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diff --git a/33755-8.txt b/33755-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..551938b --- /dev/null +++ b/33755-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6821 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of England, Ireland and +Scotland, by Mary Platt Parmele + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Short History of England, Ireland and Scotland + +Author: Mary Platt Parmele + +Release Date: September 18, 2010 [EBook #33755] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Magna Charta, 1215: King John submits to the Barons, and +signs the Great Charter of British Liberties.] + + + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF + +ENGLAND, IRELAND + +AND SCOTLAND + + +BY + +MARY PLATT PARMELE + + + + +ILLUSTRATED + + + + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1907 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY + +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON + + +COPYRIGHT, 1898, 1900, 1906, BY + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + + + +PREFACE + +Will the readers of this little work please bear in mind the +difficulties which must attend the painting of a very large picture, +with multitudinous characters and details, upon a very small canvas! +This book is mainly an attempt to trace to their sources some of the +currents which enter into the life of Great Britain to-day, and to +indicate the starting-points of some among the various +threads--legislative, judicial, social, etc.--which are gathered into +the imposing strand of English civilization in this closing nineteenth +century. + +The reader will please observe that there seem to have been two things +most closely interwoven with the life of England--RELIGION and MONEY +have been the great evolutionary factors in her development. + +It has been, first, the resistance of the people to the extortions of +money by the ruling class, and second, the violating of their religious +instincts, which has made nearly all that is vital in English history. + +The lines upon which the government has developed to its present +constitutional form are chiefly lines of resistance to oppressive +enactments in these two matters. The dynastic and military history of +England, although picturesque and interesting, is really only a +narrative of the external causes which have impeded the nation's growth +toward its ideal of "the greatest possible good to the greatest +possible number." + +The historic development of Ireland and Scotland, and the events which +have brought these two countries into organic union with England are, +of necessity, very briefly related. + +M. P. P. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +_HISTORY OF ENGLAND_ + + +CHAPTER I. + + PAGE + +Ancient Britain--Cæsar's Invasion--Britain a Roman + Province--Boadicea--Lyndin or London--Roman Legions + Withdrawn--Angles and Saxons--Cerdic--Teutonic + Invasion--English Kingdoms Consolidated . . . . . . . . . . . 9 + + +CHAPTER II. + +Augustine--Edwin--Cædmon--Bæda--Alfred--Canute--Edward + the Confessor--Harold--William the Conqueror . . . . . . . . . 25 + + +CHAPTER III. + +"Gilds" and Boroughs--William II.--Crusades--Henry I.--Henry + II.--Becket's Death--Richard I.--John--Magna Charta . . . . . 40 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Henry III.--Roger Bacon--First True Parliament--Edward + I.--Conquest of Wales--of Scotland--Edward II.--Edward + III.--Battle of Crécy--Richard II.--Wickliffe . . . . . . . . 51 + + +CHAPTER V. + +House of Lancaster--Henry IV.--Henry V.--Agincourt--Battle of + Orleans--Wars of the Roses--House of York--Edward IV.--Richard + III.--Henry VII.--Printing Introduced. . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Henry VIII.--Wolsey--Reformation--Edward VI.--Mary . . . . . . . 73 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Elizabeth--East India Company Chartered--Colonization of + Virginia--Flodden Field--Birth of Mary Stuart--Mary Stuart's + Death--Spanish Armada--Francis Bacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +James I.--First New England Colony--Gunpowder Plot--Translation + of Bible--Charles I.--Archbishop Laud--John Hampden--_Petition + of Right_--Massachusetts Chartered--Earl Strafford--_Star + Chamber_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Long Parliament--Death of Strafford and Laud--Oliver + Cromwell--Death of Charles I.--Long Parliament + Dispersed--Charles II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 + + +CHAPTER X. + +Act of Habeas Corpus--Death of Charles II.--Milton--Bunyan--James + II.--William and Mary--Battle of the Boyne . . . . . . . . . . 122 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Anne--Marlborough--Battle of Blenheim--House of Hanover--George + I.--George II.--Walpole--British Dominion in India--Battle + of Quebec--John Wesley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +George III.--Stamp Act--Tax on Tea--American Independence + Acknowledged--Impeachment of Hastings--War of 1812--First + English Railway--George IV.--William IV.--Reform + Bill--Emancipation of the Slaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Victoria--Famine in Ireland--War with Russia--Sepoy + Rebellion--Massacre at Cawnpore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Atlantic Cable--Daguerre's Discovery--First World's + Fair--Death of Albert--Suez Canal--Victoria Empress of + India--Disestablishment of Irish Branch of Church of + England--Present Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 + + +CHAPTER XV + +Death of Queen Victoria--Russo-Japanese War . . . . . . . . . . 191 + + +_HISTORY OF IRELAND_ + +Pre-Christian Ireland--From Augustine to English Conquest--From + Henry II. to Elizabeth--From Elizabeth to William III. and + Mary--From William III. to Act of Union--From Act of Union + to death of Parnell--New Land Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + + +_HISTORY OF SCOTLAND_ + +Early Celtic Period--Period from Malcolm III. to Robert + Bruce--From Bruce to James I.--From James I. to Union of + Crowns--From Union of Crowns to Treaty of Union--Brief + Summary of Period Since the Treaty of Union . . . . . . . . . 249 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + +Magna Charta, 1215: King John submits to the Barons, and signs + the Great Charter of British Liberties . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + + FACING + PAGE + +Queen Elizabeth going on board the "Golden Hind" . . . . . . . . 80 + +Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament, 1653 . . . . . . . . . 116 + +Nelson's Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 . . . . . . . 144 + +The British Squares at Quatre-Bras, 1815 . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 + +The British in India: A native prince receiving the decoration + of the order of the Star of India from Albert Edward, the + Prince of Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + + + + +{9} + +A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND. + + +CHAPTER I + +The remotest fact in the history of England is written in her rocks. +Geology tells us of a time when no sea flowed between Dover and Calais, +while an unbroken continent extended from the Mediterranean to the +Orkneys. + +Huge mounds of rough stones called Cromlechs, have yielded up still +another secret. Before the coming of the Keltic-Aryans, there dwelt +there two successive races, whose story is briefly told in a few human +fragments found in these "Cromlechs." These remains do not bear the +royal marks of Aryan origin. The men were small in stature, with +inferior skulls; and it is surmised that they belonged to the same +mysterious branch of the human {10} family as the Basques and Iberians, +whose presence in Southern Europe has never been explained. + +When the Aryan came and blotted out these races will perhaps always +remain an unanswered question. But while Greece was clothing herself +with a mantle of beauty, which the world for two thousand years has +striven in vain to imitate, there was lying off the North and West +coasts of the European Continent a group of mist-enshrouded islands of +which she had never heard. + +Obscured by fogs, and beyond the horizon of Civilization, a branch of +the Aryan race known as Britons were there leading lives as primitive +as the American Indians, dwelling in huts shaped like beehives, which +they covered with branches and plastered with mud. While Phidias was +carving immortal statues for the Parthenon, this early Britisher was +decorating his abode with the heads of his enemies; and could those +shapeless blocks at Stonehenge speak, they would, perhaps, tell of +cruel and hideous Druidical rites witnessed on Salisbury Plain, ages +ago. + +{11} + +Rumors of the existence of this people reached the Mediterranean three +or four hundred years before Christ, but not until Cæsar's invasion of +the Island (55 B.C.) was there any positive knowledge of them. + +The actual conquest of Britain was not one of Caesar's achievements. +But from the moment when his covetous eagle-eye viewed the chalk-cliffs +of Dover from the coast of Northern Gaul, its fate was sealed. The +Roman octopus from that moment had fastened its tentacles upon the +hapless land; and in 45 A.D., under the Emperor Claudius, it became a +Roman province. In vain did the Britons struggle for forty years. In +vain did the heroic Boadicea (during the reign of Nero, 61 A.D.), like +Hermann in Germany, and Vercingetorix in France, resist the destruction +of her nation by the Romans. In vain did this woman herself lead the +Britons, in a frenzy of patriotism; and when the inevitable defeat +came, and London was lost, with the desperate courage of the barbarian +she destroyed herself rather than witness the humiliation of her race. + +The stately Westminster and St. Paul's {12} did not look down upon this +heroic daughter of Britain. London at that time was a collection of +miserable huts and entrenched cattle-pens, which were in Keltic speech +called the "Fort-on-the-Lake"--or "Llyndin," an uncouth name in Latin +ears, which gave little promise of the future London, the Romans +helping it to its final form by calling it Londinium. + +But the octopus had firmly closed about its victim, whose struggles, +before the year 100 A.D., had practically ceased. A civilization which +made no effort to civilize was forcibly planted upon the island. Where +had been the humble village, protected by a ditch and felled trees, +there arose the walled city, with temples and baths and forum, and +stately villas with frescoed walls and tessellated floors, and hot-air +currents converting winter into summer. + +So Chester, Colchester, Lincoln, York, London, and a score of other +cities were set like jewels in a surface of rough clay, the Britons +filling in the intervening spaces with their own rude customs, habits, +and manners. Dwelling in wretched cabins {13} thatched with straw and +chinked with mud, they still stubbornly maintained their own uncouth +speech and nationality, while they helplessly saw all they could earn +swallowed up in taxes and tributes by their insatiate conquerors. The +Keltic-Gauls might, if they would, assimilate this Roman civilization, +but not so the Keltic-Britons. + +The two races dwelt side by side, but separate (except to some extent +in the cities), or, if possible, the vanquished retreated before the +vanquisher into Wales and Cornwall; and there to-day are found the only +remains of the aboriginal Briton race in England. + +The Roman General Agricola had built in 78 A.D. a massive wall across +the North of England, extending from sea to sea, to protect the Roman +territory from the Picts and Scots, those wild dwellers in the Northern +Highlands. It seems to us a frail barrier to a people accustomed to +leaping the rocky wall set by nature between the North and the South; +and unless it were maintained by a line of legions extending its entire +length, they must have laughed at such a defence; {14} even when +duplicated later, as it was, by the Emperor Hadrian, in 120 A.D.; and +still twice again, first by Emperor Antoninus, and then by Severus. +For the swift transportation of troops in the defensive warfare always +carried on with the Picts and Scots, magnificent roads were built, +which linked the Romanized cities together in a network of splendid +highways. + +There were more than three centuries of peace. Agriculture, commerce, +and industries came into existence. "Wealth accumulated," but the +Briton "decayed" beneath the weight of a splendid system, which had not +benefited, but had simply crushed out of him his original vigor. +Together with Roman villas, and vice, and luxury, had also come +Christianity. But the Briton, if he had learned to pray, had forgotten +how to fight,--and how to govern; and now the Roman Empire was +perishing. She needed all her legions to keep Alaric and his Goths out +of Rome. + +In 410 A.D. the fair cities and roads were deserted. The tramp of +Roman soldiers was heard no more in the land, and the {15} enfeebled +native race were left helpless and alone to fight their battles with +the Picts and Scots;--that fierce Briton offshoot which had for +centuries dwelt in the fastnesses of the Highlands, and which swarmed +down upon them like vultures as soon as their protectors were gone. + +In 446 A.D. the unhappy Britons invited their fate. Like their +cousins, the Gauls, they invited the Teutons from across the sea to +come to their rescue, and with result far more disastrous. + +When the Frank became the champion and conqueror of Gaul, he had for +centuries been in conflict or in contact with Rome, and had learned +much of the old Southern civilizations, and to some extent adopted +their ideals. Not so the Angles and Saxons, who came pouring into +Britain from Schleswig-Holstein. They were uncontaminated pagans. In +scorn of Roman luxury, they set the torch to the villas, and temples +and baths. They came, exterminating, not assimilating. The more +complaisant Frank had taken Romanized, Latinized Gaul just as he found +her, and had even speedily {16} adopted her religion. It was for Gaul +a change of rulers, but not of civilization. + +But the Angles and Saxons were Teutons of a different sort. They +brought across the sea in those "keels" their religion, their manners, +habits, nature, and speech; and they brought them for use (just as the +Englishman to-day carries with him a little England wherever he goes). +Their religion, habits, and manners they stamped upon the helpless +Britons. In spite of King Arthur, and his knights, and his sword +"Excalibur," they swiftly paganized the land which had been for three +centuries Christianized; and their nature and speech were so ground +into the land of their adoption that they exist to-day wherever the +Anglo-Saxon abides. + +From Windsor Palace to the humblest abode in England (and in America) +are to be found the descendants of these dominating barbarians who +flooded the British Isles in the 5th Century. What sort of a race were +they? Would we understand England to-day, we must understand them. It +is not sufficient to know that they were bearded {17} and stalwart, +fair and ruddy, flaxen-haired and with cold blue eyes. We should know +what sort of souls looked out of those clear cold eyes. What sort of +impulses and hearts dwelt within those brawny breasts. + +Their hearts were barbarous, but loving and loyal, and nature had +placed them in strong, vehement, ravenous bodies. They were untamed +brutes, with noble instincts. + +They had ideals too; and these are revealed in the rude songs and epics +in which they delighted. Monstrous barbarities are committed, but +always to accomplish some stern purpose of duty. They are cruel in +order to be just. This sluggish, ravenous, drinking brute, with no +gleam of tenderness, no light-hearted rhythm in his soul, has yet +chaotic glimpses of the sublime in his earnest, gloomy nature. He +gives little promise of culture, but much of heroism. There is, too, a +reaching after something grand and invisible, which is a deep religious +instinct. All these qualities had the future English nation slumbering +within them. Marriage was sacred, woman honored. All the members of a +family were responsible for the {18} acts of one member. The sense of +obligation and of responsibility was strong and binding. + +Is not every type of English manhood explained by such an inheritance? +From the drunken brawler in his hovel to the English gentleman "taking +his pleasures sadly," all are accounted for; and Hampden, Milton, +Cromwell, John Bright, and Gladstone existed potentially in those +fighting, drinking savages in the 5th Century. + +Their religion, after 150 years, was exchanged for Christianity. Time +softened their manners and habits, and mingled new elements with their +speech. But the Anglo-Saxon _nature_ has defied the centuries and +change. _A strong sense of justice_, and a _resolute resistance to +encroachments upon personal liberty_, are the warp and woof of +Anglo-Saxon character yesterday, to-day and forever. The steady +insistence of these traits has been making English History for +precisely 1,400 years, (from 495 to 1895,) and the history of the +Anglo-Saxon race in America for 200 years as well. + +Our ancestors brought with them from {19} their native land a simple, +just, Teutonic structure of society and government, the base of which +was the _individual free-man_. The family was considered the social +unit. Several families near together made a township, the affairs of +the township being settled by the male freeholders, who met together to +determine by conference what should be done. + +This was the germ of the "town-meeting" and of popular government. In +the "witan," or "wise men," who were chosen as advisers and adjusters +of difficult questions, exist the future legislature and judiciary, +while in the king, or "alder-mann" ("Ealdorman") we see not an +oppressor, but one who by superior age and experience is fitted to +lead. Cerdic, first Saxon king, was simply Cerdic the "Ealdorman" or +"Alder-mann." + +They were a free people from the beginning. They had never bowed the +neck to yoke, their heads had never bent to tyranny. Better far was it +that Roman civilization, built upon Keltic-Briton foundation, should +have been effaced utterly, and that this {20} strong untamed humanity, +even cruel and terrible as it was, should replace it. Roman laws, +language, literature, faith, manners, were all swept away. A few +mosaics, coins, and ruined fragments of walls and roads are all the +record that remains of 300 years of occupation. + +And the Briton himself--what became of him? In Ireland and Scotland he +lingers still; but, except in Wales and Cornwall, England knows him no +more. Like the American Indian, he was swept into the remote, +inaccessible corners of his own land. It seemed cruel, but it had to +be. Would we build strong and high, it must not be upon sand. We +distrust the Kelt as a foundation for nations as we do sand for our +temples. France was never cohesive until a mixture of Teuton had +toughened it. Genius makes a splendid spire, but a poor corner-stone. +It would seem that the Keltic race, brilliant and richly endowed, was +still unsuited to the world in its higher stages of development. In +Britain, Gaul, and Spain they were displaced and absorbed by the +Germanic races. And now for long {21} centuries no Keltic people of +importance has maintained its independence; the Gaelic of the Scotch +Highlands, and of Ireland, the native dialect of the Welsh and of +Brittany, being the scanty remains of that great family of related +tongues which once occupied more territory than German, Latin, and +Greek combined. The solution of the Irish question may lie in the fact +that the Irish are fighting against the inevitable; that they belong to +a race which is on its way to extinction, and which is intended to +survive only as a brilliant thread, wrought into the texture of more +commonplace but more enduring peoples. + +It was written in the book of fate that a great nation should arise +upon that green island by the North Sea. A foundation of Roman cement, +made by a mingling of Keltic-Briton, and a corrupt, decayed +civilization, would have altered not alone the fate of a nation, but +the History of the World. Our barbarian ancestors brought from +Schleswig-Holstein a rough, clean, strong foundation for what was to +become a new type of humanity on the face of the earth. {22} A +Humanity which was not to be Persian nor Greek, nor yet Roman, but to +be nourished on the best results of all, and to become the +standard-bearer for the Civilization of the future. + +The Jutes came first as an advance-guard of the great Teuton invasion. +It was but the prologue to the play when Hengist and Horsa, in 449 +A.D., occupied what is now Kent, in the Southeast extremity of England. +It was only when Cerdic and his Saxons placed foot on British soil (495 +A.D.) that the real drama began. And when the Angles shortly afterward +followed and occupied all that the Saxons had not appropriated (the +north and east coast), the actors were all present and the play began. +The Angles were destined to bestow their name upon the land +(Angle-land), and the Saxons a line of kings extending from Cerdic to +Victoria. + +Covetous of each other's possessions, these Teutons fought as brothers +will. Exterminating the Britons was diversified with efforts to +exterminate one another. Seven kingdoms, four Anglian and three Saxon, +{23} for 300 years tried to annihilate each other; then, finally +submitting to the strongest, united completely,--as only children of +one household of nations can do. The Saxons had been for two centuries +dominating more and more until the long struggle ended--behold, +Anglo-Saxon England consolidated under one Saxon king! The other +kingdoms--Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and +Essex--surviving as shires and counties. + +In 802 A.D., while Charlemagne was welding together his vast and +composite empire, the Saxon Egbert (Ecgberht), descendant of Cerdic +(the "Alder-mann"), was consolidating a less imposing, but, as it has +proved, more permanent kingdom; and the History of a United England had +begun. + +While Christianity had been effaced by the Teuton invasion in England, +it had survived among the Irish-Britons. Ireland was never paganized. +With fiery zeal, her people not alone maintained the religion of the +Cross at home, but even drove back the heathen flood by sending +missionaries among the Picts in the Highlands, and into {24} other +outlying territory about the North Sea. + +Pope Gregory the Great saw this Keltic branch of Christendom, actually +outrunning Latin Christianity in activity, and he was spurred to an act +which was to be fraught with tremendous consequences. + + + + +{25} + +CHAPTER II + +The same spot in Kent (the isle of Thanet), which had witnessed the +landing of Hengist and Horsa in 449, saw in 597 a band of men, calling +themselves "Strangers from Rome," arriving under the leadership of +Augustine. + +They moved in solemn procession toward Canterbury, bearing before them +a silver cross, with a picture of Christ, chanting in concert, as they +went, the litany of their Church, Christianity had entered by the same +door through which paganism had come 150 years before. + +The religion of Wodin and Thor had ceased to satisfy the expanding soul +of the Anglo-Saxon; and the new faith rapidly spread; its charm +consisting in the light it seemed to throw upon the darkness +encompassing man's past and future. + +{26} + +An aged chief said to Edwin, king of Northumbria, (after whom +"Edwins-borough" was named,) "Oh, King, as a bird flies through this +hall on a winter night, coming out of the darkness, and vanishing into +the darkness again, even so is our life! If these strangers can tell +us aught of what is beyond, let us hear them." + +King Edwin was among the first to espouse the new religion, and in less +than one hundred years the entire land was Christianized. + +With the adoption of Christianity a new life began to course in the +veins of the people. + +Cædmon, an unlettered Northumbrian peasant, was inspired by an Angel +who came to him in his sleep and told him to "Sing." "He was not +disobedient unto the heavenly vision." He wrote epics upon all the +sacred themes, from the creation of the World to the Ascension of +Christ and the final judgment of man, and English literature was born. + +"Paradise Lost," one thousand years later, was but the echo of this +poet-peasant, who was the Milton of the 7th Century. + +{27} + +In the 8th Century, Bæda (the venerable Beda), another Northumbrian, +who was monk, scholar, and writer, wrote the first History of his +people and his country, and discoursed upon astronomy, physics, +meteorology, medicine, and philosophy. These were but the early +lispings of Science; but they held the germs of the "British +Association" and of the "Royal Society;" for as English poetry has its +roots in Cædmon, so is English intellectual life rooted in Bæda. + +The culmination of this new era was in Alfred, who came to the throne +of his grandfather, Egbert, in 871. + +He brought the highest ideals of the duties of a King, a broad, +statesmanlike grasp of conditions, an unsullied heart, and a clear, +strong intelligence, with unusual inclination toward an intellectual +life. + +Few Kings have better deserved the title of "great." With him began +the first conception of National law. He prepared a code for the +administration of justice in his Kingdom, which was prefaced by the Ten +Commandments, and ended with the Golden Rule; while in his leisure +hours he gave {28} coherence and form to the literature of the time. +Taking the writings of Cædmon, Bæda, Pope Gregory, and Boethius; +translating, editing, commentating, and adding his own to the views of +others upon a wide range of subjects. + +He was indeed the father not alone of a legal system in England, but of +her culture and literature besides. The people of Wantage, his native +town, did well, in 1849, to celebrate the one-thousandth anniversary of +the birth of the great King Alfred. + +But a condition of decadence was in progress in England, which Alfred's +wise reign was powerless to arrest, and which his greatness may even +have tended to hasten. The distance between the king and the people +had widened from a mere step to a gulf. When the Saxon kings began to +be clothed with a mysterious dignity as "the Lord's anointed," the +people were correspondingly degraded; and the degradation of this +class, in which the true strength of England consisted, bore unhappy +but natural fruits. + +A slave or "unfree" class had come with {29} the Teutons from their +native land. This small element had for centuries now been swelled by +captives taken in war, and by accessions through misery, poverty, and +debt, which drove men to sell themselves and families and wear the +collar of servitude. The slave was not under the lash; but he was a +mere chattel, having no more part than cattle (from whom this title is +derived) in the real life of the state. + +In addition to this, political and social changes had been long +modifying the structure of society in a way tending to degrade the +general condition. As the lesser Kingdoms were merged into one large +one, the wider dominion of the king removed him further from the +people; every succeeding reign raising him higher, depressing them +lower, until the old English freedom was lost. + +The "folk-moot" and "Witenagemot"* were heard of no more. The life of +the early English State had been in its "folk-moot," and hence rested +upon the individual English freeman, who knew no superior but {30} God, +and the law. Now, he had sunk into the mere "villein," bound to follow +his lord to the field, to give him his personal service, and to look to +him alone for justice. With the decline of the freeman (or of popular +government) came Anglo-Saxon degeneracy, which made him an easy prey to +the Danes. + + +*Witenagemot--a Council composed of "Witan" or "Wise Men." + + +The Northmen were a perpetual menace and scourge to England and +Scotland. There never could be any feeling of permanent security while +that hostile flood was always ready to press in through an unguarded +spot on the coast. The sea wolves and robbers from Norway came +devouring, pillaging, and ravaging, and then away again to their own +homes or lairs. Their boast was that they "scorned to earn by sweat +what they might win by blood." But the Northmen from Denmark were of a +different sort. They were looking for permanent conquest, and had +dreams of Empire, and, in fact, had had more or less of a grasp upon +English soil for centuries before Alfred; and one of his greatest +achievements was driving these {31} hated invaders out of England. In +1013, under the leadership of Sweyn, they once more poured in upon the +land, and after a brief but fierce struggle a degenerate England was +gathered into the iron hand of the Dane. + +Canute, the son of Sweyn, continued the successes of his father, +conquering in Scotland Duncan (slain later by Macbeth), and proceeded +to realize his dream of a great Scandinavian empire, which should +include Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and England. He was one of those +monumental men who mark the periods in the pages of History, and yet +child enough to command the tides to cease, and when disobeyed, was so +humiliated, it is said, he never again placed a crown upon his head, +acknowledging the presence of a King greater than himself. + +Conqueror though he was, the Dane was not exactly a foreigner in +England. The languages of the two nations were almost the same, and a +race affinity took away much of the bitterness of the subjugation, +while Canute ruled more as a wise native King than as a Conqueror. + +{32} + +But the span of life, even of a founder of Empire, is short. Canute's +sons were degenerate, cruel, and in forty years after the Conquest had +so exasperated the Anglo-Saxons that enough of the primitive spirit +returned, to throw off the foreign yoke, and the old Saxon line was +restored in Edward, known as "the Confessor." + +Edward had qualities more fitted to adorn the cloister than the throne. +He was more of a Saint than King, and was glad to leave the affairs of +his realm in the hands of Earl Godwin. This man was the first great +English statesman who had been neither Priest nor King. Astute, +powerful, dexterous, he was virtual ruler of the Kingdom until the +death of the childless King Edward in 1066, when Godwin's son Harold +was called to the empty throne. + +Foreign royal alliances have caused no end of trouble in the life of +Kingdoms. A marriage between a Saxon King and a Norman Princess, in +about the year 1000 A.D., has made a vast deal of history. This +Princess of Normandy, was the grandmother of the man, who was to be +known as "William {33} the Conqueror." In the absence of a direct heir +to the English throne, made vacant by Edward's death, this descent gave +a shadowy claim to the ambitious Duke across the Channel, which he was +not slow to use for his own purposes. + +He asserted that Edward had promised that he should succeed him, and +that Harold, the son of Godwin, had assured him of his assistance in +securing his rights upon the death of Edward the Confessor. A +tremendous indignation stirred his righteous soul when he heard of the +crowning of Harold; not so much at the loss of the throne, as at the +treachery of his friend. + +In the face of tremendous opposition and difficulties, he got together +his reluctant Barons and a motley host, actually cutting down the trees +with which to create a fleet, and then, depending upon pillage for +subsistence, rushed to face victory or ruin. + +The Battle of Senlac (or Hastings) has been best told by a woman's hand +in the famous Bayeux Tapestry. An arrow pierced the unhappy Harold in +the eye, entering the brain, and the head which had worn the {34} crown +of England ten short months lay in the dust, William, with wrath +unappeased, refusing him burial. + +William, Duke of Normandy, was King of England. Not alone that. He +claimed that he had been rightful King ever since the death of his +cousin Edward the Confessor; and that those who had supported Harold +were traitors, and their lands confiscated to the crown. As nearly all +had been loyal to Harold, the result was that most of the wealth of the +Nation was emptied into William's lap, not by right of conquest, but by +English law. + +Feudalism had been gradually stifling old English freedom, and the King +saw himself confronted with a feudal baronage, nobles claiming +hereditary, military, and judicial power independent of the King, such +as degraded the Monarchy and riveted down the people in France for +centuries. With the genius of the born ruler and conqueror, William +discerned the danger and its remedy. Availing himself of the early +legal constitution of England, he placed justice in the old local +courts of the {35} "hundred" and "shire," to which every freeman had +access, and these courts he placed under the jurisdiction of the _King_ +alone. In Germany and France the vassal owned supreme fealty to his +_lord_, against all foes, even the King himself. In England, the +tenant from this time swore direct fealty to none save his King. + +With the unbounded wealth at his disposal, William granted enormous +estates to his followers upon condition of military service at his +call. In other words, he seized the entire landed property of the +State, and then used it to buy the allegiance of the people. By this +means the whole Nation was at his command as an army subject to his +will; and there was at the same time a breaking up of old feudal +tyrannies by a redistribution of the soil under a new form of land +tenure. + +The City of London was rewarded for instant submission by a Charter, +signed,--not by his name--but his mark, for the Conqueror of England +(from whom Victoria is twenty-fifth remove in descent), could not write +his name. + +{36} + +He built the Tower of London, to hold the City in restraint. Fortress, +palace, prison, it stands to-day the grim progenitor of the Castles and +Strongholds which soon frowned from every height in England. + +He took the outlawed, despised Jew under his protection; not as a +philanthropist, but seeing in him a being who was always accumulating +wealth, which could in any emergency be wrung from him by torture, if +milder measures failed. Their hoarded treasure flowed into the land. +They built the first stone houses, and domestic architecture was +created. Jewish gold built Castles and Cathedrals, and awoke the +slumbering sense of beauty. Through their connection with the Jews in +Spain and the East, knowledge of the physical sciences also streamed +into the land, and an intellectual life was created, which bore fruit a +century and a half later in Roger Bacon. + +All these things were not done in a day. It was twenty years after the +Conquest that William ordered a survey and valuation of all the land, +which was recorded in what was known as "Domesday Book," that he {37} +might know the precise financial resources of his kingdom, and what was +due him on the confiscated estates. Then he summoned all the nobles +and large landholders to meet him at Salisbury Plain, and those +shapeless blocks at "Stonehenge" witnessed a strange scene when 60,000 +men there took solemn oath to support William as King _even against +their own lords_. With this splendid consummation his work was +practically finished. He had, with supreme dexterity and wisdom, +blended two Civilizations, had at the right moment curbed the +destructive element in feudalism, and had secured to the Englishman +free access to the surface for all time. Thus the old English freedom +was in fact restored by the Norman Conquest, by _direct_ act of the +Conqueror. + +William typified in his person a transitional time, the old Norse +world, mingling strangely in him with the new. He was the last outcome +of his race. Norse daring and cruelty were side by side with +gentleness and aspiration. No human pity tempered his vengeance. When +hides were hung on the City Walls at Alençon, in insult {38} to his +mother (the daughter of a tanner), he tore out the eyes, cut off the +hands and feet of the prisoners, and threw them over the walls. When +he did this, and when he refused Harold's body a grave, it was the +spirit of the sea-wolves within him. But it was the man of the coming +Civilization, who could not endure death by process of law in his +Kingdom, and who delighted to discourse with the gentle and pious +Anselm, upon the mysteries of life and death. + +The _indirect_ benefits of the Conquest, came in enriching streams from +the older civilizations. As Rome had been heir to the accumulations of +experience in the ancient Nations, so England, through France became +the heir to Latin institutions, and was joined to the great continuous +stream of the World's highest development. Fresh intellectual stimulus +renovated the Church. Roman law was planted upon the simple Teuton +system of rights. Every department in State and in Society shared the +advance, while language became refined, flexible, and enriched. + +This engrafting with the results of {39} antiquity, was an enormous +saving of time, in the development of a nation; but it did not change +the essential character of the Anglo-Saxon, nor of his speech. The +ravenous Teuton could devour and assimilate all these new elements and +remain essentially unchanged. The language of Bunyan and of the Bible +is Saxon; and it is the language of the Englishman to-day in childhood +and in extremity. A man who is thoroughly in earnest--who is +drowning--speaks Saxon. Character, as much as speech, remains +unaltered. There is small trace of the Norman in the House of Commons, +or in the meetings at Exeter Hall, or in the home, or life of the +people anywhere. + +The qualities which have made England great were brought across the +North Sea in those "keels" in the 5th Century. The Anglo-Saxon put on +the new civilization and institutions brought him by the Conquest, as +he would an embroidered garment; but the man within the garment, though +modified by civilization, has never essentially changed. + + + + +{40} + +CHAPTER III + +It is not in the exploits of its Kings but in the aspirations and +struggles of its people, that the true history of a nation is to be +sought. During the rule and misrule of the two sons, and grandson, of +the Conqueror, England was steadily growing toward its ultimate form. + +As Society outgrew the simple ties of blood which bound it together in +old Saxon England, the people had sought a larger protection in +combinations among fellow freemen, based upon identity of occupation. + +The "Frith-Gilds," or peace Clubs, came into existence in Europe during +the 9th and 10th Centuries. They were harshly repressed in Germany and +Gaul, but found kindly welcome from Alfred in England. In their mutual +responsibility, in their motto, "if any misdo, let all bear it," Alfred +saw simply {41} an enlarged conception of the "_family_," which was the +basis of the Saxon social structure; and the adoption of this idea of a +larger unity, in _combination_, was one of the first phases of an +expanding national life. So, after the conquest, while ambitious kings +were absorbing French and Irish territory or fighting with recalcitrant +barons, the _merchant, craft_, and _church_ "_gilds_" were creating a +great popular force, which was to accomplish more enduring conquests. + +It was in the "boroughs" and in these "gilds" that the true life of the +nation consisted. It was the shopkeepers and artisans which brought +the right of free speech, and free meeting, and of equal justice across +the ages of tyranny. One freedom after another was being won, and the +battle with oppression was being fought, not by Knights and Barons, but +by the sturdy burghers and craftsmen. Silently as the coral insect, +the Anglo-Saxon was building an indestructible foundation for English +liberties. + +The Conqueror had bequeathed England to his second son, William Rufus, +and {42} Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. In 1095 (eight years +after his death) commenced those extraordinary wars carried on by the +chivalry of Europe against the Saracens in the East. Robert, in order +to raise money to join the first crusade, mortgaged Normandy to his +brother, and an absorption of Western France had begun, which, by means +of conquest by arms and the more peaceful conquest by marriage, would +in fifty years extend English dominion from the Scottish border to the +Pyrenees. + +William's son Henry (I.), who succeeded his older brother, William +Rufus, inherited enough of his father's administrative genius to +complete the details of government which he had outlined. He organized +the beginning of a judicial system, creating out of his secretaries and +Royal Ministers a Supreme Court, whose head