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THE   STRENGTH    OF   ENGLAND 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 

THE   STRENGTH   OF   NATIONS: 

An  Argument  from  History. 
Crown  8vo.  5s.  net. 


LONGMANS,  GBEEN  &  CO.  39  Paternoster  Bow,  London 

New  York,  Bombay,  and  Calcutta. 


THE 

STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

A  POLITICO-ECONOMIC   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

FROM   SAXON   TIMES  TO 
THE    REIGN   OF  CHARLES    THE   FIRST 


X  VP         BY 

J.  W.  WELSFORD,  M.A. 

FORMERLY   FELLOW  OF   GONVILLE   AND   CAIUS  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 
AUTHOR  OF   '  THE  STRENGTH   OF^NATIONS,'  ETC. 


WITH  A  PREFACE  BY 
W.  CUNNINGHAM,  D.D.,  F.B.A. 

FELLOW  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE,  AND  ARCHDEACON  OF  ELY 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND    CO. 

39  PATERNOSTER  ROW,  LONDON 
NEW  YORK,  BOMBAY,  AND  CALCUTTA 

1910  *J 

I  *i> 

All    rights    reserved 


HC 


"  This  happy  breed  of  men  " 


Let  us  now  praise  famous  men  and  our  fathers 
that  begat  US. ' ' — ECCLESIASTICOS,  xliv.  i. 


PREFACE 


A  PATHETIC  interest  attaches  to  this  book  owing  to  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  was  written  ;  to  his  friends 
there  is  a  melancholy  satisfaction  in  feeling  that  the 
author's  heroic  struggle  to  carry  on  his  work,  through 
months  of  increasing  illness,  has  been  rewarded.  He 
did  not  succeed  in  completing  the  task  he  had  set 
himself ;  but  he  has  left  behind  him  a  summary  of 
English  experience  that  ought  to  command  the  atten- 
tion of  all  who  are  anxious  for  guidance  in  regard  to 
the  political  issues  of  the  present  day.  More  than  this, 
he  has  set  many  of  the  episodes  of  English  history  in 
a  fresh  light,  so  that  no  serious  student  of  our  political 
life  in  the  past  can  afford  to  neglect  this  masterly 
sketch. 

The  essay  has  double  importance  because  it  is  a 
valuable  contribution  to  the  economic  interpretation 
of  English  political  history.  Other  writers  have  been 
contented  to  treat  the  development  of  English  re- 
sources and  the  changes  in  industrial  and  commercial 
organisation,  as  if  they  were  a  separate  growth  and  as 
if  political  affairs  could  be  left  in  the  background  ; 


viii         THE  STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

but  Mr.  Welsford  had  a  more  statesmanlike  view. 
He  has  recognised  that  political  and  economic  changes 
are  constantly  reacting  upon  each  other,  and  has  set 
himself  to  show  how  deeply  our  political  life  has  been 
influenced  by  economic  forces  and  commercial  con- 
ditions. The  late  Professor  Thorold  Rogers  had  called 
attention  to  the  importance  of  this  enquiry,  but  he 
had  much  to  do  in  laying  the  foundations  for  the 
historical  study  of  economics  in  this  country  by  his 
monumental  work  on  '  Agriculture  and  Prices/  and 
he  could  only  make  an  occasional  excursion  into  this 
field.  Since  his  time  historical  students  have  been 
ready  to  recognise  that  economic  forces  were  combined 
with  other  influences  in  bringing  about  such  events  as 
the  Peasants'  Revolt  in  1381  or  the  Reform  Bill  of 
1832.  There  must  always  be  a  danger,  however,  that 
attention  will  only  be  drawn  to  economic  causes  in 
a  haphazard  and  occasional  fashion,  unless  they  are 
studied  systematically,  and  their  bearing  is  noted, 
not  merely  in  violent  upheavals,  but  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  life  as  well.  This  is  the  step  Mr.  Welsford 
has  taken ;  he  has  examined  the  commercial  relations 
of  England — the  dominant  feature  in  the  economic 
life  of  an  island  realm — and  has  endeavoured  to  show 
how  changing  commercial  relationships  affected  the 
owners  of  English  resources  and  the  industrial  popula- 
tion respectively.  We  are  thus  helped  to  understand 
how  the  economic  interests  of  different  classes  in  the 
community  tended  to  bring  about  the  formation  of 
parties,  and  to  influence  their  attitude  in  political 


PREFACE  ix 

questions.  The  curious  line  of  cleavage  between  the 
Scotsmen  who  opposed  the  claims  of  Edward  I.  and 
those  who  did  not,  and  the  persistence  of  the  struggle 
for  independence,  become  much  more  intelligible  when 
the  manner  in  which  trading  interests  were  affected 
is  carefully  taken  into  account. 

Success  in  prosecuting  this  line  of  enquiry  demands 
the  highest  qualities  of  the  historian  ;  it  depends  not 
merely  on  skill  in  testing  and  arranging  the  materials, 
but  also  on  insight  to  interpret  them.  The  study  of 
history,  as  habitually  prosecuted  in  this  country,  does 
not  tend  to  the  cultivation  of  this  particular  form  of 
insight.  The  romantic  and  dramatic  interest  which 
attaches  to  the  story  of  the  past  is  always  strong  ;  but 
apart  from  this,  the  main  motive  for  the  serious  study 
of  English  history  has  been  that  of  discovering  con- 
stitutional and  legal  precedents:  The  criticism  of 
historical  documents  and  the  weighing  of  historical 
evidence  have  been  carried  on  in  a  lawyer-like  spirit, 
with  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  sort  of  proof  that  would 
satisfy  a  special  jury.  When  we  go  behind  the 
documents  and  ask  why  some  commercial  treaty  was 
made  at  all,  and  why  it  embodies  the  provisions  it 
contains,  we  enter  on  a  field  of  enquiry  where  a  com- 
plete proof  can  hardly  be  obtained.  Consciously  or 
unconsciously  we  argue  from  what  we  know  of  human 
motives  in  the  present  to  probable  conduct  in  the 
past.  The  actual  motives  at  work  have  not  been 
constantly  recorded  ;  we  are  forced  to  try  to  pene- 
trate through  the  silence  of  chroniclers,  by  framing  an 


x  THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

hypothesis  and  looking  for  any  scraps  of  confirmatory 
evidence  which  help  to  verify  it.  Owing  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  not  a  mere  uniformity,  but  progress,  in  the 
affairs  of  men,  the  conclusions  of  the  historical  investi- 
gator can  never  have  such  a  high  degree  of  certainty 
as  those  of  the  student  of  chemical  science,  who  finds 
that  his  hypothesis  is  proved  or  disproved  by  actual 
experiment.  Besides  this,  there  is  a  serious  danger 
that  the  hypothesis  of  the  historian,  though  plausible, 
may  be  wholly  inapplicable  ;  the  spirit  of  a  bygone 
age  was  often  so  different  from  that  of  our  own  day 
that  we  cannot  habituate  ourselves  to  it  intelligently 
or  look  at  life  from  the  point  of  view  of  contemporaries. 
There  has,  indeed,  been  a  great  change  in  religious  and 
political  sentiment  since  the  Middle  Ages,  but  the 
difficulty  is  not  so  great  in  regard  to  commercial  life. 
We  cannot  doubt  that  the  force  of  economic  interest, 
as  we  know  it,  has  been  a  vera  causa  in  the  political 
changes  of  bygone  times  ;  material  needs  can  never 
have  been  wholly  overlooked.  In  so  far  as  buying  and 
selling  and  opportunities  for  exchange  had  come  into 
vogue  among  any  people,  the  interests  at  work  were 
doubtless  similar  to  those  which  operate  at  the  present 
day,  though  the  conditions  may  have  been  wholly 
different.  It  can  never  be  easy  to  take  such  account  of 
the  conditions  as  to  recognise  in  retrospect  what  were 
the  precise  interests,  immediate  or  ultimate,  of  any 
class  of  the  people  in  any  particular  part  of  the 
country ;  it  may  be  still  more  difficult  to  see  how  far 
they  were  conscious  of  these  interests  and  had  a 


PREFACE  xi 

definite  policy.  But  as  our  knowledge  of  the  past 
accumulates,  the  possibility  of  giving  a  well-founded 
answer  to  such  questions,  will  be  increased.  The 
present  essay  does  not  pretend  to  say  the  last  word 
on  any  of  the  questions  which  the  author  has  raised  ; 
the  main  importance  of  his  achievement  lies  in  the 
skill  with  which  he  has  pointed  out  a  fruitful  line  of 
investigation  for  other  students  to  follow,  so  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  economic  factor  in  the  political  life 
of  bygone  ages  may  become  more  and  more  complete. 
Owing  to  the  point  of  view  which  he  has  taken,  the 
author  has  avoided  two  dangers  which  beset  the  writer 
of  English  history ;  his  treatment  of  the  subject  is 
neither  merely  insular,  nor  unduly  antiquarian.  The 
constitutional  lawyer  has  but  little  need  to  look  beyond 
the  shores  of  England  ;  he  may  find  an  extraneous 
interest  in  noting  analogies  with  changes  in  other 
lands,  but  they  do  not  come  directly  within  his  pur- 
view. On  the  other  hand,  the  student  of  commercial 
relationships  is  closely  concerned  with  the  intercourse 
between  England  and  other  lands  ;  he  is  compelled  to 
look  at  this  realm  as  a  part  of  the  great  world,  and  as 
affected  by  the  conditions  of  life  in  other  countries. 
So  far  as  the  internal  economic  history  is  concerned, 
the  discussion  of  the  organisation  of  the  manor  and 
the  powers  of  craft  gilds  appears  to  be  mere 
antiquarianism — an  unearthing  of  curious  relics  from 
the  past.  But  so  far  as  commerce  is  concerned,  there 
are  close  parallels  between  the  story  of  England  in  the 
Middle  Ages  and  the  accounts  we  get  of  the  conditions 


xii          THE  STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

of  rich  but  undeveloped  lands  at  the  present  time. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  bring  the  past  into  relation  with 
our  own  actual  experience  ;  nothing  renders  history 
more  vivid  than  an  indication  that  the  forces  with 
which  we  are  familiar  in  the  present  were  actively 
operative  in  the  past. 

In  so  far  as  the  gulf  between  the  past  and  the 
present  is  thus  bridged,  we  can  obtain  valuable  guid- 
ance from  experience  in  regard  to  many  of  the  problems 
which  lie  before  us.  Experience  is  so  dearly  pur- 
chased that  the  lessons  it  teaches  ought  to  be  highly 
prized.  An  inestimable  service  is  rendered  by  anyone 
who  calls  attention  to  the  heritage  of  economic 
experience  which  is  stored  up  for  us  in  the  history  of 
our  country,  and  enables  us  to  see  how  we  can  draw 
upon  it — not  to  settle  our  difficulties  for  us,  but  to 
help  us  to  deal  with  them  in  the  wisest  way. 

A  conviction  that  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
conditions  of  the  past  was  necessary  for  a  right  under- 
standing of  the  problems  of  the  present  was  one  of  the 
striking  features  of  Arnold  Toynbee's  '  Lectures  on 
the  Industrial  Revolution.'  Instructive  as  that  book 
has  been,  it  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  those  who 
had  known  him  well,  to  realise  how  little  of  his  accurate 
learning  had  been  put  on  record  and  saved  from 
oblivion.  There  must  be  the  same  pathetic  sense  of 
regret  in  reading  Mr.  Welsford's  book  on  '  The  Strength 
of  England  '  ;  he  had  read  so  widely  and  so  intelli- 
gently. He  had  collected  materials  in  regard  to 
struggles  for  the  control  of  the  great  trade  routes  of 


PREFACE  xiii 

Europe  ;  but  much  of  this  was  deliberately  laid  on 
one  side  in  order  that  the  attention  of  readers  might 
be  concentrated  on  points .  where  English  interests 
were  concerned.  It  is  more  unfortunate  that  we 
should  be  deprived  of  his  full  treatment  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  when  England  had  come  to  be  fully 
conscious  of  her  strength,  and  the  great  era  of  expan- 
sion began.  He  was  not  even  able  to  revise  his  manu- 
script for  press,  and  to  insert  definite  references  to  his 
authorities.  But  we  prize  what  is  left  us  all  the  more 
because  we  cannot  forget  that  so  much  has  been  lost. 

W.  CUNNINGHAM. 

TRINITY  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE: 
December  22,  1909. 


INTRODUCTORY 


THIS  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  scepter'd  isle, 

This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat  of  Mars, 

This  other  Eden,  demi-paradise  ; 

This  fortress  built  by  Nature  for  herself 

Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war  ; 

This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world  ; 

This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 

Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall 

Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 

Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands  ; 

This  blessed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England, 

This  nurse,  this  teeming  womb  of  royal  Kings, 

Fear'd  by  their  breed,  and  famous  by  their  birth, 

Renowned  for  their  deeds  as  far  from  home — 

For  Christian  service  and  true  chivalry — 

As  is  the  sepulchre,  in  stubborn  Jewry, 

Of  the  world's  ransom,  blessed  Mary's  Son  ; 

This  land  of  such  dear  souls,  this  dear  dear  land, 

Dear  for  her  reputation  through  the  world, 

Is  now  leas'd  out — I  die  pronouncing  it — 

Like  to  a  tenement,  or  pelting  farm  ; 


xvi    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

England,  bound  in  with  the  triumphant  sea, 
Whose  rocky  shore  beats  back  the  envious  siege 
Of  watery  Neptune,  's  now  bound  in  with  shame, 
With  inky  blots,  and  rotten  parchment  bonds  : 
That  England,  that  was  wont  to  conquer  others, 
Hath  made  a  shameful  conquest  of  itself. 

King  Richard  II.,  Act  ii.  Scene  i. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  THE   ROMAN    SETTLEMENT I 

II.  THE   SETTLEMENT    OF   EUROPE 8 

III.  SAXON    ENGLAND 22 

IV.  THE    COMING   OF   THE   NORMAN 34 

V.  NORMAN    AND    ENGLISH 55 

vi.  BECKET'S  FIGHT  FOR  ENGLISH  FREEDOM  .       .       .    .  71 

VII.  ENGLAND    ACQUIRES   NATIONAL   INDEPENDENCE    .           .  79 

VIII.  THE    RIGHTS    OF    THE    PEOPLE    ASSERTED    BY    A    PRO- 
TECTIONIST             91 

IX.  THE  MAGNATES  LOSE  THEIR  DEMOCRATIC  SYMPATHIES.  IO7 

X.  CARTA    MERCATORIA   AND    ITS    INFLUENCE.           .          .     .  121 

XI.  ENGLAND    LOSES    SEA    POWER 136 

XII.  STRIFE    BETWEEN    KING   AND    BARONS           .          .          .     .  150 

XIII.  CAUSES  WHICH  LED  TO  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES    .           .  165 

XIV.  THE    WAR   OF   THE    ROSES 179 

xv.  ENGLAND'S  PROTECTIVE  POLICY  INITIATED  .        .        .  193 

XVI.  SPAIN    ENTERS   INTO   TRADE    COMPETITION            .           .     .  205 

XVII.  SUPPRESSION    OF   THE    MONASTERIES         .          .          .          .219 

XVIII.  ENGLAND  FREES  HERSELF  FROM  PAPAL  SUPREMACY      .  233 

XIX.  INCREASE   OF    ENGLAND'S   NAVAL   POWER        .          .          .  246 

XX.  THE  ARMADA.      ENGLISH  AND  DUTCH  OBTAIN  CONTROL 

OF   THE   SEA         .  26O 


xviii        THE  STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 


CHAP, 

XXI.       TRADE  RIVALRY  BETWEEN  ENGLISH  AND  DUTCH. 


XXII. 


PAGB 
273 


RELIGIOUS      CONTENTIONS      IN      ENGLAND      AND      HER 

COLONIES 287 

XXIII,  CAUSES   WHICH    LED    TO   CIVIL   WAR          ....  3OI 

XXIV.  CONDITION    OF    THE    PEOPLE    UNDER    CHARLES    I.        .     .  316 
XXV.      THE   POLICY    OF   ARCHBISHOP    LAUD           .           .           .          .  330 

XXVI.       KING   CHARLES   I.    AND   HIS    EARLS 344 

ENVOI 351 

LIST  OF  WORKS  CONSULTED 353 

INDEX 357 


THE 

STRENGTH    OF    ENGLAND 


i 

HOW  THE  GOLDEN  FLEECE  CAME  TO 
ENGLAND 

THE  ROMAN   SETTLEMENT 
55  B.C.-449  A.D. 

STUDENTS  of  Carlyle's  writings  are  familiar  with 
Dr.  Dryasdust,  the  historian  who  took  infinite  pains 
to  examine  the  records  of  the  past.  It  is  curiously 
characteristic  of  the  middle  of  last  century  that  such 
historians,  whose  work  is  of  the  utmost  value,  should 
liave  been  considered  fit  objects  for  scorn  and  derision. 
It  was,  however,  perhaps  natural  that  England  should 
have  adopted  this  attitude  towards  patient  seekers 
after  truth  when  she  was  not  ashamed  to  greet  Darwin's 
discoveries  with  a  torrent  of  ridicule,  inspired  by 
superstitious  fear. 

The  earliest  historians  were  men  after  Carlyle's 
own  heart.  Unfettered  by  musty  documents,  they 
recited  or  sang  to  royal  listeners  the  deeds  of  heroes 
who  founded  the  line  of  kings.  The  tale  they  told 
had  to  be  consistent  with  such  facts  as  came  within 

B 
I  .. 


2  THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  knowledge  of  their  hearers ;  but  this  was  the  only 
restriction  imposed  upon  the  bards.  Thus,  when  they 
told  the  Greeks  the  story  of  the  voyage  of  the  Argo- 
nauts to  Colchis  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  the 
listeners  accepted  the  tale  in  spite  of  its  miraculous 
incidents.  It  was  the  same  tale  they  had  heard  in 
the  nursery  from  their  parents ;  and  it  explained  the 
existence  of  the  great  trade  route  to  the  East  by  way 
of  the  Black  Sea. 

So  many  thousand  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
legend  of  the  Quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece  was  originally 
told  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  what  the  Golden  Fleece 
at  first  meant  to  the  Greeks.  Some  have  conjectured 
that  the  Golden  Fleece  was  actual  gold  found  in  the 
streams  of  Colchis  ;  but  since  no  Dryasdust  is  at  hand 
to  guide  the  seeker  after  truth,  the  guess  may  be 
hazarded  that  the  Argonauts  brought  back  an  im- 
proved breed  of  sheep  to  be  fed  on  the  fields  of  Thessaly, 
or  perhaps  a  wise  Medea  returned  with  the  Argonauts 
to  teach  a  better  way  of  weaving  cloth.  For  wool  was 
golden  before  cotton  became  king. 

Long  after  the  immediate  results  which  had  come 
from  Jason's  voyage  were  forgotten,  the  legend  con- 
tinued to  fascinate  the  Greek  mind,  because  it  seemed 
to  account  for  the  Black  Sea  trade  with  the  East, 
which  for  thousands  of  years  enriched  the  whole 
Balkan  peninsula.  For  much  the  same  reason  the 
Greeks  were  never  tired  of  telling  the  story  of  the  fall 
of  Troy,  the  city  which  commanded  the  entrance  to 
the  Black  Sea,  as  Byzantium,  or  Constantinople,  for 
thousands  of  years  after  the  fall  of  Troy,  stood  sentinel 
over  the  Bosphorus, 


THE  ROMAN  SETTLEMENT  3 

The  Arthurian  legends,  which  tell  the  story  of  part 
of  England's  infancy,  were  written  thousands  of  years 
later  than  the  Greek  legends.  The  voyage  of  the 
Argonauts  and  the  siege  of  Troy  are  descriptions  of 
the  attacks  made  by  a  less  civilised  race  upon  richer 
and  more  firmly  established  Powers ;  the  story  of 
Arthur  is  the  record  of  a  gallant  struggle  made  by  a 
weak  people  to  keep  their  treasure  from  strong  invaders. 
The  treasure  which^the  Anglo-Saxon  Argonauts  sought 
in  England  was  a  Golden  Fleece.  They  saw  that 
England  was  a  pleasant  land  with  fields  of  corn,  flocks 
of  sheep,  herds  of  cattle,  rich  mines,  and  well-built, 
even  luxurious,  houses.  They  found  that  this  wealth 
was  in  the  hands  of  men  who  were  so  barbarous  that 
they  had  not  learned  to  write  their  history.  The 
explanation  of  this  anomalous  condition  is  the  first 
portion  of  the  history  of  England. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century  which  preceded 
the  birth  of  Christ,  Caesar,  having  apparently  con- 
quered Gaul,  determined  to  compel  the  kinsfolk  of  the 
Gauls  who  lived  in  Britain  to  submit  to  the  rule  of 
Rome.  In  55  B.C.  and  again  in  54  B.C.  Caesar  invaded 
Britain,  only  to  find  that  there  was  no  Golden  Fleece 
or  anything  else  worth  taking.  "Of  all  the  natives, 
far  the  most  civilised  are  those  who  inhabit  the  district 
of  Kent,  which  is  all  situated  on  the  coast ;  nor  do 
these  differ  greatly  in  their  manners  from  the  in- 
habitants of  Gaul.  Those  who  live  farther  inland 
sow  no  corn,  but  live  on  milk  and  flesh,  and  are  clothed 
in  skins."  This  was  Caesar's  description,  and  Cicero 
wrote  :  "  We  already  know  that  there  is  not  an  ounce 
of  silver  in  that  island  nor  any  hope  of  booty  except 

B2 


4  THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

slaves,  among  whom  I  do  not  think  you  will  expect 
to  find  any  skilled  in  literature  or  music." 

For  seventy-nine  years  the  poverty  of  the  island 
was  its  protection  from  Roman  invaders.  Thrice  the 
Emperor  Augustus  contemplated  the  conquest  of 
Britain ;  but  he  decided  that,  by  levying  customs 
duties  on  the  trade  between  Britain  and  the  Continent, 
he  could  extract  as  much  tribute  from  the  island  as 
could  be  extorted  after  a  successful  invasion.  It  is  a 
curious  coincidence  that  the  foreigner  to-day  shares 
the  view  of  the  Roman  of  two  thousand  years  ago,  that 
when  the  British  fail  to  reply  to  Continental  tariffs, 
these  Continental  customs  duties  are  equivalent  to  a 
tribute  paid  by  Britain.  The  British  meekly  paid  the 
tribute  until  the  time  came  when  the  Romans  were 
prepared  to  invade  their  island. 

In  43  A.D.,  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Claudius, 
the  Romans  again  invaded  Britain ;  and  this  time  they 
came  to  stay.  Slowly  but  surely  they  overcame  the 
resistance  of  the  British,  and  about  120  A.D.,  under  the 
Emperor  Hadrian,  they  built  their  first  wall  from  the 
Tyne  to  the  Firth  of  Solway.  Forty  years  later  the 
lowlands  of  Scotland  were  a  Roman  province,  and  a 
second  wall  was  built  between  the  Firths  of  Forth  and 
of  Clyde.  For  nearly  three  centuries  Rome  ruled 
Britain  and  many  of  Rome's  greatest  emperors  learned 
the  art  of  war  in  this  turbulent  province.  Thus 
Constantine  the  Great  left  his  father's  death-bed  at 
York  to  assume  the  purple  and  move  the  centre  of 
Empire  from  Rome  to  Byzantium ;  and  Theodosius 
the  Great,  who  definitely  established  the  supremacy 
of  Christianity  and  of  Constantinople,  owed  his  imperial 


THE  ROMAN  SETTLEMENT  5 

title  to  the  fame  his  father  had  gained  in  wars  with 
the  British. 

During  three  centuries  Rome  did  in  Britain  the 
work  which  Britons  are  now  doing  in  barbarous  lands. 
They  found  an  undeveloped  country,  whose  inhabi- 
tants sacrificed  human  beings  to  their  gods,  and  who, 
according  to  Caesar's  statement,  practised  a  system 
of  polyandry  similar  to  that  which  at  present  exists 
in  Tibet.  In  this  barbarous  island  the  Romans  built 
cities  and  made  roads  which  have  been  preserved  for 
nearly  two  thousand  years.  They  introduced  domestic 
animals  and  useful  plants  and  trees.  Instead  of  a 
narrow  fringe  of  cultivation  round  the  coast,  the  whole 
island  was  so  thoroughly  tilled  that  on  one  occasion 
eight  hundred  vessels  were  sent  to  Britain  to  procure 
corn  for  the  Roman  cities  in  Germany.  From  time 
to  time  English  ploughmen  unearth  the  foundations 
of  the  luxurious  Roman  villas  which  at  one  time  must 
have  been  so  conspicuous  a  feature  in  Britain.  Rome 
brought  the  Golden  Fleece  to  Britain. 

The  transformation  of  Britain  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  town  of  Bath,  the  old  Roman  Aquae  Sulis.  To 
this  town  the  wealthy  went  in  search  of  health  or 
pleasure,  and  there  the  great  bath  was  placed  in  a  hall 
in  feet  4  inches  long  by  66  feet  6  inches  wide.  The 
bath  was  6  feet  8  inches  deep,  and  its  bottom  measured 
73  feet  2  inches  by  29  feet  6  inches.  "  The  still  existing 
masonry  and  lead  work  show  how  large  and  costly  was 
the  actual  bathing  institution."  So  luxurious  a  health 
resort  is  only  possible  in  a  wealthy  country.  But  this 
prosperity  and  luxury  were  exotic  growths,  and  they 
vanished  when  Rome's  fiscal  policy  destroyed  the 


6  THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

metropolis  of  the  Empire.  Britain  was  merely  a  Roman 
province,  and  her  production  was  stimulated  and 
forced  in  order  to  feed  the  idle  citizens  in  Rome. 

The  untamed  Britons  were  driven  into  the  moun- 
tains of  Wales  or  beyond  the  great  wall.  The  tamed 
Britons  tilled  the  fields,  worked  in  the  mines,  and  built 
the  baths,  towns  and  villas.  The  Roman  saw  that 
the  work  was  done  :  the  Briton  did  the  work.  Some 
Britons  amalgamated  with  their  conquerors  and  became 
masters  instead  of  serfs  ;  but  the  mass  of  the  popula- 
tion remained  in  a  servile  condition,  mere  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water.  The  tamed  Britons 
were  disarmed,  and  the  island  was  kept  in  subjection 
by  legions  drawn  from  other  parts  of  the  Empire. 
Britons  who  became  soldiers  were  sent  to  distant 
provinces  where  patriotism  would  not  tempt  them  to 
be  disloyal  to  Rome. 

In  383  a  general  in  Britain,  Maximus,  "  was  almost 
against  his  will  declared  Emperor  by  the  army."  He 
united  Britain,  Gaul  and  Spain  in  a  great  Western 
Empire,  and  would  have  anticipated  Charles  the 
Great  by  making  Rome  its  metropolis,  had  he  not 
been  defeated  by  Theodosius  the  Great.  To  carry  out 
this  ambitious  scheme  Britain  was  denuded  of  its 
Roman  legions  and  these  were  never  fully  replaced. 
In  407  the  Roman  army  in  Britain  raised  a  private 
soldier,  Constantine,  to  the  purple,  and  followed  him 
to  Gaul.  From  this  date  the  island  appears  to  have 
been  undefended  by  the  legions  of  Rome. 

Rome  had  now  too  many  sorrows  to  be  able  to 
attend  to  the  affairs  of  a  distant  province.  For 
centuries  the  Empire  had  been  maintaining  the  line  of 


THE  ROMAN  SETTLEMENT  7 

the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  against  the  nomadic  tribes 
who  pressed  in  from  the  East.  Of  these  some,  the 
Angles,  Jutes  and  Saxons,  had  drifted  into  Northern 
Germany  and  Frisia,  where  they  could  find  some  pastur- 
age for  their  flocks  ;  others  had  migrated  northwards 
to  the  Scandinavian  lands,  where  they  were  forced  to 
find  other  means  of  subsistence  than  the  keeping  of 
flocks  and  herds.  From  the  sea,  by  fair  means  or 
foul,  by  fishing  and  trading  or  by  plundering  others, 
the  Danes  and  Northmen  drew  their  livelihood. 

As  the  pressure  from  the  East  increased  and  the 
strength  of  Rome  decayed,  the  Roman  barrier  was 
broken,  and  Goths,  Huns  and  Slavs  poured  into  the 
Empire.  The  civilisation  of  Rome  was  submerged 
beneath  this  influx  of  barbarians.  This  is  why,  in  the 
fifth  century,  when  the  legions  were  drawn  from 
Britain,  they  went  never  to  return.  The  Romanised 
Britons  who  were  left  behind  were  a  feeble  folk. 
Their  wealth  was  great  but  their  strength  was  little. 
They  were  too  weak  to  resist  their  neighbours  in  Wales 
and  beyond  the  wall.  In  446  they  are  represented  as 
making  a  pitiful  appeal  to  Rome.  "  The  barbarians 
drive  us  to  the  sea  :  the  sea  drives  us  back  upon  the 
barbarians."  This  appeal  may  or  may  not  have  been 
made,  but  in  any  case  no  answering  legions  came  from 
Rome.  In  449  Vortigern  invited  the  Angles  to  come 
to  Britain  to  preserve  his  feeble  subjects  from  the 
Picts. 


II 

THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE 
476-843 

THE  Angles,  who  were  invited  by  Vortigern,  found 
a  rich  island  inhabited  by  a  weak  people.  Their 
kinsfolk  across  the  sea  learned  the  good  news  and  con- 
tinued their  pilgrimage  towards  the  West.  The 
invasion  of  Britain  was  merely  an  incident  in  that 
movement  of  barbarian  tribes  which,  during  the  fifth 
century,  broke  through  Rome's  barriers  and  enabled 
wandering  herdsmen  to  pasture  their  flocks  over  the 
Western  Empire.  The  coming  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
to  Britain  destroyed  every  link  between  the  island  and 
Rome.  The  land  which  the  Romans  had  transformed 
into  a  granary  was  described  by  inland  Europeans  as 
a  dim  mysterious  island  whose  fishermen  visited  the 
coasts  of  Gaul  to  carry  back  with  them  the  souls  of 
the  dead  to  their  shadow  isle. 

In  the  fighting  which  accompanied  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  invasion  the  towns  which  the  Romans  had 
built  were  utterly  destroyed.  The  invaders  were 
herdsmen,  not  dwellers  in  towns,  and  they  destroyed 
all  places  which  could  serve  as  shelters  for  their 
enemies.  Nevertheless,  contact  with  Roman  civilisa- 
tion affected  the  Anglo-Saxons.  They  ceased  to 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE  9 

wander  and  began  to  farm  the  land.  Saxon  vills 
replaced  the  villae  in  which  Roman  rulers  had  lived 
and  from  which  they  controlled  the  cultivators  of  their 
estates.  In  time  the  Saxon  vills  became  the  old 
English  manors,  and  later  on  English  villages.  When 
Anglo-Saxons  abandoned  their  nomadic  life  they  had 
a  far  larger  supply  of  grain  ;  but,  against  this  advan- 
tage, there  was  the  difficulty  of  keeping  their  flocks  and 
herds  during  the  winter  on  their  more  limited  pastures. 
This  difficulty  was  partly  met  by  killing  sheep  and 
cattle  in  the  autumn  and  salting  their  flesh. 

Owing  to  the  absence  of  documentary  evidence  the 
early  constitution  and  development  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  vills  is  a  much  debated  question.  It  is,  how- 
ever, known  that  they  became  almost  self-contained 
communities,  ruled  by  Lords  of  the  Manor  whose 
private  lands  or  demesnes  were  cultivated  for  them 
by  their  dependents.  Under  these  rulers  there  were 
villeins,  holding  about  thirty  acres  of  land  on  an 
average  and  owning  oxen  and  ploughs,  cotters  with 
smaller  holdings,  and  slaves.  There  were  few  slaves, 
except  in  the  West ;  and  absolute  slavery  disappeared 
in  the  eleventh  century.  Beyond  the  village  fields 
there  were  waste  lands  on  which  the  cattle  and  sheep 
grazed.  These  wastes  have  a  romantic  interest  for 
Englishmen,  since  on  the  wool  of  the  sheep  they  fed 
England's  greatness  was  founded.  The  simple  wants 
of  the  dwellers  in  these  vills  were  for  the  most  part  sup- 
plied by  their  own  labour.  Two  articles,  however,  had 
to  be  imported — salt,  which  they  consumed  and  used  to 
preserve  meat  for  winter  use,  and  iron  for  their  weapons 
and  ploughs.  To  pay  for  these  they  had  the  hides  of 


io    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

their  slaughtered  animals  and  wool.  These  articles 
which  each  vill  sold  in  early  times  were  for  centuries 
also  the  chief  export  from  England  to  the  Continent. 

For  two  hundred  years  England  was  isolated  from 
the  civilisation  of  Europe.  Nearly  a  century  before 
this  isolation  began  the  Emperor  Constantine  had 
made  Constantinople  the  metropolis  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Three  years  after  the  departure  of  the 
Roman  legions  from  Britain,  Rome  was  sacked  by  the 
Goths.  The  provinces  of  the  Empire  were  overrun  by 
barbarian  tribes,  and  it  seemed  as  if  Rome  was  destined 
to  share  the  fate  of  Babylon  and  other  imperial  centres, 
which  had  for  a  while  reigned  supreme  and  then 
perished  utterly.  Yet  there  were  some  whose  faith  in 
Rome  was  not  destroyed.  One  of  her  poets  wrote  that 
"  Rome  would  rise  again  as  the  lawgiver  of  the  ages ; 
she  alone  need  not  fear  the  web  of  the  Fates  ;  to  her 
all  countries  would  again  pay  tribute  ;  her  harbours 
would  once  more  be  filled  with  the  spoils  of  the  bar- 
barian ;  for  her  the  Rhineland  would  ever  be  tilled, 
and  the  Nile  overflow ;  Africa  would  provide  her  with 
abundant  harvests,  and  even  the  Tiber,  crowned  as  a 
conqueror  with  bulrushes,  would  bear  Roman  fleets 
upon  his  waves."  Had  the  Crusades  succeeded  this 
prophecy  would  have  been  entirely  fulfilled.  It  was 
a  true  forecast  of  the  future  of  Europe,  though  not  of 
Africa.  $ 

Nationality  and  patriotism  were  conceptions  beyond 
the  intellects  of  Europeans  at  the  time  of  Rome's  fall. 
Wandering  herdsmen  had  doubtless  tribal  feeling,  but 
they  could  not  have  understood  the  meaning  of  love  of 
the  land  in  which  they  settled.  The  conquered  pro- 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE          n 

vincials  had  been  taught  to  look  towards  Rome. 
Hence  when  victors  and  vanquished  intermarried  the 
people  had  but  a  vague  feeling  of  patriotism.  Where 
one  great  wave  of  conquest  rolled  over  a  province  the 
petty  chieftains  might  acknowledge  one  overlord  ;  but 
where  the  conquest  was  gradual,  as  in  England,  even 
this  sentimental  bond  of  union  was  lacking.  The 
feudal  system  grew  naturally  from  this  beginning. 
The  need  of  union  for  offence  or  defence  in  case  of  an 
attack  was  recognised  from  the  first,  but  the  higher 
conception  of  economic  union  was  too  subtle  for  un- 
developed minds.  The  bond  of  union  was  found  in 
religion.  The  invaders  in  the  South  embraced  Arian 
Christianity,  a  form  which  separated  them  from  the 
Trinitarians  of  Rome  and  Byzantium.  In  the  North 
and  in  England  they  adhered  to  their  pagan  creed. 
The  octroi  paid  at  the  gates  of  some  continental  cities 
is  a  survival  from  the  time  when  portions  of  a  com- 
munity could  frame  their  own  fiscal  system,  whilst 
divergence  from  the  national  Church  was  treated  as 
treason. 

Imperial  Rome  had  grown  by  destroying  primitive 
nationality,  and  absorbing  in  her  cosmopolitan  system 
the  peoples  she  conquered.  Her  provinces  were  forced 
to  produce  in  order  that  the  dwellers  in  Rome  might 
live  in  idleness.  The  world  learned  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  resist  her  all-conquering  legions,  and  seemed 
to  acquiesce  in  her  rule.  But  economic  forces  are 
stronger  than  armies.  From  the  time  of  Solomon  the 
Jews  and  Greeks  had  been  the  international  traders  of 
the  old  world.  These  traders  found  a  bond  of  union 
in  Christianity.  "  The  Greek  Church  had  grown  to  be 


12    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

almost  equal  in  power  to  the  Roman  State  before 
Constantine  determined  to  unite  the  two  in  strict 
alliance."  When  Byzantium  became  Constantinople, 
military  strength  fled  from  Rome  and  the  Western 
Empire  was  lost  to  the  barbarians.  Rome  had,  how- 
ever, one  great  advantage  over  her  conquerors.  In  her 
was  stored  the  traditionary  wisdom  of  the  past ;  and 
in  time  her  superior  knowledge  triumphed  over  all 
obstacles. 

The  ancient  boundaries  of  the  Roman  Empire 
were  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube.  Britain  was  a  later 
acquisition.  The  barbarians  who  settled  within  the 
ancient  boundaries  were  largely  affected  by  the  civilisa- 
tion of  the  peoples  with  whom  they  mingled.  Chris- 
tianity was  spreading  throughout  the  Empire  just 
before  its  fall.  Many  of  the  barbarian  invaders  on  the 
Continent  accepted  Christianity,  whilst  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  remained  pagan.  The  Christian  Churches  in 
Wales  and  Ireland  were  as  independent  of  Rome 
as  the  Church  of  England  is  to-day ;  and  this  inde- 
pendence was  shared  by  the  Arian  Churches  in  the 
Gothic  kingdoms  formed  from  the  Roman  provinces. 
In  Rome  itself  the  Bishop  succeeded  to  the  power 
of  the  Senate,  and  became  the  largest  landowner  in 
Italy.  As  Pope  he  distributed  food  to  the  idle  citizens 
as  their  emperors  had  done.  But  St.  Peter's  patri- 
mony was  none  too  large  for  the  hungry  mouths  in 
Rome  ;  hence  the  Popes  were  forced  to  aim  at  re- 
gaining Rome's  former  power  of  levying  tribute  on 
Europe. 

The  turning  point  in  Rome's  fortune  came  in  496 
when  Clovis,  a  pagan  Prankish  princelet  who  was 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE          13 

forming  a  Prankish  Empire,  was  converted  to  the 
orthodox   Roman   form   of   Christianity.    The   Pope 
regained  the  lost  legions  of  the  Empire,  and  the  Frank 
had  at  his  service  the  wisdom  of  ancient  Rome.     Before 
the  death  of  Clovis  in  511  the  larger  part  of  the  lands 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Rhine  acknowledged  the 
temporal  sovereignty  of  the  Frankish  King  and  the 
spiritual   dominion  of  the   Pope.     During  the  sixth 
century  Rome  achieved  a  still  greater  success.     The 
religious  enthusiasm  of  isolated  monks  and  hermits 
was   utilised.     In   accordance   with   the   teaching   of 
St.  Benedict  monks  were  bidden  to  dwell  together  in 
monasteries  and  devote  their  lives  to  useful  work — 
agriculture,  industry,  or  study.     The  Benedictines  so 
increased  the  productiveness  of  the  lands  in  which 
they  settled  that  they  were  welcomed  by  both  Catholic 
Frank  and  Arian  Goth.     Their  influence  changed  the 
Arians  of  Spain  into  fervent  Catholics  before  the  end 
of  the  sixth  century.     As  missionaries  they  penetrated 
into  pagan  lands  and  paved  a  way  for  the  Frankish 
warriors.     The  Rhine  was  once  more  Rome's  boundary, 
and,  eager  for  new  lands  to  conquer,  in  597  St.  Augus- 
tine, with  a  little  band  of  monks,  sailed  across  the 
Channel  to  bring  Saxon  pagans  and  British  Christians 
into  the  Roman  fold. 

During  the  sixth  century  an  Irish  missionary, 
St.  Columba,  had  founded  a  mission  station  in  lona, 
and  the  dwellers  in  Scotland  were  learning  the 
Christian  faith  from  teachers  who  were  not  connected 
with  Rome.  Surrounded  by  Christian  neighbours  a 
national  church  might  have  been  created  had  the 
Anglo-Saxons  accepted  Christianity  from  their  fellow- 


14     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

countrymen.  Instead  of  listening  to  their  teaching, 
Ethelfrid,  King  of  Northumbria,  inflicted  a  crushing 
defeat  on  Aidan,  King  of  the  Scots,  in  603,  and,  at  a 
later  date,  attacked  and  routed  the  Christian  Welsh 
at  Chester.  Before  their  defeat  at  Chester  St.  Augus- 
tine had  met  the  Welsh  bishops  in  conference.  He 
had  urged  them  to  abandon  the  British  ritual  and 
accept  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  When  the  bishops 
refused  St.  Augustine  warned  them  that  "  if  Welshmen 
would  not  be  kith  and  kin  (sibbe)  with  us,  they  should 
by  Saxon  hands  perish."  This  prophecy  was  supposed 
to  have  been  fulfilled  when  the  Welsh  were  slaughtered 
at  Chester. 

The  rapid  success  of  St.  Augustine,  after  his 
landing  in  Thanet,  was  probably  due  to  the  influence 
of  the  wife  of  the  King  of  Kent.  She  was  a  daughter 
of  the  Prankish  king,  and  must  have  been  familiar 
with  the  civilisation  which  Benedictines  brought  with 
them.  Adherence  to  paganism  would  have  kept  the 
Anglo-Saxons  in  communion  with  their  kinsfolk  in 
the  north ;  acceptance  of  British  Christianity  might 
have  led  to  insular  union  ;  but  close  intercourse  with 
the  civilisation  of  Rome  was  only  to  be  gained  by 
accepting  the  teaching  of  St.  Augustine.  The  defeat 
of  the  pagan  English  at  Winwaed  in  654  secured  the 
triumph  of  Christianity.  By  this  time  the  Northum- 
brians had  accepted  that  form  of  Christianity  which 
their  Irish  neighbours  professed.  Ten  years  after 
the  battle  of  Winwaed  a  conference  was  held  at  Whitby 
at  which  the  Northumbrians  decided  to  accept  the 
ritual  of  Rome.  For  some  time  the  old  faith  lingered 
in  Scotland,  but  ultimately  Great  Britain  acknow- 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE          15 

ledged  Rome's  supremacy  in  religion,  whilst  the  Irish 
retained  the  faith  of  their  fathers. 

St.  Wilfrid  was  the  champion  of  Rome  at  the 
Whitby  conference,  and  his  life  is  instructive  to  those 
who  wish  to  understand  the  condition  of  England  in 
the  seventh  century.  Educated  by  Irish  monks,  St. 
Wilfrid,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  went  on  pilgrimage 
to  Rome.  At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  was  appointed 
Abbot  of  Ripon,  and  at  once  expelled  the  monks  as 
Irish  schismatics.  This  act  led  to  the  conference 
which  ended  in  a  triumph  for  Rome.  Wilfrid  was 
then  appointed  Bishop  of  York,  and  obtained  per- 
mission to  go  to  the  Continent  where  he  could  be 
consecrated  by  bishops  whose  orthodoxy  was  un- 
impeachable. During  Wilfrid's  absence  his  opponents 
filled  the  see  of  York  with  a  bishop  who  was  consecrated 
in  England.  At  this  time  the  see  of  Canterbury  was 
vacant,  and  the  Pope  consecrated  a  Greek,  Theodore 
of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Theodore  in- 
stalled Wilfrid  at  York  and  compensated  the  intruding 
bishop  by  reconsecrating  him  and  giving  him  the  see 
of  Mercia.  Half-pagan,  ignorant  kings  were  not  able 
to  contend  with  Roman  ecclesiastics,  who  were  armed 
with  the  strength  which  knowledge  gives. 

The  rapidity  with  which  wealth  was  created  by  the 
Benedictines  soon  made  the  Bishop  of  York,  with  his 
Abbeys  in  Ripon  and  Hexham,  a  power  in  the  land. 
Both  Wilfrid's  King  and  Archbishop  Theodore  began 
to  fear  a  rival  whose  authority  threatened  to  over- 
shadow their  own.  Wilfrid  was  deposed  by  the 
Archbishop,  and  hurriedly  left  England  to  carry  an 
appeal  to  Rome,  Landing  on  the  coast  of  Holland, 


16     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Wilfrid  spent  some  time  in  preaching  to  the  Saxons 
of  Frisia.  He  was  the  first  of  a  line  of  English  mis- 
sionaries who  preached  Christianity  to  the  Saxons 
across  the  sea,  and  thus  paved  the  way  for  their 
absorption  in  the  Frankish  Empire  and  subjection  to 
the  power  of  Rome.  Wilfrid  returned  to  England 
with  papal  letters  annulling  his  deposition.  These 
letters  were  treated  as  invalid  on  the  plea  of  their 
having  been  obtained  by  bribery.  After  nine  months' 
imprisonment  Wilfrid  was  forced  to  seek  refuge  in 
Sussex  amongst  the  only  pagan  Saxons  who  survived 
in  England.  During  his  exile  Wilfrid  completed  the 
conversion  of  England  by  bringing  his  hosts  into  the 
Christian  fold. 

The  death  of  the  King  of  Northumbria  enabled 
Wilfrid  to  spend  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  the  home 
of  his  boyhood.  He  died  rich  as  befitted  the  Abbot 
of  Ripon  and  Hexham,  and  left  a  quarter  of  his 
wealth  to  Rome.  Had  the  money  Rome  drew  from 
England  been  confined  to  such  voluntary  gifts,  little 
objection  could  be  made.  If  monks  received  large 
gifts  of  land  from  English  kings,  they  could  make  the 
land  more  productive  than  their  lay  neighbours,  and 
the  wisdom  of  the  monks  came  from  Rome.  But  when 
ecclesiastics  claimed  exemption  from  national  taxa- 
tion and  left  the  burden  of  defending  England  to  the 
laity  whilst  they  took  the  tenth  part  of  England's 
production  for  the  Church,  and  when,  in  the  eighth 
century,  Rome  succeeded  in  re-establishing  the  ancient 
tribute  under  the  new  name  of  Peter's  Pence,  there 
was  little  economic  difference  between  the  new  papal 
and  old  imperial  rule.  The  emperors,  like  the  popes, 


THE   SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE          17 

gave  civilisation  to  England ;  both  imparted  the 
wisdom  of  Rome  and  increased  English  production  ; 
and  both  levied  tribute.  In  time  papal  Rome  drew 
from  England  a  larger  revenue  than  the  king  could 
collect. 

During  the  seventh  century  the  monasteries  were 
tightening  their  hold  over  the  land  and  agricultural 
production  of  Europe,  which  was  becoming  a  land  like 
Tibet  where  the  monks  have  annihilated  the  secular 
power.  England  was  divided  into  petty  kingdoms, 
whilst  the  Catholic  kings  of  France  and  Spain  were 
mere  puppets  in  the  hands  of  ecclesiastics.  The  shock 
of  the  Saracenic  invasion  saved  Europe.  A  move- 
ment of  Arabian  tribes  developed  into  a  force  which 
tore  Asiatic  and  African  provinces  from  the  Eastern 
Empire,  overspread  Spain,  and  threatened  to  absorb 
Western  Christendom.  The  revival  of  the  military 
power  of  the  Franks  was  necessary  for  the  defence  of 
Rome's  ecclesiastical  system.  Under  Charles  Martel 
a  Christian  army,  in  732,  defeated  the  Saracens  near 
the  monastery  of  Tours  and  preserved  both  Europe 
and  Christianity  from  the  invader.  A  few  years  before 
the  battle  of  Tours  the  Mahomedans  were  defeated 
in  their  attempt  to  seize  Constantinople.  Christians 
and  Mahomedans  learned  that  neither  creed  could 
absorb  the  other,  and  sullenly  acquiesced  in  a  division 
of  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  international 
middlemen  of  the  ancient  world,  the  Jews,  basked  in 
the  sunshine  of  prosperity  when  they  were  able  to 
monopolise  trade  between  the  followers  of  Christ  and 
those  of  Mahomed. 

After  the  victory  of  Tours  the  Pope  had  still  need 

c 


i8    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  Frankish  soldiers.  The  Saxons  in  Northern  Europe 
were  pagans  and  therefore  paid  nothing  to  Rome. 
One  branch  of  the  Saxons  had  migrated  to  the  plains 
of  Lombardy.  Like  their  brethren  in  England  the 
Lombards  accepted  the  creed  of  Rome ;  but  the 
Lombard  king  and  the  Pope  put  forward  rival  claims 
to  sovereignty  over  Italy.  A  forged  document,  the 
Donation  of  Constantine,  was  used  by  the  Popes  as 
the  foundation  for  their  claim  to  compel  Italians  to 
feed  the  idle  citizens  of  Rome  as  they  had  done  when 
Rome  was  the  centre  of  a  world  empire. 

English  missionaries  played  almost  as  important 
a  part  as  Frankish  soldiers  in  bringing  Saxons  into  the 
Roman  fold.  An  Englishman,  Willibrord,  followed 
Wilfrid  as  missionary  to  the  Saxons  in  the  Low 
Countries,  and  became  Bishop  of  Utrecht.  Then  the 
army  of  Charles  Martel  added  the  Netherlands  to  the 
Frankish  Empire.  Wynfrith  of  Crediton,  better 
known  as  St.  Boniface,  carried  the  Christian  faith 
into  the  heart  of  Germany.  Supported  by  the  soldiers 
of  Charles  Martel,  he  desecrated  the  groves  in  which 
Germans  met  for  their  religious  rites  and  hewed  down 
their  sacred  oaks.  St.  Boniface  survived  Charles 
Martel,  and,  in  the  reign  of  his  son,  Pipin,  became 
Patriarch  of  the  Franks.  Pipin's  reign  was  mainly 
occupied  in  defeating  the  Lombards  and  founding 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope  in  Italy.  The  labours 
of  Charles  Martel  and  Pipin  were  brought  to  a  trium- 
phant conclusion  by  Pipin's  son,  Charles  the  Great, 
whose  confidential  friend  and  adviser  was  Alcuin, 
an  English  monk.  Thus  the  English  devoted  their 
best  and  wisest  to  the  service  of  foreigners,  whilst 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE          19 

England  was  distracted  by  incessant  civil  wars,  caused 
by  the  absence  of  a  central  government. 

In  772  Charles  the  Great  led  a  great  army  against 
the  Saxons  of  Northern  Germany.  He  advanced 
accompanied  not  only  by  "  Prankish  soldiers,  but  by 
bishops,  abbots  and  presbyters — a  numerous  train  of 
the  tonsured  ones."  Thus  commenced  a  war  which 
lasted  thirty-two  years  and  ended  in  the  complete 
defeat  of  the  Saxons.  The  trees  and  groves  which  the 
Saxons  held  sacred  were  destroyed,  and  those  Saxons 
who  would  not  abandon  their  religion  and  race  were 
forced,  with  their  chieftain,  Widukind,  to  seek  refuge 
in  Denmark.  In  782  Charles  thought  that  fire  and 
sword  had  done  their  work  so  thoroughly  that  it  \vas 
safe  to  promulgate  a  law  punishing  with  death  Saxons 
who  failed  to  obey  the  rules  of  the  Catholic  Church 
or  hid  in  order  to  escape  baptism.  Widukind  then 
returned  and  the  Saxons  rose  in  rebellion.  In  the 
merciless  campaign  which  followed,  Charles  massacred 
4500  Saxon  prisoners  by  the  banks  of  the  Aller.  In 
785  Widukind  submitted  and  was  baptised. 

In  799  Charles  transported  Saxons  to  distant 
parts  of  his  empire,  and  repeopled  Saxonia  with 
Franks.  When  the  Saxons  were  completely  subdued 
Charles  attacked  the  Danes,  but  after  a  short  cam- 
paign this  new  missionary  enterprise  was  happily 
ended  by  a  peace  in  810. 

In  the  intervals  between  his  Saxon  campaigns 
Charles  completed  the  destruction  of  the  Lombard 
kingdom,  and  endowed  the  Pope  with  land.  In  return 
he  was,  in  800,  crowned  Emperor  by  the  Pope.  It  is 
recorded  that  Charles  did  not  seek  this  honour  but 

c  2 


20     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

was  surprised  into  allowing  the  ceremony  to  be  per- 
formed. The  coronation  was  an  assertion  of  Rome's 
right  to  grant  what  had  been  won  by  the  sword.  The 
long  struggle  between  ecclesiastic  and  temporal  rule 
over  Europe  dates  from  the  coronation  of  Charles  the 
Great.  This  contest  was  reproduced  in  miniature  in 
every  country  in  the  West  of  Europe.  Charles's  son, 
Louis  the  Pious,  was  crowned  by  his  father  without 
any  reference  to  Rome ;  but,  after  the  death  of 
Charles,  Louis  undid  the  work  of  his  father  by  sub- 
mitting to  the  Pope.  The  civil  wars  of  Louis'  reign 
weakened  the  Prankish  Empire.  There  was  great 
slaughter  in  the  battle  which  preceded  the  Treaty  of 
Verdun  in  843.  The  Prankish  army  was  destroyed 
and  the  empire  permanently  divided. 

Like  Napoleon,  Charles  the  Great  was  more 
successful  in  extending  his  empire  than  in  carrying 
out  his  commercial  designs.  When  he  tried  to  seize 
Venice,  the  gate  through  which  Eastern  products 
enteied  Europe  from  Constantinople,  a  Byzantine 
fleet  sailed  up  the  Adriatic  and  Venice  retained  her 
independence.  The  attempt  to  open  up  a  trade  route 
to  the  East  by  way  of  the  Danube  also  failed.  The 
commanding  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  commercial 
world  is  shown  by  Charles'  choice  of  a  Jew  as  his 
ambassador  to  the  court  of  Caliph  Haroun  al  Raschid 
at  Bagdad.  West  of  the  Caspian  there  was  a  Jewish 
colony  in  the  eighth  century.  It  is  even  supposed 
that  the  Khazars,  who  lived  in  that  region,  embraced 
Judaism.  These  Jews  were  able  to  facilitate  com- 
merce between  the  East  and  Wisby  on  the  island  of 
Gothland,  the  commercial  centre  of  the  Scandinavians 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  EUROPE          21 

The  extent  and  character  of  the  trade  which  passed 
up  the  long  Russian  rivers  to  the  Baltic  is  proved 
by  the  finding  in  Gothland  of  German,  Hungarian, 
and  Anglo-Saxon  coins,  together  with  Arabian  coins 
issued  by  eleven  different  Caliphs.  The  Scandinavians 
were  beginning  that  career  which  made  them  masters 
of  Normandy,  Sicily,  and  England,  which  led  them  to 
discover  America,  and  all  but  gave  them  Constanti- 
nople, the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  European 
world.  For  two  centuries  England  and  Western 
Europe  paid  dearly  for  Charles'  attempt  to  add  this 
trade  route  to  his  possessions  by  conquering  the 
Danes. 


Ill 

SAXON   ENGLAND 
779-1016 

DURING  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Great,  Offa,  King  of 
Mercia,  established  a  sort  of  supremacy  over  the  other 
English  kings.  Alcuin,  the  English  monk  who  advised 
Charles  the  Great,  was  probably  the  mediator  who 
smoothed  over  the  one  commercial  quarrel  which 
disturbed  the  otherwise  peaceful  relations  between 
England  and  Frankland.  Small  duties  on  imports 
and  exports  were  levied  in  the  Prankish  Empire 
as  they  had  been  in  the  days  of  imperial  Rome.  In 
England,  also,  prises,  or  small  portions  of  the  cargoes 
of  incoming  and  outgoing  ships,  were  taken  at  the 
ports  in  return  for  the  king's  peace  which  traders 
enjoyed.  Like  modern  English  customs  they  were 
levied  for  revenue.  The  idea  of  protecting  the  work  of 
the  poor  was  a  much  later  conception.  Pilgrimages 
to  Rome  were  popular  in  England,  and  traders  "  under 
the  guise  of  holiness  transacted  a  profitable  business 
in  the  transport  of  specie  and  merchandise."  These 
English  merchant-pilgrims  evaded  Charles'  duties ; 
he  therefore  forbade  all  intercourse  with  England, 
and  England  replied  to  these  old-world  Berlin  Decrees 
by  primitive  Orders  in  Council.  A  compromise  was 


SAXON   ENGLAND  23 

ultimately  arranged  by  which  bona-fidc  English  pilgrims 
were  exempted  from  tolls,  whilst  Charles  reserved  the 
right  of  levying  duties  on  impostors. 

Alcuin,  to  whose  counsel  the  compromise  is  attri- 
buted, gave  Charles  excellent  advice  during  the  Saxon 
wars.  The  Emperor  was  urged  to  purify  Rome  and  to 
deal  gently  with  the  conquered  Saxons ;  in  particular, 
to  abstain  from  exacting  tithes  from  these  recent 
converts.  This  advice  was  not  followed,  and  the 
Danes  made  use  of  their  sea  power  to  deliver  a  counter- 
attack when  Charles  threatened  to  destroy  their  homes 
and  their  faith.  Whilst  the  Frankish  Empire  was 
united,  its  fleet  was  able  to  preserve  Frankland  and 
England  from  actual  invasion  ;  but  the  Northmen 
established  themselves  in  neighbouring  islands  and 
attacked  the  coasts.  After  the  Treaty  of  Verdun  in 
843,  which  definitely  divided  the  Frankish  Empire, 
the  Normans  began  to  invade  Frankland  and  England. 

In  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  "  it  is  written  that, 
probably  about  790,  "  first  came  three  ships  of  North- 
men. And  then  the  reeve  rode  thereto  and  would  fain 
drive  them  to  the  king's  vill,  for  he  knew  not  what  they 
were,  and  there  they  slew  him."  The  reeve  wished 
either  to  collect  the  customary  prise  or  to  learn  the 
king's  wishes  with  regard  to  these  strange  visitors. 
The  Northmen  found  the  English  Saxons  very  unlike 
their  allies  whom  Charles  the  Great  had  been  slaugh- 
tering at  the  Aller.  Monks,  priests,  and  Christian 
buildings  proved  that  the  English  were  in  close  touch 
with  the  Franks.  WL^n  they  returned  to  their  homes 
the  Northmen  told  their  neighbours  that  vengeance 
could  be  wreaked  on  Christian  foes,  and  a  rich  reward 


24    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

was  awaiting  those  who  would  attack  England.  In 
793  the  Northmen  destroyed  the  monastery  of  Lindis- 
f arne  and  sailed  away  with  their  booty. 

The  Prankish  navy,  built  by  Charles  the  Great, 
appears  for  a   time   to  have   driven   the   Northmen 
from  the  Channel,  but  they  sailed  into  the  Irish  Sea 
and  plundered  Irish  monasteries.     In  Dublin  and  on 
the  islands  off  the  west  coast  of  Scotland  the  Northmen 
established    convenient    bases    for    their   invasion    of 
England    and    Frankland,    when   the    Prankish    fleet 
perished  during  the  civil  wars  which  followed  the  death 
of   Charles.     During   this   respite   of   forty-one  years 
England  enjoyed  something  like  national  union  under 
Egbert,  King  of  Wessex  ;    but  the  English  failed  to 
recognise   the   importance   of   building   an   adequate 
national  fleet,  although  Egbert's  son,  King  Ethelwulf, 
wras  rich  enough  to  earn  distinction  by  his  generosity 
when  he  visited  Rome  in  855.   When  Alfred,  Ethelwulf 's 
youngest  son,  ascended  the  throne  in  871,  England 
was  almost  entirely  conquered  by  the  Danish  invaders. 
Under  Alfred  the  English  rallied  and  peace  was  made 
by  the  surrender  of  half  England  to  the  Danes.     The 
London   and   North- Western    Railway  approximately 
divides  Danish  England,  or  the  Danelaw,  from  that 
southern   part   of   England    which   Alfred   governed. 
Reinforcements  for  the  Danes  came  to  England  from 
the  North  in  long  boats,  called  aescas,  and,  before 
Alfred's  death,  the  war  began  afresh.     "  Then  King 
Alfred  commanded  ships  to  be  built  against  them, 
which  were  full  nigh  twice  as  long  as  the  others.     Some 
had  sixty  oars,  some  more.     They  were  both  swifter 
and  steadier  and  also  higher  than  the  others  ;    they 


SAXON  ENGLAND  25 

were  shapen  neither  as  the  Frisian  nor  as  the  Danish, 
but  as  it  seemed  to  himself  that  they  might  be  most 
useful."  As  the  Danes  who  had  settled  in  England 
were  beginning  to  amalgamate  with  the  English  and 
accept  Christianity,  Alfred's  navy  was  able  to  do 
such  service  that  King  Edward,  Alfred's  son,  was  ruler 
of  a  united  England,  and,  perhaps,  though  this  is  un- 
certain, of  a  united  Great  Britain.  A  further  happy 
result  was  the  establishment  of  friendly  relations 
with  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  during  the  reign  of 
Atheist  an,  Edward's  son. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  ninth  century  the 
Saracens  also  took  advantage  of  the  decadence  of  the 
Franks.  They  gained  a  footing  in  Southern  Italy 
and  threatened  Rome.  To  avert  this  danger  the  Pope 
gave  his  blessing  to  a  union  of  Western  Europe  under 
Charles  the  Fat ;  but  it  soon  became  evident  that  it 
was  impossible  to  recreate  the  military  power  of 
Charles  the  Great.  Rome  ultimately  obtained  the 
assistance  she  required  from  a  temporarily  united 
Italy  and  the  navy  of  Constantinople.  The  Northmen 
advanced  up  the  Seine  as  far  as  Paris  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Fat.  The  separate  nationality  of  France 
began  with  the  heroic  defence  of  Paris  by  its  local 
ruler  Eudes.  Charles  the  Fat  contributed  to  this 
defence  by  bribing  the  Northmen  to  abandon  the 
siege  and  gather  plunder  in  other  parts  of  his  dominions. 
For  a  century  the  descendants  of  Eudes,  calling  them- 
selves Dukes  of  the  French,  increased  their  hold  over 
the  territory  which  surrounded  Paris  until  they 
finally  absorbed  the  sovereign  power  of  the  descendants 
of  Charles  the  Fat. 


26     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Before  their  extinction  the  Carlovingian  rulers  gave 
their  sanction  to  the  creation  of  two  provincial  govern- 
ments which  profoundly  affected  England.  In  91 1 
Charles  the  Simple  gave  Rolf,  a  chief  of  the  Northmen, 
the  province  of  Normandy  with  the  title  of  duke.  In 
their  new  territory  pagan  Northmen  became  in  time 
French-speaking  Christians.  King  Ethelwulf,  Alfred's 
father,  returned  from  his  visit  to  Rome  with  Judith, 
the  child  of  another  Carlovingian  ruler,  Charles  the 
Bald.  This  child-bride  of  an  old  man  was  for  some 
months  the  wife  of  Ethelwulf's  son  King  Ethelbald, 
who  died  in  860,  soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne 
of  England.  Judith  then  returned  to  her  father's 
Court,  from  which  she  eloped  with  Baldwin,  one  of  her 
father's  officials.  Ultimately  the  young  couple  were 
married,  and  Baldwin  was  created  Count  of  Flanders, 
not  the  small  strip  of  Belgian  coast  which  now  bears 
this  name,  but  a  province  extending  from  the  Scheldt 
to  Normandy,  and  thus  including  all  the  coast  of 
Europe  which  is  nearest  to  England.  The  son  of  this 
romantic  marriage,  Baldwin  II.,  married  King  Alfred's 
daughter.  Thus  close  ties  united  the  rulers  of  Flanders 
and  England,  whilst  the  Flemish  and  English  peoples 
were  united  by  ties  no  less  close.  Both  were  of  Saxon 
origin  and  spoke  the  same  language. 

The  English  and  Flemish  were  not  only  bound  by 
race  and  language  but  there  was  a  commercial  bond 
of  union  which  was  growing  in  importance  and  was 
destined  to  mould  the  development  of  both  peoples. 
The  weaving  industry  of  Flanders  began  long  before 
the  Norman  Conquest  of  England.  In  the  ninth 
century  the  Flemish  were  learning  to  depend  on 


SAXON  ENGLAND  27 

English  shepherds  to  supply  their  looms  with  wool. 
This  economic  interdependence  closely  resembles  that 
which  exists  between  Lancashire  and  the  United 
States.  This  resemblance  is  increased  by  the  kinship 
of  American  cotton-growers  and  English  cotton- 
spinners  and  by  their  common  tongue.  The  Anglo- 
Flemish  economic  bond  and  the  forces  called  into  play 
to  prevent  it  from  developing  into  political  union 
affected  England's  policy  for  many  centuries,  until 
the  bond  was  broken  by  the  development  of  English 
weaving. 

In  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  Pope  Nicholas  I. 
put  forward  a  claim  to  absolute  sovereignty  over  the 
Papal  States  and  suzerainty  over  the  rest  of  Europe. 
This  claim  was  made  before  the  Saracenic  invasion  of 
Italy,  and  was  based  on  the  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals, 
a  forgery  like  the  pretended  Donation  of  Constantine. 
The  claim  was  at  first  of  little  practical  importance 
on  account  of  Rome's  weakness,  which  continued 
after  the  Saracens  were  expelled  from  Italy  in  916. 
Before  that  time  storm  clouds  were  threatening  from 
the  North.  Pagan  Hungarians  invaded  Germany 
and  Italy,  entering  Italy  in  899  and  devastating  the 
country  as  their  Hunnish  ancestors  had  done.  In 
Germany  the  Hungarians  were  driven  back  by  the 
Saxons  under  their  duke,  Henry  the  Fowler.  In  936 
Henry  wras  succeeded  by  his  son,  Otto  the  Great,  who 
completed  the  defeat,  and  then  attempted  to  rescue 
Italy  from  the  chaotic  condition  to  which  it  had  been 
reduced  by  the  Saracens  and  Hungarians.  In  theory 
the  Pope  claimed  to  be  suzerain  of  Europe  ;  in  prac- 
tice his  authority  over  Rome  was  re-established  by  a 


28    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Saxon  who  called  himself  over-lord  of  Germany  and 
Italy.  Before  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  the 
papacy  "  seemed  to  have  reached  the  utmost  limit  of 
its  degradation." 

The  power  of  papal  Rome  had  been  founded  on  the 
production  of  the  monasteries  ;  in  the  tenth  century 
the  monastic  system  was  dying  and  dragging  the 
papacy  into  its  tomb.  Popes,  bishops,  abbots  and 
monks  were  enjoying  the  wealth  of  Europe  without 
performing  those  duties  which  should  fall  to  the  lot 
of  the  wealthy.  Monasteries  were  losing  their  religious 
character  when  men  and  women  embraced  the  religious 
life  in  order  to  find  more  worldly  comfort  in  monas- 
teries and  convents  than  they  could  find  in  the  world 
outside.  Pilgrimages  to  Rome  degenerated  into  com- 
mercial voyages.  When  the  pilgrims  were  hindered 
from  approaching  Rome  by  the  Hungarians,  and  when 
the  Pope  ceased  to  be  able  to  command  tribute  from 
Europe,  he  also  ceased  to  have  value  in  the  eyes  of  his 
Roman  subjects.  When  the  papacy  was  sick  unto 
death  relief  was  at  hand.  In  910  Berno  of  Cluny 
inaugurated  a  monastic  reformation  which  spread 
throughout  Europe  and  raised  the  papacy  to  an  even 
greater  height  than  it  had  reached  before. 

St.  Dunstan  was  the  apostle  of  the  Cluniac  reforma- 
tion in  England  ;  and  the  work  he  did  in  restoring 
the  English  monastic  system  was  part  of  a  general 
European  movement  which  again  drew  Saxon,  Frank 
and  Norman  towards  Rome.  There  is  a  curious 
resemblance  between  the  histories  of  the  Carlovingian 
and  Saxon  Empires.  Both  Charles  the  Great  and 
Otto  the  Great  failed  to  realise  that  the  economic 


SAXON  ENGLAND  29 

power,  which  Rome  possessed  in  monastic  production, 
would  ultimately  prove  stronger  than  force  of  arms. 
Like  his  predecessor  Charles,  the  Saxon  Emperor  freed 
the  papacy  from  its  foes  and  enabled  it  to  reassert  its 
control  over  its  landed  possessions  in  Europe.  Otto 
the  Great  also  neglected  to  establish  imperial  autho- 
rity in  Rome  and  attacked  the  pagan  North.  King 
Harold  Bluetooth  of  Denmark  met  the  attack  of  Otto 
the  Great  and  his  son  Otto  II  by  the  traditional 
counter-attack  on  Normandy.  The  Cluniac  reforma- 
tion reunited  the  producing  monasteries  to  Rome, 
and  thus  closed  markets  which  had  been  open  to 
Danish  trade.  Two  parties  sprang  up  in  Normandy, 
a  monastic  party,  who  desired  to  establish  close  rela- 
tions with  Rome,  and  an  anti-monastic  party,  who 
wished  to  retain  their  old  connexion  with  Denmark. 
Similar  parties  came  into  existence  in  England  at  a 
later  date. 

In  945  Harold  Bluetooth,  with  the  aid  of  Norman 
allies,  won  a  victory  on  the  banks  of  the  Dive  ;  and 
for  a  while  Normandy  was  restored  to  the  sphere 
of  Danish  influence.  A  dual  alliance  of  the  Saxon 
Emperors  and  the  Carlovingian  Kings  of  Laon  was 
met  by  a  triple  alliance  of  Flanders,  Normandy,  and 
the  Dukes  of  the  French,  who  reigned  at  Paris.  In  the 
North  the  Germans  defeated  the  Danes  and  com- 
pelled Harold  Bluetooth  to  accept  Christianity  ;  but 
the  conquest  of  Denmark  was  far  from  complete. 
Their  Carlovingian  allies  fared  badly.  In  987  the 
dynasty  of  the  descendants  of  Charles  the  Great  was 
extinguished,  and  the  Dukes  of  the  French  inherited 
an  almost  nominal  sovereignty  over  powerful  vassals, 


30    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

amongst  whom  were  the  Dukes  of  Normandy  and  the 
Counts  of  Flanders. 

In  940  Athelstan  was  succeeded  by  his  brother 
Edmund,  and  six  years  later  another  brother,  Edred, 
became  King  of  England.  It  was  during  their  reigns 
that  St.  Dunstan  acquired  power.  At  first  Edmund 
appears  to  have  feared  the  young  monk  ;  but  he  finally 
yielded  and  made  him  Abbot  of  Glastonbury.  Edred, 
a  chronic  invalid,  allowed  Dunstan  to  keep  the  royal 
deeds  and  treasures  at  Glastonbury.  On  his  death- 
bed in  955  Edred  called  for  the  treasure  ;  but  the  king 
died  before  Dunstan's  arrival.  Then  Edred's  nephew, 
a  boy  of  fifteen,  became  king.  The  chronicles  are 
silent  as  to  the  fate  of  the  treasure,  but  they  tell  of  a 
violent  quarrel  between  St.  Dunstan  and  the  King's 
mother-in-law.  Edwy's  marriage  was  dissolved  ;  and, 
after  a  very  short  reign,  Edwy  died.  The  scanty 
records  of  this  short  reign  suggest  a  furious  contest 
between  the  two  parties.  On  the  one  hand  Glaston- 
bury Abbey  was  attacked,  probably  by  searchers  for 
the  royal  treasure,  and  Dunstan  was  banished  ;  on  the 
other  hand  Edwy  made  lavish  grants  of  land  to  other 
monasteries. 

When  Edgar,  Edwy's  brother,  became  king,  St. 
Dunstan  was  recalled  and  the  monks  continued  to 
increase  their  hold  over  England's  soil.  Grants  of 
monastic  lands  were  made  by  written  books  or  con- 
veyances which  the  kings  signed  by  making  their 
mark  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  The  consideration  or 
price  paid  for  the  land  was  often  the  promised  salvation 
of  the  king's  soul ;  and  the  lands  were  called  boclands 
to  distinguish  them  from  the  folclands  held  by  the 


SAXON  ENGLAND  31 

people.  Sometimes  monastic  lands  were  subject  to  the 
threefold  obligation  of  repairing  roads  and  bridges, 
maintaining  fortifications,  and  military  service  ;  but  it 
was  the  lay  tenants  not  the  monks  who  could  be  asked 
to  fight.  Since  even  this  threefold  obligation  was  not 
always  imposed,  the  area  on  which  secular  taxation 
could  be  levied  was  narrowed,  and  Alfred's  navy  was 
neglected  by  his  successors. 

Edward,  surnamed  the  Martyr,  became  king  when 
Edgar  died  in  975.  His  reign  was  short  and  troubled. 
The  chronicler's  statement  that,  in  976,  "  Alphere 
commanded  the  monasteries  to  be  demolished,  which 
King  Edgar  had  before  commanded  the  holy  bishop 
Ethelwold  to  found,"  proves  that  there  was  active  op- 
position to  Edward's  ecclesiastical  councillors.  Two 
years  later  the  chronicle  relates  that  "in  this  year 
King  Edward  was  slain  (martyred),  and  Ethelred 
Atheling,Jiis  brother,  succeeded  to  the  Kingdom." 
This  is  the  king  who  was  called  Redeless,  i.e.  without 
counsel,  a  name  naturally  given  to  a  king  placed  on 
the  throne  to  free  England  from  monkish  advisers. 
This  epithet  has  been  distorted  into  Unready  ;  and  all 
the  misfortunes  which  befel  England  during  Ethelred 's 
reign  have  been  attributed  to  Ethelred's  lack  of 
political  foresight,  although  he  was  only  ten  years  old 
when  he  began  to  reign.  Thus  the  lesson  which 
England's  history  in  the  tenth  century  teaches  is 
obscured.  Then,  as  in  subsequent  centuries,  the 
diversion  of  money  from  England's  army  and  navy 
has  tempted  the  foreigner  to  attack  her  shores. 

The  Danes  came  in  Ethelred's  time  ;  in  England 
the  invaders  found  many  Christians  who  preferred 


32    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

alliance  with  the  pagan  to  submission  to  monkish  rule. 
The  chronicle  records  repeated  acts  of  treachery  for 
which  no  other  explanation  seems  possible.  St. 
Dunstan  died  in  988,  nine  years  after  the  accession 
of  Ethelred.  His  last  years  were  embittered  by  an 
attempt,  made  by  his  opponents,  to  seize  Church  land 
in  the  diocese  of  Rochester ;  but  the  cause  of  St. 
Dunstan  was  upheld  by  his  successors.  In  995  the 
monastic  party  regained  power,  and  the  secular  clergy 
in  Canterbury  Cathedral  were  replaced  by  monks. 
The  struggle  in  England  was  political  rather  than 
religious.  The  question  at  issue  was  not  whether 
Christianity  was  to  flourish  in  England,  but  whether 
celibate  monks,  whose  chief  interest  was  their  order, 
and  who  looked  to  Rome  as  their  centre,  should  be 
allowed  to  transform  their  hold  over  English  land  into 
complete  control  over  the  secular  government  of 
England.  The  secular  clergy,  or  married  parish  priests, 
were  on  the  other  hand  bound  to  England  by  family 
ties.  When  monks  replaced  secular  priests  in  the 
cathedral  chapters,  they  obtained  a  predominant  voice 
in  the  appointment  of  bishops  ;  and  completely  to 
control  the  Church  was  a  long  step  towards  the  absorp- 
tion of  all  authority  over  England. 

Civil  war  in  Denmark  followed  the  baptism  of 
Harold  Bluetooth.  The  nationalist  or  pagan  party 
found  a  leader  in  Harold's  son,  Sweyn,  who  succeeded 
to  the  Danish  throne  when  his  father  was  killed.  In 
concert  with  Olaf  of  Norway,  Sweyn  invaded  England, 
where  he  could  count  upon  a  certain  amount  of  sym- 
pathy from  the  anti-monastic  party.  In  the  absence 
of  an  adequate  navy  Viking  ships  were  able  to  select 


.  SAXON  ENGLAND  33 

undefended  points  on  England's  coast  where  they  could 
land  unopposed.  Again  and  again  the  invaders  were 
bribed  to  withdraw.  During  one  of  these  attacks 
Olaf  accepted  Christianity  and  abandoned  his  alliance 
with  Sweyn ;  but  the  Danes  continued  to  attack 
England.  Ship  money  was  levied  in  England  ;  but, 
owing  to  internal  discord,  the  hurriedly  collected  fleet 
proved  unequal  to  the  defence  of  England's  coast. 

After  leaving  England  Olaf  became  King  of  Norway 
only  to  lose  his  life  and  throne  when  attacked  by 
Sweyn  and  King  Olaf  of  Sweden.  Then,  in  1013, 
Sweyn  began  a  serious  invasion  of  England.  By  this 
time  a  change  had  occurred  in  Normandy  ;  its  con- 
nexion with  the  North  had  almost  disappeared.  Up 
to  the  commencement  of  the  eleventh  century  the 
Danes  found  shelter  in  Normandy  after  harrying 
England.  Two  years  later,  in  1002,  Ethelred  married 
the  daughter  of  Duke  Richard  of  Normandy.  Hence 
the  English  national  party  came  to  rely  on  the  Danes 
whilst  the  cosmopolitans  turned  towards  Normandy. 
Ethelred  fled  to  Normandy  when  Sweyn  invaded 
England  in  force.  In  1014  Sweyn  died,  and  Ethelred, 
recalled  from  Normandy,  succeeded  in  expelling  Canute, 
the  son  of  Sweyn.  Two  years  later  Canute  was  pre- 
paring a  fresh  invasion  when  Ethelred  died.  After 
some  fighting  an  arrangement  was  made  between 
Canute  and  Edmund,  Ethelred's  successor,  which, 
before  the  end  of  1016,  gave  Canute  undisputed 
possession  of  England  on  Edmund's  death.  When 
England  thus  became  part  of  a  Great  Scandinavia, 
the  Normans  began  to  plan  their  scheme  of  conquest 
which  was  carried  into  effect  by  William  I. 

D 


IV 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN 
1000-1087 

IN  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  the  Normans 
were  establishing  themselves  in  Southern  Italy,  where 
they  were  preparing  for  their  daring  attack  upon  the 
Byzantine  Empire,  whose  capital,  Constantinople,  was 
the  trading  centre  of  the  ancient  world.  To  men  with 
such  ambitions  it  must  have  been  bitterness  itself  to 
see  the  trade  of  England  passing  through  Scandinavian 
hands  ;  but  at  first  the  sea-power  of  Normandy  was 
not  equal  to  the  task  of  snatching  England  from  the 
Danes.  Canute  began  his  reign  by  trying  to  conciliate 
his  actual  and  potential  enemies.  In  the  first  year  of 
his  reign  he  married  Emma,  the  widow  of  Ethelred 
and  daughter  of  Duke  Richard  of  Normandy.  The 
presence  of  his  stepsons  Alfred  and  Edward  at  the 
Norman  Court  was  not  resented.  Like  a  later  King 
of  France,  Canute  thought  London  worth  a  mass, 
and  became  a  Christian.  The  remarkable  manner  in 
which  Canute  could  adapt  himself  to  circumstances  is 
illustrated  by  his  atrocious  murder  of  a  brother-in- 
law  when  the  king  was  in  his  northern  realm,  and  by 
his  pious  pilgrimage  to  Rome  in  the  following  year, 
1026,  In  Rome  Canute  witnessed  the  coronation  of 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN    35 

the  first  Franconian  emperor,  the  Saxon  line  having 
ended  with  Henry  the  Saint. 

Canute's  brother-in-law  Robert,  who  became  Duke 
of  Normandy  in  1026,  cultivated  the  friendliest  rela- 
tions with  his  neighbour,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and 
his  overlord  the  King  of  France.  In  1035  Canute 
died,  shortly  after  the  death  of  Duke  Robert.  Both 
were  succeeded  by  sons  born  out  of  wedlock.  William 
the  Conqueror  became  Duke  of  Normandy  and  Harold 
Harefoot  ascended  the  English  throne.  Harthacnut, 
the  son  of  Canute  and  Emma,  obtained  the  kingdom 
of  Denmark.  Thus  the  English  again  enjoyed  an 
independent  ruler. 

Canute's  successful  reign  was  largely  due  to  his 
minister,  Earl  Godwine,  who  by  birth  and  marriage 
seems  to  have  been  connected  with  both  Danes  and 
Saxons.  When  Canute  died,  Godwine  supported 
Harthacnut's  claim  to  the  crown  of  England  ;  but  he 
accepted  Harold  Harefoot,  when  the  English  chose 
him  as  king.  The  murder  of  Emma's  son  Alfred, 
when  that  prince  imprudently  crossed  from  Normandy 
to  England,  was  supposed  to  have  been  contrived 
by  Godwine.  This  murder  was  followed,  in  1037,  by 
Emma's  expulsion  from  England.  She  sought  the 
usual  refuge  for  English  exiles,  Flanders,  or,  as  it  was 
then  called,  Baldwin's  land.  Two  years  later  Hartha- 
cnut answered  his  mother's  appeal,  and  was  on  the 
eve  of  invading  England,  when  Harold  Harefoot  died. 
Harthacnut  invited  his  half-brother  Edward  to  share 
his  throne.  In  1042  "  died  Harthacnut  as  he  stood 
at  his  drink,  he  suddenly  fell  to  the  earth  with  a 
terrible  struggle.  .  .  .  And  all  the  people  then  received 


36     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Edward  for  king,  as  was  his  natural  right."  The 
sudden  deaths  of  two  young  kings,  Harold  and  Har- 
thacnut,  fitted  in  with  the  Norman  scheme.  England 
was  thus  brought  under  the  rule  of  a  king  who  was 
half  Norman  by  birth  and  wholly  Norman  by 
education. 

Before  the  Normans  could  supplant  Scandinavian 
influence  in  England  it  was  necessary  for  them  to 
secure  the  neutrality  of  Flanders  in  the  inevitable  war. 
With  persistence,  which  overcame  all  obstacles,  Duke 
William  sought  and  finally  obtained  the  hand  of 
Matilda,  daughter  of  the  Flemish  Count.  A  religious 
movement  in  Normandy,  guided  by  Duke  William, 
formed  part  of  the  scheme  of  conquest.  The  Norman 
bishops  were  chosen  from  the  ducal  family,  and,  like 
William's  half-brother,  Odo,  were  more  at  home  on 
the  field  of  battle  than  in  their  cathedrals.  Monasteries 
were  founded  throughout  Normandy.  "  A  Norman 
noble  of  that  age  thought  that  his  estate  lacked  its 
chief  ornament  if  he  failed  to  plant  a  colony  of  monks 
in  some  corner  of  his  possessions."  Freeman  regarded 
these  founders  as  often  actuated  by  motives  other  than 
religious,  since  "  many  a  man  must  have  founded  a 
religious  house,  not  from  any  special  devotion  or 
any  special  liberality,  but  simply  because  it  was  the 
regular  thing  for  a  man  in  his  position  to  do." 
Thus  Norman  dukes  controlled  their  Church,  while 
they  gained  the  goodwill  of  the  monastic  party  in 
England. 

The  condition  of  the  papacy  favoured  the  creation 
of  a  Norman  Church  under  ducal  control.  In  1033  the 
Pope  was  a  dissolute  boy  twelve  years  of  age,  and,  at  a 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN         37 

later  date,  there  were  three  rival  Popes.  As  the  papacy 
emerged  from  this  degradation  it  became  involved  in  a 
desperate  struggle  with  the  Normans  of  Southern 
Italy.  In  1053  the  papal  army  was  utterly  defeated 
by  the  Normans  at  Civita  Vecchia.  Like  his  imperial 
predecessor,  the  Pope  spent  two  days  bewailing  his 
lost  legions,  and  then  set  to  work  to  replace  them  by 
enlisting  his  conquerors  in  the  service  of  Rome.  The 
Italian  Normans  were  confirmed  in  their  possessions  as 
vassals  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Pope  ;  and  they 
turned  their  attention  to  the  boundless  wealth  which 
awaited  those  who  could  conquer  Constantinople  and 
the  Eastern  Empire.  The  Cluniac  Reformation  had 
already  produced  the  monk  Hildebrand  who  was 
destined  to  restore  the  glory  of  Rome.  Before  Hilde- 
brand became  Pope  Gregory  VII.  in  1073,  his  policy 
was  being  carried  out  by  Pope  Alexander  II.  The 
banner  of  William  the  Conqueror  was  blessed  by 
Alexander,  and  the  Conquest  of  England  was  the 
real  First  Crusade. 

To  ensure  a  successful  invasion  the  Normans 
neglected  no  opportunity  of  creating  disunion  in 
England  during  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor. 
The  central  figure  in  this  period  of  English  history  is 
not  the  weak  king  but  Earl  Godwine  and,  after  the 
Earl's  death  in  1053,  his  eldest  surviving  son,  Harold. 
During  the  early  years  of  Edward's  reign  Godwine  was 
in  power  ;  and  such  attention  was  paid  to  the  navy 
''  that  no  man  had  seen  any  greater  force  in  the  land." 
But  Norman  ecclesiastics  followed  Edward  to  England  ; 
among  these  the  most  prominent  was  Robert,  Abbot 
of  Jumieges,  whom  Edward  appointed  Bishop  of 


38     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

London.  Since  the  production  of  wool,  the  chief 
export  of  England,  was  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the 
monks,  it  is  probable  that  Scandinavian  traders  suffered 
from  this  Norman  ecclesiastical  influence.  About  this 
time  the  Chronicle  records  the  coming  of  hostile  sailors 
from  the  north,  who  took  "  whatever  they  could  find ; 
and  then  went  east  to  Baldwin's  land  and  there  sold 
what  they  had  plundered." 

In  1051  the  Norman  Bishop  of  London  was  made 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ;  and  foreigners  began  to 
treat  the  English  as  an  already  conquered  race.  Count 
Eustace  of  Boulogne  quarrelled  with  the  men  of  Kent 
when  he  was  returning  from  a  visit  to  King  Edward. 
When  Godwine  refused  to  punish  the  Kentish  men, 
whom  he  regarded  as  peculiarly  his  own  folk,  he  and 
his  sons  were  forced  to  take  refuge  in  flight  from 
England.  Godwine's  daughter,  whom  Edward  had 
married,  was  sent  to '  a  nunnery ;  and  for  a  while 
Norman  influence  reigned  supreme. 

Three  interesting  events  occurred  during  this  period 
of  England's  peaceful  penetration  by  the  Normans. 
In  1049  "  King  Edward  discharged  nine  ships  from  pay, 
and  they  went  away  ships  and  all ;  and  five  ships 
remained  behind,  and  the  King  promised  them  twelve 
months'  pay."  Next  year  all  the  ships  were  dis- 
charged. This  policy  was  so  successful  financially 
that  in  1052  "  King  Edward  abolished  the  military 
contribution  which  King  Ethelred  had  before  imposed  ; 
that  was  in  the  nine-and-thirtieth  year  after  he  had 
begun  it.  That  tax  distressed  all  the  English  nation 
during  so  long  a  space  as  is  here  above  written."  After 
Godwine's  flight,  "  soon  came  Count  William  from 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN         39 

beyond  sea,  with  a  great  body  of  Frenchmen,  and  the 
King  received  him  and  as  many  of  his  companions  as 
it  pleased  him,  and  let  him  go  again." 

