74       Struggle  against  Abudtite  Monarchy.    1685- 

BOOK   VII. 

I 685-1 688. 

THE  REIGN  OF  JAMES  II. 

CHAPTER    I. 

CATHOLICS   AND    PROTESTANTS.      (1685-1687.) 

I.  James  II.  had  barel)^  reigned  four  months  when  a  re- 
bellion broke  out  in  the  west.  Many  Whigs  had  fled  to 
Invasion  of  Holland,  after  the  dissolution  of  the  short 
Monmouth.  Parliament  at  Oxford  in  1681.  .  These  now 
set  sail  with  Monmouth  at  their  head,  and  landed  at 
Lyme-Regis,  in  Dorsetshire.  Peasants,  small  farmers,  and 
shopkeepers  gathered  together  to  f'ght  for  Monmouth  ; 
but  as  no  Whig  noblemen  or  gentlemen  took  part  with 
him,  he  had  no  chance  of  winning.  His  brave  little  army 
of  peasants  was  routed  by  the  royal  troops  on  Sedgemoor, 
in  Somersetshire.  He  himself  was  taken  prisoner,  hiding 
in  a  ditch  in  peasant's  clothes.  He  was  brought  to  Lon- 
don and  there  beheaded.  A  brutal  judge,  called  Jeffreys, 
was  sent  by  James  into  the  west  to  try  the  rebels,  and  did 
so  with  so  much  harshness  and  cruelty,  that  his  name  was 
hated  by  all  men.  The  country  was  covered  with  gibbets. 
Even  girls  at  school,  who  had  given  Monmouth  banners, 
were  cast  into  prison.  A  suppliant  came  to  Whitehall  to 
beg  mercy  for  her  brother.  *  Do  not  flatter  yourseli  with 
hopes,'  said  one  of  the  ofticers  of  James'  army,  John 
Churchill,  afterwards  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  ;  '  this 
marble.'  and  he  laid  his  hand  on  the  chimney-piece,  '  is 
not  harder  than  the  king.' 

2.  James  was  neither  a  good  nor  a  clever  man.  He 
had  a  hard,  cruel  nature.  He  also  set  his  mind  on  making 
everyone  think  like  himself.      He   called  a  Parliament 


1687.  The  Dispensing  Power.  75 

»oon  after  he  came  to  the  throne.  He  hoped  that  it 
would  grant  him  plenty  of  money  to  keep  up  a  xhe  aims  of 
large  standing  army,  and  also  do  away  with  the  J^^^s. 
laws  against  C%tholics.  The  House  of  Commons  was 
filled  with  Tories.  They  were  willing  to  do  a  great  deal 
for  James,  but  not  the  two  things  which  he  wanted  them 
to  do.  They  dreaded  a  standing  army  as  much  as  the 
Whigs.  They  were  quite  as  unwilling  to  do  away  with 
the  laws  against  Catholics  as  the  Whigs.  So  James,  find- 
ing that  the  Parliament  would  not  help  him  to  carry  out 
his  wishes,  brought  the  session  to  an  end,  and  never 
called  the  members  together  again  (1685). 

3.  James  next  set  to  work  to  carry  out  his  plans  by 
means  of  his  royal  power.     The  king  claimed   in  certain 
cases  to  set  aside,  or  dispense  with,  a  law  in     .j.|^^  -^-^^ 
favour   of  an    individual.       For   instance,  he     pensing 

Power 

could  grant  a  pardon  to  a  murderer.  James, 
therefore,  first  set  four  men  to  be  judges  who  would  ex- 
plain the  law  as  he  wished  it  to  be  explained,  and  then 
caused  one  of  his  servants  to  accuse  a  Catholic,  who  was 
in  command  of  a  regiment,  of  not  having  taken  the  sacra- 
ment as  the  Test  Act  required.  A  trial  was  held,  and  the 
judges  said  that  James  had  the  right  to  set  aside  the 
Test  Act  in  favour  of  an  individual.  Now,  of  course,' what 
the  judges  said  that  it  was  lawful  for  James  to  do  in  the 
case  of  one  man,  it  was  also  lawful  for  him  to  do  in  the 
case  of  other  men.  So,  after  this  trial,  James  paid  no  heed 
whatever  to  the  laws,  but  put  very  many  Catholics  in 
office,  and  even  made  them  members  of  the  universities 
and  members  of  his  council  (1686). 

4.  James  knew  that  all  Churchmen  were  very  angry 
with  him  for  thus  putting  Catholics  on  an  equal     Declaration 
footing  with  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng-     of  indul- 
land.     So  he  thought  it  wise  to  try  and  make 

the  Dissenters  his  friends.     With  this  end  he  published  a 


7^       Struggle  against  Absolute  MoiuvcJiy.    1687. 

Declaration  of  Indulgence,  giving  leave  both  to  Catholics 
and  to  Dissenters  to  worship  in  public  "and  private  ac- 
cording to  their  own  forms  (1687).  This  Declaration  of 
Indulgence  was  looked  on  by  all  men  a#a  breach  of  the 
law.  For,  though  the  judges  had  told  James  that  he  might 
set  aside  a  law  in  favour  of  one  man  at  a  time,  they  had 
never  said  that  he  might,  in  this  general  way,  set  aside  a 
large  number  of  laws  at  once. 

5.  James  still  wanted  to  get  the  laws  done  away  with 
by  an  Act  of  Parliament.  He  was  now  an  old  man,  and  he 
Dissenters  could  not  hide  from  himself  that,  as  soon  as  he 
go  against  was  dead,  the  laws  would  be  put  in  force  again. 
So  in  hopes  of  presently  meeting  a  Parlia- 
ment which  should  carry  out  his  wishes,  he  undid  his 
brother's  work,  turning  out  of  office  Tory  magistrates  both 
in  town  and  country,  and  setting  in  their  places  Catholics 
and  Dissenters.  This  was  a  very  bold  thing  for  James 
to  do.  He  made  bitter  enemies  of  the  Tories,  who 
hitherto  had  said  that  the  king's  commands  must  always 
be  obeyed,  and  who  had  placed  him  on  the  throne.  Nor 
could  he  after  all  win  the  Disenters  to  promise  to  stand 
by  him.  Though  they  were  given  freedom  to  worship  in 
their  own  way,  they  could  not  bring  themselves  to  act 
with  Catholics,  or  uphold  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
which  they  looked  on  as  unlawful.  Besides  more  tempt- 
ing offers  were  being  made  them  by  others.  The  clergy 
of  the  Church  of  England  and  other  Tories  were  now  in 
such  great  fear  of  Catholics,  that  they  began  to  feel,  like 
those  Churchmen  who  were  Whigs,  that  after  all  the  Dis- 
senters were  Protestants,  and,  as  such,  friends.  .So  Tories 
and  Whigs  agreed  in  telling  the  Dissenters,  that  if  instead 
of  taking  part  with  the  king  and  the  Catholics,  they  would 
stand  fast  to  the  cause  of  the  laws  and  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, they  should  presently  have  an  Act  of  Parliament 
giving  them  leave  to  worship  in  their  own  way. 


i 


1688.  The  Revolution.  jj 

CHAPTER    II. 

THE   REVOLUTION.      (1688.) 

I.  Ja.mes  would  not  give  way  in  spite  of  all  warnings.   He 
published  a  second  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  and  or- 
dered it  to  be  read  by  all.  ministers  on  two  fol-     ^    „.  , 
lowing  bundays  at  the  time  of  service.     Epis-     ops'  Peti- 
'-opalians  and   Dissenters   agreed   to  disobey     "'^"' 
this  command.     Sancroft,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
and  six  bishops  drew  up  a  petition,  in  which  they  told  the 
king  that  they  could  not  with  a  safe  conscience  read   his 
Declaration,  because  it  was  unlawful.  Tories,  like  Whigs, 
had   come   to  think  that  they  were  most  loyal    to  their 
king  when  they  obeyed  the  laws. 

2.  On  the  appointed  day  the  Declaration  was  read  in 
only  four  London  churches.  In  the  countiy  the  clergy 
were  equally  disobedient.  James  wished  to  The  trial  of 
punish  the  bishops  for  having  set  the  example  iheKishops. 
of  resistance.  Their  petition  had  been  printed  and  sold 
by  thousands  of  copies.  So  he  brought  them  before  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench  on  the  charge  of  having  published 
a  false,  seditious,  and  malicious  libel.  The  court  was  so 
full  that  there  was  hardly  standing  room.  Thirty-th  e  peers 
were  seen  in  the  crowd.  It  was  proved  that  the  bishops 
were  the  authors  of  the  petition  ;  the  next  question  was, 
whether  it  was  a  libel .?  That  was  a  point  which  the 
lawyers  and  judges  had  to  explain  to  the  jury.  The 
judges  knew  that  James  would  be  angry  with  them  if  they 
did  not  say  the  petition  was  a  libel.  But  on  that  day 
they  were  very  careful  of  their  words.  They  felt  that 
James  would  soon  have  done  all  he  could,  and  they 
feared  the  ani.ier  of  a  future  Parliament  more  than  the 
loss  of  office.  The  Chief  Justice,  one  who  was  there 
said,  looked   as  if  all  the   peers  present   had  halters  in 


78       Struggle  against  Absolute  Monarchy.     1688. 

their  pockets.  There  were  four  judges  in  the  court. 
Only  two  said  that  the  petition  was  a  h'bel.  Not  one 
said  that  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  was  lawful. 
When  the  jury  gave  a  verdict  of  'Not  Guilty,'  such  a 
shout  was  raised  by  the  crowd  within  the  court  and  the 
crowd  standing  outside,  that  it  was  heard  for  a  mile  off. 
Never  had  the  bishops  been  so  dear  to  the  people.  Every 
Protestant,  were  he  Episcopahan,  Presbyterian,  or  Sec- 
tarian, was  on  their  side.  As  they  left  the  court  men 
dropped  on  their  knees,  begging  a  blessing  of  them. 
Bonfires  were  lighted  in  the  streets,  and  the  church  bells 
set  ringing  as  at  times  of  great  rejoicing  (June,  1688). 

Men  were  now  tired  of  James'  rule,  and  looked  for 
some  other  to  set  in  his  place  as  king. 

3.  William  of  Om.nge  was  the  son  of  Mary,  a  daughter 
of  Charles  I.  He  was,  therefore,  both  nephew  and  son- 
William  of  in-law  of  James.  On  the  same  day  on  which 
Orange  the  bishops  were   found  '  not  guilty,'  a  letter 

called  in.  -,,.,,.  ,  . 

was  sent  to  William,  askmg  him  to  come  to 
England  at  the  head  of  an  army.  It  was  signed  by  seven 
leaders  of  the  Whig  and  Tory  parties.  Men  who  had 
once  stood  against  one  another  had  joined  together  against 
James  II.,  who  had  made  enemies  of  his  friends. 

James  wished  to  be  independent  of  Parliament.  So, 
although  he  was  a  proud  man  and  felt  ashamed  of  the  act, 
like  Charles  before  him  he  took  money  of  Lewis,  know 
ing  that  in  return  he  must  do  as  Lewis  told  him  in  foreign 
affairs.  Foreign  princes,  therefore,  who  were  Le«'is' 
enemies,  and  hoped  to  get  England  to  join  an  alliance 
against  him,  wished  success  to  William's  expedition. 

William  landed  at  Torbay  in  November,  1688,  with  a 
small  army  of  Dutch  and  Enghsh  troops.  Both  Whig  and 
Tory  noblemen  and  gentlemen  soon  came  in  numbers  to 
welcome  him.  James,  finding  the  very  officers  of  his 
army  desert  him,  after  a  little  hesitation  fled  to  France. 


i 


1689.  Declaration  of  Rights.  79 

He  hoped  by  the  aid  of  Lewis  to  be  set  again   on  his 
throne. 

4-  The  Tories  did  not  wish  to  put  James  off  the  throne, 
but  to  call  him  back  and  let  him  rule  if  he  agreed  to  rule 
in  the  manner  they  wished.  But  they  could  r^^^  ^ 
not  have  their  way,  because  they  no  longer  claration  of 
had  the  favour  of  the  pdople.  A  Parliament  ^'s^'^- 
met,  in  which  the  Whigs  were  the  stronger  party.  The 
throne  was  declared  vacant,  and  the  crown  was  given  to 
William  and  Mary  as  joint  rulers.  Parliament  at  the  same 
time  drew  up  a  Declaration  of  Rights.  This  laid  down  the 
terms  on  which  the  Lords  and  Commons  gave  the  crown 
away.  Those  means  by  which  the  Stuarts  had  tried  to  rule 
without  asking  the  advice  of  Parliament  were  declared 
unlawful.  Parliaments,  the  Declaration  of  Rights  said, 
ought  to  be  often  held  ;  the  king  might  not  raise  taxes  or 
keep  a  standing  army  without  consent  of  Parliament  ;  he 
might  not  set  aside  laws  or  fail  to  put  laws  in  force  with- 
out consent  of  Parliament  (February,  1689).  This  De- 
claration afterwards  was  given  the  royal  consent  in  the 
form  of  a  law  which  was  called  the  Bill  of  Rights. 


CONCLUSION. 

The  revolution  which  set  WiUiam  and  Mary  on  the 
throne  brought  to  an  end  the  long  struggle  between  the 
king  and  the  Parliament.  William  took  the  crown  know- 
ing that  he  must  give  way  to  the  wishes  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  could  not  claim  any  right  to  the  throne, 
save  the  right  given  him  by  Act  of  Parliament.  The  king 
who  claimed  powers  from  God  that  were  above  the  laws 
was  his  rival  James.  If  William  had  made  like  claims  he 
must  have  lost  his  throne  at  once. 

The  closer  union  between  king  and  Parliament  that 
followed  the   RevoKition   brought  about,  amongst  other 


So       Struggle  against  Absointc  Monarclvy.    1688. 

things,  that  England  was  able  to  take  a  more  active  and 
successful  part  in  foreign  affairs.  The  Stuarts  could  not 
carry  on  wars  successfully  because  they  would  not  give 
way  to  the  wishes  of  Parliament,  and  could  not  tax  their 
subjects  without  consent  of  Padiament.  The  secret 
of  Cromwell's  strength  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  had  a 
standing  army,  and  so  could  take  taxes  of  his  own  will  if 
Parliament  refused  to  grant  them.  Had  the  Stuarts  been 
able,  like  him,  to  force  men  to  obey  them  by  means  of  a 
standing  army,  Parliaments  must  have  ceased  to  have  any 
real  power,  and  the  king  would  have  been  able  to  rule  ac- 
cording to  his  own  will,  in  whatever  way  he  thought  best. 

After  the  Revolution  monarchy  above  the  law  was  no 
longer  possible  in  England.  This  victor)'  had  not  been 
gained  without  a  heavy  price.  There  had  been  many 
years  of  revolution,  and  many  acts  of  violence  had  been 
done.  In  the  midst  of  change  and  danger  men  had  grown 
up  false  and  self-seeking.  The  leaders  of  the  Parliaments 
which  stood  against  James  I.  and  Charles  I.  thought  a  great 
deal  of  their  country,  little  of  themselves  and  their  own  for 
tunes.  The  statesmen  of  the  time  of  Charles  II.  and 
James  II.  were  greedy  after  power  and  riches,  and  thought 
little  of  the  rights  of  the  people. 

William  had  not  reigned  many  months  when  an  Act 
of  Parliament  was  passed  giving  leave  to  Dissenters  to 
worship  in  their  own  way.  It  was  also  during  the. reign  of 
\^'^illiam  that  the  press  was  set  free,  so  that  men  could 
write  and  publish  books  and  newspapers  without  first 
getting  leave  of  the  king's  ministers. 

We  thus  see  that  we  have  travelled  a  long  way  since 
1603.  Then  it  would  have  been  held  folly,  if  not  treason, 
to  say  that  Parliament  was  to  be  first,  the  king  second  ; 
or  to  say  that  Protestants,  who  did  not  think  as  their 
neighbours  thought,  were  to  be  free  to  worship  in  their 
own  way,  and  to  teach  their  own  beliefs. 


Si 


INDEX    OF    PERSONS. 


ANN 

A  NNE,  daughter  of  James  II.,  67 

DACON,  Sir  Francis,  11.  12 
^^     Barebone,  Praise  God,  4Q 
Bucl;ingham,  Georijc  Villiers,  Duke  of, 

n,  13,  14,  17,  18 
bunyan,  John,  60 

pALVIN,  20 

^     Catherine  of  Braganza,  66 

Charles  I.,  13-46 

II.,  47,  43.  58-73 

Churchill,  J  'hii,  74 

Jlarendoii,    Kdward    Hyde,    Earl   of, 

Cti,  67 
Criimwell,  Oliver,  41-52,  55-57.  80 
,  Ricliard,  57 


DANBY.  Thomas  Osborne,  Karl  of, 
67,  68,  69 

PLIOT,  Sir  John,  17,  26,  27 

■'-'     Elizabeth,  Queen,  3,   5,   11,   22, 

24.  4» 

,  daughter  of  James  I.,  8 

Esse.x,  Robert  Devereu.x,  Earl  of,  40, 

43 


pAlRFAX,  Sir  Thomas,  43,  45,  46, 

^      47 

Fawkes,  Guy,  5 

Felton,  18 

Ferdinand,  Emperor,  8,  13 

Frederic,  Prir  e  of  the  Palatinate,  8,  39 

•S.  H.  ' 


PYM 


l_r  AMPDEN,  John,  28,  32,  36,  40,  43 
^  ^      Henrietta  Maria,  14,  32,  36 


Henry  VIII.,  3,  24 
Hyde,  Anne,  67 


TAMES  I,  1-14,  54 

J      II-.  64.  68.  69,  74-7q 

Jeffreys,  Judge,  74, 
John,  King,  15 


IZEYMIS,  7.  8 


LAUD,  Archbishop,  22-24,  29,  33,  40 
Eenlhall,  j6 
Lewis  XIII.,  14,  15,  17 
XIV.,  56,  61,  63,  67,  68,  72,  78 


l\TARGARET,     sister     of     Henry 
^^^     VIII.,  3 
Maiia,  Infanta,  6,  13 
Marj',  Queen  of  Scots,  3 

,  daughter  of  James  II.,  67,  70,  79 

,  daughter  of  Charles  I.,  78 

Milton,  John,  53,  54,  60 

Monmouth,  James,  Duke  of,  70,  74,  /s 

QA'I'ES.  Titus,  68,  71 

PIIIMP  HI.,  6,  8 
^     ■  — IV.,13 
PricV    Colonel,  46,  58 
Pyi^    John,  34-36,  40 


82 


Index  Oj  ■  Persons. 


RAl. 

RALEICTI,  Sir  Walter,  6-8 
.  Walter,  7 

Rupert,  Prince.  39,  42-44 
Russell,  Lord  William,  73 


C  ANCROFT,  Archbishop,  77 
'^     Savoy,  Duke  of,  56 
Shaftesbury,  Antony   Ashley  Cooper, 

Earl  of,  66,  69,  70,  ^~■, 
Shakespere,  53 


WIL 


Stafford,  William  Howard, Viscount,  71 
Strafford,  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  Earl 
of,  17,  25,  26,  30-32,  34 


YICTORIA,  Queen,  9 


T^ILLIAM,  Prince  of  Orange,  67, 


INDEX    OF    PLACES. 


ALG 


RYE 


A  LGIERS,  29 
■*^     Am^ri"^,  7,  25,  54 


gOHEMlA,  8 

r^ADlZ,  4 

^^     Chalgrove,  40 

Chatham,  62 


HENMAKK.  12.  18 
•^^     Dover.  64 
Drogheda,  47 
Dunbar,  47 
Dunkirk,  56,  62 


pDGEHILL,  39 
Edinburgh,  29 

p  RANGE.  15,  18,  56,  63,  67 


r^ENEVA,  20 

^^     Germany,  14,  iS 

Gloucester,  39 

Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  54 

Guiana,  7 


IJAMPDEN.  40 

Hampton  Court.  4 
Holland,  14,  55,  6i,  63-65 


INDIA,  54 

^     Indies,  East,  54 

,  West,  7,  56 

Ireland,  26,  35,  40,  47,  52,  55 

JAMAICA,  56 

I    ONDON.  37,  3g,  4:;,  62,  70,  73 
^-'    Lyme  Regis,  74 

TV/TARSTON  Moor,  42 
Massachusetts,  54 

TVTASEI-Y,  43 

^^      Netherlands,  56 

Newark,  39 

Newbury,  40 

New  England,  25,  5.5 


QXFORD,  39,  69 


pALATlNATE.  8,  13 

Plymouth,  55 


]^  HE.  Island  of,  17 
^^     Rochelle,  17,  18 
I   Rye  House,  7j 


84 


l77dex  of  Places. 


SCO 

CCOTLAND,  3,  4,  29.  35,  4°.  «7.  5-=, 

■^     59 

Sedgemoor,  74 
Spain,  13,  14,  18,  56.  63 
St   Thomas,  7 
Sweden,  63 


'pORBAY,  78 


YOR 

\A/ARRlNGTON,  45 
•  *       Wexford,  47 
Whitehall,  36,  46 
Worcester,  48 

YORK.,  42 


THE 

SETTLEMENT  OF  THE 
CONSTITUTION 

i68g — 1784 

BY 

JAMES    ROWLEY,    M.A., 

PROFESSOR  OF  MODERN  HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE 
UNIVERSITY  COJ.LEGE,  BRISTOL. 

WITH  FOUR   MAPS. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 
INTRODOCTION I 


BOOK     I. 

THE    REVOLUTION    SETTLEMENT    (1689-1701). 

CHAPTER 

I.  Englanil  and  the  Revolution         .....  a 

f  I.  Scotland  and  the  Revolution  .....         7 

III.  Ireland  and  the  Revolution  ....  12 

TV.  The  VVilliamite  War  with  France     ...  .16 

V.   William  HI.  and  his  Parliaments  ...  20 

BOOK    II. 

THE   WAR    OF  THE    SF.-\NISH    SUCCESSION  (1702-1713). 

I.  The  causes  of  the  War 27 

II.  The  War  itself 31 

III.  Constitutional  History  during  the  War    ....  38 

IV.  The  Tory  Ministry  and  the  Peace  of  Utrecht        .         .  43 

BOOK    III. 

ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  RULE  OF  THE  GREAT  FAMILIES 
(1714-1756). 

I.  The  First  Years  of  the  House  of  Hanover       ...      47 

II.  The  Ministry  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole    ....  53 

III.  The  Pelhanis 6i 


vi  Contents. 


BOOK    IV. 

THE    SEVEN    YEARS'    WAR    (1756-I763). 
CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.   How  the  War  was  brought  about  ....  68 

II.  The  events  of  the  Seven  Years'  Wht         ....       72 

III.  The  Rise  of  the  English  Power  in  India       ...  79 

BOOK    V. 

THE   STRUGGLE    BETWEEN    THE    KING   AND   TH.,    WHIG 
HOUSES    (1762-1784). 

I.   First  Ten  Years  of  George  III.' s  Reign     ....       86 
II.   George  III.  and  Lord  .Xorth  .....  92 

INDEX    OF   PERSONS  . IC3 

INDEX   OF    PLACES lO/ 


MAPS. 

1.  The  Low  Countries,  and  neighbcuri.ng  lands  .     36 

2.  Scotland  and  North  of  England  ....  66 

3.  North  America  and  West  Indies        .        .        .  .75 

4.  The  Ea.'jt  Indies  .        .                95 


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THE 

SETTLEMENT   OF   THE    CONSTITUTION. 


INTRODUCriON. 

The  chief  aim  of  this  little  book  is  to  show  the  following 
things  : — 

1.  How  the  Revolution  of  1688  made   the    House  of 

Commons  the  strongest  thing  in  the  State. 

2.  How  England  engaged   in  a  -long  and  costly  war 

with  France,  the  greatest  nation  in  Europe  at 
that  time,because  the  French  king  thought  fit  to 
meddle  in  her  affairs,  and  how  she  won  much 
fame  and  new  lands  tlicreby. 

3.  How  a  new  line  of  kings  was  set  on   the  throne  ; 

and  how,  during  the  reigns  of  the  first  two  of 
these  kings,  the  great  families  among  the  English 
nobility  took  to  themselves  the  foremost  place  in 
ruling  the  country. 

4.  How  the  rule  of  the  great  families  broke  down  at  a 

time  when  England  was  called  upon  to  put  forth 
all  her  strength  ;  and  how  the  task  of  guiding 
the  country  through  its  troubles  was  given  to  a 
man  of  surpassing  genius,  who  raised  it  to  aheight 
of  greatness  such  as  it  had  never  l)efore  reached 
E.H.  1; 


Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1689. 

5.  How  a  king  came  to  the  throne,  who  strove  with  all 
his  might  to  beat  down  the  strength  of  the  great 
famihes,  and  win  for  himself  some  of  the  power 
which  his  forefathers  had  held  ;  and  how,  after  a 
hard  fighc,  he  gained  his  object. 


BOOK    I. 
THE   REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT. 

CHAPTER    I. 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

I.  In  P'ebruary  16S9  the  Lords  and  Commons  asked 
William  and  Mary,  Prince  and  Princess, of  Orange,  to 
William,  become     King      and      Queen    of     England. 

'So"^'  \Villi:im  and    Mary  agreed  to  do  so  ;  and  at 

1080-1702.  ^      ^ 

once  the  new  order  of  things  which  is  called 

Mnrv 

Queer.iesg-     the  '  Revolution  settlement,'  began. 
'^9*-  2.  Though  a  good  many  changes   in   our 

rulers  and  ways  of  ruling  have  been  brought  about  by 
force,  the  change  made  at  this  time  is  the  only  one 
'Revolu-  '•^  which  the  name  'Revolution'  has  been 
tion'nota       given.     Yet  it  is  not  a  good  name.     For  the 

good  name  ,  i  -i     •     i     i  i  •  •       i 

forthe  change  change,  though  It  led  to  great  thmgs  m  later 
of  1688-Q.  times,  was  not  itself  a  great  one.  The  laws 
which  were  in  force  under  William  and  Alary  were  not 
very  different  from  those  which  ought  to  have  been  in 
force  under  James  II.  The  rights  of  the  people  were 
much  the  same.  The  Declaration  of  Rights  made 
nothing  law  that  had  not  been  law  before.  It  only 
stated  clearly,  so  that  henceforth  there  could  be  no  mis- 
take about  them,  what  the  rights  of  the  people  were. 


i689-  Etigland  and  the  Revolution  ^ 

3.  Yet  the  nation  gained  a  good  deal  by  the  Revolu- 
tion, (i)  There  was  no  longer  as  much  quarrelling^  be- 
tween the  king  and  the   Parliament  as  there     whai  Hte 

had  been.     Parliament  now  t'ot  the  master\-     '^.e^ oiutiou 

■         ..  ,  ....  ■       il>a  fLT 

m    the    State  ;    from   this  lime  it  grew   e\er     Enghnd. 

stronger,  and  the  king  ever  weaker,  until  the  king  could  do 
nothing  which  the  Parliament  disliked,  and  the  Parliament 
could  force  the  king  to  do  anything  it  pleased.  (2)  The 
House  of  Commons  became  much  more  powerful  than 
the  House  of  Lords.  All  the  money  that  was  wanted  for 
keeping  up  an  army  and  a  navy,  or  for  any  other  public 
purpose,  had  first  to  be  voted  b\  the  Commons.  Thus 
the  Commons  were  able  henceforth  to  get  anything  they 
greatly  wished  to  have  ;  for,  if  the  king  or  the  Lords 
were  unwilling  to  assent  to  what  they  asked,  they  had 
only  to  refuse  to  vote  the  ta.xes,  and  the  king  .-ind  the 
Lords  had  u>  assent.  It  is  true  that  the  king  might  still 
choose  his  ministers  ;  but,  if  most  of  the  Commons  did 
not  hke  a  minister,  they  could  make  the  king  send 
him  away.  Hence  the  king  had  to  put  into  offices  of 
State  such  men  as  the  Commons  wished  to  see  there. 
(3)  Though  the  laws  were  much  the  same,  the  way  in 
which  they  were  put  in  force  was  different.  Parliament 
made  a  law  that  the  judges  should  stay  in  their  offices  so 
long  as  they  gave  just  judgement.  Before  this  the  king 
could  make  and  unmake  judges  as  he  pleased,  and  so 
they  had  been  too  careful  to  do  his  will. 

4.  The  parliament  which  gave  the  throne  to  William 
and  Mar\'  had  not  been  called  by  a  king,  and  was  there- 
fore   supposed  not  to  be  a  true  parliament, 
able  to  pass  laws  binding  on  the  people.     It     vemion 
was  only  named  a  convention.     But  it   was     ParUament 
thought  dangerous  to  have  a  new  parliament     February, 
chosen  while  men's  minds  were  unsettled  ;  and 
accordingly  it  changed  itself  from  a  convention  to  a  parha- 

B  2 


4  Settlement  of  the  Constitiitiofi.  1689. 

ment.  It  lasted  a  year  longer,  and  did  many  things  of 
great  importance. 

5.  The  men  who  had  been  most  helpful  in  bringing 
about  the  late  changes  did  not  all  belong  to  one  party  ; 
William's  some  vverc  Whigs,  somc  Were  Tories.  William 
first  therefore  wished  to  show  no  liking  for  Whigs 

ministers.  ,  ^      ,^      .  ,  ,  ,  .         .    . 

more  than  for  1  ones,  and  took  as  his  mmisters 
men  of  all  parties.  Chief  among  these  were  the  Earls  of 
Danby,  Nottingham,  and  Shrewsbury.  This  plan,  how- 
ever, did  not  work  well  ;  and  afterwards  William  had  to 
choose  his  ministers  almost  all  from  the  same  party  ;  the 
Commons  would  not  let  him  do  anything  else. 

Moreover  the  men  who  had  been  most  helpful  in  bripg- 
ing  about  the  late  changes  were  not  all  of  the  same  way  of 
thinking  in  religion  ;  many  of  them  belonged  to  the 
Church  of  England  ;  many  were  Dissenters.  It  seemed, 
theref  ire,  a  fitting  time  to  grant  the  Dissenters  some 
relief  from  the  harsh  laws  passed  against  them  in  Charles 
II. 's  reign.  Protestant  Dissenters,  save  those  who  denied 
the  Trinity,  were  no  longer  forbidden  to  have 

The  Tolem-  ,  .  ,  .  ,  .  r     i     ■ 

tion  kcx..  places  or  worship  and  services  of  their  own, 
April,  1689.  jf  ^]^g^,  would  only  swear  to  be  loyal  to  the 
king,  and  that  his  power  was  as  lawful  in  Church  as  in 
State  matters.  The  law  that  gave  them  this  is  called 
the  Toleration  Act.  Men's  notions  were  still,  however, 
very  narrow  ;  care  was  taken  that  the  Roman  Catholics 
should  get  no  benefit  from  this  law.  Even  a  Prote-^tant 
Dissenter  might  not  yet  lawfully  be  a  member  of  either 
House  of  Parliament,  or  take  a  post  in  the  king's  service  ; 
for  the  Test  Acts'  were  left  untouched. 

6.  King  William,  who  was  a  Presbyterian  in  his  own 
The  Com-  land,  wanted  very  much  to  see  the  Dissenters 
Sch'eme""  ^^°"  ^^*^^  ^o  the  Church  of  England.  To 
1689.  bring  this  about,  he  wished  the  Church  to 
alter  those  things   in  the  Prayer  Book  which  kept  Dis- 

1  See  Epoch  V.,  pp.  64,  68. 


1689.  England  and  t'lc  Kcvulutioii.  5 

senters  from  joining  with  her.  But  most  of  the  clergy 
would  not  have  any  change  ;  and  because  these  were 
the  stronger  party  in  Convocation—  as  the  Parliament  of 
the  Church  is  called — William  could  get  nothing  done. 

At  the  same  time  a  rent,  which  at  first  seemed  likely 
to  be  serious,  was  made  in  the  Church  itself.  There  was 
a  strong  feeling  among  the  clergy  in  favour  of  -^he  Non- 
the  banished  king.  So  a  law  w^as  made  by  jurors,  1689. 
which  every  man  who  held  any  preferment  in  the  Church, 
or  either  of  the  Universities,  had  to  swear  to  be  true  to 
King  Willi,  m  and  Queen  iMary,  or  had  to  give  up  his 
preferment.  Most  of  the  clergy  were  very  unwilling  to 
obey  this  law  ;  but  only  400  were  found  stout-iicarted 
enough  to  give  up  their  livings  rather  than  do  what  they 
thought  to  be  a  wicked  thing.  These  were  called  non- 
jurors,ox  men  who  would  not  swear.  Among  ihem  were 
five  out  of  the  seven  Bishops  who  had  w  ithstood  James  II. 
only  a  year  before.  The  sect  of  non-jurors,  who  looked 
upon  themselves  as  the  only  true  Churchmen,  did  not 
spread.  But  it  did  not  die  out  altogether  until  seventy 
years  ago. 

7.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  names  High-Church 
and  Low-Church  first  came  into  use.  The  parties  so 
called  were  ol  much  the  same  way  of  thinking  as  High- 
Churchmen  and  Low-Churchmen  are  now.  Another  new 
name,  which  we  shall  meet  very  often,  is  also     .. ,     , 

■  -  1     •  1  ■  .T-1  ^""^  Jacob- 

now  tu'st  found   m  our   history.      1  hose   who     ites,  1689- 

wished  to  bring  back  James  IL  were  known  ''  °' 
as  Jacobites  (from  Jacobus,  the  Latin  word  for  James) 
just  as  those  who  held  to  William  were  known  as  Wil- 
liamitcs.  The  Jacobite  party  were  never  strong  enough 
to  rise  in  arms  during  this  reign  ;  but  it  was  very  rest- 
less, made  many  plots,  and  gave  a  good  deal  of  trouble 
to  the  Government.  Its  great  longing  was  to  overthrow 
\Vil»i^i»i  t)y  getting   Lewis  of  France  to  send  an  army  to 


6  Settlefuent  of  the  Constitution.     1689-90. 

England.  The  English  never  cared  much  for  William. 
He  was   a  stranger  ;   his   temper  was  gloomy  ;    he  was 

cold  and  distant  with  all  save  his  old  and 
of  William  tried  friends  ;  and  he  took  no  pains  to  win  the 
an  ary.  \q\q^  of  those  who  Came  near  him.  Mary's 
character  was  different ;  she  was  frank,  cheerful,  and 
gay  ;  and  her  sweetness  of  temper  and  grace  of  manner 
did  more  at  first  to  strengthen  the  new  order  of  things 
than  all  her  husband's  wisdom  and  valour.  But  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  mismanagement  and  wicked  dealing 
among  William's  ministers  at  this  time  ;  some  men  in 
office  thought  the  new  king  and  queen  would  soon  be 
Unpopu  driven  out  of  the  kingdom,  and  eagerly  filled 

w^hT  °''  their    pockets    out    of   the    king's    treasur}' 

rule  at  first,  whilst  they  had  the  chance.  In  this  way  the 
Government  fell  into  disfavour  with  the  people  ;  the 
Jacobites  became  every  day  stronger  ;  and  before  a  year 
was  over  it  seemed  as  if  the  Revolution  Settlement  would 
soon  be  all  unsettled  again  by  a  second  restoration  of  the 
Stuarts. 

8.  Moreover,    William   was    himself    ill   at   ease   in 
England.     His  Whig  ministers  quarrelled  with  his  Toiy 

ministers  ;  Parliament  would  not  give  him  the 

William's  ,  •   ,    ,       n    i  •  t  t  t 

dissatisfac-  revenue  which  haa  been  given  to  James  II.  ; 
"°"'  it  would    not  settle   the    Crown,  as  William 

wished,  on  the  Electress  Sophia  of  Hanover  in  case  he 
and  Mar}-  died  childless.  Nor  would  it  agree  to  an  Act 
for  granting  a  full  pardon  to  the  agents  of  tyranny  in 
t'.",e  late  reigns  unless  a  great  many  men  were  shut  out 
from  its  benefits.  Early  in  1690  the  king  is  said  to 
Revolution  have  thought  of  going  back  to  Holland,  so 
Parliament      ]jt^ig  jid  he  like  the  wav  the  English  were 

dissolved,  '         .  ° 

1690.  treating    him.      However   this    may    be,    he 

deemed  it  impossible  for  him  to  get  on  with  the  Parlia- 
jjient  that  then  was  ;  therefore  he  put  an  end  to  it,  and 


1689-90.       England  and  tJic  Revolution.  J 

called  a  new  one,  which  he   hoped  would  be  easier  to 
deal  with. 

9.  But  belore  this,  two  laws  of  great  importance  had 
been  passed— the  Mutiny   Bill  and   the    Bill   of  Rights. 
The  Mutiny  Bill  gave  the  king  power  to  put     The  Mutiny 
to    death    any     soldier     who     deserted    his     ^''"'  '^^y- 
colours  or  mutinied  against  his  officers.     At  first  it  was 
ver)-  short,  and  was  to  have  force  for  six  months  only  ; 
but  it  has  since  grown  into  a  kind  of  military  code,  and  is 
passed  from  year  to  year.    1 1  has  thus  become  a  means  of 
forcing  the  king  to  bring  together  Parliament  every  year. 
The   Bill  of    Rights  is  little    more  than   the     'jhe  liiii  of 
Declaration  of  Rights'  turned  into  a  regular    R'^hts,  1689. 
law.     There  are   two  things,   however,  in   it  which   are 
not  in  the  Declaration  :  (i)  it  makes  it    impossible   for 
any  King  or  Queen  of  England  to  be  a  Roman  Catholic  ; 
and  (2)  it  settles  that  the  Crown  has  no  power  of  setting^ 
aside  a  law  in  any  case  whatever.     The  Declaration  had 
only  said  that  the  way  in  which  James  had  used  such  a 
power  was  unlawful. 

But  bitter  foes  rose  up  against  the  new  settlement  in 
Scotland,  Ireland,  and  I'rance. 


CHAPTER   II. 

SCOTLAND   AND   THE   REVOLUTION. 

I.  In  i688-g  Scotland  and  England  were  still  separate 
kingdoms.  The  only  bond  o£  union  between  them  was 
that  the  king  of  one  country  was  also  king  of     ,,    , 

III  1  r  /-       Lnfjland 

the  Other.     It  was  not  therefore  a  matter  of    andiScotiand 
course  that    when    James    II.   ceased   to    be     '"'^^9 
King  of  England,  and  William  and  Mary  were  given  his 
place  in   England,  he  should  cease  to  be   King  of  Scot- 

1  See  Epoch  v.,  J).  y<j.  -'  Jbid.  p.  75. 


8  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1689. 

land  also,  and  William  and  IVIary  be  given  his  place 
in  Scotland.  It  was  for  the  Scottish  people  to  decide 
whether  they  would  follow  the  lead  of  England.  But 
the  bulk  of  the  Scottish  people  were  only  too  glad  to  get 
rid  of  the  Stuarts.  The  Stuarts  had  tried  to  root  out 
the  Presbyterian  religion,  and  had  set  up  among  them 
a  Church  which  most  Scotsmen  disliked  and  many 
hated.  In  other  ways,  too,  the  later  Stuart  kings  had 
The  Scots  deeply  wronged  the  worthiest  of  their  Scot- 
Vames Ti"^'  tish  subjccts ;  they  had  caused  oppressive 
16S8.  laws  to  be  made,  and  had  dealt  harshly  with 

those  wV.om  they  disliked  or  feared.  As  soon,  therefore, 
as  the  Scots  heard  of  the  overthrow  of  James  II.'s  rule 
in  England,  they  took  up  arms  and  frightened  the  Scot- 
tish Council  into  changing  sides.  Then  many  Scottish 
noblemen  and  gentlemen,  who  chanced  to  be  in  London, 
Scouish  "^^'^  to.?ctIier  and  asked  William  to  assemble 

Convention  a  Convention  of  the  Scottish  Estates,  and 
March,  take  upou  himself  the  rule  of  the  country  in 

1689.  jj^g  meantime.     William  did  both  the  things 

they  asked  ;  and  in  March  1689  the  Scottish  Convention 
came  together  in  Edinburgh. 

2.  James  had  still  some  friends  left  him  in  Scotland. 

Chief  among  these  was  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse, 

now  \'iscount  Dundee,  who  worked  hard  to 

Graham  of  .  .  . 

ciaver-  make  a  party  m  the  Convention  m  favour  01 

house.  j^jg  Qjj  master.    When  he  failed  he  rode  away 

with  fifty  horsemen  to  his  castle  in  Angus.  The  Estates 
at  once  went  swiftly  to  work.  They  voted  that  James,  by 
William  and  ^^^  2iZ\.'i  of  injustice  and  tyranny,  had  fore- 
^'•''O'  faulted  [forfeited')    the   throne,  and   was  no 

chosen  \j     j  i 

King-at.d         longer  kmg,  and  agreed  to  ask  William  and 

Of 

Scmland  Apiary  to  become   King  and  Queen  of  Scot- 

1689-  land.     Tliey  also  drew  up  a  statement  of  the 

people's  rights,  which  they  called  the  Claim  of  Right,  and 


i6S9.  Scotland  and  the  Revolution.  9 

told  the  men  whom  they  sent  to  offer  the  crown  to  William 
and  Mary  to  take  care  that  the  new  king  and  queen 
should  promise  to  abide  by  this  claim  as  long  as  they 
reigned.  This  paper  said  that  prelacy,  or  the  rule  of  the 
Church  by  bishops,  was  unbearable,  and  ought  to  be 
done  away  with.  In  May  the  Scottish  crown  was  offered 
to  William  and  Mary  on  these  terms.  They  agreed  to 
them,  and  took  the  oath  in  the  form  which  the  Estates 
had  approved  of  Thus  a  king  and  a  queen  who  had  no 
other  title  to  rule  save  what  Parliament  could  give  them 
were  set  up  in  Scotland  as  well  as  in  England. 

3.  There  were  still  Scotsmen  who  thought  that  the 
Estates  had  been  over-hasty  in  what  they  had  done  ;  and 
there  M'erc  others  who  felt  that  James  was  still  'i^e  High- 
their  lawful  king,  and  that  they  were  bound  to  landers. 
fight  for  him  at  all  risks.  Most  of  the  chieftains  of  the 
Highland  clans  were  of  this  way  of  thinking  ;  and  these 
men  were  able  to  do  much  mischief,  for  their  clans- 
men were  sure  to  follow  them  in  any  cause  with  dog-like 
fidelity.  The  Highlanders  were  a  daring  race,  fond  of 
fighting,  oftr-n  at  war  among  themselves,  and  had  usages 
and  laws  of  their  own. 

Many  Highland  chieftains  now  saw  reason  to  take  up 
arms  for  James  ;  and  a  war  broke  out  which  lasted  for 
almost  a  year.  It  is  true  that  the  largest  clan, 
the  Campbells,  whose  chief  was  the  Earl  of  out  in  Scot- 
Argyle,  was  loyal  to  William  ;  but  most  of  '""''■  '^^9- 
the  other  clans  hated  Argylc  and  looked  upon  his  friends 
as  their  foes.  As  soon,  then,  as  Dundee  came  >nto  their 
country  they  at  once  gathered  round  him.  He  vvas  just 
the  man  to  lead  them,  being  fearless  and  skilful,  fieiy  in 
onset  and  wary  ;  and  he  was  willing  to  let  them  deal 
with  their  foes  their  own  way.  ^  In  May  16S9  some  thou- 
sands of  armed  Highlanders  came  together  in  Lochab^r  ; 
Dundee  put  himself  at  their  head,  and  civil  war  be«p»n. 


lO  Settlement  of  tJic  ConstitJition.     1689-90. 

4.  To  make  head  against  this  danger  General  Hugh 
Mackay  was  sent  from  Edinburgh  with  a  few  thousand 
Batile  of  .  soldiers.  For  a  time  nothing  was  done  ;  but 
^'"','^"  late  in  July  Mackay  led  his  army  through  the 

July,  1689.  wild  pass  of  Killiecrankie.  He  was  making 
for  the  Castle  of  Blair  in  Athol,  which  had  fallen  into 
Dundee's  hands.  But  Dundee  was  too  quick  for  him  ; 
Mackay's  men  had  just  reached  the  head  of  the  pass, 
when,  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  the  Highland  army 
came  down  upon  them.  There  were  only  2,000  High- 
landers against  4,000  trained  soldiers  ;  yet  so  mighty  was 
their  rush  that  in  a  few  minutes  Mackay's  army  was 
broken  in  pieces.  But  a  chance  bullet  smote  down 
Dundee,  and  the  c.iuse  of  James  gained  nothing  by  the 
victory. 

Less  than  a  month  later  the  shame  of  Killiecrankie 
was  wiped  away  by  the  heroic  defence  of  Dunkeld.  A 
Defence  of  short  time  before,  the  Government  had  raised 
Dunkeld,         ^  regiment  from  '  the  wild   western  Whigs,' 

August,  O  O    7 

10^.     "  who  were  such  fierce  Covenanters  that  many 

of  them  thought  it  sinful  to  fight  for  William,  for 
in  England  Wilham  still  upheld  the  bishops.  This 
regiment  was  called  '  Cameronian,'  from  Richard 
Cameron,  a  preacher  who  had  been  killed  in  the  evil 
days.  Sent  as  a  garrison  to  Dunkeld,  they  held  the  cathe- 
dral of  that  place  for  four  hours  of  ihe  night  against  5,000 
Highlanders,  whom  they  beat  off  at  last.  But  their  com- 
mander, W'illiam  Cleland,  a  very  brave  man,  was  killed. 
Ne.\t  year  the  last  remnant  of  the  Highland  army  was 
caught  sleeping,  as  it  lay  in  Cromdale  on  the  Spey,  by  a 
force  sent  from  Inverness,  and  was  easily 
waf  ends,  routed,  This  affair  may  be  said  to  ha\e  ended 
'^9°-  the  war  in  the  Highlands.     Forts  were  built 

to  keep  the  clans  in  awe.  Of  these  the  strongest  v. as 
Fori  William  in  the  west,  named  after  the  king. 


1690-92.       Scotland  and  the  Revolution.  1 1 

5.  Yet  the  clans  which  had  taken  part  in  the  war 
still  held  aloof  from  the  new  Government  ;  and  William 
found  that  other  means  than  war  was  necdtil  to  bring 
them  to  put  themselves  under  his  rule.  He  sent  money 
to  be  divided  among  their  chiefs,  and  let  it  be  made 
known,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  was  ready  to  forgive  all 
who  would  swear,  before  January  i,  1692,  to  be  loyal  to 
him  for  the  future.  When  that  day  came,  it  turned  out 
that  all  had  sworn  but  the  Macdonalds  of  Glencoe. 
Their  chief,  Maclan,  had  put  off  taking  the  Massacre  of 
oath  until  the  latest  day,  and  then,  finding  C'lencoe, 
no  one  at  Fort  William  who  could  lawfully  1692. 
give  it  to  him,  had  to  travel  to  Inverary  in  search  of 
some  one  who  could.  Thus  it  happened  that  Maclan 
was  not  sworn  until  six  days  after  the  time  fixed.  Sir 
[ohn  Dalrymplc,  William's  chief  man  in  Scotland,  wish- 
ing to  strike  a  great  fear  into  the  Highlanders,  whose 
lawless  habits  he  hated,  did  not  tell  the  king  that  Mac- 
lan had  come  in  at  last,  and  got  William  to  sign  a  warrant 
giving  his  Scottish  ministers  power  to  root  out  '  that  sect 
{set)  of  thieves,'  the  men  of  Glencoe.  Accordingly,  in 
February  1692,  a  band  of  soldiers,  led  by  Captain  Camp- 
bell of  Glenlyon,  marched  to  Glencoe,  and  after  having 
lived  as  guests  among  the  Macdonalds  for  twelve  days, 
fell  upon  their  hosts  before  dawn  one  morning  and 
shot  down  thirty  of  them.  The  rest  of  the  tribe,  hearing 
the  peals  of  musketry,  rushed  out  of  their  homes  into 
the  surrounding  mountains,  then  deep  with  snow.  It 
is  thought  that  thirty  more  afterwards  died  of  cold  and 
hunger.  It  was  a  frightful  deed,  and  William  has  been 
greatly  blamed  for  it  ;  but  it  is  hard  to  think  that  he 
looked  forward  to  such  a  thing  being  done  w  hen  he  put 
his  name  to  the  warrant.  Still  when,  some  years  later, 
the  Scottish  Parliament  dragged  the  horrible  thing  to 
light,  William  did  not  punish  as  they  deserved  the  men 


12  Settieuutit  of  ihe  Coiistitutton.       1688-9. 

who  were  chietly  guilty  ;  the  worst  of  them,  Dalrymple, 
he  only  sent  away  from  his  service. 

6.  In  the  meantiine  the  Presbyterian  form  of  Church 
government  had  been  set  up  again  in  Scotland,  and 
henceforth  there  was  less  religious  strife  than  before. 
The  zealous  Whigs  of  the  west  were  indeed  angry  because 
the  Covenant  was  not  also  set  up  again,  but  the  bulk  of 
the  people  were  satisfied. 


CHAPTER    III. 
IRELAND   AND   THE   REVOLUTION. 

I.  Thing?  took  a  very  different  turn  in  Ireland  from 
what  they  had  taken  in  Scotland.  In  that  country  the 
Revolution  led  to  a  long  and  deadly  war,  in  which  nearly 
the  whole  land  had  to  be  conquered  over  again  by  the 
English. 

Ireland,  like  Scotland,  was  in  1688  a  separate  king- 
dom, with  a  Parliament  of  its  own.  But,  unlike  Scotland, 
it  was  not  free  to  act  for  itself  ;  its  Parliament  could  not 
do  what  it  pleased,  as  the  Scottish  Parliament  could  ;  it 
was  generally  believed  in  England  that  Ireland  was 
The  native  nothing  but  an  English  colony,  and  that 
Irish  side         William   and    Mary   became    its    king    and 

with  James,  -  '^ 

1688-91.  queen  when  they  were  chosen  to  the  English 

throne.  Indeed  they  at  once  called  themselves  so. 
Most  of  the  Irish  people,  however,  wanted  to  keep 
James  II.  as  their  king,  because  he  had  the  same  faith 
as  themselves.  But  the  English  settlers,  who  were 
Protestants,  were  afraid  of  being  massacred,  or  at  least 
of  losing  their  lands  and  power  in  the  country,  if  the 
native  Irish  got  the  upper  hand.  Most  of  these,  there- 
fgre,  would  have  no  king  but  William,  and  taking    up 


1689.  Ireland  and  tlte  Revolution,  1 3 

arms,  tried  to  hold  out  against  Tyrconnel,  James's  deputy, 
until  help  should  come  to  them  from  England.  They 
were  not  very  successful  at  first,  and  in  the  The  Kngiish 
beginning  of  1689  had  only  two  strong  places  ^^^^]^^^  "''^^ 
in  their  hands — Londonderry  and  Enniskillen.     William. 

2.  In  March  1689  James  came  to  Ireland  from 
France,  and  set  about  bringing  the  whole  land  under  his 
rule.  He  called  a  parliament  to  meet  him  at 
Dublin,  and  then  went  north  to  join  his  army  wTreiand!" 
which  was  marching  to  besiege  Londonderry.  '^^^ 
In  this  city  were  gathered  many  thousands  of  the 
English  settlers  who  had  fled  from  their  homes  through 
fear  of  the  Irish.  They  were  bent  on  resisting  to  the 
last,  and  would  not  listen  to  James,  who  otilercd  to  for- 
give thcni  if  they  would  yield  at  once.  Thereupon 
James  went  back  to  Dublin  ;  and  the  siege  of  London- 
derry began. 

This  siege  lasted  for  more  than  three  months.     Some 
people   look   upon   it   as   the   greatest   siege    in   British 
history.     At  'first  the   Irish  sought  to  batter 
down  the  town   with  cannon  ;  but   the  men     i.ondon- 
inside  had  made  up  their  minds  to  bear  any-     ^'^'"y-  '^Sg. 
thing  rather  than  give  way.     Then   Richard    Hamilton, 
the  Irish  general,  tried  to   take  the  place   by  storm  ;  but 
the  men  of  Derry  fought  well,  and  Hamilton  had  to  call 
back  his  soldiers.     The  Irish   then  waited  cjuietly  until 
want  of  food  should  force  the  townsmen  to  give  in.     At 
length,    when  all  seemed  over,    three    ships,   sent  from 
England,  made  their  way  up  the  river   Foyle,  on  which 
the  town  is  built,  in  spite  of  the  Irish,  and   brought  food 
to  the  starving  people.     Then  the  besiegers 
lost   heart   and   marched   away.     About   the     Au^st?'^^  * 
same  time  not  only  was  Enniskillen  relieved,     '^^' 
but   its   defenders  attacked  a  large  body  of  Irish  horse 
near  Newtonbutler,  and  put  them  to  flight. 


14  Settlement  of  the  Co>istitution.     1689-90. 

3.  The  war  had  now  become  one  of  races  and  reh- 
gions.  Nearly  all  the  Protestants  distrusted  James,  and 
held  to  William  ;  and  the  Irish  longed  only  to  drive  the 
English  from  the  land,  and  get  it  to  themselves.  They 
did  not  care  for  James  because  he  was  their  rightful  king, 
Doings  of  but  they  fought  for  him  because  he  was  a 
ParHament.  Roman  Catholic,  and  because  they  hoped  he 
i68g.  -.vould  give  them  the  mastery  of  the  country. 
It  was  patriotism,  not  loyalty,  which  made  them  join 
Janies.  When  Parliament  met,  it  passed  a  bill  for  doing 
away  with  an  Act  of  Settlement  made  in  1663,  that  is, 
for  taking  away  from  most  of  the  English  settlers  the 
lands  which  that  Act  had  secured  to  them.  A  cruel  Bill 
of  Attainder  was  also  carried,  by  which  2,500  persons, 
whose  names  were  given,  weie  ordered  to  deliver  them- 
selves up  before  a  certain  day,  on  pain  of  losing  their 
lands  and  being  put  to  death  without  trial.  James  did 
not  hke  either  of  these  bills  ;  but  through  fear  of  dis- 
pleasing the  Irish  he  agreed  to  them  both,  lliis  did 
him  much  harm  in  England. 

4.  Next  year,  1690,  William  himself  came  to  Ireland. 
Landing  at  Carrickfergus,  he  at  once  pushed  towards 
William  Dublin  with  30,000  troops,  many  of  whom  were 
lands  in  French    Protestants,    Germans,    and    Danes. 

Ireland,  '  ' 

June,  1650.  During  the  winter  King  Lewis  XIV.  of  France 
had  sent  7,000  French  soldiers  to  aid  James  ;  yet  James 
did  not  feel  himself  strong  enough  to  meet  his  son-in-law 
in  the  open  tield.  He  therefore  posted  his  army,  in 
number  about  30,000,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Boyne, 
near  Drogheda,  and  there  awaited  WiUiam's  coming. 
But  William,  on  reaching  the  place,  sent  a  force  to  cross 
the  river  six  miles  higher  up.     When  James, 

Battle  of  the       .        .  ,  ,  .  ,^    ,  ,•  ■    i      i 

Boyne,  fcarmg   that  his   retreat  to    Dublin  might  be 

July.  1690.       ^^,[  QiY^  hurried   with  his   French  soldiers   to 
meet  this  force,  William  led  his  main  body  across  the     - 


169091-        Ireland  ami  the  RtVolutioH.  1 5 

river  in  front.  The  Irish  horse  fought  well,  the  Irish 
foot  badly,  and  WiUiam  won  the  Jay.  James  fled  back 
to  France  ;  and  William  sron  entered  Dublin,  and  put 
the  power  there  into  the  hands  of  the  Protestants.  Then, 
after  taking  several  other  strong  places,  he  led  his  men 
to  Limerick,  which  he  thought  he  could  take  very  easily, 
and  so  end  the  war.  But  there  was  a  valiant  Irish 
general  inside  the  city,  Patrick  Sarshekl,  who  saved 
it  for  a  time.  Then  William  went  back  to  England 
(September  1690}. 

5.  In  June  1691  \\  iiliam's  general,  Ginkell,  a  Dutch- 
man, renewed  the  war  by  taking  Athlone  before  the  eyes 

oftheenemv.     Then  following  the  retreating 

,.,,  '  ,,  ,,•  H.ttleof 

Irish   he   came   u{)    with    them   at  Aughnm.     Aughrim, 

Here  took  place  the  last  pitched  battle  of  this     J"'^''  ''^'• 

war.     The  Irish  were  strongly  posted  ;  and   for  a  time  it 

seemed  as  if  they  were  going  to  win.     Puit  their  general, 

St.  Ruth,  got  killed  by  a  cannon-ball  ;    one   last  fierce 

onset  was  made  by  f.inkell's  men  ;  and  the  disheartened 

Irish  broke  and   fled.     In  another  month   Ginkell  was 

before    Limerick,   the   last    refuge   of  the   native    race. 

There  vvas  little  hope  of  their  being  able   to  beat   back 

their  foes  this  time.     A  treaty  was  made  in 

which  the  victors  pledged  themselves  to  let     Limenck, 

the  Irish  worship  God  in  their  own   way  as     '^''• 

freely  as  they  had  done  in  Charles  ll.'s  time,  and  to  allow 

those  soldiers  of  King  James  who  had  come  from  certain 

counties  to  keep  the  lands  they  had  in  the  same  king^s 

reign.     Many    thousands   of    the    Irish    sailed   away   to 

France,  where  they    entered  the  army  of  King  Lewis. 

Ireland  once  more  lay  at  the  feet  of  tlie  English. 

6.  The  treaty  of  Limerick  was  not  kept,  though 
William  was  eager  that  it  should  be.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ment would  not  be  bound  by  it,  and  made  law  af.er  law 
to  take  away  utterly  from   the  natives   everything  they 


l6  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1689. 

most  valued.  To  Protestants  only  was  given  any  power 
in  the  State  ;  and  even  those  Protestants  who  dissented 
from  the  Church  could  not  sit  in  Parliament  or  hold 
any  place  under  the  Crown.  The  law  forbade  Roman 
Catholics  to  send  their  children  to  schools  of  their  own 
The  Irish  either  at  home  or  abroad,  to  buy  lands,  to  vote 
penal  laws.  fpj.  niembcrs  of  Parliament,  to  keep  arms,  to 
gain  lands  by  marrying  Protestant  heiresses,  or  to  inherit 
lands  from  Protestants.  Roman  Catholic  bishops  were 
to  be  banished  from  the  country  ;  the  priests  then  in 
Ireland  were  allowed  to  stay  on  giving  in  their  names  to 
the  Government  ;  but  care  was  to  be  taken  that  no  others 
should  come  to  the  conntry.  Every  Roman  Catholic 
was  believed  to  be  a  rebel  ;  and  Parliament  wanted  to 
make  the  whole  Irish  people  Protestant.  Thus  the 
Revolution  was  far  from  being  a  blessing  to  the  greater 
part  of  the  Irish  nation. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   WILLIAMITE    WAR    WIIH    FRANCE. 

I    From  the  summer  of  1689  to  the  summer  of  1697, 

England  was  waging  a  fierce  and  costly  war  with   Lewis 

XIV.   of  France.     In  this   war  the   English 

War  with  ,  , 

France,  spent  more  money  and  made  greater  ettorts 

1689-97.  than  in  any  previous  one  ;  but  they  could  not 

help  engaging  in  it.  It  was  part  of  the  price  they  had 
to  pay  for  getting  rid  of  the  Stuarts  and.  making  their 
freedom  safe.  In  1689  they  had  to  choose  between  a 
war  with  France  or  taking  back  James  as  their  king. 

From  his  youth  up  William  had  been  the  steady  foe 
of  the  French  king.  Lewis  XIV.  was  a  very  unpleasant 
neighbour  ;  he  had  a  large  and  well-trained  army,  and 


1689.       The  Williamite  War  zuith  France.         1 7 

skilful   generals,   and  often    used   his   strength    to   seize 
lands  and  towns  which  belonged  to  Germany  or  Spain. 
Once  indeed   (1672)  he  had  sent  an  army  into     ,,..„. 
Holland;  and  ever  after  William  thought  of     1 11.  and 
nothing  so  much  as  how  to  take  away  Lewis's     Lewis 
strength  from  him.     It  was  this  deep  feeling  of  dislike  of 
Lewis,  and  dread  that  his  power  would  do  lasting  harm 
to  the  other  States  of  Europe,  that  made  William  wish  to 
overthrow  James  II.'s  rule  in   England.     He  knew  that 
so  long  as  James  was  king,  England  would  not  only  take 
no  part  against  Lewis,  but  might  even  help  Lewis  against 
William  and  his  friends.     He  also  knew  that  there  was 
little  chance  of  beating  France  in  war  if  England  stood 
apart.     William  was  of  course  glad  to  be  able  to  save 
English  Protestantism  and  freedom  ;  but  he  wanted  above 
all  things  to  draw  England  into  the  Grand  .\lliance  which 
Spain,  Germany,  and  Holland  had  then  formed  against 
Lewis  XIV.     Lewis  was  well  aware  that  this     Warwiih 
was  William's  aim  ;    he  was    afraid   that,   if    ^^^^l_ 
England   were   added  to  the  number  of  his     May.  ^'^^■ 
enemies,  he  might  lose  his  lordly  place  in  Europe.    There- 
fore he  determin    !  to  try  and  set  James  again  on  the 
English  throne.      1  ii'  s  war  with  France  came  soon  after 
the  Revolution. 

2.  In  this  struggle  England  had  many  allies — the 
Empire,  Spain,  Brandenburg  (the  Prussia  of  our  own 
times),  arid  even  Savoy.  This  array  of  States  xhe  Grand 
against  France  was  called  the  Grand  Alliance.  Alliance. 
But  France  was  then  so  mighty  a  power  ;  King  Lewis 
had  so  many  and  such  good  soldiers,  and  such  wise 
ministers  and  able  generals,  that  William  with  all  his 
allies  was  not  able  to  do  him  nearly  so  much  harm  in 
this  war  as  he  had  hoped.  Indeed,  most  of  the  battles 
in  it  were  won  by  the  French.  One  thing  \ery  much 
strengthened   Lewis  against  William — every  army   that 

E.  }!.  C 


1 8  Settlemetit  of  the  Constitution.        1689-92. 

fought  for  him  did  what  it  was  bid  and  at  the  time  it 
was  bid,  whereas  William  could  not  always  gel  the 
Spaniards  or  Germans  to  come  to  him  just  when  he 
needed  them.  In  this  way  Lewis  was  able  to  tike  for- 
tresses from  William  before  the  smaller  aiTnies  that 
made  up  William's  big  army  could  be  brought  together. 

3.  For  the  first  two  years  William  was  so  busy  in 
England  and  Ireland  that  he  had  to  leave  the  fighting 
on  the  Continent  to  others.  At  first  things  went  ill  with 
the  English.  Men  in  office  and  men  in  command  were 
sometimes  careless,  and  did  not  do  their  duty.  Even  at 
Battle  of  sea  the  English  were  beaten.  The  day  before 
Head'''  ^^^  battle  of  the  Boyne  the  English  and  Dutch 
June,  1690.  fleets  under  the  Earl  of  Torrington  were 
attacked  by  the  French  admiral,  Tourville,  off  Beachy 
Head,  and  were  forced  to  flee. 

4.  Two  years  later  Lewis  and  James  made  a  plan  for 
landing  an  army  in  England,  and  beating  down  William 
Threatened  In  that  way.  They  hoped  that  James's  English 
invasion  of      fn'ends  would  rise  and  join  them,   and  that 

England,  ■' 

1692.  even  the  English  fleet  -would  not  fight  against 

them.  They  had  indeed  good  cause  to  hope  that  this 
would  be  so,  for  some  of  William's  own  servants  had 
written  to  James  promising  to  help  him.  One  of  these 
was  the  chief  admiral  of  the  English  fleet,  Edward 
Russell,  who  had  first  asked  William  to  come  to  England. 
We  mav  be  surprised  to  learn  this,  but  great  men  in 
England  were  then  very  base.  They  thought  only  of 
themselves,  and  were  ready  to  join  one  king  or  the  other 
according  as  each  seemed  likely  to  prevail. 

In   May   1692  all  was  ready  ;    30,000  fighting  men, 
mostly  Irish,  were  encamped  near  La  Hogue 

Battle  of  .        -  T  1  •   •  1  -1 

La  Hogiie,  m  Normandy,  waiting  to  be  carried  over  to 
May,  1692.  England.  Tourville  then  sailed  out  with  his 
fleet  to  meet  Russell.     The  English  and  Dutch  at  once 


1692-97-      ^^^^  Williamite  War  with  France.      19 

closed  with  him  ;  they  had  more  ships  than  the  French, 
who  got  beaten  and  made  for  the  land.  Next  day  the 
victors  gave  chase,  and  falHng  on  the  French  ships  burnt 
or  sank  sixteen  of  the  biggest  of  them.  For  a  time 
there  was  no  more  talk  (<f  invading  England. 

5.  By  land  William  was  less  prosperous.     The  yeai 
before  he  had  lost  Mons  ;  this  year  he  lost    Namur,  and 
wa    defeated  by  the  French  general,  Luxem- 
burg, in  the  hard-fought  battle  of  Steinkirk.     steinkirk. 
But   William  was  very   skilful  in   contriving     ■^"'^'  '^'' 
that  the  loss  of  a  battle  should  do  the  least  possible  haim 
to  his  army  ;  a  few  days  after  Steinkirk  he  had  as  strong 
a  body  of  troops  as  before,  and  Luxemburg  dared  not 
try  to  follow  up  his  victory. 

Ne.xt  year  William  was  ag?-.n  beaten.      Luxemburg, 
with  80,000  men,  caught  him  with  only  50,000  near  the 
little  stream   of  Landen,  and   forced  him  to 
give   battle.       He    stubbornly    withstood   the     Landen, 
onsets  of    the   French  for  a  long  time,  but     -'"'^'  '^3' 
had  to  yield  ground  at  last.     Again  William  soon  filled 
up  the  gaps  in  his  army,  and  the  French  gained  little  by 
their  victory. 

6.  In  1695  the  fortune  of  war  changed.     Both  parties 
had  been  much  weakened  by  the  struggle,  but  England 
less  than   France.      Death,  too,  had    carried     wiiiiam 
off  Lewis's  great  general,  Luxemburg.      Ac-     ^amur 
cordingly  when  William  laid  siege  to  Namur     1695- 

the  French  were  unable  to  drive  him  off,  and  William 
took  the  place.  This  retaking  of  Namur  was  the  finest 
thing  William  ever  did  in  war.  ll  was  also  the  last  thing 
he  did.  For,  though  the  war  lingered  a  while  longer, 
nothing  worthy  of  mention  was  afterwards  done  in  it.  In 
September  1697  peace  was  made  at  Ryswick. 

By  the  treaty  then  made  Lewis  promised  to  give  up 
helping  James    II.  to  get   back  to  the  English  throne, 

c  2 


20  Settlemait  oj  tlu:  ConstitiUion.  1689. 

and  also  agreed  to  look  upon  Willian"  as  the  lawful  King  of 
England.  It  was  not  a  peace  for  Englishmen  to 

Peace  of  i  o 

Ryswick,        be  pioud  of  ;  but  at  least  it  stopped  a  foreign 
'^^^"  king  from  trying  to  thrust  back  upon  them  a 

ruler  whom  most  of  them  did  not  want. 


CHAPTER    V. 
WILLIAM    in.    AND    HIS    PARLIAMENTS. 

I.  At  no  time  did  Parliament  gain  so  much  that  it 
was  able  to  keep  lastingly,  as  in  William  Ill.'s  reign. 
One  little  fact  is  enough  to  show  what  a  firm  hold 
upon  power  Parliament  got  by  the  Revolution.  During 
the  seven  years  that  went  before  the  meeting  of  the  Con- 
vention only  one  Parliament  was  called,  and  that  one 
was  not  allowed  to  sit  for  quite  two  months  ;  whilst 
MT.y  Par-  during  the  thirteen  years  that  followed  six 
hament  Parliaments   were  chosen,  and   not   a  single 

became  '  ° 

stronger.  year  passed  without  the  Houses  being  brought 

together,  sometimes  twice.  Many  causes  worked  to- 
gether to  make  this  change,  (i)  The  Commons  took  care 
not  to  grant  so  much  money  to  the  king  personally  as 
liad  been  granted  to  King  James,  and  to  make  their 
grants  for  a  short  tinve  only,  not  for  the  king's  life,  as 
formerly.  (2)  The  king's  wars  were  \'ery  costly,  and  he 
had  to  ask  at  least  once  a  year  for  a  great  deal  more 
money  to  keep  up  his  army  and  navy.  (3)  Instead  of 
giving  these  moneys  in  a  lump,  Parliament  appropriated 
the  supplies — that  is,  settled  the  w  ay  in  which  they  were 
to  be  spent,  setting  apart  so  much  for  one  thing,  and 
so  much  for  another.  (4)  The  Mutiny  Bill,  without 
which  the  soldiers  and  sailors  could  not  be  made  to  obey 
their  commanders,  was  passed  for  a  short  time  only,  and 


1689-90.      William  III.  and  his  Parliaments.     21 

Parliament  had  to  be  called  together  to  renew  it.  (1;) 
William  had  no  right  to  be  king  save  the  right  which 
Parliament  had  given  him,  and  therefore  could  not 
afford  to  quarrel  with  it  as  the  kings  before  him  had 
done. 

2.  Things  did  not  go  on  very  smoothly  between 
William  and  his  parliaments.  Now  and  then  a  bad 
feeling  sprang  up  between  them,  and  led  more  than  once 
to  a  serious  misunderstanding.  Throughout  his  reign  the 
Commons  were  bent  on  making  their  power  felt  bv  the 
king  and  his  ministers.  They  looked  into  all  the  busi- 
ness of  the  State,  forced  the  king  to  do  many  things 
which  he  disliked,  made  him  alter  things  which  he  had 
already  done,  and  weakened  his  power  in  many  ways. 

William  did  not  yield  to  the  Commons  without 
making  a  stiff  fight.  It  seemed  to  him  hard  that  he,  who 
had  done  so  much  for  the  people's  rights,  should  have  so 
many  of  his  own  rights  taken  from  him.  He  would  not 
consent  to  some  of  the  bills  which  Parliament  passed 
to  lessen  his  authority.  Thus  he  would  not  wiiimm 
consent  to  a  law  for  making  the   judges  inde-     ,'""'/*. 

"  J       ^  keep  his 

pendent  of  him  ;  or  to  a  law  for  keeping //^tv-  power. 
7nen  (men  who  held  places  under  the  Crown)  out  of  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  or  to  a  law  for  putting  an  end  to 
every  Parliament  three  years  after  it  had  been  first  called 
— the  Triennial  Bill,  as  its  name  was.  Yet  he  was  made 
to  give  way  on  each  of  these  at  some  time  or  other,  for 
there  was  a  line  which  William  dared  not  pass.  He 
never  fully  understood  the  temper  of  the  English,  and  did 
not  always  act  wisely.  He  was  never  altogether  liked  by 
any  class  of  his  subjects. 

3.  His  second  Parliament  did  not  cross  him  so  much 
as  his  first  had  done.  It  gave  him  a  fixed  income  of  about 
1,100,000/.  a  year,  part  of  it  for  life,  part  for  four  years. 
It  was  also  generous  in  voting  ta.xes  to  enable  him  to 


22  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.        1690-94. 

put  large  armies  in  the  held  ;  but  in  doing  so  was  careful 
to  see  that  the  money  raised  was  spent  as  it  wished. 
William's  Two  of  the  plans  it  was  persuaded  to  agree  to 
Hament''^'^  are  noteworthy.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
1690-95.  chequer  of  that  time,  Charles  Montague,  who 

The  origin  became  in  later  days  Earl  of  Halifax,  finding 
National  *^^^  dcbts  of  the  State  growing  bigger  and 
Debt,  1693.  bigger  from  year  to  year,  thought  of  having  a 
standing  debt,  and  laid  the  plan  before  the  Commons. 
They  agreed  to  it  ;  and  in  this  way  the  National  Debt 
began.  This  is  unlike  other  debts  in  that  its  interest 
only  need  be  paid.  When  William  died  the  National 
Debt  had  grown  to  i6,coo,ooo/.  The  other  plan  was  that 
a  Bank  should  be  founded,  which  was  to  have  certain 
powers  of  dealing  in  money  on  condition  of  lending  the 
Government  1,200,000/.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Bank  of  England  (1694). 

4.  William  did  not  give  his  consent  to  all  the  laws 
that  this  Parliament  passed.  In  1693,  '  The  Bill  for  the 
frequent  calling  and  meeting  of  Parliaments,'  known  as 
„  .      .  ,         the  Triennial  Bill,  fell  through  in  this  way  ; 

Triennial  .  '  ,        °  _    .    .  ' 

Bill  passed,  bui  HI  1694  It  was  ag.tin  passed  and  laid 
'^^'^^'  before  the  king.     This  time  he  agreed  to  it ; 

and  henceforth  until  the  reign  of  George  I.  no  king  could 
keep  a  Parliament  longer  than  three  years,  no  matter  how 
well  pleased  he  was  with  it. 

A  few  days  after  this  Bill  became  law,  Mary  the 
Queen  queen  died  of  small-pox.     She  was  a  wise  and 

Mary  dies,      amiable  woman,  much  loved  by  her  husband, 

Uecember, 

1694.  who   was  deeply  grieved  at  her  death.     In- 

deed she  was  a  great  loss  to  him,  for  the  English  people 
had  always  a  kindlier  feeling  for  her  than  ever  they 
had  for  her  husband,  and  their  love  for  her  strengthened 
William's  throne. 

5.  It  is  to  this  Parliament  also  that  the  English  owe 


1694-96.      William  III.  and  Jiis  Parliaments.     23 

the  freedom  of  their  Press.     In  1694,  the  law  which  had 
hitherto  made  it  unlawful  for  >mti;igs  to  be  printed  un- 
less they  had  been  read  and  approved  of  by  the  king's 
licenser  came  to  an  end.     In  1695  the  Commons  would 
not  let  this  law  be  renewed.     After  this  time     ^^^  p^^^^ 
any   Englishman  might  print  or  get  printed     becomes 
anything  he  pleased.     But  the  Courts  might      ''^'^'  ^^'^' 
still  punish  a  man  very  severely  if  he  printed  anything 
which  the  judges  thought  to  be  a  slander  upon  the   Go- 
vernment, for,  until  1792,  the  law  of  libel  was  very  harsh. 

6.  With  most  of  the  four  Parliaments  that  came  after 
this  one,  William  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  His 
ministers  were  not  the  same  as  at  the  beginning  of 
his  reign.  Nottingham,  and  Danby  were  now  gone, 
and  their  places  had  been  given  to  Whigs.  The  wor- 
thiest of  the  Whigs  was  John  Somers,  Lord  Keeper,  who 
was  the  best  lawyer  then  in  England.  But  William  had 
to  change  his  ministers  very  olten.  The  Commons  would 
take  a  dislike  to  the  highest  among  them,  and  would  give 
the  king  no  peace  until  he  sent  them  away.  The  truth  is 
that  government  by  party  was  then  just  beginning.  If 
most  of  the  Commons  were  Whigs,  they  made  Beginning 
the  king  choose  his  ministers  from  among  "|j{,'ern-'" 
the  Whigs  ;  if  most  were  Tories,  from  nient. 
among  the  Tories.  For  the  ministers  could  not  get  on, 
unless  most  of  the  Commons  were  ready  to  vote  for  what 
they  wanted. 

7.  In  1696  the  law  'for  regulating  trials  in  cases  of 
treason  '  wjs  passed.  Men  charged  with  treason  had 
hitherto  little  chance  of  being  found  not  guilty,  so  much 
against  them  were  the  rules  that  the  Courts  of  Law  fol- 
lowed in  trying  them.  They  could  not  have  skilled  law- 
yers to  defend  them ;  those  who  bore  witness  in  their 
favour  could  not  strengthen  their  witness  with  an  oath. 
The  Act   of   1696   did    away    with   these    unfair    rules. 


24  Settlement  of  tlie  Couslittttiou.        1696-99. 

Henceforth  men   put  on    their   trial    for    treason   might 
have  counsel  to  plead  their  cause,  and  were  to  have  lists 
of  the  jurors  and   of   the  witnesses    against 
Law  of  them  given  to  them  some  days  before  the  day 

^  '  named  for   iheir   trial.       Moreo\'er,   two   wit- 

nesses were  henceforth  needed  to  justify  a  jury  in  finding 
the  accused  guilty. 

8.  The  same  year  an  association  was  made  to  pro- 
tect the  life  of  King  William,  hke  the  one  that  was  made 
Assassina-  '"  158410  protcct  Elizabeth.^  Some  wicked 
tion  Plot  rnen  had  bound  themselves  together  to 
Association,  murder  the  king  near  Turnham  Green  as  he 
1696-  .^v^s  i-iding  home  from  hunting.  This  plot 
was  found  out,  and  the  chief  men  engnged  in  it  were 
tried  and  put  to  death.  Then  the  Lords  and  Commons, 
all  but  a  very  few,  of  their  own  free  will  signed  a  bond 
in  which  they  pledged  themselves  to  stand  by  William 
against  James  and  James's  friends,  and  if  barm  befell 
William,  to  take  signal  vengeance  on  his  murderers. 
Their  example  was  followed  by  the  country  at  large,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  put  their  names  to  the  associa- 
tion. It  was  a  grand  outburst  of  loyalty,  and  made  it 
clear  that  the  vast  bulk  of  the  people  were  not  Jacobites. 

9.  Yet  for  the  rest  of  his  hfe  William  had  an  uneasy 
time  in  England.  The  Commons  ivould  ha\e  their  own 
way  in  all  things,  caring  little  how  much  pain  their  doings 
gave  to  the  king,  (i)  William  knew  that  war  with  France 
must  soon  break  out  again,  and  wished  a  good  part  of 
the  army  to  be  kept  up.  But  the  Commons,  especially 
the  Tories,  had  a  horror  of  standing  armies,  and  voted 
,^,    ^     ^      that     all    the    troops    but    7,000   should     be 

The  Dutch  ' 

guards  sent     disbanded.     They  went  further,  and  said  that 
away.  1699      the  king  must  send  back  to  Holland  his  Dutch 

'  See  Epoch  IV.,  p.  72. 


