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1505. Death of Ivan III.

USSIA was inhabited from time immemorial by numerous barbarous tribes that owed no common bond of union. Of these the Scythians, the Slavonians, and the Finns were the chief. The history of these tribes is full of uncertainty until the ninth century, when Rurik, a Baltic chieftain who had been invited to protect the great commercial city of Novgorod against foreign aggression, took possession of the republic and portioned out its cities among his followers. The empire of Russia thus founded was rapidly enlarged by his successor, who removed the capital to Kief.

In the thirteenth century Russia was conquered by the Tartars, and during two and a half centuries the Russian sovereigns held their dominions at the will of the khan of the Tartars, to whom they were compelled to make occasional visits to sue for the right of governing. These journeys consumed a year's time, and on their arrival at the court of the khan the Russians

were treated in the most insulting manner, being allowed to present their petitions to the Tartar chief only when prostrate at his feet. The Tartar invasion threw Russia more than two hundred years behind the civilization of the other states of Europe. From this period until the reign of Ivan III. Russian history is a chaos.

Ivan III., surnamed the Great, who ascended the throne in 1462, sought to raise his throne to an equality with the proudest in Europe,-to be independent outside of his dominions and autocrat within. He married Sophia, daughter of the last Greek emperor. With this haughty princess the customs and ceremonies of the court of Constantinople and its novel pageantries were intro

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duced at Moscow.* About this time the palace of the Kremlin was built. Architects, engineers, miners, minters, and other skilful workmen were drawn to Russia by promise of liberal reward. By them cannon were manufactured and silver and copper money was coined.

Ivan III. repelled two Tartar invasions of the country. In 1480, his brave allies, the Crims and Cossacks, drove back a third invasion, and Russia was freed from the galling Asiatic yoke.

He died in 1505. During his reign of fortythree years he enhanced the material greatness of his country. But there was no moral element in all his despotic grandeur, and little was done to promote the best interests of the Russian people.

1509. Death of Henry VII. Accession of Henry VIII.

The reign of Henry VII. may be considered the beginning of the history of modern England. During the long and bloody Wars of the Roses,† which closed with Henry's accession to the throne, the old feudal nobility was almost destroyed, and from the ranks of the peasantry there gradually arose a middle class of farmers

The capital of Russia was changed from Kief to Moscow during the reign of Ivan I., in the fourteenth century.

The Wars of the Roses were caused by the rival claims of the houses of York and Lancaster to the throne of England, and were so named from the badges worn by the con

tending parties, that of York being the white rose, that of

Lancaster the red rose. During the wars, which lasted from 1455 to 1485, one Lancastrian king, Henry VI, and three Yorkist kings, Edward IV., Edward V., and Richard III.,

occupied successively the throne. At the battle of Bosworth

Field (1485) Richard III. was slain and Henry VII. of Lan

caster was offered the crown.

and merchants,-the future backbone of the English nation. Through the newly-discovered art of printing, books were now circulated among the people, and men began to read for themselves and assume some independence of thought.

Henry VII, was only indirectly sprung from the House of Lancaster, and his title was none of the clearest, but his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. of York, united the rival houses and placed him for the time securely upon the throne. He was not without rivals, however. The most dangerous were two nephews of Edward IV.,-the young Earl of Warwick and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. Warwick was immediately shut up in the Tower of London. Lincoln, who paid homage to the new king and appeared to be devoted to his cause, remained at liberty.

But Henry was not destined to reign in peace. In the second year of his reign a rumor was circulated that the Earl of Warwick had escaped from the Tower. A handsome youth named Lambert Simnel was chosen to personate him. This impostor, having announced that he was the young earl, was taken to Dublin and there proclaimed king under the title of Edward VI. The Earl of Lincoln now deserted the king's cause and joined Simnel at Dublin. Henry at once exhibited in public the real Earl of Warwick, and thus prevented the insurrection from spreading in England. The adherents of the impostor landed in Lancashire, but they were defeated by the king's troops and Simnel was taken prisoner. Lincoln was killed in the battle. To show his contempt for his foe Henry pardoned Simnel and placed him as scullion in the royal kitchen.

Some years later a new pretender appeared. He professed to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the two sons of Edward IV. who were murdered in the Tower in 1483. This youth, whose real name was Perkin Warbeck, found great allies and supporters. His claims were recognized by the Kings of France and Scot

land and by the Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., who looked upon him as her nephew. After various adventures in Ireland, Scotland, and France, Warbeck assumed the title of Richard IV. and unfurled his standard in Cornwall. He raised an army of six thousand men, but on the eve of battle with the king's troops his heart failed him, and, leaving his army to take care of itself, he fled to the sanctuary of Beaulieu. The rebels were soon dispersed and Warbeck was induced to throw himself upon the king's mercy. Henry compelled him to make a full confession of his imposture. This was published, and Warbeck was then placed in close custody. Attempting to escape, he was thrown into the Tower of London. There he made the acquaintance of the unfortunate Earl of Warwick, who had spent nearly all his life in prison for no fault except that he was of royal blood. The pair formed a plan of escape, but it was discovered, and both were put to death (1499). The execution of the Earl of Warwick was the only violent and cruel act of Henry's reign.

