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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition,
+Volume 9, Slice 5, by Various
+
+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: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5
+       English History
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35236]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 9 SL 5 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+
+(1) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
+
+(2) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
+      paragraphs.
+
+(3) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
+      inserted.
+
+(4) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "Though he disguised himself, he was
+      detected by his old enemy and imprisoned." 'himself' amended from
+      'himelf'.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "Having so done they dispersed, not
+      guessing that Lancaster had yielded so easily because he was set on
+      undoing their work the moment that they were gone." 'Lancaster'
+      amended from 'Lancester'.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "... but purely and solely to attaint his
+      brother, the duke of Clarence, whom he had resolved to destroy."
+      'the duke' was missing.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "... so as to appeal to the
+      constituencies, which did not always share in the passions of their
+      representatives." 'the' appeared twice.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "The arrogant spirit of Englishmen made
+      them contemptuous towards the colonists, and the desire to thrust
+      taxation upon others than themselves made the new colonial
+      legislation popular." 'contemptuous' amended from 'comtemptuous'.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "... and was surprised by the Zulus while
+      reconnoitering, created a deep and unfortunate impression."
+      'reconnoitering' amended from 'reconnoitring'.
+
+
+
+
+          ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
+
+  A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
+           AND GENERAL INFORMATION
+
+              ELEVENTH EDITION
+
+
+             VOLUME IX, SLICE V
+
+              English History
+
+
+
+
+ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
+
+
+  ENGLISH HISTORY
+
+
+
+
+ENGLISH HISTORY.--The general account of English history which follows
+should be supplemented for the earlier period by the article BRITAIN.
+See also SCOTLAND, IRELAND, WALES.
+
+
+I. FROM THE LANDING OF AUGUSTINE TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST (600-1066)
+
+With the coming of Augustine to Kent the darkness which for nearly two
+centuries had enwrapped the history of Britain begins to clear away.
+From the days of Honorius to those of Gregory the Great the line of
+vision of the annalists of the continent was bounded by the Channel. As
+to what was going on beyond it, we have but a few casual gleams of
+light, just enough to make the darkness visible, from writers such as
+the author of the life of St Germanus, Prosper Tiro, Procopius, and
+Gregory of Tours. These notices do not, for the most part, square
+particularly well with the fragmentary British narrative that can be
+patched together from Gildas's "lamentable book," or the confused story
+of Nennius. Nor again do these British sources fit in happily with the
+English annals constructed long centuries after by King Alfred's scribes
+in the first edition of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_. But from the date
+when the long-lost communication between Britain and Rome was once more
+resumed, the history of the island becomes clear and fairly continuous.
+The gaps are neither broader nor more obscure than those which may be
+found in the contemporary annals of the other kingdoms of Europe. The
+stream of history in this period is narrow and turbid throughout the
+West. Quite as much is known of the doings of the English as of those of
+the Visigoths of Spain, the Lombards, or the later Merovingians. The 7th
+century was the darkest of all the "dark ages," and England is
+particularly fortunate in possessing the _Ecclesiastica historia_ of
+Bede, which, though its author was primarily interested in things
+religious, yet contains a copious chronicle of things secular. No
+Western author, since the death of Gregory of Tours, wrote on such a
+scale, or with such vigour and insight.
+
+[Illustration: Map--Anglo-Saxon Britain 597-825.]
+
+
+  Conversion of England.
+
+The conversion of England to Christianity took, from first to last, some
+ninety years (A.D. 597 to 686), though during the last thirty the
+ancestral heathenism was only lingering on in remote comers of the land.
+The original missionary impulse came from Rome, and Augustine is rightly
+regarded as the evangelist of the English; yet only a comparatively
+small part of the nation owed its Christianity directly to the mission
+sent out by Pope Gregory. Wessex was won over by an independent
+adventurer, the Frank Birinus, who had no connexion with the earlier
+arrivals in Kent. The great kingdom of Northumbria, though its first
+Christian monarch Edwin was converted by Paulinus, a disciple of
+Augustine, relapsed into heathenism after his death. It was finally
+evangelized from quite another quarter, by Irish missionaries brought by
+King Oswald from Columba's monastery of Iona. The church that they
+founded struck root, as that of Paulinus and Edwin had failed to do, and
+was not wrecked even by Oswald's death in battle at the hands of Penda
+the Mercian, the one strong champion of heathenism that England
+produced. Moreover, Penda was no sooner dead, smitten down by Oswald's
+brother Oswio at the battle of the Winwaed (A.D. 655), than his whole
+kingdom eagerly accepted Christianity, and received missionaries, Irish
+and Northumbrian, from the victorious Oswio. It is clear that, unlike
+their king, the Mercians had no profound enthusiasm for the old gods.
+Essex, which had received its first bishop from Augustine's hands but
+had relapsed into heathenism after a few years, also owed its ultimate
+conversion to a Northumbrian preacher, Cedd, whom Oswio lent to King
+Sigeberht after the latter had visited his court and been baptized, hard
+by the Roman wall, in 653.
+
+Yet even in those English regions where the missionaries from Iona were
+the founders of the Church, the representatives of Rome were to be its
+organizers. In 664 the Northumbrian king Oswio, at the synod of Whitby,
+declared his adhesion to the Roman connexion, whether it was that he saw
+political advantage therein, or whether he realized the failings and
+weaknesses of the Celtic church, and preferred the more orderly methods
+of her rival. Five years later there arrived from Rome the great
+organizer, Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, who bound the hitherto
+isolated churches of the English kingdoms into a well-compacted whole,
+wherein the tribal bishops paid obedience to the metropolitan at
+Canterbury, and met him frequently in national councils and synods.
+England gained a spiritual unity long ere she attained a political
+unity, for in these meetings, which were often attended by kings as well
+as by prelates, Northumbrian, West Saxon and Mercian first learnt to
+work together as brothers.
+
+
+  The English church.
+
+In a few years the English church became the pride of Western
+Christendom. Not merely did it produce the great band of missionaries
+who converted heathen Germany--Willibrord, Suidbert, Boniface and the
+rest--but it excelled the other national churches in learning and
+culture. It is but necessary to mention Bede and Alcuin. The first, as
+has been already said, was the one true historian who wrote during the
+dark time of the 7th-8th centuries; the second became the pride of the
+court of Charles the Great for his unrivalled scholarship. At the coming
+of Augustine England had been a barbarous country; a century and a half
+later she was more than abreast of the civilization of the rest of
+Europe.
+
+
+  Formation of the kingdoms.
+
+But the progress toward national unity was still a slow one. The period
+when the English kingdoms began to enter into the commonwealth of
+Christendom, by receiving the missionaries sent out from Rome or from
+Iona, practically coincides with the period in which the occupation of
+central Britain was completed, and the kingdoms of the conquerors
+assumed their final size and shape. Ęthelfrith, the last heathen among
+the Northumbrian kings, cut off the Britons of the North from those of
+the West, by winning the battle of Chester (A.D. 613), and occupying the
+land about the mouths of the Mersey and the Dee. Cenwalh, the last
+monarch who ascended the throne of Wessex unbaptized, carried the
+boundaries of that kingdom into Mid-Somersetshire, where they halted for
+a long space. Penda, the last heathen king of Mercia, determined the
+size and strength of that state, by absorbing into it the territories of
+the other Anglian kingdoms of the Midlands, and probably also by
+carrying forward its western border beyond the Severn. By the time when
+the smallest and most barbarous of the Saxon states--Sussex--accepted
+Christianity in the year 686, the political geography of England had
+reached a stage from which it was not to vary in any marked degree for
+some 200 years. Indeed, there was nothing accomplished in the way of
+further encroachment on the Celt after 686, save Ine's and Cuthred's
+extension of Wessex into the valleys of the Tone and the Exe, and Offa's
+slight expansion of the Mercian frontier beyond the Severn, marked by
+his famous dyke. The conquests of the Northumbrian kings in Cumbria were
+ephemeral; what Oswio won was lost after the death of Ecgfrith.
+
+
+  The "Bretwaldas."
+
+That the conversion of the English to Christianity had anything to do
+with their slackening from the work of conquest it would be wrong to
+assert. Though their wars with the Welsh were not conducted with such
+ferocious cruelty as of old, and though (as the laws of Ine show) the
+Celtic inhabitants of newly-won districts were no longer exterminated,
+but received as the king's subjects, yet the hatred between Welsh and
+English did not cease because both were now Christians. The westward
+advance of the invaders would have continued, if only there had remained
+to attract them lands as desirable as those they had already won. But
+the mountains of Wales and the moors of Cornwall and Cumbria did not
+greatly tempt the settler. Moreover, the English states, which had
+seldom turned their swords against each other in the 5th or the 6th
+centuries, were engaged during the 7th and the 8th in those endless
+struggles for supremacy which seem so purposeless, because the hegemony
+which a king of energy and genius won for his kingdom always disappeared
+with his death. The "Bretwaldaship," as the English seem to have called
+it, was the most ephemeral of dignities. This was but natural: conquest
+can only be enforced by the extermination of the conquered, or by their
+consent to amalgamate with the conquerors, or by the garrisoning of the
+land that has been subdued by settlers or by military posts. None of
+these courses were possible to a king of the 7th or 8th centuries: even
+in their heathen days the English were not wont to massacre their beaten
+kinsmen as they massacred the unfortunate Celt. After their conversion
+to Christianity the idea of exterminating other English tribes grew even
+more impossible. On the other hand, local particularism was so strong
+that the conquered would not, at first, consent to give up their natural
+independence and merge themselves in the victors. Such amalgamations
+became possible after a time, when many of the local royal lines died
+out, and unifying influences, of which a common Christianity was the
+most powerful, sapped the strength of tribal pride. But it is not till
+the 9th century that we find this phenomenon growing general. A kingdom
+like Kent or East Anglia, even after long subjection to a powerful
+overlord, rose and reasserted its independence immediately on hearing of
+his death. His successor had to attempt a new conquest, if he felt
+himself strong enough. To garrison a district that had been overrun was
+impossible: the military force of an English king consisted of his
+military household of _gesiths_, backed by the general levy of the
+tribe. The strength of Mercia or Northumbria might be mustered for a
+single battle, but could not supply a standing army to hold down the
+vanquished. The victorious king had to be content with tribute and
+obedience, which would cease when he died, or was beaten by a competitor
+for the position of Bretwalda.
+
+
+  Supremacy of Northumbria.
+
+  Supremacy of Mercia.
+
+In the ceaseless strife between the old English kingdoms, therefore, it
+was the personality of the king which was the main factor in determining
+the hegemony of one state over another. If in the 7th century the
+successive great Northumbrians--Edwin, Oswald, Oswio and Ecgfrith--were
+reckoned the chief monarchs of England, and exercised a widespread
+influence over the southern realms, yet each had to win his supremacy by
+his own sword; and when Edwin and Oswald fell before the savage heathen
+Penda, and Ecgfrith was cut off by the Picts, there was a gap of anarchy
+before another king asserted his superior power. The same phenomenon
+was seen with regard to the Mercian kings of the 8th century; the long
+reigns of the two conquerors Ęthelbald and Offa covered eighty years
+(716-796), and it might have been supposed that after such a term of
+supremacy Mercia would have remained permanently at the head of the
+English kingdoms. It was not so, Ęthelbald in his old age lost his
+hegemony at the battle of Burford (752), and was murdered a few years
+after by his own people. Offa had to win back by long wars what his
+kinsman had lost; he became so powerful that we find the pope calling
+him _Rex Anglorum_, as if he were the only king in the island. He
+annexed Kent and East Anglia, overawed Northumbria and Wessex, both
+hopelessly faction-ridden at the time, was treated almost as an equal by
+the emperor Charles the Great, and died still at the height of his
+power. Yet the moment that he was dead all his vassals revolted; his
+successors could never recover all that was lost. Kent once more became
+a kingdom, and two successive Mercian sovereigns, Beornwulf and Ludica,
+fell in battle while vainly trying to recover Offa's supremacy over East
+Anglia and Wessex.
+
+
+  Supremacy of Wessex.
+
+The ablest king in England in the generation that followed Offa was
+Ecgbert of Wessex, who had long been an exile abroad, and served for
+thirteen years as one of the captains of Charles the Great. He beat
+Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellandune (A.D. 823), permanently annexed Kent,
+to whose crown he had a claim by descent, in 829 received the homage of
+all the other English kings, and was for the remainder of his life
+reckoned as "Bretwalda." But it is wrong to call him, as some have done,
+"the first monarch of all England." His power was no greater than that
+of Oswio or Offa had been, and the supremacy might perhaps have tarried
+with Wessex no longer than it had tarried with Northumbria or Mercia if
+it had not chanced that the Danish raids were now beginning. For these
+invasions, paradoxical as it may seem, were the greatest efficient cause
+in the welding together of England. They seemed about to rend the land
+in twain, but they really cured the English of their desperate
+particularism, and drove all the tribes to take as their common rulers
+the one great line of native kings which survived the Danish storm, and
+maintained itself for four generations of desperate fighting against the
+invaders. On the continent the main effect of the viking invasions was
+to dash the empire of Charles the Great into fragments, and to aid in
+producing the numberless petty states of feudal Europe. In this island
+they did much to help the transformation of the mere Bretwaldaship of
+Ecgbert into the monarchy of all England.
+
+
+  Danish invasions.
+
+Already ere Ecgbert ascended the throne of Kent the new enemy had made
+his first tentative appearance on the British shore. It was in the reign
+of Beorhtric, Ecgbert's predecessor, that the pirates of the famous
+"three ships from Heretheland" had appeared on the coast of Dorset, and
+slain the sheriff "who would fain have known what manner of men they
+might be." A few years later another band appeared, rising unexpectedly
+from the sea to sack the famous Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne
+(793). After that their visits came fast and furious on the shore-line
+of every English kingdom, and by the end of Ecgbert's reign it was they,
+and not his former Welsh and Mercian enemies, who were the old monarch's
+main source of trouble. But he brought his Bretwaldaship to a good end
+by inflicting a crushing defeat on them at Hingston Down, hard by the
+Tamar, probably in 836, and died ere the year was out, leaving the
+ever-growing problem to his son Ęthelwulf.
+
+
+  Influence of viking sea-power.
+
+The cause of the sudden outpouring of the Scandinavian deluge upon the
+lands of Christendom at this particular date is one of the puzzles of
+history. So far as memory ran, the peoples beyond the North Sea had been
+seafaring races addicted to piracy. Even Tacitus mentions their fleets.
+Yet since the 5th century they had been restricting their operations to
+their own shores, and are barely heard of in the chronicles of their
+southern neighbours. It seems most probable that the actual cause of
+their sudden activity was the conquest of the Saxons by Charles the
+Great, and his subsequent advance into the peninsula of Denmark. The
+emperor seemed to be threatening the independence of the North, and in
+terror and resentment the Scandinavian peoples turned first to strike at
+the encroaching Frank, and soon after to assail the other Christian
+kingdoms which lay behind, or on the flank of, the Empire. But their
+offensive action proved so successful and so profitable that, after a
+short time, the whole manhood of Denmark and Norway took to the pirate
+life. Never since history first began to be recorded was there such a
+supreme example of the potentialities of sea-power. Civilized Europe had
+been caught at a moment when it was completely destitute of a war-navy;
+the Franks had never been maritime in their tastes, the English seemed
+to have forgotten their ancient seafaring habits. Though their ancestors
+had been pirates as fierce as the vikings of the 9th century, and though
+some of their later kings had led naval armaments--Edwin had annexed for
+a moment Man and Anglesea, and Ecgfrith had cruelly ravaged part of
+Ireland--yet by the year 800 they appear to have ceased to be a
+seafaring race. Perhaps the long predominance of Mercia, an essentially
+inland state, had something to do with the fact. At any rate England was
+as helpless as the Empire when first the Danish and Norwegian galleys
+began to cross the North Sea, and to beat down both sides of Britain
+seeking for prey. The number of the invaders was not at first very
+great; their fleets were not national armaments gathered by great kings,
+but squadrons of a few vessels collected by some active and enterprising
+adventurer. Their original tactics were merely to land suddenly near
+some thriving seaport, or rich monastery, to sack it, and to take to the
+water again before the local militia could turn out in force against
+them. But such raids proved so profitable that the vikings soon began to
+take greater things in hand; they began to ally themselves in
+confederacies: two, six or a dozen "sea-kings" would join their forces
+for something more than a desultory raid. With fifty or a hundred ships
+they would fall upon some unhappy region, harry it for many miles
+inland, and offer battle to the landsfolk unless the latter came out in
+overpowering force. And as their crews were trained warriors chosen for
+their high spirit, contending with a raw militia fresh from the plough,
+they were generally successful. If the odds were too great they could
+always retire to their ships, put to sea, and resume their predatory
+operations on some other coast three hundred miles away. As long as
+their enemies were unprovided with a navy they were safe from pursuit
+and annihilation. The only chance against them was that, if caught too
+far from the base-fort where they had run their galleys ashore, they
+might find their communication with the sea cut off, and be forced to
+fight for their lives surrounded by an infuriated countryside. But in
+the earlier years of their struggles with Christendom the vikings seldom
+suffered a complete disaster; they were often beaten but seldom
+annihilated. Ere long they grew so bold that they would stay ashore for
+months, braving the forces of a whole kingdom, and sheltering themselves
+in great palisaded camps on peninsulas or islands when the enemy pressed
+them too hard. On well-guarded strongholds like Thanet or Sheppey in
+England, Noirmoutier at the Loire mouth, or the Isle of Walcheren, they
+defied the local magnates to evict them. Finally they took to wintering
+on the coast of England or the Empire, a preliminary to actual
+settlement and conquest. (See VIKING.)
+
+
+  Progress of Danish conquest.
+
+King Ecgbert died long ere the invaders had reached this stage of
+insolence. Ęthelwulf, his weak and kindly son, would undoubtedly have
+lost the titular supremacy of Wessex over the other English kingdoms if
+there had been in Mercia or Northumbria a strong king with leisure to
+concentrate his thoughts on domestic wars. But the vikings were now
+showering such blows on the northern states that their unhappy monarchs
+could think of nothing but self-defence. They slew Redulf--king of
+Northumbria--in 844, took London in 851, despite all the efforts of
+Burgred of Mercia, and forced that sovereign to make repeated appeals
+for help to Ęthelwulf as his overlord. For though Wessex had its full
+share of Danish attacks it met them with a vigour that was not seen in
+the other realms. The defence was often, if not always, successful; and
+once at least (at Aclea in 851) Ęthelwulf exterminated a whole Danish
+army with "the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that had been
+heard of down to that day," as the Anglo-Saxon chronicler is careful to
+record. But though he might ward off blows from his own realm, he was
+helpless to aid Mercia or East Anglia, and still more the distant
+Northumbria.
+
+It was not, however, till after Ęthelwulf's death that the attack of the
+vikings developed its full strength. The fifteen years (856-871) that
+were covered by the reigns of his three short-lived sons, Ęthelbald,
+Ęthelbert and Ęthelred, were the most miserable that England was to see.
+Assembling in greater and ever greater confederacies, the Danes fell
+upon the northern kingdoms, no longer merely to harry but to conquer and
+occupy them. A league of many sea-kings which called itself the "great
+army" slew the last two sovereigns of Northumbria and stormed York in
+867. Some of the victors settled down there to lord it over the
+half-exterminated English population. The rest continued their advance
+southward. East Anglia was conquered in 870; its last king, Edmund,
+having been defeated and taken prisoner, the vikings shot him to death
+with arrows because he would not worship their gods. His realm was
+annexed and partly settled by the conquerors. The fate of Mercia was
+hardly better: its king, Burgred, by constant payment of tribute, bought
+off the invaders for a space, but the eastern half of his realm was
+reduced to a wilderness.
+
+Practically masters of all that lay north of Thames, the "great army"
+next moved against Wessex, the only quarter where a vigorous resistance
+was still maintained against them, though its capital, Winchester, had
+been sacked in 864. Under two kings named Halfdan and Bacsceg, and six
+earls, they seized Reading and began to harry Berkshire, Surrey and
+Hampshire. King Ęthelred, the third son of Ęthelwulf, came out against
+them, with his young brother Alfred and all the levies of Wessex. In the
+year 871 these two gallant kinsmen fought no less than six pitched
+battles against the invaders. Some were victories--notably the fight of
+Ashdown, where Alfred first won his name as a soldier--but the English
+failed to capture the fortified camps of the vikings at Reading, and
+were finally beaten at Marten ("Maeretun") near Bedwyn, where Ęthelred
+was mortally wounded.
+
+
+  Alfred the Great.
+
+He left young sons, but the men of Wessex crowned Alfred king, because
+they needed a grown man to lead them in their desperate campaigning. Yet
+his reign opened inauspiciously: defeated near Wilton, he offered in
+despair to pay the vikings to depart. He must have known, from the
+experience of Mercian, Northumbrian and Frankish kings, that such
+blackmail only bought a short respite, but the condition of his realm
+was such that even a moderate time for reorganization might prove
+valuable. The enemy had suffered so much in the "year of the six
+battles" that they held off for some space from Wessex, seeking easier
+prey on the continent and in northern England. In 874 they harried
+Mercia so cruelly that King Burgred fled in despair to Rome; the victors
+divided up his realm, taking the eastern half for themselves, and
+establishing in it a confederacy, whose jarls occupied the "five
+boroughs" of Stamford, Lincoln, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. But the
+western half they handed over to "an unwise thegn named Ceolwulf," who
+bought for a short space the precarious title of king by paying great
+tribute.
+
+Alfred employed the four years of peace, which he had bought in 871, in
+the endeavour to strengthen his realm against the inevitable return of
+the raiders. His wisdom was shown by the fact that he concentrated his
+attention on the one device which must evidently prove effective for
+defence, if only he were given time to perfect it--the building of a
+national navy. He began to lay down galleys and "long ships," and hired
+"pirates"--renegade vikings no doubt--to train crews for him and to
+teach his men seamanship. The scheme, however, was only partly completed
+when in 876 three Danish kings entered Wessex and resumed the war. But
+Alfred blockaded them first in Wareham and then in Exeter. The fleet
+which was coming to carry them off, or to bring them reinforcements,
+fought an indecisive engagement with the English ships, and was wrecked
+immediately after on the cliffs of the Isle of Purbeck, where more than
+100 galleys and all their crews perished. On hearing of this disaster
+the vikings in Exeter surrendered the place on being granted a free
+departure.
+
+[Illustration: Map--England, 886, after Alfred & Guthrum's Peace.]
+
+Yet within a few months of this successful campaign Alfred was attacked
+at midwinter by the main Danish army under King Guthrum. He was
+apparently taken by surprise by an assault at such an unusual time of
+the year, and was forced to escape with his military household to the
+isle of Athelney among the marshes of the Parrett. The invaders harried
+Wiltshire and Hampshire at their leisure, and vainly thought that Wessex
+was at last subdued. But with the spring the English rallied: a Danish
+force was cut to pieces before Easter by the men of Devonshire. A few
+weeks later Alfred had issued from Athelney, had collected a large army
+in Selwood, and went out to meet the enemy in the open field. He beat
+them at Edington in Wiltshire, blockaded them in their great camp at
+Chippenham, and in fourteen days starved them into surrender. The terms
+were that they should give hostages, that they should depart for ever
+from Wessex, and that their king Guthrum should do homage to Alfred as
+overlord, and submit to be baptized, with thirty of his chiefs. Not only
+were all these conditions punctually fulfilled, but (what is more
+astonishing) the Danes had been so thoroughly cured of any desire to try
+their luck against the great king that they left him practically
+unmolested for fourteen years (878-892). King Guthrum settled down as a
+Christian sovereign in East Anglia, with the bulk of the host that had
+capitulated at Chippenham. Of the rest of the invaders one section
+established a petty kingdom in Yorkshire, but those in the Midlands were
+subject to no common sovereign but lived in a loose confederacy under
+the jarls of the "Five Boroughs" already named above. The boundary
+between English and Danes established by the peace of 878 is not
+perfectly ascertainable, but a document of a few years later, called
+"Alfred and Guthrum's frith," gives the border as lying from Thames
+northward up the Lea to its source, then across to Bedford, and then
+along the Ouse to Watling Street, the old Roman road from London to
+Chester. This gave King Alfred London and Middlesex, most of
+Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and the larger half of Mercia--lands
+that had never before been an integral part of Wessex, though they had
+some time been tributary to her kings. They were now taken inside the
+realm and governed by the ealdorman Ęthelred, the king's son-in-law. The
+Mercians gladly mingled with the West Saxons, and abandoned all memories
+of ancient independence. Twenty years of schooling under the hand of the
+Dane had taught them to forget old particularism.
+
+Alfred's enlarged kingdom was far more powerful than any one of the
+three new Danish states which lay beyond the Lea and Watling Street: it
+was to be seen, ere another generation was out, that it was stronger
+than all three together. But Alfred was not to see the happy day when
+York and Lincoln, Colchester and Leicester, were to become mere
+shire-capitals in the realm of United England.
+
+
+  Alfred's reforms.
+
+The fourteen years of comparative peace which he now enjoyed were
+devoted to perfecting the military organization of his enlarged kingdom.
+His fleet was reconstructed: in 882 he went out with it in person and
+destroyed a small piratical squadron: in 885 we hear of it coasting all
+along Danish East Anglia. But his navy was not yet strong enough to hold
+off all raids: it was not till the very end of his reign that he
+perfected it by building "long ships that were nigh twice as large as
+those of the heathen; some had 60 oars, some more; and they were both
+steadier and swifter and lighter than the others, and were shaped
+neither after the Frisian nor after the Danish fashion, but as it seemed
+to himself that they would be most handy." This great war fleet he left
+as a legacy to his son, but he himself in his later campaigns had only
+its first beginnings at his disposal.
+
+His military reforms were no less important. Warned by the failures of
+the English against Danish entrenched camps, he introduced the
+long-neglected art of fortification, and built many "burhs"--stockaded
+fortresses on mounds by the waterside--wherein dwelt permanent garrisons
+of military settlers. It would seem that the system by which he
+maintained them was that he assigned to each a region of which the
+inhabitants were responsible for its manning and its sustentation. The
+landowners had either to build a house within it for their own
+inhabiting, or to provide that a competent substitute dwelt there to
+represent them. These "burh-ware," or garrison-men, are repeatedly
+mentioned in Alfred's later years. The old national levy of the "fyrd"
+was made somewhat more serviceable by an ordinance which divided it into
+two halves, one of which must take the field when the other was
+dismissed. But it would seem that the king paid even more attention to
+another military reform--the increase of the number of the professional
+fighting class, the thegnhood as it was now called. All the wealthier
+men, both in the countryside and in the towns, were required to take up
+the duties as well as the privileges of membership of the military
+household of the king. They became "of thegn-right worthy" by receiving,
+really or nominally, a place in the royal hall, with the obligation to
+take the field whenever their master raised his banner. The document
+which defines their duties and privileges sets forth that "every ceorl
+who throve so that he had fully five hides of land, and a helm, and a
+mail-shirt, and a sword ornamented with gold, was to be reckoned
+gesithcund." A second draft allowed the man who had the military
+equipment complete, but not fully the five hides of land, to slip into
+the list, and also "the merchant who has fared thrice over the high seas
+at his own expense." How far the details of the scheme are Alfred's own,
+how far they were developed by his son Edward the Elder, it is
+unfortunately impossible to say. But there is small doubt that the
+system was working to some extent in the later wars of the great king,
+and that his successes were largely due to the fact that his army
+contained a larger nucleus of fully armed warriors than those of his
+predecessors.
+
+Military reforms were only one section of the work of King Alfred during
+the central years of his reign. It was then that he set afoot his
+numerous schemes for the restoration of the learning and culture of
+England which had sunk so low during the long years of disaster which
+had preceded his accession. How he gathered scholars from the continent,
+Wales and Ireland; how he collected the old heroic poems of the nation,
+how he himself translated books from the Latin tongue, started schools,
+and set his scribes to write up the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, is told
+elsewhere, as are his mechanical inventions, his buildings, and his
+dealings with missionaries and explorers (see ALFRED).
+
+The test of the efficiency of his work was that it held firm when, in
+his later years, the Danish storm once more began to beat against the
+shores of Wessex. In the years 892-896 Alfred was assailed from many
+sides at once by viking fleets, of which the most important was that led
+by the great freebooter Hasting. Moreover, the settled Danes of eastern
+England broke their oaths and gave the invaders assistance. Yet the king
+held his own, with perfect success if not with ease. The enemy was
+checked, beaten off, followed up rapidly whenever he changed his base of
+operation, and hunted repeatedly all across England. The campaigning
+ranged from Appledore in Kent to Exeter, from Chester to Shoeburyness;
+but wherever the invaders transferred themselves, either the king, or
+his son Edward, or his son-in-law Ethelred, the ealdorman of Mercia, was
+promptly at hand with a competent army. The camps of the Danes were
+stormed, their fleet was destroyed in the river Lea in 895, and at last
+the remnant broke up and dispersed, some to seek easier plunder in
+France, others to settle down among their kinsmen in Northumbria or East
+Anglia.
+
+Alfred survived for four years after his final triumph in 896, to
+complete the organization of his fleet and to repair the damages done by
+the last four years of constant fighting. He died on the 26th of October
+900, leaving Wessex well armed for the continuance of the struggle, and
+the inhabitants of the "Danelagh" much broken in spirit. They saw that
+it would never be in their power to subdue all England. Within a few
+years they were to realize that it was more probable that the English
+kings would subdue them.
+
+
+  Edward the Elder.
+
+The house of Wessex continued to supply a race of hard-fighting and
+capable monarchs, who went on with Alfred's work. His son, Edward the
+Elder, and his three grandsons, Ęthelstan, Edmund and Edred, devoted
+themselves for fifty-five years (A.D. 900-955) to the task of conquering
+the Danelagh, and ended by making England into a single unified kingdom,
+not by admitting the conquered to homage and tribute, in the old style
+of the 7th century, but by their complete absorption. The process was
+not so hard as might be thought; when once the Danes had settled down,
+had brought over wives from their native land or taken them from among
+their English vassals, had built themselves farmsteads and accumulated
+flocks and herds, they lost their old advantage in contending with the
+English. Their strength had been their mobility and their undisputed
+command of the sea. But now they had possessions of their own to defend,
+and could not raid at large in Wessex or Mercia without exposing their
+homes to similar molestation. Moreover, the fleet which Alfred had
+built, and which his successors kept up, disputed their mastery of the
+sea, and ended by achieving a clear superiority over them. Unity of plan
+and unity of command was also on the side of the English. The
+inhabitants of the three sections of the Danelagh were at best leagued
+in a many-headed confederacy. Their opponents were led by kings whose
+orders were punctually obeyed from Shrewsbury to Dover and from London
+to Exeter. It must also be remembered that in the greater part of the
+land which they possessed the Danes were but a small minority of the
+population. After their first fury was spent they no longer exterminated
+the conquered, but had been content to make the Mercians and Deirans
+their subjects, to take the best of the land, and exact tribute for the
+rest. Only in Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire and parts of Nottinghamshire
+and Leicestershire do they seem to have settled thickly and formed a
+preponderating element in the countryside. In the rest of the Midlands
+and in East Anglia they were only a governing oligarchy of scanty
+numbers. Everywhere there was an English lower class which welcomed the
+advent of the conquering kings of Wessex and the fall of the Danish
+jarls.
+
+Edward the Elder spent twenty-five laborious years first in repelling
+and repaying Danish raids, then in setting to work to subdue the
+raiders. He worked forward into the Danelagh, building _burhs_ as he
+advanced, to hold down each district that he won. He was helped by his
+brother-in-law, the Mercian ealdorman Ęthelred, and, after the death of
+that magnate, by his warlike sister Ęthelflęd, the ealdorman's widow,
+who was continued in her husband's place. While Edward, with London as
+his base, pushed forward into the eastern counties, his sister, starting
+from Warwick and Stafford, encroached on the Danelagh along the line of
+the Trent. The last Danish king of East Anglia was slain in battle in
+918, and his realm annexed. Ęthelflęd won Derby and Leicester, while her
+brother reduced Stamford and Nottingham. Finally, in 921, not only was
+the whole land south of the Humber subdued, but the Yorkshire Danes, the
+Welsh, and even--it is said--the remote Scots of the North, did homage
+to Edward and became his men.
+
+
+  Ęthelstan.
+
+In 925 Edward was succeeded by his eldest, son Ęthelstan, who completed
+the reduction of the Danelagh by driving out Guthfrith, the Danish king
+of York, and annexing his realm. But this first conquest of the region
+beyond Humber had to be repeated over and over again; time after time
+the Danes rebelled and proclaimed a new king, aided sometimes by bands
+of their kinsmen from Ireland or Norway, sometimes by the Scots and
+Strathclyde Welsh. Ęthelstan's greatest and best-remembered achievement
+was his decisive victory in 937 at Brunanburh--an unknown spot, probably
+by the Solway Firth or the Ribble--over a great confederacy of rebel
+Danes of Yorkshire, Irish Danes from Dublin, the Scottish king,
+Constantine, and Eugenius, king of Strathclyde. Yet even after such a
+triumph Ęthelstan had to set up a Danish under-king in Yorkshire,
+apparently despairing of holding it down as a shire governed by a mere
+ealdorman. But its overlordship he never lost, and since he also
+maintained the supremacy which his father had won over the Welsh and
+Scots, it was not without reason that he called himself on his coins and
+in his charters _Rex totius Britanniae_. Occasionally he even used the
+title _Basileus_, as if he claimed a quasi-imperial position.
+
+
+  Edmund: Edred.
+
+The trampling out of the last embers of Danish particularism in the
+North was reserved for Ęthelstan's brothers and successors, Edmund and
+Edred (940-955), who put down several risings of the Yorkshiremen, one
+of which was aided by a rebellion of the Midland Danes of the Five
+Boroughs. But the untiring perseverance of the house of Alfred was at
+last rewarded by success. After the expulsion of the last rebel king of
+York, Eric Haraldson, by Edred in 948, we cease to hear of trouble in
+the North. When next there was rebellion in that quarter it was in
+favour of a Wessex prince, not of a Danish adventurer, and had no
+sinister national significance. The descendants of the vikings were
+easily incorporated in the English race, all the more so because of the
+wise policy of the conquering kings, who readily employed and often
+promoted to high station men of Danish descent who showed themselves
+loyal--and this not only in the secular but in spiritual offices. In 942
+Oda, a full-blooded Dane, was made archbishop of Canterbury. The
+Danelagh became a group of earldoms, ruled by officials who were as
+often of Danish as of English descent.
+
+It is notable that when, after Edred's death, there was civil strife,
+owing to the quarrel of his nephew Edwy with some of his kinsmen,
+ministers and bishops, the rebels, who included the majority of the
+Mercians and Northumbrians, set up as their pretender to the throne not
+a Dane but Edwy's younger brother Edgar, who ruled for a short time
+north of Thames, and became sole monarch on the death of his unfortunate
+kinsman.
+
+
+  Edgar.
+
+The reign of Edgar (959-975) saw the culmination of the power of the
+house of Alfred. It was untroubled by rebellion or by foreign
+invasions, so that the king won the honourable title of _Rex Pacificus_.
+The minor sovereigns of Britain owned him as overlord, as they had owned
+his grandfather Edward and his uncle Ęthelstan. It was long remembered
+"how all the kings of this island, both the Welsh and the Scots, eight
+kings, came to him once upon a time on one day and all bowed to his
+governance." The eight were Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Strathclyde,
+Maccus of Man, and five Welsh kings. There is fair authority for the
+well-known legend that, after this meeting at Chester, he was rowed in
+his barge down the Dee by these potentates, such a crew as never was
+seen before or after, and afterwards exclaimed that those who followed
+him might now truly boast that they were kings of all Britain.
+
+Edgar's chief counsellor was the famous archbishop Dunstan, to whom no
+small part of the glory of his reign has been ascribed. This great
+prelate was an ecclesiastical reformer--a leader in a movement for the
+general purification of morals, and especially for the repressing of
+simony and evil-living among the clergy--a great builder of churches,
+and a stringent enforcer of the rules of the monastic life. But he was
+also a busy statesman; he probably had a share in the considerable body
+of legislation which was enacted in Edgar's reign, and is said to have
+encouraged him in his policy of treating Dane and Englishman with exact
+equality, and of investing the one no less than the other with the
+highest offices in church and state.
+
+Edgar's life was too short for the welfare of his people--he was only in
+his thirty-third year when he died in 975, and his sons were young boys.
+The hand of a strong man was still needed to keep the peace in the
+newly-constituted realm of all England, and the evils of a minority were
+not long in showing themselves. One section of the magnates had
+possession of the thirteen-year-old king Edward, and used his name to
+cover their ambitions. The other was led by his step-mother Ęlfthryth,
+who was set on pushing the claims of her son, the child Ęthelred. After
+much factious strife, and many stormy meetings of the Witan, Edward was
+murdered at Corfe in 978 by some thegns of the party of the
+queen-dowager. The crime provoked universal indignation, but since there
+was no other prince of the house of Alfred available, the magnates were
+forced to place Ęthelred on the throne: he was only in his eleventh
+year, and was at least personally innocent of complicity in his
+brother's death.
+
+
+  Ęthelred the Unready.
+
+  Danish invasions.
+
+With the accession of Ęthelred, the "Redeless," as he was afterwards
+called from his inability to discern good counsel from evil, and the
+consistent incapacity of his policy, an evil time began. The retirement
+from public life of Edgar's old minister Dunstan was the first event of
+the new reign, and no man of capacity came forward to take his place.
+The factions which had prevailed during the reign of Edward "the Martyr"
+seem to have continued to rage during his brother's minority, yet
+Ęthelred's earliest years were his least disastrous. It was hoped that
+when he came to man's estate things would improve, but the reverse was
+the case. The first personal action recorded of him is an unjust
+harrying of the goods of his own subjects, when he besieged Rochester
+because he had quarrelled with its bishop over certain lands, and was
+bribed to depart with 100 pounds of silver. Yet from 978 to 991 no
+irreparable harm came to England; the machinery for government and
+defence which his ancestors had established seemed fairly competent to
+defend the realm even under a wayward and incapable king. Two or three
+small descents of vikings are recorded, but the ravaging was purely
+local, and the invader soon departed. No trouble occurred in the
+Danelagh, where the old tendency of the inhabitants to take sides with
+their pagan kinsmen from over the sea appears to have completely
+vanished. But the vikings had apparently learnt by small experiments
+that England was no longer guarded as she had been in the days of Alfred
+or Ęthelstan, and in 991 the first serious invasion of Ęthelred's reign
+took place. A large fleet came ashore in Essex, and, after a hard fight
+with the ealdorman Brihtnoth at Maldon, slew him and began to ravage the
+district north of the Thames. Instead of making a desperate attempt to
+drive them off, the king bribed them to depart with 10,000 pounds of
+silver, accepting it is said this cowardly advice from archbishop
+Sigeric. The fatal precedent soon bore fruit: the invaders came back in
+larger numbers, headed by Olaf Tryggveson, the celebrated adventurer who
+afterwards made himself king of Norway, and who was already a pretender
+to its throne. He was helped by Sweyn, king of Denmark, and the two
+together laid siege to London in 994, but were beaten off by the
+citizens. Nevertheless Ęthelred for a second time stooped to pay
+tribute, and bought the departure of Dane and Norwegian with 16,000
+pounds of silver. There was a precarious interval of peace for three
+years after, but in 997 began a series of invasions led by Sweyn which
+lasted for seventeen years, and at last ended in the complete subjection
+of England and the flight of Ęthelred to Normandy. It should be noted
+that the invader during this period was no mere adventurer, but king of
+all Denmark, and, after Olaf Tryggveson's death in 1000, king of Norway
+also. His power was something far greater than that of the Guthrums and
+Anlafs of an earlier generation, and--in the end of his life at
+least--he was aiming at political conquest, and not either at mere
+plunder or at finding new settlements for his followers. But if the
+strength of the invader was greater than that of his predecessors,
+Ęthelred also was far better equipped for war than his ancestors of the
+9th century. He owned, and he sometimes used--but always to little
+profit--a large fleet, while all England instead of the mere realm of
+Wessex was at his back. Any one of the great princes of the house of
+Egbert who had reigned from 871 to 975, would have fought a winning
+fight with such resources, and it took nearly twenty years of Ęthelred's
+tried incapacity to lose the game. He did, however, succeed in undoing
+all the work of his ancestors, partly by his own slackness and sloth,
+partly by his choice of corrupt and treacherous ministers. For the two
+ealdormen whom he delighted to honour and placed at the head of his
+armies, Ęlfric and Eadric Streona, are accused, the one of persistent
+cowardice, the other of underhand intrigue with the Danes. Some of the
+local magnates made a desperate defence of their own regions, especially
+Ulfkytel of East Anglia, a Dane by descent; but the central government
+was at fault. Ęthelred's army was always at the wrong place--"if the
+enemy were east then was the _fyrd_ held west, and if they were north
+then was our force held south." When Ęthelred did appear it was more
+often to pay a bribe to the invaders than to fight. Indeed the
+_Danegeld_, the tax which he raised to furnish tribute to the invaders,
+became a regular institution: on six occasions at least Ęthelred bought
+a few months of peace by sums ranging from 10,000 to 48,000 pounds of
+silver.
+
+
+  Canute.
+
+At last in the winter of 1013-1014, more as it would seem from sheer
+disgust at their king's cowardice and incompetence than because further
+resistance was impossible, the English gave up the struggle and
+acknowledged Sweyn as king. First Northumbria, then Wessex, then London
+yielded, and Ęthelred was forced to fly over seas to Richard, duke of
+Normandy, whose sister he had married as his second wife. But Sweyn
+survived his triumph little over a month; he died suddenly at
+Gainsborough on the 3rd of February 1014. The Danes hailed his son
+Canute, a lad of eighteen, as king, but many of the English, though they
+had submitted to a hard-handed conqueror like Sweyn, were not prepared
+to be handed over like slaves to his untried successor. There was a
+general rising, the old king was brought over from Normandy, and Canute
+was driven out for a moment by force of arms. He returned next year with
+a greater army to hear soon after of Ęthelred's death (1016). The witan
+chose Edmund "Ironside," the late king's eldest son, to succeed him, and
+as he was a hard-fighting prince of that normal type of his house to
+which his father had been such a disgraceful exception, it seemed
+probable that the Danes might be beaten off. But Ęthelred's favourite
+Eadric Streona adhered to Canute, fearing to lose the office and power
+that he had enjoyed for so long under Ęthelred, and prevailed on the
+magnates of part of Wessex and Mercia to follow his example. For a
+moment the curious phenomenon was seen of Canute reigning in Wessex,
+while Edmund was making head against him with the aid of the Anglo-Danes
+of the "Five Boroughs" and Northumbria. There followed a year of
+desperate struggle: the two young kings fought five pitched battles,
+fortune seemed to favour Edmund, and the traitor Eadric submitted to him
+with all Wessex. But the last engagement, at Assandun (Ashingdon) in
+Essex went against the English, mainly because Eadric again betrayed the
+national cause and deserted to the enemy.
+
+Edmund was so hard hit by this last disaster that he offered to divide
+the realm with Canute; they met on the isle of Alney near Gloucester,
+and agreed that the son of Ęthelred should keep Wessex and all the
+South, London and East Anglia, while the Dane should have Northumbria,
+the "five boroughs" and Eadric's Mercian earldom. But ere the year was
+out Edmund died: secretly murdered, according to some authorities, by
+the infamous Eadric. The witan of Wessex made no attempt to set on the
+throne either one of the younger sons of Ęthelred by his Norman wife, or
+the infant heir of Edmund, but chose Canute as king, preferring to
+reunite England by submission to the stranger rather than to continue
+the disastrous war.
+
+They were wise in so doing, though their motive may have been despair
+rather than long-sighted policy. Canute became more of an Englishman
+than a Dane: he spent more of his time in his island realm than in his
+native Denmark. He paid off and sent home the great army with whose aid
+he had won the English crown, retaining only a small bodyguard of
+"house-carls" and trusting to the loyalty of his new subjects. There was
+no confiscation of lands for the benefit of intrusive Danish settlers.
+On the contrary Canute had more English than Danish courtiers and
+ministers about his person, and sent many Englishmen as bishops and some
+even as royal officers to Denmark. It is strange to find that--whether
+from policy or from affection--he married King Ęthelred's young widow
+Emma of Normandy, though she was somewhat older than himself--so that
+his son King Harthacnut and that son's successor Edward the Confessor,
+the heir of the line of Wessex, were half-brothers. It might have been
+thought likely that the son of the pagan Sweyn would have turned out a
+mere hard-fighting viking. But Canute developed into a great
+administrator and a friend of learning and culture. Occasionally he
+committed a harsh and tyrannical act. Though he need not be blamed for
+making a prompt end of the traitor Eadric Streona and of Uhtred, the
+turbulent earl of Northumbria, at the commencement of his reign, there
+are other and less justifiable deeds of blood to be laid to his account.
+But they were but few; for the most part his administration was just and
+wise as well as strong and intelligent.
+
+As long as he lived England was the centre of a great Northern empire,
+for Canute reconquered Norway, which had lapsed into independence after
+his father's death, and extended his power into the Baltic. Moreover,
+all the so-called Scandinavian colonists in the Northern Isles and
+Ireland owned him as overlord. So did the Scottish king Malcolm, and the
+princes of Wales and Strathclyde. The one weak point in his policy that
+can be detected is that he left in the hands of Malcolm the Bernician
+district of Lothian, which the Scot had conquered during the anarchy
+that followed the death of Ęthelred. The battle of Carham (1018) had
+given this land to the Scots, and Canute consented to draw the border
+line of England at the Tweed instead of at the Firth of Forth, when
+Malcolm did him homage. Strangely enough it was this cession of a
+Northumbrian earldom to the Northern king that ultimately made Scotland
+an English-speaking country. For the Scottish kings, deserting their
+native Highlands, took to dwelling at Edinburgh among their new
+subjects, and first the court and afterwards the whole of their Lowland
+subjects were gradually assimilated to the Northumbrian nucleus which
+formed both the most fertile and the most civilized portion of their
+enlarged realm.
+
+The fact, that England recovered with marvellous rapidity from the evil
+effects of Ęthelred's disastrous reign, and achieved great wealth and
+prosperity under Canute, would seem to show that the ravages of Sweyn,
+widespread and ruthless though they had been, had yet fallen short of
+the devastating completeness of those of the earlier vikings. He had
+been more set on exacting tribute than on perpetrating wanton massacres.
+A few years of peace and wise administration seem to have restored the
+realm to a satisfactory condition. A considerable mass of his
+legislation has survived to show Canute's care for law and order.
+
+Canute died in 1035, aged not more than forty or forty-one. The crown
+was disputed between his two sons, the half-brothers Harold and
+Harthacnut; it was doubtful whether the birth of the elder prince was
+legitimate, and Queen Emma strove to get her own son Harthacnut
+preferred to him. In Denmark the younger claimant was acknowledged by
+the whole people, but in England the Mercian and Northumbrian earls
+chose Harold as king, and Wessex only fell to Harthacnut. Both the young
+kings were cruel, dissolute and wayward, most unworthy sons of a wise
+father. It was to the great profit of England that they died within two
+years of each other, the elder in 1040, the younger in 1042.
+
+
+  Edward the Confessor.
+
+  Harold.
+
+On Harthacnut's death he was succeeded not by any Danish prince but by
+his half-brother Edward, the elder son of Ęthelred and Emma, whom he had
+entertained at his court, and had apparently designated as his heir, for
+he had no offspring. There was an end of the empire of Canute, for
+Denmark fell to the great king's nephew, Sweyn Estrithson, and Norway
+had thrown off the Danish yoke. Engaged in wars with each other, Dane
+and Norseman had no leisure to think of reconquering England. Hence
+Edward's accession took place without any friction. He reigned, but did
+not rule, for twenty-four years, though he was well on in middle age
+before he was crowned. Of all the descendants of Alfred he was the only
+one who lived to see his sixtieth birthday--the house of Wessex were a
+short-lived race. In character he differed from all his ancestors--he
+had Alfred's piety without his capacity, and Ęthelred's weakness without
+his vices. The mildest of men, a crowned monk, who let slip the reins of
+government from his hands while he busied himself in prayer and church
+building, he lowered the kingly power to a depth to which it had never
+sunk before in England. His sole positive quality, over and above his
+piety, was a love for his mother's kin, the Normans. He had spent his
+whole life from 1013 to 1040 as an exile at the court of Rouen, and was
+far more of a Norman than an Englishman. It was but natural, therefore,
+that he should invite his continental relatives and the friends of his
+youth to share in his late-coming prosperity. But when he filled his
+court with them, made them earls and bishops, and appointed one of them,
+Robert of Jumičges, to the archbishopric of Canterbury, his undisguised
+preference for strangers gave no small offence to his English subjects.
+In the main, however, the king's personal likes and dislikes mattered
+little to the realm, since he had a comparatively small share in its
+governance. He was habitually overruled and dominated by his earls, of
+whom three, Leofric, Godwine and Siward--all old servants of Canute--had
+far more power than their master. Holding respectively the great
+earldoms of West Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria, they reigned almost
+like petty sovereigns in their domains, and there seemed some chance
+that England might fall apart into semi-independent feudal states, just
+as France had done in the preceding century. The rivalries and intrigues
+of these three magnates constitute the main part of the domestic
+politics of Edward's reign. Godwine, whose daughter had wedded the king,
+was the most forcible and ambitious of the three, but his pre-eminence
+provoked a general league against him and in 1051 he was cast out of the
+kingdom with his sons. In the next year he returned in arms, raised
+Wessex in revolt, and compelled the king to in-law him again, to restore
+his earldom, and to dismiss with ignominy the Norman favourites who were
+hunted over seas. The old earl died in 1053, but was succeeded in power
+by his son Harold, who for thirteen years maintained an unbroken mastery
+over the king, and ruled England almost with the power of a regent.
+There seems little doubt that he aspired to be Edward's successor: there
+was no direct heir to the crown, and the nearest of kin was ah infant,
+Edgar, the great-nephew of the reigning sovereign and grandson of
+Edmund Ironside. England's experience of minors on the throne had been
+unhappy--Edwy and Ęthelred the Redeless were warnings rather than
+examples. Moreover, Harold had before his eye as a precedent the
+displacement of the effete Carolingian line in France, by the new house
+of Robert the Strong and Hugh Capet, seventy years before. He prepared
+for the crisis that must come at the death of Edward the Confessor by
+bestowing the governance of several earldoms upon his brothers.
+Unfortunately for him, however, the eldest of them, Tostig, proved the
+greatest hindrance to his plans, provoking wrath and opposition wherever
+he went by his high-handedness and cruelty.
+
+Harold's governance of the realm seems to have been on the whole
+successful. He put down the Scottish usurper Macbeth with the swords of
+a Northumbrian army, and restored Malcolm III. to the throne of that
+kingdom (1055-1058). He led an army into the heart of Wales to punish
+the raids of King Griffith ap Llewelyn, and harried the Welsh so
+bitterly that they put their leader to death, and renewed their homage
+to the English crown (1063). He won enthusiastic devotion from the men
+of Wessex and the South, but in Northumbria and Mercia he was less
+liked. His experiment in taking the rule of these earldoms out of the
+hands of the descendants of Siward and Leofric proved so unsuccessful
+that he had to resign himself to undoing it. Ultimately one of Leofric's
+grandsons, Edwin, was left as earl of Mercia, and the other, Morcar,
+became earl of Northumbria instead of Harold's unpopular brother Tostig.
+It was on this fact that the fortune of England was to turn, for in the
+hour of crisis Harold was to be betrayed by the lords of the Midlands
+and the North.
+
+
+  Origin of the Norman Conquest.
+
+Somewhere about the end of his period of ascendancy, perhaps in 1064,
+Harold was sailing in the Channel when his ship was driven ashore by a
+tempest near the mouth of the Somme. He fell into the hands of William
+the Bastard, duke of Normandy, King Edward's cousin and best-loved
+relative. The duke brought him to Rouen, and kept him in a kind of
+honourable captivity till he had extorted a strange pledge from him.
+William alleged that his cousin had promised to make him his heir, and
+to recommend him to the witan as king of England. He demanded that
+Harold should swear to aid him in the project. Fearing for his personal
+safety, the earl gave the required oath, and sailed home a perjured man,
+for he had assuredly no intention of keeping the promise that had been
+extorted from him. Within two years King Edward expired (Jan. 5, 1066)
+after having recommended Harold as his successor to the thegns and
+bishops who stood about his death-bed. The witan chose the earl as king
+without any show of doubt, though the assent of the Mercian and
+Northumbrian earls must have been half-hearted. Not a word was said in
+favour of the claim of the child Edgar, the heir of the house of Alfred,
+nothing (of course) for the preposterous claim of William of Normandy.
+Harold accepted the crown without a moment's hesitation, and at once
+prepared to defend it, for he was aware that the Norman would fight to
+gain his purpose. He endeavoured to conciliate Edwin and Morcar by
+marrying their sister Ealdgyth, and trusted that he had bought their
+loyal support. When the spring came round it was known that William had
+begun to collect a great fleet and army. Aware that the resources of his
+own duchy were inadequate to the conquest of England, he sent all over
+Europe to hire mercenaries, promising every knight who would join him
+broad lands beyond the Channel in the event of victory. He gathered
+beneath his banner thousands of adventurers not only from France,
+Brittany and Flanders, but even from distant regions such as Aragon,
+Apulia and Germany. The native Normans were but a third part of his
+host, and he himself commanded rather as director of a great joint-stock
+venture than as the feudal chief of his own duchy. He also obtained the
+blessing of Pope Alexander II. for his enterprise, partly on the plea
+that Harold was a perjurer, partly because Stigand, the archbishop of
+Canterbury, had acknowledged the late anti-pope Benedict.
+
+All through the summer Harold held a fleet concentrated under the lee
+of the Isle of Wight, waiting to intercept William's armament, while the
+fyrd of Wessex was ready to support him if the enemy should succeed in
+making a landing. By September the provisions were spent, and the ships
+were growing unseaworthy. Very reluctantly the king bade them go round
+to London to refit and revictual themselves. William meanwhile had been
+unable to sail, because for many weeks the wind had been unfavourable.
+If it had set from the south the fortune of England would have been
+settled by a sea-fight. At this moment came a sudden and incalculable
+diversion; Harold's turbulent brother Tostig, banished for his crimes in
+1065, was seeking revenge. He had persuaded Harold Hardrada, king of
+Norway, almost the last of the great viking adventurers, to take him as
+guide for a raid on England. They ran into the Humber with a great
+fleet, beat the earls Edwin and Morcar in battle, and captured York.
+Abandoning his watch on the south coast Harold of England flew northward
+to meet the invaders; he surprised them at Stamford Bridge, slew both
+the Norse king and the rebel earl, and almost exterminated their army
+(Sept. 25? 1066). But while he was absent from the Channel the wind
+turned, and William of Normandy put to sea. The English fleet and the
+English army were both absent, and the Normans came safely to shore on
+the 28th of September. Harold had to turn hastily southward to meet
+them. On the 13th of October his host was arrayed on the hill of Senlac,
+7 miles from the duke's camp at Hastings. The ranks of his thegnhood and
+house-carles had been thinned by the slaughter of Stamford Bridge, and
+their place was but indifferently supplied by the hasty levies of
+London, Wessex and the Home Counties. Edwin and Morcar, who should have
+been at his side with their Mercians and Northumbrians, were still far
+away--probably from treachery, slackness and jealousy.
+
+Next morning (October 14) William marched out from Hastings and attacked
+the English host, which stood at bay in a solid mass of spear and axemen
+behind a slight breastwork on the hillside. After six hours of desperate
+fighting the victory fell to the duke, who skilfully alternated the use
+of archers and cavalry against the unwieldy English phalanx. (See
+HASTINGS: _Battle of_.) The disaster was complete, Harold himself was
+slain, his two brothers had fallen with him, not even the wreck of an
+army escaped. There was no one to rally the English in the name of the
+house of Godwine. The witan met and hastily saluted the child Edgar
+Ętheling as king. But the earls Edwin and Morcar refused to fight for
+him, and when William appeared in front of the gates of London they were
+opened almost without resistance. He was elected king in the old English
+fashion by the surviving magnates, and crowned on Christmas Day 1066.
+
+
+II. THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN MONARCHY (1066-1199)
+
+  William the Conqueror.
+
+When William of Normandy was crowned at Westminster by Archbishop Aldred
+of York and acknowledged as king by the witan, it is certain that few
+Englishmen understood the full importance of the occasion. It is
+probable that most men recalled the election of Canute, and supposed
+that the accession of the one alien sovereign would have no more
+permanent effect on the realm than that of the other. The rule of the
+Danish king and his two short-lived sons had caused no break in the
+social or constitutional history of England. Canute had become an
+Englishman, had accepted all the old institutions of the nation, had
+dismissed his host of vikings, and had ruled like a native king and for
+the most part with native ministers. Within twenty years of his
+accession the disasters and calamities which had preceded his triumph
+had been forgotten, and the national life was running quietly in its old
+channels. But the accession of William the Bastard meant something very
+different. Canute had been an impressionable lad of eighteen or nineteen
+when he was crowned; he was ready and eager to learn and to forget. He
+had found himself confronted in England with a higher civilization and a
+more advanced social organization than those which he had known in his
+boyhood, and he accepted them with alacrity, feeling that he was thereby
+getting advantage. With William the Norman all was different: he was a
+man well on in middle age, too old to adapt himself easily to new
+surroundings, even if he had been willing to do so. He never even learnt
+the language of his English subjects, the first step to comprehending
+their needs and their views. Moreover, unlike his Danish predecessor, he
+looked down upon the English from the plane of a higher civilization;
+the Normans regarded the conquered nation as barbarous and boorish. The
+difference in customs and culture between the dwellers on the two sides
+of the Channel was sufficient to make this possible; though it is hard
+to discern any adequate justification for the Norman attitude. Probably
+the bar of language was the most prominent cause of estrangement. In
+five generations the viking settlers of Normandy had not only completely
+forgotten their old Scandinavian tongue, but had come to look upon those
+who spoke the kindred English idiom not only as aliens but as inferiors.
+For three centuries French remained the court speech, and the mark of
+civilization and gentility.
+
+
+  Progress of Norman Settlement.
+
+Despite all this the Conquest would not have had its actual results if
+William, like Canute, had been able to dismiss his conquering army, and
+to refrain from a general policy of confiscation. But he had won his
+crown not as duke of Normandy, but as the head of a band of cosmopolitan
+adventurers, who had to be rewarded with land in England. Some few
+received their pay in hard cash, and went off to other wars; but the
+large majority, Breton and Angevin, French and Fleming, no less than
+Norman, wanted land. William could only provide it by a wholesale
+confiscation of the estates of all the thegnhood who had followed the
+house of Godwine. Almost his first act was to seize on these lands, and
+to distribute them among his followers. In the regions of the South,
+which had supplied the army that fell at Hastings, at least four-fifths
+of the soil passed to new masters. The dispossessed heirs of the old
+owners had either to sink to the condition of peasants, or to throw
+themselves upon the world and seek new homes. The friction and hatred
+thus caused were bitter and long enduring. And this same system of
+confiscation was gradually extended to the rest of England. At first the
+English landowners who had not actually served in Harold's host were
+permitted to "buy back their lands," by paying a heavy fine to the new
+king and doing him homage. What would have happened supposing that
+England had made no further stir, and had not vexed William by
+rebellion, it is impossible to say. But, as a matter of fact, during the
+first few years of his reign one district after another took up arms and
+endeavoured to cast out the stranger. As it became gradually evident
+that William's whole system of government was to be on new and
+distasteful lines, the English of the Midlands, the North and the West
+all went into rebellion. The risings were sporadic, ill-organized, badly
+led, for each section of the realm fought for its own hand. In some
+parts the insurrections were in favour of the sons of Harold, in others
+Edgar Ętheling was acclaimed as king: and while the unwise earls Edwin
+and Morcar fought for their own hand, the Anglo-Danes of the East sent
+for Sweyn, king of Denmark, who proved of small help, for he abode but a
+short space in England, and went off after sacking the great abbey of
+Peterborough and committing other outrages. The rebels cut up several
+Norman garrisons, and gave King William much trouble for some years, but
+they could never face him in battle. Their last stronghold, the
+marsh-fortress of Ely, surrendered in 1071, and not long after their
+most stubborn chief, Hereward "the Wake," the leader of the fenmen, laid
+down his arms and became King William's man (see HEREWARD).
+
+The only result of the long series of insurrections was to provoke the
+king to a cruelty which he had not at first shown, and to give him an
+excuse for confiscating and dividing among his foreign knights and
+barons the immense majority of the estates of the English thegnhood.
+William could be pitiless when provoked; to punish the men of the North
+for persistent rebellion and the destruction of his garrison at York, he
+harried the whole countryside from the Aire to the Tees with such
+remorseless ferocity that it did not recover its ancient prosperity for
+centuries. The population was absolutely exterminated, and the great
+Domesday survey, made nearly twenty years later, shows the greater part
+of Yorkshire as "waste." This act was exceptional only in its extent:
+the king was as cruel on a smaller scale elsewhere, and not contented
+with the liberal use of the axe and the rope was wont to inflict his
+favourite punishments of blinding and mutilation on a most reckless
+scale.
+
+The net result of the king's revenge on the rebellious English was that
+by 1075 the old governing class had almost entirely disappeared, and
+that their lands, from the Channel to the Tweed, had everywhere been
+distributed to new holders. To a great extent the same horde of
+continental adventurers who had obtained the first batch of grants in
+Wessex and Kent were also the recipients of the later confiscations, so
+that their newly acquired estates were scattered all over England. Many
+of them came to own land in ten or a dozen counties remote from each
+other, a fact which was of the greatest importance in determining the
+character of English feudalism. While abroad the great vassals of the
+crown generally held their property in compact blocks, in England their
+power was weakened by the dispersion of their lands. This tendency was
+assisted by the fact that even when the king, as was his custom,
+transferred to a Norman the estates of an English landowner just as they
+stood, those estates were already for the most part not conterminous.
+Even before the Conquest the lands of the magnates were to a large
+extent held in scattered units, not in solid patches. Only in two cases
+did William establish lordships of compact strength, and these were
+created for the special purpose of guarding the turbulent Welsh March.
+The "palatine" earls of Chester and Shrewsbury were not only endowed
+with special powers and rights of jurisdiction, but were almost the only
+tenants-in-chief within their respective shires. These rare exceptions
+prove the general rule: William probably foresaw the dangers of such
+accumulation of territory in private hands. He made a complete end of
+the old English system by which great earls ruled many shires: there
+were to be no Godwines or Leofrics under the Norman rule. This
+particular feudal danger was avoided: where earls were created, and they
+were but few, their authority was usually restricted to a single shire.
+
+
+  Feudalism.
+
+It remains to speak of the most important change which William's
+rearrangements made in the polity of England. It is of course untrue to
+say--as was so often done by early historians--that he "introduced the
+feudal system into England." In some aspects feudalism was already in
+the land before he arrived: in others it may be said that it was never
+introduced at all. He did not introduce the practice by which the small
+man commended himself to the great man, and in return for his protection
+divested himself of the full ownership of his own land, and became a
+customary tenant in what later ages called a "manor." That system was
+already in full operation in England before the Conquest. In some
+districts the wholly free small landowner had already disappeared,
+though in the regions which had formed the Danelagh he was still to be
+found in large numbers. Nor did William introduce the system of great
+earldoms, passing from father to son, which gave over-great subjects a
+hereditary grip on the countryside. On the contrary, as has been already
+said, he did much to check that tendency, which had already developed in
+England.
+
+What he really did do was to reconstruct society on the essentially
+feudal theory that the land was a gift from the king, held on conditions
+of homage and military service. The duties which under the old system
+were national obligations resting on the individual as a citizen, he
+made into duties depending on the relation between the king as supreme
+landowner and the subject as tenant of the land. Military service and
+the paying of the feudal taxes--aids, reliefs, &c.--are incidents of the
+bargain between the crown and the grantee to whom land has been given.
+That grantee, the tenant-in-chief, has the right to demand from his
+sub-tenants, to whom he has given out fractions of his estate, the same
+dues that the king exacts from himself. As at least four-fifths of the
+land of England had fallen into the king's hands between 1066 and 1074,
+and had been actually regranted to new owners--foreigners to whom the
+feudal system was the only conceivable organization of political
+existence--the change was not only easy but natural. The few surviving
+English landholders had to fall into line with the newcomers. England,
+in short, was reorganized into a state of the continental type, but one
+differing from France or Germany in that the crown had not lost so many
+of its regalities as abroad, and that even the greater earls had less
+power than the ordinary continental tenant-in-chief.
+
+The English people became aware of this transformation in the "theory of
+the state" mainly through the fact that the new tenants-in-chief,
+bringing with them the ideas in which they had been reared, failed to
+comprehend the rather complicated status of the rural population on this
+side of the Channel. To the French or Norman knight all peasants on his
+manor seemed to be villeins, and he failed to understand the distinction
+between freemen who had personally commended themselves to his English
+predecessor but still owned their land, and the mass of ordinary servile
+tenants. There can be no doubt that the first effect of the Conquest was
+that the upper strata of the agricultural classes lost the comparative
+independence which they had hitherto enjoyed, and were in many cases
+depressed to the level of their inferiors. The number of freemen began
+to decrease, from the encroachments of the landowner, and continued to
+dwindle for many years: even in districts where Domesday Book shows them
+surviving in considerable numbers, it is clear that a generation or two
+later they had largely disappeared, and became merged in the villein
+class.
+
+
+  Domesday.
+
+In this sense, therefore, England was turned into a feudal state by the
+results of the work of William the Conqueror. But it would be wrong to
+assert that all traces of the ancient social organization of the realm
+were swept away. The old Saxon customs were not forgotten, though they
+might in many cases be twisted to fit new surroundings. Indeed William
+and his successors not infrequently caused them to be collected and put
+on record. The famous Domesday Book (q.v.) of 1086 is in its essential
+nature an inquiry into the state of England at the moment of the
+Conquest, compiled in order that the king may have a full knowledge of
+the rights that he possesses as the heir of King Edward. Being primarily
+intended to facilitate the levy of taxation, it dwells more on the
+details of the actual wealth and resources of the country in 1066 and
+1086, and less on the laws and customs that governed the distribution of
+that wealth, than could have been wished. But it is nevertheless a
+monument of the permanence of the old English institutions, even after
+the ownership of four-fifths of the soil has been changed. The king
+inquires into the state of things in 1066 because it is on that state of
+things that his rights of taxation depend. He does not claim to have
+rearranged the whole realm on a new basis, or to be levying his revenue
+on a new assessment made at his own pleasure. Nor is it in the sphere of
+taxation alone that William's organization of the realm stands on the
+old English customs. In the military sphere, though his normal army is
+the feudal force composed of the tenants-in-chief and the knights whom
+they have enfeoffed, he retains the power to call out the _fyrd_, the
+old national _levée en masse_, without regard to whether its members are
+freemen or villeins of some lord. And in judicial matters the higher
+rights of royal justice remain intact, except in the few cases where
+special privileges have been granted to one or two palatine earls. The
+villein must sue in his lord's manorial courts, but he is also subject
+to the royal courts of hundred and shire. The machinery of the local
+courts survives for the most part intact.
+
+
+  Position of the Church.
+
+William's dealings with the Church of England were no less important
+than his dealings with social organization. In the earlier years of his
+reign he set himself to get rid of the whole of the upper hierarchy, in
+order to replace them by Normans. In 1070 Archbishop Stigand was deposed
+as having been uncanonically chosen, and six or seven other bishops
+after him. All the vacancies, as well as those which kept occurring
+during the next few years, were immediately filled up with foreigners.
+By the time that William had been ten years on the throne there were
+only three English bishops left. At his death there was only one--the
+saintly Wulfstan of Worcester. The same process was carried out with
+regard to abbacies, and indeed with all important places of
+ecclesiastical preferment. By 1080 the English Church was officered
+entirely by aliens. Just as with the lay landholders, the change of
+_personnel_ made a vast difference, not so much in the legal position of
+the new-comers as in the way in which they regarded their office. The
+outlook of a Norman bishop was as unlike that of his English predecessor
+as that of a Norman baron. The English Church had got out of touch with
+the ideals and the spiritual movements of the other Western churches. In
+especial the great monastic revival which had started from the abbey of
+Cluny and spread all over France, Italy and Germany had hardly touched
+this island. The continental churchmen of the 11th century were brimming
+over with ascetic zeal and militant energy, while the majority of the
+English hierarchy were slack and easy-going. The typical faults of the
+dark ages, pluralism, simony, lax observation of the clerical rules,
+contented ignorance, worldliness in every aspect, were all too prevalent
+in England. There can be no doubt that the greater part of William's
+nominees were better men than those who preceded them; his great
+archbishop, Lanfranc, though a busy statesman, was also an energetic
+reformer and a man of holy life. Osmund, Remigius and others of the
+first post-Conquest bishops have left a good name behind them. The
+condition of the church alike in the matter of spiritual zeal, of hard
+work and of learning was much improved. But there was a danger behind
+this revival; for the reformers of the 11th century, in their zeal for
+establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, were not content with raising
+the moral and intellectual standards prevailing in Christendom, but
+sought to bring the whole scheme of life under the church, by asserting
+the absolute supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power,
+wherever the two came in contact or overlapped. The result, since the
+feudal and ecclesiastical systems had become closely interwoven, and the
+frontier between the religious and secular spheres must ever be vague
+and undefined, was the conflict between the spiritual and temporal
+powers which, for two centuries to come, was to tear Europe into warring
+factions (see the articles CHURCH HISTORY; PAPACY; INVESTITURE). The
+Norman Conquest of England was contemporaneous with the supreme
+influence of the greatest exponent of the theory of ecclesiastical
+supremacy, the archdeacon Hildebrand, who in 1073 mounted the papal
+throne as Gregory VII. (q.v.). William, despite all his personal faults,
+was a sincerely pious man, but it could not be expected that he would
+acquiesce in these new developments of the religious reformation which
+he had done his best to forward. Hence we find a divided purpose in the
+policy which he pursued with regard to church affairs. He endeavoured to
+keep on the best terms with the papacy: he welcomed legates and
+frequently consulted the pope on purely spiritual matters. He even took
+the hazardous step of separating ecclesiastical courts and lay courts,
+giving the church leave to establish separate tribunals of her own, a
+right which she had never possessed in Saxon England. The spiritual
+jurisdiction of the bishop had hitherto been exercised in the ordinary
+national courts, with lay assessors frequently taking part in the
+proceedings, and mixing their dooms with the clergy's canonical
+decisions. William in 1076 granted the church a completely independent
+set of courts, a step which his successors were to regret for many a
+generation.
+
+At the same time, however, he was not blind to the possibilities of
+papal interference in domestic matters, and of the danger of conflict
+between the crown and the recently-strengthened clerical order. To guard
+against them he laid down three general rules: (1) that no one should be
+recognized as pope in England till he had himself taken cognizance of
+the papal election, and that no papal letters should be brought into the
+realm without his leave; (2) that no decisions of the English
+ecclesiastical synods should be held valid till he had examined and
+sanctioned them; (3) that none of his barons or ministers should be
+excommunicated unless he approved of such punishment being inflicted on
+them. These rules seem to argue a deeply rooted distrust of the possible
+encroachments of the papacy on the power of the state. The question of
+ecclesiastic patronage, which was to be the source of the first great
+quarrel between the crown and the church in the next generation, is not
+touched upon. William retained in his own hands the choice of bishops
+and abbots, and Alexander II. and Gregory VII. seem to have made no
+objection to his doing so, in spite of the claim that free election was
+the only canonical way of filling vacancies. The Conqueror was allowed
+for his lifetime to do as he pleased, since he was recognized as a true
+friend of the church. But the question was only deferred and not
+settled.
+
+
+  William's later reign.
+
+The political history of William's later years is unimportant; his main
+energy was absorbed in the task of holding down and organizing his new
+kingdom. His rather precarious conquest of the county of Maine, his long
+quarrels with Philip I. of France, who suborned against him his
+undutiful and rebellious eldest son Robert, his negotiation with
+Flanders and Germany, deserve no more than a mention. It is more
+necessary to point out that he reasserted on at least one occasion (when
+King Malcolm Canmore did him homage) the old suzerainty of the English
+kings over Scotland. He also began that encroachment on the borders of
+Wales which was to continue with small interruptions for the next two
+centuries. The advance was begun by his great vassals, the earls of
+Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford, all of whom occupied new districts on
+the edge of the mountains of Powys and Gwynedd. William himself led an
+expedition as far as St Davids in 1081, and founded Cardiff Castle to
+mark the boundary of his realm north of the Bristol Channel.
+
+Perhaps the most noteworthy event of the second portion of the
+Conqueror's reign was a rebellion which, though it made no head and was
+easily suppressed, marks the commencement of that feudal danger which
+was to be the constant trouble of the English kings for the next three
+generations. Two of the greatest of his foreign magnates, Roger, earl of
+Hereford, and Ralph, earl of Norfolk, rose against him in 1075, with no
+better cause than personal grievances and ambitions. He put them down
+with ease; the one was imprisoned for life, the other driven into exile,
+while Waltheof, the last of the English earls, who had dabbled in a
+hesitating way in this plot, was executed. There was never any serious
+danger, but the fact that under the new régime baronial rebellion was
+possible, despite of all William's advantages over other feudal kings,
+and despite of the fact that the rebels were hardly yet settled firmly
+into their new estates, had a sinister import for the future of England.
+With the new monarchy there had come into England the anarchic spirit of
+continental feudalism. If such a man as the Conqueror did not overawe
+it, what was to be expected in the reigns of his successors? William had
+introduced into his new realm alike the barons, with their personal
+ambition, and the clerics of the school of Hildebrand, with their
+intense jealousy for the rights of the church. The tale of the dealings
+of his descendants with these two classes of opponents constitutes the
+greater part of English history for a full century.
+
+
+  William Rufus.
+
+William died at Rouen on the 7th of September 1087; on his death-bed he
+expressed his wish that Normandy should pass to his elder son, Robert,
+in spite of all his rebellions, but gave his second son William (known
+by the nickname of Rufus) the crown of England, and sent him thither
+with commendatory letters to archbishop Lanfranc and his other
+ministers. There was at first no sign of opposition to the will of the
+late king, and William Rufus was crowned within three weeks of his
+father's decease. But the results of the Conquest had made it hard to
+tear England and Normandy apart. Almost every baron in the duchy was now
+the possessor of a smaller or a greater grant of lands in the kingdom,
+and the possibility of serving two masters was as small in 1087 as at
+any other period of the world's history. By dividing his two states
+between his sons the Conqueror undid his own work, and left to his
+subjects the certainty of civil war. For the brothers Robert and William
+were, and always had been, enemies, and every intriguing baron had
+before him the tempting prospect of aggrandizing himself, by making his
+allegiance to one of the brothers serve as an excuse for betraying the
+other. Robert was thriftless, volatile and easy-going, a good knight but
+a most incompetent sovereign. These very facts commended him to the more
+turbulent section of the baronage; if he succeeded to the whole of the
+Conqueror's heritage they would have every opportunity of enjoying
+freedom from all governance. William's private character was detestable:
+he was cruel, lascivious, greedy of gain, a habitual breaker of oaths
+and promises, ungrateful and irreligious. But he was cunning,
+strong-handed and energetic; clearly the "Red King" would be an
+undesirable master to those who loved feudal anarchy. Hence every
+turbulent baron in England soon came to the conclusion that Robert was
+the sovereign whom his heart desired.
+
+The greater part of the reign of William II. was taken up with his fight
+against the feudal danger. Before he had been six months on the throne
+he was attacked by a league comprising more than half the baronage, and
+headed by his uncles, bishop Odo of Bayeux and Robert of Mortain. They
+used the name of the duke of Normandy and had secured his promise to
+cross the Channel for their assistance. A less capable and unscrupulous
+king than Rufus might have been swept away, for the rising burst out
+simultaneously in nearly every corner of the realm. But he made head
+against it with the aid of mercenary bands, the loyal minority of the
+barons, and the shire-levies of his English subjects. When he summoned
+out the fyrd they came in great force to his aid, not so much because
+they trusted in the promises of good governance and reduced taxation
+which he made, but because they saw that a horde of greedy barons would
+be worse to serve than a single king, however hard and selfish he might
+be. With their assistance William fought down the rebels, expelled his
+uncle Odo and several other leaders from the realm, confiscated a
+certain amount of estates, and then pardoned the remainder of the
+rebels. Such mercy, as he was to discover, was misplaced. In 1095 the
+same body of barons made a second and a more formidable rising, headed
+by the earls of Shrewsbury, Eu and Northumberland. It was put down with
+the same decisive energy that William had shown in 1088, and this time
+he was merciless; he blinded and mutilated William of Eu, shut up
+Mowbray of Northumberland for life in a monastery, and hanged many men
+of lesser rank. Of the other rebels some were deprived of their English
+estates altogether, others restored to part of them after paying
+crushing fines. This second feudal rebellion was only a distraction to
+William from his war with his brother Robert, which continued
+intermittently all through the earlier years of his reign. It was raging
+from 1088 to 1091, and again from 1093 to 1096, when Robert tired of the
+losing game, pawned his duchy to his brother and went off on the First
+Crusade. Down to this moment William's position had been somewhat
+precarious; with the Norman war generally on hand, feudal rebellion
+always imminent, and Scottish invasions occasionally to be repelled, he
+had no easy life. But he fought through his troubles, conquered
+Cumberland from the Scots (1092), in dealing with his domestic enemies
+used cunning where force failed, and generally got his will in the end.
+His rule was expensive, and he made himself hated by every class of his
+subjects, baronage, clergy and people alike, by his ingenious and
+oppressive taxation. His chosen instrument, a clerical lawyer named
+Ranulf Flambard (q.v.), whom he presently made bishop of Durham, was
+shameless in his methods of twisting feudal or national law to the
+detriment of the taxpayer. William supported him in every device,
+however unjust, with a cynical frankness which was the distinguishing
+trait of his character; for he loved to display openly all the vices and
+meannesses which most men take care to disguise. In dealing with the
+baronage Ranulf and his master extorted excessive and arbitrary
+"reliefs" whenever land passed in succession to heirs. When the church
+was a landholder their conduct was even more unwarrantable; every clerk
+installed in a new preferment was forced to pay a large sum down--which
+in that age was considered a clear case of simony by all conscientious
+men. But in addition the king kept all wealthy posts, such as
+bishoprics and abbacies, vacant for years at a time and appropriated the
+revenue meanwhile.
+
+
+  Anselm.
+
+This policy, when pursued with regard to the archbishopric of
+Canterbury, brought on Rufus the most troublesome of his quarrels. When
+the wise primate Lanfranc, his father's friend, died in 1089, he made no
+appointment till 1093, extracting meanwhile great plunder from the see.
+In a moment of sickness, when his conscience was for a space troubling
+him or his will was weak, he nominated the saintly Anselm (q.v.) to the
+archbishopric. When enthroned the new primate refused to make the
+enormous gift which the king expected from every recipient of
+preferment. Soon after he began to press for leave to hold a national
+synod, and when it was denied him, spoke out boldly on the personal
+vices as well as the immoral policy of the king. From this time William
+and Anselm became open enemies. They fought first upon the question of
+acknowledging Urban II. as pope--for the king, taking advantage of the
+fact that there was an antipope in existence, refused to allow that
+there was any certain and legitimate head of the Western church at the
+moment. Then, after William had reluctantly yielded on this point, the
+far more important question of lay investitures cropped up. The council
+of Clermont (Nov. 1095) had just issued its famous decree to the effect
+that bishops must be chosen by free election, and not invested with
+their spiritual insignia or enfeoffed with their estates by the hands of
+a secular prince. Anselm felt himself obliged to accept this decision,
+and refused to accept his own pallium from William when Urban sent it
+across the sea by the hands of a legate. The king replied by harrying
+him on charges of having failed in his feudal obligation to provide
+well-equipped knights for a Welsh expedition, and imposed ruinous fines
+on him. It was even said that his life was threatened, and he fled to
+Rome in 1097, not to return till his adversary was dead. There was much
+to be said for the theory of the king as to the relations between church
+and state; he was indeed only carrying on in a harsh form his father's
+old policy. But the fact that he was a tyrant and an evil-liver, while
+Anselm was a saint, so much influenced public opinion that William was
+universally regarded as in the wrong, and the sympathy of the laity no
+less than the clergy was with the archbishop. For the remaining three
+years of his life the Red King was considered to be in a state of
+reprobation and at open strife with righteousness.
+
+Yet so far as secular affairs went William seemed prosperous enough.
+Since his brother had pawned the duchy of Normandy to him, so that he
+reigned at Rouen no less than at London, the danger of rebellion was
+almost removed. His foreign policy was successful: he installed a
+nominee of his own, Edgar, the son of Malcolm Canmore, on the throne of
+Scotland (1097); he reconquered Maine, which his brother Robert had
+lost; he made successful war upon King Philip of France. His barons
+subdued much of South Wales, though his own expeditions into North
+Wales, which he had designed to conquer and annex, had a less fortunate
+ending. He dreamed, we are told, of attacking Ireland, even of crowning
+himself king at Paris. But on the 2nd of August 1100 he was suddenly cut
+off in the midst of his sins. While hunting with some of his godless
+companions in the New Forest, he was struck by an arrow, unskilfully
+shot by one of the party. The knight Walter Tyrrell, who was
+persistently accused of being the author of his master's death, as
+persistently denied his responsibility for it; and whether the arrow was
+his or no, it was not alleged that malice guided it. William's
+favourites had all to lose by his death.
+
+
+  Succession of Henry I.
+
+The king's death was unexpected: he was only in his fortieth year, and
+men's minds had not even begun to ponder over the question of who would
+succeed him. The crown of England was left vacant for the boldest
+kinsman to snatch at, if he dared. William had two surviving brothers,
+beside several nephews. Robert's claim seemed the more likely to
+succeed, for not only was he the elder, but England was full of barons
+who desired his accession, and had already taken up arms for him in 1087
+or 1095. But he was far away--being at the moment on his return journey
+from Jerusalem--while on the spot was his brother Henry, an ambitious
+prince, whose previous efforts to secure himself a territorial
+endowment had failed more from ill-luck than from want of enterprise or
+ability. Seeing his opportunity, Henry left his brother's body unburied,
+rode straight off to Winchester with a handful of companions, and seized
+the royal treasure. This and his ready tongue were the main arguments by
+which he convinced the few magnates present, and persuaded them to back
+him, despite the protests of some supporters of Robert. There was hardly
+the semblance of an election, and the earl of Warwick and the chancellor
+William Giffard were almost the only persons of importance on the spot.
+But Henry, once hailed as king, rode hard for London and persuaded
+bishop Maurice to crown him without delay at Westminster, since the
+primate Anselm was absent beyond seas. He certainly lost no time: Rufus
+was shot on Thursday, the 2nd of August--his successor was crowned on
+Sunday the 5th of August! The realm heard almost by the same messengers
+that it had lost one king and that it had gained another.
+
+Henry at once issued a proclamation and charter promising the redress of
+all the grievances with which his brother had afflicted his feudal
+tenants, the clergy and the whole nation. He would keep the ancient laws
+of King Edward, as amended by his father the Conqueror, and give all men
+good justice. These promises he observed more faithfully than Norman
+kings were wont to do; if the pledge was not redeemed in every detail,
+he yet kept England free from anarchy, abandoned the arbitrary and
+unjust taxation of his brother, and set up a government that worked by
+rule and order, not by the fits and starts of tyrannical caprice. He was
+a man of a cold and hard disposition, but full of practical wisdom, and
+conscious that his precarious claim to the crown must be secured by
+winning the confidence of his subjects. Almost the first and quite the
+wisest of his inspirations was to wed a princess of the old English
+line--Edith,[1] the niece of Edgar Ętheling, the child of his sister
+Margaret of Scotland and Malcolm Canmore. The match, though his Norman
+barons sneered at it, gave him the hearts of all his English subjects,
+who supported him with enthusiasm, and not merely (as had been the case
+with Rufus) because they saw that a strong king would oppress them less
+than a factious and turbulent baronage. Henry won much applause at the
+same time by filling up all the bishoprics and abbacies which his
+brother had kept so long vacant, by inviting the exiled Anselm to return
+to England, and by imprisoning William's odious minister Ranulf
+Flambard. He had just time to create a favourable impression by his
+first proceedings, when his brother Robert, who had returned from
+Palestine and resumed possession of Normandy, landed at Portsmouth to
+claim the crown and to rouse his partisans among the English baronage.
+Henry bought him off, before the would-be rebels had time to join him,
+by promising him an annual tribute of 3000 marks and surrendering to him
+all his estates in Normandy (1101). His policy seemed tame and cautious,
+but was entirely justifiable, for within a few months of Robert's
+departure the inevitable feudal rebellion broke out. If the duke and his
+army had been on the spot to support it, things might have gone hardly
+with the king. The rising was led by Robert of Belesme, earl of
+Shrewsbury, a petty tyrant of the most ruffianly type, the terror of the
+Welsh marches. He was backed by his kinsmen and many other barons, but
+proved unable to stand before the king, who was loyally supported by the
+English shire levies. After taking the strong castles of Arundel,
+Tickhill, Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury, Henry forced the rebels to submit.
+He confiscated their estates and drove them out of the realm; they fled
+for the most part to Normandy, to spur on duke Robert to make another
+bid for the English crown. From the broad lands which they forfeited
+Henry made haste to reward his own servants, new men who owed all to him
+and served him faithfully. From them he chose the sheriffs, castellans
+and councillors through whom he administered the realm during the rest
+of his long reign.
+
+This minor official nobility was the strength of the crown, and was
+sharply divided in spirit and ambition from the older feudal aristocracy
+which descended from the original adventurers who had followed William
+the Conqueror. Yet the latter still remained strong enough to constitute
+a danger to the crown whenever it should fall to a king less wary and
+resolute than Henry himself.
+
+Henry was by nature more of an administrator and organizer than of a
+fighting man. He was a competent soldier, but his wish was rather to be
+a strong king at home than a great conqueror abroad. Nevertheless he was
+driven by the logic of events to attack Normandy, for as long as his
+brother reigned there, and as long as many English barons retained great
+holdings on both sides of the Channel and were subjects of the duke as
+well as of the king, intrigues and plots never ceased. The Norman war
+ended in the battle of Tenchebrai (Sept. 28, 1106), where Duke Robert
+was taken prisoner. His brother shut him up in honourable confinement
+for the rest of his life, though otherwise he was not ill-treated. For
+the rest of his reign Henry was ruler of all the old dominions of the
+Conqueror, and none of his subjects could cloak disloyalty by the
+pretence of owing a divided allegiance to two masters. With this he was
+content, and made no great effort to extend his dominions farther; his
+desire was to reign as a true king in England and Normandy, rather than
+to build up a loosely compacted empire around them.
+
+
+  Henry's difficulties with the church.
+
+Throughout the time of Henry's Norman war, he was engaged in a tiresome
+controversy with the primate on the question of lay investitures, the
+continuation of the struggle which had begun in his brother's reign.
+Every English king for five generations had to face the danger from the
+church, no less than the danger from the barons. Anselm had come back
+from Rome confirmed in the theories for which he had contended with
+Rufus--nay, taught to extend them to a further extreme. He now
+maintained not only that it was a sin that kings should invest prelates
+with their spiritual insignia, the pallium, the staff, the ring, but
+claimed that no clerk ought to do homage to the king for the lands of
+his benefice, though he himself seven years before had not scrupled to
+make his oath to his earlier master. He now refused to swear allegiance
+to the new monarch, though he had recalled him and had restored him to
+the possession of his see. He also refused to consecrate Henry's
+nominees to certain bishoprics and abbacies on the ground that they had
+not been chosen by free election by their chapters or their monks. The
+king was loath to take up the quarrel, for he highly respected the
+archbishop; yet he was still more loath to surrender the ancient claims
+and privileges of the crown. Anselm was equally reluctant to force
+matters to an open breach, yet would not shift from his position. There
+followed an interminable series of arguments, interrupted by truces,
+till at last Anselm, at the king's suggestion, went to Rome to see if
+the pope could arrange some _modus vivendi_. Paschal II. for some time
+refused to withdraw from his fixed theory of the relation of church and
+state, and Anselm, in despair, preferred to remain abroad rather than to
+press matters to the rupture that seemed the only logical issue of the
+controversy. But in 1107 the pope consented to a compromise, which
+satisfied the king, and yet was acceptable to the church. Bishops and
+abbots were for the future to be canonically elected by the clergy, and
+were no longer to receive the ring and staff from lay hands. But they
+were to do homage to the king for their lands, and since they thus
+acknowledged him as their temporal lord Henry was content. Moreover, he
+retained in practice, if not in theory, his power to nominate to the
+vacant offices; chapters and monasteries seldom dared to resist the
+pressure which the sovereign could bring to bear upon them in favour of
+the candidate whom he had selected. The arrangement was satisfactory,
+and served as the model for the similar compromise arrived at between
+Pope Calixtus II. and the emperor Henry V. fifteen years later.
+
+From 1107 onward Henry was freed from both the dangers which had
+threatened him in his earlier years, and was free to develop his policy
+as he pleased. He had yet twenty-eight years to reign, for he survived
+to the age of sixty-seven, an age unparalleled by any of his
+predecessors, and by all his successors till Edward I.
+
+
+  Constitutional machinery.
+
+It is to Henry, aided by his great justiciar, Roger, bishop of
+Salisbury, that England owed the institution of the machinery of
+government by which it was to be ruled during the earlier middle ages.
+This may be described as a primitive kind of bureaucracy, which
+gradually developed into a much more complicated system of courts and
+offices. Around the sovereign was his _Curia Regis_ or body of
+councillors, of whom the most important were the justiciar, the
+chancellor and the treasurer, though the feudal officers, the constable
+and marshal, were also to be found there. The bulk of the council,
+however, was composed of knights and clerks selected by the king for
+their administrative or financial ability. The Curia, besides advising
+the king on ordinary matters of state, had two special functions. It
+sat, or certain members of it sat, under the presidency of the king or
+the justiciar, as the supreme court of justice of the realm. In this
+capacity it tried the suits of tenants-in-chief, and all appeals from
+the local courts. But Henry, not contented with this, adopted the custom
+of sending forth certain members of the Curia throughout the realm at
+intervals, to sit in the shire court, along with or in place of the
+sheriff, and to hear and judge all the cases of which the court had
+cognizance. From these itinerant commissioners (justices in eyre)
+descend the modern justices of assize. The sheriff, the original
+president of the shire court, was gradually extruded by them from all
+important business.
+
+But there were other developments of the Curia. The justiciar,
+chancellor and treasurer sat with certain other members of the council
+as the court of exchequer, not only to receive and audit the accounts of
+the royal revenue, but to give legal decisions on all questions
+connected with finance. Twice in every year the sheriffs and other royal
+officials came up to the exchequer court, which originally sat at
+Winchester, with their bags of money and their sheaves of accounts.
+Their figures were subjected to a severe scrutiny, and the law was laid
+down on all points in which the interests of the sheriff and the king,
+or the sheriff and the taxpayer, came into conflict. In this way the
+exchequer grew into a law court of primary importance, instead of
+remaining merely a court of receipt. Though its members were originally
+the same men who sat in the Curia Regis, the character of the question
+to be tried settled the capacity in which they should sit, and two
+separate courts were evolved. (See EXCHEQUER.)
+
+Under the superintendence of the Curia Regis and the exchequer, the
+sheriff still remained the king's factotum in local affairs. He led the
+shire-levies, collected the royal revenues both feudal and non-feudal,
+and presided in the shire-court as judge, till in the course of years
+his functions in that sphere were gradually taken over by the itinerant
+justices. On his fidelity the king had to rely both for military aid in
+times of baronial revolt and for the collection of the money which
+formed the sinews of war. Hence the position was one of the highest
+importance, and Henry's new nobility, the men of ability whom he
+selected and promoted, found their special occupation in holding the
+office of sheriff. It was they who had to see that the shire court, and
+in minor affairs the hundred court, did not allow cases to slip away
+into the jurisdiction of the feudal courts of the baronage.
+
+Henry I. must count not merely as the father of the English bureaucracy,
+but as a fosterer of the municipal independence of the towns. He gave
+charters of a very liberal character to many places, and in especial to
+London, where the citizens were allowed to choose their own sheriff, and
+to deal directly with the exchequer in matters of revenue. He even
+farmed out to them the charge of the taxes of the whole shire of
+Middlesex, outside the city walls. Such a grant was exceptional--though
+Lincoln also seems to have been granted the privilege of dealing
+directly with the exchequer. But in many other smaller towns the first
+grants--the smaller beginnings of autonomy--may be traced back to this
+period (see BOROUGH).
+
+Though Henry was an autocrat, and governed through bureaucratic
+officials who were entirely under his hand, yet a reign of law and order
+such as his was indirectly favourable to the growth of constitutional
+liberty. It was equally favourable to the growth of national unity: it
+was in his time that Norman and English began to melt together:
+intermarriage in all classes became common, and only thirty years after
+his death a contemporary writer could remark that it was hard for any
+man to call himself either Norman or English, so much had blood been
+intermingled.
+
+It is unnecessary to go into the very uninteresting and unimportant
+history of Henry's later years. A long war with France, prosecuted
+without much energy, led to no results, for the French king's attempts
+to stir up rebellions in the name of William the Clito (q.v.), the son
+of Duke Robert, came to an end with that prince's death in 1129. But the
+extension of the English borders in South Wales by the conquests of the
+lords marcher as far as Pembroke and Cardigan deserves a word of notice.
+
+
+  Henry's heir.
+
+The question of the succession was the main thing which occupied the
+mind of the king and the whole nation in Henry's later years. It had a
+real interest for every man in an age when any doubt as to the heir
+meant the outbreak of civil war such as had occurred at the death of the
+Conqueror and of Rufus. There was now a problem of some difficulty to be
+solved. Henry's only son William had been drowned at sea in 1120. He had
+no other child born in wedlock save a daughter, Matilda, who married the
+emperor Henry V., but had no issue by him. On the emperor's decease she
+wedded as her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou (1127), to whom during
+her father's last years she bore two sons. But the succession of a woman
+to the crown was as unfamiliar to English as to Norman ideas, nor did it
+seem natural to either to place a young child on the throne. Moreover,
+Matilda's husband Geoffrey was unpopular among the Normans; the Angevins
+had been the chief enemies of the duchy for several generations, and the
+idea that one of them might become its practical ruler was deeply
+resented. The old king, as was but natural, had determined that his
+daughter should be his successor; he made the great council do homage to
+her in 1126, and always kept her before the eyes of his people as his
+destined heir. But though he had forced or cajoled every leading man in
+England and Normandy to take his oath to serve her, he must have been
+conscious that there was a large chance that such pledges would be
+forgotten at his death. The prejudice against a female heir was strong,
+and there were too many turbulent magnates to whom the anarchy that
+would follow a disputed succession presented temptations which could not
+be resisted.
+
+
+  Matilda, and Stephen.
+
+Henry died suddenly on the 25th of November 1135, while he was on a
+visit to his duchy of Normandy. The moment that his death was reported
+the futility of oaths became apparent. A majority of the Norman barons
+appealed to Theobald, count of Blois, son of the Conqueror's daughter
+Adela, to be their duke, and to save them from the yoke of the hated
+Angevin. His supporters and those of Matilda were soon at blows all
+along the frontier of Normandy. Meanwhile in England another pretender
+had appeared. Stephen, count of Boulogne, the younger brother of
+Theobald, had landed at Dover within a few days of Henry's death,
+determined to make a snatch at the crown, though he had been one of the
+first who had taken the oath to his cousin a few years before. The
+citizens of London welcomed him, but he was not secure of his success
+till by a swift swoop on Winchester he obtained possession of the royal
+treasure--an all-important factor in a crisis, as Henry I. had shown in
+1100. At Winchester he was acknowledged as king by the bishop, his own
+brother Henry of Blois, and by the great justiciar, Roger, bishop of
+Salisbury, and the archbishop, William of Corbeil. The allegiance of
+these prelates was bought by an unwise promise to grant all the demands
+of the church party, which his predecessor had denied, or conceded only
+in part. He would permit free election to all benefices, and free
+legislation by ecclesiastical synods, and would surrender any claims of
+the royal courts to have jurisdiction over clerks or the property of
+clerks. It then remained necessary to buy the baronage, of which only a
+few members had as yet committed themselves to his side. It was done by
+grants of lands and privileges, the first instalment of a never-ending
+crop of ruinous concessions which Stephen continued to make from the day
+of his accession down to the day of his death.
+
+The pretender was crowned at Westminster on the 22nd of December
+1135--less than a month after his uncle's death. No one yet openly
+withstood him, but he was well aware that his position was precarious,
+and that the claims of Matilda would be brought forward ere long by the
+section of the baronage which had not yet got from him all they desired.
+Meanwhile, however, he was encouraged to persevere by the fact that his
+brother Theobald had withdrawn his claim to the duchy of Normandy, and
+retired in his favour. For a space he was to be duke as well as king;
+but this meant merely that he would have two wars, not one, in hand ere
+long. Matilda's adherents were already in the field in Normandy; in
+England their rising was only delayed for a few months.
+
+
+  Civil war.
+
+Stephen, though he had shown some enterprise and capacity in his
+successful snatch at the crown, was a man far below his three
+predecessors on the throne in the matter of perseverance and foresight.
+He was a good fighter, a liberal giver, and a faithful friend, but he
+lacked wisdom, caution and the power to organize. Starting his career as
+a perjurer, it is curious that he was singularly slow to suspect perjury
+in others; he was the most systematically betrayed of all English kings,
+because he was the least suspicious, and the most ready to buy off and
+to forgive rebels. His troubles began in 1136, when sporadic rebellions,
+raised in the name of Matilda, began to appear; they grew steadily
+worse, though Stephen showed no lack of energy, posting about his realm
+with a band of mercenary knights whenever trouble broke out. But in 1138
+the crisis came; the baronage had tried the capacity of their new master
+and found him wanting. The outbreak was now widespread and
+systematic--caused not by the turbulence of a few wild spirits, but by
+the deliberate conspiracy of all who saw their advantage in anarchy.
+Matilda had a few genuine partisans, such as her half-brother Robert,
+earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I., but the large
+majority of those who took arms in her name were ready to sell their
+allegiance to either candidate in return for lands, or grants of rank or
+privilege. A long list of doubly and triply forsworn nobles, led by
+Geoffrey de Mandeville, Aubrey de Vere and Ralph of Chester, made the
+balance of war sway alternately from side to side, as they transferred
+themselves to the camp of the highest bidder. It is hard to trace any
+meaning in the civil war--it was not a contest between the principle of
+hereditary succession and the principle of elective kingship, as might
+be supposed. It was rather, if some explanation must be found for it, a
+strife between the kingly power and feudal anarchy. Unfortunately for
+England the kingly power was in the hands of an incapable holder, and
+feudal anarchy found a plausible mask by adopting the disguise of
+loyalty to the rightful heiress.
+
+The civil war was not Stephen's only trouble; foreign invasion was
+added. David I., king of Scotland, was the uncle of Matilda, and used
+her wrongs as the plea for thrice invading northern England, which he
+ravaged with great cruelty. His most formidable raid was checked by the
+Yorkshire shire levies, at the battle of the Standard (Aug. 22, 1138).
+Yet in the following year he had to be bought off by the grant of all
+Northumberland (save Newcastle and Bamborough) to his son Earl Henry.
+Carlisle and Cumberland were already in his hands. Some years later the
+Scottish prince also got possession of the great "Honour of Lancaster."
+It was not Stephen's fault that the boundary of England did not
+permanently recede from the Tweed and the Solway to the Tyne and the
+Ribble.
+
+But the affairs of the North attracted little attention while the civil
+war was at its height in the South. In 1139 Stephen had wrought himself
+fatal damage by quarrelling with the ecclesiastical bureaucrats, the
+kinsmen and allies of Roger of Salisbury, who had been among his
+earliest adherents. Jealous of their power and their arrogance, and
+doubting their loyalty, he imprisoned them and confiscated their lands.
+This threw the whole church party on to the side of Matilda; even Henry,
+bishop of Winchester, the king's own brother, disowned him and passed
+over to the other side. Moreover, the whole machinery of local
+government in the realm fell out of gear, when the experienced ministers
+who were wont to control it were removed from power.
+
+Matilda had landed in England in the winter of 1139-1140; for a year her
+partisans made steady progress against the king, and on the 2nd of
+February 1141 Stephen was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of
+Lincoln. All England, save the county of Kent and a few isolated castles
+elsewhere, submitted to Matilda. She was hailed as a sovereign by a
+great assembly at Winchester, over which Stephen's own brother Bishop
+Henry presided (April 7, 1141) and entered London in triumph in June. It
+is doubtful whether she would have obtained complete possession of the
+realm if she had played her cards well, for there were too many powerful
+personages who were interested in the perpetuation of the civil war. But
+she certainly did her best to ruin her own chances by showing an unwise
+arrogance, and a determination to resume at once all the powers that her
+father had possessed. When she annulled all the royal acts of the last
+six years, declared charters forfeited and lands confiscated, and began
+to raise heavy and arbitrary taxes, she made the partisans of Stephen
+desperate, and estranged many of her own supporters. A sudden rising of
+the citizens drove her out of London, while she was making preparations
+for her coronation. The party of the imprisoned king rallied under the
+wise guidance of his wife Matilda of Boulogne and his brother Henry, and
+many other of the late deserters adhered to it. Their army drove the
+lately triumphant party out of Winchester, and captured its military
+chief, Robert, earl of Gloucester. So much was his loss felt that his
+sister exchanged him a few months later for King Stephen.
+
+After this the war went on interminably, without complete advantage to
+either side, Stephen for the most part dominating the eastern and
+Matilda the western shires. It was the zenith of the power of the
+baronial anarchists, who moved from camp to camp with shameless
+rapidity, wresting from one or other of the two rival sovereigns some
+royal castle, or some dangerous grant of financial or judicial rights,
+at each change of allegiance. The kingdom was in the desperate state
+described in the last melancholy pages of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_,
+when life and property were nowhere safe from the objectless ferocity of
+feudal tyrants--when "every shire was full of castles and every castle
+filled with devils and evil men," and the people murmured that "Christ
+and his saints slept."
+
+Such was England's fate till 1153, when Matilda had retired from the
+strife in favour of her son, Henry of Anjou, and Stephen was grown an
+old man, and had just lost his heir, Eustace, to whom he had desired to
+pass on the crown. Both parties were exhausted, both were sick of the
+incessant treachery of their more unscrupulous barons, and at last they
+came to the compromise of Wallingford (October 1153), by which it was
+agreed that Stephen should reign for the remainder of his life, but that
+on his death the crown should pass to Henry. Both sides promised to lay
+down their arms, to dismiss their mercenaries, and to acquiesce in the
+destruction of unlicensed castles, of which it is said, with no very
+great exaggeration, that there were at the moment over 1000 in the
+realm. Henry then returned to Normandy, of which his mother had been in
+possession since 1145, while Stephen turned his small remaining strength
+to the weary task of endeavouring to restore the foundations of law and
+order. But he had accomplished little when he died in October 1154. The
+task of reconstruction was to be left to Henry of Anjou: his predecessor
+was only remembered as an example of the evil that may be done by a weak
+man who has been reckless enough to seize a throne which he is incapable
+of defending. England has had many worse kings, but never one who
+wrought her more harm. If his successor had been like him, feudal
+anarchy might have become as permanent in England as in Poland.
+
+
+  Henry II.
+
+Fortunately the young king to whom Stephen's battered crown now fell was
+energetic and capable, if somewhat self-willed and hasty. He was
+inferior in caution and self-control to his grandfather Henry I., though
+he resembled him in his love of strong and systematic governance. From
+the point of view of his English subjects his main achievement was that
+he restored in almost every detail the well-organized bureaucracy which
+his ancestor had created, and with it the law and order that had
+disappeared during Stephen's unhappy reign. But there was this essential
+difference between the position of the two Henries, that the elder
+aspired to be no more than king of England and duke of Normandy, while
+the younger strove all his life for an imperial position in western
+Europe. Such an ambition was almost forced upon him by the consequences
+of his descent and his marriage. Besides his grandfather's Anglo-Norman
+inheritance, he had received from his father Geoffrey the counties of
+Anjou and Touraine, and the predominance in the valley of the Lower
+Loire. But it was his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, two years before
+his accession to the English throne, which gave him the right to dream
+of greatness such as his Norman forbears had never enjoyed. This lady,
+the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, brought to her second husband
+the whole of the lands from Poitou to the Pyrenees, the accumulated
+gains of many warlike ancestors. In wealth and fighting strength the
+duchy of Aquitaine was a full third of France. Added to Anjou and
+Normandy it made a realm far more important than England. Hence it came
+that Henry's ambitions and interests were continental more than English.
+Unlike his grandfather he dwelt for the greater part of his time beyond
+seas. It must be remembered, too, that his youth had been spent abroad,
+and that England only came to him when he was already a grown man. The
+concerns of his island realm were a matter of high importance to him,
+but only formed a part of his cares. Essentially he was an Angevin,
+neither a Norman nor an Englishman, and his primary ambition was to make
+the house of Anjou supreme in France. Nor did this seem impossible; he
+owned a far broader and wealthier domain beyond the Channel than did his
+nominal suzerain King Louis VII., and--what was of more importance--he
+far excelled that prince both in vigour and in capacity.
+
+On succeeding to the English crown, however, he came over at once to
+take possession of the realm, and abode there for over a year,
+displaying the most restless energy in setting to rights the governance
+of the realm. He expelled all Stephen's mercenaries, took back into his
+hands the royal lands and castles which his predecessor had granted
+away, and destroyed hundreds of the "adulterine" castles which the
+barons and knights had built without leave during the years of the
+anarchy. Hardly a single magnate dared to oppose him--Bridgnorth, now a
+castle of the Mortimers, was the only place which he had to take by
+force. His next care was to restore the bureaucracy by which Henry I.
+had been wont to govern. He handed over the exchequer to Nigel, bishop
+of Ely, the nephew of the old justiciar Roger of Salisbury, and the heir
+of his traditions. His chancellor was a young clerk, Thomas Becket, who
+was recommended to him by archbishop Theobald as the most capable
+official in the realm. A short experience of his work convinced the king
+that his merits had not been exaggerated. He proved a zealous and
+capable minister, and such a strong exponent of the claims of the crown
+that no one could have foreseen the later developments by which he was
+to become their greatest enemy.
+
+The machine of government was beginning to work in a satisfactory
+fashion, and the realm was already settling down into order, when Henry
+was called abroad by a rebellion raised in Anjou by his brother
+Geoffrey--the first of the innumerable dynastic troubles abroad which
+continued throughout his reign to distract his attention from his duties
+as an English king. He did not return for fifteen months; but when he
+did reappear it was to complete the work which he had begun in 1155, to
+extort from the greater barons the last of the royal fortresses which
+still remained in their hands, and to restore the northern boundaries of
+the realm. Malcolm IV., the young king of Scotland, was compelled to
+give up the earldoms of Northumberland and Cumberland, which his father
+Henry had received from Stephen. He received instead only the earldom of
+Huntingdon, too far from the border to be a dangerous possession, to
+which he had a hereditary right as descending from Earl Waltheof. He did
+homage to the king of England, and actually followed him with a great
+retinue on his next continental expedition. In the same year (1157)
+Henry made an expedition into North Wales, and forced its prince Owen to
+become his vassal, not without some fighting, in which the English army
+received several sharp checks at the commencement of the campaign.
+
+Yet once more Henry's stay on the English side of the Channel was but
+for a year. In 1158 he again departed to plunge into schemes of
+continental conquest. This time it was an attempt to annex the great
+county of Toulouse, and so to carry the borders of Aquitaine to the
+Mediterranean, which distracted him. Naturally Louis of France was
+unwilling to see his great vassal striding all across his realm, and did
+what he could to hinder him. Into the endless skirmishes and
+negotiations which followed the raising of the question of Toulouse it
+would be fruitless to enter. Henry did not achieve his purpose, indeed
+he seems to have failed to use his strength to its best advantage, and
+allowed himself to be bought off by a futile marriage treaty by which
+his eldest son was to marry the French king's daughter (1160). This was
+to be but the first of many disappointments in this direction; there was
+apparently some fatal scruple, both in Henry's own mind and in that of
+his continental subjects, as to pressing their suzerain too hard. But it
+must also be remembered that a feudal army was an inefficient weapon for
+long wars, and that the mercenaries, by whom alone it could be replaced,
+were both expensive and untrustworthy. Henry developed as far as he was
+able the system of "scutage" (q.v.) which his grandfather had apparently
+invented; by this the vassal compounded for his forty days' personal
+service by paying money, with which the king could hire professional
+soldiers. But even with this help he could never keep a large enough
+army together.
+
+
+  Quarrel with the church.
+
+  Becket.
+
+Meanwhile England, though somewhat heavily taxed, was at least enjoying
+quiet and strong governance. There is every sign that Henry's early
+years were a time of returning prosperity. But there was also much
+friction between the crown and its subjects. The more turbulent part of
+the baronage, looking back to the boisterous times of Stephen with
+regret, was reserving itself for a favourable opportunity. The danger of
+feudal rebellion was not yet past, as was to be shown ten years later.
+The towns did not find Henry an easy master. He took away from London
+some of the exceptional privileges which his grandfather had granted,
+such as the free election of sheriffs of Middlesex, and the right of
+farming the shire at a fixed rent. He asserted his power to raise
+"tallages"--arbitrary taxation--from the citizens on occasion. Yet he
+left the foundations of municipal liberty untouched, and he was fairly
+liberal in granting charters which contained moderate privileges to
+smaller towns. His most difficult task, however, was to come to a
+settlement with the Church. The lavish grants of Stephen had made an end
+of the old authority which the Conqueror and Henry I. had exercised over
+the clergy. Their successor was well aware of the fact, and was resolved
+to put back the clock, so far as it was in his power. It was not,
+however, on the old problems of free election, of lay investiture, that
+his quarrel with the clerical body broke out, but on the comparatively
+new question of the conflicting claims of ecclesiastical and secular
+courts. The separate tribunals of the church, whose erection William I.
+had favoured, had been developing in power ever since, and had begun to
+encroach on the sphere of the courts of the state. This was more than
+ever the case since Stephen had formally granted them jurisdiction over
+all suits concerning clerics and clerical property. During the first few
+years of his reign Henry had already been in collision with the
+ecclesiastical authorities over several such cases; he had chafed at
+seeing two clerks accused of murder and blackmailing claimed by and
+acquitted in the church courts; and most of all at the frequency of
+unlicensed appeals to Rome--a flagrant breach of one of the three rules
+laid down by William the Conqueror. Being comparatively at leisure after
+the pacification with France, he resolved to turn his whole attention to
+the arrangement of a new _modus vivendi_ with the church. As a
+preliminary move he appointed his able chancellor Thomas Becket to the
+archbishopric of Canterbury, which fell vacant in 1162. This was the
+greatest mistake of his reign. Becket was one of those men who, without
+being either hypocrites or consciously ambitious, live only to magnify
+their office. While chancellor he was the most zealous servant of the
+crown, and had seemed rather secular than clerical in his habits and his
+outlook on life. But no sooner had he been promoted to the archbishopric
+than he put away his former manners, became the most formal and austere
+of men, and set himself to be the champion of the church party in all
+its claims, reasonable or unreasonable, against the state. The king's
+astonishment was even greater than his indignation when he saw the late
+chancellor setting himself to oppose him in all things. Their first
+quarrel was about a proposed change in some details of taxation, which
+seems to have had no specially ecclesiastical bearing at all. But Becket
+vehemently opposed it, and got so much support when the great council
+met at Woodstock that Henry withdrew his schemes. This was only a
+preliminary skirmish; the main battle opened in the following year, when
+the king, quite aware that he must for the future look on Thomas as his
+enemy, brought forward the famous _Constitutions of Clarendon_, of which
+the main purport was to assert the jurisdiction of the state over
+clerical offenders by a rather complicated procedure, while other
+clauses provided that appeals to Rome must not be made without the
+king's leave, that suits about land or the presentation to benefices, in
+which clerics were concerned, should be tried before the royal courts,
+and that bishops should not quit the realm unless they had obtained
+permission to do so from the king (see CLARENDON, CONSTITUTIONS OF).
+Somewhat to the king's surprise, Becket yielded for a moment to his
+pressure, and declared his assent to the constitutions. But he had no
+sooner left the court than he proclaimed that he had grievously sinned
+in giving way, suspended himself from his archiepiscopal functions, and
+wrote to the pope to beg for pardon and absolution. He then made a
+clandestine attempt to escape from the realm, but was detected on the
+seashore and forced to return.
+
+Incensed with Becket for his repudiation of his original submission,
+Henry proceeded to open a campaign of lawsuits against him, in order to
+force him to plead in secular courts. He also took the very mean step of
+declaring that he should call him to account for all the moneys that had
+passed through his hands when he was chancellor, though Becket had been
+given a quittance for them when he resigned the office more than two
+years before. The business came up at the council of Northampton
+(October 1164), when the archbishop was tried for refusing to recognize
+the jurisdiction of the king's courts, and declared to have forfeited
+his movable goods. The sentence was passed by the lay members of the
+Curia Regis alone, the bishops having been forbidden to sit, and
+threatened with excommunication if they did so, by the accused primate.
+When Becket was visited by the justiciar who came to rehearse the
+judgment, he started to his feet, refused to listen to a word, declared
+his repudiation of all lay courts and left the hall. That same night he
+made a second attempt to escape from England and this time succeeded in
+getting off to Flanders. From thence he fled to the court of the pope,
+where he received less support than he had expected. Alexander III.
+privately approved of all that he had done, and regarded him as the
+champion of the Church, but he did not wish to quarrel with King Henry.
+He had lately been driven from Rome by the emperor Frederick I., who had
+installed an antipope in his place, and had been forced to retire to
+France. If he sided with Becket and thundered against his persecutor,
+there was small doubt that the king of England would adhere to the
+schism. Accordingly he endeavoured to temporize and to avoid a rupture,
+to the archbishop's great disgust. But since he also declared the
+Constitutions of Clarendon uncanonical and invalid, Henry was equally
+offended, and opened negotiations with the emperor and the antipope.
+This conduct forced Alexander's hand, and he gave Becket leave to
+excommunicate his enemies. The exile, who had taken refuge in a French
+abbey, placed the justiciar and six other of the king's chief
+councillors under the ban of the Church, and intimated that he should
+add Henry himself to the list unless he showed speedy signs of
+repentance (April 1166).
+
+Thus the quarrel had come to a head. Church and State were at open war.
+Henry soon found that Becket's threats had more effect than he liked.
+Many of the English clergy were naturally on the side of the primate in
+a dispute which touched their loyalty to the Church and their class
+feeling. Several bishops declared to the king that, since his ministers
+had been duly excommunicated, they did not see how they could avoid
+regarding them as men placed outside the pale of Christendom.
+Fortunately the pope interfered for a moment to lighten the friction;
+being threatened with a new invasion by the emperor Frederick, he
+suspended the sentences and sent legates to patch up a peace. They
+failed, for neither the king nor the archbishop would give way. At this
+juncture Henry was desirous of getting his eldest son and namesake
+crowned as his colleague, the best mode that he could devise for
+avoiding the dangers of a disputed succession at his death. He induced
+the archbishop of York, assisted by the bishops of London and Salisbury,
+to perform the ceremony. This was a clear invasion of the ancient rights
+of the primate, and Becket took it more to heart than any other of his
+grievances.
+
+Yet the next move in the struggle was a hollow reconciliation between
+the combatants--a most inexplicable act on both sides. The king offered
+to allow Becket to return from exile, and to restore him to his
+possessions, without exacting from him any promise of submission, or
+even a pledge that he would not reopen the dispute on his return.
+Apparently he had made a wrong interpretation of the primate's mental
+attitude, and thought him desirous of a truce, if not ready for a
+compromise. He had wholly misjudged the situation; Becket made neither
+promises nor threats, but three weeks after he reached Canterbury
+publicly excommunicated the bishops of London and Salisbury for the part
+that they had taken in the coronation of the young king, and suspended
+from their functions the other prelates who had been present at the
+ceremony. He then proceeded to excommunicate a number of his minor lay
+enemies.
+
+
+  Becket's murder.
+
+The news was carried overseas to Henry, who was then in Normandy. It
+roused one of the fits of wild rage to which he was not unfrequently
+liable; he burst out into ejaculations of wrath, and cursed "the
+cowardly idle servants who suffered their master to be made the
+laughing-stock of a low-born priest." Among those who stood about him
+were four knights, some of whom had personal grudges against Becket, and
+all of whom were reckless ruffians, who were eager to win their master's
+favour by fair means or foul. They crossed the Channel with astonishing
+speed; two days after the king's outburst they stood before Becket at
+Canterbury and threatened him with death unless he should remove the
+excommunications and submit to his master. The archbishop answered with
+words as scornful as their own, and took his way to the minster to
+attend vespers. The knights went out to seek their weapons, and when
+armed followed him into the north transept, where they fell upon him and
+brutally slew him with many sword-strokes (December 29, 1170). Thomas
+had been given time to fly, and his followers had endeavoured to
+persuade him to do so. It seems that he deliberately courted martyrdom,
+anxious apparently that his death should deal the king the bitterest
+blow that it was in his power to inflict (see BECKET).
+
+
+  Its results.
+
+Nothing could have put Henry in such an evil plight; the whole world
+held him responsible for the murder, and he was forced to buy pardon for
+it by surrendering many of the advantages over the Church which he had
+hoped to gain by enforcing the Constitutions of Clarendon. Especially
+the immunity of clerical offenders from the jurisdiction of lay courts
+had to be conceded; for the rest of the middle ages the clerk guilty of
+theft or assault, riot or murder, could plead his orders, and escape
+from the harsh justice of the king's officers to the milder penalties of
+the bishop's tribunal. "Benefit of clergy" became an intolerable
+anomaly, all the more so because the privilege was extended in practice
+not only to all persons actually in minor orders, but to all who claimed
+them; any criminal who could read had a fair chance of being reckoned a
+clerk. Another concession which Henry was forced to make was that the
+appeals to Rome of litigants in ecclesiastical suits should be freely
+permitted, provided that they made an oath that they were not
+contemplating any wrong to the English crown or the English church, a
+sufficiently easy condition. Such appeals became, and remained,
+innumerable and vexatious. Pope Alexander also extorted from the king a
+pledge that he would relinquish any customs prejudicial to the rights of
+the Church which had been introduced since his accession. To the pope
+this meant that the Constitutions of Clarendon were disavowed; to the
+king, who maintained that they were in the main a mere restatement of
+the customs of William I., it bore no such general interpretation. The
+points were fought out in detail, and not settled for many years.
+Practically it became the rule to regard suits regarding land, or
+presentations to benefices, as pertaining to the king's court, while
+those regarding probate, marriage and divorce fell to the ecclesiastical
+tribunal. The question of election to bishoprics and abbacies went back
+to the stage which it had reached in the time of Henry I.; the choice
+was made in canonical form, by the chapters or the monasteries, but the
+king's recommendation was a primary factor in that choice. When the
+electors disregarded it, as was sometimes the case, there was friction;
+a weak king was sometimes overruled; a strong one generally got his way
+in the end.
+
+Becket's death, then, gave a qualified triumph to the church party, and
+he was rightly regarded as the successful champion of his caste. Hence
+they held his death in grateful remembrance; the pope canonized him in
+1173, and more churches were dedicated to him during the next two
+centuries than to any other English saint. In the eyes of most men his
+martyrdom had put the king so much in the wrong that the obstinacy and
+provocative conduct which had brought it about passed out of memory. His
+life of ostentatious austerity, and the courage with which he met his
+death, had caused all his faults to be forgotten. Henry himself felt so
+much the invidious position in which he was placed that even after
+making his submission to the pope's legates at Avranches in 1172, he
+thought it necessary to do penance before Becket's tomb in 1174, on
+which occasion he allowed himself to be publicly scourged by the monks
+of Canterbury, who inflicted on him three cuts apiece.
+
+Between the outbreak of the king's quarrel with Becket at the council of
+Woodstock and the compromise of Avranches no less than ten years had
+elapsed--the best years of Henry's manhood. During this period his
+struggle with the Church had been but one of his distractions. His
+policy of imperial aggrandisement had been in progress. In 1163 he had
+completed the conquest of South Wales; the marcher lords were now in
+possession of the greater part of the land; the surviving Welsh princes
+did homage for the rest. In 1166 Henry got practical possession of the
+duchy of Brittany, the only remaining large district of western France
+which was not already in his hands. Conan, the last prince of the old
+Breton house, recognized him as his lord, and gave the hand of his
+heiress Constance to Geoffrey, the king's third son. When the count died
+in 1171 Henry did not transfer the administration of the land to the
+young pair, who were still but children, but retained it for himself,
+and clung to it jealously long after his son came of age. Intermittent
+wars with France during these years were of small importance; Henry
+never pushed his suzerain to extremity. But the Angevin dominions were
+extended in a new direction, where no English king had yet made his
+power felt.
+
+
+  Conquest of Ireland.
+
+The distressful island of Ireland was at this moment enjoying the
+anarchy which had reigned therein since the dawn of history. Its state
+had grown even more unhappy than before since the Danish invasions of
+the 10th century, which had not welded the native kingdoms into unity
+by pressure from without--as had been the case in England--but had
+simply complicated affairs, by setting up two or three alien
+principalities on the coastline. As in England, the vikings had
+destroyed much of the old civilization; but they had neither succeeded
+in occupying the whole country nor had they been absorbed by the
+natives. The state of the island was much like that of England in the
+days of the Heptarchy: occasionally a "High King" succeeded in forcing
+his rivals into a precarious submission; more usually there was not even
+a pretence of a central authority in the island, and the annals of
+objectless tribal wars formed its sole history. King Henry's eyes had
+been fixed on the faction-ridden land since the first years of his
+reign. As early as 1155 he had asked and obtained the approval of Pope
+Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever sat upon the papal throne, for
+a scheme for the conquest of Ireland. The Holy See had always regarded
+with distaste the existence in the West of a nation who repudiated the
+Roman obedience, and lived in schismatical independence, under local
+ecclesiastical customs which dated back to the 5th century, and had
+never been brought into line with those of the rest of Christendom.
+Hence it was natural to sanction an invasion which might bring the Irish
+within the fold. But Henry made no endeavour for many years to utilize
+the papal grant of Ireland, which seems to have been made under the
+preposterous "Donation of Constantine," the forged document which gave
+the bishop of Rome authority over all islands. It was conveniently
+forgotten that Ireland had never been in the Roman empire, and so had
+not even been Constantine's to give away.
+
+Not till 1168, thirteen years after the agreement with Pope Adrian, did
+the interference of the English king in Ireland actually begin. Even
+then he did not take the conquest in hand himself, but merely sanctioned
+a private adventure of some of his subjects. Dermot MacMorrough, king of
+Leinster, an unquiet Irish prince who for good reasons had been expelled
+by his neighbours, came to Henry's court in Normandy, proffering his
+allegiance in return for restoration to his lost dominions. The quarrel
+with Becket, and the French war, were both distracting the English king
+at the moment. He could not spare attention for the matter, but gave
+Dermot leave to enlist auxiliaries among the turbulent barons of the
+South Welsh Marches. The Irish exile enlisted first the services of
+Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen, two half-brothers, both noted
+fighting men, and afterwards those of Richard de Clare, earl of
+Pembroke, an ambitious and impecunious magnate of broken fortunes. The
+two barons were promised lands, the earl a greater bribe--the hand of
+Dermot's only daughter Eva and the inheritance of the kingdom of
+Leinster. Fitzgerald and Fitzstephen crossed to Ireland in 1169 with a
+mere handful of followers. But they achieved victories of an almost
+incredible completeness over Dermot's enemies. The undisciplined hordes
+of the king of Ossory and the Danes of Wexford could not stand before
+the Anglo-Norman tactics--the charge of the knights and the arrow-flight
+of the archers, skilfully combined by the adventurous invaders. Dermot
+was triumphant, and sent for more auxiliaries, aspiring to evict Roderic
+O'Connor of Connaught from the precarious throne of High King of
+Ireland. In 1170 the earl of Pembroke came over with a larger force,
+celebrated his marriage with Dermot's daughter, and commenced a series
+of conquests. He took Waterford and Dublin from the Danes, and scattered
+the hosts of the native princes. Early in the next spring Dermot died,
+and Earl Richard, in virtue of his marriage, claimed the kingship of
+Leinster. He held his own, despite the assaults of a great army gathered
+by Roderic the High King, and of a viking fleet which came to help the
+conquered jarls of Waterford and Dublin. At this moment King Henry
+thought it necessary to interfere; if he let more time slip away, Earl
+Richard would become a powerful king and forget his English allegiance.
+Accordingly, with a large army at his back, he landed at Waterford in
+1171 and marched on Dublin. Richard did him homage for Leinster,
+engaging to hold it as a palatine earldom, and not to claim the name or
+rights of a king. The other adventurers followed his example, as did,
+after an interval, most of the native Irish princes. Only Roderic of
+Connaught held aloof in his western solitudes, asserting his
+independence. The clergy, almost without a murmur, submitted themselves
+to the Roman Church.
+
+Such was the first conquest of Ireland, a conquest too facile to be
+secure. Four years later it appeared to be completed by the submission
+of the king of Connaught, who did homage like the rest of the island
+chiefs. But their oaths were as easily broken as made, and the real
+subjection of the island was not to be completed for 400 years. What
+happened was that the Anglo-Norman invaders pushed gradually west,
+occupying the best of the land and holding it down by castles, but
+leaving the profitless bogs and mountains to the local princes. The
+king's writ only ran in and about Dublin and a few other harbour
+fortresses. Inland, the intruding barons and the Irish chiefs fought
+perpetually, with varying fortunes. The conquest hardly touched central
+and western Ulster, and left half Connaught unsubdued: even in the
+immediate vicinity of Dublin the tribes of the Wicklow Hills were never
+properly tamed. The English conquest was incomplete; it failed to
+introduce either unity or strong governance. After a century and a half
+it began to recede rather than to advance. Many of the districts which
+had been overrun in the time of the Angevin kings were lost; many of the
+Anglo-Norman families intermarried with and became absorbed by the
+Irish; they grew as careless of their allegiance to the crown as any of
+the native chiefs. The "Lordship of Ireland" was never a reality till
+the times of the Tudors. But as long as Henry II. lived this could not
+have been foreseen. The first generation of the conquerors pushed their
+advance with such vigour that it seemed likely that they would complete
+the adventure. (See IRELAND: _History_.)
+
+
+  Rebellion of Henry's sons.
+
+It was in 1173, the year after his return from Ireland and his
+submission to the papal legates at Avranches, that King Henry became
+involved in the first of a series of troubles which were to pursue him
+for the rest of his life--the rebellions of his graceless sons. His wife
+Eleanor of Aquitaine had borne him many children. Henry, the eldest
+surviving son, had already been crowned in 1170 as his father's
+colleague and successor; not only he, but Richard the second, and
+Geoffrey the third son, were now old enough to chafe against the
+restraints imposed upon them by an imperious and strong-willed father.
+The old king very naturally preferred to keep his dominions united under
+his own immediate government, but he had designated his eldest son as
+his successor in England and Normandy, while Richard was to have his
+mother's heritage of Aquitaine, and Geoffrey's wife's dowry, the duchy
+of Brittany, was due to him, now that he had reached the verge of
+manhood. The princes were shamelessly eager to enter on their
+inheritance, the king was loath to understand that by conferring a
+titular sovereignty on his sons he had given them a sort of right to
+expect some share of real power. Their grudge against their father was
+sedulously fostered by their mother Eleanor, a clever and revengeful
+woman, who could never forgive her husband for keeping her in the
+background in political matters and insulting her by his frequent
+amours. Her old subjects in Aquitaine were secretly encouraged by her to
+follow her son Richard against his father, whom the barons of the south
+always regarded as an alien and an intruder. The Bretons were equally
+willing to rise in the name of Geoffrey and Constance against the
+guardian who was keeping their prince too long waiting for his
+inheritance. In England the younger Henry had built himself up a party
+among the more turbulent section of the baronage, who remembered with
+regret and longing the carnival of licence which their fathers had
+enjoyed under King Stephen. Secret agreements had also been made with
+the kings of France and Scotland, who were eager to take advantage of
+the troubles which were about to break out.
+
+In 1173 the plot was complete, and Henry's three elder sons all took
+arms against him, collecting Norman, Breton and Gascon rebels in great
+numbers, and being backed by a French army. At the same moment the king
+of Scots invaded Northumberland, and the earls of Norfolk, Chester and
+Leicester rose in the name of the younger Henry. This was in all
+essentials a feudal rebellion of the old type. The English barons were
+simply desirous of getting rid of the strong and effective governance of
+the king, and the alleged wrongs of his sons were an empty excuse. For
+precisely the same reason all classes in England, save the more
+turbulent section of the baronage, remained faithful to the elder king.
+The bureaucracy, the minor landholders, the towns, and the clergy
+refused to join in the rising, and lent their aid for its suppression,
+because they were unwilling to see anarchy recommence. Hence, though the
+rebellious princes made head for a time against their father abroad, the
+insurrection of their partisans in England was suppressed without much
+difficulty. The justiciar, Richard de Lucy, routed the army of the earl
+of Leicester at Fornham in Suffolk, the castles of the rebel earls were
+subdued one after another, and William of Scotland was surprised and
+captured by a force of northern loyalists while he was besieging Alnwick
+(1173-1174). The war lingered on for a space on the continent; but Henry
+raised the siege of Rouen, which was being attacked by his eldest son
+and the king of France, captured most of Richard's castles in Poitou,
+and then received the submission of his undutiful children. Showing
+considerable magnanimity, he promised to grant to each of them half the
+revenues of the lands in which they were his destined heirs, and a
+certain number of castles to hold as their own. Their allies fared less
+well; the rebel earls were subjected to heavy fines, and their
+strongholds were demolished. The king of Scots was forced to buy his
+liberty by doing homage to Henry for the whole of his kingdom. Queen
+Eleanor, whom her husband regarded as responsible for the whole
+rebellion, was placed in a sort of honourable captivity, or retirement,
+and denied her royal state.
+
+Henry appeared completely triumphant; but the fourteen years which he
+had yet to live were for the most part to be times of trouble and
+frustrated hopes. He was growing old; the indomitable energy of his
+early career was beginning to slacken; his dreams of extended empire
+were vanishing. In the last period of his life he was more set on
+defending what he already enjoyed, and perfecting the details of
+administration in his realms, than on taking new adventures in hand.
+Probably the consciousness that his dominions would be broken up among
+his sons after his death had a disheartening effect upon him. At any
+rate his later years bear a considerable resemblance to the
+corresponding period of his grandfather's reign. The machinery of
+government which the one had sketched out the other completed. Under
+Henry II. the circuits of the itinerant justices became regular instead
+of intermittent; the judicial functions of the Curia Regis were
+delegated to a permanent committee of that body which took form as the
+court of king's bench (_Curia Regis in Banco_). The sheriffs were kept
+very tightly in hand, and under incessant supervision; once in 1170
+nearly the whole body of them were dismissed for misuse of their office.
+The shire levies which had served the king so well against the feudal
+rebels of 1173 were reorganized, with uniformity of weapons and armour,
+by the _Assize of Arms_ of 1181. There was also a considerable amount of
+new legislation with the object of protecting the minor subjects of the
+crown, and the system of trial by jurors was advanced to the detriment
+of the absurd old practices of trial by ordeal and trial by wager of
+battle. The 13th-century jury was a rough and primitive institution,
+which acted at once as accuser, witness and judge--but it was at any
+rate preferable to the chances of the red-hot iron, or the club of the
+duellist.
+
+The best proof that King Henry's orderly if autocratic régime was
+appreciated at its true value by his English subjects, is that when the
+second series of rebellions raised by his undutiful sons began in 1182,
+there was no stir whatever in England, though in Normandy, Brittany and
+Aquitaine the barons rose in full force to support the young princes,
+whose success would mean the triumph of particularism and the
+destruction of the Angevin empire. Among the many troubles which broke
+down King Henry's strong will and great bodily vigour in those unhappy
+years, rebellion in England was not one. For this reason he was almost
+constantly abroad, leaving the administration of the one loyal section
+of his realm to his great justiciar. Hence the story of the unnatural
+war between father and sons has no part in English history. It is but
+necessary to note that the younger Henry died in 1183, that Geoffrey
+perished by accident at a tournament in 1186, and that in 1189, when the
+old king's strength finally gave out, it was Richard who was leading the
+rebellion, to which John, the youngest and least worthy of the four
+undutiful sons, was giving secret countenance. It was the discovery of
+the treachery of this one child whom he had deemed faithful, and loved
+over well, that broke Henry's heart. "Let things go as they will; I have
+nothing to care for in the world now," he murmured on his death-bed, and
+turned his face to the wall to breathe his last.
+
+
+  Richard I.
+
+The death of the younger Henry had made Richard heir to all his father's
+lands from the Tweed to the Bidassoa save Brittany, which had fallen to
+Arthur, the infant son of the unlucky Geoffrey. John, the new king's
+only surviving brother, had been declared "Lord of Ireland" by his
+father in 1185, but Henry had been forced to remove him for persistent
+misconduct, and had left him nothing more than a titular sovereignty in
+the newly conquered island. In this Richard confirmed him at his
+accession, and gave him a more tangible endowment by allowing him to
+marry Isabella, the heiress of the earldom of Gloucester, and by
+bestowing on him the honour of Lancaster and the shires of Derby, Devon,
+Cornwall and Somerset. The gift was over-liberal and the recipient was
+thankless; but John was distinctly treated as a vassal, not granted the
+position of an independent sovereign.
+
+Of all the medieval kings of England, Richard I. (known as Coeur de
+Lion) cared least for his realm on the English side of the Channel, and
+spent least time within it. Though he chanced to have been born in
+Oxford, he was far more of a foreigner than his father; his soul was
+that of a south French baron, not that of an English king. Indeed he
+looked upon England more as a rich area for taxation than as the centre
+of a possible empire. His ambitions were continental: so far as he had a
+policy at all it was Angevin--he would gladly have increased his
+dominions on the side of the upper Loire and Garonne, and was set on
+keeping in check the young king of France, Philip Augustus, though the
+latter had been his ally during his long struggle with his father.
+Naturally the policy of Richard as a newly crowned king was bound to
+differ from that which he had pursued as a rebellious prince. As regards
+his personal character he has been described, not without truth, as a
+typical man of his time and nothing more. He was at heart a chivalrous
+adventurer delighting in war for war's sake; he was not destitute of a
+conscience--his undutiful conduct to his father sat heavily on his soul
+when that father was once dead; he had a strong sense of knightly honour
+and a certain magnanimity of soul in times of crisis; but he was harsh,
+thriftless, often cruel, generally lacking in firmness and continuity of
+purpose, always careless of his subjects' welfare when it interfered
+with his pleasure or his ambitions of the moment. If he had stayed long
+in England he would have made himself hated; but he was nearly always
+absent; it was only as a reckless and spasmodic extorter of taxation,
+not as a personal tyrant, that he was known on the English side of the
+Channel.
+
+
+  The Crusade.
+
+At the opening of his reign Richard had one all-engrossing desire; he
+was set on going forth to the Crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem
+which had been proclaimed in 1187, partly from chivalrous instincts,
+partly as a penance for his misconduct to his father. He visited England
+in 1189 only in order to be crowned, and to raise as much money for the
+expedition as he could procure. He obtained enormous sums, by the most
+unwise and iniquitous expedients, mainly by selling to any buyer that he
+could find valuable pieces of crown property, high offices and dangerous
+rights and privileges. The king of Scotland bought for 15,000 marks a
+release from the homage to the English crown which had been imposed upon
+him by Henry II. The chancellorship, one of the two chief offices in
+the realm, was sold to William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, for £3000,
+though he was well known as a tactless, arrogant and incapable person.
+The earldom of Northumberland, with palatine rights, was bought by Hugh
+Puiset, bishop of Durham. Countless other instances of unwise bargains
+could be quoted. Having raised every penny that he could procure by
+legal or illegal means, Richard crossed the Channel, and embarked at
+Marseilles with a great army on the 7th of August 1190. The only
+security which he had for the safety of his dominions in his absence was
+that his most dangerous neighbour, the king of France, was also setting
+out on the Crusade, and that his brother John, whose shifty and
+treacherous character gave sure promise of trouble, enjoyed a
+well-merited unpopularity both in England and in the continental
+dominions of the crown.
+
+Richard's crusading exploits have no connexion with the history of
+England. He showed himself a good knight and a capable general--the
+capture of Acre and the victory of Arsuf were highly to his credit as a
+soldier. But he quarrelled with all the other princes of the Crusade,
+and showed himself as lacking in tact and diplomatic ability as he was
+full of military capacity. The king of France departed in wrath, to
+raise trouble at home; the army gradually melted away, the prospect of
+recovering Jerusalem disappeared, and finally Richard must be reckoned
+fortunate in that he obtained from Sultan Saladin a peace, by which the
+coastland of Palestine was preserved for the Christians, while the Holy
+City and the inland was sacrificed (Sept. 2, 1192). While returning to
+his dominions by the way of the Adriatic, the king was shipwrecked, and
+found himself obliged to enter the dominions of Leopold, duke of
+Austria, a prince whom he had offended at Acre during the Crusade.
+Though he disguised himself, he was detected by his old enemy and
+imprisoned. The duke then sold him to the emperor Henry VI., who found
+pretexts for forcing him to buy his freedom by the promise of a ransom
+of 150,000 marks. It was not till February 1194 that he got loose, after
+paying a considerable instalment of this vast sum. The main bulk of it,
+as was to be expected, was never made over; indeed it could not have
+been raised, as Richard was well aware. But, once free, he had no
+scruple in cheating the imperial brigand of his blackmail.
+
+
+  John's treachery.
+
+For five years Richard was away from his dominions as a crusader or a
+captive. There was plenty of trouble during his absence, but less than
+might have been expected. The strong governance set up by Henry II.
+proved competent to maintain itself, even when Richard's ministers were
+tactless and his brother treacherous. A generation before it is certain
+that England would have been convulsed by a great feudal rising when
+such an opportunity was granted to the barons. Nothing of the kind
+happened between 1190 and 1194. The chancellor William Longchamp made
+himself odious by his vanity and autocratic behaviour, and was
+overthrown in 1191 by a general rising, which was headed by Prince John,
+and approved by Walter, archbishop of Rouen, whom Richard had sent to
+England with a commission to assume the justiciarship if William should
+prove impossible as an administrator. Longchamp fled to the continent,
+and John then hoped to seize on supreme power, even perhaps to grasp the
+crown. But he was bitterly disappointed to find that he could gather few
+supporters; the justiciar and the bureaucrats of the Curia Regis would
+give him no assistance; they worked on honestly in the name of the
+absent king. Among the baronage hardly a man would commit himself to
+treason. In vain John hired foreign mercenaries, garrisoned his castles,
+and leagued himself with the king of France when the latter returned
+from the Crusade. It was only the news of his brother's captivity in
+Austria which gave the intriguing prince a transient hope of success.
+Boldly asserting that Richard would never be seen alive again he went to
+France, and did homage to King Philip for Normandy and Aquitaine, as if
+they were already his own. Then he crossed to England with a band of
+mercenaries, and seized Windsor and Wallingford castles. But no one rose
+to aid him, and his garrisons were soon being besieged by loyal levies,
+headed by the justiciar and by Hubert Walter, the newly elected
+archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time King Philip's invasion of
+Normandy was repulsed by the barons of the duchy. Richard's faithful
+ministers, despite of all their distractions, succeeded in raising the
+first instalment of his ransom by grinding taxation--a fourth part of
+the revenue of all lay persons, a tithe from ecclesiastical land, was
+raised, and in addition much church plate was seized, though the
+officials who exacted it were themselves prelates. John and Philip wrote
+to the emperor to beg him to detain his captive at all costs, but Henry
+VI. pocketed the ransom money and set Richard free. He reached England
+in March 1194, just in time to receive the surrender of the last two
+castles which were holding out in his treacherous brother's name. With
+astonishing, and indeed misplaced, magnanimity, Richard pardoned his
+brother, when he made a grovelling submission, and restored him to his
+lordship of Ireland and to a great part of his English lands.
+
+The king abode for no more than three months in England; he got himself
+recrowned at Winchester, apparently to wipe out the stain of his German
+captivity and of an enforced homage which the emperor had extorted from
+him. Then he raised a heavy tax from his already impoverished subjects,
+sold a number of official posts and departed to France--never to return,
+though he had still five years to live. He left behind Archbishop Hubert
+Walter as justiciar, a faithful if a somewhat high-handed minister.
+
+Richard's one ruling passion was now to punish Philip of France for his
+unfriendly conduct during his absence. He plunged into a war with this
+clever and shifty prince, which lasted--with certain short breaks of
+truces and treaties--till his death. He wasted his considerable military
+talents in a series of skirmishes and sieges which had no great results,
+and after spending countless treasures and harrying many regions,
+perished obscurely by a wound from a cross-bow-bolt, received while
+beleaguering Chālus, a castle of a rebellious lord of Aquitaine, the
+viscount of Limoges (April 6, 1199).
+
+
+  English constitutional development.
+
+During these years of petty strife England was only reminded at
+intervals of her king's existence by his intermittent demands for money,
+which his ministers did their best to satisfy. The machine of government
+continued to work without his supervision. It has been observed that,
+from one point of view, England's worst kings have been her best; that
+is to say, a sovereign like Richard, who persistently neglected his
+duties, was unconsciously the foster father of constitutional liberty.
+For his ministers, bureaucrats of an orderly frame of mind, devised for
+their own convenience rules and customs which became permanent, and
+could be cited against those later kings who interfered more actively in
+the details of domestic governance. We may trace back some small
+beginnings of a constitution to the time of Henry II.--himself an
+absentee though not on the scale of his son. But the ten years of
+Richard's reign were much more fruitful in the growth of institutions
+which were destined to curb the power of the crown. His justiciars, and
+especially Hubert Walter, were responsible for several innovations which
+were to have far-spreading results. The most important was an extension
+of the use of juries into the province of taxation. When the government
+employs committees chosen by the taxpayers to estimate and assess the
+details of taxation, it will find it hard to go back to arbitrary
+exactions. Such a practice had been first seen when Henry II., in his
+last year, allowed the celebrated "Saladin Tithe" for the service of the
+crusade to be assessed by local jurors. In Richard's reign the practice
+became regular. In especial when England was measured out anew for the
+great carucage of 1197--a tax on every ploughland which replaced the
+rough calculation of Domesday Book--knights elected by the shires shared
+in all the calculations then made for the new impost. Another
+constitutional advance was that which substituted "coroners," knights
+chosen by the county court, for the king's old factotum the sheriff in
+the duty of holding the "pleas of the crown," i.e. in making the
+preliminary investigations into such offences as riot, murder or injury
+to the king's rights or property. The sheriff's natural impulse was to
+indict every man from whom money could be got; the new coroners were
+influenced by other motives than financial rapacity, and so were much
+more likely to deal equitably with accusations. The towns also profited
+in no small degree from Richard's absence and impecuniosity. One of the
+most important charters to London, that which granted the city the right
+of constituting itself a "commune" and choosing itself a mayor, goes
+back to October 1191, the troubled month of Longchamp's expulsion from
+England. It was given by Prince John and the ministers, who were then
+supporting him against the arrogant chancellor, to secure the adherence
+of London. Richard on his return seems to have allowed it to stand.
+Lincoln was also given the right of electing its own magistrates in
+1194, and many smaller places owe grants of more or less of municipal
+privilege to Hubert Walter acting in the name of the absent king. The
+English nation began to have some conception of a régime of fixed
+custom, in which its rights depended on some other source than the
+sovereign's personal caprice. The times, it may be remembered, were not
+unprosperous. There had been no serious civil war since the baronial
+rising of 1173. Prince John's turbulence had only affected the
+neighbourhood of a few royal castles. Despite of the frequent and heavy
+demands for money for the king's service, wealth seems to have been
+increasing, and prosperity to have been widespread. Strong and regular
+governance had on the whole prevailed ever since Henry II. triumphed
+over baronial anarchy.
+
+
+III. THE STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY (1199-1337)
+
+  Accession of John.
+
+Richard's queen, Berengaria of Navarre, had borne him no children. At
+the moment of his premature death his nearest kinsmen were his worthless
+brother John, and the boy Arthur of Brittany, the heir of Geoffrey, the
+third son of Henry II. On his death-bed the king had designated John as
+his successor, holding apparently that a bad ruler who was at least a
+grown man was preferable to a child. John's claim prevailed both in
+Normandy and in England, though in each, as we are told, there were
+those who considered it a doubtful point whether an elder brother's son
+had not a better right than a younger brother. But the ministers
+recognized John, and the baronage and nation acquiesced, though with
+little enthusiasm. In the lands farther south, however, matters went
+otherwise. The dowager duchess Constance of Brittany raised her son's
+claim, and sent an army into Anjou, and all down the Loire many of the
+nobles adhered to his cause. The king of France announced that he should
+support them, and allowed Arthur to do him homage for Anjou, Maine and
+Touraine. There would have been trouble in Aquitaine also, if the aged
+Queen Eleanor had not asserted her own primary and indefeasible right to
+her ancestral duchy, and then declared that she transferred it to her
+best loved son John. Most of her subjects accepted her decision, and
+Arthur's faction made no head in this quarter.
+
+
+  War with Phillip Augustus.
+
+  Loss of Normandy.
+
+It seemed for a space as if the new king would succeed in retaining the
+whole of his brother's inheritance, for King Philip very meanly allowed
+himself to be bought off by the cession of the county of Evreux, and,
+when his troops were withdrawn, the Angevin rebels were beaten down, and
+the duchess of Brittany had to ask for peace for her son. But it had not
+long been granted, when John proceeded to throw away his advantage by
+acts of reckless impolicy. Though cunning, he was destitute alike of
+foresight and of self-control; he could never discern the way in which
+his conduct would be judged by other men, because he lacked even the
+rudiments of a conscience. Ere he had been many months on the throne he
+divorced his wife, Isabella of Gloucester, alleging that their marriage
+had been illegal because they were within the prohibited degrees. This
+act offended the English barons, but in choosing a new queen John gave
+much greater offence abroad; he carried off Isabella of Angoulźme from
+her affianced husband, Hugh of Lusignan, the son of the count of la
+Marche, his greatest vassal in northern Aquitaine, and married her
+despite the precontract. This seems to have been an amorous freak, not
+the result of any deep-laid policy. Roused by the insult the Lusignans
+took arms, and a great part of the barons of Poitou joined them. They
+appealed for aid to Philip of France, who judged it opportune to
+intervene once more. He summoned John to appear before him as suzerain,
+to answer the complaints of his Poitevin subjects, and when he failed to
+plead declared war on him and declared his dominions escheated to the
+French crown for non-fulfilment of his feudal allegiance. He enlisted
+Arthur of Brittany in his cause by recognizing him once more as the
+rightful owner of all John's continental fiefs save Normandy, which he
+intended to take for himself. Philip then entered Normandy, while Arthur
+led a Breton force into Anjou and Poitou to aid the Lusignans. The
+fortune of war at first turned in favour of the English king. He
+surprised his nephew while he was besieging the castle of Mirebeau in
+Poitou, where the old Queen Eleanor was residing. The young duke and
+most of his chief supporters were taken prisoners (August 1, 1202).
+Instead of using his advantage aright, John put Arthur in secret
+confinement, and after some months caused him to be murdered. He is said
+also to have starved to death twenty-two knights of Poitou who had been
+among his captives. The assassination of his nearest kinsman, a mere boy
+of sixteen, was as unwise as it was cruel. It estranged from the king
+the hearts of all his French subjects, who were already sufficiently
+disgusted by many minor acts of brutality, as well as by incessant
+arbitrary taxation and by the reckless ravages in which John's mercenary
+troops had been indulging. The French armies met with little or no
+resistance when they invaded Normandy, Anjou and Poitou. John sat inert
+at Rouen, pretending to take his misfortunes lightly, and boasting that
+"what was easily lost could be as easily won back." Meanwhile Philip
+Augustus conquered all western Normandy, without having to fight a
+battle. The great castle of Chāteau Gaillard, which guards the Lower
+Seine, was the only place which made a strenuous resistance. It was
+finally taken by assault, despite of the efforts of the gallant
+castellan, Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester, who had made head
+against the besiegers for six months (September 1203-March 1204) without
+receiving any assistance from his master. John finally absconded to
+England in December 1203; he failed to return with an army of relief, as
+he had promised, and before the summer of 1204 was over, Caen, Bayeux
+and Rouen, the last places that held out for him, had been forced to
+open their gates. The Norman barons had refused to strike a blow for
+John, and the cities had shown but a very passive and precarious loyalty
+to him. He had made himself so well hated by his cruelty and vices that
+the Normans, forgetting their old hatred of France, had acquiesced in
+the conquest. Two ties alone had for the last century held the duchy to
+the English connexion: the one was that many Norman baronial families
+held lands on this side of the Channel; the second was the national
+pride which looked upon England as a conquered appendage of Normandy.
+But the first had grown weaker as the custom arose of dividing family
+estates between brothers, on the principle that one should take the
+Norman, the other the English parts of a paternal heritage. By John's
+time there were comparatively few landholders whose interests were
+fairly divided between the duchy and the kingdom. Such as survived had
+now to choose between losing the one or the other section of their
+lands; those whose holding was mainly Norman adhered to Philip; those
+who had more land in England sacrificed their transmarine estates. For
+each of the two kings declared the property of the barons who did not
+support him confiscated to the crown. As to the old Norman theory that
+England was a conquered land, it had gradually ceased to exist as an
+operative force, under kings who, like Henry II. or Richard I., were
+neither Norman nor English in feeling, but Angevin. John did not, and
+could not, appeal as a Norman prince to Norman patriotism.
+
+
+  Loss of Anjou, Touraine and Poitou.
+
+The successes of Philip Augustus did not cease with the conquest of
+Normandy. His armies pushed forward in the south also; Anjou, Touraine
+and nearly all Poitou submitted to him. Only Guienne and southern
+Aquitaine held out for King John, partly because they preferred a weak
+and distant master to such a strenuous and grasping prince as King
+Philip, partly because they were far more alien in blood and language to
+their French neighbours than were Normans or Angevins. The Gascons were
+practically a separate nationality, and the house of Capet had no
+ancient connexion with them. The kings of England were yet to reign at
+Bordeaux and Bayonne for two hundred and fifty years. But the connexion
+with Gascony meant little compared with the now vanished connexion with
+Normandy. Henry I. or Henry II. could run over to his continental
+dominions in a day or two days; Dieppe and Harfleur were close to
+Portsmouth and Hastings. It was a different thing for John and his
+successors to undertake the long voyage to Bordeaux, around the stormy
+headlands of Brittany and across the Bay of Biscay. Visits to their
+continental dominions had to be few and far between; they were long,
+costly and dangerous when a French fleet--a thing never seen before
+Philip Augustus conquered Normandy--might be roaming in the Channel. The
+kings of England became perforce much more home-keeping sovereigns after
+1204.
+
+It was certainly not a boon for England that her present sovereign was
+destined to remain within her borders for the greater part of his
+remaining years. To know John well was to loathe him, as every
+contemporary chronicle bears witness. The two years that followed the
+loss of Normandy were a time of growing discontent and incessant
+disputes about taxation. The king kept collecting scutages and tallages,
+yet barons and towns complained that nothing seemed to be done with the
+money he collected. At last, however, in 1206, the king did make an
+expedition to Poitou, and recovered some of its southern borders. Yet,
+with his usual inconsequence, he did not follow up his success, but made
+a two years' truce with Philip of France on the basis of _uti
+possidetis_--which left Normandy and all the territories on and about
+the Loire in the hands of the conqueror.
+
+
+  Quarrel with the Papacy.
+
+It is probable that this pacification was the result of a new quarrel
+which John had just taken up with a new enemy--the Papacy. The dispute
+on the question of free election, which was to range over all the
+central years of his reign, had just begun. In the end of 1205 Hubert
+Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, had died. The king announced his
+intention of procuring the election of John de Gray, bishop of Norwich,
+as his successor; but, though his purpose was well known, the chapter
+(i.e. the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury) met secretly and elected
+their sub-prior Reginald as archbishop. They sent him to Rome at once,
+to receive confirmation from Pope Innocent III., whom they knew to be a
+zealous champion of the rights of the Church. But John descended upon
+them in great wrath, and by threats compelled them to hold a second
+meeting, and to elect his nominee Gray, in whose name application for
+confirmation was also made to the pope. Innocent, however, seeing a
+splendid chance of asserting his authority, declared both the elections
+that had taken place invalid, the first because it had been clandestine,
+the second because it had been held under _force majeure_, and proceeded
+to nominate a friend of his own--Cardinal Stephen Langton, an Englishman
+of proved capacity and blameless life, then resident in Rome. He was far
+the worthiest of the three candidates, but it was an intolerable
+invasion of the rights of the English crown and the English Church that
+an archbishop should be foisted on them in this fashion. The
+representatives of the chapter who had been sent to Rome were persuaded
+or compelled to elect him in the pope's presence (Dec. 1206).
