to hide his disgrace in solitude; but, in reality, to meditate revenge against his enemies. He now, therefore, sent to the continent to enlist a great body of mercenary troops, and made complaints to the pope of the conduct of the barons. The pontiff is said warmly to have espoused his cause; a bull was sent over, annulling the whole charter; at the same time the foreign troops arriving, the king once more found himself in a condition to demand his own terms from his subjects. The barons had made no preparations for war, not suspecting the introduction of a foreign enemy. The king, therefore, was for some time undisputed master of the field, and the most horrid cruelties were committed by his army. The nobility, who had been most active in procuring the great charter, fled with their families to Scotland, where they obtained the protection of king Alexander II. by doing homage to him. The barons, being totally unable to raise an army capable of contending with that of John, applied to their old enemy Philip of France, offering to acknowledge his eldest son Louis for their sovereign, on condition of his protecting them from the fury of John and his mercenaries. This proposal the French king accepted with joy; and, twenty-five hostages which he demanded being sent over, began to make the most diligent preparations for an expedition, regardless of the menaces of the pope. The first troops who came to the assistance of the barons, were only a body of 7000 men; but, soon after, Louis, with a powerful army landed at Sandwich. The effect of this invasion was, that most of John's foreign troops deserted, refusing to serve against the heir of their monarchy. Many considerable noblemen also left his cause, and Louis daily gained ground. He advanced to London, where the barons and burghers did him homage, and took the oath of allegiance, after he had sworn to confirm the liberties and privileges of the people. His imprudence, how ever, in preferring on all occasions his French to his English subjects, soon excited jealousies, and proved very prejudicial to his cause. These were greatly increased by the confession of the count de Melun, one of his courtiers, who declared on his death-bed, that it was Louis's design to exterminate the English barons as traitors, and to bestow their dignities and estates upon the French nobles who had accompanied him, A considerable desertion took place among Louis's party; so that John once more found himself in a condition to make an effort for the crown. He resolved to penetrate into the heart of the kingdom; and, for this purpose, departed from Lynn, and took the road towards Lincolnshire at the head of a great body of troops. He became entangled, however, in the marshy districts of that singular part of the country: his road was described as lying along the shore, but the period of its being regularly overflowed by the tide, was either through design or negli gence concealed from him, and he lost all his carriages, treasure, and baggage by the influx of the sea. He himself escaped with the utmost difficulty, and arrived at the abbey of Swines head; where his grief for the loss he had sustained, and the distracted state of his affairs,

threw him into a fever, which soon appeared to be attended with fatal symptoms. He died at Newark in the year 1216, the fifty-first of his age, and eighteenth of his reign, leaving two legitimate sons: Henry, who succeeded him on the throne, and was about nine years of age; and Richard, who was about seven. He left also three daughters; Jane, married to Alexander II. king of Scotland; Eleanor, countess of Pembroke; and Isabella, married to the emperor Frederic II.

The earl of Pembroke when John died was mareschal of England, and at the head of the army; in times of such turbulence, of consequence, he was regarded as at the head of the state. Having continued faithful to his late father-in-law in his greatest reverses of fortune, he now determined to support the authority of the infant prince Henry; and carried him, therefore, immediately to Gloucester, where the ceremony of his coronation was performed by the bishops of Bath and Winchester, in the presence of Gualo the papal legate, and as many of the nobles as could be assembled.

