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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17386.txt b/17386.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1daf8ed --- /dev/null +++ b/17386.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21748 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Leading Facts of English History, by D.H. +Montgomery + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Leading Facts of English History + + +Author: D.H. Montgomery + + + +Release Date: December 25, 2005 [eBook #17386] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEADING FACTS OF ENGLISH +HISTORY*** + + +This eBook was produced by Nathan Kennedy. + + + +The Leading Facts of History Series + +The Leading Facts of English History + +by D. H. Montgomery + +"Nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the +present came to be what it is." -- Stubbs, "Constitutional History of +England" + +Revised Edition + +Ginn and Company +Boston - New York - Chicago - London + +Copyright, 1887, 1889, 1898, 1901, 1912, by D.H. Montgomery +Entered at Stationers' Hall +All Rights Reserved +313.8 + + +The Athenaeum Press +Ginn and Company - Proprietors - Boston - U.S.A. + +I dedicate this book +to the memory of my friend +J.J.M. +who generously gave time, labor +and valuable suggestions +toward the preparation of the first edition +for the press + +Preface + +Most of the materials for this book were gathered by the writer during +several years' residence in England. + +The attempt is here made to present them in a manner that shall +illustrate the law of national growth, in the light thrown upon it by +the foremost English historians. The present edition has been +carefully revised throughout, and, to a considerable extent, +rewritten. + +The authorities for the different periods will be found in the +Classified List of Books in the Appendix; but the author desires to +particularly acknowledge his indebtedness to the works of Bright, +Brewer, Gardiner, Guest, Green, Lingard, Oman, and Traill; to the +source books of Lee and of Kendall; and to the constitutional +histories of Stubbs, Hallam, May, and Taswell-Langmead. + +The author's hearty thanks are due to the late Professor W. F. Allen, +of The University of Wisconsin; Professor Philip Van Ness Myers, of +College Hill, Ohio; Professor George W. Knight, of Ohio State +University; and to a number of teachers and friends for many valuable +suggestions which they have kindly made. + +David H. Montgomery + +Contents + +Leading Dates xviii +Period +I. Britain before Written History began +II. The Geography of England in Relation to its History +III. Roman Britain; A Civilization which did not civilize +IV. The Coming of the Saxons[1]; the Coming of the Normans +V. The Norman Sovereigns[1] +VI. The Angevins, or Plantagenets; Rise of the English Nation[1] +VII. The Self-Destruction of Feudalism +VIII. Absolutism of the Crown; the Reformation; the New Learning[1] +IX. The Stuart Period; the Divine Right of Kings versus the Divine + Right of the People +X. India gained; America lost--Parliamentary Reform--Government by the + People +A General Summary of English Constitutional History +Constitutional Documents +Genealogical Descent of the English Sovereigns[2] +A Classified List of Books +Special Reading References on Topics of English History + +[1] Each of these six Periods is followed by a General Reference +Summary of that period. See pp. 43, 71, 141, 174, 230, 316 +[2] For special Genealogical Tables see pp. 124, 140, 161, 172, 179, +207, 323 + +Suggestions to Teachers + +The writer of this brief manual is convinced that no hard-and-fast +rules can be laid down for the use of a textbook in history. He +believes that every teacher will naturally pursue a system of his own, +and that by so doing he will get better results than if he attempt to +follow a rigid mechanical course which makes no allowance for +individual judgment and gives no scope to originality of method. + +The author would simply suggest that where time is limited it might be +well to omit the General Reference Summaries (see, for instance, +p. 43) and to read the text as a continuous narrative. Then the +important points in each day's lesson might be talked over at the end +of the recitation or on the following day. + +On the other hand, where time permits a thorough course of study, all +of the topics might be taken up and carefully examined, and the +General Reference Summaries may be consulted by way of review and for +additional information. The pupil can also be referred to one or more +books (see the Classified List of Books in the Appendix) on the +subjects under consideration. + +Instead of the teacher's asking a prescribed set of routine questions, +the pupil may be encouraged to ask his on. Thus in undertaking the +examination of a given topic--say, the Battle of Hastings (SS69-75), +the issue of the Great Charter (SS195-202), or "The Industrial +Revolution" and Watt's invention of an improved Steam Engine +(S563)--there are five inquiries which naturally arise and which +practically cover the whole ground. + +These are: 1. When did the event occur? 2. Where did it occur? +3. How did it occur? 4. What caused it? 5. What came of it? It will +soon be seen that these five questions call attention first to the +chronology of he event, secondly to its geography, thirdly to the +narrative describing it, fourthly to its relations to preceding +events, and fifthly to its relations to subsequent events. + +The pupil will find that while in some instances he can readily obtain +answers for all of these inquiries,--for example, in the case of the +Great Charter,--in other instances he will have to content himself +with the answer to only a part of the questions, perhaps, in fact, to +only a single one; nevertheless the search will always prove +instructive and stimulating. Such a method of study, or one akin to +it, will teach the pupil to think and to examine for himself. It will +lead him to see the inevitable limitations and the apparent +contradictions of history. It will make him realize, as pehaps +nothing else can, that the testimony of different writers must be +taken like that of witnesses in a court of justice. He will see that +while authorities seldem entirely agree respecting details, they will +generally agree in regard to the main features of important events. +Last of all, and best as well as last, these five questions will be +found to open up new and broader fields of inquiry, and they may +perhaps encourage the pupil to continue his work on some subject in +which he becomes interested, beyond the limits of the textbook and the +classroom. + +Pursued in this way, the study of history will cease to be a dry +delving for dead facts in the dust of a dead past. It will rouse +thought, it will quicken the pulse of an intellectual life, and it +will end by making the pupil feel the full force of the great truth: +that the present is an outgrowth of the past, and that it is only when +we know what men have done, that we can hope to understnad what they +are now doing. + D. H. M. + + +Leading Dates + +(The most important constitutional dates are marked by an asterisk) + + 55. B.C. Caesar lands in Britain (S18) + 449. A.D. Coming of the Saxons (S36) + 878. Alfred's Treaty of Wedmore (S56) + 1066. Battle of Hastings (S74) +*1100. Henry I's Charter of Liberties (S135) +*1164. Constitutions of Clarendon (S165) +*1190. Rise of Free Towns (S183) + 1204. John's Loss of Normandy (S191) +*1215. John grants Magna Carta (SS198, 199) +*1265. De Montfort's Parliament (S213) +*1279. Statute of Mortmain (S226) + 1282. Conquest of Wales (S218) +*1295. First Complete Parliament (S217) +*1297. Confirmation of the Charters (S220) + 1336. Rise of Wool Manufacture (S236) + 1338. The Hundred Years' War (S237) + 1346. Batty of Cr'ecy; Cannon (S238) +*1350. Origin of Trial by Jury (S176) + 1378. Wycliffe's Bible; Lollards (S254) + 1381. Revolt of the Labor Class (S251) + 1390. Chaucer writes (S253) +*1393. Great Act of Praemunire (S243) + 1455. Wars of the Roses (SS299, 316) + 1477. Caxton introduces Printing (S306) + 1485. Battle of Bosworth Field (S315) + 1497. Cabot discovers America (S335) + 1509. The New Learning (S339) +*1534. The Act of Supremacy (S349) + 1536. The Monasteries destroyed (S352) +*1549. Protestantism established (S362) +*1554. Mary restores Catholicism (S370) + 1558. Rise of the Puritans (S378) + 1559. Act of Uniformity (S382) + 1582, 1605. Bacon's New Philosophy (S393) + 1587. Mary Queen of Scots executed (S397) + 1588. Destruction of the Armada (S400) + 1588. Rise of the English Navy (SS401, 408) + 1589(?). Shakespeare's First Play (S392) + 1601. The First Poor Law (SS403, 607) + 1604. The "Divine Right of Kings" (S419) + 1607. Virginia permanently settled (S421) + 1611. The "King James Bible" (S418) + 1622. First Regular Newspaper (S422) +*1628. The Petition of Right (S433) + 1642. The Great Civil War (S441) +*1649. Charles I beheaded; the Commonwealth established (SS448, 450) + 1651. Navigation Act (S459) + 1660. Restoration of Monarchy (S467) +*1660. Abolition of Feudal Dues (S482) + 1665. The Plague in London (S474) + 1666. Great Fire in London (S474) + 1670. Secret Treaty of Dover (S476) + 1673. The Test Act (S477) + 1678. The Disabling Act (S478) +*1678. Rise of Political Parties (S479) +*1679. Habeas Corpus Act (S482) + 1684. Newton's Law of Gravitation (S481) + 1685. Monmouth's Rebellion (S486) + 1687. Declaration of Indulgence (S488) + 1688. The Great Revolution (S491) +*1689. The Bill of Rights (S497) +*1689. Mutiny Act, Toleration Act (S496) + 1690. Battle of the Boyne (S500) + 1694. National Debt; Bank of England (S503) +*1695. Liberty of the Press (SS498, 556) + 1697. Peace of Ryswick (S502) +*1701. Act of Settlement (S497) +*1707. England and Scotland united (S513) + 1713. Peace of Utrecht (S512) + 1720. The South Sea Bubble (S536) +*1721. Rise of Cabinet Government (S534) + 1738. Rise of the Methodists (S546) + 1748. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (S542) + 1751-1757. English Conquests in India (S544) +*1759. The English take Quebec (S545) +*1776. American Independence (S552) +*1782. American Independence acknowledged (S553) + 1784. Mail Coaches begin to run (S566) + 1785. "Industrial Revolution"; Canals; Watt's Steam Engine (S563) + 1796. Vaccination introduced (S537) + 1799. First Savings Bank (S621) +*1800. Great Britain and Ireland united (S562) + 1805. Battle of Trafalgar (S557) + 1807. Steam Navigation begins (S565) + 1812. War with America (S558) + 1815. Battle of Waterloo (S559) + 1819. The Six Acts (S571) + 1829. Catholic Emancipation (S573) + 1830. First Passenger Railway (S584) +*1832. Great Suffrage Reform (S582) +*1835. Municipal Reform (S599) + 1837-1911. Colonial Expansion (S618) +*1838-1848. Rise of Chartrists (S591) + 1839. Postage Reform (S590) + 1845. First Telegraph (S614) + 1845. Irish Famine (S593) + 1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws (S594) + 1857. Rebellion in India (S597) + 1858. Jews enter Parliament (S599) + 1859. Darwin's Evolution (S606) + 1861. The Trent Affair (S598) + 1866. Permanent Atlantic Cable (S595) + 1867. Second Suffrage Reform (S600) + 1869. Partial Woman Suffrage (S599) + 1869. Free Trade established (S594) + 1870. The Education Act (S602) +*1870. Civil Service Reform (S609) + 1870. Irish Land Act (S603) + 1871-1906. Trades Unions Acts (S616) + 1884. Third Suffrage Reform (S600) +*1888, 1894. Local Government Acts (S608) + 1899. The Boer War (S623) +*1906. Labor enters Parliament (S628) + 1908. Old-Age Pensions (S628) + 1910. Imperial Federation (S625) +*1911. Parliament Act; Salary Act (S631) + + +THE LEADING FACTS OF ENGLISH HISTORY + +FIRST PERIOD[1] + +"This fortress built by Nature for herself +Against infection and the hand of ewar; +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." + Shakespeare, "Richard II" + +BRITAIN BEFORE WRITTEN HISTORY BEGAN + +1. The Earliest Inhabitants of England. + +England was inhabited for many centuries before its written history +began. The earliest races that possessed the country were stunted, +brutal savages. They used pieces of rough flint for tools and +weapons. From flint too they produced fire. They lived by hunting +and fishing, and often had no homes but caves and rock shelters. + +Following the Cave-Men came a race that had learned how to grind and +polish the stone of which they made their hatchets, knives, and +spears. This race cleared and cultivated the soil to some extent, and +kept cattle and other domestic animals. + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. + +2. The Britons + +Finally, a large-limbed, fair-haired, fierce-eyed people invaded and +conquered the island. They came from the west of Europe. They made +their axes, swords, and spears of bronze,--a metal obtained by melting +and mingling copper and tin. These implements were far superior to +any made of stone. + +The new people were good farmers; they exported grain, cattle, and +hides to Gaul (France), and mined and sold tin ore to merchants who +came by sea from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. + +This strong and energetic race, known as Celts, eventually called +themselves Britons. By the time they had adopted that name they had +made a great step forward, for they had learned how to mine and +manufacture iron,--the most useful metal known to man; from it they +forged scythes, swords, and spears. + +Such were the people Caesar met when he invaded Britain, fifty-five +years before the beginning of the Christian era. The great Roman +general called the Britons "barbarians"; but they compelled him to +respect them, for they were a race of hard fighters, who fearlessly +faced even his veteran troops. + +3. The Religion of the Britons; the Druids. + +The Britons held some dim faith in an overruling Power and in a life +beyond the grave. They offered human sacrifices to that Power, and +when they buried one of their warriors, they buried his spear with him +so that he might fight as good a battle in the next world as he had +fought in this one. + +Furthermore, the Britons had a class of priests called Druids, who +seem to have worshiped the heavenly bodies. These priests also acted +as prophets, judges, and teachers. Caesar tells us that the Druids +instructed the youth about the stars and their motions, about the +magnitude of the earth, the nature of things, and "the might and power +of the immortal gods." + +More than this, the Druids probably erected the massive stone columns +of that strange stucture, open to the sky, whose ruins may still be +seen on the lonely expanse of Salisbury Plain. There, on one of the +fallen blocks, Carlyle and Emerson sat, when they made their +pilgrimage to Stonehenge[1] many years ago, and discussed the life +after death, with other questions of Druid philosophy. + +[1] Stonehenge: This remarkable structure is believed to be the +remains of a pre-historic monument to the dead, which was, perhaps, +used also as a place of worship. It stands on Salisbury Plain about +nine miles northeast of the city of Salisbury. (See map facing +p. 38.) It consists of a broken circle of huge upright stones, some +of which are still connected at the top by blocks of flat stones. +Within this circle, which is about one hundred feet in circumference, +is a circle of smaller stones. The structure has no roof. The recent +discover of stains of bronze or copper on one of the great stones, +seven feet below the surface, strengthens the theory that Stonehenge +was constructed by the race who used bronze implements and who were +later known as Britons (S2). Consult Professor C. Oman's "England +before the Norman Conquest"; see also R. W. Emerson's "English +Traits," and O. W. Holmes's fine poem on the "Broken Circle," +suggested by a visit to Stonehenge. + +4. What we owe to Prehistoric Man. + +We have seen that the Romans called the Britons "barbarians" (S2). +But we should bear in mind that all the progress which civilization +has since made is built on the foundations which those primitive races +slowly and painfully laid during unnumbered centuries of toil and +strife. + +To them we owe man's wonderful discovery of the power to produce +fire. To them we are indebted for the invention of the first tools, +the first weapons, and the first attempts at architecture and +pictorial art. They too tamed the dog, the horse, and our other +domestic animals. They also discovered how to till the soil and how +to mine and manufacture metals. In fact those "barbarians" who lived +in "the childhood of the world," and who never wrote a line of +history, did some things equal to any which history records, for out +of wild plants and trees they developed the grains and fruits which +now form an indispensable part of "our daily bread." + +Finally, through their incessant struggles with nature, and incessant +wars among themselves, those rude tribes learned to establish forms of +self-government for towns or larger districts. Many of their salutary +customs--their unwritten laws--still make themselves felt in the +world.[1] They help bind the English nation together. They do even +more than that, for their influence can be traced in the history of +newer nations, which, like the American republic, have descended from +the great mother-countries of Europe. + +[1] For example, parts of the "Common Law" can be traced back, through +English "dooms" (decisions or laws), to prehistoric times. See +E. A. Freeman in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (10th edition, VIII, +276). The New England "Town Meeting" can be likewise traced back to +the German ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. + +[Figures: Carved bone, flint dagger, and bronze spearhead] + + +SECOND PERIOD[1] + +"Father Neptune one day to Dame Freedom did say, +`If ever I lived upon dry land, +The spot I should hit on would be little Britain.' +Says Freedom, `Why that's my own island.' +O, 't is a snug little island, +A right little, tight little island! +Search the world round, none can be found +So happy as this little island." + T. Dibdin + +THE GEOGRAPHY OF ENGLAND IN RELATION TO ITS HISTORY[2] + +5. Geographical Names given by the Britons and the Romans + +The steps of English history may be traced to a considerable extent by +geographical names. Thus the names of most of the prominent natural +features, the hills, and especially the streams, originated with the +Britons. They carry us back to the Bronze Age (S2) and perhaps +earlier. Familiar examples of this are found in the name Malvern +Hills, and in the word Avon ("the water"), which occurs in +Stratford-on-Avon, and is repeated many times in England and Wales. + +The Roman occupation of Britain is shown by the names ending in +"cester" or "chester" (a corrupton of castra, a military camp). Thus +Leicester, Worcester, Dorchester, Colchester, Chester, indicate that +these places were walled towns and military stations. + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. +[2] As this Period necessarily contains references to certain events +which occurred in later history, it may be advantageously reviewed by +the pupil after he has reached an advanced stage in his course of +study. + +6. Saxon and Danish Names. + +On the other hand, the names of many of the great political divisions, +especially in the south and east of England, mark the Saxon +settlements, such as Essex (the East Saxons), Sussex (the South +Saxons), Middlesex (the Middle or Central Saxons). In the same way +the settlement of the two divisions of the Angles on the coast is +indicated by the names Norfolk (the North folk) and Suffolk (the South +folk). (See map facing p. 24.) + +The conquests and settlements of the Danes are readily traced by the +Danish termination "by" (an abode or town), as in Derby, Rugby, +Grimsby. They occur with scarcely an exception north of London. They +date back to the time when King Alfred made the Treaty of Wedmore +(S56), A.D. 878, by which the Danes agreed to confine themselves to +the northern half of the country. (See map facing p. 32.) + +7. Norman Names. + +The conquest of England by the Normans created but few new names. +These, as in the case of Richmond and Beaumont, generally show where +the invading race built a castle or an abbey, or where, as in +Montgomeryshire, they conquered and held a district in Wales. + +While each new invasion left its mark on the country, it will be seen +that the greater part of the names of counties and towns are of Roman, +Saxon, or Danish origin. With some few and comparatively unimportant +exceptions, the map of England remains to-day in this respect what +those races made it more than a thousand years ago. + +8. Climate. + +With regard to the climate of England,--its insular form, geographical +position, and its exposure to the warm currents of the Gulf Stream +give it a temperature generally free from great extremes of heat or +cold. On this account, it is favorable to the full and healthy +development of both animal and vegetable life. + +Nowhere is greater vigor or longevity found. Charles II said that he +was convinced that there was not a country in the world so far as he +knew, where one could spend so much time out of doors comfortably as +in England. + +9. Industrial Division of England. + +From an industrial and historical point of view, the country falls +into two divisions. Let a line be drawn from Hull, on the northeast +coast, to Leicester, in the Midlands, and thence to Exmouth, on the +southwest coast. (See map on p. 10.) On the upper or northwest side +of that line will lie the coal and iron which constitute the greater +part of the mineral wealth and form the basis of the manufacturing +industry of England; here too are all the largest towns except London. + +On the lower or southeast side of the line there will be a +comparatively level surface of rich agricultural land, and most of the +fine old cathedral cities with their historic associations; in a +world, the England of the past as contrasted with modern and +democratic England, that part which has grown up since the +introduction of steam. + +10. Eastern and Western Britain compared. + +As the southern and eastern coasts of Britain were in most direct +communication with the Continent, and were first settled, they +continued until modern times to be the wealthiest, most civilized, and +progressive part of the island. Much of the western portion is a +rough, wild country. To it the East Britons retreated, keeping their +primitive customs and language, as in Wales and Cornwall. + +In all the great movements of religious or political reform, up to the +middle of the seventeenth century, we find that the people of the +eastern half of the island were usually on the side of a larger +measure of liberty; while those of the western half were generally in +favor of increasing the power of the King and the Church. + +11. Influence of the Island Form on the Roman Invasion + +Geologists tell us that Great Britain was once connected with the +mainland of western Europe. It was fortunate for Britain that this +connection was severed and that it became an island. We see an +illustration of this advantage in the case of the Roman invasion. It +was easy for the Romans to march great armies into Gaul and take +complete possession of that country, but it was with no little +difficulty that they sent fleets across the tempestuous waters of the +Channel. This may have been one reason why they never succeeded in +permanently establishing their language and their laws in the island +of Britain. It is true that they conquered and held it for several +centuries, but they never destroyed its individuality,--they never +Latinized it as they did France and Spain. + +12. Influence of the Island Form on the Saxon Invasion. + +In like manner, when the northern tribes of Europe overran the Roman +Empire, they found themselves, in some measure, shut out from Britain +by its wall of sea. The Jutes, Saxons, and Angles could not enter it +in countless hordes, but only in small numbers and by occasional +attacks. Because of this, the invaders could only drive back the +Britons by slow degrees, and they never entirely crushed them. + +Again, the conquerers could not build up a strong, united kinigdom, +but they had to content themselves with establishing a number of petty +kingdoms which were constantly at war with each other. Later, the +whole of England became subject to a sing sovereign. But the chief +men of the separate kingdoms, which had now become simply shires or +counties, retained a certain degree of control over the government. +This prevented the royal power from becoming the unchecked will of an +arbitrary ruler. Finally, it may be said that the isolation of +England had much to do with the development of the strong individual +character of its people. + +13. Influence of the Island Form on the Danes and Normans. + +In the course of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries the Danes +invaded England, but the sea prevented their coming all at once and +with overwhelming force. They got possession of the throne (S63) and +permanently established themselves in the northern half of the +country. The English, however, held their own so well that the Danes +were eventually compelled to unite with them. Even when the Normans +invaded England and conquered it (SS74, 107), they felt obliged to +make many concessions to both the English and the Danes. The result +was that every invasion of the island ended in a compromise, so that +no one race ever got complete predominance. In time all the elements +mingled and became one people. + +14. Influence of the Channel in Later History. + +Furthermore, the immense protective value of the Channel to England +may be traced down to our own day. In the great crisis when Simon de +Montfort was fighting (1264) to secure parliamentary representation +for the people (S213), King Henry III sought help from France. The +French monarcy got a fleet ready to send to England, but bad weather +held it back, and Henry was obliged to concede De Montfort's demands +for reform.[1] + +[1] W. Stubb's "Select Charters," p. 401 + +Again, when the Spanish Armada swooped down upn England (1588) a +terrible tempest dispersed a part of the enemy's fleet. Many of the +vessels were wrecked (S399) and only a few were left to creep back, +crippled and disheartened, to the ports of Spain. When Queen +Elizabeth publicly thanked the leaders of her valiant navy for what +they had done to repel the Spanish forces, she also acknowledged how +much England owed to the protective power of wind and wave. + +The same elements taught Napoleon a lesson which he never forgot. He +had carefully planned an expedition against England (S557), but +violent and long-continued storms compelled him to abandon the +hazardous undertaking (1804). The great French commander felt himself +invincible on land, but he was obliged to confess that "a few leagues +of salt water" had completely out-generaled him. + +In fact, ever since England organized a regular navy (1512) the +encircling arms of the ocean have been her closest and surest friend. +They have exempted her from keeping up a large standing army and so +preserved her from the danger of military despotism at home. They too +have made her the greatest sea power,[1] and, at the same time, the +greatest colonizing power[2] the world has yet seen. They have also +made her the greatest commercial power on the globe.[3] + +[1] The English navy far outranks that of any other nation in the +number of its warships. +[2] The English colonial possessions and "spheres of influence" cover +an area of more than 11,400,000 square miles. (See map between +pp. 422, 423.) +[3] The total commerce of the United Kingdom in 1910 was nearly +912,000,000 pounds and that of the British Empire exceeded +1,990,680,000 pounds. + +It is true that the use of steam for vessels of war has diminished the +natural protective service of the Channel, since a hostile fleet can +now move against England in almost any weather. Still, the "silver +streak," as the English call that waterway, will always remain, in +some degree, a defense against sudden invasion, except, of course, +from a squadron of military airships. + +15. England as a Commercial Center. + +In closing this period, the position of England, with respect to +facilities for commerce, deserves particular attention. In the first +place the country has many excellent harbors; next, it is situated in +the ocean which is the great highway between the two continents having +the highest civilization and the most constant intercourse. Finally, +a glance at the maps on pages 185 and 420 will show that +geographically England is located at about the center of the land +masses of the globe. + +It is evident that a large island so placed stands in the favorable +position for easy and rapid trade communications with every quarter of +the world. For this reason England has been able to attain, and thus +far to maintain, the highest rank among maritime and commercial +powers. It is true that since the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) +the trade with the Indies, China, and Japan has considerably changed. +Many cargoes of teas, silks, spices, and other Eastern products, which +formerly went to London, Liverpool, or Southampton, to be reshipped to +different countries of Europe, now pass by other routes direct to the +consumer. Furthermore, it is a question what effect the completion of +the Panama Canal will have on English trade in parts of the Pacific. +But for the present England retains her supremacy as the great carrier +and distributor of the productions of the earth,--a fact which has had +a very decided influence on her history, and on her relations with +other nations, both in peace and war. + +[Industrial Map of England (S9)] + + +THIRD PERIOD[1] + +"Force and Right rule the world: Force, till Right is ready." + Joubert + +ROMAN BRITAIN, 55 B.C.; 43-410 A.D. + +A CIVILIZATION WHICH DID NOT CIVILIZE + +16. Europe shortly before Caesar's Invasion of Britain. + +Before considering the Roman invasion of Britain let us take a glance +at the condition of Europe. We have seen that the tribes (S2) of +Britain, like those of Gaul (France), were not mere savages. On the +contrary, we know that they had taken more than one important step in +the path of progress; still the advance should not be overrated, for +north of the shores of the Mediterranean there was no real +civilization. + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. + +17. Caesar's Campaigns. + +Such was the state of Europe when Julius Caesar, who was governor of +Gaul, but who aspired to be ruler of the world, set out on his first +campaign against the tribes north of the Alps (58 B.C.). + +In undertaking the war he had three objects in view: First, he wished +to crush the power of those restless hordes that threatened the safety +of the Roman Republic. Next, he sought military fame in the hope that +it would make him supreme ruler of that Republic. Lastly, he wanted +money to maintain his army and to bribe the party leaders of Rome to +help him carry out his political plans. To this end he compelled +every tribe which he conquered to pay him tribute in cash or slaves. + +18. Caesar reaches Boulogne and crosses over to Britain, 55 B.C. + +In three years Caesar had subjugated the enemy in a succession of +victories, and a great part of Europe lay helpless at his feet. Late +in the summer of 55 B.C. he reached Boulogne on the coast of Gaul. +Standing there, he could see the gleaming chalk cliffs of Britain, so +vividly described in Shakespeare's "King Lear."[1] + +[1] Shakespeare's "King Lear," Act IV, scene vi. + +While encamped on the shore he "resolved," he says, "to pass over into +Britain, having had trustworthy information that in all his wars with +the Gauls the enemies of the Roman commonwealth had constantly +received help from thence."[2] + +[2] Caesar's "Gallic War," Book IV. + +Embarking with a force of between eight and ten thousand men[3] in +eighty small vessels, Caesar crossed the Channel and landed not far +from Dover, where he overcame the Britons (S2), who made a desperate +resistance. After a stay of a few weeks, during which he did not +leave the coast, he returned to Gaul. + +[3] Caesar probably sailed about the 25th of August, 55 B.C. His +force consisted of two legions, the 7th and 10th. A legion varied at +different times from 3000 foot and 200 horse soldiers to 6000 foot and +400 horse. + +19. Caesar's Second Invasion of Britain. + +The next year (54 B.C.), a little earlier in the season, Caesar made a +second invasion with a much larger force, and penetrated the country a +short distance north of the Thames. Before the September gales set +in, he reembarked for the Continent, never to return. + +The total results of his two expeditions were a number of natives +carried as hostages to Rome, a long train of captives destined to be +sold in the slave markets, and some promises of tribute which the +Britons never fulfilled. Tacitus, the Roman historian, says Caesar +"did not conquer Britain; he only showed it to the Romans." + +20. The Third Invasion of Britain by the Romans, 43 A.D. + +For nearly a hundred years the Romans made no further attempt on +Britain, but in 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius invaded the island. +After nine years' fighting, he overcame Caractacus, the leader of the +Britons, and carried him in chains to Rome. The brave chief refused +to beg for life or liberty. "Can it be possible," said he, as he was +led through the streets, "that men who live in such places as these +envy us our wretched hovels!" "It was the dignity of the man, even in +ruins," says the Roman historian, "which saved him." The Emperor, +struck with his bearing and his speech, ordered him to be set free. + +21. The Romans plant a Colony in Britain, Llyn-din. + +Meanwhile the armies of the Empire had established a strong colony at +Colchester in the southeast of Britain. (See map facing p. 14.) +There they built a temple and set up the statue of the Emperor +Claudius, which the soldiers worshiped, both as a protecting god and +as the representative of the Roman Empire. + +The army had also conquered other places. One of these was a little +native settlement on a bend in the Thames where the river broadened +slightly. It consisted of a few miserable huts and a row of +intrenched cattle pens. It was called in the British tongue Llyn-din +or the Fort-on-the-pool. This name, which was pronounced with +difficulty by Roman lips, eventually became known wherever ships sail, +trade reaches, or history is read,--London. + +22. Expedition against the Druids. + +But in order to complete the conquest of the country, the Roman +generals resolved to crush the power of the Druids (S3), since these +priests exhorted the Britons to refuse to surrender. The island of +Anglesey, off the northwest coast of Wales, was the stronghold to +which the Druids had retreated. (See map facing p. 14.) As the Roman +soldiers approached to attack them, they beheld the priests and women +standing on the shore, with uplifted hands, uttering "dreadful prayers +and imprecations." + +For a moment the Roman troops hesitated; then they rushed upon the +Druids, cut them to pieces, and cast their bodies into their own +sacred fires. From this blow Druidism as an organized faith never +recovered, though traces of its religious rites still survive in the +use of the mistletoe at Christman and in May-day festivals. + +23. Revolt of Boadicea (61). + +Still the power of the Latin legions was only partly established, for +while the Roman general was absent with his troops at Anglesey, a +formidable revolt had broken out in the east. A British chief, in +order to secure half of his property to his family at his death, left +it to be equally divided between his daughters and the Emperor. The +governor of the district, under the pretext that Boadicea, the widow +of the dead chief, had concealed part of the property, seized the +whole of it. + +Boadicea protested. To punish her presumption, the Romans stripped +and scourged her, and inflicted still more brutal and infamous +treatment on her daughters. Maddened by these outrages, Boadicea +appealed to her countrymen for vengeance. The enraged Britons fell +upon London, and other places held by the Romans, burned them to the +ground, and slaughtered many thousand inhabitants. But in the end +Roman forced gained the victory, and Boadicea took her own life rather +than fall into the hands of her conqueror. + +The "warrior queen" died, let us trust, as the poet has represented, +animated by the prophecy of the Druid priest that,-- + + "Rome shall perish--write that word + In the blood that she has spilt;-- + Perish, hopeless and abhorred, + Deep in ruin, as in guilt." [1] + +[1] Cowper's "Boadicea." + +24. Christianity introduced into Britain. + +Perhaps it was not long after this that Christianity made its way to +Britain; if so, it crept in so silently that nothing certain can be +learned of its advent. The first church, it is said, was built at +Glastonbury, in the southeast of the island. (See map facing p. 38.) +It was a long, shedlike structure of wickerwork. "Here," says an old +writer,[1] "the converts watched, fasted, preached, and prayed, having +high meditations under a low roof and large hearts within narrow +walls." + +[1] Thomas Fuller's "Church History of Britain." + +At first no notice was taken of the new religion. It was the faith of +the poor and the obscure, and the Roman generals treated it with +contempt; but as it continued to spread, it caused alarm. + +The Roman Emperor was not only the head of the state, but the head of +religion as well. He represented the power of God on earth: to him +every knee must bow (S21). But the Christians refused this homage. +They put Christ first; for that reason they were dagerous to the +state, and were looked--[SECTION MISSING]--rebels, or as men likely to +become so. + +25. Persecution of British Christians; [SECTION MISSING] + ________________ +last of the third century the Roman Emperor / \ +root out this pernicious belief. The first | | +He refused to sacrifice to the Roman | | + | | +But the ancient historian[2] says, with | SECTION | +executioner who struck "the wicked stroke | MISSING | +rejoice over the deed, for his eyes dropped | | +together with the blessed martyr's head | | +later the magnificent abbey of St. Albans | | +commemorate him who had fallen there. \________________/ + +[2] Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of Britain," completed about the +year 731. +[3] St. Albans: twenty miles northwest of London. (See map facing +p. 16.) + +26. Agricola builds a Line of Forts (7 [END OF LINE MISSING] + +When Agricola, a wise and equitable Roman ruler, became governor of +Britain he explored the coast, and first discovered Britain to be an +island. He gradually extended the limits of the government, and, in +order to prevent invasion from the north, he built a line of forts +(completed by Antoninus) across Scotland, from the mouth of the river +Forth to the Clyde. (See map facing p. 14.) + +From this date the power of Rome was finally fixed. During the three +hundred years which followed, the surface of the country underwent a +change. The Romans cut down forests, drained marshes, reclaimed waste +land, and bridged rivers. Furthermore they made the soil so +productive that Britain became known in Rome as the most important +grain-producing and grain-exporting province in the Empire. + +27. Roman Cities; London; York. + +Where the Britons had once had a humble village enclosed by a ditch +and protected by a stockade, the Romans built the cities of Chester, +Lincoln, London, York, and other towns, protected by massive walls and +towers of stone. These places have continued to be centers of +population ever since. + +London early became the Roman commercial metropolis, while the city of +York in the north was made the military and civil capital of the +country. (See map facing p. 14). There the Sixth Legion was +stationed. It was the most noted body of troops in the Roman army, +and was called the "Victorious Legion." It remained there for upwards +of three centuries. There, too, the governor resided and administered +justice. For these reasons York got the name of "another Rome." + +The city had numerous temples and public buildings, such as befitted +the Roman capital of Britain. There an event occurred in the fourth +century which made an indelible mark on the history of mankind. +Constantine, the subsequent founder of Constantinople, was proclaimed +Emperor at York, and through his influence Christianity became the +established religion of the entire Roman Empire.[1] + +[1] Constantine was the first Christian Emperor of Rome. The +preceding emperors had generally persecuted the Christians. + +28. Roman System of Government; Roads. + +During the Roman possession of Britain the country was differently +governed at different periods, but eventually it was divided into five +provinces. These were intersected by a magnificent system of paved +roads running in direct lines from city to city, and having London as +a common center. (See map facing p. 14.) + +Over these road bodies of troops could march rapidly to any required +point. By them, and by similar roads, leading through France, Spain, +and Italy, officers of state, mounted on relays of fleet horses, could +pass from one end of the Empire to the other in a few days' time. +(See map below, and that facing p. 14.) + +So skillfully and substantially were these highways constructed, that +modern engineers have been glad to adopt them as a basis for their +work. The four chief Roman roads[1] continue to be the foundation, +not only of numerous turnpikes in different parts of England, but also +of several of the great railway lines, especially those from London to +Chester and from London to York. + +[1] The four chief roads were: (1) Watling Street; (2) Icknield +Street; (3) Irmin Street; and (4) The Fosse Way. (See map facing +p. 14.) + +29. Roman Forts and Walls Defenses against Saxon Pirates. + +Next in importance to the roads were the fortifications. In addition +to those which Agricola had built (S26), either Hadrian or Severus +constructed a wall of solid masonry across the country from the shore +of the North Sea to the Irish Sea. This wall, which was about +seventy-five miles south of Agricola's work, was strengthened by a +deep ditch and a rampart of earth. (See map facing p. 14.) + +It was furthur defended by square stone castles built at regular +intervals of one mile. Between them were stone watchtowers, used as +sentry boxes; while at every fourth mile there was a stone fort, +covering several acres and occupied by a large body of troops. + +But the northern tribes were not the only ones to be guarded against; +bands of pirates prowled along the east and south coasts, burning, +plundering, and kidnaping. These marauders came from Denmark and the +adjacent countries (S37). + +The Britons and Romans called them Saxons, a most significant name if +it refers to the stout sharp knives which made them a terror to every +land on which they set foot. To repel them, the Romans built a strong +chain of forts along the coast, extending from the Wash on the North +Sea to the Isle of Wight on the south. (See map facing p. 14.) + +The greater part of these Roman walls, fortifications, and cities have +perished. But those which remain justify the statement that "outside +of England no such monuments exist of the power and military genius of +Rome." + +30. Wherein Roman Civilization fell Short. + +But this splendid fabric of Roman power signally failed to win the +support of the majority of the Britons. Civilization, like truth, +cannot be forced on minds unwilling or unable to receive it. Least of +all can it be forced by the sword's point and the taskmaster's lash. + +In order to render his victories on the Continent (S17) secure, Caesar +butchered thousands of prisoners of war, or cut off the right hands of +the entire population of large settlements to prevent them from rising +in revolt. + +The policy pursued in Britain, though very different, was equally +heartless and equally fatal. There were rulers who endeavored to act +justly, but such cases were rare. One of the leaders of the North +Britons said, "The Romans give the lying name of Empire to robbery and +slaughter; they make a desert and call it peace." + +31. The Mass of the Native Population Slaves; Roman Villas. + +It is true that the chief cities of Britain were exempt from +oppression. They elected their own magistrates and made their own +laws. But they enjoyed this liberty because their inhabitants were +either Roman soldiers or their allies, or Romanized Britons. + +Outside these cities the great mass of the native Britons were bound +to the soil and could not leave it, while a large proportion were +absolute slaves. Their work was in the brickyards, the quarries, the +mines, or in the fields or forests. + +The Roman masters of these people lived in stately villas adorned with +pavements of different-colored marbles and beautifully painted walls. +These country houses, often as large as palaces, were warmed in +winter, like our modern dwellings, with currents of heated air. In +summer they opened on terraces ornamented with vases and statuary, and +on spacious gardens of fruits and flowers.[1] On the other hand, the +laborers on these great estates lived in wretched cabins plastered +with mud and thatched with straw. + +[1] More than a hundred of these villas or country houses, chiefly in +the south and southwest of England, have been exhumed. Some of them +cover several acres. + +32. Roman Taxation and Cruelty. + +But if the condition of the British servile classes was hard, many who +were free were but little better off, for nearly all that they could +earn was swallowed up in taxes. The standing army of Britain, which +the people of the country had to support, rarely numbered less than +forty thousand. Great numbers of Britons were forced into the ranks, +but most of them appear to have been sent away to serve abroad. Their +life was one of perpetual exile. In order to meet the civil and +military expenses entailed upon him, every farmer had to pay a third +of all that his farm could produce, in taxes. Furthermore, he had to +pay duty on every article that he sold, last of all, he was obliged to +pay a duty or poll tax on his own head. + +On the Continent there was a saying that it was better for a property +owner to fall into the hands of savages than into those of the Roman +assessors. When they went round, they counted not only every ox and +sheep, but every plant, and registered them as well as the owners. +"One heard nothing," says a writer of that time, speaking of the days +when revenue was collected, "but the sound of flogging and all kinds +of torture. The son was compelled to inform against the father, men +were forced to give evidence against themselves, and were assessed +according to the confession they made to escape torment."[1] + +[1] Lactantius, cited in Elton's "Origins of English History," +p. 334. It should be noted, however, that Professor C. Oman in his +"England before the Norman Conquest," pp. 175-176, takes a moer +favorable view of the condition of Britain under the Romans than that +which most authorities maintain. + +So great was the misery of the land that sometimes parents destroyed +their children, rather than let them grow up to a life of suffering. +This vast system of organized oppression, like all tyranny, "was not +so much an institution as a destitution," undermining and +impoverishing the country. It lasted until time brought its revenge, +and Rome, which had crushed so many nations of barbarians, was in her +turn threatened with a like fate, by bands of northern barbarians +stronger than herself. + +33. The Romans compelled to abandon Britain, 410. + +When Caesar returned from his victorious campaigns in Gaul in the +first century B.C., Cicero exultantly exclaimed, "Now let the Alps +sink! the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the barbarians; they +are no longer needed." For nearly five centuries that continued true; +then the tribes of northern Europe could no longer be held back. When +the Roman emperors saw that the crisis had arrived, they recalled +their troops from Britain in 410 The rest of the Roman colonists soon +followed. + +At this time we find this brief but expressive entry in the +"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (SS46, 99): "After this the Romans never ruled +in Britain." A few years later this entry occurs: "418. This year +the Romans collected all the treasures in Britain; some they hid in +the earth, so that no one since has been able to find them, and some +they carried with them into Gaul." + +34. Remains of Roman Civilization. + +In the course of the next three generations the political and social +elements of Roman civilization in Britain seem to have disappeared. A +few words, such as "port" and "street," which may or may not have been +derived from the Latin, have come down to us. But there was nothing +left, of which we can speak with absolute certainty, save the material +shell,--the walls, roads, forts, villas, arches, gateways, altars, and +tombs, whose ruins are still seen scattered throughout the land. + +The soil, also, is full of relics of the same kind. Twenty feet below +the surface of the London of to-day lie the remains of the London of +the Romans. In digging in the "City,"[1] the laborer's shovel every +now and then brings to light pieces of carved stone with Latin +inscriptions, bits of rusted armor, broken swords, fragments of +statuary, and gold and silver ornaments. + +[1] The "City": This is the name given to that part of central London, +about a mile square, which was formerly enclosed by Roman walls. It +contains the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, and other very +important business buildings. Its limit on the west is the site of +Temple Bar; on the east, the Tower of London. + +So, likewise, several towns, long buried in the earth, and the +foundations of upwards of a hundred country houses have been +discovered; but these seem to be about all. If Rome left any traces +of her literature, law, and methods of government, they are + +[TWO PAGES MISSING (21-22)] + + +FOURTH PERIOD[1] + +"The happy ages of history are never the productive ones." -- Hegel + +THE COMING OF THE SAXONS, OR ENGLISH +449(?) A.D. + +THE BATTLES OF THE TRIBES--BRITAIN BECOMES ENGLAND + +36. The Britons beg for Help; Coming of the Jutes, 449 (?). + +The Britons were in perilous condition after the Romans had left the +island (S33). They had lost their old spirit (SS2, 18).[2] They were +no longer brave in war or faithful in peace. The Picts and Scots[3] +attacked them on the northwest, and the Saxon pirates (S29) assailed +them on the southeast. These terrible foes cut down the Britons, says +an old writer, as "reapers cut down grain ready for the harvest." + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. +[2] Gildas, in Bohn's "Six Old English Chronicles"; but compare +Professor C. Oman's "England before the Norman Conquest," pp. 175-176. +[3] The Picts and Scots were ancient savage tribes of Scotland. + +At length the chief men wrote to the Roman consul, begging him to help +them. They entitled their piteous and pusillanimous appeal, "The +Groans of the Britons." They said, "The savages drive us to the sea, +the sea casts us back upon the savages; between them we are either +slaughtered or drowned." But the consul was busy fighting enemies at +home, and he left the groaning Britons to shift for themselves. + +Finally, the courage of despair forced them to act. They seemed to +have resolved to fight fire with fire. Acting on this resolution, +they accordingly invited a band of sea rovers to come and help them +against the Picts and Scots. The chiefs of these Jutes[1] or Saxon +pirates did not wait for a second invitation. Seizing their +"rough-handled spears and bronze swords," they set sail for the +shining chalk cliffs of Britain, 449(?). They put an end to the +ravages of the Picts and Scots. Then instead of going back to their +own country, they took possession of the best lands of Kent and +refused to give them up. (See map opposite.) + +[1] The Jutes, Saxons, and Angles appear to have belonged to the same +Teutonic or German race. They inhabited the seacoast and vicinity, +from the mouth of the Elbe, northward along the coast of Denmark or +Jutland. These tribes which conquered England, and settled there, +remained for a long time hostile to each other, but eventually, they +united and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons or English. (See map +opposite.) + +37. The Saxons and Angles conquer Britain. + +The success of the first band of sea robbers in Britain (S36) +stimulated other bands to invade the island (477-541). They +slaughtered multitudes of Britons and made slaves of many more. The +conquerors named the parts of the country which they settled, from +themselves. Each independent settlement was hostile to every other. +Thus Sussex was the home of the South Saxons, Wessex of the West +Saxons, Essex of the East Saxons. (See map opposite.) Finally, a +band of Angles came from a little corner, south of the peninsula of +Denmark, which still bears the name of Angeln. They took possession +of all of eastern Britain not already appropriated. Eventually, they +came to control the greater part of the land, and from them, all the +other tribes, when fused together, got the name of Angles or English +(S50). (See map opposite.) + +38. Resistance made by the Britons; King Arthur. + +Meanwhile the Britons had plucked up courage and made the best fight +they could. They were naturally a brave people (SS2, 18). The fact +that it took the Saxons more than a hundred years to get a firm grip +on the island shows that fact. The legend of King Arthur's exploits +also illustrates the valor of the race to which he belonged. +According to tradtion this British Prince, who had become a convert to +Christianity (S25), met and checked the invaders in their isolent +march of triumph. The battle, it is said, was fought at Mount Badon +or Badbury in Dorsetshire. There, with his irresistable sword, +"Excalibur," and his stanch British spearmen, Arthur compelled his +foes to acknowledge that he was not a myth but a man[1] able "to break +the heathen and uphold the Christ." + +[1] See "Arthur" in the "Dictionary of National British Biography"; +and Professor Rowley in Low and Pulling's "Dictionary of English +History," p. 434. See also Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the +Britons" and Tennyson's "Idylls of the King." + +39. The Saxons or English force the Britons to retreat. + +But though King Arthur may have checked the pagan Saxon invaders, he +could not drive them out of the country. They had come to stay. On +the other hand, many Britons were forced to take refuge among the +hills of Wales. There they continued to abide. That ancient stock +never lost its love of liberty. More than eleven centuries later +their spirit helped to shape the destinies of the New World. Thomas +Jefferson andseveral of the other signers of the Declaration of +American Independence were either of Welsh birth or of direct Welsh +descent. + +40. Gregory and the English Slaves. + +The next period, of nearly eighty years, is a dreary record of +constant battles and bloodshed. Out of this very barbarism a +regenerating influence finally arose. + +In their greed for grain, some of the English tribes did not hesitate +to sell their own children into bondage. A number of these slaves, +exposed in the market place in Rome, attracted the attention of a monk +named Gregory. + +Struck with the beauty of their clear, ruddy complexions and fair +hair, he inquired from what country they came. "They are Angles" +(S37), was the dealer's answer. "No, not Angles, but angels," +answered the monk; and he resolved that, when he could, he would send +missionaries to convert a race of so much promise.[2] + +[2] Bede's "Ecclesiastical History." + +41. Coming of Saint Augustine, 597. + +When Gregory (S40) became Pope he fulfilled his resolution, and sent +Augustine with a band of forty monks to Britain. In 597 they landed +on the very spot where the first Saxon war band had set foot on +English soil nearly one hundred and fifty years before. Like Caesar +and his legions, Augustine and his monks brought with them the power +of Rome. But this time that power did not come armed with the sword +to force men to submit or die, but inspired with a persuasive voice to +cheer them with new hope. + +41. Augustine converts the King of Kent and his People (597). + +The English at that time were wholly pagan, and had, in all +probability, destroyed every vesetige of the faith for which the +British martyrs gave their lives (S25). But the King of Kent had +married a French princess who was a devout Christian. Through the +Queen's influence, the King was induced to receive Augustine. He was +afraid, however, of some magical practice, so he insisted that their +meeting should take place in the open air and on the island of +Thanet. (See map facing p. 32.) + +The historian Bede tells us that the monks, holding a tall silver +cross and a picture of Christ in their hands, advanced and saluted the +King. Augustine delivered his message, was well received, and invited +to Canterbury, the capital of Kent. There the King became a convert +to his preaching, and before the year had passed ten thousand of his +subjects had received baptism; for to gain the King was to gain his +tribe as well. + +43. Augustine builds the First Monastery. + +At Canterbury Augustine became the first archbishop over the first +cathedral. There, too, he established the first monastery in which to +train missionaries to carry on the work which he had begun (S45). +Part of the original monastery of St. Augustine is now used as a +Church of England missionary college, and it continues to bear the +name of the man who brought Christianity to that part of Britain. The +example of the ruler of Kent was not without its effect on others. + +44. Conversion of the North. + +The north of England, however, owed its conversion chiefly to the +Irish monks of an earlier age. They had planted monasteries in +Ireland and Scotland from which colonies went forth, one of which +settled in Durham. Cuthbert, a Saxon monk of that monastery in the +seventh century, traveled as a missionary throughout Northumbria, and +was afterward recognized as the saint of the North. Through his +influence that kingdom was induced to accept Christianity. Other +missionaries went to other districts to carry the "good tidings of +great joy." + +In one case an aged chief arose in an assembly of warriors and said: +"O king, as a bird flies through this hall in the winter night, coming +out of the darkness and vanishing into it again, even such is our +life. If these strangers can tell us aught of what is beyond, let us +give heed to them." + +But, as Bede informs us in his history of the English CHurch (S99), +some of the converts were too cautious to commit themselves entirely +to the new religion. One king, who had set up a large altar devoted +to the worship of Christ, set up a smaller one at the other end of the +hall to the old heathen deities, in order that he might make sure of +the favor of both. + +45. Christianity organized; Labors of the Monks. + +Gradually, however, the pagan faith was dropped. Christianity was +largely organized by bands of monks and nuns, who had renounced the +world in order to lead lives of self-sacrifice and service. They +bound themselves by the three vows of obedience, poverty, and +chastity, and the monastic law forbade them to marry. Monasteries +existed or were now established in a number of places in England.[1] + +[1] For instance, at Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the coast of +Northumberland (see Scott's "Marmion," Canto II, 9-10), at Wearmouth +and Jarrow in Durham, at Whitby on the coast of Yorkshire, and at +Peterborough in Northamptonshire. (See map facing p. 38.) + +The monasteries were educational as well as industrial centers. The +monks spent part of each day in manual toil, for they held that "to +labor is to pray." They cleared the land, drained he bogs, plowed, +sowed, and reaped. Another part of the day they spent in religious +exercises, and a third in writing, translating, and teaching. + +Each monastery had a school attached to it, and each had, besides, its +library of manuscript books and its room for the entertainment of +travelers and pilgrims. In these libraries important charters granted +by the King and important laws relating to the kingdom were preserved. + +46. Literary Work of the Monks. + +It was at the monastery of Jarrow[2] that Bede wrote in rude Latin the +Church history of England. It was at that in Whitby that the poet +Caedmon composed his poem on the Creation, in which, a thousand years +before Milton, he dealt with Milton's theme in Milton's spirit. + +[2] Jarrow, Whitby, etc.; see note 1, above. + +It was at the great monasteries of Peterborough and Canterbury that +the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" was probably begun (S99). It was the +first history of England written in English, and the one from which we +derive very important knowledge of the period extending from the +beginning of the Christian era down to a time nearly a hundred years +after the Norman conquest of the island. Furthermore we find that the +history of the country was written by the monks in the form of +independent narratives, some of which are of very great value as +sources of information.[1] + +[1] See six extracts from the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," in +E. K. Kendall's "Source-Book of English History," chaps. ii and iii; +also William of Malmesbury's "Conquered and Conquerors" (1066) and +Matthew Paris's "England in 1257," in the same book, pp. 41 and 78. +See also Bogn's "Six Old English Chronicles." + +47. Influence of Christianity on Society. + +But the power of Christianity for good was not confied to the +monasteries; the priests took their part in it. Unlike the monks, +they were not bound by monastic rules, though they were forbidden to +marry. They lived in the world and worked for the world, and had an +immense social influence. The Church, as a rule, in all forms of its +activity took the side of the weak, the suffering, and the oppressed. +Slavery was then the normal condition of a large class, but when the +Church held slaves it protected them from ill usage. It secured +Sunday for them as a day of rest, and it often labored effectually for +their emancipation. + +48. Political Influence of Christianity, 664. + +More than this, Christianity had a powerful political influence. A +great synod or council was held at Whitby, on the coast of Yorkshire, +664, to decide when Easter should be observed. Delegates to that +meeting were sent from different parts of the country. After a +protracted discussion all the churches finally agreed to accept the +Roman custom. This important decision encouraged a spirit of true +religious unity. The bishops, monks, and priests who gathered at +Whitby represented Saxon tribes which were often bitterly hostile to +each other (S37), but their action on the Easter question united them +in a certain way. It made them feel that they had a common interest, +that they were members of the same Church, and that, in that Church, +they were laboring for the same object. The fact that they bowed to +one supreme spiritual authority had a political significance. It +suggested that the time might be coming when all the conflicting +tribes or petty kingdoms in Britain would acknowledge the authority of +one King, and form one English nation. + +49. Egbert becomes King of Wessex, and Overlord of the Whole Country, +829. + +Somewhat more than a hundred and sixty years later a great step was +taken toward the accomplishment of the political union of the +different sections of Britain. By the death of the King of Wessex +(S37), Egbert, a descendant of Cerdic, the first chief and King of +that country, succeeded to the crown. He had spent some time in +France at the court of Charlemagne and had seen that great ruler make +himself master of most of western Europe. Egbert was not content to +remain simply King of Wessex. He resolved to make himself master of +the whole country. He began a series of wars by which he, at length, +compelled all the other Saxon Kings to acknowledge him as their +Overlord. That title marks the beginning, in 829, of a new period in +the history of the island. + +50. How Britain got the Name of England. + +In making himself supreme ruler over the entire English population of +Britain, Egbert laid the foundations of what was finally to become the +"Kingdom of England." Several causes contributed to this change of +name. We can trace the process step by step. First, the people of +Kent and the great council held at Whitby (SS42, 48) laid the +cornerstone of the National Church; next, the people of Wessex +furnished the National Overlord (S49); finally, the preponderance of +the people called Angles (S37) furnished the National Name of +Angle-Land or England. + +It is a fact worthy of notice, in this connection, that from Egbert as +a royal source every subsequent English sovereign (except the four +Danish Kings, Harold II, and William the Conqueror) has directly or +indirectly descended down to the present time. (See Table of Royal +Descent in the Appendix, p. xlii.) + +51. Alfred the Great. + +Of these sovereigns the most conspicuous during the period of which we +are writing was Alfred. He was a grandson of Egbert (S49). He was +rightly called Alfred the Great, since he was the embodiment of +whatever was best and bravest in the English character. The keynote +of his life may be found in the words which he spoke at the close of +it, "So long as I have lived, I have striven to live worthily." + +52. Danish Invasion. + +When Alfred came to the throne (871) the Danes, or Northmen, as they +were often called, were sweeping down upon the country. A few months +before he became King, he had aided his brother in a desperate +struggle with them. In the beginning, the object of the Danes was to +plunder, later, to possess, and finally, to rule over the country. +They had already overrun a large portion of England and had invaded +Wessex or the country of the West Saxons. (See map facing p. 30.) +Wherever their raven flag appeared, destruction and slaughter +followed. + +53. The Danes or Northmen destroy the Monasteries. + +These terrible pirates despised Christianity. They scorned it as the +weak religion of a weak people. They hated the English monasteries +most of all and made them the especial objects of their attacks (SS43, +45, 46). Many of these institutions had accumulated wealth, and some +had gradually sunk into habits of laziness, luxury, and other evil +courses of life. The Danes, who were full of the vigorous virtues of +heathenism, liked nothing better than to scourge those effeminate +vices of the cloisters. + +From the thorough way in which they robbed, burned, and murdered, +there can be no doubt that they enjoyed their work of destruction. In +their helplessness and terror, the panic-stricken monks added to their +usual prayers, this fervent petition: "From the fury of the Northmen, +good Lord deliver us!" The power raised up to answer that +supplication was Alfred the Great. + +54. Alfred's Victories over the Danes: the White Horse. + +After repeated defeats Alfred finally drove back these savage hordes, +who thought it a shame to earn by sweat what they could win by blood. + +In these attacks Alfred led one half the army and his brother Ethelred +led the other. They met the Danes at Ashdown Ridge in Berkshire. +(See map facing p. 32.) While Ethelred stopped to pray for success, +Alfred, under the banner of the "White Horse,"--the common standard of +the English at that time,--began the attack and won the day. + +Tradition declares that after the victory he ordered his army to +commemorate their triumph by carving that colossal figure of a horse +on the side of a neighboring chalk hill, which still remains so +conspicuous an object in the landscape. It was shortly after this +that Alfred became "King of the West Saxons"; but the war, far from +being ended, had in fact but just begun. + +55. The Danes compel Alfred to retreat. + +The Danes, reenforced by other invaders, overcame Alfred's forces and +compelled him to retreat. He fled to the wilds of Somersetshite, and +was glad to take up his abode for a time, so the story runs, in a +peasant's hut. Subsequently he succeeded in rallying part of his +people, and built a stronghold on a piece of rising ground, in the +midst of an almost impassable morass. There he remained during the +winter. + +56. Alfred's Great Victory; Treaty of Wedmore, 878. + +In the spring Alfred marched forth and again attacked the Danes. They +were intrenched in a camp at Edington, Wiltshire. He surrounded them, +and starved them into complete submission. They had to confess that +Alfred's muscular Christians were more than a match for the most +stalwart heathen. The Danish leader swore to maintain a peace, called +the Peace or Treaty of Wedmore. (See maps facing p. 32 and p. 38.) +More than this, the discomfited warrior sealed the oath with his +baptism,--an admission that Alfred had not only beaten him but +converted him as well. + +By the Treaty of Wedmore, 878, the Danes bound themselves to remain +north and east of a line drawn from London to Chester, following the +old Roman road called Watling Street. All south of this line, +including a district around London, was recognized as the dominions of +Alfred, whose chief city, or capital, was Winchester. (See map facing +p. 32.) + +By this treaty the Danes got much the larger part of England (called +the Danelaw), but they acknowledged Alfred as their Overlord. He thus +became, in name at least, what his predecessor, Egbert (S49), had +claimed to be,--supreme ruler of the whole country, though the highest +title he ever assumed was "King of the Saxons or English." + +57. Alfred's Laws; his Translations. + +Alfred proved himself to be more than mere ruler, for he was also a +lawgiver and teacher as well. Through his efforts a written code was +compiled, prefaced by the Ten Commandments and ending with the Golden +Rule. Referring to this introduction, Alfred said, "He who keeps this +shall not need any other law book." + +Next, that learning might not utterly perish in the ashes of the +abbeys and monasteries which the Danes had destroyed (S53), the King, +though feeble and suffering, set himself to translate from the Lating +the "Universal History of Orosius," and also Bede's valuable "Church +History of England." + +58. Alfred's Navy. + +Alfred, however, still had to fight against fresh invasion by the +Danes, who continued to make descents upon the coast, and even sailed +up the Thames to take London. The English King constructed a superior +class of fast-sailing war vessels from designs made by himself. With +this fleet, which may be regarded as the beginning of the English +navy, he fought the enemy on their own element. He thus effectually +checked a series of invasions which, if they had continued, might have +reduced the country to barbarism. + +59. Estimate of Alfred's Reign. + +Considered as a whole, Alfred's reign (871-901) is hte most noteworthy +of any in the annals of the early English sovereigns. It was marked +throughout by intelligence and progress. + +His life speaks for itself. The best commentary on it is the fact +that, in 1849, the people of Wantage, his native place, celebrated the +thousandth anniversary of his birth,--another proof that "what is +excellent, as God lives, is permanent."[1] + +[1] R. W. Emerson's "Poems." + +60. St. Dunstan's Three Great Reforms (960-988). + +Long after Alfred's death, St. Dunstan, then Archbishop of Canterbury +and head of the English Church, set out to push forward the work begun +by the great King. He labored to accomplish three things. First, he +sought to establish a higher system of education; secondly, he desired +to elevate the general standard of monastic life; finally, he tried to +inaugurate a period of national peace and economic progress. + +He began his work when he had control of the abbey of Glastonbury, in +the southwest of England. He succeeded in making the school connected +with that abbey the most famous one in the whole kingdom (S45). He +not only taught himself, but, by his enthusiasm, he inspired others to +teach. He was determined that from Glastonbury a spirit should go +forth which should make the Church of England the real educator of the +English people. Next, he devoted himself to helping the inmates of +the monasteries in their efforts to reach a truer and stronger +manhood. That, of course, was the original purpose for which those +institutions had been founded (S45), but, in time, many of them had +more or less degenerated. Every athlete and every earnest student +knows how hard it is to keep up the course of training he has resolved +upon. The strain sometimes becomes too great for him. Well, the monk +in his cell had found out how difficult it was for him to be always +faithful to his religious vows. St. Dunstan roused these men to begin +their work anew. He re-created monasticism in England, making it +stricter in discipline and purer in purpose. + +Last of all, the Archbishop endeavored to secure greater freedom from +strife. He saw that the continued wars of the English were killing +off their young men--the real hope of the country--and were wasting +the best powers of the nation. His influence with the reigning +monarch was very great, and he was successful, for a time, in +reconciling the Danes and the English (SS53, 56). It was said that he +established "peace in the kingdom such as had not been known within +the memory of man." At the same time the Archbishop, who was himself +a skillful mechanic and worker in metals,[1] endeavored to encourage +inventive industry and the exportation of products to the Continent. +He did everything in his power to extend foreign trade, and it was +largely through his efforts that "London rose to the commercial +greatness it has held ever since."[2] Because of these things, one of +the best known English historians,[3] speaking of that period, +declares that Dunstan "stands forth as the leading man in both Church +and State." + +[1] The common people regarded his accomplishments in this direction +with superstitious awe. Many stories of his skill were circulated, +and it was even whispered that in a personal contest with the Evil +One, it was the foul fiend and not the monk who got the worst of it, +and fled from the saint's workshop, howling with dismay. +[2] R. Green's "English People." +[3] E. A. Freeman's "Norman Conquest," I, 65. + +61. New Invasions; Danegeld (992). + +With the close of Dunstan's career, a period of decline set in. The +Northmen began to make fresh inroads (S53). The resistance to them +became feeble and faint-hearted. At last a royal tax, called +Danegeld, or Dane money (992), was levied on all landed property in +England in order to buy off the invaders. For a brief period this +cowardly concession answered its purpose. But a time came when the +Danes refused to be bribed to keep away. + +62. The Northmen invade France. + +The Danish invasion of England was really a part of a great European +movement. The same Northmen who had obtained so large a part of the +island (S56) had, in the tenth century, established themselves in +France. + +There they were known as Normans, a softened form of the word +"Northmen," and the district where they settled came to be called from +them Normandy. They founded a line of dukes, or princes, who were +destined, in the course of the next century, to give a new aspect to +the events of English history. + +63. Sweyn conquers England; Canute[1] (1017-1035). + +Early in the eleventh century Sweyn, the Dane, conquered England +(1013), and "all the people," says the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (S99), +"held him for full king." He was succeeded by his son Canute (1017). +He could hardly be called a foreigner, since he spoke a language and +set up a government differing but little from that of the English. + +[1] "Cnut," a shortened form of Canute. + +After his first harsh measures were over he sought the friendship of +both Church and people. He gave the country peace. Tradition reports +that he rebuked the flattery of courtiers by showing them that the +inrolling tide is no respecter of persons; he endeavored to rule +justly, and his liking for the monks found expression in his song: + + "Merrily sang the monks of Ely + As Cnut the King was passing by." + +64. Canute's Plan; the Four Earldoms. + +Canute's plan was to establish a great northern empire embracing +Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England. To facilitate the government of +so large a realm, he divided England into four districts,--Wessex, +Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria--which, with their dependencies, +embraced the entire country. (See map facing p. 38.) + +Each of these districts was ruled by an earl[1] invested with almost +royal power. For a time the arrangement worked well, but eventually +discord sprang up and imperiled the unity of the kingdom. After +Canute's death two of his sons divided England between themselves; +both were bad rulers. + +[1] Earl ("chief" or "leader"): a title of honor and of office. The +four earldoms established by Canute remained nearly unchanged until +the Norman Conquest, 1066. + +65. Restoration of the Saxon or English Kings; Edward the Confessor +(1042-1066). + +On the occasion of the Danish conqueror Sweyn (S63), Ethelred II, the +English King, sent his French wife Emma back to Normandy for safety. +She took her son, Prince Edward, then a lad of nine, with her. He +remained at the French court nearly thirty years, and among other +friends to whom he became greatly attached was his second cousin, +William, Duke of Normandy. + +The oppressive acts of Canute's sons (S64) excited insurrection +(1042), and both Danes and English joined in the determination to +restore the English line. They invited Prince Edward to accept the +crown. He returned to England, obtained the throne, and pledged +himself to restore the rights of which the people had been deprived. +By birth King Edward was already half Norman; by education and tastes +he was wholly so. + +It is very doubtful whether he could speak a word of English, and it +is certain that from the beginning he surrounded himself with French +favorites, and filled the Church with French priests. Edward's piety +and blameless life gained for him the title of "the Confessor," or, as +we should say to-day, "the Christian." + +He married the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful +noble in England. Godwin really ruled the country in the King's name +until his death (1053), when his son Harold (S67) succeeded him as +earl. + +66. Edward the Confessor builds Westminster Abbey. + +During a large part of his reign the King was engaged in building an +abbey or monastery at the west end of London, and hence called the +Westminster.[2] He had just completed and consecrated this great work +when he died, and was buried there. We may still see a part of the +original building in the crypt or basement of the abbey, while the +King's tomb above is the center of a circle of royal graves. + +[2] Minster: a name given originally to a monastery; next, to a church +connected with a monastery; but now applied to several large English +cathedrals. + +Multitudes made pilgrimages to King Edward's tomb, for the Pope had +enrolled him among the saints. Even now a little band of devoted +Catholics gather around his shrine every year. They go there to show +their veneration for the virtues and the piety of a ruler who would +have adorned a monastery, but had not breadth and vigor to fill a +throne. + +67. Harold becomes King (1066). + +On his deathbed, King Edward, who had no children, recommended Harold, +Earl of Wessex, as his successor (S65). But the Normans in France +declared Edward had promised that his cousin William, Duke of Normandy +(S65), should reign after him. The Witan, or National Council of +England (S81), chose Harold. That settled the question, for the +Council alone had the right to decide who should rule over the English +people. Harold was soon afterward crowned (January 16, 1066). + +68. Duke William prepares to invade England (1066). + +William, Duke of Normandy, was getting ready for a hunting expedition +when the news was brought to him of Harold's accession (S67). The old +chronicler says that the Duke "stopped short in his preparations; he +spoke to no man, and no man dared speak to him." Finally he resolved +to appeal to the sword and take the English crown by force. + +During the spring and summer of that year, he occupied himself in +fitting out a fleet to invade England, and his smiths and armorers +were busy making lances, swords, and coats of mail. The Pope favored +the expedition and presented a banner blessed by himself, to be +carried in the attack; "mothers, too, sent their sons for the +salvation of their souls." + +69. The Expedition Sails (1066). + +William sailed on his great expedition in the autumn with a fleet of +several hundred vesseles and a large number of transports. The Duke's +ship, with the consecrated banner at the masthead, led the fleet. + +His army consisted of archers and cavalry. Its strength has been +variously estimated at from 14,000 men up to 60,000. They were partly +his own subjects, and partly hired soldiers, or those who joined for +the sake of plunder. William also carried a large force of smiths and +carpenters, with timber ready cut and fitted to set up a wooden +castle. + +70. William lands at Pevensey. + +The next day the fleet anchored at Pevensey, on the south coast of +England, under the walls of an old Roman fortress which had stood, a +vacant ruin, since the Saxons stormed it nearly six hundred years +before. (See map facing p. 38.) Tradition says that as William +stepped on shore he stumbled and fell flat with his face downward. +"God preserve us!" cried one of his men; "this is a bad sign." But +the Duke, grasping the pebbles of the beach with both his outstretched +hands, exclaimed, "Thus do I seize the land!" + +71. King Harold in the North. + +There was, in fact, no power to prevent him from establishing his +camp, for King Harold (S67) was in the north quelling an invasion +headed by the King of the Norwegians and his brother Tostig, who hoped +to secure the throne for himself. Harold had just sat down to a +victory feast, after the battle of Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, when +news was brought to him of the landing of William. + +It was this fatal want of unity in England which made the Norman +Conquest possible. If Harold's own brother, Tostig, had not turned +traitorously against him, or if the north country had stood squarely +by the south, Duke William might have found his fall on the beach an +omen full of disaster. + +72. What Duke William did after Landing. + +As there was no one to oppose him, William made a fort in a corner of +the old Roman wall at Pevensey (S70), and then marched to Hastings, a +few miles farther east, where he set up a wooden castle on that hill +where the ruins of a later stone castle may still be seen. Having +done this, he pillaged the country in every direction. + +73. Harold marches to meet William. + +King Harold, having gathered what forced he could, marched to meet +William at a place midway between Pevensey and Hastings, about five +miles back from the coast. Harold had the advantage of a stockaded +fort he had built; William, that of a body of cavalry and archers, for +the English fought on foot with javelins and battle-axes mainly. The +Saxons spent the night in feasting and song, the Normans in prayer and +confession; both were eager to fight. + +74. The Great Battle of Hastings, 1066. + +On the morning of the 14th of October the fight began. It lasted +until dark, with heavy loss on both sides. At length William's +strategy carried the day, and Harold and his brave followers found to +their cost that then, as now, it is "the thinking bayonet" which +conquers. The English King was slain and every man of his chosen +troops with him. A monk who wrote the history of the period of the +Conquest, says that "the vices of the Saxons had made them effeminate +and womanish, wherefore it came to pass that, running against Duke +William, they lost themselves and their country with one, and that an +easy and light, battle." Doubtless the English had fallen off in many +ways from what hey had been generations earlier; but the record at +Hastings shows that they had lost neither strength, courage, nor +endurance, and a harder battle ws never fought on British soil. + +75. Battle Abbey; Harold's Grave; the Beyeu^x Tapestry. + +A few years later, the Norman Conqueror built the Abbey of Battle on +the spot to commemorate the victory by which he gained his crown. He +directed that the monks of the abbey should chant perpetual prayers +over the Norman soldiers who had fallen there. Here, also, tradition +represents him as having buried Harold's body, just after the fight, +under a heap of stones by the seashore. Some months later, it is said +that the friends of the English King removed the remains to Waltham, +near London, and buried them in the church which he had built and +endowed there. Be that as it may, his grave, wherever it is, is the +grave of the old England. Henceforth a new people (though not a new +race, for the Normans originally came from the same Germanic stock as +the English did) (S62) will appear in the history of the island. + +Several contemporary accounts of the battle exist by both French and +English writers, but one of the best histories of it is that which was +wrought in colors by a woman's hand. It represents the scenes of the +famous contest on a strip of canvas known as the Bayeux Tapestry +(S155), a name derived from the French town where it is still +preserved. + +76. Close of the Period; what the Saxon Conquest of Britain had +accomplished. + +The death of King Harold ends the Saxon or English period of history. +Before entering upon the reign of William the Conqueror let us +consider what that period had accomplished. We have seen that the +Jutes, Saxons, and Angles (SS36, 37) invaded Britain at a critical +period. Its original inhabitants had become cowed and enervated by +the despotism and the worn-out civilization forced on them by the +Romans (SS30-32). + +The newcomers brought that healthy spirit of barbarism, that +irrepressible love of personal liberty, which the country sorely +needed. The conquerors were rough, ignorant, cruel; but they were +vigorous, fearless, and determined. + +These qualities were worth a thousand times more to Britain than the +gilded corruption of Rome. But in the course of time the Saxons or +English themselves lost spirit (S36). Their besetting sin was a +stolidity which degenerated into animalism and sluggish content. + +77. Fresh Elements contributed by the Danes or Northmen. + +Then came the Danes or Northmen (SS52, 63). They brought with them a +new spirit of still more savage independence which found expression in +their song, "I trust my sword, I trust my steed, but most I trust +myself at need." + +They conquered a large part of the island, and in conquering +regenerated it. So strong was their love of independence, that even +the lowest classes of farm laborers were quite generally free. + +More small independent landholders were found amongh the Danish +population than anywhere else; and it is said that the number now +existing in the region which they settled in the northeast of England +is still much larger than in the south. (See map facing p. 32.) +Finally, the Danes and the English, both of whome sprang from the +North Germanic tribes (S36), mingled and becames in all respects one +people. + +78. Summary: What the Anglo-Saxons accomplished. + +Thus Jutes, Saxons, Angles, and Danes, whom together we may call the +Anglo-Saxons,[1] laid the corner stone of the English nation. However +much that nation has changed since, it remains, nevertheless, in its +solid and fundamental qualities, what those peoples made it. + +[1] Anglo-Saxons: Some authorities insist that this phrase means the +Saxons of England in distinction from those of the Continent. It is +used here, however, in the sense given by Professor Freeman, as a term +describing the people formed in England by the union of the Germanic +tribes which had settled in the island. + +They gave first the language, simple strong, direct, and plain--the +familiar, everyday speech of the fireside and the street, the +well-known words of both the newspaper and the Bible. + +Next they established the government in its main outlines as it still +exists; that is, a king, a legislative body representing the people, +and a judicial system embodying the germ, at least, of trial by jury +(S89). + +Last, and best, they furnished conservative patience, persistent +effort, indomitable tenacity of purpose, and cool, determined +courage. These qualities have won glorious victories on both sides of +the Atlantic, not only in the conflicts of war, but in the contests of +peace, and who can doubt that they are destined to win still greater +ones in the future? + + +GENERAL REFERENCE SUMMARY OF THE SAXON, OR EARLY ENGLISH, PERIOD +(449-1066) + +This section contains a summary of much of the preceding period, with +considerable additional matter. It is believed that teachers and +pupils may find it useful for reference on certain topics +(e.g. feudalism, etc.) which could not be conveniently treated in +detail in the history proper. + +I. Government. II. Religion. III. Military Affairs. IV. Literature, +Learning, and Art. V. General Industry and Commerce. VI. Mode of +Life, Manners, and Customs + +I. Government + +79. Beginning of the English Monarchy. + +During the greater part of the first four centuries after the Saxon +conquest Britain was divided into a number of tribal settlements, or +petty kingdoms, held by Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, constantly at war +with each other. In the ninth century, the West Saxons, or +inhabitants of Wessex, succeeded, under the leadership of Egbert, in +practically conquering and uniting the country. Egbert now assumed +the title of Overlord or Supreme Ruler of the English people. In time +Britain came to be known, from the name of its largest tribe, the +Angles, as Angle-Land, or England. Meanwhile the Danes had obtained +possession of a large part of the country on the northeast, but they +eventually united with the English and became one people. + +80. The King and the Witan. + +The government of England was vested in an elective sovereign, +assisted by the National Council of the Witan, or Wise Men. It is an +open question where every freeman had the right to attend this +national council,[1], but, in practice, the right became confined to a +small number of the nobles and clergy. + +[1] Professor Stubbs and Freeman take opposite views on this point. + +81. What the Witan could do. + +1. The Witan elected the King (its choice being confined, as a rule, +to the royal family). 2. In case of misgovernment, it deposed him. +3. It made or confirmed grants of public lands. 4. It acted as a +supreme court of justice both in civil and criminal cases. (See the +Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, p. ii, S3.) + +82. What the King and Witan could do. + +1. They enacted the laws, both civil and ecclesiastical. (In most +cases this meant nothing more than stating what the custom was, the +common law being merely the common custom.) 2. They levied taxes. +3. They declared war and made peace. 4. They appointed the chief +officers and bishops of the realm. + +83. Land Tenure before the Conquest. + +Before they invaded Britain the Saxons and kindred tribes appear to +have held their lands in common. Each head of a family had a +permanent homestead, but that was all.[1] "No one," says Caesar, "has +a fixed quantity of land or boundaries to his property. The +magistrates and chiefs assign every year to the families and +communities who live together, as much land and in such spots as they +think suitable. The following year they require them to take up +another allotment. + +[1] Tacitus ("Germania") says that each house "was surrounded by a +space of its own." + +"The chief glory of the tribes is to have their territory surrounded +with as wide a belt as possible of waste land. They deem it not only +a special mark of valor that every neighboring tribe should be driven +to a distance, and that no stranger should dare to reside in their +vicinity, but at the same time they regard it as a precautionary +measure against sudden attacks."[2] + +[2] Caesar, "Gallic War," Book VI. + +84. Folkland. + +Each tribe, in forming its settlement, seized more land than it +actually needed. This excess was known as Folkland (the People's +land,[3] and might be used by all alike for pasturing cattle or +cutting wood. With the consent of the Witan, the King might grant +portions of this Folkland as a reward for services done to himself or +to the community. Such grants were usually conditional and could only +be made for a time. Eventually they returned to the community. + +Other grants, however, might be made in the same way, which conferred +full ownership. Such grants were called Bocland (Book land), because +conveyed by writing, or registered in a charter or book. In time the +King obtained the power of making these grants without having to +consult the Witan, and at last the whole of the Folkland came to be +regarded as the absolute property of the Crown. + +85. Duties of Freemen. + +Every freeman was obliged to do three things: 1. He must assist in the +maintenance of roads and bridges. 2. He must aid in the repair of +forts. 3. He must serve in case of war. Whoever neglected or refused +to perform this last and most important of all duties was dclard to be +a "nithing," or infamous coward.[4] + +[4] Also written Niding. The English, as a rule, were more afraid of +this name than of death itself. + +86. The Feudal System (see, too, the Constitutional Summary in the +Appendix, p. iii, S5). + +The essential principle of the feudal system was the holding of land +on condition of military or other service. It appears to have +gradually grown up in England from grants made by the King. In +addition to the Eorls (earls)[1] or nobles by birth, there gradually +grew up a class known as Thanes (companions or servants of the King), +who in time outranked those who were noble by birth. He would +frequently have occasion to give rewards to the nobles and chief men +for faithful service and for deeds of valor. As nearly all his wealth +consisted in land, he would naturally give that. To this gift, +however, he would attach a condition. On making such a grant the King +required the receiver to agree to furnish a certain number of fully +equipped soldiers to fight for him. These grants were originally made +for life only, and on death of the recipient they returned to the +Crown. + +[1] The Saxons, or Early English, were divided into three classes: +Eorls (they must nut be confounded with the Danish jarls or earls), +who were noble by birth; Ceorls (churls), or simple freemen; and +slaves. The slaves were either the absolute property of the master, +or were bound to the soil and sold with it. This latter class, under +the Norman name of villeins, became numerous after the Norman Conquest +in the eleventh century. The chieftains of the first Saxon settlers +were called either Ealdormen (aldermen) or Heretogas, the first being +civil or magisterial, the latter military officers. The Thanes were a +later class, who, from serving the King or some powerful leader, +became noble by military service. + +Next, the nobles and other great landholders, following the example of +the King, granted portions of their estates to tenants on similar +conditions, and these again might grant portions to those below them +in return for satisfactory military or other service. + +In time it came to be an established principle, that every freeman +below the rank of a noble must be attached to some superior whom he +was bound to serve, and who, on the other hand, was his legal +protector and responsible for his good behavior. The man who refused +to acknowledge his duty to serve a lord or superior was looked upon as +an outlaw, and might be seized like a robber. In that respect, +therefore, he would be worse off than the slave, who had a master to +whom he was accountable and who was accountable for him. + +Eventually it became common for the small landholders, especially +during the Danish invasions, to seek the protection of some +neighboring lord who had a large band of followers at his command. In +such cases the freeman gave up his land and received it again on +certain conditions. The usual form was for him to kneel and, placing +his hands within those of the lord, to swear an oath of homage, saing, +"I BECOME YOUR MAN for the lands which I hold to you, and I will be +faithful to you against all men, saving only the service which I owe +to my lord the King." On his side the lord solemnly promised to +defend his tenant or vassal in the possession of his property, for +which he was to perform some service to the lord. + +In these two ways, first, by grant of lands from the King or a +superior, and, secondly, by the act of homage (known as commendation) +on the part of the recipient when he had given up lands on condition +of protection and had received them back again, the feudal system (a +name derived from feodum, meaning land or property) grew up in +England. Its growth, however, was irregular and incomplete; and it +should be distinctly understood that it was not until after the Norman +Conquest in the eleventh century that it became fully establised. It +should also be distinctly understood that William the Conqueror made a +most important change in this system by requiring the tenants of all +the great landholders, as well as their masters, to swear direct +obedience to him (S121). + +87. Advantages of Feudalism. + +This system had at that time many advantages. 1. The old method of +holding land in common was a wasteful one, since the way in which the +possessor of a field might cultivate it would perhaps spoil it for the +one who received it at the next allotment. 2. In an age of constant +warfare, feudalism protected all classes better than if they had stood +apart, and it often enabled the King to raise a powerful and +well-armed force in the easiest and quickest manner. 3. It cultivated +two important virtues,--fidelity on the part of the vassal, protection +on that of the lord. It had something of the spirit of the Golden +Rule in it. Its corner stone was the faithfulness of man to man. +Society had outgrown the outward forms of feudalism, which like every +system had its drawbacks, but it would seem as though it could never +wholly outgrow the feudal principle. + +88. Political Divisions; the Sheriff. + +Politically the kingdom was divided into townships, hundreds +(districts furnishing a hundred warriors, or supporting a hundred +families), and shires or counties, the shire having been originally, +in some cases, the section settled by an independent tribe, as Sussex, +Essex, etc. + +In each shire the King had an officer, called a shire reeve or +sherrif,[1] who represented him, collected the taxes due the Crown, +and saw to the execution of the laws. In like manner, the town and +the hundred had a headman of its own choosing to see to matters of +general interest. + +[1] Reeve: a man in authority, or having charge of something + +89. The Courts. + +As the nation had its assembly of wise men acting as a high court, so +each shire, hundred, and town had its court, which all freemen might +attend. There, without any special judge, jury, or lawyers, cases of +all kinds were tried and settled by the voice of the entire body, who +were both judge and jury in themselves. + +90. Methods of Procedure; Compurgation. + +In these courts there were two methods of procedure; first, the +accused might clear himself of the charge brought against him by +compurgations[1]; that is, by swearing that he was not guilty and +getting a number of reputable neighbors to swear that they believed +his oath. + +If their oaths were not satisfactory, witnesses might be brought to +swear to some particular fact. In ever case the value of the oath was +graduated according to the rank of the person, that of a man of high +rank being worth as much as that of twelve common men. + +91. The Ordeal. + +Secondly, if the accused could not clear himself in this way, he was +obliged to submit to the ordeal.[2] This usually consisted in +carrying a piece of hot iron a certain distance, or in plunging the +arm up to the elbow in boiling water. + +[2] Ordeal: a severe test or judgment + +The person who underwent the ordeal appealed to God to prove his +innocence by protecting him from harm. Rude as both these methods +were, they were better than the old tribal method, which permitted +every man or every man's family to be the avenger of his wrongs. + +92. The Common Law. + +The laws by which these cases were tried were almost always ancient +customs, few of which had been reduced to writing. They formed that +body of Common Law[3] which is the foundation of the modern system of +justice both in England and America. + +[3] So called, in distinction from the statute laws made by +Parliament. + +93. Penalties. + +The penalties inflicted by these courts consisted chiefly of fines. +Each man's life had a certain "wergild" or money value. The fine for +the murder of a man of very high rank was 2400 shillings; that of a +simple freeman was only one twelfth as much. + +A slave could neither testify in court nor be punished by the court; +for the man in that day who held no land had no rights. If a slave +was convicted of crime, his master paid the fine, and then flogged him +until he had got his money's worth out of him. Treason was punished +with death, and common scolds were ducked in a pond until they were +glad to hold their tongues. These methods of administering justice +were crude, but they had the great merit of being effective. They +aimed to do two very necessary things: first, to protect the community +against dangerous criminals; secondly, to teach those criminals that +"the way of the transgressor is hard." + +II. Religion + +94. The Ancient Saxon Faith. + +Before their conversion to Christianity, the Saxons worshiped Woden +and Thor, names preserved in Wednesday (Woden's day) and Thursday +(Thor's day). The first appears to have been considered to be the +creator and ruler of heaven and earth; the second was his son, the god +of thunder, slayer of evil spirits, and friend of man. + +The essential element of their religion was the deification of +strength, courage, and fortitude. It was a faith well suited to a +warlike people. It taught that there was a heaven for the brave and a +hell for cowards. + +95. What Christianity did. + +Christianity, on the contrary, laid emphasis on the virtues of +self-sacrifice and sympathy. It took the side of the weak and the +helpless. The Church itself held slaves, yet it labored for +emancipation. It built monasteries and encouraged industry and +education. The church edifice was a kind of open Bible. + +Very few who entered the sacred building then could have spelled out a +single word of either the Old or New Testament, even if they had then +been translated from Latin into English; but all, from the poorest +peasant or the meanest slave up to the greatest noble, could read the +meaning of the Scripture histories painted in brilliant colors on wall +and window. + +The church, furthermore, was a peculiarly sacred place. It was +powerful to shield those who were in danger. If a criminal, or a +person fleeing from vengeance, took refuge in it, he could not be +seized until forty days had expired, during which time he had the +privilege of leaving the kingdom and going into exile. + +This "right of sanctuary" was often a needful protection in an age of +violence. In time, however, the system became an intolerable abuse, +since it enabled robbers and desperadoes of all kinds to defy the +law. The right was modified at different times, but was not wholly +abolished until 1624, in the reign of James I. + +III. Military Affairs + +96. The Army. + +The army consisted of a national militia, or "fyrd," and a feudal +militia. From the earliest times all freemen were obliged to fight in +the defense of the country. Under the feudal system, every large +landholder had to furnish the King a stipulated number of men, fully +equipped with armor and weapons. As this method was found more +effective than the first, it gradually superseded it. + +The Saxons always fought on foot. They wore helmets and rude, +flexible armor, formed of iron rings, or of stout leather covered with +small plates of iron and other substances. They carried oval-shaped +shields. Their chief weapons were the spear, javelin, battle-ax, and +sword. The wars of this period were those of the different tribes +seeking to get the advantage over each other, or of the English with +the Danes. + +97. The Navy. + +Until Alfred's reign the English had no navy. From that period they +maintained a fleet of small warships to protect the coast from +invasion. Most of these vessels appear to have been furnished by +certain ports on the south coast. + +IV. Literature, Learning, and Art + +98. Runes. + +The language of the Saxons was of Low-German origin. Many of the +words resemble the German of the present day. When written, the +characters were called runes, mysteries or secrets. The chief use of +these runes was to mark a sword hilt, or some article of value, or to +form a charm against evil and witchcraft. + +It is supposed that one of the earliest runic inscriptions is the +following, which dates from about 400 A.D. It is cut on a drinking +horn,[1] and (reproduced in English characters) stands thus: + + EK HLEWAGASTIR - HOLTINGAR - HORNA - TAWIDO + + I, Hlewagastir, son of Holta, made the horn + +[1] The golden horn of Gallehas, found on the Danish-German frontier. + +With the introduction of Christianity the Latin alphabet, from which +our modern English alphabet is derived, took the place of the runic +characters, which bore some resemblance to Greek, and English +literature began with the coming of the monks. + +99. The First Books. + +One of the first English books of great value was the "Anglo-Saxon +Chronicle," a history covering a period beginning 1 A.D. and ending in +1154. The work was probably written by the monks in Canterbury, +Peterborough, and other monasteries. It may be considered as an +annual register of iportant events. Thorpe says of it, "No other +nation can produce any history written in its own vernacular, at all +approaching the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" either in antiquity, +truthfulness, or extent, the historical books of the Bible alone +excepted." + +Though written in prose, it countains various fragments of poetry, of +which the following (rendered into modern English), on the death of +Edward the Confessor (1066), may be quoted as an example: + +"Then suddenly came On Harold's self, + Death the bitter A noble Earl! + And that dear prince seized. Who in all times + Angels bore Faithfully hearkened + His steadfast soul Unto his lord + Into heaven's light. In word and deed, + But the wise King Nor ever failed + Bestowed his realm In aught the King + On one grown great, Had needed of him!" + +Other early books were Caedmon's poem of the Creation, also in +English, and Bede's "Church History" of Britain, written in Latin, a +work giving a full and most interesting account of the coming of +Augustine and his first preaching in Kent. All of these books were +written by the monks in different monasteries. + +100. Art. + +The English were skillful workers in metal, especially in gold and +silver, and also in the illumination of manuscripts.[1] Alfred's +Jewel, a fine specimen of the blue-enameled gold of the ninth century, +is preseved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It bears the +inscription: "Alfred me heht gewurcan," Alfred caused me to be worked +[or made]. + +[1] These illuminations get their name from the gold, silver, and +bright colors used in the pictures, borders, and decorated letters +with which the monks ornamented these books. For beautiful specimens +of he work, see Silvestre's "Pale'ographie." + +The women of that period excelled in weaving fine linen and woolen +cloth and in embroidering tapestry. + +101. Architecture. + +In architecture no advance took place until very late. The small +ancient church at Bradford-on-Avon in the south of England belongs to +the Saxon period. The Saxon stonework exhibited in a few buildings +like the church tower of Earl's Barton, Northamptonshire, is an +attempt to imitate timber with stone, and has been called "stone +carpentry."[2] Edward the Confessor's work in Westminster Abbey was +not Saxon, but Norman, he having obtained his plans, and probably his +builders, from Normandy. + +[2] See Parker's "Introduction to Gothic Architecture" for +illustrations of this work. + +V. General Industry and Commerce + +102. Farms; Slave Trade. + +The farming of this period, except on the Church lands, was of the +rudest description. Grain was ground by the women and slaves in stone +hand mills. Late, the mills were driven by wind or water power. The +pricipal commerce was in wool, lead, tin, and slaves. A writer of +that time says he used to see long trains of young men and women tied +together, offered for sale, "for men were not ashamed," he adds, "to +sell their nearest relatives, and even their own children." + +VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs + +103. The Town. + +The first Saxon settlements were quite generally on the line of the +old Roman roads. They were surrounded by a rampart of earth set with +a thick hedge or with rows of sharp stakes. Outside this was a deep +ditch. These places were called towns,[1] from "tun," meaning a fence +or hedge. The chief fortified towns were called "burghs" or +boroughs. Later on, this class of towns generally had a corporate +form of government, and eventually they sent representatives to +Parliament (S213). + +[1] One or more houses might constitute a town. A single farmhouse is +still so called in Scotland. + +104. The Hall. + +The buildings in these towns were of wood. Those of the lords or +chief men were called "halls," from the fact that they consisted +mainly of a hall, or large room, used as a sitting, eating, and often +as a sleeping room,--a bundle of straw or some skins thrown on the +floor serving for beds. There were no chimneys, but a hole in the +roof let out the smoke. If the owner was rich, the walls would be +decorated with bright-colored tapestry, and with suits of armor and +shields hanging from pegs. + +105. Life in the Hall. + +Here in the evening the master supped on a raised platform at one end +of the "hall," while his followers ate at a lower table. + +The Saxons were hard drinkers as well as hard fighters. After the +meal, while horns of ale and mead were circulating, the minstrels, +taking their harps, would sing songs of battle and ballads of wild +adventure. + +Outside the "hall" were the "bowers," or chambers for the master and +his family, and, perhaps, an upper chamber for a guest, called later +by the Normans a sollar, or sunny room. + +If a stranger approached a town, he was obliged to blow a horn; +otherwise he might be slain as an outlaw. + +Here in the midst of rude plenty the Saxons, or Early English, lived a +life of sturdy independence. They were rough, strong, outspoken, and +fearless. Theirs was not the nimble brain, for that was to come with +another people (the Normans), though a people originally of the same +race. The mission of the Saxons was to lay the foundation; or, in +other words, to furnish the muscle, grit, and endurance, without which +the nimble brain is of little permanent value. + +106. Guilds. + +The inhabitants of the towns and cities had various associations +called guilds (from gild, a payment or contribution). The object of +these was mutual assistance. The most important were the Frith guilds +or Peace guilds and the Merchant guilds. The former constituted a +voluntary police force to preserve order and bring thieves to +punishment. + +Each member contributed a small sum to form a common fund which was +useed to make good any losses incurred by robbery or fire. The +association held itself responsible for the good behavior of its +members, and kept a sharp eye on strangers and stragglers, who had to +give an account of themselves or leave the country. + +The Merchant guilds were organized, apparantly at a late period, to +protect and extend trade. After the Norman Conquest they came to be +very wealthy and influential. In addition to the above, there were +social and religious guilds, which made provision for feasts, for +maintenance of religious services, and for the relief of the poor and +the sick. + + +FIFTH PERIOD[1] + +"In other countries the struggle has been to gain liberty; in England, +to preserve it." -- Alison + +THE NORMAN CONQUEST + +THE KING AGAINST THE BARONS + +Building the Norman Superstructure -- The Age of Feudalism + +Norman Sovereigns + +William I, 1066-1087 +William II, 1087-1100 +Henry I, 1100-1135 +Stephen (House of Blois), 1135-1154 + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation will be found in the +Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in +parentheses. + +107. William marches on London; he grants a Charter to the City. + +Soon after the great and decisive battle of Hastings (S74), WIlliam +the Conqueror advanced on London and set fire to the Southwark +suburbs. The Londoners, terrified by the flames, and later cut off +from help from the north by the Conqueror's besieging army, opened +their gates and surrendered without striking a blow. In return, +William, shortly after his coronation, granted the city a charter, by +which he guaranteed to the inhabitants the liberties which they had +enjoyed under Edward the Confessor (S65). + +That document may still be seen among the records in the Guildhall, in +London.[2] It is a narrow strip of parchment not the length of a +man's hand. It contains a few lines in English, to which William's +royal seal was appended. It has indeed been said on high authority +that the King also signed the charter with a cross; but no trace of it +appears on the parchment. The truth seems to be that he who wielded +the sword with such terrible efficiency disdained handling the pen +(S154). + +[2] See Constitutional Documents in the Appendix, p. xxxiii. + +108. The Coronation; William returns to Normandy. + +On the following Christmas Day (1066) William was anointed and crowned +in Westminster Abbey. His accession to the throne marked the union of +England and Normandy (S191). (See map facing p. 54). He assumed the +title of "King of the English," which had been used by Edward the +Confessor and by Harold. The title "King of England" did not fully +and finally come into use until John's accession, more than a hundred +and thirty years later. William did not remain in London, but made +Winchester, in the south of England, his capital. In the spring +(1067) he sailed for Normandy, where he had left his queen, Matilda, +to govern in his absence. + +While on the Continent he intrusted England to the hands of two +regents, one his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the other his +friend William Fitz-Osbern; the former he had made Earl of Kent, the +latter Earl of Hereford. + +During the next three years there were outbreaks and uprisings in the +lowlands of Cambridgeshire and the moors of Yorkshire, besides +incursions of both Danes and Scots. + +109. William quells Rebellion in the North (1068). + +The oppresive rule of the regents (S108) soon caused a rebellion, and +in December William returned to England to put it down. He found the +task a hard one. The King of Denmark made it all the harder by +sending over a powerful fleet to held the English. William bribed the +Danish commanders and they "sailed away without striking a blow." +Then, little by little, he brought the land to obedience. By forced +marches in midwinter, by roads cast up through bogs, and by sudden +night attacks William accomplished the end he sought. + +But (1068) news came of a fresh revolt in the north, accompanied by +another invasion of foreign barbarians. Then William, roused by +terrible anger, swore by the "splendor of God" that he would lay waste +the land. + +He made good his oath. For a hundred miles beyond the river Humber in +Yorkshire he ravaged the country, burning villages, destroying houses, +crops, and cattle, and reduced the wretched people to such destitution +that many sold themselves for slaves to escape starvation. Having +finished his work in the north, he turned toward the ancient Roman +city of Chester, in the west, and captured it. (See map facing +p. 38.) + +110. Hereward (1091). + +Every part of the land was now in William's power except an island in +the swamps of Ely, in the east of England. There the Englishman +Hereward, with his resolute little band of fellow countrymen, +continued to defy the power of the Conqueror. (See map facing p. 38.) +"Had there been three more men like him in the island," said one of +William's own soldiers, "the Normans would never have entered it." +But as there were not three more, the Conquest was at length +completed. + +111. Necessity of William's Severity. + +The work of death had been fearful. But it was better that England +should suffer from these pitiless measures than that it should sink +into anarchy, or into subjection to hordes of Northmen (S53). For +those fierce barbarians destroyed not because they desired to build +something better, but because they hated civilization and all its +works. + +Whatever William's faults may have been, his great object was to build +up a government better than any England had yet seen. Hence his +severity, hence his castles and forts, by which he made sure of +retaining his hold upon whatever he had gained. + +112. William builds the Tower of London. + +We have seen that William gave London a charter (S107); but +overlooking the place in which the charter was kept, he built the +Tower of London to hold the turbulent city in wholesome restraint. +That tower, as fortress, palace, and prison, stands as the dark +background of most events in English history. + +It was the forerunner of a multitude of Norman castles. They rose on +the banks of every river, and on the summit of every rocky height, +from the west hill of Hastings to the peak of Derbyshire, and from the +banks of the Thames to those of the Tweed. Side by side with these +strongholds there also rose a great number of monasteries, churches, +and cathedrals. + +113. William confiscates the Land; Classes of Society. + +Hand in hand with the progress of conquest, the confiscation of land +went on. William had seized the lands belonging to Harold (S67) and +those of the chief men associated with him, and had given them to his +own followers in England. In this way, all the greatest estates and +the most important offices passed into the hands of the Normans. The +King made these royal grants on the express condition that those who +received them should furnish him a certain number of armed men +whenever he should demand them. + +Two great classes of society now existed in England. First, the +leading Norman conquerors, who, as chief tenants or landholders under +the Crown, and as peers of the realm, had the title of barons. They +numbered about fifteen hundred, and, as we have just seen, they were +all pledged to draw their swordss in behalf of the King. Secondly, +the English who had been reduced to a subordinate state; most of these +now held their land as grants from the Norman barons on condition of +some kind of service. A majority of these men were no longer entirely +free, while some were actual slaves. The greater part of this servile +class were villeins or farm laborers (S150). They were bound to the +soil, and could be sold with it, but not, like the slaves, separately +from it. They could be compelled to perform any menial labor, but +usually held their plots of land and humble cottages on condition of +plowing a certain number of acres or doing a certain number of days' +work in each year. In time the villeins generally obtained the +privilege of paying a fixed money rent, in place of labor, and their +condition gradually improved. + +114. How William distributed his Gifts. + +Yet it is noticeable that when William granted estates to his Norman +followers (S113), he was careful not to give any baron too much land +in any one county or shire. His experience in Normandy had taught him +that it was better to divide than to concentrate the power of the +great nobles, who were often only too ready to plot to get the crown +for themselves. + +Thus William developed and extended the feudal system of land +tenure,[1] already in existence in outline among the Saxons (S86), +until it covered every part of the realm. He, however, kept this +system strictly subordinate to himself, and we shall see that before +the close of his reign he held a great meeting by which he got +absolute control over it (S121). + +[1] See, too, the Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, p. v, S6. + +115. The Three Counties Palatine. + +The only exceptions which William made in these carefully restricted +grants were the three Counties Palatine,[1] which he created. They +bordered on Wales in the west, Scotland in the north, and the English +Channel in the southeast. To the earls of these counties of Chester, +Durham, and Kent, which were especially liable to attack from Wales, +Scotland, or France, William thought it expedient to give almost royal +power, which descended in their families, thus making the title +hereditary. (See map facing p. 436.) + +[1] Palatine (from palatium, palace): having rights equal with the +King in his palace. The county of Chester is now Cheshire. Durham +bordered on Northumberland, then opposed to William. Shropshire was +practically a fourth County Palatine until Henry I. Later, Lancaster +was added to the list. + +116. How William stopped Assassination; the Law of Englishry; Gregory +VII. + +The hard rule of the Norman nobles caused many secret assassinations. +To put a stop to these crimes, William enacted the Law of Englishry. +It compelled the people of the district where a murder was perpetrated +to pay a heavy fine for every Norman so slain; for it was assumed that +every man found murdered was a Norman, unless proof could be brought +to the contrary. + +While these events were taking place in England, Hildebrand, the +archdeacon who had urged the Pope to favor William's expedition +against England (S68), ascended the papal throne, under the title of +Gregory VII. He was the ablest, the most ambitious, and, in some +respects, he most farsighted man who had been elected supreme head of +the Catholic Church. + +117. State of Europe; Gregory's Scheme of Reform. + +Europe was at that time in a condition little better than anarchy. A +perpetual quarrel was going on between the feudal barons. The Church, +too, as we have seen (SS53, 60), had temporarily lost much of its +power for good. Pope Gregory conceived a scheme of reform which he +intended should be both wide and deep. + +Like Dunstan (S60), he determined to correct the abuses which had +crept into the monasteries. He resolved to have a priesthood who +should devote themselves body and soul to the interests of the Church; +he resolved to bring all society into submission to that priesthood; +finally, he resolved to make the priesthood itself acknowledge him as +its sole master. His purpose in this gigantic scheme was a noble one; +it was to establish the unity and peace of Europe. + +118. The Pope and the Conqueror, 1076. + +Pope Gregory looked to William for help in this matter. The +Conqueror, who was a zealous Catholic, was ready to give that help, +but with limitations. He pledged himself to aid in reforming the +English Church, which had enjoyed "an insular and barbaric +independence." He undertook to remove inefficient men from its high +places. The King also agreed to do something that had never been done +before in England, namely, to establish separate courts (S151) for the +trial of Church cases (SS164, 165). Finally, he agreed to pay the +customary yearly tax to Rome, called "Peter's pence." + +But Pope Gregory was not satisfied. He demanded that the Conqueror +should do him homage for his crown, and should swear "to become his +man" (S86). This William respectfully, but decidedly, refused to do, +saying that as no "King of the English before him had ever become the +Pope's man, so neither would he." In taking this action the King +declared himself to be an obedient and affectionate son of the "Holy +Catholic Church." But at the same time he laid down these three rules +to show that he would not tolerate any interference with his power as +an independent English sovereign: + +1. That no Pope should be acknowledged in England, or letters from the +Pope received there, without his sanction. +2. That no national synod or meeting of churchmen (S48) should enact +any decrees binding the English Church, without his confirmation. +3. That no baron or officer of his should be expelled from the Church +without his permission.[1] + +[1] Taswell-Langmead's "English Constitutional History," p. 59; +Professor W. Stubb's "Constitutional History of England," I, 286. + +It is noticeable that Pope Gregory never seems to have censured +William for the position he took,--perhaps because one brave man +always understands and respects another. + +Yet a little later than this (1077), when Henry IV, Emperor of +Germany, refused to comply with certain demand made by Gregory VII, +the German monarch had to submit. More than this, he was compelled to +stand barefooted in the snow before the Pope's palace, waiting three +days for permission to enter and beg forgiveness. + +119. William a Stern but Just Ruler; the Jews; the New Forest. + +Considering his love of power and strength of will, the reign of +William was conspicuous for its justice. He was harsh, but generally +fair. He protected the Jewish traders who came over to England in his +reign, for he saw that their commercial enterprise and their financial +skill would be of immense value in developing the country. Then too, +if the royal treasury should happen to run dry, he thought it might be +convenient to coax or compel the Jews to lend him a round sum. + +On the other had, the King seized a tract of over sixty thousand acres +in Hampshire for a hunting ground, which he named the New Forest.[1] +It was said that William destroyed many churches and estates in order +to form this forest, but these accounts appear to have been greatly +exaggerated. The real grievance was not so much the appropriation of +the land, which was sterile and of little value, but it was the +enactment of the savage Forest Laws. These ordinances made he life of +a stag of more value than that of a man, and decreed that anyone found +hunting the royal deer should have both eyes torn out (S205). + +[1] Forest: As here used, this does not mean a region covered with +woods, but simply a section of country, partially wooded and suitable +for game, set apart as a royal park or hunting ground. As William +made his residence at Winchester, in Hampshire, in the south of +England (see map facing p. 38), he naturally took land in that +vicinity for the chase. + +120. The Great Survey; Domesday Book, 1086. + +Not quite twenty years after his coronation William ordered a survey +and valuation to be made of the whole realm outside of London. The +only exceptions were certain border counties on the north were war had +left little to record save heaps of ruins and ridges of grass-grown +graves (S109). + +The returns of that survey were known as Domesday or Doomsday Book. +The English people said this name was given to it, because, like the +Day of Doom, it spared no one. It recorded every piece of property +and every particular concerning it. As the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" +(S46) indignantly declared, "not a rood of land, not a peasant's hut, +not an ox, cow, pig, or even a hive of bees escaped." + +While the report showed the wealth of the country, it also showed thje +suffering it had passed through in the revolts against William. Many +towns had fallen into decay. Some were nearly depopulated. IN Edward +the Confessor's reign (S65) York had 1607 houses; at the date of the +survey it had but 967, while Oxford, which had had 721 houses, had +then only 243. + +The census and assessment proved of the highest importance to William +and his successors. The people indeed said bitterly that the King +kept to book constantly by him, in order "that he might be able to see +at any time of how much more wool the English flock would bear +fleecing." The object of the work, however, was not to extort money, +but to present a full and exact report of the financial and military +resources of the kingdom which might be directly available for revenue +and defense. + +121. The Great Meeting; the Oath of Allegiance to William, 1086. + +In the midsummer following the completion of Domesday Book, William +summoned all the barons and chief landholders of the realm, with their +principal vassals or tenants, to meet him on Salisbury Plain, +Wiltshire.[1] It is said that the entire assemblage numbered sixty +thousand. There was a logical connection between that summons and the +great survey (S120). Each man's possesions and each man's +responsibility were now known. Thus Domesday Book prepared the way +for the action that was to be taken there. + +[1] See map of England facing p. 436. Wiltshire is in the south of +England. Alfred had established the seat of government at Winchester +in Hampshire, but under Edward the Confessor and Harold it was +transferred to Westminster (London); the honor was again restored to +Winchester by William, who made it his principal residence. This was +perhaps the reason why he chose Salisbury Plain (the nearest open +region) for the great meeting. It was held where the modern city of +Salisbury stands. + +The place chosen was historic ground. On that field William had once +reviewed his victorious troops. Toward the north of the widespread +plain rose the rugged columns of Stonehenge (S3), surrounded by the +burial mounds of prehistoric peoples. On the south rose the fortified +hill of Old Sarum, scarred by British and by Roman entrenchments. +William probably made his headquarters in the Norman castle then +standing on that hill. On the plain below were the encampments of all +the chief landholders of England. + +122. The Oath of Allegiance. + +There William the Conqueror finished his work. There not only every +baron, but every baron's free vassal or tenant, from Cornwall to the +Scottish borders, bowed before the King and swore to be "his man" +(S86). By that act England was made one. By it, it was settled that +every landholder in the realm, of whatever condition, was bound first +of all to fight in behalf of the Crown, even if in so doing he had to +fight against his own lord.[1] The barons broke this oath in the next +reign (S130), but the moral obligation to keep it still remained +binding. + +[1] See SS86, 150; see also the Constitutional Summary in the +Appendix, p. v, S6. Even if the men should disregard this oath of +allegiance, they could not help feeling that the principle it +represented had been acknowledged by them. + +123. What William had done. + +A score of years before, William had landed, seeking a throne to which +no law had given him any claim whatever (S67).[2] But Nature had +elected him to it when she endowed him with power to take, power to +use, and power to hold. Under Harold, England was a kingdom divided +against itself (S71). It was fortunate for the country that William +came; for out of chaos, or affairs fast drifting to chaos, his strong +hand, clear brain, and resolute purpose brought order, beauty, safety, +and stability. We may say, therefore, with an eminent Fernch +historian, that "England owes her liberties to her having been +conquered by the Normans."[3] + +[2] "William, in short, had no king of right to the crown, whether by +birth, bequest, or election." (E. A. Freeman's "Short History of the +Norman Conquest," p. 65.) +[3] Guizot; see also note 1 on page 64. + +124. William's Death (1087). + +In less than a year from that time, William went to Normandy to quell +an invasion led by his eldest son, Robert. As he rode down a steep +street in Mantes, his horse stumbled and he received a fatal injury. +He was carried to the priory of St. Gervase, just outside the city of +Rouen. + +Early in the morning he was awakened by the great cathedral bell. "It +is an hour of praise," his attendant said to him, "when the priests +give thanks for the new day." William lifted up his hands in prayer +and expired. + +125. His Burial (1087). + +His remains were taken for interment to St. Stephen's church, which he +had built in the city of Caen, Normandy. As they were preparing to +let down the body into the grave, a man suddenly stepped forward and +forbade the burial. William, he said, had taken the land, on which +the church stood, from his father by violence. He demanded payment. +The corpse was left on the bier, and inquiry instituted, and not until +the debt was discharged was the body lowered to its last resting +place. + +"Thus," says the old chronicle, "he who had been a powerful king, and +the lord of so many territories, possessed not then of all his lands +more than seven feet of earth," and not even that unttil the cash was +paid for it. But William's bones were not to rest when finally laid +in the grave, for less than five centuries later (1532) the French +Protestants dug them up and scattered them. + +126. Summary (1066-1087). + +The results of the Norman Conquest may be thus summed up: + +1. The Conquest was not the subjugation of the English by a different +race, but rather a victory won for their advantage by a branch of +their own race.[1] +2. It found England a divided country (S71); it made it a united +kingdom. It also united England and Normandy (SS108, 191), and +brought the new English kingdom into closer contact with the higher +civilization of the Continent. This introduced fresh intellectual +stimulus, and gave to the Anglo-Saxon a more progressive spirit. +3. It modified the English language by the influence of the +Norman-French element, thus giving it greater flexibility, refinement, +and elegance of expression. +4. It substituted for the fragile and decaying structures of wood +generally built by the Saxons, Norman castles, abbeys, and cathedrals +of stone. +5. It hastened influences, which were already at work, for the +consolidation of the nation. It developed and completed the feudal +form of land tenure, but it made that tenure strictly subordinate to +the Crown, and so freed it, in great measure, from the evils of +Continental feudalism (SS86, 150). +6. It reorganized the English Church and defined the relation of the +Crown to that Church and to the Pope (S118). +7. It abolished the four great earldoms (S64), which had been a +constant source of weakness, danger, and division; it put an end to +the Danish invasions; it brought the whole of England under a strong +monarchical government, to which not only all the great nobles, but +also their vassals or tenants, were compelled to swear allegiance +(SS121, 122). +8. It made no radical changes in the English laws, but enforced +impartial obedience to them among all classes.