+
+King John was furious, and not without good reason; he refused to accept
+Langton, whom he declared (quite unjustly) to be a secret friend of
+Philip of France, and sequestrated the lands of the monks of Canterbury.
+On this the pope threatened to lay an interdict on himself and his
+realm. The king replied by issuing a proclamation to the effect that he
+would outlaw any clerk who should accept the validity of such an
+interdict and would confiscate his lands. Despising such threats
+Innocent carried out his threat, and put England under the ban of the
+Church on the 23rd of March 1208.
+
+In obedience to the pope's orders the large majority of the English
+clergy closed their churches, and suspended the ordinary course of the
+services and celebration of the sacraments. Baptism and extreme unction
+only were continued, lest souls should be lost; and marriages were
+permitted but not inside the walls of churches. Foreseeing the wrath of
+the king against all who obeyed the mandate from Rome, the larger number
+of the bishops and many others of the higher clergy fled overseas to
+escape the storm. Those who were bold enough to remain behind had much
+to endure. John, openly rejoicing at the plunder that lay before him,
+declared the temporalities of all who had accepted the interdict,
+whether they had exiled themselves or no, to be confiscated. His
+treasury was soon so well filled that he could dispense with ordinary
+taxation. He also outlawed the whole body of the clergy, save the timid
+remnant who promised to disregard the papal commands.
+
+
+  Character of John's rule.
+
+Nothing proves more conclusively the strength of the Angevin monarchy,
+and the decreasing power of feudalism, than that an unpopular king like
+John could maintain his strife with the pope, and suppress the
+discontents of his subjects, for nearly five years before the inevitable
+explosion came. Probably his long immunity was due in the main to the
+capacity of his strong-handed justiciar Geoffrey Fitz-Peter; the king
+hated him bitterly, but generally took his advice. The crash only came
+when Geoffrey died in 1213; his ungrateful master only expressed joy.
+"Now by God's feet am I for the first time king of England," he
+exclaimed, when the news reached him. He proceeded to fill the vacancy
+with a mere Poitevin adventurer, Peter des Roches, whom he had made
+bishop of Winchester some time before. Indeed John's few trusted
+confidants were nearly all foreigners, such men as the mercenary
+captains Gerard of Athies and Engelhart of Cigogné, whom he made
+sheriffs and castellans to the discontent of all Englishmen. He spent
+all his money in maintaining bands of hired _Brabanēons_ and _routiers_,
+by whose aid he for some time succeeded in terrorizing the countryside.
+There were a few preliminary outbreaks of rebellion, which were
+suppressed with vigour and punished with horrible cruelty. John starved
+to death the wife and son of William de Braose, the first baron who took
+arms against him, and hanged in a row twenty-eight young boys, hostages
+for the fidelity of their fathers, Welsh princes who had dabbled in
+treason. Such acts provoked rage as well as fear, yet the measure of
+John's iniquities was not full till 1212. Indeed for some time his
+persistent prosperity provoked the indignant surprise of those who
+believed him to be under a curse. If his renewed war with Philip of
+France was generally unsuccessful, yet at home he held his own. The most
+astounding instance of his success is that in 1210 he found leisure for
+a hasty expedition to Ireland, where he compelled rebellious barons to
+do homage, and received the submission of more than twenty of the local
+kinglets. It is strange that he came back to find England undisturbed
+behind him.
+
+
+  John does homage to the pope.
+
+His long-deserved humiliation only began in the winter of 1212-1213,
+when Innocent III., finding him so utterly callous as to the interdict,
+took the further step of declaring him deposed from the throne for
+contumacy, and handing over the execution of the penalty to the king of
+France. This act provoked a certain amount of indignation in England,
+and in the spring of 1213 the king was able to collect a large army on
+Barham Down to resist the threatened French invasion. Yet so many of his
+subjects were discontented that he dared not trust himself to the
+chances of war, and, when the fleet of King Philip was ready to sail, he
+surprised the world by making a sudden and grovelling submission to the
+pope. Not only did he agree to receive Stephen Langton as archbishop, to
+restore all the exiled clergy to their benefices, and to pay them
+handsome compensation for all their losses during the last five years,
+but he took the strange and ignominious step of declaring that he ceded
+his whole kingdom to the pope, to hold as his vassal. He formally
+resigned his crown into the hands of the legate Cardinal Pandulf, and
+took it back as the pope's vassal, engaging at the same time to pay a
+tribute of 1000 marks a year for England and Ireland. This was felt to
+be a humiliating transaction by many of John's subjects, though to
+others the joy at reconciliation with the Church caused all else to be
+forgotten. The political effect of the device was all that John had
+desired. His new suzerain took him under his protection, and forbade
+Philip of France to proceed with his projected invasion, though ships
+and men were all ready (May 1213). John's safety, however, was secured
+in a more practical way when his bastard brother, William Longsword,
+earl of Salisbury, made a descent on the port of Damme and burnt or sunk
+a whole squadron of the French transports. After this John's spirits
+rose, and he talked of crossing the seas himself to recover Normandy and
+Anjou. But he soon found that his subjects were not inclined to follow
+him; they were resigned to the loss of the Angevin heritage, whose union
+with England brought no profit to them, however much it might interest
+their king. The barons expressed their wish for a peace with France, and
+when summoned to produce their feudal contingents pleaded poverty, and
+raised a rather shallow theory to the effect that their services could
+not be asked for wars beyond seas--against which there were conclusive
+precedents in the reigns of Henry I. and Henry II. But any plea can be
+raised against an unpopular king. John found himself obliged to turn
+back, since hardly a man save his mercenaries had rallied to his
+standard at Portsmouth. In great anger and indignation he marched off
+towards the north, with his hired soldiery, swearing to punish the
+barons who had taken the lead in the "strike" which had defeated his
+purpose. But the outbreak of war was to be deferred for a space.
+Archbishop Langton, who on assuming possession of his see had shown at
+once that he was a patriotic English statesman, and not the mere
+delegate of the pope, besought his master to hold back, and, when he
+refused, threatened to renew the excommunication which had so lately
+been removed. The old justiciar Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, now on his
+death-bed, had also refused to pronounce sentence on the defaulters.
+John hesitated, and meanwhile his enemies began to organize their
+resistance.
+
+
+  Opposition of the barons.
+
+A great landmark in the constitutional history of England was reached
+when Langton assembled the leading barons, rehearsed to them the charter
+issued by Henry I. on his accession, and pointed out to them the rights
+and liberties therein promised by the crown to the nation. For the
+future they agreed to take this document as their programme of demands.
+It was the first of the many occasions in English history when the
+demand for reform took the shape of a reference back to old precedents,
+and now (as on all subsequent occasions) the party which opposed the
+crown read back into the ancient grants which they quoted a good deal
+more than had been actually conceded in them. To Langton and the barons
+the charter of Henry I. seemed to cover all the customs and practices
+which had grown up under the rule of the bureaucracy which had served
+Henry II. and Richard I. A correct historical perspective could hardly
+be expected from men whose constitutional knowledge only ran back as far
+as the memory of themselves and their fathers. The Great Charter of 1215
+was a commentary on, rather than a reproduction of, the old accession
+pledges of Henry I.
+
+
+  Alliance against France.
+
+  Battle of Bouvines.
+
+Meanwhile John, leaving his barons to discuss and formulate their
+grievances, pushed on with a great scheme of foreign alliances, by which
+he hoped to crush Philip of France, even though the aid of the feudal
+levies of England was denied him. He leagued himself with his nephew the
+emperor Otto IV. (his sister's son), and the counts of Flanders and
+Boulogne, with many other princes of the Netherlands. Their plan was
+that John should land in Poitou and distract the attention of the French
+by a raid up the Loire, while the emperor and his vassals should
+secretly mobilize a great army in Brabant and make a sudden dash at
+Paris. The scheme was not destitute of practical ability, and if it had
+been duly carried out would have placed France in such a crisis of
+danger as she has seldom known. It was not John's fault that the
+campaign failed. He sent the earl of Salisbury with some of his
+mercenaries to join the confederates in Flanders, while he sailed with
+the main body of them to La Rochelle, whence he marched northward,
+devastating the land before him. Philip came out to meet him with the
+whole levy of France (April 1214), and Paris would have been left
+exposed if Otto and his Netherland vassals had struck promptly in. But
+the emperor was late, and by the time that he was approaching the French
+frontier Philip Augustus had discovered that John's invasion was but a
+feint, executed by an army too weak to do much harm. Leaving a small
+containing force on the Loire in face of the English king, Philip
+hurried to the north with his main army, and on the 27th of July 1214
+inflicted a crushing defeat on the emperor and his allies at Bouvines
+near Lille. This was the greatest victory of the French medieval
+monarchy. It broke up the Anglo-German alliance, and gave the conqueror
+undisturbed possession of all that he had won from the Angevin house and
+his other enemies.
+
+
+  Magna Carta.
+
+Indirectly Bouvines was almost as important in the history of England as
+in that of France. John returned to England foiled, and in great anger;
+he resolved to give up the French war, secured a truce with King Philip
+by abandoning his attempt to reconquer his lost lands on the Loire, and
+turned to attack the recalcitrant subjects who had refused to join him
+in his late campaign beyond the Channel. Matters soon came to a head: on
+hearing that the king was mobilizing his mercenary bands, the barons met
+at Bury St Edmunds, and leagued themselves by an oath to obtain from the
+king a confirmation of the charter of Henry I. (November 1214). At the
+New Year they sent him a formal ultimatum, to which he would not assent,
+though he opened up futile negotiation with them through the channel of
+the archbishop, who did not take an open part in the rising. At Easter,
+nothing having been yet obtained from the king, an army headed by five
+earls, forty barons, and Giles Braose, bishop of Hereford, mustered at
+Stamford and marched on London. Their captain was Robert FitzWalter,
+whom they had named "marshal of the army of God and Holy Church." When
+they reached the capital its gates were thrown open to them, and the
+mayor and citizens adhered to their cause (May 17). The king, who had
+tried to turn them back by taking the cross and declaring himself a
+crusader, and by making loud appeals for the arbitration of the pope,
+was forced to retire to Windsor. He found that he had no supporters save
+a handful of courtiers and officials and the leaders of his mercenary
+bands; wherefore in despair he accepted the terms forced upon him by the
+insurgents. On the 15th of June 1215 he sealed at Runnymede, close to
+Windsor, the famous _Magna Carta_, in face of a vast assembly among
+which he had hardly a single friend. It is a long document of 63
+clauses, in which Archbishop Langton and a committee of the barons had
+endeavoured to recapitulate all their grievances, and to obtain redress
+for them. Some of the clauses are unimportant concessions to
+individuals, or deal with matters of trifling importance--such as the
+celebrated weirs or "kiddles" on Thames and Medway, or the expulsion of
+the condottieri chiefs Gerard d'Athies and Engelhart de Cigogné. But
+many of them are matters of primary importance in the constitutional
+history of England. The Great Charter must not, however, be overrated as
+an expression of general constitutional rights; to a large extent it is
+a mere recapitulation of the claims of the baronage, and gives redress
+for their feudal grievances in the matters of aids, reliefs, wardships,
+&c., its object being the repression of arbitrary exactions by the king
+on his tenants-in-chief. One section, that which provides against the
+further encroachments of the king's courts on the private manorial
+courts of the landowners, might even be regarded as retrograde in
+character from the point of view of administrative efficacy. But it is
+most noteworthy that the barons, while providing for the abolition of
+abuses which affect themselves, show an unselfish and patriotic spirit
+in laying down the rule that all the concessions which the king makes to
+them shall also be extended by themselves to their own sub-tenants. The
+clauses dealing with the general governance of the realm are also as
+enlightened as could be expected from the character of the committee
+which drafted the charter. There is to be no taxation without the
+consent of the Great Council of the Realm--which is to consist of all
+barons, who are to be summoned by individual units; and of all smaller
+tenants-in-chief, who are to be called not by separate letters, but by a
+general notice published by the sheriff. It has been pointed out that
+this provides no representation for sub-tenants or the rest of the
+nation, so that we are still far from the ideal of a representative
+parliament. John himself had gone a step farther on the road towards
+that ideal when in 1213 he had summoned four "discreet men" from every
+shire to a council at Oxford, which (as it appears) was never held. But
+this would seem to have been a vain bid for popularity with the middle
+classes, which had no result at the time, and the barons preferred to
+keep things in their own hands, and to abide by ancient precedents. It
+was to be some forty years later that the first appearance of elected
+shire representatives at the Great Council took place. In 1215 the
+control of the subjects over the crown in the matter of taxation is
+reserved entirely for the tenants-in-chief, great and small.
+
+There is less qualified praise to be bestowed on the clauses of Magna
+Carta which deal with justice. The royal courts are no longer to attend
+the king's person--a vexatious practice when sovereigns were always on
+the move, and litigants and witnesses had to follow them from manor to
+manor--but are to be fixed at Westminster. General rules of indisputable
+equity are fixed for the conduct of the courts--no man is to be tried or
+punished more than once for the same offence; no one is to be arrested
+and kept in prison without trial; all arrested persons are to be sent
+before the courts within a reasonable time, and to be tried by a jury of
+their peers. Fines imposed on unsuccessful litigants are to be
+calculated according to the measure of their offence, and are not to be
+arbitrary penalties raised or lowered at the king's good pleasure
+according to the sum that he imagined that the offender could be induced
+to pay. No foreigners or other persons ignorant of the laws of England
+are to be entrusted with judicial or administrative offices.
+
+There is only a single clause dealing with the grievances of the English
+Church, although Archbishop Langton had been the principal adviser in
+the drafting of the whole document. This clause, "that the English
+church shall be free," was, however, sufficiently broad to cover all
+demands. The reason that Langton did not descend to details was that the
+king had already conceded the right of free canonical election and the
+other claims of the clerical order in a separate charter, so that there
+was no need to discuss them at length.
+
+The special clauses for the benefit of the city of London were
+undoubtedly inserted as a tribute of gratitude on the part of the barons
+for the readiness which the citizens had shown in adhering to their
+cause. There are other sections for the benefit of the commons in
+general, such as that which gives merchants full right of leaving or
+entering the realm with their goods on payment of the fixed ancient
+custom dues. But these clauses are less numerous than might have been
+expected--the framers of the document were, after all, barons and not
+burghers.
+
+The most surprising part of the Great Charter to modern eyes is its
+sixty-first paragraph, that which openly states doubts as to the king's
+intention to abide by his promise, and appoints a committee of
+twenty-five guardians of the charter (twenty-four barons and the mayor
+of London), who are to coerce their master, by force of arms if
+necessary, to observe every one of its clauses. The twenty-five were to
+hear and decide upon any claims and complaints preferred against the
+king, and to keep up their numbers by co-optation, so that it would seem
+that the barons intended to keep a permanent watch upon the crown. The
+clause seems unnecessarily harsh and violent in its wording; but it must
+be remembered that John's character was well known, and that it was
+useless to stand on forms of politeness when dealing with him. It seems
+certain that the drafters of the charter were honest in their
+intentions, and did not purpose to set up a feudal oligarchy in the
+place of a royal autocracy. They were only insisting on the maintenance
+of what they believed to be the ancient and laudable customs of the
+realm.
+
+That the barons were right to suspect John is sufficiently shown by his
+subsequent conduct. His pretence of keeping his promise lasted less
+than two months; by August 1215 he was already secretly collecting money
+and hiring more mercenaries. He wrote to Rome to beg the pope to annul
+the charter, stating that all his troubles had come upon him in
+consequence of his dutiful conduct to the Holy See. He also stated that
+he had taken the cross as a crusader, but could not sail to Palestine as
+long as his subjects were putting him in restraint. Innocent III. at
+once took the hint; in September Archbishop Langton was suspended for
+disobedience to papal commands, and the charter was declared
+uncanonical, null and void. The "troublers of the king and kingdom" were
+declared excommunicate.
+
+
+  Civil War.
+
+  Death of John.
+
+Langton departed at once to Rome, to endeavour to turn the heart of his
+former patron, a task in which he utterly failed. Many of the clergy who
+had hitherto supported the baronial cause drew back in dismay at the
+pope's attitude. But the laymen were resolute, and prepared for open
+war, which broke out in October 1215. The king, who had already gathered
+in many mercenaries, gained the first advantage by capturing Rochester
+Castle before the army of the barons was assembled. So formidable did he
+appear to them for the moment that they took the deplorable step of
+inviting the foreign foe to join in the struggle. Declaring John deposed
+because he had broken his oath to observe the charter, they offered the
+crown to Louis of France, the son of King Philip, because he had married
+John's niece Blanche of Castile and could assert in her right a claim to
+the throne. This was a most unhappy inspiration, and drove into
+neutrality or even into the king's camp many who had previously inclined
+to the party of reform. But John did his best to disgust his followers
+by adopting the policy of carrying out fierce and purposeless raids of
+devastation all through the countryside, while refusing to face his
+enemies in a pitched battle. He bore himself like a captain of banditti
+rather than a king in his own country. Presently, when the French prince
+came over with a considerable army to join the insurgent barons, he
+retired northward, leaving London and the home counties to his rival. In
+all the south country only Dover and Windsor castles held out for him.
+His sole success was that he raised the siege of Lincoln by driving off
+a detachment of the baronial army which was besieging it. Soon after,
+while marching from Lynn towards Wisbeach, he was surprised by the tide
+in the fords of the Wash and lost part of his army and all his baggage
+and treasure. Next day he fell ill of rage and vexation of spirit,
+contracted a dysenteric ailment, and died a week later at Newark (Oct.
+19, 1216). It was the best service that he could do his kingdom. Owing
+to the unwise and unpatriotic conduct of the barons in summoning over
+Louis of France to their aid, John had become in some sort the
+representative of national independence. Yet he was so frankly
+impossible as a ruler that, save the earls of Pembroke and Chester, all
+his English followers had left him, and he had no one to back him but
+the papal legate Gualo and a band of foreign mercenaries. When once he
+was dead, and his heritage fell to his nine-year-old son Henry III.,
+whom none could make responsible for his father's doings, the whole
+aspect of affairs was changed.
+
+
+  Henry III.
+
+The aged William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, by far the most important
+and respectable personage who had adhered to John's cause, assumed the
+position of regent. He at once offered in the name of the young king
+pardon and oblivion of offences to all the insurgent barons. At the same
+time he reissued the Great Charter, containing all the important
+concessions which John had made at Runnymede, save that which gave the
+control of taxation to the tenants-in-chief. Despite this and certain
+other smaller omissions, it was a document which would satisfy most
+subjects of the crown, if only it were faithfully observed. The youth of
+the king and the good reputation of the earl marshal were a sufficient
+guarantee that, for some years at any rate, an honest attempt would be
+made to redeem the pledge. Very soon the barons began to return to their
+allegiance, or at least to slacken in their support of Louis, who had
+given much offence by his openly displayed distrust of his partisans
+and his undisguised preference for his French followers. The papal
+influence was at the same time employed in the cause of King Henry, and
+Philip of France was forced to abandon open support of his son, though
+he naturally continued to give him secret help and to send him succours
+of men and money.
+
+
+  Battle of Lincoln.
+
+The fortune of war, however, did not turn without a battle. At Lincoln,
+on the 20th of May 1217, the marshal completely defeated an Anglo-French
+army commanded by the count of Perche and the earls of Winchester and
+Hereford. The former was slain, the other two taken prisoners, with more
+than 300 knights and barons. This was the death-blow to the cause of
+Louis of France; when it was followed up by the defeat in the Dover
+Straits of a fleet which was bringing him reinforcements (Aug. 17), he
+despaired of success and asked for terms. By the treaty of Lambeth
+(Sept. 11, 1217) he secured an amnesty for all his followers and an
+indemnity of 10,000 marks for himself. Less than a month later he
+quitted England; the victorious royalists celebrated his departure by a
+second reissue of the Great Charter, which contained some new clauses
+favourable to the baronial interest.
+
+After the departure of Prince Louis and his foreigners the earl marshal
+had to take up much the same task that had fallen to Henry II. in 1154.
+Now, as at the death of Stephen, the realm was full of "adulterine
+castles," of bands of robbers who had cloaked their plundering under the
+pretence of loyal service to the king or the French prince, and of local
+magnates who had usurped the prerogatives of royalty, each in his own
+district. It was some years before peace and order were restored in the
+realm, and the aged Pembroke died in 1219 before his work was completed.
+After his decease the conduct of the government passed into the hands of
+the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, and the papal legate Pandulf, to whom the
+marshal had specially recommended the young king. Their worst enemies
+were those who during the civil war had been their best friends, the
+mercenary captains and upstart knights whom John had made sheriffs and
+castellans. From 1219 to 1224 de Burgh was constantly occupied in
+evicting the old loyalists from castles which they had seized or offices
+which they had disgraced. In several cases it was necessary to mobilize
+an army against a recalcitrant magnate. The most troublesome of them was
+Falkes de Breauté, the most famous of King John's foreign _condottieri_,
+whose minions held Bedford castle against the justiciar and the whole
+shire levy of eastern England for nearly two months in 1224. The castle
+was taken and eighty men-at-arms hanged on its surrender, but Falkes
+escaped with his life and fled to France. It was not till this severe
+lesson had been inflicted on the faction of disorder that the
+pacification of England could be considered complete.
+
+The fifty-six years' reign of Henry III. forms one of the periods during
+which the mere chronicle of events may seem tedious and trivial, yet the
+movement of national life and constitutional progress was very
+important. Except during the stirring epoch 1258-1265 there was little
+that was dramatic or striking in the events of the reign. Yet the
+England of 1272 was widely different from the England of 1216. The
+futile and thriftless yet busy and self-important king was one of those
+sovereigns who irritate their subjects into opposition by injudicious
+activity. He was not a ruffian or a tyrant like his father, and had
+indeed not a few of the domestic virtues. But he was constitutionally
+incapable of keeping a promise or paying a debt. Not being strong-handed
+or capable, he could never face criticism nor suppress discontent by
+force, as a king of the type of Henry I. or Henry II. would have done.
+He generally gave way when pressed, without attempting an appeal to
+arms; he would then swear an oath to observe the Great Charter, and be
+detected in violating it again within a few months. His greatest fault
+in the eyes of his subjects was his love of foreigners; since John had
+lost Normandy the English baronage had become as national in spirit as
+the commons. The old Anglo-Norman houses had forgotten the tradition of
+their origin, and now formed but a small section of the aristocracy; the
+newer families, sprung from the officials of the first two Henries, had
+always been English in spirit. Unfortunately for himself the third
+Henry inherited the continental cosmopolitanism of his Angevin
+ancestors, and found himself confronted with a nation which was growing
+ever more and more insular in its ideals. He had all the ambitions of
+his grandfather Henry II.; his dreams were of shattering the
+newly-formed kingdom of France, the creation of Philip Augustus, and of
+recovering all the lost lands of his forefathers on the Seine and Loire.
+Occasionally his views grew yet wider--he would knit up alliances all
+over Christendom and dominate the West. Nothing could have been wilder
+and more unpractical than the scheme on which he set his heart in
+1255-1257, a plan for conquering Naples and Sicily for his second son.
+Moreover it was a great hindrance to him that he was a consistent friend
+and supporter of the papacy. He had never forgotten the services of the
+legates Pandulf and Gualo to himself and his father, and was always
+ready to lend his aid to the political schemes of the popes, even when
+it was difficult to see that any English interests were involved in
+them. His designs, which were always shifting from point to point of the
+continent, did not appeal in the least to his subjects, who took little
+interest in Poitou or Touraine, and none whatever in Italy. After the
+troubled times which had lasted from 1214 to 1224 they desired nothing
+more than peace, quietness and good governance. They had no wish to
+furnish their master with taxation for French wars, or to follow his
+banner to distant Aquitaine. But most of all did they dislike his
+practice of flooding England with strangers from beyond seas, for whom
+offices and endowments had to be found. The moment that he had got rid
+of the honest and capable old justiciar Hubert de Burgh, who had
+pacified the country during his minority, and set the machinery of
+government once more in regular order, Henry gave himself over to
+fostering horde after horde of foreign favourites. There was first his
+Poitevin chancellor, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, with a
+numerous band of his relations and dependents. As a sample of the king's
+methods it may be mentioned that he once made over nineteen of the
+thirty-five sheriffdoms, within a fortnight, to Peter of Rivaux, a
+nephew of the chancellor. Des Roches was driven from office after two
+years (1234), and his friends and relatives fell with him. But they were
+only the earliest of the king's alien favourites; quite as greedy were
+the second family of his mother, Isabella of Angoulźme, who after King
+John's death had married her old betrothed, Hugh of Lusignan. Henry
+secured great English marriages for three of them, and made the fourth,
+Aymer, bishop of Winchester. Their kinsmen and dependents were equally
+welcomed. Even more numerous and no less expensive to the realm were the
+Provenēal and Savoyard relatives of Henry's queen, Eleanor of Provence.
+The king made one of her uncles, Boniface of Savoy, archbishop of
+Canterbury--it was three years before he deigned to come over to take up
+the post, and then he was discovered to be illiterate and unclerical in
+his habits, an unworthy successor for Langton and Edmund of Abingdon,
+the great primates who went before him. Peter of Savoy, another uncle,
+was perhaps the most shameless of all the beggars for the king's bounty;
+not only was he made earl of Richmond, but his debts were repeatedly
+paid and great sums were given him to help his continental adventures.
+
+
+  Simon de Monfort.
+
+King Henry's personal rule lasted from 1232, the year in which he
+deprived Hubert de Burgh of his justiciarship and confiscated most of
+his lands, down to 1258. It was thriftless, arbitrary, and lacking in
+continuity of policy, yet not tyrannical or cruel. If he had been a
+worse man he would have been put under control long before by his
+irritated subjects. All through these twenty-six years he was being
+opposed and criticised by a party which embraced the wisest and most
+patriotic section of the baronage and the hierarchy. It numbered among
+its leaders the good archbishop, Edmund of Abingdon, and Robert
+Grosseteste, the active and learned bishop of Lincoln; it was not
+infrequently aided by the king's brother Richard, earl of Cornwall, who
+did not share Henry's blind admiration for his foreign relatives. But it
+only found its permanent guiding spirit somewhat late in the reign, when
+Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, became the habitual mouthpiece of
+the grievances of the nation. The great earl had, oddly enough,
+commenced his career as one of the king's foreign favourites. He was the
+grandson of Amicia, countess of Leicester, but his father, Simon the
+Elder, a magnate whose French interests were greater than his English,
+had adhered to the cause of Philip Augustus in the days of King John and
+the Leicester estates had been confiscated. Simon, reared as a
+Frenchman, came over in 1230 to petition for their restoration. He not
+only obtained it, but to the great indignation of the English baronage
+married the king's sister Eleanor in 1238. For some time he was in high
+favour with his brother-in-law, and was looked upon by the English as no
+better than Aymer de Valence or Peter of Savoy. But he quarrelled with
+the fickle king, and adhered ere long to the party of opposition. A long
+experience of his character and actions convinced barons and commons
+alike that he was a just and sincere man, a friend of good governance,
+and an honest opponent of arbitrary and unconstitutional rule. He had
+become such a thorough Englishman in his views and prejudices, that by
+1250 he was esteemed the natural exponent of all the wrongs of the
+realm. He was austere and religious; many of his closest friends were
+among the more saintly of the national clergy. By the end of his life
+the man who had started as the king's unpopular minion was known as
+"Earl Simon the Righteous," and had become the respected leader of the
+national opposition to his royal brother-in-law.
+
+
+  Condition of England under Henry III.
+
+  Beginnings of Parliament.
+
+Though Henry's taxes were vexatious and never-ending, though his
+subservience to the pope and his flighty interference in foreign
+politics were ever irritating the magnates and the people, and though
+outbreaks of turbulence were not unknown during his long period of
+personal rule, it would yet be a mistake to regard the central years of
+the 13th century as an unprosperous period for England. Indeed it would
+be more correct to regard the period as one of steady national
+development in wealth, culture and unity. The towns were growing fast,
+and extending their municipal liberties; the necessities of John and the
+facile carelessness of Henry led to the grant of innumerable charters
+and privileges. As was to be seen again during the first period of the
+reign of Charles I., political irritation is not incompatible either
+with increasing material prosperity or with great intellectual
+development. The king's futile activity led to ever more frequent
+gatherings of the Great Council, in which the theory of the constitution
+was gradually hammered out by countless debates between the sovereign
+and his subjects. Every time that Henry confirmed the Great Charter, the
+fact that England was already a limited monarchy became more evident. It
+is curious to find that--like his father John--he himself contributed
+unconsciously to advances towards representative government. John's writ
+of 1213, bidding "discreet men" from each shire to present themselves at
+Oxford, found its parallel in another writ of 1253 which bids four
+knightly delegates from each county to appear along with the
+tenants-in-chief, for the purpose of discussing the king's needs. When
+county members begin to present themselves along with the barons at the
+national assembly, the conception of parliament is already reached. And
+indeed we may note that the precise word "parliament" first appears in
+the chroniclers and in official documents about the middle of Henry's
+reign. By its end the term is universally acknowledged and employed.
+
+
+  Intellectual life.
+
+We may discern during these same years a great intellectual activity.
+This was the time of rapid development in the universities, where not
+only were the scholastic philosophy and systematic theology eagerly
+studied, but figures appear like that of the great Roger Bacon, a
+scientific researcher of the first rank, whose discoveries in optics and
+chemistry caused his contemporaries to suspect him of magical arts. His
+teaching at Oxford in 1250-1257 fell precisely into the years of the
+worst misgovernance of Henry III. It was the same with law, an
+essentially 13th-century study; it was just in this age that the
+conception of law as something not depending on the pleasure of the
+king, nor compiled from mere collected ancestral customs, but existing
+as a logical entity, became generally prevalent. The feeling is
+thoroughly well expressed by the partisan of Montfort who wrote in his
+jingling Latin verse:--
+
+  "Dicitur vulgariter 'ut rex vult lex vadit':
+   Veritas vult aliter: nam lex stat, rex cadit."
+
+Law has become something greater than, and independent of, royal
+caprice. The great lawyers of the day, of whom Bracton is the most
+celebrated name, were spinning theories of its origin and development,
+studying Roman precedents, and turning the medley of half-understood
+Saxon and Norman customs into a system.
+
+
+  Religious life: the friars.
+
+Intellectual growth was accompanied by great religious activity; it is
+no longer merely on the old questions of dispute between church and
+state that men were straining their minds. The reign of Henry III. saw
+the invasion of England by the friars, originally the moral reformers of
+their day, who preached the superiority of the missionary life over the
+merely contemplative life of the old religious orders, and came,
+preaching holy poverty, to minister to souls neglected by worldly
+incumbents and political prelates (see MENDICANT MOVEMENT). The
+mendicants, Dominican and Franciscan, took rapid root in England; the
+number of friaries erected in the reign of Henry III. is astounding. For
+two generations they seem to have absorbed into their ranks all the most
+active and energetic of those who felt a clerical vocation. It is most
+noteworthy that they were joined by thinkers such as Grosseteste, Adam
+Marsh, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. Still more
+striking is the fact that the friars threw themselves energetically into
+the cause of political reform, and that several of their leading
+brothers were the close friends and counsellors of Simon de Montfort.
+
+
+  Literature and art.
+
+Architecture and art generally were making rapid strides during this
+stirring time. The lofty Early English style had now completely
+superseded the more heavy and sombre Norman, and it was precisely during
+the years of the maladministration of Henry III. that some of the most
+splendid of the English cathedrals, Salisbury (1220-1258) and Wells
+(1230-1239), were built. The king himself, when rearing the new
+Westminster Abbey over the grave of Edward the Confessor, spent for once
+some of his money on a worthy object. It may be noted that he showed a
+special reverence for the old English royal saint, and christened his
+eldest son after him; while his second bore the name of Edmund, the East
+Anglian martyr. These were the first occasions on which princes of the
+Angevin house received names that were not drawn from the common
+continental stock, but recalled the days before the Conquest. The
+reappearance of these old English names bears witness to the fact that
+the vernacular was reasserting itself. Though French was still the
+language of the court and of law, a new literature was already growing
+up in the native tongue, with such works as Layamon's _Brut_ and the
+_Ormulum_ as its first fruits. Henry III. himself on rare occasions used
+English for a state document.
+
+All these facts make it sufficiently clear that England was irritated
+rather than crushed by Henry's irregular taxation and thriftless
+expenditure. The nation was growing and prospering, despite of its
+master's maladministration of its resources. On several occasions when
+he endeavoured to commit parliaments to back his bills and endorse his
+policy, they refused to help him, and left him to face his debts as best
+he might. This was especially the case with the insane contract which he
+made with Pope Innocent IV. in 1254, when he bound the realm of England
+to find 140,000 marks to equip an army for the conquest of Naples and
+Sicily. Henry lacked the energy to attempt to take by force what he
+could not obtain by persuasion, and preferred to break his bargain with
+the pope rather than to risk the chance of civil war at home.
+
+
+  Public discontent. The Provisions of Oxford.
+
+It was over this Sicilian scheme, the crowning folly of the king, that
+public opinion at last grew so hot that the intermittent criticism and
+grumbling of the baronage and the nation passed into vigorous and
+masterful action. At the "Mad Parliament," which met at Oxford, 1258,
+the barons informed their master that his misgovernment had grown so
+hopeless that they were resolved to put him under constitutional
+restraints. They appointed a committee of twenty-four, in which Simon de
+Montfort was the leading spirit, and entrusted it with the duty, not
+only of formulating lists of grievances, but of seeing that they were
+redressed. Henry found that he had practically no supporters save his
+unpopular foreign relatives and favourites, and yielded perforce. To
+keep him in bounds the celebrated "Provisions of Oxford" were framed.
+They provided that he was to do nothing without the consent of a
+permanent council of fifteen barons and bishops, and that all his
+finances were to be controlled by another committee of twenty-four
+persons. All aliens were to be expelled from the realm, and even the
+king's household was to be "reformed" by his self-constituted guardians.
+The inevitable oath to observe honestly all the conditions of the Great
+Charter of 1215 was, as usual, extorted from him with special
+formalities. Though Montfort and the barons voiced the public
+discontent, the constitution which they thus imposed on the king had
+nothing popular about it. The royal functions of which Henry was
+stripped were to be exercised by a series of baronial committees. The
+arrangement was too cumbersome, for there was nothing which would be
+called a central executive; the three bodies (two of twenty-four members
+each, the third of fifteen) were interdependent, and none of them
+possessed efficient control over the others. It was small wonder that
+the constitution established by the Provisions of Oxford was found
+unworkable. They were not even popular--the small landholders and
+subtenants discovered that their interests had not been sufficiently
+regarded, and lent themselves to an agitation against the provisional
+government, which was got up by Edward, the king's eldest son, who now
+appeared prominently in history for the first time. To conciliate them
+the barons allowed the "Provisions of Westminster" to be enacted in
+1259, in which the power of feudal courts was considerably restricted,
+and many classes of suit were transferred to the royal tribunals, a
+sufficient proof that the king's judges did not share in the odium which
+appertained to their master, and were regarded as honest and impartial.
+
+The limited monarchy established by the Provisions of Oxford lasted only
+three years. Seeing the barons quarrelling among themselves, and
+Montfort accused of ambition and overweening masterfulness by many of
+his colleagues, the king took heart. Copying the example of his father
+in 1215, he obtained from the pope a bull, which declared the new
+constitution irregular and illegal, and absolved him from his oath to
+abide by it. He then began to recall his foreign friends and relatives,
+and to assemble mercenaries. De Montfort answered by raising an army,
+arresting prominent aliens, and seizing the lands which the king had
+given them. Henry thereupon, finding his forces too weak to face the
+earl, took refuge in the Tower of London and proposed an arbitration. He
+offered to submit his case to Louis IX., the saintly king of France,
+whose virtues were known and respected all over Europe, if the baronial
+party would do the same. An appeal to the pope they would have laughed
+to scorn; but the confidence felt in the probity of the French king was
+so great that Montfort advised his friends to accede to the proposal.
+This was an unwise step. Louis was a saint, but he was also an
+autocratic king, and had no knowledge of the constitutional customs of
+England. Having heard the claims of the king and the barons, he issued
+the mise of Amiens (Jan. 23, 1264), so called from the city at which he
+dated it, a document which stated that King Henry ought to abide by the
+terms of Magna Carta, to which he had so often given his assent, but
+that the Provisions of Oxford were wholly invalid and derogatory to the
+royal dignity. "We ordain," he wrote, "that the king shall have full
+power and free jurisdiction over his realm, as in the days before the
+said Provisions." The pope shortly afterwards confirmed the French
+king's award.
+
+Simon de Montfort and his friends were put in an awkward position by
+this decision, to which they had so unwisely committed themselves. But
+they did not hesitate to declare that they must repudiate the mise.
+Simon declared that it would be a worse perjury to abandon his oath to
+keep the Provisions of Oxford than his oath to abide by the French
+king's award. He took arms again at the head of the Londoners and his
+personal adherents and allies. But many of the barons stood neutral, not
+seeing how they could refuse to accept the arbitration they had courted,
+while a number not inconsiderable joined the king, deciding that
+Leicester had passed the limits of reasonable loyalty, and that their
+first duty was to the crown.
+
+
+  The barons' war: battle of Lewes.
+
+Hence it came to pass that in the campaign of 1264 Simon was supported
+by a minority only of the baronial class, and the king's army was the
+larger. The fortune of war inclined at first in favour of the royalists,
+who captured Northampton and Nottingham. But when it came to open
+battle, the military skill of the earl sufficed to compensate for the
+inferiority of his numbers. At Lewes, on the 14th of May, he inflicted a
+crushing defeat on the king's army. Henry himself, his brother Richard
+of Cornwall, and many hundreds of his chief supporters were taken
+prisoners. His son Prince Edward, who had been victorious on his own
+flank of the battle, and had not been caught in the rout, gave himself
+up next morning, wishing to share his father's fate, and not to prolong
+a civil war which seemed to have become hopeless.
+
+
+  Montfort's parliament.
+
+On the day that followed his victory Leicester extorted from the captive
+king the document called the "mise of Lewes," in which Henry promised to
+abide by all the terms of the Provisions of Oxford, as well as to uphold
+the Great Charter and the old customs of the realm. Montfort was
+determined to put his master under political tutelage for the rest of
+his life. He summoned a parliament, in which four knights elected by
+each shire were present, to establish the new constitution. It appointed
+Simon, with his closest allies, the young earl of Gloucester and the
+bishop of Chichester, as electors who were to choose a privy council for
+the king and to fill up all offices of state. The king was to exercise
+no act of sovereignty save by the consent of the councillors, of whom
+three were to follow his person wherever he went. This was a far simpler
+constitution than that framed at Oxford in 1258, but it was even more
+liable to criticism. For if the "Provisions" had established a
+government by baronial committees, the parliament of 1264 created one
+which was a mere party administration. For the victorious faction,
+naturally but unwisely, took all power for themselves, and filled every
+sheriffdom, castellany and judicial office with their own firm friends.
+Simon's care to commit the commons to his cause by summoning them to his
+parliament did not suffice to disguise the fact that the government
+which he had set up was not representative of the whole nation. He
+himself was too much like a dictator; even his own followers complained
+that he was over-masterful, and the most important of them, the young
+earl of Gloucester, was gradually estranged from him by finding his
+requests often refused and his aims crossed by the old earl's action.
+The new government lasted less than two years, and was slowly losing
+prestige all the time. Its first failure was in the repression of the
+surviving royalists. Isolated castles in several districts held out in
+the king's name, and the whole March of Wales was never properly
+subdued. When Simon turned the native Welsh prince Llewelyn against the
+marcher barons, he gave great offence; he was accused of sacrificing
+Englishmen to a foreign enemy. The new régime did not give England the
+peace which it had promised; its enemies maintained that it did not even
+give the good governance of which Simon had made so many promises. It
+certainly appears that some of his followers, and notably his three
+reckless sons, had given good cause for offence by high-handed and
+selfish acts. Much indignation was provoked by the sight of the king
+kept continually in ward by his privy councillors and treated with
+systematic neglect; but the treatment of his son was even more resented.
+Edward, though he had given little cause of offence, and had behaved
+admirably in refusing to continue the civil war, was deprived of his
+earldom of Chester, and put under the same restraint as his father.
+There was no good reason for treating him so harshly, and his state was
+much pitied.
+
+Montfort attempted to strengthen his position, and to show his
+confidence in the commons, by summoning to his second and last
+parliament, that of 1265, a new element--two citizens from each city and
+two burgesses from each borough in the realm. It must be confessed that
+his object was probably not to introduce a great constitutional
+improvement, and to make parliament more representative, but rather to
+compensate for the great gaps upon the baronial benches by showing a
+multitude of lesser adherents, for the towns were his firm supporters.
+The actual proceedings of this particular assembly had no great
+importance.
+
+
+  Battle of Evesham.
+
+Two months later Prince Edward escaped from his confinement, and fled to
+the earl of Gloucester, who now declared himself a royalist. They raised
+an army, which seized the fords of the Severn, in order to prevent de
+Montfort--who was then at Hereford with the captive king--from getting
+back to London or the Midlands. The earl, who could only raise a
+trifling force in the Marches, where the barons were all his enemies,
+failed in several attempts to force a passage eastward. But his friends
+raised a considerable host, which marched under his son Simon the
+Younger and the earl of Oxford, to fall on the rear of the royalists.
+Prince Edward now displayed skilful generalship--hastily turning
+backward he surprised and scattered the army of relief at Kenilworth
+(Aug. 1); he was then free to deal with the earl, who had at last
+succeeded in passing the Severn during his absence. On the 4th of August
+he beset Montfort's little force with five-fold numbers, and absolutely
+exterminated it at Evesham. Simon fought most gallantly, and was left
+dead on the field along with his eldest son Henry, his justiciar Hugh
+Despenser, and the flower of his party. The king fell into the hands of
+his son's followers, and was once more free.
+
+It might have been expected that the victorious party would now
+introduce a policy of reaction and autocratic government. But the king
+was old and broken by his late misfortunes: his son the prince was wise
+beyond his years, and Gloucester and many other of the present
+supporters of the crown had originally been friends of reform, and had
+not abandoned their old views. They had deserted Montfort because he was
+autocratic and masterful, not because they had altogether disapproved of
+his policy. Hence we find Gloucester insisting that the remnant of the
+vanquished party should not be subjected to over heavy punishment, and
+even making an armed demonstration, in the spring of 1267, to demand the
+re-enactment of the Provisions of Oxford. Ultimately the troubles of the
+realm were ended by the Dictum of Kenilworth (Oct. 31, 1266) and the
+Statute of Marlborough (Nov. 1267). The former allowed nearly all of
+Montfort's faction to obtain amnesty and regain their estates on the
+payment of heavy fines; only Simon's own Leicester estates and those of
+Ferrers, earl of Derby, were confiscated. The latter established a form
+of constitution in which many, if not all, of the innovations of the
+Provisions of Oxford were embodied. The only unsatisfactory part of the
+pacification was that Llewelyn of Wales, who had ravaged the whole March
+while he was Montfort's ally, was allowed to keep a broad region (the
+greater part of the modern shire of Denbigh) which he had won back from
+its English holders. His power in a more indirect fashion extended
+itself over much of Mid-Wales. The line of the March was distinctly
+moved backward by the treaty of 1267.
+
+
+  Death of Henry III.
+
+King Henry survived his restoration to nominal, if not to actual,
+authority for seven years. He was now too feeble to indulge in any of
+his former freaks of foreign policy, and allowed the realm to be
+governed under his son's eye by veteran bureaucrats, who kept to the old
+customs of the land. Everything settled down so peacefully that when the
+prince took the cross, and went off to the Crusades in 1270, no trouble
+followed. Edward was still absent in Palestine when his father died, on
+the 16th of November 1272. For the first time in English history there
+was no form of election of the new king, whose accession was quietly
+acknowledged by the officials and the nation. It was nearly two years
+after his father's death that he reached England, yet absolutely no
+trouble had occurred during his absence. He had taken advantage of his
+leisurely journey home to pacify the turbulent Gascony, and to visit
+Paris and make a treaty with King Philip III. by which the frontiers of
+his duchy of Aquitaine were rectified, to some slight extent, in his
+favour. He, of course, did homage for the holding, as his father had
+done before him.
+
+
+  Edward I.
+
+The reign which began with this unwonted quietness was perhaps the most
+important epoch of all English medieval history in the way of the
+definition and settlement of the constitution. Edward I. was a
+remarkable figure, by far the ablest of all the kings of the house of
+Plantagenet. He understood the problem that was before him, the
+construction of a working constitution from the old ancestral customs of
+the English monarchy plus the newer ideas that had been embodied in the
+Great Charter, the Provisions of Oxford, and the scanty legislation of
+Simon de Montfort. Edward loved royal power, but he was wise in his
+generation, and saw that he could best secure the loyalty of his
+subjects by assenting to so many of the new constitutional restraints as
+were compatible with his own practical control of the policy of the
+realm. He was prepared to refer all important matters to his parliament,
+and (as we shall see) he improved the shape of that body by
+reintroducing into it the borough members who had appeared for the first
+time in Montfort's assembly of 1265. He would have liked to make
+parliament, no doubt, a mere meeting for the voting of taxation with the
+smallest possible friction. But he fully realized that this dream was
+impossible, and was wise enough to give way, whenever opposition grew
+too strong and bitter. He had not fought through the civil wars of
+1263-66 without learning his lesson. There was a point beyond which it
+was unwise to provoke the baronage or the commons, and, unlike his
+flighty and thriftless father, he knew where that point came. The
+constitutional quarrels of his reign were conducted with decency and
+order, because the king knew his own limitations, and because his
+subjects trusted to his wisdom and moderation in times of crisis. Edward
+indeed was a man worthy of respect, if not of affection. His private
+life was grave and seemly, his court did not sin by luxury or
+extravagance. His chosen ministers were wise and experienced officials,
+whom no man could call favourites or accuse of maladministration. He was
+sincerely religious, self-restrained and courteous, though occasionally,
+under provocation, he could burst out into a royal rage. He was a good
+master and a firm friend. Moreover, he had a genuine regard for the
+sanctity of a promise, the one thing in which his father had been most
+wanting. It is true that sometimes he kept his oaths or carried out his
+pledges with the literal punctuality of a lawyer, rather than with the
+chivalrous generosity of a knight. But at any rate he always endeavoured
+to discharge an obligation, even if he sometimes interpreted it by the
+strict letter of the law and not with liberality. A conscientious man
+according to his lights, he took as his device the motto _Pactum serva_,
+"keep troth," which was afterwards inscribed on his tomb, and did his
+best to live up to it. Naturally he expected the same accuracy from
+other men, and when he did not meet it he could be harsh and unrelenting
+in the punishment that he inflicted. To sum up his character it must be
+added that he was a very great soldier. The headlong courage which he
+showed at Lewes, his first battle, was soon tempered by caution, and
+already in 1265 he had shown that he could plan a campaign with skill.
+In his later military career he was the first general who showed on a
+large scale how the national English weapon, the bow, could win fights
+when properly combined with the charge of the mailed cavalry. He
+inaugurated the tactics by which his grandson and great-grandson were to
+win epoch-making victories abroad.
+
+Edward's reign lasted for thirty-five years, and was equally important
+in constitutional development and in imperial policy. The first period
+of it, 1272-1290, may be defined as mainly notable for his great series
+of legislative enactments and his conquest of Wales. The second,
+1290-1307, contains his long and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to
+incorporate Scotland into his realm, and his quarrels with his
+parliament.
+
+
+  Constitutional changes. Statutes of Westminster and Gloucester.
+
+The changes made by Edward in constitutional law by his great series of
+statutes commenced very soon after his return to his kingdom in 1274. We
+may trace in all of them the same purpose of strengthening the power of
+the crown by judicious and orderly definition of its privileges. The
+great enactments start with the First Statute of Westminster (1275), a
+measure directed to the improvement of administrative details, which was
+accompanied by a grant to the king of a permanent customs-revenue on
+imports and exports, which soon became more valuable to the royal
+exchequer than the old feudal taxes on land. In 1278 followed the
+Statute of Gloucester, an act empowering the king to make inquiry as to
+the right by which old royal estates, or exceptional franchises which
+infringed on the royal prerogative of justice or taxation, had passed
+into the hands of their present owners. This inquest was made by the
+writ _Quo Warranto_, by which each landholder was invited to show the
+charter or warrant in which his claims rested. The baronage were angry
+and suspicious, for many of their customary rights rested on immemorial
+and unchartered antiquity, while others were usurpations from the
+weakness of John or Henry III. They showed signs of an intention to make
+open resistance; but to their surprise the king contented himself with
+making complete lists of all franchises then existing, and did no more;
+this being his method of preventing the growth of any further trespasses
+on his prerogative.
+
+
+  Statute of Mortmain.
+
+Edward's next move was against clerical encroachments. In 1279 he
+compelled Archbishop Peckham to withdraw some legislation made in a
+synod called without the royal permission--a breach of one of the three
+great canons of William the Conqueror. Then he took the offensive
+himself, by persuading his parliament to pass the Statute of Mortmain
+(de religiosis). This was an act to prevent the further accumulation of
+landed property in the "dead hand" of religious persons and communities.
+The more land the church acquired, the less feudal taxation came into
+the royal exchequer. For undying corporations paid the king neither
+"reliefs" (death duties) nor fees on wardship and marriage, and their
+property would never escheat to the crown for want of an heir. The
+Statute of Mortmain forbade any man to alienate land to the church
+without royal licence. It was very acceptable to the baronage, who had
+suffered, on a smaller scale, the same grievance as the king, for when
+their subtenants transferred estates to the church, they (like their
+masters) suffered a permanent loss of feudal revenue. A distinct check
+in the hitherto steady growth of clerical endowments began from this
+time, though licences in mortmain were by no means impossible to obtain.
+
+
+  Second Statute of Westminster.
+
+The great group of statutes that date from Edward's earlier years ends
+with the legislative enactments of 1285, the Second Statute of
+Westminster and the Statute of Winchester. The former contains the
+clause _De Donis Conditionalibus_, a notable landmark in the history of
+English law, since it favoured the system of entailing estates. Hitherto
+life-owners of land, holding as subtenants, had possessed large powers
+of alienating it, to the detriment of their superior lords, who would
+otherwise have recovered it, when their vassals died heirless, as an
+"escheat." This custom was primarily harmful to the king--the greatest
+territorial magnate and the one most prone to distribute rewards in land
+to his servants. But it was also prejudicial to all tenants-in-chief. By
+_De Donis_ the tenant for life was prevented from selling his estate,
+which could only pass to his lawful heir; if he had none, it fell back
+to his feudal superior. Five years later this legislation was
+supplemented by the statute _Quia Emptores_, equally beneficial to king
+and barons, which provided that subtenants should not be allowed to make
+over land to other persons, retaining the nominal possession and feudal
+rights over it, but should be compelled to sell it out and out, so that
+their successor in title stood to the overlord exactly as the seller had
+done. Hitherto they had been wont to dispose of the whole or parts of
+their estates while maintaining their feudal rights over it, so that the
+ultimate landlord could not deal directly with the new occupant, whose
+reliefs, wardship, &c., fell to the intermediate holder who had sold
+away the land. The main result of this was that, when a baron parted
+with any one of his estates, the acquirer became a tenant-in-chief
+directly dependent on the king, instead of being left a vassal of the
+person who had passed over the land to him. Subinfeudation came to a
+complete stop, and whenever great family estates broke up the king
+obtained new tenants-in-chief. The number of persons holding immediately
+of the crown began at once to multiply by leaps and bounds. As the
+process of the partition of lands continued, the fractions grew smaller
+and smaller, and many of the tenants-in-chief were ere long very small
+and unimportant persons. These, of course, would not form part of the
+baronial interest, and could not be distinguished from any other
+subjects of the crown.
+
+
+  Statute of Winchester.
+
+The Statute of Winchester, the other great legislative act of 1285, was
+mainly concerned with the keeping of the peace of the realm. It revised
+the arming and organization of the national militia, the lineal
+descendent of the old _fyrd_, and provided a useful police force for the
+repression of disorder and robbery by the reorganization of _watch and
+ward_. This was, of course, one more device for strengthening the power
+of the crown.
+
+
+  Welsh wars.
+
+In the intervals of the legislation which formed the main feature of the
+first half of his reign, Edward was often distracted by external
+matters. He was, on the whole, on very good terms with his first cousin,
+Philip III. of France; the trouble did not come from this direction,
+though there was the usual crop of feudal rebellions in Gascony. Nor did
+Edward's relations with the more remote states of the continent lead to
+any important results, though he had many treaties and alliances in
+hand. It was with Wales that his most troublesome relations occurred.
+Llewelyn-ap-Gruffydd, the old ally of de Montfort, had come with profit
+out of the civil wars of 1263-66, and having won much land and more
+influence during the evil days of Henry III., was reluctant to see that
+his time of prosperity had come to an end, now that a king of a very
+different character sat on the English throne.
+
+
+  Conquest of Wales.
+
+Friction had begun the moment that Edward returned to his kingdom from
+the crusade. Llewelyn would not deign to appear before him to render the
+customary homage due from Wales to the English crown, but sent a series
+of futile excuses lasting over three years. In 1277, however, the king
+grew tired of waiting, invaded the principality and drove his
+recalcitrant vassal up into the fastnesses of Snowdon, where famine
+compelled him to surrender as winter was beginning. Llewelyn was
+pardoned, but deprived of all the lands he had gained during the days of
+the civil war, and restricted to his old North Welsh dominions. He
+remained quiescent for five years, but busied himself in knitting up
+secret alliances with the Welsh of the South, who were resenting the
+introduction of English laws and customs by the strong-handed king. In
+1282 there was a sudden and well-planned rising, which extended from the
+gates of Chester to those of Carmarthen; several castles were captured
+by the insurgents, and Edward had to come to the rescue of the
+lords-marchers at the head of a very large army. After much checkered
+fighting Llewelyn was slain at the skirmish of Orewyn Bridge near Builth
+on the 11th of December 1282. On his death the southern rebels
+submitted, but David his brother continued the struggle for three months
+longer in the Snowdon district, till his last bands were scattered and
+he himself taken prisoner. Edward beheaded him at Shrewsbury as a
+traitor, having the excuse that David had submitted once before, had
+been endowed with lands in the Marches, and had nevertheless joined his
+brother in rebellion. After this the king abode for more than a year in
+Wales, organizing the newly conquered principality into a group of
+counties, and founding many castles, with dependent towns, within its
+limits. The "statute of Wales," issued at Rhuddlan in 1284, provided for
+the introduction of English law into the country, though a certain
+amount of Celtic customs was allowed to survive. For the next two
+centuries and a half the lands west of Dee and Wye were divided between
+the new counties, forming the "principality" of Wales, and the "marches"
+where the old feudal franchises continued, till the marcher-lordships
+gradually fell by forfeiture or marriage to the crown. Edward's grip on
+the land was strong, and it had need to be so, for in 1287 and 1294-1295
+there were desperate and widespread revolts, which were only checked by
+the existence of the new castles, and subdued by the concentration of
+large royal armies. In 1301 the king's eldest surviving son Edward, who
+had been born at Carnarvon in 1284, was created "prince of Wales," and
+invested with the principality, which henceforth became the regular
+appanage of the heirs of the English crown. This device was apparently
+intended to soothe Welsh national pride, by reviving in form, if not in
+reality, the separate existence of the old Cymric state. For four
+generations the land was comparatively quiet, but the great rebellion of
+Owen Glendower in the reign of Henry IV. was to show how far the spirit
+of particularism was from extinction.
+
+
+  Expulsion of the Jews.
+
+Some two years after his long sojourn in Wales Edward made an even
+longer stay in a more remote corner of his dominions. Gascony being, as
+usual, out of hand, he crossed to Bordeaux in 1286, and abode in Guienne
+for no less than three years, reducing the duchy to such order as it had
+never known before, settling all disputed border questions with the new
+king of France, Philip IV., founding many new towns, and issuing many
+useful statutes and ordinances. He returned suddenly in 1289, called
+home by complaints that reached him as to the administration of justice
+by his officials, who were slighting the authority of his cousin Edmund
+of Cornwall, whom he had left behind as regent. He dismissed almost the
+whole bench of judges, and made other changes among his ministers. At
+the same time he fell fiercely upon the great lords of the Welsh
+Marches, who had been indulging in private wars; when they returned to
+their evil practice he imprisoned the chief offenders, the earls of
+Hereford and Gloucester, forfeited their estates, and only gave them
+back when they had paid vast fines (1291). Another act of this period
+was Edward's celebrated expulsion of the Jews from England (1290). This
+was the continuation of a policy which he had already carried out in
+Guienne. It would seem that his reasons were partly religious, but
+partly economic. No earlier king could have afforded to drive forth a
+race who had been so useful to the crown as bankers and money-lenders;
+but by the end of the 13th century the financial monopoly of the Jews
+had been broken by the great Italian banking firms, whom Edward had been
+already employing during his Welsh wars. Finding them no less
+accommodating than their rivals, he gratified the prejudices of his
+subjects and himself by forcing the Hebrews to quit England. The
+Italians in a few years became as unpopular as their predecessors in the
+trade of usury, their practices being the same, if their creed was not.
+
+
+  Edward I. and Scotland.
+
+Meanwhile in the same year that saw the expulsion of the Jews, King
+Edward's good fortune began to wane, with the rise of the Scottish
+question, which was to overshadow the latter half of his reign.
+Alexander III., the last male in direct descent of the old Scottish
+royal house, had died in 1286. His heiress was his only living
+descendant, a little girl, the child of his deceased daughter Margaret
+and Eric, king of Norway. After much discussion, for both the Scottish
+nobles and the Norse king were somewhat suspicious, Edward had succeeded
+in obtaining from them a promise that the young queen should marry his
+heir, Edward of Carnarvon. This wedlock would have led to a permanent
+union of the English and Scottish crowns, but not to an absorption of
+the lesser in the greater state, for the rights of Scotland were
+carefully guarded in the marriage-treaty. But the scheme was wrecked by
+the premature death of the bride, who expired by the way, while being
+brought over from Norway to her own kingdom, owing to privations and
+fatigue suffered on a tempestuous voyage.
+
+She had no near relatives, and more than a dozen Scottish or
+Anglo-Scottish nobles, distantly related to the royal line, put in a
+claim to the crown, or at least to a part of the royal heritage. The
+board of six regents, who had been ruling Scotland for the young queen,
+seeing their own power at an end and civil war likely to break out,
+begged Edward of England to arbitrate between the claimants. The history
+of the next twenty years turned on the legal point whether the
+arbitrator acted--as he himself contended--in the capacity of suzerain,
+or--as the Scots maintained--in that of a neighbour of acknowledged
+wisdom and repute, invited to settle a domestic problem. This question
+of the relations between the English and the Scottish crowns had been
+raised a dozen times between the days of Edward the Elder and those of
+Henry III. There was no denying the fact that the northern kings had
+repeatedly done homage to their greater neighbours. But, save during the
+years when William the Lion, after his captivity, had owned himself the
+vassal of Henry II. for all his dominions, there was considerable
+uncertainty as to the exact scope of the allegiance which had been
+demanded and given. And William's complete submission had apparently
+been cancelled, when Richard I. sold him in 1190 a release from the
+terms of the treaty of Falaise. Since that date Alexander II. and
+Alexander III. had repeatedly owned themselves vassals to the English
+crown, and had even sat in English parliaments. But it was possible for
+patriotic Scots to contend that they had done so only in their capacity
+as English barons--for they held much land south of Tweed--and to point
+to the similarity of their position to that of the English king when he
+did homage for his duchy of Guienne at Paris, without thereby admitting
+any suzerainty of the French crown over England or Ireland. On the last
+occasion when Alexander III. had owned himself the vassal of Edward I.,
+there had been considerable fencing on both sides as to the form of the
+oath, and, as neither sovereign at the moment had wished to push matters
+to a rupture, the words used had been intentionally vague, and both
+parties had kept their private interpretations to themselves. But now,
+when Edward met the Scottish magnates, who had asked for his services as
+arbitrator, he demanded that they should acknowledge that he was acting
+as suzerain and overlord of the whole kingdom of Scotland. After some
+delay, and with manifest reluctance, the Scots complied; their hand was
+forced by the fact that most of the claimants to the crown had hastened
+to make the acknowledgment, each hoping thereby to prejudice the English
+king in his own favour.
+
+This submission having been made, Edward acted with honesty and
+fairness, handing over the adjudication to a body of eighty Scottish and
+twenty-four English barons, knights and bishops. These commissioners,
+after ample discussion and taking of evidence, adjudged the crown to
+John Baliol, the grandson of the eldest daughter of Earl David, younger
+brother of William the Lion. They ruled out the claim of Robert Bruce,
+the son of David's second daughter, who had raised the plea that his
+descent was superior because he was a generation nearer than Baliol to
+their common ancestor. This theory of affinity had been well known in
+the 12th century, and had been urged in favour of King John when he was
+contending with his nephew Arthur. But by 1291 it had gone out of
+favour, and the Scottish barons had no hesitation in declaring Baliol
+their rightful king. Edward at once gave him seizin of Scotland, and
+handed over to him the royal castles, which had been placed in his hands
+as a pledge during the arbitration. In return Baliol did him homage as
+overlord of the whole kingdom of Scotland.
+
+This, unfortunately, turned out to be the beginning, not the end, of
+troubles. Edward was determined to exact all the ordinary feudal rights
+of an overlord--whatever might have been the former relations of the
+English and Scottish crowns. The Scots, on the other hand, were resolved
+not to allow of the introduction of usages which had not prevailed in
+earlier times, and to keep the tie as vague and loose as possible.
+Before Baliol had been many months on the throne there was grave
+friction on the question of legal appeals. Scottish litigants defeated
+in the local courts began to appeal to the courts of Westminster, just
+as Gascon litigants were wont to appeal from Bordeaux to Paris. King
+John and his baronage, relying on the fact that such evocation of cases
+to a superior court had never before been known, refused to allow that
+it was valid. King Edward insisted that by common feudal usage it was
+perfectly regular, and announced his intention of permitting it. Grave
+friction had already begun when external events precipitated an open
+rupture between the king of England and his new vassal.
+
+
+  Edward I. and Philip IV.
+
+  The "model parliament" of 1295.
+
+Philip III. of France, who had always pursued a friendly policy with his
+cousin of England, had died in 1285, and had been succeeded by his son
+Philip IV., a prince of a very different type, the most able and
+unscrupulous of all the dynasty of Capet. In 1294 he played a most
+dishonourable trick upon King Edward. There had been some irregular and
+piratical fighting at sea between English and Norman sailors, in which
+the latter had been worsted. When called to account for the doings of
+his subjects, as well as for certain disputes in Gascony, the English
+king promised redress, and, on the suggestion of Philip, surrendered, as
+a formal act of apology, the six chief fortresses of Guienne, which were
+to be restored when reparation had been made. Having garrisoned the
+places, Philip suddenly changed his line, refused to continue the
+negotiations, and declared the whole duchy forfeited. Edward was forced
+into war, after having been tricked out of his strongholds. Just after
+his first succours had sailed for the Gironde, the great Welsh rebellion
+of 1294 broke out, and the king was compelled to turn aside to repress
+it. This he accomplished in the next spring, but meanwhile hardly a
+foothold remained to him in Gascony. He was then preparing to cross the
+Channel in person, when Scottish affairs began to become threatening.
+King John declared himself unable to restrain the indignation of his
+subjects at the attempt to enforce English suzerainty over Scotland, and
+in July 1295 leagued himself with Philip of France, and expelled from
+his realm the chief supporters of the English alliance. Finding himself
+involved in two wars at once, Edward made an earnest appeal to his
+subjects to rise to the occasion and "because that which touches all
+should be approved of all" summoned the celebrated "model parliament" of
+November 1295, which exactly copied in its constitution Montfort's
+parliament of 1265, members from all cities and boroughs being summoned
+along with the knights of the shires, and the inferior clergy being also
+represented by their proctors. This system henceforth became the normal
+one, and the English parliament assumed its regular form, though the
+differentiation of the two houses was not fully completed till the next
+century. Edward was voted liberal grants by the laity, though the clergy
+gave less than he had hoped; but enough money was obtained to fit out
+two armies, one destined for the invasion of Scotland, the other for
+that of Gascony.
+
+
+  Invasion of Scotland.
+
+The French expedition, which was led by the king's brother Edmund, earl
+of Lancaster, failed to recover Gascony, and came to an ignominious end.
+But Edward's own army achieved complete success in Scotland. Berwick was
+stormed, the Scottish army was routed at Dunbar (April 27), Edinburgh
+and Stirling were easily captured, and at last John Baliol, deserted by
+most of his adherents, surrendered at Brechin. Edward pursued his
+triumphant march as far as Aberdeen and Elgin, without meeting further
+resistance. He then summoned a parliament at Berwick, and announced to
+the assembled Scots that he had determined to depose King John, and to
+assume the crown himself. The ease with which he had subdued the realm
+misled him; he fancied that the slack resistance, which was mainly due
+to the incapacity and unpopularity of Baliol, implied the indifference
+of the Scots to the idea of annexation. The alacrity with which the
+greater part of the baronage flocked in to do him homage confirmed him
+in the mistaken notion. He appointed John, earl Warenne, lieutenant of
+the realm, with Hugh Cressingham, an English clerk, as treasurer, but
+left nearly all the minor offices in Scottish hands, and announced that
+Scottish law should be administered. He then returned to England, and
+began to make preparations for a great expedition to France in 1297.
+
+
+  Disputes with the clergy and baronage.
+
+His plan was something more ambitious than a mere attempt to recover
+Bordeaux; succours were to go to Gascony, but he himself and the main
+army were to invade France from the north with the aid of the count of
+Flanders. Much money was, of course, needed for the double expedition,
+and in raising it Edward became involved in two desperate constitutional
+disputes. Though the barons and the commons voted a liberal grant at the
+parliament of Bury (Nov. 1296) the clergy would give nothing. This was
+owing to a bull--the celebrated _Clericis Laicos_, recently issued by
+the arrogant and contentious pope Boniface VIII., which forbade the
+clergy to submit to any taxation by secular princes. Robert Winchelsea,
+the archbishop of Canterbury, an enthusiastic exponent of clerical
+rights and grievances, declared himself in conscience bound to obey the
+pontiff, and persuaded the representatives of the Church in the
+parliament to refuse supplies. The king, indignant that an attempt
+should be made to exempt the vast ecclesiastical lands from taxation at
+a time of national crisis, sequestrated the estates of the see of
+Canterbury, and copied John's conduct in 1208 by outlawing the whole
+body of the clergy. Winchelsea in return excommunicated all those who
+refused to recognize the authority of the pope's bull.
+
+Scarcely was this quarrel developed when Edward found himself involved
+in an equally hot dispute with the commons and the baronage. In his
+eagerness to collect the sinews of war he had issued orders for the levy
+of a heavy customs duty on wool, the main export of the land, and in
+some cases laid hands on the wool itself, which lay ready for shipping,
+though this had not been granted him by the late parliament. The
+"maltolt"--or illegal tax--as his subjects called it, provoked the anger
+of the whole body of merchants in England. At the same time the barons,
+headed by the earls of Norfolk and Hereford, raised the old grievance
+about feudal service beyond seas, which had been so prominent in the
+time of King John. Norfolk, who had been designated to lead the
+expedition to Guienne; declared that though he was ready to follow his
+master to Flanders in his capacity of marshal, he would not be drafted
+off to Gascony against his own will. Hereford and a number of other
+barons gave him hearty support.
+
+Harassed by these domestic troubles, the king could not carry out his
+intention of sailing for Flanders in the spring, and spent the greater
+part of the campaigning season in wrangles with his subjects. He was
+obliged to come to a compromise. If the clergy would give him a
+voluntary gift, which was in no way to be considered a tax, he agreed to
+inlaw them. They did so, and even Winchelsea, after a time, was
+reconciled to his master. As to the barons, the king took the important
+constitutional step of conceding that he would not ask them to serve
+abroad as a feudal obligation, but would pay them for their services, if
+they would oblige him by joining his banner. Even then Norfolk and
+Hereford refused to sail; but the greater part of the minor magnates
+consented to serve as stipendiaries. The commons were conciliated by a
+promise that the wool which the royal officers had seized should be paid
+for, when a balance was forthcoming in the exchequer.
+
+
+  Insurrection in Scotland. Wallace.
+
+By these means Edward succeeded at last in collecting a considerable
+army, and sailed for Flanders at the end of August. But he was hardly
+gone when dreadful news reached him from Scotland. An insurrection, to
+which no great importance was attached at first, had broken out in the
+summer. Its first leader was none of the great barons, but a
+Renfrewshire knight, Sir William Wallace; but ere long more important
+persons, including Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick (grandson of Robert
+Bruce of Annandale, one of the competitors for the crown of Scotland),
+and the bishop of Glasgow, were found to be in communication with the
+rebels. Earl Warenne, the king's lieutenant in Scotland, mustered his
+forces to put down the rising. On the 11th of September 1297 he
+attempted to force the passage of the Forth at Stirling Bridge, and was
+completely beaten by Wallace, who allowed half the English army to pass
+the river and then descended upon it and annihilated it, while Warenne
+looked on helplessly from the other bank. Almost the whole of Scotland
+rose in arms on hearing of this victory, but the barons showed less zeal
+than the commons, owing to their jealousy of Wallace. Warenne retired to
+Berwick and besought his master for aid.
+
+
+  The "Confirmatio Cartarum."
+
+Edward, who was just commencing an autumn campaign in Flanders which was
+to lead to no results, sent home orders to summon a parliament, which
+should raise men and money for the Scottish war. It was called, and made
+a liberal grant for that purpose, but Archbishop Winchelsea and the
+earls of Norfolk and Hereford took advantage of their master's needs,
+and of his absence, to assert themselves. Taking up the position of
+defenders of the constitution, they induced the parliament to couple its
+grants of money with the condition that the king should not only confirm
+Magna Carta--as had been so often done before--but give a specific
+promise that no "maltolts," or other taxes not legally granted him,
+should be raised for the future. Edward received the petition at Ghent,
+and made the required oath. The document to which he gave his assent,
+the _Confirmatio Cartarum_ (less accurately called the statute _De
+Tallagio non concedendo_) marked a distinct advance beyond the theories
+of Magna Carta; for the latter had been drawn up before England
+possessed a parliament, and had placed the control of taxation in the
+hands of the old feudal council of tenants-in-chief, while the
+_Confirmatio_ gave it to the assembly, far more national and
+representative, which had now superseded the Great Council as the
+mouthpiece of the whole people of the realm.
+
+The Scottish revolt had become so formidable that Edward was compelled
+to abandon his unfruitful Flemish campaign; he patched up an
+unsatisfactory truce with the king of France, which left four-fifths of
+his lost Gascon lands in the power of the enemy, and returned to England
+in the spring of 1298. In July he invaded Scotland at the head of a
+formidable army of 15,000 men, and on the 22nd of that month brought
+Wallace to action on the moors above Falkirk. The steady Scottish
+infantry held their own for some time against the charge of the English
+men-at-arms. But when Edward brought forward his archers to aid his
+cavalry, as William I. had done at Hastings, Wallace's columns broke up,
+and a dreadful slaughter followed. The impression made on the Scots was
+so great that for some years they refused to engage in another pitched
+battle. But the immediate consequences were not all that might have been
+expected. Edward was able to occupy many towns and castles, but the
+broken bands of the insurgents lurked in the hills and forests, and the
+countryside as a whole remained unsubdued. Wallace went to France to
+seek aid from King Philip, and his place was taken by John Comyn, lord
+of Badenoch, a nephew of Baliol, who was a more acceptable leader to the
+Scottish nobles than the vanquished knight of Falkirk. Edward was
+detained in the south for a year, partly by negotiations with France,
+partly by a renewed quarrel with his parliament, and during his absence
+Comyn recovered Stirling and most of the other places which had received
+English garrisons. It was not till 1300 that the king was able to resume
+the invasion of Scotland, with an army raised by grants of money that he
+had only bought by humiliating concessions to the will of his
+parliament, formulated in the _Articuli super cartas_ which were drawn
+up in the March of that year. Even then he only succeeded in recovering
+some border holds, and the succeeding campaign of 1301 only took him as
+far as Linlithgow. But in the following year his position was suddenly
+changed by unexpected events abroad; the king of France became involved
+in a desperate quarrel with the pope, and at the same moment his army
+received a crushing defeat before Courtrai at the hands of the Flemings.
+To free himself for these new struggles Philip made up his mind to
+conclude peace with England, even at the cost of sacrificing his
+conquests in Gascony. Bordeaux had already revolted from him, and he
+gave up the rest of his ill-gotten gains of 1294 by the treaty of Paris
+(May 20, 1303).
+
+
+  Edward again invades Scotland, 1303.
+
+Now that he had only a single war upon his hands Edward's position was
+entirely changed. There was no more need to conciliate the magnates nor
+the parliament. His displeasure fell mainly on the archbishop and the
+earl of Norfolk, who had so long led the opposition. Winchelsea was put
+in disgrace, and ultimately exiled. Norfolk, who was childless, was
+forced to sign a grant by which his lands went to the king after his
+death--a harsh and illegal proceeding, for he had collateral heirs. But
+the Scots, as was natural, bore the brunt of the king's wrath. In June
+1303, a month after the peace of Paris, he advanced from Roxburgh,
+determined to make a systematic conquest of the realm, and not to return
+till it was ended. He kept up his campaign throughout the winter,
+reduced every fortress that held out, and carried his arms as far as
+Aberdeen and Elgin. In February 1304 the regent Comyn and most of the
+Scottish baronage submitted, on the promise that they should retain
+their lands on doing homage. Wallace, who had returned from France, kept
+up a guerilla warfare in the hills for a year more, but was captured in
+July 1305, and sent to London to be executed as a traitor. Even before
+his capture it seemed that Scotland was thoroughly tamed, and was
+destined to share the fate of Wales.
+
+Edward's arrangements for the administration of the conquered kingdom
+were wise and liberal, if only the national spirit of the Scots could
+have tolerated them. The Scottish parliament was to continue, though
+representatives from beyond Tweed were also to be sent to the English
+parliament. The sheriffdoms and most of the ministerial posts were left
+in the hands of Scots, though the supreme executive authority was put in
+the hands of John of Brittany, earl of Richmond, the king's nephew. The
+land seemed for a time to be settling down, and indeed the baronage were
+to such a large extent English in both blood and feeling, that there was
+no insuperable difficulty in conciliating them. A considerable fraction
+of them adhered consistently to the English cause from this time forth,
+and ultimately lost their lands for refusing to follow the rest of the
+nation in the next insurrection.
+
+But the delusion that Scotland had been finally subdued was to last only
+for a year, although in 1305 Edward seemed to have accomplished his
+task, and stood triumphant, with the northern realm at his feet, his
+domestic foes humbled, and France and the papacy defeated. His last
+short interval of peaceful rule was distinguished by the passing of the
+Statute of Trailbaston in the parliament of 1305. This was a measure for
+the repression of local riots, empowering justices in every shire to
+suppress clubmen (_trailbastons_), gangs of marauders who had been
+rendering the roads unsafe.
+
+
+  Robert Bruce.
+
+In the first month of 1306, however, the weary Scottish war broke out
+again, with the appearance of a new insurgent chief. Robert Bruce, earl
+of Carrick, grandson of the claimant to the throne of 1292, had hitherto
+pursued a shifty policy, wavering between submission and opposition to
+the English invader. He had been in arms more than once, but had finally
+adhered to the pacification of 1304, and was now entirely trusted by the
+king. But he was secretly plotting rebellion, disgusted (as it would
+seem) that Edward had not transferred the crown of Scotland to the line
+of Bruce when the house of Baliol was found wanting. Though he found
+himself certain of a considerable amount of support, he yet could see
+that there would be no general rising in his favour, for many of the
+magnates refused to help in making king a baron whom they regarded as no
+more important than one of themselves. But the insurrection was
+precipitated by an unpremeditated outrage. Bruce was conferring at
+Dumfries with John Comyn, the late regent, whom he was endeavouring to
+tempt into his plots, on the 10th of January 1306. An angry altercation
+followed, for Comyn would have nothing to do with the scheme, and Bruce
+and his followers finally slew him before the altar of a church into
+which he had fled. After this crime, which combined the disgrace of
+sacrilege with that of murder under tryst, Bruce was forced to take arms
+at once, though his preparations were incomplete. He raised his banner,
+and was hastily crowned at Scone on the 25th of March; by that time the
+rising had burst out in many shires of Scotland, but it was neither
+unanimous nor complete. Edward by no means despaired of crushing it, and
+had raised a large army, when he was smitten with an illness which
+prevented him from crossing the border. But his troops, under Aymer de
+Valence, earl of Pembroke, pressed north, and surprised and routed Bruce
+at Methven near Perth. The pretender's brother Nigel and many of his
+chief supporters were taken prisoners, and he himself escaped with a
+handful of followers and took refuge in the Western islands. Edward
+ordered young Nigel Bruce and many other captives to be executed; for he
+was provoked to great wrath by the rebellion of a magnate who had given
+him every assurance of loyalty. He intended to follow de Valence to
+Scotland, and to complete the suppression of the rising in person. But
+this proved beyond his strength; he struggled as far as the border in
+July, but could not shake off his disease, and was forced to linger, a
+broken invalid, in the neighbourhood of Carlisle for many months.
+Meanwhile his lieutenants failed to follow up with energy the victory
+gained at Methven, and in the next spring Bruce reappeared in the
+Lowlands, gathered new levies, and inflicted a defeat on de Valence at
+Loudoun Hill. Roused to anger King Edward rose from his bed, mounted his
+horse, and started for Scotland. But after struggling on for a few miles
+he fell by the way, and died at Burgh-on-Sands, just inside the English
+border, on the 7th of July 1307.
+
+
+  Character of Edward I.'s rule.
+
+Despite the chequered fortunes of his later years the reign of Edward
+had been a time of progress and prosperity for England. He had given his
+realm good and strong governance; according to his lights he had striven
+to keep faith and to observe his coronation oath. He had on more than
+one occasion quarrelled with his subjects, but matters had never been
+pushed to an open rupture. The king knew how to yield, and even
+opponents like Winchelsea and the earls of Norfolk and Hereford
+respected him too much to drive him to an extremity. The nation, however
+much it might murmur, would never have been willing to rebel against a
+sovereign whose only fault was that he occasionally pressed his
+prerogative too far. Edward's rule was seldom or never oppressive, the
+seizure of the merchants' wool in 1297 was the only one of his acts
+which caused really fierce and widespread indignation. For his other
+arbitrary proceedings he had some show of legal justification in every
+case. It would have been absurd to declare that his rule was tyrannical
+or his policy disastrous. The realm was on the whole contented and even
+flourishing. Population was steadily increasing, and with it commerce;
+the intellectual activity which had marked the reign of Henry III. was
+still alive; architecture, religious and military, was in its prime. He
+was himself a great builder, and many of the perfected castles of that
+concentric style, which later ages have called the "Edwardian type,"
+were of his own planning. In ecclesiastical architecture his reign
+represents the early flower of the "Decorated" order, perhaps the most
+beautiful of all the developments of English art. In many respects the
+reign may be regarded as the culmination and crowning point of the
+middle ages. It certainly gave a promise of greatness and steady
+progress which the 14th century was far from justifying.
+
+
+  Edward II.
+
+With the great king's death a sudden change for the worse was at once
+visible. The individual character of the reigning king was still the
+main factor in political history, and Edward II. was in every respect a
+contrast to his father. He was incorrigibly frivolous, idle and
+apathetic; his father had given him much stern schooling, but this seems
+only to have inspired him with a deeply rooted dislike for official work
+of any kind. He has been well described as "the first king since the
+Conquest who was not a man of business." Even Stephen and Henry III. had
+been active and bustling princes, though their actions were misguided
+and inconsequent. But Edward II. hated all kingly duties; he detested
+war, but he detested even more the routine work of administration. He
+was most at his ease in low company, his favourite diversion was
+gambling, his best trait a love for farming and the mechanical arts of
+the smith and the gardener.
+
+
+  Piers Gaveston.
+
+His first acts on coming to the throne caused patriotic Englishmen to
+despair. His father, on his death-bed, had made him swear to conduct the
+Scottish expedition to its end. But he marched no further than Dumfries,
+and then turned back, on the vain pretext that he must conduct his
+parent's funeral in person. Leaving Bruce to gather fresh strength and
+to commence the tedious process of reducing the numerous English
+garrisons in Scotland, he betook himself to London, and was not seen on
+the border again for more than three years. He then dismissed all his
+father's old ministers, and replaced them by creatures of his own, for
+the most part persons of complete incompetence. But his most offensive
+act was to promote to the position of chief councillor of the crown, and
+disperser of the royal favours, a clever but vain and ostentatious
+Gascon knight, one Piers Gaveston, who had been the companion of his
+boyhood, and had been banished by Edward I. for encouraging him in his
+follies and frivolity. Piers was given the royal title of earl of
+Cornwall, and married to the king's niece; when Edward went over to
+France to do homage for Gascony, he even made his friend regent during
+his absence, in preference to any of his kinsmen. It was his regular
+habit to refer those who came to him on matters of state to "his good
+brother Piers," and to refuse to discuss them in person.
+
+
+  Baronial opposition.
+
+It was of course impossible that the nation or the baronage should
+accept such a preposterous régime, and Edward was soon involved in a
+lively struggle with his subjects. Of the leaders of opposition in his
+father's reign both Hereford and Norfolk were now dead. But Archbishop
+Winchelsea had returned from exile in a belligerent mood, and the place
+of Norfolk and Hereford was taken by an ambitious prince of the royal
+house, Thomas, earl of Lancaster, the son of the younger brother of
+Edward I. Thomas was selfish and incompetent, but violent and
+self-assertive, and for some years was able to pose successfully as a
+patriot simply because he set himself to oppose every act of the
+unpopular king. He had several powerful baronial allies--the earls of
+Warwick, Pembroke and Warenne, with Humphrey Bohun of Hereford, who had
+succeeded to his father's politics, though he had married the king's own
+sister.
+
+
+  Progress of Bruce in Scotland.
+
+  The "Lords Ordainers."
+
+The annals of the early years of Edward II. are mainly filled by
+contemporary chroniclers with details of the miserable strife between
+the king and his barons on the question of Gaveston's unconstitutional
+position. But the really important feature of the time was the gradual
+reconquest of Scotland by Robert Bruce, during the continuance of the
+domestic strife in England. Edward I. had laid such a firm grip on the
+northern realm that it required many years to undo his work. A very
+large proportion of the Scottish nobility regarded Bruce as a usurper
+who had opened his career with murder and sacrilege, and either openly
+opposed him or denied him help. His resources were small, and it was
+only by constant effort, often chequered by failures, that he gradually
+fought down his local adversaries, and reduced the English garrisons one
+by one. Dumbarton and Linlithgow were only mastered in 1312. Perth did
+not finally fall into his hands till 1313; Edinburgh, Roxburgh and
+Stirling were still holding out in 1314. During all this time the
+English king only once went north of the Border--in 1311--and then with
+a very small army, for Lancaster and his friends had refused to join his
+banner. Yet even under such conditions Bruce had to retire to the
+mountains, and to allow the invaders to range unopposed through Lothian
+and Fife, and even beyond the Tay. With ordinary capacity and
+perseverance Edward II. might have mastered his enemy; indeed the Comyns
+and Umfravilles and other loyalist barons of Scotland would have carried
+out the business for him, if only he had given them adequate support.
+But he spent what small energy he possessed in a wretched strife of
+chicanery and broken promises with Thomas of Lancaster and his party,
+dismissing and recalling Gaveston according to the exigencies of the
+moment, while he let the Scottish war shift for itself. It must be
+confessed that the conduct of his adversaries was almost as contemptible
+and unpatriotic. They refused to aid in the war, as if it was the
+king's private affair and not that of the nation. And repeatedly, when
+they had Edward at their mercy and might have dictated what terms they
+pleased to him, they failed to rise to the situation. This was
+especially the case in 1311, when the king had completely submitted in
+face of their armed demonstrations. Instead of introducing any general
+scheme of reform they contented themselves with putting him under the
+tutelage of twenty-one "lords ordainers," a baronial committee like that
+which had been appointed by the Provisions of Oxford, fifty years back.
+Edward was not to levy an army, appoint an official, raise a tax, or
+quit the realm without their leave. He had also to swear an obedience to
+a long string of constitutional limitations of his power, and to promise
+to remove many practical grievances of administration. But there were
+two great faults in the proceedings of Thomas of Lancaster and his
+friends. The first was that they ignored the rights of the commons--save
+indeed that they got their ordinances confirmed by parliament--and put
+all power into the hands of a council which represented nothing but the
+baronial interest. The second, and more fatal, was that this council of
+"ordainers," when installed in office, showed energy in nothing save in
+persecuting the friends of Edward and Gaveston; it neglected the general
+welfare of the realm, and in particular made no effort whatever to end
+the Scottish war. It was clearly their duty either to make peace with
+Robert Bruce, or to exert themselves to crush him; but they would do
+neither.
+
+
+  Battle of Bannockburn.
+
+Gaveston's unhappy career came to an end in 1312. After he had been
+twice exiled, and had been twice recalled by the king, he was besieged
+in Scarborough and captured by the earl of Pembroke. He was being
+conducted to London to be tried in parliament, when his two greatest
+enemies, Thomas of Lancaster and Guy, earl of Warwick, took him out of
+the hands of his escort, and beheaded him by the wayside without any
+legal authority or justification. The unhappy king was compelled to
+promise to forget and forgive this offence, and was then restored to a
+certain amount of freedom and power; the barons believed that when freed
+from the influence of Gaveston he would prove a less unsatisfactory
+sovereign. The experiment did not turn out happily. Bruce having at last
+made an almost complete end of the English garrisons within his realm,
+laid siege to Stirling, the last and strongest of them all, in the
+spring of 1313. Compelled by the pressure of public opinion to attempt
+its relief, Edward crossed the border in June 1314, with an army of
+20,000 foot and 4000 men-at-arms. He found Bruce prepared to dispute his
+advance on the hillside of Bannockburn, 2 m. in front of Stirling, in a
+strong position with a stream in front and his flanks covered by rows of
+pitfalls, dug to discomfit the English cavalry. The Scots, as at
+Falkirk, were ranged in solid clumps of pikemen above the burn, with
+only a small reserve of horse. The English king, forgetting his father's
+experiences, endeavoured to ride down the enemy by headlong frontal
+charges of his men-at-arms, and made practically no attempt to use his
+archery to advantage. After several attacks had been beaten off with
+heavy loss, the English host recoiled in disorder and broke up--the
+king, who had kept in the rear all day, was one of the first to move
+off. The flower of his knights had fallen, including his nephew, the
+earl of Gloucester, who was the only one of the great magnates of the
+realm who had shown loyalty to him during the last six years. The Scots
+also made many prisoners; the disaster was complete, and the wrecks of
+the beaten army dispersed before reaching the border. Bruce followed
+them up, and spent the autumn in ravaging Northumberland and Cumberland.
+
+
+  Thomas, earl of Lancaster.
+
+Thomas of Lancaster, who had refused to join in the late campaign, took
+advantage of its results to place the king once more in complete
+tutelage. His household was dismissed, he was bidden to live as best he
+could on an allowance of £10 a day, and all his ministers and officials
+were changed. For more than three years Lancaster practically reigned in
+his cousin's name; it was soon found that the realm got no profit
+thereby, for Earl Thomas, though neither so apathetic nor so frivolous
+as Edward, was not a whit more competent to conduct either war or
+domestic administration. The Scots swept everything before them,
+ravaging the north at their will, and capturing Berwick. They even made
+a great expedition to Ireland, where Bruce's brother Edward was
+proclaimed king by the rebellious Celtic septs, and rode across the
+whole island, exterminating the Anglo-Irish population in many districts
+(1315-1317). But the colonists rallied, and cut to pieces a great Irish
+army at Athenry (1316), while in the next year Roger Mortimer, a
+hard-handed baron of the Welsh march, crossed with reinforcements and
+drove back Edward Bruce into the north. Resuming his advance after a
+space, the rebel king was routed and slain at Dundalk (Oct. 14, 1318)
+and the insurrection died out. But it had had the permanent result of
+weakening the king's grip on the north and west of Ireland, where the
+Englishry had been almost exterminated. From this time forth until the
+reign of Henry VIII. the limit of the country in full subjection to the
+crown was always shrinking, and the Irish chiefs of the inland continued
+to pay less and less attention to orders issued from Dublin or London.
+
+Though the Scottish expedition to Ireland had been beaten off, this was
+not in the least to be ascribed to the credit of Lancaster, who was
+showing the grossest incompetence as an administrator. He could neither
+protect the Border, nor even prevent private civil wars from breaking
+out, not only on the Welsh marches (where they had always been common),
+but even in the heart of England. The most extraordinary symptom of the
+time was a civic revolt at Bristol (1316), where the townsfolk expelled
+the royal judges, and actually stood a siege before they would submit.
+Such revolts of great towns were normal in Germany or Italy, but almost
+unknown on this side of the Channel. All this unrest might well be
+ascribed to Lancaster's want of ability, but he had also to bear--with
+less justice--the discontent caused by two years of famine and
+pestilence. In August 1318 he was removed from power by a league formed
+by Pembroke, Warenne, Arundel and others of the lords ordainers, who put
+a new council in power, and showed themselves somewhat less hostile to
+the king than Earl Thomas had been. Edward was allowed to raise an army
+for the siege of Berwick, and was lying before its walls, when the
+Scots, turning his flank, made a fierce foray into Yorkshire, and routed
+the shire-levy under Archbishop Melton at the battle of Myton. This so
+disheartened the king and the council that controlled him that they
+concluded a two years truce with Robert of Scotland, thus for the first
+time acknowledging him as a regular enemy and no mere rebel (1319).
+
+
+  The Despensers.
+
+  Execution of Lancaster.
+
+The time of comparative quiet that followed was utilized by the king in
+an attempt to win back some of his lost authority. For a short space
+Edward showed more capacity and energy than he had ever been supposed to
+possess. Probably this was due entirely to the fact that he had come
+under the influence of two able men who had won his confidence and had
+promised him revenge for the murdered Gaveston. These were the two Hugh
+Despensers, father and son; the elder was an ambitious baron who hated
+Lancaster, the younger had been made Edward's chamberlain in 1318 and
+had become his secret councillor and constant companion. Finding that
+the king was ready to back them in all their enterprises, the Despensers
+resolved to take the fearful risk of snatching at supreme power by using
+their master's name to oust the barons who were now directing affairs
+from their position. The task was the more easy because Lancaster was at
+open discord with the men who had supplanted him, so that the baronial
+party was divided; while the mishaps of the last six years had convinced
+the nation that other rulers could be as incompetent and as unlucky as
+the king. Indeed, there was a decided reaction in Edward's favour, since
+Lancaster and his friends had been tried and found wanting. Moreover,
+the Despensers felt that they had a great advantage over Gaveston in
+that they were native-born barons of ancient ancestry and good estate:
+the younger Hugh, indeed, through his marriage with the sister of the
+earl of Gloucester who fell at Bannockburn, was one of the greatest
+landowners on the Welsh border: they could not be styled upstarts or
+adventurers. Edward's growing confidence in the Despensers at last
+provoked the notice and jealousy of the dominant party. The barons
+brought up many armed retainers to the parliament of 1321, and forced
+the king to dismiss and to condemn them to exile. But their discomfiture
+was only to last a few months; in the following October a wanton outrage
+and assault on the person and retinue of Edward's queen, Isabella of
+France, by the retainers of Lord Badlesmere, one of Pembroke's
+associates, provoked universal reprobation. The king made it an excuse
+for gathering an army to besiege Badlesmere's castle at Leeds; he took
+it and hanged the garrison. He then declared the Despensers pardoned,
+and invited them to return to England. On this Thomas of Lancaster and
+the more resolute of his associates took arms, but the majority both of
+the baronage and of the commons remained quiescent, public opinion being
+rather with than against the king. The rebels displayed great
+indecision, and Lancaster proved such a bad general that he was finally
+driven into the north and beaten at the battle of Boroughbridge (March
+16, 1322), where his chief associate, the earl of Hereford, was slain.
+Next day he surrendered, with the wreck of his host. But the king, who
+showed himself unexpectedly vindictive, beheaded him at once; three
+other peers, Badlesmere, Clifford and Mowbray, were subsequently
+executed, with a score of knights.
+
+
+  Rebellion of Queen Isabella and Mortimer.
+
+Such severity was most impolitic, and Lancaster was ere long hailed as a
+saint and a martyr. But for the moment the king seemed triumphant; he
+called a parliament which revoked the "ordinances" of 1311, and replaced
+the Despensers in power. For the remaining four years of his reign they
+were omnipotent; but able and unscrupulous as they were, they could not
+solve the problem of successful governance. To their misfortune the
+Scottish war once more recommenced, King Robert having refused to
+continue the truce. The fortune of Edward II. now hung on the chance
+that he might be able to maintain the struggle with success; he raised a
+large army and invaded Lothian, but Bruce refused a pitched battle, and
+drove him off with loss by devastating the countryside around him.
+Thereupon Edward, to the deep humiliation of the people, sued for
+another cessation of hostilities, and obtained it by conceding all that
+Robert asked, save the formal acknowledgment of his kingly title. But
+peace did not suffice to end Edward's troubles; he dropped back into his
+usual apathy, and the Despensers showed themselves so harsh and greedy
+that the general indignation only required a new leader in order to take
+once more the form of open insurrection. The end came in an unexpected
+fashion. Edward had quarrelled with his wife Isabella, who complained
+that he made her the "handmaid of the Despensers," and excluded her from
+her proper place and honour. Yet in 1325 he was unwise enough to send
+her over to France on an embassy to her brother Charles IV., and to
+allow his eldest son Edward, prince of Wales, to follow her to Paris.
+Having the boy in her power, and being surrounded by the exiles of
+Lancaster's faction, she set herself to plot against her husband, and
+opened up communications with the discontented in England. It was in
+vain that Edward besought her to return and to restore him his son; she
+came back at last, but at the head of an army commanded by Roger, Lord
+Mortimer, the most prominent survivor of the party of Earl Thomas, with
+whom she had formed an adulterous connexion which they for some time
+succeeded in keeping secret.
+
+
+  Deposition and murder of Edward II.
+
+When she landed with her son in Essex in September 1326, she was at once
+joined by Henry of Lancaster, the heir of Earl Thomas, and most of the
+baronage of the eastern counties. Even the king's half-brother, the earl
+of Norfolk, rallied to her banner. Edward and the Despensers, after
+trying in vain to raise an army, fled into the west. They were all
+caught by their pursuers; the two Despensers were executed--the one at
+Bristol, the other at Hereford. Several more of Edward's scanty band of
+friends--the earl of Arundel and the bishop of Exeter and others--were
+also slain. Their unhappy master was forced to abdicate on the 20th of
+January 1327, his fourteen-year old son being proclaimed king in his
+stead. He was allowed to survive in close prison some eight months
+longer, but when his robust constitution defied all attempts to kill him
+by privations, he was murdered by the orders of the queen and Mortimer
+at Berkeley Castle on the 21st of September.
+
+
+  Regency of Isabella and Mortimer.
+
+The three years regency of Isabella, during the minority of Edward III.,
+formed a disgraceful episode in the history of England. She was as much
+the tool of Mortimer as her husband had been the tool of the Despensers,
+and their relations became gradually evident to the whole nation. All
+posts of dignity and emolument were kept for their personal adherents,
+and a new and formidable dignity was conferred on Mortimer himself, when
+he was made both justiciar of the principality of Wales, and also earl
+of March, in which lay both his own broad lands and the estates of
+Despenser and Arundel, which he had shamelessly appropriated. It is
+surprising that the adulterous pair succeeded in maintaining themselves
+in power for so long, since the ignominy of the situation was evident.
+They were even able to quell the first attempt at a reaction, by seizing
+and beheading Edmund, earl of Kent, the late king's half-brother, who
+was betrayed while organizing a plot for their destruction. The one
+politic act of Mortimer's administration, the conclusion of a permanent
+peace with Scotland by acknowledging Bruce as king (1328), was not one
+which made him more popular. The people called it "the shameful peace of
+Northampton," and firmly believed that he had been bribed by the Scots.
+
+
+  Edward III.
+
+Yet Isabella and her paramour held on to power for two years after the
+peace, and were only overthrown by a blow from an unexpected quarter.
+When the young king had reached the age of eighteen he began to
+understand the disgraceful nature of his own situation. Having secured
+promise of aid from Henry of Lancaster, his cousin, and other barons, he
+executed a _coup de main_, and seized Mortimer in his chamber at
+midnight. The queen was also put under guard till a parliament could be
+called. It met, and at the king's demand passed sentence on the earl for
+the murder of Edward II. and other crimes. He was hanged at Tyburn (Nov.
+1330); the queen suffered nothing worse than complete exclusion from
+power, and lived for more than twenty years in retirement on the manors
+of her dowry.
+
+Edward III., who thus commenced his reign ere he was out of his boyhood,
+was, as might have been foretold from his prompt action against
+Mortimer, a prince of great vigour and enterprise. He showed none of his
+father's weakness and much of his grandfather's capacity. He fell short
+of Edward I. in steadiness of character and organizing power, but
+possessed all his military capacity and his love of work. Unfortunately
+for England his ambition was to be the mirror of chivalry rather than a
+model administrator. He took up and abandoned great enterprises with
+equal levity; he was reckless in the spending of money; and in times of
+trouble he was careless of constitutional precedent, and apt to push his
+prerogative to extremes. Yet like Edward I. he was popular with his
+subjects, who pardoned him much in consideration of his knightly
+virtues, his courage, his ready courtesy and his love of adventure. In
+most respects he was a perfect exponent of the ideals and foibles of his
+age, and when he broke a promise or repudiated a debt he was but
+displaying the less satisfactory side of the habitual morality of the
+14th century the chivalry of which was often deficient in the less showy
+virtues. With all his faults Edward during his prime was a capable and
+vigorous ruler; and it was not without reason that not England only but
+all western Europe looked up to him as the greatest king of his
+generation.
+
+
+  Edward III. invades Scotland.
+
+His early years were specially fortunate, as his rule contrasted in the
+most favourable way with that of his infamous mother and his
+contemptible father. The ministers whom he substituted for the creatures
+of Mortimer were capable, if not talented administrators. He did much to
+restore the internal peace of the realm, and put down the local
+disorders which had been endemic for the last twenty years. Moreover,
+when the war with Scotland recommenced he gave the English a taste of
+victory such as they had not enjoyed since Falkirk. Robert Bruce was now
+dead and his throne was occupied by the young David II., whose factious
+nobles were occupied in civil strife when, in 1332, a pretender made a
+snatch at the Scottish throne. This was Edward, the son of John Baliol,
+an adventurous baron who collected all the "disinherited" Scots lords,
+the members of the old English faction who had been expelled by Bruce,
+and invaded the realm at their head. He beat the regent Mar at the
+battle of Dupplin, seized Perth and Edinburgh, and crowned himself at
+Scone. But knowing that his seat was precarious he did homage to the
+English king, and made him all the promises that his father had given to
+Edward I. The temptation was too great for the young king to refuse; he
+accepted the homage, and offered the aid of his arms. It was soon
+required, for Baliol was ere long expelled from Scotland. Edward won the
+battle of Halidon Hill (July 19, 1333)--where he displayed considerable
+tactical skill--captured Berwick, and reconquered a considerable portion
+of Scotland for his vassal. Unfortunately for himself he made the
+mistake of requiring too much from Baliol--forcing him to cede Lothian,
+Tweeddale and the larger part of Galloway, and to promise a tribute.
+These terms so irritated the Scots, who had shown signs of submission up
+to this moment, that they refused to accept the pretender, and kept up a
+long guerilla warfare which ended in his final expulsion. But the
+fighting was all on Scottish ground, and Edward repeatedly made
+incursions, showy if not effective, into the very heart of the northern
+realm; on one occasion he reached Inverness unopposed. He held Perth
+till 1339, Edinburgh till 1341, and was actually in possession of much
+Scottish territory when his attention was called off from this minor war
+to the greater question of the struggle with France. Meanwhile he had
+acquired no small military reputation, had collected a large body of
+professional soldiers whose experience was to be invaluable to him in
+the continental war, and had taught his army the new tactics which were
+to win Creēy and Poitiers. For the devices employed against the Scottish
+"schiltrons" of pikemen at Dupplin and Halidon, were the same as those
+which won all the great battles of the Hundred Years' War--the
+combination of archery, not with cavalry (the old system of Hastings and
+Falkirk), but with dismounted men-at-arms. The nation, meanwhile
+prosperous, not vexed by overmuch taxation, and proud of its young king,
+was ready and willing to follow him into any adventure that he might
+indicate.
+
+
+IV. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (1337-1453)
+
+  Causes of the Hundred Years' War.
+
+Wars between England and France had been many, since William the
+Conqueror first linked their fortunes together by adding his English
+kingdom to his Norman duchy. They were bound to recur as long as the
+kings who ruled on this side of the Channel were possessed of
+continental dominions, which lay as near, or nearer, to their hearts
+than their insular realm. While the kingdom of France was weak, monarchs
+like Henry II. and Richard I. might dream of extending their transmarine
+possessions to the detriment of their suzerain at Paris. When France had
+grown strong, under Philip Augustus, the house of Plantagenet still
+retained a broad territory in Gascony and Guienne, and the house of
+Capet could not but covet the possession of the largest surviving feudal
+appanage which marred the solidarity of their kingdom. There had been a
+long interval of peace in the 13th century, because Henry III. of
+England was weak, and Louis IX. of France an idealist, much more set on
+forwarding the welfare of Christendom than the expansion of France. But
+the inevitable struggle had recommenced with the accession of the
+unscrupulous Philip IV. Its cause was simple; France was incomplete as
+long as the English king ruled at Bordeaux and Bayonne, and far up the
+valleys of the Garonne and the Adour. From 1293 onward Philip and his
+sons had been striving to make an end of the power of the Plantagenets
+in Aquitaine, sometimes by the simple argument of war, more frequently
+by the insidious process of encroaching on ducal rights, summoning
+litigants to Paris, and encouraging local magnates and cities alike to
+play off their allegiance to their suzerain against that to their
+immediate lord. Both in the time of Edward II. and in that of his son
+active violence had several times been called in to aid legal chicanery.
+Fortunately for the duke of Guienne the majority of his subjects had no
+desire to become Frenchmen; the Gascons felt no national sympathy with
+their neighbours of the north, and the towns in especial were linked to
+England by close ties of commerce, and had no wish whatever to break off
+their allegiance to the house of Plantagenet. The English rule, if often
+weak, had never proved tyrannical, and they had a great dread of French
+taxes and French officialism. But there were always individuals, more
+numerous among the noblesse than among the citizens, whose private
+interests impelled them to seek the aid of France.
+
+The root of the Hundred Years' War, now just about to commence, must be
+sought in the affairs of Guienne, and not in any of the other causes
+which complicated and obscured the outbreak of hostilities. These,
+however, were sufficiently important in themselves. The most obvious was
+the aid which Philip VI. had given to the exiled David Bruce, when he
+was driven out of Scotland by Edward and his ally Baliol. The English
+king replied by welcoming and harbouring Robert of Artois, a cousin whom
+Philip VI. had expelled from France. He also made alliances with several
+of the dukes and counts of the Netherlands, and with the emperor Louis
+the Bavarian, obviously with the intention of raising trouble for France
+on her northern and eastern frontiers.
+
+
+  Beginning of the war.
+
+It was Philip, however, who actually began the war, by declaring Guienne
+and the other continental dominions of Edward III. forfeited to the
+French crown, and sending out a fleet which ravaged the south coast of
+England in 1337. In return Edward raised a claim to the throne of
+France, not that he had any serious intention of pressing it--for
+throughout his reign he always showed himself ready to barter it away in
+return for sufficient territorial gains--but because such a claim was in
+several ways a useful asset to him both in war and in diplomacy. It was
+first turned to account when the Flemings, who had scruples about
+opposing their liege lord the king of France, found it convenient to
+discover that, since Edward was the real king and not Philip, their
+allegiance was due in the same direction whither their commercial
+interests drew them. Led by the great demagogue dictator, Jacob van
+Artevelde, they became the mainstay of the English party in the
+Netherlands.
+
+
+  Edward III. and the French crown.
+
+Edward's claim--such as it was--rested on the assertion that his mother,
+Isabella, was nearer of kin to her brother Charles IV., the last king of
+the main line of the house of Capet, than was Charles's cousin Philip of
+Valois. The French lawyers ruled that heiresses could not succeed to the
+crown themselves, but Edward pleaded that they could nevertheless
+transmit their right to their sons. He found it convenient to forget
+that the elder brother of Charles IV., King Louis X., had left a
+daughter, whose son, the king of Navarre, had on this theory a title
+preferable to his own. This prince, he said, had not been born at the
+time of his grandfather's death, and so lost any rights that might have
+passed to him had he been alive at that time. A far more fatal bar to
+Edward's claim than the existence of Charles of Navarre was the fact
+that the peers of France, when summoned to decide the succession
+question nine years before, had decided that Philip of Valois had the
+sole valid claim to the crown, and that Edward had then done homage to
+him for Guienne. If he pleaded that in 1328 he had been the mere tool of
+his mother and Mortimer, he could be reminded of the unfortunate fact
+that in 1331, after he had crushed Mortimer, and taken the power into
+his own hands, he had deliberately renewed his oath to King Philip.
+
+Edward's claim to the French crown embittered the strife in a most
+unnecessary fashion. It was an appeal to every discontented French
+vassal to become a traitor under a plausible show of loyalty, and from
+first to last many such persons utilized it. It also gave Edward an
+excuse for treating every loyal Frenchman as guilty of treason, and, to
+his shame, he did not always refrain from employing such a discreditable
+device. Yet, as has been already said, he showed his consciousness of
+the fallacy of his claim by offering to barter it again and again during
+the course of the war for land or money. But he finally passed on the
+wretched fiction as a heritage of his descendants, to cause untold woes
+in the 15th century. It is seldom in the world's history that a hollow
+legal device such as this has had such long enduring and deplorable
+results.
+
+
+  Battle of Sluys.
+
+In the commencement of his continental war Edward took little profit
+either from his assumption of the French royal title, or from the
+lengthy list of princes of the Low Countries whom he enrolled beneath
+his banner. His two land-campaigns of 1339 and 1340 led to no victories
+or conquests, but cost enormous sums of money. The Netherland allies
+brought large contingents and took high pay from the king, but they
+showed neither energy nor enthusiasm in his cause. When Philip of Valois
+refused battle in the open, and confined his operations to defending
+fortified towns, or stockading himself in entranched camps, the allies
+drifted off, leaving the king with his English troops in force too small
+to accomplish anything. The sole achievement of the early years of the
+war which was of any profit to Edward or his realm was the great naval
+triumph of Sluys (June 24, 1340), which gave the English the command of
+the sea for the next twenty years. The French king had built or hired an
+enormous fleet, and with it threatened to invade England. Seeing that he
+could do nothing on land while his communications with the Low Countries
+were endangered by the existence of this armada, Edward levied every
+ship that was to be found, and brought the enemy to action in the
+Flemish harbour of Sluys. After a day of desperate hand to hand
+fighting--for the vessels grappled and the whole matter was settled by
+boarding--the French fleet was annihilated. Henceforth England was safe
+from coast raids, could conduct her commerce with Flanders without
+danger, and could strike without difficulty at any point of the French
+littoral. But it was not for some years that Edward utilized the
+advantage that Sluys had given him. As long as he persevered in the
+attempt to conduct the invasion of the northern frontier of France he
+achieved nothing.
+
+
+  Financial crisis. Trial of Archbishop Stratford.
+
+Such schemes were finally abandoned simply because the king discovered
+that his allies were worthless and that his money was all spent. On his
+return from Flanders in 1340 he became involved in an angry controversy
+with his ministers, whom he accused, quite unjustly, of wasting his
+revenue and wrecking his campaign thereby. He imprisoned some of them,
+and wished to try his late chancellor, Archbishop Stratford, for
+embezzlement, in the court of the exchequer. But the primate contended
+very vigorously for the right to be tried before his peers, and since
+the king could get no subsidies from his parliament till he acknowledged
+the justice of this claim, he was forced to concede it. Stratford was
+acquitted--the king's thriftlessness and not the chancellor's
+maladministration had emptied the treasury. Edward drifted on along the
+path to financial ruin till he actually went bankrupt in 1345, when he
+repudiated his debts, and ruined several great Italian banking houses,
+who had been unwise enough to continue lending him money to the last.
+The Flemings were also hard hit by this collapse of the king's credit,
+and very naturally lost their enthusiasm for the English alliance. Van
+Artevelde, its chief advocate, was murdered by his own townsmen in this
+same year.
+
+
+  War in Brittany.
+
+The second act of the Hundred Years' War, after King Edward had
+abandoned in despair his idea of invading France from the side of the
+Netherlands, was fought out in another quarter--the duchy of Brittany.
+Here a war of succession had broken out in which (oddly enough) Edward
+took up the cause of the pretender who had male descent, while Philip
+supported the one who represented a female line--each thus backing the
+theory of heritage by which his rival claimed the throne of France. By
+espousing the cause of John of Montfort Edward obtained a good foothold
+on the flank of France, for many of the Breton fortresses were put into
+his hands. But he failed to win any decisive advantage thereby over King
+Philip. It was not till 1346, when he adopted the new policy of trusting
+nothing to allies, and striking at the heart of France with a purely
+English army, that Edward found the fortune of war turning in his
+favour.
+
+
+  Edward invades France.
+
+  Battle of Creēy.
+
+  Capture of Calais.
+
+In this year he landed in Normandy, where the English banner had not
+been seen since the days of King John, and executed a destructive raid
+through the duchy, and up the Seine, till he almost reached the gates of
+Paris. This brought out the king of France against him, with a mighty
+host, before which Edward retreated northward, apparently intending to
+retire to Flanders. But after crossing the Somme he halted at Creēy,
+near Abbeville, and offered battle to the pursuing enemy. He fought
+relying on the tactics which had been tried against the Scots at Dupplin
+and Halidon Hill, drawing up his army with masses of dismounted
+men-at-arms flanked on either side by archery. This array proved as
+effective against the disorderly charges of the French noblesse as it
+had been against the heavy columns of the Scottish pikemen. Fourteen
+times the squadrons of King Philip came back to the charge; but mowed
+down by the arrow-shower, they seldom could get to handstrokes with the
+English knights, and at last rode off the field in disorder. This
+astonishing victory over fourfold numbers was no mere chivalrous feat of
+arms, it had the solid result of giving the victors a foothold in
+northern France. For Edward took his army to beleaguer Calais, and after
+blockading it for nearly a year forced it to surrender. King Philip,
+after his experience at Creēy, refused to fight again in order to raise
+the siege. From henceforth the English possessed a secure landing-place
+in northern France, at the most convenient point possible, immediately
+opposite Dover. They held it for over two hundred years, to their own
+inestimable advantage in every recurring war.
+
+
+  Battle of Neville's Cross.
+
+The years 1345-1347 saw the zenith of King Edward's prosperity; in them
+fell not only his own triumphs at Creēy and Calais, but a victory at
+Auberoche in Périgord won by his cousin Henry of Lancaster, which
+restored many long-lost regions of Guienne to the English suzerainty
+(Oct. 21, 1345), and another and more famous battle in the far north. At
+Neville's Cross, near Durham, the lords of the Border defeated and
+captured David Bruce, king of Scotland (Oct. 17, 1346). The loss of
+their king and the destruction of a fine army took the heart out of the
+resistance of the Scots, who for many years to come could give their
+French allies little assistance.
+
+
+  Truce with France. The Black Death.
+
+In 1347 Edward made a short truce with King Philip: even after his late
+victories he felt his strength much strained, his treasury being empty,
+and his army exhausted by the year-long siege of Calais. But he would
+have returned to the struggle without delay had it not been for the
+dreadful calamity of the "Black Death," which fell upon France and
+England, as upon all Europe, in the years 1348-1349. The disease, on
+which the 14th century bestowed this name, was the bubonic plague, still
+familiar in the East. After devastating western Asia, it reached the
+Mediterranean ports of Europe in 1347, and spread across the continent
+in a few months. It was said that in France, Italy and England a third
+of the population perished, and though this estimate may be somewhat
+exaggerated, local records of unimpeachable accuracy show that it cannot
+be very far from the truth. The bishop's registers of the diocese of
+Norwich show that many parishes had three and some four successive
+vicars admitted in eighteen months. In the manor rolls it is not
+uncommon to find whole families swept away, so that no heir can be
+detected to their holdings. Among the monastic orders, whose crowded
+common life seems to have been particularly favourable to the spread of
+the plague, there were cases where a whole community, from the abbot
+down to the novices, perished. The upper classes are said to have
+suffered less than the poor; but the king's daughter Joan and two
+archbishops of Canterbury were among the victims. The long continuance
+of the visitation, which as a rule took six or nine months to work out
+its virulence in any particular spot, seems to have cowed and
+demoralized society. Though it first spread from the ports of Bristol
+and Weymouth in the summer of 1348, it had not finished its destruction
+in northern England till 1350, and only spread into Scotland in the
+summer of that year.
+
+
+  Economic and social effects of the Black Death.
+
+When the worst of the plague was over, and panic had died down, it was
+found that the social conditions of England had been considerably
+affected by the visitation. The condition of the realm had been stable
+and prosperous during the earlier years of Edward III., the drain on its
+resources caused by heavy war-taxation having been more than compensated
+by the increased wealth that arose from growing commerce and developing
+industries. The victory of Sluys, which gave England the command of the
+seas, had been a great landmark in the economic no less than in the
+naval history of this island. But the basis of society was shaken by the
+Black Death; the kingdom was still essentially an agricultural
+community, worked on the manorial system; and the sudden disappearance
+of a third of the labouring hands by which that system had been
+maintained threw everything into disorder. The landowners found
+thousands of the crofts on which their villeins had been wont to dwell
+vacant, and could not fill them with new tenants. Even if they exacted
+the full rigour of service from the survivors, they could not get their
+broad demesne lands properly tilled. The landless labourers, who might
+have been hired to supply the deficiency, were so reduced in numbers
+that they could command, if free competition prevailed, double and
+triple rates of payment, compared with their earnings in the days before
+the plague. Hence there arose, almost at once, a bitter strife between
+the lords of manors and the labouring class, both landholding and
+landless. The lords wished to exact all possible services from the
+former, and to pay only the old two or three pence a day to the latter.
+The villeins, as hard hit as their masters, resented the tightening of
+old duties, which in some cases had already been commuted for small
+money rents during the prosperous years preceding the plague. The
+landless men formed combinations, disputed with the landlords, and asked
+and often got twice as much as the old rates, despite of the murmurings
+of the employer.
+
+
+  The Statute of Labourers.
+
+After a short experience of these difficulties the king and council,
+whose sympathies were naturally with the landholders, issued an
+ordinance forbidding workmen of any kind to demand more than they had
+been wont to receive before 1348. This was followed up by the famous
+Statute of Labourers of 1351, which fixed rates for all wages
+practically identical with those of the times before the Black Death.
+Those workmen who refused to accept them were to be imprisoned, while
+employers who went behind the backs of their fellows and secretly paid
+higher sums were to be punished by heavy fines. Later additions to the
+statute were devised to terrorize the labourer, by adding stripes and
+branding to his punishment, if he still remained recalcitrant or
+absconded. And landowners were empowered to seize all vagrant
+able-bodied men, and to compel them to work at the statutory wages. As
+some compensation for the low pay of the workmen, parliament tried to
+bring down the price of commodities to their former level, for (like
+labour) all manufactured articles had gone up immensely in value.
+
+Thirty years of friction followed, while the parliament and the ruling
+classes tried in a spasmodic way to enforce the statute, and the
+peasantry strove to evade it. It proved impossible to carry out the
+scheme; the labourers were too many and too cunning to be crushed. If
+driven over hard they absconded to the towns, where hands were needed as
+much as in the countryside, or migrated to districts where the statute
+was laxly administered. Gradually the landowners discovered that the
+only practical way out of their difficulties was to give up the old
+custom of working the manorial demesne by the forced labour of their
+villeins, and to cut it up into farms which were rented out to free
+tenants, and cultivated by them. In the course of two generations the
+"farmers" who paid rent for these holdings became more and more
+numerous, and demesne land tilled by villein-service grew more and more
+rare. But enough old-fashioned landlords remained to keep up the
+struggle with the peasants to the end of the 14th century and beyond,
+and the number of times that the Statute of Labourers was re-enacted and
+recast was enormous. Nevertheless the struggle turned gradually to the
+advantage of the labourer, and ended in the creation of the sturdy and
+prosperous farming yeomanry who were the strength of the realm for
+several centuries to come.
+
+
+  Renewal of the war with France.
+
+  Battle of Poitiers.
+
+One immediate consequence of the "Black Death" was the renewal of the
+truce between England and France by repeated agreements which lasted
+from 1347 to 1355. During this interval Philip of France died, in 1350,
+and was succeeded by his son John. The war did not entirely cease, but
+became local and spasmodic. In Brittany the factions which supported the
+two claimants to the ducal title were so embittered that they never laid
+down their arms. In 1351 the French noblesse of Picardy, apparently
+without their master's knowledge or consent, made an attempt to surprise
+Calais, which was beaten off with some difficulty by King Edward in
+person. There was also constant bickering on the borders of Guienne. But
+the main forces on both sides were not brought into action till the
+series of truces ran out in 1355. From that time onward the English took
+the offensive with great vigour. Edward, prince of Wales, ravaged
+Languedoc as far as the Mediterranean, while his younger brother John of
+Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, executed a less ambitious raid in Picardy and
+Artois. In the south this campaign marked real progress, not mere
+objectless plunder, for it was followed by the reconquest of great
+districts in Périgord and the Agenais, which had been lost to England
+since the 13th century. A similar double invasion of France led to even
+greater results in the following year, 1356. While Lancaster landed in
+Normandy, and with the aid of local rebels occupied the greater part of
+the peninsula of the Cōtentin, the prince of Wales accomplished greater
+things on the borders of Aquitaine. After executing a great circular
+sweep through Périgord, Limousin and Berry, he was returning to Bordeaux
+laden with plunder, when he was intercepted by the king of France near
+Poitiers. The battle that followed was the most astonishing of all the
+English victories during the Hundred Years' War. The odds against the
+prince were far heavier than those of Creēy, but by taking up a strong
+position and using the national tactics which combined the use of
+archery and dismounted men-at-arms, the younger Edward not merely beat
+off his assailants in a long defensive fight, but finally charged out
+upon them, scattered them, and took King John prisoner (Sept. 19, 1356).
+
+
+  The English ravage France.
+
+  Peace of Brétigny.
+
+This fortunate capture put an enormous advantage in the hands of the
+English; for John, a facile and selfish prince, was ready to buy his
+freedom by almost any concessions. He signed two successive treaties
+which gave such advantageous terms to Edward III. that the dauphin
+Charles, who was acting as regent, and the French states-general refused
+to confirm them. This drove the English king to put still further
+pressure on the enemy; in 1359 he led out from Calais the largest
+English army that had been seen during the war, devastated all northern
+France as far as Reims and the borders of Burgundy, and then--continuing
+the campaign through the heart of the winter--presented himself before
+the gates of Paris and ravaged the Īle de France. This brought the
+regent Charles and his counsellors to the verge of despair; they
+yielded, and on the 8th of May 1360, signed an agreement at Brétigny
+near Chartres, by which nearly all King Edward's demands were granted.
+These preliminaries were ratified by the definitive peace of Calais
+(Oct. 24, 1360), which brought the first stage of the Hundred Years' War
+to an end.
+
+By this treaty King Edward formally gave up his claim to the French
+throne, which he had always intended to use merely as an asset for
+barter, and was to receive in return not only a sum of 3,000,000 gold
+crowns for King John's personal ransom, but an immense cession of
+territory which--in southern France at least--almost restored the old
+boundaries of the time of Henry II. The duchy of Aquitaine was
+reconstructed, so as to include not only the lands that Edward had
+inherited, and his recent conquests, but all Poitou, Limousin,
+Angoumois, Quercy, Rouergue and Saintonge--a full half of France south
+of the Loire. This vast duchy the English king bestowed not long after
+on his son Edward, the victor of Poitiers, who reigned there as a
+vassal-sovereign, owing homage to England but administering his
+possessions in his own right. In northern France, Calais and the county
+of Guīnes, and also the isolated county of Ponthieu, the inheritance of
+the wife of Edward I., were ceded to the English crown. All these
+regions, it must be noted, were to be held for the future free of any
+homage or acknowledgment of allegiance to an overlord, "in perpetuity,
+and in the manner in which the kings of France had held them." There was
+to be an end to the power of the courts of Paris to harass the duke of
+Aquitaine, by using the rights of the suzerain to interfere with the
+vassal's subjects. It was hoped that for the future the insidious legal
+warfare which had been used with such effect by the French kings would
+be effectually prevented.
+
+
+  Submission of David of Scotland.
+
+To complete the picture of the triumph of Edward III. at this, the
+culminating point of his reign, it must be mentioned that some time
+before the peace of Calais he had made terms with Scotland. David Bruce
+was to cede Roxburgh and Berwick, but to keep the rest of his dominions
+on condition of paying a ransom of 100,000 marks. This sum could never
+be raised, and Edward always had it in his power to bring pressure to
+bear on the king of Scots by demanding the instalments, which were
+always in arrear. David gave no further trouble; indeed he became so
+friendly to England that he offered to proclaim Lionel of Clarence,
+Edward's second son, as his heir, and would have done so but for the
+vigorous opposition of his parliament.
+
+
+  Economic progress in England.
+
+The English people had expected that a sort of Golden Age would follow
+the conclusion of the peace with Scotland and France. Freed from the
+war-taxes which had vexed them for the last twenty years, they would be
+able to repair the ravages of the Black Death, and to develop the
+commercial advantages which had been won at Sluys, and secured by the
+dominion of the seas which they had held ever since. In some respects
+this expectation was not deceived; the years that followed 1360 seem to
+have been prosperous at home, despite the continued friction arising
+from the Statute of Labourers. The towns would seem to have fared better
+than the countryside, partly indeed at its expense, for the discontented
+peasantry migrated in large numbers to the centres of population where
+newly-developed manufactures were calling for more hands. The weaving
+industry, introduced into the eastern counties by the king's invitation
+to Flemish settlers, was making England something more than a mere
+producer of raw material for export. The seaports soon recovered from
+their losses in the Black Death, and English shipping was beginning to
+appear in the distant seas of Portugal and the Baltic. Nothing
+illustrates the growth of English wealth better than the fact that the
+kingdom had, till the time of Edward III., contrived to conduct all its
+commerce with a currency of small silver, but that within thirty years
+of his introduction of a gold coinage in 1343, the English "noble" was
+being struck in enormous quantities. It invaded all the markets of
+western Europe, and became the prototype of the gold issues of the
+Netherlands, Scotland, and even parts of Germany. It is in the latter
+years of Edward III. that we find the first forerunners of that class of
+English merchant princes who were to be such a marked feature in the
+succeeding reigns. The Poles of Hull, whose descendants rose in three
+generations to ducal rank, were the earliest specimens of their class.
+The poet Chaucer may serve as a humbler example of the rise of the
+burgher class--the son of a vintner, he became the father of a knight,
+and the ancestor, through female descents, of many baronial families.
+The second half of the 14th century is the first period in English
+history in which we can detect a distinct rise in the importance of the
+commercial as opposed to the landed interest. The latter, hard hit by
+the manorial difficulties that followed the plague of 1348-1349, found
+their rents stationary or even diminishing, while the price of the
+commodities from which the former made their wealth had permanently
+risen. As to intellectual vigour, the age that produced two minds of
+such marked originality in different spheres as Wycliffe and Chaucer
+must not be despised, even if it failed to carry out all the promise of
+the 13th century.
+
+
+  English rule in France.
+
+For a few years after the peace of 1360 the political influence of
+Edward III. in western Europe seemed to be supreme. France, prostrated
+by the results of the English raids, by peasant revolts, and municipal
+and baronial turbulence, did not begin to recover strength till the
+thriftless king John had died (1364) and had been succeeded by his
+capable if unchivalrous son Charles V. Yet the state of the English
+dominions on the continent was not satisfactory; in building up the vast
+duchy of Aquitaine Edward had made a radical mistake. Instead of
+contenting himself with creating a homogeneous Gascon state, which might
+have grown together into a solid unit, he had annexed broad regions
+which had been for a century and a half united to France, and had been
+entirely assimilated to her. From the first Poitou, Quercy, Rouergue and
+the Limousin chafed beneath the English yoke; the noblesse in especial
+found the comparatively orderly and constitutional governance to which
+they were subjected most intolerable. They waited for the first
+opportunity to revolt, and meanwhile murmured against every act of their
+duke, the prince of Wales, though he did his best to behave as a
+gracious sovereign.
+
+
+  The Black Prince in Spain.
+
+The younger Edward ended by losing his health and his wealth in an
+unnecessary war beyond the Pyrenees. He was persuaded by the exiled
+Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, to restore him to the throne which he
+had forfeited by his misgovernment. In 1367 he gathered a great army,
+entered Castile, defeated the usurper Henry of Trastamara at the battle
+of Najera, and restored his ally. But Peter, when once re-established as
+king, forgot his obligations and left the prince burdened with the whole
+expense of the campaign. Edward left Spain with a discontented and
+unpaid army, and had himself contracted the seeds of a disease which was
+to leave him an invalid for the rest of his life. To pay his debts he
+was obliged to resort to heavy taxation in Aquitaine, which gave his
+discontented subjects in Poitou and the other outlying districts an
+excuse for the rebellion that they had been for some time meditating. In
+1368 his greatest vassals, the counts of Armagnac, Périgord and
+Comminges, displayed their disloyalty by appealing to the king of France
+as their suzerain against the legality of Edward's imposts. The French
+overlordship had been formally abolished by the treaty of 1360, so this
+appeal amounted to open rebellion. And when Charles V. accepted it, and
+cited Edward to appear before his parlement to answer the complaints of
+the counts, he was challenging England to renewed war. He found a
+preposterous excuse for repudiating the treaty by which he was bound, by
+declaring that some details had been omitted in its formal ratification.
+
+
+  Renewal of the war with France.
+
+The Hundred Years' War, therefore, broke out again in 1369, after an
+interval of nine years. Edward III. assumed once more the title of king
+of France, while Charles V., in the usual style, declared that the whole
+duchy of Aquitaine had been forfeited for treason and rebellion on the
+part of its present holder. The second period of war, which was to last
+till the death of the English king, and for some years after, was
+destined to prove wholly disastrous to England. All the conditions had
+changed since 1360. Edward, though only in his fifty-seventh year, was
+entering into a premature and decrepit old age, in which he became the
+prey of unworthy favourites, male and female. The men of the 14th
+century, who commanded armies and executed _coups d'état_ at eighteen,
+were often worn out by sixty. The guidance of the war should have fallen
+into the hands of his eldest son, the victor of Poitiers and Najera, but
+the younger Edward had never recovered from the fatigues of his Spanish
+campaign; his disease having developed into a form of dropsy, he had
+become a confirmed invalid and could no longer take the field. The
+charge of the military operations of the English armies had passed to
+John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, the king's younger son, a prince far
+inferior in capacity to his father and brother. Though not destitute of
+good impulses Lancaster was hasty, improvident and obstinate; he was
+unfortunate in his choice of friends, for he allied himself to all his
+father's unscrupulous dependents. He was destitute of military skill,
+and wrecked army after army by attempting hard tasks at inappropriate
+times and by mistaken methods. Despite of all checks and disasters he
+remained active, self-confident and ambitious, and, since he had
+acquired a complete control over his father, he had ample opportunity to
+mismanage the political and military affairs of England.
+
+
+  Character of the war.
+
+Lancaster's strategy, in the early years of the renewed war, consisted
+mainly of attempts to wear down the force of France by devastating
+raids; he hoped to provoke the enemy to battle by striking at the heart
+of his realm, but never achieved his purpose. Warned by the disasters of
+Creēy and Poitiers, Charles V. and his great captain Bertrand du
+Guesclin would never commit themselves to an engagement in the open
+field. They let the English invaders pass by, garrisoning the towns but
+abandoning the countryside. Since Lancaster, in his great circular
+raids, had never the leisure to sit down to a siege--generally a matter
+of long months in the 14th century--he repeatedly crossed France leaving
+a train of ruined villages behind him, but having accomplished nothing
+else save the exhaustion of his own army. For the French always followed
+him at a cautious distance, cutting off his stragglers, and restricting
+the area of his ravages by keeping flying columns all around his path.
+But while the duke was executing useless marches across France, the
+outlying lands of Aquitaine were falling away, one after the other, to
+the enemy. The limit of the territory which still remained loyal was
+ever shrinking, and what was once lost was hardly ever regained. Almost
+the only reconquest made was that of the city of Limoges, which was
+stormed in September 1370 by the troops of the Black Prince, who rose
+from his sick-bed to strike his last blow at the rebels. His success did
+almost as much harm as good to his cause, for the deliberate sack of the
+city was carried out with such ruthless severity that it roused wild
+wrath rather than terror in the neighbouring regions. Next spring the
+prince returned to England, feeling himself physically unable to
+administer or defend his duchy any longer.
+
+
+  English reverses.
+
+The greater part of Poitou, Quercy and Rouergue had been lost, and the
+English cause was everywhere losing ground, when a new danger was
+developed. Since Sluys the enemy had never disputed the command of the
+seas; but in 1372 a Spanish fleet joined the French, and destroyed off
+La Rochelle a squadron which was bringing reinforcements for Guienne.
+The disaster was the direct result of the campaign of Najera--for Henry
+of Trastamara, who had long since dethroned and slain his brother Peter
+the Cruel, remained a consistent foe of England. From this date onward
+Franco-Spanish fleets were perpetually to be met not only in the Bay of
+Biscay but in the Channel; they made the voyage to Bordeaux unsafe, and
+often executed descents on the shores of Kent, Sussex, Devon and
+Cornwall. It was to no effect that, in the year after the battle of La
+Rochelle, Lancaster carried out the last, the most expensive, and the
+most fruitless of his great raids across France. He marched from Calais
+to Bordeaux, inflicted great misery on Picardy, Champagne and Berry, and
+left half his army dead by the way.
+
+This did not prevent Bertrand du Guesclin from expelling from his
+dominions John of Brittany, the one ally whom King Edward possessed in
+France, or from pursuing a consistent career of petty conquest in the
+heart of Aquitaine. By 1374 little was left of the great possessions
+which the English had held beyond the Channel save Calais, and the coast
+slip from Bordeaux to Bayonne, which formed the only loyal part of the
+duchy of Guienne. Next year King Edward sued for peace--he failed to
+obtain it, finding the French terms too hard for acceptance--but a
+truce at least was signed at Bruges (Jan. 1375) which endured till a few
+weeks before his death.
+
+
+  Domestic strife.
+
+  Agitation against the Church.
+
+  Wycliffe.
+
+These two last years of Edward's reign were filled with an episode of
+domestic strife, which had considerable constitutional importance. The
+nation ascribed the series of disasters which had filled the space from
+1369 to 1375 entirely to the maladministration of Lancaster and the
+king's favourites, failing to see that it was largely due to the mere
+fact that England was not strong enough to hold down Aquitaine, when
+France was administered by a capable king and served by a great general.
+Hence there arose, both in and out of parliament, a violent agitation
+for the removal of Lancaster from power, and the punishment of the
+favourites, who were believed, with complete justification, to be
+misusing the royal name for their own private profit. Among the leaders
+of this agitation were the clerical ministers whom John of Gaunt had
+expelled from office in 1371, and chiefly William of Wykeham, bishop of
+Winchester, the late chancellor; they were helped by Edmund Mortimer,
+earl of March, a personal enemy of Lancaster, and could count on the
+assistance of the prince of Wales when he was well enough to take a part
+in politics. The greater part of the House of Commons was on their side,
+and on the whole they may be regarded as the party of constitutional
+protest against maladministration. But there was another movement on
+foot at the same time, which cut across this political agitation in the
+most bewildering fashion. Protests against the corruption of the Church
+and the interference of the papacy in national affairs had always been
+rife in England. At this moment they were more prevalent than ever,
+largely in consequence of the way in which the popes at Avignon had made
+themselves the allies and tools of the kings of France. The Statutes of
+Praemunire and Provisors had been passed a few years before (1351-1365)
+to check papal pretensions. There was a strong anti-clerical party,
+whose practical aim was to fill the coffers of the state by large
+measures of disendowment and confiscations of Church property. The
+intellectual head of this party at the time was John Wycliffe, a famous
+Oxford teacher, and for some time master of Balliol College. In his
+lectures and sermons he was always laying stress on the unsatisfactory
+state of the national church and the infamous corruption of the papacy.
+The doctrine which first made him famous, and commended him to all
+members of the anti-clerical faction, was that unworthy holders of
+spiritual endowments ought to be dispossessed of them, because
+"dominion" should depend on "grace." Churchmen, small and great, as he
+held, had been corrupted, because they had fallen away from the early
+Christian idea of apostolic poverty. Instead of discharging their proper
+functions, bishops and abbots had become statesmen or wealthy barons,
+and took no interest in anything save politics. The monasteries, with
+their vast possessions, had become corporations of landlords, instead of
+associations for prayer and good works. The papacy, with its secular
+ambitions, and its insatiable greed for money, was the worst abuse of
+all. A bad pope, and most popes were bad, was the true Antichrist, since
+he was always overruling the divine law of the scriptures by his human
+ordinances. Every man, as Wycliffe taught--using the feudal analogies of
+contemporary society--is God's tenant-in-chief, directly responsible for
+his acts to his overlord; the pope is always thrusting himself in
+between, like a mesne-tenant, and destroying the touch between God and
+man by his interference. Sometimes his commands are merely presumptuous;
+sometimes--as when, for example, he preaches crusades against Christians
+for purely secular reasons--they are the most horrible form of
+blasphemy. Wycliffe at a later period of his life developed views on
+doctrinal matters, not connected with his original thesis about the
+relations between Church and State, and foreshadowed most of the leading
+tenets of the reformers of the 16th century. But in 1376-1377 he was
+known merely as the outspoken critic of the "Caesarean clergy" and the
+papacy. He had a following of enthusiastic disciples at Oxford, and
+scattered adherents both among the burghers and the knighthood, the
+nucleus of the party that afterwards became famous as the Lollards. But
+they had not yet differentiated themselves from the body of those who
+were merely anti-clerical, without being committed to any theories of
+religious reform.
+
+
+  John of Gaunt and Wycliffe.
+
+Since Wycliffe was, above all things, the enemy of the political clergy
+of high estate, and since those clergy were precisely the leaders of the
+attack upon John of Gaunt, it came to pass that hatred of a common foe
+drew the duke and the doctor together for a space. There was a strange
+alliance between the advocate of clerical reform, and the practical
+exponent of secular misgovernment. The only point on which they were
+agreed was that it would be highly desirable to strip the Church of most
+of her endowments, in order to fill the exchequer of the state.
+Lancaster hoped to use Wycliffe as his mouthpiece against his enemies;
+Wycliffe hoped to see Lancaster disendowing bishops and monasteries and
+defying the pope. Hence the attempt of the political bishops to get
+Wycliffe condemned as a heretic became inextricably mixed with the
+attempt of the constitutional party, to which the bishops belonged, to
+evict the duke from his position of first councillor to the king and
+director of the policy of the realm.
+
+
+  The "Good Parliament."
+
+  Overthrow of the king's favourites.
+
+  Constitutional reforms.
+
+The struggle began in the parliament of 1376, called by the
+anti-Lancastrian party the "Good Parliament." Headed by the earl of
+March, William Courtenay, bishop of London, and Sir Peter de la Mare,
+the daring speaker of the House of Commons, the duke's enemies began
+their campaign by accusing the king's ministers and favourites of
+corruption. Here they were on safe ground, for the misdeeds of Lord
+Latimer--the king's chamberlain, Lord Neville--his steward, Richard
+Lyons--his financial agent, and Alice Perrers--his greedy and shameless
+mistress, had been so flagrant that it was hard for Lancaster to defend
+them. In face of the evidence brought forward the old king and his son
+had to abandon their friends to the angry parliament. Latimer and Lyons
+were condemned to imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods, Alice
+Perrers was banished from court. Encouraged by this victory, the
+parliament passed on to constitutional reforms, forced on the king a
+council of twelve peers nominated by themselves, who were to exercise
+over him much the same control that the lords ordainers had held over
+his father, and compelled him to assent to a long list of petitions
+which, if properly carried out, would have removed most of the practical
+grievances of the nation. Having so done they dispersed, not guessing
+that Lancaster had yielded so easily because he was set on undoing their
+work the moment that they were gone.
+
+
+  John of Gaunt re-establishes the royal power.
+
+  Death of the Black Prince.
+
+This, however, was the case; after the shortest of intervals the duke
+executed something like a _coup d'état_. In his father's name he
+released Latimer and Lyons, dismissed the council of twelve, imprisoned
+Peter de la Mare, sequestrated the temporalities of Bishop Wykeham, and
+sent the earl of March out of the realm. Alice Perrers took possession
+again of the king, and all his corrupt courtiers came back to him. A
+royal edict declared the statutes of the "Good Parliament" null and
+void. Lancaster would never have dared to defy public opinion and
+challenge the constitutional party to a life-and-death struggle in this
+fashion, had it not been that his brother the prince of Wales had died
+while the "Good Parliament" was sitting; thus the opposition had been
+deprived of their strongest support. The prince's heir was a mere child,
+Richard of Bordeaux, aged only nine. It was feared by some that Duke
+John might carry his ambitions so far as to aim at the throne--he could
+do what he pleased with his doting father, and flaws might have been
+picked in the marriage of the Black Prince and his wife Joan of Kent,
+who were cousins, and therefore within the "prohibited degrees." As a
+matter of fact Lancaster was a more honest man than his enemies
+suspected; he hastened to acknowledge his little nephew's rights,
+acknowledged him as prince of Wales, and introduced him as his
+grandfather's heir before the parliament of January 1377.
+
+
+  Death of Edward III.
+
+The character of this body was a proof of the great strength of the
+royal name and power even in days when parliamentary institutions had
+been long in existence, and were supposed to act as a check on the
+crown. To legalize his arbitrary acts Duke John dared to summon the
+estates together, after he had issued stringent orders to the sheriffs
+to exclude his enemies and return his friends when the members for the
+Commons were chosen. He obtained a house of the complexion that he
+desired, and having a strong following among the peers actually
+succeeded in undoing all the work of 1376. No sign of trouble or
+rebellion followed, the opposition being destitute of a fighting leader.
+March had left the realm; Bishop Wykeham showed an unworthy subservience
+by suing for pardon through the mediation of Alice Perrers. Only Bishop
+Courtenay refused to be terrorized; he chose this moment to open a
+campaign against the duke's ally, John Wycliffe, who was arraigned for
+heresy before the ecclesiastical courts. His trial, however, ended in a
+scandalous fiasco. Lancaster and his friend Lord Percy came to St
+Paul's, and so insulted and browbeat the bishop, that the proceedings
+degenerated into a riot, and reached no conclusion (Feb. 19). Courtenay
+dared not recommence them, and Lancaster ruled as he pleased till his
+father, five months later, died. Deserted by his worthless courtiers and
+plundered on his death-bed by his greedy mistress, the victor of Sluys
+and Creēy sank into an unhonoured grave. It was a relief to the nation
+that he was gone. Yet there was a general feeling that chaos might
+follow. If Lancaster should justify the malevolent rumours that were
+afloat by making a snatch at the crown, the last state of the realm
+might be worse than the first.
+
+
+  Richard II.
+
+Duke John, however, was a better man than his enemies supposed. He was
+loyal to the crown according to his lights, and showed a chivalrous
+self-denial that had hardly been expected from him. He saluted his
+little nephew as king without a moment's hesitation, though he was aware
+that with the commencement of a new reign his own dictatorship had come
+to an end. The princess of Wales, in whose hands the young Richard II.
+was placed, had never been his friend, and was surrounded by adherents
+of her deceased husband, who belonged to the constitutional party.
+Disarmed, however, by the duke's frank submission they wisely resolved
+not to push him to extremes, and the first council which was appointed
+to act for the new monarch was a sort of "coalition ministry" in which
+Lancaster's followers as well as his foes were represented. For that
+very reason it was lacking in strength and unity of purpose, and proved
+lamentably incapable of dealing with the problems of the moment.
+
+
+  The French war.
+
+Of these the most pressing was the renewal of the French war; the truce
+had expired a few weeks before the death of Edward III., and the new
+reign began with a series of military disasters. The French fleet landed
+in great force in Sussex, burnt Rye and Hastings and routed the shire
+levies. Simultaneously the seneschal of Aquitaine was defeated in
+battle, and Bergerac, the last great town in the inland which remained
+in English hands, was captured by the duke of Anjou.
+
+
+  First parliament of Richard. Reforms.
+
+The first parliament of Richard II. met in October under the most gloomy
+auspices. It showed its temper by taking up the work of the "Good
+Parliament." Lancaster's adherents were turned out of the council; the
+persons condemned in 1376 were declared incapable of serving in it;
+Alice Perrers was sentenced to banishment and forfeiture, and the little
+king was made to repudiate the declaration whereby his uncle had quashed
+the statutes of 1376 by declaring that "no act of parliament can be
+repealed save with parliament's consent." John of Gaunt bowed before the
+storm, retired to his estates, and for some time took little part in
+affairs of state.
+
+Unfortunately the new government proved wholly unable either to conduct
+the struggle with France successfully or to pluck up courage to make a
+humiliating peace--the only wise course before them. The nation was too
+proud to accept defeat, and persevered in the unhappy attempt to reverse
+the fortunes of war. An almost unbroken series of petty disasters
+marked the first three years of King Richard. The worst was the failure
+of the last great devastating raid which the English launched against
+France. Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III., took a
+powerful army to Calais, and marched through Picardy and Champagne, past
+Orleans, and finally to Rennes in Brittany, but accomplished nothing
+save the ruin of his own troops and the wasting of a vast sum of money.
+Meanwhile taxation was heavy, the whole nation was seething with
+discontent, and--what was worst--no way was visible out of the miserable
+situation; ministers and councillors were repeatedly displaced, but
+their successors always proved equally incompetent to find a remedy.
+
+
+  The Great Revolt of 1381.
+
+This period of murmuring and misery culminated in the Great Revolt of
+1381, a phenomenon whose origins must be sought in the most complicated
+causes, but whose outbreak was due in the main to a general feeling that
+the realm was being misgoverned, and that some one must be made
+responsible for its maladministration. It was actually provoked by the
+unwise and unjust poll-tax of one shilling a head on all adult persons,
+voted by the parliament of Northampton in November 1380. The last
+poll-tax had been carefully graduated on a sliding scale so as to press
+lightly on the poorest classes; in this one a shilling for each person
+had to be exacted from every township, though it was provided that "the
+strong should help the weak" to a certain extent. But in hundreds of
+villages there were no "strong" residents, and the poorest cottager had
+to pay his three groats. The peasantry defended themselves by the simple
+device of understating the numbers of their families; the returns made
+it appear that the adult population of England had gone down from
+1,355,000 to 896,000 since the poll-tax of 1379. Thereupon the
+government sent out commissioners to revise the returns and exact the
+missing shillings. Their appearance led to a series of widespread and
+preconcerted riots, which soon spread over all England from the Wash to
+the Channel, and in a few days developed into a formidable rebellion.
+The poll-tax was no more than the spark which fired the mine; it merely
+provided a good general grievance on which all malcontents could unite.
+In the districts which took arms two main causes of insurrection may be
+differentiated; the first and the most widespread was the discontent of
+the rural population with the landowners and the Statute of Labourers.
+Their aim was to abolish all villein-service, and to wring from their
+lords the commutation of all manorial customs and obligations for a
+small rent--fourpence an acre was generally the sum suggested. But there
+was a simultaneous outbreak in many urban districts. In Winchester,
+London, St Albans, Canterbury, Bury, Beverley, Scarborough and many
+other places the rioting was as violent as in the countryside. Here the
+object of the insurgents was in most cases to break down the local
+oligarchy, who engrossed all municipal office and oppressed the meaner
+citizens; but in less numerous instances their end was to win charters
+from lords (almost always ecclesiastical lords) who had hitherto refused
+to grant them. But it must not be forgotten that there was also a tinge
+of purely political discontent about the rising; the insurgents
+everywhere proclaimed their intention to destroy "traitors," of whom the
+most generally condemned were the chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, and
+the treasurer, Sir Robert Hailes, the two persons most responsible for
+the levy of the poll-tax. Often the rebels added the name of John of
+Gaunt to the list, looking upon him as the person ultimately responsible
+for the mismanagement of the war and the misgovernment of the realm. It
+must be added that though the leaders of the revolt were for the most
+part local demagogues, the creatures of the moment, there were among
+them a few fanatics like the "mad priest of Kent," John Ball, who had
+long preached socialist doctrines from the old text:
+
+  "When Adam delved and Eve span
+   Who was then the gentleman?"
+
+and clamoured for the abolition of all differences of rank, status and
+property. Though many clerics were found among the rebels, it does not
+seem that any of them were Wycliffites, or that the reformer's teaching
+had played any part in exciting the peasantry at this time. No
+contemporary authority ascribes the rising to the Lollards.
+
+
+  Wat Tyler.
+
+The riots had begun, almost simultaneously in Kent and Essex: from
+thence they spread through East Anglia and the home counties. In the
+west and north there were only isolated and sporadic outbreaks, confined
+to a few turbulent towns. In the countryside the insurrection was
+accompanied by wholesale burnings of manor-rolls, the hunting down of
+unpopular bailiffs and landlords, and a special crusade against the
+commissioners of the poll-tax and the justices who had been enforcing
+the Statute of Labourers. There was more arson and blackmailing than
+murder, though some prominent persons perished, such as the judge, Sir
+John Cavendish, and the prior of Bury. In many regions the rising was
+purely disorderly and destitute of organization. This was not, however,
+the case in Kent and London. The mob which had gathered at Maidstone and
+Canterbury marched on the capital many thousands strong, headed by a
+local demagogue named Wat Tyler, whom they had chosen as their captain;
+his most prominent lieutenant was the preacher John Ball. They announced
+their intention of executing all "traitors," seizing the person of the
+king, and setting up a new government for the realm. The royal council
+and ministers showed grievous incapacity and cowardice--they made no
+attempt to raise an army, and opened negotiations with the rebels. While
+these were in progress the malcontent party in London, headed by three
+aldermen, opened the gates of the city to Tyler and his horde. They
+poured in, and, joined by the London mob, sacked John of Gaunt's palace
+of the Savoy, the Temple, and many other buildings, while the ministers
+took refuge with the young king in the Tower. It was well known that not
+only the capital and the neighbouring counties but all eastern England
+was ablaze, and the council in despair sent out the young king to parley
+with Tyler at Mile End. The rebels at first demanded no more than that
+Richard should declare villeinage abolished, and that all feudal dues
+and services should be commuted for a rent of fourpence an acre. This
+was readily conceded, and charters were drawn up to that effect and
+sealed by the king. But, while the meeting was still going on, Tyler
+went off to the Tower with a part of his horde, entered the fortress
+unopposed, and murdered the unhappy chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, the
+treasurer, and several victims more. This was only the beginning of
+massacre. Instead of dispersing with their charters, as did many of the
+peasants, Tyler and his confederates ran riot through London, burning
+houses and slaying lawyers, officials, foreign merchants and other
+unpopular persons. This had the effect of frightening the propertied
+classes in the city, who had hitherto observed a timid neutrality, and
+turned public opinion against the insurgents. Next day the rebel leaders
+again invited the king to a conference, in the open space of Smithfield,
+and laid before him a programme very different from that propounded at
+Mile End. Tyler demanded that all differences of rank and status should
+cease, that all church lands should be confiscated and divided up among
+the laity, that the game laws should be abolished, and that "no lord
+should any longer hold lordship except civilly." Apparently he was set
+on provoking a refusal, and thus getting an excuse for seizing the
+person of the king. But matters went otherwise than he had expected;
+when he waxed unmannerly, and unsheathed his dagger to strike one of the
+royal retinue who had dared to answer him back, the mayor of London,
+William Walworth, drew his cutlass and cut him down. The mob strung
+their bows, and were about to shoot down the king and his suite. But
+Richard--who showed astounding nerve and presence of mind for a lad of
+fourteen--cantered up to them shouting that he would be their chief and
+captain and would give them their rights. The conference was continued,
+but, while it was in progress, the mayor brought up the whole civic
+militia of London, who had taken arms when they saw that the triumph of
+the rebels meant anarchy, and rescued the king out of the hands of the
+mob. Seeing such a formidable body of armed men opposed to them, the
+insurgents dispersed--without their reckless and ready-witted captain
+they were helpless (June 15, 1381).
+
+
+  Suppression of the rising.
+
+This was the turning-point of the rebellion; within a few days the
+council had collected a considerable army, which marched through Essex
+scattering such rebel bands as still held together. Kent was pacified at
+the same time; and Henry Despenser, the warlike bishop of Norwich, made
+a separate campaign against the East Anglian insurgents, defeating them
+at the skirmish of North Walsham, and hanging the local leader Geoffrey
+Lister, who had declared himself "king of the commons" (June 25, 1381).
+After this there was nothing remaining save to punish the leaders of the
+revolt; a good many scores of them were hanged, though the vengeance
+exacted does not seem to have been greater than was justified by the
+numerous murders and burnings of which they had been guilty; the fanatic
+Ball was, of course, among the first to suffer. On the 30th of August
+the rough methods of martial law were suspended, and on the 14th of
+December the king issued an amnesty to all save certain leaders who had
+hitherto escaped capture. A parliament had been called in November; it
+voted that all the charters given by the king at Mile End were null and
+void, no manumissions or grants of privileges could have been valid
+without the consent of the estates of the realm, "and for their own
+parts they would never consent to such, of their own free will nor
+otherwise, even to save themselves from sudden death."
+
+
+  Decline of the manorial system.
+
+The rebellion, therefore, had failed either to abolish villeinage in the
+countryside or to end municipal oligarchy in the towns, and many lords
+took the opportunity of the time of reaction in order to revindicate old
+claims over their bondsmen. Nevertheless serfdom continued to decline
+all through the latter years of the 14th century, and was growing
+obsolete in the 15th. This, however, was the result not of the great
+revolt of 1381, but of economic causes working out their inevitable
+progress. The manorial system was already doomed, and the rent-paying
+tenant farmers, who had begun to appear after the Black Death, gradually
+superseded the villeins as the normal type of peasantry during the two
+generations that followed the outbreak that is generally known as "Wat
+Tyler's rebellion."
+
+
+  Wycliffe and the Lollards.
+
+King Richard, though he had shown such courage and ready resources at
+Smithfield, was still only a lad of fourteen. For three years more he
+was under the control of tutors and governors appointed by his council.
+Their rule was incompetent, but the chief danger to the realm had passed
+away when both Charles V. of France and his great captain Du Guesclin
+died in 1380. The new king at Paris was a young boy, whose councils were
+swayed by a knot of quarrelsome and selfish uncles; the vigour of the
+attack on England began to slacken. Nevertheless there was no change in
+the fortune of war, which continued to be disastrous, if on a smaller
+scale than before. The chief domestic event of the time was the attack
+of the clerical party on Wycliffe and his followers. The reformer had
+begun to develop dogmatic views, in addition to his old theories about
+the relations of Church and State. When he proceeded to deny the
+doctrine of transubstantiation, to assert the all-sufficiency of the
+Scriptures as a rule of life, to denounce saint-worship, pilgrimages,
+and indulgences, and to declare the pope to be Antichrist, he frightened
+his old supporter John of Gaunt and the politicians of the anti-clerical
+clique. They ceased to support him, and his followers became a sect
+rather than a political party. He and his disciples were expelled from
+Oxford, and ere long the bishops began to arrest and try them for
+heresy. Wycliffe himself, strange to say, was not molested. He survived
+to publish his translation of the Bible and to die in peace in December
+1383. But his followers were being hunted, and imprisoned or forced to
+recant, all through the later years of Richard II. Yet they continued to
+multiply, and exercised at times considerable influence; though they had
+few supporters among the baronage, yet among the lesser gentry and still
+more among the burgher class and in the universities they were strong.
+It was not till the next reign, when the bishops succeeded in calling
+in the crown to their aid, and passed the statute _De heretico
+comburendo_, that Lollardy ceased to flourish.
+
+
+  Richard's personal rule.
+
+  Impeachment of the king's "favourites."
+
+  The "lords appellant."
+
+  Execution of the king's friends.