bore the title of +Chancellor. He created also another tribunal, which represented the +body of royal vassals who had all hitherto been summoned together three +times a year. This "King's Court," as it was called, considered +everything relating to the revenues of the state. Its {43} meetings +were about a table with a top like a chessboard, which led to calling +the members who sat, "Barons of the Exchequer." He also wisely created +a class of lesser nobles, upon whom the old barons looked down with +scorn, but who served as a counterbalancing force against the arrogance +of an old nobility, and bridged the distance between them and the +people. + +So, while the thirty-five years of Henry's reign advanced, and +developed the purposes of his father, his marriage with a Saxon +Princess did much to efface the memory of foreign conquest, in +restoring the old Saxon blood to the royal line. But the young Prince +who embodied this hope, went down with 140 young nobles in the "White +Ship," while returning from Normandy. It is said that his father never +smiled again, and upon his death, his nephew Stephen was king during +twenty unfruitful years. + +But the succession returned through Matilda, daughter of Henry I. and +the Saxon princess. She married Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. This +Geoffrey, called "the handsome," always wore in his helmet a sprig of +{44} the broom-plant of Anjou (_Planta genista_), hence their son, +Henry II. of England, was known as Henry _Plante-à-genêt_. + +This first Plantagenet was a strong, coarse-fibred man; a practical +reformer, without sentiment, but really having good government +profoundly at heart. + +He took the reins into his great, rough hands with a determination +first of all to curb the growing power of the clergy, by bringing it +under the jurisdiction of the civil courts. To this end he created his +friend and chancellor, Thomas à Becket, a primate of the Church to aid +the accomplishment of his purpose. But from the moment Becket became +Archbishop of Canterbury, he was transformed into the defender of the +organization he was intended to subdue. Henry was furious when he +found himself resisted and confronted by the very man he had created as +an instrument of his will. These were years of conflict. At last, in +a moment of exasperation, the king exclaimed, "Is there none brave +enough to rid me of this low-born priest!" This was construed into a +command. Four knights sped swiftly {45} to Canterbury Cathedral, and +murdered the Archbishop at the altar. Henry was stricken with remorse, +and caused himself to be beaten with rods like the vilest criminal, +kneeling upon the spot stained with the blood of his friend. It was a +brutal murder, which caused a thrill of horror throughout Christendom. +Becket was canonized; miracles were performed at his tomb, and for +hundreds of years a stream of bruised humanity flowed into Canterbury, +seeking surcease of sorrow, and cure for sickness and disease, by +contact with the bones of the murdered saint. + +But Henry had accomplished his end. The clergy was under the +jurisdiction of the King's Court during his reign. He also continued +the judicial reorganization commenced by Henry I. He divided the +kingdom into judicial districts. This completely effaced the legal +jurisdiction of the nobles. The Circuits thus defined correspond +roughly with those existing to-day; and from the Court of Appeals, +which was also his creation, came into existence tribunal after +tribunal in the future, including the "Star Chamber" and "Privy +Council." + +{46} + +But of all the blows aimed at the barons none told more effectually +than the restoration of a national militia, which freed the crown from +dependence upon feudal retainers for military service. + +In a fierce quarrel between two Irish chieftains, Henry was called upon +to interfere; and when the quarrel was adjusted, Ireland found herself +annexed to the English crown, and ruled by a viceroy appointed by the +king. The drama of the Saxons defending the Britons from the Picts and +Scots, was repeated. + +This first Plantagenet, with fiery face, bull-neck, bowed legs, keen, +rough, obstinate, passionate, left England greater and freer, and yet +with more of a personal despotism than he had found her. The trouble +with such triumphs is that they presuppose the wisdom and goodness of +succeeding tyrants. + +Henry's heart broke when he learned that his favorite son, John, was +conspiring against him. He turned his face to the wall and died +(1189), the practical hard-headed old king leaving his throne to a +romantic {47} dreamer, who could not even speak the language of his +country. + +Richard (Coeur de Lion) was a hero of romance, but not of history. The +practical concerns of his kingdom had no charm for him. His eye was +fixed upon Jerusalem, not England, and he spent almost the entire ten +years of his reign in the Holy Land. + +The Crusades, had fired the old spirit of Norse adventure left by the +Danes, and England shared the general madness of the time. As a result +for the treasure spent and blood spilled in Palestine, she received a +few architectural devices and the science of Heraldry. But to Europe, +the benefits were incalculable. The barons were impoverished, their +great estates mortgaged to thrifty burghers, who extorted from their +poverty charters of freedom, which unlocked the fetters and broke the +spell of the dark ages. + +Richard the Lion-Hearted died as he had lived, not as a king, but as a +romantic adventurer. He was shot by an arrow while trying to secure +fabulous hidden treasure in France, with which to continue his wars in +Palestine. + +{48} + +His brother John, in 1199, ascended the throne. His name has come down +as a type of baseness, cruelty, and treachery. His brother Geoffrey +had married Constance of Brittany, and their son Arthur, named after +the Keltic hero, had been urged as a rival claimant for the English +throne. Shakespeare has not exaggerated the cruel fate of this boy, +whose monstrous uncle really purposed having his eyes burnt out, being +sure that if he were blind he would no longer be eligible for king. +But death is surer even than blindness, and Hubert, his merciful +protector from one fate, was powerless to avert the other. Some one +was found with "heart as hard as hammered iron," who put an end to the +young life (1203) at the Castle of Rouen. + +But the King of England, was vassal to the King of France, and Philip +summoned John to account to him for this deed. When John refused to +appear, the French provinces were torn from him. In 1204 he saw an +Empire stretching from the English Channel to the Pyrenees vanish from +his grasp, and was at one blow reduced to the realm of England. + +{49} + +When we see on the map, England as she was in that day, sprawling in +unwieldy fashion over the western half of France, we realize how much +stronger she has been on "that snug little island, that right little, +tight little island," and we can see that John's wickedness helped her +to be invincible. + +The destinies of England in fact rested with her worst king. His +tyranny, brutality, and disregard of his subjects' rights, induced a +crisis which laid the corner-stone of England's future, and buttressed +her liberties for all time. + +At a similar crisis in France, two centuries later, the king (Charles +VII.) made common cause with the people against the barons or dukes. +In England, in the 13th Century, the barons and people were drawn +together against the King. They framed a Charter, its provisions +securing protection and justice to every freeman in England. On Easter +Day, 1215, the barons, attended by two thousand armed knights, met the +King near Oxford, and demanded his signature to the paper. John was +awed, and asked them to {50} name a day and place. "Let the day be the +15th of June, and the place Runnymede," was the reply. + +A brown, shrivelled piece of parchment in the British Museum to-day, +attests to the keeping of this appointment. That old Oak at Runnymede, +under whose spreading branches the name of John was affixed to the +Magna Charta, was for centuries held the most sacred spot in England. + +It is an impressive picture we get of John, "the Lord's Anointed," when +this scene was over, in a burst of rage rolling on the floor, biting +straw, and gnawing a stick! "They have placed twenty-five kings over +me," he shouted in a fury; meaning the twenty-five barons who were +entrusted with the duty of seeing that the provisions of the Charter +were fulfilled. + +Whether his death, one year later (1216), was the result of vexation of +spirit or surfeit of peaches and cider, or poison, history does not +positively say. But England shed no tears for the King to whom she +owes her liberties in the Magna Charta. + + + + +{51} + +CHAPTER IV + +For the succeeding 56 years John's son, Henry III., was King of +England. While this vain, irresolute, ostentatious king was extorting +money for his ambitious designs and extravagant pleasures, and +struggling to get back the pledges given in the Great Charter, new and +higher forces, to which he gave no heed, were at work in his kingdom. + +Paris at this time was the centre of a great intellectual revival, +brought about by the Crusades. We have seen that through the despised +Jew, at the time of the Conquest, a higher civilization was brought +into England. Along with his hoarded gold came knowledge and culture, +which he had obtained from the Saracen. Now, these germs had been +revived by direct contact with the sources of ancient knowledge in {52} +the East during the Crusades; and while the long mental torpor of +Europe was rolling away like mist before the rising sun, England felt +the warmth of the same quickening rays, and Oxford took on a new life. + +It was not the stately Oxford of to-day, but a rabble of roystering, +revelling youths, English, Welsh, and Scotch, who fiercely fought out +their fathers' feuds. + +They were a turbulent mob, who gave advance opinion, as it were, upon +every ecclesiastical or political measure, by fighting it out on the +streets of their town, so that an outbreak at Oxford became a sort of +prelude to every great political movement. + +Impossible as it seems, intellectual life grew and expanded in this +tumultuous atmosphere; and while the democratic spirit of the +University threatened the king, its spirit of free intellectual inquiry +shook the Church. + +The revival of classical learning, bringing streams of thought from old +Greek and Latin fountains, caused a sudden expansion. It was like the +discovery of an unsuspected and greater world, with a body of new +truth, {53} which threw the old into contemptuous disuse. A spirit of +doubt, scepticism, and denial, was engendered. They comprehended now +why Abelard had claimed the "supremacy of reason over faith," and why +Italian poets smiled at dreams of "immortality." Then, too, the new +culture compelled respect for infidel and for Jew. Was it not from +their impious hands, that this new knowledge of the physical universe +had been received? + +Roger Bacon drank deeply from these fountains, new and old, and +struggled like a giant to illumine the darkness of his time, by +systematizing all existing knowledge. His "Opus Majus" was intended to +bring these riches to the unlearned. But he died uncomprehended, and +it was reserved for later ages to give recognition to his stupendous +work, wrought in the twilight out of dimly comprehended truth. + +Pursued by the dream of recovering the French Empire, lost by his +father, and of retracting the promises given in the Charter, Henry III. +spent his entire reign in conflict with the barons and the people, who +were {54} closely drawn together by the common danger and rallied to +the defence of their liberties under the leadership of Simon de +Montfort. + +It was at the town of Oxford that the great council of barons and +bishops held its meetings. This council, which had long been called +"Parliament" (from _parler_), in the year 1265 became for the first +time a representative body, when Simon de Montfort summoned not alone +the lords and bishops--but two citizens from every city, and two +burghers from every borough. A Rubicon was passed when the merchant, +and the shopkeeper, sat for the first time with the noble and the +bishops in the great council. It was thirty years before the change +was fully effected, it being in the year 1295, a little more than 600 +years ago, that the first true Parliament met. But the "House of +Lords" and the germ of the "House of Commons," existed in this assembly +at Oxford in 1265, and a government "of the people, for the people, by +the people," had commenced. + +Edward I., the son and successor of Henry III., not only graciously +confirmed {55} the Great Charter, but added to its privileges. His +expulsion of the Jews, is the one dark blot on his reign. + +He conquered North Wales, the stronghold where those Keltic Britons, +the Welsh, had always maintained a separate existence; and as a +recompense for their wounded feelings bestowed upon the heir to the +throne, the title "_Prince of Wales_." + +Westminster Abbey was completed at this time and began to be the +resting-place for England's illustrious dead. The invention of +gunpowder, which was to make iron-clad knights a romantic tradition, +also belongs to this period, which saw too, the conquest of Scotland; +and the magic stone supposed to have been Jacob's pillow at Bethel, and +which was the Scottish talisman, was carried to Westminster Abbey and +built into a coronation-chair, which has been used at the crowning of +every English sovereign since that time. + +Scottish liberties were not so sacrificed by this conquest as had been +the Irish. The Scots would not be slaves, nor would they stay +conquered without many a struggle. + +{56} + +Robert Bruce led a great rebellion, which extended into the succeeding +reign, and Bruce's name was covered with glory by his great victory at +Bannockburn (1314). + +We need not linger over the twenty years during which Edward II., by +his private infamies, so exasperated his wife and son that they brought +about his deposition, which was followed soon after by his murder; and +then by a disgraceful regency, during which the Queen's favorite, +Mortimer, was virtually king. But King Edward III. commenced to rule +with a strong hand. As soon as he was eighteen years old he summoned +the Parliament. Mortimer was hanged at Tyburn, and his queen-mother +was immured for life. + +We have turned our backs upon Old England. The England of a +representative Parliament and a House of Commons, of ideals derived +from a wider knowledge, the England of a Westminster Abbey, and +gunpowder, and cloth-weaving, is the England we all know to-day. +Vicious kings and greed of territory, and lust of power, will keep the +road from being a smooth one, {57} but it leads direct to the England +of Edward VII.; and 1906 was roughly outlined in 1327, when Edward III. +grasped the helm with the decision of a master. + +After completing the subjection of Scotland he invaded France,--the +pretext of resisting her designs upon the Netherlands, being merely a +cover for his own thirst for territory and conquest. The victory over +the French at Crécy, 1346, (and later of Poitiers,) covered the warlike +king and his son, Edward the "Black Prince," with imperishable renown. +Small cannon were first used at that battle. The knights and the +archers laughed at the little toy, but found it useful in frightening +the enemies' horses. + +Edward III. covered England with a mantle of military glory, for which +she had to pay dearly later. He elevated the kingship to a more +dazzling height, for which there have also been some expensive +reckonings since. He introduced a new and higher dignity into nobility +by the title of Duke, which he bestowed upon his sons; the great +landholders or barons, having until that time constituted a body in +which all were peers. {58} He has been the idol of heroic England. +But he awoke the dream of French conquest, and bequeathed to his +successors a fatal war, which lasted for 100 years. + +The "Black Prince" died, and the "Black Death," a fearful pestilence, +desolated a land already decimated by protracted wars. The valiant old +King, after a life of brilliant triumphs, carried a sad and broken +heart to the grave, and Richard II., son of the heroic Prince Edward, +was king. + +This last of the Plantagenets had need of great strength and wisdom to +cope with the forces stirring at that time in his kingdom, and was +singularly deficient in both. The costly conquests of his grandfather, +were a troublesome legacy to his feeble grandson. Enormous taxes +unjustly levied to pay for past glories, do not improve the temper of a +people. A shifting of the burden from one class to another arrayed all +in antagonisms against each other, and finally, when the burden fell +upon the lowest order, as it is apt to do, it rose in fierce rebellion +under the leadership of Wat Tyler, a blacksmith (1381). + +Concessions were granted and quiet {59} restored, but the people had +learned a new way of throwing off injustice. There began to be a new +sentiment in the air. Men were asking why the few should dress in +velvet and the many in rags. It was the first English revolt against +the tyranny of wealth, when people were heard on the streets singing +the couplet-- + + "When Adam delved and Eve span, + Who was then the gentleman?" + + +As in the times of the early Saxon kings, the cause breeding +destruction was the widening distance between the king and the people. +In those earlier times the people unresistingly lapsed into decadence, +but the Anglo-Saxon had learned much since then, and it was not so safe +to degrade him and trample on his rights. + +Then, too, John Wickliffe had been telling some very plain truths to +the people about the Church of Rome, and there was developing a +sentiment which made Pope and Clergy tremble. There was a spirit of +inquiry, having its centre at Oxford, looking into the title-deeds of +the great ecclesiastical {60} despotism. Wickliffe heretically claimed +that the Bible was the one ground of faith, and he added to his heresy +by translating that Book into simple Saxon English, that men might +learn for themselves what was Christ's message to man. + +Luther's protest in the 16th Century was but the echo of Wickliffe's in +the 14th,--against the tyranny of a Church from which all spiritual +life had departed, and which in its decay tightened its grasp upon the +very things which its founder put "behind Him" in the temptation on the +mountain, and aimed at becoming a temporal despotism. + +Closely intermingled with these struggles was going on another, +unobserved at the time. Three languages held sway in England--Latin in +the Church, French in polite society, and English among the people. +Chaucer's genius selected the language of the people for its +expression, as also of course, did Wickliffe in his translation of the +Bible. French and Latin were dethroned, and the "King's English" +became the language of the literature and speech of the English nation. + +{61} + +He would have been a wise and great King who could have comprehended +and controlled all the various forces at work at this time. Richard +II. was neither. This seething, tumbling mass of popular discontents +was besides only the groundwork for the personal strifes and ambitions +which raged about the throne. The wretched King, embroiled with every +class and every party, was pronounced by Parliament unfit to reign, the +same body which deposed him, giving the crown to his cousin Henry of +Lancaster (1399), and the reign of the Plantagenets was ended. + + + + +{62} + +CHAPTER V + +The new king did not inherit the throne; he was _elected_ to it. He +was an arbitrary creation of Parliament. The Duke of Lancaster, +Henry's father (John of Gaunt), was only a younger son of Edward III. +According to the strict rules of hereditary succession, there were two +others with claims superior to Henry's. Richard Duke of York, his +cousin, claimed a double descent from the Duke Clarence and also from +the Duke of York, both sons of Edward III. + +This led later to the dreariest chapter in English history, "the Wars +of the Roses." + +It is an indication of the enormous increase in the strength of +Parliament, that such an exercise of power, the creating of a king, was +possible. Haughty, arrogant kings bowed submissively to its will. +Henry could not make laws nor impose {63} taxes without first summoning +Parliament and obtaining his subjects' consent. But corrupting +influences were at work which were destined to cheat England out of her +liberties for many a year. + +The impoverishment of the country to pay for war and royal +extravagances, had awakened a troublesome spirit in the House of +Commons. Cruelty to heretics also, and oppressive enactments were +fought and defeated in this body. The King, clergy, and nobles, were +drawing closer together and farther away from the people, and were +devising ways of stifling their will. + +If the King might not resist the will of Parliament, he could fill it +with men who would not resist his; so, by a system of bribery and force +in the boroughs, the House of Commons had injected into it enough of +the right sort to carry obnoxious measures. This was only one of the +ways in which the dearly bought liberties were being defeated. + +Henry IV., the first Lancastrian king, lighted the fires of persecution +in England. The infamous "Statute of Heresy" was {64} passed 1401. +Its first victim was a priest who was thrown to the flames for denying +the doctrine of transubstantiation. + +Wickliffe had left to the people not a party, but a sentiment. The +"Lollards," as they were called, were not an organization, but rather a +pervading atmosphere of revolt, which naturally combined with the +social discontent of the time, and there came to be more of hate than +love in the movement, which was at its foundation a revolt against +inequality of condition. As in all such movements, much that was +vicious and unwise in time mingled with it, tending to give some excuse +for its repression. The discarding of an old faith, unless at once +replaced by a new one, is a time fraught with many dangers to Society +and State. + +Such were some of the forces at work for fourteen brief years while +Henry IV. wore the coveted crown, and while his son, the roystering +"Prince Hal," in the new character of King (Henry V.) lived out his +brief nine years of glory and conquest. + +France, with an insane King, vicious Queen Regent, and torn by the +dissensions {65} of ambitious Dukes, had reached her hour of greatest +weakness, when Henry V. swept down upon her with his archers, and broke +her spirit by his splendid victory at Agincourt; then married her +Princess Katharine, and was proclaimed Regent of France, The rough +wooing of his French bride, immortalized by Shakespeare, throws a +glamour of romance over the time. + +But an all-subduing King cut short Henry's triumphs. He was stricken +and died (1422), leaving an infant son nine months old, who bore the +weight of the new title, "King of England and France," while Henry's +brother, the Duke of Bedford, reigned as Regent. + +Then it was, that by a mysterious inspiration, Joan of Arc, a child and +a peasant, led the French army to the besieged City of Orleans, and the +crucial battle was won. + +Charles VII. was King. The English were driven out of France, and the +Hundred Years' War ended in defeat (1453). England had lost Aquitaine, +which for two hundred years (since Henry II.) had been hers, {66} and +had not a foot of ground on Norman soil. + +The long shadow cast by Edward III. upon England was deepening. A +ruinous war had drained her resources and arrested her liberties; and +now the odium of defeat made the burdens it imposed intolerable. The +temper of every class was strained to the danger point. The wretched +government was held responsible, followed, as usual, by impeachments, +murders, and impotent outbursts of fury. + +While, owing to social processes long at work, feudalism was in fact a +ruin, a mere empty shell, it still seemed powerful as ever; just as an +oak, long after its roots are dead, will still carry aloft a waving +mass of green leafage. The great Earl of Warwick when he went to +Parliament was still followed by 600 liveried retainers. But when Jack +Cade led 20,000 men in rebellion at the close of the French war, they +were not the serfs and villeinage of other times, but farmers and +laborers, who, when they demanded a more economical expenditure of +royal revenue, freedom at elections, and the removal {67} of +restrictions on their dress and living, knew their rights, and were not +going to give them up without a struggle. + +But the madness of personal ambition was going to work deeper ruin and +more complete wreck of England's fortunes. We have seen that by the +interposition of Parliament, the House of Lancaster had been placed on +the throne contrary to the tradition which gave the succession to the +oldest branch, which Richard, the Duke of York, claimed to represent; +his claim strengthened by a double descent from Edward III. through his +two sons, Lionel and Edward. + +For twenty-one years, (1450-1471) these descendants of Edward III. were +engaged in the most savage war, for purely selfish and personal ends, +with not one noble or chivalric element to redeem the disgraceful +exhibition of human nature at its worst. Murders, executions, +treacheries, adorn a network of intrigue and villany, which was enough +to have made the "White" and the "Red Rose" forever hateful to English +eyes. + +The great Earl of Warwick led the White Rose of York to victory, +sending the {68} Lancastrian King to the tower, his wife and child +fugitives from the Kingdom, and proclaimed Edward, (son of Richard Duke +of York, the original claimant, who had been slain in the conflict), +King of England. + +Then, with an unscrupulousness worthy of the time and the cause, +Warwick opened communication with the fugitive Queen, offering her his +services, betrothed his daughter to the young Edward, Prince of Wales, +took up the red Lancastrian rose from the dust of defeat,--brought the +captive he had sent to the tower back to his throne--only to see him +once more dragged down again by the Yorkists--and for the last time +returned to captivity; leaving his wife a prisoner and his young son +dead at Tewksbury, stabbed by Yorkist lords. Henry VI. died in the +Tower, "mysteriously," as did all the deposed and imprisoned Kings; +Warwick was slain in battle, and with Edward IV. the reign of the House +of York commenced. + +Such in brief is the story of the "Wars of the Roses" and of the Earl +of Warwick, the "King Maker." + +At the close of the Wars of the Roses, {69} feudalism was a ruin. The +oak with its dead roots had been prostrated by the storm. The imposing +system had wrought its own destruction. Eighty Princes of the blood +royal had perished, and more than half of the Nobility had died on the +field or the scaffold, or were fugitives in foreign lands. The great +Duke of Exeter, brother-in-law to a King, was seen barefoot begging +bread from door to door. + +By the confiscation of one-fifth of the landed estate of the Kingdom, +vast wealth poured into the King's treasury. He had no need now to +summon Parliament to vote him supplies. The clergy, rendered feeble +and lifeless from decline in spiritual enthusiasm, and by its blind +hostility to the intellectual movement of the time, crept closer to the +throne, while Parliament, with its partially disfranchised House of +Commons, was so rarely summoned that it almost ceased to exist. In the +midst of the general wreck, the Kingship towered in solitary greatness. + +Edward IV. was absolute sovereign. He had no one to fear, unless it +was his {70} intriguing brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who, +during the twenty-three years of Edward's reign, was undoubtedly +carefully planning the bloodstained steps by which he himself should +reach the throne. + +Acute in intelligence, distorted in form and in character, this Richard +was a monster of iniquity. The hapless boy left heir to the throne +upon the death of Edward IV., his father, was placed under the +guardianship of his misshapen uncle, who until the majority of the +young King, Edward V., was to reign under the title of Protector. + +How this "Protector" protected his nephews all know. The two boys +(Edward V. and Richard, Duke of York) were carried to the Tower. The +world has been reluctant to believe that they were really smothered, as +has been said; but the finding, nearly two hundred years later, of the +skeletons of two children which had been buried or concealed at the +foot of the stairs leading to their place of confinement, seems to +confirm it beyond a doubt. + +Retribution came swiftly. Two years {71} later Richard fell at the +battle of Bosworth Field, and the crown won by numberless crimes, +rolled under a hawthorn bush. It was picked up and placed upon a +worthier head. + +Henry Tudor, an offshoot of the House of Lancaster, was proclaimed King +Henry VII., and his marriage with Princess Elizabeth of York (sister of +the princes murdered in the Tower) forever blended the White and the +Red Rose in peaceful union. + +During all this time, while Kings came and Kings went, the people +viewed these changes from afar. But if they had no longer any share in +the government, a great expansion was going on in their inner life. +Caxton had set up his printing press, and the "art preservative of all +arts," was bringing streams of new knowledge into thousands of homes. +Copernicus had discovered a new Heaven, and Columbus a new Earth. The +sun no longer circled around the Earth, nor was the Earth a flat plain. +There was a revival of classic learning at Oxford, and Erasmus, the +great preacher, was founding schools and preparing the minds of the +{72} people for the impending change, which was soon to be wrought by +that Monk in Germany, whose soul was at this time beginning to be +stirred to its mighty effort at reform. + + + + +{73} + +CHAPTER VI + +When in the year 1509 a handsome youth of eighteen came to the throne, +the hopes of England ran high. His intelligence, his frank, genial +manners, his sympathy with the "new learning," won all classes. +Erasmus in his hopes of purifying the Church, and Sir Thomas More in +his "Utopian" dreams for politics and society, felt that a friend had +come to the throne in the young Henry VIII. + +Spain had become great through a union of the rival Kingdoms Castile +and Aragon; so a marriage with the Princess Katharine, daughter of +Ferdinand and Isabella, had been arranged for the young Prince Henry, +who had quietly accepted for his Queen his brother's widow, six years +his senior. + +France under Francis I. had risen into a state no less imposing than +Spain, and {74} Henry began to be stirred with an ambition, to take +part in the drama of events going on upon the greater stage, across the +Channel. The old dream of French conquest returned. Francis I. and +Charles V. of Germany had commenced their struggle for supremacy in +Europe. Henry's ambition was fostered by their vying with each other +to secure his friendship. He was soon launched in a deep game of +diplomacy, in which three intriguing Sovereigns were striving each to +outwit the others. + +What Henry lacked in experience and craft was supplied by his +Chancellor Wolsey, whose private and personal ambition to reach the +Papal Chair was dexterously mingled with the royal game. The game was +dazzling and absorbing, but it was unexpectedly interrupted; and the +golden dreams of Erasmus and More, of a slow and orderly development in +England through an expanding intelligence, were rudely shaken. + +Martin Luther audaciously nailed on the door of the Church at +Wittenberg a protest against the selling of papal indulgences, and the +pent-up hopes, griefs and despair of {75} centuries burst into a storm +which shook Europe to its centre. + +Since England had joined in the great game of European politics, she +had advanced from being a third-rate power to the front rank among +nations; so it was with great satisfaction that Catholic Europe heard +Henry VIII. denounce the new Reformation, which had swiftly assumed +alarming proportions. + +But a woman's eyes were to change all this. As Henry looked into the +fair face of Anne Boleyn, his conscience began to be stirred over his +marriage with his brother's widow, Katharine. He confided his scruples +to Wolsey, who promised to use his efforts with the Pope to secure a +divorce from Katharine. But this lady was aunt to Charles V., the +great Champion of the Church in its fight with Protestantism. It would +never do to alienate him. So the divorce was refused. + +Henry VIII. was not as flexible and amiable now as the youth of +eighteen had been. He defied the Pope, married Anne (1533), and sent +his Minister into disgrace {76} for not serving him more effectually. +"There was the weight which pulled me down," said Wolsey of Anne, and +death from a broken heart mercifully saved the old man from the +scaffold he would certainly have reached. + +The legion of demons which had been slumbering in the King were +awakened. He would break no law, but he would bend the law to his +will. He commanded a trembling Parliament to pass an act sustaining +his marriage with Anne. Another permitting him to name his successor, +and then another--making him _supreme head of the Church in England_. +The Pope was forever dethroned in his Kingdom, and Protestantism had +achieved a bloodstained victory. + +Henry alone could judge what was orthodoxy and what heresy; but to +disagree with _him_, was death. Traitor and heretic went to the +scaffold in the same hurdle; the Catholic who denied the King's +supremacy riding side by side with the Protestant who denied +transubstantiation. The Protestantism of this great convert was +political, not {77} religious; he despised the doctrines of +Lutheranism, and it was dangerous to believe too much and equally +dangerous to believe too little. Heads dropped like leaves in the +forest, and in three years the Queen who had overturned England and +almost Europe, was herself carried to the scaffold (1536). + +It was in truth a "Reign of Terror" by an absolutism standing upon the +ruin of every rival. The power of the Barons had gone; the Clergy were +panic-stricken, and Parliament was a servant, which arose and bowed +humbly to his vacant throne at mention of his name! A member for whom +he had sent knelt trembling one day before him. "Get my bill passed +to-morrow, my little man," said the King, "or to-morrow, this head of +yours will be off." The next day the bill passed, and millions of +Church property was confiscated, to be thrown away in gambling, or to +enrich the adherents of the King. + +Thomas Cromwell, who had succeeded to Wolsey's vacant place, was his +efficient instrument. This student of Machiavelli's "Prince," without +passion or hate, pity or {78} regret, marked men for destruction, as a +woodman does tall trees, the highest and proudest names in the Kingdom +being set down in his little notebook under the head of either "Heresy" +or "Treason." Sir Thomas More, one of the wisest and best of men, +would not say he thought the marriage with Katharine had been unlawful, +and paid his head as the price of his fearless honesty. + +Jane Seymour, whom Henry married the day after Anne Boleyn's execution, +died within a year at the birth of a son (Edward VI.). In 1540 +Cromwell arranged another union with the plainest woman in Europe, Anne +of Cleves; which proved so distasteful to Henry that he speedily +divorced her, and in resentment at Cromwell's having entrapped him, by +a flattering portrait drawn by Holbein, the Minister came under his +displeasure, which at that time meant death. He was beheaded in 1540, +and in that same year occurred the King's marriage with Katharine +Howard, who one year later met the same fate as Anne Boleyn. + +Katharine Parr, the sixth and last wife, {79} and an ardent Protestant +and reformer, also narrowly escaped, and would undoubtedly at last have +gone to the block. But Henry, who at fifty-six was infirm and wrecked +in health, died in the year 1547, the signing of death-warrants being +his occupation to the very end. + +Whatever his motive, Henry VIII. had in making her Protestant, placed +England firmly in the line of the world's highest progress; and strange +to say, that Kingdom is most indebted to two of her worst Kings. + +The crown passed to the son of Jane Seymour, Edward VI., a feeble boy +of ten. In view of the doubtful validity of his father's divorce, and +the consequent doubt cast upon the legitimacy of Edward's two sisters, +Mary and Elizabeth, the young king was persuaded to name his cousin +Lady Jane Grey as his heir and successor. This gentle girl of +seventeen, sensitive and thoughtful, a devout reformer, who read Greek +and Hebrew and wrote Latin poetry, is a pathetic figure in history, +where we see her, the unwilling wearer of a crown for ten days, and +{80} then with her young husband hurried to that fatal Tower, and to +death. Upon the death of Edward this unhappy child was proclaimed +Queen of England. But the change in the succession produced an +unexpected uprising, in which even Protestants joined. Lady Jane Grey +was hurried to the block, and the Catholic Mary to the throne. Henry's +divorce was declared void, and his first marriage valid. Elizabeth was +thus set aside by Act of Parliament; and as she waited in the Tower, +while her remorseless sister vainly sought for proofs of her complicity +with the recent rebellion, she was seemingly nearer to a scaffold than +to a throne. + +[Illustration: Queen Elizabeth going on board the "Golden Hind." From +the painting by Frank Brangwyn.] + +When we remember that there coursed in the veins of Mary Tudor the +blood of cruel Spanish kings, mingled with that of Henry VIII., can we +wonder that she was cruel and remorseless? Her marriage with Philip +II. of Spain quickly overthrew the work of her father. Unlike Henry +VIII., Mary was impelled by deep convictions; and like her grandmother, +Isabella I. of Spain, she persecuted to save from what she believed was +death eternal; and her cruelty, although {81} untempered by one humane +impulse, was still prompted by a sincere fanaticism, with which was +mingled an intense desire to please the Catholic Philip. But Philip +remained obdurately in Spain; and while she was lighting up all England +with a blaze of martyrs, Calais,--over which the English standard +planted by Edward III. had waved for more than 200 years,--Calais, the +last English possession in France, was lost. Amid these crushing +disappointments, public and personal, Mary died (1558), after a reign +of only five years. + +Elizabeth with her legitimacy questioned was still under the shadow of +the scaffold upon which her mother had perished. There is reason to +believe that Philip II. turned the delicately balanced scale. It +better suited him to have Elizabeth occupy the throne of England, than +that Mary Stuart, the next nearest heir, should do so. Mary had +married the Dauphin of France; and France was Philip's enemy and rival. +Better far that England should become Protestant, than that France +should hold the balance of power in Europe! + + + + +{82} + +CHAPTER VII + +Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, a disgraced and +decapitated Queen, wore the crown of England. If heredity had been as +much talked of then as now, England might have feared the child of a +faithless wife, and a remorseless, bloodthirsty King. But while Mary, +daughter of Katharine, the most pious and best of mothers, had left +only a great blood-spot upon the page of History, Elizabeth's reign was +to be the most wise, prosperous and great, the Kingdom had ever known. +In her complex character there was the imperiousness, audacity and +unscrupulousness of her father, the voluptuous pleasure-loving nature +of her mother, and mingled with both, qualities which came from +neither. She was a tyrant, held in check by a singular caution, with +an instinctive perception of the {83} presence of danger, to which her +purposes always instantly bent. + +The authority vested in her was as absolute as her father's, but while +her imperious temper sacrificed individuals without mercy, she ardently +desired the welfare of her Kingdom, which she ruled with extraordinary +moderation and a political sagacity almost without parallel, softening, +but not abandoning, one of her father's usurpations. + +She was a Protestant without any enthusiasm for the religion she +intended to restore in England, and prayed to the Virgin in her own +private Chapel, while she was undoing the work of her Catholic sister +Mary. The obsequious apologies to the Pope were withdrawn, but the +Reformation she was going to espouse, was not the fiery one being +fought for