This  meeting  of  King  Edward  and  his  great  neigh- 
bour William,  while  the  navy  was  being  weakened 
that  the  burden  of  taxation  might  be  lessened,  did  not 
please  the  English.  A  popular  movement  restored 
Godwine  to  his  old  position,  and  sent  the  Norman 
Archbishop  and  his  brethren  in  hurried  flight  across 
the  sea.  Godwine  died  soon  after  his  return ; 
and  his  eldest  surviving  son,  Harold,  continued 
Godwine's  work.  Stigand,  an  Englishman,  replaced 
the  Norman  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ;  and  Harold 
governed  England  with  such  ability  that  it  seemed  as 
if  the  Norman  scheme  would  come  to  nought  when 
party  strife  wrecked  England's  hopes.  The  latent 
antagonism  between  the  Danish  North  and  the  Saxon 
South  became  acute  in  1065,  and  Harold's  brother, 
Tostig,  who  had  been  Earl  of  Northumbria  since  1055, 
was  compelled  to  betake  himself  to  Baldwin's  land. 
There  he  entered  into  negotiations  with  William  of 
Normandy  and  Harold,  King  of  Norway.  From  his 
brother-in-law,  Count  Baldwin,  Tostig  obtained  men 
and  ships  for  an  expedition  to  England. 

In  January  1066  King  Edward  died,  and  Harold 
was  elected  and  crowned  King  of  England.  "  He  then 
gathered  so  great  a  naval  force  and  also  a  land  force 
as  no  king  here  in  the  land  had  before  gathered  ; 
because  it  had  for  truth  been  said  to  him  that  Count 
William  from  Normandy,  King  Edward's  kinsman, 
would  come  hither  and  subdue  this  land."  But  Tostig 
came  first,  and  was  driven  out  by  the  Northumbrians. 


40     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Tostig  then  joined  Harold  of  Norway,  entered  the 
Humber,  and  captured  York.  Harold  of  England 
hurried  north.  The  allies  were  defeated  ;  Tostig  and 
Harold  of  Norway  were  killed,  while  Olaf,  the  Nor- 
wegian king's  son,  was  allowed  to  return  to  Norway. 
Immediate  danger  seemed  to  have  passed  away  ;  but 
Edward's  policy  of  reducing  the  navy  accomplished 
its  perfect  work.  The  enthusiasm  which  had  extem- 
porised a  fleet  evaporated  when  provisions  ran  short 
through  lack  of  funds.  The  English  fleet  disappeared  ; 
and  in  September  William  came  again  to  England. 
This  time  he  came  not  as  an  honoured  guest  but  as  a 
conqueror.  In  October  1066  a  great  battle  was  fought 
near  Hastings.  Harold  of  England  with  his  brothers 
and  many  another  Englishman  died  for  England  with 
the  same  burning  patriotism  as  filled  Nelson's  soul  at 
Trafalgar.  But  Nelson  had  an  adequate  fleet,  while 
the  English  in  Harold's  time  enjoyed  remission  of 
taxation ;  hence,  although  there  were  about  two  million 
Englishmen,  William  and  some  fifty  thousand  con- 
querors took  possession  of  the  land.  The  peasants, 
deprived  of  their  natural  leaders,  were  forced  to  accept 
their  foreign  masters.  The  English  were  compelled 
to  build  castles  which  the  Norman  lords  filled  with 
their  own  followers.  When  these  strongholds  were 
built  the  power  of  the  Norman  was  irresistible.  Where 
the  people  fought  hard  for  freedom,  as  in  Yorkshire,  the 
English  were  exterminated  and  their  land  was  made 
a  desert  waste.  The  bravest  of  the  English  were  killed 
or  forced  to  leave  their  island.  About  this  time  the 
Waring  bodyguard  of  the  Emperor  at  Constantinople 
received  a  large  number  of  recruits  from  England ; 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN    41 

these  English  soldiers  were  held  in  the  highest  esteem 
for  their  loyalty  and  courage. 

Before  the  Conquest  a  large  part  of  the  land  of 
England  was  owned  by  monks  and  the  clergy.  William 
sailed  with  a  banner  which  the  Pope  had  blessed, 
and  the  invasion  received  papal  approval  because  the 
English  Church  was  becoming  too  independent  of 
Rome.  After  the  Conquest  England's  Church  was 
pillaged,  the  Normans  were  astonished  at  the  plunder 
sent  across  the  Channel.  Norman  abbeys  and  churches 
were  made  splendid  with  spoil  taken  from  the  religious 
foundations  of  England.  English  bishops  and  abbots 
were  replaced  by  ecclesiastics  from  Normandy,  so 
that  foreigners  ruled  over  the  English  Church  as  well 
as  over  the  English  peasant.  Stigand  was  deposed 
from  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury,  and  the  see  was 
filled  by  William's  friend,  Lanfranc.  Other  English 
bishops  and  abbots  shared  Stigand' s  fate  until  there 
was  only  one  English  bishop  left,  the  saintly  Wulfstan 
of  Worcester ;  he  it  was  who  prevailed  upon  the 
merchants  of  Bristol  to  abandon  their  trade  in  Irish 
slaves.  In  the  half-mythical  story  of  Wulfstan's  life 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  his  personal  holiness  conquered 
England's  conqueror  :  "  William  was  mild  to  the  good 
men  who  loved  God." 

Yet  England  survived  in  her  towns.  Many  of 
these  suffered  during  the  invasion ;  but  some,  and 
among  these  London,  the  greatest  of  all,  escaped 
without  injury.  With  London,  William  made  a  treaty 
guaranteeing  to  her  citizens  the  liberties  which  they 
had  enjoyed  under  their  late  King  Edward.  The 
Londoners  asked  to  be  allowed  to  trade  in  their  own 


42     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

way  without  interference,  and  when  this  was  granted 
to  them,  they  appear  to  have  been  careless  about  the 
fate  of  other  Englishmen.  The  success  of  the  Normans 
was  largely  due  to  this  lack  of  unity  in  England.  Men 
cared  for  their  shire  or  their  town,  the  larger  conception 
of  duty  to  England  was  very  imperfectly  recognised. 
Yet  while  England  was  governed  by  foreign  masters 
speaking  a  different  tongue  from  that  of  their  English 
serfs,  and  while  peasants  learned  to  acquiesce  in  the 
rule  of  the  stranger  and  kill  one  another  at  the  bidding 
of  their  alien  rulers,  patriotism  developed  in  England, 
and  an  English  nation  was  born. 

Just  as  the  English  of  Chaucer  differs  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  of  the  Chronicle,  so  the  new  English 
folk  differed  from  the  shepherds  whom  William  had 
enslaved.  Both  the  English  race  and  the  English 
language  have  a  strong  Anglo-Saxon  element,  and 
both  have  been  changed  by  influences  from  outside. 
Chaucer  wrote  in  the  speech  of  London,  and  the  town 
was  the  birthplace  of  the  new  English.  The  reason  for 
this  is  not  difficult  to  discover.  The  towns  of  England 
protected  their  home  trade  ;  and  by  their  protective 
system  they  gained  such  strength  that  in  time  they 
conquered  their  conquerors.  Though  the  land  and 
agricultural  production  of  England  was  owned  by  the 
Church  and  the  Normans,  English  ultimately  replaced 
monkish  Latin  and  Norman  French.  England  owes 
the  commencement  of  her  national  life  to  the  protective 
policy  of  her  towns. 

The  Benedictine  monks  who  came  to  England  with 
St.  Augustine  in  597  believed  that  work  was  as  sacred 
as  prayer.  It  was,  doubtless,  partly  owing  to  the 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN    43 

excellent  use  they  made  of  the  land  that  Anglo-Saxon 
kings  granted  them  so  much  of  the  soil  of  England. 
For  centuries  after  the  Norman  Conquest  monks 
continued  to  flock  to  England,  and  wherever  they 
settled  sheep-farming  flourished.  Some  of  the  wool 
was  woven  in  England  into  coarse  cloth  for  peasants, 
but  much  of  it  was  exported  to  Flanders,  where  it  was 
increased  in  value  eightfold  by  being  woven  into 
good  cloth.  It  is  known  that  during  the  twelfth 
century  lists  were  kept  in  Flanders  giving  the  names 
of  102  English  abbeys  with  the  minimum  value  of 
the  wool  they  produced.  The  English  were  not  devoid 
of  skill.  Anglo-Saxon  gold  embroidery  had  a  great 
reputation.  But  the  English  were  not  progressive ; 
they  were  content  to  grow  wool  and  leave  the  weaving 
to  the  Flemish. 

Flanders  was  once  a  land  which  extended  from  the 
Scheldt  to  the  frontier  of  Normandy,  and  included  a 
considerable  portion  of  Northern  France  with  all  the 
nearest  coast  to  England.  The  Flemish  were  a  branch 
of  the  Saxons.  In  the  twelfth  century  English  and 
Flemish  peasants  could  talk  to  each  other  without  the 
aid  of  an  interpreter.  Flanders  was  the  Lancashire 
of  the  Middle  Ages  when  wool  held  the  place  which 
cotton  now  holds.  The  Anglo-Flemish  wool  trade  was 
of  importance  as  far  back  as  the  tenth  century  ;  for 
five  centuries  it  moulded  the  destinies  of  England  and 
Flanders. 

When  they  settled  in  England  the  Anglo-Saxons 
lost  the  love  of  the  sea  which  had  been  their  charac- 
teristic. There  was,  however,  a  considerable  amount  of 
trade  between  England  and  Frankland,  and  the  coming 


44     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  Danes  partly  broke  down  the  isolation  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  villages.  The  Anglo-Saxons  were  con- 
nected with  the  East  by  the  great  Baltic  trade  route, 
whose  centre  was  at  Wisby  on  the  island  of  Gothland, 
and  which  ran  down  the  long  Russian  rivers  to  the 
Caspian  and  the  Baltic.  This  connexion  ceased  when 
the  Normans  subdued  England.  One  body  of  middle- 
men were  more  fortunate.  Merchants  from  Cologne 
obtained  a  footing  in  England  in  the  reign  of  Ethelred 
the  Redeless.  The  reason  for  the  welcome  given  them 
is  not  hard  to  discover.  The  English  left  their  foreign 
trade  to  others  ;  but  they  bitterly  resented  any  invasion 
of  their  home  trade.  Hides  and  wool  were  sold  in 
market  towns  and  carried  down  the  rivers  to  ports, 
such  as  London,  where  foreign  shippers  waited  for 
their  cargoes.  The  manufactures  of  England  were  of  a 
primitive  character,  suited  only  to  the  wants  of  tillers 
of  the  soil,  and  England's  foreign  trade  was  monopolised 
by  aliens,  Easterlings  and  others  ;  but  the  English 
protected  the  one  thing  left  to  them,  the  inland  trade. 
To  this  protection  England  owes  the  preservation  of 
her  nationality  in  her  towns  and  the  freedom  which 
ultimately  spread  from  the  towns  to  the  country. 
Briefly  stated,  the  ideal  the  English  trader  had  always 
in  view  was  to  keep  the  foreign  merchant  at  the 
wharf  head.  If  the  foreigner  entered  the  town  he 
had  to  choose  an  English  host,  who  was  responsible 
for  his  guest's  behaviour.  The  foreigner  was  to  deal 
with  none  but  citizens  of  the  town,  and  retail  trade 
was  forbidden  him.  The  length  of  his  stay  was 
limited  to  forty  days,  and  he  was  required  to  buy 
English  produce  equal  in  amount  to  the  goods  he  sold. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN         45 

This  policy  in  its  entirety  was  a  counsel  of  perfection, 
and  was  seldom  completely  attained.  The  wool- 
growing  magnates  continually  tried  to  get  into  direct 
touch  with  the  foreign  buyer,  and  were  steadily 
resisted  by  the  English  trader.  Much  of  England's 
early  history  is  made  up  of  this  struggle  between 
magnate  and  merchant.  It  culminated  in  the  War  of 
the  Roses,  which  Led  to  the  protection  of  industry  as 
well  as  of  inland  trade,  and  to  the  splendour  of  the 
Tudor  period. 

Under  England's  foreign  kings,  protective  associa- 
tions for  inland  trade,  or  merchant  gilds,  sprang  into 
existence  in  every  considerable  English  town,  except 
London  and  the  Cinque  Ports.  "  Nevertheless  London, 
and  probably  some  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  virtually 
exercised  all  the  rights  attached  to  this  franchise, 
though  the  name  and  formal  organisation  were  un- 
known in  these  towns.'*  The  granting  of  "  good  laws 
even  as  we  ourselves  "  to  German  merchants  by  King 
Ethelred  implies  that  natives  enjoyed  advantages 
denied  to  foreigners.  In  the  Conqueror's  charter  to 
London  he  declared  that  it  was  his  "  will  that  you  be 
all  law-worthy,  as  you  were  in  the  days  of  King 
Edward."  When  other  towns  obtained  the  right  of 
Gild  Merchant  they  were  given  the  privilege  which 
London  already  possessed. 

Jews  came  to  England  with  the  Conqueror.  They 
were  not  fettered  by  ecclesiastical  regulations  which 
forbade  the  lending  of  money  on  interest  or  the  taking 
more  than  a  just  price  for  goods.  These  restrictions, 
like  modern  factory  regulations,  were  imposed  in  the 
interest  of  the  community  But,  even  under  foreign 


46     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

kings,  the  English  trader  had  a  protection  from  his 
unrestricted  rival  which  is  denied  to  English  workers 
to-day.  The  Jew  was  wise  in  trade  matters  with  the 
wisdom  of  ages ;  but  neither  his  wisdom  nor  his  freedom 
enabled  him  to  penetrate  the  Merchant  Gild.  The 
inland  trade  was  kept  in  English  hands,  and  the  towns 
grew  strong. 

Like  all  human  institutions  England's  first  pro- 
tective system  was  far  from  perfect.  It  protected  the 
trader,  not  the  worker.  This  was  of  little  importance 
in  early  times,  since  English  industry  was  almost 
non-existent,  and  her  production  of  raw  material  did 
not  need  protection.  The  worst  fault  of  the  Merchant 
Gild  was  its  parochial  character.  The  citizen  of  one 
town  treated  an  Englishman  from  a  neighbouring 
town  as  a  foreigner.  In  this  respect  there  is  a  marked 
resemblance  to  the  treatment  which  Great  Britain 
now  extends  to  her  Colonies.  But  before  long  a 
system  of  preferential  treatment  arose  by  means  of 
arrangements  between  the  gilds.  Then  England  was 
covered  with  a  linked  network  of  protective  associa- 
tions which  baffled  Jew  and  foreigner,  but  gave 
freedom  to  the  English.  Anglo-Saxon,  Dane  and 
Norman  became  gild  brethren,  and  thus  learned  to  be 
brother  Englishmen.  Sheltered  within  their  protec- 
tive associations  the  new  English  grew  to  be  so  strong 
that  in  time  they  moulded  the  character  of  the  dwellers 
in  England.  The  conquered  island  became  an  inde- 
pendent nation.  When  protection  of  industry  was 
added  to  protection  of  trade  the  foundation  of  the 
British  Empire  was  well  and  truly  laid. 

The  character  of  William  the  Conqueror  is  given 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN         47 

in  the  Chronicle.  "  If  any  one  desires  to  know  what 
kind  of  man  he  was,  or  what  worship  he  had,  or  of  how 
many  lands  he  was  lord,  then  we  will  write  of  him  so 
as  we  understood  him  who  have  looked  on  him,  and, 
at  another  time,  sojourned  in  his  court.  The  King 
William,  about  whom  we  speak,  was  a  very  wise  man, 
and  very  powerful,  more  dignified  and  strong  than  any 
of  his  predecessors  were.  He  was  mild  to  the  good 
men  who  loved  God  ;  and  over  all  measure  severe  to 
the  men  who  gainsayed  his  will.  ...  In  his  days  was 
the  noble  monastery  at  Canterbury  built,  and  also  very 
many  others  over  all  England.  This  land  was  also 
plentifully  supplied  with  monks,  and  they  lived  their 
lives  after  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict.  .  .  .  Amongst 
other  things  is  not  to  be  forgotten  the  good  peace  that 
he  made  in  this  land  ;  so  that  a  man  who  in  himself 
was  aught  might  go  over  his  realm,  with  his  bosom 
filled  with  gold,  unhurt. 

"  Wales  was  in  his  power,  and  he  therein  wrought 
castles  and  completely  ruled  over  that  race  of  men. 
In  like  manner  he  also  subjected  Scotland  to  him  by 
his  great  strength.  The  land  of  Normandy  was  natur- 
ally his  ;  and  over  the  country  which  is  called  Le 
Maine  he  reigned,  and  if  he  might  yet  have  lived  two 
years  he  would,  by  his  valour,  have  won  Ireland, 
and  without  any  weapons.  ...  He  planted  a  great 
preserve  for  deer,  and  he  laid  down  laws  therewith, 
that  whosoever  should  slay  hart  or  hind  should  be 
blinded.  He  forbade  the  harts  and  also  the  boars 
to  be  killed.  As  greatly  did  he  love  the  tall  deer  as 
if  he  were  their  father.  He  also  ordained  concerning 
the  hares  that  they  should  gojiree.  His  great  men 


48     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

bewailed  it,  and  the  poor  men  murmured  thereat ; 
but  he  was  so  obdurate,  that  he  recked  not  of  the 
hatred  of  them  all ;  but  they  must  wholly  follow  the 
King's  will,  if  they  would  live,  or  have  land,  or  property, 
or  even  his  peace." 

This  was  the  view  of  the  Southern  Englishman, 
whose  laws  and  customs  the  Conqueror  respected, 
when  they  did  not  clash  with  the  rights  he  had  acquired 
by  conquest.  Nevertheless  the  English  suffered  the 
woe  of  the  vanquished.  Some  fled  to  the  East,  and 
in  the  Varangian  guard  of  the  Byzantine  Emperor  had 
the  satisfaction  of  preventing  the  Normans  of  Sicily 
from  seizing  the  Eastern  Empire.  Others  fled  to  the 
fenlands,  and  continued  an  heroic  resistance  until 
their  leader,  Hereward,  was  killed  in  1072.  But  in 
the  end  England  was  subdued.  The  motley  host  of 
Normans,  Flemings  and  Franks  who  followed  William 
were  rewarded  with  grants  of  land  on  which  the 
English  toiled  as  serfs.  As  the  Conqueror  was  recog- 
nised as  the  supreme  landowner  of  all  England  these 
grants  were  perpetual  leases  for  which  rent  in  the 
form  of  military  service  was  paid.  In  this  way  an 
important  step  was  taken  towards  the  unification  of 
England. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  war  between 
Norway  and  Denmark  weakened  both  kingdoms.  The 
Danes  in  Denmark  and  England  tried  to  remain 
neutral  during  the  Conquest.  They  were  rescued  by 
Harold  of  England  from  Tostig  and  his  Norwegian 
ally,  but  they  gave  little  or  no  aid  to  Harold  of  England 
when  William  landed. 

If  they  hoped  that  William  would  be  satisfied  with 


THE  COMING  OF   THE  NORMAN          49 

the  conquest  of  Saxon  England  they  were  soon  un- 
deceived. The  Flemish  also  realised  their  mistake 
when  England  became  subject  to  the  Normans.  As 
a  reward  for  the  services  which  he  had  rendered  to 
William,  Baldwin  V.  obtained  a  grant  of  300  marks 
a  year,  and,  after  his  death  in  1067,  the  annuity  was 
paid  to  his  younger  son,  Baldwin  VI.,  during  the  three 
years  of  his  rule  over  Flanders.  It  is  almost  im- 
possible to  deny  the  existence  of  an  economic  cause 
for  the  change  in  Danish  and  Flemish  policy  which 
followed  the  Conquest  of  England. 

In  the  reign  of  Ethelred  the  Redeless,  merchants 
from  Flanders,  Normandy,  France  and  Germany  were 
allowed  to  trade  at  the  port  of  London  subject  to  the 
payment  of  customs'  duties  of  about  5  per  cent. 
Wool,  hides  and  metals  were  exported  from  England. 
William's  grandfather,  the  tanner  of  Falaise,  must 
often  have  dressed  English  hides.  Most  of  the  ex- 
ported wool  went  to  feed  the  looms  of  Flanders,  and 
the  Anglo-Flemish  trade  was  principally  carried  on 
by  merchants  from  Cologne.  In  Ethelred's  laws  the 
men  of  the  Emperor  are  singled  out  "  as  worthy  of  good 
laws,  even  as  we  ourselves."  This  privileged  position 
the  Germans  retained  until  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 
Their  concession,  the  Steelyard,  once  stood  where 
Cannon  Street  Station  now  stands,  and  for  centuries 
the  Easterlings  of  the  Steelyard  almost  monopolised 
England's,  trade  with  Flanders  and  Northern  Europe. 
In  return  for  England's  exports  she  received  wine 
from  Normandy  carried  down  the  Seine,  cloth  from 
Flanders,  and  such  Eastern  luxuries  as  found  their 
way  along  the  great  commercial  route  which,  starting 

E 


50     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

from  Venice,  crossed  the  Alps  and  passed  down  the 
Rhine  to  Cologne. 

Less  is  known  of  the  Scandinavian  trade  with 
England.  Its  centre  was  probably  York,  and  the 
"  incredible  number  "  of  Anglo-Saxon  coins  found  at 
Wisby  proves  that  it  was  of  much  importance.  In 
Canute's  reign  Scandinavian  traders  must  have  gained 
at  the  expense  of  their  Norman  rivals ;  but  after  the 
accession  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  the  Normans 
appear  to  have  regained  their  position  in  Southern 
England.  The  Scandinavian  harry  ings  in  Edward's 
reign  took  place  in  Essex  and  Kent :  it  seems  probable 
that  these  markets  had  been  closed  to  Northern  traders. 
The  Northern  English,  dreaming  perhaps  that  the 
Conqueror  would  not  interfere  with  their  local  auto- 
nomy, idly  watched  the  conquest  of  the  South  and 
West  of  England.  But  in  1068  York  was  captured 
and  garrisoned  by  Normans. 

In  1069,  when  the  Danes  realised  that  their  con- 
nexion with  England  was  being  destroyed,  a  Danish 
fleet  sailed  to  England.  The  men  of  Yorkshire  joined 
the  Danes,  and  William  hurried  north  to  crush  the 
movement.  He  was  "  over  all  measure  severe  to  the 
men  who  gainsaid  his  will."  By  fire  and  sword 
Yorkshire  was  made  a  desert,  to  wait  in  its  desolation 
for  the  Cistercian  monks  who  made  wildernesses  blossom 
like  the  rose.  The  death  of  Baldwin  VI.  in  1070, 
whilst  William  was  exterminating  the  shepherds  of 
Northern  England,  was  followed  by  civil  war  in 
Flanders.  In  spite  of  the  intervention  of  William 
and  Philip  I.  of  France,  the  ruler  and  the  policy  of 
Flanders  were  changed.  Robert  the  Frisian  became 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN          51 

Count  and  friendly  relations  with  England  ceased.  On 
the  other  hand,  Philip  of  France  recognised  the  new 
Count  and  formed  an  alliance  with  him  by  marrying 
Bertha  of  Frisia. 

The  Cluniac  reformation  was  at  this  time  extending 
its  influence  over  Northern  Europe.  The  Olaf  who 
was  allowed  by  Harold  to  return  to  Norway  aided  the 
movement,  and  Saint  Canute,  who  ruled  over  Denmark 
until  his  martyrdom  in  1086,  was  canonised  for  his 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Church.  When  Canute 
became  King  of  Denmark  in  1080  he  was  the  husband 
of  the  daughter  of  Count  Robert  of  Flanders,  and 
Arnold,  a  missionary  monk,  was  bringing  the  Flemish 
into  close  communion  with  Rome.  Strained  relations 
between  William  and  Gregory  VII.  enabled  the 
Northern  kingdoms  to  serve  Rome  whilst  they  evolved 
a  scheme  for  the  destruction  of  the  Norman  rule  over 
England. 

The  monk  Hildebrand  began  his  reign,  as  Pope 
Gregory  VII.,  in  1073,  by  enunciating  the  papal  claims 
in  their  most  extreme  form.  He  asserted  that  the 
Pope  was  the  supreme  sovereign  with  the  right  of 
deposing  all  secular  rulers.  From  the  weaker  king- 
doms, including  England,  he  asked  for  an  immediate 
acknowledgment  of  his  suzerainty.  He  sought  to  use 
the  strength  which  the  Church  possessed  in  her  vast 
estates  by  making  the  clergy  free  from  all  secular 
control  and  entirely  dependent  on  Rome.  To  separate 
the  clergy  from  the  people  amongst  whom  they  dwelt 
he  commanded  all  priests  to  adopt  the  monkish 
custom  of  celibacy.  His  first  and  greatest  antagonist 
was  the  Emperor  Henry  IV.,  who  claimed  to  be  over- 

E  2 


52     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

lord  of  Italy  and  Germany.  The  Emperor  was 
excommunicated,  and  the  loose  feudal  organisation 
over  which  he  ruled  declined  to  support  a  stricken 
leader.  In  1077  Gregory's  victory  seemed  complete, 
when  Henry  in  the  robes  of  a  penitent  begged  for 
pardon  at  Canossa.  But  there  followed  a  swift  re- 
action, and  with  it  a  fierce  struggle  between  Emperor 
and  Pope. 

The  Church  and  Christendom  were  both  rent 
asunder  in  this  quarrel.  An  anti-Pope  and  a  second 
Emperor  added  to  the  confusion.  The  married  clergy 
ranged  themselves  against  the  monks ;  and  in  1084 
Henry  was  master  of  all  Rome  except  the  stronghold 
of  St.  Angelo,  in  which  Gregory  waited  for  Guiscard 
and  the  Italian  Normans,  who  had  become  his  most 
trusted  allies.  Henry  retired  as  the  Normans  ap- 
proached the  sacred  city,  and  Gregory  obtained  his 
freedom  when  Guiscard  sacked  Rome  with  more  than 
Vandal  fury.  Next  year  the  great  Pope  died,  leaving 
behind  him  unsolved  problems  which  even  now  have 
scarcely  ceased  to  trouble  Europe. 

The  papacy  had  sanctioned  William's  invasion  in 
order  that  the  English  Church  might  be  brought  into 
complete  subjection  to  Rome  ;  and  Gregory  asked  for 
more  than  this.  William  refused  to  admit  the  Pope's 
claim  of  suzerainty  ;  but  he  granted  to  the  clergy  the 
right  of  being  tried  in  their  own  courts,  and  thus 
created  an  almost  independent  body  within  his 
dominions.  The  ancient  tribute  of  Peter's  Pence  was 
again  sent  to  Rome,  and  the  question  of  the  celibacy 
of  the  clergy  was  compromised.  The  cathedral  clergy, 
who  had  a  voice  in  the  election  of  bishops,  were  for- 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  NORMAN    53 

bidden  to  marry,  and  bishops  were  warned  not  to 
ordain  married  men  ;  but  the  parochial  clergy  were 
allowed  to  keep  their  wives.  The  question  of  the 
King's  right  of  appointment  to  bishoprics  and  abbacies 
was  not  raised.  The  tact  of  Archbishop  Lanfranc 
made  this  compromise  possible  ;  but  it  merely  post- 
poned the  inevitable  conflict  between  Church  and  King, 
and  William  was  almost  drawn  into  this  conflict 
shortly  before  his  death. 

Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux  and  Earl  of  Kent,  as  well  as 
the  Conqueror's  half-brother,  raised  an  army  in  1082 
which  he  intended  to  lead  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  to 
Italy.  He  hoped  to  win  the  papal  throne  when  he  and 
Guiscard  had  driven  the  Emperor  from  Italy  ;  but 
William  had  no  wish  for  a  Pope  who  knew  England 
as  Odo  did.  Odo  was  impeached,  and,  when  the 
barons  hesitated  to  judge  a  bishop,  William  sent  his 
brother  to  a  castle  in  Normandy,  explaining  his  con- 
duct by  saying  that  he  arrested  the  Earl  of  Kent, 
not  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux.  Gregory  sent  a  gentle 
remonstrance,  of  which  no  notice  was  taken.  There 
were  others  ready  to  defend  the  Church.  An  armada 
of  more  than  a  thousand  ships  was  prepared  by  the 
devout  rulers  of  Denmark,  Norway  and  Flanders. 
Had  William  been  less  resourceful  there  might  have 
been  another  conquest  of  England.  Mercenary  soldiers 
were  imported  from  Normandy  ;  the  English  coast 
was  devastated  that  the  invader  might  not  be  able  to 
obtain  supplies.  That  he  should  be  unable  to  dis- 
tinguish friend  from  foe,  the  English  were  forced  to 
shave  and  dress  like  Normans  ;  and  William's  agents 
carried  gold  to  Denmark  to  foster  mutiny.  St.  Canute 


54    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

was  killed  in  the  mutiny,  and  the  armada  never 
reached  the  shores  of  England.  A  year  later,  in  1087, 
William  died,  whilst  fighting  Philip  of  France.  On 
his  deathbed  the  Conqueror  gave  Normandy  to  his 
eldest  son  Robert,  England  to  William  Rufus,  and  a 
gift  of  money  to  his  youngest  son  Henry.  He  thus 
separated  the  lands  which  he  had  tried  to  unite. 
William  Rufus  was  accepted  as  king  by  the  citizens  of 
London,  but  he  trampled  on  the  unprotected  peasants 
when  he  had  established  his  power. 


NORMAN   AND   ENGLISH 
1087-1155 

SEVENTEEN  days  after  the  Conqueror's  death  in 
Normandy  William  Rufus  was  crowned  in  West- 
minster, to  the  great  joy  of  the  English.  The  Norman 
magnates  appear  to  have  been  taken  by  surprise.  As 
soon  as  they  could  combine  they  rose  in  rebellion,  and 
were  reinforced  by  their  brethren  from  Normandy. 
The  object  of  the  rising  was  to  prevent  the  separation 
of  England  and  Normandy  by  making  Robert  ruler 
of  both  lands.  Under  one  ruler  wealth  wrung  from 
English  serfs  could  be  used,  as  in  the  Conqueror's 
reign,  to  pay  a  Norman  army  which  could  keep  the 
English  in  perpetual  subjection.  Few  Norman  barons 
supported  the  King,  but,  by  a  promise  of  good  laws, 
William  won  over  the  English.  A  fleet  was  collected 
which  severed  communication  with  Normandy,  and 
Wulfstan,  the  last  of  the  English  bishops,  led  an  army 
which  defeated  the  Norman  barons  and  their  followers. 
When  the  insurrection  was  crushed  William  treated  the 
rebel  barons  with  marked  leniency,  whilst  he  treated 
the  English  with  greater  severity  than  his  father. 

This  sudden  uprising  of  an  apparently  conquered 
race  and  its  equally  sudden  relapse  into  a  condition  of 


56    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

servitude  can  be  explained  by  the  difference  which 
existed  between  the  town  and  country  districts  of 
England.  In  the  English  language  there  is  a  per- 
manent record  of  the  subjugation  of  the  countryside 
of  England.  The  English  country  folk  became  servants 
who  tended  cattle,  sheep  and  pigs,  which  were  served 
to  Norman  masters  as  beef,  veal,  mutton,  and  pork. 
The  military  leaders,  who  obtained  estates,  had  to 
supply  the  King  with  soldiers  when  need  arose  ;  hence 
English  sub-tenants  must  have  been  largely  replaced  by 
Normans.  The  Conqueror  extended  this  feudal  obliga- 
tion to  Church  lands,  and,  when  Normans  governed 
the  Church,  ecclesiastical  farms  must  have  been  given, 
to  some  extent,  to  Norman  farmers.  Deprived  of 
leaders  the  English  peasantry  became  oppressed 
tillers  of  the  soil. 

But,  from  the  first,  the  Conqueror  tried  to  conciliate 
the  towns.  London  surrendered  without  a  struggle, 
and  obtained  a  charter  promising  its  citizens  the  good 
laws  ol  King  Edward.  Though  the  Tower  was  built 
to  overawe  the  Londoners  it  was  not  used.  There  was 
peace  within  London's  walls  while  the  English  were 
being  subdued.  After  the  Conquest,  merchants  came 
to  London  from  the  towns  of  Normandy,  and  Jews 
settled  in  English  Jewries  under  the  guardianship  of 
the  foreign  King.  The  Church  afforded  a  certain 
amount  of  shelter  to  the  conquered  English.  It  was 
the  one  institution  of  which  the  feudal  magnates  stood 
in  awe.  Although  the  English  bishops  and  abbots 
were  replaced  by  Normans,  the  parochial  clergy  and 
the  monks  were  English.  The  past  and  the  present 
of  Ireland  illustrate  the  way  in  which  a  priesthood, 


NORMAN  AND  ENGLISH  57 

anti-national  in  the  sense  that  it  regards  an  Italian 
Pope  as  its  head,  can  yet  identify  itself  with  the  national 
aspirations  of  a  subject  people.  The  Pope  and  his 
claims  were  mere  abstractions,  while  the  tyranny  of 
the  King  and  his  Norman  magnates  was  a  very  present 
trouble.  The  gilds  were  partly  shielded  from  attack 
by  their  semi-religious  character,  as  the  son  of  an 
English  peasant  gained  comparative  freedom  by  taking 
holy  orders. 

William  II.  realised  that  the  power  of  the  Church 
threatened  the  arbitrary  rule  of  the  Normans.  He 
has  been  handed  down  in  history  as  one  who  delighted 
in  oppressing  both  his  Church  and  his  English  subjects. 
When  Lanfranc  died  in  1089  the  vacant  archbishopric 
was  not  filled.  William  declared  that  no  one  but  he 
should  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the  revenue 
of  the  see  filled  the  royal  purse.  Conscience-smitten 
during  an  illness  in  1092,  the  King  appointed  Anselm, 
abbot  of  a  Norman  monastery,  to  the  vacant  see  ;  but 
even  before  his  enthronement  Anselm  quarrelled  with 
his  King  about  their  respective  rights  over  Church 
lands.  The  Archbishop  maintained  Gregory's  theory 
of  the  absolute  independence  of  the  Church,  and  sought 
to  extend  episcopal  power  over  abbeys  which  the 
Norman  King  looked  upon  as  part  of  the  royal  posses- 
sions. On  the  other  hand,  the  King  shocked  his 
contemporaries  by  his  contempt  for  religion  and  his 
determination  to  establish  the  royal  supremacy. 
After  a  long  conflict  the  Archbishop  left  England  in 
1097  to  carry  an  appeal  to  the  Pope.  A  new  king 
was  on  the  throne  when  Anselm  returned. 

William    II.    might   have   succeeded   in   unifying 


58    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Great  Britain  if  he  had  not  devoted  his  energy  to 
re-uniting  England  and  Normandy.  Wales  was  made 
somewhat  more  subject  to  Norman  rule  ;  but  Scotland 
kept  her  autonomy  under  the  vague  suzerainty  of  the 
Norman  King.  Many  Norman  barons  obtained  fiefs 
in  Scotland.  In  the  lowlands  of  the  northern  kingdom 
the  people  peacefully  accepted  these  Normans  as 
leaders.  In  Scotland  there  was  not  that  gulf  between 
conquerors  and  conquered,  between  landlords  and 
serfs,  which  was  so  keenly  felt  in  England. 

Though  the  English  took  only  a  small  part  in  the 
crusades,  the  indirect  influence  of  these  wars  on  English 
history  was  great,  and  their  commencement  was 
the  most  important  event  in  the  reign  of  William  II. 
The  overthrow  of  the  Caliphate  of  Egypt  by  the 
Seljouks  in  1077  made  a  profound  impression  on 
Christendom.  Religion,  politics,  and  commerce  were 
inseparably  connected  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  all  three 
were  affected.  The  Pope  could  bestow  pardon  for  sin 
to  the  religious,  Eastern  principalities  to  feudal  lords, 
the  restoration  of  the  lucrative  Eastern  trade  to 
merchants  if  they  would  attempt  to  rescue  the  Holy 
Land.  The  Flemish  and  Venetians,  who  owned  the 
gates  of  the  trade  route  which  passed  by  way  of  the 
Rhine  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  North  Sea,  were  the 
most  prominent  members  of  the  First  Crusade.  Robert 
the  Frisian  had  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  and 
had  learned  the  views  of  the  Byzantine  Emperor  when 
he  visited  Constantinople.  His  son  Robert  II.  was 
therefore  carrying  out  his  dead  father's  policy  when  he 
led  the  First  Crusade.  Robert  II.  refused  the  throne 
of  Jerusalem,  but  it  was  accepted  by  Godfrey  de 


NORMAN  AND  ENGLISH  59 

Bouillon,  whose  father  the  Count  of  Boulogne  was  a 
vassal  of  Flanders. 

Duke  Robert  of  Normandy  also  joined  the  First 
Crusade.  He  appears  to  have  gained  nothing  in  the 
East,  and  his  crusading  zeal  cost  him  the  kingdom 
of  England.  Money  for  his  expedition  was  borrowed 
from  William  Rufus,  who  became  Regent  of  Normandy 
in  Robert's  absence.  In  1099,  six  weeks  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem,  William  II.  was  killed  in  the 
New  Forest.  In  hot  haste,  Henry,  the  youngest  of 
the  Conqueror's  sons,  rode  to  Winchester  and  seized 
the  royal  treasure.  Three  days  after  William's  death 
Henry  I.  was  crowned  at  Westminster.  Thus  London 
and  the  Church  of  England  again  chose  a  ruler  who, 
though  he  was  a  Norman,  relied  upon  English  support. 
Henry  began  his  reign  by  granting  freedom  to  the 
Church  and  the  laws  of  Edward  to  the  people  in  a 
formal  charter.  Although  the  rights  of  the  Norman 
barons  were  also  safeguarded  in  the  charter,  they  took 
arms  against  Henry  and  Robert  landed  in  England. 
War  was  averted  by  Henry's  diplomacy ;  and  Robert 
waived  his  claim  to  the  English  crown.  Before  this 
invasion  Henry  had  endeared  himself  to  the  English 
by  marrying  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Scotland, 
who  through  her  mother  was  descended  from  the 
Saxon  kings. 

Norman  barons,  who  owned  fiefs  on  both  sides  of 
the  Channel,  were  strongly  in  favour  of  one  monarch 
for  both  Norman  lands.  Discontent  in  Normandy 
led  to  anarchy,  and  Henry  intervened.  In  1106  the 
battle  of  Tinchebrai  united  England  and  Normandy 
under  Henry's  rule.  Duke  Robert  was  placed  in 


60    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

honourable  confinement  in  England ;  but  his  son  and 
heir,  William  Clito,  was  entrusted  to  one  -of  Henry's 
Norman  supporters,  who,  in  mi,  allowed  the  young 
prince  to  escape  to  Paris.  Though  neither  the  French 
King  nor  the  Flemish  Count  viewed  with  pleasure  the 
union  of  England  and  Normandy,  the  Flemish  forced 
their  Count  to  adopt  a  peaceful  attitude  towards 
Henry  when  he  became  ruler  of  Normandy.  The 
stint  of  Eastern  fabrics,  caused  by  the  Seljouk  in- 
vasion, gave  an  impetus  to  the  weaving  industry  of 
Flanders  and  rendered  the  Flemish  more  dependent 
on  English  wool.  The  sentimental  bond  of  a  common 
ruler,  which  linked  Normandy  to  England,  proved  too 
weak  to  stand  the  wear  and  tear  of  time,  while  the 
commercial  union  of  England  and  Flanders  increased 
in  strength  until  the  English  learned  to  weave.  Then 
Flemish  weaving  and  the  commercial  tie  were  both 
destroyed. 

The  annuity,  which  bound  the  Count  of  Flanders 
to  William  the  Conqueror,  was  suspended  after  the 
revolution  which  made  Robert  the  Frisian  master  of 
Flanders.  William  II.  renewed  the  payment  to 
Count  Robert  II.,  but  it  was  discontinued  while  the 
Count  was  in  the  Holy  Land.  On  his  return  Robert 
haughtily  demanded  the  money  and  the  arrears  from 
Henry  I.  In  reply  the  Count  was  told  that  the  pay- 
ment was  not  tribute  but  a  retaining  fee  for  service 
to  be  rendered  in  case  of  need.  In  noi  and  again  in 
1103  treaties  were  signed  promising  Flemish  aid  in 
certain  contingencies,  and  the  annuity  was  increased. 
These  treaties  did  not,  however,  prevent  Robert  from 
forming  an  alliance  with  the  King  of  France  after 


NORMAN  AND  ENGLISH  61 

Tinchebrai.  About  the  year  noo  the  sea  broke 
through  the  dykes  of  Flanders  ;  and,  owing  to  the 
inundations  and  the  disease  which  followed,  a  number 
of  weavers  emigrated  to  England  and  settled  in 
Pembrokeshire  and  elsewhere.  This  was  the  com- 
mencement of  cloth-making  in  England  as  a  definite 
industry.  Its  development  was,  however,  very  slow. 
The  magnates,  who  grew  the  wool,  were  concerned 
mainly  with  obtaining  a  market  for  their  produce 
and  cared  little  whether  this  market  was  at  home 
or  abroad.  When  England's  foreign  rulers  became 
national  kings  they  tried  to  foster  home  manufacture, 
but  their  policy  was  often  opposed  by  monk  and  lord. 
After  the  introduction  of  weaving  more  than  three 
centuries  had  to  elapse  and  two  civil  wars  had  to  be 
fought  before  the  English  were  able  to  protect  industry 
as  well  as  inland  trade.  Then  England  began  the 
series  of  industrial  conquests  which  ultimately  made 
her  supreme  in  production  and  commerce. 

In  1119  Charles,  a  Danish  prince,  became  Count  of 
Flanders  after  the  short  reign  of  Baldwin  VII. 
Charles,  for  a  time,  abandoned  the  pro-French  policy 
of  his  predecessors,  in  order  to  conciliate  his  insurgent 
subjects.  Henry  made  use  of  this  opportunity  by 
arranging  to  end  the  Anglo-French  war  which  com- 
menced after  Tinchebrai  with  a  favourable  peace. 
At  the  zenith  of  his  success,  Henry's  plans  were  shat- 
tered by  the  death  of  his  only  legitimate  son  in  the 
wreck  of  the  White  Ship.  Henry's  enemies  were 
encouraged  by  this  accident.  William  Clito  was 
married  to  the  daughter  of  the  powerful  Count  of 
Anjou  that  he  might  be  a  menace  to  Henry's  dominion 


62    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

over  Normandy ;  and  Charles  of  Flanders  again 
became  the  close  ally  of  the  French  King. 

The  long  wars  between  France  and  England  prac- 
tically began  after  Tinchebrai.  No  peace,  however 
carefully  devised,  could  permanently  end  a  struggle 
which  was  caused  by  the  economic  development  of 
the  people.  Had  the  Normans  become  great  weavers 
a  commercial  bond  might  have  united  Normandy, 
instead  of  Flanders,  to  England.  But  the  chief  factor 
which  made  for  union  between  England  and  Normandy 
was  the  possession  of  estates  in  both  lands  by  feudal 
lords.  In  course  of  time  English  and  Norman  estates 
passed  into  different  hands,  and  the  motive  for  union 
tended  to  disappear.  The  actual  domain  of  the  King 
of  France  was  comparatively  small  and  was  shut  off 
from  the  sea  by  the  provinces  of  his  almost  independent 
vassals,  of  whom  the  King  of  England  became  the 
greatest.  The  feudal  Anglo-French  wars  were  thus 
inevitable  ;  and  when  the  loss  of  Normandy  made 
peace  appear  possible,  the  fight  for  the  market  of 
Flanders  supplied  a  motive  for  the  Hundred  Years' 
War.  Even  in  the  earlier  feudal  wars  the  market 
which  Flanders  afforded  to  English  wool  played  an 
important  part. 

Henry  was  a  widower  when  the  White  Ship  sank. 
Within  two  months  of  the  disaster  he  married  the 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Brabant,  thus  allying  himself 
with  the  ruler  of  a  State  which  had  aided  the  Flemish 
who  had  rebelled  against  Charles  of  Flanders.  William 
Clito's  marriage  and  the  Franco-Flemish  alliance  fol- 
lowed naturally.  Henry's  second  marriage  proved 
unfruitful ;  nevertheless  he  pressed  on  his  imperial 


NORMAN  AND  ENGLISH  63 

scheme.  In  1125  his  daughter  was  left  a  widow  by 
the  death  of  the  German  Emperor.  She  was  then 
recognised  as  Henry's  heiress  ;  and  the  spiritual  and 
temporal  lords  of  England  swore  allegiance  to  her  in 
1127.  In  the  same  year  Anjou  was  detached  from 
the  French  alliance,  the  Pope  was  induced  to  annul 
William  Ciito's  marriage,  Matilda  was  betrothed  to 
Geoffrey,  son  and  heir  of  the  Count  of  Anjou,  and 
Charles  of  Flanders  was  killed  by  rebels  in  Flanders, 
whose  object  was  to  make  William  of  Ypres  their 
Count  and  thus  renew  friendly  relations  with  England. 
The  French  King  suppressed  this  democratic  in- 
surrection and  gave  Flanders  to  William  Clito  ;  but 
in  spite  of  the  severity  with  which  the  leaders  of  the 
revolt  were  punished,  the  Flemish  refused  to  accept 
the  French  King's  nominee,  protesting  that,  since 
English  merchants  had  ceased  to  visit  Flanders,  ruin 
was  close  at  hand.  It  can  be  claimed  for  Henry  that 
he  was  the  originator  of  the  policy  of  influencing  the 
Flemish  by  stinting  their  supply  of  wool,  as  well  as 
the  founder  of  the  English  weaving  industry.  Henry 
put  forward  candidates  for  the  countship.  His 
nephew  Stephen  of  Boulogne,  a  fief  of  Flanders,  and 
another  candidate  failed,  but  a  third  candidate, 
Thierry  of  Alsace,  ultimately  succeeded.  The  burghers 
of  Flanders  espoused  Thierry's  cause  ;  and  William 
Clito  was  killed  in  the  fighting  which  ensued.  Another 
candidate  then  appeared ;  and  Henry  was  asked  to 
decide  between  the  claimants.  In  order  to  retain  even 
his  nominal  suzerainty  the  French  King  was  forced  to 
acquiesce  in  a  decision  which  assigned  the  countship 
to  Henry  himself  as  the  lawful  heir  ;  but  in  the  same 


64     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

decision  Henry  ceded  his  rights  to  Thierry.  In  the 
words  of  a  Belgian  historian,  Flanders  was  treated 
as  "a  fief  completely  dependent  on  the  crown  of 
England." 

Stephen  of  Boulogne  was  compelled  to  do  homage 
to  the  new  count ;  but  he  showed  his  ill-will  by  har- 
bouring William  of  Ypres,  one  of  the  rival  claimants. 
Under  Thierry  the  burghers  gained  many  political 
rights.  Their  weaving  cities  were  growing  rapidly  and 
becoming  more  powerful.  As  their  power  increased 
they  became  more  independent  of  their  lords.  The 
Flemish,  whose  industrial  development  preceded  that 
of  the  Normans,  French,  and  English,  were  naturally 
the  first  to  acquire  free  institutions.  Their  example 
inspired  their  neighbours  with  a  longing  for  freedom  ; 
and  feudalism  began  to  decay.  The  last  years  of 
Henry's  life  were  years  of  peace.  In  1133,  two  years 
before  the  king's  death,  his  daughter  Matilda  gave  him 
a  grandson  and  future  heir. 

Much  of  Henry's  success  was  due  to  his  diplomacy 
in  dealing  with  Rome.  After  the  death  of  William 
Rufus,  Anselm  was  recalled  to  England ;  and,  in  his 
charter,  Henry  promised  that  the  Church  should  be  free. 
Anselm  interpreted  this  promise  literally,  but  Henry 
found  that  this  liberty  was  incompatible  with  his  royal 
power.  In  1103  Anselm  again  left  England.  He 
returned  in  1106,  when  the  dispute  was  settled  by  a 
compromise  which  formed  a  precedent  for  the  Concordat 
of  Worms,  agreed  to  by  Pope  and  Emperor  in  1122. 
This  compromise  allowed  the  Pope  to  instal  bishops 
in  their  spiritual  offices,  while  the  King  granted  them 
their  worldly  possessions.  Anselm  died  in  1109, 


NORMAN  AND  ENGLISH  65 

fighting  to  the  very  last  for  the  rights  of  the  Pope  and 
the  Church  of  England.  While  supporting  a  body 
which  afforded  some  protection  to  the  conquered 
English,  Anselm  enforced  celibacy  on  all  clergy  and 
weakened  the  bond  between  the  Church  and  the  people 
of  England.  During  the  rest  of  Henry's  reign  the  see 
of  Canterbury  was  filled  in  succession  by  two  foreigners 
who  succeeded  in  serving  Pope  and  King. 

While  Henry  appeared  to  be  making  the  power  of 
Norman  royalty  irresistible,  two  other  forces  were 
growing  in  England  with  even  greater  rapidity.  The 
Cluniac  reformation  had  not  spent  its  force.  New 
monasteries  were  being  founded ;  and,  with  each 
foundation,  the  power  of  the  Church  and  her  hold  over 
the  production  of  wool  was  strengthened.  The  towns, 
too,  were  growing.  London  was  becoming  a  residential 
city  for  magnates  as  well  as  a  great  centre  of  commerce. 
The  charters,  which  gave  towns  and  merchant  gilds 
the  right  of  protecting  their  commerce,  were  producing 
their  natural  effect.  When  Henry  died  in  1135  his 
nephew,  Stephen  of  Boulogne,  put  himself  forward  as 
a  candidate  for  the  throne.  Stephen  went  at  once  to 
London  and  secured  the  support  of  the  citizens.  His 
two  uncles  had  made  the  securing  of  Winchester  and 
the  royal  treasury  their  first  concern.  Stephen's 
brother,  Henry,  who  had  been  a  monk  in  the  Abbey  of 
Cluny,  was  appointed  to  the  see  of  Winchester  in  1130. 
Stephen  may,  therefore,  have  thought  that  his  interests 
were  safe  in  his  brother's  hands.  After  some  hesitation 
the  clerical  magnates  were  induced  to  violate  their 
oath  to  Matilda ;  and  Stephen  was  crowned  at  West- 
minster three  weeks  after  Henry's  death. 

F 


66    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

At  first  both  in  England  and  in  Normandy  there 
was  less  opposition  to  Stephen  than  there  had  been  to 
his  uncles  William  Rufus  and  Henry  I.  After  some 
hesitation  the  barons  of  Normandy  accepted  Stephen 
and  repulsed  Geoffrey  and  Matilda  when  they  came 
to  claim  the  duchy.  Baronial  revolts  in  Devon  and 
Norfolk  were  easily  suppressed,  though  the  Welsh 
threw  off  the  Norman  yoke  and  King  David  of  Scot- 
land declared  for  Matilda.  One  writer  describes  an 
attempted  insurrection  of  the  English,  but  nothing 
came  of  this.  The  subjugation  of  the  peasants  was  so 
complete  that,  in  that  part  of  Yorkshire  which  had  been 
ravaged  by  the  Conqueror,  Saxon  archers  helped 
Normans  and  Flemings  to  defeat  the  Saxons  of  Scot- 
land in  1138  at  the  battle  of  the  Standard.  The  civil 
wars  in  England  were  not  complicated  by  servile  in- 
surrections, and  there  were  no  more  invasions  from 
the  north.  The  civil  wars  were  fought  by  mercenary 
soldiers,  such  as  the  men  from  the  Low  Countries,  who, 
with  their  leader,  William  of  Ypres,  were  imported  by 
Stephen.  Parts  of  England,  which  were  not  the  actual 
scenes  of  battle,  appear  to  have  been  little  affected. 
King  Stephen  tried  to  conciliate  interests  which 
were  incompatible  with  his  sovereignty.  In  a  second 
charter  he  granted  complete  independence  to  the 
Church.  The  see  of  Canterbury  fell  vacant  in  1136. 
Stephen  opposed  the  election  of  his  brother,  Henry 
of  Winchester,  and,  in  1139,  Theobald,  a  foreign 
monk,  was  consecrated  Archbishop,  while  Henry  was 
appointed  papal  legate.  Then  followed  a  quarrel  be- 
tween Church  and  King,  general  anarchy  in  England, 
and  the  landing  of  Matilda.  In  1141,  Matilda  won  a 


NORMAN  AND  ENGLISH  67 

decisive  victory  at  Lincoln,  and  for  a  few  days  London 
accepted  her  as  sovereign ;  but  when  she  declined  to 
guarantee  to  the  citizens  the  laws  of  Edward,  and  asked 
for  a  subsidy,  London  drove  her  out,  and  again  de- 
clared for  Stephen.  It  was  not  until  1154  that  the 
civil  war  was  ended  by  a  compromise  which  granted  the 
kingdom  of  England  to  Stephen  for  life  with  reversion 
to  Matilda's  son  Henry.  In  1155  Stephen  died  and 
Henry  II.  succeeded  to  the  throne. 

The  reign  of  Stephen  is  generally  regarded  as 
nineteen  years  of  anarchy,  vividly  pictured  by  the 
monkish  historian,  who  has  left  a  terrible  record  of 
the  condition  of  the  country  districts  of  England  in 
Stephen's  reign.  "  When  the  traitors  perceived  that 
he  was  a  mild  man,  and  soft,  and  good,  and  did  no 
justice,  then  did  they  all  wonder.  They  had  done 
homage  to  him,  and  sworn  oaths,  but  held  no  faith  ; 
they  were  all  forsworn  and  forfeited  their  troth  ;  for 
every  powerful  man  made  his  castles  and  held  them 
against  him  ;  and  they  filled  the  land  full  of  castles. 
They  cruelly  oppressed  the  wretched  men  of  the  land 
with  castle  works.  When  the  castles  were  made  they 
filled  them  with  devils  and  evil  men.  Then  took  they 
those  men  that  they  imagined  had  any  property, 
both  by  night  and  by  day,  peasant  men  and  women, 
and  put  them  in  prison  for  their  gold  and  silver  and 
tortured  them  with  unutterable  tortures  ;  for  never 
were  martyrs  so  tortured  as  they  were  .  .  .  The 
bishops  and  clergy  constantly  cursed  them,  but 
nothing  came  of  it ;  for  they  were  all  accursed,  and 
forsworn,  and  lost.  However  a  man  tilled,  the  earth 
bare  no  corn,  for  the  land  was  all  fordone  by  such 

F  2 


68    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

deeds  ;  and  they  said  openly  that  Christ  and  His 
saints  slept.  Such  and  more  than  we  can  say  we 
endured  nineteen  winters  for  our  sins." 

Here  is  a  picture  of  what  the  magnates  could  do 
when  the  royal  power  was  weak  and  the  Church  unable 
to  protect  the  peasant  from  his  lord.  Froude  has 
described  the  imperfections  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts ; 
he  has  laid  stress  on  the  mildness  of  their  punishments, 
which  often  allowed  the  guilty  to  escape,  and  has 
shown  that  civil  law  was  much  more  consonant  with 
modern  ideas.  But  the  Chronicler  gives  the  other  side 
of  the  picture.  The  condition  of  England  in  the 
twelfth  century  bears  little  or  no  resemblance  to  the 
present  condition  of  England.  The  parish  priest 
might  be,  and  usually  was,  the  son  of  a  serf.  Once  in 
holy  orders  he  was  free  of  his  lord,  and  could  excom- 
municate the  oppressor  of  his  peasant  kinsfolk.  The 
peasant  had  no  defender  but  the  Church.  She  was  to 
him  his  one  sure  refuge.  Rome  was  far  away  and  her 
claim  to  overlordship  was  not  felt.  Peter's  Pence 
was  a  small  price  to  pay  for  protection  against  a  feudal 
lord.  The  magnate  was  very  near,  and  he  had  little 
sympathy  with  the  race  his  father  had  conquered. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  picture  drawn  by  the 
Chronicler  is  one  left  by  FitzStephen,  a  citizen  of 
London,  of  that  great  city  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 
To  the  north  were  cornfields,  pastures,  and  meadows 
producing  luxuriant  crops,  and  beyond  these  was  a 
great  forest  filled  with  game,  stags,  bucks,  boars  and 
wild  bulls.  The  citizens  were  distinguished  for  their 
manners,  their  dress,  and  their  good  fare.  From  the 
most  distant  lands  ships  came  bringing  luxuries  of 


NORMAN   AND  ENGLISH  69 

all  kinds  to  the  port.  FitzStephen  wrote  that  London 
was  able  to  supply  twenty  thousand  horse  and  sixty 
thousand  foot  when  King  Stephen  called  for  a  muster 
of  the  citizens.  He  described  with  pride  the  schools  of 
London  and  the  amusements  of  the  Londoners.  The 
wealthy  indulged  in  hawking  and  hunting,  pastimes 
of  kings  and  lords.  He  wrote  that  the  dwellers  in 
London  were  called  barons,  not  citizens.  So  great 
prosperity  had  followed  from  the  protection  of  inland 
trade. 

Both  the  Chronicler  and  FitzStephen  appear  to 
have  been  guilty  of  some  exaggeration.  It  is  certain 
that  in  many  parts  of  England  there  was  prosperity 
during  Stephen's  reign.  It  is  known  that  during  these 
nineteen  years  more  abbeys  were  built  than  during  the 
preceding  century,  and  that  these  buildings  were 
distinguished  by  the  grace  and  exquisite  beauty  of 
their  architecture.  This  was  the  period  when  the 
Cistercians  came  to  England  and  covered  Yorkshire 
with  sheep  farms.  These  monks  were  the  greatest  of 
sheep  farmers,  and  the  wool  they  produced  became  the 
most  important  part  of  England's  chief  export.  In 
this  reign  also  an  Anglo-Flemish  fleet  sailed  from 
Dartmouth  to  co-operate  with  the  forces  which  marched 
overland  on  the  Second  Crusade  in  1147.  This  fleet 
failed  to  reach  the  Mediterranean,  but  its  sailors  did 
some  service  by  driving  the  Moors  from  Lisbon  and 
helping  to  found  the  kingdom  of  Portugal.  But,  when 
the  narratives  are  discounted,  the  strength  of  London 
and  the  weakness  of  the  country  districts  are  yet  most 
marked  features  of  Stephen's  reign,  and  although 
London  suffered  from  a  great  fire  in  1136,  it  enjoyed 


70    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

such  prosperity  that  not  long  after  Stephen's  death 
it  was  described  by  a  contemporary  writer  as  one  of 
the  most  flourishing  towns  in  Christendom.  The  pride 
of  London's  citizens  contrasts  strangely  with  the 
meekness  of  the  conquered  peasantry  of  England. 
She  claimed  and  maintained  the  right  of  making  and 
unmaking  kings.  In  London  the  fusion  of  Norman, 
Dane,  and  Saxon  into  Englishmen  was  being  rapidly 
accomplished.  She  was  an  oasis  of  freedom  in  a 
conquered  land,  and  the  secret  of  her  power,  that 
which  made  her  even  stronger  than  the  Church,  was 
her  wise  protective  policy  which  kept  the  home  trade 
for  her  citizens. 


VI 

BECKET'S  FIGHT  FOR  ENGLISH  FREEDOM 
1154-1189 

HENRY  II.  devoted  the  first  years  of  his  reign  to 
re-establishing  the  royal  power  in  England.  The 
royal  lands,  which  Stephen  had  given  to  his  Flemish 
supporters,  were  resumed  by  the  Crown,  and  the  foreign 
soldiers  were  expelled.  The  unlawful  castles  were 
demolished.  Once  more  the  King  of  Scotland  and 
Prince  of  Wales  became  close  allies,  if  not  the  actual 
vassals  of  England's  King,  and  served  in  his  army 
when  he  tried  to  annex  Toulouse.  From  his  father 
Henry  inherited  Anjou,  and  his  marriage  with  Eleanor, 
Duchess  of  Aquitaine,  made  him  ruler  of  lands  which 
stretched  to  the  Pyrenees,  and  were  separated  from  the 
Mediterranean  by  the  country  of  Toulouse,  which  he 
attacked  in  1159. 

Had  he  become  master  of  Toulouse,  Henry  would 
have  owned  a  through  way  to  the  East  by  Bordeaux 
and  the  Garonne.  Louis  VII.  of  France,  however, 
came  to  the  aid  of  the  threatened  county,  and  Henry 
abandoned  his  scheme. 

This  cautious  policy  was  probably  a  wise  one. 
Count  Thierry  of  Flanders  was  Henry's  friend.  He 


72    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

had  recently  entrusted  the  guardianship  of  Flanders 
and  of  his  young  son  to  Henry  when  he  paid  a  visit  to 
the  Flemish  settlements  in  the  East.  In  1157  Flanders 
fought  with  Holland  over  a  trade  dispute  ;  and  the 
Flemish  would  have  felt  the  opening  of  a  new  trade 
route  to  the  Mediterranean.  An  open  breach  with 
Flanders  and  France  was  avoided  for  some  years, 
which  gave  Henry  time  to  consolidate  and  increase  his 
possessions  in  Western  France  and  in  the  British  Isles. 
Brittany  was  drawn  into  his  sphere  of  influence,  and 
a  papal  bull  was  obtained  which  authorised  the  con- 
quest of  Ireland.  In  the  full  tide  of  his  success  the 
King  determined  to  limit  the  freedom  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  in  1162  he  made  Thomas  Becket  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  believing  that  he  could  rely  upon 
one  who  had  faithfully  served  him  as  Chancellor.  But 
the  new  Archbishop  was  the  son  of  Gilbert  Becket, 
formerly  portreeve  of  London,  and  in  a  Londoner  born 
and  bred  the  greatest  monarch  of  Western  Europe 
found  the  man  who  made  him  miss  his  destiny. 

Henry  summoned  a  Great  Council,  and  the  bishops 
and  barons  accepted  a  code  of  laws  called  the  Con- 
stitutions of  Clarendon,  which,  amongst  other  pro- 
visions, would  have  enabled  the  King  to  shield  the 
greater  barons  and  royal  servants  from  excommunica- 
tion, would  have  empowered  the  civil  courts  to  punish 
the  clergy,  and  would  have  prevented  the  son  of  a  serf 
from  becoming  a  priest  without  his  lord's  consent. 
Becket  was  the  first  of  the  new  English  to  rise  to  the 
dignity  of  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  His  colleagues 
came  from  the  class  whose  ancestors  had  subdued 
England.  They  were  ready  to  obey  the  King's  will, 


BECKET'S  FIGHT  FOR  ENGLISH  FREEDOM  73 

and  the  Englishman  was  deserted  and  alone.  For  a 
moment  Becket  faltered.  Then,  supported  only  by  the 
love  of  the  poor  of  England,. he  began  the  fight  which 
ended  with  his  murder  in  1170.  Becket  fled  from 
England  in  1164,  but  he  maintained  his  cause  in  poverty 
and  exile.  There  was  at  the  time  a  schism  in  the 
papacy,  and  Pope  Alexander,  who  was  acknowledged 
by  the  West,  was  also  a  fugitive  in  France.  Becket's 
quarrel  embarrassed  Alexander,  and  the  Archbishop 
obtained  very  lukewarm  support  from  his  Pope.  But 
Becket  resolutely  trod  the  path  of  duty  to  the  English 
serfs  who  had  been  entrusted  to  his  care.  The  path 
had  a  glorious  ending  when  the  four  Norman  knights 
murdered  the  unarmed  English  Archbishop  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Canterbury.  Becket's  ancestors  were 
possibly  as  foreign  as  those  of  his  murderers,  but 
London  had  taught  him  to  die  for  English  rights  and 
liberty.  The  modern  reader  is  tempted  to  misunder- 
stand the  great  issue  for  which  Becket  lived  and  died. 
The  principles  for  which  he  fought — the  freedom  of  the 
clergy  from  the  law  of  the  State  and  the  right  of  appeal 
to  Rome — continued  to  exist  long  after  they  ceased  to 
be  of  service  to  the  English.  In  time  both  principles 
became  anachronisms  and  abuses.  There  is,  therefore, 
a  temptation  to  regard  Henry  as  the  originator  of 
reform  and  Becket  as  its  opponent.  But  this  view 
finds  little  support  in  the  verdict  pronounced  by  the 
English  in  the  twelfth  century.  They  regarded  Becket 
as  the  champion  of  the  rights  of  the  poor  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  rich.  In  London,  the  centre  of  English 
freedom,  St.  Thomas  the  Martyr  was  greatly  honoured. 
"  For  many  years  after  his  death  it  was  the  custom  of 


74    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  mayor  of  the  City  for  the  time  being,  upon  entering 
into  office,  to  meet  the  aldermen  at  the  Church  of 
St.  Thomas  of  Aeon  .  .  .  and  thence  to  proceed  to  the 
tomb  of  Gilbert  Becket,  the  father,  in  St.  Paul's  Church- 
yard, there  to  say  a  De  Profundis,  after  which  both 
mayor  and  aldermen  returned  to  the  Church  of 
St.  Thomas,  and,  each  having  made  an  offering  of 
two  pence,  returned  to  his  own  home."  Londoners 
evidently  believed  that  the  portreeve  had  taught  his 
son  to  live  and  die  for  English  freedom. 

The  miracles  wrought  by  St.  Thomas  point  in  the 
same  direction.  The  saint  was  never  weary  of  showing 
kindness  to  peasant  children.  The  eyes  of  the  thief, 
destroyed  by  the  cruel  law  of  the  State,  were  restored 
by  the  martyr.  The  marriage  of  parish  priests  had 
been  forbidden  in  the  days  of  Anselm  ;.  but  St.  Thomas, 
though  Rome  had  made  him  saint,  took  the  illegal 
home  circle  of  the  English  parish  priest  under  his 
peculiar  care.  The  English,  at  least,  did  not  associate 
the  memory  of  the  man  who  had  withstood  both  King 
and  Pope  with  undue  subservience  to  Rome.  That 
Henry  did  good  service  to  England  by  continuing  the 
policy  of  his  grandfather  none  can  doubt.  He  fur- 
thered the  unification  of  Great  Britain  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  supremacy  of  the  King's  law.  From 
his  reforms  the  English  jury  grew.  But  Becket 's  great 
work  was  to  force  the  King  to  ally  himself  with  the 
people  instead  of  with  his  magnates.  After  Becket's 
death  Henry  continued  his  reforms  ;  but  he  tried  to 
harmonise  the  increase  of  royal  power  with  the  interests 
of  the  English. 

Six    months   before    Becket's   death    the    King's 


BECKET'S  FIGHT  FOR  ENGLISH  FREEDOM  75 

eldest  son,  Prince  Henry,  was  crowned  King  of  England. 
In  the  same  year  "  a  clean  sweep  was  made  of  the 
corrupt  local  sheriffs,  and  royal  officials  substituted." 
In  1171  Henry  took  formal  possession  of  Ireland,  which 
some  of  his  magnates  had  already  invaded.  In  May 
1172  he  was  solemnly  forgiven  for  his  share  in  Becket's 
murder  and  reconciled  to  the  Church.  Prince  Henry 
was  again  crowned  in  1172  ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
King  tried  to  settle  the  affairs  of  his  vast  empire  by 
delegating  authority  over  provinces  to  his  other  sons. 
To  Richard  was  given  Aquitaine,  to  Geoffrey  Brittany, 
whilst  a  marriage  was  arranged  for  John  which  would 
have  made  him  lord  of  valuable  fiefs  in  Provence. 
The  Count  of  Toulouse  was  then  induced  to  accept 
Henry  as  suzerain.  It  was  a  moment  of  triumph 
which  preceded  a  storm. 

Count  Philip,  who  had  succeeded  to  Flanders  in 
1168,  joined  Louis  VII.  in  opposing  Henry.  David  of 
Scotland  and  a  number  of  discontented  barons  also 
took  arms  with  the  object  of  making  Prince  Henry 
King  of  England  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  When  the 
wool  trade  was  disturbed  it  was  not  difficult  to  enlist 
an  army  of  unemployed  Flemish  weavers.  The  men 
poured  into  England  saying,  according  to  a  contem- 
porary historian,  "  We  have  not  come  into  this  country 
to  sojourn,  but  to  destroy  King  Henry  the  old  warrior, 
and  to  have  his  wool,  which  we  long  for."  The 
historian  adds :  "  Lords,  that  is  the  truth :  the  greater 
part  of  them  were  weavers."  Throughout  the  graphic 
narrative  of  Jordan  Fantosme  these  Flemings  play  an 
important  part.  The  war  was  one  in  which  the  English 
fought  an  allied  army  of  Scotchmen  and  Flemings. 


76     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

When  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  carried  grave  news  to 
the  King,  who  was  holding  his  own  with  some  difficulty 
in  Normandy,  "  '  Fair  lord,'  said  the  King,  '  tell  me 
the  truth,  how  are  the  brave  men  of  my  city  of  London 
acting  ?  '  The  answer  to  this  question  was  :  "  '  They 
are  the  most  loyal  people  of  all  your  kingdom.  There 
is  no  one  in  the  town  who  is  of  age  to  bear  arms  who 
is  not  well  armed.  You  would  wrongly  believe  any 
evil  of  them.'  '  O  God,'  so  said  the  King, '  now  have 
pity,  preserve  the  brave  men  of  my  city  of  London. 
Depart,  lord  bishop,  to  your  country.  If  God  give  me 
health,  and  I  be  alive,  you  will  have  me  in  London 
before  fifteen  days  are  past,  and  I  will  take  vengeance 
on  all  my  enemies.'  ' 

To  make  assurance  doubly  sure  the  King,  on  his 
way  to  London,  walked  barefoot  to  the  shrine  of 
St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury,  and  was  scourged  by  the 
monks.  Reconciled  thus  to  his  English  subj  ects  Henry 
had  a  royal  reception  when  he  reached  London.  A  few 
days  later  he  received  news  of  the  defeat  and  capture 
of  the  King  of  Scotland.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
Flemings  were  expelled  from  England  ;  and  civil  war 
did  not  disturb  England  during  the  rest  of  Henry's 
reign.  But  he  had  trouble  enough  in  his  continental 
dominions.  Men  sought  peace  then  as  at  all  times 
they  have  sought  peace.  War  is  always  uncomfort- 
able ;  and  to  Flemish  weavers  who  had  been  taught 
that  they  could  not  obtain  Henry's  wool  by  force, 
peace  with  England  was  absolutely  necessary.  But 
the  divergent  economic  interests  of  the  provinces  of 
Henry's  empire  made  a  prolonged  peace  impossible. 
In  1174  all  differences  appeared  to  have  been  adjusted  . 


BECKET'S  FIGHT  FOR  ENGLISH  FREEDOM  77 

The  western  peoples  sheathed  their  swords,  and  the 
King  of  Scotland  was  released  when  he  had  fully 
acknowledged  Henry  as  his  suzerain. 

In  1179  Louis  of  France  was  stricken  with  paralysis, 
and  his  son,  Philip  II.,  became  the  ruler  of  France. 
He  married  the  niece  of  the  childless  Count  Philip  of 
Flanders,  who  was  made  regent  of  France  during  the 
minority  of  Philip  II.  During  this  peace  a  curious 
presentiment  of  fast  approaching  war  prompted  the 
Flemish,  French  and  English  to  make  ready  for  battle. 
In  1181,  by  the  Assize  of  Arms,  every  English  freeman 
was  bound  to  be  prepared  to  defend  his  country  in 
case  of  need.  Similar  edicts  were  simultaneously 
promulgated  in  France  and  Flanders.  The  hold  which 
Henry  had  acquired  over  his  English  subjects  by  his 
reconciliation  with  St.  Thomas  was  shown  when  he 
bade  his  English  furnish  themselves  with  arms.  The 
later  years  of  Henry's  life  were  full  of  the  trouble 
inseparable  from  his  vast  possessions  on  the  Continent. 
Richard  gave  expression  to  the  desire  of  those  over 
whom  he  ruled  in  Aquitaine  for  independence  and 
access  to  the  Mediterranean  through  Toulouse.  This 
brought  him  into  conflict  with  Prince  Henry,  who 
wished  to  succeed  to  an  undivided  empire.  For 
reasons  of  his  own  the  French  King  encouraged  these 
disputes  amongst  Henry's  sons,  which  continued  after 
Prince  Henry's  death  in  1183,  and  that  of  his  brother 
Geoffrey  in  1186.  Jerusalem  was  captured  by  the 
Turks  in  1187  ;  and  the  Kings  of  the  West  agreed  to 
forget  their  differences  and  join  in  the  Third  Crusade. 
But  before  arrangements  could  be  made  war  began 
again  over  the  seizure  of  merchants  from  Richard's 


78    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

dominions  by  the  Count  of  Toulouse.  England  and 
France  became  involved  in  the  quarrel.  Henry  was 
unsuccessful  in  the  fighting,  and  lost  the  town  of  Le 
Mans.  He  died  soon  after  peace  was  signed  in  1189, 
cursing  his  children  and  his  God  because  he  had  failed 
to  unite  lands  whose  economic  interests  were  opposed 
to  union. 


VII 

ENGLAND  ACQUIRES   NATIONAL  INDEPENDENCE 

1190-1226 

THREE  rulers  led  the  Third  Crusade ;  of  these  the  first 
to  take  the  cross  and  the  most  enthusiastic  was 
Richard  I.,  King  of  England,  who  had  but  recently 
been  ruling  over  Aquitaine.  Since  England's  foreign 
trade  was  conducted  by  aliens,  the  expedition  was  not 
conceived  in  the  interest  of  England ;  but  the  merchants 
of  Aquitaine  might  have  gained  had  it  been  a  success. 
With  Richard,  the  two  Philips  of  Flanders  and  of 
France  went  on  crusade  in  1190.  An  Anglo-Flemish 
fleet  sailed  in  advance  of  the  main  expedition,  and 
devoted  some  time  to  attacking  the  Moors  and  driving 
them  from  Southern  Portugal.  The  Christian  kings 
who  ruled  over  the  provinces  into  which  the  Spanish 
peninsula  was  divided  were  gaining  importance  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Western  rulers  ;  since  they  commanded  the 
gateway  to  the  golden  East.  Eleanor,  daughter  of 
Henry  II.,  married  the  King  of  Castile.  A  Portuguese 
princess  became  the  wife  of  Philip  of  Flanders  ;  and, 
whilst  the  Crusaders  rested  in  the  island  of  Sicily, 
Richard  married  Berengaria  of  Navarre. 

The   cordial   relations  which   united   France   and 
Flanders  were  of  short  duration.     Territorial  disputes 


8o     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

led  to  war  by  which  Philip  of  France  increased  his 
possessions  at  the  expense  of  his  namesake  of  Flanders. 
The  alliance  of  the  Third  Crusade  was  supposed  to 
have  reconciled  the  three  leaders.  It  needed,  however, 
no  gift  of  prophecy  to  see  that  France  was  destined 
to  increase  at  the  expense  of  England  and  Flanders, 
unless  the  English  and  Flemish  formed  a  close  alliance. 
But,  although  the  industrial  interests  and  racial 
sympathies  of  the  English  and  Flemish  made  for  this 
alliance,  the  commercial  ambition  of  the  Flemish 
merchants  and  those  of  Aquitaine  led  their  rulers  to 
waste  strength  in  distant  conquests  and  neglect  the 
treasure  they  possessed  in  the  wool  of  England  and 
the  looms  of  Flanders. 

The  crusading  kings  quarrelled  over  the  conquests 
that  were  made.  When  Cyprus  was  taken,  Philip  of 
France  asked  for  half  of  the  island,  and  was  told  by 
Richard  that  he  could  not  have  it  unless  he  promised 
to  divide  Flanders.  It  was  thus  clearly  understood 
that  the  Flemish  were  to  be  the  real  victims  of  the 
Third  Crusade.  Shortly  before  the  Crusaders  captured 
the  seaport  of  Acre,  Philip  of  Flanders  died,  and,  after 
a  brief  interval,  Philip  of  France  left  the  East,  bent 
on  increasing  his  possessions  at  the  expense  of  the  new 
Count.  But  news  of  the  death  travelled  faster  than 
the  King  ;  and  Count  Baldwin  VIII.  was  allowed  to 
succeed  after  surrendering  Artois  and  paying  a  large 
fine.  Richard,  dazzled  by  the  prospect  of  capturing 
Jerusalem,  remained  in  the  East.  But  in  October 
1192  the  intrigues  of  his  brother  John  with  the  French 
King  compelled  Richard  to  abandon  his  design  and 
leave  the  East.  On  his  journey  home  Richard  was 


NATIONAL   INDEPENDENCE  ACQUIRED    81 

seized  by  the  Germans  and  the  English  paid  an  enor- 
mous ransom  for  their  King.  On  his  return  Richard 
plunged  into  war  with  France.  In  1195  Baldwin  VIII. 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  Baldwin  IX.,  a  young  man 
twenty-three  years  of  age.  Philip  took  advantage  of 
the  young  Count's  inexperience,  obtaining  from  him 
the  fiefs  of  Boulogne  and  Guines  ;  in  other  words,  access 
to  the  coast  nearest  to  England.  Baldwin  IX.  also 
signed  papers  requesting  certain  bishops  to  excommuni- 
cate him  if  he  failed  in  his  duty  towards  his  suzerain. 

The  indignation  of  the  Flemish  at  this  peaceful 
annexation,  which  would  have  imperilled  their  com- 
merce with  England  in  the  event  of  an  Anglo-French 
war,  was  so  great  that  Baldwin  was  forced  to  alter  his 
policy.  In  1197  the  Flemish  concluded  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance  with  England  and  engaged  in 
war  with  France.  The  allies  were  meeting  with 
great  success  in  the  war  when  Richard  died  in  1199. 
John  became  ruler  of  the  Angevin  Empire,  although 
many  of  his  subjects  supported  the  claim  of  Arthur, 
son  of  Geoffrey  of  Brittany,  to  the  Crown.  The  allied 
powers,  England  and  Flanders,  were  able  to  make 
satisfactory  treaties  with  France  in  1200.  John's 
reign  might  have  been  a  successful  one  but  for  the 
Fourth  Crusade. 

There  was  a  curious  mixture  of  physical  courage 
and  moral  cowardice  in  the  Flemish  character.  Whilst 
they  retained  many  of  their  pagan  superstitions,  they 
were  paralysed  when  Flanders  was  placed  under  inter- 
dict and  Christian  services  were  forbidden.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Rheims  placed  Flanders  under  interdict 
during  the  war  between  Baldwin  IX.  and  Philip  II., 

G 


82     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

but  the  Pope  removed  the  interdict.  Gratitude  to 
the  Pope  may  have  prompted  Baldwin  to  march  to  the 
East  in  1202  on  the  Fourth  Crusade ;  but  for  this,  as 
for  the  other  Crusades,  there  were  other  than  religious 
motives.  Instead  of  fighting  the  infidel,  the  Venetians 
and  Flemish  seized  and  sacked  Constantinople,  the 
greatest  commercial  city  in  Europe  and  the  bulwark  of 
Christianity  in  the  East.  When,  in  defiance  of  the 
Pope's  commands,  this  crime  was  committed  in  1204 
and  the  Count  of  Flanders  became  Emperor  of  Con- 
stantinople, the  merchants  of  Flanders  had  reason  to 
hope  that  the  Flemish  had  secured  a  monopoly  of 
trade  with  the  East. 

The  Flemish  learned  their  mistake  when  within 
a  year  their  Count  lost  his  life  fighting  Bulgarians. 
The  fortunes  of  Flanders  then  depended  upon  two 
young  girls,  Jean  and  Marguerite,  doubly  orphaned 
since  their  mother,  Count  Baldwin's  wife,  had  died  of 
fever  on  board  a  Flemish  fleet  which  was  lying  off  the 
coast  of  Syria.  It  was  long  before  the  Flemish  could 
believe  that  their  great  speculation  had  ended  in 
disaster.  More  than  twenty  years  after  Baldwin's 
death  an  impostor  was  hanged  for  leading  all  Flanders 
astray  by  pretending  to  be  the  Emperor  miraculously 
restored  to  a  people  who  longed  for  his  return.  Philip  II. 
as  suzerain  of  Flanders  at  once  took  possession  of  the 
Flemish  heiresses,  and  the  people  were  unable  to  be  of 
assistance  to  the  English  whilst  Jean  and  Marguerite 
were  in  Paris  under  Philip's  control. 

When  Flanders  was  drained  of  her  fighting  men, 
John  was  summoned  to  Philip's  court  at  Paris  over  a 
feudal  dispute,  and  his  continental  fiefs  were  forfeited 


NATIONAL  INDEPENDENCE  ACQUIRED    83 

to  Philip.  Whilst  Baldwin  was  winning  an  empire  in 
the  East,  Philip  took  possession  of  Normandy  almost 
without  resistance.  The  provinces  of  an  empire 
cannot  continue  to  be  patriotic  when  their  interests 
are  systematically  neglected.  England's  continental 
possessions  had  caused  heavy  taxation,  while  Nor- 
mandy had  been  often  devastated  by  wars  waged  in 
the  interests  of  the  merchants  of  Aquitaine.  More 
English  wool  was  sold  to  Flanders  than  to  Normandy, 
and  the  Norman  wine  trade  must  have  been  affected 
when  Gascony  was  united  to  England.  The  wine 
which  the  Normans  sent  to  England  came  from  central 
France.  Their  trade  as  middlemen  would  suffer  when 
Paris  and  Rouen  were  separated  by  Chateau  Gaillard, 
which  Richard  I.  built  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine.  It 
was  but  natural  that  the  separation  of  England  and 
Normandy  caused  little  emotion  in  either  land. 

John,  however,  did  not  view  with  unconcern  the 
loss  of  revenue  and  prestige  which  came  from  his 
continental  possessions.  The  basin  of  the  Loire,  as 
well  as  the  basin  of  the  Seine,  had  seceded  from  John's 
empire.  The  only  continental  possession  which  re- 
mained to  him  was  the  favoured  region  of  the  Garonne. 
John  showed  great  ability  in  grappling  with  his  diffi- 
culties, although  in  the  end  force  of  circumstances 
proved  stronger  than  he.  He  established  precedents 
which  were  afterwards  followed  by  his  more  fortunate 
successors.  The  wool-growing  Cistercians  claimed  ex- 
emption from  national  taxation  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  not  English  but  foreigners  settled  in  England. 
John  declared  that  if  those  who  lived  in  England  would 
not  contribute  to  the  expense  of  government  they 

G  2 


84    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

should  not  have  the  protection  of  English  law.  This 
quarrel  led  to  a  conflict  between  Church  and  State  ; 
during  this  conflict  England  was  under  interdict  and 
the  usual  religious  services  were  suspended  from 
March  1208  until  July  1214.  The  see  of  Canterbury 
fell  vacant  in  1205.  The  Pope,  asked  to  decide 
between  the  candidates  of  the  King  and  of  the  monks 
of  Canterbury,  gave  Canterbury  to  his  own  nominee, 
Stephen  Langton.  John  refused  to  allow  Langton  to 
enter  England,  so  that  for  some  years  the  Church  had 
no  leader. 

In  the  midst  of  his  many  difficulties  John  proved 
himself  a  great  ruler  of  men.  While  England  was 
suffering  under  interdict,  a  sentence  which  had  humbled 
his  great  rival,  Philip  of  France,  in  less  than  a  year, 
John  was  able  to  exercise  greater  authority  over  both 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  than  any  of  his  predecessors. 
His  private  character  is  described  as  infamous,  but  he 
was  loyally  obeyed.  His  throne  was  supported  by  a 
foreign  mercenary  army  recruited  largely  in  Flanders. 
But  the  burden  of  taxation  fell  lightly  on  the  English, 
since  John  confiscated  the  property  of  the  Church 
and  thus  obtained  ample  funds.  During  the  minority 
of  Countess  Jean,  the  King  of  England  entered  into 
direct  relations  with  the  burghers  of  the  Flemish 
towns.  Thus  London's  wool  trade  did  not  suffer. 
This  precedent  was  also  followed  by  England's  kings. 

There  was  a  strong  Flemish  party  opposed  to  union 
with  France ;  but,  whilst  the  Countess  of  Flanders  was 
in  Philip's  keeping,  a  new  crusade  drained  Flanders 
of  her  fighting  men.  In  the  rich  and  prosperous 
county  of  Toulouse  there  were  many  who  held  views 


NATIONAL   INDEPENDENCE  ACQUIRED    85 

now  generally  accepted  by  Protestants.  Against  these 
men,  who  denied  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  Rome 
preached  a  new  crusade.  Before  Flanders  had  time 
to  gather  strength  after  the  Fourth  Crusade,  in  1208 
her  feudal  lords  joined  those  of  Northern  France  in  an 
attack  on  Toulouse.  Urged  on  by  the  fiery  St.  Dominic 
and  led  by  Simon  de  Montfort,  who  by  this  act  for- 
feited his  English  earldom  of  Leicester,  an  army 
devastated  Toulouse,  shouting,  as  they  indiscriminately 
slew  orthodox  and  heretics,  "  Kill  all ;  the  Lord  will 
know  His  own."  This  was  the  first  of  the  invasions 
which  determined  the  fate  of  Toulouse.  Henceforward 
the  land  was  open  to  the  French  invader.  In  1229 
it  was  finally  annexed  to  the  possessions  of  St.  Louis, 
King  of  France. 

As  soon  as  they  had  recovered  from  the  madness  of 
the  Crusade  against  Toulouse,  the  Flemish  threatened 
that  they  would  seek  a  protector  in  King  John  if  their 
Countess  was  not  restored  to  them.  In  1212  she  was 
married  to  Ferdinand  of  Portugal,  who  bound  himself 
to  act  as  the  faithful  servant  of  Philip  II.  But  the 
national  feeling  of  the  Flemish  forced  the  Count  to 
form  an  alliance  with  John.  War  between  France 
and  the  allied  powers  of  England  and  Flanders  was 
inevitable.  The  shipping  of  Normandy  had  become 
French.  If  to  this  was  added  the  fleet  of  Flanders 
a  successful  invasion  was  more  than  probable.  The 
English  who  had  refused  to  help  John  to  retain  his 
continental  possessions  came  forward  with  enthusiasm 
when  their  island  was  threatened.  But  the  Flemish 
alliance  was  the  weak  point  which  John  feared. 

The  English  had  shown  that  interdict  could  not 


86    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

conquer  them,  but  its  effect  on  the  Flemish  was  well 
known.  In  January  1213,  John,  who  had  already 
been  excommunicated,  was  formally  deposed,  and 
Philip  was  authorised  by  the  Pope  to  invade  England. 
It  then  became  certain  that  Flanders  would  have  to 
abandon  her  English  ally  or  brave  the  anger  of  Rome, 
unless  John  made  terms  with  the  Pope.  In  May  1213, 
when  the  French  army  was  about  to  embark  for 
England,  John  yielded.  With  the  consent  of  his 
barons,  he  acknowledged  the  Pope  as  his  suzerain,  and 
England  became  a  vassal  kingdom.  Langton  and  the 
exiled  bishops  came  to  England.  Compensation  was 
promised  to  the  Church,  and  Philip  was  forbidden  to 
attack  Rome's  vassal.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
Flemish  had  to  be  crushed  before  it  was  safe  for  the 
French  to  cross  the  Channel. 