[2] + +[1] It has already been shown that Norman, Saxon, and Dane were +originally branches of the Teutonic or German race. (SS36, 62). +[2] Professor E. A. Freeman, who is the highest authority on this +subject (see especially his "Short History of the Norman Conquest"), +holds the view that the coming of William was, on the whole, the +greatest advantage to England. Nearly all leading historians agree +with him; for a different view consult Professor C. Oman's "England +before the Norman Conquest," pp. 648-651. + +William Rufus[3]--1087-1100 + +[3] William Rufus: William the Red, a nickname probably derived from +his red face. + +127. William the Conqueror's Bequest (1087). + +William the Conqueror left three sons,--Robert, William Rufus, and +Henry. He also left a daughter, Adela, who married a powerful French +nobleman, Stephen, Count of Blois. On his deathbed (S124) William +bequeathed Normandy to Robert. He expressed a wish that William Rufus +should become ruler over England, while to Henry he left five thousand +pounds of silver, with the prediction that he would ultimately be the +greatest of them all. + +Before his eyes were closed, the two sons, who were with him, hurried +away,--William Rufus to seize the realm of England, Henry to get +possession of his treasure. Robert was not present. His recent +rebellion (S124) would alone have been sufficient reason for alloting +to him the lesser portion; but even had he deserved the scepter, +William knew it required a firmer hand than his to hold it. + +128. Condition of England. + +France was simple an aggregation of independent and mutually hostile +dukedoms. The ambition of the Norman leaders threatened to bring +England into the same condition. During the twenty-one years of +William the Conqueror's reign, the Norman barons on the Continent had +constantly tried to break loose from his restraining power. It was +certain, then, that the news of his death would be the signal for +still more desperate attempts. + +129. Character of William Rufus. + +Rufus had his father's ability and resolution, but none of his +father's conscience. As the historian of that time declared, "he +feared God but little, man not at all." He had Caesar's faith in +destiny, and said to a boatman who hesitated to set off with him in a +storm at his command, "Did you ever hear of a king's being drowned?" + +130. His Struggle with the Barons. + +The barons broke the solemn oath which they had taken in the previous +reign (S122) to be faithful to the Crown. During the greater part of +the thirteen years of the new King's reign they were fighting against +him. On William's part it was a battle of centralization against +disintegration. He rallied the country people to his help--those who +fought with bows and spears. "Let every man," said the King, "who +would not be branded infamous and a coward, whether he live in town or +country, leave everything and come to me" (S85). + +In answer to that appeal, the English people rallied around their +Norman sovereign, and gained the day for him under the walls of +Rochester Castle, Kent. Of the two evils, the tyranny of one or the +tyranny of many, he first seemed to them preferable. + +131. William's Method of raising Money; he defrauds the Church. + +If in some respects William the Conqueror had been a harsh ruler, his +son was worse. His brother Robert had mortgaged Normandy to him in +order to get money to join the first crusade (S182). William Rufus +raised whatever funds he desired by the most oppressive and +unscrupulous means. + +William's most trusted counselor was Ranulf Flambard. Flambard had +brains without principle. He devised a system of plundering both +Church and people in the King's interest. Lanfranc, Archbishop of +Canterbury, died three years after William's accession. Through +Flambard's advice the King left the archbishopric vacant and +appropriated its revenues to himself. He practiced the same course +with respect to every office of the Church. + +132. The King makes Anselm Archbishop (1093). + +While this process of systematized robbery was going on, the King +suddenly fell ill. In his alarm lest death was at hand, he determined +to make reparation to the defrauded and insulted priesthood. He +invited Anselm, the abbot of a famous monastery in Normandy, to accept +the archbishopric. Anselm, who was old and feeble, declined, saying +that he and the King could not work together. "It would be," said he, +"like yoking a sheep and a bull." + +But the king would take no refusal. Calling Anselm to his bedside, he +forced the staff of office into his hands. Anselm became the champion +of the freedom of the Church. But when the King recovered, he resumed +his old practices and treated the Archbishop with such insult that he +left the country for a time. + +133. William's Merit; his Death. + +William II's one merit was that he kept England from being devoured +piecemeal by the Norman barons, who regarded her as a pack of hounds +in full chase regard the hare that is on the point of falling into +their rapacious jaws. + +Like his father, he insisted on keeping the English Church independent +of the ever-growing power of Rome (S118). In both cases his motives +were purely selfish, but the result to the country was good. + +His power came suddenly to an end (1100). He had gone in the morning +to hunt in the New Forest (S119) with his brother Henry. He was found +lying dead among the bushes, pierced by an arrow shot by an unknown +hand. + +William's character speaks in his deeds. It was hard, cold, despotic, +yet in judging it we should consider the woulds of that quaint old +writer, Thomas Fuller, when he says, "No pen hath originally written +the life of this King but what was made with a monkish penknife, and +no wonder if his picture seems bad, which was thus drawn by his +enemy." + +134. Summary. + +Notwithstanding William's oppression of both Church and people, his +reign checked the revolt of the baronage and prevented the kingdom +from falling into anarchy like that existing in France. + + +Henry I--1100-1135 + +135. Henry's Charter of Liberties. + +Henry, third son of William the Conqueror, was the first of the Norman +kings who was born and educated in England. Foreseeing a renewal of +the contest with the barons (S130), he issued a Charter of Liberties +on his accession, by which he bound himself to reform the abuses which +had been practiced by his brother William Rufus. The charter +guaranteed: (1) The rights of the Church (which William Rufus had +constantly violated); (2) the rights of the nobles and landholders +against extortionate demands by the Crown; (3) the right of all +classes to protection of the old English customs or laws. + +The King sent a hundred copies of this important document to the +leading abbots and bishops for preservation in their respective +monasteries and cathedrals (S45). + +As this charter was the earliest written and formal guarantee of good +government ever given by the Crown to the nation, it marks an +important epoch in English history. It may be compared to the +statements of principles and pledges issued by our modern political +parties. It was a virtual admission that the time had come when even +a Norman sovereign could not dispense with the support of the +country. It was therefore an admission of the truth that while a +people can exist without a king, no king can exist without a people. + +Furthermore, this charter established a precedent for those which were +to follow, and which reached a final development in the Great Charter +wrested from the unwilling hand of King John somewhat more than a +century later (S198). Henry further strengthened his position with +his English subjects by his marriage with Maud, nice of the Saxon +Edgar, a direct descendant of King Alfred (S51). + +136. The Appointment of Bishops settled. + +King Henry also recalled Anselm (S132) and reinstated him in his +office. But the peace was of short duration. The Archbishop +insisted, as did the Pope, that the power of appointment of bishops +should be vested wholly in Rome. The King was equally determined that +such appointments should spring from himself. Like William the +Conqueror (S118), he declared: "No one shall remain in my land who +will not do me homage" (S86). + +The quarrel was eventually settled by compromise. The Pope was to +invest the bishop with ring and crosier, or pastoral staff of office, +as emblems of the spiritual power; the King, on the other hand, was to +grant the lands from which he bishop drew his revenues, and in return +was to receive his homage or oath of allegiance. + +This acknowledgement of royal authority by the Church was of great +importance, since it gave the King power as feudal lord to demand from +each bishop his quota of fully equipped knights or cavalry soldiers +(SS150, 152). This armed force would usually be commanded by the +bishop in person (S140). + +137. Henry's Quarrel with Robert; the "Lion of Justice." + +While this Church question was in dispute, Henry had still more +pressing matters to attend to. His elder brother Robert (SS124, 127) +had invaded England and demanded the crown. The greater part of the +Norman nobles supported this claim, but the English people held to +Henry. Finally, in consideration of a heavy money payment, Robert +agreed to return to Normandy and leave his brother in full possession +of the realm. On his departure, Henry resolved to drive out the +prominent nobles who had aided Robert. Of these, the Earl of +Shrewsbury, called "Robert the Devil," was the leader. With the aid +of the English, who hated him for his cruelty, the earl was at last +compelled to leave the country. + +He fled to Normandy, and, in violation of a previous agreement, was +received by Henry's brother Robert. Upon that, Henry declared war, +and, crossing the Channel, fought (1106) the battle of Tinchebrai,[1] +by which he conquered and held Normandy as completely as William, Duke +of Normandy, had conquered England forty years before. The King +carried his brother captive to Wales, and kept him in prison during +his life in Cardiff Castle. This ended the contest with the nobles. + +[1] Tinchebrai, Normandy, in the region west of Caen and Avranches. +(See map facing p. 54.) + +By his uprightness, his decision, his courage, and by his organization +of better courts of law (S147), Henry fairly won the honorable title +of the "Lion of Justice"; for the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" says, "No +man durst misdo against another in his time."[2] + +[2] See, too, the Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, +p. vi, S7. + +138. Summary. + +The three leading points of Henry I's reign are: (1) the +self-limitation of the royal power embodied in his Charter of +Liberties; (2) the settlement of old disputes between the King and the +Church; (3) the banishment of the chief of the mutinous barons, and +the victory of Tinchebrai, with its important results. + + +Stephen--1135-1154 + +139. The Rival Candidates. + +With Henry I's death two candidates presented themselves for the +throne,--Henry's daughter, Matilda (for he left no lawful son), and +his nephew, Stephen. In France the custom of centuries had determined +that the crown should never descend to a female. It was an age when +the sovereign was expected to lead his army in person, and it +certainly was not expedient that a woman should hold a position one of +whose chief duties she could not discharge. This French custom had, +of course, no force in England; but the Norman nobles must have +recognized its reasonableness; or if not, the people did.[1] + +[1] Before Henry's death, the baronage had generally sworn to support +Matilda (commonly called the Empress Matilda, or Maud, from her +marriage to the Emperor Henry V of Germany; later, she married +Geoffrey of Anjou). But Stephen, with the help of London and the +Church, declared himself "elected King by the assent of the clergy and +the people." Many of the barons now gave Stephen their support. + +Four years after Stephen's accession Matilda landed in England and +claimed the crown. The east of England stood by Stephen, the west by +Matilda. For the sake of promoting discord, and through discord their +own private ends, part of the barons gave their support to Matilda, +while the rest refused, as they said, to "hold their estates under a +distaff." In the absence of the Witan or National Council (S80), +London unanimously chose Stephen King (1135). + +The fatal defect in the new King was the absence of executive ability. +Following the example of Henry (S135), he issued two charters or +pledges of good government; but without power to carry them out, they +proved simply waste paper. + +140. The Battle of the Standard (1135). + +David I of Scotland, Matilda's uncle, espoused her cause and invaded +England with a powerful force. He was met at North Allerton, in +Yorkshire, by the party of Stephen, and the battle of the Standard was +fought. + +The leaders of the English were both churchmen, who showed that they +could fight as vigorously as they could pray (S136). The standard +consisted of four consecrated banners, surmounted by a cross. This +was set up on a wagon, on which one of the bishops stood. The sight +of this sacred standard made the English invincible. (See map facing +page 436.) + +After a fierce contest the Scots were driven from the field. It is +said that this was the first battle in which the English peasants used +the long bow; they had taken the hist, perhaps, from the Norman +archers at the battle of Hastings (SS73, 74). Many years later, their +skill in foreign war made that weapon as famous as it was effective +(S238). + +141. Civil War (1138-1153). + +For fifteen years following, the country was torn by civil war. While +it raged, fortified castles, which, under William the Conqueror, had +been built and occupied by the King only, or by those whom he could +trust, now arose on every side. These strongholds became, as the +"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (S99) declares, "very nests of devils and dens +of thieves." More than a thousand of these castles, it is said, were +built. The armed bands who inhavited them levied tribute on the whole +country around. + +Not satisfied with that, these miscreants seized those who were +suspected of having property, and, in the words of the "Chronicle," +"tortured them with pains unspeakable; for some they hung up by the +feet and smoked with foul smoke; others they crushed in a narrow chest +with sharp stones. About the heads of others they bound knotted cords +until they went into the brain." "Thousands died of hunger, the towns +were burned, and the soil left untilled. By such deeds the land was +ruined, and men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep." + +The sleep, however, was not always to last; for in the next reign, +Justice, in the person of Henry II, effectually vindicated her power. +The strife for the crown continued till the last year of Stephen's +reign. Then the Church came to the rescue, and through its powerful +influence the Treaty of Wallingford (in Berkshire) was made. By that +treaty it was agreed that Matilda's son Henry should succeed Stephen. + +142. Summary. + +Stephen was the last of the Norman kings. Their reign had covered +nearly a century. The period began in conquest and usurpation; it +ended in gloom. We are not, however, to judge it by Stephen's reign +alone, but as a whole. + +This considered, it shows at least one point of advance over the +preceding period,--the triumph of the moral power of the Church over +feudal discord. But Stephen's reign was not all loss in other +respects, for out of the "war, wickedness, and waste" of his +misgovernment came a universal desire for peace through law. Thus +indirectly this weak King's inefficiency prepared the way for future +reforms. + +GENERAL REFERENCE SUMMARY OF THE NORMAN PERIOD (1066-1154) + +I. Government. II. Religion. III. Military Affairs. IV. Literature, +Learning, and Art. V. General Industry and Commerce. VI. Mode of +Life, Manners, and Customs + +I. Goverment + +143. The King. + +We have seen that the Saxons, or Early English rulers, in the case of +Egbert and his successors, styled themselves Kings of the West Saxons +or of some other division of that race, and that finally they assumed +the broader title of "Kings of the English," or leaders of the entire +race or people (S49). The Norman sovereigns made no immediate change +in this title, but as a matter of fact William, toward the close of +his reign, claimed the whole of the country as his own by right of +conquest. + +For this reason he and his Norman successors might properly have +called themselves "Kings of England," that is, supreme owners of the +soil and rulers over it; but this title of territorial sovereignty was +not formally assumed until about fifty years later, in John's reign. + +144. The Great Council. + +Associated with the King in government was the Great or Central +Council, made up of, first, the earls and barons; and secondly, of the +archbishops, bishops, and abbots; that is, of all the great +landholders holding directly from the Crown. The Great Council +usually met three times a year,--at Christmas, Easter, and +Whitsuntide. All laws were held to be made by the King, acting with +the advice and consent of this Council,--which in the next century +first came to be known as Parliament (1246, 1265, 1295),--but +practically the King alone often enacted such laws as he saw fit +(SS213, 217). + +When a new sovereign came to the throne, it was with the consent or by +the election of the Great Council, but their choice was generally +limited to some one of the late King's sons, and unless therer was +good reason for making a different selection, the oldest was chosen. +Finally the right of imposing taxes rested, theoretically at least, in +the King and Council, but, in fact, the King himself frequently levied +them. This action of the King was a cause of constant irritation and +of frequent insurrection. + +145. The Private or King's Council. + +There was also a second and permanent council, called the King's +Council. The three leading officers of this were: first, the Chief +Justice, who superintended the execution of the laws, represented the +King, and ruled for him during his absence from the country; secondly, +the Lord Chancellor (so called from cancelli, the screen behind which +he sat with his clerks), who acted as the King's adviser and +confidential secretary, and as keeper of the Great Seal, with which he +stamped all important papers;[1] thirdly, the Lord High Treasurer, who +took charge of the King's revenue, received all moneys due the Crown, +and kept the King's treasure in the vaults at Winchester or +Westminster. + +[1] The Lord Chancellor was also the "Keeper of the King's +Conscience," because intrusted with the duty of redressing those +grievances of the King's subjects which required royal interference. +The Court of Chancery (mentioned on page 73, note 1) grew out of this +office. + +146. Tallies. + +All accounts were kept by the Treasurer on tallies or small sticks, +notched on the opposite sides to represent different sums. These were +split lengthwise. One was given as a receipt to the sheriff, or other +person paying in money to the treasury, while the duplicate of this +tally was held by the Treasurer. This primitive method of keeping +royal accounts remained legally in force until 1785, in the reign of +George III. + +147. The Curia Regis,[2] or the King's Court of Justice. + +The Chief Justice and Chancellor were generally chosen by the King +from among the clergy; first, because the clergy were men of +education, while the barons were not; and next, because it was not +expedient to intrust too much power to the barons. These officials, +with the other members of the Private Council, constituted the King's +High Court of Justice. + +[2] Curia Regis: This name was given, at different times, first, to +the Great or National Council; secondly, to the King's Private +Council; and lastly, to the High Court of Justice, consisting of +members of the Private Council. + +It followed the King as he moved from place to place, to hear and +decide cases carried up by appeal from the county courts, together +with other questions of importance.[1] In local government the +country remained under the Normans essentially the same as it had been +before the Conquest. The King continued to be represented in each +county by an officer called the sheriff, who collected the taxes and +enforced the laws. + +[1] The King's High Court of Justice (Curia Regis) was divided, about +1215, into three distinct courts: (1) the Exchequer Court (so called +from the chequered cloth which covered the table of the court, and +which was probably made useful in counting money), which dealt with +cases of finance and revenue; (2) the Court of Common Pleas, which had +jurisdiction in civil suits between subject and subject; (3) the Court +of King's Bench, which transacted the remaining business, both civil +and criminal, and had special jurisdiction over all inferior courts +and civil corporations. + Later, a fourth court, that of Chancery (see S145, and note 1), +over which the Lord Chancellor presided, was established as a court of +appeal and equity, to deal with cases where the common law gave no +relief. + +148. Trial by Battle. + +In the administration of justice, Trial by Battle was introduced in +addition to the Ordeal of the Saxons (S91). This was a duel in which +each of the contestants appealed to Heaven to give him the victory, it +believed that the right would vanquish. Noblemen[2] fought on +horseback in full armor, with sword, lance, and battle-ax; common +people fought on foot with clubs. + +[2] See Shakespeare's "Richard II," Act I, scenes i and iii; also +Scott's "Ivanhoe," Chapter XLIII. + +In both cases the combat was in the presence of judges and might last +from sunrise until the stars appeared. Priests and women had the +privilege of being represented by champions, who fought for them. +Trial by Battle was claimed and allowed by the court (though the +combat did not come off) as late as 1817, in the reign of George III. +This custom was finally abolished in 1819.[3] + +[3] Trial by Battle might be demanded in cases of chivalry or honor, +in criminal actions, and in civil suits. The last were fought not by +the disputants themselves but by champions. + +149. Divisions of Society. + +The divisions of society remained after the Conquest very nearly as +before, but the Saxon orders of nobility, with a few very rare +exceptions, were deprived of their rank and their estates given to the +Normans. + +It is important to notice here the marked difference between the new +or Norman nobility and that of France. + +In England a man was considered a noble because, under William and his +successors, he was a member of the Great or National Council (S80), +or, in the case of an earl, because he represented the King in the +government of a county or earldom. + +His position did not exempt him from taxation, nor did his rank +descend to more than one of his children. In France, on the contrary, +the aristocracy were noble by birth, not office; they were generally +exempt from taxation, thus throwing the whole of that burden on the +people, and their rank descended to all their children. + +During the Norman period a change was going on among the slaves, whose +condition gradually improved. On the other hand, many who had been +free now sank into that state of villeinage (S150) which, as it bound +them to the soil, was but one remove from actual slavery. + +The small, free landholders who still existed were mostly in the old +Danish territory north of Watling Street (see map facing p. 32), and +in the county of Kent on the southeast coast of England. + +150. Tenure of Land in the Norman Period; Military Service, Feudal +Dues, National Militia, Manors and Manor Houses. + +All land was held directly or indirectly from the King on condition of +military or other service. The number of chief tenants who derived +their title from the Crown, including ecclesiastical dignitaries, was +probably about fifteen hundred. These constituted the Norman barons. +The undertenants were about eight thousand, and consisted chiefly of +the English who had been driven out from their estates. + +Every holder of land was obliged to furnish the King a fully armed and +mounted soldier, to serve for forty days during the year for each +piece of land bringing 20 pounds annually, or about $2000 in modern +money[1] (the pound of that day probably representing twenty times +that sum now). All the chief tenants were also bound to attend the +King's Great or National Council three times a year,--at Christman, +Easter, and Whitsuntide. + +[1] This amount does not appear to have been fully settled until the +period following the Norman kings, but the principle was recognized by +William. + +Feudal Dues or Taxes. Every free tenant was obliged to pay a sum of +money to the King or baron from whom he held his land, on three +special occasions: (1) to ransom his lord from captivity in case he +was made a prisoner of war; (2) to defray the expense of making his +lord's eldest son a knight; (3) to provide a suitable marriage portion +on the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. + +In addition to these taxes, or "aids," as they were called, there were +other demands which the lord might make, such as: (1) a year's profits +of the land from the heir, on his coming into possession of his +father's estate; this was called a relief; (2) the income from the +lands of orphan heirs not of age; (3) payment for privilege of +disposing of land.[1] + +[1] The clergy, being a corporate and hence an ever-living body, were +exempt from these last demands. Not satisfied with this, they were +constantly endeavoring, with more or less success, to escape ALL +feudal obligations, on the ground that they rendered the state divine +service. In 1106, in the reign of Henry I, it was settled, for the +time, that the bishops were to do homage to the King, i.e. furnish +military service for the lands they received from him as their feudal +lord (S136). + +In case of an orphan heiress not of age, the feudal lord became her +guardian and might select a suitable husband for her. Should the +heiress reject the person selected, she forfeited a sum of money equal +to the amount the lord expected to receive by the proposed marriage. +Thus we find one woman in Ipswich giving a large fee for the privilege +of "not being married except to her own good liking." In the +collection of these "aids" and "reliefs," great extortion was often +practiced both by the King and the barons. + +Besides the feudal troops there was a national militia, consisting of +peasants and others not provided with armor, who fought on foot with +bows and spears. These could also be called on as during the Saxon +period (S96). In some cases where the barons were in revolt against +the King, for instance, under William Rufus (S130), this national +militia proved of immense service to the Crown. + +The great landholders let out part of their estates to tenants on +similar terms to those on which they held their own, and in this way +the entire country was divided up. The lowest class of tenants were +the common agricultural laborers called villeins,--a name derived from +the Latin villa, meaning a country house or farm. These villeins, or +serfs, held small pieces of land on condition of performing labor for +it. They were bound to the soil and could be sold with it, but not, +like slaves, apart from it. They were not wholly destitute of legal +rights. + +Under William I and his successors, all free tenants, of whatever +grade, were bound to uphold the King,[2] and in case of insurrection +or civil war to serve under him (S122). In this most important +respect the great landholders of England differed from those of the +Continent, where the lesser tenants were bound only to serve their own +masters, and might, and in fact often did, take up arms against the +King. William removed this serious defect. By doing so he did the +country an incalculable service. He completed the organization of +feudal land tenure, but he never established the Continental system of +feudal government. (See, too, the Constitutional Summary in the +Appendix, p. v, S6.) + +[2] See the Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, pp. iii-v, SS5, 6. + + +The building is Ludlow Castle, Shropshire. Manor houses proper, as +distinct from castles, existed in England at least from the thirteenth +century + +(See Gibbin's "Industrial History of England" and Cheyney's +"Industrial and Social England") + +The inhabitants of a manor, or the estate of a lord, were: (1) the +lord himself, or his representative, who held his estate on condition +of furnishing the King a certain number of armed men (SS113, 150); (2) +the lord's personal followers, who lived with him, and usually a +parish priest or a number of monks; (3) the farm laborers, or +villeins, bound to the soil, who could not leave the manor, were not +subject to military duty, and who paid rent in labor or produce; there +might also be a few actual slaves, but this last class gradually rose +to the partial freedom of villenage; (4) certain free tenants or +"sokemen," who paid a fixed rent either in money or service and were +not bound to the soil as the villeins were. + +Next to the manor house (where courts were also held) the most +important buildings were the church (used sometimes for markets and +town meetings); the lord's mill (if there was a stream), in which all +tenants must grind their grain and pay for the grinding; and finally, +the cottages of the tenants, gathered in a village near the mill. + +The land was divided as follows: (1) the "demesne" (or domain) +surrounding the manor house; this was strictly private--the lord's +ground; (2) the land outside the demesne, suitable for cultivation; +this was let in strips, usually of thirty acres, but was subject to +certain rules in regard to methods of tillage and crops; (3) a piece +of land which tenants might hire and use as they saw fit; (4) common +pasture, open to all tenants to pasture their cattle on; (5) waste or +untilled land, where all tenants had the right to cut turf for feul, +or gather plants or shrubs for fodder; (6) the forest or woodland, +where all tenants had the right to turn their hogs out to feed on +acorns, and where they might also collect a certain amound of small +wood for feul; (7) meadow land on which the tenants might hire the +right to cut grass and make hay. On the above plan the fields of +tenants--both those of villeins and of "sokemen," or tenants who paid +a fixed rent in money or service--are marked by the letters A, B, C, +etc. + +If the village grew, the tenants might, in time, purchase from the +lord the right to manage their own affairs in great measure, and so +become a Free Town (S183). + +II. Religion + +151. The Church. + +With respect to the organization of the Church, no changes were made +under the Norman kings. They, however, generally deposed the English +bishops and substituted Normans or foreigners, who, as a class, were +superior in education to the English. William the Conqueror made it +pretty clearly understood that he considered the Church subordinate to +his will, and that in all cases of dispute about temporal matters, he, +and not the Pope, was to decide (S118). During the Norman period +great numbers of monasteries were built. + +In one very important respect William the Conqueror greatly increased +the power of the Church by establishing ecclesiastical courts in which +all cases relating to the Church and the clergy were tried by the +bishops according to laws of their own. Persons wearing the dress of +a monk or priest, or those who could manage to spell out a verse of +the Psalms, and so pass for ecclesiastics, would claim the right to be +tried under the Church laws, and, as the punishments which the Church +inflicted were notoriously mild, the consequence was that the majority +of criminals escaped the penalty of their evil doings. So great was +the abuse of this privilege, that, at a later period, Henry II made an +attempt to reform it (S164); but it was not wholly and finally done +away with until the beginning of the nineteenth century. + +III. Military Affairs. + +152. The Army. + +The army consisted of cavalry, or knights, and foot soldiers. The +former were almost wholly Normans. They wore armor similar to that +used by the Saxons. It is represented in the pictures of the Bayeux +Tapestry (S75, 155), and appears to have consisted of leather or stout +linen, on which pieces of bone, or scales, or rings of iron were +securely sewed. Later, these rings of iron were set up edgewise, and +interlinked, or the scales made to overlap. The helmet was pointed, +and had a piece in front to protect the nose. The shield was long and +kite-shaped. + +The weapons of this class of soldiers consisted of a lance and a +double-edged sword. The foot soldiers wore little or no armor and +fought principally with long bows. In case of need, the King could +probably muster about ten thousand knights, or armed horsemen, and +a much larger force of foot soldiers. Under the Norman kings the +principal wars were insurrections against William I, the various +revolts of the barons, and the civil war under Stephen. + +153. Knighthood.[1] + +Candidates for knighthood were usually obliged to pass through a long +course of training under the care of some distinguished noble. The +candidate served first as a page, or attendant in the house; then, as +a squire or attendant, he followed his master to the wars. After +seven years in this capacity, he prepared himself for receiving the +honors of knighthood by spending several days in a church, engaged in +solemn religious rites, fasting, and prayer. + +[1] Knighthood: Originally the knight was a youth or attendant. +Later, the word came to mean an armed horse soldier or cavalier who +had received his weapons and title in a solemn manner. As a rule, +only the wealthy and noble could afford the expense of a horse and +armor; for this reason chivalry, or knighthood, came to be closely +connected with the idea of aristocracy. In some cases soldiers were +made knights on the battlefield as a reward for valor. + +The young man, in the presence of his friends and kindred, then made +oath to be loyal to the King, to defend religion, and to be the +champion of every lady in danger or distress. Next, a high-born dame +or great warrior buckled on his spurs, and girded the sword, which he +priest had blessed, to his side. This done, he knelt to the prince or +noble who was to perform the final ceremony. The prince struck him +lightly on the shoulder with the flat of the sword, saying: "In the +name of God, St. Michael,[2] and St. George [the patron saint of +England], I dub thee knight. Be brave, hardy, and loyal." + +[2] St. Michael, as representative of the triumphant power of good +over evil. + +Then the young cavalier leaped into the saddle and galloped up and +down, brandishing his weapon in token of strength and skill. In case +a knight proved false to his oaths, he was publicly degraded. His +spurs were taken from him, his shield was reversed, his armor broken +to pieces, and a sermon preached upon him in the neighboring church, +proclaiming him dead to the order. + +IV. Literature, Learning, and Art + +154. Education; Use of Seals or Stamps. + +The leaning of this period was confined almost wholly to the clergy. +Whatever schools existed were connected with the monasteries and +nunneries. Oxford had begun to be regarded as a seat of leaning +(1120). The instruction was given by priests, though some noted +Jewish scholars may have had pupils there. Very few books were +written during this period. Generally speaking, the nobility +considered fighting the great business of life and cared nothing for +education. They thought that reading and writing were beneath their +dignity, and left such accomplishments to monks, priests, and +lawyers. For this reason seals or stamps having some device or +signature engraved on them came to be used on all papers of +importance. + +155. Historical Works; the Bayeux Tapestry. + +The chief books written in England under the Norman kings were +histories. Of these the most noteworthy were the continuation of the +"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" in English (S99) and the chronicles of William +of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon in Latin.[1] William's book and +the "Saxon Chronicle" still continue to be of great importance to +students of this period. Mention has already been made of the Bayeux +Tapestry (S75), a history of the Norman Conquest worked in colored +worsteds, on a long strip of narrow canvas. + +[1] Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Britons" belongs to this +period. It abounds in romances about King Arthur. Tennyson based his +"Idylls of the King" on it. + +It consists of a series of seventy-two scenes, or pictures, done about +the time of William's accession. It was probably intended to decorate +the cathedral of Bayeux, in Normandy, France, where it was originally +placed. Some have supposed it to be the work of his Queen, Matilda. +The entire length is two hundred and fourteen feet and the width about +twenty inches. It represents events in English history from the last +of Edward the Confessor's reign to the battle of Hastings. As a guide +to a knowledge of the armor, weapons, and costume of the period, it is +of very great value. The tapestry is preserved at Bayeux. + +156. Architecture. + +Under the Norman sovereigns there was neither painting, statuary, nor +poetry worthy of mention. The spirit that creats these arts found +expression in architecture introduced from the Continent. The castle, +cathedral, and minster, with here and there an exceptional structure +like the Tower of London, London Bridge, and the Great Hall at +Westminster, built by William Rufus, were some well-known Norman +buildings which mark the time. All were of stone, a material which +the Normans generally preferred to any other. Aside from Westminster +Abbey, which, although the work of Edward the Confessor, was really +Norman, a fortress or two, like Coningsborough in Yorkshire, and a few +churches, like that at Bradford-on-Avon, the Saxons had erected little +of note. + +The characteristics of the Norman style of architecture was its +massive grandeur. The churches were built in the form of a cross, +with a square, central tower, the main entrance being at the west. +The interior was divided into a nave, or central portion, with an +aisle on each side for the passage of religious processions. The +windows were narrow, and rounded at the top. The roof rested on round +arches supported by heavy columns. The cathedrals of Peterborough, +Ely, Durham, Norwich, the church of St. Bartholomew, London, and +St. John's Chapel in the Tower of London are fine examples of Norman +work. + +The castles consisted of a square keep, or citadel, with walls of +immense thickness, having a few slitlike windows in the lower story +and somewhat larger ones above. In these buildings everything was +made subordinate to strength and security. They were surrounded by a +high stone wall and deep ditch, generally filled with water. The +entrance to them was over a drawbridge through an archway protected by +an iron grating, or portcullis, which could be raised and lowered at +pleasure. The Tower of London, Rochester Castle, Norwich Castle, +Castle Rising, Richmond Castle, Carisbrooke Keep, New Castle on the +Tyne, and Tintagel Hold were built by William or his Norman +successors. + +The so-called Jews' houses at Lincoln and St. Edmundsbury are rare and +excellent examples of Norman domestic architecture. Although in many +cases the Norman castles are in ruins, yet these ruins bid fair to +stand as long as the Pyramids. They were mostly the work of +churchmen, who were the best architects of the day, and knew how to +plan a fortress as well as to build a minster. + +V. General Industry and Commerce + +157. Trade. + +No very marked change took place in respect to agriculture or trade +during the Norman period. Jews are mentioned in a few cases in Saxon +records, but they apparently did not enter England in any number until +after William the Conqueror's accession. They soon got control of +much of the trade, and were the only capitalists of the time. + +They were protected by the Kings in money lending at exorbitant rates +of interest. In turn, the Kings extorted immense sums from them. + +The guilds (S106), or associations for mutual protection among +merchants and manufacturers, now became prominent, and in time they +acquired great political influence. + +VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs. + +158. Dress. + +The Normans were more temperate and refined in their mode of living +than the Saxons. In dress they made great display. In Henry I's +reign it became the custom for the nobility to wear their hair very +long, so that their curls resembled those of women. The clergy +thundered against this effeminate fashion, but with no effect. At +last, a priest preaching before the King on Easter Sunday, ended his +sermon by taking out a pair of shears and cropping the entire +congregation, King and all. + +By the regulation called the curfew, a bell rang at sunset in summer +and at eight in winter, which was the government signal for putting +out lights and covering up fires. This law, which was especially +hated by the English, as a Norman innovation and act of tyranny, was a +necessary precaution against fire, at a time when London and other +cities were masses of wooden hovels. + +Surnames came in with the Normans. Previous to the Conquest, +Englishmen had but one name; and when, for convenience, another was +needed, they were called by their occupation or from some personal +peculiarity, as Edward the Carpenter, Harold the Dauntless. Among the +Normans the lack of a second, or family, name had come to be looked +upon as a sign of low birth, and the daughter of a great lord +(Fitz-Haman) refused to marry a nobleman who had but one, saying, "My +father and my grandfather had each two names, and it were a great +shame to me to take a husband who has less." + +The principal amusements were hunting, and hawking (catching birds and +other small game by the use of trained hawks). + +The Church introduced theatrical plays, written and acted by the +monks. These represented scenes in Scripture history, and, later, the +careers of the Vices and the Virtues were personified. + +Jousts and tournaments, or mock combats between knights, were not +encouraged by William I, or his immediate successors, but became +common in the period following the Norman Kings. On some occasions +they were fought in earnest, and resulted in the death of one, or +more, of the combatants. + + + +SIXTH PERIOD[1] + +"Man bears within him certain ideas of order, of justice, of reason, +with a constant desire to bring them into play...; for this he labors +unceasingly."--Guizot, "History of Civilization." + +THE ANGEVINS, OR PLANTAGENETS, 1154-1399 + +THE BARONS VERSUS THE CROWN + +Consolidation of Norman and Saxon Interests--Rise of the New English +Nation + +Henry II, 1154-1189 +Richard I, 1189-1199 +John, 1199-1216 +Henry III, 1216-1272 +Edward I, 1272-1307 +Edward II, 1307-1327 +Edward III, 1327-1377 +Richard II, 1377-1399 + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. + +159. Accession and Dominions of Henry II. + +Henry was just of age when the death of Stephen (S141) called him to +the throne. + +From his father, Count Geoffrey of Anjou, a province of France, came +the title of Angevin. The name Plantagenet, by which the family came +to be known later, was derived from the count's habit of wearing a +sprig of the golden-blossomed broom plant, or Plante-gene^t, as the +French called it, in his helmet. + +Henry received from his father the dukedoms of Anjou and Maine, from +his mother Normandy and the dependent province of Brittany, while +through his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced Queen of France, he +acquired the great southern dukedom of Aquitaine. + +Thus on his accession he became ruler over all England, and over more +than half of France besides, his realms extending from the borders of +Scorland to the base of the Pyrenees. (See map facing p. 84.) + +To these extensive possessions Henry added the eastern half of +Ireland.[1] The country was but partially conquered and never justly +ruled. The English power there remained "like a spear-point embedded +in a living body," inflaming all around it.[2] + +[1] Ireland: The population of Ireland at this time consisted mainly +of descendants of the Celtic and other prehistoric races which +inhabited Britain at the period of the Roman invasion. When the +Saxons conquered Britain, many of the natives, who were of the same +stock and spoke essentially the same language as the Irish, fled to +that country. Later, the Danes formed settlements on the coast, +especially in the vicinity of Dublin. + The conquest of England by the Normans was practically a victory +gained by one branch of the German race over another (Saxons, Normans, +and Danes having originally sprung from the same Teutonic stock or +from one closely akin to it, and the three soon mingled); but the +partial conquest of Ireland by the Normans was a radically different +thing. They and the Irish had really nothing in common. The latter +refused to accept the feudal system, and continued to split up into +savage tribes or clans under the rule of petty chiefs always at war +with each other. + Thus for centuries after England had established a settled +government, Ireland remained, partly through the battles of the clans, +and partly through the aggressions of a hostile race, in a state of +anarchic confusion which prevented all true national growth. +[2] W. E. H. Lecky's "England in the XVIIIth Century," II, 102. + +160. Henry II's Charter and Reforms. + +On his mother's side Henry was a descendent of Alfred the Great (S51); +for this reason he was hailed with enthusiasm by the native English. +He at once began a system of reforms worthy of his illustrious +ancestor. His first act was to issue a charter confirming the Charter +of Liberties or pledges of good government which his grandfather, +Henry I, had made (S135). His next was to begin leveling to the +ground the castles unlawfully built in Stephen's reign, which had +caused such widespread misery to the country[3] (S141). He continued +the work of demolition until it is said he destroyed no less than +eleven hundred of these strongholds of oppression. + +[3] Under William the Conqueror and his immediate successors no one +was allowed to erect a castle without a royal license. During +Stephen's time the great barons constantly violated this salutory +regulation. + +The King next turned his attention to the coinage. During the civil +war (S141) the barons had issued money debased in quality and +deficient in weight. Henry abolished this dishonest currency and +issued silver pieces of full weight and value. + +161. War with France; Scutage (1160). + +Having completed these reforms, the King turned his attention to his +Continental possessions. Through his wife, Henry claimed the county +of Toulouse in southern France. To enforce this claim he declared +war. + +Henry's barons, however, refused to furnish troops to fight outside of +England. The King wisely compromised the matter by offering to accept +from each knight a sum of money in lieu of service, called scutage, or +shield money.[1] The proposal was agreed to (1160), and in this way +the knights furnished the King the means to hire soldiers for foreign +wars. + +[1] Scutage: from the Latin scutum, a shield; the understanding being +that he who would not take his shield and do battle for the King +should pay enough to hire one who would. The scutage was assessed at +two marks. Later, the assessment varied. The mark was two thirds of +a pound of silver by weight, or thirteen shillings and fourpence +($3.20). Reckoned in modern money, the tax was probably at least +twenty times two marks, or about $128. + +Later in his reign Henry supplemented this tax by the passage of the +Assize of Arms, a law which revived the national militia (SS96, 150) +and placed it at his command for home service. By these two measures +the King made himself practically independent of the barons, and thus +gained a greater degree of power than any previous ruler had +possessed. + +162. Thomas Becket. + +There was, however, one man in Henry's kingdom--his Lord Chancellor +(S145), Thomas Becket--who was always ready to serve him. At his own +expense the Chancellor now equipped seven hundred knights, and, +crossing the Channel, fought valiantly for the suppression of the +rebellion in Toulouse (S161) in the south of France. (See map facing +p. 84.) + +Shortly after Becket's return from the Continent Henry resolved to +appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket knew that the King +purposed beginning certain Church reforms with which he was not in +sympathy, and declined the office. But Henry would take no denial. +At last Becket consented, but he warned the King that he should uphold +the rights of the clergy. He now became the head of the Catholic +Church in England. He was the first man of English birth called to +that exalted position since the Norman Conquest. + +This promotion made a decided change in Becket's relation to the King. +So long as he was Chancellor he was bound to do what the King ordered, +but as soon as he was made Archbishop he became the servant of the +Church. Again, on his assumption of this sacred office Becket +underwent a remarkable charge of character. He had been a man of the +world, fond of pomp and pleasure. He now gave up all luxury and show. +He put on sackcloth, lived on bread and water, and spent his nights in +prayer, tearing his flesh with a scourge. + +163. Becket's First Quarrel with the King. + +The new Archbishop's presentiment of trouble soon proved true. Becket +had hardly taken his seat when a quarrel broke out between him and the +King. In his need for money Henry levied a tax on all lands, whether +belonging to the barons or to churchmen. Becket opposed this tax.[1] +He was willing, he said, that the clergy should contribute, if they +desired to do so, but not that they should be compelled to pay the +tax. + +[1] See page 76, note 1, on Clergy. + +The King declared with an oath that all should pay alike; the +Archbishop vowed with equal determination that not a single penny +should be collected from the Church. From that time the King and +Becket never met again as friends. + +164. The Second Quarrel. + +Shortly afterward, a much more serious quarrel broke out between the +King and the Archbishop. Under the law made by William the Conqueror, +the Church had the right to try in its own courts all offenses +committed by monks and priests (S118). This privilege, in time, led +to great abuses, since even in cases of the commission of the gravest +crimes the Church had no direct power to inflict the penalty of +death. On the contrary, the heaviest sentence it could give was +imprisonment in a monastery, with degradation from the clerical +office; while in less serious cases the offenders generally got off +with fasting and flogging. + +On this account some criminals who deserved to be hanged escaped with +a comparatively slight penalty. Such a case now occurred. In one +instance a priest had committed an unprovoked murder. Henry commanded +him to be brought before the Kings' court; Becket interfered, and +ordered the case to be tried by the bishop of the diocese. The bishop +simply sentenced the murderer to lose his place for two years. + +165. The Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164. + +The King determined that such flagrant disregard of justice should no +longer go on. He called a council of his chief men at Clarendon, near +Salisbury, in Wiltshire, and laid the case before them. He demanded +that in future the state or civil courts should be supreme, and that +in every instance their judges should decide whether a criminal should +be tried by the common law of the land or handed over to the Church +courts. + +He furthermore required that the clergy should be held strictly +responsible to the Crown, so that in case of dispute the final appeal +should be neither to the Archbishop nor to the Pope, but to himself. +In this respect he went even farther than William the Conqueror had +done (S118). After protracted debate the council, composed of a +committee of bishops and barons, passed the measures which the King +demanded. The new laws were entitled the Constitutions of Clarendon. +They consisted of sixteen articles which clearly defined the powers +and jurisdiction of the King's courts and the Church courts. Their +great object was to secure a more uniform administration of justice +for all classes of men. (See the Constitutional Summary in the +Appendix, pp. viii and xxxii.) + +Becket, though bitterly oppsed to the new laws, finally assented, and +swore to obey them. Afterward, feeling that he had conceded too much, +he retracted his oath and refused to be bound by the Constitutions. +The other Church dignitaries became alarmed at the prospect, and left +Becket to settle with the King as best he might. Henceforth it was a +battle between the King and the Archbishop, and each resolved that he +would never give up until he had won the final victory (S170). + +166. The King enforces the New Laws; Becket leaves the Country. + +Henry at once proceeded to put the Constitutions of Clarendon into +execution without fear or favor. A champion of the Church of that day +says, "Then was seen the mournful spectacle of priests and deacons who +had committed murder, manslaughter, robbery, theft, and other crimes, +carried in carts before the comissioners and punished as thogh they +were ordinary men."[1] + +[1] William of Newburgh's "Chronicle." + +Furthermore, the King sems now to have resolved to ruin Becket or +drive him from the kingdom. He accordingly summoned the Archbishop +before a royal council at Northampton to answer to certain charges +made against him. Becket answered the summons, but he refused to +acknowledge the jurisdiction of the council, and appealed to the +Pope. "Traitor!" cried a courtier, as he picked up a bunch of muddy +rushes from the floor and flung them at the Archbishop's head. Becket +turned and, looking him sternly in the face, said, "Were I not a +churchman, I would make you repent that word." Realizing, however, +that he was now in serious danger, he soon after left Northampton and +fled to France. + +167. Banishment versus Excommunication (1164). + +Finding Becket beyond his reach, Henry next proceeded to banish the +Archbishop's kinsmen and friends, without regard to age or sex, to the +number of nearly four hundred. These miserable exiles, many of whom +were nearly destitute, were forced to leave the country in midwinter, +and excited the pity of all who saw them. + +Becket indignantly retaliated. He hurled at the King's counselors the +awful sentence of excommunication or expulsion from the Church +(S194). It declared the King accursed of God and man, deprived of +help in this world, and shut out from hope in the world to come. In +this manner the quarrel went on with ever-increasing bitterness for +the space of six years. + +168. Prince Henry crowned; Reconciliation (1170). + +Henry, who had long wished to associate his son, Prince Henry, with +him in the government, had him crowned at Westminster by the +Archbishop of York, the bishops of London and Salisbury taking part. + +By custom, if not indeed by law, Becket alone, as Archbishop of +Canterbury, had the right to perform this ceremony. + +When Becket heard of the coronation, he declared it an outrage both +against Christianity and the Church. So great an outcry now arose +that Henry believed it expedient to recall the absent Archbishop, +especially as the King of France was urging the Pope to take up the +matter. Henry accordingly went over to the Continent, met Becket, and +persuaded him to return. + +169. Reneral of the Quarrel; Murder of Becket (1170). + +But though the Archbishop and the King had given each other the "kiss +of peace," yet the reconciliation was on the surface only; underneath, +the old hatred smoldered, ready to burst forth into flame. As soon as +he reached England, Becket invoked the thunders of the Church against +those who had officiated at the coronation of Prince Henry. He +excommunicated the Archbishop of York with his assistant bishops. + +The King took their part, and in an outburst of passion against Becket +he exclaimed, "Will none of the cowards who eat my bread rid me of +that turbulent priest?" In answer to his angry cry for relief, four +knights set out without Henry's knowledge for Canterbury, and brutally +murdered the Archbishop within the walls of his own cathedral. + +170. Results of the Murder. + +The crime sent a thrill of horror throughout the realm. The Pope +proclaimed Becket a saint with the title of Saint Thomas. The mass of +the English people looked upon the dead ecclesiastic as a martyr who +had died in the defense of the Church, and of all those--but +especially the laboring classes and the poor--around whom the Church +cast its protecting power. + +The great cathedral of Canterbury was hung in mourning; Becket's +shrine became the most famous in England. The stone pavement, and the +steps leading to it, still show by their deep-worn hollows where +thousands of pilgrims coming from all parts of the kingdom, and from +the Continent even, used to creep on their knees to the saint's tomb +to pray for his intercession. + +Henry himself was so far vanquished by the reaction in Becket's favor, +that he gave up any further attempt to formally enforce the +Constitutions of Clarendon (S165), by which he had hoped to establish +a uniform system of administration of justice. But the attempt, +though baffled, was not wholly lost; like seed buried in the soil, it +sprang up and bore good fruit in later generations. However, it was +not until near the close of the reign of George III (1813) that the +civil courts fully and finally prevailed. + +171. The King makes his Will; Civil War. + +Some years after the murder, the King bequeathed England and Normandy +(SS108, 159) to Prince Henry.[1] He at the same time provided for his +sons Geoffrey and Richard. To John, the youngest of the brothers, he +gave no territory, but requested Henry to grant him several castles, +which the latter refused to do. "It is our fate," said one of the +sons, "that none should love the rest; that is the only inheritance +which will never be taken from us." + +[1] After his coronation Prince Henry had the title of Henry III; but +as he died before his father, he never properly became king in his own +right. + +It may be that that legacy of hatred was the result of Henry's unwise +marriage with Eleanor, an able but perverse woman, or it may have +sprung from her jealousy of "Fair Rosamond" and other favorites of the +King.[1] Eventually this feeling burst out into civil war. Brother +fought against brother, and Eleanor, conspiring with the King of +France, turned against her husband. + +[1] "Fair Rosamond" [Rosa mundi, the Rose of the world (as THEN +interpreted)] was the daughter of Lord Clifford. According to +tradition the King formed an attachment for this lady before his +unfortunate marriage with Eleanor, and constructed a place of +concealment for her in a forest in Woodstock, near Oxford. Some +accounts report that Queen Eleanor discovered her rival and put her to +death. She was buried in the nunnery of Godstow near by. When +Henry's son John became King, he raised a monument to her memory with +the inscription in Latin: + "This tomb doth here enclose + The world's most beauteous Rose-- + Rose passing sweet erewhile, + Now naught but odor vile." + +172. The King's Penance (1173). + +The revolt against Henry's power began in Normandy (1173). While he +was engaged in quelling it, he received intelligence that Earl Bigod +of Norfolk[2] and the bishop of Durham, both of whom hated the King's +reforms, since they curtailed their authority, had risen against him. + +[2] Hugh Bigod: The Bigods were among the most prominent and also the +most turbulent of the Norman barons. + +Believing that this new trouble was a judgment from Heaven for +Becket's murder, Henry resolved to do penance at his tomb. Leaving +the Continent with two prisoners in his charge,--one his son Henry's +queen, the other his own,--he traveled with all speed to Canterbury. +There, kneeling abjectly before the grave of his former chancellor and +friend, the King submitted to be beaten with rods by the priests, in +expiation of his sin. + +173. End of the Struggle of the Barons against the Crown. + +Henry then moved against the rebels in the north (S171). Convinced of +the hopelessness of holding out against his forces, they submitted. +With their submission the long struggle of the barons against the +Crown came to an end (SS124, 130). It had lasted nearly a hundred +years (1087-1174). + +The King's victory in this contest was of the greatest importance. It +settled the question, once for all, that England was not, like the +rest of Europe, to be managed in the interest of a body of great +baronial landholders always at war with each other; but was henceforth +to be governed by one central power, restrained but not overridden by +that of the nobles and the Cuhrch. + +174. The King again begins his Reforms (1176). + +As soon as order was restored, Henry once more set about completing +his legal and judicial reforms (S165). His great object was to secure +a uniform system of administering justice which should be effective +and impartial. + +Henry I had undertaken to divide the kingdom into districts or +circuits, which were assigned to a certain number of judges who +traveled through them at stated times collecting the royal revenue and +administering the law (SS137, 147). Henry II revised and perfected +this plan.[1] + +[1] This was accomplished by means of two laws called the Grand Assize +and the Assize of Clarendon (not to be confounded with the +Constitutions of Clarendon). The Assize of Clarendon was the first +true code of national law; it was later expanded and made permanent +under the name of the Assize of Northampton. (See the Constitutional +Summary in the Appendix, p. vii, S8.) + +In addition to the private courts which, under feudal law, the barons +had set up on their estates (S150), they had in many cases got the +entire control of the town and other local courts. There they dealt +out such justice or injustice as they pleased. The King's judges now +assumed control of these tribunals, and so brought the common law of +the realm to every man's door. + +175. Grand Juries. + +The Norman method of settling disputed was by Trial by Battle, in +which the contestants or their champions fought the matter out either +with swords or cudgels (S148). There were those who objected to this +club law. To them the King offered the privilege of leaving the +decision of twelve knights, chosen from the neighborhood, who were +supposed to know the facts. (See the Constitutional Summary in the +Appendix, p. vi, S8.) + +In like manner, when the judges passed through a circuit, a grand jury +of not less than sixteen was to report to them the criminals of each +district. These the judges forthwith sent to the Church to be +examined by the Ordeal (S91). If convicted, they were punished; if +not, the judges considered them to be suspicious characters, and +ordered them to leave the country within eight days. In that way the +rascals of that generation were summarily disposed of. + +Henry II may rightfully be regarded as having taken the first step +toward founding the system of Trial by Jury, which England, and +England alone, fully matured. That method has since been adopted by +every civilized country of the globe. (See the Constutional Summary +in the Appendix, p. vii, S8.) + +176. Origin of the Modern Trial by Jury, 1350. + +In the reign of Henry's son John, the Church abolished the Ordeal +(S91) throughout Christendom (1215). It then became the custom in +England to choose a petty jury, acquainted with the facts, whoch +confirmed or denied the accusations brought by the grand jury. When +this petty jury could not agree, the decision of a majority was +sometimes accepted. + +The difficulty of securing justice by this method led to the custom of +summoning witnesses. These witnesses appeared before the petty jury +and testified for or against the party accused. In this way it became +possible to obtain a unanimous verdict. + +The first mention of this change occurs more than a hundred and thirty +years later, in the reign of Edward III (1350); and from that time, +perhaps, may be dated the true beginning of our modern method, by +which the jury bring in a verdict, not from what they personally know, +but from evidence sworn to by those who do. + +177. The King's Last Days. + +Henry's last days were full of bitterness. Ever since his memorable +return from the Continent (S172), he had been obliged to hold the +Queen a prisoner lest she should undermine his power (S171). His sons +were discontented and rebellious. Toward the close of his reign they +again plotted against him with King Philip of FRance. Henry then +declared war against that country. + +When peace was made, Henry, who was lying ill, asked to see a list of +those who had conspired against him. At the head of it stood the name +of his youngest son, John, whom he trusted. At the sight of it the +old man turned his face to the wall, saying, "I have nothing left to +care for; let all things go their way." Two days afterward he died of +a broken heart. + +178. Summary. + +Henry II left his work only half done; yet that half was permanent, +and its beneficent mark may be seen on the English law and the English +constitution at the present time. + +When he ascended the throne he found a people who had long been +suffering the miseries of a protracted civil war. He established a +stable government. He redressed the wrongs of his people. He +punished the mutinous barons. + +He compelled the Church, at least in some degree, to acknowledge the +supremacy of the State. He reformed the administration of law; +established methods of judicial inquiry which gradually developed into +our modern Trial by Jury; and he made all men feel that a king sat on +the throne who believed in a uniform system of justice and who +endeavered to make it respected. + +Richard I (Coeur de Lion)[1]--1189-1199 + +179. Accession and Character of Richard I. + +Henry II was succeeded by his second son, Richard, his first having +died during the civil war (1183) in which he and his brother Geoffrey +had fought against Prince Richard and their father (S171). Richard +was born at Oxford, but he spent his youth in France. + +[1] Richard Coeur de Lion: Richard the Lion-Hearted. An old +chronicler says that the King got the name from his adventure with a +lion. The beast attacked him, and as the King had no weapons, he +thrust his hand down his throat and "tore out his heart." This story +is not without value, since it illustrates how marvelous legends grow +up around the lives of remarkable men. + +The only English sentence that he was ever known to speak was when he +was in a raging passion. He then vented his wrath against an +impertinent Frnchman, in some broken but decidedly strong expressions +of his native tongue. Richard has been called "a spendid savage," +having most of the faults and most of the virtues of such a savage. + +The King's bravery in battle and his daring exploits gained for him +the flattering surname of Coeur de Lion. He had a right to it, for he +certainly possessed the heart of a lion, and he never failed to get +the lion's share. He might, however, have been called, in equal +truth, Richard the Absentee, since out of a nominal reign of ten years +he spent but a few months in England, the remaining time being +consumed in wars abroad. + +180. Condition of Society. + +Perhaps no better general picture of society in England during this +period can be found than that presented by Sir Walter Scott's novel, +"Ivanhoe." There every class appears. One sees the Saxon serf and +swineherd wearing the brazen collar of his master Cedric; the pilgrim +wandering from shrine to shrine, with the palm branch in his cap to +show that he has visited the Holy Land; the outlaw, Robin Hood, lying +in wait to strip rich churchmen and other travelers who were on their +way through Sherwood Forest. He sees, too, the Norman baron in his +castle torturing the aged Jew to extort his hidden gold; and the +steel-clad knights, with Ivanhoe at their head, splintering lances in +the tournament, presided over by Richard's brother, the traitorous +Prince John (S177). + +181. Richard's Coronation. + +Richard was on the Continent at the time of his father's death. His +first act was to liberate his mother from her long imprisonment at +Winchester (S177); his next, to place her at the head of the English +government until his arrival from Normandy. Unlike Henry II, Richard +did not issue a charter, or pledge of good government (S160). He, +however, took the usual coronation oath to defend the Church, maintain +justice, make salutary laws, and abolish evil customs; such an oath +might well be considered a charter in itself. + +182. The Crusades (1190); how Richard raised Money. + +At that period all western Europe was engaged in the series of wars +known as the Crusades. The object of this long contest, which began +in 1096 and ended in 1270, was to compel the Saracens or Mohammedans +to give up possession of the Holy Land to the Christians (S186). +Immediately after his coronation, Richard resolved to jion the King of +France and the Emperor of Germany in the Third Crusade. To get money +for the expedition, the King extorted loans from the Jews (S119), who +were the creditors of half England and had almost complete control of +the capital and commerce of every country in Europe. + +The English nobles who joined Richard also borrowed largely from the +same source; and then, suddenly turning on the hated lenders, they +tried to extinguish the debt by extinguishing the Jews. A pretext +against the unfortunate race was easily found. Riots broke out in +London, York, and elsewhere, and hundreds of Israelites were brutally +massacred. + +Richard's next move to obtain funds was to impose a heavy tax; his +next, to dispose of titles of rank and offices in both Church and +State, to all who wished to buy them. Thus, to the aged and covetous +bishop of Durhap he sold the earldom of Northumberland for life, +saying, as he concluded the bargain, "Out of an old bishop I have made +a new earl." + +He sold, also, the office of chief justice to the same prelate for an +additional thousand marks (S161, note 1), while the King of Scotland +purchased freedom from subjection to the English King for ten thousand +marks. + +Last of all, Richard sold cities and town, and he also sold charters +to towns. One of his courtiers remonstrated with him for his greed +for gain. The King replied, "I would sell London itself could I find +a purchaser rich enough to buy it." + +183. The Rise of the Free Towns. + +Of all these devices for raising money, that of selling charters to +towns had the most important results. From the time of the Norman +Conquest the large towns of England, with few exceptions, were +considered part of the King's property; the smaller places generally +belonged to the great barons. + +The citizens of these towns were obliged to pay rent and taxes of +various kinds to the King or lord who owned them. These dues were +collected by an officer appointed by the King or lord (usually the +sheriff), who was bound to obtain a certain sum, whatever more he +could get being his own profit. For this reason it was for his +interest to exact from every citizen the uttermost penny. London, as +we have seen, had secured a considerable degree of liberty through the +charter granted to it by William the Conqueror (S107). Every town was +now anxious to obtain a similar charter. + +The three great objects which the citizens of the towns sought were: + +(1) To get the right of paying their taxes directly to the King. +(2) To elect their own magistrates. +(3) To administer justice in their own courts in accordance with laws +made by themselves. + +The only way to gain these privileges was to pay for them. Many of +the towns were rich, and, if the King or lord needed money, they +bargained with him for the favors they desired. When the agreement +was made, it was drawn up in Latin and stamped with the King's seal +(S154). Then the citizens took it home in triumph and locked it up as +the safeguard of their liberties, or at least of some part of them. + +Thus, the people of Leicester, in the next reign, purchased from the +Earl of Leicester, their feudal lord, the right to decide their own +disputes. For this they payed a yearly tax of threepence on every +house having a gable on the main street. These concessions may seem +small, but they prepared the way for greater ones. + +What was still more important, these charters educated the citizens of +the day in a knowledge of self-government. The tradesmen and +shopkeepers of these towns did much to preserve free speech and equal +justice. Richard granted a large number of these town charters, and +thus unintentionally made himself a benefactor to the nation.[1] + +[1] Rise of Free Towns: By 1216 the most advanced of the English towns +had become to a very considerable extent self-governing. See +W. Stubbs's "Constitutional History of England." + +184. Failure of the Third Crusade. + +The object of the Third Crusade (S182) was to drive the Mohammedans +from Jerusalem. In this it failed. Richard got as near Jerusalem as +the Mount of Olives. When he had climbed to the top, he was told that +he could have a full view of the place; but he covered his face with +his mantle, saying, "Blessed Lord, let me not see thy holy city, since +I may not deliver it from the hands of thine enemies!" + +185. Richard taken Prisoner; his Ransom (1194). + +On his way home the King fell into the hands of the German Emperor, +who held him captive. His brother John (S177), who had remained in +England, plotted with Philip of France to keep Richard in prison while +he got possession of the throne. It is not certainly known how the +news of Richard's captivity reached England. One account relates that +it was carried by Blondel, a minstrel who had accompanied the King to +Palestine. He, it is said, wandered through Germany in search of his +master, singing a song, which he and Richard had composed together, at +every castle he came to. One day, as he was thus singing at the foot +of a tower, he heard the well-known voice of the King take up the next +verse in reply. + +Finally, Richard regained his liberty (1194), but to do it he had to +raise an enormous ransom. Every Englishman, it was said, was obliged +to give a fourth of his personal property, and the priests were forced +to strip the churches of their jewels and silver plate. + +When the King of France heard that the ransom money had at length been +raised, he wrote to John, telling him that his brother was free. +"Look out for yourself," said he; "the devil has broken loose." +Richard generously pardoned his treacherous brother; and when the King +was killed in a war in France (1199) John gained the throne he +coveted, but gained it only to disgrace it. + +186. Purpose of the Crusades. + +Up to the time of the Crusades, the English, when they entered upon +Continental wars, had been actuated either by ambition for military +glory or desire for conquest. But they undertook the Crusades from +motives of religious enthusiasm. + +Those who engaged in them fought for an idea. They considered +themselves soldiers of the cross. Moved by this feeling, "all +Christian believers seemed redy to precipitate themselves in one +united body upon Asia" (S182). Thus the Crusades were "the first +European event."[1] They gave men something noble to battle for, not +only outside their country, but outside their own selfish interests. + +[1] Guizot's "History of Civilization." + +Richard, as we have seen, was the first English King who took part in +them. Before that period England had stood aloof,--"a world by +itself." The country was engaged in its own affairs or in its +contests with France. Richard's expedition to the Holy Land brought +England into the main current of history, so that it was now moved by +the same feeling which animated the Continent. + +187. The Results of the Crusades: Educational, Social, Political. + +From a purely military point of view, the Crusades ended in disastrous +failure, for they left the Mohammedans in absolute possession of the +Holy Land. Although this is the twentieth century since the birth of +Christ, the Mohammedans still continue in that possession. But in +spite of their failure these wars brought great good to England. In +many respects the civilization of the East was far in advance of the +West. One result of the Crusades was to open the eyes of Europe to +this fact. When Richard and his followers set out, they looked upon +the Mohammedans as barbarians; before they returned, many were ready +to acknowledge that the barbarians were chiefly among themselves. + +At that time England had few Latin and no Greek scholars. The +Saracens or Mohammedans, however, had long been familiar with the +classics, and had translated them into their own tongue. Not only did +England gain its first knowledge of the philosophy of Plato and +Aristotle from Mohammedan teachers, but it also received from them the +elements of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and astronomy. + +This new knowledge gave a great impulse to education, and had a most +important influence on the growth of the universities of Cambridge and +Oxford, though these institutions did not become prominent until more +than a century later. + +Had these been the only results, they would still, perhaps, have been +worth all the blood and treasure spent by the crusaders in their vain +attempts to recover the permanent possession of the sepulcher of +Christ; but these were by no means all. The Crusades brought about a +social and political revolution. They conferred benefits and removed +evils. When they began, the greater part of the inhabitants of +western Europe, including England, were chained to the soil (S150). +They had neither freedom, property, nor knowledge. + +There were in fact but three classes, who really deserved the name of +citizens and freemen; these were the churchmen (comprising the clergy, +monks, and other ecclesiastics), the nobles, and the inhabitants of +certain favored towns. The effect of the Crusades was to increase the +number of this last class. We have seen that Richard was compelled, +by his need of money, to grant charters conferring local +self-government on many towns (SS182, 183). For a similar reason the +great nobles often granted the same powers to towns which they +controlled. The result was that their immense estates were broken up +in some measure. It was from this period, says the historian Gibbon, +that the common people (living in these chartered towns) began to +acquire political rights, and, what is more, to defend them. + +188. Summary. + +We may say in closing that the central fact in Richard's reign was his +embarking in the Crusades. From them, directly or indirectly, England +gained two important advantages: first, a greater degree of political +liberty, especially in the case of the towns; secondly, a new +intellectual and educational impulse. + + +John--1199-1216 + +189. John Lackland; the King's Quarrels. + +When Henry II in dividing his realm left his youngest son, John, +dependent on the generousity of his brothers, he jestingly gave him +the surname of "Lackland" (S171). The nickname continued to cling to +him even after he had become King of England and had also secured +Normandy and several adjacent provinces in France. + +The reign of the new King was taken up mainly with three momentous +quarrels: first, with France; next, with the Pope; lastly, with the +barons. By his quarrel with France he lost Normandy and the greater +part of the adjoining provinces, thus becoming in a new sense John +Lackland. By his quarrel with the Pope he was humbled to the earth. +By his quarrel with the barons he was forced to grant England the +Great Charter. + +190. Murder of Prince Arthur. + +Shortly after John's accession the nobles occupying a part of the +English possessions in France expressed their desire that John's +nephew, Arthur, a boy of twelve, should become their ruler. John +refused to grant their request. + +War, ensued, and Arthur fell into the hands of his uncle John, who +imprisoned him in the castle of Rouen, the capital of Normandy. A +number of those who had been captured with the young prince were +starved to death in the dungeons of the same castle, and not long +after Arthur himself mysteriously disappeared. Shakespeare represents +John as ordering the keeper of the castle to put out the lad's eyes, +and then tells us that he was killed in an attempt to escape.[1] The +general belief, however, was that the King murdered him. + +[1] Shakespeare's "King John," Act IV, scenes i and iii. + +191. John's Loss of Normandy (1204). + +Philip, King of France, accused John of the crime, and ordered him as +Duke of Normandy, and hence as his feudal dependant (S86), to appear +at Paris for trial. John refused. The court met, declared him a +traitor, and sentenced him to forfeit all his lands on the Continent. + +John's late brother, Richard Coeur de Lion (S185), had built a famous +stronghold on the Seine to hold Rouen and Normandy. He named it +"Saucy Castle." King Philip vowed in Richard's lifetime that he would +make himself master of it. "I would take it," said the French King, +"were its walls of iron." "I would hold it," retorted Richard, "were +its walls of butter." Richard made his word good, and kept the castle +as long as he lived; but his successor, John, was of poorer and meaner +stuff. He left his Norman nobles to carry on the war against Philip +as best they could. At last, after much territory had been lost, the +English King made an attempt to regain it. But it was too late, and +"Saucy Castle" fell. Then the end speedily came. Philip seized all +Normandy and followed up the victory by depriving John of his entire +possessions north of the river Loire. (See map facing p. 84.) + +192. Good Results of the Loss of Normandy. + +Thus after a union of nearly a hundred and forty years Normandy was +finally separated from England (S108). From that time the Norman +nobles were compelled to choose between the island of England and the +Continent for their home. Before that time the Norman's contempt for +the Saxon was so great, that his most indignant exclamation was, "Do +you take me for an Englishman?" + +Now, however, shut in by the sea, with the people he had hitherto +oppressed and despised, the Norman came to regard England as his +country, and Englishmen as his countrymen. Thus the two races, who +were closely akin to each other in their origin (S126), found at last +that they had common interests and common enemies,[1] and henceforth +they made the welfare of England their main thought. + +[1] Macaulay's "England"; also W. Stubb's "Early Plantagenets," +p. 136. + +193. The King's Despotism. + +Hitherto our sympathies have been mainly with the kings. We have +watched them struggling against the lawless nobles (S173), and every +gain which they have made in power we have felt was so much won for +the cause of good government. But we are coming to a period when our +sympathies will be the other way. Henceforth the welfare of the +nation will depend largely on the resistence of these very barons to +the despotic encroachments of the Crown.[2] + +[2] Ransome's "Constitutional History of England." + +194. Quarrel of the King with the Church (1208). + +Shortly after his defeat in France (S191), John entered upon his +second quarrel. Pope Innocent III had commanded a delegation of the +monks of Canterbury to choose Stephen Langton archbishop in place of a +person whom the King had compelled them to elect. When the news +reached John, he forbade Langton's landing in England, although it was +his native country. + +The Pope forthwith declared the kingdom under an interdict, or +suspension of religious services. For two years the churches were +hung in mourning, the bells ceased to ring, the doors were shut fast. +For two years the priests denied the sacraments to the living and +funeral prayers for the dead. At the end of that time the Pope, by a +bull of excommunication (S167), cut off the King as a withered branch +from the Church. John laughed at the interdict, and met the decree of +excommunication with such cruel treatment of the priests that they +fled terrified from the lnd. + +The Pope now took a third and final step; he deposed John and ordered +Philip, King of France, to seize the English Crown. Then John, +knowing that he stood alone, made a virtue of necessity. He knelt at +the feet of the Pope's legate, or representative, accepted Stephen +Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, and promised to pay a yearly tax +to Rome of one thousand marks (about $64,000 in modern money) for +permission to keep his crown. The Pope was satisfied with the victory +he had gained over his ignoble foe, and peace was made. + +195. The Great Charter. + +But peace in one direction did not mean peace in all. John's tyranny, +brutality, and disregard of his subjects' welfare had gone too far. +He had refused the Church the right to fill its offices and enjoy its +revenues. He had extorted exhorbitant sums from the barons. He had +violated the charters of London and other cities. He had compelled +merchants to pay large sums for the privilege of carrying on their +business unmolested. He had imprisoned men on false or frivolous +charges, and refused to bring them to trial. He had unjustly claimed +heavy sums from villeins, or farm laborers (S113), and other poor men; +and when they could not pay, had seized their carts and tools, thus +depriving them of their means of livelihood. + +Those who had suffered these and greater wrongs were determined to +have reformation, and to have it in the form of a written charter or +pledge bearing the King's seal. Stephen Langton, the new archbishop, +was likewise determined. He no sooner landed in England than he +demanded of the King that he should swear to observe the laws of +Edward the Confessor (S65), a phrase[1] in which the whole of the +national liberties was summed up. + +[1] Not necessarily the laws made by that King, but rather the customs +and rights enjoyed by the people during his reign. + +196. Preliminary Meeting at St. Albans (1213). + +In the summer (1213) a council was held at St. Albans, near London, +composed of representatives from all parts of the kingdom. It was the +first assembly of the kind on record. It convened to consider what +claims should be made on the King in the interest of the nobles, the +clergy, and the people at large. A few weeks later they met again, at +St. Paul's in London. + +The deliberations of the assembly took shape probably under Archbishop +Langton's guiding hand. He had obtained a copy of the charter granted +by Henry I (S135). This was used as a model for drawing up a new one +of similar character, but in every respect fuller and stronger in its +provisions. + +197. Battle of Bouvines; Second Meeting of the Barons (1214). + +John foolishly set out for the Continent, to fight the French at the +same time that the English barons were preparing to bring him to +terms. He was defeated in the decisive battle of Bouvines, in the +north of France, and returned to England crestfallen (1214), and in no +condition to resist demands at home. Late in the autumn the barons +met in the abbey church of Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, under their +leader, Robert Fitz-Walter, of London. Advancing one by one up the +church to the high altar, they solemnly swore that they would oblige +John to grant the new charter, or they would declare war against him. + +198. The King grants the Charter, 1215. + +At Easter (1215) the same barons, attended by two thousand armed +knights, met the King at Oxford and made known their demands. John +tried to evade giving a direct answer. Seeing that was impossible, +and finding that the people of London were on the side of the barons, +he yielded and requested them to name the day and place for the +ratification of the charter. + +"Let the day be the 15th of June, the place Runnymede,"[1] was the +reply. In accordance therewith, we read at the foot of the shriveled +parchment preserved in the British Museum, "Given under our hand...in +the meadow called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the 15th +of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign." + +[1] Runnymede: about twenty miles southwest of London, on the south +bank of the Thames, in Surrey. + +199. Terms and Value of the Charter, 1215; England leads in +Constitutional Government. + +This memorable document was henceforth known as the Magna Carta,[2] or +the Great Charter,--a term used to emphatically distinguish it from +all previous and partial charters. + +[2] Magna Carta: Carta is the spelling in the medieval Latin of this +and the preceding charters. (See the Constitutional Documents in the +Appendix, p. xxix.) + +It stipulated that the following grievances should be redressed: +First, those of the Church; secondly, those of the barons and their +vassals or tenants; thirdly, those of citizens and tradesmen; +fourthly, those of freemen and villeins or serfs (SS113, 150). + +Such was the first agreement entered into between the King and all +classes of his people. Of the sixty-three articles which constitute +it, the greater part, owing to the changes of time, are now obsolete; +but three possess imperishable value. These provide: + +(1) That no free man shall be imprisoned or proceeded against except +by his peers,[1] or the law of the land. +(2) That justice shall neither be sold, denied, nor delayed. +(3) That all dues from the people to the King, unless otherwise +distinctly specified, shall be imposed only with the conselt of the +National Council (S144). + +This last provision "converted the power of taxation into the shield +of liberty."[2] + +[1] Peers (from Latin pares): equals; this clause secures a fair and +open trial. +[2] Sir J. Mackintosh's "History of England." This provision was +dropped in the next reign (see W. Stubb's "Constitutional History of +England"); but after the great civil war of the seventeenth century +the principle it laid down was firmly reestablished. + +Thus, for the first time, the interests of all classes were protected, +and for the first time the English people appear in the constitutional +history of the country as a united body. So highly was this charter +esteemed, that in the course of the next two centuries it was +confirmed no less than thirty-seven times; and the very day that +Charles II entered London, after the civil wars of the seventeenth +century, the House of Commons asked him to confirm it again (1660). +Magna Carta was the first great step in that development of +constitutional government in which England has taken the lead. + +200. John's Efforts to break the Charter (1215). + +But John had no sooner set his hand to this document than he +determined to repudiate it. He hired bands of soldiers on the +Continent to come to his aid. The charter had been obtained by armed +revolt; for this reason the Pope opposed it. He suspended Archbishop +Langton (S196), and threatened the barons with excommunication (S167), +if they persisted in enforcing the provisions of the charter. + +201. The Barons invite Louis of France to aid them (1215). + +In their desperation,--for the King's hired foreign soldiers were now +ravaging the country,--the barons dispatched a messenger to John's +sworn enemy, Philip, King of France. They invited him to send over +his son, Prince Louis, to free them from tyranny, and become ruler of +the kingdom. He came with all speed, and soon made himself master of +the southern counties. + +202. King John's Death (1216). + +John was the first sovereign who had styled himself, on his great +seal, "King of England,"[1] thus formally claiming the actual +ownership of the realm. He was now to find that the sovereign who has +no place in his subjects' hearts has small hold of their possessions. + +[1] The late Professor E. A. Freeman, in his "Norman Conquest," I, 85, +note, says that though Richard Coeur de Lion had used this title in +issuing charters, yet John was the first king who put this inscription +on the great seal. + +The rest of his ignominious reign was spent in war against the barons +and Prince Louis of France. "They have placed twenty-five kings over +me!" he shouted, in his fury, referring to the twenty-five leading men +who had been appointed to see that the Great Charter did not become a +dead letter. But the twenty-five did their duty, and the war was on. + +In the midst of it John suddenly died. The old record said of +him--and said rightly--that he was "a knight without truth, a king +without justice, a Christian without faith."[2] The Church returned +good for evil, and permitted him to be buried in front of the high +altar of Worcester cathedral. + +[2] The late Professor W. Stubbs, of Oxford, says, in his "Early +Plantagenets," p. 152: "John ended thus a life of ignominy in which he +has no rival in the whole long list of our sovereigns....He was in +every way the worst of the whole list: the most vicious, the most +profane, the most tyrannical, the most false, the most short-sighted, +the most unscrupulous." A more recent writer (Professor Charles Oman, +of the University of Oxford), says of John, "No man had a good word to +say for him...; he was loathed by every one who knew him." + +203. Summary. + +John's reign may be regarded as a turning point in English history. + +1. Through the loss of Normandy, the Norman nobility found it for +their interest to make the welfare of England and of the English race +one with their own. Thus the two peoples became more and more united, +until finally all differences ceased. + +2. In demanding and obtainign the Great Charter, the Church and the +nobility made common cause with all classes of the people. That +document represents the victory of the entire nation. We shall see +that the next eighty years will be mainly taken up with the efforts of +the nation to hold fast to what it had gained. + +Henry III--1216-1272 + +204. Accession and Character. + +John's eldest son, Henry, was crowned at the age of nine. During his +long and feeble reign of fifty-six years England's motto might well +have been the warning words of Scripture, "Woe to thee, O land, when +thy king is a child!" since a child he remained to the last; for if +John's heart was of millstone, Henry's was of wax. + +Dante in one of his poems, written perhaps not long after Henry's +death, represents him as he sees him in imagination just on the +borderland of purgatory. The King is not in suffering, for as he has +done no particular good, so he has done no great harm. He appears "as +a man of simple life, spending his time singing psalms in a narrow +valley." + +That shows one side of his negative character; the other was his love +of extravagance, vain display, and instability of purpose. Much of +the time he drifted about like a ship without compass or rudder. + +205. Reissue of the Great Charter. + +Louis, the French prince who had come to England in John's reign as an +armed claimant to the throne (S201), finding that both the barons and +the Church preferred an English to a foreign king, now retired. +During his minority Henry's guardians twice reissued the Great Charter +(S199): first, with the omission of the article which reserved the +power of taxation to the National Council (S199, No. 3); and, +secondly, with an addition declaring that no man should lose life or +limb for hunting in the royal forests (S119). + +On the last occasion the Council granted the King in return a +fifteenth of their movable or personal property. This tax reached a +large class of people, like merchants in towns, who were not +landholders. On this account it had a decided influence in making +them desire to have a voice in the National Council, or Parliament, as +it began to be called in this reign (1246). It thus helped, as we +shall see later on, to prepare for a very important change in that +body.[1] + +[1] The first tax on movable or personal property appears to have been +levied by Henry II, in 1188, for the support of the Crusades. Under +Henry III the idea began to become general that no class should be +taxed without their consent; out of this grew the representation of +townspeople in Parliament. + +206. Henry's Extravagance. + +When Henry became of age he entered upon a course of extravagant +expenditure. This, with unwise and unsuccessful wars, finally piled +up debts to the amount of nearly a million of marks, or, in modern +money, upwards of 13,000,000 pounds. To satisfy the clamors of his +creditors, he mortgaged the Jews (S119), or rather the right of +extorting money from them, to his brother Richard. + +He also violated the chaters and treaties in order to compel those who +benefited from them to purchase their reissue. On the birth of his +first son, Prince Edward, he showed himself so eager for +congratulatory gifts, that one of the nobles present at court said, +"Heaven gave us this child, but the King sells him to us." + +207. His Church Building. + +Still, not all of the King's extravagance was money thrown away. +Everywhere on the Continent magnificent churches were rising. The +heavy and somber Norman architecture, with its round arches and +square, massive towers, was giving place to the more graceful Gothic +style, with its pointed arch and lofty, tapering spire. + +The King shared the religious enthusiasm of those who built the grand +cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln. He himself rebuilt the greater +part of Westminster Abbey (S66) as it now stands. A monument so +glorious ought to make us willing to overlook some faults in the +builder. Yet the expense and taxation incurred in erecting the great +minster must be reckoned among the causes that bred discontent and led +to civil war (S212). + +208. Religious Reformation; the Friars, 1221; Roger Bacon. + +While this movement, which covered the land with religious edifices, +was in progress, religion itself was undergoing a change. The old +monastic orders had grown rich, indolent, and corrupt. The priests +had well-nigh ceased to do missionary work. At this period a reform +sprang up within the Church itself. On the Continent two new +religious orders arose, calling themselves Friars, or Brothers. They +first came to England in 1221. These Brothers bound themselves to a +life of self-denial and good works. Some labored in the outskirts of +towns among the poor and the sick and called them to hear the glad +tidings of the teachings of Christ. From their living on charity they +came to be known as "Beggin Friars." + +Others, like Roger Bacon at Oxford, took an important part in +education, and endeavored to rouse the sluggish monks to make efforts +in the same direction. Bacon's experiments in physical science, which +was then neglected and despiseed, got him the reputation of being a +magician. He was driven into exile, imprisoned for many years, and +deprived of books and writing materials. + +But, as nothing could check the religious fervor of his mendicant +brothers, so no hardship or suffering could daunt the intellectual +enthusiasm of Bacon. When he emerged from captivity he issued his +great book entitled an "Inquiry into the Roots of Knowledge."[1] It +was especially devoted to mathematics and the sciences, and deserves +the name of the encyclopedia fo the thirteenth century. + +[1] Bacon designated this book by the name of "Opus Majus," or +"Greater Work," to distinguish it from a later summary which he alled +his "Opus Minus," or "Smaller Work." + +209. The "Mad Parliament"; the Provisions of Oxford (1258). + +But the prodigal expenditure and mismanagement of Henry kept on +increasing. At last the burden of taxation became too great to bear. +Bad harvests had caused a famine, and multitudes perished even in +London. Confronted by these evils, Parliament (S205) met in the Great +Hall at Westminster. Many of the barons were in complete armor. As +the King entered there was an ominous clatter of swords. Henry, +looking around, asked timidly, "Am I a prisoner?" + +"No, sire," answered Earl Bigod (S172); "but we must have reform." +The King agreed to summon a Parliament to meet at Oxford and consider +what should be done. The enemies of this assembly nicknamed it the +"Mad Parliament" (1258); but there was method and determination in its +madness, for which the country was grateful. + +With Simon de Montfort, the King's brother-in-law, at their head, they +drew up a set of articles, called the Provisions of Oxford, to which +Henry gave an unwilling assent. These Provisions practically took the +government out of the King's inefficient hand and vested it in the +control of three committees, or councils. (See Summary of +Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. x, S11.) + +210. Renewal of the Great Charter (1253). + +Meanwhile the King had been compelled to reaffirm that Great Charter +which his father had unwillingly granted at Runnymede (S198). +Standing in St. Catherine's Chapel within the partially finished +church of Westminster Abbey (S207), Henry, holding a lighted taper in +his hand, in company with the chief men of the realm, swore to observe +the provisions of the covenant. + +At the close he exclaimed, as he dashed the taper on the pavement, +while all present repeated the words and the action, "So go out with +smoke and stench the accursed souls of those who break or pervert this +charter." + +There is no evidence that the King was insincere in his oath; but +unfortunately his piety was that of impulse, not of principle. The +compact was soon broken, and the lnd was again compelled to bear the +burden of exorbitant taxes. These were extorted by violence, partly +to cover Henry's own extravagance, but also to swell the coffers of +the Pope, who had promised to make Henry's son, Prince Edward, ruler +over Sicily. + +211. Growing Feeling of Discontent. + +During this time the barons were daily growing more mutinous and +defiant, saying that they would rather die than be ruined by the +"Romans," as they called the papal power. To a fresh demand for money +Earl Bigod (S209) gave a flat refusal. "Then I will send reapers and +reap your field for you," cried the King to him. "And I will send you +back the heads of your reapers," retorted the angry Earl. + +It was evident that the nobles would make no concession. The same +spirit was abroad which, at an earlier date (1236), made the +Parliament of Merton declare, when asked to alter the customs or laws +of the country to suit the ordinances of the Church of Rome, "We will +not change the laws of England." So now the were equally resolved not +to pay the Pope money in bahalf of the King's son. + +212. Civil War; Battle of Lewes (1264). + +The crisis was soon reached. War broke out between the King and his +brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester (S209), better +known by his popular name of Sir Simon the Righteous. + +With fifteen thousand Londoners and a number of the barons, he met +Henry, who had a stronger force, on the heights above the town of +Lewes, in Sussex. (See map facing p. 436.) The result of the great +battle fought there was as decisive as that fought two centuries +before by William the Conqueror (S74), not many miles distant on the +same coast. + +213. De Montfort's Parliament; the House of Commons, 1265. + +Bracton, the foremost jurist of that day, said in his comments on the +dangerous state of the times, "If the King were without a bridle, +--that is, the law,--his subjects ought to put a bridle on him." + +Earl Simon (S209) had that "bridle" ready, or rather he saw clearly +where to get it. The battle of Lewes had gone against Henry, who had +fallen captive to De Montfort. By virtue of the power he now +possessed, the Earl summoned a Parliament. It differed from all +previous Parliaments in the fact that now, for the first time, +representatives of the boroughs or principal towns (S103) were called +to London to join the earls, barons, and clergy in their +deliberations. + +Thus, in the winter of 1265, that House of Commons, or legislative +assembly of the people, as distinguished from the House of Lords, +originated. After it was fully and finally established in the next +reign (S217), it sat for more than three hundred years in the chapter +house[1] of Westmister Abbey. It showed that at last those who had +neither land nor rank, but who paid taxes on personal property only, +had obtained at least temporary representation in Parliament. + +[1] The building where the governing body of an abbey transacts +business. + +When that principle should be fully recognized, the King would have a +"bridle" which he could not shake off. Henceforth Magna Carta (S199) +would be no longer a dead parchment promise of reform, rolled up and +hidden away, but would become a living, ever-present, effective +truth. (See SS261, 262, and Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, +p. x, S11.) + +From this date the Great Council or Parliament of England (S144) +commenced to lose its exclusive character of a single House consisting +of the upper classes only. Now, it gave promise of becoming a true +representative body standing for the whole nation. Thus De Montfort +began--or at least tried to begin--what President Lincoln called +"government of the people, by the people, for the people." But it +should be distinctly understood that his work had the defects of a +first attempt, and that it did not last. For, in the first place, De +Montfort failed to summon all who were entitled to have seats in such +a body; and secondly, he summoned only those who favored his policy. +We shall see that the honor of calling the first full and free +Parliament was reserved for Edward I. Thirty years later, he summoned +that body, which became the final model of every such assembly which +now meets, whether in the Old World or the New (S217). + +214. Earl Simon's Death (1265). + +But De Montfort's great effort soon met with a fatal reaction. The +barons, jeolous of his power, fell away from him. Prince Edward, the +King's eldest son, gathered them round the royal standard to attack +and crush the man who had humiliated his father. De Montfort was at +Evesham, Worcestershire (see map facing p. 436); from the top of the +Bell Tower of the Abbey he saw the Prince approaching. "Commend you +souls to God," he said to the faithful few who stood by him; "for our +bodies are the foes'!" There he fell. He was buried in Evesham +Abbey, but no trace of his grave exists. + +In the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, not far from Henry III's +tomb, may be seen the emblazoned arms of the brave Earl Simon. But +England, so rich in effigies of her great men, so faithful, too, in +her remembrance of them, has not yet set up in the vestibule of the +House of Commons, among the statues of her statesmen, the image of him +who took the first actual step toward founding that House in its +present form. + +215. Summary. + +Henry III's reign lasted over half a century. During that period +England, as we have seen, was not standing still. It was an age of +reform. In religion the "Begging Friars" were exhorting men to better +lives. In education Roger Bacon and other devoted scholars were +laboring to broaden knowledge and deepen thought. + +In political affairs the people now first obtained a place in +Parliament. Their victory was not permanent then, but it was the +precursor of the establishment of a permanent House of Commons which +was to come in the next reign. + +Edward I--1272-1307 + +216. Edward I and the Crusades. + +Henry's son, Prince Edward, was in the East, fighting the battles of +the Crusades (S182), at the time of his father's death. According to +an account given in an old Spanish chronicle, an enemy attacked him +with a poisoned dagger. His wife, Eleanor, saved his life by +heroically sucking the poison from the wound (S223). + +217. Edward's First "Complete or Model Parliament," 1295. + +Many years after his return to England, Edward convened a Parliament, +1295, to which representatives of all classes of freemen were +summoned, and from this time they regularly met (S213). Parliament +henceforth consisted of two Houses.[1] This first included the Lords +and Clergy. The second comprised the Commons (or representation of +the common people). It thus became "a complete image of the nation," +"assembled for the purposes of taxation, legislation, and united +political action."[2] This body declared that all previous laws +should be impartially executed, and that there should be no +interference with elections.[2] By this action King Edward showed +that he had the wisdom to adopt and perfect the example his father's +conqueror had left him (S213). Thus it will be seen that though Earl +Simon the Righteous (SS212, 213, 214) was dead, his reform went on. +It was an illustration of the truth that while "God buries his +workers, he carries on his work." + +[1] But during that period of the Commonwealth and Protectorate +(1648-1660) the House of Lords did not meet (S450) +[2] Stubb's "Early Plantagenets" (Edward I). See also the Summary of +Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xi, S12. +[3] The First Statute of Westminster. + +218. Conquest of Wales, 1282; Birth of the First Prince of Wales. + +Henry II had labored to secure unity of law for England. Edward I's +aim was to bring the whole island of Britain under one ruler. On the +west, Wales only half acknowledged the power of the English King, +while on the north, Scotland was practically an independent +sovereignty. The new King determined to begin by annexing Wales to +the Crown. + +He accordingly led an army thither, and after several victorious +battles, considered that he had gained his end. To make sure of his +new possessions, he erected along the coast the magnificent castles of +Conway, Beaumaris, Harlech, and Carnarvon, all of which he garrisoned +with bodies of troops ready to check revolt. + +In the last-named stronghold, tradition still points out a little dark +chamber in the Eagle Tower, more like a state-prison cell than a royla +apartment, where Edward's second son was born (1284). Years afterward +the King created him the first Prince of Wales (1301). The Welsh had +vowed that they would never accept an Englishman as King; but the +young Prince was a native of the soil, and certainly in his cradle, at +least, spoke as good Welsh as their own children of the same age. No +objection, therefore, could be made to him; by this happy compromise, +it is said, Wales became a principality joined to the English +Crown.[4] + +[4] Wales was not wholly incorporated with England until more than two +centuries later, namely in 1536, in the reign of Henry VIII. It then +obtained local self-government and representation in Parliament. + +219. Conquest of Scotland (1290-1296); the Stone of Scone. + +An opportunity now presented itself for Edward to assert his power in +Scotland. Two claimants, both of Norman descent, had come forward +demanding the crown.[1] One was John Baliol; the other, Robert Bruce, +an ancestor of the famous Scottish King and general of that name, who +will come prominently forward in the next reign. He decided in +Baliol's favor, but insisted, before doing so, that the latter should +acknowledge the overlordship of England, as the King of Scotland had +done to William I. + +[1] Scotland: At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, Scotland +was inhabited by a Celtic race nearly akin to the primitive Irish, and +more distantly so to the Britons. In time, the Saxons from the +Continent invaded the country, and settled on the lowlands of the +east, driving back the Celts to the western highlands. Later, many +English emigrated to Scotland, especially at the time of the Norman +Conquest, where they found a hearty welcome. + In 1072 William the Conqueror compelled the Scottish King to +acknowledge him as Overlord, and eventually so many Norman nobles +established themselves in Scotland that they constituted the chief +landed aristocracy of the country. The modern Scottish nation, though +it keeps its Celtic name (Scotland), is made up in great measure of +inhabitants of English descent, the pure Scotch being confined mostly +to the Highlands, and ranking in population only as about one to three +of the former. + +Baliol made a virtue of necessity, and agreed to the terms; but +shortly after formed a secret alliance with France against Edward, +which was renewed from time to time, and kept up between the two +countries for three hundred years. It is the key to most of the wars +in which England was involved during that period. Having made this +treaty, Baliol now openly renounced his allegiance to the English +King. Edward at once organized a force, attacked Baliol, and at the +battle of Dunbar (1296) compelled the Scottish nobleman to acknowledge +him as ruler. + +At the Abbey of Scone, near Perth, the English seized the famous +"Stone of Destiny," the palladium of Scotland, on which her Kings were +crowned. (See map facing p. 120.) Carrying the trophy to Westminster +Abbey, Edward enclosed it in that ancient coronation chair which has +been used by every sovereign since, from his son's accession (1307) +down to the present day. + +220. Confirmation of the Charters, 1297. + +Edward next prepared to attack France. In great need of money, he +demanded a large sum from the clergy, and seized a quantity of wool in +the hands of the merchants. The barons, alarmed at these arbitrary +measures, insisted on the King's confirming all previous charters of +liberties, including the Great Charter (SS135, 160, 199). This +confirmation expressly forbade that the Crown should take the people's +money or goods except by the consent of Parliament. Thus out of the +war England gained the one thing it needed to give the finishing touch +to the building up of Parliamentary power (SS213, 217); namely, a +solemn acknowledgement by the King that the nation alone had the right +to levy taxes.[1] (See Summary of Constitutional History in the +Appendix, p. xi, S12.) + +[1] Professor Stubbs says in his works (i.e. "Constitutional History +of England," and "Select Charters"), that the Confirmation of the +Charters "established the principle that for all taxation, direct and +indirect, the consent of the nation must be asked, and made it clear +that all transgressions of that principle, whether within the latter +of the law or beyond it, were evasions of the spirit of the +Constitution." See also J. Rowley's "Rise of the English People." + +221. Revolt and Death of Wallace (1303). + +A new revolt now broke out in Scotland (S219). The patriot, William +Wallace, rose and led his countrymen against the English,--led them +with that impetuous valor which breathes in Burns's lines: + + "Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled." + +Fate, however, was against him. After eight years of desperate +fighting, the valiant soldier was captured, executed on Tower Hill in +London as a traitor, and his head, crowned in mockery with a wreath of +laurel, was set on a pike on London Bridge. + +But though the hero who perished on the scaffold could not prevent his +country from becoming one day a part of England, he did hinder its +becoming so on unfair and tyrannical terms. "Scotland," says Carlyle, +"is not Ireland. No; because brave men arose there, and said, +`Behold, ye must not tread us down like slaves,--and ye shall +not,--and ye cannot!'" But Ireland failed, not for any lack of brave +men, but for lack of unity among them. + +222. Expulsion of the Jews, 1290. + +The darkest stain on Edward's reign was his treatment of the Jews +(S119). Up to this period that unfortunate race had been protected by +the Kings of England as men protect the cattle which they fatten for +slaughter. So long as they accumulated money, and so long as the +sovereign could extort from them whatever portion of their +accumulations he saw fit to demand, they were worth guarding. A time +had now come when the populace clamored for their expulsion from the +island, on the ground that their usury and rapacity was ruining the +country. + +Edward yielded to the clamor, and first stripping the Jews of their +possessions, he prepared to drive them into exile. It is said that +even their books were taken from them and given to the libraries of +Oxford. Thus pillaged, they were forced to leave the realm,--a +miserable procession, numbering some sixteen thousand. Many perished +on the way, and so few ventured to return that for three centuries and +a half, until Cromwell came to power, they disappear from English +history (S458). + +223. Death of Queen Eleanor. + +Shortly after this event, Queen Eleanor died (S216). The King showed +the devoted love he bore her in the beautiful crosses of carved stone +that he raised to her memory, three of which still stand.[1] These +were erected at the places where her coffin was set down, in its +transit from Grantham, in Lincolnshire, where she died, to the little +village of Charing (now Charing Cross, the geographical center of +London). This was the last station before her body reached its final +resting place, in that abbey at Westminster which holds such wealth of +historic dust. Around Queen Eleanor's tomb wax lights were kept +constantly burning, until the Protestant Reformation extinguished +them, nearly three hundred years later. + +[1] Originally there were thirteen of these crosses. Of these, three +remain: namely, at Northampton, at Geddington, near by, and at +Waltham, about twelve miles northeast of London. + +224. Edward's Reforms; Statute of Winchester (1285). + +The condition of England when Edward came to the throne was far from +settled. The country was overrun with marauders. To suppress these, +the Statute of Winchester made the inhabitants of every district +punishable by fines for crimes committed within their limits. Every +walled town had to close its gates at sunset, and no stranger could be +admitted during the night unless some citizen would be responsible for +him. + +In addition, both sides of the main roads were cleared of bushes in +order that desperadoes might not lie in wait for travelers. +Furthermore, every citizen was required to keep arms and armor, +according to his condition in life, and to join in the pursuit and +arrest of criminals. + +225. Land Legislation, 1285, 1290. + +Two very important statutes were passed during this reign, respecting +the free sale or transfer of land.[1] + +[1] These laws may be regarded as the foundation of the English system +of landed property; they completed the feudal claim to the soil +established by William the Conqueror. They are known as the Second +Statute of Westminster (De Donis, or Entail, 1285) and the Third +Statute of Westminster (Quia Emptores, 1290). See S264 and Summary of +Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xi, S11. + +The effect of these statutes was to confine the great estates to the +hands of their owners and direct descendants, or, when land changed +hands, to keep alive the claims of the great lords or the Crown upon +it. These laws rendered it difficult for landholders to evade their +feudal duties to the King (S150) by the sale or subletting of +estates. Hence, while they often built up the strength of the great +families, they also operated to increase the power of the Crown at the +very time when the growing influence of Parliament and the people was +beginning to act as a check upon the royal authority. + +226. Legislation respecting the Church; Statute of Mortmain, 1279. + +A third enactment checked the undue increase of Church property. +Through gifts and bequests the clergy had become owners of a very +large part of the most fertile soil of the realm. No farms, herds of +cattle, or flocks of sheep compared with theirs. These lands were +said to be in mortmain, or "dead hands"; since the Church, being a +corporation, never let go its hold, but kept its property with the +tenacity of a dead man's grasp. + +The clergy constantly strove to get these Church lands exempted from +furnishing soldiers, or paying taxes to the King (S136). Instead of +men or money they offered prayers. Practically, the Crown succeeded +from time to time in compelling them to do considerably more than +this, but seldom without a violent struggle, as in the case of Henry +II and Becket (S165). + +On account of these exemptions it had become the practice with many +persons who wished to escape bearing their just share of the support +of the King, to give their lands to the Church, and then receive them +again as tenants of some abbot or bishop. In this way they evaded +their military and pecuniary obligations to the Crown. To put a stop +to this practice, and so make all landed proprietors do their part, +the Statute of Mortmain was passed, 1279. It required the donor of an +estate to the Church to obtain a royal license, which, it is perhaps +needless to say, was not readily granted.[1] + +[1] See p. 76, note 1, on Clergy; and see Summary of Constitutional +History in the Appendix, p. xi, S11. + +227. Death of Edward I. + +Edward died while endeavoring to subdue a revolt in Scotland, in which +Robert Bruce, grandson of the first of that name (S219), had seized +the throne. His last request was that his son Edward should continue +the war. "Carry my bones before you on your march," said the dying +King, "for the rebels will not endure the sight of me, alive or dead!" + +Not far from the beautiful effigy of Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abey +(S223), "her husband rests in a severely simple tomb. Pass it not by +for its simplicity; few tombs hold nobler dust."[2] + +[2] Goldwin Smith's "History of the United Kingdom." + +228. Summary. + +During Edward I's reign the following changes took place: + +1. Wales and Scotland were conquered, and the first remained +permanently a part of the English kingdom. +2. The landed proprietors of the whole country were made more directly +responsible to the Crown. +3. The excessive growth of Church property was checked. +4. Laws for the better suppression of acts of violence were enacted +and rigorously enforced. +5. The Great Charter, with additional articles for the protection of +the people, was confirmed by the King, and the power of taxation +expressly acknowledged to reside in Parliament only. +6. Parliament, a legislative body now representing all classes of the +nation, was permanently organized, and for the first time regularly +and frequently summoned by the King.[1] + +[1] It will be remembered that De Montfort's Parliament in 1265 (S213) +was not regularly and legally summoned, since the King (Henry III) was +at that time a captive. The first Parliament (consisting of a House +of Commons and House of Lords, including the upper Clergy), convened +by the Crown, was that called by Edward I in 1295 (S217). + +Edward II--1307-1327 + +229. Accession and Character. + +The son to whom Edward I left his power was in every respect his +opposite. The old definition of the word "king" was "the man who +CAN," or the able man. The modern explanation usually makes him "the +chief or head of a people." Edward II would satisfy neither of these +definitions. He lacked all disposition to do anything himself; he +equally lacked power to incite others to do. By nature he was a +jester, trifler, and waster of time. + +Being such, it is hardly necessary to say that he did not push the war +with Scotland. Robert Bruce (S227) did not expect that he would; that +valiant fighter, indeed, held the new English sovereign in utter +contempt, saying that he feared the dead father, Edward I, much more +than the living son. + +230. Piers Gaveston; the Lords Ordainers; Articles of Reform. + +During his first five years of his reign, Edward II did little more +than lavish wealth and honors on his chief favorite and adviser, Piers +Gaveston, a Frenchman who had been his companion and playfellow from +childhood. While Edward I was living, Parliament had with his +sanction banished Gaveston from the kingdom, as a man of corrupt +practices; but Edward II was no sooner crowned than he recalled him, +and gave him the government of the realm during his absence in France, +on the occasion of his marriage. + +On Edward's return, the barons protested against the monopoly of +privileges by a foreigner, and the King was obliged to consent to +Gaveston's banishment. He soon came back, however, and matters went +on from bad to worse. Finally, the indignation of the nobles rose to +such a pitch that at a council held at Westminster the government was +virtually taken from the King's hands and vested in a body of barons +and bishops. + +The head of this committee was the King's cousin, the Earl of +Lancaster; and from the Ordinances or Articles of Reform which the +committee drew up for the management of affairs they got the name of +the Lords Ordainers. Gaveston was now sent out of the country for a +third time; but the King persuaded him to return, and gave him the +office of Secretary of State. This last insult--for so the Lords +Ordainers regareded it--was too much for the nobility to bear. + +They resolved to exile the hated favorite once more, but this time to +send him to that "undiscovered country" from which "no traveler +returns." Edward, taking alarm, placed Gaveston in Scarborough +Castle, on the coast of Yorkshire, thinking that he would be safe +there. The barons besieged the castle, starved Gaveston into +surrender, and beheaded him forthwith. Thus ended the first favorite. + +231. Scotland regains its Independence; Bannockburn, 1314. + +Seeing Edward's lack of manly fiber, Robert Bruce (S229), who had been +crowned King of the Scots, determined to make himself ruler in fact as +well as in name. He had suffered many defeats; he had wandered a +fugitive in forests and glens; he had been hunted with bloodhounds +like a wild beast; but he had never lost courage or hope. On the +field of Bannockburn, northwest of Edinburgh (1314), he once again met +the English, and in a bloody and decisive battle drove them back like +frightened sheep into their own country. (See map facing p. 120.) By +this victory, Bruce reestablished the independence of Scotland,--an +independence which continued until the rival kingdoms were peacefully +united under one crown, by the accession of the Scottish King, James, +to the English throne (1603). + +232. The New Favorites; the King made Prisoner (1314-1326). + +For the next seven years the Earl of Lancaster (S23) had his own way +in England. During this time Edward, whose weak nature needed some +one to lean on, had got two new favorites,--Hugh Despenser and his +son. They were men of more character than Gaveston (S230), but as +they cared chiefly for their own interests, they incurred the hatred +of the baronage. + +The King's wife, Isabelle of France, now turned against him. She had +formerly acted as a peacemaker, but from this time she did all in her +power to make trouble. Roger Mortimer, one of the leaders of the +barons, was the sworn enemy of the Despensers. The Queen had formed a +guilty attachment for him. The reign of Mortimer and Isabelle was "a +reign of terror." Together they plotted the ruin of Edward and his +favorites. They raised a force, seized and executed the Despensers +(1326), and then took the King prisoner. + +233. Deposition and Murder of the King (1327). + +Having locked up Edward in Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, the barons +now resolved ot remove him from the throne. Parliament drew up +articles of deposition against him, and appointed commissioners to +demand his resignation of the throne. + +When they went to the castle, Edward appeared before them clad in deep +mourning. Presently he sank fainting to the floor. On his recovery +he burst into a fit of weeping. But, checking himself, he thanked +Parliament through the commissioners for having chosen his eldest son +Edward, a boy of fourteen, to rule over the nation. + +Sir William Trussel then stepped forward and said: "Unto thee, O King, +I, William Trussel, in the name of all men of this land of England and +Speaker of this Parliament, renounce to you, Edward, the homage [oath +of allegiance] that was made to you some time; and from this time +forth I defy thee and deprive thee of all royal power, and I shall +never be attendant on thee as King from this time." + +Then Sir Thomas Blount, steward of the King's household; advanced, +broke his staff of office before the King's face, and proclaimed the +royal household dissolved. + +Edward was soon after committed to Berkeley Castle,[1] in +Gloucestershire. There, by the order of Mortimer, with the connivance +of Queen Isabelle, the "she-wolf of France," who acted as his +companion in iniquity (S232), the King was secretly and horribly +murdered. + +[1] Berkeley Castle is considered one of the finest examples of feudal +architecture now remaining in England. Over the stately structure +still floats the standard borne in the Crusades by an ancestor of the +present Lord Berkeley. + +234. Summary. + +The lesson of Edward II's career is found in its culmination. Other +sovereigns had been guilty of misgovernment, others had put unworthy +and grasping favorites in power, but he was the first King whom +Parliament had deposed. + +By that act it became evident that great as was the power of the King, +there had now come into existence a greater still, which could not +only make but unmake him who sat on the throne. + +Edward III--1327-1377 + +235. Edward's Accession; Execution of Mortimer. + +Edward III, son of Edward II, was crowned at fourteen. Until he +became of age, the government was nominally in the hands of a council, +but really in the control of Queen Isabelle and her "gentle Mortimer," +the two murderers of his father (S233). + +Early in his reign Edward attempted to reconquer Scotland (S219), but +failing in his efforts, made a peace acknowledging the independence of +that country. At home, however, he now gained a victory which +compensated him for his disappointment in not subduing the Scots. + +Mortimer was staying with Queen Isabelle at Nottingham Castle. Edward +obtained entrance by a secret passage, carried him off captive, and +soon after brought him to the gallows. He next seized his mother, the +Queen, and kept her in confinement for the rest of her life in Castle +Rising, Norfolk. + +236. The Rise of English Commerce; Wool Manufacture, 1336. + +The reign of Edward III is directly connected with the rise of a +flourishing commerce with the Continent. In the early ages of its +history England was almost wholly an agricultural country. At length +the farmers in the eastern counties began to turn their attention to +wool growing. They exported the fleeces, which were considered the +finest in the world, to the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. There +they were woven into cloth and returned to be sold in the English +market; for, as an old writer quaintly remarks, "The English people at +that time knew no more what to do with the wool than the sheep on +whose backs it grew."[1] + +[1] Thomas Fuller. This remark applies to the production of fine +woolens only. The English had long manufactured common grades of +woolen cloth to some extent. + +Edward's wife, Queen Philippa, was a native of a French province +adjoining Flanders, which was also engaged in the production of +cloth. (See map facing p. 128.) She used her influence in behalf of +the establishment of woolen factories at Norwich, and other towns in +the east of England, in 1336. Skilled Flemish workmen were induced to +come over, and by their help England successfully laid the foundation +of one of her greatest and most lucrative industries. + +From that time wool was considered a chief source of the national +wealth. Later, that the fact might be kept constantly in mind, a +square crimson bag filled with it--the "Woolsack"--became, and still +continues to be, the seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of +Lords. + +237. The Beginning of the Hundred Years' War, 1338. + +Indirectly, this trade between England and Flanders helped to bring on +a war of such duration that it received the name of the Hundred Years' +War. + +Flanders was at that time a dependency of France (see map facing +p. 128), but its great commercial towns were rapidly rising in power, +and were restive and rebellious under the exactions and extortion of +their feudal master, Count Louis. Their business interests bound them +strongly to England; and they were anxious to form an alliance with +Edward against Philip VI of France, who was determined to bring the +Flemish cities into absolute subjection. + +Philip was by no means unwilling to begin hostilities with England. +He had long looked with a greedy eye on the tract of country south of +the Loire,[2] which remained in possession of the English kings, and +only wanted a pretext for annexing. Through his alliance with +Scotland, he threatened to attack Edward's kingdom on the north. +Again, Philip's war vessels had been seizing English ships laden with +wool, so that intercourse with Flanders was maintained with difficulty +and peril. + +[2] Names Aquitaine (with the exception of Poitou). At a later period +the province got the name of Guienne, which was a part of it. (See +map facing p. 128.) + +Edward remonstrated in vain against these outrages. At length, having +concluded an alliance with Ghent, the chief Flemish city, he boldly +claimed the crown of France as his lawful right,[1] and followed the +demand with a declaration of war. Edward based his claim on the fact +that through his mother Isabelle he was nephew to the late French +King, Charles IV, whereas the reigning monarch was only cousin of that +monarch. To this the French replied that since their law excluded +women from the throne, Edward's claim was worthless, because he could +not inherit the crown of France from one who could not herself have +worn it. + +[1] Claim of Edward III to the French Crown + + Philip III (of France)* + (1270-1285) + H + =============H------------------ + H | + Philip IV Charles, Count of + (1285-1314) Valois, d. 1325 + H H + ==========================------ Philip VI + H H H | (of Valois) + Louis X Philip V Charles IV Isabelle (1328-1350) + (1314-1316) (1316-1322) (1322-1328) m. Edward II H + H of England H + John I | John II + (15 No.-19 Nov. 1316) Edward III (1350-1364) + of England, 1327 + +*The heavy lines indicate the direct succession. + +238. Battle of Cr'ecy; the "Black Prince," 1346. + +For the next eight years, fighting between the two countries was going +on pretty constantly on both land and sea, but without decisive +results. Edward was pressed for money and had to resort to all sorts +of expedients to get it, even to pawning his own and the Queen's +crown, to raise enough to pay his troops. At last he succeeded in +equipping a strong force, and with his son, Prince Edward, a lad of +fifteen, invaded Normandy. + +His plan seems to have been to attack the French army in the south of +France; but after landing he changed his mind, and determined to +ravage Normandy, and then march north to meet his Flemish allies, who +were advancing to join him. King Edward halted on a little rise of +ground not far from Cr'ecy (or Cressy), near the coast, on the way to +Calais. There a desperate battle took place. (See map facing +p. 128.) + +The French had the larger force, but Edward the better position. +Philip's army included a number of hired Genoese crossbowmen, on whom +he placed great dependence; but a thunderstorm had wet their +bowstrings, which rendered them nearly useless, and, as they advanced +toward the English, the afternoon sun shone so brightly in their eyes +that they could not take accurate aim. The English archers, on the +other hand, had kept their long bows in their cases, so that the +strings were dry and ready for action (S270). + +In the midst of the fight, the Earl of Warwick, who was hard pressed +by the enemy, became alarmed for the safety of young King Edward. He +sent to the King, asking reenforcements. + +"Is my son killed?" asked the King. "No, sire, please God!" "Is he +wounded?" "No, sire." "Is he thrown to the ground?" "No, sire; but +he is in great danger." "Then," said the King, "I shall send no aid. +Let the boy win his spurs[1]; for I wish, if God so order it, that the +honor of victory shall be his." The father's wish was gratified. +From that time the "Black Prince," as the French called Prince Edward, +from the color of his armor, became a name renowned throughout Europe. + +[1] Spurs were the especial badge of knighthood. It was expected of +every one who attained that honor that he should do some deed of +valor; this was called "winning his spurs." + +The battle, however, was gained, not by his bravery, or that of the +nobles who supported him, but by the sturdy English yeomen armed with +their long bows. With these weapons they shot their keen white arrows +so thick and fast, and with such deadly aim, that a writer who was +present on the field compared them to a shower of snow. It was that +fatal snowstorm which won the day.