1699-1701-    William  III  and  his  Parliaments.    25 

giiards,  who  came  witli  him  to  England,  and  for  whom 
he  had  a  strong  liking.  William's  feelings  were  deeply 
hurt,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  the  kingdorn 
for  ever  ;  but  from  this  purpose  he  was  turned  aside  by 
the  wise  words  and  firm  qpnduct  of  L.ord  Somers,  who 
was  then  Chancellor,  and  would  not  init  the  Great  Seal  to 
the  paper  in  which  William  gave  up  the  Crown.  (2)  In 
the  same  way  William  was  forced  by  Parliament  to  take 
back  the  lands  in  Ireland  which  he  had  granted  to  some 
of  his  friends.  These  lands  had  belonged  to  Iri.shmen 
who  had  fought  against  the  English  and  so  had  lost  them 
at  the  end  of  the  Irish  war.  From  the  first.  Parliament 
thought  ihat  these  lands  should  be  sold  to  help  to  pay 
the  costs  of  the  war  ;  and  William  had  once  promised  not 
to  do  anything  with  them  without  first  telling  Parliament. 
Yet  he  afterwards  gave  them  to  his  generals  and  ministers. 
Themanwhogot  the  largest  share  was  a  Dutch-  wiiiiam  is 
man,  F>entinck,  Earl  of  Portland,  Wihi-im's     forced  to 

revoke 

closest  friend  for  many  years.  The  Commons  his  grams 
were  very  angry,  and  in  1700  passed  a  bill  for  o"^*"''^- 
taking  back  these  lands  ;  and  to  make  sure  that  the 
Lords  and  the  king  would  not  refuse  tl  e  bill,  they 
'tacked'  it  to  a  bill  granting  the  king  money,  so  as  to 
make  one  law  of  the  two  things.  The  will  of  the  Com- 
mons prevailed,  such  strength  did  'the  power  of  the 
purse '  give  ihem. 

10.  William  and  Mary  had  no  children  ;  and  in  1700 
the  young  Duke  of  Gloucester,  the  only  child  of  Anne 
that  lived  beyond  infancy,  died.  There  was  now  no 
hope  of  there  being  anyone  to  inherit  the  crown  by  ihe 
Bill  of  Rights  after  the  death  of  William  and  of  Anne. 
In    1701,   therefore.    Parliament   settled    the     „„ 

1         r-i  o       1   •         /■    TT  the  Act  of 

ciuvvn  on  the   Electress  Sophia  of  Hanover,     Settlement, 

and  her  heirs.     Sophia  was  one  of  the  children     '""" 

of  that  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  I.,  who  in  1613  had 


26  Settlenieitt  of  the  Constitution.  1701. 

married'  the  Palsgrave  Frederick.  She  was  chosen  to 
come  after  William  and  Anne  because  she  was  the 
nearest  to  the  Stuart  line  who  was  a  Protestant.  The 
law  that  did  this  is  called  the  Act  of  Settlement ;  it  gives 
Queen  Victoria  her  title  t(j  the  throne.  Parliament  in 
passing  it  tried  to  make  the  nation's  liberties  still  safer. 
It  was  now  made  impossible  (i)  for  any  foreigner  to  sit  in 
Parliameni.  or  to  hold  an  office  under  the  Crown  ;  (2)  for 
the  king  to  go  to  war  in  defence  of  countries  that  did  not 
belong  to  England,  unless  Parliament  gave  him  leave  ;  or 
(3)  to  pardon  anyone  so  that  the  Commons  might  not  be 
able  to  impeach  him. 

11.  One  clause  of  this  law  brings  before  our  minds  a 
great  change  that  had  then  taken  place  in  the  way  of 
ruling  the  kingdom.  By  ancient  usage  the  Privy 
Council  was  the  body  from  v.'hich  the  king  was  bound 
to  seek  advice  in  matters  of  State  ;  but  of  later  years 
the  king  had  fallen   into  the  habit  of  letting  his  leading 

ministers  only    into  his  secrets,  and  a  body 
Cabinet  much     Smaller     than     the     Privy     Council, 

formed.  called  the  Cabal  or  Cabinet,  was  gradually 

formed.  But  the  Commons  got  uneasy  about  this  new 
body  ;  it  kept  its  doings  carefully  hid  from  every- 
one, and  there  was  no  means  of  finding  out  which 
of  its  members  advised  the  king  to  any  course  which  the 
Commons  might  think  harmful  to  the  country  ;  for  the 
king's  ministers  had  now  come  to  be  answerable  to  Par- 
liament for  everything  the  king  did.  An  attempt  was 
made  in  this  new  bill  to  give  back  to  the  Privy  Council 
all  its  old  strength,  and  so  check  the  growth  of  the 
Cabinet.  But  nothing  came  of  it  ;  this  part  of  the  Act  01 
Settlement  was  done  away  with  in  the  next  reign. 

12.  The  Commons  were  growing  more  and  more 
unruly,  when  suddenly  a  foolish  step  taken  by  King 
Lewis  delivered  William  from  them.     In  September  1701 

'  See  Epoch  V.    p.  8. 


I70I  2.        William  III.  and  his  Par lianieuts.     27 

James  II.  died  at  St.  Germains  ;  and  Lewis  took  it  upon 
him  to  publicly  hail  James's  son,  James  Kdward,  as  King 
of  England.     This  uncalled-for  meddling  in 

,  James  II. 

their  affairs  greatly  enraged  the  English  ;  and  dies,  S.  p« 
William  seized  the  chance  of  getting  rid  of  his  '^°' 
troublesome  Parliament.  He  dissolved  it.  and  called  an- 
other. Most  of  the  members  chosen  to  this  one  were 
we]l-disposedtohim,and  wished  to  wosk  heartily  with  him. 
There  was  now  a  general  eagerness  for  war  with  France; 
and  William  set  briskly  about  getting  the  nation  ready. 
To  tell  the  story  of  this  great  war,  one  of  the  greatest  in 
our  history,  will  be  the  chief  task  of  the  next  book. 


BOOK     11. 
WAR    OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION. 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE   CAU.SES   OF   THE   WAk. 

1.    The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  is  so  called 
because    it    was    fought    to   decide  who  should  succeed 
Charles  II.  on  the  throne  of  Spain.    We  might     War  of  the 
think  it  mattered  little  to  Englishmen  whether     fliccessioo, 
the  king  of  Spain  was  an  Austrian  or  a  French-     1702-13- 
man.     But  ihe  chief  desire  of  William's  heart  was  to  see 
England    throwing   all    her   strength    into    the    struggle 
against  the  French  king's  greed.     To  gratify  this  desire 
he  bore  patiently  with  the  unruly  temper  and  thirst  for 
power  of  many  of  his  Parliaments,  and  allowed  much  of 
the  royal  authority  to  slip  away  from  him.     In  the  main 
he  was  successful  ;  owing  to  his  efforts  England  won  a 
place  in  the  front  rank  of  European  Powers  which  she 
has  never  since  lost.     William  made    England  feel  that 


28  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1698. 

she  was  concerned  in  everything  which  concerned  the 
cause  of  liberty  in  Europe. 

2.  Moreover,  England's  right  of  settling  her  own  affairs 
without  foreign  meddling  was  at  stake.  Lewis  XIV.,  as 
being  an  absolute  prince  and  a  Roman  Catholic,  had  a 
natural  feeling  of  enmity  towards  a  free  and  Protestant 
State,  such  .Ts  England  became  after  i6f^8.  He  hated  the 
Revolution  and  longed  to  put  it  down.  If  he  had  been 
victorious  in  this  war,  doubtless  the  Stuart  line  would 
have  been  restored  to  the  English  throne.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  after  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment it  became  a  necessary  part  of  the  new  order  of 
things,  that  the  House  of  Hanover  should  succeed  Anne 
in  the  kingship.  The  friends  of  the  Revolution  felt  that 
all  would  be  lost  if  this  arrangement  were  not  carried  out  ; 
therefore  they  pushed  forward  the  war  with  France  with 
the  utmost  earnestness.  So  that  in  fighting  to  place  an 
Austrian  prince  on  the  Spanish  throne  the  English  were 
in  reality  fighting  for  what  they  most  cherished — national 
freedom. 

3.  The  war  came  about  in  this  way.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Charles  II.  of  Spain 
The  was  clearly  drawing  near  his  end.  He  had  no 
claimants  of    children  ;    and    his    nearest    of  kin    was    the 

the  Spanish 

crown.  Dauphin  of  France.     Next  in  order  of  kinship 

came  Joseph,  eldest  son  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  ;  and 
after  him  the  Emperor    Leopold.'       But   the   dauphin's 

'  Table  showing  the  Spanish  descent  of  the  above-named  persons  : — 
Philip  IU. 

\ 

..I  I 

Philip  IV.  Mary  Anne. 


I  .1  .  I  ' 

Charles  II.  Mari.a  Theresa= Lewis  XIV.  Margaret  =  Leopold,  the  Emperor. 

I       .  .    ' 

The  Dauphin.  Marj-  Antoinette  =  Elector  ot  Bavaria. 

I  I 

Philip,  Duke  of  Anjou.         Joseph,  the  Electoral  Prince, 


i6q8-i7oo.         The  Causes  of  the  War.  29 

mother  and  JosepJi's  grandmother  had,  when  leaving 
Spain,  solemnly  laid  aside,  for  themselves  and  those  who 
might  spring  from  them,  all  claim  to  the  Spanish  crown. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  stood  in  the  way  of  Leopold.  It  was 
the  belief  of  some,  however,  that  no  one  has  power,  bj 
any  words  or  acts,  to  bar  his  or  her  descendants  from 
anything  to  which  they  may  come  to  have  a  right ;  and 
that,  therefore,  the  dauphin's  claim  to  succeed  King 
Charles  was  still  a  good  one.  Yet  it  was  certain  that, 
however  good  his  claim  might  be,  the  other  European 
States  would  not  stand  still  and  see  the  almost  boundless 
Spanish  Empire — Spain,  Naples,  Sicily,  Milan,  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  and  the  Indies — go  to  swell  the 
dominions  of  the  mightiest  prince  of  Europe  ;  for  the 
dauphin  or  his  heir  must  sooner  or  later  become  king 
of  Fiance.  On  the  other  hand  Lewis  would  be  sure  to 
oppose  with  all  his  power  the  union  of  the  Spanish  and 
iVustrian  dominions.  William  and  Lewis  at  The  First 
first  thought  it  possible  to  settle  the  question  ^^eaty"* 
by  a  friendly  arrangement.  In  1698  they  1698. 
made  a  treaty — the  First  Partition  Treaty,  as  it  is 
called — with  each  other.  By  this  Joseph  was  to  get  the 
kingdom  of  Spain,  the  Indies,  and  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands ;  while  some  regions  near  the  Pyrenees,  Naples, 
and  Sicily,  were  to  go  to  the  dauphin,  and  Milan  to  the 
Archduke  Charles,  second  son  of  the  emperor.  This 
treaty  might  have  saved  Europe  frora  war  ;  but  a  few 
months  after  it  was  made  Joseph  suddenly  died,  and  his 
death  spoiled  the  plan. 

4.  The  two  kings  then  tried  to  hit  Vipon  a  new  plan. 
Early  in  1700  the  Second   Partition   Treaty  was  signed. 
By   this  the   Archduke  Charles  was  to  have     The  Second 
Spain,    the    Netherlands,   and    the    Indies;     x^^^'j'"" 
Milan — with  power  to  exchange  it  for  Lor-     -700. 
raine — was    added   to    the   dauphin's   share.     But    this 


30  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.         1700-1. 

making  of  treaties  all  turned  out  wasted  labour.  Before 
the  year  was  over  Charles  II.  died,  leaving  by  will  Spain 
The  Duke  and  all  the  countries  belonging  to  Spain  to 
KingoT  '^^  Duke  of  Anjou,  second  son  of  the 
Spain,  1700.  dauphin  ;  and  Lewis,  in  utter  disregard  of  the 
treaty  he  had  signed,  accepted  the  bequest  for  his  grand- 
son. Anjou  at  once  became  King  of  Spain  as  Philip  V. 
Shortly  afterwards  virar  broke  out  between  Lewis  XIV. 
and  the  Emperor  (1701). 

5.  At  first  it  seemed  as  if  the  King  of  England  would 
have  to  look  on  and  see  the  great  game  played  out  with- 
Th  Com  ^^^  hini.  Parliament  had  grown  angry  about 
monsget  the  Partition  Treaties  ;  and  William  dared  not 
^h^trea-  cvcn  speak  of  war  to  it.     Most  of  the  Coni- 

nes, 170T.  mons  thought  that,  in  making  those  treaties, 
the  King  had  shown  small  regard  for  English  interests  ; 
and,  moreover,  it  was  soon  found  out  that  they  had  been 
made  in  a  way  by  which  the  rules  of  the  Constitution  had 
been  broken.  Throughout  his  reign  William  was  his 
own  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  and  in  arranging  the 
terms  of  the  first  treaty  had  told  no  one  of  his  English 
ministers  anything  about  them.  Somers,  the  Chancellor, 
had  even  put  the  Great  Seal  to  a  paper  in  which  blanks 
were  left  for  the  names  of  the  men  who  should  sign  for 
England.  These  and  other  awkward  things  came  out  ; 
Impearh-  and  the  Commons  straightway  impeached 
Whi'  °^  '^"^  Somers  and  three  other  lords.  The  king  was 
Lonis,  1701.  so  disheartened  by  the  turn  things  had  taken 
that  he  recognised  Philip  as  King  of  Spain.  He  was 
afraid  the  Commons  would  make  him  do  this  some  time 
or  other.  The  Lords,  however,  were  not  of  the  same 
mind  as  the  Commons,  and  cunningly  contrived  that  the 
impeachment  of  Somers  and  his  friends  should  come 
to  nothing.  The  feeling  of  Englishmen  generally  was 
rather  in  favour  of  the  course  which  William  desired  to 


I70I-2.  The  Causes  of  the  War.  3 1 

take,  and  soon  the  Commons  themselves  came  to  see 
that  England  must  shortly  join  in  the  war.  Then  King 
Jarnes  died  ;  and  Lewis  took  the  ^atal  step  of  putting 
forward  James's  son  as  King  of  England.  The  nation  at 
large  felt  this  to  be  a  gross  insult ;  Tories  and  Whigs 
called  loudly  for  war.  The  new  Parliament  passed  laws 
of  the  utmost  severity  agamst  the  JacobiteSj  and  heartily 
voted  large  sums  for  the  army  and  navy.  William  went 
zealously  to  work  to  get  the  nation  ready  for  the  great 
struggle. 

6.  But  William's  end  was  now  near  ;  he  did  not  even 
live  to  see  war  declared.     Early  in   1702  he  was   thrown 
from  his  horse  and  broke  his  collar-bone.    He     Death  of 
had  never  been  a  strong  man  ;  and  of  late  his     JJ'"'h'"' 
health  had  been  growing  worse.     His  feeble     '702. 
body  had  not  now  enough  strength  to  bear  up  against  the 
shock.      On  March  8,  1702,  he  died  at  Kensington.     He 
was  but  fifty-two  years  old. 

WilHam  was  a  little,  meagre  man,  with  a  thin,  worn- 
looking  face.  He  talked  little  save  to  his  closest  friends, 
was  seldom  cheerful  save  in  battle,  had  a  blunt  wiiiiam  s 
way  of  speaking,  and  cared  nothing  for  lite-  character, 
rature  or  art.  But  his  heart  was  strong  and  tender  ;  he 
was  borne  away  fainting  from  his  wife's  dying  bed,  and 
a  lock  of  her  hair  was  found  over  his  heart  after  his 
death.  He  had  some  grave  faults  ;  but  on  the  whole 
his  character  was  noble.  He  was  the  last  of  our  great 
kings. 


CHAPTER    II. 

'JH  K   WAR    ITSELF. 


I.  The  Bill  of  Rights  had  settled  who  was  to  take  the 
crown  after  William's  death.     Anne,  second  daughter  of 


32  Settlement  of  the  CGUsiittttion  \^o^. 

James  II.,  at  once  became  queen.     She  was  thirty-seven 
years  old,  and  was  married  to  Prince  George  of  Denmark  ; 
but  she  was  childless,  though  she  had  borne 
Queen,  many  children.    She  was  dull-wiited,  but  kind- 

March,  hearted,   was   easily   led    by    anyone    whom 

1702-  '  J  J         . 

August,  she    trusted   and   loved  ;    but   nothing   could 

'^''**'  move   her    when    her   mind    was  made    up. 

For  many  years  after  her  coming  to  the  throne,  almost 
the  whole  power  of  the  State  was  in  the  hands  of  John 
Churchill,  whom  Anne  made  Duke  of  Marl- 
Duke  of  borough.  Churchill,  the  son  of  a  Devonshire 
u^^''  u          aentleman,  had  risen  to  wealth  and  honours  by 

borough,  o  ^  J 

b.  1650;  the  kindness  of  James  II.,  and  had  won  fame 

■  '^^^'  as  a  soldier  in  the  Low  Countries  and  at  Sedge- 

moor."  But  in  168S  he  deserted  James,  and  did  much 
to  make  his  overthrow  sure.  He  is  charged  with  having 
been  false  to  William  also.  William,  however,  forgave 
him,  took  him  into  favour,  and  marked  him  out  for  high 
command  in  the  coming  war.  Marlborough  was  a 
general  of  wonderful  skill,  firmness,  and  daring  ;  he  had 
a  temper  that  nothing  could  ruffle,  and  a  rare  power  of 
working  upon  the  minds  of  men.  But  he  was  over-fond 
of  heaping  up  riches,  and  is  said  to  have  cared  little  for 
anvthing  but  his  wife  and  his  own  greatness.  This  wife, 
Sarah  Jennings,  was  in  many  ways  as  remarkable  as 
himself.  She  was  a  woman  of  great  force  of  character 
and  overbearing  temper,  but  was  deeply  loved  by  her 
husband.  Indeed  her  husband  owed  his  greatness 
larscely  to  her  ;  for  Anne  had  from  her  early  days  been 
very  fond  of  Lady  Marlborough,  and  w^as  always  ready 
to  do  whatever  she  wished.  That  they  might  talk  and 
write  to  each  other  with  greater  ease  Anne  called  her 
friend  Mrs.  Freeman,  and  was  in  turn  known  to  Lady 
Marlborough  as  Mrs.  Morley.     The  Queen  gave  herself 

1  See  Epoch  \^,  p.  74. 


1702.  The  War  Itself.  33 

up  altogether  to  lier  friend's  guidance  ;  and  in  this  way 
Marlborough  became,  on  William's  death,  the  most 
powerful  man  in  England. 

2.  Lord  Ciodolphin,  a  wary  and  experienced  statesman, 
was  made  Lord  High  Treasurer,  then  the  highest  Minister 
of  the  Crown.     Marlborough  and  Godolphin     .j.^ 

were  Tories,  and  put  none  but  Tories   into     Ministry 
the  other  important  posts.     But  after  a  time     Owiolphin, 
a  change  came  over  their  views.     The  Tories     '702-i7"°- 
were    lukewarm    in    upholding    the   war  ;     the    Whigs 
warmly  pressed  it   on  ;  and   therefore   Marlborough  and 
Godolphin,  who  were  all  for  war,  kept  drawing  farther 
from  the  Tories  and  closer  to  the  Whigs.     Thus,  as  time 
went  on,  the  Tory  members  were  ever\  now 

W.ir  de- 

and  then  dropping  off  from  the   Ministry  and     lUred, 
the   Whigs   were  joining  it,  until  it   became     '^'"'y'  '^°''- 
altogether   Whig.       Almost   the   first   act    of    the   new 
Ministry  was  to  declare  war  with  France.     Marlborough 
was  named  Captain-General  of  the  land  forces. 

3.  England  had  never  yet  engaged  in  a  war  that 
spread  so  far  and  wide  over  the  earth  as  this  one.  It 
was  canied  on  at  the  same  time  in  the   Low 

/->  •         •      f       •       •       1       1.1     1-  r-  1  he  w.ir  m 

Countries,  m  Spam,  m  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  the  Low 
and  in  the  West  Indies.  Its  greatest  battle  <-:">'"'"«■''• 
was  fought  in  Germany.  Ikit  its  chief  scene  of  action 
was  the  Spanish  Netherlands — the  country  that  is  now 
called  Hclgium— and  the  parts  of  France  that  lay  near. 
The  armies  there  were  led  by  Marlborough.  They  were 
made  up  of  men  from  many  lands — English,  Dutch, 
Prussians,  and  Hanoverians— all  of  whom  cheerfully 
obeyed  the  great  English  general. 

4.  No  grand  deed  of  arms  was  done  by  Marlborough's 
army  for  the  first  two  years.  The  French  stood  on  the 
defensive;  and  Marlborough  was  much  hampered  by  the 

E.  H.  D 


34  Settlcvicut  of  the  Constitution.     1702- 


04. 


Dutch,  who  would  not  let  him  give  battle  when  he 
wished.  He  had  to  rest  content  with  taking  several 
strongholds.  But  in  1704  the  English  captain  struck  a 
mighty  blow  at  the  power  of  France.  Finding  in  that 
year  that  the  French  and  their  allies,-  the  Bavarians, 
were  making  alarming  way  against  the  Austrians  in 
South-western  Germany,  he  marched  his  army  from  the 
Hattle  of  Rhine  to  the  Danube,  and  having  joined  it  to 
AugusT'"'  ^^  Austrian  force  under  Prince  Eugene  of 
'704-  Sa\'oy,came  up  with  the  French  and  Bavarianii 

at  Blenheim.  There,  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  was 
fought  the  battle  which  has  shed  its  chief  lustre  on 
Maj-] borough's  name.  Tallard,  the  French  marshal,  had 
about  60,000,  the  Englishman  about  50,000  men  under  his 
command.  For  a  whole  day  the  French  held  their 
ground  manfully,  driving  back  the  Allies  at  almost  ever)- 
point.  At  last,  in  the  evening,  Marlborough  led  a  ge- 
neral assault  along  the  whole  line  ;  the  French  army 
was  cut  in  two,  and  utterly  routed.  It  was  a  crushing 
defeat  ;  almost  two-thirds  of  the  beaten  army  were  killed, 
wounded,  or  made  prisoners.  Tallard  himself  fell  into 
Marlborough's  hands.  The  pride  of  Lewis  XIV.  was 
humbled  at  last. 

5.  Ten  days  before  the  battle  of  Blenheim  an  English 
admiral  gained  a  success  which,  though  thought  little  of 

at  the  time,  proved  to  be  of  vast  importance. 
Gibrahar,  Early  in  August,  Admiral  Sir  George  Rooke, 
Aug.,  1704.  ^^.j^Q  j^^^  been  cruising  along  the  coast  of 
Spain  all  the  summer,  and  been  able  to  do  nothing-, 
landed  a  few  thousand  seamen  and  marines  near 
Gibraltar,  and  took  tlie  place  with  the  utmost  ease.  This 
fortress  was  kept  by  the  English  when  peace  was  made  ; 
and  every  attempt  to  wrest  it  from  them  again  has  utterly 
failed. 

6.  Next  year  Marlborough  is  again  found  warring  in 


1705-09.  TJie  War  Itself.  35 

the  Low  Countries  ;  and,  though  he  could  get  no  chance 
of  winning  a  great  battle,  he  managed  to  push 
the  French  hard.     But  in  1706  he  again  over-     Ramuife's, 
threw  their  armies,  at  Ramillies  ;   and  nine  of     '^'''>'  '7o6. 
the  strongest  fortresses  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands  were 
the  fruits  of  the  victory.     Another  year  (1707)  of  com- 
parative inactivity  followed.     Then,  in  1708.  a  third  grand 
victory  was  won,  an  1  the  most  skilfull)--managed  siege 
of  the  whole  war  brought  to  a  triumphant  close.     For  the 
French  under  the   Duke  of  Vendome,  having 
laid  siege  to  Oudenarde,  Marlborough  fell  upon     Ondenafde. 
them  and  drove  them  from  their  position.    He     J"'^''  '^°^ 
then  drew  his  army  round  Lille,  perhaps  the  strongest  of 
the  strong  places  on  tlie  French  bt)rder.     The  garrison 
of  Lille  was  commanded  by  Boufflers,   the  general  who 
had  held  Namur  against  William  III.      This 
siege   lasted    more  than   three    months,   and     ijIie^Aug.- 
was  watched   with  eager  interest  throughout     ^^^  •  '7°^- 
Europe.     Prince  Eugene  pushed  forward  the  siege,  while 
Marlborough  kept  off  the  French  army,  which  lay  in  the 
neighbourhood  trying  hard  to  relieve  the  place.      In  the 
end  Boufflers  had  to  yield. 

7.  In  the  campaign  of  1709  the  great  Duke  won  the 
last  and  bloodiest  of  his  successes.  The  French  Marshal, 
Vil]ars,hadentrenchedhisarmyat  Maiplaquet;  ' 

and  the  allies  had  to  carry  by  storm  strongly  Maiplaquet, 
fortified  heights  held  by  90,000  stout-hearted  ^"P'  '  '7°9- 
men.  They  carried  them,  but  at  a  frightful  cost— a  loss  of 
20,000  killed  and  wounded.  The  next  two  campaigns 
were  not  marked  by  any  very  striking  event.  But  many 
towns  were  taken,  and  France  itself  was  invaded.  The 
upshot  of  Marlborough's  fighting  was,  that  the  French 
were  swept  out  of  the  Netherlands,  their  renown  in  war 
was  lost,  and  their  kingdom  was  drained  of  well-nigh  all  its 

D  2 


36 


Settlement  of  the  Constitution.     1705-  to. 


stiength.  Not  often  has  a  great  nation  beeii  brought  so 
low  as  France  was  in  this  war  by  Marlborough. 
But  in  17 1 2  the  great  soldier  was  disgraced; 
and  tlie  Duke  of  Ormond  was  sent  to  tak.c  his 
command.     How   such  a  thing  as  this  came 

to  be  done   will  be   explained  farther  on.      Ormond  did 

nothing  worth  mentioning  here. 

8.   During  these  years  the  war  was  going  on  in  Spain 


The  com- 
mand taken 
from  Marl- 
borough, 
Jan.  I,  1711.. 


■^  THE 

T-OW  C  OUNTRTES 

and 


also.     There  the  Alhes   were  not  so  successful,  perhaps 
because  they  had  not  a  general    like   Marl- 
SpaitT^o"-     borough  to  lead   them.      In   Spain  an  eftbrt 
»7i2-  was  made  to  carry  out  directly  the  chief  pur- 

pose ot  the  Allies— to   dethrone   Philip  and   set  up  the 


I705-I7I3- 


The  War  Itself.  37 


Archduke  Charles  as  King.  And  in  1705  the  Archduke, 
calling  himself  Charles  III.,  went  to  the  country  under 
the  guard  of  an  English  fleet.  But  most  of  the  Spaniards 
favoured  the  French  prince  ;  and  Charles  never  had  a 
chance  of  winning  the  crown  in  this  way  and  keeping  it. 
It  is  true  there  were  some  valiant  deeds  done  by  the 
English  in  Spain.  In  1705  the  Earl  of  Peterborough  took 
Barcelona  with  a  very  small  force,  and  marched  hither 
and  thither  through  the  eastern  provinces  unchecked. 
And  in  1706  the  Allies,  under  the  Earl  of  Galway, 
advanced  from  Portugal  and  entered  Madrid.  But 
Peterborough's  strange  career  soon  came  to  an  end;  and 
not  only  was  Galway  forced  to  leave  Madrid,     ,^  ^ 

,  .  ,  J         •»  r         .  •  Hefcat  of 

but  m  1707  his  army  was  destroyed.     Yet  this     Almanza, 
overthrow  did  not  end  the  war  in  those  parts.     '^°^' 
In   1 710  the  French  were  beaten  in  their  turn  ;  and  the 
Allies  a  second  time  took  possession  of  Madrid.     Again, 
however,  they  found   it    necessary  to   march     gattles  of 
awav  from  the  place.     As  thev  were   making     Brihuega 

,T-         'iiiiT  ^""  Villa 

for  the  east  coast,  the  French,  led  by  V  en-     vic.osa, 
dome,  overtook  at  Brihuega  their  left  wing,     ^^'^•' '''°' 
which  was  English,  and  commanded  by  General  Stan- 
hope.     Slanhope's  troops   were  surrounded ;    and   after 
some  tough  fighting  had  to  surrender   themselves   pri- 
soners.    Next  day   the  other  Alhes  were  more  prosper- 
ous at  Villa  Viciosa.    Yet  all  they  gained  was  freedom  to 
go  on  to  Barcelona.    This  was  the  last  contest  of  the  war 
in  Spain.     Already,  in   1708,  the  English  had 
conquered    Minorca,   an    island   which   they     Utr»cht, 
afterwards  held  for  seventy  years.     In  1 71 3     '^'3- 
peace  was  made  at  Utrecht. 


38  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.     1702-03. 

CHAPTER    TIL 

CONSTITUTIONAL   HISTORY   DURING   THE  WAR. 

1.  Of  Anne's  reign  it  may  be  said,  as  a  general  truth, 
that  in  it  the  course  of  things  which  had  been  set  going 
HowAnne's     'jndcr  William  went  on  without  check.      In 

fered  from  °'^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  '^'*^  public  life  change  after 
William's  William's  death — there  was  less  strife  between 
Parliament  and  the  Crown,  and  more  between  Whigs  and 
Tories.  Anne  was  an  Englishwoman,  a  Stuart,  and  a 
sound  Churchwoman.  The  Tories  therefore  trusted  her 
far  more  than  they  had  ever  trusted  William,  and  did 
not  seek  to  weaken  the  royal  power  any  further.  More- 
over the  new  setllement  had  seemingly  been  made  safe  ; 
Anne  ciuietly  accepted  the  position  which  the  Revolution 
had  given  her,  and  so  was  allowed  to  enjoy  a  peace  that 
had  been  denied  to  William.  There  was,  however,  great 
stir  and  noise  in  her  time.  Party  spirit  ran  very  high, 
and  Whigs  and  Tories  strove  with  each  other  as  they  had 
seldom  striven  before. 

2.  The  Tories  were  not  just  of  the  same  mind  as  they 
had  been  in  the  days  of  the  Exclusion  Bill.'  They  did 
not  now  struggle  to  keep  the  Crown  powerful  with  the 
same  zeal  as  they  had  then  shown.  They  not  only 
accepted  the  arrangement  made  in  1688-9,  but  they  up- 
held the  authority  of  Parliament  often  with  greater 
earnestness  than  the  Whigs  themselves.  Traces  of  their 
old  faith,  it  is  true,  might  still  be  seen  in  them  ;  they 
Tories  and  would  rather  have  Anne  than  William  on 
Anne's'*  '^^  throne,  because  in  her  title  there  was 
reign.  something  of  hereditary  right ;  and  those  of 
them  who  went  farthest  in  Toryism  were  apt  to  become 
Jacobites.      But   they  mainly  showed  their  Toryism  by 

'  See  Epoch  V.,  p.  69. 


1703-^5-  Constitutional  History  during  the  War.  39 

being  great  friends  of  the  Church,  and  by  dishking  Dis- 
senteis.  They  wanted  to  have  all  the  power  in  the  Com- 
monwealth given  to  Churchmen  alone.  The  Whigs,  on 
the  other  hand,  wished  to  see  all  Protestants  made  equal 
under  the  law.  Moreover,  in  Anne"s  reign  the  Whigs 
were  very  zealous  for  the  war  from  first  to  last  ;  but  the 
Tories  both  were  not  over-warm  in  its  support  at  first 
and  came  to  dislike  it  very  much  at  last. 

3.  The   Commons  in   Anne's   first    Parliament   wero 
mostly  Tories,  and  in  their  very  first  session  carried  a 
law  which  would  have  made  it  quite  impossible  for  any 
Dissenter  to  hold  a  post  under  the  Crown.     But  the  Lords 
threw  out  this  bill,  for  in  those  days  most  of  the   Lords 
were  Whigs.    The  Lords,  as  having  so  much  that  might  be 
lost  by  a  violent  change,  are  mostly  in  favour  of  keeping 
things  as  they  are,  and  accordingly  were  then  in  favour  of 
the  Revolution  Settlement,  which  they  thought  might  -in 
the  long  run  be  upset  if  the  Tories  always  had     Occasional 
their  way.    The  aim  of  this  bill  was  to  prevent     |^"oj'fo''mity 
occasional  con/oriniiy,  as  the  custom  of  taking     «7o.i. 
the  Sacrament  according  to  the  Church  ritual,  just  to  fit 
oneself  for  holding  office,  was  called.   Next  year  the  Lords 
again  threw  it  out.   From  this  time  the  Tories  lost  ground. 


4.  The  war  with  France  was  a  Whig  war.      It 


was 


waged  to  carry  out  the  p'ans  of  William,  who  had  become 
the  great  Whig  hero,   and   sprang  from   the     'ihc  Whigs 
Revolution,  which  had  been  a  triumph  of  Whie     S""""  '^'"^ 
principles.     Marlborough's  victories,  therefore,     'tos- 
spread  a  Whiggish  feeling  through  the  country  ;  and,  in 
1705  a  House  of  Commons  was  chosen  in  which  Whigs 
had  the' mastery.     What  followed  will  show  clearly  how 
the   new  way  of  governing  was   likely   to   work.      The 
Whigs  were  now  so  strong  that  the  .Ministry  could  not  get 
on  without  them.     To  win  them  to  his  side  Marlborough 
had  to  promise  to  get  one  of  their  leading  men,  Charles 


40  Settlaneiit  of  tJie  Constitution.     170008. 

Spencer,  Earl  of  Sunderland,  raised  to  some  high  office. 
But  Anne  liked  the  Tories  better  than  the  Whigs  ;  she 
thought  she  had  a  right  to  choose  her  own  Ministers,  and 
for  a  time  would  not  hear  of  a  place  being  given  to 
Sunderland,  though  he  was  the  husband  of  Marlborough's 
daughter.  Mar'borough  knew  how  necessary  it  was  that 
what  the  Whigs  asked  should  be  done,  and  eagerly 
pressed  it  on.  But  the  queen  was  most  unwilling,  and 
yielded  only  to  Marlborough's  earnest  prayers.  In  De- 
cember 1706  Sunderland  was  made  Secretary  of  State. 
In  1708  the  same  stTOgL;le  took  place  again  on  a 
larger  scale.  The  general  election  of  1708  having  again 
given  the  Whigs  a  majority  in  the  Commons,  the  other 
The  Minis-  W^hig  leaders — the  Whig  Junto,  as  they  were 
tri'be-  called,  of  whom  the  Lords  Somers  and  Whar- 

altogether  ton  Were  the  chief —demanded  to  be  taken 
Whig,  1708.  into  the  Government.  Marlborough,  knowing 
the  dislike  of  Anne  to  the  Whigs,  held  out  for  a  long 
time  against  them  ;  but  they  made  things  so  unpleasant, 
and  there  was  so  much  dread  that  they  would  use  their 
strength  to  work  mischief  to  the  Queen's  friends,  that 
Anne  had  at  last  to  give  offices  to  Somers  and  Wharton. 
Then  the  Ministry  became  purely  Whig. 

5.  The  most  noteworthy  change  of  Anne's  reign  was 
the  Union  of  England  and  Scotland,  the  blending  together 
of  the  two  kingdoms  and  two  parliaments  into 
atuf  Scot-  the  Kingdom  and  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
land,  1700.  "When  one  looks  at  what  was  then  going  on  in 
the  two  countries  one  is  rather  surprised  that  such  a  good 
thing  should  have  been  brought  about  at  that  time.  For 
never  since  Englishmen  and  Scotsmen  had  fallen  under 
the  sway  of  the  same  king  had  Scottish  hearts  been  so 
filled  with  rage  against  England  as  in  the  first  few  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  England,  the  Scots  said, 
was  working  them  great  and  lasting  wrongs  ;  and  they 


1700-04.  Consniitiional  History  during  the  War.  <.i 

would  never  forgive  her.     There  was  too  much  reason  for 
what  the  Scots  said.     Many  Enghshmen  were  very  selfish 
and  greedy,  and  could  not  bear  that  their  kinsfolk  in 
Scotland  and  Ireland  should  share  in  the  pursuits  which 
brought   them    wealth.      These   men,  merchants  of  the 
great   seaport  towns  of  England,  had  so  worked  upon 
Parliament  that  heavy  taxes  were  laid  on  all  products  of 
Scotland  which  were  carried  into  England.       Scotsmen 
were  not  allowed  to  trade  with  any  country  belonging 
to  England,  or  with  England  in  anything  but  what  was 
grown  or  made  in   Scotland.     Their   anger   at   finding 
their  hands  tied  up  by  English  greed  was  yearly  growing 
more  bitter.     In  1699-1700  a  plan  which  they  had  tried 
to  carry  out,  for  planting  a  trading  settlement     ^^^  parien 
at  Darien  had  come  to  a  disastrous  end.      Its     Scheme, 
failure  brought  ruin  on  a  vast  number  of  Scot-     '  99-1700. 
tish  families.     The  Scots  cast  the  blame  on  the  Enghsh 
East  India  Company  and  on  King  William  ;  and  their 
wrath   against    England    rose   higher   than  ever.     After 
William's  death  the  Scottish   Parliament  passed  an   Act 
of  Security,  by  whicii  it  was  made  impossible     ^^^  ^^ 
that  the  same  person  who  had  already  been     Security, 
chosen  to  sit  on  the  English  throne  after  Anne     ''"■^'  '^"■*' 
died  should  be  chosen  to  the  Scottish  throne  also,  unless 
security  were  given  for  the  '  religion,  freedom,  and  trade ' 
of  the  Scots.     This  law  made  it  possible  that  at  Anne's 
death  the  two  kingdoms  should  pass  to  different  kings. 

6.  To  tlie  danger  arising  from  this  state  of  things  we 
owe  the  Act  of  Union.  The  wiser  men  m  England  now 
saw  clearly  that  nothing  short  of  a  thorough  blending  of 
the  two  peoples  into  one  would  put  a  stop  to  their  quar- 
relling, and,  to  gain  this,  were  willing  to  give  the  Scots 
all  they  wanted.  The  very  last  paper  that  William  signed 
was  a  message  to  his  English  Parliament  asking  it  to 
consider  how   such   a   union   could   be   brought  about. 


42  Settlement  of  the  Constitiition.  1707^1710. 

Parliament  did  look  into  the  question,  and  gave  the 
Queen  power  to  name  men  who  might  meet  other  men 
sent  from  Scotland,  and  with  them  try  to  find  out  a  way 
of  uniting  the  two  countries.  But  the  trading  jealousy 
of  many  Englishmen  and  the  blind  patriotism  of  many 
Scotsmen  made  the  task  of  arranging  the  terms  very 
hard  ;  and  this  attempt  failed.  The  plan,  however,  was 
not  lost  sight  of;  some  Scotsmen  longed  for  freedom  of 
trade  ;  the  wisest  English  statesmen  were  afraid  of  Scot- 
land falling  again  under  French  influence.  In  1706  there 
wasa  meetingin  London  of  thirty-one  men  from  each  king- 
^^j  pf  dom  ;  and  these  at  last  found  a  way  to  a  settle- 

Uninn  ment  of  the  question.     By  the  Act  of  Union 

passed.  '  /  r         ■,  r- 

In  Scotland,  Scotsmen  were  to  have  the  same  freedom  of 
in  En^'^'lanci  trade  as  Englishmen  ;  the  Presbyterian  Church 
Mar,  1707.  was  secured  to  Scotland  ;  there  was  to  be  but 
one  Parliament  for  Great  Britain,  to  which  Scotland  was  to 
send  forty-five  Commons  and  sixteen  Lords.  For  a  long 
time  many  Scotsmen  talked  of  this  law  as  if  it  were  the 
ruin  of  their  country  ;  but  it  has  undoubtedly  done  much 
good  to  both  nations. 

7.  In  17 10  the  Whig  Ministry  fell  from  power.  It 
had  foolishly  made  the  Commons  impeach  a  noisy  High 
Church  clergyman,  called  Sacheverell,  who  had  preached 
against  Godolphin,  and  misrepresented  the  Revolution. 
The  Lords  found  Sacheverell  guilty  ;  but  the  trial  stirred 
Fall  of  up  a  mighty  outburst  of  High  Church  feeling 

^°^?'P^'"*  throughout  the  country.  The  people  too  were 
1710-  growing  rather  weary  of  the  war,  and  of  the 

heavy  taxes  which  they  had  to  pay  to  keep  it  going. 
Marlborough  also  had  lost  the  Queen's  favour.  His  wife 
was  a  woman  of  violent  temper  and  overbearing  ways, 
and  in  her  rages  did  not  spare  the  Queen  herself.  A 
coldness  had  grown  up  between  the  two  old  friends.  The 
Duchess    never   tried    to   soothe  the    Queen's   wounded 


I7IO.        TJic  Tory  Ministry  and  the  Peace.         43 

feelings  ;  and  the  breach  between  them  went  on  widen- 
ing until  at  last  Anne  had  come  to  hate  her  friend  as  much 
as  she  had  formerly  loved  her.  One  Mrs.  Masham,  once 
a  bedchamber-woman  to  the  Queen,  had  alread\-  taken 
the  Duchess's  place  in  Anne's  affections.  The  upshot  of 
these  changes  was.  that  in  the  summer  of  17 10  iheHarley- 
the  Queen  sent  away  her  chief  Whig  Ministers,  Min'stir 
and  gave  the  guidance  of  the  nation  to  ^^\'y-\^\», 
Robert  Harley  and  Henry  St.  John. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
THE  TORY   MINISTRY   AND   THE   PEACE  OF   UTRECHT. 

1.  This  daring  act  of  Anne's — the  turning  away  of 
her  Ministers — helps  us  to  see  plainly  the  working  of  the 
altered  Constitution.  The  Whig  leaders  had  Pany  go- 
been  able  to  win  office  in  1708  merely  because  ^emment. 
most  of  the  Commons  thought  as  they  did,  and  were 
ready  to  vote  as  they  wished.  The  Queen  had  now  a 
strong  hope  that  the  members  of  the  new  Parliament 
would  be  mostly  Tory  ;  and,  relying  on  that  hope,  had 
sent  away  her  Whig  Ministers  and  taken  Tories  in  their 
places.  She  was  not  disappointed  ;  most  of  the  new 
members  were  Tories  ;  and  she  was  able  to  keep  Harley 
and  St.  John.  But  it  is  certain  that,  if  it  had  turned  out 
otherwise,  she  could  not  have  kept  these  Ministers,  and 
would  have  been  forced  to  bring  back  Godolphin,  Somers. 
and  HaHfa.x. 

2.  Harley,  who  was  made  in  171 1  Earl  of  0.\ford.and 
St.  John,  who  was  made  in  1712  Viscount  Bolingbroke, 
ruled  England  for  nearly  four  years.     During 

....  ^     ^       .       ■"  f       Party  strife. 

this   time  the  war   01   parties    never   ceased. 

The  great  writers  of  the  day  took  part  with  one  side  or 


46  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.     171 3-1 4. 

word  of  these  doings  was  told  to  the  Dutch  or  the 
Emperor,  though  as  the  aUies  of  England  they  had  a 
right  to  know  everything  that  was  going  on.  And  when 
at  last  the  Enghsh  Ministers  did  tell  the  Dutch,  they 
showed  them  a  different  treaty  from  the  one  that  had 
been  drawn  up  by  them  and  Lewis.  In  1712  they  took 
away  the  command  of  the  army  from  Marlborough, 
separated  the  English  army  from  the  Allies,  and  privately 
settled  with  Lewis  a  plan  for  carrying  on  the  war  that  year. 

5.  Next  year  the  Peace  they  so  wished  for  was  signed 
at  Utrecht.  Philip  was  to  keep  the  Spanish  throne,  but 
Terms  of  the  was  to  swear  that  he  gave  up  all  claim  ever  to 
Utrecht*^  become  King  of  France.  Lewis  XIV.  pledged 
I7I3-  him«elf  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
James  Edward,  now  known  in  England  as  the  Pretender, 
and  to  recognise  the  Protestant  succession  to  the  English 
(Jrown.  England  was  to  have  Gibraltar,  Minorca,  and 
Newfoundland,  and  trading  rights  with  the  Spanish 
settlements.  The  Dutch  were  given  a  strong  line  of 
fortresses  to  guard  their  border ;  and  the  House  of 
Austria  got  the  Spanish  Netherlands  and  Naples.  This 
has  been  called  '  the  shameful  Peace  of  Utrecht,'  partly 
because  of  the  way  in  which  it  was  made,  and  partly 
because  nothing  was  done  in  it  to  sa\'e  the  Catalans  from 
the  vengeance  of  Philip,  though  these  had  risen  in  arms 
at  the  bidding  of  the  Allies. 

6.  .Anne  lived  little  more  than  a  year  longer.  This 
was  a  very  anxious  time  for  Englishmen.  The  Queen's 
The  Last  health  was  bad.  Oxford  and  Bolingbroke 
year  of  were  thought  to  be  planning  to  overthrow 
reign,  the  Act  of  Settlement  and  bring  in  the  Pre- 
i7i3-'4-  tender.  The  Jacobites  were  believed  to  be 
busy  laying  plots  for  having  James  Edward  made  King 
when  Anne  died.  The  Tories  had  seemingly  the  greater 
number  of  the  people  on  their  side,  for  in  17 13  a  new 


1 714-       ^^'■^  Tory  Ministry  and  the  Peace.         47 

Parliament  was  chosen,  in  which  most  of  the  Commons 
were  again  Tories.  But  one  thing  crippled  the  strength 
of  their  party  very  much — their  chief  men,  Oxford  and 
Bohngbroke,  had  come  to  hate  each  other,  and  verv  often 
had  anory  quarrels.  In  July  17 14  Bolingbroke  con- 
trived to  poison  the  Queens  mind  against  his  rival,  and 
Oxford  was  turned  out  of  office.  But  it  was 
too  late  for  Bolingbroke  to  gain  anything  by  dies^.A-ugT-t 
the  change  ;  three  days  later  Anne  died.  The  '•  '^''*- 
day  before  her  death  she  had  named  the  Duke  of 
Shrewsbury,  a  nobleman  who  had  been  active  in  bring- 
ing about  the  Revolution,  Lord  High  "Treasurer.  Shrews- 
bury was  a  Whig  ;  and  his  appointment  was  a  kind  ol 
pledge  that  plots  to  bring  bark  the  Pretender,  if  there 
were  such,  would  be  crushed. 


BOOK    III. 

ENGLAND    UNDER    THE  RULE  OE  THE 
GREAT  FAMILIES. 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE   FIRST  YEARS   OF   THE    HOUSE   OF   HANOVER. 

I.  The  Electress  Sophia  had  died  two  months  before 
Queen  Anne  ;  and  the  right  of  succession  to  the  English 
Crown  had  then  passed  to  her  son,  George,  Elector  of 
Hanover.      Accordingly   on    August   i,   1714,     ^ 

&  1       /     -t)       George  I. 

George  became  King  of  England  as  George  I.     King, 
Much  fear  had  been  felt  throughout  the  country     '7'4-27- 
that  the  Jacobites  would  try  to  hinder  his  coming  to  the 


48  ScttleDient  of  the  Constitution.       1 714  15. 

throne;  but  it  turned  out  quite  otherwise —no  one  dared 
even  to  raise  his  voice  for  the  Pretender.  Indeed,  most 
people  showed  great  joy  when  they  heard  the  new  king 
proclaimed.  In  foreign  lands  also  George  was  looked 
upon  as  the  true  King  of  England  ;  even  Lewis  of  France 
kept  the  promise  that  he  had  made  in  the  Treaty  of 
U  trecht. 

2.  George  came  to  England  about  seven  weeks  after 
Anne's  death.  As  soon  as  he  came  the  Tory  Ministers 
Whig  were  sent  away,  and  their  places  given  to 
formed'^  Whigs.  For  George  did  not  try,  like  William, 
1714-  j  to  allow  each  party  a  share  in  governing  ;  he 
thought  ihat  the  Whigs,  who  had  alwa\s  been  in  favour 
of  his  title,  were  likely  to  be  more  faithful  to  him  than 
the  Tories.  Of  cour'^e,  if  the  Commons  had  wished  very 
much  that  the  Ministers  should  be  Tories,  they  would 
have  made  the  King  take  Tories.  But  the  new  House  of 
Commons,  which  was  chosen  a  few  months  afterwards, 
had  many  more  Whigs  than  Tories,  and  the  King  was 
able  to  keep  the  Ministers  he  liked.  The  foremost  man 
in  the  new  Ministry  was  Charles,  Lord  Townshend  ;  but 
General  Stanhope  and  Robert  Walpole  were  also  very 
powerful  members  of  it.  Walpole  had  rare  skill  In 
finding  out  the  best  way  of  settling  questions  about 
money,  and  thus  made  himself  very  useful  to  his  party. 

3.  In  17 1 5  the  quiet  of  the  land  was  broken  in  two 
wavs.      First,  the   new  Ministers   were  so  an^ry  at  what 

had  been  done  during  the  last  four  years  of 
Ministry  Anne's  reign  that  they  stirred  up  Parliament 
attacKed.  j-,-,  j^].g  steps  to  puuish  the  fallen  leaders 
of  the  Tories.  They  tried  to  make  out  that  Oxford, 
Bolingbroke,  and  Ormond  had  been  guilty  of  treason  in 
yielding  up  to  Lewis  in  the  late  war  more  places  than 
they  need  have  done.  Bolingbroke  and  Ormond  fled  to 
France  ;  but  Oxford  was  not  easily  frightened,  and  stayed 


1 71 5-       First  Y ear ^  of  House  of  Hanover.  49 

at  home.  They  were  all  impeached  ;  and  billb  of  at- 
tainder were  also  passed  against  Bolingbroke  and 
Orniond.  Oxford  was  sent  to  the  Tower,  where  he  lay 
for  two  years.  In  17 17  he  was  brought  to  trial  ;  but  in 
the  meantime  Walpole  had  fallen  out  with  the  other 
leading  Whigs  and  lost  office  ;  and  now.  to  spite  his  old 
friends,  he  cunningly  c<)ntri\ed  that  the  Commons  should 
not  come  forward  to  prove  the  charges  they  made  against 
Oxford.  The  Lords,  therefore,  voted  that  Oxford  was 
not  guilty.  Bolingbroke,  soon  after  reaching  France, 
openly  joined  the  Pretender,  but  in  a  short  time  gave  up 
his  cause  as  hopeless;  and  in  1723  he  was  allowed  to 
come  back  to  England.  But  Ormond  never  came  back  ; 
he  died  abroad  in  1745. 

4.   Secondly,  there  were  Jacobite  risings  both  in  Scot- 
land and  in  England.     Early  in  September  John  Erskine, 
Earl  of  Mar — who  some  years  before  had  been     The  Jaco- 
a  Whig  and  helped  to  bring  about  the  Union     Ilp^rms''' 
— raised  the  standard  of  rebellion  in»Braemar,     '715- 
and  in  a  short  time  found  himself  in  command  of  a  large 
Highland  army.     But   Mar  was  very  slow  in  his  move- 
ments, and  lingered  for  six  weeks  in  Perth.      The   Duke 
of  Argyle,  famous  as  both  a  warrior  and  a  statesman,  was 
sent  from   London  to  deal  with  this  danger  ;  and  going 
to  Stirling,  used  the   time  which    Mar  was    wasting  in 
gathering  round  him  soldiers  and  loyal  Lowlanders. 

While  things  stood  thus  in  the  far  north  a  few  hundred 
Jacobites  took  up  arms  in  Northumberland  under  Mr. 
Forster  and  Lord  Derwentwatcr.  Joining  with  some 
Southern  Scots  raised  by  Lord  Kcnmure,  and  some 
Highlanders  whom  Mar  had  sent  to  their  aid,  they 
marched  to  Preston,  in  Lancashire. 

The  fate  of  the  two  risings  was  settled  on  the  same 
day.  At  Preston  the  English  Jacobites  and  their  Scottish 
allies  had  to  give   themselves    up   to    a   small   body  of 

E.H.  K 


50  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.      171 5-16. 

soldiers  under  General  Carpenter.     At  Sheriffmuir,  about 

eight  miles   north  of  Stirling,  the    Highlanders,   whom 

Mar  had  put  in  motion  at  last,  met  Argyle's 

Affair  of  •       i  i  111 

Preston,  little  army  m  battle,  and,  though  not  utterly 

'^'5-  beaten,    were   forced  to   fall   back   to   Perth. 

There  Mar's  army  soon  dwindled  to  a  mere 
Sheriffmuir,  handful  of  men.  Just  when  things  seemed 
'^'5  at  the  worst  the  Pretender  himself  landed  in 

Scotland.  But  he  altogether  lacked  the  daring  and 
high  spirit  needful  to  the  cause  at  the  time  ;  and  his 
presence  at  Perth  did  not  even  delay  the  end,  which 
was  now  sure.  Late  in  January  1716  Argyle's  troops 
started  from  Stirling  northwards  ;  and  the  small  High- 
land force  broke  up  from  Perth  and  went  to  Montrose. 
Thence  James  Edward  and  Mar  slipped  away  unnoticed, 
and  sailed  to  France  ;  and  the  Highlanders  scampered 
off  to  their  several  homes.  Of  the  rebels  that  were  taken 
prisoners  about  forty  were  tried  and  put  to  death  ;  and 
many  were  sent  beyond  the  seas.  Derwentwater  and 
Kenmure  were  beheaded  ;  the  other  leaders  of  rank 
either  were  forgiven  or  escaped  from  prison. 

5.    These   risings   were "  followed    by    an    important 
change  in  an  important  lav.'.    The  people  were  in  a  rest- 
less state  ;  and  it  was  feared  that  trouble  might 

Septennial  ,      .-  ,       ■  •/-  t->      !■ 

Act  passed,  befal  the  country  if  a  new  Parliament  were 
'7'^-  chosen  which   would   be  unfavourable  to  the 

Ministry.  A  bill  was  therefore  passed  to  enable  the  King 
to  keep  the  same  Parliament  for  seven  years  ;  and  in 
passing  it  care  was  taken  thatit  should  apply  to  the  Par- 
liament that  then  was,  which  thus  might  last  till  1722. 
This  bill,  which  is  called  the  Septennial  Act,  is  in  force 

6.  The  Whigs  now  became  stronger  than  ever.  But 
shortly  afterwards  Townshend  and  Stanhope  quarrelled 
upon  a  grave  question  of  foreign  policy  ;  and  a  split  took 


1 71 7-         First  Years  of  House  of  Hanover.        51 

place  in  the  Whig  party  which  weakened    it  much   for 
a  time.     Tovvnshend  and  Walpole  not   only- 
ceased   to  be    Ministers,  but   also   did   their     Schism,'^ 
utmost  to  thwart  Stanhope  and  Sunderland,     '^'^ 
who  now  held  the  first  place  in  the  Kin.i^'s  counsels. 

The  question  about  which  the  Whig  leaders  fell  out 
was  the  right  way  of  forming  the  Triple  Alliance.  This 
treaty,  which  England,  France,  and  Holland 

J  '         .  ,  *"  ,  .  ,  The  Triple 

made  with  one  another  m  1710-17,  gave  Alliance, 
England  great  power  abroad,  and  did  much  '7"^'7- 
to  strengthen  the  hold  of  the  Hanoverian  family  on  the 
English  Crown.  It  seems  strange  to  find  the  rulers  of 
England  and  France,  who  had  lately  been  such  deadly 
foes,  now  linked  together  in  a  close  friendship.  But  each 
had  an  interest  in  making  a  friend  of  the  other.  In 
France  Lewis  XIV.  had  died  ;  his  great-grandson,  a  mere 
child,  had  become  King  ;  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who 
was  next  heir  to  the  crown  if  the  King  of  Spain  should 
be  true  to  the  pledge  he  had  taken  by  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  held  the  Regency.  But  the  Duke  feared  that 
the  Spanish  king  would  not  keep  his  promise,  and 
thought  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  have  England  on  his 
side,  to  help  him  if  the  boy-king  died.  In  England, 
Stanhope  felt  that  France  was  the  only  foreign  state  that 
could  give  any  real  aid  to  the  Pretender,  and  thought  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  if  France  could  be  brought  to  take 
part  with  the  Hanoverian  family.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  an  alliance  was  made  between  the  two  countries,  by 
which  their  rulers  agreed  to  stand  by  e.ich  other  in  any 
troubles  that  might  arise.  The  Dutch  also  afterwards 
signed  this  treaty  (January  171 7). 

7.  This  alliance  gave  England  and  France  a  proud 
position  in  Europe.  It  was  now  the  aim  of  Stanhope  and 
Orleans  to  make  the  other  nations  abide  by  the  terms  of 
the  Peace  of  Utrecht.     They  would  not  let  the  quiet  of 

£  2 


52  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.      1 718-21. 

Europe  be  broken  by  any  country.  In  i  718  the  Emperor 
Charles  joined  the  Alliance,  for  the  King  of  Spain  wanted 
to  take  Sicily  from  him,  and  sent  an  army  thither  for  the 
purpose.  Thereupon  an  English  fleet  under  Sir  George 
Battle  of  Byng  attacked  the'Spanish  near  Cape  Passaro, 
Passlro  ■'"'^^  ^^''**   '*^   thoroughly.     Next  year   (17 19), 

1718  F.'cnch  and  English  armies  began   to  make 

war  in  the  xNorth  of  Spain,  and  took  some  strong  places. 
Then  King  Philip  yielded,  and  consented  to  a  peace  in 
which  he  gave  up  everything  that  he  had  laid  claim  to 
(1720).  From  these  things  we  see  how  mighty  England 
had  become. 

8.  For  a  time  all  went  well  at  home  also.     In   1720 
Stanhope  made    up   his    quarrel    with    Townshend   and 

Walpole,   and   the   Whigs   became  a  united 
Schism  party  once  more.     For  Walpole  had  shown 

ends,  1720.  ]^Q^^,  dangerous  he  might  be,  by  causing  the 
Commons  to  throw  out  the  Peerage  Bill,  which  Stanhope 
wished  to  see  passed.  This  was  a  bill  for  taking  away 
from  the  King  the  power  of  making  any  more  peers  than 
six   over  the  number  that  then   was.     Townshend  and 

Walpole  again  became  Ministers.     But  soon 

The  Peer-  ^  ,      .  ^^  - 

age  Bill,  after    their    return    to    orrice    there   came   a 

'7^5-  time  of  great  distress  for  many  people.     Some 

The  'South  YE'irs  earlier  a  company  had  been  founded 
Sea  _  for  trading  with  the  South  Seas.  It  grew  and 
prospered;  it  often  had  dealings  with  the 
Gc.'ornment,  and  in  1720  its  shares  had  risen  to  ten  times 
their  original  value.  An  eager  desire  to  get  rich  very 
fast  then  spread  throughout  the  country  ;  a  great  many 
other  companies  were  set  up  ;  and  men  bought  shares 
in  these  greedily  and  thoughtlessly.  Soon  a  change  of 
feeling  came  ;  men  got  frightened  about  the  money  they 
had  laid  out  in  this  way,  and  all  tried  at  once  to  sell 
their  shares,  but  no  one  was  willing  to  buy  them.    Hence 


1722.       First  Years  of  House  of  Hanover.         53 

not  only  did  the  new  companies  fail,  but  the  South  Sea 
shares  also  fell  very  low.  A  loud  cry  of  distress  was 
raised  by  those  who  had  lost  their  money  ;  and  all  men 
were  deeply  enraged  when  they  heard  that  some  of  the 
Ministers  had  taken  bribes  from  the  South  Sea  Company. 
In  the  midst  of  this  trouble  Stanhope  suddenly  X)^^\h.  f 
died.  It  was  thought  that  Walpole  was  the  Stanhope;"^ 
only  man  who  knew  how  to  help  the  people  '^''' 
in  this  misfortune  ;  so  he  was  made  Chancellor  of  the 
E.xchequer.  He  carried  laws  through  Parliament  which 
did  much  to  calm  men's  minds  and  revive  their  faith 
in  one  another's  honesty.  The  nation  then  saw  that 
Walpole  was  the  ablest  man  the  King  had  ;  and  upon 
the  death  of  Sunderland,  in  1722,  Walpole  became 
Prime  Minister. 


CHAPTER    II. 
THE   MINISTRY   OF   SIR    ROBERT  WALPOLE. 

I.  Robert  Walpole  was  a  Norfolk  squire  of  good 
family,  who  had  gained  sound  judgment  and  rare  skill  in 
the  conduct  of  affairs.     He  was  clear-headed     Robert 
and  practical,  and  was  just  the  man  that  Eng-     b^^^J^.^'^  ' 
land  wanted   at  this  time.     A  calm  had  fol-     d-  1745' 
lowed  the  great  storms  caused  by  the   Revolution,  and 
the  country  felt  a  general  longing  for  a  little  rest.     Now, 
Walpole  v/ished  above  all  things  to  give  the 
nation  rest.     He  tried   with  all  his  might  to     characier" 
keep  England  from  going  to  war,  and  to  help     ^""^  P"'"^^- 
her  to  make  herself  rich  and   prosperous.     But  he  never 
thought  of  doing  great  deeds,  of  doing  away  with  unjust 
laws  and  getting  just  ones  made,  of  setting  right  some  of 


54  Seitlemmt  of  the  Constitution.  x'ji'i. 

the  many  evil  things  that  then  were,  or  of  helping  men 
to  grow  wiser  and  better.  Indeed,  he  believed  that  most 
men  neither  were,  nor  could  be  made,  good  ;  his  opinion 
of  men  was  so  low  that  he  thought  they  would  do  any- 
thing for  money.  '  Every  man  has  his  price,'  he  said. 
There  was  little  in  him  to  love  or  respect.  But  he  had 
much  good  sense,  and  knew  well  how  to  work  on  men's 
minds.  It  was  not  a  time  for  carrying  out  great  plans  ; 
the  people  were  not  in  a  humour  for  them,  and  were  quite 
content  to  be  ruled  by  Walpole.  And  they  were  right ; 
for  on  the  whole  things  went  well  witk  England  during 
the  twenty  years  that  Walpole  was  Prime  Minister. 

2.  Perhaps  Walpole  would  not  have  been  so  long  at 
the  head  of  affairs  but  for  the  cunning  way  in  which  he 
TheConsti-  managed  the  Commons.  We  have  seen  how 
eighteenth''  necessary  it  was  for  the  King  or  his  chief 
century.  Minister  to  get  most  of  the  members  of  the 

Lower  House  to  give  him  their  votes.  Walpole,  partly 
because  the  state  of  things  favoured  him,  and  partly 
because  he  was  very  clever  in  managing  public  assem- 
blies, got  members  to  vote  with  him  better  than  any 
minister  who  had  lived  before  him.  For  the  ways  in 
which  men  gained  seats  in  Parliament  were  very  different 
then  from  what  they  are  now.  Many  of  the  towns  that 
had  the  right  of  sending  representatives  were  mere  vil- 
lages ;  and  in  miany  others,  though  they  were  larger,  there 
were  only  very  few  people  who  had  a  vote.  It  had  there- 
fore come  to  pass  that  the  noblemen  or  gentlemen  who 
owned  the  lands  on  which  these  towns  stood 
tion  bo-  could    havc    whatever   members   they   liked 

roughs.  chosen  for  these  places.     Besides,  the  great 

landowners  had  often  such  influence  in  the  counties  that 
the  voters  in  these  were  willing  to  please  their  landlords 
or  noble  neighbours  by  voting  for  the  persons  whom  they 
lavoured.     There  was  also  a  class  of  boroughs,  chiefly 


1722.    The-  Ministry  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole.       55 

seaports,  which  were  quite  ready  to  give  their  votes  to 
whomsoever  the  King  or  his  Ministers  desired.  It  is 
clear,  then,  that  most  of  the  Commons  were  not  represen- 
tatives of  the  people,  but  of  the  King's  Ministers  and  other 
great  men  of  the  kingdom. 

3.  In  this  way  it  came  about  that  the  Revolution,  in 
making  the  House  of  Commons  the  strongest  thing  in 
the  State,  gave  the  leading  part  in  ruling  the 

1  c  /■        1-  '.^1  I  he  Revo- 

nation  to  a  number  of  great  families.      These     union 

are  known  in  history  as  the  Revolution  faiiii-  f=""'''"- 
lies,  ox  great  Whig  houses,  for  most  of  them  belonged  to 
the  Whig  party.  For  a  long  time  it  would  have  been 
almost  impossible  to  carry  on  the  Government  without 
the  active  support  of  a  good  number  of  these  houses  ; 
and  their  support  could  be  gained  only  by  giving  the  chief 
men  among  them  a  large  share  in  governing.  It  is  true 
that  the  King  had  still  some  power  ;  he  could  give  away 
posts  of  great  dignity  and  value  in  Church  and  State, 
pensions,  peerages,  and  other  honours  that  many  men 
were  glad  to  have.  But  the  first  two  kings  of  the  line  of 
Hanover  were  strangers  ;  neither  of  them  knew  much  of 
English  ways  or  English  feeling,  and  did  not  care  to  take 
any  trouble  to  keep  up  the  king's  power.  Accordingly 
the  heads  of  the  great  houses  generally  had  their  own 
way.  We  shall  see  that  the  third  king  of  the  hrie  did 
make  a  great  effort  to  win  back  to  the  Crown  the  autho- 
rity it  had  lost,  and  succeeded  too. 

4.  For  twenty  years  Sir  Robert  Walpole  was  able  by 
wise  management  to  keep  on  his  side  both  most  of  the 
Whig  Houses  and  the  king,  and  thus  to  get     Walpole's 
the  Commons  to  vote  in   the   way  he  wished     "'^"f^r'v,^ 

J  ment  oi  ine 

on    every   question   that   came   before  them.     Commons. 
Moreover,  he  is  believed  to  have  paid  away  great   sums 
of  money  in  bribing  Members.     He  was  not  the  first  to 
use  this  means  of  gaining  votes  ;  but  he  is  said  to  have 


56  Settlement  of  tJie  Constitution.       1722-24, 

used  it  much  more  than  any  other  minister  ever  did.  It 
was  begun  in  Charles  II.'s  reign,  and  first  became  com- 
mon in  WilHam  1  II.'s  time,  when  the  good-will  of  the 
Lower  House  was  seen  to  be  so  needful  to  the  King's 
Ministers. 

5.  But  we  must  not  think  that  the  King's  Ministers 
need  pay  no  heed  to  the  wishes  of  the  people.  Walpole 
The  people  himself  was  more  than  once  forced  to  give  up 
som^ac-  '^'^  °^^^  ^^  ''^  ^"*i  ^'^  what  the  nation  bade  him, 
count.  even  when  Parliament  would  have  cheerfully 
agreed  to  the  course  he  wanted  to  take.  Only  the 
people  had  to  speak  out  very  strongly,  and  show  that 
they  were  really  in  earnest,  and  would  have  the  matter 
settled  in  the  way  they  thought  right.  They  were  sel- 
dom, however,  very  much  in  earnest  then  about  anything  ; 
for  a  time  they  cared  very  little  how  things  went  on  in 
the  State. 

6.  Few  very  noteworthy  things  happened  while 
Walpole  ruled  England.  So  long  as  George  I.  lived 
this  Minister  ran  little  risk  of  losing  his  place,  and  was 
able  to  deal  in  a  high-handed  way  with  each  question  as 
it  arose.  In  1722  the  Jacobites  tried  to  make  themselves 
t;oublesome,  but  failed  ;  and  next  year  their  leader, 
Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  was  banished  for  life 
by  Act  of  Parliament.  In  1724  the  English  settlers  in 
Wood's  Ireland  flew  into  a  great  rage  because  Walpole 
halfpence,       began  to  issue  among  them  a  new  supply  of 

**'  halfpence   and   farthings,   made   by  William 

Wood,  an  English  ironmaster.  They  said  that  these 
coins  were  far  below  the  value  of  similar  coins  in  Eng- 
land, and  that  they  were  issued  only  to  enrich  Wood  and 
some  worthless  people  about  the  English  Court.  Dean 
Swift,  who  owed  Walpole  a  grudge,  wrote  with  great 
force  against  this  coinage,  and  so  worked  upon  the  minds 
of  his  countrymen  that  they  would  not  receive  it  on  any 


1 724-33  •    TJie  Ministry  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole.     5  7 

terms.     Walpole,  powerful  as   he  was,  had  to  allow  the 
coina-e   to  be  withdrawn.     Then  in  1725  Spain,  wishing 
to  get  back  Gibraltar,  made  an   alliance  with     Another 
Austria,  and  went  to  war  with  England.     But     [^'•i''.^'»h 

'^  Spain, 

none  of  these  things  shook  Walpole's  hold  on     '725-27. 
power  in  the  least.     So  quiet  had  things  become  that  in 
the   session   of  1724  there  was   but  one   division  in  the 
Commons. 

7.  In  June  1727  the  reign  of  George  !.  suddenly 
ended.  He  had  gone  to  visit  his  German  subjects,  and 
was  on  his  way  to  Osnabruck,  when  apople.\y 

seized    him,   and    he    died    in   his    carriage.     George"!., 
George  I.  was  an  upright  man,  who  sought  to     J""*-'  '727- 

J1-1  11.  ,  George  II. 

deal  justly  with  all  men,  and  was  much  loved  King,  1727- 
in  Hanover.  But  he  was  silent,  awkward,  and  '^^' 
cold  in  his  manner,  and  was  little  liked  in  England. 
His  son  at  once  became  King  as  George  II.  The  new 
king  at  first  thought  of  sending  Walpole  away,  but  in  a 
few  days  he  changed  his  mind  anri  kept  him  in  office. 

8.  England  and  France  were  still  fast  friends  ;  for 
Walpole  was  bent  on  keeping  the  country  out  of  war,  and 
above  all  out  of  a  war  with  f  ranee.     I'his,  he 

knew,  was  the  only  nation  that  could  help  the  whh"''^'"'' 
Pretender  in  a  way  that  would  make  him  really  *'""ce. 
dangerous  ;  without  aid  from  France  the  Jacobites  were 
harmless,  and  could  do  little  mischieT.  For  many  years, 
therefore,  the  Pretender,  owing  to  Walpole's  wisdom,  was 
unable  to  move  ;  and  thus  ihc  new  line  of  kings  had  time 
to  strengthen  themselves  on  the  throne. 

9.  But  Walpole  failed  in  one  thing  which  he  had  set 
his  heart  on  getting  done.  In  1733  he  brought  a  bill  into 
Parliament  for  levying  the  duties  on  certain 

goods,  tobacco  being  the  first,  not  as  customs    scheme?"'* 
— which  are  paid  at  the  seaports,  when  the     '"3- 
goods  are  brought  into  the  country— but  as  excise,  which 


58  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.     1733-39. 

is  paid  when  the  goods  are  sent  throughout  the  country. 
He  said  that  it  did  not  cost  so  much  to  raise  an  excise, 
that  men  could  not  keep  back  or  steal  part  of  it  so  easily, 
and  that  thus  more  money  would  come  into  the  treasury, 
while  the  people  paid  just  the  same.  Bui  most  English 
folk  then  hated  the  excise  ;  the  very  word  put  them  in  an 
ill-humour.  A  loud  outcry  against  Walpole's  plan  went 
up  from,  all  parts  of  the  country  ;  and  Walpole,  much 
against  his  will,  gave  it  up. 

10.  But  this  did  not  weaken  Walpole  ;  both  King  and 
Parliament  still  upheld  him,  and  for  a  while  longer  the 

people  also  rested  contentedly  under  his  rule. 
jealousy  of  Year  after  year  passed,  leaving  Walpole  still 
able  men.  ^^  ^^  head  of  affairs,  as  strong  as  ever  to  work 
his  will.  But  he  had  made  one  great  mistake  in  his 
doings.  He  had  always  been  jealous  of  able  men,  and 
had  driven  away  most  of  those  who  had  been  in  office 
with  him.  There  was  hardly  one  man  of  merit  in  his 
Government  whom  he  did  not  get  rid  of  at  some  time 
or  other.  Even  Townshend  had  to  resign  his  place.  This 
unwise  conduct  hurt  Walpole  in  two  ways  :  it  chased 
away  from  his  side  the  men  who  were  best  fitted 
to  help  him  in  the  hour  of  need,  and  it  sent  them 
to  join  the  ranks  of  his  foes.  Thereupon  this  band  of 
The  foes,  who  called  themselves  the  Patriots,  went 

Patriots.  Qj^  steadily  growing  until  nearly  every  able 

statesman  belonged  to  it.  Its  leader  in  the  Commons 
was  William  Pulteney,  a  brilliant  speaker,  who  had  once 
been  Walpole's  trustiest  friend.  But  the  man  among  the 
Patriots  who  had  the  greatest  gifts  of  mind  and  noblest 
character  was  a  young  man,  William  Pitt,  who  first 
made  himself  known  by  his  fier)^  speeches  in  Parliament 
against  W^alpole.  Seldom  has  a  Minister  had  so  many 
great  men  arrayed  against  him. 

1 1 .  Yet  for  many  years  Walpole  held  his  ground  in 


,739.       TheMiiiistry  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole.       59 

spite  of  them  all.  They  brought  many  charges  against 
him.  They  said  that,  to  please  the  King,  he  Walpole 
took  more  pains  about  Hanover  than  England  ;  and  his  foes. 
that  he  was  tamely  letting  Spain  trample  upon  the  honour 
and  the  interests  of  England  ;  that  he  was  destroying  the 
manly  tone  and  honesty  of  the  nation  by  his  wicked  arts, 
bribery  and  corruption.  On  these  points  they  assailed 
him  again  and  again,  but  for  a  time  without  success. 
Single-handed  Walpole  withstood  them,  and  beat  them 
in  every  division.  Indeed,  once  (i739)  they  got  so  dis- 
heartened that  they  left  Parliament  altogether.  At  last 
a  great  longing  for  a  war  with  Spain  seized  upon  the 
people  ;  and  the  Patriots  turned  this  into  a  means  of 
overthrowing  their  great  enemy. 

12.  At  this  time  fresh  life  was  given  in  England  to 
the  old  hatred  of  the  Spaniards  by  the  cruelties  which 
English  seamen  were  said  to  be  suffering  at  Troubles 
Spanish  hands  in  the  Southern  Seas.  Spain  did  ""'"^  Spain, 
not  like  that  any  country  but  herself  should  trade  with  her 
coL  nies  in  America,  and  very  unwillingly  allowed  a  single 
English  ship  to  carry  goods  to  them  once  a  year.  But 
the  English  found  the  traffic  profitable,  and  in  one  way  or 
another  contrived  to  send  to  Spanish  America  far  more 
goods  than  one  ship  could  carry.  Fora  time  the  Spaniards 
took  little  heed  of  these  things  ;  but  in  1733  their  King 
secretly  made  an  alliance,  called  a  Family  Compact,  with 
the  French  King,  and  after  this  the  American  coasts  were 
more  closely  watched.  English  ships  that  sailed  or  were 
driven  by  opposing  winds  into  their  seas  were  boaided 
and  searched  by  Spanish  officials,  who  often  did  their 
duty  very  roughly.  One  of  them  even  tore  off  the  ear  of 
Robert  Jenkins,  the  master  of  a  Jamaica  trading  sloop. 
Hence  the  war  that  these  doings  led  to  is     .„,,    , 

°  1  he  Jen- 

sometimes  known  as  'the  Jenkins'  Ear  War.'     kms'Ear 
The  English  grew  more  and  more  angry  as        ""^^ 
they  heard   of  these   things,  and   at  last  began  to  call 


6o  Settlement  of  the  Constitution. 


1739-44- 


loudly  for.  war  with  Spain.  Walpole  tried  eagerly  to  pre- 
vent an  outbreak  of  war  ;  but  his  efforts  failed.  The 
English  were  bent  on  punishing  Spain  for  the  many 
wrongs  they  thought  she  had  done  them.  Walpole, 
much  against  his  will,  had  to  go  to  war  (1739).  Yet  the 
English  arms  did  not  prosper.  Though  Vernon  took 
Portobello  in  1739,  the  Spaniards  m  J74I  beat  back  from 
Carthagena  with  great  loss  a  large  force  that  Walpole 
had  sent  to  take  it.  Walpole  got  the  blame  of  every 
failure  ;  the  Patriots  grew  ever  louder  and  fiercer  in  call- 
ing him  the  cause  of  all  the  nation's  troubles.  Still  he 
^,    r,r.      fought  doggedly  for  his  place,   liut  the  General 

FallofWal-      ^..        .  ■ 

pole,  Keb.  Election  ot  1742  gave  the  Patriots  a  small 
'^'*^-  majority  in  the  Commons,  and  Walpole   was 

forced  to  resign,  fie  was  at  the  same  time  made  Earl 
of  Orford. 

13.  The  war  with  Spain  went  on  until  1748;  but  nothing 

further  that  was  striking  happened  in  it  except  Commodore 

Anson's  great  voyage  round  the  world.     In   September 

1740  Anson  had  been  sent  with  a  squadron  to  do  all  the 

damage  he  could  to  the  Spaniards  along  the 

Anson  s  r ,-         i     ,  ■  t  t 

voyage.  Western  coast  01  South  America.  He  was  away 

1740-44.  almost  four  )ears,  during  which  he  met  with 

many  wonderful  adventures.  In  a  storm  he  lost,  or  was 
separated  from,  all  his  ships  but  two  ;  but  with  these  he 
seii.ed  many  ships  and  took  the  town  of  Paita,  in  Peru. 
In  crossing  the  Pacitic  he  burned  one  of  his  ships.  W^ith 
the  other  he  fought  and  took  a  great  Manilla  galleon  near 
the  Philippine  Islands.     In  June  1744  he  reached  home. 


1742-44  6 1 

CHAPTER    III. 
THE   PELHAMS. 