Philip's  army  at  once  invaded  Flanders,  and  his 
fleet  sailed  to  Damme,  where  it  blocked  the  entrance 
to  Bruges.  John  acted  promptly.  In  less  than  three 
weeks  after  his  submission  to  the  Pope,  an  English 
fleet  destroyed  or  captured  four  hundred  French  ships 
in  the  harbour  of  Damme.  This  was  the  first  of 
England's  victories  on  the  sea.  With  the  destruction 
of  the  French  fleet  all  danger  of  an  invasion  of  Eng- 
land passed  away  ;  but  Philip  continued  his  attack 
on  Flanders.  When  John  tried  to  aid  his  allies,  his 
magnates  refused  their  help.  It  was  not  until  Feb- 
ruary 1214  that  John  was  able  to  sail  for  La  Rochelle 
with  few  followers  but  with  money  to  pay  foreign 
recruits.  Meanwhile  the  Flemish  had  been  placed 
under  interdict  by  French  bishops,  and,  in  despair, 
they  joined  a  great  confederation,  which  included  the 


NATIONAL  INDEPENDENCE  ACQUIRED    87 

excommunicated  Emperor  of  Germany,  Otto  IV. 
John's  attack  on  Anjou  was  successful  mainly  because 
Philip  refused  to  be  diverted  from  his  campaign  against 
Flanders  and  her  allies.  In  July  1214,  at  Bouvines, 
the  French  King  won  a  decisive  victory.  Count 
Ferdinand  was  taken  prisoner  ;  Flanders  was  crushed  ; 
and  John  was  compelled  to  make  peace  with  Philip 
by  abandoning  his  lost  continental  dominions. 

On  his  return  to  England  John  was  confronted  by  a 
combination  of  bishops,  lords,  and  merchants.  They 
demanded  the  Great  Charter  which  John  signed  at 
Runnymede  in  June  1215.  This  Charter  left  the 
English  serf  in  bondage,  but  John  was  forced  to 
promise  to  observe  the  feudal  obligations  which  were 
implied  in  the  Charter  of  Henry  I.  Thus,  whilst  the 
Great  Charter  is  mainly  feudal,  it  safeguarded  the 
rights  of  all  classes  of  free  Englishmen.  When  the 
feudal  lords  made  common  cause  with  ecclesiastics  and 
merchants,  the  new  English  nation  was  born.  A  halo 
of  romance  grew  round  the  Great  Charter,  so  that  in 
time  men  came  to  believe  that  the  principles  of  trial 
by  jury  and  of  free  trade  were  contained  in  it.  But 
this  belief  is  not  shared  by  modern  students  of  history. 

Henry  II.  established  juries  of  accusation — parents 
of  the  modern  grand  jury — which  sent  those  they 
deemed  guilty  to  the  ordeal.  The  accused  was  then 
punished  if  he  failed  to  hold  hot  iron  unharmed  or  sink 
when  thrown  into  water.  It  was  a  form  of  appeal 
to  God  after  man  had  given  his  decision.  In  1215 
the  Fourth  Lateran  Council  condemned  ordeals,  and 
forbade  priests  to  countenance  them.  After  this  the 
petty  jury  replaced  the  ordeal ;  but  the  change  was 


88     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

not  connected  with  the  Great  Charter.  Nor  did  the 
•Great  Charter  sanction  free  trade.  London  merchants 
would  never  have  assented  to  so  revolutionary  a 
change.  Chapter  XIII.  promises  "  that  the  citizens  of 
London  shall  have  all  their  ancient  liberties  and  free 
customs  as  well  by  land  as  by  water  ;  furthermore, 
we  decree  and  grant  that  all  other  cities,  boroughs, 
towns,  and  ports  shall  have  all  their  liberties  and 
free  customs." 

Chapter  XLI.  decrees  that "  all. merchants  shall  have 
safe  and  secure  exit  from  England,  and  entry  to  Eng- 
land, with  the  right  to  tarry  there  and  to  move  about 
as  well  by  land  as  by  water,  for  buying  and  selling  by 
the  ancient  and  right  customs,  except  (in  time  of  war) 
such  merchants  as  are  of  the  land  at  war  with  us. 
And  if  such  are  found  in  our  land  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war,  they  shall  be  detained,  without  injury  to  their 
bodies  or  goods,  until  information  be  received  by  us,  or 
by  our  chief  justiciar,  how  the  merchants  of  our  land 
found  in  the  land  at  war  with  us  are  treated  ;  and  if 
our  men  are  safe  there,  the  others  shall  be  safe  in  our 
land."  The  inland  trade  was  fully  protected  by  the 
"  ancient  and  right  customs,"  and  it  was  endangered 
when  the  King  arbitrarily  interfered,  as  John  had  often 
done,  with  the  coming  and  going  of  foreign  merchants. 
But  even  this  chapter  was  found  to  be  injurious  to  the 
interests  of  the  nation ;  and,  in  subsequent  confirma- 
tions of  the  Charter,  the  Crown  was  allowed  to  suspend 
its  operation  by  proclamation. 

In  the  Charter  John  promised  to  send  away  his 
foreign  mercenaries.  At  first  he  fulfilled  his  promise. 
Then  the  Pope  released  him  from  his  oath,  and  he  not 


NATIONAL  INDEPENDENCE  ACQUIRED    89 

only  recalled  those  he  had  sent  away  but  enlisted  more 
in  Flanders.  A  multitude  of  Flemish,  anxious  to 
escape  from  French  rule,  sailed  for  England.  Many 
were  wrecked  off  the  east  coast,  but  a  sufficient 
number  landed  there  and  at  Dover  to  spread  panic 
throughout  England.  The  fleet  and  the  Cinque  Ports 
remained  faithful  to  John.  Before  long  the  barons  had 
practically  lost  all  the  land  except  London.  In  their 
extremity  they  offered  the  kingdom  to  Louis,  the  son 
and  heir  of  Philip  of  France.  John  died  in  October 
1216  during  the  civil  war,  six  months  after  the  death 
of  Innocent  III.,  his  papal  suzerain.  England's  new 
suzerain,  Honorius  III.,  reaped  from  England  the 
harvest  which  Innocent  sowed. 

John's  son  and  heir,  Henry  III.,  was  nine  years  old 
in  1216.  The  papal  legate  at  once  received  the  boy's 
homage  and  placed  him  under  papal  protection.  Philip 
could  not  officially  recognise  his  son's  claim  to  the 
English  throne,  and  in  1217  Louis  returned  to  France. 
There  was  peace  between  England  and  France  until 
Philip  died  in  1223  and  his  son  became  Louis  VIII. 
During  Philip's  life  Count  Ferdinand  remained  in  a 
French  prison.  It  was  not  until  Henry  III.  had  offi- 
cially recognised  the  impostor  who  pretended  that  he 
was  Baldwin  of  Constantinople,  when  it  also  seemed 
probable  that  the  Pope  would  annul  Jean's  marriage 
and  thus  allow  her  to  choose  another  protector,  that, 
in  1226,  Ferdinand  was  released.  Whilst  their  French 
suzerain  was  exercising  an  ever-increasing  influence 
over  the  rulers  of  Flanders  the  Kings  of  England  began 
to  negotiate  directly  with  the  weaving  cities  of  Flanders ; 
and  this  policy  was  continued  when,  after  Ferdinand's 


go    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

release,  Henry  III.  also  paid  the  Count  his  traditional 
English  annuity  by  way  of  ensuring  an  Anglo-Flemish 
cordial  understanding. 

The  reign  of  Henry  III.  marks  the  transition  from 
the  purely  feudal  government  by  foreign  kings  to  the 
mixed  feudal  and  commercial  government  by  the  first 
national  Kings  of  England  since  the  Conquest.  A  new 
era  then  began  in  which  England  gradually  learned  to 
value  and  ultimately  to  protect  the  production  of  her 
workers  as  well  as  the  trade  of  her  merchants.  During 
this  era  many  mistakes  were  made,  and  there  was 
a  great  crisis — the  War  of  the  Roses — which  ushered 
in  the  protection  of  industry  in  much  the  same  way 
as  the  War  of  the  Barons  led  to  the  entrance  of  the 
mercantile  class  into  the  governing  body  of  England. 
But  in  spite  of  mistakes  and  wars  it  is  easy  to  trace 
a  steady  growth  of  freedom.  Serfdom  disappeared, 
and,  as  the  people  became  free,  they  obtained  from 
their  rulers  that  protection  for  their  labour  without 
which  their  freedom  would  have  been  worthless. 


VIII 

THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE  ASSERTED 

BY  A    PROTECTIONIST 

1218-1265 

ORIGINALLY  royal  revenue  was  derived  from  land. 
Domesday  Book  was  written  by  order  of  the  Con- 
queror in  order  to  equalise  and  facilitate  the  collection 
of  this  revenue.  In  ordinary  times  the  King  was 
supposed  to  live  of  his  own  ;  that  is,  from  the  rents  of 
the  crown  estates,  supplemented  by  prises  levied  in 
kind  on  exports  and  imports,  payments  made  by  the 
Jews  in  return  for  royal  protection,  and  certain  feudal 
dues.  On  extraordinary  occasions  the  King's  needs 
were  supplied  by  special  taxes.  When  he  went  on 
circuit  the  localities  visited  had  to  supply  his  wants. 
This  right  of  purveyance  was  often  grossly  abused. 
During  war  the  King's  vassals  were  obliged  to  come  to 
his  aid,  and  he  could  take  shipping  or  goods  at  a  fixed 
price.  It  was  also  the  duty  of  vassals  to  contribute 
towards  the  cost  of  knighting  the  king's  eldest  son, 
marrying  his  eldest  daughter,  and  ransoming  his  person 
from  the  enemy.  The  Danegeld,  or  general  tax  on 
land,  could  be  levied  if  there  was  need,  and  the  coast 
towns  could  be  required  to  provide  ships  for  England's 
defence.  After  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  the  most  usual 


92    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

form  of  special  tax  was  a  fraction  of  the  agricultural 
and  other  products  which  remained  for  sale  after  the 
wants  of  the  producer  were  satisfied. 

In  theory  all  the  land  of  England  belonged  to 
the  King.  In  practice  he  only  owned  certain  royal 
estates,  whilst  he  had  valuable  rights  over  large  tracts 
of  country  called  forests.  Dwellers  within  the  forests 
were  subject  to  a  special  code  of  laws.  The  game 
belonged  to  the  King ;  and  owners  of  land  within  the 
forests  were  not  allowed  to  cut  more  timber  than  they 
required  for  their  own  use.  The  King  owned  the  right 
of  selling  wood  from  the  forest.  Before  coal  was  used 
as  fuel  the  royal  forests  served  a  useful  purpose  in 
preserving  the  timber  required  for  the  navy.  At  first 
the  King's  forest  rights  were  maintained  by  cruel  laws, 
but  these  were  abolished  before  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
Fines  or  imprisonment  for  a  year  and  a  day  were  the 
later  penalties  inflicted  for  breaches  of  the  forest  law. 
Within  the  forests  the  poor  enjoyed  valuable  rights  of 
free  fuel  and  pasture ;  but  the  richer  landowners 
objected  to  lav/s  which  prevented  them  from  selling 
timber  or  killing  game.  When  lands  were  disafforested 
property  of  great  value  passed  from  the  King,  who 
represented  the  nation,  into  private  hands.  The 
anarchy  of  Stephen's  reign  led  to  encroachments  on 
the  royal  forests.  Much  land  was  afforested  by 
Henry  II.  and  his  sons.  The  long  quarrel  between 
King  and  magnates  began  as  a  dispute  over  the  legality 
of  these  afforestations.  It  was  ended  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  when  the  rights  of  the  people  in  the  royal 
forests  had  almost  disappeared. 

In  Henry's  reign  there  were  two  parties  in  England, 


THE   RIGHTS   OF  THE   PEOPLE  93 

Nationalists  and  anti-Nationalists.  The  former  in- 
cluded the  majority  of  the  English  people,  who  viewed 
with  pleasure  the  loss  of  Normandy  and  England's 
continental  possessions.  The  latter,  though  numeric- 
ally weak,  were  constantly  strengthened  by  immigrants 
from  the  Continent.  Their  aim  was  the  recovery  of 
the  Angevin  Empire,  and,  perhaps,  the  acquisition  of 
the  through  route  to  the  East  by  way  of  the  Garonne. 
From  the  first  the  anti-Nationalists  had  great  influence 
over  Henry  III.  The  Nationalists  were  not  united, 
some  wished  to  increase  the  power  of  the  magnates 
at  the  expense  of  the  Crown ;  whilst  others  sought 
to  unify  the  country  by  strengthening  the  King's 
authority.  William  Marshall,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  acted 
as  Regent  for  the  boy-king.  He  conciliated  the  mag- 
nates by  advising  Henry  to  sign  the  Great  Charter 
and  the  Charter  of  the  Forests,  which  sanctioned 
extensive  disafforestations.  Pembroke  died  in  1218. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Hubert  de  Burgh,  a  Nationalist 
who  worked  for  the  Crown.  The  Pope's  attempt  to 
govern  England  as  a  subject  province  was  foiled  by 
his  efforts  and  those  of  Archbishop  Langton  ;  but  the 
papacy  was  able  to  treat  England  as  a  well  of  wealth 
from  which  Rome  could  draw  an  unlimited  supply. 

Under  de  Burgh  order  was  re-established.  In 
1222  he  incurred  the  hostility  of  the  Londoners  by  his 
severity  in  suppressing  a  local  riot  which,  owing  to  the 
cries  raised,  appeared  like  an  attempt  at  again  assert- 
ing Louis'  claim  to  the  throne  of  England.  In  1223 
Philip  of  France  died  and  his  son  became  Louis  VIII. 
Henry  was  in  this  year  declared  of  age,  and  the  sur- 
render of  royal  castles  held  during  the  King's  minority 


94    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

was  demanded.  There  was  a  short  civil  war,  after 
which  de  Burgh  was  able  to  strengthen  the  royal  power. 
War  with  France  recommenced  in  1224.  The  English 
possessions  in  Gascony  were  retained,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  French  directed  most  of  their  attention 
to  the  complete  subjugation  of  Toulouse.  In  1226, 
whilst  Toulouse  was  being  crushed,  Louis  VIII.  died. 
His  twelve-year-old  son  became  Louis  IX.  with  his 
mother  Blanche  of  Castile  as  Regent. 

The  accession  of  a  child  to  the  throne  of  France 
gave  the  French  feudal  lords  an  opportunity  for 
checking  the  growth  of  their  suzerain's  authority, 
which  had  been  greatly  increased  by  Philip  II.  and 
Louis  VIII.  Henry  tried  to  turn  this  disunion  to  good 
account,  but  the  tact  of  the  Regent  of  France  con- 
ciliated the  French  barons  for  a  time,  and  Henry  was 
forced  to  make  a  truce  with  France  in  1228.  The 
French  barons,  however,  insisted  that  Ferdinand  of 
Flanders  should  be  released  so  that  the  Flemish  had  a 
man  to  lead  them.  In  1229  the  question  of  Toulouse 
was  finally  settled  by  its  definite  union  with  the  king- 
dom of  France.  Next  year  the  barons  of  France 
were  again  in  arms  against  the  Regent ;  and  Henry 
crossed  the  Channel.  But,  in  spite  of  his  annuity,  the 
Count  of  Flanders  refused  to  join  the  insurgent  French 
barons.  The  Regent  was  able  to  make  terms  with  the 
barons  ;  and  Henry  signed  a  fresh  truce  with  France. 

The  position  of  the  Count  of  Flanders  was  a  difficult 
one.  Over  a  part  of  his  territory  the  French  King  was 
over-lord ;  part  was  held  as  a  German  fief ;  and  some 
land  was  his  own  domain.  In  the  time  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  a  fresh  obligation  was  added :  in  return  for 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE  95 

an  annual  money  payment,  the  Counts  entered  into 
complicated  feudal  relations  with  the  kings  of  England. 
As  Dukes  of  Normandy,  the  English  kings  were  vassals 
of  France  like  the  Flemish  Counts ;  and  the  Anglo- 
Flemish  treaties  which  for  many  years  were  enacted 
and  re-enacted  bear  witness  to  the  Counts'  keen  desire 
to  live  on  the  most  friendly  terms  with  England,  and 
yet  avoid  giving  offence  to  their  suzerain,  or  com- 
promising themselves  with  Normandy. 

The  war  of  1230  was  accompanied  by  a  stoppage 
of  commercial  relations  between  England  and  Flanders. 
The  inconvenience  was  evidently  felt  in  both  countries, 
since  in  1237  an  Anglo-Flemish  arrangement  was  con- 
cluded which  guaranteed  the  neutrality  of  Flanders 
in  the  event  of  an  Anglo-French  war.  Nevertheless, 
although  the  Countess  of  Flanders  married,  after  the 
death  of  Ferdinand  in  1233,  a  husband  who  proved 
loyal  to  England  and  his  annuity,  the  political  con- 
nexion between  France  and  Flanders  still  deprived 
Flemish  looms  of  English  wool  when  England  and 
France  were  at  war.  A  regular  supply  of  English  wool 
was  so  important  to  the  weavers  of  Ghent  that  in  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  they  made  a  canal 
connecting  their  city  with  Damme,  a  seaport  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Zwyn. 

Among  those  who  volunteered  for  the  war  of  1230 
there  was  one  who  was  destined  to  mould  the  infant 
nation  of  England.  A  marriage  contracted  in  the 
twelfth  century  between  the  Anglo-Norman  house 
of  de  Beaumont  and  the  Franco-Norman  house  of 
de  Montfort  gave  the  earldom  of  Leicester  to  that 
Simon  de  Montfort  who  led  the  Albigensian  crusade. 


96     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

In  this  crusade  he  was  fighting  against  John's  brother- 
in-law,  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  and  blocking  the 
English  king's  access  to  the  Mediterranean.  He 
therefore  forfeited  his  earldom  ;  but  his  younger  son, 
also  called  Simon,  made  amends  when  he  offered  his 
sword  to  Henry  in  1230.  As  a  reward  Simon  de 
Montfort  received  the  forfeited  earldom  of  Leicester 
and  the  hand  of  the  king's  sister,  Eleanor,  thus  be- 
coming one  of  the  most  important  of  England's 
magnates. 

Henry  III.,  a  devoted  servant  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  was  unfortunate  in  the  choice  of  two  of  his 
sisters'  husbands.  De  Montfort  was  excommunicated 
by  the  Pope,  and  the  same  fate  was  shared  by  the 
Emperor  Frederic  II.,  who  married  Henry's  sister 
Isabel  in  1235.  The  war  between  Emperor  and  Pope 
culminated  in  Frederic's  reign.  The  papacy  needed 
money  for  this  war  and  made  repeated  demands  on 
its  vassal  kingdom,  England.  Papal  financiers,  called 
Caorsines,  from  Cahors,  came  to  aid  in  the  collection 
of  this  tribute.  These  Caorsines  were  soon  hated  as 
heartily  as  the  Jews  were.  The  English  clergy  were 
the  chief  victims.  Not  only  were  they  heavily  taxed, 
but  the  well-paid  livings  were  given  to  foreigners. 
Papal  taxation  and  that  caused  by  the  Anglo-French 
wars  caused  such  discontent  that  in  1232  a  vast  secret 
society  was  formed  in  England  to  drive  foreign  eccle- 
siastics out  of  the  island.  Acts  of  violence  were  com- 
mitted, and  no  one  was  arrested.  Already  de  Burgh 
had  lost  Henry's  favour  owing  to  his  having  opposed 
the  Anglo-French  war.  After  these  disturbances  de 
Burgh  was  driven  from  office  and  persecuted  by  the 


THE   RIGHTS   OF  THE   PEOPLE          97 

King.  The  anti-Nationalist  des  Roches  became  Henry's 
adviser,  but  his  term  of  office  was  cut  short  by  the 
outbreak  of  civil  war.  In  1234  Henry  was  forced  to 
banish  des  Roches  and  govern  England  without  an 
adviser. 

Having  obtained  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhone  the 
French  coveted  the  German  fiefs  which  lined  the  left 
bank.  The  Count  of  Provence  had  no  sons,  and 
Louis  IX.  married  the  eldest  of  the  Count's  four 
daughters.  In  1236  Henry  III.  married  Eleanor  of 
Provence,  and  the  two  remaining  daughters  found 
husbands  in  Charles  of  Anjou,  the  brother  of  Louis  IX., 
and  Richard  of  Cornwall,  the  brother  of  Henry  III. 
Provence,  the  prize  in  this  matrimonial  contest,  was 
ultimately  obtained  by  Charles  of  Anjou.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  expansion  of  France  at  the  expense 
of  Germany.  After  Henry's  wedding  an  attempt  was 
made  to  reconcile  the  claims  of  the  King  and  his 
magnates  by  an  Act,  called  the  Provisions  of  Merton, 
which  was  "  framed  in  the  interest  of  the  great  land- 
owners." The  Great  Charter  and  the  Forest  Charter 
were  confirmed  ;  but  means  were  still  found  by  which 
the  disafforesting  clauses  were  evaded.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  Provisions  of  Merton  the  lord  of  a  manor 
was  allowed  "  to  enclose  waste  lands,  provided  that  he 
left  enough  pasture  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  free- 
holders." This  method  of  satisfying  the  claims  of  the 
rich  by  assigning  to  them  the  rights  of  the  poor  formed 
a  precedent  often  followed  in  later  times. 

With  Henry's  Queen  there  came  a  swarm  of  her 
kinsfolk  from  Provence.  These  were  given  posts  in 
England  ;  one  of  Queen  Eleanor's  uncles,  Boniface, 

H 


g8     THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

obtained  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury  in  1241. 
War  broke  out  between  Louis  IX.  and  the  Count  of 
La  Marche  ;  and  Henry  III.  invaded  France  in  1242, 
only  once  more  to  suffer  defeat.  A  truce  was  then 
signed,  and  there  were  no  more  Anglo-French  wars 
during  Henry's  reign.  When  they  had  access  to  the 
Mediterranean  the  French  turned  their  attention  to  the 
East.  The  emperors  who  succeeded  Count  Baldwin 
at  Constantinople  were  hard  pressed.  Baldwin  II. 
came  in  person  to  ask  for  French  aid  in  1236.  He 
received  a  large  subsidy  and  gave  in  return  a  sacred 
relic.  The  Pope  had  begged  Frederic  II.  to  attack  the 
Mahomedans,  but  the  Emperor,  who  was  also  King 
of  Sicily,  found  that  he  could  obtain  all  he  wanted 
by  peaceful  negotiation  with  the  infidel.  In  1248 
Louis  IX.  sailed  from  Aigues  Mortes,  a  Mediterranean 
seaport  specially  constructed  by  him.  His  invasion 
of  Egypt  ended  in  disaster.  He  was  taken  prisoner, 
but  was  allowed  to  sail  to  Acre  after  paying  a  ransom 
which  emptied  his  military  chest. 

Henry  III.  also  took  the  cross,  and  the  Pope 
sanctioned  a  tax  to  be  levied  on  the  English  clergy. 
But  the  English  King  left  the  fighting  to  Louis  IX.  In 
1250  the  Emperor  Frederic  died.  With  him  the  power 
of  the  empire  passed  away.  The  power  of  France 
increased  as  that  of  Germany  declined.  Henry  III. 
also  hoped  to  reap  gain  at  the  expense  of  Germany. 
In  1254  he  concluded  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance  with  Alphonso,  King  of  Castile — Edward, 
Henry's  eldest  son,  was  married  to  Eleanor,  Alphonso's 
daughter.  In  the  same  year  Henry  accepted  from  the 
Pope  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  for  his  second  son,  Edmund, 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE          99 

In  1256  Richard  of  Cornwall  accepted  an  invitation  to 
become  the  Emperor  of  Germany.  To  Henry  it  may 
have  seemed  that  England  would  take  that  place  in 
Europe  which  Germany  had  held.  The  English  were 
indifferent  to  this  dazzling  future.  They  only  saw 
with  alarm  that  vast  sums  of  English  money  were 
being  sent  to  Rome  and  Germany.  In  1258  the  royal 
treasury  was  empty.  The  magnates  were  summoned  to 
a  Great  Council  at  Westminster,  and  the  crisis  in  the 
contest  between  the  Nationalists  and  anti-Nationalists 
began. 

At  first  the  Nationalists  were  united  in  their  action, 
but  they  were  composed  of  two  sections  whose  aims 
were  antagonistic.  A  great  movement  had  been  started 
in  the  Catholic  Church  by  the  friars  who  followed  the 
teaching  of  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis.  Both  taught 
that  Christians  should  love  righteousness  more  than 
worldly  wealth,  and  both  tried  to  reform  the  Church 
from  within.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  failings 
of  the  mendicant  friars  when  they  were  overcome 
by  the  gold  they  had  denounced,  or  whatever  fault 
may  be  found  with  the  acts  of  cruelty  by  which  the 
Dominicans  proved  their  fanatical  loyalty  to  Rome, 
all  must  admire  the  Christlike  self-surrender  of  the 
first  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  when  they  came 
penniless  to  England  to  minister  to  outcasts  for  whom 
nobody  cared.  At  once  this  saintliness  conquered 
England,  and  in  all  probability  postponed  the  severance 
of  the  English  Church  from  Rome  for  centuries.  The 
Franciscan  friars  had  taught  the  English  that  poor  and 
rich  were  brethren  in  Christ,  the  friars  practised  the 
religion  they  preached,  and  the  English  gladly  accepted 

H  2 


ioo    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

their  Gospel ;  from  them  the  English  learned  their 
first  lessons  in  real  freedom.  Grossteste,  one  of  the 
holiest  of  England's  bishops,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  welcomed  the  Franciscans  to  Oxford  in  1224 ; 
he  retained  a  close  connexion  with  the  Franciscans 
throughout  his  life.  Grossteste  and  Adam  Marsh,  a 
Franciscan  friar,  were  intimate  friends  of  de  Montfort 
and  his  wife.  Some  of  the  letters  which  passed  between 
these  friends  have  been  preserved,  and  these  breathe  a 
spirit  of  devotion  to  Christ  and  His  teaching.  Under 
such  teachers  de  Montfort  became  the  leader  of  that 
section  of  the  Nationalist  party  which  aimed  at  securing 
freedom  for  all  Englishmen  ;  while  Richard,  Earl  of 
Gloucester,  led  those  magnates  whose  ideal  of  freedom 
meant  the  rule  of  the  barons.  The  cleavage  between 
the  sections  did  not  occur  until  the  united  Nationalist 
party  had  vanquished  their  opponents. 

Behind  the  barons  at  the  Great  Council  of  West- 
minster there  was  a  united  people.  The  Church  and 
London  supported  them,  and  the  King  had  no  option 
but  to  agree  to  a  project  of  reform  whose  execution 
should  be  entrusted  to  twenty-four  councillors  to  be 
chosen  by  himself  and  his  magnates.  The  Great 
Council  then  adjourned  to  Oxford.  There  a  Petition 
of  Grievances  was  presented  to  the  King.  The  barons 
complained  of  violation  of  the  Charters,  of  defects  in 
English  law,  of  corrupt  administration  of  justice,  of 
the  power  which  Henry  had  entrusted  to  foreigners, 
and  of  the  foreign  merchants  and  money-lenders  who 
were  allowed  to  reside  and  trade  in  London  without 
contributing  to  national  taxation.  A  council  of  fifteen 
members  was  then  appointed,  and  the  King  swore  that 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE   PEOPLE         101 

he  would  act  as  they  advised.  The  royal  proclamation 
accepting  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  was  published  in 
English,  as  well  as  in  French  and  Latin.  In  the 
struggle  for  freedom  the  Londoners  took  a  prominent 
part.  Freeman  has  written  that,  in  1247,  "  when  the 
nobles,  clergy,  and  people  of  England  put  forth  their 
famous  letter  denouncing  the  wrongs  which  England 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Roman  bishop,  it  was  with 
the  seal  of  the  city  of  London,  as  the  centre  of  national 
life,  that  the  national  protest  was  made."  But  London, 
like  the  barons,  was  destined,  as  the  struggle  deve- 
loped, to  be  weakened  by  strife  between  the  demo- 
cratic and  the  anti-democratic  Nationalists. 

After  the  triumph  of  the  Nationalists  at  Oxford 
the  foreign  policy  of  England  was  reversed.  The 
crown  of  Sicily  was  declined  and  the  Anglo-French 
truce  was  converted  into  a  formal  peace.  The  prin- 
ciples of  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  were  elaborated  in 
detail  by  the  Provisions  of  Westminster  passed  by 
the  barons  in  1259.  The  rights  which  the  great  land- 
lords demanded  from  their  chief  landlord,  the  King, 
were  given  to  their  tenants.  A  genuine  attempt  was 
made  at  establishing  a  constitutional  monarchy.  If 
on  the  one  hand  the  King  was  asked  to  govern  by  the 
advice  of  his  barons,  on  the  other  hand  the  power  of 
the  King,  acting  under  advice,  was  increased  by  the 
baronial  surrender  of  feudal  privileges.  Although  de 
Montfort's  scheme  of  a  constitutional  monarchy  failed, 
the  King  when  triumphant  in  1267  re-enacted  the 
Provisions  of  Westminster  in  the  Statute  of  Marl- 
borough.  The  failure  of  de  Montfort's  scheme  was 
due,  not  to  his  legal  reforms,  but  to  a  vast  economic 


102         THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

change  which  he  tried  to  carry  out  while  he  was 
engaged  in  political  reform. 

Economic  and  political  independence  are  closely 
allied.  It  is  not  wise  to  depend  solely  on  the  sale  of 
raw  material  to  the  foreigner,  since  in  times  of  shortage 
the  people  have  no  manufactures  to  sell  for  food,  and 
the  land  may  be  afflicted  with  famine.  It  is  equally 
unwise  to  trust  to  an  industry  which  depends  on 
foreign  raw  material,  since  ruin  must  come  if  the 
foreign  nation  acquires  the  industry  and  thus  uses 
her  raw  material  at  home.  These  truths  are  clearly 
expressed  in  the  histories  of  England  and  Flanders. 

In  all  countries  peasants  wove  the  rough  cloth 
which  served  their  needs,  but  the  finer  cloths  of 
European  manufacture  were,  at  first,  made  almost 
exclusively  in  Flanders.  Weaving  was  introduced 
into  that  country  as  a  definite  industry  long  before 
the  coming  of  William  I.  to  England.  At  a  later  date 
the  Flemish  had  serious  competitors  in  Southern 
Germany  and  Florence  ;  but  for  a  long  while  England 
was  the  country  where  the  wool  was  grown,  Flanders 
the  land  where  it  was  made  into  fine  cloth,  and  German 
merchants  the  middlemen  who  bought  and  sold  the 
wool  and  cloth.  It  was  part  of  the  policy  of  the 
Norman  and  Angevin  kings  to  encourage  these  foreign 
middlemen,  and  for  many  centuries  English  commerce 
was  restricted  to  buying  in  the  home  market  and 
selling  to  the  German  for  export  abroad.  Lead,  tin, 
hides,  and  wool  were  England's  principal  exports, 
particularly  wool,  which  was  chiefly  sold  in  Flanders. 

In  1258  the  barons  at  Oxford  "  decreed  that  the 
wool  of  the  country  should  be  worked  up  in  England, 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE         103 

and  should  not  be  sold  to  foreigners,  and  that  every 
one  should  use  woollen  cloth  made  within  the  country 
and  not  seek  over-precious,  raiment."  This  attempt 
at  protecting  the  work  of  the  poor  English  weaver 
instead  of  the  trade  of  the  rich  English  merchant  was 
in  keeping  with  the  idealism  of  the  Franciscan  friars. 
It  was,  at  the  time,  Utopian  and  visionary.  Though 
woad  was  imported  in  considerable  quantity,  English 
cloth  was  for  the  most  part  undyed  and  rough.  The 
weaving  industry  in  England  was  too  small  to  absorb 
the  immense  supply  of  English  wool.  Had  the  decree 
been  carried  out,  the  merchants  and  wool-growers 
of  England  would  have  been  faced  with  ruin.  The 
mayor  and  aldermen  of  London  accepted  the  Provi- 
sions of  Oxford  "  saving  the  liberties  and  customs  of 
the  City  "  ;  but  there  were  many  who  objected  to  this 
saving  clause.  The  Craft  Gilds  united,  and  in  1261  they 
elected  a  democratic  mayor,  FitzThomas.  Thus  the 
suggestion  of  protection  for  English  industry  led  at 
once  to  disunion  in  London.  De  Montfort  appears  to 
have  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  the  merchants  ;  since  in 
1259,  when  Henry  was  acting  under  baronial  control, 
he  signed  agreements  which  encouraged  Anglo-Flemish 
trade. 

The  barons  were  also  disunited  by  de  Montfort's 
democratic  sympathies.  Richard  of  Gloucester  aban- 
doned the  baronial  cause,  and  in  1261  Henry  felt 
strong  enough  to  produce  papal  bulls  absolving  him 
from  his  oath  to  observe  the  Provisions  of  Oxford. 
But  whilst  merchants  and  lords  deserted  the  cause  of 
democracy,  the  Church  of  England  remained  loyal  to 
the  cause  of  progress  in  defiance  of  the  papal  bulls. 


104         THE  STRENGTH  OF   ENGLAND 

The  repudiation  of  the  Provisions  for  a  time  reunited 
de  Montfort  and  Gloucester.  The  Royalists  suggested 
that  the  dispute  between  King  and  barons  should  be 
submitted  to  the  arbitration  of  Louis  IX.  This  was 
accepted  by  many  of  the  barons,  but  de  Montfort 
refused  to  assent  and  retired  to  France. 

The  death  of  Richard  of  Gloucester  in  1262 
weakened  the  Royalists.  The  new  Earl  Gilbert  joined 
de  Montfort,  who  returned  from  France  in  1263.  A 
baronial  army  swept  through  England  and  eventually 
received  a  warm  welcome  in  London.  Foreigners  in 
England,  particularly  foreign  clergy,  were  attacked 
and  expelled  from  the  island.  Archbishop  Boniface 
sought  safety  in  flight.  But  once  more  the  triumph 
of  the  Nationalists  was  followed  by  their  disunion. 
The  Sicilian  danger  passed  away  in  the  summer  of 
1263,  when  the  Pope  revoked  his  grant  to  Prince 
Edmund  in  order  that  he  might  give  the  throne  to 
Charles  of  Anjou.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  Henry 
and  de  Montfort  agreed  to  accept  the  arbitration  of 
Louis  IX.  Six  months  later  Louis  decided  in  Henry's 
favour  on  all  the  disputed  points.  This  award  was 
immediately  followed  by  civil  war.  At  Lewes  in 
May  1264  the  Royalists  were  defeated,  and  Henry 
became  de  Montfort's  prisoner. 

Though  by  birth  and  marriage  de  Montfort  might 
have  aspired  to  usurp  the  Crown,  no  such  disloyal 
attempt  was  made.  Henry  continued  to  reign,  but 
he  had  to  accept  again  the  Provisions.  The  Queen 
escaped  to  France  and  raised  an  army  for  the  invasion 
of  England.  A  papal  legate  waited  at  Boulogne  for  a 
chance  to  enter  England  and  pronounce  the  excom- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE         105 

munication  of  >he  Nationalists.  Entering  into  the 
growing  commercial  spirit  of  the  age,  the  Pope  forbade 
all  commerce  with  England.  De  Montfort  faced  the 
situation  with  courage.  He  raised  an  army  to  guard 
the  coast.  He  organised  a  fleet  to  sweep  the  narrow 
seas.  He  levied  a  tax  of  ten  per  cent,  on  the  goods 
of  laity  and  clergy.  To  those  who  prophesied 
England's  ruin  de  Montfort  said  "  that  the  inhabitants 
of  England  could  live  comfortably  of  their  own  with- 
out foreign  trade  "  ;  and  patriots  wore  rough  English 
undyed  cloth  to  show  their  love  for  England. 

These  details  are  recorded  by  Thomas  Wykes,  one 
of  the  two  contemporary  historians  who  opposed  de 
Montfort's  policy.  To  prove  that  de  Montfort  oppressed 
the  people,  Wykes  says  that  prices  rose,  but  he  only 
quotes  the  rise  in  price  of  wax,  wine,  and  pepper. 
These  were  the  luxuries  of  the  rich.  When  de  Montfort 
and  his  Franciscan  teachers  thought  of  the  people  of 
England,  their  minds  instinctively  turned  to  the  poor 
workers,  not  to  the  rich  merchants  and  landlords. 
That  the  poor  could  live  of  their  own  is  proved  by  the 
almost  idolatrous  veneration  of  de  Montfort's  memory, 
which  came  spontaneously  from  the  English  poor 
when  the  great  earl  was  killed  at  Evesham  during 
the  so-called  period  of  distress. 

The  stoppage  of  trade  alienated  the  merchants  and 
many  of  the  lords ;  but  the  Church  and  the  people 
remained  true  to  England.  In  January  1265  the  first 
real  English  Parliament  met  at  Westminster.  In  this 
Parliament,  practically  summoned  by  an  excom- 
municated earl,  there  were  one  hundred  and  twenty 
of  the  higher  clergy  and  only  thirty-two  barons ;  but 


io6         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

with  the  Churchmen  there  sat  two  members  from  each 
shire  and  town.  Of  the  thirty- two  barons  nine  were 
Royalists  and  these  were  soon  increased  by  seceders 
from  the  ranks  of  the  Nationalists.  Gilbert  of  Glou- 
cester abandoned  de  Montfort,  and  London  gave  but 
a  hesitating  support  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Fitz- 
Thomas  and  his  friends.  Civil  war  ensued.  In 
August  1265  de  Montfort  and  his  followers  were 
welcomed  by  the  monks  of  Evesham.  Next  day  he 
was  surrounded  by  Prince  Edward's  army  and  realised 
that  all  was  lost.  "  By  the  arm  of  St.  James  !  they 
attack  wisely  ;  not  of  themselves  but  from  me  have 
they  learned  that  method  ;  let  us  commend  our  souls 
to  God  since  our  bodies  are  theirs,"  said  the  Earl  of 
Leicester  when  he  died  for  England. 

The  monks  of  Evesham  buried  in  their  abbey  what 
remained  of  de  Montfort's  body  after  the  victors  had 
mutilated  a  corpse  they  no  longer  feared.  To  the 
tomb  of  the  excommunicated  earl,  as  to  Becket's  shrine, 
the  English  flocked  to  be  healed  of  their  ills.  In  spite 
of  Pope  and  King  the  English  called  de  Montfort  St. 
Simon  the  Martyr.  At  Evesham  the  vanquished  won 
the  victory  ;  since  Edward  learned  more  than  the  art 
of  war  from  the  uncle  he  defeated.  From  de  Montfort 
King  Edward  I.  learned  to  trust  his  people  and  rule 
wisely  ;  and  England  learned  from  her  great  earl  to 
value  economic  independence  and  political  freedom 
so  dearly  that  in  time  she  was  really  able  to  live  of 
her  own.  But  two  centuries  had  to  elapse  before  the 
lesson  was  fully  learned. 


IX 

THE  MAGNATES  LOSE  THEIR    DEMOCRATIC   SYMPATHIES 
1270-1325 

THE  death  of  de  Montfort  wrecked  the  democratic 
cause.  The  property  of  the  insurgent  barons  was 
confiscated.  London  lost  her  civic  rights ;  and  her 
democratic  mayor,  FitzThomas,  died  in  prison.  The 
disinherited  continued  a  hopeless  fight  against  Prince 
Edward,  who  undertook  the  task  of  reducing  England 
to  obedience.  After  a  time  more  moderate  counsels 
prevailed.  The  barons  were  allowed  to  redeem  their 
estates  by  the  payment  of  heavy  fines.  Henry  left  the 
government  in  the  hands  of  his  son,  who  proved  that 
he  had  learned  much  from  de  Montfort.  In  1270  the 
work  of  pacification  was  so  complete  that  Edward 
thought  it  safe  to  accept  the  cross  from  his  father  and 
leave  England  on  crusade.  Before  he  left,  London 
was  given  her  old  freedom. 

England's  interest  in  the  crusade  was  but  slight. 
Charles  of  Anjou  was  King  of  Sicily  ;  to  extend  French 
influence  in  the  Mediterranean  his  brother,  Louis  IX., 
sailed  for  Tunis  on  his  last  crusade.  Before  he  joined 
Louis,  Prince  Edward  learned  that  the  crusade  had 
failed,  that  Louis  was  dead,  and  that  his  son,  Philip  III., 
had  made  peace  with  the  infidel.  Edward  then  sailed 


io8         THE  STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

to  Acre,  where  Christians  were  fighting  to  keep  their 
only  remaining  colony  in  Syria.  Recalled  to  England 
in  1272  by  alarming  accounts  of  his  father's  health, 
Edward,  on  his  return  journey,  visited  Charles  of 
Anjou  in  Sicily,  where  he  could  see  for  himself  that 
Germany  had  ceased  to  be  the  leading  European  State. 
A  French  king  ruled  the  island  which  had  flourished 
under  Frederic's  care ;  and  Frenchmen  had  taken 
from  Germans  the  task  of  alternately  protecting  and 
attacking  the  papacy.  Pope  Gregory  X.,  Edward's 
host  at  Orvieto,  could  tell  his  guest  that  Rome  was 
sanctioning  the  termination  of  the  imperial  inter- 
regnum in  Germany,  hoping  that  the  reconciliation  of 
Pope  and  Emperor  would  stimulate  the  waning  interest 
of  Europe  in  the  East  and  lead  to  a  new  crusade.  But 
the  contrast  between  the  feeble  remnant  of  Christians 
at  Acre  and  the  prosperous  burghers  of  the  North 
Italian  cities,  who  gave  the  young  king  a  royal  recep- 
tion, must  have  shown  him  that  the  growth  of  Euro- 
pean industry  had  quenched  all  zeal  for  the  crusades. 
That  Edward  loved  the  old  feudal  world  which  was 
so  rapidly  changing  is  shown  by  his  halting,  on  the 
way  to  Paris,  to  accept  a  challenge  from  the  Count  of 
Chalons.  The  King  won  great  renown  by  unhorsing 
his  opponent ;  and  then,  after  paying  feudal  homage 
to  his  suzerain  at  Paris,  he  spent  some  time  in  settling 
his  complicated  feudal  relations  with  his  turbulent 
vassals  of  Aquitaine.  But,  even  before  the  King 
returned  to  England,  he  had  to  give  his  serious  atten- 
tion to  prosaic  mercantile  disputes  which  had  been 
affecting  Anglo-Flemish  trade.  In  April  1274  Edward 
made  the  exportation  of  English  wool  a  capital  offence. 


MAGNATES  LESS  DEMOCRATIC         109 

Stint  of  wool  stopped  the  Flemish  looms.  On  his 
return  from  Aquitaine  he  had  a  consultation  with  the 
Mayor  of  London  in  Paris  ;  and  then  met  Count  Guy 
of  Flanders,  with  whom  he  made  a  satisfactory  com- 
mercial treaty.  In  August  1274  Edward  had  a  warm 
welcome  when  he  entered  London. 

Whether  Edward  did  or  did  not  fully  realise  that 
the  production  of  the  East  was  being  eclipsed  by  that 
of  the  great  manufacturing  centres  of  Europe,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  the  call  of  the  East  sounded  more  faintly 
to  him  after  his  visit  to  Acre.  The  thirty-five  years  of 
Edward's  reign  were  devoted  to  the  establishment  of 
an  English  parliament,  in  which  the  Commons  were 
represented,  to  the  definition  of  the  respective  rights 
of  the  King  and  the  people,  to  securing  access  to  the 
Flemish  wool  market,  and  to  the  unification  of  Great 
Britain.  The  last  object  was  the  one  which  was  nearest 
Edward's  heart ;  it  was  also  the  only  one  which  he 
failed  to  achieve. 

In  1275  the  Parliament  of  Westminster  passed  a 
comprehensive  statute  codifying  English  law.  At  the 
request  of  the  merchants  the  King's  ancient  right  of 
prise  was  altered  into  a  definite  export  duty  on  wool 
and  leather,  England's  chief  exports.  A  definite  money 
payment  was  granted  on  each  sack  of  wool  and  last  of 
leather.  The  export  duties  were  called  the  Ancient 
or  Great  Customs.  When  prices  rose  this  fixed  money 
payment  injuriously  affected  the  royal  revenue  and 
led  to  trouble  ;  but  it  was  an  attempt  at  removing  a 
cause  of  friction  between  the  King  and  his  subjects. 
These  export  duties,  which  enhanced  the  price  of 
English  wool  in  Flanders,  gave  a  permanent,  though 


no    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

slight,  protection  to  English  weavers,  Flemish  cloth, 
when  sold  in  the  English  market,  was  also  burdened 
with  the  cost  of  carrying  the  wool  to  Flanders  and  the 
cloth  to  England.  In  1278  a  statute,  Quo  Warranto, 
was  passed  to  compel  barons  to  declare  the  grounds  on 
which  they  claimed  their  feudal  rights.  The  results 
of  the  inquiry  were  recorded  so  that  no  new  rights 
could  be  acquired  by  custom. 

In  1279  another  statute,  Mortmain,  was  passed  to 
prevent  English  land  from  passing  into  the  hands  of 
the  clergy  without  the  King's  consent.  The  change 
effected  by  the  growth  of  manufacture  in  Europe  is 
illustrated  by  this  statute.  Edward's  father  began 
his  reign  as  a  vassal  of  the  Pope,  although  the  papacy 
was  engaged  in  its  struggle  with  the  imperial  power ; 
but  Edward  could  pass  laws,  which  at  one  time  would 
have  called  forth  excommunication  and  interdict, 
although  Rome  had  vanquished  her  imperial  rival. 
The  papacy  was,  however,  as  seriously  weakened  as  its 
former  foe.  The  Church  still  retained  her  hold  over 
agriculture  ;  but,  when  fine  cloth  was  worth  eight  times 
the  wool  from  which  it  was  woven,  merchants  became 
richer  and  more  powerful  than  abbots.  When  kings, 
merchants,  and  artisans  worked  in  concert,  they  could 
curb  priests  and  barons.  This  was,  however,  not  fullv 
realised  in  England  for  two  centuries  after  Edward's 
reign.  If  England  was  born  at  Runnymede,  she  was 
an  infant  until  de  Montfort  and  Edward  taught  her  to 
speak.  For  two  hundred  years  she  learned,  as  a  child 
learns,  by  painful  experience.  Then,  under  the  Tudors, 
she  began  her  royal  career. 

The  Chronicler  who  wrote  that  Wales  was  in  the 


MAGNATES  LESS  DEMOCRATIC         HI 

power  of  William  the  Conqueror  probably  meant 
little  more  than  that  Wales  could  not  have  offered 
serious  resistance  to  his  attack.  The  union  of  Eng- 
land and  Wales  was  furthered  by  the  settlement  of 
Flemings  at  Pembroke  under  Henry  I.  The  general 
disintegration  of  Stephen's  reign  weakened  the  con- 
nexion, which  was  re-established  by  Henry  II.  and 
John.  The  revolutions  which  produced  the  Great 
Charter  and  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  left  Wales  in 
a  semi-independent  position.  By  force  of  arms 
Edward  I.  united  Wales  to  England,  and  cemented 
the  union  by  giving  his  son  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wales. 
The  Scotch  of  the  Lowlands  were,  like  the  English, 
a  blend  of  Saxons,  Danes,  and  Normans.  Whatever 
meaning  should  be  attached  to  the  Chronicler's  state- 
ment that  William  the  Conqueror  "  also  subjected 
Scotland  to  him  by  his  great  strength,"  it  is  certain 
that  in  1175  the  King  of  Scotland  admitted  the  over- 
lordship  of  Henry  II.  Richard  I.  sold  his  suzerain 
rights  ;  but  there  remained  an  indefinite  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  superiority  of  the  English  king.  During 
the  reign  of  Henry  III.  the  royal  families  of  England 
and  Scotland  became  closely  united.  Alexander  II. 
married  Henry's  sister,  and  Alexander  III.  married 
Henry's  daughter.  In  1286  Alexander  III.  died, 
leaving  no  direct  heirs  except  the  child  Margaret,  the 
Maid  of  Norway.  Her  premature  death  wrecked  the 
hopes  of  a  peaceful  union  which  had  been  founded 
on  her  betrothal  to  Edward's  heir.  After  Margaret's 
death  in  1290,  two  Scotch  barons  of  Norman  descent, 
John  Balliol  and  Robert  Bruce,  submitted  their  claims 
to  the  throne  of  Scotland  to  Edward's  arbitration. 


ii2    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

In  1292  Balliol  became  King  John  of  Scotland,  and 
at  the  same  time  he  accepted  Edward's  over-lordship. 

The  Scotch,  like  the  English,  were  growers  of  wool ; 
they  sold  their  wool  in  Flanders  as  the  English  did. 
When  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  and  again  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.,  the  union  of  Great  Britain  was  ap- 
parently accomplished,  the  Scotch  wool-growers  found 
that  union  with  England  was  immediately  followed  by 
the  closure  of  the  Flemish  market.  To  Scotch  sheep- 
farmers  union  with  England  came  to  mean  financial 
ruin,  while  alliance  with  France  ensured  an  open 
door  in  Flanders  for  their  wool.  This  condition  was 
not  altered  until  the  Flemish  weaving  industry  was 
ruined  by  the  development  of  English  weaving.  Then 
union  with  England  became  a  popular  policy  in  Scot- 
land, and  the  union  of  Great  Britain  was  peacefully 
accomplished.  It  is  commonly  asserted  that  the 
Scotch  rebelled  against  Edward  I.  because  King  John 
of  Scotland  was  summoned  to  answer  charges  brought 
by  merchants  in  Edward's  court ;  but  this  was  an 
ordinary  incident  of  the  feudal  relation.  Edward  was 
summoned  to  answer  charges  brought  by  French 
sailors  to  Philip's  court  in  Paris,  and  admitted  the 
validity  of  the  summons  by  sending  his  brother  to 
appear  as  his  deputy.  Such  a  grievance  would  not 
have  destroyed  the  friendly  relations  between  Scotland 
and  England ;  whereas  exclusion  from  the  Flemish 
market  affected  every  home  in  Scotland. 

In  1293  rivalry  between  the  seamen  of  Normandy 
and  of  the  Cinque  Ports  led  to  a  sea  fight  in  which  the 
Norman  fleet  was  destroyed.  Edward  tried  to  avert 
war  by  sending  his  brother  Edmund  to  Paris  to 


MAGNATES   LESS  DEMOCRATIC          113 

answer  the  charges  brought  against  him  in  Philip's 
court  and  by  acquiescing  in  the  sequestration  of  six 
Gascon  strongholds  for  a  short  period  as  atonement 
for  the  destruction  of  the  Norman  fleet.  These 
castles  were,  however,  retained  by  the  French  King 
and  war  became  inevitable.  There  were  Flemish  ships 
in  the  French  fleet,  but  Edward  and  Count  Guy  took 
immediate  steps  to  secure  the  continuance  of  friendly 
commercial  relations.  In  particular  the  Count  of 
Flanders  promised  that  trade  between  Scotland  and 
Flanders  should  not  be  interrupted.  A  project  of 
marrying  Edward's  heir  to  a  daughter  of  Count  Guy, 
which  had  previously  been  mooted  and  abandoned, 
was  revived.  In  June  1294  the  marriage  treaty  was 
signed.  Then  the  French  King  intervened. 

Edward  knew  that  delay  was  dangerous.  The 
magnates,  including  King  John  of  Scotland,  met  in 
June  1294.  War  was  unanimously  agreed  on,  and 
money  almost  enthusiastically  promised.  The  feudal 
levies  were  summoned  to  meet  at  Portsmouth  in 
September.  The  national  emergency  forced  the  King 
to  resort  to  unconstitutional  methods  of  taxation. 
"  Even  before  the  June  parliament  he  had  seized  all  the 
wool  of  the  merchants,  releasing  it  only  on  the  payment 
of  from  three  to  five  marks  on  the  sack ;  an  impost 
which  by  some  undescribed  process  received  the  legal 
consent  of  the  owners  of  wool,  and  was  prolonged  to 
the  end  of  the  war.  On  July  4  he  had  seized  and 
enrolled  all  the  coined  money  and  treasure  in  the 
sacristies  of  the  monasteries  and  cathedrals.  The 
assembled  clergy  were  no  doubt  prepared  for  a  heavy 
demand,  when  the  King  appeared  in  person,  and  after 

I 


Ii4    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

apologising  for  his  recent  violence  on  the  plea  of 
necessity,  asked  for  an  aid."  After  some  resistance  the 
clergy  submitted.  The  possessions  of  alien  priories 
were  also  seized  and  small  incomes  were  allotted  to  the 
clergy.  This  step  checked  the  sending  of  money  to  the 
French  Chapters,  to  whom  the  monasteries  owed 
allegiance.  Before  the  opposition  of  the  clergy  was 
overcome,  Edward  threatened  to  deprive  them  of  the 
protection  of  the  law. 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Robert  of  Winchel- 
sey,  was  a  Franciscan,  and  the  earnestness  with  which 
he  defended  the  possessions  of  the  Church  marks  a 
change  in  the  attitude  of  the  friars  towards  worldly 
wealth.  The  Sicilian  vespers  occurred  in  1282.  Then 
the  French  in  Sicily  were  exterminated  by  the  natives. 
For  a  time  the  papacy  was  freed  from  French  control, 
and  Pope  Boniface  VIII.  used  this  freedom  to  assert 
again  an  extreme  view  of  papal  rights.  In  spite  of  the 
Act  of  Mortmain  large  sums  were  sent  to  Rome  from 
England  and  also  from  France.  Boniface  determined 
that  the  Anglo-French  war  should  not  affect  this 
tribute  ;  and  Winchelsey  supported  his  Pope.  The 
spirit  of  de  Montfort  seemed  to  live  only  in  King 
Edward.  The  Church  tried  to  evade  taxation.  The 
barons  used  the  King's  difficulties  as  a  means  by  which 
they  could  force  the  surrender  of  the  royal  forest 
rights.  The  merchants  shared  the  general  desire  to 
evade  taxation.  Even  the  King's  patriotism  was 
tainted  by  his  wish  to  retain  Gascony. 

Disunion  in  England  delayed  the  attack  on 
Gascony.  The  Welsh  seized  what  seemed  a  favour- 
able opportunity  for  rebellion ;  and  Edward  was 


MAGNATES  LESS  DEMOCRATIC         115 

obliged  to  lead  an  army  into  Wales.  It  was  not  until 
the  summer  of  1295  that  the  Welsh  insurrection  was 
suppressed.  Meanwhile  Philip  of  France  was  able 
not  only  to  defeat  the  weak  force  which  was  sent  to 
Gascony,  but  to  create  trouble  for  Edward  in  Flanders 
and  Scotland.  Count  Guy  was  summoned  to  Paris, 
and  on  his  arrival  was  arrested  and  detained  in  prison 
for  some  months.  He  was  not  released  until  he  gave 
his  daughter,  who  was  betrothed  to  Edward's  son,  as  a 
hostage  to  Philip.  Commerce  between  Flanders  and 
Edward's  dominions  was  forbidden.  The  closing  of 
the  Flemish  market  led  to  a  revolution  in  Scotland, 
King  John  of  Scotland  was  placed  under  the  control 
of  twelve  Scotch  magnates  ;  an  alliance  with  France 
followed ;  and  then,  in  June  1295,  Philip  commanded 
the  Flemish  to  re-open  their  market  to  the  Scotch. 
Although  the  invasion  of  Gascony  proved  a  failure, 
the  English  navy,  which  Edward  organised,  was  able 
to  check  Philip's  attempt  to  gain  control  of  the 
Channel.  Nevertheless  in  1295  the  revolt  of  Scotland 
added  greatly  to  Edward's  troubles. 

Imitating  his  uncle  de  Montfort,  Edward,  in 
November  1295,  summoned  a  representative  parlia- 
ment, called  the  Model  Parliament,  in  order  "  that  what 
touches  all  should  be  approved  by  all,"  and  that 
"  common  dangers  should  be  met  by  remedies  agreed 
upon  in  common."  Of  the  common  danger  the  King 
wrote  that  Philip  "  has  beset  my  realm  with  a  great 
fleet  and  a  great  multitude  of  warriors,  and  purposes, 
if  his  power  equal  his  unrighteous  design,  to  blot  out 
the  English  tongue  from  the  face  of  the  earth."  The 
laity  responded  to  the  appeal ;  but  the  clergy  declined 

12 


n6    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  vote  an  adequate  grant.  Once  more,  an  insufficient 
force  was  sent  to  Gascony.  In  Scotland  Edward  had 
more  success.  He  was  again  master  of  Scotland  by 
force  of  arms  in  the  summer  of  1296. 

The  tension  between  Church  and  King  reached  its 
climax  at  the  parliament  of  Bury  in  November  1296. 
The  clergy  declined  to  submit  to  the  taxation  agreed  to 
by  the  laity.  They  pleaded  a  bull  of  Boniface  VIII., 
in  which,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  lay  rulers 
were  forbidden  to  tax  their  clergy  and,  under  the  same 
penalty,  the  clergy  were  forbidden  to  pay  such  taxes. 
Edward  replied  by  depriving  the  clergy  of  all  redress 
or  protection  in  English  law  courts.  This  drastic 
measure  caused  many  of  the  clergy  to  give  way  ;  but 
the  quarrel  was  still  smouldering  when  Edward  sailed 
for  Flanders  in  1297.  In  November  1296  Edward 
made  an  alliance  against  France  with  the  Emperor  of 
Germany,  the  Duke  of  Austria,  the  Counts  of  Holland, 
Brabant,  and  Flanders,  and  other  Teutonic  princes. 
The  object  of  the  alliance  was  the  deliverance  of 
Flanders  from  French  control. 

Philip  tried  to  bribe  the  Flemish  to  desert  Edward 
by  offering  commercial  advantages.  When  this  attempt 
failed  a  French  army  moved  towards  Flanders,  and 
Flemish  envoys  were  sent  to  beg  Edward  to  come  to 
their  Count's  assistance.  In  May  1297  William 
Wallace  became  the  leader  of  a  Scotch  revolt,  but 
neither  this  nor  the  disaffection  of  his  barons  pre- 
vented Edward  from  sailing  to  Flanders  in  August. 
The  magnates  flatly  refused  to  go  to  Gascony  and 
showed  no  great  zeal  for  the  expedition  to  Flanders. 
Edward  was  therefore  unable  to  raise  the  South  of 


MAGNATES  LESS  DEMOCRATIC         117 

France  against  Philip,  whilst  he  tried  to  drive  the 
French  from  Flanders.  The  magnates  were  apparently 
conciliated  by  Edward's  promise  to  redress  their 
grievances  on  his  return ;  but  instead  of  sending 
Edward  the  supply  they  had  promised,  they  took 
advantage  of  his  absence  by  obtaining  a  confirmation 
of  the  Great  Charter  and  the  Forest  Charter  from  the 
boy,  Prince  Edward,  who  had  been  appointed  Regent. 
Want  of  money,  disunion  in  Flanders,  and  the 
defection  of  his  allies  wrecked  Edward's  scheme.  He 
was  reduced  to  pawning  the  Crown  jewels  before  he 
signed  a  truce  with  Philip  in  October  1297,  and  re- 
turned to  England  in  March  1298.  One  reason  for  the 
abandonment  of  the  Flemish  campaign  was  a  victory 
won  by  Wallace  at  Stirling  Bridge  in  September  1297. 
On  his  return  Edward  at  once  made  preparations  for 
the  conquest  of  Scotland.  In  July  1298  the  defeat 
of  the  Scotch  at  Falkirk  might  have  led  to  the  union  of 
Scotland  and  England  ;  but  the  disaffection  of  the 
English  lords  prevented  Edward  from  making  use  of 
his  victory.  The  magnates  were  dissatisfied  because 
the  confirmation  of  the  Forest  Charter  had  not  led  to 
the  surrender  of  royal  rights.  The  King  was  unwilling 
to  abandon  his  rights  unless  an  arrangement  was 
made  by  which  the  royal  revenue  was  not  diminished. 
The  dispute  ended  in  the  surrender  of  the  royal  rights 
in  1301  in  return  for  a  small  grant  of  money.  The 
Statute  of  Merton,  which  sanctioned  enclosures,  the 
partially  successful  opposition  of  the  magnates  to  the 
Statute  of  Quo  Warranto,  which  was  intended  to 
compel  them  to  disclose  their  titles  to  the  lands  they 
claimed,  and  their  victory  over  the  King  in  1301,  were 


n8    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  first  of  a  long  series  of  measures  by  which  crown 
lands  passed  into  private  hands. 

The  King  obtained  the  funds  he  needed  for  the 
conquest  of  Scotland  in  1302  by  an  arrangement  made 
with  foreign  merchants  in  a  treaty  called  Carta  Mer- 
catoria.  Aliens  were  allowed  to  trade  freely  in 
England  with  their  fellow  aliens  or  with  Englishmen. 
They  were  exempted  from  the  payment  of  local 
dues.  They  were  allowed  to  sell  certain  articles  retail. 
In  case  of  dispute  they  were  granted  the  privilege  of 
being  tried  by  a  jury  of  which  half  the  members  should 
be  foreigners.  The  ancient  exactions  of  the  Crown 
were  abolished.  In  return  for  these  privileges  the 
alien  merchants  agreed  to  a  scale  of  export  duties  fifty 
per  cent,  greater  than  those  imposed  on  wool  and 
leather  in  the  Ancient  Customs  and  to  certain  mode- 
rate duties  on  other  articles  imported  and  exported. 
There  is  no  record  of  the  amount  paid  by  the  foreigners 
for  these  privileges  ;  but  these  New  Customs  were 
farmed  to  the  Frescobaldi,  Italian  financiers,  who  had 
obtained  a  monopoly  of  English  finance  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  in  1290. 

After  the  signature  of  this,  the  Merchants'  Charter, 
the  war  with  Scotland  was  vigorously  resumed.  The 
magnates  were  not  asked  to  contribute  towards  the 
expenses  of  the  war  ;  but  in  1304  the  King  levied  a 
heavy  tallage  on  the  royal  domains.  This  was  objected 
to  in  the  parliament  of  1305,  but  the  opposition  of  the 
magnates  ceased  when  the  King  gave  them  leave  to 
tallage  their  tenants  in  like  manner.  In  1305  the 
alien  priories,  for  whom  no  one  greatly  cared,  were  for- 
bidden to  send  money  to  their  foreign  parent  houses. 


MAGNATES  LESS  DEMOCRATIC          119 

This  money  was  paid  into  the  royal  exchequer.  In 
the  autumn  of  1305  Scotland  was  again  subdued 
and  Wallace  was  hanged  at  Tyburn.  Meanwhile  the 
quarrel  between  Philip  of  France  and  the  papacy  had 
been  strengthening  Edward's  position.  In  1302  the 
Sicilian  vespers  were  repeated  in  the  matins  of  Bruges. 
Philip  invaded  Flanders  to  avenge  the  massacre  of 
Frenchmen,  and  suffered  a  crushing  defeat  at  Courtrai. 
Although  this  defeat  was  partially  redeemed  at  Mons 
en  Puelle  in  the  following  year,  Philip  was  obliged  to 
acquiesce  in  the  practical  autonomy  of  Flanders  whilst 
he  waged  war  with  the  Pope.  To  free  his  hands  for 
his  great  struggle  Philip  restored  Gascony  to  Edward 
in  1303,  and  the  Anglo-French  peace  became  an 
entente  cordiale.  In  1305  a  Gascon  became  Pope 
Clement  V.  For  seventy  years  Popes  ruled  Chris- 
tendom from  Avignon,  where  they  became  the  servants 
of  the  King  of  France.  At  first  the  entente  cordiale 
gave  Edward  almost  as  much  influence  over  Pope 
Clement  as  King  Philip  possessed. 

The  relations  between  England  and  Scotland  had 
become  so  embittered  that  the  union  could  only  be 
maintained  by  force  of  arms.  In  1306,  and  again  in 
1307,  the  Scotch  were  in  arms  under  Robert  Bruce, 
who  was  crowned  King  of  Scotland.  In  the  latter 
year  Edward  I.  died  whilst  fighting  the  Scotch.  One  of 
his  last  instructions  was  to  urge  his  son,  soon  to  be 
Edward  II.,  to  continue  the  war  until  Scotland  was 
subdued.  In  1306  Edward  had  obtained  a  papal 
bull  absolving  him  from  his  oath  confirming  the  Forest 
Charter.  About  the  same  time  Edward  obtained  from 
the  Pope  letters  suspending  Archbishop  Winchelsey 


120         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  summoning  him  to  the  papal  Court.  In  1305 
Edward  had  received  petitions  from  the  poorer  folk 
complaining  that  they  had  lost  their  ancient  rights 
when  the  forests  passed  into  private  hands.  He  then 
issued  an  ordinance  reforming  the  administration  of  the 
forests  and  decreeing  that  "  if  any  of  them  that  be 
disafforested  by  the  purlieu  would  rather  be  within  the 
forest  as  they  were  before,  than  to  be  out  of  the  forest, 
as  they  be  now,  it  pleaseth  the  King  very  well  that  they 
shall  be  received  thereunto,  so  that  they  may  remain  in 
their  ancient  estate,  and  shall  have  common  and  other 
easement,  as  well  as  they  had  before."  This  ordinance 
might  have  been  framed  by  de  Montfort. 

Edward  would  probably  have  regained  his  forest 
rights  after  the  Pope  had  absolved  him  from  his  oath 
but  for  his  death  in  1307.  Weakened  by  the  loss  of 
their  leader,  Archbishop  Winchelsey,  the  magnates 
were  unable  for  the  moment  to  resist  the  King. 
Edward  II.,  however,  inherited  an  unfinished  war  with 
Scotland,  a  quarrel  with  English  merchants  over  the 
Carta  Mercatoria,  and  one  with  his  barons  over  the 
revocation  of  the  Forest  Charter.  There  was  peace 
with  France  until  1323,  when  a  dispute  arose  over  the 
question  of  homage  for  Aquitaine.  But  in  the  fighting 
the  English  were  little  involved,  and  the  dispute  was 
settled  in  1325  when  Edward's  eldest  son  did  homage. 
Nevertheless,  the  twenty  years  of  Edward's  reign 
were  filled  with  strife.  The  King  failed  to  recover  his 
forests  and  the  merchants  continued  to  protect  their 
trade,  but  the  victory  of  the  magnates  and  merchants 
was  won  at  a  great  cost.  The  loss  of  Scotland  and  the 
murder  of  the  King  formed  part  of  the  price  England 
paid. 


X 

CARTA  MERCATORIA  AND  ITS   INFLUENCE 
I307-I340 

ONE  body  of  foreign  merchants  in  London,  the  Germans, 
had  little  need  of  the  treaty  called  Carta  Mercatoria. 
They  had  enjoyed  special  privileges  from  the  time 
of  Ethelred.  These  privileges  were  confirmed  by 
Henry  II.  and  his  successors.  Their  concession  in 
London  was  the  Steelyard.  In  1254,  when  the  imperial 
power  decayed  after  the  death  of  Frederic  II.,  an 
ancient  confederation  of  Rhine  towns,  under  the  head- 
ship of  Cologne,  renewed  their  union.  This  con- 
federation ultimately  joined  a  northern  federation  and 
became  the  Hanseatic  League,  an  almost  independent 
State  within  the  Empire  of  Germany.  Liibeck  became 
the  centre  of  the  League,  and  it  included  the  river 
and  coast  towns,  both  German  and  Dutch,  from  the 
Vistula  to  the  Rhine.  The  Hanse  merchants,  or 
Easterlings,  as  the  English  called  them,  missed  no 
opportunity  of  increasing  their  privileges,  but  they, 
were  wise  enough  to  remain  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
citizens  of  London.  They  were  responsible  for  the  repair 
of  Bishopsgate  and  for  the  payment  of  one-third  of 
the  expense  of  maintaining  its  guard.  The  Easterlings 
carried  to  England  from  the  Baltic  corn  in  time  of 


122         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

dearth,  and  naval  stores,  such  as  masts,  tar,  and  hemp. 
England  came  to  rely  upon  the  Germans  for  her  navy. 
As  late  as  Elizabeth's  reign  the  Jesus  of  Lnbeck  was 
one  of  England's  fighting  ships. 

Edward  II.  commenced  his  reign  by  reversing  his 
father's  policy  and  disobeying  his  father's  last  instruc- 
tions. The  Scotch  war  was  abandoned  before  the 
country  was  completely  subdued.  Gaveston,  a  Gascon, 
who  had  been  banished  by  Edward  I.,  was  recalled, 
loaded  with  gifts,  and  made  the  King's  chief  adviser. 
In  one  particular  Edward  II.  obeyed  his  father.  He 
married  the  French  King's  daughter  Isabella  in  1308 
at  Boulogne.  On  his  return  the  magnates  insisted 
on  the  exile  of  Gaveston.  The  King's  favourite  was 
then  sent  to  Ireland  as  Regent.  Archbishop  Win- 
chelsey  returned  to  England,  once  again  to  lead  the 
magnates  in  their  contest  with  the  King.  Parliament 
in  1309  gave  the  King  a  small  grant  of  money  and  a 
long  list  of  grievances,  which  included  Carta  Merca- 
toria. 

Carta  Mercatoria  was  disliked  not  because  customs 
were  levied  on  foreigners,  but  because  in  return  for 
these  payments  to  the  King  foreigners  were  excused 
from  the  payment  of  local  dues,  murage,  pontage, 
and  pavage,  and  the  cities  lost  the  power  of  preventing 
them  from  competing  in  the  internal  trade  of  England 
by  harassing  regulations.  After  the  new  customs  were 
suspended  at  the  commencement  of  Edward's  reign 
the  King  sanctioned  a  decree  which,  among  other 
restrictions,  forbade  foreign  merchants  to  engage  in 
retail  trade  or  to  remain  more  than  forty  days  at  a 
time  in  England.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  Edward  III. 


CARTA  MERCATORIA  123 

after  tne  abdication  of  his  father  was  to  grant  a  charter 
to  London  which  confirmed  these  privileges.  For 
centuries  this  drastic  method  of  protection  kept  the 
internal  trade  of  England  in  English  hands,  thus 
continuing  the  work  once  done  by  the  merchant  gilds. 
External  trade  was  beyond  the  slender  means  of  the 
English.  They  cheerfully  recognised  the  rights  of  the 
powerful  Hanseatic  merchants,  and  in  English  com- 
mercial legislation  the  privileges  of  the  Easterlings, 
which  had  been  granted  long  before  Magna  Carta, 
were  always  safeguarded.  In  return  the  Easterlings 
did  not  interfere  in  the  retail  trade,  nor  did  they  leave 
the  seaports  in  order  to  deal  directly  with  the  monkish 
wool  growers  or  the  inland  wool  merchants. 

In  defiance  of  the  wish  of  the  barons,  Gaveston 
returned  to  England  in  July  1309.  But  when 
Gaveston's  return  was  followed  by  the  King's  promise 
to  redress  grievances  many  of  the  barons  sullenly 
acquiesced.  About  this  time  an  attempt  was  made 
to  increase  the  King's  revenue  by  letting  the  waste 
lands  in  the  royal  forests.  This  promising  scheme  was 
dropped  when  the  quarrel  between  King  and  magnates 
developed  and  the  storm  broke.  The  King  had 
farmed  the  Customs  to  Italians  in  order  to  raise  money. 
With  the  gates  of  the  island  in  foreign  control,  the 
danger  which  threatened  England  can  only  be  com- 
pared with  that  which  menaced  the  country  when  John 
acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  the  Pope. 

In  March  1310  there  was  held  a  great  council  of 
bishops  and  barons.  In  spite  of  the  King's  order  the 
barons  presented  themselves  in  full  military  array. 
Edward  II.  was  forced  to  submit  to  be  controlled  by 


124         THE  STRENGTH  OF   ENGLAND 

twenty-one  magnates,  who  were  called  Ordainers. 
Forty-one  rules  by  which  England  was  to  be  governed 
were  drawn  up  by  the  Ordainers  and  submitted  to  a 
Parliament.  The  ordinances  decreed  that  the  King 
should  live  of  his  own  but  should  not  increase  his 
forests,  that  the  Frescobaldi  and  other  alien  mer- 
chants to  whom  the  customs  had  been  farmed  should 
be  imprisoned  until  they  had  accounted  for  the  money 
they  had  received,  that  the  Carta  Mercatoria  should  be 
rescinded  and  aliens  subjected  to  the  ancient  oppressive 
dues  and  regulations  from  which  they  had  been  freed, 
also  that  Gaveston  and  other  friends  of  the  King 
should  be  banished  from  England.  In  1311,  and  again 
in  1317,  Edward  II.  confirmed  the  ancient  charters 
to  the  merchants  of  the  Steelyard,  so  that,  while  ^the 
Flemish  Hanse  in  England  decayed,  the  Easterlings 
were  able  to  acquire  a  practical  monopoly  of  the 
Anglo-Flemish  trade. 

There  is  a  marked  contrast  between  the  policy  of 
the  Ordainers  and  that  for  which  de  Montfort  died. 
Whilst  the  Kings  of  France  were  abolishing  serfdom, 
the  magnates  of  England  were  annexing  forest  and 
waste  lands  and  sowing  the  seeds  of  civil  war  by  doing 
nothing  for  the  agricultural  serf  or  the  artisan  in  the 
towns.  The  King's  party  might  have  done  something 
for  the  poor,  since,  when  they  had  power,  only  a  few 
months  before  they  were  overthrown  and  the  King 
murdered,  a  proclamation  was  issued  prohibiting  the 
exportation  of  fuller's  earth,  teasles,  and  other  sub- 
stances used  in  clothmaking,  in  order  to  protect 
English  weavers.  The  Edwards  who  have  worn  the 
crown  of  England  since  the  Conquest  have  often 


CARTA   MERCATORIA  125 

suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  magnates  arid  middlemen, 
but  of  none  can  it  be  truly  said  that  they  forgot  the 
interests  of  the  poor  workers  "of  England. 

Gaveston  fled  to  Flanders,  but  soon  returned. 
With  his  King  he  tried  to  rally  the  North  to  the  royal 
cause.  This  attempt  failed;  and  Gaveston,  on  the 
strength  of  an  oath  that  he  should  suffer  no  bodily 
harm,  surrendered  to  the  barons  in  1312.  Among 
the  many  dignities  which  Edward  had  bestowed  on 
Gaveston  was  that  of  Warden  of  the  forests  south  of 
the  Trent.  No  oath  could  protect  so  dangerous  an 
enemy  of  the  feudal  lords.  Soon  after  his  surrender 
Gaveston  was  murdered  by  the  barons  in  sight  of 
their  leader  Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster.  This  act 
of  treachery  divided  the  baronial  party,  and  after 
protracted  negotiations,  during  which  Archbishop 
Winchelsey  died,  peace  was  made  between  the  King 
and  the  barons.  Gaveston's  murderers  were  pardoned, 
and  the  King  tried  to  obtain  the  support  of  his  barons 
in  settling  the  question  of  Scotland,  which  had  again 
become  acute. 

The  rich  order  of  the  Templars  was  abandoned  by 
the  Pope,  who,  at  Avignon,  was  in  the  power  of  the 
French  King.  The  dissolution  of  the  order  enabled 
the  French  and  English  kings  to  fill  their  treasuries 
with  the  wealth  which  the  Templars  had  acquired. 
The  magnates  obtained  a  share  of  the  plunder,  but 
Edward  II.  obtained  enough  to  enable  him  to  lead  an 
army  against  the  Scotch  in  1314.  Baronial  disloyalty 
had  allowed  Robert  Bruce  to  free  Scotland  from 
English  rule  ;  it  also  led  to  the  victory  of  the  Scotch 
at  Bannockburn.  Edward  II.  returned  to  London 


126         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

discredited  by  his  defeat.  After  1314  all  power  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  barons  and  their  leader,  Thomas 
of  Lancaster.  The  King  of  Scotland  continued  to 
harry  the  North  of  England,  apparently  in  collusion 
with  Lancaster,  whose  estates  were  spared  whilst 
others  were  ravaged.  Ireland  was  invaded  by  the 
Scotch,  and  Edward  Bruce,  the  brother  of  the  King  of 
Scotland,  assumed  the  title  of  King  of  Ireland.  This 
attempt  failed  with  the  death  of  Edward  Bruce  in 
1318  ;  but  it  weakened  English  authority  in  Ireland. 
In  England  the  rule  of  Thomas  of  Lancaster  was 
accompanied  by  incessant  civil  wars,  caused  by  the 
risings  of  the  poorer  folk  to  re-establish  the  royal 
power.  The  alliance  of  the  prelates  and  magnates 
had  an  injurious  effect  upon  the  hierarchy.  In  the 
struggle  for  money  and  land  the  spirit  of  the  friars, 
which  had  animated  Bishop  Grossteste,  was  killed. 

"  They  gave  up  their  whole  leisure  time  to  carving 
bits  out  of  the  forest  and  adding  them  to  their  own 
gardens  ;  sticking  up  palings  round  these  bits  ;  here 
a  cantle  and  there  a  snippet ;  here  a  slab  and  there 
a  slice ;  a  round  corner  and  a  square  corner ;  a 
bare  piece  of  turf  or  a  wooded  clump  ;  and  all  so 
neighbourly,  encouraging  each  other  the  while  with 
a  '  Brother,  will  this  be  to  your  mind  ?  '  or  '  Help 
yourself,  neighbour '  ;  and  '  Let  me  recommend, 
sir,  another  slice '  ;  or  '  A  piece  of  the  woody 
part,  dear  friend.'  '  This  description  of  the  petty 
forest  thieves  of  modern  times  will  serve  for  those  of 
olden  days,  except  that  then  the  amount  stolen  was 
proportionate  to  the  greatness  of  the  robbers.  They 
had  little  mercy  for  those  who  opposed  their  designs 


CARTA   MERCATORIA  127 

on  the  common  lands,  whether  in  or  out  of  the  forest. 
After  Gaveston's  death,  Hugh  Despenser,  a  son  of  the 
justiciar  who  died  with  de  Montfort  at  Evesham,  was 
made  chief  justice  of  the  forests  on  this  side  of  the 
Trent.  He  had  been  a  faithful  servant  of  Edward  I. 
and  had  obtained  the  bull  which  enabled  Edward  to 
cancel  the  forest  charter.  After  the  accession  of 
Edward  II.,  Despenser  continued  to  serve  the  Crown, 
and  he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  magnates 
before  Gaveston's  murder.  He  was  assisted  by  his 
son,  also  named  Hugh,  and  both  the  Despensers 
remained  in  the  service  of  Edward  II.  after  Bannock- 
burn,  although  the  magnates  insisted  upon  the  removal 
of  Despenser  from  his  council.  When  Thomas  of 
Lancaster  failed  to  establish  order  in  England,  the 
King's  party,  and  in  particular  the  Despensers,  ob- 
tained more  control  over  the  government  of  England. 
When  the  citizens  of  London  were  united  they  had 
still  great  weight  in  England  ;  but  they,  too,  were 
weakened  by  disunion.  Just  before  the  death  of 
Henry  III.  they  recovered  their  privilege  of  electing  a 
Mayor,  and  the  common  folk  chose  Hervy,  a  demo- 
crat like  FitzThomas.  The  mercantile  aldermen  were 
induced  to  acquiesce  somewhat  unwillingly.  During 
his  year  of  office  Hervy  gave  the  craft  gilds,  or 
mediaeval  trades  unions,  increased  powers.  Hervy's 
successor  annulled  these  grants,  so  that  craftsmen 
were  unable  to  protect  themselves  from  competition, 
while  the  richer  merchants  retained  their  privileges. 
Edward  I.  weakened  the  authority  of  the  merchant 
magnates  when  he  took  the  city  into  his  hand  from 
1285  until  1298,  and  again  when  he  signed  the  Carta 


128    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Mercatoria.  In  1319,  when  the  influence  of  the 
Despensers  over  Edward  II.  was  becoming  paramount, 
the  King  signed  ordinances  which  decreed  that  no 
stranger  could  become  free  of  the  city  unless  he  belonged 
to  a  craft  gild  or  was  elected  by  the  votes  of  the  com- 
monalty of  the  city.  This  measure  gave  London  a 
democratic  constitution. 

A  full  Parliament  in  1320  attacked  the  Despensers 
on  the  ground  of  their  having  encroached  on  the  royal 
power.  The  younger  Hugh  was  accused  of  having 
taught  that  allegiance  was  due  to  the  Crown  rather 
than  to  the  person  of  the  King,  and  that  if  the  King 
inclined  to  do  wrong  it  was  the  duty  of  a  subject  to 
constrain  him  to  do  right  :  a  strange  charge  to  bring 
against  a  royal  favourite.  The  Despensers  were 
sentenced  to  lose  their  estates  and  to  be  exiled.  Two 
months  later  one  of  the  magnates  insulted  the  Queen, 
and  Edward  was  spurred  into  action.  He  defeated 
the  magnates  at  Boroughbridge  with  the  aid  of  Lon- 
doners. His  great  rival,  Thomas  of  Lancaster,  fell  into 
Edward's  hands  and  was  beheaded.  Thus  died  one 
who  was  in  all  but  name  a  rival  King  of  England  ; 
for  the  conquered  magnate  was  Earl  of  Leicester, 
Derby,  Salisbury,  and  Lincoln,  as  well  as  of  Lancaster. 
Edward's  victory  was  speedily  followed  by  a  com- 
mission to  inquire  into  the  question  of  the  forests 
and  by  the  revocation  of  the  Ordinances.  The  Carta 
Mercatoria  was  thus  revived.  The  disaffection  of  the 
magnates  continued,  and  London  ceased  to  support 
the  King. 

In  1325  the  Queen  went  to  France  to  settle  the 
dispute  over  Edward's  homage  for  Aquitaine.  Next 


CARTA   MERCATORIA  129 

year  she  returned  to  lead  an  insurrection  against  her 
husband.  The  Londoners  joined  the  party  led  by  the 
Queen  and  her  paramour,  Mortimer.  Deserted  by  all, 
Edward  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  son,  and  was  then 
murdered  in  Berkeley  Castle.  Before  the  murder  of 
the  King,  the  Despensers  were  put  to  death.  Under 
the  guidance  of  his  mother  and  Mortimer,  the  boy- 
King,  Edward  III.,  accepted  the  forest  charter  and 
issued  charters  to  the  Londoners  granting  the  city  its 
ancient  privileges.  Foreign  merchants  were  then 
compelled  to  conduct  their  trade  in  conformity  to  the 
ancient  rights  of  the  English  merchants  by  a  statute 
passed  in  1328.  Much  of  Gascony  was  lost  during  the 
last  years  of  Edward  II.,  and  this  loss  was  accepted  by 
a  treaty  with  France  after  the  deposition  of  Edward  II. 
The  independence  of  Scotland  was  recognised  by 
another  treaty.  Though  externally  England  was  at 
peace,  she  was  still  distracted  by  internal  discord  until 
Edward  III.,  in  1330,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  took  the 
government  into  his  own  hands.  Mortimer  was  then 
executed,  and  the  Queen-dowager  retired  into  private 
life.  Taught  by  experience,  the  early  Parliaments  of 
Edward  III.  gave  their  young  King  adequate  grants. 
In  1333  the  Scotch  were  defeated  at  Halidon  Hill ; 
the  English  monarch  became  again  master  of  Scotland, 
with  Edward  Baliol  as  vassal  king.  Then  once  more 
the  Flemish  market  interposed  as  an  obstacle  to  the 
union  of  Great  Britain. 

After  the  death  of  Philip  IV.  of  France  in  1314,  his 
three  sons,  Louis  X.,  Philip  V.,  and  Charles  IV.,  reigned 
in  quick  succession.  These  kings  left  no  sons,  and, 
when  Charles  died  in  1328,  a  nephew  of  Philip  IV. 

K 


130         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

became  Philip  VI.  of  France.  The  Queen-dowager  of 
England  claimed  the  throne  for  her  son,  Edward  III., 
but  the  claim  was  not  seriously  pressed,  and  Edward 
paid  homage  to  Philip  in  1329.  Count  Louis  of 
Flanders  had  found  refuge  in  Paris  from  his  rebellious 
subjects  when  Philip  VI.  became  King.  Without 
delay  a  French  army  invaded  Flanders,  and,  before 
Edward  did  homage,  a  French  victory  at  Cassel 
reduced  Flanders  to  subjection  to  Philip  VI.  and  his 
vassal,  Count  Louis.  When  Scotland  was  united  to 
England,  both  Scotch  and  English  wool  came  from 
Edward's  dominions.  The  political  connexion  of 
France  and  Flanders  was  dwarfed  by  the  Anglo- 
Flemish  economic  bond.  The  French  wished  to  annex 
the  English  possessions  in  Gascony,  and  in  1336  trouble 
broke  out.  To  please  his  suzerain,  Count  Louis 
expelled  Englishmen  from  Flanders.  Edward  replied 
by  depriving  the  French  of  wool  from  his  dominions. 
Again  Scotland  found  that  the  immediate  result  of 
union  with  England  was  loss  of  a  market  for  her  wool. 
Before  long  the  Scotch  were  in  revolt. 

The  Anglo-French  war,  which  began  in  1336, 
resembled  that  fought  by  Edward  I.  ;  but,  whereas 
the  earlier  war  ended  with  the  failure  of  the  Flemish 
campaign,  this  war  was  fought  to  the  bitter  end  and 
won  for  itself  the  name  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War. 
For  more  than  a  century  Flanders,  France,  and  Eng- 
land had  been  preparing  for  this  great  struggle.  In 
1181,  and  again  in  1252,  the  English  were  ordered  by 
law  to  have  weapons  at  hand  in  case  of  need.  The 
Flemish  and  the  French  had  also  become  nations  of 
potential  soldiers.  In  1285  Edward  I.,  by  the  Statute 


CARTA   MERCATORIA  131 

of  Winchester,  made  every  Englishman  personally 
liable  for  his  fitness  to  defend  England.  Edward  III. 
reaped  the  benefit  of  his  grandfather's  legislation  at 
Cre£y,  Poitiers,  and  Neville's  Cross.  In  the  Hundred 
Years'  War  commerce  was  frequently  used  as  a  weapon. 
In  1327  English  exports  to  the  Low  Countries  had  to 
be  sent  to  Bruges  ;  but  before  they  were  shipped, 
they  had  also  to  be  collected  at  one  of  eight  English 
towns  called  staples.  To  please  the  Flemish, 
Edward  III.,  at  the  commencement  of  his  reign, 
allowed  them  to  buy  wool  in  any  English  town.  After 
the  battle  of  Cassel,  Edward  issued  a  proclamation 
inviting  Flemish  weavers  to  settle  in  England.  If  it 
had  been  possible,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  to  trans- 
fer an  industry  rapidly  from  one  country  to  another, 
the  Scotch  could  have  found  a  market  for  their  wool  in 
England,  and  Great  Britain  might  have  been  unified. 
But  this  transference  could  only  be  accomplished  by 
inviting  individual  weavers  to  settle  in  a  foreign  land 
and  then  employing  them  to  teach  native  apprentices. 
This  slow  movement  was  aided  by  the  Count  of  Flanders, 
who  banished  his  weavers  if  they  opposed  his  pro- 
French  policy.  Doubtless  the  Count  could  not  realise 
that  this  emigration  of  weavers  could  affect  so  rich 
and  prosperous  a  land  as  Flanders.  Yet  Belgian 
writers  mark  this  date  as  the  beginning  of  the  ruin  of 
Flanders. 