[2] We shall see presently (S240) +that the great importance of this victory to the English turned on the +fact that by it King Edward was able to move on Calais and secure +possession of that port. + +[2] The English yeomen, or country people, excelled in the use of the +long bow. They probably learned its value from their Norman +conquerors, who empoyed it with great effect at the battle of +Hastings. Writing at a much later period, Bishop Latimer said: "In my +tyme my poore father was as diligent to teach me to shote as to learne +anye other thynge....He taught me how to drawe, how to laye my bodye +in my bowe, and not to drawe wyth strength of armes as other nacions +do, but wyth strength of the bodye. I had bowes broughte me accordyng +to my age and strength; as I encreased in them, so my bowes were made +bigger, and bigger, for men shal neuer shot well, excepte they be +broughte up in it." The advantage of this weapon over the steel +crossbow (used by the Genoese) lay in the fact that it could be +discharged much more rapidly, the latter being a cumbrous affair, +which had to be wound up with a crank for each shot. Hence the +English long bow was to that age what the revolver is to ours. It +sent an arrow with such force that only the best armor could withstand +it. The French peasantry at that period had no skill with this +weapon, and about the only part they took in a battle was to stab +horses and despatch wounded men. + Scott, in the Archery Contest in "Ivanhoe" (Chapter XIII), has +given an excellent picture of the English bowman. + +239. Use of Cannon, 1346; Chivalry. + +At Cre'cy (S238) small cannon appear to have been used for the first +time in field warfare, though gunpowder was probably known to the +English friar, Roger Bacon (S208), a hundred years before. The object +of the cannon was to frighten and annoy the horses of the French +cavalry. They were laughed at as ingenious toys; but in the course of +the next two centuries those toys revolutionized warfare (S270) and +made the steel-clad knight little more than a tradition and a name. + +In its day, however, knighthood (S153) did the world a good service. +Chivalry aimed to make the profession of arms a noble instead of a +brutal calling. It gave it somewhat of a religious character. + +It taught the warrior the worth of honor, truthfulness, and courtesy, +as well as valor,--qualities which still survive in the best type of +the modern gentleman. We owe, therefore, no small debt to that +military brotherhood of the past, and may join the English poet in his +epitaph on the order: + + "The Knights are dust, + Their good swords rust; + Their souls are with the saints, we trust."[1] + +[1] Coleridge; see Scott's "Ivanhoe." + +240. Edward III takes Calais, 1347. + +King Edward now marched against Calais. He was particularly anxious +to take the place: first, because it was a favorite resort of +desperate pirates; secondly, because such a fortified port on the +Strait of Dover, within sight of the chalk cliffs of England, would +give him at all times "an open doorway into France." + +After besieging it for nearly a year, the garrison was starved into +submission and prepared to open the gates. Edward was so exasperated +with the stubborn resistance the town had made, that he resolved to +put the entire population to the sword. But at last he consented to +spare them, on condition that six of the chief men should give +themselves up to be hanged. A meeting was called, and St. Pierre, the +wealthiest citizen of the place, volunteered, with five others, to go +forth and die. Bareheaded, barefooted, with halters round their +necks, they silently went out, carrying the keys of the city. When +they appeared before the English King, he ordered the executioner, who +was standing by, to seize them and carry out the sentence forthwith. +But Queen Philippa (S236), who had accompanied her husband, now fell +on her knees before him, and with tears begged that they might be +forgiven. For a long time Edward was inexorable, but finally, unable +to resist her entreaties, he granted her request, and the men who had +dared to face death for others found life both for themselves and +their fellow citizens.[1] Calais now became an English town and the +English kept it for more than two hundred years (S373). This gave +them the power to invade France whenever it seemed for their interest +to do so. + +[1] Froissart's "Chronicles." + +241. Victory of Poitiers (1356). + +After a long truce, war again broke out. Philip VI had died, and his +son, John II, now sat on the French throne. Edward, during this +campaign, ravaged northern France. The next year his son, the Black +Prince (S238), marched from Bordeaux into the heart of the country. + +Reaching Poitiers with a force of ten thousand men, he found himself +nearly surrounded by a French army of sixty thousand. The Prince so +placed his troops amidst the narrow lanes and vineyards, that the +enemy could not attack him with their full strength. Again the +English archers gained the day (S238), and King John himself was taken +prisoner and carried in triumph to England. (See map facing p. 128.) + +242. Peace of Bre'tigny, 1360. + +The victory of Poitiers was followed by another truce; then war began +again. Edward intended besieging Paris, but was forced to retire to +obtain provisions for his troops. Negotiations were now opened by the +French. While these great negotiations were going on, a terrible +thunderstorm destroyed great numbers of men and horses in Edward's +camp. + +Edward, believing it a sign of the displeasure of Heaven against his +expedition, fell on his knees, and within sight of the Cathedral of +Chartres vowed to make peace. A treaty was accordingly signed at +Bre'tigny near by. By it, Edward renounced his claim to Normandy and +the French crown. But notwithstanding that fact, all English +sovereigns insisted on retaining the title of "King of France" down to +a late period of the reign of George III. France, on the other hand, +acknowledged the right of England, in full sovereignty, to the country +south of the Loire, together with Calais, and agreed to pay an +enormous ransom in pure gold for the restoration of King John. + +243. Effects of the French Wars in England. + +The great gain to England from these wars was not in the territory +conquered, but in the new feeling of unity they aroused among all +classes. The memory of the brave deeds achieved in those fierce +contests on a foreign soil never faded out. The glory of the Black +Prince (SS238, 241), whose rusted helmet and dented shield still hang +above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral,[1] became one with the glory +of the plain bowmen, whose names are found only in country +churchyards. + +[1] This is probably the oldest armor of the king in Great Britain. +See Stothard's "Monumental Effigies." + +Henceforth, whatever lingering feeling of jealousy and hatred had +remained in England, between the Norman and the Englishman (S192), now +gradually melted away. An honest, patriotic pride made both feel that +at last they had become a united and homogeneous people. + +The second effect of the wars was political. In order to carry them +on, the King had to apply constantly to Parliament for money (SS217, +220). Each time that body granted a supply, they insisted on some +reform which increased their strength, and brought the Crown more and +more under the influence of the nation. (See Summary of +Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xii, S13.) + +The it came to be clearly understood that though the King held the +sword, the people held the purse; and that the ruler who made the +greatest concessions got the largest grants. + +It was also in this reign that the House of Commons (SS213, 217, 262), +which now sat as a separate body, obtained the important power of +impeaching, or bringing to trial before the upper House, any of the +King's ministers or council who should be accused of misgovernment +(1376). (See S247, and Summary of Constitutional History in the +Appendix, p. xii, S13.) + +About this time, also, statutes were passed which forbade appeals from +the King's courts of justice to that of the Pope,[1] who was then a +Frenchman, and was believed to be under French political influence. +Furthermore, all foreign Church officials were prohibited from asking +or taking money from the English Church, or interfering in any way +with its management.[2] + +[1] First Statute of Provisors (1351) and of Praemunire (1353) +(S265). The first Statute of Praemunire did not mention the Pope or +the Court of Rome by name; the second, or Great Statute of Praemunire +of 1393, expressly mentioned them in the strongest terms. See +Constitutionals Documents in the Appendix, p. xxxii. +[2] Statute of Provisors (1351), and see S265. + +244. The Black Death, or Plague, 1349. + +Shortly after the first campaign in France, a frightful pestilence +broke out in London, which swept over the country, destroying upwards +of half the population. The disease, which was known as the Black +Death, had already traversed Europe, where it had proved equally +fatal. + +"How many amiable young persons," said a noted writer of that period, +"breakfasted with their friends in the morning, who, when evening +came, supped with their ancestors!" In Bristol and some other English +cities, the mortality was so great that the living were hardly able to +bury the dead; so that all business, and for a time even war, came to +a standstill. + +245. Effect of the Plague on Labor, 1349. + +After the pestilence had subsided, it was impossible to find laborers +enough to till the soil and shear the sheep. Those who were free now +demanded higher wages, while the villeins, or serfs (S113), and slaves +left their masters and roamed about the country asking for pay for +their work, like freemen. + +It was a general agricultural strike, which lasted over thirty years. +It marks the beginning of that contest between capital and labor which +had such an important influence on the next reign, and which, after a +lapse of more than five hundred years, is not yet satisfactorily +adjusted. + +Parliament endeavored to restore order. It passed laws forbidding any +freeman to ask more for a day's work than before the plague. It gave +the master the right to punish a serf who persisted in running away, +by branding him on the forehead with the letter F, for "fugitive." +But legislation was in vain; the movement had begun, and statutes of +Parliament could no more stop it than they could stop the rolling of +the ocean tide. It continued to go on until it reached its climax in +the peasant insurrection led by Wat Tyler, under Edward's successor, +Richard II (S251). + +246. Beginning of English Literature, 1369-1377. + +During Edward's reign the first work in English prose may have been +written. It was a volume of travels by Sir John Mandeville, who had +journeyed in the East for over thirty years. On his return he wrote +an account of what he had heard and seen, first in Latin, that the +learned might read it; next in French, that the nobles might read it; +and lastly he, or some unknown person, translated it into English for +the common people. He dedicated the work to the King. + +Perhaps the most interesting and wonderful thing in it was the +statement of his belief that the world is a globe, and that a ship may +sail round it "above and beneath,"--an assertion which probably seemed +to many who read it then as less credible than any of the marvelous +stories in which his book abounds. + +William Langland was writing rude verses (1369) about his "vision of +Piers the Plowman," contrasting "the wealth and woe" of the world, and +so helping forward that democratic outbreak which was soon to take +place among those who knew the woe and wanted the wealth. John +Wycliffe (S254), a lecturer at Oxford, attacked the rich and indolent +churchmen in a series of tracts and sermons, while Chaucer, who had +fought on the fields of France, was preparing to bring forth the first +great poem in our language (S253). + +247. The "Good Parliament" (1376); Edward's Death. + +The "Good Parliament" (1376) attempted to carry through important +reforms. It impeached (for the first time in English history)[1] +certain prominent men for fraud (S243). But in the end its work +failed for want of a leader. The King's last days were far from +happy. His son, the Black Prince (S238), had died, and Edward fell +entirely into the hands of selfish favorites and ambitious schemers +like John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Perhaps the worst one of this +corrupt "ring" was a woman named Alice Perrers, who, after Queen +Philippa was no more (S240), got almost absolute control of the King. +She stayed with him until his last sickness. When his eyes began to +glaze in death, she plucked the rings from his unresisting hands, and +fled from the palace. + +248. Summary. + +During this reign the following events deserve especial notice: + +1. The acknowledgment of the independence of Scotland. +2. The establishment of the manufacture of fine woolens in England. +3. The beginning of the Hundred Years' War, with the victories of +Cre'cy and Poitiers, the Peace of Bre'tigny, and their social and +political results in England. +4. The Black Death and its results on labor. +5. Parliament enacts important laws for securing greater independence +to the English Church. +6. The rise of modern literature, represented by the works of +Mandeville, Langland, and the early writings of Wycliffe and Chaucer. + +Richard II--1377-1399 + +249. England at Richard's Accession. + +The death of the Black Prince (SS238, 241, 247) left his son Richard +heir to the crown. As he was but eleven years old, Parliament +provided that the government during his minority should be carried on +by a council; but John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (S247), speedily +got the control of affairs. + +He was an unprincipled man, who wasted the nation's money, opposed +reform, and was especially hated by the laboring classes. The times +were critical. War had again broken out with both Scotland and +France, the French fleet was raiding the English coast, the national +treasury had no money to pay its troops, and the government debt was +rapidly accumulating. + +250. The New Tax; the Tyler and Ball Insurrection (1381). + +In order to raise money, the government resolved to levy a new form of +tax,--a poll or head tax,--which had been tried on a small scale +during the last year of the previous reign. The apttempt had been +made to assess it on all classes, from laborers to lords. + +The imposition was now renewed in a much more oppressive form. Not +only every laborer, but every member of a laborer's family above the +age of fifteen, was required to pay what twould be eequal to the wages +of an able-bodied man for at least several days' work.[1] + +[1] The tax on laborers and their families varied from four to twelve +pence each, the assessor having instructions to collect the latter +sum, if possible. The wages of a day laborer were then about a penny, +so that the smallest tax for a family of three would represent the +entire pay for nearly a fortnight's labor. See Pearson's "England in +the Fourteenth Century." + +We have already seen that, owing to the ravages of the Black Death, +and the strikes which followed, the country was on the verge of revolt +(SS244, 245). This new tax was the spark that caused the explosion. +The money was roughly demanded in every poor man's cottage, and its +collection caused the greatest distress. In attempting to enforce +payment, a brutal collector shamefully insulted the young daughter of +a workman named Wat Tyler. The indignant father, hearing the girl's +cry for help, snatched up a hammer, and rushing in, struck the ruffian +dead on the spot. + +Tyler then collected a multitude of discontented laborers on +Blackheath Common, near London, with the determination of attacking +the city and overthrowing the government. + +John Ball, a fanatical priest, harangued the gathering, now sixty +thousand strong, using by way of a text lines which were at that time +familiar to every workingman: + + "When Adam delved and Eve span, + Who was then the gentleman?" + +"Good people," he cried, "things will never go well in England so long +as goods be not in common, and so long as there be villeins (S113) and +gentlemen. They call us slaves, and beat us if we are slow to do +their bidding, but God has now given us the day to shake off our +bondage." + +251. The Great Uprising of the Laboring Class, 1381. + +Twenty years before, there had been similar outbreaks in Flanders and +in France. This, therefore, was not an isolated instance of +insurrection, but rather part of a general uprising. The rebellion +begun by Tyler and Ball (S250) spread through the southern and eastern +counties of England, taking different forms in different districts. +It was violent in St. Albans, where the peasants, and farm laborers +generally, rose against the exactions of the abbot, but it reached its +greatest height in London. + +For three weeks the mob held possession of the capital. They pillaged +and then burned John of Gaunt's palace (SS247, 249). They seized and +beheaded the Lord Chancellor and the chief collector of the odious +poll tax (S250). They destroyed all the law papers they could lay +hands on, and ended by murdering a number of lawyers; for the rioters +believed that the members of that profession spent their time forging +the chains which held the laboring class in subjection. + +252. Demans of the Rebels; End of the Rebellion. + +The insurrectionists demanded of the King that villeinage (S113) +should be abolished, and that the rent of agricultural lands should be +fixed by Parliament at a uniform rate in money. They also insisted +that trade should be free, and that a general unconditional pardon +should be granted to all who had taken part in the rebellion. + +Richard promised redress; but while negotiations were going on, +Walworth, mayor of London, struck down Wat Tyler with his dagger, and +with his death the whole movement collapsed almost as suddenly as it +arose. Parliament now began a series of merciless executions, and +refused to consider any of the claims to which Richard had shown a +disposition to listen. In their punishment of the rebels, the House +of Commons vied with the Lords in severity, few showing any sympathy +with the efforts of the peasants to obtain their freedom from feudal +bondage. + +The uprising, however, was not in vain, for by it the old restrictions +were in some degree loosened, so that in the course of the next +century and a half, villeinage (S113) was gradually abolished, and the +English laborer acquired that greatest yet most perilous of all +rights, the complete ownership of himself.[1] + +[1] In Scotland, villeinage lasted much longer, and as late as 1774, +in the reign of George III, men working in coal and salt mines were +held in a species of slavery, which was finally abolished the +following year. + +So long as he was a serf, the peasant could claim assistance from his +master in sickness and old age; in attaining independence he had to +risk the danger of pauperism, which began with it,--this possibility +being part of the price which man must everywhere pay for the +inestimable privilege of freedom. + +253. The New Movement in Literature, 1390 (?). + +The same spirit which demanded emancipation on the part of the working +classes showed itself in literature. We have already seen (S246) how, +in the previous reign, Langland, in his poem of "Piers Plowman," gave +bold utterance to the growing discontent of the times in his +declaration that the rich and great destroyed the poor. + +In a different spirit, Chaucer, "the morning star of English song," +now began (1390?) to write his "Canterbury Tales," a series of stories +in verse, supposed to be told by a merry band of pilgrims on their way +from the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, to the shrine of St. Thomas +Becket in Canterbury (S170). + +There is little of Langland's complaint in Chaucer, for he was +generally a favorite at court, seeing mainly the bright side of life, +and sure of his yearly allowance of money and daily pitcher of wine +from the royal bounty. Yet, with all his mirth, there is a vein of +playful satire in his description of men and things. His pictures of +jolly monks and easy-going churchmen, with his lines addressed to his +purse as his "saviour, as down in this world here," show that he saw +beneath the surface of things. He too was thinking, at least at +times, of the manifold evils of poverty and of that danger springing +from religious indifference which poor Langland had taken so much to +heart. + +254. Wycliffe; the First Complete English Bible, 1378. + +But the real reformer of that day was John Wycliffe, rector of +Lutterworth in Leicestershire and lecturer at Oxford (S246). He +boldly attacked the religious and the political corruption of the +age. The "Begging Friars," who had once done such good work (S208), +had now grown too rich and lazy to be of further use. + +Wycliffe, whose emaciated form concealed an unconquerable energy and +dauntless courage, organized a new band of brothers known as "Poor +Priests." They took up and pushed forward the reforms the friars had +dropped. Clothed in red sackcloth cloaks, barefooted, with staff in +hand, they went about from town to town[1] preaching "God's law," and +demanding that Church and State bring themselves into harmony with it. + +[1] Compare Chaucer's + "A good man ther was of religioun, + That was a poure persone [parson] of a town." + Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" (479) + +The only complete Bible then in use was the Latin version. The people +could not read a line of it, and many priests were almost as ignorant +of its contents. To carry on the revival which he had begun, Wycliffe +now began to translate the entire Scriptures into English, 1378. When +the great work was finished it was copied and circulated by the "Poor +Priests." + +But the cost of such a book in manuscript--for the printing press had +not yet come into existence--was so high that only the rich could buy +the complete volume. Many, however, who had no money would give a +load of farm produce for a few favorite chapters. + +In this way Wycliffe's Bible was spread throughout the country among +all classes. Later, when persecution began, men hid these precious +copies and read them with locked doors at night, or met in the forests +to hear them expounded by preachers who went about at the peril of +their lives. These things led Wycliffe's enemies to complain "that +common men and women who could read were better acquainted with the +Scriptures than the most learned and intelligent of the clergy." + +255. The Lollards; Wycliffe's Remains burned. + +The followers of Wycliffe were nicknamed Lollards, a word of uncertain +meaning but apparantly used as an expression of contempt. From having +been religious reformers denouncing the wealth and greed of a corrupt +Church, they seem, in some cases, to have degenerated into socialists +or communists. This latter class demanded, like John Ball (S250), +--who may have been one of their number,--that all property should be +equally divided, and that all rank should be abolished. + +This fact should be borne in mind with reference to the subsequent +efforts made by the government to suppress the movement. In the eyes +of the Church, the Lollards were heretics; in the judgment of many +moderate men, they were destructionists and anarchists, as +unreasonable and as dangerous as the "dynamiters" of to-day. + +More than forty years after Wycliffe's death (1384), a decree of the +Church council of Constance[1] ordered the reformer's body to be dug +up and burned (1428). But his influence had not only permeated +England, but had passed to the Continent, and was preparing the way +for that greater movement which Luther was to inaugurate in the +sixteenth century. + +[1] Constance, in southern Germany. This council (1415) sentenced +John Huss and Jerome of Prague, both of whom may be considered +Wycliffites, to the stake. + +Tradition says that the ashes of his corpse were thrown into the brook +flowing near the parsonage of Lutterworth, the object being to utterly +destroy and obliterate the remains of the arch-heretic. Fuller says: +"This brook did conveeey his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn +into the narrow sea, and that into the wide ocean. And so the ashes +of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all +the world over."[2] + +[2] Thomas Fuller's "Church History of Britain." Compare also +Wordsworth's "Sonnet to Wycliffe," and the lines, attributed to an +unknown writer of Wycliffe's time: + "The Avon to the Severn runs, + The Severn to the sea; + And Wycliffe's dust shall spread abroad, + Wide as the waters be." + +256. Richard's Misgovernment; the "Merciless Parliament." + +Richard had the spirit of a tyrant. He declared "that he alone could +change and frame the laws of the kingdom."[3] His reign was unpopular +with all classes. The people hated him for his extravagance; the +clergy, for failing to put down the Wycliffites (SS254, 255), with the +doctrines of whose founder he was believed to sympathize; while the +nobles disliked his injustice and favoritism. + +[3] W. Stubb's "Constitutional History of England," II, 505. + +In the "Merciless Parliament" (1388) the "Lords Appellant," that is, +the noblemen who accused Richard's counselors of treason, put to death +all of the King's ministers that they could lay hands on. Later, that +Parliament attempted some political reforms, which were partially +successful. But the King soon regained his power, and took summary +vengeance (1397) on the "Lords Appellant." Two influential men were +left, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of +Hereford, whom he had found no opportunity to punish. After a time +they openly quarreled, and accused each other of treason. + +A challenge passed between them, and they prepared to fight the matter +out in the King's presence; but when the day arrived, the King +banished both of them from England (1398). Shortly after they had +left the country Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt, Duke of +Lancaster, died. Contrary to all law, Richard now seized and +appropriated the estate, which belonged by right to the banished +nobleman. + +257. Richard deposed and murdered. (1399). + +When Bolingbroke, now by his father's death Duke of Lancaster, heard +of the outrage, he raised a small force and returned to England, +demanding the restitution of his lands. + +Finding that the powerful family of the Percies were willing to aid +him, and that many of the common people desired a change of +government, the Duke boldly claimed the crown, on the ground that +Richard had forfeited it by his tyranny, and that he stood next in +succession through his descent from Henry III. But in reality Henry +Bolingbroke had no claim save that given by right of conquest, since +the boy Edmund Mortimer held the direct title to the crown.[1] + +[1] See Genealogical Table, under No. 3 and 4, p. 140 + +The King now fell into Henry's hands, and events moved rapidly to a +crisis. Richard had rebuilt Westminster Hall (S156). The first +Parliament which assembled there deposed him on the ground that he was +"altogether insufficient and unworthy," and they gave the throne to +the victorious Duke of Lancaster. Shakespeare represents the fallen +monarch saying in his humiliation: + + "With mine own tears I wash away my balm,[2] + With mine own hand I give away my crown." + +[2] "Richard II," Act IV, scene i. The balm was the sacred oil used +in anointing the King at his coronation. + +After his deposition Richard was confined in Pontefract Castle, +Yorkshire, where he found, like his unfortunate ancestory, Edward II +(S233), "that in the cases of princes there is but a step from the +prison to the grave." His death did not take place, however, until +after Henry's accession.[1] Most historians condemn Richard as an +unscrupulous tyrant. Froissart, who wrote in his time, says that he +ruled "fiercely," and that no one in England dared "speak against +anything the King did." A recent writer thinks he may have been +insane, and declares that whether he "was mad or not, he, at all +events acted like a madman." But another authority defends him, +saying that Richard was not a despot at heart, but used despotic means +hoping to effect much-needed reforms.[2] + +[1] Henry of Lancaster was the son of John of Gaunt, who was the +fourth son of Edward III; but there were descendents of that King's +THIRD son (Lionel, Duke of Clarence) living, who, of course, had a +prior claim, as the following table shows: + + Edward III + [Direct descendant of Henry III] + 1 2 3 | 4 5 + --------------------------------------------------------------- + | | | | | + Edward, the William, d. Lionel, Duke John of Gaunt, Edmund +Black Prince in childhood. of Clarence Duke of Lancaster Duke of + | | | York + Richard II Philippa, m. Henry Bollinger + Edmund Mortimer Duke of Lancaster, + | afterward + Roger Mortimer Henry IV + d. 1398-1399 + | + Edmund Mortimer + (heir presumptive + to the crown after + Richard II) + +[2] See Gardiner, Stubbs, and the "Dictionary of English History." + +258. Summary. + +Richard II's reign comprised: + +1. The peasant revolt under Wat Tyler, whic hled eventually to the +emancipation of the villeins, or farm laborers. +2. Wycliffe's reformation movement and his complete translation of the +Latin Bible, with the rise of the Lollards. +3. The publication of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the first great +English poem. +4. The deposition of the King, and the transfer of the crown by +Parliament to Henry, Duke of Lancaster. + +General Reference Summary of the Angevin, or Plantegenet, Period +(1154-1399) + +I. Government. II. Religion. III. Military Affairs. IV. Literature, +Learning, and Art. V. General Industry and Commerce. VI. Mode of +Life, Manners, and Customs. + +I. Government + +259. Judicial Reforms. + +In 1164 Henry II undertook, by a series of statutes called the +Constitutions of Clarendon, to bring the Church under the common law +of the land, but was only temporarily successful. By subsequent +statutes he reorganized the administration of justice, and laid the +foundation of trial by jury. + +260. Town Charters. + +Under Richard I many towns secured charters giving them the control of +their own affairs in great measure. In this way municipal +self-government arose, and a prosperous and intelligent class of +merchants and artisans grew up who eventually obtained important +political influence in the management of national affairs. + +261. Magna Carta, or the Great National Charter. + +This pledge, extotrted from King John in 1215, put a check to he +arbitrary power of the sovereign, and guaranteed the rights of all +classes, from the serf and the townsman to the bishop and baron +(S199). It consisted originally of sixty-three articles, founded +mainly on the first royal charter (that of Henry I), given in 1100 +(S135). + +Magna Carta was not a statement of principles, but a series of +specific remedies for specific abuses, which may be summarized as +follows: + +1. The Church to be free from royal interference, especially in the +election of bishops. +2. No taxes except the regular feudal dues (S150) to be levied, except +by the consent of the Great Council, or Parliament. +3. The Court of Common Pleas (see p. 73, not 1) not to follow the +King, but to remain stationary at Westminster. Justice to be neither +sold, denied or delayed. No man to be imprisoned, outlawed, punished, +or otherwissssse molested, save by the judgment of his equals or by +the law of the land. The necessary implements of all freemen, and the +farming tools of villeins, or farm laborers (S113), to be exempt from +seizure. +4. Weights and measures to be kept uniform throughout the realm. All +merchants to have the right to enter and leave the kingdom without +paying exorbitant tolls for the privilege. +5. Forest laws to be justly enforced. +6. The charter to be carried out by twenty-five barons together with +the mayor of London. + +This document marks the beginning of a written constitution, and it +proved of the highest value henceforth in securing good government. +It was confirmed thirty-seven times by subsequent kings and +parliaments, the confirmation of this and previous charters by +Edward I in 1297 being of especial importance. + +262. Rise of the House of Commons. + +In 1265, under Henry III, through the influence of Simon de Montfort, +two representatives from each city and borough, or town, together with +two knights of the shire, or country gentlemen, were summoned to meet +with the Lords and Clergy in the Great Council, or Parliament; but the +House of Commons did not become a permanent body until the Model +Parliament of 1295 was summoned. From that time the body of the +people began to have a permanent voice in making the laws. + +Later in the period the knights of the shire joined the +representatives from the towns in forming a distinct body in +Parliament, sitting by themselves under the name of the House of +Commons. They asserted their right to assent to legislation, and +(1376) they exercised hte right of impeaching before the House of +Lords government officers guilty of misuse of power. Somewhat later +(1407) they obtained the sole right to originate "Money Bills," that +is, grants or appropriations of money for public purposes or for the +King's use. + +263. New Class of Barons. + +Under Henry III other influential men of the realm, aside from the +barons, who were tenants in chief, began to be summoned to the King's +council. These were called "barons by writ." Later (under Richard +II), barons were created by open letters bearing the royal seal, and +were called "barons by patent."[1] + +[1] This is the modern method of raising a subject (e.g. the poet, +Alfred Tennyson) to the peerage. It marks the fact that from the +thirteenth century the ownership of land was no longer considered a +necessary condition of nobility; and that the peerage was gradually +developing into the five degrees, which were completed in 1440, in the +following ascending order: barons, viscounts, earls, marquises, dukes. + +264. Land Laws. + +During this period important laws (De Donis, or Entail, and Quia +Emptores) respecting land were passed, which had the effect of keeping +estates in families, and also of preventing their possessors from +evading their feudal duties to the King. At the same time the Statute +of Mortmain (a restriction on the acquisition of land by the Church, +which was exempt from paying certain feudal dues) was imposed to +prevent the King's revenue from being diminished. + +II. Religion + +265. Restriction of Papal Power. + +During the Angevin period the popes endeavored to introduce the canon +law (a body of ordinances consisting mainly of the decisions of Church +councils and popes) into England, with the view of making it supreme; +but the Parliament of Merton refused to accept it, saying, "We will +not change the laws of England." + +The Statute of Mortmain was also passed (SS226, 264) and other +measures (Statutes of Provisors and Statute of Praemunire) (S243), +which forbade the Pope from taking the appointment of bishops and +other ecclesiastics out of the hands of the clergy; and which +prohibited any appeal from the King's Court to the Papal Court. +Furthermore, many hundreds of parishes, formerly filled by foreigners +who could not speak English, were now given to native priests, and the +sending of money out of the country to support foreign ecclesiastics +was in great measure stopped. + +During the Crusades two religious military orders had been +established, called the Knights Hospitalers and the Knights Templars. +The object of the former was, originally, to provide entertainment for +pilgrims going to Jerusalem; that of the latter, to protect them. +Both had extensive possessions in England. In 1312 the order of +Templars was broken up on a charge of heresy and evil life, and their +property in England given to the Knights Hospitalers, who were also +called Knights of St. John. + +266. Reform. + +The Mendicant or "Begging Friars" began a reformatory movement in the +Church and accomplished much good. This was followed by Wycliffe's +attack on religious abuses, by his complete translation of the Bible, +with the revival carried on by the "Poor Priests," and by the rise of +the Lollards. Eventually severe laws were passed against the +Lollards, partly because of their heretical opinions, and partly +because they became in a measure identified with socialistic and +communistic efforts to destroy rank and equalize property. + +III. Military Affairs + +267. Scutage. + +By a tax called scutage, or shield money, levied on all knights who +refused to serve the King in foreign wars, Henry II obtained the means +to hire soldiers. By a law reviving the national militia, composed of +freemen below the rank of knights, the King made himself in a +considerable measure independent of the barons with respect to raising +troops. + +268. Armor; Heraldry. + +The linked or mail armor now began to be superseded by that made of +pieces of steel joined together so as to fit the body. This, when it +was finally perfected, was called plate armor, and was both heavier +and stronger than mail. + +With the introduction of plate armor and the closed helmet it became +the custom for each knight to wear a device, called a crest, on his +helmet, and also to have one called a coat of arms (because originally +worn on a loose coat over the armor). + +The coat of arms served to distinguish the wearer from the others, and +was of practical use not only to the followers of a great lord, who +thus knew him at a glance, but it served in time of battle to prevent +the confusion of friend and foe. Eventually, coats of arms became +hereditary, and the descent, and to some extent the history, of a +family can be traced by them. In this way heraldry may often prove +helpful in gaining knowledge of men and events. + +269. Chivalry; Tournaments. + +The profession of arms was regulated by certain rules, by which each +knight solemnly bound himself to serve the cause of religion and the +King, and to be true, brace, and courteous to those of his own rank, +to protect ladies (women of gentle birth), and succor all persons in +distress. Under Edward III the system of knighthood and chivalry +reached its culmination and began to decline. + +One of the grotesque features of the attack of France was an +expedition of English knights with one eye bandaged; this half-bling +company having vowed to partially renounce their sight until they did +some glorious deed. The chief amusement of the nobles and knights was +the tournament, a mock combat fought on horseback, in full armor, +which sometimes ended in a real battle. At these entertainments a +lady was chosen queen, who gave prizes to the victors. + +270. The Use of the Long Bow; Introduction of Cannon; Wars. + +The common weapon of the yeomen, or foot soldiers, was the long bow. +It was made of yew-tree wood, and was the height of the user. Armed +with this weapon, the English soldiers proved themselves irresistable +in the French wars, the French having no native archers of any +account. + +Roger Bacon is supposed to have known the properties of gunpowder as +early as 1250, but no practical use was made of the discovery until +the battle of Cre'cy, 1346, when a few very small cannon are said to +have been employed by the English against the enemy's cavalry. Later, +cannon were used to throw heavy stones in besieging castles. Still +later, rude handguns came slowly into use. From this period kings +gradually began to realize the full meaning of the harmless-looking +black grains, with whose flash and noise the Oxford monk had amused +himself. + +The chief wars of the time were the contests between the kings and the +barons, Richard I's Crusade, John's war with France, resulting in the +loss of Normandy, Edward I's conquest of Wales and temporary +subjugation of Scotland, and the beginning of the Hundred Years' War +with France under Edward III. + +The navy of this period was made up of small, one-masted vessels, +seldom carrying more than a hundred and fifty fighting men. As the +mariner's compass had now come into general use, these vessels could, +if occasion required, make voyages of considerable length. + +IV. Literature, Learning, and Art + +271. Education. + +In 1264 Walter de Merton founded the first college at Oxford, an +institution which has ever since borne his name, and which really +originated the English college system. During the reign of Edward +III, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, gave a decided impulse +to higher education by the establishment, at his own expense, of +Winchester College, the first great public school founded in England. +Later, he built and endowed New College at Oxford to supplement it. + +In Merton's and Wykeham's institutions young men of small means were +instructed, and in great measure supported, without charge. They were +brought together under one roof, require to conform to proper +discipline, and taught by the best teachers of the day. In this way a +general feeling of emulation was roused, and at the same time a +fraternal spirit cultivated, which had a strong influence in favor of +a broader and deeper intellectual culture than the monastic schools at +Oxford and elsewhere had encouraged. + +272. Literature. + +The most prominent historical work was that by Matthew Paris, a monk +of St. Alban's, written in Latin, based largely on earlier chronicles, +and covering the period from the Norman Conquest, 1066, to his death, +in 1259. It is a work of much value, and was continued by writers of +the same abbey. + +The first English prose work was a volume of travels by Sir John +Mandeville, dedicated to Edward III. It was followed by Wycliffe's +translation of the Bible into English from the Latin version, and by +Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the first great English poem. + +273. Architecture. + +Edward I and his successors began to build structures combining the +palace with the stronghold.[1] Conway and Carnavon Castles in Wales, +Warwich Castle, Warwickshire, and a great part of Windsor Castle on +the Thames, twenty-three miles west of London, are magnificent +examples; the last is still occupied as a royal residence. + +[1] The characteristic features of the Edwardian castles are double +surrounding walls, with numerous protecting towers, and the omission +of the square Norman keep. + +In churches, the massive architecture of the Normans, with its heavy +columns and round arches, was followed by the Early English style or +the first period of the Gothic, with pointed arches, slender, +clustered columns, and tapering spires. Salisbury Cathedral is the +grandest example of the Early English style. + +Later, the Decorated Style was adopted. It was characterized by +broader windows, highly ornamented to correspond with the elaborate +decoration within, which gave this style its name; this is seen to +advantage in Exeter Cathedral, York Minster, and Merton College Chapel +at Oxford. + +V. General Industry and Commerce + +274. Fairs; Guilds. + +The domestic trade of the country was largely carried on during this +period by great fairs held at stated times by royal license. Bunyan, +in "Pilgrim's Progress," gives a vivid picture of one of these centers +of trade and dissipation, under the name of "Vanity Fair." Though it +represents the great fair of Sturbridge, near Cambridge, as he saw it +in the seventeenth century, yet it undoubtably describes similar +gatherings in the time of the Plantagenets. + +In all large towns the merchants had formed associations for mutual +protection and the advancement of trade, called merchant guilds. +Artisans now instituted similar societies, under the name of craft +guilds. For a long time the merchant guilds endeavored to shut out +the craft guilds,--the men, as they said, "with dirty hands and blue +nails,"--from having any part in the government of the towns. But +eventually the latter got their full share, and in some cases, as in +London, became the more influential party of the two. There they +still survive under the name of the "City Companies." + +275. The Wool Trade. + +Under Edward III a flourishing trade in wool grew up between England +and Flanders. The manufacture of fine woolen goods was also greatly +extended in England. All commerce at this period was limited to +certain market towns called "staples." + +To these places produce and all other goods for export had to be +carried in order that the government might collect duty on them before +they were sent out of the country. If an Englishman carried goods +abroad and sold them in the open market without first paying a tax to +the Crown, he was liable to the punishment of death. Imports also +paid duties. + +276. The Great Strike. + +The scarcity of laborers caused by the ravages of the Black Death +caused a general strike for higher wages on the part of free +workingmen, and also induced thousands of villeins to run away from +their masters, in order to get work on their own account. The general +uprising which a heavy poll tax caused among the villeins (S150), or +farm laborers, and other workingmen, though suppressed at the time, +led to the ultimate emancipation of the villeins by a gradual process +extending through many generations. + +VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs + +277. Dress; Furniture. + +During most of this period great luxury in dress prevailed among the +rich and noble. Silks, velvets, scarlet cloth, and cloth of gold were +worn by both men and women. At one time the lords and gallants at +court wore shoes with points curled up like rams' horns and fastened +to the knee with silver chains. + +Attempts were made by the government to abolish this and other +ridiculous fashions, and also to regulate the cost of dress according +to the rank and means of the wearer; but the effort met with small +success. Even the rich at this time had but little furniture in their +houses, and chairs were almost unknown. The floors of houses were +strewn with rushes, which, as they were rarely changed, became +horribly filthy, and were a prolific cause of sickness. + +278. The Streets; Amusements; Profanity. + +The streets of London and other cities were rarely more than twelve or +fifteen feet wide. They were neither paved nor lighted. Pools of +stagnant water and heaps of refuse abounded. There was no sewage. +The only scavengers were the crows. The houses were of timber and +plaster, with projecting stories, and destructive fires were common. +The chief amusements were hunting and hawking, contests at archery, +and tournaments. Plays were acted by amateur companies on stages on +wheels, which could be moved from street to street. + +The subjects continued to be drawn in large measure from the Bible and +from legends of the saints. They served to instruct men in Scripture +history, in an age when few could read. The instruction was not, +however, always taken to heart, as profane swearing was so common that +an Englishman was called on the Continent by his favorite oath, which +the French regarded as a sort of national name before that of "John +Bull" came into use. + + +SEVENTH PERIOD[1] + +"God's most dreaded instrument, + In working out a pure intent, + Is man--arrayed for mutual slaughter." + Wordsworth + +The Self-Destruction of Feudalism + +Baron against Baron + +The Houses of Lancaster and York (1399-1485) + +House of Lancaster (the Red Rose) House of York (the White Rose) +Henry IV, 1399-1413 Edward IV, 1461-1483 +Henry V, 1413-1422 +Edward V, 1483 +*Henry VI, 1422-1461 Richard III, 1483-1485 + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. +*Henry VI, deposed 1461; reinstated for a short time in 1470. ++Edward V, never crowned. + +279. Henry IV's Accession. + +Richard II left no children. The nearest heir to the kingdom by right +of birth was the boy Edmund Mortimer, a descendant of Richard's uncle +Lionel, Duke of Clarence.[2] Henry ignored Mortimer's claim, and +standing before Richard's empty throne in Westminster Hall (S257), +boldly demanded the crown for himself.[3] + +[2] See Genealogical Table on page 140. +[3] "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of +Lancaster, challenge this realm of England and the Crown, with all the +members and the appurtenances, as that I am descended by right line of +blood, coming from the good King Henry III, and through that right +that God of his grace hath sent me, with help of kin and of all my +friends to recover it, the which realm was in point to be undone by +default of government and undoing of the good laws." + +The nation had suffered so much from the misgovernment of those who +had ruled during the minority of Richard, and later by Richard +himself, that they wanted no more boy kings. Parliament, therefore, +set aside the direct line of descent and accepted Henry. But the air +was full of tumultuous passion. The Lords were divided in their +allegiance, some stood by the former King, others by the new one. No +loess than forty noblemen challenged each other to fight, and civil +war seemed imminent.[1] + +[1] J.F. Bright's "History of England," I, 276. + +280. Conspiracy in favor of Richard. + +The new King had hardly seated himself on the throne when a conspiracy +was discovered, having for its object he release and restoration of +Richard, still a prisoner in Pontefract Castle. The plot was easily +crushed. A month later Richard was found dead (S257). + +Henry had his body brought up to London and exposed to public view in +St. Paul's Cathedral, in order that not only the people, but all +would-be conspirators might now see that Richard's hands could never +again wield the scepter. + +There was, however, one man at least who refused to be convinced. +Owen Glendower, a Welshman, whom the late King had befriended, +declared that Richard was still living, and that the corpse exhibited +was not his body. Glendower prepared to maintain his belief by arms. +King Henry mustered a force with the intention of invading Wales and +crushing the rebel on his own ground; but a succession of terrible +tempests ensued. + +The English soldiers got the idea that Glendower raised these storms, +for as an old chronicle declares: "Through art magike he [Glendower] +caused such foule weather of winds, tempest, raine, snow, and haile to +be raised for the annoiance of the King's armie, that the like had not +beene heard of."[2] For this reason the troops became disheartened, +and the King was obliged to postpone the expedition. + +[2] Holinshed's "Chronicle." + +281. Rovolt of the Percies; Bold Step of the House of Commons, 1407. + +The powerful Percy family had been active in helping Henry to obtain +the throne,[3] and had spent large sums in defending the North against +invasions from Scotland.[4] They expected a royal reward for these +services, and were sorely disappointed because they did not get it. +As young Henry Percy said of the King: + + "My father, and my uncle, and myself, + Did give him that same royalty he wears; + And,--when he was not six-and-twenty strong, + Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, + A poor, unminded outlaw sneaking home,-- + My father gave him welcome to the shore: + . . . . . . . . + Swore him assistance and perform'd it too."[1] + +[3] Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, with Henry Percy, Earl of +Northumberland, and his son, Sir Henry Percy, or "Hotspur" (S257). +[4] See the "Ballad of Chevy Chase." +[1] Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part I, Act IV, scene iii. + +But the truth is, King Henry had little to give except promises. +Parliament voted money cautiously, limiting its supplies to specific +purposes. Men of wealth, feeling anxious about the issue of the +King's usurpation,--for such many regarded it,--were afraid to lend +him what he required. + +In 1406 the House of Commons (SS213, 217) took a very decisive step. +It demanded and obtained first, the exclusive right of originating all +"Money Bills," or in other words, of making all grants of money which +the King asked for. This practically gave the people the control of +the nation's purse.[2] Secondly, the Commons demanded and obtained +from the King that he should not in any way interfere with the right +to deliberate what action they should take in regard to making such +grants of money. Besides being held in check by the House of Commons, +the King was hampered by a council whose advice he had pledged himself +to follow. For these reasons Henry's position was in every way +precarious. + +[2] This right of originating "Money Bills" had been claimed as early +as the reign of Richard II, but was not fully and formally recognized +until 1407. See Taswell-Langmead's "English Constitutional History," +p. 260, and Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xii, +S13. + +He had no clear title to the throne, and he had no means to buy +military support. In addition to these difficulties, he had made an +enemy of Sir Henry Percy. He had refused to ransom his +brother-in-law, a Mortimer,[3] whom Glendower had captured, but whom +the King wished well out of the way with others of that name. + +[3] Sir Edmund Mortimer: He was uncle to the Edmund Mortimer, Earl of +March, who was heir to the crown. See Bailey's "Succession to the +English Crown." + +Young Percy proved a dangerous foe. His hot temper and impetuous +daring had got for him the title of the "Hotspur of the North." He +was so fond of fighting that Shakespeare speaks of him as "he that +kills me osme six or seven dozen of scots at a breakfast, washes his +hands, and says to his wife, Fie upon this quite life! I want +work."[1] This "fire eater," with his father, his uncle (the Earl of +Worcester), the Scotch Earl of Douglas, and, last of all, Owen +Glendower, now formed an alliance to force Henry to give up the +throne. + +[1] Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part I, Act II, scene iv. + +282. Battle of Shrewsbury (1403). + +At Shrewsbury, on the edge of Wales, the armies of the King and of the +revolutionists met. A number of Henry's enemies had sworn to single +him out in battle. The plot was divulged, and it is said that +thirteen knights arrayed themselves in armor resembling the King's in +order to mislead the assailants. The whole thirteen perished on that +bloody field, where fat Sir John Falstaff vowed he fought on Henry's +behalf "a long hour by Shrewsbury clock."[2] + +[2] Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part I, Act V, scene iv. + +283. Persecution of the Lollards; Statute of Heresy; the First Martyr +(1401). + +Thus far Henry had spent much time in crushing rebels, but he had also +given part of it to burning heretics. To gain the favor of the +clergy, and so render his throne more secure, the King favored the +passage of a Statute of Heresy. The Lords and bishops passed such a +law (to which the House of Commons seems to have assented).[3] It +punished the Lollards (S255) and also all others who dissented from +the essential doctrines of Rome with death. + +[3] See Stubb's "Constitutional History of England," III, 32. + +William Sawtrey, a London clergyman, was the first victim under the +new law (1401). He had declared that he would not worship "the cross +on which Christ suffered, but only Christ himself who had suffered on +the cross." He had also openly denied the doctrine of +transubstantiation, which teaches that the sacramental bread is +miraculously changed into the actual body of the Saviour. For these +and minor heresies he was burned at Smithfield, in London, in the +presence of a great multitude. + +Some years later a second martyrdom took place. But as the English +people would not allow torture to be used in the case of the Knights +Templars in the reign of Edward II (S265), so but very few of them +seem to have believed that by committing the body to the flames they +could burn error out of the soul. + +The Lollards, indeed, were still cast into prison, as some of the +extreme and communistic part of them doubtless deserved to be (S255), +but we hear of no more being put to cruel deaths during Henry's reign, +though later, the utmost rigor of the law was again to some extent +enforced. + +284. Henry's Last Days. + +Toward the close of his life the King seems to have thought of +reviving the Crusades for the conquest of Jerusalem (S182), where, +according to tradition, an old prediction declared that he should +die. But his Jerusalem was nearer than that of Palestine. While +praying at the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey +(S66), he was seized with mortal illness. His attendants carried him +into a room near by. + +When he recovered consciousness, and inquired where he was, he was +told that the apartment was called the Jerusalem Chamber. "Praise be +to God," he exclaimed, "then here I die!" There he breathed his last, +saying to his son, young Prince Henry: + + "God knows, my son, + By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways, + I met this crown; and I myself know well + How troublesome it sat upon my head; + To thee it shall descend with better quiet, + Better opinion, better confirmation; + For all the soil of the achievement[1] goes + With me into the earth." + +[1] "Soil of achievement": stain or blame by which the crown was won. +Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part II, Act IV, scene iv. + +285. Summary. + +At the outset of his reign Parliament showed its power by changing the +succession and making Henry King instead of young Edmund Mortimer, the +direct hereditary heir to the crown. Though successful in crushing +rebellion, Henry was obliged to submit to the guidance of a council. + +Furthermore, he was made more entirely dependent on Parliament, +especially in the matter of supplies, than any previous King, for the +House of Commons now got and held control of the nation's purse. For +the first time in English history heresy was made punishable by death; +yet such was the restraining influence of the people, that but two +executions took place in Henry IV's reign. + +Henry V--1413-1422 + +286. Lollard Outbreak at Henry's Accession. + +Henry's youth had been wild and dissolute, but the weight of the crown +sobered him. He cast off poor old "Jack Falstaff"[1] (S282) and his +other roistering companions, and began his new duties in earnest. + +[1] Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part II, Act V, scene v, beginning, "I +know thee not, old man." + +Sir John Oldcastle, or Lord Cobham, was at this time the most +influential man among the Lollards (SS255, 283). He was brought to +trial and convicted of heresy. The penalty was death; but the King +granted him a respite, in the hope that he might recant, and Oldcastle +managed to escape from prison (1414). + +Immediately after, a conspiracy was detected among the Lollards for +seizing the government, destroying the chief monasteries in and about +London, and raising Oldcastle to power. Henry attacked the rebels +unawares, killed many, and took a large number of prisoners, who were +executed on a double charge of heresy and treason. Several years +afterwards Oldcastle was burned as a heretic. + +287. Report that Richard II was alive. + +A strange report now began to circulate. It was said that Richard II +(S257) had been seen in Scotland, and that he was preparing to claim +the throne which Henry's father had taken from him. To silence this +seditious rumor, the King, it is said, exhumed Richard's body from its +grave in the little village of Langley, Hertfordshire. At any rate, a +dead body, reputed to be Richard's, was brought to London and propped +up in a chair, so that all might see it. + +In this manner the King and his court escorted the corpse in solemn +procession to Westminster Abbey, where it was reinterred among the +tombs of the English sovereigns. With it he buried once for all the +troublesome falsehood which had kept up insurrection, and had made the +deposed King more feared after death than he had ever been during +life. + +288. War with France (1415). + +To divert the attention of the nation from dangerous home questions +likely to cause new plots and fresh revolts (SS286, 287), Henry now +determined to act on his father's dying counsel and pick a foreign +quarrel. The old grudge against France, which began with the feuds of +Duke William of Normandy before he conquered England, made a war with +that country always popular. At this period the French were divided +into fierce parties that hated each other even more, if possible, than +they hated the English. This, of course, greatly increased the +chances of Henry's success, as he might form an alliance with one of +these factions. + +The King believed it a good opportunity to get three things he +wanted,--a wife, a fortune, and the French crown. The King of France +and his most powerful rival, the Duke of Burgundy, had each a +daughter. To make sure of one of them, Henry secretly proposed to +both. After long and fruitless negotiations the French King declined +to grant the enormous dowry which the English King demanded. The +latter gladly interpreted this refusal as equivalent to a declaration +of war. + +289. The Great Battle of Agincourt, 1415. + +Henry set to work with vigor, raised an army, and invaded France. He +besieged Harfleur, near the mouth of the Seine, and took it; but his +army suffered so much from sickness that, after leaving a garrison in +the place, he resolved to move north, to the walled city of Calais. +It will be remembered that the English had captured that city nearly +seventy years before (S240), and Henry intended to wait there for +reenforcements. (See map facing p. 128.) + +After a long and perilous march he reached a little village about +midway between Cre'cy and Calais. There he encountered the enemy in +great force. Both sides prepared for battle. The French had fifty +thousand troops to Henry's seven or eight thousand; but the latter had +that determination which wins victories. He said to one of his nobles +who regretted that he had not a larger force: + + "No, my fair cousin; + If we are marked to die, we are enough + To do our country loss; and if we live, + The fewer men, the greater share of honor."[1] + +[1] Shakespeare's "Henry V," Act IV, scene iii. + +A heavy rain had fallen during the night, and the plowed land over +which the French must cross was so wet and miry that their heavily +armed horsemen sank deep at every step. The English bowmen, on the +other hand, being on foot, could move with ease. Henry ordered every +archer to drive a stake, sharpened at both ends, into the ground +before him. This was a substitute for the modern bayonet, and +presented an almost impassable barrier to the French cavalry. + +As at Cre'cy and Poitiers, the English bowmen gained the day (SS238, +241). The sharp stakes stopped the enemy's horses, and the blinding +showers of arrows threw the splendidly armed knights into wild +confusion. With a ringing cheer Henry's troops rushed forward. + + "When down their bows they threw, + And forth their swords they drew, + And on the French they flew: + No man was tardy. + Arms from the shoulder sent; + Scalps to the teeth they rent; + Down the French peasants went: + These ere men hardy."[2] + +[2] These vigorous lines, from Drayton's "Ballad of Agincourt" (1606), +if not quite true to the letter of history (since it is doubted +whether any French peasants were on the field), are wholly true to its +spirit. + +When the fight was over, the King asked, "What is the name of that +castle yonder?" He was told it was called Agincourt. "Then," said +he, "from henceforth this shall be known as the battle of Agincourt." +This decisive victory made the winner feel sure that he could now hold +his throne in spite of all plots against him (S288). + +290. Treaty of Troyes, 1420; Henry's Death. + +Henry went back in triumph to England. Two years later, he again +invaded France. His victorious course continued. By the Treaty of +Troyes (1420) he gained all that he had planned to get. He obtained +large sums of money, the French Princess Catharine in marriage, and +the promise of the crown of France on the death of her father, Charles +VI, who was then insane and feeble. Meantime Henry was to govern the +French kingdom as regent. + +Henry returned to England with the bride he had won by the sword, but +he was soon recalled to France by a revolt against his power. He died +there, leaving an infant son, Henry. Two months afterward Charles VI +died, so that by the terms of the treaty Henry's son now inherited the +French Crown. + +291. Summary. + +The one great event with which Henry V's name is connected is the +conquest of France. It was hailed at the time as a glorious +achievement. In honor of it his tomb in Westminster Abbey was +surmounted by a statue of the King, having a head of solid silver. +Eventually the head was stolen and never recovered; the wooden statue +still remains. The theft was typical of Henry's short-lived victories +abroad, for all the territory he had gained was soon destined to be +hopelessly lost. + +Henry VI (House of Lancaster, Red Rose)--1422-1461 + +292. Accession of Henry; Renewal of the French War. + +The heir to all the vast dominions left by Henry V was proclaimed King +of England and France when in his cradle, and crowned, while still a +child, first in Westminster Abbey and then at Paris. + +But the accession to the French possesions was merely an empty form, +for as Prince Charles, the son of the late Charles VI of France, +refused to abide by the Treaty of Troyes (S290) and give up the +throne, war again broke out. + +293. Siege of Orleans. + +The Duke of Bedford[1] fought vigorously in Henry's behalf. In five +years the English had got possession of most of the country north of +the Loire. They now determined to make an effort to drive the French +Prince south of that river. To accomplish this they must take the +strongly fortified town of Orleans, which was situated on its banks. +(See map facing p. 84.) + +[1] During Henry's minority, John, Duke of Bedford, was Protector of +the realm. When absent in France, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, acted +for him. + +Forts were accordingly built around the place, and cannon planted to +batter down its walls (S239). Six month later, so much progress had +been made in the siege, that it was plain the city could not hold out +much longer. The fortunes of Prince Charles seemed to depend on the +fate of Orleans. If it fell, nothing, apparently, could save France +from yielding to her conqueror. + +294. Joan of Arc, 1429-1431. + +At this juncture Joan of Arc, a peasant girl of eighteen, came forward +to inspire her despairing countrymen with fresh courage. She believed +that Heaven had called her to drive the English from the land. The +troops rallied round her. Clad in white armor, mounted on a white war +horse, she saved Orleans; then she led the troops from victory to +victory, until she saw Prince Charles triumphantly crowned in the +Cathedral of Rheims. (See map facing p. 128.) + +Her fortunes soon changed. Her own people basely abandoned her. The +unworthy King Charles made no attempt to protect the "Maid of +Orleans," and she fell into the hands of the infuriated English, who +believed she was in league with the devil. In accordance with this +belief Joan was tried for witchcraft and heresy at Rouen, and +sentenced to the flames. She died (1431) as bravely as she had +lived, saying in her last agonies that her celestial voices had not +deceived her, and that through them she had saved France. + +"God forgive us," exclaimed one of Henry's courtiers who was present, +"we are lost! We have burned a saint!" It was the truth; and from the +martyred girl's ashes a new spirit seemed to go forth to bless her +ungrateful country. The heart of the French people was touched; they +rose and drove the English invaders from the soil of France. + +Before Henry VI reached his thirtieth year the Hundred Years' War with +France, which Edward III had begun (S237), was ended (1453), and +England had lost all of her possessions on the Continent, except a +bare foothold at Calais, and that was destined to be lost a few +generations later (S373). + +295. Henry VI's Character and Marriage. + +When Henry became of age he proved to be but the shadow of a King. +His health and character were alike feeble. At twenty-five he married +the beautiful and unfortunate French Princess, Margaret of Anjou, who +was by far the better man of the two. When years of disaster came, +this dauntless "Queen of tears" headed councils, led armies, and ruled +both King and kingdom. + +296. Poverty of the Crown and Wealth of the Nobles. + +One cause of the weakness of the government was its poverty. The +revenues of the Crown had been greatly diminished by gifts and grants +to favorites. The King was obliged to pawn his jewels and the silver +plate from his table to pay his wedding expenses; and it is said on +high authority[1] that the royal couple were sometimes in actual want +of a dinner. + +[1] Fortescue, on the "Government of England" (Plummer). + +On the other hand, the Earl of Warwick and other great lords had made +fortunes out of the French wars,[2] and lived in regal splendor. This +Earl, it is said, had at his different castles and his city mansion in +London upwards of thirty thousand men in his service. Their livery, +or uniform, a bright red jacket with the Warwick arms--a bear erect +holding a ragged staff--embroidered on it in white, was seen, known, +and feared throughout the country. + +[2] First, by furnishing troops to the government, the feudal system +having now so far decayed that many soldiers had to be hired; +secondly, by the plunder of French cities; thirdly, by ransoms +obtained from noblemen taken prisoners. + +Backed by such forces it was easy for the Earl and other powerful +lords to overawe kings, parliaments, and courts. Between the heads of +the great houses quarrels were constantly breaking out. The safety of +the people was endanged by these feuds, which became more and more +violent, and often ended in bloodshed and murer. + +297. Disfranchisement of the Common People, 1430. + +With the growth of power on the part of the nobles, there was also +imposed for the first time a restriction on the right of the people to +vote for members of Parliament. Up to this period all freemen might +take part in the election of representatives chosen by the counties to +sit in the House of Commons. + +A law was now passed forbidding any one to vote at these elections +unless he was a resident of the county and possessed of landed +property yielding an annual income of forty shillings (S200).[1] +Subsequently it was further enacted that no county candidate should be +eligible unless he was a man of means and social standing. + +[1] The income required by the statute was forty shillings, which, +says Freeman, we may fairly call forty pounds of our present money. +See E.A. Freeman's "Growth of the English Constitution," p. 97. + +These two measures were blows against the free self-government of the +nation, since their manifest tendency was to make the House of Commons +represent the property rather than the people of the country (S319). +(See, too, Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xiii, +S14.) + +298. Cade's Rebellion (1450). + +A formidable rebellion broke out in Kent (1450), then, as now, one of +the most independent and democratic counties in England. The leader +was Jack Cade, who called himself by the popular name of Mortimer +(S257, note 1, and S279). He claimed to be cousin to Richard, Duke of +York, a nephew of that Edmund Mortimer, now dead, whom Henry IV had +unjustly deprived of his succession to the crown. + +Cade, who was a mere adventurer, was quite likely used as a tool by +plotters much higher than himself. By putting him forward they could +judge whether the country was ready for a revolution and change of +sovereigns. + +Wat Tyler's rebellion, seventy years before (S250), was almost purely +social in its character, having for its object the emancipation of the +enslaved laboring classes. Cade's insurrection was, on the contrary, +almost wholly political. His chief complaint was that the people were +not allowed their free choice in the election of representatives, but +were forced by the nobility to choose candidates they did not want. +Other grievances for which reform was demanded were excessive +taxastion and the rapacity of the evil counselors who controlled the +King. + +Cade entered London with a body of twenty thousand men under strict +discipline. Many of the citizens sympathized with Cade's projects of +reform, and were ready to give him a welcome. He took formal +possession of the place by striking his sword on London Stone,--a +Roman monument still standing, which then marked the center of the +ancient capital,--saying, as Shakespeare reports him, "Now is Mortimer +lord of this city."[1] + +After three days of riot and the murder of the King's treasurer, the +rebellion came to an end through a general pardon. Cade, however, +endeavored to raise a new insurrection in the south, but was shortly +after captured, and died of his wounds. + +[1] "Now is Mortimer lord of this city, and here, sitting upon London +Stone, I charge and command that, at the city's cost, this conduit +runs nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign; and now it +shall be treason for any man to call me other than Lord Mortimer." +--Shakerspeare's "Henry VI," Part II, Act IV, scene vi. + It is noticeable that the great dramatist expresses no sympathy in +this play with the cause of the people. In fact he ridicules Cade and +his movement. In the same spirit he does not mention the Great +Charter in his "King John," while in his "Richard II" he passes over +Wat Tyler without a word. Perhaps the explanation may be found in the +fact that Shakespeare lived in an age when England was threatened by +both open and secret enemies. The need of his time was a strong, +steady hand at the helm; it was no season for reform or change of any +sort; on this account he may have thought it his duty to be silent in +regard to democratic risings and demands in the past (S313, note 2). + +299. Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485. + +The real significance of Cade's insurrection is that it showed the +widespread feeling of discontent caused by misgovernment, and that it +served as an introduction to the long and dreary period of civil +strife known as the Wars of the Roses. + +So long as the English nobles had France for a fighting ground, French +cities to plunder, and French captives to hold for heavy ransoms, they +were content to let matters go on quietly at home. But that day was +over. Through the bad management, if not through the positive +treachery, of Edmund, Duke of Somerset, the French conquests had been +lost. Henry VI, a weak king, at times insane, sat on the English +throne (S295), while Richard, Duke of York, a really able man and a +descendant of the Mortimers (see table, p. 161), was, as many +believed, unlawfully excluded from it. + +This fact in itself would have furnished a plausible pretext for +hostilities, even as far back as Cade's rising. But the birth of a +son[2] to Henry (1453) probably gave the signal for the outbreak, +since it cut off all hopes which Richard's friends may have had of his +peaceful succession. + +[2] Prince Edward. See Genealogical Table, p. 161, under Henry VI. + +300. The Scene in the Temple Garden. + +Shakespeare represents the smoldering feud between the rival houses of +Lancaster and York (both of whom it should be remembered were +descendants of Edward III)[1] as breaking into an angry quarrel in the +Temple Garden, London, when Richard, Duke of York, says: + + "Let him that is a true-born gentleman, + And stands upon the honor of his birth, + If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, + From off this brier pluck a white rose with me."[2] + +To this challenge John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset,[3] a descendant of +the house of Lancaster, who has just accused Richard of being the +dishonored son of a traitor, replies: + + "Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, + But dare maintain the party of the truth, + Pluch a red rose from off this thorn with me." + +A little later on the Earl of Warwick rejoins: + + "This brawl to-day, + Grown to this faction in the Temple-garden, + Shall send, between the red rose and the white, + A thousand souls to death and deadly night."[4] + +[1] Table showing the descendants of Edward III, with reference to the +claims of Lancaster and York to the crown: + + Edward III + | + ---------------------------------------------------- + | | | + Lionel, Duke of John of Gaunt, Duke of Edmund, Duke of +Clarence (3d son) Lancaster (4th son) York (5th son) + | ----------------- | + Philippa | | Richard, Earl of + | Henry IV +John, Earl Cambridge, m. + -------------- | of Somerset Anne Mortimer + | | Henry V | +Edmund Anne Mortimer | --------------- +Mortimer m. Richard, Prince Edward, | | +(Earl of Earl of b. 1453; killed John, Edmund, +March) Cambridge (s. at battle of Duke of Duke of +d. 1424 of Edmund, Tewkesbury, Somerset, Somerset + Duke of York) 1471 d. 1448 + | + *Richard, Duke + of York + | + Edward IV (1461-1483) + +*Inherited the title of Duke of York from his father's brother, +Edward, Duke of York, who died without issue. Richard' father, the +Earl of Cambridge, had forfeited his title and estates by treason, but +Parliament had so far limited the sentence that his son was not +thereby debarred from inheriting his uncle's rank and fortune. +Richard, Duke of York, now represented the direct hereditary line of +succession to the crown, while Henry VI and his son represented that +established by Parliament through the acceptance of Henry IV (S279). ++John, Earl of Somerset, was an illegitimate half brother of Henry +IV's, but was, in 1397, declared legitimate by act of Parliament and a +papal decree. + +[2] Shakespeare's "Henry VI," Part I, Act II, scene iv. +[3] John, Duke of Somerset, died 1448. He was brother of Edmund, Duke +of Somerset, who was slain at St. Albans, 1455. +[4] Shakespeare's "Henry VI," Part I, Act II, scene iv. + +301. The Real Object of the Wars of the Roses. + +The wars, however, did not directly originate in this quarrel, but +rather in the strife for power between Edmund, Duke of Somerset +(John's brother), and Richard, Duke of York. Each desired to get the +control of the government, though at first neither appears to have +openly aimed at the crown. + +During King Henry's attack of insanity (1453) Richard was appointed +Protector of the realm, and shortly afterward the Duke of Somerset, +the King's particular favorite and chief adviser, was cast into prison +on the double charge of having culpably lost Normandy and embezzled +public moneys. + +When Henry recovered (1455), he released Somerset and restored him to +office. Richard protested, and raising an army in the north, marched +toward London. He met the royalist forces at St. Albans; a battle +ensued, and Somerset was slain. + +During the next thirty years the war raged with more or less fury +between the parties of the Red Rose (Lancaster) and the White Rose +(York). The first maintained that Parliament had the right to choose +whatever king it saw fit, as in Henry IV's case (S279); the second +insisted that the succession should be determined by strict hereditary +descent, as represented in the claim of Richard.[2] + +[2] See Genealogical Table, p. 161. + +But beneath the surface the contest was not for principle, but for +place and spoils. The great nobles, who during the French wars (S288) +had pillaged abroad, now pillaged each other; and as England was +neither big enough nor rich enough to satisfy the greed of all of +them, the struggle gradually became a war of mutual extermination. + +It was, to a certain extent, a sectional war. Eastern England, then +the wealthiest and most progressive part of the country, had strongly +supported Wycliffe in his reforms (S254). It now espoused the side of +Richard, Duke of York, who was believed to be friendly to religious +liberty, while the western counties fought for the cause of Lancaster +and the Church. + +302. The First Battles (1455-1460). + +We have already seen (S301) that the first blood was shed at +St. Albans (1455), where the Yorkists, after half an hour's fighting, +gained a complete victory. A similar result followed at Bloreheath, +Staffordshire (1459). In a third battle, at Northampton, the Yorkists +were again successful (1460). Henry was taken prisoner, and Queen +Margaret fled with the young Prince Edward to Scotland. Richard now +demanded the crown. (See map facing p. 172.) + +Henry answered with unexpected spirit: "My father was King, his father +also was King. I have worn the crown forty years from my cradle; you +have all sworn fealty to me as your sovereign, and your fathers did +the like to my fathers. How, then, can my claim be disputed?" After +a long controversy, a compromise was effected. Henry agreed that if +he were left in peaceable possession of the throne during his life, +Richard or his heirs should succeed him. + +303. Battles of Wakefield and Towton (1460-1461). + +But Queen Margaret refused to see her son, Prince Edward, thus tamely +set aside. She raised an army and attacked the Yorkists. Richard, +Duke of York, whose forces were inferior to hers, had entrenched +himself in Sandal Castle near Wakefield, Yorkshire. Day after day +Margaret went up under the walls and dared him to come out. + +At length, stung by her taunts, the Duke sallied from his strongold, +and the battle of Wakefield was fought (1460). Margaret was +victorious. Richard was slain, and the Queen, in mockery of his +claims to sovereignty, cut off his head, decked it with a paper crown, +and set it up over the chief gate of the city of York. Fortune now +changed. The next year (1461) the Lacastrians were defeated with +great slaughter at Towton, Yorkshire. The light spring snow was +crimsoned with the blood of thirty thousand slain, and the way strewn +with corpses for ten miles up to the walls of York. + +The Earl of Warwick (S296), henceforth popularly known as "King +Maker," now place Edward, eldest son of the late Duke of York, on the +throne, with the title of Edward IV (S300, table). Henry and Margaret +fled to Scotland. The new government summoned them to appear, and as +they failed to answer, proclaimed them traitors. + +Four years later Henry was taken prisoner and sent to the Tower of +London (S305). He may have been happier there than battling for his +throne. He was not born to reign, but rather, as Shakespeare makes +him say, to lead a shepherd's life, watching his flocks, until the +peacefully flowing years should-- + + "Bring white hairs unto a quiet grave."[1] + +[1] See Henry's soliloquy on the field of Towton, beginning, + "O God! methinks it were a happy life + To be no better than a homely swain." + Shakespeare's "Henry VI," Part III, + Act II, scene v + +304. Summary. + +The history of the peiod is one of loss to England. The brilliant +French conquests of Henry V (SS289, 290) slipped from the nerveless +hands of his son, leaving France practically independent. The +people's power to vote had been restricted (S297). The House of +Commons had ceased to be democratic even in a moderate degree. Its +members were all property holders elected by property holders (S297). +Cade's rebellion was the sign of political discontent and the +forerunner of civil war (S298). + +The contests of the parties of the Red and White Roses drenched +England's fair fields with the best blood of her own sons. The reign +ends with King Henry in prison, Queen Margaret and Prince Edward +fugitives, and the Yorkist, Edward IV, placed on the throne by the +help of the powerful Earl of Warwick (S296). + +Edward IV (House of York, White Rose)--1461-1483 + +305. Continuation of the War; Barnet; Death of Henry; Tewkesbury +(1471). + +During the whole of Edward IV's reign (S303) the war went on with +varying success, but unvarying ferocity, until at last neither side +would ask or give quarter. Some years after the accession of the new +sovereign, the Earl of Warwick (S296) quarreled with him, thrust him +from the throne, and restored Henry VI (S303). + +But a few months later, at the battle of Barnet, near London (1471), +Warwick, who was "the last of the great barons," was killed, and +Henry, who had been led back to the Tower of London again (S303), died +one of those "conveniently sudden deaths" which were then so common. + +The heroic Queen Margaret (SS295, 303), however, would not give up the +contest in behalf of her son's claim to the crown. But fate was +against her. A few weeks after the battle of Barnet her army was +utterly defeated at Tewkesbury (1471), her son Edward slain, and the +Queen herself taken prisoner. (See map facing p. 172.) + +She was eventually released on the payment of a large ransom, and +returned to France, where she died broken-hearted in her native Anjou, +prophesying that the contest would go on until the Red Rose, +representing her party, should get a still deeper dye from the blood +of her enemies. + +306. The Introduction of Printing, 1477. + +But an event was at hand of greater importance than any question of +crowns or parties, though then none was wise enough to see its real +significance. William Caxton, a London merchant, had learned the new +art of printing with movable type[1] at Bruges in Flanders (now +Belgium). When he returned to his native country, he set up a small +press within the grounds of Westminster Abbey. + +[1] The first printing in Europe was done in the early part of the +fifteenth century from wooden blocks on which the words were cut. +Movable types were invented about 1450. + +There, at the sign of a shield bearing a red "pale," or band, he +advertised his wares as "good chepe." He was not only printer, but +translator and editor. King Edward gave him some royal patronage. +His Majesty was willing to pay liberally for work which was not long +before the clergy in France had condemned as a black art emanating +from the devil. Many, too, of the English clergy regarded it with no +very friendly eye, since it threatened to destroy the copying trade, +of which the monks had well-nigh a monopoly (S154). + +The first printed book which Caxton is known to have published in +England was a small volume entitled "The Sayings of the Philosophers," +1477.[1] This venture was followed in due time by Chaucer's +"Canterbury Tales" (S253), and whatever other poetry, history, or +classics seemed worthy of preservation; making in all nearly a hundred +distinct works comprising more than eighteen thousand volumes. + +[1] "The dictes or sayengis of the philosophres, enprynted by me +william Caxton at westmestre, the year of our lord MCCCCLxxvii." + +Up to this time a book of any kind was a luxury, laboriously "written +by the few for the few"; but from this date literature of all sorts +was destined to multiply and fill the earth with many leaves and some +good fruit. + +Caxton's patrons, though few, were choice, and when one of them, the +Earl of Worcester, was beheaded in the wars, Caxton said, "The ax did +then cut off more learning than was left in all the heads of the +surviving lords." Towards the close of the nineteenth century a +memorial window was placed in St. Margaret's Church within the abbey +grounds, as a tribute to the man who, while England was red with +slaughter, introduced "the art preservative of all arts," and +preservative of liberty no less[1] (S322). + +[1] "Lord! taught by thee, when Caxton bade + His silent words forever speak; + A grave for tyrants then was made, + Then crack'd the chain which yet shall break." + Ebenezer Elliott, "Hymn for the Printers' + Gathering at Sheffield," 1833 + +307. King Edward's Character. + +The King, however, cared more for his pleasures than for literature or +the welfare of the nation. His chief aim was to beg, borrow, or +extort money to waste in dissipation. The loans which he forced his +subjects to grant, and which were seldom, if ever, repaid, went under +the name of "benevolences." But it is safe to say that those who +furnished them were in no very benevolent frame of mind at the time. + +Exception may perhaps be made of the rich and elderly widow, who was +so pleased with the King's handsome face that she willingly handed him +a 20 pounds (a large sum in those days); and when the jovial monarch +gallantly kissed her out of gratitude for her generosity, she at once, +like a true and loyal subject, doubled the donation. Edward's course +of life was not conducive to length of days, even if the times had +favored a long reign. He died early, leaving a son, Prince Edward, to +succeed him. + +308. Summary. + +The reign was marked by the continuation of the Wars of the Roses, the +death of King Henry VI and of his son, with the return of Queen +Margaret to France. The most important event outside of the war was +the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton. + +Edward V (House of York, White Rose)--1483 + +309. Gloucester appointed Protector. + +Prince Edward, heir to the throne, was a lad of twelve (S307). His +position was naturally full of peril. It became much more so, from +the fact that his ambitious and unscrupulous uncle, Richard, Duke of +Gloucester, had been appointed Lord Protector of the realm until the +boy should become of age. Richard protected his young nephew as a +wolf would protect a lamb. + +He met the Prince coming up to London from Ludlow Castle, Shropshire, +attended by his half brother, Sir Richard Grey, and his uncle, Lord +Rivers. Under the pretext that Edward would be safer in the Tower of +London than at Westminster Palace, Richard sent the Prince there, and +soon found means for having his kinsmen, Grey and Rivers, executed. + +310. Murder of Lord Hastings and the Two Princes. + +Richard shortly after showed his object. Lord Hastings was one of the +council who had voted to make him Lord Protector, but he was unwilling +to help him in his plot to seize the crown. While at the council +table in the Tower of London Richard suddenly started up and accused +Hastings of treason, saying, "By St. Paul, I will not to dinner till I +see thy head off!" Hastings was dragged out of the room, and without +either trial or examination was beheaded on a stick of timber on the +Tower green. + +The way was now clear for the accomplishment of the Duke's purpose. +The Queen Mother (Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Edward IV) (S305) took +her younger son and his sisters, one of whom was the Princess +Elizabeth of York, and fled for protection to the sanctuary (S95) of +Westminster Abbey, where, refusing all comfort, "she sat alone, on the +rush-covered stone floor." Finally, Richard half persuaded and half +forced the unhappy woman to give up her second son to his tender care. + +With bitter weeping and dread presentiments of evil she parted from +him, saying: "Farewell, mine own sweet son! God send you good keeping! +Let me kiss you once ere you go, for God knoweth when we shall kiss +together again." That was the last time she saw the lad. He and +Edward, his elder brother, were soon after murdered in the Tower, and +Richard rose by that double crime to the height he coveted. + +311. Summary. + +Edward V's nominal reign of less than three months must be regarded +simply as the time during which his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, +perfected his plot for seizing the crown by the successive murders of +Rivers, Grey, Hastings, and the two young Princes. + +Richard III (House of York, White Rose)--1483-1485 + +312. Richard's Accession; he promises Financial Reform. + +Richard used the preparations which had been made for the murdered +Prince Edward's coronation for his own (S310). He probably gained +over an influential party by promises of financial reform. In their +address to him at his accession, Parliament said, "Certainly we be +determined rather to adventure and commit us to the peril of our +lives...than to live in such thraldom and bondage as we have lived +long time heretofore, oppressed and injured by extortions and new +impositions, against the laws of God and man, and the liberty, old +policy and laws of this realm, wherein every Englishman is +inherited."[1] + +[1] Taswell-Langmead's "Constitutional History of England." + +313. Richard III's Character. + +Several attempts have been made of late years to defend the King +against the odium heaped upon him by the older historians. But these +well-meant efforts to prove him less black than tradition painted him +are answered by the fact that his memory was thoroughly hated by those +who knew him best. No one of the age when he lived thought of +vindicating his character. He was called a "hypocrite" and a +"hunchback." + +We must believe then, until it is clearly proved to the contrary, that +the last of the Yorkist kings was what common report and Shakespeare +have together represented him,[2]--distorted in figure, and with +ambition so unrestrained that the words the great English poet has +seen fit to put into his mouth may have really expressed Richard's own +thought: + + "Then, since the heavens have shap'd my body so, + Let hell make crookt my mind to answer it."[1] + +[2] In this connection it may be well to say a word in regard to the +historical value of Shakespeare's utterances, which have been freely +quoted in this book. He generally followed the Chronicles of Hall and +Holinshed, which constitute two important sources of information on +the periods of which they treat; and he sometimes followed them so +closely that he simply turned their prose into verse. Mr. James +Gairdner, who is a high authority on the Wars of the Roses, calls +Shakespeare "an unrivaled interpreter" of that long and terrible +conflict. (See the preface to his "Houses of Lancaster and York.") +In the preface to his "Richard III" Mr. Gairdner is still more +explicit. He says: "A minute study of the facts of Richard's life has +tended more and more to convince me of the general fidelity of the +portrait with which we have been made familiar by Shakespeare and Sir +Thomas More." On Shakespeare's faithful presentation of history see +also A.G.S. Canning's "Thoughts on Shakespeare," p. 295; the +Dictionary of National (British) Biography under "Holinshed"; Garnett +and Gosse's "English Literature," Vol. II, p. 68; and H.N. Hudson's +"Shakespeare's Life and Characters," Vol. II, pp. 5-8. See, too, +S298, note 1. +[1] Shakespeare's "Henry VI," Part III, Act V, scene vi. + +Personally he was as brave as he was cruel and unscrupulous. He +promoted some reforms; he encouraged Caxton in his great work (S306), +and he abolished the forced loans ironically called "benevolences" +(S307), at least for a time. + +314. Revolts; Buckingham; Henry Tudor. + +During his short reign of two years, several revolts broke out, but +came to nothing. The Duke of Buckingham, who had helped Richard III +to the throne, turned against him because he did not get the rewards +he expected. He headed a revolt; but as his men deserted him, he fell +into the King's hands, and the executioner speedily did the rest. + +Finally, a more formidable enemy arose. Before he gained the crown +Richard had cajoled or compelled the unfortunate Anne Neville, widow +of that Prince Edward, son of Henry VI, who was slain at Tewkesbury +(S305), into becoming his wife. She might have said with truth, +"Small joy have I in being England's Queen." The King intended that +his son should marry Elizabeth of York, sister to the two Princes he +had murdered in the Tower (S310). By so doing he would strengthen his +position and secure the succession to the throne to his own family. +But Richard's son shortly after died, and the King, having +mysteriously got rid of his wife, now made up his mind to marry +Elizabeth himself. + +The Princess, however, was already betrothed to Henry Tudor, Earl of +Richmond, the engagement having been effected during that sad winter +which she and her mother spent in sactuary (S95) at Westminster +Abbey, watched by Richard's soldiers to prevent their escape (S310). +The Earl of Richmond, who was an illegitimate descendant of the House +of Lancaster (see the Genealogical Table, p. 172), had long been +waiting on the Continent for an opportunity to invade England and +claim the crown. + +Owing to the enmity of Edward IV and Richard toward him, the Earl had +been, as he himself said, "either a fugitive or a captive since he was +five years old." He now determined to remain so no longer. He landed +(1485) with a force at Milford Haven, in Wales, where he felt sure of +a welcome, since his paternal ancestors were Welsh.[1] + +Advancing through Shrewsbury, he met Richard on Bosworth Field, in +Leicestershire. + +[1] Descent of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond: + +Henry V (House of Lancaster) married Catharine of France, who after + | his death married Owen Tudor, a Welshman of Anglesey +Henry VI | + Edmund Tudor (Earl of Richmond) married Margaret + Beaufort, a descendent of John of Gaunt, Duke + of Lancaster [she was granddaughter of John, + Earl of Somerset; see p. 161] + | + Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (also called + Henry of Lancaster) + +315. Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485. + +There the decisive battle was fought between the great rival houses of +York and Lancaster (S300). Richard represented the first, and Henry +Tudor, Earl of Richmond, the second. The King went out the evening +before to look over the ground. He found one of his sentinels +slumbering at his post. Drawing his sword, he stabbed him in the +heart, saying, "I found him asleep and I leave him asleep." Going back +to his tent, he passed a restless night. The ghosts of all his +murdered victims seemed to pass in procession before him. Such a +sight may well, as Shakespeare says, have "struck terror to the soul +of Richard."[2] + +[2] Shakespeare's "Richard III," Act V, scene iii. + +At sunrise the battle began. Before the attack, Richard, it is said, +confessed to his troops the murder of his two nephews (S310), but +pleaded that he had atoned for the crime with "many salt tears and +long penance." It is probably that had it not been for the treachery +of some of his adherents the King would have won the day. + +When he saw that he was deserted by those on whose help he had +counted, he uttered the cry of "Treason! treason!" and dashed forward +into the thick of the fight. With the fury of despair he hewed his +way into the very presence of Henry Tudor, and killing the standard +bearer, flung the Lancastrian banner to the ground. But he could go +no further. Numbers overpowered him, and he fell. + +During the battle Richard had worn his crown. After all was over, it +was found hanging on a hawthorn bush[1] and handed to the victor, who +placed it on his own head. The army then gathered round Henry Tudor +thus crowned, and moved by one impulse joined in the exultant hymn of +the Te Deum.[2] Thus ended the last of the Plantagenet line (S159). +"Whatever their faults or crimes, there was not a coward among +them."[3] + +[1] An ancient stained-glass window in the east end of Henry VII's +Chapel (Westminster Abbey) commemorates this incident. +[2] "Te Deum laudamus" (We praise thee, O God): a Roman Catholic hymn +of thanksgiving, now sung in English in the Episcopal and other +churches. +[3] W. Stubb's "Constitutional History of England." + +316. End of the Wars of the Roses (1485); their Effects. + +With Bosworth Field the Wars of the Roses ceased (SS299, 300). During +the thirty years they had continued, fourteen pitched battles had been +fought, in a single one of which (Towton) (S303) more Englishmen lost +their lives than in the whole course of the wars with France during +the preceding forty years. In all, eighty princes of the blood royal +and more than half of the nobility of the realm perished. + +Of those who escaped death by the sword, many died on the scaffold. +The remnant who were saved had hardly a better fate. They left their +homes only to suffer in foreign lands. A writer of the day[4] says, +"I, myself, saw the Duke of Exeter, the King of England's +brother-in-law, walking barefoot in the Duke of Burgundy's train, and +begging his bread from door to door." + +[4] See the "Paston Letters." + +Every individual of two families of the great houses of Somerset and +Warwick (SS296, 300) fell either on the field or under the +executioner's ax. In tracing family pedigrees it is startling to see +how often the record reads, "killed at St. Albans," "slain at Towton," +"beheaded after the battle of Wakefield," and the like.[5] + +[5] Guest's "Lectures on English History." + +When the contest closed, the feudal baronage was broken up (SS113, +114, 150). In a majority of cases the estates of the nobles either +fell to the Crown for lack of heirs, or they were fraudulently seized +by the King's officers. Thus the greater part of the wealthiest and +most powerful aristocracy in the world disappeared so completely that +they ceased to have either a local habitation or a name. + +But the elements of civil discord at last exhausted themselves. +Bosworth Field was a turning point in English history. When the sun +went down, it saw the termination of the desperate struggle between +the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster; when it ushed in +a new day, it shone also on a new King, Henry VII, who introduced a +new social and political period. + +317. Summary. + +The importance of Richard's reign is that it marks the close of the +Wars of the Roses. Those thirty years of civil strife destroyed the +predominating influence of the feudal barons. Henry Tudor (S314) now +becomes the central figure, and will ascend the throne as Henry VII. + +General Reference Summary of the Lancastrian and Yorkist Period +(1399-1485) + +I. Government. II. Religion. III. Military Affairs. +IV. Literature, Learning, and Art. V. General Industry and Commerce. +VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs + +I. Government + +318. Parliament and the Royal Succession. + +The period began with the parliamentary recognition of the claim to +the crown of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of +Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III. By this act the claim of Edmund +Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III by his third son, Lionel, Duke of +Clarence, was deliberately set aside, and this change in the order of +succession eventually furnished an excuse for civil war.[1] + +[1] Before the accession of Henry III, Parliament made choice of any +one of the King's sons whom it considered best fitted to rule. After +hat time it was understood that the King's eldest son should be chosen +to succeed him; or incase of his death during the lifetime of his +father, the eldest son of the eldest son; and so forward in that +line. The action taken by Parliament in favor of Henry IV was a +departure from that principle, and a reassurtion of its ancient right +to choose and descendant of the royal family it deemed best. (See +Genealogical Table, p. 140.) + +319. Disfranchisement of Electors; Benevolences. + +Under Henry VI a property qualification was established by act of +Parliament which cut off all persons from voting for countyy members +of the House of Commons who did not have an income of forty shillings +(say 40 pounds, or $200, in modern money) from freehold land. County +elections, the statute said, had "of late been made by a very great, +outrageous, and excessive number of people...of which the most part +were people of small substance and of no value." + +Later, candidates for the House of Commons from the counties were +required to be gentlemen by birth, and to have an income of not less +than 20 pounds (or say 400 pounds, or $2000, in modern money). Though +the tendency of such laws was to make the House of Commons represent +property holders more than the freemen as a body, yet no apparent +change seems to have taken place in the class of county members +chosen. + +Eventually, however, these and other interferences with free elections +caused the rebellion of Jack Cade, in which the insurgents demanded +the right to choose such representatives as they saw fit. But the +movement appears to have had no practical result. During the civil +war which ensued, King Edward IV compelled wealthy subjects to lend +him large sums (seldom, if ever, repaid) called "benevolences." +Richard III abolished this obnoxious system, but afterward revived it, +and it became conspicuously hateful under his successor in the next +period. + +Another great grievance was Purveyance. By it the King's purveyors +had the right to seize provisions and means of transportation for the +King and his hundreds of attendants whenever they journeyed through +the country on a "royal progress." The price offered by the purveyors +was always much below the real value of what was taken, and frequently +even that was not paid. Purveyance, which had existed from the +earliest times, was not finally abolished until 1660. + +II. Religion + +320. Suppression of Heresy. + +Under Henry IV the first act was passed by Lords and clergy, +apparently with the assent of the House of Commons, for punishing +heretics by burning at the stake, and the first martyr suffered in +that reign. Later, the Lollards, or followers of Wycliffe, who appear +in many cases to have been socialists as well as religious reformers, +were punished by imprisonment, and occasionally with death. The whole +number of martyrs, however, was small. + +III. Military Affairs + +321. Armor and Arms. + +The armor of the period was made of steel plate, fitting and +completely covering the body. It was often inlaid with gold and +elegantly ornamented. Firearms had not yet superseded the old +weapons. Cannon were in use, to some degree, and also clumsy handguns +fired with a match. + +The long bow continued to be the chief arm of the foot soldiers, and +was used with great dexterity and fatal effect. Targets were set up +by law in every parish, and the yeomen were required to practice +frequently at contests in archery. The principle wars were the civil +wars and those with France. + +IV. Literature, Learning, and Art + +322. Introduction of Printing; Books. + +The art of printing was introduced into England about 1477 by Caxton, +a London merchant. Up to that time all books had been written on +either parchment or paper, at an average rate of about fifty cents per +page in modern money. The age was not favorable to literature, and +produced no great writers; but Caxton edited and published a large +number of works, many of which he translated from the French and +Latin. + +The two books which throw most light on the history of the times are +the "Sir John Paston Letters" (1424-1506), and a work by Chief Justice +Fortescue on government, intended for the use of Prince Edward (slain +at Tewkesbury). The latter work is remarkable for its bold +declaration that the King "has the delegation of power from the +people, and he has no just claims to any other power than this." The +chief justice also praises the courage of his countrymen, and declares +with honest pride that "more Englishmen are hanged in England in one +year for robbery and manslaughter than are hanged in France in seven +years." + +323. Education. + +Henry VI took a deep interest in education, and founded the great +public school of Eton, which ranks next in age to that of Winchester. +The money for its endowment was obtained by the appropriation of the +revenues of alien or foreign monasteries which had been erected in +England, and which were confiscated by Henry V. The King watched the +progress of the building from the windows of Windsor Castle, and to +supplement the course of education to be given there, he furthermore +erected and endowed the magnificent King's College, Cambridge. + +324. Architecture. + +There was a new development of Gothic architecture in this period, the +Decorated giving place to the Perpendicular. The latter derives its +name from the perpendicular divisions of the lights in the arches of +the windows. It marks the final period of the Gothic or Pointed +style, and is noted for the exquisite carved work of its ceilings. +King's College Chapel, Cambridge, St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and +Henry VII's Chapel (built in the next reign), connected with +Westminster Abbey, are among the most celebrated examples of this +style of architecture, whic his peculiar to England. + +The mansions of the nobility at this period exhibited great elegance. +Crosby Hall, London, at one time the residence of Richard III, was one +of the best examples of the "Inns" of the great families and wealthy +knights. The Hall was pulled down in 1903, but it has been reerected +on the Chelsea Embankment, on the Thames. + +V. General Industry and Commerce + +325. Agriculture and Trade. + +Notwithstanding the Civil Wars of the Roses, agriculture was +prosperous and foreign trade largely increased. The latter was well +represented by Sir Richard Whittington, thrice mayor of London, who, +according to tradition, lent Henry V large sums of money, and then at +an entertainment which he gave to the King and Queen in his city +mansion, generously canceled the debt by throwing the bonds into the +open sandalwood fire. There is a fine fresco, representing this +scene, in the Royal Exchange, London. + +Goldsmiths from Lombardy had now settled in London in such numbers as +to give the name of Lobard Street to the quarter they occupied. They +succeeded the Jews in the business of money lending and banking, and +Lombard Street still remains famous for its bankers and brokers. + +VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs + +326. Dress. + +Great sums were spent on dress by both sexes, and the courtiers' +doublets, or jackets, were of the most costly silks and velvets, +elaborately puffed and slashed. During the latter part of the period +the pointed shoes, which had formerly been of prodigious length, +suddenly began to grow broad, with such rapidity that Parliament +passed a law limiting the width of the toes to six inches. + +At the same time the court ladies adopted the fashion of wearing horns +as huge in proportion as the noblemen's shoes. The government tried +legislating them down, and the clergy fulminated a solemn curse +against them; but fashion was more powerful than Church and Parliament +combined, and horns and hoofs came out triumphant. + + + EIGHTH PERIOD[1] + + "One half her soil has walked the rest + In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages!" + O. W. Holmes + + Political Reaction--Absolutism of the + Crown--The English Reformation and the New Learning + +Crown or Pope? + +House of Tudor (1485-1603) + +Henry VII, 1485-1509 +Henry VIII, 1509-1547 +Edward VI, 1547-1553 +Mary, 1553-1558 +Elizabeth, 1558-1603 + +[1] Reference Books on this period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. + +327. Union of the Houses of Lancaster and York. + +Before leaving the Continent Henry Tudor (S314) had promised the +Yorkist party that he would marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward +IV (see Genealogical Table, p. 179), and sister to the young Princes +murdered by Richard III (S310). Such a marriage would unite the rival +houses of Lancaster and York, and put an end to the civil war. + +A few months after the new King's accession the wedding was duly +celebrated, and in the beautiful east window of stained glass in Henry +VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, the Roses are seen joined; so that, +as the quaint verse of that day says: + + "Both roses flourish--red and white-- + In love and sisterly delight; + The two that were at strife are blended, + And all old troubles now are ended." + +Peace came from the union, but it was peace interrupted by +insurrections which lasted for several years. + + Origin of the House of Tudor + + Edward III + 1 2 3 | 4 5 + -------------------------------------------------- + | | | | | + Edward William, Lionel, Duke John of Gaunt, Edmund, Duke of York + (the Black no of Clarence, Duke of | + Prince) issue from whom Lancaster /-----------------\ + | descended in | Edward, Duke of Richard, + Richard II the fourth Henry IV York, no issue Earl of + generation | Cambridge, + *Richard, Henry V (Catharine, m. Anne + Duke of York | his widow, Mortimer, great- + | Henry VI married granddaughter of + --------------------- Owen Tudor, Lionel, Duke of + | | a Welsh gentleman) Clarence; their + Edward IV Richard III | son was + | Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richard, + --------------------------- Richmond, m. Margaret Duke of York + | | | Beaufort, a descendant ++Edward V +Richard, Elizabeth of John of Gaunt, Duke + Duke of York of York, of Lancaster, see + m. Henry VII pages 161, 172 + (of Lancaster) | + Henry (Tudor) VII (formerly + Earl of Richmond), m. Elizabeth of + York, thus uniting the House of + Lancaster (Red Rose) and York + (White Rose) in the new royal + House of Tudor + +*Inherited the title Duke of York from his uncle Edward. See No. 5. ++The Princes murdered by Richard III. + +328. Condition of the Country; Power of the Crown. + +Henry, it is said, had his claim to the throne printed by Caxton, and +distributed broadcast over the country (S306). It was the first +political appeal to the people made through the press, and was a sign +of the new period upon which English history had entered. Since +Caxton began his great work, the kingdom had undergone a most +momentous change. + +The leading nobles, like the Earl of Warwick (SS296, 303), were, with +few exceptions, dead. Their estates were confiscated, their thousands +of followers either buried on the battlefield or dispersed throughout +the land (S316). The small number of titled families remaining was no +longer to be feared. The nation itself, though it had taken +comparatively little part in the war, was weary of bloodshed, and +ready for peace on any terms. + +The accession of the Welsh house of Tudor (S39) marks the beginning of +a long period of almost absolute royal power. The nobility were too +weak to place any check on the King. The clergy, who had not +recovered from their dread of Lollardism (SS255, 283) and its attacks +on their wealth and influence, were anxious for a strong conservative +government such as Henry promised. The House of Commons had no clear +united policy, and though the first Parliament put certain restrainst +on the Crown, yet they were never really enforced.[1] The truth is, +that the new King was both too prudent and too crafty to give them an +opportunity. By avoiding foreign wars he dispensed with the necessity +of summoning frequent Parliaments, and with demanding large sums of +money from them. + +[1] At the accession of Henry VII, Parliament imposed the following +checks on the power of the King: (1) No new tax to be levied without +consent of Parliament; (2) No new law to be made without the same +consent; (3) No committal to prison without a warrant specifying the +offense, and the trial to be speedy; (4) Criminal charges and +questions of fact in civil cases to be decided by jury; (5) The King's +officers to be held responsible to the nation. + +By thus ruling alone for a large part of the time, Henry got the +management of affairs into his own hands, and transmitted the power to +those who came after him. In this way the Tudors with their +successors, the Stuarts, built up a system of "personal sovereignty"-- +or "one-man power"--unchecked by constitutional restraints. It +continued for a hundred and fifty years, when the outbreak of the +great Civil War brought it to an end forever. + +329. Growth of a Stronger Feeling of Nationality. + +It would be an error, however, to consider this absolutism of the +Crown as an unmitigated evil. On the contrary, it was in one +important direction an advantage. There are times when the great need +of a people is not more individual liberty, but greater national +unity. Spain and France were two countries consisting of a collection +of petty feudla states. Their nobility were always trying to steal +each other's possessions and cut each other's throats. + +But the rise in each country of a royal despotism forced the turbulent +barons to make peace, and to obey a common central law. By this means +both realms ultimately developed into great and powerful kingdoms. + +When the Tudors came to the throne, England was still full of rankling +hate engendered by the Wars of the Roses (S299). Held down by the +heavy hand of Henry VII, and later, by the still heavier one of Henry +VIII, the country learned the same salutary lesson of growth under +repression which had benefited Spain and France. + +Henceforth Englishmen of all classes no longer boasted that they +belonged to the Yorkist or the Lancastrian faction (S300), but began +to pride themselves on their loyalty to Crown and country, and their +readiness to draw their swords to defend both.[1] + +[1] But the passage of Poyning's Act (1494) in Ireland prohibited the +Irish Parliament from passing any law which did not receive the +sanction of the English Council. This act was not repealed until +1782. + +330. Henry's Methods of raising Money; the Court of Star Chamber. + +Henry's reign was in the interest of the middle classes,--the farmers, +tradesmen, and mechanics. His policy was to avoid heavy taxation, to +exempt the poor from the burdens of state, and so ingratiate himself +with a large body of the people. + +In order to accomplish this, he revived "benevolences" (SS307, 313), +and by a device suggested by his chief minister, Cardinal Morton, and +hence known and dreaded as "Morton's Fork," he extorted large sums +from the rich and well-to-do.[2] + +[2] Those whose income from land was less than $2, or whose movable +property did not exceed 15 pounds (Say 150 pounds and $1125 now), were +exempt. The lowest rate of assessment for the "benevolences" was +fixed at twenty pence on the pound on land, and half that rate on +other property. + +The Cardinal's agents made it their business to learn every man's +income, and visit him accordingly. If a person lived handomely, the +Cardinal would insist on a correspondingly liberal gift; if, however, +a citizen lived very plainly, the King's minister insisted none the +less, telling the unfortunate man that by his economy he must surely +have accumulated enough to bestow the required "benevolence."[3] Thus +on one prong or the other of his terrible "fork" the shrewd Cardinal +impaled his writhing victims, and speedily filled the royal treasury +as it had never been filled before.[4] + +[3] Richard Reed, a London alderman, refused to contribute a +"benevolence." He was sent to serve as a soldier in the Scotch wars +at his own expense, and the general was ordered to "use him in all +things according to sharp military discipline." The effect was such +that few after that ventured to deny the King what he asked. +[4] Henry is said to have accumulated a fortune of nearly two millions +sterling, an amount which would perhaps represent upwards of +$90,000,000 now. + +But Henry VII had other methods for raising money. He sold offices in +Church and State, and took bribes for pardoning rebels. When he +summoned a Parliament he obtained grants for putting down some real or +pretended insurrection, or to defray the expenses of a threatened +attack from abroad, and then quietly pocketed the appropriation,--a +device not altogether unknown to modern government officials. + +A third and last method for getting funds was invented in Henry's +behalf by two lawyers, Empson and Dudley, who were so rapacious and +cut so close that they were commonly known as "the King's skin +shearers." They went about the country enforcing old and forgotten +laws, by which they reaped a rich harvest. + +Their chief instrument for gain, however, was a revival of the Statute +of Liveries. This law imposed enormous fines on those noblemen who +dared to equip their followers in military garb, or designate them by +a badge equivalent to it, as had been the custom during the late civil +wars (S296). + +In order to thoroughly enforce the Statute of Liveries, Henry +organized the Court of Star Chamber, so called from the starred +ceiling where the tribunal met. This court had for its object the +punishment of such crimes committed by the great families, or their +adherents, as the ordinary law courts could not, or through +intimidation dared not, deal with. It had no power to inflict death, +but might impose long terms of imprisonment and ruinous fines. It, +too, first made use of torture in England to extort confessions of +guilt. + +Henry seemed to have enforced the Law of Livery against friend and foe +alike. Said the King to the Earl of Oxford, as he left his castle, +where a large number of retainers in uniform were drawn up to do him +honor, "My lord, I thank you for your entertainment, but my attorney +must speak to you." The attorney, who was the notorious Empson, +brought suit in the Star Chamber against the Earl, who was fined +fifteen thousand marks, or something like $750,000, for the incautious +display he had made. + +331. The Introduction of Artillery strengthens the Power of the King. + +It was easier for Henry to pursue this arbitrary course because the +introduction of artillery had changed the art of war. Throughout the +Middle Ages the call of a great baron had, as Macaulay says, been +sufficient to raise a formidable revolt. Countrymen and followers +took down their tough yew long bows from the chimney corner, knights +buckled on their steel armor, mounted their horses, and in a few days +an army threatened the holder of the throne, who had no troops save +those furnished by loyal subjects. + +But since then, men had "digged villainous saltpeter out of the bowels +of the harmless earth" to manufacture powder, and others had invented +cannon (S239), "those devilish iron engines," as the poet Spenser +called them, "ordained to kill." Without artillery, the old feudal +army, with its bows, swords, and battle-axes, could do little against +a king like Henry, who had it. For this reason the whole kingdom lay +at his mercy; and though the nobles and the rich might groan, they saw +that it was useless to fight. + +332. The Pretenders Symnel and Warbeck. + +During Henry's reign, two pretenders laid claim to the crown: Lambert +Symnel, who represented himself to be Edward Plantagenet, nephew of +the late King; and Perkin Warbeck, who asserted that he was Richard, +Duke of York (S310), who had been murdered in the Tower by his uncle, +Richard III. Symnel's attempt was easily suppressed, and he commuted +his claim to the crown for the position of scullion in the King's +kitchen. + +Warbeck kept the kingdom in a turmoil for more than five years, during +which time one hundred and fifty of his adherents were executed, and +their bodies exposed on gibbets along the south coast of England to +deter their master's French supporters from landing. At length +Warbeck was captured, imprisoned, and finall hanged at Tyburn. + +333. Henry's Politic Marriages. + +Henry accomplished more by the marriages of his children and by +diplomacy than other monarchs had by their wars. He gave his daughter +Margaret to King James IV of Scotland, and thus prepared the way for +the union of the two kingdoms in 1603. He married his eldest son, +Prince Arthur, to Catharine of Aragon, daughter of the King of Spain, +by which he secured a very large marriage portion for the Prince, and, +what was of equal importance, the alliance of Spain against France. + +Arthur died soon afterward, and the King got a dispensation from the +Pope, granting him permission to marry his younger son Henry to +Arthur's widow. It was this Prince who eventually became King of +England, with the title of Henry VIII, and we shall hereafter see that +this marriage was destined by its results to change the whole course +of the country's history. + +334. The World as known at Henry's Accession (1485). + +The King also took some small part in certain other events, which +seemed to him, at the time, of less consequence than these matrimonial +alliances. But history has regarded them in a different light from +that in which the cunning and cautious monarch considered them. + +A glance at the map (opposite) will sho how different our world is +from that with which the English were acquainted when Henry was +crowned. Then the earth was generally supposed to be a flat body +surrounded by the ocean. The only countries of which anything was +certainly known, with the exception of Europe, were parts of western +Asia, together with a narrow strip of the northern, eastern, and +western coasts of Africa. The knowledge which had once existed of +India, China, and Japan appears to have died out in great measure with +the travelers and merchants of earlier times who had brought it. The +land farthest west of which anything was then known was Iceland. + +335. First Voyages of Exploration; the Cabots, 1497. + +About the time of Henry's accession a new spirit of exploration sprang +up. The Portuguese had coasted along the western shores of Africa as +far as the Gulf of Guinea, and had established trading posts there. +Later, they reached and doubled the Cape of Good Hope (1487). +Stimulated by what they had done, Columbus, who believed the earth to +be round, determined to sail westward in the hope of reaching the +Indies. In 1492 he made his first voyage, and discovered a number of +the West India Islands. + +Five years afterward John Cabot, a Venetian residing in Bristol, +England, with his son Sebastian, persuaded the King to aid them in a +similar undertaking. They sailed from that port. On a map drawn by +the father after his return we read the following lines: "In the year +of our Lord 1497, John Cabot and his son Sebastian discovered that +country which no one before his time had ventured to approach, on the +24th June, about 5 o'clock in the morning." That entry is supposed to +record the discovery of Cape Breton Island; a few days later they set +foot on the mainland. This made the Cabots the first discoverers of +the American CONTINENT. + +As an offset to that record we have the following, taken from the +King's private account book: "10. Aug. 1497, To him that found the new +isle 10 pounds." + +Such was the humble beginning of a series of explorations which gave +England possession of the largest part of North America. + +336. Henry VII's Reign the Beginning of a New Epoch. + +A few years after Cabot's return Henry laid the corner stone of that +"solemn and sumptuous chapel" which bears his own name, and which +joins Westminster abbey on the east. There he gave orders that his +tomb should be erected, and that prayers should be said over it "as +long as the world lasted." + +Emerson remarks in his "English Traits" that when the visitor to the +Abbey mounts the flight of twelve black marble steps which lead from +it to the edifice where Henry lies buried, he passes from the medieval +to the beginning of the modern age,--a change which the different +style of the architecture distinctly marks (S324). + +The true significance of Henry's reign is, that it, in like manner, +stands for a new epoch,--new in modes of government, in law, in +geographical discovery, in letters, art, and religion. + +The century just closing was indeed one of the most remarkable in +history, not only in what it had actually accomplished, but still more +in the seed it was sowing for the future. The celebrated German +artist Kaulbach, in his fresco of "The Age of the Reformation," has +summed up all that it was, and all that it was destined to become in +its full development. + +Therein we see it as the period which witnessed the introduction of +firearms, and the consequent overthrow of feudal warfare and feudal +institutions; the growth of the power of royalty and of nationality +through royalty; the sailing of Columbus and of Cabot; the revival of +classical learning; the publication of the first printed book; and +finally, the birth of Martin Luther, the monk who broke away from the +Catholic Church, and persuaded many people to become Protestants. + +337. Summary. + +Looking back, we find that with Henry VII the absolutism of the Crown, +or "personal monarchy," began in England. Yet the repressive power of +that "personal monarchy" procured peace for the English people and, +despite "benevolences" and other exactions, they grew into a stronger +national unity. + +Simultaneously with this increase of royal authority came the +discovery of a "New World," in which England and her colonies were to +have the chief part. A century will elapse before those discoveries +begin to bear fruit. After that, our attention will no longer be +confined to the British Islands, but will be fixed as well on that +western continent where British enterprise and English love of liberty +were destined to find a new and broader field of activity. + +Henry VIII--1509-1547 + +338. Henry's Advantages. + +Henry VIII was not quite eighteen when he came to the throne. The +country was at peace, was fairly prosperous, and the young King had +everything in his favor. He was handsome, well educated, and fond of +athletic sports. His frank disposition won friends everywhere, and he +had inherited from his father the largest private fortune that had +ever descended to an English sovereign. Intellectually, he was in +hearty sympathy with the revival of learning, then in progress both on +the Continent and in England. + +339. The New Learning; Colet, Erasmus, More. + +During the greater part of the Middle Ages the chief object of +education was to make men monks, and originally the schools +established at Oxford and Cambridge were exclusively for that +purpose. In their day they did excellent work; but a time came when +men ceased to found monasteries, and began to erect colleges and +hospitals instead.[1] + +[1] In the twelfth century four hundred and eighteen monasteries were +founded in England; in the next century, only about a third as many; +in the fourteenth, only twenty-three; after that date their +establishment may be said to cease. + +In the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries William of +Wykeham and King Henry VI built and endowed colleges which were +specially designed to fit their pupils to live in the world and serve +the state, instead of withdrawing from it to seek their own salvation. + +These new institutions encouraged a broader range of studies, and in +Henry VI's time particular attention was given to the Latin classics, +hitherto but little known. The geographical discoveries of Henry +VII's reign, made by Columbus, Cabot, and others (S335), began to +stimulate scientific thought. It was evident that the day was not far +distant when questions about the earth and the stars would no longer +be settled by a text from Scripture which forbade further inquiry. + +With the accession of Henry VIII education received a still further +impulse. A few zealous English scholars had just returned from Italy +to Oxford, full of ardor for a new study,--that of Greek. Among them +was a young clergyman named John Colet. He saw that by means of that +language, of which the alphabet was as yet hardly known in England, +men might put themselves in direct communication with the greatest +thinkers and writers of the past. + +Better still, they might acquire the power of reading the Gospels and +the writings of St. Paul in the original, and thus reach their true +meaning and feel their full influence. Colet's intimate friend and +fellow worker, the Dutch scholar Erasmus, had the same enthusiasm. +When in sore need of everything, he wrote in one of his letters, "As +soon as I get some money I shall buy Greek books, and then I may buy +some clothes." The third young man, who, with Erasmus and Colet, +devoted himself to the study of Greek and to the advancement of +learning, was Thomas More, who later became Lord Chancellor (SS145, +351). + +The three looked to King Henry for encouragement in the work they had +undertaken; nor did they look in vain. Colet, who had become a doctor +of divinity and a dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, encountered a +furious storm of opposition on account of his devotion to the "New +Learning," as it was sneeringly called. His attempts at educational +reform met the same resistance. + +But Henry liked the man's resolute spirit, and said, "Let others have +what doctors they will; this is the doctor for me." The King also +took a lively interest in Erasmus, who was appointed professor of +Greek at Cambridge, where he began his great work of preparing an +edition of the Greek Testament with a Latin translation in parallel +columns. + +Up to this time the Greek Testament had existed in scattered +manuscripts only. The publication of the work in printed form gave an +additional impetus to the study of the Scriptures, helped forward the +Reformation, and in a measure laid the foundation for a revised +English translation of the Bible far superior to Wycliffe's (S254). +In the same spirit of genuine love of learning Henry founded Trinity +College, Cambridge, and at a later date confirmed and extended +Cardinal Wolsey's endowment of Christ Church College, Oxford. + +340. Henry against Luther. + +The King continued, however, to be a staunch Catholic, and certainly +had no thought at this period of doing anything which should tend to +undermine the authority of that ancient form of worship. In Germany, +Martin Luther was making ready to begin his tremendous battle against +the power and teachings of the Papacy. In 1517 he nailed to the door +of the church of Wittenberg that famous series of denunciations which +started the movement that ultimately protested against the authority +of Rome, and gave the name of Protestant to all who joined it. + +A few years later Henry published a reply to one of Luther's books, +and sent a copy bound in cloth of gold to the Pope. The Pope was so +delighted with what he termed Henry's "angelic spirit" that he +forthwith conferred on him the title of "Defender of the Faith." The +English sovereigns have persisted in retaining this title to the +present time, though for what reason, and with what right, even a +royal intellect might be somewhat puzzled to explain. + +With this new and flattering title the Pope also sent the King a +costly two-handed sword, intended to represent Henry's zeal in smiting +the enemies of Rome. But it was destined by fate to become to tsymbol +of the King's final separation from the power that bestowed it (S349). + +341. Victory of Flodden (1513); "Field of the Cloth of Gold" (1520). + +Politically, Henry was equally fortunate. The Scotch had ventured to +attack the kingdom during the King's absence on the Continent. At +Flodden, on the borders of Scotland and England, they were defeated by +the Earl of Surrey, with great slaughter. (See map facing p. 120.) +This victory placed Scotland at Henry's feet.