ed the minds of his countrymen for a revolt, to which the following accident gave birth.

On the evening of Eafter-day, as the French and Sicilians were going in proceffion to the church of Monreale, in the neighbourhood of Palermo, a bride happened to pafs by with her train; when one Droquet, a Frenchman, inftantly ran to her, and began to use her in a rude manner, under pretence of fearching for concealed arms. A young Sicilian, flaming with refentment, ftabbed Droquet to the heart; a tumult enfued, and two hundred Frenchmen were flain on the spot. The enraged populace now ran to the city, crying aloud, "Kill the French! Kill the French!" and, without any diftinction of age or fex, murdered every perfon of that nation found in Palermo. The fame fury fpread itself through the whole island, and produced a general maffacre, to which hiftorians give the name of the Sicilian Vefpers.

Peter, king of Arragon, was faluted at Palermo as king of the island. Charles immediately affembled a powerful armament at Marseilles, and formed the fiege of Meffina; which the inhabitants in vain offered to furrender, upon a promife of pardon. But in the mean time his fon Charles, furnamed the Lame, having hazarded an engagement, was taken prifoner by the rebels. The king, unable to fupport or conceal his fufferings from this laft fhock, funk into the grave; and Sicily, after a war of twenty years, was finally transferred, as an independent kingdom, to a younger branch of the houfe of Arragon.

Upon the death of Charles of Anjou, the Pope had conferred Sicily upon Charles of Valois, a younger fon of the king of France; and Philip, who fupported his claim, derived fome hopes of fuccefs from the death of Peter, and the furrender of Gironne. But his fleet was again defeated, and this misfortune co-operated with the fatigues of war, and the heat of the climate, to fhorten the life of Philip, who died at Perpignan, in the forty-firft year of his age, and the fixteenth of an unfuccessful reign.

The reign of Philip IV. furnamed the Fair,

the fon and fucceffor of Philip the Hardy, is dif. A. D. 1285. tinguished by the inftitution of the fupreme tri

bunals, called Parliaments, and the formal admiffion of the commons, or third eftate, into the general affemblies of the nation. The French commons, however, were afterwards excluded from these affemblies.

This period is alfo remarkable for the fuppreffion and extirpation of the Knights Templars, who were originally an order of Monks, that fettled near the temple of Jerufalem, when it was firft taken by the champions of the crofs. In

I

a fhort

a fhort time they acquired, from the piety of the faithful, ample poffeffions in every Christian country, but more especially in France, The great riches of thofe Knights had relaxed the feverity of their difcipline. Being all men of birth, they at laft fcorned the ignoble occupations of a monaftic life, and paffed their time in the fashionable amufements of hunting, gallantry, and the pleasures of the table. By thefe means the Templars loft that popularity which firft raised them to honour and diftinétion; and Philip, in concert with Pope Clement V. judged them unprofitable to the church, and dangerous to the state.

If we except the Venetians, the Flemings, at this time, were, perhaps, the moft flourishing people of Europe. Many of them, to whom Guy de Dampier, count of Flanders, was not acceptable, wished for a French government; when Philip openly declared his intention of reuniting that country to his crown.

With this view, he and his queen made a moft magnificent entrance into Flanders, where they endeavoured to amufe the Flemings with the moft pompous exhibitions of their grandeur, and to render themfelves popular by abolifhing fome opprefive taxes. They could not, however, have pitched upon a more difagreeable perfon than John de Chatillon was, for the government of that country, to which he was appointed by the queen's intereft. He fortified the towns of his government, and countenanced the magiftrates in oppreffing the people, who were remarkably tenacious of their privileges; fo that the whole country was foon filled with difcontent, The people of Bruges were headed by a dyer in oppofing the French government; but he and his affociates were foon driyen out of the city, which Chatillon entered at the head of feventeen hundred French horfe preceded by two hogsheads full of ropes, which Chatillon publicly declared were to be employed in hanging the chiefs of the rebels, Difpofitions were made accordingly; but the people ran to arms, and recalling the dyer, cut in pieces fifteen hundred of the French horfe, who were to have guarded the executions; Chatillon himself efcaping with great difficulty by fwimming acrofs the town ditch in the night-time. A general revolt of the country followed, when after the lofs of feveral thousand men on both fides, Philip was prevailed upon to return to France.

Not long after, Philip revived his quarrel with the count of Flanders. The powerful vaffals of his crown, however, difliked the expedition, and both his parliament and people fo much dliked the oppreffive measures which his minifters purfued for raifing money, that they refused to fupply him. Philip was in this fituation, and at the head of an army, when

the

the count offered to agree to a fresh treaty, and to give hoftages for the performance of the terms, and in the mean time, to put Courtray into the king's hands. Philip was obliged to except of thofe conditions.

Upon his return to Paris, he found an univerfal diffatisfac tion among his fubjects, which, if he had not laid afide his Flemifh expedition, would have produced a general rebellion.

Aflictions of a ftill more tender nature, at this time, diftreffed Philip. The three princeffes, to whom his three fons had been married, proved unfaithful to their marriage-beds. The queen of Navarre, daughter to the duke of Burgundy, and the count de la March's wife, were convicted of adultery with Philip, and Walter de Launay. The ladies were fentenced to perpetual imprifonment, and their paramours after being flayed alive, were hanged upon gibbets. This fentence did not fatisfy the king of Navarre, for he ordered his wife to be ftrangled in the place of her confinement.