+
+King Richard meanwhile had grown to man's estate, and had resolved to
+take the reins of power into his own hands. He was wayward,
+high-spirited and self-confident. He wished to restore the royal powers
+which had slipped into the hands of the council and parliament during
+his minority, and had small doubts of his capacity to restore it. His
+chosen instruments were two men whom his enemies called his
+"favourites," though it was absurd to apply the name either to an
+elderly statesman like Michael de la Pole, who was made chancellor in
+1384, or to Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, a young noble of the oldest
+lineage, who was the king's other confidant. Neither of them was an
+upstart, and both, the one from his experience and the other from his
+high station, were persons who might legitimately aspire to a place
+among the advisers of the king. But Richard was tactless; he openly
+flouted his two uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock, and took
+no pains to conciliate either the baronage or the commons. His
+autocratic airs and his ostentatious preference for his confidants--of
+whom he made the one earl of Suffolk and the other marquess of
+Dublin--provoked both lords and commons. Pole was impeached on a
+groundless charge of corruption and condemned, but Richard at once
+pardoned him and restored him to favour. De Vere was banished to
+Ireland, but at his master's desire omitted to leave the realm. The
+contemptuous disregard for the will of parliament which the king
+displayed brought on him a worse fate than he deserved. His youngest
+uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, was a designing and
+ambitious prince who saw his own advantage in embittering the strife
+between Richard and his parliament. John of Gaunt having departed to
+Spain, where he was stirring up civil strife in the name of his wife,
+the heiress of Peter the Cruel, Gloucester put himself at the head of
+the opposition. Playing the part of the demagogue, and exaggerating all
+his nephew's petulant acts and sayings, he declared the constitution in
+danger, and took arms at the head of a party of peers, the earls of
+Warwick, Arundel and Nottingham, and Henry, earl of Derby, the son of
+John of Gaunt, who called themselves the lords appellant, because they
+were ready to "appeal" Richard's councillors of treason. Public opinion
+was against the king, and the small army which his confidant De Vere
+raised under the royal banner was easily scattered by Gloucester's
+forces at the rout of Radcot Bridge (Dec. 20, 1387). Oxford and Suffolk
+succeeded in escaping to France, but the king and the rest of his
+adherents fell into the hands of the lords appellant. They threatened
+for a moment to depose him, but finally placed him under the control of
+a council and ministers chosen by themselves, and to put him in a proper
+state of terror, executed Lord Beauchamp, the judge, Sir Robert
+Tressilian, and six or seven more of his chief friends. This was a piece
+of gratuitous cruelty, for the king, though wayward and unwise, had done
+nothing to justify such treatment.
+
+
+  Richard rules constitutionally.
+
+  Peace with France.
+
+To the surprise of the nation Richard took his humiliation quietly. But
+he was merely biding his time; he had sworn revenge in his heart, but he
+was ready to wait long for it. For the next nine years he appeared an
+unexceptionable sovereign, anxious only to conciliate the nation and
+parliament. He got rid of the ministers imposed upon him by the lords
+appellant, but replaced them by Bishop Wykeham and other old statesmen
+against whom no objection could be raised. He disarmed Gloucester by
+making a close alliance with his elder uncle John of Gaunt, who had been
+absent in Spain during the troubles of 1387-1388, and was displeased at
+the violent doings of his brother. His rule was mild and moderate, and
+he succeeded at last in freeing himself from the incubus of the French
+war--the source of most of the evils of the time, for it was the heavy
+taxation required to feed this struggle which embittered all the
+domestic politics of the realm. After two long truces, which filled the
+years 1390-1395, a definitive peace was at last concluded, by which the
+English king kept Calais and the coast-strip of Guienne, from Bordeaux
+to Bayonne, which had never been lost to the enemy. To confirm the
+peace, he married Isabella, the young daughter of Charles VI. (Nov.
+1396); he had lost his first wife, the excellent Anne of Bohemia, two
+years before.
+
+
+  Richard reduces Ireland to obedience.
+
+  His revenge on Gloucester and the lords appellant.
+
+  Banishment of Bolingbroke and Norfolk.
+
+The king seemed firmly seated on his throne--so much so that in 1395 he
+had found leisure for a long expedition to Ireland, which none of his
+ancestors had visited since King John. He compelled all the native
+princes to do him homage, and exercised the royal authority in such a
+firm manner as had never before been known in the island. But those who
+looked forward to quiet and prosperous times both for Ireland and for
+England were destined to be undeceived. In 1397 Richard carried out an
+extraordinary and unexpected _coup d'état_, which he had evidently
+premeditated for many years. Having lived down his unpopularity, and
+made himself many powerful friends, he resolved to take his
+long-deferred revenge on Gloucester and the other lords appellant. He
+trumped up a vain story that his uncle was once more conspiring against
+him, arrested him, and sent him over to Calais, where he was secretly
+murdered in prison. At the same time Gloucester's two chief confederates
+of 1387, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, were tried and sentenced to
+death: the former was actually executed, the latter imprisoned for life.
+The other two lords appellant, Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,[2] and Henry of
+Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, were dealt with a year later.
+Richard pretended to hold them among his best friends, but in 1398
+induced Bolingbroke to accuse Norfolk of treasonable language. Mowbray
+denied it, and challenged his accuser to a judicial duel. When they were
+actually facing each other in the lists at Coventry, the king forbade
+them to fight, and announced that he banished them both--Henry for six
+years, Norfolk for life.
+
+
+  Arbitrary rule of Richard.
+
+Having thus completed his vengeance on those who had slain his friends
+ten years before--their respective punishments were judiciously adapted
+to their several responsibilities in that matter--Richard began to
+behave in an arbitrary and unconstitutional fashion. He evidently
+thought that no one would dare to lift a hand against him after the
+examples that he had just made. This might have been so, if he had
+continued to rule as cautiously as during the time when he was nursing
+his scheme of revenge. But now his brain seemed to be turned by
+success--indeed his wild language at times seemed to argue that he was
+not wholly sane. He declared that all pardons issued since 1387 were
+invalid, and imposed heavy fines on persons, and even on whole shires,
+that had given the lords appellant aid. He made huge forced loans, and
+employed recklessly the abuse of purveyance. He browbeat the judges on
+the bench, and kept many persons under arrest for indefinite periods
+without a trial. But the act which provoked the nation most was that he
+terrified the parliament which met at Shrewsbury in 1398 into voting
+away its powers to a small committee of ten persons, all creatures of
+his own. This body he used as his instrument of government, treating its
+assent as equivalent to that of a whole parliament in session. There
+seemed to be an end to the constitutional liberties of England.
+
+
+  Second expedition to Ireland.
+
+  Henry of Bolingbroke lands in England_.
+
+  Flight of Richard.
+
+  Surrender and abdication of Richard.
+
+Such violence, however, speedily brought its own punishment. In 1399
+Richard sailed over to Ireland to put down a revolt of the native
+princes, who had defeated and slain the earl of March, his cousin and
+their lord-lieutenant. While he was absent Henry of Bolingbroke landed
+at Ravenspur with a small body of exiles and mercenaries. He pretended
+that he had merely come to claim the estates and title of his father
+John of Gaunt, who had died a few months before. The adventurer was at
+once joined by the earl of Northumberland and all the lords of the
+north; the army which was called out against him refused to fight, and
+joined his banner, and in a few days he was master of all England (July
+1399). King Richard, hurrying back from Ireland, landed at Milford Haven
+just in time to learn that the levies raised in his name had dispersed
+or joined the enemy. He still had with him a considerable force, and
+might have tried the fortune of war with some prospect of success. But
+his conduct seemed dictated by absolute infatuation; he might have
+fought, or he might have fled to his father-in-law in France, if he
+judged his troops untrustworthy. Instead of taking either course, he
+deserted his army by night, and fled into the Welsh mountains,
+apparently with the intention of collecting fresh adherents from North
+Wales and Cheshire, the only regions where he was popular. But
+Bolingbroke had already seized Chester, and was marching against him at
+the head of such a large army that the countryside refused to stir.
+After skulking for three weeks in the hills, Richard surrendered to his
+cousin at Flint, on the 19th of August 1399, having previously
+stipulated that if he consented to abdicate his life should be spared,
+his adherents pardoned, and an honourable livelihood assured to him.
+This surrender put the crown to his career of folly. He should have
+known that Henry would never feel safe while he survived, and that no
+oaths could be trusted in such circumstances. At all costs he should
+have endeavoured to escape abroad, a course that was still in his power.
+
+
+  Accession of Henry IV.
+
+Richard carried out his part of the bargain; he executed a deed of
+abdication in which he owned himself "insufficient and useless." It was
+read to a parliament summoned in his name on the 30th of September, and
+the throne was declared vacant. There was small doubt as to the
+personality of his successor; possession is nine points of the law, and
+Henry of Bolingbroke for the moment had the whole nation at his back.
+His hereditary title indeed was imperfect; though he was the eldest
+descendant of Edward III. in the male line after Richard, yet there was
+a whole family which stood between him and the crown. From Lionel of
+Clarence, the second son of Edward III. (John of Gaunt was only the
+third) descended the house of March, and the late king had proclaimed
+that Edmund of March would be his heir if he should die childless.
+Fortunately for Bolingbroke the young earl was only six years of age;
+not a voice was raised in his favour in parliament. When Henry stood
+forward and claimed the vacant throne by right of conquest and also by
+right of descent, no one gainsaid him. Lords and commons voted that they
+would have him for their king, and he was duly crowned on the 13th of
+October 1399. No faith was kept with the unhappy Richard; he was placed
+in close and secret confinement, and denied the ordinary comforts of
+life. Moreover the adherents for whose safety he had stipulated were at
+once impeached of treason.
+
+
+  Position of the new king.
+
+Henry of Lancaster came to the throne, for all intents and purposes as
+an elective king; he had to depend for the future on his ability to
+conciliate and satisfy the baronage and the commons by his governance.
+For by his usurpation he had sanctioned the theory that kings can be
+deposed for incapacity and maladministration. If he himself should
+become unpopular, all the arguments that he had employed against Richard
+might be turned against himself. The prospect was not reassuring; his
+revenue was small, and parliament would certainly murmur if he tried to
+increase it. The late king was not without partisans and admirers. There
+was a considerable chance that the French king might declare
+war--nominally to avenge his son-in-law, really to win Calais and
+Bordeaux. Of the partisans who had placed Henry on the throne many were
+greedy, and some were wholly unreasonable. But he trusted to his tact
+and his energy, and cheerfully undertook the task of ruling as a
+constitutional king--the friend of the parliament that had placed him on
+the throne.
+
+
+  Rebellion of the earls.
+
+  Murder of Richard.
+
+The problem proved more weary and exhausting than he had suspected. From
+the very first his reign was a time of war, foreign and domestic, of
+murmuring, and of humiliating shifts and devices. Henry commenced his
+career by granting the adherents of Richard II. their lives, after they
+had been first declared guilty of treason and had been deprived of the
+titles, lands and endowments given them by the late king. Their reply to
+this very modified show of mercy was to engage in a desperate conspiracy
+against him. If they had waited till his popularity had waned, they
+might have had some chance of success, but in anger and resentment they
+struck too soon. The earls of Kent and Huntingdon, close kinsmen of
+Richard on his mother's side, the earl of Salisbury--a noted
+Lollard--and the lords Despenser and Lumley took arms at midwinter (Jan.
+4, 1400) and attempted to seize the king at Windsor. They captured the
+castle, but Henry escaped, raised the levies of London against them, and
+beat them into the west. Kent and Salisbury were slain at Cirencester,
+the others captured and executed with many of their followers. Their
+rebellion sealed the fate of the master in whose cause they had risen.
+Henry and his counsellors were determined that there should be no
+further use made of the name of the "lawful king," and Richard was
+deliberately murdered by privation--insufficient clothing, food and
+warmth--in his dungeon at Pontefract Castle (Feb. 17, 1400). It is
+impossible not to pity his fate. He had been wayward, unwise and
+occasionally revengeful; but his provocation had been great, and if few
+tyrants have used more violent and offensive language, few have
+committed such a small list of actual crimes. It was a curious
+commentary on Henry's policy, that Richard, even when dead, did not
+cease to give him trouble. Rumour got abroad, owing to the secrecy of
+his end, that he was not really dead, and an impostor long lived at the
+Scottish court who claimed to be the missing king, and was recognized as
+Richard by many malcontents who wished to be deceived.
+
+
+  Welsh rising under Owen Glendower.
+
+The rising of the earls was only the first and the least dangerous of
+the trials of Henry IV. Only a few months after their death a rebellion
+of a far more formidable sort broke out in Wales--where Richard II. had
+been popular, and the house of March, his natural heirs, held large
+estates. The leader was a gentleman named Owen Glendower, who had the
+blood of the ancient kings of Gwynedd in his veins. Originally he had
+taken to the hills as a mere outlaw, in consequence of a quarrel with
+one of the marcher barons; but after many small successes he began to be
+recognized as a national leader by his countrymen, and proclaimed
+himself prince of Wales. The king marched against him in person in 1400
+and 1401, but Glendower showed himself a master of guerrilla warfare; he
+refused battle, and defied pursuit in his mountains, till the stores of
+the English army were exhausted and Henry was forced to retire. His
+prestige as a general was shaken, and his treasury exhausted by these
+fruitless irregular campaigns.
+
+
+  Discontent of the commons.
+
+  Statute De heretico comburendo.
+
+Meanwhile worse troubles were to come. The commons were beginning to
+murmur at the king's administration; they had obtained neither the peace
+nor the diminished taxation which they had been promised. Moreover,
+among some classes at least, he had won desperate hatred by his policy
+in matters of religion. One of his chief supporters in 1399 had been
+Archbishop Arundel, an old enemy of Richard II. and brother to the earl
+who had been beheaded in 1397. Arundel was determined to extirpate the
+Lollards, and used his influence on the king to induce him to frame and
+pass through parliament the detestable statute _De heretico comburendo_,
+which recognized death by burning at the stake as the penalty of heresy,
+and bound the civil authorities to arrest, hand over to the church
+courts, and receive back for execution, all contumacious Lollards. Henry
+himself does not seem to have been particularly enthusiastic for
+persecution, but in order to keep the church party on his side he was
+forced to sanction it. The burnings began with that of William Sawtré, a
+London vicar, on the 2nd of March 1401; they continued intermittently
+throughout the reign. The victims were nearly all clergy or citizens;
+the king shrank from touching the Lollards of higher rank, and even
+employed in his service some who were notoriously tainted with heresy.
+
+
+  War with Scotland.
+
+  Battle of Homildon Hill.
+
+  Conspiracy of Northumberland with Glendower.
+
+External troubles continued to multiply during Henry's earlier years.
+The Scots had declared war, and there was every sign that the French
+would soon follow suit, for the king's failure to crush Glendower had
+destroyed his reputation for capacity. The rebel achieved his greatest
+success in June 1402, when he surprised and routed the whole levy of the
+marcher lords at Bryn G'las, between Pilleth and Knighton, capturing
+(among many other prisoners) Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle and guardian
+of the young earl of March, whom all malcontents regarded as the
+rightful monarch of England. A few months after the king's fortune
+seemed to take a turn for the better, when the Scots were defeated at
+Homildon Hill by the earl of Northumberland and his son Henry Percy, the
+celebrated "Hotspur." But this victory was to be the prelude to new
+dangers: half the nobility of Scotland had been captured in the battle,
+and Northumberland intended to fill his coffers with their ransoms; but
+the king looked upon them as state prisoners and announced his intention
+of taking them out of the earl's hands. Northumberland was a greedy and
+unscrupulous Border chief, who regarded himself as entitled to exact
+whatever he chose from his master, because he had been the first to join
+him at his landing in 1399, and had lent him a consistent support ever
+since. He had been amply rewarded by grants of land and money, but was
+not yet satisfied. In indignation at the first refusal that he had met,
+the earl conspired with Glendower to raise rebellion in the name of the
+rightful heirs of King Richard, the house of March. The third party in
+the plot was Sir Edmund Mortimer, Glendower's captive, who was easily
+persuaded to join a movement for the aggrandizement of his own family.
+He married Owen's daughter, and became his trusted lieutenant.
+Northumberland also enlisted the services of his chief Scottish
+prisoner, the earl of Douglas, who promised him aid from beyond Tweed.
+
+
+  Insurrection in the north and west.
+
+  Defeat of the rebels at Shrewsbury.
+
+In July 1403 came the crisis of King Henry's reign; while Glendower
+burst into South Wales, and overran the whole countryside as far as
+Cardiff and Carmarthen, the Percies raised their banner in the North.
+The old earl set himself to subdue Yorkshire; his son Hotspur and the
+earl of Douglas marched south and opened communication with the Welsh.
+All Cheshire, a district always faithful to the name of Richard II.,
+rose in their favour, and they were joined by Hotspur's uncle, the earl
+of Worcester. They then advanced towards Shrewsbury, where they hoped
+that Glendower might meet them. But long ere the Welsh could appear,
+King Henry was on the spot; he brought the rebels to action at Hately
+Field, just outside the gates of Shrewsbury, and inflicted on them a
+complete defeat, in which his young son Henry of Monmouth first won his
+reputation as a fighting man. Hotspur was slain, Worcester taken and
+beheaded, Douglas desperately wounded (July 23, 1403). On receiving this
+disastrous news the earl of Northumberland sued for pardon; the king was
+unwise enough to grant it, merely punishing him by fining him and taking
+all his castles out of his hands.
+
+
+  War with France renewed.
+
+  Parliament assumes control of the finances.
+
+By winning the battle of Shrewsbury Henry IV. had saved his crown, but
+his troubles were yet far from an end. The long-expected breach with
+France had at last come to pass; the duke of Orleans, without any
+declaration of war, had entered Guienne, while a French fleet attacked
+the south-west of England, and burnt Plymouth. Even more menacing to the
+king's prosperity was the news that another squadron had appeared off
+the coast of Wales, and landed stores and succours for Glendower, who
+had now conquered the whole principality save a few isolated fortresses.
+The drain of money to meet this combination of foreign war and domestic
+rebellion was more than the king's exchequer could meet. He was driven
+into unconstitutional ways of raising money, which recalled all the
+misdoings of his predecessor. Hence came a series of rancorous quarrels
+with his parliaments, which grew more disloyal and clamorous at every
+new session. The cry was raised that the taxes were heavy not because of
+the French or Welsh wars, but because Henry lavished his money on
+favourites and unworthy dependents. He was forced to bow before the
+storm, though the charge had small foundation: the greater part of his
+household was dismissed, and the war-taxes were paid not to his
+treasurer but to a financial committee appointed by parliament.
+
+
+  Rising of 1405 in the North.
+
+It was not till 1405 that the worst of Henry's troubles came to an end.
+This year saw the last of the convulsions that threatened to overturn
+him,--a rising in the North headed by the old earl of Northumberland, by
+Richard Scrope, archbishop of York, and by Thomas Mowbray the earl
+marshal. It might have proved even more dangerous than the rebellion of
+1403, if Henry's unscrupulous general Ralph, earl of Westmorland, had
+not lured Scrope and Mowbray to a conference, and then arrested them
+under circumstances of the vilest treachery. He handed them over to the
+king, who beheaded them both outside the gate of York, without any
+proper trial before their peers. Northumberland thereupon fled to
+Scotland without further fighting. He remained in exile till January
+1408, when he made a final attempt to raise rebellion in the North, and
+was defeated and slain at the battle of Bramham Moor.
+
+
+  Suppression of the Welsh rising.
+
+Long before this last-named fight Henry's fortunes had begun to mend.
+Glendower was at last checked by the untiring energy of the king's
+eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, who had been given charge of the Welsh
+war. Even when French aid was sent him, the rebel chief proved unable to
+maintain his grip on South Wales. He was beaten out of it in 1406, and
+Aberystwyth Castle, where his garrison made a desperate defence for two
+years, became the southern limit of his dominions. In the end of 1408
+Prince Henry captured this place, and six weeks later Harlech, the
+greatest stronghold of the rebels, where Sir Edmund Mortimer, Owen's
+son-in-law and most trusted captain, held out till he died of
+starvation. From this time onwards the Welsh rebellion gradually died
+down, till Owen relapsed into the position from which he had started,
+that of a guerrilla chief maintaining a predatory warfare in the
+mountains. From 1409 onward he ceased to be a public danger to the
+realm, yet so great was his cunning and activity that he was never
+caught, and died still maintaining a hopeless rebellion so late as 1416.
+
+
+  End of the French and Scottish wars.
+
+The French war died down about the same time that the Welsh rebellion
+became insignificant. Louis of Orleans, the head of the French war
+party, was murdered by his cousin John, duke of Burgundy, in November
+1407, and after his death the French turned from the struggle with
+England to indulge in furious civil wars. Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne
+still remained safe under the English banner. The Scottish war had ended
+even earlier. Prince James, the heir of Robert III., had been captured
+at sea in 1406. The duke of Albany, who became regent when Robert died,
+had no wish to see his nephew return, and concluded a corrupt agreement
+with the king of England, by which he undertook to keep Scotland out of
+the strife, if Henry would prevent the rightful heir from returning to
+claim his own.[3] Hence Albany and his son ruled at Edinburgh for
+seventeen years, while James was detained in an honourable captivity at
+Windsor.
+
+
+  Illness of the king. Faction in the court.
+
+From 1408 till his death in 1413 Henry was freed from all the dangers
+which had beset his earlier years. But he got small enjoyment from the
+crown which no longer tottered on his brow. Soon after his execution of
+Archbishop Scrope he had been smitten with a painful disorder, which his
+enemies declared to be the punishment inflicted on him by heaven for
+the prelate's death. It grew gradually worse, and developed into what
+his contemporaries called leprosy--a loathsome skin disease accompanied
+by bouts of fever, which sometimes kept him bedridden for months at a
+time. From 1409 onwards he became a mere invalid, only able to assert
+himself in rare intervals of convalescence. The domestic politics of the
+realm during his last five years were nothing more than a struggle
+between two court factions who desired to use his name. The one was
+headed by his son Henry, prince of Wales, and his half-brothers John,
+Henry and Thomas Beaufort, the base-born but legitimized children of
+John of Gaunt. The other was under the direction of Archbishop Arundel,
+the king's earliest ally, who had already twice served him as
+chancellor, and had the whole church party at his back. Arundel was
+backed by Thomas duke of Clarence, the king's second son, who was an
+enemy of the Beauforts, and not on the best terms with his own elder
+brother, the prince of Wales. The fluctuating influence of each party
+with the king was marked by the passing of the chancellorship from
+Arundel to Henry Beaufort and back again during the five years of
+Henry's illness. The rivalry between them was purely personal; both were
+prepared to go on with the "Lancastrian experiment," the attempt to
+govern the realm in a constitutional fashion by an alliance between the
+king and the parliament; both were eager persecutors of the Lollards;
+both were eager to make profit for England by interfering in the civil
+wars of the Orleanists and Burgundians which were now devastating
+France.
+
+
+  Prince Hal.
+
+The prince of Wales, it is clear, gave much umbrage to his father by his
+eagerness to direct the policy of the crown ere yet it had fallen to him
+by inheritance. The king suspected, and with good reason, that his son
+wished him to abdicate, and resented the idea. It seems that a plot with
+such an object was actually on foot, and that the younger Henry gave it
+up in a moment of better feeling, when he realized the evil impression
+that the unfilial act would make upon the nation. At this time the
+prince gave small promise of developing into the model monarch that he
+afterwards became. There was no doubt of his military ability, which had
+been fully demonstrated in the long Welsh wars, but he is reputed to
+have shown himself arrogant, contentious and over-given to loose-living.
+There were many, Archbishop Arundel among them, who looked forward with
+apprehension to his accession to the throne.
+
+
+  English expedition to France.
+
+The two parties in the council of Henry IV. were agreed that it would be
+profitable to intervene in the wars of France, but they differed as to
+the side which offered the most advantages. Hence came action which
+seemed inconsistent, if not immoral; in 1411, under the prince's
+influence, an English contingent joined the Burgundians and helped them
+to raise the siege of Paris. In 1412, by Arundel's advice, a second army
+under the duke of Clarence crossed the Channel to co-operate with the
+Orleanists. But the French factions, wise for once, made peace at the
+time of Clarence's expedition, and paid him 210,000 gold crowns to leave
+the country! The only result of the two expeditions was to give the
+English soldiery a poor opinion of French military capacity, and a
+notion that money was easily to be got from the distracted realm beyond
+the narrow seas.
+
+
+  Accession of Henry V.
+
+  His character.
+
+On the 20th of March 1413, King Henry's long illness at last reached a
+fatal issue, and his eldest son ascended the throne. The new king had
+everything in his favour; his father had borne the odium of usurpation
+and fought down the forces of anarchy. The memory of Richard II. had
+been forgotten; the young earl of March had grown up into the most
+harmless and unenterprising of men, and the nation seemed satisfied with
+the new dynasty, whose first sovereign had shown himself, under much
+provocation, the most moderate and accommodating of constitutional
+monarchs.
+
+Henry V. on his accession bade farewell to the faults of his youth. He
+seems to have felt a genuine regret for the unfilial conduct which had
+vexed his father's last years, and showed a careful determination to
+turn over a new leaf and give his enemies no scope for criticism. From
+the first he showed a sober and grave bearing; he reconciled himself to
+all his enemies, gave up his youthful follies, and became a model king
+according to the ideas of his day. There is no doubt that he had a
+strong sense of moral responsibility, and that he was sincerely pious.
+But his piety inspired him to redouble the persecution of the
+unfortunate Lollards, whom his father had harried only in an
+intermittent fashion; and his sense of moral responsibility did not
+prevent him from taking the utmost advantage of the civil wars of his
+unhappy neighbours of France.
+
+
+  Persecution of the Lollards.
+
+  Rising under Oldcastle.
+
+The first notable event of Henry's reign was his assault upon the
+Lollards. His father had spared their lay chiefs, and contented himself
+with burning preachers or tradesmen. Henry arrested John Oldcastle, Lord
+Cobham, their leading politician, and had him tried and condemned to the
+stake. But Oldcastle escaped from the Tower before the day fixed for his
+execution, and framed a wild plot for slaying or deposing his
+persecutor. He planned to gather the Lollards of London and the Home
+Counties under arms, and to seize the person of the king--a scheme as
+wild as the design of Guy Fawkes or the Fifth Monarchy Men in later
+generations, for the sectaries were not strong enough to coerce the
+whole nation. Henry received early notice of the plot, and nipped it in
+the bud, scattering Oldcastle's levies in St Giles' Fields (Jan. 10,
+1414) and hanging most of his lieutenants. But their reckless leader
+escaped, and for three years led the life of an outlaw, till in 1417 he
+was finally captured, still in arms, and sent to the stake.
+
+
+  Henry V. and France.
+
+This danger having passed, Henry set himself to take advantage of the
+troubles of France. He threatened to invade that realm unless the
+Orleans faction, who had for the moment possession of the person of the
+mad king Charles VI., should restore to him all that Edward III. had
+owned in 1360, with Anjou and Normandy in addition. The demand was
+absurd and exorbitant and was refused, though the French government
+offered him the hand of their king's daughter Catherine with a dowry of
+800,000 crowns and the districts of Quercy and Périgord--sufficiently
+handsome terms. When he began to collect a fleet and an army, they added
+to the offer the Limousin and other regions; but Henry was determined to
+pick his quarrel, and declared war in an impudent and hypocritical
+manifesto, in which he declared that he was driven into strife against
+his will. The fact was that he had secured the promise of the neutrality
+or the co-operation of the Burgundian faction, and thought that he could
+crush the Orleanists with ease.
+
+
+  Henry invades France.
+
+  Battle of Agincourt.
+
+  Effect of the battle.
+
+He sailed for France in August 1415, with an army compact and
+well-equipped, but not very numerous. On the eve of his departure he
+detected and quelled a plot as wild and futile as that of Oldcastle. The
+conspirators were his cousin, Richard, earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope,
+and Sir Thomas Grey, a kinsman of the Percies. They had planned to raise
+a rebellion in the name of the earl of March, in whose cause Wales and
+the North were to have been called to arms. But March himself refused to
+stir, and betrayed them to the king, who promptly beheaded them, and set
+sail five days later. He landed near the mouth of the Seine, and
+commenced his campaign by besieging and capturing Harfleur, which the
+Orleanists made no attempt to succour. But such a large number of his
+troops perished in the trenches by a pestilential disorder, that he
+found himself too weak to march on Paris, and took his way to Calais
+across Picardy, hoping, as it seems, to lure the French to battle by
+exposing his small army to attack. The plan was hazardous, for the
+Orleanists turned out in great numbers and almost cut him off in the
+marshes of the Somme. When he had struggled across them, and was
+half-way to Calais, the enemy beset him in the fields of Agincourt (Oct.
+25, 1415). Here Henry vindicated his military reputation by winning a
+victory even more surprising than those of Creēy, and Poitiers, for he
+was outnumbered in an even greater proportion than the two Edwards had
+been in 1346 and 1356, and had to take the offensive instead of being
+attacked in a strong position. The heavily armoured French noblesse,
+embogged in miry meadows, proved helpless before the lightly equipped
+English archery. The slaughter in their ranks was terrible, and the
+young duke of Orleans, the head of the predominant faction of the
+moment, was taken prisoner with many great nobles. However, so exhausted
+was the victorious army that Henry merely led it back to Calais, without
+attempting anything more in this year. The sole tangible asset of the
+campaign was the possession of Harfleur, the gate of Normandy, a second
+Calais in its advantages when future invasions were taken in hand. The
+moral effects were more important. The Orleanist party was shaken in its
+power; the rival Burgundian faction became more inclined to commit
+itself to the English cause, and the terror of the English arms weighed
+heavily upon both.
+
+
+  England and the council of Constance.
+
+It was not till the next year but one that Henry renewed his invasion of
+France--the intervening space was spent in negotiations with Burgundy,
+and with the emperor Sigismund, whose aid the king secured in return for
+help in putting an end to the scandalous "great schism" which had been
+rending the Western Church for so many years. The English deputation
+lent their aid to Sigismund at the council of Constance, when
+Christendom was at last reunited under a single head, though all the
+reforms which were to have accompanied the reunion were postponed, and
+ultimately avoided altogether, by the restored papacy.
+
+
+  Henry's second invasion of France.
+
+  Conquest of Normandy.
+
+  Triumph of the Burgundians.
+
+  Henry takes Rouen.
+
+  Murder of John of Burgundy.
+
+In July 1417 Henry began his second invasion of France, and landed at
+the mouth of the Seine with a powerful army of 17,000 men. He had
+resolved to adopt a plan of campaign very different from those which
+Edward III. or the Black Prince had been wont to pursue, having in view
+nothing more than the steady and gradual conquest of the province of
+Normandy. This he was able to accomplish without any interference from
+the government at Paris, for the constable Armagnac, who had succeeded
+the captive Orleans at the head of the anti-Burgundian party, had no
+troops to spare. He was engaged in a separate campaign with Henry's ally
+John the Fearless, and left Normandy to shift for itself. One after
+another all the towns of the duchy were reduced, save Rouen, the siege
+of which, as the hardest task, King Henry postponed till the rest of the
+countryside was in his hands. He sat down to besiege it in 1418, and was
+detained before its walls for many months, for the citizens made an
+admirable defence. Meanwhile a change had taken place in the domestic
+politics of France; the Burgundians seized Paris in May 1418; the
+constable Armagnac and many of his partisans were massacred, and John
+the Fearless got possession of the person of the mad Charles VI., and
+became the responsible ruler of France. He had then to choose between
+buying off his English allies by great concessions, or taking up the
+position of champion of French interests. He selected the latter rōle,
+broke with Henry, and tried to relieve Rouen. But all his efforts were
+foiled, and the Norman capital surrendered, completely starved out, on
+the 19th of January 1419. On this Burgundy resolved to open negotiations
+with Henry; he wished to free his hands for an attack on his domestic
+enemies, who had rallied beyond the Loire under the leadership of the
+dauphin Charles--from whom the party, previously known first as
+Orleanists and then as Armagnacs, gets for the future the name of the
+"Dauphinois." The English king, however, seeing the manifest advantage
+of his position, tried to drive too hard a bargain; he demanded the old
+boundaries of 1360, with his new conquest of Normandy, the hand of the
+princess Catherine, and a great sum of ready money. Burgundy dared not
+concede so much, under pain of alienating all his more patriotic
+supporters. He broke off the conference of Meulan, and tried to patch up
+a peace with the dauphin, in order to unite all Frenchmen against the
+foreign invader. This laudable intention was wrecked by the treachery of
+the young heir to the French throne; on the bridge of Montereau Charles
+deliberately murdered the suppliant duke, as he knelt to do homage,
+thinking thereby that he would make an end of the Burgundian party
+(Sept. 9, 1419).
+
+
+  The Burgundians acknowledge Henry as heir of France.
+
+  Treaty of Troyes.
+
+This abominable deed gave northern France for twenty years to an English
+master. The young duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, and his supporters
+in Paris and the north, were so incensed with the dauphin's cruel
+treachery that they resolved that he should never inherit his father's
+crown. They proffered peace to King Henry, and offered to recognize his
+preposterous[4] claim to the French throne, on condition that he should
+marry the princess Catherine and guarantee the constitutional liberties
+of the realm. The insane Charles VI. should keep nominal possession of
+the royal title till his death, but meanwhile the Burgundians would do
+homage to Henry as "heir of France." These terms were welcomed by the
+English king, and ratified at the treaty of Troyes (May 21, 1420). Henry
+married the princess Catherine, received the oaths of Duke Philip and
+his partisans, and started forth to conquer the Dauphinois at the head
+of an army of which half was composed of Burgundian levies. Paris,
+Picardy, Champagne, and indeed the greater part of France north of the
+Loire, acknowledged him as their sovereign.
+
+
+  Death of Henry V.
+
+Henry had only two years longer to live; they were spent in incessant
+and successful campaigning against the partisans of his brother-in-law,
+the dauphin Charles; by a long series of sieges the partisans of that
+worthless prince were evicted from all their northern strongholds. They
+fought long and bitterly, nor was this to be marvelled at, for Henry had
+a custom of executing as traitors all who withstood him, and those who
+had once defied him did well to fight to the last gasp, in order to
+avoid the block or the halter. In the longest and most desperate of
+these sieges, that of Meaux (Oct. 1421-March 1422), the king contracted
+a dysenteric ailment which he could never shake off. He survived for a
+few months, but died, worn out by his incessant campaigning, on the 31st
+of August 1422, leaving the crown of England and the heirship of France
+to his only child Henry of Windsor, an infant less than two years old.
+
+
+  Effects of his conquests.
+
+Few sovereigns in history have accomplished such a disastrous life's
+work as this much-admired prince. If he had not been a soldier of the
+first ability and a diplomatist of the most unscrupulous sort, he could
+never have advanced so far towards his ill-chosen goal, the conquest of
+France. His genius and the dauphin's murderous act of folly at Montereau
+conspired to make the incredible almost possible. Indeed, if Henry had
+lived five years longer, he would probably have carried his arms to the
+Mediterranean, and have united France and England in uneasy union for
+some short space of time. It is clear that they could not have been held
+together after his death, for none but a king of exceptional powers
+could have resisted their natural impulse to break apart. As it was,
+Henry had accomplished just enough to tempt his countrymen to persevere
+for nearly thirty years in the endeavour to complete the task he had
+begun. France was ruined for a generation, England was exhausted by her
+effort, and (what was worse) her governing classes learnt in the long
+and pitiless war lessons of demoralization which were to bear fruit in
+the ensuing struggle of the two Roses. It is a strange fact that Henry,
+though he was in many respects a conscientious man, with a strong sense
+of responsibility, and a sincere piety, was so blind to the
+unrighteousness of his own actions that he died asserting that "neither
+ambition nor vainglory had led him into France, but a genuine desire to
+assert a righteous claim, which he desired his heirs to prosecute to the
+bitter end."
+
+
+  Henry VI.
+
+The guardianship of the infant Henry VI. fell to his two uncles, John of
+Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester, the two surviving brothers of the
+late king. Bedford became regent in France, and took over the heritage
+of the war, in which he was vigorously aided by the young Philip of
+Burgundy, whose sister he soon after married. Almost his first duty was
+to bury the insane Charles VI., who only survived his son-in-law for a
+few months, and to proclaim his little nephew king of France under the
+name of Henry II. Gloucester, however, had personal charge of the child,
+who was to be reared in England; he had also hoped to become protector
+of the realm, and to use the position for his own private interests, for
+he was a selfish and ambitious prince. But the council refused to let
+him assume the full powers of a regent, and bound him with many checks
+and restrictions, because they were well aware of his character. The
+tiresome and monotonous domestic history of England during the next
+twenty years consisted of little else than quarrels between Gloucester
+and the lords of the council, of whom the chief was the duke's
+half-uncle Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, the last to survive of
+all the sons of John of Gaunt. The duke and the bishop were both
+unscrupulous; but the churchman, with all his faults, was a patriotic
+statesman, while Gloucester cared far more for his own private ends than
+for the welfare of the realm.
+
+
+  Bedford's rule in France.
+
+  Humphrey of Gloucester.
+
+While these two well-matched antagonists were wrangling in England,
+Bedford, a capable general and a wise administrator, was doing his best
+to carry out the task which the dying Henry V. had laid upon him, by
+crushing the dauphin, or Charles VII. as he now called himself since his
+father's death. As long as the Burgundian party lent the regent their
+aid, the limits of the land still unsubdued continued to shrink, though
+the process was slow. Two considerable victories, Cravant (1423) and
+Verneuil (1424), marked the early years of Bedford's campaigning; at
+each, it may be noted, a very large proportion of his army was composed
+of Burgundian auxiliaries. But after a time their assistance began to be
+given less freely; this was due to the selfish intrigues of Humphrey of
+Gloucester, who, regardless of the general policy of England, had
+quarrelled with Philip the Good. He had married Jacoba (Jacquelaine),
+countess of Hainaut and Holland, a cousin of the Burgundian duke, who
+coveted and hoped to secure her lands. Pressing her claims, Gloucester
+came to open blows with Philip in Flanders and Hainaut (1424). In his
+anger the Burgundian ceased to support Bedford, and would have joined
+Charles VII. if revenge on the murderers of his father had not still
+remained his dominant passion. But Gloucester's attempt to seize Hainaut
+failed, and Philip, when he had got possession of his cousin's person
+and estates, allowed himself to be pacified by Bedford, who could prove
+that he had no part in his brother's late intrigues.
+
+
+  Siege of Orleans.
+
+This quarrel having been appeased, the advance against the territories
+of Charles VII. was resumed. It went slowly on, till in 1428 the tide of
+war reached the walls of Orleans, how the only place north of the Loire
+which remained unsubdued. The siege was long; but after the last army
+which the Dauphinois could raise had been beaten at the battle of
+Rouvray (Feb. 1429) it seemed that the end was near. Charles VII. was in
+such a state of despair after this last check, that he was actually
+taking into consideration a flight to Italy or Spain, and the
+abandonment of the struggle. He had shown himself so incapable and
+apathetic that his followers were sick of fighting for such a despicable
+master.
+
+
+  Joan of Arc.
+
+From this depth of despair the party which, with all its faults,
+represented the national sentiment of France was rescued by the
+astonishing exploits of Joan of Arc. Charles and his counsellors had no
+great confidence in the mission of this prophetess and champion, when
+she presented herself to them, promising to relieve Orleans and turn
+back the English. But all expedients are worth trying in the hour of
+ruin, and seeing that Joan was disinterested and sincere, and that her
+preaching exercised a marked influence over the people and the soldiery,
+Charles allowed her to march with the last levies that he put into the
+field for the relief of Orleans. From that moment the fortune of war
+turned; the presence of the prophetess with the French troops had an
+immediate and incalculable effect. Under the belief that they were now
+led by a messenger from heaven, the Dauphinois fought with a fiery
+courage that they had never before displayed. Their movements were
+skilfully directed--whether by Joan's generalship or that of her
+captains it boots not to inquire--and after the first successes which
+she achieved, in entering Orleans and capturing some of the besiegers'
+forts around it, the English became panic-stricken. They were cowed, as
+they said, "by that disciple and limb of the fiend called La Pucelle,
+that used false enchantments and sorcery." Suffolk, their commander,
+raised the siege, and sent to Bedford for reinforcements; but as he
+retreated he was set upon by the victorious army, and captured with most
+of his men at Jargeau and Beaugency (June 1429). The succours which were
+coming to his aid from Paris were defeated by the Maid at Patay a few
+days later, and for the most part destroyed.
+
+
+  Coronation of Charles VII. at Reims.
+
+The regent Bedford was now in a desperate position. His field army had
+been destroyed, and on all sides the provinces which had long lain inert
+beneath the English yoke were beginning to stir. When Joan led forth the
+French king to crown him at Reims, all the towns of Champagne opened
+their gates to her one after another. A large reinforcement received
+from England only just enabled Bedford to save Paris and some of the
+fortresses of the Īle de France. The rest revolted at the sight of the
+Maid's white banner. If Joan had been well supported by her master and
+his counsellors, it is probable that she might have completed her
+mission by expelling the English from France. But, despite all that she
+had done, Charles VII. and his favourites had a profound disbelief in
+her inspiration, and generally thwarted her plans. After an
+ill-concerted attack on Paris, in which Joan was wounded, the French
+army broke up for the winter. They had shaken the grip of the English on
+the north, and reconquered a vast stretch of territory, but they had
+failed by their own fault to achieve complete success. Nevertheless the
+crucial point of the war had passed; after 1429 the Burgundian party
+began to slacken in its support of the English cause, and to pass over
+piecemeal to the national side. This was but natural: the partisans who
+could remember nothing but the foul deed of Montereau were yearly
+growing fewer, and it was clear that Charles VII., personally despicable
+though he might be, represented the cause of French nationality.
+
+
+  Capture and execution of Joan.
+
+The natural drift of circumstances was not stayed even by the disastrous
+end of the career of Joan of Arc in 1430. The king's ministers had
+refused to take her counsels or to entrust her with another army, but
+she went forth with a small force of volunteers to relieve the important
+fortress of Compičgne. The place was saved, but in a sortie she was
+captured by the Burgundians, who sold her for 10,000 francs to Bedford.
+The regent handed her over for punishment as a sorceress to the French
+clergy of his own party. After a long trial, carried out with elaborate
+formality and great unfairness, the unhappy Joan was found guilty of
+proclaiming as divine visions what were delusions of the evil one, or of
+her own vain imagination, and when she persisted in maintaining their
+reality she was declared a relapsed heretic, and burnt at Rouen on the
+30th of May 1431. Charles VII. took little interest in her fate, which
+he might easily have prevented by threatening to retaliate on the
+numerous English prisoners who were in his power. Seldom had a good
+cause such an unworthy figurehead as that callous and apathetic prince.
+
+
+  Philip of Burgundy joins Charles. Treaty of Arras.
+
+The movement which Joan had set on foot was in no way crushed by her
+execution. For the next four years the limits of the English occupation
+continued to recede. It was to no profit that Bedford brought over the
+young Henry VI. and had him crowned at Paris, in order to appeal to the
+loyalty of his French partisans by means of the king's forlorn youth and
+simplicity. Yet by endless feats of skilful generalship the regent
+continued to maintain a hold on Paris and on Normandy. The fatal blow
+was administered by Philip of Burgundy, who, tired of maintaining a
+failing cause, consented at last to forget his father's murder, and to
+be reconciled to Charles VII. Their alliance was celebrated by the
+treaty of Arras (Sept. 6, 1435), at which the English were offered peace
+and the retention of Normandy and Guienne if they would evacuate Paris
+and the rest of France. They would have been wise to accept the
+agreement; but with obstinate and misplaced courage they refused to
+acknowledge Charles as king of France, or to give up to him the capital.
+
+
+  Death of Bedford. English defeats.
+
+Bedford, worn out by long campaigning, died at Rouen on the 14th of
+September 1435, just before the results of the treaty of Arras began to
+make themselves felt. With him died the best hope of the English party
+in France, for he had been well loved by the Burgundians, and many had
+adhered to the cause of Henry VI. solely because of their personal
+attachment to him. No worthy successor could be found--England had many
+hard-handed soldiers but no more statesmen of Bedford's calibre. It was
+no wonder that Paris was lost within six months of the regent's death,
+Normandy invaded, and Calais beleaguered by an army headed by England's
+new enemy, Philip of Burgundy. But the council, still backed by the
+nation, refused to give up the game; Burgundy was beaten off from
+Calais, and the young duke of York, the heir of the Mortimers, took the
+command at Rouen, and recovered much of what had been lost on the Norman
+side.
+
+
+  Truce with France.
+
+The next eight years of the war were in some respects the most
+astonishing period of its interminable length. The English fought out
+the losing game with a wonderful obstinacy. Though every town that they
+held was eager to revolt, and though they were hopelessly outnumbered in
+every quarter, they kept a tight grip on the greater part of Normandy,
+and on their old domain in the Bordelais and about Bayonne. They lost
+nearly all their outlying possessions, but still made head against the
+generals of Charles VII. in these two regions. The leaders of this
+period of the war were the duke of York, and the aged Lord Talbot,
+afterwards earl of Shrewsbury. The struggle only ceased in 1444, when
+the English council, in which a peace party had at last been formed,
+concluded a two-year truce with King Charles, which they hoped to turn
+into a permanent treaty, on the condition that their king should retain
+what he held in Normandy and Guienne, but sign away his claim to the
+French crown, and relinquish the few places outside the two duchies
+which were still in his power--terms very similar to those rejected at
+Arras nine years before--but there was now much less to give up. To mark
+the reconciliation of the two powers Henry VI. was betrothed to the
+French king's niece, Margaret of Anjou. The two years' truce was
+repeatedly prorogued, and lasted till 1449, but no definitive treaty was
+ever concluded, owing to the bad faith with which both parties kept
+their promises.
+
+
+  Supremacy of the Beauforts in England.
+
+  Character of Henry VI.
+
+The government in England was now in the hands of the faction which
+Bishop Beaufort had originally led, for after long struggles the
+churchman had at last crushed his nephew Humphrey. In 1441 the duchess
+of Gloucester had been arrested and charged with practising sorcery
+against the health of the young king--apparently not without
+justification. She was tried and condemned to imprisonment for life; her
+guilt was visited on her husband, on whose behalf she was acting, for if
+Henry had died his uncle would have come to the throne. For some years
+he was constrained to take a minor part in politics, only emerging
+occasionally to make violent and unwise protests against peace with
+France. The bishop now ruled, with his nephew Edmund Beaufort, duke of
+Somerset, and William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, as his chief
+instruments. As he grew older he let the power slip into their hands, as
+it was they who were mainly responsible for the truce of 1444. King
+Henry, though he had reached the age of 23 at the time of his marriage,
+counted for nothing. He was a pious young man, simple to the verge of
+imbecility; a little later he developed actual insanity, the heritage of
+his grandfather Charles VI. He showed a blind confidence in Suffolk and
+Somerset, who were wholly unworthy of it, for both were tricky and
+unscrupulous politicians. His wife Margaret of Anjou, though she
+possessed all the fire and energy which her husband lacked, was equally
+devoted to these two ministers, and soon came to share their
+unpopularity.
+
+
+  Death of Humphrey of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort.
+
+The truce with France had offended the natural pride of the nation,
+which still refused to own itself beaten. The evacuation of the French
+fortresses in Maine and elsewhere, which was the price paid for the
+suspension of arms, was bitterly resented. Indeed the garrisons had to
+be threatened with the use of force before they would quit their
+strongholds. A violent clamour was raised against Suffolk and Somerset,
+and Humphrey of Gloucester emerged from his retirement to head the
+agitation. This led to his death; he was arrested by the order of the
+queen and the ministers at the parliament of Bury. Five days later he
+died suddenly in prison, probably by foul play, though it was given out
+that he had been carried off by a paralytic stroke. His estates were
+confiscated, and distributed among the friends of Suffolk and the queen.
+Six weeks later the aged Bishop Beaufort followed him to the grave--he
+had no share in Gloucester's fate, having long before made over his
+power and the leadership of his party to his nephew Edmund of Somerset
+(1447).
+
+
+  Renewal of the war with France.
+
+  Loss of Normandy.
+
+The truce with France lasted for two years after the death of Duke
+Humphrey, and came to an end partly owing to the eagerness of the French
+to push their advantages, but much more from the treachery and bad faith
+of Suffolk and Somerset, who gave the enemy an admirable _casus belli_.
+By their weakness, or perhaps with their secret connivance, the English
+garrisons of Normandy carried out plundering raids of the most impudent
+sort on French territory. When summoned to punish the offenders, and to
+make monetary compensation, Suffolk and Somerset shuffled and
+prevaricated, but gave no satisfaction. Thereupon the French king once
+more declared war (July 1449) and invaded Normandy. Somerset was in
+command; he showed hopeless incapacity and timidity, and in a few months
+the duchy which had been so long held by the swords of Bedford, York and
+Shrewsbury was hopelessly lost. The final blow came when a small army of
+relief sent over from England was absolutely exterminated by the French
+at the battle of Formigny (April 15, 1450). Somerset, who had retired
+into Caen, surrendered two months later after a feeble defence, and the
+English power in northern France came to an end.
+
+
+  Jack Cade's Rebellion.
+
+Even before this final disaster the indignation felt against Suffolk and
+Somerset had raised violent disturbances at home. Suffolk was impeached
+on many charges, true and false; it was unfair to accuse him of treason,
+but quite just to lay double-dealing and bad faith to his charge. The
+king tried to save him from the block by banishing him before he could
+be tried. But while he was sailing to Flanders his ship was intercepted
+by some London vessels, which were on the look-out for him, and he was
+deliberately murdered. The instigators of the act were never discovered.
+But, though Suffolk was gone, Somerset yet survived, and their partisans
+still engrossed the confidence of the king. To clear out the government,
+and punish those responsible for the late disasters, the commons of Kent
+rose in insurrection under a captain who called himself John Mortimer,
+though his real name seems to have been John Cade. He was a soldier of
+fortune who had served in the French wars, and claimed to be in the
+confidence of the duke of York, the person to whom the eyes of all who
+hated Somerset and the present régime were now directed.
+
+Cade was not a social reformer, like his predecessor Wat Tyler, with
+whom he has often been compared, but a politician. Though he called
+himself "John Amend-all," and promised to put down abuses of every kind,
+the main part of the programme which he issued was intended to appeal to
+national sentiment, not to class feeling. Whether he was the tool of
+other and more highly placed malcontents, or whether he was simply a
+ready-witted adventurer playing his own game, it is hard to determine.
+His first success was marvellous; he defeated the king's troops, made a
+triumphant entry into London and held the city for two days. He seized
+and beheaded Lord Saye, the treasurer, and several other unpopular
+persons, and might have continued his dictatorship for some time if the
+Kentish mob that followed him had not fallen to general pillage and
+arson. This led to the same results that had been seen in Tyler's day.
+The propertied classes in London took arms to suppress anarchy, and beat
+the insurgents out of the city. Cade, striving to keep up the rising
+outside the walls, was killed in a skirmish a month later, and his bands
+dispersed.
+
+
+  Richard, duke of York, heads the opposition.
+
+But the troubles of England were only just beginning; the protest
+against the misgovernment of Somerset and the rest of the confidants of
+the king and queen was now taken up by a more important personage than
+the adventurer Cade. Richard, duke of York, the heir to the claims of
+the house of Mortimer--his mother was the sister of the last earl of
+March--now placed himself at the head of the opposition. He had
+plausible grounds for doing so; though he had distinguished himself in
+the French wars, and was, since the death of Humphrey of Gloucester, the
+first prince of the blood royal, he had been ignored and flouted by the
+king's ministers, who had sent him into a kind of honourable banishment
+as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and had forbidden him to re-enter the
+realm. When, in defiance of this mandate, he came home and announced his
+intention of impeaching Somerset, he took the first step which was to
+lead to the Wars of the Roses.
+
+
+  Battle of Castillon. Loss of Guienne.
+
+Yet he was a cautious and in the main a well-intentioned prince, and the
+extreme moderation of his original demands seems to prove that he did not
+at first aim at the crown. He merely required that Somerset and his
+friends should be dismissed from office and made to answer for their
+misgovernment. Though he backed his demands by armed demonstration--twice
+calling out his friends and retainers to support his policy--he carefully
+refrained for five long years from actual violence. Indeed in 1452 he
+consented to abandon his protests, and to lend his aid to the other party
+for a great national object, the recovery of Guienne. For in the previous
+year Charles VII. had dealt with Bordeaux and Bayonne as he had already
+dealt with Normandy, and had met with no better resistance while
+completing the conquest. Six months' experience of French rule, however,
+had revealed to the Bordelais how much they had lost when they
+surrendered. Their old loyalty to the house of Plantagenet burst once
+more into flame; they rose in arms and called for aid to England. For a
+moment the quarrel of York and Somerset was suspended, and the last
+English army that crossed the seas during the Hundred Years' War landed
+in Guienne, joined the insurgents, and for a time swept all before it.
+But there seemed to be a curse on whatever Henry VI. and Somerset took in
+hand. On the 17th of July 1453 the veteran earl of Shrewsbury and the
+greater part of his Anglo-Gascon host were cut to pieces at the
+hard-fought battle of Castillon. Bordeaux, though left to defend itself,
+held out for eighty days after Talbot's defeat and death, and then made
+its final submission to the French. The long struggle was over, and
+England now retained nothing of her old transmarine possessions save
+Calais and the Channel Islands. The ambition of Henry V. had finally cost
+her the long-loyal Guienne, as well as all the ephemeral conquests of his
+own sword.
+
+The last crowning disaster of the administration of the favourites of
+Henry VI. put an end to the chance that a way out of domestic strife
+might be found in the vigorous prosecution of the French war. For the
+next twenty years the battles of England were to be fought on her own
+soil, and between her own sons. It was a righteous punishment for her
+interference in the unnatural strife of Orleanists and Burgundians that
+the struggle between York and Lancaster was to be as bitter and as
+bloody as that between the two French factions.
+
+
+V. THE WARS OF THE ROSES (1453-1497)
+
+  Origin of the Wars of the Roses.
+
+The Wars of the Roses have been ascribed to many different causes by
+different historians. To some their origin is mainly constitutional.
+Henry VI., it is argued, had broken the tacit compact which the house of
+Lancaster had made with the nation; instead of committing the
+administration of the realm to ministers chosen for him by, or at least
+approved by, his parliament, he persisted in retaining in office persons
+like Suffolk and Somerset, who had forfeited the confidence of the
+people by their many failures in war and diplomacy, and were suspected
+of something worse than incapacity. They might not be so personally
+odious as the favourites of Edward II. or of Henry III., but they were
+even more dangerous to the state, because they were not foreign
+adventurers but great English peers. In spite of the warnings given by
+the assault on Suffolk in 1450, by Jack Cade's insurrection, and by the
+first armed demonstrations of Richard of York in 1450 and 1452, the king
+persisted in keeping his friends in office, and they had to be removed
+by the familiar and forcible methods that had been applied in earlier
+ages by the lords ordainers or the lords appellant. Undoubtedly there is
+much truth in this view of the situation; if Henry VI., or perhaps we
+should rather say, if his queen Margaret of Anjou, had been content to
+accept ministries in which the friends of Richard of York were fairly
+represented, it is probable that he might have died a king, and have
+transmitted his crown to his natural heir. But this explanation of the
+Wars of the Roses is not complete; it accounts for their outbreak, but
+not for their long continuance.
+
+
+  Claims of the duke of York to the crown.
+
+  Birth of Edward, prince of Wales.
+
+  Queen Margaret.
+
+  Condition of the country.
+
+According to another school the real key to the problem is simply the
+question of the succession to the crown. If the wedlock of Henry VI. and
+Margaret of Anjou had been fruitful during the first few years after
+their marriage, no one would have raised the question of a change of
+dynasty. But when they remained childless for seven years, and strong
+suspicion arose that there was a project on foot to declare the
+Beauforts heirs to the throne, the claim of Richard of York, as the
+representative of the houses of Clarence and March, was raised by those
+who viewed the possible accession of the incapable and unpopular
+Somerset with terror and dislike. When once the claims of York had been
+displayed and stated by his imprudent partisan, Thomas Yonge, in the
+parliament of 1451, there was no possibility of hiding the fact that in
+the strict legitimate line of succession he had a better claim than the
+reigning king. He disavowed any pretensions to the crown for nine years;
+it was only in 1460 that he set forth his title with his own mouth. But
+his friends and followers were not so discreet; hence when a son was at
+last born to Henry and Margaret, in 1453, the succession question was
+already in the air and could no longer be ignored. If the claim of York
+was superior to that of Lancaster in the eyes of a considerable part of
+the nation, it was no longer possible to consider the problem solved by
+the birth of a direct heir to the actual occupant of the throne. Though
+Duke Richard behaved in the most correct fashion, acknowledged the
+infant Edward as prince of Wales, and made no attempt to assert dynastic
+claims during his two regencies in 1454 and 1455-1456, yet the queen and
+her partisans already looked upon him as a pretender to the throne. It
+is this fact which accounts for the growing bitterness of the Yorkist
+and Lancastrian parties during the last years of Henry VI. Margaret
+believed herself to be defending the rights of her son against a
+would-be usurper. Duke Richard, on the other hand, considered himself as
+wrongfully oppressed, and excluded from his legitimate position as a
+prince of the blood and a chief councillor of the crown. Nor can there
+be any doubt that the queen took every opportunity of showing her
+suspicion of him, and deliberately kept him and his friends from sharing
+in the administration of the realm. This might have been more tolerable
+if the Lancastrian party had shown any governing power; but both while
+Somerset was their leader, down to his death in the first battle of St
+Albans, and while in 1456-1459 Exeter, Wiltshire, Shrewsbury and
+Beaumont were the queen's trusted agents, the condition of England was
+deplorable. As a contemporary chronicler wrote, "the realm was out of
+all good governance--as it has been many days before: the king was
+simple, and led by covetous councillors, and owed more than he was
+worth. His debts increased daily, but payment was there none, for all
+the manors and possessions that pertained to the crown he had given
+away, so that he had almost nought to live on. For these misgovernances
+the hearts of the people were turned from them that had the land in
+rule, and their blessing was turned to cursing. The officers of the
+realm, and especially the earl of Wiltshire the treasurer, for to enrich
+himself plundered poor people and disinherited rightful heirs, and did
+many wrongs. The queen was defamed, that he that was called the prince
+was not the king's son, but a bastard gotten in adultery." When it is
+added that the Lancastrian party avoided holding a parliament for three
+years, because they dared not face it, and that the French were allowed
+to sack Fowey, Sandwich and other places because there was no English
+fleet in existence, it is not wonderful that many men thought that the
+cup of the iniquities of the house of Lancaster was full. In the
+military classes it was felt that the honour of the realm was lost; in
+mercantile circles it was thought that the continuance for a few years
+more of such government would make an end of English trade. Some excuse
+must be found for getting rid of the queen and her friends, and the
+doubtful legitimacy of the Lancastrian claim to the crown afforded such
+an excuse. Hence came the curious paradox, that the party which started
+as the advocates of the rights of parliament against the incapable
+ministers appointed by the crown, ended by challenging the right of
+parliament, exercised in 1399, to depose a legitimate king and
+substitute for him another member of the royal house. For Richard of
+York in 1460 and Edward IV. in 1461 put in their claim to the throne,
+not as the elect of the nation, but as the possessors of a divine
+hereditary right to the succession, there having been no true king of
+England since the death of Richard II. Hence Edward assumed the royal
+title in March 1461, was crowned in June, but called no parliament till
+November. When it met, it acknowledged him as king, but made no pretence
+of creating or electing him to be sovereign.
+
+
+  Motives of the contending parties.
+
+But putting aside the constitutional aspects of the Wars of the Roses,
+it is necessary to point out that they had another aspect. From one
+point of view they were little more than a great faction fight between
+two alliances of over-powerful barons. Though the Lancastrians made much
+play with the watchword of loyalty to the crown, and though the Yorkists
+never forgot to speak of the need for strong and wise governance, and
+the welfare of the realm, yet personal and family enmities had in many
+cases more effect in determining their action than a zeal for King
+Henry's rights or for the prosperity of England. It is true that some
+classes were undoubtedly influenced in their choice of sides mainly by
+the general causes spoken of above; the citizens of London and the other
+great towns (for example) inclined to the Yorkist faction simply because
+they saw that under the Lancastrian rule the foreign trade of England
+was being ruined, and insufficient security was given for life and
+property. But the leading men among the baronage were undoubtedly swayed
+by ambition and resentment, by family ties and family feuds, far more
+than by enlightened statesmanship or zeal for the king or the
+commonweal. It would be going too far to seek the origin of the Yorkist
+party--as some have done--in the old enmity of the houses of March,
+Norfolk and Salisbury against Henry IV. But it is not so fantastic to
+ascribe its birth to the personal hatred that existed between Richard of
+York and Edmund of Somerset, to the old family grudge (going back to
+1405) between the Percies and the Nevilles, to the marriage alliance
+that bound the houses of York and Neville together, and to other less
+well-remembered quarrels or blood-ties among the lesser baronage. As an
+example of how such motives worked, it may suffice to quote the case of
+those old enemies, the Bonvilles and Courtenays, in the west country.
+While Lord Bonville supported the queen, the house of Courtenay were
+staunch Yorkists, and the earl of Devon joined in the armed
+demonstration of Duke Richard in 1452. But when the earl changed his
+politics and fought on the Lancastrian side at St Albans in 1455, the
+baron at once became a strenuous adherent of the duke, adhered firmly to
+the white rose and died by the axe for its cause.
+
+
+  The baronial party. The Nevilles.
+
+Richard of York, in short, was not merely the head of a constitutional
+opposition to misgovernment by the queen's friends, nor was he merely a
+legitimist claimant to the crown, he was also the head of a powerful
+baronial league, of which the most prominent members were his kinsmen,
+the Nevilles, Mowbrays and Bourchiers. The Nevilles alone, enriched with
+the ancient estates of the Beauchamps and Montagus, and with five of
+their name in the House of Lords, were a sufficient nucleus for a
+faction. They were headed by the two most capable politicians and
+soldiers then alive in England, the two Richards, father and son, who
+held the earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick, and were respectively
+brother-in-law and nephew to York. It must be remembered that a baron of
+1450 was not strong merely by reason of the spears and bows of his
+household and his tenantry, like a baron of the 13th century. The
+pernicious practice of "livery and maintenance" was now at its zenith;
+all over England in times of stress the knighthood and gentry were wont
+to pledge themselves, by sealed bonds of indenture, to follow the
+magnate whom they thought best able to protect them. They mounted his
+badge, and joined his banner when strife broke out, in return for his
+championship of their private interests and his promise to "maintain"
+them against all their enemies. A soldier and statesman of the ability
+and ambition of Richard of Warwick counted hundreds of such adherents,
+scattered over twenty shires. The system had spread so far that the
+majority of the smaller tenants-in-chief, and even many of the lesser
+barons, were the sworn followers of an insignificant number of the
+greater lords. An alliance of half-a-dozen of these over-powerful
+subjects was a serious danger to the crown. For the king could no longer
+count on raising a national army against them; he could only call out
+the adherents of the lords of his own party. The factions were fairly
+balanced, for if the majority of the baronage were, on the whole,
+Lancastrian, the greatest houses stood by the cause of York.
+
+
+  Attitude of Richard of York.
+
+  Suppression of York's rebellion. Executions and confiscations.
+
+  The earl of Warwick defeats the Lancastrians at Northampton.
+
+  Richard of York declared heir to the throne.
+
+Despite all this, there was still, when the wars began, a very strong
+feeling in favour of compromise and moderation. For this there can be no
+doubt that Richard of York was mainly responsible. When he was twice
+placed in power, during the two protectorates which followed Henry's two
+long fits of insanity in 1454 and 1455-1456, he carefully avoided any
+oppression of his enemies, though he naturally took care to put his own
+friends in office. Most of all did he show his sincere wish for peace by
+twice laying down the protectorate when the king was restored to sanity.
+He was undoubtedly goaded into his last rebellion of 1459 by the queen's
+undisguised preparations for attacking him. Yet because he struck first,
+without waiting for a definite _casus belli_, public opinion declared so
+much against him that half his followers refused to rally to his banner.
+The revulsion only came when the queen, victorious after the rout of
+Ludford, applied to the vanquished Yorkists those penalties of
+confiscation and attainder which Duke Richard had always refused to
+employ in his day of power. After the harsh doings at the parliament of
+Coventry (1459), and the commencement of political executions by the
+sending of Roger Neville and his fellows to the scaffold, the trend of
+public opinion veered round, and Margaret and her friends were rightly
+held responsible for the embittered nature of the strife. Hence came the
+marvellous success of the Yorkist counterstroke in June 1460, when the
+exiled Warwick, landing in Kent with a mere handful of men, was suddenly
+joined by the whole of the south of England and the citizens of London,
+and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Lancastrians at Northampton
+before he had been fifteen days on shore (July 10, 1460). The growing
+rancour of the struggle was marked by the fact that the Yorkists, after
+Northampton, showed themselves by no means so merciful and scrupulous as
+in their earlier days. Retaliatory executions began, though on a small
+scale, and when York reached London he at last began to talk of his
+rights to the crown, and to propose the deposition of Henry VI. Yet
+moderation was still so far prevalent in the ranks of his adherents that
+they refused to follow him to such lengths. Warwick and the other
+leading men of the party dictated a compromise, by which Henry was to
+reign for the term of his natural life, but Duke Richard was to be
+recognized as his heir and to succeed him on the throne. They had
+obviously borrowed the expedient from the terms of the treaty of Troyes.
+But the act of parliament which embodied it did not formally disinherit
+the reigning king's son, as the treaty of Troyes had done, but merely
+ignored his existence.
+
+
+  Battle of Wakefield. Richard slain.
+
+  Battle of St Albans.
+
+It would have been well for England if this agreement had held, and the
+crown had passed peaceably to the house of York, after the comparatively
+short and bloodless struggle which had just ended. But Duke Richard had
+forgotten to reckon with the fierce and unscrupulous energy of Queen
+Margaret, when she was at bay in defence of her son's rights. Marching
+with a trifling force to expel her from the north, he was surprised and
+slain at Wakefield (Dec. 30, 1460). But it was not his death that was
+the main misfortune, but the fact that in the battle the Lancastrians
+gave no quarter to small or great, and that after it they put to death
+York's brother-in-law Salisbury and other prisoners. The heads of the
+duke and the earl were set up over the gates of York. This ferocity was
+repeated when Margaret and her northern host beat Warwick at the second
+battle of St Albans (Feb. 17, 1461), where they had the good fortune to
+recover possession of the person of King Henry. Lord Bonville and the
+other captives of rank were beheaded next morning.
+
+
+  Edward, earl of March, proclaimed as Edward IV.
+
+After this it was but natural that the struggle became a mere record of
+massacres and executions. The Yorkists proclaimed Edward, Duke Richard's
+heir, king of England; they took no further heed of the claims of King
+Henry, declared their leader the true successor of Richard II., and
+stigmatized the whole period of the Lancastrian rule as a mere
+usurpation. They adopted a strict legitimist theory of the descent of
+the crown, and denied the right of parliament to deal with the
+succession. This was the first step in the direction of absolute
+monarchy which England had seen since the short months of King Richard's
+tyranny in 1397-1399. It was but the first of many encroachments of the
+new dynasty upon the liberties that had been enjoyed by the nation under
+the house of Lancaster.
+
+
+  Changed character of the war.
+
+  Battle of Towton.
+
+  Ruthless reprisals of the Yorkists.
+
+  Personal rule of Edward IV.
+
+The revenge taken by the new king and his cousin Richard of Warwick for
+the slaughter at Wakefield and St Albans was prompt and dreadful. They
+were now well supported by the whole of southern England; for not only
+had the queen's ferocity shocked the nation, but the reckless plundering
+of her northern moss-troopers in the home counties had roused the
+peasantry and townsfolk to an interest in the struggle which they had
+never before displayed. Up to this moment the civil war had been
+conducted like a great faction fight; the barons and their liveried
+retainers had been wont to seek some convenient heath or hill and there
+to fight out their quarrel with the minimum of damage to the
+countryside. The deliberate harrying of the Midlands by Margaret's
+northern levies was a new departure, and one bitterly resented. The
+house of Lancaster could never for the future count on an adherent south
+of Trent or east of Chiltern. The Yorkist army that marched in pursuit
+of the raiders, and won the bloody field of Towton under Warwick's
+guidance, gave no quarter. Not only was the slaughter in that battle and
+the pursuit more cruel than anything that had been seen since the day of
+Evesham, but the executions that followed were ruthless. Ere Edward
+turned south he had beheaded two earls--Devon and Wiltshire--and
+forty-two knights, and had hanged many prisoners of lesser estate. The
+Yorkist parliament of November 1461 carried on the work by attainting
+133 persons, ranging from Henry VI. and Queen Margaret down through the
+peerage and the knighthood to the clerks and household retainers of the
+late king. All the estates of the Lancastrian lords, living or dead,
+were confiscated, and their blood was declared corrupted. This brought
+into the king's hands such a mass of plunder as no one had handled since
+William the Conqueror. Edward IV. could not only reward his adherents
+with it, so as to create a whole new court noblesse, but had enough over
+to fill his exchequer for many years, and to enable him to dispense with
+parliamentary grants of money for an unexampled period. Between 1461 and
+1465 he only asked for £37,000 from the nation--and won no small
+popularity thereby. For, in their joy at being quit of taxation, men
+forgot that they were losing the lever by which their fathers had been
+wont to move the crown to constitutional concessions.
+
+
+  Civil war in the north and west.
+
+  Battle of Hexham. Imprisonment of Henry VI.
+
+After Towton peace prevailed south of the Tyne and east of the Severn,
+for it was only in Northumberland and in Wales that the survivors of the
+Lancastrian faction succeeded in keeping the war alive. King Edward, as
+indolent and pleasure-loving in times of ease as he was active and
+ruthless in times of stress and battle, set himself to enjoy life,
+handing over the suppression of the rebels to his ambitious and untiring
+cousin Richard of Warwick. The annals of the few contemporary
+chroniclers are so entirely devoted to the bickerings in the extreme
+north and west, that it is necessary to insist on the fact that from
+1461 onwards the civil war was purely local, and nine-tenths of the
+realm enjoyed what passed for peace in the 15th century. The campaigns
+of 1462-63-64, though full of incident and bloodshed, were not of
+first-rate political importance. The cause of Lancaster had been lost at
+Towton, and all that Queen Margaret succeeded in accomplishing was to
+keep Northumberland in revolt, mainly by means of French and Scottish
+succours. Her last English partisans, attainted men who had lost their
+lands and lived with the shadow of the axe ever before them, fought
+bitterly enough. But the obstinate and hard-handed Warwick beat them
+down again and again, and the old Lancastrian party was almost
+exterminated when the last of its chiefs went to the block in the series
+of wholesale executions that followed the battle of Hexham (May 15,
+1464). A year later Henry VI. himself fell into the hands of his
+enemies, as he lurked in Lancashire, and with his consignment to the
+Tower the dynastic question seemed finally solved in favour of the house
+of York.
+
+
+  Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.
+
+The first ten years of the reign of Edward IV. fall into two parts, the
+dividing point being the avowal of the king's marriage to Elizabeth
+Woodville in November 1464. During the first of these periods Edward
+reigned but Warwick governed; he was not only the fighting man, but the
+statesman and diplomatist of the Yorkist party, and enjoyed a complete
+ascendancy over his young master, who long preferred thriftless ease to
+the toils of personal monarchy. Warwick represented the better side of
+the victorious cause; he was no mere factious king-maker, and his later
+nickname of "the last of the barons" by no means expresses his character
+or his position. He was strong, not so much by reason of his vast
+estates and his numerous retainers, as by reason of the confidence which
+the greater part of the nation placed in him. He never forgot that the
+Yorkist party had started as the advocates of sound and strong
+administration, and the mandatories of the popular will against the
+queen's incapable and corrupt ministers. "He ever had the goodwill of
+the people because he knew how to give them fair words, and always spoke
+not of himself but of the augmentation and good governance of the
+kingdom, for which he would spend his life; and thus he had the goodwill
+of England, so that in all the land he was the lord who was held in most
+esteem and faith and credence." As long as he remained supreme,
+parliaments were regularly held, and the house of York appeared to be
+keeping its bargain with the nation. His policy was sound; peace with
+France, the rehabilitation of the dwindling foreign trade of England,
+and the maintenance of law and justice by strong-handed governance were
+his main aims.
+
+But Warwick was one of those ministers who love to do everything for
+themselves, and chafe at masters and colleagues who presume to check or
+to criticise their actions. He was surrounded and supported, moreover,
+by a group of brothers and cousins, to whom he gave most of his
+confidence, and most of the preferment that came to his hands. England
+has always chafed against a family oligarchy, however well it may do its
+work. The Yorkist magnates who did not belong to the clan of the
+Nevilles were not unnaturally jealous of that house, and Edward IV.
+himself gradually came to realize the ignominious position of a king who
+is managed and overruled by a strong-willed and arbitrary minister.
+
+
+  Edward IV. marries Elizabeth Woodville.
+
+  Breach between Warwick and the king.
+
+His first sign of revolt was his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville,
+a lady of decidedly Lancastrian connexions, for her father and her first
+husband were both members of the defeated faction. Warwick was at the
+moment suing for the hand of Louis XI.'s sister-in-law in his master's
+name, and had to back out of his negotiations in a sudden and somewhat
+ridiculous fashion. His pride was hurt, but for two years more there was
+no open breach between him and his master, though their estrangement
+grew more and more marked when Edward continued to heap titles and
+estates on his wife's numerous relatives, and to conclude for them
+marriage alliances with all the great Yorkist families who were not of
+the Neville connexion. In this way he built up for himself a personal
+following within the Yorkist party; but the relative strength of this
+faction and of that which still looked upon Warwick as the true
+representative of the cause had yet to be tried. The king had in his
+favour the prestige of the royal name, and a popularity won by his
+easy-going affability and his liberal gifts. The earl had his
+established reputation for disinterested devotion to the welfare of the
+realm, and his brilliant record as a soldier and statesman. In districts
+as far apart as Kent and Yorkshire, his word counted for a good deal
+more than that of his sovereign.
+
+
+  Warwick organizes a rebellion.
+
+  Rising of "Robin of Redesdale."
+
+Unhappily for England and for himself, Warwick's loyalty was not
+sufficient to restrain his ambition and his resentment. He felt the
+ingratitude of the king, whom he had made, so bitterly that he stooped
+ere long to intrigue and treason. Edward in 1467 openly broke with him
+by dismissing his brother George Neville from the chancellorship, by
+repudiating a treaty with France which the earl had just negotiated, and
+by concluding an alliance with Burgundy against which he had always
+protested. Warwick enlisted in his cause the king's younger brother
+George of Clarence, who desired to marry his daughter and heiress
+Isabella Neville, and with the aid of this unscrupulous but unstable
+young man began to organize rebellion. His first experiment in treason
+was the so-called "rising of Robin of Redesdale," which was ostensibly
+an armed protest by the gentry and commons of Yorkshire against the
+maladministration of the realm by the king's favourites--his wife's
+relatives, and the courtiers whom he had lately promoted to high rank
+and office. The rebellion was headed by well-known adherents of the
+earl, and the nickname of "Robin of Redesdale" seems to have covered the
+personality of his kinsman Sir John Conyers. When the rising was well
+started Warwick declared his sympathy with the aims of the insurgents,
+wedded his daughter to Clarence despite the king's prohibition of the
+match, and raised a force at Calais with which he landed in Kent.
+
+
+  Battle of Edgecott. Edward a prisoner.
+
+  Execution of the queen's relatives.
+
+But his plot was already successful before he reached the scene of
+operations. The Yorkshire rebels beat the royalist army at the battle of
+Edgecott (July 6, 1469). A few days later Edward himself was captured at
+Olney and put into the earl's hands. Many of his chief supporters,
+including the queen's father, Lord Rivers, and her brother, John
+Woodville, as well as the newly-created earls of Pembroke and Devon,
+were put to death with Warwick's connivance, if not by his direct
+orders. The king was confined for some weeks in the great Neville
+stronghold of Middleham Castle, but presently released on conditions,
+being compelled to accept new ministers nominated by Warwick. The earl
+supposed that his cousin's spirit was broken and that he would give no
+further trouble. In this he erred grievously. Edward vowed revenge for
+his slaughtered favourites, and waited his opportunity. Warwick had lost
+credit by using such underhand methods in his attack on his master, and
+had not taken sufficient care to conciliate public opinion when he
+reconstructed the government. His conduct had destroyed his old
+reputation for disinterestedness and honesty.
+
+
+  King Edward drives Warwick into exile.
+
+In March 1470 the king seized the first chance of avenging himself. Some
+unimportant riots had broken out in Lincolnshire, originating probably
+in mere local quarrels, but possibly in Lancastrian intrigues. To
+suppress this rising the king gathered a great force, carefully calling
+in to his banner all the peers who were offended with Warwick or, at any
+rate, did not belong to his family alliance. Having scattered the
+Lincolnshire bands, he suddenly turned upon Warwick with his army, and
+caught him wholly unprepared. The earl and his son-in-law Clarence were
+hunted out of the realm before they could collect their partisans, and
+fled to France; Edward seemed for the first time to be master in his own
+realm.
+
+
+  Warwick takes up the cause of Henry VI.
+
+  He lands in England.
+
+  King Edward in exile.
+
+But the Wars of the Roses had one more phase to come. Warwick's name was
+still a power in the land, and his expulsion had been so sudden that he
+had not been given an opportunity of trying his strength. His old enmity
+for the house of Lancaster was completely swallowed up in his new grudge
+against the king that he had made. He opened negotiations with the
+exiled Queen Margaret, and offered to place his sword at her disposition
+for the purpose of overthrowing King Edward and restoring King Henry.
+The queen had much difficulty in forcing herself to come to terms with
+the man who had been the bane of her cause, but finally, was induced by
+Louis XI. to conclude a bargain. Warwick married his younger daughter to
+her son Edward, prince of Wales, as a pledge of his good faith, and
+swore allegiance to King Henry in the cathedral of Angers. He then set
+himself to stir up the Yorkshire adherents of the house of Neville to
+distract the attention of Edward IV. When the king had gone northward to
+attack them, the earl landed at Dartmouth (Sept. 1470) with a small
+force partly composed of Lancastrian exiles, partly of his own men. His
+appearance had the effect on which he had calculated. Devon rose in the
+Lancastrian interest; Kent, where the earl's name had always been
+popular, took arms a few days later; and London opened its gates. King
+Edward, hurrying south to oppose the invader, found his army melting
+away from his banner, and hastily took ship at Lynn and fled to Holland.
+He found a refuge with his brother-in-law and ally Charles the Bold, the
+great duke of Burgundy.
+
+
+  Restoration of Henry VI.
+
+  Edward returns to England.
+
+  Battle of Barnet. Death of Warwick.
+
+King Henry was released and replaced on the throne, and for six months
+Warwick ruled England as his lieutenant. But there was bitterness and
+mistrust between the old Lancastrian faction and the Nevilles, and Queen
+Margaret refused to cross to England or to trust her son in the
+king-maker's hands. Her partisans doubted his sincerity, while many of
+the Yorkists who had hitherto followed Warwick in blind admiration found
+it impossible to reconcile themselves to the new régime. The duke of
+Clarence in particular, discontented at the triumph of Lancaster,
+betrayed his father-in-law, and opened secret negotiations with his
+exiled brother. Encouraged by the news of the dissensions among his
+enemies, Edward IV. resolved to try his fortune once more, and landed
+near Hull on the 15th of March 1471 with a body of mercenaries lent him
+by the duke of Burgundy. The campaign that followed was most creditable
+to Edward's generalship, but must have been fatal to him if Warwick had
+been honestly supported by his lieutenants. But the duke of Clarence
+betrayed to his brother the army which he had gathered in King Henry's
+name, and many of the Lancastrians were slow to join the earl, from
+their distrust of his loyalty. Edward, dashing through the midst of the
+slowly gathering levies of his opponents, seized London, and two days
+later defeated and slew Warwick at the battle of Barnet (April 13,
+1471).
+
+
+  Battle of Tewkesbury. Death of Edward, prince of Wales.
+
+  Capture of Queen Margaret and murder of Henry VI.
+
+On that same day Queen Margaret and her son landed at Weymouth, only to
+hear that the earl was dead and his army scattered. But she refused to
+consider the struggle ended, and gathered the Lancastrians of the west
+for a final rally. On the fatal day of Tewkesbury (May 3, 1471) her army
+was beaten, her son was slain in the flight, and the greater part of her
+chief captains were taken prisoner. She herself was captured next day.
+The victorious Edward sent to the block the last Beaufort duke of
+Somerset, and nearly all the other captains of rank, whether
+Lancastrians or followers of Warwick. He then moved to London, which was
+being threatened by Kentish levies raised in Warwick's name, delivered
+the city, and next day caused the unhappy Henry VI. to be murdered in
+the Tower (May 21, 1471).
+
+
+  Edward IV.
+
+The descendants of Henry IV. were now extinct, and the succession
+question seemed settled for ever. No one dreamed of raising against King
+Edward the claims of the remoter heirs of John of Gaunt--the young earl
+of Richmond, who represented the Beauforts by a female descent, or the
+king of Portugal, the grandson of Gaunt's eldest daughter. Edward was
+now king indeed, with no over-powerful cousin at his elbow to curb his
+will. He had, moreover, at his disposal plunder almost as valuable as
+that which he had divided up in 1461--the estates of the great Neville
+clan and their adherents. A great career seemed open before him; he had
+proved himself a fine soldier and an unscrupulous diplomatist; he was in
+the very prime of life, having not yet attained his thirty-first year.
+He might have devoted himself to foreign politics and have rivalled the
+exploits of Edward III. or Henry V.--for the state of the continent was
+all in his favour--or might have set himself to organize an absolute
+monarchy on the ruins of the parliament and the baronage. For the
+successive attainders of the Lancastrians and the Nevilles had swept
+away many of the older noble families, and Edward's house of peers
+consisted for the main part of new men, his own partisans promoted for
+good service, who had not the grip on the land that their predecessors
+had possessed.
+
+
+  Character of the reign.
+
+  Murder of the duke of Clarence.
+
+But Edward either failed to see his opportunity or refused to take it.
+He did not plunge headlong into the wars of Louis XI. and Charles of
+Burgundy, nor did he attempt to recast the institutions of the realm. He
+settled down into inglorious ease, varied at long intervals by outbursts
+of spasmodic tyranny. It would seem that the key to his conduct was that
+he hated the hard work without which a despotic king cannot hope to
+assert his personality, and preferred leisure and vicious
+self-indulgence. In many ways the later years of his reign were marked
+with all the signs of absolutism. Between 1475 and 1483 he called only
+one single parliament, and that was summoned not to give him advice, or
+raise him money, but purely and solely to attaint his brother, the duke
+of Clarence, whom he had resolved to destroy. The duke's fate (Feb. 17,
+1478) need provoke no sympathy, he was a detestable intriguer, and had
+given his brother just offence by a series of deeds of high-handed
+violence and by perpetual cavilling. But he had committed no act of real
+treason since his long-pardoned alliance with Warwick, and was not in
+any way dangerous; so that when the king caused him to be attainted, and
+then privately murdered in the Tower, there was little justification for
+the fratricide.
+
+
+    Fiscal policy.
+
+Edward was a thrifty king; he was indeed the only medieval monarch of
+England who succeeded in keeping free of debt and made his revenue
+suffice for his expenses. But his methods of filling his purse were
+often unconstitutional and sometimes ignominious. When the resources
+drawn from confiscations were exhausted, he raised "benevolences"--forced
+gifts extracted from men of wealth by the unspoken threat of the royal
+displeasure--instead of applying to parliament for new taxes. But his
+most profitable source of revenue was drawn from abroad. Having allied
+himself with his brother-in-law Charles of Burgundy against the king of
+France, he led an army into Picardy in 1475, and then by the treaty of
+Picquigny sold peace to Louis XI. for 75,000 gold crowns down, and an
+annual pension (or tribute as he preferred to call it) of 50,000 crowns
+more. It was regularly paid up to the last year of his reign. Charles the
+Bold, whom he had thus deliberately deserted in the middle of their joint
+campaign, used the strongest language about this mean act of treachery,
+and with good cause. But the king cared not when his pockets were full.
+Another device of Edward for filling his exchequer was a very stringent
+enforcement of justice; small infractions of the laws being made the
+excuse for exorbitant fines. This was a trick which Henry VII. was to
+turn to still greater effect. In defence of both it may be pleaded that
+after the anarchy of the Wars of the Roses a strong hand was needed to
+restore security for life and property, and that it was better that
+penalties should be over-heavy rather than that there should be no
+penalties at all. Another appreciable source of revenue to Edward was his
+private commercial ventures. He owned many ships, and traded with great
+profit to himself abroad, because he could promise, as a king, advantages
+to foreign buyers and sellers with which no mere merchant could compete.
+
+During the last period of Edward's rule England might have been
+described as a despotism, if only the king had cared to be a despot. But
+except on rare occasions he allowed his power to be disguised under the
+old machinery of the medieval monarchy, and made no parade of his
+autocracy. Much was pardoned by the nation to one who gave them
+comparatively efficient and rather cheap government, and who was
+personally easy of access, affable and humorous. It is with little
+justification that he has been called the "founder of the new monarchy,"
+and the spiritual ancestor of the Tudor despotism. Another king in his
+place might have merited such titles, but Edward was too careless, too
+unsystematic, too lazy, and too fond of self-indulgence to make a real
+tyrant. He preferred to be a man of pleasure and leisure, only awaking
+now and then to perpetrate some act of arbitrary cruelty.
+
+
+  Condition of the country.
+
+  Commercial development.
+
+  Manufactures and wool trade.
+
+England was not unprosperous under him. The lowest point of her fortunes
+had been reached under the administration of Margaret of Anjou, during
+the weary years that preceded the outbreak of the civil wars in 1459. At
+that time the government had been bankrupt, foreign trade had almost
+disappeared, the French and pirates of all nations had possession of the
+Channel, and the nation had lost heart, because there seemed no way out
+of the trouble save domestic strife, to which all looked forward with
+dismay. The actual war proved less disastrous than had been expected. It
+fell heavily upon the baronage and their retainers, but passed lightly,
+for the most part, over the heads of the middle classes. The Yorkists
+courted the approval of public opinion by their careful avoidance of
+pillage and requisitions; and the Lancastrians, though less scrupulous,
+only once launched out into general raiding and devastation, during the
+advance of the queen's army to St Albans in the early months of 1461. As
+a rule the towns suffered little or nothing--they submitted to the king
+of the moment, and were always spared by the victors. It is one of the
+most curious features of these wars that no town ever stood a siege,
+though there were several long and arduous sieges of baronial castles,
+such as Harlech, Alnwick and Bamborough. Warwick, with his policy of
+conciliation for the masses and hard blows for the magnates, was mainly
+responsible for this moderation. In battle he was wont to bid his
+followers spare the commons in the pursuit, and to smite only the
+knights and nobles. Towton, where the Yorkist army was infuriated by the
+harrying of the Midlands by their enemies in the preceding campaign,
+was the only fight that ended in a general massacre. There were, of
+course, many local feuds and riots which led to the destruction of
+property; well-known instances are the private war about Caister Castle
+between the duke of Norfolk and the Pastons, and the "battle of Nibley
+Green," near Bristol, between the Berkeleys and the Talbots. But on the
+whole there was no ruinous devastation of the land. Prosperity seems to
+have revived early during the rule of York; Warwick had cleared the seas
+of pirates, and both he and King Edward were great patrons of commerce,
+though the earl's policy was to encourage trade with France, while his
+master wished to knit up the old alliance with Flanders by adhering to
+the cause of Charles of Burgundy. Edward did much in his later years to
+develop interchange of commodities with the Baltic, making treaties with
+the Hanseatic League which displeased the merchants of London, because
+of the advantageous terms granted to the foreigner. The east coast ports
+seem to have thriven under his rule, but Bristol was not less
+prosperous. On the one side, developing the great salt-fish trade, her
+vessels were encompassing Iceland, and feeling their way towards the
+Banks of the West; on the other they were beginning to feel their way
+into the Mediterranean. The famous William Canynges, the patriarch of
+Bristol merchants, possessed 2500 tons of shipping, including some ships
+of 900 tons, and traded in every sea. Yet we still find complaints that
+too much merchandize reached and left England in foreign bottoms, and
+King Edward's treaty with the Hansa was censured mainly for this reason.
+Internal commerce was evidently developing in a satisfactory style,
+despite of the wars; in especial raw wool was going out of England in
+less bulk than of old, because cloth woven at home was becoming the
+staple export. The woollen manufactures which had begun in the eastern
+counties in the 14th century were now spreading all over the land,
+taking root especially in Somersetshire, Yorkshire and some districts of
+the Midlands. Coventry, the centre of a local woollen and dyeing
+industry, was probably the inland town which grew most rapidly during
+the 15th century. Yet there was still a large export of wool to
+Flanders, and the long pack-trains of the Cotswold flockmasters still
+wound eastward to the sea for the benefit of the merchants of the staple
+and the continental manufacturer.
+
+
+  State of the rural population.
+
+As regards domestic agriculture, it has been often stated that the 15th
+century was the golden age of the English peasant, and that his
+prosperity was little affected either by the unhappy French wars of
+Henry VI. or by the Wars of the Roses. There is certainly very little
+evidence of any general discontent among the rural population, such as
+had prevailed in the times of Edward III. or Richard II. Insurrections
+that passed as popular, like the risings of Jack Cade and Robin of
+Redesdale, produced manifestos that spoke of political grievances but
+hardly mentioned economic ones. There is a bare mention of the Statute
+of Labourers in Jack Cade's ably drafted chapter of complaints. It would
+seem that the manorial grudges between landowner and peasant, which had
+been so fierce in the 14th century, had died down as the lords abandoned
+the old system of working their demesne by villein labour. They were now
+for the most part letting out the soil to tenant-farmers at a moderate
+rent, and the large class of yeomanry created by this movement seem to
+have been prosperous. The less popular device of turning old manorial
+arable land into sheep-runs was also known, but does not yet seem to
+have grown so common as to provoke the popular discontents which were to
+prevail under the Tudors. Probably such labour as was thrown out of work
+by this tendency was easily absorbed by the growing needs of the towns.
+Some murmurs are heard about "enclosures," but they are incidental and
+not widely spread.
+
+
+  Architecture.
+
+One of the best tests of the prosperity of England under the Yorkist
+rule seems to be the immense amount of building that was on hand.
+Despite the needs of civil war, it was not on castles that the builders'
+energy was spent; the government discouraged fortresses in private
+hands, and the dwellings of the new nobility of Edward IV. were rather
+splendid manor-houses, with some slight external protection of moat and
+gate-house, than old-fashioned castles. But the church-building of the
+time is enormous and magnificent. A very large proportion of the great
+Perpendicular churches of England date back to this age, and in the
+cathedrals also much work was going on.
+
+
+  Religious condition of the country.
+
+Material prosperity does not imply spiritual development, and it must be
+confessed that from the intellectual and moral point of view
+15th-century England presents an unpleasing picture. The Wycliffite
+movement, the one phenomenon which at the beginning of the century
+seemed to give some promise of better things, had died down under
+persecution. It lingered on in a subterranean fashion among a small
+class in the universities and the minor clergy, and had some adherents
+among the townsfolk and even among the peasantry. But the Lollards were
+a feeble and helpless minority; they no longer produced writers,
+organizers or missionaries. They continued to be burnt, or more
+frequently to make forced recantations, under the Yorkist rule, though
+the list of trials is not a long one. Little can be gathered concerning
+them from chronicles or official records. We only know that they
+continued to exist, and occasionally produced a martyr. But the
+governing powers were not fanatics, bent on seeking out victims; the
+spirit of Henry V. and Archbishop Arundel was dead. The life of the
+church seems, indeed, to have been in a more stagnant and torpid
+condition in this age than at any other period of English history. The
+great prelates from Cardinal Beaufort down to Archbishops Bourchier and
+Rotherham, and Bishop John Russell--trusted supporters of the Yorkist
+dynasty--were mere politicians with nothing spiritual about them.
+Occasionally they appear in odious positions. Rotherham was the ready
+tool of Edward IV. in the judicial murder of Clarence. Russell became
+the obsequious chancellor of Richard III. Bourchier made himself
+responsible in 1483 for the taking of the little duke of York from his
+mother's arms in order to place him in the power of his murderous uncle.
+It is difficult to find a single bishop in the whole period who was
+respected for his piety or virtue. The best of them were capable
+statesmen, the worst were mean time-servers. Few of the higher clergy
+were such patrons of learning as many prelates of earlier ages. William
+Grey of Ely and James Goldwell of Norwich did something for scholars,
+and there was one bishop in the period who came to sad grief through an
+intellectual activity which was rare among his contemporaries. This was
+the eccentric Reginald Pecock of Chichester, who, while setting himself
+to confute Lollard controversialists, lapsed into heresy by setting
+"reason" above "authority." He taught that the organization and many of
+the dogmas of the medieval church should be justified by an appeal to
+private judgment and the moral law, rather than to the scriptures, the
+councils, or the fathers. For taking up this dangerous line of defence,
+and admitting his doubts about several received articles of faith, he
+was attacked by the Yorkist archbishop Bourchier in 1457, compelled to
+do penance, and shut up in a monastery for the rest of his life. He
+seems to have had no school of followers, and his doctrines died with
+him.
+
+
+  The monasteries.
+
+In nothing is the general stagnation of the church in the later 15th
+century shown better than by the gradual cessation of the monastic
+chronicles. The stream of narrative was still flowing strongly in 1400;
+by 1485 it has run dry, even St Albans, the mother of historians,
+produced no annalist after Whethamstede, whose story ceases early in the
+Wars of the Roses. The only monastic chronicler who went on writing for
+a few years after the extinction of the house of York was the "Croyland
+continuator." For the last two-thirds of the century the various "London
+chronicles," the work of laymen, are much more important than anything
+which was produced in the religious houses. The regular clergy indeed
+seem to have been sunk in intellectual torpor. Their numbers were
+falling off, their zeal was gone; there is little good to be said of
+them save that they were still in some cases endowing England with
+splendid architectural decorations. But even in the wealthier abbeys we
+find traces of thriftless administration, idleness, self-indulgence and
+occasionally grave moral scandals. The parochial clergy were probably in
+a healthier condition; but the old abuses of pluralism and non-residence
+were as rampant as ever, and though their work may have been in many
+cases honourably carried out, it is certain that energy and intelligence
+were at a low ebb.
+
+
+  Moral decay of the nation.
+
+  The "Paston Letters."
+
+  Influence of the Italian Renaissance.
+
+The moral faults of the church only reflected those of the nation. It
+was a hard and selfish generation which witnessed the Wars of the Roses
+and the dictatorship of Edward IV. The iniquitous French war, thirty
+years of plunder and demoralization, had corrupted the minds of the
+governing classes before the civil strife began. Afterwards the constant
+and easy changes of allegiance, as one faction or the other was in the
+ascendant, the wholesale confiscations and attainders, the never-ending
+executions, the sudden prosperity of adventurers, the premium on
+time-serving and intrigue, sufficed to make the whole nation cynical and
+sordid. The claim of the Yorkists to represent constitutional opposition
+to misgovernment became a mere hypocrisy. The claim of the Lancastrians
+to represent loyalty soon grew almost as hollow. Edward IV. with his
+combination of vicious self-indulgence and spasmodic cruelty was no
+unfit representative of his age. The _Paston Letters_, that unique
+collection of the private correspondence of a typical family of
+_nouveaux riches_, thriftless, pushing, unscrupulous, give us the true
+picture of the time. All that can be said in favour of the Yorkists is
+that they restored a certain measure of national prosperity, and that
+their leaders had one redeeming virtue in their addiction to literature.
+The learning which had died out in monasteries began to flourish again
+in the corrupt soil of the court. Most of Edward's favourites had
+literary tastes. His constable Tiptoft, the "butcher earl" of Worcester,
+was a figure who might have stepped out of the Italian Renaissance. A
+graduate of Pavia, a learned lawyer, who translated Caesar and Cicero,
+composed works both in Latin and English, and habitually impaled his
+victims, he was a man of a type hitherto unknown in England. Antony,
+Lord Rivers, the queen's brother, was a mere adventurer, but a poet of
+some merit, and a great patron of Caxton. Hastings, the Bourchiers, and
+other of the king's friends were minor patrons of literature. It is
+curious to find that Caxton, an honest man, and an enthusiast as to the
+future of the art of printing, which he had introduced into England,
+waxes enthusiastic as to the merits of the intelligent but unscrupulous
+peers who took an interest in his endeavours. Of the detestable Tiptoft
+he writes that "there flowered in virtue and cunning none like him among
+the lords of the temporalty in science and moral virtue"! And this is no
+time-serving praise of a patron, but disinterested tribute to a man who
+had perished long before on the scaffold.
+
+
+  Death of Edward IV.
+
+  Richard, duke of Gloucester.
+
+The uneventful latter half of the reign of Edward IV. ended with his
+death at the age of forty-one on the 9th of April 1483. He had ruined a
+splendid constitution by the combination of sloth and evil living, and
+during his last years had been sinking slowly into his grave, unable to
+take the field or to discharge the more laborious duties of royalty.
+Since Clarence's death he had been gradually falling into the habit of
+transferring the conduct of great matters of state to his active and
+hard-working youngest brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester, who had
+served him well and faithfully ever since he first took the field at
+Barnet. Gloucester passed as a staid and religious prince, and if there
+was blood on his hands, the same could be said of every statesman of his
+time. His sudden plunge into crime and usurpation after his brother's
+death was wholly unexpected by the nation. Indeed it was his previous
+reputation for loyalty and moderation which made his scandalous _coup
+d'état_ of 1483 possible. No prince with a sinister reputation would
+have had the chance of executing the series of crimes which placed him
+on the throne. But when Richard declared that he was the victim of
+plots and intrigues, and was striking down his enemies only to defend
+his own life and honour, he was for some time believed.
+
+
+  Gloucester proclaims himself protector.
+
+At the moment of King Edward's death his elder son by Elizabeth
+Woodville, Edward, prince of Wales, was twelve; his younger son Richard,
+duke of York, was nine. It was clear that there would be a long
+minority, and that the only possible claimants for the regency were the
+queen and Richard of Gloucester. Elizabeth was personally unpopular, and
+the rapacity and insolence of her family was well known. Hence when
+Richard of Gloucester seized on the person of the young king, and
+imprisoned Lord Rivers and Sir Richard Grey, the queen's brother and
+son, on the pretence that they were conspiring against him, his action
+was regarded with equanimity by the people. Nor did the fact that the
+duke took the title of "protector and defender of the realm" cause any
+surprise. Suspicions only became rife after Richard had seized and
+beheaded without any trial, Lord Hastings, the late king's most familiar
+friend, and had arrested at the same moment the archbishop of York,
+Morton, bishop of Ely, and Lord Stanley, all persons of unimpeachable
+loyalty to the house of Edward IV. It was not plausible to accuse such
+persons of plotting with the queen to overthrow the protector, and
+public opinion began to turn against Gloucester. Nevertheless he went on
+recklessly with his design, having already enlisted the support of a
+party of the greater peers, who were ready to follow him to any length
+of treason. These confidants, the duke of Buckingham, the lords Howard
+and Lovel, and a few more, must have known from an early date that he
+was aiming at the crown, though it is improbable that they suspected
+that his plan involved the murder of the rightful heirs as well as mere
+usurpation.
+
+
+  Richard III. crowned.
+
+On the 16th of June, Richard, using the aged archbishop Bourchier as his
+tool, got the little duke of York out of his mother's hands, and sent
+him to join his brother in the Tower. A few days later, having packed
+London with his own armed retainers and those of Buckingham and his
+other confidants, he openly put forward his pretensions to the throne.
+Edward IV., as he asserted, had been privately contracted to Lady
+Eleanor Talbot before he ever met Queen Elizabeth. His children
+therefore were bastards, the offspring of a bigamous union. As to the
+son and daughter of the duke of Clarence, their blood had been corrupted
+by their father's attainder, and they could not be reckoned as heirs to
+the crown. He himself, therefore, was the legitimate successor of Edward
+IV. This preposterous theory was set forth by Buckingham, first to the
+mayor and corporation of London, and next day to an assembly of the
+estates of the realm held in St Paul's. Cowed by the show of armed
+force, and remembering the fate of Hastings, the two assemblies received
+the claim with silence which gave consent. Richard, after a hypocritical
+show of reluctance, allowed himself to be saluted as king, and was
+crowned on the 6th of July 1483. Before the coronation ceremony he had
+issued orders for the execution of the queen's relatives, who had been
+in prison since the beginning of May. He paid his adherents lavishly for
+their support, making Lord Howard duke of Norfolk, and giving Buckingham
+enormous grants of estates and offices.
+
+
+  Murder of the princes.
+
+Having accomplished his _coup d'état_ Richard started for a royal
+progress through the Midlands, and a few days after his departure sent
+back secret orders to London for the murder of his two nephews in the
+Tower. There is no reason to doubt that they were secretly smothered on
+or about the 15th of July by his agent Sir James Tyrrell, or that the
+bones found buried under a staircase in the fortress two hundred years
+after belonged to the two unhappy lads. But the business was kept dark
+at the time, and it was long before any one could assert with certainty
+that they were dead or alive. Richard never published any statement as
+to their end, though some easy tale of a fever, a conflagration, or an
+accident might have served him better than the mere silence that he
+employed. For while many persons believed that the princes still
+existed there was room for all manner of impostures and false rumours.
+
+
+  Buckingham's rebellion.
+
+The usurper's reign was from the first a troubled one. Less than three
+months after his coronation the first insurrection broke out; it was
+headed--strangely enough--by the duke of Buckingham, who seems to have
+been shocked by the murder of the princes; he must have been one of the
+few who had certain information of the crime. He did not take arms in
+his own cause, though after the house of York the house of Buckingham
+had the best claim to the throne, as representing Thomas of Woodstock,
+the youngest son of Edward III. His plan was to unite the causes of York
+and Lancaster by wedding the Lady Elizabeth, the eldest sister of the
+murdered princes, to Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, a young exile who
+represented the very doubtful claim of the Beauforts to the Lancastrian
+heritage. Henry was the son of Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John,
+first duke of Somerset, and the niece of Edmund, second duke, who fell
+at St Albans. All her male kinsmen had been exterminated in the Wars of
+the Roses.
+
+
+  Execution of Buckingham.
+
+This promising scheme was to be supported by a rising of those Yorkists
+who rejected the usurpation of Richard III., and by the landing on the
+south coast of Henry of Richmond with a body of Lancastrian exiles and
+foreign mercenaries. But good organization was wanting, and chance
+fought for the king. A number of scattered risings in the south were put
+down by Richard's troops, while Buckingham, who had raised his banner in
+Wales, was prevented from bringing aid by a week of extraordinary rains
+which made the Severn impassable. Finding that the rest of the plan had
+miscarried, Buckingham's retainers melted away from him, and he was
+forced to fly. A few days later he was betrayed, handed over to the
+king, and beheaded (Nov. 2, 1483). Meanwhile Richmond's little fleet was
+dispersed by the same storms that scattered Buckingham's army, and he
+was forced to return to Brittany without having landed in England.
+
+Here King Richard's luck ended. Though he called a parliament early in
+1484, and made all manner of gracious promises of good governance, he
+felt that his position was insecure. The nation was profoundly disgusted
+with his unscrupulous policy, and the greater part of the leaders of the
+late insurrection had escaped abroad and were weaving new plots. Early
+in the spring he lost his only son and heir, Edward, prince of Wales,
+and the question of the succession to the crown was opened from a new
+point of view. After some hesitation Richard named his nephew John de la
+Pole, earl of Lincoln, a son of his sister, as his heir. But he also
+bethought him of another and a most repulsive plan for strengthening his
+position. His queen, Anne Neville, the daughter of the kingmaker, was on
+her death-bed. With indecent haste he began to devise a scheme for
+marrying his niece Elizabeth, whose brothers he had murdered but a year
+before. Knowledge of this scheme is said to have shortened the life of
+the unfortunate Anne, and many did not scruple to say that her husband
+had made away with her.
+
+
+  Henry of Richmond lands at Milford.
+
+  Battle of Bosworth.
+
+When the queen was dead, and some rumours of the king's intentions got
+abroad, the public indignation was so great that Richard's councillors
+had to warn him to disavow the projected marriage, if he wished to
+retain a single adherent. He yielded, and made public complaint that he
+had been slandered--which few believed. Meanwhile the conspirators of
+1483 were busy in organizing another plan of invasion. This time it was
+successfully carried out, and the earl of Richmond landed at Milford
+Haven with many exiles, both Yorkists and Lancastrians, and 1000
+mercenaries lent him by the princess regent of France. The Welsh joined
+him in great numbers, not forgetting that by his Tudor descent he was
+their own kinsman, and when he reached Shrewsbury English adherents also
+began to flock in to his banner, for the whole country was seething with
+discontent, and Richard III. had but few loyal adherents. When the
+rivals met at Bosworth Field (Aug. 22, 1485) the king's army was far the
+larger, but the greater part of it was determined not to fight. When
+battle was joined some left the field and many joined the pretender.
+Richard, however, refused to fly, and was slain, fighting to the last,
+along with the duke of Norfolk and a few other of his more desperate
+partisans. The slaughter was small, for treason, not the sword, had
+settled the day. The battered crown which had fallen from Richard's
+helmet was set on the victor's head by Lord Stanley, the chief of the
+Yorkist peers who had joined his standard, and his army hailed him by
+the new title of Henry VII.
+
+
+  Henry VII.
+
+No monarch of England since William the Conqueror, not excluding Stephen
+and Henry IV., could show such a poor title to the throne as the first
+of the Tudor kings. His claim to represent the house of Lancaster was of
+the weakest--when Henry IV. had assented to the legitimating of his
+brothers the Beauforts, he had attached a clause to the act, to provide
+that they were given every right save that of counting in the line of
+succession to the throne. The true heir to the house of John of Gaunt
+should have been sought among the descendants of his eldest legitimate
+daughter, not among those of his base-born sons. The earl of Richmond
+had been selected by the conspirators as their figure-head mainly
+because he was known as a young man of ability, and because he was
+unmarried and could therefore take to wife the princess Elizabeth, and
+so absorb the Yorkist claim in his own. This had been the essential part
+of the bargain, and Henry was ready to carry it out, but he insisted
+that he should first be recognized as king in his own right, lest it
+might be held that he ruled merely as his destined wife's consort. He
+was careful to hold his first parliament and get his title acknowledged
+before he married the princess. When he had done so, he had the triple
+claim by conquest, by election and by inheritance, safely united. Yet
+his position was even then insecure; the vicissitudes of the last thirty
+years had shaken the old prestige of the name of king, and a weaker and
+less capable man than Henry Tudor might have failed to retain the crown
+that he had won. There were plenty of possible pretenders in existence;
+the earl of Lincoln, whom Richard III. had recognized as his heir, was
+still alive; the two children of the duke of Clarence might be made the
+tools of conspirators; and there was a widespread doubt as to whether
+the sons of Edward IV. had actually died in the Tower. The secrecy with
+which their uncle had carried out their murder was destined to be a sore
+hindrance to his successor.
+
+
+  Early years of the reign.
+
+  Insurrections and plots.
+
+Bosworth Field is often treated as the last act of the Wars of the
+Roses. This is an error; they were protracted for twelve years after the
+accession of Henry VII., and did not really end till the time of
+Blackheath Field and the siege of Exeter (1497). The position of the
+first Tudor king is misconceived if his early years are regarded as a
+time of strong governance and well-established order. On the contrary he
+was in continual danger, and was striving with all the resources of a
+ready and untiring mind to rebuild foundations that were absolutely
+rotten. Phenomena like the Cornish revolt (which recalls Cade's
+insurrection) and the Yorkshire rising of 1489, which began with the
+death of the earl of Northumberland, show that at any moment whole
+counties might take arms in sheer lawlessness, or for some local
+grievance. Loyalty was such an uncertain thing that the king might call
+out great levies yet be forced to doubt whether they would fight for
+him--at Stoke Field it seems that a large part of Henry's army
+misbehaved, much as that of Richard III. had done at Bosworth. The
+demoralization brought about by the evil years between 1453 and 1483
+could not be lived down in a day--any sort of treason was possible to
+the generation that had seen the career of Warwick and the usurpation of
+Gloucester. The survivors of that time were capable of taking arms for
+any cause that offered a chance of unreasonable profit, and no one's
+loyalty could be trusted. Did not Sir William Stanley, the best paid of
+those who betrayed Richard III., afterwards lose his head for a
+deliberate plot to betray Henry VII.? The various attempts that were
+made to overturn the new dynasty seem contemptible to the historian of
+the 20th century. They were not so contemptible at the time, because
+England and Ireland were full of adventurers who were ready to back any
+cause, and who looked on the king of the moment as no more than a
+successful member of their own class--a base-born Welshman who had been
+lucky enough to become the figurehead of the movement that had
+overturned an unpopular usurper. The organizing spirits of the early
+troubles of the reign of Henry VII. were irreconcilable Yorkists who had
+suffered by the change of dynasty; but their hopes of success rested
+less on their own strength than on the not ill-founded notion that
+England would tire of any ruler who had to raise taxes and reward his
+partisans. The position bore a curious resemblance to that of the early
+years of Henry IV., a king who, like Henry VII., had to vindicate a
+doubtful elective title to the throne by miracles of cunning and
+activity. The later representative of the house of Lancaster was
+fortunate, however, in having less formidable enemies than the earlier;
+the power of the baronage had been shaken by the Wars of the Roses no
+less than the power of the crown; so many old estates had passed rapidly
+from hand to hand, so many old titles were represented by upstarts
+destitute of local influence, that the feudal danger had become far
+less. Risings like that of the Percies in 1403 were not the things which
+the seventh Henry had to fear. He was lucky too in having no adversary
+of genius of the type of Owen Glendower. Welsh national spirit indeed
+was enlisted on his own side. Yet leaderless seditions and the plots of
+obvious impostors sufficed to make his throne tremble, and a ruler less
+resolute, less wary, and less unscrupulous might have been overthrown.
+
+
+  Lambert Simnel.
+
+The first of the king's troubles was an abortive rising in the north
+riding of Yorkshire, the only district where Richard III. seems to have
+enjoyed personal popularity. It was led by Lord Lovel, Richard's
+chamberlain and admiral; but the insurgents dispersed when Henry marched
+against them with a large force (1486), and Lovel took refuge in
+Flanders with Margaret of York, the widow of Charles the Bold of
+Burgundy, whose dower towns were the refuge of all English exiles, and
+whose coffers were always open to subsidize plots against her niece's
+husband. Under the auspices of this rancorous princess the second
+conspiracy was hatched in the following year (1487). Its leaders were
+Lovel and John, earl of Lincoln, whom Richard III. had designated as his
+heir. But the Yorkist banner was to be raised, not in the name of
+Lincoln, but in that of the boy Edward of Clarence, then a prisoner in
+the Tower. His absence and captivity might seem a fatal hindrance, but
+the conspirators had prepared a "double" who was to take his name till
+he could be released. This was a lad named Lambert Simnel, the son of an
+Oxford organ-maker, who bore a personal resemblance to the young
+captive. The conspirators seem to have argued that Henry VII. would not
+proceed to murder the real Edward, but would rather exhibit him to prove
+the imposition; if he took the more drastic alternative Lincoln could
+fall back on his own claim to the crown.
+
+
+  Battle of Stoke.
+
+In May 1487 Lincoln and Lovel landed in Ireland accompanied by other
+exiles and 2000 German mercenaries. The cause of York was popular in the
+Pale, and the Anglo-Irish barons seem to have conceived the notion that
+Henry VII. was likely to prove too strong and capable a king to suit
+their convenience. The invading army was welcomed by almost all the
+lords, and the spurious Clarence was crowned at Dublin by the name of
+Edward VI. A few weeks later Lincoln had recruited his army with 4000 or
+5000 Irish adventurers under Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the earl of
+Kildare, and had taken ship for England. He landed in Lancashire, and
+pushed forward, hoping to gather the English Yorkists to his aid. But
+few had joined him when King Henry brought him to action at Stoke, near
+Newark, on the 17th of July. Despite the doubtful conduct of part of the
+royal army, and the fierce resistance of the Germans and Irish, the
+rebel army was routed. Lincoln and Fitzgerald were slain; Lovel
+disappeared in the rout; the young impostor Simnel was taken prisoner.
+Henry treated him with politic contempt, and made him a cook boy in his
+kitchen. He lived for many years after in the royal household. The Irish
+lords were pardoned on renewing their oaths of fealty; the king did not
+wish to entangle himself in costly campaigns beyond St George's Channel
+till he had made his position in England more stable.
+
+
+  Foreign alliances.
+
+  Treaty of Étaples.
+
+The Yorkist cause was crushed for four years, till it was raised again
+by Margaret of Burgundy, with an imposture even more preposterous than
+that of Lambert Simnel. In the intervening space, however, while Henry
+VII. was comparatively undisturbed by domestic rebellion, he found
+opportunity for a first tentative experiment at interfering in European
+politics. He allied himself with Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and
+with Maximilian of Austria, who was ruling the Netherlands in behalf of
+his young son, Philip, the heir of the Burgundian inheritance, for the
+purpose of preventing France from annexing Brittany, the last great fief
+of the crown which had not yet been absorbed into the Valois royal
+domain. This struggle, the only continental war in which the first of
+the Tudors risked his fortunes, was not prosecuted with any great
+energy, and came to a necessary end when Anne, duchess of Brittany, in
+whose behalf it was being waged, disappointed her allies by marrying
+Charles VIII. of her own free will (Dec. 1491). Henry very wisely
+proceeded to get out of the war on the best terms possible, and, to the
+disgust of Maximilian, sold peace to the French king for 600,000 crowns,
+as well as an additional sum representing arrears of the pension which
+Louis XI. had been bound to pay to Edward IV. This treaty of Étaples
+was, in short, a repetition of Edward's treaty of Picquigny, equally
+profitable and less disgraceful, for Maximilian of Austria, whom Henry
+thus abandoned, had given more cause of offence than had Charles of
+Burgundy in 1475. Domestic malcontents did not scruple to hint that the
+king, like his father-in-law before him, had made war on France, not
+with any hope of renewing the glories of Creēy or Agincourt, still less
+with any design of helping his allies, but purely to get first grants
+from his parliament, and then a war indemnity from his enemies. In any
+case he was wise to make peace. France was now too strong for England,
+and both Maximilian and Ferdinand of Spain were selfish and shifty
+allies. Moreover, it was known that the one dominating desire of Charles
+VIII. was to conquer Italy, and it was clear that his ambitions in that
+direction were not likely to prove dangerous to England.
+
+
+  Yorkist plots. Perkin Warbeck.
+
+  Cornish rebellion.
+
+In the year of the treaty of Étaples the Yorkist conspiracies began once
+more to thicken, and Henry was fortunate to escape with profit from the
+French war before his domestic troubles recommenced. Ever since 1483 it
+had been rumoured that one or both of the sons of Edward IV. had
+escaped, not having been murdered in the Tower. Of this widespread
+belief the plotters now took advantage; they held that much more could
+be accomplished with such a claim than by using that of the unfortunate
+Edward of Clarence, whose chances were so severely handicapped by his
+being still the prisoner of Henry VII. The scheme for producing a false
+Plantagenet was first renewed in Ireland, where Simnel's imposture had
+been so easily taken up a few years before. The tool selected was one
+Perkin Warbeck, a handsome youth of seventeen or eighteen, the son of a
+citizen of Tournai, who had lived for some time in London, where Perkin
+had actually been born. There is a bare possibility that the young
+adventurer may have been an illegitimate son of Edward IV.; his likeness
+to the late king was much noticed. When he declared himself to be
+Richard of York, he obtained some support in Ireland from the earl of
+Desmond and other lords; but he did not risk open rebellion till he had
+visited Flanders, and had been acknowledged as her undoubted nephew by
+Duchess Margaret. Maximilian of Austria also took up his cause, as a
+happy means of revenging himself on Henry VII. for the treaty of
+Étaples. There can be small doubt that both the duchess and the German
+King (Maximilian had succeeded to his father's crown in 1493) were
+perfectly well aware that they were aiding a manifest fraud. But they
+made much of Perkin, who followed the imperial court for two years,
+while his patron was intriguing with English malcontents. The emissaries
+from Flanders got many promises of assistance, and a formidable rising
+might have taken place had not Henry VII. been well served by his
+spies. But in the winter of 1494-1495 the traitors were themselves
+betrayed, and a large number of arrests were made, including not only
+Lord Fitzwalter and a number of well-known knights of Yorkist families,
+but Sir William Stanley, the king's chamberlain, who had been rewarded
+with enormous gifts for his good service at Bosworth, and was reckoned
+one of the chief supports of the throne. Stanley and several others were
+beheaded, the rest hanged or imprisoned. This vigorous action on the
+part of the king seems to have cowed all Warbeck's supporters on English
+soil. But the pretender nevertheless sailed from Flanders in July 1495
+with a following of 2000 exiles and German mercenaries. He attempted to
+land at Deal, but his vanguard was destroyed by Kentish levies, and he
+drew off and made for Ireland. Suspecting that this would be his goal,
+King Henry had been doing his best to strengthen his hold on the Pale,
+whither he had sent his capable servant Sir Edward Poynings as lord
+deputy. Already before Warbeck's arrival Poynings had arrested the earl
+of Kildare, Simnel's old supporter, cowed some of the Irish by military
+force, and bought over others by promises of subsidies and pensions. But
+his best-remembered achievement was that he had induced the Irish
+parliament to pass the ordinances known as "Poynings' Law," by which it
+acknowledged that it could pass no legislation which had not been
+approved by the king and his council, and agreed that all statutes
+passed by the English parliament should be in force in Ireland. That
+such terms could be imposed shows the strength of Poynings' arm, and his
+vigour was equally evident when Warbeck came ashore in Munster in July
+1495. Few joined the impostor save the earl of Desmond, and he was
+repulsed from Waterford, and dared not face the army which the lord
+deputy put into the field against him. Thereupon, abandoning his Irish
+schemes, Warbeck sailed to Scotland, whose young king James IV. had just
+been seduced by the emperor Maximilian into declaring war on England. He
+promised the Scottish king Berwick and 50,000 crowns in return for the
+aid of an army. James took the offer, gave him the hand of his kinswoman
+Catherine Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntly, and took him forth for
+a raid into Northumberland (1496). But a pretender backed by Scottish
+spears did not appeal to the sympathies of the English borderers. The
+expedition fell flat; not a man joined the banner of the white rose, and
+James became aware that he had set forth on a fool's errand. But Warbeck
+soon found other allies of a most unexpected sort. The heavy taxation
+granted by the English parliament for the Scottish war had provoked
+discontent and rioting in the south-western counties. In Cornwall
+especially the disorders grew to such a pitch that local demagogues
+called out several thousand men to resist the tax-collectors, and
+finally raised open rebellion, proposing to march on London and compel
+the king to dismiss his ministers. These spiritual heirs of Jack Cade
+were Flammock, a lawyer of Bodmin, and a farrier named Michael Joseph.
+Whether they had any communication with Warbeck it is impossible to say;
+there is no proof of such a connexion, but their acts served him well. A
+Cornish army marched straight on London, picking up some supporters in
+Devon and Somerset on their way, including a discontented baron, Lord
+Audley, whom they made their captain.
+
+
+  Battle of Blackheath.
+
+  Execution of Warbeck and Edward of Clarence.
+
+So precarious was the hold of Henry VII. on the throne that he was in
+great danger from this outbreak of mere local turbulence. The rebels
+swept over five counties unopposed, and were only stopped and beaten in
+a hard fight on Blackheath, when they had reached the gates of London.
+Audley, the farrier and the lawyer were all captured and executed (June
+18, 1497). But the crisis was not yet at an end. Warbeck, hearing of the
+rising, but not of its suppression, had left Scotland, and appeared in
+Devonshire in August. He rallied the wrecks of the west country rebels,
+and presently appeared before the gates of Exeter with nearly 8000 men.
+But the citizens held out against him, and presently the approach of the
+royal army was reported. The pretender led off his horde to meet the
+relieving force, but when he reached Taunton he found that his
+followers were so dispirited that disaster was certain. Thereupon he
+absconded by night, and took sanctuary in the abbey of Beaulieu. He
+offered to confess his imposture if he were promised his life, and the
+king accepted the terms. First at Taunton and again at Westminster,
+Perkin publicly recited a long narrative of his real parentage, his
+frauds and his adventures. He was then consigned to not over strict
+confinement in the Tower, and might have fared no worse than Lambert
+Simnel if he had possessed his soul in patience. But in the next year he
+corrupted his warders, broke out from his prison, and tried to escape
+beyond seas. He was captured, but the king again spared his life, though
+he was placed for the future in a dungeon "where he could see neither
+moon nor sun." Even this did not tame the impostor's mercurial
+temperament. In 1499 he again planned an escape, which was to be shared
+by another prisoner, the unfortunate Edward of Clarence, earl of
+Warwick, whose cell was in the storey above his own. But there were
+traitors among the Tower officials whom they suborned to help them, and
+the king was warned of the plot. He allowed it to proceed to the verge
+of execution, and then arrested both the false and the true Plantagenet.
+Evidence of a suspicious character was produced to show that they had
+planned rebellion as well as mere escape, and both were put to death
+with some of their accomplices. Warbeck deserved all that he reaped, but
+the unlucky Clarence's fate estranged many hearts from the king. The
+simple and weakly young man, who had spent fifteen of his twenty-five
+years in confinement, had, in all probability, done no more than scheme
+for an escape from his dungeon. But as the true male heir of the house
+of Plantagenet he was too dangerous to be allowed to survive.
+
+
+  Establishment of the Tudor dynasty.
+
+The turbulent portion of the reign of Henry VII. came to an end with
+Blackheath Field and the siege of Exeter. From that time forward the
+Tudor dynasty was no longer in serious danger; there were still some
+abortive plots, but none that had any prospect of winning popular
+support. The chances of Warbeck and Clarence had vanished long before
+they went to the scaffold. The Yorkist claim, after Clarence's death,
+might be supposed to have passed to his cousin Edmund, earl of Suffolk,
+the younger brother of that John, earl of Lincoln, who had been declared
+heir to the crown by Richard III., and had fallen at Stoke field. Fully
+conscious of the danger of his position, Suffolk fled to the continent,
+and lived for many years as a pensioner of the emperor Maximilian.
+Apparently he dabbled in treason; it is at any rate certain that in 1501
+King Henry executed some, and imprisoned others, of his relatives and
+retainers. But his plots, such as they were, seem to have been futile.
+There was no substratum of popular discontent left in England on which a
+dangerous insurrection might be built up. It was to be forty years
+before another outbreak of turbulence against the crown was to break
+forth.
+
+
+VI. THE TUDOR DESPOTISM AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION
+(1497-1528)
+
+  Commercial treaties.
+
+The last twelve years of the reign of Henry VII. present in most
+respects a complete contrast to the earlier period, 1485-1497. There
+were no more rebellions, and--as we have already seen--no more plots
+that caused any serious danger. Nor did the king indulge his unruly
+subjects in foreign wars, though he was constantly engaged in
+negotiations with France, Scotland, Spain and the emperor, which from
+time to time took awkward turns. But Henry was determined to win all
+that he could by diplomacy, and not by force of arms. His cautious, but
+often unscrupulous, dealings with the rival continental powers had two
+main ends: the first was to keep his own position safe by playing off
+France against the Empire and Spain; the second was to get commercial
+advantages by dangling his alliance before each power in turn. Flanders
+was still the greatest customer of England, and it was therefore
+necessary above all things to keep on good terms with the archduke
+Philip, the son of Maximilian, who on coming of age had taken over the
+rule of the Netherlands from his father. The king's great triumphs were
+the conclusion of the _Intercursus Magnus_ of 1496 and the _Intercursus
+Malus_ (so called by the Flemings, not by the English) of 1506. The
+former provided for a renewal of the old commercial alliance with the
+house of Burgundy, on the same terms under which it had existed in the
+time of Edward IV.; the rupture which had taken place during the years
+when Maximilian was backing Perkin Warbeck had been equally injurious to
+both parties. The _Malus Intercursus_ on the other hand gave England
+some privileges which she had not before enjoyed--exemption from local
+tolls in Antwerp and Holland, and a licence for English merchants to
+sell cloth retail as well as wholesale--a concession which hit the
+Netherland small traders and middlemen very hard. Another great
+commercial advantage secured by Henry VII. for his subjects was an
+increased share of the trade to the Scandinavian countries. The old
+treaties of Edward IV. with the Hanseatic League had left the Germans
+still in control of the northern seas. Nearly all the Baltic goods, and
+most of those from Denmark and Norway, had been reaching London or Hull
+in foreign bottoms. Henry allied himself with John of Denmark, who was
+chafing under the monopoly of the Hansa, and obtained the most ample
+grants of free trade in his realms. The Germans murmured, but the
+English shipping in eastern and northern waters continued to multiply.
+Much the same policy was pursued in the Mediterranean. Southern goods
+hitherto had come to Southampton or Sandwich invariably in Venetian
+carracks, which took back in return English wool and metals. Henry
+concluded a treaty with Florence, by which that republic undertook to
+receive his ships in its harbours and to allow them to purchase all
+eastern goods that they might require. From this time forward the
+Venetian monopoly ceased, and the visits of English merchant vessels to
+the Mediterranean became frequent and regular.
+
+
+  English navigators.
+
+Nor was it in dealing with old lines of trade alone that Henry Tudor
+showed himself the watchful guardian of the interests of his subjects.
+He must take his share of credit for the encouragement of the
+exploration of the seas of the Far West. The British traders had already
+pushed far into the Atlantic before Columbus discovered America; fired
+by the success of the great navigator they continued their adventures,
+hoping like him to discover a short "north-west passage" to Cathay and
+Japan. With a charter from the king giving him leave to set up the
+English banner on all the lands he might discover, the Bristol Genoese
+trader John Cabot successfully passed the great sea in 1497, and
+discovered Newfoundland and its rich fishing stations. Henry rewarded
+him with a pension of £20 a year, and encouraged him to further
+exploration, in which he discovered all the American coastline from
+Labrador to the mouth of the Delaware--a great heritage for England, but
+one not destined to be taken up for colonization till more than a
+century had passed.
+
+
+  Foreign policy of Henry VII.
+
+Henry's services to English commerce were undoubtedly of far more
+importance to the nation than all the tortuous details of his foreign
+policy. His chicanery need not, however, be censured over much, for the
+princes with whom he had to deal, and notably Ferdinand and Maximilian,
+were as insincere and selfish as himself. Few diplomatic hagglings have
+been so long and so sordid as that between England and Spain over the
+marriage treaty which gave the hand of Catherine of Aragon first to
+Henry's eldest son Arthur, and then, on his premature death in 1502, to
+his second son Henry. The English king no doubt imagined that he had
+secured a good bargain, as he had kept the princess's dowry, and yet
+never gave Ferdinand any practical assistance in war or peace. It is
+interesting to find that he had for some time at the end of his reign a
+second Spanish marriage in view; his wife Elizabeth of York having died
+in 1503, he seriously proposed himself as a suitor for Joanna of
+Castile, the elder sister of Catherine, and the widow of the archduke
+Philip, though she was known to be insane. Apparently he hoped thereby
+to gain vantage ground for an interference in Spanish politics, which
+would have been most offensive to Ferdinand. Nothing came of the
+project, which contrasts strangely with the greater part of Henry's
+sober and cautious schemes.
+
+
+  Marriage of James IV. of Scotland and Margaret Tudor.
+
+On the other hand a third project of marriage alliance which Henry
+carried out in 1503 was destined to be consummated, and to have
+momentous, though long-deferred, results. This was the giving of the
+hand of his daughter Margaret to James IV. of Scotland. Thereby he
+bought quiet on the Border and alliance with Scotland for no more than
+some ten years. But--as it chanced--the issue of this alliance was
+destined to unite the English and the Scottish crowns, when the male
+line of the Tudors died out, and Henry, quite unintentionally, had his
+share in bringing about the consummation, by peaceful means, of that end
+which Edward I. had sought for so long to win by the strong hand.
+
+
+  Character of Henry's internal rule.
+
+All the foreign politics of the reign of Henry VII. have small
+importance compared with his work within the realm. The true monument of
+his ability was that he left England tamed and orderly, with an obedient
+people and a full exchequer, though he had taken it over wellnigh in a
+state of anarchy. The mere suppression of insurrections like those of
+Simnel and Warbeck was a small part of his task. The harder part was to
+recreate a spirit of order and subordination among a nation accustomed
+to long civil strife. His instruments were ministers of ability chosen
+from the clergy and the gentry--he seems to have been equally averse to
+trusting the baronage at the one end of the social scale, or mere
+upstarts at the other, and it is notable that no one during his reign
+can be called a court favourite. The best-known names among his servants
+were his great chancellor, Archbishop Morton, Foxe, bishop of
+Winchester, Sir Reginald Bray, and the lawyers Empson and Dudley. These
+two last bore the brunt of the unpopularity of the financial policy of
+the king during the latter half of his reign, when the vice of avarice
+seems to have grown upon him beyond all reason. But Henry was such a
+hard-working monarch, and so familiar with all the details of
+administration, that his ministers cannot be said to have had any
+independent authority, or to have directed their master's course of
+action.
+
+
+  The Star Chamber.
+
+The machinery employed by the first of the Tudors for the suppression of
+domestic disorder is well known. The most important item added by him to
+the administrative machinery of the realm was the famous Star Chamber,
+which was licensed by the parliament of 1487. It consisted of a small
+committee of ministers, privy councillors and judges, which sat to deal
+with offences that seemed to lie outside the scope of the common law, or
+more frequently with the misdoings of men who were so powerful that the
+local courts could not be trusted to execute justice upon them, such as
+great landowners, sheriffs and other royal officials, or turbulent
+individuals who were the terror of their native districts. The need for
+a strong central court directly inspired by the king, which could
+administer justice without respect of persons, was so great, that the
+constitutional danger of establishing an autocratic judicial committee,
+untrammelled by the ordinary rules of law, escaped notice at the time.
+It was not till much later that the nation came to look upon the Star
+Chamber as the special engine of royal tyranny and to loathe its name.
+In 1500 it was for the common profit of the realm that there should
+exist such a court, which could reduce even the most powerful offender
+to order.
+
+
+  Suppression of livery and maintenance.
+
+One of the most notable parts of the king's policy was his
+long-continued and successful assault on the abuse of "livery and
+maintenance," which had been at its height during the Wars of the Roses.
+We have seen the part which it had taken in strengthening the influence
+of those who were already too powerful, and weakening the ordinary
+operation of the law. Henry put it down with a strong hand, forbidding
+all liveries entirely, save for the mere domestic retainers of each
+magnate. His determination to end the system was well shown by the fact
+that he heavily fined even the earl of Oxford, the companion of his
+exile, the victor of Bosworth, and the most notoriously loyal peer in
+the realm, for an ostentatious violation of the statute. Where Oxford
+was punished, no less favoured person could hope to escape. By the end
+of the reign the little hosts of badged adherents which had formed the
+nucleus for the armies of the Wars of the Roses had ceased to exist.
+
+
+  Personal rule.
+
+Edward IV., as has been already remarked, had many of the opportunities
+of the autocrat, if only he had cared to use them; but his sloth and
+self-indulgence stood in the way. Henry VII., the most laborious and
+systematic of men, turned them to account. He formed his personal
+opinion on every problem of administration and intervened himself in
+every detail. In many respects he was his own prime minister, and
+nothing was done without his knowledge and consent. A consistent policy
+may be detected in all his acts--that of gathering all the machinery of
+government into his own hands. Under the later Plantagenets and the
+Lancastrian kings the great check on the power of the crown had been
+that financial difficulties were continually compelling the sovereign to
+summon parliaments. The estates had interfered perpetually in all the
+details of governance, by means of the power of the purse. Edward IV.,
+first among English sovereigns, had been able to dispense with
+parliaments for periods of many years, because he did not need their
+grants save at long intervals. Henry was in the same position; by strict
+economy, by the use of foreign subsidies, by the automatic growth of his
+revenues during a time of peace and returning prosperity, by
+confiscation and forfeitures, he built himself up a financial position
+which rendered it unnecessary for him to make frequent appeals to
+parliament. Not the least fertile of his expedients was that regular
+exploitation of the law as a source of revenue, which had already been
+seen in the time of his father-in-law. This part of Henry's policy is
+connected with the name of his two extortionate "fiscal judges" Empson
+and Dudley, who "turned law and justice into rapine" by their minute
+inquisition into all technical breaches of legality, and the nice
+fashion in which they adapted the fine to the wealth of the
+misdemeanant, without any reference to his moral guilt or any regard for
+extenuating circumstances. The king must take the responsibility for
+their unjust doings; it was his coffers which mainly profited by their
+chicane. In his later years he fell into the vice of hoarding money for
+its own sake; so necessary was it to his policy that he should be free,
+as far as possible, from the need for applying to parliament for money,
+that he became morbidly anxious to have great hoards in readiness for
+any possible day of financial stress. At his death he is said to have
+had £1,800,000 in hard cash laid by. Hence it is not strange to find
+that he was able to dispense with parliaments in a fashion that would
+have seemed incredible to a 14th-century king. In his whole reign he
+only asked them five times for grants of taxation, and three of the five
+requests were made during the first seven years of his reign. In the
+eyes of many men parliament lost the main reason for its existence when
+it ceased to be the habitual provider of funds for the ordinary expenses
+of the realm. Those who had a better conception of its proper functions
+could see that it had at any rate been stripped of its chief power when
+the king no longer required its subsidies. There are traces of a want of
+public interest in its proceedings, very different from the anxiety with
+which they used to be followed in Plantagenet and Lancastrian times.
+Legislation, which only incidentally affects him, is very much less
+exciting to the ordinary citizen than taxation, which aims directly at
+his pocket. It is at any rate clear that during the latter years of his
+reign, when the time of impostures and rebellions had ended, Henry was
+able to dispense with parliaments to a great extent, and incurred no
+unpopularity by doing so. Indeed he was accepted by the English people
+as the benefactor who had delivered them from anarchy; and if they
+murmured at his love of hoarding, and cursed his inquisitors Empson and
+Dudley, they had no wish to change the Tudor rule, and were far from
+regarding the times of the "Lancastrian experiment" as a lost golden
+age. The present king might be unscrupulous and avaricious, but he was
+cautious, intelligent and economical; no one would have wished to
+recall the régime of that "crowned saint" Henry VI.
+
+
+  Henry VIII.
+
+Nevertheless when the first of the Tudors died, on the 21st of April
+1509, there were few who regretted him. He was not a monarch to rouse
+enthusiasm, while much was expected from his brilliant, clever and
+handsome son Henry VIII., whose magnificent presence and manly vigour
+recalled the early prime of Edward IV. Some years later England realized
+that its new king had inherited not only the physical beauty and
+strength of his grandfather, but also every one of his faults, with the
+sole exception of his tendency to sloth. Henry VIII. indeed may be said,
+to sum up his character in brief, to have combined his father's brains
+with his grandfather's passions. Edward IV. was selfish and cruel, but
+failed to become a tyrant because he lacked the energy for continuous
+work. Henry VII. was unscrupulous and untiring, but so cautious and wary
+that he avoided violent action and dangerous risks. Their descendant had
+neither Edward's sloth nor Henry's moderation; he was capable of going
+to almost any lengths in pursuit of the gratification of his ambition,
+his passions, his resentment or his simple love of self-assertion. Yet,
+however far he might go on the road to tyranny, Henry had sufficient
+cunning, versatility and power of cool reflection, to know precisely
+when he had reached the edge of the impossible. He had his father's
+faculty for gauging public opinion, and estimating dangers, and though
+his more venturous temperament led him to press on far beyond the point
+at which the seventh Henry would have halted, he always stopped short on
+the hither side of the gulf. It was the most marvellous proof of his
+ability that he died on his throne after nearly forty years of
+autocratic rule, during which he had roused more enmities and done more
+to change the face of the realm than any of the kings that were before
+him.
+
+But it was long before the nation could estimate all the features of the
+magnificent but sinister figure which was to dominate England from 1509
+to 1547. At his accession Henry VIII. was only eighteen years of age,
+and, if his character was already formed, it was only the attractive
+side of it that was yet visible. His personal beauty, his keen
+intelligence, his scholarship, his love of music and the arts, his
+kingly ambition, were all obvious enough. His selfishness, his cruelty,
+his ingratitude, his fierce hatred of criticism and opposition, his
+sensuality, had yet to be discovered by his subjects. A suspicious
+observer might have detected something ominous in the first act of his
+reign--the arrest and attainder of his father's unpopular ministers,
+Empson and Dudley, whose heads he flung to the people in order to win a
+moment's applause. Whatever their faults, they had served the house of
+Tudor well, and it was a grotesque perversion of justice to send them to
+the scaffold on a charge of high treason. A similar piece of cruelty was
+the execution, some time later, of the earl of Suffolk, who had been
+languishing long years in the Tower; he was destroyed not for any new
+plots, but simply for his Yorkist descent. But in Henry's earlier years
+such acts were still unusual; it was not till he had grown older, and
+had learnt how much the nation would endure, that judicial murder became
+part of his established policy.
+
+
+  Continental projects of Henry VIII.
+
+  Treaty of Étaples.
+
+Henry's first outburst of self-assertion took the form of reversing his
+father's thrifty and peaceful policy, by plunging into the midst of the
+continental wars from which England had been held back by his cautious
+parent. The adventure was wholly unnecessary, and also unprofitable. But
+while France was engaged in the "Holy War" against the pope, Venice, the
+emperor, and Ferdinand of Spain, Henry renewed the old claims of the
+Plantagenets, and hoped, if not to win back the position of Edward III.,
+at least to recover the duchy of Aquitaine, or some parts of it. He lent
+an army to Ferdinand for the invasion of Gascony, and landed himself at
+Calais with 25,000 men, to beat up the northern border of France. Little
+good came of his efforts. The Spanish king gave no assistance, and the
+northern campaign, though it included the brilliant battle of the Spurs
+(August 16th, 1513), accomplished nothing more than the capture of
+Tournai and Thérouanne. It was soon borne in upon King Henry that
+France, even when engaged with other enemies, was too strong to be
+overrun in the old style. Moreover, his allies were giving him no aid,
+though they had eagerly accepted his great subsidies. With a sudden
+revulsion of feeling Henry offered peace to France, which King Louis
+XII. gladly bought, agreeing to renew the old pension or tribute that
+Henry VII. had received by the treaty of Étaples. Their reconciliation
+and alliance were sealed by the marriage of the French king to Henry's
+favourite sister Mary, who was the bridegroom's junior by more than
+thirty years. Their wedlock and the Anglo-French alliance lasted only
+till the next year, when Louis died, and Mary secretly espoused an old
+admirer, Charles Brandon, afterwards duke of Suffolk, King Henry's
+greatest friend and confidant.
+
+
+  War with Scotland. Battle of Flodden.
+
+While the French war was still in progress there had been heavy fighting
+on the Scottish border. James IV., reverting to the traditionary policy
+of his ancestors, had taken the opportunity of attacking England while
+her king and his army were overseas. He suffered a disaster which
+recalls that of David II. at Neville's Cross--a fight which had taken
+place under precisely similar political conditions. After taking a few
+Northumbrian castles, James was brought to action at Flodden Field by
+the earl of Surrey (September 9th, 1513). After a desperate fight
+lasting the greater part of a day, the Scots were outmanoeuvred and
+surrounded. James IV.--who had refused to quit the field--was slain in
+the forefront of the battle, with the greater part of his nobles; with
+him fell also some 10,000 or 12,000 of his men. Scotland, with her
+military power brought low, and an infant king on the throne, was a
+negligible quantity in international politics for some years. The queen
+dowager, Margaret Tudor, aided by a party that favoured peace and
+alliance with England, was strong enough to balance the faction under
+the duke of Albany which wished for perpetual war and asked for aid from
+France.
+
+
+  Thomas Wolsey.
+
+With the peace of 1514 ended the first period of King Henry's reign. He
+was now no longer a boy, but a man of twenty-three, with his character
+fully developed; he had gradually got rid of his father's old
+councillors, and had chosen for himself a minister as ambitious and
+energetic as himself, the celebrated Thomas Wolsey, whom he had just
+made archbishop of York, and who obtained the rank of cardinal from the
+pope in the succeeding year. Wolsey was the last of the great clerical
+ministers of the middle ages, and by no means the worst. Like so many of
+his predecessors he had risen from the lower middle classes, through the
+royal road of the church; he had served Henry VII.'s old councillor
+Foxe, bishop of Winchester, as secretary, and from his household had
+passed into that of his master. He had been an admirable servant to
+both, full of zeal, intelligence and energy, and not too much burdened
+with scruples. The young king found in him an instrument well fitted to
+his hand, a man fearless, ingenious, and devoted to the furtherance of
+the power of the crown, by which alone he had reached his present
+position of authority. For fourteen years he was his master's chief
+minister--the person responsible in the nation's eyes for all the more
+unpopular assertions of the royal prerogative, and for all the heavy
+taxation and despotic acts which Henry's policy required. It mattered
+little to Henry that the cardinal was arrogant, tactless and
+ostentatious; indeed it suited his purpose that Wolsey should be saddled
+by public opinion with all the blame that ought to have been laid on his
+own shoulders. It was convenient that the old nobility should detest the
+upstart, and that the commons should imagine him to be the person
+responsible for the demands for money required for the royal wars. As
+long as his minister served his purposes and could execute his behests
+Henry gave him a free hand, and supported him against all his enemies.
+It was believed at the time, and is still sometimes maintained by
+historians, that Wolsey laid down schemes of policy and persuaded his
+master to adopt them; but the truth would appear to be that Henry was in
+no wise dominated by the cardinal, but imposed on him his own wishes,
+merely leaving matters of detail to be settled by his minister. Things
+indifferent might be trusted to him, but the main lines of English
+diplomacy and foreign policy show rather the influence of the king's
+personal desires of the moment than that of a statesman seeking national
+ends.
+
+It has often been alleged that Henry, under the guidance of Wolsey,
+followed a consistent scheme for aggrandizing England, by making her the
+state which kept the balance of power of Europe in her hands. And it is
+pointed out that during the years of the cardinal's ascendancy the
+alliance of England was sought in turn by the great princes of the
+continent, and proved the make-weight in the scales. This is but a
+superficial view of the situation. Henry, if much courted, was much
+deceived by his contemporaries. They borrowed his money and his armies,
+but fed him with vain promises and illusory treaties. He and his
+minister were alternately gulled by France and by the emperor, and the
+net result of all their activity was bankruptcy and discontent at home
+and ever-frustrated hopes abroad. It is hard to build up a reputation
+for statecraft for either Henry or Wolsey on the sum total of English
+political achievement during their collaboration.
+
+
+  Henry VIII. and the rivalry of Francis I. and Charles V.
+
+  Failure of Henry's diplomacy.
+
+During the first few years of the cardinal's ascendancy the elder race
+of European sovereigns, the kings with whom Henry VII. had been wont to
+haggle, disappeared one after the other. Louis of France died in 1515,
+Ferdinand of Aragon in 1516, the emperor Maximilian--the last survivor
+of his generation--in 1519. Louis was succeeded by the active, warlike
+and shifty Francis I.; the heritage of both Ferdinand and
+Maximilian--his maternal and paternal grandfathers--fell to Charles of
+Habsburg, who already possessed the Netherlands in his father's right
+and Castile in that of his mother. The enmity of the house of Valois and
+the house of Habsburg, which had first appeared in the wars of Charles
+VIII. and Maximilian, took a far more bitter shape under Francis I. and
+Charles V., two young princes who were rivals from their youth. Their
+wars were almost perpetual, their peaces never honestly carried out.
+Their powers were very equally balanced; if Charles owned broader lands
+than Francis, they were more scattered and in some cases less loyal. The
+solid and wealthy realm of France proved able to make head against Spain
+and the Netherlands, even when they were backed by the emperor's German
+vassals. Charles was also distracted by many stabs in the back from the
+Ottoman Turks, who were just beginning their attack on Christendom along
+the line of the Danube. To each of the combatants it seemed that the
+English alliance would turn the scale in his own favour. Henry was much
+courted, and wooed with promises of lands to be won from the other side
+by his ally of the moment. But neither Charles nor Francis wished him to
+be a real gainer, and he himself was a most untrustworthy friend, for he
+was quite ready to turn against his ally if he seemed to be growing too
+powerful, and threatened to dominate all Europe; the complete success of
+either party would mean that England would sink once more into a
+second-rate power. How faithless and insincere was Henry's policy may be
+gauged from the fact that in 1520, after all the pageantry of the "Field
+of the Cloth of Gold" and his vows of undying friendship for Francis, he
+met Charles a few weeks later at Gravelines, and concluded with him a
+treaty which pledged England to a defensive alliance against the king's
+"good brother" of France. Such things happened not once nor twice during
+the years of Wolsey's ministry. It was hardly to be wondered at,
+therefore, if Henry's allies regularly endeavoured to cheat him out of
+his share of their joint profits. What use was there in rewarding a
+friend who might become an enemy to-morrow? The greatest deception of
+all was in 1522, when Charles V., who had made the extraordinary promise
+that he would get Wolsey made pope, and lend Henry an army to conquer
+northern France, failed to redeem his word in both respects. He caused
+his own old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, to be crowned with the papal
+tiara, and left the English to invade Picardy entirely unassisted. But
+this was only one of many such disappointments.
+
+
+  Beginnings of parliamentary resistance.
+
+  Execution of the duke of Buckingham.
+
+The result of some twelve years of abortive alliances and ill-kept
+treaties was that Henry had obtained no single one of the advantages
+which he had coveted, and that he had lavished untold wealth and many
+English lives upon phantom schemes which crumbled between his fingers.
+His subjects had already begun to murmur; the early parliaments of his
+reign had been passive and complaisant; but by 1523 the Commons had been
+goaded into resistance. They granted only half the subsidies asked from
+them, pleading that three summers more of such taxation as the cardinal
+demanded for his master would leave the realm drained of its last penny,
+and reduced to fall back on primitive forms of barter, "clothes for
+victuals and bread for cheese," out of mere want of coin. Fortunately
+for the king his subjects laid all the blame upon his mouthpiece the
+cardinal, instead of placing it where it was due. On Wolsey's back also
+was saddled the most iniquitous of Henry's acts of tyranny against
+individuals--the judicial murder of the duke of Buckingham, the highest
+head among the English nobility. For some hasty words, amplified by the
+doubtful evidence of treacherous retainers, together with a foolish
+charge of dabbling with astrologers, the heir of the royal line of
+Thomas of Woodstock had been tried and executed with scandalous haste.
+His only real crime was that, commenting on the lack of male heirs to
+the crown--for after many years of wedlock with Catherine of Aragon
+Henry's sole issue was one sickly daughter--he had been foolish enough
+to remark that if anything should happen to the king he himself was
+close in succession to the crown. The cardinal bore the blame, because
+he and Buckingham had notoriously disliked each other; but the deed had
+really been of the king's own contriving. He was roused to implacable
+wrath by anyone who dared to speak on the forbidden topic of the
+succession question.
+
+
+  Question of the king's divorce.
+
+In the later years of Wolsey's ascendancy, nevertheless, that same
+question was the subject of many anxious thoughts. From Henry's own mind
+it was never long absent; he yearned for a male heir, and he was growing
+tired of his wife Catherine, who was some years older than himself, had
+few personal attractions, and was growing somewhat of an invalid.
+Somewhere about the end of 1526 those who were in the king's intimate
+confidence began to be aware that he was meditating a divorce--a thing
+not lightly to be taken in hand, for the queen was the aunt of the
+emperor Charles V., who would be vastly offended at such a proposal. But
+Henry's doubts had been marvellously stimulated by the fact that he had
+become enamoured of another lady--the beautiful, ambitious and cunning
+Anne Boleyn, a niece of the duke of Norfolk, who had no intention of
+becoming merely the king's mistress, but aspired to be his consort.
+
+
+  England and the Reformation.
+
+The question of the king's divorce soon became inextricably confused
+with another problem, whose first beginnings go back to a slightly
+earlier date. What was to be the attitude of England towards the
+Reformation? It was now nearly ten years since Martin Luther had posted
+up his famous theses on the church door at Wittenberg, and since he had
+testified to his faith before the diet of Worms. All Germany was now
+convulsed with the first throes of the revolt against the papacy, and
+the echoes of the new theological disputes were being heard in England.
+King Henry himself in 1521 had deigned to write an abusive pamphlet
+against Luther, for which he had been awarded the magnificent title of
+_Fidei Defensor_ by that cultured sceptic Pope Leo X. About the same
+time we begin to read of orders issued by the bishops for the discovery
+and burning of all Lutheran books--a clear sign that they were reaching
+England in appreciable quantities. Hitherto it had been only the works
+of Wycliffe that had merited this attention on the part of inquisitors.
+In the Wycliffite remnant, often persecuted but never exterminated,
+there already existed in England the nucleus of a Protestant party. All
+through the reign of Henry VII. and the early years of Henry VIII. the
+intermittent burning of "heretics," and their far more frequent
+recantations, had borne witness to the fact that the sect still
+lingered on. The Wycliffites were a feeble folk, compelled to
+subterraneous ways, and destitute of learned leaders or powerful
+supporters. But they survived to see Luther's day, and to merge
+themselves in one body with the first English travelling scholars and
+merchants who brought back from the continent the doctrines of the
+German Reformation. The origins of a Protestant party, who were not mere
+Wycliffites, but had been first interested in dogmatic controversy by
+coming upon the works of Luther, can be traced back to the year 1521 and
+to the university of Cambridge. There a knot of scholars, some of whom
+were to perish early at the stake, while others were destined to become
+the leaders of the English Reformation, came together and encouraged
+each other to test the received doctrines of contemporary orthodoxy by
+searching the Scriptures and the works of the Fathers. The sect spread
+in a few years to London, Oxford and other centres of intellectual life,
+but for many years its followers were not numerous; like the old
+Lollardy, Protestantism took root only in certain places and among
+certain classes--notably the lesser clergy and the merchants of the
+great towns.
+
+King Henry and those who wished to please him professed as great a
+hatred and contempt for the new purveyors of German doctrines as for the
+belated disciples of Wycliffe. But there was another movement, whose
+origins went back for many centuries, which they were far from
+discouraging, and were prepared to utilize when it suited their
+convenience. This was the purely political feeling against the tyranny
+of the papacy, and the abuses of the national church, which in early
+ages had given supporters to William the Conqueror and Henry II., which
+had dictated the statutes of Mortmain and of Praemunire. Little had been
+heard of the old anti-clerical party in England since the time of Henry
+IV.; it had apparently been identified in the eyes of the orthodox with
+that Lollardy with which it had for a time allied itself, and had shared
+in its discredit. But it had always continued to exist, and in the early
+years of Henry VIII. had been showing unmistakable signs of vitality.
+The papacy of the Renaissance was a fair mark for criticism. It was not
+hard to attack the system under which Rodrigo Borgia wore the tiara,
+while Girolamo Savonarola went to the stake; or in which Julius II.
+exploited the name of Christianity to serve his territorial policy in
+Italy, and Leo X. hawked his indulgences round Europe to raise funds
+which would enable him to gratify his artistic tastes. At no period had
+the official hierarchy of the Western Church been more out of touch with
+common righteousness and piety. Moreover, they were sinning under the
+eyes of a laity which was far more intelligent and educated, more able
+to think and judge for itself, less the slave of immemorial tradition,
+than the old public of the middle ages. In Italy the Renaissance might
+be purely concerned with things intellectual or artistic, and seem to
+have little or no touch with things moral. Beyond the Alps it was
+otherwise; among the Teutonic nations at least the revolt against the
+scholastic philosophy, the rout of the obscurantists, the eager pursuit
+of Hellenic culture, had a religious aspect. The same generation which
+refused to take thrice-translated and thrice-garbled screeds from
+Aristotle as the sum of human knowledge, and went back to the original
+Greek, was also studying the Old and New Testaments in their original
+tongues, and drawing from them conclusions as unfavourable to the
+intelligence as to the scholarship of the orthodox medieval divines.
+Such a discovery as that which showed that the "False Decretals," on
+which so much of the power of the papacy rested, were mere 9th-century
+forgeries struck deep at the roots of the whole traditional relation
+between church and state.
+
+The first English scholars of the Renaissance, like Erasmus on the
+continent, did not see the logical outcome of their own discoveries, nor
+realize that the campaign against obscurantism would develop into a
+campaign against Roman orthodoxy. Sir Thomas More, the greatest of them,
+was actually driven into reaction by the violence of Protestant
+controversialists, and the fear that the new doctrines would rend the
+church in twain. He became himself a persecutor, and a writer of abusive
+pamphlets unworthy of the author of the _Utopia_. But to the younger
+generation the irreconcilability of modern scholarship and medieval
+formulae of faith became more and more evident. One after another all
+the cardinal doctrines were challenged by writers who were generally
+acute, and almost invariably vituperative. For the controversies of the
+Reformation were conducted by both sides, from kings and prelates down
+to gutter pamphleteers, in language of the most unseemly violence.