[1] + +[1] See Scott's "Marmion." + +The King of France and the Emperor Charles V of Germany now vied with +each other in seeking Henry's alliance. The Emperor visited England +in order to meet the English sovereign, while the King of France +arranged an interview in his own dominions, known, from the +magnificence of its appointments, as the "Field of the Cloth of Gold." +Henry held the balance of power by which he could make France or +Germany predominate as he saw fit. It was owing to his able +diplomatic policy, or to that of Cardinal Wolsey, his chief +counsellor, that England reaped advantages from both sides, and +advanced from a comparatively low position to one that was fully +abreast of the foremost nations of Europe. + +342. Henry's Marriage with his Brother's Widow. + +Such was the King at the outset. In less than twenty years he had +become another man. At the age of twelve he had married at his +father's command, and solely for political and mercenary reasons, +Catharine of Aragon, his brother Arthur's widow (S333), who was six +years his senior. Such a marriage was forbidden, except in certain +cases, by the Old Testament and by the ordinances of the Roman +Catholic Church. + +The Pope, however, had granted his permission, and when Henry ascended +the throne, the ceremony was performed a second time. Several +children were the fruit of this union, all of whom died in infancy, +except one daughter, Mary, unhappily fated to figure as the "Bloody +Mary" of later history (S374). + +343. The King's Anxiety for a Successor; Anne Boleyn. + +No woman had yet ruled in her own right, either in England or in any +prominent kingdom of Europe, and Henry was anxious to have a son to +succeed him. He could not bear the thought of being disappointed; in +fact he sent the Duke of Buckingham to the block for casually saying, +that if the King died without issue, he should consider himself +entitled to receive the crown. + +It was while meditating this question of the succession, that Henry +became attached to Anne Boleyn, one of the Queen's maids of honor; she +was a sprightly brunette of nineteen, with long black hair and +strikingly beautiful eyes. + +The light that shone in those eyes, though hardly that "Gospel light" +which the poet calls it,[1] was yet bright enough to effectually clear +up all difficulties in the royal mind. The King now declared that he +felt conscientiously moved to obtain a divorce from his old wife, and +to marry a new one. In that determination lay most momentous +consequences, since it finally separated England from the jurisdiction +of the Church of Rome. + +[1] "When love could teach a monarch to be wise, + And Gospel light first dawned from Bullen's [Boleyn's] eyes." + --Gray. + +344. Wolsey favors the Divorce from Catharine. + +Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's chief counselor,--the man who thought that he +ruled both King and Kingdom,[2]--lent his powerful aid to bring about +the divorce, but with the expectation that the King would marry a +princess from France, and thus form an alliance with that country. If +so, his own ambitious schemes would be forwarded, since the united +influence of the two kingdoms might elevate him to the Papacy. + +[2] The Venetian ambassador in a dispatch to his government, wrote of +Cardinal Wolsey: "It is he who rules both the King and the entire +Kingdom. At first the Cardinal used to say, `His Majesty will do so +and so'; subsequently he went on, forgetting himself, and commenced +saying, `We shall do so and so'; at present (1519) he has reached such +a pitch that he says, `I shall do so and so.'" + +When Wolsey learned that the King's choice was Anne Boleyn (S343), he +fell on his knees, and begged him not to persist in his purpose; but +his entreaties had no effect, and the Cardinal was obliged to continue +what he had begun. + +345. The Court at Blackfriars (1529). + +The King had applied to the Pope to annul the marriage with Catharine +(S342) on the ground of illegality; but the Emperor Charles V, who was +the Queen's nephew, used his influence in her behalf. Vexatious +delays now became the order of the day. At last, a court composed of +Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio, an Italian, as papal legates, +or representatives, was convened at Blackfriars, London, to test the +validity of the marriage. + +Henry and Catharine were summoned. The first appeared and answered to +his name. When the Queen was called she declined to answer, but +throwing herself at Henry's feet, begged him with tears and sobs not +to put her away without cause. Finding him inflexible, she left the +court, and refused to attend again, appealing to Rome for justice. + +This was in the spring (1529). Nothing was done that summer, and in +the autumn, the court, instead of reaching a decision, dissolved. +Campeggio, the Italian legate, returned to Italy, and Henry, to his +disappointment and rage, received an order from Rome to carry the +question to the Pope for settlement. + +346. Fall of Wolsey (1529). + +Both the King and Anne Boleyn believed that Wolsey had played false +with them. They now resolved upon his destruction. The Cardinal had +a presentiment of his impending doom. The French ambassador, who saw +him at this juncture, said that his face had shrunk to half its size. +But his fortunes were destined to shrink even more than his face. + +By a law of Richard II no representative of the Pope had any rightful +authority in England[1] (S265). Though the King had given his consent +to Wolsey's holding the office of legate, yet now that a contrary +result to what he expected had been reached, he proceeded to prosecute +him to the full extent of the law. + +[1] Act of Praemunire. See S243 and Summary of Constitutional History +in the Appendix, p. xiii, S14, and p. xxxii. + +It was an easy matter for him to crush the Cardinal. Erasmus said of +him, "He was feared by all, he was loved by few--I may say by nobody." +His arrogance and extravagant ostentation had excited the jealous hate +of the nobility; his constant demands for money in behalf of the King +set Parliament against him; and his exactions from the common people +had, as the chronicle of the time tells us, made them weep, beg, and +"speak cursedly." + +Wolsey bowed to the storm, and to save himself gave up everything; his +riches, pomp, power, all vanished as suddenly as they had come. It +was Henry's hand that stripped him, but it was Anne Boleyn who moved +that hand. Well might the humbled favorite say of her: + + "There was the weight that pulled me down. + ... all my glories + In that one woman I have lost forever."[1] + +[1] Shakespeare's "Henry VIII," Act III, scene ii. + +Thus deprived of well-nigh everything but life, the Cardinal was +permitted to go into retirement in the north; less than a twelve-month +later he was arrested on a charge of high treason. Through the irony +of fate, the warrant was served by a former lover of Anne Boleyn's, +whom Wolsey, it is said, had separated from her in order that she +might consummate her unhappy marriage with royalty. On the way to +London Wolsey fell mortally ill, and turned aside at Leicester to die +in the abbey there, with the words: + + "...O, Father Abbot, + An old man, broken with the storms of state, + Is come to lay his weary bones among ye: + Give him a little earth for charity!"[2] + +[2] Shakespeare's "Henry VIII," Act IV, scene ii. + +347. Appeal to the Universities. + +Before Wolsey's death, Dr. Thomas Cranmer, of Cambridge, suggested +that the King lay the divorce question before the universities of +Europe. Henry caught eagerly at this proposition, and exclaimed, +"Cranmer has the right pig by the ear." The scheme was at once +adopted. Several universities returned favorable answers. In a few +instances, as at Oxford and Cambridge, where the authorities +hesitated, a judicious use of bribes or threats soon brought them to +see the matter in a proper light. + +348. The Clergy declare Henry Head of the Church, 1531. + +Armed with these decisions in his favor, Henry now charged the whole +body of the English Church with being guilty of the same crime of +which Wolsey had been accused (S346). The clergy, in their terror, +made haste to buy a pardon at a cost reckoned at nearly $5,000,000 at +the present value of money. + +They furthermore declared Henry to be the supreme head on earth of the +Church of England, adroitly adding, "in so far as is permitted by the +law of Christ." Thus the Reformation came into England "by a side +door, as it were." Nevertheless, it came. + +349. Henry marries Anne Boleyn; Act of Supremacy, 1534. + +Events now moved rapidly toward a crisis. In 1533, after having +waited over five years, Henry privately married Anne Boleyn (S343), +and she was soon after crowned in Westminster Abbey. When the Pope +was informed of this, he ordered the King, under pain of +excommunication (S194), to put her away, and to take back Queen +Catharine (S345). + +Parliament met that demand by passing the Act of Supremacy, 1534, +which declared Henry to be without reservation the sole head of the +Church, making denial thereof high treason.[1] As he signed the act, +the King with one stroke of his pen overturned the traditions of a +thousand years, and England stood boldly forth with a National Church +independent of the Pope.[2] + +[1] Henry's full title was now "Henry VIII, by the Grace of God, King +of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the +Church of England, and also of Ireland, on earth the Supreme Head." +[2] Attention is called to the fact that a controversy, more or less +serious in its character, had been going on, at intervals for nearly +five hundred years, between the English sovereigns (or the barons) and +the popes. It began with William the Conqueror in 1076 (S118). It +was continued by Henry I (S136), by Henry II (SS163-170), by John +(S194), by the barons under Henry III (S211), by the Parliament of +Merton (S211), by Edward I (S226), and it may be said to have +practically culminated under Henry VIII in the Act of Supremacy of +1534 (S349). But after the formal establishment of Protestantism by +Edward VI in 1549 (S362) we find the Act of Supremacy reaffirmed, in +slightly different form, by Queen Elizabeth in 1559 (S382). Finally, +the Revolution of 1688 settled the question (S497). + +350. Subserviency of Parliament. + +But as Luther said, Henry had a pope within him. The King now +proceeded to prove the truth of Luther's declaration. We have already +seen (S328) that since the Wars of the Roses had destroyed the power +of the barons, there was no effectual check on the despotic will of +the sovereign. The new nobility were the creatures of the Crown, +hence bound to support it; the clergy were timid, the Commons anything +but bold, so that Parliament gradually became the servile echo and +ready instrument of the throne. + +That body twice released the King from the discharge of his just +debts. It even exempted him from paying certain forced loans which he +had extorted from his people. Parliament also repeatedly changed the +laws of succession to the Crown to please him. Moreover it promptly +attainted and destroyed such victims as he desired to put out of the +way (S351). Later (1539) it declared that proclamations, concerning +religious doctrines, when made by the King and Council, should have +the force of acts of Parliament. This new power enabled Henry to +pronounce heretical many opinions which he disliked and to punish them +with death. + +351. Execution of More and Fisher (1535). + +Thomas Cromwell had been Cardinal Wolsey's private secretary; but he +had now become chief counselor to the King, and in his crooked and +cruel policy reduced bloodshed to a science. He first introduced the +practice of condemning an accused prisoner without any form of trial +(by Act of Attainder), and sending him to the block[1] without +allowing him to speak in his own defense (S356). No one was now safe +who did not openly side with the King. + +[1] Act of Attainder. See Constitutional Documents in Appendix, +p. xxxii. + +Sir Thomas More, who had been Lord Chancellor (S339), and the aged +Bishop Fisher were executed because they could not affirm that they +conscientiously believed that Henry was morally and spiritually +entitled to be the head of the English Church (S349). + +Both died with Christian fortitude. More said to the governor of the +Tower with a flash of his old humor, as the steps leading to the +scaffold shook while he was mounting them, "Do you see me safe up, and +I will make shift to get down by myself." + +352. Destruction of the Monasteries; Seizure of their Property, + 1536-1539. + +When the intelligence of the judicial murder of the venerable +ex-chancellor reached Rome, the Pope issued a bull of excommunication +and deposition against Henry (S194). It delivered his soul to Satan, +and his kingdom to the first invader. + +The King retaliated by the suppression of the monasteries. In doing +so, he simply hastened a process which had already begun. Years +before, Cardinal Wolsey had not scrupled to shut up several, and take +their revenues to found Christ Church College at Oxford. The truth +was, that, in most cases, monasticism "was dead long before the +Reformation came to bury it" (S339, note 1). It was dead because it +had done its work,--in many respects a great and good work, which the +world could ill have spared (SS43, 45, 46, 60). The monasteries +simply shared the fate of all human institutions, however excellent +they may be. + + "Our little systems have their day; + They have their day and cease to be: + They are but broken lights of Thee, + And Thou, O Lord, art more than they."[1] + +[1] Tennyson's "In Memoriam." + +Henry, however, had no such worthy object as Wolsey had. His pretext +was that these institutions had sunk into a state of ingnorance, +drunkenness, and profligacy. This may have been true of some of the +smaller monasteries, though not of the large ones. But the vices of +the monasteries the King had already made his own. It was their +wealth which he now coveted. The smaller religious houses were +speedily swept out of existence (1536). This caused a furious +insurrection in the North, called the "Pilgrimage of Grace" (1537); +but the revolt was soon put down. + +Though Parliament had readily given its sanction to the extinction of +the smaller monasteries, it hesitated about abolishing the greater +ones. Henry, it is reported, sent for a leading member of the House o +Commons, and, laying his hand on the head of the kneeling +representative, said, "Get my bill passed by to-morrow, little man, or +else to-morrow this head of yours will come off." The next day the +bill passed, and the work of destruction began anew (1539). Property +worth millions of pounds was confiscated, and abbots like those of +Glastonbury and Charter House, who dared to resist, were speedily +hanged.[1] + +[1] The total number of religious houses destroyed was 645 +monasteries, 2374 chapels, 90 collegiate churches, and 110 charitable +institutions. Among the most famous of these ruins are Glastonbury, +Kirkstal, Furness, Netley, Tintern, and Fountains abbeys. + +The magnificent monastic buildings throughout England were now +stripped of everything of value, and left as ruins. (See map +opposite.) The beautiful windowes of stained glass were wantonly +broken; the images of the saints were cast down from their niches; the +chimes of bells were melted and cast into cannon; while the valuable +libraries were torn up and sold to grocers and soap boilers for +wrapping paper. + +At Canterbury, Becket's tomb (S170) was broken open, and after he had +been nearly four centuries in his grave, the saint was summoned to +answer a charge of rebellion and treason. The case was tried at +Westminster Abbey, the martyr's bones were sentenceeed to be burned, +and the jewels and rich offerings of his shrine were seized by the +King. + +Among the few monastic buildings which escaped was the beautiful abbey +church, now the cathedral of Peterborough, where Catharine of Aragon +(S345), who died soon after the King's marriage with her rival, was +buried. Henry had the grace to give orders that on her account it +should be spared, saying that he would leave to her memory "one of the +goodliest monuments in Christendom." + +The great estates thus suddenly acquired by the Crown were granted to +favorites or thrown away at the gambling table. "It is from this +date," says Hallam, "that the leading families of England, both within +and without the peerage, became conspicuous through having obtained +possession of the monastery lands." These were estimated to comprise +about one fourth of the whole area of the kingdom. + +353. Effects of the Destruction of Monasteries. + +The sweeping character of this act had a twofold effect. First, it +made the King more absolute than before, for, since it removed the +abbots, who had held seats in the House of Lords, that body was made +just so much smaller and less able to resist the royal will. + +Next, the abolition of so many religious institutions necessarily +caused much misery, for the greater part of the monks and all of the +nuns were turned out upon the world destitute of means. In the end, +however, no permanent injury was done, since the monasteries, by their +profuse and indiscriminate charity, had undoubtably encouraged much of +the very pauperism which they had relieved. + +354. Distress among the Laboring Classes. + +An industrial revolution was also in progress at this time, which was +productive of widespread suffering. It had begun early in Henry's +reign through the great numbers of discharged soldiers, who could not +readily find work. + +Sir Thomas More had given a striking picture of their miserable +condition in his "Utopia," a book in which he urged the government to +consider measures for their relief; but the evil had since become much +worse. Farmers, having discovered that wool growing was more +profitable than the raising of grain, had turned their fields into +sheep pastures; so that a shepherd with his dog now took the place of +several families of laborers. + +This change brought multitudes of poor people to the verge of +starvation; and as the monasteries no longer existed to hold out a +helping hand, the whole realm was overrun with beggars and thieves. +Bishop Latimer, a noted preacher of that day, declared that if every +farmer should raise two acres of hemp, it would not make rope enough +to hang them all. Henry, however, set to work with characteristic +vigor and made away, it is said, with great numbers, but without +materially abating the evil (S403). + +355. Execution of Anne Boleyn; Marriage with Jane Seymour (1536). + +Less than three years after her coronation, the new Queen, Anne Boleyn +(SS343, 349), for whom Henry had "turned England and Europe upside +down," was accused of unfaithfulness. She was sent a prisoner to the +Tower. A short time after, her head rolled in the dust, the light of +its beauty gone out forever. + +The next morning Henry married Jane Seymour, Anne's maid of honor. +Parliament passed an act of approval, declaring that it was all done +"of the King's most excellent goodness." It also declared Henry's two +previous marriages, with Catharine and with Anne Boleyn, void, and +affirmed that their children, the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, were +not lawfully the King's daughters. A later act of Parliament gave +Henry the extraordinary power of naming his successor to the crown.[1] +A year afterwards Henry's new Queen died, leaving an infant son, +Edward. She was no sooner gone than the King began looking about for +some one to take her place. + +[1] By his last will he made Mary and Elizabeth heirs to the crown in +case all male and female issue by himself or his son Edward failed +(S361). Henry's eldest sister, Margaret (see No. 3 in Genealogical +Table on page 207), was passed by entirely. But long after Henry's +death, Parliament set his will aside (1603) and made James I (a +descendent of Margaret) King of England. + +356. More Marriages (1540). + +Thomas Cromwell, the King's trusted adviser (S351), succeeded in +persuading his master to agree to marry Anne of Cleves, a German +Protestant Princess. Henry had never seen her, but her portrait +represented her as a woman of surpassing beauty. + +When Anne reached England, Henry hurried to meet her with all a +lover's ardor. To his dismay, he found that not only was she +ridiculously ugly, but that she could speak--so he said--"nothing but +Dutch," of which he did not understand a word. Matters, however, had +gone too far to retract, and the marriage was duly solemnized (1540). +The King obtained a divorce within six months, and then took his +revenge by cutting off Cromwell's head. What is more, he cut it off +by virtue of that very Act of Attainder which Cromwell had used so +unscrupulously in Henry's behalf (S351). + +The same year (1540) Henry married Catharine Howard, a fascinating +girl still in her teens, whose charms so moved the King that it is +said he was tempted to have a special thanksgiving service prepared to +commemorate the day he found her. + +Unfortunately, Catharine was accused of having been guilty of +misconduct before her marriage. She confessed her fault, but for such +cases Henry had no mercy. The Queen was tried for high treason, and +soon walked that fatal road in which Anne Boleyn had preceded her +(S355). + +Not to be baffled in his matrimonial experiments, the King took +Catherine Parr for his sixth and last wife (1543). She was inclined +to be a zealous Protestant, and she too might have gone to the block, +on a charge of heresy, but her quick wit came to her rescue. She +flattered the King's self-conceit as a profound theologian and the +compliment saved her life. + +357. Henry's Action respecting Religion. + +Though occupied with these rather numerous domestic infelicities, +Henry was not idle in other directions. By an act known as the Six +Articles, or, as the Protestants called it, the "Bloody Act," or the +"Whip with Six Lashes" (1539), the King established a new and peculiar +form of religion. In words, at least, it seemed to be practically the +same as that upheld by the Pope, but with the Pope left out.[1] + +[1] The Six Articles: The chief article ordered that all persons who +denied the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation should be burned at +the stake as heretics and that all their possessions should be +forfeited to the Crown. The remaining five articles affirmed the +obligation of all persons to accept and obey certain other Catholic +doctrines under pain of punishment for felony, if they refused. + +Geographically, the country was about equally divided between +Catholicism and Protestantism. The northwestern half clung to the +ancient faith; the southeastern half, including most of the large +cities where Wycliffe's doctrines had formerly prevailed was favorable +to the Reformation. + +On the one hand, Henry prohibited the Lutheran or Protestant doctrine +(S340); on the other, he caused the Bible to be translated (SS254, +339), and ordered a copy to be chained to a desk in every parish +church in England (1538); but though all persons might now freely read +the Scriptures, no one but the clergy was allowed to interpret them. +Later in his reign, the King became alarmed at the spread of +discussion about religious subjects, and prohibited the reading of the +Bible by the "lower sort of people." + +358. Henry versus Treason. + +Men now found themselves in a strange and cruel delimma. If it was +dangerous to believe too much, it was equally dangerous to believe too +little. Traitor and heretic were dragged to execution on the same +hurdle; for Henry burned as heretics those who declared their belief +in Protestantism, and hanged or beheaded, as traitors, those who +acknowledged the authority of the Pope and denied the supremacy of the +King (S349). + +Thus Anne Askew, a young and beautiful woman, was nearly wrenched +asunder on the rack, in the hope of making her implicate the Queen in +her heresy. She was afterward burned because she insisted that the +bread and wine used in the communion service seemed to her to be +simply bread and wine, and not in any sense the actual body and blood +of Christ, as the King's statute of the Six Articles (S357) solemnly +declared. + +On the other hand, the aged Countess of Salisbury suffered for +treason; but with a spirit matching the King's, she refused to kneel +at the block, and told the executioner he must get her gray head off +as best he could. + +359. Henry's Death. + +But the time was at hand when Henry was to cease his hangings, +beheadings, and marriages. Worn out with debauchery, he died at the +age of fifty-six, a loathsome, unwieldy, and helpless mass of +corruption. In his will he left a large sum of money to pay for +perpetual prayers for the repose of his soul. Sir Walter Raleigh said +of him, "If all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were +lost in the world, they might all again be painted to the life out of +the story of this king." + +It may be well to remember this, and along with it this other saying +of one of the ablest writers on English constitutional history, that +"the world owes some of tis greatest debts to men from whose memory it +recoils."[1] The obligation it is under to Henry VIII is that through +his influence--no matter what the motive--England was lifted up out of +the old medieval ruts, and placed squarely and securely on the new +highway of national progress. + +[1] W. Stubbs's "Constitutional History of England." + +360. Summary. + +In this reign we find that though England lost much of her former +political freedom, yet she gained that order and peace which came from +the iron hand of absolute power. Next, from the destruction of the +monasteries, and the sale or gift of their lands to favorites of the +King, three results ensued: + +1. A new nobility was in great measure created, dependent on the +Crown. +2. The House of Lords was made less powerful by the removal of the +abbots who had had seats in it. +3. Pauperism and distress were temporarily increased. +4. Finally, England completely severed her connection with the Pope, +and established for the first time an independent National Church, +having the King as its head. + +Edward VI--1547-1553 + +361. Bad Government; Seizure of Unenclosed Lands; High Rents; +Latimer's Sermon. + +Edward, son of Henry VIII by Jane Seymour (S355), died at sixteen. In +the first part of his reign of six years the goverment was managed by +his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, an extreme Protestant, whose +intentions were good, but who lacked practical judgement. During the +latter part of his life Edward fell under the control of the Duke of +Northumberland, who was the head of a band of scheming and profligate +men. + +They, with other nobles, seized the unenclosed lands of the country +and fenced them in for sheep pastures, thus driving into beggary many +who had formerly got a good part of their living from these commons. +At the same time farm rents rose in somee cases ten and even twenty +fold,[1] depriving thousands of the means of subsistence, and reducing +to poverty many who had been in comfortable circumstances. + +[1] This was oweing to the greed for land on the part of the +mercantile classes, who had now acquired wealth, and wished to become +landed proprietors. See Froude's "England." + +The bitter complaints of the sufferers found expression in Bishop +Latimer's outspoken sermon, preached before King Edward, in which he +said: "My father was a yeoman [small farmer], and had no lands of his +own, only he had a farm of three or four pounds [rent] by year, and +hereupon tilled so much as kept half a dozen men; he had walk +[pasture] for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. + +"He was able and did find the King a harness [suit of armor] with +himself and his horse, until he came to the place where he should +receive the King's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness +when he went into Blackheath Field. He kept me to school, or else I +had not been able to have preached before the King's majesty now. He +married my sisters with five pounds [dower] ... apiece. He kept +hospitality for his poor neighbors, and some alms he gave to the poor. + +"And all this he did off the said farm, where he that now hath it +payeth sixteen pounds a year or more, and is not able to do anything +for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of +drink to the poor." But as Latimer patheticall said, "Let the +preacher preach till his tongue be worn to the stumps, nothing is +amended."[1] + +[1] Latimer's first sermon before King Edward VI, 8th of March, 1549. + +362. Edward establishes Protestantism, 1549. + +Henry VIII had made the Church of England independent of the Pope +(S349). His son took the next great step, and made it practically +Protestant in doctrine. At his desire, Archbishop Cranmer compiled a +book of Common Prayer in English. It was taken largely from the Roman +Catholic Prayer Book, which was in Latin (1549). The first Act of +Uniformity, 1549 (reenacted 1552), obliged all churches to use the new +English Prayer Book, thereby, (for the time) establishing a modified +form of Protestantism throughout England (S405).[2] + +[2] On the Church of England, see Macaulay's "England," I, 40-42. + +Edward's sister, the Princess Mary, was a most devout Catholic. She +refused to adopt the new service, saying to Bishop Ridley, who urged +her to accept it as God's word, "I cannot tell what you call God's +word, for that is not God's word now which was God's word in my +father's time." It was at this period (1552) that the Articles of +Religion of the Church of England were first drawn up; but they did +not take their final form until the reign of Elizabeth (S383). + +363. King Edward and Mary Stuart. + +Henry VIII had attempted to marry his son Edward to young Queen Mary +Stuart, a daughter of the King of Scotland, but the match had been +broken off. Edward's guardian now insisted that it should be carried +out. He invaded Scotland with an army, and attempted to effect the +marriage by force of arms, at the battle of Pinkie (1547). + +The English gained a decided victory, but the youthful Queen, instead +of giving her hand to young King Edward, left the country and married +the son of the King of France. She will appear with melancholy +prominence in the reign of Elizabeth. Had Mary Queen of Scots married +Edward, we should perhaps have been spared that tragedy in which she +was called to play both the leading and the losing part (SS394-397). + +364. Renewed Confiscation of Church Property; Schools founded. + +The confiscation of such Roman Catholic church property as had been +spared was now renewed (S352). The result of this confiscation and of +the abandonment of Catholicism as the established form of worship was +in certain respects disastrous to the country. In the general +break-up, many who had been held in restraint by the old form of faith +now went to the other extreme, and rejected all religion. + +Part of the money obtained from the sale of church property was +devoted, mainly through Edward's influence, to the endowment of +upwards of forty grammar schools, besides a number of hospitals, in +different sections of the country. But for a long time the +destruction of the monastic schools (SS45, 60), poor as many of them +had become, was a serious blow to the education of the common people. + +365. Edward's London Charities; Christ's Hospital. + +Just before his death Edward established Christ's Hospital, or home +for the support and education of fatherless children, and refounded +and renewed the St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew hospitals for the sick +in London. Thus "he was the founder," says Burnet, "of those houses +which, by many great additions since that time, have risen to be +amongst the noblest of Europe." + +Christ's Hospital was, perhaps, the first Protestant charity school +opened in England; many more were patterned on it. It, and others +like it, are known as "Blue-Coat Schools," from the costume of the +boys,--a relic of the days of Edward VI. This consists of a long, +blue coat, like a monk's gown, reaching to the ankles, girded with a +broad leather belt, long, bright yellow stockings, and buckle shoes. +Most of the boys go bareheaded winter and summer. + +An exciting game of football, played in the schoolyard in this +peculiar medieval dress, used to seem strangely in contrast with the +sights of modern London streets. It was as though the spectator, by +passing through a gateway, had gone back over three centuries of +time. Coleridge, Lamb, and other noted men of letters were educated +there, and have left most interesting reminiscences of their school +life, especially Lamb, in his delightful "Essays of Elia." Late in +the nineteenth century this famous institution was removed to the +country, and part of the site of the ancient school is now covered +with a great business structure. + +366. Effect of Catholicism versus Protestantism. + +Speaking of the Protestant Reformation, of which Edward VI may be +taken as a representative, Macaulay remarks that "it is difficult to +say whether England received most advantage from the Roman Catholic +religion or from the Reformation. For the union of the Saxon and +Norman races, and the abolition of slavery, she is chiefly indebted to +the influence which the priesthood in the Middle Ages exercised over +the people" (S47); "for political and intellectual freedom, and for +all the blessings which they have brought in their train, she owes the +most to the great rebellion of the people against the priesthood." + +367. Summary. + +The establishment of the Protestant faith in England, and of a large +number of Protestant charity schools known as Edward VI's or +"Blue-Coat Schools" may be regarded as the leading events of Edward's +brief reign of six years. + +Mary--1553-1558 + +368. Lady Jane Grey claims the Crown. + +On the death of King Edward, Lady Jane Grey, a descendant of Henry +VII, and a relative of Edward VI, was persuaded by her father-in-lawe, +the Duke of Northumberland, to assume the crown, which had been left +to her by the will of the late King. + +Edward's object in naming Lady Jane was to secure a Protestant +successor, since his elder sister, Mary, was a zealous Catholic, while +from his younger sister, Elizabeth, he seems to have been estranged. +By birth, though not directly by Henry VIII's will, Mary was without +doubt the rightful heir.[1] Queen Mary received the support of the +country, and Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Dudley, were +arrested and sent to the Tower of London. + +[1] Table showing the respective claims of Queen Mary and Lady Jane +Grey to the crown. By his last will Henry VIII left the crown to +Edward VI, and (in case he had no issue) to his daughters, Mary and +Elizabeth, followed by the issue of his sister Mary. Edward VI's will +undertook to change this order of succession. + + Henry VII + 1 2 | 3 4 + --------------=------------------------------------- + | H | | +Arthur, b. 1486 Henry VIII Margaret Mary, m. +d. 1502, no H | Charles Brandon +issue ======================= James V of | + H H H Scotland, Frances + Mary, b. Elizabeth, Edward VI, d. 1542 Brandon, m. + 1516, d. 1558 b. 1533, b. 1538, | Henry Grey + d. 1603 d. 1553 Mary Queen | + of Scots, JANE GREY, + b. 1542, m. Lord + d. 1587 Guilford Dudley, + | beheaded 1554 + | + James VI of Scotland + and I of England, + crowned 1603 + +369. Question of Mary's Marriage; Wyatt's Rebellion (1554). + +While they were confined there, the question of the Queen's marriage +came up. Out of several candidates for her hand, Mary gave preference +to her cousin, Philip II of Spain. Her choice was very unpopular, for +it was known in England that Philip was a selfish and gloomy fanatic, +who cared for nothing but the advancement of the Roman Catholic faith. + +An insurrection now broke out, led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, the object of +which was to place the Princess Elizabeth on the throne, and thus +secure the crown to Protestantism. Lady Jane Grey's father was +implicated in the rebellion. The movement ended in failure, the +leaders were executed, and Mary ordered her sister Elizabeth, who was +thought to be in the plot, to be seized and imprisoned in the Tower +(1554). + +A little later, Lady Jane Grey and her husband perished on the +scaffold. The name JANE, deeply cut in the stone wall of the +Beauchamp Tower,[1] remains as a memorial of the nine days' Queen. +She died at the age of seventeen, an innocent victim of the greatness +which had been thrust upon her. + +[1] The Beauchamp Tower is part of the Tower of London. On its walls +are scores of names cut by those who were imprisoned in it. + +370. Mary marries Philip II of Spain (1554); Efforts to restore +Catholicism. + +A few months afterward the royal marriage was celebrated, but Philip +soon found that the air of England had too much freedom in it to suit +his delicate constitution, and he returned to the more congenial +climate of Spain. + +From that time Mary, who was left to rule alone, directed all her +efforts to the restoration of the Catholic Church. Hallam says her +policy was acceptable to a large part of the nation.[2] On the other +hand, the leaders in Scotland bound themselves by a solemn Covenant +(1557) to crush out all attempts to reestablish the Catholic faith. +Through her influence Parliament repealed the legislation of Henry +VIII's and Edward VI's reigns, in so far as it gave support to +Protestantism. She revived the persecuting statutes against heretics +(S283). The old relations with the Pope were resumed but the monastic +lands were left in the hands of their new owners (S352). To +accomplish her object in supporting her religion, the Queen resorted +to the arguments of the dungeon, the rack, and the fagot, and when +Bishops Bonner and Gardiner slackened their work of persecution and +death, Mary, half crazed by Philip's desertion, urged them not to stay +their hands. + +[2] See A. H. Hallam's "Constitutional History of England," and +compare J. Lingard's excellent "History of England," to the same +effect. + +371. Devices for reading the Bible. + +The penalty for reading the English Scriptures, or for offering +Protestant prayers, was death. In his autobiography, Benjamin +Franklin says that one of his ancestors, who lived in England in +Mary's reign, adopted the following expedient for giving his family +religious instruction. He fastened an open Bible with strips of tape +on the under side of a stool. When he wished to read it aloud he +placed the stool upside down on his knees, and turned the pages under +the tape as he read them. One of the children stood watching at the +door to give the alarm if any one approached; in that case, the stool +was set quickly on its feet again on the floor, so that nothing could +be seen. + +372. Religious Toleration unknown in Mary's Age. + +Mary would doubtless have bravely endured for her faith the full +measure of suffering which she inflicted. Her state of mind was that +of all who then held strong convictions. Each party believed it a +duty to convert or exterminate the other, and the alternative offered +to the heretic was to "turn or burn." + +Sir Thomas More, who gave his life as a sacrifice to conscience in +Henry's reign (S351), was eager to put Tyndale to the torture for +translating the Bible. Cranmer (S362), who perished at Oxford (1556), +had been zealous in sending to the flames those who differed from +him. Even Latimer (S361), who died bravely at the stake, exhorting +his companion Ridley (1555) "to be of good cheer and play the man, +since they would light such a candle in England that day as in God's +grace should not be put out," had abetted the kindling of slow fires +under men as honest and determined as himself but on the opposite +side. + +In like spirit Queen Mary kept Smithfield, London, ablaze with +martyrs, whose blood was the seed of Protestantism. Yet persecution +under Mary never reached the proportions that it did on the +Continent. At the most, but a few hundred died in England for the +sake of their religion, while Mary's husband, Philip II, during the +last of his reign, covered Holland with the graves of Protestants, who +had been tortured and put to cruel deaths, or buried alive, by tens of +thousands. + +373. Mary's Death (1558). + +But Mary's career was short. She died (1558) near the close of an +inglorious war with France, which ended in the fall of Calais, the +last English possession on the Continent (S240). It was a great blow +to her pride, and a serious humiliation to the country. "After my +death," she said, "you will find Calais written on my heart." Could +she have foreseen the future, her grief would have been greater +still. For with the end of her reign the Pope lost all power in +England, never to regain it. + +374. Mary deserving of Pity rather than Hatred. + +Mary's name has come down to us associated with an epithet expressive +of the utmost abhorrence (S342); but she deserves pity rather than +detestation. Froude justly says, "If any person may be excused for +hating the Reformation, it was Mary." + +Separated from her mother, the unfortunate Catharine of Aragon, when +she was only sixteen, Mary was ill-treated by Henry's new Queen, Anne +Boleyn, and hated by her father. Thus the springtime of her youth was +blighted. + +Her marriage brought her no happiness; sickly, ill-favored, childless, +unloved, the poor woman spent herself for naught. Her first great +mistake was that she resolutely turned her face toward the past; her +second, that she loved Philip II of Spain (S369) with all her heart, +soul, and strength; and so, out of devotion to a bigot, did a bigot's +work, and earned that execration which never fails to be a bigots +reward. But the Queen's cruelty was the cruelty of sincerity, and +never, like her father's hangings, beheadings, and burnings (S358), +the result of tyranny, indifference, or caprice. A little book of +prayers which she left, soiled by constant use and stained with many +tears, tells the story of her broken and disappointed life. + +375. Summary. + +This reign should be looked upon as a period of reaction. The +temporary check which Mary gave to Protestantism deepened and +strengthened it. Nothing builds up a religious faith like martyrdom, +and the next reign showed that every heretic that Mary had burned +helped to make at least a hundred more. + +Elizabeth--1558-1603 + +376. Accession of Elizabeth. + +Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor family, was the daughter of Henry +VIII and Anne Boleyn (S349). At the time of Mary's death she was +living in seclusion in Hatfield House, near London, spending most of +her time in studying Greek and Latin authors. When the news was +brought to her, she was deeply moved, and exclaimed, "It is the Lord's +doings; it is marvelous in our eyes." Five days afterwards she went +up to London by that road over which the last time she had traveled it +she was being carried a prisoner to the Tower (S369). + +377. Difficulty of Elizabeth's Position. + +An act of Parliament declared Elizabeth to be the true and lawful heir +to the crown[1] (S355); but her position was full of difficulty, if +not absolute peril. Mary Stuart of Scotland, now by marriage Queen of +France (S363),[2] claimed the English crown through descent from Henry +VII. She based her claim on the ground that Elizabeth, the daughter +of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was not lawfully entitled to the +throne, because the Pope had refused to recognize Henry's second +marriage (S349). Both France and Rome supported Mary Stuart's claim. + +[1] See Genealogical Table, p. 207. +[2] After Elizabeth, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, stood next in order +of hereditary succession. See Table, p. 207. + +On the other hand, Philip II of Spain (SS370, 374) favored Elizabeth, +but solely because he hoped to marry her and annex her kingdom to his +dominions. Scotland was divided between two religious factions, the +Catholics and the Protestants, and its attitude as an independent +kingdom could hardly be called friendly. The Catholics in the greater +part of Ireland were in a state bordering on rebellion, and were ready +to join in any attack on an English sovereign. + +378. The Religious Problem. + +But the religious problem was more dangerous than any other, for +England itself was divided in its faith. In the north, many noble +families stood by the Catholic faith, and hoped to see the Pope's +authority fully and permanently restored (S352). In the towns of the +southeast, a majority favored the Church of England as it had been +organized under the Protestant influence of Edward VI (S362).[1] + +[1] See Goldwin Smith's "England." + +Within these two great parties there were two more, who made up in +zeal and determination what they lacked in numbers. One was the +Jesuits; the other, the Puritans. The Jesuits were a new Roman +Catholic order (1540), banded together by a solemn oath to restore the +complete power of the Church and to extend it throughout the world. +Openly or secretly their agents penetrated every country, and their +opponents declared that they hesitated at nothing to gain their ends. + +The Puritans were the extreme Protestants who, like John Calvin of +Geneva and John Knox of Edinburgh, were bent on cleansing or +"purifying" the reformed faith from every vestige of Catholicism. +Many of them were what the rack and the stake had naturally made +them,--hard, fearless, narrow, bitter. + +In Scotland the Puritans had got possession of the government, while +in England they were steadily gaining ground. They were ready to +recognize the Queen as head of the Church of England, they even wished +that all persons should be compelled to worship as the government +prescribed, but they protested against what they considered the +halfway form of Church which Elizabeth and the bishops seemed inclined +to maintain. + +379. The Queen's Choice of Counselors. + +Elizabeth's policy from the beginning was one of compromise. In order +to conciliate the Catholic party, she retained eleven of her sister +Mary's counselors. But she added to them Sir William Cecil (Lord +Burghley), who was her chief adviser,[2] Sir Nicholas Bacon, and, +later, Sir Francis Walsingham, with others who were favorable to the +Protestant faith. + +[2] See Macaulay's essay on "Lord Burghley." + +On his appointment, Elizabeth said to Cecil, "This judgment I have of +you, that you will not be corrupted with any gifts, that you will be +faithful to the State, and that without respect to my private will you +give me that counsel which you think best." Cecil served the Queen +until his death, forty years afterward. The almost implicit obedience +with which Elizabeth followed his advice sufficiently proves that +Cecil was the real power not only behind, but generally above, the +throne. + +380. The Coronation (1559). + +The bishops were Roman Catholics, and Elizabeth found it difficult to +get one to perform the coronation services. At length one consented, +but only on condition that the Queen should take the ancient form of +coronation oath, by which she virtually bound herself to support the +Roman Catholic Church.[1] To this Elizabeth consented, and having +consulted an astrologer, Dr. Dee, he named a lucky day for the +ceremony, and she was crowned (1559). + +[1] By this oath every English sovereign from William the Conqueror to +Elizabeth, inclusive, and even as late as James II, with the single +exception of Edward VI, swore "to preserve religion in the same state +as did Edward the Confessor." The form of the coronation oath was +changed to support Protestantism by the Revolution of 1688. Finally, +under George V, in 1910, the phraseology of the oath was modified by +Act of Parliament in order to make it less objectionable not only to +English Catholics, but to a large majority of the people of the +nation. + +381. Changes in the Church Service (1559). + +The late Queen Mary (S373), besides having repealed the legislation of +the two preceding reigns, in so far as it was opposed to her own +strong religious convictions (S370), had restored the Roman Catholic +Latin Prayer Book (S362). At Elizabeth's coronation a petition was +presented stating that it was the custom to release a certain number +of prisoners on such occasions. The petitioners, therefore, begged +her Majesty to set at liberty the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, +Luke, and John, and also the apostle Paul, who had been for some time +shut up in a strange language. The English Book of Common Prayer +(S362), with some slight changes, was accordingly reinstated, +Parliament repealed the laws by which the late Queen Mary had +practically restored the Roman Catholic religion, and it authorized +the publication of a new and revised edition of the English Bible +(S357). + +382. New Act of Supremacy; Act of Uniformity; High Commission Court, 1559. + +No sooner was the Queen's accession announced to the Pope than he +declared her illegitimate (SS349, 355), and ordered her to lay aside +her crown and submit herself to his guidance. Such a demand was a +signal for battle. However much attached a large part of the nation, +especially the country people, may have been to the Catholic religion +of their fathers (S370), yet the majority of them were loyal to the +Queen and intended to stand by her. + +The temper of Parliament manifested itself in the immediate +reenactment of the Act of Supremacy. It way essentially the same, +"though with its edge a little blunted," as that by which Henry VIII +had freed England from the dominion of the Pope (S349). It declared +Elizabeth not "supreme head" but "supreme governor" of the Church. +Later, the act was made more stringent (1563). + +To this act, every member of the House of Commons was obliged to +subscribe; thus all Catholics were exclued from that body. The Lords, +however, not being an elective body, were excused from the obligation +at that time (S478). + +In order to enforce the Act of Supremacy, Parliament passed a new Act +of Uniformity (S362), which ordered the minister of every congregation +in England, whether Catholic or Protestant, to use the services laid +down in the recently established Book of Common Prayer, and to use no +other. In fact the law forbade the holding of any other service, even +in a room with closed doors. In case he failed to obey this law he +would be severely punished, and for a third offense would be +imprisoned for life. The same act imposed a heavy fine on all persons +who failed to attend the Established Church of England on Sundays and +holidays. + +The reason for these stringent measures was that in that age Church +and State were everywhere considered to be inseparable. No country in +Europe--not even Protestant Germany--could then conceive the idea of +their existing independently of each other. Whoever refused to +support the established form of worship, whatever that might be, was +looked upon as a "rebel" against the government. + +In order to try such "rebels" Parliament now gave Queen Elizabeth +power to organize the High Commission Court.[1] By that Court many +Catholics were imprisoned and tortured for refusing to comply with the +new Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, and later on about two hundred +priests and Jesuits were put to death on charges of treason. A number +of Puritans, also, were executed for publishing books or pamphlets +which attacked the government, and others were cast into prison or +banished from the realm. + +[1] High Commission Court: so called because originally certain church +dignitaries were appointed commissioners to inquire into heresies and +kindred matters. See, too, Summary of Constitutional History in the +Appendix, p. xiv, S15. + +383. The Thirty-Nine Articles (1563); the Queen's Religion. + +Four years later, the religious belief of the English Church, which +had been first formulated under Edward VI (S362), was revised and +reduced to the Thirty-Nine Articles which constitute it at the present +time.[1] But the real value of the religious revolution which was +taking place did not lie in the substitution of one creed for another, +but in the new spirit of inquiry, and the new freedom of thought, +which that change awakened. + +[1] But the Clerical Subscription Act (1866) simply requires the +clergy of the Church of England to make a general declaration of +assent to the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Prayer Book. + +As for Elizabeth herself, she seems to have had no deep and abiding +convictions on these matters. Her political interests practically +compelled her to favor Protestantism, but to the end of her life she +kept up some Catholic forms. Though she upheld the service of the +Church of England, yet she shocked the Puritans by keeping a crucifix, +with lighted candles in front of it, hung in her private chapel, +before which she prayed to the Virgin as fervently as her sister Mary +had ever done. + +384. The Nation halting between Two Opinions. + +In this double course she represented a large part of the nation, +which hesitated about committing itself fully to either side. Men +were not wanting who were ready to lay down their lives for +conscience' sake, but they do not appear to have been numerous. + +Some sympathized at heart with the notorious Vicar of Bray, who kept +his pulpit under the whole or some part of the successive reigns of +Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, changing his theology with +each change of rule. When taunted as a turncoat, he replied, "Not so, +for I have always been true to my principles, which are to live and +die Vicar of Bray."[2] + +[2] "For this as law I will maintain + Until my dying day, sir, + That whatsoever king shall reign, + I'll be Vicar of Bray, sir." + +Though there was nothing morally noble in such halting between two +opinions, and facing both ways, yet it saved England for the time from +the worst of all calamities, a religious civil war. Such a conflict +rent France in pieces, drenched her fair fields with the blood of +Catholics and Protestants, split Germany and Italy into petty states, +and ended in Spain in the triumph of the Inquisition and of +intellectual death.[1] + +[1] S. R. Gardiner's "History of England"; consult also J. F. Bright's +"History of England" and L. Von Ranke's "History of England." + +385. The Question of the Queen's Marriage. + +Elizabeth showed the same tact with regard to marriage that she did +with regard to religion. Her first Parliament, realizing that the +welfare of the country depended largely on whom the Queen should +marry, begged her to consider the question of taking a husband. Her +reply was that she had resolved to live and die a maiden queen. When +further pressed, she returned answers that, like the ancient Greek +oracles, might be interpreted either way. + +The truth was that Elizabeth saw the difficult of her position better +than any one else. The choice opf her heart at that time would +probably have been Robert Dudley, her "sweet Robin," the handsome but +unscrupulous Earl of Leicester; but, as he called himself a +Protestant, she knew that to take him as consort would be to incur the +enmity of the Catholic powers of Europe. On the other hand, if she +accepted a Catholic, she would inevitably alienate a large and +influential number of her own subjects. + +In this delimma she resolved to keep both sides in a state of hopeful +expectation. Philip II of Spain, who had married her sister Mary +(S370), made overtures to Elizabeth. She kept him waiting in +uncertainty until at last his ambassador lost all patience, and +declared that the Queen "was possessed with ten thousand demons." + +Later, the Duke of Anjou, a son of Henry II of France, proposed. He +was favorably received, but the country became so alarmed at the +prospect of having a Catholic King, that Stubbs, a Puritan lawyer, +published a coarse and violent pamphlet denouncing the marriage.[2] +For this attack his right hand was cut off; as it fell, says an +eyewitness,[3] he seized his hat with the other hand, and waved it, +shouting, "God save Queen Elizabeth!" That act was an index to the +popular feeling. A majority of the people, whether Catholics or +Protestants, stood by the Crown even when they condemned its policy, +determined, at all hazards, to preserve the unity of the nation. That +spirit of intense loyalty and love of country without regard to creed +or calling found perfect expression in Shakespeare's utterance: + + "This England never did, nor never shall, + Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. + . . . . . . . . + Come the three corners of the world in arms, + And we shall shock them: nought shall make us rue, + If England to itself do but rest true."[4] + +We shall see that this feeling showed itself still more unmistakably, +when, years later, men of all classes and of widely different +religious views rose to destroy the Armada,--that great fleet which +Spain sent to subjugate the English realm (SS398-401). + +[2] Stubbs's pamphlet was entitled "The Discovery of the Gaping Gulf, +wherein England is likely to be swallowed up by another French +marriage, unless the Lords forbid the bans by letting her see the sin +and punishment thereof." +[3] Camden's "Annals," 1581. +[4] Shakespeare's "King John," Act V, scene vii; written after the +defeat of the Armada. + +386. The Queen a Coquette. + +During all this time the court buzzed with whispered scandals. +Elizabeth was by nature an incorrigible coquette. Robert Dudley, Earl +of Leicester, the Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh were by turns +her favorites. Over her relations with Dudley there hangs the +terrible shadow of the suspected murder of his wife, the beautiful Amy +Robsart.[3] + +[3] See the "De Quadra Letter" in Froude's "England." + +Elizabeth's vanity was as insatiable as it was ludicrous. She issued +a proclamation forbidding any one to sell her picture, lest it should +fail to do her justice. She was greedy of flattery even when long +past sixty, and there was a sting of truth in the letter which Mary +Queen of Scots wrote her, saying, "Your aversion to marriage proceeds +from your not wishing to lose the liberty of compelling people to make +love to you." + +387. Violence of Temper; Crooked Policy. + +In temper Elizabeth was arbitrary, fickle, and passionate. When her +blood was up, she would swear like a trooper, spit on a courtier's new +velvet suit, beat her maids of honor, and box Essex's ears. She wrote +abusive and even profane letters to high Church dignitaries,[1] and +she openly insulted the wife of Archbishop Parker, because she did not +believe in a married clergy. + +[1] For the famous letter to the bishop of Ely attributed to +Elizabeth, see Hallam's "Constitutional History of England," Froude, +or Creighton; but the "Dictionary of National Biography" ("Elizabeth") +calls it a forgery. + +The age in which Elizabeth reigned was preeminently one of craft and +intrigue. The Kings of that day endeavored to get by fraud what their +less polished predecessors got by force. At this game of double +dealing Elizabeth had few equals and no superior. So profound was her +dissimulation that her most confidential advisers never felt quite +sure that she was not deceiving them. In her diplomatic relations she +never hesitated at an untruth if it would serve her purpose, and when +the falsehood was discovered, she always had another and more +plausible one ready to take its place. In all this her devotion to +England stands out unquestioned and justifies the saying, "She lived +and lied for her country." + +388. Her Knowledge of Men; the Monopolies. + +The Queen's real ability lay in her instinctive perception of the +needs of the age, and in her power of self-adjustment to them. +Elizabeth never made public opinion, but watched it and followed it. +She knew an able man at sight, and had the happy faculty of attaching +such men to her service. By nature she was both irresolute and +impulsive; but her sense was good and her judgment clear. She could +tell when she was well advised, and although she fumed and blustered, +she yielded. + +It has been said that the next best thing to having a good rule is to +know when to break it. Elizabeth always knew when to change her +policy. No matter how obstinate she was, she saw the point where +obstinacy became dangerous. In order to enrich Raleigh and her +numerous other favorites, she granted them the exclusive right to deal +in certain articles. These privileges were called "monopolies." + +They finally came to comprise almost everything that could be bought +or sold, from French wines to secondhand shoes. The effect was to +raise prices so as to make even the common necessaries of life +excessively dear. A great outcry finally arose; Parliament requested +the Queen to abolish the "monopolies"; she hesitated, but when she saw +their determined attitude she gracefully granted the ptition (S433). + +389. The Adulation of the Court. + +No English sovereign was so popular or so praised. The great writers +and the great men of that day vied with each other in their +compliments to Elizabeth's beauty, wisdom, and wit. She lived in an +atmosphere of splendor, of pleasure, and of adulation. Her reign was +full of pageants, progresses, or journeys made with great pomp and +splendor, and feasts, like those which Scott describes in his +delightful novel, "Kenilworth." + +Spenser composed his poem, the "Faerie Queen," as he said, to extol +"the glorious person of our sovereign Queen." Shakespeare is reported +to have written the "Merry Wives of Windsor" for her amusement, and in +his "Midsummer Night's Dream" he addresses her as the "fair vestal in +the West." The translators of the Bible spoke of her as "that bright +Occidental Star," and the common people loved to sing and shout the +praises of their "good Queen Bess." After her death at Richmond, when +her body was being conveyed down the Thames to Westminster, one +extravagant eulogist declared that the very fishes that followed the +funeral barge "wept out their eyes and swam blind after!" + +390. Grandeur of the Age; More's "Utopia." + +The reign of Elizabeth was, in fact, Europe's grandest age. It was a +time when everything was bursting into life and color. The world had +suddenly grown larger; it had opened toward the east in the revival of +classical learning; it had opened toward the west, and disclosed a +continent of unknown extent and unimaginable resources. + +About twenty years after Cabot had discovered the mainland of America +(S335), Sir Thomas More (SS339, 351) wrote a remarkable work of +fiction, in Latin (1516), called "Utopia" (the Land of Nowhere). In +it he pictured an ideal commonwealth, where all men were equal; where +none were poor; where perpetual peace prevailed; where there was +absolute freedom of thought; where all were contented and happy. It +was, in fact, the Golden Age come back to earth again. + +More's book, now translated into English (1551), suited such a time, +for Elizabeth's reign was one of adventure, of poetry, of luxury, of +rapidly increasing wealth. When men looked across the Atlantic, their +imaginations were stimulated, and the most extravagant hopes did not +appear too good to be true. Courtiers and adventurers dreamed of +fountains of youth in Florida, of silver mines in Brazil, of rivers in +Virginia, whose pebbles were precious stones.[1] Thus all were +dazzled with visions of sudden riches and of renewed life. + +[1] "Why, man, all their dripping-pans [in Virginia] are pure gould; +... all the prisoners they take are feterd in gold; and for rubies and +diamonds, they goe forth on holydayes and gather 'hem by the +sea-shore, to hang on their children's coates."--"Eastward Hoe," a +play by John Marston and others, "as it was playd in the Blackfriers +[Theatre] by the Children of her Maiesties Revels." (1603?) + +391. Change in Mode of Life. + +England, too, was undergoing transformation. Once, a nobleman's +residence had been simply a square stone fortress, built for safety +only; but now that the Wars of the Roses had destroyed the old feudal +barons (SS299, 316), there was no need of such precaution. Men were +no longer content to live shut up in somber strongholds, surrounded +with moats of stagnant water, or in meanly built houses, where the +smoke curled around the rafters for want of chimneys by which to +escape, while the wind whistled through the unglazed latticed windows. + +Mansions and stately manor houses like Hatfield, Knowle, parts of +Haddon Hall, and the "Bracebridge Hall" of Washington Irving,[2] rose +instead of castles, and hospitality, not exclusion, became the +prevailing custom. The introduction of chimneys brought the cheery +comfort of the English fireside, while among the wealthy, carpets, +tapestry, and silver plate took the place of floors strewed with +rushes, of bare walls, and of tables covered with pewter or woooden +dishes. + +[2] Aston Hall, Birmingham, is the original of Irving's "Bracebridge +Hall." It came a little later than Elizabeth's time, but is +Elizabethan in style. + +An old writer, lamenting these innovations, says: "When our houses +were built of willow, then we had oaken men; but, now that our houses +are made of oak, our men have not only become willow, but many are +altogether of straw, which is a sore affliction." + +392. An Age of Adventure and of Daring. + +But they were not all of straw, for that was a period of daring +enterprise, of explorers, sea rovers, and freebooters. Sir Walter +Raleigh planted the first English colony in America, which the maiden +Queen named Virginia, in honor of herself. It proved unsuccessful, +but he said, "I shall live to see it an English nation yet"; and he +did. + +Frobisher explored the coasts of Labrador and Greenland. Sir Francis +Drake, who plundered the treasure ships of Spain wherever he found +them, sailed into the Pacific, spent a winter in or near the harbor of +San Francisco, and ended his voyage by circumnavigating the globe. +(See map facing p. 222.) In the Far East, London merchants had +established the East India Company, the beginning of English dominion +in Asia; while in Holland, Sir Philip Sydney gave his lifeblood for +the cause of Protestantism. + +393. Literature and Natural Philosophy. + +It was an age, too, not only of brave deeds but of high thoughts. +Shakespeare, Spenser, and Jonson were making English literature the +noblest of all literatures. Furthermore, Shakespeare had no equal as +a teacher of English history. His historical plays appealed then, as +they do now, to every heart. At his touch the dullest and driest +records of the past are transformed and glow with color, life, +movement, and meaning.[1] On the other hand, Francis Bacon, son of +Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Elizabeth's council, was giving a wholly +different direction to education. In his new system of philosophy,[2] +he taught men that in order to use the forces of nature they must +learn by observation and experiment to know nature herself; "for," +said he, "knowledge is power." + +[1] On the value of Shakespeare's Historical Plays, see S298, note 1; +S313, note 2; and S410. +[2] In his tract on "The Greatest Birth of Time," in 1582. + +394. Mary Queen of Scots claims the Crown (1561). + +For England it was also an age of great and constant peril. +Elizabeth's entire reign was undermined with plots against her life +and against the life of the Protestant faith. No sooner was one +conspiracy detected and suppressed than a new one sprang up. Perhaps +the most formidable of these was the effort which Mary Stuart, Queen +of Scots, made to supplant her English rival. Shortly after +Elizabeth's accession, Mary's husband, the King of France, died. She +returned to Scotland (1561) and there assumed the Scottish crown, at +the same time asserting her right to the English throne.[3] + +[3] See Genealogical Table (p. 207). Mary's claim was based on the +fact that the Pope had never recognized Henry VIII's marriage to Anne +Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, as lawful, while she, herself, as the +direct descendant of Henry's sister, Margaret, stood next in +succession. + +395. Mary marries Darnley; his Murder. + +A few years later Mary married Lord Darnley. He became jealous of +Rizzio, her private secretary, and, with the aid of accomplices, +seized him in her presence, dragged him into an antechamber, and there +stabbed him. The next year Darnley was murdered. It was believed +that Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, whom she soon married, were guilty +of the crime. The people rose and cast her into prison, and forced +her to abdicate in favor of her infant son, James VI, who eventually +became King of England and Scotland (1603). + +396. Mary escapes to England (1568); plots against Elizabeth and +Protestantism. + +Mary escaped and fled to England. Elizabeth, fearing she might pass +over to France and stir up war, confined her in Bolton Castle, +Yorkshire. During her imprisonment in another stronghold, to which +she had been transferred, she was accused of being implicated in a +plot for assassinating the English Queen and seizing the reins of +government in behalf of herself and the Jesuits (S378). + +It was, in fact, a time when the Protestant faith seemed everywhere +marked for destruction. In France evil counselors had induced the +King to order a massacre of the Reformers, and on St. Batholomew's Day +thousands were slain. The Pope, misinformed in the matter, ordered a +solemn thanksgiving for the slaughter, and struck a gold medal to +commemorate it. Philip II of Spain, whose cold, impassive face +scarcely ever relaxed into a smile, now laughed outright. Still more +recently, William the Silent, who had driven out the Catholics from a +part of the Netherlands, had been assassinated by a Jesuit fanatic. +Meanwhile the Pope had excommunicated Queen Elizabeth (1570) and had +released her subjects from allegiance to her. A fanatic nailed this +bull of excommunication to the door of the Bishop of London's palace. +This bold act, for which the offender suffered death, brought matters +to a crisis. + +Englishmen felt that they could no longer remain halting between two +opinions. They realized that now they must resolve to take their +stand by the Queen or else by the Pope. Parliament at once retaliated +against the Pope by passing two stringent measures which declared it +high treason for any one to deny the Queen's right to the crown, to +name her successor, to denounce her as a heretic, or to say or do +anything which should "alienate the hearts and minds of her Majesty's +subjects from their dutiful obedience" to her. Later, the +"Association," a vigilance committee, was formed by a large number of +the principal people of the realm to protect Elizabeth against +assassination. Not only prominent Protestants but many Catholic +noblemen joined the organization to defend the Queen at all hazards. + +397. Elizabeth beheads Mary, 1587. + +The ominous significance of these events had their full effect on the +English Queen. Aroused to a sense of her danger, she signed the +Scottish Queen's death warrant, and Mary, after nineteen years' +imprisonment, was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle.[1] + +[1] Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire, demolished by James I. + +As soon as the news of her execution was brought to Elizabeth, she +became alarmed at the political consequences the act might have in +Europe. With her usual duplicity she bitterly upbraided the minister +who had advised it, and throwing Davidson, her secretary, into the +Tower, fined him 10,000 pounds, the payment of which reduced him to +beggary. + +Not satisfied with this, Elizabeth even had the effrontery to write a +letter of condolence to Mary's son, James VI, declaring that his +mother had been beheaded by mistake! Yet facts prove that Elizabeth +had not only determined to put Mary to death, but that she had urged +those who held Mary prisoner to kill her privately.[2] + +[2] See "Elizabeth" in the "National Dictionary of (British) +Biography." + +398. The Spanish Armada. + +Mary was hardly under ground when a new and greater danger threatened +the country. At her death, the Scottish Queen, disgusted with her +mean-spirited son James,[3] bequeathed her dominions, including her +claim to the English throne, to Philip II of Spain (S370). He was +then the most powerful sovereign in Europe, ruling over a territory +equal to that of the Roman Empire in its greatest extent. + +[3] James had deserted his mother and accepted a pension from +Elizabeth. + +Philip II, with the encouragement of the Pope, and with the further +help of the promise of a very large sum of money from him, resolved to +invade England, conquer it, annex it to his possessions, and restore +the religion of Rome. To accomplish this, he began fitting out the +"Invisible Armada," an immense fleet of warships, intended to carry +twenty thousand soldiers, and to receive on its way reenforcements of +thirty thousand more from the Spanish army in the Netherlands. + +399. Drake's Expedition; Sailing of the Armada (1588). + +Sir Francis Drake (S392) determined to check Philip's preparations. +He heard that the enemy's fleet was gathered at Cadiz. He sailed +there, and in spite of all opposition effectually "singed the Spanish +King's beard," as he said, by burning and otherwise destroying more +than a hundred ships. + +This so crippled the expedition that it had to be given up for that +year, but the next summer a vast armament set sail. Motley[1] says it +consisted of ten squadrons, of more than one hundred and thirty ships, +carrying upwards of three thousand cannon. + +[1] Motley's "United Netherlands," II, 465; compare Froude's +"England," XII, 466, and Laughton's "Armada" (State Papers), +pp. xl-lvii. + +The impending peril thoroughly roused England. Both Catholics and +Protestants rose to defend their country and their Queen. + +400. The Battle, 1588. + +The English sea forces under Lord High Admiral Howard, of Effingham, a +zealous patriot, with Sir Francis Drake, who ranked second in command, +were assembled at Plymouth, watching for the enemy. Whe nthe +long-looked-for Spanish fleet came in sight, beacon fires were lighted +on the hills to give the alarm. + + "For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war flame spread; + High on St. Michael's Mount it shone: it shone on Beachy Head. + Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, + Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire." + --Macaulay's "Armada." + +The enemy's ships moved steadily toward the coast in the form of a +crescent seven miles across; but Howard, Drake, Hawkins, Raleigh, and +other noted captains, were ready to receive them. With their +fast-sailing cruisers they sailed around the unwieldy Spanish +warships, firing four shots to the enemy's one, and "harassing them as +a swarm of wasps worry a bear." Several of the Spanish vessels were +captured and one blown up. At last the commander sailed for Calais to +repair damages and take a fresh start. The English followed. When +night came on, Drake sent eight blazing fire ships to drift down among +the Armada as it lay at anchor. Thoroughly alarmed at the prospect of +being burned where they lay, the Spaniards cut their cables and made +sail for the north. + +401. Destruction of the Armada, 1588; Elizabeth at Tilbury and at +St. Paul's. + +They were hotly pursued by the English, who, having lost but a single +vessel in the fight, might have cut them to pieces, had not +Elizabeth's suicidal economy stinted them in body powder and +provisions. Meanwhile the Spanish fleet kept moving northward. The +wind increased to a gale, the gale to a furious storm. The commander +of the Armada attempted to go around Scotland and return home that +way; but ship after ship was driven ashore and wrecked on the wild and +rocky coast of western Ireland. On one strand, less than five miles +long, over a thousand corpses were counted. Those who escaped the +waves met death by the hands of the inhabitants. Of the magnificent +fleet which had sailed so proudly from Spain only fifty-three vessels +returned, and they were but half manned by exhausted crews stricken by +pestilence and death. Thus ended Philip II's boasted attack on +England. + +When all danger was past, Elizabeth went to Tilbury, on the Thames +below London, to review the troops collected there to defend the +capital. "I know," said she, "that I have but the feeble body of a +woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too." +Unhappily the niggardly Queen had half starved her brave sailors, and +many of them came home only to die. None the less Elizabeth went with +solemn pomp to St. Paul's Cathedral to offer thanks for the great +victory, which was commemorated by a medal bearing this inscription: +"God blew with his winds, and they were scattered." The date of the +defeat of the Armada, 1588, was a turning point in English history. +From that time England gradually rose, under the leadership of such +illustrious commanders as Drake, Blake, and Nelson, until she became +what she has ever since remained--the greatest sea power in the world +(SS459, 557). + +402. Insurrection in Ireland (1595). + +A few years later a terrible rebellion broke out in Ireland. From its +partial conquest in the time of Henry II (S159), the condition of that +island continued to be deplorable. First, the chiefs of the native +tribes fought constantly among themselves; next, the English attempted +to force the Protestant religion upon a people who detested it; +lastly, the greed and misgovernment of the rulers put a climax to +these miseries. Sir Walter Raleigh said, "The country was a +commonwealth of common woe." What made this state of things still +more dangerous was the fact that the Catholic rulers of Spain +considered the Irish as their natural allies, and were plotting to +send troops to that island in order to strike England a deadly side +blow when she least expected it. + +Elizabeth's government began a war, the object of which was "not to +subdue but to destroy." The extermination was so merciless that the +Queen herself declared that if the work of destruction went on much +longer, "she should have nothing left but ashes and corpses to rule +over." Then, but not till then, the starving remnant of the Irish +people submitted, and England gained a barren victory which has ever +since carried with it its own curse. + +403. The First Poor Law (1601). + +In Elizabeth's reign the first effective English poor law was passed. +It required each parish to make provision for such paupers as were +unable to work, while the able-bodied were compelled to labor for +their own support. This measure relieved much of the distress which +had prevailed during the three previous reigns (S354), and forms the +basis of the law in force at the present time (S607). + +404. Elizabeth's Death (1603). + +The death of the great Queen (1603) was as sad as her life had been +brilliant. Her favorite, Essex, Shakespeare's intimate friend, had +been beheaded for an attempted rebellion against her power. From that +time she grew, as she said, "heavy-hearted." Her old friends and +counselors were dead, her people no longer welcomed her with their +former enthusiasm. She kept a sword always within reach. Treason had +grown so common that Hentzner, a German traveler in England, said that +he counted three hundred heads of persons, who had suffered death for +this crime, exposed on London Bridge. Elizabeth felt that her sun was +nearly set; gradually her strength declined; she ceased to leave her +palace, and sat muttering to herself all day long, "Mortua, sed non +sepulta!" (Dead, but not buried). + +At length she lay propped up on cushions on the floor,[1] "tired," as +she said, "of reigning and tired of life." In that sullen mood she +departed to join that "silent majority" whose realm under earth is +bounded by the sides of the grave. "Four days afterward," says a +writer of that time, "she was forgotten." + +[1] See in the works of Delaroche his fine picture of "The Death of +Queen Elizabeth." + +One sees her tomb, with her full-length, recumbent effigy, in the +north aisle of Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, while in the +south aisle he sees the tomb and effigy of her old rival and enemy, +Mary Queen of Scots (S397). The sculptured features of both look +placid. "After life's fitful fever they sleep well." + +405. Summary. + +The Elizabethan period was in every respect remarkable. It was great +in its men of thought, great in its literature, and equally great in +its men of action. It was greatest, however, in its successful +resistance to the armed hand of religious oppression. "Practically the +reign of Elizabeth," as Bishop Creighton remarks, "saw England +established as a Protestant country."[2] + +[2] See "The Dictionary of English History" ("The Reformation"), +p. 860. + +The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 gave renewed courage to the +cause of the Reformation, not only in England, but in every Protestant +country in Europe. It meant that a movement had begun which, though +it might be temporarily hindered, would secure to all civilized +countries, which accepted it, the right of private judgment and of +liberty of conscience in matters of religion. + +General Reference Summary of the Tudor Period (1485-1603) + +I. Government II. Religion III. Military Affairs. IV. Literature, +Learning and Art. V. General Industry and Commerce. VI. Mode of +Life, Manners, and Customs + +I. Government + +406. Absolutism of the Crown; Free Trade; the Post Office. + +During a great part of the Tudor period the power of the Crown was +well-nigh absolute. Four causes contributed to this: (1) The +destruction of a very large part of the feudal nobility by the Wars of +the Roses.[1] (2) The removal of many of the higher clergy from the +House of Lords.[2] (3) The creation of a new nobility dependant on the +king. (4) The desire of the great body of the people for "peace at any +price." + +[1] In the last Parliament before the Wars of the Roses (1454) there +were fifty-three temporal peers; at the beginning of the reign of +Henry VII (1485) there were only twenty-nine. +[2] Out of a total of barely ninety peers, Henry VIII, by the +suppression of the monasteries, removed upwards of thirty-six abbots +and priors. He, however, added five new bishops, which made the House +of Lords number about fifty-nine. + +Under Henry VII and Elizabeth the courts of Star Chamber and High +Commission exercised arbitrary power, and often inflicted cruel +punishments for offenses against the government, and for heresy or the +denial of the religious supremacy of the sovereign. + +Henry VII established a treaty of free trade, called the "Great +Intercourse," between England and the Netherlands. Under Elizabeth +the first postmaster-general entered upon his duties, though the post +office was nott fully established until the reign of her successor. + +II. Religion + +407. Establishment of the Protestant Church of England. + +Henry VIII suppressed the Roman Catholic monasteries, seized their +property, and ended by declaring the Church of England independent of +the Pope. Thenceforth he assumed the title of Supreme Head of the +National Church. Under Edward VI Protestantism was established by +law. Mary led a reaction in favor of Roman Catholicism, but her +successor, Elizabeth, reinstated the Protestant form of worship. +Under Elizabeth the Puritans demanded that the National Church be +completely "purified" from all Catholic forms and doctrines. Severe +laws were passed under Elizabeth for the punishment of both Catholics +and Puritans who failed to conform to the Church of England. + +III. Military Affairs + +408. Arms and Armor; the Navy. + +Though gunpowder had been in use for two centuries, yet full suits of +armor were still worn during a great part of the period. An improved +matchlock gun, with the pistol, an Italian invention, and heavy cannon +were introduced. Until the death of Henry VIII foot soldiers +continued to be armed with the long bow; but under Edward VI that +weapon was superseded by firearms. The principal wars of the period +were with Scotland, France, and Spain, the last being by far the most +important, and ending with the destruction of the Armada. + +Henry VIII established a permanent navy, and built several vessels of +upwards of one thousand tons register. The largest men-of-war under +Elizabeth carried forty cannon and a crew of several hundred men. + +IV. Literature, Learning, and Art + +409. Schools. The revival of learning gave a great impetus to +education. The money which had once been given to monasteries was now +spent in building schools, colleges, and hospitals. Dean Colet +established the free grammar school of St. Paul's, several colleges +were endowed at Oxford and Cambridge, and Edward VI opened upwards of +forty charity schools in different parts of the country, of which the +Christ's Hospital or "Blue-Coat School," originally established in +London, is one of the best known. Improved textbooks were rpepared +for the schools, and Lily's "Latin Grammar," first published in 1513 +for the use of Dean Colet's school, continued a standard work for over +three hundred years. + +410. Literature; the Theater. + +The latter part of the period deserves the name of the "Golden Age of +English Literature." More, Sydney, Hooker, Jewell, and Bacon were the +leading prose writers; while Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, and Jonson +represented the poets. + +In 1574 a public theater was erected in London, in which Shakespeare +was a stockholder. Not very long after, a second was opened. At both +these, the Globe and the Blackfriars, the great dramatist appeared in +his own plays, and in such pieces as "King John," "Richard the Third," +and the Henrys, he taught his countrymen more of the true spirit and +meaning of the nation's history than they had ever learned before. +His historical plays are chiefly based on Holinshed and Hall, two +noted chroniclers of the period. + +411. Progress of Science; Superstitions. + +The discoveries of Columbus, Cabot, Magellan, and other navigators, +had proved the earth to be a globe. Copernicus, a Prussian +astronomer, now demonstrated the fact that it both turns on its axis +and revolves around the sun, but the discovery was not accepted until +many years later. + +On the other hand, astrology, witchcraft, and the transmutation of +copper and lead into gold were generally believed in. In preaching +before Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Jewell urged that stringent measures be +taken with witches and sorcerers, saying that through their demoniacal +acts "your Grace's subjects pine away even unto death, their color +fadeth, their flesh rotteth." Lord Bacon and other eminent men held +the same belief, and many persons eventually suffered death for the +practice of witchcraft. + +412. Architecture. + +The Gothic, or Pointed, style of architecture reached its final stage +(the Perpendicular) in the early part of this period. The first +examples of it have already been mentioned at the close of the +preceding period (S324). After the close of Henry VII's reign no +attempts were made to build any grand church edifices until St. Paul's +Cathedral was rebuilt by Wren, in the seventeenth century, in the +Italian, or classical, style. + +In the latter part of the Tudor period many stately country houses[1] +and grand city mansions were built, ornamented with carved woodwork +and bay windows. Castles were no longer constructed, and, as the +country was at peace, many of those which had been built were +abandoned, though a few castellated mansions like Thornbury, +Gloucestershire, were built in Henry VIII's time. The streets of +London still continued to be very narrow, and the houses, with their +projecting stories, were so near together at the top that neighbors +living on opposite sides of the street might almost shake hands from +the upper windows. + +[1] Such as Hatfield House, Knowle Hall, Hardwick Hall, and part of +Haddon Hall; and, in London, Crosby Hall and other noble mansions. + +V. General Industry and Commerce + +413. Foreign Trade. + +The eographical discoveries of this period gave a great impulse to +foreign trade with Africe, Brazil, and North America. The wool trade +continued to increase, and also commerce with the East Indies. In +1600 the East India Company was established, thus laying the +foundation of England's Indian empire, and ships now brought cargoes +direct to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope. + +Sir Francis Drake did a flourishing business in plundering Spanish +settlements in America and Spanish treasure ships on the sea, and Sir +John Hawkins became wealthy through the slave trade,--kidnaping +negroes on the coast of Guinea, and selling them to the Spanish West +India colonies. The domestic trade of England was still carried on +largely by great annual fairs. Trade, however, was much deranged by +the quantities of debased money issued under Henry VIII and Edward VI. + +Elizabeth reformed the currency, and ordered the mint to send out coin +which no longer had a lie stamped on its face, thereby setting an +example to all future governments, whether monarchical or republican. + +VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs + +414. Life in the Country and the City. + +In the cities this was an age of luxury; but on the farms the laborer +was glad to get a bundle of straw for a bed, and a wooden trencher to +eat from. Vegetables were scarcely known, and fresh meat was eaten +only by the well to do. The cottages were built of sticks and mud, +without chimneys, and were nearly as bare of furniture as the wigwam +of an American Indian. + +The rich kept several mansions and country houses, but paid little +attention to cleanliness; and when the filth and vermin in one became +unendurable, they left it "to sweeten," as they said, and went to +another of their estates. The dress of the nobles continued to be of +the most costly materials and the gayest colors. + +At table a great variety of dishes were served on silver plate, but +fingers were still used in place of forks. Tea and coffee were +unknown, and beer was the usual drink at breakfast and supper. + +Carriages were seldom used, except by Queen Elizabeth, and most +journeys were performed on horseback. Merchandise was also generally +transported on pack horses, the roads rarely being good enough for the +passage of wagons. The principal amusements were the theater, +dancing, masquerading, bull and bear baiting (worrying a bull or bear +with dogs), cockfighting, and gambling. + +Ninth Period[1] + +"It is the nature of the devil of tyranny to tear and rend the body +which he leaves."--Macaulay + +Beginning with the Divine Right of Kings and Ending with the Divine +Right of the People + +King or Parliament? + +House of Stuart (1603-1649, 1660-1714) + +James I, 1603-1625 +Charles I, 1625-1649 +"The Commonwealth and Protectorate," 1649-1660 +Charles II, 1660-1685 +James II, 1685-1689 +William and Mary,[2] 1689-1702 +Anne, 1702-1714 + +[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified +List of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be +found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others +are in parentheses. +[2] House of Orange-Stuart. + +415. Accession of James I. + +Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor family (S376). By birth, James +Stuart, only son of Mary STuart, Queen of Scots, and great-grandson of +Margaret, sister of Henry VIII, was the nearest heir to the crown.[3] +He was already King of Scotland under the title of James VI. He now, +by act of Parliament, became James I of England. By his accession the +two countries were united under one sovereign, but each retained its +own Parliament, its own National Church, and its own laws.[4] The new +monarch found himself ruler over three kingdoms, each professing a +different religion. Puritanism prevailed in Scotland, Catholicism in +Ireland, Anglicanism or Episcopacy in England. + +[3] See Genealogical Table, p.207. +[4] On his coins and in his proclamations James styled himself King of +Great Britain, France, and Ireland. But the term "Great Britain" did +not properly come into use until somewhat more than a hundred years +later, when, by an act of Parliament under Anne, Scotland and England +were legally united. +The English Parliament refused to grant free trade to Scotland and +denied to the people of that counttry, even if born after James I came +to the English throne (or "Post Nati," as they were called), the +rights and privileges possessed by natives of England. + +416. The King's Appearances and Character. + +James was unfortunate in his birth. Neither his father, Lord Darnley, +nor his mother had high qualities of character. The murder of Mary's +Italian secretary in her own palace, and almost in her own presence +(S395), gave the Queen a shock which left a fatal inheritance of +cowardice to her son. Throughout his life he could not endure the +sight of a drawn sword. If we can trust common report, his personal +appearance was by no means impressive. He had a feeble, rickety body, +he could not walk straight, his tongue was too large for his mouth, +and he had goggle eyes. Through fear of assassination he habitually +wore thickly padded and quilted clothes, usually green in color. He +was a man of considerable shrewdness, but of a small mind, and of +unbounded conceit. His Scotch tutor had crammed him with much +ill-digested learning, so that he gave the impression of a man +educated beyond his intellect. His favorites used to flatter him by +telling him that he was the "British Solomon"; but the French +ambassador came nearer to the mark when he called him "the wisest fool +in Christendom." + +The King wrote on witchcraft, kingcraft, and theology, and composed +numerous commonplace verses. He also wrote a sweeping denunciation of +the new plant called tobacco, which Raleigh (S392) had brought from +America, and whose smoke now began to perfume, or, according to James, +to poison, the air of England. His Majesty had all the superstitions +of the age, and one of his earliest acts was the passage of a statute +punishing witchcraft with death. Under that law many a wretched woman +perished on the scaffold, whose only crime was that she was old, ugly, +and friendless. + +417. The Great Puritan Petition (1603). + +During the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, the Puritans (S378) in +England had increased so rapidly that Archbishop Whitgift told James +he was amazed to find how "the vipers" had multiplied. The Puritans +felt that the Reformation had not been sufficiently thorough. + +They complained that many of the forms and ceremonies of the Church of +Engalnd were by no means in harmony with the Scriptures. Many of them +wished also to change the Episcopal form of Church government, and +instead of having bishops appointed by the King, to adopt the more +democratic method of having presbyters or elders chosen by the +congregation. + +While James was on the way from Scotland to London to receive the +crown, the Puritans presented the "Millenary Petition" to him. It was +so called because it purported to have a thousand signers. The +ministers presenting it asked that they might be permitted to preach +without wearing the white gown called a surplice, to baptize without +making the sign of the cross on the child's forehead, and to perform +the marriage ceremony without using the ring. Bishop Hooker and Lord +Bacon had pleaded for a certain degree of toleration for the Puritans. +They even quoted the words of Christ: "He that is not against us is +for us." But the King had no patience with such a plea. + +418. Hampton Court Conference (1604). + +The King convened a conference at Hampton Court, near London, to +consider the Petition, or rather to make a pedantic display of his +own learning. The probability that he would grant the petitioners' +request was small. James had come to England disgusted with the +violence of the Scotch Presbyterians or Puritans (S378), especially +since Andrew Melville, one of their leading ministers in Edinburgh, +had seized his sleeve at a public meeting and addressed him, with a +somewhat brutal excess of truth, as "God's silly vassal."[1] + +[1] Gardiner in the "Dictionary of National (British) Biography," +"James I," thinks that by "silly" Melville meant "weak." But that is +not much improvement. + +But the new sovereign had a still deeper reason for his antipathy to +the Puritans. He saw that their doctrine of equality in the Church +naturally led to that equality in the State. If they objected to +Episcopal government in the one, might they not presently object to +royal government in the other? Hence to all their arguments he +answered with his favorite maxim, "No bishop, no king," meaning that +the two must stand or fall together. + +At the Hampton Court Conference all real freedom of discussion was +practically prohibited. The Conference, however, had one good result, +for the King ordered a new and revised translation of the Bible to be +made (SS254, 357). It was published a few years later (1611). This +translation of the Scriptures excels all others in simplicity, +dignity, and beauty of language. After more than three hundred years +it still remains the version used in the great majority of Protestant +churches and Protestant homes wherever English is spoken. + +James regarded the Conference as a success. He had refuted the +Puritans, as he believed, with much Latin and some Greek. He ended by +declaiming against them with such unction that one enthusiastic bishop +declared that his Majesty must be specially inspired by the Holy +Ghost! + +He closed the meeting by imprisoning the ten persons who had presented +the petition, on the ground that it tended to sedition and rebellion. +Henceforth, the King's attitude toward the Puritans (S378) was +unmistakable. "I will make them conform," said he, "or I will harry +them out of the land" (S422). + +Accordingly, a law was enacted which required every curate to accept +the Thirty-Nine Articles (S381) and the Prayer Book of the Church of +England (S381) without reservation. This act drove several hundred +clergymen from the Established Church. + +419. The Divine Right of Kings, 1604; the Protest of the Commons; +"Favorites." + +As if with the desire of further alienating his people, James now +constantly proclaimed the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. This +theory, which was unknown to the English constitution, declared that +the King derived his power and right to rule directly from God, and in +no way from the people.[1] "It is atheism and blasphemy," he said, +"to dispute what God can do, ... so it is presumption and high +contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do." + +[1] James's favorite saying was, "A Deo rex, a rege lex" (God makes +the king, the king makes the law). He boasted that kings might, as he +declared, "make what liked them law and gospel." + +In making these utterances James seems to have entirely forgotten that +he owed his throne to that act of the English Parliament which +accepted him as Elizabeth's successor (S415). In his exalted position +as head of the nation, he boasted of his power much like the dwarf in +the story, who, perched on the giant's shoulders, cries out, "See how +big I am!" + +Acting on this assumption, James levied customs duties on goods +without asking the consent of Parliament; violated the privileges of +the House of Commons; rejected members who had been legally elected; +and imprisoned those who dared to criticize his course. The contest +was kept up with bitterness during the whole reign. + +Toward its close James truckled meanly to the power of Spain, hoping +thereby to marry his son Charles to a Spanish princess. Later, he +made a feeble and futile effort to help the Protestant party in the +great Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which had begun between the +Catholics and Protestants in Germany. The House of Commons implored +the King not to humiliate himself and the nation at the feet of +Spain. The King replied by warning the House not to meddle with +matters which did not concern them, and denied their right to freedom +of speech. The Commons solemnly protested, and James seized their +official journal, and with his own hands tore out the record of the +protest (1621). + +Yet, notwithstanding his arbitrary character, James was easily managed +by those who would flatter his vanity. For this reason he was always +under the control of worthless favorites like Carr, Earl of Somerset, +or Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. These men were the secret power +behind the throne, and they often dictated the policy of the Crown. + +420. The Gunpowder Plot (1605). + +The King's arbitrary spirit angered the House of Commons, many of whom +were Puritans (S378). They believed that the King secretly favored +the Roman Catholics; and for this reason they increased the stringency +of the laws against persons of that religion. To vindicate himself +from this suspicion, the King proceeded to execute the new statutes +with rigor. As a rule, the Catholic were loyal subjects. We have +seen that when Spain threatened to invade the country, they fought as +valiantly in its defense as the Protestants themselves (SS399, 400). +Many of them were now ruined by enormous fines, while the priests were +driven from the realm. + +One of the sufferers by these unjust measures was Robert Catesby, a +Catholic gentleman of good position. He, with the aid of a Yorkshire +man, named Guy Fawkes, and about a dozen more, formed a plot to blow +up the Parliament House on the day the King was to open the session +(November 5, 1605). Their intention, after they had thus summarily +disposed of the government, was to induce the Catholics to rise and +proclaim a new sovereign. The plot was discovered, the conspirators +were executed, and the Catholics treated with greater severity than +ever (S382). + +421. American Colonies, Virginia, 1607. + +A London joint-stock company of merchants and adventurers, or +speculators, established the first permanent English colony in +America, on the coast of Virginia, in 1607, at a place which they +called Jamestown, in honor of the King. (See map facing p. 222.) The +colony was wholly under the control of the Crown. + +The religion was to be that of the Church of England. Most of those +who went out were described as "gentlemen," that is, persons not +brought up to manual labor. Fortunately the eneergy and determined +courage of Captain John Smith, who was the real soul of the +enterprise, saved it from miserable failure. + +Negro slavery, which in those days touched no man's conscience, was +introduced, and by its means great quantities of tobacco were raised +for export. The settlement grew in population and wealth, and at the +end of twelve years (1619) it had secured the privilege of making its +own local laws, thus becoming practically a self-governing community. + +422. The Pilgrims; the New Power. + +The year after the Virginia legislature was established, another band +of emigrants went out from England, not west, but east; not to seek +prosperity, but greater religious freedom. James's declaration that +he would make all men conform to the Established Church, or drive them +out of the land, was having its due effect (S418). + +Those who continued to refuse to conform were fined, cast into filthy +prisons, beaten, and often half starved, so that the old and feeble +soon died. Strange to say, this kind of treatment did not win over +the Puritans to the side of the bishops and the King. On the +contrary, it set many of them to thinking more seriously than ever of +the true relations of the government to religion. + +The result was that not a few came to the conclusion that each body of +Christians had the right to form a religious society of its own, +wholly independent of the state. That branch of the Puritans (S378) +who held this opinion got the name of Independents, or Separatists, +because they were determined to separate from the Established Church +of England and conduct their worship and govern their religious +societies as they deemed best. + +In the little village of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire (see map opposite), +Postmaster William Brewster, William Bradford, John Carver, and some +others, mostly farmers and poor men of the neighborhood, had organized +an independent religious society with John Robinson for its minister. +After a time they became convinced that so long as they remained in +England they could never be safe from persecution. They therefore +resolved to leave their native country. They could not get a royal +license to go to America, and for this reason they emigrated to +Holland, where all men were free to establish societies for the +worship of God in their own manner. With much difficulty and danger +they managed to escape to that country. + +After remaining in Holland about twelve years, a part of them +succeeded in obtaining from King James the privilege of emigrating to +America.[1] A London trading company, which was sending out an +expedition for fish and furs, agreed to furnish the Pilgrims passage +by the Mayflower, though on terms so hard that the poor exiles said +the "conditions were fitter for thieves and bondslaves than for honest +men." + +[1] See "Why did the Pilgrim Fathers come to New England?" by Edwin +D. Mead, in the New Englander, XLI, 711. + +These Pilgrims, or wanderers, set forth in 1620 for that New World +beyond the sea, which they hoped would redress the wrongs of the Old. +Landing at Plymouth, in Massachusetts, they established a colony on +the basis of "equal laws for the general good." Ten years later, John +Winthrop, a Puritan gentleman of wealth from Groton, Suffolk (see map +opposite), followed with a large number of emigrants and settled +Boston (1630). During the next decade no less than twenty thousand +Englishmen found a home in America. But to the little band that +embarked under Bradford and Brewster in the Mayflower, the scene of +whose landing at Plymouth is painted on the walls of the Houses of +Parliament, belongs the first credit of the great undertaking. + +Of that enterprise one of their brethren in England wrote in the time +of their severest distress, with prophetic foresight, "Let it not be +grievous to you that you have been instruments to break the ice for +others; the honor shall be yours to the world's end." From this time +forward the American coast south of the Bay of Fundy was settled +mainly by English emigrants, and in the course of a little more than a +century (1620-1733), the total number of colonies had reached +thirteen. Thus the nation of Great Britain was beginning to expand +into that *greater* Britain which it had discovered and planted beyond +the sea. + +Meanwhile a new power had arisen in England. It was mightier even +than that of kings, because greater for both good and evil. Its +influence grew up very gradually. It was part of the fruit of +Caxton's work undertaken nearly two centuries earlier (S306). This +power appeared in the spring of 1622, under the name of the _Weekly +News_,--the first regular newspaper. + +423. The Colonization of Ireland (1611). + +While the colonization of America was going on, King James was himself +planning a very different kind of colony in the northeast of Ireland. +The greater part of the province of Ulster, which had been the scene +of the rebellion under Elizabeth (S402), had been seized by the +Crown. The King now granted these lands to settlers from Scotland and +England. The city of London founded a colony which they called +Londonderry, and by this means Protestantism was firmly and finally +established in the north of the island. + +424. The "Addled Parliament"; the New Stand taken by the House of +Commons (1610-1614). + +The House of Commons at this period began to slowly recover the power +it had lost under the Tudors (S350). James suffered from a chronic +lack of money. He was obliged to apply to Parliament to supply his +wants (1614), but that body was determined to grant nothing without +reforms. It laid down the principle, to which it firmly adhered, that +the King should not have the nation's coin unless he would promise to +right the nation's wrongs. + +After several weeks of angry discussion the King dissolved what was +nicknamed the "Addled Parliament," because its enemies accused it of +having accomplished nothing. In reality it had accomplished much for +though it had not passed a single bill, it had shown by its determined +attitude the growing stregnth of the people. For the next seven years +James ruled without summoning a Parliament. In order to obtain means +to support his army in Ireland, the King created a new title of rank, +that of baronet,[1] which he granted to any one who would pay +liberally for it. As a last resort to get funds he compelled all +persons having an income of forty[2] pounds or more a year, derived +from landed property, to accept knighthood (thus incurring feudal +obligations and payments [S150]) or purchase exemption by a heavy +fine. + +[1] Baronet: This title (S263, note 1) does not confer the right to a +seat in the House of Lords. A baronet is designated as "Sir," +e.g. Sir John Franklin. +[2] This exaction was ridiculed by the wits of the time in these +lines: + + "He that hat forty pounds per annum + Shall be promoted from the plow; + His wife shall take the wall of her grannum*-- + Honor's sold so dog-cheap now." + +The distraint of knighthood, as it was called, began at least as far +back as Edward I, 1278. +*Take precedence of her grandmother. + +425. Impeachment of Lord Bacon (1621). + +When James did finally summon a Parliament (1621), it met in a stern +mood. The House of Commons impeached Lord Bacon (S393) for having +taken bribes in lawsuits tried before him as judge. The House of +Lords convicted him. He confessed the crime, but pleaded extenuating +circumstances, adding, "I beseech your lordships to be merciful unto a +broken reed"; but Bacon had been in every respect a servile tool of +James, and no mercy was granted. Parliament imposed a fine of 40,000 +pounds, with imprisonment. Had the sentence been fully executed, it +would have caused his utter ruin. The King, however, interposed, and +his favorite escaped with a few days' confinement in the Tower. + +426. Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. + +Meanwhile Sir Walter Raleigh (S392) had been executed on a charge of +treason. He had been a prisoner in the Tower for many years +(1603-1616), accused of having plotted against the King.[3] Influenced +by greed for gain, James released him to go on an expedition in search +of gold to replenish the royal coffers. Raleigh, contrary to the +King's orders, came into collision with the Spaniards on the coast of +South America.[1] He failed in his enterprise, and brought back +nothing. Raleigh was especially hated by Spain, not only on account +of the part he had taken in the defeat of the Armada (S400), but also +for his subsequent attacks on Spanish treasure ships and property. + +[3] At the beginning of the reign two plots were discovered: one, +called the "Main Plot," aimed to change the government and perhaps to +place Arabella Stuart, cousin of James, on the throne. The object of +the second conspiracy, called the "Bye Plot," was to obtain religious +toleration. Raleigh was accused of having been implicated in the Main +Plot. +[1] It is said that James had treacherously informed the Spanish +ambassador of Raleigh's voyage, so that the collision was inevitable. + +The King of that country now demanded vengeance, and James, in order +to get a pretext for his execution, revived the sentence which had +been passed on Raleigh fifteen years before. He doubtless hoped that, +by sacrificing Raleigh, he might secure the hand of the daughter of +the King of Spain for his son, Prince Charles. Raleigh died as Sir +Thomas More did (S351), his last words a jest at death. His deeper +feelings found expression in the lines which he wrote on the fly leaf +of his Bible the night before his judicial murder: + + "Even such is Time, that takes in trust + Our youth, our joys, our all we have, + And pays us but with age and dust; + Who in the dark and silent grave, + When we have wandered all our ways, + Shuts up the story of our days. + Buy from this earth, this grave, this dust, + My God shall raise me up, I trust!" + +427. Death of James. + +James died suddenly a few years later, a victim of sloth, drunkenness, +and gluttony. He had taught his son, Prince Charles, to believe that +the highest power on earth was the royal will. It was a terrible +inheritance for the young man, for just as he was coming to the +throne, the people were beginning to insist that their will should be +respected. + +428. Summary. + +Three chief events demand our attention in this reign. First, the +increased power and determined attitude of the House of Commons. +Secondly, the growth of the Puritan and Independent parties in +religion. Thirdly, the establishment of permanent, self-governing +colonies in Virginia and New England, destined in time to unite with +others and become a new and independent nation,--the American +Republic. + +Charles I--1625-1649 + +429. Accession of Charles; Result of the Doctrine of the Divine Right +of Kings. + +The doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, which had been so zealously +put forth by James (S419), bore its full and fatal fruit in the career +of his son. Unlike his father, Charles was by nature a gentleman. In +his private and personal relations he was conscientious and +irreproachable; in public matters he was exactly the reverse. + +This singular contrast--this double character, as it were--arose from +the fact that, as a man, Charles felt himself bound by truth and +honor, but, as a sovereign, he considered himself superior to such +obligations. In all his dealings with the nation he seems to have +acted on the principle that the people had no rights which kings were +bound to respect. + +430. The King's Two Mistakes at the Outset. + +Charles I began his reign with two mistakes. First, he insisted on +retaining the Duke of Buckingham, his father's favorite (S419), as his +chief adviser, though the Duke was, for good reasons, generally +distrusted and disliked. Next, shortly after his accession, Charles +married Henrietta Maria, a French Catholic princess. The majority of +the English people hated her religion, and her extravagant habits soon +got the King into trouble. + +To meet her incessant demands for money, and to carry on a petty war +with Spain, and later with France, he was obliged to ask Parliament +for funds. Parliament declined to grant him the supply he demanded +unless he would redress certain grievances of long standing. Charles +refused and dissolved that body. + +431. The Second Parliament (1626); the King extorts Loans. + +Necessity, however, compelled the King to call a new Parliament. when +it met, the Commons, under the lead of Sir John Eliot and other +eminent men, proceeded to draw up articles of impeachment, accusing +the Duke of Buckingham of mismanagement (SS243, 425). To save his +favorite from being brought to trial, the King dissolved Parliament +(1626), and as no supplies of money had been voted, Charles now +proceeded to levy illegal taxes and to extort illegal loans. Sir John +Eliot, Sir Edmund Hampden, cousin of the famous John Hampden (S436), +and Thomas Wentworth refused (1627) to lend his Majesty the sum asked +for. For this refusal they were thrown into prison. This led to +increased agitation and discontent. At length the King found himself +again forced to summon Parliament; to the Parliament, Eliot and +Wentworth, with others who sympathized with them, were elected. + +432. ThePetition of Right, 1628. + +Shortly after assembling, the House of Commons, led by Sir Thomas +Wentworth and John Pym, drew up the Petition of Right, which passed +the Lords and was presented to the King for his signature. The +Petition was a law reaffirming some of the chief provisions of the +Great Charter, which the nation, more than four centuries earlier, had +extorted from King John (S199). It stipulated in particular, that no +taxes whatever should be levied without the consent of Parliament, and +that no one should be unlawfully imprisoned for refusing to pay such +taxes. In the petition there was not an angry word, but as a member +of the Commons declared, "We say no more than what a worm trodden upon +would say if he could speak: I pray thee tread on me no more." + +433. Charles signs the Petition of Right, 1628; but he revives +Monopolies. + +Charles refused to sign the Petition; but finding that money could be +got on no other terms, he at length gave his signature, 1628.[1] But +for Charles to pledge his royal word to the nation meant its direct +and open violation. The King now revived the "monopolies," which had +been abolished under Elizabeth (S388). + +[1] Petition of Right: See Summary of Constitutional History in the +Appendix, p. xvi, S17, and p. xxix. + +By these grants certain persons bought the sole right of dealing in +nearly every article of food, drink, fuel, and clothing. The Commons +denounced this outrage. One member said: "The `monopolists' have +seized everything. They sip in our cup, they sup in our dish, they +sit by our fire." + +434. Eliot's Remonstrance (1629). + +Sir John Eliot (S431) drew up a remonstrance against these new acts of +royal tyranny, but the Speaker of the House of Commons, acting under +the King's order, refused to put the measure to vote, and endeavored +to adjourn. + +Several members sprang forward and held him in his chair until the +resolutions were passed, which declared that whoever levied or paid +any taxes not voted by Parliament, or attempted to make any change in +religion, was an enemy to the kingdom. In revenge Charles sent Eliot +to close confinement in the Tower. He died there three years later, a +martyr in the cause of liberty. + +435. The King rules without Parliament; "Thorough." + +For the next eleven years (1629-1640) the King ruled without a +Parliament. The obnoxious Buckingham (S431) had led an expedition +against France which resulted in miserable failure. He was about +setting out on a second expedition to aid the Huguenots, who had +rebelled against the French King, when he was assassinated (1628). +His successor was Sir Thomas Wentworth, who later (1640) became Earl +of Strafford. Wentworth had signed the Petition of Right (S432), but +he was now a renegade to liberty, and wholly devoted to the King. By +means of the Court of Star Chamber (S330) and his scheme called +"Thorough," which meant that he would stop at nothing to make Charles +absolute, Strafford labored to establish a complete despotism. + +Archbishop Laud worked with Strafford through the High Commission +Court (S382). Together, the two exercised a crushing and merciless +system of political and religious tyranny; the Star Chamber fining and +imprisoning those who refused the illegal demands for money made upon +them, the High Commission Court showing itself equally zealous in +punishing those who could not conscientiously conform to the +Established Church of England.[1] + +[1] To strengthen the hands of Archbishop Laud and to secure absolute +uniformity of faith, Charles issued (1628) a Declaration (still found +in the English editions of the Book of Common Prayer), which forbade +any one to understand or explain the Thirty-Nine Articles (S383) in +any sense except that established by the bishops and the King. + +Charles exasperated the Puritans (S378) still further by reissuing +(1633) his father's Declaration of Sunday Sports, which had never +really been enforced. This Declaration encouraged parishioners to +dance, play games, and practice archery in the churchyards after +divine service. Laud used it as a test, and turned all clergymen out +of their livings who refused to read it from their pulpits. When the +Puritans finally got the upper hand (1644) they publicly burned the +Declaration. + +436. "Ship Money"; John Hampden refuses to pay it, 1637. + +To obtain means with which to equip a standing army, the King forced +the whole country to pay a tax known as "ship money," on the pretext +that it was needed to free the English coast from the depredations of +Algerine pirates. During previous reigns an impost of this kind on +the coast towns in time of war might have been considered legitimate, +since its original object was to provide ships for the national +defense. + +In time of peace, however, such a demand could not be rightfully made, +especially on the inland towns, as the Petition of Right (S432) +expressly provided that no money should be demanded from the country +without the consent of its representatives in Parliament. John +Hampden, a wealthy farmer in Buckinghamshire, refused to pay the +twenty shillings required from him. He did not grudge the money, but +he would not tamely submit to have even that trifling sum taken from +him contrary to law. The case was brought to trial (1637), and the +corrupt judges decided for the King. + +437. Hampden and Cromwell endeavor to leave the Country. + +Meanwhile John Winthrop with many other Puritans emigrated to America +to escape oppression. According to tradition John Hampden (S436) and +his cousin, Oliver Cromwell, who was a member of the last Parliament, +embarked on a vessel in the Thames for New England. But it is said +that they were prevented from sailing by the King's order. The two +friends remained to teach the despotic sovereign a lesson which +neither he nor England ever forgot.[1] + +[1] Macaulay's "Essay on Hampden," Guizot's "English Revolution," and +other well-known authorities, relate the proposed sailing of Hampden +and Cromwell, but several recent writers question its truth. + +438. The Difficulty with the Scottish Church (1637). + +The King determined to force the use of a prayer book, similar to that +used in the English Church (S381), on the Scotch Puritans. But no +sooner had the Dean of Edinburgh opened the book than a general cry +arose in the church, "A Pope, a Pope! Antichrist! Stone him!" When the +bishops endeavored to appease the tumult, the enraged congregation +clapped, stamped, and yelled. + +Again the dean tried to read a prayer from the hated book, when an old +woman hurled her stool at his head, shouting, "D'ye mean to say +mass[1] at my lug [ear]?" Riots ensued, and eventually the Scotch +solemnly bound themselves by a Covenant to resist all attempts to +change their religion. The King resolved to force his prayer book on +the Covenanters[2] at the point of the bayonet. + +[1] Mass: here used for the Roman Catholic church service. +[2] The first Covenanters were the Scottish leaders, who, in 1557, +bound themselves by a solemn covenant to overthrow all attempts to +reestablish the Catholic religion in Scotland; when Charles I +undertook to force the Scotch to accept Episcopacy the Puritan party +in Scotland drew up a new covenant (1638) to resist it. + +But he had no money to pay his army, and the "Short Parliament," which +he summoned in the spring of 1640, refused to grant any unless the +King would redress the nation's grievances. + +439. The "Long Parliament," 1640; Impeachment of Strafford and Laud; +the "Grand Remonstrance." + +In the autumn Charles summoned that memorable Parliament which met in +November of 1640. It sat almost continuously for thirteen years, and +so got the name of the "Long Parliament."[3] This new Parliament was +made up of three parties: the Church of England party, the +Presbyterian party, and the Independents (S422). The spirit of this +body soon showed itself. John Pym (S432), the leader of the House of +Commons, demanded the impeachment of Strafford (S435) for high treason +and despotic oppression. He was tried and sentenced to execution. +The King refused to sign the death warrant, but Strafford himself +urged him to do so in order to appease the people. Charles, +frightened at the tumult that had arisen, and entreated by his wife, +finally put his hand to the paper, and thus sent his most faithful +servant to the block. + +Parliament next charged Archbishop Laud (S435) with attempting to +overthrow the Protestant religion. It condemned him to prison, and +ultimately to death. Next, it abolished the Star Chamber and the High +Commission Court (S435). It next passed the Triennial Act,[1] a bill +requiring Parliament to be summoned once in three years, and also a +statute forbidding the collection of "ship money" unless authorized by +Parliament. + +[1] The Triennial Act was repealed (in form only) in 1664; it was +reenacted in 1694; in 1716 it was superseded by the Septennial Act +(S535). + +Under the leadership of Pym, it followed this by drawing up the "Grand +Remonstrance,"[2] which was printed and circulated throughout the +country. The "Remonstrance" set forth the faults of the King's +government, while it declared utter distrust of his policy. Cromwell +did not hesitate to say that if the House of Commons had failed to +adopt and print the "Remonstrance," he would have left England never +to return. The radicals in the House next made an ineffectual attempt +to pass the "Root and Branch Bill," for the complete destruction-- +"root and branch"--of the Established Church of England. Finally, the +House enacted a law forbidding the dissolution of the present +Parliament except by its own consent. + +[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xvii, +S19. + +440. The King attempts to arrest Five Members (1642). + +The parliamentary leaders had entered into communication with the +Scots and so laid themselves open to a charge of treason. It was +rumored, too, that they were about to take a still bolder step and +impeach the Queen for having conspired with the Catholics and the +Irish to destroy the liberties of the country. No one knew better +than Charles how strong a case could be made out against his frivolous +and unprincipled consort. + +Driven to extremities, Charles determined to seize the five members, +John Pym, John Hampden (SS432, 436), and three others, who headed the +opposition.[3] The King commanded the House of Commons to give them up +for trial. The request was not complied with and the Queen urged +Charles to take them by force, saying, "Go along, you coward, and pull +those rascals out by the ears!" Thus taunted, the King went on the +next day to the House of Parliament with a company of soldiers to +seize the members. They had been forewarned, and had left the House, +taking refuse in the "city," which showed itself then, as always, on +the side of liberty (S34, note 1). Leaving his soldiers at the door, +the King entered the House of Commons. Seeing that the five members +were absent, the King turned to the Speaker and asked where they +were. The Speaker, kneeling before the King, answered, "May it please +your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this +place but as this House is pleased to direct me." Vexed that he could +learn nothing further, Charles left the hall amid ominous cries of +"Privilege! privilege!"[1] + +[3] The full list was Hampden, Pym, Hollis, Haselrig, and Strode, to +which a sixth, Mandeville, was added later. Copley's fine painting of +the "Attempted Arrest" is in the Boston Public Library.[1] Privilege: +the privilege of Parliament to debate all questions exempt from royal +interference. + +441. The Great Civil War, 1642-1649, between the King and Parliament. + +The King, baffled in his purpose, resolved to coerce Parliament by +military force. He left London in 1642, never to return until he came +as a prisoner, and was delivered into the custody of that legislative +body that he had insulted and defied. Parliament now attempted to +come to an understanding with the King. + +There was then no standing army in England, but each county and large +town had a body of militia, formed of citizens who were occasionally +mustered for drill. This militia was under the control of the King. +Parliament insisted on his resigning that control to them. Charles +refused to give up his undoubted constitutional right in the matter, +and raised the royal flag at Nottingham, August, 1642. Parliament +then organized an army of its own, and the war began. + +442. Cavaliers and Roundheads. + +It opened in the autumn of that year (1642) with the battle of +Edgehill, Warwickshire, and was at first favorable to the King. On +his side were a majority of the nobility, the clergy and the country +gentlemen. They were mainly members of the Church of England and were +known collectively as Cavaliers, from their dashing and daring +horsemanship. Their leader was Prince Rupert, a nephew of Charles.[1] + +[1] See "A charge with Prince Rupert," _Atlantic Monthly_, III, 725. + +On the side of Parliament were the shopkeepers, small farmers and +landowners, with a considerable number of men of high rank; as a rule +they were Puritans (S378). The King's party nicknamed them +"Roundheads," because, despising the long locks and effeminate +ringlets worn by the Cavaliers, they cut their hair short so that it +showed the shape of the head.[2] Essex and Fairfax were the first +leaders of the "Roundheads"; later, Cromwell became their commander. + +[2] "Those roundheaded dogs that bawled against bishops," said the +Cavaliers. + +443. How the Country was divided; Rise of Political Newspapers. + +Taking England as a whole, we may say that the southeastern half, that +is, what was then the richest part of England, with London and most of +the other large towns, was against the King, and that the southwestern +half, with most of the North, was for him. (See map opposite.) Each +side made great sacrifices in carrying on the war. The Queen sold her +crown jewels, and the Cavaliers melted down their silver plate to +provide money to pay the King's troops. + +On behalf of the People's army Parliament imposed heavy taxes, and +levied now for the first time a duty on domestic products, especially +on ales and liquors, known as the "Excise Tax." Furthermore, it +required each household to fast once a week, and to give the price of +a dinner to support the soldiers who were fighting against the King. + +Parliament also passed what was called the "Self-denying Ordinance" +(1644) (repeated in 1645). It required all members who had any civil +or military office to resign, and, as Cromwell seaid, "deny themselves +and their private interests for the public good." The real object of +this measure was to get rid of incompetent commanders, and give the +People's army (soon to be remodeled) the vigorous men that the times +demanded. + +With the outbreak of the war great numbers of little local newspapers +sprang into short-lived existence in imitation of the first +publication of that sort, the _Weekly News_, which was issued not +quite twenty years before in the reign of James I (S422). Each of the +rival armies, it is said, carried a printing press with it, and waged +furious battles in type against the other. The whole country was +inundated with floods of pamphlets discussing every conceivable +religious and political question. + +444. The "New Model"; Death of John Hampden; the Solemn League and +Covenant (1642-1645). + +At the first battle fought, at Edgehill, Warwickshire (1642), Cromwell +saw that the Cavaliers (S442) had the advantage, and told John Hampden +(SS436, 440) that "a set of poor tapsters [drawers of liquor] and town +apprentices would never fight against men of honor." He forthwith +proceeded to organize his regiment of "Ironsides," a "lovely company," +he said, none of whom swore or gambled. + +After the first Self-denying Ordinance was passed (S443), Cromwell and +Fairfax formed a new People's army of "God-fearing men" on the same +pattern, almost all of whom were Independents (S439). This was called +the "New Model" (1645) and was placed under the joint command of the +men who organized it. Very many of its officers were kinsmen of +Cromwell's, and it speedily became the most formidable body of +soldiers of its size in the world,--always ready to preach, pray, +exhort, or fight.[1] + +[1] "The common soldiers, as well as the officers, did not only pray +and preach among themselves, but went up into the pulpits in all +churches and preached to the people."--Clarendon, "History of the +Rebellion," Book X, 79. + +Meanwhile John Hampden (SS436, 440) had been mortally wounded in a +skirmish at Chalgrove Field, Oxfordshire. His death was a terrible +blow to the parliamentary army fighting in behalf of the rights of the +people.[2] + +[2] See Macaulay's "Essay on Hampden." Clarendon says that Hampden's +death produced as great consternation in his party "as if their whole +army had been cut off." + +Parliament endeavored to persuade the Scotch to give their aid in the +war against the King. The latter finally agreed to do so (1643) on +condition that Parliament would sign the Solemn League and Covenant +(S438). Parliament signed it, and so made the Scotch Presbyterian +worship the state religion of England and Ireland (1647). In reality +only a small part of the English people accepted it; but the charge +forced a large number of Episcopal clergymen to leave their parishes. + +445. Marston Moor and Naseby, 1644, 1645. + +On the field of Marston Moor, Yorkshire, 1644, the north of England +was conquered by Cromwell with his invincible little army. The +following year Cromwell's "Ironsides," who "trusted in God and kept +their powder dry," gained the decisive victory of Naseby, 1645, in the +Midlands. (See map facing p. 252.) After the fight papers belonging +to the King were picked up on the battlefield. They proved that +Charles intended betraying those who were negotiating with him for +peace, and that he was planning to bring foreign troops to England. +The discovery of these papers, which were published by Parliament, was +more damaging to the royal cause than the defeat itself. + +446. The King and Parliament. + +Standing on the walls of the ancient city of Chester, Charles saw his +last army utterly routed (1645). Shortly afterwards he fled to the +Scots. Oxford, the King's chief city in the Midlands, surrendered to +Fairfax (1646). The first civil war was now practically over. The +Scots gave up the King (1647) to the parliamentary commissioners, and +he was taken to Holmby House, Northamptonshire. There Cromwell and +the army made overtures to him, but without effect. He was then +brought by the Parliamentary or People's army to Hampton Court, near +London. + +Here, and elsewhere, the army again attempted to come to some definite +understanding with the King, but all to no purpose. Politically +speaking, Charles was his own worst enemy. He was false to the core, +and, as Carlyle has said: "A man whose word will not inform you at all +what he means, or will do, is not a man you can bargain with. You +must get out of that man's way, or put him out of yours." + +447. The Second Civil War (1648); Pride's Purge (1648); the "Rump +Parliament." + +After two years spent in fruitless negotiations, Charles, who had fled +to Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight, made a secret treaty with +the Scots (1648), promising to sanction the establishment of the +Scotch Presbyterian Church in England (S444), if they would send an +army into the country to restore him to the throne.