I.  The  Ministry  that  followed  Walpole's  was  not  alto- 
gether made  up  of  new  men  ;  many  of  those  who  held  the 
smaller  places  stayed  in  office  after  the  fall  of  The  new 
their  leader.  In  those  days  the  Ministers  did  J^l'n'stry- 
not  form  a  close  and  imitcd  body,  as  they  do  now.  Each 
sometimes  took  a  course  of  his  own  apart  from  the  rest ; 
so  that  a  change  of  Ministry  often  meant  little  more  than 
a  change  of  leaders.  The  man  who  now  took  the  first 
place  in  guiding  the  counsels  of  the  King  was  John,  Lord 
Carteret ;  but  Lord  Chancellor  Hardwicke  and  the  Pel- 
hams,  who  stayed  with  Walpole  to  the  last,  were  still  very 
powerful.  Indeed,  only  a  few  of  Walpole's  foes  were 
taken  into  the  new  Cabinet.  There  was  much  discontent 
at  this,  and  the  Ministry  was  not  at  first  very  strong  in 
the  Commons. 

2.  Carteret  was  much  liked  by  George  II.  He  had 
good  parts,  was  gay  and  genial  in  society,  but  over-fond 
of  strong  drink.  He  was  the  only  Minister  who  knew 
German  and  the  right  way  of  dealing  with  German  States. 
He  therefore  led  the  nation  into  a  closer  connexion  with 
German  affairs  than  pleased  either  his  brother 

,,.    .  1        ^  ,iT    1  1  ■  Carteret  in 

Mmisters  or  the  Commons.     Without  askmg     power, 
their  advice  he  made   treaties,  and   pledged     '742-44- 
the  English  people  to  give  away  large  sums  of  money. 
So  whilst  he  rose  ever  higher  in  the  King's  favour  he 
became   unpopular.       In  November   1744  the    Pelhams 
and  their  friends  told  the   King  plainlv  that     ^  „   , 

'  .  rail  of 

they  and  Carteret— now  Earl  Granville  by  his     Carteret, 
mother's  death — could   not  any  longer  work     '^'*'*" 
together,  and  that  either  he  or  they  must  give  up  office. 
The  King  would  gladly  have  kept  Granville  rather  than 


62  Settlonent  of  tlie  ConstiUition.     1744-46. 

the  Pelhams  ;  but  the  Pelhams  had  many  more  followers 
in  the  Commons  than  their  rival,  and  the  King  had  to 
send  away  the  Minister  he  liked  best.  For  without  a 
majority  in  the  Commons  no  Minister  could  now  get  on. 
3.  The  Pelhams  were  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  his 
younger  brother,  Henry.  The  Duke  was  a  fussy  man, 
The  Pel-  who  bustled  about  in  a  way  that  made  people 
power "  laugh.     He  had  much  knowledge  of  business, 

1744-54-  but    little    ability.      Henry    Pelham    was    in 

every  way  superior  to  his  brother,  though  his  powers 
of  mind  were  not  great.  He  did  not  shine  either  as  a 
speaker  or  as  a  ruler  ;  but  he  was  hard-working,  sensible, 
and  clear  headed  ;  and  his  training  under  Walpole  had 
given  him  some  skill  in  managing  affiiirs.  For  these 
reasons  he  was  in  1744  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Ministry. 
This  has  been  called  the  broad-bof.toin  Minisiry,  from 
the  number  of  men  of  various  parties  who  belonged  to  it. 
Even  Tories  held  places  in  it.  But  its  chief  strength  lay 
in  the  support  of  the  great  Whig  houses,  many  of  whose 
heads  were  members  of  it.  On  one  point  only  did  George 
II.  stand  firm:  he  would  not  take  Pitt  into  his  service, 
as  the  Pelhams  wished.  For  Pitt  had  in  his  speeches 
spoken  of  Hanover  in  a  way  that  had  deeply  hurt  the 
King.  Yet  in  little  more  than  a  year  George  had  to  yield 
on  this  point  also.  In  February  1746  the  Ministers, 
knowing  that  the  King  was  listening  in  private 

Ministerial  _  .,,,,.  ,  ,  ^ 

crisis  of  to  Granville  s  advice,  and  was  therefore   not 

June  1746.  trusting  them,  suddenly  gave  up  their  places 
in  a  body.  Granville  then  tried  to  get  together  a  Ministry 
of  his  own,  but  failed  ;  and  the  King  had  to  take  back  the 
Pelhams  on  their  own  terms.  One  of  these  was  that  Pitt 
should  have  a  place  ;  and  he  was  appointed. 
Put  in  office,     ^^.g^  ^^  ^  minor  post,  afterwards  to  that  of 

Paymaster  of  the   Forces.     The  great  families  could  now 
make  the  King  do  what  he  most  disliked. 


I740-43  ■^■^^^  Pelhains.  63 

4.  By  this  time  England  had  been  drawn  into  a  war 
with  France.  It  is  usually  called  the  War  of  the  Austrian 
Succession.  England  joined  in  it  as  the  ally  The  War  of 
of  Maria  Theresa,  whose  title  to  the  ancestral     'he^^i'stnan 

'  Succession, 

dominions  of  her  father,  the  Emperor  Charles  1740-48- 
VI.,  was  disputed  by  Bavaria,  France,  Prussia,  and  other 
States.  Charles,  having  no  son,  had  been  eager  that  his 
daughter  should  succeed  to  the  rule  of  the  lands  that  had 
come  to  him  by  inheritance  ;  and,  to  make  her  succession 
sure,  had  got  nearly  all  the  European  Powers  to  sign  a 
paper  called  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  by  which  they 
bound  themselves  to  uphold  her  claim.  But  when  he 
died  (1740)  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  said  that  by  right  the 
Austrian  lands  ought  to  come  to  him,  and  set  about  con- 
quering them  ;  whilst  Frederick  II.,  the  young  King  of 
Prussia,  laid  hold  of  Silesia  ;  and  France,  wishing  to 
weaken  Germany,  sent  two  armies  across  the  Rhine  to 
aid  Bavaria.  Only  England  and  Holland  loyally  stood 
by  their  promises. 

In  1743  a  united  force  of  British  and  Hanoverians, 
40,000  strong,  marched  to  Aschaffenburg,  on  the  river 
Main.  King  George  himself  came  and  took 
the  command.  Whilst  they  lay  at  this  place,  Detiingln, 
Noailles,  the  French  general,  blocked  them  -'""^  '743- 
up  so  closely  that  they  could  move  neither  forward  nor 
backward  without  lighting  a  battle  under  great  disad- 
vantages. At  last  their  supply  of  food  became  scanty, 
and  one  morning,  late  in  June,  they  started  back  along 
the  right  bank  of  the  Main,  hoping  to  force  their  way  to 
Hanau,  where  their  bread-stores  were.  As  they  drew  near 
to  Dettingen  they  found  that  there  was  a  French  force 
posted  right  in  front  of  them  on  the  far  side  of  some 
marshy  ground.  Whilst  they  were  putting  themselves  in 
battle-array  the  leader  of  this  French  force,  Grammont, 
getting  impatient,  led  his  men  across  the  marshy  ground 


64  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.      1743-45, 

and  charged  do\\  n  on  the  AlHeswith  great  swiftness.  Their 
first  three  hnes  were  broken  through  ;  but  the  fourth  held 
its  ground,  and  poured  such  a  steady  musketry  fire  into 
the  ranks  of  the  French  that  they  had  to  fall  back  in 
disorder.  Then  the  Allies  pushed  boldly  on,  and  routed 
and  drove  t'le  French  from  the  field.  The  victors  then 
pursued  their  march  to  Hanau.  The  Allies  gained  nothing 
but  glory  from  the  fight  of  Dettingen.  Never  since  has 
an  English  king  led  an  army  in  battle. 

5.  As  yet  the  two  nations  were  not  at  war  ;  England 
merely  fought  as  the  friend  of  Maria  Theresa,  France  as 
the  friend  of  the  Bavarian  Elector,  who  had  been  chosen 
Emperor  the  year  before.  But  in  1744  the  French  took 
up  the  Stuart  cause  and  tried  to  land  15,000  men  on  the 
English  coast.  A  storm  scattered  the  fleet  that  carried 
them  ;  and  a  declaration  of  war  followed.  This 

Battle  of  ,,.-.„,, 

Konteiioy,  War  was  waged  chiefly  in  Flanders,  where  the 
I  ay,  1745-  Allics  were  led  by  King  George's  younger 
son,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  Its  greatest  battle  was 
fought  at  Fontenoy  in  May  1745.  Cumberland  had  ad- 
vanced with  50,000  British,  Dutch,  and  Austrians,  to 
drive  the  French  besieging  army  from  before  Tournay. 
Prince  Maurice  of  Saxony,  the  French  leader,  had  taken 
his  stand  near  Fontenoy,  and  there  thrown  up  strong 
defences.  Cumberland,  then  a  hot-headed  youth,  made 
his  troops  attack  these  ;  but  they  were  beaten  back  at  all 
points.  Angry  at  this  repulse,  the  English  general  sent  a 
column  of  British  Infantry,  16,000  strong,  straight  upon 
the  French  position.  This  fearless  body  of  men  marched 
steadily  whither  they  had  been  sent,  and,  getting  inside 
the  French  lines,  for  a  time  swept  from  their  path  every 
force  that  strove  to  check  their  course.  I]ut  they  were 
not  backed  up  as  they  ought  to  have  been,  and  they  had 
to  march  back  the  way  they  came,  beaten  but  not  dis- 
graced.      Then    Cumberland    led    off    his    army,    and 


1745-  '^^'■'''  Pelhams.  65 

Tournaj  fell.     Shortly   afterwards  the   Duke  was  called 
back  to  England  to  face  danger  nearer  home. 

6.  The  war  with   France  had  given  fresh  hfe  to  the 
dying  Jacobite  cause.     And  there   had  lately  come  for- 
ward  as  the  leader   of    this    cause    a    high- 
spirited  young  prince,  of  handsome  person  and     Edward 
winning   manners,  who   believed    it   was  his     ^'"^" 

°    .  '  comes  to 

fate  to  win  back  the  kingdoms  to  his  house.     Scotland, 
This  was  Charles  Edward,  sometimes  named      '^''^ 
the  Young  Chevalier,  the  elder  of  the  two  sons  of  James 
Edward.     Towards  the  end  of  July  1745  he  came  with 
only  seven  companions  to  the  west  coast  of  Inverness-shire, 
and  sought  to  stir  up  the  Highlanders  to  take  up  arms  in 
Jiis  father's  behalf.    The  Highland  chiefs  doubted  at  first, 
but    many  of  them   were  won   over  by  Charles's  eager 
words.     Gathering  at  Glenfinnan,  the  clans  swept  round 
by  Corryarrick  and  Blair  Athol  to  Perth.    Sir  John  Cope 
had  gone  northwards  with   a  small  force  to  meet  them, 
but   on  reaching   Corryarrick    had   become   afraid,  and 
turned  aside  to  Inverness.     The  road  to  the   Lowlands 
then    lay  open,  and  Charles  promptly  took  it.     In   the 
third   week   of    September   the    Highlanders 
entered    Edinburgh.     Three    days    later   the     Preston 
Prince  led  them  westwards  to  meet   Cope's     ^^"^-  '^^s- 
army,  which  had  sailed  to  Uunbar.     They  found  it   near 
Preston  Pans,  and    in  a   single  rush    almost   destroyed 
it. 

Returning   to    Edinburgh,  Charles   stayed   there    for 
si.x   weeks,   and    then   started    for    England.       He   had 
now  about  6,000   men  under  his  command. 
Taking  the   Western    road,  his    troops  went     toa^ndfrom 
steadily  on  until  they  entered  Derby.     There     o"ober- 
ihey  paused;  and  though  Charles  was  himself    December, 
full  of  hope  and  burned  to  push  on  to  London,     '^''^' 
the  chiefs  resolved  to  go  back  to  Scotland.     Few  English 

E.  H.  F 


66 


Eettlcnuiit  of  the  Constitution. 


1746. 


had  joined  them  ;  and  they  were  disheartened.    On  their 
way  back  they  beat  a  body  of  soldiers  that  overtook  them 


at  Cluiuu,  lii  Cumberhmd.    On  the  day  before  Chrislnias 
Fight  of  they  marehed  into  Glasgow.     They  then  laid 

FalkiFk,  ;     g   jQ  Stirling,  but  could  not  take  it.     But 

January,  "  *^'  ,"  1 

•746.  at    Falkirk    Muir    they    overcame    General 


i746-<4.  77/1?  Pelkafns.  67 

Hawley,  who  had  been   sent  with   8,000  men   to  relieve 
Stirling-.     Cumberland  himself  then  took  the  command 
of  the   royal    troops  ;  and  the   Highlanders   fell  back  to 
Inverness.     Next   spring  the   Duke  went   in    search   of 
them,  and  found  them  at  Culloden  Field,  near  Inverness. 
At  Culloden   the  royal  troops  were  handled 
so  well  that  the  wildest  rushes  of  the  High-     claioden, 
landers    could    not    break    their    firm    array,     ^p"'-  '7*^- 
The  mountaineers,  thus  baffled,  soon  scattered  before  the 
murderous  volleys  of  musketry,  and  made  for  their  several 
homes.     Thus  ended  the  last  Jacobite  rising.     The  poor 
Highlanders  were  most  cruelly  treated  by  the   victorious 
soldiers.       For   five   months    Charles    wandered    about 
through  the  Highlands  and  Western  isles,  suffering  many 
hardships  and  meeting  with   very  romantic  adventures. 
But  in  September  he  got  off  safe  to  France.     Of  his  fol- 
lowers the  Lords  Lovat,  Kilmarnock,  and   Balmerinoch 
were   beheaded  ;    nearly    a   hundred   others    were    also 
executed.     A  law  was  then   made  doing  away  with  the 
special  authority  of  the   Highland  chieftains  over  \their 
clans. 

7.  The    war    with    France    still    went   on  ;     but    in 
Flanders  the  Allies  were  generally  unsuccessful.     As  a 
set-off  to  their  failures  by   land  the  British     Peace  of 
gained  two  victories  at  sea.    At  length  in  1748     cha'clV 
peace  was  made  with   France  and  Spain  at     1748 
Aix-la-Chapelle.     None  of  the  nations  won  anything  m 
this  war,  except  Prussia,  which  was  allowed  to  keep  Silesia. 

8.  Six  years  of  unbroken  quiet  at  home  and  abroad 
followed.     In   1754   Henry  Pelham  died,  and  the  strife 
of  statesmen  began  anew.     At  the  same  time     Death  of 
things  were  fas',  ripening  towards  the  outbreak     {?elham 

of  one  of  the  most  important  wars  in  history     1754- 

— the   Seven  Years'  War,  as  it  afterwards  came  to   be 

named. 

F2 


68 

BOOK    IV. 

THE   SEVEN   YEARS'    WAR. 

CHAPTER    I. 
HOW  THE   WAR   WAS    BROUGHT   ABOUT. 

I.  After  the  death  of  Henry  Pelham  it  was  not  e.ijy 
to  form  a  ministry  that  could  both  do  the  work  of  govern- 
ment  and  carry  what   was    thought    needful 

Newcastle's  i       i        tt  r      •  xt  ■ 

Ministry,  through  the  House  or  Commons.  Newcastle 
1754-56  took  the  first  place  ;  but  he  wanted  a  man  to 

lead  the  Commons.  It  was  not  easy  to  get  such  a  man  ; 
Pitt  was  too  high-minded,  and  was,  moreover,  disliked 
by  the  King.  Henry  Fox,  a  clever  man,  who  knew  well 
how  to  humour  the  Lower  House,  and  had  few  scruples, 
was  willing  to  take  the  post  ;  but  Newcastle  wanted  to 
keep  all  the  power  to  himself  ;  and  it  was  some  time 
Newcastle's  before  he  could  make  his  bargain  with  Fox. 
troubles.  Even  after  he  got   Fox  troubles  came  thick 

upon  Newcastle.  The  nation  kept  drifting^  into  war  with 
France  ;  and  the  Duke,  looking  about  for  allies,  wanted 
to  draw  closer  to  Austria,  which  had  secretly  entered  into 
a  friendship  with  France.  Then  the  French,  without 
declaring  war,  besieged  St.  Philip's,  in  Minorca  ;  and 
Admiral  Byng,  who  had  been  sent  with  a  fleet  to  bring 
succour  to  the  place,  came  away  without  doing  anything;. 
The  people  grew  very  angry  ;  and  men  began  to  think 
more  and  more  of  Pitt  as  the  only  man  who  could  save 
T,T         ,,         the  nation.     Newcastle  offered  to  have  Byng 

Newcastle  ■'     » 

resigns,  hanged — indeed,   next  year  Byng  was    tried 

'^^  '  by    court-martial   and    shot — but  the   people 

were  still  uneasy  and  fretful.  Then  Fox  left  Newcastle, 
and  soon  his  Ministry  broke  up. 


1756-57-  The  Seven   Years'   War.  69 

2.  By  this  time  war  with  France  had  come  in  earnest, 
and  the  voice  of  the  people  called  loudly  for   Pitt  as  the 
only  man  fit  to  have  the  management  of  it. 
Thereupon  the  King  yielded  ;  and  a  Ministry     tar"  of  "^' 
was  formed  in  which  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,     xf"'^'  ,. 

'      jNovember, 

a  man  or  spotless  honour,  was  Prime  Minister,  1756-April, 
and  Pitt  Secretary  of  State.  In  a  few  months,  '^^'' 
however,  the  King — in  whose  mind  the  hard  things  that 
Pitt  had  once  said  about  Hanover  still  rankled — took 
away  his  office  from  Pitt,  and  asked  Newcastle  to  try  and 
get  a  ministry  together  once  more.  Ikit  Pitt  had  now 
become  the  darling  of  the  people,  and  men  gave  utter- 
ance to  their  feedings  in  a  very  marked  way.  The  lead- 
ing cities  and  towns  sent  each  its  freedom  to  Pitt  in  a 
gold  box  ;  '  for  some  weeks,'  it  was  said,  '  it  rained  gold 
boxes.'  The  King  and  Newcastle  found  that  it  was 
hopeless  to  try  any  longer  to  withstand  the  will  of  the 
people.  Pitt  was  sent  for,  again  made  Secretary,  and 
allowed  to  become  the  ruling  spirit  in  the  new  I'lu's  great 
Cabinet.     The  management   of  the  war  and     ^f'"'stry 

"^  lormed, 

all  dealings  with  foreign  States  were  wholly  June,  1757. 
placed  in  his  hands.  Newcastle  was  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury,  and  Anson  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 
Thus  was  brought  into  being  one  of  the  strongest  minis- 
tries that  have  ever  ruled  England.  It  had  all  the 
strength  that  came  from  Parliamentary  support,  for  most 
of  the  Commons  voted  as  Newcastle  wished  ;  and  it  had 
all  the  strength  that  came  from  masterly  intellect  and  the 
hearty  love  of  the  people,  for  Piit  was  the  largest-minded 
and  most  popular  statesman  that  England  has  known  for 
two  hundred  years.  The  King  too  forgot  his  old  grudge 
against  Pitt,  and  held  loyally  by  his  great  minister. 

William  Pitt,  known  in  his  own  days  as  'the  Great 
Commoner,"  was  the  son  of  a  West  Country  gentleman. 
His  character  was  very  pure  and  noble  ;  when  Paymaster 


"yO  Settle77ient  of  the  Constitiition.     1749-54. 

he  would  not  take  anything  b>it  his  lawful  salary,  though 
it  was  then  usual  for  Paymasters  to  enrich  themselves  by 
William  putting  out  ac  interest  the  balance  of  public 

b"i  08  money  in  their  hands.     His  ways  of  speaking 

d.  1778.  and  acting  were  marked  by  a  certain  gran- 

deur and  stateliness,  which  filled  those  who  came  near 
him  with  a  feeling  of  awe.  We  have  had  few  statesmen 
equal  to  him  in  clearne.<?sof  thought  and  greatness  of  soul. 
3.  The  point  that  England  and  P>ance  had  now  re- 
solved to  settle  by  force  of  arms  was — which  of  the  two 
The  English  nations  should  be  master  in  North  America, 
in  America,  -pj^^  English  Colonics  there  had  grown  very 
much  of  late  years  ;  the  settlement  of  Georgia  in  1733 
had  raised  their  number  to  thirteen,  and  in  1756  their 
population  had  reached  1,300,000.  The  land  they  dwelt 
in  stretched  from  the  river  Kennebec  almost  to  the 
Gulf  of  .Mexico,  and  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  Alleghany 
mountains.  They  had  no*^  spread  to  the  \west  of  these 
mountains,  though  some  uien  among  them  were  think- 
'l"he  French  '"?  of  making  a  settlement  there.  Now  the 
in  Amenca.  French  had  formed  colonies  in  Canada  and 
Louisiana.  There  were  indeed  very  few  French  colonists 
—  hardly  60,000  in  all — but  many  of  these  were  soldiers, 
v%'hilst  the  English  had  no  great  skill  or  training  in  arms. 
About  1749  the  French  began  to  claim  all  the  lands  wei>t 
of  the  AUeghanies  ;  and  the  Governor  of  Canada  was 
ordered  to  take  the  needful  steps  to  secure  these  latids 
for  France.  H"e  at  once  set  about  raising  a  line  of  forts 
between  Canada  and  Louisiana.  This  line  was  to  be  a 
border  marking  off  the  country  which  belonged  to  France 
from  that  which  belonged  to  England.  By  this  arrange- 
ment the  1,300,000  English  would  have  been  shut  up  in  a 
comparatively  narrow  strip  of  land  along  the  seacoast, 
while  the  60,000  French  would  have  had  almost  all  the 
rest  of  North  .America. 


•754-56-  ^^'■^  Seven   Years    War.  7 1 

4.  Just  as  the  French  were  beginning  to  carry  out  this 
design  a  company  was  formed  in  England  to  colonise 
500,000  acres  of  land  which  King  George  had  granted 
them  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  But  a  small  French 
force  had  already  built  a  fort  there,  which  they  called 
Fort  Duquesne.  In  1754  George  Washington,  then  a 
young  man,  marched  across  the  Alleghanies  with  150 
Virginians,  to  drive  the  French  from  the  place.  The 
French  were  too  strong  for  Washmgton,  and  he  returned 
home.  By  this  time  the  English  Government  had  come 
to  see  that  a  great  effort  must  be  made  to  put  down  the 
French  in  America  ;  and  General  Braddock  was  sent  out 
with  two  regiments  to  aid  the  colonists.  Braddock 
started  from  Virginia  with  2,000  men,  made  his  way 
across  the  Alleghanies,  and  led  his  force  Defeat  of 
blindly  into  the  woods.  When  within  10  miles  braddock 
of  Fort  Duquesne  he  was  assailed  by  bodies     »7ss- 

of  French  and  Indians,  who  kept  themselves  carefully 
under  cover.  Braddock,  after  losing  700  of  his  small 
army,  and  getting  mortally  wounded  himself,  was  forced 
to  retreat.  He  died  on  the  way.  There  had  also  been 
much  wrangling  and  much  fighting  about  the  border 
between  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia,  where  the  English 
had  lately  built  the  town  of  Halifax  (1749).  Clearly  the 
two  peoples  could  not  live  at  peace  with  each  other  on 
equal  terms.  England  and  France  now  went  to  war  to 
find  out  which  was  to  have  the  mastery. 

5.  Prussia   was   an   ally   of    England    m    this    war. 
Frederick  the  Great,  then  king  in   Prussia,  was   George 
II.'s  nephew,  but  hitherto  there  had  been  little     Alliance 
friendship  between  the  two  princes.  Frederick    p^Jl^si 
had  acted  with  France  in  the  last  war,  and      1757-62. 
until   1756  had  been  supposed  to  be  still  in  close  alliance 
with  the  French  king.     But  in  that  year  it  came  to  light 
that  Austria,  France,  Russia,  Sweden,  and   Saxony  had 


72  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.        1 756-58. 

banded  themselves  together  to  crush  Prussia  utterly  ; 
and  Frederick  gladly  made  an  alliance  with  his  uncle. 
By  this  England  was  to  give  Frederick  670,000/.  every 
year,  both  kings  were  to  wage  a  common  war  against 
France,  and  neither  was  to  make  peace  without  the 
other. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  EVENTS  OF  THE  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR. 

1.  For  the  four  years  during  which  Pitt  held  the  chief 
power  he  thought  of  little  else  than  how  to  bring  the  war 
to  a  happy  ending  for  England.  It  was  his  fixed  resolve 
to  blot  out  the  rule  of  the  French  in  North  America,  and 

to    give  the  sole  mastery   there   to  his  own 
at  s  aims.      countrymen.    The  American  nation,  now  one 
of   the  mightiest  on   earth,   owes  the    beginning  of    its 
greatness  to  this  war. 

2.  At  the  outset  England  got  rather  the  worse.  In 
1756  Minorca  was  wrested  from  her  ;  and  in  1757  a 
The  war  be-  German  army  in  English  pay,  led  by  the  Duke 
ains  badly.  of  Cumberland,  fell  back  before  the  French 
Stade,  on  the  sea-coast  ;  and  to  save  it  Cumberland 
agreed,  at  Kloster-Zeven,  to  let  the  French  keep  Hanover 
for  a  time.  In  America  too  the  French  seemed  to  be 
the  stronger  power.  In  1758,  though  they  quietly  left 
Fort  Duquesne  when  they  heard  that  an  army  was  coming 
against  the  place,  yet  they  beat  back  a  body  of  12,000 
from  Ticonderoga,  killing  or  wounding  2,000  of  them. 

3.  Rut  most  of  these  things  either  happened  or  were 
planned  before  Pitt  became  Chief  Minister.     Shortly  after 

his  appointment  the  war  took  a  favourable  turn 
GermanV""  in  both  Germany  and  America.  In  Germany 
1753.  Pitt  got  from  King  Frederick  a   very  good 

general,  Duke  Ferdinan'!  of  Brunswick,  and  set  him  over 


1 


1759  Events  of  tJie  Seven   Years    War.       73 

the  army  which  Cumberland  had  led  so  badly.  Ferdinand 
at  once  moved  upon  the  French,  drove  them  back  from 
point   to   point,   and   at   last    swept   them   clean   out  of 
Hanover.     He  even  followed  them  across  the  Rhine,  and 
overthrew  them  at  Crefeld.  Then  Pitt  added  a 
British  force  of  12,000  to  Ferdinand's  army.     Crefeld, 
Most  of  our   Highland  regiments  served  for     J""«''758. 
the  first  time  in   this  war.     Pitt  had  lately  raised  these 
regiments  from  the  Highland  clans,  rightly  thinking  that  in 
this  way  he  would  turn  lebels  into  loyal  soldiers.   In  1758  a 
fleet  and  army  were  sent  against  Cape  Breton  also.  General 
Amherst  was  leader  of  the  army,  but  his  second  in  com- 
mand was  James  Wolfe,  a  young  soldier  of  great  skill  and 
daring,  simple-hearted  and  truthful,  whom  Pitt  had  picked 
out   for  command  from  among   much   older 
men.     The  Frejich  tried  to  hinder  the  English     subdued 
from  landing,  but  failed.     Louisburg,  the  chief    '^^^' 
town  of  Cape  Breton,  was  besieged  and  taken,  whereupon 
the  whole  island  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  English. 

4.  But  the  great  year  of  the  war  was  1 759  ;  perhaps  in 
no  single  year  has  England  won  so  many  great  successes 
as  in  this  one.  In  Germany,  in  America,  in  India,  off  the 
coasts  of  Portugal  and  France  mighty  deeds  of  war  were 
done  by  the  English.  \  writer  then  living  said,  '  One  is 
forced  to  ask  every  morning  what  victory  there  is,  for  fear 
of  missing  one.' 

5.  (i.)  In  Germany  the  campaign  began  with  a  defeat. 
The  French  having  seized  the  free  town  of  Frankfort, 
Ferdinand  marched   swiftlv  southwards  with 

i       ^  ,      '.   ,     ,  ,  .       The  war  in 

30,000   men    to   try   and   dislodge   them.     A  Germany, 

little   way   from    Frankfort    he    came    upon.'  '-'^^i- 

35,000  French  drawn  up  at    Bergen,  fought  long   and 
stubbornly  to   clear  them  from  his  path,  but 

had  at  last  to  go  back  the  way  he  came,  leav-  Bergen, 

ing  2,500  of  his  troops  on   the  field.     Yet   in  •*^p'''' 
th?   following  August   he   gained  a  victorv  at  Minden, 


74  Settlement  of  the  Constihitioii.  j^^g 

which  more  than  wiped  away  the  disgrace  at  Bergen. 
He  was  standing  at  bay  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Weser 
with  two  French  armies  before  him.  These  were  strongly 
posted,  and  he  dared  not  attack  them.  But  he  cun- 
ningly teiT.'pted  the  French  to  come  across  the  river  ; 
whereupon  six  English  regiments  of  foot  boldly  charged 
OfMinden,  and  scattered  the  French  horse.  The  French 
August.  horse   rallied   and   again  bore  down  on  the 

English  foot,  but  were  again  routed  by  the  swift  and 
rteady  musketry-fire  of  their  foes.  Then  the  French 
general  gave  the  word  for  retreat.  Ferdinand  sent  orders 
to  Lord  (ieorge  Sackville,  the  commander  of  the  English 
horse,  to  charge  the  retreating  army  ;  and  it  is  thought 
that,  if  Lord  George  had  done  so,  the  French  army  would 
have  been  utterly  crushed.  But  the  Englishman,  for 
reasons  that  are  not  exactly  known,  would  not  charge  : 
and  the  beaten  French  were  able  to  get  back  across  the 
river.  They  lost  7,000  in  this  battle.  P'or  this  contempt 
of  orders  Sackville  was  put  out  of  the  army  altogether 
by  King  George.  The  Marquis  of  Granby  took  his  place 
in  command  of  the  horse.  Ferdinand  kept  the  upper 
hand  throughout  the  rest  of  the  campaign,  the  French 
armies  moving  back  towards  Frankfort. 

(2.)  But  the  war  in  Germany  v/as  important  only  be- 
cause it  made  success  in  America  possible.     It  was  in 

America  that  the  greatest  event  of  the  war, 
America, '  indeed  of  the  century,  took  place.  This  was 
''59-  the  taking  of  Quebec,  the  chief  town  of  Canada, 

from  the  French.  Late  in  June  a  large  fleet,  having  on 
l)oard  8,000  troops,  under  the  command  of  General 
Wolfe,  sailed  into  the  St.  Lawrence.     Quebec   stands  on 

the  left  bank  of  this  river,  perched  on  ver\ 
besieged,  hi;4h  rocks  ;  and  the  French  commander, 
June.  Montcalm,  had  posted  his  army,  10,000  in  all, 

a  little  lower  down  on  the  same  side.     Wolfe  began  1) 


I 


719-         Events  of  the  Seven   Years    War.        75 


17' 


bombarding  the  town  from  the  other  side,  but  did  not  get 
;i  bit   nearer  winning  it,  though   he   did  it  much  harm. 


Next  he  ciobsi^J  to  the  left  bank  and  tried  to  lorce 
Montcalm  from  his  position.  But  his  foremost  troops 
were  too  eager,  and  rushing  upon  their  foes  before  rl.e 


"J^  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1759. 

others  could  be  brought  forward,  were  beaten  and  driven 
back  in  confusion.  Wolfe  became  disheartened,  and 
almost  gave  up  all  hope  of  getting  Quebec  that  year. 
Through  death  and  disease  his  army  dwindled  to  hardly 
more  thar.  4,500,  and  he  himself  fell  into  a  fever.  He 
waited  on,  however,  thinking  that  help  might  con^e  to 
him  from  the  South,  whence  Generals  Amherst  and 
Johnson  were  striving  to  make  their  way.  But  no  help 
came  ;  Johnson  took  Niagara,  Amherst  Ticonderoga,  yet 
neither  could  get  near  Quebec.  At  last;  one  dark  night 
in  September,  Wolfe's  men  went  aboard  boats  and  drifted 
silently  with  an  ebbing  tide  to  a  point  two  miles  above 
Quebec,  now  called  Wolfe's  Cove.  There  they  landed, 
climbed  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  which  rose  steep  from 
the  river,  and  early  ne.xt  morning  stood  drawn  up  in 
battle  array  on  the  level  groui.d  behind  the  town. 
Montcalm  was  taken  by  surprise,  but  at  once  hastened 
with  his  army  to  '  smash  '  the  English,  as  he  said.  The 
French  came  briskly  on  ;  the  English  stood  stock-still 
until  they  got  their  foes  within  forty  yards — then  they  all 
Death  of  ^^  the  Same  moment  poured  a  deadly  volley 
Wolfe.  ii^to  j^hg  French  ranks.     The  French  paused 

and  Wolfe  at  once  led  his  grenadiers  to  the  charge.  In 
a  few  minutes  all  was  over  ;  the  enemy  fled  from  the  field. 
But  the  noble  W^olfe  fell  ;  hit  by  three  musket-balls,  he 
Quebec  had  just  time  to  be  told  that  the  French  ran 

tenTber^^'^  and  to  Say, '  1  shall  die  happy/  when  he  breathed 
1759-  his  last.      Montcalm  too  was  wounded,  and 

died  next  day.     Four  days  later  Quebec  surrendered. 

(3.)  This  year  the  French  made  a  grand  plan  for 
The  war  off  invading  England.  They  got  together  fleets 
guese°and  ^t  Toulon,  Havre,  and  Brest,  and  thought 
French  ^^^x  if  these  could  be  combined  success  was 

coasts, 

1759.  sure.     But  Pitt  took  care  to  prevent  the  union 

<>f  these  fleets.     In  ]v\s  he  sent  Admiral  Rodney  against 


175960.      Events  of  the  Seven   Years'   War.       yy 

Havre,  who  did  much  damage  to  the  town  and  the  flat- 
bottomed  boats  that  were  to  carry  the  French  soldiers 
across    the    Channel.       In    August,    Admiral     u„mijard- 
Boscawen  caught  the  Toulon  fleet,  which  1  ad     ment  of 
sHpped  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  off    ju^"*' 
Lagos,  in  Portugal,  and  at  once  closed  with  it.     p^^^j^  ^^ 
In  this  fight  five  of  the  largest  French  ships     l-agos, 
were   taken   or   sunk,    and   the    rest    driven     '  "^"*'' 
ashore   or   forced    to    flee.      Yet    the  French  still  clung 
to    their    plan  ;    and   the   preparations    at    Brest    were 
pushed    briskly    forward.       To    Admiral     Hawke    had 
been    given    the    duty   of  watching    that   port,   and    he 
had  watched   it  all   the  summer  and   autumn.     But    in 
November  the   French  fleet  under  Conflans,  finding  that 
wild  weather  had  driven  Hawke  from  his  sta-     Battle  of 
tion,  put  out  to  sea.      Hawke    heard   of  this     Qu'b'^'-on 

Bay, 

movement,  came  back  with  all  speed,  fell  upon  November. 
Conflans,  and  beat  him  utterly.  This  battle  was  fought 
in  the  midst  of  a  ra.L;ing  storm,  among  dangerous  rocks 
and  shoals,  well  known  to  the  French,  but  not  to  the 
English.  It  was  an  awful  scene;  three  French  ships 
were  sunk  or  burnt;  two  struck  their  flags  ;  the  rest  were 
chased  into  the  river  Vilaine  or  Charente. 

6.  The  war  lasted  some  years  longer:  but  the  English 
always  got  the  better  of  their  enemies.     In   1760  three 
small   armies   moved   at   the    same   time  on     Cannda 
Montreal,  where   the  French  still  held   out.     ^""1''^^ 

1  r.ngl.iiid, 

Montreal  surrendered,  and  the  French  power     1760. 
in  Canada  came  to  an  end.     Prince  Ferdinand  too  kept 
his  ground  in  Westphalia  against  forces  much  larger  than 
his  own,  and  even  gained  one  or  two  battles.     Never  had 
the  name  of  England  been  so  great. 

7.  But  at  this  point  the  King  of  Spa'n  thought  fit  to 
enter  into  the  war  on  the  side  of  France.  He  was  a 
Bourbon,   and  had  a  kindly  feeling   for  his   cousin   of 


78  Settlemcut  oj  the  Constitution.        1761-63. 

France.  English  war-.ships.  he  said,  had  done  gnevous 
wrong  to  Spanish  trade  during^  the  war  ;  and  Enghshmen 
S"ainjoin<=  ^^^  *-"^  logwood,  in  spite  of  him,  on  the 
France  shore  of  Campcachv  Bay.     In  1761  he  bound 

England,        himself  by  another  Family  Compact  to  go  to 

1762.  ^^^^  \s\\\\  England  if  peace  were  not  made 
befcre  May  i,  1762.  Pitt  found  out  about  this  Family 
Compact,  and  wanted  to  make  war  on  Spain  at  once 
when  she  was  unprepared.  But  George  II.  had  died  the 
year  before  (October,  1760)  ;  his  grandson.  George  III., 
was  not  so  hearty  in  upholding  Pitt  :  war  «as  not  de- 
clared ;  and  Pitt  went  out  of  office.  In  1762,  however, 
the  Spaniards,  having  got  themselves  ready,  began  war 
Spain  \s'\x\\.  England.  Again  England  was  victo- 
dei'eated.  rious  at  every  point.  A  Spanish  army  which 
had  invaded  Portugal,  then  an  ally  of  England,  was 
forced  to  v.ithdraw  ;  Havanna.  the  chief  town  of  Cuba, 
was  takei-  at  one  end  of  the  earth  :  Manilla,  the  chief 
town  of  the  Philippine  islands,  was  taken  at  the  other. 
Vast  sums  of  money  fell  \v*-^  the  hands  of  the  victors  at 
both  places. 

8.  In  1763  f-he  war  wa^  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
Peace  of  Paris.  This  treaty  has  some  likeness  to  the 
Peace  of  Peace  of  Utrecht.     The  Earl  of  Bute,  George 

?^'  III.'s  new  Minister,  was  so  anxious  to  end  the 

February  ^ 

1763.  '  war  that  he  not  only  abandoned  England's 
ally,  the  Prussian  king,  but  let  off  Franc  e  and  Spain  much 
easier  than  they  had  hoped.  France  made  over  to 
England,  Canada,  Cape  Breton,  and  some  West  India 
islands,  and  gave  back  Minorca.  To  Spain,  England 
restored  Havanna  and  Manilla,  getting  only  Florida  in 
their  place.  Most  Englishmen  were  greatly  displeased 
with  this  arrangement  :  but  Bute  carried  it  out  neverthe- 
less. 


79 

CHAPTER    III. 
THE   RISE   OF  THE   ENGLISH    POWER    IN    INDIA. 

1.  Two  things  make  the  Seven  Years'  War  the  most 
fruitful  event  of  modern  times  for  England.  The  first  is, 
that  it  overthrew  the  French  power  in  America,  and  thus 
smoothed  the  way  for  the  revolt  of  the  English  colonies. 
When  the  colonists  no  longer  needed  the  help     , 

.         Importance 

of  the  mother-country  agamst  foes  on  their     of  Seven 
soil   they  were  sure  soon   to  separate  them-     ^''^''*  ^"^^ 
selves  from  her  altogether.     The  second  noticeable  thing 
about  this  war  is,  that  during  it  the  English  began  to 
build  up  their  Empire  in  India. 

2.  England  owes  her  sway  over  India  to  a  mere  body 
of  traders.     In  i6oo  some  London   merchants  got  from 
Queen   Elizabeth  a  charter  giving  them  the     ^^^^  j^jj^^ 
sole  right  of  trading  with  the  East  Indies  for     Company 
fifteen   \ears.     Thus   the    great    East    India     December 
Company  was   founded.     In    1609   James    I.     3'.  '600. 
renewed  this  charter   without   fixing  any  term  of  years, 
only  keeping  to  himself  the  power  of  taking  it  away  at 
any  time  he  pleased  on  giving  the   company  three  years' 
notice.     This  Company  lasted  until    1859  ;  but  in    1813 
other  people  were  allowed  to  trade  with  India  as  well. 

3.  For  150  years  the   Company  went  on   trading  with 
the   East    with   no   other  thought   than   that  of  gaining 
riches.     Their  earliest  dealings  were  not  with     Earliest 
India  itself,  but  with  the  islands  bevond,  their     E"gi'?h 

'  ■  '  factories  «n 

first  factories  being  at  Acheen,  in  Sumatra,  tiie  indies. 
and  Bantam  at  Java.  In  161 2,  however,  they  turned 
their  thoughts  towards  India  itself,  and  built  a  factory  at 
Surat.  And  in  161 5  Sir  Thomas  Roe  was  sent  to  Agra 
to  seek  for  his  countrymen  the  good-will  of  Shah  Jehan- 
ghir,  the  Great  Alogul,  as  the  chief  ruler  in   India  was 


Bo         Settlement  of  the  Constitution.      1 612- 1698. 

called.  But  it  was  not  all  smooth  sailing  with  the  Com- 
Enmity  of  pany  at  first.  The  Portuguese  and  the  Dutch, 
g^jres^^nd  "^^^  ^^"^  S°"^  ^  footing  in  the  Indies  before 
the  Dutch  the  English  came,  and  did  not  wish  any 
others  to  share  in  their  gains,  gave  the  Company  much 
trouble.  They  had  forts  and  ships  of  war  in  those 
parts,  and  sought  to  drive  the  English  away  by  force. 
The  English  met  force  with  force  ;  and  for  many  years 
a  bitter  warfare  was  kept  up.  In  1612  a  Portuguese  fleet 
made  a  bold  attempt  to  crush  the  English  at  Surat,  but 
failed.  Tlie  Dutch  fought  longer  ani  more  doggedly  ; 
and  having  more  men  and  armed  ships  in  the  Indies 
than  the  English,  got  the  upper  hand  for  a  time.  James 
[.  wanted  very  much  to  reconcile  the  Dutch  and  English 
Companies,  and  twice  made  them  agree  to  a  peace. 
But  the  hatred  between  them  was  long  in  dying  out,  and 
led  to  more  than  one  lawless  deed  of  bloodshed. 

4.  Still  the  English  Company  not  only  held  its  own 
but  found  a  way  into  other  parts  of  India.  In  1640 
it  built  Fort  St.  George  (Madras)  and  Fort  St.  David  on 
lands  which  it  bought  from  a  native  prince.  Next 
Charles  II.  gave  it  Bombay  (1662),  which  had  come  to 
him  by  his  marriage  with  a  princess  of  Portugal.     After 

the  Restoration  it  became   wonderfully  pros- 
Progress   of  ....  TXTI-  •  . 

ihe  Com-  perous.  But  m  William  III.  s  time  it  got  into 
iany  trouble  both  at  home  and  in   India.     Anew 

Company  was  formed  which  claimed  freedom  of  trade  ; 
and  having  many  friends  in  Parliament,  seemed  likely  to 
destroy  the  old.  At  the  same  time  it  did  something 
in  India  which  kindled  the  wrath  of  the  Great  Mogul, 
Aurengzebe  ;  and  it  lost  the  flourishing  trading  settle- 
ments which  it  had  formed  at  Hooghly.  But  in  a  few 
years  both  clouds  passed  away.  Aurengzebe  was  per- 
suaded to  take  the  Company  again  into  favour,  and 
granted  it   some  lands  on  the  Hooghly.     There   in   1698 


1702-48.    Ri^^  of  the  EnglisJt.  Pozver  in  India.    81 

it  raised  Fort  William,  round  which  the  present  Indian 
capital,  Calcutta,  afterwards  grew  up.  And,  in  1702,  the 
old  and  new  Companies  made  up  their  quarrel  by  uniting 
themselves  together.  Thus  quiet  came,  and  fresh  pros- 
perity along  with  it. 

5.  In  1740  things  stood  thus.  Each  station — Fort  St. 
George,  Fort  William,  and  Bombay— formed  a  kind  of 
little  state  in  itself,  with  a  ruling  body  named 

by  the  Company,  and  a  small  army,  partly  in  India  in 
Europeans  and  partly  natives.  These  latter  '7^° 
were  called  Sepoys,  from  the  native  word  for  soldier 
(sipahi).  Money-making  was  still  the  only  thought  of 
the  English.  The  notion  of  bringing  any  part  of  India 
under  their  rule  seems  never  to  have  entered  their  heads. 
But  in  1 75 1  they  were  drawn,  almost  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, into  the  quarrels  of  the  native  princes,  and  were 
thus  tempted  to  enter  on  a  wider  field  of  action. 

6.  At  this  time  there  was  a  French  East  India  Com- 
pany also,  with  its  chief  stations  in  the  island  of  Mauritius 
and   at    Pondicherry,    south  of   Madras.     In 

,      .         ^  -     ,,         .  .  ,  English  and 

1746  the  Governor  of  Mauritius  was  La  French  in 
Bourdonnais,  an  able  and  honourable  man  ;  '"'^'^ 
and  the  Governor  of  Pondicherry  was  Dupleix,  also  a 
man  of  great  ability,  but  ambitious  and  vain.  As  war 
was  then  going  on  between  England  and  France,  La 
Bourdonnais  sailed  with  3,000  men  to  Madras,  which 
being  unable  to  withstand  his  greater  force,  surrendered 
to  him.  The  Frenchman  promised  to  give  back  the 
place  to  the  English  when  they  had  paid  him  a  large 
sum  of  money.  But  Dupleix  claimed  Madras  as  his  con- 
quest ;  and  when  La  Bourdonnais  sailed  away  he  not 
only  kept  the  place,  but  laid  siege  to  Fort  St.  David. 
From  Fort  St.  David  he  was  frightened  away  by  the 
coming  of  a  new  force  from  England.  In  1748  the  war 
in  Europe  ceased,  and  Madras  again  became  English. 
£.H.  G 


82  Settlevient  of  the  Constitution.     1748-51 

7.  But  peace  with  the  English  brought  no  rest  to 
Dupleix.  The  Empire  of  the  Great  Mogul  was  now  fast 
Dupleix's  breaking  up  ;  each  native  ruler  was  as  good 
designs.  ^g  indt'pend-nt  in  the  lands  under  his  govern- 
ment ;  and  Dupleix  thought  that  he  might,  by  mixing 
himself  up  in  the-r  afiairs,  make  himself  the  greatest  man 
in  Southern  India.  He  was  very  successful  for  a  time. 
He  pulled  down  one  Nabob  of  Arcot  and  set  up  another  ; 
he  pulled  down  the  Viceroy  of  the  Deccan — the  Nizam, 
as  he  was  called — and  set  up  another  in  his  place.  The 
rule  of  South-Eastern  India  from  the  river  Kistna  to 
Cape  Comorin  was  put  into  Dupleix's  hands  ;  his  will 
was  law  among  thirty  millions  of  people. 

8.  At  this  state  of  affairs  the  English  in  Madras  got 
afraid  of  being  driven  out  of  the  country  altogether,  and 
The  English  Sent  a  few  hundred  men  to  help  Mahommed 
interfere.         p^^i^  ^^^  ^f  jj^g  5}^^;^  Nabob,  who  Still  held  out 

in  Trichinopoly.  But  these  men  were  shamefully  beaten, 
and  shut  up  with  their  ally  in  Trichinopoly.  It  was  just 
Robert  at  this  time  that  Robert  Clive,  a  young  man  of 

b  '1725  noble  daring,  yet  wary  and  cool-headed,  came 

^-  1774-  forward  to  take  the  lead  among  the   English. 

He  was  the  son  of  a  Shropshire  gentleman,  had  been 
first  a  clerk  in  the  Company's  sen'ice,  then  an  officer, 
and  then  a  clerk  again.  He  was  now  put  at  the  head  of 
500  men,  of  whom  but  200  were  Europeans,  and  in  August 
Clive's early  '751  marched  Straight  upon  Arcot,  the  chief 
successes.  town  of  the  Carnatic.  Arcot  fell  without  strik- 
ing a  blow  ;  and  Clive  at  once  strengthened  the  walls  and 
got  all  things  ready  for  a  siege.  Ten  thousand  men  soon 
closed  round  Arcot  ;  but  for  fifty  days  Clive  kept  them  at 
bay.  In  November  the  besiegers  tried  to  storm  the  place, 
but  were  utterly  defeated,  and  gave  up  the  siege.  A  body 
of  Mahrattas,  which  had  been  hired  to  fight  for  Mahommed 
AH,  then  coming  up,  Clive  went  in  search  of  the  retreating 


1751-56-     A'?-*'t'  of  the  English  Poiver  in  India.   83 

army,  overtook  it  at  Amee,  and  beat  it  thoroughly.  Clive 
then  went  on  from  success  to  success  ;  the  siege  of  Trichi- 
nopoly  was  raised,  and  Mahommed  Ah  was  made  Nabob 
of  Arcot.  Dupleix  worked  hard  to  undo  the  effect  of 
Chve's  daring  deeds,  but  in  vain.  The  upshot  of  the 
strife  was  that  Duplcix  was  recalled  to  France,  and  a 
peace  favourable  to  the  Enghsh  was  made  in  1754.  The 
year  before  this,  however,  Clive  had  fallen  into  ill-health, 
and  gone  back  to  England. 

g.  In  1756  Clive  came  back  to  India  as  governor  of 
Fort  St.  David.  About  the  same  time  a  dreadful  misfor- 
tune befell  the  English  in  Bengal.  The  young  The  Black 
Nabob  of  Bengal,  Surajah  Dowlah,  was  jeal-  Ca°I?u°ta^ 
ous  of  the  prosperity  of  the  strangers  who  had  1756- 
settled  on  his  soil,  and,  in  1756,  led  an  army  to  take 
and  rob  Calcutta.  The  English  governor  and  the  chief 
officer  ran  away  ;  and  the  small  garrison  had  to  give  up 
the  place.  Then  an  awful  deed  was  done  by  the  Nabob's 
officers.  They  thrust  their  146  prisoners,  one  of  whom 
was  a  woman,  into  the  narrow  guard  room  of  the  fort, 
called  the  Black  Hole,  in  which  hardly  a  score  of  people 
could  breathe  freely.  Stifled  for  want  of  air  they  shrieked 
to  be  let  out  ;  but  the  men  on  guard  were  afraid  to  do 
this  without  an  order  from  the  Nabob ;  and  the  Nabob 
was  asleep,  and  no  one  dared  to  wake  him.  They  were 
therefore  kept  in  all  night;  The  scene  was  horrible ; 
the  prisoners  trampled  on  one  another  in  their  agony  ; 
some  died  at  once;  some  went  mad.  Next  morning, 
when  the  doors  were  opened,  123  were  corpses.  Yet  the 
hard  heart  of  the  Nabob  was  untouched  ;  he  put  some  of 
.the  few  survivors  in  chains,  and  took  Calcutta  to  himself. 
But  in  some  months  Clive  was  sent  from  Madras  with 
2,400  men.  He  soon  won  back  Calcutta  from  the 
Nabob's  soldiers  ;  and  when  the  Nabob  came  down  on 
the  place  with  a  mighty  host,  Clive  struck  such  fear  into 

G  2 


84  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1757, 

him  by  a  march  which  he  made  through  his  camp  that  the 
Nabob  was  glad  to  agree  to  a  peace. 

10.  This  peace  lasted  only  a  short  time.  The  Nabob 
soon  came  to  hate  and  dread  the  English  more  than 
ever  ;  and  Clive,  thinking  there  would  be  no  safety  for 
his  countrymen  so  long  as  Surajah  Dowlah  was  lord  of 
Bengal,  made  a  plot  for  his  overthrow.  Meer  Jaffier,  his 
chief  general,  was  to  be  made  nabob  in  his  room.  In 
The  plot  *^'^  affair  Clive  stooped  to  do  a  very  shameful 

against  thing.     Omichund,  a  Hindoo  merchant,  who 

Dowlah,  had  been  taken  into  the  plot,  threatened  to 

'757  tell  Surajah  Dowlah  of  it  unless  he  was  pro- 

mised 300,000/.  in  the  treaty  made  by  the  persons  en- 
gaged in  the  design.  To  quiet  Omichund,  Clive  caused 
a  false  copy  of  the  treaty  to  be  drawn  up  ;  and  when 
Admiral  Watson  would  not  sign  this,  Clive  had  his  name 
put  to  it  by  another  man.  In  this,  which  was  shown  to 
Omichund,  the  promise  of  300,000/.  was  made  to  the 
Hindoo,  but  there  was  not  a  word  about  the  money  in 
the  true  treaty.  Clive  marched  at  the  head  of  3,000  men 
towards  Moorshedabad,  the  chief  town  of  Bengal.  At 
Plassey  he  met  the  Nabob's  army,  50,000  strong,  led  by 
Battle  of  the  Nabob  himself.  Here  took  place  the  first 
June^z^'  great  battle  fought  by  the  English  in   India. 

>757-  "  The    Nabob's   army  broke   almost   at    once 

before  the  onset  of  Clive's  little  band,  and  rushed  wildly 
from  the  field.  Surajah  Dowlah  fled  far  away,  but 
was  caught,  brought  before  IVleer  Jaffier,  and  slain  in 
prison.  Clive  went  on  to  Moorshedabad,  and  there  set 
up  Meer  Jaffier  as  nabob  of  Bengal.  Then  Omichund 
was  told  of  the  trick  that  had  been  played  upon  him. 
The  shock  was  so  great  that  he  became  an  idiot,  and  soon 
afterwards  died.  The  new  nabob  granted  the  English 
the  lordship  of  a  wide  tract  of  land  as  the  reward  of  their 
services  to  him. 


I757-6T.   Rise  of  the  English  Power  VI  India.     85 

11.  Ciive's  second   stay  in   India    lasted  three   ^ears 
longer.     He  was  not  idle  during  this   time.     He   put  to 
flight  the  army  of  the  Great  Mogul's  eldest  son     CHve's 
from  before  Patna.     He  destroyed  a   Dutch     ^^^^^l 
fleet  and  army  which  werq  on  their  way  up     1757-60- 
the  Hooghly  to  Chinsurah,  a  Dutch  station,  because  he 
believed  they  had  been  sent  to  work  evil  to  his  country- 
men.     He   never   faltered,  and   everything   he   put  his 
hand  to  prospered.     Early  in  1760  he  sailed  home,  and 
was  at  once  made  an  Irish  peer  as  Lord  Clive,  and  got  a 
seat  among  the  Commons. 

12.  Whilst  Clive  was  busy  in   Bengal,  the  Enghsh  at 
Madras  were  in  serious  danger.     Count   Lally  ToUendal, 
a  brave  and  skilful  but   rather  fiery  general,     Lally 
had   been   sent  out  from   France   with    1,200     in°dia"'^'7' 8- 
trained  soldiers  to  strengthen  the   French  at     »76i. 
Pondicherry.     In   1758  he   laid  siege  to  Fort   St.  David, 
took   it  and  levelled  it   to  the  ground.     Next    he  went 
against   Madras   itself;  but   after  irying  every  means  he 
could  think  of  to  win  the  place,  he   had  to  gi\e   up   his 
design   and   march   away.     In   1760   he   was     End  of 
overthrown  by  Eyre  Coote,  a  famous  English     po^"';^in 
soldier,   at   Wandewash.     Next   year   Pondi-     India,  1761. 
cherry    was   taken   by   the    English.     With    the   fall    of 
Pondicherry  the  French  power  in  India  came  to  an  end. 
It  was  now  clear  that  the   English  were  to  be   inasters  of 
India,  if  India  was  to  have  foreign  masters. 


86 


BOOK     V. 

THE  STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  THE  KING 
AND    THE    WHIG   HOUSES. 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE   FIRST   TEN   YEARS   OF  GEORGE   III.'S   REIGN. 

I.  In  October  1760  George  II.  suddenly  died,  and  his 
eldest  grandson  became  king  as  George  III.-  The  new 
king  was  twenty-two  years  old  ;  and  his  character  was 
in  many  ways  unlike  that  of  the  earlier  kings  of  his  line. 
He  was  thoroughly  English  in  feeling  as  in  birth  ;  he 
had  much  good  sense  ;  he  was  fullv  alive  to 

George  III.       ,  .       ,      .  ,  .  ,  r   i^i     i 

King,  1760-  his  duties  as  a  kmg,  and  strove  to  lulnl  them 
'^^°"  faithfully  ;  and  he  had  always  a  warm   desire 

to  do  good  to  his  people.     He  had  also  high  courage  and 
spirit.     Perhaps  his  most  marked  quality  was  his  unflinch- 
ing pursuit  of  any  end  that  he  had  once   set  before   him. 
His  life  was  pure,  and  his  tastes  were  homely. 

Character 

of  George  But  his  powers  of  mind  were  not  great  ;  his 
^'^  understanding   was   narrow   and   untrained  ; 

and  he  had  little  knowledge.  Eleven  months  after  his 
accession  he  married  Charlotte  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 
a  lady  like-minded  with  himself.  Queen  Charlotte 
became  the  mother  of  many  children,  and  lived  until 
1818. 

7.  George  III.'s  coming  to  the  ihrone  wrought  great 
changes,  but  not  at  once.  The  Jacobites  and  High 
Pitt's  Min-  Tories  indeed,  who  had  held  aloof  in  dislike 
smsln  '^^  enmity  from  the  first  two  Georges,  saw  in 

office.  George  III.  a  native  king  to  whom  they  could 

be  loyal,  and  crowded  to   his  Court.     The  Earl  of  Bute, 


1761.     First  Ten  Years  of  Gcorgi  II r.s  Rcigii.     87 

who  had  hitherto  been  his  great  friend  and  counsellor, 
was  made  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State  ;  and  t]\ere 
were  some  other  little  signs  that  a  new  order  of  things 
was  at  hand.  But  the  Ministry  of  William  Pitt  was  still 
kept  in  power.  The  whole  management  of  the  war  and 
of  foreign  affairs  was  still  left  to  him. 

3.  But  in  October  Pitt  withdrew  from  office,  because 
his  advice  to  make  war  at  once  upon  Spain  was  not  fol- 
lowed ;  and  the  king  straightway  struck  into     ^^^^  j^; 

a  new  path.  Taking  as  his  guide  John  Stuart,  enters  upon 
Earl  of  Bute,  he  set  to  work  to  make  himself  course, 
king  in  reality.  For  almost  fifty  years  the  '''^'' 
King  of  England  had  been  helpless  in  the  hands  of  the 
great  Whig  houses.  The  Constitution  still  gave  him  a 
large  measure  of  power  ;  but  the  heads  of  these  houses 
had  come  to  look  upon  this  power  as  their  own.  The 
king  could  not  withhold  from  them  anything  they 
were  firmly  bent  on  having  ;  for  everything  now  hung 
on  the  vote  of  the  Commons,  and  the  Whig  leaders  had 
the  means  of  getting  this  vote  whenever  they  wished. 
As  George  II.  had  once  said,  'in  England  the  Ministers 
were  king  ; '  and  these  must  be  taken  from  the  ranks  of 
the  great  Whig  lords  and  of  those  whom  these  lords 
favoured.  But  George  III.  made  it  the  grand  purpose 
of  his  life  to  wrest  from  the  Whig  lords  the  foremost 
place  in  the  State.  Thus  began  a  struggle  that  lasted 
for  many  years,  in  which  George  had  his  own  way  in  the 
end. 

4.  One  or  two  things  inake  this  fight  for  power  unlike 
other  struggles  of  the  same  kind  in  our  history,  (i.)  It 
was  not  a  strife  between  the   king  and  the 

people,  but  between  the  king  and  a  few  men     of  the 
of  vast  influence.    The  Revolution  Settlement    ^^"^sgie- 
had  left    to   the  king  a  fair  share  of  power  ;  he  rould 
declar'^  war  ;  make  peace ;  call  together  and  send  away 


88  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  1762. 

parliaments  ;  bestow  honours,  dignities,  and  everj'  kind 
of  appointment  in  Church  and  State  at  his  pleasure  ; 
and  do  many  other  things  which  made  people  look  up 
to  him  with  reverence,  and  be  glad  to  win  his  favour. 
George  III.  now  raised  the  question — was  all  this  power 
to  be  used  by  the  king  himself  or  by  the  Whig 
houses  ?  George  strained  every  nerve  to  make  this 
power  the  king's,  and  h  s  alone.  He  called  himself  a 
Whig  of  the  Revolution,  for  he  wanted  things  brought 
back  to  what  they  had  been  in  1690.  (2.)  The  kings  of 
former  days  had  sought  to  work  their  will  in  spite  of  the 
Commons  ;  but  George  sought  to  work  his  will  through 
the  Commons.  To  gain  his  ends  he  used  every  means  he 
could  think  of  to  get  members  of  Parliament  to  vote  as 
he  wished.  And  it  was  only  by  members  of  Parliament 
voting  as  he  wished  that  he  was  able  to  gain  his  ends. 
This,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  the  struggle  — George  was 
resolved  that  his  will  should  be  of  some  account  in  the 
ruling  of  the  country,  and  sought  to  make  the  working  of 
the  Constitution  such  as  the  Revolution  had  made  it. 

5.  The  battle  began  in  earnest  in   May  1762,  when 

Newcastle  was  forced  to  resign  his  post.     Bute,  who  had 

for  some  time  held  all  the   power  of  a  Prime 

Bute,  Prime       ,,.     .  ,  ,  ,  _,, 

Minister,  Mmister,  then  became  so  in  name  also  The 
May,  1762.  raising  of  such  a  man  to  so  high  an  office  in 
itself  showed  what  the  king  was  bent  on  doing.  Bute 
had  been  in  the  service  of  the  king's  father,  had  won  the 
fast  friendship  of  the  king's  mother,  and  had  been  the 
tutor  of  the  king  himself  He  had  no  better  gifts  of 
mind  than  his  fellows,  and  no  training  as  a  statesman  ; 
but  he  had  the  good-will  of  the  king,  and  so  was  made 
chief  ruler  of  the  nation  under  the  Crown.  The  first 
trial  of  strength  between  the  king  and  the  men  whom  he 
was  eager  to  humble  was  about  the  making  of  peace  with 
France  in  1762.    Henry  Fox  undertook  for  a  large  reward 


1762-65.  First  Ten  Y ears  of  George  III! s  Reigfi.%(^ 

to  get  a  vote  in  its  favour  from  the  Commons.  He  fulfilled 
his  promise  thoroughly.  Only  65  of  the  Commons 
voted  against  the  Peace,  whilst  319  voted  .for  it.  George 
now  felt  himself  to  be  indeed   King  of  Eng-     „ 

Bute  re- 
land.     But  the   wrath  of  the  people  at  these     signs, 

doings  showed  itself  so  plainly  that   Bute  got     ■■^''"'-  '^^^' 

frightened  and  threw  up  his  office. 

6.  George  Grenvilie,  whose  sister  was  Pitt's  wife,  was 
then  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs.     It  was  thought  that 
Grenvilie  would  not  only  carry  out  the  king's     Grenvilie, 
wishes,  but  would  also  be  willing  to   follow     M",'^s,er, 
Bute's  guidance.     But   Grenvilie  complained     1763-65- 
so  much  to  (jeorge  about  Bute's  influence  that  George 
soon  became   anxious  to  get  rid  of  him.     There  were, 
however,  few  statesmen   willing  to  be  the  king's  min- 
isters  on   the  king's  terms.     George   made  several   at- 
tempts to  win  over   Pitt  to  form  a  new  Ministry  ;  l)ut 
they  all  fell  through.    At  last  in  1765  the  King's  dislike  of 
Grenvilie  overcame  his  dislike  of  the  Whig  lords  ;  and 
a  Ministry  of  the  old  kind,  with  the  Marquis  of  Rocking- 
ham as  its  leader,  came  into  office. 

7.  Englishmen  will  long  remember  Grenville's  Min- 
istry  for   two   causes,     (i.)   It  began  and  carried  on  a 
legal  persecution  of  John  Wilkes,  a  member     ^y^j^^^^j^^ 
of  Parliament  who  had   written  against  the     'general 
Government   in  a   paper  called   the  '  Nonh     "^'"■^"'s.' 
Briton.'     Wilkes  was  seized  along  with  several  others  on 
a  '  general  warrant,'  that  is,  a  warrant  in  which  no  per- 
sons  were   named,   but   which   simply   empowered   the 
king's  officers   to  arrest  those   that  had  done  a  certain 
thing  supposed  to  be  unlawful.     The  Court  of  Common 
Pleas   released  Wilkes  because   no  one  had  a  right  to 
arrest  a  member  of  Parliament   for   libel.     There   v.'as 
much   excitement  throughout  the  country,  and  Wilkes 
became   very    popular.       He   soon,   however,  got    into 


90  Settlenietit  of  the  Constitution.     .765-66. 

trouble  again,  was  wounded  in  a  duel,  fled  to  France, 
and  was  outlawed.  But  Chief  Justice  Pratt,  afterwards 
Lord  Cauiden,  gave  a  solemn  judgment  against  the  law- 
fulness of  general  warrants  ;  and  they  have 
can  St.imp  never  been  used  since.  (2.)  GrenviUe  carried 
■^'^''  through  Parliament  the  law  which  first  stirred 

up  a  strong  ill-feeling  in  the  American  colonies  against 
England.'  This  was  an  Act  for  raising  a  tax  from  the 
.Americans  by  means  of  a  duty  on  stamped  paper. 

8.  Rockingham's  Ministry  lasted  no  longer  than  a 
year.  The  king  did  not  like  it,  and  kept  it  only  until  he 
could  get  a  body  of  ministers  more  to  his  mind.  It  lived 
long  enough,  however,  to  do  away  with  the  American 
Stamp  Act,  which  had  caused  a  general  outburst  of 
angry  feeling  in  America,  and  indeed  could  not  be 
Kocking-  enforced.^  But  the  king  looked  coldly  on  this 
Millisfe"'"^  Ministry  ;  and  the  Kings  Friends,  as  those 
1765-6.  members  in  the  Commons  were  called  who 
were  always  ready  to  vote  as  the  King  bade  them,  took 
the  side  opposed  to  it.  The  King,  moreover,  was  at  last 
able  to  make  an  arrangement  with  Pilt.  Rockingham 
was  dismissed,  and  Pitt,  who  was  now  created  Earl  of 
Chatham,  took  his  place. 

9.  Pitt's  second  Ministry  was  as  great  a  failure  as  his 
first  had  been  a  success.  For  this  there  were  several 
Pitt's  reasons.  He  liad  lost  the  love  of  the  people 
NHnistrv  ^^  becoming  a  peer.  He  had  undertaken  to 
1766-8.  break  up  parties — a  task  which  he  found  to 
be  impossible.  He  had  separated  himself  from  his  old 
Whig  friends,  and  found  himself  with  no  other  followers 
than  the  King's  Friends,  who  looked  more  to  the  King 
fhan  to  him.     But  there  was  a  sadder  cause  still.     Early 

1  See  Epoch  VII.,  p,  6. 
■■*  See  Epoch  VU.,  p.  7, 


1 768.    First  Ten  Years  of  George  Ill's  Reign.  9 1 

in  1767  a  strange  disease  laid  hold  upon  him  ;  his  mind 
seems  to  have  given  way  ;  and  for  eighteen  months  he 
was  utterly  helpless,  being  unable  to  take  the  slightest 
part  in  the  management  of  aftairs.  During  this  time 
everything  went  wrong,  for  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  Prime 
Minister  in  name,  was  too  weak  to  hold  in  check  the 
other  ministers.  Charles  Townshend,  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  got  Parliament  to  agree  to  a  bill  laying 
duties  on  tea  and  other  goods  imported  to  America ;  '  and 
thus  the  wound  which  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  had 
almost  healed  was  torn  open  anew.  In  1768  Chatham's 
health  of  mind  came  back  to  him  ;  but  the  first  use  he 
made  of  it  was  to  give  up  his  place  in  the  Ministry. 

10.  Grafton   stayed   in  office  for  some  time  longer. 
During  this  the  King  was  making  good  way  towards  the 
object   he   was   seeking   after,   for   neither  Grafton   nor 
Lord  North,  whom  the  death  of  Charles  Townshend  had 
made  Chancellor   of  the   Exchequer  in    1767,  cared   to 
thwart  him.     The  noisiest  question  this  Min-     (.^^f^^^.j. 
istry  had  to  deal  with  was  one  that  arose  out     Ministry, 
of  the  election  of  Wilkes  to  Parliament.     In     '7^8-70. 
1768  Wilkes  had  returned  from  Paris  and  been  chosen 
one  of  the  members  for  Middlesex.     But  he  was  sent  to 
gaol  for  two  vears  in  punishment  of  the  libels 

°  -  t^  Wilkes  and 

he  had  written.  Whilsi  in  gaol  he  wrote  a  the  rights 
letter  which  the  Commons  regarded  as  a  libel  ofe'^"°'^s- 
on  the  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Weymouth.  They 
therefore  expelled  Wilkes  from  their  House.  Middlesex 
again  elected  him.  A  second  time  the  Commons  ex- 
pelled him.  Middlesex  elected  him'  a  third  time.  But 
on  his  being  expelled  a  third  time,  another  man,  one 
Colonel  Luttrell,  stood  for  Middlesex  ;  and,  though  three 
times  as  many  votes  were  given  for  Wilkes,  the  Commons 
took  Luttrell  as  their  member.  Many  people  thought 
»  See  Epoch  V[I.,  p.  7. 


92  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.  177a 

that  the  Commons    in  taking   this   course   did   a  gross 
wrong  to  the  electors. 

In  1770  Grafton  resigned,  and  Lord  North  at  once  be- 
came the  chief  of  a  new  Ministry. 


CHAPTER    II. 

GEORGE    III.    AND    LORD    NORTH. 

1.  Lord  North  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  Earl  of 
Guildford.  He  was  a  very  good-humoured,  even-tem- 
Lord  North,  pered  man  :  it  was  almost  impossible  to  make 
Minister  '^'"^  3ngry.  To  most  people  his  Ministry  at 
1770-82  first  seemed  very  weak  and  not  likely  to  live 
long.  Yet  it  lived  for  twelve  years.  Many  things  worked 
together  to  give  it  this  unusual  length  of  life.  The 
King's  Friends  were  hearty  in  upholding  it.  The  King 
found  in  Lord  North  a  Minister  to  his  mind,  and  used 
his  power  and  influence  to  the  uttermost  to  keep  him  in 

office.     He  tool:  pains  to  find  out  how  each 

The  Kinir's  ,  .    _      ,.  ,  , 

course  of  member  of  Parliament  voted,  and  gave  or 
action.  withheld  his  favours  according  as  he  voted  for 

or  against  Lord  North.  Then  the  old  Tory  party  had 
come  together  again,  and,  true  to  its  principles,  held  to  the 
man  whom  the  king  delighted  to  honour.  Lastly,  the 
Whigs  had  got  disunited,  some  looking  to  Chatham, 
others  to  Rockingham  as  their  leader.  And  George, 
who  longed  to  do  away  with  party-government,  now  and 
then  gave  office  to  a  Whig  of  mark  who  was  wilhng  to 
break  with  his  party. 

2.  The  king  had  now  fairly  got  the  upper  hand  ; 
during  these  twelve  years  he  was  in  every  way  the  real 
ruler  of  the  nation.     He  and  Lord  North  thought  aUke 


1 77 1-  George  III.  and  Lord  North.  93 

about  the  rights  of  the  people  and  the  rights  of  the  king, 
for  Lord  North  was  a  stout  Tory.  Moreover,  George 
was  a  man  of  masterful  will,  Lord  North  was  of  an  easy, 
yielding  temper,  and  did  little  more  than  carry  out  the 
King's  wishes.  The  bulk  of  the  Commons  cheerfully 
agi-eed    to    everything   that    the   ministers    laid    before 

them. 

3.  Yet  in  1771  the  Commons  foolishly  thrust  them- 
selves into  a  quarrel  which  ended  in  a  way  that,  in  the 
long  run,  weakened  the  king's  power,  and  helped  forward 
great  changes  in  Parliament  itself.  At  this  time  men 
outside  Parliament  had  not  the  means  which  they  have 
now  of  easily  learning  what  members  said  in  their 
debates.  Neither  the  Lords  nor  the  Commons  would 
let  anyone  publish  in  an  open  way  any  account  of  their 
debates.  In  1771  certain  newspapers  began  to  give  to 
the  world  reports  of  speeches  in  Parliament  without  dis- 
guise. The  Commons  grew  angry,  and  called  upon  the 
printers  to  come  before  them  and  answer  for  what  they 
had  done.  One  or  two  of  the  printers  thus  summcned 
would  not  come,  and  an  officer  of  the  House 

,  Ti         1  ■        /■/-  Parlia-Tient- 

was  sent  to  arrest  them.     But  this  ofhcer  was     arydei)ates 
himself  seized  and  brought  before  the   Lord     fo^'b/""""* 
Mayor  on  a  charge  of  having  tried  to  arrest  a     printed, 
citizen  of  London  without  a  lawful  warrant.     '^^'' 
Tlie  Lord   Mayor  ordered  him  to  be  sent  to  prison.      In 
this  way  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  City  of  London 
got  into   a   bitter  dispute,   in  the  course  of  which    the 
Lord   Mayor  was  sent  to  the   Tower.     But  the  men  of 
London  showed  so  dangerous  a  temper,  that  the  Com- 
mons took  care  never  to  bring  on  themselves  a  similar 
trouble  again.     Henceforth   newspapers   have   been    al- 
lowed to  publish  as  full  reports  of  Parliamentary  debates 
as  they  can  get. 

4.  .Statesmen  had  now  begun  to  watch  the  growth  of 


94  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.     1760-65. 

English  power  in  India  with  some  interest  ;  and  a  feel- 
Growth  of  '"§  ^'^^  spreading  that  the  men  who  were  at 
English  the  head  of  English  afl'airs  in  that  land  had 

India,  often  been  guilty  of  wrongful  deeds.     After 

1760-4.  1760   the   onward  course  of  the   English  in 

India  had  gone  on  unchecked.  In  1763  the  Council  of 
Calcutta,  who  had  shortly  before  set  aside  Meer  Jaffier, 
and  made  Meer  Cossim  nabob  of  Bengal  in  his  place, 
took  offence  at  Meer  Cossim,  and  sent  an  army  to  over- 
throw him  also.  He  was  overthrown,  and  Meer  jaffier 
became  nabob  once  more.  But  this  high-handed  way  of 
dealing  with  an  Indian  prince  was  very  displeasing  to 
other  Indian  princes  ;  and  in  1764  the  Great  Mogul 
-  himself,  Shah  Alum,  and  his  Vizier,  the 
Buxar,  morc  powerful  nabob  of  Oude,  Sujah  Dowlah, 

'764-  marched  a  force  of  50,000  men  against   the 

meddling  strangers.  At  Buxar  this  force  was  met,  and 
shamefully  routed  by  8,000  Sepoys  and  1,200  Europeans, 
led  by  Major  Hector  Munro.  Next  day  Shah  Alum,  glad 
to  free  himself  from  the  control  of  his  Vizier,  slipped  into 
iVIunro's  camp,  and  agreed  to  a  treaty  which  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  Company  the  rule  of  still  more  Indian 
lands. 

5.  But  by  this  time  ihe  misconduct  of  the  Company's 
servants  had  reached  such  a  height,  and  the  Company's 
Clive's  last  affairs  had  fallen  into  such  disorder,  that  in 
visit  to  jyg^  Lord  Clive  had  to  go  out  a  third  time  to 

1765-6.  try  and   set   things  right.     A  great  fear  fell 

upon  the  native  princes  when  they  heard  that  Clive  was 
again  in  India  ;  Sujah  Dowlah  -at  once  yielded  himself 
up,  and  the  Great  Mogul  was  ready  to  do  anything  the 
English  liked.  Clive  gave  back  to  Sujah  Dowlah  the 
greater  part  of  Oude,  whilst  he  got  the  Great  Mogul  to 
make  over  to  the  Company,  in  return  for  a  yearly  rent  of 
260,000/.,  the  rule  of  Bengal,  Orissa,  and  Bahar.     In  this 


1765- 


George  III.  and  Lord  North. 


95 


way  the  English  in  India  became  lords  of  a  region  larger 
than  England  itself.     Clive'  found  his  own  countryman 


much  harder  to  deal  with.     They  were  loth  to  give  up 
trading  on  their  own  account  and   taking  gifts  from  the 


96  Settlement  of  the  Constitution.     1765-74. 

natives,  by  which  they  were  growing  very  rich.  The 
army,  which  lay  at  Monghir,  .mutinied.  But  Clive  stood 
fearlessly  to  his  purpose ;  the  mutiny  at  Monghir  was 
put  down  with  a  strong  hand,  and  every  man  in  the 
pay  of  the  Company  had  to  bow  to  Clive's  will.  Late 
in  1766  ill-health  again  forced  Clive  to  return  to 
England. 

6.  Clive's  reforms  did  not  at  once  work  all  the  good 
expected  from  them.  In  1767  the  English  at  Madras 
Disordered  were  drawn  into  a  costly  war  with  Hyder  Ah, 
c^'^  an'^'s  ^^  Rajah  of  Mysore,  the  most  dangerous 
affairs.  foe  they  had  yet  encountered  ;  and  after  two 
years'  figliting  they  had  to  make  a  peace  from  which  they 
gained  nothing  ;  and  in  if  70  a  dreadful  famine  carried 
off  a  third  of  the  people  of  Bengal.  The  Company  sank 
deeper  and  deeper  into  distress,  and  Parliament  felt 
bound  to  take  steps  to  lessen  this  evil  state  of  things. 
After  certain  members  of  the  Commons,  who  had  been 
named  to  look  into  the  Company's  affairs,  had  given  in 

their  report.  Parliament  passed  the  Regula- 
latln-  Kti,  ting  Act  brought  in  by  Lord  North.  This 
'773  law  set  up  a  new  court  at  Calcutta,  called  the 

Supreme  Court,  made  the  Governor  of  Bengal — who  then 
happened  to  be  Warren  Hastings — Governor-General  of 
India,  and  named  a  council  of  four  to  advise  this  official 
and  check  his  doings.  The  Commons  also  soon  after 
passed  a  vote  of  censure  on  Lord  Clive  for  some  of  his 
Death  of  acts  in  India,  though  they  allowed  he  had 
v''^^'  b  r  done  great  things  for  his  country.  Clive,  how- 
1774-  ever,  took  this  treatment  very  much  to  heart, 

and  towards  the  end  of  1774  killed  himself  in  his  London 
house.     He  was  only  forty-nine  years  old. 