The young prince was obliged to swear fealty to the pope, and renew the homage which his father had done for the kingdom; after which the earl of Pembroke was chosen protector. Till he arrived at years of maturity, the transactions of Henry III's reign therefore can only be considered as those of his tutors. Pembroke, a nobleman, it appears, of unspotted honor and integrity, caused him to grant a new charter of liberties, consisting of the concessions extorted from John, with some alterations; and the next year it was renewed, with additional articles. Thus these famous charters embodied the substance of most of our present legal maxims; and they were, during many generations, esteemed the ramparts of national liberty and independence. Securing the rights of all orders of men, they were anxiously defended by all, and became the basis of the English constitution; a kind of contract, which both limited the authority of the king, and ensured the conditional allegiance of his subjects. If often violated, they were still re-claimed and re-enforced by the nobility and the people; and, as no precedents were supposed valid that infringed them, they rather acquired, than lost authority, from the frequent attempts to subvert them. These charters were wisely made use of by Pembroke as arguments to draw off the malecontent barons from their allegiance to Louis. He insisted that, whatever jealousy they might have entertained against the late king, a young prince, the ineal heir of their ancient monarchs, had now succeeded to the throne, without inheriting either the resentments or the principles of his predecessor: That the desperate expedient, which they had employed, of calling in a foreign potentate, had, happily for them, as well as for the nation, failed of success; and it was still in their power, by a quick return to their duty, to restore the independence of the kingdom, and secure that liberty for which they so zealously contended: that, as all past offences of the barons were now buried in oblivion, they ought, on their part, to forget their complaints against their late sovereign; who, if he had been

anywise blameable in his conduct, had left to his son the salutary warning to avoid his paths: And that, having now obtained a charter for their liberties, it was their interest to show, by their conduct, that that acquisition was not incompatible with their allegiance; and that the rights of the king and people, so far from being hostile and opposite, might mutually support and sustain each other. These considerations, enforced by Pembroke's known character of constancy and fidelity, had a very great influence on the barons. Most of them began to negociate with him, and many actually returned to their duty. Meantime Louis continued to disgust those of his own party by the preference which he visibly gave to the French. Though he went over to France, therefore, and brought fresh succours, he found that his influence was much weaker than before, by the desertion of his English confederates; and that the death of John had, contrary to his expectations, occasioned the total ruin of his affairs. In a short time Pembroke was so much strengthened by deserters from Louis's party, that he ventured to invest Mount Sorrel; though, upon the approach of the count de Perche with the French army, he desisted from that enterprise. The French general immediately marched to Lincoln; and, being admitted into the town, laid siege to the castle, and soon reduced it to extremity. Pembroke summoned his forces from every quarter, in order to relieve this important place; and appeared so much superior to the French, that they shut themselves up within the city. But the garrison of the castle, having received a strong reinforcement, made a vigorous sally upon them, while the English army assaulted them from without. The French were totally routed; the count de Perche with only persons more were killed; but many of the chief commanders, and about 400 knights, were made prisoners. On the news of this event, Louis raised the siege of Dover, and retired to London; where he received intelligence of a new disaster, which at once put an end to his hopes. A French fleet, which carried a strong reinforce ment, had appeared on the coast of Kent; where they were attacked and repulsed with considerable loss, by Philip D'Albiney. He is said to have gained the victory by the following stratagem. Having got the wind of the French, he came down upon them with violence; and, throwing in their faces a great quantity of quicklime, which he purposely carried on board, they were so blinded as to be disabled from defending themselves. This misfortune urged the barons who yet adhered to Louis, to make their immediate submission to Pembroke; and Louis himself, finding his affairs desperate, was glad to make his escape home. He therefore concluded a peace with the Protector, and promised to evacuate the kingdom; only stipulating, in return, an indemnity to his adherents, and a restitution of their honors and fortunes

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The king, on arriving at his majority, was found much less fitted to govern the English than his education might have taught them to anticipate. Though his temper was mild and humane, he was very weak, fickle, and irresolute. His subjects were disgusted by the caresses he