At last Henry was settled safely upon the throne. His attention was now devoted to the accumulation of money, to secure which he resorted to most unjust exactions and extortions. Towards the end of his reign he got two griping and cunning lawyers, Empson and Dudley, to help him. They raked up all sorts of old and obsolete laws and pretexts for extorting money from the people, and made themselves cordially hated by everybody but the king, whose coffers they were filling.

Henry took great pains to lessen the power of the nobles, for he was determined to have no more noblemen like the Earl of Warwick of Edward IV.'s time, who could make or unmake kings at his pleasure. He passed a law allowing the nobles to sell their estates. Hitherto when an estate was in "entail" it was fixed to a particular line of heirs, who had no power to sell or bequeath it to any other persons. Now the

middle classes who had money gladly bought these estates from nobles burdened with debt, and thus rose in importance.

The great event of this age was the discovery of the New World. Although this was accomplished by the Spanish under Columbus, the main-land of North America was discovered through English enterprise in 1497, when Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian sent out by Henry VII., touched at Labrador.

Throughout his entire reign Henry maintained peaceful relations with foreign countries; and he cemented these alliances by making prudent marriages for his children. His eldest son, Arthur, married Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand of Spain, and his eldest daughter, Margaret, became the wife of the King of Scotland. Momentous events afterwards grew out of both these marriages.

Henry died in 1509. He left in his treasury one million eight hundred thousand pounds, a prodigious sum of money if estimated at its present value. His great vice was avarice, but on his death-bed he felt some compunctions for the means he had employed in amassing his great wealth, and he enjoined upon his son to restore the money to those from whom it had been unjustly extorted.

Arthur, the Prince of Wales, having died several years previous, Henry was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII., a youth of eighteen.

1512. Discovery of Florida.

After the discovery of America in 1492, innumerable expeditions were made to the New World by the maritime nations of Europe. The Spaniards were for a time foremost in these voyages of discovery. They established colonies in the West India Islands and discovered the main-land of South America, but made no attempt to explore the main-land of North America. At length, in 1512, Juan Ponce de Leon,

the Spanish governor of Porto Rico, fitted out three ships at his own expense for a voyage of discovery and adventure. He had grown rich in his office at Porto Rico, but he had grown old too, and it was in the hope of finding on one of the Bahama Islands a fountain which, according to a tradition among the natives of Porto Rico, would restore youth and vigor to the most decrepit and enfeebled who bathed in. its waters, that Ponce set out upon his voyage.

After searching for some time through these islands for the wonderful fountain, but all in vain, Ponce sailed northwest and discovered a country hitherto unknown to the Spaniards. Landing a short distance north of the spot where St. Augustine, the oldest town of the United States, was afterwards founded, he claimed the country for the King of Spain and named it Florida, either from the abundance of flowers with which the forests were adorned or (more probably) because of the day on which the discovery was made,-Easter Sunday,—the Spanish Feast of Flowers,-Pascua Florida.

The unsuccessful search for the Fountain of Youth was continued. Turning southward, the adventurers explored the coast for many leagues, discovered the Tortugas Islands, and finally sailed back to Porto Rico, without having found the fountain, and no younger than when they started out.

1513. Discovery of the Pacific Ocean. Soon after the discovery of Florida, one of much greater importance was made in another. part of America. The Spaniards had planted upon the Isthmus of Darien their first continental colony in 1510. Enciso, the first governor, was soon deposed, and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa was raised by his associates to the government of the small colony. He at once despatched one of his officers to Spain to secure the royal commission, without which he had no legal title to the supreme command. Anxious to merit

this dignity in the eyes of the king, Balboa made frequent inroads into the adjacent country, subdued several of the caciques, or chiefs, and collected a considerable quantity of gold. On one On one of these excursions a young chief told him that at the distance of six suns (ie., six days' journey), towards the south they should discover another ocean, near to which was gold in immense quantities.

Balboa immediately concluded that this was the ocean for which Columbus had searched in vain, and he was elated with the idea of performing what that great man had failed to accomplish.

The Isthmus of Darien is not above seventy miles in breadth. It contains a chain of lofty mountains, which are covered with forests almost impenetrable, while the valleys are so marshy that the Indians sometimes found it necessary to build their houses upon trees. To march through this unexplored country with no other guides than Indians whose fidelity could be little trusted was the boldest enterprise on which the Spaniards had hitherto ventured in the New World.

Balboa set out upon this important expedition in September, 1513, accompanied by one hundred and ninety Spaniards and one thousand Indians. On their advance into the interior they were opposed by the natives, who carried off or destroyed whatever could afford subsistence to the troops. When they had penetrated a good way into the mountains, a powerful cacique appeared with a large number of his subjects to oppose their progress. The Spaniards, however, attacked and dispersed them, and, nothing daunted, moved on.