in Germany and France. It was mild, moderate, and like her +father's, more political than religious. The point she made was that +there must be religious uniformity, and conformity to the Established +Church of England--with its new "Articles," which as she often said, +"left _opinion_ free." + +It was in fact a softened reproduction of {84} her terrible father's +attitude. The Church, (called an "Episcopacy," on account of the +jurisdiction of its Bishops,) was Protestant in doctrine, with gentle +leaning toward Catholicism in externals, held still firmly by the "Act +of Supremacy" in the controlling hand of the Sovereign. Above all else +desiring peace and prosperity for England, the keynote of Elizabeth's +policy in Church and in State was conciliation and compromise. So the +Church of England was to a great extent a compromise, retaining as much +as the people would bear of external form and ritual, for the sake of +reconciling Catholic England. + +The large element to whom this was offensive was reinforced by +returning refugees who brought with them the stern doctrines of Calvin; +and they finally separated themselves altogether from a Church in which +so much of Papacy still lingered, to establish one upon simpler and +purer foundation; hence they were called "Puritans," and +"Nonconformists," and were persecuted for violation of the "Act of +Supremacy." + +The masculine side of Elizabeth's {85} character was fully balanced by +her feminine foibles. Her vanity was inordinate. Her love of +adulation and passion for display, her caprice, duplicity, and her +reckless love-affairs, form a strange background for the calm, +determined, masterly statesmanship under which her Kingdom expanded. + +The subject of her marriage was a momentous one. There were plenty of +aspirants for the honor. Her brother-in-law Philip, since the +abdication of Charles V., his father, was a mighty King, ruler over +Spain and the Netherlands, and was at the head of Catholic Europe. He +saw in this vain, silly young Queen of England an easy prey. By +marrying her he could bring England back to the fold, as he had done +with her sister Mary, and the Catholic cause would be invincible. + +Elizabeth was a coquette, without the personal charm supposed to belong +to that dangerous part of humanity. She toyed with an offer of +marriage as does a cat with a mouse. She had never intended to marry +Philip, but she kept him waiting so long for her decision, and so +exasperated him with {86} her caprice, that he exclaimed at last, "That +girl has ten thousand devils in her." He little thought, that beneath +that surface of folly there was a nature hard as steel, and a calm, +clear, cool intelligence, for which his own would be no match, and +which would one day hold in check the diplomacy of the "Escurial" and +outwit that of Europe. She adored the culture brought by the "new +learning;" delighted in the society of Sir Philip Sidney, who reflected +all that was best in England of that day; talked of poetry with +Spenser; discussed philosophy with Bruno; read Greek tragedies and +Latin orations in the original; could converse in French and Italian, +and was besides proficient in another language,--the language of the +fishwife,--which she used with startling effect with her lords and +ministers when her temper was aroused, and swore like a trooper if +occasion required. + +But whatever else she was doing she never ceased to study the new +England she was ruling. She felt, though did not understand, the +expansion which was going {87} on in the spirit of the people; but +instinctively realized the necessity for changes and modifications in +her Government, when the temper of the nation seemed to require it. + +It was enormous common-sense and tact which converted Elizabeth into a +liberal Sovereign. Her instincts were despotic. When she bowed +instantly to the will of the Commons, almost apologizing for seeming to +resist it, it was not because she sympathized with liberal sentiments, +but because of her profound political instincts, which taught her the +danger of alienating that class upon which the greatness of her Kingdom +rested. She realized the truth forgotten by some of her successors, +that the Sovereign and the middle class _must be friends_. She might +resist and insult her lords and ministers, send great Earls and +favorites ruthlessly to the block, but no slightest cloud must come +between her and her "dear Commons" and people. This it was which made +Spenser's adulation in the "Faerie Queen" but an expression of the +intense loyalty of her meanest subject. + +Perhaps it was because she remembered {88} that the whole fabric of the +Church rested upon Parliamentary enactment, and that she herself was +Queen of England by Parliamentary sanction, that she viewed so +complacently the growing power of that body in dealing more and more +with matters supposed to belong exclusively to the Crown, as for +instance in the struggle made by the Commons to suppress monopolies in +trade, granted by royal prerogative. At the first she angrily resisted +the measure. But finding the strength of the popular sentiment, she +gracefully retreated, declaring, with royal scorn for truth, that "she +had not before known of the existence of such an evil." + +In fact, lying, in her independent code of morals, was a virtue, and +one to which she owed some of her most brilliant triumphs in diplomacy. +And when the bald, unmitigated lie was at last found out, she felt not +the slightest shame, but only amusement at the simplicity of those who +had believed she was speaking the truth. + +Her natural instincts, her thrift, and her love of peace inclined her +to keep aloof {89} from the struggle going on in Europe between +Protestants and Catholics. But while the news of St. Bartholomew's Eve +seemed to give her no thrill of horror, she still sent armies and money +to aid the Huguenots in France, and to stem the persecutions of Philip +in the Netherlands, and committed England fully to a cause for which +she felt no enthusiasm. She encouraged every branch of industry, +commerce, trade, fostered everything which would lead to prosperity. +Listened to Raleigh's plans for colonization in America, permitting the +New Colony to be called "Virginia" in her honor (the Virgin Queen). +She chartered the "Merchant Company," intended to absorb the new trade +with the Indies (1600), and which has expanded into a British Empire in +India. + +But amid all this triumph, a sad and solitary woman sat on the throne +of England. The only relation she had in the world was her cousin, +Mary Stuart, who was plotting to undermine and supplant her. + +The question of Elizabeth's legitimacy was an ever recurring one, and +afforded a {90} rallying point for malcontents, who asserted that her +mother's marriage with Henry VIII. was invalidated by the refusal of +the Pope to sanction the divorce. Mary Stuart, who stood next to +Elizabeth in the succession, formed a centre from which a network of +intrigue and conspiracy was always menacing the Queen's peace, if not +her life, and her crown. + +Scotland, since the extinction of the line of Bruce, had been ruled by +the Stuart Kings. Torn by internal feuds between her clans, and by the +incessant struggle against English encroachments, she had drawn into +close friendship with France, which country used her for its own ends, +in harassing England, so that the Scottish border was always a point of +danger in every quarrel between French and English Kings. + +In 1502 Henry VIII. had bestowed the hand of his sister Margaret upon +James IV. of Scotland, and it seemed as if a peaceful union was at last +secured with his Northern neighbor. But in the war with France which +soon followed, James, the Scottish King, turned to his old ally. He +was killed at {91} "Flodden Field," after suffering a crushing defeat. +His successor, James V., had married Mary Guise. Her family was the +head and front of the ultra Catholic party in France, and her counsels +probably influenced James to a continual hostility to the Protestant +Henry, even though he was his uncle. The death of James in consequence +of his defeat at "Solway Moss" occurred immediately after the birth of +his daughter, Mary Stuart (1542). + +This unhappy child at once became the centre of intriguing designs; +Henry VIII. wishing to betroth the little Queen to his son, afterwards +Edward VI., and thus forever unite the rival kingdoms. But the Guises +made no compromises with Protestants! Mary Guise, who was now Regent +of the realm, had no desire for a closer union with Protestant England, +and very much desired a nearer alliance with her own France. Mary +Stuart was betrothed to the Dauphin, grandson of Francis I., and was +sent to the French Court to be prepared by Catharine de Medici (the +Italian daughter-in-law of Francis I.) for her future exalted position. + +{92} + +In 1561, Mary returned to England. Her boy-husband had died after a +reign of two years. She was nineteen years old, had wonderful beauty, +rare intelligence, and power to charm like a siren. Her short life had +been spent in the most corrupt and profligate of Courts, under the +combined influence of Catharine de Medici, the worst woman in +Europe,--and her two uncles of the House of Guise, who were little +better. Political intrigues, plottings and crimes were in the very air +she breathed from infancy. But she was an ardent and devout Catholic, +and as such became the centre and the hope of what still remained of +Catholic England. + +Elizabeth would have bartered half her possessions for the one +possession of beauty. That she was jealous of her fascinating rival +there is little doubt, but that she was exasperated at her pretensions +and at the audacious plottings against her life and throne is not +strange. In fact we wonder that, with her imperious temper, she so +long hesitated to strike the fatal blow. + +Whether Mary committed the dark crimes {93} attributed to her or not, +we do not know. But we do know, that after the murder of her wretched +husband, Lord Darnley, (her cousin, Henry Stuart), she quickly married +the man to whom the deed was directly traced. Her marriage with +Bothwell was her undoing. Scotland was so indignant at the act, that +she took refuge in England, only to fall into Elizabeth's hands. + +Mary Stuart had once audaciously said, "the reason her cousin did not +marry was because she would not lose the power of compelling men to +make love to her." Perhaps the memory of this jest made it easier to +sign the fatal paper in 1587. + +When we read of Mary's irresistible charm, of her audacity, her +cunning, her genius for diplomacy and statecraft, far exceeding +Elizabeth's--when we read of all this and think of the blood of the +Guises in her veins, and the precepts of Catharine de Medici in her +heart, we realize what her usurpation would have meant for England, and +feel that she was a menace to the State, and justly incurred her fate. +Then again, when we hear of her gentle patience in her {94} long +captivity, her prayers and piety, and her sublime courage when she +walked through the Hall at Fotheringay Castle, and laid her beautiful +head on the block as on a pillow, we are melted to pity, and almost +revolted at the act. It is difficult to be just, with such a lovely +criminal, unless one is made of such stern stuff as was John Knox. The +son of Mary by Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley) was James VI. of Scotland. +His pretensions to the English throne were now seemingly forever at +rest. But Philip of Spain thought the time propitious for his own +ambitious purposes, and sent an Armada (fleet) which approached the +Coast in the form of a great Crescent, one mile across. The little +English "seadogs," not much larger than small pleasure yachts, were led +by Sir Francis Drake. They worried the ponderous Spanish ships, and +then, sending burning boats in amongst them, soon spoiled the pretty +crescent. The fleet scattered along the Northern Coast, where it was +overtaken by a frightful storm, and the winds and the waves completed +the victory, almost annihilating the entire "Armada." + +{95} + +England was great and glorious. The revolution, religious, social and +political, had ploughed and harrowed the surface which had been +fertilized with the "New Learning," and the harvest was rich. While +all Europe was devastated by religious wars there arose in Protestant +England such an era of peace and prosperity, with all the conditions of +living so improved that the dreams of Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" seemed +almost realized. The new culture was everywhere. England was +garlanded with poetry, and lighted by genius, such as the world has not +seen since, and may never see again. The name of Francis Bacon was +sufficient to adorn an age, and that of Shakespeare alone, enough to +illumine a century. Elizabeth did not create the glory of the +"Elizabethan Age," but she did create the peace and social order from +which it sprang. + +If this Queen ever loved any one it was the Earl of Leicester, the man +who sent his lovely wife, Amy Robsart, to a cruel death in the delusive +hope of marrying a Queen. We are unwilling to harbor the suspicion +{96} that she was accessory to this deed; and yet we cannot forget that +she was the daughter of Henry VIII.!--and sometimes wonder if the +memory of a crime as black as Mary's haunted her sad old age, when +sated with pleasures and triumphs, lovers no more whispering adulation +in her ears, and mirrors banished from her presence, she silently +waited for the end. + +She died in the year 1603, and succumbing to the irony of fate,--and +possibly as an act of reparation for the fatal paper signed in +1587,--she named the son of Mary Stuart, James VI. of Scotland, her +successor.--James I. of England. + + + + +{97} + +CHAPTER VIII + +The House of Stuart had peacefully reached the long coveted throne of +England in the person of a most unkingly King. Gross in appearance and +vulgar in manners, James had none of the royal attributes of his +mother. A great deal of knowledge had been crammed into a very small +mind. Conceited, vain, pedantic, headstrong, he set to work with the +confidence of ignorance to carry out his undigested views upon all +subjects, reversing at almost every point the policy of his great +predecessor. Where she with supreme tact had loosened the screws so +that the great authority vested in her might not press too heavily upon +the nation, he tightened them. Where she bowed her imperious will to +that of the Commons, this puny tyrant insolently defied it, and +swelling with sense of his own {98} greatness, claimed "Divine right" +for Kingship and demanded that his people should say "the King can do +no wrong," "to question his authority is to question that of God." If +he ardently supported the Church of England, it was because he was its +head. The Catholic who would have turned the Church authority over +again to the Pope, and the "Puritans" who resisted the "Popish +practices" of the Reformed Church of England, were equally hateful to +him, for one and the same reason; they were each aiming to diminish his +authority. + +When the Puritans brought to him a petition signed by 800 clergymen, +praying that they be not compelled to wear the surplice, nor make the +sign of the cross at baptism--he said they were "vipers," and if they +did not submit to the authority of the Bishops in such matters "they +should be harried out of the land." In the persecution implied by this +threat, a large body of Puritans escaped to Holland with their +families, and thence came that band of heroic men and women on the +"Mayflower," landing at a point on the American Coast which they {99} +called "Plymouth" (1620). A few Englishmen had in 1607 settled in +Jamestown, Virginia. These two colonies contained the germ of the +future "United States of America." + +The persecution of the Catholics led to a plot to blow up Parliament +House at a time when the King was present, thinking thus at one stroke +to get rid of a usurping tyrant, and of a House of Commons which was +daily becoming more and more infected with Puritanism. The discovery +of this "Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot," prevented its consummation, and +immensely strengthened Puritan sentiment. + +The keynote of Elizabeth's foreign policy had been hostility to Spain, +that Catholic stronghold, and an unwavering adherence to Protestant +Europe. James saw in that great and despotic government the most +suitable friend for such a great King as himself. He proposed a +marriage between his son Charles and the Infanta, daughter of the King +of Spain, making abject promises of legislation in his Kingdom +favorable to the Catholics; and when an indignant House {100} of +Commons protested against the marriage, they were insolently +reprimanded for meddling with things which did not concern them, and +were sent home, not to be recalled again until the King's necessities +for money compelled him to summon them. + +During the early part of his reign the people seem to have been +paralyzed and speechless before his audacious pretensions. Great +courtiers were fawning at his feet listening to his pedantic wisdom, +and humoring his theory of the "Divine right" of hereditary Kingship. +And alas!--that we have to say it--Francis Bacon (his Chancellor), with +intellect towering above his century,--was his obsequious servant and +tool, uttering not one protest as one after another the liberties of +the people were trampled upon! + +But this Spanish marriage had aroused a spirit before which a wiser man +than James would have trembled. He was standing midway between two +scaffolds, that of his mother (1587), and his son (1649). Every blow +he struck at the liberties of England cut deep into the foundation of +his throne. {101} And when he violated the law of the land by the +imposition of taxes, without the sanction of his Parliament, he had +"sowed the wind" and the "whirlwind," which was to break on his son's +head was inevitable. Popular indignation began to be manifest, and +Puritan members of the Commons began to use language the import of +which could not be mistaken. Bacon was disgraced; his crime,--while +ostensibly the "taking of bribes,"--was in reality his being the +servile tool of the King. + +In reviewing the acts of this reign we see a foolish Sovereign ruled by +an intriguing adventurer whom he created Duke of Buckingham. We see +him foiled in his attempt to link the fate of England with that of +Catholic Europe;--sacrificing Sir Walter Raleigh because he had given +offense to Spain, the country whose friendship he most desired. We see +numberless acts of folly, and but three which we can commend. James +did authorize and promote the translation of the Bible which has been +in use until to-day. He named his double Kingdom of England and +Scotland "Great Britain." {102} These two acts, together with his death +in 1625, meet with our entire approval. + +Charles I., son of James, was at least one thing which his father was +not. He was a gentleman. Had it not been his misfortune to inherit a +crown, his scholarly refinements and exquisite tastes, his +irreproachable morals, and his rectitude in the personal relations of +life, might have won him only esteem and honor. But these qualities +belonged to Charles Stuart the gentleman. Charles the King was +imperious, false, obstinate, blind to the conditions of his time, and +ignorant of the nature of his people. Every step taken during his +reign led him nearer to its fatal consummation. + +No family in Europe ever grasped at power more unscrupulously than the +Guises in France. They were cruel and remorseless in its pursuit. It +was the warm southern blood of her mother which was Mary Stuart's ruin. +She was a Guise,--and so was her son James I.--and so was Charles I., +her grandson. There was despotism and tyranny in their blood. Their +very natures made it impossible that they should {103} comprehend the +Anglo-Saxon ideal of civil liberty. + +Who can tell what might have been the course of History, if England had +been ruled by English Kings, which it has not been since the Conquest. +With every royal marriage there is a fresh infusion of foreign blood +drawn from fountains not always the purest,--until after centuries of +such dilutions, the royal line has less of the Anglo-Saxon in it than +any ancestral line in the Kingdom. + +The odious Spanish marriage had been abandoned and Charles had married +Henrietta, sister of Louis XIII. of France. + +The subject of religion was the burning one at that time. It soon +became apparent that the new King's personal sympathies leaned as far +as his position permitted toward Catholicism. The Church of England +under its new Primate, Archbishop Laud, was being drawn farther away +from Protestantism and closer to Papacy; while Laud in order to secure +Royal protection advocated the absolutism of the King, saying that +James in his theory of "Divine right" had {104} been inspired by the +Holy Ghost, thus turning religion into an engine of attack upon English +liberties. Laud's ideal was a purified Catholicism--retaining +auricular confession, prayers for the dead, the Real Presence in the +Sacrament, genuflexions and crucifixes, all of which were odious to +Puritans and Presbyterians. He had a bold, narrow mind, and recklessly +threw himself against the religious instincts of the time. The same +pulpit from which was read a proclamation ordering that the Sabbath be +treated as a holiday, and not a Holy-day, was also used to tell the +people that resistance to the King's will was "Eternal damnation." + +This made the Puritans seem the defenders of the liberties of the +country, and drew hosts of conservative Churchmen, such as Pym, to +their side, although not at all in sympathy with a religious fanaticism +which condemned innocent pleasures, and all the things which adorn +life, as mere devices of the devil. Such were the means by which the +line was at last sharply drawn. The Church of England and tyranny on +one {105} side, and Puritanism and liberty on the other. + +But there was one thing which at this moment was of deeper interest to +the King than religion. He wanted,--he must have,--money. _Religion_ +and _money_ are the two things upon which the fate of nations has +oftenest hung. These two dangerous factors were both present now, and +they were going to make history very fast. + +On account of a troublesome custom prevailing in his Kingdom, Charles +must first summon his Parliament, and they must grant the needed +supplies. His father had by the discovery of the theory of "Divine +right," prepared the way to throw off these Parliamentary trammels. +But that could only be reached by degrees. So Parliament was summoned. +It had no objection to voting the needed subsidies, but,--the King must +first promise certain reforms, political and religious, and--dismiss +his odious Minister Buckingham. + +Charles, indignant at this outrage, dissolved the body, and appealed to +the country for a loan. The same reply came from {106} every quarter. +"We will gladly lend the money, but it must be done through +Parliament." The King was thoroughly aroused. If the loan will not be +voluntary, it must be forced. A tax was levied, fines and penalties +for its resistance meted out by subservient judges. + +John Hampden was one of the earliest victims. His means were ample, +the sum was small, but his manhood was great. "Not one farthing, if it +cost me my life," was his reply as he sat in the prison at Gate House. + +The supply did not meet the King's demand. Overwhelmed with debt and +shame and rage, he was obliged again to resort to the hated means. +Parliament was summoned. The Commons, with memory of recent outrages +in their hearts, were more determined than before. The members drew up +a "_Petition of Right_," which was simply a reaffirmation of the +inviolability of the rights of person, of property and of speech--a +sort of second "Magna Charta." + +They resolutely and calmly faced their King, the "Petition" in one +hand, the {107} granted subsidies in the other. For a while he defied +them; but the judges were whispering in his ear that the "Petition" +would not be binding upon him, and Buckingham was urging him to yield. +Perhaps it was Charles Stuart the gentleman who hesitated to receive +money in return for solemn promises which he did not intend to keep! +But Charles the King signed the paper, which seven judges out of +twelve, in the highest court of the realm, were going to pronounce +invalid because the King's power was beyond the reach of Parliament. +It was inherent in him as King, and bestowed by God. _Any infringement +upon his prerogative by Act of Parliament was void_! + +With king so false, and with justice so polluted at its fountain, what +hope was there for the people but in Revolution? + +From the tyranny of the Church under Laud, a way was opened when, in +1629, Charles granted a Charter to the Colony of Massachusetts. With a +quiet, stern enthusiasm the hearts of men turned toward that refuge in +America. Not men of broken fortunes, adventurers, and criminals, but +{108} owners of large landed estates, professional men, some of the +best in the land, who abandoned home and comfort to face intolerable +hardships. One wrote, "We are weaned from the delicate milk of our +Mother England and do not mind these trials." As the pressure +increased under Laud, the stream toward the West increased in volume; +so that in ten years 20,000 Englishmen had sought religious freedom +across the sea, and had founded a Colony which, strange to say,--under +the influence of an intense religious sentiment,--became itself a +Theocracy and a new tyranny, although one sternly just and pure. + +The dissolute, worthless Buckingham had been assassinated, and Charles +had wept passionate tears over his dead body. But his place had been +filled by one far better suited to the King's needs at a time when he +had determined not again to recall Parliament, but to rule without it +until resistance to his measures had ceased. + +It was with no sinister purpose of establishing a despotism such as a +stronger man might have harbored, that he made this {109} resolve. +What Charles wanted was simply the means of filling his exchequer; and +if Parliament would not give him that except by a dicker for reforms, +and humiliating pledges which he could not keep, why then he would find +new ways of raising money without them. His father had done it before +him, he had done it himself. With no Commons there to rate and insult +him, it could be done without hindrance. + +He was not grand enough, nor base enough, nor was he rich enough, to +carry out any organized design upon the country. He simply wanted +money, and had such blind confidence in Kingship, that any very serious +resistance to his authority did not enter his dreams. It was the +limitations of his intelligence which proved his ruin, his inability to +comprehend a new condition in the spirit of his people. Elizabeth +would have felt it, though she did not understand it, and would have +loosened the screws, without regard for her personal preferences, and +by doing it, so bound the people to her, that her policy would have +been their policy. Charles was as wise as the {110} engineer who would +rivet down the safety-valves! + +Sir Thomas Wentworth (Earl Strafford), who had taken the place of +Buckingham, was an apostate from the party of liberty. Disappointed in +becoming a leader in the Commons he had drawn gradually closer to the +King, who now leaned upon him as the vine upon the oak. + +This man's ideal was to build up in England just such a despotism as +Richelieu was building in France. The same imperious temper, the same +invincible will and administrative genius, marked him as fitted for the +work. While Charles was feebly scheming for revenue, he was laying +large and comprehensive plans for a system of oppression, which should +_yield_ the revenue,--and for Arsenals and Forts--and a standing Army, +and a rule of terror which should hold the nation in subjection while +these things were preparing. He was clear-sighted enough to see that +"absolutism" was not to be accomplished by a system of reasoning. He +would not urge it as a dogma, but as a fact. + +The "Star Chamber," a tribunal for the {111} trying of a certain class +of offences, was brought to a state of fresh efficiency. Its +punishments could be anything this side of death. A clergyman accused +of speaking disrespectfully of Laud, is condemned to pay £5,000 to the +King, £300 to the aggrieved Archbishop himself, one side of his nose is +to be slit, one ear cut off, and one cheek branded. The next week this +to be repeated on the other side, and then followed by imprisonment +subject to pleasure of the Court. Another who has written a book +considered seditious, has the same sentence carried out, only varied by +imprisonment for life. + +These were some of the embellishments of the system called "Thorough," +which was carried on by the two friends and confederates, Laud and +Strafford, who were in their pleasant letters to each other all the +time lamenting that the power of the "Star Chamber" was so limited, and +judges so timid! Is it strange that the plantation in Massachusetts +had fresh recruits? + +But the more serious work was going on under Strafford's vigorous +management. {112} "Monopolies" were sold once more, with a fixed duty +on profits added to the price of the original concession. Every +article in use by the people was at last bought up by Monopolists, who +were compelled to add to the price of these commodities, to compensate +for the tax they must pay into the King's Treasury. + +"_Ship Money_" was a tax supposably for the building of a Navy, for +which there was no accounting to the people, the amount and frequency +of the levy being discretionary with the King. It was always possible +and imminent, and was the most odious of all the methods adopted for +wringing money from the nation, while resistance to it, as to all other +such measures, was punished by the Star Chamber in such pleasant +fashion as would please Strafford and Laud, whose creatures the judges +were. + +Hampden, as before, championed the rights of the people in his own +person, going to prison and facing death, if it were necessary, rather +than pay the amount of 20 shillings. But that the taxes were paid by +the people is evident, for so {113} successful was this scheme of +revenue that many predicted the King would never again call a +Parliament. What would be the need of a Parliament, if he did not +require money? The Royalists were pleased, and the people were wisely +patient, knowing that such a financial fabric must fall at the first +breath of a storm, and then their time would come. + + + + +{114} + +CHAPTER IX + +The storm came in the form of a war upon Scotland, to enforce the +established Church, which it had cast out "root and branch" for the +Presbyterianism which pleased it. The Loyalists were alarmed by rumors +that Scotland was holding treasonable communication with her old ally, +France; and after an interval of eleven years, a Parliament was +summoned, which was destined to outlive the King. + +The Commons came together in stern temper, Pym standing promptly at the +Bar of the House of Lords with Strafford's impeachment for High +Treason. The great Earl's apologists among the Lords, his own +ingenious and powerful pleadings, the King's entreaties and worthless +promises, all were in vain. + +The King saw the whole fabric of tyranny {115} crumbling before his +eyes. He was over-awed and dared not refuse his signature to the fatal +paper. It is said that as Strafford passed to the block, Laud, who was +at the window of the room where he too was a prisoner, fainted as his +old companion in cruelty stopped to say farewell to him. + +There were a few moments of silence, then,--a wild exultant shout. +"His head is off--His head is off." + +The execution of the Archbishop swiftly followed, then the abolition of +the Star Chamber, and of the High Commission Court; then a bill was +passed requiring that Parliament be summoned once in three years, and a +law enacted _forbidding its dissolution except by its own consent_. + +They were rapidly nearing the conception that Parliament does not exist +by sanction of the King, but the King by sanction of Parliament. + +What could be done with a King whom no promises could bind--who, while +in the act of giving solemn pledges to Parliament in order to save +Strafford, was perfidiously planning to overawe it by military force? +{116} The attempted arrest of Hampden, Pym, and three other leaders was +part of this "Army Plot," which made civil war inevitable. The trouble +had resolved itself into a deadly conflict between King and Parliament. +If he resorted to arms, so must they. + +If Hampden stands out pre-eminent as the Champion who like a great +Gladiator fought the battle of civil freedom, Pym is no less +conspicuous in having grasped the principles on which it must be +fought. He saw that if either Crown or Parliament must go down, better +for England that it should be the crown. He saw also, that the vital +principle in Parliament lay in the House of Commons. If the King +refused to act with them, it should be treated as an abdication, and +Parliament must act without him, and if the Lords obstructed reform, +then they must be told that the Commons must act alone, rather than let +the Kingdom perish. + +This was the theory upon which the future action was based. +Revolutionary and without precedent it has since been accepted {117} as +the correct construction of English Constitutional principles. + +Better would it have been for Charles had he let the ship sail, which +was to have borne Hampden and Oliver Cromwell (cousin of the latter) +toward the "Valley of the Connecticut." When he gave that order, he +recalled the man who was to be his evil genius. Cromwell could not so +accurately have defined the constitutional right of his cause as Pym +had done, nor make himself its adored head as was Hampden; but he had a +more compelling genius than either. His figure stands up colossal and +grim away above all others from the time he raised his praying, +psalm-singing army, until the defeat of the King's forces at Naseby +(1645), the flight of the King and his subsequent surrender. + +[Illustration: Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament, 1653. Having +commanded the soldiers to clear the hall, he himself went out last, and +ordered the doors to be locked. From the drawing by Seymour Lucas.] + +It was at this time that Cromwell began to manifest as much ability as +a political as he had done as a military leader. Hampden had fallen on +the battlefield, Pym was dead, he was virtual head of the cause. +Perhaps it needed just such a terrible, uncompromising instrument, to +carry {118} England over such a crisis as was before her. Not +overscrupulous about means, no troublesome theories about Church or +State--no reverence for anything but God and "the Gospel." + +When Parliament halted and hesitated at the last about the trial of the +King, it was the iron hand of Cromwell which strangled opposition, by +placing a body of troops at the door, and excluding 140 doubtful +members. A Parliament, with the House of Lords effaced, and with 140 +obstructing members excluded, leaving only a small body of men of the +same mind, sustained by the moral sentiment of a Cromwellian Army,--can +scarcely be called a Representative body; nor can it be considered +competent to create a Court for the trial of a King! It was only +justifiable as a last and desperate measure of self-defence. + +Charles wins back some of our sympathy and esteem by dying like a brave +man and a gentleman. He conducted himself with marvellous dignity and +self-possession throughout the trial, and at the end of {119} seven +days, laid his head upon the block in front of his royal palace of +Whitehall. + +That small body of men, calling itself the "House of Commons," declared +England a "Commonwealth," which was to be governed without any King or +House of Lords. Cromwell was "Lord Protector of England, Scotland and +Ireland." He scorned to be called King, but no King was ever more +absolute in authority. It was a righteous tyranny, replacing a vicious +one. + +There was no longer an eager hand dipping into the pockets of the +people, compelling the poor to share his scanty earnings with the King. +There was safety, and there was prosperity. But there was rage and +detestation, as Cromwell's soldiers with gibes and jeers, hewed and +hacked at venerable altars and pictures, and insulted the religious +sentiment of one-half the people. Empty niches, mutilated carvings, +and fragments of stained glass, from + + "Windows richly dight, + Casting a dim religious light," + +show us to-day the track of those profane fanatics. + +{120} + +When the remnant of the House of Commons calling itself a Parliament +was not alert enough in its obedience, Cromwell marched into the Hall +with a company of musketeers, and calling them names neither choice nor +flattering, ordered them to "get out," then locked the door, and put +the key into his pocket. Such was the "dissolution" of a Parliament +which had been strong enough to overthrow a Government, and to send a +King to the Scaffold! This might be fittingly described as a +_personal_ Government! + +He was loved by none but the Army. There was no strong current of +popular sentiment to uphold him as he carried out his arbitrary +purposes; no engines of cruelty to fortify his authority; no "Star +Chamber" to enforce his order. Men were not being nailed by the ears +to the pillory, nor mutilated and branded, for resisting his will. But +the spectacle was for that reason all the more astonishing: a great +nation, full of rage, hate and bitterness, but silent and submissive +under the spell of one dominating personality. + +{121} + +He had no experience in diplomatic usages, no skilled ministers to +counsel and warn, but by his foreign policy he made himself the terror +of Europe; Spain, France, and the United Provinces courting his +friendship, while Protestantism had protection at home and abroad. + +That the man who did this had a commanding genius, all must be agreed. +But whether he was the incarnation of evil, or of righteousness, must +ever remain in dispute. We shall never know whether or not his death, +in 1658, cut short a career which might have passed from a justifiable +to an unjustifiable tyranny. + +A fabric held up by one sustaining hand, must fall when that hand is +withdrawn. Cromwell left none who could support his burden. Charles +II., who had been more than once foiled in trying to get in by the back +door of his father's kingdom, was now invited to enter by the front, +and amid shouts of joy was placed on the throne. + + + + +{122} + +CHAPTER X + +Time brings its revenges. The instinct for beauty, and for joy and +gladness, had been for twenty-one years repressed by harshly +administered Puritanism. There was a thrill of delight in greeting a +gracious, smiling king, who would lift the spell of gloom from the +nation. Charles did this, more fully than was expected. Never was the +law of reaction more fully demonstrated! The Court was profligate, and +the age licentious. The reign of Charles was an orgy. When he needed +more money for his pleasures, he bargained with Louis XIV. to join that +king in a war upon Protestantism in Holland, for the consideration of +£200,000! + +We wonder how he dared thus to goad and prod the British Lion, which +had devoured his Father. But that animal had {123} grown patient since +the Protectorate. England treated Charles like a spoiled child whose +follies entertained her, and whose misdemeanors she had not the heart +to punish. + +The "Roundheads," who had trampled upon the "Cavaliers," were now +trampled upon in return. But even at such a time as this the liberties +of the people were expanding. The Act of "Habeas Corpus" forever +prevented imprisonment, without showing in Court just cause for the +detention of the prisoner. + +The House of Stuart, those children of the Guises, was always Catholic +at heart, and Charles was at no pains to conceal his preferences. A +wave of Catholicism alarmed the people, who tried to divert the +succession from James, the brother of the King, who was extreme and +fanatical in his devotion to the Church of Rome. But in 1685, the +Masks and routs and revels were interrupted. The pleasure-loving +Charles, who "had never said a foolish thing, and never done a wise +one," lay dead in his palace at Whitehall, and James II. was King of +England. + +{124} + +Three names have illumined this reign, in other respects so inglorious. +In 1666 Newton discovered the law of gravitation and created a new +theory of the Universe. In 1667 Milton published "Paradise Lost," and +in 1672 Bunyan gave to the world his allegory, "Pilgrim's Progress." +There was no inspiration to genius in the cause of King and