7.  But  it  was  upon  America  that  men's  eyes  were 
chiefly  faxed  while  North  was  Minister.'     In  the  first  half 

'  See  Epoch  Vlt.,  pp.  8-19. 


'774  77- 


Geoii^c  III.  and  Lord  North. 


'in 


of  his  lime  of  office  the  chief  work  of  Parliament  was  to 
agree   to   those   laws — laid  before    them    by  the    King's 
trusted  Minister — which  led  to  the  colonists     j^^.^ 
taking  up  arms  against  the  mother- country  ;     North's 
during  the  second  half,  Parliament,  Lord  North,     with" 
and    the  King  were  vainly  striving  to    undo     Amer.ca. 
the  mischief  they  had  done.     The  Commons  must  shara 
with  George  III.  the  blame  of  having  driven  the  Americans 
into  war,  and  seen  their  mistake  only  when   it  was  too 
late.     Nor  should  it   be    forgotten  that   the    country   at 
large  was  of  the  same  mind  as  King  and  Par-     Public 
liament  regarding  the  justice  of  their  cause  ;     ihe"Ameri'- 
the  English  people,  save  a  few  deep-thinking     can  war. 
and   far-seeing  men,  approved    of  the    course  that    the 
King  and  his  Minister  were  taking. 

8.  Such,  however,  was  not  the  opinion  of  Lord  Chatham. 
He  often  spoke  with  great  force  and  earnestness  against 
the  laws  and  doings  that  were  angering  the  Americans, 
and  in  1775  he  brought  in  a  bill  for  doing  Lord 
away  with  all  causes  of  quarrel  between  the  ^["e^^l^o  pre- 
two  countries.  This  bill  the  Lords  at  once  vent  war. 
threw  out  ;  but  Chatham  still  tried  hard  to  save  his  coun- 
try from  herself.  When  the  war  had  broken  out,  he  told  his 
countrymen  that  they  could  not '  conquer  the  Americana,' 
and  again  and  again  spoke  warmly  in  favour  of  peace. 
When  the  news  of  the  disgrace  at  Saratoga  in  1777  came,' 
and  France  made  an  alliancQ  with  America,  there  was  a 
general  wish  that  Chatham  should  be  made  Prime 
Minister,  and  Lord  North  would  gladly  have  given  place 
to  him.  But  the  frank  words  that  Chatham  had  often 
uttered  regarding  the  management  of  American  affairs 
had  greatly  displeased  the  king,  and  he  was  slow  to  see 
the  necessity  of  taking  the  great  statesman  into  hjs 
counsels  ;  and  before  the  king  could  make  up  his  mind 
'  See  Epoch  \'ll.,  p.  15. 
E.H.  H 


98  Settlement  of  tJw  Consiitutioh.  1778. 

Chatham  was  dead.  In  April  1778  he  had,  though  very 
ill,  gone  to  the  l-Iouse  of  Lords  to  speak  against  a  motion 
in  favour  of  peace  ;  for  now  that  France  had  joined 
America,  Chatham  would  not  hear  of  peace  ;  he  had 
spoken  against  the  motion,  and  when  rising  to 
dies,  May  speak  a  second  time  had  fallen  back  in  a  fit. 
II.  1778.  Y'w'^  weeks  later  he  died.     Lord  North,  eager 

as  he  was  to  leave  his  post,  was  forced  to  stay.  If  he 
had  gone,  the  heads  of  the  Whig  houses  must  have  come 
into  power  ;  and  the  king  said,  '  I  would  rather  lose  the 
crown  I  wear  than  bear  the  ignominy  of  possessing  it 
under  their  shackles.' 

9.  Yet  Lord  North  had  no  easy  task.  A  group  of 
very  able  men,  small  in  number,  but  great  in  gifts  o^ 
The  Oppo-  genius  and  power  of  speech,  opposed  him  in 
sition.  (-jjg  Commons  and  gave  him  no  rest.  Ol 
these  the  deepest  thinker  and  speaker  was  Edmund 
Burke,  an  Irishman,  who  had  been  brought  into  Parlia- 
ment by  Lord  Rockingham,  and  gained  a  foremost  place 
Edmund  in  the  ranks  of  the  Whigs  by  sheer  force  of 
bT728  intellect.  Burke  wrote  as  v^^ell  as  spoke 
d.  1797.  powerfully  ;  indeed  he  is  believed  to  be  our 
greatest  political  writer.  The  greatest  speaker  of  the 
group  was  Charles  James  Fo.v,  a  younger  son  of  Henry 
Charles  Fox.  At  first  Fox  had  been  a  Tory,  and  been 
James  Fox,     -^^  office  for  some  vears  under  Lord   North  ; 

D-  1 74V. 

d.  1806.  but  he  changed  his  views  as  tmie  went   on, 

became  a  Whig,  and  ere  long  took  the  place  of  Whig 
leader  in  the  Commons.  By  watchful  care  he  made 
himself  the  most  skilful  and  telling  Parliamentary  speaker 
of  the  day.  Other  Whigs  of  mark  were  Colonel  Barre 
and  Mr.  Dunning. 

10.  Session  after  session  these  men  withstood  Lord 
I«orth  in  every  way  they  could  think  of.  They  spoke 
strongly  and  boldly  againsi  everything  the  Minister  did, 


1779  82        Geoi-i^:-  III.  a  U.I  Lord  XortJi.  90, 

warned  him  ul"  the  iatal  course  he  uas  taking  in  taxing 
and  then  trying  to  conquer  the  Americans,  an';  frankly 
said  that  they  tliought  the  Americans  right  in  resisting 
the  armies  of  England.  They  were  nearly  always  beaten 
by  large  majorities,  but  they  were  not  disheartened,  and 
never  ceased  from  their  attacks  on  the  Minister.  The 
thing  they  were  most  bitter  against  was  the  Economic 
great  and  growing  power  of  the  king.  To  cut  mov°ement 
down  this  power  they  hit  upon  a  plan  for  les-  '779-82 
sening  the  king's  influence,  which  they  named  Economic 
Reform,  and  strove  zealously  to  get  Parliament  to  approve 
of  it.  It  was  Burke  who  thought  out,  and  was  most 
eajer  in  pushing  forward,  this  plan.  It  sought  to  do 
away  with  all  useless  offices,  to  bring  down  the  pension 
list  to  a  fixed  sum,  60,000/  a  year — in  fact  to  make  the 
wo.k  of  ruling  the  nation  less  costly.  But  its  grand 
aim  was  to  weaken  the  king's  influence  ;  most  of  the 
useless  offices  were  in  the  king's  household  ;  many  of 
the  men  who  held  them  sat  among  the  Commons,  and 
readily  voted  as  their  master  wished.  A  brief  sentence 
states  the  whole  evil  which  Burke  wanted  to  destroy — 
'  The  king's  turnspit  was  a  member  of  Parliament.' 
Efforts  were  made  to  carry  this  plan  through  Parliament 
from  time  to  time,  but  the>'  all  failed  so  long  as  Lord 
North  was  Prime  Minister. 

II.  But  in  March  1782,  owing  to  the  ill-success  of  the 
English  arms  in  America,'  the  Commons  began  to  show 
signs  of  turning  against  Lord  North  ;  and  the     Lord  North 
king  at  last  consented  to  let  him  go.     Once     {f^'s^* 
more  George  had  to  fall  back  on  the  Whig     ham  Prime 
houses,   and   to   take    Lord    Rockingham   as     M^rch"' 
Minister.     Still  he  was  able  to  keep  a  high     '782 
place  for  at  least  one   of  his  friends  ;  Lord  Thurlow  re- 
mained Chancellor.     Fox  was  one  of  the  Secretaries  0/ 
'  See  Kpoch  VII.,  p.  18. 
u  2 


100       Settlement  of  tJic-  CoiistitHtioii.  1782-83. 

State,  and  Burke  Paymaster  of  the  Forces.  This 
Ministry  lasted  but  a  few  months,  for  Rockingham  died 
in  the  following  July.  It  had  time  enough,  however,  to 
carry  a  part  of  Burke's  plan  for  Economic  Reform.  This 
put  an  end  to  a  good  many  useless  offices,  and  cut  down 
the  pension  list  ;  but  it  was  far  from  doing  all  that  had 
been  hoped  for. 

12.  Rockingham  was  no  sooner  dead  than  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Whig  party  s'.owed  itself  The  Earl  of  Shel- 
Sheiburne,  burne  iiad  become  the  leader  of  the  Chatham 
Prime  Mill-     Whigs  after  Chatham's  death,  and  with   his 

ister,  July,  -^  ' 

1782.  friends  had  taken  office  under  Lord  Rocking- 

ham. But  now  the  king  gave  the  first  place  to  the 
Earl  of  Shelburne  ;  and  Fox,  Burke,  and  the  other 
friends  of  Rockingham  resigned  in  a  body,  and  became 
the  enemies  of  the  new  Ministry.  They  did  worse  ;  they 
took  the  fatal  step  of  uniting  themselves  with  the  party 
of  the  man  against  whom  they  had  fought  so  long  and 
bitterly.  Lord  North.  This  conduct  brought  down  upon 
them  the  wrath  both  of  king  and  people,  and  led,  after  a 
short  struggle,  to  their  utter  overthrow.  Early  in  1783 
the  'Coalition,'  as  the  combined  party  of  Fox  and  North 
was  called,  outvoted  Shelburne  on  a  question 
tion  Mints-  •^^'^^  Fox  had  himself  set  in  motion — the 
'J7''  ^^^~       making  of  peace. ^     Shelburne  had  to  retire. 

Dec.  1783.  '^  ^ 

They  then  forced  the  king  to  take  them  as 
his  ministers  ;  and  George  for  nearly  a  year  had  to 
listen  to  the  counsels  of  men  whom  he  hated.  He  made 
no  secret  of  his  enmity  to  them,  and  thwarted  them  by 
every  means  in  his  power.  Yet  the  two  statesmen  had 
most  of  the  Commons  at  their  command,  and  the  king 
was  helpless  in  their  hands.  But  in  December  1783  he 
felt  that  he  could  bear  the  yoke  no  longer  ;  and  when  an 
India  Bill  of  Fox's,  which  the  Commons  had  approved  of, 
'  See  Epoch  VII.,  p.  22. 


1784.  George  III.  and  Lord  i^o^th.  lOI 

went  up  to  the  Lords,  the  king  let  it  be  known  that  he 
would  look  on  every  lord  who  voted  for  it  as  his  enemy. 
The  Lords  therefore  threw  out  the  bill  ;  and  the  king 
not  only  turned  away  his  hated  ministers,  but  boldly 
offered  the  post  of  Prime  Minister  to  William  Pitt,  a 
younger  son  of  Lord  Chatham's,  then  only  twenty-four 
years  old.  Pitt,  with  even  greater  boldness,  accepted  the 
king's  offer  (December  1783). 

13.   For  three  months  the  new  Minister  had  to   hold 
his  place  against  a  House  of  Commons   that  promptly 
voted  against    him   on  every  question.     Pitt     y^-y- 
was  beaten  over  and  over  again  ;  the  '  Coali-     Pitt,  Prime 
tion '  strained  every  nerve  to  drive  him  from     December, 
office.     Hut  Pitt  manfully  stood  his   ground.     '"^^• 
A  strong  feeling  against  Fox  and  North  was  setting  in 
throughout  the  country,  and    Pitt  was  resolved  to  wait 
until    this    feeling    had    reached    its   height.       Late    in 
March    1784    he  saw  that    the   proper  time   had   come, 
and  asked   the  king  to  dissolve  Parliament.     The  king 
did  so  ;  and  in  the  general  election  which  followed,  by 
far   the  greater  number  of  members  chosen 
were  pledged  to  give  their  votes  to  Pitt.    The     iieaion'of 
king  had  won  ;    the  election  of  1784  gave  the     '7^'* 
Tories  the  rule  of  the  country  for  almost  fifty  years. 


When  we  look  closely  at  the  ninety-five  )ears  of 
Lnglish  history  which  we  have  just  passed  through,  side 
by  side  with  the  times  which  go  before,  the 
thing  that  we  see  most  clearly  is  this— the  ^""""*'^' 
Mouse  of  Commons  has  now  come  to  be  all-important  in 
the  Slate.  But  when  we  look  at  the  history  of  these 
same  years  side  by  side  with  the  times  that  come  after, 
the  thing  that  strikes  us  most  is  — the  House  of  Common^ 


I02  Scttlaiiciii  of  the  Coiisiituii.on. 

is  not  yet  a  body  that  has  a  mind  of  its  own  and  can 
act  for  itself.  Owing  to  the  way  in  which  most  of  its 
members  are  chosen,  it  willingly  puts  itself  into  the 
hands  of  others,  and  gives  them  its  power  to  use  as  they 
wish.  At  one  time  some  powerful  men  among  the 
nobility  manage  to  bind  together  their  friends  among  the 
Commons,  and  through  these  to  make  and  unmake  the 
king's  Ministries  at  their  pleasure.  At  another  time  a 
resolute  king,  by  bringing  into  play  the  means  still  left 
in  his  power,  can  win  over  most  of  the  Commons  to  his 
side,  and  carry  out  his  will  in  every  part  of  the  State. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  any  great  change  in  the  way  of 
choosing  men  to  sit  in  Parliament  might  take  away  from 
the  king  and  the  great  folk  the  power  of  getting  any 
kind  of  vote  they  want  from  the  Commons,  and  might 
thus  alter  very  much  the  manner  of  ruling  the  people. 
Such  a  change  has  since  come,  as  will  be  told  in  a  later 
work  in  this  series. 

But  for  a  hundred  years  the  people  were  pretty  well 
satisfied  with  the  order  of  things  they  lived  under,  and 
desired  no  change.  Many  men  were  growing  rich  ;  trade 
was  spreading  swiftly  ;  there  was  a  rude  plenty  among 
the  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  there  was  little  complaining! 
And  there  is  much  in  the  history  of  this  time  for  English- 
men to  be  proud  ot.  It  is  true,  they  lost  the  American 
colonies  of  their  own  planting  ;  hut,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  twice  overcame  in  war  the  most  warlike  European 
power,  wrested  from  this  same  power  its  great  American 
colonies,  crushed  its  strength  in  India,  and  began  build- 
ing up  in  that  country  a  grand  empire  for  themselves. 


INDEX    OF    PERSONS. 


ADD 

A  DDISON,  Joseph,  44 
'^     Amherst,  General,  73,  76 
Anne,  Queen,  25,  26,  28,  31-47 
Anson,  Commodore,  60  ;  Lord,  69 
Arcot,  Nabob  of,  82 
Argyle,  Earl  of,  9 
Argyle,  Duke  of,  49 
Atterbury,      Francis,      Bishop      '>( 

Rochester,  56 
AureiiKzebe.  80 


OaRRE,  Colonel,  98 

'-'     l^-ntinck.  Earl  of  Portland,  25 

Koscawen,  Admiral,  77 
I'oulllers,  Marshal,  35 
Braddock.  General,  71 
Burke,  Edmund,  98,  99 
Bute,  Earl  of,  78,  87,  89 
Byng,  Sir  George,  52 
Byng,  Admiral,  son,  68 

r^AMDEfl,  Lord.  90 

^^     Cameron,  Richard,  10 

Campbell     of     Glenlyon,     Captain, 

1 1 
Carpenter,  General,  50 
Carteret,  I.ord,   6:  ;  Earl  Granville. 

62 
Charles  II.,  King  of  England,  / 
Charles   II.,  King  of  Spain,   27,  28, 

29,  30 
Charles  III.,  King  of  Spam,  77 
Charles,     the     Archduke.     29,    36 ; 

Emperor,  45.  52,  63 
'  '    'les  Edward.  Prince,  65,  67 
Cha  'ev.    Elector    of    Bavaria.    6j  : 

Em  >eror.  64 
Charl  >tte.  Queen,  86 
tlelanJ,  William    Colonel,  10 


GEO 

Clive,  Robert,  82,  83,  84  :  Lord.  85, 

94.  g6 
Conflans,  Admiral,  77 
Coote,  Eyre,  85 
Cope,  Sir  John,  65 
Cumberland,  William,   Duke  of,  64, 

67,  72 


r)ALRYMPLE,  Sir  John,  11 
•*-^     Danhy,  Earl  of,  4,  23 
Dauphin,  the,  28,  29,  30 
Derwentwatcr,  Earl  of,  49 
Devonshire,  Duke  of,  69 
Dunning,  Mr.,  98 

Duplcix,  Governor  of  Pondicherry, 
81,  82 


LT  LIZAI5ETH,  Queen,  24,  79 
'-'     Elizabeth  of  Bohemia,  25 
Eugene  of  Savoy,  Prince,  34,  35 


pERDINAND      of     Brunswick, 

•^       Duke,  72,  73,  75,  77 

Forster,  Mr.,  49 

Fox,  Henry,  63,  88 

Fox,  Charles  James,  son,  98,  y9,  loo 

Frederick,  the  Palsgrave,  20 

Frederick   II.,  King  of  Prussia,  the 

Great,  63,  71 
F'reeman,  Mrs.,  32 


/"  ALWAY,  Earl  of,  37 
^^     George  of  Denmark,  Prince,  3a 
George  I.,  King,  47-57 
George  II..  Kinjj,  son,  57-78,  87 
George    111  ,   King,    grandson,    76, 
S6-101 


I04 


hidex  of  Persons. 


GIN 

Ginkell,  General,  i 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  25 
Godolphin,  Lord,  33,  42,  43 
Grafton.  Duke  of.  91,  92 
Graham    of    Cl.iviirhoiise,    Viscount 

Dundee,  8,  9,  10 
Grammont,  Duke  of.  63 
Granby.  Marquis  of,  74 
Grenville,  George,  89 
Guildford,  Earl  of,  92 


H^ 


[AMILTON,  Richard,  13 
Harclwicke,  Lord,  61 
Harley,  Robert,  43  ;  Earl  of  Oxford, 

43,. 45.  46,  48 
Hastings,  Warren,  96 
Hawke,  Admiral,  77 
Hawley,  General,  67 
Hyder  Ali,  96 


JACOBITES,  tJie,  5 

J      James  L,  King,  79,  £0 

James  II.,  King,   2,  6,  7,  8,   12,  13, 

14,  17,  18,  24,  27,  31,  32 
James  Edward,  the  Pretender,  27, 

4^,  48,  49,  51,  57,  64 
Jenkins,  l-'obert,  59 
Joseph,  Electoral  Prince  of  Bavaria, 

28,  29 


[/  EKMURE.  Earl  of,  49,  50 
^     Kilmarnock,  Earl  of,  67 


]    A  BOURDONNAIS,  Governor 

'^     of  M.nuritius,  81 

Lally  Tollendal,  Count,  85 

Leopold.  Emperor,  28,  29 

Lewis  XIV.,  King  of  France,  5,  14, 
16,  17,  18,  19,  26-31,  59,  45,  47, 
43,  ?i^  . 

Liiwis  XV.,  King  of  France,  great- 
grandson.  51,  59 

Lovat,  Lord,  67 

Luttrell,  Colonel,  91 

Luxemliurg,  Marshal,  19 


IX./rAC  IAN,  o:  Glencoe,  11 

"*■'•      Mackay,  Hugh,  General,  9 

Mahommed  Ali,  82 

Mar,  Earl  of,  49,  50 

Maria  Theresa    Queen  of  Hungary, 

6.S;   ^■\ 


S.A.C 

Marlborough,    Duke  of,  32,   33,   34, 

35.  40,  42.  46 
Marlborough,  Duchess  of,  wife,  32, 

43 
Mary   11  ,    Queen,   2,   3,6,    7.  8,   9, 

Maurice  of  Saxony.  Prince,  64 

Meer  Cossim,  94 

Meer  Jaffier,  84,  94 

Mogul,  the  Great,  79,  80,  85 

Montague,    Charles,    22  ;     Earl    of 

Halifax,  43 
Montcalm,  Marquis  of,  74-6 
Morley,  Airs.,  32 
Munro,  Hector,  Major,  94 


KTEWCASTLE,  Duke  of.  62.  68, 

^^      69,88 

Niztiii,  the,  82 

Noailles,  Marshal,  63 

Nonjurors,  the,  =; 

North,  Lord,  92,  93, 96, 97,  gS,  99.  too 

Nottingham.  Earl  of,  4,  23 


QMICHUND,  Hindoo  merchant, 

84 
Orleans,  Duke  of,  51 
Ormond,  Duke  of,  36,  48,  49 


pELHAM,  Henry,  62,  68 

Pelhams,  the,  61-67 
Peterborough,  Earl  of,  37 
Philip.  Duke  of  Anjou,  30  ;  Philip 
v.,  King  of  Spain,  30,  36,  45,  4^? 

5'.  52.  59 
Pitt,  William,   58,  62,  68,   69-78,  87, 

go ;    Earl   of   Chatham,     91,   97. 

98 
Pitt.  William,  the  younger,  son,  97, 

lOI 

Pulteney,  William,  58 


D  OCKINGHAM,  Marquis  of.  89, 

■'■^     90,  99,  100 

Rodney.  George,  Admiral,  76 

Roe,  Sir  Thomas,  79 

Rooke,  Sir  George.  Admiral,  34 

Rus.sell,  Admiral,  18 


CACHEVERELL,  Henry,  42 

•~^     Sackville,  Lord- George,  74 


I 


nid/^x  of  Persons. 


05 


SAI 


St.     John,     Henry,    43  ;     Viscount 

Bolingbroke,  43,  45.  47,  48,  4g 
St.  Kutn,  General,  15 
Sai-sfield.  Patrick.  General.  15 
Shah  Alum,  t/4 
Sliah  Jehanghir,  79 
Shelbiirne.  E.irl  of,  100 
Shrewsbury,   Earl   of,    4  ,  Duke  of, 

47 
Somers,  Lord,  23,  25,  30,  40,  43 
Sophia,  Electress  of  Hanover,  6,  25, 

47 
Stanhop  ,  General,  37:  Earl,  48,  50, 

51.  5=.. 53 
Steele,  Sir  Richard,  44 
Sujah  Dowlah,  94 
Suraiah  Dowlah,  83,  84 
Sunderland,  Earl  of,  40,  51,  53 
Swift,  Jonathan,  Dean,  44,  56 


'TALLARD,  Marbhal. 
Thurlow,  Lord,  99 
Torrington,  Karl  of,  18 


WOO 


Tourville,  Admiral,  iS 
ToMiishend.  I^ord,  48,  50,  51,  52,  58 
Townshend,  Charles,  grandson,  88, 

Tyrconnel,  Duke  of,  13 


yENDOME,  Duke  of,  35 

Victoria,  Queen,  26 
Villars,  Marshal,  35 

WALPOLE,  Sir  Robert,   48,   50, 
51.  52.  53-60:  Earl  of  Orford, 

60.  61 
Washington,  George,  71 
Watson,  Admiral.  84 
Weymouth,  Lord,  91 
Wharton,  T  honias.  Lord,  40 
Wilkes,  John,  89,  90,  91 
William  IIL,  King,  2-31,  33,  35,38, 

39,  40.  80 
Wo'fe,  lames.  General,  1 1.  74,  75 
Wood.  Willam,  56 


I 


INDEX    OF    PLACES. 


ABK 

A  BRAHAM.  Heights  of,  76 
^^     Acheen,  79 
Agra,  70 

Aix-la-Ohapclle,  67 
Alleghany  Mountains    the.  70 
Almniiza,  37 
America,  59.   70,  Jl,  72,  73.    74,  75, 

78.  90,  97,  99 
Arcot,  82 
Arnee,  82 
Aschaffenburg,  63 
Athlone,  15 
AuKhrim,  15 
Atiitria,  57,  68 


pAHAK.  94 
•^       Bantam,  79 
Barcelona,  37 
Bavaria,  34,  53 
Beachy  Head,  18 
Hclgium.  33 

Keiigal,  83    84,  85,  94,  96 
llcrgen,  72 
Wail-  Athol,  10,  65 
Blenheim,  34 
P.ombay,  80,  81 
Boyne,  the,  14 
Braermr,  49 
Hraiidenbi)r>:,  17 
Uresi,  yi,  77 
Hrihuega,  57 
Biixar,  94 


(""ALCU'n  A,  81,  83 
^-'     Campeachy  Bay,  78 
Canada,  70,  73,  74.  77,  78 
(Jape  Breton,  73,  78 


FRA 

Carrickfergus,  14 
Carthagena,  60 
Chinsurah,  85 
Clirton,  66 
Comorin.  Cape.  B2 
Corryarrick,  65 
Crefeld,  73 
Ciilloden,  67 
Cromdale,  10 


r)ANUBE,  the.  34 
^-^     Darien,  41 
Deccan,  the,  82 
Derby,  65 
Dettingen,  63 
Drogheda,  14 
Dublin,  13,  14.  15,  44 
Dunbar,  65 
Dunkeld,  10 


■*— '     Empire,  the,  17,  30 
Enniskillen,  13 


PALKIRK  Muir,  66 

•*•       Florida,  78 

Fontenoy,  64 

Fort  Duquesne.  71,  72 

Fort  St.  David,  So,  81,  S3 

Fort  St.  George,  80,  81 

Fort  William,  Scotland,  11 

Fort  William,  India,  80,  81 

Foyle,  the,  13 

France,  16,  17,  24,  33,  34.  35. 

57.   63,  65,   6 

97 
Frankfipr 


,_    36,  50. 

68.  69.  70,  71,  78, 


62,  ^^.  73 


io8 

GEO 

r*EORGIA,  70 
^     Germany,  17,  33 
Gibraltar,  34,  46,  57 
Glasgow,  66 
Glencoe,  ii 
Glenfinnan,  65 


l_rALIKAX,  71 

'  ■'^     Hanau,  64 

Hanover,  25.  33,  57,  62,  69,  72 

Havanna,  78 

!   avre,  77 

Holland,  17,  24,  51,  63 

Hooghly,  80 

Hooghly,  the,  85 


INDIA,  East.  79-85,  92-96 
••■     India,  West,  78 
Indies,  the,  29,  33 
Inverarj',  11 
Inverness,  67 
Inverness  shir-,  65 
Ireland,  13,  16,  i8,  41.  56 


AVA,  70 


T/-ENNEBEC,  the,  70 
^^     Kensington,  31 
Killiecrankie,  9 
Kistna,  the,  82 
Kloster-Zeven,  72 


T    AGOS,  77 
'--'     La  Hogue,  18 
K.Tnden,  19 
l.Ilk.  35 
Linienck,  15 
Lochaber,  9 
London,  42,  65,  93 
Londonderry,  13 
Lorraine,  19 
Louisburg,  73 
Louisiana,  70 


IVTADRAS,  80,  8i,  82,  85,  95 
^^^     Madrid,  36 
Malplaquet,  33 
Manilla,  78 
Mauritius,  81 
Mayn,  the,  63 


Index  of  Places. 


RYS 


M.'diierranean  Sea.  33 
Me^ico,  Gulf  of.  70 
Miiiden,  73 
Middlesex,  91 
Milan,  29 

Minorca,  35,  46,  68,  77.  78 
Monghir,  96 
Mons,  19 
Montreal,  77 
Montrose,  50 
Moorshrdabad,  84 
Mysore,  96 


1ST  AMUR,  19.  33 

Naples,  29,  s.(i 
Netherlands,  the  Spanish,  29,  33,  35, 

46 
Newfoundland,  46 
Newtonbutler,  13 
Niagara,  76 
Nova  Scotia,  71 

QHIO,  the,  71 
^^     Orissa,  94 
Osnabruck,  57 
Oude,  94 
Oudenarde,  35 


PACIFIC,  the,  60 
^       Paita,  60 
Paris,  78 

Passaro,  Cape,  52 
P,aina,  85 
Perth,  50,  6s 

Philippine  Islands,  60,  78 
Plaisey,  84 
Pondicherrj',  81,  85 
Portobello,  60 
Portugal,  7  ,  77,  78,  80 
Preston,  49 
Prest»n  Pans,  65 
Prussia,  17,  (it,,  67,  71 
Pyrenees,  the,  29 


Q 


UEBEC,  74,  76 
Quiberon  Bay,  77 


Ii  AMILLIES,  35 
J-^     Rhine,  the 
Russia,  71 
Ryswick,  19,  20 


34.  03 


Index  of  Places. 


SAt 


CT.  GERMAINS,  27 

'~-'     St.  Lawrence,  the,  74 

St.  Philips,  68 

Saratoga,  97 

Savoy,  17 

Saxony,  ti 

Scotland,  7-12,  41    42,  65,  67 

Sedgemoor,  32 

Sheriftmuir,  50 

Sicily,  20,  52 

Sile.sia,  63,  67 

South  Seas,  53,  59 

Spain,  17,  27,   29.  ID,  33     36,  52,  58, 

59.  67.  87 
Stade,  72 
St'-inkirk,  19 
Stirling.  50.  66 


WOL 


109 


Sumatra,  79 
Surat,  79,  i<3 

nrOURNAY.  64 

Ticonderoga,  76 
Trichinopoly,  82,  83 

jJTRECHT,  37,  45 

VTILAINE,  the,  77 
•       Villa  Viciosa,  37 

AXTANDEWASH,  85 
'  '       Weser,  the,  74 
Wolfe's  Cove,  76 


46,  iS,  51.  ?£ 


I 


ENGLAND  DURING  THE  AMERICAN 
AMD  EUROPEAN  WARS 

17G5 — 1820 


BY 

O     W.    TANCOCK,     M.A., 

ASSjlSTANT     MASTEK     OF     SHEBBORNB     SCHOOI4 

wiiH  FIVE  uwa. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

I^iST  OF  First  Ministers,  or  Heads  of  Ministries        .  viii 
Introduction .        .        .      i 


BOOK    I. 

THF    WAR    WITH    THE   AMERICAN    COLONIES.       1765-1783. 
CHAP 

1.     The  causes  of  the  quarrel  ......       3 

II.  The  fighting  in  America  .......       9 

III.     War  with  France  and  Spain    ......     19 

BOOK    II. 

THE   ENGLISH    IN    INDIA.       1773-1822. 

I.  The  people       .........     93 

1.     India  under  Warren  Hastings  .         .         .         .         .     'S 

III.  India  from  1783-1813       . 30 

IV.  India  under  the  New  Charter  ......     36 

BOOK    III. 

THF.   MINISTRY   OF    PITT.       1783-1801. 

I.     Pitt  as  a  jseace  minister 38 

II.  England  during  the  French  Revolution    .         .         .         .43 

III.  Pit;  as  a  war  minister       .......     47 


vl  Contents. 


BOOK   IV. 

IRELAND.       1765-1800. 
CHAP.  '"AGE 

I.     The  demand  for  Independence        ...  50 

II.     Ireland  before  the  Rebellion    ......     60 

III.     Tlie  Rebellion  of  1798 <S3 


BOOK    V. 

THE    EUROPEAN   WAR.       1803-18x5. 

I        1803-1807 68 

1 1 .     The  Peninsular  War        .......     74 

III.     The  Fall  of  Napoleon -35 

BOOK    VI. 

THE    RESULTS   OF   THE    WAR.    1815 -1820. 

I.     The  years  of  peace 87 

II.     The  demand  for  reforms 9f 

III.     Summary 94 

Index 97 


vii 


LIST  OF  MAPS. 

PAGB 

British  Colonies  in  NoKifi  Amkrica.  1760-1783    .        .  5 

India,  1760-1820 83 

Ireland,  1778-1800 .        .  57 

Europe,  1780 1815                      69 

Spanish  Peninsula,  1807-1815 75 


Vlll 


THE  FIRST  MINISTERS,  OR  HEADS  OF  THE 
MINISTRIES  WHICH  HELD  OFFICE 
UNDER  KING   GEORGE   III. 


Mr.  William  Pitt  [afterwards  Lord 

Chatham]         ....      from 

Earl  of  Bute 

Mr.  George  Grenville  . 

Marquess  of  Rockingham 

Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham  . 

Duke  of  Grafton  . 

Lord  North 

Marquess  of  Rockingham 

Earl  of  Shelburne 

Duke  of  Portland  (Coalition  Ministry) , 

Mr.  William  Pitt  (the  younger)    . 

Mr.  Addington     .         .         .         .         , 

Mr.  William  Pitt  .         .         .         , 

Lord  Grenville  (Ministry  of  All  the 
Talents) 

Duke  of  Portland         .         .         .         , 

Mr.  Spencer  Perceval   .         .         .         , 

Lord  Liverpool     .... 


[June 

1757] 

to  Oct.    1761 

Oct. 

1761 

,,  April  1763 

April 

1763 

,,  June    1765 

July 

1765 

,,  July    1766 

July 

1766 

.,  Oct.    1768 

Oct. 

1768 

,.   Jan.    1770 

Jan. 

1770 

,,   Mar.  1782 

Mar. 

1782 

,,   July    1782 

July 

1782 

,,  Feb.    1783 

April 

1783 

,,  Dec.    1783 

Dec. 

1783 

.,  Feb.   1801 

Feb. 

1801 

,,  April  1804 

May 

1804 

,,  Jan.     1806 

Feb. 

1806 

,,    Mar.  1807 

Mar. 

1807 

,,    Oct.   1810 

Oct. 

1810 

,,    May  1812 

May 

1812 

•"April  1827] 

ENGLAND  DURING   THE  AMERICAN 


AND 


EUROPEAN   WARS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  period  of  rather  more  than  half  a  century  of  which 
we  are  going  to  speak,  is  full  of  great  wars. 

(i)  England  had  much  fighting  to  do  in  America, 
where  she  was  beaten.  She  was  fighting  for  a  bad  cause, 
and  freedom  and  good  government  came  from  her  defeat. 
While  America  gained  very  much,  England  lost  little 
more  than  the  lives  and  the  money  spent  in  the  war. 

(2)  In  India  she  was  successful.  There  her  cause 
was  the  cause  of  peace  and  good  government.  For  she 
began  to  understand  the  duty  of  governing  honestly,  justly, 
and  carefully,  and  so  there  English  power  has  thriven. 

(3)  The  greatest  war  was  against  France.  All  Europe 
was  thro.vn  into  confusion  by  the  French  Revolution, 
and  England  could  not  remain  at  peace,  as  she  wished. 
Englishmen  had  to  do  all  they  could  to  save  their  in- 
dependence, and  they  saved  it. 

(4)  This  French  war  was  bad  for  England  in  several 
ways.  She  hadjust  begun  to  find  out  that  she  had  many 
needful  reforms  and  changes  to  make  at  home.     These 

EM.  B 


2  Introduction. 

had  to  do  especially  with  the  management  of  Ireland,  the 
choice  of  representatives  to  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
regulation  ox  trade  and  manufactures,  the  raising  of 
taxes,  and  the  criminal  laws.  She  had  a  great  minister, 
Pitt  the  younger,  who  understood  the  work,  and  would 
have  done  it,  but  the  war  put  off  the  thought  of  these 
things  and  they  could  not  be  attended  to  till  it  was  over. 
Moreover,  the  was'e  of  money  and  the  destruction  of 
trade  made  England  poor  and  discontented  for  a  long 
time. 


BOOK     I. 

THE  WAR  WITH  THE  COLONIES 
IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   CAUSES   OF   THE   QUARREL.— 1765-1775. 

I.  The  English  Colonies  in  North  America  had  joined 
with  spirit  in  the  war  against   France  (1756-1763),  and 
the    interests    of    the    mother    country     and 
the    colonies    had    been    alike  while   France     thirteen 
threatened.     The  peace  of  Paris,  Feb.   1763,    ''°^''^^- 
left  the  colonists  without  fear  of  future  disturbance.     The 
thirteen   colonies  then  reached  from  the  sea  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Lakes,  to  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi, 
though  the  settlers  were  mostly  near  the  seaboard.     Of 
these   thirteen,   a   northern  group   of  four  consisted  of 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode 
Island  ;  then  came  a  middle  group  of  New  York,  New 
Jersey,    Delaware,   and    Pennsylvania  ;   and  a   southern 
group  of  five,  Virginia,  Maryland,  the  Carolinas  North 
and  South,  and  Georgia.     The  lands  in  all  were  some 
what  thinly   inhabited,  the  people  were  hardy  and  in- 
dependent, not  wealthy,  yet  having  few,  if  any,  very  poor 
amongst  them. 

2.  The  relations  between  the  mother-country  and  the 

B    2 


4  The  A  merican  War. 

colonies  had  never  been  fixed  very  accurately,  and  dis- 
Old  dis-  agreements  had  arisen  from  time  to  time.     The 

agreements,  colonists  Complained  of  neglect,  of  bad 
governors,  of  unfair  laws  and  rules.  Many  points  had 
never  been  settled  ;  such  as  the  rights  of  the  colonists  to 
take  possession  of  the  lands  lying  further  west,  their 
rights  of  trading,  and  the  right  of  Parliament  to  levy 
taxes  on  them.  The  home  government  claimed  rights 
about  these  things  which  the  colonists  did  not  admit. 

3.  It  was  out  of  a  question  as  to  the  right  of  taxation 
that  the  great  quarrel  at  last  arose.  Questions  about 
trade  might  have  righted  themselves  in  time.  Although 
there  was  some  feeling  of  the  hardship  of  the  Navigation 
laws,  which  did  not  allow  the  colonies  to  trade  with  any 
country  except  Great  Britain,  yet  this  policy  of  com- 
mercial monopoly  was  usual,  and  it  had  grown  with  the 
growth  of  the  colonies.  The  wealth  which  flowed  to 
some  persons  from  it  was  seen,  the  injury  to  the  whole 
comm.unity  was  less  plain,  and  a  widespread  system  of 
smuggling,  by  which  foreign  produce  was  brought  in 
vvithout  payment  of  the  lawful  import  duties,  toned  down 
much  of  the  evil  of  such  laws. 

4.  The  case  soon  became  quite  changed  when  King 
George  III.  and  his   government  set  on  foot  a  plan  for 

taxing  the  American  colonies .  Whether  Eng- 
land could  lawfully  tax  the  colonies  was 
uncertain,  it  was  certain  that  she  had  not  heretofore 
taxed  them,  and  that  they  had  never  acknowledged  that 
she  had  any  such  right  of  taxation ;  the  Assembly  of 
Massachusetts  had  once  plainly  said  that  she  had  no 
such  right. 

5.  The  colonies  were  becoming  more  important, 
richer,  and  better  known  since  the  late  war.  The  king, 
on  the  other  hand,  wished  to  have  more  control  over  them, 
and  to  keep  down  the  independent  spirit  shown  by  some 


o  cm:  J^^ 


NORTH 
AMERICA 

1760-1783  J 


y^> 


6  The  American  War.  1763- 

of  the  Assemblies.  !n  England  heavy  taxes  were  levied 
to  pay  for  the  late  war,  and  to  keep  up  a  larger  army. 
Towns-  One  of  the  ministers,  Charles  Townshend,  a 

of  raisin^^"  brilliant  speaker  but  a  headstrong  statesman, 
revenue.  led    Parliament   to   think   that    the   taxes   in 

England  might  be  lessened  by  raising  a  revenue  in 
America  ;  Mr.  Grenville,  then  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty,  wished  to  stop  the  American  smuggling  and  to 
enforce  the  Navigation  laws. 

6.  The  plan  of  the  ministry  proposed  to  '  grant  duties 
in  the  Colonies  and  Plantations  of  America,'  stating, 
The  Stamp  '  that  it  was  just  and  necessary  that  a  revenue 
Act,  1765,  should  be  raised  there.'  In  1765  the  Stamp 
Act  was  passed,  requiring  law  papers  in  Ainerica  to  bear 
stamps  much  as  they  do  now  in  this  country.  This  put 
forward  the  claim  of  Parliament  to  tax  a  country  which 
sent  no  representatives  to  Parliament.  Little  attention 
was  paid  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  colonies,  and  few 
thought  that  they  would  resist. 

7.  The  colonies  were  probably  not  well  able  to  pay 
taxes  to  England  at  that  time,  for  they  were  in  debt  for 

their   own    share   of  the   war.     Perhaps   the 
of  the  Assemblies  might  have  voted  sums  of  money  ; 

colonies.  ^^^^  ^^  colonists  did  not  so  much  think  of  the 

difficulty  of  raising  money,  they  were  angry  at  the  way 
in  which  the  ministers  were  trying  to  get  it  out  of  them. 
In  North  and  South  alii<e  men  made  up  their  minds  to 
resist  ;  the  Virginian  Assembly  in  May  1765  declared 
that  taxation  without  their  consent  was  illegal,  and 
almost  at  the  same  time  a  meeting  at  New  York  of 
delegates  from  nine  colonies  used  the  same  words. 
Moreover  the  people  would  not  use  the  stamps,  and 
documents  were  everywhere  accepted  as  legal  without 
them. 

8.  In  July  1765  a  Whig  ministry  under  Lord  Rocking- 


'770.  The  Revenue  Act.  y 

ham   succeeded   to    power.      Among    us    members  was 
General   Conway,    and  among  its  supporters 
Edmund  Burke,  who   became   a  most  strong     the  Stamp 
defender  of  the  colonists.     After  some  inquiry,     Act,  1766. 
during  which  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  agent  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, was  examined  before  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  Stamp  Act  was  done  away  with  (July 
1766). 

9.  There  was  a  change  of  ministry  again  in  the  same 
summer,  and  a  new  Government  was  formed  by  Pitt,  as 
has  been  told  before.'  Pitt  soon  retired  from  Towns- 
any  active  share  in  public  business,  and  'jf"v'^nue 
Townshend  again  guided  the  ministers  in  Act,  1767. 
dealing  with  America.  A  new  Revenue  Act  (1767) 
imposed  duties  in  America  on  tea  and  five  other  articles, 
to  raise  money  '  for  the  administration  of  justice '  and 
'the  support  of  the  civil  government  there.'  The  colonists 
were  firm  in  resisting  all  such  taxation,  great  or  small, 
laid  upon  them  by  England  Seeing  this,  the  new  ministry 
of  Lord  North  in  1770  did  away  with  all  duties  save  that 
on  tea,  '  upon  consideration  of  such  duties  having  been 
laid  contrary  to  the  true  principles  of  commerce.'  It  was 
useless  to  give  up  some  of  the  duties,  for  the  Americans 
said  there  was  no  right  to  lay  on  them  any  at  all  ;  whether 
the  tax  was  on  one  ar^cle  or  on  six,  whether  the  duty  was 
great  or  small,  made  no  real  matter. 

10.  Other  difficulties  also  arose  about  this  time.  At 
Boston  citizens  aided  in  rescuing  from  the  pohce  the 
crew  of  a  sloop  who  were  charged  with  smug- 

,.  _,,,.,.  ,  ,  .   .  Ill-feeling 

gling.  Ill-feeling  grew  between  the  citizens  in  Massa- 
and  the  soldiers,  who  were  now  used  to  keep  "^husetts. 
the  people  quiet.  A  quarrel  took  place  at  Boston 
between  citizens  and  soldiers  in  March  1770  :  it  ended  in 
the  death  of  some  citizens,  the  removal  of  the  troops,  and 
the  conviction  of  two  soldiers  for  manslaughter  ;  all  this 
1  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  V.,  Chap.  I.  Sec.  9. 


8  The  American   War.  '773- 

made  the  feelings  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  more 
bitter  than  before. 

11.  The  colonists  left  off  using  tea,  and  when  the 
government  would  not  withdraw  the  duty,  some  tea-ships 
The  Boston  in  Boston  harbour  were  boarded,  and  their 
tea-ships.  cargoes  were  thrown  into  the  sea  ;  on  this  the 
ministry  tried  to  punish  the  whole  colony  (Dec.  1773). 
The  port  of  Boston  was  to  be  closed,  and  the  charter  of 
the  colony  taken  away  ;  the  Assembly  was  dissolved. 
But  the  spirit  of  the  people  could  not  be  so  put  down  ;  to 
the  last  the  Assembly  protested  against  such  doings  as 
illegal,  and  encouraged  the  people  to  hold  to  their  rights. 
As  other  colonies  felt  with  them  they  got  ready  to  resist, 
and  a  Convention  or  meeting  of  representatives,  chosen 
without  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  sat  and  managed 
the  affairs  of  the  colony. 

12.  Towards  the  end  of  1774  it  was  plain  that  war 
was  at  hand.  In  England  the  king  and  his  minister 
War  at  Lord  North,'  who  did  whatever  the  king 
hand.  wished,  and  had  a  large  majority  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  were  set  on  harsh  measures.  A  small  body 
of  the  men  who  thought  for  themselves,  and  thought 
wisely,  such  as  Chatham  and  Burke,  were  in  favour  of 
giving  way  to  the  colonists.  The  great  trading  towns 
were  on  the  same  side.  But  the  Whigs,  as  these  men 
were  called,  were  not  popular  ;  Englishmen  in  general 
neither  knew  nor  cared  much  about  the  feelings  of  the 
colonists.  Public  opinion  on  the  whole  was  on  the  side  of 
the  king  and  the  government. 

13.  In  America  a  Congress  of  fifty-five  delegates,  from 

all  the  thirteen  colonies  except  Georgia,  met 

meeting  of       at   Philadelphia    in    September    1774.     They 

Congress.        drew  up  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  claiming  for 

themselves  all   the   liberties    of    Englishmen.      Full    of 

1  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  V.  Chap.  II.  sec.  9. 


'775-  Last  hopes  of  Peace.  9 

sympathy  for  Massachusetts,  they  passed  resolutions 
pointing  to  a  stoppage  m{  all  trade  with  Great  Britain. 
They  issued  addresses  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
and  to  the  people  of  Canada,  and  a  petition  to  the  king. 
They  behaved  wisely  and  moderately,  and  separated  after 
calling  another  Congress  for  May  1775. 

14.  Lord  North  was  willing  in  1775  that  the  colonists 
should  no  longer  be  taxed,  but  the  king  was  still  deter- 
mined to  punish  them  for  their  rebellious  spirit.  Last  hopes 
The  Houses  of  Parliament  also  felt  as  he  did,  ofpe^ce. 
and  would  not  listen  to  the  wise  advice  of  Chatham  and 
Burke,  so  the  last  chance  of  peace  was  lost.  Meanwhile, 
in  Massachusetts  and  in  Virginia  men  were  arming. 
Although  the  power,  resources,  and  population  of  England 
would  seem  to  give  her  the  advantage,  the  colonies  were 
strong  in  the  hardy  habits  and  stubborn  spirit  of  their 
people,  in  the  great  size  of  the  country,  and  in  the  distance 
over  sea  from  England.  If  they  had  not  trained  soldiers 
or  generals,  still  almost  every  settler  was  used  to  carry 
arms,  and  they  knew  the  country ;  it  might  be  hard  to 
get  money  and  other  things  wanted  for  a  war,  but  their 
own  needs  were  few,  and  they  were  ready  to  bear  much 
in  defence  of  their  homes. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   FIGHTING   IN    AMERICA,— 1775-I  782. 

I.  THEfirstfighting  wasin  Massachusetts,  in  which  colony 
Parliament  had  in  February  1775  declared  that  'a  rebellion 
existed.'  The  colonists  had  a  store  of  arms  at  Fighting  at 
Concord,  a  town  about  eighteen  miles  north-  Lexington, 
west  of  Boston.  General  Gage,  who  was  governor  of 
the  colony  and  commander  of  the  forces  at  Boston, 
secretly  sent  a  force  in   April  to  take  or  destroy  these 


lo  The  American  War.  i775. 

stores.  Men  got  to  know  of  this,  and  gathered  to  resist. 
At  Lexington,  ten  miles  from  Boston,  fighting  began,  and 
seven  men  were  killed.  The  arms  still  in  store  at 
Concord  were  destroyed,  and  after  a  smart  skirmish  the 
troops  began  their  homeward  march.  They  were 
harassed  all  the  way  by  the  colonists,  who  fired  at  them 
from  behind  the  hedges,  but  fresh  troops  came  out  from 
Boston  to  help  them,  and  they  got  back  to  barracks  having 
lost  about  270  men,  while  less  than  100  was  the  loss  of 
the  other  side. 

2.  From  this  time  there  was  war  between  England 
and  her  American  colonies.  Ill-feeling  and  even  hatred 
Con-  soon  grew  up  between  the  two  peoples.  The 
necticut.  king  was  firm  in  the  resolve  to  reduce  'the 
rebels,'  and  the  mass  of  the  English  people  agreed  with 
him,  though  they  did  not  care  much.  In  America,  while 
many  colonists  remained  '  loyal,'  the  help  they  gave  was 
not  great  compared  with  the  fierce  resistance  of  the 
majority  in  almost  every  part.  At  first  the  war  went  on 
chiefly  in  the  four  Northern  or  New  England  colonies. 
Massachusetts  led  the  way,  quickly  foUowed  by  Con- 
necticut. The  legislature  of  Connecticut  sent  a  force 
which  surprised  the  little  garrisons  of  Ticonderoga  and 
Crown  Point  on  Lake  Champlain;  these  successes,  though 
small,  were  cheering,  and  brought  the  colonists  stores  and 
guns  and  powder,  which  they  greatly  needed. 

3.  Congress  met  for  its  second  session  at  Philadelphia 
in  May  1775,  and  the  moderate  party  in  it  was  weaker 
Washington  than  before.  Measures  were  taken  for  raising 
made  com-       monev,  and  a  commander-in-chief  was  elected, 

mander-in-  -  '  ' 

chief.  George    Washington,   of  Virginia.     He   had 

earned  some  reputation  in  the  former  war,*  and  had  a 
well-deserved  character  for  moderation,  pubhc  spirit,  and 
honour.     It  was  very  needful  that  the  command  in  war 

•  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  IV.  Chap.  I.  Sec.  4. 


'775-  Banker's  Hill.  II 

should  be  given  to  one  great  soldier.  For  a  danger 
which  threatened  the  colonies  was  that  local  interests 
and  jealousies  should  prevent  them  from  holding  together 
as  one  country;  since  each  colony  had  been  used  to 
manage  itself,  and  had  been  quite  independent  of  the  rest. 
Congress  as  yet  had  no  real  power,  and  could  not  do 
much  more  than  advise  what  was  best. 

4.  The  Enghsh  Governors  retired  from  the  Southern 
colonies,  and  Virginia,  under  Patrick  Henry,  l>egan  to 
make  open  resistance;  Massachusetts  acted  battle  of 
for  herself  without  waiting  for  Congress.  nul'^Ma 
Round  Boston  men  fought  with  such  generals  »77s' 
as  they  could  find.  General  Gage  was  joined  by  a  large 
body  of  fresh  troops  in  May,  and  then  made  up  his 
mind  to  fortify  Bunker's  Hill,  a  height  on  the  peninsula 
which  commands  Boston.  On  the  other  side  a  strong 
body  of  Americans  was  sent  to  occupy  the  hill  during  the 
night.  Next  afternoon,  in  the  sight  of  all  Boston,  the 
English  stormed  the  hill.  The  ground  was  difficult,  and 
they  were  twice  beaten  back,  but  in  a  third  attack  the 
hill  was  taken  with  great  loss.  The  victory  was  with  the 
English,  but  on  the  Americans,  who  fought  most  stub- 
bornly, the  effect  was  not  that  of  a  defeat,  and  the  day  has 
always  been  counted  among  their  national  successes. 

5.  In  Congress  the  minority  of  able  men,  who  aimed 
at  independence  of  England  and  union  among  themselves, 
gained  ground  and  began  to  lead  the  country,  invasion  of 
Late  in  the  autumn  Congress  agreed  to  Canada, 
attempt  a  great  thing,  and  invaded  Canada.  Montgomery, 
a  soldier  who  had  become  a  settler  in  New  York,  with  a 
force  of  3,000  men  took  St.  Johns  and  Montreal,  intending 
to  pass  down  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Quebec,  but  his  army 
dwindled  away,  as  his  men  only  served  for  short  periods. 
Another  force  of  i,coo  men,  under  Benedict  Arnold,  had 
been  sent  from  Massachusetts  up  the  Kennebec  river  to 


12  The  American   War.  ^Tf(>- 

join  Montgomer>'.  They  had  to  find  their  way.  through 
the  rough  unsettled  country  that  now  is  the  State  of 
Maine,  and  round  the  north  of  the  Green  Mountains. 
This  band  was  almost  starved  and  lost,  but  somewhat 
more  than  half  reached  Quebec  early  in  December.  The 
united  forces  then  numbered  scarcely  a  thousand;  it 
was  hopeless  to  take  the  city  with  so  few  men,  but  an 
assault  was  made,  Montgomery  was  killed,  and  his 
division  was  driven  back.  Arnold,  his  second  in  command, 
was  wounded  while  attacking  the  lower  city,  and  his 
division  was  overpowered.  The  Americans  lost  i6o 
killed  and  426  were  made  prisoners,  while  20  was  the  loss 
of  the  garrison.  Even  after  this  failure  Arnold  stayed 
till  May,  attempting  a  blockade  ;  then  he  retreated  before 
General  Carleton,  and  all  Canada  was  regained  by  the 
English. 

6.  Early  in  March  1776  Washington,  who  had  hitherto 
been  drilling  and  training  his  army  while  keeping  watch 
English  over  Boston,  was  ready  to  fight.  He  sent 
Boston'"^^  General  Thomas  to  occupy  Dorchester 
1776  Heights,  which  from  the  south  commanded 
Boston  city  and  harbour  and  the  British  lines  on  Boston 
neck.  General  Howe,  who  had  succeeded  Gage,  was 
unable  to  drive  them  from  their  position.  He  had  long 
thought  that  Boston  was  a  bad  place  for  his  head- 
quarters, so  he  now  took  his  troops  away  and  retired  to 
Halifax ;  the  English  never  again  had  any  real  hold  on 
the  Northern  or  New  England  States. 

7.  The  colonies  now  began  to  listen  more  and  more 
to  the  counsels  of  the  extreme  men  ;  this  was  natural 
Declaration  when  War  had  once  begun.  So  long  as  it  was 
dence'^JuT'  o"^y  talked  about,  however  bitter  the  talk 
4. 1776.  might  be,  there  was  hope  that  things  might 
be  quietly  settled.  But  when  once  war  had  broken  out, 
and  Americans    were   glorying    in   feats   of  arms    done 


'776.         Tiic  Declaration  of  Tiidependetice.  13 

a;4ainst  the  Knglish,  the  desire  of  settling  matters  grew 
faint  and  died  away.  The  need  of  some  form  of 
independent  government  became  pressing,  and  in  June 
1776,  on  the  motion  of  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia, 
Congress  agreed  that  these  united  colonies  are  and 
ought  to  be  free  and  independent  States.'  A  committee 
of  five  delegates  from  five  stales,  Adams  of  Massachusetts, 
Franklin  of  Pennsylvania,  Jefferson  of  Virginia,  Living- 
ston of  New  York,  Sherman  of  Connecticut,  drew  up  a 
draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  With  some 
changes  it  was  passed  by  Congress,  and  published,  as  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  on  July  4,  1776.  It  was 
signed  on  that  day,  or  soon  after,  by  delegates  from  all 
the  thirteen  Stales.  The  Declaration  was  a  bond  ot 
union  ;  but  it  did  nothing,  and  nothing  could  be  done  at 
the  time,  to  join  the  separate  States  under  one  govern- 
ment so  as  to  make  what  is  called  a  Confederation. 
Congress  also  sent  Franklin  and  two  others  to  try  to  get 
help  from  the  French  Government  in  their  struggle  for 
freedom. 

8.  During  this  summer  many  more  soldiers  were  on 
their  way  from  England,  and  Admiral  Lord   Howe   was 
sent  out  with  powers  to  treat  for  peace,  but  no     Q^.„erai 
peace  could  be  made.     New  York,  one  of  the     Howe 

nttQCKS 

Middle  States,  now  became  the  chief  seat  of  New  York, 
war.  i'his  State  had  not  been  very  eager  to  ■7^''' 
resist  England  ;  the  loyalists  were  many,  and  the  English 
authorities  thought  that  in  this  and  the  other  Middle 
States  much  help  would  be  got.  The  city  of  New  York 
was  held  by  Washington,  who  had  an  army  of  10,000 
men,  which  was  increased  early  in  August  to  27,000  by 
new  levies  of  militia,  \vho  were  not  however  very  good 
soldiers.  General  Howe,  with  the  troops  which  had  left 
Boston,  sailed  from  Halifax  and  reached  Sandy  Hook  at 
the  end  of  June.     He  landed  9,000  men  on  Staten  Island 


14  The  American  War.  '776- 

and  was  well  received.  In  August  the  main  body  of  the 
new  troops  trom  England  reached  the  general,  who  was 
thus  in  command  of  about  25,000  men.  He  then  sent  a 
division  to  the  south-west  point  of  Long  Island,  who  soon 
faced  the  American  position  near  Brooklyn.  After  three 
days  of  skirmishing,  the  English  forces  routed  the 
Americans,  and  made  them  withdraw  from  Long  Island  ; 
soon  the  English  crossed  the  East  River  and  entered  the 
city  of  New  York.  The  Americans,  unable  to  hold  the 
neighbouring  country,  crossed  the  river  Hudson,  and 
when  Lord  Cornwallis  followed  closely,  Washington  re- 
treated with  all  speed  through  New  Jersey  into  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

9.  Thus  the  States  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
were  won  back,  and  the  English  held  the  country  as  far 
Newjersey,  ^^  ^^^  river  Delaware.  So  threatening  did 
1776-  things  look,  that  the  Congress  left  Philadelphia 
for  a  safer  meeting-place  at  Baltimore.  Howe  ought  to 
have  pressed  on  across  the  Delaware,  and  to  have  forced 
the  remains  of  the  American  army  to  fight  while  it  was 
out  of  heart.  Instead  of  doing  this,  he  dispersed  his 
troops  in  quarters  in  New  Jersey,  where  they  became  un- 
popular, and  then  he  waited  for  the  ice  on  the  river. 
Thus  Washington  found  time  to  get  new  soldiers  together, 
Congress  and  the  country  had  time  to  recover  from  the 
shock  of  defeat  and  misfortune.  At  the  very  end  of  the 
vear,  Washington  surprised  Trenton,  an  English  post, 
and  a  few  days  later,  again  crossing  the  river  Delaware, 
passed  to  the  rear  of  Lord  Cornwallis'  army.  He  then 
gradually  recovered  almost  all  New  Jersey.  The  whole 
fighting  of  this  year  was  thus  made  a  success  for  the 
Americans,  for  the  English  generals,  with  far  bettet 
soldiers,  had  had  to  give  way  to  Washington. 

10.  The  summer  of  1777  was  marked  by  an  attempt 
to  cut  off  the  Northern  States  from  the  rest.     General 


'777-  Saratoga.  I^ 

Burgoyne  started  from  Canada  to  march  down  the  great 
valley  of  the  lakes  and  the  valley  of  the  Hudson,  and 
meet  a  force  under  Clinton  from  New  York.  Burgoyne's 
Leaving  Crown  Point  at  the  end  of  June,  he  "^naj/™"* 
pushed  on  to  Ticonderoga,  which  was  left  by  >777- 
its  garrison  ;  then,  crossing  a  most  difficult  country,  full  of 
forest,  streams,  and  swamps,  made  still  more  difficult  by 
artificial  obstacles,  iie  found  Fort  Edward  also  empty. 
By  this  time  the  militia  of  the  New  England  States  had 
come  together  ;  they  were  mostly  untrained  men,  but 
were  well  armed,  brave,  used  to  hardships,  and  very 
angry  on  account  of  the  cruel  doings  of  the  Indian 
savages  who  had  come  with  General  Burgoyne.  From 
Fort  Edward  to  Albany  was  fifty  miles,  and  Burgoyne 
dared  not  go  on  till  he  had  got  proper  supplies  ;  so  a 
month  was  spent.  Then  the  army  crossed  to  Saratoga, 
and  found  the  enemy  under  Generals  Gates  and  Arnold, 
in  front  of  Stillwater,  lining  a  low  range  of  hills  called 
Behmus'  Heights.  After  a  hard  fight,  the  English  re- 
mained masters  of  the  ground,  but  had  gained  no  real 
advantage.  For  more  than  a  fortnight  Burgoyne  wailed 
for  news  of  Clinton  ;  then  he  tried,  without  success,  to 
break  through  the  enemy's  lines.  With  great  difficulty  the 
army  retreated  to  Saratoga,  ten  miles  ;  there  it  was  sur- 
rounded, and  all  supplies  were  cut  off.  A  Convention  was 
signed  on  October  17,  allowing  the  English  to  lay  down 
their  arms  and  receive  provisions  ;  thence  they  marched 
as  prisoners  to  Massachusetts.  About  3,500  fighting 
men,  5,750  in  all,  were  made  prisoners.  This  Convention 
of  Saratoga  was  the  turning-point  in  the  war  ;  it  was 
an  enormous  disaster  for  the  English  cause. 

1 1.  Meanwhile,  in  the  Middle  States,  Washington  had 
been  able  to  do  little,  because  of  the  smallness  of  his 
army.  Late  in  the  spring  (1777),  General  Howe  decided 
on  leaving  New  Jersey  to  reach  Philadelphia  by  another 


l6  The  American  War.  1778- 

vvay.     Embarking  some    I4,cxx)  men  at  New   York,  he 

sailed  southward,  entered  the  Chesapeake,  and  reached 

the  Head  of  Elk,  seventy  miles  from  Phila- 

Howe  takes        ,    ,    ,  ■  ,tt      i  ■  •  ^ 

Phila-  delphia.       \\  ashmgton,    m     September,    met 

delphia.  Y(\\xi  half-way  between   Philadelphia  and   the 

Head  of  Elk,  where  flowed  a  stream,  the  Brandywine. 
The  Americans  were  routed,  and  Washington  could  not 
prevent  the  advance  of  the  English,  who  entered  the  city. 
But  General  Howe  found  that  he  could  do  little  towards 
winning  back  Pennsylvania,  and  he  failed  to  draw  Wash- 
ington to  a  battle.  This  success,  therefore,  did  not  at  all 
make  up  for  the  great  defeat  at  Saratoga. 

12.  In  England  the  news  of  the  surrender  at  Saratoga 
made  even  the  ministers  wish  for  peace.  Unfortunately, 
Ministers  the  same  news  made  the  French  Govern- 
^»!V!°'^  ment  readv  to  enter  into  treaties  of  alliance 

peace, 

1777-8-  and  commerce  with  the  United  States  (Feb- 

ruary 1778).  Lord  North  then  passed  a  bill  giving  up 
altogether  the  claim  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  colonies,  and 
was  ready  to  do  anything  short  of  granting  them  inde- 
pendence. 

13.  This  was  a  time  when  the  war  might  have  ceased 
without  dishonour  to  England.  England  was  ready  to 
own  that  she  had  been  in  the  wrong.  She  was  willing 
to  grant  all  that  Americans  had  claimed  ;  freedom,  with 
some  slight  tie  to  the  mother  country,  or  even  indepen- 
dence, as  Lord  Rockingham  thought,  might  have  been 
conceded.  But  when  France  began  to  interfere  in  the 
war.  Its  meaning  was  changed.  The  honour  of  England 
seemed  at  stake  ;  even  those  who  had  been  against  the 
war  before,  now  thought  that  it  must  be  carried  on 
boldly.  Thus  Chatham,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  declared 
he  would  never  consent  to  '  an  ignominious  surrender  of 
the  rights  of  the  empire.'  '  Shall  we  now,'  he  said,  '  fall 
prostrate  before  the  House  of  Bourbon  ?  '     And  his  death 


1780.  Major  Aitdr^.  \J 

in  May  1778  put  ,in  end  to  the  last  hope  of  reconciHa- 
tion  with  America.' 

14.  The  certainty  of  war  with  France  at  once  began 
to  mar  English  plans.  Orders  were  sent  out  to  the  new 
commander-in-chief,    Sir    Henry  Clinton,  to 

retire  fmm  Philadelphia  to  New  York.  The  leave  Phil- 
Americans  instantly  retook  the  city  and  almost  *'*«'p'^'*- 
all  parts  of  the  Middle  States.  New  York  was  again  the 
head-quarters  of  the  English,  but  as  troops  were  sent 
thence  to  Halifax,  Bermuda,  and  the  West  Indies,  to 
guard  against  the  French  fleet,  the  army  did  little.  And 
want  of  union  between  the  States,  quarrels  in  Congi»ess 
itself,  difficulties  of  raising  money,  men,  and  supplies, 
and  jealousies  in  the  army,  hindered  Washington  from 
doing  any  great  thing. 

15.  In   1780,  men  were  made  more  bitter  by  a  very 
unfortunate  event.     General  Arnold,  a  man  of  mark,  who 
had  held  important  commands  at  Saratoga     Major 
and  at  Philadelphia,  was  now  at  West  Point,     '\"'i''d. 

a  fort  dominating  the  upper  part  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  This  he  treacherously  offered  to  hand  over  to 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  ;  the  terms  were  to  be  arranged  with 
Major  Andrd,  aide-de-camp  to  the  English  general.  He 
visited  Arnold,  and  was  taken  prisoner  on  his  way  back 
in  disguise,  and  with  a  pass  given  by  Arnold.  Arnold 
had  time  to  escape  to  the  English  lines  ;  Andr^  was 
treated  as  a  spy.  His  plea  of  a  safe-conduct  from  Arnold 
was  not  unfairly  met  by  the  reply  that  Arnold  was  a 
traitor  and  a  safe-conduct  granted  for  a  treacherous  pur- 
pose was  not  valid.  Washington  was  unyielding,  and 
Andre  was  hanged.  It  was  natural  enough  that  the 
Americans  should  insist  on  making  an  example  of  him  ; 
but  when  they  hanged  him  on  the  charge  that  he  was  a 
spy,  they  v,  ere  really  revenging  themselves  on  him  for 
I  iee  Epoch  VI.,  F.k.  V.,  Chap.  II.,  Sec.  8. 
'E.H.  C 


1 8  The  American    War.  1780- 

the  treachery  of  Arnold,  whom  they  could  not  reach.  By 
the  English,  Andrd  was  honoured  as  a  martyr  to  his  zeal 
for  king  and  country. 

16.  Sir  Henry  Clinton's  new  plan  of  operations  carries 
as  to  the  Southern  colonies,  where  loyal  feeling  was  still 

rather   strong.      In   November    1778   a   small 

T  lie 

Southern  force  occupied  Savannah,  the  capital  of  Georgia. 
colonies.  f  rom  this  point  the  troops  and  their  supporters 
carried  the  war  into  the  two  Carolinas,  and  seized  Port 
Royal,  while  an  attack  made  by  the  French  and 
American  forces  was  driven  back.  Early  in  the  spring 
of  1780  Clinton  took  Charlestown,  and  then  left  Lord 
Cornwallis  in  command.  General  Gates,  who  was  sent 
to  oppose  him,  failed,  and  the  South  seemed  to  be  entirely 
won  back  by  the  English.  Cornwallis  was  so  sure  of  this, 
that  he  formed  a  plan  of  leaving  Lord  Rawdon  to  keep 
the  South  under  control,  while  he  himself  marched  north- 
wards to  join  Clinton. 

1 7.  This  attempt  was  beyond  his  power,  and  he  failed. 
In  order  to  cross  the  rivers,  he  had  to  go  far  inland  ;  the 
Surrender  of  country  was  difficult,  and  the  people  did  not 
atTork-"^  help  him,  so  that  he  could  not  get  food  for  his 
town,  1781.  men.  The  Americans,  though  routed  at  Guild- 
ford in  North  Carolina,  in  March  1 781,  followed  Corn- 
wallis as  he  retired  to  Wilmington  on  the  coast.  There 
the  English  stayed  three  weeks.  At  last  Cornwallis 
reached  Yorktown  in  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  there 
waited  for  Clinton  to  join  him  by  sea.  But  there  he  was 
shut  in  on  all  sides.  Washington  and  La  Fayette,  with 
a  force  almost  three  times  as  large  as  his  own,  marched 
into  Virginia  and  hemmed  in  Yorktown  ;  the  French 
fleet  came  from  the  West  Indies,  blocked  the  York 
river,  and  cut  him  olif  from  the  sea.  In  October,  Corn- 
wallis surrendered,  after  several  brave  attempts  which 
had  only  proved  his  position  to  be  hopeless.     Further 


1783.  Lord  NortJis  Resignation.  ig 

south  the  English  had  been  driven  back,  till,  at  the  eml  of 
1781,  they  held  nothing  but  Charlestown  and  Savannah. 

18.  This  was  really  the  end  of  the  war,  though  in  some 
places  fighting  continued  on  a  small  scale.  The  English 
still  held  New  York  til!  November  1783,  after  Lord  Nonh 
peace  had  been  made.  But  feeling  in  England  "signs.  1782. 
was  now  steadily  changing  into  keen  dislike  of  the  war  ; 
the  majority  which  supported  the  Go\ernment  in  the 
House  of  Commons  grew  smaller  and  smaller.  In  Feb- 
ruary 1782  General  Conway  proposed  an  address  pray- 
ing the  king  '  that  the  war  might  no  longer  be  pursued,' 
and  the  Government  threw  it  out  by  one  vote  only. 
Another  motion  of  like  effect  was  proposed  and  carried  ; 
the  ministr)'  could  no  longer  stay  in  office,  and  in  March 
1782  Lord  North  resigned. 

19.  By  the  union  of  the  two  bodies  of  Whigs,  a  new 
ministry  was  formed  under  Lord  Rockingham,     The  Whii? 
with  Lord  Shelburne    as  Colonial  Secretary,     """'stry. 
They  were  in  favour  of  making  peace,  and  Lord  Shelburne 
at  once  opened  negotiations  for  this  purpose. 


CHAPTER    IIL 

WAR   WITH    FRANCE  AND   SPAIN. —  1778-I783. 

I.  During  these  later  years  of  the  American  war, 
England's  task  had  been  m.idc  hopeless  by  the  state  of 
things  in  Europe.  Many  powers  were  at  war  War  with 
with  England,  and  at  one  time  almost  all  France. 
Europe  was  openly  or  secretly  hostile.  In  March  1778 
.1  treaty  of  alliance  was  made  between  France  and 
America.  War  between  England  and  P' ranee  soon  fol- 
lowed. A  French  fleet  during  the  summer  helped  the 
Americans,    and    afterwards    hovered    nbout    the   West 

c  z 


20  War  with  France  and  Spain.  1780- 

Indies  and  took  possession  of  Dominica.  Nearer  home, 
the  Channel  fleet,  under  Admiral  Keppel,  was  met  by  a 
tar  more  powerful  French  fleet  under  D'Orvilliers,  and, 
after  fighting,  retired  to  harbour. 

2.  Next  year  the  war  in  Europe  became  more  serious, 
for  Spain  joined  France.  England  was  greatly  disturbed 
Wf.aknes-;  bv  threats  of  invasion.  The  enemies'  fleets 
of  England,  were  uot  only  superior  on  the  open  seas,  but 
also  masters  of  the  Channel,  which  was  swarming  with 
American  and  French  privateers,  or  ships  sent  out, 
not  by  government,  but  by  private  persons,  who  wished 
to  gain  what  they  could  by  attacking  the  enemy's  vessels. 
Ireland  could  not  be  defended  ;  commerce  was  nearly  at 
an  end  ;  the  English  fleets  could  only  try  to  keep  the 
enemy  off.  The  French  even  attacked  Jersey,  and  the 
Spaniards  besieged  Gibraltar. 

3.  In  1780  arose  a  quarrel  with  the  neutral  powers 
which  left  England  for  a  time  without  a  friend.  England 
Right  o  f  had  claimed  and  exercised  Right  of  Search, 
'.earcb.  j-]^^(.  jg^  ^j^g  right  to  stop  and  search  all  mer- 
chant vessels  sailing  under  the  flag  of  any  neutral  nation, 
and  to  take  them  if  they  were  found  to  be  carry^ing  supplies 
to  the  enemy.  It  was  a  claim  galling  to  the  dignity  and 
harmful  to  the  trade  of  nations  who  were  at  peace,  and  it 
unfairly  placed  their  interests  at  the  mercy  of  those  who 
were  at  war.  The  Empress  Catherine  of  Russia,  angry 
at  the  doings  of  Spain  and  England,  put  forth  a  Declara- 
tion, stating  that  '  free  ships  make  free  goods,'  and  contra- 
band goods,  that  is,  goods  which  a  nation  at  war  might 
seize  anywhere,  were  those  only  that  a  treaty  might  have 
di  clared  to  be  such  ;  that  the  blockade  of  a  port  was  not 
to  be  acknowledged  unless  there  were  really  cruisers  off 
the  port  to  stop  merchant  ships  from  entering.  Thus, 
to  protect  their  own  interests,  Russia,  Sweden,  and  Den- 
mark made  a  league  called  the  Armed  Neutrality.     Hoi- 


1782  Rodneys  Victory.  21 

land  and  Prussia  afterwards  joined,  and  France  and  Spain 
agreed  to  the  Dfeclaration. 

4.  As  might  be  expected,  in  1781-2  England  was  hard 
pressed.  In  European  waters,  the  French  and  Spanish 
fleets  swept  the  seas,  and  although  Admiral 

Parker  beat  the  Dutch  near  the  Dogger  Bank,  '^''^•■^''"• 
yet,  on  the  whole,  the  enemy  had  command  of  the  Channel. 
Minorca  was  lost,  and  Gibraltar  was  closely  besieged. 
All  through  1782  General  EUiot  and  liis  garrison  defended 
the  place,  and  beat  back  every  attempt  to  take  it.  In 
October  Admiral  Lord  Howe  relieved  the  garrison  with 
a  powerful  fleet,  and  Gibraltar  was  saved,  though  the 
siege  was  kept  up  till  the  news  of  peace  arrived.  There 
are  few  more  glorious  deeds  of  daring  and  endurance  in 
English  history  than  the  defence  of  Gibraltar  by  General 
Elliot  and  his  brave  garrison. 

5.  In  the  West  Indies  Admiral  Rodney  could  do  little 
for  a  time.  At  last  a  glorious  victory  fell  to  his  lot.  The 
French  Admiral  de  Grasse  had  taken  most  of 

the  Leeward  Islands,  and  was  threatening  Rodllc/s 
Jamaica,  which  Rodney  meant  to  protect,  ^'"""'y. 
Anchored  in  St.  Lucia,  he  watched  for  the  French  fleet 
from  Port  Royal  in  Martinico.  After  some  days  of 
straggling  and  rather  confused  fighting,  Rodney  forced  a 
general  battle.  The  admiral  led  the  way  and  broke  the 
French  line.  The  battle  lasted  for  eleven  hours.  '  I 
believe  the  severest  ever  fought  at  sea,'  Rodney  him- 
self wrote.  The  Count  de  Grasse  at  last  struck  his  flag, 
the  whole  fleet  was  broken  up,  and  from  that  d2.y  the 
French  were  no  more  masters  of  the  seas. 

6.  The  new  ministry  in  1782  was  ready  to  make  peace, 
acknowledging  the  independence  of  the  United  States. 
France  ar,d  Spain  were  by  no  means  desirous  of  peace, 
but  the  Americans  willingly  entered  into  negotiations 
with  Lord  Shelburne  and  welcomed  the  end  of  war.     A 


i 


22  War  zvith  France  and  Spain.  1783. 

treaty  was  signed  at  Paris  in  November  1782,  but  was 
dependent  cm  peace  being  made  between  Great  Britain 
and  France.  Treaties  with  France  and  Spain 
Versailles,  soon  followed.  England  gave  back  some  of 
''^3-  .  her  conquests,  as  Chandernagore,Pondicherry, 
and  St.  Lucia,  gave  up  Tobago,  St.  Pierre,  Miquelon, 
and  got  some  West  India  islands.  Spain  eagerly  desired 
to  have  Gibraltar,  but  Englishmen,  proud  of  the  glorious 
defence,  were  resolved  to  keep  it.  Minorca  and  the 
Floridas  were  yielded.  The  treaties  were  all  signed  at 
Versailles  in  September  1783.  Some  men  were  loud  in 
calling  them  disgraceful,  but  those  who  knew  how  hardly 
pressed  England  was,  and  how  the  increase  of  debt  and 
waste  of  men  was  crushing  her,  saw  that  peace  must  be 
had,  and  that  the  terms  were  fair.  England  came  with 
honour  out  of  the  war  against  these  powerful  European 
foes.  She  had  met  with  disasters  in  a  bad  cause  in 
.America,  but  still  her  soldiers  and  sailors  had  done  their 
dutv  well. 


BOOK     II. 
THE    ENGLISH   IN  INDIA. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   PEOPLE. 

I.  In  India  Clive  had  saved  the  English  settlements, 
and  had  greatly  enlarged  them  ; '  we  have  now  to  see  how 
the  English  made  their  power  felt  all  over  India,  and 
how  the  native  States  one  after  another  fell  under  the 
control  of  England.     This  was  due  partly  to  the  courage 

'  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  11.,  Chap,  III.,  Sec.  8-n 


24  India. 

of  the  English,  and  to  the  peace  and  good  order  which 
they  made  where  they  ruled.  But  it  was  also  due 
partly  to  the  divisions  among  the  natives  themselves — for 
the  people  of  India  were  not  all  of  one  race  or  of  one 
religion,  and  the  country  was  broken  up  under  many 
governments. 

2.  The  people  to  whom  the  land  belonged  in  ver\ 
early  times  were  a  very  dark  race,  not  much  civilised. 
'Die  hill  Some  tribes  of  them  still  remain  in  the  high- 
races,  lands  of  Central  India,  and  also  in  the  \v\\~, 
aad  forests  of  almost  all  parts  ;  among  the  best  known 
a^-e  the  Santals  in  Bengal  along  the  Rajmahal  hills,  the 
Kols  in  Chota  Nagpore,  the  Bheels  in  Rajpootana,  and 
the  Gonds.  They  are  mostly  a  quiet,  simple  people,  who 
have  never  formed  great  States  of  their  own,  but  have 
always  lived  to  themselves,  obeying  the  rulers  of  other 
races.     They  gave  the  English  little  trouble. 