+
+But, as has been already said, the scholars and theologians had less
+influence in the beginning of the English Reformation than the mere lay
+politicians, whose anti-clerical tendencies chanced to fit in with King
+Henry's convenience when he quarrelled with the papacy. It is well to
+note that the first attacks of parliament on the church date back to two
+years before Luther published his famous theses. The contention began in
+1515 with the fierce assault by the Commons on the old abuse of benefit
+of clergy, and the immunity of clerical criminals from due punishment
+for secular crimes--a question as old as the times of Henry II. and
+Becket. But the discussion spread in later years from this particular
+point into a general criticism of the church and its relations to the
+state, embracing local grievances as well as the questions which turned
+on the dealings of the papacy with the crown. The old complaints which
+had been raised against the Church of England in the days of Edward I.
+or Richard II. had lost none of their force in 1526. The higher clergy
+were more than ever immersed in affairs of state, "Caesarean" as
+Wycliffe would have called them. It was only necessary to point to the
+great cardinal himself, and to ask how far his spiritual duties at York
+were properly discharged while he was acting as the king's prime
+minister. The cases of Foxe and Morton were much the same; the former
+passed for a well-meaning man, yet had been practically absent from his
+diocese for twenty years. Pluralism, nepotism, simony and all the other
+ancient abuses were more rampant than ever. The monasteries had ceased
+to be even the nurseries of literature; their chronicles had run dry,
+and secular priests or laymen had taken up the pens that the monks had
+dropped. They were wealthier than ever, yet did little to justify their
+existence; indeed the spirit of the age was so much set against them
+that they found it hard to keep up the numbers of their inmates.
+Truculent pamphleteers like Simon Fish, who wrote _Beggars'
+Supplication_, were already demanding "that these sturdy boobies should
+be set abroad into the world, to get wives of their own, and earn their
+living by the sweat of their brows, according to the commandment of God;
+so might the king be better obeyed, matrimony be better kept, the gospel
+better preached, and none should rob the poor of his alms." It must be
+added that monastic scandals were not rare; though the majority of the
+houses were decently ordered, yet the unexceptionable testimony of
+archiepiscopal and episcopal visitations shows that in the years just
+before the Reformation there was a certain number of them where chastity
+of life and honesty of administration were equally unknown. But above
+all things the church was being criticized as an _imperium in imperio_,
+a privileged body not amenable to ordinary jurisdiction, and subservient
+to a foreign lord--the pope. And it was true that, much as English
+churchmen might grumble at papal exactions, they were generally ready as
+a body to support the pope against the crown; the traditions of the
+medieval church made it impossible for them to do otherwise. That there
+would in any case have been a new outbreak of anti-clerical and
+anti-papal agitation in England, under the influence of the Protestant
+impulse started by Luther in Germany, is certain. But two special causes
+gave its particular colour to the opening of the English Reformation;
+the one was that the king fell out with the papacy on the question of
+his divorce. The other was that the nation at this moment was chafing
+bitterly against a clerical minister, whom it (very unjustly) made
+responsible for the exorbitant taxation which it was enduring, in
+consequence of the king's useless and unsuccessful foreign wars. The
+irony of the situation lay in the facts that Henry was, so far as
+dogmatic views were concerned, a perfectly orthodox prince; he had a
+considerable knowledge of the old theological literature, as he had
+shown in his pamphlet against Luther, and though he was ready to repress
+clerical immunities and privileges that were inconvenient to the crown,
+he had no sympathy whatever with the doctrinal side of the new revolt
+against the system of the medieval church. Moreover, Wolsey, whose fall
+was to synchronize with the commencement of the reforming movement, was
+if anything more in sympathy with change than was his master. He was an
+enlightened patron of the new learning, and was inclined to take
+vigorous measures in hand for the pruning away of the abuses of the
+church. It is significant that his great college at Oxford--"Cardinal's
+College" as he designed to call it, "Christ Church" as it is named
+to-day--was endowed with the revenues of some score of small monasteries
+which he had suppressed on the ground that they were useless or
+ill-conducted. His master turned the lesson to account a few years
+later; but Henry's wholesale destruction of religious houses was carried
+out not in the interests of learning, but mainly in those of the royal
+exchequer.     (C. W. C. O.)
+
+
+VII. THE REFORMATION AND THE AGE OF ELIZABETH (1528-1603)
+
+  Fall of Wolsey.
+
+Wolsey did not fall through any opposition to reform; nor was he opposed
+to the idea of a divorce. Indeed, both in France and Spain he was
+credited with the authorship of the project. But he differed from Henry
+on the question of Catherine's successor. Wolsey desired a French
+marriage to consummate the breach upon which he was now bent with the
+emperor; and war, in fact, was precipitated with Spain in 1528. This is
+said to have been done without Henry's consent; he certainly wished to
+avoid war with Charles V., and peace was made after six months of
+passive hostility. Nor did Henry want a French princess; his affections
+were fixed for the time on Anne Boleyn, and she was the hope of the
+anti-clerical party. The crisis was brought to a head by the failure of
+Wolsey's plan to obtain a divorce. Originally it had been suggested that
+the ecclesiastical courts in England were competent without recourse to
+Rome. Wolsey deprecated this procedure, and application was made to
+Clement VII. Wolsey relied upon his French and Italian allies to exert
+the necessary powers of persuasion; and in 1528 a French army crossed
+the Alps, marched through Italy and threatened to drive Charles V. out
+of Naples. Clement was in a position to listen to Henry's prayer; and
+Campeggio was commissioned with Wolsey to hear the suit and grant the
+divorce.
+
+
+  Question of the divorce.
+
+No sooner had Campeggio started than the fortunes of war changed. The
+French were driven out of Naples, and the Imperialists again dominated
+Rome; the Church, wrote Clement to Campeggio, was completely in the
+power of Charles V. The cardinal, therefore, must on no account
+pronounce against Charles's aunt; if he could not persuade Henry and
+Catherine to agree on a mutual separation, he must simply pass the time
+and come to no conclusion. Hence it was June 1529 before the court got
+to work at all, and then its proceedings were only preparatory to an
+adjournment and revocation of the suit to Rome in August. Clement VII.
+had, in his own words, made up his mind to live and die an imperialist;
+the last remnants of the French army in Italy had been routed, and the
+pope had perforce concluded the treaty of Barcelona, a sort of family
+compact between himself and Charles, whereby he undertook to protect
+Charles's aunt, and the emperor to support the Medici dynasty in
+Florence. This peace was amplified at the treaty of Cambrai (August
+1529) into a general European pacification in which England had no
+voice. So far had it fallen since 1521.
+
+In every direction Wolsey had failed, and his failure involved the
+triumph of the forces which he had opposed. The fate of the papal system
+in England was bound up with his personal fortunes. It was he and he
+alone who had kept parliament at arm's length and the enemies of the
+church at bay. He had interested the king, and to some extent the
+nation, in a spirited foreign policy, had diverted their attention from
+domestic questions, and had staved off that parliamentary attack on the
+church which had been threatened fifteen years before. Now he was
+doomed, and both Campeggio and Cardinal du Bellay were able to send
+their governments accurate outlines of the future policy of Henry VIII.
+The church was to be robbed of its wealth, its power and its privileges,
+and the papal jurisdiction was to be abolished. In October Wolsey was
+deprived of the great seal, and surrendered many of his ecclesiastical
+preferments, though he was allowed to retain his archbishopric of York
+which he now visited for the first time. The first lay ministry since
+Edward the Confessor's time came into office; Sir Thomas More became
+lord chancellor, and Anne Boleyn's father lord privy seal; the only
+prominent cleric who remained in office was Stephen Gardiner, who
+succeeded Wolsey as bishop of Winchester.
+
+
+  Attack on the church in parliament.
+
+  Henry VIII. marries Anne Boleyn.
+
+  The Act of Supremacy.
+
+Parliament met in November 1529 and passed many acts against clerical
+exactions, mortuaries, probate dues and pluralities, which evoked a
+passionate protest from Bishop Fisher: "Now, with the Commons," he cried
+in the House of Lords, "is nothing but 'Down with the Church.'" During
+1530 Henry's agents were busy abroad making that appeal on the divorce
+to the universities which Cranmer had suggested. In 1531 the clergy in
+convocation, terrified by the charge of _praemunire_ brought against
+them for recognizing Wolsey's legatine authority, paid Henry a hundred
+and eighteen thousand pounds and recognized him as supreme head of the
+church so far as the law of Christ would allow. The details of this
+surrender were worked out by king and Commons in 1532; but Gardiner and
+More secured the rejection by the Lords of the bill in which they were
+embodied, and it was not till 1533, when More had ceased to be
+chancellor and Gardiner to be secretary, that a parliamentary statute
+annihilated the independent legislative authority of the church. An act
+was, however, passed in 1532 empowering the king, if he thought fit, to
+stop the payment of annates to Rome. Henry suspended his consent in
+order to induce the pope to grant Cranmer his bulls as archbishop of
+Canterbury where he succeeded Warham late in 1532. The stratagem was
+successful, and Henry cast off all disguise. The act of annates was
+confirmed; another prohibiting appeals to Rome and providing for the
+appointment of bishops without recourse to the papacy was passed; and
+Cranmer declared Henry's marriage with Catherine null and void and that
+with Anne Boleyn, which had taken place about January 25, 1533, valid.
+Anne was crowned in June, and on the 7th of September the future Queen
+Elizabeth was born. At length in 1534 Clement VII. concluded the case at
+Rome, pronouncing in favour of Catherine's marriage, and drawing up a
+bull of excommunication against Henry and his abettors. But he did not
+venture to publish it; public opinion in England, while hostile to the
+divorce, was not in favour of the clergy or the pope, and the rivalry
+between Charles V. and Francis I. was too bitter to permit of joint, or
+even isolated, action against Henry. Charles was only too anxious to
+avoid the duty of carrying out the pope's commands, and a year later he
+was once more involved in war with France. Henry was able to deal
+roughly with such manifestations as Elizabeth Barton's visions, and in
+the autumn of 1534 to obtain from parliament the Act of Supremacy which
+transferred to him the juridical, though not the spiritual, powers of
+the pope. No penalties were attached to this act, but another passed in
+the same session made it treason to attempt to deprive the king of any
+of his titles, of which supreme head of the church was one, being
+incorporated in the royal style by letters patent of January 1535.
+Fisher and More were executed on this charge; they had been imprisoned
+in the previous year for objecting to take the form of oath to the
+succession as vested in Anne Boleyn's children which the commissioners
+prescribed. But their lives could only be forfeit on the supposition
+that they sought to deprive the king of his royal supremacy. Many of the
+friars observant of Greenwich and monks of the Charterhouse were
+involved in a similar fate, but there was no general resistance, and
+Henry, now inspired or helped by Thomas Cromwell, was able to proceed
+with the next step in the Reformation, the dissolution of the
+monasteries.
+
+
+  Dissolution of the monasteries.
+
+It was Cecil's opinion twenty-five years later that, but for the
+dissolution, the cause of the Reformation could not have succeeded. Such
+a reason could hardly be avowed, and justification had to be sought in
+the condition of the monasteries themselves. The action of Wolsey and
+other bishops before 1529, the report of a commission of cardinals
+appointed by Paul III. in 1535, the subsequent experience of other, even
+Catholic, countries give collateral support to the conclusions of the
+visitors appointed by Cromwell, although they were dictated by a desire
+not to deal out impartial justice, but to find reasons for a policy
+already adopted in principle. That they exaggerated the evils of
+monastic life hardly admits of doubt; but even a Henry VIII. and a
+Thomas Cromwell would not have dared to attack, or succeeded in
+destroying, the monasteries had they retained their original purity and
+influence. As it was their doubtful reputation and financial
+embarrassments enabled Henry to offer them as a gigantic bribe to the
+upper classes of the laity, and the Reformation parliament met for its
+last session early in 1536 to give effect to the reports of the visitors
+and to the king's and their own desires.
+
+
+  Execution of Queen Anne Boleyn.
+
+But it had barely been dissolved in April when it became necessary to
+call another. In January the death of Catherine had rejoiced the hearts
+of Henry and Anne Boleyn, but Anne's happiness was short-lived. Two
+miscarriages and the failure to produce the requisite male heir linked
+her in Henry's mind and in misfortune to Catherine; unlike Catherine she
+was unpopular and not above suspicion. The story of her tragedy is still
+one of the most horrible and mysterious pages in English history. It is
+certain that Henry was tired and wanted to get rid of her; but if she
+were innocent, why were charges brought against her which were not
+brought against Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves? and why were
+four other victims sacrificed when one would have been enough? The peers
+a year before could acquit Lord Dacre; would they have condemned the
+queen without some show of evidence? and unless there was suspicious
+evidence, her daughter was inhuman in making no effort subsequently to
+clear her mother's character. However that may be, Anne was not only
+condemned and executed, but her marriage was declared invalid and her
+daughter a bastard. Parliament was required to establish the succession
+on the new basis of Henry's new queen, Jane Seymour. It also empowered
+the king to leave the crown by will if he had no legitimate issue; but
+the illegitimate son, the duke of Richmond, in whose favour this
+provision is said to have been conceived, died shortly afterwards.
+
+
+  The Pilgrimage of Grace.
+
+Fortunately for Henry, Queen Jane roused no domestic or foreign
+animosities; Charles V. and Francis I. were at war; and the pope's and
+Pole's attempt to profit by the Pilgrimage of Grace came too late to
+produce any effect except the ruin of Pole's family. The two risings of
+1536 in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were provoked partly by the
+dissolution of the monasteries, partly by the collection of a subsidy
+and fears of fresh taxation on births, marriages and burials, and partly
+by the protestantizing Ten Articles of 1536 and Cromwell's
+_Injunctions_. They were conservative demonstrations in favour of a
+restoration of the old order by means of a change of ministry, but not a
+change of dynasty. The Lincolnshire rising was over before the middle of
+October, the more serious revolt in Yorkshire under Aske lasted through
+the winter. Henry's lieutenants were compelled to temporize and make
+concessions. Aske was invited to come to London and hoodwinked by Henry
+into believing that the king was really bent on restoration and reform.
+But an impatient outburst of the insurgents and a foolish attempt to
+seize Hull and Scarborough gave Henry an excuse for repudiating the
+concessions made in his name. He could afford to do so because England
+south of the Trent remained stauncher to him than England north of it
+did to the Pilgrimage. Aske and other leaders were tried and executed,
+and summary vengeance was wreaked on the northern counties, especially
+on the monasteries. The one satisfactory outcome was the establishment
+of the Council of the North, which gave the shires between the Border
+and the Trent a stronger and more efficient government than they had
+ever had before.
+
+
+  The "Six Articles."
+
+  Fall of Thomas Cromwell.
+
+Probably the Pilgrimage had some effect in moderating Henry's progress.
+The monasteries did not benefit and in 1538-1539 the greater were
+involved in the fate which had already overtaken the less. But no
+further advances were made towards Protestantism after the publication
+and authorization of the "Great" Bible in English. The Lutheran divines
+who came to England in 1538 with a project for a theological union were
+rebuffed; the parliament elected in 1539 was Catholic, and only the
+reforming bishops in the House of Lords offered any resistance to the
+Six Articles which reaffirmed the chief points in Catholic doctrine and
+practice. The alliance between pope, emperor and French king induced
+Henry to acquiesce in Cromwell's scheme for a political understanding
+with Cleves and the Schmalkaldic League, which might threaten Charles
+V.'s position in Germany and the Netherlands, but could not be of much
+direct advantage to England. Cromwell rashly sought to wed Henry to this
+policy, proposed Anne of Cleves as a bride for Henry, now once more a
+widower, and represented the marriage as England's sole protection
+against a Catholic league. Henry put his neck under the yoke, but soon
+discovered that there was no necessity; for Charles and Francis were
+already beginning to quarrel and had no thought of a joint attack on
+England. The discovery was fatal to Cromwell; after a severe struggle in
+the council he was abandoned to his enemies, attainted of treason and
+executed. Anne's marriage was declared null, and Henry found a fifth
+queen in Catherine Howard, a niece of Norfolk, a protégée of Gardiner,
+and a friend of the Catholic church.
+
+Nevertheless there was no reversal of what had been done, only a check
+to the rate of progress. Cranmer remained archbishop and compiled an
+English Litany, while Catherine Howard soon ceased to be queen; charges
+of loose conduct, which in her case at any rate were not instigated by
+the king, were made against her and she was brought to the block; she
+was succeeded by Catherine Parr, a mild patron of the new learning. The
+Six Articles were only fitfully put in execution, especially in 1543 and
+1546: all the plots against Cranmer failed; and before he died Henry was
+even considering the advisability of further steps in the religious
+reformation, apart from mere spoliation like the confiscation of the
+chantry lands.
+
+
+  Policy in Ireland and Scotland.
+
+But Scotland, Ireland and foreign affairs concerned him most. Something
+substantial was achieved in Ireland; the papal sovereignty was abolished
+and Henry received from the Irish parliament the title of king instead
+of lord of Ireland. The process was begun of converting Irish chieftains
+into English peers which eventually divorced the Irish people from their
+natural leaders; and principles of English law and government were
+spread beyond the Pale. In Scotland Henry was less fortunate. He failed
+to win over James V. to his anti-papal policy, revived the feudal claim
+to suzerainty, won the battle of Solway Moss (1542), and then after
+James's death bribed and threatened the Scots estates into concluding a
+treaty of marriage between their infant queen and Henry's son. The
+church in Scotland led by Beaton, and the French party led by James V.'s
+widow, Mary of Guise, soon reversed this decision, and Hertford's heavy
+hand was (1544) laid on Edinburgh in revenge. France was at the root of
+the evil, and Henry was thus induced once more to join Charles V. in war
+(1543). The joint invasion of 1544 led to the capture of Boulogne, but
+the emperor made peace in order to deal with the Lutherans and left
+Henry at war with France. The French attempted to retaliate in 1545, and
+burnt some villages in the Isle of Wight and on the coast of Sussex. But
+their expedition was a failure, and peace was made in 1546, by which
+Henry undertook to restore Boulogne in eight years' time on payment of
+eight hundred thousand crowns. Scotland was not included in the
+pacification, and when Henry died (January 28, 1547) he was busy
+preparing to renew his attempt on Scotland's independence.
+
+
+  Edward VI.
+
+  Progress of the Reformation.
+
+He left a council of sixteen to rule during his son's minority. The
+balance of parties which had existed since Cromwell's fall had been
+destroyed in the last months of the reign by the attainder of Norfolk
+and his son Surrey, and the exclusion of Gardiner and Thirlby from the
+council of regency. Men of the new learning prevailed, and Hertford
+(later duke of Somerset), as uncle to Edward VI., was made protector of
+the realm and governor of the king's person. He soon succeeded in
+removing the trammels imposed upon his authority, and made himself king
+in everything but name. He used his arbitrary power to modify the
+despotic system of the Tudors; all treason laws since Edward III., all
+heresy laws, all restrictions upon the publication of the Scriptures
+were removed in the first parliament of the reign, and various
+securities for liberty were enacted. The administration of the sacrament
+of the altar in both elements was permitted, the Catholic interpretation
+of the mass was rendered optional, images were removed, and English was
+introduced into nearly the whole of the church service. In the following
+session (1548-1549) the first Act of Uniformity authorized the first
+Book of Common Prayer. It met with strenuous resistance in Devon and in
+Cornwall, where rebellions added to the thickening troubles of the
+protector.
+
+
+  Administration of the protector Somerset.
+
+His administration was singularly unsuccessful. In 1547 he won the great
+but barren victory of Pinkie Cleugh over the Scots, and attempted to
+push on the marriage and union by a mixture of conciliation and
+coercion. He made genuine and considerable concessions to Scottish
+feeling, guaranteeing autonomy and freedom of trade, and suggesting that
+the two realms should adopt the indifferent style of the empire of Great
+Britain. But he also seized Haddington in 1548, held by force the
+greater part of the Lowlands, and, when Mary was transported to France,
+revived the old feudal claims which he had dropped in 1547. France was,
+as ever, the backbone of the Scots resistance; men and money poured into
+Edinburgh to assist Mary of Guise and the French faction. The
+protector's offer to restore Boulogne could not purchase French
+acquiescence in the union of England and Scotland; and the bickerings on
+the borders in France and open fighting in Scotland led the French to
+declare war on England in August 1549. They were encouraged by
+dissensions in England. Somerset's own brother, Thomas Seymour, jealous
+of the protector, intrigued against the government; he sought to secure
+the hand of Elizabeth, the favour of Edward VI. and the support of the
+Suffolk line, secretly married Catherine Parr, and abused his office as
+lord high admiral to make friends with pirates and other enemies of
+order. Foes of the family, such as Warwick and Southampton, saw in his
+factious conduct the means of ruining both the brothers. Seymour was
+brought to the block, and the weak consent of the protector seriously
+damaged him in the public eye. His notorious sympathy with the peasantry
+further alienated the official classes and landed gentry, and his
+campaign against enclosures brought him into conflict with the strongest
+forces of the time. The remedial measures which he favoured failed; and
+the rising of Ket in Norfolk and others less important in nearly all the
+counties of England, made Somerset's position impossible. Bedford and
+Herbert suppressed the rebellion in the west, Warwick that in Norfolk
+(July-August 1549). They then combined with the majority of the council
+and the discontented Catholics to remove the protector from office and
+imprison him in the Tower (October).
+
+
+  Administration of the duke of Northumberland.
+
+  Establishment of Protestantism.
+
+The Catholics hoped for reaction, the restoration of the mass, and the
+release of Gardiner and Bonner, who had been imprisoned for resistance
+to the protector's ecclesiastical policy. But Warwick meant to rely on
+the Protestant extremists; by January 1550 the Catholics had been
+expelled from the council, and the pace of the Reformation increased
+instead of diminishing. Peace was made with France by the surrender of
+Boulogne and abandonment of the policy of union with Scotland (March
+1550); and the approach of war between France and the emperor, coupled
+with the rising of the princes in Germany, relieved Warwick from foreign
+apprehensions and gave him a free hand at home. Gardiner, Bonner, Heath,
+Day and Tunstall were one by one deprived of their sees; a new ordinal
+simplified the ritual of ordination, and a second Act of Uniformity and
+Book of Common Prayer (1552) repudiated the Catholic interpretation
+which had been placed on the first and imposed a stricter conformity to
+the Protestant faith. All impediments to clerical marriage were removed,
+altars and organs were taken down, old service books destroyed and
+painted windows broken; it was even proposed to explain away the
+kneeling at the sacrament. The liberal measures of the protector were
+repealed, and new treasons were enacted; Somerset himself, who had been
+released and restored to the council in 1550, became an obstacle in
+Warwick's path, and was removed by means of a bogus plot, being executed
+in January 1552; while Warwick had himself made duke of Northumberland,
+his friend Dorset duke of Suffolk, and Herbert earl of Pembroke.
+
+But his ambition and violence made him deeply unpopular, and the failing
+health of Edward VI. opened up a serious prospect for Northumberland. He
+was only safe so long as he controlled the government, and prevented the
+administration of justice, and the knowledge that not only power but
+life was at stake drove him into a desperate plot for the retention of
+both. He could trade upon Edward's precocious hatred of Mary's religion,
+he could rely upon French fears of her Spanish inclinations, and the
+success which had attended his schemes in England deluded him into a
+belief that he could supplant the Tudor with a Dudley dynasty. His son
+Guilford Dudley was hastily married to Lady Jane Grey, the eldest
+granddaughter of Henry VIII.'s younger sister Mary. Henry's two
+daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, the descendants of his elder sister
+Margaret, and Lady Jane's mother, the duchess of Suffolk, were all to be
+passed over, and the succession was to be vested in Lady Jane and her
+heirs male. Edward was persuaded that he could devise the crown by will,
+the council and the judges were browbeaten into acquiescence, and three
+days after Edward's death (July 6, 1553), Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed
+queen in London. Northumberland had miscalculated the temper of the
+nation, and failed to kidnap Mary. She gathered her forces in Norfolk
+and Suffolk, Northumberland rode out from London to oppose her, but
+defection dogged his steps, and even in London Mary was proclaimed queen
+behind his back by his fellow-conspirators. Mary entered London amid
+unparalleled popular rejoicings, and Northumberland was sent to a
+well-deserved death on the scaffold.
+
+
+  Queen Mary. Restoration of the old religion.
+
+  Unpopularity of the Spanish marriage. Philip II.
+
+Mary was determined from the first to restore papalism as well as
+Catholicism, but she had to go slowly. The papacy had few friends in
+England, and even Charles V., on whom Mary chiefly relied for guidance,
+was not eager to see the papal jurisdiction restored. He wanted England
+to be first firmly tied to the Habsburg interests by Mary's marriage
+with Philip. Nor was it generally anticipated that Mary would do more
+than restore religion as it had been left by her father. She did not
+attempt anything further in 1553 than the repeal of Edward VI.'s
+legislation and the accomplishment of the Spanish marriage. The latter
+project provoked fierce resistance; various risings were planned for the
+opening months of 1554, and Wyat's nearly proved successful. Only his
+arrogance and procrastination and Mary's own courage saved her throne.
+But the failure of this protest enabled Mary to carry through the
+Spanish marriage, which was consummated in July; and in the ensuing
+parliament (Oct.-Jan. 1554-1555) all anti-papal legislation was
+repealed; Pole was received as legate; the realm was reconciled to Rome;
+and, although the holders of abbey lands were carefully protected
+against attempts at restitution, the church was empowered to work its
+will with regard to heresy. The Lollard statutes were revived, and
+between February 1555 and November 1558 some three hundred Protestants
+were burnt at the stake. They began with John Rogers and Rowland Taylor,
+and Bishops Ferrar of St Davids and Hooper of Gloucester. Ridley and
+Latimer were not burnt until October 1555, and Cranmer not till March
+1556. London, Essex, Hertfordshire, East Anglia, Kent and Sussex
+provided nearly all the victims; only one was burnt north of the Trent,
+and only one south-west of Wiltshire. But in the Protestant districts
+neither age nor sex was spared; even the dead were dug up and burnt. The
+result was to turn the hearts of Mary's people from herself, her church
+and her creed. Other causes helped to convert their enthusiastic loyalty
+into bitter hatred. The Spanish marriage was a failure from every point
+of view. In spite of Mary's repeated delusions, she bore no child, and
+both parliament and people resisted every attempt to deprive Elizabeth
+of her right to the succession. Philip did all he could to conciliate
+English affections, but they would not have Spanish control at any
+price. They knew that his blandishments were dictated by ulterior
+designs, and that the absorption of England in the Habsburg empire was
+his ultimate aim. As it was, the Spanish connexion checked England's
+aspirations; her adventurers were warned off the Spanish Main, and even
+trade with the colonies of Philip's ally Portugal was prohibited. They
+had to content themselves with the Arctic Ocean and Muscovy; and they
+soon found themselves at war in Philip's interests. Philip himself
+refused to declare war on Scotland on England's behalf, but he induced
+Mary to declare war on France on his own (1557). The glory of the war
+fell to the Spaniards at St Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558), but
+the shame to England by the loss of Calais (Jan. 1558). Ten months later
+Mary died (Nov. 17), deserted by her husband and broken-hearted at the
+loss of Calais and her failure to win English hearts back to Rome.
+
+
+  Accession of Elizabeth. English national struggle with Spain.
+
+The Spanish and Venetian ambassadors in London were shocked at what they
+regarded as the indecent rejoicings over Elizabeth's accession. The
+nation, indeed, breathed a new life. Papal control of its
+ecclesiastical, and Spanish control of its foreign policy ceased, and it
+had a queen who gloried in being "mere English." There was really no
+possible rival sovereign, and no possible alternative policy. The
+English were tugging at the chain and Elizabeth had to follow; her
+efforts throughout were aimed at checking the pace at which her people
+wanted to go. She could not have married Philip had she wished to, and
+she could not have kept her sea-dogs off the Spanish Main. They were
+willing to take all the risks and relieve her of all responsibility;
+they filled her coffers with Spanish gold which they plundered as
+pirates, knowing that they might be hanged if caught; and they fought
+Elizabeth's enemies in France and in the Netherlands as irregulars,
+taking their chance of being shot if taken prisoners. While Elizabeth
+nursed prosperity in peace, her subjects sapped the strength of
+England's rivals by attacks which were none the less damaging because
+they escaped the name of war.
+
+
+  Triumph of the new religion. The Act of Uniformity.
+
+It required all Elizabeth's finesse to run with the hare and hunt with
+the hounds; but she was, as Henry III. of France said, _la plus fine
+femme du monde_, and she was ably seconded by Cecil who had already
+proved himself an adept in the art of taking cover. Nevertheless,
+English policy in their hands was essentially aggressive. It could not
+be otherwise if England was to emerge from the slough in which Mary had
+left it. The first step was to assert the principle of England for the
+English; the queen would have no foreign husband, though she found
+suitors useful as well as attractive. Spanish counsels were applauded
+and neglected, and the Spaniards soon departed. Elizabeth was glad of
+Philip's support at the negotiations for peace at Cateau Cambrésis
+(1559), but she took care to assert the independence of her diplomacy
+and of England's interests. At home the church was made once more
+English. All foreign jurisdiction was repudiated, and under the style
+"supreme governor" Elizabeth reclaimed nearly all the power which Henry
+VIII. had exercised as "supreme head." The Act of Uniformity (1559)
+restored with a few modifications the second prayer-book of Edward VI.
+The bishops almost unanimously refused to conform, and a clean sweep was
+made of the episcopal bench. An eminently safe and scholarly archbishop
+was found in Matthew Parker, who had not made himself notorious by
+resistance to authority even under Mary. The lower clergy were more
+amenable; the two hundred who alone are said to have been ejected should
+perhaps be multiplied by five; but even so they were not one in seven,
+and these seven were clergy who had been promoted in Mary's reign, or
+who had stood the celibate and other tests of 1553-1554. Into the
+balance must be thrown the hundreds, if not thousands, of zealots who
+had fled abroad and returned in 1558-1559. The net result was that a few
+years later the lower house of convocation only rejected by one vote a
+very puritanical petition against vestments and other "popish dregs."
+
+
+  Elizabeth and Scotland.
+
+  Struggle against the Spanish dominion at sea.
+
+The next step was to expand the principle of England for the English
+into that of Britain for the British, and Knox's reformation in
+1559-1560 provided an opportunity for its application. By timely and
+daring intervention in Scotland Elizabeth procured the expulsion of the
+French bag and baggage from North Britain, and that French avenue to
+England was closed for ever. The logic of this plan was not applied to
+Ireland; there it was to be Ireland for the English for many a
+generation yet to come; and so Ireland remained Achilles' heel, the
+vulnerable part of the United Kingdom. The Protestant religion was
+forced upon the Irish in a foreign tongue and garb and at the point of
+foreign pikes; and national sentiment supported the ancient faith and
+the ancient habits in resistance to the Saxon innovations. In other
+directions the expansion of England, the third stage in the development
+of Elizabeth's policy, was more successful. The attractions of the
+Spanish Main converted the seafaring folk of south-west England into
+hardy Protestants, who could on conscientious as well as other grounds
+contest a papal allocation of new worlds to Spain and Portugal. Their
+monopoly was broken up by Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh, and scores
+of others who recognized no peace beyond the line; and although, as far
+as actual colonies went, the results of Elizabeth's reign were
+singularly meagre, the idea had taken root and the ground had been
+prepared. In every direction English influence penetrated, and
+Englishmen before 1603 might be found in every quarter of the globe,
+following Drake's lead into the Pacific, painfully breaking the ice in
+search of a north-east or a north-west passage, hunting for slaves in
+the wilds of Africa, journeying in caravans across the steppes of Russia
+into central Asia, bargaining with the Turks on the shores of the Golden
+Horn, or with the Greeks in the Levant, laying the foundations of the
+East India Company, or of the colonies of Virginia and Newfoundland.
+
+
+  Mary, queen of Scots.
+
+This expansion was mainly at the expense of Spain; but at first Spain
+was regarded as Elizabeth's friend, not France. France had a rival
+candidate for Elizabeth's throne in Mary Stuart, the wife of the dauphin
+who soon (1559) became king as Francis II.; and Spanish favour was
+sought to neutralize this threat. Fortunately for Elizabeth, Francis
+died in 1560, and the French government passed into the hands of
+Catherine de' Medici, who had no cause to love her daughter-in-law and
+the Guises. France, too, was soon paralysed by the wars of religion
+which Elizabeth judiciously fomented with anything but religious
+motives. Mary Stuart returned to Scotland with nothing but her brains
+and her charms on which to rely in her struggle with her people and her
+rival. She was well equipped in both respects, but human passions spoilt
+her chance; her heart turned her head. Elizabeth's head was stronger and
+she had no heart at all. When Mary married Darnley she had the ball at
+her feet; the pair had the best claims to the English succession and
+enjoyed the united affections of the Catholics. But they soon ceased to
+love one another, and could not control their jealousies. There followed
+rapidly the murders of Rizzio and Darnley, the Bothwell marriage, Mary's
+defeat, captivity, and flight into England (1568). It was a difficult
+problem for Elizabeth to solve; to let Mary go to France was presenting
+a good deal more than a pawn to her enemies; to restore her by force to
+her Scottish throne might have been heroic, but it certainly was not
+politics; to hand her over to her Scottish foes was too mean even for
+Elizabeth; and to keep her in England was to nurse a spark in a
+powder-magazine. Mary was detained in the hope that the spark might be
+carefully isolated.
+
+
+  Rebellion of 1569 and excommunication of Elizabeth.
+
+  Plots against Elizabeth. Relations with France and Spain.
+
+But there was too much inflammable material about. The duke of Norfolk
+was a Protestant, but his convictions were weaker than his ambition, and
+he fell a victim to Mary's unseen charms. The Catholic north of England
+was to rise under the earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, who
+objected to Elizabeth's seizure of their mines and jurisdictions as well
+as to her proscription of their faith; and the pope was to assist with a
+bull of deposition. Norfolk, however, played the coward; the bull came
+nearly a year too late, and the rebellion of the earls (1569) was easily
+crushed. But the conspiracies did not end, and Spain began to take a
+hand. Elizabeth, partly in revenge for the treatment of Hawkins and
+Drake at San Juan de Ulloa, seized some Spanish treasure on its way to
+the Netherlands (Dec. 1569). Alva's operations were fatally handicapped
+by this disaster, but Philip was too much involved in the Netherlands to
+declare war on England. But his friendship for Elizabeth had received a
+shock, and henceforth his finger may be traced in most of the plots
+against her, of which the Ridolfi conspiracy was the first. It cost
+Norfolk his head and Mary more of her scanty liberty. Elizabeth also
+began to look to France, and in 1572, by the treaty of Blois, France
+instead of Spain became England's ally, while Philip constituted himself
+as Mary's patron. The massacre of St Bartholomew placed a severe strain
+upon the new alliance, but was not fatal to it. A series of prolonged
+but hollow marriage negotiations between Elizabeth and first Anjou
+(afterwards Henry III.) and then Alenēon (afterwards duke of Anjou)
+served to keep up appearances. But the friendship was never warm;
+Elizabeth's relations with the Huguenots on the one hand and her fear of
+French designs on the Netherlands on the other prevented much
+cordiality. But the alliance stood in the way of a Franco-Spanish
+agreement, limited Elizabeth's sympathy with the French Protestants, and
+enabled her to give more countenance than she otherwise might have done
+to the Dutch.
+
+
+  The Jesuit missions.
+
+  Execution of Mary, queen of Scots, 1587.
+
+  The Great Armada, 1588.
+
+Gradually Philip grew more hostile under provocation; slowly he came to
+the conclusion that he could never subdue the Dutch or check English
+attacks on the Spanish Main without a conquest of England.
+Simultaneously the counter-Reformation began its attacks; the "Jesuit
+invasion" took place in 1580, and Campion went to the block. A papal and
+Spanish attempt upon Ireland in the same year was foiled at Smerwick.
+But more important was Philip's acquisition of the throne of Portugal
+with its harbours, its colonies and its marine. This for the first time
+gave him a real command of the sea, and at least doubled the chances of
+a successful attack upon England. But Philip's mind moved slowly and
+only on provocation. It took a year or two to satisfy him that Portugal
+was really his; not until 1583 was the fleet of the pretender Don
+Antonio destroyed in the Azores. The victor, Santa Cruz, then suggested
+an armada against England, but the English Catholics could not be
+brought into line with a Spanish invasion. The various attempts to
+square James VI. of Scotland had not been successful, and events in the
+Netherlands and in France disturbed Philip's calculations. But his
+purpose was now probably fixed. After the murder of William the Silent
+(1584) Elizabeth sided more openly with the Dutch; the Spanish
+ambassador Mendoza was expelled from England for his intrigues with
+Elizabeth's enemies (1586); and on the discovery of Babington's plot
+Elizabeth yielded to the demand of her parliament and her ministers for
+Mary's execution (1587); her death removed the only possible centre for
+a Catholic rebellion in case of a Spanish attack. It also removed
+Philip's last doubts; Mary had left him her claims to the English
+throne, and he might, now that she was out of his path, hope to treat
+England like Portugal. Drake's "singeing of Philip's beard" in Cadiz
+harbour in 1587 delayed the expedition for a year, and a storm again
+postponed it in the early summer of 1588. At length the armada sailed in
+July under the incompetent duke of Medina Sidonia; its object was to
+secure command of the narrow seas and facilitate the transport of
+Parma's army from the Netherlands to England. But Philip after his
+twenty years' experience in the Netherlands can hardly have hoped to
+conquer a bigger and richer country with scantier means and forces. He
+relied in fact upon a domestic explosion, and the armada was only to be
+the torch. This miscalculation made it a hopeless enterprise from the
+first. Scarcely an English Catholic would have raised a finger in
+Philip's favour; and when he could not subdue the two provinces of
+Holland and Zeeland, it is absurd to suppose that he could have
+simultaneously subdued them and England as well. English armies were not
+perhaps very efficient, but they were as good as the material with which
+William of Orange began his task. Philip, however, was never given the
+opportunity. His armada was severely handled in a week's fighting on its
+way up the Channel, and was driven off the English ports into the German
+Ocean; there a south-west gale drove it far from its rendezvous, and
+completed the havoc which the English ships had begun. A miserable
+remnant alone escaped destruction in its perilous flight round the north
+and west of Scotland.
+
+The defeat of the armada was the beginning and not the end of the war;
+and there were moments between 1588 and 1603 when England was more
+seriously alarmed than in 1588. The Spaniards seized Calais in 1596; at
+another time they threatened England from Brest, and the "invisible"
+armada of 1599 created a greater panic than the "invincible" armada of
+1588. It was not till the very end of the reign that what was in some
+ways the most dangerous of Spanish aggressions was foiled at Kinsale.
+Nor were the English counter-attacks very happy; the attempt on Portugal
+in 1589 under Drake and Norris proved a complete failure. The raid on
+Cadiz under Essex and Raleigh in 1596 was attended with better results,
+but the "Islands" voyage to the Azores in 1597 was a very partial
+success. Still it was now a war upon more or less equal terms, and there
+was little more likelihood that it would end with England's than with
+Spain's loss of national independence. The subjection of the Netherlands
+was now almost out of the question, and although Elizabeth's help had
+not enabled the Protestant cause to win in France, Henry IV. built up a
+national monarchy which would be quite as effectual a bar to the
+ambitions of Spain.
+
+
+  Last years of Elizabeth.
+
+Elizabeth had in fact safely piloted England through the struggle to
+assert its national independence in religion and politics and its claim
+to a share in the new inheritance which had been opened up for the
+nations of Europe; and the passionate loyalty which had supported her as
+the embodiment of England's aspirations somewhat cooled in her declining
+years. She herself grew more cautious and conservative than ever, and
+was regarded as an obstacle by the hotheads in war and religion. She
+sided with the "scribes," Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil, against the men
+of war, Essex and Raleigh; and she abetted Whitgift's rigorous
+persecution of the Puritans whose discontent with her _via media_ was
+rancorously expressed in the Martin Marprelate tracts. Essex's folly and
+failure to crush Hugh O'Neill's rebellion (1599), the most serious
+effort made in the reign to throw off the English yoke in Ireland,
+involved him in treason and brought him to the block. Parliament was
+beginning to quarrel with the royal prerogative, particularly when
+expressed in the grant of monopolies, and even Mountjoy's success in
+Ireland (1602-1603) failed to revive popular enthusiasm for the dying
+queen. Strange as it may seem, the accession of James I. was hailed as
+heralding a new and gladder age by Shakespeare, and minor writers (March
+24, 1603).     (A. F. P.)
+
+
+VIII. THE STUART MONARCHY, THE GREAT REBELLION AND THE RESTORATION
+(1603-1689)
+
+  James I. 1603-1625.
+
+The defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 had been the final victory
+gained on behalf of the independence of the English church and state.
+The fifteen years which followed had been years of successful war; but
+they had been also years during which the nation had been preparing
+itself to conform its institutions to the new circumstances in which it
+found itself in consequence of the great victory. When James arrived
+from Scotland to occupy the throne of Elizabeth he found a general
+desire for change. Especially there was a feeling that there might be
+some relaxation in the ecclesiastical arrangements. Roman Catholics and
+Puritans alike wished for a modification of the laws which bore hardly
+on them. James at first relaxed the penalties under which the Roman
+Catholics suffered, then he grew frightened by the increase of their
+numbers and reimposed the penalties. The gunpowder plot (1605) was the
+result, followed by a sharper persecution than ever (see GUNPOWDER
+PLOT).
+
+The Puritans were invited to a conference with the king at Hampton Court
+(1604). They no longer asked, as many of them had asked in the beginning
+of Elizabeth's reign, to substitute the presbyterian discipline for the
+episcopal government. All they demanded was to be allowed permission,
+whilst remaining as ministers in the church, to omit the usage of
+certain ceremonies to which they objected. It was the opinion of Bacon
+that it would be wise to grant their request. James thought otherwise,
+and attempted to carry out the Elizabethan conformity more strictly than
+it had been carried out in his predecessor's reign.
+
+
+  James I. and the Commons.
+
+In 1604 the Commons agreed with Bacon. They declared that they were no
+Puritans themselves, but that, with such a dearth of able ministers, it
+was not well to lose the services of any one who was capable of
+preaching the gospel. By his refusal to entertain their views James
+placed himself in opposition to the Commons in a matter which touched
+their deeper feelings. As a necessary consequence every dispute on
+questions of smaller weight assumed an exaggerated importance. The king
+had received a scanty revenue with his crown, and he spent freely what
+little he had. As the Commons offered grudging supplies, the necessity
+under which he was of filling up the annual deficit led him to an action
+by which a grave constitutional question was raised.
+
+From the time of Richard II. to the reign of Mary no attempt had been
+made to raise duties on exports and imports without consent of
+parliament. But Mary had, under a specious pretext, recommenced to a
+slight extent the evil practice, and Elizabeth had gone a little further
+in the same direction. In 1606 a merchant named John Bates (q.v.)
+resisted the payment of an imposition--as duties levied by the sole
+authority of the crown were then called. The case was argued in the
+court of exchequer, and was there decided in favour of the crown.
+Shortly afterwards new impositions were set to the amount of £70,000 a
+year. When parliament met in 1610 the whole subject was discussed, and
+it was conclusively shown that, if the barons of the exchequer had been
+right in any sense, it was only in that narrow technical sense which is
+of no value at all. A compromise attempted broke down, and the
+difficulty was left to plague the next generation. The king was always
+able to assert that the judges were on his side, and it was as yet an
+acknowledged principle of the constitution that parliament could not
+change the law without the express consent of the crown, even if, which
+was not the case in this matter, the Lords had sided with the Commons.
+James's attempt to obtain further supplies from the Commons by opening a
+bargain for the surrender of some of his old feudal prerogatives, such
+as wardship and marriage, which had no longer any real meaning except as
+a means of obtaining money in an oppressive way, broke down, and early
+in 1611 he dissolved his first parliament in anger. A second parliament,
+summoned in 1614, met with the same fate after a session of a few weeks.
+
+The dissolution of this second parliament was followed by a short
+imprisonment of some of the more active members, and by a demand made
+through England for a benevolence to make up the deficiency which
+parliament had neglected to meet. The court represented that, as no
+compulsion was used, there was nothing illegal in this proceeding. But
+as the names of those who refused to pay were taken down, it cannot be
+said that there was no indirect pressure.
+
+
+  Attempted union with Scotland.
+
+  The colonization of Ulster.
+
+The most important result of the breach with the parliament of 1614,
+however, was the resolution taken by James to seek refuge from his
+financial and other troubles in a close alliance with the king of Spain.
+His own accession had done much to improve the position of England in
+its relation with the continental powers. Scotland was no longer
+available as a possible enemy to England, and though an attempt to bind
+the union between the two nations by freedom of commercial intercourse
+had been wrecked upon the jealousy of the English Commons (1607), a
+legal decision had granted the status of national subjects to all
+persons born in Scotland after the king's accession in England. Ireland,
+too, had been thoroughly overpowered at the end of Elizabeth's reign,
+and the flight of the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel in 1607 had been
+followed by the settlement of English and Scottish colonists in Ulster,
+a measure which, in the way in which it was undertaken, sowed the seeds
+of future evils, but undoubtedly conduced to increase the immediate
+strength of the English government in Ireland.
+
+
+  The Spanish alliance.
+
+Without fear of danger at home, therefore, James, who as king of
+Scotland had taken no part in Elizabeth's quarrel with Philip II., not
+only suspended hostilities immediately on his accession, and signed a
+peace in the following year, but looked favourably on the project of a
+Spanish marriage alliance, so that the chief Protestant and the chief
+Catholic powers might join together to impose peace on Europe, in the
+place of those hideous religious wars by which the last century had been
+disfigured. In 1611 circumstances had disgusted him with his new ally,
+but in 1614 he courted him again, not only on grounds of general policy,
+but because he hoped that the large portion which would accompany the
+hand of an infanta would go far to fill the empty treasury.
+
+In this way the Spanish alliance, unpopular in itself, was formed to
+liberate the king from the shackles imposed on him by the English
+constitution. Its unpopularity, great from the beginning, became greater
+when Raleigh's execution (1618) caused the government to appear before
+the world as truckling to Spain. The obloquy under which James laboured
+increased when the Thirty Years' War broke out (1618), and when his
+daughter Elizabeth, whose husband, the elector palatine, was the unhappy
+claimant to the Bohemian crown (1619), stood forth as the lovely symbol
+of the deserted Protestantism of Europe. Yet it was not entirely in pity
+for German Protestants that the heart of Englishmen beat. Men felt that
+their own security was at stake. The prospect of a Spanish infanta as
+the bride of the future king of England filled them with suspicious
+terrors. In Elizabeth's time the danger, if not entirely external, did
+not come from the government itself. Now the favour shown to the Roman
+Catholics by the king opened up a source of mischief which was to some
+extent real, if it was to a still greater extent imaginary. Whether the
+danger were real or imaginary, the consequence of the distrust resulting
+from the suspicion was the reawakening of the slumbering demand for
+fresh persecution of the Roman Catholics, a demand which made a complete
+reconciliation between the crown and the Lower House a matter of the
+greatest difficulty.
+
+
+  Parliament and the monopolies.
+
+In 1621 the third parliament of James was summoned to provide money for
+the war in defence of his son-in-law's inheritance, the Palatinate,
+which he now proposed to undertake. But it soon appeared that he was not
+prepared immediately to come to blows, and the Commons, voting a small
+sum as a token of their loyalty, passed to other matters. Indolent in
+his temper, James had been in the habit of leaving his patronage in the
+hands of a confidential favourite, and that position was now filled by
+George Villiers, marquess and afterwards duke of Buckingham. The
+natural consequence was that men who paid court to him were promoted,
+and those who kept at a distance from him had no notice taken of their
+merits. Further, a system of granting monopolies and other privileges
+had again sprung up. Many of these grants embodied some scheme which was
+intended to serve the interests of the public, and many actions which
+appear startling to us were covered by the extreme protectionist
+theories then in vogue. But abuses of every kind had clustered round
+them, and in many cases the profits had gone into the pockets of
+hangers-on of the court, whilst officials had given their assistance to
+the grantors even beyond their legal powers. James was driven by the
+outcry raised to abandon these monopolies, and an act of Parliament in
+1624 placed the future grant of protections to new inventions under the
+safeguard of the judges.
+
+
+  Fall of Bacon.
+
+The attack on the monopolies was followed by charges brought by the
+Commons before the Lords against persons implicated in carrying them
+into execution, and subsequently against Lord Chancellor Bacon as guilty
+of corruption. The sentence passed by the Lords vindicated the right of
+parliament to punish officials who had enjoyed the favour of the crown,
+which had fallen into disuse since the accession of the house of York.
+There was no open contest between parliament and king in this matter.
+But the initiative of demanding justice had passed from the crown to the
+Commons. It is impossible to overestimate the effect of these
+proceedings on the position of parliament. The crown could never again
+be regarded as the sum of the governmental system.
+
+When the Commons met after the summer adjournment a new constitutional
+question was raised. The king was at last determined to find troops for
+the defence of the Palatinate, and asked the Commons for money to pay
+them. They in turn petitioned the crown to abandon the Spanish alliance,
+which they regarded as the source of all the mischief. James told them
+that they had no right to discuss business on which he had not asked
+their opinion. They declared that they were privileged to discuss any
+matter relating to the commonwealth which they chose to take in hand,
+and embodied their opinion in a protest, which they entered on their
+journals. The king tore the protest out of the book and dissolved
+parliament.
+
+Then followed a fresh call for a benevolence, this time more sparingly
+answered than before. A year of fruitless diplomacy failed to save the
+Palatinate from total loss. The ill-considered journey to Madrid, in
+which Prince Charles, accompanied by Buckingham, hoped to wring from the
+Spanish statesmen a promise to restore the Palatinate in compliment for
+his marriage with the infanta, ended also in total failure. In the
+autumn of 1623 Charles returned to England without a wife, and without
+hope of regaining the Palatinate with Spanish aid.
+
+
+  The French alliance.
+
+He came back resolved to take vengeance upon Spain. The parliament
+elected in 1624 was ready to second him. It voted some supplies on the
+understanding that, when the king had matured his plans for carrying on
+the war, it should come together in the autumn to vote the necessary
+subsidies. It never met again. Charles had promised that, if he married
+a Roman Catholic, he would grant no toleration to the English Catholics
+in consideration of the marriage. In the autumn he had engaged himself
+to marry Henrietta Maria, the sister of the king of France, and had
+bound himself to grant the very conditions which he had declared to the
+Commons that he never would concede. Hence it was that he did not
+venture to recommend his father to summon parliament till the marriage
+was over. But though there was but little money to dispose of, he and
+Buckingham, who, now that James was sick and infirm, were the real
+leaders of the government, could not endure to abstain from the
+prosecution of the war. Early in 1625 an expedition, under Count
+Mansfeld, was sent to Holland that it might ultimately cut its way to
+the Palatinate. Left without pay and without supplies, the men perished
+by thousands, and when James died in March the new king had to meet his
+first parliament burthened by a broken promise and a disastrous
+failure.
+
+
+  Charles I. 1625-1649.
+
+When parliament met (1625) the Commons at first contented themselves
+with voting a sum of money far too small to carry on the extensive
+military and naval operations in which Charles had embarked. When the
+king explained his necessities, they intimated that they had no
+confidence in Buckingham, and asked that, before they granted further
+supply, the king would name counsellors whom they could trust to advise
+him on its employment. Charles at once dissolved parliament. He knew
+that the demand for ministerial responsibility would in the end involve
+his own responsibility, and, believing as he did that Buckingham's
+arrangements had been merely unlucky, he declined to sacrifice the
+minister whom he trusted.
+
+
+  The Petition of Right.
+
+Charles and Buckingham did their best to win back popularity by
+strenuous exertion. They attempted to found a great Protestant alliance
+on the continent, and they sent a great expedition to Cadiz. The
+Protestant alliance and the expedition to Cadiz ended in equal failure.
+The second parliament of the reign (1626) impeached Buckingham for
+crimes against the state. As Charles would not dismiss him simply
+because the Commons were dissatisfied with him as a minister, they fell
+back on charging him with criminal designs. Once more Charles dissolved
+parliament to save Buckingham. Then came fresh enterprises and fresh
+failures. A fleet under Lord Willoughby (afterwards earl of Lindsey) was
+almost ruined by a storm. The king of Denmark, trusting to supplies from
+England which never came, was defeated at Lutter. A new war in addition
+to the Spanish war, broke out with France. A great expedition to Ré,
+under Buckingham's command (1627), intended to succour the Huguenots of
+La Rochelle against their sovereign, ended in disaster. In order to
+enable himself to meet expenditure on so vast a scale, Charles had
+levied a forced loan from his subjects. Men of high rank in society who
+refused to pay were imprisoned. Soldiers were billeted by force in
+private houses, and military officers executed martial law on civilians.
+When the imprisoned gentlemen appealed to the king's bench for a writ of
+_habeas corpus_, it appeared that no cause of committal had been
+assigned, and the judges therefore refused to liberate them. Still
+Charles believed it possible to carry on the war, and especially to send
+relief to La Rochelle, now strictly blockaded by the forces of the
+French crown. In order to find the means for this object he summoned his
+third parliament (1628). The Commons at once proceeded to draw a line
+which should cut off the possibility of a repetition of the injuries of
+which they complained. Charles was willing to surrender his claims to
+billet soldiers by force, to order the execution of martial law in time
+of peace, and to exact forced loans, benevolences, or any kind of
+taxation, without consent of parliament; but he protested against the
+demand that he should surrender the right to imprison without showing
+cause. It was argued on his behalf that in case of a great conspiracy it
+would be necessary to trust the crown with unusual powers to enable it
+to preserve the peace. The Commons, who knew that the crown had used the
+powers which it claimed, not against conspirators, but against the
+commonwealth itself, refused to listen to the argument, and insisted on
+the acceptance of the whole Petition of Right, in which they demanded
+redress for all their grievances. The king at last gave his consent to
+it, as he could obtain money in no other way. In after times, when any
+real danger occurred which needed a suspension of the ordinary
+safeguards of liberty, a remedy was found in the suspension of the law
+by act of parliament; such a remedy, however, only became possible when
+king and parliament were on good terms of agreement with one another.
+
+
+  Crown and parliament.
+
+That time was as yet far distant. The House of Commons brought fresh
+charges against Buckingham, whose murder soon after the prorogation
+removed one subject of dispute. But when they met again (1629) they had
+two quarrels left over from the preceding session. About a third part of
+the king's revenue was derived from customs duties which had for many
+generations been granted by parliament to each sovereign for life.
+Charles held that this grant was little more than a matter of form,
+whilst the Commons held that it was a matter of right. But for the other
+dispute the difficulty would probably have been got over. The strong
+Protestantism of Elizabeth's reign had assumed a distinctly Calvinistic
+form, and the country gentlemen who formed the majority of the House of
+Commons were resolutely determined that no other theology than that of
+Calvin should be taught in England. In the last few years a reaction
+against it had arisen especially in the universities, and those who
+adopted an unpopular creed, and who at the same time showed tendencies
+to a more ceremonial form of worship, naturally fell back on the support
+of the crown. Charles, who might reasonably have exerted himself to
+secure a fair liberty for all opinions, promoted these unpopular divines
+to bishoprics and livings, and the divines in turn exalted the royal
+prerogative above parliamentary rights. He now proposed that both sides
+should keep silence on the points in dispute. The Commons rejected his
+scheme, and prepared to call in question the most obnoxious of the
+clergy. In this irritated temper they took up the question of tonnage
+and poundage, and instead of confining themselves to the great public
+question, they called to the bar some custom-house officers who happened
+to have seized the goods of one of their members. Charles declared that
+the seizure had taken place by his orders. When they refused to accept
+the excuse, he dissolved parliament, but not before a tumult took place
+in the House, and the speaker was forcibly held down in his chair whilst
+resolutions hostile to the government were put to the vote.
+
+For eleven years no parliament met again. The extreme action of the
+Lower House was not supported by the people, and the king had the
+opportunity, if he chose to use it, of putting himself right with the
+nation after no long delay. But he never understood that power only
+attends sympathetic leadership. He contented himself with putting
+himself technically in the right, and with resting his case on the
+favourable decisions of the judges. Under any circumstances, neither the
+training nor the position of judges is such as to make them fit to be
+the final arbiters of political disputes. They are accustomed to declare
+what the law is, not what it ought to be. These judges, moreover, were
+not in the position to be impartial. They had been selected by the king,
+and were liable to be deprived of their office when he saw fit. In the
+course of Charles's reign two chief justices and one chief baron were
+dismissed or suspended. Besides the ordinary judges there were the
+extraordinary tribunals, the court of high commission nominated by the
+crown to punish ecclesiastical offenders, and the court of star chamber,
+composed of the privy councillors and the chief justices, and therefore
+also nominated by the crown, to inflict fine, imprisonment, and even
+corporal mutilation on lay offenders. Those who rose up in any way
+against the established order were sharply punished.
+
+
+  Ship-money.
+
+The harsh treatment of individuals only calls forth resistance when
+constitutional morality has sunk deeply into the popular mind. The
+ignoring of the feelings and prejudices of large classes has a deeper
+effect. Charles's foreign policy, and his pretentious claim to the
+sovereignty of the British seas, demanded the support of a fleet, which
+might indeed be turned to good purpose in offering a counterpoise to the
+growing navies of France and Holland. The increasing estrangement
+between him and the nation made him averse from the natural remedy of a
+parliament, and he reverted to the absolute practices of the middle
+ages, in order that he might strain them far beyond the warrant of
+precedent to levy a tax under the name of ship-money, first on the port
+towns and then on the whole of England. Payment was resisted by John
+Hampden, a Buckinghamshire squire; but the judges declared that the king
+was in the right (1638). Yet the arguments used by Hampden's lawyers
+sunk deeply into the popular mind, and almost every man in England who
+was called on to pay the tax looked upon the king as a wrong-doer under
+the forms of law.
+
+
+  The Church.
+
+In his ecclesiastical policy Charles was equally out of touch with the
+feelings of his people. He shared to the full his father's dislike and
+distrust of the Puritans, and he supported with the whole weight of the
+crown the attempt of William Laud (q.v.), since 1633 archbishop of
+Canterbury, to enforce conformity to the ritual prescribed by the Prayer
+Book. At the same time offence was given to the Puritans by an order
+that every clergyman should read the Declaration of Sports, in which the
+king directed that no one should be prevented from dancing or shooting
+at the butts on Sunday afternoon. Many of the clergy were suspended or
+deprived, many emigrated to Holland or New England, and of those who
+remained a large part bore the yoke with feelings of ill-concealed
+dissatisfaction. Suspicion was easily aroused that a deep plot existed,
+of which Laud was believed to be the centre, for carrying the nation
+over to the Church of Rome, a suspicion which seemed to be converted
+into a certainty when it was known that Panzani and Conn, two agents of
+the pope, had access to Charles, and that in 1637 there was a sudden
+accession to the number of converts to the Roman Catholic Church amongst
+the lords and ladies of the court.
+
+
+  Charles and Scotland.
+
+In the summer of 1638 Charles had long ceased to reign in the affections
+of his subjects. But their traditionary loyalty had not yet failed, and
+if he had not called on them for fresh exertions, it is possible that
+the coming revolution would have been long delayed. Men were ready to
+shout applause in honour of Puritan martyrs like Prynne, Burton and
+Bastwick, whose ears were cut off in 1637, or in honour of the lawyers
+who argued such a case as that of Hampden. But no signs of active
+resistance had yet appeared. Unluckily for Charles, he was likely to
+stand in need of the active co-operation of Englishmen. He had attempted
+to force a new Prayer Book upon the Scottish nation. A riot at Edinburgh
+in 1637 quickly led to national resistance, and when in November 1638
+the general assembly at Glasgow set Charles's orders at defiance, he was
+compelled to choose between tame submission and immediate war. In 1639
+he gathered an English force, and marched towards the border. But
+English laymen, though asked to supply the money which he needed for the
+support of his army, deliberately kept it in their pockets, and the
+contributions of the clergy and of official persons were not sufficient
+to enable him to keep his troops long in the field. The king, therefore,
+thought it best to agree to terms of pacification. Misunderstandings
+broke out as to the interpretation of the treaty, and Charles having
+discovered that the Scots were intriguing with France, fancied that
+England, in hatred of its ancient foe, would now be ready to rally to
+his standard. After an interval of eleven years, in April 1640 he once
+more called a parliament.
+
+
+  The Short Parliament.
+
+  The Scottish invasion.
+
+The Short Parliament, as it was called, demanded redress of grievances,
+the abandonment of the claim to levy ship-money, and a complete change
+in the ecclesiastical system. Charles thought that it would not be worth
+while even to conquer Scotland on such terms, and dissolved parliament.
+A fresh war with Scotland followed. Wentworth, now earl of Strafford,
+became the leading adviser of the king. With all the energy of his
+disposition he threw himself into Charles's plans, and left no stone
+unturned to furnish the new expedition with supplies and money. But no
+skilfulness of a commander can avail when soldiers are determined not to
+fight. The Scots crossed the Tweed, and Charles's army was well pleased
+to fly before them. In a short time the whole of Northumberland and
+Durham were in the hands of the invaders. Charles was obliged to leave
+these two counties in their hands as a pledge for the payment of their
+expenses; and he was also obliged to summon parliament to grant him the
+supplies which he needed for that object.
+
+
+  The Long Parliament.
+
+  Attainder of Strafford.
+
+When the Long Parliament met in November 1640 it was in a position in
+which no parliament had been before. Though nominally the Houses did not
+command a single soldier, they had in reality the whole Scottish army at
+their back. By refusing supplies they would put it out of the king's
+power to fulfil his engagements to that army, and it would immediately
+pursue its onward march to claim its rights. Hence there was scarcely
+anything which the king could venture to deny the Commons. Under Pym's
+leadership, they began by asking the head of Strafford. Nominally he was
+accused of a number of acts of oppression in the north of England and in
+Ireland. His real offence lay in his attempt to make the king absolute,
+and in the design with which he was credited of intending to bring over
+an Irish army to crush the liberties of England. If he had been a man of
+moderate abilities he might have escaped. But the Commons feared his
+commanding genius too much to let him go free. They began with an
+impeachment. Difficulties arose, and the impeachment was turned into a
+bill of attainder. The king abandoned his minister, and the execution of
+Strafford left Charles without a single man of supreme ability on his
+side. Then came rapidly a succession of blows at the supports by which
+the Tudor monarchy had been upheld. The courts of star chamber and high
+commission and the council of the north were abolished. The raising of
+tonnage and poundage without a parliamentary grant was declared illegal.
+The judges who had given obnoxious decisions were called to answer for
+their fault and were taught that they were responsible to the House of
+Commons as well as the king. Finally a bill was passed providing that
+the existing House should not be dissolved without its own consent.
+
+It was clearly a revolutionary position which the House had assumed. But
+it was assumed because it was impossible to expect that a king who had
+ruled as Charles had ruled could take up a new position as the exponent
+of the feelings which were represented in the Commons. As long as
+Charles lived he could not be otherwise than an object of suspicion; and
+yet if he were dethroned there was no one available to fill his place.
+There arose therefore two parties in the House, one ready to trust the
+king, the other disinclined to put any confidence in him at all. The
+division was the sharper because it coincided with a difference in
+matters of religion. Scarcely any one wished to see the Laudian
+ceremonies upheld. But the members who favoured the king, and who formed
+a considerable minority, wished to see a certain liberty of religious
+thought, together with a return under a modified Episcopacy to the forms
+of worship which prevailed before Laud had taken the church in hand. The
+other side, which had the majority by a few votes, wished to see the
+Puritan creed prevail in all its strictness, and were favourable to the
+establishment of the Presbyterian discipline. The king by his unwise
+action threw power into the hands of his opponents. He listened with
+tolerable calmness to their Grand Remonstrance, but his attempt to seize
+the five members whom he accused of high treason made a good
+understanding impossible. The Scottish army had been paid off some
+months before, and civil war was the only means of deciding the quarrel.
+
+
+  The civil war.
+
+  Presbyterians and Independents.
+
+At first the fortune of war wavered. Edgehill was a drawn battle (1642),
+and the campaign of 1643, though it was on the whole favourable to the
+king, gave no decisive results. Before the year was at an end parliament
+invited a new Scottish army to intervene in England. As an inducement,
+the Solemn League and Covenant was signed by all Parliamentarian
+Englishmen, the terms of which were interpreted by the Scots to bind
+England to submit to Presbyterianism, though the most important clauses
+had been purposely left vague, so as to afford a loophole of escape. The
+battle of Marston Moor, with the defeat of the Royalist forces in the
+north, was the result. But the battle did not improve the position of
+the Scots. They had been repulsed, and the victory was justly ascribed
+to the English contingent. The composition of that contingent was such
+as to have a special political significance. Its leader was Oliver
+Cromwell. It was formed by men who were fierce Puritan enthusiasts, and
+who for the very reason that the intensity of their religion separated
+them from the mass of their countrymen, had learnt to uphold with all
+the energy of zeal the doctrine that neither church nor state had a
+right to interfere with the forms of worship which each congregation
+might select for itself (see CONGREGATIONALISM and CROMWELL, OLIVER).
+The principle advocated by the army, and opposed by the Scots and the
+majority of the House of Commons, was liberty of sectarian association.
+Some years earlier, under the dominion of Laud, another principle had
+been proclaimed by Chillingworth and Hales, that of liberty of thought
+within the unity of the church. Both these movements conduced to the
+ultimate establishment of toleration, but for the present the
+Independents were to have their way.
+
+
+  The second civil war.
+
+  Execution of the king.
+
+The Presbyterian leaders, Essex and Manchester, were not successful
+leaders. The army was remodelled after Cromwell's pattern, and the king
+was finally crushed at Naseby (1645). The next year (1646) he
+surrendered to the Scots. Then followed two years of fruitless
+negotiation, in which after the Scots abandoned the king to the English
+parliament, the army took him out of the hands of the parliament, whilst
+each in turn tried to find some basis of arrangement on which he might
+reign without ruling. Such a basis could not be found, and when Charles
+stirred up a fresh civil war and a Scottish invasion (1648) the leaders
+of the army vowed that, if victory was theirs, they would bring him to
+justice. To do this it was necessary to drive out a large number of the
+members of the House of Commons by what was known as Pride's Purge, and
+to obtain from the mutilated Commons the dismissal of the House of
+Lords, and the establishment of a high court of justice, before which
+the king was brought to trial and sentenced to death. He was beheaded on
+a scaffold outside the windows of Whitehall (1649).[5]
+
+
+  The Commonwealth.
+
+  Cromwell's protectorate.
+
+The government set up was a government by the committees of a council of
+state nominally supporting themselves on the House of Commons, though
+the members who still retained their places were so few that the council
+of state was sufficiently numerous to form a majority in the House.
+During eleven years the nation passed through many vicissitudes in its
+forms of government. These forms take no place in the gradual
+development of English institutions, and have never been referred to as
+affording precedents to be followed. To the student of political
+science, however, they have a special interest of their own, as they
+show that when men had shaken themselves loose from the chain of habit
+and prejudice, and had set themselves to build up a political shelter
+under which to dwell, they were irresistibly attracted by that which was
+permanent in the old constitutional forms of which the special
+development had of late years been so disastrous. After Cromwell had
+suppressed resistance in Ireland (1649), had conquered Scotland (1650),
+and had overthrown the son of the late king, the future Charles II., at
+Worcester (1651), the value of government by an assembly was tested and
+found wanting. After Cromwell had expelled the remains of the Long
+Parliament (1653), and had set up another assembly of nominated members,
+that second experiment was found equally wanting. It was necessary to
+have recourse to one head of the executive government, controlling and
+directing its actions. Cromwell occupied this position as lord
+protector. He did all that was in his power to do to prevent his
+authority from degenerating into tyranny. He summoned two parliaments,
+of only one House, and with the consent of the second parliament he
+erected a second House, so that he might have some means of checking the
+Lower House without constantly coming into personal collision with its
+authority. As far as form went, the constitution in 1658, so far as it
+differed from the Stuart constitution, differed for the better. But it
+suffered from one fatal defect. It was based on the rule of the sword.
+The only substitute for traditional authority is the clearly expressed
+expression of the national will, and it is impossible to doubt that if
+the national will had been expressed it would have swept away Cromwell
+and all his system. The majority of the upper and middle classes, which
+had united together against Laud, was now reunited against Cromwell. The
+Puritans themselves were but a minority, and of that minority
+considerable numbers disliked the free liberty accorded to the sects.
+Whilst the worship of the Church of England was proscribed, every
+illiterate or frenzied enthusiast was allowed to harangue at his
+pleasure. Those who cared little for religion felt insulted when they
+saw a government with which they had no sympathy ruling by means of an
+army which they dreaded and detested. Cromwell did his best to avert a
+social revolution, and to direct the energies of his supporters into the
+channels of merely political change. But he could not prevent, and it
+cannot be said that he wished to prevent, the rise of men of ability
+from positions of social inferiority. The nation had striven against the
+arbitrary government of the king; but it was not prepared to shake off
+the predominance of that widely spreading aristocracy which, under the
+name of country gentlemen, had rooted itself too deeply to be easily
+passed by. Cromwell's rule was covered with military glory, and there
+can be no doubt that he honestly applied himself to solve domestic
+difficulties as well. But he reaped the reward of those who strive for
+something better than the generation in which they live is able to
+appreciate. His own faults and errors were remembered against him. He
+tried in vain to establish constitutional government and religious
+toleration (see CROMWELL, OLIVER). When he died (1658) there remained
+branded on the national mind two strong impressions which it took more
+than a century to obliterate--the dread of the domination of a standing
+army, and abhorrence of the very name of religious zeal.
+
+
+  The anarchy.
+
+The eighteen months which followed deepened the impression thus formed.
+The army had appeared a hard master when it lent its strength to a wise
+and sagacious rule. It was worse when it undertook to rule in its own
+name, to set up and pull down parliaments and governments. The only
+choice left to the nation seemed to be one between military tyranny and
+military anarchy. Therefore it was that when Monk advanced from Scotland
+and declared for a free parliament, there was little doubt that the new
+parliament would recall the exiled king, and seek to build again on the
+old foundations.
+
+
+  The Restoration.
+
+The Restoration was effected by a coalition between the Cavaliers, or
+followers of Charles I., and the Presbyterians who had originally
+opposed him. It was only after the nature of a great reaction that the
+latter should for a time be swamped by the former. The Long Parliament
+of the Restoration met in 1661, and the Act of Uniformity entirely
+excluded all idea of reform in the Puritan direction, and ordered the
+expulsion from their benefices of all clergymen who refused to express
+approval of the whole of the Book of Common Prayer (1662). A previous
+statute, the Corporation Act (1661), ordered that all members of
+corporations should renounce the Covenant and the doctrine that subjects
+might in any case rightfully use force against their king, and should
+receive the sacrament after the forms of the Church of England. The
+object for which Laud had striven, the compulsory imposition of
+uniformity, thus became part of the law of the land.
+
+Herein lay the novelty of the system of the Restoration. The system of
+Laud and the system of Cromwell had both been imposed by a minority
+which had possessed itself of the powers of government. The new
+uniformity was imposed by parliament, and parliament had the nation
+behind it. For the first time, therefore, all those who objected to the
+established religion sought, not to alter its forms to suit themselves,
+but to gain permission to worship in separate congregations. Ultimately,
+the dissenters, as they began to be called, would obtain their object.
+As soon as it became clear to the mass of the nation that the dissenters
+were in a decided minority, there would be no reason to fear the utmost
+they could do even if the present liberty of worship and teaching were
+conceded to them. For the present, however, they were feared out of all
+proportion to their numbers. They counted amongst them the old soldiers
+of the Protectorate, and though that army had been dissolved, it always
+seemed possible that it might spring to arms once more. A bitter
+experience had taught men that a hundred of Oliver's Ironsides might
+easily chase a thousand Cavaliers; and as long as this danger was
+believed to exist, every effort would be made to keep dissent from
+spreading. Hence the Conventicle Act (1664) imposed penalties on those
+taking part in religious meetings in private houses, and the Five Mile
+Act (1665) forbade an expelled clergyman to come within five miles of a
+corporate borough, the very place where he was most likely to secure
+adherence, unless he would swear his adhesion to the doctrine of
+non-resistance.
+
+
+  Doctrine of non-resistance.
+
+  The first Dutch war.
+
+The doctrine of non-resistance was evidently that by which, at this
+time, the loyal subject was distinguished from those whom he stigmatized
+as disloyal. Yet even the most loyal found that, if it was wrong to take
+up arms against the king, it might be right to oppose him in other ways.
+Even the Cavaliers did not wish to see Charles II. an absolute
+sovereign. They wished to reconstruct the system which had been
+violently interrupted by the events of the autumn of 1641, and to found
+government on the co-operation between king and parliament, without
+defining to themselves what was to be done if the king's conduct became
+insufferable. Openly, indeed, Charles II. did not force them to
+reconsider their position. He did not thrust members of the Commons into
+prison, or issue writs for ship-money. He laid no claim to taxation
+which had not been granted by parliament. But he was extravagant and
+self-indulgent, and he wanted more money than they were willing to
+supply. A war with the Dutch broke out, and there were strong suspicions
+that Charles applied money voted for the fleet to the maintenance of a
+vicious and luxurious court. Against the vice and luxury, indeed, little
+objection was likely to be brought. The over-haste of the Puritans to
+drill England into ways of morality and virtue had thrown at least the
+upper classes into a slough of revelry and baseness. But if the vice did
+not appear objectionable the expense did, and a new chapter in the
+financial history of the government was opened when the Commons, having
+previously gained control over taxation, proceeded to vindicate their
+right to control expenditure.
+
+
+  The Commons aim at control over expenditure.
+
+As far, indeed, as taxation was concerned, the Long Parliament had not
+left its successor much to do. The abolition of feudal tenures and
+purveyance had long been demanded, and the conclusion of an arrangement
+which had been mooted in the reign of James I. is only notable as
+affording one instance out of many of the tendency of a single class to
+shift burdens off its own shoulders. The predominant landowners
+preferred the grant of an excise, which would be taken out of all
+pockets, to a land-tax which would exclusively be felt by those who were
+relieved by the abolition of the tenures. The question of expenditure
+was constantly telling on the relations between the king and the House
+of Commons. After the Puritan army had been disbanded, the king resolved
+to keep on foot a petty force of 5000 men, and he had much difficulty in
+providing for it out of a revenue which had not been intended by those
+who voted it to be used for such a purpose. Then came the Dutch war,
+bringing with it a suspicion that some at least of the money given for
+paying sailors and fitting out ships was employed by Charles on very
+different objects. The Commons accordingly, in 1665, succeeded in
+enforcing, on precedents derived from the reigns of Richard II. and
+Henry IV., the right of appropriating the supplies granted to special
+objects; and with more difficulty they obtained, in 1666, the
+appointment of a commission empowered to investigate irregularities in
+the issue of moneys. Such measures were the complement of the control
+over taxation which they had previously gained, and as far as their
+power of supervision went, it constituted them and not the king the
+directors of the course of government. If this result was not
+immediately felt, it was because the king had a large certain revenue
+voted to him for life, so that, for the present at least, it was only
+his extraordinary expenses which could be brought under parliamentary
+control. Nor did even the renewal of parliamentary impeachment, which
+ended in the banishment of Lord Chancellor Clarendon (1667), bring on
+any direct collision with the king. If the Commons wished to be rid of
+him because he upheld the prerogative, the king was equally desirous to
+be rid of him because he looked coldly on the looseness of the royal
+morals.
+
+
+  Charles II. and Louis XIV.
+
+The great motive power of the later politics of the reign was to be
+found beyond the Channel. To the men of the days of Charles II., Louis
+XIV. of France was what Philip II. of Spain had been to the men of the
+days of Elizabeth. Gradually, in foreign policy, the commercial
+emulation with the Dutch, which found vent in one war in the time of the
+Commonwealth, and in two wars in the time of Charles II., gave way to a
+dread, rising into hatred, of the arrogant potentate who, at the head of
+the mightiest army in Europe, treated with contempt all rights which
+came into collision with his own wishes. Louis XIV., moreover, though
+prepared to quarrel with the pope in the matter of his own authority
+over the Gallican Church, was a bigoted upholder of Catholic orthodoxy,
+and Protestants saw in his political ambitions a menace to their
+religion. In the case of England there seemed a special danger to
+Protestantism; for whatever religious sympathies Charles II. possessed
+were with the Roman Catholic faith, and in his annoyance at the
+interference of the Commons with his expenditure he was not ashamed to
+stoop to become the pensioner of the French king. In 1670 the secret
+treaty of Dover was signed. Charles was to receive from Louis £200,000 a
+year and the aid of 6000 French troops to enable him to declare himself
+a convert, and to obtain special advantages for his religion, whilst he
+was also to place the forces of England at Louis's disposal for his
+purposes of aggression on the continent of Europe.
+
+
+  Second Dutch war, and declaration of indulgence.
+
+Charles had no difficulty in stirring up the commercial jealousy of
+England so as to bring about a second Dutch war (1672). The next year,
+unwilling to face the dangers of his larger plan, he issued a
+declaration of indulgence, which, by a single act of the prerogative,
+suspended all penal laws against Roman Catholics and dissenters alike.
+To the country gentlemen who constituted the cavalier parliament, and
+who had long been drifting into opposition to the crown, this was
+intolerable. The predominance of the Church of England was the prime
+article of their political creed; they dreaded the Roman Catholics; they
+hated and despised the dissenters. Under any circumstances an indulgence
+would have been most distasteful to them. But the growing belief that
+the whole scheme was merely intended to serve the purposes of the Roman
+Catholics converted their dislike into deadly opposition. Yet the
+parliament resolved to base its opposition upon constitutional grounds.
+The right claimed by the king to suspend the laws was questioned, and
+his claim to special authority in ecclesiastical matters was treated
+with contempt. The king gave way and withdrew his declaration. But no
+solemn act of parliament declared it to be illegal, and in due course of
+time it would be heard of again.
+
+
+  The Test Act.
+
+The Commons followed up their blow by passing the Test Act, making the
+reception of the sacrament according to the forms of the Church of
+England, and the renunciation of the doctrine of transubstantiation, a
+necessary qualification for office. At once it appeared what a hold the
+members of the obnoxious church had had upon the administration of the
+state. The lord high admiral, the lord treasurer, and a secretary of
+state refused to take the test. The lord high admiral was the heir to
+the throne, the king's brother, the duke of York.
+
+
+  Danby's ministry.
+
+  The Popish plot.
+
+Charles, as usual, bent before the storm. In Danby (see LEEDS, 1ST DUKE
+OF) he found a minister whose views answered precisely to the views of
+the existing House of Commons. Like the Commons, Danby wished to silence
+both Roman Catholics and dissenters. Like the Commons, too, he wished to
+embark on a foreign policy hostile to France. But he served a master who
+regarded Louis less as a possible adversary than as a possible
+paymaster. Sometimes Danby was allowed to do as he liked, and the
+marriage of the duke of York's eldest daughter Mary to her cousin the
+prince of Orange was the most lasting result of his administration. More
+often he was obliged to follow where Charles led, and Charles was
+constantly ready to sell the neutrality of England for large sums of
+French gold. At last one of these negotiations was detected, and Danby,
+who was supposed to be the author instead of the unwilling instrument of
+the intrigue, was impeached. In order to save his minister, Charles
+dissolved parliament (1678). He could not have chosen a more unlucky
+time for his own quiet. The strong feeling against the Roman Catholics
+had been quickened into a flame by a great imposture. The inventors of
+the so-called popish plot charged the leading English Roman Catholics
+with a design to murder the king. Judges and juries alike were maddened
+with excitement, and listened greedily to the lies which poured forth
+from the lips of profligate informers. Innocent blood was shed in
+abundance.
+
+
+  The Exclusion Bill.
+
+The excitement had its root in the uneasy feeling caused by the
+knowledge that the heir to the throne was a Roman Catholic. Three
+parliaments were summoned and dissolved. In each parliament the main
+question at issue between the Commons and the crown was the Exclusion
+Bill, by which the Commons sought to deprive the duke of York of his
+inheritance; and it was notorious that the leaders of the movement
+wished the crown to descend to the king's illegitimate son, the duke of
+Monmouth.
+
+
+  Whigs and Tories.
+
+The principles by which the Commons were guided in these parliaments
+were very different from those which had prevailed in the first
+parliament of the Restoration. Those principles, to which that party
+adhered which about this time became known as the Tory party, had been
+formed under the influence of the terror caused by militant Puritanism.
+In the state the Tory inherited the ideas of Clarendon, and, without
+being at all ready to abandon the claims of parliaments, nevertheless
+somewhat inconsistently spoke of the king as ruling by a divine and
+indefeasible title, and wielding a power which it was both impious and
+unconstitutional to resist by force. In the church he inherited the
+ideas of Laud, and saw in the maintenance of the Act of Uniformity the
+safeguard of religion. But the hold of these opinions on the nation had
+been weakened with the cessation of the causes which had produced them.
+In 1680 twenty years had passed since the Puritan army had been
+disbanded. Many of Cromwell's soldiers had died, and most of them were
+growing old. The dissenters had shown no signs of engaging in plots or
+conspiracies. They were known to be only a comparatively small minority
+of the population, and though they had been cruelly persecuted, they had
+suffered without a thought of resistance. Dread of the dissenters,
+therefore, had become a mere chimaera, which only those could entertain
+whose minds were influenced by prejudice. On the other hand, dread of
+the Roman Catholics was a living force. Unless the law were altered a
+Roman Catholic would be on the throne, wielding all the resources of the
+prerogative, and probably supported by all the resources of the king of
+France. Hence the leading principle of the Whigs, as the predominant
+party was now called, was in the state to seek for the highest national
+authority in parliament rather than in the king, and in the church to
+adopt the rational theology of Chillingworth and Hales, whilst looking
+to the dissenters as allies against the Roman Catholics, who were the
+enemies of both.
+
+
+  Tory reaction.
+
+Events were to show that it was a wise provision which led the Whigs to
+seek to exclude the duke of York from the throne. But their plan
+suffered under two faults, the conjunction of which was ruinous to them
+for the time. In the first place, their choice of Monmouth as the heir
+was infelicitous. Not only was he under the stain of illegitimacy, but
+his succession excluded the future succession of Mary, whose husband,
+the prince of Orange, was the hope of Protestant Europe. In the second
+place, drastic remedies are never generally acceptable when the evil to
+be remedied is still in the future. When, in the third of the short
+parliaments held at Oxford the Whigs rode armed into the city, the
+nation decided that the future danger of a Roman Catholic succession was
+incomparably less than the immediate danger of another civil war. Loyal
+addresses poured in to the king. For the four remaining years of his
+reign he ruled without summoning any parliament. Whigs were brought
+before prejudiced juries and partial judges. Their blood flowed on the
+scaffold. The charter of the city of London was confiscated. The reign
+of the Tories was unquestioned. Yet it was not quite what the reign of
+the Cavaliers had been in 1660. The violence of the Restoration had been
+directed primarily against Puritanism, and only against certain forms of
+government so far as they allowed Puritans to gain the upper hand. The
+violence of the Tories was directed against rebellion and disorder, and
+only against dissenters so far as they were believed to be the fomenters
+of disorder. Religious hatred had less part in the action of the ruling
+party, and even from its worst actions a wise man might have predicted
+that the day of toleration was not so far off as it seemed.
+
+
+  James II., 1685-1688.
+
+The accession of James II. (1685) put the views of the opponents of the
+Exclusion Bill to the test. A new parliament was elected, almost
+entirely composed of decided Tories. A rebellion in Scotland, headed by
+the earl of Argyll, and a rebellion in England, headed by the duke of
+Monmouth, were easily suppressed. But the inherent difficulties of the
+king's position were not thereby overcome. It would have been hard, in
+days in which religious questions occupied so large a space in the field
+of politics, for a Roman Catholic sovereign to rule successfully over a
+Protestant nation. James set himself to make it, in his case,
+impossible. It may be that he did not consciously present to himself any
+object other than fair treatment for his co-religionists. On the one
+hand, however, he alienated even reasonable opponents by offering no
+guarantees that equality so gained would not be converted into
+superiority by the aid of his own military force and of the assistance
+of the French king; whilst on the other hand he relied, even more
+strongly than his father had done, on the technical legality which
+exalted the prerogative in defiance of the spirit of the law. He began
+by making use of the necessity of resisting Monmouth to increase his
+army, under the pretext of the danger of a repetition of the late
+rebellion; and in the regiments thus levied he appointed many Roman
+Catholic officers who had refused to comply with the Test Act. Rather
+than submit to the gentlest remonstrance, he prorogued parliament, and
+proceeded to obtain from the court of king's bench a judgment in favour
+of his right to dispense with all penalties due by law, in the same way
+that his grandfather had appealed to the judges in the matter of the
+post-nati. But not only was the question put by James II. of far wider
+import than the question put by James I., but he deprived the court to
+which he applied of all moral authority by previously turning out of
+office the judges who were likely to disagree with him, and by
+appointing new ones who were likely to agree with him. A court of high
+commission of doubtful legality was subsequently erected (1686) to
+deprive or suspend clergymen who made themselves obnoxious to the court,
+whilst James appointed Roman Catholics to the headship of certain
+colleges at Oxford. The legal support given him by judges of his own
+selection was fortified by the military support of an army collected at
+Hounslow Heath; and a Roman Catholic, the earl of Tyrconnel, was sent as
+lord-deputy to Ireland (1687) to organize a Roman Catholic army on which
+the king might fall back if his English forces proved insufficient for
+his purpose.
+
+
+  James's declaration of indulgence.
+
+  Trial of the seven bishops.
+
+Thus fortified, James issued a declaration of indulgence (1687) granting
+full religious liberty to all his subjects. The belief, that the grant
+of liberty to all religions was only intended to serve as a cloak for
+the ascendancy of one, was so strong that the measure roused the
+opposition of all those who objected to see the king's will substituted
+for the law, even if they wished to see the Protestant dissenters
+tolerated. In spite of this opposition, the king thought it possible to
+obtain a parliamentary sanction for his declaration. The parliament to
+which he intended to appeal was, however, to be as different a body from
+the parliament which met in the first year of his reign as the bench of
+judges which had approved of the dispensing power had been different
+from the bench which existed at his accession. A large number of the
+borough members were in those days returned by the corporations, and
+the corporations were accordingly changed. But so thoroughly was the
+spirit of the country roused, that many even of the new corporations
+were set against James's declaration, and he had therefore to abandon
+for a time the hope of seeing it accepted even by a packed House of
+Commons. All, however, that he could do to give it force he did. He
+ordered the clergy to read it in all pulpits (1688). Seven bishops, who
+presented a petition asking him to relieve the clergy from the burthen
+of proclaiming what they believed to be illegal, were brought to trial
+for publishing a seditious libel. Their acquittal by a jury was the
+first serious blow to the system adopted by the king.
+
+
+  Revolution of 1688.
+
+Another event which seemed likely to consolidate his power was in
+reality the signal of his ruin. The queen bore him a son. There was thus
+no longer a strong probability that the king would be succeeded at no
+great distance of time by a Protestant heir. Popular incredulity
+expressed itself in the assertion that, as James had attempted to gain
+his ends by means of a packed bench of judges and a packed House of
+Commons, he had now capped the series of falsifications by the
+production of a supposititious heir. The leaders of both parties
+combined to invite the prince of Orange to come to the rescue of the
+religion and laws of England. He landed on the 5th of November at
+Brixham. Before he could reach London every class of English society had
+declared in his favour. James was deserted even by his army. He fled to
+France, and a convention parliament, summoned without the royal writ,
+declared that his flight was equivalent to abdication, and offered the
+crown in joint sovereignty to William and Mary (1689).
+
+
+IX. THE REVOLUTION AND THE AGE OF ANNE (1689-1714)
+
+  William III. and Mary II., 1689.
+
+The Revolution, as it was called, was more than a mere change of
+sovereigns. It finally transferred the ultimate decision in the state
+from the king to parliament. What parliament had been in the 15th
+century with the House of Lords predominating, that parliament was to be
+again in the end of the 17th century with the House of Commons
+predominating. That House of Commons was far from resting on a wide
+basis of popular suffrage. The county voters were the freeholders; but
+in the towns, with some important exceptions, the electors were the
+richer inhabitants who formed the corporations of the boroughs, or a
+body of select householders more or less under the control of some
+neighbouring landowner. A House so chosen was an aristocratic body, but
+it was aristocratic in a far wider sense than the House of Lords was
+aristocratic. The trading and legal classes found their representation
+there by the side of the great owners of land. The House drew its
+strength from its position as a true representative of the effective
+strength of the nation in its social and economical organization.
+
+Such was the body which firmly grasped the control over every branch of
+the administration. Limiting in the Bill of Rights the powers assumed by
+the crown, the Commons declared that the king could not keep a standing
+army in time of peace without consent of parliament; and they made that
+consent effectual, as far as legislation could go, by passing a Mutiny
+Act year by year for twelve months only, so as to prevent the crown from
+exercising military discipline without their authority. Behind these
+legal contrivances stood the fact that the army was organized in the
+same way as the nation was organized, being officered by gentlemen who
+had no desire to overthrow a constitution through which the class from
+which they sprung controlled the government. Strengthened by the
+cessation of any fear of military violence, the Commons placed the crown
+in financial dependence on themselves by granting a large part of the
+revenue only for a limited term of years, and by putting strictly in
+force their right of appropriating that revenue to special branches of
+expenditure.
+
+
+  Causes in favour of liberty.
+
+  The Toleration Act.
+
+Such a revolution might have ended in the substitution of the despotism
+of a class for the despotism of a man. Many causes combined to prevent
+this result. The landowners, who formed the majority of the House, were
+not elected directly, as was the case with the nobility of the French
+states-general, by their own class, but by electors who, though
+generally loyal to them, would have broken off from them if they had
+attempted to make themselves masters of their fellow citizens. No less
+important was the almost absolute independence of the judges, begun at
+the beginning of the reign, by the grant of office to them during good
+behaviour instead of during the king's pleasure, and finally secured by
+the clause in the Act of Settlement in 1701, which protected them
+against dismissal except on the joint address of both Houses of
+Parliament. Such an improvement, however, finds its full counterpart in
+another great step already taken. The more representative a government
+becomes, the more necessary it is for the well-being of the nation that
+the expression of individual thought should be free in every direction.
+If it is not so, the government is inclined to proscribe unpopular
+opinion, and to forget that new opinions by which the greatest benefits
+are likely to be conferred are certain at first to be entertained by a
+very few, and are quite certain to be unpopular as soon as they come
+into collision with the opinions of the majority. In the middle ages the
+benefits of the liberation of thought from state control had been
+secured by the antagonism between church and state. The Tudor sovereigns
+had rightfully asserted the principle that in a well-ordered nation only
+one supreme power can be allowed to exist; but in so doing they had
+enslaved religion. It was fortunate that, just at the moment when
+parliamentary control was established over the state, circumstances
+should have arisen which made the majority ready to restore to the
+individual conscience that supremacy over religion which the medieval
+ecclesiastics had claimed for the corporation of the universal church.
+Dissenters had, in the main, stood shoulder to shoulder with churchmen
+in rejecting the suspicious benefits of James, and both gratitude and
+policy forbade the thought of replacing them under the heavy yoke which
+had been imposed on them at the Restoration. The exact mode in which
+relief should be afforded was still an open question. The idea prevalent
+with the more liberal minds amongst the clergy was that of
+comprehension--that is to say, of so modifying the prayers and
+ceremonies of the church as to enable the dissenters cheerfully to enter
+in. The scheme was one which had approved itself to minds of the highest
+order--to Sir Thomas More, to Bacon, to Hales and to Jeremy Taylor. It
+is one which, as long as beliefs are not very divergent, keeps up a
+sense of brotherhood overruling the diversity of opinion. It broke down,
+as it always will break down in practice, whenever the difference of
+belief is so strongly felt as to seek earnestly to embody itself in
+diversity of outward practice. The greater part of the clergy of the
+church felt that to surrender their accustomed formularies was to
+surrender somewhat of the belief which those formularies signified,
+while the dissenting clergy were equally reluctant to adopt the common
+prayer book even in a modified form. Hence the Toleration Act, which
+guaranteed the right of separate assemblies for worship outside the pale
+of the church, though it embodied the principles of Cromwell and Milton,
+and not those of Chillingworth and Hales, was carried without
+difficulty, whilst the proposed scheme of comprehension never had a
+chance of success (1689). The choice was one which posterity can
+heartily approve. However wide the limits of toleration be drawn, there
+will always be those who will be left outside. By religious liberty
+those inside gain as much as those who are without. From the moment of
+the passing of the Toleration Act, no Protestant in England performed
+any act of worship except by his own free and deliberate choice. The
+literary spokesman of the new system was Locke. His _Letters concerning
+Toleration_ laid down the principle which had been maintained by
+Cromwell, with a wider application than was possible in days when the
+state was in the hands of a mere minority only able to maintain itself
+in power by constant and suspicious vigilance.
+
+One measure remained to place the dissenters in the position of full
+membership of the state. The Test Act excluded them from office. But
+the memory of the high-handed proceedings of Puritan rulers was still
+too recent to allow Englishmen to run the risk of a reimposition of
+their yoke, and this feeling, fanciful as it was, was sufficient to keep
+the Test Act in force for years to come.
+
+
+  Liberty of the press.
+
+The complement of the Toleration Act was the abolition of the censorship
+of the press (1695). The ideas of the author of the _Areopagitica_ had
+at last prevailed. The attempt to fix certain opinions on the nation
+which were pleasing to those in power was abandoned by king and
+parliament alike. The nation, or at least so much of it as cared to read
+books or pamphlets on political subjects, was acknowledged to be the
+supreme judge, which must therefore be allowed to listen to what
+counsellors it pleased.
+
+This new position of the nation made itself felt in various ways. It was
+William's merit that, fond as he was of power, he recognized the fact
+that he could not rule except so far as he carried the goodwill of the
+nation with him. No doubt he was helped to an intelligent perception of
+the new situation by the fact that, as a foreigner, he cared far more
+for carrying on war successfully against France than for influencing the
+domestic legislation of a country which was not his own, and by the
+knowledge that the conduct of the struggle which lasted till he was able
+to treat with France on equal terms at Ryswick (1697) was fairly trusted
+to his hands. Nevertheless these years of war called for the united
+action of a national government, and in seeking to gain this support for
+himself, he hit upon an expedient which opened a new era in
+constitutional politics.
+
+
+  Beginning of cabinet government.
+
+The supremacy of the House of Commons would have been an evil of no
+common magnitude, if it had made government impossible. Yet this was
+precisely what it threatened to do. Sometimes the dominant party in the
+House pressed with unscrupulous rancour upon its opponents. Sometimes
+the majority shifted from side to side as the House was influenced by
+passing gusts of passion or sympathy, so that, as it was said at the
+time, no man could foretell one day what the House would be pleased to
+do on the next. Against the first of these dangers William was to a
+great extent able to guard by the exercise of his right of dissolution,
+so as to appeal to the constituencies, which did not always share in the
+the passions of their representatives. But the second danger could not
+be met in this way. The only cure for waywardness is responsibility, and
+not only was this precisely what the Commons had not learned to feel,
+but it was that which it was impossible to make them feel directly. A
+body composed of several hundred members cannot carry on government with
+the requisite steadiness of action and clearness of insight. Such work
+can only fitly be entrusted to a few, and whenever difficult
+circumstances arise it is necessary that the action of those few be kept
+in harmony by the predominance of one. The scheme on which William hit,
+by the advice of the earl of Sunderland, was that which has since been
+known as cabinet government. He selected as his ministers the leading
+members of the two Houses who had the confidence of the majority of the
+House of Commons. In this way, the majority felt an interest in
+supporting the men who embodied their own opinions, and fell in turn
+under the influence of those who held them with greater prudence or
+ability than fell to the lot of the average members of the House. All
+that William doubtless intended was to acquire a ready instrument to
+enable him to carry on the war with success. In reality he had
+refounded, on a new basis, the government of England. His own personal
+qualities were such that he was able to dominate over any set of
+ministers; but the time would come when there would be a sovereign of
+inferior powers. Then the body of ministers would step into his place.
+The old rude arrangements of the middle ages had provided by frequent
+depositions that an inefficient sovereign should cease to rule, and
+those arrangements had been imitated in the cases of Charles I. and
+James II. Still the claim to rule had, at least from the time of Henry
+III., been derived from hereditary descent, and the interruption,
+however frequently it might occur, had been regarded as something
+abnormal, only to be applied where there was an absolute necessity to
+prevent the wielder of executive authority from setting at defiance the
+determined purpose of the nation. After the Revolution not only had the
+king's title been so changed as to make him more directly than ever
+dependent on the nation, but he now called into existence a body which
+derived its own strength from its conformity with the wishes of the
+representatives of the nation.
+
+For the moment it seemed to be but a temporary expedient. When the war
+came to an end, the Whig party which had sustained William in his
+struggle with France split up. The dominant feeling of the House of
+Commons was no longer the desire to support the crown against a foreign
+enemy, but to make government as cheap as possible, leaving future
+dangers to the chances of the future. William had not so understood the
+new invention of a united ministry as binding him to take into his
+service a united ministry of men whom he regarded as fools and knaves.
+He allowed the Commons to reduce the army to a skeleton, to question his
+actions, and to treat him as if he were a cipher. But it was only by
+slow degrees that he was brought to acknowledge the necessity of
+choosing his ministers from amongst the men who had done these things.
+
+
+  The Spanish succession.
+
+The time came when he needed again the support of the nation. The death
+of Charles II., the heirless king of the huge Spanish monarchy, had long
+been expected. Since the peace of Ryswick, William and Louis XIV. had
+come to terms by two successive partition treaties for a division of
+those vast territories in such a way that the whole of them should not
+fall into the hands of a near relation either of the king of France or
+of the emperor, the head of the house of Austria. When the king of Spain
+actually died in 1700, William seemed to have no authority in England
+whatever; and Louis was therefore encouraged to break his engagements,
+and to accept the whole of the Spanish inheritance for his grandson, who
+became Philip V. of Spain. William saw clearly that such predominance of
+France in Europe would lead to the development of pretensions unbearable
+to other states. But the House of Commons did not see it, even when the
+Dutch garrisons were driven by French troops out of the posts in the
+Spanish Netherlands which they had occupied for many years (1701).
+
+
+  The Act of Settlement.
+
+William had prudently done all that he could to conciliate the Tory
+majority. In the preceding year (1700) he had given office to a Tory
+ministry, and he now (1701) gave his assent to the Act of Settlement,
+which secured the succession of the crown to the electress Sophia of
+Hanover, daughter of James I.'s daughter Elizabeth, to the exclusion of
+all Roman Catholic claimants, though it imposed several fresh
+restrictions on the prerogative. William was indeed wise in keeping his
+feelings under control. The country sympathized with him more than the
+Commons did, and when the House imprisoned the gentlemen deputed by the
+freeholders of Kent to present a petition asking that its loyal
+addresses might be turned into bills of supply, it simply advertised its
+weakness to the whole country.
+
+
+  The Grand Alliance.
+
+The reception of this Kentish petition was but a foretaste of the
+discrepancy between the Commons and the nation, which was to prove the
+marked feature of the middle of the century now opening. For the present
+the House was ready to give way. It requested the king to enter into
+alliance with the Dutch. William went yet further in the direction in
+which he was urged. He formed an alliance with the emperor, as well as
+with the Netherlands, to prevent the union of the crowns of France and
+Spain, and to compel France to evacuate the Netherlands. An unexpected
+event came to give him all the strength he needed. James II. died, and
+Louis acknowledged his son as the rightful king of England. Englishmen
+of both parties were stung to indignation by the insult. William
+dissolved parliament, and the new House of Commons, Tory as it was by a
+small majority, was eager to support the king. It voted men and money
+according to his wishes. England was to be the soul of the Grand
+Alliance against France. But before a blow was struck William was thrown
+from his horse. He died on the 8th of March 1702. "The man," as Burke
+said of him, "was dead, but the Grand Alliance survived in which King
+William lived and reigned."
+
+
+  Queen Anne, 1702-1714.
+
+Upon the accession of Anne, war was at once begun. The Grand Alliance
+became, as William would have wished, a league to wrest the whole of the
+Spanish dominions from Philip, in favour of the Austrian archduke
+Charles. It found a chief of supreme military and diplomatic genius in
+the duke of Marlborough. His victory at Blenheim (1704) drove the French
+out of Germany. His victory of Ramillies (1706) drove them out of the
+Netherlands. In Spain, Gibraltar was captured by Rooke (1704) and
+Barcelona by Peterborough (1705). Prince Eugene relieved Turin from a
+French siege, and followed up the blow by driving the besiegers out of
+Italy.
+
+
+  Union with Scotland.
+
+The influence of Marlborough at home was the result partly of the
+prestige of his victories, partly of the dominating influence of his
+strong-minded duchess ("Mrs Freeman") over the queen (see ANNE, queen of
+England). The duke cared little for home politics in themselves; but he
+had his own ends, both public and private, to serve, and at first gave
+his support to the Tories, whose church policy was regarded with favour
+by the queen. Their efforts were directed towards the restriction of the
+Toleration Act within narrow limits. Many dissenters had evaded the Test
+Act by partaking of the communion in a church, though they subsequently
+attended their own chapels. An Occasional Conformity Bill, imposing
+penalties on those who adopted this practice, twice passed the Commons
+(1702, 1703), but was rejected by the House of Lords, in which the Whig
+element predominated. The church was served in a nobler manner in 1704
+by the abandonment of first-fruits and tenths by the queen for the
+purpose of raising the pittances of the poorer clergy (see QUEEN ANNE'S
+BOUNTY). In 1707 a piece of legislation of the highest value was carried
+to a successful end. The Act of Union, passed in the parliaments of
+England and Scotland, joined the legislatures of the two kingdoms and
+the nations themselves in an indissoluble bond.
+
+
+  United Whig ministry.
+
+The ministry in office at the time of the passing of the Act of Union
+had suffered important changes since the commencement of the reign. The
+Tories had never been as earnest in the prosecution of the war as the
+Whigs; and Marlborough, who cared above all things for the furtherance
+of the war, gradually replaced Tories by Whigs in the ministry. His
+intention was doubtless to conciliate both parties by admitting them
+both to a share of power; but the Whigs were determined to have all or
+none, and in 1708 a purely Whig ministry was formed to support the war
+as the first purely Whig ministry had supported it in the reign of
+William. The years of its power were the years of the victories of
+Oudenarde (1708) and of Malplaquet (1709), bringing with them the entire
+ruin of the military power of Louis XIV.
+
+Such successes, if they were not embraced in the spirit of moderation,
+boded no good to the Whigs. It was known that even before the last
+battle Louis had been ready to abandon the cause of his grandson, and
+that his offers had been rejected because he would not consent to join
+the allies in turning him out of Spain. A belief spread in England that
+Marlborough wished the endless prolongation of the war for his own
+selfish ends. Spain was far away, and, if the Netherlands were safe,
+enough had been done for the interests of England. The Whigs were
+charged with refusing to make peace when an honourable and satisfactory
+peace was not beyond their reach.
+
+
+  Tory Ministry.
+
+As soon as the demand for a vigorous prosecution of the war relaxed, the
+Whigs could but rely on their domestic policy, in which they were
+strongest in the eyes of posterity but weakest in the eyes of
+contemporaries. It was known that they looked for the principle on which
+the queen's throne rested to the national act of the Revolution, rather
+than to the birth of the sovereign as the daughter of James II., whilst
+popular feeling preferred, however inconsistently, to attach itself to
+some fragment of hereditary right. What was of greater consequence was,
+that it was known that they were the friends of the dissenters, and
+that their leaders, if they could have had their way, would not only
+have maintained the Toleration Act, but would also have repealed the
+Test Act. In 1709 a sermon preached by Dr Sacheverell (q.v.) denounced
+toleration and the right of resistance in tones worthy of the first days
+of the Restoration. Foolish as the sermon was, it was but the reflection
+of folly which was widely spread amongst the rude and less educated
+classes. The Whig leaders unwisely took up the challenge and impeached
+Sacheverell. The Lords condemned the man, but they condemned him to an
+easy sentence. His trial was the signal for riot. Dissenting chapels
+were sacked to the cry of High Church and Sacheverell. The queen, who
+had personal reasons for disliking the Whigs, dismissed them from office
+(1710), and a Tory House of Commons was elected amidst the excitement to
+support the Tory ministry of Harley and St John.
+
+
+  Peace of Utrecht.
+
+  Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act.
+
+After some hesitation the new ministry made peace with France, and the
+treaty of Utrecht (1713), stipulating for the permanent separation of
+the crowns of France and Spain, and assigning Milan, Naples and the
+Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian claimant, accomplished all that
+could reasonably be desired, though the abandonment to the vengeance of
+the Spanish government of her Catalan allies, and the base desertion of
+her continental confederates on the very field of action, brought
+dishonour on the good name of England. The Commons gladly welcomed the
+cessation of the war. The approval of the Lords had been secured by the
+creation of twelve Tory peers. In home politics the new ministry was in
+danger of being carried away by its more violent supporters. St John,
+now Viscount Bolingbroke, with unscrupulous audacity placed himself at
+their head. The Occasional Conformity Bill was at last carried (1711).
+To it was added the Schism Act (1714), forbidding dissenters to keep
+schools or engage in tuition. Bolingbroke went still farther. He engaged
+in an intrigue for bringing over the Pretender to succeed the queen upon
+her death. This wild conduct alienated the moderate Tories, who, much as
+they wished to see the throne occupied by the heir of the ancient line,
+could not bring themselves to consent to its occupation by a Roman
+Catholic prince. Such men, therefore, when Anne died (1714) joined the
+Whigs in proclaiming the elector of Hanover king as George I.
+
+
+X. THE HANOVERIAN KINGS (1714-1793)
+
+  Accession of the House of Hanover.
+
+  Repeal of Occasional Conformity Act and Schism Act.
+
+The accession of George I. brought with it the predominance of the
+Whigs. They had on their side the royal power, the greater part of the
+aristocracy, the dissenters and the higher trading and commercial
+classes. The Tories appealed to the dislike of dissenters prevalent
+amongst the country gentlemen and the country clergy, and to the
+jealousy felt by the agricultural classes towards those who enriched
+themselves by trade. Such a feeling, if it was aroused by irritating
+legislation, might very probably turn to the advantage of the exiled
+house, especially as the majority of Englishmen were to be found on the
+Tory side. It was therefore advisable that government should content
+itself with as little action as possible, in order to give time for old
+habits to wear themselves out. The landing of the Pretender in Scotland
+(1715), and the defeat of a portion of his army which had advanced to
+Preston--a defeat which was the consequence of the apathy of his English
+supporters, and which was followed by the complete suppression of the
+rebellion--gave increased strength to the Whig government. But they were
+reluctant to face an immediate dissolution, and the Septennial Act was
+passed (1716) to extend to seven years the duration of parliaments,
+which had been fixed at three years by the Triennial Act of William and
+Mary. Under General Stanhope an effort was made to draw legislation in a
+more liberal direction. The Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act
+were repealed (1719); but the majorities on the side of the government
+were unusually small, and Stanhope, who would willingly have repealed
+the Test Act so far as it related to dissenters, was compelled to
+abandon the project as entirely impracticable. The Peerage Bill,
+introduced at the same time to limit the royal power of creating peers,
+was happily thrown out in the Commons. It was proposed, partly from a
+desire to guard the Lords against such a sudden increase of their
+numbers as had been forced on them when the treaty of Utrecht was under
+discussion, and partly to secure the Whigs in office against any change
+in the royal councils in a succeeding reign. It was in fact conceived by
+men who valued the immediate victory of their principles more than they
+trusted to the general good sense of the nation. The Lords were at this
+time, as a matter of fact, not merely wealthier but wiser than the
+Commons; and it is no wonder that, in days when the Commons, by passing
+the Septennial Act, had shown their distrust of their own constituents,
+the peers should show, by the Peerage Bill, their distrust of that House
+which was elected by those constituencies. Nevertheless, the remedy was
+worse than the disease, for it would have established a close oligarchy,
+bound sooner or later to come into conflict with the will of the nation,
+and only to be overthrown by a violent alteration of the constitution.
+
+
+  Walpole's ministry.
+
+The excitement following on the bursting of the South Sea Bubble (q.v.),
+and the death or ruin of the leading ministers, brought Sir Robert
+Walpole to the front (1721). As a man of business when men of business
+were few in the House of Commons, he was eminently fit to manage the
+affairs of the country. But he owed his long continuance in office
+especially to his sagacity. He clearly saw, what Stanhope had failed to
+see, that the mass of the nation was not fitted as yet to interest
+itself wisely in affairs of government, and that therefore the rule must
+be kept in the hands of the upper classes. But he was too sensible to
+adopt the coarse expedient which had commended itself to Stanhope, and
+he preferred humouring the masses to contradicting them.
+
+The struggle of the preceding century had left its mark in every
+direction on the national development. Out of the reaction against
+Puritanism had come a widely-spread relaxation of morals, and also, as
+far as the educated class was concerned, an eagerness for the discussion
+of all social and religious problems. The fierce excitement of political
+life had quickened thought, and the most anciently received doctrines
+were held of little worth until they were brought to the test of reason.
+It was a time when the pen was more powerful than the sword, when a
+secretary of state would treat with condescension a witty pamphleteer,
+and when such a pamphleteer might hope, not in vain, to become a
+secretary of state.
+
+It was in this world of reason and literature that the Whigs of the
+Peerage Bill moved. Walpole perceived that there was another world which
+understood none of these things. With cynical insight he discovered that
+a great government cannot rest on a clique, however distinguished. If
+the mass of the nation was not conscious of political wants, it was
+conscious of material wants. The merchant needed protection for his
+trade; the voters gladly welcomed election days as bringing guineas to
+their pockets. Members of parliament were ready to sell their votes for
+places, for pensions, for actual money. The system was not new, as Danby
+is credited with the discovery that a vote in the House of Commons might
+be purchased. But with Walpole it reached its height.
+
+Such a system was possible because the House of Commons was not really
+accountable to its constituents. The votes of its members were not
+published, and still less were their speeches made known. Such a silence
+could only be maintained around the House when there was little interest
+in its proceedings. The great questions of religion and taxation which
+had agitated the country under the Stuarts were now fairly settled. To
+reawaken those questions in any shape would be dangerous. Walpole took
+good care never to repeat the mistake of the Sacheverell trial. When on
+one occasion he was led into the proposal of an unpopular excise he at
+once drew back. England in his days was growing rich. Englishmen were
+bluff and independent, in their ways often coarse and unmannerly. Their
+life was the life depicted on the canvas of Hogarth and the pages of
+Fielding. All high imagination, all devotion to the public weal, seemed
+laid asleep. But the political instinct was not dead, and it would one
+day express itself for better ends than an agitation against an excise
+bill or an outcry for a popular war. A government could no longer employ
+its powers for direct oppression. In his own house and in his own
+conscience, every Englishman, as far as the government was concerned,
+was the master of his destiny. By and by the idea would dawn on the
+nation that anarchy is as productive of evil as tyranny, and that a
+government which omits to regulate or control allows the strong to
+oppress the weak, and the rich to oppress the poor.
+
+
+  George II. 1727-1760.
+
+Walpole's administration lasted long enough to give room for some feeble
+expression of this feeling. When George I. was succeeded by George II.
+(1727), Walpole remained in power. His eagerness for the possession of
+that power which he desired to use for his country's good, together with
+the incapacity of two kings born and bred in a foreign country to take a
+leading part in English affairs, completed the change which had been
+effected when William first entrusted the conduct of government to a
+united cabinet. There was now for the first time a prime minister in
+England, a person who was himself a subject imposing harmonious action
+on the cabinet. The change was so gradually and silently effected that
+it is difficult to realize its full importance. So far, indeed, as it
+only came about through the incapacity of the first two kings of the
+house of Hanover, it might be undone, and was in fact to a great extent
+undone by a more active successor. But so far as it was the result of
+general tendencies, it could never be obliterated. In the ministries in
+which Somers and Montagu on the one hand and Harley and St John on the
+other had taken part, there was no prime minister except so far as one
+member of the administration dominated over his colleagues by the force
+of character and intelligence. In the reign of George III., even North
+and Addington were universally acknowledged by that title, though they
+had little claim to the independence of action of a Walpole or a Pitt.
+
+The change was, in fact, one of the most important of those by which the
+English constitution has been altered from an hereditary monarchy with a
+parliamentary regulative agency to a parliamentary government with an
+hereditary regulative agency. In Walpole's time the forms of the
+constitution had become, in all essential particulars, what they are
+now. What was wanting was a national force behind them to set them to
+their proper work.
+
+
+  The Opposition.
+
+  War with Spain.
+
+The growing opposition which finally drove Walpole from power was not
+entirely without a nobler element than could be furnished by personal
+rivalry, or ignorant distrust of commercial and financial success. It
+was well that complaints that a great country ought not to be governed
+by patronage and bribery should be raised, although, as subsequent
+experience showed, the causes which rendered corruption inevitable were
+not to be removed by the expulsion of Walpole from office. But for one
+error, indeed, it is probable that Walpole's rule would have been still
+further prolonged. In 1739 a popular excitement arose for a declaration
+of war against Spain. Walpole believed that war to be certainly unjust,
+and likely to be disastrous. He had, however, been so accustomed to give
+way to popular pressure that he did not perceive the difference between
+a wise and timely determination to leave a right action undone in the
+face of insuperable difficulties, and an unwise and cowardly
+determination to do that which he believed to be wrong and imprudent. If
+he had now resigned rather than demean himself by acting against his
+conscience, it is by no means unlikely that he would have been recalled
+to power before many years were over. As it was, the failures of the war
+recoiled on his own head, and in 1742 his long ministry came to an end.
+
+
+  Ministry of Henry Pelham.
+
+After a short interval a successor was found in Henry Pelham. All the
+ordinary arts of corruption which Walpole had practised were continued,
+and to them were added arts of corruption which Walpole had disdained
+to practise. He at least understood that there were certain principles
+in accordance with which he wished to conduct public affairs, and he had
+driven colleague after colleague out of office rather than allow them to
+distract his method of government. Pelham and his brother, the Thomas
+Pelham, duke of Newcastle, had no principles of government whatever.
+They offered place to every man of parliamentary skill or influence.
+There was no opposition, because the ministers never attempted to do
+anything which would arouse opposition, and because they were ready to
+do anything called for by any one who had power enough to make himself
+dangerous; and in 1743 they embarked on a useless war with France in
+order to please the king, who saw in every commotion on the continent of
+Europe some danger to his beloved Hanover.
+
+
+  The Rebellion of 1745.
+
+At most times in the history of England such a ministry would have been
+driven from office by the outcry of an offended people. In the days of
+the Pelhams, government was regarded as lying too far outside the
+all-important private interests of the community to make it worth while
+to make any effort to rescue it from the degradation into which it had
+fallen; yet the Pelhams had not been long in power before this serene
+belief that the country could get on very well without a government in
+any real sense of the word was put to the test. In 1745 Charles Edward,
+the son of the Pretender, landed in Scotland. He was followed by many of
+the Highland clans, always ready to draw the sword against the
+constituted authorities of the Lowlands; and even in the Lowlands, and
+especially in Edinburgh, he found adherents, who still felt the sting
+inflicted by the suppression of the national independence of Scotland.
+The British army was in as chaotic a condition as the British
+government, and Charles Edward inflicted a complete defeat on a force
+which met him at Prestonpans. Before the end of the year the victor, at
+the head of 5000 men, had advanced to Derby. But he found no support in
+England, and the mere numbers brought against him compelled him to
+retreat, to find defeat at Culloden in the following year (1746). The
+war on the continent had been waged with indifferent success. The
+victory of Dettingen (1743) and the glorious defeat of Fontenoy (1745)
+had achieved no objects worthy of English intervention, and the peace of
+Aix-la-Chapelle put an end in 1748 to hostilities which should never
+have been begun. The government pursued its inglorious career as long as
+Henry Pelham lived. He had at least some share in the financial ability
+of Walpole, and it was not till he died in 1754 that the real
+difficulties of a system which was based on the avoidance of
+difficulties had fairly to be faced.
+
+
+  Moral and religious atmosphere.
+
+  Wesley and Whitefield.
+
+The change which was needed was not any mere re-adjustment of the
+political machine. Those who cared for religion or morality had
+forgotten that man is an imaginative and emotional being. Defenders of
+Christianity and of deism alike appealed to the reason alone. Enthusiasm
+was treated as a folly or a crime, and earnestness of every kind was
+branded with the name of enthusiasm. The higher order of minds dwelt
+with preference upon the beneficent wisdom of the Creator. The lower
+order of minds treated religion as a kind of life assurance against the
+inconvenience of eternal death. Upon such a system as this human nature
+was certain to revenge itself. The preaching of Wesley and Whitefield
+appealed direct to the emotions, with its doctrine of "conversion," and
+called upon each individual not to understand, or to admire, or to act,
+but vividly to realize the love and mercy of God. In all this there was
+nothing new. What was new was that Wesley added an organization,
+Methodism (q.v.), in which each of his followers unfolded to one another
+the secrets of their heart, and became accountable to his fellows. Large
+as the numbers of the Methodists ultimately became, their influence is
+not to be measured by their numbers. The double want of the age, the
+want of spiritual earnestness and the want of organized coherence, would
+find satisfaction in many ways which would have seemed strange to
+Wesley, but which were, nevertheless, a continuance of the work which he
+began.
+
+
+  Ministry of Newcastle.
+
+  Ministry of Pitt and Newcastle.
+
+As far as government was concerned, when Henry Pelham died (1754) the
+lowest depth of baseness seemed to have been reached. The duke of
+Newcastle, who succeeded his brother, looked on the work of corruption
+with absolute pleasure, and regarded genius and ability as an awkward
+interruption of that happy arrangement which made men subservient to
+flattery and money. Whilst he was in the very act of trying to drive
+from office all men who were possessed of any sort of ideas, he was
+surprised by a great war. In America, the French settlers in Canada and
+the English settlers on the Atlantic coast were falling to blows for the
+possession of the vast territories drained by the Ohio and its
+tributaries. In India, Frenchmen and Englishmen had striven during the
+last war for authority over the native states round Pondicherry and
+Madras, and the conflict threatened to break out anew. When war began in
+earnest, and the reality of danger came home to Englishmen by the
+capture of Minorca (1756), there arose a demand for a more capable
+government than any which Newcastle could offer. Terrified by the storm
+of obloquy which he aroused, he fled from office. A government was
+formed, of which the soul was William Pitt. Pitt was, in some sort, to
+the political life of Englishmen what Wesley was to their religious
+life. He brought no new political ideas into their minds, but he ruled
+them by the force of his character and the example of his purity. His
+weapons were trust and confidence. He appealed to the patriotism of his
+fellow-countrymen, to their imaginative love for the national greatness,
+and he did not appeal in vain. He perceived instinctively that a large
+number, even of those who took greedily the bribes of Walpole and the
+Pelhams, took them, not because they loved money better than their
+country, but because they had no conception that their country had any
+need of them at all. It was a truth, but it was not the whole truth. The
+great Whig families rallied under Newcastle and drove Pitt from office
+(1757). But if Pitt could not govern without Newcastle's corruption,
+neither could Newcastle govern without Pitt's energy. At last a
+compromise was effected, and Newcastle undertook the work of bribing,
+whilst Pitt undertook the work of governing (see CHATHAM, WILLIAM PITT,
+1ST EARL OF).
+
+
+  The Seven Years' War.
+
+The war which had already broken out, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763),
+was not confined to England alone. By the side of the duel between
+France and England, a war was going on upon the continent of Europe, in
+which Austria--with its allies, France, Russia and the German
+princes--had fallen upon the new kingdom of Prussia and its sovereign
+Frederick II. England and Prussia therefore necessarily formed an
+alliance. Different as the two governments were, they were both alike in
+recognizing, in part at least, the conditions of progress. Even in
+Pitt's day England, however imperfectly, rested its strength on the
+popular will. Even in Frederick's day Prussia was ruled by
+administrators selected for their special knowledge. Neither France nor
+Austria had any conception of the necessity of fulfilling these
+requirements. Hence the strength of England and of Prussia. The war
+seemed to be a mere struggle for territory. There was no feeling in
+either Pitt or Frederick, such as there was in the men who contended
+half a century later against Napoleon, that they were fighting the
+battles of the civilized world. There was something repulsive as well in
+the enthusiastic nationalism of Pitt as in the cynical nationalism of
+Frederick. Pitt's sole object was to exalt England to a position in
+which she would fear no rival. But in so doing he exalted that which, in
+spite of all that had happened, best deserved to be exalted. The habits
+of individual energy fused together by the inspiration of patriotism
+conquered Canada. The unintelligent over-regulation of the French
+government could not maintain the colonies which had been founded in
+happier times. In 1758 Louisburg was taken, and the mouth of the St
+Lawrence guarded against France. In 1759 Quebec fell before Wolfe, who
+died at the moment of victory. In the same year the naval victories of
+Lagos and Quiberon Bay established the supremacy of the British at sea.
+The battle of Plassey (1757) had laid Bengal at the feet of Clive; and
+Coote's victory at Wandiwash (1760) led to the final ruin of the relics
+of French authority in southern India. When George II. died (1760)
+England was the first maritime and colonial power in the world (see
+SEVEN YEARS' WAR; CANADA: _History_; INDIA: _History_).
+
+
+  George III., 1760-1820.
+
+  Pitt's resignation.
+
+In George III. the king once more became an important factor in English
+politics. From his childhood he had been trained by his mother and his
+instructors to regard the breaking down of the power of the great
+families as the task of his life. In this he was walking in the same
+direction as Pitt. If the two men could have worked together, England
+might have been spared many misfortunes. Unhappily, the king could not
+understand Pitt's higher qualities, his bold confidence in the popular
+feeling, and his contempt for corruption and intrigue. And yet the
+king's authority was indispensable to Pitt, if he was to carry on his
+conflict against the great families with success. When the war came to
+an end, as it must come to an end sooner or later, Pitt's special
+predominance, derived as it was from his power of breathing a martial
+spirit into the fleets and armies of England, would come to an end too.
+Only the king, with his hold upon the traditional instincts of loyalty
+and the force of his still unimpaired prerogative, could, in ordinary
+times, hold head against the wealthy and influential aristocracy.
+Unfortunately, George III. was not wise enough to deal with the
+difficulty in a high-minded fashion. With a well-intentioned but narrow
+mind, he had nothing in him to strike the imagination of his subjects.
+He met influence with influence, corruption with corruption, intrigue
+with intrigue. Unhappily, too, his earliest relations with Pitt involved
+a dispute on a point on which he was right and Pitt was wrong. In 1761
+Pitt resigned office, because neither the king nor the cabinet were
+willing to declare war against Spain in the midst of the war with
+France. As the war with Spain was inevitable, and as, when it broke out
+in the following year (1762), it was followed by triumphs for which Pitt
+had prepared the way, the prescience of the great war-minister appeared
+to be fully established. But it was his love of war, not his skill in
+carrying it on, which was really in question. He would be satisfied with
+nothing short of the absolute ruin of France. He would have given
+England that dangerous position of supremacy which was gained for France
+by Louis XIV. in the 17th century, and by Napoleon in the 19th century.
+He would have made his country still more haughty and arrogant than it
+was, till other nations rose against it, as they have three times risen
+against France, rather than submit to the intolerable yoke. It was a
+happy thing for England that peace was signed (1763).
+
+
+  Bute and Grenville.
+
+Even as it was, a spirit of contemptuous disregard of the rights of
+others had been roused, which would not be easily allayed. The king's
+premature attempt to secure a prime minister of his own choosing in Lord
+Bute (1761) came to an end through the minister's incapacity (1763).
+George Grenville, who followed him, kept the king in leading strings in
+reliance upon his parliamentary majority. Something, no doubt, had been
+accomplished by the incorruptibility of Pitt. The practice of bribing
+members of parliament by actual presents in money came to an end, though
+the practice of bribing them by place and pension long continued. The
+arrogance which Pitt displayed towards foreign nations was displayed by
+Grenville towards classes of the population of the British dominions. It
+was enough for him to establish a right. He never put himself in the
+position of those who were to suffer by its being put in force.
+
+
+  The American colonies.
+
+The first to suffer from Grenville's conception of his duty were the
+American colonies. The mercantile system, which had sprung up in Spain
+in the 16th century, held that colonies were to be entirely prohibited
+from trading, except with the mother country. Every European country had
+adopted this view, and the acquisition of fresh colonial dominions by
+England, at the peace of 1763, had been made not so much through lust of
+empire as through love of trade. Of all English colonies, the American
+were the most populous and important. Their proximity to the Spanish
+colonies in the West Indies had naturally led to a contraband trade. To
+this trade Grenville put a stop, as far as lay in his power. Obnoxious
+as this measure was in America, the colonists had acknowledged the
+principle on which it was founded too long to make it easy to resist it.
+Another step of Grenville's met with more open opposition. Even with all
+the experience of the century which followed, the relations between a
+mother country and her colonies are not easy to arrange. If the burthen
+of defence is to be borne in common, it can hardly be left to the mother
+country to declare war, and to exact the necessary taxation, without the
+consent of the colonies. If, on the other hand, it is to be borne by the
+mother country alone, she may well complain that she is left to bear
+more than her due share of the weight. The latter alternative forced
+itself upon the attention of Grenville. The British parliament, he held,
+was the supreme legislature, and, as such, was entitled to raise taxes
+in America to support the military forces needed for the defence of
+America. The act (1765) imposing a stamp tax on the American colonies
+was the result.
+
+
+  The Rockingham ministry.
+
+As might have been expected, the Americans resisted. For them, the
+question was precisely that which Hampden had fought out in the case of
+ship-money. As far as they were concerned, the British parliament had
+stepped into the position of Charles I. If Grenville had remained in
+office he would probably have persisted in his resolution. He was driven
+from his post by the king's resolve no longer to submit to his
+insolence, and a new ministry was formed under the marquess of
+Rockingham, composed of some of those leaders of the Whig aristocracy
+who had not followed the Grenville ministry. They were well-intentioned,
+but weak, and without political ability; and the king regarded them with
+distrust, only qualified by his abhorrence of the ministry which they
+superseded.
+
+
+  The Declaratory Act and repeal of Stamp Act.
+
+As soon as the bad news came from America, the ministry was placed
+between two recommendations. Grenville, on the one hand, advised that
+the tax should be enforced. Pitt, on the other, declared that the
+British parliament had absolutely no right to tax America, though he
+held that it had the right to regulate, or in other words to tax, the
+commerce of America for the benefit of the British merchant and
+manufacturer. Between the two the government took a middle course. It
+obtained from parliament a total repeal of the Stamp Act, but it also
+passed a Declaratory Act, claiming for the British parliament the
+supreme power over the colonies in matters of taxation, as well as in
+matters of legislation.
+
+
+  Burke's political theory.
+
+It is possible that the course thus adopted was chosen simply because it
+was a middle course. But it was probably suggested by Edmund Burke, who
+was then Lord Rockingham's private secretary, but who for some time to
+come was to furnish thought to the party to which he attached himself.
+Burke carried into the world of theory those politics of expediency of
+which Walpole had been the practical originator. He held that questions
+of abstract right had no place in politics. It was therefore as absurd
+to argue with Pitt that England had a right to regulate commerce, as it
+was to argue with Grenville that England had a right to levy taxes. All
+that could be said was, that it was expedient in a widespread empire
+that the power of final decision should be lodged somewhere, and that it
+was also expedient not to use that power in such a way as to irritate
+those whom it was the truest wisdom to conciliate.
+
+
+  Arguments of Pitt and Burke.
+
+The weak side of this view was the weak side of all Burke's political
+philosophy. Like all great innovators, he was intensely conservative
+where he was not an advocate of change. With new views on every subject
+relating to the exercise of power, he shrank even from entertaining the
+slightest question relating to the distribution of power. He recommended
+to the British parliament the most self-denying wisdom, but he could not
+see that in its relation to the colonies the British parliament was so
+constituted as to make it entirely unprepared to be either wise or
+self-denying. It is true that if he had thought out the matter in this
+direction, he would have been led further than he or any other man in
+England or America was at that time prepared to go. If the British
+parliament was unfit to legislate for America, and if, as was
+undoubtedly the case, it was impossible to create a representative body
+which was fit to legislate, it would follow that the American colonies
+could only be fairly governed as practically independent states, though
+they might possibly remain, like the great colonies of our own day, in a
+position of alliance rather than of dependence. It was because the
+issues opened led to changes so far greater than the wisest statesman
+then perceived, that Pitt's solution, logically untenable as it was, was
+preferable to Burke's. Pitt would have given bad reasons for going a
+step in the right direction. Burke gave excellent reasons why those who
+were certain to go wrong should have the power to go right.
+
+
+  Ministry of Lord Chatham.
+
+Scarcely were the measures relating to America passed when the king
+turned out the ministry. The new ministry was formed by Pitt, who was
+created earl of Chatham (1766), on the principle of bringing together
+men who had shaken themselves loose from any of the different Whig
+cliques. Whatever chance the plan had of succeeding was at an end when
+Chatham's mind temporarily gave way under stress of disease (1767).
+Charles Townshend, a brilliant, headstrong man, led parliament in the
+way which had been prepared by the Declaratory Act, and laid duties on
+tea and other articles of commerce entering the ports of America.
+
+
+  Wilkes and "The North Briton."
+
+It was impossible that the position thus claimed by the British
+parliament towards America should affect America alone. The habit of
+obtaining money otherwise than by the consent of those who are required
+to pay it would be certain to make parliament careless of the feelings
+and interests of that great majority of the population at home, which
+was unrepresented in parliament. The resistance of America to the
+taxation imposed was therefore not without benefit to the people of the
+mother country. Already there were signs of a readiness in parliament to
+treat even the constituencies with contempt. In 1763, in the days of the
+Grenville ministry, John Wilkes, a profligate and scurrilous writer, had
+been arrested on a general warrant--that is to say, a warrant in which
+the name of no individual was mentioned--as the author of an alleged
+libel on the king, contained in No. 45 of _The North Briton_. He was a
+member of parliament, and as such was declared by Chief Justice Pratt to
+be privileged against arrest. In 1768 he was elected member for
+Middlesex. The House of Commons expelled him. He was again elected, and
+again expelled. The third time, the Commons gave the seat to which
+Wilkes was a third time chosen to Colonel Luttrell, who was far down in
+the poll. Wilkes thus became the representative of a great
+constitutional principle, the principle that the electors have a right
+to choose their representatives without restriction, save by the
+regulations of the law.
+
+For the present the contention of the American colonists and of the
+defenders of Wilkes at home was confined within the compass of the law.
+Yet in both cases it might easily pass beyond that compass, and might
+rest itself upon an appeal to the duty of governments to modify the law,
+and to enlarge the basis of their authority, when law and authority have
+become too narrow.
+
+
+  Lord North's ministry.
+
+As regards America, though Townshend died, the government persisted in
+his policy. As resistance grew stronger in America, the king urged the
+use of compulsion. If he had not the wisdom of the country on his side,
+he had its prejudices. The arrogant spirit of Englishmen made them
+contemptuous towards the colonists, and the desire to thrust taxation
+upon others than themselves made the new colonial legislation popular.
+In 1770 the king made Lord North prime minister. He had won the object
+on which he had set his heart. A new Tory party had sprung up, not
+distinguished, like the Tories of Queen Anne's reign, by a special
+ecclesiastical policy, but by their acceptance of the king's claim to
+nominate ministers, and so to predominate in the ministry himself.
+
+Unhappily the opposition, united in the desire to conciliate America,
+was divided on questions of home policy. Chatham would have met the new
+danger by parliamentary reform, giving increased voting power to the
+freeholders of the counties. Burke from principle, and his noble patrons
+mainly from lower motives, were opposed to any such change. As Burke had
+wished the British parliament to be supreme over the colonies, in
+confidence that this supremacy would not be abused, so he wished the
+great landowning connexion resting on the rotten boroughs to rule over
+the unrepresented people, in confidence that this power would not be
+abused. Amid these distractions the king had an easy game to play. He
+had all the patronage of the government in his hands, and beyond the
+circle which was influenced by gifts of patronage, he could appeal to
+the ignorance and self-seeking of the nation, with which, though he knew
+it not, he was himself in the closest sympathy.
+
+
+  The American War of Independence.
+
+No wonder resistance grew more vigorous in America. In 1773 the
+inhabitants of Boston threw ship-loads of tea into the harbour rather
+than pay the obnoxious duty. In 1774 the Boston Port Bill deprived
+Boston of its commercial rights, whilst the Massachusetts Government
+Bill took away from that colony the ordinary political liberties of
+Englishmen. The first skirmish of the inevitable war was fought at
+Lexington in 1775. In 1776 the thirteen colonies united in the
+continental congress issued their Declaration of Independence. England
+put forth all its strength to beat down resistance; but the task, which
+seemed easy at a distance, proved impossible. It might have been so even
+had the war been conducted on the British side with greater military
+skill and with more insight into the conditions of the struggle, which
+was essentially a civil contest between men of the same race. But the
+initial difficulties of the vast field of operations were greatly
+increased by the want of skill of the British leaders in adapting
+themselves to new conditions, while even loyalist sentiment was shocked
+by the employment of German mercenaries and Red Indian savages against
+men of English blood. Even so, the issue of the struggle was for long
+doubtful, and there were moments when it might have ended by a policy of
+wise concession; but the Americans, though reduced at times to desperate
+straits, had the advantage of fighting in their own country, and above
+all they found in George Washington a leader after the model of the
+English country gentleman who had upheld the standard of liberty against
+the Stuarts, and worthy of the great cause for which they fought. In
+1777 a British army under Burgoyne capitulated at Saratoga; and early in
+1778 France, eager to revenge the disasters of the Seven Years' War,
+formed an alliance with the revolted colonies as free and independent
+states, and was soon joined by Spain.
+
+Chatham, who was ready to make any concession to America short of
+independence, and especially of independence at the dictation of France,
+died in 1778. The war was continued for some years with varying results;
+but in 1781 the capitulation of a second British army under Cornwallis
+at Yorktown was a decisive blow, which brought home to the minds of the
+dullest the assurance that the conquest of America was an impossibility.
+
+Before this event happened there had been a great change in public
+feeling in England. The increasing weight of taxation gave rise in 1780
+to a great meeting of the freeholders of Yorkshire, which in turn gave
+the signal for a general agitation for the reduction of unnecessary
+expense in the government. To this desire Burke gave expression in his
+bill for economical reform, though he was unable to carry it in the
+teeth of interested opposition. The movement in favour of economy was
+necessarily also a movement in favour of peace; and when the surrender
+of Yorktown was known (1782), Lord North at once resigned office.
+
+
+  The second Rockingham ministry.
+
+The new ministry formed under Lord Rockingham comprised not only his own
+immediate followers, of whom the most prominent was Charles Fox, but the
+followers of Chatham, of whom Lord Shelburne was the acknowledged
+leader. A treaty of peace acknowledging the independence of the United
+States of America was at once set on foot; and the negotiation with
+France was rendered easy by the defeat of a French fleet by Rodney, and
+by the failure of the combined forces of France and Spain to take
+Gibraltar.
+
+
+  The coalition.
+
+Already the ministry on which such great hopes had been placed had
+broken up. Rockingham died in July 1782. The two sections of which the
+government was composed had different aims. The Rockingham section,
+which now looked up to Fox, rested on aristocratic connexion and
+influence; the Shelburne section was anxious to gain popular support by
+active reforms, and to gain over the king to their side. Judging by past
+experience, the combination might well seem hopeless, and honourable men
+like Fox might easily regard it with suspicion. But Fox's allies took
+good care that their name should not be associated with the idea of
+improvement. They pruned Burke's Economical Reform Bill till it left as
+many abuses as it suppressed; and though the bill prohibited the grant
+of pensions above £300, they hastily gave away pensions of much larger
+value to their own friends before the bill had received the royal
+assent. They also opposed a bill for parliamentary reform brought in by
+young William Pitt. When the king chose Shelburne as prime minister,
+they refused to follow him, and put forward the incompetent duke of
+Portland as their candidate for the office. The struggle was thus
+renewed on the old ground of the king's right to select his ministers.
+But while the king now put forward a minister notoriously able and
+competent to the task, his opponents put forward a man whose only claim
+to office was the possession of large estates. They forced their way
+back to power by means as unscrupulous as their claim to it was
+unjustifiable. They formed a coalition with Lord North, whose politics
+and character they had denounced for years. The coalition, as soon as
+the peace with America and France had been signed (1783), drove
+Shelburne from office. The duke of Portland became the nominal head of
+the government, Fox and North its real leaders.
+
+
+  The India Bill.
+
+Such a ministry could not afford to make a single blunder. The king
+detested it, and the assumption by the Whig houses of a right to
+nominate the head of the government without reference to the national
+interests, could never be popular. The blunder was soon committed.
+Burke, hating wrong and injustice with a bitter hatred, had descried in
+the government of British India by the East India Company a disgrace to
+the English name. For many of the actions of that government no
+honourable man can think of uttering a word of defence. The helpless
+natives were oppressed and robbed by the company and its servants in
+every possible way. Burke drew up a bill, which was adopted by the
+coalition government, for taking all authority in India out of the hands
+of the company, and even placing the company's management of its own
+commercial affairs under control. The governing and controlling body was
+naturally to be a council appointed at home. The question of the
+nomination of this council at once drew the whole question within the
+domain of party politics. The whole patronage of India would be in its
+hands, and, as parliament was then constituted, the balance of parties
+might be more seriously affected by the distribution of that patronage
+than it would be now. When, therefore, it was understood that the
+government bill meant the council to be named in the bill for four
+years, or, in other words, to be named by the coalition ministry, it was
+generally regarded as an unblushing attempt to turn a measure for the
+good government of India into a measure for securing the ministry in
+office. The bill of course passed the Commons. When it came before the
+Lords, it was thrown out in consequence of a message from the king, that
+he would regard any one who voted for it as his enemy.
+
+
+  Ministry of the younger Pitt.
+
+The contest had thus become one between the influence of the crown and
+the influence of the great houses. Constitutional historians, who treat
+the question as one of merely theoretical politics, leave out of
+consideration this essential element of the situation, and forget that,
+if it was wrong for the king to influence the Lords by his message, it
+was equally wrong for the ministry to acquire for themselves fresh
+patronage with which to influence the Commons. But there was now, what
+there had not been in the time of Walpole and the Pelhams, a public
+opinion ready to throw its weight on one side or the other. The county
+members still formed the most independent portion of the
+representation, and there were many possessors of rotten boroughs, who
+were ready to agree with the county members rather than with the great
+landowners. In choosing Pitt, the young son of Chatham, for his prime
+minister, as soon as he had dismissed the coalition, George III. gave
+assurance that he wished his counsels to be directed by integrity and
+ability. After a struggle of many weeks, parliament was dissolved
+(1784), and the new House of Commons was prepared to support the king's
+minister by a large majority.
+
+As far as names go, the change effected placed the new Tory party in
+office for an almost uninterrupted period of forty-six years. It so
+happened, however, that after the first eight years of that period had
+passed by, circumstances occurred which effected so great a change in
+the composition and character of that party as to render any statement
+to this effect entirely illusive. During eight years, however, Pitt's
+ministry was not merely a Tory ministry resting on the choice of the
+king, but a Liberal ministry resting on national support and upon
+advanced political knowledge.
+
+
+  Material progress.
+
+The nation which Pitt had behind him was very different from the
+populace which had assailed Walpole's Excise Bill, or had shouted for
+Wilkes and liberty. At the beginning of the century the intellect of
+thoughtful Englishmen had applied itself to speculative problems of
+religion and philosophy. In the middle of the century it applied itself
+to practical problems affecting the employment of industry. In 1776 Adam
+Smith published the _Wealth of Nations_. Already in 1762 the work of
+Brindley, the Bridgewater canal, the first joint of a network of inland
+water communication, was opened. In 1767 Hargreaves produced the
+spinning-jenny; Arkwright's spinning machine was exhibited in 1768;
+Crompton's mule was finished in 1779; Cartwright hit upon the idea of
+the power-loom in 1784, though it was not brought into profitable use
+till 1801. The Staffordshire potteries had been flourishing under
+Wedgwood since 1763, and the improved steam-engine was brought into
+shape by Watt in 1768. During these years the duke of Bedford, Coke of
+Norfolk, and Robert Bakewell were busy in the improvement of stock and
+agriculture.
+
+The increase of wealth and prosperity caused by these changes went far
+to produce a large class of the population entirely outside the
+associations of the landowning class, but with sufficient intelligence
+to appreciate the advantages of a government carried on without regard
+to the personal interests and rivalries of the aristocracy. The mode in
+which that increase of wealth was effected was even more decisive on the
+ultimate destinies of the country. The substitution of the organization
+of hereditary monarchy for the organization of wealth and station would
+ultimately have led to evils as great as those which it superseded. It
+was only tolerable as a stepping-stone to the organization of
+intelligence. The larger the numbers admitted to influence the affairs
+of state, the more necessary is it that they respect the powers of
+intellect. It would be foolish to institute a comparison between an
+Arkwright or a Crompton and a Locke or a Newton. But it is certain that
+for one man who could appreciate the importance of the treatise _On the
+Human Understanding_ or the theory of gravitation, there were thousands
+who could understand the value of the water-frame, or the power-loom.
+The habit of looking with reverence upon mental power was fostered in no
+slight measure by the industrial development of the second half of the
+18th century.
+
+
+  Pitt's India Bill.
+
+The supremacy of intelligence in the political world was, for the time,
+represented in Pitt. In 1784 he passed an India Bill, which left the
+commerce and all except the highest patronage of India in the hands of
+the East India Company, but which erected a department of the home
+government, named the board of control, to compel the company to carry
+out such political measures as the government saw fit. A bill for
+parliamentary reform was, however, thrown out by the opposition of his
+own supporters in parliament, whilst outside parliament there was no
+general desire for a change in a system which for the present produced
+such excellent fruits. Still more excellent was his plan of legislation
+for Ireland. Irishmen had taken advantage of the weakness of England
+during the American War to enforce upon the ministry of the day, in 1780
+and 1782, an abandonment of all claim on the part of the English
+government and the English judges to interfere in any way with Irish
+affairs. From 1782, therefore, there were two independent legislatures
+within the British Isles--the one sitting at Westminster and the other
+sitting in Dublin. With these political changes Fox professed himself to
+be content. Pitt, whose mind was open to wider considerations, proposed
+to throw open commerce to both nations by removing all the restrictions
+placed on the trade of Ireland with England and with the rest of the
+world. The opposition of the English parliament was only removed by
+concessions continuing some important restrictions upon Irish exports,
+and by giving the English parliament the right of initiation in all
+measures relating to the regulation of the trade which was to be common
+to both nations. The Irish parliament took umbrage at the superiority
+claimed by England, and threw out the measure as an insult, though, even
+as it stood, it was undeniably in favour of Ireland. The lesson of the
+incompatibility of two coordinate legislatures was not thrown away upon
+Pitt.
+
+In 1786 the commercial treaty with France opened that country to English
+trade, and was the first result of the theories laid down by Adam Smith
+ten years previously. The first attack upon the horrors of the
+slave-trade was made in 1788; and in the same year, in the debates on
+the Regency Bill caused by the king's insanity, Pitt defended against
+Fox the right of parliament to make provision for the exercise of the
+powers of the crown when the wearer was permanently or temporarily
+disabled from exercising his authority.
+
+When the king recovered, he went to St Paul's to return thanks on the
+23rd of April 1789. The enthusiasm with which he was greeted showed how
+completely he had the nation on his side. All the hopes of liberal
+reformers were now with him. All the hopes of moral and religious men
+were on his side as well. The seed sown by Wesley had grown to be a
+great tree. A spirit of thoughtfulness in religious matters and of moral
+energy was growing in the nation, and the king was endeared to his
+subjects, as much by his domestic virtues as by his support of the great
+minister who acted in his name. The happy prospect was soon to be
+overclouded. On the 4th of May, eleven days after the appearance of
+George III. at St Paul's, the French states-general met at Versailles.
+
+
+  The French Revolution; English feeling.
+
+By the great mass of intelligent Englishmen the change was greeted with
+enthusiasm. It is seldom that one nation understands the tendencies and
+difficulties of another; and the mere fact that power was being
+transferred from an absolute monarch to a representative assembly led
+superficial observers to imagine that they were witnessing a mere
+repetition of the victory of the English parliament over the Stuart
+kings. In fact, that which was passing in France was of a totally
+different nature from the English struggle of the 17th century. In
+England, the conflict had been carried on for the purpose of limiting
+the power of the king. In France, it was begun in order to sweep away an
+aristocracy in church and state which had become barbarously oppressive.
+The French Revolution was not, therefore, a conflict for the reform of
+the political organization of the state, but one for the reorganization
+of the whole structure of society; and in proportion as it turned away
+from the path which English ignorance had marked out for it, Englishmen
+turned away from it in disgust. As they did not understand the aims of
+the French Revolutionists, they were unable to make that excuse for even
+so much of their conduct as admits of excuse. Three men, Fox, Burke and
+Pitt, however, represented three varieties of opinion into which the
+nation was very unequally divided.
+
+Fox, generous and trustful towards the movements of large masses of men,
+had very little intellectual grasp of the questions at issue in France.
+He treated the struggle as one simply for the establishment of free
+institutions; and when at last the crimes of the leaders became patent
+to the world, he contented himself with lamenting the unfortunate fact,
+and fell back on the argument that though England could not sympathize
+with the French tyrants, there was no reason why she should go to war
+with them.
+
+Burke, on the other hand, while he failed to understand the full
+tendency of the Revolution for good as well as for evil, understood it
+far better than any Englishman of that day understood it. He saw that
+its main aim was equality, not liberty, and that not only would the
+French nation be ready, in pursuit of equality, to welcome any tyranny
+which would serve its purpose, but would be the more prone to acts of
+tyranny over individuals. This would arise from the remodelling of
+institutions, with the object of giving immediate effect to the will of
+the masses, which was especially liable to be counterfeited by designing
+and unscrupulous agitators. There is no doubt that in all this Burke was
+in the right, as he was in his denunciation of the mischief certain to
+follow when a nation tries to start afresh, and to blot out all past
+progress in the light of simple reason, which is often most fallible
+when it believes itself to be most infallible. Where he went wrong was
+in his ignorance of the special circumstances of the French nation, and
+his consequent blindness to the fact that the historical method of
+gradual progress was impossible where institutions had become so utterly
+bad as they were in France, and that consequently the system of starting
+afresh, to which he reasonably objected, was to the French a matter not
+of choice but of necessity. Nor did he see that the passion for
+equality, like every great passion, justified itself, and that the
+problem was, not how to obtain liberty in defiance of it, but how so to
+guide it as to obtain liberty by it and through it.
+
+Burke did not content himself with pointing out speculatively the evils
+which he foreboded for the French. He perceived clearly that the effect
+of the new French principles could no more be confined to French
+territory than the principles of Protestantism in the 16th century could
+be confined to Saxony. He knew well that the appeal to abstract reason
+and the hatred of aristocracy would spread over Europe like a flood,
+and, as he was in the habit of considering whatever was most opposed to
+the object of his dislike to be wholly excellent, he called for a
+crusade of all established governments against the anarchical principles
+of dissolution which had broken loose in France.
+
+Pitt occupied ground apart from either Fox or Burke. He had neither
+Fox's sympathy for popular movements, nor Burke's intellectual
+appreciation of the immediate tendencies of the Revolution. Hence,
+whilst he pronounced against any active interference with France, he was
+an advocate of peace, not because he saw more than Fox or Burke, but
+because he saw less. He fancied that France would be so totally occupied
+with its own troubles that it would cease for a long time to be
+dangerous to other nations.
+
+
+  Beginning of the revolutionary wars.
+
+This view was soon to be stultified by the effect of the coalition
+against France in 1792 of Prussia and Austria. The proclamation of the
+allies calling on the French to restore the royal authority was answered
+by a passionate outburst of defiance. The king himself was suspected of
+complicity with the invaders of his country, and the rising of the 10th
+of August was followed by the proclamation of the republic and by the
+awful "September massacres" of helpless prisoners, guilty of no crime
+but noble birth, and therefore presumably of attachment to the old
+régime, and treason towards the new. This passionate attachment to the
+Revolution, which in France displayed itself in a carnival of insane
+suspicion and cruelty, inspired on the frontiers an astonishing
+patriotic resistance. Before the end of the year the invasion was
+repulsed, and the ragged armies of the Revolution had overrun Savoy and
+the Austrian Netherlands, and were threatening the aristocratic Dutch
+republic.
+
+
+  Change of feeling in England.
+
+Very few governments in Europe were so rooted in the affections of their
+people as to be able to look without terror on the challenge thus thrown
+out to them. The English government was one of those very few. No mere
+despotism was here exercised by the king. No broad impassable line here
+divided the aristocracy from the people. The work of former generations
+of Englishmen had been too well done to call for that breach of
+historical continuity which was a dire necessity in France. There was
+much need of reform. There was no need of a revolution. The whole of the
+upper and middle classes, with few exceptions, clung together in a
+fierce spirit of resistance; and the mass of the lower classes,
+especially in the country, were too well off to wish for change. The
+spirit of resistance to revolution quickly developed into a spirit of
+resistance to reform, and those who continued to advocate changes, more
+or less after the French model, were treated as the enemies of mankind.
+A fierce hatred of France and of all that attached itself to France
+became the predominating spirit of the nation.
+
+
+  Division of the Whig party.
+
+Such a change in the national mind could not but affect the constitution
+of the Whig party. The reasoning of Burke would, in itself, have done
+little to effect its disruption. But the great landowners, who
+contributed so strong an element in it, composed the very class which
+had most to fear from the principles of the Revolution. The old
+questions which had divided them from the king and Pitt in 1783 had
+dwindled into nothing before the appalling question of the immediate
+present. They made themselves the leaders of the war party, and they
+knew that that party comprised almost the whole of the parliamentary
+classes.
+
+What could Pitt do but surrender? The whole of the intellectual basis of
+his foreign policy was swept away when it became evident that the
+continental war would bring with it an accession of French territory. He
+did not abandon his opinions. His opinions rather abandoned him. A wider
+intelligence might have held that, let France gain what territorial
+aggrandizement it might upon the continent of Europe, it was impossible
+to resist such changes until the opponents of France had so purified
+themselves as to obtain a hold upon the moral feelings of mankind. Pitt
+could not take this view; perhaps no man in his day could be fairly
+expected to take it. He did not indeed declare war against France; but
+he sought to set a limit to her conquests in the winter, though he had
+not sought to set a limit to the conquests of the allied sovereigns in
+the preceding summer. He treated with supercilious contempt the National
+Convention, which had dethroned the king and proclaimed a republic.
+Above all, he took up a declaration by the Convention, that they would
+give help to all peoples struggling for liberty against their respective
+governments, as a challenge to England. The horror caused in England by
+the trial and execution of Louis XVI. completed the estrangement between
+the two countries, and though the declaration of war came from France
+(1793), it had been in great part brought about by the bearing of
+England and its government.     (S. R. G.)
+
+
+XI. THE REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH, THE REACTION, AND THE TRIUMPH OF REFORM
+(1793-1837)
+
+  The government and the "revolutionary" agitation.
+
+In appearance the great Whig landowners gave their support to Pitt, and
+in 1794 some of their leaders, the duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam,
+and Windham, entered the cabinet to serve under him. In reality it was
+Pitt who had surrendered. The ministry and the party by which it was
+supported might call themselves Tory still; but the great reforming
+policy of 1784 was at an end, and the government, unconscious of its own
+strength, conceived its main function to be at all costs to preserve the
+constitution, which it believed to be in danger of being overwhelmed by
+the rising tide of revolutionary feeling. That this belief was idle it
+is now easy enough to see; at the time this was not so obvious. Thomas
+Paine's _Rights of Man_, published in 1791, a brilliant and bitter
+attack on the British constitution from the Jacobin point of view, sold
+by tens of thousands. Revolutionary societies with high-sounding names
+were established, of which the most conspicuous were the Revolution
+Society, the Society for Constitutional Information, the London
+Corresponding Society, and the Friends of the People. Of these, indeed,
+only the two last were directly due to the example of France. The
+Revolution Society, founded to commemorate the revolution of 1688, had
+long carried on a respectable existence under the patronage of cabinet
+ministers; the Society for Constitutional Information, of which Pitt
+himself had been a member, was founded in 1780 to advocate parliamentary
+reform; both had, however, developed under the influence of the events
+in France in a revolutionary direction. The London Corresponding
+Society, composed mainly of working-men, was the direct outcome of the
+excitement caused by the developments of the French Revolution. Its
+leaders were obscure and usually illiterate men, who delighted to
+propound their theories for the universal reformation of society and the
+state in rhetoric of which the characteristic phrases were borrowed from
+the tribune of the Jacobin Club. Later generations have learned by
+repeated experience that the eloquence of Hyde Park orators is not the
+voice of England; there were some even then--among those not immediately
+responsible for keeping order--who urged the government "to trust the
+people";[6] but with the object-lesson of France before them it is not
+altogether surprising that ministers refused to believe in the
+harmlessness of societies, which not only kept up a fraternal
+correspondence with the National Convention and the Jacobin Club, but,
+by attempting to establish throughout the country a network of
+affiliated clubs, were apparently aiming at setting up in Great Britain
+the Jacobin idea of popular control.