Edward  III.  tried  to  form  an  alliance  with  the 
Germans  and  the  Flemish  against  the  French.  He 
began  his  reign  by  confirming  the  privileges  of  the 
Steelyard,  and  in  1335  gave  foreign  merchants  the 
same  freedom  of  trade  as  Englishmen,  "notwithstanding 

K  2 


132         THE  STRENGTH  OF   ENGLAND 

charters,  usages,  and  customs  which  they  (the  English) 
can  allege."  The  Flemish  could  enjoy  these  rights  if 
they  would  separate  themselves  from  the  French. 
On  the  other  hand,  Philip  VI.  offered  to  forgive  debts 
owed  by  the  Flemish  and  to  give  them  the  monopoly 
of  all  wool  exported  from  France  if  they  would 
remain  faithful.  The  English  bribe  was  the  more 
attractive.  The  Count  of  Flanders  remained  loyal  to 
France ;  but  the  Flemish,  led  by  John  Van  Artevelde, 
turned  towards  England.  To  tempt  Count  Louis, 
Edward  made  him  the  offer  of  the  hand  of  one  of  his 
daughters,  but  the  offer  was  refused,  and  the  Count's 
army  was  sent  to  the  island  of  Cadzand,  where  it 
could  stop  communication  between  England  and 
Flanders. 

In  November  1337  Louis'  army  was  destroyed  by 
an  English  force  which  sailed  from  Gravesend,  and  the 
starving  weavers  of  Ghent  hailed  with  great  demonstra- 
tions of  joy  the  arrival  of  supplies  of  English  wool. 
Almost  as  soon  as  the  wool,  two  French  ecclesiastics 
appeared  in  Ghent  and  pronounced  the  dreaded 
sentences  of  excommunication  and  interdict.  Arte- 
velde at  once  appealed  to  the  Pope  and  entered  into 
communication  with  the  other  Flemish  cities.  The 
result  of  Artevelde's  action  was  that  at  first  both 
England  and  France  agreed  to  treat  Flanders  as  neutral 
territory,  and  the  ecclesiastical  sentences  were  repealed. 
Edward  sailed  to  Antwerp,  the  seaport  of  Brabant, 
where,  to  his  dismay,  he  found  only  one-tenth  of  the 
twenty  thousand  sacks  of  wool  which  Parliament  had 
promised  him.  Nevertheless  he  met  his  imperial  ally 
at  Cologne,  and  was  appointed  Vicar-General  of  the 


CARTA  MERCATORIA  133 

Empire.  The  imperial  vassals  were  ready  to  obey 
the  Vicar-General  on  one  condition  only.  They 
expected  payment  for  their  services.  The  English 
Parliament  sent  insufficient  supplies  of  wool  and 
money,  and  Edward  was  forced  to  borrow  from 
Flemish  merchants  and  Italian  financiers,  pledging 
as  security  the  Crown  jewels  and  the  Crown  itself. 

Meanwhile,  the  Leliarts,  the  pro-French  party  in 
Flanders,  tried  to  assert  the  authority  of  Count  Louis 
and  the  French.  The  militia  of  the  cities  was  then 
called  out,  and  it  became  evident  that  Flanders  could 
not  remain  neutral.  The  Pope,  irritated  by  Edward's 
alliance  with  a  schismatic  Emperor,  openly  espoused  the 
cause  of  France.  An  appeal  to  the  Pope  could  no 
longer  avert  interdict  if  the  Flemish  rebelled  against 
their  lawful  suzerain  ;  but  Artevelde  suggested  a  way 
out  of  this  difficulty.  Acting  on  the  advice  of  the 
leader  of  the  Flemish,  Edward  revived  his  claim  to  the 
throne  of  France  and  therefore  to  suzerainty  over 
Flanders.  He  chose  as  his  royal  motto  :  '  Dieu  et 
mon  droict.' 

The  first  act  of  the  new  suzerain  of  Flanders  was 
to  declare  that  he  would  protect  Flemish  ships,  that 
there  should  be  no  restrictions  on  the  sale  of  Flemish 
cloth  in  England,  that  commercial  arrangements  made 
between  him  and  the  Flemish  cities  should  hold  good 
against  the  merchants  of  England,  and  that  he  would 
continue  to  be  a  loyal  ally  of  the  Flemish  cities  whether 
their  Count  was  friendly  or  hostile.  Then  he  decreed 
that  the  naval  forces  of  England  and  Flanders  should 
be  united,  that  two-thirds  of  his  army  should  be 
recruited  in  Flanders  and  Brabant ;  that,  as  King  of 


134         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

England,  he  would  bear  the  whole  cost  of  the  army 
and  also  pay  a  large  sum  to  the  cities  ;  that  for  fifteen 
years  Bruges  should  be  the  staple  for  English  v^ol ; 
that  the  clauses  in  former  treaties  with  their  French 
suzerains  which  dealt  with  excommunication  and 
interdict  should  be  null  and  void  ;  that  the  lands  which 
the  French  had  taken  from  Flanders  should  be  restored  ; 
and  that  there  should  be  a  good  and  common  silver 
and  gold  coinage  in  France,  Flanders,  Brabant,  and 
England. 

On  paper  this  scheme  was  excellent ;  but  funds 
came  with  difficulty  from  England.  In  the  land 
campaign  of  1339  neither  Philip  nor  Edward  ventured 
to  take  the  risk  of  attacking.  To  obtain  money 
Edward  returned  to  England  in  1340,  after  having 
promised  the  Flemish  that  he  would  speedily  return 
with  an  adequate  force.  The  French  fleet  was  threaten- 
ing England,  and  Edward  had  to  collect  and  equip 
shipping  for  England's  defence.  To  obtain  money 
from  Parliament  the  King  broke  his  promise  to  the 
Flemish  and  agreed  to  a  statute  which  compelled 
foreigners  to  submit  to  the  restrictions  on  the  trade  of 
aliens  which  London  and  other  English  towns  had 
the  chartered  or  customary  right  of  imposing.  Money 
was  then  voted ;  and,  in  June  1340,  Edward's  English 
fleet  destroyed  the  Frenchmen  who  had  anchored  off 
Sluys,  the  seaport  of  Bruges.  When  the  danger  of 
invasion  was  removed,  no  more  money  was  collected 
in  England.  Hence  Edward  was  unable  to  follow  up 
his  naval  victory  by  a  vigorous  campaign  on  land. 
In  September  1340  a  truce  was  signed  which  gave 
liberty  to  the  Flemish  but  failed  to  restore  Gascony 


CARTA   MERCATORIA  135 

to  England.  In  this  truce  the  King  of  France  re- 
nounced his  right  of  excommunicating  the  Flemish. 
Overwhelmed  with  debts  Edward  III.  escaped  by 
stealth  from  his  Flemish  creditors  and  returned  to 
England  in  November,  bent  on  dealing  with  those 
who  had  wrecked  his  plans. 


XI 

ENGLAND    LOSES    SEA    POWER 
1340-1377 

ALTHOUGH  the  interdict  of  Flanders  produced  little 
or  no  effect  in  1340,  in  another  way  the  pro-French 
Pope  was  able  to  exert  a  great  influence  on  the  cam- 
paign. Next  to  the  King  the  most  powerful  officials 
in  England  were  John  Stratford,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, and  his  brother  Robert,  Bishop  of  Chichester. 
These  brothers  had  been  alternately  Chancellors  of 
England  since  Edward  began  his  personal  reign.  In 
June  1340  John  resigned  the  great  seal  to  his  brother. 
Just  before  Edward  sailed  for  Flanders  the  Archbishop 
tried  to  stop  the  expedition  by  representing  the  danger 
involved  in  the  presence  of  the  French  fleet  at  Sluys. 
Edward  replied  that  he  intended  to  sail,  but  that,  if 
the  Archbishop  was  afraid  he  might  remain  in  England. 
When  in  Flanders  Edward  heard  from  Sir  William 
de  la  Pole,  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer,  that  the 
supplies,  which  Parliament  had  voted,  could  not  be 
collected  for  fear  of  a  revolt.  This  baron  was  a  wealthy 
merchant  of  Hull  to  whom  Edward  was  greatly  in- 
debted and  whom  he  greatly  trusted. 

On  his  return  Edward  imprisoned  and  fined  de  la 
Pole  and  other  lay  officials  who  had  neglected  to  collect 


ENGLAND  LOSES  SEA  POWER          137 

the  taxes.  He  dismissed  the  two  ecclesiastics  from 
their  posts  of  Chancellor  and  Treasurer  of  England, 
replacing  them  by  lay  knights.  Then  he  tried  to 
establish  once  and  for  all  the  doctrine  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  King  by  summoning  the  Archbishop  to  account 
to  him  for  the  neglect  which  had  ruined  the  cam- 
paign in  Flanders.  The  Archbishop  took  sanctuary 
at  Canterbury  as  Becket  had  done  before  him.  He 
quoted  the  Martyr  in  his  sermons  and  launched  general 
excommunications  against  breakers  of  the  Great 
Charter.  He  further  declined  to  be  tried  except  by 
his  peers  in  Parliament,  and,  as  these  bishops,  abbots, 
and  lay  lords  were  the  very  men  who  had  voted  the 
taxes  and  then  failed  to  pay,  Edward  did  not  accept 
the  Archbishop's  challenge.  The  doctrine  that  a  peer 
could  only  be  tried  by  his  peers  united  the  baronage, 
lay  and  clerical,  against  the  King,  and  the  dispute 
ended  in  a  compromise. 

Stratford  escaped  trial  and  the  King  was  forced  by 
Parliament  in  1341  to  assent  to  a  statute  which  placed 
him  in  a  somewhat  similar  position  to  that  of  his  father 
under  the  Ordainers.  On  the  other  hand,  the  King 
obtained  adequate  supply  which  was  duly  collected. 
This  year,  1341,  was  a  turning-point  in  English  history. 
Had  the  magnates  and  rich  merchants  succeeded  in 
destroying  the  unifying  influence  of  the  royal  power 
before  the  weavers  had  become  an  influential  body 
and  while  agricultural  workers  were  still  serfs,  that  dis- 
union, which  destroyed  Germany,  Italy,  and  Flanders, 
might  have  also  claimed  Great  Britain  as  its  victim. 
With  rare  courage,  within  a  few  months  of  the  royal 
assent  being  given  Edward  formally  revoked  the 


138         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

statute,  boldly  asserting  that  his  assent  was  not  real, 
"  but  as  then  it  behoved  us,  we  dissimuled  in  the 
premisses."  The  King's  courage  was  rewarded  when 
his  next  Parliament  ratified  the  revocation. 

Though  Stratford  had  posed  as  a  second  St.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury,  the  incident  proves  clearly  that  an 
immense  change  had  taken  place  since  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.  Becket  took  his  stand  on  his  privilege  as 
an  ecclesiastic  and  boldly  denied  the  right  of  any 
English  layman  to  sit  in  judgment  on  him.  In 
Becket's  time  the  Archbishop  could  claim  that  he 
was  the  head  of  a  body  whose  power  was  co-ordinate 
with  that  of  the  English  nation.  But  Stratford 
shielded  himself  behind  his  privilege  as  a  peer  of 
England  and  appealed  alike  to  lay  and  clerical  peers 
to  assert  the  privilege  which  they  enjoyed  in  common. 
The  utmost  that  Stratford  dared  demand  was  a  trial 
by  his  lay  and  spiritual  peers  in  Parliament,  which 
Becket  would  have  scornfully  refused.  This  change  is 
strikingly  illustrated  by  the  subsequent  ecclesiastical 
legislation  of  Edward's  reign.  These  statutes  in  theory 
anticipated  the  emancipation  of  the  English  Church 
from  the  control  of  Rome ;  but  theory  and  practice 
in  the  Middle  Ages  often  differed  widely,  and  these 
statutes  were  not  obeyed.  The  land  hunger  of  the 
magnates  was  appeased  for  a  time  by  the  plunder 
of  the  forests.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  the  alien 
priories  were  first  attacked.  The  magnates  obtained 
a  large  part  of  the  estates  of  the  alien  monks  as  these 
were  gradually  confiscated.  Although  the  confisca- 
tion of  all  monastic  lands  was  deferred  until  the  six- 
teenth century,  this  larger  scheme  was  in  the  air ; 


ENGLAND   LOSES  SEA  POWER          139 

hence  any  union  between  the  lay  and  clerical  magnates 
could  only  be  short-lived. 

After  the  truce  of  Esplechin,  Count  Louis  seemed 
to  be  willing  to  govern  Flanders  in  accord  with  Arte- 
velde,  who  maintained  close  and  cordial  relations  with 
England.  It  soon,  however,  became  evident  that  the 
Count  was  using  his  position  to  further  the  aims  of  the 
French  King.  In  1342  civil  war  in  Brittany  diverted 
Philip's  attention  from  Flanders,  which  was  at  this 
time  weakened  by  civil  strife.  In  July  1345  the 
outlook  in  Flanders  seemed  brighter ;  at  least,  so 
Edward  was  assured  by  Artevelde  when  they  met  at 
Sluys.  Froissart  asserts  that  at  this  conference  it 
was  arranged  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  should  re- 
place Count  Louis  as  ruler  of  Flanders  ;  but  modern 
historians  regard  this  as  somewhat  doubtful.  At 
any  rate,  Anglo-Flemish  relations  were  intimate  and 
cordial. 

After  their  meeting  at  Sluys  Edward  returned  to 
England,  and  Van  Artevelde  to  Ghent,  where  he  was 
murdered.  The  Flemish  cities  hastened  to  express 
their  horror  at  a  crime  which  had  deprived  Edward 
of  a  friend  and  an  ally.  They  also  assured  Edward 
that  he  could  still  count  upon  their  support.  In 
July  1346  Edward  sailed  to  Normandy  and  simul- 
taneously the  Flemish  marched  south.  Edward's 
small  army  reached  the  outskirts  of  Paris,  but  the 
Flemish  were  unable  to  join  him.  Forced  to  retreat 
Edward  won  a  brilliant  victory  at  Cre9y  and  then 
besieged  Calais,  at  that  time  a  town  on  the  frontier 
of  Flanders.  Calais  surrendered  to  the  English  in 
August  1347. 


140    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Count  Louis  was  killed  fighting  for  the  French  at 
Crecy.  His  son,  Louis  de  Male,  entered  at  once  into 
negotiations  with  his  Flemish  subjects.  In  1347 
Edward  left  his  army,  which  was  besieging  Calais, 
met  the  Count  in  Flanders,  and  arranged  that  the 
young  ruler  should  marry  his  daughter  Isabella. 
A  fortnight  before  the  date  arranged  for  the  wedding, 
Count  Louis  fled  from  Flanders  to  the  court  of  his 
French  suzerain.  In  May,  Flanders  was  placed  under 
interdict,  and  Philip  offered  to  secure  the  removal  of 
the  interdict  and  to  grant  extraordinary  commercial 
advantages  to  the  Flemish  if  they  would  abandon 
their  English  alliance.  But  the  Flemish  remained 
faithful  to  their  English  allies.  Before  the  fall  of 
Calais  Philip  was  approaching  with  a  large  army  to 
relieve  the  town,  when  the  advent  of  a  Flemish  army 
forced  him  to  retire  in  great  haste,  and  Calais  became 
the  most  prized  possession  of  England.  Not  only  was 
Calais  an  open  door  through  which  English  armies 
could  enter  France,  but  it  became  the  staple  at  which 
the  Flemish  could  buy  English  wool,  until  England 
had  developed  manufactures  so  that  she  ceased  to 
sell  raw  materials. 

After  the  capture  of  Calais  a  general  truce  was 
signed.  For  eight  years,  until  1355,  England  and 
France  were  nominally  at  peace  ;  in  reality  these  years 
were  full  of  fighting  in  France  and  on  the  narrow  seas. 
Immediately  after  the  truce  was  signed  the  Black 
Death  spread  throughout  France,  and  in  August  1348 
the  disease  appeared  in  England.  The  cessation  of 
war  on  a  grand  scale  is  probably  due  to  the  desolation 
caused  by  this  plague  rather  than  to  the  formal  truce. 


ENGLAND   LOSES  SEA  POWER          141 

In  the  interval  between  the  signature  of  the  truce 
and  the  appearance  of  the  Black  Death  Flanders  was 
treacherously  attacked  by  the  French.  The  Flemish 
appealed  to  Edward  for  aid,  and  were  told  that  English 
help  would  be  given  if  they  would  pay  for  the  expedi- 
tion. Though  England  was  very  prosperous  Edward 
could  not  rely  upon  parliamentary  grants  ;  and  an 
English  army  in  Flanders  could  not  live  by  pillage 
as  it  did  in  France.  Before  sailing  for  Normandy 
Edward  had  been  compelled  to  repudiate  his  debts 
to  the  Florentine  bankers.  Florentine  distress  and 
the  plunder  of  France  paid  for  the  campaign  which 
gave  Calais  to  England.  To  defend  Flanders  cost 
much,  to  attack  France  brought  wealth  to  England  ; 
hence  the  later  wars  of  Edward's  reign  consisted 
chiefly  of  marauding  expeditions  to  France. 

The  invasion  of  Flanders  was  stopped  by  the  Black 
Death  ;  but  a  war  of  intrigue  continued  until  the  power 
of  the  Flemish  cities  was  fatally  weakened  at  the 
battle  of  Rosebeque  in  1382.  While  the  Flemish 
accumulated  wealth,  their  vicious  economic  system 
gave  them  neither  rest  in  the  present  nor  security  for 
the  future.  Their  wealth  came  from  weaving.  Their 
looms  were  fed  with  English  wool ;  and  when  the 
English  made  cloth,  the  Flemish  were  forced  to  rely 
almost  entirely  upon  the  French  market  for  the  sale 
of  their  finished  product.  They  were  also  largely 
dependent  on  France  for  their  food.  This  economic 
division  was  reflected  in  Flemish  politics.  The  Leliarts 
advocated  union  with  France  and  submission  to  the 
counts,  while  the  Blauwaerts  favoured  a  close  alliance 
with  England,  burgher  rule,  and  a  merely  nominal 


142         THE   STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

connexion  with  count  or  French  suzerain.  The 
absence  of  a  strong  unifying  force,  such  as  England 
possessed  in  her  kings,  led  to  strife  between  towns  and 
between  gilds  in  the  same  town.  It  was  a  simple 
matter  for  the  French  to  play  one  faction  against  the 
other  and  to  profit  by  the  internal  disunion. 

A  canal  connected  Ghent  whh  the  sea,  but  the 
merchants  of  Bruges  induced  Louis'  father  to  make 
Bruges  the  staple  for  English  wool  so  that  they  could 
make  their  profit  on  it  before  the  weavers  of  Ghent 
were  supplied.  Flanders  was  fed  with  grain  from 
Artois ;  in  1379  the  merchants  of  Bruges  obtained 
from  Count  Louis  permission  to  unite  two  rivers  by  a 
canal  so  that  the  staple  for  grain  might  be  at  Bruges 
instead  of  Ghent.  Hence  the  rich  burghers  of  Bruges, 
who  were  international  traders,  were  also  Leliarts  ; 
and  the  burghers  of  Ghent,  who  depended  mainly  on 
the  weaving  industry,  were  Blauwaerts.  But  both 
factions  were  in  favour  of  a  close  commercial  con- 
nexion with  England. 

The  same  selfishness  was  shown  in  the  relation  of 
gilds  to  each  other.  Artevelde's  death  followed  a 
fierce  fight  between  the  weavers  and  the  fullers  of 
Ghent.  At  times  the  counts  opposed  any  increase  of 
French  authority  and  promoted  cordial  relations  with 
England.  Count  Louis  de  Male  all  but  married  into 
the  English  royal  family,  and  his  daughter  and  heiress 
was  betrothed  to  one  of  Edward's  sons  before  her 
marriage  in  1369  to  Philip,  Duke  of  Burgundy  and 
brother  of  King  Charles  V.  of  France.  Until  1360 
France  was  weakened  and  impoverished  by  English 
raids.  She  was  engaged  in  expelling  the  invaders 


ENGLAND   LOSES   SEA   POWER          143 

during  the  next  fifteen  years.  As  soon  as  she  felt 
equal  to  the  task  she  attacked  the  Flemish  cities. 
The  battle  of  Rosebeque  in  1382  placed  Flanders  at 
the  mercy  of  her  Count  and  his  Burgundian  son-in- 
law.  But  Ghent  maintained  a  certain  amount  of  in- 
dependence ;  and  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  soon  became 
rivals  of  the  Kings  of  France.  Thus  the  Flemish 
market  remained  open  to  English  wool  as  long  as 
England  allowed  it  to  be  exported. 

In  1346  the  Scotch  invaded  England  during 
Edward's  absence  in  France.  At  Neville's  Cross  King 
David  II.  of  Scotland  was  defeated  and  sent  a  prisoner 
to  the  Tower  of  London.  In  1357  David  was  released 
on  promise  of  a  large  ransom  which  was  never  fully 
paid.  Scotland  was  kept  poor  by  internal  strife, 
whilst  England  grew  in  strength  from  the  immigration 
of  the  Flemish  and  the  development  of  weaving.  For 
years  there  were  fights  on  the  borderland  between 
England  and  Scotland,  but  nothing  worthy  to  be 
called  war.  England,  however,  now  began  to  face  a 
new  rival,  one  with  whom  she  was  destined  at  a  later 
date  to  wage  war  for  centuries. 

The  production  of  wool  was  being  rapidly  developed 
in  Spain,  hence  she  was  competing  with  England  in 
the  Flemish  market,  as  well  as  with  Gascony  in  the 
wine  trade.  Her  ships,  built  to  face  the  stormy  Bay 
of  Biscay,  were  far  larger  than  the  English.  The 
disappearance  of  the  naval  power  of  France  and  the 
hold  England  obtained  over  the  Straits  of  Dover  by 
the  capture  of  Calais  gave  England  such  supremacy 
in  the  narrow  seas  as  to  endanger  Spanish  trade. 
Philip  VI.  of  France  died  in  1350  and  was  succeeded 


144         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

by  his  son  John  II.,  who  at  once  allied  himself  with 
Peter  the  Cruel  of  Castile.  A  Spanish  fleet  sailed  to 
Sluys,  capturing  twenty  Anglo-Gascon  ships  on  the 
way.  A  defeat  of  this  miniature  Armada  was  enacted 
when  the  fleet  left  Flanders  to  pillage  the  coasts  of 
England.  Edward  III.  and  his  eldest  son,  the  Black 
Prince,  waited  for  the  towering  Spaniards  off  Win- 
chelsea.  In  spite  of  the  difference  in  size  the  English 
were  victorious.  Fourteen  Spanish  ships  were  cap- 
tured and  the  rest  driven  off  in  disorder.  Edward 
boarded  and  captured  one  of  the  largest  Spaniards, 
while  his  own  ship  was  so  badly  injured  that  it  was 
left  to  founder. 

In  1355  the  Black  Prince  raided  Southern  France. 
Edward  III.  had  intended  at  the  same  time  to  raid 
Northern  France,  but  he  was  recalled  by  a  movement 
of  the  Scotch,  and  spent  the  first  few  months  of  1356 
in  devastating  part  of  Scotland.  In  1356  an  English 
raid  reduced  Normandy  to  a  state  of  anarchy,  whilst 
the  Black  Prince  moved  towards  the  north  and  defeated 
the  French  at  Poitiers.  King  John  was  captured  and 
taken  to  London.  A  truce  was  then  signed  and 
negotiations  followed  which  led  to  the  treaty  of 
Bretigny  in  1360.  By  this  treaty  an  enormous  ransom 
was  promised  for  King  John  ;  Aquitaine  was  given  to 
England,  together  with  territory  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Calais.  The  King  of  Castile,  Peter  the  Cruel,  made 
haste  to  come  to  terms  with  Edward.  In  1362  a 
treaty  between  England  and  Castile  was  signed  in 
London. 

Peter's  bastard  half-brother,  Henry,  entered  Castile 
in  1366  with  an  army  of  English  and  French  soldiers. 


ENGLAND   LOSES  SEA   POWER          145 

who,  after  the  treaty  of  Bretigny,  had  been  supporting 
themselves  by  pillage  on  their  own  account.  In  1364 
King  John  died,  and  his  son>  Charles  V.,  encouraged 
this  expedition  and  lent  it  his  general,  Du  Guesclin. 
In  this  way  Charles  freed  France  from  the  scourge  of 
bandits  and  at  the  same  time  tried  to  gain  control 
over  the  navy  of  Spain.  Peter  of  Castile  fled  to 
Bordeaux,  where  he  sought  help  from  the  Black 
Prince,  who  had  been  made  Prince  of  Aquitaine. 
An  army  led  by  the  Black  Prince  won  a  brilliant 
victory  at  Navarete,  and  placed  Peter  once  more  on 
the  throne  of  Castile.  Then  the  double-dealing  of  the 
Castilian  King  wrecked  his  own  cause  and  England's 
power  in  Aquitaine.  Peter  had  promised  to  meet  the 
expenses  of  the  army  of  occupation.  This  promise 
was  not  kept,  and  the  Black  Prince  led  back  to  Aqui- 
taine his  army  wasted  by  famine  and  disease.  Two 
years  later  Peter  was  killed  by  his  half-brother  Henry, 
and  Castile  became  the  ally  of  France. 

These  facts  help  to  explain  the  economic  policy  of 
the  latter  half  of  Edward's  reign.  In  1351  alien 
merchants  were  allowed  to  trade  freely  in  England  in 
defiance  of  the  charters  and  privileges  of  the  English 
merchant  gilds.  Two  years  later  English  merchants 
were  not  allowed  to  export  wool,  and  Gascons  were 
allowed  to  sell  wines  freely  in  England,  whilst  English- 
men might  only  buy  wines  in  Bordeaux  and  Bayonne. 
Aliens  were  ready  to  pay  for  royal  protection  whilst 
English  merchants  persisted  in  trying  to  avoid  taxa- 
tion. Money  was  needed  by  the  King,  hence  there 
was  a  strong  motive  for  diverting  trade  into  alien 
hands.  The  advantages  given  to  aliens  also  tended 

L 


146         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  bind  the  Flemish  and  the  Gascons  to  the  King  of 
England. 

But  however  fascinating  this  policy  may  have 
seemed,  it  had  one  grave  defect.  It  was  fatal  to  the 
growth  of  an  English  mercantile  marine,  and  at  that 
date  merchant  ships  were  largely  used  in  the  navy 
when  war  broke  out.  Disaster  has  always  followed 
when  England  has  neglected  her  navy.  The  failure 
of  Peter  the  Cruel  to  pay  the  money  he  had  promised 
forced  the  Black  Prince  to  levy  a  hearth  tax  in  Aqui- 
taine.  The  towns,  by  reason  of  their  liberties,  were 
exempt  from  this  tax,  and  the  country  districts 
naturally  rebelled  when  called  upon  to  pay  for  a  war 
waged  in  order  that  Gascon  and  English  merchants 
might  not  fear  an  attack  by  the  Spanish.  In  1372 
an  English  fleet  bearing  reinforcements  to  Aquitaine 
was  destroyed  by  the  navy  of  King  Henry  of  Spain. 
England  then  lost  command  of  the  sea,  and  her  oversea 
empire  was  doomed.  In  1374  the  English  possessions 
in  Southern  France  were  reduced  to  little  more  than 
the  cities  of  Bordeaux  and  Bayonne.  These  cities 
and  Calais  were  almost  all  that  remained  of  England's 
dominions  in  France  when  Edward  III.  died  in  1377. 

Although  the  outflow  of  money  to  Rome  was 
checked  by  the  anti-papal  legislation  of  Edward  III., 
and  tribute  to  Rome  was  not  paid  after  1366,  these 
years  foreshadowed  a  sorry  future  for  England.  The 
scarcity  of  labour,  after  the  Black  Death,  raised  wages 
and  the  price  of  necessaries  of  life,  in  spite  of  the 
Statutes  of  Labourers,  which  were  intended  to  keep 
wages  and  prices  at  their  old  level.  Whilst  the  Kings 
of  France  were  emancipating  their  serfs,  English 


ENGLAND   LOSES   SEA   POWER          147 

Parliaments  were  doing  less  than  nothing  for  the  poor 
of  England,  since  forest  charters  and  Statutes  of 
Labourers  took  from  manual  workers  the  little  that 
they  had.  If  contemporary  writers  are  believed,  the 
friars  had  so  far  forgotten  their  early  ideals  that  they 
took  by  guile  from  the  weak,  whilst  others  took  by 
force.  In  the  teaching  of  John  Wycliffe  and  his 
followers,  the  Lollards,  there  was  much  of  the  former 
doctrine  of  the  friars  ;  and  Lollardism  spread  rapidly 
in  England. 

To  harmonise  the  feudal  system  with  the  national 
idea  which  was  replacing  feudalism  in  England  and 
France,  Edward  III.  of  England  and  John  II.  of 
France,  by  marriage  and  royal  grants,  arranged  that 
the  great  fiefs  should  become  the  property  of  their 
children.  The  Black  Prince  died  before  Edward  III., 
leaving  a  son  who,  at  the  age  of  eleven,  became 
Richard  II.  in  1377.  Three  years  later  Charles  VI., 
also  at  the  age  of  eleven,  became  King  of  France. 
Both  kings  were  surrounded  by  uncles  possessing 
almost  independent  power.  In  England,  John  of 
Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and  his  brother,  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  led  the  barons.  In  France  the  most 
powerful  of  the  King's  uncles  was  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy. From  painful  experience  both  nations  had  to 
learn  that  disunion  and  decentralisation  were  followed 
by  civil  war  and  misery. 

The  disunion  in  England,  which  ultimately  led  to 
the  War  of  the  Roses,  was  partly  concealed  whilst  the 
English  were  engaged  in  plundering  France.  The 
magnates  were  at  times  united  in  opposition  to  the 
King,  but  they  had  no  other  bond  of  union.  After 


148         THE   STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

the  Black  Death  laymen  used  their  lands  for  sheep- 
farming,  and  thus  became  the  competitors  of  the 
wool-growing  monks.  When  Wycliffe  preached  apo- 
stolic poverty  he  had  eager  listeners  in  the  feudal 
lords  who  coveted  the  lands  of  their  rival  wool-growers. 
Lay  and  clerical  magnates  were,  however,  at  one  in 
wishing  to  come  into  direct  touch  with  the  foreigner 
and  dispense  with  the  services  of  English  merchants. 
By  thus  eliminating  a  body  of  English  workers  they 
hoped  to  buy  cheap  and  sell  dear. 

In  the  Church  there  was  a  conservative  party, 
which  was  ready  to  acquiesce  in  the  Roman  connexion 
in  order  to  retain  its  temporal  possessions,  and  Lollard 
reformers,  who  were  ready  to  abandon  wealth  and 
make  the  Church  entirely  national.  Every  merchant 
was  anxious  to  protect  his  own  trade  but  was  reluctant 
to  extend  the  advantage  of  protection  to  his  neighbour. 
Thus  when  the  London  fishmongers  tried  to  protect  the 
English  fishing  industry,  other  citizens  were  anxious 
to  buy  direct  from  foreign  fishermen.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  English  fishing  industry  was  retarded 
by  the  opposition  of  those  who  wished  to  buy  fish 
cheap. 

Before  the  death  of  Edward  III.  the  contest 
between  the  sections  into  which  the  English  were 
divided  began.  His  grandson  Richard  succeeded  to 
the  rule  of  an  already  distracted  country.  The 
sections  were,  roughly  speaking,  grouped  in  a  baronial 
and  a  mercantile  party.  Lancaster  led  the  baronial 
party.  He  had  married  the  legitimate  Queen  of 
Castile,  and  hoped  that  the  reconquest  of  Aquitaine 
might  help  him  to  expel  the  bastard  Henry  from 


ENGLAND   LOSES  SEA  POWER         149 

Spain.  The  mercantile  party,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  content  with  command  of  the  Straits  of  Dover, 
and  disliked  the  idea  of  fighting  for  Aquitaine.  Both 
parties  were,  however,  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  of 
restoring  England's  naval  power.  The  nobles  deri- 
sively called  Richard  the  Londoners'  King  ;  and  the 
boy-king  probably  owed  his  undisputed  succession  to 
the  merchants  of  London. 


XII 

STRIFE   BETWEEN   KING  AND  BARONS 
I377-MI3 

DURING  the  later  years  of  Edward's  reign  the  illness  of 
the  King  and  his  eldest  son  threw  the  government  into 
Lancaster's  hands.  The  statutes  which  gave  foreigners 
complete  freedom  of  trade  in  England  and  forbade  the 
export  of  wool  by  English  merchants  caused  much 
discontent.  By  favouring  Wycliffe,  Lancaster  tried 
to  find  a  vent  for  this  discontent  in  an  attack  on 
the  Church;  but  a  year  before  Edward's  death  the 
Good  Parliament  gave  expression  to  English  feeling. 
Certain  officials,  acting  for  Lancaster,  had  abused  their 
right  of  selling  royal  licences  to  enable  English  mer- 
chants to  export  wool  contrary  to  the  statutes.  These 
men  were  impeached,  dismissed  from  office,  and  fined. 
A  long  list  of  grievances  was  drawn  up  and  a  standing 
council  was  appointed  to  advise  the  King.  A  charter 
was  issued  to  London  restoring  protection  of  inland 
trade  to  English  merchants.  Lancaster  was  unable 
to  offer  effective  resistance  ;  but  in  the  following  year 
he  assembled  a  Parliament  packed  with  his  own 
adherents  and  thus  undid  much  of  the  work  of  the 
Good  Parliament.  This  Parliament  levied  a  poll-tax 


STRIFE  BETWEEN  KING  AND  BARONS     151 

graduated  according  to  the  wealth  of  the  taxpayers. 
The  minimum  tax  was  fourpence. 

The  result  of  the  mercantile  policy  of  Edward  III. 
was  the  abandonment  by  English  merchants  of  their 
claim  to  pay  no  more  than  the  Ancient  Custom  on  the 
export  of  wool.  The  violent  measure  of  1333,  which 
gave  aliens  a  monopoly  of  England's  foreign  trade  and 
made  the  export  of  English  wool  by  native  merchants 
a  crime,  was  evaded  by  royal  licences  ;  but  English 
merchants  found  that  it  was  better  to  pay  heavier 
duties  than  to  buy  licences.  When  the  English 
merchants  agreed  to  pay  subsidies  in  excess  of  the 
Ancient  Custom,  they  were  again  allowed  to  export 
wool  and  leather.  The  subsidies  varied,  but  on  an 
average  they  increased  the  Ancient  Custom  ten  to 
twenty  fold  for  natives  and  the  Hanse  merchants  of 
the  Steelyard,  while  other  aliens  were  more  heavily 
taxed.  A  substantial  protection  was  thus  given  to 
English  weaving,  since  the  looms  of  Flanders  had 
come  to  depend  on  English  wool  for  the  making  of 
fine  cloth.  Spanish  and  Scotch  wool  could  only  be 
used  when  mixed  with  the  wool  of  England.  In 
dressing,  dyeing,  and  finishing  cloth  England  lagged 
behind  Flanders  ;  but  early  in  the  fifteenth  century  un- 
finished English  cloth  could  be  placed  on  the  Flemish 
market  at  a  price  which  meant  ruin  to  Flemish 
weavers.  In  1434  the  Flemish  admitted  defeat  by 
prohibiting  the  importation  of  English  cloth. 

When  English  merchants  were  debarred  from 
foreign  trade  English  shipping  declined,  and  as  the 
navy  in  those  days  depended  on  merchant  ships, 
England  lost  command  of  the  sea.  In  the  French 


152         THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

war  which  began  again  in  1369  England  was  forced  to 
defend  herself  instead  of  attacking  France.  In  1372 
command  of  the  sea  passed  to  the  allied  navies  of 
Castile  and  France,  and  money  had  to  be  raised  for  the 
defence  of  the  English  coast.  When  the  Isle  of  Wight 
had  to  be  ransomed  from  the  French,  and  Hastings 
was  burned,  England's  danger  forced  Richard's  early 
Parliaments  to  undertake  the  creation  of  a  navy.  In 
Richard's  first  Parliament,  held  at  Westminster  in 
1377,  the  baronial  and  mercantile  parties  appear  to 
have  made  a  temporary  truce  while  measures  were 
taken  for  the  defence  of  England.  Money  was  voted 
for  the  navy,  and  two  merchants  were  appointed 
treasurers  of  the  grants.  On  the  other  hand,  Lancaster 
was  given  command  of  the  fleet;  but  the  internal 
peace  of  England  had  but  a  short  life. 

While  Edward  III.  was  dying,  Wycliffe  was  sum- 
moned to  St.  Paul's  to  answer  a  charge  of  heresy. 
Lancaster  intervened  on  behalf  of  Wycliffe,  and 
offered  violence  to  the  Bishop  of  London.  Although 
Lollardism  was  very  prevalent  in  London,  the  citizens 
could  not  miss  an  opportunity  of  showing  their  hatred 
to  Lancaster,  who  was  only  saved  from  a  riotous  mob 
by  the  intervention  of  the  bishop.  The  dying  King 
succeeded  in  making  peace  ;  but  after  Richard's  first 
Parliament  a  reason  for  a  new  quarrel  was  found. 
Lancaster's  fleet  failed  to  accomplish  all  that  was 
expected  of  it,  while  a  private  fleet,  equipped  at  the 
cost  of  Philipot^one  of  the  treasurers,  captured  fifteen 
French  and  Spanish  ships.  In  1378  Parliament  sat  at 
Gloucester  that  it  might  be  free  from  London's  influence. 
Philipot  was  accused  of  using  public  money  for  his 


STRIFE  BETWEEN  KING  AND  BARONS    153 

fleet ;  but  he  had  little  difficulty  in  proving  that  it  had 
been  paid  for  out  of  his  own  resources.  The  restrictions 
on  foreign  merchants  were  then  partially  removed  by 
statute,  although  the  preamble  describes  the  dislike 
felt  by  English  merchants  to  foreign  competition. 

A  contemporary  monk,  Thomas  of  Walsingham, 
who  was  in  favour  of  foreign  competition,  has  left  a 
record  of  one  result  of  this  statute.  At  that  time, 
he  wrote,  all  Eastern  goods  carried  by  the  Genoese 
were  brought  to  England  and  sold  to  English  mer- 
chants who  resold  them  to  the  Flemish,  Normans, 
and  Bretons.  A  rich  Genoese  merchant  tried  to  take 
advantage  of  the  statute.  He  promised  many  gifts 
to  the  King  if  Richard  would  allow  him  to  settle  at 
Southampton,  where  a  castle  had  recently  been  built. 
He  pledged  himself  to  make  Southampton  the  finest 
port  in  the  West,  and  would  probably  have  succeeded 
in  annexing  the  profits  hitherto  made  by  English 
merchants  had  he  not  been  murdered  before  the  door 
of  the  house  in  London  at  which  he  was  lodging. 
John  Kyrkeby,  the  instigator  of  the  murder,  for  a 
time  escaped  punishment ;  and  the  chronicler  expressed 
his  fear  that  other  foreign  merchants  would  be  deterred 
from  imitating  the  Genoese. 

In  1380  Parliament  met  at  Northampton  that 
Kyrkeby  might  be  tried  away  from  London.  He  was 
tried  by  Parliament,  probably  because  it  was  thought 
that  no  jury  would  convict.  Kyrkeby  was  hanged, 
and  Parliament  turned  its  attention  to  raising  money. 
The  parliament  of  Gloucester  had  voted  a  poll-tax, 
whose  minimum  was  fourpence  a  head.  This  tax  had 
proved  insufficient.  The  Parliament  of  Northampton 


154         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

voted  a  new  poll-tax,  whose  minimum  was  a  shilling 
a  head.  The  anger  of  the  poor  at  once  found  voice. 
Parliaments  had  sanctioned  enclosures  of  common 
lands.  The  peasants  had  watched  their  nobles  force 
the  King  to  surrender  his  forest  rights.  They  knew 
that  their  kinsfolk  in  the  towns  had  not  altogether 
unsuccessfully  contended  with  merchant  princes,  who 
were  strong  enough  to  oppose  the  will  of  the  mag- 
nates in  Parliament.  They  had  doubtless  heard  that 
in  France  and  Flanders  serfs  had  acquired  rights 
which  were  denied  to  English  agricultural  labourers. 
Recently  French  and  Flemish  peasants  had  resisted 
excessive  taxation  by  taking  arms.  They  had  little  to 
expect  from  submission  when  Statutes  of  Labourers 
limited  wages  in  the  interests  of  the  rich. 

Lollards  had  been  preaching  Christian  Socialism 
and  had  found  eager  listeners  among  the  oppressed. 
Ignorant  of  the  modern  economic  paradox  that  direct 
taxation  is  less  oppressive  than  indirect,  the  labourers 
of  England  saw  in  the  poll-tax  a  means  by  which  the 
burden  of  defending  England  would  be  shifted  to  their 
shoulders  from  those  of  the  magnates.  The  insurrec- 
tion which  followed  would  probably  be  repeated  if  the 
modern  income-tax  were  extended  to  those  who  earn  a 
weekly  wage.  With  no  clearly  defined  object,  except 
the  abolition  of  the  poll-tax  and  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances which  varied  according  to  the  locality,  the  people 
took  arms,  and  a  large  body  of  insurgents  were  wel- 
comed by  the  workers  of  London.  Lancaster's  palace 
was  destroyed ;  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
murdered ;  and,  among  other  victims,  merchants  or 
bankers  who  pronounced  bread  and  cheese  with  a 


STRIFE  BETWEEN  KING  AND  BARONS     155 

Flemish  accent  were  put  to  death.  This  was  London's 
answer  to  the  statute  passed  at  Gloucester  and  the 
execution  of  Kyrkeby. 

The  poll-tax  was  not  levied  after  the  insurrection  ; 
but  little  else  was  gained  by  the  poor.  To  pacify  the 
insurgents  the  King  promised  to  abolish  serfdom, 
but  Parliament  insisted  upon  the  King's  breaking  his 
promise  to  the  English  poor.  Serfdom,  however,  gradu- 
ally disappeared  during  the  next  century.  When  the 
revolt  of  the  peasants  was  suppressed  England's  atten- 
tion was  diverted  to  foreign  affairs.  The  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy had  married  the  heiress  of  Flanders  before  the 
accession  of  his  nephew,  Charles  VI.,  to  the  throne  of 
France.  Burgundy  induced  the  young  King  to  attack 
the  Flemish  cities  which  had  become  practically  inde- 
pendent of  either  count  or  suzerain.  In  1382  Flanders 
was  again  made  subject  to  France  after  the  battle  of 
Rosebeque.  After  Cregy  and  Poitiers  the  popes  were 
able  to  return  from  Avignon  to  Rome.  In  1377  the 
French  tried  to  regain  their  former  control  over  the 
papacy  by  recognising  an  anti-pope  Clement  VII.  at 
Avignon  in  opposition  to  Urban  VI.  The  French  and 
the  Leliarts  in  Flanders  became  Clementines,  while 
the  English  and  the  Blauwaerts  accepted  Pope  Urban. 
After  Rosebeque,  England,  owing  to  the  strife  of 
factions,  was  unable  to  help  the  Blauwaerts  with  a 
regular  army  ;  but  Parliament  gave  a  grant  of  money 
to  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  who  led  an  Urbanist  crusade 
to  Flanders.  This  crusade  did  less  than  was  expected  ; 
but  it  kept  alive  the  resistance  of  Ghent  and  contribu- 
ted largely  to  ruin  an  invasion  of  England  which  the 
French  had  planned.  Parliament  in  1381  passed  the 


156         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

first  English  Navigation  Act,  which  compelled  English 
merchants,  who  had  recovered  the  right  of  exporting 
goods,  to  use  English  shipping  in  order  that  there 
might  be  an  adequate  reserve  of  merchant-ships  in 
case  of  need.  There  was  therefore  an  English  fleet 
prepared  to  defend  England  from  invasion ;  but  the 
policy  of  the  Navigation  Act  was  abandoned  when 
the  magnates  obtained  power,  and,  before  the  end  of 
Richard's  reign,  England's  naval  power  had  again 
become  very  weak. 

Whilst  the  Flemish  were  sullenly  acquiescing  in 
French  rule,  England's  friends,  the  Portuguese,  routed 
the  Castilians.  To  follow  up  this  success  Parliament, 
in  1385,  voted  money  for  an  army  which  Lancaster 
led  to  Portugal  in  the  following  year.  In  this  Par- 
liament the  King  refused  his  assent  to  a  proposed 
measure  confiscating  the  temporalities  of  the  Church. 
The  attack  on  the  Church,  however,  was  not  renewed 
until  merchants  and  magnates  had  finished  their 
quarrel.  Lancaster  took  advantage  of  the  disunion  in 
the  city  between  those  who  wished  to  buy  fish  caught 
by  foreigners  and  those  who  wished  to  protect  London 
fishermen.  Northampton  led  those  who  wished  to 
buy  fish  from  foreigners,  and  Brembre  those  who  wished 
to  keep  the  London  fish  market  for  Londoners.  After 
the  Peasants'  Revolt  Northampton  became  mayor. 
Two  years  later  Brembre  was  elected.  This  election 
was  followed  by  a  riot  in  which  Northampton  was 
implicated,  and  he  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 
Owing  to  Lancaster's  influence,  this  sentence  was 
commuted  into  imprisonment,  from  which  he  was 
released  in  1387. 


STRIFE  BETWEEN   KING  AND  BARONS     157 

Richard's  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  took 
Lancaster's  place  when  the  latter  sailed  for  Portugal, 
while  Lancaster's  son,  Henry  of  Derby,  also  led  the 
barons.  The  King  made  large  grants  to  his  uncles, 
and  a  cry  arose  that,  if  the  King  would  abstain  from 
giving  and  live  of  his  own,  taxation  would  be  lighter. 
These  and  other  royal  grants  were  bribes  paid  by  the 
King  to  secure  the  loyalty  of  the  magnates.  Dis- 
content was  increased  when  Richard's  friend,  the  Earl 
of  Oxford,  was  made  Marquis  of  Dublin  and  received 
the  promise  of  a  grant  from  England  in  case  the  Irish 
revenue  proved  insufficient.  Little  had  been  done  in 
Ireland  since  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  Left  to  themselves, 
the  settlers  in  Ireland  amalgamated  with  the  Irish. 
The  De  Burghs  became  Burkes ;  and  Ormonds, 
Geraldines,  and  Desmonds  were  regarded  by  the  Irish 
as  national  leaders.  In  1387  Irish  industry  had  so 
far  developed  that  safe  conducts  were  issued  by  the 
Flemish  to  Irish  merchants  ;  and,  in  1399,  Sluys  was 
made  the  staple  for  the  sale  of  Irish  cloaks.  Richard's 
chief  adviser  was  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  eldest  son  of 
de  la  Pole,  the  merchant  who  played  so  conspicuous  a 
part  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  Oxford's  mission  to 
Ireland  was  the  prelude  to  the  union  of  the  two  islands 
which  Richard  would  probably  have  permanently 
established  had  the  English  magnates  allowed  him  to 
reign  in  peace. 

The  mercantile  party  failed  to  conclude  a  satisfactory 
peace  with  France ;  and  an  unsuccessful  campaign 
against  the  Scotch,  who  were  in  alliance  with  France, 
gave  the  magnates  their  opportunity.  When  Parlia- 
ment met  in  1786  Suffolk  asked  for  large  grants  for 


158         THE   STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

England's  defence.  The  magnates  refused  their  aid 
unless  Suffolk  was  dismissed.  When  Richard  refused, 
the  records  of  the  deposition  of  Edward  II.  were  read 
to  both  houses,  and,  under  this  menace,  the  King 
yielded.  Suffolk  was  impeached  and  imprisoned. 
Oxford  was  ordered  to  betake  himself  to  Ireland,  and 
Richard  was  placed  under  the  control  of  Gloucester 
and  ten  other  magnates.  The  King  took  the  opinion 
of  the  judges  of  England,  who  found  that  the  barons 
had  acted  unconstitutionally,  and  King  and  barons 
prepared  for  civil  war.  In  March  1387  the  English 
fleet  engaged  the  French,  who  were  escorting  a  wine- 
fleet  to  Sluys.  The  French  suffered  a  crushing  defeat. 
One  hundred  and  twenty-six  ships  were  captured  by 
the  English,  and  all  danger  of  invasion  passed  away. 
The  glamour  of  this  victory  and  internal  disunion 
made  London  hesitate  in  declaring  against  the  barons. 
Richard  again  yielded. 

In  February  1388  the  Merciless  Parliament  met. 
Five  Lords  Appellant,  led  by  Gloucester  and  Derby, 
impeached  Suffolk,  Oxford,  the  Chief  Justice,  the 
Archbishop  of  York,  and  Brembre.  The  Archbishop 
was  deprived  of  his  see  and  his  property  ;  the  others 
were  sentenced  to  be  drawn  and  hanged.  This  punish- 
ment was  inflicted  on  the  Chief  Justice  and  Brembre  ; 
but  Suffolk  and  Oxford  made  their  escape  from  Eng- 
land and  died  in  Ireland.  Among  other  victims,  the 
judges  who  had  given  their  opinion  to  the  King  were 
sentenced  to  death  ;  but  this  sentence  was  commuted  to 
perpetual  exile  in  Ireland.  Having  disposed  of  their 
opponents,  the  magnates  re-enacted  two  statutes  of 
Edward  III.  which  gave  foreign  merchants  complete 


STRIFE   BETWEEN  KING  AND  BARONS     159 

free  tiade  in  England  ;  they  also  voted  themselves 
a  large  sum  of  money  for  their  services. 

When  in  power  the  magnates  adopted  the  peace 
policy  of  the  men  they  had  murdered  ;  and  in  1389 
a  truce  for  three  years  with  France  was  signed. 
Lancaster's  war  with  Castile  had  not  been  crowned 
with  success  ;  but  in  1388  he  married  his  daughter  to 
the  Castilian  King  and  received  a  large  sum  for  relin- 
quishing his  claim  to  the  Crown.  Before  the  truce  was 
signed  with  France  Richard  declared  that  he  was  of 
age  and  intended  to  rule  without  the  aid  of  his  uncle 
Gloucester.  The  return  of  Lancaster  to  England  a  few 
months  later  enabled  Richard  to  effect  this  revolution 
without  bloodshed.  He  then,  with  great  tact,  gradu- 
ally undid  the  work  of  the  Lords  Appellant. 

In  1391  a  statute  was  passed  restoring  inland  trade 
to  the  English.  The  preamble  of  this  statute  states  of 
those  granting  free  trade  "  that  the  statutes,  if  they  be 
fully  holden  and  executed,  shall  extend  to  the  great 
hindrance  and  damage  as  well  of  the  city  of  London 
as  of  other  cities,  boroughs,  and  towns  of  this  realm." 
London,  however,  showed  little  gratitude  for  a  gift 
which  was  marred  in  the  eyes  of  the  faction  in  power 
because  it  gave  the  same  protection  to  those  who  sold 
fish  and  victuals  as  to  those  who  dealt  in  wool  and 
manufactured  goods.  The  King  tried  to  raise  money 
on  a  valuable  jewel ;  and  the  citizens  not  only  refused 
to  lend  but  attacked  and  left  for  dead  a  Lombard  who 
was  ready  to  help  the  King.  Richard  then  took  the 
city  into  his  hand,  but  not  for  long.  In  August  1392 
there  was  a  formal  reconciliation  of  the  King  and  his 
city  during  a  royal  visit.  Richard  then  entreated 


i6o         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

his  Londoners  to  set  an  example  to  other  towns  by 
respecting  law  and  order.  At  the  King's  request  a 
neutral  mayor,  Richard  Whittington,  was  appointed, 
who  held  office  until  1398. 

Richard  tried  to  make  peace  in  the  Church  by 
preventing  the  Lollards  from  attacking  the  bishops 
and  the  bishops  from  violently  persecuting  their 
opponents.  In  1395  the  King  received  the  submission 
of  the  Irish  chieftains  in  Ireland.  While  he  esta- 
blished his  authority  in  the  island  he  endeavoured  to 
reform  its  government,  so  that  union  might  be  a  bless- 
ing to  both  England  and  Ireland.  Next  year  the  King 
married  the  seven-year-old  daughter  of  Charles  VI.  of 
France,  arranging  at  the  same  time  a  peace  for  thirty 
years.  After  eight  years  of  wise  and  just  rule,  Parlia- 
ment expressed  its  thanks  by  formulating  a  list  of 
grievances  which  contained  a  complaint  of  the  number 
and  expense  of  the  King's  household.  The  ladies  who 
formed  the  retinue  of  the  child-queen  were  specially 
mentioned.  This  remonstrance  was  sent  by  magnates 
who  held  courts  of  their  own  and  had  large  bodies  of 
armed  retainers  in  readiness  to  attack  the  King. 

It  must  have  seemed  as  if  the  days  of  the  Merciless 
Parliament  were  going  to  be  revived,  and  Richard 
determined  to  strike  first.  Gloucester,  Warwick,  and 
Arundel  were  arrested  and  accused  before  Parliament 
in  1397.  Gloucester  died  in  prison  before  his  trial. 
Arundel  was  executed.  Warwick  threw  himself  on 
the  King's  mercy  and  was  banished.  The  estates  of 
the  convicted  magnates  were  divided  among  the 
eight  nobles  who  managed  the  coup  d'etat.  One  of 
these  was  Henry  of  Derby,  a  former  Lord  Appellant ; 


STRIFE  BETWEEN  KING  AND  BARONS     161 

he  became  Duke  of  Hereford.  In  January  1398 
Parliament  made  large  grants  to  the  King  for  the  rest 
of  his  life,  and  then  dissolved  after  giving  a  small 
committee  power  to  act  for  the  whole  body.  During 
this  Parliament  Hereford  accused  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, a  baron  who  had  been  rewarded  for  loyalty  to 
the  King,  of  treasonable  conversation.  By  what 
appears  to  be  a  curiously  inconsistent  sentence,  Norfolk 
was  banished  for  life  and  Hereford  for  six  years. 
Since  Lancaster,  Hereford's  father,  acquiesced  and  re- 
mained on  friendly  terms  with  Richard,  it  is  probable 
that  the  sentence  would  seem  more  reasonable  if  all 
the  facts  were  known. 

For  a  short  while  Richard  enjoyed  autocratic 
power,  supported  by  a  large  body  of  mercenary 
soldiers  from  Wales.  To  pay  the  soldiers  and  bribe 
the  friendly  magnates  Richard  spent  money  lavishly. 
In  1398  Lancaster  died.  The  King  seized  the  Lan- 
castrian estates  and  altered  Hereford's  sentence  into 
banishment  for  life.  This  bold  act  alarmed  all  holders 
of  property  ;  but  the  King  underestimated  the  danger 
which  threatened  his  despotism.  Roger,  Earl  of 
March  and  heir  apparent  to  the  throne,  had  been 
made  ruler  of  Ireland.  March  was  killed  during  a 
revolt  of  the  Irish  in  August  1398.  His  two  infant 
sons  alone  stood  between  the  disinherited  Duke  of 
Lancaster  and  succession  to  the  Crown.  Richard  led 
an  expedition  to  Ireland  to  re-establish  English  rule, 
and  Lancaster  landed  in  Yorkshire.  The  King's 
followers  abandoned  his  cause.  On  his  return  from 
Ireland  in  1399,  Richard,  with  hardly  a  struggle, 
surrendered  himself  to  his  victorious  cousin.  The 

M 


162         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

conquered  king  was  deposed,  and  died  soon  after  his 
deposition  in  Pontefract  Castle.  It  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  he  was  murdered.  Lancaster  was  elected 
by  Parliament  and  crowned  King  Henry  IV. 

To  the  victors  the  spoils.  The  legislation  of 
Henry  IV.  explains  his  success.  In  1401  ecclesiastics 
obtained  a  statute  enabling  them  to  burn  heretical 
Lollards  who  denounced  the  wealth  of  the  Church. 
Lancastrian  barons  were  rewarded  at  the  expense  of 
Richard's  friends.  The  wool  merchants  obtained  their 
heart's  desire  when,  in  the  first  year  of  Henry's  reign, 
the  fish  trade  was  thrown  open  to  foreign  competition 
in  spite  of  the  fishmongers'  charters.  Four  years 
later  the  Londoners  appear  to  have  agreed  on  a  com- 
promise. Then  another  statute  was  passed  decreeing 
"  that  all  the  merchant  strangers  of  what  estate  or 
condition  that  they  be,  coming,  dwelling,  or  repairing 
within  the  realm  of  England,  shall  be  entreated  or 
demeaned  in  the  manner,  form,  and  condition  as  the 
merchant  denizens  be,  or  shall  be  entreated  or  de- 
meaned in  the  parts  beyond  the  sea,"  and  that 
merchant  strangers  should  suffer  loss  of  goods  and 
imprisonment  if  they  accepted  greater  privileges  than 
their  fellow-countrymen  accorded  to  English  mer- 
chants. Foreigners  had  to  lodge  with  an  English 
host,  who  was  responsible  for  their  not  remaining  more 
than  a  limited  time  in  England  and  for  their  buying 
English  goods  with  the  money  they  received  for  the 
goods  they  sold  in  England.  In  this  way  it  was 
ordained  by  law  that  imports  should  be  paid  for  by 
real  exports. 

In  1406  the  neutral  mayor  Whittington  was  again 


STRIFE  BETWEEN  KING  AND  BARONS     163 

elected,  and  London  showed  little  concern  when  Henry 
raised  loans,  Lollards  were  burned,  and  friars  were 
hanged.  Anglo-Flemish  trade  suffered  little  when,  in 
1403,  France  and  England  resumed  their  war,  if  the 
ineffective  fighting  of  this  period  deserves  the  name  of 
war.  Neither  England  nor  France  was  able  to  fight. 
France  was  divided  into  parties,  one  led  by  Duke  John 
of  Burgundy  and  the  other  by  Louis,  Duke  of  Orleans 
and  brother  of  the  mad  King  Charles  VI.  The  Anglo- 
French  war  was  resumed  by  the  Orleanists.  When 
Duke  John  wished  to  join,  he  was  stopped  by  the 
Flemish  towns  on  whose  wealth  he  depended.  During 
the  struggle  between  the  Burgundians  and  Orleanists, 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  murdered  in  1407.  The 
young  Duke  of  Orleans  and  his  father-in-law,  the 
Count  of  Armagnac,  continued  the  contest  with  the 
Burgundians.  During  this  civil  war  the  Flemish  re- 
gained their  ancient  semi-independence  and  traded 
with  the  English  as  if  there  had  been  an  Anglo-French 
peace. 

At  home  Henry  IV.  had  many  troubles.  Wars 
with  the  Scotch  and  the  Welsh  and  English  insur- 
rections filled  the  first  ten  years  of  his  reign,  which 
lasted  only  fourteen  years.  These  wars  exhausted 
the  royal  treasury  and  made  Henry  almost  as 
dependent  on  Parliament  as  he  had  made  his  cousin 
Richard  on  the  Lords  Appellant  in  1387.  The  post 
of  King  of  England  was  one  which  exhausted  the 
wealth  of  the  richest,  and  the  revenue  of  the  Lan- 
castrian estates  was  insufficient  to  enable  the  King 
to  balance  expenditure  and  income.  Two  of  his 
predecessors  had  been  deposed  and  murdered. 

M   2 


164         THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

Edward  III.  might  have  shared  their  fate  had  he  not 
satisfied  the  greed  of  England  with  the  plunder  of 
France.  Before  Henry  IV.  died  his  crown  was  by 
no  means  secure.  Henry  V.,  who  became  King  on 
the  death  of  his  father  in  1413,  appears  to  have  laid 
this  lesson  to  heart,  since  it  was  not  long  before  he 
followed  in  the  footsteps  of  his  great-grandfather 
Edward  III. 


XIII 

CAUSES  WHICH   LED   TO  THE  WAR  OF  THE   ROSES 
1411-1450 

DURING  the  contest  in  which  magnates  wrested  the 
royal  forest  rights  from  their  King,  Edward  II.  lost 
his  throne  and  life.  Richard  II.  shared  his  ancestor's 
fate  when  merchants  and  magnates  quarrelled  over 
the  protection  of  England's  inland  trade.  A  com- 
promise was  effected  when  the  first  Lancastrian  kings 
ruled  England.  Edward  III.  impressed  on  English 
merchants  the  wisdom  of  acquiescing  in  export  duties 
when  he  forbade  them  to  engage  in  foreign  trade. 
After  this  heavy  export  duties  were  paid  by  the 
English  and  the  Hanse  of  the  Steelyard,  while  still 
larger  duties  were  paid  by  other  aliens.  Under 
Henry  IV.  the  English  paid  the  equivalent  of  twenty 
pence  of  modern  money,  and  ordinary  aliens  the 
equivalent  of  twenty-four  pence  on  each  pound  of 
exported  wool.  Under  Henry  V.  the  English  paid 
about  seventeen  pence,  while  aliens  still  paid  at  their 
former  rate.  The  question  of  restrictions  on  foreign 
merchants  was  temporarily  settled  by  a  statute  which 
gave  foreigners  rights  similar  to  those  which  they 
granted  to  Englishmen  trading  abroad. 

Henry  V.,  however,  sat  on  an  uncertain  throne. 


166         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Amidst  their  internal  convulsions  the  French  respected 
the  persons  of  their  kings,  whilst  the  English  first 
humbled  and  then  murdered  theirs.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  Henry  V.  spent  his  life  trying  to  succeed 
to  the  throne  of  France  after  the  mad  King  Charles  VI., 
whose  life  was  held  sacred  by  Burgundian  and 
Orleanist.  In  1411  Henry  IV.  had  sent  an  English 
expedition  to  France,  only  to  abandon  his  Burgundian 
allies,  when,  in  1412,  the  Orleanists  bribed  the  English 
King  with  a  promise  of  Aquitaine.  England's  double 
dealing  for  a  time  ruined  Duke  John  of  Burgundy. 
His  influence  in  Paris  waned ;  and  the  States  of 
Flanders  negotiated  with  England  as  though  they  had 
no  ruler.  The  Duke  was  forced  to  accept  a  treaty 
signed  at  Senlis  between  the  States  of  Flanders  and 
an  invading  Orleanist  army.  This  treaty  stipulated 
that  the  Duke  should  hand  Flanders  over  to  his  son 
and  retire  to  Burgundy.  Although  the  rapidly 
growing  weaving  industry  of  England  and  the  Floren- 
tine market  made  the  Flemish  wool  market  of  less 
importance,  yet  English  merchants  must  have  felt 
concern  when  the  Orleanists  controlled  Bruges,  the 
port  to  which  rough  English  cloth  was  going  in  in- 
creasing quantity  to  be  finished  by  the  expert  dyers 
and  dressers  of  Flanders.  Without  difficulty  Henry  V. 
obtained  a  grant  from  Parliament  in  1414  for  an 
expedition  to  France. 

In  spite  of  the  treaty  of  Senlis,  Duke  John  allied 
himself  with  the  English  ;  but  the  Flemish  nobles 
joined  the  French  army.  In  August  1415  the  English 
landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Seine  and  captured  Har- 
fleur,  which  was  re-peopled  with  English  settlers  as 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES    167 

Calais  had  been.  Henry  was  then  able  to  block  the 
waterway  along  which  the .  products  of  Rouen  and 
Paris  found  access  to  the  sea,  but  his  army  was  too 
small  for  more  ambitious  schemes  of  conquest.  In- 
stead of  re-embarking  for  England  he  marched  by 
land  to  Calais,  probably  in  order  to  ascertain  whether 
the  conquest  of  the  Norman  coast  between  Harfleur 
and  Calais  would  be  a  difficult  operation.  At  Agin- 
court  the  English  were  opposed  by  a  French  army  of 
about  four  times  the  English  strength.  Once  again, 
not  far  from  Crecy,  the  English  won  a  brilliant  victory. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans  was  captured  at  Agincourt,  and 
the  Count  of  Armagnac  became  the  leader  of  the 
Orleanists.  In  November  Henry  was  warmly  wel- 
comed by  his  Londoners,  who  dreamed  that  the 
plunder  of  France  would  again  cross  the  Channel  as  in 
the  days  of  Edward  III.  Parliament  cheerfully  voted 
funds  for  an  expedition  with  which  the  king  sailed  to 
Normandy  in  1417.  But  Henry  soon  made  it  evident 
that  he  intended  to  win  a  kingdom  and  not  to  pillage 
France. 

English  greed  and  disunion  were  appropriately 
rewarded  by  the  campaign  of  Henry  V.  From  the 
first  Henry  made  it  clear  that  little  plunder  would  be 
sent  to  England.  Stringent  rules  protected  the 
property  and  lives  of  non-combatant  Frenchmen; 
and  town  after  town  in  Normandy  submitted  to  the 
English  King.  But  once  embarked  on  this  enterprise 
the  English  could  not  turn  back.  Had  they  done  so, 
the  Burgundians  would  have  been  crushed,  and  con- 
trol of  the  Channel  which  was  necessary  for  Eng- 
land's export  trade  would  have  passed  to  France. 


168        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

For  the  policy  which  gave  France  access  to  the  Medi- 
terranean through  Toulouse  was  bearing  fruit.  The 
time  was  at  hand  when  men  described  a  man  of  colos- 
sal wealth  by  saying  "  He  is  as  rich  as  Jacques  Coeur," 
the  merchant  prince  who  financed  the  Armagnac  and 
whose  Mediterranean  fleets  rivalled  those  of  Genoa 
and  Venice.  The  Emperor  Sigismund  visited  England 
in  1416 ;  and  his  advice  that  the  King  should  guard 
Dover  and  Calais  as  his  two  eyes  was  an  oft-told  tale 
in  England.  French  ships  could  have  been  moved 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Channel  more  easily 
than  the  Genoese  galleys  which  opposed  Edward  III. 
Once  these  had  passed  the  Straits  of  Dover  they 
could  have  isolated  England.  It  was  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  France  should  be  weakened.  Never- 
theless Englishmen  realised  that  they  were  paying  a 
heavy  price.  A  contemporary  wrote  "  Woe  is  me  ! 
Mighty  men  and  the  treasure  of  this  realm  will  be 
fordone  about  this  business." 

Fortune  favoured  Henry.  Paris  must  have  suffered 
when  the  Seine,  her  great  waterway,  was  closed.  In 
May  1418,  just  before  Henry  laid  siege  to  Rouen,  the 
capital  of  Normandy,  the  Burgundian  faction  in  Paris 
rose  against  the  Armagnacs.  The  Dauphin  escaped, 
but  the  Count  of  Armagnac  was  murdered,  and  Duke 
John  became  the  guardian  of  the  mad  King  Charles. 
Rouen,  left  without  adequate  support,  succumbed  ; 
and  Henry  became  the  ruler  of  Normandy.  Negotia- 
tions were  commenced  both  with  the  Dauphin  and 
with  Duke  John ;  but  Henry's  terms  were  so 
exorbitant  that  the  war  continued.  In  the  summer 
of  1419  the  Dauphin  and  the  Duke  agreed  to  forget 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES     169 

their  feud  and  join  in  resisting  the  English  invader. 
Duke  John  met  the  Dauphin  at  Montereau,  and,  as 
the  Duke  knelt  to  pay  homage,  he  was  murdered 
by  the  Dauphin's  men.  Once  again  French  disunion 
was  England's  best  ally.  John's  son  and  heir,  Duke 
Philip  of  Burgundy,  made  peace  with  the  English. 
Henry  married  Katherine  of  France  and  was  recog- 
nised as  the  heir  of  his  father-in-law,  Charles  VI. 

For  little  more  than  two  years  Henry  governed 
France  as  Regent  for  his  insane  father-in-law.  These 
years  were  spent  in  war  with  the  Frenchmen  of  the 
South,  who  supported  the  Dauphin.  In  1422  Henry  V. 
died  from  dysentery  brought  on  by  exposure.  His 
infant  son  became  Henry  VI.,  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford, 
the  baby-king's  uncle,  inherited  the  impossible  task 
of  ruling  France  and  England.  When,  a  few  weeks 
later,  Charles  VI.  died,  Bedford's  task  was  not  made 
easier.  Paris  and  the  North  accepted  Henry  VI.  as 
King  of  France,  but  in  the  South  the  Dauphin  was 
proclaimed  as  Charles  VIII.  Bedford's  brother,  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  acted  as  Bedford's  deputy  in 
England,  but  his  rule  was  nominal.  The  real  power 
was  entrusted  by  Parliament  to  a  council  of  magnates. 
This  subordination  of  the  unifying  and  centralising 
power  of  the  Crown  to  the  authority  of  a  committee 
of  territorial  lords  was  a  marked  feature  of  Lancastrian 
times.  The  effect  such  a  policy  was  likely  to  produce 
can  be  traced  in  the  history  of  Poland.  In  that  land, 
governed  nominally  by  elected  kings  and  in  fact  by 
great  landlords,  agriculture  was  developed  and  manu- 
facture stifled.  The  owners  of  land  insisted  on  buying 
cheap  foreign  goods,  and  home  industries,  other  than 


170        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

agriculture,  were  not  fostered.  The  people  remained 
in  an  unprogressive,  servile  state,  until  the  nation, 
weakened  by  internal  disunion,  ceased  to  exist.  From 
such  a  fate  England  was  saved  by  the  victory  of  the 
Yorkists  in  the  War  of  the  Roses. 

In  1423  the  Council  of  Magnates  ordered  the  sale 
of  the  navy  which  Henry  V.  had  created.  In  1452 
two  ships,  "  rotten  and  useless,  practically  constituted 
the  royal  navy  of  England."  Statute  laws  and  civic 
charters  protected  English  merchants  if  the  executive 
had  enforced  the  law.  But  the  English  wool-growing 
lords  supported  armies  of  retainers  and  defied  the  law. 
The  Flemish  and  Italian  merchant  bought  and  sold 
freely  to  lay  and  clerical  magnates.  English  merchant 
shipping  declined  and  England's  naval  power  was 
further  weakened.  This  is  stated  in  the  Libel  (or 
little  book)  of  English  Policy,  written  in  1436  or  1437. 
In  this  book  the  trade  of  Europe,  as  far  as  it  affected 
England,  is  concisely  discussed. 

The  author  begins  with  an  earnest  exhortation 
to  the  English  to  "  cherish  Marchandise,  keepe  the 
admyraltie,  that  we  bee  Masters  of  the  narrowe  see," 
and  gives  the  Emperor's  advice  to  Henry  to  keep 
Calais  and  Dover  "  as  your  tweyne  eyne."  Bruges  is 
described  as  the  great  market  for  European  goods. 
Thither  went  wool  from  Spain  and  Scotland,  but  this 
could  not  be  woven  into  fine  cloth  without  the  addition 
of  English  wrool ;  hence  the  author  argues  that  the 
Flemish  must  starve  if  they  quarrel  with  England. 
Constant  stress  is  laid  on  the  importance  of  a  strong 
English  navy.  With  this  and  her  fortresses  of  Calais 
and  Dover,  England  could  close  the  narrow  seas  and 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES    171 

exclude  Scotch,  Germans,  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  and 
Italians  from  their  market  in  Flanders.  Then,  the 
writer  says,  England  could  live  in  peace,  since  none 
would  dare  to  face  the  loss  of  their  trade. 

The  Libel  pleads  for  a  united  England,  Wales,  and 
Ireland  ;  and,  apart  from  the  constant  refrain,  lord- 
ship of  the  sea,  attention  is  called  to  one  "  principal 
matter/'  that  England  should  abandon  her  system  of 
unfair  trade.  The  Libel  does  not  find  fault  with  the 
law  of  England  ;  but  it  states  plainly  that  the  law 
was  constantly  evaded  and  broken,  so  that  foreigners 
had  advantages  over  Englishmen  in  the  English 
markets,  whilst  in  foreign  markets  Englishmen  were 
forced  to  submit  to  such  restrictions  as  foreigners 
chose  to  impose.  In  the  Libel  the  policy  of  English 
fifteenth-century  fiscal  reformers  was  thus  briefly 
stated.  Henry  VI.,  who  became  King  at  the  age  of 
one,  inherited  from  his  grandfather,  Charles  VI.,  a  feeble 
brain.  In  his  reign  the  royal  power,  already  seriously 
weakened,  almost  disappeared.  The  authority  of 
Parliament  dwindled  with  that  of  the  King.  A  body 
passing  statutes  which  were  not  obeyed  could  not 
command  respect.  Two  parties  divided  England — 
Lancastrians,  who  favoured  the  existing  state  of 
things,  and  Yorkists,  who  advocated  fiscal  reform 
and  centralisation.  An  appeal  was  made  to  the  sword. 
The  Yorkist  victories  paved  the  way  for  the  protection 
of  industry  which  gave  England  the  glories  of  Tudor 
times. 

Florence  was  a  great  buyer  of  the  unfinished 
English  cloth,  which  members  of  the  Arte  di  Calimala 
dressed  and  dyed.  For  the  Genoese  who  carried  dyed 


172         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

cloth  from  England  and  brought  "  Woll,  Oyle,  Woad- 
ashen,  by  vessel  in  the  see,  Cotton,  Rochalum,  and  good 
gold  of  Genue,"  the  writer  of  the  Libel  has  no  more 
dislike  than  he  has  for  the  Germans,  who  also  bought 
dyed  stuffs  and  sold  us  bacon,  bowstaves,  materials 
for  making  beer,  and  naval  stores.  He  speaks  well, 
too,  of  the  trade  with  the  Portuguese,  and  expresses 
the  hope  that  they  will  not  imitate  the  Spanish  and 
deal  directly  with  the  Flemish.  But  he  has  few  good 
words  to  say  of  the  Venetians  and  the  Florentines. 

"The  great  Galees  of  Venice  and  Florence 
Be  well  laden  with  things  of  complacence, 
All  spicery  and  of  grossers  ware : 
With  sweet  wines  all  manner  of  chaffare, 
Apes  and  Japes,  and  marmusets  tayled, 
Nifles  and  trifles  that  little  have  avayled  ; 
And  things  with  which  they  fetely  blere  our  eye  : 
With  things  not  enduring  that  we  bye. 
For  much  of  this  chaffare  that  is  wastable 
Might  be  forborne  for  dere  and  deceivable." 

The  economic  policy  of  the  Libel  very  closely 
resembles  the  policy  of  modern  protectionists.  Com- 
plementary imports — that  is,  those  for  which  no  sub- 
stitute can  be  found  at  home — should  be  encouraged, 
especially  if  the  materials  can  be  used  in  English 
industries.  Rival  products  should  be  as  far  as  possible 
kept  out  of  England,  and  no  foreigner  should  have  any 
advantage  over  Englishmen  in  the  English  market, 
but  the  treatment  of  foreigners  should  be  similar  to 
that  which  they  accord  to  the  English  who  trade  in 
their  lands.  The  Lombards,  in  particular,  are  accused 
of  evading  the  protective  laws  of  England,  and  this 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES     173 

doubtless  accounts  for  the  dislike  of  these  merchants 
expressed  in  the  Libel. 

The  Hanseatic  League  was  an  important  factor  in 
the  England  of  Henry  VI.  At  one  time  three  groups  of 
cities  were  included  in  this  confederation :  the  Dutch, 
the  North  Germans,  under  the  leadership  of  Lubeck, 
and  the  West  Germans,  led  by  Cologne.  The  merchants 
from  Cologne  were  the  first  to  engage  in  the  Anglo- 
Flemish  trade.  The  North  Germans  began  life  humbly 
enough  as  fishermen  who  caught  herrings  off  the  south 
coast  of  Sweden  which  was  subject  to  the  King  of 
Denmark.  Their  fishing  fleet  became  a  trading  fleet, 
and  by  force  of  arms  they  subjected  Norway  to  their 
economic  control  in  1285.  Successors  to  the  trade  of 
the  Northmen,  Wisby  became  their  most  important 
trade  centre  in  the  Baltic.  In  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  the  Danes  fought  to  crush  the 
growing  power  of  the  German  cities.  Wisby  was 
destroyed,  and  a  great  Scandinavian  Empire  might 
have  been  created  had  not  the  other  groups  united 
with  the  North  German  in  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance. 

Under  the  headship  of  Cologne,  sixty-seven  cities 
united  in  1364.  Denmark  was  reduced  to  subjection 
in  1370.  In  1397,  Denmark,  Norway  and  Sweden 
were  united  ;  but  the  economic  power  of  the  League 
was  then  too  firmly  established,  and  the  Baltic  be- 
came a  mare  clausum  in  which  none  but  the  Germans 
might  trade. 

Fishing  for  herrings  was  a  very  ancient  industry  in 
England.  In  1238  mention  is  made  of  ships  coming 
from  the  Baltic  to  Yarmouth  for  cargoes  of  English 


174         THE  STRENGTH  OF   ENGLAND 

fish.  In  1394  measures  had  to  be  taken  to  prevent 
foreigners  from  using  the  Yorkshire  coast  as  the  North 
Germans  used  the  coast  of  Sweden.  The  London  fish- 
mongers failed  in  their  struggle  to  keep  the  English 
market  for  English-caught  fish.  In  1435  a  statute  was 
passed  authorising  the  sale  of  foreign  fish  in  spite  of 
the  charters  of  the  fishmongers.  Fishing  should  have 
been  a  natural  industry  to  islanders  like  the  English  ; 
but  as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century  the  Dutch 
claimed  the  right  to  fish  English  waters  as  if  they 
belonged  to  Holland.  Then  at  last  protection  gave 
the  English  a  fishing  industry  as  it  had  given  her 
supremacy  in  the  making  of  cloth.  The  barons  of 
the  Cinque  Ports  were  also  governors  or  conservators 
of  the  Yarmouth  herring  fair.  Thus  they  were  pecu- 
liarly responsible  for  the  English  navy  and  the  English 
fishing  industry. 

Whilst  Henry  V.  was  fighting  in  France,  war  broke 
out  between  the  Scandinavian  powers  and  the  North 
German  cities.  The  Dutch  left  the  League  and  fought 
in  alliance  with  the  Scandinavians.  Had  the  English 
not  been  pre-occupied  with  the  French  war  they  might 
have  joined  in  the  war  and  opened  the  Baltic.  As 
it  was,  the  war  ended  in  favour  of  the  North  Germans 
in  1435,  although  both  the  Dutch  and  the  English 
refused  to  admit  the  Hanseatic  claim  to  a  monopoly 
of  the  Baltic  trade,  and  unofficial  war  on  the  sea  con- 
tinued. This  purely  commercial  war  was  fought  with 
great  ferocity,  since  each  side  considered  their  foes 
to  be  pirates  and  gave  no  quarter.  In  the  treaties 
made  with  the  North  Germans  by  Richard  II.,  English 
merchants  were  promised  freedom  of  trade  in  the 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES    175 

Baltic  in  return  for  the  freedom  granted  to  the  Hanse 
merchants  in  England,  but  the  numerous  acts  of 
violence  recited  in  these  treaties  prove  that  the  mer- 
chants of  the  League  had  no  intention  of  allowing 
the  English  access  to  the  Baltic.  England  had  no 
reason  to  complain  of  the  merchants  of  Cologne  ;  but 
the  merchants,  who  are  supposed  to  have  called  them- 
selves at  one  time  the  brotherhood  of  St.  Thomas 
Becket,  had  become  the  Merchant  Adventurers,  and  in 
seeking  to  extend  England's  commerce  they  naturally 
resented  the  closure  of  the  Baltic  by  the  North  Germans. 
During  the  early  years  of  Henry  VI.  Bedford  de- 
voted his  energies  to  establishing  Henry's  authority 
in  France.  Recruits  for  the  Anglo-Burgundian  army 
were  readily  obtained  in  England,  whilst  there  was 
a  steady  stream  of  Scotchmen  into  the  ranks  of 
Charles  VII.  In  1406  James,  the  heir  to  the  throne 
of  Scotland,  was  captured  by  the  English  whilst  sailing 
to  France.  He  was  restored  to  the  Scotch  in  1423, 
after  receiving  an  English  education,  and  repaid  his 
English  friends  by  stopping  the  exodus  of  soldiers 
from  Scotland.  In  wealth,  the  allies  of  England, 
the  Low  Countries,  and  Northern  France  must  have 
been  superior  to  the  Frenchmen  of  the  South,  in  spite 
of  the  valuable  Mediterranean  trade.  But,  whilst 
the  Northerners,  preoccupied  by  internal  strife,  gave 
but  grudgingly  to  the  Anglo-Burgundian  cause,  the 
Southerners  spent  their  lives  and  money  freely  for 
Charles  VII.  There  was  so  little  loyalty  among  the 
allies  that,  in  1423,  Gloucester  married  Jacqueline  of 
Hainault,  hoping  to  gain  her  heritage  of  Holland, 
which  Duke  Philip  of  Burgundy  had  marked  as  his 


176         THE   STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

own.  The  Anglo-Burgundian  alliance  was  nearly 
wrecked  when  Gloucester,  in  1425,  crossed  the  Channel 
to  seize  the  land  he  coveted.  The  Londoners  approved 
of  Gloucester's  design,  and  showed  their  sympathy 
by  rising  against  those  who  had  tried  to  supplant 
Gloucester  when  he  was  making  his  unsuccessful 
campaign  in  the  Low  Countries.  Civil  war  was  only 
averted  by  Bedford's  return.  During  Bedford's  ab- 
sence of  sixteen  months  the  French  war  was  badly 
managed,  and  the  time  then  lost  was  never  recovered. 

Whilst  the  Anglo-Burgundians  became  lukewarm 
and  disunited,  the  French  King's  adherents  gained 
courage.  For  a  little  over  a  year  French  patriotism 
was  inspired  by  the  sight  of  a  girl-heroine,  Joan  of  Arc, 
who  claimed  that  God  had  sent  her  to  lead  her  country- 
men to  certain  victory.  Under  her  guidance  the  French 
won  some  remarkable  victories ;  but,  during  the 
eight  months  which  preceded  her  capture  in  1430,  she 
was  used  to  inspire  confidence,  not  to  direct  the  cam- 
paign. It  is  no  disparagement  to  the  services  which 
Joan  of  Arc  rendered  to  France  to  suggest  that  the 
vacillation  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  contributed 
largely  towards  the  success  of  the  French. 

The  change  in  the  economic  relations  between 
England  and  Flanders  is  quite  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  dissolution  of  the  Anglo-Burgundian  alliance. 
Heavy  cloth,  in  which  there  was  much  wool,  could  be 
more  cheaply  manufactured  in  England,  since  the 
Flemish  could  only  buy  English  wool  burdened  with 
heavy  export  duties.  Lighter  fabrics  could  not  as  yet 
be  made  in  England,  and  in  order  to  weave  these 
the  Flemish  had  urgent  need  of  English  wool.  The 


CAUSES  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES     177 

Flemish  had  advantages  over  the  English  in  the 
dressing  and  dyeing  of  both  heavy  and  light  cloth. 
Hence,  whilst  one  branch  of  Flemish  weaving  was 
being  ruined  by  English  competition  and  the  industry 
as  a  whole  was  threatened  by  the  probable  develop- 
ment of  English  cloth-making,  the  Flemish  found  it 
difficult  to  retaliate  on  a  nation  which  had  a  monopoly 
of  the  raw  material  on  which  all  branches  depended. 

In  1429  the  English  Parliament  passed  a  statute 
to  check  the  practice  of  evading  the  payment  of 
export  duties  on  wool  carried  to  Flanders.  In  1434 
the  Flemish  forbade  the  importation  of  English  cloth, 
and  in  the  same  year  Philip  of  Burgundy  made  a 
secret  agreement  with  Charles  VII.  In  1435  negotia- 
tions for  an  Anglo-French  peace  failed  because  Eng- 
land refused  to  restore  Normandy  ;  the  secret  agree- 
ment became  the  formal  treaty  of  Arras  ;  and  in  1436 
the  Flemish  besieged  Calais.  The  weavers  of  Ghent 
were  foremost  in  responding  to  the  Duke's  request 
that  his  subjects  should  attack  their  old  allies,  the 
English.  But,  although  some  Flemish  weavers  were 
being  ruined  by  English  competition,  there  were  many 
weavers  of  lighter  fabrics  in  Flanders  who  had  need  of 
English  wool,  and  Flemish  cloth  finishers  were  ready 
to  dress  and  dye  English  cloth.  Scotch  and  Spanish 
wool  could  be  bought  in  Flanders,  but  these  could  not 
be  used  until  they  were  mixed  with  English  wool. 
When  commerce  with  England  was  suspended  the 
zeal  of  the  besiegers  of  Calais  flagged.  In  spite  of  the 
Duke's  entreaties  the  Flemish  returned  to  their  homes, 
and  civil  war,  caused  by  divergent  economic  interests, 
made  Flanders  a  negligible  quantity  in  the  Anglo- 

N 


178         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

French  duel.  In  the  treaty  of  Arras  Charles  waived 
his  claim  to  suzerainty  over  Flanders  during  Duke 
Philip's  life  ;  but,  when  their  dukes  tried  to  abolish 
the  old  privileges  by  which  each  Flemish  city  tried  to 
get  the  better  of  its  neighbours,  they  met  with  a 
resistance  similar  to  that  formerly  offered  to  the 
invading  kings  of  France. 

Just  before  the  treaty  of  Arras  was  signed  Bedford 
died.  Both  Gloucester  and  the  Duke  of  York  were 
left  with  claims  to  the  throne  of  England  if  the  boy- 
king  died  without  issue.  But  at  first  Gloucester  and 
York  united  in  opposing  the  powerful  Beauforts, 
illegitimate  descendants  of  John  of  Gaunt,  who  had 
been  legitimised  by  Parliament  but  declared  incapable 
of  inheriting  the  Crown.  Cardinal  Henry  Beaufort, 
supported  by  his  nephew  the  Earl  of  Somerset  and  by 
the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  a  descendant  of  the  merchant 
family  of  de  la  Pole,  led  a  party  which  desired  peace 
with  Flanders  and  France.  Gloucester  and  York  were 
both  naturally  in  favour  of  retaining  the  King's  pos- 
sessions in  France.  For  fourteen  years  after  the 
treaty  of  Arras,  the  English  grew  more  and  more  dis- 
contented with  the  misgovernment  of  the  magnates. 
In  1450  popular  discontent  found  expression  in  Cade's 
rebellion  ;  and  although  this  failed,  it  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  the  War  of  the  Roses  which  put  an  end  to 
parliamentary  misrule. 