3.  A  great  and  more  civilised  people  came  in  upon 
these  tribes,  passing  over  the  Indus  and  down  the  valley 
fhe  of  the  Ganges.  These  spread  as  settlers  all 
Hindoos.  over  the  land.  This  race,  called  Hindoo, 
though  united  by  one  religion,  split  off  into  many  States. 
The  most  important  that  lasted  to  the  days  of  EnglisJi 
rule  were  the  States  of  Rajpootana,  as  Oodypore  and  Jey- 
pore,  and  the  Mahratta  States  of  Poona,  Guzerat,  Baroda, 
and  the  territories  of  Sindia  and  Holkar.  Besides  these 
the  greatest  number  of  the  people  in  most  parts  of 
India  are  of  the  Hindoo  race  ;  and  in  many  parts  tribes, 
v.hich  were  not  Hindoos  by  race  have  become  Hindoos 
in  religion,  as  in  Mysore  and  tlie  furthest  parts  of 
southern  India. 

4.  Again,  men  of  other  races  and  another  religion 
had  come  acrosn  the  Indus  from  Central  Asia  ;  these 
were  Mohammedans,  who  began  to  pour  into  India 
during  the  eleventh   century.     They  were  eager  to  con- 


The  Regiilatuig  Act.  25 

quer  the  rich  Hindoo  kingdoms,  and  longed  to  put  down 
tlie  idolatrous  religion.  Piece  by  piece  they  overran  the 
land,  and  beat   down   most  of  the  kingdoms     ,^, 

1  lie 

and  ruled  over  them.  They  set  up  a  great  Moham- 
empire,  with  a  capital  at  Delhi  ;  then  they  "'^<l*"s- 
lidded  province  after  province,  all  north  India  as  far  as  the 
river  Nerbudda,  ail  Bengal,  and  the  Deccan  as  far  as  the 
river  Kistna.  And  when  the  empire  broke  up,  still  many 
of  its  parts  were  ruled  by  Mohammedans  who,  like  the 
Nizam  in  the  Deccan  and  Hyder  Ali  in  Mysore,  were 
lords  over  Hindoo  subjects.  The  hatred  between  the 
two  races  of  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans  helped  the 
English  to  spread  their  authority  over  both. 


CHAPTER    II. 
INDIA   UNDER   WARREN    HASTINGS. — 1773-1784. 

I.  While  Clive  had  stayed  in  India  he  had  ruled  (irmly,' 
but  after  his  return  to  England  in  1767  the  loss  of  his 
firmness  and  honesty  was  soon  felt.  It  would  English 
be  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  greed  and  m'^mle.. 
oppression,  misrule  and  false  dealing,  marked  English 
rule  in  Bengal  and  Madras  during  the  few  years  before 
1773.  The  tales  that  reached  home  roused  men's  anger, 
and  when  in  1770  a  famine  killed  about  one  thi'd  of  the 
people  of  Bengal,  the  home  government  was  forced  to 
interfere. 

2.  A  new  constitution  was  given  to  the  East  India 
Company  under  'the  Regulating  Act'  of  1773.  This 
gathered  the  three  settlements  of  Bengal,  Regulating 
Bombay,  and  Madras,  or  Presidencies  as  they  ^^■^'  '773-  ' 
were  called,  under  the  Governor  of  Bengal  ;  it  gave  him 
the  title  of  Governor- General,  and  set  up  a  council  of 

I  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  V.,  Chap.  I.,  Sec.  5. 


26  Tndia. 


1771- 


four  members  to  help  him.  A  Supreme  Court  of  Justice 
was  also  made  at  Calcutta,  like  the  English  Court  at 
Westminster,  and  thus  English  law  was  brought  into 
India. 

3.  The  Act  named,   as    the    first  Governor-General, 
Warren    Hastings,   who  had   been  Governor  of  Bengal 

since  1772.  He  had  been  long  in  India,  and 
Governor-  knew  about  the  country.  He  had  sided  with 
General.  Clive   in   trying   to   make   the    English   rule 

better  in  Bengal.  Some  reforms  he  had  already  begun. 
He  found  the  gathering  of  taxes  in  the  hands  of  natives 
who  oppressed  and  robbed  the  people.  He  made  a  new 
and  better  settlement  of  the  taxes,  and  removed  the 
capital  from  Moorshedabad  to  Calcutta.  Hastings  ruled 
on  the  whole  justly,  strongly,  and  wisely,  but  he  did  some 
things  which  were  cruel  and  unjust,  for  which  he  has 
been  rightly  blamed.  Being  pressed  by  the  Directors  of 
the  Company  in  England  for  money,  he  made  an  unfair 
bargain  with  the  Vizier  of  Oude,  who  coveted  the  neigh- 
bouring territory  of  Rohiicund,  while  Hastings  wanted 
money.  Hastings  sold  to  the  Vizier  the  districts  of 
Corah  and  Allahabad,  and  listening  to  his  talk  about  the 
bad  faith  of  the  Rohillas,  an  Afghan  tribe  who  had  lately 
settled  near  him,  sold  the  services  of  Enghsh  troops, 
and  became  for  mor.ey  the  tool  of  the  \'izier,  who  would 
make  no  terms  with  the  Rohillas.  They  were,  perhaps, 
dangerous  neighbours,  but  they  had  given  no  cause  for 
war,  and  the  attack  upon  them  was  wicked.  By  means 
of  English  trooj^s  their  chiefs  were  slain  and  themselves 
driven  across  the  Ganges  or  enslaved. 

4.  The  Governor-General  found  his  nev/  position  no 
easy  one  ;  the  Regulating  Act  had  not  laid  down  his 
Xhe  powers  exactly,  and  his  council  instead  of 
Council.  helping  him  often  went  against  him.  Tliree 
of  the  four  members,   Francis,  Monson,  and  Clavering, 


1779- 


The  Maliratta   War.  27 


who  came  from  Engl.ind  with  their  iniiids  set  against 
Hastings,  began  to  oppose  him  at  the  very  first  meeting 
of  the  council.  They  knew  httle  about  Indian  matters, 
and  were  neither  as  wise  nor  as  sensible  as  Hastings, 
But  they  were  impressed  with  the  evils  of  English  rule  in 
India,  and  they  fancied  it  was  their  business  to  reform 
everything.  The  result  was  soon  seen  ;  there  was  nothing 
but  quarrelling,  unfair  dealing,  and  scandals.  Even  in 
these  difficulties  Hastings  changed  the  way  of  levying  taxes 
with  great  advantage  to  the  people  of  India  and  to  the 
Compaiy.  He  did  much  to  stop  bribery  in  the  civil 
service  ;  he  drew  up  a  code  of  rules  for  the  courts  which 
showed  that  he  was  a  great  and  wise  law-maker.  He 
was  vigorous  enough  to  impress  the  native  mind  and 
just  enough  to  earn  their  goodwill  ;  and  beyond  ail 
this  Hastings  carried  on  great  wars,  and  saved  Madras 
when  its  own  government  was  feeble  enough  to  ruin  any 
state. 

5  .  During  this  time  the  English  power  was  threatened 
by  the  Mahrattas.  These  were  the  men  of  the  great  Hindoo 
empire  of  the  Deccan,  which  had  been  founded  ihe  Mah- 
by  Sevajec  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  "^^"^  *^'■■ 
Peshwa,  as  the  head  of  their  race  was  called,  could  not 
keep  hold  over  his  generals.  Four  new  powers  grew  up, 
the  Raja  of  Nagpore,  the  Gaikw.ir  in  Guzerat,  Sindia,  and 
Holkar.  At  the  headquarters  of  tlic  Mahrattas  in  Poona, 
a  regency  on  one  side  with  a  usurper  on  the  other  had 
thrown  all  into  confusion.  Without  asking  the  consent 
of  Hastings,  the  Governor  of  Bombay  supported  the 
usurper  Raghoba,  and  received  in  return  tlie  island  of 
Salsette  and  the  port  of  Bassein.  The  result  wa»  a 
great  war  with  the  whole  Mahratta  confederation.  The 
Bombay  troops,  successful  at  first,  presently  failed,  and 
after  a  defeat  at  Wurgauni  nothing  but  the  courage  and 
energy  of  Hastings  saved  Bombay  itself.     An  expedition 


28  India.  J779- 

under  General  Goddard,  sent  from  the  banks  of  the  Jumna 
to  Bombay,  reai  bed  Surat  on  the  western  coast  in  safety. 
This  was  a  wonderful  march  made  by  less  than  5,000  men 
across  more  than  1,000  miles  of  country  almost  wholly 
unknown  to  Englishmen.  It  was  one  of  the  grand  rash 
acts  of  Hastings,  one  of  those  strokes  of  genius  by  which 
he  impressed  the  natives  with  his  greatness.  The  Mah- 
ratta  league  tried  the  English  power  to  the  extreme. 
General  Goddard  took  Ahmedabad,  the  capital  of  Guzerat 
(1779),  and  the  Gaikwar  agreed  to  leave  the  confederation. 
But  this  did  little  good,  for  a  fresh  alliance  with  the  Nizam 
in  the  Deccanand  Hyde*-  Ali,  Rajah  of  Mysore,  gave  the 
league  courage  to  attack  all  three  Presidencies  at  once. 
Leaving  General  Goddard  to  save  Bombay  from  Sindia 
and  Holkar,  Hastings  first  saved  Bengal  by  buying  oft 
the  Rajah  of  Nagpore,  who  deserted  the  league.  With 
his  usual  boldness  he  ventured  to  send  a  sepoy  army  by 
land  to  the  help  of  Madras.  The  Hindoos  were  forbidden 
by  their  religion  to  go  on  the  sea,  and  they  had  lately 
mutinied  rather  than  obey  an  order  to  do  so.  But  they 
willingly  endured  the  march  of  700  miles  by  land,  and 
bravely  fought  to  save  Madras  from  Hyder  Ali.  Hastings 
was  able  to  make  a  general  peace  with  the  Mahrattas  in 
1782.  By  the  treaty  of  Salbye,  conquests  were  restored, 
but  the  island  of  Salsette  was  kept. 

6.  The  peace  did  not  take  in  Mysore,  and  its  ruler 
Hyder  Ali  still  pressed  hard  on  Madras.  He  had  rushed 
War  with  upon  the  Carnatic  in  1780  with  a  large  army, 
Hyder  All.  ^yg]i  armed,  and  in  part  trained  by  French 
officers.  The  Nabob  made  no  resistance,  fort  after  fort 
fell,  and  the  army  drew  on  towards  Madi^as.  Sir  Hector 
Munro  tried  to  relieve  Arcot,  and  another  force  under 
Baillie  was  to  join  him.  But  Baillie  was  defeated,  and 
Munro  hurried  back  to  Madras  with  the  loss  of  his  guns. 
On  news  of  this  Hastings  was  roused.     He  sent  off  Sir 


1784-  Hastings  leaves  hidia.  29 

Eyre  Coote  by  sea  at  once  with  what  force  he  could  spare, 
and  sent  a  sepoy  expedition  along  the  coast  through 
Cuttack  and  the  Northern  Circars.  Coote  retook  Arcot 
which  had  fallen,  relieved  Wandewash,  and  gained  a 
great  victory  at  Porto  Novo.  With  small  resources  and 
poor  support  from  anyone  except  Hastings,  Coote  held 
his  own  and  beat  off  all  the  attempts  of  Hyder  Ali.  The 
year  1782  saw  the  English  fortunes  in  Madras  at  a  low 
ebb.  French  troops  and  a  French  fleet  under  Admiral 
Suffrein  brought  help  to  Hyder  Ali.  Madras  was  again 
besieged  by  the  Mysore  army,  and  was  in  great  danger, 
but  at  the  end  of  the  year  Hyder  Ali  died,  and  his  son 
Tippoo  hurried  his  army  home  to  Mysore.  The  treaty 
of  1783  with  France  relieved  the  English  from  a  threaten- 
ing danger  in  India. 

7.  In  the  end  of  1784  Hastings  gave  up  his  office,  and 
■went  back  to  England  early  in  the  next  year,  leaving  the 
English  territories  in   India   at  peace.      He     ,„ 

,,.,•,,•  1  Warren 

left  behmd  hmi  a  great  name  as  a  strong  ruler  Hastings 
both  in  peace  and  war.  He  had  always  at  '^^^"'"dia 
heart  not  only  the  interests  of  England,  but  also  the  welfare 
of  the  Indian  peoples  whom  he  ruled.  A  great  man,  al- 
ways patriotic  though  not  always  scrupulous  enough,  he 
made  a  new  great  empire  in  the  East  while  the  English 
king  and  his  ministers  were  losing  the  great  dominion 
in  the  West.  Hastings  and  Clive  were  the  two  greatest 
Englishmen  who  had  to  do  with  India. 

8.  Not  long  after  the  return  of  Hastings,  an  attack  was 
made  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  his  conduct  in  India. 
A  resolution  was  carried,  ordering  his  impeach-     1  mpeach- 
ment  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords.     The     wa",4en 
movers   in    the   matter   were   his   old  enemy     Hastings. 
Francis,  and   Burke  and  Fox.     The  ministry  were  in  a 
difficulty.      Pitt,  and  Dundas  the  President  of  the  Board 
of  Control,  had  never  liked  Hastings ;  they  believed  many 


30  India. 


1795. 


of  the  stories  told  against  him  and  against  English  rule 
in  India  :  but  they  did  not  want  to  have  things  looked 
into.  They  consented  to  the  motion,  but  refused  to 
help  in  the  management  of  the  impeachment.  So  the 
managers  were  chosen  from  the  Opposition  side  of  the 
House,  Burke,  Fox,  and  Sheridan  being  the  chief  among 
them.  Articles  of  impeachment  were  drawn  up  contain- 
ing nine  charges,  which  were  afterwards  increased  to 
twenty- two.  The  trial  began  in  February  1788.  Burke, 
in  a  fine  speech,  which  it  took  four  days  to  deliver,  ac- 
cused Hastings  and  those  under  him  of  every  kind  of 
cruelty  and  wrongdoing.  Only  four  out  of  all  the 
charges  were  gone  into  fully.  These  charged  him  with 
robbery,  cruelty,  and  taking  bribes.  The  prosecution 
spread  over  nearly  five  years,  and  the  whole  trial  lasted 
more  than  seven  years,  in  which  time  the  court  sat  alto- 
gether 145  days.  Judgment  of  acquittal  on  all  charges 
was  given  in  April  1795.  The  delay  had  allowed  people 
to  forget  the  fine  speech  and  the  exaggerations  of  Burke 
and  Sheridan.  And  as  time  went  on,  most  men  thought 
that  Hastings  was  being  unfairly  treated.  Before  the  end 
of  the  trial  Lord  Cornwallis  had  come  back  from  India, 
and  was  able  to  give  strong  evidence  of  the  good  results 
of  Hastings'  rule. 


CHAPTER    III. 
INDIA    FROM    1783-1813. 


I.  For  some  time  there  had  been  a  feeling  that  the  mode 
of  governing  India  needed  to  be  changed.  The  territory. 
Fox's  India  had  become  SO  large  that  the  king's  government 
Bill,  1783.  could  no  longer  leave  it  entirely  m  the  hands 
of  a  company  of  traders.  The  Coalition  government '  pre- 
1  See  Epoch  VI.    Bk.  V.,  Chap.  II.,  Sec.  12. 


1784. 


Pitfs  India  Bill.  3 1 


sented  their  India  Bill  to  the  House  of  Commons  in 
November  1783.  This  Bill  was  prepared  by  Fox  and 
Burke,  who  both  knew  Indian  affairs  well,  and  both  were 
deeply  impressed  with  the  stories  of  the  mismanagement 
of  the  Company.  It  proposed  very  great  changes.  All 
charters  of  the  Company  were  to  be  done  away  with.  The 
government  of  India  was  to  be  placed  for  four  years  in  the 
hands  of  a  Board  of  seven  Commissioners.  All  accounts 
were  to  be  laid  before  Parliament.  The  Bill  was  a  good 
one,  and  many  of  the  things  which  it  proposed  have  been 
done  since  ;  but  at  the  time,  the  changes  seemed  too 
great  to  be  made.  It  passed  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  the  king  got  the  House  of  Lords  to  throw  it  out. 
So  the  Coalition  ministry  had  to  resign,  and  Pitt  became 
first  minister.! 

2.  Pitt  also  found  India  a  pressing  question.  No 
sooner  had  the  general  election  in  1784  given  him  a 
majority,  than  he  brought  in  and  carried  an  pitt's,  India 
India  Bill  through  both  Houses.  This  Bill  J^'"-  »7S4- 
was  approved  by  the  Company,  and  aimed  at  reforming 
abuses  with  as  little  change  as  possible.  It  appointed  a 
Board  of  Control,  which,  as  a  department  of  the  English 
government,  should  take  some  of  the  management  of 
Indian  matters  away  from  the  Directors.  So  that  while 
the  Directors  kept  their  right  of  appointing  to  all  offices, 
the  king's  ministers  could  at  any  time  of  danger  make 
the  Directors  do  as  they  pleased. 

3.  In  1786  Lord  Cornwallis,  who  had  commanded  in 
America,  became  Governor-General.  He  ruled  India 
well,  as  he    had  great  powers,  and  was  well     Lord  Com- 

.  supported  by  Pitt.     He  did  much  to  cure  the      "^''^• 
bribery  and  corruption  among  the  civil  servants,  and  by 
paying  them  better,  took  away  the  excuse  for  it. 

4.  He  managed   a   difticult   war   with   IVIysore  well, 

»  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  V.,  Chap.  IL,  Sec.  13. 


32  India.  1786- 

though  the  need  of  the  war  is  not  clear.  The  Nizam 
War  with  having  applied  for  help  against  Tippoo  of 
Tippoo.  Mysore,    Lord   Cornwallis    allowed  it    to    be 

known  that  he  did  not  count  Tippoo  as  an  ally.  Soon 
after  this  Tippoo  attacked  Travancore,  and  the  Governor- 
General  made  a  vigorous  move  against  him.  In  alliance 
with  the  Nizam  and  the  Peshvva  he  carried  on  active 
campaigns  and  took  several  strong  forts.  Early  in  1792, 
with  22,000  men  and  powerful  artillery,  he  threatened 
Seringapatam,  the  capital  of  Mysore,  a  remarkably  strong 
fortress  on  an  island  in  the  river  Cauvery.  The  camp, 
strongly  posted  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  river,  was 
stormed,  and  a  landing  made  on  the  island.  Then  Tippoo 
yielded,  and  bought  peace  at  the  price  of  half  his  do- 
minions and  a  large  sum  of  money. 

5.  But  the  fame  of  Lord  Cornwallis  rests  chiefly  on 
his   settlement    of  the   land   question  of   Bengal.     The 

Company  derived  most  of  its  income  from  the 
manent  land-tax,  and  because  of  bad  ways  of  levying 

Settlement.  ^^^  collecting  this  tax,  agriculture  was  failing 
and  the  ryots,  or  cultivators  of  the  land,  were  in  misery. 
The  '  Permanent  Settlement '  of  Cornwallis  made  over  the 
ownership  of  land  to  the  zemindars,  or  larger  landowners 
and  landholders,  who  were  then  to  pay  the  government 
a  fixed  sum.  The  interests  of  the  ryots  were  to  be 
guarded  by  a  provision  that  the  land  could  not  be  taken 
from  them  while  they  paid  rent  as  at  the  date  of  the 
settlement.     On  the  whole,  the  plan  was  just  and  good. 

6.  Sir  John  Shore  governed  from  1793  to  1798,  five 
Sir  John  quiet  years,  during  which  the  Mahratta  States 
Shore.  grew  rapidly. 

7.  In  17955,  Lord  Mornington,  afterwards  Marquess 
Marquess  Wellcslcy,  was  made  Governor-General.  He 
Wellesley.  kucw  Indian  affairs  well,  and  was  a  man  of 
great  ability  and  firmness,  with  a  real  genius  for  ruling, 


1799-  TJii  Conquest  of  Mysore.  33 

and  a  strong   belief  in   the  need   of  English   authority 
making  itself  felt  throughout  India. 

8.  As  in  the  days  of  Hastings  so  now  again  there  was 
danger  from  the  French  influence  in  the  native  States  of 
India.      There  were    French   troops    at    the     ^ 

French 

court  of  the  Nizam,  and  with  the  Feshwa,  inter- 
and  in  the  service  of  Sindia.  And  Tippoo  '^^'■«""=' 
in  Mysore  had  gone  so  far  in  making  an  alliance  with 
the  French  in  Mauritius  that  they  landed  a  force  at 
Mangalore  to  join  him.  Wellesley  interfered  at  once  ;  he 
partly  persuaded  and  partly  forced  the  two  friendly  powers, 
the  Nizam  and  the  Feshwa,  to  put  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  the  English  and  send  away  their  French 
troops. 

9.  He  then  demanded  that  Tippoo  should  disband 
his  force,  but  he  did  not  obey.  War  followed,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1799  English  armies  marched  on  Conquest 
Seringapatam.  General  Harris,  under  whom  of  Mysore. 
Colonel  Wellesley  (afterwards  Duke  of  Wellington)  was 
serving,  moved  with  20,000  men  from  Madras.  From 
Bombay  General  Stuart  came  with  a  smaller  force. 
Tippoo  met  Stuart,  but  failed  to  turn  him;  he  then 
hurried  off  to  resist  the  army  from  Madras.  The  English 
defeaied  liim  at  Mnlnvelly,  and  then  besieged  Seringa- 
patam  early  in  April.  A  montli  later  General  Baird 
stormed  this  great  fortress,  which  was  aespcrately 
defended.  Tippoo  died  fighting  in  the  gateway.  So 
ended  the  family  of  the  Mysore  usurpers,  who  were  fierce 
Mohammedan  despots  that  had  set  their  feet  on  the 
necks  of  the  Hindoos  of  the  Deccan.  Lord  Wellesley 
restored  a  ruler  of  the  old  line,  and  Mysore  gave  no 
further  trouble.  The  Deccan  was  now  safe,  with  the 
Nizam  protected  by  English  troops  and  no  longer  in- 
dependent. The  Carnatic,  too,  now  became  an  English 
province  dependent  on  the   Governor  of  Madras  ;  and 

E.H.  D 


34  India.  i  Soo- 

the Nabob  Vizier  in  Oude  was  compelled  to  take,  instead 
of  his  own  troops,  a  British  force  for  whom  he  paid  a 
large  sum  of  money. 

10.  The  Mysore  war  had  put  an  end  to  two  great 
powers,  but  a  third  remained,  the  Mahratta  nation.  Of 
War  with  the  several  powers  into  which  the  race  was 
r^»,^^^T-.  divided  the  Peshwa  was  the  head,  but  all 
Peshwa.  were  really  independent,  and  were  even  rivals. 
The  two  most  ambitious  and  powerful  leaders  were 
Sindia  and  Holkar.  These  not  only  made  war  one  upon 
another,  but  also  as  rivals  threatened  the  Peshwa.  Lord 
Wellesiey  interfered  to  save  the  territories  of  the  Peshwa, 
who  was  then  partly  forced,  and  partly  led  by  his  fears 
of  Sindia  and  Holkar,  to  agree  to  the  treaty  of  Bassein, 

*  1802,  which  reduced   him  to  the   level  of  the  Nizam,  a 
subject  protected  by  English  troops. 

11.  Sindia  and  the  Raja  of  Nagpore  determined  not 
to  let  the  lands  of  the  Peshwa  become  English  according 
Sindia,  ^^  ^^^^  treaty  of  Bassein,  so  they  tried  to  get 
'803.  Holkar  to  join  them  and  to  make  the  Peshwa 
le.ive    his    new    masters.     Wellesiey    found    out    their 
plan    and   was   too   quick  for  them  ;    he   declared   war, 
August  1803,  and  at  once  attacked  Sindia  on  all  sides. 
General  Wellesiey  in  the  Deccan  took  the  great  fort  of 
Ahmednuggur  and  occupied  all  the  district  south   of  the 
Godavery.     Then  with  his  small  army  of  4,500  men    he 
attacked   Sindia's  entrenched    camp   of   50,000   men   at 
Assaye,  further  north.    Sindia's  army  fought  well,  but  the 
English  troops  simply  walked  right  over  his  guns  and  his 
infantry,   with  the  loss   of   one   third   of  their   number. 
The   Mahratta  force  was  broken   up,  and   the   remains 
driven  beyond  the  river  Taptte.     General  Lake  mean- 
while attacked  Sindia's  possessions  in  Hindostan  proper, 
which  reached  from  the  Sutlej  on  the  west  to  Allahabad 
on  the  east.     He  took  the   stronghold  of  Allygurh,.  and 


iSio.  Recall  of  Lord  Wtileslcy.  35 

pushed  on  to  Delhi  where  he  beat  a  portion  of  Sindia's 
French  forces.  He  next  took  Agra  after  a  siege,  and  de- 
feated the  enemy  in  a  hard-fought  battle  at  Laswarree.  In 
less  than  half  a  year  Lord  Wellesley  had  broken  the  power 
of  the  Mahratlas  and  made  his  own  authority  supreme. 

12.  One  Mahratta  chief,  Holkar,  had  not  joined  his 
rival  Sindia,  but  his  habit  of  plundering  his   neighbours 
soon  brought  him  to  war  with  Lord  Wellesley,     Holkar, 
and  he  too,  like  the  others,  had  to  submit.  ^^^• 

13.  But  before  the  war  was  fully  over  Lord  Wellesley 
was  recalled  by  the  authorities  in  England  in  1805.  They 
did  not  at  all  like  the  things  that  he  had  done,     „     „   , 

.  Recall  of 

though  he  had  made  England  supreme  m  Lord 
India.  Their  desire  was  for  peace  and  no  ^\«"«'^'ey- 
interference,  but  Lord  Wellesley  knew,  better  than  they 
did.  that  peace  could  not  be  firm  till  England  was  able 
to  forbid  the  native  States  to  tear  one  another  to  pieces. 
Years  later,  when  the  opposite  plan  had  been  tried,  men 
saw  at  last  that  Lord  Wellesley  had  been  right. 

14.  Lord  Cornwallis  landed  in  India,  and  died.      His 
successor.   Sir  George  Barlow,  1 805-1 807,  did  the  oppo 
site  to  what  Wellesley  had  done ;  that  is  to  say,     sir  George 
he  would  not  interfere  in  anything  which  lay     Barlow, 
outside  of  English  territory.     This  meant  war  on  all  sides 
between  native  States,  and  the  rise  of  great  conquerors 
such  as  Holkar  and  Siadia,  who  made  themselves  masters 
of  smaller  States  which  were  more  friendly  to  England. 

15.  Lord  Minto  (1807-1 81 2)  intended  to  follow  the 
same  plan,  but  he  soon  found  that  he  could  not  leave  the 
native  States  alone.  He  could  not  help  inter-  Lo^d 
fering  so  far  as  to  make  Runjeet  Sing,  the  M  •  to. 
greatest  of  the  Sikh  leaders,  keep  to  the  west  of  the  river 
Sutlej.  So  the  English  frontier  was  moved  from  the  Jumna 
as  far  as  the  Sutlej.  A  powerful  expedition  sent  by  Lord 
Minto  (1810)  took  the  Isles  of  Bourbon   and   Mauritius 

u  2 


36  India.  1813- 

from  France.  This  made  the  Eastern  trade  of  England 
quite  safe  by  putting  an  end  to  the  last  remnant  of  French 
power  in  Indian  waters. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
INDIA   UNDER   THE   NEW   CHARTER. — 1813-1822. 

I.  Down  to  this  time,  by  their  charter,  the  East 
India  Company  had  kept  all  the  trade  with  India  and  the 
The  new  East  to  themselvcs  ;  other  persons  could  not 
L-harter.  enter  the  country  to  trade  or  to  settle  there. 

Indian  Evcn   thosc    missionaries    who    would    have 

trade.  1S13.  tj-jed  to  teach  the  people  were  forbidden  ;  but 
now  the  twenty  years,  for  which  the  latest  charter  lasted, 
were  coming  to  an  end.  It  would  soon  be  needful  to  ask 
Parliament  for  a  new  one,  but  Englishmen  were  no 
longer  willing  to  let  the  Company  have  their  own  way  so 
much.  The  ministers  too  saw  that  greater  freedom  of 
trade  with  India  would  be  good  for  England.  So  the 
new  charter  which  was  given  to  the  Company  in  18 13 
made  a  great  change.  Though  the  Directors  did  not  like  it, 
their  monopoly  of  trade  was  taken  away,  and  the  trade  with 
India,  though  not  with  China,  was  made  free  to  all  English 
merchants.     Missionaries  were  allowed  in  the  country. 

2.  Lord  Moira,  Marquess  of  Hastings,  succeeded  the 
Earl  of  Minto  as  Governor-General,  18 13-1822.     At  home 

informer  days  he  had  disliked  Lord  Wellesley's 
quess  of  plan  of  interference,  and  had  said  that  native 

Hastings.  States  should  be  left  alone.  In  India  he  soon 
changed  his  opinion,  and  made  known  his  determination 
to  exercise  authority  over  the  whole  land,  to  control  native 
States,  and  to  keep  peace  between  them. 

3.  His  first  troubles  were  with  the  Nepaulese  on  the 
r.orthern  frontier,  and  the  Pindaree  and  Patan  freebooters 


i8i7.  W'^rr  ^vitk  Nepaiil.  37 

in  central  India.  The  power  of  Nepaul  had  lately  grown, 
and  the  Nepaulese,  or  Goorkhas,  had  come  down  into  the 
plains  beyond  their  own  frontier.  After  often  War  with 
ravaging  the  British  borders  they  at  last  tried  Nepaul. 
to  take  possession  of  all  lands  north  of  the  Ganges. 
Negotiations  failed  and  war  became  needful.  The  country, 
a  valley  enclosed  within  the  lofty  ranges  of  the  Himalaya, 
was  most  difficult  to  get  at,  but  it  was  necessary  to  strike 
a  decisive  blow.  Four  expeditions  started  from  different 
points  to  invade  the  country,  and  of  these,  three  failed  ; 
but  the  fourth,  under  General  Ochtcrlony,  passed  range 
after  range  of  the  mountains,  and  took  fort  after  fort  in 
spite  of  a  most  brave  resistance.  The  same  general  again 
made  a  successful  campaign  early  in  the  ne.vt  year.  The 
Nepaulese,  twice  defeated,  sued  for  peace  when  Katman- 
dhoo,  the  capital,  was  threatened.  A  treaty  of  peace  was 
made,  and  Nepaul  has  been  a  friendly  neighbourever  since. 
4.  The  Pindarees  and  Patans  were  robber  bands  who 
had  long  lived  by  plundering  central  India.  In  1815- 
1817,  they  crossed  the  Ncrbudda  into  the  xiie  Pin- 
English  lands  ;  they  reached  the  Kistna,  and  darees. 
again  as  far  as  the  Coromandel  coast,  burning  hundreds 
of  villages  and  torturing  the  people.  Lord  Hastmgs  at 
last  determined  to  make  the  other  powers  join  with  him 
and  put  down  these  robbers.  The  smaller  princes,  such 
as  Nagpore,  Bhopal,  Oodypore,  and  Jeypore,  were  very 
glad  to  have  the  English  to  protect  them.  But  the  inter- 
ference was  not  so  pleasing  to  the  Peshwa  Bajee  Rao,  01 
.Sindia,  or  to  the  chiefs  of  Holkar's  state.  The  Peshwa, 
who  was  willing  to  do  anything  to  lessen  the  power  ol 
the  English,  openly  helped  the  Pindarees.  All  central 
India  was  in  confusion.  But  the  English  power  was  too 
strong.  The  Peshwa's  forces  were  overthrown  in  the 
battle  of  Kirkee,  and  his  capital,  Poona,  was  taken.  The 
army  of  Holkar's  state  war  broken  at  the  battle  of  Mehid- 


3?  Tndia.  1822. 

pore,  on  the  Sipree.  The  Pindaree  chiefs,  then  left  to 
themselves,  were  no  match  for  the  EngUsh  ;  their  forces 
were  broken  up  in  several  fights  and  disappeared  in  a  few 
months.  The  great  river  Indus  was  now  declared  to  be 
the  boundary  of  English  dominion. 

5.  Thus  Lord  Hastings'  plan  was  successful,  and 
security  and  greater  prosperity  in  after  years  followed 
Successor  from  keeping  the  native  princes  at  peace. 
u°'''J-      .        But  in  England  statesmen  and  the  Directors 

xiastings  o 

poUr"  of  the  Company  alike  did  not  understand  the 

needs  of  the  English  position  in  India,  and  believed  that 
increase  of  territory  was  the  one  great  evil  to  be  guarded 
against .  Yet  the  growth  of  English  power  so  far  brought 
peace  and  security  in  India  that  Lord  Hastings  was  able 
to  carry  out  wise  changes,  suited  to  the  country.  Good  and 
peaceful  government  became  possible  when  the  English 
were  no  longer  afraid  of  subjects  or  neighbours.  Hastings 
encouraged  the  education  of  the  natives,  and  at  the  same 
time  helped  the  growth  and  freedom  of  the  press  and  of 
a  public  opinion.  His  trrm,  prudent,  and  liberal  way  of 
ruling  was  a  governing  of  India  for  the  good  of  the  people 
of  India. 

BOOK     III. 
THE   MINISTRY   OF  PITT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PITT  AS   A    PEACE   MINISTER.  — 1783-1789. 

I.  It  has  been  told  before  how  Pitt  was  made  minister, 
and  how  by  his  help  the  king  won  in  the  great  con- 
stitutional struggle  against  the  Whig  houses,  and  set  up 
again  the  power  of  the  crown.' 

1  See  Epoch  VI.,  Bk.  V.,  Ch.  II.       ^e 


1 784  6.  Pitt  as  a  Peace  Minister.  39 

IMtt   remained    in    power  for  almost  eighteen  years, 
December  i7S3--March  1801,  about  nine  years  of  peace 
and  about  nine  years  of  war.     With  tlie  sup-     pittbe- 
port  of  the  king,  of  the   House  of  Conimons,     Z^tx^C 
and  of  the  country,  he  was  supreme.     With     lySs- 
such  an    able    statesman,   of    commanding  ability    and 
powerful  will, the  king  could  not  have  his  own  way  as  much 
in  the  state  as  he  had  before.     But  even  Pitt  made  com- 
mon   cause   with   the  king,  and   moving  away   from  his 
early  principles,  cared  less  for  the  wishes  of  the  people, 
and  became  more  decidedly  the  king's  Tory  minister. 

2.  During  the  early  years  of  Pitt's  power  he  was  a  wise 
and  capable  ruler,  and  he  was  willing  to  trust  the  people 
much.     He   was   a   peace   minister,  and  his     Rgfom,  of 
energies  were  de\oted  to  make  the  country     the  nnan- 
prosperous.     Finance,  conunerce,  parliamen-     "^• 
tary  reform,  and  the  government  of  Ireland  took  up  his 
attention. 

As  regards  finance  he  did  many  useful  things.  In 
the  late  wars  the  national  debt  had  grown  till  it  reached 
about  250,000,000/.  Taxes  had  been  laid  on  at  hap- 
hazard to  meet  the  needs  as  they  arose.  Pitt  set  before 
him  the  reduction  of  the  debt  as  an  important  end  of  all 
financial  measures.'  He  saved  much  for  the  country  and 
encouraged  honest  dealing  by  his  plan  of  borrowing 
money  by  public  contract,  and  so  getting  it  at  the  lowest 
possible  interest.  And  he  did  much  good  by  publishing 
the  accounts  of  the  money  received  and  paid  by  govern- 
ment. By  lowering  the  heavy  duties  on  tea,  wine,  and 
spirits,  which  were  fast  handing  over  the  trade  of  the 
country  to  smugglers,  he  lessened  smuggling,  improved 
trade,  and  raised  the  revenue.  The  payments  of  customs 
duties  on  goods  imported,  and  of  excise  duties  on  things 
made  in  the  country,  were  very  many  and  very  difficult 
to  calculate.     By  doing  away  with  these  many  duties, 


40  Pitt  as  a  Peace  A  fillister.  1784- 

and  fixing  instead  one  single  duty  on  each  article,  he 
saved  merchants  much  trouble  and  made  taxation  less 
unpopular.  The  increase  of  revenue  soon  allowed  him  to 
take  off  some  of  the  worst  taxes— among  others,  those  on 
retail  shops  and  on  women  servants. 

3.  Pitt  also  tried  to  get  rid  of  the  high  protective 
duties  which  crushed  the  trade  of  Ireland.  These  duties 
The  Com-  were  heavy  taxes  laid  on  Irish  goods,  and 
merce  bill.  were  intended  to  enable  English  manufact- 
urers to  make  and  sell  things  much  cheaper  than  Irish- 
men could  do.  He  wished  by  taking  away  these  duties 
to  give  free  trade  to  Ireland,  and  so  to  place  her  in  a 
situation  of  commercial  equality  with  England.  Already 
since  1780  European  produce  might  be  imported  through 
Ireland  :  the  same  freedom  was  now  (1784-5)  to  be  ex- 
tended to  American  and  African  trade.  Pitt's  first  pro- 
posals passed  through  the  Irish  Parliament  with  one 
small  alteration.  After  many  changes  the  bill  which 
embodied  them  was  carried  in  the  teeth  of  the  English 
merchants  and  manufacturers,  and  in  spite  of  Fox  and 
the  Whigs,  who  both  opposed  free  trade  and  did  not  wish 
to  do  anything  more  for  Ireland.  But  after  all  it  could 
not  be  got  through  the  Irish  Parliament  sitting  at 
Dublin,  because  Grattan,  Flood,  and  Curran  persuaded 
it  to  assert  its  independence  of  England.  A  commercial 
treaty  with  France  (1786)  did  away  with  many  high 
duties  which  were  intended  to  stop  trade.  Instead  of 
them  small  duties  were  fixed,  which  did  not  prevent 
merchandise  from  being  brought  in,  and  yet  paid  some- 
thing towards  the  revenue.  Thus  the  treaty  increased 
the  commerce  between  the  two  countries,  and  v\-as  a  step 
towards  freedom  of  trade. 

4.  Following  the  example  of  his  father,  Pitt  had  early 
m  his  life  thrown  himself  earnestly  into  the  question  of 
parliamentary  reform,  but  with  little  success.     In  1785 


,789.  The  Regency  BiU.  41 

he  brought  fonvard  his  measure.  He  proposed  to  take 
away  the  right  of  sending  members  to  Parliament  from 
thirty-six  decayed  boroughs,  and  to  give  their  Reform  of 
seventy-two  members  to  the  largest  counties,  P^rlramem. 
and  to  the  cities  of  London  and  Westminster.  He  gave  a 
vote  in  counties  to  copyholders,  or  tenants  holding  lands 
under  a  lord  of  a  manor,  and  means  were  provided  by 
which  members  should  be  given  to  populous  towns,  and  be 
taken  from  other  boroughs  which  might  decay  from  time 
to  time.  But  on  such  a  question  Pitt's  followers  would 
not  follow  him,  and  he  was  beaten  by  a  large  majority. 
He  found  little  support  in  the  country,  for  it  had  been 
made  indifferent  by  prosperity  and  good  government. 

5.  Towards  the  end  of  1788,  during  a  serious  illness^ 
the  king  lost  his  reason.  After  a  time  it  was  doubtful  if 
he  would  recover,  and  the  question  of  a  Re-  .^^^^  ^^^ 
gency,  to  rule  in  his  place,  was  talked  about,  gency  Bill. 
'Ihere  is  no  provision  in  English  law  for  any  '^*  ' 
exercise  of  royal  power  during  incapacity  or  the  minority 
of  a  sovereign.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  of  age,  and  it 
was  proper  that  he  should  be  Regent,  but  there  were 
many  difficulties  in  the  way.  He  was  not  on  good  terms 
with  the  king,  and  his  conduct  had  made  him  unpopular 
in  the  country  ;  he  had  so  openly  taken  the  side  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Opposition  in  Parliament,  that  it  was  certain 
he  would  dismi.«s  the  king's  ministers  as  soon  as  he  could. 
To  help  him  to  power  seemed  to  be  taking  part  against 
the  king  himself.  When  Parliament  met  in  December, 
Fox  made  matters  worse  by  rashly  saying  that  the  Prince 
of  Wales  had  a  right  to  the  Regency,  a  right  as  clear  as 
in  the  case  of  the  death  of  the  sovereign.  Pitt  answered 
that  he  had  no  right  more  than  another  person,  unless 
Parliament  gave  it  to  him.  Fox  tried  to  explain  away 
his  words,  and  the  Prince  himself  said  that  he  claimed 
no  such  right.     Still   Parliament  looked   into  what   had 


42  Pitt  as  a  Peace  Mitiister.  1788. 

been  done  in  former  times  in  such  cases.  At  last,  after 
many  delays,  a  Regency  Bill  setting  forth  Pitt's  view  had 
almost  passed  the  third  reading  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
when  the  king's  recovery  put  an  end  to  the  whole  thing. 
The  Bill  had  given  the  care  of  the  king's  person  and  the 
authority  over  his  household  to  the  queen  ;  the  regency 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  royal  power,  with  certain 
limitations.  When,  in  1810,  the  king's  health  gave  way 
so  that  he  never  recovered,  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  made 
Regent  by  a  Regency  Bill  founded  on  that  of  Pitt,  with 
almost  exactly  the  same  limitations.  The  king  recovered 
his  health  in  the  middle  of  February  1789,  to  the  very 
great  joy  of  all  classes,  and  the  delight  of  the  people  at 
having  escaped  the  rule  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  his 
friends  made  the  minister's  power  greater  than  ever. 

6.  For  some  years  the  foreign  policy  of  Pitt  was 
peaceful  and  of  small  interest.  The  Peace  of  Versailles 
Foreign  had  been  favourable  enough  to  England  to  be 
policy.  welcome,  but  the  two  countries  had  continued 
to  distrust  each  other. 

7.  Differences  had  arisen  in  Holland  between  the 
democratic  party,  supported  by  the  Court  of  France,  and 

the  Stadholder,  as  the  chief  magistrate  of 
°  ^  ■  Holland  was  called,  upheld  by  his  brother- 
in-law,  the  King  of  Prussia.  Pitt  would  not  interfere  at 
this  time,  but  in  1788,  England,  Prussia,  and  the  Stad- 
holder of  Holland  made  an  alliance,  by  which  they  agreed 
to  defend  each  other  against  any  enemy.  Thus  England 
and  Prussia  became  responsible  for  the  independence  of 
the  United  Provinces. 

8.  Pitt,  in  the  next  thing  he  did,  met  with  his  first 
serious  check.  Under  the  Empress  Catherine,  Russia 
Russia  and  was  grovving  strong,  and  pushing  southwards. 
Turkey.  Yiit  watched  the  war  between  Russia  and 
Turkey  (1788-91)   with   all  the  anxiety   which  English- 


1789.  Tfie  French  Revohition.  43 

men  have  felt  in  this  century.  The  Russians  stormed 
and  sacked  Ockzakow,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Boug,  and 
established  themselves  on  the  Black  bea(i788).  Their 
great  general,  Suwarrow,  drove  the  Turks  across  the 
Danube  and  occupied  Wallachia  (1789).  When  Suwarrow 
sacked  Ismail,  a  fortress  at  the  mouth  of  the  left  arm  of 
the  Danube,  and  slaughtered  about  30,000  Turks  with 
horrible  barbarity,  Pitt  wished,  even  at  the  risk  of  war,  to 
prevent  Russia  from  taking  any  territory  from  Turkey. 
But  the  country  would  not  hear  of  war  for  such  a  cause, 
and  Turkey  was  stripped  of  the  land  beyond  the  Dniester. 


CHAPTLK    11. 


ENGLAND   DURING  THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION. — 

1 7  89- 1 793. 

I.  A  TIME,  however,  came  when  foreign  affairs  held  the 
chief  place,  and  the  great  peace  minister  was  driven  into 
war.  The  war  soon  greatly  upset  his  peace- 
ful plans  at  home,  and  by  and  by  made  him  ihc  French 
rule  less  wisely,  and  with  less  trust  in  the  R^^o'""""- 
people.  The  French  Revolution  of  1789  was  such  a 
great  event  that  men  were  forced  to  think  of  it  before 
everything  else.  It  altered  men's  notions  of  politics,  and  it 
changed  for  a  time  the  whole  face  of  tlie  map  of  Europe. 
The  extravagant  and  selfish  despotism  of  the  PVench 
monarchy,  and  the  oppression  of  the  people  by  the  nobles, 
had  brought  France  to  a  state  of  discontent  and  distress 
in  which  peaceful  and  sufficient  reform  was  almost  im- 
possible. For  years  the  notion  that  men  ought  to  rule 
themselves  and  not  be  ruled  entirely  by  a  king  and  his 
nobles,  had  been  set  forth  in  French  writings.  The  idea 
of  a  revolution,  or  change  of  government,  had  been  in 
men's  minds.     In   1789.  things  came  to  a  head.      The 


44  P^tt  ^^  ^  Peace  Minister.  ^1^9- 

States  General,  a  kind  of  parliament,  at  last,  after  an 
interval  of  175  years,  had  been  called  together  by 
Lewis  XVI.,  who  was  desirous  of  reforms.  It  declared 
Itself  the  N.itional  Assembly,  and  took  to  itself  the  power 
of  the  other  Estates.  Riots  broke  out  in  Paris  and  else- 
where ;  the  Bastille,  which  was  the  great  prison  in  Paris, 
was  destroyed  ;  the  abolition  of  all  privileges  or  special 
rights  of  nobles,  of  clergy,  and  of  all  classes,  was  swiftly 
decreed.  The  feeble  but  well-meaning  king  was  helpless 
in  his  capital,  the  nobles  were  soon  in  exile. 

2.  Most  Englishmen  were  glad  at  the  news  of  the 
overthrow  of  despotism.  Freedom  had  been  gained,  they 
Feeling  in  thought  ;  at  some  expense,  no  doubt,  but 
England.  things  would  soon  settle  down  into  order  and 
a  better  government.  But  there  were  some  Englishmen 
who,  like  Burke,  disapproved  even  from  the  first ;  and 
when,  after  a  time,  the  revolutionists  grew  more  and 
more  violent,  and  showed  themselves  unable  to  set  up  a 
fiim  and  free  government,  English  opinion  became  less 
m  their  favour. 

3.  The  efifect  of  the  French  Revolution  on  English 

politics   was  most   marked.      Burke  violently  attacked 

„     ,  those   who  agreed   with   it,  while   Fox   con- 

Break-up  .     ,    ,         . 

of  the  Whig     stantly  praised  them  m  extravagant  language. 

party.  -pj^^  difference  of  opinion  destroyed  the  long 

friendship  of  these  two  great  statesmen.  The  same  dif- 
ference gradually  broke  up  the  Whig  party,  for  not  only 
Burke,  but  later  the  Duke  of  Portland  also,  and  others, 
ceased  to  act  with  Fox  and  Sheridan,  and  began  to  sup- 
port the  government.  Thus  the  opposition  became 
weaker  in  Parliament,  had  less  hold  on  the  country,  and 
at  the  same  time  grew  more  violent. 

4.  Pitt,  at  first  not  sorry  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
French  Court,  was  most  anxious  to  keep  aloof  from  French 
politics  ;  but  this  became  impossible.    A  small  portion  of 


1792.  hivasion  of  France.  45 

the  English  people  greatly  adniiredthe  French  Revolution, 
and  their  unguarded  language  and  conduct  drove  the 
majorilv  to  extreme  opinions  of  the  very  op- 

.         ',  .      ,         „       .      .  Ill  •  Republican 

posite    Kind.     Societies    and   clubs    in   some     sodeiics  in 
English    towns    connected    themselves    with     E"6'a"<l- 
the  Paris  clubs,  and  their  conduct  led  to  disturbances. 

5.  The  opening  of  the  year  1792  was  prosperous,  and 
peace  seemed  so  sure  that  both  parties  in  the  House  of 
Commons  agreed  in  reducing  the  forces.     But     Growing 
on  the  Continent  the  violence  of  republicans     ^."^''j*^-"*^ 

r  Uie  doings 

was  terrifying  the  governments  and  leading  in  France. 
them  to  be  very  watchful  over  their  own  subjects,  and  to 
be  willing  to  make  war  against  Pnrnce.  The  English 
ministry  still  wished  for  peace,  and  determined  to  put 
down  with  a  high  hand  all  signs  of  agreement  with  French 
republicanism.  With  this  intention  Pitt  was  gradually 
led  on  to  interfere  with  what  people  did  and  said  in  a 
way  that  became  very  oppressive.  In  France  the  As- 
sembly was  powerless  before  the  mob  of  Paris,  and  the 
king's  life  was  threatened. 

6.  At  this  moment  the  governments  of  .Austria  and 
Prussia  determined  to  invade  France,  put  down  the 
republicans,  and  restore  King  Lewis  XVI.  to     ,  , 

^  '  ^  Invasion  ot 

power.      A  large  army  was  to  enter  France     France  by 
from  the  north,  under  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,     Austri^aand 


jssia. 


and  a  force  of  F'rench  exiles  was  to  join  him.  ^"^^ 
The  invasion  was  wrong,  because  the  French  people  had 
a  right  to  change  the  government  of  their  own  land  if 
they  pleased.  These  two  States  that  interfered  are  to  be 
blamed  for  bringing  on  the  general  European  war  that 
followed.  France  did  not  at  that  time  threaten  Prussia 
or  the  Empire,  and  however  much  foreigners  might  dis- 
like the  condition  of  monarchy  in  France,  there  was  no 
call  for  interference.     And  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  made 


46  Pitt  as  a  Pence  M mister.  1792- 

such  dein.inds  and  put  forth  such  tliieats  as  a  great 
nation  could  not  endure. 

7.  This  foreign  interference  at  once  led  to  a  new  re- 
volution in  France  ;  the  king  and  queen  were  imprisoned  ; 
^       .  .  the    National  Assembly  wus   replaced    by   a 

Deposition  .         .      -,  11-1 

of  the  King  Convention  in  September,  which  at  once  voted 
of  France.  ^^  ^^  away  with  the  monarchy.  All  power 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  extreme  men  among  the  re- 
publicans, of  whom  one  small  party  after  another  gained 
the  upper  hand. 

8.  Meanwhile   the  allies  took  the  frontier  towns    of 

Longwy  and  Verdun,  and  might  have  pushed  on  to  Paris  ; 

but  theif  slowness  gave  the  Fiench  generals 
Success  of        -^  .  ,  ,_   ,,  .  ... 

the  French       Dumouncz  and  Kellermann  time  to  unite  their 

forces.  forC€S  and  stop  the  way.     After  a  slight  de- 

feat at  Valmy  in  September,  th  •  allied  forces  left  France. 
Dumouriez  then  occupied  Brussels  and  the  district  to 
the  Meuse  (then  the  Austrian  Netherlands),  and  other 
French  forces  gained  successes  in  Germany  and  Savoy. 

9.  It  was  natural  that  the  French  republicans  should 
be  inclined  to  make  war  in  their  turn,  when,  for  the 
Violent  moment,  the  fear  of  foreign  invasion  was  past. 
nieasures  of     p,-Qu(i  of  their  successcs,  outwith  entire  want  ot 

the  French  ' 

Convention,  good  judgment,  the  Convention  published  the 
'Decree  of  November  19,'  offering  help  to  all  nations 
that  desired  to  re-cover  freedom,  in  other  words,  to  cast 
off  their  kings  ;  and  they  annexed  Savoy  to  France.  A 
demand  which  the  French  made  for  the  opening  of  the 
trade  of  the  river  Scheldt  was  an  attack  upon  Holland, 
and  upon  England,  which  was  bound  by  treaty  to  Holland. 
The  Decree  of  November  19  was  received  almost  as 
a  declara.tion  of  war  against  monarchy,  and  against  all 
countries  ruled  by  kings.  A  change  was  soon  to  be 
found  in  the  words  of  the  English  ministry  :  England 
was  drifting  on  towards  war.     At  the  opening  of  Parlia- 


1793- 


War  with  France.  47 


ment  in  December,  the  king's  speech  urged  an  increase 
of  the  army,  and,  whilst  hoping  war  might  be  avoided, 
gave  a  warning  that  war  was  hkeiy.  The  execution  of 
the  King  Lewis  (January  1793)  led  to  an  open  breach 
with  France,  and  in  February  war  was  declared  by  France 
against  England  and  Holland. 


CHAPTER    III. 
PITT   AS   A    WAR    MINISTER. 


I.  The  English  entered  on  the  war  rather  unwillingly. 
Pitt  felt  bound  to  defend  Holland,  but  did  not  want  to 
interfere  within  France,  though  he  thought  the  pitt  did  not 
war  would  be  short,  and  would  end  in  the  de-  ^'^^"^  *"■■• 
feat  of  the  republicans.  The  first  division  of  the  war 
dates  from  February  1793  till  the  peace  negotiations  of 
Basle  and  Paris  in  the  spring  of  1796. 

2.  The  French,  under  Dumouriez,  at  once  invaded 
Holland,  but  the  Austrians,  entering  Belgium,  forced  them 
to  retire,  and  won  b;ick  all  the  Netherlands.  Nor  were 
the  French  at  first  more  successful  on  the  Lower  Rhine, 
for  the  allies  took  Mentz.  Dumouriez,  ve.xed  at  the  con- 
stant interference  of  the  Convention  in  military  matters, 
and  desirous  of  playing  a  great  part  in  a  restoration  of 
the  monarchy,  entered  into  a  treasonable  correspondence 
with  the  allies.  His  schemes  failed,  but  he  passed 
over  to  the  Austrians,  and  then  went  to  England,  where 
he  was  little  heard  of  afterwards.  An  English  ex- 
pedition under  the  Duke  of  York  landed  and  Failure  of 
joined  the  Austrians,  but  the  campaign  was  ^^^  allies, 
badly  managed  by  the  allies.  Instead  of  pressing  for- 
ward with  energy,  they  wasted  time  on  the  sieges  of 
Valenciennes,  Cond^,  and  Quesnoy,  in  which  success 
was  of  little  use.     An  allied  fleet  failed  to  save  the  city 


48  The  War  with  France. 


1793- 


and  port  of  Toulon  for  their  French  royahst  friends. 
And  no  help  was  given  to  the  royalists  who  rose  in  La 
Vendue  till  the  struggle  was  over,  and  a  fearful  slaughter 
of  the  peasantry  made  further  resistance  hopeless. 

3.  Meanwhile  all  France  had  been  roused  to  fury.  The 
arrogance  of  the  allied  invaders,  the  treason  of  Dumouriez, 
The  Com-  the  fall  of  the  frontier  fortresses,  the  threat  of 
Pi'ibfic"'^  a  march  on  Paris,  made  the  republicans  frantic. 
Safety.  The  Girondists,  as  the  party  was  called  that 
had  gathered  round  the  deputies  from  Bordeaux  and  the 
department  of  the  Gironde,  lost  all  influence.  They 
were  the  more  moderate  party  in  the  Convention,  but  now 
power  passed  to  the  Jacobins  (June  1793),  of  whom  a 
small  committee  became  rulers  of  France.  Robespierre, 
St.  Just,  and  the  Jacobins,  forming  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,  were  in  power  for  nearly  fourteen  months, 
and  their  tyranny  in  Paris  and  other  cities  well  earned 
its  name  of  '  The  Reign  of  Terror.'  The  '  Revolutionary 
Tribunal,'  as  the  men  who  acted  as  judges  were  called, 
put  thousands  to  death,  trying,  condemning,  and  execut- 
ing in  a  day.  Cartloads  of  victims  were  slaughtered 
every  day,  often  without  e\en  the  pretence  of  a  reason, 
the  Queen  Marie  Antoinette  among  the  number.  It  was 
a  horrible  time,  but  any  government  of  Frenchmen 
seemed  to  the  people  better  than  the  rule  of  foreign  con- 
querors. So  France  submitted  easily  to  the  patriotic 
Jacobins,  who  quickly  taught  France  her  power  for  war, 
and  successfully  defied  Europe.  And  in  this  the  people 
were  wise,  for  when  the  Reign  of  Terror  passed  away, 
France  was  still  powerful  and  safe  from  the  foreign  foe. 

4.  The  campaigns  of  1794  and  1795  brought  no 
honour  to  England.  The  Duke  of  York  failed  to  take 
Campaigns  Dunkirk,  and  the  defeat  of  the  Austrians  at 
of  1794-5-  the  battle  of  Fleurus  lost  Belgium.  The 
French  even  pressed  on    into   Holland,  and  were   well 


1796  Troubles  in  England.  49 

received  by  a  large  republican  party,  who  did  not  like 
the  English  alliance.  An  expedition  to  the  Bay  of 
Ouiberon  to  assist  the  Chouans,  or  royalist  insurgents  in 
Brittany,  was  a  disgraceful  failure.  On  the  German 
frontier  the  successes  of  France  brought  out  the  jealousies 
of  the  German  States",  an  I  in  1795  Prussia  made  peace, 
leaving  the  Austrians  and  England  to  carry  on  the  war. 
The  English  fleet  under  Lord  Howe  gained  a  great 
victory  over  the  French  in  the  Channel  on  June  i,  1794, 
a  victory  always  named  from  the  date  only.  English 
arms  prevailed  in  India  and  the  West  Indies,  and  English 
forces  gained  Ceylon,  iMalacca,  and  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  Disturbances  in  Corsica  ended  in  the  c-xpulsion 
of  the  French  and  the  union  of  Corsica  to  the  crown  of 
England  for  a  time,  liut  these  things  did  not  make  up 
for  the  ill-success  on  the  Continent. 

5.  Early  in  1796  there  seemed  an  opportunity  of  mak- 
ing peace,  and  little  reason  for  longer  war.  The  alliance 
was  broken  up,  Holland  was  more  friendly  to  jn^j^  ^ 
France  than  to  Enirland,  the  hope  of  restoring  'he  war  on 
monarchy  in  France  was  gone,  for  a  stable  "^  ^" 
republican  government  was  in  power  there.  The  war 
had  become  unpopular  in  England.  Trade  had  suffered, 
banks  had  failed,  taxes  were  pressing  heavily,  and  the 
debt  haa  been  greatly  increased.  The  war  had  changed 
Pitt  too,  and  his  home  policy.  Believing  monarchy  to  be 
in  peril,  he  and  his  party  had  acted  as  if  they  saw  revolution 
all  round  them.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended 
for  the  time,  and  so  people  could  be  put  in  prison,  and 
kept  in  prison  without  being  tried.  The  freedom  of  the 
press  was  almost  put  down,  freedom  of  speech  almost 
at  an  end,  spies  and  informers  were  everywhere.  One 
bookseller,  Ridgway,  had  been  punished  for  selling 
Paine's  '  Rights  of  Man,'  a  book  which  was  a  coarse 
attack   upon    Monarchy.      It    had    been    published    in 

E.H,  E 


50  The  War  with  France.  1796- 

England  and  it  had  been  already  condemned  in  a  court 
of  law,  while  the  author  was  in  Paris  joining  in  the  French 
Revolution.  Another  bookseller,  Holt,  who  was  also 
editor  of  a  newspaper,  had  died  in  prison  for  publishing  an 
address  on  reform.  In  Scotland  matters  were  still  worse, 
but  everywhere  the  law  was  severe/  and  the  judges  were 
ready  to  press  it  so  as  to  meet  every  case.  At  last,  the 
city  of  Lon  Ion  began  to  make  a  stand  against  the  tyranny 
of  the  courts,  and  the  juries  of  citizens  refused  to  find 
men  guilty  who  were  brought  to  trial  for  treason.  When 
a  jury  (December  1793)  acquitted  Perry,  the  editor  of  a 
newspaper,  who  was  accused  of  publishing  a  seditious 
libel  because  he  asked  for  parliamentary  reform,  and  when 
(December  1794)  a  prosecution  for  high  treason  against 
Home  Tooke  and  others  f^iiled,  people  again  began  to 
feel  confidence  in  the  law  courts. 

6.  With  the  country  thus  disturbed  peace  had  been 
needed,  and  Pitt  had  become  willing  for  peace.  Negotia- 
Pitt  desires  tions  Were  opened,  but  the  French  Directory, 
peace,  1790.     g^g  (.j-,g  j-^g^y  government  was  called,  was  elated 

with  success,  had  grand  plans  of  conquest,  and  distrusted 
the  English  desire  for  peace.  France  refused  to  give  up 
Belgium  or  Holland  or  Milan,  which  she  had  annexed. 
Moreover  England  was  almost  without  allies,  and  the 
Directory,  careless  of  the  fact  that  not  England  but 
Prussia  and  Austria  had  made  the  war  upon  her,  turned 
with  a  savage  hate  against  England  and  against  Pitt,  to 
humble  them  before  all  Europe.  The  peace  negotiations 
came  to  nothing. 

7.  After  the  negotiations  of  1796  the  nature  of  the 
war  was  changed,  and  the  feeling  of  the  English  people 
Chan  ed  also.  They  had  cared  little  to  support  the 
nature  ot        government  in  attacking  France,  or  in  helping 

continental  despots  to  overthrow  the  republic. 
Manv  had  feared  that  war  and  victorv  endangered  their 


-1797-  Naval  Victories.  51 

own  liberties.  Kut  now  peaceable  England  was  on  its 
defence  against  a  proud  enemy,  and  Pitt,  as  the  champion 
of  his  country  in  a  war  which  could  not  be  helped,  was 
stronger  than  ever. 

8.  The  French  Government  was  no  longer  merely  de- 
fending itself,  but  now  threatened  to  invade  Ireland  and 
even  England.  Both  Holland  and  Spain  had  invasion  of 
joined  France,  and  so  with  tlic  Dutch  and  ^"s'^"''- 
Spanish  fleets  the  French  lioped  to  sweep  the  English 
navy  off  the  seas,  if  not  to  conquer  England.  But  the  Irish 
conspirators  and  the  French  Government  did  not  work 
together.  An  expedition  to  Bantry  Bay,  in  Ireland,  failed, 
and  the  landing  of  1,400  men  at  Fishguard,  in  Pembroke- 
shire, February  1797,  was  ridiculous.  Without  artillery, 
deserted  by  the  frigates  that  brought  them,  this  small  body 
surrendered  at  discretion  to  Lord  Cawdor,  who  had 
gathered  a  still  smaller  force  of  volunteers,  yeomanry,  and 
militia. 

9.  In  the  same  month,  February  1797,  Admiral  Sir  J. 
Jervis   and    Commodore    Nelson    met   a  very   powerful 
Spanish  fleet  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  gain-     Battles  of 
in?  a   considerable   victory,   forced    th«in   to     St.  Vincent 

.'ina 

retire  to  Cadiz.     The  Dutch  fleet  during  the     Camper- 
summer  had  been  prevented  by  the  weather     '^°"'"- 
from  trying  to  join  the  French  at  Brest.    When  in  October 
they  did  put  out,  an  English  fleet  under  Admiral  Duncan 
attacked  them  off  Camperdown,  nine  miles  from  land,  and 
after  a  most  obstinate  battle,  took  more  than  half  the  ships. 

10.  These  successes  put  an  end  to  any  serious  attempt 
at  invasion.  But  during  this  year  the  country  was  troubled 
by  serious  mutinies  in  the  fleets  at  Spithead  Mutinies  in 
and  the  Nore  in  April  and  May.  Fortunately  the  fleet, 
the  dangers  passed  away.  The  Admiralty  '^^^' 
yielded  in  the  one  case  to  reasonable  and  fairly  urged 
claims  of  sailors  badly  paid,  badly  fed,  and  badly  cared 


52  The  War  xvith  France.  1798- 

for.  In  the  other  case  they  showed  firmness  in  refusing 
insolent  demands,  and  punished  a  few  ringleaders  who  had 
behaved  very  ill. 

II.  Though  the  invasion  of  England  was  still  threat- 
ened, the  mind  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  who  was  now 
Napoleon  rising  to  power  in  France,  was  bent  on  a  dif- 
in  Egypt.  ferent  scheme.  From  the  southern  port  of 
Toulon  he  aimed  at  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  Syria,  and 
possibly  of  India.  In  July  1798,  after  seizing  Malta,  he 
landed  in  Egypt,  took  Aboukir,  Rosetta,  and  Alexandria, 
and  soon  pushed  on  to  Cairo.  Though  Nelson  was  sent 
off  earl)-  in  May  to  watch  the  French  fleet,  it  was  not 
till  August  that  he  found  them.  Sixteen  sail  were  drawn 
up  at  anchor,  in  a  safe  position  "m  the  harbour  of 
Aboukir,  well  supported  by  guns  on  the  shore.  Nelson, 
who  had  a  plan  for  everything  that  might  happen, 
worked  his  ships  in  alongside  of  the  Frenchmen,  and 
began  a  battle  which  lasted  all  night  from  sunset.  Two 
French  ships  of  the  line  and  two  frigates  escaped,  but 
by  morning  the  victory  of  the  English  was  complete. 

This  grand  victory  of  the  Nile,  or  Aboukir  Bay,  did 
much  to  make  Napoleon's  expedition  to  Egypt  an  entire 
failure.  He,  however,  still  aiming  at  the  conquest  of 
Syria,  reduced  El  Arish,  Gaza,  and  Jaffa,  but  his  march 
was  stopped  by  the  fort  of  Acre.  Sir  Sidney  Smith, 
whose  ships  had  been  blockading  the  port  of  Alexandria, 
set  off  to  the  help  of  the  Pacha  in  command  of  Acre,  and 
capturing  the  French  ships  with  a  battering  train  of  great 
guns  on  his  voyage,  was  in  time  to  aid  in  the  defence. 
The  place  was  in  a  condition  unfit  for  resistance,  yet 
those  who  were  inside,  by  untiring  work  and  undaunted 
courage,  were  able  to  hold  out  for  sixty  days,  and  when 
in  great  distress  were  relieved  by  fresh  troops.  The 
siege  was  raised  in  May  1799,  Syria  saved,  and  Napoleon 
very  soon  returned  to  Cairo  and  to  France.     The  French 


-'So I.  French  Successes.  53 

occupation  of  Egypt  lasted  two  years  longer,  but  its  im- 
portance was  over.  In  March  i8oi  a  force  of  15,000  men 
under  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  landed  at  Aboukir,  and  de- 
feated the  French  army  which  opposed  them.  On  the  sur- 
render of  Cairo  in  June  and  of  Alexandria  in  August,  the 
French  army  agreed  to  leave  the  country,  while  the  fleet 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  A  body  of  7,000  sepoys 
from  India  under  Sir  David  Baird  arrived  too  late  to  share 
the  fighting,  but  their  \  ery  presence  showed  how  utterly 
the  eastern  schemes  of  Napoleon  had  come  to  nothing. 

12.  When  Napoleon  hurried  home  from  Egypt  in 
August  1799,  he  put  an  end  to  the  Directory,  and  soon 
under  the  name  of  First  Consul  became  chief    ^, 

1        1     J     f    i_  Napoleon 

ruler  of  France.  Men  were  mostly  glad  or  the  supreme  in 
change.  The  Directory  had  been  ruling  feebly,  '^''""' 
while  Napoleon  soon  gave  Frenchmen  plenty  of  glory. 
His  rule  was  firm,  and  fairly  just,  and  while  he  acted 
as  one  who  had  no  mere  party  ends  to  gain,  he  did  not 
seem  to  imdo  the  good  of  the  Revolution.  He  gave 
France  order,  and  good  law,  and  even  when  he  made 
himself  Emperor,  his  subjects  felt  that  there  was  social 
equality  for  all  below  him.  The  year  1800  was  a  year  of 
French  successes  under  the  rule  of  Napoleon.  One 
F"rench  army  under  Moreau  overran  Bavaria.  Napoleon 
himself,  by  a  very  bold  plan,  crossed  the  Alps  to  the  rear 
of  the  Austrian  army  which  was  besieging  Genoa,  entered 
Milan,  gained  a  victory  at  Marengo,  near  Alessandria, 
and  forced  the  Austrians  to  give  up  all  North  Italy, 
except  Genoa,  to  France.  Later  in  the  year  Moreau 
gained  the  battle  of  Hohenlinden,  which  opened  the 
way  over  the  river  Inn  to  Vienna,  and  placed  Austria 
at  his  feet.  The  Austrian  Emperor  was  compelled  to 
agree  to  the  treaty  of  Luneville  (1801)  which  ceded  the 
land  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  gave  France  the 
Rhine  for  her  border  f-om  Basle  to  its  mouth,  while  the 


54  The   War  with  Fraiue.  1801- 

Adige  Decame  the  border  of  the  Cisalpine  Republic,  which 
Nupoleun  controlled. 

13.  In  1 80 1  England  stood  alone  at  war  with  France. 
The  continental  states  either  had  been  subdued  by 
Napoleon,  or  were  too  weak  to  resist  him,  or,  like  the 
Northern,  or  Baltic,  powers  had  their  own  cause  of  quarrel 
The  North-  against  England.  Paul,  the  Emperor  of  Russia, 
em  League.  (.|^g  head  of  this  Northern  League,  was  hos- 
tile to  England  partly  from  a  half-insane  admiration 
for  Napoleon,  partly  because  of  the  old  grievance  about 
the  right  of  search  of  vessels  under  a  neutral  flag. 
Sweden  and  Denmark  followed  his  lead,  and  even 
Prussia  was  unfriendly.  Things  abroad  looked  dark  for 
England,  and  they  were  little  brighter  at  home.  The 
ministry  had  not  cared  to  listen  to  Napoleon's  proposals 
for  peace  made  soon  after  his  return  from  Egypt.  They 
had  misjudged  the  strength  of  France,  and  had  fancied 
that  the  many  changes  of  the  government  were  signs 
that  the  Revolution  was  failing,  and  the  republic  would 
come  to  an  early  end.  Now  Englishmen  longed  for 
peace,  for  the  distress  in  the  country  had  grown  great 
and  the  price  of  corn  was  very  high.  Moreover,  Pitt 
had  resigned  office  on  the  Catholic  Emancipation 
question.  He  felt  that,  after  the  union  of  Ireland  with 
England,  Roman  Catholics  ought  at  once  to  be  freed 
from  those  laws  which  gave  them  less  liberty  than  other 
people  had.  Especially  he  wished  that  they  should  be 
able  to  become  members  of  the  House  of. Commons. 
He  would  have  passed  a  law  giving  them  such  freedom. 
As  the  king  would  not  consent,  Pitt  would  no  longer  be 
his  nnnister.  The  king,  however,  became  incapable  of 
attending  to  business,  and  so  the  new  ministers  were  not 
yet  in  office. 

14.  The  power  of  the  navy  and  the  firmness  of 
Nelson  at  this  moment  saved  England  by  breaking  up  the 


-i8o2.  Peace  of  Aviicns.  55 

threatening  Northern  League.     A  fleet  was  sent  out  in 
March  1801  under  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  with  Nelson  second 
in  command.     The  object  was  to  separate  Denmark  from 
the  League,  or  to  take  her  tleet,  that  it  might     Hombard- 
not   fall    into    French    hands.      After    many     {^'o'g„°/ 
delays   the   fleet   passed  up    the   Sound   and     hagen. 
anchored  off  Copenhagen.     When  the  Danes  had  refused 
to  accept  the  terms  offered,  Nelson's  squadron  of  twelve 
ships  opened  fire  on  their  fleet  and  forts,  and  after  some 
hours  made  the  Danish  ships  strike  their  flags.     A  truce 
was  made  which  grew  into  an  armistice,  or  stopping   of 
war,  for  fourteen  weeks. 

15.  And  fortunately  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Paul 
caused  a  change  of  Russian  policy,  and  peace  was  made 
with  the  Baltic  powers,  June  1 801.  The  Right 
of  search  was  10  be  confined  to  men-of-war  of  Amiens, 
and  refused  to  privateers,  and  blockades  were  '^^' 
to  be  real,  with  enough  ships  of  war  to  close  the  ports 
and  really  prevent  vessels  from  getting  in  or  out.  The 
break-up  of  the  Northern  League,  added  to  the  decisive 
battle  of  Alexandria,  made  the  French  willing  to  renew 
proposals  of  peace,  and  these  were  most  acceptable. 
England  was  to  give  up  her  conquests,  e.xcept  Ceylon 
and  Trinidad ;  France  to  withdraw  from  Naples  and 
Rome,  to  give  up  her  claims  to  Malta  and  Egypt,  and 
to  leave  Portugal  in  peace.  Sue  h  were  the  terms  of  the 
Peace  of  Amiens,  March  1802;  'a  peace,' as  was  truly 
said,  '  which  everybody  would  be  glad  of,  but  which  no- 
body would  be  proud  of.'  But  the  peace  was  little  or 
nothing  more  than  a  truce  between  foes  who  were  to 
fight  again  very  soon. 


5  6  Irelmid. 


BOOK      IV. 
IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   DEMAND    FOR    INDEPENDENCE. 

I.  The  wish  of  William  III.  to  set  up  a  firm  and  just 
rule  in  Ireland  had  come  to  nothing.  Men  in  England 
and  Ireland  alike  would  not  be  tolerant  of  one  another's 
differences  ;  the  government  had  had  little  patience,  and 
had  not  paid  proper  attention  to  the  real  interest  of 
Ireland. 

A  close  union  of  the  two  countries,  with  no  separate 
Parliament  at  Dublin,  with  all  rights  of  liberty,  religion, 
and  trade  the  same  in  England  and  Ireland,  under  a  law 
firm  and  equal  alike  for  Englishmen  and  Irishmen,  would 
have  been  best.  A  career  being  thus  offered  to  all  alike 
in  the  government  of  the  whole  kingdom,  and  in  its  army 
and  other  professions,  time  would  probably  have  cooled 
those  passions  which  harsh  and  unequal  laws  kept  at  a 
fierce  heat.  For  want  of  such  a  career  at  home  Irish- 
men were  driven  to  be  adventurers  in  France  and  Spain, 
and  to  fight  against  the  armies  of  their  country,  or  to 
carry  off  the  vigour  and  the  trade  of  the  north  to  the 
American  colonies. 

2.  As  it  was,  no   Roman  Catholic  could   sit  in  the 

Parliament  at  Dublin,  and  therefore  a  large  and  gi-ow- 

ing  part  of  the  population  had  no  voice   in 

^    ^**-        governing  itself.     Laws  were  passed  against 

the  Roman  Catholics  so  harsh  that  they  could  not  be 


Vcxfonl  liar 


5  8  Ireland.  1760- 

carried  out  ;  there  were  laws  forbidding  Roman  Catholics 
to  exercisr"  particular  professions  and  trades,  laws  to 
disable  them  from  inheriting  land  or  holding  offices, 
laws  to  bribe  them  to  become  Protestants  for  the  sake  of 
lands  or  offices  or  pensions.  These  evil  laws  failed  of 
their  object,  but  they  made  men  false  and  deceitful,  and 
they  kept  up  the  old  religious  feuds  in  a  way  scarcely 
known  elsewhere. 

The  government  of  England  was  no  wiser  or  jiister 
in  Irish  matters  than  the  Parliament  at  Dubhn.  The 
English  people  looked  upon  Ireland  as  an  ill-behaved 
island  that  must  be  kept  down,  and  as  a  dangerous  rival 
that  must  be  kept  poor.  They  forgot  that  it  is  the  poor, 
not  the  rich,  who  rebel  ;  prosperity  would  have  gone 
far  to  soothe  the  discontent,  and  with  peace  most  parts 
of  Ireland  would  have  prospered.  All  chance  of  prosperity 
was  killed  by  the  keeping  down  of  the  trade  and  growing 
manufactures  of  the  island.  The  Navigation  Act  of  1663 
had  made  a  distinction  between  English  ships  and  Irish, 
so  that  Irish  ships  could  not  trade  direct  to  the  colonies, 
and  all  exports  and  imports  must  come  first  to  English 
ports  and  in  English  ships.  When  a  thriving  trade  in 
cattle  and  produce  with  English  ports  began  to  grow  up, 
it  was  stopped  in  the  interest  of  English  farmers.  The 
rich  grass  land  of  Ireland  fed  immense  flocks  of 
sheep,  and  her  wool  commanded  a  high  price  all  over 
Europe  ;  but  a  regulation  forbad  the  sale  of  Irish  wool  and 
Irish  woollens  to  any  country  except  England.  The  wool 
trade  was  crushed,  and  the  woollen  manufactures  in  like 
manner,  and  numbers  of  the  most  valuable  and  indus- 
trious inhabitants  left  the  country-. 

Hence  it  came  about  that  the  Protestants,  injured  by 
bad  laws  and  bad  government,  became  more  disaffected 
towards  England  than  the  Roman  Catholics  were.  And 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  demand 


-1782.  The  Vohmteers.  59 

began  to  be   put  forward  for  the  entiie  independence  of 
Ireland. 

3.  As  we  follow  Irish  history  through  the  years  of  the 
American  and  European  wars  down  to  1782,  we  find  the 
demand  of  independence  gradually  shaping  itself,  and, 
after  giving  way  in  one  small  point  after  another,  England 
in  a  moment  of  desperate  difficulty  yielded  and  granted 
a  new  constitution. 

4.  Ireland  sympathized  much  with  the  Americans,  for 
their  claims  for  self-go\ernment  and  for  free  trade  were 
those  which  the  Irish  had  so  often  made.  The     ^. 

,  ,.        ...  Symp.itny 

Opposition  in  the  Parliament  at  Dubhn,  like  with  the 
the  Whigs  in  England,  openly  said  they  ^'"'°"'"- 
agreed  with  the  colonists  ;  the  leader  of  the  Opposition, 
Grattan,  pressed  the  demand  for  independence  just  when 
England  was  getting  more  and  more  into  difficulties. 
Troops  liad  to  be  withdrawn  for  America,  and,  while 
smuggling  grew,  lawful  trade  was  almost  entirely  killed 
by  tiie  swarms  of  privateers  who  swept  the  Channel  and 
even  ventured  to  engage  with  men-of-war. 