+
+The danger, of course, was absurdly exaggerated; as indeed was proved by
+the very popularity of the repressive measures to which the government
+thought it necessary to resort, and which gave to the vapourings of a
+few knots of agitators the dignity of a widespread conspiracy for the
+overthrow of the constitution. On the 1st of December 1792 a
+proclamation was issued calling out the militia on the ground that a
+dangerous spirit of tumult and disorder had been excited by
+evil-disposed persons, acting in concert with persons in foreign parts,
+and this statement was repeated in the king's speech at the opening of
+parliament on the 13th. In spite of the protests of Sheridan and other
+members of the opposition, a campaign of press and other prosecutions
+now began which threatened to extinguish the most cherished right of
+Englishmen--liberty of speech. The country was flooded with government
+spies and informers, whose efforts were seconded by such voluntary
+societies as the Association for preserving Liberty and Property against
+Republicans and Levellers, founded by John Reeves, the historian of
+English law. No one was safe from these zealous and too often credulous
+defenders of the established order; and a few indiscreet words spoken in
+a coffee house were enough to bring imprisonment and ruin, as in the
+case of John Frost, a respectable attorney, condemned for sedition in
+March 1793. In Scotland the panic, and the consequent cruelty, were
+worse than in England. The meeting at Edinburgh of a "convention of
+delegates of the associated friends of the people," at which some
+foolish and exaggerated language was used, was followed by the trial of
+Thomas Muir, a talented young advocate whose brilliant defence did not
+save him from a sentence of fourteen years' transportation (August 30,
+1793), while seven years' transportation was the punishment of the Rev.
+T. Fyshe Palmer for circulating an address from "a society of the
+friends of liberty to their fellow-citizens" in favour of a reform of
+the House of Commons. These sentences and the proceedings which led up
+to them, though attacked with bitter eloquence by Sheridan and Fox, were
+confirmed by a large majority in parliament.
+
+It was not, however, till late in the session of 1794 that ministers
+laid before parliament any evidence of seditious practices. In May
+certain leaders of democratic societies were arrested and their papers
+seized, and on the 13th a king's message directed the books of certain
+corresponding societies to be laid before both Houses. The committee of
+the House of Commons at once reported that there was evidence of a
+conspiracy to supersede the House of Commons by a national convention,
+and Pitt proposed and carried a bill suspending the Habeas Corpus Act.
+This was followed by further reports of the committees of both Houses,
+presenting evidence of the secret manufacture of arms and of other
+proceedings calculated to endanger the public peace. A series of state
+prosecutions followed. The trials of Robert Watt and David Downie for
+high treason (August and September 1794) actually revealed a treasonable
+plot on the part of a few obscure individuals at Edinburgh, who were
+found in the possession of no less than fifty-seven pikes of home
+manufacture, wherewith to overthrow the British government. The
+execution of Watt gave to this trial a note of tragedy which was absent
+from that of certain members of the Corresponding Society, accused of
+conspiring to murder the king by means of a poisoned arrow shot from an
+air-gun. The ridicule that greeted the revelation of the "Pop-gun Plot"
+marked the beginning of a reaction that found a more serious expression
+in the trials of Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John Thelwall
+(October and November 1794). The prisoners were accused of high treason,
+their chief offence consisting in their attempt to assemble a general
+convention of the people, ostensibly for the purpose of obtaining
+parliamentary reform, but really--as the prosecution urged--for
+subverting the constitution. This latter charge, though proved to the
+satisfaction of the committees of both Houses of Parliament, broke down
+under the cross-examination of the government witnesses by the counsel
+for the defence, and could indeed only have been substantiated by a
+dangerous stretching of the doctrine of constructive treason. Happily
+the jury refused to convict, and its verdict saved the nation from the
+disgrace of meting out the extreme penalty of high treason to an attempt
+to hold a public meeting for the redress of grievances.
+
+The common sense of a British jury had preserved, in spite of parliament
+and ministry, that free right of meeting which was to be one of the
+strongest instruments of future reform. The government, however, saw
+little reason in the events of the following months for reversing their
+coercive policy. The year 1795 was one of great suffering and great
+popular unrest; for the effect of the war upon industry was now
+beginning to be felt, and the distress had been aggravated by two bad
+harvests. The sudden determination of those in power, who had hitherto
+advocated reform, to stereotype the existing system, closed the avenues
+of hope to those who had expected an improvement of their lot from
+constitutional changes, and the disaffected temper of the populace that
+resulted was taken advantage of by the London Corresponding Society,
+emboldened by its triumph in the courts, to organize open and really
+dangerous demonstrations, such as the vast mass meeting at Copenhagen
+House on the 26th of October. On the 29th of October the king, on his
+way to open parliament, was attacked by an angry mob shouting, "Give us
+bread," "No Pitt," "No war," "No famine,"; and the glass panels of his
+state coach were smashed to pieces.
+
+The result of these demonstrations was the introduction in the House of
+Lords, on the 4th of November, of the Treasonable Practices Bill, the
+main principle of which was that it modified the law of treason by
+dispensing with the necessity for the proof of an overt act in order to
+secure conviction; and in the House of Commons, on the 10th, of the
+Seditious Meetings Bill, which seriously limited the right of public
+meeting, making all meetings of over fifty persons, as well as all
+political debates and lectures, subject to the previous consent and
+active supervision of the magistrates. In spite of the strenuous
+resistance of the opposition, led by Fox, and of numerous meetings of
+protest held outside the walls of parliament, both bills passed into law
+by enormous majorities. The inevitable result followed. The London
+Corresponding Society and other political clubs, deprived of the right
+of public meeting, became secret societies pledged to the overthrow of
+the existing system by any means. United Englishmen and United Scotsmen
+plotted with United Irishmen for a French invasion, and sedition was
+fomented in the army and the navy. Their baneful activities were exposed
+in the inquiries that followed the Irish rebellion of 1798, and the
+result was the Corresponding Societies Bill, introduced by Pitt on the
+19th of April 1799, which completed the series of repressive measures
+and practically suspended the popular constitution of England. The right
+of public meeting, of free speech, of the free press had alike ceased
+for the time to exist.
+
+
+  The Revolutionary War.
+
+The justification of the government in all this was the life and death
+struggle in which Great Britain was engaged with the power of republican
+France in Europe. Yet Pitt's conduct of the war, so far as the continent
+was concerned, had hitherto led to nothing but failure after failure. In
+1794, in spite of the presence of an English army under the duke of
+York, the Austrian Netherlands had been finally conquered and annexed to
+the French republic; in 1795 the Dutch republic was affiliated to that
+of France, and the peace of Basel between Prussia and the French
+republic left Austria to continue the war alone with the aid of British
+subsidies. On the sea Great Britain had been more successful, Howe's
+victory of the 1st of June 1794 being the first of the long series of
+defeats inflicted on the French navy, while in 1795 a beginning was made
+of the vast expansion of the British Empire by the capture of Ceylon and
+the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS).
+The war, however, had become so expensive, and its results were
+evidently so small, that there was a growing feeling in England in
+favour of peace, especially as the Reign of Terror had come to an end in
+1794, and a regular government, the Directory, had been appointed in
+1795. At last Pitt was forced to yield to the popular clamour, and in
+1796 Lord Malmesbury was sent to France to treat for peace. The
+negotiation, however, was at once broken off by his demand that France
+should abandon the Netherlands.
+
+
+  Hoche's expedition to Ireland.
+
+The French government, assured now of the assistance of Spain and
+Holland, and freed of the danger from La Vendée, now determined to
+attempt the invasion of Ireland. On the 16th of December a fleet of 17
+battle-ships, 13 frigates and 15 smaller vessels set sail from Brest,
+carrying an expeditionary force of some 13,000 men under General Hoche.
+The British fleet, under Lord Bridport, was wintering at Spithead; and
+before it could put to sea the French had slipped past. Before it
+reached the coast of Ireland, however, the French fleet had already
+suffered serious losses, owing partly to the attacks of British frigate
+detachments, partly to the bad seamanship of the French crews and the
+rottenness of the ships. Only a part of the fleet succeeded in reaching
+Bantry Bay on the 20th of December, and of these a large number were
+scattered by a storm on the 23rd. Hoche himself, with the French
+admiral, had been driven far to the westward in an effort to avoid
+capture; the attempt of Grouchy, in his absence, to land a force was
+defeated by the weather, and by the end of the month the whole
+expedition was in full retreat for Brest. A French diversion on the
+coast of Pembroke was even less successful; a force of 1500 men, under
+Colonel Tate, an American adventurer, landed in Cardigan Bay on the 22nd
+of February 1797, but was at once surrounded by the local militia and
+surrendered without a blow.
+
+
+  Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore.
+
+  Battle of Camperdown.
+
+A more serious attempt was now made to renew the enterprise by means of
+a junction of the French, Spanish and Dutch fleets. The victory of
+Jervis over the Spanish fleet at St Vincent on the 14th of February
+postponed the imminence of the danger; but this again became acute owing
+to the general disaffection in the fleet, which in April and May found
+vent in the serious mutinies at Spithead and the Nore. The mutiny at
+Spithead, which was due solely to the intolerable conditions under which
+the seamen served at the time, was ended on the 17th of May by
+concessions: an increase of pay, the removal of officers who had abused
+their power of discipline, and the promise of a general free pardon.
+More serious was the outbreak at the Nore. The disaffection had spread
+practically to the whole of Admiral Duncan's fleet, and by the beginning
+of June the mutineers were blockading the Thames with no less than 26
+vessels. The demands of the seamen were more extensive than at Spithead;
+their resistance was better organized; and they were suspected, though
+without reason, of harbouring revolutionary designs. The return of the
+Channel fleet to its duty emboldened the admiralty to refuse any
+concessions, and the vigorous measures of repression taken proved
+effective. One by one the mutinous crews surrendered; and the arrest of
+the ringleader, Richard Parker, on board the "Sandwich," on the 14th of
+June, brought the affair to an end.[7] The seamen regained their
+reputation, and those who had been imprisoned their liberty, by Duncan's
+victory over the Dutch fleet at Camperdown (October 11), by which the
+immediate danger was averted. Though the French attempt at a concerted
+invasion had failed, however, the Directory did not abandon the
+enterprise, and commissioned Bonaparte to draw up fresh plans.
+
+At the close of the year 1797 the position of Great Britain was indeed
+sufficiently alarming. On the 18th of April, during the very crisis of
+the mutiny at Spithead, Austria had signed with Bonaparte the
+humiliating terms of the preliminary peace of Leoben, which six months
+later were embodied in the treaty of Campo Formio (October 17). On the
+10th of August Portugal had concluded a treaty with the French Republic;
+and Great Britain was left without an ally in Europe. The mutiny at the
+Nore, the threat of rebellion in Ireland, the alarming fall in consols,
+argued strongly against continuing the war single-handed, and in July
+Lord Malmesbury had been sent to Lille to open fresh negotiations with
+the plenipotentiaries of France. The negotiations broke down on the
+refusal of England to restore the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch. But
+though forced, in spite of misgivings, to continue the struggle, the
+British government in one very important respect was now in a far better
+position to do so. For though Great Britain was now isolated and her
+policy in Europe advertised as a failure, the temper of the British
+people was less inclined to peace in 1798 than it had been three years
+before. The early enthusiasm of the disfranchised classes for French
+principles had cooled with the later developments of the Revolution; the
+attempted invasions had roused the national spirit; and in the public
+imagination the sinister figure of Bonaparte, the rapacious conqueror,
+was beginning to loom large to the exclusion of lesser issues.
+Henceforth, in spite of press prosecutions and trials for political
+libel, the government was supported by public opinion in its vigorous
+prosecution of the war.
+
+
+  The Act of Union with Ireland.
+
+  Resignation of Pitt.
+
+If the danger of French invasion was a reality, it was so mainly owing
+to the deplorable condition of Ireland, where the natural disaffection
+of the Roman Catholic majority of the population--deprived of political
+and many social rights, and exposed to the insults and oppression of a
+Protestant minority corrupted by centuries of ascendancy--invited the
+intervention of a foreign enemy. The full measure of the intolerable
+conditions prevailing in the country was revealed by the horrors of the
+rebellion of 1798, and after this had been suppressed Pitt decided that
+the only way to deal with the situation was to establish a union between
+Great Britain and Ireland, similar to that which had proved so
+successful in the case of England and Scotland. He saw that to establish
+peace in Ireland the Roman Catholics would have to be enfranchised; he
+realized that to enfranchise them in a separated Ireland would be to
+subject the proud Protestant minority to an impossible domination, and
+to establish not peace but war. The Union, then, was in his view the
+necessary preliminary to Catholic emancipation, which was at the same
+time the reward held out to the majority of the Irish people for the
+surrender of their national quasi-independence. It was a bribe little
+likely to appeal to the Protestant minority which constituted the Irish
+parliament, and to them other inducements had to be offered if the
+scheme was to be carried through. These inducements were not all
+corrupt. Those members who stood out were, indeed, bought by a lavish
+distribution of money and coronets; but the advantages to Ireland which
+might reasonably be expected from the Union were many and obvious; and
+if all the promises held out by the promoters of the measure have even
+now not been realized, the fault is not theirs. The Act of Union was
+placed on the statute-book in 1800; Catholic emancipation was to have
+been accomplished in the following session, the first of the united
+parliament. But Pitt's policy broke on the stubborn obstinacy of George
+III., who believed himself bound by his coronation oath to resist any
+concession to the enemies of the Established Church. The disadvantage of
+the possession of too strait a conscience in politics was never more
+dismally illustrated. To the Irish people it was the first breach of
+faith in connexion with the Union, and threw them into opposition to a
+settlement into which they believed themselves to have been drawn under
+false pretences. Pitt, realizing this, had no option but to resign.
+
+
+  Bonaparte breaks up the coalition.
+
+The resignation of the great minister who had so long held the reins of
+power coincided with a critical situation in Europe. The isolation of
+Bonaparte in Egypt, as the result of Nelson's victory of the Nile
+(1798), had enabled the allies to recover some of the ground lost to
+France. But this had merely increased Bonaparte's prestige, and on his
+return in 1799 he found no difficulty in making himself master of France
+by the _coup d'état_ of the 18th Brumaire. The campaign of Marengo
+followed (1800) and the peace of Lunéville, which not only once more
+isolated Great Britain, but raised up against her new enemies, to the
+list of whom she added by using her command of the sea to enforce the
+right of search in order to seize enemies' goods in neutral vessels.
+Russia joined with Sweden and Denmark, all hitherto friendly powers, in
+resistance to this claim.
+
+
+  Addington ministry.
+
+  The peace of Amiens.
+
+Such was the position when Addington became prime minister. He was a man
+of weak character and narrow intellect, whose main claim to succeed Pitt
+was that he shared to the full the Protestant prejudices of king and
+people. His tenure of power was, indeed, marked by British successes
+abroad; by Nelson's victory at Copenhagen, which broke up the northern
+alliance, and by Abercromby's victory at Alexandria, which forced the
+French to evacuate Egypt; but these had been prepared by the previous
+administration. Addington's real work was the peace of Amiens (1802), an
+experimental peace, as the king called it, to see if the First Consul
+could be contented to restrain himself within the very wide limits by
+which his authority in Europe was still circumscribed.
+
+
+  Renewal of the war.
+
+  Pitt returns to office.
+
+In a few months Great Britain was made aware that the experiment would
+not succeed. Interference and annexation became the standing policy of
+the new French government; and Britain, discovering how little intention
+Bonaparte had of carrying out the spirit of the treaty, refused to
+abandon Malta, as she had engaged to do by the terms of peace. The war
+began again, no longer a war against revolutionary principles and their
+propaganda, but against the boundless ambitions of a military conqueror.
+This time the British nation was all but unanimous in resistance. This
+time its resistance would be sooner or later supported by all that was
+healthy in Europe. The news that Bonaparte was making preparations on a
+vast scale for the invasion of England roused a stubborn spirit of
+resistance in the country. Volunteers were enrolled, and the coast was
+dotted with Martello towers, many of which yet remain as monuments of
+the time when the "army of England" was encamped on the heights near
+Boulogne within sight of the English cliffs. To meet so great a crisis
+Addington was not the man. He had been ceaselessly assailed, in and out
+of parliament, by the trenchant criticism, and often unmannerly wit, of
+"Pitt's friends," among whom George Canning was now conspicuous. Pitt
+himself had remained silent; but in view of the seriousness of the
+crisis and of a threatened illness of the king, which would have
+necessitated a regency and--in view of the prince of Wales's dislike for
+him--his own permanent exclusion from office, he now put himself forward
+once more. The government majorities in the House now rapidly dwindled;
+on the 26th of April 1804, Addington resigned; and Pitt, after his
+attempt to form a national coalition ministry had broken down on the
+king's refusal to admit Fox, became head of a government constructed on
+a narrow Tory basis. Of the members of the late government Lord Eldon,
+the duke of Portland, Lord Westmorland, Lord Castlereagh and Lord
+Hawkesbury retained office, the latter surrendering the foreign office
+to Lord Harrowby and going to the home office. Dundas, now Lord
+Melville, became first lord of the admiralty, and the cabinet further
+included Lord Camden, Lord Mulgrave and the duke of Montrose. Canning,
+Huskisson and Perceval were given subordinate offices.
+
+
+  Battle of Trafalgar.
+
+  Austerlitz.
+
+Save for the commanding personality of Pitt, the new government was
+scarcely stronger than that which it had replaced. It had to face the
+same Whig opposition, led by Fox, who scoffed at the French peril, and
+reinforced by Addington and his friends; and the whole burden of meeting
+this opposition fell upon Pitt; for Castlereagh, the only other member
+of the cabinet in the House of Commons, was of little use in debate.
+Nevertheless, fresh vigour was infused into the conduct of the war. The
+Additional Forces Act, passed in the teeth of a strenuous opposition,
+introduced the principle of a modified system of compulsion to
+supplement the deficiencies of the army and reserve, while the navy was
+largely increased. Abroad, Pitt's whole energies were directed to
+forming a fresh coalition against Bonaparte, who, on the 14th of May
+1804, had proclaimed himself emperor of the French; but it was a year
+before Russia signed with Great Britain the treaty of St Petersburg
+(April 11, 1805), and the accession to the coalition of Austria, Sweden
+and Naples was not obtained till the following September. In the
+following month (October 21) Nelson's crowning victory at Trafalgar over
+the allied fleets of France and Spain relieved England of the dread of
+invasion. It served, however, to precipitate the crisis on the continent
+of Europe; the great army assembled at Boulogne was turned eastwards; by
+the capitulation of Ulm (October 19) Austria lost a large part of her
+forces; and the last news that reached Pitt on his death-bed was that of
+the ruin of all his hopes by the crushing victory of Napoleon over the
+Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz (December 2).
+
+
+  Death of Pitt. "Ministry of all the Talents."
+
+  Abolition of the slave-trade.
+
+Pitt died on the 23rd of January, and the refusal of Lord Hawkesbury to
+assume the premiership forced the king to summon Lord Grenville, and to
+agree to the inclusion of Fox in the cabinet as secretary for foreign
+affairs. Several members of Pitt's administration were admitted to this
+"Ministry of all the Talents," including Addington (now Lord Sidmouth),
+who had rejoined the ministry in December 1804 and again resigned, owing
+to a disagreement with Pitt as to the charges against Lord Melville
+(q.v.) in July 1805. The new ministry remained in office for a year, a
+disastrous year which saw the culmination of Napoleon's power: the
+crushing of Prussia in the campaign of Jena, the formation of the
+Confederation of the Rhine and the end of the Holy Roman Empire. In the
+conduct of the war the British government had displayed little skill,
+frittering away its forces on distant expeditions, instead of
+concentrating them in support of Prussia or Russia, and the chief title
+to fame of the Ministry of all the Talents is that it secured the
+passing of the bill for the abolition of the slave-trade (March 25,
+1807).
+
+
+  Catholic question.
+
+The death of Fox (September 13, 1806) deprived the ministry of its
+strongest member, and in the following March it fell on the old question
+of concessions to the Roman Catholics. True to his principles, Fox had
+done his best to negotiate terms of peace with Napoleon; but the
+breakdown of the attempt had persuaded even the Whigs that an
+arrangement was impossible, and in view of this fact Grenville thought
+it his duty to advise the king that the disabilities of Roman Catholics
+and dissenters in the matter of serving in the army and navy should be
+removed, in order that all sections of the nation might be united in
+face of the enemy. The situation, moreover, was in the highest degree
+anomalous; for by an act passed in 1793 Roman Catholics might hold
+commissions in the army in Ireland up to the rank of colonel, and this
+right had not been extended to England, though by the Act of Union the
+armies had become one. The king, however, was not to be moved from his
+position; and he was supported in this attitude not only by public
+opinion, but by a section of the ministry itself, of which Sidmouth made
+himself the mouthpiece. The demand of George III. that ministers should
+undertake never again to approach him on the subject of concessions to
+the Catholics was rejected by Grenville, rightly, as unconstitutional,
+and on the 18th of March 1807 he resigned.
+
+
+  Portland ministry.
+
+  The continental system.
+
+  The Orders in Council.
+
+  War with America.
+
+The new ministry, under the nominal headship of the valetudinarian duke
+of Portland, included Perceval as chancellor of the exchequer, Canning
+as foreign secretary and Castlereagh as secretary for war and the
+colonies. It had given the undertaking demanded by the king; those of
+its members who, like Canning, were in favour of Catholic emancipation,
+arguing that, in view of greater and more pressing questions, it was
+useless to insist in a matter which could never be settled so long as
+the old king lived. Of more importance to Great Britain, for the time
+being, than any constitutional issues, was the life-and-death struggle
+with Napoleon, which had now entered on a new phase. Defeated at sea,
+but master now of the greater part of the continent of Europe, the
+French emperor planned to bring Great Britain to terms by ruining her
+commerce with the vast territories under his influence. In November 1806
+he issued from Berlin the famous decree prohibiting the importation of
+British goods and excluding from the harbours under his control even
+neutral ships that had touched at British ports. The British government
+replied by the famous Orders in Council of 1807, which declared all
+vessels trading with France liable to seizure, and that all such vessels
+clearing from France must touch at a British port to pay customs duties.
+To this Napoleon responded with the Milan decree (December 17),
+forbidding neutrals to trade in any articles imported from the British
+dominions. The effects of these measures were destined to be
+far-reaching. The Revolution had made war on princes and privilege, and
+the common people had in general gained wherever the Napoleonic régime
+had been substituted for their effete despotisms; but the "Continental
+System" was felt as an oppression in every humble household, suddenly
+deprived of the little imported luxuries, such as sugar and coffee,
+which custom had made necessaries; and from this time date the
+beginnings of that popular revolt against Napoleon that was to culminate
+in the War of Liberation. Great Britain, too, was to suffer from her own
+retaliatory policy. The Americans had taken advantage of the war to draw
+into their own hands a large part of the British carrying trade, a
+process greatly encouraged by the establishment of the Continental
+System. This brought them into conflict with the British acting under
+the Orders in Council, and the consequent ill-feeling culminated in the
+war of 1812.
+
+
+  Treaty of Tilsit.
+
+  French Invasion of Spain and Portugal.
+
+  Peninsular War.
+
+It was not only the completion of the Continental System, however, that
+made the year 1807 a fateful one for Great Britain. On the 7th of July
+the young emperor Alexander I. of Russia, fascinated by Napoleon's
+genius and bribed by the offer of a partition of the world, concluded
+the treaty of Tilsit, which not only brought Russia into the Continental
+System, but substituted for a coalition against France a formidable
+coalition against England. A scheme for wresting from the British the
+command of the sea was only defeated by Canning's action in ordering the
+English fleet to capture the Danish navy, though Denmark was still
+nominally a friendly power (see CANNING, GEORGE). Meanwhile, in order to
+complete the ring fence round Europe against British commerce, Napoleon
+had ordered Junot to invade Portugal; Lisbon was occupied by the French,
+and the Portuguese royal family migrated to Brazil. In the following
+year Napoleon seized the royal family of Spain, and gave the crown,
+which Charles VI. resigned on behalf of himself and his heir, to his
+brother Joseph, king of Naples. The revolt of the Spanish people that
+followed was the first of the national uprisings against his rule by
+which Napoleon was destined to be overthrown. In England it was greeted
+with immense popular enthusiasm, and the government, without realizing
+the full import of the step it was taking, sent an expedition to the
+Peninsula. It disembarked, under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, at
+Figueras on the 1st of August. It was the beginning of the Peninsular
+War, which was destined not to end until, in 1814, the British troops
+crossed the Pyrenees into France, while the Allies were pressing over
+the Rhine. The political and military events on the continent of Europe
+do not, however, belong strictly to English history, though they
+profoundly affected its development, and they are dealt with elsewhere
+(see EUROPE: _History_; NAPOLEON; NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS; PENINSULAR WAR;
+WATERLOO CAMPAIGN).
+
+
+  Walcheren expedition. Cabinet crisis.
+
+  Perceval ministry.
+
+  The regency.
+
+The war, while it lasted, was of course the main preoccupation of
+British ministers and of the British people. It entailed enormous
+sacrifices, which led to corresponding discontents; and differences as
+to its conduct produced frequent friction within the government itself.
+A cabinet crisis was the result of the outcome of the unfortunate
+Walcheren expedition of 1809. It had been Castlereagh's conception and,
+had it been as well executed as it was conceived, it might have dealt a
+fatal blow at Napoleon's hopes of recovering his power at sea, by
+destroying his great naval establishments at Antwerp. It failed, and it
+became the subject of angry dispute between Canning and Castlereagh, a
+dispute embittered by personal rivalry and the friction due to the
+ill-defined relations of the foreign secretary to the secretary for war;
+the quarrel culminated in a duel, and in the resignation of both
+ministers (see LONDONDERRY, 2ND MARQUESS OF, and CANNING, GEORGE). The
+duke of Portland resigned at the same time, and in the reconstruction of
+the ministry, under Perceval as premier, Lord Wellesley became foreign
+secretary, while Lord Liverpool, with Palmerston as his under-secretary,
+succeeded Castlereagh at the war office. The most conspicuous member of
+this government was Wellesley, whose main object in taking office was to
+second his brother's efforts in the Peninsula. In this he was, however,
+only partially successful, owing to the incapacity of his colleagues to
+realize the unique importance of the operations in Spain. In November
+1810 the old king's mind gave way, and on the 11th of February 1811, an
+act of parliament bestowed the regency, under certain restrictions, upon
+the prince of Wales. The prince had been on intimate terms with the Whig
+leaders, and it was assumed that his accession to power would mean a
+change of government. He had, however, been offended by their attitude
+on the question of the restriction of his authority as regent, and he
+continued Perceval in office. A year later, the king's insanity being
+proved incurable, the regency was definitively established (February
+1812). Lord Wellesley took advantage of the reconstruction of the
+cabinet to resign a position in which he had not been given a free hand,
+and his post of foreign secretary was offered to Canning. Canning,
+however, refused to serve with Castlereagh as minister of war, and the
+latter received the foreign office, which he was to hold till his death
+in 1822. A month later, on the 11th of May, Perceval was assassinated in
+the lobby of the House of Commons, and Lord Liverpool became the head of
+a government that was to last till 1827.
+
+
+  Liverpool ministry.
+
+  Foreign policy of Castlereagh.
+
+The period covered by the Liverpool administration was a fateful one in
+the history of Europe. The year 1812 saw Napoleon's invasion of Russia,
+and the disastrous retreat from Moscow. In the following year
+Wellington's victory at Vitoria signalled the ruin of the French cause
+in Spain; while Prussia threw off the yoke of France, and Austria,
+realizing after cautious delay her chance of retrieving the humiliations
+of 1809, joined the alliance, and in concert with Russia and the other
+German powers overthrew Napoleon at Leipzig. The invasion of France
+followed in 1814, the abdication of Napoleon, the restoration of the
+Bourbons and the assembling of the congress of Vienna. The following
+year saw the return of Napoleon from Elba, the close of the congress of
+Vienna, and the campaign that ended with the battle of Waterloo. The
+succeeding period, after so much storm and stress, might seem dull and
+unprofitable; but it witnessed the instructive experiment of the
+government of Europe by a concert of the great powers, and the first
+victory of the new principle of nationality in the insurrection of the
+Greeks. The share taken by Great Britain in all this, for which
+Castlereagh pre-eminently must take the praise or blame, is outlined in
+the article on the history of Europe (q.v.). Here it must suffice to
+point out how closely the development of foreign affairs was interwoven
+with that of home politics. The great war, so long as it lasted, was the
+supreme affair of moment; the supreme interest when it was over was to
+prevent its recurrence. For above all the world needed peace, in order
+to recover from the exhaustion of the revolutionary epoch; and this
+peace, bought at so great a cost, could be preserved only by the honest
+co-operation of Great Britain in the great international alliance based
+on "the treaties." This explains Castlereagh's policy at home and
+abroad. He was grossly attacked by the Opposition in parliament and by
+irresponsible critics, of the type of Byron, outside; historians, bred
+in the atmosphere of mid-Victorian Liberalism, have re-echoed the cry
+against him and the government of which he was the most distinguished
+member; but history has largely justified his attitude. He was no friend
+of arbitrary government; but he judged it better that "oppressed
+nationalities" and "persecuted Liberals" should suffer than that Europe
+should be again plunged into war. He was hated in his day as the
+arch-opponent of reform, yet the triumph of the reform movement would
+have been impossible but for the peace his policy secured.
+
+
+  Character of the Tory party.
+
+To say this is not to say that the attitude of the Tory government
+towards the great issues of home politics was wholly, or even mainly,
+inspired by a far-sighted wisdom. It had departed widely from the
+Toryism of Pitt's younger years, which had sought to base itself on
+popular support, as opposed to the aristocratic exclusiveness of the
+Whigs. It conceived itself as the trustee of a system of government
+which, however theoretically imperfect, alone of the governments of
+Europe had survived the storms of the Revolution intact. To tamper with
+a constitution that had so proved its quality seemed not so much a
+sacrilege as a folly. The rigid conservatism that resulted from this
+attitude served, indeed, a useful purpose in giving weight to
+Castlereagh's counsels in the European concert; for Metternich at least,
+wholly occupied with "propping up mouldering institutions," could not
+have worked harmoniously with a minister suspected of an itch for
+reform. At home, however, it undoubtedly tended to provoke that very
+revolution which it was intended to prevent. This was due not so much to
+the notorious corruption of the representative system as to the fact
+that it represented social and economic conditions that were rapidly
+passing away.
+
+
+  Parliament and the industrial revolution.
+
+  Corn Laws and Enclosure Acts.
+
+  Repressive legislation.
+
+Both Houses of Parliament were in the main assemblies of aristocrats and
+landowners; but agriculture was ceasing to be the characteristic
+industry of the country and the old semi-feudal relations of life were
+in process of rapid dissolution. The invention of machinery and the
+concentration of the working population in manufacturing centres had all
+but destroyed the old village industries, and great populations were
+growing up outside the traditional restraints of the old system of class
+dependence. The distress inevitable in connexion with such an industrial
+revolution was increased by the immense burden of the war and by the
+high protective policy of the parliament, which restricted trade and
+deliberately increased the price of food in the interests of the
+agricultural classes. Between 1811 and 1814 bands of so-called
+"Luddites," starving operatives out of work, scoured the country,
+smashing machinery--the immediate cause of their misfortunes--and
+committing every sort of outrage. The fault of the government lay, not
+in taking vigorous measures for the suppression of these disorders, but
+in remaining obstinately blind to the true causes that had produced
+them. Ministers saw in the Luddite organization only another conspiracy
+against the state; and, so far from seeking means for removing the
+grievances that underlay popular disaffection, the activity of
+parliament, inspired by the narrowest class interests, only tended to
+increase them. The price of food, already raised by the war, was still
+further increased by successive Corn Laws, and the artificial value thus
+given to arable land led to the passing of Enclosure Bills, under which
+the country people were deprived of their common rights with very
+inadequate compensation, and life in the village communities was made
+more and more difficult. In the circumstances it is not surprising that
+the spirit of unrest grew apace. In 1815 the passing of a new Corn Law,
+forbidding the importation of corn so long as the price for home-grown
+wheat was under 80s. the quarter, led to riots in London. An attack made
+on the prince regent at the opening of parliament on the 28th of January
+1817 led to an inquiry, which revealed the existence of an elaborate
+organization for the overthrow of the existing order. The repressive
+measures of 1795 and 1799 were now revived and extended, and a bill
+suspending the Habeas Corpus Act for a year was passed through both
+Houses by a large majority. On the 27th of March Lord Sidmouth opened
+the government campaign against the press by issuing a circular to the
+lords-lieutenants, directing them to instruct the justices of the peace
+to issue warrants for the arrest of any person charged on oath with
+publishing blasphemous or seditious libels. The legality of this
+suggestion was more than doubtful, but it was none the less acted on,
+and a series of press prosecutions followed, some--as in the case of the
+bookseller William Hone--on grounds so trivial that juries refused to
+convict. William Cobbett, the most influential of the reform leaders, in
+order to avoid arbitrary imprisonment, "deprived of pen, ink and paper,"
+suspended the _Political Register_ and sailed for America. A disturbance
+that was almost an armed insurrection, which broke out in Derbyshire in
+June of this year, seemed to justify the severity of the government; it
+was suppressed without great difficulty, and three of the ringleaders
+were executed.
+
+
+  Agitation for reform.
+
+  The "Manchester Massacre."
+
+It was, however, in 1819 that the conflict between the government and
+the new popular forces culminated. Distress was acute; and in the
+manufacturing towns mass meetings were held to discuss a remedy, which,
+under the guidance of political agitators, was discovered in universal
+suffrage and annual parliaments. The right to return members to
+parliament was claimed for all communities; and since this right was
+unconstitutionally withheld, unrepresented towns were invited to
+exercise it in anticipation of its formal concession. At Birmingham,
+accordingly, Sir Charles Wolseley was duly elected "legislatorial
+attorney and representative" of the town. Manchester followed suit; but
+the meeting arranged for the 9th of August was declared illegal by the
+magistrates, on the strength of a royal proclamation against seditious
+meetings issued on the 30th of July. Another meeting was accordingly
+summoned for the undoubtedly legal purpose of petitioning parliament in
+favour of reform. On the appointed day (August 16) thousands poured in
+from the surrounding districts. These men had been previously drilled,
+for the purpose, as their own leaders asserted, of enabling the vast
+assemblage to be conducted in an orderly manner; for the purpose, as the
+magistrates suspected, of preparing them for an armed insurrection. An
+attempt was made by a party of yeomanry to arrest a popular agitator,
+Henry Hunt; the angry mob surged round the horsemen, who found
+themselves powerless; the Riot Act was read, and the 15th Hussars
+charged the crowd with drawn swords. The meeting rapidly broke up, but
+not before six had been killed and many injured. The "Manchester
+Massacre" gave an immense impetus to the movement in favour of reform.
+The employment of soldiers to suppress liberty of speech stirred up the
+resentment of Englishmen as nothing else could have done, and this
+resentment was increased by the conviction that the government was
+engaged with the "Holy Alliance" in an unholy conspiracy against
+liberty everywhere. The true tendency of Castlereagh's foreign policy
+was not understood, nor had he any of the popular arts which would have
+enabled Canning to carry public opinion with him in cases where a frank
+explanation was impossible. The Liberals could see no more than that he
+appeared to be committed to international engagements, the logical
+outcome of which might be--as an orator of the Opposition put it--that
+Cossacks would be encamped in Hyde Park for the purpose of overawing the
+House of Commons.
+
+
+  The "Six Acts."
+
+The dangerous agitation that gave expression to this state of feeling
+was met by the government in the session of November 1819 by the passing
+of the famous Six Acts. The first of these deprived the defendant of the
+right of traversing, but directed that he should be brought to trial
+within a year; the second increased the penalties for seditious libel;
+the third imposed the newspaper stamp duty on all pamphlets and the like
+containing news; the fourth (Seditious Meetings Act) once more greatly
+curtailed the liberty of public meetings; the fifth forbade the training
+of persons in the use of arms; the sixth empowered magistrates to search
+for and seize arms.
+
+
+  Accession of George IV.
+
+The apparent necessity for the passing of these exceptional measures was
+increased by the imminent death of the old king, the tragic close of
+whose long reign had won for him a measure of popular sympathy which was
+wholly lacking in the case of the prince regent. On the 23rd of February
+1820 George III. died, and the regent became king as George IV. This was
+the signal for an outburst of popular discontent with the existing order
+of a far more ominous character than any that had preceded it. The king
+was generally loathed, not so much for his vices--which would have been,
+in this case as in others, condoned in a more popular monarch--but for
+the notorious meanness and selfishness of his character. Of these
+qualities he took the occasion of his accession to make a fresh display.
+He had long been separated from his wife, Caroline of Brunswick; he now
+refused her the title of queen consort, forbade the mention of her name
+in the liturgy, and persuaded the government to promote an inquiry in
+parliament into her conduct, with a view to a divorce. Whatever grounds
+there may have been for this action, popular sympathy was wholly with
+Queen Caroline, who became the centre round which all the forces of
+discontent rallied. The failure of the Bill of Pains and Penalties
+against the queen, which was dropped after it had passed its third
+reading in the Lords by a majority of only seven, was greeted as a great
+popular triumph. The part played by the government in this unsavoury
+affair had discredited them even in the eyes of the classes whose fear
+of revolution had hitherto made them supporters of the established
+system; and the movement for reform received a new stimulus.
+
+
+  Beginnings of reform.
+
+The Tory government itself realized the necessity for some concessions
+to the growing public sentiment. In 1821 a small advance was made. The
+reform bill (equal electoral districts) introduced by Lambton
+(afterwards Lord Durham) was thrown out; but the corrupt borough of
+Grampound in Cornwall was disfranchised and the seats transferred to the
+county of York. Even more significant was the change in the cabinet,
+which was strengthened by the admission of some of the more conservative
+section of the Opposition, Lord Sidmouth retiring and Robert Peel
+becoming home secretary. A bill for the removal of Catholic
+disabilities, too, was carried in the Commons, though rejected in the
+Lords; and the appointment of Lord Wellesley, an advocate of the
+Catholic claims, to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland marked yet another
+stage in the settlement of a question which, more than anything else at
+that time, kept Ireland and Irishmen in a state of chronic discontent
+and agitation.
+
+
+  George Canning.
+
+It is not without significance that this modification of the policy of
+the Tory government at home coincided with a modification of its
+relations with the European powers. The tendency of Metternich's system
+had long been growing distasteful to Castlereagh, who had consistently
+protested against the attempt to constitute the Grand Alliance general
+police of Europe and had specially protested against the Carlsbad
+Decrees (q.v.). The first steps towards the inevitable breach with the
+reactionary powers had already been taken before Castlereagh's tragic
+death on the eve of the congress of Verona brought George Canning into
+office as the executor of his policy. With Canning, foe of the
+Revolution and all its works though he was, the old liberal Toryism of
+Pitt's younger days seemed once more to emerge. It might have emerged in
+any case; but Canning, with his brilliant popular gifts and his frank
+appeal to popular support, gave it a revivifying stimulus which it would
+never have received from an aristocrat of the type of Castlereagh.
+
+
+  Changed tendency of British policy.
+
+The new spirit was most conspicuous in foreign affairs; in the protest
+of Great Britain against the action of the continental powers at Verona
+(see VERONA, CONGRESS OF), in the recognition of the South American
+republics, and later in the sympathetic attitude of the government
+towards the insurrection in Greece. This policy had been foreshadowed in
+the instructions drawn up by Castlereagh for his own guidance at Verona;
+but Canning succeeded in giving it a popular and national colour and
+thus removing from the government all suspicion of sympathy with the
+reactionary spirit of the "Holy Alliance." In home affairs, too, the
+government made tentative advances in a Liberal direction. In January
+1823 Vansittart was succeeded as chancellor of the exchequer by Robinson
+(afterwards Lord Goderich), and Huskisson became president of the Board
+of Trade. The term of office of the latter was marked by the first
+tentative efforts to modify the high protective system by which British
+trade was hampered, especially by the Reciprocity of Duties Act (1823),
+a modification of the Navigation Acts, by which British and foreign
+shipping were placed on an equal footing, while the right to impose
+restrictive duties on ships of powers refusing to reciprocate was
+retained. In spite, however, of the improvement in trade that ultimately
+resulted from these measures, there was great depression; in 1825 there
+was a financial crisis that caused widespread ruin, and in 1826 the
+misery of the labouring poor led to renewed riots and machinery
+smashing. It became increasingly clear that a drastic alteration in the
+existing system was absolutely inevitable. As to this necessity,
+however, the ministry was in fact hopelessly divided. The government was
+one of compromise, in which even so burning a question as Catholic
+emancipation had been left open. Among its members were some--like the
+lord chancellor Eldon, the duke of Wellington, and the premier, Lord
+Liverpool, himself--whose Toryism was of the type crystallized under the
+influence of the Revolution, adamant against change. Such progressive
+measures as it had passed had been passed in the teeth of its own
+nominal supporters, even of its own members. In 1826 Lord Palmerston,
+himself a member of the government, wrote: "On the Catholic question, on
+the principles of commerce, on the corn laws, on the settlement of the
+currency, on the laws relating to trade in money, on colonial slavery,
+on the game laws...; on all these questions, and everything like them,
+the government will find support from the Whigs and resistance from
+their self-denominated friends." It was, in fact, only the personal
+influence of Liverpool that held the ministry together, and when, on the
+17th of February 1827, he was seized with an apoplectic fit, a crisis
+was inevitable.
+
+
+  Catholic Emancipation and Corn Laws.
+
+The crisis, indeed, arose before the nominal expiration of the Liverpool
+administration. Two questions were, in the view of Canning and his
+supporters, of supreme importance--Catholic emancipation and the reform
+of the Corn Laws. The first of these had assumed a new urgency since the
+formation in 1823 of the Catholic Association, which under the brilliant
+leadership of Daniel O'Connell established in Ireland a national
+organization that threatened the very basis of the government. In March
+1826 Sir Francis Burdett had brought in a Catholic Relief Bill, which,
+passed in the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. A year later
+Burdett's motion that the affairs of Ireland required immediate
+attention, though supported by Canning, was rejected in the Commons. A
+bill modifying the Corn Laws, introduced by Canning and Huskisson,
+passed the House of Commons on the 12th of April 1827, but was rejected
+by the Lords.
+
+
+  Canning ministry.
+
+  Wellington ministry.
+
+  Catholic emancipation passed. Revolution of 1830.
+
+Meanwhile (April 10) Canning had become prime minister, his appointment
+being followed by the resignation of all the most conspicuous members of
+the Liverpool administration: Wellington, Eldon, Melville, Bathurst,
+Westmorland and Peel, the latter of whom resigned on account of his
+opposition to Catholic emancipation. The new government had perforce to
+rely on the Whigs, who took their seats on the government side of the
+House, Lord Lansdowne being included in the cabinet. Before this
+coalition could be completed, however, Canning died (August 8). The
+short-lived Goderich administration followed; and in January 1828 the
+king, weary of the effort to arrange a coalition, summoned the duke of
+Wellington to office as head of a purely Tory cabinet. Yet the logic of
+facts was too strong even for the stubborn spirit of the Iron Duke. In
+May 1828, on the initiative of Lord John Russell, the Test and
+Corporation Acts were repealed; in the same session a Corn Bill,
+differing but little from those that Wellington had hitherto opposed,
+was passed; and finally, after a strenuous agitation which culminated in
+the election of O'Connell for Clare, and in spite of the obstinate
+resistance of King George IV., the Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed
+(April 10, 1829) by a large majority. On the 26th of June 1830 the king
+died, exactly a month before the outbreak of the revolution in Paris
+that hurled Charles X. from the throne and led to the establishment of
+the Liberal Monarchy under Louis Philippe; a revolution that was to
+exert a strong influence on the movement for reform in England.
+
+
+  William IV.
+
+  Whig ministry under Lord Grey.
+
+  The great Reform Bill.
+
+King William IV. ascended the throne at a critical moment in the history
+of the English constitution. Everywhere misery and discontent were
+apparent, manifesting themselves in riots against machinery, in
+rick-burning on a large scale, and in the formation of trades unions
+which tended to develop into organized armies of sedition. All the
+elements of violent revolution were present. Nor was there anything in
+the character of the new king greatly calculated to restore the damaged
+prestige of the crown; for, if he lacked the evil qualities that had
+caused George IV. to be loathed as well as despised, he lacked also the
+sense of personal dignity that had been the saving grace of George,
+while he shared the conservative and Protestant prejudices of his
+predecessors. Reform was now inevitable. The Wellington ministry, hated
+by the Liberals, denounced even by the Tories as traitorous for the few
+concessions made, resigned on the 16th of November; and the Whigs at
+last came into office under Lord Grey, the ministry also including a few
+of the more Liberal Tories. Lord Durham, perhaps the most influential
+leader of the reform movement, became privy seal, Althorp chancellor of
+the exchequer, Palmerston foreign secretary, Melbourne home secretary,
+Goderich colonial secretary. Lord John Russell, as paymaster-general,
+and Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby), as secretary for Ireland, held
+office outside the cabinet. With the actual House of Commons, however,
+the government was powerless to effect its purpose. Though it succeeded
+in carrying the second reading of the Reform Bill (March 21, 1831), it
+was defeated in committee, and appealed to the country. The result was a
+great governmental majority, and the bill passed the Commons in
+September. Its rejection by the Lords on the 8th of October was the
+signal for dangerous rioting; and in spite of the opposition of the
+king, the bill was once more passed by the Commons (December 12). A
+violent agitation marked the recess. On the 14th of April 1832 the bill
+was read a second time in the Lords, but on the 7th of May was again
+rejected, whereupon the government resigned. The attempt of Wellington,
+at the king's instance, to form a ministry failed; of all the Tory
+obstructionists he alone had the courage to face the popular rage. On
+the 15th Lord Grey was in office again; the demand was made for a
+sufficient creation of peers to swamp the House of Lords; the king, now
+thoroughly alarmed, used his influence to persuade the peers to yield,
+and on the 4th of June the great Reform Bill became law. Thus was
+England spared the crisis of a bloody revolution, and proof given to the
+world that her ancient constitution was sufficiently elastic to expand
+with the needs of the times.
+
+The effect of the Reform Bill, which abolished fifty-six "rotten"
+boroughs, and by reducing the representation of others set free 143
+seats, which were in part conferred on the new industrial centres, was
+to transfer a large share of political power from the landed aristocracy
+to the middle classes. Yet the opposition of the Tories had not been
+wholly inspired by the desire to maintain the political predominance of
+a class. Canning, who had the best reason for knowing, defended the
+unreformed system on the ground that its very anomalies opened a variety
+of paths by which talent could make its way into parliament, and thus
+produced an assembly far more widely representative than could be
+expected from a more uniform and logical system. This argument, which
+the effect of progressive extensions of the franchise on the
+intellectual level of parliament has certainly not tended to weaken, was
+however far outweighed--as Canning himself would have come to see--by
+the advantage of reconciling with the old constitution the new forces
+which were destined during the century to transform the social
+organization of the country. Nor, in spite of the drastic character of
+the Reform Bill, did it in effect constitute a revolution. The 143 seats
+set free were divided equally between the towns and the counties; and in
+the counties the landowning aristocracy was still supreme. In the towns
+the new £10 household franchise secured a democratic constituency; in
+the counties the inclusion of tenants at will (of £50 annual rent), as
+well as of copyholders and lease-holders, only tended to increase the
+influence of the landlords. There was as yet no secret ballot to set the
+voter free.
+
+The result was apparent in the course of the next few years. The first
+reformed parliament, which met on the 29th of January 1833, consisted in
+the main of Whigs, with a sprinkling of Radicals and a compact body of
+Liberal Tories under Sir Robert Peel. Its great work was the act
+emancipating the slaves in the British colonies (August 30). Other
+burning questions were the condition of Ireland, the scandal of the
+established church there, the misery of the poor in England. In all
+these matters the House showed little enough of the revolutionary
+temper; so little, indeed, that in March Lord Durham resigned. To the
+Whig leaders the church was all but as sacrosanct as to the Tories, the
+very foundation of the constitution, not to be touched save at imminent
+risk to the state; the most they would adventure was to remedy a few of
+the more glaring abuses of an establishment imposed on an unwilling
+population. As for O'Connell's agitation for the repeal of the Union,
+that met with but scant sympathy in parliament; on the 27th of May 1834
+his repeal motion was rejected by a large majority.
+
+
+  Melbourne ministry.
+
+  The "Conservative" party.
+
+In July the Grey ministry resigned, and on the 16th Lord Melbourne
+became prime minister. His short tenure of office is memorable for the
+passing of the bill for the reform of the Poor Law (August). The
+reckless system of outdoor relief, which had pauperized whole
+neighbourhoods, was abolished, and the system of unions and workhouses
+established (see POOR LAW). An attempt to divert some of the revenues of
+the Irish Church led in the autumn to serious differences of opinion in
+the cabinet; the king, as tenacious as his father of the exact
+obligations of his coronation oath, dismissed the ministry, and called
+the Tories to office under Sir Robert Peel and the duke of Wellington.
+Thus, within three years of the passing of the Reform Bill, the party
+which had most strenuously opposed it was again in office. Scarcely less
+striking testimony to the constitutional temper of the English was given
+by the new attitude of the party under the new conditions. In the
+"Tamworth manifesto" of January 1835 Peel proclaimed the principles
+which were henceforth to guide the party, no longer Tory, but
+"Conservative." The Reform Bill and its consequences were frankly
+accepted; further reforms were promised, especially in the matter of the
+municipal corporations and of the disabilities of the dissenters. The
+new parliament, however, which met on the 19th of February, was not
+favourable to the ministry, which fell on the 8th of April. Lord
+Melbourne once more came into office, and the Municipal Corporations Act
+of the 7th of September was the work of a Liberal government. This was
+the last measure of first-rate importance passed before the death of
+King William, which occurred on the 20th of June 1837.
+
+It is impossible to exaggerate the importance, not only for England but
+for the world at large, of the epoch which culminated in the passing of
+the Reform Bill of 1832. All Europe, whether Liberal or reactionary, was
+watching the constitutional struggle with strained attention; the
+principles of monarchy and of constitutional liberty were alike at
+stake. To foreign observers it seemed impossible that the British
+monarchy could survive. Baron Brunnow, the Russian ambassador in London,
+sent home to the emperor Nicholas I. the most pessimistic reports.
+According to Brunnow, King William, by using his influence to secure the
+passage of the Reform Bill, had "cast his crown into the gutter"; the
+throne might endure for his lifetime, but the next heir was a young and
+inexperienced girl, and, even were the princess Victoria ever to mount
+the throne--which was unlikely--she would be speedily swept off it again
+by the rising tide of republicanism. The course of the next reign was
+destined speedily to convince even Nicholas I. of the baselessness of
+these fears, and to present to all Europe the exemplar of a progressive
+state, in which the principles of traditional authority and democratic
+liberty combined for the common good.     (W. A. P.)
+
+
+XII. THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (1837-1901)
+
+  Queen Victoria's accession.
+
+The death of William IV., on the 20th of June 1837, placed on the throne
+of England a young princess, who was destined to reign for a longer
+period than any of her predecessors. The new queen, the only daughter of
+the duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III., had just attained her
+majority. Educated in comparative seclusion, her character and her
+person were unfamiliar to her future subjects, who were a little weary
+of the extravagances and eccentricities of her immediate predecessors.
+Her accession gave them a new interest in the house of Hanover. And
+their loyalty, which would in any case have been excited by the
+accession of a young and inexperienced girl to the throne of the
+greatest empire in the world, was stimulated by her conduct and
+appearance. She displayed from the first a dignity and good sense which
+won the affection of the multitude who merely saw her in public, and the
+confidence of the advisers who were admitted into her presence.
+
+The ministry experienced immediate benefit from the change. The Whigs,
+who had governed England since 1830, under Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne,
+were suffering from the reaction which is the inevitable consequence of
+revolution. The country which, in half-a-dozen years, had seen a radical
+reform of parliament, a no less radical reform of municipal
+corporations, the abolition of slavery, and the reconstruction of the
+poor laws, was longing for a period of political repose. The alliance,
+or understanding, between the Whigs and the Irish was increasing the
+distrust of the English people in the ministry, and Lord Melbourne's
+government, in the first half of 1837, seemed doomed to perish. The
+accession of the queen gave it a new lease of power. The election,
+indeed, which followed her accession did not materially alter the
+composition of the House of Commons. But the popularity of the queen was
+extended to her government. Taper's suggestion in _Coningsby_ that the
+Conservatives should go to the country with the cry, "Our young queen
+and our old institutions," expressed, in an epigram, a prevalent idea.
+But the institution which derived most immediate benefit from the new
+sovereign was the old Whig ministry.
+
+
+  Lord Melbourne's difficulties.
+
+The difficulties of the ministry, nevertheless, were great. In the
+preceding years it had carried most of the reforms which were demanded
+in Great Britain; but it had failed to obtain the assent of the House
+of Lords to its Irish measures. It had desired (1) to follow up the
+reform of English corporations by a corresponding reform of Irish
+municipalities; (2) to convert the tithes, payable to the Irish Church,
+into a rent charge, and to appropriate its surplus revenues to other
+purposes; (3) to deal with the chronic distress of the Irish people by
+extending to Ireland the principles of the English poor law. In the year
+which succeeded the accession of the queen it accomplished two of these
+objects. It passed an Irish poor law and a measure commuting tithes in
+Ireland into a rent charge. The first of these measures was carried in
+opposition to the views of the Irish, who thought that it imposed an
+intolerable burden on Irish property. The second was only carried on the
+government consenting to drop the appropriation clause, on which Lord
+Melbourne's administration had virtually been founded.
+
+
+  The bed-chamber question.
+
+It was not, however, in domestic politics alone that the ministry was
+hampered. In the months which immediately followed the queen's accession
+news reached England of disturbances, or even insurrection in Canada.
+The rising was easily put down; but the condition of the colony was so
+grave that the ministry decided to suspend the constitution of lower
+Canada for three years, and to send out Lord Durham with almost
+dictatorial powers. Lord Durham's conduct was, unfortunately, marked by
+indiscretions which led to his resignation; but before leaving the
+colony he drew up a report on its condition and on its future, which
+practically became a text-book for his successors, and has influenced
+the government of British colonies ever since. Nor was Canada the only
+great colony which was seething with discontent. In Jamaica the
+planters, who had sullenly accepted the abolition of slavery, were
+irritated by the passage of an act of parliament intended to remedy some
+grave abuses in the management of the prisons of the island. The
+colonial House of Assembly denounced this act as a violation of its
+rights, and determined to desist from its legislative functions. The
+governor dissolved the assembly, but the new house, elected in its
+place, reaffirmed the decision of its predecessor; and the British
+ministry, in face of the crisis, asked parliament in 1839 for authority
+to suspend the constitution of the island for five years. The bill
+introduced for this purpose placed the Whig ministry in a position of
+some embarrassment. The advocates of popular government, they were
+inviting parliament, for a second time, to suspend representative
+institutions in an important colony. Supported by only small and
+dwindling majorities, they saw that it was hopeless to carry the
+measure, and they decided on placing their resignations in the queen's
+hands. The queen naturally sent for Sir Robert Peel, who undertook to
+form a government. In the course of the negotiations, however, he stated
+that it would be necessary to make certain changes in the household,
+which contained some great ladies closely connected with the leaders of
+the Whig party. The queen shrank from separating herself from ladies who
+had surrounded her since she came to the throne, and Sir Robert
+thereupon declined the task of forming a ministry. Technically he was
+justified in adopting this course, but people generally felt that there
+was some hardship in compelling a young queen to separate herself from
+her companions and friends, and they consequently approved the decision
+of Lord Melbourne to support the queen in her refusal, and to resume
+office. The Whigs returned to place, but they could not be said to
+return to power. They did not even venture to renew the original Jamaica
+Bill. They substituted for it a modified proposal which they were unable
+to carry. They were obviously indebted for office to the favour of the
+queen, and not to the support of parliament.
+
+
+  Penny postage.
+
+Yet the session of 1839 was not without important results. After a long
+struggle, in which ministers narrowly escaped defeat in the Commons, and
+in the course of which they suffered severe rebuffs in the Lords, they
+succeeded in laying the foundation of the English system of national
+education. In the same session they were forced against their will to
+adopt a reform, which had been recommended by Rowland Hill, and to
+confer on the nation the benefit of a uniform penny postage. No member
+of the cabinet foresaw the consequences of this reform. The
+postmaster-general, Lord Lichfield, in opposing it, declared that, if
+the revenue of his office was to be maintained, the correspondence of
+the country, on which postage was paid, must be increased from
+42,000,000 to 480,000,000 letters a year, and he contended that there
+were neither people to write, nor machinery to deal with, so prodigious
+a mass of letters. He would have been astonished to hear that, before
+the end of the century, his office had to deal with more than
+3,000,000,000 postal packets a year, and that the net profit which it
+paid into the exchequer was to be more than double what it received in
+1839.
+
+
+  Fiscal policy.
+
+In 1840 the ministry was not much more successful than it had proved in
+1839. After years of conflict it succeeded indeed in placing on the
+statute book a measure dealing with Irish municipalities. But its
+success was purchased by concessions to the Lords, which deprived the
+measure of much of its original merit. The closing years of the Whig
+administration were largely occupied with the financial difficulties of
+the country. The first three years of the queen's reign were memorable
+for a constantly deficient revenue. The deficit amounted to £1,400,000
+in 1837, to £400,000 in 1838, and to £1,457,000 in 1839. Baring, the
+chancellor of the exchequer, endeavoured to terminate this deficiency by
+a general increase of taxation, but this device proved a disastrous
+failure. The deficit rose to £1,842,000 in 1840. It was obvious that the
+old expedient of increasing taxation had failed, and that some new
+method had to be substituted for it. This new method Baring tried to
+discover in altering the differential duties on timber and sugar, and
+substituting a fixed duty of 8s. per quarter for the sliding duties
+hitherto payable on wheat. By these alterations he expected to secure a
+large increase of revenue, and at the same time to maintain a sufficient
+degree of protection for colonial produce. The Conservatives, who
+believed in protection, at once attacked the proposed alteration of the
+sugar duties. They were reinforced by many Liberals, who cared very
+little for protection, but a great deal about the abolition of slavery,
+and consequently objected to reducing the duties on foreign or
+slave-grown sugar. This combination of interests proved too strong for
+Baring and his proposal was rejected. As ministers, however, did not
+resign on their defeat, Sir Robert Peel followed up his victory by
+moving a vote of want of confidence, and this motion was carried in an
+exceptionally full house by 312 votes to 311.
+
+
+  Sir R. Peel forms a ministry.
+
+Before abandoning the struggle, the Whigs decided on appealing from the
+House of Commons to the country. The general election which ensued
+largely increased the strength of the Conservative party. On the meeting
+of the new parliament in August 1841, votes of want of confidence in the
+government were proposed and carried in both houses; the Whigs were
+compelled to resign office, and the queen again charged Sir Robert Peel
+with the task of forming a government. If the queen had remained
+unmarried, it is possible that the friction which had arisen in 1839
+might have recurred in 1841. In February 1840, however, Her Majesty had
+married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She was,
+therefore, no longer dependent on the Whig ladies, to whose presence in
+her court she had attached so much importance in 1839. By the management
+of the prince--who later in the reign was known as the prince
+consort--the great ladies of the household voluntarily tendered their
+resignations; and every obstacle to the formation of the new government
+was in this way removed.
+
+Thus the Whigs retired from the offices which, except for a brief
+interval in 1834-1835, they had held for eleven years. During the
+earlier years of their administration they had succeeded in carrying
+many memorable reforms: during the later years their weakness in the
+House of Commons had prevented their passing any considerable measures.
+But, if they had failed in this respect, Lord Melbourne had rendered
+conspicuous service to the queen. Enjoying her full confidence,
+consulted by her on every occasion, he had always used his influence for
+the public good; and perhaps those who look back now with so much
+satisfaction at the queen's conduct during a reign of unexampled length,
+imperfectly appreciate the debt which in this respect is owed to her
+first prime minister. The closing years of the Whig government were
+marked by external complications. A controversy on the boundary of
+Canada and the United States was provoking increasing bitterness on both
+sides of the Atlantic. The intervention of Lord Palmerston in Syria,
+which resulted in a great military success at Acre, was embittering the
+relations between France and England, while the unfortunate expedition
+to Afghanistan, which the Whigs had approved, was already producing
+embarrassment, and was about to result in disaster. Serious, however, as
+were the complications which surrounded British policy in Europe, in the
+East, and in America, the country, in August 1841, paid more attention
+to what a great writer called the "condition of England" question. There
+had never been a period in British history when distress and crime had
+been so general. There had hardly ever been a period when food had been
+so dear, when wages had been so low, when poverty had been so
+widespread, and the condition of the lower orders so depraved and so
+hopeless, as in the early years of the queen's reign. The condition of
+the people had prompted the formation of two great associations. The
+Chartists derived their name from the charter which set out their
+demands. The rejection of a monster petition which they presented to
+parliament in 1839 led to a formidable riot in Birmingham, and to a
+projected march from South Wales on London, in which twenty persons were
+shot dead at Newport. Another organization, in one sense even more
+formidable than the Chartist, was agitating at the same time for the
+repeal of the corn laws, and was known as the Anti-Corn Law League. It
+had already secured the services of two men, Cobden and Bright, who, one
+by clear reasoning, the other by fervid eloquence, were destined to make
+a profound impression on all classes of the people.
+
+
+  Budget reforms.
+
+The new government had, therefore, to deal with a position of almost
+unexampled difficulty. The people were apparently sinking into deeper
+poverty and misery year after year. As an outward and visible sign of
+the inward distress, the state was no longer able to pay its way. It was
+estimated that the deficit, which had amounted to £1,842,000 in 1840,
+would reach £2,334,000 in 1841. It is the signal merit of Sir Robert
+Peel that he terminated this era of private distress and public
+deficits. He accomplished this task partly by economical
+administration--for no minister ever valued economy more--and partly by
+a reform of the financial system, effected in three great budgets. In
+the budget of 1842 Sir Robert Peel terminated the deficit by reviving
+the income tax. The proceeds of the tax, which was fixed at 7d. in the
+£, and was granted in the first instance for three years, were more than
+sufficient to secure this object. Sir Robert used the surplus to reform
+the whole customs tariff. The duties on raw materials, he proposed,
+should never exceed 5%, the duties on partly manufactured articles 12%,
+and the duties on manufactured articles 20% of their value. At the same
+time he reduced the duties on stage coaches, on foreign and colonial
+coffee, on foreign and colonial timber, and repealed the export duties
+on British manufactures. The success of this budget in stimulating
+consumption and in promoting trade induced Sir Robert Peel to follow it
+up in 1845 with an even more remarkable proposal. Instead of allowing
+the income tax to expire, he induced parliament to continue it for a
+further period, and with the resources which were thus placed at his
+disposal he purged the tariff of various small duties which produced
+little revenue, and had been imposed for purposes of protection. He
+swept away all the duties on British exports; he repealed the duties on
+glass, on cotton wool, and still further reduced the duties on foreign
+and colonial sugar. This budget was a much greater step towards free
+trade than the budget of 1842. The chief object in his third budget in
+1846--the reduction of the duty on corn to 1s. a quarter--was
+necessitated by causes which will be immediately referred to. But it
+will be convenient at once to refer to its other features. Sir Robert
+Peel told the house that, in his previous budgets, he had given the
+manufacturers of the country free access to the raw materials which they
+used. He was entitled in return to call upon them to relinquish the
+protection which they enjoyed. He decided, therefore, to reduce the
+protective duties on cotton, woollen, silk, metal and other goods, as
+well as on raw materials still liable to heavy taxation, such as timber
+and tallow. As the policy of 1842 and 1845 had proved unquestionably
+successful in stimulating trade, he proposed to extend it to
+agriculture. He reduced the duties on the raw materials which the
+farmers used, such as seed and maize, and in return he called on them to
+give up the duties on cattle and meat, to reduce largely the duties on
+butter, cheese and hops, and to diminish the duty on corn by gradual
+stages to 1s. a quarter. In making these changes Sir Robert Peel avowed
+that it was his object to make the country a cheap one to live in. There
+is no doubt that they were followed by a remarkable development of
+British trade. In the twenty-seven years from 1815 to 1842 the export
+trade of Great Britain diminished from £49,600,000 to £47,280,000; while
+in the twenty-seven years which succeeded 1842 it increased from
+£47,280,000 to nearly £190,000,000. These figures are a simple and
+enduring monument to the minister's memory. It is fair to add that the
+whole increase was not due to free trade. It was partly attributable to
+the remarkable development of communications which marked this period.
+
+Two other financial measures of great importance were accomplished in
+Sir Robert Peel's ministry. In 1844 some £250,000,000 of the national
+debt still bore an interest of 3½%. The improvement in the credit of the
+country enabled the government to reduce the interest on the stock to
+3¼% for the succeeding ten years, and to 3% afterwards. This conversion,
+which effected an immediate saving of £625,000, and an ultimate saving
+of £1,250,000 a year, was by far the most important measure which had
+hitherto been applied to the debt; and no operation on the same scale
+was attempted for more than forty years. In the same year the necessity
+of renewing the charter of the Bank of England afforded Sir Robert Peel
+an opportunity of reforming the currency. He separated the issue
+department from the banking department of the bank, and decided that in
+future it should only be at liberty to issue notes against (1) the debt
+of £14,000,000 due to it from the government, and (2) any bullion
+actually in its coffers. Few measures of the past century have been the
+subject of more controversy than this famous act, and at one time its
+repeated suspension in periods of financial crises seemed to suggest the
+necessity of its amendment. But opinion on the whole has vindicated its
+wisdom, and it has survived all the attacks which have been made upon
+it.
+
+
+  Ireland.
+
+  Free trade.
+
+The administration of Sir Robert Peel is also remarkable for its Irish
+policy. The Irish, under O'Connell, had constantly supported the Whig
+ministry of Lord Melbourne. But their alliance, or understanding, with
+the Whigs had not procured them all the results which they had expected
+from it. The two great Whig measures, dealing with the church and the
+municipalities, had only been passed after years of controversy, and in
+a shape which deprived them of many expected advantages. Hence arose a
+notion in Ireland that nothing was to be expected from a British
+parliament, and hence began a movement for the repeal of the union which
+had been accomplished in 1801. This agitation, which smouldered during
+the reign of the Whig ministry, was rapidly revived when Sir Robert Peel
+entered upon office. The Irish contributed large sums, which were known
+as repeal rent, to the cause, and they held monster meetings in various
+parts of Ireland to stimulate the demand for repeal. The ministry met
+this campaign by coercive legislation regulating the use of arms, by
+quartering large bodies of troops in Ireland, and by prohibiting a great
+meeting at Clontarf, the scene of Brian Boru's victory, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Dublin. They further decided in 1843 to place O'Connell
+and some of the leading agitators on their trial for conspiracy and
+sedition. O'Connell was tried before a jury chosen from a defective
+panel, was convicted on an indictment which contained many counts, and
+the court passed sentence without distinguishing between these counts.
+These irregularities induced the House of Lords to reverse the
+judgment, and its reversal did much to prevent mischief. O'Connell's
+illness, which resulted in his death in 1847, tended also to establish
+peace. Sir Robert Peel wisely endeavoured to stifle agitation by making
+considerable concessions to Irish sentiment. He increased the grant
+which was made to the Roman Catholic College at Maynooth; he established
+three colleges in the north, south and west of Ireland for the
+undenominational education of the middle classes; he appointed a
+commission--the Devon commission, as it was called, from the name of the
+nobleman who presided over it--to investigate the conditions on which
+Irish land was held; and, after the report of the commission, he
+introduced, though he failed to carry, a measure for remedying some of
+the grievances of the Irish tenants. These wise concessions might
+possibly have had some effect in pacifying Ireland, if, in the autumn of
+1845, they had not been forgotten in the presence of a disaster which
+suddenly fell on that unhappy country. The potato, which was the sole
+food of at least half the people of an overcrowded island, failed, and a
+famine of unprecedented proportions was obviously imminent. Sir Robert
+Peel, whose original views on protection had been rapidly yielding to
+the arguments afforded by the success of his own budgets, concluded that
+it was impossible to provide for the necessities of Ireland without
+suspending the corn laws; and that, if they were once suspended, it
+would be equally impossible to restore them. He failed, however, to
+convince two prominent members of his cabinet--Lord Stanley and the duke
+of Buccleuch--that protection must be finally abandoned, and considering
+it hopeless to persevere with a disunited cabinet he resigned office. On
+Sir Robert's resignation the queen sent for Lord John Russell, who had
+led the Liberal party in the House of Commons with conspicuous ability
+for more than ten years, and charged him with the task of forming a new
+ministry. Differences, which it proved impossible to remove, between two
+prominent Whigs--Lord Palmerston and Lord Grey--made the task
+impracticable, and after an interval Sir Robert Peel consented to resume
+power. Sir Robert Peel was probably aware that his fall had been only
+postponed. In the four years and a half during which his ministry had
+lasted he had done much to estrange his party. They said, with some
+truth, that, whether his measures were right or wrong, they were opposed
+to the principles which he had been placed in power to support. The
+general election of 1841 had been mainly fought on the rival policies of
+protection and free trade. The country had decided for protection, and
+Sir R. Peel had done more than all his predecessors to give it free
+trade. The Conservative party, moreover, was closely allied with the
+church, and Sir Robert had offended the church by giving an increased
+endowment to Maynooth, and by establishing undenominational
+colleges--"godless colleges" as they were called--in Ireland. The
+Conservatives were, therefore, sullenly discontented with the conduct of
+their leader. They were lashed into positive fury by the proposal which
+he was now making to abolish the corn laws. Lord George Bentinck, who,
+in his youth, had been private secretary to Canning, but who in his
+maturer years had devoted more time to the turf than to politics, placed
+himself at their head. He was assisted by a remarkable man--Benjamin
+Disraeli--who joined great abilities to great ambition, and who,
+embittered by Sir Robert Peel's neglect to appoint him to office, had
+already displayed his animosity to the minister. The policy on which Sir
+Robert Peel resolved facilitated attack. For the minister thought it
+necessary, while providing against famine by repealing the corn laws, to
+ensure the preservation of order by a new coercion bill. The financial
+bill and the coercion bill were both pressed forward, and each gave
+opportunities for discussion and, what was then new in parliament, for
+obstruction. At last, on the very night on which the fiscal proposals of
+the ministers were accepted by the Lords, the coercion bill was defeated
+in the Commons by a combination of Whigs, radicals and protectionists;
+and Sir R. Peel, worn out with a protracted struggle, placed his
+resignation in the queen's hands.
+
+
+  Peel's foreign policy.
+
+Thus fell the great minister, who perhaps had conferred more benefits on
+his country than any of his predecessors. The external policy of his
+ministry had been almost as remarkable as its domestic programme. When
+he accepted office the country was on the eve of a great disaster in
+India; it was engaged in a serious dispute with the United States; and
+its relations with France were so strained that the two great countries
+of western Europe seemed unlikely to be able to settle their differences
+without war. In the earlier years of his administration the disaster in
+Afghanistan was repaired in a successful campaign; and Lord
+Ellenborough, who was sent over to replace Lord Auckland as
+governor-general, increased the dominion and responsibilities of the
+East India Company by the unscrupulous but brilliant policy which led to
+the conquest of Sind. The disputes with the United States were
+satisfactorily composed; and not only were the differences with France
+terminated, but a perfect understanding was formed between the two
+countries, under which Guizot, the prime minister of France, and Lord
+Aberdeen, the foreign minister of England, agreed to compromise all
+minor questions for the sake of securing the paramount object of peace.
+The good understanding was so complete that a disagreeable incident in
+the Sandwich Islands, in which the injudicious conduct of a French agent
+very nearly precipitated hostilities, was amicably settled; and the
+ministry had the satisfaction of knowing that, if their policy had
+produced prosperity at home, it had also maintained peace abroad.
+
+
+  The Spanish marriages.
+
+On Sir R. Peel's resignation the queen again sent for Lord John Russell.
+The difficulties which had prevented his forming a ministry in the
+previous year were satisfactorily arranged, and Lord Palmerston accepted
+the seals of the foreign office, while Lord Grey was sent to the
+colonial office. The history of the succeeding years was destined,
+however, to prove that Lord Grey had had solid reasons for objecting to
+Lord Palmerston's return to his old post; for, whatever judgment may
+ultimately be formed on Lord Palmerston's foreign policy, there can be
+little doubt that it did not tend to the maintenance of peace. The first
+occasion on which danger was threatened arose immediately after the
+installation of the new ministry on the question of the Spanish
+marriages. The queen of Spain, Isabella, was a young girl still in her
+teens; the heir to the throne was her younger sister, the infanta
+Fernanda. Diplomacy had long been occupied with the marriages of these
+children; and Lord Aberdeen had virtually accepted the principle, which
+the French government had laid down, that a husband for the queen should
+be found among the descendants of Philip V., and that her sister's
+marriage to the duc de Montpensier--a son of Louis Philippe--should not
+be celebrated till the queen was married and had issue. While agreeing
+to this compromise, Lord Aberdeen declared that he regarded the Spanish
+marriages as a Spanish, and not as a European question, and that, if it
+proved impossible to find a suitable consort for the queen among the
+descendants of Philip V., Spain must be free to choose a prince for her
+throne elsewhere. The available descendants of Philip V. were the two
+sons of Don Francis, the younger brother of Don Carlos, and of these the
+French government was in favour of the elder, while the British
+government preferred the younger brother. Lord Palmerston strongly
+objected to the prince whom the French government supported; and, almost
+immediately after acceding to office, he wrote a despatch in which he
+enumerated the various candidates for the queen of Spain's hand,
+including Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, a near relation of the prince
+consort, among the number. Louis Philippe regarded this despatch as a
+departure from the principle on which he had agreed with Lord Aberdeen,
+and at once hurried on the simultaneous marriages of the queen with the
+French candidate, and of her sister with the duc de Montpensier. His
+action broke up the _entente cordiale_ which had been established
+between Guizot and Lord Aberdeen.
+
+
+  Don Pacifico.
+
+The second occasion on which Lord Palmerston's vigorous diplomacy
+excited alarm arose out of the revolution which broke out almost
+universally in Europe in 1848. A rising in Hungary was suppressed by
+Austria with Russian assistance, and after its suppression many leading
+Hungarians took refuge in Turkish territory. Austria and Russia
+addressed demands to the Porte for their surrender. Lord Palmerston
+determined to support the Porte in its refusal to give up these exiles,
+and actually sent the British fleet to the Dardanelles with this object.
+His success raised the credit of Great Britain and his own reputation.
+The presence of the British fleet, however, at the Dardanelles suggested
+to him the possibility of settling another long-standing controversy.
+For years British subjects settled in Greece had raised complaints
+against the Greek government. In particular Don Pacifico, a Jew, but a
+native of Gibraltar, complained that, at a riot, in which his house had
+been attacked, he had lost jewels, furniture and papers which he alleged
+to be worth more than £30,000. As Lord Palmerston was unable by
+correspondence to induce the Greek government to settle claims of this
+character, he determined to enforce them; and by his orders a large
+number of Greek vessels were seized and detained by the British fleet.
+The French government tendered its good offices to compose the dispute,
+and an arrangement was actually arrived at between Lord Palmerston and
+the French minister in London. Unfortunately, before its terms reached
+Greece, the British minister at Athens had ordered the resumption of
+hostilities, and had compelled the Greek government to submit to more
+humiliating conditions. News of this settlement excited the strongest
+feelings both in Paris and London. In Paris, Prince Louis Napoleon, who
+had acceded to the presidency of the French republic, decided on
+recalling his representative from the British court. In London the Lords
+passed a vote of censure on Lord Palmerston's proceedings; and the
+Commons only sustained the minister by adopting a resolution approving
+in general terms the principles on which the foreign policy of the
+country had been conducted.
+
+
+  Palmerston dismissed.
+
+In pursuing the vigorous policy which characterized his tenure of the
+foreign office, Lord Palmerston frequently omitted to consult his
+colleagues in the cabinet, the prime minister, or the queen. In the
+course of 1849 Her Majesty formally complained to Lord John Russell that
+important despatches were sent off without her knowledge; and an
+arrangement was made under which Lord Palmerston undertook to submit
+every despatch to the queen through the prime minister. In 1850, after
+the Don Pacifico debate, the queen repeated these commands in a much
+stronger memorandum. But Lord Palmerston, though all confidence between
+himself and the court was destroyed, continued in office. In the autumn
+of 1851 the queen was much annoyed at hearing that he had received a
+deputation at the foreign office, which had waited on him to express
+sympathy with the Hungarian refugees, and to denounce the conduct of
+"the despots and tyrants" of Russia and Austria, and that he had, in his
+reply, expressed his gratification at the demonstration. If the queen
+had had her way, Lord Palmerston would have been removed from the
+foreign office after this incident. A few days later the _coup d'état_
+in Paris led to another dispute. The cabinet decided to do nothing that
+could wear the appearance of interference in the internal affairs of
+France; but Lord Palmerston, in conversation with the French minister in
+London, took upon himself to approve the bold and decisive step taken by
+the president. The ministry naturally refused to tolerate this conduct,
+and Lord Palmerston was summarily removed from his office.
+
+
+  Irish famine.
+
+The removal of Lord Palmerston led almost directly to the fall of the
+Whig government. Before relating, however, the exact occurrences which
+produced its defeat, it is necessary to retrace our steps and describe
+the policy which it had pursued in internal matters during the six years
+in which it had been in power. Throughout that period the Irish famine
+had been its chief anxiety and difficulty. Sir Robert Peel had attempted
+to deal with it (1) by purchasing large quantities of Indian corn, which
+he had retailed at low prices in Ireland, and (2) by enabling the grand
+juries to employ the people on public works, which were to be paid out
+of moneys advanced by the state, one-half being ultimately repayable by
+the locality. These measures were not entirely successful. It was
+found, in practice, that the sale of Indian corn at low prices by the
+government checked the efforts of private individuals to supply food;
+and that the offer of comparatively easy work to the poor at the cost of
+the public, prevented their seeking harder private work either in
+Ireland or in Great Britain. The new government, with this experience
+before it, decided on trusting to private enterprise to supply the
+necessary food, and on throwing the whole cost of the works which the
+locality might undertake on local funds. If the famine had been less
+severe, this policy might possibly have succeeded. Universal want,
+however, paralysed every one. The people, destitute of other means of
+livelihood, crowded to the relief works. In the beginning of 1847 nearly
+750,000 persons--or nearly one person out of every ten in Ireland--were
+so employed. With such vast multitudes to relieve, it proved
+impracticable to exact the labour which was required as a test of
+destitution. The roads, which it was decided to make, were blocked by
+the labourers employed upon them, and by the stones, which the labourers
+were supposed to crush for their repair. In the presence of this
+difficulty the government decided, early in 1847, gradually to
+discontinue the relief works, and to substitute for them relief
+committees charged with the task of feeding the people. At one time no
+less than 3,000,000 persons--more than one-third of the entire
+population of Ireland--were supported by these committees. At the same
+time it decided on adopting two measures of a more permanent character.
+The poor law of 1838 had made no provision for the relief of the poor
+outside the workhouse, and outdoor relief was sanctioned by an act of
+1847. Irish landlords complained that their properties, ruined by the
+famine, and encumbered by the extravagances of their predecessors, could
+not bear the cost of this new poor law; and the ministry introduced and
+carried a measure enabling the embarrassed owners of life estates to
+sell their property and discharge their liabilities. It is the constant
+misfortune of Ireland that the measures intended for her relief
+aggravate her distress. The encumbered estates act, though it
+substituted a solvent for an insolvent proprietary, placed the Irish
+tenants at the mercy of landlords of whom they had no previous
+knowledge, who were frequently absentees, who bought the land as a
+matter of business, and who dealt with it on business principles by
+raising the rent. The new poor law, by throwing the maintenance of the
+poor on the soil, encouraged landlords to extricate themselves from
+their responsibilities by evicting their tenants. Evictions were made on
+a scale which elicited from Sir Robert Peel an expression of the deepest
+abhorrence. The unfortunate persons driven from their holdings and
+forced to seek a refuge in the towns, in England, or--when they could
+afford it--in the United States, carried with them everywhere the seeds
+of disease, the constant handmaid of famine.
+
+
+  Rebellion of 1848.
+
+Famine, mortality and emigration left their mark on Ireland. In four
+years, from 1845 to 1849, its population decreased from 8,295,000 to
+7,256,000, or by more than a million persons; and the decline which took
+place at that time went on to the end of the century. The population of
+Ireland in 1901 had decreased to 4,457,000 souls. This fact is the more
+remarkable, because Ireland is almost the only portion of the British
+empire, or indeed of the civilized world, where such a circumstance has
+occurred. We must go to countries like the Asiatic provinces of Turkey,
+devastated by Ottoman rule, to find such a diminution in the numbers of
+the people as was seen in Ireland during the last half of the 19th
+century. It was probably inevitable that the distress of Ireland should
+have been followed by a renewal of Irish outrages. A terrible series of
+agrarian crimes was committed in the autumn of 1847; and the ministry
+felt compelled, in consequence, to strengthen its hands by a new measure
+of coercion, and by suspending the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. The
+latter measure at once brought to a crisis the so-called rebellion of
+1848, for his share in which Smith O'Brien, an Irish member of
+parliament, was convicted of high treason. The government, however, did
+not venture to carry out the grim sentence which the law still applied
+to traitors, and introduced an act enabling it to commute the death
+penalty to transportation. The "insurrection" had from the first proved
+abortive. With Smith O'Brien's transportation it practically terminated.
+
+
+  Chartism.
+
+In the meanwhile the difficulties which the government was experiencing
+from the Irish famine had been aggravated by a grave commercial crisis
+in England. In the autumn of 1847 a series of failures in the great
+commercial centres created a panic in the city of London, which forced
+consols down to 78, and induced the government to take upon itself the
+responsibility of suspending the Bank Charter Act. That step, enabling
+the directors of the Bank of England to issue notes unsecured by
+bullion, had the effect of gradually restoring confidence. But a grave
+commercial crisis of this character is often attended with other than
+financial consequences. The stringency of the money market increases the
+distress of the industrial classes by diminishing the demand for work;
+and, when labour suffers, political agitation flourishes. Early in 1848,
+moreover, revolutions on the continent produced a natural craving for
+changes at home. Louis Philippe was driven out of Paris, the emperor of
+Austria was driven out of Vienna, the Austrian soldiery had to withdraw
+from Milan, and even in Berlin the crown had to make terms with the
+people. While thrones were falling or tottering in every country in
+Europe, it was inevitable that excitement and agitation should prevail
+in Great Britain. The Chartists, reviving the machinery which they had
+endeavoured to employ in 1839, decided on preparing a monster petition
+to parliament, which was to be escorted to Westminster by a monster
+procession. Their preparations excited general alarm, and on the
+invitation of the government no less than 170,000 special constables
+were sworn in to protect life and property against a rabble. By the
+judicious arrangements, however, which were made by the duke of
+Wellington, the peace of the metropolis was secured. The Chartists were
+induced to abandon the procession which had caused so much alarm, and
+the monster petition was carried in a cab to the House of Commons. There
+it was mercilessly picked to pieces by a select committee. It was found
+that, instead of containing nearly 6,000,000 signatures, as its
+originators had boasted, less than 2,000,000 names were attached to it.
+Some of the names, moreover, were obviously fictitious, or even absurd.
+The exposure of these facts turned the whole thing into ridicule, and
+gave parliament an excuse for postponing measures of organic reform
+which might otherwise have been brought forward.
+
+
+  Navigation Acts.
+
+If the ministry thus abstained from pressing forward a large scheme of
+political reform, it succeeded in carrying two measures of the highest
+commercial and social importance. In 1849 it supplemented the free trade
+policy, which Sir Robert Peel had developed, by the repeal of the
+Navigation Acts. Briefly stated, these acts, which had been originated
+during the Protectorate of Cromwell, and continued after the
+Restoration, reserved the whole coasting trade of the country for
+British vessels and British seamen, and much of the foreign trade for
+British vessels, commanded and chiefly manned by British subjects. The
+acts, therefore, were in the strictest sense protective, but they were
+also designed to increase the strength of Great Britain at sea, by
+maintaining large numbers of British seamen. They had been defended by
+Adam Smith on the ground that defence was "of much more importance than
+opulence," and by the same reasoning they had been described by John
+Stuart Mill as, "though economically disadvantageous, politically
+expedient." The acts, however, threw a grave burden on British trade and
+British shipowners. Their provisions by restricting competition
+naturally tended to raise freights, and by restricting employment made
+it difficult for shipowners to man their vessels. Accordingly the
+government wisely determined on their repeal; and one of the last and
+greatest battles between Free Trade and Protection was fought over the
+question. The second reading of the government bill was carried in the
+House of Lords by a majority of only ten: it would not have been carried
+at all if the government had not secured a much larger number of proxies
+than their opponents could obtain.
+
+
+  Ten Hours Bill.
+
+If the repeal of the Navigation Acts constituted a measure of the
+highest commercial importance, the passage of the Ten Hours Bill in 1847
+marked the first great advance in factory legislation. Something,
+indeed, had already been done to remedy the evils arising from the
+employment of women and very young children in factories and mines. In
+1833 Lord Ashley, better known as Lord Shaftesbury, had carried the
+first important Factory Act. In 1842 he had succeeded, with the help of
+the striking report of a royal commission, in inducing parliament to
+prohibit the employment of women and of boys under ten years of age in
+mines. And in 1843 Sir James Graham, who was home secretary in Sir
+Robert Peel's administration, had been compelled by the pressure of
+public opinion to introduce a measure providing for the education of
+children employed in factories, and for limiting the hours of work of
+children and young persons. The educational clauses of this bill were
+obviously framed in the interests of the Church of England, and raised a
+heated controversy which led to the abandonment of the measure; and in
+the following year Sir James Graham introduced a new bill dealing with
+the labour question alone. Briefly stated, his proposal was that no
+child under nine years of age should be employed in a factory, and that
+no young person under eighteen should be employed for more than twelve
+hours a day. This measure gave rise to the famous controversy on the ten
+hours clause, which commenced in 1844 and was protracted till 1847. Lord
+Ashley and the factory reformers contended, on the one hand, that ten
+hours were long enough for any person to work; their opponents
+maintained, on the contrary, that the adoption of the clause would
+injure the working-classes by lowering the rate of wages, and ruin the
+manufacturers by exposing them to foreign competition. In 1847 the
+reform was at last adopted. It is a remarkable fact that it was carried
+against the views of the leading statesmen on both sides of the House.
+It was the triumph of common sense over official arguments.
+
+
+  Death of Peel.
+
+During the first four years of Lord John Russell's government, his
+administration had never enjoyed any very large measure of popular
+support, but it had been partly sustained by the advocacy of Sir Robert
+Peel. The differences which estranged Sir Robert from his old supporters
+were far greater than those which separated him from the Whigs, and the
+latter were therefore constantly able to rely on his assistance. In the
+summer of 1850, however, a lamentable accident--a fall from his
+horse--deprived the country of the services of its great statesman. His
+death naturally affected the position of parties. The small remnant of
+able men, indeed, who had been associated with him in his famous
+administration, still maintained an attitude of neutrality. But the bulk
+of the Conservative party rallied under the lead of Lord Stanley
+(afterwards Derby) in the House of Lords, and gradually submitted to,
+rather than accepted, the lead of Disraeli in the House of Commons.
+
+
+  Oxford movement.
+
+In the autumn which succeeded Sir Robert Peel's death, an event which
+had not been foreseen agitated the country and produced a crisis. During
+the years which had succeeded the Reform Bill a great religious movement
+had influenced politics both in England and Scotland. In England, a body
+of eminent men at Oxford--of whom J. H., afterwards Cardinal, Newman was
+the chief, but who numbered among their leaders Hurrell Froude, the
+brother of the historian, and Keble, the author of the _Christian
+Year_--endeavoured to prove that the doctrines of the Church of England
+were identical with those of the primitive Catholic Church, and that
+every Catholic doctrine might be held by those who were within its pale.
+This view was explained in a remarkable series of tracts, which gave
+their authors the name of Tractarians. The most famous of these, and the
+last of the series, Tract XC., was published three years after the
+queen's accession to the throne. In Scotland, the Presbyterian
+Church--mainly under the guidance of Dr Chalmers, one of the most
+eloquent preachers of the century--was simultaneously engaged in a
+contest with the state on the subject of ecclesiastical patronage. Both
+movements had this in common, that they indicated a revival of
+religious energy, and aimed at vindicating the authority of the church,
+and resisting the interference of the state in church matters. The
+Scottish movement led to the disruption of the Church of Scotland and
+the formation of the Free Church in 1843. The Tractarian movement was
+ultimately terminated by the secession of Newman and many of his
+associates from the Church of England, and their admission to the Church
+of Rome. These secessions raised a feeling of alarm throughout England.
+The people, thoroughly Protestant, were excited by the proofs--which
+they thought were afforded--that the real object of the Tractarians was
+to reconcile England with Rome; and practices which are now regarded as
+venial or even praiseworthy--such as the wearing of the surplice in the
+pulpit, and the institution of the weekly offertory--were denounced
+because they were instituted by the Tractarians, and were regarded as
+insidious devices to lead the country Romewards. The sympathies of the
+Whigs, and especially of the Whig prime minister, Lord John Russell,
+were with the people; and Lord John displayed his dislike to the
+Romanizing tendencies of the Tractarians by appointing Renn Dickson
+Hampden--whose views had been formally condemned by the Hebdomadal Board
+at Oxford--to the bishopric of Hereford. The High Church party
+endeavoured to oppose the appointment at every stage; but their attempts
+exposed them to a serious defeat. The courts held that, though the
+appointment of a bishop by the crown required confirmation in the
+archbishop's court, the confirmation was a purely ministerial act which
+could not be refused. The effort which the High Church party had made to
+resist Dr Hampden's appointment had thus resulted in showing
+conclusively that authority resided in the crown, and not in the
+archbishop. It so happened that about the same time this view was
+confirmed by another judicial decision. The lord chancellor presented
+the Rev. G. C. Gorham to a living in Devonshire; and Dr Phillpotts, the
+bishop of Exeter, declined to institute him, on the ground that he held
+heretical views on the subject of baptism. The court of arches upheld
+the bishop's decision. The finding of the court, however, was reversed
+by the privy council, and its judgment dealt a new blow at the
+Tractarian party. For it again showed that authority--even in
+doctrine--resided in the crown and not in the church. Within a few
+months of this famous decision the pope--perhaps encouraged by the
+activity and despondency of the High Church party--issued a brief "for
+re-establishing and extending the Catholic faith in England," and
+proceeded to divide England and Wales into twelve sees. One of
+them--Westminster--was made an archbishopric, and the new dignity was
+conferred on Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman, who was almost
+immediately afterwards created cardinal. The publication of this brief
+caused much excitement throughout the country, which was fanned by a
+letter from the prime minister to the bishop of Durham, condemning the
+brief as "insolent and insidious" and "inconsistent with the queen's
+supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the
+spiritual independence of the nation." Somewhat unnecessarily the prime
+minister went on to condemn the clergymen of the Church of England who
+had subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, "who have been the most forward
+in leading their own flocks, step by step, to the very edge of the
+precipice."
+
+
+  Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
+
+In accordance with the promise of Lord John Russell's letter, the
+ministry, at the opening of the session of 1851, introduced a measure
+forbidding the assumption of territorial titles by the priests and
+bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, declaring all gifts made to them
+and all acts done by them under these titles null and void, and
+forfeiting to the crown all property bequeathed to them. The bill
+naturally encountered opposition from many Liberals, while it failed to
+excite any enthusiasm among Conservatives, who thought its remedies
+inadequate. In the middle of the debates upon it the government was
+defeated on another question--a proposal to reduce the county
+franchise--and, feeling that it could no longer rely on the support of
+the House of Commons, tendered its resignation. But Lord Stanley, whom
+the queen entrusted with the duty of forming a new administration, was
+compelled to decline the task, and Lord John resumed office. Mild as the
+original Ecclesiastical Titles Bill had been thought, the new edition of
+it, which was introduced after the restoration of the Whigs to power,
+was still milder. Though, after protracted debates, it at last became
+law, it satisfied nobody. Its provisions, as was soon found, could be
+easily evaded, and the bill, which had caused so much excitement, and
+had nearly precipitated the fall of a ministry, remained a dead letter.
+The government, in fact, was experiencing the truth that, if a defeated
+ministry may be occasionally restored to place, it cannot be restored to
+power. The dismissal of Lord Palmerston from the foreign office in 1851
+further increased the embarrassments of the government. In February 1852
+it was defeated on a proposal to revive the militia, and resigned.
+
+
+  French scare.
+
+The circumstances which directly led to the defeat of the Whigs were, in
+one sense, a consequence of the revolutionary wave which had swept over
+Europe in 1848. The fall of Louis Philippe in that year created a panic
+in Great Britain. Men thought that the unsettled state of France made
+war probable, and they were alarmed at the defenceless condition of
+England. Lord Palmerston, speaking in 1845, had declared that "steam had
+bridged the Channel"; and the duke of Wellington had addressed a letter
+to Sir John Burgoyne, in which he had demonstrated that the country was
+not in a position to resist an invading force. The panic was so great
+that the ministry felt it necessary to make exceptional provisions for
+allaying it. Lord John Russell decided on asking parliament to sanction
+increased armaments, and to raise the income tax to 1s. in the pound in
+order to pay for them. The occasion deserves to be recollected as one on
+which a prime minister, who was not also chancellor of the exchequer,
+has himself proposed the budget of the year. But it was still more
+memorable because the remedy which Lord John proposed at once destroyed
+the panic which had suggested it. A certain increase of the income tax
+to a shilling seemed a much more serious calamity than the uncertain
+prospect of a possible invasion. The estimates were recast, the budget
+was withdrawn, and the nation was content to dispense with any addition
+to its military and naval strength. Events in France, in the meanwhile,
+moved with railway speed. Louis Napoleon became president of the French
+Republic: in 1852 he became emperor of the French. The new emperor,
+indeed, took pains to reassure a troubled continent that "the empire was
+peace." The people insisted on believing--and, as the event proved,
+rightly--that the empire was war. Notwithstanding the success of the
+Great Exhibition of 1851, which was supposed to inaugurate a new reign
+of peace, the panic, which had been temporarily allayed in 1848, revived
+at the close of 1851, and the government endeavoured to allay it by
+reconstituting the militia. There were two possible expedients. An act
+of 1757 had placed under the direct authority of the crown a militia
+composed of men selected in each parish by ballot, liable to be called
+out for active service, and to be placed under military law. But the act
+had been supplemented by a series of statutes passed between 1808 and
+1812, which had provided a local militia, raised, like the regular
+militia, by ballot, but, unlike the latter, only liable for service for
+the suppression of riots, or in the event of imminent invasion. Lord
+John Russell's government, forced to do something by the state of public
+opinion, but anxious--from the experience of 1848--to make that
+something moderate, decided on reviving the local militia. Lord
+Palmerston at once suggested that the regular and not the local militia
+should be revived; and, in a small house of only 265 members, he
+succeeded in carrying a resolution to that effect. He had, in this way,
+what he called his "tit for tat" with Lord John; and the queen,
+accepting her minister's resignation, sent for Lord Derby--for Lord
+Stanley had now succeeded to this title--and charged him with the task
+of forming a ministry.
+
+
+  Lord Derby.
+
+The government which Lord Derby succeeded in forming was composed almost
+exclusively of the men who had rebelled against Sir Robert Peel in 1845.
+It was led in the House of Commons by the brilliant, but somewhat
+unscrupulous statesman who had headed the revolt. With the exception of
+Lord Derby and one other man, its members had no experience of high
+office; and it had no chance of commanding a majority of the House of
+Commons in the existing parliament. It owed its position to the
+divisions of its opponents. Profiting by their experience, it succeeded
+in framing and passing a measure reconstituting the regular militia,
+which obtained general approval. It is perhaps worth observing that it
+maintained the machinery of a ballot, but reserved it only in case
+experience should prove that it was necessary. Voluntary enlistment
+under the new Militia Bill was to be the rule: compulsory service was
+only to be resorted to if voluntary enlistment should fail. This
+success, to a certain extent, strengthened the position of the new
+ministry. It was obvious, however, that its stability would ultimately
+be determined by its financial policy. Composed of the men who had
+resisted the free trade measures of the previous decade, its fate
+depended on its attitude towards free trade. In forming his
+administration Lord Derby had found it necessary to declare that, though
+he was still in favour of a tax on corn, he should take no steps in this
+direction till the country had received an opportunity of expressing its
+opinion. His leader in the House of Commons went much further, and
+declared that the time had gone by for reverting to protection. The view
+which Disraeli thus propounded in defiance of his previous opinions was
+confirmed by the electors on the dissolution of parliament. Though the
+new government obtained some increased strength from the result of the
+polls, the country, it was evident, had no intention of abandoning the
+policy of free trade, which by this time, it was clear, had conferred
+substantial benefits on all classes. When the new parliament met in the
+autumn of 1852, it was at once plain that the issue would be determined
+on the rival merits of the old and the new financial systems. Disraeli
+courted the decision by at once bringing forward the budget, which
+custom, and perhaps convenience, would have justified him in postponing
+till the following spring. His proposal--in which he avowedly threw over
+his friends on the ground that "he had greater subjects to consider than
+the triumph of obsolete opinions"--was, in effect, an attempt to
+conciliate his old supporters by a policy of doles, and to find the
+means for doing so by the increased taxation of the middle classes. He
+offered to relieve the shipping interest by transferring some of the
+cost of lighting the coasts to the Consolidated Fund; the West India
+interest by sanctioning the refining of sugar in bond; and the landed
+classes by reducing the malt tax by one-half, and by repealing the old
+war duty on hops. He suggested that the cost of these measures should be
+defrayed by extending the income tax to Ireland to industrial incomes of
+£100 and to permanent incomes of £50 a year, as well as by doubling the
+house tax, and extending it to all £10 householders. The weight,
+therefore, of these measures was either purposely or unintentionally
+thrown mainly on persons living in houses worth from £10 to £20 a year,
+or on persons in receipt of incomes from £50 to £150 a year. This defect
+in the budget was exposed in a great speech by Gladstone, which did much
+to ensure the defeat of the scheme and the fall of the ministry.
+
+
+  Coalition, 1853.
+
+On the resignation of Lord Derby, the queen, anxious to terminate a
+period of weak governments, decided on endeavouring to combine in one
+cabinet the chiefs of the Whig party and the followers of Sir Robert
+Peel. With this view she sent both for Lord Aberdeen, who had held the
+foreign office under Sir Robert, and for Lord Lansdowne, who was the
+Nestor of the Whigs; and with Lord Lansdowne's concurrence charged Lord
+Aberdeen with the task of forming a government. In the new ministry Lord
+Aberdeen became first lord of the treasury, Gladstone chancellor of the
+exchequer, Lord John Russell foreign minister--though he was almost
+immediately replaced in the foreign office by Lord Clarendon, and
+himself assumed the presidency of the council. Lord Palmerston went to
+the home office. One other appointment must also be mentioned. The
+secretary of state for the colonies was also at that time secretary of
+state for war. No one in 1852, however, regarded that office as of
+material importance, and it was entrusted by Lord Aberdeen to an amiable
+and conscientious nobleman, the duke of Newcastle.
+
+
+  Budget of 1853.
+
+The first session of the Aberdeen administration will be chiefly
+recollected for the remarkable budget which Gladstone brought forward.
+It constituted a worthy supplement to the measures of 1842, 1845 and
+1846. Gladstone swept away the duty on one great necessary of
+life--soap; he repealed the duties on 123 other articles; he reduced the
+duties on 133 others, among them that on tea; and he found means for
+paying for these reforms and for the gradual reduction and ultimate
+abolition of the income tax, which had become very unpopular, by (1)
+extending the tax to incomes of £100 a year; (2) an increase of the
+spirit duties; and (3) applying the death duties to real property, and
+to property passing by settlement. There can be little doubt that this
+great proposal was one of the most striking which had ever been brought
+forward in the House of Commons; there can also, unhappily, be no doubt
+that its promises and intentions were frustrated by events which proved
+too strong for its author. For Gladstone, in framing his budget, had
+contemplated a continuance of peace, and the country was, unhappily,
+already drifting into war.
+
+
+  The holy places.
+
+For some years an obscure quarrel had been conducted at Constantinople
+about the custody of the holy places at Jerusalem. France, relying on a
+treaty concluded in the first half of the 18th century, claimed the
+guardianship of these places for the Latin Church. But the rights which
+the Latin Church had thus obtained had practically fallen into disuse,
+while the Greek branch of the Christian Church had occupied and repaired
+the shrines which the Latins had neglected. In the years which preceded
+1853, however, France had shown more activity in asserting her claims;
+and the new emperor of the French, anxious to conciliate the church
+which had supported his elevation to the throne, had a keen interest in
+upholding them. If, for reasons of policy, the emperor had grounds for
+his action, he had personal motives for thwarting the tsar of Russia;
+for the latter potentate had been foolish enough, in recognizing the
+second empire, to address its sovereign as "Mon Cher Ami," instead of,
+in the customary language of sovereigns, as "Monsieur Mon Frčre." Thus,
+at the close of 1852, and in the beginning of 1853, Russia and France
+were both addressing opposite and irreconcilable demands to the Porte,
+and France was already talking of sending her fleet to the Dardanelles,
+while Russia was placing an army corps on active service and despatching
+Prince Menshikov on a special mission to Constantinople. So far the
+quarrel which had occurred at the Porte was obviously one in which Great
+Britain had no concern. The Aberdeen ministry, however, thought it
+desirable that it should be represented in the crisis by a strong man at
+Constantinople; and it selected Lord Stratford de Redcliffe for the
+post, which he had filled in former years with marked ability. Whatever
+merits Lord Stratford possessed--and he stands out in current diplomacy
+as the one strong man whom England had abroad--there was no doubt that
+he had this disqualification: the emperor Nicholas had refused some
+years before to receive him as ambassador at St Petersburg, and Lord
+Stratford had resented, and never forgiven, the discourtesy of this
+refusal. Lord Stratford soon discovered that Prince Menshikov was the
+bearer of larger demands, and that he was requiring the Porte to agree
+to a treaty acknowledging the right of Russia to protect the Greek
+Church throughout the Turkish dominions. By Lord Stratford's advice the
+Porte--while making the requisite concession respecting the holy
+places--refused to grant the new demand; and Prince Menshikov thereupon
+withdrew from Constantinople.
+
+The rejection of Prince Menshikov's ultimatum was followed by momentous
+consequences. Russia--or rather her tsar--resolved on the occupation of
+the Danubian principalities; the British ministry--though the quarrel
+did not directly concern Great Britain--sent a fleet to the Dardanelles
+and placed it under Lord Stratford's orders. Diplomacy, however, made a
+fresh attempt to terminate the dispute, and in July 1853 a note was
+agreed upon by the four neutral powers, France, Great Britain, Austria
+and Prussia, which it was decided to present to Constantinople and St
+Petersburg. This note, the adoption of which would have ensured peace,
+was accepted at St Petersburg; at Constantinople it was, unfortunately,
+rejected, mainly on Lord Stratford's advice, and in opposition to his
+instructions from home. Instead, however, of insisting on the adoption
+of the note to which it had agreed, Lord Aberdeen's ministry recommended
+the tsar to accept some amendments to it suggested by Lord Stratford,
+which it was disposed to regard as unimportant. It then discovered,
+however, that the tsar attached a meaning to the original note differing
+from that which it had itself applied to it, and in conjunction with
+France it thereupon ceased to recommend the Vienna note--as it was
+called--for acceptance. This decision separated the two western powers
+from Austria and Prussia, who were disposed to think that Russia had
+done all that could have been required of her in accepting the note
+which the four powers had agreed upon.
+
+It was obvious that the control of the situation was passing from the
+hands of the cabinet at home into those of Lord Stratford at
+Constantinople. The ambassador, in fact, had the great advantage that he
+knew his own mind; the cabinet laboured under the fatal disadvantage
+that it had, collectively, no mind. Its chief, Lord Aberdeen, was
+dominated by a desire to preserve peace; but he had not the requisite
+force to control the stronger men who were nominally serving under him.
+Lord John Russell was a little sore at his own treatment by his party.
+He thought that he had a claim to the first place in the ministry, and
+he did not, in consequence, give the full support to Lord Aberdeen which
+the latter had a right to expect from him. Lord Palmerston, on the other
+hand, had no personal grudge to nurture, but he was convinced that the
+first duty of England was to support Turkey and to resist Russia. He
+represented in the cabinet the views which Lord Stratford was enforcing
+at Constantinople, and step by step Lord Stratford, thus supported,
+drove the country nearer and nearer to war.
+
+
+  Crimean War.
+
+In October the Porte, encouraged by the presence of the British fleet in
+the Bosporus, took the bold step of summoning the Russians to evacuate
+the principalities. Following up this demand the Turkish troops attacked
+the Russian army, and inflicted on it one or two sharp defeats. The
+Russians retaliated by loosing their squadron from Sevastopol, and on
+the 30th of November it attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet at
+Sinope. The massacre of Sinope--as it was rather inaccurately called in
+Great Britain, for it is difficult to deny that it was a legitimate act
+of a belligerent power--created an almost irresistible demand for war
+among the British people. Yielding to popular opinion, the British
+ministry assented to a suggestion of the French emperor that the fleets
+of the allied powers should enter the Black Sea and "invite" every
+Russian vessel to return to Sevastopol. The decision was taken at an
+unfortunate hour. Diplomatists, pursuing their labours at Vienna, had
+succeeded in drawing up a fresh note which they thought might prove
+acceptable both at St Petersburg and at Constantinople. This note was
+presented almost at the moment the tsar learned that the French and
+British fleets had entered the Black Sea, and the Russian government,
+instead of considering it, withdrew its ministers from London and Paris;
+the French and British ambassadors were thereupon withdrawn from St
+Petersburg. An ultimatum was soon afterwards addressed to Russia
+requiring her to evacuate the principalities, and war began. In deciding
+on war the British government relied on the capacity of its fleet, which
+was entrusted to the command of Sir Charles Napier, to strike a great
+blow in the Baltic. The fleet was despatched with extraordinary
+rejoicings, and amidst loud and confident expressions of its certain
+triumph. As a matter of fact it did very little. In the south of Europe,
+however, the Turkish armies on the Danube, strengthened by the advice of
+British officers, were more successful. The Russians were forced to
+retire, and the principalities were evacuated. A prudent administration
+might possibly have succeeded in stopping the war at this point. But the
+temper of the country was by this time excited, and it was loudly
+demanding something more than a preliminary success. It was resolved to
+invade the Crimea and attack the great arsenal, Sevastopol, whence the
+Russian fleet had sailed to Sinope, and in September 1854 the allied
+armies landed in the Crimea. On the 20th the Russian army, strongly
+posted on the banks of the Alma, was completely defeated, and it is
+almost certain that, if the victory had been at once followed up,
+Sevastopol would have fallen. The commanders of the allied armies,
+however, hesitated to throw themselves against the forts erected to the
+north of the town, and decided on the hazardous task of marching round
+Sevastopol and attacking it from the south. The movement was
+successfully carried out, but the Allies again hesitated to attempt an
+immediate assault. The Russians, who were advised by Colonel Todleben,
+the only military man who attained a great reputation in the war, thus
+gained time to strengthen their position by earthworks; and the Allies
+found themselves forced, with scanty preparations, to undertake a
+regular siege against an enemy whose force was numerically superior to
+their own. In the early days of the siege, indeed, the allied armies
+were twice in great peril. A formidable attack on the 25th October on
+the British position at Balaklava led to a series of encounters which
+displayed the bravery of British troops, but did not enhance the
+reputation of British commanders. A still more formidable sortie on the
+5th of November was with difficulty repulsed at Inkerman. And the
+Russians soon afterwards found, in the climate of the country, a
+powerful ally. The allied armies, imperfectly organized, and badly
+equipped for such a campaign, suffered severely from the hardships of a
+Crimean winter. The whole expedition seemed likely to melt away from
+want and disease.
+
+
+  Palmerston's ministry.
+
+The terrible condition of the army, vividly described in the letters
+which the war correspondents of the newspapers sent home, aroused strong
+feelings of indignation in Great Britain. When parliament met Roebuck
+gave notice that he would move for a committee of inquiry. Lord John
+Russell--who had already vainly urged in the cabinet that the duke of
+Newcastle should be superseded, and the conduct of the war entrusted to
+a stronger minister--resigned office. His resignation was followed by
+the defeat of the government, and Lord Aberdeen, thus driven from power,
+was succeeded by Lord Palmerston. In selecting him for the post, the
+queen undoubtedly placed her seal on the wish of the country to carry
+out the war to the bitter end. But it so happened that the formation of
+a new ministry was accompanied by a fresh effort to make terms of peace.
+Before the change of administration a conference had been decided on,
+and Lord Palmerston entrusted its management to Lord John Russell. While
+the latter was on his way to Vienna an event occurred which seemed at
+first to facilitate his task. The tsar, worn out with disappointment,
+suddenly died, and was succeeded by his son Alexander. Unfortunately the
+conference failed, and the war went on for another year. In September
+1855 the allied troops succeeded in obtaining possession of the southern
+side of Sevastopol, and the emperor of the French, satisfied with this
+partial success, or alarmed at the expense of the war, decided on
+withdrawing from the struggle. The attitude of Napoleon made the
+conclusion of peace only a question of time. In the beginning of 1856 a
+congress to discuss the terms was assembled at Paris; in February
+hostilities were suspended; and in April a treaty was concluded. The
+peace set back the boundaries of Russia from the Danube to the Pruth; it
+secured the free navigation of the first of these rivers; it opened the
+Black Sea to the commercial navies of the world, closing it to vessels
+of war, and forbidding the establishment of arsenals upon its shores.
+The last condition, to which Great Britain attached most importance,
+endured for about fourteen years. Peace without this provision could
+undoubtedly have been secured at Vienna, and the prolongation of the war
+from 1855 to 1856 only resulted in securing this arrangement for a
+little more than one decade.
+
+
+  Wars with Persia and China.
+
+The Crimean War left other legacies behind it. The British government
+had for some time regarded with anxiety the gradual encroachments of
+Russia in central Asia. Russian diplomacy was exerting an increasing
+influence in Persia, and the latter had always coveted the city of
+Herat, which was popularly regarded as the gate of India. In 1856 the
+Persian government, believing that England had her hands fully occupied
+in the Crimea, seized Herat, and, in consequence, a fresh war--in which
+a British army under Sir James Outram rapidly secured a victory--broke
+out. The campaign, entered upon when parliament was not in session, was
+unpopular in the country. A grave constitutional question, which was
+ultimately settled by legislation, was raised as to the right of the
+government to undertake military operations beyond the boundaries of
+India without the consent of parliament. But the incidents of the
+Persian war were soon forgotten in the presence of a still graver
+crisis; for in the following year, 1857, the country suddenly found
+itself involved in war with China, and face to face with one of the
+greatest dangers which it has ever encountered--the mutiny of the sepoy
+army in India. The Chinese war arose from the seizure by the Chinese
+authorities of a small vessel, the "Arrow" commanded by a British
+subject, and at one time holding a licence (which, however, had expired
+at the time of the seizure) from the British superintendent at Hongkong,
+and the detention of her crew on the charge of piracy. Sir John Bowring,
+who represented Great Britain in China, failing to secure the reparation
+and apology which he demanded, directed the British admiral to bombard
+Canton. Lord Palmerston's cabinet decided to approve and support Sir
+John Bowring's vigorous action. Cobden, however, brought forward a
+motion in the House of Commons condemning these high-handed proceedings.
+He succeeded in securing the co-operation of his own friends, of Lord
+John Russell, and of other independent Liberals, as well as of the
+Conservative party, and in inflicting a signal defeat on the government.
+Lord Palmerston at once appealed from the House to the country. The
+constituencies, imperfectly acquainted with the technical issues
+involved in the dispute, rallied to the minister, who was upholding
+British interests. Lord Palmerston obtained a decisive victory, and
+returned to power apparently in irresistible strength. Lord Elgin had
+already been sent to China with a considerable force to support the
+demand for redress. On his way thither he learned that the British in
+India were reduced to the last extremities by the mutiny of the native
+army in Bengal, and, on the application of Lord Canning, the
+governor-general, he decided on diverting the troops, intended to bring
+the Chinese to reason, to the more pressing duty of saving India for the
+British crown.
+
+
+  Indian mutiny.
+
+During the years which had followed the accession of the queen, the
+territories and responsibilities of the East India Company had been
+considerably enlarged by the annexation of Sind by Lord Ellenborough,
+the conquest of the Punjab after two desperate military campaigns under
+Lord Dalhousie, the conquest of Pegu, and the annexation of Oudh. These
+great additions to the empire had naturally imposed an increased strain
+on the Indian troops, while the British garrison, instead of being
+augmented, had been depleted to meet the necessities of the Russian war.
+Several circumstances, moreover, tended to propagate disaffection in the
+Indian army. Indian troops operating outside the Company's dominions
+were granted increased allowances, but these were automatically reduced
+when conquest brought the provinces in which they were serving within
+the British pale. The Sepoys again had an ineradicable dislike to serve
+beyond the sea, and the invasion of Pegu necessitated their transport by
+water to the seat of war. Finally, the invention of a new rifle led to
+the introduction of a cartridge which, though it was officially denied
+at the moment, was in fact lubricated with a mixture of cow's fat and
+lard. The Sepoys thought that their caste would be destroyed if they
+touched the fat of the sacred cow or unclean pig; they were even
+persuaded that the British government wished to destroy their caste in
+order to facilitate their conversion to Christianity. Isolated mutinies
+in Bengal were succeeded by much more serious events at Cawnpore in
+Oudh, and at Meerut in the North-West Provinces. From Meerut the
+mutineers, after some acts of outrage and murder, moved on Delhi, the
+capital of the old Mogul empire, which became the headquarters of the
+mutiny. In Oudh the native regiments placed themselves under a Mahratta
+chief, Nana Sahib, by whose orders the British in Cawnpore, including
+the women and children, were foully murdered. In the summer of 1857
+these events seemed to imperil British rule in India. In the autumn the
+courage of the troops and the arrival of reinforcements gradually
+restored the British cause. Delhi, after a memorable siege, was at last
+taken by a brilliant assault. Lucknow, where a small British garrison
+was besieged in the residency, was twice relieved, once temporarily by
+Sir James Outram and General Havelock, and afterwards permanently by Sir
+Colin Campbell, who had been sent out from England to take the chief
+command. Subsequent military operations broke up the remnants of the
+revolt, and in the beginning of 1858 the authority of the queen was
+restored throughout India. The mutiny, however, had impressed its lesson
+on the British people, and, as the first consequence, it was decided to
+transfer the government from the old East India Company to the crown.
+Lord Palmerston's administration was defeated on another issue before it
+succeeded in carrying the measure which it introduced for the purpose,
+though Lord Derby's second ministry, which succeeded it, was compelled
+to frame its proposals on somewhat similar lines. The home government of
+India was entrusted to a secretary of state, with a council to assist
+him; and though the numbers of the council have been reduced, the form
+of government which was then established has endured.
+
+
+  Orsini.
+
+The cause which led to the second fall of Lord Palmerston was in one
+sense unexpected. Some Italian refugees living in London, of whom Orsini
+was the chief, formed a design to assassinate the emperor of the French.
+On the evening of 14th January 1858, while the emperor, accompanied by
+the empress, was driving to the opera, these men threw some bombs under
+his carriage. The brutal attempt happily failed. Neither the emperor nor
+the empress was injured by the explosion, but the carriage in which they
+were driving was wrecked, and a large number of persons who happened to
+be in the street at the time were either killed or wounded. This
+horrible outrage naturally created indignation in France, and it
+unfortunately became plain that the conspiracy had been hatched in
+England, and that the bombs had been manufactured in Birmingham. On
+these facts becoming known, Count Walewski, the chief of the French
+foreign office, who was united by ties of blood to the emperor, called
+on the British government to provide against the danger to which France
+was exposed. "Ought the right of asylum to protect such a state of
+things?" he asked. "Is hospitality due to assassins? Ought the British
+legislature to continue to favour their designs and their plans? And can
+it continue to shelter persons who by these flagrant acts place
+themselves beyond the pale of common rights?" Lord Clarendon, the head
+of the British foreign office, told the French ambassador, who read him
+this despatch, that "no consideration on earth would induce the British
+parliament to pass a measure for the extradition of political refugees,"
+but he added that it was a question whether the law was as complete and
+as stringent as it should be, and he stated that the government had
+already referred the whole subject to the law officers of the crown for
+their consideration. Having made these remarks, however, he judged it
+wise to refrain from giving any formal reply to Count Walewski's
+despatch, and contented himself with privately communicating to the
+British ambassador in Paris the difficulties of the British government.
+After receiving the opinion of the law officers the cabinet decided to
+introduce a bill into parliament increasing in England the punishment
+for a conspiracy to commit a felony either within or without the United
+Kingdom. The first reading of this bill was passed by a considerable
+majority. But, before the bill came on for a second reading, the
+language which was being used in France created strong resentment in
+England. The regiments of the French army sent addresses to the emperor
+congratulating him on his escape and violently denouncing the British
+people. Some of these addresses, which were published in the _Moniteur_,
+spoke of London as "an assassins' den," and invited the emperor to give
+his troops the order to destroy it. Such language did not make it easier
+to alter the law in the manner desired by the government. The House of
+Commons, reflecting the spirit of the country, blamed Lord Clarendon for
+neglecting to answer Count Walewski's despatch, and blamed Lord
+Palmerston for introducing a bill at French dictation. The feeling was
+so strong that, when the Conspiracy Bill came on for a second reading,
+an amendment hostile to the government was carried, and Lord Palmerston
+at once resigned.
+
+
+  Lord Derby's second ministry.
+
+For a second time Lord Derby undertook the difficult task of carrying on
+the work of government without the support of a majority of the House of
+Commons. If the Liberal party had been united his attempt would have
+failed immediately. In 1858, however, the Liberal party had no cohesion.
+The wave of popularity which had carried Lord Palmerston to victory in
+1857 had lost its strength. The Radicals, who were slowly recovering the
+influence they had lost during the Crimean War, regarded even a
+Conservative government as preferable to his return to power, while many
+Liberals desired to entrust the fortunes of their party to the guidance
+of their former chief, Lord John Russell. It was obvious to most men
+that the dissensions thus visible in the Liberal ranks could be more
+easily healed in the cold shade of the opposition benches than in the
+warmer sunlight of office. And therefore, though no one had much
+confidence in Lord Derby, or in the stability of his second
+administration, every one was disposed to acquiesce in its temporary
+occupation of office.
+
+
+  Jews in parliament.
+
+Ministries which exist by sufferance are necessarily compelled to adapt
+their measures to the wishes of those who permit them to continue in
+power. The second ministry of Lord Derby experienced the truth of this
+rule. For some years a controversy had been conducted in the legislature
+in reference to the admission of the Jews to parliament. This dispute
+had been raised in 1847 into a question of practical moment by the
+election of Baron Lionel Nathan Rothschild as representative of the City
+of London, and its importance had been emphasized in 1851 by the return
+of another Jew, Alderman Salomons, for another constituency. The Liberal
+party generally in the House of Commons was in favour of such a
+modification of the oaths as would enable the Jews so elected to take
+their seats. The bulk of the Conservative party, on the contrary, and
+the House of Lords, were strenuously opposed to the change. Early in
+1858 the House of Commons, by an increased majority, passed a bill
+amending the oaths imposed by law on members of both Houses, and
+directing the omission of the words "on the true faith of a Christian"
+from the oath of abjuration when it was taken by a Jew. If the
+Conservatives had remained in opposition there can be little doubt that
+this bill would have shared the fate of its predecessors and have been
+rejected by the Lords. The lord chancellor, indeed, in speaking upon the
+clause relieving the Jews, expressed a hope that the peers would not
+hesitate to pronounce that our "Lord is king, be the people never so
+impatient." But some Conservative peers realized the inconvenience of
+maintaining a conflict between the two Houses when the Conservatives
+were in power; and Lord Lucan, who had commanded the cavalry in the
+Crimea, suggested as a compromise that either House should be authorized
+by resolution to determine the form of oath to be administered to its
+members. This solution was reluctantly accepted by Lord Derby, and Baron
+Rothschild was thus enabled to take the seat from which he had been so
+long excluded. Eight years afterwards parliament was induced to take a
+fresh step in advance. It imposed a new oath from which the words which
+disqualified the Jews were omitted. The door of the House of Lords was
+thus thrown open, and in 1885 Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, raised to
+the peerage, was enabled to take his seat in the upper chamber.
+
+
+  Reform Bill, 1859.
+
+This question was not the only one on which a Conservative government,
+without a majority at its back, was compelled to make concessions. For
+some years past a growing disposition had been displayed among the more
+earnest Liberals to extend the provisions of the Reform Act of 1832.
+Lord John Russell's ministry had been defeated in 1851 on a proposal of
+Locke King to place £10 householders in counties on the same footing as
+regards the franchise as £10 householders in towns, and Lord John
+himself in 1854 had actually introduced a new Reform Bill. After the
+general election of 1857 the demand for reform increased, and, in
+accepting office in 1858, Lord Derby thought it necessary to declare
+that, though he had maintained in opposition that the settlement of
+1832, with all its anomalies, afforded adequate representation to all
+classes, the promises of previous governments and the expectations of
+the people imposed on him the duty of bringing forward legislation on
+the subject. The scheme which Lord Derby's government adopted was
+peculiar. Its chief proposal was the extension of the county franchise
+to £10 householders. But it also proposed that persons possessing a 40s.
+freehold in a borough should in future have a vote in the borough in
+which their property was situated, and not in the county. The bill also
+conferred the franchise on holders of a certain amount of stock, on
+depositors in savings banks, on graduates of universities, and on other
+persons qualified by position or education. The defect of the bill was
+that it did nothing to meet the only real need of reform--the
+enfranchisement of a certain proportion of the working classes. On the
+contrary, in this respect it perpetuated the settlement of 1832. The £10
+householder was still to furnish the bulk of the electorate, and the
+ordinary working man could not afford to pay £10 a year for his house.
+While the larger proposals of the bill were thus open to grave
+objection, its subsidiary features provoked ridicule. The suggestions
+that votes should be conferred on graduates and stockholders were
+laughed at as "fancy franchises." The bill, moreover, was not brought
+forward with the authority of a united cabinet. Two members of the
+government--Spencer Walpole and Henley--declined to be responsible for
+its provisions, and placed their resignations in Lord Derby's hands. In
+Walpole's judgment the bill was objectionable because it afforded no
+reasonable basis for a stable settlement. There was nothing in a £10
+franchise which was capable of permanent defence, and if it was at once
+applied to counties as well as boroughs it would sooner or later be
+certain to be extended. He himself advocated with some force that it
+would be wiser and more popular to fix the county franchise at £20 and
+the borough franchise at £6 rateable value; and he contended that such a
+settlement could be defended on the old principle that taxation and
+representation should go together, for £20 was the minimum rent at which
+the house tax commenced, and a rateable value of £6 was the point at
+which the householder could not compound to pay his rates through this
+landlord. Weakened by the defection of two of its more important
+members, the government had little chance of obtaining the acceptance of
+its scheme. An amendment by Lord John Russell, condemning its main
+provisions, was adopted in an unusually full house by a substantial
+majority, and the cabinet had no alternative but to resign or dissolve.
+It chose the latter course. The general election, which almost
+immediately took place, increased to some extent the strength of the
+Conservative party. For the first time since their secession from Sir
+Robert Peel the Conservatives commanded more than three hundred votes in
+the House of Commons, but this increased strength was not sufficient to
+ensure them a majority. When the new parliament assembled, Lord
+Hartington, the eldest son of the duke of Devonshire, was put forward to
+propose a direct vote of want of confidence in the administration. It
+was carried by 323 votes to 310, and the second Derby administration
+came to an end.
+
+
+  Palmerston's second ministry.
+
+It was plain that the House of Commons had withdrawn its support from
+Lord Derby, but it was not clear that any other leading politician would
+be able to form a government. The jealousies between Lord John Russell
+and Lord Palmerston still existed; the more extreme men, who were
+identified with the policy of Cobden and Bright, had little confidence
+in either of these statesmen; and it was still uncertain whether the
+able group who had been the friends of Sir Robert Peel would finally
+gravitate to the Conservative or to the Liberal camp. The queen, on the
+advice of Lord Derby, endeavoured to solve the first of these
+difficulties by sending for Lord Granville, who led the Liberal party in
+the Lords, and authorizing him to form a government which should
+combine, as far as possible, all the more prominent Liberals. The
+attempt, however, failed, and the queen thereupon fell back upon Lord
+Palmerston. Lord John Russell agreed to accept office as foreign
+minister; Gladstone consented to take the chancellorship of the
+exchequer. Cobden was offered, but declined, the presidency of the Board
+of Trade; and the post which he refused was conferred on a prominent
+free trader, who had associated himself with Cobden's fortunes, Milner
+Gibson. Thus Lord Palmerston had succeeded in combining in one ministry
+the various representatives of political progress. He had secured the
+support of the Peelites, who had left him after the fall of Lord
+Aberdeen in 1855, and of the free traders, who had done so much to
+defeat him in 1857 and 1858. His new administration was accordingly
+based on a broader bottom, and contained greater elements of strength
+than his former cabinet. And the country was requiring more stable
+government. The first three ministries of the queen had endured from the
+spring of 1835 to the spring of 1852, or for very nearly seventeen
+years; but the next seven years had seen the formation and dissolution
+of no less than four cabinets. It was felt that these frequent changes
+were unfortunate for the country, and every one was glad to welcome the
+advent of a government which seemed to promise greater permanence. That
+promise was fulfilled. The administration which Lord Palmerston
+succeeded in forming in 1859 endured till his death in 1865, and with
+slight modifications, under its second chief Lord John (afterwards Earl)
+Russell, till the summer of 1866. It had thus a longer life than any
+cabinet which had governed England since the first Reform Act. But it
+owed its lasting character to the benevolence of its opponents rather
+than to the enthusiasm of its supporters. The Conservatives learned to
+regard the veteran statesman, who had combined all sections of Liberals
+under his banner, as the most powerful champion of Conservative
+principles; a virtual truce of parties was established during his
+continuance in office; and, for the most part of his ministry, a tacit
+understanding existed that the minister, on his side, should pursue a
+Conservative policy, and that the Conservatives, on theirs, should
+abstain from any real attempt to oust him from power. Lord John Russell,
+indeed, was too earnest in his desire for reform to abstain from one
+serious effort to accomplish it. Early in 1860 he proposed, with the
+sanction of the cabinet, a measure providing for the extension of the
+county franchise to £10 householders, of the borough franchise to £6
+householders, and for a moderate redistribution of seats. But the
+country, being in enjoyment of considerable prosperity, paid only a
+languid attention to the scheme; its indifference was reflected in the
+House; the Conservatives were encouraged in their opposition by the lack
+of interest which the new bill excited, and the almost unconcealed
+dislike of the prime minister to its provisions. The bill, thus steadily
+opposed and half-heartedly supported, made only slow progress; and at
+last it was withdrawn by its author. He did not again attempt during
+Lord Palmerston's life to reintroduce the subject. Absorbed in the work
+of the foreign office, which at this time was abnormally active, he
+refrained from pressing home the arguments for internal reform.
+
+
+  Gladstone's budgets.
+
+  Paper duties repealed.
+
+In one important department, however, the ministry departed from the
+Conservative policy it pursued in other matters. Gladstone signalized
+his return to the exchequer by introducing a series of budgets which
+excited keen opposition at the time, but in the result largely added to
+the prosperity of the country. The first of these great budgets, in
+1860, was partly inspired by the necessity of adapting the fiscal system
+to meet the requirements of a commercial treaty which, mainly through
+Cobden's exertions, had been concluded with the emperor of the French.
+The treaty bound France to reduce her duties on English coal and iron,
+and on many manufactured articles; while, in return, Great Britain
+undertook to sweep away the duties on all manufactured goods, and
+largely to reduce those on French wines. But Gladstone was not content
+with these great alterations, which involved a loss of nearly £1,200,000
+a year to the exchequer; he voluntarily undertook to sacrifice another
+million on what he called a supplemental measure of customs reform. He
+proposed to repeal the duties on paper, by which means he hoped to
+increase the opportunities of providing cheap literature for the people.
+The budget of 1860 produced a protracted controversy. The French treaty
+excited more criticism than enthusiasm on both sides of the Channel. In
+France the manufacturers complained that they would be unable to stand
+against the competition of English goods. In England many people thought
+that Great Britain was wasting her resources and risking her supremacy
+by giving the French increased facilities for taking her iron, coal and
+machinery, and that no adequate advantage could result from the greater
+consumption of cheap claret. But the criticism which the French treaty
+aroused was drowned in the clamour which was created by the proposed
+repeal of the paper duties. The manufacture of paper was declared to be
+a struggling industry, which would be destroyed by the withdrawal of
+protection. The dissemination of cheap literature and the multiplication
+of cheap newspapers could not compensate the nation for the ruin of an
+important trade. If money could be spared, moreover, for the remission
+of taxation, the paper duties were much less oppressive than those on
+some other articles. The tax on tea, for example, which had been raised
+during the late war to no less than 1s. 5d. a lb., was much more
+injurious; and it would be far wiser--so it was contended--to reduce the
+duty on tea than to abandon the duties on paper. Notwithstanding the
+opposition which the Paper Duties Bill undoubtedly excited, the proposal
+was carried in the Commons; it was, however, thrown out in the Lords,
+and its rejection led to a crisis which seemed at one time to threaten
+the good relations between the two houses of parliament. It was argued
+that if the Lords had the right to reject a measure remitting existing
+duties, they had in effect the right of imposing taxation, since there
+was no material difference between the adoption of a new tax and the
+continuance of an old one which the Commons had determined to repeal.
+Lord Palmerston, however, with some tact postponed the controversy for
+the time by obtaining the appointment of a committee to search for
+precedents; and, after the report of the committee, he moved a series of
+resolutions affirming the right of the Commons to grant aids and
+supplies as their exclusive privilege, stating that the occasional
+rejection of financial measures by the Lords had always been regarded
+with peculiar jealousy, but declaring that the Commons had the remedy in
+their own hands by so framing bills of supply as to secure their
+acceptance. In accordance with this suggestion the Commons in the
+following year again resolved to repeal the paper duties; but, instead
+of embodying their decision in a separate bill, they included it in the
+same measure which dealt with all the financial arrangements of the
+year, and thus threw on the Lords the responsibility of either accepting
+the proposal, or of paralysing the whole machinery of administration by
+depriving the crown of the supplies which were required for the public
+services. The Lords were not prepared to risk this result, and they
+accordingly accepted a reform which they could no longer resist, and the
+bill became law. In order to enable him to accomplish these great
+changes, Gladstone temporarily raised the income tax, which he found at
+9d. in the £, to 10d. But the result of his reforms was so marked that
+he was speedily able to reduce it. The revenue increased by leaps and
+bounds, and the income tax was gradually reduced till it stood at 4d. in
+the closing years of the administration. During the same period the duty
+on tea was reduced from 1s. 5d. to 6d. a lb.; and the national debt was
+diminished from rather more than £800,000,000 to rather less than
+£780,000,000, the charge for the debt declining, mainly through the
+falling in of the long annuities, by some £2,600,000 a year. With the
+possible exception of Sir Robert Peel's term of office, no previous
+period of British history had been memorable for a series of more
+remarkable financial reforms. Their success redeemed the character of
+the administration. The Liberals, who complained that their leaders
+were pursuing a Conservative policy, could at least console themselves
+by the reflection that the chancellor of the exchequer was introducing
+satisfactory budgets. The language, moreover, which Gladstone was
+holding on other subjects encouraged the more advanced Liberals to
+expect that he would ultimately place himself at the head of the party
+of progress. This expectation was the more remarkable because Gladstone
+was the representative in the cabinet of the old Conservative party
+which Sir Robert Peel had led to victory. As lately as 1858 he had
+reluctantly refused to serve under Lord Derby; he was still a member of
+the Carlton Club; he sat for the university of Oxford; and on many
+questions he displayed a constant sympathy with Conservative traditions.
+Yet, on all the chief domestic questions which came before parliament in
+Lord Palmerston's second administration, Gladstone almost invariably
+took a more Liberal view than his chief. It was understood, indeed, that
+the relations between the two men were not always harmonious; that Lord
+Palmerston disapproved the resolute conduct of Gladstone, and that
+Gladstone deplored the Conservative tendencies of Lord Palmerston. It
+was believed that Gladstone on more than one occasion desired to escape
+from a position which he disliked by resigning office, and that the
+resignation was only averted through a consciousness that the ministry
+could not afford to lose its most eloquent member.
+
+
+  China war, 1859-60.
+
+While on domestic matters, other than those affecting finance, the
+Liberal ministry was pursuing a Conservative policy, its members were
+actively engaged on, and the attention of the public was keenly directed
+to, affairs abroad. For the period was one of foreign unrest, and the
+wars which were then waged have left an enduring mark on the map of the
+world, and have affected the position of the Anglo-Saxon race for all
+time. In the far East, the operations which it had been decided to
+undertake in China were necessarily postponed on account of the
+diversion of the forces, intended to exact redress at Peking, to the
+suppression of mutiny in India. It was only late in 1858 that Lord Elgin
+and Baron Gros, the French plenipotentiary (for France joined England in
+securing simultaneous redress of grievances of her own), were enabled to
+obtain suitable reparation. It was arranged that the treaty, which was
+then provisionally concluded at Tientsin, should be ratified at Peking
+in the following year; and in June 1859 Mr (afterwards Sir Frederick)
+Bruce, Lord Elgin's brother, who had been appointed plenipotentiary,
+attempted to proceed up the Peiho with the object of securing its
+ratification. The allied squadron, however, was stopped by the forts at
+the mouth of the Peiho, which fired on the vessels; a landing party,
+which was disembarked to storm the forts, met with a disastrous check,
+and the squadron had to retire with an acknowledged loss of three
+gunboats and 400 men. This reverse necessitated fresh operations, and in
+1860 Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were directed to return to China, and, at
+the head of an adequate force, were instructed to exact an apology for
+the attack on the allied fleets, the ratification and execution of the
+treaty of Tientsin, and the payment of an indemnity for the expenses of
+the war. The weakness of the Chinese empire was not appreciated at that
+time; the unfortunate incident on the Peiho in the previous summer had
+created an exaggerated impression of the strength of the Chinese arms,
+and some natural anxiety was felt for the success of the expedition. But
+the allied armies met with no serious resistance. The Chinese, indeed,
+endeavoured to delay their progress by negotiation rather than by force;
+and they succeeded in treacherously arresting some distinguished persons
+who had been sent into the Chinese lines to negotiate. But by the middle
+of October the Chinese army was decisively defeated; Peking was
+occupied; those British and French prisoners who had not succumbed to
+the hardships of their confinement were liberated. Lord Elgin determined
+on teaching the rulers of China a lesson by the destruction of the
+summer palace; and the Chinese government was compelled to submit to the
+terms of the Allies, and to ratify the treaty of Tientsin. There is no
+doubt that these operations helped to open the Chinese markets to
+British trade; but incidentally, by regulating the emigration of
+Chinese coolies, they had the unforeseen effect of exposing the
+industrial markets of the world to the serious competition of "cheap
+yellow" labour. A distinguished foreign statesman observed that Lord
+Palmerston had made a mistake. He thought that he had opened China to
+Europe; instead, he had let out the Chinese. It was perhaps a happier
+result of the war that it tended to the continuance of the Anglo-French
+alliance. French and British troops had again co-operated in a joint
+enterprise, and had shared the dangers and successes of a campaign.
+
+
+  Unification of Italy.
+
+War was not confined to China. In the beginning of 1859 diplomatists
+were alarmed at the language addressed by the emperor of the French to
+the Austrian ambassador at Paris, which seemed to breathe the menace of
+a rupture. Notwithstanding the exertions which Great Britain made to
+avert hostilities, the provocation of Count Cavour induced Austria to
+declare war against Piedmont, and Napoleon thereupon moved to the
+support of his ally, promising to free Italy from the Alps to the
+Adriatic. As a matter of fact, the attitude of northern Germany, which
+was massing troops on the Rhine, and the defenceless condition of
+France, which was drained of soldiers for the Italian campaign, induced
+the emperor to halt before he had carried out his purpose, and terms of
+peace were hastily concerted at Villafranca, and were afterwards
+confirmed at Zurich, by which Lombardy was given to Piedmont, while
+Austria was left in possession of Venice and the Quadrilateral, and
+central Italy was restored to its former rulers. The refusal of the
+Italians to take back the Austrian grand dukes made the execution of
+these arrangements impracticable. Napoleon, indeed, used his influence
+to carry them into effect; but Lord John Russell, who was now in charge
+of the British foreign office, and who had Lord Palmerston and Gladstone
+on his side in the cabinet, gave a vigorous support to the claim of the
+Italians that their country should be allowed to regulate her own
+affairs. The French emperor had ultimately to yield to the determination
+of the inhabitants of central Italy, when it was backed by the arguments
+of the British foreign office, and Tuscany, Modena, Parma, as well as a
+portion of the states of the Church, were united to Piedmont. There was
+no doubt that through the whole of the negotiations the Italians were
+largely indebted to the labours of Lord John Russell. They recognized
+that they owed more to the moral support of England than to the armed
+assistance of France. The French emperor, moreover, took a step which
+lost him the sympathy of many Italians. Before the war he had arranged
+with Count Cavour that France should receive, as the price of her aid,
+the duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice. After Villafranca, the
+emperor, frankly recognizing that he had only half kept his promise,
+consented to waive his claim to these provinces. But, when he found
+himself unable to resist the annexation of central Italy to Piedmont, he
+reverted to the old arrangement. The formation of a strong Piedmontese
+kingdom, with the spoliation of the papal dominion, was unpopular in
+France; and he thought--perhaps naturally--that he must have something
+to show his people in return for sacrifices which had cost him the lives
+of 50,000 French soldiers, and concessions which the whole Catholic
+party in France resented. Count Cavour consented to pay the price which
+Napoleon thus exacted, and the frontier of France was accordingly
+extended to the Alps. But it is very doubtful whether Napoleon did not
+lose more than he gained by this addition to his territory. It certainly
+cost him the active friendship of Great Britain. The Anglo-French
+alliance had been already strained by the language of the French
+colonels in 1858 and the Franco-Austrian War of 1859; it never fully
+recovered from the shock which it received by the evidence, which the
+annexation of Savoy and Nice gave, of the ambition of the French
+emperor. The British people gave way to what Cobden called the last of
+the three panics. Lord Palmerston proposed and carried the provision of
+a large sum of money for the fortification of the coasts; and the
+volunteer movement, which had its origin in 1859, received a remarkable
+stimulus in 1860. In this year the course of events in Italy emphasized
+the differences between the policy of Great Britain and that of France.
+Garibaldi, with a thousand followers, made his famous descent on the
+coast of Sicily. After making himself master of that island, he crossed
+over to the mainland, drove the king of Naples out of his capital, and
+forced him to take refuge in Gaeta. In France these events were regarded
+with dismay. The emperor wished to stop Garibaldi's passage across the
+strait, and stationed his fleet at Gaeta to protect the king of Naples.
+Lord John Russell, on the contrary, welcomed Garibaldi's success with
+enthusiasm. He declined to intervene in the affairs of Italy by
+confining the great liberator to Sicily; he protested against the
+presence of the French fleet at Gaeta; and when other foreign nations
+denounced the conduct of Piedmont, he defended it by quoting Vattel and
+citing the example of William III. When, finally, Italian troops entered
+the dominions of the pope, France withdrew her ambassador from the court
+of Turin, and England under Lord John Russell's advice at once
+recognized the new kingdom of Italy.
+
+
+  Schleswig-Holstein question.
+
+In these great events--for the union of Italy was the greatest fact
+which had been accomplished in Europe since the fall of the first
+Napoleon--the British ministry had undoubtedly acquired credit. It was
+everywhere felt that the new kingdom owed much to the moral support
+which had been steadily and consistently given to it by Great Britain.
+Soon afterwards, however, in the autumn of 1863, the death of the king
+of Denmark led to a new revolution in the north of Europe, in which Lord
+Palmerston's government displayed less resolution, and lost much of the
+prestige which it had acquired by its Italian policy. The duchies of
+Schleswig and Holstein had been for centuries united to the kingdom of
+Denmark by the golden link of the crown; in other respects they had been
+organically kept distinct, while one of them--Holstein--was a member of
+the German confederation. The succession to the crown of Denmark,
+however, was different from that in the duchies. In Denmark the crown
+could descend, as it descends in Great Britain, through females. In the
+duchies the descent was confined to the male line; and, as Frederick
+VII., who ascended the Danish throne in 1848, had no direct issue, the
+next heir to the crown of Denmark under this rule was Prince Christian
+of Glücksburg, afterwards king; the next heir to the duchies being the
+duke of Augustenburg. In 1850 an arrangement had been made to prevent
+the separation of the duchies from the kingdom. As a result of a
+conference held in London, the duke of Augustenburg was induced to
+renounce his claim on the receipt of a large sum of money. Most of the
+great powers of Europe were parties to this plan. But the German
+confederation was not represented at the conference, and was not
+therefore committed to its conclusions. During the reign of Frederick
+VII. the Danish government endeavoured to cement the alliance between
+the duchies and the kingdom, and specially to separate the interests of
+Schleswig, which was largely Danish in its sympathies, from those of
+Holstein, which was almost exclusively German. With this object, in the
+last year of his life, Frederick VII. granted Holstein autonomous
+institutions, and bound Schleswig more closely to the Danish monarchy.
+The new king Christian IX. confirmed this arrangement. The German diet
+at Frankfort at once protested against it. Following up words with acts,
+it decided on occupying Holstein, and it delegated the duty of carrying
+out its order to Hanover and Saxony. While this federal execution was
+taking place, the duke of Augustenburg--regardless of the arrangements
+to which he had consented--delegated his rights in the duchies to his
+son, who formally claimed the succession. So far the situation, which
+was serious enough, had been largely dependent on the action of Germany.
+In the closing days of 1863 it passed mainly into the control of the two
+chief German powers. In Prussia Bismarck had lately become prime
+minister, and was animated by ambitious projects for his country's
+aggrandizement. Austria, afraid of losing her influence in Germany,
+followed the lead of Prussia, and the two powers required Denmark to
+cancel the arrangements which Frederick VII. had made, and which
+Christian IX. had confirmed, threatening in case of refusal to follow up
+the occupation of Holstein by that of Schleswig. As the Danes gave only
+a provisional assent to the demand, Prussian and Austrian troops entered
+Schleswig. These events created much excitement in England. The great
+majority of the British people, who imperfectly understood the merits of
+the case, were unanimous in their desire to support Denmark by arms.
+Their wish had been accentuated by the circumstance that the marriage in
+the previous spring of the prince of Wales to the daughter of the new
+king of Denmark had given them an almost personal interest in the
+struggle. Lord Palmerston had publicly expressed the views of the people
+by declaring that, if Denmark were attacked, her assailants would not
+have to deal with Denmark alone. The language of the public press and of
+Englishmen visiting Denmark confirmed the impression which the words of
+the prime minister had produced; and there is unfortunately no doubt
+that Denmark was encouraged to resist her powerful opponents by the
+belief, which she was thus almost authorized in entertaining, that she
+could reckon in the hour of her danger on the active assistance of the
+United Kingdom. If Lord Palmerston had been supported by his cabinet, or
+if he had been a younger man, he might possibly, in 1864, have made good
+the words which he had rashly uttered in 1863. But the queen, who, it is
+fair to add, understood the movement which was tending to German unity
+much better than most of her advisers, was averse from war. A large
+section of the cabinet shared the queen's hesitation, and Lord
+Palmerston--with the weight of nearly eighty summers upon him--was not
+strong enough to enforce his will against both his sovereign and his
+colleagues. He made some attempt to ascertain whether the emperor of the
+French would support him if he went to war. But he found that the
+emperor had not much fancy for a struggle which would have restored
+Holstein to Denmark; and that, if he went to war at all, his chief
+object would be the liberation of Venice and the rectification of his
+own frontiers. Even Lord Palmerston shrank from entering on a campaign
+which would have involved all Europe in conflagration and would have
+unsettled the boundaries of most continental nations; and the British
+government endeavoured thenceforward to stop hostilities by referring
+the question immediately in dispute to a conference in London. The
+labours of the conference proved abortive. Its members were unable to
+agree upon any methods of settlements, and the war went on. Denmark,
+naturally unable to grapple with her powerful antagonists, was forced to
+yield, and the two duchies which were the subject of dispute were taken
+from her.
+
+The full consequences of this struggle were not visible at the time. It
+was impossible to foresee that it was the first step which was to carry
+Prussia forward, under her ambitious minister, to a position of
+acknowledged supremacy on the continent. But the results to Great
+Britain were plain enough. She had been mighty in words and weak in
+deeds. It was no doubt open to her to contend, as perhaps most wise
+people consider, that the cause of Denmark was not of sufficient
+importance to justify her in going to war. But it was not open to her to
+encourage a weak power to resist and then desert her in the hour of her
+necessity. Lord Palmerston should not have used the language which he
+employed in 1863 if he had not decided that his brave words would be
+followed by brave action. His conduct lowered the prestige of Great
+Britain at least as much as his Italian policy had raised it.
+Continental statesmen thenceforward assumed that Great Britain, however
+much she might protest, would not resort to arms, and the influence of
+England suffered, as it was bound to suffer, in consequence.
+
+
+  American civil war.
+
+Meanwhile, in this period of warfare, another struggle was being fought
+out on a still greater scale in North America. The election of Abraham
+Lincoln to the presidency of the United States emphasized the fact that
+the majority of the inhabitants of the Northern States were opposed to
+the further spread of slavery; and, in the beginning of 1861, several of
+the Southern States formally seceded from the union. A steamer sent by
+the Federal government with reinforcements to Fort Sumter was fired
+upon, and both parties made preparations for the civil war which was
+apparently inevitable. On the one side the Confederate States--as the
+seceding states were called--were animated by a resolution to protect
+their property. On the other side the "conscience" of the North was
+excited by a passionate desire to wipe out the blot of slavery. Thus
+both parties were affected by some of the most powerful considerations
+which can influence mankind, while the North were further actuated by
+the natural incentive to preserve the union, which was threatened with
+disruption. The progress of the great struggle was watched with painful
+attention in England. The most important manufacturing interest in
+England was paralysed by the loss of the raw cotton, which was obtained
+almost exclusively from the United States, and tens of thousands of
+workpeople were thrown out of employment. The distress which resulted
+naturally created a strong feeling in favour of intervention, which
+might terminate the war and open the Southern ports to British commerce;
+and the initial successes which the Confederates secured seemed to
+afford some justification for such a proceeding. In the course of 1862
+indeed, when the Confederate armies had secured many victories,
+Gladstone, speaking at Newcastle, used the famous expression that
+President Jefferson Davis had "made a nation"; and Lord Palmerston's
+language in the House of Commons--while opposing a motion for the
+recognition of the South--induced the impression that his thoughts were
+tending in the same direction as Mr Gladstone's. The emperor Napoleon,
+in July of the same year, confidentially asked the British minister
+whether the moment had not come for recognizing the South; and in the
+following September Lord Palmerston was himself disposed in concert with
+France to offer to mediate on the basis of separation. Soon afterwards,
+however, the growing exhaustion of the South improved the prospects of
+the Northern States: an increasing number of persons in Great Britain
+objected to interfere in the interests of slavery; and the combatants
+were allowed to fight out their quarrel without the interference of
+Europe.
+
+
+  The "Trent" incident.
+
+At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell (who was made a peer as
+Earl Russell in 1861) acknowledged the Southern States as belligerents.
+His decision caused some ill-feeling at Washington; but it was
+inevitable. For the North had proclaimed a blockade of the Southern
+ports; and it would have been both inconvenient and unfair if Lord
+Russell had decided to recognize the blockade and had refused to
+acknowledge the belligerent rights of the Southern States. Lord
+Russell's decision, however, seemed to indicate some latent sympathy for
+the Southern cause; and the irritation which was felt in the North was
+increased by the news that the Southern States were accrediting two
+gentlemen to represent them at Paris and at London. These emissaries,
+Messrs Mason and Slidell, succeeded in running the blockade and in
+reaching Cuba, where they embarked on the "Trent," a British mail
+steamer sailing for England. On her passage home the "Trent" was stopped
+by the Federal steamer "San Jacinto"; she was boarded, and Messrs Mason
+and Slidell were arrested. There was no doubt that the captain of the
+"San Jacinto" had acted irregularly. While he had the right to stop the
+"Trent," examine the mails, and, if he found despatches for the enemy
+among them, carry the vessel into an American port for adjudication, he
+had no authority to board the vessel and arrest two of her passengers.
+"The British government," to use its own language, "could not allow such
+an affront to the national honour to pass without due reparation." They
+decided on sending what practically amounted to an ultimatum to the
+Federal government, calling upon it to liberate the prisoners and to
+make a suitable apology. The presentation of this ultimatum, which was
+accompanied by the despatch of troops to Canada, was very nearly
+provoking war with the United States. If, indeed, the ultimatum had been
+presented in the form in which it was originally framed, war might have
+ensued. But at the prince consort's suggestion its language was
+considerably modified, and the responsibility for the outrage was thrown
+on the officer who committed it, and not on the government of the
+Republic. It ought not to be forgotten that this important modification
+was the last service rendered to his adopted country by the prince
+consort before his fatal illness. He died before the answer to the
+despatch was received; and his death deprived the queen of an adviser
+who had stood by her side since the earlier days of her reign, and who,
+by his prudence and conduct, had done much to raise the tone of the
+court and the influence of the crown. Happily for the future of the
+world, the government of the United States felt itself able to accept
+the despatch which had been thus addressed to it, and to give the
+reparation which was demanded; and the danger of war between the two
+great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race was averted. But, in the
+following summer, a new event excited fresh animosities, and aroused a
+controversy which endured for the best part of ten years.
+
+
+  The "Alabama."
+
+The Confederates, naturally anxious to harass the commerce of their
+enemies, endeavoured from the commencement of hostilities to purchase
+armed cruisers from builders of neutral nations. In June 1862 the
+American minister in London drew Lord Russell's attention to the fact
+that a vessel, lately launched at Messrs Laird's yard at Birkenhead, was
+obviously intended to be employed as a Confederate cruiser. The
+solicitor to the commissioners of customs, however, considered that no
+facts had been revealed to authorize the detention of the vessel, and
+this opinion was reported in July to the American minister, Charles
+Francis Adams. He thereupon supplied the government with additional
+facts, and at the same time furnished them with the opinion of an
+eminent English lawyer, R. P. Collier (afterwards Lord Monkswell), to
+the effect that "it would be difficult to make out a stronger case of
+infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which if not enforced on
+this occasion is little better than a dead letter." These facts and this
+opinion were at once sent to the law officers. They reached the queen's
+advocate on Saturday the 26th of July; but, by an unfortunate mischance,
+the queen's advocate had just been wholly incapacitated by a distressing
+illness; and the papers, in consequence, did not reach the attorney- and
+solicitor-general till the evening of the following Monday, when they at
+once advised the government to detain the vessel. Lord Russell thereupon
+sent orders to Liverpool for her detention. In the meanwhile the
+vessel--probably aware of the necessity for haste--had put to sea, and
+had commenced the career which made her famous as the "Alabama."
+Ministers might even then have taken steps to stop the vessel by
+directing her detention in any British port to which she resorted for
+supplies. The cabinet, however, shrank from this course. The "Alabama"
+was allowed to prey on Federal commerce, and undoubtedly inflicted a
+vast amount of injury on the trade of the United States. In the autumn
+of 1862 Adams demanded redress for the injuries which had thus been
+sustained, and this demand was repeated for many years in stronger and
+stronger language. At last, in 1871, long after Lord Palmerston's death
+and Lord Russell's retirement, a joint commission was appointed to
+examine into the many cases of dispute which had arisen between the
+United States and Great Britain. The commissioners agreed upon three
+rules by which they thought neutrals should in future be bound, and
+recommended that they should be given a retrospective effect. They
+decided also that the claims which had arisen out of the depredations of
+the "Alabama" should be referred to arbitration. In the course of 1872
+the arbitrators met at Geneva. Their finding was adverse to Great
+Britain, which was condemned to pay a large sum of money--more than
+£3,000,000--as compensation. A period of exceptional prosperity, which
+largely increased the revenue, enabled a chancellor of the exchequer to
+boast that the country had drunk itself out of the "Alabama" difficulty.
+
+
+  Lord Russell's second ministry.