XIV 

THE  WAR  OF  THE   ROSES 

1440-1471 

A  STATUTE  restricting  the  franchise  in  the  shires  to 
those  who  owned  landed  property  of  an  annual  value 
of  not  less  than  twenty  shillings  was  passed  in  1430 
while  the  King  was  a  child.  Thus  when  Henry  VI. 
became  old  enough  to  govern  he  was  surrounded  by 
barons  who  kept  small  armies  of  retainers  and  who 
could  fill  Parliament  with  their  partisans.  Had  the 
magnates  abstained  from  quarrelling  with  each  other, 
and  had  they  allied  themselves  with  the  merchants, 
the  English  monarchy  and  English  freedom  would 
probably  have  been  destroyed.  The  magnates  appear 
to  have  sought  to  conciliate  the  wealthy  citizens  when 
the  free  sale  of  foreign  fish  was  allowed  in  1435,  and 
when  in  1439  a  statute  was  passed  re-enacting  the 
restrictions  on  foreign  merchants.  In  1440  an  Anglo- 
Flemish  commercial  treaty  was  signed.  This  truce 
lasted  nine  years.  In  1449  the  weavers  of  the  Nether- 
lands again  insisted  upon  a  prohibition  of  the  importa- 
tion of  cheap  English  cloth,  and  the  English  retaliated 
by  forbidding  all  intercourse  with  the  Low  Countries. 
The  Hanse  merchants  played  an  important  part  in 
the  commercial  struggle  between  England  and  Flanders. 


i8o         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

As  middlemen  they  insisted  on  being  allowed  to  carry 
either  wool  or  cloth.  When  the  Flemish  declined  to 
accept  English  cloth,  the  Hanseats  refused  to  supply 
Flanders  with  wool,  and  the  Flemish  were  obliged  to 
yield.  Although  the  League  aided  England  in  their 
commercial  war  with  Flanders,  the  North  Germans, 
in  spite  of  their  treaties,  refused  to  allow  English 
Merchant  Adventurers  entrance  into  the  Baltic.  From 
1438  to  1441  the  Dutch  fought  their  former  comrades 
of  the  League  to  gain  admittance  into  the  Baltic  ;  but, 
in  spite  of  the  treaty  of  1441,  the  North  Germans 
insisted  on  their  claim  to  exclude  foreigners.  The 
Scandinavian  kingdoms  also  tried  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  the  League.  They  were,  however,  so  inferior 
to  the  North  Germans  in  sea  power  that  they  could 
only  secretly  encourage  the  Victual  Brothers,  inde- 
pendent sea  rovers  who  were  treated  as  pirates  by  the 
League. 

De  Witt  has  left  a  picture  of  England  as  foreigners 
saw  her  in  the  fifteenth  century.  "  As  for  England, 
we  are  to  know  that  heretofore  it  wholly  subsisted 
by  Husbandry,  and  was  wont  to  be  so  naked  of  any 
Naval  Power  that  the  Hans-Towns  being  at  War  with 
England,  they  compelled  King  Edward  in  the  Year 
1470  to  make  peace  upon  Terms  of  Advantage  to 
them.  And  so  long  as  the  English  used  to  transport 
nothing  but  a  few  Minerals,  and  much  Wool,  which 
they  carried  to  Calais  by  a  small  number  of  their  own 
Ships,  and  sold  only  to  Netherlandish  Clothiers,  it 
would  have  been  so  prejudicial  for  the  King  to  forbear 
his  Customs  of  Wool  (which  at  Calais  alone  amounted 
to  50,000  Crowns  per  annum,  and  likewise  to  the  Sub- 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES  181 

ject,rin  case  he  had  made  War  upon  the  Netherlands) 
that  we  read  not  that  these  trading  Provinces  ever 
broke  out  into  a  perfect  open  War  against  England. 
For  the  sometimes  War  hapned  between  the  Princes 
of  the  respective  Countrys,  nevertheless  most  of  the 
Citys  concerned  in  Traffick  and  Drapery  continued  in 
Amity." 

In  1447  the  naval  weakness  of  England  tempted 
the  League  to  enact  that  no  English  goods  should  be 
carried  except  on  Hanseatic  ships.  The  French  had 
been  steadily  driving  the  English  from  the  lands  they 
had  conquered.  In  1440  the  captive  Duke  of  Orleans 
was  released  owing  to  the  influence  of  the  peace  party. 
It  was  intended  that  Orleans  should  act  as  peace- 
maker between  France  and  England,  but  the  war 
continued.  In  1442  the  idea  of  peace  was  revived  ; 
and  it  was  suggested  that  Henry  should  marry  a 
daughter  of  the  powerful  Count  of  Armagnac.  At 
this  time  the  French  magnates,  led  by  Armagnac, 
were  uniting  against  Charles  VII.,  so  that  the  pro- 
posed marriage  might  have  led  to  peace  on  favourable 
terms  for  the  English.  In  1443,  when  Charles  and  his 
magnates  were  reconciled,  Suffolk  crossed  the  Channel 
and  negotiated  a  truce  for  two  years  by  surrendering 
English  claims.  At  the  same  time  he  arranged  that 
Henry  should  marry  Margaret  of  Anjou,  the  daughter 
of  a  landless  French  noble.  It  was  becoming  abun- 
dantly clear  that  the  English,  with  a  weakened  navy, 
would  have  to  face  the  hostility  of  the  Germans  in  the 
North  Sea  and  of  the  French  in  the  Channel  when 
France  regained  possession  of  the  coast. 

To  keep  power  over  Parliament  the  Government 


i8a         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

accused  the  sheriffs  of  having  "  tampered  with  the 
returns  to  Parliament,  ignoring  men  duly  elected,  and 
substituting  nominees  of  their  own."  In  1445  legis- 
lation was  passed  to  secure  that  "  Knyghtes  of  the 
Shire  .  .  .  hereafter  to  be  chosen  be  ...  gentilmen  of 
birth  "  ;  not  yeomen,  nor  "  bynethe."  Having  thus 
silenced  the  democracy,  the  peace  party  determined  to 
attack  Gloucester  and  York.  In  1447  Parliament  met 
at  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  where  the  influence  of  the 
London  mob  would  not  be  felt.  Gloucester  was 
arrested  and  died  before  trial.  His  death  was  followed 
by  the  appointment  of  York  to  the  Lieutenancy  of 
Ireland  for  ten  years,  an  honourable  form  of  banish- 
ment. Repeated  surrenders  to  the  French  prolonged 
the  truce  until  1449.  Then  Parliament  met  in  West- 
minster, and  before  it  was  dissolved  the  Anglo-French 
war  was  resumed.  It  was  soon  manifest  that  Eng- 
land's possessions  in  France  were  doomed,  and  there 
was  grave  danger  that  England  would  be  invaded. 
Above  all  things  it  was  important  that  Calais  should 
not  be  lost.  As  long  as  Dover  and  Calais  were  in 
English  hands,  the  armed  merchantmen  of  England 
could  interpose  between  the  French  and  North  German 
fleets.  If  France  had  had  an  adequate  navy  or  the 
North  Germans  an  adequate  army  nothing  could  have 
saved  England,  since  her  coasts  were  so  defenceless 
that  in  1450  it  was  an  everyday  occurrence  for  a  walk 
along  the  coast  to  end  on  board  an  enemy's  ship. 

Though  there  was  great  distress  in  England  and 
the  King  was  penniless,  the  peace  party  had  been 
prospering.  Cardinal  Beaufort  died  in  1447,  leaving 
great  wealth  behind  him.  His  nephew  and  Suffolk 


THE   WAR  OF   THE   ROSES  183 

were  rewarded  for  their  mismanagement  by  being  cre- 
ated Dukes  of  Somerset  and  of  Suffolk.  In  addition 
to  England's  other  troubles,  in  1449  the  importation 
of  English  cloth  into  Brabant,  Holland,  and  Zeeland 
was  prohibited.  A  new  Parliament  was  summoned  to 
meet  at  Westminster  in  November  1449.  In  spite  of 
the  efforts  of  the  peace  party,  this  Parliament  was 
hostile  to  Suffolk.  In  order  to  protect  his  minister 
from  the  anger  of  the  people,  Henry  banished  him  for 
five  years  ;  but,  on  his  way  to  the  Continent,  Suffolk 
was  intercepted  and  beheaded  by  English  sailors  who 
were  lying  in  wait  for  him.  Parliament  insisted  that 
all  royal  grants  made  during  the  King's  reign  should 
be  revoked.  This  order  was,  however,  imperfectly 
obeyed.  Normandy  was  lost  to  the  English  in  1450. 
The  men  of  Kent  rose  under  Jack  Cade.  The  insur- 
gents demanded  a  change  of  government  and  the 
recall  of  the  Duke  of  York  from  Ireland.  Though 
the  rebellion  was  suppressed,  York  resigned  the  Lieu- 
tenancy of  Ireland  and  became  the  leader  of  the 
opposition  to  the  Government.  In  1451  the  South  of 
France  was  lost  to  the  English.  York  was  apparently 
about  to  succeed,  when  he  listened  to  an  invitation  to 
make  peace  with  Somerset.  York's  demands  were 
nominally  conceded  ;  he  disbanded  his  forces  and  met 
the  King,  only  to  find  that  he  was  a  prisoner  in  the 
hands  of  his  enemies.  Somerset,  however,  feared  to 
take  extreme  measures  against  a  popular  leader,  and 
York  acquiesced  in  Somerset's  rule. 

In  1452  the  English  were  cheered  by  some  suc- 
cesses. At  a  diet  held  at  Utrecht  a  majority  of  the 
Hanse  cities  made  favourable  terms  with  the  English 


184         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

commissioners.  The  citizens  of  Ghent,  in  arms 
against  their  Duke  on  account  of  certain  taxes,  sought 
and  obtained  aid  from  England.  The  merchants  of 
Bordeaux,  anxious  once  more  to  exchange  wine  for 
English  cloth,  also  obtained  help  from  England  and 
expelled  the  French.  The  Parliament,  which  met  in 
this  year  at  Reading  to  be  free  from  the  influence  of 
the  Yorkist  Londoners,  supported  Somerset  and  the 
King.  But  clouds  soon  gathered.  Liibeck  refused  to 
accept  the  arrangement  made  at  Utrecht.  The 
merchants  of  Cologne  were  allowed  to  enjoy  the 
privileges  of  the  London  Steelyard,  whilst  those  of 
Liibeck  continued  the  commercial  war  with  England. 
The  League  was  temporarily  divided  ;  but  the  English 
were  still  excluded  from  the  Baltic  market  for  their 
cloth.  In  July  1453  twenty  thousand  citizens  of 
Ghent  perished  at  the  battle  of  Gavre,  and  England's 
hope  of  recovering  the  Flemish  market  vanished.  In 
Southern  France  Bordeaux  only  was  holding  its  own^ 
with  difficulty,  against  the  French.  In  October  Bor- 
deaux yielded,  and  another  market  was  permanently 
closed.  The  foreign  possessions  of  England  were  re- 
duced to  the  fortress  of  Calais. 

To  add  to  England's  troubles  the  King's  mind, 
never  very  strong,  gave  way  ;  and  he  was  unable  even 
to  understand  that  an  heir  to  his  difficulties  had  been 
born.  Under  these  depressing  conditions  the  Queen's 
desire  to  be  made  Regent  was  refused ;  and  Parliament 
in  1454  entrusted  York  with  the  office  of  Protector. 
Somerset  was  at  the  same  time  lodged  in  the  Tower, 
lest  a  worse  fate  should  befall  him.  Next  year  the 
King  recovered  from  his  insanity.  Somerset  was 


THE   WAR  OF  THE   ROSES  185 

reinstated,  and  both  parties  drew  the  sword.  The  first 
battle  of  St.  Albans  ended  in  a  victory  for  the  Yorkists. 
Somerset  was  killed  in  battle  ;  York  became  Constable 
of  England,  whilst  his  supporter,  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
was  made  Captain  of  Calais.  In  1456  the  Queen 
removed  her  husband  and  son  to  the  Midlands.  The 
Yorkists  were  then  deprived  of  power ;  but  for  three 
years  there  was  no  fresh  outbreak  of  civil  war.  In 
1457,  owing  to  reverses  at  sea,  the  Queen  was  forced 
to  give  Warwick  a  commission  to  keep  the  sea  for 
three  years,  and  Warwick  succeeded  where  his  pre- 
decessor had  failed. 

In  1459  the  Queen  thought  that  she  was  strong 
enough  to  crush  the  Yorkists.  Both  sides  armed, 
and  the  battles  of  Blore  Heath  and  Ludlow  proved 
that  the  Queen's  calculations  were  well  founded.  The 
Yorkists  made  the  mistake  of  trusting  to  their  retainers 
and  fighting  at  a  distance  from  London  and  Kent, 
the  centres  of  their  strength.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  the  leading  Yorkists  were  in  exile.  York  was 
again  sent  to  Ireland  and  Warwick  withdrew  to 
Calais,  which  he  held  in  opposition  to  the  Government. 
Though  defeated  on  land,  the  Yorkists  had  the  support 
of  England's  sailors  and  of  the  men  of  Kent.  In 
London  many  of  the  rich  merchants  were  Lancastrian, 
but  the  great  majority  of  the  common  folk  were  on 
the  side  of  York. 

Warwick  landed  in  Kent  in  1460.  He  was  wel- 
comed by  the  citizens  of  London.  Money  was  raised 
in  the  city;  at  Northampton  the  Lancastrians  were 
crushed ;  and  York  returned  to  London  with  a  captive 
King,  who  was  allowed  to  reign  under  York's  tutelage, 


186         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

whilst  York  was  recognised  as  the  heir  to  the  throne. 
The  Queen  speedily  raised  a  new  army  in  the  North. 
At  Wakefield,  in  1460,  York  was  defeated  and  killed 
in  the  battle.  A  Lancastrian  victory  at  St.  Albans 
in  February  1461  ought  to  have  opened  the  road  to 
London  ;  but  the  Queen  hesitated  before  attacking 
a  Yorkist  stronghold.  Meanwhile  York's  son  and 
heir,  soon  to  be  Edward  IV.,  had  defeated  the  Lan- 
castrians of  the  West  at  Mortimer's  Cross.  His 
victorious  army  joined  Warwick's  force  which  had 
been  defeated  at  St.  Albans,  and  London  accepted 
Edward  as  King.  Henry  VI.  had  escaped  from  the 
custody  of  the  Yorkists  when  they  were  defeated  at 
St.  Albans.  The  new  king  pursued  the  Lancastrians 
as  they  retired  towards  the  North  and  defeated  them 
at  Towton.  Henry  VI.  and  his  Queen  fled  to  Scot- 
land, and,  in  1461,  Parliament  recognised  that 
Edward  IV.  was  King  by  right  of  birth  and  not  by 
parliamentary  title. 

The  Yorkist  cause  had  been  supported  by  the 
common  folk,  weavers  and  ironworkers.  They  were 
rewarded  in  1463  when  Parliament  decreed  that  the 
importation  of  a  long  list  of  cutlery  and  ironware  was 
forbidden  during  the  King's  pleasure  and  that  no 
wrought  silk  should  be  imported  for  five  years.  At 
the  same  time  the  export  of  wool  was  confined  to 
Englishmen,  and  to  encourage  agriculture  the  importa- 
tion of  grain  was  forbidden  until  the  price  was  high 
enough  to  allow  English  farmers  to  grow  grain  at  a 
profit.  This,  the  first  English  corn  law,  if  statutes 
permitting  or  forbidding  the  exportation  of  grain  are 
neglected,  preserved  England  from  having  her  corn- 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES  187 

growing  ruined  by  the  importation  of  cheap  grain 
from  the  Baltic.  Next  year  the  importation  of  woollen 
cloth  was  forbidden.  The  preambles  to  these  statutes 
make  it  quite  clear  that  they  were  intended  to  protect 
English  industry.  During  the  civil  war,  as  a  rule,  the 
common  folk  were  spared,  while  noble  prisoners  were 
executed  without  mercy.  The  slaughter  of  so  many 
magnates  made  it  easier  to  carry  into  effect  the  idealism 
of  de  Montfort  who,  two  centuries  before  England  was 
ripe  for  the  change,  had  urged  Englishmen  to  protect 
the  English  weaver  instead  of  seeking  over-precious 
raiment  from  abroad. 

In  the  year  1453,  when  the  War  of  the  Roses  was 
brewing,  the  Turks  captured  Constantinople.  Materials 
from  the  East,  such  as  alum,  without  which  cloth 
could  not  then  be  finished,  were  only  to  be  had  at 
whatever  price  the  Turks  chose  to  ask.  John  di 
Castro,  a  refugee  from  Constantinople,  obtained  the 
Pope's  permission  to  open  mines  in  papal  territory. 
An  abundance  of  excellent  alum  was  produced  at 
some  date  between  1460  and  1465.  Shortly  after  this 
alum  was  found  at  Volterra,  not  far  from  Florence. 
The  Medici  of  Florence  were  papal  bankers  and 
financed  the  alum  mines  and  works.  After  a  war 
between  Florence  and  Volterra,  the  Medici  were  able 
to  control  the  supply  of  alum  from  Volterra  as  well  as 
that  from  papal  territory.  The  cloth  of  Florence  was 
no  longer  sent  to  be  dyed  at  Constantinople,  and 
the  Popes  and  Medici  won  colossal  wealth  from  the 
discovery.  The  splendour  and  the  wickedness  of 
Rome  and  Florence  under  the  Borgias  and  the  Medici 
came  from  this  easily  earned  wealth.  Before  the  end 


i88         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  fifteenth  century  Florence,  thinking  herself 
secure  in  her  monopoly  of  alum,  adopted  the  policy 
of  free  importation.  Cheap  rough  cloth  was  carried 
from  England  to  be  finished  in  Florence.  The  rich 
Medici  grew  richer,  whilst  the  weavers  starved  and 
fought  desperately  for  the  right  to  exist.  Meanwhile 
England  increased  her  hold  over  the  primary  industry 
of  weaving,  and  waited  in  patience  for  the  secondary 
industries  which  were  bound  to  come  to  her. 

Portugal  had  been  England's  faithful  political  and 
commercial  ally.  The  treaty  of  Windsor,  in  1386, 
established  this  alliance,  which  was  cemented  by  the 
marriage  of  Philippa  of  Lancaster,  daughter  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  to  King  John  of  Portugal.  Her  son,  Henry, 
was  the  Portuguese  prince  who  led  his  countrymen 
on  those  voyages  of  discovery  by  which  ultimately  a 
sea  route  to  the  East  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
was  found  in  1486.  Thus  European  progress  was 
stimulated  and  not  retarded  when  importation  from 
the  East  was  temporarily  checked  by  the  capture  of 
Constantinople.  Duke  Philip  of  Flanders  was  evi- 
dently alive  to  the  importance  of  Portugal  when  he 
married  Philippa's  daughter,  Isabel,  with  great  pomp 
in  1427  ;  but  the  Portuguese  remained  faithful  to  their 
English  friends,  and  the  treaty  of  Windsor  was  con- 
stantly renewed.  Charles  the  Bold,  son  of  Philip  and 
Isabel,  was  the  real  ruler  of  Flanders  for  some  years 
before  1467,  when  he  succeeded  to  the  Duchy  of 
Burgundy  on  his  father's  death. 

In  1461,  the  year  in  which  Edward  IV.  was  crowned, 
Charles  VII.  of  France  died,  and  his  son,  Louis  XL, 
became  King.  From  Louis,  Queen  Margaret  obtained 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  ROSES  189 

shipping  and  men.  But  the  rivalry  which  existed 
between  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  Louis  XL  made 
the  French  King  cautious.  English  shipping  was  able 
to  cope  with  the  insufficient  force  obtained  from 
France,  and  Queen  Margaret  again  found  shelter  in 
Scotland.  A  Lancastrian  rising  in  the  North  of 
England,  supported  by  the  Scotch,  was  crushed  in 
1464  at  the  battles  of  Hedgely  Moor  and  Hexham. 
Scotland  then  made  peace  with  Edward ;  Queen 
Margaret  fled  to  France  ;  and  Henry  VI.  found  hiding- 
places  in  the  houses  of  his  English  adherents.  Fear 
of  the  power  of  the  King  of  France  prevented  an  open 
rupture  between  England  and  the  Netherlands  when 
commercial  intercourse  was  suspended. 

After  1458  short  commercial  truces  between 
England  and  Flanders  enabled  English  merchants  to 
conduct  a  somewhat  precarious  trade.  In  the  second 
year  of  his  reign  Edward  tried  to  establish  an  English 
Hanse  in  the  Netherlands  by  the  grant  of  a  "  large 
charter  "  to  English  merchants  trading  in  those  parts. 
Commercial  treaties  were  also  made  with  Denmark, 
Brittany,  Scotland,  Naples,  and  Spain.  To  facilitate 
the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  with  Spain  a  present  of 
English  sheep  was  sent  to  the  Spanish  King,  and  it  is 
supposed  that  the  growing  of  fine  wool  in  Spain  began 
after  this  gift.  In  1463  a  Navigation  Act  was  passed 
to  compel  English  exporters  to  use  English  ships  ; 
but  this  Act  lapsed  in  three  years  and  was  probably 
never  seriously  enforced.  To  raise  funds  for  an 
adequate  navy  was  too  dangerous  a  policy  before  the 
central  government  was  strong  enough  to  crush 
opposition  to  national  taxation ;  but  Edward  doubt- 


igo         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

less  hoped  to  restore  England's  sea  power  by  building 
up  a  mercantile  marine.  He  became  a  trader  on  his 
own  account,  and  his  marriage  to  an  Englishwoman, 
Elizabeth  Woodville,  who  was  only  the  daughter  of 
a  knight,  endeared  the  King  to  the  middle  classes, 
although  it  tended  to  estrange  the  great  nobles. 

Edward's  attempt  to  establish  direct  commerce 
with  the  Netherlands  alarmed  the  weavers  of  Flanders. 
It  was  immediately  followed  by  a  Burgundian  edict 
prohibiting  the  importation  of  English  cloth.  This 
was  answered  by  an  English  Act  forbidding  importa- 
tion from  Burgundian  lands  ;  but  the  Act  specified 
that  the  rights  of  the  Steelyard  were  not  to  be  affected, 
hence  Anglo-Flemish  trade  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  merchants  of  Cologne.  The  commerce  of  Calais 
was  affected  by  Edward's  "  large  charter,"  which  was 
intended  to  create  direct  intercourse  between  Flanders 
and  England,  and  by  the  Act  which  confined  Anglo- 
Flemish  trade  to  the  merchants  of  the  Steelyard  who 
dealt  between  London  and  Bruges.  When  Charles 
the  Bold  became  Duke  of  Burgundy  in  1467,  negotia- 
tions for  an  alliance  between  Charles  and  Edward 
were  set  on  foot.  The  alliance  involved  joint  action 
against  France  and  direct  commercial  intercourse 
between  the  Burgundian  lands  and  England.  It  was 
to  be  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  Edward's  sister, 
Margaret,  to  Duke  Charles. 

Warwick,  whose  interests  were  bound  up  with 
Calais  and  English  shipping,  opposed  the  alliance  and 
the  treaties  ;  but  a  treaty  which  restored  commerce 
with  the  Netherlands  was  evidently  better  than  the 
absolute  cessation  of  trade.  Hence  the  merchants  of 


THE  WAR  OF  THE   ROSES  191 

Calais  supported  Edward  in  his  new  policy,  although 
this  policy  involved  their  obtaining  a  smaller  share  of 
Anglo-Flemish  trade.  The  treaties  were  signed  and 
the  marriage  solemnised  after  Parliament  had  signified 
its  approval  in  1468.  Then  followed  a  rising  of  nobles 
who  were  jealous  of  the  favours  bestowed  on  the 
Queen's  relatives.  Warwick  and  Edward's  brother, 
the  Duke  of  Clarence,  supported  this  rebellion.  After 
a  small  battle  at  Edgecote,  Edward  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  rebels.  This  sudden  revolt  was  succeeded  by 
an  equally  sudden  reaction.  Edward  was  set  free, 
and  Warwick  in  1470  fled  to  Calais.  Refused  admit- 
tance at  Calais,  Warwick  obtained  ships  and  men  from 
Louis  XL  and  sheltered  himself  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Seine,  where  he  was  blockaded  by  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy. Before  long  Duke  Charles  was  forced  to  raise 
the  blockade.  There  were  naval  battles  between  the 
Hanseatics  and  Flemings  on  one  side  and  Warwick 
on  the  other,  although  England  and  Burgundy  were 
allied.  Finally,  in  1470,  after  making  peace  with 
Queen  Margaret,  Warwick  landed  at  Dartmouth. 
Edward  fled  to  Flanders,  and  Henry  VI.  was  released 
from  the  Tower  to  serve  as  puppet  King  for  Warwick. 
It  was  not  long  before  England  again  learned 
that  internal  peace  was  impossible  as  long  as  her  navy 
was  weak.  After  some  hesitation,  Duke  Charles  lent 
his  brother-in-law  some  ships,  and  money  with  which 
he  could  hire  others  from  the  Hanse  merchants.  In 
1471  Edward  landed  in  England.  Clarence  deserted 
Warwick's  cause,  and  London  again  welcomed  a 
Yorkist  King.  Warwick  was  routed  and  slain  at  the 
battle  of  Barnet  in  1471.  On  the  day  of  the  battle 


192         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

£)ueen  Margaret  landed  at  Weymouth.  Three  weeks 
later  the  Lancastrians  who  had  joined  her  were 
defeated  at  Tewkesbury.  Edward,  the  only  son  of 
Henry  VI.,  was  put  to  death  after  the  battle,  and 
Queen  Margaret  surrendered  to  Edward.  Warwick's 
Vice-Admiral,  Fauconbridge,  led  his  sailors  to 
London.  He  was  defeated  by  the  resistance  of  the 
Londoners,  and  resumed  his  old  career  of  pirate,  until 
he  was  captured  and  beheaded.  Edward  entered 
London  as  unquestioned  King.  On  the  day  of  his 
entry  Henry  VI.  died  a  probably  unnatural  death  in 
the  Tower,  and  for  a  time  England  had  rest  from 
civil  war. 


XV 

ENGLAND'S  PROTECTIVE  POLICY  INITIATED 

1473-1490 

EDWARD  IV.  was  restored  to  his  throne  by  Duke  Charles 
the  Bold  ;  but  there  was  little  to  unite  the  two  rulers 
except  their  common  hostility  to  Louis  XI.  Charles 
wished  to  create  an  independent  Greater  Burgundy 
which  should  stretch  from  the  Low  Countries  to  the 
Mediterranean.  Within  his  kingdom  there  would 
have  been  ample  pasture  for  flocks  whose  wool  might 
have  fed  Flemish  looms.  Charles  even  dreamed  of 
adding  England  to  his  dominions.  After  the  death  of 
Henry  VI.  he  placed  on  record  a  secret  document  in 
which  he  claimed  the  throne  of  England  as  a  descendant 
of  John  of  Gaunt  through  his  mother.  But  the  first 
task  to  which  Charles  devoted  his  energy  was  the 
conquest  of  the  lands  which  separated  Flemish  looms 
from  the  Burgundian  pastures.  To  aid  him  in  his 
enterprise,  Charles  negotiated  with  the  Dukes  of 
Guienne  and  Brittany  and  with  Edward  IV.,  who  was 
invited  to  enter  France  by  way  of  Brittany. 

Co-operation  with  the  English  was  impossible  until 
the  English  could  cross  the  Channel  in  safety.  Ac- 
cordingly Charles  arranged  a  meeting  of  the  Hanse 
merchants  and  the  English  at  Utrecht  in  1473,  when 

o 


194         THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

peace  was  made  between  the  North  Germans  and  the 
English.  The  feud  between  Cologne  and  the  Baltic 
towns  was  then  healed,  and  Liibeck  again  became 
the  chief  Hanse  city.  The  North  Germans  regained 
the  privileges  of  the  Steelyard,  promising  to  give 
English  merchants  equal  freedom  in  the  Baltic.  This 
promise  was,  however,  speedily  broken.  Charles  pro- 
mised Edward  the  support  of  the  Flemish  in  the 
campaign  against  Louis  ;  but  the  merchants  declined 
to  listen  to  the  Duke's  prayers  and  threats.  In  1475 
Edward  wisely  sailed  to  Calais  instead  of  Brittany. 
When  it  was  clear  that  Charles  would  have  no  help 
from  Flanders,  Edward  made  terms  with  Louis  XI. 
The  campaign  was  abandoned  after  Edward  had 
received  a  large  sum  of  money  from  the  French  King 
and  a  promise  of  an  annual  subsidy.  It  was  also 
agreed  that  the  Dauphin  should  marry  Edward's 
daughter  Elizabeth.  The  marriage  project  failed  ; 
but  the  subsidy  was  regularly  paid  during  Edward's 
life,  and  he  was  thus  relieved  from  the  necessity  of 
summoning  Parliament. 

In  1476  French  gold  was  used  to  bribe  the  Swiss  to 
attack  Charles  and  to  spread  treachery  in  the  Bur- 
gundian  army.  Charles  fell  at  the  battle  of  Nancy, 
leaving  an  only  child,  Mary,  as  heiress.  The  Flemish 
burghers  at  first  saw  in  the  disaster  an  opportunity  for 
wringing  from  the  duchess  and  her  mother  a  renewal 
of  the  privileges  which  had  divided  the  Netherlands. 
When  Louis  realised  profit  from  his  judicious  invest- 
ments by  annexing  large  portions  of  the  Burgundian 
lands,  and  when  he  threatened  to  absorb  the  Nether- 
lands by  marrying  the  Dauphin  to  their  young  Duchess, 


PROTECTIVE  POLICY   INITIATED       195 

the  burghers  awoke  to  their  danger.  An  army,  tenfold 
as  large  as  that  which  Duke  Charles  had  asked  for, 
was  hastily  levied,  and  Mary  was  married  to  Maxi- 
milian, son  of  the  German  Emperor.  Thus  for  a  time 
absolute  ruin  was  averted  ;  but,  in  the  end,  the  men 
who  preferred  to  depend  on  the  foreigner  for  their  raw 
material,  wool,  and  who  thought  as  traders  not  as 
imperialists,  lost  both  trade  and  freedom. 

Edward's  interference  in  foreign  politics  almost 
ceased  after  1475.  The  money  he  received  from 
France,  supplemented  by  benevolences  or  compul- 
sory gifts  from  wealthy  merchants,  enabled  him  to 
rule  without  Parliament.  One  Parliament,  indeed, 
met  in  1478  ;  but  the  only  business  it  transacted  was 
the  condemnation  of  Edward's  brother,  the  Duke 
of  Clarence,  for  high  treason.  Clarence  died  in  the 
Tower  before  the  sentence  of  Parliament  was  carried 
out.  Parliament  did  not  again  meet  until  1483,  just 
before  Edward's  death.  In  1478  a  commercial  treaty 
was  made  between  England  and  Flanders.  Next  year 
Philip,  the  baby  son  of  Maximilian  and  Mary,  was 
betrothed  to  one  of  Edward's  daughters.  Flanders 
and  France  were  at  war  and  this  was  probably  a  hint 
to  the  French  King  that  there  might  be  an  Anglo- 
Burgundian  alliance  if  his  payments  were  not  punc- 
tually made. 

The  last  years  of  Edward's  life  were  devoted 
mainly  to  Scotland.  Advantage  was  taken  of  the 
Franco-Burgundian  war  and  of  disunion  in  the  Scotch 
royal  family.  The  Duke  of  Albany,  brother  of  the 
reigning  King  James  III.,  laid  claim  to  the  throne,  and 
Edward  supported  Albany's  claim.  In  return  Albany 

o  2 


196         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

promised  to  acknowledge  Edward's  overlordship  if 
he  won  the  throne  of  Scotland.  But  in  March  1482 
Mary  of  Burgundy  died,  leaving  two  infant  children, 
Philip  and  Margaret.  Whilst  Edward  and  Albany 
were  making  terms,  Louis  XI.  was  negotiating  with  the 
Flemish,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  Dauphin  should 
marry  Margaret,  who  would  have  as  dowry  the  Bur- 
gundian  lands  for  which  France  was  fighting.  France 
was  thus  able  to  interest  herself  in  the  affairs  of 
Scotland,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  successful  campaign 
which  Edward's  brother  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
was  conducting  against  James  of  Scotland,  Albany 
resigned  his  claim  and  made  terms  with  his  brother. 
As  the  result  of  the  war  England  gained  only  the 
frontier  town  of  Berwick,  but  Gloucester  acquired  the 
reputation  of  a  great  military  leader. 

The  negotiations  between  France  and  the  Low 
Countries,  which  were  finally  concluded  by  the  Peace 
of  Arras  in  March  1483,  were  at  once  felt  in  England. 
The  motive,  prompting  Louis  to  pay  the  annual 
bribe,  which  had  lessened  taxation  in  England,  was 
removed  when  Edward's  neutrality  was  no  longer 
of  value  to  the  French  King.  France  could  then 
interfere  to  check  the  movement  towards  the  unifica- 
tion of  Great  Britain,  and  the  trade  between  England 
and  the  Low  Countries  was  endangered.  When 
England  wished  to  sell  cloth  instead  of  wool  Bruges 
closed  her  market  in  1434,  only  to  create  a  dangerous 
rival  in  Antwerp,  the  sea  port  of  Brabant.  There 
English  Merchant  Adventurers  settled  in  1446,  and 
Antwerp,  accepting  the  principle  of  free  trade,  offered 
a  hearty  welcome  to  all  merchants  of  every  nation. 


PROTECTIVE  POLICY   INITIATED       197 

The  Hanse  League  had  much  capital  invested  in 
Bruges,  and  were  therefore  loth  to  leave.  But  as  the 
trade  of  Bruges  decayed,  the  Zwyn  silted  up.  Charles 
the  Bold  urged  his  semi-independent  Flemish  towns  to 
aid  Bruges  in  clearing  the  waterway,  but  they  turned 
a  deaf  ear.  Antwerp  grew  as  Bruges  declined,  and 
the  Hanse  merchants  followed  the  English.  Then 
followed  the  dramatic  commercial  war  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries.  Cheap  English 
goods  flooded  the  Low  Countries  and  Germany. 
At  first  there  was  plenty  for  the  poor  and  luxury  for 
the  rich,  soon  followed  by  loss  of  production,  ruin, 
and  desolation.  It  was  this  market  of  Antwerp  which 
might  have  been  closed  to  the  English  by  the  Peace 
of  Arras. 

Parliament  met  in  January  1483,  and  supply  for 
the  Anglo-French  war  which  seemed  inevitable  was 
at  once  voted.  Shortly  after  Parliament  was  pro- 
rogued Edward  died  in  April  1483,  and  his  son,  a  boy 
of  twelve,  became  Edward  V.  By  illegal  and  violent 
measures  the  young  King's  uncle,  Gloucester,  was 
made  Protector,  and  the  sons  of  Edward  IV.  were 
lodged  in  the  Tower.  In  June  the  Protector  obtained 
the  consent  of  the  nobles  to  his  usurpation  of  the 
throne  as  Richard  III.  A  few  days  after  this  the  boy- 
king  and  his  brother  were  murdered  in  the  Tower. 
The  conscience  of  the  nation  was  again  shocked  when 
Richard's  wife,  whose  health  precluded  the  possibility 
of  her  bearing  more  children,  died  suddenly,  after 
Richard  was  left  childless  by  the  death  of  his  only 
son.  The  shock  was  increased  when  Richard  pro- 
posed to  marry  his  niece  Elizabeth,  the  sister  of  the 


ig8         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

murdered  children.  Englishmen  believed  not  without 
some  reason  that  Richard  had  murdered  Henry  VI., 
his  brother  Clarence,  his  two  nephews,  and  his  wife. 
Though  Richard's  Parliament  passed  statutes  making 
benevolences  illegal  and  protecting  English  trade 
against  foreign  competition,  his  reign  was  destined 
to  be  a  short  one. 

Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond,  a  descendant  of 
the  Beauforts,  had  fled  to  the  Continent.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  by  which  he  was  to  land  in  England, 
seize  the  Crown,  marry  Edward's  daughter  Elizabeth, 
and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  strife  between  the  Houses 
of  York  and  Lancaster.  In  1483  Richard  succeeded  in 
suppressing  a  rebellion  to  carry  out  this  scheme  ;  but 
in  1485  Henry  landed  at  Milford  Haven  with  a  small 
body  of  soldiers  lent  by  the  French.  Richard  was 
defeated  and  killed  near  Bosworth  ;  and  Henry  was 
informally  crowned  on  the  field  of  battle.  His  formal 
coronation  took  place  in  October  1485  ;  and  almost 
immediately  Parliament  met  and  gave  its  sanction. 
In  January  1486  Henry  married  Elizabeth,  and  the 
long  feud  between  York  and  Lancaster  was  healed. 

In  1621,  when  the  advantage  which  England  had 
gained  from  protection  was  patent  to  all,  Lord 
Bacon  wrote  of  Henry  VII.  that  "  the  King  also  (having 
care  to  make  his  realm  potent  as  well  by  sea  as 
by  land),  for  the  better  maintenance  of  the  navy, 
ordained  that  wines  and  woads  from  the  ports  of  Gas- 
coign  and  Languedoc  should  not  be  brought  but  in 
English  bottoms  ;  bowing  the  ancient  policy  of  this 
estate  from  consideration  of  plenty  to  consideration  of 
power  :  for  that  almost  all  the  ancient  statutes  invite 


PROTECTIVE   POLICY  INITIATED        199 

(by  all  means)  merchant  strangers  to  bring  in  all  sorts 
of  commodities,  having  for  end  cheapness,  and  not 
looking  to  the  point  of  state  concerning  the  naval 
power."  If  it  is  possibly  too  much  to  claim  for  Henry 
the  inauguration  of  the  protective  policy,  he  and  his 
descendants  made  England  great  by  loyally  adhering 
to  it. 

In  a  speech  which  Bacon  puts  in  the  mouth  of 
Henry's  Chancellor  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  the 
Chancellor  states  that  the  King  "  prays  you  to  take 
into  consideration  matters  of  trade,  as  also  the  manu- 
factures of  the  kingdom,  and  to  repress  the  bastard 
and  barren  employment  of  moneys  to  usury  and 
unlawful  exchanges,  that  they  may  be  (as  their 
natural  use  is)  turned  upon  commerce  and  lawful  and 
royal  trading  ;  and  likewise  that  our  people  may  be 
set  awork  in  arts  and  handicrafts,  that  the  realm  may 
subsist  more  of  itself,  that  idleness  be  avoided,  and 
the  draining  out  of  our  treasure  for  foreign  manu- 
facture stopped.  But  you  are  not  to  rest  here  only, 
but  to  provide  further  that  whatsoever  merchandise 
shall  be  brought  in  from  beyond  the  seas  may  be 
employed  upon  the  commodities  of  this  land,  whereby 
the  kingdom's  stock  of  treasure  may  be  sure  to  be  kept 
from  being  diminished  by  any  overtrading  of  the 
foreigner." 

When  mentioning  a  law  which  forbade  the  im- 
portation of  certain  silk  goods,  Bacon  says  that 
"  this  law  pointed  at  a  true  principle  ;  that  where 
foreign  materials  are  but  superfluities,  foreign  manu- 
factures should  be  prohibited.  For  that  will  either 
banish  the  superfluity  or  gain  the  manufacture." 


200         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Laws  were  passed  compelling  importers  of  foreign 
"  merchandise  brought  in  from  beyond  the  seas  "  to 
buy  an  equivalent  amount  of  English  goods,  so  that 
imports  were  paid  for  by  exports  and  checking  the 
"  barren  employment  of  moneys  "  so  that  rich  English- 
men could  not,  like  the  Fuggers  and  Medici,  send 
capital  abroad  to  earn  interest  by  giving  employment 
to  foreigners.  In  a  popular  poem  written  after  the 
protective  statutes  of  Edward  IV.  the  following  quaint 
advice  was  given  : 

"  Therefore  let  not  our  wool  be  sold  for  nought, 
Neither  our  cloth,  for  they  must  be  sought, 
And  in  especial  restrain  straightly  the  wool, 
That  the  commons  of  this  land  may  work  at  the  full. 
And  if  any  wool  be  sold  of  this  land, 
Let  it  be  of  the  worst  both  to  free  and  bond, 
And  none  other  in  (no)  manner  wise, 
For  many  causes,  as  I  can  devise. 
If  the  wool  be  coarse,  the  cloth  is  much  the  worse, 
Yet  into  little  they  put  out  of  purse, 
As  much  for  carding,  spinning,  and  weaving, 
Fulling,  rowing,  dyeing,  and  shearing. 
And  yet  when  such  cloth  is  all  wrought, 
To  the  maker  it  availeth  little  or  nought. 
The  price  is  simple,  the  cost  is  never  the  less, 
They  that  worked  such  wool  in  wit  be  like  an  ass. 
The  cost  within  little  truly  at  the  full 
Is  as  much  as  it  were  made  of  the  fine  wool, 
Yet  a  yard  of  that  one  is  worth  five  of  the  other  ; 
Better  can  not  I  say,  though  it  were  to  my  brother." 

This  somewhat  unscrupulous  policy  was  carried 
out  by  enacting  that  the  foreigner  should  not  be 
allowed  to  buy  English  wool  until  the  English  weaver 
had  enjoyed  an  option  for  six  months  after  shearing 


PROTECTIVE  POLICY   INITIATED       201 

time.  No  cloth  might  leave  England  until  it  had 
been  "  barbed,  rowed,  and  shorn."  For  centuries  the 
importation  of  foreign  cloth  was  forbidden,  except 
during  a  few  years  when  Oliver  Cromwell's  army 
governed  England.  The  keystone  of  England's  fiscal 
policy  was  this  forcing  the  rich  to  support  the  poor 
weaver  and  not  "  to  seek  over-precious  raiment." 
Iron-ware  was  prohibited  during  the  King's  pleasure 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  It  is  evident  the  English 
production  was  then  insufficient,  and  the  King  was 
therefore  invited  to  regulate  the  importation.  In  the 
short  reign  of  Richard  III.  the  importation  was  given 
as  a  monopoly  to  English  merchants  ;  but  as  these 
goods  came  from  the  Low  Countries,  with  whom 
commerce  was  frequently  interrupted,  a  great  stimulus 
was  given  to  home  production.  The  prohibition  was 
not  made  absolute  until  the  reign  of  Elizabeth ;  but 
from  1354  the  exportation  of  iron  was  prohibited,  thus 
a  supply  of  raw  material  was  ensured. 

The  Wars  of  the  Roses  were  fought  by  armies  of 
retainers,  who  wore  the  livery  of  great  nobles  in  token 
of  their  readiness  to  support  the  cause  of  their  leaders, 
whilst  these  leaders  maintained  or  protected  their 
followers  in  the  King's  courts.  Juries  were  afraid  to 
convict ;  and  the  laws  against  livery  and  maintenance, 
which  were  continually  enacted  from  1327  onwards, 
were  inoperative,  since  the  offence  of  maintenance 
was  repeated  when  offences  against  these  statutes 
came  into  court.  A  new  court,  which  obtained  the 
name  of  Star  Chamber,  was  established  at  the  com- 
mencement of  Henry's  reign.  It  was  composed  of  the 
Chancellor,  Treasurer,  Privy  Seal,  a  bishop,  a  lay  lord 


202         THE  STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

of  the  Privy  Council,  and  two  judges.  Offences 
against  the  statutes  of  livery  and  maintenance  were 
removed  to  this  court,  which  could  not  be  terrorised. 
The  King's  treasury  was  filled  by  heavy  fines  levied 
on  disobedient  nobles,  and  the  King's  peace  replaced 
feudal  disorder. 

The  magnates  were,  however,  unwilling  to  beat 
their  swords  into  ploughshares.  The  growth  of 
weaving  had  made  sheep  farming  more  profitable 
than  agriculture,  and  landlords  were  taking  advantage 
of  Enclosure  Acts  such  as  the  Statute  of  Merton. 
"  Inclosures  at  that  time  began  to  be  more  frequent, 
whereby  arable  land  (which  could  not  be  cultivated 
without  people  and  families)  was  turned  into  pasture, 
which  was  easily  rid  by  a  few  herdsmen  ;  and  tenances 
for  years,  lives,  and  at  will  (whereupon  much  of  the 
yeomanry  lived)  were  turned  into  demesnes.  This 
bred  a  decay  of  people.  ...  In  remedying  of  this 
inconvenience  the  King's  wisdom  was  admirable  ;  and 
the  Parliament's  at  that  time.  Inclosures  they  would 
not  forbid,  for  that  had  been  to  forbid  the  improve- 
ment of  the  patrimony  of  the  kingdom  ;  nor  tillage 
they  would  not  compel,  for  that  was  to  strive  with 
Nature  and  utility  :  but  they  took  a  course  to  take 
away  depopulating  inclosures  and  depopulating  pastur- 
age, and  yet  not  by  that  name,  or  by  any  imperious 
express  prohibition,  but  by  consequence. 

"  The  ordinance  was, '  That  all  houses  of  husbandry, 
that  were  used  with  twenty  acres  of  ground  and  up- 
wards, should  be  maintained  and  kept  up  for  ever ; 
together  with  a  competent  proportion  of  land  to  be 
used  and  occupied  with  them '  (as  by  another  statute, 


PROTECTIVE  POLICY    INITIATED       203 

made  afterwards  in  his  successor's  time  was  more  fully 
declared)  ;  this  upon  forfeiture  to  be  taken,  not  by  way 
of  popular  action,  but  by  seizure  of  the  land  itself  by 
the  King  and  lords  of  the  fee,  as  to  half  the  profits,  till 
the  houses  and  lands  were  restored.  By  this  means 
the  houses  being  kept  up  did  of  necessity  enforce  a 
dweller  ;  and  the  proportion  of  land  being  kept  up, 
did  of  necessity  enforce  that  dweller  not  to  be  a  beggar 
or  cottager,  but  a  man  of  some  substance,  that  might 
keep  hinds  and  servants,  and  set  the  plough  on  going." 
After  describing  the  service  which  this  yeoman  class 
could  render  to  the  military  strength  of  England,  Lord 
Bacon  adds  :  "  Thus  did  the  King  secretly  sow  Hydra's 
teeth ;  whereupon  (according  to  the  poet's  fiction) 
should  rise  up  armed  men  for  the  service  of  the  king- 
dom.'' Bacon  had  personal  experience  of  the  effect 
of  this  policy. 

Much  was  done  by  Henry  VII.  to  found  English 
commerce  upon  England's  production  of  cheap  cloth. 
When  the  Venetians,  alarmed  at  the  appearance  of 
English  shipping  in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  im- 
posed an  export  duty  on  Cretan  wines  loaded  on 
foreign  ships  and  gave  bounties  to  their  own  wine- 
exporters,  Parliament  retaliated  by  placing  a  heavy 
import  duty  on  wine  carried  by  the  Venetians.  As  a 
producer  of  cloth  England  had  an  overwhelming 
advantage  in  this  commercial  war.  The  trade  of  the 
Venetian  middlemen  in  English  cloth  was  swept  away, 
when  England  in  1490  made  a  commercial  treaty  with 
Florence,  the  great  centre  of  cloth-making  in  Italy. 
Florence,  like  Antwerp,  accepted  the  principle  of  free 
trade.  Cheap  English  cloth  was  imported  in  the  hope 


204    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  retaining  the  secondary  industry  of  dyeing  and 
dressing  when  the  primary  industry  of  weaving  was 
surrendered  to  England.  In  Florence,  as  in  Flanders, 
this  policy  was  followed  by  ephemeral  prosperity, 
marred  by  civil  wars  which  were  the  death  throes  of 
the  weaving  industry.  Then  followed  in  Florence,  as 
in  Flanders,  loss  of  freedom  and  ruin.  But  protected 
England  grew  ever  richer  and  her  cloth  was  carried 
throughout  the  Mediterranean  by  English  merchants 
on  English  ships. 

It  was  much  more  difficult  to  deal  with  the 
Hanseatic  League  than  with  the  Venetians.  The 
treaty  of  Utrecht  gave  English  merchants  the  same 
rights  in  the  Baltic  as  Hanse  merchants  enjoyed  in 
England,  but  these  rights  in  the  Baltic  were  withheld. 
Until  England  had  built  an  adequate  navy  nothing 
could,  however,  be  done  ;  and  English  merchants  were 
forced,  from  fear  of  the  sea  power  of  the  League,  to 
acquiesce  in  a  policy  of  masterly  inactivity.  Indeed 
an  Act  was  passed  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  expressly 
exempting  Hanse  merchants  from  any  restrictive 
commercial  legislation  "which  Parliament  might  pass. 
But  even  the  commerce  and  sea  power  of  the  Hanse 
League,  lacking  the  only  sure  foundation  of  national 
production,  contained  within  itself  the  seeds  of  decay. 
At  least  the  foundation  of  England's  Tudor  navy  was 
laid  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  and  the  first  dry  dock 
was  constructed,  although  it  was  left  for  other  Tudors 
to  build  on  this  foundation.  A  way  into  the  Baltic  was 
also  opened  by  the  treaty  with  Denmark  in  1490  ;  and 
through  this  entrance  English  ships  sailed  ultimately 
to  wrest  from  Germans  the  commerce  of  the  League. 


XVI 

SPAIN  ENTERS   INTO  TRADE  COMPETITION 
1490-1509 

THE  greatest  problem  which  confronted  Henry  was 
the  phenomenal  growth  of  Spain.  Until  1479  Spain 
was  divided  into  two  large  Christian  States,  Castile 
and  Aragon,  the  small  Mahomedan  kingdom  of  Gra- 
nada, and  the  still  smaller  Christian  State  of  Navarre. 
Though  Castile  was  three  times  the  size  of  its  eastern 
neighbour  Aragon,  this  difference  was  partly  com- 
pensated by  the  Aragonese  possessions  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, Corsica  and  Sardinia,  and  by  the  control 
Aragon  exercised  over  Sicily.  The  union  of  Castile 
and  Aragon  under  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  which 
foreshadowed  the  absorption  of  Granada  and  Navarre, 
created  a  Spanish  nation  which  occupied  four-fifths 
of  the  Iberian  peninsula.  It  seemed  only  too  likely 
that  Portugal,  the  remaining  fifth,  would  also  be  per- 
manently absorbed,  as,  somewhat  later,  it  actually 
was  united  to  Spain  for  sixty  years. 

Before  the  Catholic  kings,  Ferdinand,  Isabella,  and 
their  successors,  created  national  unity  by  asserting 
their  royal  power,  Spanish  nobles  and  Spanish  Par- 
liaments possessed  even  greater  rights  and  freedom 
than  the  English  had  before  the  Tudors  centralised 


206    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  government  of  England.  There  was  more  religious 
toleration  in  Spain  than  there  was  in  England.  Jews 
and  Mahomedans  worked  side  by  side  with  Christians. 
The  Spaniard  excelled  the  English  in  manufactures, 
and,  after  Edward  IV.  sent  the  King  of  Aragon  a 
present  of  English  sheep,  the  wool  of  Spain  became 
even  finer  than  that  of  England.  Live  sheep  had 
been  sent  to  Spain  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  but 
probably  through  carelessness  in  breeding  Spanish 
wool  was  of  inferior  quality  until  after  the  reign  of 
Edward  IV.  The  success  of  the  Portuguese  in  dis- 
covering the  gold  of  Guinea  and  the  sea  route  to  the 
East  was  dwarfed  when,  in  1493,  Ferdinand  was  told 
by  Columbus  of  the  discovery  of  America.  A  Pope 
had  given  the  sanction  of  religion  to  the  Portuguese 
monopoly  of  the  sea  route  to  the  East  and  to  the 
lands  they  had  found  in  Africa.  Another  Pope,  Alex- 
ander VI.,  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  gave  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  similar  rights  in  the  West.  In  the  subsequent 
histories  of  Spain  and  England  the  effect  of  economic 
policy  on  national  growth  and  national  freedom  can 
be  clearly  traced.  Spain  neglected  her  workers,  and 
lost  her  freedom  and  colossal  strength ;  whilst  by 
pursuing  an  opposite  policy  England  became  both 
strong  and  free. 

England  could  stop  Spanish  ships  from  passing 
Dover  and  Calais  ;  Spain  could  exclude  the  English 
from  the  Mediterranean  ;  hence  a  good  understanding 
was  important  to  both  nations.  After  thirteen  years 
of  tedious  negotiations  Ferdinand's  youngest  daughter, 
Catherine,  was  married  to  Arthur,  the  eldest  son  of 
Henry  VII.  and  heir  to  the  throne  of  England.  A  few 


SPANISH  COMPETITION  207 

months  later  Arthur  died,  and  Henry,  who  was  at  the 
time  a  widower,  sought  to  marry  his  daughter-in-law. 
When  her  mother  Isabella  vetoed  this  curious  pro- 
posal, Catherine  was  married  to  her  brother-in-law, 
afterwards  Henry  VIII. 

An  unhappy  fate  attended  most  of  the  carefully 
planned  marriages  of  Ferdinand's  five  children.  His 
eldest  daughter,  Isabella,  married  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Portugal  in  1490,  only  to  become  a  widow  in  a  few 
months'  time.  In  1497  she  married  her  husband's 
cousin  and  successor,  Emanuel,  and  died  giving  birth 
to  a  son,  who  also  died  in  infancy.  Ferdinand's  third 
daughter,  Maria,  then  became  Emanuel's  wife.  Had 
Isabella's  son  lived  he  would  have  united  Spain  and 
Portugal,  since  Ferdinand's  only  son,  Juan,  died 
without  issue  in  1497.  Between  Maria  and  the  Crown 
of  Spain  there  were  Ferdinand's  second  daughter, 
Juanna,  and  her  two  sons,  Charles  and  Ferdinand. 
Just  as  Isabella  and  Maria  were  used  to  bring  Portugal 
under  Spanish  control,  so  Juan  and  Juanna  were  used 
to  detach  Flanders  from  France.  The  story  of  this 
change  in  Flanders  is  closely  intertwined  with  English 
history. 

Mary  of  Burgundy  died  in  1482  leaving  Maximilian 
a  widower  with  two  children,  Philip  and  Margaret. 
Just  before  his  death,  in  1483,  Louis  XI.  signed  the 
Peace  of  Arras  and  betrothed  the  Dauphin,  soon 
to  be  Charles  VIII.,  to  the  baby  princess,  Margaret, 
of  Flanders,  who  was  kept  at  Paris  until  she  should 
arrive  at  a  marriageable  age.  Confusion  reigned  in 
the  Low  Countries  after  Mary's  death.  The  chief 
interest  of  the  French  fief,  Flanders,  was  weaving,  and 


208    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

English  cloth  was  prohibited  in  Flanders.  The  mer- 
chants of  Bruges  watched  with  anger  the  passing  of 
their  prosperity  to  Antwerp,  which  imported  English 
cloth  for  Brabant  and  the  other  provinces.  There  was 
economic  division  in  Brabant,  as  well  as  in  Flanders, 
since  Brabantine  weavers  were  also  being  ruined  by 
English  cloth ;  but,  on  the  whole,  Flanders  was  in 
favour  of  protection  and  the  German  fiefs  of  free  trade. 
The  Flemish  obtained  possession  of  the  child  duke, 
Philip,  and  refused  to  allow  his  German  father,  Maxi- 
milian, any  voice  in  their  government.  With  Margaret 
at  Paris  and  Philip  in  Flanders,  with  England  weakened 
by  a  King,  Richard  III.,  whose  vices  had  disgusted  his 
people,  and  with  the  economic  interests  of  the  Flemish 
forcing  them  towards  France,  the  political  union  of 
Flanders  and  France  would  probably  have  been 
accomplished  but  for  two  reasons.  The  annexation  of 
Flanders  would  almost  certainly  have  caused  war 
between  France  and  Maximilian's  father,  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany,  and  the  prospect  of  annexing 
Brittany  to  France  diverted  the  interest  of  the  French 
from  Flanders.  Hence  when  Henry  VII.  became 
King  of  England,  Maximilian  had,  after  a  civil  war, 
established  his  authority  over  the  Low  Countries, 
France  was  moving  towards  the  final  conquest  of 
Brittany,  and  fate  was  preparing,  for  what  is  now 
called  Belgium  economic  and  political  ruin.  The 
short-lived  prosperity  of  Brabant,  which  came  from 
the  free  trade  of  Antwerp,  was  about  to  place  the 
southern  provinces  of  the  Netherlands  under  Spanish 
rule  and  to  make  them  for  centuries  a  battlefield  where 
European  nations  fought  for  any  issue  except  the 


SPANISH  COMPETITION  209 

freedom  and  independence  of  the  unhappy  land  which 
was  devastated  in  the  wars.  . 

During  the  early  years  of  Henry's  reign  the  ancient 
questions  of  Flanders  and  France  dominated  England's 
foreign  policy.  Spain  was  then  preoccupied  with 
the  tasks  of  absorbing  the  Mahomedan  kingdom  of 
Granada  and  transforming  herself  into  a  great  military 
and  naval  power.  When  Maximilian  tried  to  prevent 
the  absorption  of  Brittany  by  France,  and  to  regain 
the  Burgundian  provinces  which  Louis  XI.  had 
annexed,  he  was  constantly  thwarted  by  his  Flemish 
subjects.  Maximilian's  policy  involved  alliance  with 
England  and  war  with  France ;  and,  whilst  this  suited 
the  interests  of  the  merchants  of  Antwerp,  it  was 
fatal  to  the  weaving  industry  of  Flanders.  Flanders 
was  the  scene  of  incessant  civil  wars,  and  the  hatred 
of  England  which  permeated  the  land  found  expression 
in  the  schemes  of  the  Dowager  Duchess  Margaret, 
widow  of  Charles  the  Bold  and  sister  of  Edward  IV. 

Soon  after  Henry's  accession  an  impostor,  Lambert 
Simnel,  personated  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  a  nephew  of 
Edward  IV.,  who  was  at  the  time  closely  imprisoned 
in  the  Tower.  In  Ireland  Simnel  was  accepted  as 
King,  and  Margaret  of  Burgundy  sent  Flemish  soldiers 
to  assist  the  rebels.  But  the  movement  failed  in 
England,  and  without  great  difficulty  Henry  defeated 
the  invading  army  of  Irish  and  Flemings  at  Stoke-on- 
Trent  in  1487.  French  designs  against  the  autonomy 
of  Brittany  drew  Maximilian  and  Henry  together,  and 
Ferdinand  also  nominally  joined  the  alliance.  The 
Spanish  were  anxious  to  recover  two  frontier  pro- 
vinces, Rousillon  and  Cerdagne,  which  Louis  XI.  had 

p 


210         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

managed  to  obtain  ;  but  they  were  preoccupied  by  the 
war  in  Granada. 

In  1489  Parliament  made  a  grant  for  the  war  with 
France.  This  was  followed  by  an  insurrection  in  the 
North  of  England,  a  not  uncommon  sequel  to  an 
attempt  at  levying  taxes  in  those  days.  When  this 
revolt  was  suppressed,  Henry  had  to  help  Maximilian 
in  suppressing  the  Flemish,  who  had  taken  arms 
against  the  English  alliance  and  the  proposed  war 
with  France.  Still  pressed  by  the  Flemish,  Maxi- 
milian made  peace  with  France  in  1489,  a  few  months 
after  an  English  army  had  landed  in  Brittany.  The 
chief  result  of  England's  invasion  of  Brittany  was  the 
marriage  of  the  young  Duchess  of  Brittany  by  proxy 
to  Maximilian  in  1490.  The  French  at  once  invaded 
Brittany,  and  Maximilian's  bride  was  then  actually 
married  to  Charles  VIII.  in  1491.  In  this  way  Brittany 
was  permanently  joined  to  France,  whose  sea  power 
was  thus  greatly  increased. 

Ferdinand,  Henry,  and  Maximilian  prepared  for 
war  with  France.  The  usual  rebellion  in  Flanders  was 
suppressed  by  Maximilian's  army,  aided  by  an  English 
fleet,  and  in  1492  Henry  crossed  to  Calais  and  laid 
siege  to  Boulogne.  Disunion  in  the  Netherlands, 
however,  wrecked  the  alliance.  The  Dowager  Duchess 
had  been  secretly  preparing  a  fresh  impostor,  Perkin 
Warbeck,  who  was  supposed  in  Flanders  to  be  an 
illegitimate  son  of  Edward  IV.  by  the  wife  of  a  Flemish 
boatman.  In  1491  Warbeck  assumed  in  Ireland  the 
role  of  the  younger  of  the  princes  who  were  murdered 
in  the  Tower. 

Instead    of    vigorously    attacking    France,    Spain 


SPANISH  COMPETITION  211 

entered  into  negotiations  for  the  restoration  of  the 
provinces  she  coveted,  and  Henry,  threatened  with 
revolt  at  home,  wisely  accepted  a  large  indemnity  from 
Charles  and  signed  the  peace  of  Etaples.  A  few 
months  later  Spain  gained  her  provinces  and  also 
made  peace,  and  soon  after,  in  1493,  Maximilian,  too, 
signed  the  treaty  of  Senlis.  By  this  treaty  Maxi- 
milian's daughter,  Margaret,  was  returned  to  her 
father,  and  with  her  many  of  the  Burgundian  land 
annexed  by  Louis  after  the  death  of  Charles  the  Bold 
were  restored.  Charles  VIII.  made  these  sacrifices 
in  order  to  free  himself  for  the  conquest  of  Italy. 
This  invasion  seemed  at  first  to  be  a  triumphal  progress 
rather  than  war.  A  rich  prize  was  being  fought  for — 
the  Italian  monopoly  of  alum.  Had  France  succeeded 
by  stopping  the  supply  of  alum,  she  could,  without  war, 
have  forced  Flemish  dressers  and  dyers  to  join  the 
weavers  in  demanding  the  union  of  Flanders  and 
France.  Spanish  influence  over  Southern  Italy  was 
disappearing  when  Louis'  son,  then  Charles  VIII.  of 
France,  was  confronted  by  a  Holy  League — that  is, 
one  which  included  the  Pope.  The  League  was 
created  by  Ferdinand ;  Maximilian,  Emperor  of 
Germany  since  1493,  and  Henry  VII.  joined  it,  and  the 
French  conquest  of  Italy  was  checked. 

Warbeck,  deprived  of  French  aid  by  the  peace  of 
Etaples,  went  to  Flanders,  where  the  Dowager  Duchess 
unofficially  supplied  him  with  men  and  ships.  With 
these  he  tried  and  failed  to  land  at  Deal  in  1495. 
Thence  he  again  sailed  to  Ireland  ;  but  Henry  had, 
during  the  previous  year,  sent  Sir  Edward  Poynings 
to  Ireland  to  prepare  for  Warbeck's  return.  It  was 

P  2 


212    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

then  that  the  Poynings  Acts  were  passed  by  the  Irish 
Parliament.  These  made  existing  English  law  valid 
in  Ireland  and  decreed  that  in  future  all  Irish  legisla- 
tion should  be  invalid  unless  approved  by  the  English 
Council.  After  failing  in  Ireland,  Warbeck  found 
shelter  in  Scotland,  where  he  was  at  first  cordially 
received  by  James  IV.  After  the  formation  of  the 
Holy  League,  Warbeck  was  repudiated  by  his  Flemish 
friends. 

In  1496  Parliament  made  a  large  grant  for  war  with 
James  IV.  of  Scotland.  Opposition  to  taxation  led 
to  an  insurrection  of  the  Cornish.  This  revolt,  follow- 
ing the  previous  rising  in  Northumberland,  appears  to 
have  been  the  reason  why  Henry  summoned  only  one 
other  Parliament  during  the  remaining  thirteen  years 
of  his  reign,  and  from  the  Parliament  of  1504  he  only 
asked  the  customary  feudal  dues  on  knighting  his  eldest 
son  and  marrying  his  eldest  daughter  ;  but  even  these 
customary  payments  were  strongly  opposed.  The 
Cornish  rebels  advanced  unopposed  through  Southern 
England  to  suffer  a  crushing  defeat  at  Blackheath. 
Warbeck  had  left  Scotland  in  order  to  raise  the  Irish, 
but  was  forced  to  land  in  the  West  without  followers. 
In  spite  of  the  battle  of  Blackheath,  an  insurgent  army 
soon  assembled.  Without  much  difficulty,  however, 
Warbeck  was  captured,  and  after  escaping  from  the 
Tower  he  was  executed  in  1499.  In  the  same  month 
the  Earl  of  Warwick  suffered  the  same  punishment. 

The  war  with  Scotland  was  not  vigorously  pro- 
secuted, and  a  truce  was  signed  in  1497.  This  truce 
became  a  defensive  alliance  in  1502,  and  the  alliance 
was  sealed  by  the  marriage  of  James  IV.  to  Henry's 


SPANISH  COMPETITION  213 

elder  daughter,  Margaret.  From  this  marriage  came 
the  union  of  Great  Britain  under  James  I.  The 
alliance  of  Maximilian  and  Ferdinand  was  in  like 
manner  confirmed  in  1496,  when  Ferdinand's  daughter, 
Juanna,  married  Maximilian's  son,  Philip,  and  the 
Spanish  fleet  which  carried  Juanna  to  the  Netherlands 
returned  with  Philip's  sister,  Margaret,  who  was 
married  to  Juan,  the  heir  of  Spain. 

Whilst  Flanders  was  supporting  Warbeck,  Anglo- 
Flemish  trade,  other  than  that  carried  on  by  the 
merchants  of  the  Steelyard,  was  stopped.  The  anger 
of  the  Merchant  Adventurers  was  expressed  by  an 
attack  on  the  Steelyard.  But,  until  England  pos- 
sessed a  strong  navy,  the  Hanse  League  was  a  dangerous 
foe,  and  the  rioting  was  suppressed.  To  induce  Eng- 
land to  join  the  Holy  League  the  Magnus  Intercursus, 
an  Anglo-Burgundian  commercial  treaty,  was  signed 
in  1496,  and  English  merchants  returned  to  Antwerp. 
Ten  years  later,  when  Philip  and  Juanna  were  sailing 
south  to  take  possession  of  Castile,  which  they  inherited 
on  the  death  of  Isabella,  they  were  forced  to  seek 
refuge  in  England.  From  his  guests  Henry  obtained 
two  very  advantageous  treaties,  one  of  which,  the 
Malus  Intercursus,  deprived  Flemish  weavers  of  the 
limited  protection  afforded  them  by  the  Magnus 
Intercursus.  A  storm  of  protest  in  Flanders  sealed 
the  fate  of  the  new  commercial  treaty,  and  trade  was 
conducted  on  the  lines  laid  down  in  Magnus  Inter- 
cursus. 

"  Their  first  contact  with  the  West  Indies  revealed 
to  the  Spaniards  the  possibility  of  opening  up  fresh 
sources  of  supply,  and  the  amount  of  the  precious 


214    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

metals  they  acquired  was  quite  unprecedented.  The 
islands  supplied  annually  increasing  quantities  till 
1516 ;  in  1522  the  exploitation  of  Mexico  began." 
Dr.  Cunningham  adds  that,  measured  by  the  value  of 
grain,  the  rise  in  prices  was  as  i  to  2*40  from  1540  to 
1582,  and  as  i  to  2*22  from  1583  to  1642.  In  one 
century,  therefore,  the  cost  of  grain  food  increased  more 
than  fivefold.  As  this  wealth  belonged  to  Spain,  her 
sudden  appearance  as  the  greatest  Power  in  Europe 
is  easily  accounted  for.  She  had  the  means  of  increas- 
ing her  navy  to  an  almost  unlimited  extent.  The 
people  of  Spain  were  trained  to  arms  owing  to  their 
frequent  contests  with  the  Mahomedans  ;  her  rulers 
had  the  wealth  to  support  armies  on  foreign  service. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  until 
1648,  Spanish  infantry  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being 
invincible  ;  but  ultimately  Spain's  fiscal  system  ruined 
her  army.  The  Spanish  soldier  was  conquered  by  the 
rise  in  prices. 

Spain's  fatal  mistake  was  the  undervaluing  of 
Spanish  production.  Before  the  days  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  manufactures  were  largely  in  the  hands 
of  Moors,  who  were  also  better  agriculturists  than  their 
Christian  neighbours.  Commerce  was  conducted  by 
Jews,  who  for  centuries  enjoyed  more  toleration  in 
Spain  than  in  other  parts  of  Europe.  Suddenly 
toleration  was  replaced  by  persecution.  The  Jews 
were  banished  in  1492,  and  the  Moors  shared  their 
fate  when  gold  from  America  promised  to  give  Spain 
wealth  which  was  not  earned  by  work  done  in  the 
home  country.  A  century  later,  when  Spain  was 
intoxicated  by  unearned  gold,  the  Christianised  Moors, 


SPANISH  COMPETITION  215 

or  Moriscos,  were  also  expelled.  In  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  Spain  the  precious  metals  were  exported  to 
buy  foreign  products,  and  this  exportation  increased 
as  prices  rose.  When  Spain's  ability  to  pay  for  an 
army  and  navy  declined,  her  military  and  naval 
strength  naturally  decayed. 

The  rise  in  prices  was  of  benefit  to  England.  Her 
products  increased  in  value  as  Spanish  gold  and  silver 
lost  their  purchasing  power.  But  England's  Kings 
suffered.  The  rooted  objection  of  the  English  to  all 
taxation  increased  when  ever-increasing  sums  of 
money  had  to  be  raised  for  national  purposes.  The 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries  and  the  execution  of 
Charles  I.  were  both  largely  due  to  the  need  of  additional 
supply  for  national  purposes  when  the  value  of  the 
precious  metals  declined.  It  was  a  mere  chance  that 
Columbus  did  not  discover  America  for  England 
instead  of  for  Spain.  Cabot,  almost  immediately 
after  the  voyage  of  Columbus,  sailed  from  Bristol  to 
Newfoundland.  But  until  1525  England  feared  to 
challenge  Spain's  monopoly  of  the  New  World.  Then 
the  economic  strength  which  came  from  English 
production  enabled  England  to  begin  a  contest  that 
lasted  until  Spain  was  ruined.  Spain  bought  goods 
from  all  nations,  England  sold  goods  to  all ;  hence 
Spain  became  a  sieve  through  which  the  precious 
metals  flowed  to  England. 

Henry  VII.  appears  to  have  foreseen  the  impending 
change.  He  could  not  increase  taxation  without  the 
danger  of  rebellions  ;  but  from  the  rich,  by  fines  and 
benevolences,  he  obtained  such  wealth  that  his  son, 
Henry  VIII.,  is  reported  to  have  inherited  i,8oo,ooo/. 


216         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

with  the  Crown  of  England.  Of  England  at  this  time 
Bacon  wrote  :  "  The  Crown  extremely  rich  and  full  of 
treasure,  and  the  kingdom  like  to  be  so  in  a  short  time. 
For  there  was  no  war,  no  dearth,  no  stop  of  trade  or 
commerce  ;  it  was  only  the  Crown  which  sucked  too 
hard  ;  but  now  being  full,  and  upon  the  head  of  a 
young  King,  it  was  like  to  draw  the  less."  The  seven- 
teen-year-old King  at  once  ceased  to  suck  money. 
Victims  were  invited  to  lay  their  grievances  before 
the  King  ;  and  the  agents  of  Henry  VII.,  Dudley  and 
Empson,  were  executed. 

The  Anglo-Spanish  entente  cordiale  brought  pros- 
perity. France  paid  large  annual  sums  to  safeguard 
her  coasts  from  English  invaders.  Without  aid  from 
France  the  Scotch  did  not  dare  to  attack  England. 
The  middlemen  of  Spain  were  ready  to  buy  English 
cloth,  at  Antwerp  or  Cadiz,  which  they  could  sell  in 
their  home  and  colonial  markets.  Portugal,  with 
her  markets  in  the  East,  the  Netherlands,  Italy,  and 
Germany,  was  being  rapidly  brought  under  Spanish 
influence.  Access  to  Italian  alum,  a  vital  necessity 
for  the  development  of  dressing  and  dyeing  in  England, 
was  open  as  long  as  England  and  Spain  were  at  peace. 
Protection  of  industry  was  welding  England  into  a 
united  nation.  The  centralising  power  of  the  Crown 
was  destroying  the  decentralisation  which  prevailed 
when  feudal  magnates  were  semi-independent  kinglets. 
On  the  Continent  a  movement  was  in  progress  towards 
the  creation  of  an  Empire  out  of  the  States  of  Europe. 
Charles  of  Burgundy  was  about  to  become  Duke  of 
Austria,  King  of  Spain,  and  the  great  Emperor 
Charles  V.  of  Germany.  Whilst  England  was  laying 


SPANISH  COMPETITION  217 

the  foundations  of  what  has  become  a  world-wide 
Empire  on  the  sure  rock  of  the  protection  of  national 
production,  Charles  V.  was  destined  to  prove  the 
impossibility  of  building  on  the  sandy  foundation  of 
international  trade  and  the  exploitation  of  recently 
discovered  lands.  Before  Charles  abdicated  in  1555, 
crushed  by  the  task  he  had  undertaken,  it  had 
been  clearly  demonstrated  that  a  nation  united 
by  protecting  its  workers  was  stronger  than  the  most 
powerful  and  wealthy  monarch  of  an  empire  of 
traders. 

The  policy  of  France  resembled  that  of  England, 
and  she,  like  England,  resisted  absorption  into  the 
European  federation.  Her  Kings,  in  alliance  with  the 
artisans  of  her  towns,  had  created  out  of  semi-inde- 
pendent provinces  a  nation  whose  area  was  nearly  as 
great  as  that  of  modern  France.  Mediaeval  commerce 
could  not  exist  without  commercial  treaties,  and  the 
long  Anglo-French  wars  made  such  treaties  impossible 
except  for  brief  periods.  In  the  "  Libel  of  English 
Policie  "  England's  trade  with  Flanders  and  Brittany 
is  mentioned ;  but  this  existed  because  these  pro- 
vinces were  semi-independent.  Nothing  is  said  of 
direct  Anglo-French  commerce,  because  it  was  prac- 
tically non-existent.  It  is  easy  to  understand  why 
England  often  fought  to  maintain  the  autonomy  of 
the  French  provinces  and  why  she  allied  herself  with 
Spain  when  the  French  tried  to  absorb  Italy  and  the 
Italian  alum  mines.  Had  the  French  become  masters 
of  Italy,  the  dressers  and  dyers  of  Flanders,  to  whom 
alum  was  indispensable,  must  have  starved  like  their 
brother  weavers  or  become  a  part  of  France.  The 


2i8         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

French,  doubtless,  realised  that  they  could  conquer 
Flanders  in  Italy. 

Charles  VIII.  of  France  was  followed  by  Louis  XII. 
in  1498.  The  new  King  of  France  continued  the  policy 
of  bribing  the  English  to  abstain  from  attacking 
France,  in  order  that  the  French  might  concentrate 
their  energies  on  the  invasion  of  Italy ;  but  the  Italians, 
aided  by  the  Spaniards,  were  able  to  keep  the  French 
at  bay.  A  year  before  Henry  VII.  died,  the  Pope, 
Spain,  and  France  forgot  for  a  time  that  they  were 
foes  and  joined  in  the  League  of  Cambrai.  The  object 
of  this  League  was  to  plunder  Venice,  and  it  was 
speedily  gained.  When  the  Pope  and  the  Spaniards 
had  obtained  their  desires,  and  the  French  were 
making  use  of  the  alliance  to  establish  themselves  in 
Northern  Italy,  a  new  Holy  League  was  formed 
between  the  Pope,  Spain,  and  Venice  in  order  to  resist 
Louis  XII.  Thus  Henry  VIII.,  at  his  accession,  was 
confronted,  as  his  father  had  been,  with  the  danger 
to  the  rapidly  growing  woollen  industry  of  England 
which  was  involved  in  the  establishment  of  French 
control  over  the  alum  mines  of  Italy. 


XVII 

SUPPRESSION   OF   THE   MONASTERIES 
I509-IS39 

HENRY  VIII.  began  his  reign  by  an  act  which  endeared 
him  to  his  magnates.  Dudley  and  Empson,  the  agents 
who  had  been  employed  by  his  father  to  fleece  the  rich, 
were  executed.  The  extortion  of  money  ceased,  and 
Parliaments  were  summoned.  The  King  married  his 
sister-in-law,  Catherine  of  Aragon  ;  and  joined  the 
Holy  League  in  1511.  An  English  fleet  sailed  to 
Guienne,  but  Ferdinand  once  again  used  the  Anglo- 
Spanish  alliance  to  further  the  interests  of  Spain, 
whilst  England  gained  nothing.  As  Rousillon  and 
Cerdagne  had  been  added  to  Ferdinand's  dominions 
when  Henry  VII.  was  Spain's  ally,  so  now  the  Spanish 
won  Navarre,  but  the  English  failed  to  establish 
themselves  in  Guienne.  The  French  invasion  of  Italy 
was,  however,  wrecked  by  this  counter-attack. 

English  politicians  were  looking  forward  to  the 
future  when  Ferdinand's  death  would  place  his  grand- 
son Charles  on  the  Spanish  throne.  In  1508  Mary, 
the  sister  of  Henry  VIII.,  had  been  married  by  proxy 
to  Charles,  and  the  scene  of  the  Anglo-French  war  was 
shifted  to  the  North  of  France.  Here  the  English  met 
with  more  success.  In  alliance  with  Charles'  German 


220         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

grandfather,  Maximilian,  Henry  VIII.  was  able  to 
make  himself  master  of  the  rich  and  populous  city 
of  Tournay  after  winning  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs 
in  August  1513.  Meanwhile,  the  Scotch  had  followed 
their  ancient  custom  of  allying  themselves  with  France 
against  England,  but  Scotland's  army  was  destroyed, 
and  her  king,  James  IV.,  killed  at  Flodden  Field  in 
September  1513. 

After  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs,  Louis  XII.  of  France 
abandoned  the  fight  for  Italy.  Ferdinand  was  ex- 
pressing his  anxiety  to  marry  his  grandson,  Charles, 
to  one  of  Louis'  daughters  when  Henry  made  peace 
with  France.  Tournay  was  left  in  England's  keeping 
and  a  large  French  annuity  was  promised  to  the  King 
of  England.  Mary,  in  spite  of  her  marriage  by  proxy 
to  Charles,  was  actually  married  to  Louis  XII.,  only 
to  become  a  widow  within  a  few  months,  when  in  1515 
Louis  died  and  his  cousin  became  Francis  I.  of  France. 
Mary  then  married  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  without  her 
brother's  consent.  The  unfortunate  Lady  Jane  Grey 
was  Mary's  grandchild. 

After  Flodden,  Scotland  was  governed  by  Henry's 
sister,  Margaret,  as  Regent  for  her  infant  son,  James  V. 
He,  as  the  only  living  grandchild  of  Henry  VII.,  might 
at  any  moment  have  become  King  of  England  as  well 
as  King  of  Scotland.  This  is  enough  to  account  for 
the  fact  that  Flodden  Field  was  not  followed  by  an 
invasion  of  Scotland.  The  Saxons  of  Great  Britain 
were  drawing  closer  to  each  other.  The  nobles  of 
Scotland,  who  had  still  the  semi-independent  power 
which  their  English  brethren  had  lost  during  the  Wars 
of  the  Roses,  were  naturally  averse  to  the  union ;  but 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES    221 

a  strong  body  of  opinion  in  England  and  in  Scotland 
was  in  its  favour,  and  time  was  on  the  side  of  the 
unionists.  When  English  magnates  told  Henry  VII. 
that  the  marriage  of  his  daughter,  Margaret,  might  place 
England  under  a  Scotch  King,  he  laughed  at  their 
fears,  telling  them  that  "  the  greater  would  draw  the 
less."  This  was,  however,  but  a  half-truth ;  in  a 
perfect  union  there  is  neither  greater  nor  less.  If  the 
union  of  England  and  Scotland  proves  that  this  is 
true,  the  union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  also 
proves  that  a  union  is  not  perfect  if  the  economic  bond 
is  absent. 

The  Anglo-French  peace  enabled  the  French  to 
win  the  victory  of  Marignano  in  1515  and  become 
masters  of  Northern  Italy.  The  army  of  a  Holy 
League,  which  did  not  include  England,  was  defeated, 
and  the  Medicean  Pope,  Leo  X.,  allied  himself  with 
Francis  I.  In  1516  Ferdinand  died,  and  Charles  of 
Burgundy,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  became  Charles  I.  of 
Spain.  When  Charles  took  possession  of  his  kingdom 
he  was  followed  by  Flemings  and  other  foreigners  who 
were  anxious  to  do  the  work  which  had  formerly  been 
done  by  the  Moors  and  Jews.  But  hatred  of  the 
foreigner  and  contempt  for  home  production  were 
deeply  engrained  in  the  Spaniards.  Their  communes 
rose  in  revolt,  and,  though  the  insurgents  were  defeated, 
their  policy  was  adopted.  The  development  of  Spain's 
industry  was  checked.  She  became  a  military  para- 
sitic power.  With  her  industry  her  ancient  liberty 
also  passed  away.  Her  ruler  is  known  as  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.,  not  as  King  Charles  I.  of  Spain.  Three 
years  after  Ferdinand's  death  Charles  inherited  the 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

German  and  Austrian  lands  of  his  other  grandfather, 
the  Emperor  Maximilian,  thus  becoming  the  greatest 
European  monarch  since  the  days  of  Charles  the  Great. 

Meanwhile  Cardinal  Wolsey,  who  was  directing  the 
policy  of  England,  found  in  the  alliance  of  Francis  I. 
and  the  Pope,  which  followed  Marignano,  a  problem 
hard  for  an  English  Cardinal  to  solve.  He  maintained 
nominal  peace  with  France,  whilst  he  sent  subsidies 
to  enable  Maximilian  to  resist  Francis  I.  and  tried  to 
form  a  new  Holy  League  by  detaching  Leo  X.  from  the 
French  alliance.  Wolsey's  plans  were  shattered  when 
Ferdinand  died.  Charles  was  by  birth  and  education 
a  Fleming,  and  the  policy  of  Flanders  at  this  time 
has  been  described  by  Machiavelli.  "The  people  of 
Flanders  live  generally  of  their  own  manufactures, 
which  they  vend  at  the  fairs  in  France — that  is,  at 
Paris  and  Lyons — for  towards  the  seaside  they  have 
no  utterance,  and  towards  Germany  it  is  the  same,  for 
there  are  more  of  their  commodities  made  than  in 
Flanders,  so  that  whenever  their  commerce  with  the 
French  is  cut  off  they  will  have  nowhere  to  put  off  their 
commodities,  nor  nowhere  to  supply  themselves  with 
victuals.  So  that,  without  irresistible  necessity,  the 
Flemings  will  never  have  any  controversy  with  France." 

Antwerp  was  enjoying  the  short-lived  prosperity 
of  a  trading  town  whose  commerce  is  not  founded  on 
home  production ;  whilst  the  producers  of  Flanders 
were  clinging  desperately  to  France,  the  one  market 
in  which  they  were  to  some  extent  secure.  From 
their  native  land,  which  Antwerp's  free  importation 
was  ruining,  the  Flemish  fled  to  protected  England  in 
such  numbers  that,  in  1517,  on  Evil  May  Day  there 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES    223 

were  riots  in  London  in  which  alien  workmen  were 
killed.  These  riots  were  suppressed,  and  when  order 
was  enforced  Parliament  passed  measures  to  redress 
the  grievance.  Wiser  than  the  Spanish,  the  English 
continued  to  welcome  aliens  who  could  teach  new 
crafts,  but  the  number  of  foreign  journeymen  who 
could  be  employed  was  limited  that  Englishmen  might 
have  work.  The  foreign  craftsmen  had  to  take 
English  apprentices  that  Englishmen  might  become 
independent  of  foreign  instructors.  This  carefully 
planned  State  aid  enabled  England  to  improve  her 
woollen  industry. 

Six  months  after  his  accession  to  the  throne  of  Spain 
Charles  signed  the  peace  of  Noyou  with  Francis  I., 
confirming  the  peace  by  a  promise  to  marry  the  French 
King's  daughter.  After  his  grandson's  defection 
Maximilian  still  took  English  gold,  but  as  he  failed  to 
do  the  promised  fighting,  in  1518  an  Anglo-French 
treaty  was  signed.  England  again  received  large  sums 
of  money  from  France ;  Henry's  infant  daughter 
Mary  was  betrothed  to  the  Dauphin,  and  Tournay  was 
restored  to  France.  Northern  Italy  was  left  under 
French  control,  whilst  the  Spanish  were  masters  in 
the  south.  Between  these  rival  powers  the  Pope  and 
his  allies,  the  Medici  of  Florence,  ruled  over  buffer 
States,  which  contained  the  highly  prized  mines  of 
alum.  England  now  sought  to  solve  the  Italian 
problem  by  placing  an  Englishman,  Cardinal  Wolsey, 
on  the  papal  throne.  Had  she  been  able  to  control 
the  supply  of  alum  the  development  of  her  woollen 
industry  would  have  secured  her  from  any  injury 
from  the  rise  in  prices.  Whilst  European  affairs  were 


224    ™E  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

in  this  state  of  suspense,  Maximilian's  death  in  1519 
necessitated  the  election  of  another  emperor.  The 
chief  candidates  were  Francis  and  Charles,  though 
Henry  VIII.  and  Charles'  only  brother,  Ferdinand, 
were  also  mentioned. 

The  weavers  and  peasants  of  Germany  were 
beginning  to  suffer  from  the  importation  of  cheap  corn 
and  cheap  cloth ;  whilst  German  middlemen,  Fuggers 
and  Welsers,  were  growing  enormously  rich.  Germans, 
like  other  North  Europeans,  were  cut  off  from  direct 
communication  with  the  outside  world  by  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  monopolies,  which  had  papal  sanction. 
German  exports  and  imports  had  to  pay  toll  in  Spain 
on  their  journeys  to  and  from  America,  and  sea 
power  was  clearly  destined  to  pass  from  the  Hanseatic 
League  to  those  great  ships  which  Spain  could  build 
for  her  lucrative  American  trade.  Capitalist  Fuggers 
were  not  so  adversely  affected  by  Spain's  monopoly  of 
American  trade.  Their  capital  was  free  from  restric- 
tions, and  it  was  invested  in  mining  ventures  in  the  New 
World  as  well  as  in  Antwerp.  It  was  the  gold  of  the 
Fuggers  which  secured  the  election  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V. 

Charles'  election  was  aided  by  the  prevalent  idea 
that  he  would  foster  German  industry  and  create,  from 
the  disunited  German  States,  a  nation  like  that  which 
had  recently  been  formed  from  the  semi-independent 
provinces  of  France.  For  as  yet  Charles  had  shown 
sympathy  for  Flanders  rather  than  Spain,  and  he  had 
tried  to  protect  Flemish  industry.  The  Nationalists 
of  Germany  saw,  from  the  first,  that  Germany  could 
not  be  unified  without  a  religious  change.  From  all 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES    225 

Christendom  Rome  drew  tribute.  When  the  Pope 
allied  himself  with  the  French,  he  became  a  possible 
enemy  of  Germany  and  England  ;  yet  the  tribute  had 
still  to  be  paid.  Moreover  in  Germany  the  power 
of  prince-bishops  had  to  be  curbed  ;  but  this  was 
impossible  until  Rome's  central  authority  was  under- 
mined. The  Bishop  of  Durham  was  the  only  prelate 
who  had  semi-independent  jurisdiction  in  England  ; 
but  English  bishops  had  their  own  courts  and  special 
privileges  which  at  times  conflicted  with  the  authority 
of  the  English  King.  The  English  navy  was  being 
created  by  Henry  VIII.  It  was  easy  to  see  that  if 
England  became  a  sea  power,  she  too  would  come 
into  conflict  with  Spain. 