bestowed on foreigners; and this feeling rose to such a height, that the barons refused to assemble in the general council at his desire. When commanded to do so, they sent a message to Henry, desiring him to dismiss his foreign advisers; otherwise they would drive both him and them out of the kingdom. Nothing, however, of great moment occurred till 1255, when the pope involved this young monarch in a scheme for the conquest of Naples, which for many years was productive of great expense and trouble, as well as disgrace to the nation. The court of Rome had reduced the kingdom of Sicily to the same state of feudal vassalage which she affected to exercise over England; but Mainfroy, a usurper, under pretence of governing the kingdom for the lawful heir, had seized the crown, and was resolved to resist the pope's authority. The latter therefore, finding that his own force alone was not sufficient to maintain his ascendancy, first had recourse to Richard, earl of Cornwall, the king's brother, who was considered the richest prince in Christendom. To him the pope offered the kingdom of Sicily, upon the sole condition of his conquering it from the usurper. Richard being too wise or too irresolute to accept this offer, the pope next applied to Henry, and offered him the crown of Sicily for his second son Edmund. Dazzled by the proposal, and without either reflecting on the consequences, or consulting his brother or the parliament, Henry gave the pope unlimited credit to expend whatever sums he thought necessary for the conquest of Sicily: and his holiness of course was not backward in exerting this privilege. He now also, in aid of it, asserted his apostolical authority to the utmost, in extorting money from the English. A crusade was published, requiring every one who had taken the cross against the infidels, or even vowed to advance money for that purpose, to support the war against Mainfroy, whom the pope accused of being a more terrible enemy to the Christian faith than any Saracen. A tenth on all the ecclesiastical benefices in England was levied for three years; and orders were given to excommunicate the bishops who did not make punctual payment. A grant was made to the king of the goods of intestate clergymen, as well as of the revenues of vacant benefices and of nonresidents. These taxations, however grievous, were submitted to with little murmuring; but another suggested by the bishop of Hereford excited the most violent clamors. This prelate, who at that time resided at Rome, drew bills on all the abbots and bishops of the kingdom, to the amount of no less than 150,540 merks, which he granted to Italian merchants in consideration of the money they had advanced for the support of the Sicilian,war. As it was apprehended that the English clergy would not easily submit to such an extraordinary demand, a commission was given to Rustand, the pope's legate, to use his authority. An assembly of the prelates and abbots was accordingly summoned; who, on hearing the state of affairs, and the amount drawn on them by the united papal and regal authority, were struck with the utmost surprise and indignation. A violent altercation took place; duri g which the legate told them, that all ecclesiastical

benefices were the property of the pope, and that he might dispose of them as he pleased. The affair ended, however, in the submission of the clergy; but the barons still continued refractory, and for some time answered the king's demands of supplies with expostulations; urging his partiality to foreigners, and the various injuries the nation had sustained from the servants of his crown. The great council of the nation, which had lately obtained the name of parliament, was there fore dissolved, and another called, but with as little success as before. The king, however, had involved himself in so much debt, that a large supply was absolutely necessary; and, as this could not be obtained from parliament, he was now reduced to the humiliating expedient of making a personal application to such of his subjects as he thought most attached to him. At length the barons, perceiving his exigencies, seemed willing to afford him relief; and, upon his promising to grant them a plenary redress of grievances, a very liberal supply was obtained, and he renewed their charters with more than usual solemnity. All the prelates and abbots were assembled with burning tapers in their hands; Magna Charta was read in their presence; and they denounced sentence of excommunication upon all who should infringe upon its decisions. They then extinguished their tapers on the ground, exclaiming, May every soul that proves false to this agreement so consume and corrupt in hell.' The king subjoined, 'So help me God, I will inviolably keep all these things, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as I am a knight, and as I am a king crowned and anointed.' No sooner, however, had Henry received the supplies promised, than he forgot this solemn engagement, again put his confidence entirely in foreign counsellors, and evaded or broke through all the charters he had given. This conduct rendered him so obnoxious to the barons, that Simon Mountfort, earl of Leicester, a man of a violent and ambitious temper, determined to attempt an innovation in the government. He formed a powerful confederacy against the king, and the designs of the conspirators were so effectually matured, that, in 1258, when Henry had summoned a parliament in expectation of receiving supplies for his Sicilian project, the barons appeared in the hall completely armed. The king, struck with this unusual appearance, asked them what was their purpose, and whether they intended to make him their prisoner? Roger Bigod, earl Mareschal, answered in the name of the rest, that he was not their prisoner; that they even intended to grant him large supplies, in order to fix his son on the throne of Sicily; that they only expected some return for this expense and service; and that as the king had frequently made submissions to the parliament, had acknowledged his past errors, and still alowed himself to be carried into the same path, he must now yield to more strict regulations, and confer authority on those who were able and willing to redress the public grievances. Henry instantly assured them of his intentions to grant them all possible satisfaction; and for that purpose summoned another parliament at Oxford, to digest the new plan of government, and to