Cavaliers. +But the stern problems of Puritanism touched two souls with the divine +afflatus. The sacred Epic of Milton, sublime in treatment as in +conception, must ever stand unique and solitary in literature; while +"Pilgrim's Progress," in plain homely dish served the same heavenly +food. The theme of both was the problem of sin and redemption with +which the Puritan soul was gloomily struggling. + +The reign of James II. was the last effort of royal despotism to +recover its own. He tried to recall the right of Habeas Corpus;--to +efface Parliament--and to overawe the Clergy, while insidiously +striving to establish Papacy as the religion of the Kingdom. Chief +Justice Jeffries, that most brutal of men, was his efficient aid, and +boasted that {125} he had in the service of James hanged more traitors +than all his predecessors since the Conquest! + +The names Whig and Tory had come into existence in this struggle. Whig +standing for the opponents to Catholic domination, and Tory for the +upholders of the King. But so flagrantly was the Catholic policy of +James conducted, that his upholders were few. In three years from his +accession, Whig and Tory alike were so alarmed, that they secretly sent +an invitation to the King's son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange, to +come and accept the Crown. + +William responded at once, and when he landed with 14,000 men, James, +paralyzed, powerless, unable to raise a force to meet him, abandoned +his throne without a struggle and took refuge in France. + +The throne was formally declared vacant and William and Mary his wife +were invited to rule jointly the Kingdom of England, Ireland and +Scotland (1689). + +The House of Stuart, which seems to have brought not one single virtue +to the throne, {126} was always secretly conspiring with Catholicism in +Europe. Louis XIV., as the head of Catholic Europe at this time, was +the natural protector of the dethroned King. His aim had long been, to +bring England into the Catholic European alliance, and, of course, if +possible, to make it a dependency of France. A conspiracy with Louis +to accomplish this end occupied England's exiled King during the rest +of his life. + +But European Protestantism had for its leader the man who now sat upon +the throne of England. In fact he had probably accepted that throne in +order to further his larger plans for defeating the expanding power of +Louis XIV. in Europe. Broad and comprehensive in his statesmanship, +noble and just in character, an able military leader, England was safe +in his strong hand. Conspiracies were put down, one French army after +another, with the despicable James at its head, was driven back; the +purpose at one time being to establish James at the head of an +independent Kingdom in Catholic Ireland. But that would-be King of +Ireland was humiliated and sent {127} back to France by the battle of +Boyne (1690). + +As important as was all this, things of even greater moment were going +on in the life of England at this time. As a wise householder employs +the hours of sunshine to repair the leaks revealed by the storm, just +so Parliament now set about strengthening and riveting the weak spots +revealed by the storms which had swept over England. + +What the "_Magna Charta_" and "_Petition of Right_" had asserted in a +general way, was now by the "_Bill of Rights_," established by specific +enactments, which one after another declared what the King should and +what he should not do. One of these Acts touched the very central +nerve of English freedom. + +If _religion_ and _money_ are the two important factors in the life of +a nation, it is _money_ upon which its life from day to day depends! A +Government can exist without money about as long as a man without air! +So the act which gave to the House of Commons exclusive power to grant +supplies, {128} and also to determine to what use they shall be +applied, transferred the real authority to the people, whose will the +Commons express. + +The struggle between the Crown and Parliament ends with this, and the +theory of Pym is vindicated. The Sovereign and the House of Lords from +that time could no more take money from the Treasury of England, than +from that of France. Henceforth there can be no differences between +King and people. _They must be friends_. A Ministry which forfeits +the friendship of the Commons, cannot stand an hour, and supplies will +stop until they are again in accord. In other words, the Government of +England had become a Government _of the people_. + +William regarded these enactments as evidence of a lack of confidence +in him. Conscious of his own magnanimous aims, of his power and his +purpose to serve England as she had not been served before, he felt +hurt and wounded at fetters which had not been placed upon such Kings +as Charles I. and his sons. We wonder that a man so exalted and so +superior, did not {129} see that it was for future England that these +laws were framed, for a time when perhaps a Prince not generous, and +noble, and pure should be upon the throne. + +William was silent, grave, cold, reserved almost to sternness. He had +none of the qualities which awaken personal enthusiasm. He was one of +those great leaders who are worshipped from afar. Besides, it is not +an easy task to rule another's household. Benefits however great, +reforms however wise, are sure to be considered an impertinence by +some. Then--there might be another "Restoration," and wary ambitious +nobles were cautiously making a record which would not unfit them for +its benefits when it came. He lived in an atmosphere of conspiracy, +suspicion, and loyalty grudgingly bestowed. But these were only the +surface currents. Anglo-Saxon England recognized in this foreign King, +a man with the same race instincts, the same ideals of integrity, +honor, justice and personal liberty, as her own; qualities possessed by +few of her native sovereigns since the good King Alfred. + +{130} + +The expensive wars carried on against James and his confederate, Louis +XIV., compelled loans which were the beginning of the National Debt. +That and the establishing of the Bank of England, form part of the +history of this reign. + +In 1702 William died, and Mary having also died a few years earlier, +the succession passed to her sister Anne, who was to be the last +Sovereign of the House of Stuart. + + + + +{131} + +CHAPTER XI + +William's policy had not been bounded by his Island Kingdom. It +included the cause of Protestant Europe. An apparently invincible King +sat on the throne of France, gradually drawing all adjacent Kingdoms +into his dominion. When in defiance of past pledges he placed his +grandson upon the vacant throne of Spain, and declared that the +Pyrenees should exist no more, even Catholic Austria revolted, and +beginning to fear Louis more than Protestantism, new combinations were +formed, England still holding aloof, and striving to keep out of the +Alliance. But that all-absorbing King had long ago fixed his eye upon +England as his future prey, and when he refused to recognize Anne as +lawful Queen and declared his intention of placing the "Pretender," son +of King James, {132} upon the throne, there could be no more +hesitation. This Jupiter who had removed the Pyrenees, might wipe out +the English Channel too! Hitherto the name Whig had stood for the +adherents to the war policy, and Tory for its opponents. Now, all was +changed. Even the stupid Anne and her Tory friends saw that William's +policy must be her policy if she would keep her Kingdom. + +Fortunate was it for England, and for Europe at this time that a +"Marlborough" had climbed to distinction by a slender, and not too +reputable ladder. This man, John Churchill, who a few years ago had +been unknown, without training, almost without education, was by pure +genius fitted to become, upon the death of William, the guiding spirit +of the Grand Alliance. + +He had none of the qualities possessed by William, and all the +qualities that leader had not. He had no moral grandeur, no stern +adherence to principles. Whig and Tory were alike to him, and he +followed whichever seemed to lead to success, and to the richest +rewards. He was perfectly sordid in his aims, invincible in his good +{133} nature, with a careless, easy _bonhomie_ which captured the +hearts of Europeans, who called him "the handsome Englishman." As +adroit in managing men as armies, as wise in planning political moves +as campaigns, using tact and diplomacy as effectually as artillery, he +assumed the whole direction of the European war; managed every +negotiation, planned every battle, and achieved its great and +overwhelming success. + +"Blenheim" turned the tide of French victory, and broke the spell of +Louis' invincibility. The loss at that battle was something more than +men and fortresses. It was _prestige_, and that self-confidence which +had made the great King believe that nothing could resist his purposes. +It was a new sensation for him to bend his neck, and to say that he +acknowledged Anne Queen of England. + +Marlborough received as his reward the splendid estate upon which was +built the palace of "Blenheim." Then, when in the sunshine of peace +England needed him no more, Anne quarrelled with his wife, her {134} +adored friend, and cast him aside as a rusty sword no longer of use. +But for years Europe heard the song "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre," and +his awe-inspiring name was used to frighten children in France and in +England. + +His passionate love for his wife, Sarah Churchill, ran like a golden +thread of romance through Marlborough's stormy career. On the eve of +battle, and in the first flush of victory, he must first and last write +her; and he would more willingly meet 20,000 Frenchmen than his wife's +displeasure! Indeed Sarah seems to have waged her own battles very +successfully with her tongue, and also to have had her own diplomatic +triumphs. Through Anne's infatuation for her, she was virtually ruler +while the friendship lasted. But to acquire ascendancy over Anne was +not much of an achievement. + +It is said that there was but one duller person than the Queen in her +Kingdom, and that was the royal Consort, George, Prince of Denmark. +Happy was it for England that of the seventeen children born into this +royal household, not one survived. {135} The succession, in the +absence of direct heirs, was pledged to George, Elector of Hanover, a +remote descendant of James I. + +It was during Anne's reign that English literature assumed a new +character. The stately and classic form being set aside for a style +more familiar, and which concerned itself with the affairs of everyday +life. Letters shone with a mild splendor, while Steele, Sterne, Swift, +Defoe and Fielding were writing, and Addison's "Spectator" was on every +breakfast-table. + +In the year 1714 Anne died, and George I., of the House of Hanover, was +King of England,--an England which, thanks to the great soldier and +Duke, would never more be molested by the intriguing designs of a +French King, and which held in her hand Gibraltar, the key to the +Mediterranean. + +King George I. was a German grandson of Elizabeth, sister of Charles I. +Deeply attached to his own Hanover, this stupid old man came slowly and +reluctantly to assume his new honors. He could not speak English; and +as he smoked his long pipe, his homesick soul was soothed by the ladies +{136} of his Court, who cut caricature figures out of paper for his +amusement, while Robert Walpole relieved him of affairs of State. As +ignorant of the politics of England as of its language, Walpole +selected the King's Ministers and determined the policy of his +Government; establishing a precedent which has always been followed. +Since that time it has been the duty of the Prime Minister to form the +Ministry; and no sovereign since Anne has ever appeared at a Cabinet +Council, nor has refused assent to a single Act of Parliament. + +Such a King was merely a symbol of Protestantism and of Constitutional +Government. But this stream of royal dulness which set in from Hanover +in 1714, came as a great blessing at the time. It enabled England to +be ruled for thirty years by the party which had since the usurpation +of James I. stood for the rights of the people. Walpole created a Whig +Government. The Whigs had never wavered from certain principles upon +which they had risen to power. There must be no tampering with +justice, nor with the freedom of the press, {137} nor any attempt to +rule independently of Parliament. Thirty years of rule under these +principles converted them into an integral part of the national life. +The habit of loyalty to them was so established by this long ascendancy +of the Whig party, that Englishmen forgot that such things could +be;--forgot that it was possible to infringe upon the sacred liberties +of the people. + +However much "Whig" and "Tory" have seemed to change since we first +hear of them in the time of James I., they have in fact remained +essentially the same; the Whigs always tending to limit the power of +the crown, and the Tories to limit that of the people. At the time of +Walpole the Tories had been the supporters of the Pretender and of the +High Church party, the Whigs of the policy of William and +Protestantism. Their predecessors were the "Roundheads" and +"Cavaliers," and their successors to-day are found in the "Liberals" +and "Conservatives." + +There was at last peace abroad and prosperity at home. The latter was +interrupted for a time in 1720 by the speculative {138} madness created +by the "South-Sea Bubble." Men were almost crazed by the rise in the +value of shares from £100 to £1,000; and then plunged into despair and +ruin when they suddenly dropped to nothing. The suffering caused by +this wreck of fortunes was great. But industries revived, and +prosperity and wealth returned with little to disturb them again until +the death of George I. in 1727; when another George came over from +Hanover to occupy the English throne. + +George II. had one advantage over his father. He did speak the English +language. Nor was he content to smoke his pipe and entrust his Kingdom +to his Ministers, which was a doubtful advantage for the nation. But +his clever wife, Queen Caroline, believed thoroughly in Walpole, and +when she was controlled by the Minister, and then in turn herself +controlled the policy of the King, that simple gentleman supposed that +he,--George II.,--was ruling his own Kingdom. His small, narrow mind +was incapable of statesmanship; but he was a good soldier. Methodical, +stubborn and passionate, {139} he was a King who needed to be carefully +watched, and adroitly managed, to keep him from doing harm. + +There was a young "Pretender" in these days (Charles Edward Stuart), +who was conspiring with Louis XV., as his father had done with Louis +XIV., to get to the English throne. We see him flitting about Europe +from time to time, landing here and there on the British Coast--until +when finally defeated at "Culloden Moor," 1746, this wraith of the +House of Stuart disappears--dying obscurely in Rome; and "Wha'll be +King but Charlie," and "Over the Water to Charlie," linger only as the +echo of a lost cause. + +There was a time of despondency when England seemed to be annexed to +Hanover, following her fortunes, and sharing her misfortunes in the +"seven years' war" over the Austrian succession, as if the Great +Kingdom were a mere dependency to the little Electorate; and all to +please the stubborn King. Desiring peace above all things England was +no sooner freed from one entanglement, than she was plunged into +another. + +{140} + +In India, the English "Merchant Company," chartered by Elizabeth in +1600, had expanded to a power. One of the native Princes, jealous of +these foreign intruders in Bengal, and roused, it was said, by the +French to expel them, committed that deed at which the world has +shuddered ever since. One hundred and fifty settlers and traders, were +thrust into an air-tight dungeon--in an Indian midsummer. Maddened +with heat and with thirst, most of them died before morning, trampling +upon each other in frantic efforts to get air and water. This is the +story of the "Black Hole of Calcutta;" which led to the victories of +Clive, and the establishment of English Empire in India, 1767. + +Two years later a quarrel over the boundaries of their American +Colonies brought the French and English into direct conflict. Gen. +Wolfe, the English Commander, was killed at the moment of victory in +scaling the walls of Quebec. Montcalm, the French commander, being +saved the humiliation of seeing the loss of Canada (1760), by sharing +the same fate. + +{141} + +The dream of French Empire in America was at an end; and with the +cession of Florida by Spain, England was mistress of the eastern half +of the Continent from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the +Atlantic to the Mississippi. So since the days of Elizabeth, and from +seed dropped by her hand, an Eastern and a Western Empire had been +added to that island Kingdom, whose highest dream had been to get back +some of her lost provinces in France. Instead of that it was to be her +destiny to girdle the Earth, so that the Sun in its entire course +should never cease to shine upon British Dominions. + +Side by side with the aspiration which uplifts a nation, there is +always a tendency toward degradation, which can only be arrested by the +infusion of a higher spiritual life. Strong alcoholic liquors had +taken the place of beer in England (to avoid the excessive tax imposed +upon it) and the grossest intemperance prevailed in the early part of +this reign. John Wesley introduced a regenerative force when he went +about among the people preaching "Methodism," a pure {142} and simple +religion. Not since Augustine had the hearts of men been so touched, +and a new life and new spirit came into being, better than all the +prosperity and territorial expansion of the time. + +Walpole had passed from view long before the stirring changes we have +alluded to. A new hand was guiding the affairs of State; the hand of +William Pitt. + + + + +{143} + +CHAPTER XII + +At the close of the Seven Years' War, England had driven the French out +of Canada,--her ships which had traversed the Pacific from one end to +the other, (Capt. Cook) had wherever they touched, claimed islands for +the Crown; she had projected into the heart of India English +institutions and civilization. + +Mistress of North America, and of the Pacific Isles, and future +mistress of India, she had left in comparative insignificance those +European States whose power was bounded by a single Continent. And all +this,--in the reign of the puniest King who had ever sat upon her +throne! As if to show that England was great not through--but in spite +of, her Kings. + +When in 1760, George III. came to the throne, thirteen prosperous +American Colonies were a source of handsome revenue to {144} the mother +country, by whom they were regarded as receptacles for surplus +population, and a good field for unsuccessful men and adventurers. +These children were frequently reminded that they owed England a great +debt of gratitude. They had cost her expensive Indian and French wars +for which she should expect them to reimburse her as their prosperity +grew. They were to make nothing themselves, not so much as a +horseshoe; but to send their raw material to English mills and +factories, and when it was returned to them in wares and manufactured +articles, they were to pay such taxes as were imposed, with grateful +hearts to the kind Government which was so good as to rule them. + +If the Colonies had still needed the protection of England from the +French, they might never have questioned the propriety of their +treatment. They were at heart intensely loyal, and the thought of +severance from the Mother Country probably did not exist in a single +breast. But they had since the fall of Quebec a feeling of security +which was a good background for {145} independence, if their manhood +required its assertion. They were Anglo-Saxons, and perfectly +understood the long struggle for civil rights which lay behind them. +So when in 1765 they were told that they must bear their share of the +burden of National Debt which had been increased by wars in their +behalf, and to that end a "Stamp Act" had been passed, they very +carefully looked into the demand. This Act required that every legal +document drawn in the Colonies, will, deed, note, draft, receipt, etc., +be written upon paper bearing an expensive Government stamp. + +[Illustration: Nelson's Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805. From +the painting by Stanfield in the National Gallery, London.] + +The thirteen Colonies, utterly at variance upon most subjects, were +upon this agreed: _They would not submit to the tax_. They had read +the Magna Charta, they knew that the Stamp Act violated its most vital +principle. This tax had been framed to extort money from men who had +no representation in Parliament, hence without their consent. + +Pitt vehemently declared that the Act was a tyranny, Burke and Fox +protested against it, the brain and the heart of England compelled the +repeal of the Act; Pitt {146} declaring that the spirit shown in +America was the same that in England had withstood the Stuarts, and +refused "Ship Money." There was rejoicing and ringing of bells over +the repeal, but before the echoes had died away another plan was +forming in the narrow recesses of the King's brain. + +George III. had read English History. He remembered that if +Parliaments grow obstructive, the way is not to fight them but to pack +them with the right kind of material. Tampering with the boroughs, had +so filled the House of Commons with Tories that it had almost ceased to +be a representative body, and if Pitt would not bow to his wishes, he +would find a Minister who would. Another tax was devised. + +Threepence a pound upon tea, shipped direct to America from India, +would save the impost to England, bring tea at a cheaper rate to the +Colonies (even with the added tax), and at the same time yield a +handsome revenue to the Government. + +The Colonists were not at all moved by the idea of getting cheaper tea. +They had {147} taken their stand in this matter of taxation without +representation; they would never move from it one inch. When the cargo +of tea arrived in Boston harbor, it was thrown overboard by men +disguised as Indians. + +George III. in a rage closed the port of Boston, cancelled the Charter +of Massachusetts, withdrew the right of electing its own council and +judges, investing the Governor with these rights, to whom he also gave +the power to send rebellious and seditious prisoners to England for +trial. Then to make all this sure of fulfilment, he sent troops to +enforce the order, in command of General Gage, whom he also appointed +Governor of Massachusetts. + +Fox said, "How intolerable that it should be in the power of one +blockhead to do so much mischief!" The obstinacy of George III. cost +England her dearest and fairest possession. It is almost impossible to +picture what would be her power to-day if she had continued to be +mistress of North America! + +All unconscious of his stupendous folly, the King was delighted at his +own firmness. {148} He rubbed his hands in high glee as he said,--"The +die is cast, the Colonies must submit or triumph," meaning of course +that "triumph" was a thing impossible. Pitt (now Earl Chatham), Burke, +Fox, even the Tory House of Lords, petitioned and implored in vain. +The confident, stubborn King stood alone, and upon him lies the whole +responsibility--Lord North simply acting as his compliant tool. + +The colonies united as one, all local differences forgotten. As they +fought at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, the idea of something more than +_resistance_ was born--the idea of _independence_. + +A letter from the Government addressed to the Commander-in-Chief as +"George Washington, Esq.," was sent back unopened. Battles were lost +and won, the courage and resources of the Americans holding out for +years as if by miracle, until when reinforced by France the end drew +near; and was reached with the defeat of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. + +It was a dreary morning in 1782 when a humiliated King stood before the +House of {149} Lords and acknowledged the independence of the United +States of America! + +Thus ended a contest which the Earl of Chatham had said "was conceived +in injustice, and nurtured in folly." + +It was during the American war that the Press rose to be a great +counterbalancing power. Popular sentiment no longer finding an outlet +in the House of Commons, sought another mode of expression. Public +opinion gathered in by the newspapers became a force before which +Government dared not stand. The "Chronicle," "Post," "Herald" and +"Times" came into existence, philosophers like Coleridge, and statesmen +like Canning using their columns and compelling reforms. + +The impeachment of Warren Hastings, conducted by Burke, Sheridan, and +Fox, led to such an exposure of the cruelty and corruption of the East +India Company, that the gigantic monopoly was broken up. A "Board of +Control" was created for the administration of Indian affairs, thus +absorbing it into the general system of English Government (1784). + +{150} + +James Watt had introduced (in 1769) steam into the life of England, +with consequences dire at first, and fraught with such tremendous +results later, changing all the industrial conditions of England and of +the world. + +In 1789 England witnessed that terrific outburst of human passions in +France, which culminated in the death of a King and a Queen. An +appalling sight which made Republicanism seem odious, even to so +exalted and just a soul as Burke, who denounced it with words of +thrilling eloquence. Then came Napoleon Bonaparte, and his swift +ascent to imperial power, followed by his audacious conquest almost of +Europe, until Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, led the allied +army at Waterloo, and Napoleon's sun went down. + +In 1812 the United States for a second time declared war against +England. That country had claimed the right to search for British-born +seamen upon American ships, in order to impress them into her own +service and recruit her Navy. The "right of search" was denied, and +the British {151} forces landed in Maryland, burned the Capitol and +Congressional Library at Washington, but met their "Waterloo" at New +Orleans, where they were defeated by General Andrew Jackson, and the +"right of search" is heard of no more. + +Long before this time George III. had been a prey to blindness, +deafness, and insanity, and in 1820 his death came as a welcome event. +Had he not been blind, deaf, and insane, in 1775, England might not +have lost her fairest possession. + +The weight of the enormous debt incurred by the long wars fell most +heavily upon the poor. One-half of their earnings went to the Crown. +The poor man lived under a taxed roof, wore taxed clothing, ate taxed +food from taxed dishes, and looked at the light of day through taxed +window-glass. Nothing was free but the ocean. + +[Illustration: The British Squares at Quattre-Bras, 1815. From the +painting by Elizabeth Southerden Thompson.] + +But there must not be cheap bread, for that meant reduced rents. The +farmer was "protected" by having the price of corn kept artificially +above a certain point, and further "protected" by a prohibitory tax +upon foreign corn, all in order that the landlord {152} might collect +undiminished rentals from his farm lands. But, alas! there was no +"protection" from starvation. Is it strange that gaunt famine was a +frequent visitor in the land?--But men must starve in silence.--To beg +was a crime. + + "Alas, that bread should be so dear, + And flesh and blood so cheap!" + + +Children six years old worked fourteen and fifteen hours daily in mines +and factories, beaten by overseers to keep them awake over their tasks; +while others five and six years old, driven by blows, crawled with +their brooms into narrow soot-clogged chimneys, and sometimes getting +wedged in narrow flues, were mercifully suffocated and translated to a +kinder world. + +A ruinous craving was created for stimulants, which took the place of +insufficient food, and in these stunted, pallid, emaciated beings a +foundation was laid for an enfeebled and debased population, which +would sorely tax the wisdom of statesmanship in the future. + +If such was the condition of the honest {153} working poor, what was +that of the criminal? It is difficult now to comprehend the ferocity +of laws which made _235 offenses--punishable with death_,--most of +which offenses we should now call misdemeanors. But perhaps death was +better than the prisons, which were the abode of vermin, disease and +filth unspeakable. Jailers asked for no pay, but depended upon the +money they could wring from the wretched beings in their charge for +food and small alleviations to their misery. In 1773 John Howard +commenced his work in the prisons, and the idea was first conceived +that the object of punishment should be not to degrade sin-sick +humanity, but to reform it. + +Far above this deep dark undercurrent, there was a bright, shining +surface. Johnson had made his ponderous contribution to letters. +Frances Burney had surprised the world with "Evelina;" Horace Walpole, +(son of Sir Robert) was dropping witty epigrams from his pen; Sheridan, +Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns, Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth, in tones both +grave and gay, were making sweet music; while Scott, {154} Byron, +Shelley added strains rich and melodious. + +As all this was passing, George Stephenson was pondering over a daring +project. Fulton had completed his invention in 1807, and in 1819 the +first steamship had crossed the Atlantic. If engines could be made to +plough through the water, why might they not also be made to walk the +earth? It was thought an audacious experiment when he put this +fire-devouring iron monster on wheels, to draw loaded cars. Not until +1830 was his plan realized, when his new locomotive--"The Rocket"--drew +the first railway train from Liverpool to Manchester, the Duke of +Wellington venturing his life on the trial trip. + +In the year 1782 Ireland was permitted to have its own Parliament; but +owing to conditions which are explained in a later chapter, she was +deprived of this legislative independence, and in 1801, after a +prolonged struggle, was reunited to Great Britain, and thenceforth sent +her representatives to the British Parliament. + +The laws against Roman Catholics which {155} had been enacted as +measures of self-defence from the Stuarts, now that there was no longer +a necessity for them had become an oppression, which bore with special +weight upon Catholic Ireland. By the oath of "Supremacy," and by the +declarations against transubstantiation, intercession of Saints, etc., +etc., the Catholics were shut out from all share in a Government which +they were taxed to support. Such an obvious injustice should not have +needed a powerful pleader; but it found one in Daniel O'Connell, who by +constant agitation and fiery eloquence created such a public sentiment, +that the Ministry, headed by the Duke of Wellington, aided by Sir +Robert Peel in the House, carried through a measure in 1828 which +opened Parliament to Catholics, and also gave them free access to all +places of trust, Civil or Military,--excepting that of Regent,--Lord +Chancellor--and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. + +There is nothing to record of George IV. except the irregularities of +his private life, over which we need not linger. He was a dissolute +spendthrift. His illegal marriage {156} with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and his +legal marriage with Caroline of Brunswick from whom he quickly freed +himself, are the chief events in his history. + +His charming young daughter, the Princess Charlotte, had died in 1817, +soon after her marriage with Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. She had +been adored as the future Queen, but upon the death of George IV. in +1830, the Crown passed to his sailor brother William. + +William IV. was sixty-five when he came to the throne. He was not a +courtier in his manners, nor much of a fine gentleman in his tastes. +But his plain, rough sincerity was not unacceptable, and his immediate +espousal of the Reform Act, then pending, won him popularity at once. + +The efficiency and integrity of the House of Commons had long been +impaired by an effete system of representation, which had been +unchanged for 500 years. Boroughs were represented which had long +disappeared from the face of the earth. One had for years been covered +by the sea! Another existed as a fragment of a wall in a {157} +gentleman's park, while towns like Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and +nineteen other large and prosperous places, had no representation +whatever. These "rotten boroughs" as they were called, were usually in +the hands of wealthy landowners; one great Peer literally carrying +eleven boroughs in his pocket, so that eleven members went to the House +of Commons at his dictation.--It would seem that a reform so obviously +needed should have been easy to accomplish. But the House of Lords +clung to the old system as if the life of the Kingdom depended upon it. +And when the measure was finally carried the good old Duke of +Wellington said sadly, "We must hope for the best; but the most +sanguine cannot believe we shall ever again be as prosperous." + +By this Act 56 boroughs were disfranchised, and 43 new ones, with 30 +county constituencies, were created. + +It was in the contest over this Reform Bill that the Tories took the +name of "Conservatives" and their opponents "Liberals." Its passage +marks a most important transition in England. The workingman was {158} +by it enfranchised, and the House of Commons, which had hitherto +represented _property_, thenceforth represented _manhood_. + +Nor were political reforms the only ones. Human pity awoke from its +lethargy. The penalties for wrongdoing became less brutal, the prisons +less terrible. No longer did gaping crowds watch shivering wretches +brought out of the jails every Monday morning, in batches of twenty and +thirty, to be hung for pilfering or something even less. Little +children were lifted out of the mines and factories and chimneys and +placed in schools, which also began to be created for the poor. +Numberless ways were devised for making life less miserable for the +unfortunate, and for improving the social conditions of toiling men and +women. + +While white slavery in the collieries and factories was thus mitigated, +Wilberforce removed the stain of negro slavery from England in securing +the passage of a Bill which, while compensating the owners (who +received £20,000,000), set 800,000 human beings free (1833). + + + + +{159} + +CHAPTER XIII + +William IV. died at Windsor Castle, and at 5 o'clock on the morning of +June 20th, 1837 (just 58 years from the day this is written), a young +girl of eighteen was awakened to be told she was Queen of Great Britain +and Ireland. Victoria was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, +brother of William IV. Her marriage in 1840 with her cousin, Prince +Albert of Saxe-Coburg, was one of deep affection, and secured for her a +wise and prudent counsellor. + +On account of the high price of corn, Ireland had for years subsisted +entirely upon potatoes. The failure of this crop for several +successive seasons, in 1846 produced a famine of such appalling +dimensions that the old and the new world came to the rescue of the +starving people. Parliament voted £10,000,000 for food. But before +{160} relief could reach them, two millions, one-fourth of the +population of Ireland, had perished. The anti-corn measures, +championed by Richard Cobden and John Bright, which had been bitterly +opposed by the Tories under the leadership of Disraeli, were thus +reinforced by unexpected argument; foreign breadstuffs were permitted +free access and free trade was accepted as the policy of England. + +Nicholas, the Czar of Russia, was, after the fashion of his +predecessors (and his successors), always waiting for the right moment +to sweep down upon Constantinople. England had become only a land of +shopkeepers, France was absorbed with her new Empire, and with trying +on her fresh imperial trappings. The time seemed favorable for a move. +The pious soul of Nicholas was suddenly stirred by certain restrictions +laid by the Sultan upon the Christians in Palestine. He demanded that +he be made the Protector of Christianity in the Turkish Empire, by an +arrangement which would in fact transfer the Sovereignty from +Constantinople to St. Petersburg. + +{161} + +That mass of Oriental corruption known as the Ottoman Empire, held +together by no vital forces, was ready to fall into ruin at one +vigorous touch. It was an anachronism in modern Europe, where its +cruelty was only limited by its weakness. That such an odious, +treacherous despotism should so strongly appeal to the sympathies of +England that she was willing to enter upon a life-and-death struggle +for its maintenance, let those believe who can.