5.  The  French  war  (177S)  made  the  Presbyterians  of 
the  north  in  some  measure  return  to  their  loyalty  ;  but 
it  made  the  condition  of  Ireland  worse  than  Rise  of  the 
before,  for  it  ruined  what  remained  of  Irish  Volunteers, 
trade.  Then  England  began  to  give  way.  Some  measures 
to  quiet  Ireland  seemed  absolutely  needful.  Some  relief 
to  trade  was  given,  e.\cept  to  the  woollen  manufacturers ; 
some  rdief  to  Roman  Catholics,  who  had  been  very  loyal, 
was  given  by  making  the  penal  laws  less  harsh,  liut 
even  then  Burke  failed  to  alter  the  Navigation  laws,  and 
he  lost  his  seat  as  member  for  Bristol  because  of  his 
attempt  to  get  justice  for  Ireland.  The  measures  which 
England  would  grant  were  too  insignificant  and  too  late  ; 
the  weakness  of  England,  and  her  powerkssness  to 
defend  Ireland  from  invasion,  seemed  to  call  on  Irishmen 


6o  Ireland.  1782- 

to  protect  themselves.  Suddenly,  all  through  the  land 
bodies  of  volunteers  enrolled  themselves,  to  the  number 
of  not  less  than  40,000,  under  no  control  of  the  govern- 
ment, either  Irish  or  English.  The  command  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  leading  men  of  each  town  or  district,  and  so 
the  control  of  Ireland  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  govern- 
ment into  the  power  of  a  national  army.  Events  moved 
quickly,  for  the  ministry,  pressed  by  the  French  war, 
afraid  of  the  volunteers,  and  urged  by  the  Whigs  in  the 
English  Parliament,  gave  way  to  one  Irish  demand  after 
another.  Concessions,  some  good,  some  bad,  were  made, 
so  that  the  so-called  patriots  put  no  limits  to  their 
demands,  and  England  had  no  time  to  consider  what 
would  be  the  effect  of  all  this  yielding.  Acts  restricting 
trade  vvere  hurriedly  done  away  ;  the  Test  Act  was 
abolished  ;  a  Catholic  Relief  Bill  was  no  longer  refused. 
Then  came  a  demand  for  a  repeal  of  the  Act  called 
Poyning's  Law,  which  had  given  the  English  Parliament 
control  over  legislation  in  Ireland.' 

6.  At  last,  in  April  1782,  Grattan  brought  forward  a 
motion  amounting  to  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  and  made 
a  demand  for  the  absolute  parliamentary  independence 
of  Ireland.  His  proposals  were  carried  through  both 
Houses,  and  sent  to  England.  The  ministry  had  little 
hold  upon  Ireland  ;  they  yielded  to  avoid  an  immediate 
outbreak.  

CHAPTER   II. 
IRELAND   FROM    1782-I79S. 

I.  The  independence  of  Ireland  was  now  complete. 
England  no  longer  claimed  to  pass  laws  binding  Ireland. 
Party  The  Irish  Parliament  was  to  make  laws  for 

quarrels.         itself.    But  the  new  constitution  did  not  work 
well.  The  Irish  parties  quarrelled  among  themselves.  The 
'  See  Epoch  IV.  p.  9. 


-1795-  The  Irish  Parliajnent.  6 1 

Protestants  were  by  no  means  willing  to  give  way  to  the 
Roman  Catholics.  The  government  found  the  Irish 
more  troublesome  than  before.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  Rodney's  great  victory  and  the  safety  of  Gibraltar 
lowered  the  tone  of  France  and  Spain,  and  made  an 
honourable  peace  possible,  and  England  repented  of 
having  yielded. 

During  the -next  few  years  Irish  politics  were  steadily 
making  the  union  of  the  two  countries  necessary,  as  the 
only  possible  mode  of  government.  Pitt  worked  for  this, 
with  freedom  of  trade,  reform  of  parliament,  and  Catholic 
emancipation.  Union,  with  or  without  these  reforms,  was 
the  best  thing  for  Ireland,  for  by  it  alone  could  fair  rights 
ever  be  given  to  the  two  religious  parlies,  and  all  out- 
breaks be  calmly  kept  down. 

2.  Meanwhile  the  volunteers  melted  away,  after  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  get  a  Reform  Rill  without  giving 
votes  to  Roman  Catholics.  The  unfortunate  Difficuityuf 
failure  in  1785,  of  Pitt's  Commerce  Bill,'  by  the'lrfsh"'' 
which  he  wished  to  make  trade  between  Eng-  Parliamem. 
land  and  Ireland  free,  added  to  the  difficulties.  F'lood, 
Grattan,  and  Curran  alike  stirred  the  passions  of  their 
countrymen  to  defeat  an  excellent  measure.  The  ab- 
surdity of  the  new  constitution  was  shown  in  1789  by  the 
behaviour  of  the  Irish  leaders  about  the  Regency  Bill. 
Eager  to  hamper  Pitt,  and  to  take  any  opportunity  of 
disagreeing  with  England,  they  led  the  Irish  Parliament 
to  offer  the  Regency  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  with  full  kingly 
power,  while  the  English  Parliament  was  carefully  set- 
tling limits  and  conditions.  The  recovery  of  the  king 
made  their  conduct  fruitless  as  well  as  ridiculous.  In 
1794-5  it  was  made  plain  that  any  measure  of  emancipa- 
tion which  should  give  equal  political  rights  to  Irishmen 
would  be  hopeless  while  the  Irish  House  of  Commons 
remained  as  it  was. 

'   bee  p.  40. 


.62  Ireland.  i795- 

3.  The  last  years  of  the  century  were  years  of  great 
trouble.  The  wiser  counsels  of  Grattan  no  longer  pre- 
The  United  vailed;  new  leaders  arose.  The  new  bond  of 
Irishmen.  union,  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen,  now  be- 
came a  revolutionary  body,  and  grew  more  popular  and 
more  powerful.  Many  of  the  leaders  were  wild  and  rash 
adventurers,  such  as  Hamilton  Rowan  and  Wolfe  Tone, 
full  of  enthusiasm  for  French  republicanism  and  of  hatred 
for  England.  In  Dublin,  Belfast,  and  elsewhere  a  power- 
ful Protestant  following  formed  their  strength.  The 
lower  classes  of  Roman  Catholics  looked  to  them  for  the 
signal  to  root  out  for  ever  the  Sa.xon  and  the  heretic  from 
tlie  land.  As  has  been  usual  in  Irish  history,  the  govern- 
ment had  no  difficulty  in  learning  the  whole  plot  from  in- 
formers, of  whom  numbers  offered  themselves.  Outrages 
became  common,  and  had  to  be  put  down  by  force,  so 
that  a  lierce  spirit  grew  on  both  sides. 

4.  The  first  plan  was  to  get  the  French  to  invade 
Ireland  and  set  up  an  independent  republic.  Wolfe  Tone, 
Plots  with  with  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  and  Arthur 
France.  O'Connor,  two  young  men  of  good  family, 
negotiated  with  General  Hoche,  and  an  expedition  was 
arrangi-d.  Everything  that  the  English  Government  could 
lea\  e  undone  was  left  undone.  The  blockading  squadron 
which  should  have  been  off"  Brest  let  the  French  fleet  pass. 
Lord  Bridport  s  fleet  from  Portsmouth  made  no  attempt  to 
find  them.  No  force  came  by  sea  to  stop  the  enemy,  no 
soldiers  were  sent  from  England  to  meet  him  if  he  landed. 
The  ministry  disbelieved  the  whole  story,  and  it  seemed 
that  they  neither  could  nor  would  protect  Ireland. 

5.  Generals  Hoche  and  Grouchy  sailed  out  of  Brest 
on  a  fine  night,  December  16,  1796,  with  a  fleet  of  twenty- 
Invasion  o;  eight  sail  and  fifteen  transports,  and  an  army 
Ireland.  of  i5,ooomen  well  equipped.  They  were  to 
meet  off"  Mizen  Head,  or  later  at  the  Shannon  mouth. 


-1798.  The  Irish  Rebellion.  63 

The  way  was  open,  there  were  no  troops  worth  mention- 
ing in  South  Ireland,  and  it  was  thought  that  the 
peasantry  would  rise  everywhere.  The  fleet  separated  in 
the  darkness  of  the  first  night,  and  one  large  ship  went 
down  ;  during  several  foggy  days  the  fleet  gathered  again 
till,  on  the  21st,  off  Cape  Clear,  thirty-five  vessels  were 
mustered.  But  since  the  first  night  the  Fraternity,  with 
General  Hoche  on  board,  was  nowhere  to  be  seen. 
Grouchy  waited  for  Hoche,  who  never  came.  Then  a 
gale  drove  all  to  take  refuge  in  Bantry  Bay.  There  fog 
shut  them  in  for  days,  and  at  last  a  storm  swept  them  out 
to  sea,  and  back  to  Brest,  where  they  learnt  that  General 
Hoche  had  put  into  Rochelle,  and  had  never  seen  Ireland. 
The  French  expedition  had  come  and  gone.  Scarcely  a 
man  had  landed  ;  no  Englishman  had  opposed,  no  Irish- 
man had  aided. 

6.  The  Orange  Association  of  Protestants,  so  called 
from  William  of  Orange,  now  began  to  draw  the  northern 
republicans  to  itself,  and  became  by  and  by  a     xhe Orange- 
formidable  weapon  wherewith  to  put  down  the      "'^"• 
rebels  in  the  south,  who  were  almost  all  Roman  Catholics. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   REBELLION   OF    1 798. 

I.  The  death  of  Hoche,  the  battle  of  Camperdown, 
the  rise  of  Napoleon's  power,  put  an  end  to  the  hopes  of 
French  help. 

Thrown  back  on  themselves,  the  leaders  fixed  on  May 
23  for  a  general  rising.     The  government,  who  knew  their 
plans,  arrested  the  committee  in  Dublin.    Lord     ^^^^ 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  in  a   desperate  struggle,     Edward 

,,       ,  rr  ,1  T,  Fitzgerald 

Stabbed  two  officers,  one  mortally.     He  was 

himself  shot,  and   died   in    prison    of   his   wounds.     A 


64  Ireland.  1798- 

vigorous  but  vain  and  wilful  young  man,  he  had  been  led 
by  unpriir;pled  men  to  use  most  foolishly  the  influence 
which  birth  and  position  gave  him.  He  was  wholly  with- 
out statesmanl  ke  qualities  to  atone  for  his  unhappy 
attempt  at  rebeU'.on. 

2.  The  arrest  of  the  committee  saved  Dublin  from  a 
massacre  which  had  been  carefully  planned,  but  the  sur- 
The  out-  rounding  counties,  Kildare,  Meath,  Wicklow, 
break.  ^j^j  Wexford  were  soon  full  of  rebellion  and 
bloodshed.  The  government  was  for  the  moment  almost 
helpless,  with  few  troops  and  those  inexperienced.  Fierce 
attacks  were  made  on  several  stations  in  Kildare  which 
were  held  by  small  bodies  of  yeomanry  and  militia.  Farms, 
country  houses,  barracks,  villages,  were  attacked, pillaged, 
and  burnt,  and  unoffending  people  were  massacred 
with  revolting  cruelty.  Carlow  was  saved  with  difficulty, 
and  there  the  troops,  after  fighting  bravely,  slaughtered 
the  rebels  with  a  ferocity  which  at  the  least  equalled  their 
own.  In  Meath,  at  Tara  Hill,  the  insurgents  weie  at 
once  thoroughly  beaten.  For  a  moment  the  rebellion 
hung  fire.  An  offer  of  submission  was  made  in  Kildare, 
and  Dundas,  the  general,  was  wilHng  to  listen.  Unfortu- 
nately, another  band  offering  submission  was  savagely 
cut  down  on  the  Curragh  by  yeomanry  marching  from 
Limerick,  and  news  spread  among  the  rebels  that  no 
terms  would  be  granted.  Martial  law  had  been  instantly 
proclaimed,  and  the  terror  of  the  ruling  class  burst  forth 
into  mad  fury.  Before  a  hurried  court-martial  any  sus- 
picion was  evidence  enough  to  declare  a  Roman  Catholic 
guilty,  and  to  hang  him.  The  government  was  scarcely 
strong  enough  to  be  cool  ;  no  troops  arrived  from  Eng- 
land ;  the  Irish  yeomanry  and  militia  were  led  by  officers 
wild  with  hate  and  distrust,  and  eager  for  vengeance. 

3.  Very  soon  the  rebellion  in  Wexford  seemed  to 
excuse  both  terror  and  severity.     The  chief  leader  was  a 


-1798  The  Irish  Rebellion.  65 

parish  priest,  Father  John  Murphy,  a  bigoted,  blood- 
thirsty man,  wlio  made  the  rising  into  a  furious  onslaught 
upon  heretics,  a  wild  religious  war  to  restore  Ireland  to 
the  true  church.  The  Bishop's  palace  at  Ferns  ^yg^fQ^j 
was  wrecked  and  burned  ;  a  small  force  from 
Wexford  was  overpowered  by  the  pikemen  who  crowded 
after  him  in  thousands.  Enniscorthy,  a  little  town 
garrisoned  by  some  300  men,  was  attacked  and  taken, 
and  the  Protestant^  were  butchered.  A  great  camp  was 
formed  on  Vinegar  Hill,  close  to  the  town.  Here  vile 
atrocities,  almost  equal  to  those  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  in 
France,  were  committed  in  the  name  of  religion;  innocent 
prisoners  were  daily  murdered  in  batches.  Wexford  next 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels,  who  then  began  to 
plan  an  attack  on  Dublin. 

For  some  days  such  an  attempt  had  chances  of 
success  ;  but  time  was  wasted.  One  division  intending 
to  make  its  way  through  Carlo\''  and  Kildare  was  defeated 
at  Newtownbarry.  A  second  division  reached  New  Ross, 
but  was  frightfully  cut  up  in  the  streets  of  the  town.  The 
fighting  was  desperate  ;  no  quarter  was  given,  and  the 
angry  soldiers  could  not  be  held  in.  At  midday,  before 
the  battle  was  over,  a  portion  of  the  rebels  murdered 
about  300  wretched  persons  whom  they  had  made 
prisoners  on  their  march.  A  third  division,  under  Murphy, 
was  stopped  after  a  fierce  battle  at  the  bridge  of  Arklow. 

4.  By   the  middle  of  June  the  cause  of  the   rebels 
was  hopeless.     A  force  of  1 3,000  men  was  marching  in 
several  divisions  to  attack  the  camp  of  Vinegar     ^^^  ^^ 
Hill.     The  rebels  fought  well,  but  anything     beilion 
like  war  was  now  over.     Those  who  were  in 
Wexford  had  time  for  one  more  vile  massacre.     Nearly  a 
hundred  prisoners  were  piked  to  death  in  cold   blood 
before   rescue   came.      Then   Wexford   submitted ;   the 
leaders,    including   the    fanatic    Murphy,   were   hanged. 

E.  H.  F 


66  Treland.  1 70S 

Small  bands  passed  over  into  the  Wicklow  mountains  or 
into  Kilkenny,  and  still  committed  outrages  A  strong- 
government  might  have  quieted  the  country  at  once,  but 
instead  ferocious  scenes  of  retaliation  were  common,  and 
large  portions  of  the  country  were  harried  by  the  soldiers, 
who  were  as  cruel  as  the  rebels,  and  licentious  besides. 

5.  Lord  Cornwallis  was  sent  over,  in  order  that  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  might  hold  supreme  military  as  well 
,,  as  civil  authority.      He  withdrew  the  extra - 

Measures  ■' 

of  Lord  ordinary  powers  from  the  courts  martial,  which 

Cornwallis.  '•  .-,       ■    ,  ,  i    •  i 

were  actmg  with  violence,  and  soon  proclaimed 
an  amnesty.  But  party  feeling  and  the  vindictive 
conduct  of  the  Parliament  in  Dubhn  interfered  with  his 
attempt  to  quiet  the  country. 

6.  Soon  a  new  danger  threatened.  General  Humbert 
landed  a  small  body  of  French  troops  at  Killala  in  Mayo 
„  ,  in  August,  and  marched  inland.  Joined  by  a 
Humbert's      few  hundreds  of  Irish,  he  reached  Castlebar, 

'"s-  where  General   Lake's  force   of  3,000  militia 

and  yeomanry  melted  away  before  him.  But  when  Lord 
Cornwallis  placed  himself  in  the  way  on  the  road  to  Sligo, 
nothing  remained  for  General  Humbert  but  to  surrender, 
with  no  terms  for  his  rebel  followers.  A  French  squadron 
which  was  coming  to  his  aid  was  defeated  and  most  of 
the  vessels  taken,  including  the  Hoche^  which  had  Wolfe 
Tone  on  board.  He  was  tried  and  condemned,  but  com- 
mitted suicide  in  prison.  It  is  a  curious  illustration  of 
the  reckless  mode  of  putting  down  the  rebellion,  that 
though  Wolfe  Tone  was  certainly  guilty  of  treason,  his 
conviction  by  a  court  martial  was  illegal ;  and  though 
his  judges  had  chosen  to  try  him  as  a  soldier,  they 
refused  him  a  soldier's  death  and  sentenced  him  to  be 
hanged. 

7.  It  was  clear  that  Ireland  could  not  govern  itself  in 
connection  with  England.     It  is  no  less  clear  to  anyone 


-i8oo  The  Act  of  Union.  67 

who  reads  Pitt's  great  speech  on  the  subject,  that  a  close 
union  between  the  two  countries  was  good  for  both 
and  needful.  Pitt  made  up  his  mind  to  carry  an  Act  of 
Union,  by  which  the  Irish  Parliament  should  The  Union 
cease,  and  Ireland  should  be  represented  in  the  'nHtafn  and 
British  Parliament.  The  Union  was  carried  Ireland. 
by  Pitt's  influence,  in  spite  of  slight  interest  shown 
in  England  and  much  hostility  in  Ireland.  Whole- 
sale bribery  cleared  a  passage  for  it  through  the  Irish 
legislature.  The  Act  of  Union  provided  for  a  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  with  one  Parlia- 
ment at  Westminster.  It  gave  to  Ireland  representation 
in  the  Parliament  by  four  spiritual  peers  sitting  by  rota- 
tion, and  by  twenty-eight  temporal  peers  elected  for  life 
by  their  own  body  ;  and  by  one  hundred  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  provided  for  almost  entire 
freedom  of  trade  between  the  two  countries.  And  it  pro- 
vided that  the  laws  of  Ireland  should  remain  as  then  in 
force,  with  power  in  the  Imperial  Parliament  to  alter  or 
repeal  them,  or  to  enact  new  laws  for  Ireland,  separately 
or  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  realm.  The  Act  took 
effect  on  January  i,  1801.  It  was  one  of  Pitt's  greatest 
measures,  and  the  fault  did  not  lie  in  him  that  it  was  not 
made  still  more  perfect  by  the  addition  of  a  provision  for 
the  relief  of  Roman  Catholics  from  all  disabilities.  But 
this  was  at  the  moment  impossible. 


F  2 


68  The  European  War.  1802 


BOOK    V. 
THE   EUROPEAN   WAR,  1803-1815. 


CHAPTER    I. 

1 803-1 807. 

I.  The   ministry  of  Addington,  who    succeeded  Pitt  in 

1801,  was  one  of  the  weakest  which  have  ruled  England. 

Addington  was  an  honourable  gentleman,  who 

'ng  on-  \^-x^  been  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons 
for  eleven  years  with  some  success.  He  had  never  been 
thought  a  man  of  great  ability,  and  as  First  Minister  in 
difficult  times  none  had  entire  confidence  in  him.  During 
the  months  that  ended  the  war,  and  during  the  peace 
negotiations,  the  new  ministry  carried  out  Pitt's  plans, 
and  were  safe  with  his  support. 

2.   It  was  clear,  even  before  the  end  of  1802,  that  the 

peace  would  not  last.      Napoleon's  aggressive  conduct 

was  alarming  Europe.  He  annexed  to  France 

The  rc- 

newalofthe  the  Island  ot  Elba  in  August,  and  Piedmont 
qiuarrel.  j^^  September  ;  he  occupied  Parma  and  Pla- 

centia  in  October,  and  Switzerland  about  the  same  time. 
He  had  some  cause  of  complaint  that  England  had  not 
left  Malta  according  to  agreement.  He  wasalso  angry  be- 
cause England  received  French  exiles, and  did  not  prevent 
them  from  writing  against  him.  Both  nations  prepared 
against  war,  and  so  provided  that  there  should  be  war. 
The  government,  supported  by  Pitt,  declared  war  agT.in:'; 


70  The  European   War.  1803- 

France  in  May  1803,  and  soon  after  against  the  Batavian 
Republic,  <js  Holland  was  now  called. 

3.  On  the  part  of  the  French  vigorous  measures  were 
at  once  taken,  and  Hanover  was  occupied.  Before  the 
Prepara-  Other  powcrs  were  roused,  immense  prepara- 
in°^^sion  of  tions  Were  made,  as  though  the  war  were  solely 
England.  for  the  conqucst  of  England.  All  the  coast 
from  Brest  to  Antwerp  was  busy  with  arrangements  for 
an  invasion,  of  which  the  headquarters  were  at  Boulogne. 
England  met  the  threatened  attack  with  much  spirit ; 
volunteers  enrolled  themselves  in  all  places,  to  the  number 
of  300,000.  This  all  gave  an  aim  and  a  popularity  to  the 
war  which  had  been  wanting  before  1802.  The  eagerness 
of  the  public  spirit  seemed  to  outrun  the  energy  of  the 
government,  and  Addington  resigned  in  April  1804, 
unable  to  withstand  the  attacks  of  the  Opposition.  The 
ministry  fell  because  the  country  believed  that  Pitt  alone 
was  able  to  govern  in  such  perilous  times. 

4.  Pitt's  Second  Ministry  lasted  from  May  1804  to 
January  1806,  when  he  died.  The  great  points  of  his 
Pitt's  policy  were  to  strengthen  the  navy  to  the  ut- 
mimst'ry  most,  and  to  make  a  great  European  Coalition 
1804-1806.       against  Napoleon. 

During  1805  Napoleon,  now  become  Emperor  of 
the  French,  had  himself  crowned  King  of  Italy  at  Milan, 
and  annexed  the  republic  of  Genoa.  Meanwhile,  Pitt 
arranged  terms  of  alliance  with  Russia,  and  the  allies 
were  joined  by  Austria,  and  by  Sweden  a  little  later.  The 
objects  were  to  stop  the  encroachments  of  France,  and 
to  withdraw  Hanover,  Holland,  Switzerland,  Piedmont, 
and  Italy  from  the  control  of  Napoleon. 

5.  The  Coalition,  Pitt's  grand  scheme,  failed,  as  we 
Villeneuve'.s  shall  see  ;  and  the  grand  scheme  of  Napoleon 
failure.  Jqj-  ^}^g  invasion  of  England  failed  as  en- 
tirely.     His  plan  was  that  Admiral  Villeneuve,  with  the 


-i8o5  ■     Battle  of  Trafalgar.  J I 

powerful  Toulon  tlcet,  should  draw  away  Nelson's 
squadron  to  the  West  Indies,  then,  returning,  should 
join  the  Rochfort  squadron  and  the  Spanish  fleet,  and, 
suddenly  sweeping  the  Channel,  should  help  the  invading 
flotilla.  The  plan  was  good  and  had  fair  chance  of  success. 
Villeneuve  sailed,  drew  Nelson  off  to  the  West  Indies, 
and  got  back  to  Europe  several  days  before  him.  On  his 
return  he  put  in  at  Fcrrol.  Napoleons  orders,  which  he 
found  there,  were  precise.  \'illt  neuve  was  to  go  to  Brest, 
fight  the  English  blockading  squadron,  and  with  the  Brest 
fleet  go  up  the  Channel  to  Boulogne.  He  sailed  instead  to 
Cadiz  for  more  ships,  believing  that  his  twenty-nine  ships 
of  the  line  were  not  strong  enough  to  meet  the  English 
combined  fleets.  Napoleon  in  August  waited  for  his  fleet 
at  Boulogne,  but  the  fleet  was  at  Cadiz  ;  and  so,  through 
the  admiral's  grievous  fault,  all  possibility  of  the  invasion 
was  at  an  end.  Nelson  had  come  to  England,  but  by 
the  end  of  September  he  was  oflT  Cadiz,  and  on  Oc'ober  2 1 
the  French  and  Spanish  fleets  met  him  near  Cape  Tra- 
falgar. Nelson  and  Collingwood  had  twenty-seven  liners 
to  meet  thirty-three,  and  they  were  ready.  Their  plan 
was  to  sail  in  two  lines  and  break  through  the  enemy's 
line.  Each  admiral  led  his  division,  and  each  was  suc- 
cessful. The  result  was  a  wonderful  victory :  twenty  of 
the  enemy's  ships  were  taken,  the  French  admiral  was  a 
prisoner,  the  Spanish  admiral  was  killed.  Nelson  him- 
self, shot  by  a  musket-ball  from  the  tops  of  a  French  ship, 
lived  just  long  enough  to  know  that  his  work  was  done. 
This,  the  si.xth  great  naval  victory  of  the  European  war,  de- 
stroyed for  the  French  all  hopes  of  beating  England  at  sea. 
6.  The  news  of  Trafalgar  reached  England  early  in 
November,  but  four  or  five  days  earlier  very  bad  news 
from  Ulm  had  arrived.  Napoleon,  disap- 
pointed by  Villeneuve's  sailing  to  Cadiz,  had  ■*""'"'''^- 
instantly  changed  his  plans.     Swiftly  moving  his  troop? 


72  Tlie  European  War.  1805- 

to  the  Rhine,  before  September  was  over  he  attacked  the 
Austrians  in  Bavaria,  and  in  October  had  surrounded 
General  Mack  at  Uhn.  on  the  Danube,  and  forced  him 
to  capitulate  with  a  splendid  army  of  30,000  men.  He 
entered  Vienna  in  November,  and  following  up  the 
Austrian  army,  which  had  joined  the  Russians,  overthrew 
their  combined  forces  at  Austeilitz,  in  Moravia,  with 
enormous  loss.  The  Emperor  Francis  yielded  to  all 
Napoleon's  demands,  and  the  Coalition  was  no  more. 

7.  Pitt,  who  died  in  January  1806,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
six,  lived  to  hear  of  the  failure  of  his  plans,  and  it  was 

said  that  Austerlitz  had  killed  him.  So,  to 
Pitt,  Jan-  the  sorrow  of  England,  passed  away  the  great 
uary  1806.  minister  of  this  reign,  who,  able,  untiring,  up- 
right, liberal,  had  wielded  power  in  the  country  for  nine- 
teen years.  He  had  been  a  wise  and  open-minded  ad- 
ministrator in  peace  ;  less  fortunate,  and,  indeed,  less 
able  in  war,  though  friends  and  foes  alike  had  felt,  so  late 
as  1803,  that  unless  Pitt  were  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
England's  course  indeed  was  run. 

8.  Lord  Grenville  now  formed,  with  Fox  (who,  how- 
ever, died  in  September)  and  Addington  (now  Lord  Sid- 

mouth)  a  ministry  which  was  called  of  '  all 
viiie  the  Talents  : '  but  the  foreign  policy  was  un- 

ministry.  changed.  The  ministers  declared  all  the 
French  coasts  under  blockade,  a  blockade  which  was 
meant  to  include  the  Baltic  and  Italy.  It  was  a  foolish 
thing,  for  such  a  blockade  could  not  be  kept  up,  and  was 
irritating  to  neutrals.  Napoleon,  with  most  of  the  Contin- 
gent at  his  feet,  having  overthrown  Prussia  at  Jena  and  oc- 
cupied the  capital, put  forth  the  '  Berlin  decree,'  forbidding 
all  intercourse  with  Great  Britain.  He  hoped  to  crush 
the  trade  of  this  country  by  cutting  her  off  from  conti- 
nental markets,  but  his  plan  failed.  In  turn,  the  English 
Government  (January   1807),  by  Orders  in  Council,  re- 


i8o7  Boinbardine7it  of  Copenhagen.  73 

asserted  the  right  of  blockade  and  of  search  of  neutrals, 
an  unwise  claim  which  led  at  last  in  18 12  to  war  with 
America. 

9.  The  Grenville  ministry  was  dismissed  by  the  king 
in  March  1807,  because  they  would  not  promise  to  let 
the    Catholic     Emancipation    question    rest. 

Their  home  policy  had  been  good,  but  they  land 
were  unwise  to  raise  again  a  question  which  "»'"'stry- 
had  overthrown  Pitt  once,  and  which  both  Pitt  and  Kox 
had  meant  to  leave  till  there  was  a  new  king.  The  Uuke 
of  Portland  succeeded,  with  Spencer  Perceval,  Canning, 
and  Lord  Castiereagh,  these  Pittites  having  joined  the 
followers  of  Wilberforce  in  a  '  no-Popery  '  cry  unworthy 
of  those  who  had  been  friends  of  Pitt  in  1801,  ani  with 
him  had  been  in  favour  of  emancipation. 

10.  In  the  summer  of  1807  a  pressing  danger  caHed 
for  the  utmost  vigour.     Russia,  worn  out  with  war,  made 
the  Peace  of  Tilsit  and  passed  under  the  in-     Bombard- 
flu  nee   of  France.      With   her   ports  closed     "J^nt  of 

„       ,        ,      ,  Copen- 

against  England,  those  of  Prussia  in  French  hagen. 
hands,  and  Russian  influence  brought  to  bear  upon 
Sweden  and  Denmark,  there  was  a  repetition  of  the 
Baltic  League  of  1801.  An  immense  fleet  and  army  was 
at  once  sent  to  Copenhagen  under  Admiral  Gambier, 
Lord  Cathcart,  and  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley.  A  demand 
for  the  possession  of  the  Danish  fleet  being  refused,  a 
regular  bombardment  by  land  and  sea  led  to  a  surrender 
(September).  The  fleet,  with  stores  and  guns,  was  carried 
oflT  to  England  just  as  a  French  army  entered  Danish 
territory.  This  strong  measure  was  thought  needful, 
since  Denmark  commanded  the  Baltic,  and  England 
could  not  quietly  allow  all  northern  Europe  to  be  arrayed 
by  France  against  her. 


74  The  Peninsular  War.  1807- 


CHAPTFR    II. 

THE   PENINSULAR   WAR. 

I.  The  Treaty  of  Tilsit  placed  almost  all  western  con- 
tinental Europe  under  the  mastery  of  Napoleon,  and  the 
'  Berlin  decree '  was  an  offensive  avowal  of 
occupation  the  mastery.  It  led  to  the  Peninsula  war,  in 
of  Portugal,  •which  the  English  gradually  drove  the  French 
armies  from  Portugal,  through  Spain,  over  the  PjTenees 
into  France.  Portugal  refused  to  submit  to  the  Berlin 
decree.  She  was  an  old  ally  of  England,  and  owed  much 
to  her.  The  English  influence  was  great,  and  her  trade 
most  valuable.  Just  at  the  right  moment  disputes  in  the 
royal  family  of  Spain  gave  Napoleon  an  opportunity  of 
interfering  in  that  country.  An  appeal  to  Napoleon 
ended  in  a  treaty  (October  1807)  for  the  partition  of 
Portugal.  French  troops  were  sent  into  Spain,  and  an 
army  under  Junot,  a  \oung  and  able  general,  marched 
from  Bayonne,  through  Salamanca  and  Alcantara,  and 
occupied  Lisbon.  Other  forces  cut  off  the  northern  pro 
vinces  from  Madrid,  or  turned  towards  Barcelona. 

2.  Early  in  1808,  both  King  Charles  IV.  and  his  son 
Ferdinand  placed  themselves  in  Napoleon's  hands  at 
loseph  Bayonne,  and  the  kingdom  of  Spain  was  re- 
Bonaparte  signed  to  him.  His  brother,  Joseph  Bonaparte, 
Spam°  who  had  been  King  of  Naples,  now  became 
1S08.               King  of  Spain,  and  entered  Madrid  in  July. 

3.  Meanwhile,  among  the  Spanish  people  there  was 
a  fierce  outburst  of  determination  to  resist  the  French. 
Resistance  There  were  riots  in  all  parts,  with  outbreaks 
of  the  Span-     of  savage  barbarity  against  the  upper  classes 

in  Madrid,  Seville,  Toledo,  and  almost  every 
town.     It  was  a  wild  effort  of  a  confused  patriotism,  with- 


^= 

-"^^ 

hS 

z 

< 
OS 

^ 

P^S 

C/5 

o 

^ 

I 

A 

76  The  Peninsidar  War.  1808- 

out  any  great  men  to  lead.  The  French  were  staggered 
for  the  moment,  and  the  new  king  left  Madrid  and  re- 
tired to  the  Ebro,  August  1808. 

4.  For  a  time  Lisbon  was  quiet  under  the  military 
rule  of  Junot.  But  though  his  rule  was  in  some  ways 
Expulsion  better  than  the  miserable  government  of  the 
of  the  Regent,  who  had  fled  to  Brazil,  still  the  country 

Freuch  .,,.  ,         ,  ^ 

from  was  not  wilhng  to  be  thus  annexed  to  France. 

Portugal.  -pj^g  arrogance  of  Junot  and  his  demands  for 
money  roused  a  spirit  of  resistance,  and  the  influence  of 
Spain  and  England  made  the  people  ripe  for  insurrection. 
The  first  signs  of  a  rising  were  at  Oporto,  and  before  long 
the  whole  country  round  the  French  posts  was  in  arms, 
while  an  English  squadron  was  blockading  Lisbon.  An 
attempt  was  then  made  by  the  English  government  to 
drive  the  French  from  Portugal,  with  a  hope,  very  ill- 
founded  as  it  proved,  that  the  rising  of  the  Spaniards 
would  free  their  country.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  landed  in 
August  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mondego,  and  prepared  to 
strike  a  blow  near  Lisbon  with  a  small  force  of  about 
12,000  men.  Marching  southwards  near  the  coast  by 
Leiria  and  Torres  Novas,  a  successful  fight  at  Roliga 
opened  the  road  towards  Torres  Vedras.  At  Vimiero  he 
attacked  Junot's  army,  and,  after  a  hard  fight,  forced  it 
back.  Wellesley  was  unable  to  reap  the  fruits  of  his  vic- 
tory, as  he  was  superseded  by  Sir  Henry  Burrard,  and  he 
by  Sir  Hew  Dalrymple,  who  took  command  on  the  next 
day.  The  intended  advance  was  stopped;  but  Junot, 
afraid  of  a  rising  in  Lisbon,  offered  to  leave  Portugal 
under  a  convention.  This  was  agreed  to,  and,  according 
to  the  '  Convention  of  Cintra,'  by  the  end  of  September 
Portugal  was  clear  of  French  armies. 

5.  Another  expedition  was  not  so  fortunate.  Sir  John 
Moore,  a  brave  and  honourable  man,  and  one  of  England's 
best  generals,  was  sent  into  Spain  to  assist  the  Spanish 


i8o9  Retreat  of  Sir  JoJin  Moore.  jf 

armies.  When  his  force  arrived  at  Salamanca,  it  was 
clear  that  he  was  too  late  to  be  of  any  great  service  in 
Spain.  The  Spanish  forces  had  been  routed,  sir  Tohn 
the  French  were  in  far  too  great  strengtli  '^'o^'re. 
everywhere.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  retire  to  Portugal, 
but  over-persuaded  by  false  information,  he  advanced  to 
Sahagun,  and  there  found  that  Napoleon  would  be  upon 
him  with  an  enormous  force.  He  at  once  retreated  over 
the  river  Esla,  and  past  Lugo  towards  Ferrol  and  Corunna, 
with  the  French  army,  now  under  Soult,  close  upon  him. 
The  fleet  which  was  to  take  him  off  was  a  day  too  late  at 
Corunna,  and  a  battle  had  to  be  fought.  Soon  after  mid- 
day the  French  from  the  outer  circle  of  hills  attacked  the 
English  position  ;  but  by  nightfall  the  advantage  lay  with 
the  English.  During  the  night  the  army  was  embarked 
without  confusion  or  difficulty.  Sir  John  Moore,  struck 
by  a  cannon  ball  during  the  battle,  died,  and  was  buried 
in  the  citadel  of  Corunna.  This  small  expedition  had 
disarranged  Napoleon's  plans,  and  drawn  the  French 
troops  to  the  north,  saving  the  south  and  Portugal.  The 
retreat  before  so  powerful  an  enemy  was  an  honourable 
achievement,  deserving  far  more  praise  than  it  received. 

6.  Meanwhile  Napoleon  had  tilled  Spain  with  troops 
to  the  number  of  300,000  men,  reoccupied  Madrid,  and 
recovered  the  country. 

7.  After  Portugal  had  been  cleared  of  French  troops 
according  to  the  Convention  of  Cintra,  it  was  neglected 
for  some  time  by  the  English  Government.  At  Lisbon 
the  Regency  was  weak,  elsewhere  there  was  scarcely  even 
the  form  of  a  government.  Sir  John  Cradock  with  the 
English  force  held  Lisbon,  but  he  could  do  no  more.  In 
the  south  Marshal  Beresford,  an  English  officer,  was 
making  a  Portuguese  army.  In  the  north  Soult,  leaving 
Corunna,  was  threatening  Portugal.     Towards  the  end  of 


78  The  Peninsular  War.  1809- 

March  1809  he  took  Oporto,  and  set  up  French  influence 
firmly  in  the  district  round 

8.  At  this  time  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  was  sent  to 
succeed  Cradock  in  command  of  the  EngUsh  troops  in 
Wellesiey  Portugal.  Taking  up  the  plan  of  holding 
lauds  in  Lisbon  at  all  hazards,  he  made  ready  to  fall 

Portugal.  r^       1   ,  T->         •  /^    ■      1  1 

upon  Soult  s  army.  Passing  Loimbra,  he 
surprised  the  French  by  suddenly  crossing  the  Douro 
in  May,  and  so  forced  them  to  leave  Oporto.  Soult, 
though  surprised,  made  a  masterly  retreat  into  Gallicia. 
Thus  in  28  days  Wellesley  restored  confidence,  cleared 
Portugal  of  enemies,  and  forced  a  victorious  army  to 
retreat  with  the  loss  of  all  its  guns. 

9.  Wellesley  marched  on  into  Spain,  but  the  small 
number  of  troops  which  he  brought  into  the  field  pre- 
Wellesley's  vented  his  doing  much.  He  aimed  at  threaten- 
advance  ■        Madrid  bv  the  line  of  the  Tagus.     The 

into  Spain.  o  .  o 

Talave  .  various  French  armies  began  to  gather  upon 
him,  and  he  placed  his  forces  on  the  heights  of  Talavera. 
After  some  days'  skirmishing  a  general  attack  was  made 
by  the  French  under  Victor  and  Jourdan  and  King 
Joseph  himself,  who  was  too  eager  to  wait  for  the  opera- 
tions of  Soult  in  the  rear  of  the  English.  All  through 
the  intense  heat  of  the  afternoon  of  July  28  there  was 
desperate  fighting,  but  the  French  attack  failed,  and  a 
grand  charge  of  the  English  cavalry  and  the  irresistible 
advance  of  the  48th  infantry  gained  the  victory.  The 
French  retired,  and  next  day  their  army  retreated. 
Wellesley  presently  moved  off  into  Portugal,  and  held  the 
line  of  the  Guadiana  during  the  winter.  The  campaign 
had  relieved  Gallicia,  but  otherwise  it  was  a  failure. 
Wellesley  indeed  had  been  successful,  but  the  Spaniards 
had  proved  useless  allies. 

10.  The  English  people  were  weary  of  the  war,  and 


-i8ii      French  advance  to  Torres  Vedras.  79 

the  news  of  Wellesley's  retreat,  and  the  failure  of  an  ex- 
pedition to  Walchejen,  led  to  a  quarrel  in  the     j^j^.  p^^. 
ministry,  and  Its  resignation,  September  1809.     cevals 

A  1  1  1        -T~  ministry. 

A    more  thoroughly     I  ory    government   suc- 
ceeded, under  Mr.  Perceval,  with  the  Marquess  Wellesley 
as  Foreign  Secretary.     The  new  ministry  was  unpopular 
at  home,  and  not  vigorous  enough  abroad. 

II.  The  next  year  (1810)  was  marked  by  a  great  dis- 
play of  French  power.  Napoleon,  victorious  in  Germany, 
was  able  to  attend  to  Spain.     Victor  invaded     Ma 


las<iena  s 


Andalusia  and   blockaded   Cadiz.     Massena,     ^dvance  to 

'       Lisbon, 

arriving  in  May,  took  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  and  iSio. 
pressed  on  towards  Portugal.  Wellesley,  now  Lr 
W^ellington.  had  sagacious  plans  ready.  Lisbon  was  10 
be  defended  by  the  EngHsh  and  Portuguese  armies  inside 
three  strong  lines  of  fortified  works  drawn  from  the 
Tagus  to  the  sea,  while  an  English  fleet  was  in  the  har- 
bour. In  September  Massena  with  65,000  troops  was 
at  Viseu,  north  of  the  Mondego.  Wellington  retreated 
before  him,  after  making  a  successful  stand  on  a  high 
range  of  hills,  the  Sierra  I^usaco  ;  and  then  crossing  the 
Mondego,  and  passing  Leiria,  drew  his  army  within  the 
lines  of  Torres  Vedras.  The  lines  included  50  miles  of 
fortification,  1 50  forts,  and  600  guns.  Besides  the  regular 
army,  sailors  from  the  fleet,  English  marines,  Portuguese 
artillery  and  militia,  and  a  Spanish  division  were  engaged 
in  the  defence,  while  the  army  and  fleet  off  Cadiz  kept 
French  troops  in  Andalusia  from  reinforcing  Massena. 

12.  The  blockade  lasted  throughout  the  winter,  but  as 
Wellington  expected,  his  position  was  as  strong  as  ever  in 
the  spring,  and  by  March    181 1    Massena  was     Massena 
obliged  to  withdraw.     He  retreated  across  the     leaves 
Mondego,    and   out    of    Portugal    as   far   as  ^ 

Salamanca,  Wellington   following  to  attack  the   French 
garrison  at  Almeida.     Then  Massena  turned  to  meet  him, 


8o  The  Peninsular  War.  1811- 

and  a  fierce  battle  was  fought  at  Fuentes  d'Onoro  (May) 
in  which  both  sides  claimed  the  victory.  The  advantage 
lay  with  the  English  :  they  were  forced  to  give  some 
ground,  but  defended  the  village  and  still  kept  up  their 
blockade  of  Almeida.  The  French  shortly  left  the  place, 
and  Marmont,  who  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the 
army,  fixed  his  headquarters  at  Salamanca. 

1 3.  Further  south,  Beresford's  army  was  eager  to  take 
the  powerful  fortress  of  Badajoz.     Soult,  who  had  a  large 

army  in  Andalusia,  left  Seville  in  May,  and 
forced  Beresford  and  his  Spanish  allies  to 
break  up  their  investment  of  Badajoz  and  take  position 
for  battle  on  the  heights  of  the  stream  called  the  Albuera. 
Here  was  fought  a  long  and  confused  battle,  which  was 
going  against  the  English  and  Spaniards,  till  at  last  the 
tremendous  pressure  of  the  steady  march  of  8,000  fusiliers 
of  the  English  infantry  up  the  crest  of  the  hill  decided 
the  day.  Of  the  8,000  only  1,200  arrived  at  the  top,  but 
when  they  arrived  the  battle  was  over.  The  loss  on  both 
sides  was  enormous,  the  advantage  was  not  great.  The 
glory  belonged  not  so  much  to  the  general,  for  his  disposi- 
tions had  been  bad,  as  to  the  soldiers,  for  it  was  a  soldiers' 
victory. 

14.  The  winter  saw  the  blockade  of  the  great  border 
fortress  of  Ciudad  Rodr  go.  For  Wellington's  plans  of 
Stormine  of     invading  Spain,  the  capture  of  this  place  and 

Ciudad  -  _     -    -  ...  ... 

Rodrigo. 


Ciudad  of  Badajoz  was  absolutelv  needful.     The  siege 


was  hurried  in  every  possible  manner,  that  no 
French  force  might  come  to  the  rescue  in  time,  and 
thorough  preparations  had  been  made  beforehand  in 
Almeida  and  places  near.  In  twelve  days  the  breaches 
were  practicable,  a  fourfold  attack  was  made,  and  the 
place  was  stormed.  A  frightful  scene  followed  ;  all  dis- 
cipline was  cast  off  by  the  soldiers,  who  even  set  fire  to 
the  town  in  their  drunken  madness. 


-i8i2  Wellington  at  Madrid.  81 

15.  Wellington  then  turned  to  Badajoz.  This  famous 
fortress  had  been  twice  invested  during  181 1,  and  twice 
left  untaken.  In  March  it  was  again  invested,  storming  of 
this  time  to  be  taken.  The  French  governor,  J^adajoz. 
Phillipon,  was  an  engineer  second  to  none,  and  he  did  all 
that  could  be  done.  But  in  April  the  place  was  stormed 
and  taken  after  siege  operations  which  cost  1,500  men, 
and  an  assault  costing  3,500  more.  These  successes, 
with  the  capture  of  Almaraz  on  the  Tagus,  gave  Wel- 
lington new  and  strong  bases  of  action  beyond  the 
frontier. 

16.  In  June,  no  longer  fearing  for  Portugal,  he  ad- 
vanced to  the  river  Tormes,  attacked  Salamanca,  and 
passed  across  the  river.  A  month  later  he  was  Weiling- 
in  the  same  position  again,  with  Maimont's  aXanceto 
artiiy  close  by,  threatening  his  communica-  Madrid, 
tions.  From  this  he  intended  to  retreat,  when  suddenly 
he  found  an  opportunity  of  falling  on  Marmont's  amiy, 
broken  into  three  divisions.  With  great  skill  the  left  of 
the  French  was  instantly  attacked  and  tiirown  into  con- 
fusion, and  Marmont  himself  badly  wounded.  General 
Clausel  saved  the  centre,  but  the  whole  army  was  de- 
feated, and  ne.xt  day  was  in  full  retreat.  In  a  few  days 
Wellington  was  at  Valladolid,  and  Clausel  had  been  driven 
tov/ards  Burgos,  while  King  Joseph,  who  had  been  unable 
to  join  him,  left  Madrid.  The  battle  of  Salamanca  was 
the  first  decisive  victory  in  the  war.  The  French  armies 
were  driven  headlong,  and  all  the  centre  of  Spain  was 
cleared  of  the  enemy.  While  King  Joseph  crossed  the 
Tagus  to  Aranjuez,  Wellington  entered  Madrid. 

The  power  to  hold  central  Spain  depended  on  the 
movenents  of  Soult  with  the  army  of  .Andalusia.  \\'hen 
he  left  Seville  to  join  the  annies  of  the  centre  and  north, 
Wellington  decided  to  leave  Madrid  and  the  siege  of 
Burgos,  and  retire  to  his  base,  Ciudad  Rodrigo.     There 

/■:.  //.  G 


82  The  Peninsular  War.  1812- 

in  the  S'.irrounding  district  he  n">-'de  ready  for  winter, 
after  the  greatest  campaign  which  he  had  yet  fought. 

17.  This  year,  181 2,  had  seen  a  change  of  ministry  in 
England,  for  Mr.  Perceval  had  been  shot  by  a  man  called 
Ly^j  Bellingham,  a  merchant  who  fancied  that  the 
Liverpool's      government   had   treated   him  badly.      Lord 

ministry.  -  .  ,  ,       ,  .     .  •  i    i         i-     , 

Liverpool  re-made  the  mmistry,  with  but  little 
change  of  policy.  Abroad  they  weie  not  much  more 
vigorous  or  successful  ;  at  home  there  was  some  small  in- 
clination to  grant  slight  reforms,  though  little  was  done. 

18.  During  the  winter  Wellington  prepared  for  the 
work  of  the  next  year.  He  made  his  own  army  ready. 
Plans  for  and  visited  the  Spanish  Cortes  at  Cadiz,  and 
ral^^f  ^^  Portuguese  Junta  at  Lisbon,  to  urge  them 
1813.  to  support  his  plans  vigorously.  The  cam- 
paign of  1813  was  to  be  decisive.  Many  things  favoured 
the  allies.  The  desperate  need  of  keeping  France  and 
Germany  quiet  since  the  failure  of  the  Russian  expedition 
made  the  war  in  Spain  now  a  small  matter  in  Napoleon's 
eyes,  so  long  as  Wellington  could  be  kept  out  of  France. 
Stronger  bands  of  guerrillas,  who  were  irregular  troops, 
half  soldiers  half  robbers,  were  springing  up  all  over  the 
north  of  Spain,  shutting  the  roads,  and  threatening  the 
French  posts  along  the  coast  of  Biscay.  Differences  of 
opinion  between  King  Joseph,  Soult,  and  Suchet  also 
damaged  the  French  cause. 

19.  With  headquarters  at  Valladohd,  the  French 
armies  stretched  from  Alicante  to  Toledo  and  on  to 
Advance  to  Salamanca.  The  English  forces  had  grown 
vittoria.  j,-j  numbers,  and  their  allies  had  improved  in 
quality.  After  waiting  till  May  for  the  green  forage,  the 
alhes,  with  wide  front,  advanced  in  three  armies  across 
the  Esla,  the  Douro,  and  the  Turmes,  in  such  force  that 
the  French  retreated  before  them.  Passing  Salamanca, 
they  were  at  Valladolid  in  the  beginning  of  June.  Crossing 


I 


-i8i3  Vittoria.  83 

the  Carrion  and  thePisuerga,  they  turned  the  sources  of  the 
Ebro.  Thus  the  French  had  to  leave  the  coast  and  con- 
centrate themselves  on  Vittoria,  while  Santander  became 
a  new  and  convenient  depot  and  base  for  the  allies,  now 
cut  free  from  Portugal.  At  Vittoria  a  decisive  battle  was 
fought.  The  town  stood  at  the  end  of  a  wide  basin 
about  eight  miles  by  ten,  circled  by  rocky  hills.  Into 
this  basin  was  gathered  all  the  material  of  the  French 
army,  with  not  far  short  of  80,000  men  posted  to  defend 
the  heights.  On  June  21  the  allies  closed  round  the 
basin,  and  then  forced  their  way  through  the  hills,  driving 
the  enemy  six  miles  to  the  last  height  before  the  town. 
From  this  point,  with  further  fighting,  they  advanced, 
taking  gun  after  gun,  while  the  enemy  hurriedly  retreated. 
The  loss  of  men  was  not  enormous,  but  all  the  baggage, 
all  the  treasure,  all  the  papers,  and  all,  save  two,  of  the 
guns  of  the  army  were  left  to  the  allies  in  the  basin  of 
Vittoria.  It  was  the  end  of  the  French  occupation  of 
Spain,  and  in  a  few  days  all  the  frontier  line  from  the 
valley  of  Roncesvalles.  to  the  Bidassoa  was  held  by  the 
allies,  and  Patnpcluna  and  San  Sebastian  were  invested. 
In  six  weeks  Wellington  had  marched  almost  600  miles. 
and  driven  120,000  troops,  under  excellent  generals,  out 
of  Spain. 

20.  For  a  moment,  Soult,  who  was  now  at  Bayonne, 
again  in  command,  hoped  to  unite  his  armies,  and  relieve 
the  fortresses  of  Pampeluna,  San  Sebastian,     -^y^^ 
Santona,  and  occupy  Aragon.     But  he  made     sage  Into 
no  way  in  nine  days  of  hill  fighting,  in  which 
ten   actions  were    fought.      San    Sebastian   surrendered 
after  a  brave  defence  of  sixty-three  days,  and  Pampeluna 
soon  after.      In  October  Wellington  was  in   France,  at 
Vera  ;  and  in  November  the  passage  of  the  Nivelle  was 
forced.     Soult  was  driven  back  on  Bayonne,  and  still  tht 
English   army  pressed   him.     However  much  he  was  de 


84  TJie  Peninsular  War.  1814 

layed  b}  .vant  of  stores,  money,  or  ammunition,  or  dis- 
tracted by  the  contrary  views  of  the  ministry  in  England, 
or  disturbed  by  Bourbon  plots  or  Spanish  quarrels,  still 
Wellington  steadily  and  cautiously  closed  his  grasp  upon 
Soult,  who  fought  with  untiring  spirit  and  yet  no  hope  of 
success.  In  February.  1814,  General  Hill  crossed  the 
Adour  ;  a  battle  followed  at  Orthes  in  which  the  French 
were  again  beaten.  Ne.xt  Soult  was  obliged  to  leave  Bay- 
onne,  which  was  at  once  invested.  Fighting  all  the  way, 
he  retreated  on  Toulouse,  the  great  arsenal  which  com- 
manded the  southern  roads  and  the  passage  of  the  Garonne. 
There  the  war  ended.  One  desperate  battle  was  fought 
outside  Toulouse  in  April,  before  the  abdication  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  was  known.  It  was  scarcely  a 
victoiy  for  the  English,  scarcely  a  defeat  for  Soult,  but 
he  had  to  retreat  two  days  later,  and  Wellington  entered 
Toulouse.  He  had  done  his  work  so  as  to  earn  glory 
for  the  English  armies  seldom  if  ever  equalled. 

The  glory  was  due  to  general  and  army  rather  than 
to  the  government.  In  no  other  part  of  Europe  had  the 
English  schemes  succeeded.  The  home  government 
had  shown  little  energy  or  good  sense.  An  expedition 
sent  to  the  island  of  Walcheren  and  to  Antwerp  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Scheldt  to  aid  in  driving  out  the  French 
had  been  a  wretched  failure.  It  took  Walcheren  and  its 
town  of  Middelburg.  But  so  much  time  was  spent  in 
taking  Flushing  that  all  chance  of  getting  Antwerp  was 
lost,  and  no  more  was  done.  The  Dutch  did  not  want 
such  help,  and  the  French  could  not  be  driven  out.  The 
services  of  40,000  men  were  wasted,  and  verj'  many 
lives  lost. 


i8i4  The  Fall  of  Napoleon.  85 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    KALI.   OK    NAPOLEON. 

I.  While  Wellington  had  been  making  his  way  into 
France,  the  end  of  Napoleon's  power  had  come.  In  i8n 
he  had  annexed  Holland  and  the  neighbouring     , 

r-  Til       nT  1     >•  .      ,.  Invasion  of 

coast  as  lar  as  Lubeck  ;  W  estphalia  and  all  the  Krance. 
minor  States  of  Germany  were  in  his  power.  '8'3-»4- 
But  in  1812  Russia  and  Sweden  were  no  longer  willing 
to  be  shut  out  from  trade  with  Britain.  Napoleon  at  once 
attacked  Russia,  crossing  the  Niemen  in  June,  and  passing 
through  Lithuania  to  Smolensk  and  Moscow.  He  was 
victorious,  but  his  army  perished  of  cold  in  its  retreat, 
and  very  little  of  it  repassed  the  Niemen  in  December. 
His  power  was  broken,  and  the  people  of  Prussia  and  of 
other  parts  of  Germany  were  eager  to  rise  and  join 
Russia  in  overthrowing  him.  Though  he  had  successes 
in  the  spring  and  summer  of  181 3,  his  enemies  closed 
upon  him,  and  the  decisive  battle  of  Leipzig,  fought 
through  great  pan  of  three  days  in  October,  allowed  the 
allies  to  follow  him  into  France.  Amidst  frequent  battles 
and  much  negotiation  Paris  yielded.  March  31,  and  then 
Napoleon  abdicated  in  April,  while  Wellington  and  Soult 
were  fighting  near  Toulouse. 

2.  The  allies  had  been  fighting  not  alone  for  independ- 
ence, but  also  for  the  old  monarchy  which  the  French 
Revolution  had  overthrown ;  they  therefore  Xhe  Re.<ito- 
again  set  up  the  old  line  of  French  kings,  and  ration,  1814. 
Lewis  XVI II.  was  placed  on  the  throne.  The  task  of 
restoring  the  old  limits  of  kingdoms,  and  the  old  state  of 
things,  wherever  possible,  was  given  to  a  Congress  of 
diplomatists  who  met  at  \'ienna. 


86  The  Battle  of  Waterloo.  1815 

3.  The  war,  however,  was  not  yet  all  over  ;  one  great 
campaign  more  had  to  be  fought.      For  eleven  months  a 

feverish  peace  lasted,  and  then  news  suddenly 

The  return  ,  ,        „  >.-  i 

of  Napo-  came  that  the  Emperor  rsapoleon  was  agam 

leon,  1815.  jj^  France.  He  had  been  placed  in  the  little 
island  of  Elba,  and  from  thence,  in  March  i8i5,he  crossed, 
and  landed  near  Cannes.  He  was  everywhere  welcomed, 
the  army  and  his  old  generals  gathered  round  him.  He 
was  in  Paris  in  three  weeks,  and  the  restored  king  had 
gone  again.  There  is  no  wonder  that  men  who  had 
fought  and  suffered  as  Frenchmen  had  for  equal  rights 
and  for  glory  should  eagerly  welcome  the  great  general 
and  Emperor  who  was  to  free  them  from  the  feeble  king 
who  reminded  them  of  the  old  days  of  despotism  and  of  the 
conquest  of  Paris  by  the  foreigner.  But  the  allies  would 
have  no  terms  with  the  Emperor,  no  terms  with  France 
save  as  a  beaten  country.  Wellington  was  at  Brussels 
early  in  April,  and  armies  of  English,  Prussians,  and 
other  allies  began  to  gather.  Napoleon  crossed  the 
frontier  near  Charleroi  on  June  i  5  ;  and  he  was  at  once 
within  reach  of  the  Prussian  forces  at  Charleroi,  Namur, 
Li^ge,  while  the  English  were  moving  close  to  Quatre 
Bras. 

4.  The  Prussians,  attacked  at  Charleroi  and  again  at 
Ligny,  retreated  after  suffering  some  loss.  The  English, 
Waterioo,  who  fought  at  Quatre  Bras  with  success,  were 
June  1815.  moved  back  a  distance  of  seven  miles.  There, 
on  June  18,  was  fought  the  decisive  battle  of  Waterloo. 
About  eleven  o'clock  the  attack  was  begun  by  the  French  ; 
and  the  fighting  lasted  till  evening.  The  whole  brunt  of  the 
battle  fell  upon  the  English  army,  and  they  bravely  kept 
their  ground.  About  seven  o'clock  the  last  French 
charge  was  made  upon  the  left  centre,  and  it  failed.  By 
that  time  the  Prussians,  under  Blucher  and  Bulow,  had 
come  up,  and  to  their  timely   assistance  it  was  due  in 


/8i5  Abdication  of  Napoleon.  Z"/ 

great  measure  that  a  great  victory   was  won.     The  wax 
was  now  over  and  the  French  empire  at  an  end. 

5.  Napoleon  reached  Paris  on  the  21st,  and  abdicated. 
At  Rochfort  he  placed  himself  in  the  hands  of  the 
captain  of  an  English  man-of-war.  The  Abdication 
allies  decided  that  he  should  be  exiled  to  the  of  Napoleon, 
island  of  St.  Helena,  an  English  possession  in  the 
Atlantic,  where  he  stayed  till  his  death. 

6.  There  was  nothing  now  to  hinder  the  march  of  the 
victorious  armies.  The  allies  entered  Paris  on  July  7, 
and  Lewis  XVTIl.  was  restored  on   the   next 

day.     France  was  held  by  foreign  troops  till 
the  work  of  restoring  the  old  map  of  Europe  was  done. 
England  had  nothing  to  gain  by  any  settlement,  but  she 
took  her  part  in  settmg  up  the  old  despotisms  with  little 
care  for  the  people  of  the  different  states. 


BOOK     VI. 
THE   RESULTS   OF    THE    WAR.     181 5- 1820. 

CHAPTER    I. 
THE   YEARS   OF   PEACE. 

T.  From  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  England 
had  been  more  than  usually  aftected  by  foreign  politics. 
And  from  the  year  1793  she  had  been  obliged     „^ 

,      '  ,      , ,  ,^      •  ,  Want  of  re- 

to  attend  almost  wholly  to  war.     During  the     forms  at 
whole    time    social    improvement   had   been     '^°^^- 
checked,  and  of  constitutional  progress  there  had  been 
scarcely    any.     The  government  feared   all   discussion, 
and  tried  to  prevent  all  change  or  reform.     Any  desire 
for  change  was   called   unpatriotic  and  un-English,  all 


88  The  Results  of  the  War.  i8i5_ 

reforms  were  looked  on  as  revolutionary  and  French. 
The  country  generally  shrank  from  disturbance  in  home 
politics,  thinking  the  time  not  suitable.  The  dread  of 
making  great  changes  during  war,  combined  with  a  fear 
of  the  danger  of  any  approach  to  French  republican 
views,  had  prevented  all  reform  of  Parliament  ;  the 
same  fate  had  befallen  the  other  great  question,  Catholic 
emancipation.  Although  in  each  case  valuable  time  was 
lost,  perhaps  it  was  well  that  England  did  not  pretend  to 
reform  herself  at  a  time  when  she  was  helping  the  powers 
on  the  Continent  to  stamp  out  demands  of  reform  in 
other  countries. 

2.  The  many  years  of  war  had  done  much  to  destroy 
the  wealth  and  prosperity  which  had  grown  so  fast  in  the 
early  years  of  Pitt's  ministry.  For  all  manufactures  and 
every  kind  of  trade  had  been  injured  except  so  far  as 
war  had  in  some  few  cases  made  an  extraordinary 
demand,  and  so  brought  wealth  to  some  classes,  as  to  the 
farmers,  who  got  very  high  prices  for  corn  and  other  pro- 
duce. For  most  persons  the  means  of  living  had  been  so 
exhausted  by  the  loss  of  trade,  the  waste  of  life  and 
money,  and  the  enormous  amount  of  the  taxes,  that 
distress  had  become  widespread. 

3.  After  the  peace  of  181 5  was  made,  the  effects  of 
the  war  made  themselves  most  thoroughly  felt  for  the 
next  few  years.  Foreign  politics  gave  way  to  difficulties 
at  home  ;  war  was  succeeded  by  profound  peace,  save  in 
one  spot  and  for  a  moment,  but  for  years  the  peace  was 
full  of  troubles. 

4.  The  one  exception  to  the  general  peace  was  an 
interferenceof  civilised  Europe  against  barbarian  practices. 
Putting  The  small  Mohammedan  States  of  northern- 
Christian  Africa,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  and  .Algiers,  had  foi 
slavery.  centuries  been  wont  to  sweep  the  seas  as 
pirates,  to  take  the  vessels  of  all  nations,  and  to  carry  off 


i82o  Bombardment  of  Algiers.  89 

Christians  into  slavery.  In  the  seventeenth  century  we  heai 
of  Turks  and  Barbary  corsairs  even  in  the  English  Chan- 
nel. To  leave  money  for  the  ransom  of  Christian  slaves 
from  the  Moors  was  a  common  form  of  charity  in  England. 
The  power  of  these  States  was  less  now  than  formerly  ; 
while  other  nations  had  stronger  fleets,  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean was  public  water.  The  Christian  States  would 
allow  this  habit  of  piracy  no  longer.  Public  opinion  as  to 
slavery  had  changed;  England  had  put  down  her  own 
slave  trade  in  1807  ;  and  Napoleon  had  found  time  to  do 
the  same  in  the  hurried  days  of  1S15  ;  and  other  nations 
followed.  The  worthiest  memorial  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  is  its  agreement  to  put  an  end  to  the  deeds  of  the 
corsairs  of  the  Mediterranean. 

5.  An  English  fleet  under  Lord  Exmouth  forced  the 
rulers  of  Tunis  and  Tripoli  to  give  up  their  Christian 
slaves,  to  the  number  of  1,800,  and  to  bind     Bombard- 
themselves  by  treaty  to  take  no  more.     The     Algiers^ 
fleet,  with  a  small  squadron  of  Dutch  ships,     >8t6. 

was  off  Algiers  in  August.  Lord  E.xmouth's  demands 
were  made  at  once,  including  freedom  of  all  Christian 
slaves  and  the  end  of  Christian  slavery.  When  no 
answer  was  given,  the  fleet  worked  in  close  to  the  im- 
mense batteries  and  facing  the  Algerine  fleet  and  the 
higher  forts.  The  first  shot  was  fired  by  the  Algerines, 
it  is  said,  and  then  all  the  afternoon  and  the  evening 
there  was  deadly  fighting,  till  almost  all  the  enemy's 
guns  were  silenced.  The  fleet  worked  out  in  the  night 
with  a  loss  of  about  900  men,  better  spent  in  this  than 
most  causes.  Next  morning  the  Dey  of  Algiers  yielded 
to  all  demands,  and  gave  up  1,083  Christian  slaves. 

6.  The  exhaustion  of  the  country  was  great,  and  the 
recovery  at  first  was  slow.  The  enormous  debt  pressed 
hard,  and  distress  created  bitter  discontent  before  society 
had  fitted    itself  to    the   new    conditions.       The  heavy 


90  The  Results  of  the  War.  1815- 

taxes  seea-ed  more  unbearable  in  peace  than  they  had 

been  in  war.     All  those  branches  of  industry  which  had 

^.  flourished  because  of  war  prices  now  suffered. 

Distress  , 

anddis-  Many   workmen  were  thrown  Out  of  employ- 

turbances.  nieut.  Much  Suffering  was  felt  before  ad- 
vaxitage  could  be  taken  of  those  new  openings  for  trade 
which  peace  would  gradually  offer.  Large  numbers 
of  soldiers  and  sailors  were  no  longer  needed,  and  yet  it 
was  not  easy  to  take  them  into  the  professions  and  trades 
without  injury  to  others.  Parliament  listened  to  the 
complaints  of  landowners  and  farmers,  and  to  prevent 
them  from  being  injured  by  a  fall  in  the  price  of  corn, 
forbade  all  imports  unless  the  price  reached  805-.,  that  is 
till  there  was  famine  in  the  land.  This  unfair  and  foolish 
law  hurt  all  other  classes,  and  almost  starved  the  poor. 
Bad  seasons  and  wretched  harvests  followed.  Distress 
led  to  riot  among  the  agricultural  labourers  in  the  eastern 
counties,  and  among  the  colliers  and  miners  of  the 
midland  districts  and  of  South  Wales.  There  were  also 
riots  of  distressed  mechanics  who  knew  no  better  than  to 
try  to  put  down  the  machinery  which  was  now  being  largely 
brought  into  use.  In  thickly  peopled  places,  such  as  Man- 
chester and  Glasgow,  demands  for  reforms  led  to  great 
disturbances.  The  country  was  fast  becoming  difficult  to 
manage.  The  government,  unwilling  to  admit  the  need 
of  any  changes,  or  unable  to  find  remedies,  looked  only 
for  means  to  force  the  people  to  be  quiet.  They  sus- 
pended the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  got  Parliament  to 
pass  the  severe  laws  of  repression  known  as  the  Six  Acts, 
which  took  away  the  usual  hberty  of  holding  public 
meetings,  increased  the  harshness  of  the  law  of  libel, 
and  gave  to  the  authorities  powers  to  search  private  houses 
for  arms.  It  must  also  be  remembfeied  that  the  king 
through  illness  had  taken  no  part  in  business  for  years, 


-i82o  The  Beginning  of  Reforms.  91 

and    that  the    Regent  was  neither  respected  nor   hked. 
Crown  and  Parliament  were  alike  held  in  suspicion. 

7.  The  reign  of  George  III.  therefore  ended  in  a  time 
of  sullen  agitation,  the  result  in  part  of  the  usual  distress 
caused  by  a  long  war,  in  part  of  the  putting  off  of  needful 
measures  of  reform.  These  were  now  urgently  called 
for,  to  make  our  laws  reasonable  and  fair,  to  allow  for 
the  natural  growth  of  the  community,  and  to  give  the 
great  majority  of  the  people  their  fair  share  in  governing 
themselves.  The  story  of  the  struggles  for  these  reforms 
belongs  properly  to  the  later  period  of  our  history. 


CHAPTER    II. 
THE   DEMAND   FOR    REFORMS. 


I.  But  while  that  story  must  be  left,  still  two  great 
movements  deserve  mention  as  worthily  marking  this 
period,  though  neither  came  lo  a  full  end  within  it.  The 
one  was  the  improvement  of  English  criminal  law ;  the 
other  was  a  crusade  against  the  slave-trade,  ending  in 
the  abolition  of  slavery. 

2.  English  law  had  long  needed  reform.  It  was  of  un- 
wieldy bulk,  badly  arranged,  and  slow  of  application.  The 
criminal  law  was  also  frightfully  severe,  and, 

...  ,         _        .      .  Reform  ot 

m  consequence,  very  ill  executed.  For  juries  the  crimi- 
could  not  be  found  to  subject  men  and  women  "*'  '^^■ 
to  its  harsh  punishments.  A  small  knot  of  energetic  men 
set  to  work  to  reform  the  criminal  law.  They  were 
mostly,  as  was  natural,  men  of  advanced  liberal  views. 
Their  master,  Jeremy  Bentham,  was  a  learned  and  wise 
lawyer.  Unfortunately  the  government  was  afraid  of  all 
reformers^,  and  was  also  specially  afraid  of  the  effect  of 
mildness  m  what  they  thousdit  most  dangerous  times.     To 


92  The  Results  of  the  War.  1815- 

make  the  laws  milder  when  men  were  lawless,  seemed 
to  them  a  move  in  exactly  the  wrong  direction.  It  is 
astounding  now  to  think  that  in  this  century  men  were 
liable  to  death  for  forging  receipts,  or  for  sheep-stealing, 
or  for  picking  pockets,  or  for  shop-lifting.  In  the  reign 
of  George  III.  the  punishment  of  death  was  due  by  law 
for  about  160  different  crimes,  '  actions  which  men  are 
daily  hable  to  commit.'  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  in  1808. 
was  able  to  do  away  with  the  punishment  of  death  for 
picking  pockets.  And  at  last,  after  many  years,  in  1818, 
Sir  James  Mackintosh,  aided  by  Canning  and  Wilberforce, 
against  the  whole  force  of  the  government,  carried  in  the 
House  of  Commons  a  motion  for  a  Select  Committee  on 
capital  punishment,  which  led  in  the  end  to  a  rearrange- 
ment of  penalties,  and  made  English  criminal  law  fit  for 
a  civilised  and  law-abiding  people. 

3.  The  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  was  due  to  that 
religious  party  which  has  borne  the  name  of  Evangelicals. 
The  They  were  representatives  of  the  spirit  which 

Wesleys.  arose  from  the  teaching  and  the  religious 
fervour  of  the  Wesleys  and  Whitfield  and  their  admirers. 
These  men  were  leaders  of  an  earnest  revival  of  religion 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  They  were  pious  Oxford 
students  who  gave  themselves  up  to  do  good.  They 
went  everywhere  preaching,  to  awaken  people  to  a  sense 
of  their  sinfulness,  and  to  lead  them  to  live  better  and 
more  religious  lives.  The  Church  at  first  did  not  like 
them,  and  they  met  with  many  difficulties,  for  their  doings 
were  often  odd.  But  though  many  laughed  at  them,  their 
success  was  very  great.  Thousands  were  converted  by 
their  preaching.  The  whole  tone  of  English  feeling  was 
changed  by  the  renewed  religious  life  which  grew  out  of 
it.  Very  many,  who  did  not  become  followers  of  them  in 
name,  yet  learnt  much  from  their  piety  and  unselfishness, 
;uid  joined  them  in  good  works. 


-i82o  Movement  against  Slavery.  93 

4.  From  the  foundation  of  American  and  West  Indian 
colonies  negro  slaves  had  been  brought  from  Africa,  and 
the  trade  had  greatly  fallen  into  the  hands  ot     ^^^  ^^^^U 
Englishmen.     The  horrors  of  the  traffic  and     tionofthe 

,  rr     •  /-     1  ,  1  slave-trade. 

the  suifermgs  of  the  slaves  on  the  passage 
roused  attention  in  England.  A  determined  attempt 
was  made  to  regulate  or  even  to  put  down  the  traffic. 
The  leaders  of  this  attempt  were  Wilberforce  and  Thorn- 
ton in  Parliament,  and  Granville  Sharp,  Clarkson,  and 
Zachary  Macaulay  outside.  The  last  had  been  manager 
of  a  slave  plantation  in  Jamaica,  and  knew  well  the  evils 
against  which  he  fought  so  hard.  In  1788  Pitt  moved  for 
an  inquiry  with  a  view  to  regulate  the  trade,  and  awful 
disclosures  were  made  of  cruelties,  scarcely  credible  in 
these  days.  But  when  next  year  Wilberforce  proposed  to 
put  down  the  slave-trade  and  make  it  illegal,  the  mer- 
chants of  Liverpool  and  other  ports  were  too  strong  for 
him,  and  they  defeated  him  for  many  years.  No  effort 
was  spared,  a  Society  was  formed,  the  matter  was  urged  in 
season  and  out  of  season.  They  rescued  slaves  where 
they  could,  and  formed  a  colony  for  freed  slaves  at  Sierra 
Leone  under  a  charter,  of  which  Macaulay  was  governor 
from  1793-1799-  The  two  great  statesmen,  Pitt  and  Fox, 
opposed  on  most  questions,  were  united  on  this,  and  sup- 
ported the  change  on  the  ground  that  traffic  in  human 
beings  was  wrong.  The  length  of  the  battle  had  its  value, 
for  the  long  discussion  showed  that  more  was  involved 
than  a  mere  question  of  -^ruelty  on  board  ship,  more  was 
needed  than  the  end  of  the  slave  trade.  When  at  length 
success  crowned  the  efforts  of  the  Society,  in  1807,  and 
the  slave-trade  was  abolished  by  the  Grenville  government, 
the  philanthropists  had  not  finished  their  work.  They 
began  again,  and  fought  for  many  years,  till  1833,  a  harder 
and  a  longer  battle,  and  they  won  a  still  more  honour- 
able victory  in  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  all  the  dom- 
inions and  colonies  of  the  British  empire. 


94  Summary. 

CHAPTER   III. 

SUMMARY. 

T.  Looking  back  oxerthe  reign  of  King  George  III.,  we 
find  that  it  was  a  time  of  great  events.  England  lost 
nost  of  her  great  colonies  in  America,  and  gained  a  great 
ind  growing  empire  in  the  East.  She  fought  a  long 
and  exhausting  war  in  Europe  with  great  bravery  and 
perseverance,  and  came  out  of  it  with  a  high  reputation. 

The    seeds   of   many   changes   also   were   sown,    to 

grow  vigorously  before  many  years   passed  ;   indeed  of 

nearly   all   the   great   reforms   by   which    England    has 

become  so  great,  so  well  governed,  so  prosperous,  and  so 

•  contented. 

2.  It  is  especially  to  be  noted  that  during  this  reign, 
power  had  been  gradually  passing  into  the  hands  of  the 
T,  middle  classes,  and,  more   particularlv,   the 

1  he  crown  '  '^  -  ' 

loses  population  of  the  great  cities.     The  power  of 

power.  ^^^  great  Whig  noble  families  of  the  Revolution 

had  been  broken  by  the  king.  Again,  the  power  of  the 
crown  had  grown  less.  King  George  III.,  who  was 
thoroughly  English,  and  most  attentive  to  business,  tried 
hard  to  have  his  own  way  ;  he  succeeded  to  a  great 
extent,  in  some  measure  because  of  his  industry  and  his 
desire  to  do  what  he  thought  was  good  for  his  subjects. 
But  his  policy  was  not  wise,  and  the  results  of  his  exer- 
cise of  power  were  disastrous,  and  after  a  time  he  grew 
feeble  and  then  for  a  long  time  he  was  mad. 

3.  While  the  crown  thus  lost  power,  the  middle 
classes,  to  whom  it  was  passing,  were  becoming  more 
™_      ., ,,       ready  to  claim  it  and  more  competent   to  use 

The  middle  ■'  ,         r     1  ■  1 

classes  gain  it.  The  example  of  the  American  colonies 
P°*^''-  was  before  their  eyes.     The  influence  of  the 

French  Revolution  was  greatly  shown  in  the   new  spirit 


I 


Summary.  95 

of  inquiry,  which  spread  widely.  A  demand  for  informa- 
tion created  a  quickly  growing  supply  of  books,  periodicals, 
and  newspapers,  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  these 
in  their  turn  tended  to  increase  the  demand  for  education. 
The  desire  for  news  from  the  war  helped  the  sale  of 
newspapers  to  a  degree  not  before  known.  While  tlie 
House  of  Commons  grew  less  and  less  representative  of 
the  people,  the  newspapers  were  becoming  the  best  means 
of  appealing  to  public  opinion. 

4.  The  wealth,  also,  of  England  had  grown  greatly  by 
reason  of  an  enlargement  of  trade.  This,  though  checked 
by  the  war,  was  constantly  tending  to  throw  a  larger 
proportion  of  wealth  into  the  hands  of  the  middle  classes, 
in  whose  hands  manufactures  and  commerce  chiefly  lay 
Much  fell  also  to  the  largely  growing  class  of  artisans.  The 
influence  of  scientific  invention  was  the  same  ;  it  too 
greatly  benefited  the  trading  classes.  Engineering  made 
great  strides,  especially  through  the  adaptation  of  steam  to 
machinery,  to  engines  of  locomotion  on  land,  and  to  ships, 
though  the  great  effects  of  the  invention  were  not  seen 
till  later.  All  these  things  threw  wealth  into  the  hands 
of  the  middle  classes,  and  increased  wealth  meant  in- 
creased influence  and  power  in  the  country.  In  every 
way  the  middle  classes  were  becoming  the  great  power  in 
England. 


J 


INDEX. 


ABE 

A  BERCROMBY,  Sir  Ralph,  33 
•'^     Aboukir,  53 
Acre,  52 

Adams,  Mr.  Francis,  13 
Addington,    Mr,   (Lord   Sidmouth) 

68,  72 
Adige,  river,  53 
Ahmedabad,  28 
Ahmednuggur,  34 
Albany,  15 
Albuera   battle  of,  80 
Alcantara,  74 
Alexandria,  52,  sj 
Algiers,  88,  89 
Alicante,  82 
Allahabad,  26,  34 
Allygurh,  34 
Almaraz,  81 
Almeida,  79,  80 
Amiens,  peace  of,   55 
Andalusia,  79,  81 
AndrS,  Major,  17 
Antwerp,  70,  84 
Aragon,  83 
Araiijuez,  81 
Arcot,  28 
Arklow,  65 

Arnold,  General,  11,  12,  15,  17 
Assaye,  battle  ot,  34 
Austerlitz,  battle  of,  72 
Austria,  45,  70 

UADAJOZ,  80.  81 

*-'     Baillie,  General,  28 

Baird,  General  Sir  David,  33,  53 

Baltic  league,  54,  73 

Baltimore,  14 

Buitry  Bay,  ji,  63 

E.  H.  H 


BUS 

Barlow,  Sir  George,  3, 

Haroda,  24 

Basle,  negotiations  at,  53 

Bassein,  27,  34 

Batavian  Republic,  70 

Bavaria,  53,  72 

Bayonne,  74,  83 

Behmiis'  Heights,  15 

Belfast,  62 

Belgium,  47,  48,  50 

Bengal,  24-26 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  91 

Beresford,  Marshal,  77,  8c 

Berlin  liecree,  72,  74 

Bhopal,  37 

Bidassoa,  river,  83 

Biscay,  82 

Blucher,  86 

Bombay,  25,  28 

Bonaparte,  Joseph,  74,  78,  81 

Boston,  7,  8,  II 

Boulogne,  70,  71 

Bourbon,  isle  of,  35 

Brandywin"-,  river,  16 

Brazil,  76 

Brest,  62,  63,  70,  71 

Bridport,  Lord,  62 

Bristol,  59 

Brittany,  49 

Brunswick,  Duke  <jf,  45 

Brussels,  46,  86 

Bulow,  86 

Bunker's  Hill,  battle  of,  11 

Burgos,  81 

Burgoyne,  General,  15 

Burke,  Edmund,  7,  8,  29,  44,  59 

Burrard.  Sir  Harry,  76 

Bu;>aco,  battle  of,  79 


98 


Index. 