elect proper persons who were to be entrusted with the chief authority. This assembly, afterwards called the mad parliament, went very expeditiously to work in the business of reformation: twenty-four barons were appointed, with supreme authority, to reform abuses, and Leicester was placed at their head. Their first step was to order four knights to be chosen out of each county, who should examine into the state of their respective constituents, and should attend at the ensuing parliament to give information of their complaints. They ordained that three sessions of parliament should be regularly held every year; that a new high sheriff should be elected annually; that no wards nor castles should be entrusted to foreigners, no new forests made, nor the revenues of any counties let to farm. These constitutions were so just, that some of them remain to this day. But the parliament having thus obtained the sovereign power, took care not to part with it again. They not only protracted the time of their sitting under various pretences; but at last had the effrontery to impose an oath upon every individual of the nation, declaring an implicit obedience to all the statutes executed, or to be yet executed, by the barons who were thus appointed as rulers. They not only abridged the authority of the king, but the efficacy of parliament also; giving up to twelve persons the whole parliamentary power between each session. These usurpations were first opposed by the knights of the shire, whom they themselves had appointed, and who had for some time begun to be regularly assembled in a separate house, to consider of the national grievances. The first of them was the conduct of the twenty-four rulers. They represented that, though the king had performed all that was required of him, the barons had hitherto done nothing on their part that showed an equal regard for the people; that their own interest and power seemed the only aim of all their decrees; and they now called upon the king's eldest son, prince Edward, to interpose and save the sinking nation. The prince was at this time about twenty-two years of age, and by his active and resolute conduct had inspired the nation with great hopes. He told those who made the application to him, that he had sworn to the late constitutions; and, on that account, though they were contrary to his own private opinions, he was resolved not to infringe them. At the same time, however, he sent a message to the barons, requiring them to bring their undertaking to an end, or otherwise to expect the most vigorous resistance to their usurpations. On this the barons published a new code of laws, which, though it contained little that was material, would, it was supposed, for a while dazzle the eyes of the people, until they could take measures to strengthen their authority. In this manner, under various pretences, they continued their power for three years; until the whole nation loudly condemned their treachery, and the pope at last absolved the king and his subjects from the oath they had taken to obey them. Soon after this a parliament was called, and the king was re-instated in his former authority. For a time, at least, the barons were obliged to submit, but the earl of

Leicester having joined the Welsh, who at this time made an irruption into England, the kingdom was reduced to the most deplorable situation. The pusillanimity of the king prevented any proper or decisive method being pursued for extricating the country from its difficulties; at last, however, a treaty was concluded with the barons on the following disgraceful terms. They were restored to the sovereignty of the kingdom, took possession of all the royal castles and fortresses, and even named the officers of the king's house hold. On this they summoned a parliament to meet at Oxford, to settle the plan of their government; and now it was enacted, that the authority of the twenty-four barons should continue not only during the life of Henry, but also during that of prince Edward. The latter, however, utterly rejected this scheme, and a civil war immediately ensued. The prince was at first successful; but his impetuosity occasioned the loss of a battle, in which his father and uncle were taken prisoners, and he himself was obliged soon after to surrender to the ambitious earl of Leicester. After this the king was reduced to the most deplorable situation. His partisans were disarmed, while those of the earl kept themselves in an offensive posture. Leicester seized the estates of no fewer than eighteen of his own colleagues the barons; engrossed to himself the ransom of all prisoners; monopolised the sale of wool in foreign markets; and at last ordained that all power should be exercised by nine persons, who were to be chosen by three, or the majority of them; these three being the earl of Leicester himself, the earl of Gloucester, and the bishop of Chichester. At last, the miserable condition to which the king and kingdom were reduced, proved the means of settling the government on a more secure foundation. Leicester,. to secure himself, was obliged to have recourse to an aid, till now entirely unknown in England, namely, that of the body of the people. He called a parliament, where, besides the barons of his own party, and several ecclesiastics who were not proper tenants of the crown, he ordered returns to be made of two knights from every shire; and also deputies from the boroughs, which had been hitherto considered as too inconsiderable to be allowed any share in the legislation.