--Her rushing to the +defence of Turkey, was about as sincere as Russia's interest in the +Christians in Palestine. + +The simple truth beneath all these diplomatic subterfuges was of course +that Russia wanted Constantinople, and England would at any cost +prevent her getting it. The keys to the East must, in any event, not +belong to Russia, her only rival in Asia. + +France had no Eastern Empire to protect, so her participation in the +struggle is at first not so easy to comprehend, until we reflect that +she had an ambitious and _parvenu_ Emperor. To have Europe see him in +confidential alliance with England, was alone {162} worth a war; while +a vigorous foreign policy would help to divert attention from the +recent treacheries by which he had reached a throne. + +Such were some of the hidden springs of action which in 1854 brought +about the Crimean War,--one of the most deadly and destructive of +modern times. Two great Christian kingdoms had rushed to the defence +of the worst Government ever known, and the best blood in England was +being poured into Turkish soil. + +It was soon discovered that the English were no less skilled as +fighters, than as "shop-keepers." They were victorious from the very +first, even when the numbers were ill-matched. But one immortal deed +of valor must have made Russia tremble before the spirit it revealed. + +Six hundred cavalrymen, in obedience to an order which all knew was a +blunder, dashed into a valley lined with cannon, and charged an army of +30,000 men! + + "Forward, the Light Brigade!" + Was there a man dismay'd? + Not tho' the soldier knew + Some one had blunder'd: + +{163} + + Their's not to make reply, + Their's not to reason why, + Their's but to do, and die; + Into the valley of Death + Rode the six hundred. + + +The horrible blunder at Balaklava was not the only one. One incapable +general was followed by another, and routine and red-tape were more +deadly than Russian shot and shell. + +Food and supplies beyond their utmost power of consumption, were +hurried to the army by grateful England. Thousands of tons of wood for +huts, shiploads of clothing and profuse provision for health and +comfort, reached Balaklava. + +While the tall masts of the ships bearing these treasures were visible +from the heights of Sebastopol, men there were perishing for lack of +food, fuel and clothing. In rags, almost barefoot, half-fed, often +without fuel even to cook their food, in that terrible winter on the +heights, whole regiments of heroes became extinct, because there was +not sufficient administrative ability to convey the supplies to a +perishing army! + +So wretched was the hospital service, that {164} to be sent there meant +death. Gangrene carried off four out of five. Men were dying at a +rate which would have extinguished the entire army in a year and a +half. It was Florence Nightingale who redeemed this national disgrace, +and brought order, care and healing into the camps. + +When England recalls with pride the valor and the victories in the +Crimea, let her remember it was the _manhood in the ranks_ which +achieved it. When all was over, war had slain its thousands,--but +official incapacity its tens of thousands! + +It was a costly victory: Russia was humiliated, was even shut out from +the waters of her own Black Sea, where she had hitherto been supreme. +To two million Turks was preserved the privilege of oppressing eight +million Christians; and for this,--twenty thousand British youth had +perished. But--the way to India was unobstructed! + +England's career of conquest in India was not altogether of her own +seeking. As a neighboring province committed outrages upon its British +neighbors, it became necessary in self-defence to punish it; and such +{165} punishment, invariably led to its subjugation. In this way one +province after another was subdued, until finally in the absorption of +the Kingdom of Oude (1856) the natural boundary of the Himalaya +Mountains had been reached, and the conquest was complete. The little +trading company of British merchants had become an Empire, vast and +rich beyond the wildest dreams of romance. + +The British rule was upon the whole beneficent. The condition of the +people was improved, and there was little dissatisfaction except among +the deposed native princes, who were naturally filled with hate and +bitterness. The large army required to hold such an amount of +territory, was to a great extent recruited from the native population, +the Sepoys, as they were called, making good soldiers. + +In 1857 the King of the Oude and some of the native princes cunningly +devised a plan of undermining the British by means of their Sepoys, and +circumstances afforded a singular opportunity for carrying out their +design. + +{166} + +A new rifle had been adopted, which required a greased cartridge, for +which animal grease was used. The Sepoys were told this was a +deep-laid plot to overthrow their native religions. The Mussulman was +to be eternally lost by defiling his lips with the fat of swine, and +the Hindu, by the indignity offered to the venerated Cow. These +English had tried to ruin them not alone in this world, but in the next. + +Thrilled with horror, terror-stricken, the dusky soldiers were +converted into demons. Mutinies arose simultaneously at twenty-two +stations; not only officers, but Europeans, were slaughtered without +mercy. At Cawnpore was the crowning horror. After a siege of many +days the garrison capitulated to Nana Sahib and his Sepoys. The +officers were shot, and their wives, daughters, sisters and babes, 206 +in number, were shut up in a large apartment which had been used by the +ladies for a ballroom. + +After eighteen days of captivity, the horrors of which will never be +known, five men with sabres, in the twilight, were seen to enter the +room and close the door. There {167} were wild cries and shrieks and +groans. Three times a hacked and a blunted sabre was passed out of a +window in exchange for a sharper one. Finally the groans and moans +gradually ceased and all was still. The next morning a mass of +mutilated remains was thrown into an empty well. + +Two days later the avenger came in the person of General Havelock. The +Sepoys were conquered and a policy of merciless retribution followed. + +In that well at Cawnpore was forever buried sympathy for the mutinous +Indian. When we recall that, we can even hear with calmness of Sepoys +fired from the cannon's mouth. From that moment it was the cause of +men in conflict with demons, civilization in deadly struggle with +cruel, treacherous barbarism. We cannot advocate meeting atrocity with +atrocity, nor can we forget that it was a Christian nation fighting +with one debased and infidel. But terrible surgery is sometimes needed +to extirpate disease. + +Greed for territory, and wrong, and injustice may have mingled with the +{168} acquisition of an Indian Empire, but posterity will see only a +majestic uplifting of almost a quarter of the human family from debased +barbarism, to a Christian civilization; and all through the +instrumentality of a little band of trading settlers from a small +far-off island in the northwest of Europe. + +But there were other things besides famine and wars taking place in the +Kingdom of the young Queen. A greater and a subtler force than steam +had entered into the life of the people. A miracle had happened in +1858, when an electric wire threaded its way under the Atlantic, and +two continents conversed as friends sitting hand in hand. + +Another miracle had then just been achieved in the discovery of certain +chemical conditions, by which scenes and objects would imprint +themselves in minutest detail upon a prepared surface. A sort of magic +seemed to have entered into life, quickening and intensifying all its +processes. Enlarged knowledge opened up new theories of disease and +created a new Art of healing. Surgery, with its unspeakable anguish, +was {169} rendered painless by anæsthetics. Mechanical invention was +so stimulated that all the processes of labor were quickened and +improved. + +In 1851 the Prince Consort conceived the idea of a great Exposition, +which should under one roof gather all the fruits of this marvellous +advance, and Sydenham Palace, a gigantic structure of glass and iron, +was erected. + +In literature, Tennyson was preserving English valor in immortal verse. +Thackeray and Dickens, in prose as immortal, were picturing the social +lights and shadows of the Victorian Age. + +In 1861 a crushing blow fell upon the Queen in the death of the Prince +Consort. America treasures kindly memory of Prince Albert, on account +of his outspoken friendship in the hour of her need. During the war of +the Rebellion, while the fate of our country seemed hanging in the +balance, we had few friends in England, where people seemed to look +with satisfaction upon our probable dismemberment. + +{170} + +We are not likely to forget the three shining exceptions:--Prince +Albert--John Bright--and John Stuart Mill. + +It was while that astute diplomatist, Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) was +Prime Minister, that French money, skill and labor opened up the +waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It would never do +to have France command such a strategic point on the way to the East. +England was alert. She lost not a moment. The impecunious Khedive was +offered by telegraph $20,000,000 for his interest in the Suez Canal, +nearly one-half of the whole capital stock. The offer was accepted +with no less alacrity than it was made. So with the Arabian Port of +Aden, which she already possessed, and with a strong enough financial +grasp upon impoverished Egypt to secure the right of way, should she +need it, England had made the Canal which France had dug, practically +her own. + +[Illustration: The British in India: A native prince receiving the +decoration of the order of the Star of India from Albert Edward, the +Prince of Wales. From the painting by Sydney Hall, P.M.A.] + +Lord Beaconsfield had crowned his dramatic and picturesque Ministerial +career by placing a new diadem on the head of the {171} widowed Queen, +who was now Empress of India. His successor, William Ewart Gladstone, +the great leader of the Liberal party, was content with a less showy +field. He had in 1869 relieved Ireland from the unjust burden of +supporting a Church the tenets of which she considered blasphemous; and +one which her own, the Roman Catholic, had for three centuries been +trying to overthrow. We cannot wonder that the memory of a tyranny so +odious is not easily effaced; nor that there is less gratitude for its +removal, than bitterness that it should so long have been. It is +certainly true that the disestablishment of the English Church in +Ireland was one of the most righteous acts of this reign. + +The Irish question is such a tangled web of wrong and injustice +complicated by folly and outrage, that the wisest and best-intentioned +statesmanship is baffled. Whether the conditions would be improved by +giving them their own Parliament, could only be determined by +experiment; and that experiment England is not yet willing to try. + + + + +{172} + +CHAPTER XIV + +A fitting companion to the Story of England's Empire in India, is that +of her South African Colonial Possessions. + +It was about the year 1652, while Oliver Cromwell's star was highest in +the heavens, that the Dutch East India Company, needing a resting place +on the way to the East, planted the germ of an Empire at the Cape of +Good Hope. The Portuguese, those pioneers in exploration had only +lightly touched this uninviting spot, and then were away chasing rumors +of gold. + +But the Hollanders were men of a different sort. They asked no +indulgences from Nature; and when their roots had once grappled the +soil, however disheartening the conditions, they were not to be lured +away by glistening surfaces farther on. All they asked was a place on +which to {173} grow. And so with stolid persistence they worked away +in a field the least promising ever offered to human endeavor. + +But the fates befriended them, and after the Revocation of the "Edict +of Nantes," a touch of grace and charm was brought into their sterile +life by the arrival of three hundred Huguenot refugees. And there, in +that austere land, for more than a century these children from Holland +and France patiently toiled, and with mild content watched their +grazing cattle as they gradually spread over a huge expanse of +territory; their only reward the feeling that this barren resting place +on the way to India was all their own, and that they had a sense of +independence which answered the deepest craving in their hearts; they +were safe, forever safe from the Old-World tyrannies. + +But there was another nation which also needed a resting place on the +way to India. Great Britain, following closely in the footsteps of +Holland, now had a Greater East India Company, and a larger empire +{174} growing in the East. And clouds began to gather over the Dutch +Colonists, as they saw their solitude invaded by Old-World currents. +Perhaps the irritation from this made them quarrelsome; for temper and +temperament have been two most important factors in the story of the +Dutch in South Africa. At all events, there were various outbreaks and +insurrections, becoming at last so serious that the English Government +felt impelled to aid in their suppression. And this they did so +effectually that after a battle with the local forces in 1806, they +were virtual rulers of Cape Colony, which, in 1814, upon the payment of +six million pounds to the Stadtholder, was formally ceded to Great +Britain. + +So, by right of conquest, and by right of purchase, England had come +into possession (although at the time unaware of it) of the greatest +diamond mines, and the richest gold mines in the world. And it had +turned out that the Dutch Colonists for a century and a half had been +subduing man and nature simply to enrich the {175} English; and in +return they were expected to live contentedly and peaceably in the land +they had made habitable for human occupation! + +Thus two contrasting people had been carelessly and hastily tossed +together. The most conservative and the most progressive of +nationalities were expected to fuse their uncompromising traits into a +harmonious whole. The result should have been easy to foresee. The +Dutch, coerced into this union, with embittered hearts and deep sense +of injury, after twenty unhappy, stormy years, determined to escape. +They would cross the Orange River into the wilderness and there build +up another State, which should be forever their own. And so, in the +year 1835, there occurred what is known as "The Great Trek," when about +thirty thousand men and women, like swarming bees, migrated in a body +into the region north of the Orange River, later spreading east as far +as the coast in what is now "Natal," the whole region then bearing the +significant title: "The Orange Free State." + +{176} + +In the terms of the purchase, in 1814, not a word had been said about +this _Hinterland_, the vast region stretching indefinitely towards the +north; and here was the germ of all the trouble that was to come. +Through an oversight there existed a serious flaw in the British title, +which would severely tax statesmanship, diplomacy, and perhaps strain +national morality to the breaking point. Had this people the right, or +had they not the right to plant a State bearing a foreign flag, which +should effectually bar the path to the north? Should the English +Government allow a people fiercely antagonistic to itself to build up +an unfriendly State on its border? Such were the questions which arose +then, and which have been variously answered since, depending upon the +point of view. + +If the question had been what _would_ happen, there would have been +greater unanimity in the replies! And, it must be acknowledged, +however uncertain the claim to this disputed region, that the interests +of civilization were more to be subserved by {177} British than by +Dutch Sovereignty in South Africa. + +The policies of these two people were absolutely opposed; and it was +upon the question of the emancipation of the slaves, at the time of the +Emancipation Act, in 1835, that the final rupture and secession took +place. These slaves constituted a large part of the property of the +Boers; and great was their indignation when they were compelled to +accept from the British Government a compensation for their property so +far below their own appraisal of its value that it seemed to them a +confiscation. + +Then it was that they resolved to break away from their oppressors, and +go where they could make their own laws, and follow their own ideals of +right and wrong. And so they turned their backs upon the scene of +their long toil. + +In this strange exodus not the least important person, though +unobserved then, was a sturdy little fellow ten years old, +energetically doing his part in rounding up the cattle and flocks as he +trudged along beside the {178} huge oxcarts. His name was Paul +Stephanus Kruger. And this little man also took his first lesson in +military exploits when one hundred and thirty-five Boer farmers, by +ingenious use of horses and rifles, put to flight twelve thousand +Metabeli spearsmen. But again the Boer was only clearing the way for +British occupation, which, commencing at Natal in 1842, had, by 1848, +extended over the entire Orange Free State. And then there was another +trek. Again the Boers migrated, this time crossing the River Vaal, and +founding a "Transvaal Republic." + +In the history of the next thirty years we see not a vacillating, but +rather a tentative policy, behind which was always an inflexible +purpose to establish British rule in South Africa, peaceably, if +possible, or by force, if compelled. The British Government was trying +to bring to terms the most intractable race it had ever dealt with in +all its colonizing experience. The thing which embarrassed the English +was that flaw in their claim; and the trouble with {179} the Boers was +that they were archaic in their ideals, and obstructive to all policies +which belonged to a modern civilization. They had stopped growing when +they left Holland. The emancipation and the philanthropies forced upon +them by a people who were stealing their land, exasperated them, and +outraged their sense of justice; and when the English punished them for +cruelties to the native savages, by executing four Boers, vitriol was +poured upon an open wound, and peace was forever impossible. + +In 1852 England, in placating mood, yielded the local control of the +Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. But in less than five +years the Boers had thrown away their opportunity by strife and discord +among themselves, and had separated into four small hostile Republics, +which Paul Stephanus Kruger, then President of the Transvaal, was +vainly striving to bring together. The only time they were not at war +with each other was when they were all fighting the natives, with whom +they never established friendly relations. Perhaps it {180} is asking +too much of a people so many times emptied from one region into +another, to have established internal conditions, economic and +political, such as belong to ordinary civilized states. But the +condition of disorder had become such that the British Government +believed, or at least claimed to believe, that as a measure of safety +to their own Colonies, the Transvaal should be annexed to the Colony at +the Cape. + +The people were cautiously approached upon this subject, and even some +of the leaders among the burghers advocated the measure as the best, +and, indeed, only thing possible in the present state of demoralization. + +So, in 1877, the annexation was effected. The Transvaal Republic was +taken under the sovereignty of Queen Victoria. + +By a treaty drawn up in 1881, it was declared to be a self-governing, +although not an independent State. In all its foreign relations it was +subject to the Suzerainty of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. In other +words, it was a vassal State. + +{181} + +In that one word Suzerain there lurked the germ of a great war. In a +revision of the terms of agreement made by the British, in 1884, this +word, which was to play such an important part was omitted; whether by +accident or design cannot be said. But the Executive Council of the +Republic saw their opportunity, and claimed that the omission of the +word was virtually a relinquishment of the claim, and an admission that +the South African Republic was an independent and sovereign State. + +Lord Derby, Minister of Foreign Affairs, replied that no such +significance could be attached to the omission in the amended treaty; +that the word Suzerain was not employed simply because it was vague and +indefinite in its meaning; whereas, the rights claimed by the British +were not vague, but precise and definite. These distinctly forbade the +South African Republic from concluding any treaty with a foreign power. +And as such power _was_ vested in the Queen, as a matter of course it +followed that the South African {182} Republic was _not a sovereign and +independent State_. + +While this diplomatic controversy was proceeding, other and less formal +agencies were at work. The Transvaal, rich in resources beyond all +expectation, was being developed by British capital, without which +nothing could have been done. The _Uitlanders_, (or "Outlanders"), as +these English-born men were called, complained that, instead of +coöperating with them in this labor, which must result in the common +good, everything possible was done to embarrass and paralyze their +efforts. Chief among the long list of grievances was the claim that, +while they were the principal taxpayers, they were denied +representation, and that as they furnished the capital for all the +financial enterprises, it was but fair that they should have the +franchise which was stubbornly withheld from them. + +Out of these conditions came the "Jameson Raid," the most discreditable +incident in the whole South African story; an incident which cast a +cloud of suspicion over {183} the entire British attitude, and enlisted +wide-spread sympathy for the Boers. Under the leadership of Dr. +Jameson, a gentleman closely associated with Cecil Rhodes in the South +African Chartered Company, an attempt was made to overthrow the Kruger +Government, and, to obtain by force the redress denied by peaceable +means. + +When a revolt rises to the plane of a revolution it becomes +respectable. The "Jameson Raid" never reached that elevation. In less +than four days the entire force had surrendered and the leaders were +under arrest. The attempt upon Johannesburg, and the acts of violence +attending it, were denounced in unmeasured terms by the British +Government. Dr. Jameson and his chief abettors were tried in England, +and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment; four other prominent +leaders--one of them an American--had sentence of death passed upon +them by a judge from the Orange Free State, which was finally remitted +upon the payment of a large sum to the South African Republic. England +{184} did her best to rehabilitate her name in the estimation of the +world; and when the deplorable affair was over, it had done immense +injury to the English cause, and benefited not a little that of the +Republic. + +Diplomatic negotiations were then resumed; Sir Alfred Milner presenting +the British view, urged the propriety of granting to foreign-born +residents the franchise; also the abolishment of certain monopolies +which pressed heavily upon the miners, and last, but not least, that +the sovereignty of Great Britain over the Transvaal, receive official +recognition. + +This latter President Kruger flatly rejected, upon the ground that the +question of sovereignty had already been disposed of in 1884, when +Great Britain virtually abandoned the claim by omitting the word +_Suzerain_, or any reference to what it implied, from the amended +agreement; offering at the same time to submit the other demands to +arbitration. + +On October 9, 1899, while Mr. Chamberlain was preparing new proposals, +an {185} ultimatum was received from President Kruger, demanding an +affirmative answer within forty-eight hours; failing in which, it would +be considered a virtual declaration of war. Sir Alfred Milner replied: +"You will inform your Government that the conditions demanded are such +as Her Majesty's Government deem it impossible to discuss." + +On the afternoon of October 11th, the war had commenced, with General +Buller in command of the British forces, and General Joubert, aided by +General Cronje, commanding the Boers. + +Before November 2d three serious engagements had taken place, and the +English had been compelled to fall back upon their base of supplies at +Ladysmith, where, after an ineffectual sortie on October 30th, they +were surrounded and their communications cut off. + +The campaign continued to be a story of humiliating defeats until +December, when Lord Roberts assumed supreme command, with Lord +Kitchener as his chief of staff. {186} England thoroughly aroused was +sending men and supplies in unstinted measure for the great emergency, +and the world looked on in amazement as 200,000 British soldiers under +the greatest British commanders were kept at bay for something less +than three years by 30,000 untrained Boers. The British Government had +forgotten that these South African colonists were the children of a +French Huguenot ancestry which had defied Louis XIV., and of the men +who cut the dykes when the Netherlands were invaded by that same +tyrant. Some one had wittily said that no member of the Cabinet should +be allowed to cast his vote for the war, until he had read Motley's +"Rise of the Dutch Republic." And, indeed, it appeared to many that +the view of the Government was focussed upon one single point, the +establishing of British authority at any cost in South Africa. At the +same time many eminent Englishmen believed it was not to be expected +that a community so long established in a home of its own {187} +choosing, should upon demand be ready to bestow upon foreigners all the +rights of citizenship; and many also believed that the grievances of +the "Outlanders" were not greater than ordinarily existed when a mass +of foreign immigrants were pressing in upon a people who suspected and +disliked them. The sympathy of foreign states was strongly with the +Boers; and in England itself the cause evoked a languid enthusiasm, +until aroused by disaster, and until the pride of the nation was +touched by loss of prestige. The danger, the enormous difficulties to +be overcome, the privations and suffering of their boys, these were the +things which awoke the dormant enthusiasm in the heart of the nation. +And when the only son of Lord Roberts had been offered as a sacrifice, +and then a son of Lord Dufferin, and then, Prince Victor, October 29, +1900, grandson of the Queen herself, the cause had become sacred, and +one for which any loyal Briton would be willing to die. + +By September 1, 1900, the Orange Free {188} State and the Transvaal had +been formally proclaimed by Lord Roberts, "Colonies of the British +Empire." + +This was the beginning of the end, and when the victorious commander +(December 2, 1900) arrived in England amid the plaudits of a grateful +nation, the victory was practically won, and the time was at hand when +not far from twenty thousand British soldiers would be lying under the +sod six thousand miles away, in a land, which no longer disputed the +sovereignty of England! + +We have yet to see whether the South African colonial possessions have +been paid for too dearly, with nine fierce Kaffir wars (another +threatening as this is written), and the blood of princes, peers, and +commoners poured as if it were water into the African soil. Is England +richer or poorer for this outpouring of blood and treasure? Has she +risen or fallen in the estimation of the world, as she uncovers her +stores of gold and diamonds among those valiant but defeated Boers, +sullenly {189} brooding over the past, with no love in their hearts. + +Not the least pitiful incident in the whole story was the voluntary +exile of the man who had been the brain and soul of the South African +Republics. Indeed, the life of Paul Kruger, from the day when he +trudged beside the bullocks at the time of the great northward trek, +until he died a disappointed, embittered old man, a fugitive and an +exile, seems an epitome of the cause to which his life was devoted. + +No story of this war, however brief, can omit the name of De Wet, the +most distinguished of the Boer generals, and perhaps the one genius, +certainly the most romantic figure in the whole drama. It was De Wet's +faculty for disappearing and reappearing at unexpected place and moment +which prolonged the war even after the end was inevitable, thus +justifying the title "Three Years' War," which he gave to a subsequent +history of the conflict. + +The dedication to this book bears pathetic testimony to the character +of the {190} man: "_This work is dedicated to my fellow-subjects of the +British Empire_." When one reflects what these words meant for De Wet, +one is inclined to believe that his highest heroism was not attained on +the battle field! + + + + +{191} + +CHAPTER XV + +In less than three weeks after the return of Lord Roberts, and the +agitating interview for which she had been impatiently waiting, +England's beloved Queen succumbed to a brief illness, and died January +22, 1901. + +Her son Albert Edward was immediately proclaimed King of Great Britain +and Ireland. + +The change of Sovereigns has not materially altered the course of +events in the Empire. The King, with much dignity and seriousness, +assumed the responsibilities of his great inheritance, and England +seems to be in safekeeping. The terms finally agreed upon at the Peace +Conference, in May, 1902, bear the signature of Edward _Rex_, instead +of Victoria _Regina_--a {192} signature that peace-loving Sovereign +would so gladly have affixed. + +In the year 1904 a British military force entered the hitherto sacred +domain of Tibet with the avowed purpose of obtaining redress from +Tibetan authorities for having violated a commercial agreement made +between China and British India in 1893; which convention was binding +upon Tibet as a vassal State to China. In addition to this, a letter +from the Viceroy of India to the Grand Lama, had been returned +unopened, which, it was claimed, was an insult to the King he +represents. + +The time selected for this hostile demonstration, when the +Russo-Japanese War fully engaged the attention of the nations chiefly +interested, was, to say the least, significant; and some were so unkind +as to insinuate that the recently discovered mineral wealth of this +lofty plateau--"this Roof of the World"--was, like that of the +Transvaal in South Africa, a factor in this sudden romantic adventure. + +Nature has guarded well this home of {193} mystery; a vast plateau, +from 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the sea-level is held aloft upon the +giant shoulders of the Himalaya, surrounded by deep valleys filled in +with the detritus of an older world. This inaccessible spot is the +home of the Grand Lama, the earthly representative of Buddha, and +Lhassa is the Holy City where this sacred being resides, a city never +profaned by infidel feet until the morning of August 4, 1904, when it +fell, and was desecrated by the presence of red-coated soldiers, and +the blare of military bands, and still worse the plundering of +treasure-houses and monasteries. + +It was a rude awakening from the slumber of centuries! The Western +mind can scarcely realize how seriously this has wounded the +sensibilities of millions of people throughout the East; and the +question arises whether England may not some day have to pay more +dearly than now appears for the concessions she has obtained. + +The treaty in its early form throws light upon the results expected +when the {194} expedition was planned. It bound the Tibetan +authorities to establish British markets at certain designated points; +and stipulated that, without the consent of Great Britain, no Tibetan +territory could be leased to any foreign power. Of course many people +could see in this the ultimate purpose of a British occupation of +Tibet, and an open way to the Yangtse Valley! + +But with the Russo-Japanese War over, and Russia free to exert her +control over China, a stand was taken by the Chinese Government which +has resulted in modifying the terms of the treaty, which has recently +been signed at Pekin, by which Great Britain affirms that she does not +seek for herself any privileges which are denied to any other state or +the subjects thereof. + +Two very important measures have been under consideration during the +new reign; one of these seeming to have afforded a solution for the +Land-problem in Ireland, which has for so long been the nightmare of +British politics. Further details of this {195} will be found in the +"History of Ireland," separately treated in this volume. + +The other measure deals with the question of Education, and is an +attempt to solve to the satisfaction of Nonconformists, Catholics, +Church-of-England people, and people of no church at all, whether there +shall be any religious instruction in the schools for which all are +taxed, and if so what shall be its nature and restrictions. + +The tendency since 1870 has been steadily toward the method adopted by +the United States, _i.e._, a severance of the civil community from all +responsibility for religious teaching. And such is the tendency of the +Bill now before the House of Lords. But it is believed that that +conservative body will hesitate long before giving up such a cherished +and time-encrusted principle as is involved. + +So many Parliamentary reforms have been accomplished since the time +they commenced in 1832, the time seems not far distant when there will +be little more for Liberals to urge, or for Conservatives and the {196} +House of Lords to obstruct. Monarchy is absolutely shorn of its +dangers. The House of Commons, which is the actual ruling power of the +Kingdom, is only the expression of the popular will. + +We are accustomed to regard American freedom as the one supreme type. +But it is not. The popular will in England reaches the springs of +Government more freely, more swiftly, and more imperiously, than it +does in Republican America. It comes as a stern mandate, which must be +obeyed on the instant. The King of England has less power than the +President of the United States. The President can form a definite +policy, select his own Ministry to carry it out, and to some extent +have his own way for four years, whether the people like it or not. +The King cannot do this for a day. His Ministry cannot stand an hour, +with a policy disapproved by the Commons. Not since Anne has a +sovereign refused signature to an Act of Parliament. The Georges, and +William IV., continued to exercise the power of dismissing Ministers at +their {197} pleasure. But since Victoria, an unwritten law forbids it, +and with this vanishes the last _remnant of a personal Government_. +The end long sought is attained. + +The history of no other people affords such an illustration of a +steadily progressive national development from seed to blossom, +compelled by one persistent force. Freedom in England has not been +wrought by cataclysm as in France, but has unfolded like a plant from a +life within; impeded and arrested sometimes, but patiently biding its +time, and then steadily and irresistibly pressing outward; one leaf +after another freeing itself from the detaining force. Only a few more +remain to be unclosed, and we shall behold the consummate flower of +fourteen centuries;--centuries in which the most practical nation in +the world has steadily pursued an _ideal_--the ideal of individual +freedom subordinated only to the good of the whole! + + + + +{199} + +A SHORT HISTORY OF IRELAND. + +The history of prehistoric Ireland as told in ancient chronicles, +easily proves the Irish to be the oldest nation in Europe, mingling +their story with those not alone of Egypt, Troy, Greece, and Rome, but +with that of Noah and the antediluvian world. Who was the Lady Cæsair, +who fled with her household to Ireland from the coming deluge after +being refused shelter by Noah? and who Nemehd, the next colonist from +the East, who heads the royal procession of one hundred and eighteen +kings? and who, above all, is Milesius, who comes fresh from the +lingual disaster at Shinar, the divinely appointed ruler, bringing with +him his Egyptian wife Scota (Pharaoh's daughter) and her son Gael? and +who that other son Heber, whose name was given to the original _lingua +humana_ (the Hebrew), in honor of his efforts to prevent the +blasphemous building of {200} Babel? For what do these shadowy figures +stand, looming out of formless mist and chaos, and bestowing their +names as imperishable memorials?--Scotia, Scots, Gaelic,--the word +Gaelic in its true significance including Ireland and Scotland. Even +the name Fenian takes on a venerable dignity when we learn that Fenius, +the Scythian King, and father of Milesius, established the first +university--a sort of school of languages--for the study of the +seventy-two new varieties of human speech, appointing seventy-two wise +men to master this new and troublesome branch of human knowledge! We +are told that Heber and Heremon, the sons of Milesius, finally divided +the island between them, and then, after the fashion of Romulus, Heber +drove the factious Heremon over the sea into the land of the Picts, and +reigned alone over the Scots in Ireland. + +The sober truth seems to be that Ireland, at a very early period, was +known to the Greeks as Ierne (from which comes Erin), and later to the +Romans as Hibernia. At a very remote time it seems to have been +colonized by Greek and other Eastern peoples, who left a deep impress +upon the Celtic race {201} already inhabiting the island; but an +impress upon the mind, not the life, of the Celts, for no vestige of +Greek or other civilization, except in language and in ideals, has ever +been found in Ireland. The only archæological remains are cromlechs, +which tell of a Druidical worship, and the round towers, belonging to a +much later period, whose purpose is only conjectured. + +Ireland's Aryan parentage is plainly indicated in its primitive social +organization and system of laws. The family was the social unit, and +the clan or _sept_ was only a larger family. Pre-Christian Ireland was +divided into five septs: Munster, Connaught, Ulster, Leinster, and +Meath. Each of these tribal divisions was governed by a chief or king, +who was the head of the clan (or family). Among these, the chief-king, +or _Ard Reagh_, resided at Tara in Meath, and received allegiance from +the other four, with no jurisdiction, however, over the internal +affairs of the other kingdoms. There was a perpetual strife between +the clans. Outside of one's own tribal limits was the enemy's country. +The business of life was marauding and plundering, and the greatest +hero {202} was he who could accomplish these things by deeds of the +greatest daring. + +All alike lived under a simple code of laws administered by a +hereditary class of jurists called Brehons. All offences were +punishable by a system of fines called erics. The land was owned by +the clan. Primogeniture was unknown, and the succession to the office +of chief was determined by the clan, which had power to select any one +within the family lines as Tanist or successor. This in "Brehon Law" +is known as the "law of Tanistry," and was closely interwoven with the +later history of Ireland. But the class more exalted than kings or +brehons was the Bards. These were inspired singers, before whom +Brehons quailed and kings meekly bowed their heads. + +During the Roman occupation of Britain in which that country was +Christianized, pagan Ireland heard nothing of the new evangel almost at +her door. But in 432, after Britain had relapsed into paganism, St. +Patrick came into the darkened isle. If ever Pentecostal fires +descended upon a nation it was in those sixty years during which one +saintly man transformed a people from {203} brutish paganism to +Christianity, and converted Ireland into the torch-bearer and nourisher +of intellectual and spiritual life, so that as the gothic night was +settling upon Europe, the centre of illumination seemed to be passing +from Rome to Ireland. Their missionaries were in Britain, Germany, +Gaul; and students from Charlemagne's dominions, and the sons of kings +from other lands, flocked to those stone monasteries, the remains of +which are still to be seen upon the Irish coast, and which were then +the acknowledged centres of learning in Europe. It was not until late +in the ninth century that Ireland played a truly great part in European +history. Rome became jealous of these fiery Christians; they had never +worn her yoke, and concerned themselves little about the Pope. They +had their own views about the shape of the tonsure, and also their own +time for celebrating Easter, which was heretical and contumacious, and +there began a struggle between Roman and Western Christianity. The +passion for art and letters which accompanied this spiritual birth +makes this, indeed, a Golden Age. But the painting of missals, and +study of Greek poetry and philosophy, {204} brought no change in the +life of the people. It was for the learned, and a subject for just +pride in retrospect. But the Christianized septs fought each other as +before, and life was no less wild and disordered than it had always +been. + +In the eighth century the first viking appeared. It was then that a +master-spirit arose, a man of the clan of O'Brien--_Brian Boru_. He +drove out the Danes, usurped the place of Chief-King, and reigned in +the Halls of Tara for a few years, then left his land to lapse once +more into a chaos of fighting clans. But it was Dermot, the King of +Leinster, whose fatal quarrel led to the subjugation of the land to +England. The Irish epic, like that of Troy, has its Paris and Helen. +If that fierce old man had not fallen in love with the wife of the Lord +of Brefny and carried her away, there might have been a different story +to tell. The injured husband made war upon him, in which the +Chief-King took part, and so hot was it made for the wife-stealer, that +he offered to place Leinster at the feet of Henry II. in return for +assistance. A party of adventurous barons, led by Strongbow, the Earl +of Pembroke, {205} rushed to Dermot's rescue, defeated the Chief-King, +drove the Danes out of Dublin, which they had founded, and took +possession of that city themselves. Henry II. followed up the +unauthorized raid of his barons with a well-equipped army, which he +himself led, landing upon the Irish coast in 1171. + +The conquest was soon complete, and Henry proceeded to organize his new +territory, dividing it into counties, and setting up law-courts at +Dublin, which was chosen as the Seat of his Lord-Deputy. The system of +English law was established for the use of the Norman barons and +English settlers, the natives being allowed to live under their old +system of Brehon laws. Henry gave huge grants of land with feudal +rights to his barons, then returned to his own troubled kingdom, +leaving them to establish their claims and settle accounts with the +Irish chieftains as best they could. The sword was the argument used +on both sides, and a conflict between the brehon and feudal systems had +commenced which still continues in Ireland. If Henry had expected to +convert Irishmen into Englishmen, he had {206} miscalculated; it was +the reverse which happened--the Norman-English were slowly but surely +converted into Irishmen, and two elements were thereafter side by side, +the Old Irish and the Anglo-Irish, who, however antagonistic, had +always a certain community of interest which drew them together in +great emergencies. + +It is an easy task to describe a storm which has one centre. But how +is one to describe the confused play of forces in a cyclone which has +centres within centres? Irish chieftains at war with Irish chieftains, +jealous Norman barons with Norman barons, all at the same time in +deadly struggle with O'Neills, O'Connells, and O'Briens, who would +never cease to fight for the territory which had been torn from