+
+In October 1805 Lord Palmerston's rule, which had been characterized by
+six years of political inaction at home and by constant disturbance
+abroad, was terminated by his death. The ministry, which had suffered
+many losses from death during its duration, was temporarily
+reconstructed under Lord Russell; and the new minister at once decided
+to put an end to the period of internal stagnation, which had lasted so
+long, by the introduction of a new Reform Bill. Accordingly, in March
+1866 Gladstone, who now led the House of Commons, introduced a measure
+which proposed to extend the county franchise to £14 and the borough
+franchise to £7 householders. The bill did not create much enthusiasm
+among Liberals, and it was naturally opposed by the Conservatives, who
+were reinforced by a large section of moderate Liberals, nicknamed, in
+consequence of a phrase in one of Bright's speeches, Adullamites. After
+many debates, in which the Commons showed little disposition to give the
+ministry any effective support, an amendment was carried by Lord
+Dunkellin, the eldest son of Lord Clanricarde, basing the borough
+franchise on rating instead of rental. The cabinet, recognizing from the
+division that the control of the House had passed out of its hands,
+resigned office, and the queen was compelled to entrust Lord Derby with
+the task of forming a new administration.
+
+
+  Lord Derby's third ministry.
+
+For the third time in his career Lord Derby undertook the formidable
+task of conducting the government of the country with only a minority of
+the House of Commons to support him. The moment at which he made this
+third attempt was one of unusual anxiety. Abroad, the almost
+simultaneous outbreak of war between Prussia and Austria was destined to
+affect the whole aspect of continental politics. At home, a terrible
+murrain had fallen on the cattle, inflicting ruin on the agricultural
+interest; a grave commercial crisis was creating alarm in the city of
+London, and, in its consequences, injuring the interests of labour;
+while the working classes, at last roused from their long indifference,
+and angry at the rejection of Lord Russell's bill, were assembling in
+their tens of thousands to demand reform. The cabinet determined to
+prohibit a meeting which the Reform League decided to hold in Hyde Park
+on the 23rd of July, and closed the gates of the park on the people. But
+the mob, converging on the park in thousands, surged round the railings,
+which a little inquiry might have shown were too weak to resist any real
+pressure. Either accidentally or intentionally, the railings were
+overturned in one place, and the people, perceiving their opportunity,
+at once threw them down round the whole circuit of the park. Few acts in
+Queen Victoria's reign were attended with greater consequences. For the
+riot in Hyde Park led almost directly to a new Reform Act, and to the
+transfer of power from the middle classes to the masses of the people.
+
+
+  Reform, 1867.
+
+Yet, though the new government found it necessary to introduce a Reform
+Bill, a wide difference of opinion existed in the cabinet as to the form
+which the measure should take. Several of its members were in favour of
+assimilating the borough franchise to that in force in municipal
+elections, and practically conferring a vote on every householder who
+had three years' residence in the constituency. General Peel,
+however--Sir Robert Peel's brother--who held the seals of the war
+office, objected to this extension; and the cabinet ultimately decided
+on evading the difficulty by bringing forward a series of resolutions on
+which a scheme of reform might ultimately be based. Their success in
+1858, in dealing with the government of India in this way, commended the
+decision to the acceptance of the cabinet. But it was soon apparent that
+the House of Commons required a definite scheme, and that it would not
+seriously consider a set of abstract resolutions which committed no one
+to any distinct plan. Hence on the 23rd of February 1867 the cabinet
+decided on withdrawing its resolutions and reverting to its original
+bill. On the following day Lord Cranborne--better known afterwards as
+Lord Salisbury--discovered that the bill had more democratic tendencies
+than he had originally supposed, and refused to be a party to it. On
+Monday, the 25th, the cabinet again met to consider the new difficulty
+which had thus arisen; and it decided (as was said afterwards by Sir
+John Pakington) in ten minutes to substitute for the scheme a mild
+measure extending the borough franchise to houses rated at £6 a year,
+and conferring the county franchise on £20 householders. The bill, it
+was soon obvious, would be acceptable to no one; and the government
+again fell back on its original proposal. Three members of the cabinet,
+however, Lord Cranborne, Lord Carnarvon and General Peel, refused to be
+parties to the measure, and resigned office, the government being
+necessarily weakened by these defections. In the large scheme which the
+cabinet had now adopted, the borough franchise was conferred on all
+householders rated to the relief of the poor, who had for two years
+occupied the houses which gave them the qualification; the county
+franchise was given to the occupiers of all houses rated at £15 a year
+or upwards. But it was proposed that these extensions should be
+accompanied by an educational franchise, and a franchise conferred on
+persons who had paid twenty shillings in assessed taxes or income tax;
+the taxpayers who had gained a vote in this way being given a second
+vote in respect of the property which they occupied. In the course of
+the discussion on the bill in the House of Commons, the securities on
+which its authors had relied to enable them to stem the tide of
+democracy were, chiefly through Gladstone's exertions, swept away. The
+dual vote was abandoned, direct payment of rates was surrendered, the
+county franchise was extended to £12 householders, and the
+redistribution of seats was largely increased. The bill, in the shape in
+which it had been introduced, had been surrounded with safeguards to
+property. With their loss it involved a great radical change, which
+placed the working classes of the country in the position of
+predominance which the middle classes had occupied since 1832.
+
+
+  Disraeli prime minister.
+
+The passage of the bill necessitated a dissolution of parliament; but it
+had to be postponed to enable parliament to supplement the English
+Reform Act of 1867 with measures applicable to Scotland and Ireland, and
+to give time for settling the boundaries of the new constituencies which
+had been created. This delay gave the Conservatives another year of
+office. But the first place in the cabinet passed in 1868 from Lord
+Derby to his lieutenant, Disraeli. The change added interest to
+political life. Thenceforward, for the next thirteen years, the chief
+places in the two great parties in the state were filled by the two men,
+Gladstone and Disraeli, who were unquestionably the ablest
+representatives of their respective followers. But the situation was
+also remarkable because power thus definitely passed from men who,
+without exception, had been born in the 18th century, and had all held
+cabinet offices before 1832, to men who had been born in the 19th
+century, and had only risen to cabinet rank in the 'forties and the
+'fifties. It was also interesting to reflect that Gladstone had begun
+life as a Conservative, and had only gradually moved to the ranks of the
+Liberal party; while Disraeli had fought his first election under the
+auspices of O'Connell and Hume, had won his spurs by his attacks on Sir
+Robert Peel, and had been only reluctantly adopted by the Conservatives
+as their leader in the House of Commons.
+
+
+  Irish Church.
+
+The struggle commenced in 1868 on an Irish question. During the previous
+years considerable attention had been paid to a secret conspiracy in
+Ireland and among the Irish in America. The Fenians, as they were
+called, actually attempted insurrection in Ireland, and an invasion of
+Canada from the United States. At the beginning of 1866 Lord Russell's
+government thought itself compelled to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act in
+Ireland; and in 1867 Lord Derby's government was confronted in the
+spring by a plot to seize Chester Castle, and in the autumn by an attack
+on a prison van at Manchester containing Fenian prisoners, and by an
+atrocious attempt to blow up Clerkenwell prison. Conservative
+politicians deduced from these circumstances the necessity of applying
+firm government to Ireland. Liberal statesmen, on the contrary, desired
+to extirpate rebellion by remedying the grievances of which Ireland
+still complained. Chief among these was the fact that the Established
+Church in Ireland was the church of only a minority of the people. In
+March 1868 John Francis Maguire, an Irish Catholic, asked the House of
+Commons to resolve itself into a committee to take into immediate
+consideration the affairs of Ireland. Gladstone, in the course of the
+debate, declared that in his opinion the time had come when the Irish
+Church, as a political institution, should cease; and he followed up his
+declaration by a series of resolutions, which were accepted by
+considerable majorities, pledging the House to its disestablishment.
+Disraeli, recognizing the full significance of this decision, announced
+that, as soon as the necessary preparations could be made, the
+government would appeal from the House to the country. Parliament was
+dissolved at the end of July, but the general election did not take
+place till the end of the following November. The future of the Irish
+Church naturally formed one of the chief subjects which occupied the
+attention of the electors, but the issue was largely determined by wider
+considerations. The country, after the long political truce which had
+been maintained by Lord Palmerston, was again ranged in two hostile
+camps, animated by opposing views. It was virtually asked to decide in
+1868 whether it would put its trust in Liberal or Conservative, in
+Gladstone or Disraeli. By an overwhelming majority it threw its lot in
+favour of Gladstone; and Disraeli, without even venturing to meet
+parliament, took the unusual course of at once placing his resignation
+in the queen's hands.
+
+
+  Abyssinian war.
+
+The Conservative government, which thus fell, will be chiefly
+recollected for its remarkable concession to democratic principles by
+the passage of the Reform Act of 1867; but it deserves perhaps a word of
+praise for its conduct of a distant and unusual war. The emperor of
+Abyssinia had, for some time, detained some Englishmen prisoners in his
+country; and the government, unable to obtain redress in other ways,
+decided on sending an army to release them. The expedition, entrusted to
+Sir Robert Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala, was fitted out at
+great expense, and was rewarded with complete success. The prisoners
+were released, and the Abyssinian monarch committed suicide.
+Disraeli--whose oriental imagination was excited by the
+triumph--incurred some ridicule by his bombastic declaration that "the
+standard of St George was hoisted upon the mountains of Rasselas." But
+the ministry could at least claim that the war had been waged to rescue
+Englishmen from captivity, that it had been conducted with skill, and
+that it had accomplished its object. The events of the Abyssinian war,
+however, were forgotten in the great political revolution which had
+swept the Conservatives from office and placed Gladstone in power. His
+government was destined to endure for more than five years. During that
+period it experienced the alternate prosperity and decline which nearly
+forty years before had been the lot of the Whigs after the passage of
+the first Reform Act. During its first two sessions it accomplished
+greater changes in legislation than had been attempted by any ministry
+since that of Lord Grey. In its three last sessions it was destined to
+sink into gradual disrepute; and it was ultimately swept away by a wave
+of popular reaction, as remarkable as that which had borne it into
+power.
+
+
+  Gladstone's first ministry.
+
+  Irish land.
+
+  Elementary education.
+
+It was generally understood that Gladstone intended to deal with three
+great Irish grievances--"the three branches of the upas tree"--the
+religious, agricultural and educational grievances. The session of 1869
+was devoted to the first of these subjects. Gladstone introduced a bill
+disconnecting the Irish Church from the state, establishing a synod for
+its government, and--after leaving it in possession of its churches and
+its parsonages, and making ample provision for the life-interest of its
+existing clergy--devoting the bulk of its property to the relief of
+distress in Ireland. The bill was carried by large majorities through
+the House of Commons; and the feeling of the country was so strong that
+the Lords did not venture on its rejection. They satisfied themselves
+with engrafting on it a series of amendments which, on the whole,
+secured rather more liberal terms of compensation for existing
+interests. Some of these amendments were adopted by Gladstone; a
+compromise was effected in respect of the others; and the bill, which
+had practically occupied the whole session, and had perhaps involved
+higher constructive skill than any measure passed in the previous
+half-century, became law. Having dealt with the Irish Church in 1869,
+Gladstone turned to the more complicated question of Irish land. So far
+back as the 'forties Sir R. Peel had appointed a commission, known from
+its chairman as the Devon commission, which had recommended that the
+Irish tenant, in the event of disturbance, should receive some
+compensation for certain specified improvements which he had made in his
+holding. Parliament neglected to give effect to these recommendations;
+in a country where agriculture was the chief or almost only occupation,
+the tenant remained at his landlord's mercy. In 1870 Gladstone proposed
+to give the tenant a pecuniary interest in improvements, suitable to the
+holding, which he had made either before or after the passing of the
+act. He proposed also that, in cases of eviction, the smaller tenantry
+should receive compensation for disturbance. The larger tenantry, who
+were supposed to be able to look after their own interests, were
+entirely debarred, and tenants enjoying leases were excluded from
+claiming compensation, except for tillages, buildings and reclamation of
+lands. A special court, it was further provided, should be instituted to
+carry out the provisions of the bill. Large and radical as the measure
+was, reversing many of the accepted principles of legislation by giving
+the tenant a _quasi_-partnership with the landlord in his holding, no
+serious opposition was made to it in either House of Parliament. Its
+details, indeed, were abundantly criticized, but its principles were
+hardly disputed, and it became law without any substantial alteration of
+its original provisions. In two sessions two branches of the upas tree
+had been summarily cut off. But parliament in 1870 was not solely
+occupied with the wrongs of Irish tenantry. In the same year Forster, as
+vice-president of the council, succeeded in carrying the great measure
+which for the first time made education compulsory. In devising his
+scheme, Forster endeavoured to utilize, as far as possible, the
+educational machinery which had been voluntarily provided by various
+religious organizations. He gave the institutions, which had been thus
+established, the full benefit of the assistance which the government was
+prepared to afford to board schools, on their adopting a conscience
+clause under which the religious susceptibilities of the parents of
+children were protected. This provision led to many debates, and
+produced the first symptoms of disruption in the Liberal party. The
+Nonconformists contended that no such aid should be given to any school
+which was not conducted on undenominational principles. Supported by the
+bulk of the Conservative party, Forster was enabled to defeat the
+dissenters. But the victory which he secured was, in one sense, dearly
+purchased. The first breach in the Liberal ranks had been made; and the
+government, after 1870, never again commanded the same united support
+which had enabled it to pursue its victorious career in the first two
+sessions of its existence.
+
+
+  Black Sea neutrality.
+
+  Army purchase.
+
+Towards the close of the session of 1870 other events, for which the
+government had no direct responsibility, introduced new difficulties.
+War unexpectedly broke out between France and Prussia. The French empire
+fell; the German armies marched on Paris; and the Russian government, at
+Count Bismarck's instigation, took advantage of the collapse of France
+to repudiate the clause in the treaty of 1856 which neutralized the
+Black Sea. Lord Granville, who had succeeded Lord Clarendon at the
+foreign office, protested against this proceeding. But it was everywhere
+felt that his mere protest was not likely to affect the result; and the
+government at last consented to accept a suggestion made by Count
+Bismarck, and to take part in a conference to discuss the Russian
+proposal. Though this device enabled them to say that they had not
+yielded to the Russian demand, it was obvious that they entered the
+conference with the foregone conclusion of conceding the Russian claim.
+The attitude which the government thus chose to adopt was perhaps
+inevitable in the circumstances, but it confirmed the impression, which
+the abandonment of the cause of Denmark had produced in 1864, that Great
+Britain was not prepared to maintain its principles by going to war. The
+weakness of the British foreign office was emphasized by its consenting,
+almost at the same moment, to allow the claims of the United States, for
+the depredations of the "Alabama," to be settled under a rule only
+agreed upon in 1871. Most Englishmen now appreciate the wisdom of a
+concession which has gained for them the friendship of the United
+States. But in 1871 the country resented the manner in which Lord
+Granville had acted. Whatever credit the government might have derived
+from its domestic measures, it was discredited, or it was thought to be,
+by its foreign policy. In these circumstances legislation in 1871 was
+not marked with the success which had attended the government in
+previous sessions. The government succeeded in terminating a long
+controversy by abolishing ecclesiastical tests at universities. But the
+Lords ventured to reject a measure for the introduction of the ballot at
+elections, and refused to proceed with a bill for the abolition of
+purchase in the army. The result of these decisions was indeed
+remarkable. In the one case, the Lords in 1872 found it necessary to
+give way, and to pass the Ballot Bill, which they had rejected in 1871.
+In the other, Gladstone decided on abolishing, by the direct authority
+of the crown, the system which the Lords refused to do away with by
+legislation. But his high-handed proceeding, though it forced the Lords
+to reconsider their decision, strained the allegiance of many of his
+supporters, and still further impaired the popularity of his
+administration. Most men felt that it would have been permissible for
+him, at the commencement of the session, to have used the queen's
+authority to terminate the purchase system; but they considered that, as
+he had not taken this course, it was not open to him to reverse the
+decision of the legislature by resorting to the prerogative. Two
+appointments, one to a judicial office, the other to an ecclesiastical
+preferment, in which Gladstone, about the same time, showed more
+disposition to obey the letter than the spirit of the law, confirmed the
+impression which the abolition of purchase had made. Great reforming
+ministers would do well to recollect that the success of even liberal
+measures may be dearly purchased by the resort to what are regarded as
+unconstitutional expedients.
+
+
+  1872-1874.
+
+In the following years the embarrassments of the government were further
+increased. In 1872 Bruce, the home secretary, succeeded in passing a
+measure of licensing reform. But the abstainers condemned the bill as
+inadequate; the publicans denounced it as oppressive; and the whole
+strength of the licensed victuallers was thenceforward arrayed against
+the ministry. In 1873 Gladstone attempted to complete his great Irish
+measures by conferring on Ireland the advantage of a university which
+would be equally acceptable to Protestants and Roman Catholics. But his
+proposal again failed to satisfy those in whose interests it was
+proposed. The second reading of the bill was rejected by a small
+majority, and Gladstone resigned; but, as Disraeli could not form a
+government, he resumed office. The power of the great minister was,
+however, spent; his ministry was hopelessly discredited. History, in
+fact, was repeating itself. The ministry was suffering, as Lord Grey's
+government had suffered nearly forty years before, from the effect of
+its own successes. It had accomplished more than any of its supporters
+had expected, but in doing so it had harassed many interests and excited
+much opposition. Gladstone endeavoured to meet the storm by a
+rearrangement of his crew. Bruce, who had offended the licensed
+victuallers, was removed from the home office, and made a peer and
+president of the council. Lowe, who had incurred unpopularity by his
+fiscal measures, and especially by an abortive suggestion for the
+taxation of matches, was transferred from the exchequer to the home
+office, and Gladstone himself assumed the duties of chancellor of the
+exchequer. He thereby created a difficulty for himself which he had not
+foreseen. Up to 1867 a minister leaving one office and accepting another
+vacated his seat; after 1867 a transfer from one post to another did not
+necessitate a fresh election. But Gladstone in 1873 had taken a course
+which had not been contemplated in 1867. He had not been transferred
+from one office to another. He had accepted a new in addition to his old
+office. It was, to say the least, uncertain whether his action in this
+respect had, or had not, vacated his seat. It would be unfair to suggest
+that the inconvenient difficulty with which he was thus confronted
+determined his policy, though he was probably insensibly influenced by
+it. However this may be, on the eve of the session of 1874 he suddenly
+decided to dissolve parliament and to appeal to the country. He
+announced his decision in an address to his constituents, in which,
+among other financial reforms, he promised to repeal the income tax. The
+course which Gladstone took, and the bait which he held out to the
+electors, were generally condemned. The country, wearied of the ministry
+and of its measures, almost everywhere supported the Conservative
+candidates. Disraeli found himself restored to power at the head of an
+overwhelming majority, and the great minister who, five years before,
+had achieved so marked a triumph temporarily withdrew from the
+leadership of the party with whose aid he had accomplished such
+important results. His ministry had been essentially one of peace, yet
+its closing days were memorable for one little war in which a great
+soldier increased a reputation already high. Sir Garnet Wolseley
+triumphed over the difficulties which the climate of the west coast of
+Africa imposes on Europeans, and brought a troublesome contest with the
+Ashantis to a successful conclusion.
+
+
+  Disraeli's second ministry.
+
+  Bulgarian "atrocities."
+
+  Berlin treaty.
+
+The history of Disraeli's second administration affords an exact reverse
+to that of Gladstone's first cabinet. In legislation the ministry
+attempted little and accomplished less. They did something to meet the
+wishes of the publicans, whose discontent had contributed largely to
+Gladstone's defeat, by amending some of the provisions of Bruce's
+licensing bill; they supported and succeeded in passing a measure,
+brought in by the primate, to restrain some of the irregularities which
+the Ritualists were introducing into public worship; and they were
+compelled by the violent insistence of Plimsoll to pass an act to protect
+the lives of merchant seamen. Disraeli's government, however, will be
+chiefly remembered for its foreign policy. Years before he had propounded
+in _Tancred_ the theory that England should aim at eastern empire.
+Circumstances in his second term of office enabled him to translate his
+theory into practice. In 1875 the country was suddenly startled at
+hearing that it had acquired a new position and assumed new
+responsibilities in Egypt by the purchase of the shares which the khedive
+of Egypt held in the Suez Canal. In the following spring a new surprise
+was afforded by the introduction of a measure authorizing the queen to
+assume the title of empress of India. But these significant actions were
+almost forgotten in the presence of a new crisis; for in 1876
+misgovernment in Turkey had produced its natural results, and the
+European provinces of the Porte were in a state of armed insurrection. In
+the presence of a grave danger, Count Andrassy, the Austrian minister,
+drew up a note which was afterwards known by his name, declaring that the
+Porte had failed to carry into effect the promises of reform which she
+had made, and that some combined action on the part of Europe was
+necessary to compel her to do so. The note was accepted by the three
+continental empires, but Great Britain refused in the first instance to
+assent to it, and only ultimately consented at the desire of the Porte,
+whose statesmen seem to have imagined that the nominal co-operation of
+England would have the effect of restraining the action of other powers.
+Turkey accepted the note and renewed the promises of reform, which she
+had so often made, and which meant so little. The three northern powers
+thereupon agreed upon what was known as the Berlin Memorandum, in which
+they demanded an armistice, and proposed to watch over the completion of
+the reforms which the Porte had promised. The British government refused
+to be a party to this memorandum, which in consequence became abortive.
+The insurrection increased in intensity. The sultan Abdul Aziz, thought
+unequal to the crisis, was hastily deposed; he was either murdered or led
+to commit suicide; and insurrection in Bulgaria was stamped out by
+massacre. The story of the "Bulgarian atrocities" was published in Great
+Britain in the summer of 1876. Disraeli characteristically dismissed it
+as "coffee-house babble," but official investigation proved the
+substantial accuracy of the reports which had reached England. The people
+regarded these events with horror. Gladstone, emerging from his
+retirement, denounced the conduct of the Turks. In a phrase which became
+famous he declared that the only remedy for the European provinces of the
+Porte was to turn out the Ottoman government "bag and baggage." All
+England was at once arrayed into two camps. One party was led by
+Disraeli, who was supposed to represent the traditional policy of England
+of maintaining the rule of the Turk at all hazards; the other, inspired
+by the example of Gladstone, was resolved at all costs to terminate
+oppression, but was at the same time distrusted as indirectly assisting
+the ambitious views by which the Eastern policy of Russia had always been
+animated. The crisis soon became intense. In June 1876 Servia and
+Montenegro declared war against Turkey. In a few months Servia was
+hopelessly beaten. Through the insistence of Russia an armistice was
+agreed upon; and Lord Beaconsfield--for Disraeli had now been raised to
+the peerage--endeavoured to utilize the breathing space by organizing a
+conference of the great powers at Constantinople, which was attended on
+behalf of Great Britain by Lord Salisbury. The Constantinople conference
+proved abortive, and in the beginning of 1877 Russia declared war. For
+some time, however, her success was hardly equal to her expectations. The
+Turks, entrenched at Plevna, delayed the Russian advance; and it was only
+towards the close of 1877 that Plevna at last fell and Turkish resistance
+collapsed. With its downfall the war party in England, which was led by
+the prime minister, increased in violence. From the refrain of a song,
+sung night after night at a London music hall, its members became known
+as Jingoes. The government ordered the British fleet to pass the
+Dardanelles and go up to Constantinople; and though the order was
+subsequently withdrawn, it asked for and obtained a grant of £6,000,000
+for naval and military purposes. When news came that the Russian armies
+had reached Adrianople, that they had concluded some arrangement with the
+Turks, and that they were pressing forward towards Constantinople, the
+fleet was again directed to pass the Dardanelles. Soon afterwards the
+government decided to call out the reserves and to bring a contingent of
+Indian troops to the Mediterranean. Lord Derby,[8] who was at the foreign
+office, thereupon retired from the ministry, and was succeeded by Lord
+Salisbury. Lord Derby's resignation was everywhere regarded as a proof
+that Great Britain was on the verge of war. Happily this did not occur.
+At Prince Bismarck's suggestion Russia consented to refer the treaty
+which she had concluded at San Stefano to a congress of the great powers;
+and the congress, at which Great Britain was represented by Lord
+Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury, succeeded in substituting for the treaty
+of San Stefano the treaty of Berlin. The one great advantage derived from
+it was the tacit acknowledgment by Russia that Europe could alone alter
+arrangements which Europe had made. In every other sense it is doubtful
+whether the provisions of the treaty of Berlin were more favourable than
+those of the treaty of San Stefano. On Lord Beaconsfield's return,
+however, he claimed for Lord Salisbury and himself that they had brought
+back "peace with honour," and the country accepted with wild delight the
+phrase, without taking much trouble to analyse its justice.
+
+
+  Afghan wars.
+
+If Lord Beaconsfield had dissolved parliament immediately after his
+return from Berlin, it is possible that the wave of popularity which had
+been raised by his success would have borne him forward to a fresh
+victory in the constituencies. His omission to do so gave the country
+time to meditate on the consequences of his policy. One result soon
+became perceptible. Differences with Russia produced their inevitable
+consequences in fresh complications on the Indian frontier. The Russian
+government, confronted with a quarrel with Great Britain in eastern
+Europe, endeavoured to create difficulties in Afghanistan. A Russian
+envoy was sent to Kabul, where Shere Ali, who had succeeded his father
+Dost Mahommed in 1863, was amir; and the British government, alarmed at
+this new embarrassment, decided on sending a mission to the Afghan
+capital. The mission was stopped on the frontier by an agent of Shere
+Ali, who declined to allow it to proceed. The British government refused
+to put up with an affront of this kind, and their envoy, supported by an
+army, continued his advance. Afghanistan was again invaded. Kabul and
+Kandahar were occupied; and Shere Ali was forced to fly, and soon
+afterwards died. His successor, Yakub Khan, came to the British camp and
+signed, in May 1879, the treaty of Gandamak. Under the terms of this
+treaty the Indian government undertook to pay the new amir a subsidy of
+£60,000 a year; and Yakub Khan consented to receive a British mission at
+Kabul, and to cede some territory in the Himalayas which the military
+advisers of Lord Beaconsfield considered necessary to make the frontier
+more "scientific." This apparent success was soon followed by disastrous
+news. The deplorable events of 1841 were re-enacted in 1879. The new
+envoy reached Kabul, but was soon afterwards murdered. A British army
+was again sent into Afghanistan, and Kabul was again occupied. Yakub
+Khan, who had been made amir in 1879, was deposed, and Abdur Rahman Khan
+was selected as his successor. The British did not assert their
+superiority without much fighting and some serious reverses. Their
+victory was at last assured by the excellent strategy of Sir Donald
+Stewart and Sir Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts. But before the
+final victory was gained Lord Beaconsfield had fallen. His policy had
+brought Great Britain to the verge of disaster in Afghanistan: the
+credit of reasserting the superiority of British arms was deferred till
+his successors had taken office.
+
+
+  Zulu War.
+
+It was not only in Afghanistan that the new imperial policy which Lord
+Beaconsfield had done so much to encourage was straining the resources
+of the empire. In South Africa a still more serious difficulty was
+already commencing. At the time at which Lord Beaconsfield's
+administration began, British territory in South Africa was practically
+confined to Cape Colony and Natal. Years before, in 1852 and 1854
+respectively, the British government, at that time a little weary of the
+responsibilities of colonial rule, had recognized the independence of
+the two Dutch republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
+Powerful native tribes occupied the territory to the north of Natal and
+the east of the Transvaal. War broke out between the Transvaal Republic
+and one of the most powerful of these native chieftains, Sikukuni; and
+the Transvaal was worsted in the struggle. Weary of the condition of
+anarchy which existed in the republic, many inhabitants of the Transvaal
+were ready to welcome its annexation to Great Britain--a proposal
+favoured by the colonial secretary, Lord Carnarvon, who wished to
+federate the South African states, after the manner in which the North
+American colonies had become by confederation the Dominion of Canada.
+Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who was sent to inquire into the proposal,
+mistook the opinion of a party for the verdict of the republic, and
+declared (April 1877) the Transvaal a part of the British Empire. His
+policy entailed far more serious consequences than the mission to
+Afghanistan. The first was a war with the Zulus, the most powerful and
+warlike of the South African natives, who under their ruler, Cetewayo,
+had organized a formidable army. A dispute had been going on for some
+time about the possession of a strip of territory which some British
+arbitrators had awarded to the Zulu king. Sir Bartle Frere, who had won
+distinction in India, and was sent out by Lord Beaconsfield's government
+to the Cape, kept back the award; and, though he ultimately communicated
+it to Cetewayo, thought it desirable to demand the disbandment of the
+Zulu army. In the war which ensued, the British troops who invaded Zulu
+territory met with a severe reverse; and, though the disaster was
+ultimately retrieved by Lord Chelmsford, the war involved heavy
+expenditure and brought little credit to the British army, while one
+unfortunate incident, the death of Prince Napoleon, who had obtained
+leave to serve with the British troops, and was surprised by the Zulus
+while reconnoitering, created a deep and unfortunate impression.
+Imperialism, which had been excited by Lord Beaconsfield's policy in
+1878, and by the prospect of a war with a great European power, fell
+into discredit when it degenerated into a fresh expedition into
+Afghanistan, and an inglorious war with a savage African tribe. A
+period of distress at home increased the discontent which Lord
+Beaconsfield's external policy was exciting; and, when parliament was at
+last dissolved in 1880, it seemed no longer certain that the country
+would endorse the policy of the minister, who only a short time before
+had acquired such popularity. Gladstone, emerging from his retirement,
+practically placed himself again at the head of the Liberal party. In a
+series of speeches in Midlothian, where he offered himself for election,
+he denounced the whole policy which Lord Beaconsfield had pursued. His
+impassioned eloquence did much more than influence his own election. His
+speeches decided the contest throughout the kingdom. The Liberals
+secured an even more surprising success than that which had rewarded the
+Conservatives six years before. For the first time in the queen's reign,
+a solid Liberal majority, independent of all extraneous Irish support,
+was returned, and Gladstone resumed in triumph his old position as prime
+minister.
+
+
+  Gladstone's second ministry.
+
+  Boer War, 1881.
+
+The new minister had been swept into power on a wave of popular favour,
+but he inherited from his predecessors difficulties in almost every
+quarter of the world; and his own language had perhaps tended to
+increase them. He was committed to a reversal of Lord Beaconsfield's
+policy; and, in politics, it is never easy, and perhaps rarely wise,
+suddenly and violently to change a system. In one quarter of the world
+the new minister achieved much success. The war in Afghanistan, which
+had begun with disaster, was creditably concluded. A better
+understanding was gradually established with Russia; and, before the
+ministry went out, steps had been taken which led to the delimitation of
+the Russian and Afghan frontier. In South Africa, however, a very
+different result ensued. Gladstone, before he accepted office, had
+denounced the policy of annexing the Transvaal; his language was so
+strong that he was charged with encouraging the Boers to maintain their
+independence by force; his example had naturally been imitated by some
+of his followers at the general election; and, when he resumed power, he
+found himself in the difficult dilemma of either maintaining an
+arrangement which he had declared to be unwise, or of yielding to a
+demand which the Boers were already threatening to support in arms. The
+events of the first year of his administration added to his difficulty.
+Before its close the Boers seized Heidelberg and established a republic;
+they destroyed a detachment of British troops at Bronkhorst Spruit; and
+they surrounded and attacked the British garrisons in the Transvaal.
+Troops were of course sent from England to maintain the British cause;
+and Sir George Colley, who enjoyed a high reputation and had experience
+in South African warfare, was made governor of Natal, and entrusted with
+the military command. The events which immediately followed will not be
+easily forgotten. Wholly miscalculating the strength of the Boers, Sir
+George Colley, at the end of January 1881, attacked them at Laing's Nek,
+in the north of Natal, and was repulsed with heavy loss. Some ten days
+afterwards he fought another action on the Ingogo, and was again forced
+to retire. On the 26th February, with some 600 men, he occupied a high
+hill, known as Majuba, which, he thought, dominated the Boer position.
+The following day the Boers attacked the hill, overwhelmed its
+defenders, and Sir George Colley was himself killed in the disastrous
+contest on the summit. News of these occurrences was received with
+dismay in England. It was, no doubt, possible to say a good deal for
+Gladstone's indignant denunciation of his predecessor's policy in
+annexing the Transvaal; it would have been equally possible to advance
+many reasons for reversing the measures of Lord Beaconsfield's cabinet,
+and for conceding independence to the Transvaal in 1880. But the great
+majority of persons considered that, whatever arguments might have been
+urged for concession in 1880, when British troops had suffered no
+reverses, nothing could be said for concession in 1881, when their arms
+had been tarnished by a humiliating disaster. Great countries can afford
+to be generous in the hour of victory; but they cannot yield, without
+loss of credit, in the hour of defeat. Unfortunately this reasoning was
+not suited to Gladstone's temperament. The justice or injustice of the
+British cause seemed to him a much more important matter than the
+vindication of military honour; and he could not bring himself to
+acknowledge that Majuba had altered the situation, and that the terms
+which he had made up his mind to concede before the battle could not be
+safely granted till military reputation was restored. The retrocession
+of the Transvaal was decided upon, though it was provided that the
+country should remain under the suzerainty of the queen. Even this great
+concession did not satisfy the ambition of the Boers, who were naturally
+elated by their victories. Three years later some Transvaal deputies,
+with their president, Kruger, came to London and saw Lord Derby, the
+secretary of state for the colonies. Lord Derby consented to a new
+convention, from which any verbal reference to suzerainty was excluded;
+and the South African republic was made independent, subject only to the
+condition that it should conclude no treaties with foreign powers
+without the approval of the crown. (For the details and disputes
+concerning the terms of this convention the reader is referred to the
+articles TRANSVAAL and SUZERAINTY.)
+
+
+  Bradlaugh.
+
+Gladstone's government declined in popularity from the date of the
+earliest of these concessions. Gladstone, in fact, had succeeded in
+doing what Lord Beaconsfield had failed to accomplish. Annoyance at his
+foreign policy had rekindled the imperialism which the embarrassments
+created by Lord Beaconsfield had done so much to damp down. And, if
+things were going badly with the new government abroad, matters were not
+progressing smoothly at home. At the general election of 1880, the
+borough of Northampton, which of late years has shown an unwavering
+preference for Liberals of an advanced type, returned as its members
+Henry Labouchere and Charles Bradlaugh. Bradlaugh, who had attained some
+notoriety for an aggressive atheism, claimed the right to make an
+affirmation of allegiance instead of taking the customary oath, which he
+declared was, in his eyes, a meaningless form. The speaker, instead of
+deciding the question, submitted it to the judgment of the House, and it
+was ultimately referred to a select committee, which reported against
+Bradlaugh's claim. Bradlaugh, on hearing the decision of the committee,
+presented himself at the bar and offered to take the oath. It was
+objected that, as he had publicly declared that the words of the oath
+had no clear meaning for him, he could not be permitted to take it; and
+after some wrangling the matter was referred to a fresh committee, which
+supported the view that Bradlaugh could not be allowed to be sworn, but
+recommended that he should be permitted to make the affirmation at his
+own risk. The House refused to accept the recommendation of this
+committee when a bill was introduced to give effect to it. This decision
+naturally enlarged the question before it. For, while hitherto the
+debate had turned on the technical points whether an affirmation could
+be substituted for an oath, or whether a person who had declared that an
+oath had no meaning for him could properly be sworn, the end at which
+Bradlaugh's opponents were thenceforward aiming was the imposition of a
+new religious test--the belief in a God--on members of the House of
+Commons. The controversy, which thus began, continued through the
+parliament of 1880, and led to many violent scenes, which lowered the
+dignity of the House. It was quietly terminated, in the parliament of
+1886, by the firm action of a new speaker. Mr Peel, who had been elected
+to the chair in 1884, decided that neither the speaker nor any other
+member had the right to intervene to prevent a member from taking the
+oath if he was willing to take it. Parliament subsequently, by a new
+act, permitted affirmations to be used, and thenceforward religion, or
+the absence of religion, was no disqualification for a seat in the House
+of Commons. The atheist, like the Roman Catholic and the Jew, could sit
+and vote.
+
+
+  Parnell.
+
+The Bradlaugh question was not the only difficulty with which the new
+government was confronted. Ireland was again attracting the attention of
+politicians. The Fenian movement had practically expired; some annual
+motions for the introduction of Home Rule, made with all the decorum of
+parliamentary usage, had been regularly defeated. But the Irish were
+placing themselves under new leaders and adopting new methods. During
+the Conservative government of 1874, the Irish members had endeavoured
+to arrest attention by organized obstruction. Their efforts had
+increased the difficulties of government and taxed the endurance of
+parliament. These tactics were destined to be raised to a fine art by
+Parnell, who succeeded to the head of the Irish party about the time of
+the formation of Gladstone's government. It was Parnell's determination
+to make legislation impracticable, and parliament unendurable, till
+Irish grievances were redressed. It was his evident belief that by
+pursuing such tactics he could force the House of Commons to concede the
+legislation which he desired. The Irish members were not satisfied with
+the legislation which parliament had passed in 1869-1870. The land act
+of 1870 had given the tenant no security in the case of eviction for
+non-payment of rent; and the tenant whose rent was too high or had been
+raised was at the mercy of his landlord. It so happened that some bad
+harvests had temporarily increased the difficulties of the tenantry, and
+there was no doubt that large numbers of evictions were taking place in
+Ireland. In these circumstances, the Irish contended that the relief
+which the act of 1870 had afforded should be extended, and that, till
+such legislation could be devised, a temporary measure should be passed
+giving the tenant compensation for disturbance. Gladstone admitted the
+force of this reasoning, and a bill was introduced to give effect to it.
+Passed by the Commons, it was thrown out towards the end of the session
+by the Lords; and the government acquiesced--perhaps could do nothing
+but acquiesce--in this decision. In Ireland, however, the rejection of
+the measure was attended with disastrous results. Outrages increased,
+obnoxious landlords and agents were "boycotted"--the name of the first
+gentleman exposed to this treatment adding a new word to the language;
+and Forster, who had accepted the office of chief secretary, thought it
+necessary, in the presence of outrage and intimidation, to adopt
+stringent measures for enforcing order. A measure was passed on his
+initiation, in 1881, authorizing him to arrest and detain suspected
+persons; and many well-known Irishmen, including Parnell himself and
+other members of parliament, were thrown into prison. It was an odd
+commentary on parliamentary government that a Liberal ministry should be
+in power, and that Irish members should be in prison; and early in 1882
+Gladstone determined to liberate the prisoners on terms. The new
+policy--represented by what was known as the Kilmainham Treaty--led to
+the resignation of the viceroy, Lord Cowper, and of Forster, and the
+appointment of Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish as their
+successors. On the 6th of May 1882 Lord Spencer made his entry into
+Dublin, and on the evening of the same day Lord Frederick, unwisely
+allowed to walk home alone with Burke, the under-secretary to the Irish
+government, was murdered with his companion in Phoenix Park. This gross
+outrage led to fresh measures of coercion. The disclosure, soon
+afterwards, of a conspiracy to resort to dynamite still further
+alienated the sympathies of the Liberal party from the Irish nation.
+Gladstone might fairly plead that he had done much, that he had risked
+much, for Ireland, and that Ireland was making him a poor return for his
+services.
+
+
+  Egypt.
+
+  Gordon.
+
+In the meanwhile another difficulty was further embarrassing a harassed
+government. The necessities of the khedive of Egypt had been only
+temporarily relieved by the sale to Lord Beaconsfield's government of
+the Suez Canal shares. Egyptian finance, in the interests of the
+bondholders, had been placed under the dual control of England and
+France. The new arrangement naturally produced some native resentment,
+and Arabi Pasha placed himself at the head of a movement which was
+intended to rid Egypt of foreign interference. His preparations
+eventually led to the bombardment of Alexandria by the British fleet,
+and still later to the invasion of Egypt by a British army under Sir
+Garnet, afterwards Lord Wolseley, and to the battle of Tell-el-Kebir,
+after which Arabi was defeated and taken prisoner. The bombardment of
+Alexandria led to the immediate resignation of Bright, whose presence
+in the cabinet had been of importance to the government; the occupation
+of Egypt broke up the dual control, and made Great Britain responsible
+for Egyptian administration. The effects of British rule were, in one
+sense, remarkable. The introduction of good government increased the
+prosperity of the people, and restored confidence in Egyptian finance.
+At the same time it provoked the animosity of the French, who were
+naturally jealous of the increase of British influence on the Nile, and
+it also threw new responsibilities on the British nation. For south of
+Egypt lay the great territory of the Sudan, which to some extent
+commands the Nile, and which had been added to the Egyptian dominions at
+various periods between 1820 and 1875. In 1881 a fanatic sheikh--known
+as the mahdi--had headed an insurrection against the khedive's
+authority; and towards the close of 1883 an Egyptian army under an
+Englishman, Colonel Hicks, was annihilated by the mahdi's followers. The
+insurrection increased the responsibilities which intervention had
+imposed on England, and an expedition was sent to Suakin to guard the
+littoral of the Red Sea; while, at the beginning of 1884, General
+Gordon--whose services in China had gained him a high reputation, and
+who had had previous experience in the Sudan--was sent to Khartum to
+report on the condition of affairs. These decisions led to momentous
+results. The British expedition to Suakin was engaged in a series of
+battles with Osman Digna, the mahdi's lieutenant; while General Gordon,
+after alternate reverses and successes, was isolated at Khartum. Anxious
+as Gladstone's ministry was to restrict the sphere of its
+responsibilities, it was compelled to send an expedition to relieve
+General Gordon; and Lord Wolseley, who was appointed to the command,
+decided on moving up the Nile to his relief. The expedition proved much
+more difficult than Lord Wolseley had anticipated. And before it reached
+its goal, Khartum was forced to surrender, and General Gordon and his
+few faithful followers were murdered (January 1885). General Gordon's
+death inflicted a fatal blow on the Liberal government. It was thought
+that the general, whose singular devotion to duty made him a popular
+hero, had been allowed to assume an impossible task; had been feebly
+supported; and that the measures for his relief had been unduly
+postponed and at last only reluctantly undertaken. The ministry
+ultimately experienced defeat on a side issue. The budget, which
+Childers brought forward as chancellor of the exchequer, was attacked by
+the Conservative party; and an amendment proposed by Sir Michael
+Hicks-Beach, condemning an increase in the duties on spirits and beer,
+was adopted by a small majority. Gladstone resigned office, and Lord
+Salisbury, who, after Lord Beaconsfield's death, had succeeded to the
+lead of the Conservative party, was instructed to form a new
+administration.
+
+
+  Reform Act, 1884.
+
+It was obvious that the new government, as its first duty, would be
+compelled to dissolve the parliament that had been elected when
+Gladstone was enjoying the popularity which he had lost so rapidly in
+office. But it so happened that it was no longer possible to appeal to
+the old constituencies. For, in 1884, Gladstone had introduced a new
+Reform Bill; and, though its passage had been arrested by the Lords,
+unofficial communications between the leaders of both parties had
+resulted in a compromise which had led to the adoption of a large and
+comprehensive Reform Act. By this measure, household franchise was
+extended to the counties. But counties and boroughs were broken up into
+a number of small constituencies, for the most part returning only one
+member each; while the necessity of increasing the relative weight of
+Great Britain, and the reluctance to inflict disfranchisement on
+Ireland, led to an increase in the numbers of the House of Commons from
+658 to 670 members. This radical reconstruction of the electorate
+necessarily made the result of the elections doubtful. As a matter of
+fact, the new parliament comprised 334 Liberals, 250 Conservatives and
+86 Irish Nationalists. It was plain beyond the possibility of doubt that
+the future depended on the course which the Irish Nationalists might
+adopt. It they threw in their lot with Gladstone, Lord Salisbury's
+government was evidently doomed. If, on the contrary, they joined the
+Conservatives, they could make a Liberal administration impracticable.
+
+
+  Home Rule.
+
+In the autumn of 1885 it was doubtful what course the Irish Nationalists
+would take. It was generally understood that Lord Carnarvon, who had
+been made viceroy of Ireland, had been in communication with Parnell;
+that Lord Salisbury was aware of the interviews which had taken place;
+and it was whispered that Lord Carnarvon was in favour of granting some
+sort of administrative autonomy to Ireland. Whatever opinion Lord
+Carnarvon may have formed--and his precise view is uncertain--a greater
+man than he had suddenly arrived at a similar conclusion. In his
+election speeches Gladstone had insisted on the necessity of the country
+returning a Liberal majority which could act independently of the Irish
+vote; and the result of the general election had left the Irish the
+virtual arbiters of the political situation. In these circumstances
+Gladstone arrived at a momentous decision. He recognized that the system
+under which Ireland had been governed in the past had failed to win the
+allegiance of her people; and he decided that it was wise and safe to
+entrust her with a large measure of self-government. It was perhaps
+characteristic of Gladstone, though it was unquestionably unfortunate,
+that, in determining on this radical change of policy, he consulted few,
+if any, of his previous colleagues. On the meeting of the new parliament
+Lord Salisbury's government was defeated on an amendment to the address,
+demanding facilities for agricultural labourers to obtain small holdings
+for gardens and pasture--the policy, in short, which was described as
+"three acres and a cow." Lord Salisbury resigned, and Gladstone resumed
+power. The attitude, however, which Gladstone was understood to be
+taking on the subject of Home Rule threw many difficulties in his way.
+Lord Harrington, and others of his former colleagues, declined to join
+his administration; Mr Chamberlain, who, in the first instance, accepted
+office, retired almost at once from the ministry; and Bright, whose
+eloquence and past services gave him a unique position in the House,
+threw in his lot in opposition to Home Rule. A split in the Liberal
+party thus began, which was destined to endure; and Gladstone found his
+difficulties increased by the defection of the men on whom he had
+hitherto largely relied. He persevered, however, in the task which he
+had set himself, and introduced a measure endowing Ireland with a
+parliament, and excluding the Irish members from Westminster. He was
+defeated, and appealed from the House which had refused to support him
+to the country. For the first time in the queen's reign two general
+elections occurred within twelve months. The country showed no more
+disposition than the House of Commons to approve the course which the
+minister was taking. A large majority of the members of the new
+parliament were pledged to resist Home Rule. Gladstone, bowing at once
+to the verdict of the people, resigned office, and Lord Salisbury
+returned to power.
+
+
+  Unionism.
+
+The new cabinet, which was formed to resist Home Rule, did not succeed
+in combining all the opponents to this measure. The secessionists from
+the Liberal party--the Liberal Unionists, as they were called--held
+aloof from it; and Lord Salisbury was forced to form his cabinet out of
+his immediate followers. The most picturesque appointment was that of
+Lord Randolph Churchill, who was made chancellor of the exchequer and
+leader of the House of Commons. But before many months were over, Lord
+Randolph--unable to secure acceptance of a policy of financial
+retrenchment--resigned office, and Lord Salisbury was forced to
+reconstruct his ministry. Though he again failed to obtain the
+co-operation of the Liberal Unionists, one of the more prominent of
+them--Goschen--accepted the seals of the Exchequer. W. H. Smith moved
+from the war office to the treasury, and became leader of the House of
+Commons; while Lord Salisbury himself returned to the foreign office,
+which the dramatically sudden death of Lord Iddesleigh, better known as
+Sir Stafford Northcote, vacated. These arrangements lasted till 1891,
+when, on Smith's death, the treasury and the lead of the Commons were
+entrusted to Lord Salisbury's nephew, Mr Arthur Balfour, who had made a
+great reputation as chief secretary for Ireland.
+
+
+  Nationalist split.
+
+The ministry of 1886, which endured till 1892, gave to London a county
+council; introduced representative government into every English county;
+and made elementary education free throughout England. The alliance with
+the Liberal Unionists was, in fact, compelling the Conservative
+government to promote measures which were not wholly consistent with the
+stricter Conservative traditions, or wishes. In other respects, the
+legislative achievements of the government were not great; and the time
+of parliament was largely occupied in devising rules for the conduct of
+its business, which the obstructive attitude of the Irish members made
+necessary, and in discussing the charges brought against the Nationalist
+party by _The Times_, of complicity in the Phoenix Park murders. Under
+the new rules, the sittings of the House on ordinary days were made to
+commence at 3 P.M., and opposed business was automatically interrupted
+at midnight, while for the first time a power was given to the majority
+in a House of a certain size to conclude debate by what was known as the
+closure. Notwithstanding these new rules obstructive tactics continued
+to prevail; and, in the course of the parliament, many members were
+suspended for disorderly conduct. The hostility of the Irish members was
+perhaps increased by some natural indignation at the charges brought
+against Parnell. _The Times_, in April 1887, printed the facsimile of a
+letter purporting to be signed by Parnell, in which he declared that he
+had no other course open to him but to denounce the Phoenix Park
+murders, but that, while he regretted "the accident" of Lord Frederick
+Cavendish's death, he could not "refuse to admit that Burke got no more
+than his deserts." The publication of this letter, and later of other
+similar documents, naturally created a great sensation; and the
+government ultimately appointed a special commission of three judges to
+inquire into the charges and allegations that were made. In the course
+of the inquiry it was proved that the letters had emanated from a man
+named Pigott, who had at one time been associated with the Irish
+Nationalist movement, but who for some time past had earned a precarious
+living by writing begging and threatening letters. Pigott, subjected to
+severe cross-examination by Sir Charles Russell (afterwards Lord Russell
+of Killowen), broke down, fled from justice and committed suicide. His
+flight practically settled the question; and an inquiry, which many
+people had thought at its inception would brand Parnell as a criminal,
+raised him to an influence which he had never enjoyed before. But in the
+same year which witnessed his triumph, he was doomed to fall. He was
+made co-respondent in a divorce suit brought by Captain O'Shea--another
+Irishman--for the dissolution of his marriage; and the disclosures made
+at the trial induced Gladstone, who was supported by the Nonconformists
+generally throughout the United Kingdom, to request Parnell to withdraw
+from the leadership of the Irish party. Parnell refused to comply with
+this request, and the Irish party was shattered into fragments by his
+decision. Parnell himself did not long survive the disruption of the
+party which he had done so much to create. The exertions which he made
+to retrieve his waning influence proved too much for his strength, and
+in the autumn of 1891 he died suddenly at Brighton. Parnell's death
+radically altered the political situation. At the general elections of
+1885 and 1886 the existence of a strong, united Irish party had
+exercised a dominating influence. As the parliament of 1886 was drawing
+to a close, the dissensions among the Irish members, and the loss of
+their great leader, were visibly sapping the strength of the
+Nationalists. At the general election of 1892 Home Rule was still the
+prominent subject before the electors. But the English Liberals were
+already a little weary of allies who were quarrelling among themselves,
+and whose disputes were introducing a new factor into politics. The
+political struggle virtually turned not on measures, but on men.
+Gladstone's great age, and the marvellous powers which he displayed at a
+time when most men seek the repose of retirement, were the chief causes
+which affected the results. His influence enabled him to secure a small
+Liberal majority. But it was noticed that the majority depended on
+Scottish, Irish and Welsh votes, and that England--the "predominant
+partner," as it was subsequently called by Lord Rosebery--returned a
+majority of members pledged to resist any attempt to dissolve the union
+between the three kingdoms.
+
+
+  Home Rule Bill, 1893.
+
+On the meeting of the new parliament Lord Salisbury's government was
+defeated on a vote of want of confidence, and for a fourth time
+Gladstone became prime minister. In the session of 1893 he again
+introduced a Home Rule Bill. But the measure of 1893 differed in many
+respects from that of 1886. In particular, the Irish were no longer to
+be excluded from the imperial parliament at Westminster. The bill which
+was thus brought forward was actually passed by the Commons. It was,
+however, rejected by the Lords. The dissensions among the Irish
+themselves, and the hostility which English constituents were displaying
+to the proposal, emboldened the Peers to arrive at this decision. Some
+doubt was felt as to the course which Gladstone would take in this
+crisis. Many persons thought that he should at once have appealed to the
+country, and have endeavoured to obtain a distinct mandate from the
+constituencies to introduce a new Home Rule Bill. Other persons imagined
+that he should have followed the precedent which had been set by Lord
+Grey in 1831, and, after a short prorogation, have reintroduced his
+measure in a new session. As a matter of fact, Gladstone adopted neither
+of these courses. The government decided not to take up the gauntlet
+thrown down by the Peers, but to proceed with the rest of their
+political programme. With this object an autumn session was held, and
+the Parish Councils Act, introduced by Mr Fowler (afterwards Lord
+Wolverhampton), was passed, after important amendments, which had been
+introduced into it in the House of Lords, had been reluctantly accepted
+by Gladstone. On the other hand, an Employers' Liability Bill,
+introduced by Mr Asquith, the home secretary, was ultimately dropped by
+Gladstone after passing all stages in the House of Commons, rather than
+that an amendment of the Peers, allowing "contracting out," should be
+accepted.
+
+
+  Lord Rosebery.
+
+Before, however, the session had quite run out (3rd March 1894),
+Gladstone, who had now completed his eighty-fourth year, laid down a
+load which his increasing years made it impossible for him to sustain
+(see the article GLADSTONE). He was succeeded by Lord Rosebery, whose
+abilities and attainments had raised him to a high place in the Liberal
+counsels. Lord Rosebery did not succeed in popularizing the Home Rule
+proposal which Gladstone had failed to carry. He declared, indeed, that
+success was not attainable till England was converted to its expediency.
+He hinted that success would not even then be assured until something
+was done to reform the constitution of the House of Lords. But if, on
+the one hand, he refused to introduce a new Home Rule Bill, he
+hesitated, on the other, to court defeat by any attempt to reform the
+Lords. His government, in these circumstances, while it failed to
+conciliate its opponents, excited no enthusiasm among its supporters. It
+was generally understood, moreover, that a large section of the Liberal
+party resented Lord Rosebery's appointment to the first place in the
+ministry, and thought that the lead should have been conferred on Sir W.
+Harcourt. It was an open secret that these differences in the party were
+reflected in the cabinet, and that the relations between Lord Rosebery
+and Sir W. Harcourt were too strained to ensure either the harmonious
+working or the stability of the administration. In these circumstances
+the fall of the ministry was only a question of time. It occurred--as
+often happens in parliament--on a minor issue which no one had foreseen.
+Attention was drawn in the House of Commons to the insufficient supply
+of cordite provided by the war office, and the House--notwithstanding
+the assurance of the war minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) that
+the supply was adequate--placed the government in a minority. Lord
+Rosebery resigned office, and Lord Salisbury for the third time became
+prime minister, the duke of Devonshire, Mr Chamberlain and other
+Liberal Unionists joining the government. Parliament was dissolved, and
+a new parliament, in which the Unionists obtained an overwhelming
+majority, was returned.
+
+The government of 1892-1895, which was successively led by Gladstone and
+Lord Rosebery, will, on the whole, be remembered for its failures. Yet
+it passed two measures which have exercised a wide influence. The Parish
+Councils Act introduced electoral institutions into the government of
+every parish, and in 1894 Sir W. Harcourt, as chancellor of the
+exchequer, availed himself of the opportunity, which a large addition to
+the navy invited, to reconstruct the death duties. He swept away in
+doing so many of the advantages which the owner of real estate and the
+life tenant of settled property had previously enjoyed, and drove home a
+principle which Goschen had tentatively introduced a few years before by
+increasing the rate of the duty with the amount of the estate. Rich men,
+out of their superfluities, were thenceforward to pay more than poor men
+out of their necessities.
+
+
+  The two jubilees.
+
+The Unionist government which came into power in 1895 lasted, with
+certain changes of _personnel_, till 1905, with a break caused by the
+dissolution of 1900. History may hereafter conclude that the most
+significant circumstance of the earlier period is to be found in the
+demonstration of loyalty and affection to which the sixtieth anniversary
+of Queen Victoria's accession led in 1897. Ten years before, her jubilee
+had been the occasion of enthusiastic rejoicings, and the queen's
+progress through London to a service of thanksgiving at Westminster had
+impressed the imagination of her subjects and proved the affection of
+her people. But the rejoicings of 1887 were forgotten amid the more
+striking demonstrations ten years later. It was seen then that the
+queen, by her conduct and character, had gained a popularity which has
+had no parallel in history, and had won a place in the hearts of her
+subjects which perhaps no other monarch had ever previously enjoyed.
+There was no doubt that, if the opinion of the English-speaking races
+throughout the world could have been tested by a plebiscite, an
+overwhelming majority would have declared that the fittest person for
+the rule of the British empire was the gracious and kindly lady who for
+sixty years, in sorrow and in joy, had so worthily discharged the duties
+of her high position. This remarkable demonstration was not confined to
+the British empire alone. In every portion of the globe the sixtieth
+anniversary of the queen's reign excited interest; in every country the
+queen's name was mentioned with affection and respect; while the people
+of the United States vied with the subjects of the British empire in
+praise of the queen's character and in expressions of regard for her
+person. Only a year or two before, an obscure dispute on the boundary of
+British Venezuela had brought the United States and Great Britain within
+sight of a quarrel. The jubilee showed conclusively that, whatever
+politicians might say, the ties of blood and kinship, which united the
+two peoples, were too close to be severed by either for some trifling
+cause; that the wisest heads in both nations were aware of the
+advantages which must arise from the closer union of the Anglo-Saxon
+races; and that the true interests of both countries lay in their mutual
+friendship. A war in which the United States was subsequently engaged
+with Spain cemented this feeling. The government and the people of the
+United States recognized the advantage which they derived from the
+goodwill of Great Britain in the hour of their necessity, and the two
+nations drew together as no other two nations had perhaps ever been
+drawn together before.
+
+
+  Omdurman, Fashoda.
+
+  Jameson Raid.
+
+If the jubilee was a proof of the closer union of the many sections of
+the British empire, and of their warm attachment to their sovereign, it
+also gave expression to the "imperialism" which was becoming a dominant
+factor in British politics. Few people realized the mighty change which
+in this respect had been effected in thought and feeling. Forty years
+before, the most prominent English statesmen had regarded with anxiety
+the huge responsibilities of a world-wide empire. In 1897 the whole
+tendency of thought and opinion was to enlarge the burden of which the
+preceding generation had been weary. The extension of British influence,
+the protection of British interests, were almost universally advocated;
+and the few statesmen who repeated in the 'nineties the sentiments
+which would have been generally accepted in the 'sixties, were regarded
+as "Little Englanders." It is important to note the consequences which
+these new ideas produced in Africa. Both in the north and in the south
+of this great and imperfectly explored continent, memories still clung
+which were ungrateful to imperialism. In the north, the murder of Gordon
+was still unavenged; and the vast territory known as the Sudan had
+escaped from the control of Egypt. In the south, war with the Transvaal
+had been concluded by a British defeat; and the Dutch were elated, the
+English irritated, at the recollection of Majuba. In 1896 Lord
+Salisbury's government decided on extending the Anglo-Egyptian rule over
+the Sudan, and an expedition was sent from Egypt under the command of
+Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener to Khartum. Few military
+expeditions have been more elaborately organized, or have achieved a
+more brilliant success. The conquest of the country was achieved in
+three separate campaigns in successive years. In September 1898 the
+Sudanese forces were decisively beaten, with great slaughter, in the
+immediate neighbourhood of Omdurman; and Khartum became thenceforward
+the capital of the new province, which was placed under Lord Kitchener's
+rule. Soon after this decisive success, it was found that a French
+expedition under Major Marchand had reached the upper Nile and had
+hoisted the French flag at Fashoda. It was obvious that the French could
+not be allowed to remain at a spot which the khedive of Egypt claimed as
+Egyptian territory; and after some negotiation, and some irritation, the
+French were withdrawn. In South Africa still more important events were
+in the meanwhile progressing. Ever since the independence of the South
+African Republic had been virtually conceded by the convention of 1884,
+unhappy differences had prevailed between the Dutch and British
+residents in the Transvaal. The discovery of gold at Johannesburg and
+elsewhere in 1885-1886 had led to a large immigration of British and
+other colonists. Johannesburg had grown into a great and prosperous
+city. The foreign population of the Transvaal, which was chiefly
+English, became in a few years more numerous than the Boers themselves,
+and they complained that they were deprived of all political rights,
+that they were subjected to unfair taxation, and that they were hampered
+in their industry and unjustly treated by the Dutch courts and Dutch
+officials. Failing to obtain redress, at the end of 1895 certain persons
+among them made preparations for a revolution. Dr Jameson, the
+administrator of Rhodesia, accompanied by some British officers,
+actually invaded the Transvaal. His force, utterly inadequate for the
+purpose, was stopped by the Boers, and he and his fellow-officers were
+taken prisoners. There was no doubt that this raid on the territory of a
+friendly state was totally unjustifiable. Unfortunately, Dr Jameson's
+original plans had been framed at the instance of Cecil Rhodes, the
+prime minister at the Cape, and many persons thought that they ought to
+have been suspected by the colonial office in London. England at any
+rate would have had no valid ground of complaint if the leaders of a
+buccaneering force had been summarily dealt with by the Transvaal
+authorities. The president of the republic, Kruger, however, handed over
+his prisoners to the British authorities, and parliament instituted an
+inquiry by a select committee into the circumstances of the raid. The
+inquiry was terminated somewhat abruptly. The committee acquitted the
+colonial office of any knowledge of the plot; but a good many suspicions
+remained unanswered. The chief actors in the raid were tried under the
+Foreign Enlistment Act, found guilty, and subsequently released after
+short terms of imprisonment. Rhodes himself was not removed from the
+privy council, as his more extreme accusers demanded; but he had to
+abandon his career in Cape politics for a time, and confine his energies
+to the development of Rhodesia, which had been added to the empire
+through his instrumentality in 1888-1889.
+
+
+  Boer War, 1899.
+
+In consequence of these proceedings, the Transvaal authorities at once
+set to work to accumulate armaments, and they succeeded in procuring
+vast quantities of artillery and military stores. The British government
+would undoubtedly have been entitled to insist that these armaments
+should cease. It was obvious that they could only be directed against
+Great Britain; and no nation is bound to allow another people to prepare
+great armaments to be employed against itself. The criminal folly of the
+raid prevented the British government from making this demand. It could
+not say that the Transvaal government had no cause for alarm when
+British officers had attempted an invasion of its territory, and had
+been treated rather as heroes than as criminals at home. Ignorant of the
+strength of Great Britain, and elated by the recollection of their
+previous successes, the Boers themselves believed that a new struggle
+might give them predominance in South Africa. The knowledge that a large
+portion of the population of Cape Colony was of Dutch extraction, and
+that public men at the Cape sympathized with them in their aspirations,
+increased their confidence. In the meantime, while the Boers were
+silently and steadily continuing their military preparations, the
+British settlers at Johannesburg--the Uitlanders, as they were
+called--continued to demand consideration for their grievances. In the
+spring of 1899, Sir Alfred Milner, governor of the Cape, met President
+Kruger at Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and
+endeavoured to accomplish that result by negotiation. He thought, at the
+time, that if the Uitlanders were given the franchise and a fair
+proportion of influence in the legislature, other difficulties might be
+left to settle themselves. The negotiations thus commenced unfortunately
+failed. The discussion, which had originally turned on the franchise,
+was enlarged by the introduction of the question of suzerainty or
+supremacy; and at last, in the beginning of October, when the rains of
+an African spring were causing the grass to grow on which the Boer
+armies were largely dependent for forage, the Boers declared war and
+invaded Natal. The British government had not been altogether happy in
+its conduct of the preceding negotiations. It was certainly unhappy in
+its preparations for the struggle. It made the great mistake of
+underrating the strength of its enemy; it suffered its agents to commit
+the strategical blunder of locking up the few troops it had in an
+untenable position in the north of Natal. It was not surprising, in such
+circumstances, that the earlier months of the war should have been
+memorable for a series of exasperating reverses. These reverses,
+however, were redeemed by the valour of the British troops, the spirit
+of the British nation, and the enthusiasm which induced the great
+autonomous colonies of the empire to send men to support the cause of
+the mother country. The gradual arrival of reinforcements, and the
+appointment of a soldier of genius--Lord Roberts--to the supreme
+command, changed the military situation; and, before the summer of 1900
+was concluded, the places which had been besieged by the
+Boers--Kimberley, Ladysmith and Mafeking--had been successively
+relieved; the capitals of the Orange Free State and of the Transvaal had
+been occupied; and the two republics, which had rashly declared war
+against the British empire, had been formally annexed.
+
+
+  The close of 1900.
+
+The defeat and dispersal of the Boer armies, and the apparent collapse
+of Boer resistance, induced a hope that the war was over; and the
+government seized the opportunity in 1900 to terminate the parliament,
+which had already endured for more than five years. The election was
+conducted with unusual bitterness; but the constituencies practically
+affirmed the policy of the government by maintaining, almost unimpaired,
+the large majority which the Unionists had secured in 1895.
+Unfortunately, the expectations which had been formed at the time of the
+dissolution were disappointed. The same circumstances which had
+emboldened the Boers to declare war in the autumn of 1899, induced them
+to renew a guerilla warfare in the autumn of 1900--the approach of an
+African summer supplying the Boers with the grass on which they were
+dependent for feeding their hardy horses. Guerilla bands suddenly
+appeared in different parts of the Orange River Colony and of the
+Transvaal. They interrupted the communications of the British armies;
+they won isolated victories over British detachments; they even invaded
+Cape Colony. Thus the last year of the century closed in disappointment
+and gloom. The serious losses which the war entailed, the heavy
+expenses which it involved, and the large force which it absorbed,
+filled thoughtful men with anxiety.
+
+
+  The death of the queen.
+
+No one felt more sincerely for the sufferings of her soldiers, and no
+one regretted more truly the useless prolongation of the struggle, than
+the venerable lady who occupied the throne. She had herself lost a
+grandson (Prince Christian Victor) in South Africa; and sorrow and
+anxiety perhaps told even on a constitution so unusually strong as hers.
+About the middle of January 1901 it was known that she was seriously
+ill; on the 22nd she died. The death of the queen thus occurred
+immediately after the close of the century over so long a period of
+which her reign had extended.
+
+The queen's own life is dealt with elsewhere (see VICTORIA, QUEEN), but
+the Victorian era is deeply marked in English history. During her reign
+the people of Great Britain doubled their number; but the accumulated
+wealth of the country increased at least threefold, and its trade
+sixfold. All classes shared the prevalent prosperity. Notwithstanding
+the increase of population, the roll of paupers at the end of the reign,
+compared with the same roll at the beginning, stood as 2 stands to 3;
+the criminals as 1 to 2. The expansion abroad was still more remarkable.
+There were not 200,000 white persons in Australasia when the queen came
+to the throne; there were nearly 5,000,000 when she died. The great
+Australian colonies were almost created in her reign; two of
+them--Victoria and Queensland--owe their name to her; they all received
+those autonomous institutions, under which their prosperity has been
+built up, during its continuance. Expansion and progress were not
+confined to Australasia. The opening months of the queen's reign were
+marked by rebellion in Canada. The close of it saw Canada one of the
+most loyal portions of the Empire. In Africa, the advance of the red
+line which marks the bounds of British dominion was even more rapid;
+while in India the Punjab, Sind, Oudh and Burma were some of the
+acquisitions added to the British empire while the queen was on the
+throne. When she died one square mile in four of the land in the world
+was under the British flag, and at least one person out of every five
+persons alive was a subject of the queen.
+
+Material progress was largely facilitated by industry and invention. The
+first railways had been made, the first steamship had been built, before
+the queen came to the throne. But, so far as railways are concerned,
+none of the great trunk lines had been constructed in 1837; the whole
+capital authorized to be spent on railway construction did not exceed
+£55,000,000; and, five years after the reign had begun, there were only
+18,000,000 passengers. The paid-up capital of British railways in 1901
+exceeded £1,100,000,000; the passengers, not including season
+ticket-holders, also numbered 1,100,000,000; and the sum annually spent
+in working the lines considerably exceeded the whole capital authorized
+to be spent on their construction in 1837. The progress of the
+commercial marine was still more noteworthy. In 1837 the entire
+commercial navy comprised 2,800,000 tons, of which less than 100,000
+tons were moved by steam. At the end of the reign the tonnage of British
+merchant vessels had reached 13,700,000 tons, of which more than
+11,000,000 tons were moved by steam. At the beginning of the reign it
+was supposed to be impossible to build a steamer which could either
+cross the Atlantic, or face the monsoon in the Red Sea. The development
+of steam navigation since then had made Australia much more accessible
+than America was in 1837, and had brought New York, for all practical
+purposes, nearer to London than Aberdeen was at the commencement of the
+reign. Electricity had even a greater effect on communication than steam
+on locomotion; and electricity, as a practical invention, had its origin
+in the reign. The first experimental telegraph line was only erected in
+the year in which Queen Victoria came to the throne. Submarine
+telegraphy, which had done so much to knit the empire together, was not
+perfected for many years afterwards; and long ocean cables were almost
+entirely constructed in the last half of the reign.     (S. W.)
+
+
+  Reign of Edward VII.
+
+On the death of Queen Victoria, the prince of Wales succeeded to the
+throne, with the title of Edward VII. (q.v.). The coronation fixed for
+June in the following year was at the last moment stopped by the king's
+illness with appendicitis, but he recovered marvellously from the
+operation and the ceremony took place in August. His excellent health
+and activity in succeeding years struck every one with astonishment. The
+Boer War had at last been brought to an end in May 1902 (see TRANSVAAL),
+and the king had the satisfaction of seeing South Africa settle down and
+eventually receive self-government. The political history of his reign,
+which ended with his death in May 1910, is dealt with in detail in
+separate biographical and other articles in this work (see especially
+those on Lord Salisbury, Mr A. J. Balfour, Mr J. Chamberlain, Lord
+Rosebery, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, Mr H. H. Asquith, Mr D. Lloyd
+George, and on the history of the various portions of the British
+Empire); and in this place only a summary need be given. The king
+himself (see EDWARD VII.), who nobly earned the title of Edward the
+Peacemaker, played no small part in the domestic and international
+politics of these years; and contemporary publicists, who had become
+accustomed to Victorian traditions, gradually realized that, within the
+limits of the constitutional monarchy, there was much more scope for the
+initiative of a masculine sovereign in public life than had been
+supposed by the generation which grew up after the death of his father
+in 1862. Edward VII. made the Crown throughout all classes of society a
+popular power which it had not been in England for long ages. And while
+the growing rivalry between England and Germany, in international
+relations, was continually threatening danger, his influence in
+cementing British friendship on all other sides was of the most marked
+description. His sudden death was felt, not only throughout the empire
+but throughout the world, with even more poignant emotion than that of
+Queen Victoria herself, for his personality had been much more in the
+forefront.
+
+
+  The Crisis of 1910.
+
+The end of his reign coincided with a domestic constitutional crisis, to
+which party politics had been working up more and more acutely for
+several years. The Tariff Reform propaganda of Mr Chamberlain (q.v.) in
+1903 convulsed the Conservative party, and the long period of Unionist
+domination came to an end in November 1905. Mr Balfour (q.v.), who
+became prime minister in 1902 on Lord Salisbury's retirement, resigned,
+and was succeeded by Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman (q.v.), as head of the
+Liberal party; and the general election of January 1906 resulted in an
+overwhelming victory for the Liberals and their allies, the Labour party
+(now a powerful force in politics) and the Irish Nationalists. Just
+before Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman's death in April 1908 he was succeeded
+as prime minister by Mr Asquith, a leader of far higher personal ability
+though with less hold on the affections of his party. The Liberals had
+long arrears to make up in their political programme, and their
+supremacy in the House of Commons was an encouragement to assert their
+views in legislation. In several directions, and notably in
+administration, they carried their policy into effect; but the House of
+Lords (see PARLIAMENT) was an obvious stumbling-block to some of their
+more important Bills, and the Unionist control of that House speedily
+made itself felt, first in wrecking the Education Bill of 1906, then in
+throwing out the Licensing Bill of 1908, and finally (see LLOYD GEORGE,
+D.) in forcing a dissolution by the rejection of the budget of 1909,
+with its novel proposals for the increased taxation of land and licensed
+houses. The Unionist party in the country had, meanwhile, been
+recovering from the Tariff Reform divisions of 1903, and was once more
+solid under Mr Balfour in favour of its new and imperial policy; but the
+campaign against the House of Lords started by Mr Lloyd George and the
+Liberal leaders, who put in the forefront the necessity of obtaining
+statutory guarantees for the passing into law of measures deliberately
+adopted by the elected Chamber, resulted in the return of Mr Asquith's
+government to office at the election of January 1910. The Unionists came
+back equal in numbers to the Liberals, but the latter could also count
+on the Labour party and the Irish Nationalists; and the battle was fully
+arrayed for a frontal attack on the powers of the Second Chamber when
+the king's death in May upset all calculations. This unthought-of
+complication seemed to act like the letting of blood in an apoplectic
+patient.
+
+
+  Accession of George V.
+
+The prince of Wales became king as George V. (q.v.), and a temporary
+truce was called; and the reign began with a serious attempt between the
+leaders of the two great parties, by private conference, to see whether
+compromise was not possible (see PARLIAMENT). Apart from the
+parliamentary crisis, really hingeing on the difficulty of discovering a
+means by which the real will of the people should be carried out without
+actually making the House of Commons autocratically omnipotent, but also
+without allowing the House of Lords to obstruct a Liberal government
+merely as the organ of the Tory party, the new king succeeded to a noble
+heritage. The monarchy itself was popular, the country was prosperous
+and in good relations with the world, except for the increasing naval
+rivalry with Germany, and the consciousness of imperial solidarity had
+made extraordinary progress among all the dominions. However the
+domestic problems in the United Kingdom might be solved, the future of
+the greatness of the English throne lay with its headship of an empire,
+loyal to the core, over which the sun never sets.     (H. Ch.)
+
+
+XIII.--SOURCES AND WRITERS OF ENGLISH HISTORY
+
+The attempt here made to combine a bibliography of English history with
+some account of the progress of English historical writing is beset with
+some difficulty. The evidential value of what a writer says is quite
+distinct from the literary art with which he says it; the real sources
+of history are not the works of historians, but records and documents
+written with no desire to further any literary purpose. Domesday Book is
+unique as a source of medieval history, but it does not count in the
+development of English historical writing. That is quite a secondary
+consideration; for there was much English history before any Englishman
+could write; and even after he could write, his compositions constitute
+a minor part of the evidence.
+
+Our earliest information about the land and its people is derived from
+geological, ethnological and archaeological studies, from the remains in
+British barrows and caves, Roman roads, walls and villas, coins,
+place-names and inscriptions. The writings of Caesar and Tacitus, and a
+few scattered notices in other Roman authors, supplement this evidence.
+But the scientific accuracy of Tacitus' _Germania_ is not beyond
+dispute, and that light fails centuries before the Anglo-Saxon conquest
+of Great Britain. The history of that conquest itself is mainly
+inferential; there is the _flebilis narratio_ of Gildas, vague and
+rhetorical, moral rather than historical in motive, and written more
+than a century after the conquest had begun, and the narrative of the
+Welsh Nennius, who wrote two and a half centuries after Gildas, and
+makes no critical distinction between the deeds of dragons and those of
+Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons themselves could not write until
+Christian missionaries had reintroduced the art at the end of the 6th
+century, and history was not by any means the first purpose to which
+they applied it. It was first used to compile written statements of
+customs and dooms which were their nearest approach to law, and these
+codes and charters are the earliest written materials for Anglo-Saxon
+history. The remarkable outburst of literary culture in Northumbria
+during the 7th and 8th centuries produced a real historian in Bede;
+Bede, however, knows little or nothing of English history between 450
+and 596, and he is valuable only for the 7th and early part of the 8th
+centuries. Almost contemporary is the _Vita Wilfridi_ by Eddius, but
+more valuable are the letters we possess of Boniface and Alcuin. The
+famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was probably started under the influence of
+Alfred the Great towards the end of the 9th century. Its chronology is
+often one, two or three years wrong even when it seems to be a
+contemporary authority, and the value of its evidence on the conquest
+and the first two centuries after it is very uncertain. But from
+Ecgbert's reign onwards it supplies a good deal of apparently
+trustworthy information. For Alfred himself we have also Asser's
+biography and the _Annals of St Neots_, a very imaginative compilation,
+while most of the stories which have made Alfred's name a household word
+are fabulous. Even the Chronicle becomes meagre a few years after
+Alfred's death, and its value depends largely upon the ballads which it
+incorporates; nor is it materially supplemented by the lives of St
+Dunstan, for hagiologists have never treated historical accuracy as a
+matter of moment; and our knowledge of the last century of Anglo-Saxon
+history is derived mainly from Anglo-Norman writers who wrote after the
+Norman Conquest. Some collateral light on the Danish conquest of England
+is thrown by the _Heimskringla_ and other materials collected in
+Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, and for the reign of
+Canute and his sons there is the contemporary _Encomium Emmae_, which is
+a dishonest panegyric on the widow of Ęthelred and Canute. For Edward
+the Confessor there is an almost equally biased biography.
+
+For the Norman Conquest itself strictly contemporary evidence is
+extremely scanty, and historians have exhausted their own and their
+readers' patience in disputing the precise significance of some phrases
+about the battle of Hastings used by Wace, a Norman poet who wrote
+nearly a century after the battle. One version of the Anglo-Saxon
+Chronicle goes down to 1079 and another to 1154, but their notices of
+current events are brief and meagre. The Bayeux tapestry affords,
+however, valuable contemporary evidence, and there are some facts
+related by eye-witnesses in the works of William of Poitiers and William
+of Jumičges. A generation of copious chroniclers was, moreover,
+springing up, and among them were Florence of Worcester, Henry of
+Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham and William of Malmesbury. Their ambition
+was almost invariably to write the history of the world, and they
+generally begin with the Creation. They only become original and
+contemporary authorities towards the end of their appointed tasks, and
+the bulk of their work is borrowed from their predecessors. Frequently
+they embody materials which would otherwise have perished, but their
+transcription is marred by an amount of conscious or unconscious
+falsification which seriously impairs their value. All the
+above-mentioned writers lived in the half-century immediately following
+the Norman Conquest, but their critical acumen and their literary art
+vary considerably. William of Malmesbury, Eadmer and Ordericus Vitalis
+attain a higher historical standard than had yet been reached in England
+by any one, with the possible exception of Bede. They are not mere
+annalists; they practise an art and cultivate a style; history has
+become to them a form of literature. They have also their philosophy and
+interpretation of history. It is mainly a theological conception, blind
+to economic influences, and attaching excessive importance to the
+effects of the individual action of emperors and popes, kings and
+cardinals. Even their characters are painted in different colours
+according to their action on quite irrelevant questions, as, for
+instance, their benefactions to the monastery, to which the historian
+happens to belong, or to rival houses; and the character once determined
+by such considerations, history is made to point the moral of their
+fortunes, or their fate. It is regarded as the record of moral judgments
+and the proof of orthodox doctrine, and it is long before ecclesiastical
+historians expel the sermon from their text.
+
+The line of monastic historians stretches out to the close of the middle
+ages. Most of the great monasteries had their official annalists, who
+produced such works as the Annals of Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Burton,
+Waverley, Dunstable, Bermondsey, Oseney, Winchester (see _Annales
+Monastici_, 5 vols., ed. Luard, and other volumes in the Rolls series).
+Some of them are mainly local chronicles; others are almost national
+histories. In particular, St Albans developed a remarkable school of
+historians extending over nearly three centuries to the death of
+Whethamstede in 1465 (see _Chronica Monasterii S. Albani_, Rolls series,
+7 vols., ed. Riley). Only a few of the 235 volumes published under the
+direction of the master of the Rolls, and called the Rolls series, can
+here be mentioned. Other medieval writers have been edited for the
+earlier English Historical Society; some of them have been re-edited
+without being superseded in the Rolls series. For the reign of Stephen
+we have the anonymous _Gesta Stephani_ in addition to the writers
+already mentioned, several of whom continue into Stephen's reign. For
+Henry II. we have William of Newburgh, who reaches the highest point
+attained by historical composition in the 12th century; the so-called
+Benedict of Peterborough's _Gesta Henrici_, which Stubbs tentatively and
+without sufficient authority ascribed to Richard Fitznigel; Robert of
+Torigni; and seven volumes of "Materials for the History of Thomas
+Becket," which contain some of the best and worst samples of
+hagiological history. For Richard and John the chronicles of Roger of
+Hoveden, Ralph de Diceto (Diss), Gervase of Canterbury, Ralph of
+Coggeshall, and a later continuation of Hoveden, known under the name of
+Walter of Coventry, are the best narrative authorities.
+
+With the accession of Henry III., Roger of Wendover, the first of the St
+Albans school whose writings are extant, becomes our chief authority. He
+was re-edited and continued after 1236 by Matthew Paris, the greatest of
+medieval historians. His work, which goes down to 1259, is picturesque,
+vivid, and marked by considerable breadth of view and independence of
+judgment. The story is carried on by a series of jejune compilations
+known as the _Flores historiarum_ (ed. Luard). Better authorities for
+Edward I. are Rishanger, Trokelowe and Blaneforde, Wykes, Walter of
+Hemingburgh, Nicholas Trevet, Oxnead and Bartholomew Cotton, and others
+contained in Stubbs's _Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II._ In the
+14th century there is a significant deterioration in the monastic
+chroniclers, and their place is taken by the works of secular clergy
+like Adam Murimuth, Geoffrey the Baker, Robert of Avesbury, Henry
+Knighton and the anonymous author of the _Eulogium historiarum_.
+Monastic history is represented by Higden's voluminous _Polychronicon_,
+which succeeds the _Flores historiarum_. A brief revival of the St
+Albans school towards the end of the century is seen in the _Chronicon
+Angliae_ and the works of T. Walsingham, which continue into the reign
+of Henry V. For Richard II. we have also Malverne and the Monk of
+Evesham; for the early Lancastrians, Capgrave, Elmham, Otterbourne, Adam
+of Usk; and for Henry VI., Amundesham, Whethamstede, William of
+Worcester and John Hardyng, as well as a number of anonymous briefer
+chronicles, edited, though not in the Rolls series, by J. Gairdner, C.
+L. Kingsford, N. H. Nicolas and J. S. Davies.
+
+These are the principal English historical writers for the middle ages;
+but as the connexion between England and the continent grew closer, and
+international relations developed, an increasing amount of light is
+thrown on English history by foreign writers. Of these authorities one
+of the earliest is the _Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois
+d'Angleterre_ (ed. Michel); briefer are the _Chronique de l'Anonyme de
+Béthune_ and the _Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal_. A large number of
+French and Flemish chronicles illustrate the history of the Hundred
+Years' War, by far the most important being Froissart (best edition by
+Luce, though Lettenhove's is bigger). Next come Jehan le Bel, Waurin's
+_Recueil_, Monstrelet, Chastellain, Juvenal des Ursins, and more limited
+works such as Créton's _Chronique de la traison et mort de Richard II_.
+
+Chronicles, however, grow less important as sources of history as time
+goes on. Their value is always dependent upon the absence of the more
+satisfactory materials known as records, and these records gradually
+become more copious and complete. They develop with the government, of
+whose activity and policy they are the real test and evidence. Perhaps
+the most important thing in history is the evolution of government, the
+development of consciousness and a will on the part of the state. This
+will is expressed in records; and, as the state progresses from infancy
+through the stage of tutelage under the church to its modern
+"omnicompetence," so its will is expressed in an ever widening and
+differentiating series of records. The first need of a government is
+finance; the earliest organized machinery for exerting its will is the
+exchequer; and the earliest great record in English history is Domesday
+Book. It is followed by a series of exchequer records, called the Pipe
+Rolls, which begin in the reign of Henry I., and dating from that of
+Henry II. is the _Dialogus de scaccario_, which explains in none too
+lucid language the intricate working of the exchequer system. It was
+Henry II. who gave the greatest impetus to the development of the
+machinery for expressing the will of the state. He began with finance
+and went on to justice, recognizing that _justitia magnum emolumentum_,
+the administration of justice was a great source of revenue. So national
+courts of law are added to the national exchequer, and by the end of the
+12th century legal records become an even more important source of
+history than financial documents. The judicial system is described by
+Glanvill at the end of the 12th, and by Bracton and Fleta in the 13th
+century (for the exchequer see the _Testa de Nevill_ and the _Red Book
+of the Exchequer_). During that period the Curia Regis threw off three
+offshoots--the courts of exchequer, king's bench and common pleas; and
+records of their judicial proceedings survive in the Plea Rolls and Year
+Books, some of which have been edited for the Rolls series, the Selden
+and other societies. Numerous other classes of legal and administrative
+records gradually develop, the Patent and Close Rolls (first calendared
+by the Record Commission, and subsequently treated more adequately under
+the direction of the deputy keeper of the Records), Charters (which were
+first grants to individuals, then to collective groups, monasteries or
+boroughs, then to classes, and finally expanded--as in Magna Carta--into
+grants to the whole nation), Escheats, Feet of Fines, Inquisitiones post
+mortem, Inquisitiones ad quod damnum, Placita de Quo Warranto, and
+others for which the reader is referred to S. R. Scargill-Bird's _Guide
+to the Principal Classes of Documents preserved in the Record Office_
+(3rd ed., 1908). Every branch of administration comes to be represented
+in records almost as soon as it is developed. The evolution of the army
+which won Creēy and Poitiers is accompanied by the accumulation of a
+mass of indentures and other military documents, the value of which has
+been illustrated in Dr Morris's _Welsh Wars of Edward I_. and George
+Wrottesley's _Creēy and Calais from the Public Records_. The growth of
+naval organization is reflected in the _Black Book of the Admiralty_;
+the growth of taxation in the _Liber custumarum_ and _Subsidy Rolls_;
+the rise of parliament in the _Parliamentary Writs_ (ed. Palgrave), in
+the _Rotuli parliamentorum_, in the _Official Return of Members of
+Parliament_, and in the _Statutes of the Realm_; that of Convocation in
+David Wilkins's _Concilia_. The register of the privy council does not
+begin until later in the 14th century, and then is broken off between
+the middle of the 15th and 1539.
+
+Local as well as central government begets records as it grows. From the
+_Extenta manerii_ of the 12th century we get to the _Manorial Rolls_ of
+the 13th, when also we have _Hundred Rolls_, records of forest courts,
+of courts leet and of coroners' courts, and a variety of municipal
+documents, for which the reader is referred to Dr C. Gross's
+_Bibliography of British Municipal History_ and to Mrs J. R. Green's
+more popular _Town Life in the Fifteenth Century_. The municipal records
+of London, its hustings court and city companies, are too multifarious
+to describe; some classes of these documents have been exemplified in
+the works of Dr R. R. Sharpe. Ecclesiastical records are represented by
+the episcopal registers (for the most part still unpublished), monastic
+cartularies, and other documents rendered comparatively scarce by the
+spoliation of the monasteries, and scattered proceedings of
+ecclesiastical courts. (See also the article RECORD.)
+
+Documents, other than records strictly so called, begin to grow with the
+habit of correspondence and the necessity of communication. A few
+letters survive from the time of the Norman kings, but the earliest
+collection of English royal letters is the _Letters of Henry III_.
+(Rolls series). Contemporary are the _Letters of Grosseteste_, and a
+little later come the _Letters of Archbishop Peckham_ and Raine's
+_Letters from Northern Registers_ (all in the Rolls series). Private
+correspondence appeared earlier in the voluminous epistles of Peter of
+Blois, archdeacon of Bath (ed. Giles). This is a somewhat intermittent
+source of history until we come to the 15th century, when the well-known
+_Paston Letters_ (ed. Gairdner) begin a stream which never fails
+thereafter and soon becomes a torrent. The most important series of
+official correspondence is the _Papal Letters_, calendared from 1198 to
+1404 in 4 vols. (ed. Bliss, Johnson and Twemlow). Subsidiary sources are
+the _Political Songs_ (ed. Wright), treatises like those of John of
+Salisbury, Gerald of Wales, and, later, Wycliffe's works, Netter's
+_Fasciculi Zizaniorum_, Gascoigne's _Loci e libro veritatum_, Pecock's
+_Repressor_, and the literary writings of Chaucer, Langland, Gower,
+Richard Rolle and others.
+
+During the 15th century the transition, which marks the change from
+medieval to modern history, affects also the character of historical
+sources and historical writing. In the first place, history ceases to be
+the exclusive province of the church; monastic chronicles shrink to a
+trickle and then dry up; the last of their kind in England is the
+_Greyfriars Chronicle_ (Camden Society), which ends in 1554. Their place
+is taken by the city chronicle compiled by middle-class laymen, just as
+the Renaissance was not a revival of clerical learning, but the
+expression of new intellectual demands on the part of the laity.
+Secondly, the definite disappearance of the medieval ideas of a
+cosmopolitan world and the emergence of national states begat diplomacy,
+and with it an ever-swelling mass of diplomatic material. Diplomacy had
+hitherto been occasional and intermittent, and embassies rare; now we
+get resident ambassadors carrying on a regular correspondence (see
+DIPLOMACY). The mercantile interests of Venice made it the pioneer in
+this direction, though its representatives abroad were at first
+commercial rather than diplomatic agents. The _Calendar of Venetian
+State Papers_ goes back to the 14th century, but does not become copious
+till the reign of Henry VII., when also the Spanish Calendar begins.
+Resident French ambassadors in England only begin in the 16th century,
+and later still those from the emperor, the German and Italian states
+other than Venice. In the third place, the development of the new
+monarchy involved an enormous extension of the activity of the central
+government, and therefore a corresponding expansion in the records of
+its energy.
+
+The political records of this energy are the State Papers, a class of
+document which soon dwarfs all others, and renders chroniclers,
+historians and the like almost negligible quantities as sources of
+history; but in another way their value is enhanced, for these hundreds
+of thousands of documents provide a test of the accuracy of modern
+historians which is imperfect in the case of medieval chroniclers and
+almost non-existent in that of ancient writers. These state papers are
+either "foreign" or "domestic," that is to say, the correspondence of
+the English government with its agents abroad, or at home. There is also
+the correspondence of foreign ambassadors resident in England with their
+governments. This last class of documents exists in England mainly in
+the form of transcripts from the originals in foreign archives, which
+have been made for the purpose of the Venetian and Spanish Calendars of
+state papers. The Venetian Calendar had by 1909 been carried well into
+the 17th century; the Spanish (which includes transcripts from the
+Habsburg archives at Vienna, Brussels and Simancas) covered only the
+reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. No attempt had yet
+been made to calendar the French correspondence in a similar way, though
+the French Foreign Office published some fragmentary collections, such
+as the _Correspondance de MM. de Castillon et de Marillac_ and that of
+Odet de Selve. There are other collections too numerous to enumerate,
+such as Lettenhove's edition of Philip II.'s correspondence relating to
+the Netherlands, Diegerick and Müller's, Teulet's and Albéri's
+collections, the French _Documents inédits_ and the Spanish _Documentos
+ineditos_, all containing state papers relating to England's foreign
+policy in the 16th century. The Scottish and Irish state papers are
+calendared in separate series and without much system. Thus for Scottish
+affairs there are four series, the Border Papers, the Hamilton Papers,
+Thorp's Calendar, and, more recent and complete, Bain's Calendar. For
+Ireland, besides the regular Irish state papers, there are the Carew
+Papers, almost as important. Anarchy, indeed, pervades the whole method
+of publication. For the reign of Henry VII. we have, besides the
+Venetian and Spanish Calendars, only three volumes--Gairdner's _Letters
+and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII._ and Campbell's _Materials_ (2
+vols., Rolls series). Then with the reign of Henry VIII. begins the
+magnificent and monumental _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, the one
+modern series for which the Record Office deserves unstinted praise.
+This is not limited to state papers, domestic and foreign, nor to
+documents in the Record Office; it calendars private letters, grants,
+&c., extant in the British Museum and elsewhere. It extends to 21
+volumes, each volume consisting of two or more parts, and some parts (as
+in vol. iv.) containing over a thousand pages; it comprises at least
+fifty thousand documents. Its value, however, varies; the earlier
+volumes are not so full as the later, the documents are not so well
+calendared, and some classes are excluded from earlier, which appear in
+the later, volumes.
+
+After 1547 a different plan is adopted, though not consistently
+followed. Only state papers are calendared, and as a rule only those in
+the Record Office; and the domestic are separated from the foreign. The
+great fault is the neglect of the vast quantities of state papers in the
+British Museum. The Domestic Calendar (the first volume of which is very
+inadequate) extended in 1909 in a series of more than seventy volumes
+nearly to the end of the 17th century; the mass of MSS. calendared
+therein may be gathered from the fact that for the reign of Elizabeth
+the Domestic state papers fill over three hundred MS. volumes. The
+Foreign Calendar had only got to 1582, but it occupied sixteen printed
+volumes against one of the Domestic Calendar. For the masses of MSS.
+uncalendared in the British Museum there is no guide except the
+imperfect indexes to the Cotton, Harleian, Lansdowne, Additional and
+other collections. Hardly less important than the calendars are the
+reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission and the appendices
+thereto, which extend to over a hundred volumes; twelve are occupied by
+Lord Salisbury's 16th-century MSS. at Hatfield House. The dispersion of
+these state papers is due to the fact that they were in those days
+treated not as the property of the state, but as the private property of
+individual secretaries.
+
+State papers represent only one side of the activity of the central
+government. The register of the privy council, extending with some
+lacunae from 1539 to 1604, has been printed in thirty-two volumes. The
+_Rotuli parliamentorum_ end with Henry VII., but in 1509 begin the
+journals of the House of Lords, and in 1547 the journals of the House of
+Commons. These are supplemented by private diaries of members of
+parliament, several of which were used in D'Ewes's _Journals_. Legal
+history can now be followed in a continuous series of law reports,
+beginning with Keilway, Staunford and Dyer, and going on with Coke and
+many others; documentary records of various courts are exemplified in
+the _Select Cases_ from the star chamber, the court of requests and
+admiralty courts, published by the Selden Society; and there are
+voluminous records of the courts of augmentations, first-fruits, wards
+and liveries in the Record Office. For Ireland, besides the state
+papers, there are the Calendars of Patents and of Fiants, and for
+Scotland the Exchequer Rolls and Registers of the Privy Council and of
+the Great Seal, both extending to many volumes.
+
+Unofficial sources multiply with equal rapidity, but it is impossible to
+enumerate the collections of private letters, &c., only a few of which
+have been published. The chronicles, which in the 15th century are
+usually meagre productions like Warkworth's (Camden Society), get
+fuller, especially those emanating from London. Fabyan is succeeded by
+Hall, an indispensable authority for Henry VIII., and Hall by Grafton.
+Other useful books are Wriothesley's _Chronicle_ and Machyn's _Diary_,
+and they have numerous successors; some of their works have been edited
+for the Camden Society, which now takes the place of the Rolls series.
+The most important are Holinshed, Stow and Camden; and gradually, with
+Speed and Bacon, the chronicle develops into the history, and early in
+the 17th century we get such works as Lord Herbert's _Reign of Henry
+VIII._, Hayward's _Edward VI._, and, on the ecclesiastical side, Heylyn,
+Fuller, Burnet and Collier's histories of the church and Reformation.
+Foxe, who died in 1587, included a vast and generally accurate
+collection of documents in his _Acts and Monuments_, popularized as the
+_Book of Martyrs_, though his own contributions have to be discounted as
+much as those of Sanders, Parsons and other Roman Catholic
+controversialists. Two other great collections are the Parker Society's
+publications (56 vols.), which contain besides the works of the
+reformers a considerable number of their letters, and Strype's works (26
+vols.). The naval epic of the period is Hakluyt's _Navigations_,
+re-edited in 12 vols. in 1902, and continued in Purchas's _Pilgrims_.
+
+In the 17th century the domestic and foreign state papers eclipse other
+sources almost more completely than in the 16th. The colonial state
+papers now become important and extensive, those relating to America and
+the West Indies being most numerous (18 vols. to 1700). Parliamentary
+records naturally expand, and the journals of both houses become more
+detailed. Parliamentary diarists like D'Ewes, Burton and Walter Yonge,
+only a fragment of whose shorthand notes in the British Museum has been
+published (Camden Society), elucidate the bare official statements; and
+from 1660 the series of parliamentary debates is fairly complete, though
+not so full or authoritative as it becomes with Hansard in the 19th
+century. Social diarists of great value appear after the Restoration in
+Pepys, Evelyn, Reresby, Narcissus Luttrell and Swift (_Journal to
+Stella_), and political writing grows more important as a source of
+history, whether it takes the form of Bacon's (ed. Spedding) or Milton's
+treatises, or of satires like Dryden's and political pamphlets like
+Halifax's and then Swift's, Defoe's and Steele's. Clarendon's _Great
+Rebellion_ and Burnet's _History of My Own Time_ are the first modern
+attempts at contemporary history, as distinct from chronicles and
+annals, in England, although it is difficult to exclude the work of
+Matthew Paris from the category. The innumerable tracts and newsletters
+are a valuable source for the Civil Wars and Commonwealth period (see J.
+B. Williams, _A History of English Journalism_, 1909), while Thurloe's,
+Clarendon's and Nalson's collections of state papers deserve a mention
+apart from the Domestic Calendar. There is a still more monumental
+collection--the Carte Papers--on Irish affairs in the Bodleian Library,
+where also the Tanner MSS. and other collections have only been very
+partially worked. The volumes of the Historical MSS. Commission are of
+great value for the later Stuart period, notably the House of Lords MSS.
+
+For the 18th century the only calendars are the Home Office Papers and
+the Treasury Books and Papers, the further specialization of government
+having made it necessary to differentiate domestic state papers into
+several classes. But it need hardly be said that the bulk of
+correspondence in the Record Office does not diminish. Outside its walls
+the most important single collection is perhaps the duke of Newcastle's
+papers among the Additional MSS. in the British Museum; the Stuart
+papers at Windsor, Mr Fortescue's at Dropmore, Lord Charlemont's (Irish
+affairs), Lord Dartmouth's (American affairs) and Lord Carlisle's, all
+calendared by the Historical MSS. Commission, are also valuable.
+Chatham's correspondence with colonial governors has been published (2
+vols., 1906), as have the _Grenville Papers_, _Bedford Correspondence_,
+Malmesbury's _Diaries_, Auckland's _Journals and Correspondence_,
+Grafton's _Correspondence_, Lord North's _Correspondence with George
+III._, and other correspondence in _The Memoirs of Rockingham_, and the
+duke of Buckingham's _Court and Cabinets of George III._ Mention should
+also be made of Gower's _Despatches_, the _Cornwallis Correspondence_,
+Rose's _Correspondence_ and Lord Colchester's _Correspondence_. Of
+special interest is the series of naval records, despatches to and from
+naval commanders, proceedings of courts-martial, and logs in the Record
+Office which have never been properly utilized.
+
+Among unofficial sources the most characteristic of the 18th century are
+letters, memoirs and periodical literature. Horace Walpole's _Letters_
+(Clarendon Press, 16 vols.) are the best comment on the history of the
+period; his _Memoirs_ are not so good, though they are superior to
+Wraxall, who succeeds him. Periodical literature becomes regular in the
+reign of Queen Anne, chiefly in the form of journals like the
+_Spectator_; but several daily newspapers, including _The Times_, were
+founded during the century. _The Craftsman_ provided a vehicle for
+Bolingbroke's attacks on Walpole, while the _Gentleman's Magazine and
+Annual Register_ begin a more serious and prolonged career. Both contain
+occasional state papers, and not very trustworthy reports of
+parliamentary proceedings. The publication of debates was not authorized
+till the last quarter of the century; parliamentary papers begin
+earlier, but only slowly attain their present portentous dimensions.
+Political writing is at its best from Halifax to Cobbett, and its three
+greatest names are perhaps Swift, "Junius" and Burke, though Steele,
+Defoe, Bolingbroke and Dr Johnson are not far behind, while Canning's
+contributions to the _Anti-Jacobin_ and Gillray's caricatures require
+mention.
+
+The sources for 19th-century history are somewhat similar to those for
+the 18th. Diaries continue in the _Creevey Papers_, Greville's Diary,
+and lesser but not less voluminous writers like Sir M. E. Grant-Duff.
+The most important series of letters is Queen Victoria's (ed. Lord Esher
+and A. C. Benson, 1908), and the correspondence of most of her prime
+ministers and many of her other advisers has been partially published.
+Of political biographies there is no end. The great bulk of material,
+however, consists of blue-books, Hansard's _Parliamentary Debates_, and
+newspapers--which are better as indirect than direct evidence. The real
+truth is not of course revealed at once, and many episodes in
+19th-century history are still shrouded by official secrecy. In this
+respect English governments are more cautious or reactionary than many
+of those on the continent of Europe, and access to official documents is
+denied when it is granted elsewhere; even the lapse of a century is not
+considered a sufficient salve for susceptibilities which might be
+wounded by the whole truth.
+
+Meanwhile the 19th century witnessed a great development in historical
+writing. In the middle ages the stimulus to write was mainly of a moral
+or ecclesiastical nature, though the patriotic impulse which had
+suggested the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was perhaps never entirely absent,
+and the ecclesiastical motive often degenerated into a desire to
+glorify, sometimes even by forgery, not merely the church as a whole,
+but the particular monastery to which the writer belonged. As
+nationalism developed, the patriotic motive supplanted the
+ecclesiastical, and stress is laid on the "famous" history of England.
+Insular self-glorification was, however, modified to some extent by the
+Renaissance, which developed an interest in other lands, and the
+Reformation, which gave to much historical writing a partisan
+theological bias. This still colours most of the "histories" of the
+Reformation period, because the issues of that time are living issues,
+and the writers of these histories are committed beforehand by their
+profession and their position to a particular interpretation. In the
+17th century political partisanship coloured historical writing, and
+that, too, remained a potent motive so long as historians were either
+Whigs or Tories. Histories were often elaborate party pamphlets, and
+this race of historians is hardly yet extinct. Macaulay is not greatly
+superior in impartiality to Hume; Gibbon and Robertson were less open to
+temptation because they avoided English subjects. Hallam deliberately
+aimed at impartiality, but he could not escape his Whig atmosphere.
+Nevertheless, the effort to be impartial marks a new conception of
+history, which is well expressed in Lord Acton's admonition to his
+contributors in the _Cambridge Modern History_. Historians are to serve
+no cause but that of truth; in so far even as they desire a line of
+investigation to lead to a particular result, they are not, maintains
+Professor Bury, real historians. S. R. Gardiner perhaps attained most
+nearly this severe ideal among English historians, and Ranke among
+Germans. But, even when all conscious bias is eliminated, the
+unconscious bias remains, and Ranke's history of the Reformation is
+essentially a middle-class, even _bourgeois_, presentment. Stubbs's
+medievalist sympathies colour his history throughout, and still more
+strongly does Froude's anti-clericalism. Freeman's bias was peculiar; he
+is really a West Saxon of Godwine's time reincarnated, and his Somerset
+hatred of French, Scots and Mercian foreigners sets off his robust
+loyalty to the house of Wessex. Lecky and Creighton are almost as
+dispassionate as Gardiner, but are more definitely committed to
+particular points of views, while democratic fervour pervades the
+fascinating pages of J. R. Green, and an intellectual secularism, which
+is almost religious in its intensity and idealism, inspired the genius
+of Maitland.
+
+The latest controversy about history is whether it is a science or an
+art. It is, of course, both, simply because there must be science in
+every art and art in every science. The antithesis is largely false;
+science lays stress on analysis, art on synthesis. The historian must
+apply scientific methods to his materials and artistic methods to his
+results; he must test his documents and then turn them into literature.
+The relative importance of the two methods is a matter of dispute. There
+are some who still maintain that history is merely an art, that the best
+history is the story that is best told, and that what is said is less
+important than the way in which it is said. This school generally
+ignores records. Others attach little importance to the form in which
+truth is presented; they are concerned mainly with the principles and
+methods of scientific criticism, and specialize in palaeography,
+diplomatic and sources. The works of this school are little read, but in
+time its results penetrate the teaching in schools and universities, and
+then the pages of literary historians; it is represented in England by a
+fairly good organization, the Royal Historical Society (with which the
+Camden Society has been amalgamated), and by an excellent periodical,
+_The English Historical Review_ (founded in 1884), while some sort of
+propaganda is attempted by the Historical Association (started in 1906).
+Its standards have also been upheld with varying success in great
+co-operative undertakings, such as the _Dictionary of National
+Biography_, the _Cambridge Modern History_, and Messrs Longmans'
+_Political History of England_.
+
+  These 19th-century products require some sort of classification for
+  purposes of reference, and the chronological is the most convenient.
+  Lingard's, J. R. Green's and Messrs Longmans' histories are the only
+  notable attempts to tell the history of England as a whole, though
+  Stubbs's _Constitutional History_ (3 vols.) covers the middle ages and
+  embodies a political survey as well (for corrections and modifications
+  see Petit-Dutaillis, _Supplementary Studies_, 1908), while Hallam's
+  _Constitutional History_ (3 vols.) extends from 1485 to 1760 and
+  Erskine May's (3 vols.) from 1760 to 1860. Sir James Ramsay's six
+  volumes also cover the greater part of medieval English history. There
+  is no work on a larger scale than Lappenberg and Kemble, dealing with
+  England before the Norman Conquest, though J. R. Green's _Making of
+  England_ and _Conquest of England_ deal with certain portions in some
+  detail, and Freeman gives a preliminary survey in his _Norman
+  Conquest_ (6 vols.). For the succeeding period see Freeman's _William
+  Rufus_, J. H. Round's _Feudal England_ and _Geoffrey de Mandeville_,
+  and Miss Norgate's _England under the Angevins and John Lackland_.
+  From 1216 we have nothing but Ramsay, Stubbs, Longmans' _Political
+  History_ and monographs (some of them good), until we come to Wylie's
+  _Henry IV_. (4 vols.); and again from 1413 the same is true
+  (Gairdner's _Lollardy and the Reformation_ being the most elaborate
+  monograph) until we come to Brewer's _Reign of Henry VIII_. (2 vols.;
+  to 1530 only), Froude's _History_ (12 vols., 1529-1588) and R. W.
+  Dixon's _Church History_ (6 vols., 1529-1570). From 1603 to 1656 we
+  have Gardiner's _History_ (England, 10 vols.; Civil War, 4 vols.;
+  Commonwealth and Protectorate, 3 vols.), and to 1714 Ranke's _History
+  of England_ (6 vols.; see also Firth's _Cromwell_ and _Cromwell's
+  Army_, and various editions of texts and monographs). For Charles II.
+  there is no good history; then come Macaulay, and Stanhope and Wyon's
+  _Queen Anne_, and for the 18th century Stanhope and Lecky (England, 7
+  vols.; Ireland, 5 vols.). From 1793 to 1815 is another gap only
+  partially filled. Spencer Walpole deals with the period from 1815 to
+  1880, and Herbert Paul with the years 1846-1895.
+
+  A few books on special subjects deserve mention. For legal history see
+  Pollock and Maitland's _History of English Law_ (2 vols. to Edward
+  I.), Maitland's _Domesday Book and Beyond_, and Anson's _Law and
+  Custom of the Constitution_; for economic history, Cunningham's
+  _Growth of Industry and Commerce_, and Ashley's _Economic History_;
+  for ecclesiastical history, Stephens and Hunt's series (7 vols.); for
+  foreign and colonial, Seeley's _British Foreign Policy_ and _Expansion
+  of England_, and J. A. Doyle's books on the American colonies; for
+  military history, Fortescue's _History of the British Army_, Napier's
+  and Oman's works on the _Peninsular War_, and Kinglake's _Invasion of
+  the Crimea_; and for naval history, Corbett's _Drake and the Tudor
+  Navy, Successors of Drake, English in the Mediterranean_ and _Seven
+  Years' War_, and Mahan's _Influence of Sea-Power on _History_ and
+  _Influence_ of Sea-Power upon the French Revolution and Empire_.
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--The sources for the middle ages have
+  been enumerated in C. Gross's _Sources and Literature of English
+  History ... to about 1485_ (London, 1900), but there is nothing
+  similar for modern history. G. C. Lee's _Source Book of English
+  History_ is not very satisfactory. More information can be obtained
+  from the bibliographies appended to the volumes in Longmans'
+  _Political History_, or the chapters in the _Cambridge Modern
+  History_, or to the biographical articles in the _D.N.B._ and _Ency.
+  Brit._ A series of bibliographical leaflets for the use of teachers is
+  issued by the Historical Association. For MSS. sources see
+  Scargill-Bird's _Guide to the Record Office_, and the class catalogues
+  in the MSS. Department of the British Museum. Lists of the state
+  papers and other documents printed and calendared under the direction
+  of the master of the Rolls and deputy keeper of the Records are
+  supplied at the end of many of their volumes.     (A. F. P.)
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [1] As the name Edith (Eadgyth) sounded uncouth to Norman ears, she
+    assumed the continental name Maheut or Mahelt (Eng. Mahald, later
+    Mold and Maud), in Latin Matildis or Matilda. Sir J.H. Ramsay,
+    _Foundations of England_, ii. 235. (Ed.)
+
+  [2] The Nottingham of 1387, who had been promoted to the higher
+    title.
+
+  [3] Mr Andrew Lang takes a different view of the character of Albany
+    and his attitude in this matter. See _Hist. of Scotland_, i. 289, and
+    the article SCOTLAND: _History_.--ED.
+
+  [4] The peculiar absurdity of Henry's claim to be king of France was
+    that if, on the original English claim as set forth by Edward III.,
+    heirship through females counted, then the earl of March was entitled
+    to the French throne. A vote of the English parliament superseding
+    March's claim in favour of that of Henry IV. could obviously have no
+    legal effect in France.
+
+  [5] The events of the reign of Charles I. are treated in greater
+    detail in the articles CHARLES I., King of Great Britain and Ireland;
+    STRAFFORD; HAMPDEN; PYM; GREAT REBELLION; CROMWELL, &c.
+
+  [6] The position of the Corresponding Society was greatly
+    strengthened by the establishment of the Friends of the People by
+    Erskine and Grey.
+
+  [7] A vivid account of the mutiny and its causes is given in Captain
+    Marryat's _King's Own_.
+
+  [8] Edward Henry Stanley, 15th earl of Derby, son of the 14th earl
+    and former prime minister.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th
+Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5, by Various
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition,
+Volume 9, Slice 5, by Various
+
+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: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5
+       English History
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35236]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 9 SL 5 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
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+</pre>
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #dcdcdc; color: #696969; " summary="Transcriber's note">
+<tr>
+<td style="width:25%; vertical-align:top">
+Transcriber&rsquo;s note:
+</td>
+<td class="norm">
+A few typographical errors have been corrected. They
+appear in the text <span class="correction" title="explanation will pop up">like this</span>, and the
+explanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the marked
+passage. Sections in Greek will yield a transliteration
+when the pointer is moved over them, and words using diacritic characters in the
+Latin Extended Additional block, which may not display in some fonts or browsers, will
+display an unaccented version. <br /><br />
+<a name="artlinks">Links to other EB articles:</a> Links to articles residing in other EB volumes will
+be made available when the respective volumes are introduced online.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<div style="padding-top: 3em; ">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<h2>THE ENCYCLOP&AElig;DIA BRITANNICA</h2>
+
+<h2>A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION</h2>
+
+<h3>ELEVENTH EDITION</h3>
+<div style="padding-top: 3em; ">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<h3>VOLUME IX SLICE V<br /><br />
+"English History"</h3>
+<hr class="full" />
+<div style="padding-top: 3em; ">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p class="center1" style="font-size: 150%; font-family: 'verdana';">Articles in This Slice</p>
+<table class="reg" style="width: 90%; font-size: 90%; border: gray 2px solid;" cellspacing="8" summary="Contents">
+
+<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar1">ENGLISH HISTORY</a></td><td class="tcl">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+</table>
+<p class="pt2">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr class="art" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page466" id="page466"></a>466</span></p>
+<p><span class="bold">ENGLISH HISTORY.<a name="ar1" id="ar1"></a></span>&mdash;The general account of English history
+which follows should be supplemented for the earlier period by
+the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Britain</a></span>. See also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Scotland</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Ireland</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Wales</a></span>.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">I. From the Landing of Augustine to the Norman
+Conquest (600-1066)</p>
+
+<p>With the coming of Augustine to Kent the darkness which
+for nearly two centuries had enwrapped the history of Britain
+begins to clear away. From the days of Honorius to those of
+Gregory the Great the line of vision of the annalists of the continent
+was bounded by the Channel. As to what was going on
+beyond it, we have but a few casual gleams of light, just enough
+to make the darkness visible, from writers such as the author
+of the life of St Germanus, Prosper Tiro, Procopius, and Gregory
+of Tours. These notices do not, for the most part, square
+particularly well with the fragmentary British narrative that can
+be patched together from Gildas&rsquo;s &ldquo;lamentable book,&rdquo; or the
+confused story of Nennius. Nor again do these British sources
+fit in happily with the English annals constructed long centuries
+after by King Alfred&rsquo;s scribes in the first edition of the <i>Anglo-Saxon
+Chronicle</i>. But from the date when the long-lost communication
+between Britain and Rome was once more resumed,
+the history of the island becomes clear and fairly continuous.
+The gaps are neither broader nor more obscure than those which
+may be found in the contemporary annals of the other kingdoms
+of Europe. The stream of history in this period is narrow and
+turbid throughout the West. Quite as much is known of the
+doings of the English as of those of the Visigoths of Spain, the
+Lombards, or the later Merovingians. The 7th century was
+the darkest of all the &ldquo;dark ages,&rdquo; and England is particularly
+fortunate in possessing the <i>Ecclesiastica historia</i> of Bede, which,
+though its author was primarily interested in things religious,
+yet contains a copious chronicle of things secular. No Western
+author, since the death of Gregory of Tours, wrote on such a
+scale, or with such vigour and insight.</p>
+
+<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:517px; height:709px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img466.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page467" id="page467"></a>467</span></p>
+
+<p class="pt2">The conversion of England to Christianity took, from first to
+last, some ninety years (<span class="scs">A.D.</span> 597 to 686), though during the last
+thirty the ancestral heathenism was only lingering on
+in remote comers of the land. The original missionary
+<span class="sidenote">Conversion of England.</span>
+impulse came from Rome, and Augustine is rightly
+regarded as the evangelist of the English; yet only
+a comparatively small part of the nation owed its Christianity
+directly to the mission sent out by Pope Gregory. Wessex was
+won over by an independent adventurer, the Frank Birinus, who
+had no connexion with the earlier arrivals in Kent. The great
+kingdom of Northumbria, though its first Christian monarch
+Edwin was converted by Paulinus, a disciple of Augustine, relapsed
+into heathenism after his death. It was finally evangelized
+from quite another quarter, by Irish missionaries brought by
+King Oswald from Columba&rsquo;s monastery of Iona. The church
+that they founded struck root, as that of Paulinus and Edwin
+had failed to do, and was not wrecked even by Oswald&rsquo;s death
+in battle at the hands of Penda the Mercian, the one strong
+champion of heathenism that England produced. Moreover,
+Penda was no sooner dead, smitten down by Oswald&rsquo;s brother
+Oswio at the battle of the Winwaed (<span class="scs">A.D.</span> 655), than his whole
+kingdom eagerly accepted Christianity, and received missionaries,
+Irish and Northumbrian, from the victorious Oswio. It is clear
+that, unlike their king, the Mercians had no profound enthusiasm
+for the old gods. Essex, which had received its first bishop
+from Augustine&rsquo;s hands but had relapsed into heathenism after
+a few years, also owed its ultimate conversion to a Northumbrian
+preacher, Cedd, whom Oswio lent to King Sigeberht after the
+latter had visited his court and been baptized, hard by the
+Roman wall, in 653.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even in those English regions where the missionaries from
+Iona were the founders of the Church, the representatives of
+Rome were to be its organizers. In 664 the Northumbrian king
+Oswio, at the synod of Whitby, declared his adhesion to the
+Roman connexion, whether it was that he saw political advantage
+therein, or whether he realized the failings and weaknesses of the
+Celtic church, and preferred the more orderly methods of her rival.
+Five years later there arrived from Rome the great organizer,
+Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, who bound the hitherto isolated
+churches of the English kingdoms into a well-compacted whole,
+wherein the tribal bishops paid obedience to the metropolitan
+at Canterbury, and met him frequently in national councils and
+synods. England gained a spiritual unity long ere she attained
+a political unity, for in these meetings, which were often attended
+by kings as well as by prelates, Northumbrian, West Saxon and
+Mercian first learnt to work together as brothers.</p>
+
+<p>In a few years the English church became the pride of Western
+Christendom. Not merely did it produce the great band of
+missionaries who converted heathen Germany&mdash;Willibrord,
+Suidbert, Boniface and the rest&mdash;but it excelled
+<span class="sidenote">The English church.</span>
+the other national churches in learning and culture.
+It is but necessary to mention Bede and Alcuin. The
+first, as has been already said, was the one true historian who
+wrote during the dark time of the 7th-8th centuries; the second
+became the pride of the court of Charles the Great for his unrivalled
+scholarship. At the coming of Augustine England had
+been a barbarous country; a century and a half later she was
+more than abreast of the civilization of the rest of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But the progress toward national unity was still a slow one.
+The period when the English kingdoms began to enter into the
+commonwealth of Christendom, by receiving the
+missionaries sent out from Rome or from Iona, practically
+<span class="sidenote">Formation of the kingdoms.</span>
+coincides with the period in which the occupation
+of central Britain was completed, and the kingdoms
+of the conquerors assumed their final size and shape. Ęthelfrith,
+the last heathen among the Northumbrian kings, cut off
+the Britons of the North from those of the West, by winning the
+battle of Chester (<span class="scs">A.D.</span> 613), and occupying the land about the
+mouths of the Mersey and the Dee. Cenwalh, the last monarch
+who ascended the throne of Wessex unbaptized, carried the
+boundaries of that kingdom into Mid-Somersetshire, where they
+halted for a long space. Penda, the last heathen king of Mercia,
+determined the size and strength of that state, by absorbing into
+it the territories of the other Anglian kingdoms of the Midlands,
+and probably also by carrying forward its western border beyond
+the Severn. By the time when the smallest and most barbarous
+of the Saxon states&mdash;Sussex&mdash;accepted Christianity in the year
+686, the political geography of England had reached a stage from
+which it was not to vary in any marked degree for some 200
+years. Indeed, there was nothing accomplished in the way of
+further encroachment on the Celt after 686, save Ine&rsquo;s and
+Cuthred&rsquo;s extension of Wessex into the valleys of the Tone and
+the Exe, and Offa&rsquo;s slight expansion of the Mercian frontier
+beyond the Severn, marked by his famous dyke. The conquests
+of the Northumbrian kings in Cumbria were ephemeral; what
+Oswio won was lost after the death of Ecgfrith.</p>
+
+<p>That the conversion of the English to Christianity had anything
+to do with their slackening from the work of conquest it
+would be wrong to assert. Though their wars with the Welsh
+were not conducted with such ferocious cruelty as of old, and
+though (as the laws of Ine show) the Celtic inhabitants of newly-won
+districts were no longer exterminated, but received as the
+king&rsquo;s subjects, yet the hatred between Welsh and English did
+not cease because both were now Christians. The westward
+advance of the invaders would have continued, if only there had
+remained to attract them lands as desirable as those they had
+already won. But the mountains of Wales and the moors of
+Cornwall and Cumbria did not greatly tempt the settler. Moreover,
+the English states, which had seldom turned their swords
+against each other in the 5th or the 6th centuries, were engaged
+during the 7th and the 8th in those endless struggles for supremacy
+which seem so purposeless, because the hegemony which
+a king of energy and genius won for his kingdom always disappeared
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Bretwaldas.&rdquo;</span>
+with his death. The &ldquo;Bretwaldaship,&rdquo; as
+the English seem to have called it, was the most
+ephemeral of dignities. This was but natural: conquest
+can only be enforced by the extermination of the conquered,
+or by their consent to amalgamate with the conquerors, or by
+the garrisoning of the land that has been subdued by settlers
+or by military posts. None of these courses were possible to a
+king of the 7th or 8th centuries: even in their heathen days the
+English were not wont to massacre their beaten kinsmen as
+they massacred the unfortunate Celt. After their conversion to
+Christianity the idea of exterminating other English tribes grew
+even more impossible. On the other hand, local particularism
+was so strong that the conquered would not, at first, consent
+to give up their natural independence and merge themselves in
+the victors. Such amalgamations became possible after a time,
+when many of the local royal lines died out, and unifying influences,
+of which a common Christianity was the most powerful,
+sapped the strength of tribal pride. But it is not till the 9th
+century that we find this phenomenon growing general. A
+kingdom like Kent or East Anglia, even after long subjection
+to a powerful overlord, rose and reasserted its independence
+immediately on hearing of his death. His successor had to
+attempt a new conquest, if he felt himself strong enough. To
+garrison a district that had been overrun was impossible: the
+military force of an English king consisted of his military household
+of <i>gesiths</i>, backed by the general levy of the tribe. The
+strength of Mercia or Northumbria might be mustered for a
+single battle, but could not supply a standing army to hold down
+the vanquished. The victorious king had to be content with
+tribute and obedience, which would cease when he died, or
+was beaten by a competitor for the position of Bretwalda.</p>
+
+<p>In the ceaseless strife between the old English kingdoms,
+therefore, it was the personality of the king which was the main
+factor in determining the hegemony of one state over
+another. If in the 7th century the successive great
+<span class="sidenote">Supremacy of Northumbria.</span>
+Northumbrians&mdash;Edwin, Oswald, Oswio and Ecgfrith&mdash;were
+reckoned the chief monarchs of England, and
+exercised a widespread influence over the southern realms, yet
+each had to win his supremacy by his own sword; and when
+Edwin and Oswald fell before the savage heathen Penda, and
+Ecgfrith was cut off by the Picts, there was a gap of anarchy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page468" id="page468"></a>468</span>
+before another king asserted his superior power. The same
+phenomenon was seen with regard to the Mercian kings of the
+8th century; the long reigns of the two conquerors
+<span class="sidenote">Supremacy of Mercia.</span>
+Ęthelbald and Offa covered eighty years (716-796),
+and it might have been supposed that after such a
+term of supremacy Mercia would have remained
+permanently at the head of the English kingdoms. It was not
+so, Ęthelbald in his old age lost his hegemony at the battle
+of Burford (752), and was murdered a few years after by his
+own people. Offa had to win back by long wars what his kinsman
+had lost; he became so powerful that we find the pope
+calling him <i>Rex Anglorum</i>, as if he were the only king in the
+island. He annexed Kent and East Anglia, overawed Northumbria
+and Wessex, both hopelessly faction-ridden at the time,
+was treated almost as an equal by the emperor Charles the Great,
+and died still at the height of his power. Yet the moment that
+he was dead all his vassals revolted; his successors could never
+recover all that was lost. Kent once more became a kingdom,
+and two successive Mercian sovereigns, Beornwulf and Ludica,
+fell in battle while vainly trying to recover Offa&rsquo;s supremacy
+over East Anglia and Wessex.</p>
+
+<p>The ablest king in England in the generation that followed
+Offa was Ecgbert of Wessex, who had long been an exile abroad,
+and served for thirteen years as one of the captains of
+Charles the Great. He beat Beornwulf of Mercia at
+<span class="sidenote">Supremacy of Wessex.</span>
+Ellandune (<span class="scs">A.D.</span> 823), permanently annexed Kent, to
+whose crown he had a claim by descent, in 829 received
+the homage of all the other English kings, and was for the remainder
+of his life reckoned as &ldquo;Bretwalda.&rdquo; But it is wrong
+to call him, as some have done, &ldquo;the first monarch of all England.&rdquo;
+His power was no greater than that of Oswio or Offa
+had been, and the supremacy might perhaps have tarried with
+Wessex no longer than it had tarried with Northumbria or Mercia
+if it had not chanced that the Danish raids were now beginning.
+For these invasions, paradoxical as it may seem, were the
+greatest efficient cause in the welding together of England.
+They seemed about to rend the land in twain, but they really
+cured the English of their desperate particularism, and drove all
+the tribes to take as their common rulers the one great line of
+native kings which survived the Danish storm, and maintained
+itself for four generations of desperate fighting against the invaders.
+On the continent the main effect of the viking invasions
+was to dash the empire of Charles the Great into fragments, and
+to aid in producing the numberless petty states of feudal Europe.
+In this island they did much to help the transformation of the
+mere Bretwaldaship of Ecgbert into the monarchy of all England.</p>
+
+<p>Already ere Ecgbert ascended the throne of Kent the new
+enemy had made his first tentative appearance on the British
+shore. It was in the reign of Beorhtric, Ecgbert&rsquo;s
+predecessor, that the pirates of the famous &ldquo;three
+<span class="sidenote">Danish invasions.</span>
+ships from Heretheland&rdquo; had appeared on the coast
+of Dorset, and slain the sheriff &ldquo;who would fain have known
+what manner of men they might be.&rdquo; A few years later another
+band appeared, rising unexpectedly from the sea to sack the
+famous Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne (793). After
+that their visits came fast and furious on the shore-line of every
+English kingdom, and by the end of Ecgbert&rsquo;s reign it was they,
+and not his former Welsh and Mercian enemies, who were the
+old monarch&rsquo;s main source of trouble. But he brought his
+Bretwaldaship to a good end by inflicting a crushing defeat on
+them at Hingston Down, hard by the Tamar, probably in 836, and
+died ere the year was out, leaving the ever-growing problem to
+his son Ęthelwulf.</p>
+
+<p>The cause of the sudden outpouring of the Scandinavian
+deluge upon the lands of Christendom at this particular date is
+one of the puzzles of history. So far as memory ran,
+the peoples beyond the North Sea had been seafaring
+<span class="sidenote">Influence of viking sea-power.</span>
+races addicted to piracy. Even Tacitus mentions
+their fleets. Yet since the 5th century they had been
+restricting their operations to their own shores, and are barely
+heard of in the chronicles of their southern neighbours. It seems
+most probable that the actual cause of their sudden activity
+was the conquest of the Saxons by Charles the Great, and his
+subsequent advance into the peninsula of Denmark. The emperor
+seemed to be threatening the independence of the North,
+and in terror and resentment the Scandinavian peoples turned
+first to strike at the encroaching Frank, and soon after to assail
+the other Christian kingdoms which lay behind, or on the flank
+of, the Empire. But their offensive action proved so successful
+and so profitable that, after a short time, the whole manhood
+of Denmark and Norway took to the pirate life. Never since
+history first began to be recorded was there such a supreme
+example of the potentialities of sea-power. Civilized Europe
+had been caught at a moment when it was completely destitute
+of a war-navy; the Franks had never been maritime in their
+tastes, the English seemed to have forgotten their ancient seafaring
+habits. Though their ancestors had been pirates as fierce
+as the vikings of the 9th century, and though some of their later
+kings had led naval armaments&mdash;Edwin had annexed for a
+moment Man and Anglesea, and Ecgfrith had cruelly ravaged
+part of Ireland&mdash;yet by the year 800 they appear to have ceased
+to be a seafaring race. Perhaps the long predominance of Mercia,
+an essentially inland state, had something to do with the fact.
+At any rate England was as helpless as the Empire when first the
+Danish and Norwegian galleys began to cross the North Sea, and
+to beat down both sides of Britain seeking for prey. The number
+of the invaders was not at first very great; their fleets were not
+national armaments gathered by great kings, but squadrons of
+a few vessels collected by some active and enterprising adventurer.
+Their original tactics were merely to land suddenly near some
+thriving seaport, or rich monastery, to sack it, and to take to the
+water again before the local militia could turn out in force against
+them. But such raids proved so profitable that the vikings
+soon began to take greater things in hand; they began to ally
+themselves in confederacies: two, six or a dozen &ldquo;sea-kings&rdquo;
+would join their forces for something more than a desultory raid.
+With fifty or a hundred ships they would fall upon some unhappy
+region, harry it for many miles inland, and offer battle to
+the landsfolk unless the latter came out in overpowering force.
+And as their crews were trained warriors chosen for their high
+spirit, contending with a raw militia fresh from the plough, they
+were generally successful. If the odds were too great they
+could always retire to their ships, put to sea, and resume their
+predatory operations on some other coast three hundred miles
+away. As long as their enemies were unprovided with a navy
+they were safe from pursuit and annihilation. The only chance
+against them was that, if caught too far from the base-fort
+where they had run their galleys ashore, they might find their
+communication with the sea cut off, and be forced to fight for
+their lives surrounded by an infuriated countryside. But in the
+earlier years of their struggles with Christendom the vikings
+seldom suffered a complete disaster; they were often beaten
+but seldom annihilated. Ere long they grew so bold that they
+would stay ashore for months, braving the forces of a whole
+kingdom, and sheltering themselves in great palisaded camps
+on peninsulas or islands when the enemy pressed them too hard.
+On well-guarded strongholds like Thanet or Sheppey in England,
+Noirmoutier at the Loire mouth, or the Isle of Walcheren, they
+defied the local magnates to evict them. Finally they took to
+wintering on the coast of England or the Empire, a preliminary
+to actual settlement and conquest. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Viking</a></span>.)</p>
+
+<p>King Ecgbert died long ere the invaders had reached this stage
+of insolence. Ęthelwulf, his weak and kindly son, would undoubtedly
+have lost the titular supremacy of Wessex
+over the other English kingdoms if there had been in
+<span class="sidenote">Progress of Danish conquest.</span>
+Mercia or Northumbria a strong king with leisure to
+concentrate his thoughts on domestic wars. But the
+vikings were now showering such blows on the northern states
+that their unhappy monarchs could think of nothing but self-defence.
+They slew Redulf&mdash;king of Northumbria&mdash;in 844, took
+London in 851, despite all the efforts of Burgred of Mercia, and
+forced that sovereign to make repeated appeals for help to
+Ęthelwulf as his overlord. For though Wessex had its full share
+of Danish attacks it met them with a vigour that was not seen in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page469" id="page469"></a>469</span>
+the other realms. The defence was often, if not always, successful;
+and once at least (at Aclea in 851) Ęthelwulf exterminated
+a whole Danish army with &ldquo;the greatest slaughter among the
+heathen host that had been heard of down to that day,&rdquo; as the
+Anglo-Saxon chronicler is careful to record. But though he
+might ward off blows from his own realm, he was helpless to aid
+Mercia or East Anglia, and still more the distant Northumbria.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, however, till after Ęthelwulf&rsquo;s death that the
+attack of the vikings developed its full strength. The fifteen
+years (856-871) that were covered by the reigns of his three
+short-lived sons, Ęthelbald, Ęthelbert and Ęthelred, were the
+most miserable that England was to see. Assembling in greater
+and ever greater confederacies, the Danes fell upon the northern
+kingdoms, no longer merely to harry but to conquer and occupy
+them. A league of many sea-kings which called itself the &ldquo;great
+army&rdquo; slew the last two sovereigns of Northumbria and stormed
+York in 867. Some of the victors settled down there to lord it
+over the half-exterminated English population. The rest continued
+their advance southward. East Anglia was conquered
+in 870; its last king, Edmund, having been defeated and taken
+prisoner, the vikings shot him to death with arrows because
+he would not worship their gods. His realm was annexed and
+partly settled by the conquerors. The fate of Mercia was hardly
+better: its king, Burgred, by constant payment of tribute, bought
+off the invaders for a space, but the eastern half of his realm was
+reduced to a wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Practically masters of all that lay north of Thames, the &ldquo;great
+army&rdquo; next moved against Wessex, the only quarter where a
+vigorous resistance was still maintained against them, though
+its capital, Winchester, had been sacked in 864. Under two kings
+named Halfdan and Bacsceg, and six earls, they seized Reading
+and began to harry Berkshire, Surrey and Hampshire. King
+Ęthelred, the third son of Ęthelwulf, came out against them,
+with his young brother Alfred and all the levies of Wessex. In the
+year 871 these two gallant kinsmen fought no less than six
+pitched battles against the invaders. Some were victories&mdash;notably
+the fight of Ashdown, where Alfred first won his name
+as a soldier&mdash;but the English failed to capture the fortified camps
+of the vikings at Reading, and were finally beaten at Marten
+(&ldquo;Maeretun&rdquo;) near Bedwyn, where Ęthelred was mortally
+wounded.</p>
+
+<p>He left young sons, but the men of Wessex crowned Alfred
+king, because they needed a grown man to lead them in their
+desperate campaigning. Yet his reign opened inauspiciously:
+defeated near Wilton, he offered in
+<span class="sidenote">Alfred the Great.</span>
+despair to pay the vikings to depart. He must have
+known, from the experience of Mercian, Northumbrian and
+Frankish kings, that such blackmail only bought a short
+respite, but the condition of his realm was such that even a
+moderate time for reorganization might prove valuable. The
+enemy had suffered so much in the &ldquo;year of the six battles&rdquo;
+that they held off for some space from Wessex, seeking easier
+prey on the continent and in northern England. In 874 they
+harried Mercia so cruelly that King Burgred fled in despair to
+Rome; the victors divided up his realm, taking the eastern half
+for themselves, and establishing in it a confederacy, whose jarls
+occupied the &ldquo;five boroughs&rdquo; of Stamford, Lincoln, Derby,
+Nottingham and Leicester. But the western half they handed
+over to &ldquo;an unwise thegn named Ceolwulf,&rdquo; who bought for a
+short space the precarious title of king by paying great tribute.</p>
+
+<p>Alfred employed the four years of peace, which he had bought
+in 871, in the endeavour to strengthen his realm against the
+inevitable return of the raiders. His wisdom was shown by the
+fact that he concentrated his attention on the one device which
+must evidently prove effective for defence, if only he were given
+time to perfect it&mdash;the building of a national navy. He began
+to lay down galleys and &ldquo;long ships,&rdquo; and hired &ldquo;pirates&rdquo;&mdash;renegade
+vikings no doubt&mdash;to train crews for him and to teach
+his men seamanship. The scheme, however, was only partly completed
+when in 876 three Danish kings entered Wessex and resumed
+the war. But Alfred blockaded them first in Wareham
+and then in Exeter. The fleet which was coming to carry them
+off, or to bring them reinforcements, fought an indecisive
+engagement with the English ships, and was wrecked immediately
+after on the cliffs of the Isle of Purbeck, where more than
+100 galleys and all their crews perished. On hearing of this
+disaster the vikings in Exeter surrendered the place on being
+granted a free departure.</p>
+
+<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:515px; height:705px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img469.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+<p class="pt2">Yet within a few months of this successful campaign Alfred
+was attacked at midwinter by the main Danish army under
+King Guthrum. He was apparently taken by surprise by an
+assault at such an unusual time of the year, and was forced to
+escape with his military household to the isle of Athelney among
+the marshes of the Parrett. The invaders harried Wiltshire
+and Hampshire at their leisure, and vainly thought that Wessex
+was at last subdued. But with the spring the English rallied:
+a Danish force was cut to pieces before Easter by the men of
+Devonshire. A few weeks later Alfred had issued from Athelney,
+had collected a large army in Selwood, and went out to meet the
+enemy in the open field. He beat them at Edington in Wiltshire,
+blockaded them in their great camp at Chippenham, and in
+fourteen days starved them into surrender. The terms were that
+they should give hostages, that they should depart for ever from
+Wessex, and that their king Guthrum should do homage to Alfred
+as overlord, and submit to be baptized, with thirty of his chiefs.
+Not only were all these conditions punctually fulfilled, but
+(what is more astonishing) the Danes had been so thoroughly
+cured of any desire to try their luck against the great king that
+they left him practically unmolested for fourteen years (878-892).
+King Guthrum settled down as a Christian sovereign in East
+Anglia, with the bulk of the host that had capitulated at
+Chippenham. Of the rest of the invaders one section established
+a petty kingdom in Yorkshire, but those in the Midlands were
+subject to no common sovereign but lived in a loose confederacy
+under the jarls of the &ldquo;Five Boroughs&rdquo; already named above.
+The boundary between English and Danes established by the
+peace of 878 is not perfectly ascertainable, but a document of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page470" id="page470"></a>470</span>
+a few years later, called &ldquo;Alfred and Guthrum&rsquo;s frith,&rdquo; gives
+the border as lying from Thames northward up the Lea to its
+source, then across to Bedford, and then along the Ouse to
+Watling Street, the old Roman road from London to Chester.
+This gave King Alfred London and Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire
+and Bedfordshire, and the larger half of Mercia&mdash;lands that
+had never before been an integral part of Wessex, though they
+had some time been tributary to her kings. They were now
+taken inside the realm and governed by the ealdorman Ęthelred,
+the king&rsquo;s son-in-law. The Mercians gladly mingled with the
+West Saxons, and abandoned all memories of ancient independence.
+Twenty years of schooling under the hand of the
+Dane had taught them to forget old particularism.</p>
+
+<p>Alfred&rsquo;s enlarged kingdom was far more powerful than any
+one of the three new Danish states which lay beyond the Lea and
+Watling Street: it was to be seen, ere another generation was
+out, that it was stronger than all three together. But Alfred
+was not to see the happy day when York and Lincoln, Colchester
+and Leicester, were to become mere shire-capitals in the realm
+of United England.</p>
+
+<p>The fourteen years of comparative peace which he now
+enjoyed were devoted to perfecting the military organization
+of his enlarged kingdom. His fleet was reconstructed:
+in 882 he went out with it in person and destroyed a
+<span class="sidenote">Alfred&rsquo;s reforms.</span>
+small piratical squadron: in 885 we hear of it coasting
+all along Danish East Anglia. But his navy was not yet strong
+enough to hold off all raids: it was not till the very end of his
+reign that he perfected it by building &ldquo;long ships that were nigh
+twice as large as those of the heathen; some had 60 oars, some
+more; and they were both steadier and swifter and lighter than
+the others, and were shaped neither after the Frisian nor after
+the Danish fashion, but as it seemed to himself that they would
+be most handy.&rdquo; This great war fleet he left as a legacy to his
+son, but he himself in his later campaigns had only its first
+beginnings at his disposal.</p>
+
+<p>His military reforms were no less important. Warned by the
+failures of the English against Danish entrenched camps, he
+introduced the long-neglected art of fortification, and built many
+&ldquo;burhs&rdquo;&mdash;stockaded fortresses on mounds by the waterside&mdash;wherein
+dwelt permanent garrisons of military settlers. It
+would seem that the system by which he maintained them was
+that he assigned to each a region of which the inhabitants were
+responsible for its manning and its sustentation. The landowners
+had either to build a house within it for their own inhabiting,
+or to provide that a competent substitute dwelt there to
+represent them. These &ldquo;burh-ware,&rdquo; or garrison-men, are repeatedly
+mentioned in Alfred&rsquo;s later years. The old national levy
+of the &ldquo;fyrd&rdquo; was made somewhat more serviceable by an
+ordinance which divided it into two halves, one of which must
+take the field when the other was dismissed. But it would seem
+that the king paid even more attention to another military
+reform&mdash;the increase of the number of the professional fighting
+class, the thegnhood as it was now called. All the wealthier
+men, both in the countryside and in the towns, were required
+to take up the duties as well as the privileges of membership
+of the military household of the king. They became &ldquo;of thegn-right
+worthy&rdquo; by receiving, really or nominally, a place in the
+royal hall, with the obligation to take the field whenever their
+master raised his banner. The document which defines their
+duties and privileges sets forth that &ldquo;every ceorl who throve so
+that he had fully five hides of land, and a helm, and a mail-shirt,
+and a sword ornamented with gold, was to be reckoned gesithcund.&rdquo;
+A second draft allowed the man who had the military
+equipment complete, but not fully the five hides of land, to slip
+into the list, and also &ldquo;the merchant who has fared thrice over
+the high seas at his own expense.&rdquo; How far the details of the
+scheme are Alfred&rsquo;s own, how far they were developed by his
+son Edward the Elder, it is unfortunately impossible to say.
+But there is small doubt that the system was working to some
+extent in the later wars of the great king, and that his successes
+were largely due to the fact that his army contained a larger
+nucleus of fully armed warriors than those of his predecessors.</p>
+
+<p>Military reforms were only one section of the work of King
+Alfred during the central years of his reign. It was then that he
+set afoot his numerous schemes for the restoration of the learning
+and culture of England which had sunk so low during the long
+years of disaster which had preceded his accession. How he
+gathered scholars from the continent, Wales and Ireland; how
+he collected the old heroic poems of the nation, how he himself
+translated books from the Latin tongue, started schools, and set
+his scribes to write up the <i>Anglo-Saxon Chronicle</i>, is told elsewhere,
+as are his mechanical inventions, his buildings, and his
+dealings with missionaries and explorers (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Alfred</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>The test of the efficiency of his work was that it held firm
+when, in his later years, the Danish storm once more began to
+beat against the shores of Wessex. In the years 892-896 Alfred
+was assailed from many sides at once by viking fleets, of which
+the most important was that led by the great freebooter Hasting.
+Moreover, the settled Danes of eastern England broke their oaths
+and gave the invaders assistance. Yet the king held his own,
+with perfect success if not with ease. The enemy was checked,
+beaten off, followed up rapidly whenever he changed his base of
+operation, and hunted repeatedly all across England. The
+campaigning ranged from Appledore in Kent to Exeter, from
+Chester to Shoeburyness; but wherever the invaders transferred
+themselves, either the king, or his son Edward, or his son-in-law
+Ethelred, the ealdorman of Mercia, was promptly at hand with a
+competent army. The camps of the Danes were stormed, their
+fleet was destroyed in the river Lea in 895, and at last the
+remnant broke up and dispersed, some to seek easier plunder in
+France, others to settle down among their kinsmen in Northumbria
+or East Anglia.</p>
+
+<p>Alfred survived for four years after his final triumph in 896,
+to complete the organization of his fleet and to repair the damages
+done by the last four years of constant fighting. He died on the
+26th of October 900, leaving Wessex well armed for the continuance
+of the struggle, and the inhabitants of the &ldquo;Danelagh&rdquo;
+much broken in spirit. They saw that it would never be in their
+power to subdue all England. Within a few years they were
+to realize that it was more probable that the English kings
+would subdue them.</p>
+
+<p>The house of Wessex continued to supply a race of hard-fighting
+and capable monarchs, who went on with Alfred&rsquo;s work.
+His son, Edward the Elder, and his three grandsons,
+Ęthelstan, Edmund and Edred, devoted themselves
+<span class="sidenote">Edward the Elder.</span>
+for fifty-five years (<span class="scs">A.D.</span> 900-955) to the task of conquering
+the Danelagh, and ended by making England into
+a single unified kingdom, not by admitting the conquered
+to homage and tribute, in the old style of the 7th century, but
+by their complete absorption. The process was not so hard as
+might be thought; when once the Danes had settled down,
+had brought over wives from their native land or taken them
+from among their English vassals, had built themselves farmsteads
+and accumulated flocks and herds, they lost their old
+advantage in contending with the English. Their strength
+had been their mobility and their undisputed command of the
+sea. But now they had possessions of their own to defend, and
+could not raid at large in Wessex or Mercia without exposing
+their homes to similar molestation. Moreover, the fleet which
+Alfred had built, and which his successors kept up, disputed
+their mastery of the sea, and ended by achieving a clear superiority
+over them. Unity of plan and unity of command was also
+on the side of the English. The inhabitants of the three sections
+of the Danelagh were at best leagued in a many-headed confederacy.
+Their opponents were led by kings whose orders
+were punctually obeyed from Shrewsbury to Dover and from
+London to Exeter. It must also be remembered that in the
+greater part of the land which they possessed the Danes were
+but a small minority of the population. After their first fury
+was spent they no longer exterminated the conquered, but
+had been content to make the Mercians and Deirans their
+subjects, to take the best of the land, and exact tribute for the
+rest. Only in Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire and parts of Nottinghamshire
+and Leicestershire do they seem to have settled thickly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page471" id="page471"></a>471</span>
+and formed a preponderating element in the countryside. In
+the rest of the Midlands and in East Anglia they were only a
+governing oligarchy of scanty numbers. Everywhere there was
+an English lower class which welcomed the advent of the conquering
+kings of Wessex and the fall of the Danish jarls.</p>
+
+<p>Edward the Elder spent twenty-five laborious years first in
+repelling and repaying Danish raids, then in setting to work to
+subdue the raiders. He worked forward into the Danelagh,
+building <i>burhs</i> as he advanced, to hold down each district that
+he won. He was helped by his brother-in-law, the Mercian
+ealdorman Ęthelred, and, after the death of that magnate, by
+his warlike sister Ęthelflęd, the ealdorman&rsquo;s widow, who was
+continued in her husband&rsquo;s place. While Edward, with London
+as his base, pushed forward into the eastern counties, his sister,
+starting from Warwick and Stafford, encroached on the Danelagh
+along the line of the Trent. The last Danish king of East
+Anglia was slain in battle in 918, and his realm annexed. Ęthelflęd
+won Derby and Leicester, while her brother reduced
+Stamford and Nottingham. Finally, in 921, not only was the
+whole land south of the Humber subdued, but the Yorkshire
+Danes, the Welsh, and even&mdash;it is said&mdash;the remote Scots of the
+North, did homage to Edward and became his men.</p>
+
+<p>In 925 Edward was succeeded by his eldest, son Ęthelstan,
+who completed the reduction of the Danelagh by driving out
+Guthfrith, the Danish king of York, and annexing
+his realm. But this first conquest of the region beyond
+<span class="sidenote">Ęthelstan.</span>
+Humber had to be repeated over and over again; time
+after time the Danes rebelled and proclaimed a new king, aided
+sometimes by bands of their kinsmen from Ireland or Norway,
+sometimes by the Scots and Strathclyde Welsh. Ęthelstan&rsquo;s
+greatest and best-remembered achievement was his decisive
+victory in 937 at Brunanburh&mdash;an unknown spot, probably by
+the Solway Firth or the Ribble&mdash;over a great confederacy of
+rebel Danes of Yorkshire, Irish Danes from Dublin, the Scottish
+king, Constantine, and Eugenius, king of Strathclyde. Yet
+even after such a triumph Ęthelstan had to set up a Danish
+under-king in Yorkshire, apparently despairing of holding it
+down as a shire governed by a mere ealdorman. But its overlordship
+he never lost, and since he also maintained the supremacy
+which his father had won over the Welsh and Scots, it
+was not without reason that he called himself on his coins
+and in his charters <i>Rex totius Britanniae</i>. Occasionally he
+even used the title <i>Basileus</i>, as if he claimed a quasi-imperial
+position.</p>
+
+<p>The trampling out of the last embers of Danish particularism
+in the North was reserved for Ęthelstan&rsquo;s brothers and successors,
+Edmund and Edred (940-955), who put down
+several risings of the Yorkshiremen, one of which was
+<span class="sidenote">Edmund: Edred.</span>
+aided by a rebellion of the Midland Danes of the Five
+Boroughs. But the untiring perseverance of the house of Alfred
+was at last rewarded by success. After the expulsion of the last
+rebel king of York, Eric Haraldson, by Edred in 948, we cease
+to hear of trouble in the North. When next there was rebellion
+in that quarter it was in favour of a Wessex prince, not of a
+Danish adventurer, and had no sinister national significance.
+The descendants of the vikings were easily incorporated in the
+English race, all the more so because of the wise policy of the
+conquering kings, who readily employed and often promoted
+to high station men of Danish descent who showed themselves
+loyal&mdash;and this not only in the secular but in spiritual offices.
+In 942 Oda, a full-blooded Dane, was made archbishop of Canterbury.
+The Danelagh became a group of earldoms, ruled by
+officials who were as often of Danish as of English descent.</p>
+
+<p>It is notable that when, after Edred&rsquo;s death, there was civil
+strife, owing to the quarrel of his nephew Edwy with some of
+his kinsmen, ministers and bishops, the rebels, who included the
+majority of the Mercians and Northumbrians, set up as their
+pretender to the throne not a Dane but Edwy&rsquo;s younger brother
+Edgar, who ruled for a short time north of Thames, and became
+sole monarch on the death of his unfortunate kinsman.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Edgar (959-975) saw the culmination of the
+power of the house of Alfred. It was untroubled by rebellion
+or by foreign invasions, so that the king won the honourable
+title of <i>Rex Pacificus</i>. The minor sovereigns of Britain owned
+<span class="sidenote">Edgar.</span>
+him as overlord, as they had owned his grandfather
+Edward and his uncle Ęthelstan. It was long
+remembered &ldquo;how all the kings of this island, both the Welsh
+and the Scots, eight kings, came to him once upon a time on
+one day and all bowed to his governance.&rdquo; The eight were
+Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Strathclyde, Maccus of Man,
+and five Welsh kings. There is fair authority for the well-known
+legend that, after this meeting at Chester, he was rowed in his
+barge down the Dee by these potentates, such a crew as never
+was seen before or after, and afterwards exclaimed that those
+who followed him might now truly boast that they were kings
+of all Britain.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar&rsquo;s chief counsellor was the famous archbishop Dunstan,
+to whom no small part of the glory of his reign has been ascribed.
+This great prelate was an ecclesiastical reformer&mdash;a leader in a
+movement for the general purification of morals, and especially
+for the repressing of simony and evil-living among the clergy&mdash;a
+great builder of churches, and a stringent enforcer of the rules
+of the monastic life. But he was also a busy statesman; he
+probably had a share in the considerable body of legislation
+which was enacted in Edgar&rsquo;s reign, and is said to have encouraged
+him in his policy of treating Dane and Englishman with
+exact equality, and of investing the one no less than the other
+with the highest offices in church and state.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar&rsquo;s life was too short for the welfare of his people&mdash;he
+was only in his thirty-third year when he died in 975, and his sons
+were young boys. The hand of a strong man was still needed
+to keep the peace in the newly-constituted realm of all England,
+and the evils of a minority were not long in showing themselves.
+One section of the magnates had possession of the thirteen-year-old
+king Edward, and used his name to cover their ambitions.
+The other was led by his step-mother Ęlfthryth, who was set
+on pushing the claims of her son, the child Ęthelred. After much
+factious strife, and many stormy meetings of the Witan, Edward
+was murdered at Corfe in 978 by some thegns of the party of
+the queen-dowager. The crime provoked universal indignation,
+but since there was no other prince of the house of Alfred available,
+the magnates were forced to place Ęthelred on the throne:
+he was only in his eleventh year, and was at least personally
+innocent of complicity in his brother&rsquo;s death.</p>
+
+<p>With the accession of Ęthelred, the &ldquo;Redeless,&rdquo; as he was
+afterwards called from his inability to discern good counsel from
+evil, and the consistent incapacity of his policy, an
+evil time began. The retirement from public life of
+<span class="sidenote">Ęthelred the Unready.</span>
+Edgar&rsquo;s old minister Dunstan was the first event of
+the new reign, and no man of capacity came forward
+to take his place. The factions which had prevailed during the
+reign of Edward &ldquo;the Martyr&rdquo; seem to have continued to rage
+during his brother&rsquo;s minority, yet Ęthelred&rsquo;s earliest years were
+his least disastrous. It was hoped that when he came to man&rsquo;s
+estate things would improve, but the reverse was the case. The
+first personal action recorded of him is an unjust harrying of
+the goods of his own subjects, when he besieged Rochester
+because he had quarrelled with its bishop over certain lands,
+and was bribed to depart with 100 pounds of silver. Yet from
+978 to 991 no irreparable harm came to England; the machinery
+for government and defence which his ancestors had established
+seemed fairly competent to defend the realm even under a
+wayward and incapable king. Two or three small descents of
+vikings are recorded, but the ravaging was purely local, and
+the invader soon departed. No trouble occurred in the Danelagh,
+where the old tendency of the inhabitants to take sides
+with their pagan kinsmen from over the sea appears to have
+completely vanished. But the vikings had apparently learnt
+<span class="sidenote">Danish invasions.</span>
+by small experiments that England was no longer
+guarded as she had been in the days of Alfred or
+Ęthelstan, and in 991 the first serious invasion of
+Ęthelred&rsquo;s reign took place. A large fleet came ashore in Essex,
+and, after a hard fight with the ealdorman Brihtnoth at Maldon,
+slew him and began to ravage the district north of the Thames.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page472" id="page472"></a>472</span>
+Instead of making a desperate attempt to drive them off, the
+king bribed them to depart with 10,000 pounds of silver, accepting
+it is said this cowardly advice from archbishop Sigeric.
+The fatal precedent soon bore fruit: the invaders came back
+in larger numbers, headed by Olaf Tryggveson, the celebrated
+adventurer who afterwards made himself king of Norway, and
+who was already a pretender to its throne. He was helped by
+Sweyn, king of Denmark, and the two together laid siege to
+London in 994, but were beaten off by the citizens. Nevertheless
+Ęthelred for a second time stooped to pay tribute, and bought
+the departure of Dane and Norwegian with 16,000 pounds of
+silver. There was a precarious interval of peace for three years
+after, but in 997 began a series of invasions led by Sweyn which
+lasted for seventeen years, and at last ended in the complete
+subjection of England and the flight of Ęthelred to Normandy.
+It should be noted that the invader during this period was no
+mere adventurer, but king of all Denmark, and, after Olaf
+Tryggveson&rsquo;s death in 1000, king of Norway also. His power
+was something far greater than that of the Guthrums and
+Anlafs of an earlier generation, and&mdash;in the end of his life at
+least&mdash;he was aiming at political conquest, and not either at
+mere plunder or at finding new settlements for his followers.
+But if the strength of the invader was greater than that of his
+predecessors, Ęthelred also was far better equipped for war
+than his ancestors of the 9th century. He owned, and he sometimes
+used&mdash;but always to little profit&mdash;a large fleet, while all
+England instead of the mere realm of Wessex was at his back.