CAU 

pADIZ,  51,  71,  79,  82 

^-^     Cairo,  52 

Calcutta,  26 

Camperdown,  battle  nf,  51.  6j 

Canada,  9,  11,  i; 

Cannes.  8''> 

Canning,  Mr.,  73,  92 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  49 

Carleton,  General,  12 

Carlow,  64,  65 

Carnatic,  28,  33 

Carolinas,  the,  3 

Castlebar,  66 

Casllereagh,  Lord,  73 

Cathcart,  Lord,  73 

Catherine  of  Russia,  20 

Catholic  emancipation,  54,  71 

Cauvery,  river,  32 

Cawdor,  Lord,  51 

Ceylon,  55 

Chandemagoie,  22 

Charleroi,  S6 

Charles  IV.  of  Spain,  74 

Charlestown,  18 

Chatham,  Lord  (Mr.  Pitt),  8,  16 

Chesapeake,  16 

China,  36 

Chota  Nagpore,  24 

Cintra,  convention  of,  76 

Circars,  20 

Cisalpine  Republic,  53 

Ciudad  Rodrigo,  79,  So,  81 

Clarkson,  Mr.,  93 

Clause!,  Gi'neral,  81 

Clavering,  26 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  15.  17 

Clive,  Lord,  22,  25,  29 

Coalition  Ministry,  31 

Coimbr.i,  78 

Collingwood,  Admiral,  71 

Commerce  Bill,  40,  61 

Concord,  9,  10 

Conde,  47 

Congress,  the  American,  !,  10,    13 

Connecticut,  3,  10 

Conway.  General,  7,  19 

Coote,  Sir  Eyre,  zo 

Copenhagen,  55,  73 

Corah,  26 

Coniwallis,  Lord,  14,  30,  31,  35,  66 

Corsica,  49 

Corunna,  77 

Cradock,  Sir  John,  77 

Crown  Point,  10,  15 

Curragh,  the,  64 

Curran,  Mr.,  40,  61 

Cuttack,  29 


GAL 

r)ALRYMPLE,  Sir  Hev.-,  76 

Danube,  river,  43 
Deccan,  25,  33 

Declaration  of  Independence,  13 
Decree  of  November  19,  46 
De  Gras.se,  Admiral,  21 
Delaware,  3 
Delaware,  river,  14 
Delhi,  25,  35 
Denmark,  54,  73 
Directory,  the  French,  50,  53 
Dniester,  river,  43 
Dogger-bank,  21 
Dominica,  20 
D'Orvilliers,  20 
Douro,  river,  78,  82 
Dublin,  56,  62,  63 
Dumouriez,  46,  47 
Duncan,  Admiral,  51 
Dun  das,  Mr.,  29 
Dundas,  General,  64 
Dunkirk,  48 


t7AST  INDIA    COMPANY,  25, 

36 
Ebro,  river,  76,  83 
Egypt,  52,  55 
121  Arish,  52 
Elba,  68,  86 
Elk,  head  of,  16 
Elliott,  General,  21 
Ennisoorthy,  65 
Esla,  river,  77,  82 
Evangelicals,  the,  92 
Exmouth,  Lord,  89 


pERDINAND  of  Spain.  74 

■^        Ferrol,  71,  77 

Fishguard,  51 

Fitzgerald,  Lord  Edward,  62,  63 

Fleurus,  48 

Flood,  Mr.,  40,  61 

Florida,  22 

Flushing,  84 

Fort  Edward,  15 

Fox,  Mr.,  29,  41,  44,  72,  93 

Francis,  Mr.,  26,  29 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  13 

French  in  India,  33,  36 

Fuentes  d'Onoro,  80 


GAGE,  General, 
GaUicia.7S 


9.  " 


Index. 


GAM 

Gambler,  Admiral,  73 
Ganges,  river,  24,  37 
Gales,  General,  15 
Gaza,  52 
Genoa,  53,  70 
Georgia,  j.  3 
Gibraltar,  20,  21,  22 
Girondists,  the,  48 
Glasgow,  90 
Gcddaid,  General,  28 
Goorkhas,  the,  37 
Grattan,  Mr.,  40,  59,  61,  62 
Grenville.^Ir.  George,  6 
Grenvilie,  Lord,  72 
Grouchy,  General,  62 
Guadiana,  river,  78 
Guildford,  battle  of,  18 
Guzerat,  24 


IJ  ABEAS  CORPUS  ACT,  49.  9° 
*  ■^      Halifax,  12,  13,  17 
Hanover,  70 
Harris,  General,  33 
Hastings,  Marquess  of,  36-38 
Hastings,  Warren,  26,  29,  30 
Henry,  Patrick,  n 
Hill.  General,  84 
Hoche,  General,  62 
Hohenlinden,  battle  of,  53 
Holkar,   24,  27,  34,  35,  37 
Holland,  42,  47,  48,  so,  70,  85 
Holt.  Mr.,  50 

Howe,  Admiral  Lord,  13,  21,  49 
Howe,  General,  12,  13,  15 
Hudson,  river.  14,  is 
Humbert,  General,  66 
Hyder  Ali,  25,  28,  29 


INDIA  BILL.    KUX'S,  30 
*■       India  bill,  Pitt's,  31 
Indus,  river,  24,  38 
Inn,  river,  53 
Ismail,  43 
Italy,  70 


IACOBINS,48 
J       lamaica,  21,  93 
Jeliersoii,   13 

Jena,  battle  of,  72 
ersey,  20 
Jervis.  Sir  John.  51 
leypore,  24,  37 
Jourdan,  General,  78 


MAU 

Jumna,  river,  aS,  35 
Junot,  General,  74,  76 


L'ATMAN'DHOO,  37 

Kellcrniann,  General,  ^ 
Kennebec,  river,  ii 
lCep|)el,  Admiral,  20 
Kild.-ire,  64,  65 
Kilkenny,  66 
Killala,  66 
Kirkei,  38 
Kistna,  river,  25,  37 


]    A  FAYETTE,  18 

Lake,  General,  34,  66 
Laswarree,  battle  of,  35 
La  VendiJe,  48 
Lee,  Richard  Henry,  13 
Leeward  Islands,  21 
Leipsig,  battle  of,  85 
Leiria,  76,  79 
Lewis  XVI.  of  France,  43 
Lewis  XVIII.  of  France,  85 
Lexington,  battle  of,  lo 
Lidge,  86 
Limerick.  64 
Lisbon,  74,  76,  78,  79,  82 
Liverpool,  Lord,  82 
I  ivingsion,  1 1 
Long  Island,  14 
Longwy,  46 
Lubeck,  85 
Lugo,  77 
Luneville,  treaty  of.  53 


ATACAULAY,   ZACH AkY,  cij 

'      Mack,  1  lencral,  72 
Mackinto-.h,  Sir  James   gj 
Ma'ras,  25 
Madrid,  74,  77,  81 
Mahrattas,  27,  34 
Maine,  12 
Malavclly,  33 
Malta,  52,  55,  68 
Manchester,  90 
Mang.'ilore,  33 
Marengo,  battle  of.  53 
Marie  Antoinette,  48 
Marmont,  General,  80,  3i 
Maryl.ind,  3 

Massachusetts,  3.  4,  8,  9,  ix 
Massena.  General,  79 
Mauritius,  33,  35 


too 


Index. 


MAV 

Mayo,  66 
Meath,  64 

Mehidpore,  battle  of, 
jMentz,  47 
Middelburg,  S4 
Milan,  50,  53,  70 
Minorca,  21,  22 
Minto,  Lord,  35 
Miquelon,  22 
Mississippi,  3 
Mohammedans,  24 
Moira,  Lord,  36 
Mondego,  river,  76,  79 
Monson,  26 

Montgomery,  General,  11, 
Montreal,  11 
Moore,  Sir  John,  76,  77 
Moorshedabad,  26 
Moreau,  General,  5^; 
Mornington,  Lord,  32 
Moscow,  85 
Munro,  Sir  Hector,  28 
Murphy,  Father  John,  64 
Mysore,  24,  28,  33 


NTAGPORE,  27,  28,  ;  .  i; 

••■^      Namur,  86 

Maples,  55 

Napoleon,  5;-.  68,  70,  74,  85,  8 

Navig.ition  Laws,  6,  58 

Nelson,  Admiral,  51,  54,  71 

Nepaul,  37 

Nerbud'ia,  river,  25,  37 

New  Hampshire,  3 

New  Jersey,  3,  14,  15 

New  Ross,  65 

New  YorU,  3,  5,  13,  16 

Newtown-bairy,  65 

Niemen,  river,  85 

Nile,  battle  of  the,  52 

Nivelle,  river,  83 

Nizam  of  the  Deccan,  25,  32 

Nore,  the  Mutiny  of  the,  51 

North,  Lord,  8,  9,  16,  19 

Northern  Le..gne,  54 


QCHTERLONY,  GENERAL,  37 

^     Ochzakow,  42 
O'Connor,  Arthur,  62 
Ohio,  3 

Oodypore,  24,  37 
Oporto.  76,  78 


ROC 

Orange,  society,  63 
Orders  in  Council,  73 
Orthes,  battle  of,  84 
Oude,  26,  34 


pAINE,  IHOMAS,  49 

Pampehma,  83 
Paris,  85.  87 

Parker,  Admiral  Hyde,  21,  S4 
Parliament,  Reform  of,  4u 
Parma,  68 
Pataiis,  37 

Paul,  Emperor  of  Russia,  54 
Pennsylvania,  3,  14 
Perceval,  Mr.  Spencer,  73,  79,  8a 
Perry.  Mr.,  50 
Peshwa,  the,  32,  34,  37 
I'l'.ii.-idelphia,  8,  15 
!'   illipon,  General, 
1  1  :dmont,  68,  72 
Puidarees,  37 
Pitt  (Lord  Chatham),  7 
Pitt  (the  younger).  29,    39,    =;.    5/ 

61,  70.  72,  93 
Placentia,  68 
Pondicherry,  22 
Poona,  24,  27,  38 
Portland,  Duke  of,   44,  73 
Porto  Novo,  battle  of,  29 
Port  Hoyal,  18 
I'ort  Royal,  in  Martinico,  <i 
Portsmouth,  62 
Portugal,  55,  74-81 
Prince  of  Wales,  41.  6« 
Privateers,  20,  59 
Prussia,  42,  49,  73,  85 


QUATRE  BRAS,  86 
Vc      Quebec,  11,  I2 
Quesnoy,  47 


■D  AGHOBA,  27 
■'■^     Rajpootana,  24 
Regency  Bill,  41,  6i 
Regulating  Act,  25 
Rei^n  of  Terror,  48 
Revenue  Af'l,  7 
Rhine,  river,  53,  72 
Rhode   Island,  3 
Ridgway   Mr.,  49 
Right  of  .Seaich,  20,  55 
Robespierre,  \i 
Rochelle,  63 


Index. 


roi 


ROC 

Kochfort,  71,  87 

Rockingham,  Lord,  7,  t6,  19 

Rodney,  Admiral,  ii 

Rohillcundj  26 

Romilly,  Sir  Samuel,  92 

Koncesvalles,  83 

Rusetta,  52 

Rowan,  Mr.  Hamilton,  6a 

Runjeet  Sing,  35 

Russia,  54.  73.  " 

Ryots,  32 


CAHAGUN,  77 

■^     Salamanca,  74,  77,   79,  80,  81, 

82 
Salbye,  treaty  of,  28 
Salsette,  27,  28 
San  Sebastian,  83 
Saratoga,  convention  of,  15 
Savannah,  18 
Savoy,  46 

Scheldt,  river,  46,  84 
Scotland,  50 
Seringapatam,  32,  33 
Seville,  74,  80.  81 
Sharp,  Mr.  Granville.  93 
Shelbume,  Lord,  19,  21 
Sheridan,  Mr.,  30,   44 
Sherman,  Mr.,  13 
Shore,  Sir  John,  32 
Sidmouth,  Lord,  72 
Sierra  Leone,  93 
Sindia,  24,  27,  34,  37 
Six  Acts,  the,  90 
Slave  Trade,  93 
Sligo,  66 

Smith,  Sir  Sidney,  52 
Smolensk,  85 

Soult,  General,  77,  78,  81,  8a,  84 
Spain,  20,  51,  56,  74 
Spithead.  the  Mutiny  at,  51 
Stamp  Act,  6,  7 
St.  Helena,  87 
St.  Johns,  II 
St.  Just,  48 

St.  Laurence,  river.  3,  «i 
St.  Lucia,  21,  22 
St.  Pierre,  22 
St.  Vincent,  battle  of,  51 
Stuart,  General,  33 
Suchet,  General.  8a 
I-utlej,  river,  34,  35 
Suwarrow,  General,  43 
Sweden,  54,  ;o.  73,  85 


WAT 


Switzerland,  70 
Syria,  52 


TRAGUS,  RIVER,  78,  79,  8i 
^      Talavera,  battle  of,  78 
Taptee,  river,  34 
Tara  Hill,  64 
Thomas,  General,  la 
Ticonderoga,  10,  15 
Tilsit,  treaty  of,  73,  7  • 
Toledo.  74,  82 
Tone,  Wolfe,  62,  tt 
I'ooke,  Home,  50 
Tormes,  river,  81 
Torres  Novas,  76 
Torres  Vedras,  76,  79 
Toulon,  48,  52,  71 
Toulouse,  84 

Townshend,  Mr.  Charles,  6 
Trafalgar,  battle  of,  71 
Travaiicore,  32 
'J'renton,  14 
Trinidad,  55 
Tripoli,  88,  89 
Tunis,  88,  89 
Turkey,  42 


U^ 


LM,  72 
Union,  Act  of.  67 
United  Irishmen,  (n 


\/ALENCIENNKS.  47 
^      Valladolid,  81,  8a 
Valmy,  battle  of,  46 
Vera,  83 
Verdun,  46 

Victor,  General,  78,  79 
Vienna,  72,  85 
Villeneuve,  Admiral,  70,  71 
Vimiero,  battle  of,  76 
Vinegar  Hill,  65 
Virginia,  3,  6,  9 
Viseu,  79 

Vittoria,  battle  of,  03 
Virier  of  Oude,  a6,  34 


■V3UALCHEREN,  79,  84 

Washineton,  10,  la,  14,  x6 
Waterloo,  battle  of,  86 


ro2 


^ndex. 


WEI. 

Wcllesley,  Marquess,  32,  34,  35.  79 
V  ellesley.  Sir  Arthui,  33,  34,  73,  76, 

78 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  79,  81,  84 
Wtsleys,  the,  92 
W-st  Indies,  17,  18.  ia 
Westphalia,  85 
West  Point,  17 
Wexford,  64,  65 
Whitfield,  92 
Wicklow,  64,  6, 


ZEM 

Wilberforce,  Mr.,  73,  92,  93 
Wilmington,  18 


yORK,  DUKE  OV    ^7.  tfi 

York,  rivet,  18 
Yorktown,   18 


2EM1NDARS.  3» 


MOOERN     ENGLAND 

1820 — 1874 


BY 

OSCAR    BROWNING.     M.A. 

SENIOR   FELLOW   OF   KING'S  CULLKOK 

CAMBIilDGE 


CONTENTS. 


PACE 

List  of  Prime  Ministers viii 

Introduction i 

ROOK    I. 

CANNING.       1820-1827. 
CHAP. 

I.     The  Queens  Trial  ........  3 

II.     Foreign  Policy    . ■     •  5 

III.  Commercial  Reform                   ......  7 

IV.  The  Death  of  Canning                  .         .                  .         .     .  Q 

BOOK    II. 

WELLINGTON.       1827-1830. 

1.     Wellington  Prime  Minister ii 

II.     Navarino             .                  12 

III.  Catholic  Emancipation    .......  13 

IV.  European  Revolution .                  .         .         .         ...  15 

BOOK    III. 

REFORM.       1830-1834. 

I.     First  Reform  Bill 18 

II.     Second  Reform  Bill ai 

III.     Third  Reform  Bill 23 

IV.     Results  of  Reform  Bill 34 


vi  Contents. 

BOOK    IV. 

LORD    MELBOURNE.       1835-184I. 
CHAP.  PAGE 

T.     Sir  R.  Peel's  Ministry       . 27 

II  The  King's  last  years .                  .         .         .         .         .     .  28 

III.  The  New  Reign        ........  29 

IV.  The  Queen's  Marriage         .  .                   .         .     .  31 

BOOK    V. 

SIR    ROBERT    PEEL.       1841-1853. 

I.  Afghanistan     ........     32 

n.      F"ree  Trade  .  .         .         .         .         .         .         .     .     34 

III.  The  Charter 37 

IV.  The  Exhibition  .         .  .  .         •     ■     39 

BOOK   VI. 

WAR    AND    MUTINY.       1853-1858. 

I.     The  Crimean  War   .         .  .....     41 

II.     Indian  Mutiny 43 

BOOK    VII. 

THE    NEW    REFORM    BILL.       1858-1868. 

I.     Lord  Derby 45 

II.     Lord  Palmerston 46 

III.     Mr.  Disraeli 49 

BOOK    VIII. 

MR.    GLADSTONE.       1868-1874. 

I.      Irish  Church  and  Land 51 

II.  War  between  France  and  Germany          .         .         .         -53 
III.     Liberal  Reverses 54 

Conclusion S*' 

Index •        •    •    59 


Vll 


LIST  OF  PRIME  MINISTERS 


FROM    1820   TO    1874. 


Lord  Liverpool  . 
Mr.  George  Canning 
Lord  Goderich  . 
Duke  of  Wellington 
Lord  Grey. 
Lord  Melbourne    . 
Sir  Robert  Peel . 
Lord  Melbourne    . 
Sir  Robert  Peel 
Lord  John  Russell 
T^ord  Derby 
Lord  Aberdeen 
Lord  Palmerston 
Lord  Dt-rby  . 
Lord  Palmerston 
Earl  Russell . 
Lord  Derby 
Mr.  Disraeli 
Mr.  Gladstone  . 
Mr.  Disraeli . 


May  1812 
April  1827 
Aug.  1827 
Jan.  1828 
Nov.  1830 
July  1834 
Dec.  1834 
April  1835 
Aug.  1841 
July  1846 
Feb.  1852 
Dec.  1852 
Feb.  1855 
Feb.  X858 
June  1859 
Nov.  1865 
[une  1866 
Feb.  1868 
Dec.  1868 
Feb.    1874 


to     April  1827. 

Aug.  1827. 

Jan.  1828. 

Nov.  1830. 

July  1834. 

Nov.  1834. 
-April  1835. 

Aug.  1841. 

luly  1846. 

Feb.  1852. 

Dec.  1852. 

Feb.  1855. 

Feb.  1858. 

June  1859. 

Nov.  1865. 

June  1866. 

Feb.  1868. 

Dec.  1868. 

Feb.  1874. 


MODERN    ENGLAND. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  period  of  history  contained  in  this  Httle  book  is  as 
important  as  any  part  of  the  annals  of  England.  It  is 
with  few  exceptions  a  time  of  peace,  of  quiet,  st(  ady  in- 
ternal progress.  It  represents  a  nation  resting  fiom  the 
exertions  of  a  mighty  past  to  grow  strong  for  llie  trials  of 
a  momentous  future. 

It  is  the  genius  of  England  to  gain  by  reform  what 
other  nations  attempt  by  revolution. 

It  was  one  of  the  effects  of  the  French  Revolution  to 
destroy  what  remained  of  the  feudal  system  in  France  ;  to 
strengthen  the  national  life  by  summoning  the  whole 
nation  to  council  ;  to  establish  liberty  and  equality. 
What  France  imperfectly  attained  by  one  fierce  struggle 
England  successfully  acquired  by  the  patient  efforts  of 
fifty  years. 

The  chief  events  which  mark  the  advance  of  this 
progress  were  these  : 

1.  In  1829  the  emancipation  of  the  ('atholics  recon- 
ciled an  ancient  feud,  and  led  the  way  to  a  wider  tolera- 
tion of  religion. 

2.  In  1832  the  great  reform  bill  shook  the  monopoly 
of  aristocratic  government,  abolished  distinctions  of 
class,  and  prepared  the  nation  for  a  just  and  tempered 
democracy. 

E.H.  B 


Modern  Ensiland. 


^> ' 


3.  In  !8.!6  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  secured  cheap 
food  for  the  working  classes,  and  asserted  the  principle 
of  free  trade. 

4.  In  1851  and  1862  the  nations  of  the  world  met  in 
peaceful  rivalry  as  the  guests  of  England.  The  Crimean 
war  between  1854  and  1856  did  not  seriously  affect  the 
regular  march  of  progress. 

5.  In  1866  a  new  reform  bill,  in  many  respects  the 
continuation  of  the  old  one,  gave  a  new  opportunity  for 
internal  improvement.  Two  large  measures  were  passed 
with  a  view  to  give  peace  to  Ireland,  and  a  step  was 
taken  towards  providing  a  national  education. 

These  changes  have  all  followed  quietly  and  naturally 
one  upon  another,  so  that  they  look  like  growth  rather 
than  change. 

At  the  end  of  this  period  England  is  ready  with  re- 
newed strength  to  run  a  fresh  career  of  prosperity  and 
honour. 


i82o.  Cato  Street  Conspiracy. 


BOOK    I. 

CANNING.— \'ii.o-\'i2T. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   queen's   trial. 

I.  You  were  told  at  the  end  of  your  last  epoch  that  the 
reign  of  George  III.  closed  in  a  time  of  sullen  agitation, 
the  result  partly  of  the  usual  distress  caused  by  a  long 
war,  partly  of  the  delay  in  passing  needful  measures  ol 
reform.'  Our  epoch,  therefore,  opens  dark  and  gloomily. 
We  find  the  ministers  so  unpopular  that  a  conspiracy  is 
formed  to  murder  them.  We  find  the  crown  discredited 
by  the  bad  character  of  the  King,  and  the  people  ready 
to  take  part  against  him.  The  horror  of  the  Cato  Street 
conspiracy  is  explained  by  the  scandal  of  the  Queen's  trial. 
2.  Let  us  hear  what  this  conspiracy  was.  One  day, 
towards  the  end  of  February  1820,  tlie  Cabinet  ministers 
were  to  dine  together  at  Lord  Harrowby's.  ^3^0  street 
But  they  had  been  told  that  a  plot  had  been  conspiracy, 
formed  by  some  desperate  men  to  murder  them  as  they 
sat  at  table.  They  therefore  dined  separately  at  home, 
while  the  police  were  sent  to  capture  the  conspirators. 
They  found  them,  twenty-five  in  number,  in  a  loft  above 
a  stable  in  Cato  Street,  Edgware  Road,  armed,  and 
ready  for  the  enterprise.  The  first  of  the  police  who 
entered  was  stabbed  to  the  heart,  and  the  greater 
number  of  culprits  escaped,  including  Thistlewood,  the 
captain  of  the  gang,  who,  however,  was  taken  next  day. 

'  EjKJch  VII.  p.  gi. 


4  Modern  England.  1820. 

On  May  i  he  was  executed  with  four  others,  while  five  more 
were  transported  for  hfe.  Terror  spread  throughout  the 
kingdom.  Nothing,it  was  said,  could  be  compared  with  this 
atrocity  except  the  Gunpowder  Plot  in  the  reign  of  James  I. 
It  was  attributed  to  the  Radical  Reformers,  and  the  name 
of  Radical  became  a  byword.  It  was  only  the  work  of  a 
few  ;  yet  misery  and  discontent  must  have  risen  to  a  high 
pitch  before  such  remedies  could  have  been  thought  of 

3.  George  III.  had  become  unfit  through  illness  to  per- 
form his  duties  as  king  at  the  end  of  the  year  18 10.  His 
The  Queen's  SOU  Gcorge,  Prliiceof  \Vales,was  made  Regent, 
'"^'-  and  held  the  office  till  his  father's  death  in  the 

beginning  of  1820,  after  which  he  succeeded  to  the  throne. 
The  trial  of  Queen  Caroline,  wife  of  the  new  king,  tended 
still  more  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  people  on  one 
side,  and  the  king  and  ministers  on  the  other.  She  was 
a  Princess  of  Brunswick,  and  had  married  the  Prince  of 
Wales  in  1795.  Fi'om  the  first  he  treated  her  with  dislike, 
and  she  withdrew  from  England  in  1814,  as  soon  as  peace 
made  it  possible  for  her  to  travel  on  the  Continent.  On 
the  accession  of  her  husband  to  the  throne  she  was  refused 
the  title  and  honours  of  a  queen  ;  her  name  was  omitted 
from  its  place  in  the  prayer-book,  and  she  was  not  re- 
ceived at  foreign  courts.  Goaded  by  these  insults  she 
came  to  England  to  claim  her  rights.  She  was  received 
with  enthusiasm  by  the  people.  Crowds  of  supporters 
thronged  her  house  and  attended  her  carriage.  The 
ministers,  at  the  bidding  of  the  king,  introduced  a  bill  to 
deprive  her  of  her  rank  and  to  dissolve  her  marriage. 
The  bill  failed,  and  was  withdrawn,  and  London  was 
illuminated  for  three  nights.  Parliament  granted  her  an 
annuity  of  _2^5o,ooo,  but  no  place  was  provided  for  her  at 
the  coronation  of  the  king.  On  the  morning  of  that  day 
she  attempted  to  force  her  way  into  Westminster  Abbey, 
but  was  repulsed,  and  died  a  few  days  afterwards. 


1 822.  The  Holy  Alliance.  5 

CHAPTER   II. 

FOREIGN    POLICY. 

I.  We  must  now  consider  the  position  of  England  in 
connection  with  the  other  nations  of  Europe.  After  the 
defeat  of  NapoU  on  the  allied  sovereigns  who  jf^g  ^oly 
met  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  attempted  to  Alliance, 
do  away  with  all  traces  of  his  work.  The  Emperors  of 
Russia  and  Austria,  the  Kings  of  Prussia,  France,  and 
Spain,  indeed,  nearly  all  th(-  European  powers,  except 
England,  formed  what  was  called  the  Holy  Alliance.  The 
object  which  it  put  forward  was  that  of  promoting  peace 
and  good-will  among  nations  upon  the  basis  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  its  real  effect  was  to  crush  attempts  to  es- 
tablish self-government  throughout  Europe.  Napoleon 
had  driven  out  the  Bourbc^n  kings  from  Spain  and 
Naples  ;  he  had  destroyed  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  and 
weakened  the  Papacy ;  he  had  been  the  enemy  of  all 
the  old  governments  which  were  hostile  to  progress.  The 
efforts  of  European  statesmen  were  devoted  to  undoing 
all  that  he  had  done.  During  the  six  years  which  suc- 
ceeded his  fall  Europe  was  disturbed  by  conspiracies  and 
plots.  These  were  mainly  caused  by  the  measures  taken 
by  govt,  rnments  to  repress  their  subjects  in  their  aspira- 
tions for  freedom.  Lord  Londonderry,  better  known  as 
Lord  Castlereagh,  who  managed  foreign  affairs  in  Eng- 
land, had  shown  himself  too  favourable  to  the  policy 
which  Prince  Metternich,  the  prime  minister  of  Austria, 
had  done  most  to  form.  In  August  1822,  however,  Castle- 
reagh died  bv  his  own  hand,  and  Canning,  who  was  just 
preparing  to  sail  as  govcrncr-general  to  India,  became 
foreign  secretary  in  his  place. 

2.   Insurrection  had  broken  out  in  Spain.     The  Libe- 
rals set  up  a  new  constitution,  and  secured     insurrec- 
the  person  of  the  king.     The  partisans  of  ab-     t'Ofs  m 

^  or-  bpain  and 

solute  government  and  of  the  Catholic  rehgion     Naples. 


6  Modern  England.  1822. 

marched  inio  Catalonia  under  the  name  of  the  Army  of 
Faith.  The  French  troops,  under  the  plea  of  protecting 
their  country  against  a  contagion  of  fever,  occupied  the 
passes  of  the  Pyrenees.  They  however  soon  crossed  the 
frontier  and,  uniting  with  the  absolutists,  succeeded  in 
quelling  the  rebellion.  A  similar  outbreak  had  occurred 
a  short  time  before  in  Naples  and  in  Piedmont. 

3.  Part  of  the  same  wave  of  feeling  had  caused  the 
Greeks  to  throw  off  the  Turkish  yoke.  This  attempt 
met  with  much  sympathy  in  Europe,  for  when  men 
Insurrection  thought  of  what  the  old  Greeks  had  done  for 
m  Greece.  freedom,  they  wished  that  their  descendants 
might  succeed  in  gaining  it.  England  could  not  give 
open  help,  but  her  feelings  were  shown  without  conceal- 
ment to  be  on  the  side  of  the  struggling  power.  The  poet 
Shelley  wrote  and  the  poet  Byron  died  for  the  awakened 
freedom  of  the  land  to  which  poetry  owes  so  much.  The 
Greeks  fought  well  and  bravely  against  the  Turks,  who 
could  not  put  down  their  rising  foe. 

4.  A  congress  of  European  powers  was  summoned  to 
meet  at  Verona  in  the  north  of  Italy,  in  1822,  apparently  for 
Canning's  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  affairs  of  Greece, 
policy.  It  was  attended  by  the  Duke  of  WeUington 
as  representive  of  England.  As  soon  as  ir  was  suggested 
by  the  other  powers  that  a  general  interference  should 
be  made  to  crush  the  rising  in  Spain,  he  refused  to  take 
any  further  part  in  the  matter,  and  retired  from  the  con- 
ference. Canning  recognised  the  independence  of  the 
colonies  in  South  America  which  had  revolted  from 
Spain.  He  called,  as  he  said,  a  New  World  into  ex- 
istence to  redress  the  balance  of  the  Old.  At  a  later 
period  he  sent  troops  to  protect  the  liberties  of  Portugal 
against  France.  In  this  manner  England  showed  that 
she  had  definitely  broken  with  the  principles  of  the  Holy 
Alliance. 


1823.  Finance.  7 

CHAPTER  III. 

COMMERCIAL  REFORM. 

I.  The  conclusion  of  the  war  against  Napoleon  had  left 
England  in  great  distress.  She  had  borne  the  expense  not 
only  of  her  own  armament,  but  of  the  arma-     pinancia.' 
ments  of  foreign  nations.     The  national  debt    condition  of 

,  ....  ,       ,  England. 

amounted  to  nearly  800  inillions,  and  the 
money  required  for  the  struggle  in  which  the  nation  was 
engaged  had  been  borrowed  most  wastefuUy.  In  1823  Hus- 
kisson  became  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  He  was, 
like  Canning,  sneered  at  for  being  an  adventurer.  In 
other  words  he  did  not  belong  to  one  of  those  families  who 
were  considered  at  that  time  to  have  the  right  to  keep 
the  government  entirely  in  their  own  hand-.  He  was 
thoroughly  versed  in  the  principles  of  political  economy — 
that  is,  in  knowledge  of  the  laws  under  which  wealth  is 
produced  and  distributed  •  and  he  used  his  position  to 
pass  a  number  of  measuies  which  rapidly  developed 
the  resources  of  the  realm. 

2.  A  law  had  been  enacted  during  the  time  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, which  was  ratiticd  by  Charles  II.,  forbidding, 
with  some  exceptions,  that  foreign  produce  Navigation 
should  be  brought  into  England  by  any  but  '^^^s- 
English  ships.  The  effect  of  this  had  been  to  give  to 
England  the  carrying  trade  of  Europe  and  to  take  it  away 
from  the  Dutch— that  is,  to  enrich  English  merchants 
with  all  the  profits  of  carrying  foreign  goods.  Other 
nations  had  objected  to  this,  and  America  in  particular 
placed  so  high  a  duty  on  goods  imported  in  English 
vessels  that  it  practically  prevented  the  trade  from  con- 
tinuing. English  ships  used  to  go  empty  to  America 
to  fetch  American  goods,  and  American  ships,  after 
bringing  their  own  goods  to  us,  went  away  empty  them- 


8  Modern  England.  1823. 

selves.  T!?e  price  of  freight  \vas  thus  doubled  on  both 
sides.  To  remedy  this  evil  Huskisson  proposed  and 
carried,  in  1823,  a  Reciprocity  of  Duties  Rill,  by  which 
duties  were  made  equal  on  all  goods,  whether  brought  in 
English  or  foreign  vessels.  Our  shipping  trade,  which  had 
been  much  depressed,  was  thus  very  largely  increased. 

3.  There  were  also  large  duties  levied  on  the  importa- 
tion of  foreign  silk.  This  did  great  injury  to  our  silk 
Silk  and  Weavers,  partly  by  depriving  them  of  the  mate- 
"'°°'-  rials  of  their  labour,  partly  by  removing  the 
stimulus  of  healthy  competition.  French  silks  were  every- 
where preferred  to  English,  and  so  great  was  the  rage  for 
smuggled  goods  that  it  even  paid  an  English  manufac- 
turer to  have  his  own  goods  smuggled  into  England 
under  the  name  of  French.  The  prohibition  of  foreign 
wool  was  equally  injurious.  Much  English  wool  could 
only  be  used  when  mixed  with  foreign.  All  change  was 
resisted  both  by  manufacturers  and  operatives.  But 
Huskisson  was  assured  of  the  truth  of  his  principles,  and 
carried  measures  which  reduced  the  duties  on  both  these 
articles. 

4.  The  question  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  still 
unsettled.    Like  many  other  reforms  it  had  been  brought 

forward,  and  encouraged  by  Wilberforce  and 
Pitt,  but  had  been  laid  aside  in  the  throes  of 
the  European  struggle.  Our  West  Indian  colonies  were  full 
of  slaves,  and  scenes  were  enacted  in  them  as  terrible  as 
any  we  have  since  heard  of  in  America.  Yet  slavery  could 
not  be  abolished  without  heavy  loss  of  money.  Indeed 
it  was  feared  that  the  blacks  might  rise  and  bring  about  a 
general  massacre.  A  bill  was  passed  to  mitigate  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  slaves,  and  all  slaveholders  knew  that  by  this 
small  measure  the  death-blow  of  slavery  had  been  struck. 

5.  Under  the  influence  of  these  measures  the  prosperity 
of  the  country  largely  increased.     Wealth  began  to  flow 


1825.  Catholic  Question.  9 

into  new  channels,  and  all  classes  of  the  people  felt  in 
tlieir  daily  lives  how  far  preferable  peace  was  Commercial 
to  war.  Only  the  change  was  too  sudden,  distress. 
The  country  ran  into  wild  speculation.  Companies  were 
formed  for  objects  impossible  to  obtain.  Banks  were 
opened  by  men  who  had  no  capital  to  support  them.  A 
crash  came  in  1825.  Riots  broke  out  in  the  Midland 
Counties  ;  machines  were  broken  as  the  supposed  cause 
of  the  people's  misery.  The  Government  came  to  the 
rescue  ;  money  was  lent  to  merchants  to  retrieve  their 
fortunes  ;  foreign  corn  was  let  out  of  the  docks,  and  the 
panic  passed  away. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   DKATH    OF   CANNING. 

I.  Two  great  questions  remained  for  settlement,  the  Corn 
laws,  and  the  Catholic  disabilities.  The  Catholic  popula- 
tion of  Ireland  was  four  times  as  great  as  the  catholic 
Protestant.  The  Catholics  had  for  more  than  Question, 
a  century  and  a  half  been  treated  as  a  conquered  and 
down-trodden  race.  In  many  respects  their  position  had 
been  improved,  yet  even  in  1828,  no  Catholic  could  sit  in 
either  house  of  Parliament,  no  Catholic  could  be  guar- 
dian to  a  Protestant,  or  keep  any  arms  or  warlike  s'ores. 
The  Catholics  were  excluded  from  almost  every  office  of 
trust  or  distinction,  and  were  made  in  many  wavs  to 
feel  that  they  stood  on  a  different  social  footing  to  the 
Protestants.  In  1800,  when  Ireland  was  united  with 
England,  Pitt  had  promised  to  remedy  their  grievances. 
But  the  King  pleaded  his  coronation  oath,  and  his  mind 
gave  way  when  the  question  was  pressed  upon  him.     It 


10  Modern  England.  1825. 

was  felt  that  nothing  could  be  done  as  long  as  George 
III.  lived.  Canning  had  devoted  himself  to  this  cause 
from  his  earhest  years.  But  the  matter  remained  an 
open  question  with  the  ministry,  and  it  would  probably 
have  remained  so  much  longer  had  it  not  been  for  the 
efforts  of  the  Catholic  Association  under  Daniel  O'Connell. 
A  Relief  Bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons  in  1825, 
but  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Lords,  by  the  efforts  of 
the  Duke  of  York,  the  next  heir  to  the  throne,  who 
declared  his  unflinching  hostility  to  any  measure  of  this 
kind  so  long  as  he  lived. 

2.  He  did  not  live  long,  but  died  in   January   1827. 
Lord  Liverpool  was  soon  afterwards  struck  down  by  para- 
lysis, and  Canning  was  reluctantlv  summoned 

Canning  .  ..' 

Prime  by  the  sovereign  to  form  a  mmistry.    He  had 

Minister.  already  received  his  death-blow  in  attending 

the  Duke  of  York's  funeral  on  a  cold  winter's  night  in  St. 
George's  Chapel.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  Peel,  and 
Lord  Eldon,  declined  to  serve  under  him.  His  principal 
colleague  was  Huskisson.  His  ministry  was  pledged  to 
remove  the  two  crying  evils  of  the  time.  A  Corn  Bill 
intended  to  redeem  part  of  this  pledge  was  rejected  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  Canning  had  no  time  to  put  into 
execution  the  cherished  purpose  of  his  life. 

3.  Worn  out  by  the  exertions  of  his  office,  disheartened 
by  the  desertion  of  his  friends,  harassed   by  the  constant 

persecution  of  an  unscrupulous  opposition  like 
that  which  had  embittered  the  last  days  of 
Pitt,  he  sank  under  his  accumulated  burdens,  and  died 
in  August  1827,  at  the  age  of  57.  He  has  left  a  name 
second  to  none  on  the  roll  of  English  statesmen.  His 
policy  was  not  bounded  by  the  limits  of  his  country.  His 
heart  was  ever  moved  with  indignation  against  oppression. 
He  vindicated  the  position  of  England  as  the  asserter  of 
liberty  and  freedom  throughout  the  world. 


1827.  Duke  of  Wellington. ,  1 1 

BOOK    II. 

WELLINGTON.— \Z2T-\%T,o. 


CHAPTER    I. 

WELLINGTON    PRIME   MINISTER. 

I.  The  King  had  hoped  to  keep  the  same  ministry  in 
office  and  to  carry  on  public  business  with  as  little  change 
as  possible.      Lord  Goderich,  who  was  con- 
sidered a  moderate  man,  was  therefore  made     rich  Prime 
prime  minister,  but  Mr.  Herries  and  the  Duke     ^''^'s'^""- 
of  Wellington,  who  were  both  Tories,  were  received  into 
the  Cabinet.    This  was  enough  to  bring  about  its  destruc- 
tion.  A  quarrel  broke  out  between  Herries  and  Huskisson, 
and  Lord  Goderich   not  wishing  to  get  rid  of  either  of 
them   preferred  to  resign   himself.      The  administration 
had  scarcely  lasted  six  months. 

2.   His  pl3.ce  was  taken  by  Uie  Duke  of  Wellington 
(January  1828),  now  in  his  sixtieth  year,  the  first  subject 
of  the  Crown,  accepted  in  all  parts  of  Europe     Duke  of 
as  the  representative  of  English   power  and     Wellington 

or  Prime 

English  spirit,  but  destined  to  impair  in  Minister. 
office  the  reputation  he  had  gained  in  war.  His  industry, 
courage,  and  integrity  were  beyond  question,  but  he  had 
little  sympathy  with  the  people,  and  was  apt  to  base  his 
conduct  too  exclusively  on  obedience  to  the  authority  of  the 
Crown.  Huskisson  tried  to  convince  himself  that  the 
spirit  of  Cam. ing  would  yet  continue  to  guide  the  conduct 
of  the  ministry,  and  therefore  remained  in  otifice.  But  an 
opportunity  soon  occurred  for  removing  him,  and  the 
remnant  of  Canning's  party,  Lord  Dudley,  Lord  Palmer- 
Ston,  and  Mr,  Grant,  joined  him  in  his  rttiremtnt, 


12  _      Modem  ling  land.  1827. 

CHAPTER    II. 

NAVARTNO. 

I.  The  attention  of  Europe  had  now  for  six  years  been 
directed  towards  the  East.  The  Greeks  had  continued 
Turkish  their  struggle  for  libei  ty  with  various  fortunes. 

Question.  Russia  took  this  opportunity  to  attack  her 
hereditary  foe,  and  was  moving  forward  in  her  double 
mission  of  releasing  her  brother  Christians  from  the 
Moslem  yoke, and  of  establishing  her  power  upon  the  Dar- 
danelles. England  and  France  were  afraid  that  Russia, 
if  left  to  herself,  might  forget  her  worthier  objects  in  the 
satisfaction  of  her  ambition,  and  they  saw  that  the  best 
hope  of  controlling  her  policy  lay  in  sharing  her  designs. 

2.  To  effect  these  objects  Canning  had,  in  July  1827, 
procured  tlie  signature  of  the  Treaty  of  London  between 
Tratyof  England,  France,  and  Russia.  The  powers 
LondoQ.  offered  their  mediation  to  establish  peace 
between  the  two  countries  which  had  been  so  long  at  war. 
An  armistice  was  to  be  concluded  without  delay.  The 
Sultan  was  to  retain  the  title  of  Suzerain  01*  superior  lord 
of  Greece,  and  the  Greeks  were  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute 
or  relief;  also  a  separation  of  the  two  nations,  which  were 
then  intimately  mixed,  was  to  be  effected,  and  the  Turks 
were  to  be  compensated  for  the  territory  which  they 
surrendered.  A  secret  article  attached  to  the  treaty  pro- 
vided that  if  the  Porte  or  the  Greeks  did  not  accept  the 
armistice  within  one  month,  the  Powers  should  do  their 
best  to  force  it  upon  them  without  however  taking  an 
active  part  in  the  war. 

3.  The  Turks  refused  to  grant  an  armistice.  Ibrahim 
Pasha,  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  sailed  with  a  large  fleet  to 
Battle  of  assist  the  Sultan.  The  combined  English, 
Navarino.  French,  and  Russian  fleets  allowed  him  to 
enter  the  Harbour  of  Navarino,  on  the  west  coast  of  the 


1S27.  Battle  of  Navarino.  13 

Morea,  on  condition  tliat  he  did  not  come  out  again,  lie 
broke  his  promise  and  was  driven  back,  but  took  his 
revenge  by  harassing  the  coiintiy  and  burning  villages. 
The  allies  saw  the  smoke  from  burning  villages  rising 
among  the  hills.  They  realised  the  misery  of  his  vic- 
tims, and  their  patience  could  hold  out  no  longer.  They 
sailed  into  the  narrow  strait  at  the  enlrame  of  the  har- 
bour with  a  view  of  forcing  Ibrahim  to  discontinue  these 
atrocities  under  penalty  of  the  entire  destruction  of  his 
fleet.  A  battle  was  not  in  their  intention,  but  a  random 
shot'  fired  the  train  of  angry  feeling,  the  battle  became 
general,  ;ind  in  four  hours  the  Turkish  fleet  was  entirely 
destroye  i  (October,  1S27). 

4.  When  the  news  of  this  victory  arrived  in  England 
Canning  was  dead.  Wellington  was  not  so  favourable 
to  the  independence  of  th<?  Greeks.  The  Kingdom  oi 
king,  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  spoke  of  Greece. 
Navarino  as  an  'untoward  event;'  and  no  effort  was 
made  to  follow  up  the  ailvantage  gained  over  the  Turks. 
The  Russians  took  up  with  greater  vigour  the  cause  which 
they  had  more  nearly  at  heart.  One  army  crossed  the 
Danube  and  the  Balkans,  another  marched  into  Armtnia 
and  occupied  Kars  and  F^rzeroum.  The  treaty  of 
Adrianople  (August,  1828)  secured  the  existence  of  Greece 
as  an  independent  kingdom. 


CHAPTER    III. 

CATHOLIC   EMANCIPATION. 

I.  The  Corporation  and  Test  Acts,  passed  in  the  teign  of 
Charles  II.,  provided  that  no  one  should  hold 

...  ...  -.  .   ,  Corporation 

any  important  civil  or  military  office  without     and  Test 

giving   evidence   that   he   was  a  member  of    ^^^^' 

the  Church  of  England,  by  receiving  the  Holy  Sacrament. 


14  Modern  Engl  mid.  1828. 

These  Acts  had  been  especially  directed,  the  first  against 
the  Independents,  the  second  against  James  II.  and  the 
Roman  Catholics.'  The  burden  of  them  now  fell  on  the 
Dissenters  who  were,  however,  able  to  evade  the  prohibi- 
tion enforced  by  them  by  an  Act  of  Indemnity  first  passed 
in  the  reign  of  George  II.,  and  annually  renewed.  Lord 
John  Russell  proposed  and  carried,  in  1828,  a  motion  that 
a  Committee  should  be  appointed  to  consider  the  abolition 
of  these  galling  and  useless  restrictions.  Peel  and  Hus- 
kisson  opposed  the  measure,  as  Canning  had  always  done 
before,  on  the  ground  not  of  principle  but  of  expediency. 
But  they  gave  way  to  the  feeling  of  the  House,  and  a 
declaration  of  friendliness  to  the  Church  of  England  was 
substituted  for  the  test. 

2.  This  was  followed  by  a  new  agitation  in  Ireland 
for  the  emancipation  of  Catholics.  By  the  efforts  of  the 
Election  of  Catholic  Association  O'Connell  was  elected 
O'Connell.  member  for  Clare.  His  return  was  declared 
valid,  although  he  could  not  sit  and  vote  in  the  House 
until  he  had  taken  the  prescribed  oaths.  The  Catholic 
Association  became  more  and  more  powerful.  Supported 
by  the  priests  and  well  furnished  with  money,  it  spread 
itself  over  the  whole  of  Ireland.  It  professed  to  secure 
that  no  member  should  be  elected  for  any  Irish  constitu- 
ency who  did  not  pledge  himself  to  obtain  emancipation 
for  the  Catholics  and  Parliamentary  Reform.  It  became 
evident  to  the  ministers  that  no  course  was  left  to  them 
but  to  conciliate  a  power  which  they  could  not  quell. 

3.  The  king's  speech  on  opening  the  session  of  1829 
contained  the  surprising  announcement  that  the  Catholic 

Association  would  be  suppressed,  and  that  a 

measure  for  the  relief  of  the  Catholics  would 

be  presented  for  the  consideration  of  Parliament.      Sir 

'  See  Epoch  V.  pp.  59,  64. 


TS29.  CConncil.  15 

Robert  Peel  and  the  Duke  of  Wellingioii  had  courage- 
ously sacrificed  political  consistency  to  the  good  of  their 
country.  A  Bill  which  abolished  all  political  distinctions 
between  Catholics  and  Piotcstants  in  the  fullest  and  most 
generous  manner  passed  the  Commons  and  Lords,  and 
after  a  little  hesitation  received  the  assent  of  the  king. 
The  association  which  had  obtained  this  victory  in  the 
name  of  a  nation  disappeared  quietly  out  of  existence. 
A  great  step  had  been  made  towards  redressing  the 
wrongs  of  Ireland. 

4.  OConnell,  who  had  deserved  the  gratitude  of  his 
C'untry,  was  reluctant  to  give  up  the  position  of  agitator. 
He  declared  that  he  would  never  rest  until 
he  had  secured  the  repeal  of  the  union  rlS'oT '^°' 
between  England  and  Ireland.  In  this  vain  ^"'°"- 
and  hopeless  struggle  he  squandered  the  reputation  which 
he  had  fairly  earned,  and  came  eventually  to  be  regarded 
rather  as  a  demagogue  than  as  a  patriot. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

EUROPEAN    REVOLUTION. 

I.  The  discontent  which  existed  in  England  was  only 
part  of  a  general  feehng  of  uneasiness  which  overspread 
the  Continent  and  took  the  form  of  a  reaction 
against  the  arrangements  of  the  Treaty  of  ^°""^'^'- 
Vienna,  and  the  repressive  measures  which  succeeded  it. 
In  these  disputes  the  sympathies  of  the  English  people 
were  on  one  side ;  the  sympathies  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  were  thought,  with  only  too  good  reason,  to  be 
on  the  other.  In  Portugal,  Don  Miguel,  brother  of  Don 
Pedro,    the   new    Emperor   of   Brazil,  had   usurped   the 


1 6  Modern  England.  1829. 

throne  which  belonged  to  his  niece  Donna  Maria,  the 
daughter  of  Don  Pedro.  He  overthrew  the  constitution 
which  had  been  defended  by  Canning,  and  estabhshed  a 
government  supported  by  the  priests  and  the  nobihty, 
and  recognised  by  no  powers  but  Rome  and  Spain. 
Donna  Maria  was  received  with  honour  in  England,  and 
ministers  declared  that  they  would  observe  the  strictest 
neutrality  ;  but  it  was  evident  that  the  feelings  of  the 
government  were  really  with  the  party  of  absolute  govern- 
ment, and  our  neutrality  was  so  strictly  interpreted  that 
we  attacked  an  expedition  sent  out  to  garrison  an  island 
which  had  remained  faithful  to  the  Queen  Maria. 

2.  France  was  the  scene  of  far  more  serious  disturb- 
ances. Louis  XVI 1 1.,  who  had  been  restored  to  the  throne 
after  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  died  in  1823,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother.  This  was  the 
Count  of  Artois,  whose  frivolous  youth  had  been  spent 
amongthe  dissipations  of  Versailles,  in  the  years  which  pre- 
ceded the  French  Revolution;  he  now,  as  Charles  X.,  go- 
verned reluctantly  as  a  constitutional  king  In  1829  Prince 
Polignac,  a  strong  royalist,  and  a  friend  of  Wellington, 
joined  the  ministry.  It  was  in  a  hopeless  minority  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  as  the  French  House  of  Commons 
was  called.  After  attempting  in  vain  to  pass  some  im- 
portant measures,  the  Chamber  was  dissolved.  The  elec- 
tions throughout  the  country  were  against  the  ministry, 
and  placed  it  in  a  worse  position  than  before.  It  deter- 
mined to  adopt  a  high-handed  course,  and  issued  in  the 
king's  name  three  ordinances,  first  to  suspend  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  secondly  to  dissolve  the  newly-elected 
chambers,  and  thirdly  to  alter  their  constitution.  A  revo- 
lution broke  out,  the  fury  of  which  made  three  days 
memorable  in  French  History  :  the  27th,  28th,  and  29th 
of  July,  1830.  The  king,  who  was  at  St.  Cloud,  abdicated, 
and  retired  to  England.     Louis  Philippe,  son  of  Philippe 


1830.  Wellington  Resigns.  1 7 

Duke  of  Orleans,  who,  in  the  first  French  Revolution,  after 
voting  for  the  King's  death  had  himself  perished  by  the 
guillotine,  was  first  made  Captain  General  and  then  King 
of  the  French.  An  impulse  towards  independence  spread 
throughout  Europe.  Belgium  separated  itself  from  Hol- 
land, a  country  different  in  language,  religion,  and  race. 
Poland  attempted  to  recover  its  independence.  It  was 
seen  how  vain  had  been  the  efforts  of  the  Treaty  of 
Vienna  to  arrange  the  map  of  Europe  without  consulting 
the  wishes  of  the  people  who  were  chiefly  concerned. 

3.  Just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  in  France, 
George  IV.  died  (June,  1830).  He  was  succeeded  by  the 
Duke  of  Clarence  under  the  name  of  William  Wellington 
IV.,  apopular  sailor,  deficient  in  regal  qualities,  resigns, 
but  who  was  understood  to  sympathise  with  the  people. 
Parliament  was  dissolved,  as  is  usual,  after  the  death  of 
a  sovereign.  The  new  elections  were  most  unfavourable 
to  ministers.  Brougham,  a  strong  advocate  for  reform 
and  education,  the  favourite  of  the  populace,  was  re- 
turned for  Yorkshire  without  expense.  The  king's  speech 
announced  a  defiant  attitude.  It  regarded  with  coldness 
the  struggles  on  the  Continent  which  roused  so  much 
sympathy  in  England,  it  breathed  a  determination  to 
repress  and  crush  all  agitation  throughout  the  country. 
This  was  followed  shortly  afterwards  by  a  statement  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  that  he  considered  the  reform  of  the 
representation  entirely  unnecessary,  and  that  he  should 
always  resist  it.  His  unpopularity  became  so  great  that 
the  king's  visit  to  the  City  was  postponed  lest  public 
violence  should  be  offered  to  the  minister.  At  last  the 
government  were  defeated,  and  resigned  in  November, 
1830. 


E.H. 


1 8  Modern  England.  1830. 

BOOK    III. 
REFORI^.     1830- 1834. 


CHAPTER    I. 

FIRST   REFORM    BILL. 

I.  Lord  Grey  was  pointed  out  as  the  natural  head  ot  a 
ministry  whose  chief  duty  was  to  introduce  a  scheme  of 
Parhamentary  reform.     He  was  now  sixty-six 
Prime  ycars  of  age,  and  had  made  the   same  good 

Minister.  causc  his  own  thirty  years  before.    The  Cabi- 

net of  fourteen  was  composed  of  nine  Whigs,  whose  long 
exclusion  from  office  had  made  them  less  fit  for  the 
work  of  administration,  and  four  remnants  of  the  party 
of  Canning.  Lord  Althorp  was  Chancellor  of  the  Exche- 
quer. Brougham,  to  the  surprise  of  all  men,  became 
Lord  Chancellor,  and  deserted  the  scene  of  his  triumphs 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  Lord  Palmerston,  as  Secre- 
tary for  Foreign  Affairs,  held  different  opinions  to  his 
colleagues.  Lord  Grey  declared  to  the  House  which  was 
then  sitting  that  the  principles  of  his  government  were 
reform,  economy,  order,  and  peace.  Agitation  still  con- 
tinued in  England,  but  Ministers  hoped  to  be  able  to 
allay  it  by  the  measure  which  four  of  their  number  were 
preparing  in  secrecy  and  silence. 

2.  In  March  1831,  Lord  John  Russell  asked  leave  to 
introduce  the  first  Reform  Bill.  The  greatest  excitement 
Refo-ni  Hi!!  prevailed  ;  heaps  of  petitions  were  piled  upon 
introduced.  the  table,  the  House  was  crowded,  dense 
masses  of  the  people  stood  outside  waiting  for  the  news, 
and  bevond  them  were  horsemen  ready  to  carry  the  first 


1 83 1.  Reform  Bill.  19 

information  of  the  details  of  the  Bill  to  every  part  ot 
England.  The  chief  evils  which  demanded  a  remedy 
were  :  i.  The  existence  of  rot/en  boroughs,  places  with 
few  electors,  and  sometimes  no  inhabitants,  which  re- 
turn(  d  two  members  to  Parliament.  2.  The  fact  that 
large  towns  which  had  grown  into  importance  through 
commerce  were  left  without  representation.  3.  The  un- 
equal distribution  of  the  franchise  itself,  so  that  only  a 
small  part  of  the  population  had  the  right  of  voting  in 
elections.  The  Bill  proposed  that  sixty  of  the  smaller 
boroughs  should  be  disfranchised  altogether,  that  forty- 
seven  should  return  only  one  member  instead  of  two  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  London  received  eight  additional  repre- 
sentatives, and  thirty-four  seats  were  distributed  among  a 
number  of  towns  hitherto  unrepresented.  The  English 
counties  had  allotted  to  them  fifty-five  new  members,  the 
Scotch  five,  the  Irish  three,  the  Welsh  one.  In  conse- 
quence of  these  changes  the  numbers  of  the  House  of 
Commons  would  be  reduced  from  658  to  596.  Corpora- 
tions in  towns  lost  their  exclusive  right  of  election,  and  it 
was  uniformly  extended  to  all  householders  who  paid  ^10 
a  year  rent.  This  gave  votes  to  half  a  million  citizens 
who  were  before  without  them. 

3.  Lord  John  Russell's  speech  was  received  with  deri- 
sive cheers  and  laughter,  but  Sir  Robert  Peel  sat  fixed  and 
immovable  in  his  place,  and  the  Duke  of  Wei-  Second 
lington  told  his  friends  in  society  'that  it  was  Reading. 
no  joke,  and  there  was  nothing  to  laugh  at.'  The  debate 
lasted  seven  nights,  and  brought  out  the  conflicting  objec- 
tions of  the  Tories  and  the  Radicals.  The  one  thought 
such  a  reform,  coupled  with  a  free  press,  incompatible 
with  the  power  of  the  crown  and  the  independence  of  the 
Lords.  '  It  is  a  revolution,'  said  a  Tory  member.  The 
Radicals  recognised  the  boldness  of  the  measure,  but 
regretted  that  no  mention  was  made  of  ballots,  of  shortened 

C   2 


20  Modern  England.  1831. 

Parliaments,  or  of  universal  suffrage.  At  last,  after  a 
short  reply  from  the  opener  of  the  debate,  leave  was  given 
to  bring  in  a  Reform  Bill,  and  it  was  read  for  the  first 
time.  The  country  was  strangely  divided.  The  Court, 
the  House  of  Lords,  the  clergy,  the  army  and  navy,  the 
universities,  and  the  Inns  of  Court  were  mainly  against 
the  Bill  ;  it  was  supported  by  the  manufacturers  and  the 
body  of  the  people.  The  press  was  generally  in  its  favour. 
Excitement  was  at  its  highest  when  Lord  John  Russell 
proposed  the  second  reading.  After  a  debate  of  two 
nights  the  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  one,  the 
numbers  being  302  and  301.  The  success  of  the  Bill 
seemed  to  be  very  doubtful. 

4.  After  the  Easter  recess  ministers  announced  some 
changes  in  the  details  of  the  Bill.  General  Gascoigne, 
Parliament  i^i  Committee,  proposed  that  the  number  of 
Dissolved.  {^he  English  and  Welsh  members  should  not 
be  diminished.  Lord  Althorp  declared  that  this  motion 
would  be  fatal  to  the  Bill.  At  four  in  the  morning  it  was 
carried  by  a  majority  of  eight.  A  dissolution  was  imme- 
diately resolved  on,  but  kept  secret  for  the  present.  On 
April  21,  Ministers  were  again  defeated  by  a  majority  of 
twenty-two.  A  Cabinet  Council  was  held,  orders  were 
given  for  the  attendance  of  the  Officers  of  State  and  the 
royal  guards,  the  King's  consent  was  reluctantly  obtained 
by  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Brougham.  The  King  surprised 
both  Houses  in  the  midst  of  a  debate,  protesting  against 
dissolution.  Parliament  was  prorogued  as  a  prelude  to  its 
dissolution,  and  the  question  of  reform  was  left  to  the 
judgment  of  the  country  (April  1831). 


1831.  *  Second  Refonu  Bill.  21 


CHAPTER    II. 

SECOND    KEfORM    BILL. 

I.  The  dissolution  of  Parliament  was  followed  by  general 
rejoicing  and  illuminations  ;  those  who  refused  to  illumi- 
nate had  their  windows  broken.  In  the  New  Parlia- 
elcctions  reformers  were  chosen  throughout  '"^'"■ 
the  country  ;  of  the  county  members  nc;irly  all  were 
pledged  to  support  the  Bill.  The  Second  Reform  Bill 
was  introduced  by  Lord  John  Russell  in  July. 

Bill  passes 

It  was  the  same  as  the  first,  with  very  few  tiic  Com- 
moditications.  Leave  to  introduce  it  was  '"°"^- 
granted  with  only  one  dissentient  voice.  The  debate  on 
the  second  reading  lasted  three  nights.  The  motion  was 
carried  by  a  majority  of  136,  the  numbers  being  367  and 
231.  The  Ministers  had  gained  135  votes  by  the  dissolu- 
tion. But  the  minority  was  united  and  determined.  The 
motion  to  go  into  committee  was  mtt  by  repeated 
amendments.  The  House  rose  at  half-past  seven  to  sit 
again  at  three.  In  committee  the  case  of  each  borough 
was  separately  discussed.  It  was  urged  that  the  Bill  dis- 
franchised the  South  of  England  for  the  benefit  of  the 
North,  but  it  was  in  the  North  that  the  chief  increase  of 
wealth  and  population  had  taken  place.  Every  art  of 
obstruction  was  put  in  force.  The  House  continued  to 
sit  through  the  tropical  heat  of  July  and  past  the  12th 
of  August,  and  the  work  of  the  Committee  was  only  just 
concluded  before  the  coronation  of  the  king  in  September. 
The  Bill  finally  passed  the  House  of  Commons  by  a 
majority  of  106. 

2.  In  October  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  was  pro- 
posed in  the  House  of  Lords  by  Lord  Grey.    He  defended 


22  Modern  Erigland.  *  1831. 

the  consistency  of  his  career,  and  showed  that  he  had 
Rejected  by  Supported  Pitt's  proposals  for  Reform  in 
the  Lords.  1 786.  The  debate  continued  for  five  nights. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  opposed  the  Bill  ;  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  who  had  been  a  Tory  Lord  Chancellor,  complained 
that  it  opened  the  flood-gates  of  democracy.  The  Chief 
Justice  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  spoke  the  sen- 
timents of  their  professions  in  demanding  its  rejection. 
Earl  Grey  replied  on  the  morning  of  the  8th,  but  the  Bill 
was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  41. 

3.  The  indignation  of  the  country  was  extreme.  A 
spark  might  have  produced  a  revolution.  A  cry  was  raised 
for  the  abohtion  of  the  House  of  Lords.  Un- 
popular peers  were  attacked  in  the  streets.  A 
procession  of  60,000  persons  presented  a  petition  to  the 
King.  Windows  were  broken  in  London,  riots  were 
common  throughout  the  country.  The  public  mind  was 
calmed  by  Brougham  and  Russell.  The  people  were 
assured  that  there  was  no  intention  to  desert  their  cause, 
or  to  shelve  the  question  of  Reform,  but  that  repose  was 
absolutely  needed.  Parliament  was  prorogued  for  a 
month.  Even  after  this  it  was  found  necessary  to  pro- 
hibit political  associations  by  proclamation.  A  terrible 
riot  took  place  in  Bristol,  directed  against  the  recorder. 
Sir  C.  Wethemll,  one  of  the  fiercest  opponents  of  the 
Bill.  The  constables  were  routed  and  soldiers  were 
called  in  to  quell  the  tumult.  The  prisons  were  broken 
open  and  the  prisoners  liberated,  the  mansion-house  and 
the  bishop's  palace  were  burned  to  the  ground.  The 
riots  were  at  last  suppressed  with  great  bloodshed  and 
loss  of  life.  Bishops  were  burned  in  effigy  throughout 
England,  and  the  Church  was  involved  in  the  hatred 
inspired  by  its  chiefs. 


1831.  Third  Reform  Bill.  23 


CHAPTER   III. 

THIRD    REFORM    BILL. 

I.  Parliament  met  again  in  December,  and  the  third 

Reform  Bill  was  introduced.     The  chief  alterations  made 

in  it  were   in  adoptintr  the  census   of   1831, 

•^       °  1  Bill  passes 

as   a  basis  of  calculation  for  the  population     the  Com- 

instead  of  that  of  1821,  and  in  maintaining     '"""*■ 

the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  original 

number.     The  second  reading  was  carried  by  a  majority 

of  162,  and  in  spite  of  attempts  at  delay,  the  Bill  finally 

passed  the  Commons  in  March. 

2.  In  the  Upper  House  it  was  still  violently  opposed 
by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  whereas  a  party  called  the 
'  Waverers '  or  the  '  Trinnners '  represented  by 

Lord  Wharncliffe  and  L  rd  Harrowby  were 
disposed  to  accede  to  the  second  reading  in  order  to 
amend  it  in  Committee.  The  liill  theiefore  passed 
through  this  stage  by  a  majority  of  nine.  In  Committee 
an  amendment  of  Lord  Lyndliurst  was  adopted  by  a 
majority  of  thirty-five.  Tlie  debate  was  immediately 
adjourned. 

3.  Ministeis  had  before  them  the  choice  between  ad- 
vising the  King  to  create  sufficient  peers  to  ensure  the 
passing    of   the   Bill,    or   of    resigning   their     Ministry 
offices.     The   King,  whose  early  enthusiasm     resigns. 

for  the  measure  had  gradually  cooled,  was  reluctant  to 
swamp  the  Upper  House  with  new  creations.  So  the 
ministry  chose  to  resign.  The  Lords  determined  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  discussion  of  the  Bill,  the  Commons  prayed 
in  an  address  to  the  throne  that  the  measure  passed  by 
them  might  not  be  surrendered.  The  excitement  through- 
out the   country  was   more  violent   than   ever.     A  union 


24  Modern  England.  1832. 

was  formed  at  Birmingham  with  the  object  of  refusing  to 
pay  taxes.  Arms  were  prepared,  and  there  was  even 
danger  of  a  civil  war.  An  attempt  to  form  a  ministry 
among  the  enemies  of  Reform  failed.  Lord  Lyndhurst 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel  dechned  the  post ;  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  undertook  it,  only  to  find  it  impossible. 

4.  Lord  Grey  was  recalled  in  May  1832;  the  King  re- 
luctantly gave  permission  to  him  and  to  Lord  Brougham 
to  create  such   a  number  of  peers  as  would 

Bill  passes.         ,  ,       -^-i,    7- 

be  necessary  to  pas.s  the  Bill,  first  callmg  up 
peers'  eldest  sons,  in  consequence  of  this  the  opposition 
of  the  Lords  was  suddenly  withdrawn,  the  Waverers 
declaring  that  they  had  been  duped  and  cheated.  The 
Bill  passed  in  June,  only  twenty-two  peers  voting  against 
it.  The  amendments  of  the  Lords  were  shortly  after- 
wards accepted  by  the  Commons,  and  the  Bill  became 
law.  The  King  refused  to  give  his  consent  in  person,  but 
it  was  given  by  commission  amid  the  silence  of  deep 
emotion.  Parliament  was  shortly  afterwards  dissolved, 
that  a  new  House  of  Commons  might  be  elected  under 
the  new  Act. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

RESULTS  OF   THE   REFORM    BILL. 

I.  The  Reform  Bill  has  not  belied  the  prophecies  of  those 
who  opposed  it.  It  was  a  great  revolution,  as  momen- 
„  „     .  tous  though  not  so  violent  as  the  revolutions 

Reflections.  ^  _  . 

oi  r  ranee  m  1 789,  and  of  England  m  1 688. 
Its  consequences  are  still  in  the  future.  But  although 
the  change  it  brought  was  as  complete  as  was  predicted 
of  it,  its  eft'ects  have  been  far  from  disastrous.  It  brought 
about  by  gradual  and  silent  means  the  reforms  which  are 


1833.  New  ParliajJient.  25 

necessary  to-  harmonise  progress  with  stabihly,  and  new- 
ideas  with  old  traditions.  It  took  a  large  step  towards 
admitting  the  whole  nation  to  the  labours  of  government, 
and  allowed  the  national  life  to  flow  in  a  fuller  tide. 

2.  A  spirit  of  moderation  governed  the  elections.  The 
attention  of  the  new  House  of  Commons,  which  met  in 
January  1833,  was  first  directed  to  Ireland.  Kew  Parlia- 
Riots  and  disturbances  rendered  it  necessary     "lent. 

to  suspend  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.  When  this  had  been 
done,  it  was  possible  to  consider  the  wrongs  of  Ireland. 
The  first  act  of  the  government  was  to  remedy  the  abuses 
of  the  Irish  Church.  The  number  and  salaries  of  the 
higher  clergy  were  reduced,  and  an  attempt  made  to 
diminish  the  injustice  of  the  tithe,  which. often  had  to  be 
collected  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

3.  Retrenchment  and  financial  reforms  next  claimed 
attention.  Ministers  telt  bound  to  redeem  their  promises 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  resist  their  extreme  yiavcry 
supporters  on  the  other.  The  Government  of  abolished. 
India  lost  the  exclusive  right  of  trading,  but  their  charter 
was  renewed  in  other  respects  to  their  satisfaction.  Bui 
by  far  the  most  important  measure  was  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  British  Empire.  The  victory  so  long  striven 
for  by  Wilberfoice,  Stephen,  and  Clarkson  was  at  last 
gained.  The  slaves  were  set  free,  at  a  great  loss  of  pro- 
perty to  their  cw  ners.  Some  attempt  was  made  to  alleviate 
the  condition  of  factory-workmen  at  home,  and  a  large 
grant  was  given  for  education.  Such  efforts  are  only 
possible  when  the  feeling  of  the  people  is  at  a  high  pitch. 

4.  Parliament  met  for  its  .Second  Session  in  February 

1834.  It  had   first   to  deal  with  the  aftairs  of  Ireland. 
Some  liberals  wished  to  diminish  still  further     Second 
the  revenues  of  the  Irish  Church.     O'Connell     Session, 
opposed  any  measure  of  political  coercion.    At  last,  worn 
out  with  anxiety  and  vexation.  Lord  Grey  retired  from  a 


26  Modern  Etigland.  1834. 

position  which  had  long  been  wearisome  to  him.  Lord 
Melbourne  took  his  place,  and  the  rest  of  the  ministry 
continued  unchanged. 

5.  The  force  with  which  ministers  had  met  a  reformed 

Parliament  was  exhausted.     Attempts  to  give  effect  to 

the  rest  of  the  measures  which  had  been  pro- 
Lord  Mel-  .  J     J     •        r   -1  >T    •  ,  I  T    •    1 

bourne's  tirst  mised  ended  m  failure.  Neither  the  Irish 
'  '"'^"■y-  tithes  nor  the  English  poor  rates  could  be 
placed  on  a  satisfactory  footing.  The  one  success  was 
the  passing  of  the  Bill  to  amend  the  poor  law.  By  this 
act  the  law  of  settlement  by  which  paupers  were  removed 
to  the  parish  of  their  birth  was  abolished,  workhouses 
were  erected  throughout  the  country,  outdoor  relief  was 
grea'ly  diminished,  and  the  results  were  shown  in  a  falling 
of  rates,  a  rise  of  wages,  and  a  rapid  spread  of  happiness 
and  contentment. 

6.  The  popularity  of  the  ministry  was  gone,  but  its 
fall  was   sudden.      The  King,  after  a  hasty  declaration 

in  favour  of  the  Irish  Church,  intimated  to 
esigna  ion.  j^^^  ministers  that  they  should  resign.  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  who  was  in  Rome,  was  sent  for  in  haste. 
In  the  meantime  the  Duke  of  Wellington  held  nearly  all 
the  offices  of  Government  in  his  own  hands.  A  new 
ministry  was  formed,  and  Parliament  was  dissolved  to 
ascertain  the  feeling  of  the  country,  in  December  1834. 


1835.  Sir  Robert  Peel.  27 

BOOK    IV. 
LORD   MELBOURNE.     1835- 1841. 


CHAPTER    I. 
SIR   R.    PKF.L'S   first  MINISTRY. 

I.  The  new  Parliament  still  contained  a  majority  of 
Whigs,  althuugh  many  seats,  especially  in  the  counties,  had 
been  won  by  the  Tories.  These  old  party  ■Y:\ie:  new 
names  were  now  giving  way  to  the  terms  Parliament. 
Liberal  and  Conservative.  Ministers  were  in  a  minority 
from  the  first,  they  A'Cre  beaten  in  the  election  of  speaker, 
and  beaten  on  the  address.  Parliament  was  only  restrained 
by  fear  of  a  dissolution.  .Sir  R.  Peel  inaugurated  several 
measures  of  the  wisest  character  which  were  alter  wards 
adopted  by  the  opposition.  He  established  an  ecclesi- 
astical commission,  to  equalise  the  income  of  the  clergy  ; 
he  tried  to  regulate  the  collection  of  tithes  and  the  mar- 
riage of  dissenters ;  he  was  beaten  in  detail,  but  his  enemies 
shrank  from  proposing  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence. 

2.  At  last  an  issue  was  found  in  the  question  of  the  Irish 
Church,  and  the  appropriation  of  some  of  its  revenues  to 
secular  purposes.  The  ministry  found  itself  j^iinistry 
in  a  minority  of  thirty-three,  and  soon  after  falls. 
resigned.  The  king  was  compelled  to  recall  Lord  Mel- 
bourne, and  the  old  ministry  was  restored  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Lord  Brougham.  An  attempt  to  force  a  Tory 
government  on  the  nation  by  the  authority  of  the  sovereign 
thus  signally  failed.  William  IV.  is  more  to  be  blamed 
for  trying  it  than  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Sir  R.  Peel 
for  supporting  their  sovereign. 


28  Modern  England.  1835. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE    KING'S   LAST   YEARS. 

I.  Two  great  problems  lay  before  the  ministry,  the  reform 
of  municipalities,  and  the  reform  of  the  Irish  Church. 
Municipal  The  government  of  boroughs,  once  the  home 
reform.  ^f  liberty  and  the  training  giound  for  political 

practice,  had  come  to  be  as  full  of  abuses  as  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  country.  Some  town  councils  consisted 
of  a  great  noble,  the  members  of  his  family,  and  his  chief 
man  of  business,  and  their  sole  function  was  to  elect 
members  to  Parliament.  Early  in  September,  1835,  a 
measure  was  passed,  with  the  concurrence  of  Lords  and 
Commons,  which  rendered  municipal  government  a  reality, 
provided  for  the  proper  election  of  aldermen,  abolished 
the  unreasonable  privileges  of  freemen,  a  class  of  men 
who  by  the  accident  of  binh  were  invested  with  the 
government  of  the  towns  ;  and  struck  off  the  fetters  from 
many  industries.  This  measure  completed  and  extended 
the  work  of  the  Reform  Bill. 

2.  The  grievances  of  Ireland  still  continued.     During 
the  last  fifty  years  a  number  of  political  societies  called 

Orange  Lodges  had  sprung  up  in  the  province 
of  Ulster.  Their  object  was  to  support  the 
cause  of  Protestantism  against  the  ribbon  men,  who  were 
Catholics.  The  attempt  to  diminish  the  revenues  of 
the  Irish  Church  favoured  the  extension  of  these  lodges. 
They  spread  throughout  Ireland,  England,  and  the 
colonies.  Their  members  reached  the  number  of  300,000, 
and  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  the  king's  brother,  was 
placed  at  their  head  with  almost  despotic  power.  They 
were  considered  a  menace  to  the  peace  of  the  kingdom 
and  were  quietly  dissolved  in  1836. 

3.  Opportunity  was  taken  for  carrying  a  number  of 


1836.  Death  of  William  IV.  29 

domestic  reforms.  A  uniform  registration  of  births, 
deaths,  and  marriages  was  ordered  through-  Domestic 
out  the  kingdom  ;  the  revenues  of  bishops  >'e'"o''nis. 
and  canons  were  equalised  in  pursuance  of  the  report  of 
the  Ecclesiastical  Commission  ;  the  tax  on  newspapers 
was  reduced  to  a  penny  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
Tories,  who  preferred  cheap  soap  to  a  cheap  press. 

4.  The  power  of  the  Ministry  did  not  last  much  longer. 
Deserted  by  some  old  allies,  they  failed  to  carry  mea- 
sures of  further   improvement.     Discredited     

.  K.ing  dies. 

by  repeated  defeats,  they  would  have  resigned 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  illness  and  death  of  the  king. 
This  took  place  in  June,  1837.  William  IV.  was  honest 
and  conscientious.  His  reign  witnessed  a  great  revolu- 
tion in  the  Reform  Bill,  and  a  strong  impulse  to  commerce 
bv  the  extension  of  railways  and  growth  of  steamships. 
With  good  reason  his  statue  adorns  the  passage  of  the 
Houses  of  Parliament  as  representing  a  lime  when  the 
national  progress  was  unusually  rapid. 


CHAPTER  HI. 
THE     NEW    REIGN. 


I.  No  monarch  ever  came  to  the  throne  more  popular  than 
Queen  Victoria,  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Kent,  just 
eighteen  years  old.     Her  youth  secured  sym- 

,  ,  J  r        1  cc  The  Queen. 

pathy ;  her  conduct  soon  won  tor  her  attec- 
tion  and  respect.  Consideration  for  her  feelings  kept  the 
ministers  in  power,  as  the  nation  did  not  wish  to  deprive 
her  of  advisers  whom  she  was  understood  to  like.  To 
the  joy  of  Englishmen  Hanover  was  separated  from 
the  crown  by  passing  to  a  male  heir.  An  outbreak  in 
Canada   threatened    to   become    serious,   and    the   first 


30  Modern  England.  1837. 

measures  of  the  new  sovereign  were  directed  to  the  sup- 
pression of  rebellion. 