Instead of reaching the sea in six days, they had now spent twenty-five days in forcing their way through the woods and mountains. Many of the soldiers began to fail under such uninterrupted fatigues and some were taken ill. At length the Indians assured them that from the top of the next mountain they should discover

the ocean. When with infinite toil they had climbed up the greater part of that steep ascent, Balboa commanded his men to halt, and he advanced alone to the summit. There at last he beheld the South Sea stretching in endless prospect below, and, falling on his knees, he returned thanks to God. His followers then rushed forward to join in his exultation and gratitude. With alacrity they descended to the sea-shore, and Balboa, advancing into the water, sword in hand, took possession of the ocean in the name of the King of Spain.

After extorting provisions and gold from the chiefs in the neighborhood, the Spaniards returned to the colony at Santa Maria by a different route, but one equally difficult and dangerous, arriving home after an absence of four months.

Balboa immediately sent word to Spain of the important discovery he had made. Instead of rewarding him for his great service Ferdinand ungenerously removed him from the command of the colony. Subsequently the king saw the imprudence of thus superseding the most active and experienced officer in the New World, and he conferred upon Balboa new privileges and authority. Balboa now began to prepare for an expedition to the South Sea, but just as he was ready to sail he was seized by Pedrarias Davila, the new governor, and put to death. Pedrarias was never punished for this unwarrantable crime.

1521. Conquest of Mexico.

The earliest inhabitants of Anahuac, afterwards called Mexico, of whom we have any knowledge were the Toltecs, a partly-civilized race who came from the north in the seventh century. These Toltecs emigrated to Central America in the eleventh century.

The Aztecs, or Mexicans, came from the northwest into the country which now bears This fierce race their name about 1200 A.D.

soon conquered the tribes around them, until at the beginning of the sixteenth century the Aztec empire under Montezuma reached across the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. The Aztecs engrafted upon the civilization of their predecessors many cruel and barbarous practices. They sacrificed human beings to their false gods with the most revolting ceremonies. But they were skilful agriculturists. They manufactured cloth. They wrought the precious metals into exquisite designs and forms. Their capital city, Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, founded in 1325 upon islands in the Lake of Tezcuco, was adorned with lofty and imposing temples.

Such was the condition of Mexico when, in 1518, a Spanish squadron commanded by Juan de Grijalva discovered the country. When Grijalva returned to Cuba without having attempted the settlement of Mexico, Hernando Cortes was given command of an expedition for the subjugation of the country. Cortes was cruel, unprincipled, and avaricious, but he was also energetic and fearless.

In 1519 he landed upon the shores of Mexico with about six hundred Spaniards, a dozen horses, and ten small cannon. He soon heard of the native sovereign Montezuma,—that he reigned over an extensive empire and that his riches were immense. The cupidity of the Spaniards was aroused by these reports, and they set out immediately for Mexico, the residence of Montezuma.

Their progress inland was opposed by the republic of Tlascala, but after several battles, in which the Tlascalans were beaten, the latter concluded a treaty with Cortes and offered to march with him to Mexico, in hope of an opportunity to avenge the wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the Aztecs. Accompanied by several thousands of his new allies, Cortes arrived at Mexico in November, 1519. He was kindly received by Montezuma, who looked upon the Spaniards with their smooth, fair skin

as of divine origin. Soon perceiving that he had pushed forward into a situation where it was difficult to continue, and anxious to carry out his idea of conquering the country, Cortes determined upon the bold plan of seizing Montezuma and carrying him prisoner to the Spanish quarters. Relying upon the implicit obedience of the Mexicans to their monarch's will, he expected soon to obtain control of the government.

Accordingly, one day when alone with the Spaniards, Montezuma was ordered, under threat of instant death if he made a sign or a cry for help, to go with the Spaniards to their quarters as their guest for a time, and to inform his subjects that he went of his own free will. Without a murmur the fallen monarch did as he was commanded, and was conveyed in silent pomp to the Spanish quarters, ostensibly their guest, in reality a close prisoner. The only explanation that can be made. of Montezuma's strange conduct is that he believed the strangers to be of supernatural origin and thought it useless to disobey their commands.

At this critical juncture Cortes heard that an armament had been sent by the jealous governor of Cuba to displace him. Leaving about two hundred Spaniards in Mexico to guard Montezuma, Cortes marched to meet the expedition, captured Narvaez, the leader, and enlisted his followers in his own cause. With his new recruits he returned to Mexico to find the people in insurrection. Realizing at last the intentions of the Spaniards, the Mexicans had risen against them, and failing to induce Montezuma to return to their protection, they killed him as he was attempting to address them from the ramparts of the Spanish quarters. The Spaniards were now furiously attacked. After most desperate fighting, in which more than half the little army perished, the remainder made good their escape from the city. They retreated at once towards Tlascala. On