One  important  source  of  papal  revenue  was  the  sale 
of  indulgences,  documents  which  professed  to  give  the 
purchaser  pardon  for  sin.  The  Fuggers  had  gained 
much  wealth  from  their  commission  on  the  sale  of 
indulgences.  In  1513  a  Dominican  monk,  Tetzel,  was 
selling  an  indulgence  granting  absolution  for  all  sins 
except  offences  against  ecclesiastics,  selling  arms  or 
forbidden  goods  to  the  infidel,  and  importing  alum  from 
the  Turk  instead  of  from  the  papal  mines,  contrary 
to  the  apostolic  prohibition.  Tetzel  was  forbidden  to 
enter  Saxony,  but  he  came  close  to  the  frontier,  and  the 
good  folk  of  Wittenberg  went  out  to  buy.  A  recently 
appointed  theological  professor,  Dr.  Martin  Luther, 
challenged  a  discussion  on  the  sale  of  indulgences,  and 
in  accordance  with  custom  nailed  the  theses,  or  points 
to  be  discussed,  on  the  door  of  the  Castle  Church .  All 
was  ready  for  the  explosion  when  this  match  was 
applied.  The  university  press  could  not  cope  with  the 

Q 


226         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

demand  for  the  German  translation  of  the  theses. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation. 

Other  reformers  had  died  in  the  fire,  but  Luther 
found  himself  the  spokesman  of  the  German  Nationalist 
party,  which  was  looking  forward  to  a  certain  and 
rapid  victory  when  Charles  was  elected.  The  policy  of 
this  party  is  clearly  stated  in  Luther's  writings. 
Separation  from  Rome  was  advocated,  not  only 
because  the  Popes  taught  false  doctrines,  but  because 
a  free  and  united  Germany  was  impossible  as  long  as 
the  country  was  impoverished  by  tribute  paid  to 
Rome.  It  was  also  clearly  recognised  that  another 
cause  of  Germany's  weakness  was  the  free  importation 
of  the  Fuggers  and  their  fellows,  which  was  making  the 
German  worker  poorer  whilst  it  enriched  the  middle- 
man. As  a  concession  to  the  Nationalists  a  Reichs- 
regiment,  or  national  council,  was  established,  but  in  this 
body  neither  the  cities  nor  the  small  landowners  were 
represented,  and  its  power  was  strictly  circumscribed. 

Nevertheless,  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  council,  a 
scheme  was  passed  which  would  have  given  the  Nether- 
lands and  Germany  fiscal  unity  by  encircling  them 
with  custom  houses.  This  measure  was  vetoed  by 
Charles  at  the  request  of  the  Fuggers  and  other  German 
merchants.  Whilst  this  measure  of  fiscal  reform  was 
being  vetoed,  the  small  landowners  had  risen  in  revolt. 
When  this  rising  was  suppressed,  a  wave  of  Socialism 
spread  over  Germany,  and  the  Peasants'  War  began. 
Until  Charles  abdicated  in  1555,  Germany  was  the 
scene  of  incessant  disorder.  Then  there  was  a  pause 
whilst  both  sides  marshalled  their  forces.  In  1619  the 
last  act  in  the  long  struggle  commenced.  During  the 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES    227 

Thirty  Years'  War  Germany  suffered  indescribable 
horrors,  and  when  peace  was  signed  at  Westphalia,  two- 
thirds  of  her  population  had  disappeared.  What  was 
once  the  greatest  empire  in  Europe  became  a  collection 
of  disunited  States,  doomed  to  be  weak  until  the  nine- 
teenth century,  when  a  Zollverein  recreated  the  German 
Empire. 

After  the  election  of  Charles  V.,  England  for  a  time 
pursued  an  undecided  policy.  Henry  and  Francis 
swore  eternal  friendship  at  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of 
Gold  in  1520.  This  was  immediately  followed  by  a 
secret  agreement  between  Henry  and  Charles.  The 
project  of  marrying  Henry's  daughter  to  Charles  was 
discussed,  and  Charles  promised  Wolsey  the  tiara  at 
the  first  vacancy.  Although  this  promise  was  broken 
and  Charles'  former  tutor,  a  Fleming,  became  Pope 
Adrian  VI.  in  1522,  England  declared  war  against 
France,  when  the  French  made  a  new  move  in  their 
plans  for  the  conquest  of  Italy.  Mary  was  then 
formally  betrothed  to  Charles,  and  Charles  again 
promised  to  secure  Wolsey's  election  as  Pope  when  a 
vacancy  occurred.  The  English  raids  in  France  were 
of  little  importance,  but  France  was  crushed  at  the 
battle  of  Pavia  in  1525,  and  Francis  became  Charles' 
prisoner.  Meanwhile  Pope  Adrian  died  in  1523,  but 
instead  of  Wolsey,  one  of  the  Medici  became  Pope 
Clement  VII. 

Want  of  money  prevented  Charles  from  following 
up  the  victory  of  Pavia.  England  made  peace  with 
France,  after  receiving  a  large  indemnity,  and  in  1526 
Francis  bought  his  freedom  by  surrendering  lands  in 
Burgundy  to  his  captor  and  agreeing  to  abandon  all 

Q2 


228         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

designs  on  Italy.  Spain  loomed  so  large  that  it  seemed 
as  if  the  Empire  she  was  creating  would  enfold  the 
young  nations  of  Europe  in  a  deadly  embrace.  Her 
economic  weakness  was  concealed  by  her  military  and 
naval  strength.  The  Spanish  had  been  forced  into 
rebellion  before  Charles  decreed  that  foreign  cloth 
should  be  subject  to  the  same  tests  as  Spanish  cloth. 
In  1526  the  Emperor  signed  a  treaty  with  France 
which  sanctioned  the  importation  of  French  cloth, 
whilst  Spanish  cloth  was  prohibited  in  France.  From 
so  invertebrate  a  power  England  had  in  reality  little 
to  fear.  Time  would  ruin  her  more  effectually  than 
war.  On  the  other  hand,  France  was  a  dangerous 
economic  rival.  This  appears  to  have  been  the  view 
taken  by  Wolsey,  who  leaned  towards  war  with  France. 
Others,  however,  were  of  opinion  that  war  with  France 
would  weaken  England  and  render  her  an  easy  prey 
for  the  Spaniard.  This  opinion  was  shared  by  Wolsey's 
dependent,  Thomas  Cromwell,  who  before  long  sup- 
planted his  master. 

After  Pavia  there  was  an  Anglo-French  alliance, 
and  men  waited  to  see  whether  Pope  Clement  could 
resist  the  Emperor  Charles.  To  encourage  the  Pope, 
30,000  ducats  were  sent  from  England  to  Rome  in 
return  for  rights  over  the  alum  mines,  from  which 
Henry  said  that  he  expected  "  high  pleasure  and 
profit."  All  these  fond  anticipations  vanished  when 
Charles'  army  stormed  and  sacked  Rome  in  1527. 
This  punishment  was  inflicted  because  Pope  Clement 
had  failed  in  subservience  to  his  patron  Charles.  After 
so  severe  a  lesson  there  was  little  chance  that  the 
Pope  would  repeat  his  mistake.  Rome  and  the  Church 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES    229 

had  apparently  been  absorbed  in  Charles'  Empire, 
and  Henry's  life  seemed  all  that  protected  England 
from  Rome's  fate.  If  the  young  princess  Mary  had 
become  Queen,  her  Spanish  mother  would  have  been 
England's  ruler ;  under  their  guidance  England  might 
have  become  a  province  of  Charles'  Empire. 

The  right  of  a  woman  to  succeed  to  the  throne  of 
England  was  by  no  means  certain.  Mary's  cousin, 
James  V.  of  Scotland,  would  probably  have  contested 
her  claim.  James  could  have  counted  on  help  from 
France,  whilst  Mary  would  have  been  supported  by 
Spain.  Unless  Henry  left  a  male  heir  civil  war  in 
England  seemed  inevitable  after  his  death,  and  it 
was  well  known  that  Queen  Catherine  could  no  longer 
bear  children.  It  was  therefore  decided  that  the 
King  should  obtain  a  divorce  from  Catherine  on  the 
ground  of  her  having  been  his  brother's  wife  ;  and 
Henry  chose  Anne  Boleyn  as  his  future  wife.  The 
need  of  an  English  heir  to  the  throne  of  England  was 
so  urged  that,  in  normal  times,  Henry's  request  would 
probably  have  been  granted  ;  but  Spain's  influence 
at  Rome  was  too  powerful,  and  the  divorce  of  Queen 
Catherine  developed  into  a  struggle  during  which  the 
English  learned  that  their  nationality  was  in  danger 
unless  they  severed  themselves  from  Rome. 

For  six  years  Henry's  divorce  suit  was  argued  at 
Rome,  where  men  who  had  lived  under  the  Borgias 
must  have  wondered  why  Catherine  and  her  daughter 
were  not  quietly  poisoned.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose 
that  sensual  passion  prompted  Henry  to  persevere 
with  his  suit.  After  1527  he  lived  openly  with  Anne 
Boleyn,  and  he  could  only  have  sought  to  give  England 


230        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

a  lawful  king  if  his  union  with  Anne  proved  fruitful. 
England  and  France  formed  a  close  alliance  and 
declared  war  against  the  Emperor  in  1528  ;  but  in  the 
following  year  Francis  abandoned  the  contest  as  hope- 
less. All  hope  of  freeing  the  papacy  from  Charles' 
control  passed  away,  and  Wolsey,  who  had  staked  his 
future  on  obtaining  the  divorce  without  breaking  with 
Rome,  died  a  ruined  man  in  1530.  His  dependent, 
Thomas  Cromwell,  became  at  first  the  secret  and  then 
the  open  adviser  of  the  King.  Cranmer,  a  priest  who 
had  embraced  Luther's  doctrines  and  was  secretly 
married,  aided  Cromwell  in  arranging  Henry's  divorce 
and  England's  breach  with  Rome.  Cranmer  was  made 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  1532.  Cromwell  and 
Cranmer  had  little  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  consent 
of  Parliament  to  the  breach  with  Rome,  which  put  an 
end  to  the  payments  made  by  England  to  the  papacy. 
In  January  1533  Henry,  hoping  that  Anne  was  about  to 
present  him  with  the  longed-for  heir,  privately  married 
her.  Archbishop  Cranmer  lost  no  time  in  proclaim- 
ing Henry's  divorce  from  Catherine  and  the  validity 
of  his  marriage  to  Anne,  whose  daughter  Elizabeth  was 
born  in  September  1533.  There  was  great  fear  in 
England  of  a  Spanish  invasion,  and  severe  measures 
were  taken  against  those  who  denied  the  King's 
supremacy  over  the  English  Church.  The  two  most 
conspicuous  martyrs  were  Cardinal  Fisher  and  Sir 
Thomas  More.  In  January  1536  Catherine  of  Aragon 
died  and  fear  of  invasion  passed  away. 

Within  a  few  months  of  Catherine's  death,  Anne 
Boleyn  was  accused  of  having  committed  adultery  with 
four  men,  one  of  whom  was  her  own  brother.  More 


SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES    231 

than  seventy  English  noblemen  and  gentlemen,  includ- 
ing Anne's  father,  uncle,  and  her  former  lover,  were 
unanimous  in  returning  verdicts  of  guilty  after  they  had 
heard  the  evidence  against  the  Queen  and  those  who 
were  accused  with  her.  All  the  accused  were  executed, 
and  Henry  at  once  married  another  English  wife,  Jane 
Seymour,  who  died  in  October  1537  after  giving  birth  to 
a  son,  the  future  Edward  VI.  Whilst  Henry's  bureau- 
cratic government  did  not  hesitate  to  strike  at  men 
as  eminent  and  virtuous  as  Sir  Thomas  More,  it  was 
keenly  alive  to  the  danger  of  offending  the  mass  of  the 
people  of  England.  Increased  taxation,  which  other- 
wise would  have  followed  the  rise  in  prices,  was  avoided 
by  granting  to  the  King  the  dues  which  had  been  paid 
to  the  Pope.  The  monasteries,  deprived  of  all  support 
from  Rome,  were  suppressed  and  plundered.  Some 
of  the  plunder  found  its  way  into  the  pockets  of  the 
magnates,  but  the  bulk  of  it  was  placed  in  the  royal 
treasury. 

The  English  Reformation  was  at  first  economic 
rather  than  religious.  The  English  people  had  little 
sympathy  with  Luther's  doctrines  and  Henry  shared 
their  views.  In  1523  the  Pope  bestowed  on  him  the 
title  Defender  of  the  Faith  as  a  reward  for  his  having 
written  against  Luther,  in  which  he  eloquently 
described  a  husband's  duty  to  his  wife.  England's 
needs  made  him  a  reformer  whose  conduct  as  a  husband 
has  been  sharply  criticised.  The  English,  alarmed 
perhaps  by  the  socialist  excesses  which  accompanied 
the  Reformation  in  Germany,  wished  to  retain  the 
ancient  creed,  and  Henry  gave  them  what  they  wished. 
The  suppression  of  the  monasteries  led  to  insurrec- 


232        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

tions,  such  as  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  in  Yorkshire ;  but 
these  had  little  chance  of  success  without  foreign  aid. 
During  one  of  the  most  critical  periods  in  England's 
history  Spain  was  the  foe  England  chiefly  dreaded,  and 
troubles  in  Germany,  fear  of  a  Turkish  invasion,  and 
the  hostility  of  France  kept  Charles  too  fully  occupied 
to  interfere  in  English  affairs.  In  1539,  however,  it 
seemed  as  if  Charles  and  Francis  had  forgotten  their 
differences  and  could  unite  to  restore  Rome's  authority 
in  England.  The  danger  was  so  great  that  it  aff ords 
at  least  some  excuse  for  the  measures  that  were  taken 
to  avert  it. 


XVIII 

ENGLAND   FREES  HERSELF  FROM  PAPAL  SUPREMACY 
IS39-I559 

ENGLAND  was  fortifying  her  coasts  in  1539  to  be  ready 
for  the  threatened  invasion.  Charles  and  Francis  had 
signed  a  truce  for  ten  years  in  June  1538,  and  as  a 
preliminary  to  a  direct  attack  arrangements  were 
being  made  to  close  the  markets  of  the  Continent  to 
English  goods.  The  French  were  willing  to  break  off 
all  commercial  intercourse  with  England  if  Charles 
would  close  the  ports  of  his  Empire.  A  great  stimulus 
would  have  been  given  to  the  production  of  France 
by  the  destruction  of  English  industry.  But  Charles' 
Empire  depended  on  international  trade.  In  1528 
the  merchants  of  the  Empire  had  taught  their  Em- 
peror that  he  must  not  interfere  with  their  trade.  It 
was  their  opposition  which  forced  Charles  to  acquiesce 
sullenly  in  the  divorce  of  Catherine  of  Aragon.  The 
Emperor  was  unable  to  agree  to  commercial  war,  and 
before  plans  for  a  direct  attack  on  England  were  made, 
in  1539  Charles  was  compelled  to  devote  his  energies 
to  crushing  a  rebellion  of  the  burghers  of  Ghent. 
England's  danger  passed  away  when,  in  1540,  it  became 
evident  that  the  war  between  Francis  and  Charles 
would  soon  begin  afresh. 


234        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Dreading  the  coming  of  an  invader  the  English 
took  steps  to  secure  unity  within  the  island.  Any 
change  in  religious  thought  and  practice  could  not  fail 
to  divide  the  English.  Parliament,  therefore,  in  1539 
passed  the  Act  of  the  Six  Articles,  which  punished  with 
the  stake  or  the  gallows  those  who  denied  the  ancient 
Catholic  faith.  Thus  it  happened  that  in  England 
a  man  risked  his  life  if  he  acknowledged  the  Pope's 
authority,  or  if  he  denied  the  creed  of  Rome.  Though 
Luther's  doctrines  were  banned  in  England,  Henry 
in  January  1540  married  Anne  of  Cleves  to  make  sure 
of  the  support  of  the  Protestants  of  Germany  in  the 
event  of  war  with  Francis  and  Charles.  Six  months 
later,  when  fear  of  invasion  was  passing  away,  this 
marriage  was  dissolved  with  the  consent  of  both 
husband  and  wife.  It  was  probably  only  a  nominal 
marriage,  as  Henry  conceived  an  aversion  to  his  bride 
at  their  first  meeting.  Cromwell's  policy  of  friendship 
with  France  and  hostility  to  the  Emperor  had  obviously 
failed  when  Charles,  Francis,  and  the  Pope  were 
forming  schemes  for  the  destruction  of  England.  He 
paid  for  his  mistake  with  his  head  in  1540 ;  and  Henry 
personally  ruled  over  England  until  his  death  in  1547. 

In  1528,  when  war  with  Spain  was  only  averted  by 
the  pressure  which  merchants  in  England  and  the 
Netherlands  brought  to  bear  upon  their  rulers,  the 
Spanish  began  their  policy  of  exciting  rebellion  in 
Ireland,  using  that  island  as  the  French  had  used 
Scotland.  Henry  met  this  attack  by  winning  over 
the  Irish  chieftains  with  grants  of  monastic  lands,  so 
that  English  rule  seemed  to  be  more  firmly  established 
than  it  had  been.  But,  whereas  in  England  some- 


SEVERANCE  FROM  ROME  235 

thing  was  ultimately  done  to  compensate  the  poor  for 
the  loss  of  the  alms  they  had  received  from  the 
monks,  in  Ireland  nothing  was  done.  No  schools  were 
founded,  and  there  was  no  Irish  poor  law  until  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  it  was  introduced  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  Cobden  and  the  free-trade  econo- 
mists. In  1504  the  fatal  policy  of  treating  Ireland 
economically  as  a  foreign  country  was  inaugurated, 
when  the  exportation  of  English  money  to  Ireland 
and  the  importation  of  Irish  money  were  prohibited. 
Great  Britain,  as  well  as  Ireland,  has  paid  for  these 
mistakes.  On  the  other  hand,  Wales  was  made  one 
with  England  in  1536,  when  it  was  arranged  that 
Welsh  members  should  be  summoned  to  Parliament, 
and  Henry  devoted  the  last  years  of  his  life  to  the 
promotion  of  the  union  of  England  and  Scotland. 

Although  in  1525  Queen  Margaret  could  describe 
the  people  of  Scotland  as  "  more  inclined  to  England 
than  to  France/'  the  opposition  of  Scotch  magnates 
wrecked  Henry's  plan  of  uniting  Great  Britain  by 
marrying  his  daughter  and  heiress,  Mary,  to  her  cousin 
James  V.  The  movement  in  favour  of  union,  how- 
ever, gained  ground  in  Scotland  amongst  the  laity. 
Henry's  agent  in  Edinburgh  reported,  in  1543,  that 
the  "  nobles  and  the  whole  temporality  "  favoured  the 
proposed  marriage  of  Henry's  heir,  Edward,  to  Mary, 
the  infant  heiress  of  Scotland,  but  that  "  undoubtedlie 
the  kyrkemen  labor,  by  all  the  meanes  they  can,  to 
empeche  the  unitie  and  establishment  of  these  twoo 
realmes."  It  was  these  churchmen  who,  under  Car- 
dinal Beaton,  kept  Scotland  loyal  to  Rome  when 
England  broke  with  the  papacy.  They  feared  the 


236        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

loss  of  their  possessions  if  the  union  of  Great  Britain 
was  accomplished,  and  they  influenced  James  V.  in 
his  choice  of  a  wife.  In  1537  the  Scotch  King  married 
the  daughter  of  Francis  I.,  and  when  she  died  his 
second  wife  was  Mary  of  Guise. 

When  Francis  and  Charles  were  planning  the 
destruction  of  England  in  1539  they  could  confidently 
count  upon  Scotland's  aid.  Whilst  Henry  bribed  the 
merchants  of  the  Netherlands  to  oppose  war  with 
England  by  proclaiming  that  for  seven  years  they 
could  import  English  cloth  on  paying  the  same  duties 
as  English  merchants  paid,  he  used  every  effort  to 
detach  James  V.  from  France.  In  vain  Henry  asked 
James  to  meet  him  in  1536  and  in  1542.  The  short- 
lived friendship  between  France  and  Spain  came  to 
an  end  in  1541 ;  hence,  when  James  refused  the  second 
invitation  to  a  friendly  alliance,  Henry  resorted  to 
force.  James  V.  died  in  1542  after  the  defeat  of  his 
army  at  Solway  Moss,  learning  on  his  deathbed  that 
Mary  of  Guise  had  given  birth  to  an  heiress  to  the 
throne  of  Scotland,  the  unfortunate  Mary  Stewart. 
The  splendid  opportunity  of  uniting  Great  Britain 
by  the  marriage  of  Prince  Edward  and  Queen  Mary 
was  lost  through  the  opposition  of  Cardinal  Beaton. 
In  1546  the  Cardinal  paid  with  his  life  for  his  devotion 
to  his  Church,  when  he  was  murdered  by  the  unionists 
of  Scotland  who  were  already  looking  upon  the  heretic 
preacher,  John  Knox,  as  their  leader. 

One  of  Henry's  greatest  achievements  was  the 
creation  of  a  strong  navy.  When  in  1544  France 
and  Scotland  were  at  war  with  England  and  Charles' 
Empire,  the  Scotch  fleet  was  utterly  destroyed, 


SEVERANCE  FROM  ROME  237 

Boulogne  was  captured  by  the  English,  and  a  French 
attack  in  the  Solent  ended  in  failure.  In  1546,  a  week 
after  Cardinal  Beaton's  death,  peace  was  signed.  The 
French  paid  a  large  indemnity  and  promised  a  still 
larger  sum  in  eight  years'  time,  when  Boulogne  was  to 
be  restored  to  France.  Scotland  was  wisely  left  to 
learn,  under  the  regency  of  Mary  of  Guise,  that  her 
true  policy  was  union  with  her  kinsfolk  in  England. 
Mary  taught  the  Scotch  that  she  and  her  supporters 
were  preparing  the  way  for  French  rule  whilst  they 
posed  as  champions  of  the  independence  of  Scotland. 

Henry's  health  had  been  failing  for  many  years. 
It  is  more  than  probable  that  his  marriage  with 
Catherine  Howard  in  1540  and  with  Catherine  Parr  in 
1543  were  as  nominal  as  his  union  with  Anne  of  Cleves. 
He  had  no  children  by  these  wives.  Catherine  Howard 
was  Anne  Boleyn's  cousin  ;  and  she,  too,  was  convicted 
of  adultery  and  executed  in  1542.  No  doubt  has  been 
cast  upon  the  justice  of  this  conviction.  Froude's 
conjectural  explanation  of  Henry's  matrimonial  mis- 
fortunes is  much  more  than  plausible,  though  it 
throws  doubt  on  the  paternity  certainly  of  Edward  VI. 
and  probably  of  Elizabeth.  A  confidential  despatch 
of  the  Spanish  Ambassador  to  England  supports  this 
doubt  in  the  case  of  Edward  VI.  In  spite  of  the 
wealth  which  Henry  had  acquired  from  the  monasteries 
and  the  Church,  he  was  compelled  to  debase  the 
coinage  in  1544,  and  when  he  died  in  1547  his  nine- 
year-old  son  succeeded  to  financial  difficulties  which 
tended  to  increase  with  the  rise  in  prices. 

On  Edward's  accession  to  the  throne,  one  of  his 
maternal  uncles,  Edward  Seymour,  became  Regent. 


238         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

He  was  given  the  title  of  Lord  Protector,  and  was 
advanced  to  the  dukedom  of  Somerset.  The  virtue 
and  the  vice  of  his  rule  was  pithily  expressed  in  a 
letter  written  by  a  friend  to  the  Protector:  "  What 
seeth  your  Grace  ?  Marry,  the  King's  subjects  all 
out  of  discipline,  out  of  obedience,  carrying  neither 
for  Protector  nor  King.  What  is  the  matter  ? 
Marry,  sir,  that  which  I  said  to  your  Grace  in  the 
gallery.  Liberty !  Liberty !  and  your  Grace's  too 
much  gentleness,  your  softness,  your  opinion  to  be 
good  to  the  poor — the  opinion  of  such  as  saith  to  your 
Grace,  '  Oh,  sir,  there  was  never  man  that  had  the 
hearts  of  the  poor  as  you  have.' '  This  reaction 
against  Henry's  iron  rule  lasted  less  than  three  years. 
These  years  were  filled  with  risings  in  England  and 
wars  with  France  and  Scotland.  In  them  the  cur- 
rency was  still  further  debased,  foreigners  poured  into 
the  country  with  their  fatal  poison,  the  strife  of  creeds, 
and  Somerset  was  forced  to  acquiesce  in  the  execution 
of  his  brother  for  treason.  Like  Stephen,  the  Pro- 
tector "  was  a  mild  man,  and  soft,  and  good,  and  did 
no  justice."  He  paid  with  his  head  for  the  anarchy. 
Theoretically  the  Protector's  schemes  were  ad- 
mirable. He  wished  for  a  Great  Britain  united  under 
Edward  and  Mary  of  Scotland  ;  but,  when  he  began  to 
do  the  wooing  for  his  nephew,  it  had  to  be  done  with 
that  English  army  which  won  the  battle  of  Pinkie  in 
1547.  A  French  army  came  to  Scotland's  aid  and 
carried  off  the  young  Queen  to  France.  The  war  with 
France  was  not  a  success.  By  the  peace  of  1550 
Boulogne  was  surrendered  four  years  before  the  ap- 
pointed time,  for  half  the  promised  payment.  The 


SEVERANCE  FROM  ROME  239 

laws  which  defined  treason  were  rescinded  and  the 
power  of  the  Crown  reduced,  whilst  the  Protector's 
brother,  Admiral  Lord  Seymour,  was  preparing  to 
play  the  part  of  Richard  III.  Three  months  after  her 
husband's  death  Catherine  Parr,  the  Queen  Dowager, 
married  Lord  Seymour.  Elizabeth  was  at  the  time 
living  with  Catherine  Parr ;  and  the  Burleigh  papers 
record  a  series  of  incidents,  discreditable  to  both 
Catherine  Parr  and  her  husband,  by  which  a  girl  of 
fourteen  was  brought  under  the  control  of  Lord 
Seymour.  The  Queen  Dowager  died  in  child-bed  little 
more  than  a  year  after  her  marriage,  and  Lord 
Seymour  renewed  his  disgraceful  intrigues  with  Eliza- 
beth. The  Admiral  also  organised  a  pirate  fleet  in 
the  Channel  and  acquired  strongholds  which  he  filled 
with  ammunition.  The  Protector  signed  his  brother's 
death-warrant  in  1549. 

Henry's  Act  of  the  Six  Articles,  which  punished 
those  who  abandoned  the  old  faith,  was  repealed  and 
foreigners  were  welcomed  in  England.  These  brought 
with  them  their  industrial  skill  and  the  woollen 
manufacture  was  stimulated.  With  them  also  came 
religious  discord  and  the  Scotch  firebrand,  John  Knox, 
embittered  by  nine  months'  toil  at  the  oar  of  a  French 
galley.  Knox  was  welcomed  in  England,  and  might 
have  been  Bishop  of  Rochester  but  for  his  conscientious 
scruples.  To  obtain  money  the  English  government 
confiscated  parochial  endowments  and  the  coinage 
was  further  debased.  Common  lands  were  enclosed 
with  scant  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  peasants.  The 
rise  in  the  price  of  wool,  owing  to  the  increase  in 
England's  cloth-making  industry,  tempted  those  who 


240    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

obtained  the  common  lands  to  turn  them  into  sheep 
farms  on  which  little  labour  was  employed.  Ruined 
monks  and  peasants  took  arms,  hoping  to  check 
enclosures  and  restore  the  old  faith.  Ten  thousand 
peasants  were  killed  before  these  revolts  were  sup- 
pressed. Over  large  areas  in  England  the  country 
folk  became  landless  men.  Ultimately  the  poor  found 
employment  in  the  new  English  industries,  but  it  was 
a  different  sowing  of  dragon's  teeth  to  that  sowed  by 
Henry  VII.  In  the  weaving  towns  of  the  Eastern 
Counties  Englishmen  readily  accepted  from  their 
Flemish  teachers  the  doctrine  that  centralised  govern- 
ment was  bad  and,  a  century  after  the  enclosures,  the 
Independents  and  Levellers  wreaked  their  vengeance 
on  an  innocent  King.  They  failed,  however,  to  regain 
their  land.  Shortly  before  the  French  Reign  of 
Terror,  Arthur  Young  noticed  with  surprise  that  the 
number  of  peasant  proprietors  was  far  greater  in 
France  than  in  England. 

The  rebels  complained  that  pasturage  was  replacing 
tillage,  thus  lessening  the  demand  for  labour.  The 
enclosed  wastes  were  converted  into  sheep  farms  and 
the  land  used  for  sheep  increased  ;  but  there  is  little 
evidence  that  there  was  less  land  under  corn.  The 
statute  of  1463  and  the  subsequent  quarrel  with  the 
Baltic  towns  of  the  Hanse  League  so  stimulated  corn- 
growing  in  England  that,  as  a  rule,  English  corn  was 
too  cheap  for  the  importation  of  foreign  grain  to  be 
profitable.  During  the  sixteenth  century  the  price 
of  corn  did  not  advance  as  rapidly  as  the  price  of  other 
commodities.  Corn  is  not  mentioned  in  a  long  list 
of  necessary  and  unnecessary  imports  from  the  Low 


SEVERANCE  FROM  ROME  241 

Countries  and  France,  drawn  up  about  the  year  1563. 
But  perhaps  the  most  striking  proof  of  England's 
self-sufficiency  in  corn  production  is  the  blow  struck 
at  the  Easterlings  by  Edward's  government.  As 
England's  trade  with  the  Baltic  was  in  its  infancy  and 
the  Hanse  League  were  the  chief  carriers  of  cheap 
Polish  corn,  an  attack  on  their  privileges  would  have 
been  impossible  if  England  had  been  dependent  on 
the  foreigner  for  her  food-supply.  In  1552  the  mer- 
chants of  the  Steelyard  lost  their  privileges  because 
the  League  had  not  fulfilled  its  promise  to  grant 
English  merchants  the  same  privileges  in  German 
towns  as  Germans  enjoyed  in  England. 

Somerset's  sympathies  were  with  the  peasants  in 
their  opposition  to  the  enclosures.  At  their  own 
expense  the  magnates  hired  foreign  troops  to  crush 
the  revolt.  Hence,  when  the  peasants  were  defeated, 
Somerset  fell  as  well  as  Ket  and  other  peasant  leaders. 
In  1549  the  magnates  under  Warwick,  soon  to  be 
Duke  of  Northumberland,  drove  Somerset  from  his 
Protectorship  and  paid  themselves  out  of  the  public 
purse  for  the  expenses  they  had  incurred  in  defeating 
the  peasants.  In  1552  Somerset  was  executed  and 
Northumberland  governed  England  whilst  Edward 
was  dying  of  consumption.  Before  Edward's  death 
in  1553  a  royal  will  was  signed  bequeathing  the 
Crown  to  Northumberland's  daughter-in-law,  Lady 
Jane  Grey. 

The  doctrinal  reformers  included  eminent  eccle- 
siastics, such  as  Archbishop  Cranmer ;  magnates  who 
had  grown  rich  from  confiscated  Church  lands  ;  and 
foreign  artisans  who  had  been  pouring  into  England. 

R 


242    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

The  majority  of  the  English  were  still  attached  to  the 
faith  of  their  fathers.  The  death  of  Edward  gave 
them  their  opportunity  of  avenging  themselves  on 
the  lords  who  had  hired  foreigners  to  defeat  English 
peasants.  Northumberland  won  no  support  when  he 
proclaimed  his  daughter-in-law  Queen  of  England. 
The  people  were  weary  of  a  Reformation  which  they 
associated  with  bad  money  and  enclosures.  Mary 
became  Queen  and  Northumberland  followed  Somerset 
to  the  block.  The  alien  preachers  were  driven  from 
England.  Knox  fled  with  them,  returning  to  Scotland 
in  1555  to  organise  her  breach  with  Rome  in  1560. 

During  Mary's  reign  the  other  Mary  of  Scotland 
lived  in  France,  waiting  for  her  marriage  in  1558  and 
for  her  few  months'  reign  with  her  husband,  Francis  II., 
over  both  France  and  Scotland.  When  the  Marys 
were  Queens,  in  Great  Britain  the  unionist  cause 
appeared  to  be  losing  ground ;  but,  beneath  the 
surface,  Scotch  and  English  were  both  learning  the 
lesson,  which  they  have  never  forgotten,  that  disunion 
in  Great  Britain  means  foreign  rule  in  the  island.  In 
1554  Mary  of  England  married  Philip,  the  heir  to  the 
dominions  of  Charles  V.  The  Spaniards  were  as  little 
liked  in  England  as  the  French  were  in  Scotland. 
Though  elaborate  precautions  were  taken  in  the 
marriage  treaty  to  safeguard  the  independence  of 
England,  a  revolt,  headed  by  Wyatt,  had  to  be  sup- 
pressed in  1554,  and  a  less  serious  rising  in  1557. 
With  the  Spaniards  came  religious  persecution.  Had 
the  fires  of  Smithfield  been  lighted  only  for  the  rich 
the  reaction  against  the  corruption  of  the  magnates 
during  Edward's  minority  might  have  outlasted  Mary's 


SEVERANCE  FROM  ROME  243 

reign.  But  those  who  died  were  mostly  poor  folk  who 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  enclosures. 

After  his  marriage  Philip  waited  in  England  for  a 
son  who  failed  to  appear.  Elizabeth's  fate  trembled 
in  the  balance.  Had  there  been  an  heir  she  would 
have  been  the  one  thing  not  wanted  ;  but,  if  there  were 
no  children  from  the  Spanish  marriage,  either  Elizabeth 
or  the  Frenchwoman,  Mary  of  Scotland,  would  rule 
over  England.  To  the  Spaniard,  Elizabeth  was  better 
than  the  Frenchwoman.  Heir  or  no  heir,  it  is  probable 
that  England  would  have  emancipated  herself  from 
the  grip  of  the  cosmopolitan  Emperor,  Charles  V.  ; 
but  it  would  have  been  at  a  terrible  cost  had  Mary 
given  birth  to  a  son.  Worn  out  by  the  impossible  task 
of  ruling  over  a  cosmopolitan  empire,  Charles  abdicated 
in  1555,  and  Philip  went  to  Flanders  to  be  invested 
with  the  government  of  the  Netherlands.  Ferdinand, 
the  brother  of  Charles  V.,  became  Emperor  of  Germany 
and  Duke  of  Austria,  whilst  Philip  II.  succeeded  to  the 
Low  Countries,  Spain,  and  Spanish  Italy. 

When  Elizabeth  was  released  and  recognised  as 
heiress  apparent,  the  more  far-seeing  may  have 
associated  with  Elizabeth,  in  their  forecast  of  a  happy 
England  under  another  Queen,  a  certain  William  Cecil, 
who  was  Elizabeth's  friend  and  adviser.  To  Cecil  was 
due  the  credit  of  depriving  the  Germans  of  their 
privileges  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Under  Mary, 
Cecil  was  neglected,  and  the  Hanseatic  merchants 
recovered  their  old  privileges  when  she  came  to  the 
throne  ;  but  they  enjoyed  their  liberty  for  less  than 
two  years.  The  Queen,  who  dared  to  re-establish  the 
Pope's  supremacy  and  to  burn  Archbishop  Cranmer 

R  2 


244         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  other  English  bishops,  was  forced  in  1555  to  yield 
to  the  demands  of  the  merchants  of  London.  Even 
the  prayer  of  a  husband  whom  the  Queen  passionately 
loved  was  without  effect.  The  Germans  were  deprived 
of  their  right  to  monopolise  the  commerce  of  England. 
In  their  anger  they  placed  England  under  a  commercial 
interdict,  which  lasted  until  Mary's  death  in  1558. 

In  1557  the  Spanish  alliance  involved  England 
in  war  with  France.  Before  Mary's  death,  Calais, 
England's  last  Continental  possession,  was  lost,  and 
England  was  smarting  under  this  loss  when  Elizabeth 
succeeded  to  the  throne  and  to  the  debts  and  debased 
coinage  of  her  predecessors.  Elizabeth  at  once  made 
Cecil  her  secretary,  and  he  remained  her  devoted 
servant  and  adviser  until  his  death  in  1598,  when  his 
son  took  his  place.  Favourites — such  as  Leicester, 
Essex,  and  Raleigh — give  a  handle  to  those  who  care 
to  discuss  the  private  character  of  England's  rulers. 
The  exact  truth  can  never  be  known,  and  this  perhaps 
makes  the  subject  fascinating ;  but  those  who  judge 
monarchs  by  the  work  they  do  for  the  lands  they 
govern  will  find  little  to  blame  in  the  policy  which 
Cecil  pursued  under  the  orders  of  his  Queen.  The 
supremacy  of  the  Pope  was  once  more  abolished,  and 
a  form  of  service  was  introduced  which  was  intended 
to  please  all  schools  of  religious  thought,  and,  to  a 
large  extent,  answered  the  wishes  of  its  designers. 

The  difficult  question  of  Scotland  was  solved  with 
equal  wisdom.  In  1560  an  English  army  helped 
Knox  and  the  Scotch  unionists  to  expel  the  French. 
When  their  task  was  done  the  English  withdrew,  and 
the  Scotch  were  left  to  sever  themselves  from  France 
and  Rome  in  their  own  way.  At  the  end  of  this  year 


SEVERANCE  FROM  ROME  245 

Francis  II.  died  and  the  French  power  over  Scotland 
ceased.  England  was  recompensed  for  the  loss  of 
Calais  by  the  love  of  Scotland.  Scotch  reformers 
would  have  married  Elizabeth  to  the  Earl  of  Arran 
and  thus  united  Great  Britain ;  but  Elizabeth  was 
wiser.  War  would  have  interfered  with  the  work 
Cecil  had  to  do  for  England,  and  Mary's  followers  would 
have  fought  for  their  Queen ;  hence  in  1560  the  fate 
of  Scotland  was  left  to  a  Scotch  Parliament,  which 
broke  with  Rome  and  removed  the  great  obstacle  to 
the  union  of  Great  Britain. 

Good  fortune  favoured  Elizabeth  from  first  to  last. 
The  wars  of  religion  distracted  France  during  the 
greater  part  of  her  reign.  In  1562  an  English  force 
occupied  Havre  in  order  to  aid  the  Huguenots  in 
the  first  religious  war.  When  French  Catholics  and 
Protestants  forgot  their  differences  and  joined  in  expel- 
ling the  English,  Elizabeth  laid  the  lesson  to  heart. 
Henceforward  the  French  were  allowed  to  fight  their 
civil  wars  without  the  interference  of  an  English  army. 
In  1559  Philip  II.  of  Spain  left  the  Netherlands, 
enraged  with  subjects  who  demanded  redress  of 
grievances  before  they  would  vote  supply.  For 
eleven  years  there  was  trouble  brewing  in  the  Low 
Countries.  Then  followed  the  eighty  years'  war  of 
Dutch  independence.  Again  Elizabeth  interfered  only 
when  England's  interests  were  vitally  affected.  Thus 
the  Queen  was  able  to  restore  England's  finance  and 
coinage,  and,  whilst  France  and  Spain  were  weakened 
by  discord,  England,  guided  by  Elizabeth  and  Cecil, 
increased  her  productive  power,  added  foreign  com- 
merce to  home  production,  and  began  to  build  the 
greatest  Empire  which  has  ever  existed. 


XIX 

INCREASE  OF  ENGLAND'S  NAVAL  POWER 
1560-1585 

A  DEPUTATION  of  Hanse  merchants  approached  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  1560.  They  were  received  with  the 
greatest  courtesy,  but  were  told  that  they  must  no 
longer  expect  more  favourable  treatment  than  their 
English  competitors,  and  that  German  trade  with 
England  would  in  future  be  regulated  in  the  interests 
of  the  English.  They  were  also  told  that  they  would 
have  to  give  English  merchants  in  their  German  ports 
the  same  rights  as  they  were  allowed  in  England. 
When  foreign  commerce  was  thus  brought  under 
national  control,  Parliament  prohibited  the  importation 
of  many  articles  which  were  being  imported  from 
Antwerp  although  they  could  be  made  in  England. 
This  prohibition  was  at  once  felt  in  the  Netherlandsj 
since  the  Hanse  merchants  could  no  longer  carry  the 
forbidden  goods.  Commercial  relations  between  Eng- 
land and  the  dominions  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain  were 
broken  off ;  but  the  English  found  a  market  for  their 
cloth  at  Emden,  from  which  port  it  could  be  sold 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Low  Countries  or  Germany. 
Although  Spanish  ships  were  pillaged  in  the  Narrow 
Seas,  Spain  had  to  submit  to  the  insult  in  order  to 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER          247 

save  Antwerp's  trade  from  ruin.  In  1564  Anglo- 
Spanish  trade  was  resumed  on  terms  dictated  by 
England.  The  empire  of  traders  was  too  weak  to  wage 
a  commercial  war  with  a  nation  of  producers. 

Mining  was  encouraged  and  the  smelting  of  iron. 
Alum  works  were  started  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  Cecil 
was  personally  interested  in  this  venture,  which  for  a 
time  succeeded  and  then  failed.  Alum  was  the  one 
thing  needed  to  give  England  absolute  supremacy  in 
cloth-making.  From  the  surface  rock  which  had  been 
weathered  alum  could  be  easily  prepared,  but  the 
working  of  deeper  deposits  was  a  secret  jealously 
guarded  by  the  Pope.  Just  before  Elizabeth's  death 
this  difficulty  was  overcome.  Italian  alum-workers 
were  smuggled  out  of  papal  territory.  Alum  works 
were  started  in  Yorkshire,  and  England  had  an  ample 
supply  of  cheap  alum  with  which  she  could  finish  her 
rough  cloth. 

From  the  time  of  Edward  III.  the  exportation  of 
iron  was  forbidden,  that  English  iron-workers  might 
have  a  cheap  and  abundant  supply  of  raw  material. 
When  this  measure  was  supplemented  by  the  protec- 
tion given  to  finished  iron  goods,  the  industry  made 
rapid  progress.  The  Elizabethan  English  were,  how- 
ever, too  wise  to  sacrifice  strength  for  wealth.  It  was 
not  until  much  later  that  the  method  of  using  coal 
in  iron-smelting  was  invented.  The  use  of  charcoal 
necessitated  a  great  consumption  of  wood,  and  this 
endangered  the  growth  of  English  shipping ;  hence  the 
use  of  wood,  growing  near  the  coast  and  rivers,  in 
iron-smelting  was  forbidden  by  repeated  Acts  of 
Parliament.  Cecil  prepared  the  way  for  Howard, 


248    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Drake,  Hawkins,  and  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  just  as 
at  a  later  date  Pitt  and  Barham  made  it  possible  for 
Nelson  to  do  his  duty  at  Trafalgar.  One  article,  in 
particular,  had  the  honour  of  a  special  statute,  fre- 
quently re-enacted,  prohibiting  its  importation.  Free- 
trade  economists  argue  that  to  produce  cheaply  raw 
materials  and  instruments  used  in  manufacture  should 
be  imported  duty  free.  The  Elizabethan  English 
thought  otherwise,  for  wool-cards  were  the  subject 
of  the  statute.  According  to  the  free-trade  theory 
English  cloth-making  ought  to  have  been  injured  by 
the  statute  prohibiting  the  importation  of  foreign  wool- 
cards,  but,  in  fact,  England  before  long  made  not  only 
the  best  cloth  but  the  best  wool-cards.  This  ounce  of 
fact  is  worth  tons  of  theory.  Elizabeth  inherited  a 
debased  coinage  and  debts  contracted  by  her  brother 
and  her  sister.  Though  prices  continued  to  rise  in 
her  reign,  the  efficiency  of  her  protective  system 
enabled  her  to  restore  the  coinage,  discharge  the 
debts,  and  maintain  the  navy  without  resorting  to 
excessive  taxation.  Whilst  England's  production  was 
protected,  Cecil  enforced  rigid  economy  in  govern- 
mental departments.  Thus  England  could  afford  to 
subsidise  the  struggling  Protestants  in  France  and  the 
Netherlands.  In  defiance  of  the  laws  of  free  trade 
England  became  wealthy,  and,  better  still,  she  became 
strong. 

The  Merchant  Adventurers,  who  carried  English 
cloth  to  Antwerp  in  competition  with  the  Hanse 
merchants,  were  encouraged  by  government.  In  1581 
a  Levant  company  was  incorporated  in  order  to  trade 
with  the  Turk,  and  these  merchants  in  1584  sent 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER         249 

English  cloth  to  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Goa.  The 
Muscovy  merchants,  incorporated  in  Mary's  reign,  also 
opened  up  trade  with  Persia  by  the  old  Scandinavian 
route  of  the  Russian  rivers.  The  Germans  had  built 
ships  for  England,  and  carried  naval  stores,  tar,  and 
hemp  from  the  Baltic.  This  was  probably  the  reason 
why  they  retained  their  privileges  for  so  long  a  time. 
Timid  hearts  could  urge  that  they  were  indispensable, 
if  England  was  to  have  a  strong  navy;  but  timidity 
was  not  a  characteristic  of  the  England  of  Elizabeth, 
and  an  English  Eastland  Company  replaced  the 
Easterlings. 

At  first  Elizabeth  was  too  poor  to  do  much  for  the 
navy,  but  money  was  found  to  buy  ships  from  the 
Germans  and  powder  and  cannon  in  Antwerp.  But 
soon  after  Elizabeth's  accession  shipbuilding  and  the 
manufacture  of  cannon  and  gunpowder  were  developed 
in  England.  The  Jesus  of  Liibeck  was  the  last  ship 
bought  from  the  Germans.  Merchant  shipping  grew 
apace,  and  every  merchant  ship  was  a  potential 
man-of-war.  To  encourage  English  shipping  the 
coasting  trade  of  England  was  reserved  for  English 
ships.  In  this  way  a  navy  was  created  which  delivered 
England  when  the  Spanish  Armada  came,  saw,  and 
was  conquered. 

The  English  were  not  a  seafaring  race  when 
Elizabeth  began  her  reign.  Yet,  before  it  was  over, 
they  had  commenced  to  regard  the  sea  as  their  own. 
Cabot's  voyages  were  soon  forgotten.  Whilst  England 
was  in  alliance  with  Spain  and  still  acknowledged  the 
supremacy  of  the  Pope,  the  French  were  pushing  their 
way  into  Canada  and  giving  the  name  of  New  France 


250    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  North  America.  When  the  Reformation  spread  to 
France,  Huguenots,  aided  by  Admiral  Coligny,  settled 
at  first  in  Brazil,  and,  when  this  experiment  failed, 
in  Florida,  whence  as  pirates  they  attacked  the  com- 
merce and  colonies  of  Spain.  Before  the  English  broke 
through  the  monopolies  of  Portugal  and  Spain  by 
collecting  slaves  on  the  Guinea  Coast  and  selling  them 
in  the  West  Indies,  Frenchmen  had  engaged  in  this 
lucrative  trade.  Preying  upon  the  Spaniard  and 
Protestantism  were  closely  connected  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  but,  as  France  and  Spain  were  almost  always 
at  war,  the  Catholic  Kings  of  France  winked  at  the 
religious  errors  of  subjects  who  robbed  Spanish  ships 
of  American  gold. 

After  the  death  of  Henry  II.  of  France  in  1559  his 
widow,  Catherine  de  Medici,  directed  the  official  policy 
of  France  for  thirty  years,  during  the  reigns  of  her 
three  sons.  This  policy  aimed  at  restoring  peace  to 
Europe  by  re-establishing  a  purified  papal  power.  It 
also  involved  the  suppression  of  the  Huguenots. 
During  the  French  civil  wars  their  infant  colonial 
empire  perished,  and  the  English  took  over  the  task 
of  fighting  the  Spanish  monopoly.  The  collapse  of 
Spain  in  1564,  after  her  short-lived  commercial  war 
with  England,  was  followed  by  English  attacks  on  her 
jealously  guarded  American  empire.  In  Mary's  reign 
English  ships  first  visited  the  Guinea  Coast  in  defiance 
of  the  Portuguese  monopoly.  John  Hawkins  went 
there  in  1562  and  carried  slaves  to  Hayti,  where  he 
sold  them,  "  trusting  the  Spaniards  no  further  than  by 
his  own  strength  he  was  able  still  to  master  them." 

This  private  venture  was  so  successful  that  in  1564 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER          251 

Hawkins  sailed  in  command  of  some  of  the  Queen's 
ships,  including  the  Jesus  of  Liibeck,  to  Guinea  and 
thence  with  slaves  to  the  West  Indies,  where,  after 
much  trouble  owing  to  the  absence  of  a  licence  from 
the  King  of  Spain,  the  slaves  were  sold.  On  his  way 
to  England  Hawkins  succoured  the  pirate  colony  of 
the  French  in  Florida,  and  he  met  other  Frenchmen, 
engaged  in  the  unlicensed  slave-trade,  in  Africa  and  in 
the  West  Indies.  The  sailor,  who  wrote  of  this  second 
venture  in  unlicensed  slave-trading,  was  able  to  end  his 
tale  with  thanksgiving  to  God,  since  there  was  "  great 
profit  to  the  venturers  of  the  said  voyage,  as  also  to 
the  whole  realm,  in  bringing  home  both  gold,  silver, 
pearls,  and  other  jewels  great  store.  His  name,  there- 
fore, be  praised  for  evermore.  Amen."  Hawkins' 
third  voyage  ended  in  failure.  Trapped  by  the 
Spanish  fleet,  treacherously  according  to  Hawkins, 
the  Jesus  was  lost,  and,  after  much  suffering,  Hawkins 
returned  in  one  small  ship,  and  his  cousin,  Francis 
Drake,  in  another.  The  experiences  of  the  English 
prisoners  in  the  prisons  of  the  Inquisition  filled  England 
with  hatred  of  Rome  and  Spain. 

In  1567  Philip  sent  the  Duke  of  Alva  overland  to  the 
Netherlands  with  an  army  which  was  strong  enough  to 
crush  all  opposition  to  Spanish  rule.  Ships  containing 
pay  for  Alva's  troops  were  driven  to  take  refuge  at 
Plymouth  and  Elizabeth  confiscated  the  treasure. 
Alva  was  then  forced  to  tax  the  Netherlands.  This 
taxation,  coupled  with  the  stoppage  of  commerce 
between  England  and  Antwerp,  drove  the  Low 
Countries  into  open  rebellion,  and  the  war  of  Dutch 
Independence  began.  Already,  it  is  true,  William  of 


252         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Orange  had  been  outlawed  and  was  trying  to  invade 
the  Netherlands  with  foreign  mercenaries ;  but,  after 
the  taxation,  the  Netherlands  united  in  defence  of 
their  autonomy. 

At  first,  however,  William  of  Orange  lacked  the 
money  required  before  the  Spanish  could  be  effectively 
attacked.  The  poor  folk  in  the  Netherlands  subscribed 
towards  William's  war  fund,  but  the  rich  held  aloof. 
Enough  was,  nevertheless,  collected  to  equip  eighteen 
vessels  at  the  Huguenot  port  of  La  Rochelle.  These 
ships  carried  William's  letters  of  marque  and  crews 
of  lawless  seamen,  who  called  themselves  Sea-Beggars. 
They  seized  three  hundred  Spanish  vessels  within  a 
few  months,  and  disposed  of  their  booty  in  England. 
Representations  from  the  Spanish  Ambassador  forced 
Elizabeth  to  forbid  this  use  of  English  harbours.  Then 
in  1572  the  Sea-Beggars  seized  the  Dutch  port  of 
Brill,  and  Holland  rose  in  revolt. 

Meanwhile  negotiations  were  proceeding  between 
England  and  France  which  had  in  view  the  expulsion 
of  the  Spanish  from  the  Netherlands  and  the  division  of 
the  country  between  England,  France,  and  Germany. 
A  religious  peace  was  to  be  proclaimed  in  France,  and 
the  Protestant  heir-expectant,  Henry  of  Navarre,  was 
married  to  the  daughter  of  Catherine  de  Medici. 
Six  days  after  the  marriage  the  Huguenot  magnates 
who  had  come  to  Paris  were  massacred  on  the  Feast 
of  St.  Bartholomew  1572.  Henry  of  Navarre  was 
spared,  but  Admiral  Coligny  was  killed.  Civil  war 
recommenced,  and  the  expansion  of  France  oversea 
was  checked  for  years.  Elizabeth,  however,  remained 
faithful  to  the  defensive  alliance  she  had  made  with 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER          253 

France.  She  had  no  intention  of  throwing  France 
into  the  arms  of  Spain,  and  at  the  same  time  she  would 
not  waste  England's  strength  in  a  European  war.  A 
more  effective  way  of  fighting  Spain  was  being  thought 
out  in  England. 

In  1570  and  1571  Drake  made  voyages  to  the  West 
Indies  of  which  no  particulars  are  recorded.  He  had 
not  forgotten  the  Spanish  attack  on  Hawkins  and  the 
misery  of  his  own  home-coming.  In  1572  he  sailed 
to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  attacked  Nombre  de  Dios, 
and  returned  with  a  rich  store  of  Spanish  gold.  Then, 
whilst  England  and  Spain  were  still  officially  at  peace, 
another  and  greater  exploit  was  prepared.  In  1577 
Drake  sailed  from  Plymouth  with  a  company  of  164 
men  in  five  ships.  He  did  not  return  until  1580,  and 
in  the  interval  he  sailed  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
plundered  the  unprotected  Spanish  towns  on  the  east 
coast  of  America,  fed  and  clothed  his  crew  from 
Spanish  ships,  crossed  the  Pacific,  rounded  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  on  his  voyage  collected  from  the 
Spanish  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds. 

In  1578  England  signed  a  treaty  of  alliance  with 
the  Netherlands  directed  against  Spain.  Philip  tried 
to  reply  to  this  unofficial  war  by  creating  difficulties 
for  Elizabeth  in  the  British  Isles.  Mary  of  Scotland 
married  Lord  Darnley  in  1565.  Her  illegitimate  half- 
brother,  Lord  Moray,  joined  the  party  of  Knox  and 
the  ultra-Protestants  and  was  preparing  a  rebellion 
against  his  sister  on  account  of  her  sympathy  with 
Rome,  when  Mary  attacked  the  insurgents  with  such 
swiftness  that  they  fled  to  England.  Mary's  secretary, 
Riccio,  was  suspected  of  being  in  the  pay  of  Philip  and 


254        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Pope.  With  the  approval  of  John  Knox,  Riccio 
was  murdered  by  Lord  Darnley  in  the  presence  of  his 
wife  and  Queen.  Lord  Moray  then  returned,  and  the 
Queen's  councillors  were  Protestant  and  pro-English. 
Mary's  son,  James,  was  born  in  1566,  and  Elizabeth 
was  invited  to  be  his  godmother.  Early  in  the  follow- 
ing year  Lord  Darnley's  body  was  found  under  cir- 
cumstances which  pointed  to  the  anti-English  Lord 
Bothwell  as  the  murderer.  Scotland  rose  against  her 
Queen  when  Mary  married  Bothwell  a  few  months  after 
Darnley's  death.  In  1568  Mary  fled  for  shelter  to 
England,  and  under  Moray,  as  Regent  for  James, 
Scotland  remained  loyal  to  England. 

Philip  then  devoted  his  attention  to  fomenting 
disaffection  amongst  the  English  Catholics  in  favour 
of  the  captive  Queen  Mary.  The  great  obstacle  was 
Cecil.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  led  the  discontented 
magnates  and  Cecil  was  in  danger  of  sharing  Riccio's 
fate.  Elizabeth,  however,  acted  promptly,  although 
her  favourite  Leicester  was  one  of  Cecil's  enemies. 
Norfolk  was  arrested,  and  a  rising  in  the  North  of 
England  was  sternly  suppressed  in  1569.  Next  year 
the  Pope  issued  a  bull  excommunicating  Elizabeth 
and  releasing  her  subjects  from  their  duty  of  obedience 
to  their  Queen.  Alva  had  apparently  crushed  the 
Protestants  of  the  Low  Countries  ;  but  before  the  bull 
was  issued  Alva's  power  was  weakened  by  the  seizure 
of  Spanish  gold  at  Plymouth.  In  1571  the  Ridolfi 
conspiracy  was  planned  by  Spain.  Elizabeth  was  to  be 
murdered,  Norfolk  to  be  married  to  Mary  of  Scotland, 
and  part  of  Alva's  army  was  to  make  them  Catholic 
rulers  of  Great  Britain.  Cecil,  who  had  been  made 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER         255 

Lord  Burghley,  discovered  the  plot.  Norfolk  was 
executed  in  1572,  but  Mary's  life  was  spared.  The 
defensive  alliance  with  France  and  the  secret  aid  given 
to  William  of  Orange  were  Burghley's  answers  to  the 
danger  which  threatened  England. 

The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  was  a  heavy  blow 
to  English  hopes,  but  this  was  more  than  compensated 
by  the  success  of  the  Sea-Beggars  and  Drake's  exploit 
at  Nombre  de  Dios.  In  1572  it  was  evident  that  the 
sea  power  of  Spain  was  not  invincible,  and  the  revolt 
of  the  Dutch  taxed  the  resources  of  Spain  so  severely 
that  England  had  rest  for  seven  years.  Want  of  money 
ruined  Spain,  although  she  had  sole  possession  of  the 
gold  and  silver  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  In  spite  of  the 
laws  of  Spain  the  precious  metals  flowed  from  her  to  the 
middlemen  of  Antwerp  and  Amsterdam,  and  through 
them  to  England.  Until  Spain  had  proved  herself 
incapable  of  protecting  property  from  her  mutinous 
troops,  Antwerp  and  Amsterdam  remained  Catholic 
and  loyal  to  Spain.  Their  merchants  looked  upon 
the  revolt  as  a  needless  quarrel  with  their  wealthy 
Spanish  clients.  The  severity  of  Alva's  rule  failed 
to  conquer  the  Dutch,  and  in  1573  he  was  replaced 
by  Requesens,  who  was  instructed  to  try  the  effect  of 
gentler  methods.  Holland  and  Zeeland  refused  to 
submit,  but  the  southern  provinces  acquiesced  in  the 
new  policy. 

The  great  difficulty  which  confronted  Requesens 
was  his  Spanish  army,  whose  pay  was  always  in  arrears. 
Under  Alva  the  plunder  of  Malines,  Zutphen,  Naarden, 
and  Haarlem  had  satisfied  the  soldiers,  but  after 
Requesens  had  failed  to  capture  Leyden,  even  the 


256    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

merchants  wavered  in  their  loyalty  when  they  saw 
the  land  overrun  with  hungry  and  mutinous  bandits. 
Requesens  died  in  1576,  and  before  his  successor,  Don 
John  of  Austria,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Charles  V., 
arrived,  the  mutineers  had  sacked  Antwerp,  the  richest 
city  in  the  Low  Countries,  perhaps  in  Europe.  The 
horror  caused  by  this  outrage  against  civilisation  for 
a  time  united  the  Low  Countries.  In  the  Pacification 
of  Ghent  the  provinces  agreed  to  forget  their  past 
divisions  and  to  unite  in  securing  the  expulsion  of 
the  Spanish  soldiers.  William  of  Orange  was  to  be 
lieutenant,  admiral,  and  general  for  Philip  in  Holland 
and  Zeeland  until  the  Spaniards  were  expelled. 

In  Spain  the  necessity  of  removing  the  Spanish 
troops  from  the  Netherlands  was  by  this  time  clearly 
recognised,  and  it  was  proposed  that  they  should  be  let 
loose  on  England.  This  proposal  was  vetoed  by  the 
Netherlanders  who  were  loyal  to  Spain.  They  saw 
that  Antwerp  would  be  still  further  injured  if  the 
production  of  England,  in  which  their  merchants  dealt, 
was  checked.  Money  was  raised  on  bills  drawn  in 
Philip's  name  and  discounted  by  the  Fuggers  of 
Antwerp.  The  Spanish  troops  were  then  sent  away  by 
land.  There  remained  a  force  of  German  mercenaries, 
but  Don  John  was  pledged  to  send  them  also  away  as 
soon  as  the  States-General  raised  funds  for  their  arrears 
of  pay.  These  mercenaries,  however,  did  not  leave, 
and  though  open  war  ceased  there  was  such  unrest  that. 
Philip  sent  Alexander  of  Parma,  with  20,000  Spanish 
troops,  to  Don  John's  aid.  The  insurgents  were 
crushingly  defeated  at  Gemblours  in  1578,  but  on  the 
other  hand  Amsterdam  threw  in  its  lot  with  Holland 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER         257 

and  Zeeland.  In  the  same  year  Don  John  died  and 
Parma  became  Viceroy  for  Philip. 

During  the  Anglo-French  negotiations  before  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  the  marriage  of  Elizabeth 
with  the  French  King's  brother,  Henry  of  Anjou,  was 
suggested  and  discussed.  When  it  became  evident  that 
Elizabeth's  suitor  would  become  Henry  III.  of  France, 
his  brother,  Francis  d'Alen£on,  afterwards  Duke  of 
Anjou,  was  proposed  as  a  possible  husband  for  Eliza- 
beth. From  England,  where  he  had  been  vainly 
wooing  Elizabeth,  a  lady  of  nearly  fifty  and  more  than 
twenty  years  his  senior,  Francis  of  Anjou  sailed  to 
Antwerp  in  1582  with  Elizabeth's  old  friend,  Leicester, 
and  other  English  nobles.  Beneath  the  grotesque 
courtship  important  issues  were  at  stake.  In  1581 
Francis  had  been  accepted  as  sovereign  of  Flanders, 
Brabant,  and  the  northern  provinces,  which  had  re- 
pudiated Philip.  Antwerp,  the  great  market  for 
English  cloth,  was  owning  a  new  lord,  and  Elizabeth's 
ambiguous  answer  left  her  free  to  act  in  England's 
interests,  if  the  experiment  was  successful. 

Before  long  it  was  evident  that  the  experiment 
would  not  succeed.  In  1584  Anjou  died,  and  his  death 
was  almost  immediately  followed  by  the  murder  of 
William  of  Orange.  Next  year  Parma  gained  posses- 
sion of  Antwerp  and  all  the  southern  provinces  for 
Philip  of  Spain.  In  spite  of  all  the  advantages  of  her 
protective  system  the  outlook  seemed  dark  for  England. 
In  1581  Philip  had  seized  Portugal,  and  every  non- 
European  market  was  closed  to  English  goods.  When 
Antwerp  was  being  besieged  by  the  Spaniards  in  1585, 
Elizabeth  made  a  fruitless  attempt  to  induce  Henry  III. 

s 


258         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  France  to  assume  the  sovereignty  of  the  Nether- 
lands. The  Garter  was  sent  to  the  French  King 
simultaneously  with  an  embassy  from  the  Netherlands, 
but  the  religious  divisions  of  the  French  forced  the 
King  to  decline  the  offer.  England  had  to  face  Spain 
aided  only  by  the  insurgent  Dutch. 

It  is  not  easy  to  trace  any  fear  in  England's  actions, 
though  there  were  attempts  at  maintaining  the  nominal 
peace  with  Spain.  The  ancient  policy  of  England  had 
been  to  rely  on  the  Hanse  League,  but  Cecil's  policy 
of  giving  to  the  Germans  as  much  and  no  more  than 
they  gave  to  the  English  was  resolutely  adhered  to. 
The  Hanse  town  of  Hamburg  saw  that  prosperity 
followed  the  settlement  of  the  English  Merchant 
Adventurers  in  Emden,  and  in  1567  Hamburg  signed  a 
treaty  allowing  the  English  to  trade  within  her  walls. 
When  the  treaty  expired  in  1577  the  other  Hanse 
towns  compelled  Hamburg  to  expel  the  English,  and 
after  one  year's  grace  the  Merchant  Adventurers  left. 
The  Germans  in  London  were  then  placed  on  the  same 
footing  as  other  foreigners,  and  a  commercial  war 
ensued  in  which  England  was  able  to  prove  the 
superiority  of  a  nation  which  protected  her  production 
over  rivals  who  traded  in  foreign-made  goods.  Driven 
from  Hamburg  the  Merchant  Adventurers  were  again 
welcomed  at  Emden.  When  Emden  was  closed  to  the 
English  at  the  Emperor's  command,  Elbing  received 
them.  They  were  soon  after  again  received  openly  at 
Emden  and  more  or  less  secretly  in  other  Hanse  towns. 
For  a  short  while  Hamburg  gave  them  another  wel- 
come, and  when  she  once  more  drove  them  out  in  1587 
they  moved  a  few  miles  down  the  Elbe  and  settled 


INCREASE  OF  NAVAL  POWER         259 

in  Stade,  which  defied  the  Emperor  as  Elbing  did  the 
King  of  Poland. 

Ceaseless  efforts  were  made  to  find  outlets  for 
English  cloth.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the 
access  to  the  East  opened  through  Russia  and  the 
lands  of  the  Turk,  but  English  ships  also  sailed  to 
Archangel  in  1553,  only  to  find  that  there  was  no 
passage  to  the  East  through  the  icy  seas.  No  better 
fortune  attended  the  daring  seamen  who  sought  a 
North- West  passage  round  the  American  coast. 

At  the  same  time  attempts  were  made  to  found 
colonies  in  North  America.  Though  these  failed,  from 
the  lessons  the  failures  taught,  the  English  learned  the 
method  of  creating  dominions  oversea.  Good  fortune, 
on  the  other  hand,  attended  Drake  when,  in  September 
1585,  he  sailed  with  about  thirty  ships  from  Plymouth 
to  avenge  the  fall  of  Antwerp.  Touching  first  at 
Spain,  where  he  boldly  took  in  fresh  water  and  pro- 
visions, Drake  sailed  to  the  West  Indies  by  way  of  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands.  His  progress  was  marked  by 
sacked  and  burned  Spanish  towns  and  ships,  and  he 
returned  with  sixty  thousand  pounds  taken  from  the 
Spaniards.  It  was  evident  that  nothing  but  a  direct 
attack  could  subdue  England,  and  preparations  for  it 
were  now  made. 


s  2 


XX 

THE  ARMADA.      ENGLISH  AND  DUTCH  OBTAIN 
CONTROL  OF  THE  SEA 
1585-1601 

BEFORE  his  abdication  in  1555  Charles  V.  had  learned 
that  it  was  beyond  the  power  of  one  man  simul- 
taneously to  unite  the  German  Empire  and  Western 
Europe  in  a  cosmopolitan  brotherhood.  But  it  was 
not  clear  that  the  cosmopolitan  scheme  would  not 
succeed  if  one  member  of  his  family  attacked  the 
problem  in  Germany  and  another  in  Western  Europe. 
If  Germany  and  Western  Europe  were  welded  into  two 
federations,  both  in  subjection  to  Rome,  intermarriage 
between  the  Spanish  and  Austrian  Habsburgs  would 
sooner  or  later  blend  the  two  federations  into  one 
cosmopolitan  Empire.  Hence  Charles'  brother  became 
the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  and  Charles'  son  became 
Philip  II.  of  Spain  and  of  Spain's  dominions  in  Europe 
and  beyond  the  sea. 

This  great  scheme  failed  not  because  the  Habsburgs 
wavered  in  their  loyalty  to  cosmopolitanism  but 
because  the  peoples  over  whom  they  ruled  took  arms 
to  support  their  nationality.  Ferdinand's  son  and 
heir,  afterwards  Maximilian  II.,  was  married  in  1548  to 
his  cousin,  Maria,  daughter  of  Charles  V.  In  spite  of 
his  Spanish  wife  and  the  Spanish  influences  which 


THE  ARMADA  261 

surrounded  him,  Maximilian,  before  his  accession  in 
1564  to  the  Empire  of  Germany,  showed  strong  lean- 
ings towards  Protestantism  and  German  nationalism. 
He  received,  however,  a  plain  intimation  that,  if  he 
declined  to  fall  in  with  the  cosmopolitan  scheme  he 
would  have  to  abandon  all  hope  of  becoming  Emperor, 
and  he  yielded  to  the  pressure.  Maximilian  and  his 
son,  Rudolf  II.,  Emperor  from  1576  to  1612,  main- 
tained intimate  relations  with  Spain,  whilst  they 
avoided  making  a  direct  attack  on  Protestantism. 
The  absence  of  protection  for  German  workers, 
peasants,  and  artisans  weakened  Protestantism  and 
German  nationality.  The  wealth  of  Germany  passed 
into  the  hands  of  her  international  merchants,  who 
could  invest  their  capital  in  foreign  lands  and  favoured 
a  close  connection  with  Spain.  The  Jesuits,  who  were 
labouring  to  bring  Europe  back  to  Catholicism,  met 
with  great  success  in  Germany.  Time  appeared  to  be 
on  the  side  of  cosmopolitanism  in  the  German  Empire. 
But  in  Western  Europe  Philip  II.  had  a  more 
difficult  task.  The  people  of  the  Netherlands  had 
partially  succeeded  in  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  Spain. 
Amsterdam  and  the  North  had  won  freedom,  whilst 
Antwerp  and  the  South  had  bought  peace  by  rejoining 
the  Spanish  Empire,  when  the  murder  of  William  of 
Orange  in  1584  left  the  Dutch  without  a  leader. 
Spain's  agents  were  at  work  in  every  land.  The 
Catholics  of  England  and  Ireland  were  being  taught 
that  their  religion  demanded  rebellion  against  Eliza- 
beth, and  there  were  grave  fears  that  the  Queen  would 
share  the  fate  of  William  of  Orange.  The  British 
Isles  were  to  become  dependencies  of  Spain  under 


262    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Mary  Stewart.  Even  James  of  Scotland,  alarmed  by 
the  strength  and  zeal  of  the  Scotch  Catholics,  pursued 
a  hesitating  and  doubtful  policy. 

Nor  could  Elizabeth  turn  to  France  for  aid.  Since 
the  peace  of  Cateau-Cambresis  in  1660  there  had  been 
no  open  war  between  France  and  Spain,  but  the 
religious  wars  in  France  had  ended  in  the  formation 
of  a  Catholic  League  led  by  Henry,  Duke  of  Guise,  and 
a  Huguenot  opposition  whose  chief  was  Henry  of 
Navarre.  The  French  King,  Henry  III.,  had  failed  to 
reconcile  his  subjects  in  1576  owing  to  the  opposition 
of  the  League.  In  1585  a  definite  alliance  was  formed 
between  the  League  and  Philip  of  Spain,  and  Henry  III. 
was  forced  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  Henry  of 
Guise  and  his  brother  the  Cardinal. 

Threatened  on  all  sides,  Elizabeth  was  forced  to 
abandon  her  policy  of  masterly  inactivity,  and  in  1585 
the  Queen's  favourite,  Leicester,  landed  in  Flushing 
with  5000  foot  and  1000  horse  to  fill  the  place  which 
the  murder  of  William  of  Orange  had  left  vacant. 
This  post  was  one  which  an  Englishman  was  ill-qualified 
to  fill.  Englishmen  still  talk  of  the  Dutch  Republic, 
although  not  long  after  the  final  severance  from  Spain 
de  Witt  pointed  out  that  the  English  should  talk  of 
what  is  now  the  kingdom  of  Holland  as  the  Federated 
Republics.  Leicester,  accustomed  to  the  ways  of  a 
united  kingdom,  was  called  upon  to  guide  the  fortunes 
of  seven  provinces  which  had  never  been  really  united 
and  had  now  joined  in  a  federation  so  loose  that 
each  province,  and  almost  each  town,  was  practically 
an  independent  State.  The  name  republic  serves  only 
to  conceal  the  fact  that  the  Dutch  had  no  political 


THE  ARMADA  263 

freedom.  Towns  were  governed  by  councils  of 
burghers  which  co-opted  fresh  members  when  vacancies 
occurred  and  elected  deputies  to  the  States-General. 
The  Dutch  were  governed  by  merchants  whose  right 
to  rule  was  based  on  their  wealth,  and  chief  amongst 
these  were  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam. 

The  people  of  Holland  closely  resembled  the 
English.  In  Holland,  as  in  England,  the  people  were 
righting  to  preserve  their  nationality  ;  in  both  lands 
there  were  more  Catholics  than  Protestants,  but 
difference  of  religion  did  not  affect  their  zeal  for  the 
national  cause.  Here,  however,  the  likeness  ceased. 
In  England  the  Queen  was  as  ardent  a  nationalist  as 
her  subjects.  In  Holland  the  mercantile  governing 
body  fought  Spain  in  order  to  carry  to  and  from  the 
East  and  West.  They  were,  many  of  them,  Jews  who 
had  been  driven  from  Spain  and  Portugal,  or  foreigners 
who  had  migrated  from  Antwerp.  Such  men  could 
have  little  sympathy  with  the  patriotic  hopes  and 
fears  of  the  Dutch.  Leicester  began  his  rule  by  for- 
bidding all  commercial  intercourse  between  the  Dutch 
and  Philip's  dominions.  He  had  no  wish  to  supply  the 
enemies  of  England  with  food  and  clothing  when  they 
could  be  starved  into  submission.  But  the  merchants 
claimed  the  right  of  trading  freely,  and  gladly  supplied 
the  Spaniards  with  all  they  were  ready  to  pay  for, 
even  with  powder  and  shot  to  be  used  against  the 
Dutch  and  their  English  allies.  After  wasting  his 
fortune  in  a  hopeless  struggle  with  the  merchants, 
Leicester  returned  to  England  in  August  1587  a  poor 
but  wiser  man.  Then  Maurice,  a  younger  son  of 
William  of  Orange,  at  the  age  of  twenty  commanded 


264    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Dutch  military  and  naval  forces  against  Parma,  the 
best  general  in  Europe. 

In  the  ports  of  Spain  and  Portugal  the  Invincible 
Armada  was  being  built,  and  in  the  Southern  Nether- 
lands Parma  was  collecting  men  and  transports,  buying 
what  he  needed  from  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam, 
that  he  might  be  ready  to  sail  for  England  when  the 
Armada  had  brushed  aside  the  Dutch  and  English 
fleets.  But  in  1587  Drake  sailed  from  England 
before  the  Armada  was  fully  equipped.  He  looked 
in  at  Cadiz  and  destroyed  all  the  shipping  which  failed 
to  escape  up  the  creeks.  He  found  Lisbon  too  strong  ; 
but  he  waited  outside  and  destroyed  coasting  vessels 
as  they  arrived  with  stores.  The  Armada  could  not 
sail  that  year,  and,  had  Drake  been  able  to  keep  the 
sea,  it  might  never  have  sailed.  But  his  ships  needed 
refitting,  so  Drake  returned  to  England  after  cap- 
turing an  East  Indiaman,  which  paid  for  the  expedi- 
tion. In  1588  Drake  was  kept  in  England,  because 
it  was  hoped  that  Philip  would  not  send  the  Armada 
after  his  fleet  had  been  crippled.  Nevertheless  the 
Armada  sailed. 

In  spite  of  the  gold  of  America,  Spain  was  poor, 
owing  to  a  fiscal  system  which  threw  the  whole  burden 
of  taxation  on  the  home  producer.  Neglect  of  the 
navy  had  given  Drake  the  opportunity  he  had  used 
so  well.  But  in  1588  nothing  was  spared.  It  was, 
however,  too  late.  An  English  navy  was  in  existence 
capable  of  guarding  England's  coasts.  The  Dutch 
ships  held  Parma  in  check,  whilst  the  English  harried 
the  Invincible  Armada.  Northwards  it  fled  in  con- 
fusion. One-third  of  the  ships,  battered  and  tempest- 


THE  ARMADA  265 

tossed,  found  their  way  to  Spain  round  the  north  of 
Scotland ;  the  shallows  and  the  storm  had  the  rest. 
England  and  Protestantism  were  saved. 

The  destruction  of  the  Armada  freed  Western 
Europe.  French  Nationalists,  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants, united  against  the  League.  During  the  last 
few  days  of  1588  the  Guises  were  murdered,  and  in 
April  1589  the  alliance  of  Henry  III.  and  Henry  of 
Navarre  was  publicly  announced.  The  League  held 
Paris,  and  Mayenne,  brother  of  the  murdered  Henry 
of  Guise,  took  over  the  command  of  the  pro-Spanish 
party.  Philip  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  conquer 
France.  Walloons  and  Flemings  were  sent  to  re- 
inforce the  army  of  the  League.  In  August  1589  the 
murder  of  the  Guises  was  avenged  by  a  friar  who 
stabbed  Henry  III.  Before  his  death  the  French 
King  acknowledged  Henry  of  Navarre  as  his  suc- 
cessor. In  March  1590  Henry  IV.  routed  the  army 
of  the  League  at  Ivry.  Philip  then  sent  Parma,  his 
best  general,  to  the  aid  of  his  allies,  whilst  England 
sent  reinforcements  for  the  Nationalists.  In  1592 
Parma's  health  failed,  and  he  returned  to  Flanders, 
where  he  died  before  the  end  of  the  year.  Then  the 
Leaguers  lost  heart.  Henry  IV.  was  reconciled  to  the 
Church  of  Rome,  French  Catholics  and  Protestants 
accepted  him  as  King,  and  the  French  wars  of  religion 
dwindled  into  ineffective  attempts  to  impede  the 
establishment  of  a  strong  national  government  in 
France. 

In  1587,  when  England  was  threatened  by  the 
Invincible  Armada,  Mary  of  Scotland  was  beheaded 
in  Fotheringay  Castle,  in  which  she  was  living  as  a 


266    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

State  prisoner.  It  was  nominally  on  her  behalf  that  the 
Armada  was  about  to  sail,  and  the  Catholic  plots  against 
Elizabeth's  life  had  as  their  object  the  placing  of 
Mary  on  the  thrones  of  England  and  Scotland.  After 
Mary's  death,  English  Catholics  realised  that  to 
oppose  Elizabeth  was  to  aid  Philip  in  his  attack  on 
English  nationality,  and,  in  spite  of  persecution,  the 
Catholics  in  England  were  loyal  to  their  native  land. 
James'  hesitation  disappeared  when  the  Armada  was 
defeated.  In  1589  he  married  the  Protestant  princess, 
Anne  of  Denmark,  and  the  movement  towards  the 
union  of  England  and  Scotland  continued  to  make 
headway. 

In  1580,  papal  soldiers,  subjects  of  Philip  of  Spain, 
landed  in  Ireland,  entrenched  themselves  at  Smer- 
wick,  and  encouraged  the  Earl  of  Desmond  to  rebel. 
When  this  rebellion  was  suppressed  half  a  million  acres 
in  Munster  were  forfeited  to  the  Crown,  and  an  attempt 
was  made  to  plant  English  settlers  on  the  confiscated 
lands.  Ten  years  earlier  the  Irish  Parliament  had 
passed  protective  measures  to  encourage  the  weaving 
of  linen  yarn  in  Ireland.  This  yarn  was  used  by 
weavers  in  Lancashire  and  Cheshire,  and  royal  letters 
patent  annulled  these  protective  statutes.  Thus, 
although  Ireland  was  treated  as  a  conquered  country, 
in  which  English  settlers  were  to  act  as  a  permanent 
self-supporting  garrison,  these  unpaid  soldiers  of 
England  were  denied  that  protection  which  their 
English  brethren  enjoyed.  This  economic  policy 
transformed  English  Protestants  into  Irish  Catholics, 
and  created  the  need  for  fresh  harryings  of  Ireland 
and  more  plantations,  which,  in  their  turn,  failed. 


THE  ARMADA  267 

The  settlers  retained  their  language,  and  in  English 
expressed  their  hatred  of  the  land  which  treated  them 
as  foreigners.  Disaffection  in  Ireland,  fostered  by 
Spain,  troubled  and  impoverished  England  during 
Elizabeth's  reign. 

The  decay  of  Spain  was  evident  to  all  except  the 
Spanish  after  the  destruction  of  the  Armada.  In 
spite  of  the  gold  of  America,  the  Spanish  policy  of 
neglecting  home  production  had  forced  Charles  V.  to 
regard  the  Low  Countries  as  the  financial  centre  of 
his  empire.  But  the  commerce  of  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands was  ruined  in  the  war.  The  great  seaport, 
Antwerp,  was  blocked  by  forts  built  by  the  Dutch  to 
command  the  waterway  to  the  sea,  and  England  was 
helping  to  strangle  Antwerp,  since  she  held  Flushing, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  waterway,  as  one  of  the  cautionary 
towns  given  as  pledges  for  the  expenses  incurred  when 
Leicester  was  sent  to  the  Netherlands.  Ostend  was 
held  by  the  Dutch.  When  the  Armada  sailed,  Dun- 
kirk, Nieuwport,  and  Sluys  were  the  only  ports  from 
which  Parma's  army  could  have  sailed  to  England, 
and  these  ports  were  of  little  or  no  value  when  the 
English  and  Dutch  held  command  of  the  sea.  Yet 
blind  to  their  weakness,  the  Spanish  continued  to 
believe  that  they  could  conquer  England. 

In  1589  Drake  sailed  south  to  detach  Portugal 
from  Spain.  Don  Antonio  was  to  have  been  made 
King  of  Portugal,  and,  in  return,  he  promised  that 
the  English  should  have  the  same  commercial  rights 
as  the  Portuguese  in  Portugal,  Brazil,  and  the  Indies. 
This  expedition  failed,  and  more  than  a  century  elapsed 
before  the  Methuen  treaty,  in  1703,  gave  English 


268    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

products  the  longed-for  preference  in  Portugal  and  her 
colonies.  Drake  and  Hawkins  died  in  1596  whilst 
they  were  engaged  in  their  favourite  work  of  pillaging 
the  Spanish  West  Indies ;  but  in  the  same  year 
Cadiz  was  also  pillaged  by  a  mixed  English  and  Dutch 
expedition.  With  this  destruction  of  Spanish  shipping 
Spain's  last  hope  of  invading  England  died.  Two 
years  later  Philip  II.  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Philip  III. 

Off  Lisbon,  in  1589,  Drake  captured  a  large  fleet 
of  Hanseatic  corn-ships  which  had  sailed  round  Scot- 
land to  avoid  English  ships  in  the  Channel.  The  corn 
was  confiscated  as  contraband  of  war,  and  Elizabeth 
refused  to  listen  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  mer- 
chants. The  Emperor  of  Germany  then  expelled 
English  merchants  from  his  dominions ;  but  the 
English  carried  on  a  contraband  trade  through  the 
Dutch  town  Middelburgh.  When  the  Hanseatic  mer- 
chants forbade  the  sale  of  corn  to  the  Dutch,  Elizabeth 
turned  the  Germans  out  of  the  Steelyard.  In  1599 
Emden  and  Stade  again  admitted  English  merchants, 
and  the  Hanseatic  League  was  hoping  to  settle  the 
dispute  by  negotiation  when  Elizabeth  died  in  1603. 
Ultimately  the  Germans  returned  to  their  Steelyard, 
but  as  unprivileged  foreigners  they  were  hencefor- 
ward of  little  account  in  England's  commerce. 

Although  the  Dutch  were  as  seriously  threatened 
as  the  English  by  the  Armada,  in  1589  the  English 
captured  Dutch  as  well  as  Hanseatic  ships  carrying 
corn  to  Spain,  and  the  States-General  asked  Elizabeth 
to  release  the  ships  and  corn.  They  urged  that  they 
depended  wholly  on  commerce,  and  that  the  merchants 


THE  ARMADA  269 

would  forsake  Amsterdam  if  their  trade  was  disturbed. 
The  Dutch  people  were  brave,  self-sacrificing,  and 
patriotic.  Their  sailors  were  in  no  way  inferior  to 
the  English.  But  the  Republics  were  ruled  by  mer- 
chants who  thought  only  of  buying  cheap  and  selling 
dear.  The  Dutch  employed  their  sailors  in  opening 
up  trading  stations  in  the  East  and  West,  whilst 
England  used  her  sea  power  to  found  colonies  and 
create  markets  for  her  products. 

When  the  Spanish  Netherlands  was  denied  access 
to  the  sea,  there  was  a  great  exodus  of  artisans  to 
England  and  to  Holland.  A  most  interesting  account 
of  the  effect  of  the  fiscal  systems  of  England  and  the 
Dutch  on  this  emigration  is  given  in  de  Witt's  "  Interest 
of  Holland."  When  Antwerp  was  taken,  "  that  City 
being  thus  wholly  shut  up  from  the  Sea,  and  the  King 
of  Spain  very  imprudently  neglecting  to  open  the 
Scheld,  being  desirous,  according  to  the  Maxims  of 
Monarchs,  to  weaken  that  strong  City,  which  he 
thought  too  powerful  for  him,  and  to  disperse  the 
Trafnck  over  his  many  other  Cities ;  he  bent  all  his 
Strength  against  the  Frontiers  of  Gelderland,  England, 
and  France,  whereby  the  Merchants  of  Antwerp  were 
necessitated  to  forsake  their  City,  and  consequently 
to  chuse  Amsterdam  to  settle  in,  which  before  the 
Troubles  was,  next  to  Antwerp,  the  greatest  Mer- 
cantile City  of  the  Netherlands.  For  when  we  rightly 
consider  the  innumerable  Inconveniences  found  in 
all  Islands,  and  especially  Northward,  by  reason  of 
Storms,  and  long  Winters,  in  the  Consumption  of 
Goods  bought,  and  the  necessary  Communication 
with  many  inland  Neighbours ;  every  one  may  easily 


270    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

imagine  why  the  Antwerpers  sat  not  down  in  the 
adjacent  Islands  of  Zeland  ;  and  besides,  neither  in 
France  nor  England  was  there  any  liberty  of  Religion, 
but  a  Monarchical  Government  in  both  with  high 
Duties  on  Goods  imported  and  exported." 

"  And  tho  the  Protestant  Merchants,  by  reason  of 
the  great  Peace,  and  good  situation  of  England,  would 
have  most  inclined  to  settle  there  ;  yet  were  they 
discouraged  from  coming  into  a  Country  where  there 
were  no  City  Excises  or  Imposts  on  Lands,  or  any  other 
Taxes  equally  charging  all,  whether  Inhabitants  or 
Strangers  ;  but  heavy  Taxes  and  Customs  laid  on  all 
Goods  imported  and  exported,  by  which  Foreigners 
and  their  Children  and  Grandchildren,  according  to 
the  Laws  of  the  Land,  must  pay  double  as  much  as 
the  natural  English  ;  yea  in  the  Subsidies  of  Parlia- 
ment, which  extend  to  perpetuity  on  Foreigners  and 
their  Children,  they  must  pay  double  Assessment: 
Besides  which  all  Strangers  are  excluded  from  their 
Guilds  and  Halls  of  Trade  and  Manufactures  ;  so  that 
none  have  the  Freedom  there  to  work,  either  as 
Journey-man,  or  Master-workman,  save  in  that 
whereof  the  Inhabitants  are  ignorant." 