This parliament was called on the 20th of January 1256; and in it we find the first outline of an English house of Commons; an institution which has ever since been justly considered as the bulwark of British liberty. The new parliament was far from being so compliant to Leicester as he had expected. Many of the barons who had hitherto adhered to his party, were disgusted with his boundless ambition; and the people began to wish for the reestablishment of royal authority. Leicester, at last, to make a merit of what he could not prevent, released prince Edward from his confinement, and had him introduced at Westminster hall, where his freedom was confirmed by the unanimous voice of the barons. But though Leicester had all the popularity of restoring the prince, he was yet politic enough to keep him guarded by his emissaries. At last, however,

he found means to make his escape. The earl of Gloucester, disgusted with Leicester, had retired from court, and went to his estates on the borders of Wales. His antagonist pursued him, and to give the greater authority to his arms, carried the king and prince of Wales along with him. This furnished young Edward with the opportunity he had so long desired. Being furnished by the earl of Gloucester with a horse of extraordinary swiftness, he escaped from his guards, who were not able to come up with him; and the appearance of a body of troops belonging to Gloucester soon put an end to their pursuit. The prince no sooner recovered his liberty, than the royalists joined him from all quarters, and an army was soon assembled which Leicester could not withstand. This nobleman now found himself in a remote quarter of the kingdom, surrounded by his enemies and debarred from all communication with his friends by the river Severn, whose bridges Edward had broken down. In this extremity, he wrote to his son to hasten to his assistance from London, and the latter advanced to Kenilworth; but here he was surprised, and his army entirely dispersed by prince Edward. The young prince, immediately after this victory, advanced against Leicester himself; who, ignorant of the fate of his son's expedition, had passed the Severn in boats. He was by no means able to cope with the royalists, being outnumbered by them considerably, and was defeated at Evesham with great slaughter. Leicester himself, though he begged for quarter, was slain, together with his eldest son Henry, and about 160 knights and gentlemen. The old king had been purposely placed by the rebels in the front of the battle, where he was wounded and in great danger of being killed; but, crying out, I am Henry of Winchester your king,' he was preserved and consigned to a place of security by his son. The body of Leicester being found among the dead, was barbarously mangled and then sent to his widow. This victory proved decisive in favor of the royal party. Almost all the barons hastened to make their submissions, and opened their gates to the king. The Isles of Axholme and Ely indeed ventured to hold out, but were at last reduced, as well as the castle of Dover, by the valor of prince Edward. Baron de Gourdon, also maintained himself for a time in the forests of Hampshire, and by his depredations obliged the prince to lead a body of troops against him. Edward attacked him in his camp, and, in the ardor of action, leaped over the trench with a few followers, and encountered Gourdon himself in single combat. The victory was long disputed between them; but ended at last in the prince's favor, who wounded his antagonist, threw him from his horse, and took him prisoner. He not only granted him his life; but introduced him that very night to the queen at Guildford, procured his pardon, and was ever after faithfully served by him. In 1271 prince Edward, having settled the affairs of the kingdom, undertook an expedition to the Holy Land, where he signalised himself by many acts of valor. king's health declined visibly after the departure

The

of his son; and at last, worn out with cares and the infirmities of age, he expired at St. Edmondsbury on the 16th of November, 1272, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and the fifty-sixth of his reign.

