ensued. After some days the king, with a facility that was somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed the charter required of him; a charter which continues in force to this day, and is the famous bulwark of English liberty, which now goes by the name of MAGNA CHARTA. 7. This famous deed either granted or secured freedom to those orders of the kingdom that were already possessed of freedom; namely, to the clergy, the barons, and the gentlemen: as for the inferior and the greater part of the people, they were as yet held as slaves, and it was long before they could come to a participation of legal protection. 8. John, however, could not long brook these concessions that were extorted from his fears: he therefore took the first opportunity of denying to be the least governed by them. 9. This produced a second civil war, in which the barons were obliged to have recourse to the king of France for assistance. Thus England saw nothing but a prospect of being every way undone. If John succeeded, a tyrannical and implacable monarch was to be their tormentor; if the French king was to prevail, the country was ever after to submit to a more powerful monarchy, and was to become a province of France. What neither human prudence could foresee nor policy suggest was brought about by a happy and unexpected accident. 10. John had assembled a considerable army, with a view to make one great effort for the crown; and at the head of a large body of troops, resolved to penetrate into the heart of the kingdom. With these resolutions he de parted from Lynn, which, for its fidelity, he had distin guished with many marks of favour, and directed his route towards Lincolnshire. His road lay along the shore, which was overflowed at high-water; but not being apprised of his, or being ignorant of the tide of the place, he lost all his carriages, treasure, and baggage, by its influx. 11. He himself escaped with the greatest difficulty, and arrived at the abbey of Swinstead, 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 fatal. Next day, being unable to ride on horseback, he was carried in a litter to the castle of Seaford, and from thence removed to Newark, where, after having made his will, he died in the fiftyfirst year of his age, and the eighteenth of his detested reign.* 12. Seldom has any throne been disgraced by a monarch so depraved as John; before his accession he had rebelled against a fond father, and treacherously attempted the life of a generous brother: to secure himself on the throne he murdered his nephew, prince Arthur, and detained his niece, the princess Eleanora, in perpetual imprisonment. He repudiated one wife and imprisoned another, and violated his faith to both with the most abandoned profligacy. He showed his contempt for religion by habitually swearing, and wantonly violating the most solemn oaths. If he was, a bad man, he was a worse king; he subjected himself to the ignominious yoke of Rome; he suffered France to take possession of the Norman provinces, almost without a struggle; and a home he acted the part of a lustful and bloody tyrant, sporting with the honours, the fortunes, and the lives of his unhappy subjects. Yet, by the blessing of Providence, his tyranny became the source of the greatest benefits to posterity, since his intolerable oppressions drove the barons into rebellion, and procured them the great charter, which was the first foundation of British freedom. *King John once demanded 10,000 marks from a Jew of Bristol; and, on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day till he should comply. The Jew lost seven teeth, and then paid the sum required of him Questions for Examination. 1 Did the barons assemble an army in opposition to the king? 2. What were their demands? and what answer did the king return? 3, 4. What consequences followed? 5, 6 Can you mention the circumstances which attended the signing of Magna Charta? 8. What produced a second civil war? 9. What great effort did John resolve to make? 10, 11. What was the accident which befel John, and accelerated his death? Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury; he divided our Bible into chapters and verses. Robert Fitzwalter, general of the barons' army John de Courcy, earl of Ulster, famous for his strength and prowess Prince Arthur, nephew to the king, by whom he is supposed to have been murdered. CHAPTER XI. HENRY III. Born 1207. Died Nov. 16th, 1272 Regan to reign October 17th, 1216. Reigned 56 years. SECTION I. Humane, indulgent, kind ev'n to a fault; Yet wanting energy when cares assault His reign, though turbulent, an instance brings Mercy throned in the heart of kings."-Dibdin. 1. (A.D. 1216.) A CLAIM was made upon the death of John, in favour of young Henry, the son of the late king who was now but nine years of age. The earl of Pem broke, a nobleman of great worth and valour, who had faithfully adhered to John in all the fluctuations of his fortune, determined to support his declining interests, and had him solemnly crowned by the bishops of Winchester, Bath, and Gloucester. 2. The young king was of a character the very opposite to his father; as he grew up to man's estate, he was found to be gentle, merciful, and humane; he appeared easy and good-natured to his dependents, but no way formidable to his enemies. Without activity or vigour, he was unfit to govern in war; without distrust or suspicion, he was imposed upon in times of peace. 3. As weak princes are never without governing favourites, he first placed his affections on Hubert de Burgh, and he becoming obnoxious to the people, the place was soon supplied by Peter De Roches, bishop of Winchester, a Poictevin by birth, a man remarkable for his arbitrary conduct, for his courage, and his abilities. Henry, in pursuance of this prelate's advice, invited over a great number of Poictevins, and other foreigners, who having neither principles nor fortunes at home, were willing to adopt whatever schemes their employers should propose. 4. Every office and command was bestowed on these unprincipled strangers, whose avarice and rapacity were exceeded only by their pride and insolence. So unjust a partiality to strangers very naturally excited the jealousy of the barons; and they even ventured to assure the king, that, if he did not dismiss all foreigners from court, they would drive both him and them out of the kingdom; but their anger was scarcely kept within bounds when they saw a new swarm of these intruders come over from Gascony, with Isabella, the king's mother, who had some time before been married to the count de la Marche. 5. To these just causes of complaint were added the king's unsuccessful expedition to the continent, his total want of economy, and his oppressive exactions, which were but the result of the former. The kingdom therefore waited with gloomy resolution, determined to take vengeance when the general discontent arrived at maturity. 6. This imprudent preference, joined to a thousand other illegal evasions of justice, at last impelled Simon Montford, earl of Leicester, to attempt an innovation in the government, and to wrest the sceptre from the feeble hand that held it. This nobleman was the son of the famous general who com manded against the Albigenses, a sect of enthusiasts that had been destroyed some time before in the kingdom of Se Voy He was married to the king's sister; and by his power and address was possessed of a strong interest in the nationhaving gained equally the affections of the great and the little. 7. The place where the formidable confederacy which he had formed first discovered itself was in the parliament house, where the barons appeared in complete armour. The king, upon his entry, asked them what was their intention; to which they submissively replied, to make him their sovereign, by confirming his power, and to have their grievances re. dressed. 8. Henry, who was ready enough to promise whatever was demanded, instantly assured them of his intention to give all possible satisfaction; and, for that purpose, summoned a parliament at Oxford, to digest a new plan of government, and to elect proper persons who were to be intrusted with the chief authority. This parliament, afterwards called the "mad parliament," went expeditiously to work upon the business of reformation. 9. Twenty-four barons were appointed, with supreme authority, to reform the abuses of the state, and Leicester was placed at their head. The whole state in their hands underwent a complete alteration; all its former officers were displaced; and creatures of the twenty-four barons were put into their room They not only abridged the authority of the king, but the efficacy of parliament, giving up to twelve persons all parliamentary power between each session. Thus these insolent nobles, after having trampled upon the crown, threw pros trate the rights of the people, and a vile oligarchy was on the point of being established for ever. 10. The first opposition that was made to these usurpations was from a power which but lately began to take a place in the constitution. The knights of the shire, who for some time had begun to be regularly assembled in a separate house, now first perceived these grievances, and coinplained against them. They represented that their own interests and power seemed the only aim of all their decrees; and they even called upon the king's eldest son, prince Ed ward, to interpose his authority, and save the sinking nation. Questions for Examination. 1 By whom was the interest of the young king secured? 2 What is the character given of him? 3 Who were his favourites? |