"  And  all  these  Discouragements  were  also  for  the 
most  part  in  the  Eastern  Cities  "  (Hanse  towns) ;  "  yea 
in  England  as  well  as  in  the  Eastern  Cities,  a  Foreigner, 
tho  an  Inhabitant,  was  not  suffered  to  sell  to  any 
other  but  Citizens  ;  nor  to  sell  Wares  by  Retail,  or  for 
Consumption,  or  to  buy  any  sort  of  Goods  of  Strangers 
or  of  Inhabitants  that  are  Strangers,  neither  by 
Wholesale  nor  Retail :  All  which  made  them  think 
England  no  fit  place  to  settle  in.  ...  The  Flemish 


THE  ARMADA  271 

Fishing  also  fell  into  Holland  :  But  the  Manufactures 
were  thus  divided  ;  one  third  of  the  Dealers  and 
Weavers  of  Says,  Damask,  and  Stockings,  &c.,  went 
casually  into  England,  &c.,  because  that  Trade  was 
then  new  to  the  English,  and  therefore  under  no  Halls 
or  Guilds.  Another  great  part  of  them  went  to 
Leyden  ;  and  the  Traders  in  Linen  settled  mostly  at 
Haerlem.  But  there  was  still  a  great  number  of 
Traders  in  Manufactures  that  remained  in  Flanders 
and  Brabant :  For  seeing  those  Goods  were  continually 
sent  to  France  and  Germany  by  Land-carriage,  it  was 
impossible  for  us  to  prevent  it  by  our  Ships  of  War, 
or  any  other  Means  imaginable." 
An  old  rhyme  declares  that 

Hops,  Reformation,  Bays,  and  Beer 
Came  into  England  all  in  a  year. 

These  immigrant  weavers  of  says  and  bays  were 
Protestants  of  a  pronounced  type.  They  settled  in  the 
Eastern  Counties,  where  they  preached  their  gospel 
of  disunion  in  religion  and  politics  to  the  children  of 
those  who  had  been  dispossessed  by  enclosures  and 
massacred  in  Ket's  rebellion.  De  Witts  and  le  Bruns 
became  Whites  and  Browns  and  with  the  descendants 
of  the  old  Levellers  formed  the  English  Independents, 
who  half  a  century  after  Elizabeth's  death  temporarily 
abolished  royalty  in  England.  In  1593  the  danger 
to  English  nationality  was  recognised,  and  an  Act 
was  passed  imposing  exile  or  conformity  to  the  Church 
of  England  on  all  who  lived  in  England ;  but,  driven 
below  the  surface,  sectarianism  continued  to  increase. 

Lord  Burghley  continued  to  advise  Elizabeth  until 


272    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

his  death  in  1598,  when  his  place  was  filled  by  his 
son,  Sir  Robert  Cecil.  Burghley  was  opposed  by  the 
Queen's  favourite,  Leicester,  but  never  with  success. 
When  Leicester  died  in  1588,  the  Earl  of  Essex  and 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  became  the  favourites  of  Elizabeth. 
Essex  succeeded  to  Leicester's  feud  with  the  Cecils. 
Just  before  his  death  Burghley  wished  England  to 
make  peace  with  Spain  as  France  was  doing.  The 
English  merchants  feared  that  their  trade  would  suffer 
if  they  made  peace  with  Spain  whilst  the  Dutch 
were  forcibly  entering  Spain's  empire  oversea.  Essex 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  merchants,  and  attacked 
Burghley  with  such  violence  that  he  lost  Elizabeth's 
favour.  The  peace  party  was  defeated,  but  Essex 
accepted  the  Vice-royalty  of  Ireland,  hoping  to  re- 
instate himself  with  his  Queen,  He,  however,  failed 
in  Ireland,  and  after  a  prolonged  trial  was  deprived 
of  all  his  offices.  In  his  anger  Essex  asked  James  of 
Scotland  to  send  an  army  to  remove  Cecil  from  the 
Queen's  Council.  Detected  in  treason,  Essex  appealed 
in  vain  to  the  merchants  of  London  to  take  arms 
against  Cecil.  He  was  beheaded  in  1601.  Raleigh 
and  Cecil,  however,  remained  on  friendly  terms  until 
just  before  Elizabeth's  death. 


XXI 

TRADE  RIVALRY  BETWEEN   ENGLISH  AND   DUTCH 
1601-1623 

A  SERIOUS  constitutional  difficulty  was  created  when 
England's  foreign  trade  passed  into  English  hands. 
The  Crown  had  authority  over  foreign  merchants 
trading  in  England,  and  could  either  prohibit  or  im- 
pose duties  on  their  trade.  In  virtue  of  her  royal 
prerogative  Queen  Elizabeth  deprived  the  merchants 
of  the  Steelyard  of  their  privileges.  The  rights  of  the 
Crown  over  foreign  trade  conducted  by  Englishmen 
were  not  clearly  denned.  At  first  there  was  no 
practical  difficulty  in  this  uncertainty.  If  English 
merchants  evaded  an  imposition  or  restriction  they 
gained  an  advantage  over  their  foreign  competitors, 
and  when  the  English  Merchant  Adventurers  were  a 
feeble  folk  the  Crown  revenue  was  not  seriously 
affected.  But  when  foreign  trade  was  largely  con- 
ducted by  English  merchants,  the  Crown  had  to  choose 
between  surrendering  a  large  part  of  its  revenue  or 
asserting  its  right  to  impose  duties  on  foreign  trade 
whether  it  was  conducted  by  natives  or  aliens. 

This  difficulty  was  increased  by  the  rise  in  prices. 
The  ancient  customs,  from  which  the  Crown  had 
drawn  much  of  its  revenue,  were  satisfied  by  the 

T 


274    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

payment  of  fixed  sums  of  money  for  fixed  amounts  of 
goods.  When  goods  rose  in  value  and  money  fell 
the  Crown  suffered.  In  Elizabeth's  time  trouble  was 
staved  off  by  the  treasure  stolen  from  Spain  and  by 
the  sale  of  monopolies.  Nevertheless,  Elizabeth  was 
forced  to  alienate  a  large  part  of  her  Crown  lands  in 
order  to  obtain  funds  for  the  defence  of  England,  and 
her  successors  were  thus  driven  to  depend  upon  the 
customs  for  their  revenue.  Monopolies,  in  themselves, 
were  no  more  immoral  than  modern  patents.  To 
encourage  the  expenditure  of  capital  in  starting  new 
industries  or  in  diverting  old  industries  into  new 
channels,  exclusive  rights  of  manufacture  were  granted 
to  individuals  by  the  Crown.  In  the  same  way  mono- 
polies of  trade  in  different  parts  of  the  world  were 
given  to  chartered  associations  of  merchants  in  order 
that  they  might  arm  their  ships  and  defend  themselves 
without  leaning  upon  the  royal  navy.  The  expense 
of  policing  the  seas  could  not  have  been  borne  by  some 
merchants  if  others  might  trade  without  sharing  this 
expense.  Elizabeth's  last  Parliament,  in  1601,  was 
about  to  pass  an  Act  abolishing  monopolies  when 
the  Queen  announced  her  intention  of  cancelling  all 
monopolies  which  were  injurious  to  her  people. 

The  greatest  difficulty  which  the  Stuarts  had  to 
face  was,  however,  the  rapid  progress  made  by  Dutch 
merchants  in  the  race  for  wealth.  The  Dutch  mer- 
chants grew  rich  by  slipping  through  the  breach  in 
Spain's  monopoly  which  English  guns  had  made. 
They  founded  their  Eastern  empire  when  England 
was  fighting  Spain  in  order  that  no  new  Armada 
should  threaten  either  her  coasts  or  those  of  her  ally. 


DUTCH  TRADE  RIVALRY  275 

Pamphlet  literature  in  England  teemed  with  envy  of 
the  Dutch  and  suggestions  as  to  how  England  too 
could  become  wealthy.  In  observations  supposed  to 
have  been  presented  to  King  James  by  Raleigh,  stress 
is  laid  upon  the  small  customs  paid  by  Dutch  mer- 
chants. The  writer  argued  that,  although  English 
merchants  paid  eighteen  times  as  much  duty  as  Dutch 
merchants,  England  obtained  only  half  the  amount  of 
revenue  that  Holland  received.  He  urged  the  King  to 
make  full  use  of  the  alum  which  had  been  found  in 
England,  "  considering  that  God  hath  enabled,  and 
given  Your  Majesty,  power  to  advance  Dressing  and 
Dyeing  and  Transporting  of  all  your  Cloths  within  a 
Year  or  two  ;  I  speak  it  knowingly." 

James  acted  upon  the  suggestion  of  securing  the 
cloth-finishing  industry  for  England.  In  1609  the 
alum  industry  of  England  was  protected  against 
foreign  competition  and  grew  rapidly.  The  sale  of 
alum  was  also  made  a  royal  monopoly.  In  1614  the 
exportation  of  undressed  and  undyed  cloth  was  for- 
bidden, and  the  licence  of  the  Merchant  Adventurers 
to  export  such  cloth  was  revoked.  A  very  large 
number  of  Dutch  workers  were  employed  in  finishing 
English  cloth,  and  the  Dutch  retaliated  by  prohibiting 
the  importation  of  finished  cloth  from  England  and 
enlarging  their  weaving  industry.  This  commercial 
war  was  short-lived.  It  ended  in  a  compromise,  but 
victory  rested  with  the  English.  Their  cheap  alum 
and  cheap  cloth  gave  them  supremacy  in  every  process 
in  the  cloth-making  industry. 

The  paternal  government  of  the  first  Stuarts  pro- 
voked much  opposition  from  those  outside  the  circle 

T2 


276         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  beneficiaries.  In  James'  first  Parliament  a  measure 
granting  freedom  of  trade  was  carried  in  the  Commons 
but  thrown  out  by  the  Lords.  The  term  free  trade 
has,  however,  had  many  meanings.  To-day  it  means 
the  right  to  import  goods,  whether  they  are  raw 
materials  or  finished  manufactures,  without  payment 
of  duty.  In  the  reign  of  James  I.  it  could  also  mean 
either  the  abolition  of  the  exclusive  rights  of  the  com- 
panies, chartered  by  the  Tudors,  to  England's  foreign 
trade,  or  the  abolition  of  those  monopolies  which 
restricted  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  certain  articles 
to  privileged  individuals.  The  free-trade  measure 
which  was  defeated  in  James'  first  Parliament  was 
an  attack  on  the  chartered  trading  companies.  Better 
success  attended  the  attack  on  monopolies  in  1624. 
Then  monopolies  were  made  illegal  with  certain  excep- 
tions, such  as  saltpetre,  gunpowder,  cannon,  alum,  &c., 
which  were  regarded  as  beneficial  to  the  State.  New 
inventions  could  also  be  made  monopolies  for  fourteen 
years  by  royal  letters  patent,  and  the  trading  mono- 
polies of  the  chartered  companies  were  not  interfered 
with. 

The  abolition  of  monopolies,  except  new  patents, 
was  undoubtedly  a  wise  measure  ;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  monopolies  were  harmful  when  they  were 
introduced.  In  a  backward  country,  which  sought  to 
introduce  manufactures  from  abroad,  they  stimulated 
new  industries  just  as  the  granting  of  patents  stimu- 
lates new  inventions.  It  was  after  the  industries 
were  established  in  England  that  monopolies  became 
injurious  by  limiting  home  competition  and  produc- 
tion. Similarly,  when  policing  the  seas  was  beyond 


DUTCH  TRADE  RIVALRY  277 

the  power  of  England's  navy,  it  was  wise  to  restrict 
foreign  trade  to  large  corporations  who  could  afford  to 
send  fleets  of  armed  merchant  ships  to  foreign  lands. 
The  Dutch  were  building  up  a  great  foreign  trade  by 
means  of  companies  possessing  exclusive  rights,  and 
the  massacre  of  English  merchants  at  Amboina  by 
their  Dutch  rivals  in  1624  proved  that  the  time  had 
not  yet  arrived  when  treaties  or  agreements  could 
protect  the  weak  in  the  fierce  struggle  for  commerce. 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  English  and  Dutch 
merchants  invaded  the  Eastern  monopoly  of  the 
united  nations  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  early 
failures  of  individual  English  merchants  led  to  the 
formation  in  1600  of  the  English  East  India  Company. 
The  first  fleet  of  the  new  company  sailed  to  the  East 
in  1601.  It  traded  in  Sumatra,  established  a  factory 
in  Java,  captured  a  Portuguese  ship  in  the  Straits  of 
Malacca,  and  returned  with  a  valuable  cargo  of  pepper. 
In  1602  the  Dutch  founded  their  East  India  Company 
with  a  capital  nineteen  times  that  of  the  English 
company.  James,  in  1604,  made  peace  with  Spain, 
one  condition  being  that  the  English  might  trade 
where  they  had  traded  before  the  war.  This  was, 
however,  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  English 
might  trade  in  all  places  not  actually  occupied  by  the 
Spanish  or  Portuguese.  The  Dutch  continued  their 
war  with  Spain,  and  in  1615,  after  destroying  the 
Spanish  fleet,  began  to  create  a  colonial  empire  in  the 
Spice  Islands.  The  Dutch  were  unwilling  to  allow 
the  English  to  trade  in  colonies  whose  garrisons 
and  upkeep  were  paid  for  by  the  merchants  of  the 
Republic.  To  avert  a  threatened  Anglo-Dutch  war  in 


278    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  East  an  agreement  was  arrived  at  between  the 
Dutch  and  English  companies  in  1519.  But  arrange- 
ments made  in  Europe  were  disregarded  in  the  East. 
After  the  massacre  at  Amboina  England  failed  to  ob- 
tain reparation  from  Holland  and  the  English  ceased 
to  trade  in  the  Spice  Islands,  whilst  the  Dutch  colonial 
empire  and  trade  continued  to  increase. 

The  Dutch  visited  Japan  in  1609  and  established 
a  trading  settlement,  although  the  Japanese  forbade 
them  to  profess  Christianity  publicly.  Nearly  a 
century  earlier  the  Portuguese  had  visited  China  in 
1511,  and  in  1557  they  were  allowed  to  lease  Macao. 
In  1622  the  Dutch  attacked  Macao,  but  failed  to 
capture  it.  Then  they  established  themselves  in 
Formosa  and  used  every  means  to  obtain  a  footing  for 
trade  in  China.  That  two  Dutch  embassies  were  the 
only  European  envoys  who  kow-towed  to  the  Emperor 
of  China  is  characteristic  of  this  merchant  State, 
which  had  fought  for  freedom  from  Spanish  rule  only 
to  be  governed  by  cosmopolitan  merchants.  But  the 
vast  wealth  which  these  merchants  brought  to  Holland 
blinded  the  Dutch  to  every  other  consideration. 

After  the  massacre  at  Amboina  English  traders 
went  no  further  east  than  India  until  wars  with 
England  had  taught  the  Dutch  to  respect  Englishmen. 
Not  content  with  driving  English  traders  from  the 
Far  East,  the  Dutch  threatened  the  English  in  India 
and  the  Persian  Gulf,  where  Englishmen  had  acquired 
a  somewhat  precarious  footing.  On  his  accession 
James  I.  began  to  develop  his  policy  of  peace  with 
foreign  powers  and  consolidation  at  home.  Parlia- 
ment defeated  his  project  of  uniting  Great  Britain, 


DUTCH  TRADE  RIVALRY  279 

but  Ulster  was  planted  with  settlers  in  his  reign. 
Peace  was  made  with  Spain  in  1604,  and,  except  for 
the  unfortunate  expedition  to  Germany  just  before 
James'  death,  England  remained  at  peace  with  all 
men.  This  Anglo-Spanish  peace  gave  the  Dutch  an 
opportunity  which  they  seized.  As  enemies  of  Spain 
and  Portugal,  they  forcibly  penetrated  Portuguese 
possessions  in  the  East,  whilst  the  English  advanced 
cautiously  and  diplomatically.  The  Dutch  admiral, 
Heemskerk,  had  once  laboured  in  vain  to  find  a  North- 
East  passage  to  the  East  which  could  not  be  blocked 
by  Spain.  In  1607  the  Spanish  navy  was  anchored 
under  the  guns  of  Gibraltar  ready  to  intercept  Dutch 
traders.  A  Dutch  fleet  under  Heemskerk  attacked 
and  annihilated  the  Spaniards.  Like  Nelson,  Heems- 
kerk died  in  the  hour  of  victory,  but  his  life's  work 
was  accomplished.  The  way  to  the  East  was  wide 
open  for  the  Dutch,  and  in  1609  they  signed  a  twelve 
years'  truce  with  Spain. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  for  James'  peace  policy. 
England's  two  chief  competitors,  Spain  and  Holland, 
contained  within  themselves  germs  of  decay,  and  their 
doom  was  certain  without  England's  interference. 
Spain's  neglect  of  her  producers  and  her  reliance  on 
American  gold  were  busily  undermining  her  strength. 
Moriscos,  that  is  Moors,  who  had  embraced  Christianity 
and  remained  in  Spain,  were  keeping  scientific  agri- 
culture and  industry  alive  in  the  Peninsula.  Part  of 
the  American  gold  and  silver  remained  in  the  hands 
of  the  Moriscos  and  formed  a  store  of  capital  which 
Philip  II.  had  tapped  when  he  needed  money  for  his 
navies  and  his  cosmopolitan  schemes.  Oppressed  by 


280         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

this  heavy  taxation  and  by  their  Spanish  neighbours, 
who  envied  them  their  wealth,  the  Moriscos  had 
engaged  in  treasonable  correspondence  with  Elizabeth. 
James  forwarded  this  correspondence  to  Philip  III. 
as  a  peace  offering,  and  Spanish  consumers  in  1609 
drove  out  the  last  of  Spain's  producers.  Lord 
Burghley's  son,  Robert  Cecil,  was  the  King's  adviser. 
The  elder  Cecil  organised  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  ; 
the  younger  secured  that  Spain  should  never  again 
threaten  the  shores  of  England.  Robert  Cecil  had 
earned  the  dignity  of  Earl  of  Salisbury,  which  James 
conferred  upon  him  after  the  peace  with  Spain. 

During  the  twelve  years'  truce  with  Spain  the 
loose  federation,  called  the  Dutch  Republic,  disclosed 
its  weakness.  In  times  of  war  the  need  of  a  military 
leader  and  of  some  sort  of  national  union  was  felt, 
but  during  peace  there  was  nothing  to  curb  the 
despotic  power  of  the  wealthy  merchants.  Hence  the 
merchants  advocated  peace  at  any  price,  provided  their 
trade  was  not  affected,  whilst  a  large  section  of  the 
Dutch  realised  that  without  foreign  war  they  could 
never  gain  freedom  and  national  unity.  In  1609  the 
great  bank  of  Amsterdam  was  founded,  and  proved 
from  the  first  a  wonderful  success.  Their  skill  in 
finance  and  their  political  power  in  Holland  enabled 
the  merchants  to  bury  in  the  vaults  of  the  bank  the 
gold  and  silver  of  the  Dutch  as  well  as  the  specie  of 
foreigners.  An  old  writer  says  :  "  By  means  of  this 
bank  the  magistrates  of  Amsterdam  are  possessed  of 
the  bulk  of  the  property  of  their  inhabitants,  and 
thereby  have  the  strongest  security  for  their  fidelity." 
Holders  of  bank  paper  dared  not  oppose  those  who 


DUTCH  TRADE  RIVALRY  281 

held  the  bullion  which  gave  value  to  the  paper.  Though 
the  Dutch  army  was  largely  composed  of  foreign 
mercenaries,  the  Dutch  navy  was  manned  by  Dutch 
sailors  whose  courage  and  devotion  to  their  country 
prove  that  the  Netherlands  might  have  become  a 
united  nation  but  for  the  merchant  rulers. 

The  twelve  years'  truce  all  but  destroyed  the  Dutch 
federation.  Prince  Maurice,  son  of  William  of  Orange, 
was  Stadtholder  and  Captain-General  of  the  Republic. 
He  was  naturally  also  the  leader  of  the  unionist  party, 
and  as  long  as  war  with  Spain  was  necessary  to  the 
merchants  Maurice  and  Oldenbarneveldt,  the  spokes- 
man for  local  privileges,  worked  harmoniously  to- 
gether. When  Heemskerk  destroyed  the  navy  of 
Spain  and  made  the  way  to  the  East  safe  for  the 
merchants  Oldenbarneveldt  advocated  peace  with 
Spain.  Maurice  knew  the  danger  of  peace  and  opposed 
it.  In  the  end  a  truce  was  signed,  and  at  once  civil 
strife  began.  The  one  bond  of  union  which  the  Dutch 
possessed  was  their  orthodox  Calvinist  creed.  Though 
the  Netherlands  contained  a  large  number  of  Catholics 
and  Jews,  the  fact  that  Calvinism  was  the  State  religion 
in  all  the  provinces  tended  to  draw  these  provinces 
together.  In  the  seventeenth  century  political  differ- 
ences still  almost  invariably  disguised  themselves  as 
religious  quarrels.  Two  rival  sects  divided  Holland — 
Gomarists  and  Arminians.  The  former  advocated  the 
maintenance  of  the  Calvinist  creed  and  the  State 
Church,  the  latter  preached  a  more  liberal  faith  and 
religious  toleration. 

Oldenbarneveldt  led  the  Arminians  and  Maurice 
the  Gomarists,  though  they  took  little  or  no  interest 


282         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

in  the  theological  dispute.  The  Stadtholder  had  the 
support  of  the  army  and  thus  was  master  of  the 
situation.  Oldenbarneveldt  induced  the  province  of 
Holland  to  raise  a  separate  army,  and  but  for  Maurice's 
prompt  action  civil  war  would  have  ensued  between 
the  States  of  Holland  and  the  States-General  of 
all  the  provinces.  The  incipient  rebellion  was  not 
allowed  to  make  headway,  and  Oldenbarneveldt  was 
executed  as  a  traitor  to  the  Republic  in  1619.  But 
the  power  of  the  merchants  was  strong  enough  to 
prevent  national  union.  War  with  Spain  was  resumed 
in  1521,  and  the  Stadtholder's  attention  was  occupied 
with  the  defence  of  the  country.  Maurice  died  un- 
married in  1625,  and  his  brother  Henry  became  Stadt- 
holder. Until  his  death  in  1647  Henry  was,  like  his 
brother,  constantly  engaged  in  war  with  Spain. 

The  Dutch  exercised  a  far  greater  influence  over 
England's  home  and  foreign  policy  than  any  other 
foreigners  during  the  reigns  of  the  early  Stuarts. 
Spain  lost  strength  with  great  rapidity  after  the 
death  of  Philip  II.  France  increased  in  strength,  but 
it  was  long  before  she  recovered  from  her  disastrous 
wars  of  religion.  Germany  was  torn  asunder  by  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  which  destroyed  nearly  two-thirds 
of  her  population  and  left  her  a  mere  collection  of 
petty  disunited  States.  The  Dutch  alone  seemed  to  be 
gaming  from  the  misfortunes  of  their  neighbours,  and 
by  imitating  Dutch  methods  the  English  hoped  to 
obtain  a  share  of  Dutch  success.  Until  Charles  I. 
created  a  strong  navy  a  direct  attack  on  the  Dutch 
was  certain  to  end  in  failure.  Pending  the  creation  of 
a  navy  the  English  tried  to  copy  Dutch  ways.  The 


DUTCH  TRADE  RIVALRY  283 

English  merchants  became  Calvinistic  Puritans  and 
tried  to  destroy  the  royal  prerogative,  their  aim  being 
that  a  King  of  England  should  have  no  more  power 
than  a  Dutch  Stadtholder.  In  the  end  the  merchants 
failed,  but  their  folly  murdered  their  King  and  gave 
England  the  terrible  Commonwealth. 

It  was  not  until  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign  that 
the  friendship  which  united  Cecil  and  Raleigh  ceased. 
Both  men  corresponded  secretly  with  James  before  his 
accession,  and  Cecil  was  preferred  to  Raleigh.  Whilst 
Raleigh  urged  the  King  to  imitate  the  Dutch  by 
continuing  the  war  with  Spain  and  transforming 
England  into  a  "  State-merchant,"  Cecil  advised  peace 
with  Spain  and  the  continuance  of  the  policy  of 
developing  English  production.  Raleigh  also  wished 
to  foster  English  industry,  but  he  appears  to  have 
failed  to  realise  that  a  Dutch  State-merchant  would 
prove  fatal  to  England's  protective  system.  Defeated 
in  his  contest  with  Cecil,  Raleigh  engaged  in  intrigues 
which  were  pronounced  treasonable.  He  was,  however, 
reprieved  on  the  scaffold,  and  sent  to  honourable 
confinement  in  the  Tower.  During  his  trial  the 
attorney  for  the  Crown,  Sir  Edward  Coke,  earned 
an  unpleasant  reputation  by  his  bitter  attack  upon 
a  prisoner  who  was  fighting  for  life.  In  time  the 
unscrupulous  Crown  advocate  became  an  equally 
unscrupulous  opponent  of  the  Crown.  In  1604  peace 
was  made  with  Spain,  and  Cecil  became  Lord  Salisbury. 

James  began  his  reign  by  trying  to  establish  not 
only  peace  but  religious  toleration.  He  proposed  a 
concordat  with  the  Pope  by  which  Catholics  should 
enjoy  toleration  on  condition  of  their  being  excom- 


284    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

municated  if  they  acted  so  as  to  endanger  the  State. 
When  his  proposal  was  rejected,  to  conciliate  English 
Protestants  James  banished  Catholic  priests.  Then 
followed  Gunpowder  Plot ;  and,  instead  of  Parliament, 
toleration  for  Catholics  was  blown  to  the  winds. 
James'  first  Parliament,  which  met  in  1604,  contained 
a  majority  of  Puritans  who  still  conformed  to  the 
Church  of  England,  hoping  to  change  it  from  within. 
James  probably  saw  that  Dutch  political  disunion  lay 
behind  English  puritanism,  since  he  continued  Eliza- 
beth's policy  of  insisting  upon  conformity  and  epito- 
mised his  views  in  the  statement :  "  Nobishop,  no  King." 
It  is  almost  certain  that  the  great  majority  of  English- 
men would  have  supported  the  King,  although  the 
majority  in  Parliament  opposed  him.  The  forty- 
shilling  franchise  and  the  enclosures  had  limited  the 
number  of  electors  in  the  counties,  and  in  the  towns 
close  corporations  had  so  restricted  the  franchise  that 
borough  members  represented  the  merchants  in  much 
the  same  way  as  delegates  to  the  States  represented 
the  merchants  of  Holland.  When  they  shelved  James* 
scheme  for  the  union  of  England  and  Scotland,  members 
of  the  English  Parliament  proved  that  they  were 
not  out  of  sympathy  with  the  Dutch  particularist 
and  mercantile  policy.  They  had  no  wish  to  share 
England's  trade  with  the  Scotch. 

When  Church  lands  were  confiscated  and  common 
lands  enclosed,  something  was  done  to  protect  the 
poor,  who  had  been  fed  by  the  monks.  The  lands 
were  sold  at  low  rates,  subject  to  heavy  fines  if  the 
poor  were  neglected  by  the  new  owners.  This  condi- 
tion of  sale  was,  however,  systematically  disregarded. 


DUTCH  TRADE  RIVALRY  285 

In  the  first  year  of  Edward  VI.  Parliament  passed  a 
savage  Act,  punishing  those  who  did  no  work  for  three 
consecutive  days  with  branding  and  slavery  for  two 
years.  The  Act  ends  with  a  pious  hope  that  the 
unemployed,  who  were  too  infirm  for  work,  would  be 
cared  for  by  the  localities  in  which  they  were  born  or 
were  residing.  Another  ineffectual  Act  for  relieving 
the  poor  was  passed  in  1555.  In  1572  a  poor-rate  was 
first  sanctioned  by  Parliament,  and  in  1597  and  1601 
the  system  of  official  poor  relief  was  definitely  organised. 

In  1589  an  Act  was  passed  forbidding  the  build- 
ing of  cottages  without  the  provision  of  at  least  four 
acres  of  land  to  each  cottage.  Nevertheless,  the 
vicious  system  of  enclosing  common  lands,  which  had 
made  these  laws  necessary,  was  continued.  In  1607 
the  peasants  rose  in  the  Midland  Counties ;  Levellers 
were  soon  busy  destroying  the  fences  which  excluded 
the  poor  from  the  common  lands;  and  it  seemed  as 
if  Ket's  rebellion  would  be  repeated.  But  Govern- 
ment acted  promptly.  The  revolt  was  suppressed, 
not  without  bloodshed  and  executions.  Once  more 
dragon's  teeth  were  sown  from  which  should  spring 
those  armed  men  who  surrounded  the  scaffold  at 
Whitehall  when  James'  innocent  son  was  publicly 
murdered. 

Some  attempt  was  apparently  made  in  the  reign 
of  James  I.  to  enforce  the  obligation  which  the  buyers 
of  Church  lands  had  accepted  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
As  the  holders  of  Church  lands  had  incurred  a  penalty 
of  61.  135.  4^.  for  each  month  of  their  neglect,  their 
lands  might  have  been  forfeited  to  the  Crown.  But 
this  was  too  bold  a  step  for  James  to  take  in  the 


286    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

teeth  of  a  Parliament  which  had  made  him  feel  its 
power.  He  therefore  acceded  to  the  request  of  his 
Parliament  and  remitted  the  penalty  in  1623.  This 
incident  illustrates  the  difficulties  which  the  early 
Stuarts  had  to  face.  They  repeatedly  tried  to  act  in 
the  interests  of  the  people  ;  they  were  thwarted  at 
every  turn  by  Parliaments  elected  by  the  wealthy.  On 
the  scaffold  Charles  I.  proclaimed  that  he  died  a 
"  martyr  for  the  people,"  and  he  was  justified  in  making 
this  claim.  The  sufferings  endured  by  all  under  the 
Commonwealth  were  required  to  teach  the  rich  in 
England  that  they,  too,  would  suffer  if  they  neglected 
the  English  poor. 


XXII 

RELIGIOUS  CONTENTIONS   IN   ENGLAND  AND   HER 

COLONIES 

1604-1623 

IN  1606  a  merchant,  John  Bates,  refused  to  pay  a  duty 
on  currants  which  had  been  imposed  by  the  Crown 
before  the  accession  of  James  I.  Bates  pleaded  that 
the  imposition  was  illegal  because  it  had  not  been 
sanctioned  by  Parliament.  The  case  was  exhaustively 
argued  in  the  Exchequer  Chamber,  and  the  judges, 
after  the  most  careful  consideration,  found  for  the 
Crown.  Recent  research  has  proved  that  in  this 
judgment  there  was  no  straining  of  the  constitution  or 
law  of  England.  The  scale  of  tariffs  was  then  revised 
by  Lord  Salisbury  with  that  moderation  which  was 
a  characteristic  of  the  Cecils.  The  royal  revenue 
derived  only  a  small  benefit,  but  the  decision  was  a 
severe  blow  to  the  Puritan  merchants  who  wished  to 
imitate  the  Dutch  free-traders.  The  judicial  decision 
was  attacked  in  Parliament.  That  the  House  of 
Commons  is  not  a  good  court  of  appeal  was  then 
illustrated.  In  order  to  support  their  case  free- 
traders treated  "Detallagio  non  concedendo,"  a  para- 
graph written  by  a  monkish  historian,  as  a  statute  of 
the  realm.  For  centuries  this  fiction  was  believed  by 


288    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Englishmen.  Thus  Carlyle  could  write :  "  Custom- 
house Duties,  a  constant  subject  of  quarrel  between 
Charles  and  his  Parliaments  hitherto,  had  again  been 
levied  without  parliamentary  consent ;  in  the  teeth  of 
old  '  Tallagio  non  concedendo '  ..."  Ignorance  of  this 
kind  has  led  the  English  to  label  the  early  Stuarts  as 
tyrants  and  their  judges  as  venal  sycophants. 

Judges,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  still  regarded 
fees  paid  them  by  suitors  as  perquisites  which  they 
could  accept  without  shame,  though  they  could  not 
openly  defend  their  practice.  The  difficulty  of  settling 
the  quarrel  between  King  and  Parliament  which 
had  begun  was  complicated  by  the  absence  of  an 
impartial  judicial  body  to  whom  disputes  could  be 
referred.  But  the  royalist  lawyers  were  no  more 
corrupt  than  those  who  opposed  the  Crown.  Coke 
was  made  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas  in  1606. 
Unscrupulous  and  ambitious,  he  tried  to  make  the 
court  over  which  he  presided  the  supreme  tribunal  in 
England.  The  administration  of  the  navy  had  be- 
come hopelessly  corrupt.  A  commission  appointed  by 
the  Crown  to  reform  the  administration  and  punish 
offenders  was  obstructed  in  1613  by  lawyers  who 
supported  the  pretensions  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas.  Coke,  himself,  interfered  in  1615  on  behalf  of 
swindlers  whose  victims  had  obtained  from  Chancery 
the  justice  denied  them  by  Common  Law.  Coke  was 
dismissed  in  1616,  and  after  vainly  trying  to  regain 
royal  favour  by  marrying  his  daughter  to  the  brother 
of  the  King's  favourite,  Buckingham,  the  ex- judge 
obtained  a  seat  in  Parliament  where  he  led  the  oppo- 
sition to  the  Crown.  In  1621  Coke  avenged  himself 


RELIGIOUS  CONTENTIONS  289 

on  his  old  adversary,  then  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon, 
when  Parliament  insisted  on  Bacon's  dismissal  for 
having  accepted  money  from  suitors. 

Salisbury,  in  1610,  tried  to  reconcile  King  and 
Parliament  by  making  the  Great  Contract.  This 
provided  that  the  King  should  abandon  his  feudal 
rights  in  return  for  a  permanent  grant  of  200,ooo/.  a 
year,  and  that  Parliament  should  assent  to  certain 
fixed  tariffs  whilst  the  Crown  agreed  to  levy  no  new 
customs  without  consent  of  Parliament.  This  settle- 
ment was  all  but  effected  when,  after  consulting 
their  constituents,  the  Commons  refused  to  grant  the 
20O,ooo/.  In  1611  James  dissolved  his  first  Parliament, 
which  had  prevented  the  union  of  England  and  Scot- 
land and  the  peaceful  establishment  of  constitutional 
monarchy. 

To  Parliaments,  in  which  the  Commons  claimed 
the  right  of  overruling  judicial  decisions  and  exercising 
the  functions  of  a  court  of  law,  Churchmen  replied  by 
asserting  that  kings  governed  by  divine  right  and  that 
all  resistance  to  their  authority  was  sinful.  The  King's 
earnest  desire  for  peace  made  him  advocate  a  com- 
promise between  these  extreme  theories.  It  also  led 
him  to  believe  that  he  could  mediate  between  the 
Catholics  and  Protestants  of  the  Continent  who  were 
drifting  towards  the  terrible  Thirty  Years'  War.  To 
obtain  influence  over  both  sides  James  married  his 
daughter,  in  1613,  to  the  Elector  Palatine,  leader  of 
the  German  Protestants,  and  at  the  same  time,  in 
opposition  to  Salisbury's  advice,  the  King  commenced 
negotiations  for  the  betrothal  of  Henry,  Prince  of 
Wales,  to  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  Spain.  Both 

u 


2QO    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Salisbury  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  died  in  1512,  but, 
regardless  of  Puritan  feeling,  James  continued  the 
negotiations  with  his  remaining  son,  Charles,  as  the 
prospective  bridegroom. 

The  large  dowry  promised  with  the  Spanish  bride 
also  attracted  James,  since  the  royal  income  was 
insufficient  even  in  times  of  peace.  The  maintenance 
of  an  efficient  navy  was  a  heavy  burden,  and  the  early 
Stuarts  tried  to  do  their  duty  in  this  matter  in  spite 
of  their  financial  difficulties.  For  a  short  while  Salis- 
bury's place  was  filled  by  Robert  Carr,  a  Scotchman, 
who  was  made  Earl  of  Somerset.  Somerset  married 
Lady  Essex,  the  divorced  wife  of  the  son  of  the  Lord 
Essex  who  was  executed  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  Lord 
and  Lady  Somerset  were  in  1616  found  guilty  of  a 
murder,  which  was  connected  with  the  divorce  pro- 
ceedings. They  were  pardoned  by  the  King,  but  were 
compelled  to  retire  from  court  life.  Somerset's  place 
as  royal  favourite  was  filled  by  George  Villiers,  who 
soon  afterwards  was  rapidly  advanced  to  the  dukedom 
of  Buckingham.  During  Somerset's  short  ascendancy 
Parliament  was  summoned,  but  it  refused  to  come  to 
any  agreement  with  the  King,  and  insisted  upon  dis- 
cussing religious  questions  and  custom-house  duties. 
This  Parliament,  called  the  Addled  Parliament,  was 
dissolved  without  transacting  any  business  or  granting 
supply. 

In  1616  the  royal  finance  was  in  such  a  condition 
that  the  Dutch  towns  which  England  had  held  since 
1585  were  restored  for  a  fraction  of  the  sum  for  which 
the  Republic  had  pledged  them.  In  this  year  also 
need  of  money  led  to  one  of  the  greatest  tragedies  of 


RELIGIOUS  CONTENTIONS  291 

this  reign.  It  was  almost  universally  believed  that  in 
Guiana,  the  no-man's-land  between  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese America,  there  were  gold  mines  richer  than  those 
of  Peru.  In  Elizabeth's  reign  Raleigh  had  attempted 
the  colonisation  of  Virginia,  and,  after  early  failures, 
the  colony  of  Virginia  was  proving  itself  a  success. 
At  a  later  period  Raleigh  had  sought  for  gold  in 
Guiana.  From  his  prison  in  the  Tower  Raleigh  asked 
the  King's  leave  to  be  allowed  once  again  to  seek  for 
the  fabled  gold  mines.  James  consulted  the  ambas- 
sador of  Spain  and  the  desired  permission  was  granted 
on  condition  that  the  search  for  the  gold  mines  should 
not  become  a  raid  on  Spanish  settlements.  The  con- 
dition was  broken,  and  whether  the  breach  was  or 
was  not  Raleigh's  fault  is  a  much  debated  question. 
In  any  case  on  Raleigh's  return  to  England  his  old 
sentence  was  revived,  and  he  was  beheaded  in  1618. 

In  1641  Lewes  Roberts  was  able  to  write  of  Man- 
chester as  the  seat  of  a  somewhat  important  cotton 
industry.  It  therefore  probably  began  in  the  early 
years  of  James'  reign.  Spinners  had  not  sufficient 
skill  to  spin  a  cotton  yarn  strong  enough  to  serve  as 
warp,  but  cotton  brought  from  Smyrna  to  London  by 
the  Levant  Company  formed  the  woof  of  the  fustian. 
It  was  to  protect  the  trade  of  the  Levant  Company 
from  their  Venetian  competitors  that  the  duty  on 
currants,  to  which  Bates  objected,  was  originally  im- 
posed. The  warp  of  the  fustian  was  of  linen  yarn 
grown  and  spun  by  the  settlers  who  were  planted  in 
Ulster,  when,  after  an  unsuccessful  rebellion,  Tyrone 
and  other  Irish  chiefs  were  driven  out  of  Ireland  in 
1607.  Before  the  end  of  the  century  Acts  of  Parlia- 

U2 


2Q2    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

ment  were  passed  to  stop  the  importation  of  foreign 
linen,  whilst  Irish  linen  was  admitted  duty  free.  This 
economic  bond  has  knit  Ulster  to  England,  though, 
in  the  past  the  Presbyterians  of  the  North  of  Ireland 
suffered  as  much  from  religious  intolerance  as  Catholics 
in  the  South. 

The  commencement  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in 
Germany  made  the  English  and  the  Dutch  anxious  to 
end  their  disputes  over  the  East  Indian  trade.  An 
Anglo-Dutch  commercial  treaty  of  1619  seemed  to 
settle  all  outstanding  differences,  and  to  enable  two 
Protestant  powers  to  unite  against  the  danger  which 
threatened  them.  But  the  question  at  issue  was  too 
important  to  be  peacefully  settled.  The  massacre  of 
Amboina  followed  in  1624,  and  in  the  end  the  sword 
decided  whether  England  or  Holland  should  be 
supreme  in  the  Asiatic  trade.  The  Dutch  renewed 
their  war  with  Spain  in  1621,  and  an  English  Parlia- 
ment was  assembled,  which  was  eager  to  join  their  old 
allies,  and  voted  subsidies  for  the  war.  The  King,  too, 
was  anxious  to  help  his  son-in-law,  the  Elector  Palatine, 
whose  lands  had  been  conquered,  but  James  believed 
that  he  could  effect  his  purpose  by  diplomatic  negotia- 
tion with  Spain.  In  return  for  the  subsidies  voted  by 
Parliament  the  King  did  not  interfere  to  save  Bacon 
when  he  was  dismissed,  but  Parliament  was  forbidden 
to  interfere  in  foreign  affairs  and  was  dissolved  in  1522. 

In  this  year  120  religious  enthusiasts,  who  had  been 
forced  to  find  refuge  in  Holland  during  Elizabeth's 
reign,  returned  to  Plymouth,  whence  they  sailed  in  the 
Mayflower  and  the  Speedwell  for  New  England.  They 
had  previously  obtained  the  King's  promise  that  they 


RELIGIOUS  CONTENTIONS  293 

might  worship  as  they  pleased  in  their  new  home. 
The  foundation  of  this  colony  ultimately  proved  far 
more  important  than  the  commercial  successes  of  the 
Dutch  which  caused  such  heartburnings  in  Jacobean 
England.  For  the  war,  which  recommenced  in  1621, 
like  all  Dutch  wars,  was  waged  in  the  interests 
of  trade.  About  this  time  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company  was  formed.  To  it  Dutch  settlements  in 
North  America  were  transferred  and  a  claim  was 
made  to  the  coast  from  the  Chesapeake  to  Newfound- 
land. The  Mayflower  pilgrims  were  thus  intruders  in 
lands  which  both  Spain  and  the  Republic  claimed. 
In  a  few  years  the  Dutch  became  masters  of  Brazil. 
Admiral  Hein  and  his  sailors  fought  as  bravely  as 
Dutchmen  did  in  the  days  of  Heemskerk.  But  the 
war  was  costly,  and  the  captured  Spanish  ships  barely 
sufficed  to  pay  expenses.  Hein's  exploits  met  with  no 
recognition  until  in  1628  he  captured  a  Spanish  treasure 
fleet  and  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  paid  a  50-per- 
cent, dividend.  Hein's  astonishment  at  the  honours 
which  were  then  showered  upon  him  shows  how 
unable  Dutch  seamen  were  to  understand  the  minds 
of  their  mercantile  rulers. 

To  the  Dutch  colonies  traders  went  to  buy  cheap 
and  sell  dear ;  to  the  English  colonies  settlers  emigrated 
who  intended  to  build  homes.  Joint-stock  companies 
organised  English  emigration,  but  from  the  first  the 
settlers  managed  their  own  affairs,  and  before  long  the 
Crown  acquired  the  shareholders'  rights.  In  this  way 
New  Englands  grew  oversea  where  Englishmen  were 
able  to  worship  as  they  pleased  under  the  aegis  of  a 
Motherland  which  was  ready  to  fight  for  them,  but 


294    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

left  them  free  to  govern  themselves.  England  was 
amply  repaid  by  the  economic  union  which  came 
from  the  political  connexion.  The  colonies  sent  home 
raw  materials  and  bought  English  manufactures. 
Experience  has  proved  the  wisdom  of  England's  policy, 
but  it  was  not  evident  to  Englishmen  in  the  reign  of 
the  first  Stuarts.  They  envied  the  Dutch  who  bought 
cheap,  sold  dear,  and  founded  no  colonies  in  the 
English  sense.  They  wondered  why  England  should 
found  colonies  in  order  "to  plant  tobacco  and  puri- 
tanism  only." 

James'  Spanish  policy  proved  a  failure.  In  1623 
Charles  and  Buckingham  went  in  disguise  to  the  court 
of  Spain  to  woo  the  Spanish  princess ;  but  Philip 
would  not  agree  to  be  neutral  in  the  war  between 
Protestantism  and  Catholicism,  and  there  was  great 
rejoicing  in  London  when  Charles  returned  empty- 
handed.  Parliament  was  again  summoned  in  1624. 
Charles  and  Buckingham  supported  the  popular  cry 
for  war  with  Spain  ;  but  the  King  was  unwilling  to 
abandon  his  Spanish  policy.  An  inadequate  supply 
was  granted,  which  was  more  than  swallowed  up  by 
the  dispatch  of  an  English  force  to  aid  the  Elector 
Palatine.  This  army  died  miserably  of  parliamentary 
niggardliness  and  disease  before  it  reached  Germany. 
The  Spanish  match  was  broken  off  and  Charles  was 
betrothed  to  Henrietta,  a  Catholic,  but  the  daughter 
of  the  ex-Huguenot  tolerant  Henry  of  Navarre.  War 
with  Spain  was,  however,  not  declared  when  James 
died  in  1625  and  Charles  succeeded  to  his  father's 
kingdom  and  his  father's  debts  and  difficulties. 

It  is  universally  admitted  that  Charles  in  his  private 


RELIGIOUS  CONTENTIONS  295 

life  set  an  excellent  example  to  his  subjects  and  to 
the  other  sovereigns  of  his  time,  that  he  was  sincerely 
religious,  and  that  he  spared  no  pains  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  work  as  King  of  England.  It  has  also 
become  customary  to  write  that,  owing  to  a  mysterious 
weakness  of  character,  Charles  was  the  cause  of  the 
Civil  War.  This  latter  fact,  although  often  stated 
as  an  axiomatic  truth,  is  in  reality  a  very  debatable 
question.  It  can  be  urged  that  a  stronger  or  more 
obstinate  King  would  have  been  faced  by  rebellious 
subjects  before  Charles  was,  and  that  his  character 
had  as  little  to  do  with  the  Civil  War  as  the  character 
of  the  baby  Prince  of  Orange,  who  was  deposed  by 
the  merchant  rulers  of  Holland  two  years  after  the 
execution  of  King  Charles. 

The  King  of  England  was  also  King  of  Scotland 
and  of  Ireland.  In  England  and  Scotland  a  large 
number  of  people  had  not  accepted  Elizabeth's  com- 
promise between  Catholicism  and  Calvinism,  and  still 
clung  to  their  ancient  creed.  These  were  especially 
numerous  in  the  country  districts.  But  the  majority, 
in  both  kingdoms,  had  accepted  the  separation  from 
Rome,  though  they  were  not  in  agreement  as  to  what 
was  the  best  national  creed.  Had  toleration  of 
religion  been  allowed  it  is  probable  that  in  Great 
Britain  the  mass  of  the  population  would  have  quietly 
accepted  the  Elizabethan  compromise  or  have  moved 
towards  a  new  union  with  Rome.  The  latter  alter- 
native was  greatly  dreaded  by  the  Calvinists  or 
Puritans.  These  Puritans  were  still  members  of  the 
Churches  of  England  and  Scotland.  They  regarded 
Rome  and  Spain  as  their  natural  enemies,  and  detested 


296    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

everything  that  remained  to  remind  them  of  their 
former  connexion  with  the  Catholic  Church,  They 
were  ready  to  tolerate  bishops  and  liturgies  if  the 
bishops  were  deprived  of  their  lands  and  their  power 
and  the  use  of  the  liturgy  was  made  optional. 

In  Scotland  the  Reformation  had  been  closely 
associated  with  the  unionist  cause.  In  1572  the 
Scotch  nobles,  who  were  as  independent  as  the  English 
nobles  had  been  before  the  War  of  the  Roses,  insisted 
upon  the  establishment  of  Episcopacy  in  Scotland 
in  order  that  the  bishops  might  have  some  legal  title 
to  hand  over  the  greater  part  of  their  revenues  to  the 
nobles  to  whom  they  owed  their  sees.  In  spite  of  the 
selfishness  of  the  merchants  in  the  English  Parliament, 
who  refused  commercial  and  political  union  with 
Scotland  from  unwillingness  to  share  their  foreign 
trade  with  the  Scotch,  James  induced  the  Scotch  Par- 
liament in  1521  to  sanction  the  Articles  of  Perth,  which 
lessened  the  difference  between  the  English  and  Scotch 
Churches ;  but  in  England  bishops  retained  their 
authority,  whilst  in  Scotland  their  authority  was 
overshadowed  by  that  of  the  General  Assembly. 
The  English  Puritans  had  theif  thoughts  fixed  on  the 
Dutch  Republic  rather  than  on  Scotland.  They  be- 
longed for  the  most  part  to  the  rich  English  middle 
class,  merchants  and  country  squires.  They  saw, 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  English  coast,  the  Dutch 
rapidly  making  fortunes  out  of  trade,  and  doing  this 
under  an  intolerant  Calvinistic  creed  and  an  oligarchic 
government  in  which  the  power  of  the  merchants  was 
greater  than  that  of  the  Stadtholder.  English  mer- 
chants wished  to  imitate  the  Dutch,  and  many  other 


RELIGIOUS   CONTENTIONS  297 

Englishmen  sympathised  with  their  wish.  Whatever 
may  have  been  true  of  the  bulk  of  the  English,  those 
who  had  the  franchise  were  largely  Puritan. 

There  was  in  Ireland  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  Catholics.  The  penal  laws  nominally  existed  in 
Ireland  as  well  as  Great  Britain,  but  they  could  not  be 
enforced,  and  the  Irish  Parliament  contained  as  many 
or  even  more  Catholics  than  Protestants.  In  France 
the  toleration  of  religion  granted  by  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  had  put  an  end  to  civil  strife.  Even  when 
the  King  of  France  broke  the  agreement  in  certain 
respects  there  was  no  general  rising,  but  isolated 
revolts,  as  at  La  Rochelle.  It  was,  therefore,  only 
natural  that  the  Stuarts  wished  to  unite  their  king- 
doms by  religious  toleration,  and  that  the  Puritans  of 
Parliament  opposed  a  policy  which  they  thought  would 
be  fatal  to  their  party  and  their  power. 

In  their  oversea  dominions  the  early  Stuarts  had 
an  opportunity  of  showing  England  the  benefits  of 
their  policy.  To  them  North  America  owes  the  founda- 
tion of  its  free  institutions  and  religious  toleration. 
Virginia  and  other  colonies  were  created  by  chartered 
companies  whose  shares  were  largely  held  by  members 
of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament.  The  Crown  retained 
the  right  of  rescinding  these  charters  if  the  companies 
failed  to  govern  wisely.  The  Virginia  Company  soon 
discovered  that  their  early  hope  of  large  dividends 
from  Virginian  gold  mines  was  a  dream  which  could 
never  be  realised.  To  obtain  dividends  for  their 
shareholders  the  merchants  oppressed  the  settlers, 
whose  complaints  were  carried  to  England.  Fearing 
that  James  would  rescind  their  charter  if  there  was  no 


298    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

reform,  the  merchants  in  1619  granted  a  charter  to 
the  settlers  by  which  they  were  allowed  self-govern- 
ment under  governors  appointed  by  the  company. 
Under  this  government  the  settlers  devoted  themselves 
to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  with  great  success. 
Suddenly,  in  1622,  the  colonists  were  attacked  by 
Indians  and  all  but  exterminated.  Then  the  settlers 
appealed  to  their  King  for  protection.  In  the  last 
year  of  James'  reign  the  Virginia  Company  was 
dissolved  and  Virginia  became  the  first  self-governing 
colony  under  the  Crown.  Her  staple  product, 
tobacco,  was  then  also  protected.  No  tobacco,  other 
than  Virginian,  was  allowed  to  enter  England  or 
Ireland,  and  the  growing  of  tobacco  in  England  or 
Ireland  was  forbidden. 

In  1620,  just  before  the  Mayflower  carried  the 
pilgrims  to  New  England,  James  incorporated  the  New 
England  Company.  The  headquarters  of  this  com- 
pany was  Plymouth,  and  it  replaced  an  older  West  of 
England  Company  which  had  unsuccessfully  competed 
with  the  London  Company  in  the  colonisation  of 
Virginia.  Although  Massachusetts  was  peopled  by 
Puritans,  who  in  England  were  undermining  the  royal 
power,  Charles  I.  gave  self-government  to  the  colony 
in  1629.  In  their  new  home  the  Puritans  were  able 
to  establish  a  theocracy  in  defiance  of  their  charter, 
which  plainly  gave  legislative  power  to  the  whole 
body  of  the  freemen.  When  a  body  of  settlers  uncon- 
nected with  the  Church  of  England  left  Massachusetts 
to  found  a  colony  in  Rhode  Island,  where  they  could 
have  democratic  government  and  freedom  of  con- 
science, they  received  from  Charles  a  patent  protecting 


RELIGIOUS  CONTENTIONS  299 

them  from  Puritan  oppression.  In  New  England 
those  who  stood  for  freedom  and  toleration  invariably 
looked  to  the  King  of  England. 

The  creation  of  the  self-governing  colony  of  Mary- 
land is  perhaps  the  most  striking  instance  of  Charles' 
desire  for  religious  toleration.  This  was  severed  from 
the  loyal  colony  of  Virginia  to  form  a  place  of  refuge 
for  English  Catholics  when  Parliament  insisted  on 
their  persecution.  Not  even  in  Rhode  Island  was 
there  such  perfect  freedom  from  religious  bigotry  as 
in  Maryland  until  England  had  lost  her  King.  Then 
for  a  short  while  Puritans  who  had  been  invited  to 
Maryland  by  their  Catholic  fellow-subjects  extinguished 
religious  freedom  by  force  of  arms.  Maryland  regained 
her  freedom  when  royalty  was  restored  in  England. 

During  the  last  few  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
although  the  Catholics  were  not  actively  persecuted 
in  Ireland,  a  subtle  attempt  was  made  to  impoverish 
the  native  Irish  by  the  issue  of  base  coin.  This  policy 
was,  however,  abandoned  immediately  after  the 
accession  of  James  I.  Sir  Arthur  Chichester  was 
appointed  Lord  Deputy  in  1604.  At  first  he  attempted 
to  force  the  Irish  Catholics  to  obey  the  law  and  attend 
services  in  the  Protestant  churches ;  but,  when  he 
found  that  persecution  was  likely  to  end  in  civil  war, 
Chichester  reverted  to  the  old  system  of  practical 
toleration.  The  old  Irish  land  system  was  socialistic. 
Land  was  held  by  an  individual  for  life  only.  When 
the  holder  of  land  died  the  chief  of  his  clan  had  power 
to  divide  it  between  the  members  of  the  clan.  Chichester 
attempted,  at  first  with  apparent  success,  to  substi- 
tute the  English  freehold  system  for  the  Irish  tenure. 


300    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

This  success  was  probably  due  to  the  decision  of  the 
English  Privy  Council  that  the  new  system  should  not 
be  made  an  excuse  for  alienating  land  from  the  Irish 
to  English  settlers,  but  that  the  freeholders  should  be 
Irish. 

The  introduction  of  the  English  land  system  struck 
a  fatal  blow  at  the  independence  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Irish  clans.  A  quarrel  ensued  between  an  Ulster 
chieftain  and  his  vassal.  They  were  finally  summoned 
to  argue  their  case  in  London.  This  invitation  was 
interpreted  by  the  chieftain  as  an  English  attempt 
to  secure  his  person,  and  he  and  a  fellow  chief  of  the 
North  fled  from  Ireland  never  to  return.  Nevertheless 
their  departure  was  followed  by  an  insurrection  in 
Ulster  which  was  suppressed  without  much  difficulty. 
This  revolt  was  followed  by  wholesale  confiscation  of 
land  and  the  planting  in  Ulster  of  settlers  from  England 
and  Scotland. 

The  English  thought  that  the  annexation  of  Ulster 
had  broken  the  power  of  the  Irish  Catholics  ;  but  they 
found  that  it  had  driven  the  loyal  Catholics  of  Anglo- 
Norman  descent  into  alliance  with  the  native  Irish. 
The  penal  laws  against  Catholics  could  not  be  enforced, 
although  attempts  were  made  not  only  to  enforce 
them  but  to  increase  their  severity.  The  recall  of 
Chichester  in  1615  was  followed  by  plantations  in 
various  parts  of  Ireland.  Under  the  new  English 
land  laws  it  was  easy  to  find  pretexts  for  dispossessing 
Irish  landowners.  Thus,  during  the  reign  of  James  I., 
discontent  in  Ireland  increased. 


XXIII 

CAUSES  WHICH   LED  TO  CIVIL  WAR 
1623-1629 

BEFORE  his  father's  death  Charles  had  gained  great 
popularity  with  Parliament  by  opposing  the  Spanish 
alliance.  Buckingham  shared  this  popularity  and 
Charles  made  him  his  chief  adviser,  but  their  short-lived 
popularity  vanished  when  Charles  became  King.  This 
was  inevitable.  Parliament  wished  to  gain  for  itself 
the  same  control  over  home  and  foreign  affairs  as  the 
Dutch  States-General  possessed.  On  the  other  hand 
the  King,  from  motives  which  were  not  altogether 
selfish,  objected  to  becoming  a  mere  Stadtholder.  For 
whilst  Parliament  was  formulating  its  extensive  claim 
it  was  proclaiming  its  incompetence  to  direct  foreign 
affairs  or  adequately  consider  the  interest  of  English 
workers. 

The  factor  which  dominated  the  whole  political 
situation  was  the  overwhelming  sea  power  of  the 
Dutch.  They  claimed  and  exercised  the  right  of  fish- 
ing off  the  coasts  of  England  as  if  they  belonged  to  the 
Republic.  When  James  prohibited  foreigners  from 
fishing  in  English  waters,  hoping  to  develop  an  English 
industry,  the  Dutch  sent  their  fishing  fleet  with  an 
armed  escort,  and  the  English  had  to  submit.  There 


302         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

was  only  one  remedy  for  this  trouble,  the  creation  of 
a  strong  navy.  Both  James  and  Charles  did  all  they 
could  to  create  this  navy,  but  their  efforts  were  largely 
neutralised  by  Parliament's  refusal  to  grant  the  neces- 
sary funds.  An  alliance  with  the  Dutch  and  a  mari- 
time struggle  with  Spain  would  have  led  to  the  same 
result  as  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  England  would  have 
shared  in  the  fighting,  and  the  Dutch  would  have 
monopolised  the  rewards  of  a  successful  war.  Yet 
this  was  the  course  advocated  by  Parliament. 

The  royal  policy  was  a  close  alliance  with  France 
and  friendship  with  the  Dutch  until  the  English  navy 
was  built.  As  a  condition  of  the  alliance  the  French 
demanded  that  English  Catholics  should  enjoy  the 
same  freedom  from  persecution  as  French  Protestants 
enjoyed  in  France.  Just  before  his  death  James 
signed  the  required  agreement  with  Louis  XIII.,  and 
the  penal  laws  were  suspended.  In  1625  Charles  was 
married  by  proxy  to  the  French  King's  sister  Hen- 
rietta, who  landed  in  England  a  week  before  Charles' 
first  Parliament  met.  Nine  months  earlier  Charles  and 
Buckingham  had  prevailed  upon  James  to  yield  to  the 
wishes  of  Parliament  and  break  with  Spain.  In  return 
Parliament  presented  the  King  with  a  colossal  pro- 
gramme for  the  war  and  an  inadequate  sum  of  money. 
Six  months  had  nearly  elapsed  since  an  English  force 
was  despatched  under  Mansfield  to  make  its  way  to 
Germany  through  the  Netherlands.  Owing  to  the 
poverty  of  the  Crown  this  force  was  dying  miserably 
of  starvation  and  disease  when  Charles'  first  Parlia- 
ment met. 

Charles  naturally  asked  Parliament  for  money  that 


CAUSES   WHICH  LED  TO  CIVIL   WAR    303 

he  might  carry  out  the  Parliamentary  programme. 
In  reply  a  ridiculously  insufficient  supply  was  voted, 
and  heedless  of  the  sufferings  of  the  English  soldiers  in 
the  Netherlands,  Parliament  began  to  discuss  griev- 
ances. One  grievance  was  the  suspension  of  the 
penal  laws ;  another  was  that  a  clergyman  named 
Montague  had  ventured  to  publish  a  book  advocating 
doctrines  held  to-day  by  moderate  high  Churchmen, 
and  pleading  that  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants 
were  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  Montague 
urged  that  Catholics  were  "  corrupt  and  unsound  in 
the  highest  degree,  but  not  utterly  apostate."  Charles 
protected  Montague  from  an  impeachment  threatened 
by  the  Commons  ;  but  the  King  had  to  promise  to 
persecute  Catholics.  Even  this  concession  failed  to 
induce  the  Commons  to  grant  supply,  and  in  1625 
Parliament  was  dissolved. 

Tunnage  and  poundage,  in  other  words  customs 
duties,  included  the  export  duties  on  English  products 
(once  chiefly  raw  wool,  by  this  time  manufactured 
cloth)  and  the  impositions  on  imported  goods  which  the 
Crown  levied  in  virtue  of  its  right  to  regulate  foreign 
trade.  At  the  commencement  of  a  reign,  tunnage  and 
poundage  were  usually  granted  to  the  King  for  life. 
The  grant  was  a  renewal  of  the  agreement  made  with 
Edward  I.  when  that  king  surrendered  his  right  of 
taking  an  arbitrary  prise  from  England's  exports. 
It  was  practically  a  charter  for  English  producers,  and 
no  English  king  had  ever  refused  to  ratify  this  ancient 
compact.  But  Charles'  first  Parliament  shelved  a  Bill 
which  would  have  sanctioned  tunnage  and  poundage 
for  one  year  only. 


304         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

The  shelving  of  this  Bill  was  a  declaration  of  war. 
From  the  reign  of  William  I.  until  James'  reign  the 
Crown  lands  had  been  steadily  alienated,  and  Charles 
could  only  count  on  a  slender  income  from  this  source. 
James  had  levied  certain  feudal  aids,  but  he  was 
obliged  to  make  a  moderate  use  of  this  ancient  pre- 
rogative. After  his  reign  no  king  ventured  to  claim 
these  aids.  The  sale  of  baronetcies,  which  replaced 
these  aids,  was  little  liked,  and  monopolies  had  been 
strictly  limited  in  1624.  If  Charles  had  abandoned 
his  right  to  levy  customs  duties  he  would  have  become 
not  a  constitutional  monarch  relying  on  his  people 
for  support,  but  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his  merchants. 
The  merchants  had  good  reasons  for  wishing  to  reduce 
the  royal  power  to  complete  insignificance.  Heavy 
fines  levied  on  wealthy  merchants  did  not  increase  their 
affection  for  the  King. 

The  great  trading  companies  existed  in  virtue  of 
charters  granted  by  the  King.  What  the  King  gave, 
the  King  could  take  away.  Thus  at  the  beginning  of 
James*  reign,  when  there  was  an  outcry  against  trading 
monopolies,  the  Levant  Company  had  to  surrender  its 
charter,  and  a  company  formed  to  trade  with  Spain  and 
Portugal  died  after  one  year's  existence.  When  the 
attack  on  monopolist  companies  failed  in  the  Parlia- 
ment of  1604  the  Levant  Company  regained  its  charter, 
and  many  new  companies  were  founded.  The  com- 
panies during  James'  reign  strengthened  their  influence 
over  Parliament  by  converting  associations  of  mer- 
chants into  joint  stock  companies.  A  very  large 
number  of  the  wealthy,  who  alone  had  votes,  were 
interested  on  the  side  of  the  merchants.  Before  its 


CAUSES   WHICH   LED   TO   CIVIL  WAR    305 

suppression  in  1624  the  stock  of  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany was  held  by  a  thousand  adventurers,  whilst  the 
number  of  electors  in  England  was  only  about  160,000. 
In  1604,  when  trading  monopolies  only  were  attacked, 
scarce  forty  votes  in  the  Commons  were  in  favour  of 
the  companies.  In  1624,  when  other  monopolies  were 
abolished,  trading  companies  were  excepted.  This 
illustrates  the  change  in  parliamentary  feeling  which 
had  taken  place  during  the  reign  of  James  I. 

The  suppression  of  the  Virginia  Company  at  the 
request  of  the  settlers  was  not  the  only  grievance  of 
which  stockholders  had  to  complain.  When  Parlia- 
ment tried  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany, and  James  took  the  matter  into  his  own  hands, 
there  were  those  who  muttered  "  that  any  other  business 
might  in  the  same  way  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
Parliament."  The  Dutch  seemed  to  be  about  to  found 
a  great  empire  in  Brazil.  Their  West  India  Company 
was  bidding  fair  to  be  as  great  a  success  as  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company.  English  merchants  could  con- 
trast this  with  the  strong  action  taken  by  James  in 
1620  to  prevent  an  English  company  from  provoking 
a  war  with  Spain  by  founding  colonies  on  the  Amazon. 
In  the  East,  as  in  the  West,  the  hopes  built  on  the 
agreement  with  the  Dutch  in  1619  were  shattered  by 
the  massacre  at  Amboina  in  1622,  and  England  dared 
not  provoke  the  Dutch  navy.  It  appeared  to  be 
England's  fate  to  feed  on  crumbs  which  fell  from  the 
Dutchman's  table,  and  even  these  crumbs  might  be 
swept  away  if  a  firm  Anglo-Dutch  alliance  was  not 
promptly  formed.  Hence  Parliament  was  indifferent 
when  its  action  against  Catholics  undermined  the  Anglo- 


306         THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

French  alliance,  and  Charles,  too,  found  in  fines  im- 
posed on  Catholics  some  slight  relief  from  his  financial 
troubles. 

Just  before  James'  death  arrangements  were  made 
for  the  despatch  of  a  great  fleet  to  Spain.  The  Dutch 
were  to  lend  England  twenty  ships,  and  in  order  to 
encourage  the  French  to  make  the  attack,  Buckingham 
promised  to  lend  these  and  twenty  other  English  ships 
to  the  King  of  France.  Before  the  fleet  was  ready  the 
Huguenots  of  La  Rochelle  were  in  revolt  because 
Louis  had  failed  to  destroy  a  fort  which  commanded 
the  harbour.  In  1625  Richelieu,  the  great  French 
minister,  persuaded  Buckingham  that  peace  was  about 
to  be  made  with  the  Huguenots,  and  one  English 
naval  ship  with  six  merchantmen  were  lent  to  France. 
They  were  then  manned  by  Frenchmen  and  used 
against  the  Huguenots.  This  happened  a  few  weeks 
after  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  and  was  used  to 
inflame  public  opinion  in  England  against  the  King's 
adviser,  Buckingham.  A  little  more  than  six  weeks 
later  an  expedition  to  Spain  proved  a  failure  owing 
to  the  treasonable  conduct  of  the  merchantmen 
attached  to  the  fleet.  This  also  became  a  grievance. 

Urgent  need  of  money  forced  Charles  to  summon 
his  second  Parliament  in  1626.  He  was  at  this  time 
trying  to  pledge  the  crown  jewels  with  the  merchants 
of  Amsterdam.  Four  sub-committees  were  soon  hard 
at  work  discussing  grievances.  The  failure  of  the 
Spanish  expedition,  due  to  inadequate  parliamentary 
supply  and  the  disaffection  of  the  merchants,  was 
one  grievance,  the  friction  with  France  caused  primarily 
by  Parliament's  insistence  on  the  persecution  of 


CAUSES   WHICH   LED  TO  CIVIL  WAR    307 

Catholics  was  another.  Montague's  pamphlet  and 
the  fact  that  Buckingham  controlled  the  Admiralty 
and  was  also  Master  of  the  Horse  and  Warden  of  the 
Cinque  Ports  engaged  the  attention  of  the  Commons. 
Last,  but  probably  not  least,  Buckingham  had  dared 
to  demand  and  obtain  from  the  East  India  Company 
certain  royal  dues  on  ships  which  had  been  captured  in 
the  East.  An  attack  on  Buckingham's  administration 
was  being  prepared  when  Charles  appealed  to  Parlia- 
ment to  give  him  supply  so  that  the  grievances  might 
be  prevented  and  redressed.  Supply  was,  however, 
not  granted,  and  the  Commons  threatened  to  call  the 
Custom  House  officers  to  account  unless  the  King 
surrendered  his  prerogative  by  asking  Parliament  for 
tunnage  and  poundage.  The  discord  between  Charles 
and  his  Parliament  increased.  The  Commons  im- 
peached Buckingham,  and  members  used  language 
which  threatened  the  King's  authority  and  the  life 
of  his  minister.  Two  of  the  more  violent  members 
were  imprisoned  and  then  released.  To  end  an  im- 
possible situation  Parliament  was  dissolved  in  June 
1626. 

The  action  of  Parliament  against  toleration  of 
Catholics  had  undermined  the  Anglo-French  alliance, 
and  whilst  Parliament  was  sitting  England  and  France 
were  on  the  verge  of  war.  These  strained  relations  were 
somewhat  inconsistently  made  one  of  Parliament's 
many  grievances.  French  ships  were  arrested  for 
carrying  contraband  of  war  to  the  Spanish.  This 
difficulty  might  have  been  overcome,  but  in  the  hope 
of  conciliating  his  Puritan  subjects,  Charles  prevented 
English  Catholics  from  attending  Mass  at  the  French 


3o8    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

embassy.  At  every  turn  Charles  was  confronted  by 
the  insuperable  difficulty  of  pleasing  both  his  Puritan 
subjects  and  his  Catholic  French  allies.  To  maintain 
England's  position  a  strong  navy  was  needed,  but 
Parliament  would  not  grant  supply.  At  war  with 
Spain  and  drifting  into  war  with  France,  Charles 
demanded  free  gifts  and  forced  loans,  thus  appealing 
"  from  a  faction  to  the  body  of  the  nation."  In  this 
matter  the  King  was  acting  illegally,  and  the  judges 
refused  to  support  him.  When  the  Chief  Justice  was 
replaced  by  one  whom  the  King  believed  to  be  more 
pliable,  Charles  refrained  from  asking  his  judges  to 
reverse  their  decision.  Those  who  refused  to  contri- 
bute to  the  loan  were  imprisoned.  An  application 
was  made  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  which  the  Crown 
answered  by  pleading  that  there  were  reasons  of  State 
preventing  the  immediate  disclosure  of  the  cause  for 
which  the  arrests  had  been  made.  The  judges  found 
that  this  answer  was  a  good  one  in  the  particular  case 
which  had  been  submitted  to  them*  There  were 
obviously  many  precedents  in  support  of  this  judicial 
decision.  Ship  money  was  levied  in  the  maritime 
counties,  and  precedents  for  this  tax  were  so  clear  that 
it  could  not  be  resisted.  The  building  of  a  royal  navy 
began,  and  England  was  soon  independent  of  the 
merchant  ships  which  had  failed  her  in  time  of  need. 

To  satisfy  the  Puritans  Charles  sent  his  wife's 
French  attendants  back  to  France.  English  merchant- 
men were  seized  by  the  French,  and  the  merchants 
clamoured  for  redress.  A  fleet  was  prepared  which 
swept  the  French  from  the  sea  and  sailed  to  relieve 
La  Rochelle.  Again  an  English  expedition  intended 


CAUSES  WHICH  LED  TO  CIVIL  WAR    309 

to  help  foreign  Protestants  was  wrecked  by  the  Puritans 
of  England.  On  their  way  to  the  coast  the  soldiers, 
lacking  pay  or  provisions,  were  forced  to  live  on  the 
farmers  with  whom  they  were  billeted.  This  became 
a  grievance.  Buckingham  led  the  expedition,  which 
all  but  proved  a  great  success.  Its  ultimate  failure 
and  the  loss  of  many  English  lives  were  undoubtedly 
due  to  lack  of  support  from  England.  No  one  has 
ventured  to  suggest  that  Charles  failed  to  aid  Bucking- 
ham for  any  other  reason  than  poverty.  To  obtain 
money  Parliament  was  summoned  in  1628. 

The  leader  of  Charles'  second  Parliament  was 
Eliot,  but  in  the  third  Parliament  Wentworth  took  the 
lead.  Under  their  new  leader  the  Commons  adopted 
a  more  conciliatory  attitude.  The  Petition  of  Right 
obtained  the  royal  assent  amidst  universal  rejoicing. 
The  King  agreed  that  "  no  man  hereafter  be  compelled 
to  make  or  yield  any  gift,  loan,  benevolence,  tax  or 
such  like  charge  without  common  consent  by  Act  of 
Parliament,"  that  arbitrary  imprisonment  should 
cease,  and  that  there  should  be  no  more  billeting  of 
soldiers  or  proclamations  of  martial  law.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  were  then  granted 
to  the  King,  and  constitutional  monarchy  might  have 
begun  in  England  but  for  Eliot  and  the  Puritans. 
This  was  not  the  ending  they  had  in  view. 

Two  days  after  the  King  had  assented  to  the 
Petition  of  Right  a  clergyman  named  Manwaring  was 
impeached  by  Pym  on  behalf  of  the  Commons.  Man- 
waring' s  offence  was  that  he  had  preached  in  favour 
of  the  King  and  had  published  his  sermon  after  ob- 
taining the  royal  licence.  The  Lords  inflicted  a  severe 


3io    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

sentence  and  Charles  pardoned  the  criminal.  Parlia- 
ment as  well  as  the  King  denied  the  right  of  free  speech 
to  opponents.  The  attack  on  Buckingham  was  re- 
newed ;  this  time  by  way  of  a  remonstrance  to  the 
King.  Ballads  were  circulated  denouncing  the  King's 
minister  as  luxurious,  incompetent,  and  immoral. 
The  effect  was  soon  seen  in  the  murder  of  a  Dr.  Lambe, 
a  quack  doctor,  who  had  been  consulted  by  Bucking- 
ham. The  London  mob,  as  they  battered  their  victim 
to  death,  said  that,  if  Buckingham  had  been  present, 
"  they  would  have  minced  his  flesh,  and  have  had 
every  one  a  bit  of  him."  Then  the  Commons  turned 
their  attention  to  tunnage  and  poundage  and  were 
promptly  prorogued. 

Eighteen  years  earlier  when  the  Great  Contract 
was  discussed  200,ooo/.  a  year  was  considered  a  fair 
equivalent  for  the  King's  prerogative  of  taxation. 
All  feudal  dues  and  other  taxes  were  abolished  by  the 
Petition  of  Right  in  return  for  one  payment  of 
350, oool.  "  It  is  as  certain  as  anything  can  well  be 
that,  either  because  they  did  not  wish  to  enhance  the 
difficulty  of  obtaining  a  satisfactory  answer  from  the 
King,  or  because  they  expected  to  gain  their  object 
in  another  way,  the  Commons  never  had  any  intention 
to  include  the  question  of  tunnage  and  poundage  in 
the  Petition  of  Right."  The  Customs  duties  amounted 
each  year  to  about  half  the  350,000^.  voted  by  the 
Commons.  It  is,  therefore,  absurd  to  suppose  that  the 
King  would  have  surrendered  this  annual  income  and 
limited  his  prerogative  for  so  paltry  a  sum.  Yet  the 
Commons,  within  a  few  days  of  the  royal  assent  to  the 
Petition  of  Right,  claimed  that  the  word  tax  in  the 


CAUSES   WHICH   LED  TO  CIVIL  WAR    311 

petition  meant  tariff.  When  the  Commons  adopted 
this  attitude  Wentworth  accepted  a  peerage  and  left 
the  House  which  he  had  ceased  to  direct. 

Whilst  Parliament  was  discussing  grievances  the 
citizens  of  La  Rochelle  were  dying  of  starvation.  With 
the  money  voted  by  Parliament  an  English  fleet  was 
hastily  prepared,  and  Buckingham  was  on  the  eve  of 
sailing  in  command  of  the  expedition  when  he  was 
murdered  at  Portsmouth.  The  murderer  was  treated 
as  a  hero,  and  the  fleet  sailed  under  a  new  commander. 
Off  La  Rochelle  the  royal  ships  were  unable  to  come  to 
close  quarters  owing  to  their  draught,  and  the  pressed 
merchantmen  refused  to  obey  orders.  In  October  1628 
La  Rochelle  surrendered.  Six  months  later  peace  was 
made  with  France  and  in  1630  with  Spain. 

The  second  session  of  Parliament  in  1629  was  made 
duller  by  the  murder  of  Buckingham,  but  there  were 
still  many  grievances,  religion  and  the  Customs  were 
the  chief.  In  this  Parliament  Cromwell  delivered  his 
first  speech.  He  mentioned  briefly  that  some  twelve 
years  before  1629  a  clergyman  preached  a  sermon 
which  a  Puritan  preacher  thought  was  in  favour  of 
papacy.  Cromwell's  Puritan  friend  preached  the  next 
sermon,  and,  in  spite  of  a  warning  from  the  bishop, 
denounced  his  brother  in  Christ.  Thereupon  the 
bishop  reprimanded  the  Puritan.  Here  was  clearly  a 
member  who  had  a  genius  for  discovering  grievances 
and  who  might  rise.  The  debates  on  religion  turned 
on  details  which  to-day  seem  too  trivial  to  engage  the 
attention  of  sensible  men,  but  they  must  have  em- 
bittered the  life  of  the  King.  On  tunnage  and  poundage 
the  views  of  the  members  were  quite  clear.  Just 


3i2    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

before  Parliament  was  dissolved  its  deliberations  were 
summed  up  in  the  following  resolutions  :  "  Whosoever 
shall  bring  in  innovation  in  religion,  or  by  favour  seek 
to  extend  or  introduce  Popery  or  Arminianism,  or 
other  opinions  disagreeing  from  the  true  and  orthodox 
Church,  shall  be  reputed  a  capital  enemy  to  this 
kingdom  and  commonwealth.  Whosoever  shall  counsel 
or  advise  the  taking  and  levying  of  tunnage  and 
poundage,  not  being  granted  by  Parliament,  or  shall 
be  an  actor  or  an  instrument  therein,  shall  be  likewise 
reputed  an  innovator  in  the  government,  and  a  capital 
enemy  to  this  kingdom  and  commonwealth.  If  any 
merchant  or  other  person  whatsoever  shall  volun- 
tarily yield  or  pay  the  said  subsidies  of  tunnage  and 
poundage  not  being  granted  by  Parliament,  he  shall 
likewise  be  reputed  a  betrayer  of  the  liberty  of  Eng- 
land, and  an  enemy  to  the  same."  This  was  Charles' 
reward  for  assenting  to  the  Petition  of  Right.  It  was 
eleven  years  before  Parliament  again  assembled. 

The  history  of  France  in  the  seventeenth  century 
forms  a  sharp  contrast  with  that  of  England  and 
Holland.  The  members  of  the  Commons  in  the 
French  States-General  were  largely  elected  by  the 
people,  or  Third  Estate,  and  not  by  a  privileged  class. 
In  many  communes  there  was  manhood  suffrage. 
The  French  people  had,  therefore,  an  articulate  voice, 
which  the  English  and  the  Dutch  did  not  possess. 
They  recognised  in  the  royal  power  the  factor  which 
not  only  made  for  national  unity  but  stood  between 
the  poor,  not  long  emancipated  from  serfdom,  and 
rich  magnates,  who  were  ready  to  take  advantage  of 
the  ignorance  and  weakness  of  the  mass  of  the  people. 


CAUSES  WHICH  LED  TO  CIVIL  WAR    313 

The  Third  Estate  was  the  chief  support  of  the  King 
in  the  long  struggle  which  reduced  the  feudal  princes 
to  subordination  to  the  central  power  of  the  Crown. 
In  France  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  were  at  first 
embraced  by  the  artisans  and  the  Third  Estate  advo- 
cated religious  toleration.  The  attitude  of  the  Third 
Estate  changed  when  aristocrats  accepted  Protes- 
tantism and  tried  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  undermining 
the  royal  power.  But,  whilst  the  majority  of  the 
French  people  opposed  Protestantism,  they  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  anti-nationalism  of  the  Guises. 
They  welcomed  the  extension  of  the  King's  authority 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  Under  this  King  France 
accepted  the  principle  of  religious  toleration ;  the 
movement  in  favour  of  union  with  Spain  was  crushed ; 
and,  taught  by  their  sufferings  in  the  civil  wars,  the 
French  learned  to  value  their  King  as  the  factor  which 
made  for  national  union  and  national  strength. 

Henry  IV.  repaid  his  subjects  by  fostering  home 
industry  and  colonial  enterprise.  The  policy  he  com- 
menced was  carried  on  by  his  successors  under  the 
guidance  of  Richelieu,  Mazarin,  and  Colbert.  England, 
the  most  dangerous  rival  of  the  French,  was  handi- 
capped by  the  fight  between  King  and  Parliament. 
When  the  struggle  was  over  in  England,  she  was  faced 
by  a  vigorous  producing  nation  with  whom  she  had 
to  fight  for  more  than  a  century  for  sea  power  and 
world  empire.  It  is  impossible  to  say  what  the  issue 
of  this  struggle  would  have  been  had  Louis  XIV.  con- 
tinued Henry's  policy  of  religious  toleration  and 
Louis'  descendants  been  faithful  to  the  protective 
system  perfected  by  Colbert.  '-In  1614  the  Third 


314    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Estate  of  France,  the  one  articulate  voice  of  the 
democracy  in  Western  Europe,  begged  the  King  to 
proclaim  as  the  fundamental  law  of  France  that  he 
was  an  absolute  monarch  and  that  there  was  no 
reason,  spiritual  or  temporal,  which  could  justify  re- 
sistance to  his  will.  After  this  act  of  abdication  the 
States-General  were  not  again  summoned  until  1789. 
In  1616  Richelieu  began  his  political  career  as  adviser 
to  the  Queen  Dowager,  who  was  acting  as  Regent  for 
Louis  XIII. 

One  of  Richelieu's  services  to  France  was  the 
creation  of  a  central  admiralty  to  replace  the  inde- 
pendent provincial  admiralties.  Whilst  England  en- 
gaged in  a  suicidal  civil  war  France  was  engaged 
in  the  problem  of  developing  production,  founding 
colonies,  and  creating  the  marine  which  should  bind 
the  colonist  to  the  home  producer.  The  conquest  of 
the  Huguenot  seaport  of  La  Rochelle  made  it  cer- 
tain that  the  New  France  which  was  being  founded 
in  Canada  should  be  Catholic  and  loyal.  The  con- 
duct of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  aided  Richelieu  in 
this  matter.  The  English  settlers  exterminated  the 
natives  and  Dutchmen  sold  firearms  to  the  Mohawks 
to  be  used  against  Catholic  Christian  tribes.  Both 
the  English  and  the  Dutch  bought  and  sold  African 
slaves.  But  the  Canadians  kept  themselves  free  from 
the  taint  of  slavery,  and,  in  advance  of  the  French 
settler,  missionaries  taught  the  Indians  the  Christian 
faith  and  built  chapels,  hospitals,  and  schools  in  which 
Indians  and  Frenchmen  were  treated  as  brothers  in 
Christ.  Loyalty,  freedom,  and  piety  were  the  charac- 
teristics of  Canada  from  the  very  first. 


CAUSES  WHICH   LED  TO  CIVIL  WAR    315 

The  growth  of  French  influence  in  North  America 
became  in  time  a  serious  danger  to  England's  colonies. 
North  America  might  have  been  French-speaking 
to-day  had  the  French  been  true  to  the  principles 
which  guided  them  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
inevitable  struggle  between  two  strong  nations  for 
supremacy  in  North  America  was,  after  many  years 
of  fighting,  decided  in  favour  of  the  English  more  by 
the  inability  of  the  French  to  understand  the  value 
of  Canada  than  by  the  power  of  the  sword.  But  for 
Charles'  early  Parliaments  this  struggle  need  never 
have  occurred.  When  Buckingham  was  failing  to 
relieve  La  Rochelle  the  English  in  America  were 
capturing  French  settlements,  and  before  the  end  of 
the  war  the  French  flag  almost  ceased  to  wave  in 
Canada.  As  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  peace  which 
the  opposition  of  Parliament  forced  Charles  to  make 
with  France,  Quebec  and  other  Canadian  settlements 
were  restored  to  the  French.  Not  until  1760,  when 
the  French  were  accepting  the  doctrines  of  laisser- 
faire,  was  Canada  again  part  of  the  British  Empire. 
It  is  difficult  to  over-estimate  the  gain  to  France 
and  the  loss  to  England  of  the  decades  of  English 
disloyalty,  of  civil  war,  and  of  Cromwell's  military 
usurpation. 


XXIV 

CONDITION  OF  THE   PEOPLE  UNDER  CHARLES  I. 
1625-1636 

DURING  the  Reformation  in  Scotland  the  nobles  had 
seized  the  revenues  of  the  Church.  Scotch  bishops 
and  clergy  depended  on  aristocratic  paymasters  for 
their  stipends.  James  I.  did  something  to  remedy 
this  grievance  by  securing  a  permanent  income  for  the 
clergy.  The  noble  owner  of  tithe  was  still,  however, 
able  to  oppress  the  tiller  of  the  soil  by  compelling  him 
"  to  keep  his  harvest  ungarnered  till  it  pleased  the  tithe 
owner  to  take  possession  of  his  share."  To  remedy 
this  and  other  evils,  in  1625  Charles  issued  an  Act  of 
Revocation  by  which  the  mass  of  Church  property 
in  the  hands  of  laymen  was  re-annexed  to  the  Crown, 
on  the  ground  of  technical  flaws  in  the  original  con- 
cessions. At  the  same  time  the  King  issued  a  pro- 
clamation explaining  that  he  did  not  intend  to  take 
full  advantage  of  the  Act.  This  was  followed  by  an 
arrangement  which  allowed  farmers  to  exchange  tithe 
for  a  rent-charge  or  extinguish  tithe  by  paying  nine 
years'  purchase.  Church  lands  were  left  in  the  hands 
of  the  nobles  in  return  for  certain  payments  to  the 
King.  This ' '  wise  and  beneficent  reform  gave  the  nobles 
a  legal  title  to  their  lands  in  return  for  their  payments 


THE  PEOPLE  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      317 

to  the  Crown  ;  the  poorer  clergy  received  increased 
stipends  ;  the  King  was  enabled  to  re-endow  bishops  ; 
and  the  farmers  could  reap  their  harvests  in  peace. 
But  the  nobles  objected  to  a  measure  which  deprived 
them  of  some  of  the  wealth  which  came  from  the 
stolen  lands,  and  they  feared  that  more  drastic  measures 
would  be  taken  against  them  at  some  future  time." 

A  conciliatory  policy  was  adopted  in  Ireland. 
Between  1626  and  1629,  after  much  discussion,  an 
arrangement  was  made  by  which  a  standing  army 
was  raised  and  paid  for  by  the  Irish  in  return  for 
concessions  or  Graces  granted  by  the  Crown.  These 
Graces  abolished  many,  but  not  all,  the  Catholic 
grievances,  gave  landowners  a  title  to  lands  which 
had  been  in  private  hands  for  sixty  years,  and  promised 
the  native  chiefs  of  Connaught,  where  the  English 
land  system  had  not  been  established,  a  confirmation 
of  their  estates  in  the  following  year.  In  Monaghan, 
Catholic  priests  tried  to  take  possession  of  their  con- 
fiscated churches ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  assume 
that  the  policy  of  conciliation  would  not  have  proved 
a  success  had  it  been  adhered  to.  A  loyal  Irish  army 
might  well  have  answered  the  hopes  of  its  creators  by 
defending  Ireland  from  Spanish  intrigues  and  attacks. 
Land-grabbing  wrecked  this  hopeful  scheme. 

The  sept  of  the  Byrnes  held  land  in  Wicklow  which 
officials  in  Dublin,  including  Lord  Deputy  Falkland, 
coveted.  The  Byrnes  had  been  guilty  of  turbulence 
and  outrages  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  ;  but,  after  the 
accession  of  James,  the  chief  of  the  Byrnes  had  induced 
his  sept  to  settle  down  to  a  regular  life.  Nevertheless, 
in  1623  Falkland  proposed  to  plant  Wicklow.  This 


3i8    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

proposal  was  vetoed  by  the  English  Government. 
In  1625  Falkland  reported  that  he  had  discovered  a 
conspiracy  in  which  the  Byrnes  were  involved.  Again 
the  English  Government  forbade  the  plantation. 
Three  years  later  the  chief  of  the  Byrnes  and  his  two 
sons  were  arrested.  Before  their  trial  Charles  inter- 
vened. A  Commission  was  appointed  to  sift  the 
evidence  against  the  Byrnes,  which  reported  that  the 
Byrnes,  instead  of  being  conspirators,  were  themselves 
the  victims  of  an  infamous  conspiracy.  Falkland 
resigned,  and  Viscount  Wentworth,  who  had  led  the 
opposition  to  the  King  in  Charles'  third  Parliament, 
became  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland. 

