size, on Bristol drawing-paper, with illuminated initial letters; and to these was attached an additional page, containing the names of those Barons whose arms were painted in the large edition. At the end of the Charter is the Covenant of security between King John and his Barons; and the arrangement of the whole volume is as follows: Title, Dedication, Names of the Barons, Magna Charta 11 pages, Title to the Covenant, Covenant 2 pages.

Such, then, are the principal Manuscript and Printed copies of the Charters of Liberties; the most important and extensive of which, though posterity has generally connected them with the name of King John, were in reality passed under the

SEAL OF HENRY THE THIRD.

pellation of younger sons, whose fathers died during their minority; and who could not possess estates until they were of age to do the feudal service required for them. To remedy this want, however, when he was about seven years old, King Henry gave him certain rents and lands, both in England and in Normandy. Near the same time, also, as well with the view of improving the young Prince's fortunes, as of securing another territory to the throne of England, a marriage was formed for him at Montferrat in Auvergne, with Alice, eldest daughter and coheir of Humbert II., Earl of Savoy; through whom, had it not been for her untimely death and the re-marriage of her father, he would ultimately have enjoyed the sovereignty of that province.

Pope Urban III. having granted to Henry the liberty of crowning one of his sons King of Ireland, that Sovereign in a Great Council held at Oxford in May 1177, bestowed it upon John; who was knighted at Windsor, the Pontiff's gift being presented to him, consisting of a coronet of peacocks feathers interwoven with gold. After the subjugation of Ireland, in 1175, Henry made a treaty with Roderic, King of Connaught, that he should reign in that country under the English crown, and possess his own lands in peace, as he did before the invasion, so long as he paid tribute, and performed his due services; whilst his authority was to extend over the whole island, excepting the proper lands of Henry and his Barons, including Dublin, Meath, Wexford, and Waterford, to Duncannon. But though Roderic gave up one of his sons as a hostage for his good faith, the natives of the country seized every opportunity of revenging themselves upon the English, &c., who were in great part soldiers living by plunder and hostility. Upon the nomination of John as Lord of Ireland, Henry cancelled his former grants

in that country; taking for his own peculiar property the Irish sea-ports and adjoining districts, and dividing the rest of the English possessions between his principal followers, to be military tenures held of himself and his son. The Prince's Lord-Deputy was an excellent officer, named Hugh de Lacy, and he was attended by Giraldus De Barri, the famous historian, and a powerful force, with which he arrived in Ireland, March 31st, 1185: but his counsellors and favourites were unhappily Normans, who held the Irish chieftains and the Welsh settlers in equal contempt. He was supported by the Archbishop of Dublin and the Irish nobility; but the ridicule with which himself and his attendants treated the Milesian chiefs, by deriding their dress and plucking their beards, and their offending the Welsh adventurers, by removing them from the garrison-towns to serve in the marches, -were fatal to this Prince's establishment in Ireland. A continuance of these imprudent measures produced him numerous and powerful adversaries; his Council was inflamed and divided, and, after losing much treasure, several of his best leaders, and the flower of his army, Henry recalled him to England uncrowned, on the 17th of December.

This was a display of his folly and weakness, but the first actual stain upon John's character, was that insurrection against Henry II., which all his legitimate sons alike partook of; though, perhaps, this Prince might be considered the most guilty, because he was the most beloved of his father. The King had indiscreetly raised them to honours and power, before they had. ceased to be children, and they disputed between themselves as well as with him; though for a time there had been a suspension of hostilities by the death of Henry, the eldest, in 1183, who had been made King. Richard and Geoffrey, however, still continued

their rebellion, until the latter was killed in a tournament at Paris, August 19th, 1186; after which the former concluded a truce with his father, and aided him against the King of France, until he began to hear reports, and to suspect that Henry intended the crown of England for John. In a conference on Richard's claims before the French Sovereign, he asserted his right to the succession, to which his father made an evasive answer, whereupon he instantly offered his homage to Philip, who received it, and invested him with the possessions of King Henry in France. Hostilities soon after recommenced between Richard and his father, who retreated before him; but still trusting in the fidelity of John, he caused the Seneschal of Normandy to swear that in case of his death, the fortresses of that province should be delivered to the Prince. At length, however, King Henry was persuaded to meet Philip of France on a plain near Tours, when a peace was concluded, by the former yielding to every demand which was made upon him. But he had previously stipulated, that a list should be given him of the Barons who had joined the French King, at the head of which appeared the name of his son John. He read no more, but returning the scroll departed for Chinon, where he sank into a deep melancholy, which was followed by a violent fever, wherein he cursed all his children, and died in July, 1189, though he would never be persuaded to retract his execrations.

At this time, although John's revenues might have been considerably increased by the favour of his father, he was possessed rather of titular, than of real power: which consideration acting on the mind of Richard, who next succeeded to the throne, he bestowed upon him the Counties of Cornwall, Dorset, Nottingham, Derby, and Lancaster; the castles of