Prince Edward had reached Sicily in his return from the Holy Land, when he received an account of his father's death; at which he expressed much concern. As he knew that England was at that time in a state of perfect tranquillity, he was in no haste to return, but spent nearly a year in France before he made his appearance in his native country. Here he was received on his arrival with the utmost joy, and crowned at Westminster by Robert archbishop of Canterbury, on the 19th of August, 1274. He immediately applied himself to the correcting of those disorders which the civil commotions, and weak administration of his father, had introduced. A system of strict justice, bordering on severity, was introduced and kept up through the whole of his reign. The Jews were the only part of his subjects whom Edward oppressed. Many arbitrary taxes were levied upon them; 280 of them were hanged at once for adulterating the coin; the goods of the rest were confiscated, and all of them banished the kingdom. In 1276 the king undertook an expedition against Lewellyn prince of Wales, who had refused to do homage for his crown, but the conquest of that country was not fully accomplished till 1283; after which the principality of Wales was annexed to the crown of England, and thenceforth gave a title to the king's eldest son. See WALES. In 1286 the settlement of Wales appeared so complete, that the king went abroad in order to make peace between Alfonso III. king of Arragon, and Philip IV. of France, who had a dispute about the kingdom of Sicily. He succeeded in his negociations; but, staying abroad three years, he found that many disorders had been introduced in his absence. Robbery and murder were frequent in every part of England; but the corruption of the judges was of still more dangerous consequence. Edward summoned a parliament, and brought them to trial; when all of them except two, who were clergymen, being convicted of mal-practices, were fined, and deposed from their office. The amount of the fines levied upon them was above 100,000 merks; an immense sum in those days. The king afterwards made the new judges swear they would take no bribes; but the deposing and fining the old ones was the most effectual lesson. In 1291 king Edward began to meditate the conquest of Scotland, which employed him during the rest of his life; but which, though the attempt was productive of distress to both nations, he was never able to accomplish. See SCOTLAND. At the same t me he was engaged in expensive contests with France; and these multiplied wars and preparations for war, by obliging him to have frequent recourse to parliamentary supplies, became the remote causes of great and important changes in the government. The parliament was modelled into the form which has continued ever since. As a great part of the property of the kingdom, by the introduction of commerce and improvements in agriculture, was

transferred from the barons to the inferior ranks of the people, their consent became necessary for raising the supplies. The king accordingly issued writs to the sheriffs, enjoining them to send to parliament along with two knights of the shire, two deputies from each borough within their county, provided with sufficient powers from their constituents to grant such demands as they should think reasonable for the safety of the state. The charges of these deputies were to be borne by the boroughs which sent them; and so far were they at first from considering this as an honor, that nothing could be more displeasing to any borough than to be thus obliged to send a deputy, or to any individual than to be thus chosen. The authority of the commons, however, gradually increased. Their union gave them weight; and it became customary among them, in return for the supplies which they granted, to present petitions to the crown for the redress of grievances. The more the king's necessities increased, the more he found it necessary to give them an early redress; till, from requesting, the commons proceeded to demanding; and, having all the property of the nation, they began also to be possessed of the power. Edward, commonly called the I. though in reality the IV. of the name, as he is styled by Marcel, died of a dysentery at Carlisle, on the 7th of July, 1307, as he was leading a considerable army into Scotland. He was succeeded by his son Edward, whom he had charged with his dying breath to prosecute the war, and never to desist till he had finally subdued that kingdom. But the new king was of a different disposition from his father. The Scotch gradually recovered their power, and in 1314, gave the English such a terrible defeat at Bannockburn, that for many years after, no superiority of numbers could encourage them to look the Scotch in the face. See SCOTLAND.

Although Edward II. was a weak rather than an ill-meaning prince, his reign was one continued series of quarrels with his turbulent subjects. Like a man born more to be governed than to govern, he ruled throughout by certain favorites. The first of these was Piers Gaveston, the son of a Gascon knight of some distinction, who had honorably served the late king, and who, in reward for his services, had obtained an establishment for his son in the family of the prince of Wales. To be the favorite of a king is no doubt a sufficient offence to other courtiers. Numberless faults were therefore found with Gaveston by the barons. When the king went over to France to espouse the princess Isabella, to whom he had been long contracted, this minion was left guardian of the realm, with very ample powers; and when the queen, who was of an imperious and intriguing spirit, arrived, Gaveston fell under her displeasure, on account of his ascendancy over the king. A conspiracy was therefore formed against him, at the head of which were the queen, and the earl of Lancaster, the most opulent and powerful nobleman in England. Edward, unable to resist such a combination, was at last obliged to banish Gaveston; but recalled him some time after, when a civil war ensued; and the nobility, having seized