+Any one of the great princes of the house of Egbert who had
+reigned from 871 to 975, would have fought a winning fight with
+such resources, and it took nearly twenty years of Ęthelred&rsquo;s
+tried incapacity to lose the game. He did, however, succeed
+in undoing all the work of his ancestors, partly by his own
+slackness and sloth, partly by his choice of corrupt and treacherous
+ministers. For the two ealdormen whom he delighted to
+honour and placed at the head of his armies, Ęlfric and Eadric
+Streona, are accused, the one of persistent cowardice, the other
+of underhand intrigue with the Danes. Some of the local magnates
+made a desperate defence of their own regions, especially
+Ulfkytel of East Anglia, a Dane by descent; but the central
+government was at fault. Ęthelred&rsquo;s army was always at the
+wrong place&mdash;&ldquo;if the enemy were east then was the <i>fyrd</i> held west,
+and if they were north then was our force held south.&rdquo; When
+Ęthelred did appear it was more often to pay a bribe to the
+invaders than to fight. Indeed the <i>Danegeld</i>, the tax which he
+raised to furnish tribute to the invaders, became a regular
+institution: on six occasions at least Ęthelred bought a few
+months of peace by sums ranging from 10,000 to 48,000 pounds
+of silver.</p>
+
+<p>At last in the winter of 1013-1014, more as it would seem from
+sheer disgust at their king&rsquo;s cowardice and incompetence than
+because further resistance was impossible, the English
+gave up the struggle and acknowledged Sweyn as king.
+<span class="sidenote">Canute.</span>
+First Northumbria, then Wessex, then London yielded, and
+Ęthelred was forced to fly over seas to Richard, duke of Normandy,
+whose sister he had married as his second wife. But
+Sweyn survived his triumph little over a month; he died suddenly
+at Gainsborough on the 3rd of February 1014. The Danes hailed
+his son Canute, a lad of eighteen, as king, but many of the
+English, though they had submitted to a hard-handed conqueror
+like Sweyn, were not prepared to be handed over like slaves to his
+untried successor. There was a general rising, the old king was
+brought over from Normandy, and Canute was driven out for a
+moment by force of arms. He returned next year with a greater
+army to hear soon after of Ęthelred&rsquo;s death (1016). The
+witan chose Edmund &ldquo;Ironside,&rdquo; the late king&rsquo;s eldest son, to
+succeed him, and as he was a hard-fighting prince of that normal
+type of his house to which his father had been such a disgraceful
+exception, it seemed probable that the Danes might be beaten
+off. But Ęthelred&rsquo;s favourite Eadric Streona adhered to Canute,
+fearing to lose the office and power that he had enjoyed for so
+long under Ęthelred, and prevailed on the magnates of part of
+Wessex and Mercia to follow his example. For a moment the
+curious phenomenon was seen of Canute reigning in Wessex,
+while Edmund was making head against him with the aid of the
+Anglo-Danes of the &ldquo;Five Boroughs&rdquo; and Northumbria. There
+followed a year of desperate struggle: the two young kings
+fought five pitched battles, fortune seemed to favour Edmund,
+and the traitor Eadric submitted to him with all Wessex. But
+the last engagement, at Assandun (Ashingdon) in Essex went
+against the English, mainly because Eadric again betrayed the
+national cause and deserted to the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Edmund was so hard hit by this last disaster that he offered
+to divide the realm with Canute; they met on the isle of Alney
+near Gloucester, and agreed that the son of Ęthelred should
+keep Wessex and all the South, London and East Anglia, while
+the Dane should have Northumbria, the &ldquo;five boroughs&rdquo; and
+Eadric&rsquo;s Mercian earldom. But ere the year was out Edmund
+died: secretly murdered, according to some authorities, by the
+infamous Eadric. The witan of Wessex made no attempt to set
+on the throne either one of the younger sons of Ęthelred by his
+Norman wife, or the infant heir of Edmund, but chose Canute
+as king, preferring to reunite England by submission to the
+stranger rather than to continue the disastrous war.</p>
+
+<p>They were wise in so doing, though their motive may have
+been despair rather than long-sighted policy. Canute became
+more of an Englishman than a Dane: he spent more of his time
+in his island realm than in his native Denmark. He paid off and
+sent home the great army with whose aid he had won the English
+crown, retaining only a small bodyguard of &ldquo;house-carls&rdquo; and
+trusting to the loyalty of his new subjects. There was no confiscation
+of lands for the benefit of intrusive Danish settlers. On
+the contrary Canute had more English than Danish courtiers
+and ministers about his person, and sent many Englishmen as
+bishops and some even as royal officers to Denmark. It is strange
+to find that&mdash;whether from policy or from affection&mdash;he married
+King Ęthelred&rsquo;s young widow Emma of Normandy, though
+she was somewhat older than himself&mdash;so that his son King
+Harthacnut and that son&rsquo;s successor Edward the Confessor, the
+heir of the line of Wessex, were half-brothers. It might have
+been thought likely that the son of the pagan Sweyn would have
+turned out a mere hard-fighting viking. But Canute developed
+into a great administrator and a friend of learning and culture.
+Occasionally he committed a harsh and tyrannical act. Though
+he need not be blamed for making a prompt end of the traitor
+Eadric Streona and of Uhtred, the turbulent earl of Northumbria,
+at the commencement of his reign, there are other and less
+justifiable deeds of blood to be laid to his account. But they
+were but few; for the most part his administration was just and
+wise as well as strong and intelligent.</p>
+
+<p>As long as he lived England was the centre of a great Northern
+empire, for Canute reconquered Norway, which had lapsed into
+independence after his father&rsquo;s death, and extended his power
+into the Baltic. Moreover, all the so-called Scandinavian
+colonists in the Northern Isles and Ireland owned him as overlord.
+So did the Scottish king Malcolm, and the princes of Wales
+and Strathclyde. The one weak point in his policy that can be
+detected is that he left in the hands of Malcolm the Bernician
+district of Lothian, which the Scot had conquered during the
+anarchy that followed the death of Ęthelred. The battle of
+Carham (1018) had given this land to the Scots, and Canute
+consented to draw the border line of England at the Tweed
+instead of at the Firth of Forth, when Malcolm did him homage.
+Strangely enough it was this cession of a Northumbrian earldom
+to the Northern king that ultimately made Scotland an English-speaking
+country. For the Scottish kings, deserting their native
+Highlands, took to dwelling at Edinburgh among their new subjects,
+and first the court and afterwards the whole of their Lowland
+subjects were gradually assimilated to the Northumbrian
+nucleus which formed both the most fertile and the most civilized
+portion of their enlarged realm.</p>
+
+<p>The fact, that England recovered with marvellous rapidity
+from the evil effects of Ęthelred&rsquo;s disastrous reign, and achieved
+great wealth and prosperity under Canute, would seem to show
+that the ravages of Sweyn, widespread and ruthless though they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page473" id="page473"></a>473</span>
+had been, had yet fallen short of the devastating completeness
+of those of the earlier vikings. He had been more set on exacting
+tribute than on perpetrating wanton massacres. A few years
+of peace and wise administration seem to have restored the realm
+to a satisfactory condition. A considerable mass of his legislation
+has survived to show Canute&rsquo;s care for law and order.</p>
+
+<p>Canute died in 1035, aged not more than forty or forty-one.
+The crown was disputed between his two sons, the half-brothers
+Harold and Harthacnut; it was doubtful whether the birth of
+the elder prince was legitimate, and Queen Emma strove to get
+her own son Harthacnut preferred to him. In Denmark the
+younger claimant was acknowledged by the whole people, but
+in England the Mercian and Northumbrian earls chose Harold
+as king, and Wessex only fell to Harthacnut. Both the young
+kings were cruel, dissolute and wayward, most unworthy sons
+of a wise father. It was to the great profit of England that they
+died within two years of each other, the elder in 1040, the
+younger in 1042.</p>
+
+<p>On Harthacnut&rsquo;s death he was succeeded not by any Danish
+prince but by his half-brother Edward, the elder son of Ęthelred
+and Emma, whom he had entertained at his court, and
+had apparently designated as his heir, for he had no
+<span class="sidenote">Edward the Confessor.</span>
+offspring. There was an end of the empire of Canute,
+for Denmark fell to the great king&rsquo;s nephew, Sweyn
+Estrithson, and Norway had thrown off the Danish yoke. Engaged
+in wars with each other, Dane and Norseman had no leisure
+to think of reconquering England. Hence Edward&rsquo;s accession
+took place without any friction. He reigned, but did not rule,
+for twenty-four years, though he was well on in middle age before
+he was crowned. Of all the descendants of Alfred he was the only
+one who lived to see his sixtieth birthday&mdash;the house of Wessex
+were a short-lived race. In character he differed from all his
+ancestors&mdash;he had Alfred&rsquo;s piety without his capacity, and
+Ęthelred&rsquo;s weakness without his vices. The mildest of men, a
+crowned monk, who let slip the reins of government from his
+hands while he busied himself in prayer and church building, he
+lowered the kingly power to a depth to which it had never sunk
+before in England. His sole positive quality, over and above
+his piety, was a love for his mother&rsquo;s kin, the Normans. He had
+spent his whole life from 1013 to 1040 as an exile at the court of
+Rouen, and was far more of a Norman than an Englishman. It
+was but natural, therefore, that he should invite his continental
+relatives and the friends of his youth to share in his late-coming
+prosperity. But when he filled his court with them, made
+them earls and bishops, and appointed one of them, Robert of
+Jumičges, to the archbishopric of Canterbury, his undisguised
+preference for strangers gave no small offence to his English
+subjects. In the main, however, the king&rsquo;s personal likes and
+dislikes mattered little to the realm, since he had a comparatively
+small share in its governance. He was habitually overruled and
+dominated by his earls, of whom three, Leofric, Godwine and
+Siward&mdash;all old servants of Canute&mdash;had far more power than
+their master. Holding respectively the great earldoms of West
+Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria, they reigned almost like petty
+sovereigns in their domains, and there seemed some chance that
+England might fall apart into semi-independent feudal states,
+just as France had done in the preceding century. The rivalries
+and intrigues of these three magnates constitute the main part
+of the domestic politics of Edward&rsquo;s reign. Godwine, whose
+<span class="sidenote">Harold.</span>
+daughter had wedded the king, was the most forcible
+and ambitious of the three, but his pre-eminence provoked
+a general league against him and in 1051 he was cast out
+of the kingdom with his sons. In the next year he returned in
+arms, raised Wessex in revolt, and compelled the king to in-law
+him again, to restore his earldom, and to dismiss with ignominy
+the Norman favourites who were hunted over seas. The old earl
+died in 1053, but was succeeded in power by his son Harold, who
+for thirteen years maintained an unbroken mastery over the king,
+and ruled England almost with the power of a regent. There
+seems little doubt that he aspired to be Edward&rsquo;s successor:
+there was no direct heir to the crown, and the nearest of kin
+was ah infant, Edgar, the great-nephew of the reigning sovereign
+and grandson of Edmund Ironside. England&rsquo;s experience of
+minors on the throne had been unhappy&mdash;Edwy and Ęthelred
+the Redeless were warnings rather than examples. Moreover,
+Harold had before his eye as a precedent the displacement of
+the effete Carolingian line in France, by the new house of Robert
+the Strong and Hugh Capet, seventy years before. He prepared
+for the crisis that must come at the death of Edward the Confessor
+by bestowing the governance of several earldoms upon
+his brothers. Unfortunately for him, however, the eldest of
+them, Tostig, proved the greatest hindrance to his plans, provoking
+wrath and opposition wherever he went by his high-handedness
+and cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>Harold&rsquo;s governance of the realm seems to have been on the
+whole successful. He put down the Scottish usurper Macbeth
+with the swords of a Northumbrian army, and restored
+Malcolm III. to the throne of that kingdom (1055-1058). He
+led an army into the heart of Wales to punish the raids of King
+Griffith ap Llewelyn, and harried the Welsh so bitterly that they
+put their leader to death, and renewed their homage to the
+English crown (1063). He won enthusiastic devotion from the
+men of Wessex and the South, but in Northumbria and Mercia
+he was less liked. His experiment in taking the rule of these
+earldoms out of the hands of the descendants of Siward and
+Leofric proved so unsuccessful that he had to resign himself to
+undoing it. Ultimately one of Leofric&rsquo;s grandsons, Edwin, was
+left as earl of Mercia, and the other, Morcar, became earl of
+Northumbria instead of Harold&rsquo;s unpopular brother Tostig.
+It was on this fact that the fortune of England was to turn, for
+in the hour of crisis Harold was to be betrayed by the lords of the
+Midlands and the North.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere about the end of his period of ascendancy, perhaps
+in 1064, Harold was sailing in the Channel when his ship was
+driven ashore by a tempest near the mouth of the
+Somme. He fell into the hands of William the Bastard,
+<span class="sidenote">Origin of the Norman Conquest.</span>
+duke of Normandy, King Edward&rsquo;s cousin and best-loved
+relative. The duke brought him to Rouen, and
+kept him in a kind of honourable captivity till he had extorted
+a strange pledge from him. William alleged that his cousin
+had promised to make him his heir, and to recommend him to
+the witan as king of England. He demanded that Harold
+should swear to aid him in the project. Fearing for his personal
+safety, the earl gave the required oath, and sailed home a perjured
+man, for he had assuredly no intention of keeping the
+promise that had been extorted from him. Within two years
+King Edward expired (Jan. 5, 1066) after having recommended
+Harold as his successor to the thegns and bishops who stood
+about his death-bed. The witan chose the earl as king without
+any show of doubt, though the assent of the Mercian and Northumbrian
+earls must have been half-hearted. Not a word was
+said in favour of the claim of the child Edgar, the heir of the
+house of Alfred, nothing (of course) for the preposterous claim
+of William of Normandy. Harold accepted the crown without
+a moment&rsquo;s hesitation, and at once prepared to defend it, for
+he was aware that the Norman would fight to gain his purpose.
+He endeavoured to conciliate Edwin and Morcar by marrying
+their sister Ealdgyth, and trusted that he had bought their
+loyal support. When the spring came round it was known that
+William had begun to collect a great fleet and army. Aware
+that the resources of his own duchy were inadequate to the
+conquest of England, he sent all over Europe to hire mercenaries,
+promising every knight who would join him broad lands beyond
+the Channel in the event of victory. He gathered beneath his
+banner thousands of adventurers not only from France, Brittany
+and Flanders, but even from distant regions such as Aragon,
+Apulia and Germany. The native Normans were but a third
+part of his host, and he himself commanded rather as director
+of a great joint-stock venture than as the feudal chief of his own
+duchy. He also obtained the blessing of Pope Alexander II. for
+his enterprise, partly on the plea that Harold was a perjurer,
+partly because Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, had
+acknowledged the late anti-pope Benedict.</p>
+
+<p>All through the summer Harold held a fleet concentrated
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page474" id="page474"></a>474</span>
+under the lee of the Isle of Wight, waiting to intercept William&rsquo;s
+armament, while the fyrd of Wessex was ready to support him
+if the enemy should succeed in making a landing. By September
+the provisions were spent, and the ships were growing unseaworthy.
+Very reluctantly the king bade them go round to
+London to refit and revictual themselves. William meanwhile
+had been unable to sail, because for many weeks the wind had
+been unfavourable. If it had set from the south the fortune of
+England would have been settled by a sea-fight. At this moment
+came a sudden and incalculable diversion; Harold&rsquo;s turbulent
+brother Tostig, banished for his crimes in 1065, was seeking
+revenge. He had persuaded Harold Hardrada, king of Norway,
+almost the last of the great viking adventurers, to take him as
+guide for a raid on England. They ran into the Humber with
+a great fleet, beat the earls Edwin and Morcar in battle, and
+captured York. Abandoning his watch on the south coast Harold
+of England flew northward to meet the invaders; he surprised
+them at Stamford Bridge, slew both the Norse king and the
+rebel earl, and almost exterminated their army (Sept. 25? 1066).
+But while he was absent from the Channel the wind turned, and
+William of Normandy put to sea. The English fleet and the
+English army were both absent, and the Normans came safely
+to shore on the 28th of September. Harold had to turn hastily
+southward to meet them. On the 13th of October his host was
+arrayed on the hill of Senlac, 7 miles from the duke&rsquo;s camp at
+Hastings. The ranks of his thegnhood and house-carles had been
+thinned by the slaughter of Stamford Bridge, and their place was
+but indifferently supplied by the hasty levies of London, Wessex
+and the Home Counties. Edwin and Morcar, who should have
+been at his side with their Mercians and Northumbrians, were
+still far away&mdash;probably from treachery, slackness and jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning (October 14) William marched out from Hastings
+and attacked the English host, which stood at bay in a solid
+mass of spear and axemen behind a slight breastwork on the
+hillside. After six hours of desperate fighting the victory fell
+to the duke, who skilfully alternated the use of archers and
+cavalry against the unwieldy English phalanx. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Hastings</a></span>:
+<i>Battle of</i>.) The disaster was complete, Harold himself was
+slain, his two brothers had fallen with him, not even the wreck
+of an army escaped. There was no one to rally the English in
+the name of the house of Godwine. The witan met and hastily
+saluted the child Edgar Ętheling as king. But the earls
+Edwin and Morcar refused to fight for him, and when William
+appeared in front of the gates of London they were opened
+almost without resistance. He was elected king in the old English
+fashion by the surviving magnates, and crowned on Christmas
+Day 1066.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">II. The Norman and Angevin Monarchy (1066-1199)</p>
+
+<p>When William of Normandy was crowned at Westminster by
+Archbishop Aldred of York and acknowledged as king by the
+witan, it is certain that few Englishmen understood
+the full importance of the occasion. It is probable
+<span class="sidenote">William the Conqueror.</span>
+that most men recalled the election of Canute, and
+supposed that the accession of the one alien sovereign
+would have no more permanent effect on the realm than that of
+the other. The rule of the Danish king and his two short-lived
+sons had caused no break in the social or constitutional history
+of England. Canute had become an Englishman, had accepted
+all the old institutions of the nation, had dismissed his host of
+vikings, and had ruled like a native king and for the most part
+with native ministers. Within twenty years of his accession the
+disasters and calamities which had preceded his triumph had
+been forgotten, and the national life was running quietly in its
+old channels. But the accession of William the Bastard meant
+something very different. Canute had been an impressionable
+lad of eighteen or nineteen when he was crowned; he was ready
+and eager to learn and to forget. He had found himself confronted
+in England with a higher civilization and a more advanced
+social organization than those which he had known in
+his boyhood, and he accepted them with alacrity, feeling that
+he was thereby getting advantage. With William the Norman
+all was different: he was a man well on in middle age, too old
+to adapt himself easily to new surroundings, even if he had been
+willing to do so. He never even learnt the language of his
+English subjects, the first step to comprehending their needs
+and their views. Moreover, unlike his Danish predecessor, he
+looked down upon the English from the plane of a higher civilization;
+the Normans regarded the conquered nation as barbarous
+and boorish. The difference in customs and culture between the
+dwellers on the two sides of the Channel was sufficient to make
+this possible; though it is hard to discern any adequate justification
+for the Norman attitude. Probably the bar of language
+was the most prominent cause of estrangement. In five generations
+the viking settlers of Normandy had not only completely
+forgotten their old Scandinavian tongue, but had come to look
+upon those who spoke the kindred English idiom not only as
+aliens but as inferiors. For three centuries French remained the
+court speech, and the mark of civilization and gentility.</p>
+
+<p>Despite all this the Conquest would not have had its actual
+results if William, like Canute, had been able to dismiss his
+conquering army, and to refrain from a general policy
+of confiscation. But he had won his crown not as
+<span class="sidenote">Progress of Norman Settlement.</span>
+duke of Normandy, but as the head of a band of cosmopolitan
+adventurers, who had to be rewarded with land
+in England. Some few received their pay in hard cash, and
+went off to other wars; but the large majority, Breton and
+Angevin, French and Fleming, no less than Norman, wanted
+land. William could only provide it by a wholesale confiscation
+of the estates of all the thegnhood who had followed the house
+of Godwine. Almost his first act was to seize on these lands, and
+to distribute them among his followers. In the regions of the
+South, which had supplied the army that fell at Hastings, at
+least four-fifths of the soil passed to new masters. The dispossessed
+heirs of the old owners had either to sink to the condition
+of peasants, or to throw themselves upon the world and
+seek new homes. The friction and hatred thus caused were bitter
+and long enduring. And this same system of confiscation was
+gradually extended to the rest of England. At first the English
+landowners who had not actually served in Harold&rsquo;s host were
+permitted to &ldquo;buy back their lands,&rdquo; by paying a heavy fine
+to the new king and doing him homage. What would have
+happened supposing that England had made no further stir, and
+had not vexed William by rebellion, it is impossible to say.
+But, as a matter of fact, during the first few years of his reign
+one district after another took up arms and endeavoured to
+cast out the stranger. As it became gradually evident that
+William&rsquo;s whole system of government was to be on new and
+distasteful lines, the English of the Midlands, the North and the
+West all went into rebellion. The risings were sporadic, ill-organized,
+badly led, for each section of the realm fought for its
+own hand. In some parts the insurrections were in favour of
+the sons of Harold, in others Edgar Ętheling was acclaimed as
+king: and while the unwise earls Edwin and Morcar fought for
+their own hand, the Anglo-Danes of the East sent for Sweyn,
+king of Denmark, who proved of small help, for he abode but
+a short space in England, and went off after sacking the great
+abbey of Peterborough and committing other outrages. The
+rebels cut up several Norman garrisons, and gave King William
+much trouble for some years, but they could never face him in
+battle. Their last stronghold, the marsh-fortress of Ely, surrendered
+in 1071, and not long after their most stubborn chief,
+Hereward &ldquo;the Wake,&rdquo; the leader of the fenmen, laid down his
+arms and became King William&rsquo;s man (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Hereward</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>The only result of the long series of insurrections was to
+provoke the king to a cruelty which he had not at first shown, and
+to give him an excuse for confiscating and dividing among his
+foreign knights and barons the immense majority of the estates
+of the English thegnhood. William could be pitiless when provoked;
+to punish the men of the North for persistent rebellion
+and the destruction of his garrison at York, he harried the whole
+countryside from the Aire to the Tees with such remorseless
+ferocity that it did not recover its ancient prosperity for centuries.
+The population was absolutely exterminated, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page475" id="page475"></a>475</span>
+great Domesday survey, made nearly twenty years later, shows
+the greater part of Yorkshire as &ldquo;waste.&rdquo; This act was exceptional
+only in its extent: the king was as cruel on a smaller scale
+elsewhere, and not contented with the liberal use of the axe and
+the rope was wont to inflict his favourite punishments of blinding
+and mutilation on a most reckless scale.</p>
+
+<p>The net result of the king&rsquo;s revenge on the rebellious English
+was that by 1075 the old governing class had almost entirely
+disappeared, and that their lands, from the Channel to the
+Tweed, had everywhere been distributed to new holders. To a
+great extent the same horde of continental adventurers who
+had obtained the first batch of grants in Wessex and Kent were
+also the recipients of the later confiscations, so that their newly
+acquired estates were scattered all over England. Many of them
+came to own land in ten or a dozen counties remote from each
+other, a fact which was of the greatest importance in determining
+the character of English feudalism. While abroad the great
+vassals of the crown generally held their property in compact
+blocks, in England their power was weakened by the dispersion
+of their lands. This tendency was assisted by the fact that
+even when the king, as was his custom, transferred to a Norman
+the estates of an English landowner just as they stood, those
+estates were already for the most part not conterminous. Even
+before the Conquest the lands of the magnates were to a large
+extent held in scattered units, not in solid patches. Only in
+two cases did William establish lordships of compact strength,
+and these were created for the special purpose of guarding the
+turbulent Welsh March. The &ldquo;palatine&rdquo; earls of Chester and
+Shrewsbury were not only endowed with special powers and
+rights of jurisdiction, but were almost the only tenants-in-chief
+within their respective shires. These rare exceptions prove the
+general rule: William probably foresaw the dangers of such
+accumulation of territory in private hands. He made a complete
+end of the old English system by which great earls ruled
+many shires: there were to be no Godwines or Leofrics under the
+Norman rule. This particular feudal danger was avoided:
+where earls were created, and they were but few, their authority
+was usually restricted to a single shire.</p>
+
+<p>It remains to speak of the most important change which
+William&rsquo;s rearrangements made in the polity of England. It
+is of course untrue to say&mdash;as was so often done by
+early historians&mdash;that he &ldquo;introduced the feudal
+<span class="sidenote">Feudalism.</span>
+system into England.&rdquo; In some aspects feudalism was already
+in the land before he arrived: in others it may be said
+that it was never introduced at all. He did not introduce
+the practice by which the small man commended himself to the
+great man, and in return for his protection divested himself of
+the full ownership of his own land, and became a customary
+tenant in what later ages called a &ldquo;manor.&rdquo; That system was
+already in full operation in England before the Conquest. In
+some districts the wholly free small landowner had already
+disappeared, though in the regions which had formed the Danelagh
+he was still to be found in large numbers. Nor did William
+introduce the system of great earldoms, passing from father to
+son, which gave over-great subjects a hereditary grip on the
+countryside. On the contrary, as has been already said, he did
+much to check that tendency, which had already developed in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>What he really did do was to reconstruct society on the
+essentially feudal theory that the land was a gift from the king,
+held on conditions of homage and military service. The duties
+which under the old system were national obligations resting
+on the individual as a citizen, he made into duties depending
+on the relation between the king as supreme landowner and the
+subject as tenant of the land. Military service and the paying
+of the feudal taxes&mdash;aids, reliefs, &amp;c.&mdash;are incidents of the
+bargain between the crown and the grantee to whom land has
+been given. That grantee, the tenant-in-chief, has the right to
+demand from his sub-tenants, to whom he has given out fractions
+of his estate, the same dues that the king exacts from himself.
+As at least four-fifths of the land of England had fallen into the
+king&rsquo;s hands between 1066 and 1074, and had been actually
+regranted to new owners&mdash;foreigners to whom the feudal system
+was the only conceivable organization of political existence&mdash;the
+change was not only easy but natural. The few surviving English
+landholders had to fall into line with the newcomers. England,
+in short, was reorganized into a state of the continental type,
+but one differing from France or Germany in that the crown
+had not lost so many of its regalities as abroad, and that even
+the greater earls had less power than the ordinary continental
+tenant-in-chief.</p>
+
+<p>The English people became aware of this transformation in
+the &ldquo;theory of the state&rdquo; mainly through the fact that the new
+tenants-in-chief, bringing with them the ideas in which they
+had been reared, failed to comprehend the rather complicated
+status of the rural population on this side of the Channel. To the
+French or Norman knight all peasants on his manor seemed to
+be villeins, and he failed to understand the distinction between
+freemen who had personally commended themselves to his
+English predecessor but still owned their land, and the mass of
+ordinary servile tenants. There can be no doubt that the first
+effect of the Conquest was that the upper strata of the agricultural
+classes lost the comparative independence which they
+had hitherto enjoyed, and were in many cases depressed to the
+level of their inferiors. The number of freemen began to decrease,
+from the encroachments of the landowner, and continued to
+dwindle for many years: even in districts where Domesday Book
+shows them surviving in considerable numbers, it is clear that
+a generation or two later they had largely disappeared, and
+became merged in the villein class.</p>
+
+<p>In this sense, therefore, England was turned into a feudal
+state by the results of the work of William the Conqueror. But
+it would be wrong to assert that all traces of the
+ancient social organization of the realm were swept
+<span class="sidenote">Domesday.</span>
+away. The old Saxon customs were not forgotten, though
+they might in many cases be twisted to fit new surroundings.
+Indeed William and his successors not infrequently caused them
+to be collected and put on record. The famous Domesday Book
+(<i>q.v.</i>) of 1086 is in its essential nature an inquiry into the state
+of England at the moment of the Conquest, compiled in order
+that the king may have a full knowledge of the rights that he
+possesses as the heir of King Edward. Being primarily intended
+to facilitate the levy of taxation, it dwells more on the details of
+the actual wealth and resources of the country in 1066 and 1086,
+and less on the laws and customs that governed the distribution
+of that wealth, than could have been wished. But it is nevertheless
+a monument of the permanence of the old English institutions,
+even after the ownership of four-fifths of the soil has been
+changed. The king inquires into the state of things in 1066
+because it is on that state of things that his rights of taxation
+depend. He does not claim to have rearranged the whole realm
+on a new basis, or to be levying his revenue on a new assessment
+made at his own pleasure. Nor is it in the sphere of taxation
+alone that William&rsquo;s organization of the realm stands on the old
+English customs. In the military sphere, though his normal army
+is the feudal force composed of the tenants-in-chief and the
+knights whom they have enfeoffed, he retains the power to call
+out the <i>fyrd</i>, the old national <i>levée en masse</i>, without regard to
+whether its members are freemen or villeins of some lord. And
+in judicial matters the higher rights of royal justice remain
+intact, except in the few cases where special privileges have been
+granted to one or two palatine earls. The villein must sue in
+his lord&rsquo;s manorial courts, but he is also subject to the royal
+courts of hundred and shire. The machinery of the local courts
+survives for the most part intact.</p>
+
+<p>William&rsquo;s dealings with the Church of England were no less
+important than his dealings with social organization. In the
+earlier years of his reign he set himself to get rid of
+the whole of the upper hierarchy, in order to replace
+<span class="sidenote">Position of the Church.</span>
+them by Normans. In 1070 Archbishop Stigand was
+deposed as having been uncanonically chosen, and six
+or seven other bishops after him. All the vacancies, as well as
+those which kept occurring during the next few years, were
+immediately filled up with foreigners. By the time that William
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page476" id="page476"></a>476</span>
+had been ten years on the throne there were only three English
+bishops left. At his death there was only one&mdash;the saintly
+Wulfstan of Worcester. The same process was carried out with
+regard to abbacies, and indeed with all important places of
+ecclesiastical preferment. By 1080 the English Church was
+officered entirely by aliens. Just as with the lay landholders,
+the change of <i>personnel</i> made a vast difference, not so much in
+the legal position of the new-comers as in the way in which they
+regarded their office. The outlook of a Norman bishop was as
+unlike that of his English predecessor as that of a Norman baron.
+The English Church had got out of touch with the ideals and the
+spiritual movements of the other Western churches. In especial
+the great monastic revival which had started from the abbey
+of Cluny and spread all over France, Italy and Germany had
+hardly touched this island. The continental churchmen of the
+11th century were brimming over with ascetic zeal and militant
+energy, while the majority of the English hierarchy were slack
+and easy-going. The typical faults of the dark ages, pluralism,
+simony, lax observation of the clerical rules, contented ignorance,
+worldliness in every aspect, were all too prevalent in England.
+There can be no doubt that the greater part of William&rsquo;s nominees
+were better men than those who preceded them; his great archbishop,
+Lanfranc, though a busy statesman, was also an energetic
+reformer and a man of holy life. Osmund, Remigius and others
+of the first post-Conquest bishops have left a good name behind
+them. The condition of the church alike in the matter of
+spiritual zeal, of hard work and of learning was much improved.
+But there was a danger behind this revival; for the reformers
+of the 11th century, in their zeal for establishing the Kingdom
+of God on earth, were not content with raising the moral and
+intellectual standards prevailing in Christendom, but sought
+to bring the whole scheme of life under the church, by asserting
+the absolute supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power,
+wherever the two came in contact or overlapped. The result,
+since the feudal and ecclesiastical systems had become closely
+interwoven, and the frontier between the religious and secular
+spheres must ever be vague and undefined, was the conflict
+between the spiritual and temporal powers which, for two
+centuries to come, was to tear Europe into warring factions
+(see the articles <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Church History</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Papacy</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Investiture</a></span>).
+The Norman Conquest of England was contemporaneous with
+the supreme influence of the greatest exponent of the theory of
+ecclesiastical supremacy, the archdeacon Hildebrand, who in
+1073 mounted the papal throne as Gregory VII. (<i>q.v.</i>). William,
+despite all his personal faults, was a sincerely pious man, but it
+could not be expected that he would acquiesce in these new
+developments of the religious reformation which he had done
+his best to forward. Hence we find a divided purpose in the
+policy which he pursued with regard to church affairs. He
+endeavoured to keep on the best terms with the papacy: he
+welcomed legates and frequently consulted the pope on purely
+spiritual matters. He even took the hazardous step of separating
+ecclesiastical courts and lay courts, giving the church leave to
+establish separate tribunals of her own, a right which she had
+never possessed in Saxon England. The spiritual jurisdiction
+of the bishop had hitherto been exercised in the ordinary national
+courts, with lay assessors frequently taking part in the proceedings,
+and mixing their dooms with the clergy&rsquo;s canonical
+decisions. William in 1076 granted the church a completely
+independent set of courts, a step which his successors were to
+regret for many a generation.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, however, he was not blind to the possibilities
+of papal interference in domestic matters, and of the danger of
+conflict between the crown and the recently-strengthened
+clerical order. To guard against them he laid down three general
+rules: (1) that no one should be recognized as pope in England
+till he had himself taken cognizance of the papal election, and
+that no papal letters should be brought into the realm without
+his leave; (2) that no decisions of the English ecclesiastical
+synods should be held valid till he had examined and sanctioned
+them; (3) that none of his barons or ministers should be excommunicated
+unless he approved of such punishment being
+inflicted on them. These rules seem to argue a deeply rooted
+distrust of the possible encroachments of the papacy on the power
+of the state. The question of ecclesiastic patronage, which was
+to be the source of the first great quarrel between the crown and
+the church in the next generation, is not touched upon. William
+retained in his own hands the choice of bishops and abbots, and
+Alexander II. and Gregory VII. seem to have made no objection
+to his doing so, in spite of the claim that free election was the only
+canonical way of filling vacancies. The Conqueror was allowed
+for his lifetime to do as he pleased, since he was recognized as a
+true friend of the church. But the question was only deferred
+and not settled.</p>
+
+<p>The political history of William&rsquo;s later years is unimportant;
+his main energy was absorbed in the task of holding down and
+organizing his new kingdom. His rather precarious
+conquest of the county of Maine, his long quarrels
+<span class="sidenote">William&rsquo;s later reign.</span>
+with Philip I. of France, who suborned against him his
+undutiful and rebellious eldest son Robert, his negotiation
+with Flanders and Germany, deserve no more than a
+mention. It is more necessary to point out that he reasserted
+on at least one occasion (when King Malcolm Canmore did him
+homage) the old suzerainty of the English kings over Scotland.
+He also began that encroachment on the borders of Wales which
+was to continue with small interruptions for the next two
+centuries. The advance was begun by his great vassals, the earls
+of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford, all of whom occupied
+new districts on the edge of the mountains of Powys and
+Gwynedd. William himself led an expedition as far as St
+Davids in 1081, and founded Cardiff Castle to mark the boundary
+of his realm north of the Bristol Channel.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most noteworthy event of the second portion of
+the Conqueror&rsquo;s reign was a rebellion which, though it made no
+head and was easily suppressed, marks the commencement of
+that feudal danger which was to be the constant trouble of the
+English kings for the next three generations. Two of the greatest
+of his foreign magnates, Roger, earl of Hereford, and Ralph, earl
+of Norfolk, rose against him in 1075, with no better cause than
+personal grievances and ambitions. He put them down with
+ease; the one was imprisoned for life, the other driven into exile,
+while Waltheof, the last of the English earls, who had dabbled
+in a hesitating way in this plot, was executed. There was never
+any serious danger, but the fact that under the new régime
+baronial rebellion was possible, despite of all William&rsquo;s advantages
+over other feudal kings, and despite of the fact that the
+rebels were hardly yet settled firmly into their new estates, had
+a sinister import for the future of England. With the new
+monarchy there had come into England the anarchic spirit of
+continental feudalism. If such a man as the Conqueror did not
+overawe it, what was to be expected in the reigns of his successors?
+William had introduced into his new realm alike the
+barons, with their personal ambition, and the clerics of the school
+of Hildebrand, with their intense jealousy for the rights of the
+church. The tale of the dealings of his descendants with these
+two classes of opponents constitutes the greater part of English
+history for a full century.</p>
+
+<p>William died at Rouen on the 7th of September 1087; on his
+death-bed he expressed his wish that Normandy should pass to
+his elder son, Robert, in spite of all his rebellions,
+but gave his second son William (known by the nickname
+<span class="sidenote">William Rufus.</span>
+of Rufus) the crown of England, and sent him
+thither with commendatory letters to archbishop Lanfranc and
+his other ministers. There was at first no sign of opposition
+to the will of the late king, and William Rufus was crowned
+within three weeks of his father&rsquo;s decease. But the results of the
+Conquest had made it hard to tear England and Normandy
+apart. Almost every baron in the duchy was now the possessor
+of a smaller or a greater grant of lands in the kingdom, and the
+possibility of serving two masters was as small in 1087 as at any
+other period of the world&rsquo;s history. By dividing his two states
+between his sons the Conqueror undid his own work, and left
+to his subjects the certainty of civil war. For the brothers
+Robert and William were, and always had been, enemies, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page477" id="page477"></a>477</span>
+every intriguing baron had before him the tempting prospect
+of aggrandizing himself, by making his allegiance to one of the
+brothers serve as an excuse for betraying the other. Robert was
+thriftless, volatile and easy-going, a good knight but a most incompetent
+sovereign. These very facts commended him to the
+more turbulent section of the baronage; if he succeeded to the
+whole of the Conqueror&rsquo;s heritage they would have every opportunity
+of enjoying freedom from all governance. William&rsquo;s
+private character was detestable: he was cruel, lascivious,
+greedy of gain, a habitual breaker of oaths and promises, ungrateful
+and irreligious. But he was cunning, strong-handed and
+energetic; clearly the &ldquo;Red King&rdquo; would be an undesirable
+master to those who loved feudal anarchy. Hence every turbulent
+baron in England soon came to the conclusion that Robert
+was the sovereign whom his heart desired.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of the reign of William II. was taken up
+with his fight against the feudal danger. Before he had been six
+months on the throne he was attacked by a league comprising
+more than half the baronage, and headed by his uncles, bishop
+Odo of Bayeux and Robert of Mortain. They used the name
+of the duke of Normandy and had secured his promise to cross
+the Channel for their assistance. A less capable and unscrupulous
+king than Rufus might have been swept away, for the rising
+burst out simultaneously in nearly every corner of the realm.
+But he made head against it with the aid of mercenary bands,
+the loyal minority of the barons, and the shire-levies of his English
+subjects. When he summoned out the fyrd they came in great
+force to his aid, not so much because they trusted in the promises
+of good governance and reduced taxation which he made, but
+because they saw that a horde of greedy barons would be worse
+to serve than a single king, however hard and selfish he might
+be. With their assistance William fought down the rebels,
+expelled his uncle Odo and several other leaders from the realm,
+confiscated a certain amount of estates, and then pardoned the
+remainder of the rebels. Such mercy, as he was to discover,
+was misplaced. In 1095 the same body of barons made a second
+and a more formidable rising, headed by the earls of Shrewsbury,
+Eu and Northumberland. It was put down with the same
+decisive energy that William had shown in 1088, and this time
+he was merciless; he blinded and mutilated William of Eu,
+shut up Mowbray of Northumberland for life in a monastery,
+and hanged many men of lesser rank. Of the other rebels some
+were deprived of their English estates altogether, others restored
+to part of them after paying crushing fines. This second feudal
+rebellion was only a distraction to William from his war with his
+brother Robert, which continued intermittently all through the
+earlier years of his reign. It was raging from 1088 to 1091, and
+again from 1093 to 1096, when Robert tired of the losing game,
+pawned his duchy to his brother and went off on the First
+Crusade. Down to this moment William&rsquo;s position had been
+somewhat precarious; with the Norman war generally on hand,
+feudal rebellion always imminent, and Scottish invasions occasionally
+to be repelled, he had no easy life. But he fought
+through his troubles, conquered Cumberland from the Scots
+(1092), in dealing with his domestic enemies used cunning where
+force failed, and generally got his will in the end. His rule was
+expensive, and he made himself hated by every class of his subjects,
+baronage, clergy and people alike, by his ingenious and
+oppressive taxation. His chosen instrument, a clerical lawyer
+named Ranulf Flambard (<i>q.v.</i>), whom he presently made bishop
+of Durham, was shameless in his methods of twisting feudal
+or national law to the detriment of the taxpayer. William supported
+him in every device, however unjust, with a cynical frankness
+which was the distinguishing trait of his character; for he
+loved to display openly all the vices and meannesses which most
+men take care to disguise. In dealing with the baronage Ranulf
+and his master extorted excessive and arbitrary &ldquo;reliefs&rdquo; whenever
+land passed in succession to heirs. When the church was
+a landholder their conduct was even more unwarrantable; every
+clerk installed in a new preferment was forced to pay a large
+sum down&mdash;which in that age was considered a clear case of
+simony by all conscientious men. But in addition the king kept
+all wealthy posts, such as bishoprics and abbacies, vacant for
+years at a time and appropriated the revenue meanwhile.</p>
+
+<p>This policy, when pursued with regard to the archbishopric
+of Canterbury, brought on Rufus the most troublesome of his
+quarrels. When the wise primate Lanfranc, his
+father&rsquo;s friend, died in 1089, he made no appointment
+<span class="sidenote">Anselm.</span>
+till 1093, extracting meanwhile great plunder from the see. In a
+moment of sickness, when his conscience was for a space troubling
+him or his will was weak, he nominated the saintly Anselm
+(<i>q.v.</i>) to the archbishopric. When enthroned the new primate
+refused to make the enormous gift which the king expected from
+every recipient of preferment. Soon after he began to press for
+leave to hold a national synod, and when it was denied him, spoke
+out boldly on the personal vices as well as the immoral policy
+of the king. From this time William and Anselm became open
+enemies. They fought first upon the question of acknowledging
+Urban II. as pope&mdash;for the king, taking advantage of the fact
+that there was an antipope in existence, refused to allow that
+there was any certain and legitimate head of the Western church
+at the moment. Then, after William had reluctantly yielded
+on this point, the far more important question of lay investitures
+cropped up. The council of Clermont (Nov. 1095) had just
+issued its famous decree to the effect that bishops must be chosen
+by free election, and not invested with their spiritual insignia
+or enfeoffed with their estates by the hands of a secular prince.
+Anselm felt himself obliged to accept this decision, and refused
+to accept his own pallium from William when Urban sent it
+across the sea by the hands of a legate. The king replied by
+harrying him on charges of having failed in his feudal obligation
+to provide well-equipped knights for a Welsh expedition, and
+imposed ruinous fines on him. It was even said that his life was
+threatened, and he fled to Rome in 1097, not to return till his
+adversary was dead. There was much to be said for the theory
+of the king as to the relations between church and state; he was
+indeed only carrying on in a harsh form his father&rsquo;s old policy.
+But the fact that he was a tyrant and an evil-liver, while Anselm
+was a saint, so much influenced public opinion that William was
+universally regarded as in the wrong, and the sympathy of the
+laity no less than the clergy was with the archbishop. For the
+remaining three years of his life the Red King was considered to
+be in a state of reprobation and at open strife with righteousness.</p>
+
+<p>Yet so far as secular affairs went William seemed prosperous
+enough. Since his brother had pawned the duchy of Normandy
+to him, so that he reigned at Rouen no less than at London,
+the danger of rebellion was almost removed. His foreign policy
+was successful: he installed a nominee of his own, Edgar, the
+son of Malcolm Canmore, on the throne of Scotland (1097); he
+reconquered Maine, which his brother Robert had lost; he made
+successful war upon King Philip of France. His barons subdued
+much of South Wales, though his own expeditions into North
+Wales, which he had designed to conquer and annex, had a less
+fortunate ending. He dreamed, we are told, of attacking Ireland,
+even of crowning himself king at Paris. But on the 2nd of August
+1100 he was suddenly cut off in the midst of his sins. While
+hunting with some of his godless companions in the New Forest,
+he was struck by an arrow, unskilfully shot by one of the party.
+The knight Walter Tyrrell, who was persistently accused of
+being the author of his master&rsquo;s death, as persistently denied
+his responsibility for it; and whether the arrow was his or no,
+it was not alleged that malice guided it. William&rsquo;s favourites
+had all to lose by his death.</p>
+
+<p>The king&rsquo;s death was unexpected: he was only in his fortieth
+year, and men&rsquo;s minds had not even begun to ponder over the
+question of who would succeed him. The crown of
+England was left vacant for the boldest kinsman to
+<span class="sidenote">Succession of Henry I.</span>
+snatch at, if he dared. William had two surviving
+brothers, beside several nephews. Robert&rsquo;s claim seemed
+the more likely to succeed, for not only was he the elder,
+but England was full of barons who desired his accession, and
+had already taken up arms for him in 1087 or 1095. But he was
+far away&mdash;being at the moment on his return journey from
+Jerusalem&mdash;while on the spot was his brother Henry, an ambitious
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page478" id="page478"></a>478</span>
+prince, whose previous efforts to secure himself a territorial
+endowment had failed more from ill-luck than from want of
+enterprise or ability. Seeing his opportunity, Henry left his
+brother&rsquo;s body unburied, rode straight off to Winchester with a
+handful of companions, and seized the royal treasure. This and
+his ready tongue were the main arguments by which he convinced
+the few magnates present, and persuaded them to back him,
+despite the protests of some supporters of Robert. There was
+hardly the semblance of an election, and the earl of Warwick
+and the chancellor William Giffard were almost the only persons
+of importance on the spot. But Henry, once hailed as king,
+rode hard for London and persuaded bishop Maurice to crown
+him without delay at Westminster, since the primate Anselm
+was absent beyond seas. He certainly lost no time: Rufus was
+shot on Thursday, the 2nd of August&mdash;his successor was crowned
+on Sunday the 5th of August! The realm heard almost by the
+same messengers that it had lost one king and that it had gained
+another.</p>
+
+<p>Henry at once issued a proclamation and charter promising
+the redress of all the grievances with which his brother had
+afflicted his feudal tenants, the clergy and the whole nation.
+He would keep the ancient laws of King Edward, as amended
+by his father the Conqueror, and give all men good justice.
+These promises he observed more faithfully than Norman kings
+were wont to do; if the pledge was not redeemed in every detail,
+he yet kept England free from anarchy, abandoned the arbitrary
+and unjust taxation of his brother, and set up a government that
+worked by rule and order, not by the fits and starts of tyrannical
+caprice. He was a man of a cold and hard disposition, but full
+of practical wisdom, and conscious that his precarious claim
+to the crown must be secured by winning the confidence of his
+subjects. Almost the first and quite the wisest of his inspirations
+was to wed a princess of the old English line&mdash;Edith,<a name="fa1a" id="fa1a" href="#ft1a"><span class="sp">1</span></a> the niece
+of Edgar Ętheling, the child of his sister Margaret of Scotland
+and Malcolm Canmore. The match, though his Norman barons
+sneered at it, gave him the hearts of all his English subjects,
+who supported him with enthusiasm, and not merely (as had
+been the case with Rufus) because they saw that a strong king
+would oppress them less than a factious and turbulent baronage.
+Henry won much applause at the same time by filling up all
+the bishoprics and abbacies which his brother had kept so long
+vacant, by inviting the exiled Anselm to return to England, and
+by imprisoning William&rsquo;s odious minister Ranulf Flambard.
+He had just time to create a favourable impression by his first
+proceedings, when his brother Robert, who had returned from
+Palestine and resumed possession of Normandy, landed at Portsmouth
+to claim the crown and to rouse his partisans among the
+English baronage. Henry bought him off, before the would-be
+rebels had time to join him, by promising him an annual tribute
+of 3000 marks and surrendering to him all his estates in Normandy
+(1101). His policy seemed tame and cautious, but was
+entirely justifiable, for within a few months of Robert&rsquo;s departure
+the inevitable feudal rebellion broke out. If the duke and his
+army had been on the spot to support it, things might have gone
+hardly with the king. The rising was led by Robert of Belesme,
+earl of Shrewsbury, a petty tyrant of the most ruffianly type, the
+terror of the Welsh marches. He was backed by his kinsmen
+and many other barons, but proved unable to stand before the
+king, who was loyally supported by the English shire levies.
+After taking the strong castles of Arundel, Tickhill, Bridgnorth
+and Shrewsbury, Henry forced the rebels to submit. He confiscated
+their estates and drove them out of the realm; they fled
+for the most part to Normandy, to spur on duke Robert to make
+another bid for the English crown. From the broad lands which
+they forfeited Henry made haste to reward his own servants,
+new men who owed all to him and served him faithfully. From
+them he chose the sheriffs, castellans and councillors through
+whom he administered the realm during the rest of his long reign.</p>
+
+<p>This minor official nobility was the strength of the crown, and
+was sharply divided in spirit and ambition from the older feudal
+aristocracy which descended from the original adventurers who
+had followed William the Conqueror. Yet the latter still remained
+strong enough to constitute a danger to the crown whenever
+it should fall to a king less wary and resolute than Henry
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>Henry was by nature more of an administrator and organizer
+than of a fighting man. He was a competent soldier, but his
+wish was rather to be a strong king at home than a great conqueror
+abroad. Nevertheless he was driven by the logic of
+events to attack Normandy, for as long as his brother reigned
+there, and as long as many English barons retained great holdings
+on both sides of the Channel and were subjects of the duke as
+well as of the king, intrigues and plots never ceased. The
+Norman war ended in the battle of Tenchebrai (Sept. 28, 1106),
+where Duke Robert was taken prisoner. His brother shut him
+up in honourable confinement for the rest of his life, though otherwise
+he was not ill-treated. For the rest of his reign Henry was
+ruler of all the old dominions of the Conqueror, and none of his
+subjects could cloak disloyalty by the pretence of owing a
+divided allegiance to two masters. With this he was content,
+and made no great effort to extend his dominions farther; his
+desire was to reign as a true king in England and Normandy, rather
+than to build up a loosely compacted empire around them.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the time of Henry&rsquo;s Norman war, he was engaged
+in a tiresome controversy with the primate on the question of lay
+investitures, the continuation of the struggle which
+had begun in his brother&rsquo;s reign. Every English king
+<span class="sidenote">Henry&rsquo;s difficulties with the church.</span>
+for five generations had to face the danger from the
+church, no less than the danger from the barons.
+Anselm had come back from Rome confirmed in the theories
+for which he had contended with Rufus&mdash;nay, taught to
+extend them to a further extreme. He now maintained not
+only that it was a sin that kings should invest prelates with their
+spiritual insignia, the pallium, the staff, the ring, but claimed
+that no clerk ought to do homage to the king for the lands of his
+benefice, though he himself seven years before had not scrupled
+to make his oath to his earlier master. He now refused to swear
+allegiance to the new monarch, though he had recalled him and
+had restored him to the possession of his see. He also refused
+to consecrate Henry&rsquo;s nominees to certain bishoprics and abbacies
+on the ground that they had not been chosen by free election
+by their chapters or their monks. The king was loath to take
+up the quarrel, for he highly respected the archbishop; yet he
+was still more loath to surrender the ancient claims and privileges
+of the crown. Anselm was equally reluctant to force matters
+to an open breach, yet would not shift from his position. There
+followed an interminable series of arguments, interrupted by
+truces, till at last Anselm, at the king&rsquo;s suggestion, went to Rome
+to see if the pope could arrange some <i>modus vivendi</i>. Paschal II.
+for some time refused to withdraw from his fixed theory of the
+relation of church and state, and Anselm, in despair, preferred
+to remain abroad rather than to press matters to the rupture that
+seemed the only logical issue of the controversy. But in 1107
+the pope consented to a compromise, which satisfied the king, and
+yet was acceptable to the church. Bishops and abbots were for
+the future to be canonically elected by the clergy, and were no
+longer to receive the ring and staff from lay hands. But they
+were to do homage to the king for their lands, and since they thus
+acknowledged him as their temporal lord Henry was content.
+Moreover, he retained in practice, if not in theory, his power to
+nominate to the vacant offices; chapters and monasteries seldom
+dared to resist the pressure which the sovereign could bring to
+bear upon them in favour of the candidate whom he had selected.
+The arrangement was satisfactory, and served as the model for
+the similar compromise arrived at between Pope Calixtus II.
+and the emperor Henry V. fifteen years later.</p>
+
+<p>From 1107 onward Henry was freed from both the dangers
+which had threatened him in his earlier years, and was free to
+develop his policy as he pleased. He had yet twenty-eight
+years to reign, for he survived to the age of sixty-seven, an age
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page479" id="page479"></a>479</span>
+unparalleled by any of his predecessors, and by all his successors
+till Edward I.</p>
+
+<p>It is to Henry, aided by his great justiciar, Roger, bishop of
+Salisbury, that England owed the institution of the machinery
+of government by which it was to be ruled during the
+earlier middle ages. This may be described as a primitive
+<span class="sidenote">Constitutional machinery.</span>
+kind of bureaucracy, which gradually developed
+into a much more complicated system of courts
+and offices. Around the sovereign was his <i>Curia Regis</i> or body
+of councillors, of whom the most important were the justiciar,
+the chancellor and the treasurer, though the feudal officers, the
+constable and marshal, were also to be found there. The bulk
+of the council, however, was composed of knights and clerks
+selected by the king for their administrative or financial ability.
+The Curia, besides advising the king on ordinary matters of state,
+had two special functions. It sat, or certain members of it sat,
+under the presidency of the king or the justiciar, as the supreme
+court of justice of the realm. In this capacity it tried the suits
+of tenants-in-chief, and all appeals from the local courts. But
+Henry, not contented with this, adopted the custom of sending
+forth certain members of the Curia throughout the realm at
+intervals, to sit in the shire court, along with or in place of the
+sheriff, and to hear and judge all the cases of which the court
+had cognizance. From these itinerant commissioners (justices
+in eyre) descend the modern justices of assize. The sheriff, the
+original president of the shire court, was gradually extruded by
+them from all important business.</p>
+
+<p>But there were other developments of the Curia. The justiciar,
+chancellor and treasurer sat with certain other members of the
+council as the court of exchequer, not only to receive and audit
+the accounts of the royal revenue, but to give legal decisions
+on all questions connected with finance. Twice in every year
+the sheriffs and other royal officials came up to the exchequer
+court, which originally sat at Winchester, with their bags of
+money and their sheaves of accounts. Their figures were subjected
+to a severe scrutiny, and the law was laid down on all
+points in which the interests of the sheriff and the king, or the
+sheriff and the taxpayer, came into conflict. In this way the
+exchequer grew into a law court of primary importance, instead
+of remaining merely a court of receipt. Though its members
+were originally the same men who sat in the Curia Regis, the
+character of the question to be tried settled the capacity in which
+they should sit, and two separate courts were evolved. (See
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Exchequer</a></span>.)</p>
+
+<p>Under the superintendence of the Curia Regis and the exchequer,
+the sheriff still remained the king&rsquo;s factotum in local
+affairs. He led the shire-levies, collected the royal revenues
+both feudal and non-feudal, and presided in the shire-court as
+judge, till in the course of years his functions in that sphere were
+gradually taken over by the itinerant justices. On his fidelity
+the king had to rely both for military aid in times of baronial
+revolt and for the collection of the money which formed the
+sinews of war. Hence the position was one of the highest importance,
+and Henry&rsquo;s new nobility, the men of ability whom he
+selected and promoted, found their special occupation in holding
+the office of sheriff. It was they who had to see that the shire
+court, and in minor affairs the hundred court, did not allow cases
+to slip away into the jurisdiction of the feudal courts of the
+baronage.</p>
+
+<p>Henry I. must count not merely as the father of the English
+bureaucracy, but as a fosterer of the municipal independence of
+the towns. He gave charters of a very liberal character to many
+places, and in especial to London, where the citizens were allowed
+to choose their own sheriff, and to deal directly with the exchequer
+in matters of revenue. He even farmed out to them the
+charge of the taxes of the whole shire of Middlesex, outside the
+city walls. Such a grant was exceptional&mdash;though Lincoln also
+seems to have been granted the privilege of dealing directly with
+the exchequer. But in many other smaller towns the first grants&mdash;the
+smaller beginnings of autonomy&mdash;may be traced back
+to this period (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Borough</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>Though Henry was an autocrat, and governed through
+bureaucratic officials who were entirely under his hand, yet a
+reign of law and order such as his was indirectly favourable to
+the growth of constitutional liberty. It was equally favourable
+to the growth of national unity: it was in his time that Norman
+and English began to melt together: intermarriage in all classes
+became common, and only thirty years after his death a contemporary
+writer could remark that it was hard for any man to
+call himself either Norman or English, so much had blood been
+intermingled.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to go into the very uninteresting and unimportant
+history of Henry&rsquo;s later years. A long war with
+France, prosecuted without much energy, led to no results, for
+the French king&rsquo;s attempts to stir up rebellions in the name of
+William the Clito (<i>q.v.</i>), the son of Duke Robert, came to an end
+with that prince&rsquo;s death in 1129. But the extension of the
+English borders in South Wales by the conquests of the lords
+marcher as far as Pembroke and Cardigan deserves a word of
+notice.</p>
+
+<p>The question of the succession was the main thing which
+occupied the mind of the king and the whole nation in Henry&rsquo;s
+later years. It had a real interest for every man in
+an age when any doubt as to the heir meant the outbreak
+<span class="sidenote">Henry&rsquo;s heir.</span>
+of civil war such as had occurred at the death of
+the Conqueror and of Rufus. There was now a problem of some
+difficulty to be solved. Henry&rsquo;s only son William had been
+drowned at sea in 1120. He had no other child born in wedlock
+save a daughter, Matilda, who married the emperor Henry V.,
+but had no issue by him. On the emperor&rsquo;s decease she wedded
+as her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou (1127), to whom during
+her father&rsquo;s last years she bore two sons. But the succession of
+a woman to the crown was as unfamiliar to English as to Norman
+ideas, nor did it seem natural to either to place a young child on
+the throne. Moreover, Matilda&rsquo;s husband Geoffrey was unpopular
+among the Normans; the Angevins had been the chief
+enemies of the duchy for several generations, and the idea that
+one of them might become its practical ruler was deeply resented.
+The old king, as was but natural, had determined that his
+daughter should be his successor; he made the great council
+do homage to her in 1126, and always kept her before the eyes
+of his people as his destined heir. But though he had forced or
+cajoled every leading man in England and Normandy to take
+his oath to serve her, he must have been conscious that there
+was a large chance that such pledges would be forgotten at his
+death. The prejudice against a female heir was strong, and
+there were too many turbulent magnates to whom the anarchy
+that would follow a disputed succession presented temptations
+which could not be resisted.</p>
+
+<p>Henry died suddenly on the 25th of November 1135, while
+he was on a visit to his duchy of Normandy. The moment that
+his death was reported the futility of oaths became
+apparent. A majority of the Norman barons appealed
+<span class="sidenote">Matilda, and Stephen.</span>
+to Theobald, count of Blois, son of the Conqueror&rsquo;s
+daughter Adela, to be their duke, and to save
+them from the yoke of the hated Angevin. His supporters and
+those of Matilda were soon at blows all along the frontier of
+Normandy. Meanwhile in England another pretender had
+appeared. Stephen, count of Boulogne, the younger brother
+of Theobald, had landed at Dover within a few days of Henry&rsquo;s
+death, determined to make a snatch at the crown, though he
+had been one of the first who had taken the oath to his cousin
+a few years before. The citizens of London welcomed him,
+but he was not secure of his success till by a swift swoop on
+Winchester he obtained possession of the royal treasure&mdash;an
+all-important factor in a crisis, as Henry I. had shown in 1100.
+At Winchester he was acknowledged as king by the bishop, his
+own brother Henry of Blois, and by the great justiciar, Roger,
+bishop of Salisbury, and the archbishop, William of Corbeil.
+The allegiance of these prelates was bought by an unwise promise
+to grant all the demands of the church party, which his predecessor
+had denied, or conceded only in part. He would permit
+free election to all benefices, and free legislation by ecclesiastical
+synods, and would surrender any claims of the royal courts to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page480" id="page480"></a>480</span>
+have jurisdiction over clerks or the property of clerks. It then
+remained necessary to buy the baronage, of which only a few
+members had as yet committed themselves to his side. It was
+done by grants of lands and privileges, the first instalment of
+a never-ending crop of ruinous concessions which Stephen
+continued to make from the day of his accession down to the
+day of his death.</p>
+
+<p>The pretender was crowned at Westminster on the 22nd of
+December 1135&mdash;less than a month after his uncle&rsquo;s death.
+No one yet openly withstood him, but he was well aware that his
+position was precarious, and that the claims of Matilda would
+be brought forward ere long by the section of the baronage
+which had not yet got from him all they desired. Meanwhile,
+however, he was encouraged to persevere by the fact that his
+brother Theobald had withdrawn his claim to the duchy of
+Normandy, and retired in his favour. For a space he was to be
+duke as well as king; but this meant merely that he would
+have two wars, not one, in hand ere long. Matilda&rsquo;s adherents
+were already in the field in Normandy; in England their rising
+was only delayed for a few months.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen, though he had shown some enterprise and capacity
+in his successful snatch at the crown, was a man far below his
+three predecessors on the throne in the matter of perseverance
+and foresight. He was a good fighter, a liberal giver, and a
+faithful friend, but he lacked wisdom, caution and the power
+to organize. Starting his career as a perjurer, it is curious that
+he was singularly slow to suspect perjury in others; he was the
+most systematically betrayed of all English kings, because he
+was the least suspicious, and the most ready to buy off and to
+forgive rebels. His troubles began in 1136, when sporadic rebellions,
+raised in the name of Matilda, began to appear; they
+grew steadily worse, though Stephen showed no lack of energy,
+posting about his realm with a band of mercenary knights
+whenever trouble broke out. But in 1138 the crisis came; the
+baronage had tried the capacity of their new master and found
+him wanting. The outbreak was now widespread and systematic&mdash;caused
+<span class="sidenote">Civil war.</span>
+not by the turbulence of a few wild spirits,
+but by the deliberate conspiracy of all who saw their
+advantage in anarchy. Matilda had a few genuine partisans,
+such as her half-brother Robert, earl of Gloucester, the
+illegitimate son of Henry I., but the large majority of those
+who took arms in her name were ready to sell their allegiance
+to either candidate in return for lands, or grants of rank or
+privilege. A long list of doubly and triply forsworn nobles, led
+by Geoffrey de Mandeville, Aubrey de Vere and Ralph of Chester,
+made the balance of war sway alternately from side to side, as
+they transferred themselves to the camp of the highest bidder.
+It is hard to trace any meaning in the civil war&mdash;it was not a
+contest between the principle of hereditary succession and the
+principle of elective kingship, as might be supposed. It was
+rather, if some explanation must be found for it, a strife between
+the kingly power and feudal anarchy. Unfortunately for
+England the kingly power was in the hands of an incapable
+holder, and feudal anarchy found a plausible mask by adopting
+the disguise of loyalty to the rightful heiress.</p>
+
+<p>The civil war was not Stephen&rsquo;s only trouble; foreign invasion
+was added. David I., king of Scotland, was the uncle of Matilda,
+and used her wrongs as the plea for thrice invading northern
+England, which he ravaged with great cruelty. His most formidable
+raid was checked by the Yorkshire shire levies, at the
+battle of the Standard (Aug. 22, 1138). Yet in the following
+year he had to be bought off by the grant of all Northumberland
+(save Newcastle and Bamborough) to his son Earl Henry. Carlisle
+and Cumberland were already in his hands. Some years
+later the Scottish prince also got possession of the great &ldquo;Honour
+of Lancaster.&rdquo; It was not Stephen&rsquo;s fault that the boundary of
+England did not permanently recede from the Tweed and the
+Solway to the Tyne and the Ribble.</p>
+
+<p>But the affairs of the North attracted little attention while
+the civil war was at its height in the South. In 1139 Stephen
+had wrought himself fatal damage by quarrelling with the ecclesiastical
+bureaucrats, the kinsmen and allies of Roger of Salisbury,
+who had been among his earliest adherents. Jealous of their
+power and their arrogance, and doubting their loyalty, he imprisoned
+them and confiscated their lands. This threw the
+whole church party on to the side of Matilda; even Henry,
+bishop of Winchester, the king&rsquo;s own brother, disowned him and
+passed over to the other side. Moreover, the whole machinery
+of local government in the realm fell out of gear, when the
+experienced ministers who were wont to control it were removed
+from power.</p>
+
+<p>Matilda had landed in England in the winter of 1139-1140;
+for a year her partisans made steady progress against the king,
+and on the 2nd of February 1141 Stephen was defeated and taken
+prisoner at the battle of Lincoln. All England, save the county
+of Kent and a few isolated castles elsewhere, submitted to
+Matilda. She was hailed as a sovereign by a great assembly at
+Winchester, over which Stephen&rsquo;s own brother Bishop Henry
+presided (April 7, 1141) and entered London in triumph in
+June. It is doubtful whether she would have obtained complete
+possession of the realm if she had played her cards well, for there
+were too many powerful personages who were interested in the
+perpetuation of the civil war. But she certainly did her best
+to ruin her own chances by showing an unwise arrogance, and
+a determination to resume at once all the powers that her father
+had possessed. When she annulled all the royal acts of the last
+six years, declared charters forfeited and lands confiscated, and
+began to raise heavy and arbitrary taxes, she made the partisans
+of Stephen desperate, and estranged many of her own supporters.
+A sudden rising of the citizens drove her out of London, while
+she was making preparations for her coronation. The party
+of the imprisoned king rallied under the wise guidance of his
+wife Matilda of Boulogne and his brother Henry, and many other
+of the late deserters adhered to it. Their army drove the lately
+triumphant party out of Winchester, and captured its military
+chief, Robert, earl of Gloucester. So much was his loss felt that
+his sister exchanged him a few months later for King Stephen.</p>
+
+<p>After this the war went on interminably, without complete
+advantage to either side, Stephen for the most part dominating
+the eastern and Matilda the western shires. It was the zenith
+of the power of the baronial anarchists, who moved from camp
+to camp with shameless rapidity, wresting from one or other of the
+two rival sovereigns some royal castle, or some dangerous grant
+of financial or judicial rights, at each change of allegiance. The
+kingdom was in the desperate state described in the last melancholy
+pages of the <i>Anglo-Saxon Chronicle</i>, when life and property
+were nowhere safe from the objectless ferocity of feudal tyrants&mdash;when
+&ldquo;every shire was full of castles and every castle filled
+with devils and evil men,&rdquo; and the people murmured that
+&ldquo;Christ and his saints slept.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Such was England&rsquo;s fate till 1153, when Matilda had retired
+from the strife in favour of her son, Henry of Anjou, and Stephen
+was grown an old man, and had just lost his heir, Eustace, to
+whom he had desired to pass on the crown. Both parties were
+exhausted, both were sick of the incessant treachery of their
+more unscrupulous barons, and at last they came to the compromise
+of Wallingford (October 1153), by which it was agreed that
+Stephen should reign for the remainder of his life, but that on
+his death the crown should pass to Henry. Both sides promised
+to lay down their arms, to dismiss their mercenaries, and to
+acquiesce in the destruction of unlicensed castles, of which it is
+said, with no very great exaggeration, that there were at the
+moment over 1000 in the realm. Henry then returned to Normandy,
+of which his mother had been in possession since 1145,
+while Stephen turned his small remaining strength to the weary
+task of endeavouring to restore the foundations of law and order.
+But he had accomplished little when he died in October 1154.
+The task of reconstruction was to be left to Henry of Anjou: his
+predecessor was only remembered as an example of the evil that
+may be done by a weak man who has been reckless enough to
+seize a throne which he is incapable of defending. England has
+had many worse kings, but never one who wrought her more
+harm. If his successor had been like him, feudal anarchy might
+have become as permanent in England as in Poland.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page481" id="page481"></a>481</span></p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the young king to whom Stephen&rsquo;s battered
+crown now fell was energetic and capable, if somewhat self-willed
+and hasty. He was inferior in caution and
+self-control to his grandfather Henry I., though he
+<span class="sidenote">Henry II.</span>
+resembled him in his love of strong and systematic governance.
+From the point of view of his English subjects his
+main achievement was that he restored in almost every detail
+the well-organized bureaucracy which his ancestor had created,
+and with it the law and order that had disappeared during
+Stephen&rsquo;s unhappy reign. But there was this essential difference
+between the position of the two Henries, that the elder aspired
+to be no more than king of England and duke of Normandy,
+while the younger strove all his life for an imperial position in
+western Europe. Such an ambition was almost forced upon
+him by the consequences of his descent and his marriage. Besides
+his grandfather&rsquo;s Anglo-Norman inheritance, he had received from
+his father Geoffrey the counties of Anjou and Touraine, and
+the predominance in the valley of the Lower Loire. But it was
+his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, two years before his accession
+to the English throne, which gave him the right to dream
+of greatness such as his Norman forbears had never enjoyed.
+This lady, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, brought to
+her second husband the whole of the lands from Poitou to the
+Pyrenees, the accumulated gains of many warlike ancestors. In
+wealth and fighting strength the duchy of Aquitaine was a full
+third of France. Added to Anjou and Normandy it made a
+realm far more important than England. Hence it came that
+Henry&rsquo;s ambitions and interests were continental more than
+English. Unlike his grandfather he dwelt for the greater part
+of his time beyond seas. It must be remembered, too, that
+his youth had been spent abroad, and that England only came
+to him when he was already a grown man. The concerns of his
+island realm were a matter of high importance to him, but only
+formed a part of his cares. Essentially he was an Angevin,
+neither a Norman nor an Englishman, and his primary ambition
+was to make the house of Anjou supreme in France. Nor did this
+seem impossible; he owned a far broader and wealthier domain
+beyond the Channel than did his nominal suzerain King
+Louis VII., and&mdash;what was of more importance&mdash;he far excelled
+that prince both in vigour and in capacity.</p>
+
+<p>On succeeding to the English crown, however, he came over
+at once to take possession of the realm, and abode there for over
+a year, displaying the most restless energy in setting to rights the
+governance of the realm. He expelled all Stephen&rsquo;s mercenaries,
+took back into his hands the royal lands and castles which his
+predecessor had granted away, and destroyed hundreds of the
+&ldquo;adulterine&rdquo; castles which the barons and knights had built
+without leave during the years of the anarchy. Hardly a single
+magnate dared to oppose him&mdash;Bridgnorth, now a castle of the
+Mortimers, was the only place which he had to take by force. His
+next care was to restore the bureaucracy by which Henry I. had
+been wont to govern. He handed over the exchequer to Nigel,
+bishop of Ely, the nephew of the old justiciar Roger of Salisbury,
+and the heir of his traditions. His chancellor was a young clerk,
+Thomas Becket, who was recommended to him by archbishop
+Theobald as the most capable official in the realm. A short
+experience of his work convinced the king that his merits had
+not been exaggerated. He proved a zealous and capable minister,
+and such a strong exponent of the claims of the crown that no
+one could have foreseen the later developments by which he was
+to become their greatest enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The machine of government was beginning to work in a satisfactory
+fashion, and the realm was already settling down into
+order, when Henry was called abroad by a rebellion raised in
+Anjou by his brother Geoffrey&mdash;the first of the innumerable
+dynastic troubles abroad which continued throughout his reign to
+distract his attention from his duties as an English king. He
+did not return for fifteen months; but when he did reappear it
+was to complete the work which he had begun in 1155, to extort
+from the greater barons the last of the royal fortresses which
+still remained in their hands, and to restore the northern boundaries
+of the realm. Malcolm IV., the young king of Scotland,
+was compelled to give up the earldoms of Northumberland and
+Cumberland, which his father Henry had received from Stephen.
+He received instead only the earldom of Huntingdon, too far
+from the border to be a dangerous possession, to which he had
+a hereditary right as descending from Earl Waltheof. He did
+homage to the king of England, and actually followed him with
+a great retinue on his next continental expedition. In the same
+year (1157) Henry made an expedition into North Wales, and
+forced its prince Owen to become his vassal, not without some
+fighting, in which the English army received several sharp checks
+at the commencement of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Yet once more Henry&rsquo;s stay on the English side of the Channel
+was but for a year. In 1158 he again departed to plunge into
+schemes of continental conquest. This time it was an attempt
+to annex the great county of Toulouse, and so to carry the
+borders of Aquitaine to the Mediterranean, which distracted
+him. Naturally Louis of France was unwilling to see his great
+vassal striding all across his realm, and did what he could to
+hinder him. Into the endless skirmishes and negotiations which
+followed the raising of the question of Toulouse it would be fruitless
+to enter. Henry did not achieve his purpose, indeed he
+seems to have failed to use his strength to its best advantage,
+and allowed himself to be bought off by a futile marriage treaty
+by which his eldest son was to marry the French king&rsquo;s daughter
+(1160). This was to be but the first of many disappointments
+in this direction; there was apparently some fatal scruple, both
+in Henry&rsquo;s own mind and in that of his continental subjects, as
+to pressing their suzerain too hard. But it must also be remembered
+that a feudal army was an inefficient weapon for long
+wars, and that the mercenaries, by whom alone it could be
+replaced, were both expensive and untrustworthy. Henry
+developed as far as he was able the system of &ldquo;scutage&rdquo; (<i>q.v.</i>)
+which his grandfather had apparently invented; by this the
+vassal compounded for his forty days&rsquo; personal service by paying
+money, with which the king could hire professional soldiers.
+But even with this help he could never keep a large enough army
+together.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile England, though somewhat heavily taxed, was
+at least enjoying quiet and strong governance. There is every
+sign that Henry&rsquo;s early years were a time of returning
+prosperity. But there was also much friction between
+<span class="sidenote">Quarrel with the church.</span>
+the crown and its subjects. The more turbulent part
+of the baronage, looking back to the boisterous times
+of Stephen with regret, was reserving itself for a favourable
+opportunity. The danger of feudal rebellion was not yet past,
+as was to be shown ten years later. The towns did not find
+Henry an easy master. He took away from London some of the
+exceptional privileges which his grandfather had granted, such
+as the free election of sheriffs of Middlesex, and the right of
+farming the shire at a fixed rent. He asserted his power to raise
+&ldquo;tallages&rdquo;&mdash;arbitrary taxation&mdash;from the citizens on occasion.
+Yet he left the foundations of municipal liberty untouched,
+and he was fairly liberal in granting charters which contained
+moderate privileges to smaller towns. His most difficult task,
+however, was to come to a settlement with the Church. The
+lavish grants of Stephen had made an end of the old authority
+which the Conqueror and Henry I. had exercised over the
+clergy. Their successor was well aware of the fact, and was
+resolved to put back the clock, so far as it was in his power. It
+was not, however, on the old problems of free election, of lay
+investiture, that his quarrel with the clerical body broke out,
+but on the comparatively new question of the conflicting claims
+of ecclesiastical and secular courts. The separate tribunals of
+the church, whose erection William I. had favoured, had been
+developing in power ever since, and had begun to encroach on the
+sphere of the courts of the state. This was more than ever the
+case since Stephen had formally granted them jurisdiction over
+all suits concerning clerics and clerical property. During the
+first few years of his reign Henry had already been in collision
+with the ecclesiastical authorities over several such cases; he
+had chafed at seeing two clerks accused of murder and blackmailing
+claimed by and acquitted in the church courts; and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page482" id="page482"></a>482</span>
+most of all at the frequency of unlicensed appeals to Rome&mdash;a
+flagrant breach of one of the three rules laid down by William
+the Conqueror. Being comparatively at leisure after the pacification
+with France, he resolved to turn his whole attention
+to the arrangement of a new <i>modus vivendi</i> with the church.
+As a preliminary move he appointed his able chancellor Thomas
+Becket to the archbishopric of Canterbury, which fell vacant in
+<span class="sidenote">Becket.</span>
+1162. This was the greatest mistake of his reign.
+Becket was one of those men who, without being
+either hypocrites or consciously ambitious, live only to magnify
+their office. While chancellor he was the most zealous servant
+of the crown, and had seemed rather secular than clerical in his
+habits and his outlook on life. But no sooner had he been
+promoted to the archbishopric than he put away his former
+manners, became the most formal and austere of men, and set
+himself to be the champion of the church party in all its claims,
+reasonable or unreasonable, against the state. The king&rsquo;s
+astonishment was even greater than his indignation when he
+saw the late chancellor setting himself to oppose him in all
+things. Their first quarrel was about a proposed change in some
+details of taxation, which seems to have had no specially ecclesiastical
+bearing at all. But Becket vehemently opposed it, and
+got so much support when the great council met at Woodstock
+that Henry withdrew his schemes. This was only a preliminary
+skirmish; the main battle opened in the following year, when
+the king, quite aware that he must for the future look on Thomas
+as his enemy, brought forward the famous <i>Constitutions of
+Clarendon</i>, of which the main purport was to assert the jurisdiction
+of the state over clerical offenders by a rather complicated
+procedure, while other clauses provided that appeals to Rome
+must not be made without the king&rsquo;s leave, that suits about land
+or the presentation to benefices, in which clerics were concerned,
+should be tried before the royal courts, and that bishops should
+not quit the realm unless they had obtained permission to do
+so from the king (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Clarendon, Constitutions of</a></span>). Somewhat
+to the king&rsquo;s surprise, Becket yielded for a moment to his
+pressure, and declared his assent to the constitutions. But he
+had no sooner left the court than he proclaimed that he had
+grievously sinned in giving way, suspended himself from his
+archiepiscopal functions, and wrote to the pope to beg for pardon
+and absolution. He then made a clandestine attempt to escape
+from the realm, but was detected on the seashore and forced
+to return.</p>
+
+<p>Incensed with Becket for his repudiation of his original submission,
+Henry proceeded to open a campaign of lawsuits against
+him, in order to force him to plead in secular courts. He also
+took the very mean step of declaring that he should call him to
+account for all the moneys that had passed through his hands
+when he was chancellor, though Becket had been given a quittance
+for them when he resigned the office more than two years
+before. The business came up at the council of Northampton
+(October 1164), when the archbishop was tried for refusing to
+recognize the jurisdiction of the king&rsquo;s courts, and declared
+to have forfeited his movable goods. The sentence was passed
+by the lay members of the Curia Regis alone, the bishops having
+been forbidden to sit, and threatened with excommunication
+if they did so, by the accused primate. When Becket was visited
+by the justiciar who came to rehearse the judgment, he started
+to his feet, refused to listen to a word, declared his repudiation
+of all lay courts and left the hall. That same night he made a
+second attempt to escape from England and this time succeeded
+in getting off to Flanders. From thence he fled to the court of
+the pope, where he received less support than he had expected.
+Alexander III. privately approved of all that he had done, and
+regarded him as the champion of the Church, but he did not wish to
+quarrel with King Henry. He had lately been driven from Rome
+by the emperor Frederick I., who had installed an antipope in his
+place, and had been forced to retire to France. If he sided with
+Becket and thundered against his persecutor, there was small doubt
+that the king of England would adhere to the schism. Accordingly
+he endeavoured to temporize and to avoid a rupture, to the
+archbishop&rsquo;s great disgust. But since he also declared the Constitutions
+of Clarendon uncanonical and invalid, Henry was equally
+offended, and opened negotiations with the emperor and the antipope.
+This conduct forced Alexander&rsquo;s hand, and he gave
+Becket leave to excommunicate his enemies. The exile, who
+had taken refuge in a French abbey, placed the justiciar and six
+other of the king&rsquo;s chief councillors under the ban of the Church,
+and intimated that he should add Henry himself to the list
+unless he showed speedy signs of repentance (April 1166).</p>
+
+<p>Thus the quarrel had come to a head. Church and State were
+at open war. Henry soon found that Becket&rsquo;s threats had more
+effect than he liked. Many of the English clergy were naturally
+on the side of the primate in a dispute which touched their
+loyalty to the Church and their class feeling. Several bishops
+declared to the king that, since his ministers had been duly excommunicated,
+they did not see how they could avoid regarding
+them as men placed outside the pale of Christendom. Fortunately
+the pope interfered for a moment to lighten the friction;
+being threatened with a new invasion by the emperor Frederick,
+he suspended the sentences and sent legates to patch up a peace.
+They failed, for neither the king nor the archbishop would give
+way. At this juncture Henry was desirous of getting his eldest
+son and namesake crowned as his colleague, the best mode that
+he could devise for avoiding the dangers of a disputed succession
+at his death. He induced the archbishop of York, assisted by
+the bishops of London and Salisbury, to perform the ceremony.
+This was a clear invasion of the ancient rights of the primate,
+and Becket took it more to heart than any other of his grievances.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the next move in the struggle was a hollow reconciliation
+between the combatants&mdash;a most inexplicable act on both sides.
+The king offered to allow Becket to return from exile, and to
+restore him to his possessions, without exacting from him any
+promise of submission, or even a pledge that he would not reopen
+the dispute on his return. Apparently he had made a wrong
+interpretation of the primate&rsquo;s mental attitude, and thought
+him desirous of a truce, if not ready for a compromise. He had
+wholly misjudged the situation; Becket made neither promises
+nor threats, but three weeks after he reached Canterbury publicly
+excommunicated the bishops of London and Salisbury for the
+part that they had taken in the coronation of the young king, and
+suspended from their functions the other prelates who had been
+present at the ceremony. He then proceeded to excommunicate
+a number of his minor lay enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The news was carried overseas to Henry, who was then in
+Normandy. It roused one of the fits of wild rage to which he
+was not unfrequently liable; he burst out into ejaculations
+of wrath, and cursed &ldquo;the cowardly idle servants
+<span class="sidenote">Becket&rsquo;s murder.</span>
+who suffered their master to be made the
+laughing-stock of a low-born priest.&rdquo; Among those who stood
+about him were four knights, some of whom had personal
+grudges against Becket, and all of whom were reckless ruffians,
+who were eager to win their master&rsquo;s favour by fair means or
+foul. They crossed the Channel with astonishing speed; two
+days after the king&rsquo;s outburst they stood before Becket at
+Canterbury and threatened him with death unless he should
+remove the excommunications and submit to his master. The
+archbishop answered with words as scornful as their own, and
+took his way to the minster to attend vespers. The knights went
+out to seek their weapons, and when armed followed him into
+the north transept, where they fell upon him and brutally slew
+him with many sword-strokes (December 29, 1170). Thomas
+had been given time to fly, and his followers had endeavoured
+to persuade him to do so. It seems that he deliberately courted
+martyrdom, anxious apparently that his death should deal the
+king the bitterest blow that it was in his power to inflict (see
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Becket</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could have put Henry in such an evil plight; the
+whole world held him responsible for the murder, and he was
+forced to buy pardon for it by surrendering many
+of the advantages over the Church which he had
+<span class="sidenote">Its results.</span>
+hoped to gain by enforcing the Constitutions of Clarendon.
+Especially the immunity of clerical offenders from the jurisdiction
+of lay courts had to be conceded; for the rest of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page483" id="page483"></a>483</span>
+middle ages the clerk guilty of theft or assault, riot or murder,
+could plead his orders, and escape from the harsh justice of the
+king&rsquo;s officers to the milder penalties of the bishop&rsquo;s tribunal.
+&ldquo;Benefit of clergy&rdquo; became an intolerable anomaly, all the more
+so because the privilege was extended in practice not only to all
+persons actually in minor orders, but to all who claimed them;
+any criminal who could read had a fair chance of being reckoned
+a clerk. Another concession which Henry was forced to make
+was that the appeals to Rome of litigants in ecclesiastical suits
+should be freely permitted, provided that they made an oath
+that they were not contemplating any wrong to the English
+crown or the English church, a sufficiently easy condition. Such
+appeals became, and remained, innumerable and vexatious.
+Pope Alexander also extorted from the king a pledge that he
+would relinquish any customs prejudicial to the rights of the
+Church which had been introduced since his accession. To
+the pope this meant that the Constitutions of Clarendon were
+disavowed; to the king, who maintained that they were in the
+main a mere restatement of the customs of William I., it bore
+no such general interpretation. The points were fought out in
+detail, and not settled for many years. Practically it became
+the rule to regard suits regarding land, or presentations to benefices,
+as pertaining to the king&rsquo;s court, while those regarding
+probate, marriage and divorce fell to the ecclesiastical tribunal.
+The question of election to bishoprics and abbacies went back
+to the stage which it had reached in the time of Henry I.; the
+choice was made in canonical form, by the chapters or the
+monasteries, but the king&rsquo;s recommendation was a primary
+factor in that choice. When the electors disregarded it, as was
+sometimes the case, there was friction; a weak king was sometimes
+overruled; a strong one generally got his way in the end.</p>
+
+<p>Becket&rsquo;s death, then, gave a qualified triumph to the church
+party, and he was rightly regarded as the successful champion of
+his caste. Hence they held his death in grateful remembrance;
+the pope canonized him in 1173, and more churches were dedicated
+to him during the next two centuries than to any other
+English saint. In the eyes of most men his martyrdom had put
+the king so much in the wrong that the obstinacy and provocative
+conduct which had brought it about passed out of memory.
+His life of ostentatious austerity, and the courage with which
+he met his death, had caused all his faults to be forgotten.
+Henry himself felt so much the invidious position in which he
+was placed that even after making his submission to the pope&rsquo;s
+legates at Avranches in 1172, he thought it necessary to do
+penance before Becket&rsquo;s tomb in 1174, on which occasion he
+allowed himself to be publicly scourged by the monks of Canterbury,
+who inflicted on him three cuts apiece.</p>
+
+<p>Between the outbreak of the king&rsquo;s quarrel with Becket at
+the council of Woodstock and the compromise of Avranches
+no less than ten years had elapsed&mdash;the best years of Henry&rsquo;s
+manhood. During this period his struggle with the Church had
+been but one of his distractions. His policy of imperial aggrandisement
+had been in progress. In 1163 he had completed the
+conquest of South Wales; the marcher lords were now in
+possession of the greater part of the land; the surviving Welsh
+princes did homage for the rest. In 1166 Henry got practical
+possession of the duchy of Brittany, the only remaining large
+district of western France which was not already in his hands.
+Conan, the last prince of the old Breton house, recognized him
+as his lord, and gave the hand of his heiress Constance to Geoffrey,
+the king&rsquo;s third son. When the count died in 1171 Henry did
+not transfer the administration of the land to the young pair,
+who were still but children, but retained it for himself, and clung
+to it jealously long after his son came of age. Intermittent wars
+with France during these years were of small importance; Henry
+never pushed his suzerain to extremity. But the Angevin
+dominions were extended in a new direction, where no English
+king had yet made his power felt.</p>
+
+<p>The distressful island of Ireland was at this moment enjoying
+the anarchy which had reigned therein since the dawn of history.
+Its state had grown even more unhappy than before since
+the Danish invasions of the 10th century, which had not
+welded the native kingdoms into unity by pressure from without&mdash;as
+had been the case in England&mdash;but had simply complicated
+<span class="sidenote">Conquest of Ireland.</span>
+affairs, by setting up two or three alien principalities
+on the coastline. As in England, the vikings had
+destroyed much of the old civilization; but they had
+neither succeeded in occupying the whole country nor had they
+been absorbed by the natives. The state of the island was much
+like that of England in the days of the Heptarchy: occasionally
+a &ldquo;High King&rdquo; succeeded in forcing his rivals into a precarious
+submission; more usually there was not even a pretence of a
+central authority in the island, and the annals of objectless
+tribal wars formed its sole history. King Henry&rsquo;s eyes had
+been fixed on the faction-ridden land since the first years of his
+reign. As early as 1155 he had asked and obtained the approval
+of Pope Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever sat upon the
+papal throne, for a scheme for the conquest of Ireland. The
+Holy See had always regarded with distaste the existence in the
+West of a nation who repudiated the Roman obedience, and
+lived in schismatical independence, under local ecclesiastical
+customs which dated back to the 5th century, and had never
+been brought into line with those of the rest of Christendom.
+Hence it was natural to sanction an invasion which might bring
+the Irish within the fold. But Henry made no endeavour for
+many years to utilize the papal grant of Ireland, which seems
+to have been made under the preposterous &ldquo;Donation of Constantine,&rdquo;
+the forged document which gave the bishop of Rome
+authority over all islands. It was conveniently forgotten that
+Ireland had never been in the Roman empire, and so had not even
+been Constantine&rsquo;s to give away.</p>
+
+<p>Not till 1168, thirteen years after the agreement with Pope
+Adrian, did the interference of the English king in Ireland
+actually begin. Even then he did not take the conquest in hand
+himself, but merely sanctioned a private adventure of some of
+his subjects. Dermot MacMorrough, king of Leinster, an unquiet
+Irish prince who for good reasons had been expelled by his
+neighbours, came to Henry&rsquo;s court in Normandy, proffering his
+allegiance in return for restoration to his lost dominions. The
+quarrel with Becket, and the French war, were both distracting
+the English king at the moment. He could not spare attention
+for the matter, but gave Dermot leave to enlist auxiliaries among
+the turbulent barons of the South Welsh Marches. The Irish
+exile enlisted first the services of Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert
+Fitzstephen, two half-brothers, both noted fighting men, and
+afterwards those of Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke, an
+ambitious and impecunious magnate of broken fortunes. The
+two barons were promised lands, the earl a greater bribe&mdash;the
+hand of Dermot&rsquo;s only daughter Eva and the inheritance of the
+kingdom of Leinster. Fitzgerald and Fitzstephen crossed to
+Ireland in 1169 with a mere handful of followers. But they
+achieved victories of an almost incredible completeness over
+Dermot&rsquo;s enemies. The undisciplined hordes of the king of
+Ossory and the Danes of Wexford could not stand before the
+Anglo-Norman tactics&mdash;the charge of the knights and the arrow-flight
+of the archers, skilfully combined by the adventurous invaders.
+Dermot was triumphant, and sent for more auxiliaries,
+aspiring to evict Roderic O&rsquo;Connor of Connaught from the
+precarious throne of High King of Ireland. In 1170 the earl of
+Pembroke came over with a larger force, celebrated his marriage
+with Dermot&rsquo;s daughter, and commenced a series of conquests.
+He took Waterford and Dublin from the Danes, and scattered
+the hosts of the native princes. Early in the next spring Dermot
+died, and Earl Richard, in virtue of his marriage, claimed the
+kingship of Leinster. He held his own, despite the assaults of
+a great army gathered by Roderic the High King, and of a viking
+fleet which came to help the conquered jarls of Waterford and
+Dublin. At this moment King Henry thought it necessary to
+interfere; if he let more time slip away, Earl Richard would
+become a powerful king and forget his English allegiance.
+Accordingly, with a large army at his back, he landed at Waterford
+in 1171 and marched on Dublin. Richard did him homage
+for Leinster, engaging to hold it as a palatine earldom, and not
+to claim the name or rights of a king. The other adventurers
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page484" id="page484"></a>484</span>
+followed his example, as did, after an interval, most of the native
+Irish princes. Only Roderic of Connaught held aloof in his
+western solitudes, asserting his independence. The clergy,
+almost without a murmur, submitted themselves to the Roman
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the first conquest of Ireland, a conquest too facile
+to be secure. Four years later it appeared to be completed by
+the submission of the king of Connaught, who did homage like
+the rest of the island chiefs. But their oaths were as easily
+broken as made, and the real subjection of the island was not
+to be completed for 400 years. What happened was that the
+Anglo-Norman invaders pushed gradually west, occupying the
+best of the land and holding it down by castles, but leaving the
+profitless bogs and mountains to the local princes. The king&rsquo;s
+writ only ran in and about Dublin and a few other harbour
+fortresses. Inland, the intruding barons and the Irish chiefs
+fought perpetually, with varying fortunes. The conquest hardly
+touched central and western Ulster, and left half Connaught
+unsubdued: even in the immediate vicinity of Dublin the tribes
+of the Wicklow Hills were never properly tamed. The English
+conquest was incomplete; it failed to introduce either unity or
+strong governance. After a century and a half it began to recede
+rather than to advance. Many of the districts which had been
+overrun in the time of the Angevin kings were lost; many of the
+Anglo-Norman families intermarried with and became absorbed
+by the Irish; they grew as careless of their allegiance to the
+crown as any of the native chiefs. The &ldquo;Lordship of Ireland&rdquo;
+was never a reality till the times of the Tudors. But as long as
+Henry II. lived this could not have been foreseen. The first
+generation of the conquerors pushed their advance with such
+vigour that it seemed likely that they would complete the
+adventure. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Ireland</a></span>: <i>History</i>.)</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1173, the year after his return from Ireland and his
+submission to the papal legates at Avranches, that King Henry
+became involved in the first of a series of troubles
+which were to pursue him for the rest of his life&mdash;the
+<span class="sidenote">Rebellion of Henry&rsquo;s sons.</span>
+rebellions of his graceless sons. His wife Eleanor of
+Aquitaine had borne him many children. Henry, the
+eldest surviving son, had already been crowned in 1170 as his
+father&rsquo;s colleague and successor; not only he, but Richard the
+second, and Geoffrey the third son, were now old enough to
+chafe against the restraints imposed upon them by an imperious
+and strong-willed father. The old king very naturally preferred
+to keep his dominions united under his own immediate government,
+but he had designated his eldest son as his successor in
+England and Normandy, while Richard was to have his mother&rsquo;s
+heritage of Aquitaine, and Geoffrey&rsquo;s wife&rsquo;s dowry, the duchy
+of Brittany, was due to him, now that he had reached the verge
+of manhood. The princes were shamelessly eager to enter on
+their inheritance, the king was loath to understand that by conferring
+a titular sovereignty on his sons he had given them a sort
+of right to expect some share of real power. Their grudge
+against their father was sedulously fostered by their mother
+Eleanor, a clever and revengeful woman, who could never forgive
+her husband for keeping her in the background in political
+matters and insulting her by his frequent amours. Her old
+subjects in Aquitaine were secretly encouraged by her to follow
+her son Richard against his father, whom the barons of the
+south always regarded as an alien and an intruder. The Bretons
+were equally willing to rise in the name of Geoffrey and Constance
+against the guardian who was keeping their prince too long
+waiting for his inheritance. In England the younger Henry had
+built himself up a party among the more turbulent section of the
+baronage, who remembered with regret and longing the carnival
+of licence which their fathers had enjoyed under King Stephen.
+Secret agreements had also been made with the kings of France
+and Scotland, who were eager to take advantage of the troubles
+which were about to break out.</p>
+
+<p>In 1173 the plot was complete, and Henry&rsquo;s three elder sons
+all took arms against him, collecting Norman, Breton and Gascon
+rebels in great numbers, and being backed by a French army.
+At the same moment the king of Scots invaded Northumberland,
+and the earls of Norfolk, Chester and Leicester rose in the name
+of the younger Henry. This was in all essentials a feudal rebellion
+of the old type. The English barons were simply desirous of
+getting rid of the strong and effective governance of the king,
+and the alleged wrongs of his sons were an empty excuse. For
+precisely the same reason all classes in England, save the more
+turbulent section of the baronage, remained faithful to the elder
+king. The bureaucracy, the minor landholders, the towns, and
+the clergy refused to join in the rising, and lent their aid for its
+suppression, because they were unwilling to see anarchy recommence.
+Hence, though the rebellious princes made head
+for a time against their father abroad, the insurrection of their
+partisans in England was suppressed without much difficulty.
+The justiciar, Richard de Lucy, routed the army of the earl of
+Leicester at Fornham in Suffolk, the castles of the rebel earls
+were subdued one after another, and William of Scotland was
+surprised and captured by a force of northern loyalists while
+he was besieging Alnwick (1173-1174). The war lingered on
+for a space on the continent; but Henry raised the siege of
+Rouen, which was being attacked by his eldest son and the king
+of France, captured most of Richard&rsquo;s castles in Poitou, and then
+received the submission of his undutiful children. Showing
+considerable magnanimity, he promised to grant to each of them
+half the revenues of the lands in which they were his destined
+heirs, and a certain number of castles to hold as their own.
+Their allies fared less well; the rebel earls were subjected to
+heavy fines, and their strongholds were demolished. The king
+of Scots was forced to buy his liberty by doing homage to Henry
+for the whole of his kingdom. Queen Eleanor, whom her husband
+regarded as responsible for the whole rebellion, was placed in
+a sort of honourable captivity, or retirement, and denied her
+royal state.</p>
+
+<p>Henry appeared completely triumphant; but the fourteen
+years which he had yet to live were for the most part to be times
+of trouble and frustrated hopes. He was growing old; the indomitable
+energy of his early career was beginning to slacken;
+his dreams of extended empire were vanishing. In the last
+period of his life he was more set on defending what he already
+enjoyed, and perfecting the details of administration in his
+realms, than on taking new adventures in hand. Probably the
+consciousness that his dominions would be broken up among his
+sons after his death had a disheartening effect upon him. At
+any rate his later years bear a considerable resemblance to the
+corresponding period of his grandfather&rsquo;s reign. The machinery
+of government which the one had sketched out the other completed.
+Under Henry II. the circuits of the itinerant justices
+became regular instead of intermittent; the judicial functions
+of the Curia Regis were delegated to a permanent committee of
+that body which took form as the court of king&rsquo;s bench (<i>Curia
+Regis in Banco</i>). The sheriffs were kept very tightly in hand,
+and under incessant supervision; once in 1170 nearly the whole
+body of them were dismissed for misuse of their office. The
+shire levies which had served the king so well against the feudal
+rebels of 1173 were reorganized, with uniformity of weapons
+and armour, by the <i>Assize of Arms</i> of 1181. There was also a
+considerable amount of new legislation with the object of protecting
+the minor subjects of the crown, and the system of trial
+by jurors was advanced to the detriment of the absurd old
+practices of trial by ordeal and trial by wager of battle. The
+13th-century jury was a rough and primitive institution, which
+acted at once as accuser, witness and judge&mdash;but it was at any
+rate preferable to the chances of the red-hot iron, or the club of
+the duellist.</p>
+
+<p>The best proof that King Henry&rsquo;s orderly if autocratic régime
+was appreciated at its true value by his English subjects, is that
+when the second series of rebellions raised by his undutiful sons
+began in 1182, there was no stir whatever in England, though in
+Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine the barons rose in full force
+to support the young princes, whose success would mean the
+triumph of particularism and the destruction of the Angevin
+empire. Among the many troubles which broke down King
+Henry&rsquo;s strong will and great bodily vigour in those unhappy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page485" id="page485"></a>485</span>
+years, rebellion in England was not one. For this reason he
+was almost constantly abroad, leaving the administration of the
+one loyal section of his realm to his great justiciar. Hence the
+story of the unnatural war between father and sons has no part
+in English history. It is but necessary to note that the younger
+Henry died in 1183, that Geoffrey perished by accident at a
+tournament in 1186, and that in 1189, when the old king&rsquo;s
+strength finally gave out, it was Richard who was leading the
+rebellion, to which John, the youngest and least worthy of the
+four undutiful sons, was giving secret countenance. It was the
+discovery of the treachery of this one child whom he had deemed
+faithful, and loved over well, that broke Henry&rsquo;s heart. &ldquo;Let
+things go as they will; I have nothing to care for in the world
+now,&rdquo; he murmured on his death-bed, and turned his face to the
+wall to breathe his last.</p>
+
+<p>The death of the younger Henry had made Richard heir to all
+his father&rsquo;s lands from the Tweed to the Bidassoa save Brittany,
+which had fallen to Arthur, the infant son of the unlucky
+Geoffrey. John, the new king&rsquo;s only surviving
+<span class="sidenote">Richard I.</span>
+brother, had been declared &ldquo;Lord of Ireland&rdquo; by his
+father in 1185, but Henry had been forced to remove him for
+persistent misconduct, and had left him nothing more than a
+titular sovereignty in the newly conquered island. In this
+Richard confirmed him at his accession, and gave him a more
+tangible endowment by allowing him to marry Isabella, the
+heiress of the earldom of Gloucester, and by bestowing on him
+the honour of Lancaster and the shires of Derby, Devon, Cornwall
+and Somerset. The gift was over-liberal and the recipient
+was thankless; but John was distinctly treated as a vassal, not
+granted the position of an independent sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the medieval kings of England, Richard I. (known as
+C&oelig;ur de Lion) cared least for his realm on the English side of
+the Channel, and spent least time within it. Though he chanced
+to have been born in Oxford, he was far more of a foreigner than
+his father; his soul was that of a south French baron, not that
+of an English king. Indeed he looked upon England more as a
+rich area for taxation than as the centre of a possible empire.
+His ambitions were continental: so far as he had a policy at all
+it was Angevin&mdash;he would gladly have increased his dominions
+on the side of the upper Loire and Garonne, and was set on keeping
+in check the young king of France, Philip Augustus, though
+the latter had been his ally during his long struggle with his
+father. Naturally the policy of Richard as a newly crowned
+king was bound to differ from that which he had pursued as a
+rebellious prince. As regards his personal character he has
+been described, not without truth, as a typical man of his time
+and nothing more. He was at heart a chivalrous adventurer
+delighting in war for war&rsquo;s sake; he was not destitute of a conscience&mdash;his
+undutiful conduct to his father sat heavily on his
+soul when that father was once dead; he had a strong sense of
+knightly honour and a certain magnanimity of soul in times of
+crisis; but he was harsh, thriftless, often cruel, generally lacking
+in firmness and continuity of purpose, always careless of his
+subjects&rsquo; welfare when it interfered with his pleasure or his
+ambitions of the moment. If he had stayed long in England
+he would have made himself hated; but he was nearly always
+absent; it was only as a reckless and spasmodic extorter of
+taxation, not as a personal tyrant, that he was known on the
+English side of the Channel.</p>
+
+<p>At the opening of his reign Richard had one all-engrossing
+desire; he was set on going forth to the Crusade for the recovery
+of Jerusalem which had been proclaimed in 1187,
+partly from chivalrous instincts, partly as a penance
+<span class="sidenote">The Crusade.</span>
+for his misconduct to his father. He visited England
+in 1189 only in order to be crowned, and to raise as much money
+for the expedition as he could procure. He obtained enormous
+sums, by the most unwise and iniquitous expedients, mainly
+by selling to any buyer that he could find valuable pieces of
+crown property, high offices and dangerous rights and privileges.
+The king of Scotland bought for 15,000 marks a release from
+the homage to the English crown which had been imposed upon
+him by Henry II. The chancellorship, one of the two chief
+offices in the realm, was sold to William Longchamp, bishop of
+Ely, for £3000, though he was well known as a tactless, arrogant
+and incapable person. The earldom of Northumberland, with
+palatine rights, was bought by Hugh Puiset, bishop of Durham.
+Countless other instances of unwise bargains could be quoted.
+Having raised every penny that he could procure by legal or illegal
+means, Richard crossed the Channel, and embarked at Marseilles
+with a great army on the 7th of August 1190. The only security
+which he had for the safety of his dominions in his absence was
+that his most dangerous neighbour, the king of France, was also
+setting out on the Crusade, and that his brother John, whose
+shifty and treacherous character gave sure promise of trouble,
+enjoyed a well-merited unpopularity both in England and in the
+continental dominions of the crown.</p>
+
+<p>Richard&rsquo;s crusading exploits have no connexion with the
+history of England. He showed himself a good knight and a
+capable general&mdash;the capture of Acre and the victory of Arsuf
+were highly to his credit as a soldier. But he quarrelled with all
+the other princes of the Crusade, and showed himself as lacking
+in tact and diplomatic ability as he was full of military capacity.
+The king of France departed in wrath, to raise trouble at home;
+the army gradually melted away, the prospect of recovering
+Jerusalem disappeared, and finally Richard must be reckoned
+fortunate in that he obtained from Sultan Saladin a peace, by
+which the coastland of Palestine was preserved for the Christians,
+while the Holy City and the inland was sacrificed (Sept. 2, 1192).
+While returning to his dominions by the way of the Adriatic, the
+king was shipwrecked, and found himself obliged to enter the
+dominions of Leopold, duke of Austria, a prince whom he had
+offended at Acre during the Crusade. Though he disguised
+<span class="correction" title="amended from himelf">himself</span>, he was detected by his old enemy and imprisoned. The
+duke then sold him to the emperor Henry VI., who found pretexts
+for forcing him to buy his freedom by the promise of a
+ransom of 150,000 marks. It was not till February 1194 that
+he got loose, after paying a considerable instalment of this vast
+sum. The main bulk of it, as was to be expected, was never
+made over; indeed it could not have been raised, as Richard
+was well aware. But, once free, he had no scruple in cheating
+the imperial brigand of his blackmail.</p>
+
+<p>For five years Richard was away from his dominions as a
+crusader or a captive. There was plenty of trouble during his
+absence, but less than might have been expected.
+The strong governance set up by Henry II. proved
+<span class="sidenote">John&rsquo;s treachery.</span>
+competent to maintain itself, even when Richard&rsquo;s
+ministers were tactless and his brother treacherous. A generation
+before it is certain that England would have been convulsed
+by a great feudal rising when such an opportunity was granted
+to the barons. Nothing of the kind happened between 1190 and
+1194. The chancellor William Longchamp made himself odious
+by his vanity and autocratic behaviour, and was overthrown
+in 1191 by a general rising, which was headed by Prince John,
+and approved by Walter, archbishop of Rouen, whom Richard
+had sent to England with a commission to assume the justiciarship
+if William should prove impossible as an administrator.
+Longchamp fled to the continent, and John then hoped to seize
+on supreme power, even perhaps to grasp the crown. But he
+was bitterly disappointed to find that he could gather few supporters;
+the justiciar and the bureaucrats of the Curia Regis
+would give him no assistance; they worked on honestly in the
+name of the absent king. Among the baronage hardly a man
+would commit himself to treason. In vain John hired foreign
+mercenaries, garrisoned his castles, and leagued himself with
+the king of France when the latter returned from the Crusade.
+It was only the news of his brother&rsquo;s captivity in Austria which
+gave the intriguing prince a transient hope of success. Boldly
+asserting that Richard would never be seen alive again he went
+to France, and did homage to King Philip for Normandy and
+Aquitaine, as if they were already his own. Then he crossed to
+England with a band of mercenaries, and seized Windsor and
+Wallingford castles. But no one rose to aid him, and his garrisons
+were soon being besieged by loyal levies, headed by the justiciar
+and by Hubert Walter, the newly elected archbishop of Canterbury.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page486" id="page486"></a>486</span>
+At the same time King Philip&rsquo;s invasion of Normandy was
+repulsed by the barons of the duchy. Richard&rsquo;s faithful ministers,
+despite of all their distractions, succeeded in raising the
+first instalment of his ransom by grinding taxation&mdash;a fourth
+part of the revenue of all lay persons, a tithe from ecclesiastical
+land, was raised, and in addition much church plate was seized,
+though the officials who exacted it were themselves prelates.
+John and Philip wrote to the emperor to beg him to detain his
+captive at all costs, but Henry VI. pocketed the ransom money
+and set Richard free. He reached England in March 1194, just
+in time to receive the surrender of the last two castles which were
+holding out in his treacherous brother&rsquo;s name. With astonishing,
+and indeed misplaced, magnanimity, Richard pardoned his
+brother, when he made a grovelling submission, and restored him
+to his lordship of Ireland and to a great part of his English lands.</p>
+
+<p>The king abode for no more than three months in England;
+he got himself recrowned at Winchester, apparently to wipe
+out the stain of his German captivity and of an enforced homage
+which the emperor had extorted from him. Then he raised a
+heavy tax from his already impoverished subjects, sold a number
+of official posts and departed to France&mdash;never to return, though
+he had still five years to live. He left behind Archbishop Hubert
+Walter as justiciar, a faithful if a somewhat high-handed minister.</p>
+
+<p>Richard&rsquo;s one ruling passion was now to punish Philip of
+France for his unfriendly conduct during his absence. He
+plunged into a war with this clever and shifty prince, which
+lasted&mdash;with certain short breaks of truces and treaties&mdash;till
+his death. He wasted his considerable military talents in a
+series of skirmishes and sieges which had no great results, and
+after spending countless treasures and harrying many regions,
+perished obscurely by a wound from a cross-bow-bolt, received
+while beleaguering Chālus, a castle of a rebellious lord of Aquitaine,
+the viscount of Limoges (April 6, 1199).</p>
+
+<p>During these years of petty strife England was only reminded
+at intervals of her king&rsquo;s existence by his intermittent demands
+for money, which his ministers did their best to satisfy.
+The machine of government continued to work without
+<span class="sidenote">English constitutional development.</span>
+his supervision. It has been observed that, from one
+point of view, England&rsquo;s worst kings have been her
+best; that is to say, a sovereign like Richard, who persistently
+neglected his duties, was unconsciously the foster
+father of constitutional liberty. For his ministers, bureaucrats
+of an orderly frame of mind, devised for their own convenience
+rules and customs which became permanent, and could be cited
+against those later kings who interfered more actively in the
+details of domestic governance. We may trace back some small
+beginnings of a constitution to the time of Henry II.&mdash;himself
+an absentee though not on the scale of his son. But the ten years
+of Richard&rsquo;s reign were much more fruitful in the growth of
+institutions which were destined to curb the power of the crown.
+His justiciars, and especially Hubert Walter, were responsible
+for several innovations which were to have far-spreading results.
+The most important was an extension of the use of juries into
+the province of taxation. When the government employs committees
+chosen by the taxpayers to estimate and assess the
+details of taxation, it will find it hard to go back to arbitrary
+exactions. Such a practice had been first seen when Henry II.,
+in his last year, allowed the celebrated &ldquo;Saladin Tithe&rdquo; for
+the service of the crusade to be assessed by local jurors. In
+Richard&rsquo;s reign the practice became regular. In especial when
+England was measured out anew for the great carucage of 1197&mdash;a
+tax on every ploughland which replaced the rough calculation
+of Domesday Book&mdash;knights elected by the shires shared in all
+the calculations then made for the new impost. Another constitutional
+advance was that which substituted &ldquo;coroners,&rdquo;
+knights chosen by the county court, for the king&rsquo;s old factotum
+the sheriff in the duty of holding the &ldquo;pleas of the crown,&rdquo; <i>i.e.</i>
+in making the preliminary investigations into such offences as
+riot, murder or injury to the king&rsquo;s rights or property. The
+sheriff&rsquo;s natural impulse was to indict every man from whom
+money could be got; the new coroners were influenced by other
+motives than financial rapacity, and so were much more likely
+to deal equitably with accusations. The towns also profited
+in no small degree from Richard&rsquo;s absence and impecuniosity.
+One of the most important charters to London, that which
+granted the city the right of constituting itself a &ldquo;commune&rdquo;
+and choosing itself a mayor, goes back to October 1191, the
+troubled month of Longchamp&rsquo;s expulsion from England. It
+was given by Prince John and the ministers, who were then
+supporting him against the arrogant chancellor, to secure the
+adherence of London. Richard on his return seems to have
+allowed it to stand. Lincoln was also given the right of electing
+its own magistrates in 1194, and many smaller places owe grants
+of more or less of municipal privilege to Hubert Walter acting
+in the name of the absent king. The English nation began to
+have some conception of a régime of fixed custom, in which its
+rights depended on some other source than the sovereign&rsquo;s
+personal caprice. The times, it may be remembered, were not
+unprosperous. There had been no serious civil war since the
+baronial rising of 1173. Prince John&rsquo;s turbulence had only
+affected the neighbourhood of a few royal castles. Despite of
+the frequent and heavy demands for money for the king&rsquo;s service,
+wealth seems to have been increasing, and prosperity to have
+been widespread. Strong and regular governance had on the
+whole prevailed ever since Henry II. triumphed over baronial
+anarchy.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">III. The Struggle for Constitutional Liberty (1199-1337)</p>
+
+<p>Richard&rsquo;s queen, Berengaria of Navarre, had borne him no
+children. At the moment of his premature death his nearest
+kinsmen were his worthless brother John, and the boy
+Arthur of Brittany, the heir of Geoffrey, the third son
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of John.</span>
+of Henry II. On his death-bed the king had designated
+John as his successor, holding apparently that a bad ruler who
+was at least a grown man was preferable to a child. John&rsquo;s claim
+prevailed both in Normandy and in England, though in each,
+as we are told, there were those who considered it a doubtful
+point whether an elder brother&rsquo;s son had not a better right than
+a younger brother. But the ministers recognized John, and the
+baronage and nation acquiesced, though with little enthusiasm.
+In the lands farther south, however, matters went otherwise.
+The dowager duchess Constance of Brittany raised her son&rsquo;s
+claim, and sent an army into Anjou, and all down the Loire
+many of the nobles adhered to his cause. The king of France
+announced that he should support them, and allowed Arthur to
+do him homage for Anjou, Maine and Touraine. There would
+have been trouble in Aquitaine also, if the aged Queen Eleanor
+had not asserted her own primary and indefeasible right to her
+ancestral duchy, and then declared that she transferred it to her
+best loved son John. Most of her subjects accepted her decision,
+and Arthur&rsquo;s faction made no head in this quarter.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed for a space as if the new king would succeed in retaining
+the whole of his brother&rsquo;s inheritance, for King Philip
+very meanly allowed himself to be bought off by the cession
+of the county of Evreux, and, when his troops were withdrawn,
+the Angevin rebels were beaten down, and the duchess of Brittany
+had to ask for peace for her son. But it had not long been
+granted, when John proceeded to throw away his advantage
+by acts of reckless impolicy. Though cunning, he was destitute
+alike of foresight and of self-control; he could never discern the
+way in which his conduct would be judged by other men, because
+he lacked even the rudiments of a conscience. Ere he had been
+many months on the throne he divorced his wife, Isabella of
+Gloucester, alleging that their marriage had been illegal because
+they were within the prohibited degrees. This act offended the
+English barons, but in choosing a new queen John gave much
+greater offence abroad; he carried off Isabella of Angoulźme
+from her affianced husband, Hugh of Lusignan, the son of the
+count of la Marche, his greatest vassal in northern Aquitaine,
+and married her despite the precontract. This seems to have
+been an amorous freak, not the result of any deep-laid policy.
+Roused by the insult the Lusignans took arms, and a great part
+of the barons of Poitou joined them. They appealed for aid to
+Philip of France, who judged it opportune to intervene once
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page487" id="page487"></a>487</span>
+more. He summoned John to appear before him as suzerain,
+to answer the complaints of his Poitevin subjects, and when he
+failed to plead declared war on him and declared his dominions
+<span class="sidenote">War with Phillip Augustus.</span>
+escheated to the French crown for non-fulfilment of his
+feudal allegiance. He enlisted Arthur of Brittany in
+his cause by recognizing him once more as the rightful
+owner of all John&rsquo;s continental fiefs save Normandy,
+which he intended to take for himself. Philip then entered
+Normandy, while Arthur led a Breton force into Anjou and
+Poitou to aid the Lusignans. The fortune of war at first turned
+in favour of the English king. He surprised his nephew while
+he was besieging the castle of Mirebeau in Poitou, where the old
+Queen Eleanor was residing. The young duke and most of his
+chief supporters were taken prisoners (August 1, 1202). Instead
+of using his advantage aright, John put Arthur in secret confinement,
+and after some months caused him to be murdered. He
+is said also to have starved to death twenty-two knights of Poitou
+who had been among his captives. The assassination of his
+nearest kinsman, a mere boy of sixteen, was as unwise as it was
+cruel. It estranged from the king the hearts of all his French
+subjects, who were already sufficiently disgusted by many
+minor acts of brutality, as well as by incessant arbitrary taxation
+and by the reckless ravages in which John&rsquo;s mercenary troops
+had been indulging. The French armies met with little or no
+<span class="sidenote">Loss of Normandy.</span>
+resistance when they invaded Normandy, Anjou and
+Poitou. John sat inert at Rouen, pretending to take
+his misfortunes lightly, and boasting that &ldquo;what was
+easily lost could be as easily won back.&rdquo; Meanwhile Philip
+Augustus conquered all western Normandy, without having to
+fight a battle. The great castle of Chāteau Gaillard, which
+guards the Lower Seine, was the only place which made a strenuous
+resistance. It was finally taken by assault, despite of the
+efforts of the gallant castellan, Roger de Lacy, constable of
+Chester, who had made head against the besiegers for six months
+(September 1203-March 1204) without receiving any assistance
+from his master. John finally absconded to England in December
+1203; he failed to return with an army of relief, as he had
+promised, and before the summer of 1204 was over, Caen, Bayeux
+and Rouen, the last places that held out for him, had been
+forced to open their gates. The Norman barons had refused to
+strike a blow for John, and the cities had shown but a very
+passive and precarious loyalty to him. He had made himself
+so well hated by his cruelty and vices that the Normans, forgetting
+their old hatred of France, had acquiesced in the conquest.
+Two ties alone had for the last century held the duchy to the
+English connexion: the one was that many Norman baronial
+families held lands on this side of the Channel; the second was
+the national pride which looked upon England as a conquered
+appendage of Normandy. But the first had grown weaker as the
+custom arose of dividing family estates between brothers, on the
+principle that one should take the Norman, the other the English
+parts of a paternal heritage. By John&rsquo;s time there were comparatively
+few landholders whose interests were fairly divided
+between the duchy and the kingdom. Such as survived had now
+to choose between losing the one or the other section of their
+lands; those whose holding was mainly Norman adhered to
+Philip; those who had more land in England sacrificed their
+transmarine estates. For each of the two kings declared the
+property of the barons who did not support him confiscated to
+the crown. As to the old Norman theory that England was a
+conquered land, it had gradually ceased to exist as an operative
+force, under kings who, like Henry II. or Richard I., were neither
+Norman nor English in feeling, but Angevin. John did not, and
+could not, appeal as a Norman prince to Norman patriotism.</p>
+
+<p>The successes of Philip Augustus did not cease with the
+conquest of Normandy. His armies pushed forward in the south
+also; Anjou, Touraine and nearly all Poitou submitted
+to him. Only Guienne and southern Aquitaine held
+<span class="sidenote">Loss of Anjou, Touraine and Poitou.</span>
+out for King John, partly because they preferred a
+weak and distant master to such a strenuous and
+grasping prince as King Philip, partly because they
+were far more alien in blood and language to their French
+neighbours than were Normans or Angevins. The Gascons were
+practically a separate nationality, and the house of Capet had
+no ancient connexion with them. The kings of England were
+yet to reign at Bordeaux and Bayonne for two hundred and fifty
+years. But the connexion with Gascony meant little compared
+with the now vanished connexion with Normandy. Henry I.
+or Henry II. could run over to his continental dominions in a
+day or two days; Dieppe and Harfleur were close to Portsmouth
+and Hastings. It was a different thing for John and his
+successors to undertake the long voyage to Bordeaux, around
+the stormy headlands of Brittany and across the Bay of Biscay.
+Visits to their continental dominions had to be few and far
+between; they were long, costly and dangerous when a French
+fleet&mdash;a thing never seen before Philip Augustus conquered
+Normandy&mdash;might be roaming in the Channel. The kings of
+England became perforce much more home-keeping sovereigns
+after 1204.</p>
+
+<p>It was certainly not a boon for England that her present
+sovereign was destined to remain within her borders for the
+greater part of his remaining years. To know John well was to
+loathe him, as every contemporary chronicle bears witness. The
+two years that followed the loss of Normandy were a time of growing
+discontent and incessant disputes about taxation. The king
+kept collecting scutages and tallages, yet barons and towns complained
+that nothing seemed to be done with the money he collected.
+At last, however, in 1206, the king did make an expedition
+to Poitou, and recovered some of its southern borders.
+Yet, with his usual inconsequence, he did not follow up his
+success, but made a two years&rsquo; truce with Philip of France on
+the basis of <i>uti possidetis</i>&mdash;which left Normandy and all the
+territories on and about the Loire in the hands of the conqueror.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that this pacification was the result of a new
+quarrel which John had just taken up with a new enemy&mdash;the
+Papacy. The dispute on the question of free election,
+which was to range over all the central years of his
+<span class="sidenote">Quarrel with the Papacy.</span>
+reign, had just begun. In the end of 1205 Hubert
+Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, had died. The
+king announced his intention of procuring the election of John
+de Gray, bishop of Norwich, as his successor; but, though his
+purpose was well known, the chapter (<i>i.e.</i> the monks of Christ
+Church, Canterbury) met secretly and elected their sub-prior
+Reginald as archbishop. They sent him to Rome at once, to
+receive confirmation from Pope Innocent III., whom they knew
+to be a zealous champion of the rights of the Church. But John
+descended upon them in great wrath, and by threats compelled
+them to hold a second meeting, and to elect his nominee Gray,
+in whose name application for confirmation was also made to the
+pope. Innocent, however, seeing a splendid chance of asserting
+his authority, declared both the elections that had taken place
+invalid, the first because it had been clandestine, the second
+because it had been held under <i>force majeure</i>, and proceeded
+to nominate a friend of his own&mdash;Cardinal Stephen Langton, an
+Englishman of proved capacity and blameless life, then resident
+in Rome. He was far the worthiest of the three candidates, but
+it was an intolerable invasion of the rights of the English crown
+and the English Church that an archbishop should be foisted
+on them in this fashion. The representatives of the chapter
+who had been sent to Rome were persuaded or compelled to
+elect him in the pope&rsquo;s presence (Dec. 1206).</p>
+
+<p>King John was furious, and not without good reason; he
+refused to accept Langton, whom he declared (quite unjustly)
+to be a secret friend of Philip of France, and sequestrated the
+lands of the monks of Canterbury. On this the pope threatened
+to lay an interdict on himself and his realm. The king replied
+by issuing a proclamation to the effect that he would outlaw any
+clerk who should accept the validity of such an interdict and
+would confiscate his lands. Despising such threats Innocent
+carried out his threat, and put England under the ban of the
+Church on the 23rd of March 1208.</p>
+
+<p>In obedience to the pope&rsquo;s orders the large majority of the
+English clergy closed their churches, and suspended the ordinary
+course of the services and celebration of the sacraments. Baptism
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page488" id="page488"></a>488</span>
+and extreme unction only were continued, lest souls should
+be lost; and marriages were permitted but not inside the walls
+of churches. Foreseeing the wrath of the king against all who
+obeyed the mandate from Rome, the larger number of the bishops
+and many others of the higher clergy fled overseas to escape the
+storm. Those who were bold enough to remain behind had much
+to endure. John, openly rejoicing at the plunder that lay before
+him, declared the temporalities of all who had accepted the interdict,
+whether they had exiled themselves or no, to be confiscated.
+His treasury was soon so well filled that he could dispense with
+ordinary taxation. He also outlawed the whole body of the
+clergy, save the timid remnant who promised to disregard the
+papal commands.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing proves more conclusively the strength of the Angevin
+monarchy, and the decreasing power of feudalism, than that an
+unpopular king like John could maintain his strife
+with the pope, and suppress the discontents of his
+<span class="sidenote">Character of John&rsquo;s rule.</span>
+subjects, for nearly five years before the inevitable
+explosion came. Probably his long immunity was
+due in the main to the capacity of his strong-handed justiciar
+Geoffrey Fitz-Peter; the king hated him bitterly, but generally
+took his advice. The crash only came when Geoffrey died in
+1213; his ungrateful master only expressed joy. &ldquo;Now by God&rsquo;s
+feet am I for the first time king of England,&rdquo; he exclaimed, when
+the news reached him. He proceeded to fill the vacancy with a
+mere Poitevin adventurer, Peter des Roches, whom he had made
+bishop of Winchester some time before. Indeed John&rsquo;s few
+trusted confidants were nearly all foreigners, such men as the
+mercenary captains Gerard of Athies and Engelhart of Cigogné,
+whom he made sheriffs and castellans to the discontent of all
+Englishmen. He spent all his money in maintaining bands of
+hired <i>Brabanēons</i> and <i>routiers</i>, by whose aid he for some time
+succeeded in terrorizing the countryside. There were a few
+preliminary outbreaks of rebellion, which were suppressed with
+vigour and punished with horrible cruelty. John starved to
+death the wife and son of William de Braose, the first baron
+who took arms against him, and hanged in a row twenty-eight
+young boys, hostages for the fidelity of their fathers, Welsh
+princes who had dabbled in treason. Such acts provoked rage
+as well as fear, yet the measure of John&rsquo;s iniquities was not full
+till 1212. Indeed for some time his persistent prosperity provoked
+the indignant surprise of those who believed him to be
+under a curse. If his renewed war with Philip of France was
+generally unsuccessful, yet at home he held his own. The most
+astounding instance of his success is that in 1210 he found leisure
+for a hasty expedition to Ireland, where he compelled rebellious
+barons to do homage, and received the submission of more than
+twenty of the local kinglets. It is strange that he came back to
+find England undisturbed behind him.</p>
+
+<p>His long-deserved humiliation only began in the winter of
+1212-1213, when Innocent III., finding him so utterly callous
+as to the interdict, took the further step of declaring
+him deposed from the throne for contumacy, and
+<span class="sidenote">John does homage to the pope.</span>
+handing over the execution of the penalty to the king
+of France. This act provoked a certain amount of
+indignation in England, and in the spring of 1213 the king was
+able to collect a large army on Barham Down to resist the
+threatened French invasion. Yet so many of his subjects were
+discontented that he dared not trust himself to the chances of
+war, and, when the fleet of King Philip was ready to sail, he surprised
+the world by making a sudden and grovelling submission
+to the pope. Not only did he agree to receive Stephen Langton
+as archbishop, to restore all the exiled clergy to their benefices,
+and to pay them handsome compensation for all their losses
+during the last five years, but he took the strange and ignominious
+step of declaring that he ceded his whole kingdom to the
+pope, to hold as his vassal. He formally resigned his crown into
+the hands of the legate Cardinal Pandulf, and took it back as
+the pope&rsquo;s vassal, engaging at the same time to pay a tribute of
+1000 marks a year for England and Ireland. This was felt
+to be a humiliating transaction by many of John&rsquo;s subjects,
+though to others the joy at reconciliation with the Church
+caused all else to be forgotten. The political effect of the device
+was all that John had desired. His new suzerain took him
+under his protection, and forbade Philip of France to proceed
+with his projected invasion, though ships and men were all ready
+(May 1213). John&rsquo;s safety, however, was secured in a more
+practical way when his bastard brother, William Longsword,
+earl of Salisbury, made a descent on the port of Damme and
+burnt or sunk a whole squadron of the French transports.
+After this John&rsquo;s spirits rose, and he talked of crossing the seas
+himself to recover Normandy and Anjou. But he soon found
+that his subjects were not inclined to follow him; they were
+resigned to the loss of the Angevin heritage, whose union with
+England brought no profit to them, however much it might
+interest their king. The barons expressed their wish for a peace
+with France, and when summoned to produce their feudal contingents
+pleaded poverty, and raised a rather shallow theory
+to the effect that their services could not be asked for wars
+beyond seas&mdash;against which there were conclusive precedents
+in the reigns of Henry I. and Henry II. But any plea can be
+raised against an unpopular king. John found himself obliged
+to turn back, since hardly a man save his mercenaries had rallied
+to his standard at Portsmouth. In great anger and indignation
+he marched off towards the north, with his hired soldiery, swearing
+to punish the barons who had taken the lead in the &ldquo;strike&rdquo;
+which had defeated his purpose. But the outbreak of war was
+to be deferred for a space. Archbishop Langton, who on assuming
+possession of his see had shown at once that he was a patriotic
+English statesman, and not the mere delegate of the pope,
+besought his master to hold back, and, when he refused,
+threatened to renew the excommunication which had so lately
+been removed. The old justiciar Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, now on
+his death-bed, had also refused to pronounce sentence on the
+defaulters. John hesitated, and meanwhile his enemies began
+to organize their resistance.</p>
+
+<p>A great landmark in the constitutional history of England
+was reached when Langton assembled the leading barons,
+rehearsed to them the charter issued by Henry I. on
+his accession, and pointed out to them the rights
+<span class="sidenote">Opposition of the barons.</span>
+and liberties therein promised by the crown to the
+nation. For the future they agreed to take this document
+as their programme of demands. It was the first of the
+many occasions in English history when the demand for reform
+took the shape of a reference back to old precedents, and now
+(as on all subsequent occasions) the party which opposed the
+crown read back into the ancient grants which they quoted a
+good deal more than had been actually conceded in them. To
+Langton and the barons the charter of Henry I. seemed to cover
+all the customs and practices which had grown up under the rule
+of the bureaucracy which had served Henry II. and Richard I.
+A correct historical perspective could hardly be expected from
+men whose constitutional knowledge only ran back as far as the
+memory of themselves and their fathers. The Great Charter of
+1215 was a commentary on, rather than a reproduction of, the
+old accession pledges of Henry I.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile John, leaving his barons to discuss and formulate
+their grievances, pushed on with a great scheme of foreign
+alliances, by which he hoped to crush Philip of France,
+even though the aid of the feudal levies of England
+<span class="sidenote">Alliance against France.</span>
+was denied him. He leagued himself with his nephew
+the emperor Otto IV. (his sister&rsquo;s son), and the counts
+of Flanders and Boulogne, with many other princes of the
+Netherlands. Their plan was that John should land in Poitou
+and distract the attention of the French by a raid up the Loire,
+while the emperor and his vassals should secretly mobilize a
+great army in Brabant and make a sudden dash at Paris. The
+scheme was not destitute of practical ability, and if it had been
+duly carried out would have placed France in such a crisis of
+danger as she has seldom known. It was not John&rsquo;s fault that the
+campaign failed. He sent the earl of Salisbury with some of his
+mercenaries to join the confederates in Flanders, while he sailed
+with the main body of them to La Rochelle, whence he marched
+northward, devastating the land before him. Philip came out
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page489" id="page489"></a>489</span>
+to meet him with the whole levy of France (April 1214), and
+Paris would have been left exposed if Otto and his Netherland
+vassals had struck promptly in. But the emperor was late, and
+by the time that he was approaching the French frontier Philip
+Augustus had discovered that John&rsquo;s invasion was but a feint,
+executed by an army too weak to do much harm. Leaving a
+small containing force on the Loire in face of the English king,
+Philip hurried to the north with his main army, and on the 27th
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Bouvines.</span>
+of July 1214 inflicted a crushing defeat on the emperor
+and his allies at Bouvines near Lille. This was the
+greatest victory of the French medieval monarchy. It
+broke up the Anglo-German alliance, and gave the conqueror
+undisturbed possession of all that he had won from the Angevin
+house and his other enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Indirectly Bouvines was almost as important in the history
+of England as in that of France. John returned to England
+foiled, and in great anger; he resolved to give up the
+French war, secured a truce with King Philip by
+<span class="sidenote">Magna Carta.</span>
+abandoning his attempt to reconquer his lost lands
+on the Loire, and turned to attack the recalcitrant subjects
+who had refused to join him in his late campaign beyond the
+Channel. Matters soon came to a head: on hearing that the
+king was mobilizing his mercenary bands, the barons met at
+Bury St Edmunds, and leagued themselves by an oath to obtain
+from the king a confirmation of the charter of Henry I. (November
+1214). At the New Year they sent him a formal ultimatum,
+to which he would not assent, though he opened up futile negotiation
+with them through the channel of the archbishop, who did
+not take an open part in the rising. At Easter, nothing having
+been yet obtained from the king, an army headed by five earls,
+forty barons, and Giles Braose, bishop of Hereford, mustered at
+Stamford and marched on London. Their captain was Robert
+FitzWalter, whom they had named &ldquo;marshal of the army of
+God and Holy Church.&rdquo; When they reached the capital its
+gates were thrown open to them, and the mayor and citizens
+adhered to their cause (May 17). The king, who had tried to
+turn them back by taking the cross and declaring himself a
+crusader, and by making loud appeals for the arbitration of the
+pope, was forced to retire to Windsor. He found that he had
+no supporters save a handful of courtiers and officials and the
+leaders of his mercenary bands; wherefore in despair he accepted
+the terms forced upon him by the insurgents. On the 15th of
+June 1215 he sealed at Runnymede, close to Windsor, the
+famous <i>Magna Carta</i>, in face of a vast assembly among which
+he had hardly a single friend. It is a long document of 63
+clauses, in which Archbishop Langton and a committee of the
+barons had endeavoured to recapitulate all their grievances,
+and to obtain redress for them. Some of the clauses are unimportant
+concessions to individuals, or deal with matters of
+trifling importance&mdash;such as the celebrated weirs or &ldquo;kiddles&rdquo;
+on Thames and Medway, or the expulsion of the condottieri
+chiefs Gerard d&rsquo;Athies and Engelhart de Cigogné. But many of
+them are matters of primary importance in the constitutional
+history of England. The Great Charter must not, however, be
+overrated as an expression of general constitutional rights;
+to a large extent it is a mere recapitulation of the claims of the
+baronage, and gives redress for their feudal grievances in the
+matters of aids, reliefs, wardships, &amp;c., its object being the repression
+of arbitrary exactions by the king on his tenants-in-chief.
+One section, that which provides against the further encroachments
+of the king&rsquo;s courts on the private manorial courts of the
+landowners, might even be regarded as retrograde in character
+from the point of view of administrative efficacy. But it is most
+noteworthy that the barons, while providing for the abolition
+of abuses which affect themselves, show an unselfish and patriotic
+spirit in laying down the rule that all the concessions which the
+king makes to them shall also be extended by themselves to their
+own sub-tenants. The clauses dealing with the general governance
+of the realm are also as enlightened as could be expected
+from the character of the committee which drafted the charter.
+There is to be no taxation without the consent of the Great
+Council of the Realm&mdash;which is to consist of all barons, who are
+to be summoned by individual units; and of all smaller tenants-in-chief,
+who are to be called not by separate letters, but by a
+general notice published by the sheriff. It has been pointed out
+that this provides no representation for sub-tenants or the rest
+of the nation, so that we are still far from the ideal of a representative
+parliament. John himself had gone a step farther on
+the road towards that ideal when in 1213 he had summoned four
+&ldquo;discreet men&rdquo; from every shire to a council at Oxford, which
+(as it appears) was never held. But this would seem to have
+been a vain bid for popularity with the middle classes, which
+had no result at the time, and the barons preferred to keep things
+in their own hands, and to abide by ancient precedents. It was
+to be some forty years later that the first appearance of elected
+shire representatives at the Great Council took place. In 1215
+the control of the subjects over the crown in the matter of
+taxation is reserved entirely for the tenants-in-chief, great and
+small.</p>
+
+<p>There is less qualified praise to be bestowed on the clauses of
+Magna Carta which deal with justice. The royal courts are no
+longer to attend the king&rsquo;s person&mdash;a vexatious practice when
+sovereigns were always on the move, and litigants and witnesses
+had to follow them from manor to manor&mdash;but are to be fixed
+at Westminster. General rules of indisputable equity are fixed
+for the conduct of the courts&mdash;no man is to be tried or punished
+more than once for the same offence; no one is to be arrested
+and kept in prison without trial; all arrested persons are to be
+sent before the courts within a reasonable time, and to be tried
+by a jury of their peers. Fines imposed on unsuccessful litigants
+are to be calculated according to the measure of their
+offence, and are not to be arbitrary penalties raised or lowered
+at the king&rsquo;s good pleasure according to the sum that he imagined
+that the offender could be induced to pay. No foreigners or other
+persons ignorant of the laws of England are to be entrusted
+with judicial or administrative offices.</p>
+
+<p>There is only a single clause dealing with the grievances of
+the English Church, although Archbishop Langton had been the
+principal adviser in the drafting of the whole document. This
+clause, &ldquo;that the English church shall be free,&rdquo; was, however,
+sufficiently broad to cover all demands. The reason that
+Langton did not descend to details was that the king had
+already conceded the right of free canonical election and the
+other claims of the clerical order in a separate charter, so that
+there was no need to discuss them at length.</p>
+
+<p>The special clauses for the benefit of the city of London were
+undoubtedly inserted as a tribute of gratitude on the part of the
+barons for the readiness which the citizens had shown in adhering
+to their cause. There are other sections for the benefit
+of the commons in general, such as that which gives merchants
+full right of leaving or entering the realm with their goods on
+payment of the fixed ancient custom dues. But these clauses
+are less numerous than might have been expected&mdash;the framers
+of the document were, after all, barons and not burghers.</p>
+
+<p>The most surprising part of the Great Charter to modern eyes
+is its sixty-first paragraph, that which openly states doubts as to
+the king&rsquo;s intention to abide by his promise, and appoints a
+committee of twenty-five guardians of the charter (twenty-four
+barons and the mayor of London), who are to coerce their master,
+by force of arms if necessary, to observe every one of its clauses.
+The twenty-five were to hear and decide upon any claims and
+complaints preferred against the king, and to keep up their
+numbers by co-optation, so that it would seem that the barons
+intended to keep a permanent watch upon the crown. The
+clause seems unnecessarily harsh and violent in its wording;
+but it must be remembered that John&rsquo;s character was well known,
+and that it was useless to stand on forms of politeness when
+dealing with him. It seems certain that the drafters of the
+charter were honest in their intentions, and did not purpose to
+set up a feudal oligarchy in the place of a royal autocracy.
+They were only insisting on the maintenance of what they
+believed to be the ancient and laudable customs of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>That the barons were right to suspect John is sufficiently
+shown by his subsequent conduct. His pretence of keeping his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page490" id="page490"></a>490</span>
+promise lasted less than two months; by August 1215 he was
+already secretly collecting money and hiring more mercenaries.
+He wrote to Rome to beg the pope to annul the charter,
+stating that all his troubles had come upon him in consequence
+of his dutiful conduct to the Holy See. He also stated that
+he had taken the cross as a crusader, but could not sail to
+Palestine as long as his subjects were putting him in restraint.
+Innocent III. at once took the hint; in September Archbishop
+Langton was suspended for disobedience to papal commands,
+and the charter was declared uncanonical, null and void.
+The &ldquo;troublers of the king and kingdom&rdquo; were declared
+excommunicate.</p>
+
+<p>Langton departed at once to Rome, to endeavour to turn the
+heart of his former patron, a task in which he utterly failed.
+Many of the clergy who had hitherto supported the
+baronial cause drew back in dismay at the pope&rsquo;s
+<span class="sidenote">Civil War.</span>
+attitude. But the laymen were resolute, and prepared for
+open war, which broke out in October 1215. The king, who
+had already gathered in many mercenaries, gained the first
+advantage by capturing Rochester Castle before the army
+of the barons was assembled. So formidable did he appear to
+them for the moment that they took the deplorable step of inviting
+the foreign foe to join in the struggle. Declaring John
+deposed because he had broken his oath to observe the charter,
+they offered the crown to Louis of France, the son of King
+Philip, because he had married John&rsquo;s niece Blanche of Castile
+and could assert in her right a claim to the throne. This was a
+most unhappy inspiration, and drove into neutrality or even
+into the king&rsquo;s camp many who had previously inclined to the
+party of reform. But John did his best to disgust his followers
+by adopting the policy of carrying out fierce and purposeless
+raids of devastation all through the countryside, while refusing
+to face his enemies in a pitched battle. He bore himself like a
+captain of banditti rather than a king in his own country.
+Presently, when the French prince came over with a considerable
+army to join the insurgent barons, he retired northward, leaving
+London and the home counties to his rival. In all the south
+country only Dover and Windsor castles held out for him. His
+sole success was that he raised the siege of Lincoln by driving
+off a detachment of the baronial army which was besieging it.
+<span class="sidenote">Death of John.</span>
+Soon after, while marching from Lynn towards Wisbeach,
+he was surprised by the tide in the fords of the
+Wash and lost part of his army and all his baggage and
+treasure. Next day he fell ill of rage and vexation of spirit,
+contracted a dysenteric ailment, and died a week later at Newark
+(Oct. 19, 1216). It was the best service that he could do his
+kingdom. Owing to the unwise and unpatriotic conduct of the
+barons in summoning over Louis of France to their aid, John
+had become in some sort the representative of national independence.
+Yet he was so frankly impossible as a ruler that, save
+the earls of Pembroke and Chester, all his English followers had
+left him, and he had no one to back him but the papal legate
+Gualo and a band of foreign mercenaries. When once he was
+dead, and his heritage fell to his nine-year-old son Henry III.,
+whom none could make responsible for his father&rsquo;s doings, the
+whole aspect of affairs was changed.</p>
+
+<p>The aged William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, by far the most
+important and respectable personage who had adhered to John&rsquo;s
+cause, assumed the position of regent. He at once
+offered in the name of the young king pardon and
+<span class="sidenote">Henry III.</span>
+oblivion of offences to all the insurgent barons. At the
+same time he reissued the Great Charter, containing all the
+important concessions which John had made at Runnymede,
+save that which gave the control of taxation to the tenants-in-chief.
+Despite this and certain other smaller omissions, it was
+a document which would satisfy most subjects of the crown,
+if only it were faithfully observed. The youth of the king and
+the good reputation of the earl marshal were a sufficient guarantee
+that, for some years at any rate, an honest attempt would be
+made to redeem the pledge. Very soon the barons began to
+return to their allegiance, or at least to slacken in their support
+of Louis, who had given much offence by his openly displayed
+distrust of his partisans and his undisguised preference for his
+French followers. The papal influence was at the same time
+employed in the cause of King Henry, and Philip of France was
+forced to abandon open support of his son, though he naturally
+continued to give him secret help and to send him succours of
+men and money.</p>
+
+<p>The fortune of war, however, did not turn without a battle.
+At Lincoln, on the 20th of May 1217, the marshal completely
+defeated an Anglo-French army commanded by the
+count of Perche and the earls of Winchester and Hereford.
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Lincoln.</span>
+The former was slain, the other two taken
+prisoners, with more than 300 knights and barons. This was the
+death-blow to the cause of Louis of France; when it was followed
+up by the defeat in the Dover Straits of a fleet which was bringing
+him reinforcements (Aug. 17), he despaired of success and asked
+for terms. By the treaty of Lambeth (Sept. 11, 1217) he secured
+an amnesty for all his followers and an indemnity of 10,000 marks
+for himself. Less than a month later he quitted England; the
+victorious royalists celebrated his departure by a second reissue
+of the Great Charter, which contained some new clauses favourable
+to the baronial interest.</p>
+
+<p>After the departure of Prince Louis and his foreigners the earl
+marshal had to take up much the same task that had fallen to
+Henry II. in 1154. Now, as at the death of Stephen, the realm
+was full of &ldquo;adulterine castles,&rdquo; of bands of robbers who had
+cloaked their plundering under the pretence of loyal service to
+the king or the French prince, and of local magnates who had
+usurped the prerogatives of royalty, each in his own district.
+It was some years before peace and order were restored in the
+realm, and the aged Pembroke died in 1219 before his work was
+completed. After his decease the conduct of the government
+passed into the hands of the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, and the
+papal legate Pandulf, to whom the marshal had specially recommended
+the young king. Their worst enemies were those who
+during the civil war had been their best friends, the mercenary
+captains and upstart knights whom John had made sheriffs and
+castellans. From 1219 to 1224 de Burgh was constantly occupied
+in evicting the old loyalists from castles which they had seized
+or offices which they had disgraced. In several cases it was
+necessary to mobilize an army against a recalcitrant magnate.
+The most troublesome of them was Falkes de Breauté, the most
+famous of King John&rsquo;s foreign <i>condottieri</i>, whose minions held
+Bedford castle against the justiciar and the whole shire levy of
+eastern England for nearly two months in 1224. The castle was
+taken and eighty men-at-arms hanged on its surrender, but Falkes
+escaped with his life and fled to France. It was not till this severe
+lesson had been inflicted on the faction of disorder that the
+pacification of England could be considered complete.</p>
+
+<p>The fifty-six years&rsquo; reign of Henry III. forms one of the periods
+during which the mere chronicle of events may seem tedious
+and trivial, yet the movement of national life and constitutional
+progress was very important. Except during the stirring epoch
+1258-1265 there was little that was dramatic or striking in the
+events of the reign. Yet the England of 1272 was widely different
+from the England of 1216. The futile and thriftless yet busy
+and self-important king was one of those sovereigns who irritate
+their subjects into opposition by injudicious activity. He was
+not a ruffian or a tyrant like his father, and had indeed not a few
+of the domestic virtues. But he was constitutionally incapable
+of keeping a promise or paying a debt. Not being strong-handed
+or capable, he could never face criticism nor suppress
+discontent by force, as a king of the type of Henry I. or Henry II.
+would have done. He generally gave way when pressed, without
+attempting an appeal to arms; he would then swear an oath to
+observe the Great Charter, and be detected in violating it again
+within a few months. His greatest fault in the eyes of his subjects
+was his love of foreigners; since John had lost Normandy the
+English baronage had become as national in spirit as the
+commons. The old Anglo-Norman houses had forgotten the
+tradition of their origin, and now formed but a small section of
+the aristocracy; the newer families, sprung from the officials
+of the first two Henries, had always been English in spirit.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page491" id="page491"></a>491</span>
+Unfortunately for himself the third Henry inherited the continental
+cosmopolitanism of his Angevin ancestors, and found
+himself confronted with a nation which was growing ever more
+and more insular in its ideals. He had all the ambitions of his
+grandfather Henry II.; his dreams were of shattering the
+newly-formed kingdom of France, the creation of Philip Augustus,
+and of recovering all the lost lands of his forefathers on the Seine
+and Loire. Occasionally his views grew yet wider&mdash;he would
+knit up alliances all over Christendom and dominate the West.
+Nothing could have been wilder and more unpractical than the
+scheme on which he set his heart in 1255-1257, a plan for conquering
+Naples and Sicily for his second son. Moreover it was
+a great hindrance to him that he was a consistent friend and
+supporter of the papacy. He had never forgotten the services
+of the legates Pandulf and Gualo to himself and his father, and
+was always ready to lend his aid to the political schemes of the
+popes, even when it was difficult to see that any English interests
+were involved in them. His designs, which were always shifting
+from point to point of the continent, did not appeal in the least
+to his subjects, who took little interest in Poitou or Touraine,
+and none whatever in Italy. After the troubled times which
+had lasted from 1214 to 1224 they desired nothing more than
+peace, quietness and good governance. They had no wish to
+furnish their master with taxation for French wars, or to follow
+his banner to distant Aquitaine. But most of all did they dislike
+his practice of flooding England with strangers from beyond
+seas, for whom offices and endowments had to be found. The
+moment that he had got rid of the honest and capable old
+justiciar Hubert de Burgh, who had pacified the country during
+his minority, and set the machinery of government once more
+in regular order, Henry gave himself over to fostering horde
+after horde of foreign favourites. There was first his Poitevin
+chancellor, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, with a numerous
+band of his relations and dependents. As a sample of the
+king&rsquo;s methods it may be mentioned that he once made over
+nineteen of the thirty-five sheriffdoms, within a fortnight, to Peter
+of Rivaux, a nephew of the chancellor. Des Roches was driven
+from office after two years (1234), and his friends and relatives
+fell with him. But they were only the earliest of the king&rsquo;s alien
+favourites; quite as greedy were the second family of his mother,
+Isabella of Angoulźme, who after King John&rsquo;s death had married
+her old betrothed, Hugh of Lusignan. Henry secured great
+English marriages for three of them, and made the fourth,
+Aymer, bishop of Winchester. Their kinsmen and dependents
+were equally welcomed. Even more numerous and no less expensive
+to the realm were the Provenēal and Savoyard relatives
+of Henry&rsquo;s queen, Eleanor of Provence. The king made one of
+her uncles, Boniface of Savoy, archbishop of Canterbury&mdash;it
+was three years before he deigned to come over to take up the
+post, and then he was discovered to be illiterate and unclerical in
+his habits, an unworthy successor for Langton and Edmund of
+Abingdon, the great primates who went before him. Peter of
+Savoy, another uncle, was perhaps the most shameless of all
+the beggars for the king&rsquo;s bounty; not only was he made earl
+of Richmond, but his debts were repeatedly paid and great sums
+were given him to help his continental adventures.</p>
+
+<p>King Henry&rsquo;s personal rule lasted from 1232, the year in
+which he deprived Hubert de Burgh of his justiciarship and
+confiscated most of his lands, down to 1258. It was thriftless,
+arbitrary, and lacking in continuity of policy, yet not tyrannical
+or cruel. If he had been a worse man he would have been put
+under control long before by his irritated subjects. All through
+these twenty-six years he was being opposed and criticised by
+a party which embraced the wisest and most patriotic section
+of the baronage and the hierarchy. It numbered among its
+leaders the good archbishop, Edmund of Abingdon, and Robert
+Grosseteste, the active and learned bishop of Lincoln; it was
+not infrequently aided by the king&rsquo;s brother Richard, earl of
+Cornwall, who did not share Henry&rsquo;s blind admiration for his
+foreign relatives. But it only found its permanent guiding
+spirit somewhat late in the reign, when Simon de Montfort,
+earl of Leicester, became the habitual mouthpiece of the
+grievances of the nation. The great earl had, oddly enough,
+commenced his career as one of the king&rsquo;s foreign favourites.
+<span class="sidenote">Simon de Monfort.</span>
+He was the grandson of Amicia, countess of Leicester,
+but his father, Simon the Elder, a magnate whose
+French interests were greater than his English, had
+adhered to the cause of Philip Augustus in the days of King John
+and the Leicester estates had been confiscated. Simon, reared
+as a Frenchman, came over in 1230 to petition for their restoration.
+He not only obtained it, but to the great indignation
+of the English baronage married the king&rsquo;s sister Eleanor in 1238.
+For some time he was in high favour with his brother-in-law,
+and was looked upon by the English as no better than Aymer
+de Valence or Peter of Savoy. But he quarrelled with the fickle
+king, and adhered ere long to the party of opposition. A long
+experience of his character and actions convinced barons and
+commons alike that he was a just and sincere man, a friend of
+good governance, and an honest opponent of arbitrary and unconstitutional
+rule. He had become such a thorough Englishman
+in his views and prejudices, that by 1250 he was esteemed
+the natural exponent of all the wrongs of the realm. He was
+austere and religious; many of his closest friends were among the
+more saintly of the national clergy. By the end of his life the
+man who had started as the king&rsquo;s unpopular minion was known
+as &ldquo;Earl Simon the Righteous,&rdquo; and had become the respected
+leader of the national opposition to his royal brother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>Though Henry&rsquo;s taxes were vexatious and never-ending,
+though his subservience to the pope and his flighty interference
+in foreign politics were ever irritating the magnates
+and the people, and though outbreaks of turbulence
+<span class="sidenote">Condition of England under Henry III.</span>
+were not unknown during his long period of personal
+rule, it would yet be a mistake to regard the central
+years of the 13th century as an unprosperous period for
+England. Indeed it would be more correct to regard the
+period as one of steady national development in wealth, culture
+and unity. The towns were growing fast, and extending their
+municipal liberties; the necessities of John and the facile carelessness
+of Henry led to the grant of innumerable charters and
+privileges. As was to be seen again during the first period of the
+reign of Charles I., political irritation is not incompatible either
+with increasing material prosperity or with great intellectual
+development. The king&rsquo;s futile activity led to ever more frequent
+gatherings of the Great Council, in which the theory of the
+constitution was gradually hammered out by countless debates
+between the sovereign and his subjects. Every time that Henry
+confirmed the Great Charter, the fact that England was already
+a limited monarchy became more evident. It is curious to find
+that&mdash;like his father John&mdash;he himself contributed unconsciously
+<span class="sidenote">Beginnings of Parliament.</span>
+to advances towards representative government.