them; +and yet each and all of these ready in a desperate crisis to combine +for the preservation of Ireland. In this chaos the territorial barons +were the framework of the structure. The grants bestowed by Henry II. +had created, in fact, a group of small principalities. These were +called Palatinates, and the power of the Lords Palatine was almost +without limit. Each was a king in his own little {207} kingdom--could +make war upon his neighbors, and recruit his army from his own vassals. +It was the Geraldines who played the most historic part among these +Palatines, the houses of Kildare and Desmond both being branches of +this famous Norman family, which was always in high favor with the +English sovereign, and always at war with the rival house of Ormond, +the next most powerful Anglo-Norman family, descended from Thomas à +Becket. These barons, or "Lords of the Pale," were, of course, +supposed to be the intermediaries for the King's authority. But the +Geraldines seem to have found plenty of time to build up their own +fortunes, and as peace with their neighbors was sometimes more +conducive to that pursuit, alliances with native chiefs and marriages +with their daughters had in time made of them pretty good Irishmen. + +But our main purpose is not to follow the fortunes of these picturesque +and romantic robbers who considered all Ireland their legitimate prey, +but rather those of the hapless native population, dispossessed of +their homes, hiding in forests and morasses, and whom it was the policy +of the English {208} Government to efface in their own country. These +pages will tell of many efforts to compel loyalty, but not one effort +to _win_ the loyalty of the Irish people is recorded in history! No +race in the world is more susceptible to kindness and more easily +reached by personal influences, and there are none of whom a passionate +loyalty is more characteristic. What might have been the effect of a +policy of kindness instead of exasperation, we can only guess. But we +can all see plainly enough the disastrous results which have come from +pouring vitriol upon open wounds, and from treating a nation as if they +were not only intruders but outlaws in their own land. + +Listen to the Statutes of Kilkenny, passed by an obedient Parliament at +a time when Edward III. was depending upon sinewy, clean-limbed young +Irishmen to fight his battles in France and help him to win _Crécy_. +(Which they did.) These are some of the provisions of the statute: +Marriage between English and Irish is punishable by death in most +terrible form. It is high treason to give horses, goods, or weapons of +any sort to the Irish. War with the natives {209} is binding upon good +colonists. To speak the language of the country is a penal offence, +and the killing of an Irishman is not to be reckoned as a crime. + +But in spite of the ferocity of her purpose, England grew lax. She had +great wars on her hands, and more important interests to look after. +Things were left to the Geraldines, and to the Irish Parliament, which +was controlled by the Lords of the Pale. Intermarriages, against which +horrible penalties had once been enforced, had become frequent, and +many dispossessed chiefs, notably the O'Neills, had recovered their own +lands. So, when Henry VII. came to the throne, although the Norman +banners had for three centuries floated over Ireland, the English +territory, "the Pale," was really reduced to a small area about Dublin. + +Henry VII. determined to change all this. Sir Edward Poynings came +charged with a mission, and Parliament passed an Act called _Poynings +Act_, by which English laws were made operative in Ireland as in +England. When Henry VIII. succeeded his father, the astute Wolsey soon +doubted the fidelity of the Geraldines. Of what use {210} were the +Statutes of Kilkenny and the Poynings Act, when the ruling Anglo-Irish +house acted as if they did not exist! He planned their downfall. The +great Earl of Kildare was summoned to London, and six of the doomed +house were beheaded in the Tower. The Reformation had given a new +aspect to the troubles in Ireland. Henry's attack upon the Church drew +together the native Irish and the Anglo-Irish. The struggle had been +hitherto only one over territory, between these naturally hostile +classes; now they were drawn together by a common peril to their +Church, and when, in 1560, Queen Elizabeth had passed the famous Act of +Uniformity, making the Protestant liturgy compulsory, the exasperation +had reached an acute stage, and the sense of former wrongs was +intensified by this new oppression. Ireland was filled with hatred and +burning with desire for vengeance, and there was one proud family in +Ulster, the O'Neills, which was preparing to defy all England. They +scornfully threw away the title "Earl of Tyrone," bestowed upon the +head of their house by Henry VIII,, and declared that by virtue {211} +of the old Irish law of Tanistry, Shane O'Neill was King of Ulster! It +was a test case of the validity of Irish or English laws. "Shane the +Proud," the King of Ulster, at the invitation of Elizabeth, appeared +with his wild followers at her Court, wearing their saffron shirts and +battle-axes. The tactful Queen patched up a peace with her rival, and +then made sure that his head should in a few weeks adorn the walls of +Dublin Castle. His forfeited kingdom was thickly planted with English +and Scotch settlers, who, when they tried to settle, were usually +killed by the O'Neills. The only thing to be done was to exterminate +this troublesome tribe. This grew into the larger purpose of +extirpating the whole of the obnoxious native population. The +Geraldines were not all dead, and this atrocious plan led to the famous +Geraldine League, and that to the Desmond Rebellion. The league which +was to be the avenger of centuries of wrong, was a Catholic one. The +Earl of Desmond had long been in communication with Rome and with +Spain, enlisting their sympathies for their co-religionists in Ireland. +A recent event {212} helped to steel the hearts of the natives against +pity should they succeed. A rising in Connaught had, at the suggestion +of Sir Francis Crosby, been put down in the following way. The chiefs +and their kinsmen, four hundred in number, were invited to a banquet in +the fort of Mullaghmast. But one man escaped alive from that feast of +death! One hundred and eighty from the clan of O'Moore alone were +slaughtered. It was "Rory O'Moore" who did not attend the banquet, who +kept alive the memory of the awful event for many a year by his +battle-cry, "Remember Mullaghmast!" Now the long-impending battle was +on, with a Geraldine for a standard-bearer. But it was in vain. +Another Earl of Kildare perished in the Tower, and another Desmond head +was sent there as a warning against disloyalty! Those who escaped the +slaughter fell by the executioner, and the remnant, hiding from both, +perished by famine. But Munster was "pacified." The enormous Desmond +estate, a hundred miles in territory, was confiscated and planted with +settlers who would undertake the doubtful task of settling. + +{213} + +The smothered fires next broke out in Ulster--the brilliant Earl of +Tyrone headed the rebellion bearing his name, with Spain as an ally. +The Queen sent the Earl of Essex to crush Tyrone. His failure to crush +or even to check the great leader, and his extraordinary conduct in +consenting to an armistice at the moment when he might have compelled a +surrender, brought such a reprimand from the furious Queen that he +rushed back to England, and to his death. Another and more successful +leader came--Mountjoy. The rebellion was put down, its leader exiled, +and his estate, comprising six entire counties, was confiscated, +planted with Scotch settlers, and Ulster, too, was "pacified." + +The reign of Charles I. revived hope in Ireland. He wanted money, and +when Strafford came bearing profuse promises of religious and civil +liberty, and the righting of wrongs, a grateful Parliament at once +voted the £100,000 demanded for the immediate use of the Crown, also +10,000 foot and 1,000 horse for his use in the impending revolution, +which was soon precipitated by the attempt of Charles and Laud to force +the liturgy of the Established Church upon {214} the people in +Scotland. Between the Scotch Presbyterians and the Irish Catholics +there was the bitterest hatred engendered during the long strife +between the natives and the Scotch settlers. So the King's cause was +Ireland's cause, his enemies were her enemies, and his triumph would +also be hers. The day of liberation seemed at hand. The Lords of the +Pale were in constant communication with the King and ready to +co-operate with him in his designs upon Scotland. Such was the +situation when Charles, under the pressure of his need of money, +summoned the Parliament (1641)--the famous Long Parliament--which was +destined to sit for twenty eventful years. + +Well would it be for Ireland if it could blot out the memory of that +year (1641) and the horrid event it recalls. The story briefly told is +that a plot, having for its end a general forcible exodus of the hated +settlers, was discovered and defeated, when a disappointed and +infuriated horde of armed men spent their rage upon a community of +Scotch settlers in Armagh and Tyrone, whom they massacred with horrible +barbarities. + +There is no reason to believe this deed was {215} premeditated; but it +occurred, and was atrocious in details and appalling in magnitude. +There can be no justification for massacre at any time; but if there +were no background of cruelty for this particular one, it would stand +out blacker even than it does upon the pages of history. There were +many massacres behind it--massacres committed not to avenge wrongs, but +to accomplish them! The massacre of Protestants by Irish Catholics is +in itself no more hideous than the massacre of Irish Catholics by +Protestants. And was it strange that in their first chance at +retaliation, this half-civilized people treated their oppressors as +their oppressors had many, many times treated them? Could anything +else have been expected? especially when we learn that the Scotch +Presbyterians in Tyrone and Armagh immediately retaliated by murdering +thirty Irish Catholic families who were in no way implicated in the +horror! + +Strafford's head had fallen in the first days of the Long Parliament; +then Archbishop Laud met the same fate, and finally the execution of +Charles I. at Whitehall, in 1649, put an end to the dreams of +liberation. {216} Almost the first thing to occupy the attention of +Cromwell was the settling of accounts with the Catholic rebels in +Ireland, who had for years been intriguing with the traitor King and +were even now plotting with the Pope's nuncio, Rinucini, for the return +of the exiled Prince Charles. + +It required six years and 600,000 lives for Cromwell to inflict proper +punishment upon Ireland for these offences and the massacre of 1641; or +rather, to _prepare_ for the punishment which was now to begin, and for +which we shall search history in vain for a parallel! The heroic +Cromwellian scheme--which was carried out to the letter--was this: The +entire native population were, before May 1, 1654, to depart in a body +for Connaught, there to inhabit a small reservation in a desolate tract +between the Shannon and the sea, of which it was said by one of the +commissioners engaged in this business, "there was not wood enough to +burn, water enough to drown, nor earth enough to bury a man." They +must not go within two miles of the river, nor four miles of the sea, a +cordon of soldiers being permanently stationed with orders to shoot +{217} anyone who overstepped such limits. Any Irish who after the date +named were found east of the appointed line were to suffer death. +Resistance was hopeless. We hear of wild pleas for time, for a brief +delay to collect a few comforts, and make some provision for food and +shelter. But at the beating of the drum and blast of the trumpet, and +urged on by bayonets, the tide of wretched humanity flowed into +Connaught, delicately nurtured ladies and children, the infirm, the +sick, the high and the low, peer and peasant, sharing alike the vast +sentence of banishment and starvation. The fate of others was even +worse, many thousands, ladies, children, people of all ranks, had for +various reasons been left behind. Wholesale executions of so great a +number of helpless beings were impossible, so they were sold in batches +and shipped, most of them to the West Indies and to the newly acquired +island of Jamaica, to be heard of never more; while of the sturdier +remnant left, a few fled into exile in other lands, and the rest to the +woods, there to lead lives of wild brigandage, hiding like wolves in +caves and clefts of rocks, with a price upon their heads! + +{218} + +Of the two crimes, the Cromwellian settlement and the massacre of 1641, +it seems to the writer of this that Cromwell's is the heavier burden +for the conscience of a nation to carry! Who can wonder that the Irish +did not love England, and that the task of governing a people so +estranged has been a difficult one for English statesmanship ever since? + +But the extinction of a nation requires time, even when accomplished by +measures so admirable as those employed in the Cromwellian settlement. +In 1660 Charles II. was on his father's throne, and we hear of hopes +revived, and the expectation that the awful suffering endured for the +father would be rewarded by his son. The land of the exiles in +Connaught had been bestowed by Cromwell upon his followers. But quick +to discern the turn in the tide, these men had helped to bring the +exiled Prince Charles back to his throne. They expected reward, not +punishment! Like many another successful candidate, Charles was +embarrassed by obligations to his friends; besides, he must not offend +the anti-Catholic sentiment in England, which since the massacre of +{219} 1641 had become a passion. The matter of the land was finally +adjudicated; such Irish as could clear themselves of complicity with +the Papal Nuncio and of certain other serious offences, of which almost +all were guilty, might have their possessions restored to them. So a +small portion of the land came back to its owners, and the Duke of +Ormond, a stanch Protestant, was created Viceroy. + +Although nominally a Protestant, to the pleasure-loving Charles the +religion of his kingdom was the very smallest concern. So, more from +indifference than indulgence, things became easier for the Irish +Catholics, and exiles began to return. The Protestants, both English +and Irish, were alarmed. With the massacre ever before them, they +believed the only safety for Protestants was in keeping the Irish +papists in a condition of absolute helplessness. There was a +smouldering mass of apprehension which needed only a spark to convert +it into a blaze. The murder of Sir Edward Bery Godfrey, a magistrate, +afforded this spark. Titus Gates, the most worthless scoundrel in all +England, had recently made a sworn statement before this gentleman to +the effect {220} that a plot existed for the murder of the King in +order to place his Catholic brother on the throne, to be followed by a +general massacre of Protestants, the burning of London, and an invasion +of Ireland by the French. When Sir Edward was found dead upon a +hill-side, men's minds leaped to the conclusion that the carnival of +blood had begun. An insane panic set in. Nothing short of death would +satisfy the popular frenzy. The Roman Catholic Archbishop, Dr. +Plunkett, a man revered and beloved even by Protestants, was dragged to +London, and for complicity in a French plot which never existed, and +for aiding a French invasion which had never been contemplated, was +hanged, drawn, and quartered. Innocent victims were torn from their +homes, fifteen sent to the gallows, and 2,000 languished in prisons, +while a suite of apartments at Whitehall and £600 a year was bestowed +upon Gates, who was greeted as the saviour of his country! In two +years more Gates was driven from his apartment at Whitehall for calling +the heir to the throne a traitor, was found guilty of perjury, and +sentenced to be pilloried, flogged, and imprisoned for life. {221} And +so ended the famous "Popish Plot" of 1678. + +In 1685 Charles II. died, and was succeeded by his brother, James II. +It was precisely because this ignominious reign was so disastrous to +England, that it was a period of brief triumph for Ireland. That +country was the corner-stone for the political structure which James +had long contemplated. It was the stronghold for the Catholicism which +he intended should become the religion of his kingdom. The Duke of +Ormond was deposed, and a Catholic filled the office of Viceroy in +Ireland. At last their turn had come, and no time was lost. An Irish +Parliament was summoned, in which there were just six Protestants. All +the things of which they had dreamed for years were accomplished. The +Poynings Act was repealed. Irish disabilities were removed. The Irish +proprietors dispossessed by the Act of Settlement had their lands +restored to them. All Protestants, under terrible penalties, were +ordered to give up their arms before a certain day. 'Men' only +recently with a price upon their heads were now officers in the King's +service, and were {222} quartering their soldiers upon the estates of +the Protestants. There was a general exodus of the Protestants, some +fleeing to England and others into the North, where they finally +entrenched themselves in the cities of Enniskillen and Londonderry, +winning for that last-named city imperishable fame by their heroic +defence during a siege which lasted one hundred and five days. + +In the meantime it had become evident in England that the safety of the +kingdom demanded the expulsion of James. His son-in-law, William of +Orange, accepted an invitation to come and share the English throne +with his wife Mary. The fugitive King found a refuge with his friend +and co-conspirator, Louis XIV., and from France continued to direct the +revolutionary movements in Ireland, which he intended to use as a +stepping-stone to his kingdom. + +But for Catholic Ireland all these over-turnings meant only a +realization of the long-prayed-for event, a separation from England, a +kingdom of their own, with the Catholic James to reign over them. When +he arrived with his fleet and his French officers and munitions of war, +provided by Louis {223} XIV., he was embraced with tears of rapturous +joy. Their "Deliverer" had come! He passed under triumphal arches and +over flower-strewn roads on his way to Dublin Castle. But almost +before these flowers had faded, James had met the army of William, the +"Battle of the Boyne" had been fought and lost (1690), and as fast as +the winds would carry him he had fled back to France. + +As the city of Londonderry had been the last refuge for the Protestants +in the North, it was in the city of Limerick that the Irish Catholics +made their last stand in the South. And the two names stand for +companion acts of valor and heroism. Saarsfield's magnificent defence +of the latter city after the flight of the King and during the terrible +siege by William's army under Ginkel, is the one luminous spot in the +whole campaign of disaster and defeat. With the surrender of Limerick +the end had come. Their "Deliverer" was again a fugitive in France, +and Ireland was face to face with an austere Protestant King, once more +to be called to account and to receive punishment for her crimes. + +By the famous Articles of Limerick the terms of the surrender, wrung by +Saarsfield's {224} valor from the English commander, were more +favorable than could have been expected. These were a full pardon, and +a restoration of the rights enjoyed by the Catholics under Charles II. +The army, with its officers, was to go into exile, and they might +choose either the service of William in England, or enroll themselves +in the service of France, Spain, or other European countries. The +latter was the choice of all except a very few; and when the +heart-rending separation was over, wives and mothers clinging in +despair to the retreating vessels, the last act in the Great Rebellion +of 1690 was finished. + +Of course the Poynings law was restored, the recent Acts repealed, and +a new period had commenced for Ireland; a period of quiet, but a quiet +not unlike that of the graveyard, the sort of quiet which makes the +wounded and exhausted animal cease to struggle with his captors. For a +whole century we are to hear of no more revolts, risings, or +rebellions. There was nothing left to revolt. Nothing left to rise! +The bone and sinew of the nation had gone to fight under strange +banners upon foreign battle-fields, so there was left a nation of +non-combatants, {225} with spirit broken and hope extinguished, and +grown so pathetically patient, that we hear not a single remonstrance +as William's cold-blooded decrees, known as the "Penal Code," are +placed in operation. These enactments were not blood-thirsty, not +sanguinary, like those of former reigns, but just a deliberate process +apparently designed to convert the Irish into a nation of outcasts, by +destroying every germ of ambition and drying up every spring which is +the source of self-respecting manhood. + +Here are a few of the provisions of the famous, or infamous, code: No +Papist could acquire or dispose of property; nor could he own a horse +of the value of more than £5; and any Protestant offering that sum for +a horse he must accept it. He might not practise any learned +profession, nor teach a school, nor send his children to school at home +or abroad. Every barrister, clerk, and attorney must take a solemn +oath not for any purpose to employ persons belonging to that religious +faith. The discovery of any weapon rendered its Catholic owner liable +to fines, whipping, the pillory, and imprisonment. He could not +inherit, or {226} even receive property as a gift from Protestants. +The oldest son of a Catholic, by embracing the Protestant faith, became +the heir-at-law to the whole estate of his father, who was reduced to +the position of life-tenant; and any child by the same Act might be +taken away from its father and a portion of his property assigned to +it; while it was the privilege of the wife who apostatized, to be freed +from her husband, and to have assigned to her a proportion of his +property. + +The not unnatural result of these last-named enactments was that many +were driven to feigned conversions in order to keep their families from +starvation. It is said that when old Lady Thomond was reproached for +having bartered her soul by professing the Protestant faith, her quick +retort was, "Is it not better that one old woman should burn, than that +all of the Thomonds should be beggars?" + +More details are unnecessary after saying that by a decision of Lord +Chancellor Bowes and Chief-Justice Robinson it was declared that "the +law does not suppose any such person to exist as an Irish Roman {227} +Catholic," while the English Bishop at Meath declared from his pulpit, +"We are not bound to keep faith with papists." And it must be +remembered that the people placed under this monstrous system of wrong +and degradation were not a handful, whom the welfare of a community +required should be dealt with severely, they were a large majority of +the population, a nation dwelling in their own country, where, by a +Parliament supposed to be their own, they were governed by a minority +of aliens. + +In this time of "Protestant ascendancy," as it is called, there were, +of course, only Protestants in the Parliament. They had all the +authority, they alone were competent to vote; they were the privileged +and upper class; an Irish papist, whatever his rank, being the social +inferior of his Protestant neighbor. But let it not be supposed that +the Irish Protestants were on that account happy! They had been +planted in that land as a breakwater against the native Irish flood, +but for all that, England had no idea of permitting them to build up a +dangerous prosperity in Ireland. The theory governing English +statesmanship was that that {228} country must be kept helpless; and to +that end it must be kept poor. During the reign of Charles II. the +importing of Irish cattle into England had been forbidden. The effects +of this prohibition, so ruinous at first, were at last offset by the +discovery that sheep might be made a greater source of profit at home, +than when shipped to England. There was an increasing demand in Europe +for Irish wool, and skilled manufacturers of woollen goods from abroad +had come and started factories, thus giving employment to thousands of +people. + +When it was realized in England that a profitable Irish industry had +actually been established, there was a panic. The traders demanded +legislative protection from Irish competition, which came in this form. +In 1699 an Act was passed prohibiting the export of Irish woollen +goods, not alone to England, but to all other countries. The factories +were closed. The manufacturers left the country, never to return, and +a whole population was thrown out of employment. A tide of emigration +then commenced which has never ceased; such as could, fleeing from the +inevitable famine which in a land always {229} so perilously near +starvation must surely come. + +There was no market now for the wool which the factories would have +consumed. At home it brought 5d. a pound, but in France a half crown! +The long, deeply indented coast-line was well adapted for smuggling. +French vessels were hovering about, waiting an opportunity to get it; +the people were hungry, and might be hungrier, for there was a famine +in the land! Is it strange that they were converted into law-breakers, +and that wool was packed in caves all along the coast; and that a vast +contraband trade carried on by stealth, took the place of a legitimate +one which was made impossible? + +So it became apparent that any efforts to establish profitable +enterprises in Ireland would be put down with a strong hand. The +colonists who had been placed there by England felt bitterly at finding +themselves thus involved in the pre-determined ruin of the country with +which they had identified their own fortunes. Their love of the +parent-country waned, some even turning to and adopting the persecuted +creed. The voice of {230} the native people, utterly stifled, was +never heard in Parliament, and struggles which occurred there were +between Protestants and Protestants; between those who did, and those +who did not, uphold the policy of the Government. Such was the +condition which remained practically unchanged until the middle of the +eighteenth century; a small discontented upper class, chiefly aliens; +below them the peasantry, the mass of the people, whose benumbed +faculties and empty minds had two passions to stir their murky +depths--love for their religion, and hatred of England. + +The first voice raised in support of the constitutional rights of +Ireland was that of William Molyneux, an Irish gentleman and scholar, a +philosopher, and the intimate friend of Locke. In the latter part of +the seventeenth century he issued a pamphlet which in the gentlest +terms called attention to the fact that the laws and liberties of +England which had been granted to Ireland five hundred years before had +been invaded, in that the rights of their Parliament, a body which +should be sacred and inviolable everywhere, had been abolished. +Nothing could have been milder than this {231} presentation of a +well-known fact; but it raised a furious storm. The constitutional +rights of Ireland! Was the man mad? The book was denounced in +Parliament as libellous and seditious, and was destroyed by the common +hangman. Then Dean Swift, half-Irishman and more than half-Englishman, +an ardent High-Churchman and a vehement anti-papist, published a +satirical pamphlet called "A Modest Proposal," in which he suggests +that the children of the Irish peasants should be reared for food, and +the choicest ones reserved for the landlords, who having already +devoured the substance of the fathers, had the best right to feast upon +their children. This was made the more pungent because it came from a +man who so far from being an Irish patriot, was an English Tory. He +cared little for Ireland or its people, but he hated tyranny and +injustice; and was stirred to a fierce wrath at what he himself +witnessed while Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Then it was +that with tremendous scorn he hurled those shafts of biting wit and +satire, which struck deeper than the cogent reasoning of the gentle and +philosophic Molyneux. + +{232} + +So the spell of silence was broken, and there began to form a small +patriotic party in Parliament, which in 1760 was led by Henry Flood, +from Kilkenny. A day was dawning after the long night; and when in +1775 Henry Grattan's more powerful personality was joined with Flood's, +then that brief day had reached its highest noon. Next to that of +Edmund Burke, Grattan's is the greatest name on the roll of native-born +Irishmen. Happy was that country in having such an advocate and guide +at the critical period when the American colonies were throwing off the +yoke of English tyranny. The wrongs suffered by the English colonies +in America were trifling compared with those endured by that other +English colony in Ireland. If ever there was a time to press upon +England the necessity for loosening their shackles it was now, when +their battle was being fought across the sea. Every argument in +support of the independence of America applied with equal force to the +legislative independence of Ireland. It was Grattan who at this +momentous time guided the course of events. A Protestant, yet +possessing the entire confidence of the Catholics; {233} an +uncompromising patriot, yet commanding the respect and admiration of +the English Government; inflexibly opposed to Catholic exclusion and +the ascendancy of a Protestant minority, and as inflexibly opposed to +any act of violence, he was determined to obtain redress--but to obtain +it only by means of the strictest constitutional methods. It was upon +the _constitutionality_ of their claims that he threw all the energy of +the movement growing out of the American war. His personal sympathies +were with the struggling colonists; yet he voted for men and money to +sustain the English cause. Equal rights bestowed upon Catholics, who +were in large majority, would transfer to them the power; yet he, a +Protestant, passionately advocated a removal of the disabilities of +four-fifths of the people. It was in this spirit of wise moderation +and even-handed justice that Grattan took the tangled web of the Irish +cause out of the hands of the more impetuous Flood; his eloquence and +his moving appeals keeping two objects steadily in view--the +independence of the Irish Parliament, and the removal of the fetters +from Irish trade. + +{234} + +Times had changed since Molyneux's gentle remonstrance, when Grattan's +famous Declaration of Rights was being supported by eighteen counties, +and still more changed when at last, in 1782, an Irish House of Commons +marched in a body to present to the Lord Lieutenant their address +demanding freedom of commerce and manufacture. + +An unlooked-for train of events had given new weight to this demand. +England had realized the necessity of protecting Ireland from a +possible invasion growing out of the American war. So it was +determined that a body of militia should be levied, in which only +Protestants should be enrolled. The attempt to raise the men or the +money in Ireland was a failure, and while defenceless, the country was +thrown into a panic by the descent of Paul Jones, the American naval +hero, upon Belfast and other points on the coast. The citizens of +Belfast enrolled themselves for their own defence. Other towns +followed, and the contagion spread with such rapidity that in a short +time there was in existence a volunteer force of 60,000 men. + +Dismayed at the swiftness of the movement, England hesitated; but how +could she {235} deny her colony the right of self-defence? They were +given the arms which had been intended for the Protestant militia. And +so, when the House of Commons marched in a body to the Lord Lieutenant, +and presented their address to the Crown, it had 60,000 armed men +behind it! + +The Viceroy wrote to England that unless the trade restrictions were +removed, he would not answer for the consequences. Lord North had +enough to do with one rebellion on his hands; and, besides, George III. +might have need of some of those 60,000 soldiers before he got through +with America. So the Prime Minister yielded. The first victory was +gained, and the other quickly followed. American independence was +acknowledged; England was in no mood to defy another colony with +rebellion in its heart. The Poynings Act once more, and now for all +time, was repealed, and the Irish Parliament was a free and independent +body. Grateful for this partial emancipation, it voted £100,000 to +Grattan. + +But this legislative triumph did not feed the people. It was only the +seed out of which future prosperity was to grow. A vague expectation +of instant relief was {236} bitterly disappointed when it was found +instead that they were sinking deeper every day in the hopeless abyss +of poverty and degradation. There had come into existence an +organization called the "White Boys," with no political or religious +purpose, simply a fraternity of wretchedness; beings made desperate by +want, standing ready to commit any violence which offered relief. At +the same time an irritation born of misery brought the Protestants and +Catholics in the North into fierce collision; and the germ of the +future Orange societies appeared. + +These small storm-centres were all soon to be drawn into a larger one. +In 1791 the "Society of United Irishmen" was formed at Belfast. It was +merely a patriotic attempt to sink minor differences in an organization +in which all could join. With the rising of the general tide of misery +it changed in character, and fell into the control of a band of +restless spirits led by Wolfe Tone, who maintained that since +constitutional reforms had failed, force must be their resort. He sent +agents to Paris, and the new French republic consented to assist in an +attempt to establish a republic in Ireland. + +{237} + +When the year 1798 closed, there had been another unsuccessful +rebellion. Ferocity had been met by ferocity, and Wolfe Tone and +Edward Fitzgerald (a Geraldine) had perished in the ruin of the +structure they had wildly built. Flood and Grattan had stood aloof +from this miserable undertaking. It was now eighteen years since the +constitutional triumph which had proved so barren. England was in +stern mood. Pitt had long believed that the effacement of the Irish +Parliament and a legislative union of the two countries was the only +solution. The Irish Protestants were shown the benefits of the +protection this would afford them, while the bait offered to the +Catholics was emancipation, the removal of disabilities which it was +intimated would quickly follow. But no one was won to the cause, +Grattan, in the most impassioned way protesting against it, and the +measure was defeated. Then followed the darkest page in the chapter. + +It is well known that large amounts of money were paid to the owners of +eighty-five doubtful boroughs--boroughs which would be effaced by the +union--that peerages and {238} baronetcies were generously distributed, +and that shortly after, the measure was again brought up and carried! +So by the Act of Union, 1800, the Irish Parliament had ceased to exist, +and the two countries were politically merged. It is certain that the +union was hateful to the Irish people, and that it was tainted by the +suspicion of dishonorable methods, which one hundred years have failed +to disprove. It may have been the best thing possible, under the +circumstances, for Ireland; but to the Irish patriots it seemed a +crowning act of oppression accomplished by treachery. + +You cannot combine oil and water by pouring them into one glass. The +union was not a union. The natures of the two races were utterly +hostile. Centuries of cruel wrong and outrage had accentuated every +undesirable trait in the Irish people. A nature simple, confiding, +spontaneous, and impulsive, had become suspicious, explosive, and +dangerous. Pugnacity had grown into ferocity. A joyous, +light-hearted, and engaging people had become a sullen and vindictive +one; famine, misery, and ignorance had put their stamp of degradation +{239} upon the peasantry, the majority of the people. Intermarriage, +so savagely interdicted for centuries, was the only thing which could +ever have fused two such contrasting races. Such a fusion might have +benefited both, in giving a wholesome solidity to the Irish, while the +stolid English would have been enriched by the fascinating traits and +the native genius of their brilliant neighbors. But the opportunity +had been lost; and enlightened English statesmanship is still seeking +for a plan which will convert an unnatural and artificial union into a +real one. + +The delusive promises of the relief which was to come with union were +not fulfilled. Catholics remained under the same monstrous ban as +before, and things were practically unchanged. Young Robert Emmett's +abortive attempt to seize Dublin Castle in 1803 intensified conditions, +but did not alter them. The pathetic story of his capture while +seeking a parting interview with Sarah Curran, to whom he was engaged, +and his death by hanging the following morning, is one of the smaller +tragedies in the greater one; and the death of Sarah {240} from a +broken heart, soon after, is the subject of Moore's well-known lines. + +The most colossal figure in the story of Ireland had now appeared. +Daniel O'Connell, unlike the other great leaders, was a Catholic. In +the language of another, "he was the incarnation of the Irish nation." +All that they were, he was, on a majestic scale. His whole tremendous +weight was thrown into the subject of Catholic emancipation; and, +although a giant in eloquence and in power, it took him just +twenty-nine years to accomplish it. In the year 1829, even Wellington, +that incarnation of British conservatism, bent his head before the +storm, and there was a full and unqualified removal of Catholic +disabilities. O'Connell was not content; he did not pause. The +tithe-system, that most odious of oppressions, must go. A starving +nation compelled to support in its own land a Church it considered +blasphemous! A standing army kept in their land to wring this tribute +from them at the point of the bayonet! Think of a people on the brink +of the greatest famine Europe has ever known, being in arrears a +million and a quarter of pounds for tithes {241} for an Established +Church they did not want! Is it strange that Sydney Smith said no +abuse as great could be found in Timbuctoo? Is it a wonder that there +was always disorder and violence from a chronic tithe-war in Ireland, +which it is said has cost a million of lives? But in 1839, in the +second year of Queen Victoria's reign, Parliament gave relief, in the +following ingenious way. The burden was placed upon the _land_; the +landlord must pay the tithe, not the people! The exasperation which +followed took a form with which we are all more or less familiar. With +the increase in rents which, of course, ensued, there commenced an +anti-rent agitation which has never ceased. A repeal of the Union was +the only remedy, and to this O'Connell devoted all his energies. + +In 1845, in one black night, a blight fell upon the potato-crop. +Carlyle says "a famine presupposes much." What must be the economic +condition of a people when there is only one such frail barrier between +them and starvation! The famine was the hideous child of centuries. +There is no need to dwell upon its details. Its name expresses all the +horror of those two years, when Europe and {242} America strove in vain +to relieve the famishing nation, even those who had food, dying, it is +said, from the mental anguish produced by witnessing so much suffering +which they could not assuage. The great O'Connell himself died of a +broken heart in beholding this national tragedy. When it was over, +Ireland had lost two millions of its population. Thousands had +perished and thousands more had emigrated from the doomed land to +America, there to keep alive, in the hearts of their children, the +memory of their wrongs. + +Out of this wreck and ruin there arose the party of "Young Ireland," +led, with more or less wisdom, by Mitchell, Smith O'Brien (descended +from Brian Boru), Dillon, and Meagher. Mitchell was soon transported, +and later O'Brien and Meagher were under sentence of death, which was +afterward commuted, Meagher surviving