The  action  of  Parliament,  after  Charles'  acceptance 
of  the  Petition  of  Right,  caused  many  moderate 
parliamentarians  to  modify  their  views.  Those  who 
sought  to  establish  constitutional  monarchy  left  a 
party  which  aimed  at  making  Parliament  supreme 
and  reducing  the  power  of  the  King  to  that  of  a 
Stadtholder.  Prominent  amongst  these  new  royalists 
was  Wentworth,  a  commoner  of  ample  fortune,  like 
his  colleague,  Hampden,  who  with  Wentworth  and 
others  had  been  imprisoned  for  resisting  the  illegal 
forced  loan.  Wentworth's  action  was  not  inconsistent. 
He  had  objected  to  an  illegality  which  would  have 
increased  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown.  When  the 
King  admitted  his  error  by  accepting  the  Petition  of 
Right,  Wentworth,  not  inconsistently,  objected  to  the 
attempt  to  coerce  the  King  into  abandoning  his  legal 
right  to  tunnage  and  poundage,  without  which  the 
Crown  could  neither  defend  England  from  a  foreign 
foe  nor  maintain  law  and  order  in  the  British  Isles. 


THE  PEOPLE  UNDER  CHARLES  I.      319 

Wentworth  became  Viscount  Wentworth  and  Lord 
President  of  the  North.  In  counties  where  the 
tradition  of  feudal  independence  still  lingered,  Lord 
Wentworth  tried  to  establish  the  central  authority  of 
the  Crown,  not  without  making  enemies,  but  without 
exciting  serious  opposition.  Having  proved  his  capa- 
city in  the  Northern  Counties,  Wentworth  was  sent  to 
Ireland  in  1633  to  solve  the  problem  which  had  baffled 
his  predecessors  in  the  office  of  Lord  Deputy. 

Another  parliamentarian,  Noy,  was  made  Attorney- 
General  in  1631.  He  devoted  himself  to  discovering 
in  old  records  precedents  by  means  of  which  the  Crown 
could  obtain  the  national  revenue  which  Parliament 
declined  to  grant.  It  was  not  necessary  to  invent 
statutes,  such  as  "  De  Tallagio  nonconcedendo,"  to  prove 
that  the  rich  had  stolen  from  the  King  and  nation  vast 
areas  of  forest  lands.  Thus,  in  1634,  the  descendants 
of  those  who  had  stolen  forest  lands  were  forced  to  pay 
for  titles  to  their  estates.  Then  land-owning  magnates 
united  with  mercantile  magnates,  and,  like  his  ancestor, 
Edward  II.,  Charles  paid  with  his  life  for  his  attack 
on  those  who  held  the  stolen  lands. 

In  1633  Charles  was  crowned  at  Holyrood  after 
entering  Edinburgh  "  amidst  a  storm  of  loyal  welcome." 
But  the  Scotch  nobles  had  not  been  idle.  Whilst  the 
King  of  Scotland  held  his  court  near  London,  then  far 
distant  from  Scotland,  his  Scotch  nobles,  with  little 
fear  of  royal  interference,  could  influence  public 
opinion  in  Scotland  and  thus  secure  their  hold  over 
the  old  Church  lands.  To  have  servants  in  whom  he 
could  trust,  Charles  had  given  to  the  Scotch  bishops 
high  positions  in  the  government  of  Scotland.  Not 


320         THE  STRENGTH   OF   ENGLAND 

unnaturally  the  nobles  feared  that  the  bishops  would 
use  their  power  to  upset  the  compromise  which 
sanctioned  the  alienation  of  Church  lands.  The 
revival  of  the  royal  claim  to  the  forests  must  have 
filled  the  Scotch  nobles  with  forebodings.  If  ancient 
titles  to  land  could  be  disregarded  where  the  land  had 
been  stolen,  there  was  little  reason  to  hope  that  their 
titles  would  be  respected  if  an  inquiry  was  called  for. 
Thus  discontent  soon  developed  into  a  storm  which 
shattered  the  power  of  the  Crown. 

In  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  political  and 
economic  quarrels  were  disguised.  Naked  and  un- 
ashamed they  would  have  been  unable  to  involve  three 
kingdoms  in  civil  war  ;  but  when  those  who  were  about 
to  draw  the  sword  for  their  private  interests  repre- 
sented themselves  as  religious  enthusiasts  they  were 
able  to  enlist  in  their  ranks  some  of  the  noblest  minds. 
Milton,  after  much  hesitation,  definitely  adopted  the 
cause  of  Parliament ;  but  against  lofty  thinkers  such 
as  Milton  can  be  set  men  like  George  Herbert  and 
Nicholas  Ferrar,  who  worshipped  God  in  the  beauty  of 
holiness  and  followed  their  King  with  unswerving 
loyalty.  Modern  Englishmen,  nauseated  by  the  invec- 
tive which  Whig  historians  have  poured  upon  Charles' 
faithful  servants,  can  turn  for  relief  to  the  "  Memorials  " 
of  the  parliamentarian  lawyer,  Whitelock,  who  served 
Cromwell  during  his  usurpation  and  was  largely 
responsible  for  the  judicial  murder  of  Straff ord,  once 
the  Wentworth  who  helped  to  frame  the  Petition  of 
Right.  In  the  interests  of  his  cause  Whitelock  had 
slain  his  enemy,  but  he  was  too  generous  to  revile  a 
fallen  foe.  After  describing  the  scene  on  the  scaffold, 


THE  PEOPLE   UNDER   CHARLES   I.        321 

Whitelock  wrote  :  "  Thus  fell  this  Noble  Earl,  who  for 
his  natural  Parts  and  Abilities,  and  for  improvement 
of  knowledge  by  experience,  in  the  greatest  Affairs, 
for  wisdom,  faithfulness,  and  gallantry  of  mind,  hath 
left  few  behind  him,  that  may  be  ranked  with  him." 

Chief  amongst  those  who  have  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  Whig  historians  stands  Laud,  Bishop  of  London 
in  1628,  and  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  1633,  who 
was  Charles'  spiritual  and  political  guide  during 
the  King's  personal  reign.  Laud  and  Wentworth 
were  responsible  for  the  royal  policy  to  which  they 
gave  the  name  "  Thorough."  They  shared  the  honour 
of  martyrdom  by  Act  of  Parliament,  after  their 
enemies  had  vainly  tried  to  find  a  legal  pretext  for 
killing  them.  Briefly,  "  Thorough  "  consisted  in  ad- 
ministering the  law  with  absolute  fairness,  allowing 
the  rich  no  privileges  denied  to  the  poor,  in  substituting 
for  the  Stuart  policy  of  religious  toleration  the  repres- 
sion of  sedition  which  was  thinly  veiled  under  puri- 
tanism,  and  in  rigid  economy  at  home  so  that  England 
might  make  her  power  felt  abroad  whilst  the  King 
lived  of  his  own  until  such  time  as  Parliament  should 
agree  with  the  King  as  to  their  respective  rights.  In 
1629  peace  was  signed  with  France  and  Spain,  and 
under  Charles'  personal  rule  England  enjoyed  such 
prosperity  that,  but  for  the  Irish  and  the  Scotch, 
"  Thorough  "  might  well  have  been  a  success. 

In  Ireland  "  Thorough  "  partially  failed  because 
Wentworth  could  not  divest  himself  of  English  pre- 
judices. He  was  unable  to  regard  the  native  Catholics 
other  than  as  a  conquered  people  who  were  not  entitled 
to  the  even-handed  justice  which  was  necessary  for  the 

Y 


322    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

success  of  the  new  policy.  When  the  money  required 
for  the  Irish  army  was  granted,  no  more  Irish  Parlia- 
ments were  summoned,  and  the  promise  to  the  natives 
in  Connaught  was  not  fulfilled.  The  grants  had  been 
made  for  three  years,  and  this  period  was  about  to 
expire  when  Wentworth  landed  in  Ireland.  From 
the  Irish  Council  and  the  Catholic  landowners  he 
obtained  a  prolongation  of  the  Irish  contribution  for 
a  year.  Advantage  was  then  taken  of  the  strife 
between  Catholic  and  Protestant  in  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment of  1634,  and  Wentworth  obtained  the  money 
he  required,  whilst  he  omitted  from  the  Graces  the 
confirmation  of  estates  with  sixty  years'  title  and 
refused  to  fulfil  the  compact  with  the  landowners  of 
Connaught.  "  Thorough  "  in  Ireland  meant  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  King's  authority  and  of  English  rule 
in  every  province  ;  hence  Wentworth  claimed  Con- 
naught  for  the  Crown  and  proceeded  to  plant  it 
with  settlers.  This  alone  would  not  have  stirred 
England.  All  English  parties  regarded  the  native 
Irish  as  a  conquered  race,  and  cared  little  when 
promises  to  the  Irish  were  broken  and  Irish  lands 
were  given  to  English  settlers. 

But  the  establishment  of  royal  authority  in  Ireland 
involved  disputes  with  the  English  lords,  and  this 
was  remembered  against  Wentworth.  When  Ulster 
was  planted,  the  London  companies  had  obtained  the 
county  of  Londonderry  on  certain  conditions  which 
they  had  not  fulfilled.  The  Star  Chamber  forfeited 
these  lands  and  imposed  a  heavy  fine  in  1635.  Hence- 
forward Wentworth  could  count  upon  the  hostility 
of  the  merchants  of  London.  A  small,  but  well  paid 


THE   PEOPLE  UNDER   CHARLES  I.        323 

and  efficient,  army  was  raised  in  Ireland.  Supported 
by  this  disciplined  force  Wentworth  was  able  to  carry 
out  his  policy  in  the  teeth  of  the  opposition  of  the 
magnates.  The  established  Church  in  Ireland  had 
become  a  scandal.  Education  and  spiritual  work 
were  neglected.  As  in  Scotland,  the  property  of  the 
Church  was  passing  into  the  hands  of  wealthy  laymen, 
who  allowed  church  buildings  to  decay,  and  paid 
small  stipends  to  ministers.  When  Wentworth 
"  arrived  in  Ireland  he  found  that  one  of  the  Dublin 
churches  had  served  his  predecessor  for  a  stable,  that 
a  second  had  been  converted  into  a  dwelling-house, 
and  that  the  choir  of  a  third  was  used  as  a  tennis- 
court.  The  vaults  underneath  Christ  Church  were 
let  out  as  alehouses  and  tobacco  shops.  In  the  choir 
above,  the  communion  table,  standing  in  the  midst 
of  the  congregation,  had  become  an  ordinary  seat  for 
maids  and  apprentices."  Since  this  was  the  condition 
of  the  Church  in  Dublin  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Catholicism  and  Presbyterianism  were  the  principal 
spiritual  forces  in  Ireland.  Wentworth  did  excellent 
service  to  religion  by  reforming  the  Church  :  he 
marred  his  good  work  by  insisting  upon  conformity 
to  the  established  faith. 

In  Wentworth's  economic  policy  there  was  the 
same  success  and  failure.  The  Irish  Sea  was  infested 
by  privateers  flying  the  Spanish  flag  and  "  pirates  in 
all  but  name."  Wentworth  fitted  out  ships  and  cleared 
the  sea.  He  imported  flax  seed,  and  not  only  started 
the  linen  industry  of  Ulster,  but  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Lancashire  cotton  industry.  At  first,  English 
cotton  spinners  were  unable  to  spin  a  cotton  thread 

Y  2 


324    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

strong  enough  to  serve  as  warp.  In  1641  Lewes 
Roberts  wrote,  "  the  town  of  Manchester  buys  the 
linen  yarn  of  the  Irish  in  great  quantity,  and,  weaving 
it,  returns  the  same  again  in  linen  into  Ireland  to  sell. 
Neither  does  her  industry  rest  here,  for  they  buy 
cotton-wool  in  London  that  comes  first  from  Cyprus 
and  Smyrna,  and  work  the  same  into  fustians,  ver- 
milions, dimities,  &c.,  which  they  return  to  London, 
where  they  are  sold,  and  from  thence,  not  seldom,  are 
sent  into  such  foreign  parts  where  the  first  materials 
may  be  more  easily  had  for  that  manufacture." 

Wentworth  wished  to  establish  in  Ireland  not  only 
the  growing  of  flax  and  the  spinning  of  yarn  but  the 
final  weaving  of  linen  cloth.  When  he  went  to  London 
in  1636  to  answer  accusations  brought  against  him  by 
discontented  Irish  magnates,  he  told  the  Council  that 
he  had  imported  Dutch  weavers  as  well  as  Dutch  flax 
seed,  and  that  there  were  six  or  seven  looms  at  work  in 
Ulster.  But,  too  mindful  of  English  interests,  Went- 
worth discouraged  the  Irish  woollen  industry.  Thus 
Ulster  was  endowed  with  agriculture  and  manufactures, 
whilst  the  other  provinces  were  forced  to  subsist  on 
agriculture  alone.  After  the  Commonwealth  this 
became  the  settled  policy  of  England.  State  aid  was 
given  to  the  linen  industry  of  Ulster.  The  Lancashire 
fustian  industry  developed  into  the  Lancashire  cotton 
industry,  and  the  making  of  linen  was  left  to  the 
Irish  of  Ulster.  In  other  parts  of  Ireland  manufactures 
were  strangled  in  the  interests  of  English  manufacturers. 
Both  Catholics  and  Presbyterians  were  persecuted,  but 
the  economic  bond  kept  Ulster  loyal  to  England 
whilst  the  Catholics  of  the  other  province  became 


THE  PEOPLE  UNDER  CHARLES   I.        325 

England's  foes.  But  all  this  was  not  foreseen  in 
Wentworth's  time.  He  had  done  one  great  service  in 
lessening  the  power  of  the  magnates,  and  the  poor  were 
glad  because  the  power  of  the  Crown  stood  between 
them  and  oppression.  In  the  summer  of  1637  Went- 
worth  was  greeted  with  every  mark  of  affection  when 
he  paid  a  visit  to  the  South  of  Ireland. 

In  England  Archbishop  Laud  was  doing  much  the 
same  work  as  Wentworth  in  Ireland.  Abbot,  his 
predecessor  in  the  see  of  Canterbury,  had  been  a 
Puritan  Calvinist,  who  "considered  Christian  religion 
no  otherwise  than  as  it  abhorred  and  reviled  Popery,  and 
valued  those  men  most  who  did  that  most  furiously." 
"  The  remissness  of  Abbot,  and  of  other  bishops  by  his 
example,  had  introduced,  or  at  least  connived  at  a 
negligence,  that  gave  great  scandal  to  the  Church,  and 
no  doubt  offended  very  many  pious  men.  The  people 
took  so  little  care  of  the  churches,  and  the  parsons  as 
little  of  the  chancels,  that  instead  of  beautifying  them 
or  adorning  them  in  any  degree,  they  rarely  provided 
against  the  falling  of  many  of  their  churches,  and 
suffered  them  at  least  to  be  kept  so  indecently  and 
slovenly  that  they  would  not  have  endured  it  in  the 
ordinary  offices  of  their  own  houses  ;  the  rain  and 
the  wind  to  infest  them,  and  the  Sacraments  them- 
selves to  be  administered  where  the  people  had  most 
mind  to  receive  them."  The  central  aisle  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  was  used  as  a  common  thoroughfare  and 
called  Paul's  Walk.  Business  men  used  the  cathedral 
as  a  clubroom  and  children  as  a  playground.  The 
clergy  complained  that  their  services  in  the  choir  could 
not  be  heard  owing  to  the  noise  in  the  nave.  In  the 


326         THE  STRENGTH   OF  ENGLAND 

adjacent  church  of  St.  Gregory  the  Communion  table 
had  been  moved  from  the  east  end  to  the  nave  and 
merchants  sat  on  it  and  used  it  as  a  writing-table. 

Strange  as  it  seems  to  modern  Englishmen,  accus- 
tomed to  see  churches  and  chapels  treated  with  rever- 
ence, there  were  earnest  and  godly  men  who  believed 
that  spiritual  religion  was  increased  by  the  desecration 
of  houses  of  prayer.  Hatred  of  Rome  drove  them  to 
extremes  which  very  few  would  now  defend.  Laud 
fully  shared  the  Puritan  dislike  of  the  papacy ;  he  had 
no  love  for  Calvin's  harsh  creed,  but  he  was  as  zealous 
for  spiritual  religion  as  the  holiest  Puritan.  Left  to 
themselves  there  is  no  reason  why  the  two  parties  in 
the  Church  of  England  should  not  have  agreed  to  differ 
as  high  and  low  Churchmen  do  to-day.  Both  Laud's 
followers  and  the  Puritans  were  in  favour  of  a  united 
Church  of  England.  Separatists,  few  in  number  and 
disliked  by  both  parties,  consisted  largely  of  foreign 
immigrants  who  were  allowed  to  worship  in  England 
as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  worship  in  their 
foreign  homes.  But  there  were  those  who  had  un- 
worthy reasons  for  objecting  to  unity  and  discipline 
in  the  Church.  Religious  anarchy  allowed  them  to 
steal  funds  held  in  trust  for  religious  or  educational 
purposes.  The  Church  still  owned  much  land  which 
could  be  plundered  if  anarchy  increased.  When,  as 
Bishop  of  London,  Laud  removed  the  Communion 
tables  to  the  east  end  of  churches  and  surrounded  them 
with  rails  to  protect  them  from  profanation  by  men 
and  stray  dogs  he  had  to  face  strenuous  opposition. 

The  merchants  of  London  made  use  of  Puritan 
preachers  to  further  their  political  aims.  Tithes, 


THE  PEOPLE  UNDER  CHARLES  I.        327 

which  supported  the  London  clergy,  were  reduced  to 
a  mere  pittance  by  fraudulent  undervaluation  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  funds  were  collected  to  endow  lectureships 
in  London  and  provincial  churches.  These  lecturers 
held  offices  at  the  pleasure  of  their  paymasters.  They 
could  sit  in  the  vestry  during  the  service  until  the 
time  came  for  them  to  enter  the  pulpit  and  denounce 
the  Church  which  they  were  nominally  serving.  Land- 
lords in  the  country  obtained  the  same  power  over  the 
clergy  as  money  lords  in  the  towns.  The  parish  priests, 
who  had  once  been  able  to  champion  the  cause  of  the 
poor  against  oppressors  and  enclosers,  now  spoke  at 
the  risk  of  losing  their  incomes.  Laud  did  much  to 
re-establish  the  independence  of  the  clergy.  The  poor 
again  had  those  who  could  plead  their  cause,  and 
stealers  of  national  or  ecclesiastical  property  were 
called  to  account. 

In  an  island  like  England  fishing  ought  to  have 
flourished ;  but,  deprived  of  protection  in  1435,  it 
remained  in  a  sickly  condition  in  spite  of  spasmodic 
efforts  to  revive  it.  In  1601  Sir  John  Keymer  wrote  : 
"  There  is  more  wealth  raised  out  of  herrings  and  other 
fish  in  his  Majesty's  seas  by  the  neighbouring  nations 
in  one  year  than  the  King  of  Spain  hath  from  the 
Indies  in  four.  There  are  20,000  ships  and  other 
vessels,  and  about  400,000  people  thus  set  on  work  by 
sea  and  land,  and  maintained  only  by  fishing  upon  the 
coast  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland."  He  said 
that  before  arriving  at  this  conclusion  "  he  traced 
the  countries  twice  over  from  town  to  town,  and  from 
thence  along  his  Majesty's  sea  coasts  of  England, 
Scotland,  rand  Ireland."  The  Dutch  did  most  of  this 


328 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 


fishing,  and  their  sea-power  was  so  great  that  England 
had  to  submit  to  the  Dutch  as  Denmark  had  formerly 
submitted  to  the  Hanse  League.  James  I.  tried  to 
compel  Dutch  fishermen  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of 
using  English  waters  ;  but  he  abandoned  the  attempt 
when  the  Dutch  fishing  fleet  was  escorted  by  Dutch 
warships.  No  reparation  could  be  obtained  for  the 
massacre  of  English  traders  by  the  Dutch  at  Amboina, 
although  the  claim  was  pressed  at  intervals  after  1624. 
Both  the  Dutch  and  their  enemies,  the  sailors  of 
Dunkirk,  who  owned  allegiance  to  Spain,  treated 
English  harbours  as  if  they  were  no-man's-land. 
Whitelock  gave  the  following  description  of  the  causes 
which  led  to  the  levying  of  Ship-money  in  England. 
"  Our  coasts  were  much  infested  by  Pyrats,  even  by 
Turks  and  Algiers  men,  to  the  great  prejudice  of  trade. 
The  Dutchmen  became  almost  Masters  of  the  Sea  in 
the  Northern  fishing  ;  Overtures  were  made  concerning 
Herring  fishing,  and  Busses,  for  our  own  Coasts  :  and 
to  prevent  Strangers.  .  .  .  The  King  finding  the 
Controversie  begun,  and  that  it  must  be  maintained 
by  force,  which  his  want  of  money  could  not  doe.  .  .  . 
And  by  advice  of  his  Privy  Council,  and  Council 
Learned  the  King  requires  Shipmoney."  For  assertion 
of  the  King's  forest  rights,  the  use  of  patents  to  bring 
in  a  revenue  to  the  Crown,  and  the  levying  of  Ship- 
money  Laud  was  not  primarily  responsible.  The 
forest  claims  and  the  writs  for  Ship-money  began  when 
Laud  was  Bishop  of  London,  and  the  Earl  of  Portland 
Lord  Treasurer.  Portland  was  at  heart  a  Catholic, 
and  he  and  his  Catholic  friends  enriched  themselves  as 
well  as  the  Crown. 


THE  PEOPLE  UNDER  CHARLES  I.        329 

Laud  vigorously  attacked  Portland's  corrupt 
administration.  When  Portland  died  in  1434,  soon 
after  Laud  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
treasury  was  put  into  commission.  The  new  Arch- 
bishop was  made  a  commissioner  of  the  treasury,  and 
also  head  of  the  Committee  for  Foreign  Affairs.  He 
was  thus  able  to  exert  a  great  influence  over  the  policy 
of  England.  At  first  he  was  hampered  by  colleagues 
in  the  treasury  who  wished  to  tread  in  Portland's 
steps  ;  but,  in  1636,  Juxon,  who  to  Laud's  joy  had 
succeeded  him  in  the  see  of  London,  was  appointed 
Lord  Treasurer  because  "  his  honesty  was  beyond 
dispute."  Laud  in  England  and  Wentworth  in  Ireland 
were  making  "  Thorough  "  a  complete  success  when 
storm  clouds  gathered  in  Scotland,  where  the  King's 
servants  were  feebler  and  less  efficient  men. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE   POLICY   OF  ARCHBISHOP    LAUD 
1633-1639 

LAUD'S  policy  aimed  at  increasing  the  power  of  the 
Crown  and  giving  it  the  whole-hearted  support  of  a 
national  Church  to  which  all  Englishmen  were  to 
conform.  He  tried  to  make  the  law  supreme  over  the 
rich  as  well  as  over  the  poor,  and  naturally  invoked 
the  aid  of  the  Court  of  Star-Chamber,  which  had  been 
created  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  to  curb  the  lawless 
nobility,  and  of  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  which 
Parliament  established  in  Elizabeth's  reign  to  enforce 
religious  unity  and  morality  by  punishing  offenders 
who  had  ceased  to  fear  the  discipline  of  a  Church 
weakened  by  the  Reformation.  Such  a  policy  was 
certain  to  excite  violent  opposition.  In  many  respects 
it  resembled  that  of  the  great  French  minister,  Cardinal 
Richelieu.  But  whilst  Richelieu  struck  fiercely  and 
effectively  at  the  French  nobles  who  opposed  the 
King,  the  executioner's  axe  was  not  used  by  Laud.  In 
England  there  was  no  royal  army  to  establish  tyranny 
had  Laud  wished  to  make  his  King  despotic. 

Until  Stratford  was  murdered  by  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, only  one  man  was  executed  for  politics  or  religion 
during  Charles'  reign.  This  victim,  a  Catholic  priest, 


THE   POLICY   OF  ARCHBISHOP  LAUD    331 

was  sent  to  the  gallows  by  the  over-zeal  of  a  Puritan 
judge.  Several  old  women,  however,  were  put  to 
death  owing  to  the  belief  in  witchcraft  which  was 
a  feature  of  puritanism  in  England,  Scotland,  and  the 
Puritan  Colonies.  Laud  and  his  bishops  discouraged 
this  superstition  and  were  instrumental  in  saving  the 
lives  of  some  so-called  witches.  After  Laud's  fall, 
from  1640  until  the  Restoration  in  1660,  thousands 
of  old  people  were  executed  for  the  crime  of  witchcraft. 
Four  members  of  the  Puritan  party,  which  persistently 
demanded  the  execution  of  Catholics,  figure  as  the  chief 
of  Laud's  victims.  They  were  punished  for  publishing 
seditious  pamphlets  of  the  most  extravagant  character, 
and  for  obstinately  glorying  in  their  offences.  Three 
lost  their  ears  in  the  pillory,  one  was  flogged,  and  all 
were  imprisoned. 

Clarendon  states  that  there  would  have  been  little 
or  no  sympathy  with  Bastwick,  Burton,  and  Prynne 
but  for  their  position  in  society.  One  was  a  doctor, 
another  a  divine,  and  the  third  a  lawyer.  When 
professional  men  were  punished  "  (as  the  poorest  and 
most  mechanic  malefactors  used  to  be,  when  they 
were  not  able  to  redeem  themselves  by  any  fine  for 
their  trespasses,  or  to  satisfy  any  damages  for  the 
scandals  they  had  raised  against  the  good  name  and 
reputation  of  others)  men  began  no  more  to  consider 
their  manners  but  the  men,  and  each  profession,  with 
anger  and  indignation  enough,  thought  their  education 
and  degrees  and  quality  would  have  secured  them 
from  such  infamous  judgments,  and  treasured  up 
wrath  for  the  time  to  come."  Two  of  these  sufferers 
played  a  prominent  part  in  the  Civil  War,  and  learned 


332    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

some  wisdom.  In  1649,  when  resisting  the  establish- 
ment of  Cromwell's  tyranny,  Lilburne,  who  had  been 
flogged  and  imprisoned  under  Charles,  said  "  that  if 
it  were  possible  for  me  now  to  choose,  I  had  rather 
choose  to  live  seven  years  under  old  King  Charles' 
government  (notwithstanding  their  beheading  him  as 
a  tyrant  for  it)  when  it  was  at  its  worst  before  this 
Parliament,  than  live  one  year  under  their  government 
that  now  rule."  Ten  years  later  Prynne  was  taking 
an  active  part  in  the  restoration  of  monarchy  in 
England. 

In  1630  a  Scotch  minister,  who  had  taken  a  medical 
degree  in  Leyden,  but  had  failed  to  satisfy  the  examiners 
of  the  English  College  of  Physicians,  was  practising 
clandestinely  and  at  the  same  time  writing  seditious 
books.  His  book,  called  "  An  Appeal  to  Parliament ; 
or  Sion's  Plea  against  Prelacy,"  is  an  excellent  illustra- 
tion of  the  manner  in  which  religion  was  used  to  cloak 
incitement  to  rebellion  and  murder.  In  "  Sion's 
Plea"  the  assassination  of  Buckingham,  which  was 
still  fresh  in  men's  minds,  was  represented  as  the 
work  of  "  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  The  Queen  was  de- 
scribed as  a  "  daughter  of  Heth  "  whom  the  King  had 
married  when  "  he  missed  an  Egyptian."  Every  evil 
was  attributed  to  the  bishops,  and  the  people  were 
urged  to  rise  in  armed  rebellion  against  the  government 
of  the  King.  For  less  violent  language  men  had  been 
hanged  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  To  follow  up  the  murder 
of  a  Prime  Minister  by  the  publication  of  such  a  book 
would  be  regarded  as  a  serious  crime  in  modern 
England.  That  Leighton  only  suffered  the  loss  of 
an  ear,  flogging,  and  imprisonment  illustrates  the 


THE  POLICY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  LAUD    333 

clemency,  not  the  severity,  of  Charles'  government. 
When  the  King's  government  was  overthrown  all 
these  seditious  writers  were  compensated  by  the  Long 
Parliament,  whilst  Charles'  servants  were  treated 
with  an  illegal  severity  which  reminds  the  reader  of 
the  Merciless  Parliament. 

To  put  the  royal  finances  in  order  was  Laud's 
constant  aim.  Under  Portland  the  King's  debts 
were  continually  increasing.  Large  sums  might  have 
been  obtained  from  the  forest  claims  ;  but  as  there 
was  no  royal  army,  it  was  thought  wise  to  abstain 
from  extreme  measures  against  the  nobles,  and  the 
royal  claims  were  abandoned  in  return  for  a  small 
sum.  The  laws  which  forbade  depopulation  by  the 
conversion  of  arable  land  into  pasture  were  being 
broken.  A  commission  was  appointed  to  consider 
this  abuse,  and  offenders  were  fined.  Clarendon  wrote 
of  this  part  of  Laud's  policy  :  "  The  revenue  of  too 
many  of  the  Court  consisted  principally  in  inclosures 
and  improvements  of  that  nature  which  he  "  (Laud) 
"  still  opposed  passionately  except  they  were  founded 
upon  law  ;  and,  then,  if  it  would  bring  profit  to  the 
King,  how  old  and  obsolete  soever  the  law  was,  he 
thought  he  might  justly  advise  the  prosecution.  And 
so  he  did  a  little  too  much  countenance  the  commission 
concerning  depopulation,  which  brought  much  charge 
and  trouble  upon  the  people,  and  was  likewise  cast 
upon  his  account."  Here  those  who  were  depopulating 
the  land  are  called  "  the  people."  Clarendon  had 
little  sympathy  with  the  poor  who  were  being  driven 
from  their  homes. 

Laud's  agrarian  policy  made  enemies  amongst  the 


334    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

Royalist  courtiers  as  well  as  amongst  the  parlia- 
mentarians. The  same  result  followed  from  his 
commercial  policy.  Portland  had  pleased  his  Catholic 
friends  by  giving  them  the  patent  for  manufacturing 
soap  from  home-grown  materials.  Laud  approved 
of  encouraging  home  production,  whilst  he  wished  to 
see  the  patent  worked  by  London  manufacturers 
instead  of  by  Catholic  courtiers.  After  a  long  contest, 
Laud  achieved  his  aim,  but  gained  little  goodwill, 
since  the  patent  was  assigned  to  the  new  company 
subject  to  a  large  annual  payment  to  the  Crown. 
Even  the  King's  wishes  were  opposed  by  Laud  when 
they  conflicted  with  the  welfare  of  the  nation.  Charles 
loved  innocent  pleasures,  which  were  nevertheless 
expensive.  In  his  palaces  he  collected  art  treasures, 
and  he  inclosed  Richmond  Park  at  a  great  cost,  in 
spite  of  Laud's  loudly  expressed  fear  that  his  master 
would  lose  the  hearts  of  his  people  by  inclosing  land. 
The  word  "  people  "  is  here  used  in  the  modern  sense. 
Notwithstanding  the  King's  extravagance,  Laud's 
financial  administration  was  most  successful.  The 
royal  debts  were  diminished,  and  "Thorough"  bid 
fair  to  have  as  great  a  triumph  in  England  as  in 
Ireland.  Clarendon  ends  his  account  of  Laud's  work 
by  telling  of  how,  from  the  time  of  his  succeeding  to 
the  Treasury,  Laud  "  exceedingly  provoked  or  under- 
went the  envy  and  reproach  and  malice  of  men  of 
all  qualities,  who  agreed  in  nothing  else  ;  all  which 
though  well  enough  known  to  him,  were  not  enough 
considered  by  him,  who  believed,  as  most  men  did, 
the  government  to  be  so  firmly  settled  that  it  could 
neither  be  shaken  from  within  nor  without,  and  that 


THE  POLICY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  LAUD    335 

less  than  a  general  confusion  of  Law  and  Gospel  could 
not  hurt  him,  which  was  true  too  ;  but  he  did  not 
foresee  how  easily  that  confusion  might  be  brought 
to  pass,  as  it  proved  shortly  to  be.  And  with  this 
general  observation  of  the  outward  visible  prosperity, 
and  the  inward  reserved  disposition  of  the  people  to 
murmur  and  unquietness,  we  conclude  this  first 
book." 

Nothing  contributed  more  towards  Laud's  ultimate 
failure  than  his  determination  to  punish  the  "most 
splendid  transgressors  .  .  .  who  were  not  careful  to 
cover  their  own  iniquities,  thinking  they  were  above 
the  reach  of  other  men  or  their  power  or  will  to  chastise. 
Persons  of  honour  and  great  quality,  of  the  Court  and 
of  the  country,  were  every  day  cited  into  the  High 
Commission  Court  upon  the  fame  of  their  incontinence 
or  other  scandal  in  their  lives,  and  were  there  prose- 
cuted to  their  shame  and  punishment,  and  as  the 
shame  (which  they  called  an  insolent  triumph  upon 
their  degree  and  quality  and  levelling  them  with  the 
common  people)  was  never  forgotten,  but  watched  for 
revenge,  so  the  fines  imposed  there  were  the  more 
questioned  and  repined  against,  because  they  were 
assigned  to  the  rebuilding  and  repairing  St.  Paul's 
Church,  and  thought  therefore  to  be  the  more  severely 
imposed  and  the  less  compassionately  reduced  and 
excused,  which  likewise  made  the  jurisdiction  and 
rigour  of  the  Star  Chamber  more  felt,  and  murmured 
against,  and  sharpened  many  men's  humours  against 
the  Bishops  before  they  had  any  ill  intention  towards 
the  Church." 

The  story  of  the  drainage  of  the  Cambridgeshire 


336    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

fens  throws  much  light  upon  some  of  the  causes  of 
the  Civil  War.  In  1629  a  Dutchman,  called  Ver- 
muyden,  obtained  the  contract  for  a  great  drainage 
scheme.  He  was  to  receive  as  payment  95,000  acres 
of  the  reclaimed  land.  An  outcry  against  this  grant 
to  a  foreigner  led  to  the  transfer  of  the  contract  in 
1635  to  the  Earl  of  Bedford,  who  agreed  that  the 
Crown  should  have  12,000  of  the  95,000  acres.  Ver- 
muyden  was  employed  to  drain  the  lands  as  the  servant 
of  the  company  which  Bedford  formed.  In  1638 
commissioners  at  St.  Ives  incorrectly  found  that  the 
lands  had  been  drained,  and  gave  the  95,000  acres  to 
Bedford  without  reserving  the  12,000  acres  for  the 
Crown.  A  new  commission  sat  at  Huntingdon  in 
1639.  It  was  then  admitted  that  the  land  was  not 
drained,  and  that  the  money  of  the  company  was 
exhausted.  The  company  was  called  upon  either  to 
raise  fresh  capital  and  finish  the  drainage  or  to  sur- 
render the  contract  to  the  King  in  return  for  40,000 
acres. 

Many  poor  folk  lived  by  catching  wild-fowl  in  the 
fens  or  making  baskets  from  the  osiers  and  reeds. 
These  men  looked  upon  the  fens  as  common  lands  and 
the  drainage  as  a  great  inclosure.  There  was  much 
opposition  in  Cambridge,  and  Cromwell  became 
popular  by  advocating  the  claims  of  the  fen-men. 
His  friends  have  maintained  that  he  also  opposed  the 
commissioners  who  sat  at  Huntingdon,  but  this  is 
uncertain.  In  any  case  he  sat  for  Cambridge  in  the 
Short  and  in  the  Long  Parliaments,  winning  for 
himself  the  nickname  "  Lord  of  the  Fens."  The  Civil 
War  for  a  time  put  an  end  to  the  drainage  ;  the 


THE  POLICY   OF  ARCHBISHOP  LAUD    337 

scheme  was,  however,  revived  during  the  Common- 
wealth, and  Cromwell's  supporters  had  their  reward. 
But  it  will  be  seen  that  those  who  gained  were  not 
the  poor  fen-men. 

After  the  suppression  of  the  English  religious  orders, 
who  for  centuries  had  superintended  the  production 
of  fine  wool,  the  quality  of  English  wool  deteriorated. 
In  1560  English  wool  was  still  the  finest,  but  Spanish 
wool  had  become  worthy  of  being  called  fine.  In  1604 
James  I.  prohibited  the  exportation  of  English  wool 
to  ensure  an  ample  supply  for  English  weavers.  It 
is  interesting  to  notice  that  about  the  same  time  the 
importation  of  foreign  hops  was  forbidden,  so  that 
English  hop-growing,  which  began  in  Elizabeth's 
reign,  might  be  protected  from  cheap  and  inferior 
foreign  hops  which  were  flooding  the  English  market. 

The  immigration  of  weavers  from  Flanders  and 
Brabant  established  a  vigorous  cloth-making  industry 
in  the  Dutch  Republic,  and  the  manufacture  of  cloth 
was  being  rapidly  developed  in  France  under  Richelieu's 
fostering  care.  There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of 
the  policy  of  peace  with  Spain  which  was  a  feature  of 
the  reigns  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I.  The  market  of 
Spain  was  opened  to  the  English,  and  through  Spain 
an  indirect  entrance  into  her  colonial  markets  was 
gained.  The  fine  wool  of  Spain  could  also  be  obtained 
for  English  looms;  and  when  the  English  procured 
a  supply  of  native  alum  they  were  able  to  declare 
commercial  war  against  the  Dutch  cloth  finishers,  not- 
withstanding the  handicap  which  the  Dutch  enjoyed 
in  their  shipping  and  control  over  markets  in  Brazil 
and  the  East. 

z 


338    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

In  1622  James  I.  appointed  a  commission  to 
inquire  into  the  causes  of  the  depreciation  of  English 
wool  and  to  suggest  methods  by  which  Scotch  and 
Irish  wool  might  be  attracted  to  England.  In  1634 
Spanish  cloth  is  mentioned  as  an  established  industry 
in  England.  In  1611  Spanish  folly  reached  its  climax 
when  the  Moriscos,  an  industrious  people  of  mixed 
Spanish  and  Moorish  descent,  were  expelled  from 
Spain.  After  their  expulsion  Spain  practically  ceased 
to  weave,  and  Spanish  wool  was  forced  to  find  a  market 
in  England,  France,  or  Holland.  The  long  Anglo- 
Spanish  peace  facilitated  trade  between  England  and 
Spain.  Even  war  could  not  wholly  prevent  the 
exportation  of  Spanish  wool  to  France  and  Holland. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  had  a  disastrous  effect  upon 
German  production,  and  Germans  bought  instead  of 
selling  cloth.  Dunkirk  was  the  only  seaport  in  the 
Spanish  Netherlands  which  remained  open  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  Dutch.  Through  Dunkirk  English 
cloth  could  find  its  way  into  Belgium  and  Germany. 
Just  before  Portland's  death  the  character  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War  changed.  France  became  the  open, 
instead  of  the  secret,  enemy  of  Spain.  Arrangements 
were  being  made  to  divide  the  Spanish  Netherlands 
between  France  and  Holland,  thus  closing  Dunkirk 
and  inflicting  a  serious  blow  to  the  export  trade  of 
England.  This  danger,  as  well  as  the  desire  of  freeing 
the  English  coasts  from  Dutch  fishermen,  influenced 
Charles'  advisers  when  they  recommended  the  levying 
of  ship  money.  There  was  no  doubt  that  the  King 
had  the  right  to  demand  ship  money  from  the  coast 
towns.  The  judges  held  that  inland  towns,  whose 


THE  POLICY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  LAUD    339 

industry  and  trade  were  threatened,  were  also  liable  ; 
but  this  judgment  was  passively  resisted  by  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  King. 

A  proposed  alliance  with  Spain  for  the  defence  of 
Dunkirk  was  defeated  by  the  arguments  of  Laud  and 
Wentworth.  They  held  that,  if  England  built  an 
adequate  navy,  she  could  without  war  preserve  Dun- 
kirk from  the  Dutch  and  French.  The  wisdom  of 
this  policy  was  proved  when  France  in  1635  declared 
war  against  Spain  and  directed  her  attack  against 
Alsace  instead  of  Belgium.  Ship  money  was  honestly 
devoted  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  levied.  A 
strong  fleet  soon  gave  England  command  of  the  narrow 
seas.  The  claim  of  the  Dutch  to  fish  in  English 
waters  was  successfully  contested,  although  an  English 
fishing  company  started  by  Charles  failed  owing  to 
the  ignorance  of  the  English.  Of  this  De  Witt  wrote  : 
"  In  the  meantime  the  English  challenged  the 
Sovereignty  of  the  narrow  Seas,  alledging,  That  the 
fishery  belong'd  solely  to  them.  But  their  intestine 
Divisions,  and  not  our  Sea  Forces,  put  a  stop  to  that 
work,  and  their  Herring-fishing,  then  newly  begun, 
ceased.  It  is  observable  that  when  they  had  taken 
their  Herring  at  one  and  the  same  time  and  place  with 
the  Hollanders,  and  sent  them  to  Dantzick  in  the  years 
1637  and  *638,  and  found  that  the  Herring  taken  and 
cured  by  the  Hollanders  was  approved  and  good,  and 
that  the  English  Herring  to  the  very  last  Barrel  were 
esteemed  naught ;  they  then  chang'd  their  Claim 
upon  the  whole  Fishery,  into  that  of  having  the 
Tenth  Herring,  which  the  diligent  and  frugal  Inhabi- 
tants of  Holland  reputed  no  less  than  to  fish  for,  and 

Z  2 


340    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

pay  Tribute  to  a  slothful  and  prodigal  People,  for  a 
Passage  by  the  Coast  of  England,  which  yet  must  have 
been  paid  had  not  the  free  Government  of  the  States 
of  Holland,  in  the  year  1667,  brought  those  Maritime 
Affairs  into  another  State  and  Condition." 

The  pirates  from  the  Mediterranean  were  driven 
from  the  English  seas,  and  an  English  fleet  appeared 
before  Sallee,  their  seaport,  and  obtained  the  surrender 
of  Christian  slaves.  Whilst  all  seemed  well  with 
England  and  England's  King,  storm  clouds  gathered 
in  Scotland.  This  kingdom  was  regarded  as  so  unim- 
portant that  Clarendon  could  write  that  "  the  truth  is, 
there  was  so  little  curiosity  either  in  the  Court  or  the 
country  to  know  anything  of  Scotland,  or  what  was 
done  there,  that  when  the  whole  nation  was  solicitous 
to  know  what  passed  weekly  in  Germany  and  Poland, 
and  all  other  parts  of  Europe,  no  man  ever  enquired 
what  was  doing  in  Scotland,  nor  had  that  kingdom 
place  or  mention  in  one  page  of  any  gazette  ;  and  even 
after  the  advertisement  of  the  preamble  to  rebellion, 
no  mention  was  made  of  it  at  the  Council  Board, 
but  such  a  dispatch  made  into  Scotland  upon  it, 
as  expressed  the  King's  dislike  and  displeasure,  and 
obliged  the  Lords  of  the  Council  there  to  appear  more 
vigorously  in  the  vindication  of  his  authority  and 
suppression  of  those  tumults." 

The  mistake  made  by  the  English  Parliament  when 
it  rejected  the  scheme  proposed  by  James  I.  for  the 
political  and  economic  union  of  Great  Britain  was 
about  to  plunge  the  British  Isles  in  the  horrors  of 
civil  war.  Whilst  English  industry  and  commerce 
made  rapid  strides,  Scotland  remained  in  a  com- 


THE  POLICY  OF   ARCHBISHOP  LAUD    341 

paratively  unprogressive  condition.  The  English 
traveller  was  struck  by  the  filth  and  squalor  of  Edin- 
burgh, whilst  even  the  English  inns  were  palaces  to 
the  Scotch  when  they  first  saw  them.  Prisoners  were 
still  tortured  in  Scotland,  and  the  burning  of  witches 
was  almost  a  national  pastime.  This  cruel  form  of 
superstition  was  closely  associated  with  presbyterian- 
ism.  It  flourished  in  the  New  England  Colonies 
when  the  preachers  had  realised  their  ideal  and 
established  a  theocratic  government.  During  the 
second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  thousands  of  men 
and  women  were  put  to  death  in  Scotland,  where  the 
preachers  were  able  to  spread  terror  amongst  the 
people  much  as  witch  doctors  still  do  in  Africa.  The 
comparatively  weak  hold  which  this  superstition  had 
over  the  English  was  much  increased  by  James  I., 
who  carried  with  him  from  Scotland  a  firm  belief  in 
the  devil's  power.  Laud  tried  with  some  success  to 
mitigate  the  horrors  of  witch-hunting.  When  he  fell 
the  witch  doctors  of  England  had  their  way,  and  under 
the  presbyterian  Long  Parliament  the  number  of 
victims  in  England  became  a  national  disgrace.  It 
is  to  Cromwell's  credit  that  he  discouraged  this  super- 
stition, which  gradually  died  away  after  the  restoration 
of  monarchy. 

As  a  substitute  for  the  political  and  economic 
union  of  England  and  Scotland  which  the  English 
Parliament  had  shelved  Laud  tried  to  unite  Great 
Britain  by  a  common  ritual.  In  1638  an  attempt  to 
replace  the  political  prayers  of  the  Scotch  preachers 
by  a  liturgy  kindled  a  revolt.  The  liturgy  was 
accompanied  by  canons  which  would  have  com- 


342    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

pelled  the  childless  Scotch  clergy  to  leave  a  portion 
of  their  estates  to  educational  purposes.  At  once 
Scotch  nobles  who  trembled  for  their  church  land  and 
Scotch  preachers  united  with  the  people  of  Scotland 
in  opposing  what  seemed  to  be  English  dictation. 
The  sentimental  tie  of  the  Crown  proved  ineffective. 
A  Covenant  was  extensively  signed  which  bound  the 
Covenanters  to  resist  the  ecclesiastical  innovations 
and  to  abolish  episcopacy.  A  General  Assembly  of 
the  preachers  and  their  lay  supporters  met  at  Glasgow 
in  1638.  The  Scotch  bishops  were  excommunicated, 
and  under  this  rebellious  theocratic  government  taxes 
were  levied  and  the  Covenanters  took  arms.  The 
Scotch  universities  were  placed  under  control  as 
centres  which  might  be  dangerous  to  the  Covenant. 
Thus  Charles  was  forced  either  to  take  action  or  to 
lose  all  authority  over  his  northern  kingdom. 

Without  an  army  Charles  could  only  oppose  the 
Scotch  by  calling  upon  his  English  magnates  to  join 
him  with  their  feudal  levies.  The  fleet  was  sent 
north  to  separate  the  Scotch  from  the  Dutch  and  the 
French  from  whom  they  were  obtaining  military 
supplies  and  with  whom  they  were  entering  into 
treasonable  relations.  Had  the  magnates  been  loyal 
the  rebels  would  have  been  crushed,  but  there  were 
some  who,  smarting  under  the  rule  of  Laud,  saw  in 
the  Scotch  rebellion  only  an  opportunity  of  weakening 
the  power  of  the  Crown  and  regaining  their  old  privi- 
leges. Although  the  English  magnates  were  not  as 
yet  ready  to  openly  oppose  their  King,  their  disaffection 
caused  delay.  The  funds  which  had  been  collected 
under  the  care  of  Laud  were  exhausted,  and  poverty 


THE   POLICY   OF   ARCHBISHOP   LAUD     343 

compelled  Charles  to  make  terms  with  the  Scotch. 
The  treaty  of  Berwick  was  regarded  by  the  Scotch 
Parliament,  which  soon  met,  as  a  sign  of  weakness, 
and  they  proceeded  to  pass  measures  which  trans- 
ferred the  royal  authority  in  Scotland  from  the  King 
to  the  Scotch  Parliament.  Charles  lost  much  by  this 
campaign  and  the  treaty  of  Berwick.  His  English 
magnates  who  were  disaffected  established  secret 
friendly  relations  with  the  Scotch,  who,  instead  of 
disbanding  their  forces,  took  advantage  of  the  peace, 
imported  cannon  and  military  stores  from  abroad, 
and  attempted  to  revive  the  old  Franco-Scottish 
alliance.  Impoverished  and  weakened,  Charles  was 
doomed  to  learn,  as  his  predecessors  had  done,  that 
there  was  little  pity  for  a  vanquished  king. 


XXVI 

KING   CHARLES   I.    AND    HIS   EARLS 
1640-1641 

WHEN  Parliament  ruled  England  in  the  reign  of  the 
Lancastrian  Henry  VI.  the  suffrage  in  the  counties 
was  restricted  to  a  limited  number  of  freeholders,  and 
the  qualification  of  a  member  of  Parliament  was  made 
prohibitive  for  all  except  the  moderately  wealthy 
landowner.  Before  this  restriction  the  packing  of 
Parliaments  had  been  effected  by  the  magnates  by 
means  of  their  retainers ;  after  the  War  of  the  Roses 
the  power  of  the  barons  was  at  first  so  shattered  that 
the  danger  to  the  Crown  from  the  existence  of  two 
oligarchic  houses  was  not  felt.  A  new  body  of  mag- 
nates was,  however,  created  under  the  Tudors  and 
Stuarts  who  inherited  not  only  the  ancient  titles  but 
the  old  tendency  to  resent  royal  interference.  These 
were  at  first  fed  sumptuously  in  the  reigns  of  Henry 
VIII.  and  Edward  VI.  from  the  plunder  of  the  Church, 
and  being  well  fed,  for  the  most  part  remained  quiet, 
and  co-operated  with  the  Crown  in  sending  to  the 
block  those  who  wished  to  resist  the  will  of  the 
monarch.  The  confiscation  of  abbey  lands  placed 
large  areas  under  the  control  of  laymen,  who  thus  were 


CHARLES  I.  AND  HIS  EARLS          345 

able  to  influence  the  limited  number  of  electors  even 
more  effectually  than  the  old  feudal  barons. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  one  of  the  Russells 
obtained  the  forest  of  Exmoor  and  the  town  of  Tavis- 
tock  with  thirty  manors  in  Devonshire,  Cornwall,  and 
Somerset  which  had  belonged  to  the  Abbey  of  Tavis- 
tock.  Ten  years  later,  under  Edward  VI.,  to  these 
lands  were  added  Thorney,  with  several  thousand 
acres  in  Cambridgeshire,  the  abbey  of  Woburn  in 
Bedfordshire,  and  the  title  Earl  of  Bedford.  The 
Bedfords  were  staunch  Protestants,  and  the  fourth 
Earl,  he  who  obtained  the  contract  for  draining  the 
fens  near  his  Cambridgeshire  lands,  was  regarded  as 
the  leader  of  the  Puritan  party.  One  piece  of  pro- 
perty which  the  Bedfords  acquired,  that  near  Co  vent 
Garden,  once  Convent  Garden,  became  very  valuable 
during  the  decade  of  Charles'  personal  reign  owing  to 
the  growth  of  London ;  and,  although  Laud's  rule  pro- 
tected the  ecclesiastical  property  and  royal  rights 
from  spoliation,  Bedford  and  his  associates  were  not 
treated  badly  even  in  the  matter  of  the  fens.  By  the 
Huntingdon  decision  they  were  entitled  to  receive 
lands  of  the  annual  value  of  6o,ooo/.  in  return  for  a 
capital  outlay  of  ioo,ooo/.,  but  they  had  hoped  for 
more. 

When  Lord  Bedford  died  in  1641  the  leadership  of 
the  Puritan  party  devolved  upon  the  Earl  of  Essex. 
The  first  Earl  of  Essex  was  created  by  Queen  Elizabeth 
too  late  for  the  plunder  of  the  monasteries.  He 
undertook  the  planting  of  Ulster,  selling  his  English 
estates  and  receiving  grants  of  Irish  lands.  He  con- 
ducted an  unsuccessful  campaign  in  Ireland,  and 


346         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

became  notorious  for  his  cruelty  to  the  native  Irish. 
After  his  death  in  1576  his  son  was  one  of  Elizabeth's 
favourites.  The  second  Earl  also  failed  in  Ireland, 
and  this  failure  and  the  execution  of  the  Earl  for 
treason  have  been  already  described.  In  1604  the 
attainder  was  removed  by  Act  of  Parliament  and  the 
traitor's  son  succeeded  to  the  title.  This  was  the 
Earl  who  led  the  Puritan  nobles  after  Bedford's  death. 
Clarendon  describes  him  as  a  man  who  nursed  the 
grievance  that  his  talents  were  not  adequately  recog- 
nised by  the  King.  His  pride  was  wounded  in  early 
life  when  his  wife  divorced  him  and  married  Somerset, 
the  favourite  of  James  I.  The  failure  of  the  attack  on 
La  Rochelle  when  Essex  was  in  command  seems  to 
have  increased  the  Earl's  bitterness.  When  a  favour- 
able moment  arrived  Essex  amply  avenged  himself  on 
Strafford  and  the  King's  advisers  who  had  neglected 
him. 

To  Algernon  Percy,  tenth  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
more  than  to  any  other  magnate,  Charles  owed  his 
ruin.  Of  Northumberland  Clarendon  wrote  :  "If  he 
had  thought  the  King  as  much  above  him,  as  he  thought 
himself  above  other  considerable  men,  he  would  have 
been  a  good  subject ;  but  the  extreme  undervaluing 
those,  and  not  enough  valuing  the  King,  made  him 
liable  to  those  impressions,  which  they  who  approached 
him  by  those  addresses  of  reverence  and  esteem,  that 
usually  insinuate  into  such  natures,  made  in  him." 
He  came  of  a  family  of  Border  lords,  who  looked  upon 
their  rank  as  almost  royal  and  to  whom  treason 
appeared  to  be  merely  the  assertion  of  their  ancient 
privileges.  The  first  earl  was  created  by  Richard  II., 


CHARLES   I.   AND   HIS  EARLS          347 

and  repaid  his  benefactor  by  taking  a  leading  part 
in  the  King's  deposition  and  the  election  of  the  par- 
liamentary king  Henry  IV.  Before  long,  however, 
he  was  again  a  rebel,  and  died  fighting  against  the 
sovereign  he  had  helped  to  place  on  the  throne. 

Henry  V.  restored  the  earldom  and  estates  to  the 
grandson  of  the  first  earl,  and  the  second  earl  and  his 
son  who  succeeded  him  fell  fighting  for  the  parlia- 
mentary kings  during  the  War  of  the  Roses.  The 
son  of  the  third  earl  swore  fealty  to  the  victorious 
Edward  IV.  and  thus  regained  the  earldom.  He  fell 
fighting  for  Richard  III.  at  Bosworth  ;  but  his  loyalty 
was  so  doubtful  that  Richard  was  obliged  to  place  a 
close  watch  over  him  during  the  battle.  His  son,  the 
fifth  earl,  was  suspected  of  using  a  royal  badge  when 
harrying  the  Scotch,  and  just  before  the  death  of 
Henry  VII.  he  was  fined  io,ooo£.  for  an  encroachment 
on  the  King's  rights.  This  earl  was,  however,  never 
actually  guilty  of  open  treason  ;  and  his  son,  the  sixth 
earl,  was  loyal  to  Henry  VIII.,  though  his  brothers 
and  his  mother  joined  in  the  rebellion  called  the 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace.  The  sixth  earl  left  no  issue,  and 
by  the  execution  of  his  brother  the  earldom  lapsed. 
It  was,  however,  revived  by  Queen  Mary  in  favour  of 
the  sons  of  the  Percy  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
rebellion.  These  sons  engaged  in  conspiracies  against 
Elizabeth.  One  was  executed  as  a  traitor,  and  the 
other  committed  suicide  in  the  Tower  before  his  trial. 
The  ninth  earl,  son  of  the  suicide,  was  found  guilty  of 
complicity  in  Gunpowder  Plot,  in  which  one  of  his 
kinsmen  played  a  prominent  part,  and  spent  nearly 
sixteen  years  in  the  Tower.  He  died  in  1619,  and  was 


348    THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

succeeded  by  his  son  Algernon,  who  avenged  the 
deaths  of  his  ancestors  by  largely  contributing  to  the 
ruin  and  murder  of  Charles  I. 

The  difficulty  of  governing  the  North  of  England 
without  the  aid  of  the  Percies  doubtless  prompted 
England's  rulers  to  forgive  their  many  acts  of  treason, 
and  the  same  motive  probably  had  weight  with 
Charles  when  he  showered  favours  on  the  tenth  earl. 
Charles  made  him  a  Knight  of  the  Garter  and  Lord 
High  Admiral.  Northumberland  was  thus  one  of  the 
council  who  were  responsible  for  the  government  of 
England  during  what  is  called  Charles'  personal  reign. 
The  campaign  against  the  Scotch  which  ended  with 
the  disastrous  treaty  of  Berwick  exhausted  the  royal 
treasury,  and  when  the  Scotch  made  use  of  this  treaty 
to  attack  the  royal  authority  in  Scotland,  Charles' 
fate  depended  on  his  being  able  to  raise  funds  for  a 
new  army.  Negotiations  were  pending  for  a  loan 
from  Spain,  when  a  Spanish  fleet  took  refuge  in  Eng- 
lish waters  from  a  superior  Dutch  force.  By  what 
some  contemporaries  regarded  as  Northumberland's 
treachery  the  Dutch  were  allowed  to  attack  the 
Spanish,  and  Charles  was  unable  to  obtain  financial 
relief  from  Spain.  Although  Northumberland's  sub- 
sequent conduct  encourages  belief  in  his  treachery, 
neither  Charles  nor  Went  worth,  who  was  recalled  to 
England  to  advise  the  King  in  September  1639,  a  few 
weeks  before  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish  fleet  in 
the  Downs,  seems  to  have  doubted  Northumberland's 
loyalty. 

To  raise  funds  Wentworth  advised  the  King  to 
summon  an  English  Parliament  whilst  he  returned 


CHARLES  I.  AND  HIS  EARLS          349 

to  Ireland  to  obtain  a  vote  of  supply  from  the  Irish 
Parliament.  In  March  1640  the  Irish  Parliament 
granted  i8o,ooo/.  with  enthusiasm,  and  promised  to 
give  more  if  needed.  The  native  Irish  were  if  anything 
more  demonstrative  of  their  loyalty  than  their  English 
fellow-members.  In  April  the  English  Parliament, 
called  the  Short  Parliament,  met.  Although  Charles 
was  able  to  give  proof  that  the  Scotch  rebels  were 
negotiating  with  the  French,  and  although  the  majority 
of  the  peers  were  anxious  to  grant  supply  for  the 
defence  of  England,  the  Lower  House,  led  by  Pym, 
began  the  discussion  of  grievances.  Encouraged  by 
the  example  of  Scotland,  the  Commons  sought  prac- 
tically to  abolish  the  royal  power  in  England  as  it  had 
been  practically  abolished  in  the  northern  kingdom. 
After  three  weeks  Charles  and  his  councillors  despaired 
of  obtaining  supply  and  the  Parliament  was  dissolved. 
In  the  King's  Council  Northumberland  and  Holland 
were  alone  in  wishing  to  avert  a  dissolution.  As  both 
these  Lords  ultimately  joined  the  English  rebels,  it 
seems  probable  that  this  dissolution  did  not  create, 
though  it  may  have  precipitated,  the  outbreak  of 
civil  war. 

[NOTE. — At  this  point  the  work  was  interrupted  by 
the  death  of  the  author.  The  two  following  extracts 
from  his  notebook  are  thought  to  be  of  sufficient 
interest  to  be  added  here.  It  is  believed  they  have  not 
been  published  among  his  other  writings,  and  that  he 
intended  to  use  them  in  this  book.] 

Historians  admit  that  the  wars  of  the  eighteenth 
century  were  due  to  commercial  causes,  but  speak  of 


350        THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

earlier  wars  as  wars  of  religion.  The  distinction  is 
somewhat  misleading.  When  religion  was  closely 
associated  with  politics  and  economy,  it  was  natural 
that  it  should  have  occasioned  contests  between 
nations.  The  time  has  passed  when  Popes  could  claim 
a  temporal  suzerainty  over  nations  and  their  rulers. 
No  Pope  would  now  dream  of  granting  lands  to  a  king 
as  Pope  Alexander  VI.  gave  the  Americas  and  the  East 
to  the  kings  of  Castile  and  Portugal ;  nor  would  any 
Pope  think  of  issuing  an  indulgence  which,  whilst 
absolving  men  from  mortal  sins,  failed  to  absolve  from 
the  sin  of  buying  alum  from  any  other  source  than 
the  mines  in  papal  territory.  Religion  confines  itself 
within  its  proper  province.  Its  teachers  recognise  that 
its  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  and  thus  the  economic 
motive  for  which  men  fought,  or  changed  their  religion, 
no  longer  exists.  An  attempt  has  been  made  in  the 
following  pages  to  trace  the  economic  motive  which 
prompted  the  wars  of  religion  and  the  great  changes  of 
faith. 

Underlying  motive  for  war,  the  same  at  all  times. 
To  assert  this  is  not  to  express  any  opinion  on  the 
character  of  religion ;  e.g.  to  say  Mahomedanism  spread 
because  it  relieved  Christian  provinces  from  tribute  to 
Byzantium  merely  gives  a  reason  for  the  spread  of  a 
creed  which  Protestant  Christians  believe  to  be  false ; 
whereas  showing  that  the  Reformation  derived  much  of 
its  strength  from  economic  causes  gives  a  reason  for 
the  spread  of  a  faith  which  they  believe  to  be  superior 
to  the  one  it  superseded. 


ENVOI 
To  BRITISH  FREE  TRADERS 


Brothers,  I  come,  a  spirit  from  the  dead, 
To  tell  the  tale  of  England  that  I  knew  ; 

If  you  are  doubters,  pray  forgive  what's  said 
In  praise  of  England.     You  are  English,  too. 

J.  W.  W, 


LIST  OF  WORKS  CONSULTED 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  (Rolls  Series,  1861.     Translation). 

Annales  Monastici  (Rolls  Series,  1864,  &c.). 

Ashley's  Economic  History,  vol.  i.  part  I,  1888  ;  part  II,  1893. 

Bacon  (Francis,  Works  of).     Edited  by  Spedding,  Ellis,  and  Heath. 

Bagwell's  Ireland  under  the  Tudors. 

Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

Barker's  (Ellis)  Rise  and  Decline  of  the  Netherlands. 

Baronius,  Annales  Ecclesiastici. 

Biographie  Universelle. 

Birch's  Cartularium  Saxonicum,  A.D.  948-975. 

Brewer's  Letters  and  Papers  of  Henry  VIII.  (Rolls  Series). 

Bridges'  France  under  Richelieu  and  Colbert. 

Bryce's  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

Burke's  History  of  Spain. 

Caillet's  Ministers  du  Cardinal  Richelieu. 

Cambridge  Modern  History. 

Carlyle's  Oliver  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches. 

Charlton's  History  of  Whitby. 

Chronicle  of  Jocelin  of  Brakelond  (King's  Classics). 

Chronicles  of  Stephen,  Henry  II.  and  Richard  I.  (vol.  iii.  Rolls  Series). 

Clowes's  Royal  Navy. 

Collings's  Land  Reform. 

Cunningham's  (T.)  History  of  Taxes.     (1773.) 

Cunningham's  (W.)  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  Early 

and  Middle  Ages.     (1905.) 
Cunningham's  (W.)  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  Modern 

Times. 

De  Witt's  True  Interest  and  Political  Maxims  of  the  Republic  of 
Holland  and  West  Friesland.     (Translation,  1702.) 

A  A 


354         THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 

English  Church  (History  of).     Edited  by  Stephens  and  Hunt. 

Facsimile  of  Indulgences  issued  by  Pope  Leo  X. 
Finlay's  History  of  Greece. 
Fisher's  Forest  of  Essex. 
Fox  Bourne's  English  Merchants. 
Freeman's  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest. 
Freeman's  General  Sketch  of  European  History. 
Froude's  English  in  Ireland. 
Froude's  History  of  England. 

Gardiner's  History  of  England  from  Accession  of  James  I.  In 
10  volumes. 

Gardiner's  History  of  Great  Civil  War.     In  four  volumes. 

Gardiner's  Constitutional  Documents  of  the  Puritan  Revolution. 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  (Edited  by  Pro- 
fessor Bury.) 

Gniest's  History  of  English  Constitution.     Ashworth's  translation. 

Gregorovius'  Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages.     (Hamilton's  Translation.) 

Gross'  Gild  Merchant.     Vol.  I. 

Grote's  History  of  Greece. 

Hakluyt's  Voyages. 

Hakluyt's  Voyages  of  Elizabethan  Seamen.     Edited  by  Payne. 

Hall's  History  of  Custom  Revenue  of  English. 

Hodgkin's  Italy  and  her  Invaders. 

Josephus'  Antiquities  of  the  Jews. 

Kervyn  de  Letterhove's  Histoire  de  Flandre. 

Lang's  History  of  Scotland. 

List's  National  System  of  Political  Economy.     (Lloyd's  Translation.) 

Machiavelli's  Prince  and  other  Pieces.     (Morley's.) 
Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce. 
Maitland's  Domesday  Book  and  Beyond. 
Milman's  History  of  the  Jews. 
Milman's  History  of  Latin  Christianity. 

Moeller's  History  of  the  Christian  Church :  Reformation  and  Counter- 
Reformation.     (Translated  by  Freese.) 
Morse's  Trade  and  Administration  of  the  Chinese  Empire. 
Motley's  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic. 


LIST  OF  WORKS  CONSULTED 


355 


Nares's  Life  of  Lord  Burleigh. 

Pauli's  Simon  de  Montfort.     (Goodwin's  Translation.) 
Political  History  of  England. 

Raleigh's  Select  Observations  ;  presented  to  King  James. 

Rambaud's  Histoire  de  la  Civilisation  Franfaise. 

Rishanger's  Chronicle  and  Miracles  of  Simon  de  Montfort.     (Camden 

Society.) 

Rogers's  (Thorold)  Economic  Interpretation  of  History. 
Rogers's  (Thorold)  History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  in  England. 

Sharpe's  London  and  the  Kingdom. 

Sinclair's  History  of  the  Revenue.     Third  edition. 

Social  England. 

Stebbing's  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 

Stephens'  Portugal  (Story  of  the  Nations). 

Strickland's  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  England. 

Stubbs's  Memorials  of  St.  Dunstan. 

Stubbs's  Constitutional  History  of  England. 

Stubbs's  Select  Charters. 

Trollope's  History  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Florence. 

Varenbergh's  Histoire  des  Relations  Diplomettiques  entre  la  Flandre 

et  I'Angleterre. 
Varenbergh's  La  Flandre  et  I' Empire  d'Allemagne. 

Walsingham's  Historia  Anglicana.     (Rolls  Series.) 
Walter  of  Hemingburgh.     (English  Historical  Society.) 
Welsford's  Strength  of  Nations. 

Worm's  Histoire  Commercial  de  la  Ligue  HansJatique. 
Wright's  Political  Poems  and  Songs.     (Rolls  Series.) 

Young's  Travels  during  1787,  1788,  and  1789. 


A  A  2 


INDEX 


ADDLED  Parliament,  290 

Agincourt,  167 

Alcuin,  1 8,  22-3 

Alfred  the  Great,  24 

Aliens,  treatment  of,  134,  162, 

165,  171,  223,  271 
Aller,  massacre  of  Saxons  at  the, 

19,  23 
Alum,  its  importance  in  cloth 

industry,  187,  211,  216,  217, 

223,  247,  275 

Alva,  Duke  of,  251,  254-5 
Amboina,  massacre  at,  277,  292 
Amsterdam,  255,  256,  263,  269, 

280 
Ancient  (or  Great)  Customs,  109, 

118,  151 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  23,  31 
Anglo-Saxon  invasion,  8 
Anne  of  Cleves,  234,  237 
Anselm,  57,  64-5 
Antwerp,  132,  196-7,  203,  222,  j 

224,  246,  248,  249,  255,  256, 
257,  267,  269 

Arian  Christianity,  n,  12,  13 
Armada,  the,  264 
Arras,  Peace  of,  196,  207 
Arthurian  legends,  3 
Assize  of  Arms,  77 
Avignon,  119,  155 

BACON,  Francis,  Lord  Chancel- 
lor, 198-9,  202-3,  216, 289,  292 
Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders,  26 
Baltic   trade,    173-5,    180,    194,  j 
204,  240-1 


Barbarian  invasions  of  Roman 

territory,  7,  8,  10,  27 
Bates,  John,  287 
Bath  in  Roman  times,  5 
Beaton,  Cardinal,  235-6 
Beaufort,  Cardinal,  178,  182 
Beaufort,    Edmund,    Duke    of 

Somerset,  178,  182-5 
Becket,  Thomas,  Archbp.,  72-4 
Bedford,    John,   Duke  of,    169, 

175,  178 
Bedfords    enriched    by    church 

plunder,  345 
Benedictine  monasteries,  13,  14, 

15,  17,  28,  42-3,  47 
Berwick,  treaty  of,  343 
Black  Death,  140 
Black  Sea  in  Greek  legends,  2 
Boclands,  30 
Boleyn,  Anne,  229-31 
Bouvines,  battle  of,  87 
Bretigny,  treaty  of,  144 
Brittany,  209-10 
Bruce,  Robert,  119,  125 
Bruges,  131,  134,  166,  170,  190, 

196-7 
Buckingham,     George     Villiers, 

Duke  of,  290,  294,  301,  306- 


CADE'S  rebellion,  178,  183 
Cadiz,  264,  268 
Caesar's  invasion  of  Britain,  3 
Calais,    139-40,    168,    170,    177, 

180,  184,  190,  194,  244 
Cambrai,  League  of,  218 


358 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 


Cambridgeshire   Fens,    draining 

of>  335-7 

Canada  (French),  249,  314-5 
Canute,  33-5 
Caorsines,  96 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  i,  288 
Carta  Mercatoria,  see.  Merchants' 

Charter 
Catherine    of    Aragon,     206-7, 

229-30,  232 
Cecil,  Robert,  Earl  of  Salisbury, 

272,  280,  283,  287,  289-90 
Cecil,  William,  Lord  Burghley, 

243-72 

Charles  I.,  294-349 
Charles    V.,    Emperor,    216-7, 

219-43 

Charles  Martel,  17-8 

Charles  the  Bald,  26 

Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, 190-4 

Charles  the  Fat,  25 

Charles  the  Great,  18-21,  22-3 

Charles  the  Simple,  26 

Chester,  battle  of,  14 

Chichester,  Sir  Arthur,  299-300 

China,  278 

Cinque  Ports,  45,  112,  174 

Cistercians,  50,  69,  83 

Civil  War,  causes  of  the,  301-15 

Clarendon's  '  Rebellion  '  quoted, 
33i,  333,  334-5,  34O,  346 

Cloth  trade,  151,  171,  176-7,  179, 
187-8,  190,  200-1,  203-4,  239, 
247-8,  259,  275 

Clovis,  conversion  of,  12-13 

Coeur,  Jacques,  168 

Coinage,  237,  238,  248 

Coke,  C.J.,  288 

Cologne,  173,  184,  190,  194 

Colonies,  foundation  of,  291, 
293,  297 

Columbus,  206,  215 

Constantine,  Roman  Emperor, 
4,  6,  10,  12  ;  the  forged 
Donation  of,  18,  27 

Constantinople,  owed  its 
supremacy  to  Theodosius  the 
Great,  4,  and  to  Constantine, 
10,  12  ;  Mahomedan  attack 
upon,  repulsed,  17  ;  a  com- 


mercial metropolis,  20,  21, 
34,  82  ;  Emperor's  English 
bodyguard,  40,  48  ;  sacked  by 
Crusaders,  82  ;  captured  by 
Turks,  187 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  72 

Corn,  early  legislation  about, 
1 86,  240-1 

Cotton,  291,  323-4 

Court  of  High  Commission,  330, 

335 

Covenant,  Scotch,  342 
Cranmer,  Archbp.,  230,  241,  243 
Crecy,  139,  167 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  311, 336-7,  341 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  228-34 
Customs,    Ancient    (or    Great), 

109,  118,  151  ;  New,  118 

DAMME,  86,  95 

Danegeld,  91 

Danelaw,  24 

De  Burgh,  Hubert,  93,  96 

De  la  Pole,  Earl  of  Suffolk,  157-8 

De  Montfort,  Simon,  ist  earl,  85, 

95  ;  2nd  earl,  96,  100-6,  187 
De  Witt's  '  Interest  of  Holland/ 

180,  262,  269,  339 
'  Defender  of  the  Faith/  231 
Despensers,  the,  127-9 
Dominicans,  99 
Don  John  of  Austria,  256-7 
Donation  of  Constantine,  a  for- 
gery, 1 8,  27 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  251,  253,  259, 

264,  267-8 

Dudley  and  Empson,  216,  219 
Dunkirk,  338-9 
Dutch  East  India  Company,  277, 

292 
Dutch    Independence,    war    of, 

251-79 
Dutch    sea-power,    growth    of, 

260-72 

Dutch  trade  rivalry,  273-86 
Dutch  West  India  Company,  293 

EAST  INDIA  COMPANY,  277 
Easterlings,  44,    121,   123,    124, 

241.     See  Hanseatic  League 
Eastland  Company,  249 


INDEX 


359 


Edward  the  Black  Prince,  144-7 

Edward  the  Confessor,  35-9 

Edward  the  Martyr,  31 

Edward  I.,  106-20 

Edward  II.,  120-9 

Edward  III.,  129-49 

Edward  IV.,  186-97 

Edward  V.,  197 

Edward  VI.,  237-41 

Elbing,  258-9 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  230,  239,  243- 

272 

Emden,  246,  258,  268 
Enclosures,   97,    117,    126,    154, 

202,  239,  271,  284-5,  333 
Essex,  Earl  of,  272,  346 
Ethelred  the  Redeless,  31 
Eudes,  Count  of  Paris,  25 
Evesham,  battle  of,  106 
Evil  May  Day,  222 


FERDINAND  and  Isabella  of 
Spain,  205-22 

Fish  trade,  159,  162,  173-4,  327- 
328,  339 

Florence,  166,  171,  187-8,  203-4 

Florida,  Huguenot  colony  in, 
250-1 

Folclands,  30 

Forest  laws  and  rights,  92,  120 

Francis  I.,  220-36 

Franciscans,  99,  105 

Free  trade  under  James  I.,  276 

Frescobaldi,  118,  124 

Friars,  Dominican  and  Francis- 
can, 99,  147 

Fuggers,  German  capitalists, 
200,  224-6,  256 


GAVESTON,  Piers,  122-5 

Gavre,  battle  of,  184 

Genoa,  153,  171-2 

Ghent,  95,  177,  184 

Glastonbury,  30 

Gloucester,  Humphrey,  Duke  of, 
169, 175-6, 178, 182  ;  Richard, 
Duke  of,  see  Richard  III.  ; 
Thomas,  Duke  of,  157-60 

Godwine,  Earl,  37-9 


Good  Parliament,  150 
Great  Charter,  87 
Great  Contract,  289,  310 
Gregory  VII.   (Hildebrand) ,  37, 

52 

Grey,  Lady  Jane,  241-2 
Grossteste,  Bishop,  100 

HAMBURG,  258 

Hanseatic  League,  121,  123, 124, 
151,  165,  173-5,  179,  180,  181, 
183,  193-4,  204,  213,  240-1, 
243-4,  246,  248,  258,  268,  270. 
See  Steelyard 

Harold,  37-40 

Harold  Bluetooth,  29 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  250,  268 

Heemskerk,  Admiral,  279 

Hein,  Admiral,  293 

Henrietta  Maria,  Queen,  294, 
302 

Henry  I.,  59 

Henry  I L,  71-8 

Henry  III.,  89-106 

Henry  IV.,  160-4 

Henry  V.,  164-9 

Henry  VI.,  169-92 

Henry  VII.,  198-218 

Henry  VIII.,  219-37 

Henry  (IV.)  of  Navarre,  352, 
262,  265,  294,  313 

Hildebrand  (Pope  Gregory  VII.), 

37,  52 

Hops  introduced,  271  ;  pro- 
tected, 337 

Howard,  Catherine,  237 

Huguenots,  245,  250,  262.  And 
see  La  Rochelle 

Hundred  Years'  War,  130 

Hungarian  invasion  of  Italy,  27 

INDULGENCES,  sale  of,  225 

lona,  13 

Ireland,  references  to,  72,  75, 
126,  157,  160,  161,  211-2, 
234-5,  266-7,  279,  291-2,  297, 
299-300,  317-8,  321-5,  349 

Iron  trade,  186,  201,  247 

Italy,  French  invasion  of,  211, 

218,  219,  321,  333 


360 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 


JAMES  I.,  254,    262,  266,  272, 

273-94 
Japan,  278 
Jews   as   international    traders, 

n,  17,  20,  206,  214,  263  ;    in 

England,  45,  56,  91 
Joan  of  Arc,  1  76 
John,  75,  80,  8  1  -9 
John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lan- 

caster, 147,  148,  150,  152,  154, 
>  1S9>  l61 


KET'S  rebellion,  241,  271,  285 
Knox,  John,  239,  242,  244,  253-4 
Kyrkeby,  John,  153 

LA    ROCHELLE,     252,     297,     306, 

308,    311,    314.          And    see 

Huguenots 

Labourers,  Statutes  of,  146-7 
Lambe,  Dr.,  310 
Lanfranc,  41,  53,  57 
Langton,  Stephen,  84,  86,  93 
Laud,  Archbishop,   321,   325-9, 

his  policy,  330-43 
Leicester,  Earl  of,  262-3,  272 
Leighton's  '  Sion's  Plea,'  332 
Levant  Company,  248,  291,  304 
Lewes,  battle  of,  104 
'  Libel  of  English  Policy  '  (1436- 

1437),  I7°-3 

Lilburne,  332 

Linen,  Irish,  291-2,  323-4 

Livery  and  maintenance,  201-2 

Lollards,  147,  148,  152,  154,  160,  j 
162 

London,  references  to,  41-2,  45,  j 
56,  69-70,  88,  127-8,  149,  159,  I 
162-3,  I82,  184,  185,  191-2,  j 
223,  258,  310,  326-7,  345 

Louis  IX.,  98 

Luther,  225 

MAGNUS  INTERCURSUS,  213 

Mahomedans,  their  invasion  of  i 
Europe  checked  at  Tours,  17  ;  j 
invade  Southern  Italy,  25,  27  ;  ! 
capture  Constantinople,  187 

Malus  Intercursus,  213 

Manchester,  291,  324 


Manwaring's  sermon,  309 
Marignano,  battle  of,  221 
Marshal,  William,  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, 93 

Mary  of  Burgundy,  194-6,  207 
Mary  Tudor,  Queen,  242-4 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  236,  238, 

242,  243,  253-5,  262,  265 
Maryland,  299 
Massachusetts,  298 
Maurice  of  Orange,  263,  281-2 
Mayflower,  292-3,  298 
Medici,    the,     187,    200,    223  ; 

Catherine  de,  250 
Merchant  Adventurers,  175,  248, 

258,  273,  275 
Merchants'    Charter,    118,    120, 

122,  124,  128 
Merciless  Parliament,  158 
Merton,  provisions  of,  97,  117; 

statute  of,  202 
Model  Parliament,  115 
Monasteries,  foundation  of,  see 
Benedictines,  Cistercians ;  sup- 
pression of,  219-32 
Monopolies,  274,  276,  304 
Montague's  pamphlet,  303,  307 
Moors  (Moriscos),  206,  214,  279- 

280,  338 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  230-1 
Mortmain,  statute  of,  no 
Munster,  Plantation  of,  266 
Muscovy  merchants,  249 

NAVAL  matters  referred  to,  24-5, 
3i,  32-3,  37,  38-9,40,86,  134, 
146,  151-2,  156,  170,  180,  181, 
182,  189,  191,   198,  204,  225, 
236,  249,  282,  290,  302,  308,  339 
Naval  power,  increase  of,  246-59 
Navigation  Act,  156,  189 
Neville's  Cross,  143 
Nicholas  I.,  Pope,  27 
Nombre  de  Dios,  253,  255 
Norman  Conquest,  34-70 
Northampton,  153 
Northmen,  ravages  of,  23 
Northumberland,  Algernon 

Percy,    loth  earl   of,   346-9  ; 
John  Dudley,  Duke  of,  241-2 
Noy,  Attorney-General,  319 


INDEX 


361 


OCTROI,  origin  of,  1 1 
Odo  of  Bayeux,  53 
Offa,  King  of  Mercia,  22 
Ordainers,  124 
Otto  the  Great,  27-9 

PAPAL    supremacy    repudiated, 

233-45 
Parliament,     first     meeting    at 

Westminster,  105 
Parma,  Alexander  of,  256,  264, 

265 

Parr,  Catherine,  237,  239 
Pavia,  battle  of,  227 
Peasant  proprietors,  240 
Peasants'  Revolt,  155 
Peasants'  War  (Germany),  226 
Peter's  Pence,  16,  52 
Petition  of  Right,  309 
Philip  II.,  242-3,  245-68 
Philipot,  naval  treasurer,  152 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  232 
Poll-tax,  150,  153 
Poor  rate,  285 
Portugal,  69,  79,  156,  188,  205, 

206,  207,  216,  224,  250,  257, 

267-8,  277,  278,  279 
Poynings  Acts,  211-12 
Prise,  levying  of,  22 
Protection    for    English    trade, 

early  instances  of,    42,  44-6, 

69,  70, 90, 151, 171, 186-7,  T98, 

204,  216-7,  258,  337 
Protective  policy  initiated,  193- 

204 
Provisions  of  Merton,  97,  117;  of 

Oxford,  101  ;  of  Westminster, 

101 

Prynne,  332 

Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals,  27 
Puritanism,  rise  of,  295 

Quo  WARRANTO,  statute  of,  117 

RALEIGH,  Sir  Walter,  272,  275, 
283,  291 

Reformation  in  England  at  first 
economic  rather  than  re- 
ligious, 231,  242 

Religious  contentions,  286-300 

Rhode  Island,  298 


Richard  I.,  75,  77,  79-81 

Richard  II.,  147-62 

Richard  III.,  196-8 

Richard,     Earl    of    Gloucester, 

100-4 
Richelieu,    Cardinal,    313,    314, 

330,  337 

Richmond  Park  enclosed,  334 
Roberts,  Lewes,  on  Manchester, 

291,  323-4 

Rolf,  Duke  of  Normandy,  26 
Roman   Settlement   of   Britain, 

!-7 
Rome,  sack  of,  228 

ST.  ALBANS,  185,  186 

St.  Augustine,  13-4 

St.  Bartholomew  Massacre,  252 

St.  Benedict,  13 

St.  Berno  of  Cluny,  28 

St.  Boniface,  18 

St.  Columba,  13 

St.  Dominic,  85,  99 

St.  Dunstan,  28,  30-2 

St.  Francis,  99 

St.  Wilfrid,  15-6 

St.  Willibrord,  18 

Saracenic  invasion  of  Europe, 
17,  25,  27 

Saxon  England,  22-33 

Scotland  referred  to,  75,  111-2, 
115-20,  125,  129-30,  143, 
144,  175,  189,  195-6,  212-3, 
220-1,  235-7,  244-5,  253-4, 
265-6,  284,  295-6,  316,  319- 
320,  340-3 

Sea-Beggars,  252,  255 

Sea-power,  increase  of,  246-59 

Serfdom,  disappearance  of,  155 

Settlement  of  Europe,  8-21 

Seymour,  Jane,  231 

Ship-money,  308,  328,  338 

Ships  and  naval  stores  bought 
from  Germany,  121-2, 172,  249 

Short  Parliament,  349 

Silk,  1 86,  199 

Simnel,  Lambert,  209 

Six  Articles,  234,  239 

Slave-trade,  250,  251 

Sluys,  battles  at,  (1340)  134, 
(1387) 158 


362 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  ENGLAND 


Somerset,   Duke   of,    Protector, 

237-41 

Southampton,  153 
Spain,    189,    205-18,    219,    224, 

228,  234,  242-4,  246-83,  289- 

294,  306,  337-9,  348 
Stade,  259,  268 
Star  Chamber,  201,  322,  330 
States-General  of  France,  312-4 
Statute  of  Marlborough,  101 
Steelyard,  49,  121,  124,  131,  151, 

165,  184,  190,  191,  213,  241, 

268,    273.          See    Hanseatic 

League 
Stephen    of   Boulogne,    63,    64, 

65-70 

Stigand,  39,  41 
Strafford,   Thomas  Wentworth, 

Lord,  309,  311,  318,  319,  320, 

321-5,  348-9 

Stratford,  John,  Archbp.,  137-8 
Suffolk,  William     de     la     Pole, 

Duke  of,  178,  182-3 
Sweyn,  King  of  Denmark,  32-3 

TEMPLARS,  125 

Tetzel,  225 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  15 

Theodosius  the  Great,  4 

Thirty  Years'    War,    227,    282, 

289,  292,  338 

Thomas  of  Lancaster,  125-28 
'  Thorough,'  policy  of,  321 
Tobacco,  298 
Toulouse,  85,  94 
Tournay,  220,  223 
Tours,  battle  of,  17 
Tunnage    and    poundage,    303, 

307,  3" 

ULSTER,     Plantation    of,    279, 

291-2,  300 
Utrecht,    diet    at,    183-4,    I93> 

204 


VENICE,  20,  50,  172,  203,  218 
Verdun,  treaty  of,  20,  23 
Vills  and  villeins,  Saxon,  9 
Virginia  Company,  291,  297,  305 
Volterra,  187 

WALES,  TIO-I,  114-5,  235 
Wallace,  William,  116-9 
War  of  the  Roses,  179-92 
Warbeck,  Per  kin,  210-2 
Warwick,  Earl  of,  185,  190-1 
Weavers,  immigrant,  271 
Westminster,  Council  of,  99,  100 
Whitby  Conference,  14-5 
Whitelock's    '  Memorials,'    320, 

328 
Whittington,  Rich.,  Lord  Mayor, 

1 60,  162 
Widukind,  19 
William  I.,  35-54 
William  II.,  55-9 
William  of  Orange,  251-2,  255-7, 

261-2 
Winchelsey,  Robert  of,  114, 119- 

120,  122,  125 

Winchester,  statute  of,  131 
Winwaed,  battle  of,  14 
Wisby,  44,  50,  173 
Witchcraft,  belief  in,  331,  341 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  222-30 
Wool  and  cloth  trade,  26-7,  43, 
60,  63,  75-6,  84,  95,   102-3, 
108-10,  112,  130-4,  141,  142, 
143,  166,  176,  177,  186-8,  190, 
200-1,  203-4,  206,  223,  239. 


Wu 


337 
If stan,  41 


Wycliffe,  John,  147,  148,  150, 
152 

YEOMAN  class,  203 

York,  Richard,  Duke  of,  178, 
182,  183,  185-6 ;  Edward, 
Duke  of,  see  Edward  IV. 


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