[1] + +[1] When Cromwell found out that Charles had resolved to destroy him +and the Independent army, he apparently made up his mind to put the +King to death. See Lord Broghill's story in S. R. Gardiner's +"History of the Great Civil War," III, 259. + +The Scots marched into England, the Royalists rose to aid them, and +the second civil war began. It speedily ended in the utter defeat of +the King's forces. The People's army now vowed that they would bring +the King to justice. To this neither the Presbyterians in the House +of Commons nor the members of the House of Lords would agree. + +Colonel Pride then proceeded (1648), as he said, to purge the "Long +Parliament" (S439) by driving out all who were opposed to this +measure. Cromwell had no part in Pride's expulsion of members, though +he afterwards expressed his approval of it. Those who remained were a +small body of Independents only (SS422, 439). They did not number +sixty; they became the mere tool of the Parliamentary or People's army +and were called in derision the "Rump Parliament." + +448. Execution of King Charles, 1649. + +This so-called "Rump Parliament" named one hundred and thiry-five +persons to constitute a high court of justice to try the King on a +charge of treason against the nation; the chief judge or presiding +officer was John Bradshaw. Less than half of these judges were +present throughout the trial. Of those who signed the death warrant +Oliver Cromwell was one. Prince Charles, the King's son, then a +refugee in France, made every effort to save his father. He sent a +blank paper, bearing his signature and seal, to the judges, offering +to bind himself to any conditions they might insert, provided they +would spare his father's life; but no answer was returned. + +The King was brought into court in Westminster Hall, London; a week +later the trial was over. The judges pronounced sentence of death on +"Charles Stuart, King of England," as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer, +and public enemy." + +Throughout the trial Charles bore himself with dignity and +self-possession. The crisis had brought out the best elements of his +nature. He was beheaded January 30, 1649, in London in front of the +royal palace of Whitehall. "A great shudder ran through the crowd +that saw the deed, then came a shriek, and all immediately dispersed." +Tradition declares that Cromwell went secretly that night to see the +beheaded corpse. He looked steadfastly at it, shook his head, sighed +out the words "Cruel necessity!" and departed.[1] + +[1] S. R. Gardiner's "Great Civil War," III, 604; and see in +Delaroche's works the picture of Cromwell looking at the King's +corpse. + +449. Summary. + +The whole of Charles I's reign must be regarded as a prolonged +struggle between the King and the nation. Under the Tudors and James +I the royal power had been growing more and more despotic, while at +the same time the progress of the Protestant Reformation and of +Puritanism had encouraged freedom of thought. + +Between these opposite forces a collision was inevitable, since +religious liberty always favors political liberty. Had Charles known +how to yield in time, or been sincere in the concessions which he did +make, all might have gone well. His duplicity was his ruin. Though +his death did not absolutely destroy the theory of the Divine Right of +Kings, yet it gave it a blow from which it never recovered. + + +The Commonwealth and Protectorate--1649-1660 + +450. Establishment of the Commonwealth, or Republic, 1649. + +While the crowd that had witnessed the execution of Charles I was +leaving the spot (S448), the remnant of the House of Commons met. +This "Rump Parliament" (S447), composed of only about fifty members, +claimed the right to act for the whole nation. A few days later it +abolished the House of Lords as "useless and dangerous." Next, for +similar reasons, it abolished the office of king, and declared that +"The People are, under God, the origin of all just power." + +England was now a commonwealth or republic, governed, in name at +least, by a Council of State. Of this Council John Bradshaw (S448) +was president, and the poet Milton was foreign secretary, while +General Fairfax with Oliver Cromwell had command of the army. The +real power was in the army, and the true head of the army was +Cromwell. Without him the so-called republic could not have stood a +day. + +451. Radical Changes. + +All members of the House of Commons, with those who held any civil or +military office, were required to swear allegiance to the Commonwealth +"without King, or House of Lords." The use of the English church +service was forbidden, and the statues of Charles I in London were +pulled down and demolished. + +The Great Seal of England (S145) had already been cast aside, and a +new one adopted, having on one side a map of England and Ireland, on +the other a representation of the House of Commons in session, with +the words, "In the first year of freedom, by God's blessing restored +1648."[1] + +[1] 1648 Old Style would here correspond to 1649 New Style. (See S545, +note 2.) + +452. Difficulties of the New Republic. + +Shortly after the establishment of the Commonwealth, General Fairfax +(S442) resigned his command, and Cromwell became the sole leader of +the military forces of the country. But the new government, even with +his aid, had no easy task before it. + +It had enemies in the Royalists, who, since the King's execution, had +grown stronger; in the Presbyterians, who hated both the "Rump +Parliament" (S450) and the Parliamentary army; finally, it had enemies +in its own ranks, for there were half-crazy fanatics. "Levelers,"[1] +"Come-outers,"[2] and other "cattle and creeping things," who would be +satisfied with nothing but destruction and confusion. + +[1] "Levelers": a name given to certain radical republicans who wished +to reduce all ranks and classes to the same level with respect to +political power and privileges. +[2] "Come-outers": those who abandoned all established ways in +government and religion. + +Among these there were socialists, or communists, who, like those of +the present day, wished to abolish private property, and establish "an +equal division of unequal earnings," while others declared and acted +out their belief in the coming end of the world. Eventually Cromwell +had to deal with these crack-brained enthusiasts in a decided way, +especially as some of them threatened to assassinate him in order to +hasten the advent of the personal reign of Christ and his saints on +earth. + +453. The Late King's Son proclaimed King in Ireland and Scotland; +Dunbar; Worcester (1649-1651). + +An attempt of the English Puritan party (S378) to root out Catholicism +in Ireland (1641) had caused a horrible insurrection. The Royalist +party in Ireland now proclaimed Prince Charles, son of the late +Charles I, King. Parliament deputed Cromwell to reduce that country +to order, and to destroy the Royalists. Nothing could have been more +congenial to his "Ironsides" (S445) than such a crusade. They +descended upon the unhappy island (1649), and wiped out the rebellion +in such a whirlwind of fire and slaughter that the horror of the +visitation has never been forgotten. To this day the direst +imprecation a southern Irishman can utter is, "The curse of Cromwell +on ye!"[3] + +[3] At Drogheda and Wexford, Cromwell, acting in accordance with the +laws of war of that day, massacred the garrisons that refused to +surrender. + +Several years later (1653-1654), Cromwell determined to put in +practice a still more drastic policy. He resolved to repeople a very +large section of southern Ireland by driving out the Roman Catholic +inhabitants and giving their lands to English and Scotch Protestants. +It seemed to him the only effectual way of overcoming the resistance +which that island made to English rule. By the use of military power, +backed up by an Act of Parliament, his generals forced the people to +leave their houses and emigrate to the province of Connaught on the +west coast. Part of that district was so barren and desolate that it +was said, "it had not water enough to drown a man, trees enough to +hang him, or earth enough to bury him." Thousands were compelled to +go into this dreary exile, and hundreds of families who refused were +shipped to the West Indies and sold to the planters as slaves for a +term of years,--a thing often done in that day with prisoners of war. + +In Scotland also Prince Charles was looked upon as the legitimate +sovereign by a strong and influential party. He found in the brave +Montrose,[1] who was hanged for treason at Edinburgh, and in other +loyal supporters far better friends than he deserved. The Prince came +to Scotland (1650); while there, he was crowned and took the oath of +the Covenant (S438). It must have been a bitter pill for a man of his +free and easy temperament. But worse was to come, for the Scottish +Puritans made him sign a paper declaring that his father had been a +tyrant and that his mother was an idolater. No wonder the caricatures +of the day represented the Scots as holding the Prince's nose to a +grindstone. Later, Prince Charles rallied a small force to fight for +him, but it was utterly defeated at Dunbar (1650). + +[1] See "The Execution of Montrose," in Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish +Cavaliers." Prince Charles basely abandoned Montrose to his fate. + +Twelve months afterward, on the anniversary of his defeat at Dunbar, +the Prince made a second attempt to obtain the crown. At the battle +of Worcester Cromwell again routed his forces and brought the war to +an end. Charles escaped in Shropshire, where he hid for a day in an +oak at Boscobel. After many narrow escapes he at length succeeded in +getting out of the country. + +454. Cromwell expels Parliament. + +Cromwell now urged the necessity of dissolving the "Rump Parliament" +(S450) and of electing a Parliament which should really represent the +nation, reform the laws, and pass a general act of pardon. In his +despatch to the House of Commons after the victory of Worcester, he +called the battle a "crowning mercy." Some of the republicans in that +body took alarm at this phrase, and thought that Cromwell used it to +foreshadow a design to place the crown on his own head. For this +reason, perhaps, they hesitated to dissolve. + +But at last they could not withstand the pressure, and a bill was +introduced (1653) for summoning a new Parliament of four hundred +members, but with the provision that all members of the present House +were to keep their seats, and have the right to reject newly elected +members. + +Cromwell, with the army, believed this provision a trick on the part +of the "Rump" (S450) to keep themselves in perpetual power. + +Sir Harry Vane, who was a leading member of the House of Commons, and +who had been governor of the colony of Massachusetts, feared that the +country was in danger of falling into the hands of Cromwell as +military dictator. He therefore urged the immediate passage of the +bill as it stood. Cromwell heard that a vote was about to be taken. +Putting himself at the head of a squad of soldiers, he suddenly +entered the House (1653). After listening to the debate for some +time, he rose from his seat and charged the Commons with injustice and +misgovernment. A member remonstrated. Cromwell grew excited, saying: +"You are no Parliament! I say you are no Parliament!" Then he called +in the musketeers. They dragged the Speaker from his chair, and drove +the members after him. + +As they passed out, Cromwell shouted "drunkard," "glutton," +"extortioner," with other opprobrious names. When all were gone, he +locked the door and put the key in his pocket. During the night some +Royalist wag nailed a placard on the door, bearing the inscription in +large letters, "The House to let, unfurnished!" + +455. Cromwell becomes Protector; the "Instrument of Government" +(1653). + +Cromwell summoned a new Parliament, which was practically of his own +choosing. It consisted of one hundred and thirty-nine members, and +was known as the "Little Parliament."[1] The Royalists nicknamed it +"Barebone's Parliament" from one of its members, a London leather +dealer named Praise-God Barebone. Notwithstanding the irregularity of +its organization and the ridicule cast upon it, the "Barebone's +Parliament" proposed several reforms of great value, which the country +afterwards adopted. + +[1] A regularly summoned Parliament, elected by the people, would have +been much larger. This one was chosen from a list furnished by the +ministers of the various Independent churches (S422). It was in no +true sense a representative body. + +A council of Cromwell's leading men now secured the adoption of a +constitution entitled the "Instrument of Government."[1] It made +Cromwell Lord Protector of England, Ireland, and Scotland. + +[1] "Instrument of Government": The principal provisions of this +constitution were: (1) the government was vested in the Protector and +a council appointed for life; (2) Parliament, consisting of the House +of Commons only, was to be summoned every three years, and not to be +dissolved under five months; (3) a standing army of thirty thousand +was to be maintained; (4) all taxes were to be levied by Parliament; +(5) the system of representation was reformed, so that many large +places hitherto without representation in Parliament now obtained it; +(6) all Roman Catholics, and those concerned in the Irish rebellion, +were disfranchised forever. + +Up to this time the Commonwealth had been a republic, nominally under +the control of the House of Commons, but as a matter of facct governed +by Cromwell and the army. Now it became a republic under a Protector, +or President, whowas to hold his office for life. + +A few years later (1657), Parliament offered the title of King to +Cromwell, and with it a new constitution called the "Humble Petition +and Advice." The new constitution provided that Parliament should +consist of two houses, since the majority of influential men felt the +need of the restoration of the Lords (S450). For, said a member of +"Barebone's Parliament," "the nation has been hopping on one leg" +altogether too long. Cromwell had the same feeling, and endeavored to +put an end to the "hopping" by trying to restore the House of Lords, +but he could not get the Peers to meet. He accepted the new +constitution, but the army objected to his wearing the crown, so he +simply remained Lord Protector. + +456. Emigration of Royalists to America. + +Under the tyranny of the Stuart Kings, John Winthrop and many other +noted Puritans had emigrated to Massachusetts and other parts of New +England. During the Commonwealth the case was reversed, and numbers +of Royalists fled to Virginia. Among them were John Washington, the +great-grandfather of George Washington, and the ancestors of +Jefferson, Patrick Henry, the Lees, Randolphs, and other prominent +families, destined in time to take part in founding a republic in the +New World much more democractic than anything the Old World had ever +seen. + +457. Cromwell as a Ruler; Puritan Fanaticism. + +When Cromwell's new Parliament (S455) ventured to criticize his +course, he dissolved it (1654) quite as peremptorily as the late King +had done (S431). Soon afterwards, fear of a Royalist rebellion led +him to divide the country into eleven military districts (1655), each +governed by a major general, who ruled by martial law and with +despotic power. All Royalist families were heavily taxed to support +Cromwell's standing army, all Catholic priests wre banished, and no +books or papers could be published without permission of the +government. + +Cromwell, however, though compelled to resort to severe measures to +secure peace, was, in spirit, no oppressor. On the contrary, he +proved himself the Protector not only of the realm but of the +Protestants of Europe. When they were threatened with persecution, +his influence saved them. He showed, too, that in an age of bigotry +he was no bigot. Puritan fanaticism, exasperated by the persecution +it had endured under James and Charles, often went to the utmost +extremes, even as "Hudibras"[1] said, to "killing of a cat on Monday +for catching of a rat on Sunday." + +[1] "Hudibras": a burlesque poem by Samuel Butler (1663). It +satirized the leading persons and parties of the Commonwealth, but +especially the Puritans. + +It treated the most innocent customs, if they were in any way +associated with Catholicism or Episcopacy, as serious offenses. It +closed all places of amusement; it condemned mirth as ungodly; it made +it a sin to dance round a Maypole, or to eat mince pie at Christmas. +Fox-hunting and horse-racing were forbidden, and bear-baiting +prohibited, "not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave +pleasure to the spectators." + +In such an age, when a man could hardly claim to be religious unless +he wore sad-colored raiment, talked through his nose, and quoted +Scripture with great frequency, Cromwell showed exceptional moderation +and good sense. + +458. Cromwell's Religious Toleration. + +He favored the toleration of all forms of worship not directly opposed +to the government as then constituted. He befriended the Quakers, who +were looked upon as the enemies of every form of worship, and who were +treated with cruel severity both in England and America. He was +instrumental in sending the first Protestant missionaries to +Massachusetts to convert the Indiands, then supposed by many to be a +remnant of the lost tribes of Israel; and after an exclusion of many +centuries (S222), he permitted the Jews to return to England, and even +to build a synagogue in London. + +On the other hand, there are few of the cathedral or parish churches +of England which do not continue to testify to the Puritan army's +destructive hatred of everything savoring of the rule of either Pope +or bishop.[1] The empty niches, where some gracious image of the +Virgin or the figure of some saint once looked down; the patched +remnants of brilliant stained glass, once part of a picture telling +some Scripture story; the mutilated statues of noted men; the tombs, +hacked and hewed by pike and sword, because they bore some emblem or +expression of the old faith,--all these still bear witness to the fury +of the Puritan soldiers, who did not respect even the graves of their +ancestors, if those ancestors had once thought differently from +themselves. + +[1] But part of this destruction occurred under Henry VIII and Edward +VI (SS352, 364) + +459. Victories by Land and Sea; the Navigation Act (1651). + +Yet during Cromwell's rule the country, notwithstanding all the +restrictions imposed by a stern military government, grew and +prospered. The English forces gained victories by land and sea, and +made the name of the Protector respected as that of Charles I had +never been. + +At this period the carrying trade of the world, by sea, had fallen +into the hands of the Dutch, and Amsterdam had become a more important +center of exchange than London. The Commonwealth passed a measure +called the "Navigation Act"[2] (1651) to encourage British commerce. +It prohibited the importation or exportation of any goods into England +or its colonies in Dutch or other foreign vessels. + +[2] The Navigation Act was renewed later. Though aimed at the Dutch, +this measure damaged the export trade of the American colonies for a +time. + +Later, war with the Dutch broke out partly on account of questions of +trade, and partly because Royalist plotters found protection in +Holland. Then Cromwell created such a navy as the country had never +before possessed. Under the command of Admiral Blake, "the sea king," +and Admiral Monk, the Dutch were finally beaten so thoroughly (1653) +that they bound themselves to ever after salute the English flag +wherever they should meet it on the seas. A war undertaken in +alliance with France against Spain was equally successful. Jamaica +was taken as a permanent possession by the British fleet, and France, +in return for Cromwell's assistance, reluctantly gave the town of +Dunkirk to England (1658), and the flag of the English Commonwealth +was planted on the French coast. But a few years later (1662), the +selfish and profligate Charles II sold Dunkirk back to Louis XIV in +order to get money to waste on his pleasures. + +460. Cromwell's Death; his Character (1658). + +After being King in everything but name for five years, Cromwell died +(September 3, 1658) on the anniversary of the victories of Dunbar and +Worcester (S453). During the latter part of his career he had lived +in constant dread of assassination, and wore concealed armor. At the +hour of his death one of the most fearful storms was raging hat had +ever swept over England. To many it seemed a fit accompaniment to the +close of such a life. + +In one sense, Cromwell was a usurper and a tyrant; but, at heart, his +object was his country's welfare. In such cases the motive is all in +all. He was a lonely man of rough exterior and hard manner.[1] He +cared little for the smooth proprieties of life, yet he had that +dignity of bearing which high moral purpose gives. In all that he did +he was eminently practical. In an age of isms, theories, and +experiments, he was never confused and never faltered in his course. +To-day a colossal bronze statue of the great soldier and ruler stands +in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament, where the English people, +more than two hundred and forty years after his burial, voted to erect +it. + +[1] Cromwell was always a lonely man, and had so few real friends that +Walter Scott may have expressed his true feeling when he makes him say +in his novel of "Woodstock": "I would _I_ had any creature, were it +but a dog, that followed me because it loved me, not for what it could +make of me." + +461. The Times needed Such a Man. + +There are emergencies when an ounce of decision is worth a pound of +deliberation. When the ship is foundering or on fire, or when the +crew have mutinied, it will not avail to sit in the cabin and discuss +how it happened. Something must be done, and that promptly. Cromwell +was the man for such a juncture. He saw clearly that if the country +was to be kept together, it must be by decided measures, which no +precedent, law, or constitution justified, but which stood justified +none the less by exigencies of the crisis, by his own conscious +rectitude of purpose, and by the result. + +If there is any truth in Napoleon's maxim, that "The tools belong to +him that can use them," then Cromwell had a God-given right to rule; +for, first, he had the ability; and, next, though he used his power in +his campaign in Ireland (S453) with merciless severity, yet the great +purpose of his life was to establish order and justice on what seemed +to him the only practical basis. + +462. Summary. + +Cromwell's original object appears to have been to organize a +government representing the will of the nation more completely than it +had ever been represented before. He strongly favored the restoration +of the House of Lords, he endeavored to reform the laws, and he sought +to secure religious toleration for the great body of Protestants. One +who knew Cromwell intimately said, "A larger soul, I think, hath +seldom dwelt in a house of clay, than his was." + +Circumstances, however, were often against him; he had many enemies, +and in order to secure peace he was obliged to resort to the exercise +of absolute power. Yet the difference in this respect between +Cromwell and Charles I was immense: the latter was despotic on his own +account, the former for the advantage of those he governed. + +RICHARD CROMWELL--September 3, 1658-April 22, 1659 + +463. Richard Cromwell's Incompetency. + +Richard Cromwell, Oliver's eldest son, now succeeded to the +Protectorate (S455). He was an amiable individual, as negative in +character as his father had been positive. With the extreme Puritans +(S457), known as the "godly party," he had no sympathy whatever. +"Here," said he to one of them, pointing to a friend of his who stood +by, "is a man who can neither preach nor pray, yet I would trust him +before you all." Such frankness was not likely to make the new ruler +popular with the army, made up of men who never lacked a Scripture +text to justify either a murder or a massacre. Moreover, the times +were perilous, and called for a decided hand at the helm. After a +brief reign of less than eight months the military leaders requested +Richard to resign, and soon afterwards recalled the "Rump Parliament" +(S447). + +464. Richard retires. + +The Protector retired not only without remonstrance, but apparently +with a sense of relief at being so soon eased of a burden too heavy +for his weak shoulders to carry. To the people he was hereafter +familiarly known as "Tumbledown-Dick," and was caricatured as such on +tavern signboards. + +The nation pensioned him off with a moderate allowance, and he lived +in obscurity to an advanced age, carrying about with him to the last a +trunk filled with the congratulatory addresses and oaths of allegiance +which he had received when he became Protector. + +Years after his abdication it is reported that he visited Westminster, +and when the attendant, who did not recognize him, showed him the +throne, he said, "Yes; I have not seen that chair since I sat in it +myself in 1659." + +465. The "Convention Parliament." + +The year following Richard Cromwell's withdrawal was full of anxiety +and confusion. The army of the Commonwealth had turned Parliament out +of doors (1659). There was no longer any regularly organized +government, and the country drifted helplessly like a ship without a +pilot. + +General Monk, then commander in chief in Scotland, now marched into +England (1660) with the determination of calling a new Parliament, +which should be full, free, and representative of the real political +feeling of the nation. When he reached London with his army, the +members of the "Rump Parliament" (S447) had resumed their sessions. + +At Monk's invitation the Presbyterian members, whom Colonel Pride had +driven from their seats eleven years before (S447), now went back. +This assembly issued writs for the summoning of a "Convention +Parliament" (so styled because called without royal authority), and +then dissolved by their own consent. Thus ended that memorable "Long +Parliament" (S439), which had existed nearly twenty years. About a +month later the Convention, including ten members of the House of +Lords, met, and at once invited Charles Stuart, then in Holland, to +return to his kingdom. He had made certain promises, called the +"Declaration of Breda,"[1] which were intended to smooth the way for +his return. + +[1] The Declaration of Breda, made by Charles in Holland (1660) +promised: (1) free pardon to all those not excepted by Parliament; (2) +liberty of conscience to all whose views did not disturb the peace of +the realm; (3) the settlement by Parliament of all claims to landed +property; (4) the payment of arrears to Monk's army. + +466. Summary. + +Richard Cromwell's government existed in name only, never in fact. +During his so-called Protectorate the country was under the control of +the army of the Commonwealth or of that "Rump Parliament" which +represented nothing but itself. + +The period which elapsed after Oliver Cromwell's death was one of +waiting and preparation. It ended in the meeting of the free national +Parliament, which put an end to the republic, and restored royalty in +the person of Charles II. + +CHARLES II--1660-1685 + +467. The Restoration of Monarchy; Accession of Charles; a New Standing +Army, 1660. + +The English army heard that Charles was coming, with sullen silence; +the ex-members of the "Rump Parliament" (S465), with sullen dread; the +rest of the nation, with a feeling of relief. However much they had +hated the despotism of the two Stuart Kings, James I and Charles I, +four fifths of the people stood ready to welcome any change which +promised to do away with a government maintained by bayonets. + +Charles II was received at Dover with the wildest demonstrations of +joy. Bells pealed, flags waved, bonfires blazed all the way to +London, and the King said, with characteristic irony, "It must have +been my own fault that I did not come before, for I find no one but +declares that he is glad to see me." + +The existence of the late Republic and the Protectorate (SS450, 455) +was as far as possible ignored. The House of Lords was restored +(SS450, 455). The new reign was dated, not when it actually began, +but from the day of Charles I's execution twelve years before. The +troops of the Commonwealth were speedily disbanded, but the King +retained a picked guard of five thousand men, which became the nucleus +of a new standing army. + +468. The King's Character. + +The sovereign who now ascended the throne was in every respect the +opposite of Cromwell. Charles II had no love of country, no sense of +duty, no belief in man, no respect for woman. Evil circumstances and +evil companions had made him "a good-humored lad but hard-hearted +voluptuary." For twelve years he had been a wanderer, and at times +almost a beggar. Now the sole aim of his life was enjoyment. He +desired to be King because he would then be able to accomplish that +aim. + +469. Reaction from Puritanism. + +In this purpose Charles had the sympathy of a considerable part of the +people. The Puritan faith (S378), represented by such men as Hampden +(S436) and Milton (S450), was noble indeed; but unfortunately there +were many in its ranks who had no like grandeur of soul, but who +pushed Puritanism to its most injurious and offensive extreme. That +attempt to reduce the whole of life to a narrow system of sour +self-denial had at last broken down. + +Now, under the Restoration, the reaction set in, and the lower and +earthly side of human nature--none the less human because it is at the +bottom and not at the top--seemed determined to take its full +revenge. Butler ridiculed religious zeal in his poem of "Hudibras" +(S457), which ever courtier had by heart. Society was smitten with an +epidemic of immorality. Profligacy became the fashion in both speech +and action, and much of the popular literature of that day will not +bear the light. + +470. The Royal Favorites. + +The King surrounded himself with men like himself. This merry gang of +revelers vied with each other in dissipation and in jests on each +other. Charles's two chief favorites were the Earl of Rochester, a +gifted but ribald poet, and Lord Shaftesbury, who became Lord +Chancellor. Both have left on record their estimate of their royal +master. The first wrote on the door of the King's bedchamber: + + "Here lies our sovereign lord, the King, + Whose word no man relies on; + He never says a foolish thing, + Nor ever does a wise one." + +To which Charles, on reading it, retorted, "'Tis true! because while +my words are my own, my acts are my ministers'." + +A bright repartee tells us what the second favorite thought. "Ah! +Shaftesbury," said the King to him one day, "I verily believe you are +the wickedest dog in my dominions." "Yes, your Majesty," replied +Shaftesbury, "for a SUBJECT I think perhaps I may be." + +471. The Clarendon Ministry; Punishment of the Regicides. + +From a political point of view, the new reign began decently and ably +under the direction of the Earl of Clarendon as leading minister or +adviser to the King. The first act of Charles's first Parliament was +to proclaim a pardon to all who had fought against his father in the +civil war. The only persons excepted wre the members of that high +court of justice (S448) which had sent Charles I to the block. Of +these, ten were executed and nineteen imprisoned for life. Most of +the other regicide judges were either already out of the country or +managed to escape soon after. + +Among these, William Goffe, Edward Whalley, and Colonel John Dixwell +took refuge in Connecticut, where they remained concealed for several +years. Eventually the first two went to Hadley, Massachusetts, where +they lived in seclusion in the house of a clergyman until their death. + +The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Pride, all of +whom had served as judges in the trial and condemnation of Charles +(S448), were dug up from their graves in Westminster Abbey and hanged +in chains at Tyburn.[1] They were then buried at the foot of the +gallows along with he moldering remains of highway robbers and +criminals of the lowest sort, but Cromwell's head was cut off and set +up on a pinnacle of Westminster Hall.[2] + +[1] Tyburn: near the northeast entrance to Hyde Park, London. It was +for several centuries the chief place for the public execution of +felons. +[2] It has since been questioned whether Cromwell's body was disposed +of in this manner or whether another body, supposed at that time to be +his, was dealt with as here described. See the "Dictionary of +National (British) Biography," under "Oliver Cromwell." + +472. Religious Persecution; Covenanters; Bunyan. + +The first Parliament that met (1661) commanded the common hangman to +publicly burn the Solemn League and Covenant (S444); it restored the +Episcopal form of worship and enacted four very severe laws, called +the "Clarendon Code," against those Nonconformists or Dissenters who +had ejected the Episcopal clergy (S444).[1] + +[1] The chief Nonconformists then were: (1) the Presbyterians; (2) the +Independents, or Congregationalists; (3) the Baptists; (4) the Society +of Friends, or Quakers. Originally the name "Nonconformist" was given +to those who refused to conform to the worship of the Church of +England, and who attempted to change it to suit their views or else +set up their own form of faith as an independent church. The name +"Nonconformist" (or Dissenter) now applies to any Protestant outside +the Established Church of England (SS496, 498). + +The first of these new laws was entitled the "Corporation Act" +(1661). It ordered all holders of municipal offices to renounce the +Covenant[2] which had been put in force in 1647, and to take the +sacrament of the Church of England. Next, a new Act of Uniformity +(1662) (S382) enforced the use of the Episcopal Prayer Book upon all +clergymen and congregations. This was followed by the Conventicle +Act[3] (1664), which forbade the meeting of any religious assemblies +except such as worshiped according to the Established Church of +England. Lastly, the Five-Mile Act (1665) forbade all dissenting +ministers to teach in schools, or to settle within five miles of an +incorporated town. + +[2] Covenant: the oath or agreement to maintain the Presbyterian faith +and worship. It originated in Scotland (S438). +[3] See, too, on these acts, the Summary of Constitutional History in +the Appendix, p. xix, S20. + +The second of these stringent retaliatory statutes, the Act of +Uniformity, drove two thousand Presbyterian ministers from their +parishes in a single day, and reduced them to the direst distress. +The able-bodied among them might indeed pick up a precarious +livelihood by hard labor, but the old and the weak soon found their +refuge in the grave. + +Those who dared to resist these intolerant and inhuman laws were +punished with fines, imprisonment, or slavery. The Scottish +Parliament abolished Presbyterianism and restored Episcopacy. It vied +with the Cavalier or King's party in England in persecution of the +Dissenters,[4] and especially of the Covenanters (S438). + +[4] The Scottish Parliament granted what was called the "Indulgence" +to Presbyterian ministers who held moderate views. The extreme +Covenanters regarded these "indulged Presbyterians" as deserters and +traitors who were both weak and wicked. For this reason they hated +them worse than they did the Episcopalians. See Burton's "Scotland," +VII, 457-468. + +Claverhouse, who figures as the "Bonny Dundee" of Sir Walter Scott, +hunted the Covenanters with bugle and bloodhound, like so many deer; +and his men hanged and drowned those who gathered secretly in glens +and caves to worship God.[1] The father of a family would be dragged +from his cottage by the soldiers, asked if he would take the test of +conformity to the Church of England and the oath of allegiance to King +Charles II; if he refused, the officer in command gave the order, +"Make ready--take aim--fire!"--and there lay the corpse of the rebel. + +[1] See the historical poem of the "Maiden Martyr of Scotland," in the +collection of "Heroic Ballads," Ginn and Company. + +Among the multitudes who suffered in England for religion's sake was a +poor tinker and day laborer named John Bunyan. He had served against +the King in the civil wars, and later had become converted to +Puritanism, and turned exhorter and itinerant preacher. He was +arrested, while preaching in a farmhouse, and convicted of having +"devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church." + +The judge sentenced him to the Bedford county jail, where he remained +a prisoner for twelve years (1660-1672). Later on, he was again +arrested (1675) and sent to the town jail on Bedford Bridge. It was, +he says, a squalid "Denn."[2] But in his marvelous dream of "A +Pilgrimage from this World to the Next," which he wrote while shut up +within the narrow limits of that filthy prison house, he forgot the +misery of his surroundings. Like Milton in his blindness, loneliness, +and poverty, he looked within and found that + + "The mind is its own place, and in itself + Can make a heaven of hell."[3] + +[2] "As I walk'd through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a +certain place where there was a Denn, and I laid me down in that place +to sleep: and as I slept I dreamed a dream."--"The Pilgrim's +Progress," 1678. +[3] "Paradise Lost," Book I, 253. + +473. Seizure of a Dutch Colony in America (1664). + +While these things were going on in England, a strange event took +place abroad. The Dutch had established a colony on the Hudson River. +It was on territory which the English claimed (S335), but which they +had never explored or settled. The Dutch had built a town at the +mouth of the Hudson, which they called New Amsterdam. They held the +place undisturbed for fifty years, and if "Possession is nine points +of the law," they seem to have acquired it. Furthermore, during the +period of Cromwell's Protectorate (S455), England had made a treaty +with Holland and had recognized the claims of the Dutch in the New +World. + +Charles had found shelter and generous treatment in Holland when he +needed it most. But he now cooly repudiated the treaty, and, though +the two nations were at peace, he treacherously sent out a secret +expedition to capture the Dutch colony for his brother James, Duke of +York, to whom he had granted it. + +One day a small English fleet suddenly appeared (1664) in the harbor +of the Dutch town, and demanded its immediate and unconditional +surrender. The governor was unprepared to make any defense, and the +place was given up. Thus, without so much as the firing of a gun, New +Amsterdam got the name of New York in honor of the man who had now +become its owner. The acquisition of this territory, which had +separated the northern English colonies from the southern, gave +England complete control of the Atlantic coast from Maine to northern +Florida. + +474. The Plague and the Fire, 1665, 1666. + +The next year a terrible outbreak of the plague occurred in London, +1665, which spread throughout the kingdom (S244). All who could, fled +from the city. Hundreds of houses were left vacant, while on hundreds +more a cross marked on the doors in red chalk, with the words "Lord +have mercy on us," written underneath, told where the work of death +was going on.[1] + +[1] Pepys writes in his "Diary," describing the beginning of the +plague: "The 7th of June, 1665, was the hottest day I ever felt in my +life. This day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or +three houses with a red cross upon the door, and `Lord have mercy upon +us' writ there, which was a sad sight."--Pepys, "Diary," 1660-1669. +Defoe wrote a journal of the plague in 1722, based, probably, on the +reports of eyewitnesses. It gives a vivid and truthful account of its +horrors. + +The pestilence swept off over a hundred thousand victims within six +months. Among the few brave men who voluntarily remained in the +stricken city were the Puritan ministers, who stayed to comfort and +console the sick and dying. After the plague was over, they received +their reward through the enforcement of those acts of persecution +which drove them homeless and helpless from their parishes and friends +(S472). + +The dead cart had hardly ceased to go its rounds, when a fire broke +out, 1666, of which Evelyn, a courtier who witnessed it, wrote that it +"was not to be outdone until the final conflagration of the world."[1] +By it the city of London proper was reduced to ruins, little more +being left than a fringe of houses on the northeast. + +[1] Evelyn's "Diary," 1641-1705; also compare Dryden's poem "Annus +Mirabilis." + +Great as the calamity was, yet from a sanitary point of view it did +immense good. Nothing short of fire could have effectually cleansed +the London of that day, and so put a stop to the periodical ravages of +the plague. By sweeping away miles of narrow streets crowded with +miserable buildings black with the encrusted filth of ages, the +conflagration in the end proved friendly to health and life. + +A monument near London Bridge still marks the spot where the flames +first burst out. For many years it bore an inscription affirming that +the Catholics kindled them in order to be revenged on their +persecutors. The poet Pope, at a later period, exposed the falsehood +in the lines: + + "Where London's column pointing toward the skies + Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies."[2] + +[2] "Moral Essays," Epistle III. + +Sir Christopher Wren, the most famous architect of the period, rebuilt +the city. The greater part of it had been of wood, but it rose from +the ashes brick and stone. One irreparable loss was the old Gothic +church of St. Paul. Wren erected the present cathedral on the +foundations of the ancient structure. On a tablet near the tomb of +the great master builder one reads the inscription in Latin, "Reader, +if you seek his monument, look around."[1] + +[1] "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice." + +475. Invasion by the Dutch (1667). + +The new city had not risen from the ruins of the old, when a third +calamity overtook it. Charles was at war with France and Holland. +The contest with the latter nation grew out of the rivalry of the +English and the Dutch to get the exclusive possession of foreign trade +(S459). Parliament granted the King large sums of money to build and +equip a navy, but the pleasure-loving monarch wasted it in +dissipation. The few ships he had were rotten old hulks, but half +provisioned, with crews ready to mutiny because they could not get +their pay. + +A Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames. It was manned in part by English +sailors who had deserted in disgust because when they asked for cash +to support their families they got only worthless government tickets. +There was no force to oppose them. They burned some half-built +men-of-war, blockaded London for several weeks, and then made their +own terms of peace. + +476. The "Cabal" (1667-1673); Treaty of Dover, 1670; the King robs the +Exchequer (1672). + +Shortly after this humiliating event the enemies of Clarendon drove +him from office (S471). The fallen minister was accused of high +treason. He had been guilty of certain arbitrary acts, and, rather +than stand trial, he fled to France, and was banished for life. He +sent a humble petition to the Lords, but they promptly ordered the +hangman to burn it. Six years later the old man begged piteously that +he might "come back and die in his own coutnry and among his own +children." Charles refused to let him return, for Clarendon had +committed the unpardonable offense of daring to look "sourly" at the +vices of the King and his shameless companions flushed "with insolence +and wine." Charles now formed a new ministry or "Cabal,"[1] +consisting of five of his most intimate friends. Several of its +members were notorious for their depravity, and Macaulay calls it the +"most profligate administration ever known."[2] The chief object of +its leaders was to serve their own private interests by making the +King's power supreme. The "Cabal's" true spirit was not unlike that +of the council of the "infernal peers" which Milton portrays in +"Paradise Lost," first published at that time. There he shows us the +five princes of evil, Moloch, Belial, Mammon, Beelzebub, and Satan, +meeting in the palace of Pandemonium to plot the ruin of the world.[3] +he chief ambition of Charles was to rule without a Parliament; he did +not like to have that body inquire too closely how he spent the money +which the taxpayers granted him. But his lavish outlays on his +favorites made it more and more difficult for him to avoid summoning a +Parliament in order to get supplies of cash. At length he hit on a +plan for securing the funds he wanted without begging help from +Parliament. + +[1] This word was originally used to designate the confidential +members of the King's private council, and meant perhaps no more than +the word "cabinet" does to-day. In 1667 it happened, however, by a +singular coincidence, that the initial letters of the five persons +comprising it, namely, (C)lifford, (A)shley-Cooper [Lord Shaftesbury], +(B)uckingham, (A)rlington, and (L)auderdale, formed the word "CABAL," +which henceforth came to have the odious meaning of secret and +unscrupulous intrigue that it has ever since retained. It was to +Charles II's time what the political "ring" is to our own. +[2] Macaulay's "Essay on Sir William Temple." +[3] Milton's "Paradise Lost," Book II. The first edition was +published in 1667, the year the "Cabal" came into power, though its +members had long been favorites with the King. It has been supposed +by some that the great Puritan poet had them in his mind when he +represented the Pandemonic debate. Shaftesbury and Buckingham are +also two of the most prominent characters in Dryden's noted political +satire of "Absalom and Achitophel," published in 1681; and compare +Butler's "Hudibras." + +Louis XIV of France, then the most powerful monarch in Europe, wished +to conquer Holland, with the double object of extending his own +kingdom and the power of Catholicism. He saw in Charles the tool he +wanted to gain this end. With the aid of two members of the "Cabal," +Charles negotiated the secret Treaty of Dover, 1670. Thereby Louis +bribed the English King with a gift of 300,000 pounds to help him +carry out his scheme. Thus, without the knowledge of Parliament, +Charles deliberately sold himself to the French sovereign, who was +plotting to destroy the political liberty and Protestant faith of +Holland. + +In addition to the above sum, it was furthermore agreed that Louis +should pay Charles a pension of 200,000 pounds a year from the date +when the latter should openly avow himself a Roman Catholic. Later +(1671), Charles made a sham treaty with Louis XIV in which the article +about his avowing himself a Catholic was omitted in order to deceive +Parliament.[1] + +[1] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xix, +S21. + +True to his infamous contract, Charles provoked a new war with the +Dutch, but found that he needed more money to prosecute it +successfully. Not knowing where to borrow, he determined to steal +it. Various London merchants, bankers, and also persons of moderate +means had lent to the government sums of money on promise of repayment +from the taxes. + +A part of the national revenue amounting to about 1,300,000 pounds, a +sum equal to at least $10,000,000 now, had been deposited in the +exchequer, or government treasury, to meet the obligation. The King +seized this money,[2] partly for his needs, but chiefly to squander on +his vices, and to satisfy the insatiate demands of his favorites,--of +whom a single one, the Duchess of Portsmouth, had spent 136,000 pounds +within the space of a twelvemonth! The King's treacherous act caused a +financial panic which shook London to its foundatyions and ruined +great numbers of people. + +[2] "`Rob me the Exchequer, Hal,' said the King to his favorite +minister in the `Cabal'; then `all went merry as a marriage +bell.'"--Evelyn's "Diary." + +477. More Money Schemes; Declaration of Indulgence; Test Act, 1673. + +By declaring war against Holland Charles had now fulfilled the first +part of his secret treaty with Louis (S476), but he was afraid to +undertake the second part and openly declare himself a convert to the +Church of Rome. He, however, did the next thing to it, by issuing a +cautiously worded Declaration of Indulgence, 1673, suspending all +penal laws affecting the religious liberty of Protestant Dissenters +(SS382, 472) and Roman Catholics. Under cover of this act the King +could show especial favor to the Catholics. Parliament issued such a +vigorous protest, however, that the King withdrew the Declaration. + +Parliament next passed the Test Act,[1] 1673, requiring every +government officer to acknowledge himself a Protestant according to +the rites of the Church of England. Charles became alarmed at this +decided stand, and now tried to conciliate Parliament, and coax from +it another grant of money by marrying his niece, the Princess Mary, to +William of Orange, President of the Dutch republic, and head of the +Protestant party on the Continent. + +[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xix, +S21. + +478. The So-Called "Popish Plot"; the Exclusion Bill, and Disabling +Act, 1678. + +While the King was playing this double part, a scoundrel, named Titus +Oates, whose hideous face was but the counterpart of a still more +hideous character, pretended that he had discovered a terrible plot. +He declared that the Catholics had formed a conspiracy to burn London, +massacre the inhabitants, kill the King, and restore the religion of +Rome. + +The news of this alleged discovery caused an excitement which soon +grew into a sort of popular madness. The memory of the great fire +(S474) was still fresh in people's minds. In their imagination they +now saw those scenes of horror repeated, with wholesale murder added. +Great numbers of innocent persons were thrown into prison, and many +executed. + +As time went on, the terror seemed to increase. With its increase, +Oates grew bolder in his accusations. Chief Justice Scroggs showed +himself an eager abettor of the miserable wretch who swore away men's +lives for the sake of the notoriety it gave him. In the extravagance +of his presumption Oates even dared to accuse the Queen of an attempt +to poison Charles. The craze, however, had at last begun to abate +somewhat, no action was taken, and in the next reign Oates got the +punishment he deserved--or at least a part of it (S485). + +An attempt was now made (1679) to pass a law called the "Exclusion +Bill," debarring Charles's brother James, the Catholic Duke of York, +from succeeding to the crown; but though voted by the Commons, it was +defeated by the Lords. Meanwhile a second measure, called the +"Disabling Act," had received the sanction of both Houses, 1678. It +declared Catholics incapable of sitting in either House of Parliament +(S382); and from this date they remained shut out from all legislative +power and from all civil and corporate offices until 1829, a period of +over a century and a half (S573). + +479. Rise of Permanent Political Parties, 1678; the King revokes City +Charters. + +It was about this time that the names "Whig" and "Tory" (changed after +1832 to Liberal and Conservative) (S582) began to be given to two +political parties, which soon became very powerful, and practically +have ever since divided the government of the country between them. + +The term "Whig" was originally given by way of reproach to the Scotch +Puritans, or Covenanters, who refused to accept the Episcopacy which +Charles I endeavored to impose upon them (S438). "Tory," on the other +hand, was a nickname which appears to have first been applied to the +Roman Catholic outlaws of Ireland, who were regarded by Elizabeth and +by Cromwell as both robbers and rebels (S453). + +The name of "Tory" was now given to those who supported the claims of +the King's brother James, the Roman Catholic Duke of York, as +successor to the throne; while that of "Whig" (or "Country Party") was +borne by those who were endeavoring to exclude him (S478), and secure +a Protestant successor.[1] + +[1] Politically, the Whigs and Tories may perhaps be considered as the +successors of the Roundheads and Cavaliers of the civil war, the +former seeking to limit the power of the Crown, the latter to extend +it. At the Restoration (1660), the Cavaliers were all-powerful; but +at the time of the dispute on the Exclusiiion Bill (1679), the +Roundhead, or People's party, had revived. On account of their +petitioning the King to summon a new Parliament, by means of which +they hoped to carry the bill shutting out the Catholic Duke of York +from the throne, they were called "Petitioners," and later, "Whigs"; +while those who expressed their abhorrence of their efforts were +called "Abhorrers," and afterwards, "Tories." The more radical Whigs +came to be known as the "Country Party," and at least one of their +most prominent leaders, Algernon Sidney, was in favor of restoring the +republican form of government in England. + +The excitement over this Exclusion Bill (S478) threatened at one +period to bring on another civil war. In his fury against the Whigs, +Charles revoked the charters of London and many other cities, which +were regranted only on terms agreeable to the Tories. An actual +outbreak against the government would probably have occurred had it +not been for the discovery of a new conspiracy, which resulted in a +reaction favorable to the Crown. + +480. The Rye-House Plot (1683). + +This conspiracy, known as the "Rye-House Plot," had for its object the +murder of Charles and his brother James at a place called the Rye +House in Hertfordshire, not far from London. It was concocted by a +number of violent Whigs, who, in their disappointment at their failure +to secure the passage of the Exclusion Bill (S478), took this method +of gaining their ends. + +It is said that they intended placing on the throne James, Duke of +Monmouth, a natural son of Charles, who was popularly known as the +"Protestant Duke." Algernon Sidney, Lord Russell, and the Earl of +Essex, who were prominent advocates of the Exclusion Bill (S478), were +arrested for participating in the plot. Essex committed suicide in +the Tower; Sidney and Russell were tried, convicted, and sentenced to +death on insufficient evidence. They died martyrs to the cause of +liberty,--Russell, with the fortitude of a Christian; Sidney, with the +calmness of a philosopher. The Duke of Monmouth, who was supposed to +be implicated in the plot, was banished to Holland (S486). + +481. The Royal Society (1662). + +Early in this reign the Royal Society was established for purposes of +scientific research. In an age when thousands of well-informed people +still cherished a lingering belief that lead might be changed into +gold; that some medicine might be discovered which would cure every +disease, (including old age, that worst disease of all); when every +cross-grained old woman was suspected of witchcraft, and was liable to +be tortured and hanged on that suspicion,--the formation of an +association to study the physical facts was most significant. + +It showed that the time had come when, instead of guessing what might +be, men were at last beginning to resolved to know what actually is. +In 1684 an English mathematician and philosopher demonstrated the +unity of the universe by proving that the same law which governs the +falling of an apple also governs the movements of the planets in their +orbits. He published his great work on this subject a few years +later. + +It was with reference to that wonderful discovery of the all-pervading +power of gravitation, which shapes and holds in its control the drop +of dew before our eyes, and the farthest star shining in the heavens, +that the poet Pope suggested the epitaph which should be graven on the +tomb of the great thinker in Westminster Abbey: + + "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; + God said, `Let Newton be!' and all was light." + +482. Chief Political Reforms; Abolition of Feudal Dues, 1660; the +Habeas Corpus Act, 1679. + +As the age did not stand still with respect to progress in knowledge, +so it was not wholly unsuccessful in political progress. A great +reform inaugurated in the outset of Charles's reign was the abolition, +1660, of the King's right to feudal dues and service, by which he was +accustomed to extort as much as possible from his subjects[1] (S150), +and the substitution of a fixed yearly allowance, raised by tax, of +1,200,000 pounds on beer and liquor.[2] This change may be considered +to have practically abolished the feudal system in England, so far as +the Crown is concerned, though the law still retains some remnants of +that system with respect to the relation of landlord and tenant.[3] + +[1] See Blackstone's "Commentaries," II, 76. +[2] This tax should have been levied on the landed proprietors who had +been subject to the feudal dues, but they managed to put it on beer +and spirits; this compelled the body of the people to bear the burden +for them. +[3] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xviii, +S20. + +The second great reform measure was the Habeas Corpus Act,[4] 1679, +which provided that no subject should be detained in prison except by +due process of law, thus putting an end to the arbitrary confinement +of men for months, and years even, without conviction of guilt or even +form of trial. + +[4] Habeas Corpus (1679) (you may have the body): This writ is +addressed by the judge to him who detains another in custody, +commanding him to bring him into court and show why he is restrained +of his liberty. The right of Habeas Corpus was contained in germ in +the Great Charter (S199, Article 2); and see Summary of Constitutional +History in the Appendix, p. xix, S21, and p. xxxii. + +483. Death of Charles. + +The reign came suddenly to an end (1685). Evelyn, one of the +courtiers of the day, tells us in his "Diary" that he was present at +the palace of Whitehall on Sunday morning, the last of January of that +year. There he saw the King sitting in the grand banqueting room, +chatting gayly with three famous court beauties,--his special +favorites,--while a crowd of richly dressed nobles were gathered +around a gambling table heaped with gold. Six days after, as he +expresses it, all was "in the dust." + +Charles died a Roman Catholic, his Catholic brother James (S478) +having quietly brought a priest into the King's chamber in time to +hear his confession and grant him absolution. Certainly few English +rulers ever stood in greater need of both. + +484. Summary + +The chief events of the period were the persecution of the Puritans, +the Plague and Great Fire of London, the Secret Treaty of Dover, the +Test Act, the Disabling Act, the so-called "Popish Plot," the +Rye-House Plot, the Dutch Wars, the Abolition of Feudal Dues, the +Habeas Corpus Act, the rise of permanent Political Parties, and +Newton's Discovery of the Law of Gravitation. Aside from these, the +reign presents two leading points: (1) the policy of the King; (2) +that of the nation. + +Charles II, as we have seen, lived solely to gratify his inordinate +love of pleasure. For that, he wasted the revenue, robbed the +exchequer, and cheated the navy; for that, he secretly sold himself to +France, made war on Holland, and shamefully deceived both Parliament +and people. + +In so far, then, as Charles II had an object, it began and ended with +himself. Therein he stood lower than his father, who at least +conscientiously believed in the Divine Right of Kings (S429) and their +accountability to the Almighty. + +The policy of the nation, on the other hand, was divided. The Whigs +were determined to limit the power of the Crown, and secure at all +hazards a Protestant successor to the throne. The Tories were equally +resolved to check the growing power of the people, and preserve the +hereditary order of succession (then in the Stuart family) without any +immediate regard to the religious question involved in the Exclusion +Bill (S478). + +Beneath these issues both parties had a common object, which was to +maintain the National Episcopal Church and the monarchical system of +government. Whigs and Tories alike detested the principles of the +late Commonwealth period. They preferred to cherish patriotism +through loyalty to a personal sovereign rather than patriotism through +devotion to a democratic republic. + +James II--1685-1689 + +485. James II; his Proclamation; his Two Objects; Titus Oates again. + +James, Duke of York, brother of the late Charles II, now came to the +throne. He at once issued a Proclamation pledging himself to +"preserve the government in both Church and State as it is now by law +established." This solemn declaration was welcomed as "the word of a +king," but unfortunately that king did not keep his word. His first +great ambition was to rule independently of Parliament, so that he +might have his own way in everything; his second, which was, if +possible, still nearer his heart, was to restore the Roman Catholic +religion in England (SS370, 382, 477). + +He began that restoration at once; and on the Easter Sunday preceding +his coronation, "the worship of the Church of Rome was once more, +after an interval of a hundred and twenty-seven years, performed at +Westminster with royal splendor."[1] + +[1] Macaulay's "England." + +Not long afterwards James brought the miscreant Oates to trial for the +perjuries he had committed in connection with the so-called "Popish +Plot" (S478). He was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for +life; in addition he was publicly whipped through London with such +terrible severity that a few more strokes of the lash would have ended +his worthless life (1685). But in the next reign Oates was liberated +and a pension was granted him. + +486. Monmouth's Rebellion; Sedgemoor, 1685. + +At the time of the discovery of the Rye-House Plot (S480) a number of +Whigs (S479) who were implicated in the conspiracy fled to Holland, +where the Duke of Monmouth had gone when banished. Four months after +the accession of James, the Duke, aided by these refugees and by a +small force which he had gathered in the Netherlands, resolved to +invade England and demand the crown. He believed that a large part of +the nation would look upon him as representing the cause of +Protestantism, and would therefore rally to his support. He landed at +Lyme on the coast of Dorsetshire (1685), and there issued an absurd +proclamation declaring James to be a usurper, tyrant, and murderer, +who had set the great fire of London (S474), cut the throat of Essex +(S480), and poisoned Charles II! + +At Taunton, in Somersetshire, a procession of welcome, headed by a +lady carrying a Bible, met the Duke, and presented him with the book +in behalf of the Protestant faith. He received it, saying, "I come to +defend the truths contained in this volume, and to seal them, if it +must be so, with my blood." Shortly afterwards he proclaimed himself +sovereign of Great Britain. He was popularly known as "King +Monmouth." Many of the country people now joined him, but the Whig +nobles (S479), on whose help he had counted, stood aloof, alienated +doubtless by the ridiculous charges he had made against James. + +At the battle of Sedgemoor, in Somersetshire (1685), "King Monmouth," +with his hastily gathered forces, was utterly routed. He himself was +soon afterwards captured, hiding in a ditch. He desired to be taken +to the King. His request was granted. When he entered his uncle's +presence, he threw himself down and crawled to his feet, weeping and +begging piteously for life--only life--on any terms, however hard. + +He denied that he had issued the lying proclamation published at Lyme; +he denied that he had sought the crown of his own free will; finally, +in an agony of supplication, he hinted that he would even renounce +Protestantism if thereby he might escape death. James told him that +he should have the service of a Catholic priest, but would promise +nothing more. Monmouth groveled and pleaded, but the King's heart was +like marble, and he turned away in silence. Then the Duke, seeing +that all his efforts were vain, rose to his feet and regained his +manhood. + +He was forthwith sent to the Tower, and shortly afterwards to +execution. His headless body was buried under the communion table of +that little chapel of St. Peter within the Tower grounds, where the +remains of Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, Sir Thomas More, and many +other royal victimsf, are gathered. No sadder spot exists on earth, +"since there death is associated with whatever is darkest in human +nature and human destiny."[1] + +[1] Macaulay's "England." + +After Monmouth's death there were no further attempts at insurrection, +and the struggle at Sedgemoor remains the last encounter worthy of the +name of battle fought on English soil. + +487. The "Bloody Assizes" (1685). + +The defeat of the insurgents who had rallied under Monmouth's flag was +followed by a series of trials known, from their results, as the +"Bloody Assizes" (1685). They were conducted by Judge Jeffreys, +assisted by a band of soldiers under Colonel Kirke, ironically called, +from their ferocity, "Kirke's Lambs." Jeffreys was by nature cruel, +and enjoyed the spectacle of mental as well as bodily anguish. As he +himself said, he delighted to give those who had the misfortune to +appear before him "a lick with the rough side of his tongue," +preparatory to roaring out the sentence of torture or death, in which +he delighted still more. + +All who were in the remotest way implicated in the late rebellion were +now hunted down and brought to a trial which was but a mockery of +justice. No one was permitted to defend himself. In fact, defense +would have been useless against the blind fury of such a judge. The +threshold of the court was to most that crossed it the threshold of +the grave. A gentleman present at one of these scenes of slaughter, +touched with pity at the condition of a trembling old man called up +for sentence, ventured to put in a word in his behalf. "My Lord," +said he to Jeffreys, "this poor creature is dependent on the parish." +"Don't trouble yourself," cried the judge; "I will soon ease the +parish of the burden," and ordered the officers to execute him at +once. + +Those who escaped death were often still more to be pitied. A young +man was sentenced to be imprisoned for seven years, and to be whipped +once a year through every market town in the county. In his despair, +he petitioned the King to grant him the favor of being hanged. The +petition was refused, but a partial remission of the punishment was at +length gained by bribing the court; for Jeffreys, though his heart was +shut against mercy, always had his pockets open for gain. Alice +Lisle, an aged woman, who, out of pity, had concealed two men flying +from the King's vengeance, was condemned to be burned alive; and it +was with the gratest difficulty that the clergy of Winchester +Cathedral succeeded in getting the sentence commuted to beheading. + +As the work went on, the spirits of Jeffreys rose higher and higher. +He laughed, shouted, joked, and swore like a drunken man. When the +court had finished its sittings, more than a thousand persons had been +brutally scourged, sold as slaves, hanged, or beheaded. The +guideposts of the highways were converted into gibbets, from which the +blackened corpses swung in chains, and from every church tower in +Somersetshire ghastly heads looked down on those who gathered there to +worship God; in fact, so many bodies were exposed that the whole air +was "tainted with corruption and death." + +Not satisfied with vengeance alone, Jeffreys and his friends made +these trials a means of speculation. Batches of rebels were given as +presents to courtiers, who sold them for a period of ten years to be +worked to death or flogged to death on West India plantations; and the +Queen's maids of honor extorted large sums of money for the pardon of +a number of country schoolgirls who had been convicted of presenting +Monmouth with a royal flag at Taunton. + +On the return of Jeffreys to London after this carnival of blood, his +father was so horrified at his cruelty that he forbade him to enter +his house. James, on the contrary, testified his approval by making +Jeffreys Lord Chancellor of the realm, at the same time mildly +censuring him for not having shown greater severity! + +The new Lord Chancellor testified his gratitude to his royal master by +procuring the murder, by means of a packed jury, of Alderman Cornish, +a prominent London Whig (S479), who was especially hated by the King +on account of his support of that Exclusion Bill (S478) which was +intended to shut James out from the throne. On the same day on which +Cornish was executed, Jeffreys also had the satisfaction of knowing +that Elizabeth Gaunt was burned alive at Tyburn, London, for having +assisted one of the Rye-House conspirators, who had fought for +Monmouth at Sedgemoor, to escape. + +488. The King makes Further Attempts to reestablish Catholicism; +Second Declaration of Indulgence (1687); Oxford. + +An event occurred about this time which encouraged James to make a +more decided attempt to restore Catholicism. Henry IV of France had +granted the Protestants of his kingdom liberty of worship, by the +Edict of Nantes (1598). Louis XIV deliberately revoked it (1685). By +that shortsighted act the Huguenots, or French Protestants, were +exposed to cruel persecution, and thousands of them fled to England +and America. + +James, who, like his late brother Charles II, was "the pensioned slave +of the French King" (S476), resolved to profit by the example set him +by Louis. He did not expect to drive the Protestants out of Great +Britain as Louis had driven them from France, but he hoped to restore +the country to its allegiance to Rome (SS370, 382, 477). He began by +suspending the Test Act (S477) and putting Catholics into important +offices in both Church and State.[1] He furthermore established an +army of 13,000 men on Hounslow Heath, just outside London (1686), to +hold the city in subjection in case it should rebel. + +[1] The Dispensing Power and the Suspending Power were prerogatives by +which the King claimed the right of preventing the enforcement of such +laws as he deemed contrary to public good. A packed bench of judges +sustained the King in this position, but the power so to act was +finally abolished by the Bill of Rights (1689). See S497 and top of +page xxxii, Article XII. + +He next recalled the Protestant Duke of Ormonde, governor of Ireland, +and put in his place Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, a Catholic. Tyrconnel +had orders to recruit an Irish Roman Catholic army to aid the King in +carrying out his designs (1687). He raised some soldiers, but he also +raised that famous song of "Lilli Burlero," by which, as its author +boasted, James was eventually "sung out of his kingdom."[2] + +[2] Lord Wharton, a prominent English Whig (S479), was the author of +this satirical political ballad, which, it is said, was sung and +whistled from one end of England to the other, in derision of the +King's policy. It undoubtably had a powerful popular influence in +bringing on the Revolution of 1688. + The ballad began: + "Ho, Brother Teague, dost hear de decree? + Lilli Burlero, bullen a-la, + Dat we shall have a new deputie, + Lilli Burlero, bullen a-la." + The refrain, "Lilli Burlero," etc. (also written +"Lillibullero"), is said to have been the watchword used by the Irish +Catholics when they rose against the Protestants of Ulster in 1641. +See Wilkins's "Political Songs," Vol I. + +Having got the courts completely under his control through the +appointment of judges in sympathy with Jeffreys (S487) and with +himself, the King issued a Declaration of Indulgence similar to that +which his brother Charles II had issued (S477).[1] It suspended all +penal laws against both the Roman Catholics on the one hand, and the +Protestant Dissenters (S472) on the other. The latter, however, +suspecting that this apparently liberal measure was simply a trick to +establish Catholicism, refused to avail themselves of it, and +denounced it as an open violation of the Constitution. + +[1] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxi, +S23. + +James next proceeded, by means of the tyrannical High Commission +Court, which he had revived (S382), to bring Magdalen College, Oxford, +under Catholic control. The President of that college having died, +the Fellows were considering the choice of a successor. The King +ordered them to elect a Catholic. The Fellows refused to obey, and +elected a Protestant. James ejected the new President, and drove out +the Fellows, leaving them to depend on the charity of neighboring +country gentlemen for their support. + +But the King, in attacking the rights of the college, had "run his +head against a wall,"[2] as he soon discovered to his sorrow. His +temporary success, however, emboldened him to reissue the first +Declaration of Indulgence (1688). Its real object, like that of the +first Declaration (S477), was to put Roman Catholics into still higher +positions of trust and power. + +[2] "What building is that?" asked the Duke of Wellington of his +companion, Mr. Croker, pointing, as he spoke, to Magdalen College +wall, just as they entered Oxford in 1834. "That is the wall which +James II ran his head against," was the reply. + +489. The Petition of the Seven Bishops, 1688. + +James commanded the clergy throughout the realm to read this +Declaration (S488) on a given Sunday from their pulpits. The clergy +were by nature conservative. They still generally upheld the theory +of the "Divine Right of Kings" and of "Passive Obedience." A majority +of them taught the doctrine which James I had proclaimed: "God makes +the King; the King makes the law; his subjects are bound to obey the +law" (SS419, 429). Now, however, nearly all of them revolted. They +felt that to comply with the mandate of the King would be to strike a +blow at the supremacy of the Church of England. In this crisis the +Archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied by six bishops, petitioned the +King to be excused from reading it from their pulpits. The King +refused to consider the petition. When the day came, hardly a +clergyman read the paper, and in Westminster Abbey the entire +congregation rose in a body and left rather than listen to it. +Furious at such an unexpected result, James ordered the refractory +bishops to be sent to the Tower and kept prisoners there. + +The whole country now seemed to turn against the King. By his +obstinate folly James had succeeded in making enemies of all classes, +not only of the Whig Roundheads (S479) who had fought against his +father in the civil war, but also of the Tory Cavaliers (S479) who had +fought for him, and of the clergy who had taught the duty of obedience +to him. + +One of the bishops sent to the Tower was Trelawney of Bristol. He was +a native of Cornwall. The news of his imprisonment roused the rough, +independent population of that country. From one end of it to the +other the people were now heard singing: + + "And shall Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney die? + There's thirty thousand Cornishmen will know the reason why." + +Then the miners took up the words, and beneath the hills and fields +the ominous echo was heard: + + "And shall Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney die? + There's twenty thousand underground will know the reason why." + +When the seven bishops were brought to trial the popular feeling in +their favor was so strong that not even James's servile judges dared +use their influence to convict them. After the case was given to the +jury, the largest and most robust man of the twelve rose and said to +the rest: "Look at me! I am bigger than any of you, but before I will +bring in a verdict of guilty, I will stay here until I am no thicker +than a tobacco pipe." That decided the matter, and the bishops were +acquitted (1688). The news was received in London like the tidings of +some great victory, with shouts of joy, illuminations, and bonfires. + +490. Birth of a Prince; Invitation to William of Orange (1688). + +But just before the acquittal an event took place which changed +everything and brought on the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688,--for such +was the title which was solemnly given to it after William and Mary +had come to the throne (SS491, 494). + +Up to this time the succession to the throne after James rested with +his two daughters,--Mary, who had married William, Prince of Orange +(S477), President of the Dutch republic, and resided in Holland; and +her younger sister Anne, who had married George, Prince of Denmark, +and was then living in London. Both of the daughters were zealous +Protestants, and the expectation that one of them would receive the +English crown on the King's death had kept the people quiet while +James was endeavoring to restore Catholicism. + +But while the seven bishops were in prison awaiting trial (S489) the +alrming intelligence was spread that a son had been born to the King +(1688). If true, he would now be the next heir to the crown, and +would in all probability be educated and come to power a Catholic. +This prospect brought matters to a crisis. + +Many people, especially the Whigs (S479), believed the whole matter an +imposition, and it was reported that the young Prince was not the true +son of the King and Queen, but a child that had been smuggled into the +palace to deceive the nation. For this report there was absolutely no +foundation in fact. + +On the very day that the bishops were set at liberty (S489) seven of +the leading nobility and gentry, representing both the Whigs and the +Tories (S479),[1] seconded by the city of London, secretly sent a +formal invitation to William, Prince of Orange, "the champion of +Protestantism on the Continent and the deadly foe of James's ally, the +King of France." Admiral Herbert, disguised as a common sailor, set +out on the perilous errand to the Prince. The invitation he carried +implored William to come over with an army to defend his wife Mary's +claim to the English throne, and to ensure "the restoration of English +liberties and the protection of the Protestant religion." + +William decided to accept the invitation, which was probably not +unexpected on his part. He was confirmed in his decision not only by +the cordial approval of the leading Catholic princes of Europe, +except, of course, Louis XIV of France, but also by the Pope himself, +who had more than once expressed his emphatic disgust at the foolish +rashness of King James.[2] + +[1] The seven gentlemen who signed in cipher the secret letter to +William, Prince of Orange, were Henry Sidney, brother of Algernon +Sidney (S480); Edward Russell, a kinsman of Lord Russell, beheaded by +Charles II (S480); the Earl of Devonshire, chief of the Whig party; +Lord Shrewsbury; Danby, the old Tory minister of Charles II; Compton, +Bishop of London, whom James II had tyrannically suspended; and Lord +Lumley. See the letter in J. Dalrymple's "Memoirs of Great Britain," +II, Appendix, p. 228. +[2] Bright's, Guizot's, Lingard's, and Von Ranke's Histories of +England. + +491. The "Glorious Revolution of 1688; William comes, James goes. + +William's ship, which led his fleet, displayed this flag. + +I WILL MAINTAIN THE LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND AND THE PROTESTANT RELIGION + +He landed with 14,000 troops on the shore of Torbay, Devonshire. (See +map facing p. 334.) It was the fifth and last rgeat landing in the +history of England.[1] He declared that he came in the interest of +his wife Mary, the heir to the throne (S477), and in the interest of +the English nation, to secure a free and legal Parliament which should +decide the question of the succession. James endeavored to rally a +force to resist him, but Baron Churchill, afterwards Duke of +Marlborough (S509), and the King's son-in-law, Prince George, both +secretly went over to William's side. + +[1] The first being that of the Romans, the next that of the Saxons, +the third that of St. Augustine, the fourth that of William he +Conqueror, the fifth that of the Prince of Orange. + +His troops likewise deserted, and finally even his daughter Anne went +over to the enemy. "Now God help me!" exclaimed James, in despair; +"for my own children forsake me!" The Queen had already fled to +France, taking with her her infant son, the unfortunate Prince James +Edward, whose birth (S490) had caused the revolution. Instead of a +kingdom, he inherited nothing but the nickname of "Pretender," which +he in turn transmitted to his son.[2] King James soon followed his +wife. + +[2] Prince James Edward Stuart, the so-called "Old Pretender," and his +son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the so-called "Young Pretender." +See, too, Genealogical Table, p. 323. + +As he crossed the Thames in a boat by night, James threw the Great +Seal of State into the river, in the vain hope that without it a +Parliament could not be legally summoned to decide the question which +his adversary had raised.[3] The King got as far as the coast, but +was discovered by some fishermen and brought back. William +reluctantly received him, and purposely allowed him to escape a second +time. He reached France, and Louis XIV, who had long had the +treacherous King in his secret pay, received him at the court of +Versailles. There could be now no reasonable doubt that James's +daughter Mary (S477) would receive the English crown. + +[3] On the Great Seal of State (S145). + +492. Character of the Revolution of 1688. + +Never was a revolution of such magnitude and meaning accomplished more +peacefully. Not a drop of blood had been shed. There was hardly any +excitement or uproar. Even the bronze statue of the runaway King was +permitted to stand undisturbed in the rear of the palace of Whitehall, +London, where it remains to this day. + +The great change had taken place thus quietly because men's minds were +ripe for it. England had entered upon another period of history, in +which old institutions, laws, and customs were passing away and all +was becoming new. + +Feudalism had vanished under Charles II (S482), but political and +religious persecution had continued. In future, however, we shall +hear no more of the revocation of city charters or other punishments +inflicted because of political opinion (SS479, 487), and rarely of any +punishment for religious dissent. + +Courts of justice will undergo reform. They will cease to be "little +better than caverns of murderers,"[1] where judges like Scroggs and +Jeffreys (SS478, 487) browbeat the prisoners, took their guilt for +granted, insulted and silenced witnesses for their defense, and even +cast juries into prison under penalties of heavy fines, for venturing +to bring in verdicts contrary to their wishes.[2] + +[1] Hallam's "Constitutional History of England," p. 138. Hallam also +says that the behavior of the Stuart judges covered them "with +infamy," p. 597. +[2] See Hallam, and also the introduction to Professor Adams's "Manual +of Historical Literature." For a graphic picture of the times, see, +in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Christian's trial before Lord +Hategood. + +The day, too, had gone by when an English sovereign could cast his +subjects into fetid dungeons in the Tower and leave them to die there +of lingering disease, in darkness, solitude, and despair. No future +king like the marble-hearted James II would sit in the court room at +Edinburgh, and watch with curious delight the agony inflicted by the +Scotch instruments of torture, the "boot" and the thumbscrew, or like +his grandfather, James I, burn Unitarian heretics at the stake in +Smithfield market place in London (S518). + +For the future, thought and discussion in England were to be in great +measure free, as in time they would be wholly so. Perhaps the coward +King's heaviest retribution in his secure retreat in the royal French +palace of Versailles was the knowledge that all his efforts, and all +the efforts of his friend Louis XIV, to prevent the coming of this +liberty had absolutely failed. + +493. Summary. + +The reign of James must be regarded as mainly taken up with the +attempt of the King to rule independently of Parliament and of law, +and, apparently, he sought to restore the Roman Catholic faith as the +Established Church of England. + +Monmouth's rebellion, though without real justification, since he +could not legitimately claim the crown, was a forerunner of that +memorable Revolution which invited William of Orange to come to the +support of Parliament, and which placed a Protestant King and Queen on +the throne. + +WILLIAM AND MARY (House of Orange-Stuart)--1689-1702 + +494. The "Convention Parliament"; the Declaration of Right. 1689. + +After the flight of James II, a "Convention Parliament" met, and +declared that, James having broken "the orginal contract between king +and people," the throne was therefore vacant. The Convention next +issued a formal statement of principles under the name of the +"Declaration of Right," 1689.[1] + +[1] It was called a "Convention Parliament" because it had not been +summoned by the King (S491). Declaration of Right: see Summary of +Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxii, S24. On the +coronation oath see S380, note 1. + +That document recited the illegal and arbitrary acts of the late King +James II, proclaimed him no longer sovereign, and resolved that the +crown should be tendered to William and Mary.[2] The Declaration +having been read to them and having received their assent, they were +formally invited to accept the joint sovereignty of the realm, with +the understanding that the actual administration should be vested in +William alone. + +[2] William of Orange stood next in order of succession to Mary and +Anne (provided the claim of the newly born Prince James, the so-called +"Pretender," was set aside [SS490, 491]). See Genealogical Table, +p. 323. + +495. Jacobites and Nonjurors (1689). + +At the accession of the new sovereigns the extreme Tories (S479), who +believed the action fo the Convention unconstitutional, continued to +adhere to James II as their lawful King. Henceforth this class became +known as "Jacobites," from Jacobus, the Latin name for James. They +were especially numerous and determined in the Highlands of Scotland +and the south of Ireland. They kept up a secret correspondence with +the refugee monarch, and were constantly plotting for his restoration. + +About four hundred of the clergy of the Church of England, including +the Archbishop of Canterbury and four more of the famous seven bishops +(S489), with some members of the universities and also some Scotch +Presbyterians, refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and +Mary. They became known on this account as the "Nonjurors," and +although they were never harshly treated, they were compelled to +resign their positions. + +496. The Mutiny Act and the Toleration Act, 1689. + +We have seen that one of the chief means of despotism on which James +II relied was the organization of a powerful standing army (S488), +such as was unknown in England until Cromwell was compelled to rule by +military force (S457). Charles II had perpetuated such an army +(S467), but it was so small that it was no longer formidable. + +It was now evident that owing to the abolition of the feudal levies +(SS150, 482) a standing army under the King's command must be +maintained, especially as war was impending with Louis XIV, who +threatened by force of arms and with the help of the Jacobites (S495) +to restore James II to the English throne. To prevent the sovereign +from making bad use of such a power, Parliament passed a law called +the "Mutiny Act," 1689, which practically put the army under the +control of the nation,[1] as it has since remained. Thus all danger +from that source was taken away. + +[1] The Mutiny Act provides: (1) that the standing army shall be at +the King's command--subject to certain rules--for one year only; (2) +that no pay shall be issued to troops except by special acts of +Parliament; (3) that no act of mutiny can be punished except by the +annual reenactment of the Mutiny Bill. + +James's next method for bringing the country under the control of Rome +had been to issue Declarations of Indulgence (S488). It was generally +believed that his object in granting these measures of toleration, +which promised freedom to all religious beliefs, was that he might +place Roman Catholics in power. + +As an offset to these Declarations, Parliament now passed the +Toleration Act, 1689, which secured freedom of worship to all +religious believers except "Papists and such as deny the Trinity." +This measure, though one-sided and utterly inconsistent with the +broader and juster ideas of toleration which have since prevailed, was +nevertheless a most important reform. It put an end at once and +forever to the persecution which had disgraced the reigns of the +Stuarts, though unfortunately it still left the Catholics, the +Unitarians, and the Jews subject to the heavy hand of tyrannical +oppression,[1] and they remained so for many years (SS573, 599). + +[1] In 1663 Charles granted a charter to Rhode Island which secured +religious liberty to that colony. It was the first royal charter +recognizing the principle of toleration. + +497. The Bill of Rights, 1689, and Act of Settlement, 1701. + +Not many months later, Parliament embodied the Declaration of Right +(S494), with some slight changes, in the Bill of Rights, 1689,[2] +which received the signature of the King and became law. It +constitutes the third and last great step which England has taken in +making anything like a formal WRITTEN Constitution,[3]--the first +being Magna Carta, or the Great Charter (S199), and the second the +Petition of Right (S432). The Habeas Corpus Act (S482) was contained, +in germ at least, in Magna Carta (S199 (2)); hence these three +measures, namely, Magna Carta, 1215; the Petition of Right, 1628; and +the Bill of Rights, 1689 (including the Act of Settlement to be +mentioned presently), sum up the written safeguards of the nation, and +constitute, as Lord Chatham said, "The Bible of English Liberty." + +[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxii, +S25, and p. xxxi. +[3] It should be borne in mind that a large part of the English +Constitution is based on ancient customs or unwritten laws, and +another part on acts of Parliament passed for specific purposes. + +With the passage of the Bill of Rights,[4] the doctrine of the Divine +Right of Kings to govern without being accountable to their subjects +(SS419, 429), which James I and his descendants had tried so hard to +reduce to practice, came to an end forever. + +[4] For summary of the bill, see Constitutional Documents in the +Appendix, p. xxxi. For the complete text, see Taswell-Langmead's +"Constitutional History of England" or Lee's "Source Book of English +History." + +The chief provisions of the Bill of Rights were: + (1) That the King should not maintain a standing army in time of +peace, except by consent of Parliament. + (2) That no money should be taken from the people save by the +consent of Parliament. + (3) That every subject has the right to petition the Crown for the +redress of any grievance. + (4) That the election of members of Parliament ought to be free from +interference. + (5) That Parliament should frequently assemble and enjoy entire +freedom of debate. + (6) That the King be debarred from interfering in any way with the +proper execution of the laws. + (7) That a Roman Catholic or a person marrying a Roman Catholic be +henceforth incapable of receiving the crown of England. + +Late in the reign (1701) Parliament reaffirmed and still further +extended the provisions of the Bill of Rightss by the Act of +Settlement, which established a new royal line of sovereigns confined +exclusively to Protestants.[1] This Act with the preceding one may be +said to have introduced that principle of the British Constitution +which has been called "The Reign of Law." It practically abolished +the principle of a fixed hereditary succession and reestablished in +the clearest and most decided manner the right of the nation to choose +its own rulers. + +[1] Compare S349, note 2. The Act of Settlement (see p. xxxii of +Appendix) provided that after Princess Anne (in default of issue by +William or Anne) the crown should descend to the Electress Sophia of +Hanover, Hermany, and her PROTESTANT DESCENDANTS. The Electress +Sophia was the granddaughter of James I. She married Ernest Augustus, +Elector (or ruler) of Hanover. As Hallam says, she was "very far +removed from any hereditary title," as, aside from James II's son +(S490), whose legitimacy no one now doubted, there were several who +stood nearer in right of succession. + +According to that measure, "an English sovereign is now as much the +creature of an act of Parliament as the pettiest taxgatherer in his +realm";[2] and he is dependent for his office and power on the will of +the people as really, though of course not as directly as the +President of the United States. + +[2] Green's "Short History of the English People" and Bryce's +"American Commonwealth." + +Finally, the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement, by restricting +the royal succession to Protestants, made it henceforth +unconstitutional for the Crown to permit or invite the Papal Power to +take any recognized part in the government of England. The enactment +of these two measures, therefore, effectually put an end to that great +conflict between England and Rome which had been going on, in some +form, for more than six hundred years (S349, note 2). + +To-day entire harmony exists. Catholics and Protestants "work +together for good" in Parliament, in the Cabinet, in the Courts of +Justice, in the Universities, in the Army and Navy, in the service of +the Press, and in private life.[1] + +[1] The names of many eminent Catholics might be cited, such as +Professor Lingard, the historian (1851), the late Lord Chief Justice +Russell, the late Lord Acton, Professor of History at Cambridge, and +the late Sir Francis Burnand, editor of _Punch._ + +498. Further Benefits of the Revolution. + +Foremost in the list of other benefits which England gained by the +Revolution of 1688 should be placed: 1. The Toleration Act already +mentioned (S496), which gave a very large number of people the right +of worshiping God according to the dictates of conscience, and which +was the stepping-stone to later measures that completed the good work +of extending religious liberty in England (SS573, 599). + 2. Parliament now established the salutory rule that no money should +be voted to the King except for specific purposes, and it also limited +the royal revenue to a few years' supply instead of granting it for +life, as had been done in the case of Charles II and James. Later the +supply was limited to an annual grant. As the Mutiny Act (S496) made +the army dependent for its existence on the annual meeting and action +of the House of Commons, these two measures practically gave the +people full control of the two great powers,--the purse and the +sword,--which they have ever since retained. + 3. Parliament next enacted that judges should hold office not as +heretofore, at his Majesty's pleasure, but during good behavior (or +until the death of the reigning sovereign vacated their commissions). +This took away that dangerous authority of the King over the courts of +justice, which had caused so much oppression and cruelty. + 4. But, as Macaulay remarks, of all the reforms produced by the +change of government, perhaps none proved more extensively useful than +the establishment of the liberty of the press. Up to this time no +book or newspaper could be published in England without a license.[2] +In the period of the Commonwealth John Milton, the great Puritan poet, +had earnestly labored to get this severe law repealed, declaring that +"while he who kills a man kills a reasonable creature,...he who +destroys a good book [by refusing to let it appear in print] kills +reason itself."[3] But under James II, Chief Justice Scroggs had +declared it a crime to publish anything whatever concerning the +government, whether true or false, without a license. During that +reign there were only four places in England--namely, London, Oxford, +Cambridge, and York--where any book, pamphlet, or newspaper could be +legally issued, and then only with the sanction of a rigid inspector. + +[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxiii, +S26. +[3] Milton's "Areopagitica," or "Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed +Printing." + +Under William and Mary this restriction was removed. Henceforth men +were free not only to think, but to print and circulate their thought +(subject, of course, to the law of libel and sedition). They could +thus bring the government more directly before that bar of public +opinion which judges all men and all institutions. + +499. James II lands in Ireland (1689); Act of Attainder; Siege of +Londonderry. + +But though William was King of England, and had been accepted as King +of Scotland, yet the Irish, like the Scotch Highlanders, refused to +recognize him as their lawful sovereign. The great body of Irish +population was then, as now, Roman Catholic. But they had been +gradually dispossessed of their hold on the land (SS159, 402, 453), +and the larger part of the most desirable portion of the island was +owned by a few hundred thousand Protestant colonists. + +On the other hand, James II had, during his reign, put the civil +government and the military power in the hands of the Catholics. The +Earl of Tyrconnel (S488) now raised the standard of rebellion in +Ireland in the interest of the Catholics, and invited James II to come +over from France (S491) and regain his throne. The Protestants of the +north stood by William of Orange (S491), and thus got that name of +Orangemen which they have ever since retained. James landed in +Ireland in the spring (1689) with a small French force lent him by +Louis XIV (S491). + +He established his headquarters at Dublin. Not long afterwards he +issued that great Act of Attainder (1689) which summoned all who were +in rebellion against his authority to appear for trial on a given day, +or be declared traitors, hanged, drawn, and quartered, and their +property confiscated.[1] Next, the Protestant city of Londonderry +(S423) was bebesieged (1689). For more than three months it held out +against shot and shell, famine and fever. + +[1] Attainder (S351): This act contained between two and three +thousand names. It embraced all classes, from half the peerage of +Ireland to tradesmen, women, and children. If they failed to appear, +they could be put to death without trial. + +The starving inhabitants, exceeding thirty thousand in number, were +finally reduced to the last extremities. Nothing was left to eat but +a few miserable horses and some salted hides. As they looked into +each other's hollow eyes, the question came, Must we surrender? Then +it was that an aged clergyman, the venerable George Walker, one of the +governors of the city, pleaded with them, Bible in hand, to remain +firm. + +That appeal carried the day. They declared that rather than open the +gates to the enemy, they would perish of hunger, or, as some voice +whispered, that they would fall "first on the horses and the +hides,--THEN ON THE PRISONERS,--then--ON EACH OTHER!" But at this +moment, when all hope seemed lost, a shout of triumph was heard. An +English force had sailed up the river, broken through all +obstructions, and the valiant city was saved. + +500. Battle of the Boyne, 1690; Treaty of Limerick. + +A year later occurred the decisive battle of the Boyne,[1] 1690, at +which King William commanded in person on one side, while James II was +present on the opposite side. William had a somewhat larger force and +by far the greater number of well-armed, veteran troops. The contest +ended with the utter defeat of James. He stood on a hill at a safe +distance, and when he saw that the battle was going against him, +turned and fled to France. William, on the other hand, though +suffering from a wound, led his own men. The cowardly behavior of +James excited the disgust and scorn of both the French and Irish. +"Change kings with us," shouted an Irish officer later, to one of +William's men, "change kings with us, and we'll fight you over again." + +[1] Fought in the east of Ireland, on the banks of the river of that +name. (See map facing p. 358.) + +The war was brought to an end by the treaty of Limerick (1691), when +about ten thousand Irish soldiers who had fought for James, and who no +longer cared to remain in their own country after their defeat, were +permitted to go to France. "When the wild cry of the women, who stood +watching their departure, was hushed, the silence of death settled +down upon Ireland. For a hundred years the country remained at peace, +but the peace was that of despair."[1] In violation of that treaty, a +severe act was passed against Roman Catholics; they were hunted like +wild beasts, and terrible vengeance was now taken for that Act of +Attainder (S499) which James had issued. Furthermore, England +selfishly closed her own ports and those of her colonies against Irish +products; this policy starved the industry of that unfortunate island. + +[1] Green's "Short History of the English People." + +501. Massacre of Glencoe (1692). + +Fighting against William and Mary had also been going on in Scotland; +for Claverhouse, or "Bonny Dundee" (S472), was an ardent adherent of +James II and vowed, "Ere the King's crown shall fall, there are crowns +to be broke."[2] But the Jacobites, or adherents of James (S495), had +been conquered, and a proclamation was sent out commanding all the +Highland clans to take the oath of allegiance before the beginning of +the new year (1692). + +[2] Scott's Poems, "Bonny Dundee." + +A chief of the clan of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, through no fault of +his own, failed to make submission within the appointed time. Scotch +enemies of the clan told the King that the chief had refused to take +the oath, and urged William "to extirpate that set of thieves." The +King signed an order to that effect, without clearly understnading +what was intended. + +Thereupon the Scotch authorities sent a body of soldiers to Glencoe, +who were hospitably received by the Macdonalds. After stopping with +them a number of days, they rose before light one winter morning, and, +suddenly attacking their friendly hosts, murdered all the men who did +not escape, and drove the women and children into the snowdrifts to +perish of cold and hunger. + +They finished their work of destruction by burning the cabins and +driving away the cattle. By this act, Glencoe, or the "Glen of +Weeping," was changed into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The +blame which attaches to William is that he did nothing toward +punishing those who planned and carried out the horrible massacre. + +502. La Hogue; the Peace of Ryswick, 1697. + +The English naval commander, Admiral Russell, like many of William's +pretended friends and supporters, had been engaged in treasonable +correspondence with James II. If the latter succeeded in recovering +his crown, the Admiral hoped to bask in the sunshine of royal favor; +but he later changed his mind and fought so bravely in the sea fight +off La Hogue that the French supporters of James were utterly beaten. + +King William, however, continued his Continental wars for the next +five years, until, by the Peace of Ryswick, in Holland, 1697, Louis +XIV bound himself to recognize William as King of England, the +Princess Anne[1] as his successor, to withdraw all support from James, +and to place the chief fortresses of the Netherlands, or Low +Countries, in the hands of the Dutch garrisons. The Peace of Ryswick +marked the end of the conspiracy between Louis and the Stuarts to turn +England into a Roman Catholic country dependent on France (SS477, +488). When William went in solemn state to return thanks for the +conclusion of the war, it was to the new cathedral of St. Paul's, +which Wren had nearly completed (S474), and which was then first used +for public worship. + +[1] The second (Protestant) daughter of James II. See Genealogical +Table, p. 323. + +503. The National Debt, 1693; the Bank of England, 1694. + +William had now gained, at least temporarily, the object that he had +in view when he accepted the English crown. He had succeeded in +drawing the English into a close defensive alliance against Lois +XIV,[2] who, as we have seen, was bent on destroying both the +political and the religious liberty of the Dutch as a Protestant +people (S476). + +[2] Guizot's "History of Civilization," chap. xiii. + +William's wars had compelled him to borrow large sums from the London +merchants. Out of these loans sprang the permanent National Debt. +That debt was destined to grow from less than a million of pounds to +so many hundred millions that all thought of ever paying it has long +since been given up. Furthermore, it became necessary to organize a +Banking Company, 1694, for the management of this collosal debt; +together the two were destined to become more widely known than any of +William's victories. + +The building erected by that Company covers not far from four acres of +land in the very heart of London. In the first room which one enters +stands a statue of the King, bearing this inscription: "To the memory +of the best of Princes, William of Orange, founder of the Bank of +England,"--the largest and most important financial institution in the +world. + +504. William's Death. + +King William hasd a brave soul in a feeble body. All his life he was +an invalid, but he learned to conquer disease, or at least to hold it +in check, as he conquered his enemies. He was worn out by overwork, +sickness, and the cares of office. If he could have been assured of +the safety of his beloved Holland, death would have been welcome to +one who had so long been stretched "upon the hard rack of this tough +world." He was never popular in England, and at one time was kept +from returning to his native country only through the earnest +protestation of the Lord Chancellor, who refused to stamp the King's +resignation with the Great Seal (S145). + +There were plots to assassinate him, and many who pretended to be +friends were treacherous, and only wanted a good opportunity to go +over to the side of James II. Others were eager to hear of his death, +and when it occurred, through the stumbling of his horse over a +molehill, they drank to "the little gentleman in black velvet," whose +work underground caused the fatal accident. + +505. Summary. + +William's reign was a prolonged struggle for the great Protestant +cause and for the maintenance of political liberty in both England and +Holland. Invalid as he was, he was yet a man of indomitable +resolution as well as indomitable courage. + +Though a foreigner by birth, and caring more for Holland than for any +other country in the world, yet, through his Irish and Continental +wars with James II and Louis XIV, he helped more than any other man of +the seventeenth century, Cromwell alone excepted, to make England +free. + +ANNE--1702-1714 + +506. Accession and Character of Anne. + +William (S504) left no children, and according to the provisions of +the Bill of Rights (S497)[1] the Princess Anne, younger sister of the +late Queen Mary, now came to the throne. She was a negative +character, with kindly impulses and little intelligence. "When in +good humor she was meekly stupid, and when in ill humor, sulkily +stupid."[2] But if there was any person duller than her Majesty, that +person was her Majesty's husband, Prince George of Denmark. Charles +II, who knew him well, said, "I have tried Prince George sober, and I +have tried him drunk, and drunk or sober, there is nothing in him." + +[1] See the Bill of Rights (third paragraph) on page xxxi of the +Appendix. +[2] Macaulay's "England"; and compare Stanhope's "Reign of Anne." + +Along with the amiable qualities which gained for the new ruler the +title of "Good Queen Anne" her Majesty inherited the obstinacy, the +prejudices, and the superstitions of the Stuart sovereigns. Though a +most zealous Protestant and an ardent upholder of the Church of +England, she declared her faith in the Divine Right of Kings (SS419, +429), which had cost her grandfather, Charles I, his head, and she was +the last English sovereign who believed that the touch of the royal +hand could dispel disease. + +The first theory she never openly proclaimed in any offensive way, but +the harmless delusion that she could relieve the sick was a favorite +notion with her; and we find in the London _Gazette_ (March 12, 1712) +an official announcement, stating that on certain days the Queen would +"touch" for the cure of "king's evil," or scrofula. + +Among the multitudes who went to test her power was a poor Lichfield +bookseller. He carried to her his little half-blind, sickly boy, who, +by virtue either of her Majesty's beneficent fingers or from some +other and better reason, grew up to be known as the famous author and +lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson.[2] + +[2] Johnson told Boswell, his biographer, that he remembered the +incident, and that "he had a confused, but somehow a sort of solemn +recollection of a lady in diamonds and a long black hood."--Boswell's +"Johnson." + +507. Whig and Tory; High Church and Low. + +Politically, the government of the country was divided between the two +great parties of the Whigs and the Tories (S479), since uscceeded by +the Liberals and Conservatives. Though mutually hostile, each +believing that its rival's success meant national ruin, yet both were +sincerely opposed to despotism on the one hand, and to anarchy on the +other. The Whigs (S479), setting Parliament above the throne, were +pledged to maintain the Act of Settlement (S497) and the Protestant +succession; while the Tories (S479), insisting on a strict, unbroken +line of hereditary sovereigns, were anxious to set aside that act and +restore the excluded Stuarts (S494). + +The Church of England was likewise divided into two parties, known as +High Church and Low Church. The first, who were generally Tories, +wished to exalt the power of the bishops and were opposed to the +toleration of Dissenters (S472); the second, who were Whigs as a rule, +believed it best to curtail the authority of the bishops, and to +secure to all Trinitarian Protestants entire liberty of worship and +all civil and political rights and privileges. Thus to the bitterness +of heated political controversy there was added the still more acrid +bitterness of theological dispute. + +Addison illustrates the feeling that then prevailed by an amusing +story of an earlier occurrence. A boy who had lost his way in London +was called a "popish cur" by a Whig because he ventured to inquire for +Saint Anne's Lane, while he was cuffed for irreverence by a Tory when, +correcting himself, he asked bluntly for Anne's Lane. + +The Queen, although she owed her crown mainly to the Whigs (S479), +sympathized with the Tories (S479) and the High Church, and did all in +her power to strengthen both. As for the leaders of the two parties, +they seem to have looked out first for themselves, and afterwards-- +often a long way afterwards--for their country. During the whole +reign they were plotting and counterplotting, mining and undermining. +Their subtle schemes to secure office and destroy each other become as +incomprehensible and fathomless as those of the fallen angels in +Milton's vision of the bottomless pit. + +508. The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702. + +Anne had no sooner come to the throne than war broke out with France. +It had its origin in the previous reign. William III had cared little +for England compared with his native Holland, whose interests always +had the first place in his heart. He had spent his life battling to +preserve the independence of the Dutch republic and fighting Louis XIV +of France, who was determined, if possible, to annex the Netherlands, +including Holland, to his own dominions (S502). + +During the latter part of William's reign the French King seemed +likely to be able to accomplish his purpose. The King of Spain, who +had no children, was in feeble health, and at his death it was +probable that Louis XIV's grandson, Philip of Anjou, would receive the +crown. If that happened, Louis XIV, who was then the most powerful +prince in Europe, would obtain the control of the Spanish dominions, +which, besides Spain, comprise a large part of the Netherlands,[1] +parts of Italy, and immense provinces in South America. The +possession of such an empire would make Louis irresistible in Europe, +and the little, free Protestant states of Holland could not hope to +stand before him. + +[1] The whole of the Netherlands at one time belonged to Spain, but +the northern part, or Holland, had succeeded in establishing its +independence, and was protected on the southern frontier by a line of +fortified towns. + +Not long afterwards, the King of Spain died and bequeathed the crown +to Philip of Anjou. When Philip left Paris for Madrid, Louis XIV +exultingly exclaimed, "The Pyrenees no longer exist." That was simply +his short way of saying, Now France and Spain are made one, and +FRANCE is that one.[2] + +[2] When Philip of Anjou went to Spain, Louis XIV, by letters patent, +conditionally reserved the succession to the Spanish throne to France, +thus virtually uniting the two countries, so that the Pyrenees +Mountains would no longer have any political meaning as a boundary +between the two countries. + +Louis at once put French garrisons in the border towns of the Spanish +Netherlands, and he thus had a force ready at any moment to march +across the frontier into Holland. Finally, on the death of the royal +refugee, James II (S9491), which occurred shortly before King +William's death, Louis XIV publicly acknowledged the exiled monarch's +son, James Edward, the so-called "Old Pretender" (SS490, 491), as +rightful sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland. + +This effectually roused the English people; they were prepared for +hostilities when William's sudden death occurred (S504). Immediately +after Anne came to the throne (1702) war with France was declared, and +since it had grown out of Louis's designs on the crown of Spain, it +was called the "War of the Spanish Succession." + +The contest was begun by England, mainly to prevent the French King +from carrying out his threat of placing the so-called "Pretender," son +of the late James II, on the English throne and so overturning the +Bill of Rights (S497) and the Act of Settlement (S497), and thereby +restoring the country to the Roman Catholic Stuarts. Later, the war +came to have two other important objects. The first of these was to +defend Holland, now a most valuable ally; the second was to protect +the colonies of Virginia and New England against the power of France, +which threatened, through its own American colonies and through the +extensive Spanish possessions it expected to acquire, to get control +of the whole of the New World.[1] + +[1] At this time England had twelve American colonies extending from +New England to South Carolina, inclusive, with part of Newfoundland. +France and Spain claimed all the rest of the continent. + +Thus England had three objects at stake: + (1) The maintenance of Protestant government at home. + (2) The maintenance of the Protestant power of Holland. + (3) The retention of a large part of the American continent. + +For this reason the War of the Spanish Succession may be regarded as +the beginning of a second Hundred Years' War between England and +France (S237),[2] one destined to decide which was to build up the +great empire of the future in the western hemisphere.[3] + +[2] During the next eighty years fighting was going on between England +and France, directly or indirectly, for a great part of the time. +[3] Seeley's "Expansion of England." + +509. Marlborough; Blenheim, Gibraltar, and Other Victories +(1702-1709). + +John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (S491), commanded the English and +Dutch forces, and had for his ally Prince Eugene of Savoy, who led the +German armies. The Duke, who was known in the enemy's camps by the +flattering name of "the handsome Englishman," had risen from +obscurity. He owed the beginning of his success to his good looks and +a court intrigue. In politics he sympathized chiefly with the Tories +(S479), but his interests in the war led him to support the Whigs +(S479). + +He was avaricious, unscrupulous, and teacherous. James II trusted +him, and he deceived him and went over to William (S491); William +trusted him, and he deceived him and opened a treasonable +correspondence with the dethroned James; Anne trusted him, and he +would undoubtedly have betrayed her if the so-called "Pretender" +(SS490, 491) had been able to bid high enough, or if he could have +shown him that his cause was likely to be successful. In his greed +for money the Duke hesitated at nothing; he took bribes from army +contractors, and robbed his soldiers of their pay.[1] + +[1] See Hallam, Macaulay; and Thackeray's "Henry Esmond." + +As a soldier, Marlborough had no equal. Voltaire says of him with +truth that "he never besieged a fortress which he did not take, nor +fought a battle which he did not win." This man, at once so able and +so false, to whom war was a private speculation rather than a contest +for right or principle, now opened the campaign. He captured those +fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands which Louis XIV had garrisoned +with French troops to menace Holland, but he could not induce the +enemy to rish a battle in the open field. + +At length, Marlborough, by a brilliant movement (1704), changed the +scene of the war from the Netherlands to Bavaria in southern Germany. +There, at the little village of Blenheim,[2] he, with Prince Eugene, +gained a victory over the French which saved Germany from the power of +Louis XIV. (See map opposite.) England, out of gratitude for the +humiliation of her powerful enemy, presented the Duke with the ancient +royal Park of Woodstock, near Oxford, and built for him the palace of +Blenheim, which the architect called "the biggest house for the +biggest man in England." It is still occupied by descendants of the +Duke's family. A few days before the battle of Blenheim, a powerful +English fleet had attacked and taken Gibraltar (1704). England thus +gained and still holds the command of the great inland sea of the +Mediterranean. In the course of the next five years Marlborough +fought three great battles,[3] by which he drove the French out of the +Netherlands once for all, and finally beat them on a hotly contested +field in northern France. The power of Louis XIV was now so far +broken that England no longer felt any fear that he would overcome her +colonies in America (S508). + +[2] Blenheim: The palace grounds are nearly twelve miles in +circumference. The Marlborough family hold Blenheim on condition that +they present a flag every year (August 2) to the English sovereign at +Windsor Castle. +[3] Ramillies (1706); Oudenarde (1708); Malplaquet (1709). + +510. The Powers behind the Throne; Jennings against Masham. + +But if the Duke of Marlborough was remarkable, so too was his wife. +While the war was going on, the real power of the Crown, though it +stood in Anne's name, was practically in the hands of Sarah Jennings, +Duchess of Marlborough, who held the office of Mistress of the Robes. +She and the Queen had long been inseparable, and it was her influence +that cause Anne to desert her father (S491) and espouse the cause of +William of Orange. + +The imperious temper of the Duchess carried all before it, and in her +department she won victories which might well be compared with those +the Duke, her husband, gained on the field of battle. In time her +sway over her royal companion grew to be so absolute that she seemed +to decide everything, from questions of state to the cut of a gown or +the color of a ribbon. Finally, it became a common saying that "Queen +Anne reigns, but Queen Sarah governs."[1] + +[1] For years the Queen and the Duchess corresponded almost daily +under the names of "Mrs. Morley" (the Queen) and "Mrs. Freeman" (the +Duchess), the latter taking that name because, she said, it suited the +frank and bold character of her letters. + +While the Duchess continued in power, she used her influence to urge +forward the war with France undertaken by England to check the designs +of Louis XIV on Spain and Holland, and also to punish him for his +recognition of the claim of the Pretender to the English crown +(S491). Her object was to advance her husband, who, as commander in +chief of the English and Dutch forces on the Continent, had won fame +and fortune,--the first by his splendid ability, the second by his +unscrupulous greed (S509). + +After a number of years, the Queen and the Duchess quarreled, and the +latter was superseded by her cousin, a Mrs. Masham (1711), who soon +got as complete control of Anne as the former favorite had possessed. +Mrs. Masham was as sly and supple as the Duchess had been dictatorial +and violent. She was cousin to Robert Harley, a prominent Tory +politician (S479). Through her influence Harley now became Prime +Minister in everything but name. He succeeded in putting a stop to +further fighting, and Marlborough was ordered home in disgrace on a +charge of having robbed the government. Thus it was, as Hallam +remarks, that "the fortunes of Europe were changed by the insolence of +one waiting woman and the cunning of another."[1] + +511. Dr. Sacheverell (1710). + +An incident occurred about this time which greatly helped the Tories +(S479) in their schemes. Dr. Sacheverell, a violent Tory and High +Churchman (S507), began preaching a series of vehement sermons in +London condemning the Whig policy which called for the reopening of +the war. He also endeavored to revive the exploding theory of the +Divine Right of Kings (S419, 429), and declared that no tyranny on the +part of a sovereign could by any possibility justify a subject in +resisting the royal will. The Whig leaders brought the preacher to +trial for alleged treasonable utterances (1710). He was suspended +from his office for three years, and his book of sermons was publicly +burned by the common hangman. + +This created intense popular excitement; Sacheverell was regarded as a +political martyr by all who wished the war ended. A reaction against +the Government set in; the Whigs (S479) were driven from power, and +the Tories passed two very harsh laws[2] against Dissenters (S472), +though they were repealed a few years later. The Duchess of +Marlborough had to leave her apartments in the palace of St. James, +and in her spite broke down marble mantels and tore off the locks from +doors. Mrs. Masham's friends, the Tories (S479), or peace party, who +had now triumphed, prepared to put a complete end to the fighting. + +[2] These were the Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act +(S518). + +512. The Peace of Utrecht, 1713. + +Not long after this change a messenger was privately dispatched to +Louis XIV to ask if he wished for peace. "It was," says the French +minister, "like asking a dying man whether he would wish to be +cured."[3] Later, terms were secretly agreed upon between the Tories +(S479) and the French, and in 1713, in the quaint Dutch city of +Utrecht, the allies, together with France and Spain, signed the treaty +bearing that name. + +[2] Morris's "The Age of Anne." + +By it Louis XIV bound himself: + (1) To acknowledge the right of England to limit the succession to +the crown to Protestant sovereigns (S497). + (2) To compel Prince James Edward, the so-called "Pretender" (SS490, +491) to quit France. + (3) To renounce the union of the crowns of France and Spain; but +Philip was to retain the Spanish throne (S508). + (4) To cede to England all claims to Newfoundland, Acadia, or Nova +Scotia, and that vast region known as the Hudson Bay Company's +Possessions. + +Next, Spain was to give up: + (1) The Spanish Netherlands to Austria, an ally of Holland, and grant +to the Dutch a line of forts to defend their frontier against France. + (2) England was to have the exclusive right for thirty-three years of +supplying the Spanish-American colonists with negro slaves.[1] + +[1] This right (called the "Assiento," or Contract) had formerly +belonged to France. By its transfer England got the privilege of +furnishing 4800 "sound, merchantable negroes "annually," "two thirds +to be males" between ten and forty years of age. + +This trade had long been coveted by the English, and had been carried +on to some extent by them ever since Sir John Hawkins entered upon it +in Queen Elizabeth's reign. Sir John grew very rich through his +traffic in human flesh, and he set up a coat of arms emblazoned with a +slave in fetters, so that all might see how he had won wealth and +distinction. + +513. Union of England and Scotland, 1707. + +Since the accession of James I (1603), England and Scotland had been +ruled by one sovereign, but each country retained its own Parliament +and its own forms of worship. In 1707 the two countries were finally +united under the name of Great Britain. + +The Established (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland and the Scottish +laws were to be preserved. The independent Parliament of Scotland was +given up, and the Scotch were henceforth represented in the English +Parliament by sixteen peers chosen by members of the Scottish peerage +at the summoning of every Parliament; and by forty-five (now seventy- +two) members returned by Scotland to the House of Commons. + +With the consummation of the union between the two countries Great +Britain adopted a new flag, the Union Jack, which was formed by the +junction of the red cross of St. George of England and the white cross +of St. Andrew of Scotland.[1] + +[1] After Ireland was united to Great Britain (1800) the red cross of +St. Patrick was added to the flag (1801). The first Union Jack was +the work of James I, whose usual signature was Jacques (hence "Jack"), +French for James. + +514. Literature of the Period; the First Daily Paper. + +The reign of Anne has been characterized as one of corruption in high +places and of brutality in low, but in literature it takes rank next +to that of Elizabeth (S393). There was indeed no great central +luminary like Shakespeare, but a constellation of lesser ones,--such +as Addison, Defoe, and Pope. They shone with a splendor of their +own. The lurid brilliancy of the half-mad satirist Dean Swift was +beginning to command attention; on the other hand, the calm, clear +light of the philosopher John Locke was near its setting. + +Aside from these great names in letters, it was an age generally of +contented dullness, well represented in the good-natured mediocrity of +Queen Anne herself. During her reign the first daily newspaper +(SS422, 443) appeared in England,--the Daily Courant (1703); it was a +dingy, badly printed little sheet, not much bigger than a man's hand. +The publisher said he made it so small "to save the Publick at least +one half the Impertinences of Ordinary News-Papers." + +Perhaps it was well this journal set up no greater pretensions, for it +had to compete with swarms of abusive political pamphlets, such as +Swift wrote for the Tories and Defoe for the Whigs (S479). It had +also to compete with the gossip and scandal of the coffeehouses and +the clubs; for this reason the proprietor found it no easy matter +either to fill it or to sell it. + +A few years later (1711) a periodical appeared, called the Spectator. +It was published daily, and Addison, its chief contributor, soon made +it famous. Each number consisted of an essay hitting off the follies +and foibles of the age, and it was regularly served at the breakfast +tables of people of fashion along with their tea and toast. + +One of the greatest merits of the Spectator was its happy way of +showing that wit and virtue are after all better friends than wit and +vice. Neither this little magazine nor the newspapers of that time +dared to publish a single line of parliamentary debate. But they +marked the humble beginning of that vast organized power, represented +by the daily press of London, which discusses everything of interest +throughout the world. + +515. Death of the Queen. + +The ingratitude of public men and the furious quarrels of politicians +so teased and vexed the Queen that she at last fell into a fatal +illness. Her physician wrote to Dean Swift, "I believe sleep was +never more welcome to a weary traveler than death was to her." When +she laid down the scepter (1714) she left no heir to the throne, and +so the power of the Stuarts (S415) came to an end. + +According to the terms of the Act of Settlement (S497) the crown now +passed to George, Elector of Hanover, a Protestant descendant of James +I of England. (See Table, p. 323.) James Edward, son of James II, +believed to the last that his half-sister, Queen Anne, would name him +her successor;[1] instead of that it was she who first dubbed him the +"Pretender" (S491). + +[1] Anne and the so-called "Pretender" were children of James II by +different mothers. + +516. Summary. + +The whole reign of Anne was taken up with the strife of political +parties at home, and the War of the Spanish Succession abroad. The +Whigs (S479) were always intriguing through the Duchess of Marlborough +and other leaders to keep up the war and to keep out the so-called +"Pretender"; the Tories (S479), on the other hand, were just as busy +through Mrs. Masham and her coadjutors in endeavoring to establish +peace, and with it the Divine Right of Kings (SS419, 429). + +The extreme Tories hoped for the restoration of the Roman Catholic +Stuarts in the person of James Edward, the so-called "Pretender." The +War of the Spanish Succession resulted in the defeat of Louis XIV and +the confirmation of that Act of Settlement (S497) which secured the +English crown to a Protestant prince. + +GENERAL REFERENCE SUMMARY OF THE STUART PERIOD + +1603-1714 (Commonwealth, 1649-1660) + +I. Government. II. Religion. III. Military Affairs. IV. Literature and +Learning. V. General Industry and Commerce. Vi. Mode of Life, +Manners, and Customs + + I. Government + +517. The Divine Right of Kings; the Civil War; the "Glorious +Revolution" of 1688. + +The period began with the attempt of James I to carry out his theory +that the King derives his right to rule directly from God, and in no +wise from the people. Charles I adopted this disastrous theory, and +was supported in it by Manwaring and other clergymen, who declared +that the King represents God on earth, and that the subject who +resists his will, or refuses a tax or loan to him, does so at the +everlasting peril of his soul. + +Charles I's arbitrary methods of government and levies of illegal +taxes, with the imprisonment of those who refused to pay them, led to +the meeting of the Long Parliament and the enactment in 1628 of the +statue of the Petition of Right, or second great charter of English +liberties. + +The same Parliament abolished the despotic courts of Star Chamber and +High Commission, which had been used by Strafford and Laud to carry +out their tyrannical scheme called "Thorough." + +Charles I's renewed acts of oppression and open violation of the laws, +with his levies of "ship money," led to the Grand Remonstrance, an +appeal to the nation to support Parliament in its struggle with the +King. The attempt of the King to arrest five members who had taken a +prominent part in drawing up the Remonstrance brought on the Civil War +and the establishment of the Commonwealth. The new republic was +utterly opposed to the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. It +declared "the People are, under God, the origin of all just power." +Eventually Cromwell became Protector of the nation, and ruled by means +of a strong military force. + +On the restoration of the Stuarts, Feudal Tenure and the Right of +Purveyance were abolished by Parliament (1660). Charles II endeavored +to rule without Parliament by selling his influence to Louis XIV, by +the secret Treaty of Dover. During his reign, the Habeas Corpus Act +was passed and feudalism was practically abolished. + +James II endeavored to restore the Roman Catholic religion. His +treatment of the University of Oxford, and imprisonment of the Seven +Bishops, with the birth of a son who would be educated as a Roman +Catholic, caused the Revolution of 1688, and placed William and Mary +on the throne. + +Parliament now, 1689, passed the Bill of Rights, the third great +charter for the protection of the English people, and later confirmed +it, 1701, by the Act of Settlement, which secured the crown to a line +of Protestant sovereigns. The Mutiny Bill, passed at the beginning of +William III's reign, made the army dependent on Parliament. These +measures practically put the government in the hands of the House of +Commons, where it has ever since remained. The Long Parliament had +passed a Triennial Act (1641) requiring a new Parliament to be +summoned within three years from the dissolution of the last +Parliament, which was to sit not longer than three years. This law +was repealed in 1664 and reenacted under William III in 1694. +William's wars caused the beginning of the National Debt and the +establishment of the Bank of England. + +In the reign of Anne, 1707, Scotland and England were united under the +name of Great Britain. During her sovereignty the permanent Whig and +Tory parties, which came into existence in the time of Charles II, +became especially prominent. They have since continued to divide the +parliamentary government between them,--the Whigs seeking to extend +the power of the people; the Tories, that of the Crown and the +Church. After the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832 (S582) the Whigs +took the name of Liberals and the Tories that of Conservatives. The +system of Cabinet Government, which now prevails, took its rise in +1721 under Robert Walpole, seven years after Anne's death (S534). + + II. Religion + +518. Religious Parties and Religious Legislation. + +At the beginning of this period we find four religious parties in +England: (1) the Roman Catholics; (2) the Episcopalians, or supporters +of the National Church of England; (3) the Puritans, who wised to +remain members of that Church, but who sought to "purify" it from +certain Roman Catholic customs and modes of worship; (4) the +Independents, who were endeavoring to establish independent +congregational societies. In Scotland the Puritans established their +religion in a Church governed by elders, or presbyters, instead of +bishops, which on that account got the name of Presbyterians. + +James I persecuted all who dissented from the Church of England; and +after the Gunpowder Plot the Roman Catholics were practically deprived +of the protection of the law, and subject to terrible oppression. In +James's reign Bartholomew Legate, a Unitarian, was burned at West +Smithfield Market, London (1612), for denying the doctrine of the +trinity. He was the last English martyr. Charles I greatly +exasperated the Puritans in the English Church by his Declaration of +Sports, which recommended games in the churchyards after service on +Sunday. Clergymen who refused to read the Declaration to their +congregation were dismissed from their places. + +During the period of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, +Presbyterianism was established as the national worship of England and +Scotland by the Solemn League and Covenant. A great many Episcopal +clergymen were deprived of their parishes. At the Restoration several +laws against the Scotch Covenanters and other Dissenters were +enforced, and retaliatory legislation drove two thousand clergymen +from their parishes to starve. On the other hand, the pretended +Popish Plot caused the exclusion of Roman Catholics from both houses +of Parliament, and all persons holding office were obliged to partake +of the sacrament according to the Church of England. James II's +futile attempt to restore Catholicism ended in the Revolution and the +passage of the Toleration Act, granting liberty of worship to all +Protestant Trinitarians. Stringent laws were passed against Catholics +(1700), but they were not regularly enforced. Under Anne the +Occasional Conformity Act (1711) and the Schism Act (1714) were aimed +at Dissenters. The first of these laws punished officeholders who, +during their term of office, should attend any dissenting place of +worship; the second forbade any person's keeping a public or private +school unless he was a member of the Church of England. Both laws +were repealed a few years later (1718). + + III. Military Affairs + +519. Armor and Arms. + +Armor still continued to be worn in some degree during this period, +but it consisted chiefly of the helmet with breastplates and +backplates. Firearms of various kinds were in general use; also hand +grenades, or small bombs, and the bayonet. The chief wars of the +period were the Civil War, the wars with the Dutch, William's war with +France, which extended to America, and the War of the Spanish +Succession. + + IV. Literature, Learning, and Art + +520. Great Writers. + +The most eminent prose writers of this period were Sir Walter Raleigh, +Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, John Bunyan, Bishop Hooker, Jeremy +Taylor, John Locke, Hobbes, Dean Swift, Defoe, and Addison; the chief +poets, Shakespeare and Jonson (mentioned under the preceding period), +Milton, Dryden, Pope, Butler, and Beaumont and Fletcher, with a class +of writers known as the "Comic Dramatists of the Restoration," whose +works, though not lacking in genius, exhibit many of the worst +features of the licentious age in which they were produced. Three +other great writers were born in the latter part of this period,-- +Fielding, the novelist, Hume, the historian, and Butler,[1] the ablest +thinker of his time in the English Church,--but their productions +belong to the time of the Georges. + +[1] Bishop Butler, author of "The Analogy of Religion" (1736), a work +which gained for him the title of "The Bacon of Theology." + +521. Progress in Science and Invention. + +Sir Isaac Newton revolutionized natural philosophy by his discovery +and demonstration of the law of gravitation, and Dr. William Harvey +accomplished as great a change in physiological science by his +discovery of the circulation of the blood. The most remarkable +invention of the age was a rude steam engine, patented in 1698 by +Captain Savery, and so far improved by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 that it +was used for pumping water in coal mines for many years. Both were +destined to be superseded by James Watt's engine, which belongs to a +later period (1765). + +522. Architecture. + +The Gothic style of the preceding periods was followed by the Italian, +or classical, represented in the works of Inigo Jones and +Sir Christopher Wren. It was a revival, in modified form, of the +ancient Greek and Roman architecture. St. Paul's Cathedral, the +grandest church ever built in England for Protestant worship, is the +best example of this style. Many beautiful manor houses were built in +the early part of this period, which, like the churches of the time, +were often ornamented with the exquisite wood carving of Grinling +Gibbons. There were no great artists in England in this age, though +Charles I employed Rubens and other foreign painters to decorate the +palace of Whitehall and Windsor Castle. + +523. Education. + +The higher education of the period was confined almost wholly to the +study of Latin and Greek. The discipline of all schools was extremely +harsh. Nearly every lesson was emphasized by a liberal application of +the rod, and the highest recommendation a teacher could have was that +he was known as "a learned and lashing master." + + V. General Industry and Commerce + +524. Manufactures. + +Woolen goods continued to be a chief article of manufacture. Silks +were also produced by thousands of Huguenot weavers, who fled from +France to England in order to escape the persecutions of Louis XIV. +Coal was now extensively mined, and iron and pottery works were giving +industrial importance to Birmingham and other growing towns in the +Midlands. + +525. Commerce. + +A permanent English colony was established in America in 1607, and by +1714 the number of such colonies had increased to twelve. During a +great part of this period intense commercial rivalry existed between +England and Holland, each of which was anxious to get the monopoly of +the colonial import and export trade. Parliament passed stringent +navigation laws, under Cromwell and later, to prevent the Dutch from +competing with English merchants and shippers. The East India and +South Sea companies were means of greatly extending English commercial +enterprise, as was also the tobacco culture of Virginia. + +526. Roads and Travel. + +Good roads were still unknown in England. Stagecoaches carried a few +passengers at exorbitant rates, requiring an entire day to go a +distance which an express train now travels in less than an hour. +Goods were carried on pack horses or in cumbrous wagons, and so great +was the expense of transportation that farmers often let their produce +rot on the ground rather than attempt to get in to the nearest market +town. + +In London a few coaches were in use, but covered chairs, carried on +poles by two men and called "sedan chairs," were the favorite +vehicles. They continued to be used for a century after this period +closes. Although London had been in great part rebuilt since the +Great Fire (1666), the streets were still very narrow, without +sidewalks, heaped with filth, and miserably lighted. + +527. Agriculture; Pauperism. + +Agriculture generally made no marked improvement, but gardening did, +and many vegetables and fruits were introduced which had not before +been cultivated. + +Pauperism remained a problem which the government had not yet found a +practical method of dealing with. There was little freedom of +movement; the poor man's parish was virtually his prison, and if he +left it to seek work elsewhere, and required help on the way, he was +certain to be sent back to the place where he was legally settled. + + VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs + +528. Dress. + +In the time of Charles II and his successors the dress of the wealthy +and fashionable classes was most elaborate and costly. Gentlemen wore +their hair long, in ringlets, with an abundance of gold lace and +ruffles, and carried long, slender swords, known as rapiers. +Sometimes indeed they outshone the ladies in the splendor of their +costume, and in one instance the bride at a wedding burst into tears +because her gorgeously dressed husband looked so much handsomer than +she did that all eyes were fixed on him alone. Later on, large +flowing wigs came into fashion, and no man of any social standing +thought of appearing without one. + +In Queen Anne's reign both ladies and gentlemen powdered their hair. +The ladies also painted their faces and ornamented them with minute +black patches, which served not only for "beauty spots," but showed, +by their arrangement, with which political party they sympathized. + +529. Coffeehouses. + +Up to the middle of the seventeenth century ale and beer were the +common drink of all classes; but about that time coffee was +introduced, and coffeehouses became fashionable resorts for gentlemen +and for all who wished to learn the news of the day. Tea had not yet +come into use; but, in 1660, Pepys says in his diary: "Sept. 25. I +did send for a cup of tee, a China drink, of which I never had drank +before." + +530. The Streets of London. + +No efficient police existed in London; at night the streets were +infested with brutal ruffians, and, as late as Queen Anne's time, by +bands of "fine gentlemen" not less brutal, who amused themselves by +overturning sedan chairs, rolling women downhill in barrels, and +compelling men to dance jigs, under the stimulus of repeated pricks +from a circle of sword points, until the victims fell fainting from +exhaustion. Duels were frequent, on the slightest provocation. +Highwaymen abounded both in the city and without, and, unless one went +well armed, it was often dangerous to travel any distance in the +country. + +531. Brutal Laws. + +Hanging was the common punishment for theft and many other crimes. +The public whipping of both men and women through the streets was +frequent. Debtors were shut up in prison, and left to beg from +passers-by or starve; and ordinary offenders were fastened in a wooden +frame called the "pillory" and exposed on a high platform, where they +were pelted by the mob with mud, rotten eggs, and other unsavory +missiles. In some cases their bones were broken with clubs and +brickbats. The pillory continued in use until the accession of +Victoria in 1837. + + +TENTH PERIOD + +"The history of England is emphatically the history of progress. It +is the history of a constant movement of the public mind, of a +constant change in the institutions of a great society."