to lay down his life for the +North in the civil war in America. It is not strange that these men +were driven to futile insurrections, maddened as they were by the sight +of their countrymen, not yet emerged from the horrors of famine, forced +in droves out of the shelter of their {243} miserable cabins, for +non-payment of rent. It has been told in foregoing pages how it came +about that absentee English landlords owned a great part of Ireland. +From this had arisen the custom of subletting; and when it is known +that sometimes four people stood between the tenant and the landlord, +it will be realized how difficult it was to place responsibility, to do +justice, or to show mercy in such an iniquitous system. It was the +system, not the landlord, that was vicious. Eviction has done as much +as famine to depopulate Ireland. It has driven millions of Irishmen +into America; and the cruelty and even ferocity with which it has been +carried out cannot be overstated. Whatever the weather, for the sick, +or even for the dying, there was no pity. Out they must go; and to +make sure that they would not return, the cabin was unroofed! And +then, if the wretched being died under the stars by the road-side, he +might, in the words of Mitchell, "lift his dying eyes and thank God +that he perished under the best constitution in the world!" + +At the close of the American civil war it was believed by Irishmen that +the strained {244} relations between England and America would lead to +open conflict. An organization named Fenians (after the ancient Feni) +formed a plan for a rising in Ireland, which was to be simultaneous +with a raid into Canada by way of America. + +The United States Government took vigorous action in the matter of the +Canadian raid, and the failure of this and of other violent attempts at +home put an end to the least creditable of all such organizations. + +It was in 1869 that Mr. Gladstone realized his long-cherished plan for +the disestablishment of the Church in Ireland. The generations which +had hoped and striven for this had passed away, and in the Ireland +which remained, there was scarcely spirit enough left to rejoice over +anything. The words Home Rule were the only ones with power to arouse +hope. With the Liberal Party on their side, this seemed possible of +attainment. In 1875 Charles Parnell entered the House of Commons and +became the leader of a Home Rule Party. But the question of evictions, +of which there had been 10,000 in four years, became so pressing, that +he organized a National Land League, which {245} had for its object the +relief of present distress, and the substitution of +peasant-proprietorship for the existing landlord system; an agrarian +scheme, or dream, to which Mr. Parnell devoted the rest of his life. +Mr. Parnell's weapons were parliamentary. He introduced an obstructive +method in legislation which caused extreme irritation and finally +antagonism between the Liberal Party and his own. This, together with +the unfounded suspicion of complicity in the murder of Lord Frederick +Cavendish, in 1882, militated against Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Act, +which was defeated in 1886; and the cause awaited another champion. + +But while the door bearing the alluring words "Home Rule" still remains +rigidly closed, another has unexpectedly opened. One of the first +subjects to engage the attention of King Edward VII. after his +accession was the settlement of the Irish agrarian question which that +practical Monarch recognized as the most essential to the pacification +of his Irish subjects. This has {246} resulted in an ingeniously +devised system of peasant-proprietorship, which is made possible by +Government aid, in money and credit. The New Land Act, embodying this +result, went into effect November 1, 1903, whereby tenants, +sub-tenants, or people who are not tenants may purchase land in small +lots and hold it as _their own_, by the payment of a small annual +rental which applies to the purchase. It is impossible to give here +the complicated details which insure this result with benefit to +landlord, tenant, and also to the Government itself. But a remedy +seems to have been found which accomplishes all this; and the +condition, more demoralizing to Irish life and character than any +other, has been removed. With the sense of peace and permanence, and +even of dignity, which comes from proprietorship it is hoped a new day +is dawning for the peasantry of that unhappy country. + +It has been Ireland's misfortune to be geographically allied to one of +the greatest {247} European Powers. She has been fighting for +centuries against the "despotism of fact." She has never once loosened +the grasp fastened upon her in 1171; never had control of her capital +city, which, built by the Northmen, has been the home of her political +masters ever since. Of course everyone knows that when the English +Government solemnly doubts the capacity of the Irish people for Home +Rule, its solicitude is for England, not Ireland. + +Francis Meagher, when on trial for his life, said: "If I have committed +a crime, it is because I have read the history of Ireland!" One need +not be an Irish patriot to be in rebellion against the English rule in +that land; and no Protestant can read without shame and indignation the +crimes which have been committed in the name of his Church. + +But, in view of the small results of more than eight centuries of +resistance, would it not be wise for the Irish people to abandon the +fight against the "despotism of fact," {248} to give up the attitude of +a conquered people with rebellion in their hearts? Is not this the +right moment, when England is manifesting a desire to be more just, for +Ireland, deeply injured although she is, to accept the olive branch, +and call a truce? + + + + +{249} + +A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. + +The northern extremity of the British Isles, bristling with mountains +and with its ragged coast-line deeply fringed by the sea, told in +advance the character of its people. Scotland is the child of the +mountains; and in spite of all that has been done to change their +native character, the word Caledonia still invokes the same +picturesque, liberty-loving race which in the first century, under the +name of Picts, defied Agricola and his Roman legions, and the wall they +had builded. If they have borrowed their name from Ireland, if they +have used the speech and consented to wear the political yoke of the +Anglo-Saxon, they have accepted these things only as convenient +garments for a proud Scottish nationality, which has defied all efforts +to change its essential character. + +About four centuries after the Roman invasion, a colony of Scots +(Irish) migrated to {250} the opposite coast, under Fergus, and set up +their little kingdom in Argyleshire, taking with them, perhaps, the +sacred "Stone of Destiny" upon which a long line of Irish kings had +been crowned, and which tradition asserts was "Jacob's Pillow." The +Picts and the Irish Scots were both of the Celtic race, and if they +fought, it was as brothers do, ready in an instant to embrace and make +common cause, which they first did against the Romans. A common enemy +is the surest healer of domestic feuds, and there were many of these to +bring together the two Celtic branches dwelling on the same soil after +the fifth century. Then came the more peaceful fusion through a common +religious faith. St. Columba had been preceded by St. Nimian. But it +was the Irish saint from Donegal who did for the Picts what St. Patrick +had done for the Irish Scots. In the history of the Church there has +never been an awakening of purer spiritual ardor than that which +irradiated from Columba's monastery at Iona. + +Why the Irish Scots, occupying only a small bit of territory, should +have fastened their name upon the land of their adoption {251} is not +known. Perhaps it was the magic of that Stone of Destiny! The Picts +had the political centre of their kingdom at Scone, on the river Tay. +It was in 844 that Kenneth M'Alpin made war upon the Irish Scots, the +little kingdom in Argyle was merged with that of the Picts, and by the +eleventh century the latter name had disappeared and the name Scotland +was applied to the whole country. In the two centuries following this +union there were four reigns, in which wars between hostile clans were +diversified by wars with invading Danes, and with the Angles near the +border, with whom there was a chronic struggle, caused by aggressions +upon both sides. Malcolm II. succeeded in defeating the Angles on the +Tweed, seized Lothian, incorporated this bit of old England with his +own kingdom, then died, in 1034, leaving his throne to his grandson, +Duncan. There was the same play of fierce ambitions upon this small +stage as on larger ones. Scottish thanes strove to undermine and +supplant other thanes, just as Norman barons and Scotch-English earls +would do later, and as in other lands and at all times, the dream of +aspiring, intriguing nobles {252} was by some happy chance to snatch +the crown and reign at Scone. + +Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, was by birth nearest to the supreme +prize. His wife, whose "undaunted mettle" we all know, had royal blood +in her veins. We also know how the poison of ambition worked in the +once guiltless soul of the thane after the prophecy of the "Weird +Sisters" had commenced its fulfilment. The story was quaintly told a +century before Shakespeare lived, in a history of Scotland by Boece. +The book was written in Latin, and in the sixteenth century was +translated into the Scottish vernacular. It tells of the meeting +between Macbeth, Banquo, and the "Weird Sisters." "The first of thaim +said, 'Hale, Thane of Glammis!' the secound said, 'Hale, Thane of +Cawder!' and the thrid said, 'Hale, King of Scotland!' Then Banquo +said, 'How is it ye gaif to my companyeon not onlie landis and gret +rentis, bot Kingdomes, and gevis me nocht?' To which they reply, +'Thoucht he happin to be ane King, nane of his blude sall eftir him +succeid. Be contrar, thow sail nevir be King, bot of the sal cum mony +Kingis, quhilkis {253} sall rejose the Croun of Scotland!' Then they +evanist out of sicht." This seems to have amused the two friends and +"Fur sam time Banquho wald call Makbeth 'King of Scottis' for +derisioun; and he on the samin maner wald call Banquho 'the fader of +mony Kingis!' Yit, not long efter, it hapnit that the Thane of Cawder +was disinherist and forfaltit of his landis for certane crimes; and his +landis wer gevin be King Duncane to Makbeth. It hapnit in the nixt +nicht that Banquho and Makbeth were sportand togiddir at thair supper," +and Banquo reminded his friend that there remained only the Crown to +complete the prophecy. Whereupon, "he began to covat the crown." And +then Duncan named his young son Malcolm as his heir, "Quhilk wes gret +displeseir to Makbeth; for it maid plane derogatioun to the thrid +weird," promising him the Crown. "Nochtheless, he thocht, gif Duncane +war slane, he had maist richt to the Croun, be the old lawis of King +Fergus (law of tanistry), becaus he wer nerest of blude thair to," the +text of the old law being, "Quhen young children wer unabil to govern, +the nerrest of thair blude sail regne." Then, {254} when his wife +"calland him oft times, febil cowart, sen he durst not assail ye thing +with manheid and enrage, quhilk is offert to him be benivolence of +fortoun," then, so tempted and so goaded, "Makbeth fand sufficient +opportunite, and slew King Duncane, the VII yeir of his regne, and his +body was buryit in Elgin, and efter tane up and brocht to Colmekill, +quhare it remanis yit, amang the uthir Kingis: fra our Redemption. +MXLVI yeris." + +The story told in these quaint words was, without any doubt, read by +Shakespeare, and in the alembic of his imagination grew into the +immortal play. Touched by his genius, the names Dunsinnane and Birnam, +lying close to Scone, are luminous points on the map, upon which the +eye loves to linger. The incidents may not be authentic. We are told +they are not. But Macbeth certainly slew Duncan and was King of +Scotland, and finally met his Nemesis at Dunsinnane, near Birnam Wood, +where Malcolm III., called Canmore, avenged his father's death, slew +the usurper, and was crowned king at Scone, 1054. + +The historic point selected by Shakespeare {255} has an important +significance of a different sort. It was the dividing line between the +old and the new. Macbeth's reign marks the close of the Celtic period. +With the advent of Malcolm III., there commenced that infusion of +Teutonic political ideals which was destined at last to merge the +Anglo-Saxon and the Scottish Celt into one political organism. +Malcolm's mother was the sister of the Earl of Northumberland. So the +son of Duncan was half-English; and he became more than half-English +when, somewhat later, he married Margaret, sister of his friend and +guest, "Edgar the Atheling," last claimant of the Saxon throne, who had +taken refuge with him while vainly plotting against William the +Conqueror. This was in 1067, the year after the conquest. So at this +critical period in English history, the door leading to the South, +which had until now been kept bolted and barred, except for hostile +bands, was left ajar. A host of Saxon nobles, following their leader, +Edgar, streamed into Scotland, and soon formed the most powerful +element about the throne, bringing new speech, new ways, new customs; +in fact, doing at Scone precisely what the Norman {256} nobles were at +the same time doing at London, substituting a more advanced +civilization for an existing one. The manners of the Norman nobles +were not more odious to the Saxon nobility in England, than were those +of the Saxons to the proud thanes and people in Scotland. Then Malcolm +began to bestow large grants of land upon his foreign favorites, +accompanied by an almost unlimited authority over their vassals, and +feudalism was introduced into the free land. With these changes there +gradually formed a dialect, a mingling of the two forms of speech, +which became the language of the Court, and of the powerful dwellers in +the Lowlands. And so, in succeeding reigns, the process of blending +went on, the wave of a changed civilization driving before it the +Celtic speech, manners, and habits, into their impregnable fastnesses +in the Highlands, there to preserve the national type in proud +persistence. Such was the condition for one hundred and fifty years, +the Crown in open alliance with aliens, subverting established usages +and fastening an exotic feudalism upon the South; while an angry and +defiant Celtic people remained unsubdued in the North. + +{257} + +It was a favorite amusement with the Scottish kings to dart across the +border into Northumbria, the disputed district, not yet incorporated +with England, there to waste and burn as much as they could, and then +back again. In one of these forays in 1174, the King, "William the +Lion," was captured by a party of English barons. Henry II. of England +had just returned from Ireland, where he had established his feudal +sovereignty by conquest. Now he saw a chance of accomplishing the same +thing by peaceful methods in Scotland. He named as a price of ransom +for the captive King an acknowledgment of his feudal lordship. The +terms were accepted, and the five castles which they included were +surrendered. Fifteen years later, his son Richard I., the romantic +crusader, gave back to Scotland her castles and her independence. But +what had been done once, would be tried again. So while it was the +steady policy of the English sovereigns to reduce Scotland to a state +of vassalage to England, it was the no less steady aim of the Scottish +kings to extend their own feudal authority to the Highlands and the +islands in the north and west of their own realm, {258} where an +independent people had never yet been brought under its subjection. + +In the year 1286 Alexander III. died, and only an infant granddaughter +survived to wear the crown. The daughter of the deceased King had +married the King of Norway, and dying soon after, had left an infant +daughter. It was about this babe that the diplomatic threads +immediately began to entwine. A regency of six nobles was appointed to +rule the kingdom. Then Edward I. of England proposed a marriage +between his own infant son and the little maid. The proposition was +accepted. A ship was sent to Norway to bring the baby Queen to +Scotland, bearing jewels and gifts from Edward; but just before she +reached the Orkneys the "Maid of Norway" died. Edward's plans were +frustrated, and the empty throne of Scotland had many claimants, but +none with paramount right to the succession. In the wrangle which +ensued, when eight ambitious nobles were trying to snatch the prize, +Edward I. intervened to settle the dispute, which had at last narrowed +down to one between two competitors, Bruce and Baliol, both lineally +descended from King David I. + +{259} + +But the important fact in this mediatorial act of Edward was, that it +was done by virtue of his authority as Over-Lord of Scotland. We are +left to imagine how and why such a monstrous and baseless pretension +was acknowledged without a single protest. But when we reflect that +the eager claimants and their upholders represented, not the people of +Scotland but an aristocratic ruling element, more than half-English +already, it is not so strange that they were willing to pay this price +for the sake of restoring peace and security at a time when everything +was imperilled by an empty throne. There was no organic unity in +Scotland; only a superficial unity, created by the name of king, which +fell into chaos when that name was withdrawn. It was imperative that +someone should be crowned at Scone at once. And so, when Edward, by +virtue of his authority as Over-Lord, gave judgment in favor of John +Baliol, without a single remonstrance Baliol was crowned John I. at +Scone, rendered homage to his feudal lord, and Scotland was a vassal +kingdom (1292). This whole proceeding, thus disposing of the state, +had in no way recognized the existence of a nation. {260} It was an +arrangement between the Scottish nobles and clergy, and the King of +England. When the heralds had, with great ceremony, proclaimed King +Edward Lord Paramount of Scotland, the matter was supposed to be ended, +and it was forgotten that there was beyond the Grampians a proud +people, whose will would have to be broken before their country would +become the _fief_ of an English king. But Baliol soon discovered how +empty was the honor he had purchased. There was now a right of appeal +from the Scottish Parliament and courts to those of Edward I. Such +appeals were made, and King John I. was with scant ceremony summoned to +London to plead his own cause before a Parliament which humiliated and +insulted him. + +In 1295, so intolerable had his position become, that Baliol threw off +the yoke of vassalage, secured an alliance with France, and gathered +such of his nobles as he could about him, prepared to resist the +authority of Edward; whereupon that enraged King marched into the +rebellious land, swept victoriously from one city to another, gathering +up towns and castles by the way; then took the {261} sacred Stone of +Destiny from Scone as a memorial of his conquest, and left the penitent +vassal King helpless and forlorn in his humiliated kingdom. It was +then that the famous stone was built into the coronation-chair, where +it still remains. + +We have now come to a name which, as Wordsworth says, is "to be found +like a wild flower, all over his dear country." Everywhere there are +places sacred to his memory. The story of Wallace is a brief one--an +impassioned resolve to free his enslaved country, one supreme triumph, +then defeat, an ignominious and cruel death in London, to be followed +by imperishable renown for himself, and for Scotland--freedom. Sir +William Wallace belonged to the lower class of Scotch nobility. He had +never sworn allegiance to Edward I. His career of outlawry commenced +by his making small attacks upon small English posts. As his successes +increased, so did his followers, until so formidable had the movement +become, that Edward learned there was a rising in his vassal kingdom. +But it could not be much, he thought, as he had all the nobles, and how +could there be a rising {262} without nobles? So he despatched a small +force to straighten things out. But a few weeks later, Edward himself +was in Scotland with an army. Wallace was besieging the Castle of +Dundee, when he heard that the King was marching on Stirling. With the +quick instinct of the true military leader, he saw his opportunity. He +reached the rising ground commanding the bridge of Stirling, while the +English army of 50,000 were still on the opposite side of the river. +When the English general, seeing his disadvantage, offered to make +terms, Wallace replied that his terms were "the freedom of Scotland." +The attack made as they were crossing the bridge resulted in the panic +of the English and a rout in which the greater part of the fleeing army +was slain and drowned (1297). Baliol had been swept from the scene and +was in the Tower of London, so Wallace was supreme. But in less than a +year Edward had returned with an army overwhelming in numbers, and +Wallace met a crushing defeat at Falkirk. We next hear of him on the +Continent, still planning for Scotland's liberation, then hunted and +finally caught in Glasgow, dragged to London in chains, {263} there to +be tried and condemned for treason. Had they condemned him as a rebel +and an outlaw there would have been justice, for these he was. But a +traitor he never was, for he had never sworn allegiance to Edward. He +had fought against the invaders of his country, and for this he died a +felon's death, with all the added cruelties of Norman law. He was +first tortured, then executed in a way to strike terror to the souls of +similar offenders (1304). But his work was accomplished. He had +lighted the fires of patriotism in Scotland. The power of his name to +stir the hearts of his people like a trumpet-blast, is best described +by the words of Robert Burns: "The story of Wallace poured a Scottish +prejudice into my veins, which will boil along there till the +flood-gates of life shut, in eternal rest." To be praised by the bards +was the supreme reward of Celtic heroes. What did death matter, in +form however terrible, to one who was to be so remembered nearly five +centuries later by Scotland's greatest bard? + +We are accustomed to regard the name of Bruce as the intensest +expression of a Scottish nationality, and of its aspirations {264} +toward liberty. But it had no such meaning at this time. The ancestor +of the family was Robert de Bruis, a Norman knight who came over with +the Conqueror. His son, Robert, was one of those hated foreign +adventurers at the Court of David I., and received from that King a +large grant and the Lordship of Annandale. The grandson of this first +Earl of Annandale married Isabel, the granddaughter of David I., and so +it was that the house of Bruce came into the line of royal succession. +It was Robert, the son of Isabel, who competed with Baliol for the +throne of Scotland. + +Robert Bruce, who stands forth as the greatest character in Scottish +history, was twelve years old when his grandfather was defeated by +Baliol in this competition. No family in the vassal kingdom was more +trusted by England's King, nor more friendly to his pretensions. The +young Robert's father had accompanied King Edward to Palestine in his +own youth, and he himself was being trained at the English Court. His +English mother had large estates in England, and, in fact there was +everything to bind him to the King's cause. He and his father, {265} +and the High Steward of Scotland, together with other Scottish-Norman +nobles, had been with the King in his triumphal march through Scotland +when Baliol was dethroned, and at the time of the rising under Wallace, +Robert Bruce had not one thing in common with him or his cause. And as +for the people in the Highlands, if he ever thought of them at all, it +was as troublesome malcontents, who needed to be ruled with a strong +hand. Wallace was in rebellion against an established authority, to +which all his own antecedents reconciled him. How the change was +wrought, how his bold and ardent spirit came to its final resolve, we +can only surmise. Was it through a complicated struggle of forces, in +which ambition played the greatest part? Or did the splendid heroism +of Wallace, and the spirit it evoked in the people, awaken a slumbering +patriotism in his own romantic soul? Or was it the prescience of a +leader and statesman, who saw in this newly developed popular force an +opportunity for a double triumph, the emancipation of Scotland, and the +realization of his own kingship? + +Whatever the process, a change was going {266} on in his soul. He +wavered, sometimes inclining to the party of Wallace, and sometimes to +that of the King, until the year 1304. In that year, the very one in +which Wallace died, he made a secret compact with the Bishop of +Lamberton, pledging mutual help against any opponents. While at the +Court of Edward, shortly after this, he discovered that the King had +learned of this compromising paper. There was nothing left but flight. +He mounted his horse and swiftly returned to Scotland. Now the die was +cast. His only competitor for the throne was Comyn. They met to +confer over some plan of combination, and in a dispute which arose, +Bruce slew his rival. Whether it was premeditated, or in the heat of +passion, who could say? But Comyn was the one obstacle to his purpose, +and he had slain him, had slain the highest noble in the state! All of +England, and now much of Scotland, would be against him; but he could +not go back. He resolved upon a bold course. He went immediately to +Scone, ascended the throne, and surrounded by a small band of +followers, was crowned King of Scotland, March 27, 1306. He soon +learned {267} the desperate nature of the enterprise upon which he had +embarked. There was nothing in his past to inspire the confidence of +the patriots at the North, and at the South he was pursued with +vindictive fury by the friends of the slain Comyn. Edward, stirred as +never before, was preparing for an invasion, issuing proclamations; no +mercy to be shown to the rebels. Bruce's English estates, inherited +from his mother, were confiscated, and an outlaw and a fugitive, he was +excommunicated by the Pope! Unable to meet the forces sent by Edward, +he placed his Queen in the care of a relative and then disappeared, +wandering in the Highlands, hiding for one whole winter on the coast of +Ireland and supposed to be dead. His Queen and her ladies were torn +from their refuge and his cousin hanged. + +Had Robert Bruce died at this time he would have been remembered not as +a patriot, but as an ambitious noble who perished in a desperate +attempt to make himself king. But his undaunted soul was working out a +different ending to the story. In the spring of 1307 he returned +undismayed. With a small band of followers he met an English {268} +army, defeated the Earl of Pembroke at Ayr, and with this success the +tide turned. The people caught the contagion of his intrepid spirit, +and in the seven years which followed, he shines out as one of the +great captains of history. By the year 1313 every castle save Berwick +and Stirling had surrendered to him. Vast preparations were made in +England for the defence of this latter stronghold. + +It was on the burn (stream) two miles from Stirling that Bruce +assembled his 30,000 men, and made his plans to meet Edward with his +100,000. On the morning of the 23d of June, 1314, he exhorted his +Scots to fight for their liberty. How they did it, the world will +never forget! And while Scotland endures, and as long as there are +Scotsmen with warm blood coursing in their veins, they will never cease +to exult at the name Bannockburn! Thirty thousand English fell upon +the field. Twenty-seven barons and two hundred knights, and seven +hundred squires were lying in the dust, and twenty-two barons and sixty +knights were prisoners. Never was there a more crushing defeat. + +{269} + +Still England refused to acknowledge the independence of the kingdom, +and Bruce crossed the border with his army. The Pope was appealed to +by Edward, and issued a pacifying bull in 1317, addressed to "Edward, +King of England," and "the noble Robert de Bruis, conducting himself as +King of Scotland." Bruce declined to accept it until he was addressed +as King of Scotland, and then proceeded to capture Berwick. The +Scottish Parliament sent an address to the Pope, from which a few +interesting extracts are here made: + +"It has pleased God to restore us to liberty, by one most valiant +Prince and King, Lord Robert, who has undergone all manner of toil, +fatigue, hardship, and hazard. To him we are resolved to adhere in all +things, both on account of his merit, and for what he has done for us. +But, if this Prince should leave those principles he has so nobly +pursued, and consent that we be subjected to the King of England, we +will immediately expel him as our enemy, and will choose another king, +for as long as one hundred of us remain alive, we will never be subject +to the English. For it is not glory, nor riches, {270} nor honor, but +it is liberty alone, that we contend for, which no honest man will lose +but with his life." + +The spirit manifested in this had its effect, and the Pope consented to +address Bruce by his title, "King of Scotland." After delaying the +evil day as long as possible, England at last, in 1328, concluded a +treaty recognizing Scotland as an independent kingdom, in which +occurred these words: "And we renounce whatever claims we or our +ancestors in bygone times have laid in any way over the kingdom of +Scotland." + +Concerning the character of Robert Bruce, historians are not agreed. +To fathom his motives would have been difficult at the time; how much +more so then after six centuries. We only know that he leaped into an +arena from which nature and circumstances widely separated him, gave a +free Scotland to her people, and made himself the hero of her great +epic. + +When we see the spiritless sons of Bruce in the hands of base +intriguing nobles, trailing their great inheritance in the mire, we +exclaim: Was it for this that there was such magnificent heroism? Was +it worth seven {271} years of such struggle to emancipate the land from +a foreign tyranny, only to have it fall into a degrading domestic one? +But the reassuring fact is, that the governing power of a nation is +only an incident, more or less imperfect. The life is in the people. +There was not a cottage nor a cabin in all of Scotland that was not +ennobled by the consciousness of what had been done. Men's hearts were +glad with a wholesome gladness; and every child in the land was lisping +the names of Wallace and of Bruce and learning the story of their +deeds. But for all that, the period following the death of the great +King and Captain is a disappointing one, and we are not tempted to +linger while the incapable David II. wears his father's crown, and +while the son of Baliol, instigated by England, is troubling the +kingdom, and even having himself crowned at Scone; and while Edward +III., until attracted by more tempting fields in France, is invading +the land and recapturing its strongholds. The limit of humiliation +seems to be reached when David II., in the absence of an heir, proposes +to leave his throne to Lionel, son of Edward III.! + +When Robert Bruce bestowed his {272} daughter, Marjory, upon the High +Steward of Scotland, he determined the course of history in two +countries; in England even more than in Scotland. The office of +Steward was the highest in the realm. Since the time of David I. it +had been hereditary in one family, and according to a prevailing +custom, to which many names now bear testimony, the official +designation had become the family name. The marriage of Robert Stewart +(seventh High Steward of his house) to Marjory Bruce was destined to +bear consequences involving not alone the fate of Scotland, but leading +to a transforming revolution and the greatest crisis in the life of +England. As the Weird Sisters promised to Banquo, this Stewart was "to +be the fader of mony Kingis," for Marjory was the ancestress of +fourteen sovereigns, eight of whom were to sit upon the throne of +Scotland, and six upon those of both England and Scotland (1371 to +1714, three hundred and forty-three years). + +Marjory's son, Robert II., the first of the Stuart kings, was crowned +at Scone in 1371. His natural weakness of character made him the mere +creature of his determined and {273} ambitious brother, the Duke of +Albany, who, in fact, held the state in his hand until far into the +succeeding reign of Robert III., which commenced in 1390. The nobles +had now established a ruinous ascendancy in the state, and so abject +had the King become, that Robert III. was paying annual grants to the +Duke of Albany and others for his safety and that of his heir. In +spite of this, his eldest son, Rothesay, was abducted by Albany and the +Earl of Douglas, and mysteriously died, it is said of starvation. The +unhappy King then sent Prince James, his second son, to France for +safety; but he was captured by an English ship by the way, and lodged +in the Tower of London by Henry IV. When Robert III. died immediately +after of a broken heart, the captive Prince was proclaimed king (1406), +and his uncle, the Duke of Albany, the next in royal succession, ruled +the kingdom in name, as he had for many years in fact. + +There existed between France and Scotland that sure bond of friendship +between nations--a common hatred. This had given birth to a political +alliance which was to be a thorn in the side of England for many {274} +years. French soldiers and French gold strengthened Scotland in her +chronic war with England, and in return the Scots sent their soldiers +to the aid of the Dauphin of France. It was this which gave such value +to the royal prisoner. He could be used by Henry IV. to restrain the +French alliance, and also to keep in check the ambitious Duke of +Albany, by the fact that he could in an hour reduce him to +insignificance by restoring James to his throne. + +Such were some of the influences at work during the eighteen years +while the Scottish Prince with keen intelligence was drinking in the +best culture of his age, and at the same time studying the superior +civilization and government of the land of his captivity. He seems to +have studied also to some effect the affairs of his own kingdom. He +was released in 1424, crowned at Scone, and a new epoch commenced. He +had resolved to break the power of the nobles, and with extraordinary +energy he set about his task! There was a long and unsettled account +with his own relatives. He knew well who had humiliated and broken his +father's heart, and starved to death his brother Rothesay, {275} and, +as he believed, had also conspired with Henry IV. for his own capture +and eighteen years' captivity. The old conspirator who had been the +chief author of these things had recently died, but his son wore his +title. So the Duke of Albany (the King's cousin) and a few of the most +conspicuous of the conspirators were seized, tried, and one after +another five of the King's kindred died by the axe, in front of +Stirling Castle. It was one of those outbursts of wrath after a long +period of wrongdoing, terrible but wholesome. An unscrupulous nobility +had wrenched the power from the Crown, and it must be restored, or the +kingdom would perish. This disease, common to European monarchies, +could only be cured by just such a drastic remedy; successfully tried +later in France, by Louis XI. (fifteenth century), by Ivan the Terrible +in Russia (sixteenth century), and by slower methods accomplished in +England, commencing with William the Conqueror, and completed when +great nobles were cringing at the feet of Henry VIII. There are times +when a tyrant is a benefactor. And when a centralized, or even a +despotic, monarchy {276} supplants an oligarchy, it is a long step in +progress. + +This ablest of the Stuart kings was assassinated in 1437 by the enemies +he had shorn of power, his own kindred removing the bolts to admit his +murderers. He was the only sovereign of the Stuart line who inherited +the heroic qualities of his great ancestor Robert Bruce, a line which +almost fatally entangled England, and sprinkled the pages of history +with tragedies, four out of the fourteen dying violent deaths, two of +broken hearts, while two others were beheaded. + +It is a temptation to linger for a moment over the personal traits of +James I. We shall not find again among Scottish kings one who is +possessed of "every manly accomplishment," one who plays upon the +organ, the flute, the psaltery, and upon the harp "like another +Orpheus," who draws and paints, is a poet, and what all the world +loves--a lover. It was his pure, tender, romantic passion for Lady +Jane Beaufort, whom he married, just before his return to his kingdom, +which inspired his poem, "The Kingis Qahaiir" (the King's book), a work +{277} never approached by any other poet-king, and which marked a new +epoch in the history of Scottish poetry. It is the story of his life +and his love--a fantastic mingling of fact and allegory after the +fashion of Chaucer and other mediaeval writers. It is pleasant to +fancy that a sympathetic friendship may have existed between the +unfortunate youth and the warm-hearted, impulsive Prince Hal, who, +immediately upon his accession as Henry V., had James transferred from +the Tower to Windsor. There it was he spent the last ten years of his +captivity, there he met Lady Jane Beaufort, and wrote a great part of +his poem. + +The turbulence which had been checked by the splendid energy of James +I., revived with increased fury after his death. The fifty years in +which James II. and James III. reigned, but did not govern, is a +meaningless period, over which it would be folly to linger. If it had +any purpose it was to show how utterly base an unpatriotic feudalism +could become--Douglases, Crawfords, Livingstons, Crichtons, Boyds, like +ravening beasts of prey tearing each other to pieces, and trying to +outwit by perfidy when {278} force failed; Livingstons holding the +infant King, James II., a prisoner in Stirling Castle, of which they +were hereditary governors, and together with the Crichtons entrapping +the young Earl of Douglas and his brother by an invitation to dine, and +then beheading them both--so that it is with satisfaction we learn of +the King's reaching his majority and beheading a half-score of +Livingstons at Edinburgh Castle! Then to the Douglases is traced every +disorder in the realm, and with relief we hear of their disgrace and +banishment, only to have the Boyds come upon the scene with a villanous +conspiracy to seize the young King, James III., they, after rising to +power, swiftly and tragically to fall again. History could not afford +a more shameful and senseless display of depravity than in these human +vultures. A Scottish writer says: "There was nothing but slaughter in +this realm, every party lying in wait for another, as they had been +setting tinchills (snares) for wild beasts." + +In viewing this raging storm of anarchy one wonders what had become of +the people. We hear nothing of them. They had no political influence, +and if they had {279} representatives in Parliament, they were dumb, +for the voice of the Commons was never heard. But there is reason to +believe that, in spite of the ferocious feudal and social anarchy, the +urban population and the peasantry were groping their way into a higher +civilization. That better ways of living prevailed we may infer from +sumptuary laws enacted by James III., and in the founding of three +universities (St. Andrew's, 1411, Glasgow, 1450, and Aberdeen, 1494) +there is sure indication that beneath the turbid political surface +there flowed a stream of intellectual life. From these literary +centres "learned Scotsmen" began to swarm over the land, and a solid +scholarship was the aim of ambitious youths, who found in that the road +to posts of distinction once won only by arms. There was a small body +of national literature. Barbour's poem, "The Brus," led the way in the +fourteenth century, then King James's poem in the fifteenth, then +Henryson and Boece, and the procession of splendid names had commenced +which was to be joined in later ages by Burns, Scott, and Carlyle. + +England had now become the refuge for {280} disgraced and intriguing +nobles. The Duke of Albany, the Earl of Douglas, and others entered +into negotiations with the English King, offering to acknowledge his +feudal superiority, he in return