Thefe difappointments and domeftic misfortunes threw Philip into a confumption, which carried him off in the thir tieth year of his reign, and the forty-feventh of his age. He was certainly a prince of great talents; and, notwithstanding his vices, France ought to refpect his memory. By fixing the parliaments, or fupreme courts of judicature, he fecured the ready execution of juftice to all his fubjects; and, though his motive might not be the most generous for calling in the third eftate into the national council, he by that measure put it into the power of the French nation to have eftablished a free government.

A. D. 1314

The favourite brother of Philip the late king, Charles de Valois, had, during that reign, acquir ed fuch experience in the affairs of the French monarchy, that he retained all his influence under this prince. Lewis fucceeded his father under great difadvantages. The people were difcontented, and the treasury exhauited to fuch a degree, that he was unable, for fome time, to defray the expences of his coronation. He was, befides, apprehensive, from the public difcontents, of an infurrection, which might interrupt the folemnity. Charles de Valois undertook, on the part of his nephew, that the nobility, who thought their privileges had been impaired during the late reign, thould be reftored to all they had poffeffed under Lewis, and the ceremony was performed at Rheims by the archbishop of that city. Lewis began his reign with an act of injuftice. At the inftigation of his uncle, the count of Valois, he caufed his prime minifter Marigny to be executed, on account of many pretended crimes, and magic among the reft; but in reality

on

on account of his fuppofed riches, which were confifcated to the crown.

But neither the confifcation of Marigny's effects, nor of thofe who were styled his accomplices, being fufficient for the king's wants, he extorted money from the nobility, under various pretences. He levied a tenth upon the clergy. He fold enfranchifements to the flaves employed in cultivating the royal dominions; and when they would not purchase their freedom, he declared them free, whether they would or not, and levied the money by force! He died like his father, after an unfuccefsful attempt upon Flanders.

The general fenfe of the French nation, at this time, favoured the falique law, and though Lewis X. left a daughter, yet his brother Philip V. furnamed the Tall, mounted the throne, in preference to the princefs. The duke of Burgundy made fome oppofition, and afferted the right of his niece. The ftates of the kingdom, however, by a folemn and deliberate decree, excluded her, and declared all females for ever incapable of fucceeding to the crown of France.

The wisdom of this decree is too evident to need being pointed out. It not only prevents those evils which neceffarily proceed from female caprices and tender partialities, fo apt to make a minifter from love, and degrade him from whim; but is attended with this peculiar advantage, that a foreigner can never become fovereign of France by marriage; a circumftance always dangerous, and often productive of the moft fatal revolutions.

The reign of Philip the Tall, and alfo of his brother Charles IV. furnamed the Fair, were both fhort; nor was either diftinguished by any memorable event. Charles left only one daughter, and confequently no heir to the crown. But, as his queen was pregnant, Philip de Valois, the next male heir, was appointed regent, with a declared right of fucceffion, if the iffue fhould prove female. The queen of France was delivered of a daughter; the regency ended, and Philip de Valois was unanimoufly placed on the throne of France.

CHAP.

CHAP. LXII.

Philip VI. the first of the Race of Valois.-Glaim of Edward III.-Hoftilities commence, and Calais is taken.- Origin of the Title of Dauphin.-Death and Character of Philip.

HOUGH the claim of Edward king of

TH

England, who afferted his right to the A. D. 1336. French crown, as a grandfon of a daughter of

Philip IV. was rejected by the general voice, and that of Philip univerfally acknowledged, yet the latter could not reflect on this claim with indifference; and, when he fummoned the English monarch to pay homage, and received only a contemptuous filence, he feized on the revenues of his lands in France. To recover thefe Edward croffed the channel, to fubmit to the ceremony at Amiens; where Philip prudently confented to difpenfe with the fervile forms, and to receive the homage in any way, provided it fhould hereafter be explained in the manner most fatisfactory to him.

Edward, however, ftudioufly omitted fome circumstances of the demanded homage; which though Philip perceived, he carried his affectation of politenefs fo far, that he only gently admonished Edward to examine, upon his return to England, whether he had not omitted fome part of the ceremony.

The queen-dowager of England and Mortimer, were fo defirous to preferve peace with France, that they condemned Edward for refufing to fubmit to the performance of the whole ceremonial as prefcribed by the French. The princes of the blood and the great lords of France were not fo complaifant as Philip, whom they upbraided with his tameness in receiving Edward's partial performance of his homage. The bishop of Lincoln, Edward's chancellor, who accompanied him to the French court, perceived their difcontent both in their countenances and difcourfe, and fecretly hinted to Edward, that it was very poffible the French king might extend his fovereign power fo far as to arreft him; upon which Edward departed for England without taking leave, and was at Windfor before it was known that he had left France. He was followed by an embaffy, who had an audience of Edward and his council, where it was determined by his mother's and Mortimer's influence, that he had been guilty of an omission in performing his homage. His complaifance now went fo far, as immediately to order an inftrument to be made out, acknowledging the deficiency, and promifing to fupply it according to the ceremonial prefcribed by the French court.

Hoftilities,