--Macaulay + +India Gained; America Lost--Parliamentary Reform--Government by the +People + +The House of Hanover (1714) to the Present Time + +George I, 1714-1727 William IV, 1830-1837 +George II, 1727-1760 Victoria, 1837-1901 +George III, 1760-1820 Edward VII, 1901-1910 +George IV, 1820-1830 George V, 1910- + +532. Accession of George I. + +As Queen Anne died without leaving an heir to the throne (S515), +George, Elector of Hanover, in accordance with the Act of Settlement +(S497), now came into possession of the English crown. (See +Genealogical Table opposite.) The new King had no desire whatever to +go to England. + +As he owed his new position to Whig legislation (S479), he naturally +favored that party and turned his back on the Tories (S479), who, +deprived of the sunshine of royal favor, were as unhappy as their +rivals were jubilant. The triumphant Whigs denounced "the shameful +Peace of Utrecht" (S512). Next, they impeached the three fallen Tory +leaders,[2] of whom Harley was the chief (S510), on a charge of +treason. The indictment accused them of having given back to +Louis XIV, in the late war, more captured territory than was +necessary. Furthermore, they were said to be guilty of having +intrigued to restore the House of Stuart with the design of making the +"Pretender" King (SS490, 491). Harley was sent to the Tower of London +for a time; he was then acquitted and released. Meanwhile his two +indicted associates had fled to France. + +[2] The three Tory leaders were Harley, now Earl of Oxford (S510), +St. John (Viscount Bolingbroke), and Butler (Duke of Ormonde). +Bolingbroke and Ormonde fled to Frnce, where the first entered the +service of the "Pretender," but he was ultimately permitted to return +to England. Ormonde never came back. Harley, as stated above, was +sent to the Tower; while there he secretly wrote to the "Pretender" +(S490), and offered him his services. + +Later, the Whigs repealed two harsh religious statutes (S511) directed +against Dissenters (S472), which the Tories and the High Churchmen had +enacted in the previous reign for the purpose of keeping themselves in +power. + + +The House of Hanover, also called Brunswick and Guelf + + James (Stuart) I of England + I + +------------------====================== + | I + Charles I Elizabeth, m. Frederick, + | Elector-Palatine,* and + ------------------------------- later King of Bohemia + | | | I +Charles II James II Mary, m. Sophia, m. the Elector + | William II of of Hanover+ + ----------------------- Orange I + | | | | George, Elector of +Mary, m. Anne James William III of Hanover, became +William III Edward Orange, became George I of England, +of Orange, Stuart, William III of 1714 +afterward (the so- England, I +William III called "Old 1689 George II +of England Pretender, I + b. 1688, Frederick, Prince of + d. 1765 Wales (died before + | coming to the throne) + Charles Edward I + Stuart (the so-called ============================ + "Young Pretender"), I I I + b. 1720, d. 1788 George IV William IV Edward, + Duke of Kent, + d. 1820 +*Elector-Palatine: a prince ruling over the I + territory called the Palatinate in Victoria + western Germany, on the Rhine. I ++Elector of Hanover: a prince ruling over the Edward VII + province of Hanover, a part of the German I + Empire, lying on the North Sea. The elector George V + received his title from the fact that he was + one of a certain number of princes who had + the right of electing the German Emperor. + + +533. Character of the New King. + +The new sovereign was a selfish, coarse old man, who in private life +would, as Lady Montagu said, have passed for an honest blockhead. He +neither knew anything about England, nor did he desire to know +anything of it. He could not speak a word of the language of the +country he was called to govern, and he made no attempt to learn it; +even the coronation service had to be explained to him as best it +might, in such broken Latin as the ministers could muster. + +Laboring under these disadvantages he wisely declined to take any +active part in the affairs of the nation. He trusted everything to +his Whig friends (S532) and let them, with Sir Robert Walpole at their +head, manage the country in their own way. + +Forunately, the great body of the English people were abundantly able +to take care of themselves. A noted French writer said of them that +they resembled a barrel of their own beer, froth at the top, dregs at +the bottom, but thoroughly sound and wholesome in the middle. It was +this middle class, with their solid practical good sense, that kept +the nation right. + +They were by no means enthusiastic worshipers of the German King who +had come to reign over them, but they saw that he had three good +qualities: he was no hypocrite, he did not waste the people's money, +and he was a man of unquestioned courage. But they also saw more than +this, for they realized that though George I might be as heavy, dull, +and wooden as the figurehead of an old-fashioned ship, yet, like that +figurehead, he stood for something greater and better than himself,-- +for he represented Protestantism, with civil and religious liberty,-- +and so the people gave him their allegiance. + +534. Rise of Cabinet Government; the First Prime Minister. + +The present method of Cabinet Government dates in great part from this +reign. From the earliest period of English history the sovereign was +accustomed to have a permanent council composed of some of the chief +men of the realm, whom he consulted on all matters of importance +(SS144, 145). Charles II, either because he found this body +inconveniently large for the rapid transaction of business, or because +he believed it inexpedient to discuss his plans with so many, selected +a small confidential committee from it (S476). This committee met to +consult with the King in his cabinet, or private room, and so came to +be called "the Cabinet Council," or briefly, "the Cabinet," a name +which it has ever since retained. + +During Charles II's reign and that of his immediate successors the +King continued to choose this special council from those whom he +believed to be friendly to his measures, often without much regard to +party lines, and he was aways present at their meetings. With the +accession of George I, however, a great change took place. His want +of acquaintance with prominent men made it difficult for him to select +a Cabinet himself, and his ignorance of English rendered his presence +at its meetings wholly useless. For these reasons the new King +adopted the expedient of appointing a chief adviser, or Prime +Minister, who personally chose his own Cabinet from men of the +political party to which he belonged. + +Sir Robert Walpole, who held this office of chief adviser for more +than twenty years (1721-1742), is commonly considered to have been the +first actual Prime Minister, and the founder of that system of Cabinet +Government which prevails in England to-day. He was a master hand at +managing his fellow ministers in the Cabinet, and when one of them, +named Townshend, aspired to share the leadership, Walpole said to him, +"The firm must be Walpole and Townshend, not Townshend and Walpole." +But later (1741) a minority in the Lords protested "that a sole or +even First Minister is an officer unknown to the law of Britain, +inconsistent withthe Constitution of this country, and destructive of +liberty in any government whatsoever." Then Walpole thought it +expedient to disclaim the title; but many years later the younger Pitt +declared (1803) that there ought to be "an avowed minister possessing +the chief weight in the Council" or Cabinet, and that view eventually +prevailed.[1] The Cabinet, or "Government," as it is usually +called,[2] generally consists of twelve or fifteen persons chosen by +the Prime Minister, or Premier,[3] from the leading members of both +houses of Parliament, but whose political views agree in the main with +the majority of the House of Commons.[4] + +But this system, as it now stands, was gradually developed. It had +advanced to such a point under the dictatorial rule of Sir Robert +Walpole that George II, chafing under the restriction of his power, +said bitterly, "In England the ministers are King." George III, +however, succeeded, for a time, in making himself practically supreme, +but Cabinet Government soon came to the front again, and, under +William IV, the Prime Minister, with his Cabinet, ceased to look to +the sovereign for guidance and support, and became responsible to the +House of Commons (provided that body reflects the public opinion of +the nation). + +[1] Feilden's "Constitutional History of England," Taswell-Langmead's +"English Constitutional History," and A.L. Lowell's "The Government of +England," 2 vols. +[2] "The Cabinet, the body to which, in common use, we have latterly +come to give the name of Government." Encyclopaedia Britannica (10th +edition, VIII, 297). +[3] "Premier": from the French premier, first or chief. +[4] The existence of the Cabinet depends on custom, not law. Its +three essential characteristics are generally considered to be: (1) +Practical unanimity of party; (2) Practical unity of action under the +leadership of the Prime Minister; (3) Collective responsibility to the +party in the House of Commons which represents the political majority +of the nation. Its members are never OFFICIALLY made known to the +public, nor its proceedings recorded. Its meetings, which take place +at irregular intervals, according to pressure of business, are +entirely secret, and the sovereign is never present. As the Cabinet +agrees in its composition with the majority of the House of Commons, +it follows that if the Commons are Conservative, the Cabinet will be +so likewise; and if Liberal, the reverse. Theoretically, the +sovereign chooses the Cabinet; but practically the selection is now +always made by the Prime Minister. If at any time the Prime Minister, +with his Cabinet, finds that his political policy no longer agrees +with that of the House of Commons, he and the other members of the +Cabinet resign, and the sovereign chooses a new Prime Minister from +the opposite party, who forms a new Cabinet in harmony with himself +and the Commons. If, however, the Prime Minister has good reason for +believing that a different House of Commons would support him, the +sovereign may, by his advice, dissolve Parliament. A new election +then takes place, and according to the political character of the +members returned, the Cabinet remains in or goes out of power. The +Cabinet, or Government, now invariably includes the following +officers: + + 1. The First Lord of the Treasury (usually the Prime Minister). + 2. The Lord Chancellor. + 3. The Lord President of the Council. + 4. The Lord Privy Seal. + 5. The Chancellor of the Exchequer. + 6. The Secretary of State for Home Affairs. + 7. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. + 8. The Secretary of State for the Colonies. + 9. The Secretary of State for India. +10. The Secretary of State for War. +11. The First Lord of the Admiralty. + +In addition, a certain number of other officers are frequently +included, making the whole number about twelve or fifteen. + +535. The "Pretender"; "The Fifteen" (1715); the Septennial Act (1716). + +The fact that George I exclusively favored the Whigs exasperated the +opposite, or Tory, party. The Jacobites or extreme members of that +party (S495), in Scotland, with the secret aid of many in England, now +rose, in the hope of placing on the throne James Edward Stuart, the +son of James II. He was called the "Chevalier"[1] by his friends, but +the "Pretender" by his enemies (SS490, 491, 512). The insurrection +was led by John, Earl of Mar, who, from his frequent change of +politics, had got the nickname of "Bobbing John." Mar encountered the +royal forces at Sheriffmuir, in Perthsire, Scotland (1715), where an +indecisive battle was fought, which the old ballad thus describes: + + "There's some say that we won, and some say that they won, + And some say that none won at a', man; + But one thing is sure, that at Sheriffmuir + A battle there was, which I saw, man." + +[1] The Chevalier de St. George: After the birth of the "Chevalier's" +son Charles in 1720, the father was known by the nickname of the "Old +Pretender," and the son as the "Young Pretender." So far as birth +could entitle them to the crown, they held the legal right of +succession; but the Revolution of 1688 and the Act of Settlement +barred them out (S497). + +On the same day of the fight at Sheriffmuir, the English Jacobites +(S495), with a body of Scotch allies, marched into Preston, +Lancashire, and there surrendered, almost without striking a blow. + +The leaders of the movement, except the Earl of Mar, who, with one or +two others, escaped to the Continent, were beheaded or hanged, and +about a thousand of the rank and file were sold as slaves to the West +India and Virginia plantations (S487). The "Pretender" himself landed +in Scotland a few weeks after the defeat of his friends; but finding +no encouragement, he hurried back to the Continent again. Thus ended +the rebellion known from the year of its outbreak (1715) as "The +Fifteen." + +One result of this was the passage of the septennial Act (1716), +extending the duration of Parliament from three years, which was the +longest time that body could sit (SS439, 517), to seven years (since +reduced to five years).[2] The object of this change was to do away +with the excitement and tendency to rebellion at that time, resulting +from frequent elections, in which party feeling ran to dangerous +extremes. + +[2] The Triennial Act (SS439, 517) provided that at the end of three +years Parliament must be dissolved and a new election held. This was +to prevent the sovereign from keeping that body in power indefinitely, +contrary, perhaps, to the political feeling of the country, which +might prefer a different set of representatives. Under the Septennial +Act the time was extended four years, making seven in all, but the +sovereign may, of course, dissolve Parliament at any time. In 1911 +the Parliament Act (S631) limited the duration of Parliament to five +years. + +536. The South Sea Bubble, 1720. + +A few years later a gigantic enterprise was undertaken by the South +Sea Company, a body of merchants originally organized as a company +trading in the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A Scotchman +named Law had started a similar project in France, known as the +"Mississippi Company," which proposed to pay off the national debt of +France from the profits of its commerce with the West Indies and the +country bordering on the Mississippi River. + +Following his example, the South Sea Company now undertook to pay off +the English National Debt (S503), mainly, it is said, from the profits +of the slave trade between Africa and Brazil.[1] Sir Robert Walpole +(S534) had no faith in the scheme, and attacked it vigorously; but +other influential members of the Government gave it their +encouragement. The directors came out with prospectuses promising +dividends of fifty per cent on all money invested. Everybody rushed +to buy stock, and the shares rapidly advaced from 100 pounds to 1000 +pounds a share. + +[1] Loftie's "History of London"; and see S512. + +A speculative craze followed, the like of which has never since been +known. Bubble companies sprang into existence with objects almost as +absurd as those of the philosophers whom Swift ridiculed in +"Gulliver's Travel's," where one man was trying to make gunpowder out +of ice, and another to extract sunbeams from cucumbers. + +A mere list of these companies would fill several pages. One was to +give instruction in astrology, by which every man might be able to +foretell his own destiny by examining the stars; a second was to +manufacture butter out of beech trees; a third was for a wheel for +driving machinery, which once started would go on forever, thereby +furnishing a cheap perpetual motion. + +A fourth projector, going beyond all the rest in audacity, had the +impudence to offer stock for sale in an enterprise "which shall be +revealed hereafter." He found the public so gullible and so greedy +that he sold 2000 pounds worth of the new stock in the course of a +single morning. He then prudently disappeard with the cash, and the +unfortunate investors found that where he went with their money was +not among the things to "be revealed hereafter." + +The narrow passage leading to the London stock exchange was crowded +all day long with struggling fortune hunters, both men and women. +Suddenly, when the excitement was at its height, the bubble burst, as +Law's scheme in France had a little earlier. + +Great numbers of people were hopelessly ruined, and the cry for +vengeance was as loud as the bids for stock had once been. One +prominent government official who had helped to blow the bubble was +sent to the Tower. Another committed suicide rather than face a +parliamentary committee of investigation, one of whose members had +suggested that it would be an excellent plan to sew the South Sea +directors up in sacks and throw them into the Thames. + +537. How a Terrible Disease was conquered, 1721, 1796. + +But among the new things which the people were to try in that century +was one which led to most beneficient results. For many generations +the great scourge of Europe was the smallpox. Often the disease was +as violent as the plague (S474), and carried off nearly as many +victims. Medical art, seemed powerless to deal with it, and even in +years of ordinary health in England about one person out of ten died +of this loathsome pestilence. In the early part of George I's reign, +Lady Mary Montagu, then traveling to Turkey, wrote that the Turks were +in the habit of inoculating their children for the disease, which +rendered it much milder and less fatal, and that she was about to try +the experiment on her own son. + +Later, Lady Montagu returned to England, and through her influence and +example the practice was introduced there, 1721. It was tried first +on five criminals in Newgate who had been sentenced to the gallows, +but were promised their freedom if they would consent to the +operation. As it proved a complete success, the Princess of Wales, +with the King's consent, caused it to be tried on her daughter, with +equally good results. + +The medical profession, however, generally refused to sanction the +practice, and the clergy in many cases preached against it as an +"invention of Satan, intended to counteract the purposes of an +all-wise Providence." But through the perseverance and good sense of +Lady Montagu, with a few others, the new practice gradually gained +ground. Subsequently Dr. Jenner began to make experiments of a +different kind, which led, late in the century (1796-1798), to the +discovery of vaccination, by which millions of lives have been saved; +this, and the discovery of the use of ether in our own time (S615), +may justly be called two of the greatest triumphs of the art of +medicine. + +538. How Sir Robert Walpole governed. + +We have seen that Sir Robert Walpole (S534) became the first Prime +Minister in 1721, and that he continued in office as head of the +Cabinet, or Government, until near the middle of the next reign. He +was an able financier, and succeeded in reducing the National Debt +(S503). He believed in keeping the country out of war, and also, as +we have seen, out of "bubble speculation" (S536). Finally, he was +determined at all cost to maintain the Whig party in power, and the +Protestant Hanoverian sovereigns on the throne (SS515, 532). + +In order to accomplish these objects, he openly bribed members of +Parliament to support his party; he bought votes and carried elections +by gifts of titles, honors, and bank notes. He thus proved to his own +satisfaction the truth of his theory that most men "have their price," +and that an appeal to the pocketbook is both quicker and surer than an +appeal to the principle. But before the end of his ministry he had to +confess that he had found in the House of Commons a "boy patriot," as +he sneeringly called him, named William Pitt (afterward Earl of +Chatham), whom neither his money could buy nor his ridicule move +(SS549, 550). + +Bad as Walpole's policy was in its corrupting influence on the nation, +it as an admission that the time had come when the King could no +longer venture to rule by force, as in hte days of the Stuarts. It +meant that the Crown no longer possessed the arbitrary power it once +wielded. Walpole was a fox, not a lion; and "foxes," as Emerson tells +us, "are so cunning because they are not strong." + +539. Summary. + +Though George I did little for England except keep the "Pretender" +(S535) from the throne by occupying it himself, yet that was no small +advantage, since it gave the country peace. The establishment of +Cabinet Government under Sir Robert Walpole as the first Prime +Minister, the suppression of the Jacobite insurrection, the disastrous +collapse of the South Sea Bubble, and the introduction of vaccination +are the principle events. + + George II--1727-1760 + +540. Accession and Character. + +The second King George, who was also of German birth, was much like +his father, though he had the advantage of being able to speak English +readily, but with a strong German accent. His tastes were far from +being refined and he bluntly declared, "I don't like Boetry, and I +don't like Bainting." His wife, Queen Caroline, was an able woman. +She possessed the happy art of ruling her husband without his +suspecting it, while she, on the other hand, was ruled by Sir Robert +Walpole, whom the King hated, but whom he had to keep as Prime +Minister (SS534, 538). George II was a good soldier, and decidedly +preferred war to peace; but Walpole saw clearly that the peace policy +was best for the nation, and he and the Queen managed to persuaded the +King not to draw the sword. + +541. The War of Jenkins's Ear (1739). + +At the end of twelve years, however, trouble arose with Spain. +According to the London newspapers of that day, a certain Captain +Jenkins, while cruising, or, more probably, smuggling, in the West +Indies, had been seized by the Spaniards and barbarously maltreated. +They, if we accept his tory, accused him of attempting to land English +goods contrary to law, and searched his ship. Finding nothing against +him, they vented their rage and disappointment by hanging him to the +yardarm of his vessel until he was nearly dead. + +They then tore off one of his ears, and bade him take it to the King +of England with their compliments. Jenkins, it is said, carefully +wrapped up his ear and put it in his pocket. When he reached England, +he went straight to the House of Commons, drew out the mutilated ear, +showed it to the House, and demanded justice. + +The Spanish restrictions on English trade with the Indies and South +America[1] had long been a source of ill feeling. The sight of +Jenkins's ear brought matters to a climax; even Sir Robert Walpole, +the Prime Minister, could not resist the clamor for vengeance, and +contrary to his own judgment he had to vote for war (S538). + +[1] By the Treaty of Utrecht one English ship was allowed to carry +slaves once a year to the colonies of Spanish America (S512, note 1). + +Though Jenkins was the occasion, the real object of the war was to +compel Spain to permit the English to get a larger share in the +lucrative commerce, especially the slave trade, with the New World. +It was another proof that America was now rapidly becoming an +important factor in he politics of Great Britain (SS421, 422). + +The announcement of hostilities with Spain was received in London with +delight, and bells pealed from every steeple. "Yes," said Walpole," +they may ring the bells now, but before long they will be wringing +their hands." This prediction was verified by the heavy losses the +English suffered in an expedition against the Spanish settlement of +Carthagena, South America. But later the British commander, Commodore +Anson, inflicted great damage on the Spanish colonies, and returned to +England with vessels laden with large amounts of captured silver. + +542. War of the Austrian Succession, 1741; Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, + 1748. + +On the death of Charles VI, of the House of Austria, Emperor of +Germany, his daughter Maria Theresa succeeded to the Austrian +dominions. France now united with Spain, Prussia, and other European +powers to overturn this arrangement, partly out of jealousy of the +Austrian power, and partly from desire to get control of portions of +the Austrian possessions. England and Holland, however, both desired +to maintain Austria as a check against their old enemy France, and +declared war, 1741. + +During this war George II went over to the Continent to lead the +English forces in person. He was not a man of commanding appearance, +but he was every inch a soldier, and nothing exhilarated him like the +smell of gunpowder. At the battle of Dettingen, in Bavaria, he got +down from his horse, and drawing his sword, cried: "Come, boys, now +behave like men, and the French will soon run." + +With that, followed by his troops, he rused upon the enemy with such +impetuosity that they turned and fled. This was the last battle in +which an English king took part in person. It was followed by that of +Fontenoy, in the Netherlands (Belgium), in which the French gained the +victory. After nearly eight years fighting the treaty of +Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, secured a peace advantageous for England. + +543. Invasion by the "Young Pretender"; "The Forty-Five."[1] + +[1] "The Forty-Five": so called from the Scotch rising of 1745. + +While the War of the Austrian Succession was in progress, the French +encouraged James II's grandson, Princle Charles Edward, the "Young +Pretender" (S535), to make an attempt on the English crown. He landed +(1745) on the northern coast of Scotland with only seven followers, +but with the aid of the Scotch Jacobites (SS495, 535) of the Highlands +he gained a battle over the English at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. +Emboldened by his success, he now marched into Derbyshire, England, on +his way to London. He hoped that as he advanced the country would +rise in his favor; but finding no support, he retreated to Scotland. + +The next year he and his adherents were defeated, with great slaughter +by "Butcher" Cumberland, as the Scotch called him, at Culloden, near +Iverness (1746). (See map facing p. 120.) The "Young Pretender" fled +from the battlefield to the Hebrides. After wandering in those +islands for many months he escaped to France through the devotion and +courage of the Scottish heroine, Flora Macdonald. When he left the +country his Highland sympathizers lost all hope. There were no more +ringing Jacobite songs, sung over bowls of steaming punch, of "Wha'll +be king but Charlie?" "Over the Water to Charlie," and "Wae's me for +Prince Charlie"; and when (1788) Prince Charles Edward died in Rome, +the unfortunate House of Stuart, which began with James I (1603), +disappeared from English history.[2] + +[2] Devoted loyalty to a hopeless cause was never more truly or +pathetically expressed than in some of these Jacobite songs, notably +in those of Scotland, in honor of Prince Charles Edward, the "Young +Pretender," of which the following lines from "Over the Water to +Charlie" are an example: + "Over the water, and over the sea, + And over the water to Charlie; + Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go, + And live or die with Charlie." + Scott, "Redgauntlet" + +544. War in the East; the Black Hole of Calcutta; Clive's Victories; + English Empire of India, 1751-1757. + +The English acquired Madras, their first trading post in India, in the +reign of Charles I (1639). Later, they obtained possession of Bombay, +Calcutta, and other points, but they had not got control of the +country, which was still governed by native princes. The French also +had established an important trading post at Pondicherry, south of +Madras, and were now secretly planning through alliance with the +native rulers to get possession of the entire country. They had met +with some success in their efforts, and the times seemed to favor +their gaining still greater influence unless some decided measures +should be taken to prevent them. + +At this juncture Robert Clive, a young man who had been employed as +clerk in the service of the English East India Company, but who had +obtained a humble position in the army, obtained permission to try his +hand at driving back the enemy. It was a work for which he was +fitted. He met with success from the first, and he followed it up by +the splendid victory of Arcot, 1751, which practically gave the +English control of southern India. Shortly after that, Clive returned +to England. + +During his absence the native prince of Bengal undertook an expedition +against Calcutta, a wealthy British trading post. He captured the +fort which protected it (1756), and seizing the principal English +residents, one hundred and forty-six in number, drove them at the +point of the sword into a prison called the "Black Hole," a dungeon +less than twenty feet square, and having but two small windows. + +In such a climate, in the fierce heat of midsummer, that dungeon would +have been too close for a single European captive; to crowd it with +more than sevenscore persons for a night meant death by all the +agonies of heat, thirst, and suffocation. In vain they endeavored to +bribe the guard to transfer part of them to another room, in vain they +begged for mercy, in vain they tried to burst the door. Their jailers +only mocked them and would do nothing. + +When daylight came the floor was heaped with corpses. Out of the +hundred and forty-six prisoners only twenty-three were alive and they +were so changed "that their own mothers would not have known them."[1] + +[1] Macaulay's "Essay on Clive." + +When Clive returned he was met with a cry for vengeance. He gathered +his troops, recovered Calcutta, and ended by fighting that great +battle of Plassey, 1757, which was the means of permanently +establishing the English empire in India on a firm foundation. (See +map opposite.) + +545. The Seven Years' War in Europe and America, 1756-1763. + +Before the contest had closed by which England won her Asiatic +dominions, a new war had broken out. In the fifth year, 1756, of the +New Style[2] of reckoning time, the aggressive designs of Frederick +the Great of Prussia caused such alarm that a grand alliance was +formed by France, Russia, Austria, and Poland to check his further +advance. Great Britain, however, gave her support to Frederick, in +hope of humbling her old enemy France, who, in addition to her +attempts to oust the English from India, was also making preparations +on a grand scale to get possession of America. + +[2] The New Style was introduced into Great Britain in 1752. Owing to +a slight error in the calendar, the year had, in the course of +centuries, been gradually losing, so that in 1752 it was eleven days +short of what the true computation would make it. Pope Gregory +corrected the error in 1582, and his calendar was adopted in nearly +every country of Europe except Great Britain and Russia, both of which +regarded the change as a "popish measure." But in 1751, +notwithstanding the popular outcry, September 3, 1752, was made +September 14, by an act of Parliament, and by the same act the +beginning of the legal year was altered from March 25 to January 1. +The popular clamor against the reform is illustrated in Hogarth's +picture of an Election Feast, in which the People's party carry a +banner, with the inscription, "Give us back our eleven days." + +Every victory, therefore, which the British forces could gain in +Europe would, by crippling the French, make the ultimate victory of +the English in America so much the more certain; for this reason we +may look upon the alliance with Frederick as an indirect means +employed by England to protect her colonies on the other side of the +Atlantic. These colonies now extended along the entire coast, from +the Kennebec Riber, in Maine, to the borders of Florida. + +The French, on the other hand, had planted colonies at Quebec and +Montreal, on the St. Lawrence; at Detroit, on the Great Lakes; at New +Orleans and other points on the Mississippi. They had also begun to +build a line of forts along the Ohio River, which, when completed, +would connect their northern and southern colonies, and thus secure to +them the whole country west of the Alleghenies. They expected to +conquer the East as well, to erase Virginia, New England, and all +other English colonial titles from the map, and in their place to put +the name New France. + +During the first part of the war, the English were unsuccessful. In +an attempt to take Fort Duquesne, General Braddock met with a crushing +defeat (1756) from the combined French and Indian forces, which would +indeed have proved his utter destruction had not a young Virginian +named George Washington saved a remnant of Braddock's troops by his +calmness and courage. Not long afterwards, a second expedition was +sent out against the French fort, in which Washington led the +advance. The garrison fled at his approach, the English colors were +run up, and the place was named Pittsburg, in honor of William Pitt, +later, Lord Chatham, Secretary of State, but virtually Prime Minister +(S534) of England. + +About the same time, the English took the forts on the Bay of Fundy, +and drove out several thousand French settlers from Acadia, or Nova +Scotia. Other successes followed, by which they obtained possession +of important points. Finally, Canada was won from the French by +Wolfe's victory over Montcalm, at Quebec, 1759.[1] where both gallant +soldiers verified the truth of the words, "The paths of glory lead but +to the grave,"[2] which the English general had quoted to some brother +officers the vening before the attack. This ended the war. + +[1] See "Leading Facts of American History," in this series, S142. +[2] "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, + And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, + Await alike the inevitable hour; + The paths of glory lead but to the grave." + Gray, "Elegy" (1750) +"I would rather be the author of that poem," said Wolfe, "than to have +the glory of beating the French to-morrow." Wolfe and Montcalm were +both mortally wounded and died within a few hours of each other. + +Spain now ceded Florida to Great Britain, so that, when peace was made +in 1763, the English flag waved over the whole eastern half of the +American continent, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Thus, +within a comparatively few years, England had gained an empire in the +east (India) (S544) and another in the west (America). + +Six years later (1769) Captain Cook explored and mapped the coast of +New Zealand, and next the eastern coast of the island continent of +Australia. Before the middle of the following century both these +countries were added to the possessions of Great Britain. Then, as +Daniel Webster said, her "morning drum beat, following the sun and +keeping company with the hours," literally circled "the earth with one +continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." + +546. Moral Condition of England; Intemperance; Rise of the Methodists, + 1738. + +But grand as were the military successes of the British arms, the +reign of George II was morally torpid. With the exception of a few +public men like Pitt, the majority of the Whig party (S479) seemed +animated by no higher motive than self-interest. It was an age whose +want of faith, coarseness, and brutality were well protrayed by +Hogarth's pencil and Fielding's pen. + +For a long time intemperance had been steadily on the increase; strong +drink had taken the place of beer, and every attempt to restrict the +traffic was met at the elections by the popular cry, "No gin, no +king." The London taverns were thronged day and night, and in the +windows of those frequented by the lowest class placards were +exhibited with the tempting announcement, "Drunk for a penny; dead +drunk for twopence; clean straw for nothing." On the straw lay men and +women in beastly helplessness. + +Among the upper classes matters were hardly better. It was a common +thing for great statesmen to drink at public dinners until one by one +they slid out of their seats and disappeared under the table; and Sir +Robert Walpole, the late Prime Minister of England (S534, 538), said +that when he was a young man his father would say to him as he poured +out the wine, "Come, Robert, you shall drink twice while I drink once, +for I will not permit the son in his sober senses to be witness of the +intoxication of his father."[1] + +[1] Coxe's "Memoirs of Walpole" and Lecky's "England." + +Such was the condition of England when a great religious revival +began, 1738. Its leader was John Wesley. A number of years earlier, +while a tutor at Oxford, he and his brother Charles, with a few +others, were accustomed to meet at certain hours for devotional +exercises. The regularity of their meetings, and of their habits +generally, got for them the name of "Methodists," which, like "Quaker" +and many another nickname of the kind, was destined to become a title +of respect and honor. + +At first Wesley had no intention of separating from the Church of +England, but labored only to quicken it to new life; eventually, +however, he found it best to begin a more extended and independent +movement. The revival swept over England with its regenerating +influence, and was carried by Whitefield, Wesley's lifelong friend, +across the sea to America. It was especially powerful among those who +had hitherto scoffed at both Church and Bible. Rough and hardened men +were touched and melted to tears of repentance by the fervor of this +Oxford graduate, whom neither threats nor ridicule could turn aside +from his one great purpose of saving souls. + +Unlike the Church, Wesley did not ask the multitude to come to him; he +went to them. In this respect his work recalls that of the "Begging +Friars" of the thirteenth century (S208), and of Wycliffe's "Poor +Priests" in the fourteenth (S254). For more than thirty years he rode +on horseback from one end of England to the other, making known the +glad tidings of Christian hope. He preached in the fields, under +trees which are still known by the expressive name of "Gospel Oaks"; +he spoke in the abandoned mining pits of Cornwall, at the corners of +the streets in cities, on the docks, in the slums; in fact, wherever +he could find listening ears and responsive hearts. + +The power of Wesley's appeal was like that of the great Puritan +movement of the seventeenth century (SS378, 417). Nothing more +effective had been heard since the days when Augustine and his band of +monks set forth on their mission among the barbarous Saxons (S42). +The results answered fully to the zeal that awakened them. Better +than the growing prosperity of extending commerce, better than all the +conquests made by the British flag in the east or west, was the new +religious spirit which stirred the people of both England and +America. It provoked the National Church to emulation in good works; +it planted schools, checked intemperance, and brought into vigorous +activity whatever was best and bravest in a race that when true to +itself is excelled by none. + +547. Summary. + +The history of the reign may be summed up in the great Religious +Movement begun by John Wesley, which has just been described, and in +the Asiatic, Continental, and American wars with France, which ended +in the extension of the power of Great Britain in both hemispheres,-- +in India in the Old World and in North America in the New. + + George III--1760-1820 + +548. Accession and Character; the King's Struggle with the Whigs. + +By the death of George II his grandson,[1] George III, now came to the +throne. The new King was a man of excellent character, who prided +himself on having been born an Englishman. He had the best interests +of his country at heart, but he lacked many of the qualities necessary +to be a great ruler. He was thoroughly conscientious, but he was +narrow and stubborn to the last degree and he was at times insane. + +[1] Frederick, Prince of Wales, George II's son, died before his +father, leaving his son George heir to the throne. See Genealogical +Table, p. 323. + +His mother, who had seen how ministers and parties ruled in England +(S534), resolved that her son should have the control. Her constant +injunction to the young Prince was, "Be King, George, be King!" so +that when he came to power George was determined to be King if +self-will could make him one.[2] + +[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxv, S28. + +But beneath this spirit of self-will there was a moral principle. In +being King, George III intended to carry out a reform such as neither +George I nor George II could have accomplished, supposing that either +one had possessed the desire to undertake it. + +The great Whig (SS479, 507) families of rank and wealth had now held +uninterrupted possession of the government for nearly half a century. +Their influence was so supreme that the sovereign had practically +become a mere cipher, dependent for his authority on the political +support which he received. The King was resolved that this state of +things should continue no longer. He was determined to reassert the +royal authority, secure a government which should reflect his +principles, and have a ministry to whom he could dictate, instead of +one that dictated to him. + +For a long time he struggled in vain, but at last succeeded, and found +in Lord North a Prime Minister (S534) who bowed to the royal will, and +endeavored to carry out George III's favorite policy of "governing +for, but never by, the people." That policy finally called forth +Mr. Dunning's famous resolution in the House of Commons (1780). It +boldly declared the King's influence "had increased, was increasing, +and ought to be diminished." But his Majesty's measures had other +consequences, which were more far-reaching and disastrous than any one +in the House of Commons then imagined. + +549. Taxation of the American Colonies. + +The wars of the two preceding reigns had largely increased the +National Debt (S503), and the Government resolved to compel the +American colonies to share in a more direct degree than they had yet +done the constantly increasing burden of taxation. England then, like +all other European countries, regarded her colonies in a totally +different way from that in which she considers the colonies she now +holds. + +It was an open question at that time whether colonial legislative +rights existed save as a matter of concession or favor on the part of +the Home Government. It is true that the Government had found it +expedient to grant or recognize such rights, but it had seldom defined +them clearly, and in many important respects no one knew just what the +settlers of Virginia or Massachusetts might or might not lawfully +do.[1] + +[1] Story's "Constitution of the United States." + +The mother country, however, was perfectly clear on three points: + +1. That the American colonies were convenient receptacles for the +surplus population, good or bad, of the British Islands. +2. That they were valuable as sources of revenue and profit, +politically and commercially. +3. That, finally, they furnished excellent opportunities for the +King's friends to get office and make fortunes. + +Such had long been the feeling about India, and such too was the +feeling, modified by difference of circumstances, about America. + +Politically the English colonists in America enjoyed a large measure +of liberty. So far as local legislation was concerned, they were in +most cases preactically self-governing and independent. So, too, +their personal rights were carefully safeguarded. On the other hand, +the commercial policy of England toward her colonies, though severely +restrictive, was far less so than that of Spain or France toward +theirs. The Navigation Laws (S459) compelled the Americans to confine +their trade to England alone, or to such foreign ports as she +directed. If they sent a hogshead of tobacco or a barrel of salt fish +to another country by any but an English or a colonial built bessel, +they were legally liable to forfeith their goods. On the other hand, +they enjoyed the complete monopoly of the English tobacco market, and +in certain cases they received bounties on some of their products. +Furthermore, the Navigation Laws had not been rigidly enforced for a +long time, and the New England colonists generally treated them as a +dead letter. + +When George III came to the throne he resolved to revive the +enforcement of the Navigation Laws, to build up the British West +Indies, and to restrict the colonial trade with the Spanish and French +West Indies. This was done, not for the purpose of crippling American +commerce, but either to increase English revenue or to inflict injury +on foreign rivals or enemies. + +Furthermore, British manufacturers had at an earlier period induced +the English Government to restrict certain American home +manufactures. In accordance with that policy, Parliament had enacted +statutes which virtually forbade the colonists making their own woolen +cloth, or their own beaver hats, except on a very limited scale. They +had a few ironworks, but they were forbidden to erect another furnace, +or another mill for manufacturing iron rods or plates, and such +industries were declared to be a nuisance. + +William Pitt, who later became Lord Chatham (S538), was one of the +warmest friends that America had; but he openly advocated this narrow +policy, saying that if British interests demanded it he would not +permit the colonists to make so much as a "horseshoe nail." Adam +Smith, an eminent English political economist of that day, vehemently +condemned the British Government's colonial mercantile system as +suicidal; but his condemnation came too late to have any effect. The +fact was that the world was not ready then--if indeed it is yet--to +receive the gospel of "Live and let live." + +550. The Stamp Act, 1765. + +In accordance with these theories about the colonies, and to meet the +pressing needs of the Home Government, the English ministry proceeded +to levy a tax on the colonies (1764) in return for the protection they +granted them against the French and the Indians. The colonists, +however, had paid their full proportion of the expense of the French +and Indian wars out of their own pockets, and they now felt abundantly +able to protect themselves. + +But notwithstanding this plea, a form of direct tax on the American +colonies, called the stamp tax, was brought forward in 1765. The +proposed law required that a multitude of legal documents, such as +deeds, wills, notes, receipts, and the like, should be written upon +paper bearing stamps, purchased from the agents of the Home +Government. The colonists, generally, protested against the passage +of the law, and Benjamin Franklin, with other agents, was sent to +England to sustain their protests by argument and remonstrance. But +in spite of their efforts the law was passed, and the stamps were sent +over to America. The people, however, refused to use them, and +serious riots ensued. + +In England strong sympathy with the colonists was expressed by William +Pitt (Lord Chatham), Burke, Fox, and generally by what was well called +"the brains of Parliament." Pitt in particular was extremely +indignant. He urged the immediate repeal of the act, saying, "I +rejoice that America has resisted." + +Pitt further declared that any taxation of the colonies without their +representation in Parliament was tyranny, and that opposition to such +taxation was a duty. He vehemently insisted that the spirit shown by +the Americans was the same that had withstood the despotism of the +Stuarts in England (S436), and established the principle once for all +that the King cannot take his subject's money without that subject's +consent (S436). So, too, Fox ardently defended the American +colonists, and boldly maintained that the stand they had taken helped +"to preserve the liberties of mankind."[1] + +[1] See Bancroft's "United States," III, 107-108; "Columbia University +Studies," III, No. 2, "The Commercial Policy of England toward the +American Colonies"; Lecky's "American Revolution"; and C. K. Adams's +"British Orations." + +Against such opposition the law could not stand. The act was +accordingly repealed (1766), amid great rejoicing in London; the +church bells rang out in triumph, and the shipping in the Thames was +illuminated. But the good effect on America was lost by the passage +of another act which maintained the unconditional right of Parliament +to legislate for the colonies, and to tax them, if it saw fit, without +their consent. + +551. The Tea Tax and the "Boston Tea Party," 1773, with its Results. + +Another plan was now devised for getting money from the colonies. +Parliament enacted a law (1767) compelling the Americans to pay taxes +on a number of imports, such as glass, paper, and tea. In opposition +to this law, the colonists formed leagues refusing to use these taxed +articles, while at the same time they encouraged smugglers to land +them secretly, and the regular trade suffered accordingly. + +Parliament, finding that this was bad both for the government and for +commerce, now abolished all of these duties except that on tea +(1770). That duty was retained for a double purpose: first, and +chiefly, to maintain the principle of the right of Great Britain to +tax the colonies; and, next, to aid the East India Company, which was +pleading piteeously for help. + +In consequence mainly of the refusal of the American colonies to buy +tea, the London warehouses of the East India Company were full to +overflowing with surplus stock, and the company itself was in a +half-bankrupt condition. The custom had been for the company to bring +the tea to England, pay a tax on it, and then sell it to be reshipped +to America. To aid the company in its embarrassment, the Government +now agreed to remit this first duty altogether, and to impose a tax of +only threepence (six cents) a pound on the consumers in America. + +In itself the threepenny tax was a trifle, as the ship-money tax of +twenty shillnigs was to John Hampden (S436); but underlying it was a +principle which seemed to the Americans, as it had seemed to Hampden, +no trifle; for such principles revolutions had been fought in the +past; for such they would be fought in the future. + +The colonists resolved not to have the tea at any price. A number of +ships laden with the taxed herb arrived at the port of Boston. The +tea was seized by a band of men disguised as Indians, and thrown into +the harbor, 1773. The news of that action made the King and his +ministry furious. Parliament sympathized with the Government, and in +retaliation passed four laws of such severity that the colonists +nicknamed them the "Intolerable Acts." + +The first law was the "Boston Port Act," which closed the harbor to +all trade; the second was the "Regulating Act," which virtually +annulled the charter of Massachusetts, took the government away from +the people, and gave it to the King; the third was the "Administration +of Justice Act," which ordered that Americans who committed murder in +resistance to oppression should be sent to England for trial; the +fourth was the "Quebec Act," which declared the country north of the +Ohio and east of the Mississippi a part of Canada.[1] The object of +this last act was to conciliate the French Canadians, and secure their +help against the colonists in case of rebellion. + +[1] Embracing territory now divided into the five states of Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with eastern Minnesota. + +Even after Parliament had enacted these four drastic measures a +compromise might have been effected, and peace maintained, if the +counsels of the best men had been followed; but George III would +listen to no policy short of coercion. He meant well, but his brain +was not well balanced, he was subject to attacks of mental +derangement, and his one idea of BEING KING at all hazards had become +a kind of monomania (S548). Pitt condemned such oppression as morally +wrong, Burke denounced it as inexpedient, and Fox, another prominent +member of Parliament, wrote, "It is intolerable to think that it +should be in the power of one blockhead to do so much mischief." + +For the time, at least, the King was as unreasonable as any of the +Stuarts. The obstinacy of Charles I cost him his head, that of James +II his kingdom, that of George III resulted in a war which saddled the +English taxpayer with an additional debt of 120,000,000 pounds, and +forever detached from Great Britain the fairest and richest dominions +that she ever possessed. + +552. The American Revolution; Independence declared, 1776. + +In 1775 war began, and the stand made by the patriots at Lexington and +the fighting which followed at Concord and Bunker Hill showed that the +Americans were in earnest. The cry of the colonists had been, "No +taxation without representation"; now they had got beyond that, and +demanded, "No legislation without representation." But events moved so +fast that even this did not long suffice, and on July 4, 1776, the +colonies, in Congress assembled, solemnly declared themselves free and +independent. + +As far back as the French war there was at least one man who foresaw +this declaration. After the English had taken Quebec (S545), an +eminent French statesman said of the American colonies with respect to +Great Britain, "They stand no longer in need of her protection; she +will call on them to contribute toward supporting the burdens they +have helped to bring on her; and they will answer by striking off all +dependence."[2] + +[2] This was Vergennes; see Bancroft's "History of the United States." + +This prophecy was now fulfilled. After the Americans had defeated +Burgoyne in 1777 the English ministry became alarmed; they declared +themselves ready to make terms; they offered to grant everything but +independence;[3] but they had opened their eyes to the facts too late, +and nothing short of independence would now satisfy the colonists. +Attempts were made to open negotiations with General Washington, but +the commander in chief declined to receive a letter from the English +Government addressed to him, not in his official capacity, but as +"George Washington, Esq.," and so the matter came to nothing. + +[3] This was after France had recognized the independence of the +United States, 1778. + +553. The Battle of Yorktown; the King acknowledges American + Independence, 1782. + +The war against the rebellious states was never really popular in +England. From the outset great numbers refused to enlist to fight the +Americans, and spoke of the contest as the "King's War" to show that +the bulk of the English people did not encourage it. The struggle +went on with varying success through seven heavy years, until, with +the aid of the French, the Americans defeated Lord Cornwallis at +Yorktown in 1781.[1] By that battle France got her revenge for the +loss of Quebec in 1759 (S545), and America finally won the cause for +which she had spent so much life and treasure. + +[1] It is pleasant to know that a hundred years later, in the autumn +of 1881, a number of English gentlemen were present at the centennial +celebration of the taking of Yorktown, to express their hearty good +will toward the nation which their ancestors had tried in vain to keep +a part of Great Britain. + +George III could hold out no longer; on a foggy December morning in +1782, he entered the House of Lords, and with a faltering voice read a +paper in which he acknowledged the independence of the United States +of America. He closed his reading with the prayer that neither Great +Britain nor America might suffer from the separation; and he expressed +the hope that religion, language, interest, and affection might prove +an effectual bond of union between the two countries. + +Eventually the separation proved "a mutual advantage, since it removed +to a great extent the arbitrary restrictions on trade, gave a new +impetus to commerce, and immensely increased the wealth of both +nations."[2] + +[2] Goldwin Smith's lectures on "The Foundation of the American +Colonies." In general see "Lecky's American Revolution," and the +"Leading Facts of American History" or the "Student's American +History," in this series. + +554. The Lord George Gordon Riots (1780). + +While the American war was in progress, England had not been entirely +quiet at home. A prominent Whig leader in Parliament had moved the +repeal of some of the most severe laws against the Roman Catholics.[3] +The greater part of these measures had been enacted under William III, +"when England was in mortal terror" of the restoration of James II +(S491). The Solicitor-General said, in seconding the motion for +repeal, that these lwas were "a disgrace to humanity." Parliament +agreed with him in this matter. Because these unjust acts were +stricken from the Statute Book, Lord George Gordon, a half-crazed +fanatic,[1] who was in Parliament, led an attack upon the government +(1780). + +[3] The worst of these laws was that which punished a priest who +should celebrate mass, with imprisonment for life. See +Taswell-Langmead's "English Constitutional History," p.627, and +compare J.F. Bright's "History of England," III, 1087. +[1] Gordon seems to have been of unsound mind. He used to attack both +political parties with such fury that it was jocosely said there were +"three parties in Parliament--the ministry, the opposition, and Lord +George Gordon." + +For six days London was at the mercy of a furious mob of 50,000 +people, who set fire to Catholic chapels, pillaged many dwellings, and +committed every species of outrage. Newgate prison was broken into, +the prisoners were released, and the prison was burned. No one was +safe from attack who did not wear a blue cockade to show that he was a +Protestant, and no man's house was secure unless he chalked "No +Popery" on the door in conspicuous letters. In fact, one individual, +in order to make doubly sure, wrote over the entrance to his +residence: "No Religion Whatever." Before the riot was subdued a large +amount of property had been destroyed and many lives sacrificed. + +555. Impeachment of Warren Hastings (1788). + +Six years after the American Revolution came to an end Warren +Hastings, Governor-General of India, was impeached for corrupt and +cruel government in that distant province. He was tried before the +House of Lords, gathered in Westminster Hall. On the side of Hastings +was the powerful East India Company, ruling over a territory many +times larger than the whole of Great Britain. Against him were +arrayed the three ablest and most eloquent men in England,--Burke, +Fox, and Sheridan. + +"Raising his voice until the oak ceiling resounded, Burke exclaimed at +the close of his fourth great speech, `I impeach Warren Hastings of +high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the +Commons of Great Britain, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him +in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has +sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose +rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into +a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of +both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I +impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all!'" + +The trial was continued at intervals for over seven years. It +resulted in the acquittal of the accused (1795); but it was proved +that the chief business of those who went out to India was to wring +fortunes from the natives, and then go back to England to live like +"nabobs," and spend their ill-gotten money in a life of luxury. This +fact, and the stupendous corruption that was shown to exist, +eventually broke down the gigantic monopoly, and British India was +thrown open to the trade of all nations.[1] + +[1] See Macaulay's "Essay on Warren Hastings"; also Burke's +"Speeches." + +556. Liberty of the Press; Law and Prison Reforms; Abolition of the + Slave Trade. + +Since the discontinuance of the censorship of the press (S498), though +newspapers were nominally free to discuss public affairs, yet the +Government had no intention of permitting any severe criticism. On +the other hand, there were men who were determined to speak their +minds through the press on political as on all other matters. In the +early part of the reign, John Wilkes, an able but scurrilous writer, +attacked the policy of the Crown in violent terms (1763). Some years +later (1769), a writer, who signed himself "Junius," began a series of +letters in a daily paper, in which he handled the King and the "King's +friends" still more roughly. An attempt was made by the Government to +punish Wilkes and the publisher of the "Junius" letters, but it +signally failed in both cases. Public feeling was plainly in favor of +the freest political expression,[2] which was eventually conceded. + +[2] Later, during the excitement caused by the French Revolution, +there was a reaction from this feeling, but it was only temporary. + +Up to this time parliamentary debates had rarely been reported. In +fact, under the Tudors and the Stuarts, members of Parliament would +have run the risk of imprisonment if their criticisms of royalty had +been made public; but now, in 1771, the papers began to contain the +speeches and votes of both Houses on important questions. Every +effort was made to suppress these reports, but again the press gained +the day. Henceforth the nation could learn how far its +representatives really represented the will of the people, and so +could hold them strictly accountable,--a matter of vital importance in +every free government.[3] + +[3] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxvi, +S30. + +Another field of reform was also found. The times were brutal. The +pillory still stood in the center of London;[4] and if the unfortunate +offender who was put in it escaped with a shower of mud and other +unsavory missiles, instead of clubs and brickbats, he was lucky +indeed. Gentlemen of fashion arranged pleasure parties to visit the +penitentiaries for women to see the wretched inmates whipped. The +whole code of criminal law was savagely vindictive. Capital +punishment was inflicted for about two hundred offenses, many of which +would now be thought to be sufficiently punished by one or two months' +imprisonment in the house of correction. + +[4] The pillory (S531) was not abolished until the accession of Queen +Victoria. + +Not only men, but women and children even, were hanged for pilfering +goods or food worth a few shillings.[1] The jails were crowded with +poor wretches whom want had driven to theft, and who were "worked off" +on the gallows every Monday morning in batches of a dozen or twenty, +in sight of the jeering, drunken crowds who gathered to witness their +death agonies. + +[1] Five shillings, or $1.25, was the hanging limit; anything stolen +above that sum in money or goods might send the thief to the gallows. + +Through the efforts of Sir Samuel Romilly, Jeremy Bentham, and others, +a reform was effected in this bloody code. Next, the labors of the +philanthropic John Howard, and later of Elizabeth Fry, purified the +jails of abuses which had made them not only dens of suffering and +disease, but schools of crime as well. + +The laws respecting the pubishment for debt were also changed for the +better, and thousands of miserable beings who were without means to +satisfy their creditors were set free, instead of being kept in +useless lifelong imprisonment. At the same time Clarkson, +Wilberforce, Fox, and Pitt were endeavoring to abolish that relic of +barbarism, the African slave trade. After twenty years of persistent +effort both in Parliament and out, they at last accomplished that +great and beneficent work in 1807. + +557. War with France (1793-1805); Battle of the Nile; Trafalgar, 1805. + +Near the close of the century (1789) the French Revolution broke out. +It was a violent and successful attempt to destroy those feudal +institutions which France had outgrown, and which had, as we have +seen, disappeared gradually in England after the rebellion of Wat +Tyler (SS250, 252). At first the revolutionists received the hearty +sympathy of many of the Whig party (S479), but after the execution of +Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette,[1] England became alarmed not +only at the horrible scenes of the Reign of Terror but at the +establishment of the French democratic republic which seemed to +justify them, and joined an alliance of the principal European powers +for the purpose of restoring monarchy in France. + +[1] See "Death of Marie Antoinette," in Burke's "Reflections on the +French Revolution." + +Napoleon had now become the real head of the French nation, and seemed +bent on making himself master of all Europe. He undertook an +expedition against Egypt and the East, which was intended as a +stepping-stone toward the ultimate conquest of the English empire in +India, but his plans were frustrated by Nelson, who completely +defeated the French fleet at the battle of the Nile (1798). + +With the assistance of Spain, Napoleon next prepared to invade +England, and was so confident of success that he caused a gold medal +to be struck, bearing the inscription, "Descent upon England." "Struck +at London, 1804." But the English warships drove the French and +Spanish fleets into the harbor of Cadiz, and Napoleon had to postpone +his great expedition for another year.[2] In the autumn of 1805, the +French and Spanish fleets sallied forth determined to win. But Lord +Nelson, that frail little man who had lost his right arm and the sight +of his right eye fighting his country's battles, lay waiting for them +off Cape Trafalgar,[3] near by. + +[2] In 1801 Robert Fulton, of Pennsylvania, proposed to Napoleonthat +he should build warships propelled by steam. The proposal was +submitted to a committee of French scientists, who reported that it +was absurd. Had Napoleon acted on Fulton's suggestion, his descent on +England might have been successful. +[3] Cape Trafalgar, on the southern coast of Spain. + +Two days later he descried the enemy at daybreak. Both sides felt +that the decisive struggle was at hand. With the exception of a long, +heavy swell the sea was calm, with a light breeze, but sufficient to +bring the two fleets gradually within range. + + "As they drifted on their path + There was silence deep as death; + And the boldest held his breath + For a time."[4] + +[4] Campbell's "Battle of the Baltic," but applicable as well to +Trafalgar. + +Just before the action Nelson ran up this signal to the masthead of +his ship, where all might see it: "England explects Every Man to do +his Duty." The answer to it was three ringing cheers from the entire +fleet, and the fight began. When it ended, Napoleon's boasted navy +was no more. Trafalgar Square, in the heart of London, with its tall +column bearing aloft a statue of Nelson, commemorates the decisive +victory, which was dearly bought with the life of the great admiral. + +The battle of Traflagar snuffed out Napoleon's projected invasion of +England. He had lost his ships, and their commander, in his despair, +committed suicide. The French Emperor could no longer hope to bridge +"the ditch," as he derisively called the boisterous Channel, whose +waves rose like a wall between him and the island which he hated +(S14). A few years later, Napoleon, who had taken possession of Spain +and placed his brother on the throne, was driven from that country by +Sir Arthur Wellesly, destined to be better known as the Duke of +Wellington, and the crown was restored to the Spanish nation. + +558. Second War with the United States, 1812-1815. + +The United States waged its first war with Great Britain to gain an +independent national existence; in 1812 it declared a second war to +secure its rights upon the sea. During the long and desperate +struggle between England and France, each nation had prohibited +neutral powers from commercial intercourse with the other, or with any +country friendly to the other. + +Furthermore, the English Government had laid down the principle that a +person born on British soil could not become a citizen of another +nation, but that "once an Englishman always an Englishman" was the +only true doctrine. In accordance with that theory, it claimed the +right to search American ships and take from them and force into their +own service any seaman supposed to be of British birth. In this way +Great Britian had seized more than six thousand men, and +notwithstanding their protest that they were American citizens, either +by birth or by naturalization, had compelled them to enter the English +navy. + +Other points in dispute between the two countries were in a fair way +of being settled amicably, but there appeared to be no method of +coming to terms in regard to the question of search and impressment, +which was the most important of all, since though the demand of the +United States was, in the popular phrase of the day, for "Free Trade +and Sailors' Rights," it was the last which was especially emphasized. + +In 1812 war against Great Britain was declared, and an attack made on +Canada which resulted in the American forces being driven back. +During the war British troops landed in Maryland, burned the Capitol +and other public buildings in Washington, and destroyed the +Congressional Library. + +On the other hand, the American navy had unexpected and extraordinary +successes on the ocean and the lakes. Out of fifteen sea combats with +approximately equal forces, the Americans gained twelve. The contest +closed with the signal defeat of the English at New Orleans, when +General Andrew Jackson (1815) completely routed the forces led by Sir +Edward Pakenham, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. The right +of search was thenceforth dropped, although it was not formally +abandoned by Great Britain until more than forty years later (1856). + +559. Battle of Waterloo, 1815. + +In the summer of 1815, the English war against Napoleon (S557), which +had been carried on almost constantly since his accession to power, +culminated in the decisive battle of Waterloo.[1] Napoleon had crossed +the Belgian frontier in order that he might come up with the British +before they could form a junction with their Prussian allies. All the +previous night rain had fallen in torrents, and when the soldiers rose +from their cheerless and broken sleep in the trampled and muddy fields +of rye, a drizzling rain was still falling. + +[1] Waterloo, near Brussels, Belgium. + +Napoleon planned the battle for the purpose of destroying first the +English and then the Prussian forces, but Wellington held his own +against the furious attacks of the French. It was evident, however, +that even the "Iron Duke," as he was called, could not continue to +withstand the terrible assaults many hours longer. + +As time passed on, and he saw his solid squares melting away under the +murderous French fire, as line after line of his soldiers coming +forward silently stepped into the places of their fallen comrades, +while the expected Prussian reenforcements still delayed their +appearance, the English commander exclaimed, "O that night or Blucher +would come!" At last Blucher with his Prussians did come, and as +Grouchy, the leader of a division on which Napoleon was counting, did +not, Waterloo was finally won by the combined strength of the allies. +Not long afterwards Napoleon was sent to die a prisoner on the +desolate rock of St. Helena. + +When all was over, Wellington said to Blucher, as he stood by him on a +little eminence looking down upon the field covered with the dead and +dying, "A great victory is the saddest thing on earth, except a great +defeat." + +With that victory ended the second Hundred Years' War of England with +France, which began with the War of the Spanish Succession (1704) +under Marlborough (S508). At the outset the object of that war was, +first, to humble the power of Louis XIV that threatened the +independence of England; and, secondly, to protect those American +colonies which later separated fromthe mother country and became, +partly through French help, the republic of the United States. + +560. Increase of the National Debt; Taxation. + +Owing to these hundred years and more of war (S559) the National Debt +of GReat Britain and Ireland (S503), which in 1688 was much less than +a million of pounds, had now reached the enormous amount of over nine +hundred millions (or $4,500,000,000), bearing yearly interest at the +rate of more than $160,000,000.[1] So great had been the strain on the +finances of the country, that the Bank of England (S503) suspended +payment, and many heavy failures occurred. In addition to this, a +succession of bad harvests sent up the price of wheat to such a point +that at one time an ordinary-sized loaf of bread cost the farm laborer +more than half a day's wages. + +[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica, under "National Debt." + +Taxes had gone on increasing until it seemed as though the people +could no longer endure the burden. As Sydney Smith declared, with +entire truth, there were duties on everything. They began, he said, +in childhood, with "the boy's taxed top"; they followed to old age, +until at last "the dying Englishman, pouring his taxed medicine into a +taxed spoon, flung himself back on a taxed bed, and died in the arms +of an apothecary who had paid a tax of a hundred pounds for the +privilege of putting him to death."[1] + +[1] Sydney Smith's Essays, "Review of Seybert's Annals of the United + States." + +561. The Irish Parliament; the Irish Rebellion (1798). + +For a century after the battle of the Boyne (S500) Ireland can hardly +be said to have had a history. The iron hand of English despotism had +crushed the spirit out of the inhabitants, and they suffered in +silence. During the first part of the eighteenth century the +destitution of the people was so great that Dean Swift, in bitter +mockery of the government's neglect, published what he called his +"Modest Proposal." He suggested that the misery of the half-starved +peasants might be relieved by allowing them to eat their own children +or else sell them to the butchers. + +But a new attempt was now made to improve the political condition of +the wretched country. That distinguished statesman, Edmund Burke +(S550), had already tried to secure a fair measure of commercial +liberty for the island, but without success. Since the reign of Henry +VII the so-called "free Parliament" of Ireland had been bound hand and +foot by Poynings's Act (S329, note 1). The eminent Protestant Irish +orator, Henry Grattan, now urged the repeal of that law with all his +impassioned eloquence. He was seconded in his efforts by the powerful +influence of Fox in the English House of Commons. Finally, the +obnoxious act was repealed (1782), and a, so-called, independent Irish +Parliament, to which Grattan was elected, met in Dublin. + +But although more than three quarters of the Irish people were +Catholics, no person of that faith was permitted to sit in the new +Parliament or to vote for the election of a member. This was not the +only injustice, for many Protestants in Belfast and the north of +Ireland had no right to be represented in it. Such a state of things +could not fail to excite angry protest, and Grattan, with other +Protestants in Parliament, labored for reform. The discontent finally +led to the organization of an association called the "Society of +United Irishmen." The leaders of that movement hoped to secure the +cooperation of Catholics and Protestants, and to obtain fair and full +representation for both in the Irish Parliament. A measure of +political reform was secured (1793), but it did not go far enough to +give the relief desired. + +Eventually the Society of United Irishmen became a revolutionary +organization which sought, by the help of the French, to make Ireland +an independent republic. The sprigs of shamrock or shamrock-colored +badges displayed by these men gave a new significance to "the wearing +of the green."[1] By this time many Protestants had withdrawn from the +organization, and many Catholics refused to ask help from the French +revolutionary party, who were hostile to all churches and to all +religion. + +[1] See a quotation from the famous Irish song, "The Wearin' o' the +Green," in the "Shan Van Vocht," in the "Heroic Ballads," published by +Ginn and Company. + +Then a devoted band of Catholics in the south of Ireland resolved to +rise and, trusting to their own right arms, to strike for +independence. A frightful rebellion broke out (1798), marked by all +the intense hatred springing from rival races and rival creeds, and +aggravated by the peasants' hatred of oppressive landlords. Both +sides perpetuated horrible atrocities. The government employed a +large force of Orangemen,[2] or extreme Protestants, to help suppress +the insurrection. They did their work with remorseless cruelty. + +[2] Orangemen: the Protestants of the north of Ireland, who had taken +the side of William of Orange in the Revolution of 1688-1689 (S499). +They wore an orange ribbon as their badge, to distinguish them from +the Catholic party, who wore green badges. + +562. Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800; Emmet. + +Matters now came to a crisis. William Pitt, son of the late Earl of +Chatham (S550), was Prime Minister. He believed that the best +interests of both Ireland and England demanded their political union. +He devoted all his energies to accomplishing the work. The result was +that in the last year of the eighteenth century the English Government +succeeded, by the most unscrupulous use of money, in gaining the +desired end. Lord Cornwallis, acting as Pitt's agent, confessed with +shame that he bought up a sufficient number of members of the Irish +Parliament to secure a vote in favor of union with Great Britain. In +1800 the two countries were joined--in name at least--under the title +of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."[3] + +[3] The first Parliament of the United Kingdom met in 1801. + +Pitt used all his powerful influence to obtain for Ireland a full and +fair representation in the united Parliament (1801). He urged that +Catholics as well as Protestants should be eligible for election to +that body. But the King positively refused to listen to his Prime +Minister. He even declared that it would be a violation of his +coronation oath for him to grant such a request. The consequence was +that not a single Catholic was admitted to the Imperial Parliament +until nearly thirty years later (S573). + +Two years after the first Imperial Parliament met in London the Irish +patriot, Robert Emmet, made a desperate effort to free his country +(1803). To his mind the union of England with Ireland was simply "the +union of the shark with its prey." He staked his life on the cause of +independence; he lost, and paid the forfeit on the scaffold. + +But notwithstanding Emmet's hatred of the union, it resulted +advantageously to Ireland in at least two respects. First, more +permanent peace was secured to that distracted and long-suffering +country. Secondly, the Irish people made decided gains commercially. +The duties on their farm products were removed, at least in large +degree, and the English ports hitherto closed against them were thrown +open. The duties on their manufactured goods seem to have been taken +off at that time only in part.[1] Later, absolute freedom of trade was +secured. + +[1] See May's "Constitutional History of England," Lecky's "England in +the Eighteenth Century"; but compare O'Connor Morris's work on +"Ireland, from 1798 to 1898," p.58. + +563. "The Industrial Revolution" of the Eighteenth Century; Material + Progress; Canals; the Steam Engine, 1785. + +The reign of George III was in several directions one of marked +progress, especially in England. Just after the King's accession the +Duke of Bridgewater constructed a canal from his coal mine in Worsley +to Manchester, a distance of seven miles. Later, he extended it to +Liverpool; eventually it was widened and deepened and became the +"Manchester and Liverpool Ship Canal." The Duke of Bridgewater's work +was practically the commencement of a system which has since developed +to such a degree that the canals of England now extend nearly 5000 +miles, and exceed in length its navigable rivers. The two form such a +complete network of water communication that it is said no place in +the realm is more than fifteen miles distant from this means of +transportation, which connects all the large towns with each other and +with the chief ports. + +In the last half of the eighteenth century James Watt obtained the +first patent (1769) for his improved steam engine (S521), but did not +succeed in making it a business success until 1785. The story is +told[1] that he took a working model of it to show to the King. His +Majesty patronizingly asked him, "Well, my man, what have you to +sell?" The inventor promptly answered, "What kings covet, may it +please your Majesty,--POWER!" The story is perhaps too good to be +true, but the fact of the "power" could not be denied,--power, too, +not simply mechanical, but, in its results, moral and political as +well. + +[1] This story is told also of Boulton, Watt's partner. See Smile's +"Lives of Boulton and Watt," p.1. Newcomen had invented a rude steam +engine in 1705, which in 1712 came into use to some extent for pumping +water out of coal mines. But his engine was too clumsy and too +wasteful of fuel to be used by manufacturers. Boulton and Watt built +the first steam-engine works in England at Soho, a suburb of +Birmingham, in 1775; but it was not until 1785 that they began to do +sufficient business to make it evident that they were on their way to +success. + +Such was the increase of machinery driven by steam, and such were the +improvements made by Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton in machinery +for spinning and weaving cotton, that much distress arose among the +hand spinners and hand weavers. The price of bread was growing higher +and higher, while in many districts skilled operatives working at home +could not earn by their utmost efforts eight shillings a week. They +saw their hand labor supplanted by great cotton mills filled with +machinery driven by "monsters of iron and fire," which never grew +weary, which subsisted on water and coal, and never asked for wages. + +Led by a man named Ludd (1811), the starving workmen attacked a number +of these mills, broke the machinery to pieces, and sometimes burned +the buildings. The riots were at length suppressed, and a number of +the leaders executed; but a great change for the better was at hand, +and improved machinery driven by steam was soon to remedy the evils it +had seemingly created. It led to an enormous demand for cotton. This +helped to stimulate cotton growing in the United States of America as +well as to encourage the manufacture of cotton in Great Britain. + +Up to this period the north of England had remained the poorest part +of the country. The population was sparse, ignorant, and +unprosperous. It was in the south that improvements originated. In +the reign of Henry VIII, the North fought against the dissolution of +the monasteries (SS352, 357); in Elizabeth's reign it resisted +Protestantism; in that of George I it sided with the so-called +"Pretender" (S535). + +But steam transformed an immense area. Factories were built, +population increased, cities sprang up, and wealth grew apace. +Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield, and +Liverpool made the North a new country. (See Industrial Map of +England, p.10.) Lancashire is the busiest cotton-manufacturing +district in Great Britain, and the saying runs that "what Lancashire +thinks to-day, England will think to-morrow." So much for James Watt's +POWER and its results. + +564. Discover of Oxygen (1774); Introduction of Gas (1815). + +Notwithstanding the progress that had been made in many departments of +knowledge, the science of chemistry remained almost stationary until +(1774) Dr. Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen, the most abundant, as +well as the most important, element in nature. + +That discover "laid the foundation of modern chemical science." It +enlarged our knowledge of the composition of the atmosphere, of the +solid crust of the earth, and of water. Furthermore, it revealed the +interesting fact that oxygen not only enters into the structure of all +forms of animal and vegetable life, but that no kind of life can exist +without it. Finally, Priestley's great discovery proved to be of +direct practical utility, since the successful pursuit of innumerable +trades and manufactures, with the profitable separation of metals from +their ores, stands in close connection with the facts which his +experiments with oxygen made known. + +As intellectual light spread, so also did material light. In London, +up to near the close of the reign of George III, only a few feeble oil +lamps were in use. Many miles of streets were dark and dangerous, and +highway robberies were frequent. At length (1815) a company was +formed to light the city with gas. After much opposition from those +who were in the whale-oil interest the enterprise succeeded. The new +light, as Miss Martineau said, did more to prevent crime than all the +Government had accomplished since the days of Alfred. It changed, +too, the whole aspect of the English capital, though it was only the +forerunner of the electric light, which has since changed it even +more. + +The sight of the great city now, when viewed at night from Highgate +archway on the north, or looking down the Thames from Westminster +Bridge, is something never to be forgotten. It gives one a realizing +sense of the immensity of "this province covered with houses," which +cannot be got so well in any other way. It bring to mind, too, those +lines expressive of the contrasts of wealth and poverty, success and +failure, inevitable in such a place: + + "O gleaming lamps of London, that gem the city's crown, + What fortunes lie within you, O lights of London town! + . . . . . . . . . . . + O cruel lamps of London, if tears your light could drown, + Your victims' eyes would weep them, O lights of London town."[1] + +[1] From the play, "The Lights of London." + +The same year in which gas was introduced, Sir Humphry Davy invented +the miner's safety lamp. Without seeking a patent, he generously gave +his invention to the world, finding his reward in the knowledge that +it would be the means of saving thousands of lives wherever men are +called to work underground. + +565. Steam Navigation, 1807, 1819, 1840. + +Since Watt had demonstrated the value of steam for driving machinery +(S563), a number of inventors had been experimenting with the new +power, in the hope that they might apply it to propelling vessels. In +1807 Robert Fulton, an American, built the first successful steamboat, +and made the voyage from New York to Albany in it. Shortly afterwards +his vessel began to make regular trips on the Hudson. A number of +years later a similar boat began to carry passengers on the Clyde, in +Scotland. Finally, in 1819, the bold undertaking was made of crossing +the Atlantic by steam. An American steamship, the Savannah, of about +three hundred tons, set the example by a voyage from the United States +to Liverpool. Dr. Lardner, an English scientist, had proved to his +own satisfaction that ocean steam navigation was impracticable. The +book containing the doctor's demonstration was brought to America by +the Savannah on her return. + +Twenty-one years afterward, in 1840, the Cunard Company established +the first regular line of ocean steamers. They sailed between England +and the United States. Since then fleets of steamers ranging from two +thousand to more than forty thousand tons each have been built. They +now make passages from continent to continent with the regularity of +clockwork, and in fewer days than the ordinary sailing vessels +formerly required weeks. The fact that during a period of more than +seventy years one of these lines has never lost a passenger is +conclusive proof that Providence is on the side of steam, when steam +has men that know how to handle it. + +566. Literature; Art; Education; Travel; Dress. + +The reign of George III is marked by a long list of names eminent in +letters and art. First in point of time among these stands Dr. Samuel +Johnson, the compiler of the first English dictionary worthy of the +name, and that on which those of our own day are based to a +considerable extent. He was also the author of the story of +"Rasselas,"--that notable satire on discontent and the search after +happiness. Next stands Johnson's friend, Oliver Goldsmith, famous for +his genius, his wit, and his improvidence,--which was always getting +him into trouble,--but still more famous for his poems, and his novel, +"The Vicar of Wakefield." + +Edward Gibbon, David Hume, author of the well-known "History of +England," and Adam Smith come next in time. In 1776 Gibbon published +his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," which after more than a +hundred years stands the ablest history of the subject in our +language. In the same year Adam Smith issued "An Inquiry into the +Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," which had a great effect +on legislation respecting commerce, trade, and finance. During this +period, also, Sir William Blackstone became prominent as a writer on +law, and Edmund Burke, the distinguished orator and statesman, wrote +his "Reflections on the French Revolution." + +The poets, Burns, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, with Sheridan, the orator +and dramatist, and Sterne, the humorist, belong to this reign; so, +too, does the witty satirist, Sydney Smith, and Sir Walter Scott, +whose works, like those of Shakespeare, have "made the dead past live +again." Then again, Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen have left +admirable pictures of the age in their stories of Irish and English +life. Coleridge and Wordsworth began to attract attention toward the +last of this period, and to be much read by those who loved the poetry +of thought and the poetry of nature; while, early in the next reign, +Charles Lamb published his delightful "Essays of Elia." + +In art we have the first English painters and engravers. Hogarth, who +died a few years after the beginning of the reign, was celebrated for +the coarse but perfect representations of low life and street scenes; +and his series of Election pictures with his "Beer Lane" and "Gin +Alley" are valuable for the insight into the history of the times. + +The chief portrait painters were Reynolds, Lawrence, and Gainsborough, +the last of whom afterwards became noted for his landscapes. They +were followed by Wilkie, whose pictures of "The Rent Day," "The +Reading of the Will," and many others, tell a story of interest to +every one who looks at them. + +Last came Turner, who in some respects surpassed all former artists in +his power of reproducing scenes in nature. At the same time, Bewick, +whose cuts used to be the delight of every child that read "Aesop's +Fables," gave a new impulse to wood engraving, while Flaxman rose to +be the leading English sculptor, and Wedgwood introduced useful and +beautiful articles of pottery. + +In common-school education little advance had been made for many +generations. In the country the great mass of the people were nearly +as ignorant as they were in the darkest part of the Middle Ages. +Hardly a peasant over forty years of age could be found who could read +a verse in the Bible, and not one in ten could write his name. + +There were no cheap books or newspapers, and no proper system of +public instruction. The poor seldom left the counties in which they +were born. They knew nothing of what was going on in the world. +Their education was wholly of the practical kind which comes from work +and things, not from books and teachers; yet many of them with only +these simple helps found out two secrets which the highest culture +sometimes misses,--how to be useful and how to be happy.[1] + +[1] See Wordsworth's poem "Resolution and Independence." + +The ordinary means of travel were still very imperfect. Stage-coaches +had been in use for more than a hundred and fifty years. They crawled +along at the rate of about three miles an hour. Mail coaches began to +run in 1784. They attained a speed of six miles an hour, and later of +ten. This was considered entirely satisfactory. + +The close of George III's reign marks the beginning of the present +age. It was indicated in many ways, and among others by the declining +use of sedan chairs, which had been the fashion for upwards of a +century, and by the change in dress. Gentlemen were leaving off the +picturesque costumes of the past,--the cocked hats, elaborate wigs, +silk stockings, ruffles, velvet coats, and swords,--and gradually +putting on the plain democratic garb, sober in cut and color, by which +we know them to-day. + +567. Last Days of George III. + +George III died (1820) at the age of eighty-two. During ten years he +had been blind, deaf, and crazy, having lost his reason not very long +after the jubilee, which celebrated the fiftieth year of his reign +(1809). Once, in a lucid interval, he was found by the Queen singing +a hymn and playing an accompaniment on the harpsichord. + +He then knelt and prayed aloud for her, for his family, and for the +nation; and in closing, for himself, that it might please God to avert +his heavy calamity, or grant him resignation to bear it. Then he +burst into tears, and his reason again fled.[1] In consequence of the +incapacity of the King, his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, was +appointed regent (1811), and on the King's death came to the throne as +George IV. + +[1] See Thackeray's "Four Georges." + +568. Summary. + +The long reign of George III covered sixty very eventful years. +During that time England lost her possessions in America, but gained +India and prepared the way for getting possession of New Zealand and +Australia. During that period, also, Ireland was united to Great +Britain. The wars with France, which lasted more than twenty years, +ended in the great naval victory of Trafalgar and the still greater +victory on the battlefield of Waterloo. In consequence of these wars, +with that of the American Revolution, the National Debt of Great +Britain rose to a height which rendered the burden of taxation +well-nigh insupportable. + +The second war with the United States in 1812 made America independent +on the sea, and eventually compelled England to give up her assumed +right to search American vessels. The two greatest reforms of the +period were the abolition of the slave trade and the mitigation of the +laws against debt and crime; the chief material improvement was the +extension of canals and the application of steam to manufacturing and +to navigation. The "Industrial Revolution" transformed the North of +England. + + GEORGE IV--1820-1830 + +569. Accession and Character of George IV. + +George IV, eldest son of the late King, came to the throne in his +fifty-eighth year; but, owing to his father's insanity, he had +virtually been King for nearly ten years (S567). His habits of life +had made him a selfish, dissolute spendthrift, who, like Charles II, +cared only for pleasure. Though while Prince of Wales he had received +for many years an income upwards of 100,000 pounds, which was largely +increased at a later period, yet he was always hopelessly in debt. + +Parliament (1795) appropriated over 600,000 pounds to relieve him from +his most pressing creditors, but his wild extravagance soon involved +him in difficulties again, so that had it not been for help given by +the long-suffering taxpayers, His Royal Highness must have become as +bankrupt in purse as he was in character. + +After his accession matters became worse rather than better. At his +coronation, which cost the nation over 200,000 pounds, he appeared in +hired jewels, which he forgot to return, and which Parliament had to +pay for. Not only did he waste the nation's money more recklessly +than ever, but he used whatever political influence he had to +opposesuch measures of reform as the times demanded. + +570. Discontent; the "Manchester Massacre" (1819). + +When (1811) George, then Prince of Wales, became regent (S567), he +desired to form a Whig ministry, not because he cared for Whig +principles (S479), but solely because he would thereby be acting in +opposition to his father's wishes. Finding his purpose impracticable, +he accepted Tory rule (S479), and a Cabinet (S534) was formed with +Lord Liverpool as Prime Minister. It had for its main object the +continued exclusion of Catholics from representation in Parliament +(S478). + +Lord Liverpool was a dull, well-meaning man, who utterly failed to +comprehend the real tendency of the age. He was the son of a commoner +who had been raised to the peerage. He had always had a reputation +for honest obstinacy, and for little else. After he became Premier, a +prominent French lady, who was visiting England, asked him one day, +"What has become of that VERY stupid man, Mr. Jenkinson?" "Madame," +answered the unfortunate Prime Minister, "he is now Lord Liverpool."[1] + +[1] Earl's "English Premiers," Vol. II. + +From such a Cabinet or Government, which continued in power for +fifteen years, nothing but trouble could be expected. The misery of +the country was great. Food was selling at famine prices. Thousands +were on the verge of starvation, and tens of thousands did not get +enough to eat. Trade was seriously depressed, and multitudes were +unable to obtain work. Under these circumstances, the suffering +masses undertook to hold public meetings to discuss the cause and cure +of these evils; but as violent speeches against the Government were +often made at the meetings, the authorities dispersed them on the +ground that they were seditious and tended to riot and rebellion. + +Many large towns at this period had no voice in legislation. At +Birmingham, which was one of this class, the citizens had met and +chosen, though without legal authority, a representative to +Parliament. Machester, another important manufacturing town, now +determined to do the same thing. The people were warned not to +assemble, but they persisted in doing so, on the ground that peaceful +discussion, with the election of a representative, was no violation of +law. The meeting was held in St. Peter's Fields, and, through the +blundering of a magistrate, it ended in an attack by a body of troops, +by which many people were wounded an a number killed (1819). + +571. The Six Acts (1819); the Conspiracy. + +The bitter feeling caused by the "Manchester Massacre," or "Peterloo," +as it was called, was still further aggravated by the passage of the +Six Acts (1819). The object of these severe coercive measures was to +make it impossible for men to take any public action demanding +political reform. They restricted freedom of speech, freedom of the +press, and the right of the people to assemble for the purpose of open +discussion of the course taken by the Government. These harsh laws +coupled with other repressive measures taken by the Tories (S479), who +were still in power, led to the "Cato Street Conspiracy." Shortly +after the accession of George IV a few desperate men banded together, +and meeting in a stable in Cato Street, London, formed a plot to +murder Lord Liverpool and his entire cabinet at dinner at which all +the ministers were to be present. + +The plot was discovered, and the conspirators were speedily disposed +of by the gallows or transportation, but nothing was done to relieve +the suffering which had provoked the intended crime. No new +conspiracy was attempted, but in the course of the next ten years a +silent revolution took place, which, as we shall see later, obtained +for the people that fuller representation in Parliament which they had +hitherto vainly attempted to get (S582). + +572. Queen Caroline. + +While he was Prince of Wales, George IV had, contrary to law, +privately married Mrs. Fitzherbert (1785),[1] a Roman Catholic lady of +excellent character, and possessed of great beauty. Ten years later, +partly through royal compulsion and partly to get money to pay off +some of his numerous debts, the Prince married his cousin, the +Princess Caroline of Brunswick. The union proved a source of +unhappiness to both. The Princess lacked both discretion and +delicacy, and her husband, who disliked her from the first, was +reckless and brutal toward her. + +[1] By the Royal Marriage Act of 1772, no descendant of George II +could make a legal marriage without the consent of the reigning +sovereign, unless twenty-five years of age, and unless the marriage +was not objected to by Parliament. + +He separated from her in a year's time, and as soon as she could, she +withdrew to the Continent. When he became King he excluded Queen +Caroline's name from the Prayer Book, and next applied to Parliament +for a divorce on the ground of the Queen's unfaithfulness to her +marriage vows. + +Henry Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, acted as the Queen's +counsel. No sufficient evidence was brought against her, and the +ministry declined to take further action. It was decided, however, +that she could not claim the honor of coronation, to which, as Queen +Consort, she had a right sanctioned by custom but not secured by law. +When the King was crowned (1821), no place was provided for her. By +the advice of her counsel, she presented herself at the entrance of +Westminster Abbey as the coronation ceremony was about to begin; but, +by order of her husband, admission was refused, and she retired to +die, heartbroken, a few days after. + +573. Three Great Reforms. + +Seven years later (1828) the Duke of Wellington, a Tory (S479) in +politics, became Prime Minister. His sympathies in all matters of +legislation were with the King, but he made a virtue of necessity, and +for the time acted with those who demanded reform. The Corporation +Act (S472), which was originally passed in the reign of Charles II, +and had for its object the exclusion of Dissenters (S472) from all +town or corporate offices, was now repealed; henceforth a man might +become a mayor, alderman, or town officer, without belonging to the +Church of England. At the same time the Test Act (S477), which had +also been passed in Charles II's reign to keep both Catholics and +Dissenters out of government offices, whether civil or military, was +repealed. As a matter of fact "the teeth of both acts had long been +drawn" by by an annual Indemnity Act (1727).[1] + +[1] This act virtually suspended the operation of the Corporation Act +(S472) and the Test Act against dissenters so that they could obtain +civil offices from which these two acts had excluded them. + +In 1829 a still greater reform was carried. For a long period the +Catholic Association had been laboring to obtain the abolition of the +laws which had been on the statute books for over a century and a +half, by which Catholics were excluded from the right to sit in +Parliament. These laws, it will be remembered, were enacted at the +time of the alleged Popish Plot, and in consequence of the perjured +evidence given by Titus Oates (S478).[2] The King, and the Tory party +marshaled by the Duke of Wellington, strenuously resisted the repeal +of these statutes; but finally the Duke became convinced that further +opposition was useless. He therefore suddenly changed about and +solely, as he declared, to avert civil war, took the lead in securing +the success of a measure which he heartily hated. + +[2] See Sidney Smith's "Peter Plymley's Letters." + +But at the same time that Catholics were admitted to both Houses of +Parliament, an act was passed raising the property qualification of a +very large class of small Irish landholders from 2 pounds to 10 +pounds. This measure deprived many thousands of their right to vote. +The law was enacted on the pretext that the small Irish landholders +would be influenced by their landlord or their priest. + +Under the new order of things, Daniel O'Connell, an Irish gentleman of +an old and honorable family, and a man of distinguished ability, came +forward as leader of the Catholics. After much difficulty he +succeeded in taking his seat in the House of Commons (1829). He +henceforth devoted himself, though without avail, to the repeal of the +act uniting Ireland with England (S562), and to the restoration of an +independent Irish Parliament. + +574. The New Police (1829). + +Although London had now a population of a million and a half, it still +had no effective police. The guardians of the peace at that date were +infirm old men, who spent their time dozing in sentry boxes, and had +neither the strength nor energy to be of service in any emergency. +The young fellows of fashion considered these venerable constables as +legitimate game. They often amused themselves by upsetting the sentry +boxes with their occupants, leaving the latter helpless in the street, +kicking and struggling like turtles turned on their backs, and as +powerless to get on their feet again. + +During the last year of the reign Sir Robert Peel got a bill passed +(1829) which oganized a new and thoroughly efficient police force, +properly equipped and uniformed. Great was the outcry against this +innovation, and the "men in blue" were hooted at, not only by London +"roughs," but by respectable citizens, as "Bobbies" or "Peelers," in +derisive allusion to their founder. But the "Bobbies," who carry no +visible club, were not to be jeered out of existence. They did their +duty like men, and have continued to do it in a way which long since +gained for them the good will of all who care for the preservation of +law and order. + +575. Death of the King (1830). + +George IV died soon after the passage of the new Police Bill (1830). +Of him it may well be said, though in a very different sense from that +in which the expression was originally used, that "nothing in his life +became him like the leaving of it." During his ten years' reign he had +squandered enormous sums of money in gambling and dissipation, and had +done his utmost to block the wheels of political progress. + +How far this son of an insane father (S567) was responsible, it may +not be for us to judge. Walter Scott, who had a kind word for almost +every one, and especially for any one of the Tory party (S479), did +not fail to say something in praise of the generous good nature of his +friend George IV. The sad thing is that his voice seems to have been +the only one. In a whole nation the rest were silent; or, if they +spoke, it was neither to commend nor to defend, but to condemn. + +576. Summary. + +The legislative reforms of George IV's reign are its chief features. +The repeal of the Test and Corporation acts and the grant to Catholics +of the right to reenter Parliament were tardy measures of justice. +Neither the King nor his ministers deserve any credit for them, but, +none the less, they accomplished great and permanent good. + + WILLIAM IV--1830-1837 + +577. Accession and Character of William IV. + +As George IV left no heir, his brother William, a man of sixty-five, +now came to the throne. He had passed most of his life on shipboard, +having been placed in the navy when a mere lad. He was somewhat rough +in his manner, and cared nothing for the ceremony and etiquette that +were so dear to both George III and George IV. His faults, however, +were on the surface. He was frank, hearty, and a friend to the +people, to whom he was familiarly known as the "Sailor King." + +578. Need of Reform in Parliamentary Representation. + +From the beginning of this reign it was evident that the great +question which must soon come up for settlement was that of +parliamentary representation. Large numbers of the people of England +had now no voice in the government. This unfortunate state of things +was chiefly the result of the great changes which had taken place in +the growth of the population of the Midlands (or the central portion +of England) and the North (S563). + +Since the introduction of steam (S563) the rapid increase of +manufactures and commerce had built up Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, +Manchester, and other large towns in the iron, coal, pottery and +manufacturing districts. (See Industrial Map of England, p.10.) These +important towns could not send a member to Parliament; while, on the +other hand, many places in the south of England which did send members +had long ceased to be of any importance. Furthermore, the +representation was of the most haphazard description. In one section +no one could vote except substantial property holders, in another none +but town officers, while in a third every man who had a tenement big +enough to boil a pot in, and hence called a "Pot-walloper," possessed +the right. + +To this singular state of things the nation had long been +indifferent. During the Middle Ages the inhavitants often had no +desire either to go to Parliament themselves or to send others. The +expense of the journey was great, the compensation was small, and +unless some important matter of special interest to the people was at +stake, they preferred to stay at home. On this account it was often +almost as difficult for the sheriff to get a distant county member up +to the House of Commons in London as it would have been to carry him +there a prisoner to be tried for his life. + +Now, however, everything was changed; the rise of political parties +(S479), the constant and heavy taxation, the jealousy of the increase +of royal authority, the influence and honor of the position of a +Parliamentary representative, all conspired to make men eager to +obtain their full share in the management of the government. + +This new interest had begun as far back as the civil wars of the +seventeenth century, and when Cromwell came to power he effected many +much-needed reforms. But after the restoration of the Stuarts (S467), +the Protector's wise measures were repealed or neglected. Then the +old order, or rather disorder, again asserted itself, and in many +cases matters became worse than ever. + +579. "Rotten Boroughs." + +For instance, the borough or city of Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, which +had once been an important place, had, at an early period, gradually +declined through the growth of New Sarum, or Salisbury, near by. (See +map, p.436.) In the sixteenth century the parent city had so +completely decayed that not a single habitation was left on the +desolate hilltop where the caste and cathedral once stood. At the +foot of the hill was an old tree. The owner of that tree and of the +field where it grew sent (1830) two members to Parliament,--that +action represented what had been regularly going on for something like +three hundred years! + +In Bath, on the other hand, none of the citizens, out of a large +population, might vote except the mayor, alderman, and common +council. These places now got the significant name of "rotten +boroughs" from the fact that whether large or small there was no +longer any sound political life existing in them. Many towns were so +completely in the hands of the squire or some other local "political +boss" that, on one occasion when a successful candidate for Parliament +thanked the voters for what they had done, a man replied that he need +not take the trouble to thank them; for, said he, "if the squire had +zent his great dog we should have chosen him all one as if it were +you, zur."[1] + +[1] See Hindon, in Murray's "Wiltshire." + +580. The Great Reform Bill. + +For fifty years after the coming in of the Georges the country had +been ruled by a powerful Whig (SS479, 548) monopoly. Under George III +that monopoly was broken (S548), and the Tories (S479) got possession +of the government. But whichever party ruled, Parliament, owing to +the "rotten-borough" system, no longer represented the nation, but +simply stood for the will of certain wealthy landholders and town +corporations. A loud and determined demand was now made for reform. +In this movement no one was more active or influential among the +common people than William Cobbett. He was a vigorous and fearless +writer, who for years published a small newspaper called the Political +Register, which was especially devoted to securing a just and uniform +system of representation. + +On the accession of William IV the pressure for reform became so great +that Parliament was forced to act. Lord John Russell brought in a +bill (1831) providing for the abolition of the "rotten boroughs" and +for a fair system of elections. But those who owned or controlled +those boroughs had no intention of giving them up. Their opponents, +however, were equally determined, and they knew that they had the +support of the nation. + +In a speech which the Reverend Sydney Smith made at Taunton, he +compared the futile resistance of the House of Lords to the proposed +reform, to Mrs. Partington's attempt to drive back the rising tide of +the Atlantic with her mop. The ocean rose, and Mrs. Partington, +seizing her mop, rose against it; yet, notwithstanding the good lady's +efforts, the Atlantic got the best of it; so the speaker prophesied +that in this case the people, like the Atlantic, would in the end +carry the day.[1] + +[1] Sydney Smith's "Essays and Speeches." + +When the bill came up, the greater part of the Lords and the bishops, +who, so far as they were concerned personally, had all the rights and +privileges they wanted, opposed it; so too did the Tories (S479), in +the House of Commons. They thought that the proposed law threatened +the stability of the government. The Duke of Wellington (S573) was +particularly hostile to it, and wrote, "I don't generally take a +gloomy view of things, but I confess that, knowing all that I do, I +cannot see what is to save the Church, or property, or colonies, or +union with Ireland, or, eventually, monarchy, if the Reform Bill +passes."[2] + +[2] Wellington's "Dispatches and Letters," II, 451. + +581. The Lords reject the Bill; Serious Riots (1831). + +The King dissolved Parliament (S534, note 2); a new one was elected, +and the Reform Bill was passed by the House of Commons; but the upper +House rejected it. Then a period of wild excitement ensued. The +people in many of the towns collected in the public squares, tolled +the church bells, built bonfires in which they burned the bishops in +effigy, with other leading opponents of the bill, and cried out for +the abolition of the House of Lords. + +In London the rabble smashed the windows of Apsley House, the +residence of the Duke of Wellington. At Nottingham the mob fired and +destroyed the castle of the Duke of Newcastle because he was opposed +to reform. In Derby a serious riot broke out. In Bristol matters +were still worse. A mob got possession of the city, and burned the +Bishop's Palace and a number of public buildings. The mayor was +obliged to call for troops to restore order. Many persons were +killed, and four of the ringleaders of the insurrection were hanged. +All over the country shouts were heard, "The Bill, the whole Bill, and +nothing but the Bill!" + +582. Passage of the Great Reform Bill, 1832; Results. + +In the spring of 1832 the battle began again more fiecely than ever. +Again the House of commons voted the bill, and once again the House of +Lords defeated it. + +Earl Grey, the Whig Prime Minister (S479), had set his heart on +carrying the measure. In this crisis he appealed to the King for +help. If the Tory Lords would not pass the bill, the King had the +power to create a sufficient number of new Whig Lords who would. +William refused to exercise this power. Thereupon Earl Grey, with his +Cabinet (S534), resigned, but in a week the King had to recall them. +Then William, much against his will, gave the following document to +his Prime Minister: + + "The King grants permission to Earl Grey, and to his Chancellor, + Lord Brougham, to create such a number of Peers as will be + sufficient to insure the passing of the Reform Bill--first calling + up Peers' eldest sons. + "William R., Windsor, May 17, 1832"[1] + +[1] "First calling up Peers' eldest sons": that is, in creating new +Lords, the eldest sons of Peers were to have the preference. William +R. (Rex, King): this is the customary royal signature. Earl Grey was +the leader of that branch of the Whig party known as the "Aristocratic +Whigs," yet to him and his associate Cabinet minsiters the people were +indebted for the great extension of the suffrage in 1832. + +But there was no occasion to make use of this permission. As soon as +the Lords found that the Cabinet (S534), with Earl Grey at the head, +had actually compelled the King to bow to the demands of the people, +they withdrew their opposition. The "Great Charter of 1832" was +carried, received the royal signature, and became law. + +The passage of this memorable act brought about these beneficent +changes: + + (1) It abolished nearly sixty "rotten boroughs" (S579). + (2) It gave every householder who paid a rent of ten pounds in any +town a vote, and largely extended the list of county voters as well. + (3) It granted two representatives to Birmingham, Leeds, +Manchester, and nineteen other large towns, and one representative +each to twenty-one other places, all of which had hitherto been +unrepresented, besides granting fifteen additional members to the +counties. + (4) It added, in all, half a million voters to the list, mostly men +of the middle class, and it helped to purify the elections from the +violence which had disgraced them.[1] + +[1] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxvi, +S31. + +Before the passing of the Reform Bill, and the legislation which +supplemented it, the election of a member of Parliament was a kind of +local reign of terror. The smaller towns were sometimes under the +control of drunken ruffians for several weeks. During that time they +paraded the streets in bands, assaulting voters of the opposite party +with clubs, kidnaping prominent men and confining them until after the +election, and perpetrating other outrages, which so frightened +peacable citizens that often they did not dare attempt to vote at all. + +Finally, the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 effected, in its own +way, a change which was perhaps as momentous as that which the +Revolution of 1688 had accomplished.[2] That, as we have seen (S497), +made the King dependent for his crown on his election to office by +Parliament. On the other hand, the Reform Bill practically took the +last vestige of real political authority from the King and transferred +it to the Cabinet (S534), who had now become responsible to the House +of Commons, and hence to the direct will of the majority of the +nation. But though the Sovereign had laid down his political scepter, +never to resume it, he would yet, by virtue of his exalted position, +continue to wield great power,--that of social and diplomatic +influence, which is capable of accomplishing most important results +both at home and abroad. To-day then, though the King still reigns, +the People, and the People alone, govern. + +[2] Compare the three previous Revolutions represented by (1) Magna +Carta (S199); (2) De Montfort's House of Commons (S213); (3) the Civil +War and its effects (SS441, 450, 451). + +583. Abolition of Slavery, 1833; Factory Reform, 1833-1841. + +With the new Parliament that came into power the names of Liberal and +Conservative began to supplant those of Whig and Tory (S479), for it +was felt that a new political era needed new party names. Again, the +passage of the Reform Bill (S582) changed the policy of both these +great political parties. It made Liberals and Conservatives bid +against each other for the support of the large number of new voters +(S582 (4)), and it acted as an entering wedge to prepare the way for +the further extension of suffrage in 1867 and 1884 (S534), +representing the Commons, had gained a most significant victory; and +further reforms were accordingly carried against the strenuous +opposition of the King. + +Buxton, Wilberforce, Brougham, and other noted philanthropists secured +the passage through Parliament of a bill, 1833, for which they, with +the younger Pitt, had labored in vain for half a century. By this act +all negro slaves in the British West India colonies, numbering about +eight hundred thousand, were set free, and the sum of 20,000,000 +pounds was appropriated to compensate the owners. + +It was a grand deed grandly done. Could America have followed that +noble example, she might thereby have saved a million of human lives +and many thousand millions of dollars which were cast into the gulf of +civil war, while the corrupting influence of five years of waste and +discord would have been avoided. + +But negro slaves were not the only slaves in those days. There were +white slaves as well,--women and children born in England, but +condemned by their necessities to work underground in the coal mines, +or to exhaust their strength in the cotton mills. They were driven by +brutal masters who cared as little for the welfare of those under them +as the overseer of a West India plantation did for his gangs of black +toilers in the sugar-cane fields. On investigation it was found that +children only six and seven years of age were compelled to labor for +twelve and thirteen hours continuously in the factories. In the coal +mines their case was even worse. All day long these poor creatures +sat in absolute darkness, opening and shutting doors for the passage +of coal cars. If, overcome with fatigue, they fell asleep, they were +cruelly beaten with a strap.[1] + +[1] See Gibbin's "Industrial History of England," E.F. Cheyney's +"Industrial History of England," and Mrs. E. B. Browning's poem, +"The Cry of the Children." + +Parliament at length turned its attention to these abuses, and passed +acts, 1833, forbidding the employment of women and young children in +such work; a later act put an end to the barbarous practice of forcing +children to sweep chimneys. + +584. The First Steam Railway, 1830; the Railway Craze; the Friction + Match, 1834. + +Ever since the application of steam to machinery, the inventors had +been discussing plans for placing the steam engine on wheels and using +it as a propelling power in place of horses. Macadam, a Scotch +surveyor, had constructed a number of very superior roads made of +gravel and broken stone in the south of England, which soon made the +name of "macadamized turnpike" celebrated. + +The question then arose, Might not a still further advance be made by +employing steam to draw cars on these roads, or, better still, on iron +rails? The first locomotives built were used in hauling coal at the +mines in the North of England. Puffing Billy, the pioneer machine +(1813), worked for many years near Newcastle. At length George +Stephenson, an inventor and engineer, together with certain +capitalists, succeeded in getting Parliament to pass an act for +constructing a passenger railway between Liverpool and Manchester, a +distance of about thirty miles. + +When the line was completed by Stephenson, he had great difficulty in +getting permission to use an engine instead of horse power on it. +Finally, Stephenson's new locomotive, The Rocket,--which first +introduced the tubular boiler, and employed the exhaust, or escaping, +steam to increase the draft of the fire,--was tried with entire +success.[1] + +[1] Stephenson's Rocket and Watt's stationary steam engine (S563) are +both preserved in the South Kensington Museum, London. The boiler of +the Rocket was traversed by a number of tubes communicating with the +smoke pipe. The steam, after it hada done its work in the cylinders +of the engine, escaped with great force through the smoke pipe and so +created a very powerful draft. Without these two important +improvements the locomotive would probably never have made an average +speed of more than six or seven miles an hour. + +The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was formally opened in the autumn +of 1830, and the Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, was one of +the few passengers who ventured on the trial trip. The growth of this +new mode of transportation was so rapid that in five years from that +time London and the principal seaports were connected with the great +manufacturing towns, while local steam navigation had also nearly +doubled its vessels and its tonnage. + +Later on (1844-1847), Stephenson might easily have made himself "rich +beyond the dreams of avarice,"--or at least of the avarice of that +day. All he had to do was to lend the use of his name to new and +doubtful railway projects; but he refused on the ground that he did +not care "to make money without labor or honor." Meanwhile the whole +country became involved in a speculative craze for building railways. +Scores of millions of pounds were invested; for a time Hudson, the +so-called "Railway King," ruled supreme, and Dukes and Duchesses, and +members of Parliament generally, did homage to the man whose schemes +promised to cover the whole island with a network of iron roads, every +one of which was expected to be as profitable as a gold mine. These +projects ended in a panic, second only to that of the South Sea Bubble +(S536), and thousands found that steam could destroy fortunes even +faster than it made them. + +Toward the close of William's reign (1834-1835) a humble invention was +perfected of which little was said at the time, but which contributed +in no small degree to the comfort and convenience of every one. Up to +this date two of the most important of all civilizing agents--fire and +light--could be produced only with much difficulty and at considerable +expense. + +Various deviced had been contrived to obtain them, but the common +method continued to be the primitive one of striking a bit of flint +and steel sharply together until a falling spark ignited a piece of +tinder or half-burned rag, which, when it caught, had, with no little +expense of breath, to be blown into a flame. The progress of +chemistry suggested the use of phosphorus, and after years of +experiments the friction match was invented by an English apothecary, +who thus gave to the world what is now the commonest, and perhaps at +the same time the most useful, domestic article in existence. + +585. Summary. + +William IV's short reign of seven years was marked (1) by the great +Reform Bill of 1832, which, to a great extent, took Parliament out of +the hands of rich men and "rotten boroughs" and put it under the +control of the people; (2) by the abolition of slavery in the British +colonies, and factory reform; (3) by the introduction of the friction +match, and by the building of the first successful line of steam +railway. + + VICTORIA--1837-1901 + +586. The Queen's Descent; Stability of the Government. + +As William IV left no child to inherit the crown, he was succeeded by +his niece, the Princess Victoria, daughter of his brother Edward, Duke +of Kent. (See Genealogical Table, p.323.) In her lineage the Queen +represented nearly the whole past sovereignty of the land over which +she reigned.