2.  Discontent  in  Canada  arising  from  disputes  between 
the  French  and  English  Canadians  had  been  fostered  by 

the  United  States.  Major  Head,  governor  of 
Upper  Canada,  sent  away  the  soldiers,  called 
out  the  militia  and  loyal  inhabitants,and  entirely  crushed  the 
rebels.  He  was  reprimanded  and  recalled.  Lord  Durham, 
a  man  of  the  highest  character,  was  sent  out  to  appease 
the  province.  Nothing  could  be  more  heroic  than  his 
performance  of  duty,  while  he  was  slowly  wasting  with 
incurable  disease  and  thwarted  by  factious  opposition.  He 
failed  in  the  object  of  his  mission,  and  came  home  to  die. 

3.  The  Ministry  continued  to  exist  on  sufferance.  They 
had  no  power  to  carry  measures  or  to  support  their  ser- 
Bedchamber  vants.  In  May,  1839,  they  were  defeated  in 
question.  ^  question  about  Jamaica.  They  resigned  ; 
but  Sir  R.  Peel  made  it  a  condition  of  taking  office  that 
a  change  should  be  made  in  the  ladies  of  the  Queen's 
bedchamber.  The  Queen  objected,  and  the  ministry 
remained  in  their  posts  ;  but  it  has  since  been  held  that 
the  chief  officers  who  surround  the  person  of  the  sove- 
reign are  changed  with  a  change  of  ministry. 

4.  The  same  year  saw  the  introduction  of  penny  post- 
age, the  invention  of  Rowland  Hill.    At  this  time  no  post- 
age was  under  zd.     Letters  from  the  country 
to  London  cost  from  (yd.  to  \s. ;  from  Scotland 

to  Ireland  \s.  or  \s.  6d.  Rowland  Hill  showed  that 
the  actual  cost  of  carrying  each  letter  was  very  small, 
and  that  if  a  stimulus  was  given  the  traffic  would  increase 
enormously.  Experience  has  endorsed  this,  and  cheap 
postage  has  been  adopted  by  all  civilised  nations. 
Postage  stamps  were  also  introduced,  and  franking,  the 
privilege  of  sending  letters  free  of  postage  reserved  to 
members  of  Parliament,  was  abolished. 


1840.  Prince  Albert.  31 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   queen's   marriage. 

I.  Statesmen  had  long  been  occupied  with  the  question 
of  the  queen's  marriage;  none  more  so  than  the  king  of 
the  Belgians,  uncle  of  the  Queen,  himself  the  prince 
widower  of  a  princess  who  was  heir  to  the  Albert. 
English  throne.  Prince  Albert  of  Saxe  Coburg  Gotha, 
the  Queen's  first  cousin,  had  been  silently  educated  for 
his  destinies.     The  marriage,  which  took  place  in  Feb. 

1840,  was  happily  one  of  love.  The  prince's  virtues  formed 
the  real  foundation  of  the  pro-^perity  of  the  reign,  and  it 
will  be  recognised  by  posterity  that  his  many-sided  culture 
and  intellectual  activity  have  left  an  indelible  stamp  on  the 
minds  and  character  of  Englishmen.  The  best  results 
of  German  thou^'ht  were  transfused  into  English  man- 
liness, an  effect  which  the  union  with  Hanover  had  never 
been  able  to  accomplish. 

2.  The  government  regained  some  little  strength  by  its 
activity  in  crushing  the  attempt  of  Egypt  to  revolt  from 
the  Porte.  But  they  were  not  able  to  pass  Ministers 
measures  of  importance,  and  the  debates  on  resign. 
the  budget  overthrew  them.  They  were  defeated  in  a 
measure  which  anticipated  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws. 
Instead  of  resigning,  they  dissolved  Parliament  in  June 

1 841.  But  the  country  ratified  the  judgment  of  the 
House,  and  after  the  election  the  Conservatives  divided 
on  the  address  with  a  majority  of  91.  A  new  ministry  was 
formed,  of  which  the  principal  members  were  Sir  R.  Peel 
and  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 


32  Modern  Eiigla)id.  1841. 

BOOK    V. 
SIR   ROBERT  PEEL.     1841-1853. 

CHAPTER    I. 

AFGHANISTAN. 

I.  Sir  R.  Peel,  at  the  outset  of  his  ministry,  found  him- 
self compelled  to  provide  for  a  deficiency  of  revenue   of 
two  millions  and  a  half,  and  to  take  at  least 

Com  Laws.  .        ,  ,.  .  -    -  ,       . 

some  steps  m  the  direction  of  free  trade  m 
corn.  At  this  time  the  poor  were  paying  a  large  price 
for  their  daily  bread  in  order  that  the  farmers  of  England 
might  derive  a  supposed  advantage  of  profit,  while  quan- 
tities of  corn  from  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  were 
kept  out  of  England  by  an  unreasonable  duty.  The  prime 
minister  proposed  an  alteration  of  what  was  called  the 
sliding  scale — that  is,  a  set  of  duties  varying  with  the 
price  of  corn  in  the  English  market — his  object  being  to 
maintain  the  price  of  wheat  as  nearly  as  possible  at  sixty 
shillings.  A  motion  for  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws  was 
made  by  the  leaders  of  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League,  Cobden 
and  Villiers.  It  was  lost  by  a  large  majority,  and  the 
government  proposals  were  easily  carried. 

2.  The  deficiency  in  the  revenue  was  made  worse  by  the 

outbreak  of  a  war  in  China  and  the  possibility  of  troubles 

^         on  the  Indian  frontier.   Sir  R.  Peel  determined 

Income  Tax.  ,       i      ■  ,     i  i      i  ,  ■       i 

to  deal  with  the  whole  matter  comprehensively, 
and  began  that  series  of  financial  reforms  which,  con- 
tinued by  his  pupil,  Mr.  Gladstone,  have  done  much  to 
raise  England  to  her  present  height  of  prosperity.  The 
chief  source  of  proposed  revenue  was  the  income  tax,  at 


1 84 1 .  Afghan  is  tan.  3  3 

that  time  new  and  violently  opposed,  but  which  has  since 
been  found  a  powerful  engine  in  times  of  difficulty.  Besides 
this,  he  revised  the  whole  tariff  of  imports,  simplifying 
them  wherever  it  was  possible,  nnd  preparing  the  way  for 
free  trade.  At  this  time  a  penny  in  ome  tax  produced  half 
a  million  revenue  ;  it  now  produces  a  million  and  a  half. 

3.  Afghanistan,  a  province  on  the  north-western  frontier 
of  India,  is  approached  by  two  passes  from  the  plains. 
The  Khybcr  Pass,  a  long  and  difficult  de'ile.  Disaster  in 
leads  to  Jellalabad,  and  the  Khoord  Cabul  Afghanistan. 
Pass,  still  longer  and  more  difficult,  b-irs  the  passage  t(i 
Cabul.  Afghanistan  had  been  occupied  by  General 
EJphinstone,  who,  fearing  for  his  retreat,  sent  General 
Sale  to  occupy  the  pass  to  Jellalabad.  In  the  meantime 
he  neglected  the  com-nonest  precaution.  The  Afghans, 
excited  by  some  wild  rumours,  rose  against  him,  cut  ofT 
his  provisions,  killed  the  British  Envoy  by  treachery,  and 
compelled  the  army  to  shameful  capitulation.  No  faith 
was  kept  by  the  barbarians.  Deprived  of  food,  harassed 
by  treacherous  attacks,  the  arm\  dwindled  away  to  a  mere 
handful.  The  women  and  children  had  at  last  to  be  sur- 
rendered to  the  faithless  enemy  ;  out  of  i6,noo  men  who 
left  Cabul  only  one  survivor  reached  the  cii  y  of  Jellalabad. 

4.  \o  insult  of  this  kind  has  remained  !•  mg  unavenged. 
General  Pollock  marched  with  8,<'00  men  through  the 
Khyber  Pass.  He  joined  General  .Sale  at 
Jellalabad,  and  defended  the  ci'y,  although  it  ^''"s^^"" 
was  shaken  with  a  hundred  shocks  of  earthquake.  In 
August  1842  the  two  armies  moved  through  the  pass  of 
Khoord  Cabul,  where  their  countr\men  had  perished 
man  by  man.  The  city  of  Cabul  was  taken,  the  inhabi- 
tants were  massacred  without  mercy,  and  the  Great 
Bazaar  was  burned  to  the  ground.  Afghanistan  was 
entirely  reduced,  but  the  Enghsh  did  not  care  to  regain  so 
useless  and  so  costly  a  possession. 

E.  //.  D 


34  Modern  England.  1843. 

CHAPTER    II. 

FREE   TRADE. 

I.   The  next  three  years  are  chiefly  occupied  with    the 

struggle    between    protection    and   free   trade,   but    little 

progress  was  made  with  this  question   in  the 

Reforms.  .  . 

session  of  1843.  The  year  was  taken  up  with 
discussions  en  factory  labour,  on  education,  on  church 
rates,  with  the  visit  of  the  Queen  to  the  King  of  the  French, 
and  the  excitement  at  Oxford  caused  by  the  defection  r.f 
some  prominent  high  churchmen  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 
It  was  found  tha'  the  financial  reforms  of  the  previous  ses- 
sion had  been  a  brilliant  success.  Instead  of  two  millions 
and  a  half  deficit,  there  was  a  million  and-  a  half  surplus 
after  all  drbts  had  been  paid,  and  an  anticipation  of  a 
still  larger  balance  for  next  year. 

2.  The  emancipation   of  the  Catholics  had   not   suc- 
ceeded in  quieting  Ireland.     The  movement  for  repeal  of 
the  Union  was  st'll  in  full  vigour,  and  O'Connell 

Ireland.  i  i  ,  •  ■t  t  •  -i  • 

told  a  large  meetmg  at  1  ara  that  withm  a 
year  a  P<irliament  would  be  sitting  at  College  Green  in 
Dublin.  Another  meeting,  summoned  with  all  the  parade 
of  rrilitary  organisation,  was  prohibited  by  proclamation, 
and  prevented  by  O'Connell.  He  was,  nevertheless,  tried 
for  sedition  and  condemned  by  a  Protestant  jury  to  im- 
prisonment and  fine.  The  Judgment  was  reversed  after  a 
tempestuous  scene  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  ac- 
quittal of  the  great  agitator  was  received  with  joy  through- 
out Ireland.  Little  more  was  heard  of  O'Connell.  He  was 
now  grown  old  and  weary,  and  his  followers  knew  that 
they  would  be  treated  in  future  with  severity  or  mercy,  as 
they  deserved  it.  In  the  next  year  the  Government  did 
an  act  of  justice  by  endowing  the  Catholic  College  of 
Mavnooth. 


1 845-  Potato  Disease.  35 

3.  In  the  meantime  events  were  rapidly  moving  to- 
wards free  trade.  Sir  R.  Peel,  assisted  by  Mr.  Gladstone, 
went  on  with  his  financial  reforms.  He  pro- 
posed to  use  the  surplus  produced  by  the  '''^''*  "^"^^ 
income  tax  in  reducing  the  taxes  on  commodities.  A 
great  change  was  proposed  in  the  sugar  duties,  wise  in 
the  main,  but  disfigured  by  traces  of  protection.  The 
agricultural  distress  of  the  year  gave  the  free  traders  an 
opportunity  of  enforcing  their  views,  whilst  a  new  party 
of  young  England,  led  hy  Mr.  Disraeli  and  Lord  John 
Maimers,  thought  that  the  landed  interests  were  too 
heavily  taxed  already,  and  ought  to  be  relieved. 

4.  The  Session  of  1845  closed  quietly  enough.  The 
increased  Maynooth  Grant  had  been  passed,  the  Jews 
admitted  to  municipal  offices,  the  Oregon  dis-  potato 
pute  with  the  United  States  arranged.  New  Wsease. 
Zealand  pacified.  Suddenly  an  unexpected  crisis  arose. 
A  disease  which  entirely  destroyed  the  potato  plant 
appeared  first  in  England  and  then  in-  Ireland.  The 
whole  subsistence  of  the  Irish  peasantry  was  destroyed. 
Pressure  was  put  upon  the  Ministry  to  admit  foreign  corn 
free  of  duty.  The  country  was  deluged  with  the  free 
trade  tracts  of  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League.  Sir  R.  Peel 
was  convinced  that  protection  was  no  longer  tenable,  but 
his  Cabinet  would  not  follow  him.  Lord  Stanley  resigned, 
and  the  Ministry  broke  up.  Lord  J.  Russell  was  unable 
to  form  a  cabinet,  and  Sir  R.  Peel  was  induced  to  take 
office  again.  It  was  known  that  he  would  meet  Parlia- 
ment in  1846,  pledged  to  support  the  cause  of  free  trade. 

5.  The  agitation  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  began 
in  Manchester  towards  the  end  of  1836.  In  a  season  of 
distress  it  appeared  to  some  of  the  mostinflu-  Ami-Corn 
ential  members  of  this  rising  town  that  the  i-->w  League. 
only  reme  iy  lay  in  free  trade,  and  that  by  artificially 
keeping  uf)  the  price  of  corn  the  manufacturing  interests 


S^  Modem  England.  1846. 

of  the  country  were  sacrificed  to  the  agricultural  interests. 
Three  years  later  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League  was  formed. 
Its  most  prominent  members  from  the  first  were  Mr. 
Cobden  and  Mr.  Bright,  who  s.Tcrificed  their  worldlv  pros- 
perity in  a  great  measure  to  the  work  of  converting  their 
countrymen  to  the  principles  of  true  economy.  Very 
large  sums  of  money  were  collected  for  the  purposes  of 
the  League.  A  free  trade  hall  was  built  in  Manchester. 
In  1843  the  'Times"  acknowledged  that  the  League  was  a 
great  fact,  and  compared  it  to  the  wooden  horse  by  which 
the  Gre  ks  were  secretly  brought  within  the  walls  of  Troy. 
At  the  end  of  1845  it  was  stronger  than  ever  in  men, 
money,  and  enthusiasm. 

5.  Ontheassemblingof  Parliament  in  1846,  the  Queen's 
speech  and  the  address  in  reply  to  it  indicated  the  coming 
Corn  Law  change.  Sir  R.  Peel  rose  immediately  after- 
Repeal,  wards,  and  honestly  confessed  his  alteration 
of  opinion.  He  had  observed,  he  said,  during  the  last  three 
3'ears  (i)  that  wages  do  not  vary  with  the  price  of  food,  and 
that  with  Iiigh  prices  you  do  not  necessarily  have  high 
wages  ;  (2)  that  employment,  high  prices,  and  abundance 
contribu'e  directly  to  the  diminution  of  crime;  (3)  that 
by  the  gradual  removal  of  protection,  industry  had  been 
promoted,  crime  had  been  diministied,  and  morality 
improved.  .Sir  R.  Peel  was  followed  by  Mr.  Dis'aeli, 
who,  expressing  th-  passion  of  the  protectionist  country 
gentlemen,  violently  assailed  tie  minister.  In  February 
Sir  R.  Peel  announced  a  fixed  duty  on  com  for  three 
years,  and  afterwards  its  entire  abolition.  The  free 
traders  attempted  to  dispense  with  this  delay,  but  they 
were  beaten  by  a  large  majority,  and  the  bill  passed  e  !sily. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  secured  its  acceptance  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  He  had  became  wiser  since  the  Reform 
Bill,  and  h''s  conduct  on  this  occasion  compensated  for 
the  errors  cf  his  previous  career. 

6,  The   protectioni?ts   determined  on    their  revenge. 


ii>47.  T^he  PeopU  s  Charter.  37 

A  Bill  for  the  suppression  of  crime  in  Ireland  gave  the 
opportunity.  Lord  George  Bentinck  ass.iled  Ministers 
the  Ministers  with  violciice,  and  they  were  'esign. 
defeated  by  a  majority  of  scvent)  three  on  the  very 
evening  that  the  Corn  Bih  passed  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  Whigs  who  had  assisted  Sir  R.  I'eel  in  carrying  free 
trade  now  joined  the  Protectionists  in  turning  him  out. 
Ministers  had  nothing  left  ih'  m  but  to  resign,  and  Lord 
John  Russell  was  ordered  to  form  a  cabinet.  The  new 
ministry  did  not  do  much  in  the  session  of  i  47.  They 
were  obliged  to  propose  a  second  time  the  measure  for 
the  pacification  of  Ireland  which  had  brought  about  the 
defeat  of  their  opponents.  A  bill  for  shortening  the  hours 
of  laljour  in  lac  uries  passed  without  difficulty.  I  his  year 
wab  also  rnarlvcd  by  .he  death  of  0'C<jnnell  at  Genoa,  on 
his  way  to  Rome,  ;md  by  the  volunt.iry  dissolution  of  the 
Anti-Corn  Law  League. 


CHAPTER    HI. 

THE   CHAkTKR. 


I.  Although  no  great  question  v.  as  before  the  nation, 
Parliament  bad  been  dissolved.  The  result  of  the  new 
elections  was  a  slight  ii.  reas.  of  strength  to 

..,        y-,  ,  ,.  DiscontCfit. 

the  Government.  It  was  procet  'mg  to  con- 
sider simple  measures  of  practica.  --eform,  when  a  new 
and  unexpected  danger  demanded  its  .ittention.  A  revo- 
lution which  broke  out  in  France  in  1848  overthrew  the 
monarchy  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  established  a  lepublic 
in  its  place.  The  contagion  spread  throughout  Europe. 
In  every  country  thrones  were  tottering,  and  England  was 
not  exempt  from  the  general  disorder.  The  discontent 
of  the  Irish  increased,  and  Smith  O'Brien  took  the  place 


38  ModiTH  England.  1847. 

of  O'Cor.neli.  In  England  the  excitement  was  shown  by 
the  agitation  of  the  Chartists. 

2.  The  Chartists  derived  their  name  from  the  sketch 
of  a  new  Reform  Bill,  which  had  obtained  the  title  of  the 
The  People's  People's  Charter.  It  contained  six  principal 
Charter,  points  :  I.  Universal  suffrage.  2.  Annual 
parliam^ents.  3.  VoLe  by  ballot.  4.  Abolition  of  property 
qualification  for  members  of  parliament.  5.  The  payment 
of  members.  6.  Equal  electoral  di-^tricts.  This  had 
been  finally  drawn  up  in  1838,  but  for  many  yeurs  the 
agitation  for  it  was  obscured  by  other  matters.  In  1839 
a  petition  containing  a  million  and  a  quarter  names  was 
presented  to  Parliament.  In  1840  an  attack  made  by  the 
Chartists  on  Newport  was  crushed  by  the  firmness  of  the 
mayor.  In  1847  the  Chartists  put  out  their  full  strengih 
and  gained  several  seats  in  Parliament,  and  especially 
the  election  of  their  leader  Feargus  O'Connor  for  Not- 
tingham. 

3.  Inspired  by  their  successes,  the  Chartists  determined 
to  hold  a  monster  meeting  on  the  tenth  of  April  on  Ken- 

nington  Common  ;  from  this  place  they  were 
^"   '°'  to  march  and  present  a  huge  petition  to  the 

House  of  Commons.  They  even  talked  of  imitating 
France  in  the  establishment  of  a  republic.  The  Govern- 
ment determined  to  prevent  the  march.  Soldiers  were 
posted  in  all  parts  of  Lor  ..on  l"y  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
170,000  special  cons' aoles  '.ere  sworn  in,  the  public 
offices,  the  bank  and  post  office  were  armed  to  the  teeth. 
All  their  designs  ended  in  failure.  The  meeting  was  far 
smalUr  than  had  been  expected,  the  niarcn  was  given 
up,  and  the  petition  of  five  million  and  a  half  of  names 
was  found  to  contain  only  a  third  of  this  number,  and 
those  mainly  .fictitious.  The  movement  could  not  survive 
the  ridicule  of  exposure. 


1849.  ^^i^  Gorhatn   Case.  39 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   (IKEAT    EXHIHU'ION'. 

I.  The  chief  subjects  of  discontent  which  existed  when  our 
period  opened  had  now  been  removed.  The 
disabilities  uf  Cathohcs  had  been  taken  away,  """if^ss. 
the  corn  laws  had  been  repealed,  the  Irish  had  been 
pacified,  rebellion  in  England  had  been  crushed.  The 
country  entered  upon  a  career  of  peaceful  progress.  In 
1849  the  navigation  laws,  which  had  been  passed  by 
Cromwell's  Government  in  165 1,  and  which  had  first 
transferred  the  carrying  trade  from  IloUand  to  this 
country,  were  repealed.  This  was  a  legitimate  e.xiension 
of  the  principles  of  free  trade. 

2.  At  this  time  a  dispute  arose  in  an  ecclesiastical  ques- 
tion which  was  a  forerunner  of  many  similar  discussions  in 
later  years.  Mr.  Gorham  had  been  presi.  nted  ihe Gorliam 
to  a  living  in  the  diocese  of  Exeter.  The  <-:ase. 
bishop  took  the  unusual  course  of  examining  his  opinions, 
and  refused  to  institute  him  because  he  was  unsound  on 
the  question  of  baptismal  regeneration.  The  Court  of 
Arches,  a  court  reserved  for  the  trial  of  ecclesiastical 
matters,  supported  the  bishop,  but  its  decision  was 
reversed  by  the  judicial  commit'ce  of  the  Privy  Council, 
a  lay  court  of  appeal  which  had  lately  received  power  of 
revising  the  judgments  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  The 
low  ciiurch  party  was  rejoiced  at  the  freedom  allowed  it  ; 
the  high  church  party,  which  had  recemly  been  strength- 
ened by  a  movement  to  increase  its  power  begun  at  Ox- 
ford, was  angry  first  at  the  slight  thrown  on  an  important 
doctrine,  and  secondly  that  the  law  shoukl  ultimately 
decide  on  church  matters.  However  a  Bill  introduced  to 
alter  the  constitution  of  the  court  was  rejected  by  the 
House  of  Commons.     To  this  year  1850  also  belongs  the 


40  Modern  England.  1S51. 

cominencenient  of  an  attempt  to  make  the  universities 
more  useful  to  the  whole  nation  by  ihe  appointment  of  a 
ro)aI  commission.  Party  spirit  was  hushed  for  a  time  by 
the  deatit  of  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

3.  Some  slight  excitement  was  caused  by  the  appoint- 
riie  Great  Hicnt  by  the  Pope  of  Roman  Catholic  bishops, 
Exbibiiioii.  under  an  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  and 
the  division  of  England  into  dioceses.  It  produced  how- 
ever much  ess  effect  than  was  anticipated.  All  thoughts 
were  concentrated  .  n  the  Great  Exhibition,  to  be  held  in 
Hyde  Park  in  1851.  The  design  and  execution  were 
entiiely  the  work  of  Prince  Albert.  A  building  of  a  new 
kind,  made  of  j^lass  and  iron,  was  invented  as  if  for  the  very 
p  rpose.  It  contained  tlie  industrial  products  of  all  nations, 
and  it  w  as  hoped  that  peaceful  competition  had  rendered 
the  horrors  of  war  for  ever  impossible.  The  enterprise 
w.is  a  biilliant  success,  it  fulfilled  the  hopes  of  its  pro- 
j  ctors,  and  the  profits  wisely  invested  ha\e  been  a  means 
of  promoting  art  and  cultme  throughout  England. 

4.  As  if  in  mockery  of  human  designs,  this  hope  of 
peace  was  succeeded  by  a  destructive  war.  Louis  Napoleon, 
Change  of  nephcw  of  the  Great  Emperor,  President  of 
MmisLiy.  the  French  Republic  since  1 848,  had  just  made 
himself  Emperor  of  the  French.  It  was  feared  that  a  mili- 
tary power  so  near  to  us  might  drag  us  into  an  unwise 
pohcy.  Lord  John  Russell  was  succeeded  as  minister  by 
Lord  Derby.  But  a  dissolution  of  Parliament  brought  back 
the  old  ministry  with  Lord  Aberdeen  at  its  head,  and 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  Chancellor  of  Exchequer.  His  budget 
inaugurated  a  new  series  of  financial  reforms.  He 
formed  a  plan  of  reducing  the  national  debt,  while  he 
retained  the  income  tax  in  order  to  make  it  easier  to  tax 
more  equally  the  chief  articles  of  daily  consumption. 

5.  A  dispute  had  arisen  between  Russia  and  Turkey, 
ostensibly  about  the  guardianship  of  the   Holy  Places  in 


Crhnean    War.  41 


Jerusalem,  but  the  root  of  the  quarrel  lay  far  dee(.er. 
Turkey,  a  decaying  power,  had  become  more 
and  more  unfit  to  govern  Christians.  Russia 
was  deeply  interested  in  protecting  the  Slavonic  races 
under  the  Turkish  rule  who  were  of  the  same  Llood  and 
origin  as  herself;  she  wished  also  to  extend  her  power 
to  the  Dardanelles.  If  great  calmness  had  been  shown 
on  both  sides  peace  might  have  been  preserved.  Hut  the 
Russian  Emperor  Nicholas  was  violent  and  impetuou";, 
our  ambassador  at  Constant  nople  \\as  a  swoin  enemy  of 
Russia.  A  war  was  necessary  to  ihe  Emperor  of  the 
French  for  the  consolidation  of  his  throne.  The  spirit  ot 
both  nations  was  gradually  roused.  The  Russians  enteied 
the  Danubian  principalities,  and  burned  the  Turkish  fleet 
at  Sinope.  Lord  Aberdeen  strained  every  nei  ve  for  peace. 
Lord  Palmtrston,  the  home  secretary,  threatened  to  resign 
unless  strong  measures  were  adopted.  The  country  ap- 
proached neaier  and  nearer  to  the  brink  of  war. 


BOOK    VI. 
WAR  AND  MUTINY.     1853-1858. 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE   CRIMEAN    WAR. 

I.  In  November,  1853,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  declared 
war  against  Turkey.  To  the  surprise  of  Europe,  the  Turks 
Ouibr«ak  of  ^^  ^^'^^  \^€\.ix  theii  own  againsi  the  invader.  The 
Wa..  Russians  were  repulsed  from  every  point  of 


42  Modern  England.  1854. 

attack  along  the  Danube,  and  the  Emperor  became  more 
exasperated  at  the  failure  of  his  arms.  Th<;  Emperor  of 
the  French  attempted  in  vain  to  mediate.  At  last  a 
message  was  sent  by  England  that  unless  the  Russian 
troops  were  withdrawn  across  the  Pruth  before  the  end 
of  April  1854,  it  would  be  considered  that  war  had  been 
declared  To  this  the  Czar  made  no  reply,  and  the  war 
began  its  course. 

2.  The  planof  operations  was  very  simple.  Russia  could 
only  be  attacked  in  her  extremities,  and  England  could  only 

.  act  on  a  sea  base.     A  fleet  was  sent  into  the 

Crimea.  .  .  .  •  ■    . 

Baltic  with  high  expectations  01  success,  which 
were  not  realised,  and  a  large  force  of  English  and  French 
troops  were  despatched  into  the  Black  Sea  with  the 
object  of  taking  Seb.istopol,  a  powerful  fortress  which  the 
Russians  had  recently  consiructed  at  ^reat  expense.  In 
September  the  allies  lauded  at  Eupatoria,  in  the  Crimea, 
and  six  days  later  completely  defeated  the  Russians  at 
the  Battle  of  the  Alma.  It  might  have  been  possible  to 
attack  Sebastopol  with  success  from  the  northern  side, 
but  it  was  thought  more  prudent  to  besiege  it  from  the 
south,  and  the  batteries  opened  tire  in  October.  The 
Battle  of  Balaklava  fought  on  October  25  was  signalised 
by  a  charge  of  six  hundred  light  cavalry,  in  which  nearly 
half  were  killed  or  wounded.  In  November  was  fought 
the  Battle  of  Inkerman,  in  which  an  attempt  to  surprise 
the  British  army  was  defeated  by  the  steadiness  of  the 
guards.  The  winter  tried  the  army  severely,  and  the  want 
of  supplies  and  hospitals  roused  indignation  at  home. 

3.  Discontent  ripened  into  suspicion.  Mr.  Roebuck 
proposed  an  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the  Ministry. 
Change  of  Unable  to  meet  it,  the  cabinet  of  Lord  Aber- 
Ministry.  decu  resigned,  and,  after  a  short  delay,  Lord 
Palmerston  formed  a  Government  not  very  different 
from    the    ore\'ious    one.     It    soon    lost    the    services  of 


1 855-  Peaci  of  Pans.  43 

Mr.  Gladstone  and  two  others,  but  it  was  able  to  carry 
on  the  war  with  undiminished  vigour.  The  death  of  the 
Czar  in  March  gave  only  a  slight  hope  of  peace.  In 
April  the  siege  was  reopened,  and  continued  with  varying 
success.  On  June  18,  the  anniversary  of  Waterloo,  the 
allies  were  repulsed  in  an  attack  upon  the  Redan  and 
Malakhot'f  batteries,  and  at  the  end  of  the  month  Lord 
Raglan,  the  commander  in-chief,  died.  At  last,  after  a 
month's  incessant  bombardment,  an  attack  was  made  on 
the  fortifications  in  September.  The  result  was  that  the 
Russians  evacuated  the  town,  blowing  up  their  forts,  and 
leaving  their  wounded  behind  them. 

4.  before  the  end  of  the  year  negotiations  for  peace 
were  begun  by  the  help  of  Austria.  The  French  were 
more  anxious  for  a  settlement  than  the  Eng- 
lish. The  points  most  difficult  for  Russia  to 
accept  were  the  limitation  of  her  power  in  the  Black  Sea 
and  the  cession  of  a  portion  of  Bessarabia  to  Roumania. 
These  points  were  at  last  arranged,  and  the  Treaty  of 
I'ans  was  signed  in  March  1856.  Thus  ended  a  war 
which  crippled  the  power  of  Russia  for  twenty  years,  and 
delayed  for  a  time  the  inevitable  fate  of  Turkey 


CHAPTER  II. 

INDIAN      MUTINY. 

1.  The  rest  of  the  year  1856  passed  quietly,  but  in  the 
spring  of  1857  the  Government  were  defeated  on  a 
motion  of  Mr.  Cobden's  condemning  their  china 
action  with  regard  to  a  war  which  had  broken  ^^'=*'"- 
out  in  China.  Ministers  determined  to  dissolve  Parlia- 
ment rather  than  to  resign,  and  the  issue  placed  before 
the  country  was  that  of  contidence  in  Lord  Palmerston. 


44  Modern  England.  1857. 

In  the  election  Cobden  and  Bright  were  rejected  as 
members  of  the  peace  party.  The  Hberal  cause  on  the 
whole  was  supported  by  a  triumphant  majority. 

2.  The  elections  were  closely  followed  by  a  terrible  ca- 
lamity in  India.  A  wide-spread  rebellion  of  the  native 
Indian  soldiers  had  broken  out  in  the  country,  accom- 
mutiny.  panied  by  atrocities  such  as  English  men  and 
women  had  never  suffered  before.  The  pretext  forthe  revolt 
was  the  dislike  of  the  Indian  native  soldiers  to  the  use  cf 
greased  cartridges  which  might  contain  the  fat  of  cows 
or  pigs,  a.iim.als  which  their  religion  teaches  them  may 
not  be  eaten.  This  rebellion  may  have  been  connected 
with  the  Russian  war,  but  it  was  certamly  stimulated  by 
the  withdrawal  of  troops  for  China.  The  mutiny  first 
broke  out  at  Uarrackpore  ;  it  then  appeared  at  Lucknow 
and  Meerut.  Delhi,  the  ancient  capital,  was  seized  by 
the  rebels,  and  the  native  king  was  placed  on  the  throne 
of  his  ancestors.  The  whole  of  Northern  India  was  in 
disturbance.  .Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  with  the  English  gar- 
rison, was  a  prisoner  at  Lucknow  in  Oude.  The  treachery 
of  Nana  Sahib  decoyed  the  garrison  of  Cawnpore  tu  their 
destruction.  The  wives  and  children  whom  they  had 
left  behind  were  slaughtered  by  native  butchers  and 
thrown  into  a  well. 

3.  The  Government  strained  every  effort  to  recover  the 
country.     Delhi  was  taken  by  Wilson,  Cawnpore  was  re- 
lieved by  H.ivelock— too  late,  however,  to  save 
his  countrywomen  from  murder.    A  conqueror 

in  twelve  battles,  he  entered  Lucknow  in  time  to  prevent 
a  similar  calamity.  He  died  in  the  hour  of  victory.  A 
black  cloud  of  mutineers  retook  Cawnpore,  and  threatened 
Lucknow,  but  they  were  entirely  defeated  in  the  field  by 
Sir  Colin  Campbell.  At  the  close  of  1857  the  great  de- 
pendency was  again  almost  at  peace,  and  in  June  1858, 
the  work  was  completed  by  the  capture  of  Gwalior. 


1858.  Change  of  Ministry.  45 

4.  Great  as  was  the  provocation,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  too  wild  and  passionate  a  vengeance  was  not  in- 
flicted on  the  mutineers.  Many  of  them  were 
blown  from  guns,  a  death  peculiarly  horrible 
in  their  eyes.  Our  country  received  a  severe  lesson  from 
the  shock  of  this  calamity.  Among  its  principal  effects 
were  the  transference  of  the  government  of  India  from 
the  East  India  Company  to  the  Crown,  and  the  awaken- 
ing of  Englishmen  to  a  deeper  interest  in  Indian  affairs.' 


BOOK     VII. 
THE   NEW  REFORM   BILL.      1838-1868. 

CHAPTER    I. 

LORD      DERBY. 

I.  An  attack  made  by  Italian  refugees  on  the  life  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  in  January  1S58  was  the  occasion  of 
a  demand  from  the  French  Government  that  change  of 
we  should  cease  to  offer  facilities  f  r  the  con-  Ministry. 
spiracies  of  political  exiles.  Lord  Palmerston,  in  defer- 
ence to  this  request,  proposed  to  alter  the  English  law  of 
conspiracy  to  murder.  When  this  was  rejected  by  a 
mnjority  of  19,  he  immediately  resigned,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Lord  Derby  at  the  head  of  a  Conser\'ative 
Ministry.  The  yeir  was  occupied  by  various  internal 
reforms  :  the  choice  of  Indian  civil  servants  by  competi- 
tive examination  was  extended,  the  Thames  was  purified,  a 
telegraphic  cable  was  laid  between  England  and  America, 
it  appeared  thnt  the  question  of  Parliamentan'  Reform, 


4-6  Modern  England.  igjs. 

which  had  been  stopped  by  the  war,  but  had  never  sunk 
into  oblivion,  had  now  to  be  faced,  and  Lord  Derby  and 
Mr.  Disraeli  braced  themselves  to  deal  with  a  problem 
which  they  acknowledged  to  be  unwelcome. 

2.  The  Reform  Bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Disraeli  was 
not  satisfactory.  It  gave  the  franchise  to  a  number  of  dif- 
New  ferent  classes  without  resting  it  on  any  broad 

Parliament.  q^  comprehensive  basis.  A  resolution  pro- 
posed by  Lord  John  Russell  which  expressed  this  feeling 
was  carried  against  the  Government  by  a  majority  of 
39.  Ministers  determined  to  dissolve.  The  issue  before 
the  country  was  not  entirely  of  a  domestic  character. 
War  had  broken  out  between  France  and  Austria  for  the 
liberation  of  Italy,  and  the  feehngof  England  was  strongly 
with  Italian  Unity.  The  liberals,  who  were  known  to 
have  this  cause  at  heart,  were  returned  in  a  majority  of 
50,  and  immediately  after  Parliament  met  Ministers  were 
compelled  to  resign,  defeated  in  a  vote  of  confidence. 
This  was  the  sixth  change  of  ministry  which  had  taken 
place  in  fifteen  years. 


CHAPTER    II. 

LORD    P.ALMERSTON. 

I.  Lord  Palmerston  now  became  Prime  Minister,  with 
Lord  J.  Russell  as  Foreign  Secretary,  Mr. 
Gladstone  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and 
Lord  Granville  President  of  the  Council  (June  1859).  The 
first  step  of  the  Government  was  the  conclusion  of  a 
commercial  treaty  with  France,  based  on  principles  of 
free  trade.  Mr.  Cobden  had  been  the  negotiator,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone,  in  a  speech  which  announced  a  new  era  of 
financial  policy,  expressed  the  long  services  of  the  free 


i859-  American    War.  47 

trader  in  language  of  universally  accepted  praise.  The 
Ministry  attempted  to  satisfy  the  expectatiors  of  the 
country  by  bringing  forwaid  a  Reform  Bill.  It  was  as 
simple  as  its  forerunner  had  been  complicated.  It  pro- 
posed a  franchise  of  ^'lo  in  counties,  j{,6  in  boroughs,  and 
a  redistribution  of  seats.  The  languid  interest  felt  in  it 
by  the  Premier  was  a  sign  of  the  indifference  of  the 
country,  and  the  Bill  was  withdrawn. 

2.  In  1 86 1  a  civil  war  broke  out  in  America  between 
the  Northern  and  v'^outhern  States.  The  matters  in  dispute 
between  them  were  many  and  various,  but  American 
the  most  important  point  at  issue  was  the  ^''"^^ 
question  of  slavery.  The  English  people  generally  took 
the  side  of  the  South,  partly  from  a  supposed  community 
of  feeling  and  partly  from  a  jealousy  of  America,  and  a 
wish  to  see  her  dismembered.  This  feeling  was  intensi- 
fied by  the  capture  of  two  Southern  envoys  while  under 
the  protection  of  the  British  flag.  There  was  danger  of 
war  breaking  out,  but  the  Northern  States  submitted  to 
an  ultimatum,  and  returned  the  prisoners. 

3.  The  affair  of  the  'Trent,'  as  this  dispute  was  called 
from  the  name  of  the  ship  in  which  the  envoys  were  sailing, 
was  the  last  public  question  in  which  Prince     p     u    j- 
Albert,  now  for  some  time  since  called  the     the  Prince 
Prince  Consort,  was  engaged.     After  a  few     Consort, 
days'  illness,  he  died  at  Windsor  in  December  i86r,  at 
the  age  of  forty-two.      The  grief  of  the  English  nation 
was  universal  and  spontaneous.     Only  gradually  did  the 
country  come  to  learn  that  he  had  been  king  of  England 
for  twenty  years,  while  no  one  knew  it. 

4.  The  American  war  affected  England  in  two  ways. 
First,  the  ordinary  supply  of  cotton  to  our  manufacturing 
districts  was  cut  off,  and  a  great  distress  was 

felt  in  Lancashire,  which  was  known  by  the     Famine  and 
name  of  the  cotton  famine.     The  operatives     '■^'^^^'"^•' 


48  Modern   England.  1862. 

displayed  the  utmost  patience  and  self-control  under  their 
afflictions,  and  large  subscriptions  were  contributed  for 
thtir  support.  Lord  Derby  gave  the  services  of  his 
genius  to  the  organisation  of  relief,  and  cotton,  the 
threads  of  which  were  of  a  shorter  length,  was  provided 
from  India.  Before  the  American  war  was  over  the  worst 
pressure  of  distress  had  passed.  The  othi  r  trouble  was 
of  longer  iuration.  A  ship  called  the  '  Alabama '  was 
fitted  out  from  an  English  dockyard,  notwithstanding  the 
protest  of  the  American  Ambassador,  with  the  object  of 
making  war  on  American  commerce  in  the  interests  of  the 
Southern  States.  The  Americans  felt  that  the  negligence 
shown  in  not  stopping  this  vessel  expressed  only  too 
clearly  the  sympathies  of  England.  They  could  not  at 
this  time  do  anything  to  prevent  or  to  avenge  the  wrmg, 
but  when  the  war  was  over  a  feeling  of  bitterness  vvas 
left,  which  nearly  led  to  an  open  rupture,  and  was  with 
difficulty  appeased. 

5.  Lord  Palmerston  died  in  October  1865.  The  condi- 
tion of  parties  during  these  closing  years  was  remarkable. 

Popular  throughout  the  coun'ry,  the  Premier 
was  trusted  equally  by  Conservatives  and 
Liberals.  The  policy  of  a  long  life  was  the  earnest  of  his 
liberalism  :  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  known  to  be 
opposed  to  organic  reform.  The  great  questions  which 
were  agitated  in  later  years  now  slumbered,  and  the 
reform  of  the  representation,  which  lay  at  the  root  of  all 
other  measures,  was  deferred  with  the  admonition  that 
the  nation  should  rest  and  be  thankful  ftjr  what  it  had 
already  achieved.  A  new  election  in  the  spring  of  1865 
returned  a  solid  Libeml  majority  with  a  few  Liberal  losses. 
No  loss,  however,  was  so  great  as  the  premature  death  of 
Richard  Cobden. 

6.  Earl  Russell  succeeded  Lord  Palmerston  as  Pre- 
mier;   Mr.   Gladstone  became  leader  of  the    House    of 


iS66.  Mr.   Disraeli.  49 

Commons ;  the  ministry  in  other  respects  remained  un- 
changed.    Tiie  history  of  this  administration     „    . 

...  ^    ,        ...  1   T-.    c  r^-ii      ^x,,  y.3.n  Russell 

IS  the  history  of  the  Liberal  Reform  Bill.  The  Prime 
Bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  March  ^''"'^■"• 
1866  gave  the  fram  hise  to  householders  of  the  value  of 
/14  in  counties  and  ^7  in  boroughs.  It  was  evidently  a 
compromise,  and  was  not  heartily  supported  either  by 
the  cabinet  or  by  the  party.  A  section  of  the  Liberals, 
called  by  Mr.  Bright  the  'Cave  of  Adullam,'  joined  the 
opposition  in  resisting  it,  and  in  June  the  ministry  i\ere 
defeated  and  resigned.  They  were  succeeded  by  a  Con- 
servative Government,  the  principal  members  of  which 
were  Lord  Derby  and  Mr.  Disraeli. 


CHAPTER    111. 

.MR.    DISRAELI. 


I.  Lord  Derby  promised  a  safe  and  moderate  measure 
of  reform.  But  ihe  agitation  throughout  the  country  was 
very  great  The  war  in  Germany,  which  in  Reform 
si.x  weeks  made  Prussia  instead  of  Austria  the  Agitation, 
dominant  power  in  that  country,  passed  almost  unheeded. 
The  somewhat  cruel  suppression  of  a  rebellion  in  Jamaica 
by  Governor  Eyre  was  condemned  by  advanced  Liberals. 
The  laying  of  a  telegraph  cable  between  Ireland  and 
Newfoundland  gave  hope  to  those  who  wished  for  a 
union  of  affection  between  two  mighty  continents.  But 
the  desire  for  reform  was  unmistakable.  In  July  the 
Reform  League  was  forbidden  to  hold  a  meeting  in  Hyde 
Park,  but  the  masses  who  had  accompanied  them  threw 
down  the  railings  and  pushed  back  the  police  who  would 
have  barred  their  passage.  The  reform  addresses  of 
Gladstone  and  Bright  were  received  with  enthusiasm. 


50  Modern  Englaud.  1867. 

2.  At  the  beginning  of  the  session  of  1S67,  Mr.  DisraeH 
proposed  resolutions  which  were  to  be  the  basis  of  a 
Reform  Hill  reform  bill.  A  considerable  extension  of  the 
miroduced.  franchise  was  contemplated,  limited  by  a 
system  of  plurality  of  votes.  Parliament  objected  to  this 
method,  and  it  became  necessary  for  Ministers  to  agree 
in  a  definite  measure  ;  of  two  alternative  courses  the 
more  liberal  was  adopted,  but  Lord  Carnarvon,  Lord 
Cranbourne,  and  General  Peel  could  not  accede  to  it, 
and  left  the  Ministry.  Mr.  Disraeli  expounded  his  measure 
in  March.  The  proposed  franchise  was  founded  on 
rating  and  not  on  rental.  The  franchise  in  boroughs  was 
given  to  all  householders  paying  rates  ;  in  counties  it  was 
given  to  occupiers  of  property  rated  at  ^"15  a  year. 
Besides  this,  the  franchise  was  given  to  all  men  of  a 
certain  education,  or  who  had  saved  a  certain  sum  of 
money.  In  some  cases  voters  were  allowed^  double  vote 
in  respect  of  possessing  a  double  qualification. 

3.  The  Bill  was  violently  opposed  by  Mr.  Gladstone, 
who    objected    to    its    provisions    in    almost   every    par- 
ticular,   but   the    section    of   bis   party,  who 

Amendments  r        /  7 

m  Com-  formed    the    '  Cave    of    AduUam,'    declined 

'"'  ^^'  to    follow    him    in    procuring   the   defeat    of 

the  Government.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  measure 
was  gradually  changed  piece  by  piece  until  it  was  entirely 
altered.  The  abolition  of  compound  householders,  that 
is,  of  those  whose  rates  were  paid  for  them  in  the  lump 
by  their  landlords,  nearly  quadrupled  the  number  of 
voters  ;  lodgers  were  admitted  to  the  franchise,  the  county 
franchise  was  reduced,  and  the  distribution  of  seats  was 
changed.  The  Bill,  as  it  was  passed  by  both  Houses 
weary  with  argument  at  the  end  of  July,  almost  reached 
the  limit  of  manhood  suffrage.  It  had  been  passed  by  a 
Conservative  Ministry,  and  Lord  Derby  described  it  as  a 
leap  in  the  dark. 


S 


i868.  Gladstoties  Ministry.  5 1 

4.  It  was  necessary  that  Parliament  should  meet  again 
in  the  autumn  of  1867  to  vote  supplies  for  an  expedition 
to  Abyssinia,  undertaken  to  release  some  Return  of  the 
Englishmen  who  were  l<ept  in  prison  by  the  l->bcrais. 
king.  The  prisoners  were  released,  and  Magdala,  the 
king's  capital,  destroyed.  Early  in  the  session  of  1868 
Lord  Derby  resigned  the  Premiership  from  bad  health, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Disraeli.  It  soon  became 
obvious  that  the  main  point  of  struggle  between  the  two 
p.-irties  would  be  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church. 
At  the  end  of  March,  iMr.  Gladstone  moved  resolutions 
to  that  effect.  The  Government  had  been  defeated  by 
small  majorities  before  the  Easter  recess.  In  April  it 
was  beaten  on  the  Irish  Church  question  by  a  majority  of 
eighty-five.  Parlinmcnt  was  dissolved,  and  the  result  of 
the  elections  was  a  signal  victory  for  the  Liberals.  The 
Government  did  not  wait  for  the  opening  of  the  session, 
but  resigned  their  offices,  and  just  before  the  close  of  1868 
Mr.  Gladstone  became  Prime  Minister. 


BOOK    VIII. 
MR.    GLADSTONE.     1868- 1874. 


CHAPTER    I. 

IRISH    CHURCH   AND    LAND. 


I.  The  chief  members  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  cabinet  were 
Lord  Hatherley,  Mr.  Lowe,  Mr.  Bruce,  Lord  Granville, 
Mr,  Bright,  and  Mr.  Childers.  During  its  five  years'  tenure 


52  Modern  England.  1870. 

of  office  it  showed  a  great  activity  in  every  branch  of  admi- 
Disestabliih-  f^'^trative  reform.  This  could  only  have  been 
ment  of  Irish  maintained  by  a  large  majority  in  Parliament, 
directed  by  a  chief  of  exceptional  ability,  at  a 
time  when  the  feeling  of  the  country  was  wrought  to  an 
unusual  strain.  Its  first  efforts  were  directed  to  the  re- 
moval of  Irish  grievances  by  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Irish  Church,  and  the  regulation  <■■.{  Irish  land.  The 
country  h  id  determined  by  the  elections  that  the  Irish 
branch  of  the  Church  of  England  should  cease  to  exist 
under  State  protection.  The  working  out  of  that  ch.mge 
was  difficult  and  complicated.  The  arrangements  pro- 
posed by  Mr.  Gladstone  were  passed  by  large  majorities 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  met  with  no  serious 
opposition  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Experience  has  shown 
the  wisdom  of  the  measure,  and  the  large  surplus  resulting 
from  it  still  remains  to  be  applied  to  the  material  benefit 
cif  the  country. 

2.  The  Irish  Land  Act  passed  in  the  session  of  1870 
was  a  matter  of  greater  difficulty.  Its  object  was  to 
Irish  L^.iia  o'^c  such  security  to  the  tenant  as  might 
•■^'^'-  induce  him  to  spend  money  in  improving  his 
holding,  to  lend  money  to  landlords  to  be  spent  in  im- 
provements, to  put  a  restraint  on  hasty  and  unjust  evic- 
tions, and  to  establish  a  ready  means  of  arbitration 
between  landlord  and  tenant.  The  Bill,  though  full  of 
complicated  provisions,  met  with  little  opposition  in 
either  House,  and  became  law  nn  the  ist  of  August. 

3.  The  same  session  was  occupied  with  another  mea- 
sure of  first-rate  importance.  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster  produced 
Edu.-ation  '''-  Comprehensive  Education  Act  to  deal  with 
'^"^'-  primary  education,  that  namely,  of  the  poorer 
classes.  Time  was  given  for  different  religious  denomi- 
nations to  supply  deficiencies  in  existing  schools,  but  if 
that  were  not  done  school  boards  were  to  be  created,  who 


1870.  Battle  of  Sedan.  53 

should  provide  at  the  cost  of  thu  ratepayer  a  cheap, 
universal,  and  iinseciarian  education.  The  result  has 
surpassed  the  most  sanguine  hopts.  Kvcry  year  since 
the  pdssin^  of  the  A(  t  the  number  of  ignon-nt  childre.i 
has  diminished.  A  gnat  lift  has  been  given  to  the  edu- 
cational system  of  the  country ;  universities  and  public 
school-,  have  undergone  revision,  an  J  the  country  now 
only  waits  for  tlie  organised  in--truction  of  the  middle 
clashes. 


CHAl'TKK     II 

WAK     nF.IWUIX     IKANCK    AM'    iJRMANY. 

I.  This  peaceful  progic-js  .11  liome  «as  not  without  violent 

contrast  abroad.     Since  the  defeat  of  Austria  in  1866  a 

strong  jealousy  had  existed  between  France  and  Prussia. 

War  broke  out  suddenly  in  July  1870.     The  successes  of 

the    Germans    were    rapid    and    unexpected.     ..   ,    ,  . 
,„,      „         ,  ',  .         ,       ,    /-  ,         J*^"  of  the 

The  r  rench  army  was  driven  Lack  from  the     Emperor  of 

Rhine,  it  was  cut  into  two  parts  by  a  series  '  ^  rench. 
of  bloody  batt'es,  Marshal  Bazaine  was  shut  up  with  a 
large  army  in  Metz,  the  Emperor  was  driven  into  the 
Ardennes.  Here  he  was  sui rounded  by  the  consummate 
skill  of  Molike,  and  forced  to  surrender  at  Sedan  on  Sep- 
tember I.  tJn  receipt  of  the  news,  the  Empire  was  abolished 
in  I'aris,  tlie  Empress  and  h'  r  son  tied  to  England. 

2.  Paris  was  invested  by  llic  Cerman  army,  and  soon 
began  to  suffer  from  lamine.  1  he  siege  was  prolonged 
throughout  the  winter.  About  the  middle  of 
January  the  su.xess  of  the  (lermans  became 
certain,  and  on  January  iS  King  William  of  Prussia  was 
salutt  d  as  German  Emperor  in  the  Galerie  des  Glaces  at 
Versailles.     Peace  wa^  made  shortly  afterwards.     Alsace 


54  Modern  England.  1872. 

and  Lorraine  were  ceded  to  Germany,  and  an  indemnity 
of  200  millions  paid  for  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

3.  The  English  Government  had  with  great  skill  and 
patience  preserved  the  neutrality  of  the  nation.  This  was 
Internal  tried  most  Severely  when  the  Russian  Govern- 

Affa.rs.  nient  repudiated  the  clauses  of  the  Treaty  of 

Paris  referring  to  the  Black  Sea.  The  matter  was  amica- 
bly arranged  at  a  conference  in  London.  The  session  of 
1 87 1  M-as  not  idle.  Purchase  in  the  army  was  abolished, 
the  English  civil  service  was  made  attainable  by  compe- 
tition, the  universities  were  thrown  open  to  the  whole 
country  without  regard  to  religious  denominations,  trades 
unions  were  recognised  by  the  law,  and  the  powers  of 
local  government  were  extended  to  countrj'  districts.  In 
the  winter  the  Prince  of  Wales  became  seriously  ill,  and 
in  rhe  middle  of  December  the  whole  country  waited  in 
suspense  for  tidings  of  life  and  death.  Before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  he  was  out  of  danger. 


CHAPTER    III. 

LIBERAL    REVERSES. 

I.  In  1872  a  system  was  adopted  of  electing  Members  of 
Parliament  by  ballot,  or  secret  voting.  This  measure  had 
long  been  urged  by  advanced  Liberals  and  opposed  by 
Conservatives.  I'utthechief  event  of  the  yearwasthe  settle- 
ment of  the  so-called  'Alabama'  claims,  that  is,  the  com- 
'  Alabama'  pensation  for  dam  tge  done  by  this  and  other 
Arbitration.  privatcers  in  the  American  war.  In  accord- 
ance with  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  these  matters  were 
arranged  in  a  conference  held  at  Geneva,  in  which  the 
chief  living  authorities  on  international  law  formed  the 
tribunal.     The  award  was  given  against  England,  and  a 


1874-  Liberal  Reverses.  55 

sum  of  nearly  four  millions  had  to  be  paid  to  America. 
But  friendship  between  the  two  countries  was  restored  at 
this  small  price,  and  a  new  principle  of  arbitration  was 
asserted  in  public  afTairs. 

2.  The  session  of  1873  ^^'as  intended  by  the  Govern- 
ment to  remove  another  Irish  griev/ince  by  establishing 
a  system  of  Catholic  university  education.  ihsH  Educa- 
The  measure  had  been  carefully  prepared  by     '"o"- 

Mr.  Gladstone,  and  it  was  introduced  with  good  hope  of 
success..  But  it  was  soon  found  that  it  satisfied  neither 
party.  The  Government  were  defeated,  and  the  Ministry 
resigned.  Mr.  Disraeli,  however,  refused  to  take  office, 
and  the  seals  were  resumed  by  their  former  holders.  A 
few  changes  were  made  in  the  Cabinet,  and  a  Judicature 
Bill  was  passed,  remodelling  our  whole  system  of  judicial 
procedure. 

3.  The  Government  were  weakened  a:  d  discredited.  , 
Seat   after   seat   was   won  by  the    Conservatives.      The 
Liberal  majority  became  every  day  smaller 

J    1  A      1  ■        1       ,        •        .  Dissolution 

and  less  compact.  At  last,  m  the  begmnmg  of  Pariia- 
of  1 874,  Mr.  Gladstone  determined  to  appeal  '"^"'■ 
to  the  country,  and,  to  the  surprise  of  everybody,  in 
January  Parliament  was  dissolved.  In  five  years  the 
majority  of  Liberal  supporters  had  dwindled  from  116  to 
66.  The  result  of  the  elections  was  a  triumph  for  the 
Conservatives.  The  Cabinet  did  not  wait  for  the  meeting 
of  Parliament.  Mr.  Disraeli  accepted  office  as  Premier, 
supported  by  Lord  Derby,  Lord  Salisbury,  Lord  Car- 
narvon, Sir  S.  Northcote,  Mr.  Cross,  and  Mr.  Hardy. 
Shortly  after  this  Mr.  Gladstone  announced  that  he  had 
retired  for  ever  from  the  leadership  of  the  Liberal  party. 


56  Modern  England. 


CONCLUSION. 

At  the  close  of  our  period  it  may  be  well  to  review  the 
results  of  the  policy  which  we  have  described  in  detail, 
and  to  compare  the  condition  of  England  in  1875  ^^'th  its 
condition  at  the  close  of  the  great  continental  war.  We 
will  consider  separately —  i.  Her  population  ;  2.  Her 
wealth  ;  3.  The  state  of  pauperism  in  the  two  periods  ; 
4.  The  state  of  crime  ;  5.  The  condition  of  trade  ; 
6.  Fool,  eilucation  ;  7.  The  extent  of  her  dominion. 

1.  The  population  of  Great  Britain  in  181 1  was  twelve 
millions  ;  in  1875,  it  was  twenty-seven  millions  and  a  half. 
At  the  first  period  she  contained  only  nine  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  population  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  France, 
Germany,  Austria,  Russia.  She  now  contains  about 
thirteen  per  cent. 

2.  As  an  indication  of  wealth,  in  1826  the  United 
Kingdom  paid  £1  9^.  z,d.  a  head  lor  taxation.  In  1876 
she  paid  £1  \s.  ^d.  England  is  the  only  country  in 
Europe  in  which  the  percentage  of  taxation  in  proportion 
to  the  population  has  diminished.  The  assessments  to 
the  income-tax  in  Great  Britain  in  181 5  were  a  hundred 
and  thirty  millions;  in  1875  they  were  five  hundred  and 
thirty- five  inillions  and  three  quarters.  In  1830  the 
deposits  in  savings  banks  amounted  to  \\s.  4d.  per  head 
of  the  population.  In  1876  they  amounted  to  £>  2s.  6d. 
per  head. 

3.  In  1813  the  amount  spent  in  the  relief  of  the  poor 
was  eight  millions  and  a  half;  that  is,  a  cost  of  15^.  2d. 
per  head  of  the  popula^on.  In  1876  the  amount  spent 
was  seven  millions  and  a  quarter,  that  is  6s.  id.  per 
head  ;  yet  we  spend  nearly  three  times  as  much  on  each 
pauper  as  we  did  five  and  thirty  years  ago. 


Coticlusion.  57 

The  percentage  of  paupers  to  the  population  is  now- 
only  three  per  cent. ;  at  the  close  of  the  war  it  was  more 
than  eight  per  cent. 

4.  Crime  has  very  largely  dinvinisl.ed.  The  number 
of  ortences  left  undiscovered  is  probably  much  smaller 
than  before.  At  the  same  time,  the  proportion  of 
committals  to  the  population  is  nearly  one  half  ol  what  it 
was.  While  all  knds  of  serious  crime  have  decreased, 
offences  again-t  property  have  diminished  more  than  all. 

5.  The  value  of  British  exports  was  in  1820  thirty-six 
millions  and  a  half,  and  in  1876  two  hundred  millions 
and  a  half  Inland  trade  has  probably  increased  quite 
as  much  in  proportion. 

This  period  has  seen  an  enormous  growth  in  the 
cotton  aid  iron  trades.  It  has  witnessed  the  entire 
development  of  the  railway  system.  The  total  receipts 
from  railway  traffic  arc  now  sixty  millions  a  year. 

6.  Besides  all  this,  the  people  are  much  better  fed 
than  they  used  to  be,  and  ilie  duration  of  li'e  has  probably 
increased. 

The  dexelopmenl  if  the  press  has  done  as  much  for 
popular  education  as  the  measures  especially  devoted  to 
that  end.  In  1846  there  were  in  the  United  Kingdom 
551  newspapers;   in  1877  there  were  1,692. 

7.  In  1829,  the  population  of  the  English  Colonies 
was  thiee  millions  and  a  quarter;  in  1871  it  was  eleven 
millions  and  a  half.  At  the  same  time,  during  the  last 
hundred  and  thirty  years  ve  have  conquered  two  million 
six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles  of  territory, 
and  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  p;  ople. 

From  these  facts  we  may  conclude  that  the  England 
of  the  present  day  is  incomparably  stronger,  happier,  and 
better  than  England  at  the  time  of  the  Regency.  Also, 
that  not  only  are  Englishmen  better  fed,  better  taught, 
better  governed,  and   more   united  than  they  were,  bm 


5  8  Modern   England. 

that  the  nation  is,  for  all  purposes  of  offence  and  defence, 
far  stronger  than  it  was  at  the  time  when  it  carried  on 
the  struggle  against  Napoleon. 

These  results  are  mainly  due  to  the  wisdom  and  patriot- 
ism of  the  statesmen  who  have  controlled  the  destinies 
of  the  nation  during  the  period  we  have  described. 


INDEX. 


ABE 

A  BERDEEN,  Lord,  40.  41.  42 
■'^     Abyssinia,  57 
Adrianople,  13 
Afghanistan,  33 
Alabama,  48,  54 
Albert,  Prince,  31,  40,  47 
Alma,  42 
Alsace,  53 

Althorp,  Lord,  18,  20 
America,  7,  45,  47,  54 
Austria,  43,  46,  49,  50 


t) ALA  K LAVA,  42 

^     Balkans,  13 

Baltic,  42 

Barrackpore,  44 

Hazaine,  Maishal,  53 

Belgians,  King  of,  31 

Be!_;iiim,  17 

Beiuinck,  1  ord  George,  37 

Bessarabia,  43 

Birmingham,  24 

Black  Sea,  42,  54 

Bright,  Mr.,  36,  44,  49 

Brougham,  Lord,  17,  18,  20,  27 

Byron,  Lord,  6 


(-ABUL,  33 

Canada.  30 
Campbell,  Sir  Colin,  44 
Canning,  Mr.,  5,  6,  7,  10,  11,  12,  13, 

14.  16,  18 
Carnarvon,  Lord,  50,  55 
Caroline,  Queen,  4 
Castl  reagh,  Lord,  5 
Catholic  Association,  10 


FRE 

Catholic  Emancipation,  1,9,  14 

Cato  Street  Conspiracy,  3 

Cawnpore,  44 

Charles  I!.,  7,  13 

Charles  X.,  16 

Chartists,  37,  38 

China,  32,  43,  44 

Clarkson,  Mr.,  25 

Cobden,  Mr.,  32,  36,  45,  44,  48 

Constantinople,  41 

Corn  Laws,  2,  g 

Crimean  N\  ar,  2,  42 

Cumberland,  Duke  of.  »8 


pANUBE,  13,  42 

■'-^     Dardanelles,  41 

Delhi,  44 

Derby,  Lord,  40,  45,  46,  48,  49,  50 

Disraeli,  Mr..  35,  36,  46,  49.  50,  54 

Dublin,  34 

Dudley,  Lord,  ii 

Durham,  Lord,  30 

Dutch,  7 


PGYPT,  3' 

•'— '     Eldon,  Lord,  10 

Elphinstone,  General.  33 

Erzeroum,  13 

Eupatoria,  42 

Exhibition,  40 

Eyre,  Governor,  49 


rORSTER,  Mr.,  52 
French  Revolution,  1 


6o 


hidex. 


GAS 

riASCOIGNE,  General,  20 

^^     Geneva,  54 

George  II.,  14 

George  1 1 1.,  3,  4,  9,  10 

Geurge  IV.,  4.  17 

Gladsione,  Mr.,  33,   35,   40.   43,   46, 

,  49.  50.  55 
Goderich,  Lord.  11 
Gorham  Case,  39 
Grant,  Mr.,  11 
Granville,  Lord,  46 
Greece,  6,  12,  13 
Grey,  Lord,  18,  20,  21,  24,  as 
Gunpowder  Plot,  4 
Gwalior,  44 


H' 


[ANOVER,  29,  31 
Harrowby,  Lord,  23 
Havelock.  Colonel   41 
Head,  Major,  30 
Herries,  Mr.,  n 
Hill.  Rowland,  30 
Holland,  17 
Holy  Alliance,  5 
Huskis^on,  Mr.,  7,  8,  10.  11.  14 
Hyde  Park,  49 


TBRAHTM  Pasha,  12 

India,  25,  33,  44 
Inkerman,  42 
Ireland,  2,  9,  15,   25,   28.    14.  ^s.  45. 

55 
Irish  Church,  51 
Italy,  46 


JAMAICA,  30,  4g 
J      James  II.,  14 
Jellalabad,  33 


T/'ARS,  13 
■'^      Kent.  Duke  of,  29 
Khoord  Cabul  Pa'^s,  33 
Khyber  Pass;,  33 


T    ANCASHIRK,  47 

Lawrence,  .Sir  Henry,  44 
L.eague,  Anti-Corn  Law,   32,  35, 

.37 
Liverpool,  Lord,  10 
Louis  Xyill.,  16 
Louis  Philippe,  16,  37 
Lorraine,  54 


36, 


KA® 
Lucknow,  44 
Lyndhurst.  Lord,  22,  14 

V[  AGDALA,  SI 
'■  ^     Maria,  Donna.  16 
Manchester,  35,  -rfi 
Manners,  Lord  John,  35 
Maynooth,  34,  35 
Meerut,  44 

Melbourne,  Lord,  26,  27 
Mcttf-rnich,  Prince,  5 
Metz,  53 
Miguel,  Don,  15 
Moltke,  General,  53 

TVJANA  SAHIB,  44 
■"■^      Naples,  6 
Napoleon  I.,  -,  7,  16 
Napoleon,  Louis,  40,  42,  \-~„  33 
National  Debt,  7 
Navarino,  13 
Navigation  Laws,  7 
Newfoundlard,  40 
Newport,  38 
New  Zealand,  .^3 
Nicholas,  Emperor.  41,  43 
Nottingham,  38 


Q'CONNELL,  DANIEL,  10, 

V       '5,  24.  34.  37 
O'Connor,  Feargiis.  38 
Oregon,  35 
Orleans,  Duke  of,  16 


pALMERSION,  Lord,  11.  18,  42, 

.  43-, 45,  46,  48 
Paris,  Treaty  of,  43,  53 
Pedro,  Don,  15,  16 
Peel,  General,  50 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  10,  14,   15,    19  24, 

26.  27,  30,  31.  32,  35,  40 
Piedmont,  6 
Pitt,  Mr.,  8,  o,  10,  22 
Poland,  17 
Polignac.  Prince,  16 
Pollock,  General,  33 
Porte,  Sublime,  31 
Portugal,  15 
Prussia,  49 
Pruth,  42 


RADICALS,  4 

*^     Raglan.  Lord,  43 


Index. 


6i 


ROE 

Roebuck,  Mr.,  42 

Rome,  16 

Rome,  Church  of,  j4 

Rouinania,  43 

Riis-ell,  Earl,  \^,  18,  19,  31 

40.  46,  48 
Russia,  12,  13,  40,  41,  43 


C  ALE.  General    33 

Salisbury,  Lord,  55 
Sebastopol,  42 
.'^edaii.  53 
Shelley,  P.  B.,  6 
Slaiery,  8 
Sinope,  41 
.Suuth  America,  6 
Spain.  5,  6.  16 
.Stanley,  Loid,  35 
Stephen    Mr.,  5>s 


-r  H.AMES,  45 

1  hi'iilewood,  3 
Trent,  47 
Turkey,  6,  12,  13,  4^,  41 


35,  37. 


YOR 

UNITED  STATES,  30,  35 


\  VERSAILLES,  53 

Victoria,  Queen,  2g,  34 
Vienna,  Congress  of,  5 
\'ienn..,  Treaty  of,  15,  17 
Villiers,  Mr.,  ^2 


■\  VALES,  Prince  of,  54 

Washington,  Treaty  of.  54 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  6,   10,   11,  13, 

15.  17.   19.  2^,  23.  24,  26,   31,   36, 

38 
Wetherall,  Sir  C,  ?2 
Whrirnclifle,  Lord,  23 
Wi!i,irf.rce,  Mr.,  8,  25 
William  L.  ^3 
William  IV.;  17    29 
WiUon,  Generaf,  44 


yORK,  Duke  of,  X9 


THREE   EDITIONS  SOLD  IN  SIX  MONTHS 

—OF— 

HAMBLIN  SMITH'S  ARITHMETIC, 

ADAPTED  TO  CANADIAN  CURREMCY  BY 

THOMAS  KIRKLAND,   M.A.,   Science   Master   Normal 
School,  Toronto,  and 

WM.  SCOTT,  M.A.,  Head  Master  Model  School,  Ontario. 


4th  Edition,  Price,       -       75  Cents. 


Authorized  by  the  Minister  of  Education,  Ontario. 
Authorized  by  Ihe  Council  of  Public  Instruction,  Quebec. 
Recommended  by  the  Senate  of  the  Univ.  of  h.alifax. 
Authorized  by  the  Chief  Supt.  Education,  Manitoba. 


FROM     NOVA    SCOTIA. 

A.  C.  A.  DOANE,  Inspector  of  Schools,  BarriDgton,  N.  8. 

"  Eambliu  Smith's  aritLmetic  seems  very  suitable  to  the  neces- 
sities of  our  public  schools.  The  exercises  are  admirable,  and  the 
examination  papers  are  invali:able  as  aids  to  teachers  in  thorough 
training.  They  ■will  also  prove  of  great  service  to  pupils  desirous 
of  passing  the  gi-ade  tests.  The  author  appears  not  to  i  ely  so  much 
on  set  mles  as  upon  e.xplauations  and  the  clearing  of  seeming 
obscurities,  so  that  pupils  may  readily  comprehend  the  questions 
and  proceed  to  the  solutions.  I  cordially  recommend  its  use  to  all 
those  desirous  of  obtaining  an  acquaintance  with  this  branch  of 
useful  knowledge. 


C.  F.  ANDREWS,  Inspector  for  Queen's  Co.,  Nova  Scotia. 

"  I  have  much  pleasure  iu  certifying  to  the  superiority  of  the 
Canadian  edition  of  Hambliu  Smith's  Arithmetic  over  any  text 
book  on  that  subject  that  has  yet  ccme  under  my  notice.  It  is 
practical,  complete  and  comprehensive.  The  appendix  and  exam- 
matiou  papers  are  important  and  valuable  features.  I  shall  be 
pleased  to  recommend  its  early  introduction." 


W.  S.  DANAGH,  M.A.,  Inspector  of  Schools,  Cumberland,  N.  8. 

Hamblin  Smith's  Arithmetic— "It  has  a  value  for  candidates 
preparing  for  public  examination,  as  the  examples  have  been 
mostly  culled  from  Examination  papers,  indeed  I  may  say  that  I 
have  not  seen  any  other  work  ou  this  branch  that  is  so  specially 
calculated  to  assist  the  student  in  passing  with  credit  official  tests. 
I  therefore  think  that  Hamblin  Smith's  Arithmetic  should  be 
placed  on  the  authorized  list  of  books  for  pubUc  schools.' 


HAMBLIN     SMITH'S    ALGEBRA. 

With  Appendix  by  ALFRED  BAKER,  B.A.,  Mathematical  Tutor, 
University  College,  Toronto.     4th  Ed.,  90  cts. 

Authorized  by  the  Minister  of  Education  for  Ontario. 
Authorized  by  the  Council  of  Public  Instruction  for  Quebec. 
Becommended  by  the  Senate  of  the  University  of  Halifax. 

o 

O.  MACDONALD,  Prof.  Mathematics,  Dalhousie  College,  Halifax 

"  I  have  received  a  set  of  your  Mathematical  Publications,  viz., 
the  Treatises  on  Arithmetic,  Algebra,  and  Geometry,  by  Mr.  Hamb- 
lin  Smith.  They  all  seem  to  nie  admirable  treatises,  and  fitted  to 
be  the  text  books  for  more  thoiough  and  scientific  teaching  than 
has  yet  found  its  way  into  the  majority  of  our  high  schools  and 
academies.  Of  the  copious  exercises  in  olomentary  algebraic,  pro- 
cesses every  thorough  teacher  will  aju^rove,  since  experience  shews 
that,  as  discipline  in  grammar  is  the  main  requireiuent  of  the 
young  student  of  classics,  so  practice  iii  algebraic  manipulations  is 
the  fundamental  requirement  of  the  algebraist.  Then  again,  the 
reference  of  equations  involving  the  treatment  of  radicals  to  a 
separate  and  advanced  section,  marks  the  author  as  one  who  has 
sympathy  with  the  difficulties  of  beginners.  The  expositions  are 
uniformly  succinct  and  clear.  The  geometry  has  merits  equally 
high.  Many  of  Kuclid's  methods  are  improved  on,  and  propositions, 
not  as  in  Euclid,  deduced  from  a  common  principle.  I  may  instance 
two  propositions  in  the  3rd  book,  the '22iid,  and  the  31st.  The  method 
of  superposition  of  triangles  employed  iu  the  earlier  propositions 
of  the  6tn  book,  will  be  ro  many  a  striking  novelty,  and  it  is  uniform 
Of  course,  many  of  us,  from  long  practice  in  expounding  and  critj. 
cising  Kuclid's  element,  had  arrived  long  ago  at  these  methodg 
But  it  may  be  doubted  if  they  are  generally  known.  They  ar^ 
unquestionably  preferable  to  the  old,  though  Euclid's  mebhodg 
ought  to  be  explained  along  with  them.  We  want  sadly  a  nationaj 
Euclid,  and  this  is  the  best  approximation  to  it  that  I  have  seen. 
We  iu  Dalhousie  include  these  books  as  admissible  and  recom- 
mended text  books  iu  our  mathematical  classes  of  the  first  year. 
They  are  sure  to  coiue  into  extensive  demand,  as  their  merits  come 
to  be  recognised. 


B.  C.  WELDON,  M.A.,  Math.  Master  Mount  Allison  CoUege, 

Sackville,  N.  B. 
"  We  ar«  using  your  Algebra  in  our  Academy.'' 

A.  C.  A.  DOANE,  Inspector  of  Schools,  Barrington,  N.  S. 
"  The  algebra  as  on  elementary  work  contains  all  that  is  needed 
for  our  better  class  of  common  schools.  The  arrangement  is  such 
as  to  lead  the  student  from  first  principles  gradually  to  the  intri- 
cacies of  the  science,  and  then  with  lucid  discussions  to  unravel 
those  intricacies  and  bring  the  whole  under  the  comprehension  of 
every  ordinary  intellect.  The  examination  papers  form  a  valuable 
and  useful  part  of  the  work.  I  can  unhesitatingly  recommend  it 
to  teachers  as  well  adapted  to  aid  them  materially  in  their  work, 
and  to  students  as  a  text  book  well  suited  to  their  needs. 


C.  T.  ANDREWS,  Inspector  for  Queen's  Co.,  N.  S. 

"  I  have  examined  Hamblin  Smith's  algebra  and  found  the  ex- 
amples admirably  arianged  in  a  progressive  order,  easy  and  well 
adapted  for  the  use  of  our  public  schools,  into  which  I  shall  be 
pleased  to  recotnmend  its  introduction. 


HERBERT  C.  CREED,  M.A.,  Math.  Master  Normal  Scotia, 
Fiedericton,  N.B. 

"I  have  made  sufficient  acquaintance  with  HambUn  Smith's 
algebra  to  be  satisfied  of  its  excellence  as  a  text  book,  and  to  war- 
rant me  in  recommending  it  to  one  of  my  classes. 


BEATTY  &  CLARE'S  BOOK-KEEPiNG. 

A  Treatisb  on  Single  and  Double  Entry  Book  Keeping,  kc.k  usb 
IM  High  and  Public  Schools. 

By  S.  G    BeaTTT,  Principal  Ontario  Commercial  College,  Belleville,  and 

Samuel  Clare,  Book- Keeping  and  Writing  Master, 

Normal  School,  Toronto. 

3rd  Ed.,  PRICE,        -        70  CENTS. 

Authonzed  by  the  Minister  of  Education,  Ontario. 
Authorized  by  the  Chief  S apt.  Educatioi^,  ManitiAn 
Becommended  by  the  Council  of  Public  Instruction,  Quebec. 

FROM  NOVA  SCOTIA  AND  MANITOBA. 

A.  C.  A.  DOANE,  Insp.  P.  Schools,  Shelburne  Co.,  Nova   Scotia. 

"  I  have  carefully  looked  over  Beatty  &  Clare's  Bookkeeping,  and 
cannot  but  a<  mire  the  simplicity  of  the  outline,  the  practical  bearirg  of 
the  transactions,  the  perspicuity  of  the  instructions,  and  the  varied  com- 
mercial character  of  the  whole  work.  It  commends  itself  to  teachers  as 
a  text  book  and  to  all  others  desirous  of  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  this 
important  branch." 

J    D.  McGILLIVRAY,  Insp.  Schools,  Co.  Hants.,  Nova  Scotia. 

Beatv  &  Clare's  Bookkeeping. — "  Besides  looking  over  this  book 
myself,  I  have  submitted  it  to  the  inspection  of  practical  bookkeepers  who 
agree  with  me  in  the  propriety  of  recommending  it  as  a  school  book. 
Its  directions  are  minute  and  to  the  point,  and  its  examples  ample." 

C.  T.  ANDREWS,  Inspector  for  Queen's  Co.,  Nova  Scotia. 

"  Bkatty  &  Clare's  Bookkeeping  has  had  a  careful  perusal, 
with  which  the  principles  of  bookkeeping  are  explained  and  illustrated, 
will  recommend  this  work  to  any  teacher  or  pupil  preparing  for  examina- 
tion, while  it  is  sufficiently  comprehensive  for  all  practical  purposes. 

L.  S.  MORSE,  M.A.,  Insp.  Schools,  Annapolis  Co.,  Nova  Scotia. 
"I  have  examined  Beatty  &  Clare's  Bookkeeping  and  find  it  to  be  an 
excellent   work.     The   definitions,  forms,  and    transactions   therein  con- 
tained, are  plain  and  simple,  yet  comprehensive  and  practical.     It  is  well 
adapted  for  use  in  the  public  schools." 

D    H.  SMITH,  A.M.,  Insp.  Schools,  Colchester  County,  Nova   Scotia. 
"  Beatty  &  Clare's  Bookkeeping  is  an  admirable  work,  its  simplicity 
alone  is  sufficient  to  secure  for  the  book  a  place  in  our  schools  throughout 
the  Dominion."  « 


W.  S.  DANAGH,  inspector  for  Cnmberland,  N.  S. 
"I  have  looked  into  Beatty  &  Clare's  Bookkeeping,  and  have  much 
pleasure  in  saying  that  the  work  is  just  what  is  wanted  for  boys  whodesire 
to  acquire  in  a  short  time  such  knowledge  as  will  fit  them  for  business'" 

REV.  JOHN  AMBROSE,  M.A.,  Supt.  of  Schools,  Digby,  N.  S. 
"  I  am  very  much  pleased 
Beatty  &  Clare  s  Booliceeping. 


I  am^very  m_uch  pleased  with  the  limplicity  and  thorougbbess  ot 
~  "'  "      Lkee 


THOS.  HART,  M.A.,  Winnipeg. 
"  Several  months  ago  we  introduced  Mason's  English  Grammar  into 
Manitoba  College,  and  now  we  are  introducing   Beatty  &  Clare's  Book- 
keeping.    We  find  tbem  just  what  we  need  in  their  respective  subjects." 


DA 


Creighton,  Mandell,  E^.  of 
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