promising to give the crown of +Scotland to Albany. A battle between the English and Scottish forces +took place in the vicinity of Stirling. During the engagement King +James was thrown from his horse and then slain by his miscreant nobles +(1488). The scheme was a failure, and the son of the murdered King was +at once crowned James IV. Henry VII., now King of England, conceived a +plan of cementing friendly relations between the two kingdoms by the +marriage of his daughter, Princess Margaret, with the young King. This +union, so fruitful in consequences, took place at Holyrood in 1502, +amid great rejoicings. + +During the two preceding reigns the relations of Scotland with her +great neighbor were comparatively peaceful. But in 1509 Queen +Margaret's brother, Henry VIII., was crowned King of England. Family +ties sat very lightly upon this monarch, and his hostile purposes soon +became apparent, and {281} the friendly relations were broken. A war +between France and England was the signal for a renewal of the old +alliance between the French and the Scots. James himself led an army +against that of his brother-in-law across the Tweed, and at Flodden met +an overwhelming defeat and his own death (1513). + +Europe was now unconsciously on the brink of a moral and spiritual +revolution, a revolution which was going to affect no country more +profoundly than Scotland. The Church of Rome, deeply embedded and +wrought into the very structure of every European nation, seemed like a +part of nature. As soon would men have expected to see the foundations +of the continent removed, and yet there was a little rivulet of thought +coursing through the brain of an obscure monk in Germany which was +going to undermine and overthrow it, and cause a new Christendom to +arise upon its ruins. And strangely, too, as if by pre-arrangement, +that wonderful new device--the printing press--stood ready, waiting to +disseminate the propaganda of a Reformed Church! + +But kings and nobles went on as before {282} with their absorbing game. +The infant James V. was proclaimed king. The conditions which had +disgraced the minority of his predecessors were repeated, and until he +was eighteen he was virtually a prisoner; then with relentless severity +he turned upon the traitors. The Reformation which was assuming great +proportions was beginning to creep into Scotland. The Catholic King, +with a double intent, placed Primates of the Church in all the great +offices, and the excluded nobles began to lean toward the new faith. +Luther's works were prohibited and stringent measures adopted to drive +heretical literature out of the land. When, for reasons we all know, +Henry VIII. became an illustrious convert to Protestantism, he tried to +bring about a marriage between his nephew, James, and his young +daughter, Princess Mary; at the same time urging his nephew to join him +in throwing off the authority of the Pope. But James made a choice +pregnant with consequences for England. He married, in 1538, Mary, +daughter of the great Duke of Guise in France; thus rejecting the +peaceful overtures of his uncle, Henry VIII., and confirming the French +alliance and {283} the anti-Protestant policy of his kingdom. Henry +was displeased, and commenced an exasperating course toward Scotland. +There was a small engagement with the English at Solway Moss, which +ended in a panic and defeat of the Scots. This so preyed upon the mind +of the King that his spirit seemed broken. The news of the birth of a +daughter--Mary Stuart--came to him simultaneously with that of the +defeat. He was full of vague, tragic forebodings, sank into a +melancholy, and expired a week later (1542). The little Queen Mary at +once became the centre of state intrigues. Henry VIII. secured the +co-operation of disaffected Scotch nobles in a plan to place her in his +hands as the betrothed of his son, Prince Edward. A treaty of alliance +was drawn and signed, agreeing to the marriage, with the usual +condition of the feudal lordship of the English King over Scotland. +The Scottish Parliament, through the efforts of Cardinal Beaton, +rejected the proposal, and the furious Henry declared war, with +instructions to sack, burn, and put to death without mercy, Cardinal +Beaton's destruction being especially enjoined. The Cardinal, in the +{284} meantime, was trying to stamp out the Reform-fires which were +spreading with extraordinary swiftness. There were executions and +banishments. Wishart, the Reformer and friend of John Knox, was burned +at the stake. Following this there was a conspiracy for the death of +the Cardinal, who was assassinated, and his Castle of St. Andrew became +the stronghold of the conspirators. John Knox, for his own safety, +took refuge with them, and upon the surrender of the castle to a French +force, Knox was sent a prisoner to the French galleys. + +The infant Queen, now six years old, was betrothed to the grandson of +Francis I. and conveyed by Lord Livingston to France for safe-keeping +until her marriage. Her mother, Mary of Guise, was Regent of Scotland, +and doing her best to stem the tide of Protestantism. The spread of +the Reformed faith was amazing. It took on at first a form more +ethical than doctrinal. It was against the immoralities of the clergy +that a sternly moral people rose in its wrath, and, on the other hand, +it was the reading of the Scriptures, and interpreting them without +authority, for which men were condemned to the {285} stake, their +accusers saying, "What shall we leave to the bishops to do, when every +man shall be a babbler about the Bible?" Carlyle says the Reformation +gave to Scotland a soul. But it might have fared differently had not a +co-operating destiny at the same time given Scotland a John Knox! Knox +was to the Reformed Church in Scotland what the body of the tree is to +its branches. He not only poured his own uncompromising life into the +branches, but then determined the direction in which they should +inflexibly grow. Knox had been the friend and disciple of Calvin in +Geneva. The newly awakened soul in Scotland fed upon the theology of +that great logician as the bread of heaven, and Calvinism was forever +rooted in the hearts and minds of the people. + +The marriage of Queen Mary with the Dauphin had been quickly followed +by the death of Henry II., and her young consort was King of France. +Queen Elizabeth, in response to an appeal from the Reformed Church, +sent a fleet and soldiers to meet the powerful French force which would +now surely come. But the reign of Francis {286} II. was brief. In +1560 tidings came that he was dead. Mary now resolved to return to her +own kingdom. Elizabeth tried to intercept her by the way, but she +arrived safely and was warmly welcomed. She was nineteen, beautiful, +gifted, rarely accomplished, had been trained in the most brilliant and +gayest capital in Europe, and was a fervent Catholic. She came back to +a land which had by Act of Parliament prohibited the Mass and adopted a +religious faith she considered heretical, and a land where +Protestantism in its austerest form had become rooted, and where John +Knox, its sternest exponent, held the conscience of the people in his +keeping. What to her were only simple pleasures, were to them deadly +sins. When the Mass was celebrated after her return, so intense was +the excitement, the chapel-door had to be guarded, and Knox proclaimed +from the pulpit, that "an army of 10,000 enemies would have been less +fearful to him" than this act of the Queen. + +During the winter in Edinburgh the gayeties gave fresh offence. Knox +declared that "the Queen had danced excessively till after midnight." +And then he preached a sermon {287} on the "Vices of Princes," which +was an open attack upon her uncles, the Guises in France. Mary sent +for the preacher, and reproved him for disrespect in trying to make her +an object of contempt and hatred to her people, adding, "I know that my +uncles and ye are not of one religion, and therefore I do not blame +you, albeit you have no good opinion of them." The General Assembly +passed resolutions recommending that it be enacted by Parliament that +"all papistical idolatry should be suppressed in the realm, not alone +among the subjects, but in the Queen's own person." Mary, with her +accustomed tact, replied, that she "was not yet persuaded in the +Protestant religion, nor of the impiety in the Mass. But although she +would not leave the religion wherein she had been nourished and brought +up, neither would she press the conscience of any, and, on their part, +they should not press her conscience." + +We cannot wonder that Mary was revolted by the harshness of John Knox; +nor can we wonder that he was alarmed. A fascinating queen, with a +rare talent for diplomacy, and in personal touch with all the Catholic +centres in Europe, was a {288} formidable menace to the Reformed Church +in Scotland, and would in all probability have temporarily overthrown +it, had not the course of events been unexpectedly arrested. Every +Court in Europe was scheming for Mary's marriage. Proposals from +Spain, France, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, and the Earl of Leicester in +England were all considered. Mary's preference was for Don Carlos of +Spain; but when this proved impossible, she made, suddenly, an +unfortunate choice. Henry Stewart, who was Lord Darnley, the son of +the Earl of Lennox, was, like herself, the great grandchild of Henry +VII. That was a great point in eligibility, but the only one. He was +a Catholic, three years younger than herself, good-looking, weak and +vicious. The marriage was celebrated at Holyrood in 1565, and Mary +bestowed upon her consort the title of king. This did not satisfy him. +He demanded that the crown should be secured to him for life; and that +if Mary died childless, his heirs should succeed. With such violence +and insolence did Darnley press these demands, and so open were his +debaucheries, that Mary was revolted and disgusted. Her chief {289} +minister was an Italian named Rizzio, a man of insignificant, mean +exterior, but astute and accomplished. There seems no reason to +believe that Darnley was ever jealous of the Italian, but he believed +that he was an obstacle to his ambitious designs and was using his +influence with Mary to defeat them. He determined to remove him. +While Rizzio and the Queen were in conversation in her cabinet, Darnley +entered, seized and held Mary in his grasp, while his assassins dragged +Rizzio into an adjoining room and stabbed him to death. Who can wonder +that she left him, saying, "I shall be your wife no longer!" But after +the birth of her infant, three months later, her feelings seem to have +softened, and it looked like heroic devotion when she went to his +bedside while he was recovering from small-pox, and had him tenderly +removed to a house near Edinburgh, where she could visit him daily. + +It will never be known whether Mary was cognizant of or, even worse, +accessory to Darnley's murder, which occurred at midnight a few hours +after she had left him, February 9, 1567. + +{290} + +Suspicion pointed at once to the Earl of Bothwell. The Court acquitted +him, but public opinion did not. And it was Mary's marriage with this +man which was her undoing. Innocent or guilty, the world will never +forgive her for having married, three months after her husband's death, +the man believed to be his murderer! Even her friends deserted her. A +prisoner at Lochleven Castle, she was compelled to sign an act of +abdication in favor of her son. A few of the Queen's adherents, the +Hamiltons, Argyles, Setons, Livingstons, Flemings, and others gathered +a small army in her support and aided her escape, which was quickly +followed by a defeat in an engagement near Glasgow. Mary then resolved +upon the step which led her by a long, dark, and dreary pathway to the +scaffold. She crossed into England and threw herself upon the mercy of +her cousin, Elizabeth. + +Immediately upon the Queen's abdication her son, thirteen months old, +was crowned James VI. of Scotland. There was a powerful minority which +disapproved of all these proceedings; so now there was a Queen's party, +a King's party, the latter, under the {291} regency of Moray, having +the support of the Reformed clergy. These conditions promised a bitter +and prolonged contest, which promise was fully realized; and not until +1573 was the party of the Queen subdued. During the minority of the +King a new element had entered into the conflict. The Reformation in +Scotland had, as we have seen, under the vigorous leadership of John +Knox, assumed the Calvinistic type. In England, during the reign of +Elizabeth, a more modified form had been adopted--an episcopacy, with a +house of bishops, a liturgy, and a ritual. To the Scotch Reformers +this was a compromise with the Church of Rome, no less abhorrent to +them than papacy. The struggle resolved itself into one between the +advocates of these rival forms of Protestantism, each striving to +obtain ascendancy in the kingdom, and control of the King. Some of the +most moderate of the Protestants approved of restoring the +ecclesiastical estate which had disappeared from Parliament with the +Reformation, and having a body of Protestant clergy to sit with the +Lords and Commons. These questions, of such vital moment to the +consciences of many, were to others merely a cloak for {292} personal +ambitions and political intrigues. When James was seventeen years old, +the method already so familiar in Scotland, was resorted to. In order +to separate him from one set of villanous plotters, he was entrapped by +another by an invitation to visit Ruthven Castle, where he found +himself a prisoner, and when the plot failed, the Reformed clergy did +its best to shield the perpetrators, who had acted with their knowledge +and consent. + +But James had already made his choice between the two forms of +Protestantism, and the basis of his choice was the sacredness of the +royal prerogative. A theology which conflicted with that, was not the +one for his kingdom. He would have no religion in which presbyters and +synods and laymen were asserting authority. The King, God's anointed, +was the natural head of the Church, and should determine its policy. +Such was the theory which even at this early time had become firmly +lodged in the acute and narrow mind of the precocious youth, and which +throughout his entire reign was the inspiration of his policy. In the +proceedings following the "Ruthven Raid," as it is {293} called, he +openly manifested his determination to introduce episcopacy into his +kingdom. + +So the conflict was now between the clergy and the Crown. The latter +gained the first victory. Parliament, in 1584, affirmed the supreme +authority of the King in all matters civil and religious. The act +placed unprecedented powers in his hands, saying, "These powers by the +gift of Heaven belong to his Majesty and to his successors." And so it +was that in 1584 the current started which, after running its ruinous +course, was to terminate in 1649 in the tragedy at Whitehall. There +was a reaction from the first triumph of divine right, and in 1592 the +Act of Royal Supremacy was repealed, and the General Assembly succeeded +in obtaining parliamentary sanction for the authority of the presbytery. + +The Roman Catholic Church, although no longer conspicuous in the arena +of politics, was by no means extinguished in Scotland. Its stronghold +was in the North, among the Highlands, where it is estimated that out +of the 14,000 Catholics in the kingdom, 12,000 were still clinging with +unabated ardor to the {294} old religion. It was this minority, with +many powerful chiefs for its leaders, which looked to Mary as the +possible restorer of the faith; and this was the nursery and the +hatching-ground for all the plots with France or Spain which for twenty +years were leading Mary step by step toward Fotheringay. Whether the +copies of the compromising letters which convicted her of complicity in +these plots would have stood the test of an impartial investigation +to-day we cannot say; but we know that Mary's tarnished name was +restored almost to lustre by the fortitude and dignity with which she +bore her long captivity, and met the moment of her tragic release +(1587). There is something in this story which has touched the +universal heart, and the world still weeps over it. But we do not hear +that it ever cost her son one pang. James was twenty years old when +Elizabeth signed the fatal paper, and if he ever made an effort to save +his mother or shed a single tear over her fate, history does not +mention it. Perhaps it was in recognition of this, or it may have been +in reward for his championship of episcopacy, that Elizabeth made James +her heir and successor. Whatever {295} was the impelling motive, the +protracted struggle between the two nations came to a strange ending; +not the supremacy of an English king in Scotland, as had been so often +attempted, but the reign of a Scottish king in England. Elizabeth died +in 1603, leaving to the son of Mary her crown, and a few days later +James arrived in London, was greeted by the shouts of his English +subjects, and crowned James I., King of England, upon the Stone of +Destiny. + +The limits of this sketch do not permit more than the briefest mention +of the period between the union of the crowns, and the legislative +union, a century later, when the two kingdoms became actually one. Its +chief features were the resistance to encroachments upon the polity and +organization of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, the cruelty and +oppressions used by Charles I. to enforce the use of the liturgy of the +Church of England, the formation of the "National Covenant," a sacred +bond by which the Covenanters solemnly pledged an eternal fidelity to +their Church, the alliance between the Scotch Covenanters and English +Puritans, and the consequences to Scotland {296} of the overthrow of +the monarchy by Cromwell. Still later (1689) came the rising of the +Highland chiefs and clans, the Jacobites, as the adherents of the +Stuarts are called, an attempt by the Catholics in the North to bring +about the restoration of the exiled King or his son, the Pretender. + +Statesmen in England, and some in Scotland, believed there would be no +peace until the two countries were organically joined. In the face of +great opposition a treaty of union was ratified by the Scottish +Parliament in 1707. The country was given a representation of +forty-five members in the English House of Commons, and sixteen peers +in the House of Lords, and it was provided that the Presbyterian Church +should remain unchanged in worship, doctrine, and government "to the +people of the land in all succeeding generations." With this final Act +the Scottish Parliament passed out of existence. + +The wisdom of this measure has been abundantly justified by the +results--a growth in all that makes for material prosperity, a richer +intellectual life, and peace. After centuries of anarchy and misrule +and {297} aimless upheavals, Scotland had reached a haven. Her triumph +has been a moral and an intellectual triumph, not political. In +intellectual splendor her people may challenge the world, and in moral +elevation and in righteousness they will find few peers. But candor +compels the admission that Scotland has no more than Ireland proved +herself capable of maintaining a separate nationality. Without the +excuse of her sister island, never the victim of a foreign conquest, +left to herself, with her own kings and government for nearly a +thousand years, what do we see? A brave, spirited, warlike race with a +passion for liberty dominated and actually effaced by vicious kings, +intriguing regents, and a corrupt nobility; only once, under Wallace +and Bruce, rising to heroic proportions, and then to throw off a +foreign yoke and under leaders who were both of Norman extraction. + +Never once were her native oppressors checked or awed; never once did +an outraged people unite under a great political leader; and only one +sovereign after Bruce (James I.) can be said to have had great kingly +qualities. What are we to conclude? {298} Are we not compelled to +believe that Scotland reached her highest destiny when she was joined +to England, and when she bestowed her leaven of righteousness and her +moral strength and the genius of her sons, and received in exchange the +political protection of her great neighbor? + + + + +{299} + +SOVEREIGNS AND RULERS OF ENGLAND. + + + ANGLO-SAXON LINE Reign began + A.D. + + Egbert ........................................... 800 + Ethelwulf ........................................ 836 + Ethelbald ........................................ 857 + Ethelbert ........................................ 860 + Ethelred ......................................... 866 + Alfred ........................................... 871 + Edward the Elder ................................. 901 + Athelstan ........................................ 925 + Edmund ........................................... 940 + Edred ............................................ 946 + Edwy ............................................. 955 + Edgar ............................................ 957 + Edward the Martyr ................................ 975 + Ethelred the Unready ............................. 978 + Edmund Ironside .................................. 1016 + + + DANISH LINE + + Canute ........................................... 1017 + Harold I ......................................... 1030 + Hardi Canute ..................................... 1039 + + + SAXON LINE + + Edward the Confessor ............................. 1041 + Harold II ........................................ 1066 + + +{300} + + NORMAN LINE + + William I ........................................ 1066 + William II ....................................... 1087 + Henry I .......................................... 1100 + Stephen .......................................... 1135 + + + PLANTAGENET LINE + + Henry II ......................................... 1154 + Richard I ........................................ 1189 + John ............................................. 1199 + Henry III ........................................ 1216 + Edward I ......................................... 1272 + Edward II ........................................ 1307 + Edward III ....................................... 1327 + Richard II ....................................... 1377 + + + HOUSE OF LANCASTER + + Henry IV ......................................... 1399 + Henry V .......................................... 1413 + Henry VI ......................................... 1422 + + + HOUSE OF YORK + + Edward IV ........................................ 1461 + Edward V ......................................... 1483 + Richard III ...................................... 1483 + + + HOUSE OF TUDOR + + Henry VII ........................................ 1485 + Henry VIII ....................................... 1509 + Edward VI ........................................ 1547 + Mary ............................................. 1553 + Elizabeth ........................................ 1558 + + + STUART LINE + + James I .......................................... 1603 + Charles I ........................................ 1625 + + + THE COMMONWEALTH + + 1649-1660 + + +{301} + + STUART LINE + + Charles II ....................................... 1660 + James II ......................................... 1685 + + + HOUSE OF ORANGE + + William and Mary ................................. 1688 + + + STUART LINE + + Anne ............................................. 1702 + + + BRUNSWICK LINE + + George I ......................................... 1714 + George II ........................................ 1727 + George III ....................................... 1760 + George IV ........................................ 1820 + William IV ....................................... 1830 + Victoria ......................................... 1837 + Edward VII ....................................... 1901 + + + BEGINNING OF SCOTTISH KINGDOM UNDER KENNETH MACALPINE, + AFTER UNION OF PICTS AND SCOTS + + Began to Reign + A.D. + + Kenneth II ....................................... 836 + Union with the Picts ............................. 843 + Donald V ......................................... 854 + Constantine II ................................... 858 + Ethus ............................................ 874 + Gregory .......................................... 875 + Donald VI ........................................ 892 + Constantine III .................................. 903 + Malcolm I ........................................ 943 + Indulfus ......................................... 952 + Duff ............................................. 961 + +{302} + + Culenus .......................................... 966 + Kenneth III ...................................... 970 + Constantine IV ................................... 994 + Grimus ........................................... 996 + Malcolm II ....................................... 1004 + Duncan I ......................................... 1034 + Macbeth .......................................... 1040 + Malcolm III ...................................... 1057 + Donald VII ....................................... 1093 + Duncan II ........................................ 1094 + Edgar ............................................ 1098 + Alexander I ...................................... 1107 + David I .......................................... 1124 + Malcolm IV ....................................... 1153 + William .......................................... 1165 + Alexander II ..................................... 1214 + Alexander III .................................... 1249 + + + INTERREGNUM + + + John Baliol ...................................... 1293 + Robert I (Bruce) ................................. 1306 + David II ......................................... 1330 + Edward Baliol .................................... 1332 + Robert II ........................................ 1370 + Robert III ....................................... 1390 + + + INTERREGNUM + + + HOUSE OF STUART + + James I .......................................... 1424 + James II ......................................... 1437 + James III ........................................ 1460 + James IV ......................................... 1489 + James V .......................................... 1514 + Mary Stuart ...................................... 1544 + Mary and } + Henry Stuart } jointly .......................... 1565 + James VI ......................................... 1567 + + + + +{303} + +INDEX. + + + ENGLAND + + Abelard, 53 + Act of Supremacy, 84 + Addison, 135 + Agincourt, 65 + Agricola, 13 + Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg, 159, 171 + Alfred, King, 27, 40 + Anglo-Saxons, 15-20, 22, 39 + Anne Boleyn, 75, 77 + Anne, of Cleves, 78 + Anne, Queen of England, 131, 135 + Anselm, 38 + Antoninus, 14 + Aquitaine, 65 + Army Plot, 116 + Arthur, King, 16 + Arthur, Prince 48 + Atlantic Cable, 169 + + Bacon, Francis, 95, 100 + Bacon, Roger, 53 + Bæda, 27 + Balaklava, Battle of, 163 + Bank of England, 130 + Bannockburn, Battle of, 56 + Basques, 10 + Bayeux Tapestry, 33 + Bedford, Duke of, 65 + Bible, 101 + Bill of Rights, 127 + Black Death, 58 + Black Prince, 58 + Blenheim, Battle of, 133 + Boadicea, 11 + Bosworth, Battle of, 71 + Bothwell, 93 + Boyne, Battle of, 127 + Bright, John, 160, 171 + British Association, 27 + Britons, 10, 14, 20 + Bruce, Robert, 56 + Bruno, 86 + Buddha, 193 + Buller, General, 185 + Bunker Hill, 148 + Bunyan, 124 + Burke, 145, 149 + Burney, Frances, 153 + Burns, 153 + Byron, 154 + + + Cade, Jack, 66 + Cædmon, 26 + Cæsar, 11 + Calais, 81 + Calcutta, Black Hole of, 140 + Calvin, 84 + Canada, 140, 143 + Canning, 149 + Canterbury, 25, 45 + Canterbury, Archbishop of, 44 + Canute, 31 + Cape of Good Hope, 172 + Caroline, of Brunswick, 156 + Caroline, Queen, 138 + Catharine de Medici, 91 + Catholicism, Roman Church, 25, 63, 74-79, 83, 99, 123 + Cavaliers, 123, 137 + Cawnpore, Massacre at, 166 + Caxton, 71 + Cerdic, 19-22 + Charles I, 102, 118 + Charles II, 121, 123 + Charles V, 74 + Charles VII, 65 + Charlotte, Princess, 156 + Chaucer, 60 + Christianity, 18, 23, 26 + Chronicle, 149 + Church of England, 76, 83 + Churchill, John, 132 + Circuits, 45 + Clarence, Duke, 62 + Claudius, 11 + Clive, 140 + Cobden, Richard, 160 + Coleridge, 149, 153 + Colonies, The Thirteen, 145 + Commonwealth, 119 + Conservatives, 137, 157 + Constance, of Brittany, 48 + Cook, Captain, 143 + Cornwallis, Lord, 148 + Court of Appeals, 45 + Cowper, 153 + Crécy, Battle of, 57 + Crimean War, 162 + Cromlechs, 9 + Cromwell, Oliver, 117, 119 + Cromwell, Thomas, 77 + Cronje, General, 185-191 + Crusades, 42, 47 + Culloden Moor, 139 + + Daguerre, 169 + Danes, 30 + Darnley, Lord, 93 + Defoe, 135 + De Wet, 189 + Dickens, 170 + Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), 160, 171 + Domesday Book, 36 + Drake, Sir Francis, 94 + Dufferin, 187 + Duncan, 31 + Dutch East India Co., 172 + + East India Co., 89, 140, 149, 173 + Edict of Nantes, 173 + Education Bill, 195 + Edward "the Confessor," 32 + Edward I, 54 + Edward II, 56 + Edward III, 56, 62, 66 + Edward IV, 68 + Edward V, 70 + Edward VI, 78, 79 + Edward VII, 191 + Edward, of York, 67 + Edward, Prince of Wales, 68 + Edwin, 26 + Egbert, 23 + Elizabeth, 80, 82 + Erasmus, 71 + Escurial, 86 + Exeter, Duke of, 69 + Exposition, 169 + + Fawkes, Guy, 99 + Feudalism, 34, 66, 69 + Fielding, 135 + Flodden Field, 91 + Florida, Cession of, 141 + Fox, 145, 148, 149 + Franchise, 184 + Francis I, 74 + Frith-Gilds, 40 + Fulton, 154 + + Gage, General, 147 + Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, 43 + Geoffrey, Prince, 48 + George I, Elector of Hanover, 135, 138 + George II, 138 + George III, 143, 146, 151 + George IV, 155 + George, Prince of Denmark, 134 + Gilds, 40 + Gladstone, 171 + Godwin, 32 + Goldsmith, 153 + Grand Alliance, 131, 132 + Grand Lama, 193 + Great Britain, 101 + Great Trek, 175 + Gregory, Pope, 24 + Grey, Lady Jane, 79 + Guise, House of, 92, 102, 123 + Guise, Mary, 91 + Gunpowder Plot, 99 + + Habeas Corpus, 123, 124 + Hadrian, 14 + Hampden, John, 106, 112, 116 + Hanover, House of, 135 + Harold, 32, 33, 38 + Hastings (Senlac), Battle of, 33 + Hastings, Warren, 149 + Havelock, General, 167 + Hengest, 22 + Henrietta, of France, 103 + Henry I, 42 + Henry II, 44 + Henry III, 51 + Henry IV, 63 + Henry V, 64 + Henry VI, 68 + Henry VII, 71 + Henry VIII, 73-79 + Henry Tudor, 71 + High Commission Court, 115 + Hinterland, 176 + Horsa, 22 + House of Commons, 54, 63, 87, 119, 156 + Howard, John, 153 + Howard, Katharine, 78 + Huguenots, 89, 173, 186 + Hundred Years' War, 65 + + Iberians, 10 + India, 140, 143, 164, 168 + India, Viceroy of, 192-193 + Ireland, 154, 159, 194 + + Jackson, General Andrew, 151 + James I, of England, 96, 99, 102 + James II, 123, 125 + James IV, of Scotland, 90 + James V, of Scotland, 91 + James VI, of Scotland, 94 + Jameson Raid, 182, 183 + Jamestown, Virginia, 99 + Jeffries, Chief Justice, 124 + Jew, 36, 51, 53, 55 + Joan of Arc, 65 + John, Prince, 46 + John of Gaunt, 62 + Johnson, 153 + Joubert, General, 185 + Jutes, 22 + + Kaffir, 188 + Katharine, Princess of Aragon, 73 + Katharine, Princess, 65 + Kelt, 20 + Keltic-Aryans, 9 + Keltic-Britons, 13, 55 + Keltic-Gauls, 13 + King's Court, 42, 45 + Knox, John, 94 + Kruger, Paul Stephanus, 177 + + Lancaster, Duke of, 62 + Lancaster, House of, 62, 67, 71 + Laud, Archbishop, 103, 111, 115 + Leicester, Earl of, 95 + Lexington, Battle of, 148 + Lhassa, 193 + Liberals, 137, 157 + Lionel of York, 67 + Lollards, 64 + London, 11, 12, 35 + Long Parliament, 114-120 + Louis XIV, 126 + Loyalists, 114 + Luther, 74 + + Magna Charta, 49 + Margaret, Princess, 90 + Marlborough, Lord, 132 + Mary Stuart, 81, 89, 96 + Mary Tudor, 80 + Massachusetts Charter, 107, 147 + Massacre of St. Bartholomew's, 89 + Matilda, 43 + Mayflower, 98 + Merchant Co., 89, 140 + Metabeli, 178 + Methodism, 141 + Milner, Sir Alfred, 184 + Milton, 124 + Monopolies, 112 + Montcalm, 140 + More, Sir Thomas, 73, 95 + Mortimer, 56 + Motley, John, 186 + + Napoleon Bonaparte, 150 + Naseby, Battle of, 117 + Natal, 178 + Netherlands, 186 + New England, 98 + Newton, 124 + Nightingale, Florence, 164 + Nonconformists, 195 + Normandy, 42 + North, Lord, 148 + Northmen, 30 + + O'Connell, Daniel, 155 + Opus Maius, 53 + Orange Free State, 175, 179 + Orleans, Battle of, 65 + Ouck, Kingdom of, 165 + Oxford, 52, 54, 59, 71 + + Parliament, 54, 62, 69, 88, 105 + Parr, Katharine, 78 + Peel, Sir Robert, 155 + Petition of Right, 106, 127 + Philip II, of Spain, 80, 85 + Picts, 13, 14, 23 + Pitt, William, 142, 145 + Plantagenet, 44, 58 + Plymouth, 99 + Popular Sovereignty, 196 + Presbyterianism, 114 + Pretender, 131, 137 + Pretender, the Young, 139 + Protectorate, 119 + Protestantism, 76, 83, 103, 121 + Puritans, 84, 98, 104, 124 + Pym, 104, 114, 116 + + Quebec, Battle of, 144 + + Railway, 154 + Raleigh, Sir Walter, 89, 101 + Reform Act, 156 + Reformation, 75, 83 + Rhodes, Cecil, 183 + Richard I, "Coeur de Lion," 47 + Richard II, 58 + Richard, Duke of York, 62, 67, 70 + Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 70 + Robert, Prince, 42 + Roberts, General, 185 + Robsart, Amy, 95 + Romans, 11-16 + Roundheads, 123, 137 + Royalists, 113 + Royal Society, 27 + Russia, 160 + + Salisbury Plain, 10, 37 + Scotland, 55, 90, 114 + Scots, 13, 14 + Scott, 153 + Sepoy Rebellion, 165 + Seven Years' War, 139 + Severus, 14 + Seymour, Jane, 78 + Shelley, 154 + Sheridan, 149, 153 + Ship Money, 112, 146 + Sidney, Sir Philip, 86 + Simon de Montfort, 54 + Solway Moss, 91 + South Sea Bubble, 138 + Southey, 153 + Spanish Armada, 94 + Spectator, 135 + Spenser, 86 + Stamp Act, 145 + Star Chamber, 110, 115, 120 + Statute of Heresy, 63 + St. Bartholomew's Eve, 89 + Steane, 135 + Steele, 135 + Stephen, King, 43 + Stephenson, George, 154 + Stonehenge, 10, 35 + Strafford, Earl, 110, 114 + Stuart, Charles Edward, 139 + Stuart, House of, 91, 97, 123, 125, 139 + Suez Canal, 171 + Supremacy, Oath of, 155 + Suzerainty, 180, 184 + Sweyn, 31 + Swift, 135 + Sydenham Palace, 169 + + Tax on Tea, 146 + Tennyson, 169 + Thackeray, 169 + Thomas à Becket, 44 + Three Years' War, 189 + Tibet, 192 + Times, 149 + Tory, 125, 132, 136, 146 + Transvaal Republic, 178, 179, 180, 182 + Tudor, House of, 71 + Tyler, Wat, 58 + + Uitlanders, 182 + United States, 149, 150 + + Victor, Prince, 187 + Victoria, Accession of, 159 + Virginia, Colonization of, 89 + + Wales, 55 + Wales, Prince of, 55 + Walpole, Horace, 153 + Walpole, Robert, 136, 138 + War of 1812 with United States, 150 + Wars of the Roses, 62, 67 + Warwick, Earl of, 66, 67 + Washington, George, 148 + Waterloo, 150 + Watt, James, 150 + Wellington, Duke of, 150, 154 + Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 110 + Wesley, John, 141 + Westminster Abbey, 55 + Whig, 125, 132, 136 + White Ship, 43 + Wickliffe, 59, 64 + Wilberforce, 158 + William the Conqueror, 32 + William, Prince of Orange, 125, 128, 130, 137 + William Rufus, 41 + William IV, 156, 159 + Witenagemot, 29 + Wolfe, 140 + Wolsey, Chancellor, 74 + + Yangtse Valley, 194 + York, House of, 68 + York, Princess Elizabeth of, 71 + + + SCOTLAND + + Aberdeen, University of, 297 + Act of Royal Supremacy, 293 + Agricola, 249 + Albany, Duke of, 273, 274, 280 + Alexander III, 258 + Angles, 251 + Annandale, Earl of, 264 + Argyle, 251 + Assembly, General, The, 287 + Ayr, 268 + + Baliol, 258, 259, 262 + Bannockburn, 268 + Beaton, Cardinal, 283 + Beaufort, Lady Jane, 276 + Berwick, 268, 269 + Birnam, 254 + Boece, 252, 279 + Bothwell, Earl of, 290 + Boyds, 278 + Bruce, 258, 262-271, 276, 296 + Bruce, Marjory, 272 + Bruis, Robert de, 261 + + Canmore, 254 + Catholic Church, 267, 287, 293, 296 + Comyn, 266 + Covenanters, 295 + Crichtons, 277, 278 + Cromwell, 296 + + Danes, 251 + Darnley, 288 + David I, King, 258, 264 + David II, 271 + Donegal, 250 + Douglas, Earl of, 273, 278, 280 + Duncan, 251, 254 + Dundee, 262 + Dunsinnane, 254 + + Edgar the Atheling, 255 + Edward I of England, 258, 261 + Edward III of England, 271 + Elizabeth, Queen, 285, 290, 295 + + Falkirk, 262 + Fergus, 250, 252 + Flodden, 287 + + Glasgow, 262, 279, 290 + Grampians, 260 + Guise, Mary of, 282, 284 + + Henry II of England, 257 + Henry IV, 273, 274 + Henry V, 277 + Henry VII, 280 + Henry VIII, 280, 282 + Henryson, 279 + Holyrood, 280, 288 + + Iona, Monastery at, 250 + + Jacobites, 297 + James, Prince, 273, 274 + James I, 276, 277 + James II, 278 + James III, 278, 280 + James IV, 280 + James V, 282 + James VI, 290 + James I of England, 295 + John I, 259-261 + + Knox, John, 284, 286 + + Lamberton, Bishop of, 266 + Lennox, Earl of, 288 + Lionel, Prince, 272 + Livingston, 278, 284 + Lochleven Castle, 290 + Lothian, 251 + Luther, 282 + + Macbeth, 252, 254 + Maid of Norway, 258 + Malcolm II, 251 + Malcolm III, 254, 256 + M'Alpin, Kenneth, 251 + Margaret, 255 + Margaret, Princess, 280 + Mary, Princess, 282 + Moray, 291 + + National Covenanters, 295 + Normans, 256, 296 + + Parliament, Scottish, 260, 269, 279, 283, 291, 296 + Pembroke, Earl of, 268 + Picts, 249, 251 + Presbyterian Church, 293, 296 + Pretender, The, 296 + Protestantism, 286 + Puritans, 295 + + Reformation, 282, 291 + Reformed Church, 281, 285, 288, 291 + Richard I, 257 + Rizzio, 289 + Robert II, 272 + Robert III, 273 + Rothesay, 273, 274 + Ruthven Raid, 292 + + Scone, 251, 254, 259, 274 + Scots, 249 + Solway Moss, 283 + St. Andrew's University, 279 + St. Columba, 250 + St. Nimian, 250 + Steward, High, of Scotland, 272 + Stewart, Robert, 272 + Stirling, 262, 268, 275 + Stone of Destiny, 250, 261, 295 + Stuart, Mary, 283, 286, 288, 295 + Stuarts, 272, 276, 296 + + Tay, River, 251 + Tweed, 251, 281 + + William the Lion, 257 + William Wallace, 261, 265, 296 + Wishart, 284 + + + IRELAND + + Act of Settlement, 221 + Act of Uniformity, 210 + Act of Union, 238, 241 + Ard Reagh, 201 + Armagh, 214 + + Bard, 202 + Bowes, Lord Chancellor, 226 + Boyne, Battle of, 223 + Brefny, Lord of, 204 + Brehon Law, 202, 205 + Brehons, 202 + Brian Boru, 204 + + Cæsair, Lady, 199 + Catholic Church, 210, 221-227, 233, 239-241, 244 + Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 245 + Celts, 201 + Charles I, 213, 215 + Charles II, 216, 218-221, 228 + Christianity, 202-203 + Church of England, 213 + Clan, 201 + Connaught, 201, 212, 216 + Crécy, 208 + Cromlechs, 201 + Cromwell, 216 + Crosby, Sir Francis, 212 + Curran, Sarah, 239 + + Danes, 204, 205 + Declaration of Rights, 234 + Dermot, 204 + Desmond, House of, 207, 211, 212 + Desmond Rebellion, 211 + Dillon, 242 + Dublin, 205, 209 + + Edward III, 208 + Elizabeth, Queen, 210 + Emmet, Robert, 239 + Enniskillen, 222 + Eric, 202 + Erin, 200 + + Famine in Ireland, 241 + Fenians, 244 + Fenius, 200 + Fitzgerald, 237 + Flood, Henry, 232, 237 + + Gael, 199 + Gaelic, 200 + Geraldines, 207, 209, 237 + Geraldine League, 211 + Ginkel, 223 + Gladstone, 244, 245 + Godfrey, Sir Edward Bery, 219 + Grattan, Henry, 232, 237 + Great Rebellion, The, of 1690, 224 + + Heber, 199, 200 + Henry II, 204-206 + Henry VII, 209 + Henry VIII, 209 + Heremon, 200 + Hibernia, 200 + Home Rule, 244 + Home Rule Act, 245 + + Irish Parliament, 209, 213, 221, 234, 235, 238 + + James II, 221-222 + + Kildare, Earl of, 210 + Kildare, House of, 207, 212 + Kilkenny, Statutes of, 208, 210, 232 + + Laud, Archbishop, 213, 215 + Leinster, 201, 204 + Liberals, 244 + Limerick, 223 + Limerick, Articles of, 223 + Locke, 230 + London, 210 + Londonderry, 222 + Long Parliament, 214 + Louis XIV, 222 + + Meagher, 242, 247 + Meath, 201, 227 + Milesius, 199 + Mitchell, 242 + Molyneux, William, 230, 234 + Mountjoy, 213 + Mullaghmast, 212 + Munster, 201, 212 + + National Land League, 244 + Nemehd, 199 + New Land Act, 246 + Normans, 206, 209 + + Oates, Titus, 219 + O'Brien, 204, 206 + O'Brien, Smith, 242 + O'Connell, Daniel, 240 + O'Connells, 206 + O'Moore, Clan of, 212 + O'Neill, Shane the Proud, 211 + O'Neills, 206, 209, 210 + Ormond, House of, 207, 219, 221 + + Palatines, 206 + Pale, Lords of the, 207, 209, 214 + Parnell, Charles, 244 + Penal Code, 225 + Picts, 200 + Pitt, 237 + Plunkett, Dr., 220 + Popish Plot, 221 + Poyning, Sir Edward, 209 + Poynings Act, 209, 210, 221, 224, 235 + Presbyterians, 214 + Protestantism, 210, 214, 215, 219-227, 232 + + Reformation, 210 + Rinucini, 216 + Robinson, Chief-Justice, 226 + Roman Christianity, 203 + Rome, 202 + Rory O'Moore, 212 + + Saarsfield, 223 + Scota, 199 + Scots, 200 + Sept, 201 + Shinar, 199 + Society of United Irishmen, 236 + St. Patrick, 202, 203 + Strafford, 213, 215 + Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, 204 + Swift, Dean, 231 + + Tanistry, Law of, 202, 211 + Tara in Meath, 201, 204 + Thomond, 226 + Tone, Wolfe, 236 + Tyrone, Earl of, 210, 213, 214 + + Ulster, 201, 210, 212, 213 + + Viking, 204 + + White Boys, 236 + William of Orange, 222-225 + Wolsey, 209 + + Young Ireland, 241 + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of England, Ireland +and 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