[1] The blood of both Cerdic, the first Saxon king, and of +William the Conqueror,[2] flowed in her veins,--a fact which +strikingly illustrates the vitality of the hereditary and conservative +principles in the history of the English Crown. + +[1] The only exceptions are the four Danish sovereigns and Harold II. +[2] See Genealogical Table of the Descent of English Sovereigns in the +Appendix. + +The fact stands out in stronger relief if we call to mind what England +had passed through in that intervening period of time. + +In 1066 the Normans crossed the Channel, invaded the island, conquered +its inhabitants, and seized the throne. In the course of the next +five centuries two kings were deposed, one died a captive in the Tower +of London,[3] and the Catholic religion, as an established Church, was +supplanted in England by the Protestant faith of Luther. + +[3] Namely, Edward II (S233), Richard II (S257), and Henry VI (S305). + +Somewhat less than a hundred years after that event, Civil War broke +out in 1642; the King was dethroned and beheaded, and in 1648 a +republic established. The monarchy was restored in 1660, only to be +followed by the Revolution of 1688, which changed the order of royal +succession, drove one line of sovereigns from the land, and called in +another from Germany to take its place. Meanwhile the House of +Commons had gained enormously in political power, and Cabinet +Government had been fully and finally established (S534). In 1832 the +Reform Bill was passed, by which the power of the people was largely +extended in Parliament; the two great political parties had been +reorganized; yet after all these events, at the end of more than ten +centuries from the date when Egbert first became Overlord of all the +English, in 829 (S49), we find England governed by a descendant of her +earliest rulers! + +587. The Power of the House of Commons and of the Cabinet fully and + finally recognized. + +Queen Victoria was but little over eighteen when called to the +throne. At her accession a new order of things began. The Georges +insisted on dismissing their Cabinet ministers, or chief political +advisers, when they pleased, without condescending to give Parliament +any reason for the change. We have seen too that William IV tried to +do the same thing, but had to acknowledge that he was beaten (S582). +William's unsuccessful attempt was never repeated. The last vestige +of "personal government,"[1] that is, of the determination of the +Crown to act contrary to the will of the majority of the nation, as +expressed by the Cabinet, died with the late King. + +[1] See the reign of Victoria in McCarthy's "History of Our Own +Times." + +With the coronation of Victoria the principle was established, once +for all, that henceforth the Sovereign of the British Empire cannot +remove the Prime Minister or his Cabinet (S582) without the consent of +the House of Commons; nor, on the other hand, would the Sovereign now +venture to retain a ministry which the Commons refused to support.[2] +This limitation of the prerogatives of royalty emphasized the fact +that the House of Commons had practically become the ruling power in +England; and since that House is freely elected by the great body of +the people, in order that it may declare and enforce their will, it +follows that the government of the realm is essentially democratic. +In fact, so far as reflecting public opinion is concerned, no republic +in the world is more democratic. + +[2] In order to guard herself against any political influence adverse +to that of the Cabinet (S582), and hence of the majority of the House +of Commons, the Queen was compelled to consent (1841) that the +Mistress of the Robes, or head of her Majesty's household, should +change at the demand of the incoming Prime Minister; and it was +furthermore agreed that any ladies under her whose presence might be +politically inconvenient to the Prime Minister, should retire "of +their own accord." In other words, the incoming Prime Minister, with +his Cabinet, has the right to remodel the Sovereign's household--or +any other body of offices--in whatever degree he may think requisite, +and the late Prince Albert could not even appoint his own private +secretary, but much to his chagrin had to accept one appointed for him +by the Prime Minister. See May's "Constitutional History of England" +and Martin's "Life of the Prince Consort." + +Custom, too, has decided that the Sovereign must sanction every bill +which Parliament approves and resolves to make law. Queen Anne was +the last occupant of the English throne who ventured to veto a bill, +by refusing to assent to it. That was in 1707, or more than two +hundred years ago, and there is little probability that any wearer of +the crown will ever attempt to do what she did. In fact, an able and +authoritative English writer has not hesitated to declare that if the +two Houses of Parliament should agree to send the reigning Sovereign +his own death warrant, he would be obliged to sign it, or abdicate.[1] + +[1] See Bagehot's "The English Constitution." + +An English sovereign's real position to-day is that of a person who +has much indirect influence and but little direct power,--far less in +fact than that of the President of the United States; for the latter +can veto a bill, and can remove any or all of his cabinet officers at +pleasure. + +588. The House of Lords in the Past and To-day. + +A change equally great was taking place with respect to the Peers, or +Lords.[2] As that body has played a most important part in the +government of England and still retains considerable influence, it may +be well to consider its history and present condition. + +[2] Peers (from the Latin pares, equals): The word first occurs in an +act of Parliament, 1321,--"Pares et proceres regni Angliae spirituales +et temporales." The name Peers, referring to the House of Lords, is +here limited, as it has been ever since, to the higher clergy (now +consisting of certain bishops) and to the hereditary nobility. + +It will be remembered that the peerage originated with the Norman +Conquest. William rewarded the barons, or chief men, who fought under +him at Hastings[3] with grants of immense estates, which were given on +two conditions: one of military service at the call of the Sovereign +(S150); the other their attendance, when required, at the Great or +Royal Council (S144), an advisory and legislative body which contained +the germ of what later came to be called Parliament. + +It will thus be seen that the Conqueror made the possession of landed +property directly dependent on the discharge of public duties. So +that if, on the one hand, the Conquest carried out the principle + + "That they should take who have the power, + And they should keep who can,"[1] + +on the other, it insisted on the higher principle that in return for +such *taking* and *keeping* the victors should bind themselves by oath +to help defend the kingdom, and to help govern it. + +[1] Wordsworth's "Rob Roy's Grave." + +In later reigns the King summoned other influential men to attend +Parliament. To distinguish them from the original barons by land +tenure, they were called "barons by writ" (S263). Subsequently it +became customary for the Sovereign to create barons by letters patent, +as is the method at present (S263). + +Edward I, 1295, is generally considered to have been the "Creator of +the House of Lords" in the form in which it has since stood.[2] From +his time the right to sit in the House of Lords was limited to those +whom the King summoned, namely, the hereditary Peers (save in the case +of a very limited number of life Peers), and to the upper clergy. + +[2] W. Stubb's "English Constitutional History," II, 184, 203; also +Feilden's "Short Constitutional History of England," pp. 121-122. + +The original baronage continued predominant until the Wars of the +Roses (S316) destroyed so many of the ancient nobility that, as Lord +Beaconsfield says, "A Norman baron was almost as rare a being in +England then as a wolf is now." With the coming in of the Tudors a new +nobility was created (S352). Even this has become in great measure +extinct. Perhaps not more than a fourth of those who now sit in the +House of Lords can trace their titles further back than the Georges, +who created great numbers of Peers in return for political services +either rendered or expected. + +Politically speaking, the nobility of England, unlike the old nobility +of France, is strictly confined and strictly descends to but one +member of the family,--the eldest son receiving the preference. None +of the children of the most powerful Duke or Lord has, during his +father's life, any civil or legal rights or privileges above that of +the poorest and most obscure native-born day laborer in Great +Britain.[1] + +[1] Even the younger children of the Sovereign are no exception to +this rule. The only one born with a title is the eldest, who is Duke +of Cornwall by birth, and is created Prince of Wales. The others are +simply commoners. See E.A. Freeman's "Growth of the English +Constitution." + +The whole number of Peers is about six hundred.[2] They own a very +large part of the land of England[3] and possess all the social and +political influence naturally belonging to such a body. Yet +notwithstanding the exclusive and aristocratic spirit of this long- +established class, it has always been ready to receive recruits from +the ranks of the people. For just as any boy in America feels himself +a possible senator or President, so any one born or naturalized in +England, like Pitt, Disraeli, Churchill, Nelson, Wellesley, Brougham, +Tennyson, Macaulay, Lord Lyndhurst,[4] and many others, may win his +way to a title, and also to a seat in the House of Lords, since brains +and character go to the front in England just as surely as they do +everywhere else. + +[2] The full assembly of the House of Lords would consist of five +hundred and sixty-two temporal Peers and twenty-six spiritual Peers +(archbishops and bishops). +[3] So strictly is property entailed that there are proprietors of +large estates who cannot so much as cut down a tree without permission +of the heir. See Badeau's "English Aristocracy." +[4] J.S. Copley (Lord Lyndhurst), son of the famous artist, was born +in Boston in 1772. He became Lord Chancellor. All of the eminent men +named above rose from the ranks of the people and were made Peers of +the realm, either for life or as a hereditary right; and in a number +of cases, as the elder Pitt (Earl of Chatham), Wellesley (Duke of +Wellington), Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield), Copley (Lord Lyndhurst), +they received seats in the House of Lords. + +In their legislative action the Lords are, with very rare exceptions, +extremely conservative. It is a "galling fact"[5] that they have +seldom granted their assent to any liberal measure except from +pressure of the most unmistakable kind. They opposed the Habeas +Corpus Act under Charles II, Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the Great +Reform Bill of 1832, the Education Bill of 1834, the repeal of the +Corn Laws in 1846, the admission of the Jews to Parliament in 1858, +and they very reluctantly consented to the necessity of granting later +extensions of the elective franchise. + +[5] See A.L. Lowell's "The Government of England," I, 414, 422. + +But, on the other hand, it was their influence which compelled John to +sign Magna Carta in 1215; it was one of their number--Simon de +Montfort, Earl of Leicester--who called the House of Commons into +being in 1265; and it was the Lords as leaders who inaugurated the +Revolution of 1688, and established constitutional sovereignty under +William and Mary in the place of the despotic self-will of James II. +Again, it was Lord Derby, the Prime Minister, and Mr. Disraeli, later +known as Lord Beaconsfield, who, as leaders of the Tory, or +Conservative, Party, felt obliged to carry the Reform Bill of 1867, by +which the right to vote was greatly extended among the people (S600). + +Seven hundred years ago the House of Lords was the only legislative +and executive body in the country; now, nearly all the most important +business of Parliament is done in the House of Commons (consisting of +some six hundred and seventy members), and the Lords cannot vote a +penny of money for any purpose whatever unless Commons first passes a +bill to that effect (S281). Thus taxation, which is generally +regarded as the most important of all measures, has passedf from the +Lords to the direct representatives of the people. + +At one time certain impatient Radicals in the House of Commons +denounced the Peers as "titled obstructionists." In fact, late in the +nineteenth century (1894) a resolution to put an end to their +obstructive power was carried in the Commons (when half the members +were absent) by a majority of two. But the vote was not taken +seriously, and the Lords were not called upon to go out of business. +The upper House has continued, on occasion, to exercise its +constitutional righ of vetoing bills sent up to it by the House of +Commons, though since 1860 it has rejected but one "Money Bill" +(1909), and that only temporarily (SS629, 631).[1] Since then the +Liberal Party has demanded more strenuously than ever that the veto +power of the Lords should be either greatly limited or abolished +altogether (SS629, 632). + +[1] As far back as 1671, the House of Commons resolved "that in all +aids given to the King by the Commons, the rate or tax ought not to be +altered by the Lords." In 1678 they emphatically repeated this +resolution. In 1860 when the Lords rejected a "Money Bill" (for the +repeal of paper duties) the Commons vigorously protested, declaring +that they regarded the exercise of that power by the upper House with +"particular jealousy." From that time the Commons were careful to +include all the financial measures of the year in one bill, which the +Lords "were forced to accept or reject as a whole." See +H.S. Feilden's "Short Constitutional History of England," pp. 114-115, +and A.L. Lowell's "The Government of England," I, 400-401. + +The House of Lords always includes a number of members eminent for +their judicial ability, some of whom have been created Peers for that +reason. This section acts as the National Court of Appeal and sits to +decide the highest questions of constitutional law. In this respect +it corresponds to the Supreme Court of the United States. + +589. The Queen's Marriage (1840). + +In her twenty-first year, Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince +Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a duchy of Central Germany. The Prince +was about her own age, of fine personal appearance, and had just +graduated from one of the German universities. He was particularly +interested in art and education, and throughout his life used his +influence to raise the standard of both. + +590. Sir Rowland Hill's Postal Reforms, 1839. + +The preceding year Sir Rowland Hill introduced a uniform system of +cheap postage. The rate had been as high as a shilling for a single +letter.[1] Such a charge was practically prohibitive, and, as a rule, +no one wrote in those days if he could possibly avoid it. Sir Rowland +reduced it to a penny (paid by stamp) to any part of the United +Kingdom.[2] Since then the government has taken over all the telegraph +lines, and cheap telegrams and the cheap transportation of parcels by +mail (a kind of government express known as "parcels post") have +followed. They are all improvements of immense practical benefit. + +[1] An illustration of the effects of such high charges for postage is +related by Coleridge. He says that he met a poor woman at Keswick +just as she was returning a letter from her son to the postman, saying +she could not afford to pay for it. Coleridge gave the postman the +shilling, and the woman told the poet that the letter was really +nothing more than a blank sheet which her son had agreed to send her +every three months to let her know he was well; as she always declined +to take this dummy letter, it of course cost her nothing. See +G.B. Hill's "Life of Sir Rowland Hill," I, 239, note. +[2] The London papers made no end of fun of the first envelopes and +the first postage stamps (1840). See the facsimile of the ridiculous +"Mulready Envelope" in Hill's "Life of Sir Rowland Hill," I, 393. + +591. Rise of the Chartists (1838-1848). + +The feeling attending the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 (S582) +had passed away; but now a popular agitation began which produced even +greater excitement. Although the act of 1832 had equalized +parliamentary representation and had enlarged the elective franchise +to a very considerable degree, yet the great body of workingmen were +still shut out from the right to vote. A Radical Party called the +"Chartists" now arose, which undertook to secure further measures of +reform. + +They embodied their measures in a document called the "People's +Charter," which demanded: + +1. Universal male suffrage. +2. That the voting at elections should be by ballot. +3. Annual Parliaments. +4. The payment of memebers of Parliament. +5. The abolition of the property qualification for parliamentary +candidates.[1] +6. The division of the whole country into equal electoral districts. + +[1] Property qualification: In 1711 an act was passed requiring +candidates for election to the House of Commons to have an income of +not less than 300 pounds derived from landed property. The object of +this law was to secure members who would be comparatively free from +the temptation of receiving bribes from the Crown, and also to keep +the landed proprietors in power to the exclusion of rich merchants. +This law was repealed in 1858. + +The Chartists held public meetings, organized clubs, and published +newpapers to disseminate their principles, but for many years made +very little progress. The French revolution which dethroned King +Louis Philippe (1848) imparted fresh impetus to the Chartist +movement. The leader of that movement was Feargus O'Connor. He +formed the plan of sending a monster petition to Parliament, +containing, it was claimed, nearly five million signatures, praying +for the passage of the People's Charter. + +A procession of a million or more signers was to act as an escort to +the document, which made a wagonload in itself. The Government became +alarmed at the threatened demonstration, forbade it, on the ground +that it was an attempt to coerce legislation, and organized a body of +250,000 special policemen to preserve order. + +The Duke of Wellington took command of a large body of troops held in +reserve to defend the city; and the Bank of England, the Houses of +Parliament, the British Museum, and other public buildings were made +ready to withstand a siege. + +It was now the Chartists' turn to be frightened. When they assembled +(1848) on Kennington Common in south London, they numbered less than +thirty thousand, and the procession of a million which was to march +across Westminster Bridge, to the Houses of Parliament, dwindled to +half a dozen. When the huge petition was unrolled it was found to +contain only about a third of the boasted number of names. Further +examination showed that many of the signatures were spurious, having +been put down in jest, or copied from gravestones and old London +directories. With that discovery the whole movement collapsed, and +the House of Commons rang with "inextinguishable laughter" over the +national scare. + +Still the demands of the Chartists had a solid foundation of good +sense, which the blustering bravado of the leaders of the movement +could not wholly destroy. Most, if not all, of the reforms asked for +were needed. Since then, the steady, quiet influence of reason and of +time has compelled Parliament to grant the greater part of them.[1] + +[1] Sir Thomas Erskine May, in his "Constitutional History of +England," says: "Not a measure has been forced upon Parliament which +the calm judgment of a later time has not since approved; not an +agitation has failed which posterity has not condemned." + +The printed or written ballot has been substituted for the old method +of electing candidates by a show of hands or by shouting yes or no,-- +a method by which it was easy to make blunders, and equally easy to +commit frauds. Every voter must now have his name and address +registered in a printed list. Every voter, too, casts a secret ballot +and so safeguards his political independence (S609). The property +qualification has been abolished (S591, note 1), so that the day +laborer may now run for Parliament. He is sure, too, of being well +paid, for Parliament voted (1911) to give 400 pounds a year to every +member of the House of Commons. The right of "manhood suffrage" has +been greatly extended, and before the twentieth century has advanced +much farther every man in England will probably have a voice in the +elections. + +592. The Corn Laws (1841). + +At the accession of the Queen protective duties or taxes existed in +Great Britain on all imported breadstuffs and on many manufactured +articles. Sir Robert Peel, the Conservative Prime Minister (1841), +favored a reduction in the last class of duties, but believed it +necessary to maintain the former in order to keep up the price of +grain and thus encourage the English farmers. The result of this +policy was great distress among the poorly paid, half-fed workingmen, +who could not afford to buy dear bread. A number of philanthropists +led by Richard Cobden and John Bright organized an Anti-Corn Law +League[1] to obtain the repeal of the grain duties. + +[1] Corn is the name given in England to wheat or other grain used for +food. Indian corn or maize cannot be grown in that climate, and is +seldom eaten there. + +At the same time, Ebenezer Elliott, the "Corn-Law Rhymer," gave voice +to the sufferings of the poor in rude but vigorous verse, which +appealed to the excited feelings of thousands in such words as these: + + "England! what for mine and me, + What hath bread tax done for thee? + . . . . . . . . + Cursed thy harvest, cursed thy land, + Hunger-stung thy skill'd right hand." + +When, however, session after session of Parliament passed and nothing +was done for the relief of the perishing multitudes, many began to +despair, and great numbers joined in singing Elliott's new national +anthem: + + "When wilt Thou save the people? + O God of mercy! when? + Not kings or lords, but nations! + Not thrones and crowns, but men! + Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they! + Let them not pass, like weeds, away! + Their heritage a sunless day! + God save the people!" + +Still the Government was not covinced; the Corn Laws were enforced, +the price of bread showed no signs of falling, and the situation grew +daily more desperate and more threatening. + +593. The Irish Famine, 1845-1846. + +At last the Irish famine opened the Prime Minister's eyes (S592). +When in Elizabeth's reign Sir Walter Raleigh brought over the cheap +but precarious potato from America and planted it in Ireland, his +motive was one of pure good will. He could not foresee that it would +in time become in that country an almost universal food, that through +its very abundance the population would rapidly increase, and that +then, by the sudden failure of the crop, terrible destitution would +ensue. Such was the case in the summer of 1845. It is said by +eyewitnesses that in a single night the entire potato crop was smitten +with disease, and the healthy plants were transformed into a mass of +putrefying vegetation. Thus at one fell stroke the food of nearly a +whole nation was cut off.[1] + +[1] O'Connor's "The Parnell Movement." + +In the years that followed, the famine became appalling. The starving +peasants left their miserable huts and streamed into the towns for +relief, only to die of hunger in the streets. + +Parliament responded nobly to the piteous calls for help, and voted in +all no less than 10,000,000 pounds to relieve the distress.[2] +Subscriptions were also taken up in London and the chief towns, by +which large sums were obtained, and America contributed shiploads of +provisions and a good deal of money; but the misery was so great that +even these measures failed to accomplish what was hoped. When the +famine was over, it was found that Ireland had lost about two million +(or one fourth) of her population.[3] This was the combined effect of +starvation, of the various diseases that followed in its path, and of +emigration.[4] + +[2] Molesworth's "History of England from 1830." +[3] The actual number of deaths from starvation, or fever caused by +insufficient food, was estimated at from two hundred thousand to three +hundred thousand. See the Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Ireland." +[4] McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," Vol. I. + +594. Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846-1849; Free Trade established, 1869. + +In the face of such appalling facts, and of the bad harvests and +distress in England, Sir Robert Peel (S592) could hold out no longer, +and by a gradual process, extending from 1846 to 1849, the obnoxious +Corn Laws were repealed, with the exception of a trifling duty, which +was finally removed in 1869. + +The beginning once made, free trade in nearly everything, except wine, +spirits, and tobacco, followed. They were, and still are, subject to +a heavy duty, perhaps because the government believes, as Napoleon +did, that the vices have broad backs and can comfortably carry the +heaviest taxes. A few years later (1849) the old Navigation Laws +(S459) were totally repealed. This completed the English free-trade +measures. But, by a singular contrast, while nearly all goods and +products now enter England free, yet Australia, Canada, New Zealand, +and the Union of South Africa--in a word, all the great self-governing +English colonies--continue to impose duties on imports from the mother +country (S625). + +595. The World's Fair (1851); Repeal of the Window and the Newspaper + Tax; the Atlantic Cable, 1866. + +The great industrial exhibition known as the "World's Fair" was opened +in Hyde Park, London (1851). The original plan of it was conceived by +Prince Albert. It proved to be not only a complete success in itself, +but it led to many similar fairs on the part of different nations. +For the first time in history the products and inventions of all the +countries of the globe were brought together under one roof, in a +gigantic structure of glass and iron called the "Crystal Palace," +which is still in use for exhibition purposes at Sydenham, a suburb of +London. + +The same year (1851) the barbarous tax on light and air, known as the +"Window Tax,"[1] was repealed and the House Tax (which is still in +force) was substituted for it. From that date the Englishman, whether +in London or out, might enjoy his sunshine, when he could get it, +without having to pay for every beam,--a luxury which only the rich +could afford. + +[1] This tax, which took the place of the ancient Hearth Tax +(1663-1689), was first imposed in 1695. + +A little later (1855) a stamp tax on newspapers, which had been +devised in Queen Anne's time in the avowed hope of crushing them out, +was repealed. The result was that henceforth cheap papers could be +published, and the workingman, as he sat by his fireside, could inform +himself of what the world was doing and thinking,--two things of which +he had before known almost nothing, and cared, perhaps, even less. + +To get this news of the world's life more speedily, England had +established the first line of Atlantic steamers (S565); next, the +first Atlantic cable, connecting England with America, was laid +(1858). It soon gave out, but was permanently relaid not long +afterwards, in 1866. Since then a large part of the globe has been +joined in like manner,[1] and the great cities of every civilized land +are practically one in their knowledge of all important events. So +many improvements have also been made in the use of electricity, not +only for the transmission of intelligence, but as an illuminator, and +more recently still as a motive power, that it now seems probable that +"the age of steam" will be superseded by the higher "age of +electricity." + +[1] There are now over 250,000 miles of submarine electric cables in +operation in the world. + +596. The Opium War (1839); the War in the Crimea (1854). + +For nearly twenty years after Victoria's accession no wars occurred in +her reign worthy of mention, with the exception of that with China +(1839). At that time the Chinese Emperor, either from a desire to put +a stop to the consumption of opium in his dominions, or because he +wished to encourage the home production of the drug, prohibited its +importation. As the English in India were largely engaged in the +production of opium for the Chinese market,--the people of that +country smoking it instead of tobacco,--the British government +insisted that the Emperor should not interfere with so lucrative a +trade. War ensued. + +The Chinese, being unable to contend against English gunboats, were +soon forced to withdraw their prohibition of the foreign opium +traffic. The English government, with the planters of India, reaped a +golden reward of many millions for their deliberate violation of the +rights of a heathen and half-civilized people. The war opened five +important ports to the British trade, and subsequent wars opened a +number more on the rivers in the interior. This action, with the +later aggressions of other European powers, roused an intensely bitter +feeling among large numbers of the Chinese. Their hatred of +foreigners finally led to a desperate but unsuccessful attempt (1900) +to drive all Europeans and Americans, including missionaries, out of +the country. + +Eventually, the pressure of the great powers of Europe and the +diplomatic influence of the United States induced China to grant the +"Open Door" to the demands of foreign trade. Later, England and China +made an agreement (1911) which bids fair to stop the exportation of +opium to that country. + +Next, Turkey declared war against Russia (1853). The latter Power had +insisted on protecting all Christians in the Turkish dominions against +the oppression of the Sultan. England and France considered the +Czar's championship of the Christians as a mere pretext for occupying +Turkish territory. To prevent this aggression they formed an alliance +with the Sultan, which resulted in the Russo-Turkish war, and ended in +the taking of Sebastopol by the allied forces. Russia was obliged to +retract her demands, and peace was declared (1856). + +597. The Great Rebellion in India, 1857. + +The following year, 1857, was memorable for the outbreak of rebellion +in India. The real cause of the revolt was probably a long-smothered +feeling of resentment on the part of the Sepoy, or native, troops +against English rule,--a feeling that dates back to the extortion and +misgovernment of Warren Hastings (S555). The immediate cause of the +uprising was the introduction of an improved rifle using a greased +cartridge, which had to be bitten off before being rammed down. + +To the Hindu the fat of cattle or swine is an abomination, and his +religion forbids his tasting it. An attempt on the part of the +British Government to enforce the use of the new cartridge brought on +a general mutiny among three hundred thousand Sepoys. During the +revolt the native troops perpetrated the most horrible atrocitise on +the English women and children who fell into their hands. When the +insurrection was finally quelled under Havelock and Campbell, the +English soldiers retaliated by binding numbers of prisoners to the +mouths of cannon and blowing them to shreds. At the close of the +rebellion, the government of India was wholly transferred to the +Crown, and later the Queen received the title of "Empress of India" +(1876). + +598. Death of Prince Albert; the American Civil War, 1861. + +Not long after the Sepoy rebellion was quelled, Prince Albert (S589) +died suddenly (1861). In him the nation lost an earnest promoter of +social, educational, and industrial reforms, and the United States a +true and judicious friend, who, at a most critical period in the Civil +War, used his influence to maintain peace between the two countries. + +After his death the Queen held no court for many years, and so +complete was her seclusion that Sir Charles Dilke, a well-known +Radical, suggested in Parliament (1868) that her Majesty be invited to +abdicate or choose a regent. The suggestion was indignantly rejected; +but it revealed the feeling, which quite generally existed, that "the +real Queen died with her husband," and that only her shadow remained. + +In the spring of the year 1861, in which Prince Albert died, the +American Civil War broke out between the Northern and Southern +States. Lord Palmerston, the Liberal Prime Minister, preferred to be +considered the minister of the nation rather than the head of a +political party. At the beginning of the war he was in favor of the +North. As the conflict threatened to be bitter the Queen issued a +proclamation declaring her "determination to maintain a strict and +impartial neutrality in the contest between the said contending +parties." The rights of belligerents--in other words, all the rights +of war according to the law of nations--were granted to the South +equally with the North; and her Majesty's subjects were warned against +aiding either side in the conflict. + +The progress of the war caused terrible distress in Lancashire, owing +to the cutting off of supplies of cotton for the mills through the +blockade of the ports of the Confederate States. The starving +weavers, however, gave their moral support to the North, and continued +steadfast to the cause of the Union even in the sorest period of their +suffering. The great majority of the manufacturers and business +classes generally, and the nobility, with a few exceptions, +sympathized with the efforts of the South to establish an independent +Confederacy. Most of the distinguished political and social leaders, +in Parliament and out, with nearly all the influential journals, were +on the same side, and were openly hostile to the Union.[1] + +[1] Lord John Russell (Foreign Secretary), Lord Brougham, Sir John +Bowring, Carlyle, Ruskin, and the London Times and Punch espouses the +cause of the South more or less openly; while others, like +Mr. Gladstone, declared their full belief in the ultimate success of +the Confederacy. On the other hand, Prince Albert, the Duke of +Argyll, John Bright, John Stuart Mill, Professor Newman, Lord +Palmerston, at least for a time, and the London Daily News defended +the cause of the North. After the death of President Lincoln, Punch +manfully acknowledged (see issue of May 6, 1865) that it had been +altogether wrong in its estimation of him and his measures; and +Mr. Gladstone, in an essay on "Kin beyond Sea" in his "Gleanings of +Past Years," paid a noble tribute to the course pursued by America +since the close of the war. + +Late in Autumn (1861) Captain Wilkes, of the United States Navy, +boarded the British mail steamer Trent, and seized two Confederate +commissioners (Mason and Slidell) who were on their way to England. +When intelligence of the act was conveyed to President Lincoln, he +expressed his unqualified disapproval of it, saying: "This is the very +thing the British captains used to do. They claimed the right of +searching American ships, and taking men out of them. That was the +cause of the War of 1812. Now, we cannot abandon our own principles; +we shall have to give up these men, and apologize for what we have +done." + +The British Government made a formal demand that the commissioners +should be given up. Through the influence of Prince Albert, and with +the approval of the Queen, this demand was couched in most +conciliatory language. Slidell and Mason were handed over to Great +Britain, and an apology was made by Secretary Seward. + +During the progress of the Civil War a number of fast-sailing vessels +were fitted out in England, and employed in running the blockade of +the Southern ports, to supply them with arms, ammunition, and +manufactured goods of various kinds. Later, several gunboats were +built in British shipyards by agents of the Confederate government, +for the purpose of attacking the commerce of the United States. The +most famous of these vessels was the Alabama, built expressly for the +Confederate service by the Lairds, of Birkenhead, armed with British +cannon, and manned chiefly by British sailors. + +Charles Francis Adams, the American Minister at London, notified Lord +Palmerston, the Prime Minister, of her true character. But Palmerston +permitted the Alabama to leave port (1862), satisfied with the pretext +that she was going on a trial trip.[1] She set sail on her career of +destruction, and soon drove nearly every American merchant vessel from +the seas. Two years later (1864) she was defeated and sunk by the +United States gunboat Kearsarge. After the war the Government of the +United States demanded damages from Great Britain for losses caused by +the Alabama and other English-built privateers. + +[1] The Queen's advocate gave his opinion that the Alabama should be +detained, but it reached the Foreign Secretary (Lord Russell) just +after she had put out to sea. + +A treaty was agreed to by the two nations; and by its provisions an +international court was held at Geneva, Switzerland (1872), to deal +with the demands made by the United States on Great Britain. The +court awarded $15,500,000 in gold as compensation to the United +States, which was duly paid. One very important result of this +decision was that it established a precedent for settling by +arbitration on equitable and amicable terms whatever questions might +arise in future between the two nations.[1] + +[1] This treaty imposed duties on neutral governments of a far more +stringent sort than Great Britain had hitherto been willing to +concede. It resulted, furthermore, in the passage of an act of +Parliament, punishing with severe penalties such illegal shipbuilding +as that of the Alabama. See Sheldon Amos's "Fifty Years of the +English Constitution, 1830-1880." + +599. Municipal Reform (1835); Woman Suffrage; the Jews. + +Excellent as was the Reform Bill of 1832 (S582), it did not go far +enough. There was also great need of municipal reform, since in many +cities the taxpayers had no voice in the management of local affairs, +and the city officers sometimes spent the income of large charitable +funds in feasting and merrimaking while the poor got little or +nothing. + +A law was passed (1835) giving taxpayers in cities (except London) +control of municipal elections. By a subsequent amendment, the ballot +in such cases was extended to women,[2] and for the first time perhaps +in modern history partial woman suffrage was formally granted by +supreme legislative act. A number of years later the political +restrictions imposed on the Jews were removed. + +[2] Woman suffrage in municipal elections was granted to single women +and widows (householders) in 1869. In 1870 an act was passed enabling +them to vote at schoolboard elections, and also to become members of +such boards. By act of 1894 women were made eligible to sit and vote +in district and parish councils (or local-government elections). + +There was a considerable number of Jews in London and in other large +cities who were men of wealth and influence. They were entitled to +vote and hold municipal office, but they were debarred from election +to Parliament by a law which required them to make oath "on the faith +of a Christian." The law was now so modified (1859) that a very +prominent Jew, Baron Rothschild, took his seat in Parliament. Finally +the Oaths Act (1888) abolished all religious tests in Parliament. + +600. Second and Third Reform Acts, 1867, 1884; County and Parish + Councils (1884, 1894). + +In 1867 the pressure of public opinion moved Mr. Disraeli (later Lord +Beaconsfield), a member of Lord Derby's Conservative Cabinet (S479), +to bring in a second Reform Bill (S582), which became law. This bill +provided "household suffrage." It gave the right to vote to all male +householders in the English parliamentary boroughs (that is, towns +having the right to elect one or more members to Parliament), who paid +a tax for the support of the poor, and to all lodgers paying a rental +of 10 pounds yearly; it also increased the number of voters among +small property holders in counties.[1] + +[1] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxvi, +S31. Lord Derby held the office, but Mr. Disraeli was really Prime +Minister. + +There still remained, however, a large class in the country districts +for whom nothing had been done. The men employed by the farmers to +till the soil were wretchedly poor and deplorably ignorant. Joseph +Arch, a Warwickshire farm laborer, who had been educated by hunger and +toil, succeeded in establishing a national union among men of his +class (1872). In 1884 Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister, +secured the ballot for agricultural laborers by the passage of the +third Reform Act, which gave all residents of counties throughout the +United Kingdom the right to vote on the same liberal conditions as the +residents of the towns. + +It is estimated that this last law added about two and a half millions +of voters; this gave one voter to every six persons of the total +population, whereas, before the passing of the first Reform Bill in +1832, thre was not over one in fifty. When the new or so-called +"People's Parliament" convened (1886), Joseph Arch and several other +candidates took their seats in the House of Commons as representatives +of classes of the population who, up to that date, had no voice in the +legislation of the country. + +The next step may bring universal "manhood suffrage." The County +Council and Parish Council acts (1888, 1894) greatly extended the +power of the people in all matters of local government, so that now +every village in England controls its own affairs. + +601. Compulsory Church Rates abolished; Disestablishment in Ireland + (1869). + +While these great reforms were taking place with respect to elections, +others of great importance were also being effected. From its origin +in 1549 the established Protestant Church of England (S362) had +compelled persons of all religious beliefs to pay rates or taxes for +the maintenance of the Established Cuhrch in the parish where they +resided. Methodists, Baptists, and other Dissenters (SS472, 496, 507) +objected to this law as unjust, since, in addition to the expense of +supporting their own form of worship, they were obliged to contribute +toward maintaining one with which they had no sympathy. So great had +the opposition become to paying these "church rates," that in over +fifteen hundred parishes in England (1859) the authorities could not +collect them. After long debate Mr. Gladstone carried through a bill +(1868) which abolished this mode of taxation and made the payment of +these rates purely voluntary.[1] + +[1] Church rates were levied on all occupiers of land or houses within +the parish. The Church of England is now supported by a tax on +landowners, by its endowments, and by voluntary gifts. + +A similar act of justice was soon after granted to Ireland (1869).[2] +At the time of the union of the two countries in 1800 (S562), the +maintenance of the Protestant Episcopal Church continued to remain +obligatory upon the Irish people, although only a small part of them +were of that faith. Mr. Gladstone, now Liberal Prime Minister, +succeeded in getting Parliament to enact a law which disestablished +this branch of the National Church and left all religious +denominations in Ireland to the voluntary support of those who +belonged to them. Henceforth the English Protestants residing in that +country could no longer claim the privilege of worshiping God at the +expense of his Roman Catholic neighbor. + +[2] The Disestablishment Bill was passed in 1869 and took effect in +1871. + +602. The Elementary Education Act, 1870. + +In 1870 Mr. Forester, a member of Mr. Gladstone's Liberal Cabinet +(SS534, 601), succeeded in passing a measure of the highest +importance, entitled The Elementary Education Act. This act did not +undertake to establish a new system of instruction, but to aid and +improve that which was then in use. In the course of time, however, +it effected such changes for the better in the common schools that it +practically re-created most of them. + +It will be remembered that before the Reformation the Catholic +monasteries took the leading part in educating the children of the +country (SS45, 60). The destruction of the monasteries by Henry VIII +(S352) put a stop to their work; but after Henry's death, his son, +Edward VI, established many Protestant schools (SS364, 365), while +tohers were founded by men who had grown suddenly rich through getting +possession of monastic lands. These new schools did good work, and +are still doing it; but they seldom reached the children of the poor. +Later on, many wealthy persons founded Charity Schools to help the +class who could not afford to pay anything for their tuition. The +pupils who lived in these institutions (of which a number still exist) +were generally obliged to wear a dress which, by its peculiarity of +cut and color, always reminded them that they were "objects of public +or private benevolence." Furthermore, while the boys in these +institutions were often encouraged to go on and enter Grammar Schools, +the girls were informed that a very little learning would be all that +they would ever need in the humble station in life to which Providence +had seen fit to call them. + +Meanwhile, the Church of England, and other religious denominations, +both Catholic and Protestant, established many common schools (1781- +1811) for the benefit of the poor. The cost of carrying them on was +usually met by private contributions. All of these schools gave some +form of denominational religious instruction. As the population +increased many more schools were required. At length Parliament began +(1833) to grant money to help the different religious societies in +maintaining their systems of instruction. When able, the parents of +the children were also called on to pay a small sum weekly. In 1870 +the Liberal Government took hold of the education question with great +vigor. It provided that in all cases where the existing Church of +England or other denominational schools were not able to accomodate +the children of a given district, School Boards should be established +to open new schools, which, if necessary, should be maintained +entirely at the public expense. In these "Board Schools," as they +were called, no denominational religious instruction whatever could be +given. + +This very important act "placed a school within the reach of every +child," but, except in very poor districts, these schools were not +made free schools; in fact, free schools, in the American sense, +cannot be said to exist in Great Britain. Later on (1880) compulsory +attendance was required, and subsequent acts of Parliament (1902, +1904) transferred the management of these schools from the School +Boards to the Town and County Councils.[1] Again, these new measures +make it practicable for a boy or girl, who has done well in the +primary course, to secure assistance which will open opportunities for +obtaining a higher education. Thus, as a recent writer declares, +"There is now a path leading from the workman's home even to the +University."[2] + +[1] But many men and women who belong to the Dissenting Denominations +complain that the Educational Acts of 1870-1904 compel them to pay +taxes for the support of a great number of public elementary schools +which are under the control of the English Church, and furthermore, +that teachers who are members of Dissenting societies, such as the +Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, etc., can seldom, if ever, get +appointments in the class of schools mentioned. Quite a number of +these Dissenters who call themselves "Passive Resisters" have refused +to pay the school tax and have had their property seized or have been +sent to jail year after year. +[2] A.L. Lowell's "The Government of England," II, 323. + +Meanwhile (1871) the universities and colleges, with most of the +offices and professorships connected with them, were thrown open to +all persons without regard to religious belief; whereas, formerly, no +one could graduate from Oxford or Cambridge without subscribing to the +doctrines of the Church of England. + +603. The First Irish Land Act, 1870. + +In 1870, the same year that the Government undertook to provide for +the education of the masses (S602), Mr. Gladstone, who was still Prime +Minister and head of the Liberal Party (S601), brought in a bill for +the relief of small Irish farmers, those who had to support themselves +and their families from the little they could get from a few hired +acres. Since the union (S562) much of the general policy of England +toward Ireland had been described as "a quick alternation of kicks and +kindness." Mr. Gladstone did not hesitate to say that he believed the +misery of the island sprang mainly from its misgovernment. He thought +that the small farmer needed immediate help and that it was the duty +of the Liberal Party to grant it. + +The circumstances under which the land was held in Ireland were +peculiar. A very large part of it was owned by Englishmen whose +ancestors obtained it through the wholesale confiscations of James I, +Cromwell, and later rulers (SS423, 453). Very few of these English +landlords cared to reside in the country or to do anything for its +improvement. Their agents or overseers generally forced the farm +tenants to pay the largest amount of rent that could be wrung from +them, and they could dispossess a tenant of his land whenever they saw +fit, without giving a reason for the act. If, by his labor, the +tenant made the land more fertile, he seldom reaped any additional +profit from his industry, for the rent was usually increased, and +swallowed up all that he raised. Such a system of extortion was +destructive to those who tilled the soil, and if it brought in more +money for the landlord, it produced nothing but misery and discontent +for his tenant. + +Mr. Gladstone's new law endeavored to remedy these evils by the +following provisions: + +1. In case a landlord ejected a rent-paying tenant, he was to pay him + damages, and allow him a fair sum for whatever improvement he had + made. +2. It secured a ready means of arbitration between landlord and + tenant, and if a tenant failed to pay an exorbitant rate he could + not be hastily or unjustly driven from his farm. +3. It made it possible for the tenant to borrow a certain sum from the + government for the purpose of purchasing the land in case the owner + was willing to sell. + +604. Distress in Ireland; the Land League (1879). + +The friends of the new Irish land law hoped it would be found +satisfactory; but the potato crop again failed in Ireland (1876-1879), +and the country seemed threatened with another great famine (S593). +Thousands who could not get the means to pay even a moderate rent were +now forced to leave their cabins and seek shelter in the bogs, with +the prospect of dying there of starvation. + +The wrected condition of the people led an number of influential +Irishmen to for a Land League (1879). This organization sought to +abolish the entire landlord system in Ireland and to secure +legislation which should eventually give the Irish peasantry +possession of the soil they cultivated. + +In time the League grew to have a membership of several hundred +thousand persons, extending over the greater part of Ireland. Finding +it difficult to get parliamentary help for their grievances, the +League resolved to try a different kind of tactics. Its members +refused to work for, buy from, sell to, or have any intercourse with +landlords, or their agents, who extorted exhorbitant rent, ejected +tenants unable to pay, or took possession of land from which tenants +had been unjustly driven. This process of social excommunication was +first tried on an English agent, or overseer, named Boycott, and soon +became famous under the name of "boycotting." + +As the struggle went on, many of the suffering poor became desperate. +Farm buildings belonging to landlords and their agents were burned, +many of their cattle were horribly mutilated, and a number of the +agents shot. At the same time the cry rose of "No Rent, Death to the +Landlords!" Hundreds of Irish tenants now refused to pay anything for +the use of the land they cultivated, and attacked those who did. + +Eventually the lawlessness of the country compelled the Government to +take severe measures. It suppressed the Land League (1881), which was +believed to be responsible for the refusal to pay rent, and for the +accompanying outrages; but it could not extinguish the feeling which +gave rise to that organization, and the angry discontent soon burst +forth more violently than ever. + +605. The Second Irish Land Act (1881); Fenian and Communist Outrages. + +Mr. Gladstone (S603) now succeeded in carrying through a second Irish +Land Law (1881) (S603), which he hoped might be more effective in +relieving the Irish peasants than the first had been. This measure +was familiarly known as the "Three F's,"--meaning Fair rent, Fixity of +tenure, and Free sale. By the provisions of this act the tenant could +appeal to a board of land commissioners appointed to fix the rate of +his rent in case the demands made by the landlord seemed to him +excessive. + +Next, he could continue to hold his farm, provided he paid the rate +determined on, for a period of fifteen years, during which time the +rent could not be raised nor the tenant evicted except for violation +of agreement or persistent neglect or waste of the land. Finally, he +could sell his tenancy whenever he saw fit to the highest bidder. +This law was later amended and extended in the interest of the peasant +farmer (1887). + +The year following the passage of this second Land Act, Lord Frederick +Cavendish, chief secretary of Ireland, and Mr. Burke, a prominent +government official, were murdered in Phoenix Park, Dublin (1882). +Later, members of the Fenian society, and of other secret +organizations sympathizing with the small Irish farmers, perpetrated +dynamite outrages in London and other parts of England for the purpose +of intimidating the Government. These acts were denounced by the +leaders of the Irish National Party. They declared that "the cause of +Ireland was not to be served by the knife of the assassin or by the +infernal machine." + +Notwithstanding the vindictive feeling caused by these rash deeds, +despite also the passage of the Coercion Bill (1887), the majority of +the more intelligent and thoughtful of the Irish people had faith in +the progress of events. They believed that the time would come when +their country would obtain the enjoyment of all the political rights +which England so fully possesses. It will be seen (S620) that about +ten years later they did gain a very important extension of the right +of local self-government.[1] + +[1] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxvii, +S33. + +606. The Darwinian Theory of Evolution, 1859; the Persistence of + Force. + +In the progress of science the Victorian period surpassed all previous +records in England except that made by Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of +the law of gravitation (S481). That great thinker demonstrated in +1684 that all forms of matter, great or small, near or distant, are +governed by one universal force of attraction. In like manner the +researches and investigations of the nineteenth century led to the +conviction that all forms of life upon the earth obey a universal law +of development. By this law the higher are evolved from the lower +through a succession of gradual but progressive changes. + +This conception originated long before the beginning of the Victorian +era, but it lacked the support of carefully examined facts, and most +sensible men regarded it as nothing more than a plausible conjecture. +The thinker who did more than any other to supply the facts, and to +put the theory, so far as it relates to natural history, on a solid +and lasting foundation, was the distinguished English naturalist, +Charles Darwin.[1] + +[1] Alfred Russel Wallace, also noted as a naturalist, worked out the +thoery of evolution by "natural selection" about the same time, though +not so fully, with respect to details, as Darwin; as each of these +investigators arrived at his conclusions independently of the other, +the theory was thus doubly confirmed. + +On his return (1837) from a voyage of scientific discovery round the +world, Darwin began to examine and classify the facts which he had +collected, and continued to collect, relating to certain forms of +animal life. After twenty-two years of uninterrupted labor he +published a work in 1859, entitled "The Origin of Species," in which +he aimed to show that life generally owes its course of development ot +the struggle for existence and to "the survival of the fittest." + +Darwin's work may truthfully be said to have wrought a revolution in +the study of nature as great as that accomplished by Newton in the +seventeenth century. Though it excited heated and prolonged +discussion, the Darwinian theory gradually made its way, and is now +generall received, though sometimes in a modified form, by practically +every eminent man of science throughout the world. + +After Mr. Darwin began his researches, but before he completed them, +Sir William Grove, an eminent electrician, commenced a series of +experiments which resulted in his publishing his remarkable book[2] on +the connection of the physical forces of nature. He showed that heat, +light, and electricity are mutually convertible; that they must be +regarded as modes of motion; and, finally, that all force is +persistent and indestructible, thus proving, as Professor Tyndall +says, that "to nature, nothing can be added; from nature, nothing can +be taken away." Together, the work of Darwin and Grove, with kindred +discoveries, resulted in the theory of evolution, or development. +Later on, Herbert Spencer and other students of evolution endeavored +to make it the basis of a system of philosophy embracing the whole +field of nature and life. + +[2] "The Correlation of the Physical Forces" (1846). + +The Victorian period was also noted for many other great names in +science, philosophy, literature, and art. The number was so great +that it would manifestly be impracticable to devote any adequate space +to them here.[1] + +[1] It will be sufficient to mention the novelists, Dickens, +Thackeray, Bronte, and "George Eliot"; the historians, Stubbs, Hallam, +Arnold, Grote, Macaulay, Alison, Buckle, Froude, Freeman, and +Gardiner; the essayists, Carlyle, Landor, and De Quincey; the poets, +Browning and Tennyson; the philosophical writers, Hamilton, Mill, and +Spencer; with Lyell, Faraday, Carpenter, Tyndall, Huxley, Darwin, +Wallace, and Lord Kelvin in science; John Ruskin, the eminent art +critic; and, in addition, the chief artists of the period, Millais, +Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Watts, and Hunt. + +607. The Queen's Two Jubilees; Review of Sixty Years of English + History (1837-1897). + +Queen Victoria celebrated the fiftieth year of her reign (1887); ten +years later (1897) the nation spontaneously rose to do honor to her +"Diamond Jubilee." The splendid military pageant which marked that +event in London was far more than a brilliant show, for it +demonstrated the enthusiastic loyalty of the English people and of the +English colonies. + +The real meaning of the occasion is best sought in a review of the +record of those threescore years. They were, in large degree, a +period of progress; perhaps, in fact, no similar period in European +history has been so "crowded with benefit to humanity." + +When Victoria came to the throne in her nineteenth year (1837) she +found the kingdom seething with discontent, and the province of Canada +approaching rebellion. In business circles reckless speculation and +the bursting of "Bubble Companies" had been followed by "tight money" +and "hard times." Among the poor matters were far worse. Wages were +low, work was scarce, bread was dear. In the cities half-fed +multitudes lived in cellars; in the country the same class occupied +wretched cottages hardly better than cellars.[2] + +[2] See Cobbett's "Rural Rides, 1821-1832." + +The "New Poor Law" (S403),[3] which went into effect in 1834, or +shortly before the Queen's accession, eventually accomplished much +good; but for a time it forced many laborers into the workhouse. The +result aggravated the suffering and discontent, and the predominant +feeling of the day may be seen reflected in the pages of Dickens, +Carlyle, and Kingsley.[1] + +[3] The "New Poor Law": Between 1691 and 1834 the administration of +relief for the poor was in the hands of justices of the peace, who +gave aid indiscriminately to those who begged for it. In 1795 wages +for ordinary laborers were so low that the justices resolved to grant +an allowance to every poor family in accordance with its numbers. The +result of this mistaken kindness was speedily seen; employers cut down +wages to the starvation point, knowing that the magistrates would give +help out of the poor fund. The consequence was that the tax rate for +relief of the poor rose to a degree that became unbearable. +The "New Law" of 1834 effected a sweeping reform: (1) it forbade +outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor, and thus, in the end, +compelled the employer to give better wages (but outdoor relief is now +frequently granted); (2) it restricted aid to that given in +workhouses, where the recipient, if in good health, was obliged to +labor in return for what he received; (3) it greatly reduced the +expense of supporting the poor by uniting parishes in workhouse +"unions"; (4) it modified the old rigid Law of Settlement, thereby +making it possible for those seeking employment to take their labor to +the best market. +[1] See Dickens's "Oliver Twist" (1838), Carlyle's "Chartism" (1839), +and Kingsley's "Yeast" and "Alton Locke" (1849). + +Notwithstanding the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 (S582), +political power was still held chiefly by men of property who +distrusted the masses of the people. They feared that the widespread +distress would culminate in riots, if not in open insurrection. + +The Chartist movement (S591) which speedily began (1838) seemed to +justify their apprehension. But the dreaded revolt never came; the +evils of the times were gradually alleviated and, in some cases, +cured. Confidence slowly took the place of distrust and fear. When, +in June (1897), the Queen's "Diamond Jubilee" procession moved from +Buckingham Palace to St. Paul's, and thence through some of the +poorest quarters of London, none of the dense mass that filled the +streets cheered more lustily than those who must always earn their +daily bread by their daily toil. + +The explanation of that change was to be found in the progress of good +government, the extension of popular rights, and the advance of +material improvements. Let us consider these changes in their natural +order. + +608. Further Extension of the Right to Vote, 1832-1894.[2] + +We have already described the far-reaching effects of the Reform Bill +(S582) of 1832, which, on the one hand, put an end to many "rotten +boroughs," and on the other, granted representation in Parliament to a +number of large towns hitherto without a voice in that body. Three +years later (1835) came the Municipal Reform Act. It placed the +government of towns, with the exception of London,[1] in the hands of +the taxpayers who lived in them. + +[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxvi, +S31. +[1] The ancient city of London, or London proper, is a district +covering about a square mile, and was once enclosed in walls; it is +still governed by a lord mayor, court of aldermen, and a common +council elected mainly by members of the "city" companies, +representing the medieval trade guilds (S274). The metropolis outside +the "city" is governed by the London County Council and a number of +associate bodies, among which are the councils of twenty-eight +metropolitan boroughs. + +This radical measure put a stop to the arbitrary and corrupt +management which had existed when the town officers elected themselves +and held their positions for life (S599). Futhermore, it prevented +parliamentary candidates from buying up the entire municipal vote,--a +thing which frequently happened so long as the towns were under the +absolute control of a few individuals. + +A generation passed before the next important step was taken. Then, +as we have seen, the enactment of the Second Reform Bill (1867) (S600) +doubled the number of voters in England. The next year an act reduced +the property qualification for the right to vote in Scotland and +Ireland; thus the ballot was largely increased throughout the United +Kingdom. + +The Third Reform Act (1884) (S600) granted the right to vote for +members of Parliament to more than two million persons, chiefly to the +farm laborers and other workingmen. Since that date, whether the +Liberals or the Conservatives[2] have been in power, "the country," as +Professor Gardiner says, "has been under democratic influence." + +[2] The Whigs (S479) included two elements, one aristocratic and the +other radical. After the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832 they took +the name of Liberals; and the Tories (S479), who found their old name +unpopular, adopted that of Conservatives. + +But though these acts wrought an immense change by transferring +political power from the hands of the few to the greater part of the +nation, further progress in this direction was destined to come soon. +Originally the government of the shires, or counties, was in the hands +of the people; they gradually lost it, and the wealthy landed +proprietors obtained control. The Local Government, or County +Councils, Act (1888) restored the power in great measure to those who +had parted with it, by putting the management of county affairs under +the direction of the County Councils elected by the householders of +the counties or shires. These Councils look after the highways, the +sanitary condition of the towns, the education of children, and the +care of the poor. + +Six years later (1894) the principle of self-government was carried +almost to the farthest point by the passage of the Parish Councils +Bill.[1] This measure did for country villages and other small places +what the Local Government Act did for the counties. It gave back to +the inhabitants of the parishes certain rights which they had once +possessed, but which had gradually come under the control of the +squire, the parson[2], and a few privileged families. + +[1] Parish: This name was given originally to a district assigned to a +bishop or priest; at present it generally refers simply to the area +which was formerly contained in such a district. +[2] The squire was the chief landholder in a village or parish; the +parson, the minister of the parish church. + +Now every man and woman who has resided in the parish for a +twelvemonth has the right not only to vote for the members of the +Parish Council but to run as candidate for election to that body. The +village parliament discusses all questions which are of public +interest to the parish. It is in some respects more democratic even +than a New England town meeting, since it gives women a voice, a vote, +and opportunity to hold office. Its work supplements that of the +County Councils and of Parliament. + +609. Overthrow of the "Spoils System"; the Army; the "Secret Ballot," + 1870-1872. + +Meanwhile reforms not less important had been effected in the +management of the civil service. The ancient power of the Crown to +give fat pensions to its favorites had been pared down to very modest +proportions, but another great abuse still flourished like an evil +weed in rich soil. + +For generations, public offices had been regarded as public plunder, +and the watchword of the politicians was, "Every man for himself, and +the National Treasury for us all." Under this system of pillage the +successful party in an election came down like a flock of vultures +after a battle. They secured all the "spoils," form petty clerkships +worth 100 pounds a year up to places worth thousands. + +About the middle of the last century (1855) an effort was made to +break up this corrupt and corrupting system, but the real work was not +accomplished until 1870. In that year England threw open the majority +of the positions in the civil service to competitive examination. +Henceforth the poorest day laborer, whether man or woman, might, if +competent, ask for any one of many places which formerly some +influential man or political "boss" reserved as gifts for those who +obeyed his commands. + +The next year (1871) the purchase of commissions in the army was +abolished.[1] This established the merit system in the ranks, and now +military honors and military offices are open to all who can earn +them. + +[1] Up to 1871 an officer retiring from the army could sell his +commission to any officer next below him in rank who had the money to +buy the position; whereas under the present system the vacancy would +necessarily fall to senior officers in the line of promotion. In the +year following this salutary change the entire British army was +reorganized. + +The Registration Act of 1843 required every voter to have his name and +residence recorded on a public list. This did away with election +frauds to a large extent. It was supplemented in 1872 by the +introduction of the "secret ballot" (S591). This put an end to the +intimidation of voters and to the free fights and riots which had so +frequently made the polls a political pandemonium. The Bribery Act of +1883 was another important measure which did much toward stopping the +wholesale purchase of votes by wealthy candidates or by powerful +corporations. + +610. Reforms in Law Procedures. + +During Queen Victoria's reign great changes for the better were +effected in simplifying the laws and the administration of justice. +When she came to the throne the Parliamentary Statutes at Large filled +fifty-five huge folio volumes, and the Common Law, as contained in +judicial decisions from the time of Edward II (1307), filled about +twelve hundred more. The work of examining, digesting, and +consolidating this enormous mass of legislative and legal lore was +taken in hand (1863) and has been slowly progressing ever since. + +The Judicature Acts (1873, 1877) united the chief courts in a single +High Court of Justice. This reform did away with much confusion and +expense. But the most striking changes for the better were those made +in the Court of Chancery (S147) and the criminal courts. + +In 1825 the property belonging to suitors in the former court amounted +to nearly forty millions of pounds.[1] The simplest case might require +a dozen years for its settlement, while difficult ones consumed a +lifetime, or more, and were handed down from father to son,--a legacy +of baffled hopes, of increasing expense, of mental suffering worse +than that of hereditary disease. + +[1] See Walpole's "History of England," Vol. III. + +Much has been done to remedy these evils, which Dickens set forth with +such power in his novel of "Bleak House." At one time the prospect of +reform seemed so utterly hopeless that it was customary for a prize +fighter, when he had got his opponent's neck twisted under his arm, +and held him absolutely helpless, to declare that he had his head "in +chancery"! + +611. Reforms in Criminal Courts and in the Treatment of the Insane. + +In criminal courts an equal reform was effected, and men accused of +burglary and murder are now allowed to have counsel to defend them, +and the right of appeal is secured; whereas, up to the era of +Victoria, they were obliged to plead their own cases as best they +might against skilled public prosecutors, who used every resource +known to the law to convict them. + +Great changes for the better have also taken place in the treatment of +the insane. Until near the close of the eighteenth century this +unfortunate class was quite generally regarded as possessed by demons, +and dealt with accordingly. William Tuke, a member of the Society of +Friends, inaugurated a better system (1792); but the old method +continued for many years longer. In fact, we have the highest +authority for saying that down to a pretty late period in the +nineteenth century the inmates of many asylums were worse off than the +most desperate criminals. + +They were shut up in dark, and often filthy, cells, where "they were +chained to the wall, flogged, starved, and not infrequently +killed."[2] Since then, mechanical restraints have, as a rule, been +abolished, and the patients are generally treated with the care and +kindness which their condition demands. + +[2] Encyclopaedia Britannica (10th and 11th editions) under +"Insanity." + +612. Progress in the Education of the Masses. + +We have seen that since 1837 the advance in popular education equaled +that made in the extension of suffrage and in civil service reform. +When Victoria began her reign a very large proportion of the children +of the poor were growing up in a stat bordering on barbarism. Many of +them knew little more of books or schools than the young Hottentots in +Africa. + +The marriage register shows that as late as 1840 forty per cent of the +Queen's adult subjects could not write their names in the book; by the +close of her reign (1901) the number who had to "make their mark" in +that interesting volume was only about one in ten. This proves, as +Lord Brougham said, that "the schoolmaster" has been "abroad" in the +land. + +The national system of education began, as we have already seen, in +1870 (S602). Later, the Assisted Education Act (1891) made provision +for those who had not means to pay even a few pence a week for +instruction. That law practically put the key of knowledge within +reach of every child in England. + +613. Religious Toleration in the Universities; Payment of Church Rates + abolished. + +The universities felt the new impulse. The abolition of religious +tests for degrees at Oxford and Cambridge (1871) threw open the doors +of those venerable seats of learning to students of every faith. +Since then colleges for women have been established at Oxford and in +the vicinity of Cambridge, and the "university-extension" +examinations, with "college settlements" in London and other large +cities, have long been doing excellent work. + +The religious toleration granted in the universities was in accord +with the general movement of the age. It wil be remembered that the +Catholics were readmitted to sit in Parliament (S573) late in the +reign of George IV (1829), and that under Victoria the Jews were +admitted (1858) to the same right (S599). Finally Mr. Bradlaugh got +his Oaths Bill passed (1888), and so opened PArliament to persons not +only of all religious beliefs but of none. + +In the meantime the compulsory payment of rates for the support of the +Church of England had been abolished (1868) (S601); and the next year +(1869) was made memorable by the just and generous act by which +Mr. Gladstone disestablished the Irish branch of the English Church +(S601). + +614. Transportation and Communication. + +When the Queen ascended the throne (1837), the locomotive (S584) was +threatening to supersede the stagecoach; but the progerss of steam as +a motor power on land had not been rapid, and England then had less +than 200 miles of railway open;[1] but before the end of her reign +there were nearly 22,000 miles in operation, and there are now +24,000. At first, the passenger accommodations were limited. Those +who could indulge in such luxuries sometimes preferred to travel in +their own private carriages placed on platform cars for +transportation. For those who took first-class tickets there were +excellent and roomy compartments at very high prices. The second +class fared tolerably well on uncushioned seats, but the unfortunate +third class were crowded like cattle into open trucks, without seats, +and with no roofs to keep the rain out. But time remedied this. Long +before the Queen celebrated her first Jubilee (S607) the workingman +could fly through the country at the rate of from thirty to fifty +miles an hour, for a penny a mile, and could have all the comforts +that a reasonable being should ask for. + +[1] A part of what is now the London and Northwestern Railway. + +Cheap postage (S590) came in (1840) with the extension of railways, +and in a few years the amount of mail carried increased enormously. +Every letter, for the first time, carried on it a stamp bearing a +portrait of the young Queen, and in this way the English people came +to know her better than they had ever known any preceding sovereign. +The London papers now reached the country by train. + +The Telegraph began to come into use in January, 1845, between the +railway station at Paddington, a western district of London, and +Slough, near Windsor. The government eventually purchased all the +lines, and reduced the charge on a despatch of twelve words to +sixpence to any part of the United Kingdom. The Telephone followed +(1876), and then Wireless Telegraphy (1899). + +615. Light in Dark Places; Photography; the New Surgery (1834-1895). + +The invention of the friction match, 1834 (S584), the abolition of the +tax on windows (1851) (S595), with the introduction of American +petroleum, speedily dispelled the almost subterraneous gloom of the +laborer's cottage. Meanwhile photography, which began to be used in +1839, revealed the astonishing fact that the sun is always ready not +only to make a picture but to take one, and that nothing is so humble +as to be beneath his notice. + +News came across the Atlantic from Boston, 1846, that Dr. Morton had +rendered surgery painless by the use of ether. Before a year passed +the English hospitals were employing it. Sir James Y. Simpson of +Edinburgh introduced chloroform (1847). These two agents have +abolished the terror of the surgeon's knife, and have lengthened life +by making it possible to perform a class of operations which formerly +very few patients had been able to bear. + +A score of years later Sir Joseph Lister called attention to the +important results obtained by antiseptic methods in surgery; next came +(1895) the introduction from Germany of the marvelous X ray, by whose +help the operator can photograph and locate a bullet or other foreign +substance which he is endeavoring to extract. Together, these +discoveries have saved multitudes of lives. + +616. Progress of the Laboring Classes; Free Trade, 1846. + +At the date of the Queen's accession a number of laws existed +restricting the free action of workingmen. Only three years before +Victoria's coronation six poor agricultural laborers in Dorsetshire +were transported (1834) to penal servitude at Botany Bay, Australia, +for seven years, for peacefully combining to secure an increase of +their wages, which at that time were only six shilling a week. In +fact, the so-called "Conspiracy Laws," which made Labor Unions liable +to prosecution as unlawful, if not actually criminal organizations, +were not wholly repealed until after the opening of the twentieth +century. + +Meanwhile Parliament passed the Trade Union Acts, in 1871 and 1876, +which recognized the right of workingmen to form associations to +protect their interests by the use of all measures not forbidden by +the Common Law.[1] In 1906 the persistent political pressure of +organized labor induced a Liberal Cabinet (of which Sir Henry +Campbell-Bannerman was Prime Minister) and the invariably Conservative +House of Lords to pass a still more important act. That measure +exempted Trade Unions from liability to pay damages for a certain +class of injuries which they might commit in carrying on a strike.[2] +During the above period of more than thirty years the unions have +gained very largely in numbers and in financial as well as political +strength. On the other hand they now have to contend with the radical +Socialists who are seeking to convert England into a republic in which +the government would carry on all industries and would prohibit +private individuals from conducting any business whatever. + +[1] One result of the organization of Trades or Labor Unions has been +the shortening of the hours of labor. In 1894 the Government +established an eight-hour day for workingmen in dockyards and in +ordnance factories. +[2] The Trade Disputes Act of 1906. This forbids any suit for tort +against a Trade Union. See A. L. Lowell's "The Government of +England," II, 534; and S. Gompers in _The Outlook_ for February, 1911, +p. 269. + +The unions will accomplish more still if they succeed in teaching +their members to study the condition of industry in England, to +respect the action of those workers who do not join associations, and +to see clearly that "if men have a right to combine," they must also +"have an equal right to refuse to combine." + +In 1837 the English Corn Laws (S592) virtually shut out the +importation of grain from foreign countries. The population had +outgroiwn its food supply, and bread was so dear that even the +agricultural laborer cried out. "I be protected," said he, "but I be +starving." The long and bitter fight against the Corn Laws resulted +not only in their gradual abolition, 1846, but in the opening of +English ports to the products and manufactures of the world. With the +exception of tobacco, wines, spirits, and a few other articles, all +imports enter the kingdom free. + +But though Great Britain carries out the theory that it is better to +make things cheap for the sake of those who buy them, than it is to +make them dear for the sake of those who produce them, yet all of the +great self-governing English colonies impose protective duties[1] even +against British products (S625). One of the interesting questions +suggested by the Queen's "Diamond Jubilee" (1897) (S607) was whether +England's children in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada would take +any steps toward forming a commercial fre-etrade union with the mother +country. More than ten years later that point still remained under +discussion (S625). + +[1] Except in certain cases, where the colonies, e.g. Canada, grant +preferential duties, or practical free trade, in certain articles +exported to the British Isles. + +617. The Small Agricultural Holdings Act; the Agricultural Outlook. + +Through the influence of the greatly increased popular vote, which +resulted from the Third Reform Act (S600), the farm laborers made +themselves felt in the House of Commons. They secured the passage of +the Small Agricultural Holdings Act (1892). This gave those who +worked on the land the privilege of purchasing from one to fifty +acres, or of taking it on lease if they preferred.[2] But, +notwithstanding the relief granted by this measure, the agricultural +problem is to-day one of the most serious England has to solve. Just +as New England now depends in large measure on the West for its food +supply, so the British Isles depend in great measure on America for +breadstuffs. Thousands of acres of fertile soil have gone out of +cultivation in the eastern half of the island, mainly because the +farmers cannot compete with foreign wheat. + +[2] The Small Agricultural Holdings Act enables the County Council +(S600) to acquire, by voluntary arrangement, suitable land for the +purpose of reletting or reselling it to agricultural laborers and men +of small means. Under certain safeguards the Council may advance up +to three fourths of the purchase money. + +The Royal Agricultural Commission, in a report made a number of years +ago (1897), could suggest no remedy, and believed matters must grow +worse. A leading English journal,[3] in commenting on the report, +said, "The sad and sober fact is that the English farmer's occupation +is gone, or nearly gone, never to return." + +[3] The Bristol _Times and Mirror_, August 5, 1897. + +The continued agricultural depression ruined many tillers of the soil, +and drove the rural population more and more into the already +overcrowded towns. There they bid against the laboring men for work, +and so reduced wages to the lowest point. If they failed to get work, +they became an added burden on the poor rates, and taxes rose +accordingly. + +Should no remedy be found, and should land in England continue to go +out of cultivation, it is difficult to see how the majority of +proprietors can resist the temptation to break up and sell their +estates. The tendency of an important act of Parliament (1894) is +believed by many to work in the same direction.[1] It imposes an +inheritance tax on the heirs to landed property, which they find it +hard to meet, especially when their tenants have abandoned their +farms rather than try to pay the rent. + +[1] The Consolidated Death Duties Act. + +To-day a few thousand wealthy families hold the title deeds to a large +part of the soil on which more than forty millions live. Generally +speaking, the rent they demand does not seem to be excessive.[2] It is +an open question whether England would be the gainer if, as in France, +the land should be cut up into small holdings, worked by men without +capital, and hence without power to make improvements. + +[2] This is the opinion of the Royal Commission; but Gibbins's +"Industry in England" (1896), p. 441, takes the opposite view. + +618. The Colonial Expansion of England. + +Meanwhile, whether from an economic point of view England is gaining +or losing at home, there can be no question as to her colonial +expansion. A glance at the accompanying maps of the world (see double +map opposite and map facing p. 420) in 1837 and in 1911 shows the +marvelous territorial growth of the British Empire. + +When Victoria was crowned it had an area of less than three million +square miles; to-day it has over eleven million, or more than one +fifth of the entire land surface of the globe. England added to her +dominions, on the average, more than one hundred and forty-five +thousand square miles of territory every year of Victoria's reign. + +Canada's wonderful growth in population and wealth is but one +example. Australia began its career (1837) as a penal colony with a +few shiploads of convicts; now it is a prosperous, powerful, and loyal +patr of the Empire (S545). Later than the middle of the nineteenth +century, New Zealand was a mission field where cannibalism still +existed (1857); now it is one of the leaders in English civilization. + +Again, when Victoria came to the throne (1837) the greater part of +Africa was simply a geographical expression; the coast had been +explored, but scarcely anything was known of the country back of it. +Through the efforts of Livingstone and those who followed him (1840- +1890), the interior was explored and the source of the Nile was +discovered (1863). Stanley undertook the great work on the Congo +River and the "dark continent" ceased to be dark. Trade was opened +with the interior, and the discovery of diamond mines and gold mines +in South Africa (1867, 1884) stimulated emigration. Railways have +been pushed forward in many directions (S622), new markets are +springing up, and Africa, once the puzzle of the world, seems destined +to become one of the great fields which the Anglo-Saxon race is +determined to control, if not to possess. + +On the other hand, the British West Indies have of late years greatly +declined from their former prosperity. The English demand for cheap +sugar has encouraged the importation of beet-root sugar from Germany +and France. This has reduced the market for cane sugar to so low a +point that there has been but little, if any, profit in raising it in +the West Indies;[1] but fruit is a success. + +[1] See Brooks Adams's "America's Economic Supremacy." + +619. England's Change of Feeling toward her Colonies. + +One of the most striking features of the "Diamond Jubilee" celebration +(S607) was the prominence given to the Colonial Prime Ministers. +There was a time, indeed, when the men who governed England regarded +Canada and Australia as "a source of weakness," and the Colonial +Office in London knew so little of the latter country that it made +ridiculous blunders in attempting to address official despatches to +Melbourne, Australia.[2] Even as late as the middle of the last +century Disraeli, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote to Lord +Malmesbury in regard to the Newfoundland fisheries, "These wretched +colonies will all be independent, too, in a few years, and are a +millstone around our necks." + +[2] See Traill's "Social England," VI, 684. + +Twenty years afterwards Disraeli, later Lord Beaconsfield, declared +that one of the great objects he and his party had in view was to +uphold the British Empire and to do everything to maintain its unity. +That feeling has steadily gained in power and was never stronger than +it is to-day. Canada, Australia, and the other governing colonies +(S625) have since responded by actions as well as words, and "Imperial +Federation" has become something more than a high-sounding phrase +(SS625, 626). + +620. The Condition of Ireland; International Arbitration. + +But to make such federation harmonious and complete, the support of +Ireland must be obtained. That country is the only member of the +United Kingdom whose representatives in Parliament refused, as a rule, +to take part in the celebration of the Queen's reign. They felt that +their island had never been placed on a true equality with its +stronger and more prosperous neighbor. In fact, the Royal Commission, +appointed to inquire into the relative taxation of England and +Ireland, reported (1897) nearly unanimously that "for a great many +years Ireland had paid annually more than 2,000,000 pounds beyond her +just proportion of taxation."[1] It has been estimated that the total +excess obtained during the Queen's reign amounted to nearly +100,000,000 pounds. + +[1] McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times," V, 487. + +Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister (1893) made a vigorous +effort to secure "Home Rule" for Ireland. His bill granting that +country an independent Parliament passed the House of Commons by a +very large majority, but was utterly defeated in the House of Lords. +Five years later (1898) Lord Salisbury, the Conservative Prime +Minister, passed a bill which, though it did not give Ireland "Home +Rule," did give it local self-government on the same popular +foundation on which it rests in England (S608) and Scotland. +Mr. Bryce, the British Ambassador at Washington, recently said (1911) +that he was convinced that the condition of the people of Ireland had +greatly improved and was "still advancing," and that "before long +nearly all the land wouyld belong to the cultivators" (S605). + +The recognition of the principle of international arbitration by +England in the Alabama case (S598), in the Bering Sea Seal Fisheries +dispute (1893), in the Venezuela boundary controversy (1896), and in +the Newfoundland Fisheries case (1910) proved that the English people +saw that the victories of peace are worth as much to a nation as the +victories of war. The Hague Peace Conference Treaty, ratified by +Great Britain with the United States and the leading nations of Europe +and the Far East (1899), provided for the establishment of a permanent +Court of Arbitration at The Hague between all of the great powers +which signed it. All appeals to it, however, are entirely voluntary. + +Ten years earlier, a proposition to establish such a court for the +purpose of strengthening the cause of international peace would have +been looked upon as "a splendid but delusive dream." To-day many of +the ablest men on both sides of the Atlantic believe that the time is +not far off when England and America will agree to settle by +arbitration all questions which diplomacy cannot deal with, which may +arise between them. Sir Edward Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in +Mr. Asquith's Liberal Cabinet, fears that the continued expenditure on +larger and larger armaments "will end in international revolution." +On the other hand, those who are constantly advocating the building of +more and bigger battleships admit that the Peace Party presents strong +arguments in support of its views, and that "the war against war" is +making progress. + +621. Death of Gladstone; the Cabot Tower; Centennial of the First + Savings Bank, 1899. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Gladstone, the great Liberal leader, died, full of +years and honors, at his residence, Hawarden Castle, in North Wales +(1898). The "Grand Old Man"--as his friends delighted to call him-- +was buried in that Abbey at Westminster which holds so much of +England's most precious dust. His grave is not far from the memorial +to Lord Beaconsfield, the eminent Conservative leader, who was his +lifelong rival and political opponent. + +In the autumn (1898) the Cabot monument was opened at Bristol. It is +a commanding tower, overlooking the ancient city and port from which +John Cabot (S335) sailed in the spring of 1497. The monument +commemorates that explorer's discovery of the mainland of the New +World. An inscription on the face of the tower expresses "the earnest +hope that Peace and Friendship may ever continue between the kindred +peoples" of England and America. + +In May of the next year, 1899, the one hundredth anniversary of the +establishment of savings banks in Great Britain was celebrated. Near +the closing year of the eighteenth century, 1799, Reverend Joseph +Smith, Vicar of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, invited the laborers of +his parish to deposit their savings with him on interest. "Upon the +first day of the week," said he, quoting St. Paul's injuction, "let +every one of you lay by him in store."[1] He offered to receive sums +as small as twopence. Before the end of the year he had sixty +depositors. Eventually the government took up the scheme and +established the present system of national postal savings banks. + +[1] The quotation is from I Corinthians xvi, 2. + +They have done and are doing incalculable good. At present there are +over eleven million depositors in the United Kingdom. Most of them +belong to the wage-earning class, and they hold more than 212,000,000 +pounds. In this case certainly the grain of mustard seed, sown a few +generations ago, has produced a mighty harvest. + +622. England in Egypt; Progress in Africa. + +While busy at home, the English had been busy outside of their +island. Five years after the opening of the Suez Canal (1869), Lord +Beaconsfield, then the Conservative Prime Minister, bought nearly half +of the canal property from the Governor of Egypt. Since then England +has kept her hand on the country of the Pharaohs and the pyramids, and +kept it there greatly to the advantage of the laboring class. + +About ten years later (1881), Arabi Pasha, an ambitious colonel in the +native army, raised the cry, "Down with all foreigners--Egypt for the +Egyptians!" Lord Wolseley defeated Arabi's forces, and the colonel was +banished from the country. + +Two years afterwards (1883) a still more formidable rebellion broke +out in the Sudan,--a province held by Egypt. (See map facing p. 428.) +The leader of the insurrection styled himself the Mahdi, or great +Mohammedan Prophet. Then (1884) Gladstone sent General Gordon to +withdraw the Egyptian troops from Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan. +The Mahdi's forces shut up the heroic soldier in that city, and before +help could reach him, he and all his Egyptian troops were massacred. +No braver or truer man ever died at the post of duty, for in him was +fulfilled Wordsworth's eloquent tribute to the "Happy Warrior."[1] + +[1] See Wordsworth's poems "The Happy Warrior." + +Many years later, Lord Kitchener advanced against the new Mahdi, and +at Omdurman his terrible machine guns scattered the fanatical +Dervishes, or Mohammedan monks, like chaff before the whirlwind. The +next autumn (1899) the British overtook the fugitive leader of the +Dervishes and annihilated his army. + +Since then British enterprise, British capital, and American inventive +skill have transformed Egypt. The completion of the great dam across +the Nile, at Assouan (1902), regulates the water supply for lower +Egypt. The creation of this enormous reservoir promises to make the +Nile valley one of the richest cotton-producing regions in the world. + +The "Cape to Cairo" railway, which is more than half finished, is +another British undertaking of immense importance. (See map +opposite.) When ready for traffic, through its whole length of nearly +six thousand miles, besides its branch lines, it will open all Eastern +Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, to the spread +of commerce and civilization. + +623. The Boers; the Boer War, 1899; Death of Queen Victoria (1901). + +The history of the British in South Africa has been even more tragic +than their progress in Egypt (S622). + +In the middle of the seventeenth century (1652) the Dutch took +possession of Cape Colony. (See map opposite.) Many Boers, or Dutch +farmers, and cattle raisers emigrated to that far distant land. There +they were joined by Huguenots, or French Protestants, who had been +driven out of France. All of them became slaveholders. Early in the +nineteenth century (1814) England purchased the Cape from Holland. +Twenty years later the English Parliament bought all the negroes held +by the Boers and set them free. + +Eight thousand Boers, disgusted with the loss of their slaves and with +the small price they had received for them, left the Cape (1836) and +pushed far northward into the wilderness. Crossing the Orange River, +they founded the "Orange Free State." Another party of Boers, going +still further north, crossed the Vaal River (a tributary of the +Orange) and set up the Transvaal, or "South African Republic," on what +was practically a slaveholding foundation. Later (1852), England, by +a treaty known as the Sand River Convention, virtually recognized the +independence of the settlers in the Transvaal, and two years +afterwards made a still more explicit recognition of the independence +of the Orange Free State. + +The Zulus and other fierce native tribes bordering on the Transvaal +hated the Boers and threatened to "eat them up." Later (1877), England +thought it for her interest, and for that of the Boers as well, to +annex the Transvaal. The English Governor did not grant the Boers the +measure of political liberty which he had promised; this led to a +revolt, and a small body of English soldiers was beaten at Majuba Hill +(1881). + +Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister, did not think that the +conquest of the Transvaal, supposing it to be justifiable, would pay +for its cost, and he accordingly made a treaty with the people of that +country (1881). Lord Beaconsfield thought this policy a serious +mistake, and that it would lead to trouble later on. He said, "We +have failed to whip the boy, and we shall have to fight the man." The +Gladstone Treaty acknowledged the right of the Boers to govern +themselves, but subject to English control. Three years later (1884) +that treaty was modified. The Boers declared that the English then +gave up all control over them, except with regard to the power to make +treaties which might conflict with the interests of Great Britain. +But this statement the English Government emphatically denied.[1] + +[1] The preamble of the Convention or agreement made between England +and the Boers in 1881 at Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, +secured to the Boers "complete self-government, subject to the +suzerainty of her Majesty," Queen Victoria. In the Convention of +1884, made at London, the word "suzerainty" was dropped; but +Mr. Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary of Great Britain, contended that +it was implied or understood. This interpretation of the agreement +President Kruger of the South African or Boer Republic absolutely +rejected. + +The discovery of diamond fields in Cape Colony (1867) and of the +richest gold mines in the world (1884) in the Transvaal stimulated a +great emigration of English to South Africa. In a few years the +"Outlanders"--as the Boers called all foreigners--outnumbered the +Boers themselves. The "Outlanders," who worked the gold mines and +paid nearly all the taxes, complained that the laws made by the Boers +were unjust and oppressive. They demanded the right to vote. The +Boers, on the other hand, refused to give them that right, except +under arduous restrictions, lest the foreigners should get the upper +hand in the Transvaal Republic, and then manage it to suit themselves. + +Things went on from bad to worse. At length (1895) a prominent +Englishman of Cape Colony, Dr. Jameson, armed a small body of +"Outlanders," who undertook to get by force what they could not get by +persuasion. The Boers captured the Revolutionists and compelled some +of the leaders to pay, in all, about a million dollars in fines. +Dr. Jameson was sent to England and imprisoned for a short time. A +committee appointed by Parliament investigated the invasion of the +Transvaal and charged Cecil J. Rhodes, then Prime Minister of Cape +Colony, with having helped on the raid. From this time the feeling of +hatred between the Boers and the "Outlanders" grew more and more +intense. Lord Salisbury, the Conservative Prime Minister, believed, +with his party, that the time had come for decisive action on the part +of the Government. The fires so long smoldered now burst into flame, +and England resolved to fight to maintain her authority in the +Transvaal. + +War began in the autumn of 1899, and the Orange Free State united with +the Transvaal against Great Britain. (See map facing p. 428.) The +Boers took up arms for independence. The English forces under Lord +Roberts began fighting, first in behalf of the "Outlanders," next to +keep the British Empire together, and, finally, "to extend English +law, liberty, and civilization." + +Mr. Chamberlain, who was in Lord Salisbury's Cabinet (S534), agreed +with his chief that the sword must settle the question, but he said +that the contest in South Africa would be "a long war, a bitter war, +and a costly war." Events proved the truth of part of his prediction. +The contest was certainly "bitter," for it carried sorrow and death +into many thousand homes. It was "costly," too, for the total expense +to England amounted to nearly 200,000,000 pounds. + +England finally overthrew and formally annexed (1901) the two Boer +republics, aggregating over one hundred and sixty-seven thousand +square miles. But to accomplish that work she was forced to send two +hundred and fifty thousand men to South Africa,--the largest army she +ever put into a field in the whole course of her history. The great +majority of the English people believed that the war was inevitable. +But there was an active minority who insisted that it was really +undertaken in behalf of the South African mine owners. They did not +hesitate to condemn the "Jingo" policy[1] of the Government as +disastrous to the best interests of the country. In the midst of the +discussion Queen Victoria died (January 22, 1901). The Prince of +Wales succeeded to the crown under the title of King Edward VII. + +[1] Lord Beaconsfield, the Conservative Prime Minister (1874-1880), +made several petty wars in South Africa and in Afghanistan. A popular +music-hall song glorified his work, declaring: + "We don't want to fight, but by Jingo, if we do, + We've got the ships, we've got the men, + We've got the money, too." + +624. Summary. + +Queen Victoria's reign of sixty-three years--the longest in English +history--was remarkable in many ways. + +The chief political events were: + +1. The establishment of the practical supremacy of the House of + Commons, shown by the fact that the Sovereign was now obliged to + give up the power of removing the Prime Minister or members of his + Cabinet without the consent of the House, or of retaining them + contrary to its desire. +2. The broadening of the basis of suffrage and the extension of the + principle of local self-government. +3. The abolition of the requirement of property qualification for + Parliamentary candidates; the admission of Jews to Parliament; and + the overthrow of the Spoils System. +4. The repeals of the Corn Laws; the adoption of the Free-Trade + policy; and the Emancipation of Labor. +5. The Small Agricultural Holdings Act; the Irish Land Acts; the + abolition of Church rates; and the disestablishment of the Irish + branch of the Church of England. +6. The arbitration of the Alabama case. +7. The progress of transportation and of the rapid transmission of + intelligence was marked by the extension of railways to all parts + of hte British Isles and to many other parts of the Empire; the + introduction of the telegraph and the telephone; the laying of the + Atlantic cable; the introduction of penny postage; the rise of + cheap newspapers, of photography, of wireless telegraphy, and of + the use of electricity to drive street cars and machinery. +8. The progress of education was marked by the establishment of + practically free elementary schools, free libraries, and the + abolition of religious tests in the universities. +9. The progress of science and philosophy was shown by the + introduction of painless and also of antiseptic surgery, the use of + the German X ray, and the rise and spread of the Darwinian theory + of Evolution. +10. Other events having far-reaching results were the terrible Irish + famine, the Opium War, the Crimean War, the rebellion in India, + the Trent affair, the war in the Sudan, and the great Boer War. +11. Finally, we see the important work accomplished in India, Egypt, + and other parts of Africa; the acquisition of the control of the + Suez Canal; and the great expansion of the power of the Empire in + Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. + + + EDWARD VII--1901-1910 + +625. End of the Boer War (1902); Completion of Imperial Federation, + 1910. + +Not long after Edward VII came to the throne the Boers (S623) laid +down their arms (1902) and recognized the King as their true and +lawful Sovereign. The announcement set the "joy bells" ringing all +over Great Britain. + +Under Edward VII the Crown became the center of a greart movement for +more complete Imperial Unity. We have seen that the process of +forming a federation of Great Britain and her widely scattered +colonies had made good progress under Victoria (SS618, 619). She had +seen the creation of the Dominion of Canada (1867), the Dominion of +New Zealand (1875), and the consolidation of the six Australian +colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia (1901). Nine years later +(1910) the four states which had been the scene of the Boer War (S623) +were consolidated in like manner and received the name of the Union of +South Africa.[1] Boer and Briton seem now to have made up their minds +to live together as one family, and, as farmers and stock raisers, +they will work out their destiny on the land. Speaking of the +political significance of this event, a prominent official in South +Africa said, "Without the influence of King Edward I, I do not think +the union could have been effected." + +[1] The Union of South Africa is formed of the states of the Cape of +Good Hope, the Transvaal, and the Orange Free State. Lord Gladstone, +son of the late W.E. Gladstone, was appointed Governor of the new +Commonwealth, and General Botha, who had commanded in the Boer army, +was made Prime Minister. + +The establishment of the Union of South Africa completed the framework +of the Imperial Federation (SS618, 619). Admiral Mahan, of the +American navy, classes the expansion of the British Empire with that +of the expansion of the United States, and declares that it ranks as +one of the foremost facts of "contemporaneous history." The +Commonwealth of Australia and the Union of South Africa (with the +Dominion of New Zealand) mark the southern limit of the Imperial +Federation. The Dominion of Canada marks its northeren limit. (See +map facing p. 422.) + +All these British possessions enjoy a degree of self-government which +falls but little short of entire independence. In fact, commercially +they are independent, for, as we have seen (S616), while England +maintains free trade, her colonies still keep up a strict protective +tariff and impose duties even on British imports. Notwithstanding +this difference, all the colonies are loyal subjects of the English +Crown, and all stand ready to defend the English flag. + +626. The League of Empire. + +While this successful movement toward Imperial Federation was going +on, the organization of the League of Empire had been formed (1901) to +cooperate with it and strengthen it. + +The League is nonpolitical and nonsectarian. It aims to unite the +different parts of the Imperial Federation by intellectual and moral +bonds. It appeals to the whole body of the people of the Empire, but +it deals especially with the children in the schools. It endeavors to +educate them in the duties of citizenship, and it calls on them to +salute the national flag as the symbol of patriotism, of unity, and of +loyalty. A little later, Empire Day was established (1904) as a +public holiday to help forward the work of the League. King Edward +gave it his hearty encouragement, and it is celebrated throughout the +British Isles and the self-governing colonies of the Imperial +Federation. + +627. The King's Influence in Behalf of Peace. + +While seeking to make all England and English dominions in one spirit, +King Edward constantly used his influence to maintain peace both at +home and abroad. He was a man whose natural kindliness of heart +endowed him with the double power of making and of keeping friends. +Furthermore, he was a born diplomatist. He saw at once the best +method of handling the most difficult questions. Those who knew him +intimately said that "he always did the right thing, at the right +time, in the right way." + +To a great extent he was a creator of international confidence. In +his short reign he succeeded in overcoming the old race feeling which +made England and France regard each other as enemies. Again, Russia +and England had been on unfriendly terms for nearly two generations, +but the King, by his strong personal influence, brought the two +countries to understand each other better. + +He saw that Europe needed peace. He saw that the outbreak of a +general war would strike the laboring man a terrible blow, and would +destroy the fruits of his toil. When he ascended the throne (1901) +the contest with the Boers in South Africa was still going on. +General Botha, one of the Boer leaders, publicly stated that the King +did everything in his power to secure the establishment of an +honorable and permanent peace between the combatants. More than that, +even, he was in favor of granting a large measure of self-government +to the very people who had only just laid down the arms with which +they had been fighting him. + +But the King's influence for good was not limited to the Old World. +It extended across the Atlantic. Mr. Choate, who was formerly our +ambassador to England, said that Edward VII endeavored to remove every +cause of friction between Great Britain and America. While he lay on +a sick bed he signed a treaty relating to the Panama Canal, which made +"it possible for the United States to construct the waterway and to +protect it forever."[1] + +[1] This was the treaty repealing the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. +See the address of Honorable Joseph H. Choate before the New York +Chamber of Commerce, June 2, 1910. + +628. The Politcal Battle in England; Labor gets into Parliament, 1906. + +But the King's success in international politics did not secure peace +in the field of home politics. Organized labor had long been bent on +pushing its way into Parliament. In a few cases, like that of Joseph +Arch (S600), it had elected a representative,[2] but these were +scattered victories which made no great impression. + +[2] Besides Joseph Arch, such men as John Burns and J. Keir Hardie. + +The real upheaval came in the General Election of 1906. That contest +wrought a silent revolution. Up to that date, with very few +exceptions, the wealthy class was the only one which had been +represented in the House of Commons. Furthermore, it cost a good deal +of money for any candidate to get into the House, and as members drew +no pay, it cost a good deal more money to remain there. + +In 1906 the Liberal Party and the Labor Party gained a sweeping +victory over the Conservative Party, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, +the Liberal Prime Minister, came into power, 1906-1908. Out of the +six hundred and seventy members who had been elected to the House of +Commons, fifty-four came from the ranks of the workingmen,--those to +whom life means an unending struggle to live.[3] The combined Labor +voters sent these men to represent them in Parliament, and then raised +a fund to meet the expense of keeping them there.[4] + +[3] John Burns, who was one of the earliest workingmen to enter +Parliament as a Labor leader, said of himself, "Came into the world +with a struggle, struggling now, with prospects of continuing it." +[4] But later, the Court of Appeal (S588) decided that the Labor Party +could not legally compel any member of the Labor Union to contribute +to this fund against his will. Now (1911) Parliament pays all members +of the Commons (see S591). + +These "Laborites," as they are popularly called, claim that their +influence secured the passage of the Old Age Pensions Act (1908), for +the relief of the aged and deserving poor; the Act for Feeding +Destitute School Children; and the Act establishing Labor Exchanges +(1909) throughout the country to help those who are looking for work. + +The entrance of the working class and of the Socialists into +Parliament marks the transference of power from the House of Commons +directly to the mass of the people. Public opinion is now the real +active force in legislation, and the lawmakers are eager to know what +"the man in the street" and the "man with the hoe" are thinking. + +This closeness of touch between Parliament and People has evident +advantages, but it also has at least one serious drawback. In times +of great public excitement it might lead to hasty legislation, unless +the House of Lords should be able to interpose and procure the further +consideration of questions of vital importance which it would be +dangerous to attempt to settle offhand (S631). + +629. The Budget; Woman Suffrage; the Content with the Lords. + +Mr. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister,[1] found that the Government +must raise a very large amount of money to defray the heavy cost of +the old-age pensions (S628) and the far heavier cost of eight new +battleships. Mr. Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or +Secretary of the Treasury, brought in a Budget[2] which roused excited +and long-continued debate. The Chancellor's measure called for a +great increase of taxes on real estate in towns and cities where the +land had risen in value, and on land containing coal, iron, or other +valuable minerals.[3] + +[1] Mr. Asquith succeeded Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal +Prime Minister (S628), who died in the spring of 1908. +[2] The official estimate of the amount of money which the Government +must raise by taxation to meet its expenses for the year, together +with the scheme of taxation proposed, are called the Budget. +[3] In all cases where the owner of the land had himself done nothing +to produce the rise in value, the Chancellor called that rise the +"unearned increment," and held that the owner should be taxed for it +accordingly. Most great landowners and many small ones execrate the +man who made a practical application of this unpalatable phrase. + +The House of Commons passed the Budget (1909), but the House of Lords, +which includes the wealthiest landowners in the British Isles, +rejected it. They declared that it was not only unjust and +oppressive, but that it was a long step toward the establishment of +socialism, and that it threatened to lead to the confiscation of +private property in land. A bitter conflict ensued between the two +branches of Parliament. + +This contest was rendered harder by the actions of a small number of +turbulent women, who demanded complete suffrage but failed to get it +(SS599, 608).[1] Adopting the methods of a football team, they +endeavored to force themselves into the House of Commons; they +interrupted public meetings, smashed winows, assaulted members of the +Cabinet, and, in one case, tried to destroy the ballots at the +polls,--in short, they broke the laws in order to convince the country +of their fitness to take part in making them. Over six hundred of +these offenders were put in prison, not because they asked for "Votes +for Women," but because they deliberately, persistently, and +recklessly misconducted themselves. + +[1] The great majority of woman suffragists refused to adopt these +violent methods. + +630. A New Parliamentary Election; the Lords accept the Budget. + +The rejection of the Budget by the House of Lords (S629) caused a new +Parliamentary election (1910). The Liberal Party with the Labor Party +again won the victory, but with a decidedly diminished majority. +Mr. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister, declared that the policy of +the Liberal Government forbade any concessions whatever to the Lords. +The Lords thought it unwise to carry the contest further, and when the +new Parliament met they bowed to the inevitable and reluctantly voted +to accept the Budget,--land taxes and all.[2] + +[2] The Liberal Party in power threatened, in case the Lords continued +to refuse to accept the Budget, that they would either request the +King to create a sufficient number of Liberal Peers to carry it +(S582), or that they would make the country go through another +election. + +631. New Warships; a New Domesday Book; Death of King Edward. + +This acceptance of the Budget made the Government feel reasonably sure +that it would get the 16,000,000 pounds required to pay for eight new +battleships (S629). It also encouraged the War Department to spend a +considerable sum in experimenting with military airships as a means of +defense against invasion. Great Britain, like Germany, believes that +such vessels have become a necessity; for since a foreigner flew +across the Channel and landed at Dover (1909), England has felt that +her navy on the sea must be supplemented by a navy above the sea. Two +of these government airships are now frequently seen cricling at +express speed around the great dome of St. Paul's. + +The Government also began preparations for the compilation of a new +Domesday Book (S120), which should revalue all the land in the British +Isles, in order to establish a permanent vasis for increased +taxation.[1] The House of Commons furthermore took up the debate on +adopting measures for limiting the power of Lords to veto bills passed +by the Commons. While they were so engaged King Edward died (May 6, +1910); his son was crowned in 1911, with the title of George V. + +[1] The last general valuation of the land was made in 1692; it was +then fixed at 9,000,000 pounds. The land tax, based on this +valuation, has yielded about 2,000,000 pounds annually. The +Government expects that the new valuation will yield much more. + +In the summer of 1911 Mr. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister, after +prolonged and heated discussion, forced the House of Lords to accept +the Veto Bill, which is now law. He did this by using the same threat +which enable Earl Grey to carry the Reform Bill of 1832 (S582). The +Veto Act makes it impossible for the House of Lords to defeat any +Public Bill which the House of Commons has passed for three successive +sessions, extending over a period of not less than two years. This +momentous Act was passed at a critical time when the great Dockers +Strike had practically closed the port of London, and had cut off the +chief food supply of the city. A little later, the Prime Minister +passed the Salary Bill, which pays the members of the House of Commons +400 pounds annually (S591). Next, the Government passed (1911) the +Workmen's Compulsory Insurance Bill against sickness and +unemployment. The worker and his employer contribute small sums +weekly, the Government gives the rest. The law has an excellent +motive. + +632. General Summary of the Development of the English Nation. + +Such is the condition of the English nation in the twentieth century +and in the reign of King George V. Looking back to the time when +Caesar landed in Britain, we see that since that period an island +which then had a population of a few thousand "barbarians" (SS4, 18) +has gradually become the center of a great and powerful empire (SS14, +15). + +The true history of the country began, however, not with Caesar's +landing, but with the Saxon invasion in 449, about five centuries +later. Then the fierce blue-eyed German and Scandinavian races living +on the shores of the Baltic and North Seas took possession of Britain. +They, with the help of the primitive British, or Celtic, stock, laid +the foundation of a new nation. Their speech in a modified form, +their laws, and their customs became in large degree permanent. + +Later, missionaries from Rome converted this mixed population to the +Christian faith. They baptized Britain with the name England, which +it has ever since retained (S50). + +In the eleventh century the Normans, who sprang originally from the +same stock as the Northmen and Saxons, conquered the island. They +grafted onto the civilization which they found there certain elements +of Continental civilization (S126). Eventually the Saxon yeoman and +the Norman knight joined hands and fortunes, and became one people +(S192). + +This union was first unmistakable recognized in the provisions of +Magna Carta (S199). When in 1215 the barons forced King John to grant +that memorable document they found it expedient to protect the rights +of every class of the population. Then nobles, clergy, farmers, +townsmen, and laborers whether bond or free, stood, as it were, +shoulder to shoulder. + +The rise of free towns marked another long step forward (S183). That +movement secured to their inhabitants many precious privileges of +self-government. Then the Wat Tyler insurrection of a subsequent +period (S251) led gradually to the emancipation of that numerous class +which had long been in partial bondage (S252). + +Meanwhile the real unity of the people clearly showed itself at the +time when the Crown began to tax the poor as well as the rich. The +moment the King laid hands on the tradesman's and the laborer's +pockets they demanded to have their share in making the laws. Out of +that demand, made in 1265, rose the House of Commons (SS213, 217). It +was a body, as its name implies, composed of representatives chosen +mainly from the people and by the people. + +Next, after generations of arduous struggle, followed by the King's +grant of the Petition of Right (S432) and then by the great Civil War +(SS441, 450), it was finally settled that the House of Commons, and +the House of Commons alone, had complete power over the nation's +purse. From that time the King knew, once for all, that he could not +take the people's money unless it was granted by the people's vote +(S588). + +After the flight of James II Parliament passed the Bill of Rights in +1689 and in 1701 the Act of Settlement (S497). These two +revolutionary measures wrought a radical change in the government of +England. They deliberately set aside the old order of hereditary +royal succession and established a new order which made the King +directly dependent on the people for his title and his power to rule +(S497). About the same time, Parliament passed the Toleration Act, +which granted a larger degree of religious liberty (S496), and in 1695 +the House of Commons took action which secured the freedom of the +press (S498). + +Less than thirty years afterwards another radical change took place. +Hitherto the King had appointed his own private Council, or Cabinet +(S476), but when George I came to the htrone from Germany he could +speak no English. One of the members of the Cabinet became Prime +Minister in 1721, and the King left the management of the government +to him and his assoaciates (S534). + +Two generations later another great change occurred. Watt's invention +of a really practical steam engine in 1785, together with the rapid +growth of manufacturing towns in the Midlands and the North of +England, brought on an "Industrial Revolution" (S563). A factory +population grew up, which found itself without any representation in +Parliament. The people of that section demanded that this serious +inequality be righted. Their persistent efforts compelled the passage +of the great Reform Bill of 1832. That measure (S582) broke up the +political monopoly hitherto enjoyed in large degree by the +landholders, and distributed much of the power among the middle +classes. + +The next important change took place at the accession of Victoria +(1837). The principle was then finally established that the ruling +power of the government does not center in the Crown but in the +Cabinet (S534). Furthermore, it was settled that the Prime Minister +and his Cabinet are responsible solely to the House of Commons, which +in its turn is responsible only to the expressed will of the majority +of the nation (S587). + +In the course of the next half century the Reform Bills of 1867 and +1884 extended the suffrage to the great majority of the population +(S600). A little more than twenty years later, in 1906, the combined +Liberal and Labor parties gained an overwhelming victory at the +polls. This secured the workingmen fifty-four seats in Parliament +(S628), whereas, up to that time, they had never had more than three +or four. It then became evident that a new power had entered the +House of Commons. From that date the nation has fully realized that +although England is a monarchy in name, yet it is a republic in fact. +The slow progress of time has at length given to the British people-- +English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish--the great gift of practical +liberty; but along with it, it has imposed that political +responsibility which is always the price which must be paid for the +maintenance of liberty. + +633. Characteristics of English History; the Unity of the + English-Speaking Race; Conclusion. + +This rapid and imperfect sketch shows what has been accomplished by +the people of Britain. Other European peoples may have developed +earlier, and made, perhaps, more rapid advances in certain forms of +civilization, but none have surpassed, nay, none have equaled, the +English-speaking race in the practical characer and permanence of its +progress. + +Guizot says[1] that the true order of national development in free +government is, first, to convert the natural liberties of man into +clearly defined political rights; and, next, to guarantee the security +of those rights by the establishment of forces capable of maintaining +them. + +[1] Guizot's "History of Representative Government," lect. vi. + +Nowhere do we find better illustrations of this truth than in the +history of England, and of the colonies which England has planted. +For the fact cannot be too strongly emphasized that *in European +history England stands as the leader in the development of +constitutional Government* (SS199, 497). Trial by jury (S176), the +legal right to resist oppression (S261), legislative representation +(SS213, 217), religious freedom (S496), the freedom of the press +(S498), and, finally, the principle that all political power is a +trust held for the public good,[1]--these are the assured results of +Anglo-Saxon growth, and the legitimate heritage of every nation of +Anglo-Saxon descent. + +[1] Macaulay's "Essay on Sir Robert Walpole." + +It is no exaggeration to say that the best men and the best minds in +England, without distinction of rank or class, are now laboring for +the advancement of the people. They see, what has never been so +clearly seen before, that the nation is a unit, that the welfare of +each depends ultimately on the welfare of all, and that the higher a +man stands and the greater his wealth and privileges, so much the more +is he bound to extend a helping hand to those less favored than +himself. + +The Socialists, it is true, demand the abolition of private property +in land and the nationalizing not only of the soil but of all mines, +railways, waterworks, and docks in the kingdom. Thus far, however, +they have shown no disposition to attain their objects by violent +action. England, by nature conservative, is slow to break the bond of +historic continuity which connects her present with her past. + +"Do you think we shall ever have a second revolution?" the Duke of +Wellington was once asked. "We may," answered the great general, "but +if we do, it will come by act of Parliament." That reply probably +expresses the general temper of the people, who believe that they can +gain by the ballot more than they can by an appeal to force, knowing +that theirs is + + "A land of settled government, + A land of just and old renown, + Where freedom broadens slowly down, + From precedent to precedent."[2] + +[2] Tennyson's "You Ask Me Why." + +It is impossible for the great majority of Americans not to take a +deep interest in this movement, for we can never forget that English +history is in a very large degree our history, and that England is, as +Hawthorne likes to call it, "our old home." + +In fact, if we go back less than three centuries, the record of +America becomes one with that of the mother country, which first +discovered (SS335, 421) and first permanently settled this, and which +gave us for leaders and educators Washington, Franklin, the Adamses, +and John Harvard. In descent by far the greater part of us are of +English blood or of blood akin to it.[1] We owe to England--that is, +to the British Isles and to the different races which have met and +mingled there--much of our language, literature, law, legislative +forms of government, and the essential features of our civilization. +In fact, without a knowledge of her history, we cannot rightly +understand our own. + +[1] In 1840 the population of the United States, in round numbers, was +17,000,000, of whom the greater part were probably of English +descent. Since then there has been an enormous immigration, 40 per +cent of which were from the British Isles; but it is perhaps safe to +say that three quarters of our present population are those were were +living here in 1840, with their descendents. Of the immigrants (up to +1890) coming from non-English-speaking races, the Germans and +Scandinavians predominated, and it is to them, as we have seen, that +the English, in large measure, owe their origin (SS37-39, 126). It +should be noted here that the word "English" is used so as to include +the people of the United Kingdom and their descendants on both sides +of the Atlantic. + +Standing on her soil, we possess practically the same personal rights +that we do in America; we speak the same tongue, we meet with the same +familiar names. We feel that whatever is glorious in her past is ours +also; that Westminster Abbey belongs as much to us as to her, for our +ancestors helped to build its walls and their dust is gathered in its +tombs; that Shakespeare and Milton belong to us in like manner, for +they wrote in the language we speak, for the instruction and delight +of our fathers' fathers, who beat back the Spanish Armada and gave +their lives for liberty on the fields of Marston Moor and Naseby. + +Let it be granted that grave issues have arisen in the past to +separate us; yet, after all, our interests and our sympathies, like +our national histories, have more in common than they have apart. The +progress of each country now reacts for good on the other.[2] + +[2] In this connection the testimony of Captain Alfred T. Mahan, in +his recent work, "The Problem of Asia," is worth quoting here. He +says (p. 187), speaking of our late war with Spain: "The writer has +been assured, by an authority in which he entirely trusts, that to a +proposition made to Great Britain to enter into a combination to +constrain the use of our [United States] power,--as Japan was five +years ago constrained by the joint action of Russia, France, and +Germany,--the reply [of Great Britain] was not only a positive refusal +to enter into such a combination [against the United States], but an +assurance of active resistance to it if attempted...Call such an +attitude [on the part of England toward the United States] friendship, +or policy, as you will--the name is immaterial; the fact is the +essential thing and will endure, because it rests upon solid +interest." + +If we consider the total combined population of the United States and +of the British Empire, we find that to-day upwards of 150,000,000 +people speak the English tongue and are governed by the fundamental +principles of that Common Law which has its root in English soil. +This population holds possession of more than 15,000,000 square miles +of the earth's surface,--an area much larger than that of the united +continents of North America and Europe. By far the greater part of +the wealth and power of the globe is theirs. + +They have expanded by their territorial and colonial growth as no +other people have. They have absorbed and assimilated the multitudes +of emigrants from every quarter of the globe that have poured into +their dominions. + +The result is that the inhabitants of the British Isles, of Australia, +of New Zealand, of a part of South Africa, of the United States, and +of Canada practically form one great Anglo-Saxon race,[1] diverse in +origin, separated by distance, but everywhere exhibiting the same +spirit of intelligent enterprise and of steady, resistless growth. +Thus considered, America and England are necessary one to the other. +Their interests now and in the future are essentially the same. Bothe +contries are virtually pledged to make every effort to maintain +liberty and self-government, and also to maintain mutual peace by +arbitration. + +[1] Such apparent exceptions as the Dutch in South Africa, the French +in Canada, and the Negroes in the United States do not essentially +affect the truth of this statement, since in practice the people of +these races uphold the great fundamental principles on which all +Anglo-Saxon government rests. + +In view of these facts let us say, with an eminent thinker[2] whose +intellectual home was on both sides of the Atlantic: "Whatever there +be between the two nations to forget and forgive, is forgotten and +forgiven. If the two peoples, which are one, be true to their duty, +who can doubt that the destinies of the world must be in large measure +committed to their hands?" + +[2] Dean Farrar, Address on General Grant, Westminster Abbey, 1885. + + + General Summary of English Constitutional History[1] + +[1] This Summary is inserted for the benefit of those who desire a +compact, connected view of the development of the English +Constitution, such as may be conveniently used either for reference, +for a general review of the subject, or for purposes of special +study. --D.H.M. + +For authorities, see Stubbs (449-1485); Hallam (1485-1760); May (1760- +1870); Amos (1870-1880); see also Hansard and Cobbett's "Parliamentary +History," the works of Freeman, Taswell-Langmead (the best one-volume +Constitutional History), Feilden's Manual, and A. L. Lowell's "The +Government of England," 2 vols., in the Classified List of Books +beginning on page xxxvi. + +The references inserted in parentheses are to sections in the body of +the history. + +1. Origin and Primitive Government of the English People. + +The main body of the English people did not originate in Britain, but +in Northwestern Germany. The Jutes, Saxons, and Angles were +independent, kindred tribes living on the banks of the Elbe and its +vicinity. + +They had no written laws, but obeyed time-honored customs which had +all the force of laws. All matters of public importance were decided +by each tribe at meetings held in the open air. There every freeman +had an equal voice in the decision. There the people chose their +rulers and military leaders; they discussed questions of peace and +war; finally, acting as a high court of justice, they tried criminals +and settled disputes about property. + +In these rude methods we see the beginning of the English +Constitution. Its growth has been the slow work of centuries, but the +great principles underlying it have never changed. At every stage of +their progress the English people and their descendants throughout the +globe have claimed the right of self-government; and, if we except the +period of the Norman Conquest, whenever that right has been +persistently withheld or denied, the people have risen in arms and +regained it. + +2. Conquest of Britain; Origin and Power of the King. + +After the Romans abandoned Britain the English invaded the island +449(?), and in the course of a hundred and fifty years conquered it +and established a number of rival settlements. The native Britons +were, in great part, killed off or driven to take refuge in Wales and +Cornwall. + +The conquerors brought to their new home the methods of government and +modes of life to which they had been accustomed in Germany. A cluster +of towns--that is, a small number of enclosed habitations (S103)-- +formed a hundred (a district having either a hundred families or able +to furnish a hundred warriors); a cluster of hundreds formed a shire +or county. Each of these divisions had its public meeting, composed +of all its freemen or their representatives, for the management of its +own affairs. But a state of war--for the English tribes fought each +other as well as fought the Britons--made a strong central government +necessary. For this reason the leader of each tribe was made king. +At first he was chosen, at large, by the entire tribe; later, unless +there was some good reason for a different choice, the King's eldest +son was selected as his successor. Thus the right to rule was +practically fixed in the line of a certain family descent. + +The ruler of each of these petty kingdoms acted as commander-in-chief +in war, and as supreme judge in law. + +3. The Witenagemot, or General Council. + +In all other respects the King's authority was limited--except when he +was strong enough to get his own way--by the Witenagemot, or General +Council. This body consisted of the chief men of each kingdom acting +in behalf of its people.[1] IT exercised the following powers: (1) It +elected the King, and if the people confirmed the choice, he was +crowned. (2) If the King proved unsatisfactory, the Council might +depose him and choose a successor. (3) The King, with the consent of +the Council, made the laws,--that is, he declared the customs of the +tribe. (4) The King, with the Council, appointed the chief officers +of the kingdom (after the introduction of Christianity this included +the bishops); but the King alone appointed the sheriff, to represent +him and collect the revenue in each shire. (5) The Council confirmed +or denied grants of portions of the public lands made by the King to +private persons. (6) The Council acted as the high court of justice, +the King sitting as supreme judge. (7) The Council, with the King, +discussed all questions of importance,--such as the levying of taxes, +and the making of treaties; smaller matters were left to the towns, +hundreds, and shires to settle for themselves. After the +consolidation of the different English kingdoms into one, the +Witenagemot expanded into the National Council. In it we see "the +true beginning of the Parliament of England." + +[1] The Witenagmot (i.e. the Meeting of the Witan, or Wise Men, S80), +says Stubbs ("Select Charters"), represented the people, although it +was not a collection of representatives. + +4. How England became a United Kingdom; Influence of the Church and of + the Danish Invasions. + +For a number of centuries Britain consisted of a number of little +rival kingdoms, almost constantly at war with each other. Meanwhile +missionaries from Rome had introduced Christianity, 597. Through the +influence of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury (668), the +clergy of the different hostile kingdoms met in general Church +councils.[2] This religious unity of action prepared the way for +political unity. The Catholic Church--the only Christian Church +(except the Greek Church) then existing--made men feel that their +highest interests were one; it "created the nation" (S48). + +[2] This movement began several years earlier (S48), but Theodore of +Tarsus was its first great organizer. + +This was the first cause of the union of the kingdoms. The second was +the invasion of the Danes. These fierce marauders forced the people +south of the Thames to join in common defense, under the leadership of +Alfred, King of the West Saxons. By the Treaty of Wedmore, 878, the +Danes were compelled to give up Southwestern England, but they +retained the whole of the Northeast. About the middle of the tenth +century, one of Alfred's grandsons conquered the Dnaes, and took the +title of "King of England."[1] Later, the Danes, reenforced by fresh +invasions of their countrymen, made themselves masters of the land; +yet Canute, the most powerful of these Danish kings, ruled according +to English methods. At length the great body of the people united in +choosing Edward the Confessor king (1042-1066). He was English by +birth, but Norman by education. Under him the unity of the English +kingdom was, in name at least, fully restored. + +[1] Some authorities consider Edgar (959) as the first "King of all +England." In 829 Egbert, King of the West Saxons, forced all the +other Saxon Kings of Britian to acknowledge him as their "Overlord" +(S49). + +5. Beginning of the Feudal System; its Results. + +Meantime a great change had taken place in England with respect to +holding land (SS86, 150). We shall see clearly to what that change +was tending if we look at the condition of France. There a system of +government and of land tenure existed known as the Feudal System. +Under it the King was regarded as the owner of the entire realm. He +granted, with his royal protection, the use of portions of the land to +his chief men or nobles, with the privilege of building castles and of +establishing courts of justice on these estates. Such grants were +made on two conditions: (1) that the tenants should take part in the +King's Council; (2) that they should do military service in the King's +behalf, and furnish besides a certain number of fully armed horsemen +in proportion to the amount of land they had received. So long as +they fulfilled these conditionms--made under oath--they could retain +their estates, and hand them down to their children; but if they +failed to keep their oath, they forfeited the land to the King. + +These great military barons or lords let out parts of their immense +manors,[2] or estates, on similar conditions,--namely (1) that their +vassals or tenants should pay rent to them by doing military or other +service; and (2) that they should agree that all questions concerning +their rights and duties should be tried in the lord's private +court.[3] On the other hand, the lord of the manor pledged himself to +protect his vassals. + +[2] Manor (man'or): see plan of a manor (Old French manoir, "a +mansion") on page 75, the estate of a feudal lord. Every manor had +two courts. The most important of these was the "court baron." It +was composed of all the free tenants of the manor, with the lord (or +his representative) presiding. It dealt with civil cases only. The +second court was the "court customary," which dealt with cases +connected with villeinage. The manors held by the greater barons had +a third court, the "court leet," which dealt with criminal cases, and +could inflict the death penalty. In all cases the decisions of the +manorial courts would be pretty sure to be in the lord's favor. In +England, however, these courts never acquired the degree of power +which they did on the Continent. +[3] See note above, on the manor. + +On every manor there were usually three classes of these tenants: +(1) those who discharged their rent by doing military duty; (2) those +who paid by a certain fixed amount of labor--or, if they preferred, in +produce or in money; (3) the villeins, or common laborers, who were +bound to remain on the estate and work for the lord, and whose +condition, although they were not wholly destitute of legal rights, +was practically not very much above that of slaves (S113). + +But there was another way by which men might enter the Feudal System; +for while it was growing up there were many small free landholders, +who owned their farms and owed no man any service whatever. In those +times of constant civil war such men would be almost in daily peril of +losing, not only their property, but their lives. To escape this +danger, they would hasten to "commend" themselves to some powerful +neighboring lord. To do this, they pledged themselves to become "his +men," surrendering their farms to him, and received them again as +feudal vassals. That is, the lord bound himself to protect them +against their enemies , and they bound themselves to do "suit and +service"[1] like the other tenants of the manor; for "suit and +service" on the one side, and "protection" on the other, made up the +threefold foundation of the Feudal system. + +[1] That is, they pledged themselves to do suit in the lord's private +court, and to do service in his army. + +Thus in time all classes of society became bound together. At the top +stood the King, who was no man's tenant, but, in name at least, every +man's master; at the bottom crouched the villein, who was no man's +master, but was, in fact, the most servile and helpless of tenants. + +Such was the condition of things in France. In England, however, this +system of land tenure was not completely established until after the +Norman Conquest, 1066; for in England the tie which bound men to the +King and to each other was originally one of pure choice, and had +nothing directly to do with land. Gradually, however, this changed; +and by the time of Edward the Confessor land in England had come to be +held on conditions so closely resembling those of France that one step +more--and that a very short one--would have made England a kingdom +exhibiting all the most dangerous features of French feudalism. + +For, notwithstanding certain advantages,[2] feudalism had this great +evil: that the chief nobles often became in time more powerful than +the King. This danger now menaced England. For convenience Canute +the Dane had divided the realm into four earldoms. The holders of +these vast estates had grown so mighty that they scorned royal +authority. Edward the Confessor did not dare resist them. The +ambition of each earl was to get the supreme mastery. This threatened +to bring on civil war, and to split the kingdom into fragments. +Fortunately for the welfare of the nation, William, Duke of Normandy, +by his invasion and conquest of England, 1066, put an effectual stop +to the selfish schemes of these four rival nobles. + +[2] On the Advantages of Feudalism, see S87. + +6. William the Conqueror and his Work. + +After William's victory at Hastings and march on London (SS74, 107), +the National Council chose him sovereign,--they would not have dared +to refuse,--and he was crowned by the Archbishop of York in +Westminster Abbey. This coronation made him the legal successor of +the line of English kings. In form, therefore, there was no break in +the order of government; for though William had forced himself upon +the throne, he had done so according to law and custom, and not +directly by the sword. + +Great changed followed the conquest, but they were not violent. The +King abolished the four great earldoms (S64), and restored national +unity. He gradually dispossessed the chief English landholders of +their lands, and bestowed them, under strict feudal laws, on his +Norman followers. He likewise gave all the highest positions in the +Church to Norman bishops and abbots. The National Council now changed +its character. It became simply a body of Norman barons, who were +bound by feudal custom to meet with the King. But they did not +restrain his authority; for William would brook no interference with +his will from any one, not even from the Pope himself (S118). + +But though the Conqueror had a tyrant's power, he rarely used it like +a tyrant. We have seen[1] that the great excellence of the early +English government lay in the fact that the towns, hundreds, and +shires were self-governing in all local matters; the drawback to this +system was its lack of unity and of a strong central power that could +make itself respected and obeyed. William supplied this power,-- +without which there could be no true national strength,--yet at the +same time he was careful to encourage the local system of self- +government. He gave London a liberal charter to protect its rights +and liberties (S107). He began the organization of a royal court of +justice; he checked the rapacious Norman barons in their efforts to +get control of the people's courts. + +[1] See SS2, 3 of this Summary. + +Furthermore, side by side with the feudal cavalry army, he maintained +the old English county militia of foot soldiers, in which every +freeman was bound to serve. He used this militia, when necessary, to +prevent the barons from getting the upper hand, and so destroying +those liberties which were protected by the Crown as its own best +safeguard against the plots of the nobles. + +Next, William had a census, survey, and valuation made of all the +estates in the kingdom outside London which were worth examination. +The result of this great work was recorded in Domesday Book (S120). +By means of that book--still preserved--the King knew what no English +ruler had known before him; that was, the property-holding population +and resources of the kingdom. Thus a solid foundation was laid on +which to establish the feudal revenue and the military power of the +Crown. + +Finally, just before his death, the Conqueror completed the +organization of his government. Hitherto the vassals of the great +barons had been bound to them alone. They were sworn to fight for +their masters, even if those masters rose in open rebellion against +the sovereign. William changed all that. At a meeting held at +Salisbury, 1086, he compelled every landholder in England, from the +greatest to the smallest,--sixty thousand, it is said,--to swear to be +"faithful to him against all others" (S121). By that oath he "broke +the neck of the Feudal System" as a form of government, though he +retained and developed the principle of feudal land tenure. Thus at +one stroke he made the Crown the supreme power in England; had he not +done so, the nation would soon have fallen prey to civil war. + +7. William's Norman Successors. + +William Rufus has a bad name in history, and he fully deserves it. +But he had this merit: he held the Norman barons in check with a stiff +hand, and so, in one way, gave the country comparative peace. + +His successor, Henry I, granted, 1100, a Charter of Liberties (S135, +note 1) to his people, by which he recognized the sacredness of the +old English laws for the protection of life and property. Somewhat +more than a century later this document became, as we shall see, the +basis of the most celebrated charter known in English history. Henry +attempted important reforms in the administration of the laws, and +laid the foundation of that system which his grandson, Henry II, was +to develop and establish. By these measures he gained the title of +the "Lion of Justice," who "made peace for both man and beast." +Furthermore, in an important controversy with the Pope respecting the +appointment of bishops (S136), Henry obtained the right (1107) to +require that both bishops and abbots, after taking possession of their +Church estates, should be obliged like the baron to furnish troops for +the defense of the kingdom. + +But in the next reign--that of Stephen--the barons got the upper hand, +and the King was powerless to control them. They built castles +without royal license, and from these private fortresses they sallied +forth to ravage, rob, and murder in all directions. Had that period +of terror continued much longer, England would have been torn to +pieces by a multitude of greedy tyrants. + +8. Reforms of Henry II; Scutage; Assize of Clarendon; Juries; + Constitutions of Clarendon. + +With Henry II the true reign of law begins. To carry out the reforms +begun by his grandfather, Henry I, the King fought both barons and +clergy. Over the first he won a complete and final victory; over the +second he gained a partial one. + +Henry began his work by pulling down the unlicensed castles built by +the "robber barons" in Stephen's reign. But, according to feudal +usage, the King was dependent on these very barons for his cavalry,-- +his chief armed force. He resolved to make himself independent of +their reluctant aid. To do this he offered to release them from +military service, provided they would pay a tax, called "scutage," or +"shield money" (1159).[1] The barons gladly accepted the offer. With +the money Henry was able to hire "mercenaries," or foreign troops, to +fight for him abroad, and, if need be, in England as well. Thus he +struck a great blow at the power of the barons, since they, through +disuse of arms, grew weaker, while the King grew steadily stronger. +To complete the work, Henry, many years later (1181), reorganized the +old English national militia,[2] and made it thoroughly effective for +the defense of the royal authority. For just a hundred years (1074- +1174) the barons had been trying to overthrow the government; under +Henry II the long struggle came to an end, and the royal power +triumphed. + +[1] Scutage: see S161. The demand for scutage seems to show that the +feudal tenure was now fully organized, and that the whole realm was by +this time divided into knights' fees,--that is, into portions of land +yielding 20 pounds annually,--each of which was obliged to furnish one +fully armed, well-mounted knight to serve the King (if called on) for +forty days annually. +[2] National militia: see SS96, 140. + +But in getting the military control of the kingdom Henry had won only +half of the victory he was seeking; to complete his supremacy over the +powerful nobles, the King must obtain control of the administration of +justice. + +In order to do this more effectually, Henry issued the Assize of +Clarendon (1166). It was the first true national code of law ever put +forth by an English king, since previous codes had been little more +than summaries of old "customs." The realm had already been divided +into six circuits, having three judges for each circuit. The Assize +of Clarendon gave these judges power not only to enter and preside +over every county court, but also over every court held by a baron on +his manor. This put a pretty decisive check to the hitherto +uncontrolled baronial system of justice--or injustice--with its +private dungeons and its private gibbets. It brought everything under +the eye of the King's judges, so that those who wished to appeal to +them could now do so without the expense, trouble, and danger of a +journey to the royal palace. + +Again, it had been the practice among the Norman barons to settle +disputes about land by the barbarous method of Trial by Battle (S148); +Henry gave tenants the right to have the case decided by a body of +twelve knights acquainted with the facts. + +In criminal cases a great change was likewise effected. Henceforth +twelve men from each hundred, with four from each township,--sixteen +at least,--acting as a grand jury, were to present all suspected +criminals to the circuit judges.[3] The judges sent them to the Ordeal +(S91); if they failed to pass it, they were then punished by law as +convicted felons; if they did pass it, they were banished from the +kingdom as persons of evil repute. After the abolition of the Ordeal +(1215), a petty jury of witnesses was allowed to testify in favor of +the accused, and clear them if they could from the charges brought by +the grand jury. If their testimony was not decisive, more witnesses +were added until twelve were obtained who could unanimously decide one +way or the other. In the course of time[1] this smaller body became +judges of the evidence for or against the accused, and thus the modern +system of Trial by Jury was established about 1350. + +[3] See the Assize of Clarendon (1166) in Stubbs's "Select Charters." +[1] The date usually given is 1350; but as late as the reign of +George I juries were accustomed to bring in verdicts determined partly +by their own personal knowledge of the facts. See Taswell-Langmead +(revised edition), p.179. + +These reforms had three important results: (1) they greatly dimished +the power of the barons by taking the administration of justice, in +large measure, out of their hands; (2) they established a more uniform +system of law; (3) they brought large sums of money, in the way of +court fees and fines, into the King's treasury, and so made him +stronger than ever. + +But meanwhile Henry was carrying on a still sharper battle in his +attempt to bring the Church courts--which William I had separated from +the ordinary courts--under control of the same system of justice. In +these Church courts any person claiming to belong to the clergy had a +right to be tried. Such courts had no power to inflict death, even +for murder. In Stephen's reign many notorious criminals had managed +to get themselves enrolled among the clergy, and had thus escaped the +hanging they deserved. Henry was determined to have all men--in the +circle of clergy or out of it--stand equal before the law. Instead of +two kinds of justice, he would have but one; this would not only +secure a still higher uniformity of law, but it would sweep into the +King's treasury may fat fees and fines which the Church courts were +then getting for themselves. + +By the laws entitled the "Constitutions of Clarendon," 1164 (S165), +the common courts were empowered to decide whether a man claiming to +belong to the clergy should be tried by the Church courts or not. If +they granted him the privilege of a Church-court trial, they kept a +sharp watch on the progress of the case; if the accused was convicted, +he must then be handed over to the judges of the ordinary courts, and +they took especial pains to convince him of the Bible truth, that "the +way of the transgressor is hard." For a time the Constitutions were +rigidly enforced, but in the end Henry was forced to renounce them. +Later, however, the principle he had endeavored to set up was fully +established.[2] + +[2] Edward I limited the jurisdiction of the Church courts to purely +spiritual cases, such as heresy and the like; but the work which he, +following the example of Henry II, had undertaken was not fully +accomplished until the fifteenth century. + +The greatest result springing from Henry's efforts was the training of +the people in public affairs, and the definitive establishment of that +system of Common Law which regards the people as the supreme source of +both law and government, and which is directly and vitally connected +with the principle of representation and of trial by jury.[3] + +[3] See Green's "Henry II," in the English Statesmen Series. + +9. Rise of Free Towns. + +While these important changes were taking place, the towns were +growing in population and wealth (S183). But as these towns occupied +land belonging either directly to the King or to some baron, they were +subject to the authority of one or the other, and so possessed no real +freedom. In the reign of Richard I many towns purchased certain +rights of self-government from the King.[1] This power of controlling +their own affairs greatly increased their prosperity, and in time, as +we shall see, secured them a voice in the management of the affairs of +the nation. + +[1] See S183. + +10. John's Loss of Normandy; Magna Carta. + +Up to John's reign many barons continued to hold large estates in +Normandy, in addition to those they had acquired in England; hence +their interests were divided between the two countries. Through war +John lost his French possessions (S191). Henceforth the barons shut +out from Normandy came to look upon England as their true home. From +Henry II's reign the Normans and the English had been gradually +mingling; from this time they became practically one people. John's +tyranny and cruelty brought their union into sharp, decisive action. +The result of his greed for money, and his defiance of all law, was a +tremendous insurrection. Before this time the people had always taken +the side of the King against the barons; now, with equal reason, they +turned about and rose with the barons against the King. + +Under the guidance of Archbishop Langton, barons, clergy, and people +demanded reform. The Archbishop brought out the half-forgotten +charter of Henry I (S135, note 1). This now furnished a model for +Magna Carta, or the "Great Charter of the Liberties of England."[2] + +[2] Magna Carta: see SS195-202; and see Constitutional Documents, +p.xxix. + +It contained nothing that was new in principle. It was simply a +clearer, fuller, stronger statement of those "rights of Englishmen +which were already old." + +John, though wild with rage, did not dare refuse to affix his royal +seal to the Great Charter of 1215. By doing so he solemnly +guaranteed: (1) the rights of the Church; (2) those of the barons; +(3) those of all freemen; (4) those of the villeins, or farm +laborers. The value of this charter to the people at large is shown +by the fact that nearly one third of its sixty-three articles were +inserted in their behhalf. Of these articles the most important was +that which declared that no man should be deprived of liberty or +property, or injured in body or estate, save by the judgment of his +equals or by the law of the land. + +In regard to taxation, the Charter provided that, except the customary +feudal "aids,"[3] none should be levied unless by the consent of the +National Council. Finally, the Charter expressly provided that +twenty-five barons--one of whom was mayor of London--should be +appointed to compel the King to carry out his agreement. + +[3] For the three customary feudal aids, see S150. + +11. Henry III and the Great Charter; the Forest Charter; Provisions of + Oxford; Rise of the House of Commons; Important Land Laws. + +Under Henry III the Great Charter was reissued. But the important +articles which forbade the King to levy taxes except by consent of the +National Council, together with some others restricting his power to +increase his revenue, were dropped, and never again restored.[1] + +[1] See Stubbs's "Select Charters" (Edward I), p.484; but compare note + I, p.443. + +On the other hand, Henry was obliged to issue a Forest Charter, based +on certain articles of Magna Carta, which declared that no man should +lose life or limb for hunting in the royal forests. + +Though the Great Charter was now shorn of some of its safeguards to +liberty, yet it was still so highly prized that its confirmation was +purchased at a high price from successive sovereigns. Down to the +second year of Henry VI's reign (1423) we find that it had been +confirmed no less than thirty-seven times. + +Notwithstanding his solemn oath (S210), the vain and worthless +Henry III deliberately violated the provisions of the Charter, in +order to raise money to waste in his foolish foreign wars or on his +court circle of French favorites. + +Finally (1258), a body of armed barons, led by Simon de Montfort, Earl +of Leicester, forced the King to summon a Parliament at Oxford. There +a scheme of reform, called the "Provisions of Oxford," was adopted +(S209). By these Provisions, which Henry swore to observe, the +government was practically taken out of the King's hands,--at least as +far as he had power to do mischief,--and entrusted to certain councils +or committees of state. + +A few years later, Henry refused to abide by the Provisions of Oxford, +and civil war broke out. De Montfort, Earl of Leicester, gained a +decisive victory at Lewes, and captured the King. The Earl then +summoned a National Council, made up of those who favored his policy +of reform (S213). This was the famous Parliamnet of 1265. To it De +Montfort summoned: (1) a small number of barons; (2) a large number of +the higher clergy; (3) two knights, or country gentlemen, from each +shire; (4) two burghers, or citizens, from every town. + +The knights of the shire had been summoned to Parliamnet before;[2] +but this was the first time that the towns had been invited to send +representatives. By that act the Earl set the example of giving the +people at large a fuller share in the government than they had yet +had. To De Montfort, therefore, justly belongs the glory of being +"the founder of the House of Commons." His work, however, was +defective (S213); and owing, perhaps, to his death shortly afterwards +at the battle of Evesham (1265), the regular and continuous +representation of the towns did not begin until thirty years later. + +[2] They were first summoned by John in 1213. + +Meanwhile, 1279-1290, three land laws of great importance were +enacted. The first limited the acquisition of landed property by the +Church;[3] the second encouraged the transmission of land by will to +the eldest son, thus keeping estates together instead of breaking them +up among several heirs;[1] the third made purchasers of estates the +direct feudal tenants of the King.[2] The object of these three laws +was to prevent landholders from evading their feudal obligations; +hency they decidedly strengthened the royal power.[3] + +[3] Statute of Mortmain (1279): see S226; it was especially directed + against the acquisition of land by monasteries. +[1] Statute De Donis Conditionalibus or Entail (Westminster II) (1285): + see S225. +[2] During the same period the Statute of Winchester (1285) + reorganized the national militia and the police system (S224). + +12. Edward I's "Model Parliament"; Confirmation of the Charters. + +In 1295 Edwrad I, one of the ablest men that ever sat on the English +throne, adopted De Montfort's scheme of representation. The King was +greatly pressed for money, and his object was to get the help of the +towns, and thus secure a system of taxation which should include all +classes. With the significant words, "That which toucheth all should +be approved by all," he summoned to Winchester the first really +complete or "Model Parliament" (S217),[4] consisting of King, Lords +(temporal and spiritual), and Commons.[5] The form Parliament then +received it has kept substantially ever since. We shall see how from +this time the Commons gradually grew in influence,--though with +periods of relapse,--until at length they have become the controlling +power in legislation. + +[4] De Montfort's Parliament was not wholly lawful and regular, +because not voluntarily summoned by the King himself. Parliament must +be summoned by the sovereign, opened by the sovereign (in person or by +commission); all laws require the sovereign's signature to complete +them; and, finally, Parliament can be suspended or dissolved by the +sovereign only. +[5] The lower clergy were summoned to send representatives to the +Commons; but they came very irregularly, and in the fourteenth +centrury ceased coming altogether. From that time they voted their +supplies for the Crown in Convocation, until 1663, when Convocation +ceased to meet. The higher clergy--bishops and abbots--met with the +House of Lords. + +Two years after the meeting of the "Model Parliament," in order to get +money to carry on a war with France, Edward levied a tax on the +barons, and seized a large quantity of wool belonging to the +merchants. So determined was the resistance to these acts that civil +war was threatened. In order to avert it, the King was obliged to +summon a Parliament, 1297, and to sign a confirmation of all previous +charters of liberties, including the Great Charter (S202). He +furthermore bound himself in the most solemn manner not to tax his +subjects or seize their goods without their consent. Henceforth +Parliament alone was considered to hold control of the nation's purse; +and although this principle was afterwards evaded, no king openly +denied its binding force. Furthermore, in Edward's reign the House of +Commons gained (1322), for the first time, a direct share in +legislation. This step had results of supreme constitutional +importance. + +13. Division of Parliament into Two Houses; Growth of the Power of the + Commons; Legislation by Statute; Impeachment; Power over the Purse. + +In Edward III's reign a great change occurred in Parliament. The +knights of the shire (about 1343) joined the representatives from the +towns, and began to sit apart from the Lords as a distince House of +Commons. This union gave that House a new charactyer, and invested it +with a power in Parliament which the representation from the towns +alone could not have exerted. But though thus strengthened, the +Commons did not venture to claim an equal part with the Lords in +framing laws. Their attitude was that of humble petitioners. When +they had voted the supplies of money which the King asked for, the +Commons might then meekly beg for legislation. Even when the King and +the Lords assented to their petitions, the Commons often found to +their disappointment that the laws which had been promised did not +correspond to those for which they had asked. Henry V pledged his +word (1414) that the petitions, when accepted, should be made into +laws without any alteration. But, as a matter of fact, this was not +effectually done until the close of the reign of Henry VI (about +1461). Then the Commons succeeded in obtaining the right to present +proposed laws in the form of regular bills instead of petitions. +These bills when enacted became statues or acts of Parliament, as we +know them to-day. This change was a most important one, since it made +it impossible for the King with the Lords to fraudulently defeat the +expressed will of the Commons after they had once assented to the +legislation which the Commons desired. + +Meanwhile the Commons gained, for the first time (1376), the right of +impeaching such ministers of the Crown as they had reason to believe +were unfaithful to the interests of the people. This, of course, put +an immense restraining power in their hands, since they could now make +the ministers responsible, in great measure, for the King.[1] + +[1] But after 1450 the Commons ceased to exercise the right of +impeachment until 1621, when they impeached Lord Bacon and others. + +Next (1406), the Commons insisted on having an account rendered of the +money spent by the King; and at times they even limited[2] their +appropriations of money to particular purposes. Finally, in 1407, the +Commons took the most decided step of all. They boldly demanded and +obtained *the exclusive right of making all grants of money* required +by the Crown.[3] + +[3] This right the Commons never surrendered. + +In future the King, unless he violated the law, had to look to the +Commons--that is, to the direct representation of the mass of the +people--for his chief supplies. This made the will of the Commons +more powerful than it had ever been. + +14. Religious Legislation; Emancipation of the Villeins; + Disfranchisement of County Electors. + +The Parliament of Merton had already (1236) refused to introduce the +canon or ecclesiatical law (S265). In the next century two very +important statutes relating to the Church were enacted,--that of +Provisors (1350)[4] and the Great Act of Praemunire, +1393,[1]--limiting the power of the Pope over the English Church. On +the other hand, the rise of the Lollards had caused a statute to be +passed (1401) against heretics, and under it the first martyr had been +burned in England. During this period the villeins had risen in +insurrection (1381) (SS250-252), and were gradually gaining their +liberty. Thus a very large body of people who had been practically +excluded from political rights now began to slowly acquire them.[2] +But, on the other hand, a statute was enacted (1430) which prohibited +all persons having an income of less than forty shillings a year--or +what would be equal to forty pounds at the present value of money-- +from voting for knights of the shire (S297). The consequence was that +the poorer and humbler classes in the country were no longer directly +represented in the House of Commons. + +[4] Provisors: this was a law forbidding the Pope to provide any +person (by anticipation) with a position in the English Church until +the death of the incumbent. +[1] Praemunire: see Constitutional Documents, p. xxxii. Neither the +law of Provisors nor of Praemunire was strictly enforced until +Henry VIII's reign. +[2] Villeins appear, however, to have had the right of voting for +knights of the shire until the statute of 1430 difranchised them. + +15. Wars of the Roses; Decline of Parliament; Partial Revival of its + Power under Elizabeth. + +The Civil Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) gave a decided check to the +further development of parliamentary power. Many noble families were +ruined by the protracted struggle, and the new nobles created by the +King were pledged to uphold the interests of the Crown. Furthemore, +numerous towns absorbed in their own local affairs ceased to elect +members to the Commons. Thus, with a House of Lords on the side of +royal authority, and with a House of Commons diminished in numbers and +in influence, the decline of the independent attitude of Parliament +was inevitable. + +The result of these changes was very marked. From the reign of +Henry VI to that of Elizabeth, a period of nearly a hundred and forty +years, "the voice of Parliament was rarely heard." The Tudors +practically set up a new or "personal monarchy," in which their will +rose above both Parliament and the constitution;[3] and Henry VII, +instead of asking the Commons for money, extorted it by fines +enforcedby his Court of Star Chamber, or compelled his wealthy +subjects to grant it to him in "benevolences" (S330)--those "loving +contributions," as the King called them, "lovingly advanced"! + +[3] Theoretically Henry VII's power was restrained by certain checks +(see S328, note 1), and even Henry VIII generally ruled according to +the letter of the law, however much he may have violated its spirit. +It is noticable, too, that it was under Henry VIII (1541) that +Parliament first formally claimed freedom of speech as one of its +"undoubted privieges." + +During this period England laid claim to a new continent, and +Henry VIII, repudiating the authority of the Pope, declared himself +the "supreme head" (1535) of the English Catholic Church. In the next +reign (Edward VI) the Catholic worship, which had existed in England +for nearly a thousand years, was abolished (1540), and the Protestant +faith became henceforth--except during Mary's short reign--the +established religion of the kingdom. It was enforced by two Acts of +Uniformity (1549, 1552). One effect of the overthrow of Catholicism +was to change the character of the House of Lords, by reducing the +number of spiritual lords from a majority to a minority, as they have +ever since remained (S406, note 2). + +At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the Second Act of Supremacy +(1559) shut out all Catholics from the House of Commons (S382), +Protestantism was fully and finally established as the state +religion,[1] embodied in the creed known as the Thirty-Nine Articles +(1563); and by the Third Act of Uniformity (1559) very severe measures +were taken against all--whether Catholics or Puritans--who refused to +conform to the Episcopal mode of worship. The High Commission Court +was organized (1583) to try and to to punish heretics--whether +Catholics or Puritans. The great number of paupers caused by the +destruction of the monasteries under Henry VIII and the gradual decay +of relations of feudal service caused the passage of the first Poor +Law (1601) (S403), and so brought the Government face to face with a +problem which has never yet been satisfactorily settled; namely, what +to do with habitual paupers and tramps. + +[1] By the Third Act of Uniformity and the establishment of the High +Commission Court (S382). The First and Second Acts of Uniformity were +enacted under Edward VI (S362). + +The closing part of Elizabeth's reign marks the revival of +parliamentary power. The House of Commons now had many Puritan +members, and they did not hesitate to assert their right to advise the +Queen on all questions of national importance. Elizabeth sharply +rebuked them for presuming to meddle with questions of religion, or +for urging her either to take a husband or to name a successor to the +throne; but even she did not venture to run directly counter to the +will of the people. When the Commons demanded (1601) that she should +put a stop to the pernicious practice of granting trading monopolies +(S388) to her favorites, she was obliged to yield her assent. + +16. James I; the Divine Right of Kings; Struggle with Parliament. + +James began his reign by declaring that kings rule not by the will of +the people, but by "divine right." "God makes the King," said he, "and +the King makes the law" (S419). For this reason he demanded that his +proclamations should have all the force of acts of Parliament. +Furthermore, since he appointed the judges, he could generally get +their decisions to support him; thus he made even the courts of +justice serve as instruments of his will. In his arrogance he +declared that neither Parliament nor the people had any right to +discuss matters of state, whether foreign or domestic, since he was +resolved to reserve such questions for the royal intellect to deal +with. By his religious intolerance he maddened both Puritans and +Catholics, and the Pilgrim Fathers fled from England to escape his +tyranny. + +But there was a limit set to his overbearing conceit. When he +dictated to the Commons (1604) what persons should sit in that body, +they indignantly refused to submit to any interference on his part, +and their refusal was so emphatic that James never brought the matter +up again. + +The King, however, was so determined to shut out members whom he did +not like that he attempted to gain his ends by having such persons +seized on charges of debt and thrown into prison. The Commons, on the +other hand, not only insisted that their ancient privilege of +exemption from arrest in such cases should be respected, but they +passed a special law (1604) to clinch the privilege. + +Ten years later (1614) James, pressed for money, called a Parliament +to get supplies. He had taken precautions to get a majority of +members elected who would, he hoped, vote for him what he wanted. But +to his dismay the Commons declined to grant him a penny unless he +would promise to cease imposing illegal duties on merchandise. The +King angrily refused and dissolved the so-called "Addled Parliament."[1] + +[1] This Parliament was nicknamed the "Addled Parliament," because it +did not enact a single law, though it most effectually "addled" the +King's plans (S424). + +Finally, in order to show James that it would not be trifled with, a +later Parliament (1621) revived the right of impeachment, which had +not been resorted to since 1450.[2] The Commons now charged Lord +Chancellor Bacon, judge of the High Court of Chancery, and "keeper of +the King's conscience," with accepting bribes. Bacon held the highest +office in the gift of the Crown, and the real object of the +impeachment was to strike the King through the person of his chief +official and supporter. Bacon confessed his crime, saying, "I was the +justest judge that was in England these fifty years, but it was the +justest censure in Parliament that was these two hundred years." + +[2] See S13 of this Summary + +James tried his best to save his servile favorite, but it was useless, +and Bacon was convicted, disgraced, and partially punished (S425). + +The Commons of the same Parliament petitioned the King against the +alleged growth of the Catholic religion in the knigdom, and especially +against the proposed marriage of the Prince of Wales to a Spanish +Catholic princess. James ordered the Commons to let mysteries of the +state alone. They claimed liberty of speech. The King asserted that +they had no liberties except such as the royal power saw fit to +grant. Then the Commons drew up their famous Protest, in which they +declared that their liberties were not derived from the King, but were +"the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the people of +England." In his rage James ordered the journal of the Commons to be +brought to him, tore out the Protest with his own hand, and sent five +of the members of the House to prison (S419). This rash act made the +Commons more determined than ever not to yield to arbitrary power. +James died three years later, leaving his unfortunate son Charles to +settle the angry controversy he had raised. Macaulay remarks that +James seems to have been sent to hasten the coming of the Civil War. + +17. Charles I; Forced Loans; the Petition of Right. + +Charles I came to the throne full of his father's lofty ideas of the +Divine Right of Kings to govern as they pleased. In private life he +was conscientious, but in his public policy he was a man "of dark and +crooked ways." + +He had married a French Catholic princess, and the Puritans, who were +now very strong in the House of Commons, suspected that the King +secretly sympathized with the Queen's religion. This was not the +case; for Charles, after his peculiar fashion, was a sincere +Protestant, though he favored the introduction into the English Church +of some of the ceremonies peculiar to Catholic worship. + +The Commons showed their distrust of the King by voting him the tax of +tonnage and poundage (certain duties levied on wine and merchandise), +for a single year only, instead of for life, as had been their +custom. The Lords refused to assent to such a limited grant,[1] and +Charles deliberately collected the tax without the authority of +Parliament. Failing, however, to get a sufficient supply in that way, +the King forced men of property to grant him "benevolences," and to +loan him large sums of money with no hope of its return. Those who +dared to refuse were thrown into prison on some pretended charge, or +had squads of brutal soldiers quartered in their houses. + +[1] See Taswell-Langmead (revised edition), p. 557, note. + +When even these measures failed to supply his wants, Charles was +forced to summon a Parliament, and ask for help. Instead of granting +it, the Commons drew up the Petition of Right[2] of 1628, as an +indignant remonstrance, and as a safeguard against further acts of +tyranny. This Petition has been called the "Second Great Charter of +the Liberties of England." It declared: (1) That no one should be +compelled to pay any tax or to supply the King with money, except by +order of act of Parliament. (2) That neither soldiers nor sailors +should be quartered in private houses.[3] (3) That no one should be +imprisoned or punished contrary to law. Charles was forced by his +need of money to assent to this Petition, which thus became a most +important part of the English constitution. But the King did not keep +his word. When Parliament next met (1629), it refused to grant money +unless Charles would renew his pledge not to violate the law. The +King made some concessions, but finally resolved to adjourn +Parliament. Several members of the Commons held the Speaker in the +chair by force,--thus preventing the adjournment of the House,--until +resolutions offered by Sir John Eliot were passed (S434). These +resolutions were aimed directly at the King. They declared: (1) that +he is a traitor who attempts any change in the established religion of +the kingdom;[4] (2) who levies any tax not voted by Parliament; (3) or +who voluntarily pays such a tax. Parliament then adjourned. + +[2] Petition of Right: see S432, and Constitutional Documents, p.xxx. +[3] The King was also deprived of the power to press citizens into the +army and navy. +[4] The Puritans had come to believe that the King wished to restore +the Catholic religion as the Established Church of England, but in +this idea they were mistaken. + +18. "Thorough"; Ship Money; the "Short Parliament." + +The King swore that "the vipers" who opposed him should have their +reward. Eliot was thrown into prison and kept there till he died. +Charles made up his mind that, with the help of Archbishop Laud in +Church matters, and of Lord Strafford in affairs of state, he would +rule without Parliaments. Strafford urged the King to adopt the +policy of "Thorough"[1] (S435); in other words, to follow the bent of +his own will without consulting the will of the nation. This, of +course, practically meant the overthrow of parliamentary and +constitutional government. Charles heartily approved of this plan for +setting up what he called a "beneficent despotism" based on "Divine +Right." + +[1] "Thorough": Strafford wrote to Laud, "You may govern as you +please....I am confident that the King is able to carry any just and +honorable action thorough [i.e. through or against] all imaginable +opposition." Both Strafford and Laud used the word "thorough," in this +sense to designate their tyrannical policy. + +The King now resorted to various unconstitutional means to obtain +supplies. The last device he hit upon was that of raising ship +money. To do this, he levied a tax on all the counties of England,-- +inland as well as seaboard,--on the pretext that he purposed building +a neavy for the defense of the kingdom. John Hampden refused to pay +the tax, but Charles's servile judges decided against him, when the +case was brought into court (S436). + +Charles ruled without a Parliament for eleven years. He might, +perhaps, have gone on in this way for as many more, had he not +provoked the Scots to rebel by attempting to force a modified form of +the English Prayer Book on the Church of that country (S438). The +necessities of the war with the Scots compelled the King to call a +Parliament. It declined to grant the King money to carry on the war +unless he would give some satisfactory guarantee of governing +according to the will of the people. Charles refused to do this, and +after a three weeks' session he dissolved what was known as the "Short +Parliament." + +19. The "Long Parliament"; the Civil War. + +But the war gave Charles no choice, and before the year was out he was +obliged to call the famous "Long Parliament" of 1640.[2] That body met +with the firm determination to restore the liberties of Englishmen or +to perish in the attempt. (1) It impeached Strafford and Laud, and +sent them to the scaffold as traitors.[3] (2) It swept away those +instruments of royal oppression, the Court of Star Chamber and the +High Commission Court (SS330, 382). (3) It expelled the bishops from +the House of Lords. (4) It passed the Triennial Bill, compelling the +King to summon a Parliament at least once in three years.[4] (5) It +also passed a law declaring that the King could not suspend or +dissolve Parliament without its consent. (6) Last of all, the Commons +drew up the Grand Remonstrance (S439), enunciating at great length the +grievances of the last sixteen years, and vehemently appealing to the +people to support them in their attempts at reform. The Remonstrance +was printed and distributed throughout England.[1] + +[2] The "Long Parliament": it sat from 1640 to 1653, and was not +finally dissolved until 1660. +[3] Charles assured Strafford that Parliament should not touch "a hair +of his head"; but to save himself the King signed the Bill of +Attainder (see p.xxxii), which sent his ablest and most faithful +servant to the block. Well might Strafford exclaim, "Put not your +trust in princes." +[4] The Triennial Act was repealed in 1664 and reenacted in 1694. In +1716 the Septennial Act increased the limit of three years to seven. +This act is still in force. +[1] The press soon became, for the first time, a most active agent of +political agitation, both for and against the King (S443). + +About a month later (1642) the King, at the head of an armed force, +undertook to seize Hampden, Pym, and three other of the most active +members of the Commons on a charge of treason (S449). The attempt +failed. Soon afterwards the Commons passed the Militia Bill, and thus +took the command of the national militia and of the chief fortresses +of the realm, "to hold," as they said, "for King and Parliament." The +act was unconstitutional; but, after the attempted seizure of the five +members, the Commons felt certain that if they left the command of the +militia in the King's hands, they would simply sign their own death +warrant. + +In resentment of this action, Charles now (1642) began the great Civil +War. It resulted in the execution of the King, and in the temporary +overthrow of the monarchy, the House of Lords, and the Established +Episcopal Church (SS450, 451). In place of the monarchy, the party in +power set up a short-lived Puritan Republic. This was followed by the +Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell (which claimed to be republican in +spirit) and by that of his son Richard (SS455, 463). + +20. Charles II; Abolition of Feudal Tenure; Establishment of a + Standing Army. + +In 1660 the people, weary of the Protectorate form of government, +welcomed the return of Charles II. His coming marks the restoration +of the monarchy, of the House of Lords, and of the National Episcopal +Church. + +A great change was now effected in the source of the King's revenue. +Hitherto it had sprung largely from feudal dues. These had long been +difficult to collect, because the Feudal System had practically died +out. The feudal land tenure with its dues was now abolished,--a +reform, says Blackstone, greater even than that of Magna Carta,--and +in their place a tax was levied for a fixed sum (S482). This tax +should in justice have fallen on the landowners, who profited by the +change; but they managed to evade it in great measure, and by getting +it levied on beer and some other liquors, they forced the working +classes to shoulder the chief part of the burden, which they carried +until very recently.[2] + +[2] See S34 of this Summary. + +Parliament now restored the command of the militia to the Kign;[3] +and, for the first time in English history, it also gave him the +command of a standing army of five thousand men,--thus, in one way, +making him more powerful than ever before (S467). + +[3] See Militia Bill, S19 of this Summary. + +On the other hand, Parliament revived the practice of limiting its +appropriations of money to specific purposes.[4] It furthermore began +to require an exact account of how the King spent the money,--a most +embarrassing question for a man like Charles II to answer. Again, +Parliament did not hesitate to impeach and remove the King's ministers +whenever they forfeited the confidence of that body.[1] + +[4] See S13 of this Summary. +[1] See S13 of this Summary (Impeachment). + +The religious legislation of this period marks the strong reaction +from Puritanism which had set in. (1) The Corporation Act (1661) +excluded all persons who did not renounce the Puritan Covenant and +partake of the Sacrament according to the Church of England, from +holding municipal or other corporate offices (S472). (2) The Fourth +Act of Uniformity (1662)[2] required all clergymen to accept the Book +of Common Prayer of the Church of England (S472). The result of this +law was that no less than two thousand Puritan ministers were driven +from their pulpits in a single day. (3) The Conventicle Act (S472) +followed (1664). It forbade the preaching or hearing of Puritan +doctrines, under severe penalties. (4) The Five-Mile Act (1665) (S472) +[3] prohibited non-conforming clergymen from teaching, or from coming +within five miles of any corporate town (except when traveling). + +[2] The First and Second Acts of Uniformity date from Edward VI (1549, +1552), the Third from Elizabeth (1559) (SS362, 382, 472). +[3] The Five-Mile Act (1665) excepted those clergymen who took the +oath of nonresistance to the King, and who swore not to attempt to +alter the constitution of Church or State. See Hallam's +"Constitutional History of England." + +21. Charles II's Cabinet; the Secret Treaty of Dover; the Test Act; + the Habeas Corpus Act; Rise of Cabinet Government. + +Charles II made a great and most important change with respect to the +Privy Council. Instead of consulting the entire Council on matters of +state, he established the custom of inviting only a few to meet with +him in his cabinet, or private room. This limited body of +confidential advisers was called the "Cabal," or secret council +(S476). + +Charles's great ambition was to increase his standing army, to rule +independently of Parliament, and to get an abundance of money to spend +on his extravagant pleasures and vices. + +In order to accomplish these three ends he made a secret and shameful +treaty with Louis XIV of France, 1670 (S476). Louis wished to crush +the Dutch Protestant Republic of Halland, to get possession of Spain, +and to secure, if possible, the ascendancy of Catholicism in England +as well as throughout Europe. Charles, who was destitute of any +religious principle,--or, in fact, of any sense of honor,--agreed to +publicly declare himself a Catholic, to favor the propagation of that +faith in England, and to make war on Holland in return for very +liberal grants of money, and for the loan of six thousand French +troops by Louis, to help him put down any opposition in England. Two +members of the "Cabal" were acquainted with the terms of this secret +Treaty of Dover. Charles made a second secret treaty with Louis XIV +in 1678. + +Charles did not dare to openly avow himself a convert--or pretended +convert--to the Catholic religion; but he issued a Declaration of +Indulgence, 1672, suspending the harsh statutes against the English +Catholics (S477). + +Parliament took the alarm and passed the Test Act, 1673, by which all +Catholics were shut out from holding any government office or position +(S477). This act broke up the "Cabal," by compelling a Catholic +nobleman, who was one of its leading members, to resign. Lather, +Parliament further showed its power by compelling the King to sign the +Act of Habeas Corpus, 1679 (S482), which put an end to his arbitrarily +throwing men into prison, and keeping them there, in order to stop +their free discussion of his plots against the constitution.[1] + +[1] See Habeas Corpus Act in Constitutional Documents, p.xxxii. + +But though the "Cabal" had been broken up, the principle of a limited +private council survived, and long after the Revolution of 1688 it was +revived and the Cabinet, under the lead of Sir Robert Walpole, the +first Prime Minister,[2] in 1721, became responsible for th epolicy of +the sovereign.[3] At present, if the Commons decidedly oppose that +policy, the Prime minister,[2] in 1721, became responsible for the +policy of the sovereign.[3] At present, if the Commons decidedly +oppose that policy, the Prime Minister, with his Cabinet, either +resigns, and a new Cabinet is chosen, or the Minister appeals to the +people for support, and the sovereign dissolves Parliament and orders +a new parliamentary election, by which the nation decides the +question. This method renders the old, and never desirable, remedy of +the impeachment of the ministers of the sovereign no longer +necessary. The Prime Minister--who answers for the acts of the +sovereign and for his policy--is more directly responsible to the +people than is the President of the United States. + +[2] See S27 of this Summary. +[3] The real efficiency of the Cabinet system of government was not +fully developed until after the Reform Act of 1832 had widely extended +the right of suffrage, and thus made the government more directly +responsible to the people (S582). + +22. The Pretended "Popish Plot"; Rise of the Whigs and the Tories; + Revocation of Town Charters. + +The pretended "Popish Plot" (1678) (S478) to kill the King, in order +to place his brother James--a Catholic convert--on the throne, caused +the rise of a strong movement (1680) to exclude James from the right +of succession. The Exclusion Bill failed; but the Disabling Act was +passed, 1678, excluding Catholics from sitting in either House of +Parliament; but an exception was made in favor of the Duke of York +(S478). Henceforward two prominent political parties appear in +Parliament,--one, that of the Whigs or Liberals, bent on extending the +power of thepeople; the other, that of the Tories or Conservatives, +resolved to maintain the power of the Crown. + +Charles II, of course, did all in his power to encourage the latter +party. In order to strengthen their numbers in the Commons, he found +pretexts for revoking the charters of many Whig towns (S479). He then +issued new charters to these towns, giving the power of election to +the Tories.[4] While engaged in this congenial work the King died, and +his brother James II came to the throne. + +[4] The right of election in many towns was then confined to the town +officers or to a few influential inhabitants. This continued to be +the case until the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832. + +23. James II; the Dispensing Power; Declaration of Indulgence; the + Revolution of 1688. + +James II was a zealous Catholic, and therefore naturally desired to +secure freedom of worship in England for people of his own faith. In +his zeal he went too far, and the Pope expressed his disgust at the +King's foolish rashness. By the exercise of the Dispensing Power[1] +he suspended the Test Act and the Act of Uniformity, in order that +Catholics might be relieved from the penalties imposed by these laws, +and also for the purpose of giving them civil and military offices, +from which the Test Act excluded them (S477). James also established +a new High Commission Court[2] (S488), and made the infamous Judge +Jeffreys the head of this despotic tribunal. This court had the +supervision of all churches and institutions of education. Its main +object was to further the spread of Catholicism, and to silence those +clergymen who preached against that faith. The King appointed a +Catholic president of Magdalen College, Oxford, and expelled from the +college all who opposed the appointment. Later, he issued two +Declarations of Indulgence, 1687, 1688, in which he proclaimed +universal religious toleration (S488). It was generally believed that +under cover of these Declarations the King intended to favor the +ascendancy of Catholicism. Seven bishops, who petitioned for the +privilege of declining to read the Declarations from their pulpits, +were imprisoned, but on their trial were acquitted by a jury in full +sympathy with them (S489). + +[2] New High Commission Court: see S19 of this Summary. + +These acts by the King, together with the fact that he had greatly +increased the standing army, and had stationed it just outside of +London, caused great alarm throughout England (S488). The majority of +the people of both political parties (S489) believed that James was +plotting to "subverty and extirpate the Protestant religion and the +laws and liberties of the kingdom." + +[3] See the language of the Bill of Rights (Constitutional Documents), +p. xxxi. + +Still, so long as the King remained childless, the nation was +encouraged by the hope that James's daughter Mary might succeed him. +She was known to be a decided Protestant, and she had married William, +Prince of Orange, the head of the Protestant Republic of Holland. But +the birth of a son to James (1688) put an end to that hope. +Immediately a number of leading Whigs and Tories (SS479, 490) united +in sending an invitation to the Prince of Orange to come over to +England with an army to protect Parliament against the King backed by +his standing army. + +24. William and Mary; Declaration of Right; Results of the Revolution. + +William came; James fled to France. A Convention Parliament[4] drew +up a Declaration of Right which declared that the King had vacated the +throne, and the crown was therefore offered to William and Mary +(S494). They accepted. Thus by the bloodless Revolution of 1688 the +English nation transferred the sovereignty to those who had no direct +legal claim to it so long as James and his son were living (S490). +Hence by this act the people deliberately set aside hereditary +succession, as a binding rule, and revived the primitive English +custom of choosing a sovereign as they deemed best. In this sense the +uprising of 1688 was most emphatically a revolution (S491, 492). It +made, as Green has said, an English monarch as much the creature of an +act of Parliament as the pettiest taxgatherer in his realm (S497). +But it was a still greater revolution in another way, since it gave a +deathblow to the direct "personal monarchy," which began with the +Tudors two hundred years before. It is true that in George III's +reign we shall see that power temporarily revived, but we shall never +hear anything more of that Divine Right of Kings, for which one Stuary +"lost his head, and another his crown." Henceforth the House of +Commons will govern England, although, as we shall see, it will be +nearly a hundred and fifty years before that House will be able to +free itself entirely from the control of either a few powerful +families on the one hand, or that of the Crown on the other. + +[4] Convention Parliament: it was so called because it was not +regularly summoned by the King,--he having fled the country. + +25. Bill of Rights; the Commons by the Revenue and the Mutiny Act + obtain Complete Control over the Purse and the Sword. + +In order to make the constitutional rights of the people unmistakably +clear, the Bill of Rights, 1689,--an expansion of the Declaration of +Right--was drawn up (S497). The Bill of Rights[1] declare: (1) That +there should be no suspension or change in the laws, and no taxation +except by act of Parliament. (2) That there should be freedom of +election to Parliament and freedom of speech in Parliament (both +rights that the Stuarts had attempted to contrl). (3) That the +sovereign should not keep a standing army, in time of peace, except by +consent of Parliament. (4) That in future no Roman Catholic should sit +on the English throne. This last clause was reaffirmed by the Act of +Settlement, 1701 (S497).[2] + +[1] Bill of Rights: see Constitutional Documents, p. xxxi. +[2] See, too, Constitutional Documents, p. xxxii. + +This most important bill, having received the signature of William and +Mary, became law. It constitutes the third great written charter or +safeguard of English liberty. Taken in connection with Magna Carta +and the Petition of Right, it forms, according to Lord Chatham, *the +Bible of English liberty* (S497). + +But Parliament had not yet finished the work of reform it had taken in +hand. The executive strength of every government depends on its +control of two powers,--the purse and the sword. Parliament had, as +we have seen, got a tight grasp on the first, for the Commons, and the +Commons alone, could levy taxes; but within certain very wide limits +the personal expenditure of the sovereign still practically remained +unchecked. Parliament now, 1689, took the decisive step of voting by +the Revenue Act (1) a specific sum for the maintenance of the Crown; +and (2) of voting this supply, not for the life of the sovereign, as +had been the custom, but for four years (S498). A little later this +supply was fixed for a signle year only. This action gave to the +Commons final and complete control of the purse (SS498, 588). + +Next, Parliament passed the Mutiny Act (1689) (S496), which granted +the King power to enforce martial law--in other words, to maintain a +standing army--for one year at a time, and no longer, save by renewal +of the law. This act gave Parliament complete control of the sword, +and thus finished the great work; for without the annual meeting and +the annual vote of that body, an English sovereign would at the end of +a twelvemonth stand penniless and helpless. + +26. Reforms in the Courts; the Toleration Act; the Press made Free. + +The same year (1689) Parliament effected great and sorely needed +reforms in the administration of justice (S492). + +Next, Parliament passed the Toleration Act, 1689 (S496). This measure +granted liberty of worship to all Protestant Dissenters except those +who denied the doctrine of the Trinity.[1] The Toleration Act, +however, did not abolish the Corporation Act or the Test Act[2] +(SS472, 477), and it granted no religious freedom to Catholics.[3] +Still, the Toleration Act was a step forward, and it prepared the way +for that absolute liberty of worship and of religious belief which now +exists in England. + +[1] Freedom of worship was granted to Unitarians in 1812. +[2] The Act of Indemnity of 1727, and passed from year to year, +suspended the penalties of the Test and the Corporation Acts; they +were both repealed in 1828. +[3] Later, the fear that James II might be invited to return led to +the enactment of very severe laws agaisnt the Catholics; and in the +next reign (Anne's) the Act of Occasional Conformity and the Schism +Act were directed against Protestant Dissenters. + +In finance, the reign of William and Mary was marked by the practical +beginning of the permanent National Debt in 1693 and by the +establishment in 1694 of the Bank of England (S503). + +Now, too, 1695, the English press, for the first time in its history, +became, in large measure, free (SS498, 556), though hampered by a very +severe law of libel and by stamp duties.[4] From this period the +influence of newspapers continued to increase, until the final +abolition of the stamp duty (1855) made it possible to issue penny and +even halfpenny papers at a profit. These cheap newspapers sprang at +once into an immense circulation among all classes, and thus they +became the power for good or evil, according to their character, which +they are to-day; so that it would be no exaggeration to say that back +of the power of Parliament now stands the greater power of the press. + +[4] Debates in Parliament could not be reported until 1771 (S556), and +certain Acts (1793, 1799) checked the freedom of the press for a +time. See May's "History of England." + +27. The House of Commons no longer a Representative Body; the First + Two Georges and their Ministers. + +But now that the Revolution of 1688 had done its work, and transferred +the power of the Crown to the House of Commons, a new difficulty +arose. This was the fact that the Commons did not represent the +people, but stood simply as the representative of a small number of +rich Whig landowners.[1] In many towns the right to vote was confined +to the town officers or to the well-to-do citizens. In other cases, +towns which had dwindled in population to a very few inhavitants +continued to have the right to send two members to Parliament, while, +on the other hand, large and flourishing cities had grown up which had +no power to send even a single member (S578). The result of this +state of things was that the wealthy Whig families bought up the votes +of electors, and so regularly controlled the elections (S538). + +[1] The influence of the Whigs had secured the passage of the Act of +Settlement which brought in the Georges; for this reason the Whigs had +gained the chief political power. + +Under the first two Georges, both of whom were foreigners, the +ministers--especially Sir Robert Walpole, who was the first real Prime +Minister of England, and who held his place for twenty years (1721- +1742)--naturally stood in the foreground.[2] They understood the ins +and outs of English politics, while the two German sovereigns, the +first of whom never learned to speak English, neither knew nor cared +anything about them. When men wanted favors or offices, they went to +the ministers for them (S538). This made men like Walpole so powerful +that George II said bitterly, "In England the ministers are king" +(S534). + +[2] See S21 of this Summary. + +28. George III's Revival of "Personal Monarchy"; the "King's Friends." + +George III was born in England, and prided himself on being an +Englishman. He came to the throne fully resolved, as Walpole said, +"to make his power shine out," and to carry out his mother's constant +injunction of, "George, be King!" (S548). To do this, he set himself +to work to trample on the power of the ministers, to take the +distribution of offices and honors out of their hands, and furthermore +to break down the influence of the great Whig families in Parliament. +He had no intention of reforming the House of Commons, or of securing +the representation of the people in it; his purpose was to gain the +control of the House, and use it for his own ends. In this he was +thoroughly conscientious, according to his idea of right,--for he +believed with all his heart in promoting the welfare of England,--but +he thought that welfare depended on the will of the King much more +than on that of the nation. His maxim was "everything for, but +nothing by, the people." By liberal gifts of money,--he spent 25,000 +pounds in a single day (1762) in bribes,[3]--by gifts of offices and +of honors to those who favored him, and by taking away offices, +honors, and pensions from those who opposed him, George III succeeded +in his purpose. He raised up a body of men in Parliament, known by +the significant name of the "King's Friends," who stood ready at all +times to vote for his measures. In this way he actually revived +"personal monarchy"[4] for a time, and by using his "Friends" in the +House of Commons and in the Lords as his tools, he made himself quite +independent of the checks imposed by the Constitution. + +[3] Pitt (Lord Chatham) was one of the few public men of that day who +would neither give nor take a bribe; Walpole declared with entire +truth that the great majority of politicians could be bought,--it was +only a question of price. The King appears to have economized in his +living, in order to get more money to use as a corruption fund. See +May's "Constitutional History." +[4] "Personal monarchy": see S15 of this Summary. + +29. The American Revolution. + +The King's power reached its greatest height between 1770 and 1782. +He made most disastrous use of it, not only at home but abroad. He +insisted that the English colonists in America should pay taxes, +without representation in Parliament, even of that imperfect kind +which then existed in Great Britain. This determination brought on +the American Revolution--called in England the "King's War" (SS549- +552). The war, in spite of its ardent support by the "King's +Friends," roused a powerful opposition in Parliament. Chatham, Burke, +Fox, and other able men protested against the King's arbitrary +course. inally, Dunning moved and carried this resolution (1780) in +the Commons: "Resolved, that the power of the Crown has increased, is +increasing, and ought to be diminished" (S548). This vigorous +proposition came too late to affect the conduct of the war, and +England lost the most valuable of her colonial possessions. The +struggle, which ended successfully for the patriots in America, was in +reality part of the same battle fought in England by other patriots in +the halls of Parliament. On the western side of the Atlantic it +resulted in the establishment of national independence; on the eastern +side, in the final overthrow of royal tyranny and the triumph of the +constitution. It furthermore laid the foundation of that just and +generous policy on the part of England toward Canada and her other +colonies which has made her mistress of the largest and most +prosperous empire on the globe.[1] + +[1] The area of the British Empire in 1911 was nearly 12,000,000 +square miles. + +30. John Wilkes and the Middlesex Elections; Publication of + Parliamentary Debates. + +Meanwhile John Wilkes (S556), a member of the House of Commons, had +gained the recognition of a most important principle. He was a coarse +and violent opponent of the royal policy, and had been expelled from +the House on account of his bitter personal attack on the King.[2] +Several years later (1768) he was reelected to Parliament, but was +again expelled for seditious libel;[3] he was three times reelected by +the people of London and Middlesex, who looked upon him as the +champion of their cause; each time the House refused to permit him to +take his seat, but at the fourth election he was successful. A few +years later (1782) he induced the House to strike out from its journal +the resolution there recorded against him.[4] Thus Wilkes, by his +indomitable persistency, succeeded in establishing the right of the +people to elect the candidate of their choice to Parliament. During +the same period the people gained another great victory over +Parliament. That body had utterly refused to permit the debates to be +reported in the newspaperes. But the redoubtable Wilkes was +determined to obtain and publish such reports; rather than have +another prolonged battle with him, Parliament conceded the privilege +(1771) (S556). The result was that the public then, for the first +time, began to know what business Parliament actually transactaed, and +how it was done. This fact, of course, rendered the members of both +Houses far more directly responsible to the will of the people than +they had ever been before.[1] + +[2] In No. 45 of the _North Briton_ (1763) Wilkes rudely accused the +King of having deliberately uttered a falsehood in his speech to +Parliament. +[3] The libel was contained in a letter written to the newspapers by +Wilkes. +[4] The resolution was finally stricken out, on the ground that it was +"subversive of the rights of the whole body of electors." +[1] The publication of Division Lists (equivalent to Yeas and Nays) by +the House of Commons in 1836 and by the Lords in 1857 completed this +work. Since then the public have known how each member of Parliament +votes on every important question. + +31. The Reform Bills of 1832, 1867, 1884; Demand for "Manhood + Suffrage." + +But notwithstanding this decided political progress, still the +greatest reform of all--that of the system of electing members of +Parliament--still remained to be accomplished. Cromwell had attempted +it (1654), but the Restoration put an end to the work which the +Protector had so wisely begun. Lord Chatham felt the necessity so +strongly that he had not hesitated to declare (1766) that the system +of representation--or rather misrepresentation--which then existed was +the "rotten part of the constitution." "If it does not drop," said he, +"it must be amputated." Later (1770), he became so alarmed at the +prospect that he declared that "before the end of the century either +the Parliament will reform itself from within, or be reformed from +without with a vengeance" (S578). + +But the excitement caused by the French Revolution and the wars with +Napoleon not only prevented any general movement of reform, but made +it possible to enact the Six Acts and other stringent laws against +agitation in that direction (S571). Finally, however, the +unrepresented classes rose in their might (SS580-582), and by terrible +riots made it evident that it would be dangerous for Parliament to +postpone action on their demands. The Reform Bill--the "Great Charter +of 1832"--swept away the "rotten boroughs," which had disgraced the +country. It granted the right of election to many large towns which +had hitherto been unable to send members to Parliament, and it placed +representation on a broader, healthier, and more equuitable basis than +had ever existed before (S582). It was a significant fact that when +the first reformed Parliament met, composed largely of Liberals, it +showed its true spirit by abolishing slavery in the West Indies. It +was followed by the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 (S599). Later +(1848), the Chartists advocated further reforms (S591), most of which +have since been adopted. + +In 1867 an act (S599), scarcely less important than that of 1832, +broadened representation still further; and in 1884 the franchise was +again extended (S599). A little later (1888) the County Council Act +reconstructed the local self-government of the country in great +measure.[2] It was supplemented in 1894 by the Parish Council Act +(S600). The cry is now for unrestricted "manhood suffrage," on the +principle of "one man one vote";[1] woman suffrage in a limited degree +has existed since 1869 (S599). + +[2] The "Local Government" Act: this gives to counties the management +of their local affairs and secures uniformity of method and of +administration. +[1] That is, the abolition of certain franchise privileges springing +from the possession of landed property in different counties or +parliamentary districts by which the owner of such property is +entitled to cast more than one vote for a candidate for Parliament. + +32. Extension of Religious Liberty; Admission of Catholics and Jews to + Parliament, Free Trade. + +Meanwhile immense progress was made in extending the principles of +religious liberty to all bodies of believers. After nearly three +hundred years (or since the Second Act of Supremacy, 1559), Catholics +were admitted in 1829 to the House of Commons (S573);and in the next +generation, 1858, Jews were likewise admitted (S599). The Oaths Act +of 1888 makes it impossible to exclude any one on account of his +religious belief or unbelief (S599). + +Commercially the nation has made equal progress. The barbarous Corn +Laws (SS592, 594) were repealed in 1848, the narrow protective policy +of centuries abandoned; and since that period England has practically +taken its stand on unlimited free trade with all countries. + +33. Condition of Ireland; Reform in the Land and the Church Laws; + Civil-Service Reform; Education. + +In one direction, however, there had been no advance. Following the +example of Scotland (S513), Ireland was politically united to Great +Britain (S562); at the beginning of the century when the first +Imperial Parliament met (1801), but long after the Irish Catholics had +obtained the right of representation in Parliament, they were +compelled to submit to unjust land laws, and also to contribute to the +support of the Established (Protestant) Church in Ireland. Finally, +through the efforts of Mr. Gladstone and others, this branch of the +Church was disestablished (1869) (S601); later (1870, 1881, 1903), +important reforms were effected in th eIrish land laws (SS603, 605, +620). + +To supplement the great electoral reforms which had so widely extended +the power of the popular vote, two other measures were now carried. +One was that of Civil-Service Reform, 1870, which opened all +clerkships and similar positions in the gift of the government to the +free competition of candidates, without regard to their political +opinions (S609). This did away with most of that demoralizing system +of favoritism which makes government offices the spoils by which +successful political parties reward "little men for little services." +The "secret ballot," another measure of great importance, followed +(1872) (S609). + +The same year, 1870, England, chiefly through Mr. Forster's efforts, +took up the second measure, the question of national education. The +conviction gained ground that if the working classes are to vote, then +they must not be allowed to remain in ignorance; the nation declared +"we must educate our future masters." In this spirit a system of +elementary government schools was established, which gives instruction +to tens of thousands of children who hitherto were forced to grow up +without its advantages (S602). These schools are not yet entirely +free, although the legislation of 1891-1894 practically puts most of +them on that basis. + +England now has a strong and broad foundation of national education +and of political suffrage. + +34. Imperial Federation; Labor enters Parliament; Old Age Pensions; + Budget of 1910; Veto Power of the Lords. + +The defeat of the Boers in the Great Boer War (1899-1902) led to the +completion of the scheme of Imperial Federation, by the establishment +of the Union of South Africa (1910) as the fourth of the self- +governing colonies, of which Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are +the other three. + +In 1906, in the reign of Edward VII, organized Labor secured for the +first time adequate representation in Parliament, through the +overwhelming victory gained at the elections by the combined Liberal +and Labor parties (S628). The "Laborites," as they are popularly +called, claim that their influence obtained the passage of the Old Age +Pensions Act of 1908. + +Two years later the Liberal Government compelled the Lords to accept a +Budget calling for an enormous increase of taxes imposed in large +measure on land and incomes and levied partly for the purpose of +paying the new pensions (SS629, 630). + +The death of Edward VII, in the spring of 1910, brought George V to +the throne. He came at a critical time. Mr. Asquith, the Liberal +Prime Minister, was then demanding that the veto power of the House of +Lords should be limited or practically abolished so that in future the +House of Commons should be distinctly recognized as the dominant +factor in the government (S631). + +In the summer of 1911 Mr. Asquith succeeded in passing his Veto Bill +restricting the power of the House of Lords, and making it impossible +for that body to resist any measures the Commons should resolutely +resolve to carry. He also passed the Salary Bill, by which members of +the House of Commons are paid 400 pounds annually. Later, in 1911, he +passed the Workmen's Compulsory Insurance Bill against sickness and +unemployment. The worker contributes a small sum weekly, his employer +does the same, and the Government gives the rest. The law applies to +many millions of people and it is expected to do great good. + +These facts show that while England remains a monarchy in name, it has +now become a republic in fact. A sovereign reigns, but the People +rule. The future is in their hands. + + CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENTS + +Abstract of the Articles of Magna Carta, 1215. + +1. "The Church of England shall be free, and have her whole rights, +and her liberties inviolable." The freedom of elections of +ecclesiastics by the Church is confirmed. 2-8. Feudal rights +guaranteed, and abuses remedied. 9-11. Treatment of debtorrs +alleviated. 12. "No scutage or aid [except the three customary feudal +aids] shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless by the Common Council of +the realm."[1] 13. London, and all towns, to have their ancient +liberties. 14. The King binds himself to summon the Common Council of +the realm respecting the assessing of an aid (except as provided in +12) or a scutage.[1] 15, 16. Guarantee of feudal rights to tenants. +17-19. Provisions respecting holding certain courts. 20, 21. Of +amercements. They are to be proportionate to the offence, and imposed +according to the oath of honest men in the neighborhood. No +amercement to touch the necessary means of subsistence of a free man, +the merchandise of a merchant, or the agricultural tools of a villein; +earls and barons to be amerced by their equals. 23-34. Miscellaneous, +minor articles. 35. Weights and measures to be uniform. 36. Nothing +shall be given or taken, for the future, for the Writ of Inquisition +of life or limb, but it shall be freely granted, and not denied.[2] +37, 38. Provisions respecting land-tenure and trials at law. 39. "NO +FREEMAN SHALL BE TAKEN OR IMPRISONED, OR DISSEIZED, OR OUTLAWED, OR +BANISHED, OR ANY WAYS DESTROYED, NOR WILL WE PASS UPON HIM, NOR WILL +WE SEND UPON HIM, UNLESS BY THE LAWFUL JUDGMENT OF HIS PEERS, OR BY +THE LAW OF THE LAND." 40. "WE WILL SELL TO NO MAN, WE WILL NOT DENY TO +ANY MAN, EITHER JUSTICE OR RIGHT." 41, 42. Provisions respecting +merchants, and freedom of entering and quitting the realm, except in +war time. 43-46. Minor provisions. 47, 48. Provisions disafforesting +all forests seized by John, and guaranteeing forest rights to +subjects. 49-60. Various minor provisions. 62. Provision for +carrying out the charter by the barons in case the King fails in the +performance of his agreement. 63. The freedom of the Church +reaffirmed. Every one in the kingdom to have and hold his liberties +and rights. + +"Given under our hand, in the presence of the witnesses above named, +and many others, in the meadow called Runnymede between Windsor and +Stains, the 15th day of June, in the 17th of our reign." [Here is +appended the King's seal.] + +[1] These important articles were omitted when Magna Carta was +reissued in 1216 by Henry III. Stubbs says they were never restored: +but Edward I, in his Confirmation of the Charters, seems to reaffirm +them. See the Confirmation; see also Gneist's "English Constitution," +II, 9. +[2] This article is regarded by some authorities as the prototype of +the statute of Habeas Corpus; others consider that it is implied in +Articles 39-40. + +Confirmation of the Charters by Edward I, 1297. + +In 1297 Edward I confirmed Magna Carta and the Forest Charter granted +by Henry III in 1217 by letters patent. The document consists of +sevent articles, of which the following, namely, the sixth and +seventh, are the most important. + +6. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs, as well to +archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church, +as also to eaarls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, that +*for no business from henceforth will we take such manner of aids, +tasks, nor prises but by the common consent of the realm,* and for the +common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and +accustomed. + +7. And for so much as the more part of the commonalty of the realm +find themselves sore grieved with the maletote [i.e. an unjust tax or +duty] of wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every +sack of wool, and have made petition to us to release the same; we, at +their requests, have clearly released it, and have granted for us and +our heirs that we shall not take such thing nor any other without +their common assent and good will; saving to us and our heirs the +custom of wools, skins, and leather, granted before by the commonalty +aforesaid. In witness of which things we have caused these our +letters to be made patents. Witness Edward our son, at London, the +10th day of October, the five-and-twentieth of our reign. + +And be it remembered that this same Charter, in the same terms, word +for word, was sealed in Flanders under the King's Great Seal, that is +to say, at Ghent, the 5th day of November, in the 25th year of the +reign of our aforesaid Lord the King, and sent into England. + + THE PETITION OF RIGHT + + June 7, 1628 + +The Petition exhibited to His Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and +Temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, concerning +divers Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, with the King's Majesty's +Royal Answer thereunto in full. Parliament. + +TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY: Humbly show unto our Sovereign +Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in +Parliament assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by a +statute made in the time of the reign of King Edward the First, +commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo,[1] that no +tallage [here, a tax levied by the King upon the lands of the crown, +and upon all royal towns] or aid shall be laid or levied by the King +or his heirs in this realm, without the goodwill and assent of the +Archbishops, Bishops, Earls, Barons, Knights, Burgesses, and other the +freemen of the commonalty of this realm: and by authority of +Parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the reign of King +Edward the Third, it is declared and enacted, that from henceforth no +person shall be compelled to make any loans to the King against his +will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the +land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should +be charged by any charge or imposition, called a Benevolence, or by +such like charge, by which the statutes before-mentioned, and other +the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited +this freedom, that they shuld not be compelled to contribute to any +tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge, not set by common consent in +Parliament. + +[1] A statute concerning tallage not granted by Parliament. This is +now held not to have been a statute. See Gardiner's "Documents of the +Puritan Revolution," p. 1. It is considered by Stubbs an unauthorized +and imperfect abstract of Edward I's Confirmation of the Charters-- +which see. + +Yet nevertheless, of late divers commissions directed to sundry +Commissioners in several counties with instructions have issued; by +means whereof your people have been in divers places assembled, and +required to lend certain sums of money unto your Majesty, and many of +them upon their refusal so to do, have had an oath administered unto +them, not warrantable by the laws or statutes of this realm, and have +been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give +attendance before your Privy Council, and in other places, and others +of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other +ways molested and disquieted: and divers other charges have been laid +and levied upon your people in several counties, by Lords Lieutenants, +Deputy Lieutenants, Commissioners for Musters, Justices of Peace and +others, by command or direction from your Majesty or your Privy +Council, against the laws and free customs of this realm: + +And where also by the statute called, "The Great Charter of the +Liberties of England," it is declared and enacted, that no freeman may +be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his freeholds or liberties, +or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled; or in any manner +destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of +the land: + +And in the eighth and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the +Third, it was declared and enacted by authority of Parliament, that no +man of what estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his +lands or tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disenherited, nor +put to death, without being brought to answer by due process of law: + +Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the +good laws and statutes of your realm, to that end provided, divers of +your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause showed, +and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Justices, +by your Majesty's writs of Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive +as the Court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the +causes of their detainer; no cause was certified, but that they were +detained by your Majesty's special command, signified by the Lords of +your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to several prisons, +without being charged with anything to which they might make answer +according to law: + +And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been +dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants +against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their +houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against the laws and +customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the +people: + +And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been +dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants +against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their +houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against the laws and +customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the +people: + +And whereas also by authority of Parliament, in the 25th year of the +reign of King Edward the Third, it is declared and enacted, that no +man shall be forejudged of life or limb against the form of the Great +Charter, and the law of the land: and by the said Great Charter and +other the laws and statutes of this your realm, no man ought to be +adjudged to death; but by the laws established in this your realm, +either by the customs of the same realm or by Acts of Parliament: and +whereas no offender of what kind soever is exempted from the +proceedings to be used, and punishments to be inflicted by th elaws +and statutes of this your realm; nevertheless of late divers +commissions under your Majesty's Great Seal have issued forth, by +which certain persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners +with power and authority to proceed within the land, according to the +justice of martial law against such soldiers and mariners, or other +dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit any murder, +robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever, +and by such summary course and order, as is agreeable to martial law, +and is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to the trial and +condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to be executed and +put to death, according to the law martial: + +By pretext whereof, some of your Majesty's subjects have been by some +of the said Commissioners put to death, when and where, if by the laws +and statutes of the land they had deserved death, by the same laws and +statutes also they might, and by no other ought to have been, adjudged +and executed. + +And also sundry grievous offenders by colour thereof, claiming an +exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by the laws and +statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of your officers +and ministers of justice have unjustly refused, or forborne to proceed +against such offenders according to the same laws and statutes, upon +pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by martial law, +and by authority of such commissions as aforesaid, which commissions, +and all other of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the +said laws and statutes of this your realm: + +They do therefore humbly pray your Most Excellent Majesty, 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; +and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or to give +attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted +concerning the same, or for refusal thereof; and that no freeman, in +any such manner as is before-mentioned, be imprisoned or detained; and +that your Majesty will be pleased to remove the said soldiers and +mariners, and that your people may not be so burdened in time to come; +and that the foresaid commissions for proceeding by martial law may be +revoked and annulled; and that hereafter no commissions of like nature +may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever, to be executed as +aforesaid, lest by colour of them any of your Majesty's subjects be +destroyed or put to death, contrary to the laws and franchise of the +land. + +All which they most humbly pray of your Most Excellent Majesty, as +their rights and liberties according to the laws and statutes of this +realm: and that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare, that the +awards, doings, and proceedings to the prejudice of your people, in +any of the premises, shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence or +example: and that your Majesty would be also graciously pleased, for +the further comfort and safety of your people, to declare your royal +will and pleasure, that in the things aforesaid all your officers and +ministers shall serve you, according to the laws and statutes of this +realm, as they tender the honour of your Majesty, and the prosperity +of this kingdom. + +[Which Petition being read the 2d of June, 1628, th eKing gave the +following evasive and unsatisfactory answer, instead of the usual one, +given below.] + +The King willeth that right be done according to the laws and customs +of the realm: and that the statutes be put in due execution, that his +subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or oppressions, +contrary to their just rights and liberties, to the preservation +whereof he holds himself as well obliged as of his prerogative. + +On June 7 the King decided to make answer in the accustomed form, Soit +droit fait comme est desir'e. [Equivalent to the form of royal assent, +"Le roi (or la reine) le veult," meaning "the King grants it." On the +Petition of Right, see Hallam and compare Gardiner's "England"; and +his "Documents of the Puritan Revolution."] + +The Bill of Rights, 1689. + +This Bill consists of thirteen Articles, of which the following is an +abstract. It begins by stating that "Whereas the late King James II, +by the advice of divers evil counsellors, judges, and ministers +employed by him, did endeavor to subvert and extirpate the Protestant +religion, and the laws and liberties of this kingdom:" 1. By +dispensing with and suspending the laws without consent of Parliament. +2. By prosecuting worthy bishops for humbly petitioning him to be +excused for concurring in the same assumed power. 3. By erecting a +High Commission Court. 4. By levying money without consent of +Parliament. 5. By keeping a standing army in time of peace without +consent of Parliament. 6. By disarming Protestants and arming Papists. +7. By violating the freedom of elections. 8. By arbitrary and illegal +prosecutions. 9. By putting corrupt and unqualified persons on juries. +10. By requiring excessive bail. 11. By imposing excessive fines and +cruel punishments. 12. By granting fines and forfeiture against +persons before their conviction. + +It is then declared that "the late King James the Second having +abdicated the government, and the throne being thereby vacant," +therefore the Prince of Orange ("whom it hath pleased Almighty God to +make the glorious instrument of delivering their kingdom from Popery +and arbitrary power") did by the advice of "the Lords Spiritual and +Temporal, and divers principal persons of the Commons "summon a +Convention Parliament." + +This Convention Parliament declares, that the acts above enumerated +are contrary to the law. They then bestow the Crown on William and +Mary--the sole regal power to be vested only in the Prince of Orange-- +and provide that after the decease of William and Mary the Crown shall +descend "to the heirs of the body of the said Princess; and, for +default of such issue, to the Princess Anne of Denmark[1] and the +heirs of her body; and for default of such issue, to the heirs of the +body of the said Prince of Orange." + +[1] The Princess Anne, sister of the Princess Mary, married Prince +George of Denmark in 1683; hence she is here styled "the Princess of +Denmark." + +Here follow new oaths of allegiance and supremacy in lieu of those +formerly required. + +The subsequent articles are as follows: IV. Recites the acceptance of +the Crown by William and Mary. V. The Convention Parliament to provide +for "the settlement of the religion, laws, and liberties of the +Kingdom." VI. All the clauses in the Bill of Rights are "the true, +ancient, and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this +Kingdom." VII. Recognition and declaration of William and Mary as King +and Queen. VIII. Repetition of the settlement of the Crown and +limitations of the succession. IX. Exclusion from the Crown of all +persons holding communion with the "Church of Rome" or who "profess +the Popish religion" or who "shall marry a Papist." X. Every King or +Queen hereafter succeeding to the Crown to assent to the Act +[i.e. Disabling Act of 1678 (S478)] "disabling Papists from sitting in +either House of Parliament." XI. The King and Queen assent to all the +articles of the Bill of Rights. XII. The Dispensing Power (S488, +note 1) abolished. XIII. Exception made in favor of charters, grants, +and pardons made before October 23, 1689. + +The Act of Settlement, 1700-1701.[2] + +Excludes Roman Catholics from succession to the Crown; and declares +that if a Roman Catholic obtains th eCrown, "the people of these +realms shall be and are thereby absolved of their allegiance." Settles +the Crown on the Electress Sophia,[3] and "the heirs of her body being +Protestants." Requires the sovereign to join in communion with the +Church of England. No war to be undertaken in defence of any +territories not belonging to the English Crown except with the consent +of Parliament. Judges to hold their office during good behavior. No +pardon by the Crown to be pleadable against an impeachment by the +House of Commons (S488). + +[2] This act, says Taswell-Langmead, is "the Title Deed of the +reigning Dynasty, and a veritable original contract between the Crown +and the People." +[3] The Electress Sophia was the granddaughter of James I: she married +the Elector of Hanover, and became mother of George I. See +genealogical table of Descent of the English Sovereigns in the +Appendix. + + MISCELLANEOUS ACTS AND LAWS + +I. The Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164. + +These measures (S165), says Bishop Stubbs, were "really a part of a +great scheme of administrative reform." They were drawn up by a +committee of bishops and barons, with the Justiciar or Chief Minister +at the head. The object of the Constitutions was "to assert the +supremacy of the State over clergy and laity alike." They limited the +jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts; they established a more +uniform system of justice; and, in certain cases, they provided for a +kind of jury trial (see Stubb's "Constitutional History," I, 525; or, +for a brief abstract of the Constitutions, see Acland and Ransome's +"Political History," p. 24). + +II. Bill of Attainder, 1321. + +This was a bill (first used apparently in 1321) passed by Parliament, +which might in itself decree sentence of death (SS351, 356). +Originally, the blood of a person held to be convicted of treason or +felony was declared to be *attainted* or corrupted so that his power +to inherit, transmit, or hold property was destroyed. After +Henry VIII's reign the law was modified so as not to work "corruption +of blood" in the case of new felonies. Under the Stuarts, Bills of +Attainder were generally brought only in cases where the Commons +believed that impeachment would fail,--as in the cases of Strafford +and Laud. It should be noticed that in an Impeachment the Commons +bring the accusation, and the Lords act as judges; but that in a Bill +of Attainder the Commons--that is, the accusers--themselves act as +judges, as well as the Lords. + +III. The Great Statutes of Praemunire, 1393. + +This statute, (first passed in 1353) was reenacted in 1393 to check +the power claimed by the Pope in England in cases which interfered +with power claimed by the King, as in appeals made to the Court of +Rome respecting Church matters, over which the King's court had +jurisdiction. The statute received its name from th ewrit served on +the party who had broken the law: "Praemunire facias, A.B."; that is, +"Cause A.B. to be forewarned" that he appear before us to answer the +contempt with which he stands charged. Henry VIII made use of this +statute in order to compel the clergy to accept his supremacy over the +English Church (SS265, 346, 348). + +IV. Habeas Corpus Act, 1679. + +The name of this celebrated statute is derived from its referring to +the opening words of the writ: "Habeas Corpus ad subjiciendum." +Sir James Mackintosh declares that the essence of the statute is +contained in clauses 39, 40 of Magna Carta--which see. The right to +Habeas Corpus was conceded by the Petition of Right and also by the +Statute of 1640. But in order to better secure the liberty of the +subject and for prevention of imprisonments beyond the seas, the +Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 was enacted, regulating the issue and return +of writs of Habeas Corpus. + +The principal provisions of the Act are: 1. Jailers (except in cases +of commitment for treason or felony) must within three days of the +reception of the writ produce the prisoner in court, unless the court +is at a distance, when the time may be extended to twenty days at the +most. 2. A jailer, refusing ot do this, forfeits 100 pounds for the +first offence, and 200 pounds for the second. 3. No one set at liberty +upon any Habeas Corpus to be recommitted for the same offsense except +by the court having jurisdiction of the case. 4. The Act not to apply +to cases of debt. + +V. Abstract of the Parliament Act (or Veto Act, S631), + 18th August, 1911. + +The Preamble states that "it is intended to substitute for the House +of Lords, as it at present exists, a Second Chamber *constituted on a +popular instead of hereditary basis,* but such substitution cannot be +immediately brought into operation": therefore "it is expedient oto +make such provision as in this Act appears for restricting the +existing powers of the House of Lords" (i.e. the power of the Lords to +veto bills sent them by the Commons). + +1. If a Money Bill--that is, a Public Bill concerning taxation or the +appropriation of money or the raising of a loan, etc.--shall be passed +byy the House of Commons, but shall not be passed by the House of +Lords, within one month, then it shall become law without the consent +of the Lords. + +2. If any Public Bill (other than a Money Bill or a bill providing for +the extension of the maximum duration of Parliament beyond five years) +shall be passed by the House of Commons in three successive sessions +(whether of the same Parliament or not) and shall be rejected by the +House of Lords in each of those sessions, "that Bill shall on its +rejection for the third time by the House of Lords, unless the House +of Commons direct to the contrary, become an Act of Parliament, +without the consent of the Lords, provided that two years have elapsed +since the Bill was introduced and passed by the House of Commons." + +7. Five years shall be substituted for seven years as the time fixed +for the maximum duration of Parliament under the Septennial Act of +1715[1] (S535). + +See "The Public General Statutes," of Great Britain and Ireland, for +1911; Chapter 13, pp. 38-40. + +[1] This date is usually given 1716. + +VI. William the Conqueror's Charter to London (S107). + +"William, the King, greets William the Bishop, and Gosfrith the +Port-reeve [or chief officer of the city] and all the burghers [or +citizens] within London, French and English, friendly: and I do you to +wit that I will that ye twain be worthy of all the law that ye were +worthy of in King Edward's day. And I will not endure that any man +offer any wrong to you. God keep you." + +Taswell-Langmead's "English Constitutional History," Chapter 1, p.18. +E.A. Freeman, in his "Norman Conquest," IV, 29, says that William +signed this charter with a cross (in addition to his seal, which was +attached to the document), but Dr. R.R. Sharpe, in his "History of +London and the Kingdom," I, 34, note 1, states that "this appears to +be a mistake." Dr. Sharpe is the "Records Clerk" of the City, and he +shows that there is no trace of any cross on the charter, which is now +preserved in Guildhall Library, London. + + + DESCENT OF THE ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS FROM EGBERT TO GEORGE V* + +1. Egbert (descended from Cerdic, 495), first "King of the English," + H 828-837 +2. Ethelwulf, 837-858 + H + H================================================= + H H H H +3. Ethelbald, 4. Ethelbert, 5. Ethelred I, 6. Alfred, + 858-860 860-866 866-871 871-901 + H + =======================*=============== + H * * + 7. Edward I, 901-925 15. Sweyn, the Dane, 1013 + H | + ========================== \________ + H H H \ +8.Ethelstan 9. Edmund 10. Edred, 17. Canute, + 925-940 940-946 946-955 1017-1035 + H | + ============ ------------------------- + H H | * | +11. Edwin, 12. Edgar 18. Harold * * 19. Hardicanute + 955-959 959-975 1035-1040 Richard I 1040-1042 + H Duke of Normandy + H H + ================*============= H============== + H * * H H H +13.Edward II Elgiva, ? m. 14. Ethelred II, m. (2) Emma Richard II, + 975-979 H 979-1016 H * Duke of + 16. Edmund II =================H* * Normandy + (Ironside), H Godwin, Earl H + 1016-1016 20. Edward III, of Kent H + H the Confessor, H H + Edgar Atheling, 1042-1066, second ______H H + grandson of Edward II cousin of William | H H + [should have succeeded the Conqueror, m. Edith H H + Harold II (No. 21)] H H + 21. Harold II, H +----------------------------- 1066-1066, slain H + * This sign shows that the| at Hastings, 1066 H +* * person over whose name | H +it stands was not in the | Robert, Duke of Normandy +direct line of descent. | H +----------------------------- THE NORMAN KINGS 22. William the Conqueror + 1066-1087, second cousin of + Edward the Confessor (No. 20) + m. Matilda of Flanders, + a direct descendant of + Alfred the Great, (No. 6) + H + ================================== + H H H + 23. William II, +24. Henry I, Adela + 1087-1100 1100-1135 H + H 25. Stephen + Maud, or of Blois, + Matilda, m. 1135-1154 + (2) Geoffrey + Plantagenet, + Count of Anjou + H + THE HOUSE OF ANJOU ++Henry II, 1154-1189 + H + =================================== + H H H + 27. Richard I Geoffrey 28. John (Lackland), + (Coeur de Lion), H 1199-1216 + 1189-1199 Arthur, murdered H + by John? 29. Henry III, + 1216-1272 + H + ================================================= +30. Edward I, 1272-1307 + H ----------------------------------------------- +31. Edward II, 1307-1327 | * The heavy lines indicate the Saxon or Early + H | Norman sovereigns with their successors. +32. Edward III, 1327-1377 | + Henry I (No 24) m. Matilda of Scotland, a + H | descendant of Edmund II (Ironside) (No 16). + H |++ Henry II m. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the + H | divorced queen of France, thereby acquiring + H | large possessions in Southern France. + H ----------------------------------------------- + H + ============================================================= + H | H H +Edward, the Lionel, Duke John of Gaunt Edmund Langley +Black Prince of Clarence Duke of Lancaster Duke of York + H | H------------------ H +33. Richard Philippa, m. HOUSE OF LANCASTER | H +II, 1377-1399 Edmund Mortimer 34. Henry IV, 1399- John Richard, + | H 1413 Beaufort Earl of + ------------------ 35. Henry V, Earl of Cambridge, + | 1413-1422, m. _*_ _Somerset++ _m. Anne + |-------------- Catharine of / * * | Mortimer. + | | Valois, who m. (2)Owen John Beau- (See + +Edmund Mortimer Anne H / Tudor fort, Duke dotted + Mortimer, m. - - -H- - - - H of Somer- line) + 36. Henry VI, Edmund set H +_______________________ 1422-1462, m. Tudor, | Richard, Duke +*Richard II, before he| Margaret of Earl of | of York, d. 1460 +was deposed, had named| Anjou Richmond, m. Margaret H +Roger Mortimer as his | H H Beaufort. ========= +successor, but Roger | Edward H HOUSE OF YORK +died before the King | Prince of Wales H 37. Edward 39. Rich- ++Edmund Mortimer, son | m. (?) Anne Neville H IV, 1461- ard III, +of Roger Mortimer, | who later m. Richard H 1483 1483-1485 +stood in the order of | H H m. Anne +succession after Rich-| H ============ Neville** +ard II, but his claim | HOUSE OF TUDOR H H +was not allowed. He | 40. Henry VII, m. Elizabeth 38. Edward V +died 1424. | ++1485-1509 of York (murdered in + H the Tower by + =================================---------------- Richard III?), + H H | 1483-1483 +41. Henry VIII, 1509-1547, Margaret Tudor, Mary, m. +m. (1) Catharine of Aragon, (2) m. James (Stuart) Charles Brandon +Anne Boleyn, (3) Jane Seymour, IV, King of Scoland Duke of Suffolk +(4) Anne of Cleves, (5) Catharine H | +Howard, (6) Catherine Parr James (Stuart) V Frances Brandon, + H H m. Henry Grey, Duke of + ======================= &Mary Queen of Suffolk + H H H Scots, beheaded, 1587 | +43. Mary (d. 44. Eliza- 42. Edward H Lady Jane Grey +of 1), 1553-1558, beth (d. VI (s. of H (m. Lord Dudley), +m. Philip II of 2), 1558- 3),1558- H beheaded, 1554 + of Spain 1603 1553 H + H + HOUSE OF STUART 45. James (Stuart) I + of England + 1603-1625 + H + =============================================== + H H + 46. Charles I, Elizabeth, m. Frederick, Elector-Palatine + 1625-1649++ H + H Sophia, m. the Elector of Hanover + =============================== H + H H H HOUSE OF HANOVER +47. Charles II, 48. James II, Mary, m. William 51. George, Elector of + 1660-1685 1685-1688 II of Orange Hanover, became George I + H H of England, 1714-1727 + ======================= 49. William III H + H H H of Orange, became 52. George II, 1727- +49. Mary, 50. Anne, James William III of 1760 +m. William 1702-1714 (the Old England, 1689- H +III of Or- Pretender), 1702 Frederick, Prince of Wales +ange, afterward b. 1688, (died before coming to the throne) +William III of d. 1765 H + England | 53. George III, 1760-1820 + Charles, (the Young H + Pretender), b.1720, d.1788 =============================== + H H H + 54. George IV, 55. William IV, Edward, + 1820-1830 1830-1837 Duke of Kent, +_________________________________________________ d. 1820 +++Henry VII (called Henry of Richmond and Henry | H +of Lancaster): by his marriage with Elizabeth | 56. Victoria, +of York, the rival claims of the houses of | 1837-1901 +Lancaster and York were settled and the house of| H +Tudor began. | 57. Edward VII, +& Mary Queen of Scots stood next in order of | 1901-1910 +succession after Mary (No. 43), provided Henry |_________ H +VIII's marriage with Catharine, or his marriage with | 58. George V, +Catharine of Aragon (Mary's mother) was not held to have | 1910- +been dissolved. The Pope never recognized Henry's | +divorce from Catharine, or his marriage with Anne Boleyn,| +and therefore supported Mary Queen of Scots in her claim | +to the English crown after Mary's (43) death in 1558. | +** Richard III (No. 39) married Anne Neville, widow (?) | +of Edward, Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI), slain at | +Tewkesbury. | +++ Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 | + + +A CLASSIFIED LIST OF BOOKS OF ENGLISH HISTORY + +[The * marks contemporary or early history] + +N.B. A selected list of twenty-eight works, especially adapted to the +use of teachers and pupils for reference and collateral reading, is +given on this first page. It includes names of publishers with +prices. + +General Histories + +Oman, C. History of England (earliest times to the present). + 7 vols. Putnam's Sons, N.Y. ($3.00 per vol.). +Gardiner, S.R. A Student's History of England, illustrated, + 3 vols. Longmans, N.Y. ($3.50); or bound in one very thick + volume ($3.00). +Tout, T.F. History of England, 1 vol. Longmans, N.Y. ($1.50). +Gardiner, S.R. English History. Holt, N.Y. (80 cents). (For young + folks.) +Smith, Goldwin. The United Kingdom, a Political History, 2 vols. + The Macmillan Company, N.Y. ($4.00). +Bright, J.F. History of England, 4 vols. Longmans, N.Y. ($6.75). +Green, J.R. A Short History of the English People, 1 vol. Harper & + Bros., N.Y. ($2.00); the same beautifully illustrated, 4 + vols. ($20.00). +Brewer, J.S. The Student's Hume, 1 vol. Murray, London (7s 6d). +Creighton, M. Epochs of English History, 6 small vols. in + one. Longmans, N.Y. ($1.25). +Knight, C. The Popular History of England, 9 vols., + illustrated. Warne, London (5 pounds 3s.). + +English Constitutional History + +Ransome, C. Rise of Constitutional Government in England, + 1 vol. Longmans, N.Y. ($2.00). (An excellent short + constitutional history.) +Taswell-Langmead, T.P. English Constitutional Histry, new and revised + edition, 1 vol. Stevens & Haynes, London ($3.12). (This is the + best complete constitutional history of England.) +Feilden, H.St.C. A Short Constitutional History of England (revised + edition), 1 vol. Ginn and Company, Boston ($1.25). (This is a + reference manual of exceptional value.) + +General Works of Reference + +Cannon, H.L. Reading References for English History, 1 vol. Ginn and + Company, Boston ($2.50). (This is a work practically + indispensible to both teachers and students. See further, + p. xl.) +Low and Pulling. Dictionary of English History (revised edition), 1 + vol. Cassell, N.Y. ($3.50). +Gardiner, S.R. A School Atlas of English History, 1 vol. Longmans, + N.Y. ($1.50). +Lee, G.C. Source-Book of English History (giving leading documents, + etc.), 1 vol. Holt & Co., N.Y. ($2.00). +Cheyney, E.P. Readings in English History, 1 vol. Ginn and Company, + Boston ($1.80). +Kendall, E.K. Source-Book of English History, 1 vol. The Macmillan + Company, N.Y. (80 cents). +Acland and Ransome. English Political History in Outline. Longmans, + N.Y. ($1.25). (Excellent for reference.) +Powell, J. York. English History from Contemporary Writers, 16 + vols. Nutt & Co., London (1s. per vol.) (A series of great + value.) +Cheyney, E.P. Industrial and Social History of England, 1 vol. The + Macmillan Company, N.Y. ($1.40). +Gibbins, H. de B. An Industrial History of England, 1 vol Scribner's, + N.Y. ($1.20). +Cunningham and MacArthur. Outlines of English Industrial History. The + Macmillan Company, N.Y. ($1.50). +Church, A.J. Early Britain. (Story of the Nations Series.) Putnams, + N.Y. ($1.50). +Story, A.T. The Building of the British Empire, 2 vols. Putnams, + N.Y. ($3.00). +McCarthy, J. The Story of the People of England in the XIXth Century, + 2 vols. Putnams, N.Y. ($3.00). + +----- + +Works of Reference to be found in Libraries + +Hunt, W., and Poole, R.L. Political History of England (earliest times + to the present). 12 vols. +Traill, H.D. Social England, 6 vols. +The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 29 vols. +Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 10 vols. +Nelson's Encyclopaedia, 12 vols. +The International Encyclopaedia, 17 vols. +The New Encyclopaedia Americana, 15 vols. +The Catholic Encyclopaedia, 15 vols. +The Jewish Encyclopaedia, 12 vols. +Stephen, L. Dictionary of National [British] Biography, 66 vols. + (A work of the highest rank.) +Adams's Manual of Historical Literature. +Mullinger's Authorities on English History. +Bailey's Succession to the Crown (with full genealogical tables). +Henderson's Side Lights on English History. +Poole's Index to Reviews. + +I. The Prehistoric Period + +Dawkin's's Early Man in Britain. +Wright's The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. +Elton's Origins of English History. +Rhys's Celtic Britain. +Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicle (legendary). +Geike's Influence of Geology on English History, in + Macmillan's Magazine, 1882. + +II. The Roman Period, 55, 54 B.C.; A.D. 43-410 + +*Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War + (Books IV and V, chiefly 55, 54 B.C.) +*Tacitus' Agricola and Annals (chiefly from 78-84). +*Gildas' History of Britain (whole period). +*Bede's Ecclesiastical History of Britain (whole period). +Wright's The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. +Elton's Origins of English History. +Pearson's England during the Early and Middle Ages. +Scarth's Roman Britain.[1] + +[1] The best short history. + +III. The Saxon or Early English Period, 449-1066 + +*The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (whole period). +*Gildas' History of Britain (Roman Conquest to 560). +*Bede's Ecclesiastical History of Britain (earliest times to 731). +*Nennius' History of Britain (earliest times to 642). +*Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicle (legendary) (earliest times to 689). +*Asser's Life of Alfred the Great. +Elton's Origins of English History. +Pauli's Life of Alfred. +Green's Making of England. +Green's Conquest of England. +Freeman's Norman Conquest, Vols. I-II. +Pearson's History of England during the Early and Middle Ages. +Freeman's Origin of the English Nation. +Stubbs's Constitutional History of England. +Taine's History of English Literature. +Church's Beginning of the Middle Ages. +Armitage's Childhood of the English Nation.[2] +Freeman's Early English History.[2] + +[2] The two best short histories. + +IV. The Norman Period 1066-1154 + +*The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough continuation) (whole period) +*Ordericus Vitalis' Ecclesiastical History (to 1141). +*Wace's Roman de Rou (Taylor's translation) (to 1106). +*Bruce's Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated (with plates). +*William of Malmesbury's Chronicle (to 1142). +*Roger of Hoveden's Chronicle (whole period). +Freeman's Norman Conquest. +Church's Life of Anselm. +Taine's History of English Literature. +Stubbs's Constitutional History of England. +Freeman's Short History of the Norman Conquest.[3] +Armitage's Childhood of the English Nation.[3] +Johnson's Normans in Europe.[3] +Creighton's England a Continental Power.[3] + +[3] The four best short histories. + +V. The Angevin Period, 1154-1399 + +*Matthew Paris's Chronicle (1067-1253). +*Richard of Devizes's Chronicle (1189-1192). +*Froissart's Chronicles (1325-1400). +*Jocelin of Brakelonde's Chronicle (1173-1102) (see Carlyle's Past and + Present, Book II). +Norgate's Angevin Kings. +Taine's History of English Literature. +Anstey's William of Wykeham. +Pearson's England in the Early and Middle Ages. +Maurice's Stephen Langton. +Creighton's Life of Simon de Montfort. +Stubbs's Constitutional History of England. +Gairdner and Spedding's Studies in English History (the Lollards). +Blade's Life of Caxton. +Seebohm's Essay on the Black Death, in Fortnightly Review, 1865. +Maurice's Wat Tyler, Ball, and Oldcastle. +Gibbins's English Social Reformers (Langland and John Ball). +Buddensieg's Life of Wiclif. +J. York Powell's History of England. +Burrows's Wicklif's Place in History. +Pauli's Pictures of Old England. +Stubbs's Early Plantagenets.[1] +Rowley's Rise of the People.[1] +Warburton's Edward III.[1] +Shakespeare's John and Richard (Hudson's edition). +Scott's Ivanhoe and The Talisman (Richard I and John). + +[1] The three best short histories. + +VI. The Lancastrian Period, 1399-1461 + +*The Paston Letters (Gairdner's edition) (1424-1506). +*Fortescue's Governance of England (Plummer's edition) (1460?). +*Hall's Chronicle (1398-1509). +Brougham's England under the House of Lancaster. +Besant's Life of Sir Richard Whittington. +Taine's English Literature. +Rand's Chaucer's England. +Stubbs's Constitutional History of England. +Strickland's Queens of England (Margaret of Anjou). +Reed's English History in Shakespeare. +Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and York.[2] +Rowley's Rise of the People.[2] +Shakespeare's Henry IV, V, and VI (Hudson's edition). + +[2] The two best short histories. + +VII. The Yorkist Period, 1461-1485 + +*The Paston Letters (Gairdner's edition) (1424-1506) +*Sir Thomas More's Edward V and Richard III +*Hall's Chronicle (1398-1509) +Hallam's Middle Ages. +Gairdner's Richard III. +Taine's English Literature. +Stubbs's Constitutional History of England. +Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and York.[2] +Rowley's Rise of the People.[2] +Shakespeare's Henry IV, V, and VI (Hudson's edition). + +[2] The two best short histories. + +VIII. The Tudor Period, 1461-1485. + +*Holinshed's History of England (from earliest times to 1577). +*Lord Bacon's Life of Henry VII. +*Latimer's 1st and 6th Sermons before Edward VI and "The Ploughers" + (1549). +*Hall's Chronicle (1398-1509). +Hallam's Constitutional History of England. +Lingard's History of England (Catholic) 13 vols. +Brewer's Reign of Henry VIII. +Creighton's Cardinal Wolsey. +Gibbins's Social Reformers (Sir Thomas More). +Froude's History of England. +Strickland's Queens of England (Catharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, + Mary, Elizabeth). +Demaus's Life of Latimer. +Froude's Short Studies. +Nicholls's Life of Cabot. +Dixon's History of the Church of England. +Hall's Society in the Age of Elizabeth. +Thornbury's Shakespeare's England. +Macaulay's Essay on Lord Burleigh. +Barrows's Life of Drake. +Creighton's Life of Raleigh.[3] +Seebohm's Era of the Protestant Revolution.[3] +Moberly's Early Tudors.[3] +Creighton's Age of Elizabeth.[3] +Shakespeare's Henry VIII (Hudson's edition). +Scott's Kenilworth, Abbot, Monastery (Elizabeth and Mary Queen of + Scots). + +[3] The four best short histories. + +IX. The Stuart Period (First Part), 1603-1649 + +*The Prose Works of James I (1599-1625) +Jesse's Memoirs of the Court of England. +*Fuller's Church History of Britain (earliest times to 1648). +*Clarendon's History of the Rebellion (1625-1660). +*Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson (1616-1664). +*May's History of the Long Parliament (1640-1643). +Carlyle's Historical Sketches of Reigns of James I and Charles I. +Taine's History of English Literature. +Spedding's Lord Bacon and his Times. +Gardiner's History of England (1603-1649). +Church's Life of Lord Bacon. +Hallam's Constitutional History of England. +Hume's History of England (Tory). +Macaulay's History of England (Whig). +Lingard's History of England (Catholic). 13 vols. +Strickland's Queens of England. 10 vols. +Ranke's History of England in the Seventeenth Century. 5 vols. +Macaulay's Essays (Bacon, Hampden, Hallam's History). +Goldwin Smith's Three English Statesmen (Cromwell, Pym, Hampden). +Cordery's Struggle against Absolute Monarchy.[1] +Cordery and Phillpott's King and Commonwealth.[1] +Gardiner's Puritan Revolution.[1] +Scott's Fortunes of Nigel (James I). + +[1] The three best short histories. + +X. The Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 (see Preceding Period) + +Gardiner's History of England (1649-1660). +*Ludlow's Memoirs (1640-1668). +*Carlyle's Life and Letters of Oliver Cromwell. +Carlyle's Hero Worship (Cromwell). +Guizot's Cromwell and the Commonwealth. +Morley's Cromwell. +Roosevelt's Cromwell. +Guizot's Richard Cromwell. +Guizot's Life of Monk. +Masson's Life and Times of Milton. +Bisset's Omitted Chapters in the History of England. +Pattison's Life of Milton. +Scott's Woodstock (Cromwell). + +XI. Stuart Period (Second Part) 1660-1714 + +*Evelyn's Diary (1641-1706). +*Pepys's Diary (1659-1669). +*Burnet's History of his Own Time (1660-1713). +Macaulay's History of England (Whig). +Hallam's Constitutional History of England. +Taine's History of English Literature. +Strickland's Queens of England. +Ranke's History of England in the Seventeenth Century. +Hume's History of England (Tory). +Brewster's Life of Newton. +Lingard's History of England (Catholic). 13 vols. +Green's History fo the English People. +Stanhope's History of England. +Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century. +Macaulay's Essays (Milton, Mackintosh's History, War of the Spanish + Succession, and The Comic Dramatists of the Restoration). +Creighton's Life of Marlborough. +Guizot's History of Civilization (Chapter XIII). +Morris's Age of Anne.[1] +Hale's Fall of the Stuarts.[1] +Cordery's Struggle against Absolute Monarchy.[1] +Scott's Peveril of the Peak and Old Mortality (Charles II). +Thackeray's Henry Esmond (Anne). + +XII. The Hanoverian Period, 1714 to the Present time + +*Memoirs of Robert Walpole. +*Horace Walpole's Memoir's and Journals. +Hallam's Constitutional History of England (to the death of George II, + *1760). +May's Constitutional History (1760-1870). +Amos's English Constitution (1830-1880). +Bagehot's English Constitution. +Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century. +Walpole's History of England (1815-1816). +Molesworth's History of England (1830-1870). +Martineau's History of England (1816-1846). +Taine's History of English Literature. +Gibbins's Social Reformers (Wesley and Wilberforce; and the Factory + Reformers) +Lecky's American Revolution (edited by Professor J.A. Woodburn). +Bancroft's History of the United States. +Bryant's History of the United States. +Stanhope's History of England (1713-1783). +Green's Causes of the Revolution. +Seeley's Expansion of England. +Frothingham's Rise of the Republic. +Southey's Life of Wesley. +Southey's Life of Nelson. +Wharton's Wits and Beaux of Society. +Waite's Life of Wellington. +Massey's Life of George III. +Smith's, Goldwin, Lectures (Foundation of the American Colonies). +Macaulay's Essays (Warren Hastings, Clive, Pitt, Walpole, Chatham, + Johnson, Madame D'Arblay). +Scott's Rob Roy, Waverley, and Redgauntlet (the Old and the Young + Pretender, 1715, 1735-1753). +Thackeray's Virginians (Washington). +Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1780). +Smiles's Life of James Watt. +Smith's, Sydney, Peter Plymley's Letters. +Smiles's Life of Stephenson. +Thackeray's Four Georges. +McCarthy's Four Georges. +Smiles's Industrial Biography. +Allen's, Grant, Life of Darwin. +Ashton's Dawn of the XIXth Century in England. +Ludlow's American Revolution.[1] +Rowley's Settlement of the Constitution (1689-1784).[1] +Morris's Early Hanoverians (George I and II).[1] +McCarthy's Epoch of Reform (1830-1850).[1] +Tancock's England during the American and European Wars + (1765-1820).[1] +Browning's Modern England (1820-1874).[1] +McCarthy's History of Our Own Times (1837-1897). +McCarthy's England under Gladstone (1880-1884). +Ward's Reign of Victoria (1837-1887). +Bolton's Famous English Statesmen of Queen Victoria's Reign. +Hinton's English Radical Leaders. +Gibbins's Social Reformers (Kingsley, Carlyle, and Ruskin). +Traill's Social England, Vol. VI. +Adams's, Brooks, America's Economic Supremacy. +Escott's Victorian Age. +The article on Victoria in the Dictionary of National [British] + Biography, Vol. LX. +The English Illustrated Magazine for July 1897.[2] +The Contemporary Review for June, 1897.[2] +The Fortnightly Review for June, 1897.[2] +King Edward VII. See Poole's Index to Reviews for 1910. +McCarthy's History of Our Own Times (to accession of George V). + +[1] The nine best short histories. +[2] Contain valuable articles on the Victorian Era, giving general +view of the reign. + + SPECIAL READING REFERENCES ON TOPICS OF ENGLISH HISTORY[1] + +I. See, on this whole subject, Professor H.L. Cannon's Reading +References for English History referred to in the Short List of Books +on page xxxvi. Professor Cannon's volume contains "exact references +to some two thousand of the most useful and accessible works on +English history." No other single volume can compare with it for +usefulness in this department. + +II. See E.K. Kendall's Source-Book of English History; G.C. Lee's +Source-Book of English History; and Professor E.P. Cheyney's Readings +of English History (1 vol.); and Professor E.P. Cheyney's Readings of +English History (1 vol.); A.H.D. Acland, and C. Ransome, Outline of +the Political History of England, 1 vol. + +III. See, for brief but carefully written biographical and historical +articles relating to English history, Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 10 +vols. For fuller treatment see the New Encyclopaedia Britannica (29 +vols.), The Dictionary of National [British] Biography (66 vols.), an +the International Encyclopaedia (17 vols.). + +IV. For recent events in English history, see Whitaker's Almanack, +Hazell's Annual, the Annual Register, the Statesman's Year-Book, and +other publications of this class. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEADING FACTS OF ENGLISH +HISTORY*** + + +******* This file should be named 17386.txt or 17386.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/8/17386 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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