+John&rsquo;s writ of 1213, bidding &ldquo;discreet men&rdquo; from each
+shire to present themselves at Oxford, found its
+parallel in another writ of 1253 which bids four knightly
+delegates from each county to appear along with the tenants-in-chief,
+for the purpose of discussing the king&rsquo;s needs. When
+county members begin to present themselves along with the
+barons at the national assembly, the conception of parliament
+is already reached. And indeed we may note that the precise
+word &ldquo;parliament&rdquo; first appears in the chroniclers and in official
+documents about the middle of Henry&rsquo;s reign. By its end the
+term is universally acknowledged and employed.</p>
+
+<p>We may discern during these same years a great intellectual
+activity. This was the time of rapid development in the universities,
+where not only were the scholastic philosophy
+and systematic theology eagerly studied, but figures
+<span class="sidenote">Intellectual life.</span>
+appear like that of the great Roger Bacon, a scientific
+researcher of the first rank, whose discoveries in optics and
+chemistry caused his contemporaries to suspect him of magical
+arts. His teaching at Oxford in 1250-1257 fell precisely into
+the years of the worst misgovernance of Henry III. It was the
+same with law, an essentially 13th-century study; it was just
+in this age that the conception of law as something not depending
+on the pleasure of the king, nor compiled from mere collected
+ancestral customs, but existing as a logical entity, became
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page492" id="page492"></a>492</span>
+generally prevalent. The feeling is thoroughly well expressed
+by the partisan of Montfort who wrote in his jingling Latin
+verse:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table class="reg" summary="poem"><tr><td> <div class="poemr">
+<p>&ldquo;Dicitur vulgariter &lsquo;ut rex vult lex vadit&rsquo;:</p>
+<p class="i05">Veritas vult aliter: nam lex stat, rex cadit.&rdquo;</p>
+</div> </td></tr></table>
+
+<p class="noind">Law has become something greater than, and independent of,
+royal caprice. The great lawyers of the day, of whom Bracton
+is the most celebrated name, were spinning theories of its origin
+and development, studying Roman precedents, and turning the
+medley of half-understood Saxon and Norman customs into a
+system.</p>
+
+<p>Intellectual growth was accompanied by great religious
+activity; it is no longer merely on the old questions of dispute
+between church and state that men were straining
+their minds. The reign of Henry III. saw the invasion
+<span class="sidenote">Religious life: the friars.</span>
+of England by the friars, originally the moral reformers
+of their day, who preached the superiority
+of the missionary life over the merely contemplative life of
+the old religious orders, and came, preaching holy poverty,
+to minister to souls neglected by worldly incumbents and
+political prelates (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Mendicant Movement</a></span>). The mendicants,
+Dominican and Franciscan, took rapid root in England;
+the number of friaries erected in the reign of Henry III. is
+astounding. For two generations they seem to have absorbed
+into their ranks all the most active and energetic of those who
+felt a clerical vocation. It is most noteworthy that they were
+joined by thinkers such as Grosseteste, Adam Marsh, Roger
+Bacon, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. Still more striking
+is the fact that the friars threw themselves energetically into
+the cause of political reform, and that several of their leading
+brothers were the close friends and counsellors of Simon de
+Montfort.</p>
+
+<p>Architecture and art generally were making rapid strides
+during this stirring time. The lofty Early English style had
+now completely superseded the more heavy and
+sombre Norman, and it was precisely during the years
+<span class="sidenote">Literature and art.</span>
+of the maladministration of Henry III. that some of
+the most splendid of the English cathedrals, Salisbury (1220-1258)
+and Wells (1230-1239), were built. The king himself,
+when rearing the new Westminster Abbey over the grave of
+Edward the Confessor, spent for once some of his money on a
+worthy object. It may be noted that he showed a special reverence
+for the old English royal saint, and christened his eldest
+son after him; while his second bore the name of Edmund,
+the East Anglian martyr. These were the first occasions on
+which princes of the Angevin house received names that were
+not drawn from the common continental stock, but recalled
+the days before the Conquest. The reappearance of these old
+English names bears witness to the fact that the vernacular
+was reasserting itself. Though French was still the language
+of the court and of law, a new literature was already growing
+up in the native tongue, with such works as Layamon&rsquo;s <i>Brut</i>
+and the <i>Ormulum</i> as its first fruits. Henry III. himself on rare
+occasions used English for a state document.</p>
+
+<p>All these facts make it sufficiently clear that England was
+irritated rather than crushed by Henry&rsquo;s irregular taxation and
+thriftless expenditure. The nation was growing and prospering,
+despite of its master&rsquo;s maladministration of its resources. On
+several occasions when he endeavoured to commit parliaments
+to back his bills and endorse his policy, they refused to help him,
+and left him to face his debts as best he might. This was especially
+the case with the insane contract which he made with Pope
+Innocent IV. in 1254, when he bound the realm of England to
+find 140,000 marks to equip an army for the conquest of Naples
+and Sicily. Henry lacked the energy to attempt to take by force
+what he could not obtain by persuasion, and preferred to break
+his bargain with the pope rather than to risk the chance of civil
+war at home.</p>
+
+<p>It was over this Sicilian scheme, the crowning folly of the
+king, that public opinion at last grew so hot that the intermittent
+criticism and grumbling of the baronage and the nation passed
+into vigorous and masterful action. At the &ldquo;Mad Parliament,&rdquo;
+which met at Oxford, 1258, the barons informed their master
+that his misgovernment had grown so hopeless that they were
+<span class="sidenote">Public discontent. The Provisions of Oxford.</span>
+resolved to put him under constitutional restraints.
+They appointed a committee of twenty-four, in which
+Simon de Montfort was the leading spirit, and entrusted
+it with the duty, not only of formulating
+lists of grievances, but of seeing that they were redressed.
+Henry found that he had practically no supporters
+save his unpopular foreign relatives and favourites, and yielded
+perforce. To keep him in bounds the celebrated &ldquo;Provisions
+of Oxford&rdquo; were framed. They provided that he was to do
+nothing without the consent of a permanent council of fifteen
+barons and bishops, and that all his finances were to be controlled
+by another committee of twenty-four persons. All aliens were
+to be expelled from the realm, and even the king&rsquo;s household
+was to be &ldquo;reformed&rdquo; by his self-constituted guardians. The
+inevitable oath to observe honestly all the conditions of the
+Great Charter of 1215 was, as usual, extorted from him with
+special formalities. Though Montfort and the barons voiced the
+public discontent, the constitution which they thus imposed
+on the king had nothing popular about it. The royal functions
+of which Henry was stripped were to be exercised by a series of
+baronial committees. The arrangement was too cumbersome,
+for there was nothing which would be called a central executive;
+the three bodies (two of twenty-four members each, the
+third of fifteen) were interdependent, and none of them possessed
+efficient control over the others. It was small wonder
+that the constitution established by the Provisions of Oxford
+was found unworkable. They were not even popular&mdash;the
+small landholders and subtenants discovered that their interests
+had not been sufficiently regarded, and lent themselves to an
+agitation against the provisional government, which was got
+up by Edward, the king&rsquo;s eldest son, who now appeared prominently
+in history for the first time. To conciliate them the
+barons allowed the &ldquo;Provisions of Westminster&rdquo; to be enacted
+in 1259, in which the power of feudal courts was considerably
+restricted, and many classes of suit were transferred to the royal
+tribunals, a sufficient proof that the king&rsquo;s judges did not share
+in the odium which appertained to their master, and were regarded
+as honest and impartial.</p>
+
+<p>The limited monarchy established by the Provisions of Oxford
+lasted only three years. Seeing the barons quarrelling among
+themselves, and Montfort accused of ambition and overweening
+masterfulness by many of his colleagues, the king took heart.
+Copying the example of his father in 1215, he obtained from the
+pope a bull, which declared the new constitution irregular and
+illegal, and absolved him from his oath to abide by it. He then
+began to recall his foreign friends and relatives, and to assemble
+mercenaries. De Montfort answered by raising an army, arresting
+prominent aliens, and seizing the lands which the king had
+given them. Henry thereupon, finding his forces too weak to
+face the earl, took refuge in the Tower of London and proposed
+an arbitration. He offered to submit his case to Louis IX., the
+saintly king of France, whose virtues were known and respected
+all over Europe, if the baronial party would do the same. An
+appeal to the pope they would have laughed to scorn; but the
+confidence felt in the probity of the French king was so great
+that Montfort advised his friends to accede to the proposal.
+This was an unwise step. Louis was a saint, but he was also
+an autocratic king, and had no knowledge of the constitutional
+customs of England. Having heard the claims of the king and
+the barons, he issued the mise of Amiens (Jan. 23, 1264), so called
+from the city at which he dated it, a document which stated that
+King Henry ought to abide by the terms of Magna Carta, to
+which he had so often given his assent, but that the Provisions
+of Oxford were wholly invalid and derogatory to the royal
+dignity. &ldquo;We ordain,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;that the king shall have full
+power and free jurisdiction over his realm, as in the days before
+the said Provisions.&rdquo; The pope shortly afterwards confirmed
+the French king&rsquo;s award.</p>
+
+<p>Simon de Montfort and his friends were put in an awkward
+position by this decision, to which they had so unwisely
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page493" id="page493"></a>493</span>
+committed themselves. But they did not hesitate to declare that
+they must repudiate the mise. Simon declared that it would be
+a worse perjury to abandon his oath to keep the Provisions of
+Oxford than his oath to abide by the French king&rsquo;s award.
+He took arms again at the head of the Londoners and his personal
+adherents and allies. But many of the barons stood neutral,
+not seeing how they could refuse to accept the arbitration they
+had courted, while a number not inconsiderable joined the king,
+deciding that Leicester had passed the limits of reasonable loyalty,
+and that their first duty was to the crown.</p>
+
+<p>Hence it came to pass that in the campaign of 1264 Simon
+was supported by a minority only of the baronial class, and the
+king&rsquo;s army was the larger. The fortune of war inclined
+at first in favour of the royalists, who captured
+<span class="sidenote">The barons&rsquo; war: battle of Lewes.</span>
+Northampton and Nottingham. But when it came
+to open battle, the military skill of the earl sufficed
+to compensate for the inferiority of his numbers. At
+Lewes, on the 14th of May, he inflicted a crushing defeat on the
+king&rsquo;s army. Henry himself, his brother Richard of Cornwall,
+and many hundreds of his chief supporters were taken prisoners.
+His son Prince Edward, who had been victorious on his own flank
+of the battle, and had not been caught in the rout, gave himself
+up next morning, wishing to share his father&rsquo;s fate, and not to
+prolong a civil war which seemed to have become hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>On the day that followed his victory Leicester extorted from
+the captive king the document called the &ldquo;mise of Lewes,&rdquo;
+in which Henry promised to abide by all the terms
+of the Provisions of Oxford, as well as to uphold the
+<span class="sidenote">Montfort&rsquo;s parliament.</span>
+Great Charter and the old customs of the realm.
+Montfort was determined to put his master under
+political tutelage for the rest of his life. He summoned a parliament,
+in which four knights elected by each shire were present,
+to establish the new constitution. It appointed Simon, with
+his closest allies, the young earl of Gloucester and the bishop of
+Chichester, as electors who were to choose a privy council for
+the king and to fill up all offices of state. The king was to exercise
+no act of sovereignty save by the consent of the councillors,
+of whom three were to follow his person wherever he went.
+This was a far simpler constitution than that framed at Oxford
+in 1258, but it was even more liable to criticism. For if the
+&ldquo;Provisions&rdquo; had established a government by baronial committees,
+the parliament of 1264 created one which was a mere
+party administration. For the victorious faction, naturally but
+unwisely, took all power for themselves, and filled every sheriffdom,
+castellany and judicial office with their own firm friends.
+Simon&rsquo;s care to commit the commons to his cause by summoning
+them to his parliament did not suffice to disguise the fact
+that the government which he had set up was not representative
+of the whole nation. He himself was too much like a dictator;
+even his own followers complained that he was over-masterful,
+and the most important of them, the young earl of Gloucester,
+was gradually estranged from him by finding his requests often
+refused and his aims crossed by the old earl&rsquo;s action. The new
+government lasted less than two years, and was slowly losing
+prestige all the time. Its first failure was in the repression of
+the surviving royalists. Isolated castles in several districts held
+out in the king&rsquo;s name, and the whole March of Wales was never
+properly subdued. When Simon turned the native Welsh prince
+Llewelyn against the marcher barons, he gave great offence;
+he was accused of sacrificing Englishmen to a foreign enemy.
+The new régime did not give England the peace which it had
+promised; its enemies maintained that it did not even give the
+good governance of which Simon had made so many promises.
+It certainly appears that some of his followers, and notably his
+three reckless sons, had given good cause for offence by high-handed
+and selfish acts. Much indignation was provoked by
+the sight of the king kept continually in ward by his privy
+councillors and treated with systematic neglect; but the treatment
+of his son was even more resented. Edward, though he
+had given little cause of offence, and had behaved admirably in
+refusing to continue the civil war, was deprived of his earldom
+of Chester, and put under the same restraint as his father.
+There was no good reason for treating him so harshly, and his
+state was much pitied.</p>
+
+<p>Montfort attempted to strengthen his position, and to show
+his confidence in the commons, by summoning to his second
+and last parliament, that of 1265, a new element&mdash;two citizens
+from each city and two burgesses from each borough in the
+realm. It must be confessed that his object was probably not
+to introduce a great constitutional improvement, and to make
+parliament more representative, but rather to compensate for
+the great gaps upon the baronial benches by showing a multitude
+of lesser adherents, for the towns were his firm supporters.
+The actual proceedings of this particular assembly had no great
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>Two months later Prince Edward escaped from his confinement,
+and fled to the earl of Gloucester, who now declared himself
+a royalist. They raised an army, which seized the fords of
+the Severn, in order to prevent de Montfort&mdash;who was then at
+Hereford with the captive king&mdash;from getting back to London
+or the Midlands. The earl, who could only raise a trifling force
+in the Marches, where the barons were all his enemies, failed in
+several attempts to force a passage eastward. But his friends
+raised a considerable host, which marched under his son Simon
+the Younger and the earl of Oxford, to fall on the rear of the
+royalists. Prince Edward now displayed skilful generalship&mdash;hastily
+turning backward he surprised and scattered the army
+of relief at Kenilworth (Aug. 1); he was then free to deal with
+the earl, who had at last succeeded in passing the Severn during
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Evesham.</span>
+his absence. On the 4th of August he beset Montfort&rsquo;s
+little force with five-fold numbers, and absolutely
+exterminated it at Evesham. Simon fought most
+gallantly, and was left dead on the field along with his eldest son
+Henry, his justiciar Hugh Despenser, and the flower of his party.
+The king fell into the hands of his son&rsquo;s followers, and was once
+more free.</p>
+
+<p>It might have been expected that the victorious party would
+now introduce a policy of reaction and autocratic government.
+But the king was old and broken by his late misfortunes: his
+son the prince was wise beyond his years, and Gloucester and
+many other of the present supporters of the crown had originally
+been friends of reform, and had not abandoned their old views.
+They had deserted Montfort because he was autocratic and
+masterful, not because they had altogether disapproved of his
+policy. Hence we find Gloucester insisting that the remnant
+of the vanquished party should not be subjected to over heavy
+punishment, and even making an armed demonstration, in the
+spring of 1267, to demand the re-enactment of the Provisions
+of Oxford. Ultimately the troubles of the realm were ended
+by the Dictum of Kenilworth (Oct. 31, 1266) and the Statute
+of Marlborough (Nov. 1267). The former allowed nearly all of
+Montfort&rsquo;s faction to obtain amnesty and regain their estates
+on the payment of heavy fines; only Simon&rsquo;s own Leicester
+estates and those of Ferrers, earl of Derby, were confiscated.
+The latter established a form of constitution in which many,
+if not all, of the innovations of the Provisions of Oxford were
+embodied. The only unsatisfactory part of the pacification was
+that Llewelyn of Wales, who had ravaged the whole March while
+he was Montfort&rsquo;s ally, was allowed to keep a broad region (the
+greater part of the modern shire of Denbigh) which he had won
+back from its English holders. His power in a more indirect
+fashion extended itself over much of Mid-Wales. The line of
+the March was distinctly moved backward by the treaty of 1267.</p>
+
+<p>King Henry survived his restoration to nominal, if not to
+actual, authority for seven years. He was now too feeble to
+indulge in any of his former freaks of foreign policy,
+and allowed the realm to be governed under his son&rsquo;s
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Henry III.</span>
+eye by veteran bureaucrats, who kept to the old customs
+of the land. Everything settled down so peacefully that
+when the prince took the cross, and went off to the Crusades in
+1270, no trouble followed. Edward was still absent in Palestine
+when his father died, on the 16th of November 1272. For the
+first time in English history there was no form of election of
+the new king, whose accession was quietly acknowledged by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page494" id="page494"></a>494</span>
+officials and the nation. It was nearly two years after his
+father&rsquo;s death that he reached England, yet absolutely no trouble
+had occurred during his absence. He had taken advantage of his
+leisurely journey home to pacify the turbulent Gascony, and to
+visit Paris and make a treaty with King Philip III. by which
+the frontiers of his duchy of Aquitaine were rectified, to some
+slight extent, in his favour. He, of course, did homage for the
+holding, as his father had done before him.</p>
+
+<p>The reign which began with this unwonted quietness was
+perhaps the most important epoch of all English medieval
+history in the way of the definition and settlement of
+the constitution. Edward I. was a remarkable figure,
+<span class="sidenote">Edward I.</span>
+by far the ablest of all the kings of the house of Plantagenet.
+He understood the problem that was before him, the construction
+of a working constitution from the old ancestral customs of the
+English monarchy plus the newer ideas that had been embodied
+in the Great Charter, the Provisions of Oxford, and the scanty
+legislation of Simon de Montfort. Edward loved royal power,
+but he was wise in his generation, and saw that he could best
+secure the loyalty of his subjects by assenting to so many of
+the new constitutional restraints as were compatible with his
+own practical control of the policy of the realm. He was prepared
+to refer all important matters to his parliament, and (as
+we shall see) he improved the shape of that body by reintroducing
+into it the borough members who had appeared for the first
+time in Montfort&rsquo;s assembly of 1265. He would have liked
+to make parliament, no doubt, a mere meeting for the voting
+of taxation with the smallest possible friction. But he fully
+realized that this dream was impossible, and was wise enough
+to give way, whenever opposition grew too strong and bitter.
+He had not fought through the civil wars of 1263-66 without
+learning his lesson. There was a point beyond which it was
+unwise to provoke the baronage or the commons, and, unlike
+his flighty and thriftless father, he knew where that point came.
+The constitutional quarrels of his reign were conducted with
+decency and order, because the king knew his own limitations,
+and because his subjects trusted to his wisdom and moderation
+in times of crisis. Edward indeed was a man worthy of respect,
+if not of affection. His private life was grave and seemly, his
+court did not sin by luxury or extravagance. His chosen
+ministers were wise and experienced officials, whom no man could
+call favourites or accuse of maladministration. He was sincerely
+religious, self-restrained and courteous, though occasionally,
+under provocation, he could burst out into a royal rage. He
+was a good master and a firm friend. Moreover, he had a
+genuine regard for the sanctity of a promise, the one thing in
+which his father had been most wanting. It is true that sometimes
+he kept his oaths or carried out his pledges with the literal
+punctuality of a lawyer, rather than with the chivalrous generosity
+of a knight. But at any rate he always endeavoured to
+discharge an obligation, even if he sometimes interpreted it by
+the strict letter of the law and not with liberality. A conscientious
+man according to his lights, he took as his device the motto
+<i>Pactum serva</i>, &ldquo;keep troth,&rdquo; which was afterwards inscribed on
+his tomb, and did his best to live up to it. Naturally he expected
+the same accuracy from other men, and when he did not
+meet it he could be harsh and unrelenting in the punishment
+that he inflicted. To sum up his character it must be added that
+he was a very great soldier. The headlong courage which he
+showed at Lewes, his first battle, was soon tempered by caution,
+and already in 1265 he had shown that he could plan a campaign
+with skill. In his later military career he was the first general
+who showed on a large scale how the national English weapon,
+the bow, could win fights when properly combined with the
+charge of the mailed cavalry. He inaugurated the tactics by
+which his grandson and great-grandson were to win epoch-making
+victories abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Edward&rsquo;s reign lasted for thirty-five years, and was equally
+important in constitutional development and in imperial policy.
+The first period of it, 1272-1290, may be defined as mainly notable
+for his great series of legislative enactments and his conquest
+of Wales. The second, 1290-1307, contains his long and ultimately
+unsuccessful attempt to incorporate Scotland into his
+realm, and his quarrels with his parliament.</p>
+
+<p>The changes made by Edward in constitutional law by his
+great series of statutes commenced very soon after his return to
+his kingdom in 1274. We may trace in all of them the
+same purpose of strengthening the power of the crown
+<span class="sidenote">Constitutional changes. Statutes of Westminster and Gloucester.</span>
+by judicious and orderly definition of its privileges.
+The great enactments start with the First Statute
+of Westminster (1275), a measure directed to the
+improvement of administrative details, which was
+accompanied by a grant to the king of a permanent
+customs-revenue on imports and exports, which soon became
+more valuable to the royal exchequer than the old feudal taxes
+on land. In 1278 followed the Statute of Gloucester, an act
+empowering the king to make inquiry as to the right by which
+old royal estates, or exceptional franchises which infringed on
+the royal prerogative of justice or taxation, had passed into the
+hands of their present owners. This inquest was made by the
+writ <i>Quo Warranto</i>, by which each landholder was invited to
+show the charter or warrant in which his claims rested. The
+baronage were angry and suspicious, for many of their customary
+rights rested on immemorial and unchartered antiquity, while
+others were usurpations from the weakness of John or Henry III.
+They showed signs of an intention to make open resistance;
+but to their surprise the king contented himself with making
+complete lists of all franchises then existing, and did no more;
+this being his method of preventing the growth of any further
+trespasses on his prerogative.</p>
+
+<p>Edward&rsquo;s next move was against clerical encroachments.
+In 1279 he compelled Archbishop Peckham to withdraw some
+legislation made in a synod called without the royal
+permission&mdash;a breach of one of the three great canons
+<span class="sidenote">Statute of Mortmain.</span>
+of William the Conqueror. Then he took the offensive
+himself, by persuading his parliament to pass the Statute of
+Mortmain (de religiosis). This was an act to prevent the further
+accumulation of landed property in the &ldquo;dead hand&rdquo; of religious
+persons and communities. The more land the church acquired,
+the less feudal taxation came into the royal exchequer. For
+undying corporations paid the king neither &ldquo;reliefs&rdquo; (death
+duties) nor fees on wardship and marriage, and their property
+would never escheat to the crown for want of an heir. The
+Statute of Mortmain forbade any man to alienate land to the
+church without royal licence. It was very acceptable to the
+baronage, who had suffered, on a smaller scale, the same grievance
+as the king, for when their subtenants transferred estates
+to the church, they (like their masters) suffered a permanent
+loss of feudal revenue. A distinct check in the hitherto
+steady growth of clerical endowments began from this time,
+though licences in mortmain were by no means impossible to
+obtain.</p>
+
+<p>The great group of statutes that date from Edward&rsquo;s earlier
+years ends with the legislative enactments of 1285, the Second
+Statute of Westminster and the Statute of Winchester.
+The former contains the clause <i>De Donis Conditionalibus</i>,
+<span class="sidenote">Second Statute of Westminster.</span>
+a notable landmark in the history of English
+law, since it favoured the system of entailing estates.
+Hitherto life-owners of land, holding as subtenants, had possessed
+large powers of alienating it, to the detriment of their
+superior lords, who would otherwise have recovered it, when
+their vassals died heirless, as an &ldquo;escheat.&rdquo; This custom was
+primarily harmful to the king&mdash;the greatest territorial magnate
+and the one most prone to distribute rewards in land to his
+servants. But it was also prejudicial to all tenants-in-chief.
+By <i>De Donis</i> the tenant for life was prevented from selling his
+estate, which could only pass to his lawful heir; if he had none,
+it fell back to his feudal superior. Five years later this legislation
+was supplemented by the statute <i>Quia Emptores</i>, equally
+beneficial to king and barons, which provided that subtenants
+should not be allowed to make over land to other persons, retaining
+the nominal possession and feudal rights over it, but should
+be compelled to sell it out and out, so that their successor in title
+stood to the overlord exactly as the seller had done. Hitherto
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page495" id="page495"></a>495</span>
+they had been wont to dispose of the whole or parts of their
+estates while maintaining their feudal rights over it, so that the
+ultimate landlord could not deal directly with the new occupant,
+whose reliefs, wardship, &amp;c., fell to the intermediate holder who
+had sold away the land. The main result of this was that, when
+a baron parted with any one of his estates, the acquirer became
+a tenant-in-chief directly dependent on the king, instead of being
+left a vassal of the person who had passed over the land to him.
+Subinfeudation came to a complete stop, and whenever great
+family estates broke up the king obtained new tenants-in-chief.
+The number of persons holding immediately of the crown began
+at once to multiply by leaps and bounds. As the process of the
+partition of lands continued, the fractions grew smaller and
+smaller, and many of the tenants-in-chief were ere long very
+small and unimportant persons. These, of course, would not
+form part of the baronial interest, and could not be distinguished
+from any other subjects of the crown.</p>
+
+<p>The Statute of Winchester, the other great legislative act of
+1285, was mainly concerned with the keeping of the peace of the
+realm. It revised the arming and organization of the
+<span class="sidenote">Statute of Winchester.</span>
+national militia, the lineal descendent of the old <i>fyrd</i>,
+and provided a useful police force for the repression of
+disorder and robbery by the reorganization of <i>watch
+and ward</i>. This was, of course, one more device for strengthening
+the power of the crown.</p>
+
+<p>In the intervals of the legislation which formed the main
+feature of the first half of his reign, Edward was often distracted
+by external matters. He was, on the whole, on very
+good terms with his first cousin, Philip III. of France;
+<span class="sidenote">Welsh wars.</span>
+the trouble did not come from this direction, though
+there was the usual crop of feudal rebellions in Gascony. Nor
+did Edward&rsquo;s relations with the more remote states of the continent
+lead to any important results, though he had many
+treaties and alliances in hand. It was with Wales that his most
+troublesome relations occurred. Llewelyn-ap-Gruffydd, the old
+ally of de Montfort, had come with profit out of the civil wars of
+1263-66, and having won much land and more influence during
+the evil days of Henry III., was reluctant to see that his time
+of prosperity had come to an end, now that a king of a very
+different character sat on the English throne.</p>
+
+<p>Friction had begun the moment that Edward returned to his
+kingdom from the crusade. Llewelyn would not deign to appear
+before him to render the customary homage due from Wales to
+the English crown, but sent a series of futile excuses lasting over
+three years. In 1277, however, the king grew tired of waiting,
+invaded the principality and drove his recalcitrant vassal up
+into the fastnesses of Snowdon, where famine compelled him
+to surrender as winter was beginning. Llewelyn was pardoned,
+but deprived of all the lands he had gained during the days of
+the civil war, and restricted to his old North Welsh dominions.
+He remained quiescent for five years, but busied himself in
+knitting up secret alliances with the Welsh of the South, who
+were resenting the introduction of English laws and customs
+by the strong-handed king. In 1282 there was a sudden and
+well-planned rising, which extended from the gates of Chester
+to those of Carmarthen; several castles were captured by the
+insurgents, and Edward had to come to the rescue of the lords-marchers
+at the head of a very large army. After much checkered
+fighting Llewelyn was slain at the skirmish of Orewyn Bridge near
+Builth on the 11th of December 1282. On his death the southern
+rebels submitted, but David his brother continued the struggle
+for three months longer in the Snowdon district, till his last
+bands were scattered and he himself taken prisoner. Edward
+<span class="sidenote">Conquest of Wales.</span>
+beheaded him at Shrewsbury as a traitor, having the
+excuse that David had submitted once before, had
+been endowed with lands in the Marches, and had
+nevertheless joined his brother in rebellion. After this the king
+abode for more than a year in Wales, organizing the newly
+conquered principality into a group of counties, and founding
+many castles, with dependent towns, within its limits. The
+&ldquo;statute of Wales,&rdquo; issued at Rhuddlan in 1284, provided for
+the introduction of English law into the country, though a
+certain amount of Celtic customs was allowed to survive. For
+the next two centuries and a half the lands west of Dee and Wye
+were divided between the new counties, forming the &ldquo;principality&rdquo;
+of Wales, and the &ldquo;marches&rdquo; where the old feudal
+franchises continued, till the marcher-lordships gradually fell
+by forfeiture or marriage to the crown. Edward&rsquo;s grip on the
+land was strong, and it had need to be so, for in 1287 and 1294-1295
+there were desperate and widespread revolts, which were
+only checked by the existence of the new castles, and subdued
+by the concentration of large royal armies. In 1301 the king&rsquo;s
+eldest surviving son Edward, who had been born at Carnarvon
+in 1284, was created &ldquo;prince of Wales,&rdquo; and invested with the
+principality, which henceforth became the regular appanage
+of the heirs of the English crown. This device was apparently
+intended to soothe Welsh national pride, by reviving in form,
+if not in reality, the separate existence of the old Cymric state.
+For four generations the land was comparatively quiet, but the
+great rebellion of Owen Glendower in the reign of Henry IV.
+was to show how far the spirit of particularism was from
+extinction.</p>
+
+<p>Some two years after his long sojourn in Wales Edward made
+an even longer stay in a more remote corner of his dominions.
+Gascony being, as usual, out of hand, he crossed to Bordeaux in
+1286, and abode in Guienne for no less than three years, reducing
+the duchy to such order as it had never known before, settling
+all disputed border questions with the new king of France,
+Philip IV., founding many new towns, and issuing many useful
+statutes and ordinances. He returned suddenly in 1289, called
+home by complaints that reached him as to the administration
+of justice by his officials, who were slighting the authority of
+his cousin Edmund of Cornwall, whom he had left behind as
+regent. He dismissed almost the whole bench of judges, and
+made other changes among his ministers. At the same time
+he fell fiercely upon the great lords of the Welsh Marches, who
+had been indulging in private wars; when they returned to
+their evil practice he imprisoned the chief offenders, the earls
+of Hereford and Gloucester, forfeited their estates, and only
+gave them back when they had paid vast fines (1291). Another
+<span class="sidenote">Expulsion of the Jews.</span>
+act of this period was Edward&rsquo;s celebrated expulsion
+of the Jews from England (1290). This was the continuation
+of a policy which he had already carried
+out in Guienne. It would seem that his reasons were
+partly religious, but partly economic. No earlier king could have
+afforded to drive forth a race who had been so useful to the crown
+as bankers and money-lenders; but by the end of the 13th
+century the financial monopoly of the Jews had been broken
+by the great Italian banking firms, whom Edward had been
+already employing during his Welsh wars. Finding them no
+less accommodating than their rivals, he gratified the prejudices
+of his subjects and himself by forcing the Hebrews to quit
+England. The Italians in a few years became as unpopular as
+their predecessors in the trade of usury, their practices being
+the same, if their creed was not.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile in the same year that saw the expulsion of the
+Jews, King Edward&rsquo;s good fortune began to wane, with the rise
+of the Scottish question, which was to overshadow
+the latter half of his reign. Alexander III., the last
+<span class="sidenote">Edward I. and Scotland.</span>
+male in direct descent of the old Scottish royal house,
+had died in 1286. His heiress was his only living
+descendant, a little girl, the child of his deceased daughter
+Margaret and Eric, king of Norway. After much discussion,
+for both the Scottish nobles and the Norse king were somewhat
+suspicious, Edward had succeeded in obtaining from them a
+promise that the young queen should marry his heir, Edward of
+Carnarvon. This wedlock would have led to a permanent union
+of the English and Scottish crowns, but not to an absorption
+of the lesser in the greater state, for the rights of Scotland were
+carefully guarded in the marriage-treaty. But the scheme was
+wrecked by the premature death of the bride, who expired by
+the way, while being brought over from Norway to her own
+kingdom, owing to privations and fatigue suffered on a tempestuous
+voyage.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page496" id="page496"></a>496</span></p>
+
+<p>She had no near relatives, and more than a dozen Scottish
+or Anglo-Scottish nobles, distantly related to the royal line, put
+in a claim to the crown, or at least to a part of the royal heritage.
+The board of six regents, who had been ruling Scotland for the
+young queen, seeing their own power at an end and civil war
+likely to break out, begged Edward of England to arbitrate
+between the claimants. The history of the next twenty years
+turned on the legal point whether the arbitrator acted&mdash;as
+he himself contended&mdash;in the capacity of suzerain, or&mdash;as the
+Scots maintained&mdash;in that of a neighbour of acknowledged
+wisdom and repute, invited to settle a domestic problem. This
+question of the relations between the English and the Scottish
+crowns had been raised a dozen times between the days of
+Edward the Elder and those of Henry III. There was no denying
+the fact that the northern kings had repeatedly done homage
+to their greater neighbours. But, save during the years when
+William the Lion, after his captivity, had owned himself the
+vassal of Henry II. for all his dominions, there was considerable
+uncertainty as to the exact scope of the allegiance which had
+been demanded and given. And William&rsquo;s complete submission
+had apparently been cancelled, when Richard I. sold him in
+1190 a release from the terms of the treaty of Falaise. Since that
+date Alexander II. and Alexander III. had repeatedly owned
+themselves vassals to the English crown, and had even sat in
+English parliaments. But it was possible for patriotic Scots to
+contend that they had done so only in their capacity as English
+barons&mdash;for they held much land south of Tweed&mdash;and to point
+to the similarity of their position to that of the English king
+when he did homage for his duchy of Guienne at Paris, without
+thereby admitting any suzerainty of the French crown over
+England or Ireland. On the last occasion when Alexander III.
+had owned himself the vassal of Edward I., there had been considerable
+fencing on both sides as to the form of the oath, and, as
+neither sovereign at the moment had wished to push matters to a
+rupture, the words used had been intentionally vague, and both
+parties had kept their private interpretations to themselves.
+But now, when Edward met the Scottish magnates, who had
+asked for his services as arbitrator, he demanded that they
+should acknowledge that he was acting as suzerain and overlord
+of the whole kingdom of Scotland. After some delay, and with
+manifest reluctance, the Scots complied; their hand was forced
+by the fact that most of the claimants to the crown had hastened
+to make the acknowledgment, each hoping thereby to prejudice
+the English king in his own favour.</p>
+
+<p>This submission having been made, Edward acted with honesty
+and fairness, handing over the adjudication to a body of eighty
+Scottish and twenty-four English barons, knights and bishops.
+These commissioners, after ample discussion and taking of
+evidence, adjudged the crown to John Baliol, the grandson of the
+eldest daughter of Earl David, younger brother of William the
+Lion. They ruled out the claim of Robert Bruce, the son of David&rsquo;s
+second daughter, who had raised the plea that his descent was
+superior because he was a generation nearer than Baliol to their
+common ancestor. This theory of affinity had been well known
+in the 12th century, and had been urged in favour of King John
+when he was contending with his nephew Arthur. But by 1291
+it had gone out of favour, and the Scottish barons had no hesitation
+in declaring Baliol their rightful king. Edward at once
+gave him seizin of Scotland, and handed over to him the royal
+castles, which had been placed in his hands as a pledge during
+the arbitration. In return Baliol did him homage as overlord
+of the whole kingdom of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>This, unfortunately, turned out to be the beginning, not the
+end, of troubles. Edward was determined to exact all the
+ordinary feudal rights of an overlord&mdash;whatever might have been
+the former relations of the English and Scottish crowns. The
+Scots, on the other hand, were resolved not to allow of the introduction
+of usages which had not prevailed in earlier times, and
+to keep the tie as vague and loose as possible. Before Baliol had
+been many months on the throne there was grave friction on
+the question of legal appeals. Scottish litigants defeated in the
+local courts began to appeal to the courts of Westminster, just
+as Gascon litigants were wont to appeal from Bordeaux to Paris.
+King John and his baronage, relying on the fact that such
+evocation of cases to a superior court had never before been
+known, refused to allow that it was valid. King Edward insisted
+that by common feudal usage it was perfectly regular, and
+announced his intention of permitting it. Grave friction had
+already begun when external events precipitated an open rupture
+between the king of England and his new vassal.</p>
+
+<p>Philip III. of France, who had always pursued a friendly
+policy with his cousin of England, had died in 1285, and had
+been succeeded by his son Philip IV., a prince of a
+very different type, the most able and unscrupulous of
+<span class="sidenote">Edward I. and Philip IV.</span>
+all the dynasty of Capet. In 1294 he played a most
+dishonourable trick upon King Edward. There had
+been some irregular and piratical fighting at sea between English
+and Norman sailors, in which the latter had been worsted.
+When called to account for the doings of his subjects, as well
+as for certain disputes in Gascony, the English king promised
+redress, and, on the suggestion of Philip, surrendered, as a
+formal act of apology, the six chief fortresses of Guienne, which
+were to be restored when reparation had been made. Having
+garrisoned the places, Philip suddenly changed his line, refused
+to continue the negotiations, and declared the whole duchy
+forfeited. Edward was forced into war, after having been tricked
+out of his strongholds. Just after his first succours had sailed
+for the Gironde, the great Welsh rebellion of 1294 broke out, and
+the king was compelled to turn aside to repress it. This he
+accomplished in the next spring, but meanwhile hardly a foothold
+remained to him in Gascony. He was then preparing
+to cross the Channel in person, when Scottish affairs began
+to become threatening. King John declared himself unable to
+restrain the indignation of his subjects at the attempt to enforce
+English suzerainty over Scotland, and in July 1295 leagued
+himself with Philip of France, and expelled from his realm the
+chief supporters of the English alliance. Finding himself involved
+in two wars at once, Edward made an earnest appeal to
+his subjects to rise to the occasion and &ldquo;because that which
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;model parliament&rdquo; of 1295.</span>
+touches all should be approved of all&rdquo; summoned the
+celebrated &ldquo;model parliament&rdquo; of November 1295,
+which exactly copied in its constitution Montfort&rsquo;s
+parliament of 1265, members from all cities and
+boroughs being summoned along with the knights of
+the shires, and the inferior clergy being also represented by their
+proctors. This system henceforth became the normal one, and
+the English parliament assumed its regular form, though the
+differentiation of the two houses was not fully completed
+till the next century. Edward was voted liberal grants by
+the laity, though the clergy gave less than he had hoped;
+but enough money was obtained to fit out two armies, one
+destined for the invasion of Scotland, the other for that of
+Gascony.</p>
+
+<p>The French expedition, which was led by the king&rsquo;s brother
+Edmund, earl of Lancaster, failed to recover Gascony, and came
+to an ignominious end. But Edward&rsquo;s own army
+achieved complete success in Scotland. Berwick was
+<span class="sidenote">Invasion of Scotland.</span>
+stormed, the Scottish army was routed at Dunbar
+(April 27), Edinburgh and Stirling were easily captured,
+and at last John Baliol, deserted by most of his adherents,
+surrendered at Brechin. Edward pursued his triumphant march
+as far as Aberdeen and Elgin, without meeting further resistance.
+He then summoned a parliament at Berwick, and announced
+to the assembled Scots that he had determined to depose King
+John, and to assume the crown himself. The ease with which
+he had subdued the realm misled him; he fancied that the slack
+resistance, which was mainly due to the incapacity and unpopularity
+of Baliol, implied the indifference of the Scots to the
+idea of annexation. The alacrity with which the greater part
+of the baronage flocked in to do him homage confirmed him
+in the mistaken notion. He appointed John, earl Warenne,
+lieutenant of the realm, with Hugh Cressingham, an English
+clerk, as treasurer, but left nearly all the minor offices in Scottish
+hands, and announced that Scottish law should be administered.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page497" id="page497"></a>497</span>
+He then returned to England, and began to make preparations
+for a great expedition to France in 1297.</p>
+
+<p>His plan was something more ambitious than a mere attempt
+to recover Bordeaux; succours were to go to Gascony, but he
+himself and the main army were to invade France from
+the north with the aid of the count of Flanders. Much
+<span class="sidenote">Disputes with the clergy and baronage.</span>
+money was, of course, needed for the double expedition,
+and in raising it Edward became involved
+in two desperate constitutional disputes. Though the barons
+and the commons voted a liberal grant at the parliament of
+Bury (Nov. 1296) the clergy would give nothing. This was
+owing to a bull&mdash;the celebrated <i>Clericis Laicos</i>, recently issued
+by the arrogant and contentious pope Boniface VIII., which
+forbade the clergy to submit to any taxation by secular princes.
+Robert Winchelsea, the archbishop of Canterbury, an enthusiastic
+exponent of clerical rights and grievances, declared himself
+in conscience bound to obey the pontiff, and persuaded the
+representatives of the Church in the parliament to refuse
+supplies. The king, indignant that an attempt should be made
+to exempt the vast ecclesiastical lands from taxation at a time
+of national crisis, sequestrated the estates of the see of Canterbury,
+and copied John&rsquo;s conduct in 1208 by outlawing the
+whole body of the clergy. Winchelsea in return excommunicated
+all those who refused to recognize the authority of the
+pope&rsquo;s bull.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely was this quarrel developed when Edward found
+himself involved in an equally hot dispute with the commons
+and the baronage. In his eagerness to collect the sinews of war
+he had issued orders for the levy of a heavy customs duty on
+wool, the main export of the land, and in some cases laid hands
+on the wool itself, which lay ready for shipping, though this
+had not been granted him by the late parliament. The &ldquo;maltolt&rdquo;&mdash;or
+illegal tax&mdash;as his subjects called it, provoked the anger
+of the whole body of merchants in England. At the same time
+the barons, headed by the earls of Norfolk and Hereford, raised
+the old grievance about feudal service beyond seas, which had
+been so prominent in the time of King John. Norfolk, who
+had been designated to lead the expedition to Guienne; declared
+that though he was ready to follow his master to Flanders in his
+capacity of marshal, he would not be drafted off to Gascony
+against his own will. Hereford and a number of other barons
+gave him hearty support.</p>
+
+<p>Harassed by these domestic troubles, the king could not carry
+out his intention of sailing for Flanders in the spring, and spent
+the greater part of the campaigning season in wrangles with
+his subjects. He was obliged to come to a compromise. If the
+clergy would give him a voluntary gift, which was in no way
+to be considered a tax, he agreed to inlaw them. They did so,
+and even Winchelsea, after a time, was reconciled to his master.
+As to the barons, the king took the important constitutional
+step of conceding that he would not ask them to serve abroad
+as a feudal obligation, but would pay them for their services,
+if they would oblige him by joining his banner. Even then
+Norfolk and Hereford refused to sail; but the greater part of
+the minor magnates consented to serve as stipendiaries. The
+commons were conciliated by a promise that the wool which
+the royal officers had seized should be paid for, when a balance
+was forthcoming in the exchequer.</p>
+
+<p>By these means Edward succeeded at last in collecting a
+considerable army, and sailed for Flanders at the end of August.
+But he was hardly gone when dreadful news reached
+him from Scotland. An insurrection, to which no
+<span class="sidenote">Insurrection in Scotland. Wallace.</span>
+great importance was attached at first, had broken
+out in the summer. Its first leader was none of the
+great barons, but a Renfrewshire knight, Sir William Wallace;
+but ere long more important persons, including Robert Bruce,
+earl of Carrick (grandson of Robert Bruce of Annandale, one
+of the competitors for the crown of Scotland), and the bishop
+of Glasgow, were found to be in communication with the rebels.
+Earl Warenne, the king&rsquo;s lieutenant in Scotland, mustered his
+forces to put down the rising. On the 11th of September 1297
+he attempted to force the passage of the Forth at Stirling Bridge,
+and was completely beaten by Wallace, who allowed half the
+English army to pass the river and then descended upon it and
+annihilated it, while Warenne looked on helplessly from the
+other bank. Almost the whole of Scotland rose in arms on
+hearing of this victory, but the barons showed less zeal than
+the commons, owing to their jealousy of Wallace. Warenne
+retired to Berwick and besought his master for aid.</p>
+
+<p>Edward, who was just commencing an autumn campaign in
+Flanders which was to lead to no results, sent home orders to
+summon a parliament, which should raise men and money for
+the Scottish war. It was called, and made a liberal grant for
+that purpose, but Archbishop Winchelsea and the earls of Norfolk
+and Hereford took advantage of their master&rsquo;s needs, and of
+his absence, to assert themselves. Taking up the position of
+defenders of the constitution, they induced the parliament to
+couple its grants of money with the condition that the king
+should not only confirm Magna Carta&mdash;as had been so often done
+before&mdash;but give a specific promise that no &ldquo;maltolts,&rdquo; or other
+taxes not legally granted him, should be raised for the future.
+Edward received the petition at Ghent, and made the required
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Confirmatio Cartarum.&rdquo;</span>
+oath. The document to which he gave his assent, the <i>Confirmatio
+Cartarum</i> (less accurately called the statute
+<i>De Tallagio non concedendo</i>) marked a distinct advance
+beyond the theories of Magna Carta; for the latter
+had been drawn up before England possessed a parliament,
+and had placed the control of taxation in the hands of
+the old feudal council of tenants-in-chief, while the <i>Confirmatio</i>
+gave it to the assembly, far more national and representative,
+which had now superseded the Great Council as the mouthpiece
+of the whole people of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>The Scottish revolt had become so formidable that Edward
+was compelled to abandon his unfruitful Flemish campaign;
+he patched up an unsatisfactory truce with the king of France,
+which left four-fifths of his lost Gascon lands in the power of
+the enemy, and returned to England in the spring of 1298. In
+July he invaded Scotland at the head of a formidable army of
+15,000 men, and on the 22nd of that month brought Wallace
+to action on the moors above Falkirk. The steady Scottish
+infantry held their own for some time against the charge of the
+English men-at-arms. But when Edward brought forward his
+archers to aid his cavalry, as William I. had done at Hastings,
+Wallace&rsquo;s columns broke up, and a dreadful slaughter followed.
+The impression made on the Scots was so great that for some
+years they refused to engage in another pitched battle. But
+the immediate consequences were not all that might have been
+expected. Edward was able to occupy many towns and castles,
+but the broken bands of the insurgents lurked in the hills and
+forests, and the countryside as a whole remained unsubdued.
+Wallace went to France to seek aid from King Philip, and his
+place was taken by John Comyn, lord of Badenoch, a nephew of
+Baliol, who was a more acceptable leader to the Scottish nobles
+than the vanquished knight of Falkirk. Edward was detained
+in the south for a year, partly by negotiations with France,
+partly by a renewed quarrel with his parliament, and during his
+absence Comyn recovered Stirling and most of the other places
+which had received English garrisons. It was not till 1300 that
+the king was able to resume the invasion of Scotland, with an
+army raised by grants of money that he had only bought by
+humiliating concessions to the will of his parliament, formulated
+in the <i>Articuli super cartas</i> which were drawn up in the March
+of that year. Even then he only succeeded in recovering some
+border holds, and the succeeding campaign of 1301 only took
+him as far as Linlithgow. But in the following year his position
+was suddenly changed by unexpected events abroad; the king
+of France became involved in a desperate quarrel with the pope,
+and at the same moment his army received a crushing defeat
+before Courtrai at the hands of the Flemings. To free himself
+for these new struggles Philip made up his mind to conclude
+peace with England, even at the cost of sacrificing his conquests
+in Gascony. Bordeaux had already revolted from him, and
+he gave up the rest of his ill-gotten gains of 1294 by the treaty
+of Paris (May 20, 1303).</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page498" id="page498"></a>498</span></p>
+
+<p>Now that he had only a single war upon his hands Edward&rsquo;s
+position was entirely changed. There was no more need to
+conciliate the magnates nor the parliament. His displeasure
+fell mainly on the archbishop and the earl
+<span class="sidenote">Edward again invades Scotland, 1303.</span>
+of Norfolk, who had so long led the opposition.
+Winchelsea was put in disgrace, and ultimately exiled.
+Norfolk, who was childless, was forced to sign a grant
+by which his lands went to the king after his death&mdash;a harsh
+and illegal proceeding, for he had collateral heirs. But the Scots,
+as was natural, bore the brunt of the king&rsquo;s wrath. In June
+1303, a month after the peace of Paris, he advanced from Roxburgh,
+determined to make a systematic conquest of the realm,
+and not to return till it was ended. He kept up his campaign
+throughout the winter, reduced every fortress that held out, and
+carried his arms as far as Aberdeen and Elgin. In February
+1304 the regent Comyn and most of the Scottish baronage submitted,
+on the promise that they should retain their lands on
+doing homage. Wallace, who had returned from France, kept
+up a guerilla warfare in the hills for a year more, but was captured
+in July 1305, and sent to London to be executed as a
+traitor. Even before his capture it seemed that Scotland was
+thoroughly tamed, and was destined to share the fate of Wales.</p>
+
+<p>Edward&rsquo;s arrangements for the administration of the conquered
+kingdom were wise and liberal, if only the national spirit of the
+Scots could have tolerated them. The Scottish parliament was
+to continue, though representatives from beyond Tweed were
+also to be sent to the English parliament. The sheriffdoms
+and most of the ministerial posts were left in the hands of Scots,
+though the supreme executive authority was put in the hands
+of John of Brittany, earl of Richmond, the king&rsquo;s nephew.
+The land seemed for a time to be settling down, and indeed the
+baronage were to such a large extent English in both blood and
+feeling, that there was no insuperable difficulty in conciliating
+them. A considerable fraction of them adhered consistently to the
+English cause from this time forth, and ultimately lost their lands
+for refusing to follow the rest of the nation in the next insurrection.</p>
+
+<p>But the delusion that Scotland had been finally subdued was
+to last only for a year, although in 1305 Edward seemed to have
+accomplished his task, and stood triumphant, with the northern
+realm at his feet, his domestic foes humbled, and France and the
+papacy defeated. His last short interval of peaceful rule was
+distinguished by the passing of the Statute of Trailbaston in the
+parliament of 1305. This was a measure for the repression of
+local riots, empowering justices in every shire to suppress clubmen
+(<i>trailbastons</i>), gangs of marauders who had been rendering
+the roads unsafe.</p>
+
+<p>In the first month of 1306, however, the weary Scottish war
+broke out again, with the appearance of a new insurgent chief.
+Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, grandson of the claimant
+to the throne of 1292, had hitherto pursued a shifty
+<span class="sidenote">Robert Bruce.</span>
+policy, wavering between submission and opposition
+to the English invader. He had been in arms more than once, but
+had finally adhered to the pacification of 1304, and was now
+entirely trusted by the king. But he was secretly plotting rebellion,
+disgusted (as it would seem) that Edward had not transferred
+the crown of Scotland to the line of Bruce when the house
+of Baliol was found wanting. Though he found himself certain
+of a considerable amount of support, he yet could see that there
+would be no general rising in his favour, for many of the magnates
+refused to help in making king a baron whom they regarded
+as no more important than one of themselves. But the
+insurrection was precipitated by an unpremeditated outrage.
+Bruce was conferring at Dumfries with John Comyn, the late
+regent, whom he was endeavouring to tempt into his plots, on
+the 10th of January 1306. An angry altercation followed, for
+Comyn would have nothing to do with the scheme, and Bruce
+and his followers finally slew him before the altar of a church
+into which he had fled. After this crime, which combined the
+disgrace of sacrilege with that of murder under tryst, Bruce
+was forced to take arms at once, though his preparations were
+incomplete. He raised his banner, and was hastily crowned at
+Scone on the 25th of March; by that time the rising had burst
+out in many shires of Scotland, but it was neither unanimous nor
+complete. Edward by no means despaired of crushing it, and
+had raised a large army, when he was smitten with an illness
+which prevented him from crossing the border. But his troops,
+under Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, pressed north, and
+surprised and routed Bruce at Methven near Perth. The
+pretender&rsquo;s brother Nigel and many of his chief supporters were
+taken prisoners, and he himself escaped with a handful of
+followers and took refuge in the Western islands. Edward
+ordered young Nigel Bruce and many other captives to be
+executed; for he was provoked to great wrath by the rebellion
+of a magnate who had given him every assurance of loyalty.
+He intended to follow de Valence to Scotland, and to complete
+the suppression of the rising in person. But this proved beyond
+his strength; he struggled as far as the border in July, but could
+not shake off his disease, and was forced to linger, a broken
+invalid, in the neighbourhood of Carlisle for many months.
+Meanwhile his lieutenants failed to follow up with energy the
+victory gained at Methven, and in the next spring Bruce reappeared
+in the Lowlands, gathered new levies, and inflicted
+a defeat on de Valence at Loudoun Hill. Roused to anger
+King Edward rose from his bed, mounted his horse, and started
+for Scotland. But after struggling on for a few miles he fell by
+the way, and died at Burgh-on-Sands, just inside the English
+border, on the 7th of July 1307.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the chequered fortunes of his later years the reign of
+Edward had been a time of progress and prosperity for England.
+He had given his realm good and strong governance;
+according to his lights he had striven to keep faith
+<span class="sidenote">Character of Edward I.&rsquo;s rule.</span>
+and to observe his coronation oath. He had on more
+than one occasion quarrelled with his subjects, but
+matters had never been pushed to an open rupture. The king
+knew how to yield, and even opponents like Winchelsea and the
+earls of Norfolk and Hereford respected him too much to drive
+him to an extremity. The nation, however much it might
+murmur, would never have been willing to rebel against a sovereign
+whose only fault was that he occasionally pressed his prerogative
+too far. Edward&rsquo;s rule was seldom or never oppressive,
+the seizure of the merchants&rsquo; wool in 1297 was the only one of
+his acts which caused really fierce and widespread indignation.
+For his other arbitrary proceedings he had some show of legal
+justification in every case. It would have been absurd to
+declare that his rule was tyrannical or his policy disastrous.
+The realm was on the whole contented and even flourishing.
+Population was steadily increasing, and with it commerce; the
+intellectual activity which had marked the reign of Henry III.
+was still alive; architecture, religious and military, was in its
+prime. He was himself a great builder, and many of the perfected
+castles of that concentric style, which later ages have
+called the &ldquo;Edwardian type,&rdquo; were of his own planning. In
+ecclesiastical architecture his reign represents the early flower
+of the &ldquo;Decorated&rdquo; order, perhaps the most beautiful of all
+the developments of English art. In many respects the reign
+may be regarded as the culmination and crowning point of the
+middle ages. It certainly gave a promise of greatness and steady
+progress which the 14th century was far from justifying.</p>
+
+<p>With the great king&rsquo;s death a sudden change for the worse
+was at once visible. The individual character of the reigning
+king was still the main factor in political history,
+and Edward II. was in every respect a contrast to his
+<span class="sidenote">Edward II.</span>
+father. He was incorrigibly frivolous, idle and apathetic;
+his father had given him much stern schooling, but this
+seems only to have inspired him with a deeply rooted dislike
+for official work of any kind. He has been well described
+as &ldquo;the first king since the Conquest who was not a man of
+business.&rdquo; Even Stephen and Henry III. had been active and
+bustling princes, though their actions were misguided and inconsequent.
+But Edward II. hated all kingly duties; he
+detested war, but he detested even more the routine work of
+administration. He was most at his ease in low company,
+his favourite diversion was gambling, his best trait a love for
+farming and the mechanical arts of the smith and the gardener.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page499" id="page499"></a>499</span></p>
+
+<p>His first acts on coming to the throne caused patriotic Englishmen
+to despair. His father, on his death-bed, had made him
+swear to conduct the Scottish expedition to its end.
+But he marched no further than Dumfries, and then
+<span class="sidenote">Piers Gaveston.</span>
+turned back, on the vain pretext that he must conduct
+his parent&rsquo;s funeral in person. Leaving Bruce to gather fresh
+strength and to commence the tedious process of reducing the
+numerous English garrisons in Scotland, he betook himself to
+London, and was not seen on the border again for more than
+three years. He then dismissed all his father&rsquo;s old ministers,
+and replaced them by creatures of his own, for the most part
+persons of complete incompetence. But his most offensive act
+was to promote to the position of chief councillor of the crown,
+and disperser of the royal favours, a clever but vain and ostentatious
+Gascon knight, one Piers Gaveston, who had been the
+companion of his boyhood, and had been banished by Edward I.
+for encouraging him in his follies and frivolity. Piers was given
+the royal title of earl of Cornwall, and married to the king&rsquo;s
+niece; when Edward went over to France to do homage for
+Gascony, he even made his friend regent during his absence, in
+preference to any of his kinsmen. It was his regular habit to
+refer those who came to him on matters of state to &ldquo;his good
+brother Piers,&rdquo; and to refuse to discuss them in person.</p>
+
+<p>It was of course impossible that the nation or the baronage
+should accept such a preposterous régime, and Edward was soon
+involved in a lively struggle with his subjects. Of
+the leaders of opposition in his father&rsquo;s reign both
+<span class="sidenote">Baronial opposition.</span>
+Hereford and Norfolk were now dead. But Archbishop
+Winchelsea had returned from exile in a belligerent
+mood, and the place of Norfolk and Hereford was taken
+by an ambitious prince of the royal house, Thomas, earl of
+Lancaster, the son of the younger brother of Edward I. Thomas
+was selfish and incompetent, but violent and self-assertive,
+and for some years was able to pose successfully as a patriot
+simply because he set himself to oppose every act of the unpopular
+king. He had several powerful baronial allies&mdash;the
+earls of Warwick, Pembroke and Warenne, with Humphrey
+Bohun of Hereford, who had succeeded to his father&rsquo;s politics,
+though he had married the king&rsquo;s own sister.</p>
+
+<p>The annals of the early years of Edward II. are mainly filled
+by contemporary chroniclers with details of the miserable strife
+between the king and his barons on the question of
+Gaveston&rsquo;s unconstitutional position. But the really
+<span class="sidenote">Progress of Bruce in Scotland.</span>
+important feature of the time was the gradual reconquest
+of Scotland by Robert Bruce, during the continuance
+of the domestic strife in England. Edward I. had laid
+such a firm grip on the northern realm that it required many
+years to undo his work. A very large proportion of the Scottish
+nobility regarded Bruce as a usurper who had opened his career
+with murder and sacrilege, and either openly opposed him or
+denied him help. His resources were small, and it was only by
+constant effort, often chequered by failures, that he gradually
+fought down his local adversaries, and reduced the English
+garrisons one by one. Dumbarton and Linlithgow were only
+mastered in 1312. Perth did not finally fall into his hands till
+1313; Edinburgh, Roxburgh and Stirling were still holding out
+in 1314. During all this time the English king only once went
+north of the Border&mdash;in 1311&mdash;and then with a very small army,
+for Lancaster and his friends had refused to join his banner.
+Yet even under such conditions Bruce had to retire to the
+mountains, and to allow the invaders to range unopposed
+through Lothian and Fife, and even beyond the Tay. With
+ordinary capacity and perseverance Edward II. might have
+mastered his enemy; indeed the Comyns and Umfravilles and
+other loyalist barons of Scotland would have carried out the
+business for him, if only he had given them adequate support.
+But he spent what small energy he possessed in a wretched
+strife of chicanery and broken promises with Thomas of Lancaster
+and his party, dismissing and recalling Gaveston according
+to the exigencies of the moment, while he let the Scottish war
+shift for itself. It must be confessed that the conduct of his
+adversaries was almost as contemptible and unpatriotic. They
+refused to aid in the war, as if it was the king&rsquo;s private affair and
+not that of the nation. And repeatedly, when they had Edward
+at their mercy and might have dictated what terms they pleased
+to him, they failed to rise to the situation. This was especially
+the case in 1311, when the king had completely submitted
+in face of their armed demonstrations. Instead of introducing
+any general scheme of reform they contented themselves with
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Lords Ordainers.&rdquo;</span>
+putting him under the tutelage of twenty-one &ldquo;lords
+ordainers,&rdquo; a baronial committee like that which had
+been appointed by the Provisions of Oxford, fifty
+years back. Edward was not to levy an army, appoint
+an official, raise a tax, or quit the realm without their leave.
+He had also to swear an obedience to a long string of constitutional
+limitations of his power, and to promise to remove
+many practical grievances of administration. But there were
+two great faults in the proceedings of Thomas of Lancaster and
+his friends. The first was that they ignored the rights of the
+commons&mdash;save indeed that they got their ordinances confirmed
+by parliament&mdash;and put all power into the hands of a council
+which represented nothing but the baronial interest. The second,
+and more fatal, was that this council of &ldquo;ordainers,&rdquo; when
+installed in office, showed energy in nothing save in persecuting
+the friends of Edward and Gaveston; it neglected the general
+welfare of the realm, and in particular made no effort whatever
+to end the Scottish war. It was clearly their duty either to make
+peace with Robert Bruce, or to exert themselves to crush him;
+but they would do neither.</p>
+
+<p>Gaveston&rsquo;s unhappy career came to an end in 1312. After
+he had been twice exiled, and had been twice recalled by the
+king, he was besieged in Scarborough and captured by the earl
+of Pembroke. He was being conducted to London to be tried
+in parliament, when his two greatest enemies, Thomas of Lancaster
+and Guy, earl of Warwick, took him out of the hands of
+his escort, and beheaded him by the wayside without any legal
+authority or justification. The unhappy king was compelled
+to promise to forget and forgive this offence, and was then
+restored to a certain amount of freedom and power; the barons
+believed that when freed from the influence of Gaveston he
+would prove a less unsatisfactory sovereign. The experiment
+did not turn out happily. Bruce having at last made an almost
+complete end of the English garrisons within his realm, laid siege
+to Stirling, the last and strongest of them all, in the spring of
+1313. Compelled by the pressure of public opinion to attempt
+its relief, Edward crossed the border in June 1314, with an army
+of 20,000 foot and 4000 men-at-arms. He found Bruce prepared
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Bannockburn.</span>
+to dispute his advance on the hillside of Bannockburn,
+2 m. in front of Stirling, in a strong position with a
+stream in front and his flanks covered by rows of pitfalls,
+dug to discomfit the English cavalry. The Scots,
+as at Falkirk, were ranged in solid clumps of pikemen above the
+burn, with only a small reserve of horse. The English king,
+forgetting his father&rsquo;s experiences, endeavoured to ride down
+the enemy by headlong frontal charges of his men-at-arms, and
+made practically no attempt to use his archery to advantage.
+After several attacks had been beaten off with heavy loss, the
+English host recoiled in disorder and broke up&mdash;the king, who
+had kept in the rear all day, was one of the first to move off.
+The flower of his knights had fallen, including his nephew, the
+earl of Gloucester, who was the only one of the great magnates
+of the realm who had shown loyalty to him during the last six
+years. The Scots also made many prisoners; the disaster was
+complete, and the wrecks of the beaten army dispersed before
+reaching the border. Bruce followed them up, and spent the
+autumn in ravaging Northumberland and Cumberland.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas of Lancaster, who had refused to join in the late
+campaign, took advantage of its results to place the king once
+more in complete tutelage. His household was dismissed,
+he was bidden to live as best he could on an
+<span class="sidenote">Thomas, earl of Lancaster.</span>
+allowance of £10 a day, and all his ministers and
+officials were changed. For more than three years
+Lancaster practically reigned in his cousin&rsquo;s name; it was soon
+found that the realm got no profit thereby, for Earl Thomas,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page500" id="page500"></a>500</span>
+though neither so apathetic nor so frivolous as Edward, was
+not a whit more competent to conduct either war or domestic
+administration. The Scots swept everything before them,
+ravaging the north at their will, and capturing Berwick. They
+even made a great expedition to Ireland, where Bruce&rsquo;s brother
+Edward was proclaimed king by the rebellious Celtic septs, and
+rode across the whole island, exterminating the Anglo-Irish
+population in many districts (1315-1317). But the colonists
+rallied, and cut to pieces a great Irish army at Athenry (1316),
+while in the next year Roger Mortimer, a hard-handed baron
+of the Welsh march, crossed with reinforcements and drove back
+Edward Bruce into the north. Resuming his advance after a
+space, the rebel king was routed and slain at Dundalk (Oct. 14,
+1318) and the insurrection died out. But it had had the permanent
+result of weakening the king&rsquo;s grip on the north and west of
+Ireland, where the Englishry had been almost exterminated.
+From this time forth until the reign of Henry VIII. the limit of
+the country in full subjection to the crown was always shrinking,
+and the Irish chiefs of the inland continued to pay less and less
+attention to orders issued from Dublin or London.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Scottish expedition to Ireland had been beaten
+off, this was not in the least to be ascribed to the credit of
+Lancaster, who was showing the grossest incompetence as an
+administrator. He could neither protect the Border, nor even
+prevent private civil wars from breaking out, not only on the
+Welsh marches (where they had always been common), but even
+in the heart of England. The most extraordinary symptom
+of the time was a civic revolt at Bristol (1316), where the townsfolk
+expelled the royal judges, and actually stood a siege before
+they would submit. Such revolts of great towns were normal
+in Germany or Italy, but almost unknown on this side of the
+Channel. All this unrest might well be ascribed to Lancaster&rsquo;s
+want of ability, but he had also to bear&mdash;with less justice&mdash;the
+discontent caused by two years of famine and pestilence. In
+August 1318 he was removed from power by a league formed
+by Pembroke, Warenne, Arundel and others of the lords ordainers,
+who put a new council in power, and showed themselves
+somewhat less hostile to the king than Earl Thomas had been.
+Edward was allowed to raise an army for the siege of Berwick,
+and was lying before its walls, when the Scots, turning his flank,
+made a fierce foray into Yorkshire, and routed the shire-levy under
+Archbishop Melton at the battle of Myton. This so disheartened
+the king and the council that controlled him that they concluded
+a two years truce with Robert of Scotland, thus for the first time
+acknowledging him as a regular enemy and no mere rebel (1319).</p>
+
+<p>The time of comparative quiet that followed was utilized
+by the king in an attempt to win back some of his lost authority.
+For a short space Edward showed more capacity
+and energy than he had ever been supposed to possess.
+<span class="sidenote">The Despensers.</span>
+Probably this was due entirely to the fact that he
+had come under the influence of two able men who had
+won his confidence and had promised him revenge for the
+murdered Gaveston. These were the two Hugh Despensers,
+father and son; the elder was an ambitious baron who hated
+Lancaster, the younger had been made Edward&rsquo;s chamberlain
+in 1318 and had become his secret councillor and constant
+companion. Finding that the king was ready to back them in
+all their enterprises, the Despensers resolved to take the fearful
+risk of snatching at supreme power by using their master&rsquo;s
+name to oust the barons who were now directing affairs from
+their position. The task was the more easy because Lancaster
+was at open discord with the men who had supplanted him, so
+that the baronial party was divided; while the mishaps of the
+last six years had convinced the nation that other rulers could
+be as incompetent and as unlucky as the king. Indeed, there
+was a decided reaction in Edward&rsquo;s favour, since Lancaster and
+his friends had been tried and found wanting. Moreover, the
+Despensers felt that they had a great advantage over Gaveston
+in that they were native-born barons of ancient ancestry and
+good estate: the younger Hugh, indeed, through his marriage
+with the sister of the earl of Gloucester who fell at Bannockburn,
+was one of the greatest landowners on the Welsh border: they
+could not be styled upstarts or adventurers. Edward&rsquo;s growing
+confidence in the Despensers at last provoked the notice and
+jealousy of the dominant party. The barons brought up many
+armed retainers to the parliament of 1321, and forced the king
+to dismiss and to condemn them to exile. But their discomfiture
+was only to last a few months; in the following October
+a wanton outrage and assault on the person and retinue of
+Edward&rsquo;s queen, Isabella of France, by the retainers of Lord
+Badlesmere, one of Pembroke&rsquo;s associates, provoked universal
+reprobation. The king made it an excuse for gathering an army
+to besiege Badlesmere&rsquo;s castle at Leeds; he took it and hanged
+the garrison. He then declared the Despensers pardoned, and
+invited them to return to England. On this Thomas of Lancaster
+and the more resolute of his associates took arms, but
+the majority both of the baronage and of the commons remained
+quiescent, public opinion being rather with than against the
+king. The rebels displayed great indecision, and Lancaster
+proved such a bad general that he was finally driven into the
+north and beaten at the battle of Boroughbridge (March 16,
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of Lancaster.</span>
+1322), where his chief associate, the earl of Hereford,
+was slain. Next day he surrendered, with the wreck
+of his host. But the king, who showed himself unexpectedly
+vindictive, beheaded him at once; three
+other peers, Badlesmere, Clifford and Mowbray, were subsequently
+executed, with a score of knights.</p>
+
+<p>Such severity was most impolitic, and Lancaster was ere long
+hailed as a saint and a martyr. But for the moment the king
+seemed triumphant; he called a parliament which revoked the
+&ldquo;ordinances&rdquo; of 1311, and replaced the Despensers in power.
+For the remaining four years of his reign they were omnipotent;
+but able and unscrupulous as they were, they could not solve
+the problem of successful governance. To their misfortune the
+Scottish war once more recommenced, King Robert having
+refused to continue the truce. The fortune of Edward II. now
+hung on the chance that he might be able to maintain the struggle
+with success; he raised a large army and invaded Lothian, but
+Bruce refused a pitched battle, and drove him off with loss by
+devastating the countryside around him. Thereupon Edward,
+to the deep humiliation of the people, sued for another cessation
+of hostilities, and obtained it by conceding all that Robert asked,
+save the formal acknowledgment of his kingly title. But peace
+did not suffice to end Edward&rsquo;s troubles; he dropped back into
+his usual apathy, and the Despensers showed themselves so harsh
+and greedy that the general indignation only required a new
+leader in order to take once more the form of open insurrection.
+The end came in an unexpected fashion. Edward had quarrelled
+with his wife Isabella, who complained that he made her the
+&ldquo;handmaid of the Despensers,&rdquo; and excluded her from her
+proper place and honour. Yet in 1325 he was unwise enough
+to send her over to France on an embassy to her brother
+Charles IV., and to allow his eldest son Edward, prince of Wales,
+to follow her to Paris. Having the boy in her power, and being
+surrounded by the exiles of Lancaster&rsquo;s faction, she set herself
+<span class="sidenote">Rebellion of Queen Isabella and Mortimer.</span>
+to plot against her husband, and opened up communications
+with the discontented in England. It was
+in vain that Edward besought her to return and to restore
+him his son; she came back at last, but at the head
+of an army commanded by Roger, Lord Mortimer, the
+most prominent survivor of the party of Earl Thomas, with
+whom she had formed an adulterous connexion which they for
+some time succeeded in keeping secret.</p>
+
+<p>When she landed with her son in Essex in September 1326,
+she was at once joined by Henry of Lancaster, the heir of Earl
+Thomas, and most of the baronage of the eastern
+counties. Even the king&rsquo;s half-brother, the earl of
+<span class="sidenote">Deposition and murder of Edward II.</span>
+Norfolk, rallied to her banner. Edward and the Despensers,
+after trying in vain to raise an army, fled
+into the west. They were all caught by their pursuers;
+the two Despensers were executed&mdash;the one at Bristol, the other
+at Hereford. Several more of Edward&rsquo;s scanty band of friends&mdash;the
+earl of Arundel and the bishop of Exeter and others&mdash;were
+also slain. Their unhappy master was forced to abdicate on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page501" id="page501"></a>501</span>
+the 20th of January 1327, his fourteen-year old son being proclaimed
+king in his stead. He was allowed to survive in close
+prison some eight months longer, but when his robust constitution
+defied all attempts to kill him by privations, he was
+murdered by the orders of the queen and Mortimer at Berkeley
+Castle on the 21st of September.</p>
+
+<p>The three years regency of Isabella, during the minority of
+Edward III., formed a disgraceful episode in the history of
+England. She was as much the tool of Mortimer as
+her husband had been the tool of the Despensers, and
+<span class="sidenote">Regency of Isabella and Mortimer.</span>
+their relations became gradually evident to the whole
+nation. All posts of dignity and emolument were
+kept for their personal adherents, and a new and formidable
+dignity was conferred on Mortimer himself, when he was made
+both justiciar of the principality of Wales, and also earl of March,
+in which lay both his own broad lands and the estates of Despenser
+and Arundel, which he had shamelessly appropriated.
+It is surprising that the adulterous pair succeeded in maintaining
+themselves in power for so long, since the ignominy of the
+situation was evident. They were even able to quell the first
+attempt at a reaction, by seizing and beheading Edmund, earl
+of Kent, the late king&rsquo;s half-brother, who was betrayed while
+organizing a plot for their destruction. The one politic act of
+Mortimer&rsquo;s administration, the conclusion of a permanent peace
+with Scotland by acknowledging Bruce as king (1328), was not
+one which made him more popular. The people called it &ldquo;the
+shameful peace of Northampton,&rdquo; and firmly believed that he
+had been bribed by the Scots.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Isabella and her paramour held on to power for two years
+after the peace, and were only overthrown by a blow from an
+unexpected quarter. When the young king had
+reached the age of eighteen he began to understand
+<span class="sidenote">Edward III.</span>
+the disgraceful nature of his own situation. Having
+secured promise of aid from Henry of Lancaster, his cousin, and
+other barons, he executed a <i>coup de main</i>, and seized Mortimer
+in his chamber at midnight. The queen was also put under
+guard till a parliament could be called. It met, and at the
+king&rsquo;s demand passed sentence on the earl for the murder of
+Edward II. and other crimes. He was hanged at Tyburn (Nov.
+1330); the queen suffered nothing worse than complete exclusion
+from power, and lived for more than twenty years in
+retirement on the manors of her dowry.</p>
+
+<p>Edward III., who thus commenced his reign ere he was out
+of his boyhood, was, as might have been foretold from his prompt
+action against Mortimer, a prince of great vigour and enterprise.
+He showed none of his father&rsquo;s weakness and much of his grandfather&rsquo;s
+capacity. He fell short of Edward I. in steadiness of
+character and organizing power, but possessed all his military
+capacity and his love of work. Unfortunately for England his
+ambition was to be the mirror of chivalry rather than a model
+administrator. He took up and abandoned great enterprises
+with equal levity; he was reckless in the spending of money;
+and in times of trouble he was careless of constitutional precedent,
+and apt to push his prerogative to extremes. Yet like
+Edward I. he was popular with his subjects, who pardoned him
+much in consideration of his knightly virtues, his courage, his
+ready courtesy and his love of adventure. In most respects
+he was a perfect exponent of the ideals and foibles of his age,
+and when he broke a promise or repudiated a debt he was but
+displaying the less satisfactory side of the habitual morality of the
+14th century the chivalry of which was often deficient in the less
+showy virtues. With all his faults Edward during his prime
+was a capable and vigorous ruler; and it was not without reason
+that not England only but all western Europe looked up to him
+as the greatest king of his generation.</p>
+
+<p>His early years were specially fortunate, as his rule contrasted
+in the most favourable way with that of his infamous mother
+and his contemptible father. The ministers whom
+he substituted for the creatures of Mortimer were
+<span class="sidenote">Edward III. invades Scotland.</span>
+capable, if not talented administrators. He did much to
+restore the internal peace of the realm, and put down
+the local disorders which had been endemic for the last twenty
+years. Moreover, when the war with Scotland recommenced
+he gave the English a taste of victory such as they had not
+enjoyed since Falkirk. Robert Bruce was now dead and his
+throne was occupied by the young David II., whose factious
+nobles were occupied in civil strife when, in 1332, a pretender
+made a snatch at the Scottish throne. This was Edward, the
+son of John Baliol, an adventurous baron who collected all the
+&ldquo;disinherited&rdquo; Scots lords, the members of the old English
+faction who had been expelled by Bruce, and invaded the realm
+at their head. He beat the regent Mar at the battle of Dupplin,
+seized Perth and Edinburgh, and crowned himself at Scone.
+But knowing that his seat was precarious he did homage to the
+English king, and made him all the promises that his father had
+given to Edward I. The temptation was too great for the young
+king to refuse; he accepted the homage, and offered the aid of
+his arms. It was soon required, for Baliol was ere long expelled
+from Scotland. Edward won the battle of Halidon Hill (July 19,
+1333)&mdash;where he displayed considerable tactical skill&mdash;captured
+Berwick, and reconquered a considerable portion of Scotland for
+his vassal. Unfortunately for himself he made the mistake of
+requiring too much from Baliol&mdash;forcing him to cede Lothian,
+Tweeddale and the larger part of Galloway, and to promise a
+tribute. These terms so irritated the Scots, who had shown signs
+of submission up to this moment, that they refused to accept
+the pretender, and kept up a long guerilla warfare which ended
+in his final expulsion. But the fighting was all on Scottish
+ground, and Edward repeatedly made incursions, showy if not
+effective, into the very heart of the northern realm; on one
+occasion he reached Inverness unopposed. He held Perth till
+1339, Edinburgh till 1341, and was actually in possession of much
+Scottish territory when his attention was called off from this
+minor war to the greater question of the struggle with France.
+Meanwhile he had acquired no small military reputation, had
+collected a large body of professional soldiers whose experience
+was to be invaluable to him in the continental war, and had
+taught his army the new tactics which were to win Creēy and
+Poitiers. For the devices employed against the Scottish
+&ldquo;schiltrons&rdquo; of pikemen at Dupplin and Halidon, were the
+same as those which won all the great battles of the Hundred
+Years&rsquo; War&mdash;the combination of archery, not with cavalry (the
+old system of Hastings and Falkirk), but with dismounted men-at-arms.
+The nation, meanwhile prosperous, not vexed by overmuch
+taxation, and proud of its young king, was ready and
+willing to follow him into any adventure that he might indicate.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">IV. The Hundred Years&rsquo; War (1337-1453)</p>
+
+<p>Wars between England and France had been many, since
+William the Conqueror first linked their fortunes together by
+adding his English kingdom to his Norman duchy.
+They were bound to recur as long as the kings who
+<span class="sidenote">Causes of the Hundred Years&rsquo; War.</span>
+ruled on this side of the Channel were possessed of
+continental dominions, which lay as near, or nearer, to
+their hearts than their insular realm. While the kingdom
+of France was weak, monarchs like Henry II. and Richard I.
+might dream of extending their transmarine possessions to the
+detriment of their suzerain at Paris. When France had grown
+strong, under Philip Augustus, the house of Plantagenet still
+retained a broad territory in Gascony and Guienne, and the house
+of Capet could not but covet the possession of the largest surviving
+feudal appanage which marred the solidarity of their
+kingdom. There had been a long interval of peace in the 13th
+century, because Henry III. of England was weak, and Louis IX.
+of France an idealist, much more set on forwarding the
+welfare of Christendom than the expansion of France. But
+the inevitable struggle had recommenced with the accession of
+the unscrupulous Philip IV. Its cause was simple; France
+was incomplete as long as the English king ruled at Bordeaux
+and Bayonne, and far up the valleys of the Garonne and the
+Adour. From 1293 onward Philip and his sons had been striving
+to make an end of the power of the Plantagenets in Aquitaine,
+sometimes by the simple argument of war, more frequently by the
+insidious process of encroaching on ducal rights, summoning
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page502" id="page502"></a>502</span>
+litigants to Paris, and encouraging local magnates and cities
+alike to play off their allegiance to their suzerain against that to
+their immediate lord. Both in the time of Edward II. and in
+that of his son active violence had several times been called
+in to aid legal chicanery. Fortunately for the duke of Guienne
+the majority of his subjects had no desire to become Frenchmen;
+the Gascons felt no national sympathy with their neighbours
+of the north, and the towns in especial were linked to
+England by close ties of commerce, and had no wish whatever
+to break off their allegiance to the house of Plantagenet. The
+English rule, if often weak, had never proved tyrannical, and
+they had a great dread of French taxes and French officialism.
+But there were always individuals, more numerous among the
+noblesse than among the citizens, whose private interests impelled
+them to seek the aid of France.</p>
+
+<p>The root of the Hundred Years&rsquo; War, now just about to
+commence, must be sought in the affairs of Guienne, and not in
+any of the other causes which complicated and obscured the
+outbreak of hostilities. These, however, were sufficiently important
+in themselves. The most obvious was the aid which
+Philip VI. had given to the exiled David Bruce, when he was
+driven out of Scotland by Edward and his ally Baliol. The
+English king replied by welcoming and harbouring Robert
+of Artois, a cousin whom Philip VI. had expelled from France.
+He also made alliances with several of the dukes and counts of
+the Netherlands, and with the emperor Louis the Bavarian,
+obviously with the intention of raising trouble for France on
+her northern and eastern frontiers.</p>
+
+<p>It was Philip, however, who actually began the war, by declaring
+Guienne and the other continental dominions of Edward III.
+forfeited to the French crown, and sending out a fleet
+which ravaged the south coast of England in 1337.
+<span class="sidenote">Beginning of the war.</span>
+In return Edward raised a claim to the throne of
+France, not that he had any serious intention of pressing it&mdash;for
+throughout his reign he always showed himself ready
+to barter it away in return for sufficient territorial gains&mdash;but
+because such a claim was in several ways a useful asset to
+him both in war and in diplomacy. It was first turned to account
+when the Flemings, who had scruples about opposing their liege
+lord the king of France, found it convenient to discover that,
+since Edward was the real king and not Philip, their allegiance
+was due in the same direction whither their commercial interests
+drew them. Led by the great demagogue dictator, Jacob van
+Artevelde, they became the mainstay of the English party in
+the Netherlands.</p>
+
+<p>Edward&rsquo;s claim&mdash;such as it was&mdash;rested on the assertion that
+his mother, Isabella, was nearer of kin to her brother Charles
+IV., the last king of the main line of the house of Capet,
+than was Charles&rsquo;s cousin Philip of Valois. The French
+<span class="sidenote">Edward III. and the French crown.</span>
+lawyers ruled that heiresses could not succeed to the
+crown themselves, but Edward pleaded that they
+could nevertheless transmit their right to their sons. He found
+it convenient to forget that the elder brother of Charles IV.,
+King Louis X., had left a daughter, whose son, the king of
+Navarre, had on this theory a title preferable to his own. This
+prince, he said, had not been born at the time of his grandfather&rsquo;s
+death, and so lost any rights that might have passed to
+him had he been alive at that time. A far more fatal bar to
+Edward&rsquo;s claim than the existence of Charles of Navarre was the
+fact that the peers of France, when summoned to decide the
+succession question nine years before, had decided that Philip
+of Valois had the sole valid claim to the crown, and that Edward
+had then done homage to him for Guienne. If he pleaded that
+in 1328 he had been the mere tool of his mother and Mortimer,
+he could be reminded of the unfortunate fact that in 1331, after
+he had crushed Mortimer, and taken the power into his own
+hands, he had deliberately renewed his oath to King Philip.</p>
+
+<p>Edward&rsquo;s claim to the French crown embittered the strife in
+a most unnecessary fashion. It was an appeal to every discontented
+French vassal to become a traitor under a plausible
+show of loyalty, and from first to last many such persons utilized
+it. It also gave Edward an excuse for treating every loyal
+Frenchman as guilty of treason, and, to his shame, he did not
+always refrain from employing such a discreditable device.
+Yet, as has been already said, he showed his consciousness of the
+fallacy of his claim by offering to barter it again and again during
+the course of the war for land or money. But he finally passed
+on the wretched fiction as a heritage of his descendants, to cause
+untold woes in the 15th century. It is seldom in the world&rsquo;s
+history that a hollow legal device such as this has had such long
+enduring and deplorable results.</p>
+
+<p>In the commencement of his continental war Edward took
+little profit either from his assumption of the French royal title,
+or from the lengthy list of princes of the Low Countries
+whom he enrolled beneath his banner. His two land-campaigns
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Sluys.</span>
+of 1339 and 1340 led to no victories or
+conquests, but cost enormous sums of money. The Netherland
+allies brought large contingents and took high pay from the king,
+but they showed neither energy nor enthusiasm in his cause.
+When Philip of Valois refused battle in the open, and confined
+his operations to defending fortified towns, or stockading himself
+in entranched camps, the allies drifted off, leaving the king with
+his English troops in force too small to accomplish anything.
+The sole achievement of the early years of the war which was
+of any profit to Edward or his realm was the great naval triumph
+of Sluys (June 24, 1340), which gave the English the command
+of the sea for the next twenty years. The French king had built
+or hired an enormous fleet, and with it threatened to invade
+England. Seeing that he could do nothing on land while his communications
+with the Low Countries were endangered by the
+existence of this armada, Edward levied every ship that was to
+be found, and brought the enemy to action in the Flemish
+harbour of Sluys. After a day of desperate hand to hand
+fighting&mdash;for the vessels grappled and the whole matter was
+settled by boarding&mdash;the French fleet was annihilated. Henceforth
+England was safe from coast raids, could conduct her
+commerce with Flanders without danger, and could strike without
+difficulty at any point of the French littoral. But it was
+not for some years that Edward utilized the advantage that
+Sluys had given him. As long as he persevered in the attempt
+to conduct the invasion of the northern frontier of France he
+achieved nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Such schemes were finally abandoned simply because the king
+discovered that his allies were worthless and that his money
+was all spent. On his return from Flanders in 1340
+he became involved in an angry controversy with his
+<span class="sidenote">Financial crisis. Trial of Archbishop Stratford.</span>
+ministers, whom he accused, quite unjustly, of wasting
+his revenue and wrecking his campaign thereby. He
+imprisoned some of them, and wished to try his late
+chancellor, Archbishop Stratford, for embezzlement,
+in the court of the exchequer. But the primate contended
+very vigorously for the right to be tried before his peers, and
+since the king could get no subsidies from his parliament till he
+acknowledged the justice of this claim, he was forced to concede
+it. Stratford was acquitted&mdash;the king&rsquo;s thriftlessness and not
+the chancellor&rsquo;s maladministration had emptied the treasury.
+Edward drifted on along the path to financial ruin till he actually
+went bankrupt in 1345, when he repudiated his debts, and ruined
+several great Italian banking houses, who had been unwise
+enough to continue lending him money to the last. The Flemings
+were also hard hit by this collapse of the king&rsquo;s credit, and very
+naturally lost their enthusiasm for the English alliance. Van
+Artevelde, its chief advocate, was murdered by his own townsmen
+in this same year.</p>
+
+<p>The second act of the Hundred Years&rsquo; War, after King Edward
+had abandoned in despair his idea of invading France from the
+side of the Netherlands, was fought out in another
+quarter&mdash;the duchy of Brittany. Here a war of
+<span class="sidenote">War in Brittany.</span>
+succession had broken out in which (oddly enough)
+Edward took up the cause of the pretender who had male
+descent, while Philip supported the one who represented a
+female line&mdash;each thus backing the theory of heritage by which
+his rival claimed the throne of France. By espousing the cause
+of John of Montfort Edward obtained a good foothold on the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page503" id="page503"></a>503</span>
+flank of France, for many of the Breton fortresses were put
+into his hands. But he failed to win any decisive advantage
+thereby over King Philip. It was not till 1346, when he adopted
+the new policy of trusting nothing to allies, and striking at the
+heart of France with a purely English army, that Edward found
+the fortune of war turning in his favour.</p>
+
+<p>In this year he landed in Normandy, where the English banner
+had not been seen since the days of King John, and executed a
+destructive raid through the duchy, and up the Seine,
+<span class="sidenote">Edward invades France.</span>
+till he almost reached the gates of Paris. This brought
+out the king of France against him, with a mighty
+host, before which Edward retreated northward,
+apparently intending to retire to Flanders. But after crossing
+the Somme he halted at Creēy, near Abbeville, and offered
+battle to the pursuing enemy. He fought relying on
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Creēy.</span>
+the tactics which had been tried against the Scots at
+Dupplin and Halidon Hill, drawing up his army with
+masses of dismounted men-at-arms flanked on either side by
+archery. This array proved as effective against the disorderly
+charges of the French noblesse as it had been against the heavy
+columns of the Scottish pikemen. Fourteen times the squadrons
+of King Philip came back to the charge; but mowed down by the
+arrow-shower, they seldom could get to handstrokes with the
+English knights, and at last rode off the field in disorder. This
+astonishing victory over fourfold numbers was no mere chivalrous
+feat of arms, it had the solid result of giving the victors a
+<span class="sidenote">Capture of Calais.</span>
+foothold in northern France. For Edward took his
+army to beleaguer Calais, and after blockading it for
+nearly a year forced it to surrender. King Philip,
+after his experience at Creēy, refused to fight again in order to
+raise the siege. From henceforth the English possessed a secure
+landing-place in northern France, at the most convenient point
+possible, immediately opposite Dover. They held it for over
+two hundred years, to their own inestimable advantage in every
+recurring war.</p>
+
+<p>The years 1345-1347 saw the zenith of King Edward&rsquo;s prosperity;
+in them fell not only his own triumphs at Creēy and
+Calais, but a victory at Auberoche in Périgord won
+by his cousin Henry of Lancaster, which restored
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Neville&rsquo;s Cross.</span>
+many long-lost regions of Guienne to the English
+suzerainty (Oct. 21, 1345), and another and more
+famous battle in the far north. At Neville&rsquo;s Cross, near Durham,
+the lords of the Border defeated and captured David Bruce, king
+of Scotland (Oct. 17, 1346). The loss of their king and the
+destruction of a fine army took the heart out of the resistance of
+the Scots, who for many years to come could give their French
+allies little assistance.</p>
+
+<p>In 1347 Edward made a short truce with King Philip: even
+after his late victories he felt his strength much strained, his
+treasury being empty, and his army exhausted by the
+year-long siege of Calais. But he would have returned
+<span class="sidenote">Truce with France. The Black Death.</span>
+to the struggle without delay had it not been for
+the dreadful calamity of the &ldquo;Black Death,&rdquo; which
+fell upon France and England, as upon all Europe, in the
+years 1348-1349. The disease, on which the 14th century
+bestowed this name, was the bubonic plague, still familiar in the
+East. After devastating western Asia, it reached the Mediterranean
+ports of Europe in 1347, and spread across the continent
+in a few months. It was said that in France, Italy and
+England a third of the population perished, and though this
+estimate may be somewhat exaggerated, local records of unimpeachable
+accuracy show that it cannot be very far from the
+truth. The bishop&rsquo;s registers of the diocese of Norwich show
+that many parishes had three and some four successive vicars
+admitted in eighteen months. In the manor rolls it is not uncommon
+to find whole families swept away, so that no heir can
+be detected to their holdings. Among the monastic orders, whose
+crowded common life seems to have been particularly favourable
+to the spread of the plague, there were cases where a whole community,
+from the abbot down to the novices, perished. The
+upper classes are said to have suffered less than the poor; but
+the king&rsquo;s daughter Joan and two archbishops of Canterbury
+were among the victims. The long continuance of the visitation,
+which as a rule took six or nine months to work out its virulence
+in any particular spot, seems to have cowed and demoralized
+society. Though it first spread from the ports of Bristol and
+Weymouth in the summer of 1348, it had not finished its destruction
+in northern England till 1350, and only spread into
+Scotland in the summer of that year.</p>
+
+<p>When the worst of the plague was over, and panic had died
+down, it was found that the social conditions of England had
+been considerably affected by the visitation. The condition
+of the realm had been stable and prosperous during
+<span class="sidenote">Economic and social effects of the Black Death.</span>
+the earlier years of Edward III., the drain on its resources
+caused by heavy war-taxation having been more
+than compensated by the increased wealth that arose
+from growing commerce and developing industries. The victory
+of Sluys, which gave England the command of the seas, had
+been a great landmark in the economic no less than in the naval
+history of this island. But the basis of society was shaken by
+the Black Death; the kingdom was still essentially an agricultural
+community, worked on the manorial system; and the
+sudden disappearance of a third of the labouring hands by which
+that system had been maintained threw everything into disorder.
+The landowners found thousands of the crofts on which their
+villeins had been wont to dwell vacant, and could not fill them
+with new tenants. Even if they exacted the full rigour of service
+from the survivors, they could not get their broad demesne
+lands properly tilled. The landless labourers, who might have
+been hired to supply the deficiency, were so reduced in numbers
+that they could command, if free competition prevailed, double
+and triple rates of payment, compared with their earnings in
+the days before the plague. Hence there arose, almost at once,
+a bitter strife between the lords of manors and the labouring
+class, both landholding and landless. The lords wished to exact
+all possible services from the former, and to pay only the old two
+or three pence a day to the latter. The villeins, as hard hit
+as their masters, resented the tightening of old duties, which in
+some cases had already been commuted for small money rents
+during the prosperous years preceding the plague. The landless
+men formed combinations, disputed with the landlords, and
+asked and often got twice as much as the old rates, despite of the
+murmurings of the employer.</p>
+
+<p>After a short experience of these difficulties the king and
+council, whose sympathies were naturally with the landholders,
+issued an ordinance forbidding workmen of any kind
+to demand more than they had been wont to receive
+<span class="sidenote">The Statute of Labourers.</span>
+before 1348. This was followed up by the famous
+Statute of Labourers of 1351, which fixed rates for
+all wages practically identical with those of the times before the
+Black Death. Those workmen who refused to accept them were
+to be imprisoned, while employers who went behind the backs
+of their fellows and secretly paid higher sums were to be punished
+by heavy fines. Later additions to the statute were devised to
+terrorize the labourer, by adding stripes and branding to his
+punishment, if he still remained recalcitrant or absconded. And
+landowners were empowered to seize all vagrant able-bodied
+men, and to compel them to work at the statutory wages. As
+some compensation for the low pay of the workmen, parliament
+tried to bring down the price of commodities to their former
+level, for (like labour) all manufactured articles had gone up
+immensely in value.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty years of friction followed, while the parliament and the
+ruling classes tried in a spasmodic way to enforce the statute,
+and the peasantry strove to evade it. It proved impossible to
+carry out the scheme; the labourers were too many and too
+cunning to be crushed. If driven over hard they absconded to
+the towns, where hands were needed as much as in the countryside,
+or migrated to districts where the statute was laxly administered.
+Gradually the landowners discovered that the only
+practical way out of their difficulties was to give up the old
+custom of working the manorial demesne by the forced labour of
+their villeins, and to cut it up into farms which were rented out
+to free tenants, and cultivated by them. In the course of two
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page504" id="page504"></a>504</span>
+generations the &ldquo;farmers&rdquo; who paid rent for these holdings
+became more and more numerous, and demesne land tilled by
+villein-service grew more and more rare. But enough old-fashioned
+landlords remained to keep up the struggle with the
+peasants to the end of the 14th century and beyond, and the
+number of times that the Statute of Labourers was re-enacted
+and recast was enormous. Nevertheless the struggle turned
+gradually to the advantage of the labourer, and ended in the
+creation of the sturdy and prosperous farming yeomanry who
+were the strength of the realm for several centuries to come.</p>
+
+<p>One immediate consequence of the &ldquo;Black Death&rdquo; was the
+renewal of the truce between England and France by repeated
+agreements which lasted from 1347 to 1355. During this interval
+Philip of France died, in 1350, and was succeeded by his son
+John. The war did not entirely cease, but became local and
+spasmodic. In Brittany the factions which supported the two
+claimants to the ducal title were so embittered that they never
+laid down their arms. In 1351 the French noblesse of Picardy,
+apparently without their master&rsquo;s knowledge or consent, made
+an attempt to surprise Calais, which was beaten off with some
+difficulty by King Edward in person. There was also constant
+bickering on the borders of Guienne. But the main forces
+<span class="sidenote">Renewal of the war with France.</span>
+on both sides were not brought into action till the
+series of truces ran out in 1355. From that time
+onward the English took the offensive with great
+vigour. Edward, prince of Wales, ravaged Languedoc
+as far as the Mediterranean, while his younger brother John of
+Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, executed a less ambitious raid in
+Picardy and Artois. In the south this campaign marked real
+progress, not mere objectless plunder, for it was followed by the
+reconquest of great districts in Périgord and the Agenais, which
+had been lost to England since the 13th century. A similar
+double invasion of France led to even greater results in the
+following year, 1356. While Lancaster landed in Normandy,
+and with the aid of local rebels occupied the greater part of the
+peninsula of the Cōtentin, the prince of Wales accomplished
+greater things on the borders of Aquitaine. After executing a
+great circular sweep through Périgord, Limousin and Berry, he
+was returning to Bordeaux laden with plunder, when he was
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Poitiers.</span>
+intercepted by the king of France near Poitiers. The
+battle that followed was the most astonishing of all
+the English victories during the Hundred Years&rsquo; War.
+The odds against the prince were far heavier than those of Creēy,
+but by taking up a strong position and using the national tactics
+which combined the use of archery and dismounted men-at-arms,
+the younger Edward not merely beat off his assailants in
+a long defensive fight, but finally charged out upon them,
+scattered them, and took King John prisoner (Sept. 19, 1356).</p>
+
+<p>This fortunate capture put an enormous advantage in the
+hands of the English; for John, a facile and selfish prince, was
+ready to buy his freedom by almost any concessions.
+He signed two successive treaties which gave such
+<span class="sidenote">The English ravage France.</span>
+advantageous terms to Edward III. that the dauphin
+Charles, who was acting as regent, and the French
+states-general refused to confirm them. This drove the English
+king to put still further pressure on the enemy; in 1359 he led
+out from Calais the largest English army that had been seen
+during the war, devastated all northern France as far as Reims
+and the borders of Burgundy, and then&mdash;continuing the campaign
+through the heart of the winter&mdash;presented himself before
+the gates of Paris and ravaged the Īle de France. This brought
+the regent Charles and his counsellors to the verge of despair;
+<span class="sidenote">Peace of Brétigny.</span>
+they yielded, and on the 8th of May 1360, signed an
+agreement at Brétigny near Chartres, by which nearly
+all King Edward&rsquo;s demands were granted. These
+preliminaries were ratified by the definitive peace of Calais
+(Oct. 24, 1360), which brought the first stage of the Hundred
+Years&rsquo; War to an end.</p>
+
+<p>By this treaty King Edward formally gave up his claim to
+the French throne, which he had always intended to use merely
+as an asset for barter, and was to receive in return not only a sum
+of 3,000,000 gold crowns for King John&rsquo;s personal ransom, but
+an immense cession of territory which&mdash;in southern France at
+least&mdash;almost restored the old boundaries of the time of
+Henry II. The duchy of Aquitaine was reconstructed, so as
+to include not only the lands that Edward had inherited, and
+his recent conquests, but all Poitou, Limousin, Angoumois,
+Quercy, Rouergue and Saintonge&mdash;a full half of France south
+of the Loire. This vast duchy the English king bestowed not
+long after on his son Edward, the victor of Poitiers, who reigned
+there as a vassal-sovereign, owing homage to England but administering
+his possessions in his own right. In northern France,
+Calais and the county of Guīnes, and also the isolated county of
+Ponthieu, the inheritance of the wife of Edward I., were ceded
+to the English crown. All these regions, it must be noted, were
+to be held for the future free of any homage or acknowledgment
+of allegiance to an overlord, &ldquo;in perpetuity, and in the manner
+in which the kings of France had held them.&rdquo; There was to be
+an end to the power of the courts of Paris to harass the duke of
+Aquitaine, by using the rights of the suzerain to interfere with
+the vassal&rsquo;s subjects. It was hoped that for the future the
+insidious legal warfare which had been used with such effect by
+the French kings would be effectually prevented.</p>
+
+<p>To complete the picture of the triumph of Edward III. at this,
+the culminating point of his reign, it must be mentioned that
+some time before the peace of Calais he had made terms
+with Scotland. David Bruce was to cede Roxburgh
+<span class="sidenote">Submission of David of Scotland.</span>
+and Berwick, but to keep the rest of his dominions on
+condition of paying a ransom of 100,000 marks. This
+sum could never be raised, and Edward always had it in his
+power to bring pressure to bear on the king of Scots by demanding
+the instalments, which were always in arrear. David gave
+no further trouble; indeed he became so friendly to England
+that he offered to proclaim Lionel of Clarence, Edward&rsquo;s second
+son, as his heir, and would have done so but for the vigorous
+opposition of his parliament.</p>
+
+<p>The English people had expected that a sort of Golden Age
+would follow the conclusion of the peace with Scotland and
+France. Freed from the war-taxes which had vexed
+them for the last twenty years, they would be able
+<span class="sidenote">Economic progress in England.</span>
+to repair the ravages of the Black Death, and to develop
+the commercial advantages which had been won
+at Sluys, and secured by the dominion of the seas which they
+had held ever since. In some respects this expectation was not
+deceived; the years that followed 1360 seem to have been prosperous
+at home, despite the continued friction arising from the
+Statute of Labourers. The towns would seem to have fared
+better than the countryside, partly indeed at its expense, for
+the discontented peasantry migrated in large numbers to the
+centres of population where newly-developed manufactures
+were calling for more hands. The weaving industry, introduced
+into the eastern counties by the king&rsquo;s invitation to Flemish
+settlers, was making England something more than a mere
+producer of raw material for export. The seaports soon recovered
+from their losses in the Black Death, and English shipping was
+beginning to appear in the distant seas of Portugal and the
+Baltic. Nothing illustrates the growth of English wealth better
+than the fact that the kingdom had, till the time of Edward III.,
+contrived to conduct all its commerce with a currency of small
+silver, but that within thirty years of his introduction of a
+gold coinage in 1343, the English &ldquo;noble&rdquo; was being struck in
+enormous quantities. It invaded all the markets of western
+Europe, and became the prototype of the gold issues of the
+Netherlands, Scotland, and even parts of Germany. It is in the
+latter years of Edward III. that we find the first forerunners of
+that class of English merchant princes who were to be such a
+marked feature in the succeeding reigns. The Poles of Hull,
+whose descendants rose in three generations to ducal rank, were
+the earliest specimens of their class. The poet Chaucer may
+serve as a humbler example of the rise of the burgher class&mdash;the
+son of a vintner, he became the father of a knight, and the
+ancestor, through female descents, of many baronial families.
+The second half of the 14th century is the first period in English
+history in which we can detect a distinct rise in the importance
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page505" id="page505"></a>505</span>
+of the commercial as opposed to the landed interest. The latter,
+hard hit by the manorial difficulties that followed the plague of
+1348-1349, found their rents stationary or even diminishing,
+while the price of the commodities from which the former
+made their wealth had permanently risen. As to intellectual
+vigour, the age that produced two minds of such marked originality
+in different spheres as Wycliffe and Chaucer must not be
+despised, even if it failed to carry out all the promise of the
+13th century.</p>
+
+<p>For a few years after the peace of 1360 the political influence
+of Edward III. in western Europe seemed to be supreme. France,
+prostrated by the results of the English raids, by
+peasant revolts, and municipal and baronial turbulence,
+<span class="sidenote">English rule in France.</span>
+did not begin to recover strength till the thriftless king
+John had died (1364) and had been succeeded by his
+capable if unchivalrous son Charles V. Yet the state of the
+English dominions on the continent was not satisfactory; in
+building up the vast duchy of Aquitaine Edward had made a
+radical mistake. Instead of contenting himself with creating
+a homogeneous Gascon state, which might have grown together
+into a solid unit, he had annexed broad regions which had been
+for a century and a half united to France, and had been entirely
+assimilated to her. From the first Poitou, Quercy, Rouergue
+and the Limousin chafed beneath the English yoke; the noblesse
+in especial found the comparatively orderly and constitutional
+governance to which they were subjected most intolerable.
+They waited for the first opportunity to revolt, and meanwhile
+murmured against every act of their duke, the prince of Wales,
+though he did his best to behave as a gracious sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The younger Edward ended by losing his health and his wealth
+in an unnecessary war beyond the Pyrenees. He was persuaded
+by the exiled Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, to restore
+him to the throne which he had forfeited by his misgovernment.
+<span class="sidenote">The Black Prince in Spain.</span>
+In 1367 he gathered a great army,
+entered Castile, defeated the usurper Henry of Trastamara
+at the battle of Najera, and restored his ally. But Peter,
+when once re-established as king, forgot his obligations and left
+the prince burdened with the whole expense of the campaign.
+Edward left Spain with a discontented and unpaid army, and
+had himself contracted the seeds of a disease which was to leave
+him an invalid for the rest of his life. To pay his debts he was
+obliged to resort to heavy taxation in Aquitaine, which gave his
+discontented subjects in Poitou and the other outlying districts
+an excuse for the rebellion that they had been for some time
+meditating. In 1368 his greatest vassals, the counts of Armagnac,
+Périgord and Comminges, displayed their disloyalty by appealing
+to the king of France as their suzerain against the legality
+of Edward&rsquo;s imposts. The French overlordship had been
+formally abolished by the treaty of 1360, so this appeal amounted
+to open rebellion. And when Charles V. accepted it, and cited
+Edward to appear before his parlement to answer the complaints
+of the counts, he was challenging England to renewed war. He
+found a preposterous excuse for repudiating the treaty by which
+he was bound, by declaring that some details had been omitted
+in its formal ratification.</p>
+
+<p>The Hundred Years&rsquo; War, therefore, broke out again in 1369,
+after an interval of nine years. Edward III. assumed once more
+the title of king of France, while Charles V., in the
+usual style, declared that the whole duchy of Aquitaine
+<span class="sidenote">Renewal of the war with France.</span>
+had been forfeited for treason and rebellion on
+the part of its present holder. The second period of
+war, which was to last till the death of the English king, and for
+some years after, was destined to prove wholly disastrous to
+England. All the conditions had changed since 1360. Edward,
+though only in his fifty-seventh year, was entering into a premature
+and decrepit old age, in which he became the prey of
+unworthy favourites, male and female. The men of the 14th
+century, who commanded armies and executed <i>coups d&rsquo;état</i> at
+eighteen, were often worn out by sixty. The guidance of the
+war should have fallen into the hands of his eldest son, the victor
+of Poitiers and Najera, but the younger Edward had never recovered
+from the fatigues of his Spanish campaign; his disease
+having developed into a form of dropsy, he had become a confirmed
+invalid and could no longer take the field. The charge
+of the military operations of the English armies had passed to
+John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, the king&rsquo;s younger son, a
+prince far inferior in capacity to his father and brother. Though
+not destitute of good impulses Lancaster was hasty, improvident
+and obstinate; he was unfortunate in his choice of friends, for
+he allied himself to all his father&rsquo;s unscrupulous dependents.
+He was destitute of military skill, and wrecked army after army
+by attempting hard tasks at inappropriate times and by mistaken
+methods. Despite of all checks and disasters he remained active,
+self-confident and ambitious, and, since he had acquired a complete
+control over his father, he had ample opportunity to
+mismanage the political and military affairs of England.</p>
+
+<p>Lancaster&rsquo;s strategy, in the early years of the renewed war,
+consisted mainly of attempts to wear down the force of France
+by devastating raids; he hoped to provoke the enemy
+to battle by striking at the heart of his realm, but
+<span class="sidenote">Character of the war.</span>
+never achieved his purpose. Warned by the disasters
+of Creēy and Poitiers, Charles V. and his great captain
+Bertrand du Guesclin would never commit themselves to an
+engagement in the open field. They let the English invaders
+pass by, garrisoning the towns but abandoning the countryside.
+Since Lancaster, in his great circular raids, had never the leisure
+to sit down to a siege&mdash;generally a matter of long months in the
+14th century&mdash;he repeatedly crossed France leaving a train of
+ruined villages behind him, but having accomplished nothing
+else save the exhaustion of his own army. For the French
+always followed him at a cautious distance, cutting off his
+stragglers, and restricting the area of his ravages by keeping
+flying columns all around his path. But while the duke was
+executing useless marches across France, the outlying lands of
+Aquitaine were falling away, one after the other, to the enemy.
+The limit of the territory which still remained loyal was ever
+shrinking, and what was once lost was hardly ever regained.
+Almost the only reconquest made was that of the city of Limoges,
+which was stormed in September 1370 by the troops of the
+Black Prince, who rose from his sick-bed to strike his last blow at
+the rebels. His success did almost as much harm as good to his
+cause, for the deliberate sack of the city was carried out with
+such ruthless severity that it roused wild wrath rather than
+terror in the neighbouring regions. Next spring the prince
+returned to England, feeling himself physically unable to administer
+or defend his duchy any longer.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of Poitou, Quercy and Rouergue had been
+lost, and the English cause was everywhere losing ground, when
+a new danger was developed. Since Sluys the enemy
+had never disputed the command of the seas; but in
+<span class="sidenote">English reverses.</span>
+1372 a Spanish fleet joined the French, and destroyed
+off La Rochelle a squadron which was bringing reinforcements
+for Guienne. The disaster was the direct result of the campaign
+of Najera&mdash;for Henry of Trastamara, who had long since dethroned
+and slain his brother Peter the Cruel, remained a consistent
+foe of England. From this date onward Franco-Spanish
+fleets were perpetually to be met not only in the Bay of Biscay
+but in the Channel; they made the voyage to Bordeaux unsafe,
+and often executed descents on the shores of Kent, Sussex,
+Devon and Cornwall. It was to no effect that, in the year after
+the battle of La Rochelle, Lancaster carried out the last, the most
+expensive, and the most fruitless of his great raids across France.
+He marched from Calais to Bordeaux, inflicted great misery on
+Picardy, Champagne and Berry, and left half his army dead
+by the way.</p>
+
+<p>This did not prevent Bertrand du Guesclin from expelling
+from his dominions John of Brittany, the one ally whom King
+Edward possessed in France, or from pursuing a consistent
+career of petty conquest in the heart of Aquitaine. By 1374
+little was left of the great possessions which the English had held
+beyond the Channel save Calais, and the coast slip from Bordeaux
+to Bayonne, which formed the only loyal part of the duchy of
+Guienne. Next year King Edward sued for peace&mdash;he failed
+to obtain it, finding the French terms too hard for acceptance&mdash;but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page506" id="page506"></a>506</span>
+a truce at least was signed at Bruges (Jan. 1375) which
+endured till a few weeks before his death.</p>
+
+<p>These two last years of Edward&rsquo;s reign were filled with an
+episode of domestic strife, which had considerable constitutional
+importance. The nation ascribed the series of disasters
+which had filled the space from 1369 to 1375 entirely
+<span class="sidenote">Domestic strife.</span>
+to the maladministration of Lancaster and the king&rsquo;s
+favourites, failing to see that it was largely due to the mere fact
+that England was not strong enough to hold down Aquitaine,
+when France was administered by a capable king and served by a
+great general. Hence there arose, both in and out of parliament,
+a violent agitation for the removal of Lancaster from power,
+and the punishment of the favourites, who were believed, with
+complete justification, to be misusing the royal name for their
+own private profit. Among the leaders of this agitation were
+the clerical ministers whom John of Gaunt had expelled from
+office in 1371, and chiefly William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester,
+the late chancellor; they were helped by Edmund
+Mortimer, earl of March, a personal enemy of Lancaster, and
+could count on the assistance of the prince of Wales when he was
+well enough to take a part in politics. The greater part of the
+House of Commons was on their side, and on the whole they
+may be regarded as the party of constitutional protest against
+maladministration. But there was another movement on foot
+at the same time, which cut across this political agitation in the
+most bewildering fashion. Protests against the corruption of the
+<span class="sidenote">Agitation against the Church.</span>
+Church and the interference of the papacy in national
+affairs had always been rife in England. At this
+moment they were more prevalent than ever, largely
+in consequence of the way in which the popes at
+Avignon had made themselves the allies and tools of the kings
+of France. The Statutes of Praemunire and Provisors had been
+passed a few years before (1351-1365) to check papal pretensions.
+There was a strong anti-clerical party, whose practical aim was
+to fill the coffers of the state by large measures of disendowment
+and confiscations of Church property. The intellectual head
+of this party at the time was John Wycliffe, a famous Oxford
+<span class="sidenote">Wycliffe.</span>
+teacher, and for some time master of Balliol College.
+In his lectures and sermons he was always laying stress
+on the unsatisfactory state of the national church and the infamous
+corruption of the papacy. The doctrine which first made him
+famous, and commended him to all members of the anti-clerical
+faction, was that unworthy holders of spiritual endowments
+ought to be dispossessed of them, because &ldquo;dominion&rdquo; should
+depend on &ldquo;grace.&rdquo; Churchmen, small and great, as he held,
+had been corrupted, because they had fallen away from the
+early Christian idea of apostolic poverty. Instead of discharging
+their proper functions, bishops and abbots had become statesmen
+or wealthy barons, and took no interest in anything save politics.
+The monasteries, with their vast possessions, had become corporations
+of landlords, instead of associations for prayer and
+good works. The papacy, with its secular ambitions, and its
+insatiable greed for money, was the worst abuse of all. A bad
+pope, and most popes were bad, was the true Antichrist, since
+he was always overruling the divine law of the scriptures by his
+human ordinances. Every man, as Wycliffe taught&mdash;using the
+feudal analogies of contemporary society&mdash;is God&rsquo;s tenant-in-chief,
+directly responsible for his acts to his overlord; the pope
+is always thrusting himself in between, like a mesne-tenant, and
+destroying the touch between God and man by his interference.
+Sometimes his commands are merely presumptuous; sometimes&mdash;as
+when, for example, he preaches crusades against Christians
+for purely secular reasons&mdash;they are the most horrible form of
+blasphemy. Wycliffe at a later period of his life developed views
+on doctrinal matters, not connected with his original thesis about
+the relations between Church and State, and foreshadowed most
+of the leading tenets of the reformers of the 16th century. But
+in 1376-1377 he was known merely as the outspoken critic of
+the &ldquo;Caesarean clergy&rdquo; and the papacy. He had a following of
+enthusiastic disciples at Oxford, and scattered adherents both
+among the burghers and the knighthood, the nucleus of the party
+that afterwards became famous as the Lollards. But they had
+not yet differentiated themselves from the body of those who
+were merely anti-clerical, without being committed to any
+theories of religious reform.</p>
+
+<p>Since Wycliffe was, above all things, the enemy of the political
+clergy of high estate, and since those clergy were precisely
+the leaders of the attack upon John of Gaunt, it came
+to pass that hatred of a common foe drew the duke and
+<span class="sidenote">John of Gaunt and Wycliffe.</span>
+the doctor together for a space. There was a strange
+alliance between the advocate of clerical reform, and
+the practical exponent of secular misgovernment. The only
+point on which they were agreed was that it would be highly
+desirable to strip the Church of most of her endowments, in
+order to fill the exchequer of the state. Lancaster hoped to use
+Wycliffe as his mouthpiece against his enemies; Wycliffe hoped
+to see Lancaster disendowing bishops and monasteries and defying
+the pope. Hence the attempt of the political bishops to get
+Wycliffe condemned as a heretic became inextricably mixed
+with the attempt of the constitutional party, to which the bishops
+belonged, to evict the duke from his position of first councillor
+to the king and director of the policy of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle began in the parliament of 1376, called by the
+anti-Lancastrian party the &ldquo;Good Parliament.&rdquo; Headed by the
+earl of March, William Courtenay, bishop of London,
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Good Parliament.&rdquo;</span>
+and Sir Peter de la Mare, the daring speaker of the
+House of Commons, the duke&rsquo;s enemies began their
+campaign by accusing the king&rsquo;s ministers and
+favourites of corruption. Here they were on safe ground, for
+the misdeeds of Lord Latimer&mdash;the king&rsquo;s chamberlain,
+Lord Neville&mdash;his steward, Richard Lyons&mdash;his financial
+agent, and Alice Perrers&mdash;his greedy and shameless mistress,
+<span class="sidenote">Overthrow of the king&rsquo;s favourites.</span>
+had been so flagrant that it was hard for Lancaster to
+defend them. In face of the evidence brought forward
+the old king and his son had to abandon their friends
+to the angry parliament. Latimer and Lyons were
+condemned to imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods, Alice
+Perrers was banished from court. Encouraged by this victory,
+the parliament passed on to constitutional reforms, forced on
+the king a council of twelve peers nominated by themselves,
+who were to exercise over him much the same control
+<span class="sidenote">Constitutional reforms.</span>
+that the lords ordainers had held over his father, and
+compelled him to assent to a long list of petitions
+which, if properly carried out, would have removed
+most of the practical grievances of the nation. Having so done
+they dispersed, not guessing that <span class="correction" title="amended from Lancester">Lancaster</span> had yielded so
+easily because he was set on undoing their work the moment
+that they were gone.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, was the case; after the shortest of intervals
+the duke executed something like a <i>coup d&rsquo;état</i>. In his father&rsquo;s
+name he released Latimer and Lyons, dismissed the
+council of twelve, imprisoned Peter de la Mare,
+<span class="sidenote">John of Gaunt re-establishes the royal power.</span>
+sequestrated the temporalities of Bishop Wykeham,
+and sent the earl of March out of the realm. Alice
+Perrers took possession again of the king, and all his
+corrupt courtiers came back to him. A royal edict declared
+the statutes of the &ldquo;Good Parliament&rdquo; null and void. Lancaster
+would never have dared to defy public opinion and
+challenge the constitutional party to a life-and-death struggle
+in this fashion, had it not been that his brother the prince of
+<span class="sidenote">Death of the Black Prince.</span>
+Wales had died while the &ldquo;Good Parliament&rdquo; was
+sitting; thus the opposition had been deprived of
+their strongest support. The prince&rsquo;s heir was a mere
+child, Richard of Bordeaux, aged only nine. It was
+feared by some that Duke John might carry his ambitions so far
+as to aim at the throne&mdash;he could do what he pleased with his
+doting father, and flaws might have been picked in the marriage
+of the Black Prince and his wife Joan of Kent, who were cousins,
+and therefore within the &ldquo;prohibited degrees.&rdquo; As a matter
+of fact Lancaster was a more honest man than his enemies suspected;
+he hastened to acknowledge his little nephew&rsquo;s rights,
+acknowledged him as prince of Wales, and introduced him as
+his grandfather&rsquo;s heir before the parliament of January 1377.</p>
+
+<p>The character of this body was a proof of the great strength
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page507" id="page507"></a>507</span>
+of the royal name and power even in days when parliamentary
+institutions had been long in existence, and were supposed to act
+as a check on the crown. To legalize his arbitrary acts Duke
+John dared to summon the estates together, after he had issued
+stringent orders to the sheriffs to exclude his enemies and return
+his friends when the members for the Commons were chosen. He
+obtained a house of the complexion that he desired, and having
+a strong following among the peers actually succeeded in undoing
+all the work of 1376. No sign of trouble or rebellion followed,
+the opposition being destitute of a fighting leader. March had
+left the realm; Bishop Wykeham showed an unworthy subservience
+by suing for pardon through the mediation of Alice
+Perrers. Only Bishop Courtenay refused to be terrorized; he
+chose this moment to open a campaign against the duke&rsquo;s ally,
+John Wycliffe, who was arraigned for heresy before the ecclesiastical
+courts. His trial, however, ended in a scandalous fiasco.
+Lancaster and his friend Lord Percy came to St Paul&rsquo;s, and so
+insulted and browbeat the bishop, that the proceedings degenerated
+into a riot, and reached no conclusion (Feb. 19).
+Courtenay dared not recommence them, and Lancaster ruled
+as he pleased till his father, five months later, died. Deserted
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Edward III.</span>
+by his worthless courtiers and plundered on his death-bed
+by his greedy mistress, the victor of Sluys and
+Creēy sank into an unhonoured grave. It was a relief
+to the nation that he was gone. Yet there was a general
+feeling that chaos might follow. If Lancaster should justify
+the malevolent rumours that were afloat by making a snatch
+at the crown, the last state of the realm might be worse than the
+first.</p>
+
+<p>Duke John, however, was a better man than his enemies
+supposed. He was loyal to the crown according to his lights, and
+showed a chivalrous self-denial that had hardly been
+expected from him. He saluted his little nephew as
+<span class="sidenote">Richard II.</span>
+king without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation, though he was aware
+that with the commencement of a new reign his own dictatorship
+had come to an end. The princess of Wales, in whose
+hands the young Richard II. was placed, had never been
+his friend, and was surrounded by adherents of her deceased
+husband, who belonged to the constitutional party. Disarmed,
+however, by the duke&rsquo;s frank submission they wisely resolved
+not to push him to extremes, and the first council which was
+appointed to act for the new monarch was a sort of &ldquo;coalition
+ministry&rdquo; in which Lancaster&rsquo;s followers as well as his foes were
+represented. For that very reason it was lacking in strength and
+unity of purpose, and proved lamentably incapable of dealing
+with the problems of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>Of these the most pressing was the renewal of the French
+war; the truce had expired a few weeks before the death of
+Edward III., and the new reign began with a series
+<span class="sidenote">The French war.</span>
+of military disasters. The French fleet landed in great
+force in Sussex, burnt Rye and Hastings and routed
+the shire levies. Simultaneously the seneschal of
+Aquitaine was defeated in battle, and Bergerac, the last great
+town in the inland which remained in English hands, was
+captured by the duke of Anjou.</p>
+
+<p>The first parliament of Richard II. met in October under the
+most gloomy auspices. It showed its temper by taking up the
+work of the &ldquo;Good Parliament.&rdquo; Lancaster&rsquo;s adherents
+were turned out of the council; the persons
+<span class="sidenote">First parliament of Richard. Reforms.</span>
+condemned in 1376 were declared incapable of serving
+in it; Alice Perrers was sentenced to banishment
+and forfeiture, and the little king was made to repudiate
+the declaration whereby his uncle had quashed the
+statutes of 1376 by declaring that &ldquo;no act of parliament can be
+repealed save with parliament&rsquo;s consent.&rdquo; John of Gaunt
+bowed before the storm, retired to his estates, and for some time
+took little part in affairs of state.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately the new government proved wholly unable
+either to conduct the struggle with France successfully or to
+pluck up courage to make a humiliating peace&mdash;the only wise
+course before them. The nation was too proud to accept
+defeat, and persevered in the unhappy attempt to reverse the
+fortunes of war. An almost unbroken series of petty disasters
+marked the first three years of King Richard. The worst was
+the failure of the last great devastating raid which the English
+launched against France. Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest
+son of Edward III., took a powerful army to Calais, and marched
+through Picardy and Champagne, past Orleans, and finally to
+Rennes in Brittany, but accomplished nothing save the ruin
+of his own troops and the wasting of a vast sum of money.
+Meanwhile taxation was heavy, the whole nation was seething
+with discontent, and&mdash;what was worst&mdash;no way was visible
+out of the miserable situation; ministers and councillors were
+repeatedly displaced, but their successors always proved equally
+incompetent to find a remedy.</p>
+
+<p>This period of murmuring and misery culminated in the Great
+Revolt of 1381, a phenomenon whose origins must be sought
+in the most complicated causes, but whose outbreak
+was due in the main to a general feeling that the realm
+<span class="sidenote">The Great Revolt of 1381.</span>
+was being misgoverned, and that some one must be
+made responsible for its maladministration. It was
+actually provoked by the unwise and unjust poll-tax of one
+shilling a head on all adult persons, voted by the parliament of
+Northampton in November 1380. The last poll-tax had been
+carefully graduated on a sliding scale so as to press lightly on the
+poorest classes; in this one a shilling for each person had to be
+exacted from every township, though it was provided that
+&ldquo;the strong should help the weak&rdquo; to a certain extent. But
+in hundreds of villages there were no &ldquo;strong&rdquo; residents, and
+the poorest cottager had to pay his three groats. The peasantry
+defended themselves by the simple device of understating the
+numbers of their families; the returns made it appear that the
+adult population of England had gone down from 1,355,000 to
+896,000 since the poll-tax of 1379. Thereupon the government
+sent out commissioners to revise the returns and exact the missing
+shillings. Their appearance led to a series of widespread and
+preconcerted riots, which soon spread over all England from the
+Wash to the Channel, and in a few days developed into a formidable
+rebellion. The poll-tax was no more than the spark
+which fired the mine; it merely provided a good general grievance
+on which all malcontents could unite. In the districts
+which took arms two main causes of insurrection may be differentiated;
+the first and the most widespread was the discontent
+of the rural population with the landowners and the Statute of
+Labourers. Their aim was to abolish all villein-service, and to
+wring from their lords the commutation of all manorial customs
+and obligations for a small rent&mdash;fourpence an acre was generally
+the sum suggested. But there was a simultaneous outbreak
+in many urban districts. In Winchester, London, St Albans,
+Canterbury, Bury, Beverley, Scarborough and many other places
+the rioting was as violent as in the countryside. Here the object
+of the insurgents was in most cases to break down the local
+oligarchy, who engrossed all municipal office and oppressed
+the meaner citizens; but in less numerous instances their end
+was to win charters from lords (almost always ecclesiastical lords)
+who had hitherto refused to grant them. But it must not be
+forgotten that there was also a tinge of purely political discontent
+about the rising; the insurgents everywhere proclaimed their
+intention to destroy &ldquo;traitors,&rdquo; of whom the most generally
+condemned were the chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, and the
+treasurer, Sir Robert Hailes, the two persons most responsible
+for the levy of the poll-tax. Often the rebels added the name
+of John of Gaunt to the list, looking upon him as the person
+ultimately responsible for the mismanagement of the war and
+the misgovernment of the realm. It must be added that though
+the leaders of the revolt were for the most part local demagogues,
+the creatures of the moment, there were among them
+a few fanatics like the &ldquo;mad priest of Kent,&rdquo; John Ball, who
+had long preached socialist doctrines from the old text:</p>
+
+<table class="reg" summary="poem"><tr><td> <div class="poemr">
+<p>&ldquo;When Adam delved and Eve span</p>
+<p class="i05">Who was then the gentleman?&rdquo;</p>
+</div> </td></tr></table>
+
+<p class="noind">and clamoured for the abolition of all differences of rank, status
+and property. Though many clerics were found among the
+rebels, it does not seem that any of them were Wycliffites, or that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page508" id="page508"></a>508</span>
+the reformer&rsquo;s teaching had played any part in exciting the
+peasantry at this time. No contemporary authority ascribes
+the rising to the Lollards.</p>
+
+<p>The riots had begun, almost simultaneously in Kent and Essex:
+from thence they spread through East Anglia and the home
+counties. In the west and north there were only isolated and
+sporadic outbreaks, confined to a few turbulent towns. In the
+countryside the insurrection was accompanied by wholesale
+burnings of manor-rolls, the hunting down of unpopular bailiffs
+and landlords, and a special crusade against the commissioners
+of the poll-tax and the justices who had been enforcing the
+Statute of Labourers. There was more arson and blackmailing
+than murder, though some prominent persons perished, such as
+the judge, Sir John Cavendish, and the prior of Bury. In many
+regions the rising was purely disorderly and destitute of organization.
+This was not, however, the case in Kent and London.
+<span class="sidenote">Wat Tyler.</span>
+The mob which had gathered at Maidstone and Canterbury
+marched on the capital many thousands strong,
+headed by a local demagogue named Wat Tyler, whom they
+had chosen as their captain; his most prominent lieutenant
+was the preacher John Ball. They announced their intention
+of executing all &ldquo;traitors,&rdquo; seizing the person of the king, and
+setting up a new government for the realm. The royal council
+and ministers showed grievous incapacity and cowardice&mdash;they
+made no attempt to raise an army, and opened negotiations
+with the rebels. While these were in progress the malcontent
+party in London, headed by three aldermen, opened the gates
+of the city to Tyler and his horde. They poured in, and, joined
+by the London mob, sacked John of Gaunt&rsquo;s palace of the Savoy,
+the Temple, and many other buildings, while the ministers took
+refuge with the young king in the Tower. It was well known
+that not only the capital and the neighbouring counties but all
+eastern England was ablaze, and the council in despair sent out
+the young king to parley with Tyler at Mile End. The rebels at
+first demanded no more than that Richard should declare
+villeinage abolished, and that all feudal dues and services should
+be commuted for a rent of fourpence an acre. This was readily
+conceded, and charters were drawn up to that effect and sealed
+by the king. But, while the meeting was still going on, Tyler
+went off to the Tower with a part of his horde, entered the fortress
+unopposed, and murdered the unhappy chancellor, Archbishop
+Sudbury, the treasurer, and several victims more. This
+was only the beginning of massacre. Instead of dispersing with
+their charters, as did many of the peasants, Tyler and his confederates
+ran riot through London, burning houses and slaying
+lawyers, officials, foreign merchants and other unpopular persons.
+This had the effect of frightening the propertied classes in the
+city, who had hitherto observed a timid neutrality, and turned
+public opinion against the insurgents. Next day the rebel
+leaders again invited the king to a conference, in the open space
+of Smithfield, and laid before him a programme very different
+from that propounded at Mile End. Tyler demanded that all
+differences of rank and status should cease, that all church
+lands should be confiscated and divided up among the laity,
+that the game laws should be abolished, and that &ldquo;no lord should
+any longer hold lordship except civilly.&rdquo; Apparently he was
+set on provoking a refusal, and thus getting an excuse for seizing
+the person of the king. But matters went otherwise than he
+had expected; when he waxed unmannerly, and unsheathed
+his dagger to strike one of the royal retinue who had dared to
+answer him back, the mayor of London, William Walworth,
+drew his cutlass and cut him down. The mob strung their
+bows, and were about to shoot down the king and his suite.
+But Richard&mdash;who showed astounding nerve and presence of
+mind for a lad of fourteen&mdash;cantered up to them shouting that
+he would be their chief and captain and would give them their
+rights. The conference was continued, but, while it was in
+progress, the mayor brought up the whole civic militia of London,
+who had taken arms when they saw that the triumph of the
+rebels meant anarchy, and rescued the king out of the hands
+of the mob. Seeing such a formidable body of armed men
+opposed to them, the insurgents dispersed&mdash;without their
+reckless and ready-witted captain they were helpless (June 15,
+1381).</p>
+
+<p>This was the turning-point of the rebellion; within a few
+days the council had collected a considerable army, which
+marched through Essex scattering such rebel bands
+as still held together. Kent was pacified at the same
+<span class="sidenote">Suppression of the rising.</span>
+time; and Henry Despenser, the warlike bishop of
+Norwich, made a separate campaign against the East
+Anglian insurgents, defeating them at the skirmish of North
+Walsham, and hanging the local leader Geoffrey Lister, who
+had declared himself &ldquo;king of the commons&rdquo; (June 25, 1381).
+After this there was nothing remaining save to punish the leaders
+of the revolt; a good many scores of them were hanged, though
+the vengeance exacted does not seem to have been greater than
+was justified by the numerous murders and burnings of which
+they had been guilty; the fanatic Ball was, of course, among
+the first to suffer. On the 30th of August the rough methods
+of martial law were suspended, and on the 14th of December
+the king issued an amnesty to all save certain leaders who
+had hitherto escaped capture. A parliament had been called in
+November; it voted that all the charters given by the king at
+Mile End were null and void, no manumissions or grants of
+privileges could have been valid without the consent of the
+estates of the realm, &ldquo;and for their own parts they would never
+consent to such, of their own free will nor otherwise, even to
+save themselves from sudden death.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The rebellion, therefore, had failed either to abolish villeinage
+in the countryside or to end municipal oligarchy in the towns,
+and many lords took the opportunity of the time of
+reaction in order to revindicate old claims over their
+<span class="sidenote">Decline of the manorial system.</span>
+bondsmen. Nevertheless serfdom continued to decline
+all through the latter years of the 14th century, and
+was growing obsolete in the 15th. This, however, was the result
+not of the great revolt of 1381, but of economic causes working
+out their inevitable progress. The manorial system was already
+doomed, and the rent-paying tenant farmers, who had begun
+to appear after the Black Death, gradually superseded the
+villeins as the normal type of peasantry during the two generations
+that followed the outbreak that is generally known as
+&ldquo;Wat Tyler&rsquo;s rebellion.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>King Richard, though he had shown such courage and ready
+resources at Smithfield, was still only a lad of fourteen. For
+three years more he was under the control of tutors
+and governors appointed by his council. Their rule
+<span class="sidenote">Wycliffe and the Lollards.</span>
+was incompetent, but the chief danger to the realm
+had passed away when both Charles V. of France and
+his great captain Du Guesclin died in 1380. The new king at
+Paris was a young boy, whose councils were swayed by a knot
+of quarrelsome and selfish uncles; the vigour of the attack on
+England began to slacken. Nevertheless there was no change
+in the fortune of war, which continued to be disastrous, if on a
+smaller scale than before. The chief domestic event of the time
+was the attack of the clerical party on Wycliffe and his followers.
+The reformer had begun to develop dogmatic views, in addition
+to his old theories about the relations of Church and State.
+When he proceeded to deny the doctrine of transubstantiation,
+to assert the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures as a rule of life, to
+denounce saint-worship, pilgrimages, and indulgences, and to
+declare the pope to be Antichrist, he frightened his old supporter
+John of Gaunt and the politicians of the anti-clerical clique.
+They ceased to support him, and his followers became a sect
+rather than a political party. He and his disciples were expelled
+from Oxford, and ere long the bishops began to arrest and try
+them for heresy. Wycliffe himself, strange to say, was not
+molested. He survived to publish his translation of the Bible and
+to die in peace in December 1383. But his followers were being
+hunted, and imprisoned or forced to recant, all through the
+later years of Richard II. Yet they continued to multiply, and
+exercised at times considerable influence; though they had
+few supporters among the baronage, yet among the lesser gentry
+and still more among the burgher class and in the universities
+they were strong. It was not till the next reign, when the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page509" id="page509"></a>509</span>
+bishops succeeded in calling in the crown to their aid, and
+passed the statute <i>De heretico comburendo</i>, that Lollardy ceased
+to flourish.</p>
+
+<p>King Richard meanwhile had grown to man&rsquo;s estate, and had
+resolved to take the reins of power into his own hands. He
+was wayward, high-spirited and self-confident. He
+wished to restore the royal powers which had slipped
+<span class="sidenote">Richard&rsquo;s personal rule.</span>
+into the hands of the council and parliament during
+his minority, and had small doubts of his capacity
+to restore it. His chosen instruments were two men whom
+his enemies called his &ldquo;favourites,&rdquo; though it was absurd to
+apply the name either to an elderly statesman like Michael de
+la Pole, who was made chancellor in 1384, or to Robert de Vere,
+earl of Oxford, a young noble of the oldest lineage, who was the
+king&rsquo;s other confidant. Neither of them was an upstart, and
+both, the one from his experience and the other from his high
+station, were persons who might legitimately aspire to a place
+among the advisers of the king. But Richard was tactless;
+he openly flouted his two uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas
+of Woodstock, and took no pains to conciliate either the baronage
+or the commons. His autocratic airs and his ostentatious preference
+for his confidants&mdash;of whom he made the one earl of Suffolk
+<span class="sidenote">Impeachment of the king&rsquo;s &ldquo;favourites.&rdquo;</span>
+and the other marquess of Dublin&mdash;provoked both
+lords and commons. Pole was impeached on a groundless
+charge of corruption and condemned, but Richard
+at once pardoned him and restored him to favour. De
+Vere was banished to Ireland, but at his master&rsquo;s desire
+omitted to leave the realm. The contemptuous disregard for
+the will of parliament which the king displayed brought on him
+a worse fate than he deserved. His youngest uncle, Thomas of
+Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, was a designing and ambitious
+prince who saw his own advantage in embittering the strife
+between Richard and his parliament. John of Gaunt having
+departed to Spain, where he was stirring up civil strife in the name
+of his wife, the heiress of Peter the Cruel, Gloucester put himself
+at the head of the opposition. Playing the part of the demagogue,
+and exaggerating all his nephew&rsquo;s petulant acts and
+sayings, he declared the constitution in danger, and took arms
+at the head of a party of peers, the earls of Warwick, Arundel
+and Nottingham, and Henry, earl of Derby, the son of John of
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;lords appellant.&rdquo;</span>
+Gaunt, who called themselves the lords appellant,
+because they were ready to &ldquo;appeal&rdquo; Richard&rsquo;s
+councillors of treason. Public opinion was against
+the king, and the small army which his confidant
+De Vere raised under the royal banner was easily scattered by
+Gloucester&rsquo;s forces at the rout of Radcot Bridge (Dec. 20, 1387).
+Oxford and Suffolk succeeded in escaping to France, but the
+king and the rest of his adherents fell into the hands of the lords
+appellant. They threatened for a moment to depose him,
+but finally placed him under the control of a council and ministers
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of the king&rsquo;s friends.</span>
+chosen by themselves, and to put him in a proper
+state of terror, executed Lord Beauchamp, the judge,
+Sir Robert Tressilian, and six or seven more of his
+chief friends. This was a piece of gratuitous cruelty,
+for the king, though wayward and unwise, had done nothing to
+justify such treatment.</p>
+
+<p>To the surprise of the nation Richard took his humiliation
+quietly. But he was merely biding his time; he had sworn
+revenge in his heart, but he was ready to wait long for
+it. For the next nine years he appeared an unexceptionable
+<span class="sidenote">Richard rules constitutionally.</span>
+sovereign, anxious only to conciliate the
+nation and parliament. He got rid of the ministers
+imposed upon him by the lords appellant, but replaced them
+by Bishop Wykeham and other old statesmen against whom
+no objection could be raised. He disarmed Gloucester by making
+a close alliance with his elder uncle John of Gaunt, who had been
+absent in Spain during the troubles of 1387-1388, and was displeased
+at the violent doings of his brother. His rule was mild
+and moderate, and he succeeded at last in freeing
+<span class="sidenote">Peace with France.</span>
+himself from the incubus of the French war&mdash;the
+source of most of the evils of the time, for it was the
+heavy taxation required to feed this struggle which embittered
+all the domestic politics of the realm. After two long truces,
+which filled the years 1390-1395, a definitive peace was at last
+concluded, by which the English king kept Calais and the coast-strip
+of Guienne, from Bordeaux to Bayonne, which had never
+been lost to the enemy. To confirm the peace, he married
+Isabella, the young daughter of Charles VI. (Nov. 1396); he
+had lost his first wife, the excellent Anne of Bohemia, two years
+before.</p>
+
+<p>The king seemed firmly seated on his throne&mdash;so much so that
+in 1395 he had found leisure for a long expedition to Ireland,
+which none of his ancestors had visited since King
+<span class="sidenote">Richard reduces Ireland to obedience.</span>
+John. He compelled all the native princes to do him
+homage, and exercised the royal authority in such a
+firm manner as had never before been known in the
+island. But those who looked forward to quiet and prosperous
+times both for Ireland and for England were destined to be undeceived.
+In 1397 Richard carried out an extraordinary and
+unexpected <i>coup d&rsquo;état</i>, which he had evidently premeditated
+for many years. Having lived down his unpopularity, and made
+himself many powerful friends, he resolved to take his long-deferred
+revenge on Gloucester and the other lords appellant.
+<span class="sidenote">His revenge on Gloucester and the lords appellant.</span>
+He trumped up a vain story that his uncle was once more
+conspiring against him, arrested him, and sent him
+over to Calais, where he was secretly murdered in
+prison. At the same time Gloucester&rsquo;s two chief
+confederates of 1387, the earls of Arundel and Warwick,
+were tried and sentenced to death: the former was
+actually executed, the latter imprisoned for life. The
+other two lords appellant, Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,<a name="fa2a" id="fa2a" href="#ft2a"><span class="sp">2</span></a> and
+Henry of Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, were dealt
+with a year later. Richard pretended to hold them among his
+<span class="sidenote">Banishment of Bolingbroke and Norfolk.</span>
+best friends, but in 1398 induced Bolingbroke to accuse
+Norfolk of treasonable language. Mowbray denied it,
+and challenged his accuser to a judicial duel. When
+they were actually facing each other in the lists at
+Coventry, the king forbade them to fight, and announced
+that he banished them both&mdash;Henry for six years,
+Norfolk for life.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus completed his vengeance on those who had slain
+his friends ten years before&mdash;their respective punishments were
+judiciously adapted to their several responsibilities in
+that matter&mdash;Richard began to behave in an arbitrary
+<span class="sidenote">Arbitrary rule of Richard.</span>
+and unconstitutional fashion. He evidently thought
+that no one would dare to lift a hand against him after
+the examples that he had just made. This might have been so,
+if he had continued to rule as cautiously as during the time when
+he was nursing his scheme of revenge. But now his brain seemed
+to be turned by success&mdash;indeed his wild language at times
+seemed to argue that he was not wholly sane. He declared that
+all pardons issued since 1387 were invalid, and imposed heavy
+fines on persons, and even on whole shires, that had given the
+lords appellant aid. He made huge forced loans, and employed
+recklessly the abuse of purveyance. He browbeat the judges
+on the bench, and kept many persons under arrest for indefinite
+periods without a trial. But the act which provoked the nation
+most was that he terrified the parliament which met at Shrewsbury
+in 1398 into voting away its powers to a small committee
+of ten persons, all creatures of his own. This body he used as
+his instrument of government, treating its assent as equivalent
+to that of a whole parliament in session. There seemed to be an
+end to the constitutional liberties of England.</p>
+
+<p>Such violence, however, speedily brought its own punishment.
+In 1399 Richard sailed over to Ireland to put down a revolt of
+the native princes, who had defeated and slain the
+earl of March, his cousin and their lord-lieutenant.
+<span class="sidenote">Second expedition to Ireland.</span>
+While he was absent Henry of Bolingbroke landed
+at Ravenspur with a small body of exiles and mercenaries.
+He pretended that he had merely come to claim the
+estates and title of his father John of Gaunt, who had died a
+few months before. The adventurer was at once joined by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page510" id="page510"></a>510</span>
+earl of Northumberland and all the lords of the north; the army
+<span class="sidenote">Henry of Bolingbroke lands in England.</span>
+which was called out against him refused to fight, and joined
+his banner, and in a few days he was master of all
+England (July 1399). King Richard, hurrying back
+from Ireland, landed at Milford Haven just in time
+to learn that the levies raised in his name had dispersed
+or joined the enemy. He still had with him a
+considerable force, and might have tried the fortune of war with
+some prospect of success. But his conduct seemed dictated
+by absolute infatuation; he might have fought, or he might
+have fled to his father-in-law in France, if he judged his troops
+<span class="sidenote">Flight of Richard.</span>
+untrustworthy. Instead of taking either course, he
+deserted his army by night, and fled into the Welsh
+mountains, apparently with the intention of collecting
+fresh adherents from North Wales and Cheshire, the only regions
+where he was popular. But Bolingbroke had already seized
+Chester, and was marching against him at the head of such a
+large army that the countryside refused to stir. After skulking
+for three weeks in the hills, Richard surrendered to his cousin
+at Flint, on the 19th of August 1399, having previously stipulated
+that if he consented to abdicate his life should be spared,
+<span class="sidenote">Surrender and abdication of Richard.</span>
+his adherents pardoned, and an honourable livelihood
+assured to him. This surrender put the crown to his
+career of folly. He should have known that Henry
+would never feel safe while he survived, and that no
+oaths could be trusted in such circumstances. At all costs he
+should have endeavoured to escape abroad, a course that was
+still in his power.</p>
+
+<p>Richard carried out his part of the bargain; he executed a deed
+of abdication in which he owned himself &ldquo;insufficient and useless.&rdquo;
+It was read to a parliament summoned in his
+name on the 30th of September, and the throne was
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of Henry IV.</span>
+declared vacant. There was small doubt as to the
+personality of his successor; possession is nine points
+of the law, and Henry of Bolingbroke for the moment had the
+whole nation at his back. His hereditary title indeed was imperfect;
+though he was the eldest descendant of Edward III.
+in the male line after Richard, yet there was a whole family
+which stood between him and the crown. From Lionel of
+Clarence, the second son of Edward III. (John of Gaunt was
+only the third) descended the house of March, and the late king
+had proclaimed that Edmund of March would be his heir if he
+should die childless. Fortunately for Bolingbroke the young
+earl was only six years of age; not a voice was raised in his
+favour in parliament. When Henry stood forward and claimed
+the vacant throne by right of conquest and also by right of
+descent, no one gainsaid him. Lords and commons voted that
+they would have him for their king, and he was duly crowned
+on the 13th of October 1399. No faith was kept with the unhappy
+Richard; he was placed in close and secret confinement,
+and denied the ordinary comforts of life. Moreover the adherents
+for whose safety he had stipulated were at once impeached
+of treason.</p>
+
+<p>Henry of Lancaster came to the throne, for all intents and
+purposes as an elective king; he had to depend for the future
+on his ability to conciliate and satisfy the baronage
+and the commons by his governance. For by his
+<span class="sidenote">Position of the new king.</span>
+usurpation he had sanctioned the theory that kings
+can be deposed for incapacity and maladministration.
+If he himself should become unpopular, all the arguments that
+he had employed against Richard might be turned against himself.
+The prospect was not reassuring; his revenue was small,
+and parliament would certainly murmur if he tried to increase
+it. The late king was not without partisans and admirers.
+There was a considerable chance that the French king might
+declare war&mdash;nominally to avenge his son-in-law, really to win
+Calais and Bordeaux. Of the partisans who had placed Henry
+on the throne many were greedy, and some were wholly unreasonable.
+But he trusted to his tact and his energy, and
+cheerfully undertook the task of ruling as a constitutional king&mdash;the
+friend of the parliament that had placed him on the
+throne.</p>
+
+<p>The problem proved more weary and exhausting than he had
+suspected. From the very first his reign was a time of war,
+foreign and domestic, of murmuring, and of humiliating
+shifts and devices. Henry commenced his career by
+<span class="sidenote">Rebellion of the earls.</span>
+granting the adherents of Richard II. their lives, after
+they had been first declared guilty of treason and had
+been deprived of the titles, lands and endowments given them
+by the late king. Their reply to this very modified show of mercy
+was to engage in a desperate conspiracy against him. If they
+had waited till his popularity had waned, they might have had
+some chance of success, but in anger and resentment they struck
+too soon. The earls of Kent and Huntingdon, close kinsmen
+of Richard on his mother&rsquo;s side, the earl of Salisbury&mdash;a noted
+Lollard&mdash;and the lords Despenser and Lumley took arms at
+midwinter (Jan. 4, 1400) and attempted to seize the king at
+Windsor. They captured the castle, but Henry escaped, raised
+the levies of London against them, and beat them into the west.
+Kent and Salisbury were slain at Cirencester, the others captured
+and executed with many of their followers. Their rebellion
+sealed the fate of the master in whose cause they had risen.
+Henry and his counsellors were determined that there should
+<span class="sidenote">Murder of Richard.</span>
+be no further use made of the name of the &ldquo;lawful
+king,&rdquo; and Richard was deliberately murdered by
+privation&mdash;insufficient clothing, food and warmth&mdash;in
+his dungeon at Pontefract Castle (Feb. 17, 1400). It is impossible
+not to pity his fate. He had been wayward, unwise and
+occasionally revengeful; but his provocation had been great,
+and if few tyrants have used more violent and offensive language,
+few have committed such a small list of actual crimes. It was
+a curious commentary on Henry&rsquo;s policy, that Richard, even
+when dead, did not cease to give him trouble. Rumour got
+abroad, owing to the secrecy of his end, that he was not
+really dead, and an impostor long lived at the Scottish court
+who claimed to be the missing king, and was recognized as
+Richard by many malcontents who wished to be deceived.</p>
+
+<p>The rising of the earls was only the first and the least dangerous
+of the trials of Henry IV. Only a few months after their
+death a rebellion of a far more formidable sort broke
+out in Wales&mdash;where Richard II. had been popular,
+<span class="sidenote">Welsh rising under Owen Glendower.</span>
+and the house of March, his natural heirs, held large
+estates. The leader was a gentleman named Owen
+Glendower, who had the blood of the ancient kings of
+Gwynedd in his veins. Originally he had taken to the hills as
+a mere outlaw, in consequence of a quarrel with one of the
+marcher barons; but after many small successes he began to
+be recognized as a national leader by his countrymen, and proclaimed
+himself prince of Wales. The king marched against
+him in person in 1400 and 1401, but Glendower showed himself
+a master of guerrilla warfare; he refused battle, and defied
+pursuit in his mountains, till the stores of the English army were
+exhausted and Henry was forced to retire. His prestige as a
+general was shaken, and his treasury exhausted by these fruitless
+irregular campaigns.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile worse troubles were to come. The commons were
+beginning to murmur at the king&rsquo;s administration; they had
+obtained neither the peace nor the diminished taxation
+<span class="sidenote">Discontent of the commons.</span>
+which they had been promised. Moreover, among
+some classes at least, he had won desperate hatred
+by his policy in matters of religion. One of his chief
+supporters in 1399 had been Archbishop Arundel, an old enemy
+of Richard II. and brother to the earl who had been beheaded
+in 1397. Arundel was determined to extirpate the Lollards,
+and used his influence on the king to induce him to frame and
+<span class="sidenote">Statute De heretico comburendo.</span>
+pass through parliament the detestable statute <i>De
+heretico comburendo</i>, which recognized death by burning
+at the stake as the penalty of heresy, and bound
+the civil authorities to arrest, hand over to the church
+courts, and receive back for execution, all contumacious Lollards.
+Henry himself does not seem to have been particularly enthusiastic
+for persecution, but in order to keep the church party
+on his side he was forced to sanction it. The burnings began
+with that of William Sawtré, a London vicar, on the 2nd of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page511" id="page511"></a>511</span>
+March 1401; they continued intermittently throughout the reign.
+The victims were nearly all clergy or citizens; the king shrank
+from touching the Lollards of higher rank, and even employed
+in his service some who were notoriously tainted with heresy.</p>
+
+<p>External troubles continued to multiply during Henry&rsquo;s
+earlier years. The Scots had declared war, and there was every
+sign that the French would soon follow suit, for the
+<span class="sidenote">War with Scotland.</span>
+king&rsquo;s failure to crush Glendower had destroyed his
+reputation for capacity. The rebel achieved his
+greatest success in June 1402, when he surprised and routed the
+whole levy of the marcher lords at Bryn G&rsquo;las, between Pilleth
+and Knighton, capturing (among many other prisoners) Sir
+Edmund Mortimer, the uncle and guardian of the young earl of
+March, whom all malcontents regarded as the rightful monarch
+of England. A few months after the king&rsquo;s fortune seemed to
+take a turn for the better, when the Scots were defeated at
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Homildon Hill.</span>
+Homildon Hill by the earl of Northumberland and
+his son Henry Percy, the celebrated &ldquo;Hotspur.&rdquo; But
+this victory was to be the prelude to new dangers:
+half the nobility of Scotland had been captured in
+the battle, and Northumberland intended to fill his coffers with
+their ransoms; but the king looked upon them as state
+prisoners and announced his intention of taking them out of the
+earl&rsquo;s hands. Northumberland was a greedy and unscrupulous
+Border chief, who regarded himself as entitled to exact whatever
+he chose from his master, because he had been the first to join
+him at his landing in 1399, and had lent him a consistent support
+ever since. He had been amply rewarded by grants of land
+and money, but was not yet satisfied. In indignation at the first
+refusal that he had met, the earl conspired with Glendower to
+<span class="sidenote">Conspiracy of Northumberland with Glendower.</span>
+raise rebellion in the name of the rightful heirs of
+King Richard, the house of March. The third party
+in the plot was Sir Edmund Mortimer, Glendower&rsquo;s
+captive, who was easily persuaded to join a movement
+for the aggrandizement of his own family. He married
+Owen&rsquo;s daughter, and became his trusted lieutenant.
+Northumberland also enlisted the services of his chief Scottish
+prisoner, the earl of Douglas, who promised him aid from beyond
+Tweed.</p>
+
+<p>In July 1403 came the crisis of King Henry&rsquo;s reign; while
+Glendower burst into South Wales, and overran the whole
+countryside as far as Cardiff and Carmarthen, the
+Percies raised their banner in the North. The old earl
+<span class="sidenote">Insurrection in the north and west.</span>
+set himself to subdue Yorkshire; his son Hotspur
+and the earl of Douglas marched south and opened
+communication with the Welsh. All Cheshire, a district always
+faithful to the name of Richard II., rose in their favour, and they
+were joined by Hotspur&rsquo;s uncle, the earl of Worcester. They
+then advanced towards Shrewsbury, where they hoped that
+Glendower might meet them. But long ere the Welsh could
+appear, King Henry was on the spot; he brought the rebels
+to action at Hately Field, just outside the gates of
+<span class="sidenote">Defeat of the rebels at Shrewsbury.</span>
+Shrewsbury, and inflicted on them a complete defeat,
+in which his young son Henry of Monmouth first
+won his reputation as a fighting man. Hotspur was
+slain, Worcester taken and beheaded, Douglas desperately
+wounded (July 23, 1403). On receiving this disastrous news
+the earl of Northumberland sued for pardon; the king was
+unwise enough to grant it, merely punishing him by fining him
+and taking all his castles out of his hands.</p>
+
+<p>By winning the battle of Shrewsbury Henry IV. had saved
+his crown, but his troubles were yet far from an end. The long-expected
+breach with France had at last come to
+pass; the duke of Orleans, without any declaration of
+<span class="sidenote">War with France renewed.</span>
+war, had entered Guienne, while a French fleet attacked
+the south-west of England, and burnt Plymouth.
+Even more menacing to the king&rsquo;s prosperity was the news
+that another squadron had appeared off the coast of Wales,
+and landed stores and succours for Glendower, who had now
+conquered the whole principality save a few isolated fortresses.
+The drain of money to meet this combination of foreign war
+and domestic rebellion was more than the king&rsquo;s exchequer
+could meet. He was driven into unconstitutional ways of
+raising money, which recalled all the misdoings of his predecessor.
+Hence came a series of rancorous quarrels with his
+<span class="sidenote">Parliament assumes control of the finances.</span>
+parliaments, which grew more disloyal and clamorous
+at every new session. The cry was raised that the
+taxes were heavy not because of the French or Welsh
+wars, but because Henry lavished his money on
+favourites and unworthy dependents. He was forced
+to bow before the storm, though the charge had small
+foundation: the greater part of his household was dismissed,
+and the war-taxes were paid not to his treasurer but to a
+financial committee appointed by parliament.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till 1405 that the worst of Henry&rsquo;s troubles came
+to an end. This year saw the last of the convulsions that
+threatened to overturn him,&mdash;a rising in the North
+headed by the old earl of Northumberland, by Richard
+<span class="sidenote">Rising of 1405 in the North.</span>
+Scrope, archbishop of York, and by Thomas Mowbray
+the earl marshal. It might have proved even more
+dangerous than the rebellion of 1403, if Henry&rsquo;s unscrupulous
+general Ralph, earl of Westmorland, had not lured Scrope and
+Mowbray to a conference, and then arrested them under circumstances
+of the vilest treachery. He handed them over to the king,
+who beheaded them both outside the gate of York, without any
+proper trial before their peers. Northumberland thereupon
+fled to Scotland without further fighting. He remained in exile
+till January 1408, when he made a final attempt to raise rebellion
+in the North, and was defeated and slain at the battle of
+Bramham Moor.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this last-named fight Henry&rsquo;s fortunes had begun
+to mend. Glendower was at last checked by the untiring energy
+of the king&rsquo;s eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, who
+had been given charge of the Welsh war. Even when
+<span class="sidenote">Suppression of the Welsh rising.</span>
+French aid was sent him, the rebel chief proved unable
+to maintain his grip on South Wales. He was beaten
+out of it in 1406, and Aberystwyth Castle, where his garrison
+made a desperate defence for two years, became the southern
+limit of his dominions. In the end of 1408 Prince Henry captured
+this place, and six weeks later Harlech, the greatest stronghold
+of the rebels, where Sir Edmund Mortimer, Owen&rsquo;s son-in-law
+and most trusted captain, held out till he died of starvation.
+From this time onwards the Welsh rebellion gradually died
+down, till Owen relapsed into the position from which he had
+started, that of a guerrilla chief maintaining a predatory warfare
+in the mountains. From 1409 onward he ceased to be a public
+danger to the realm, yet so great was his cunning and activity
+that he was never caught, and died still maintaining a hopeless
+rebellion so late as 1416.</p>
+
+<p>The French war died down about the same time that the Welsh
+rebellion became insignificant. Louis of Orleans, the head of
+the French war party, was murdered by his cousin
+John, duke of Burgundy, in November 1407, and after
+<span class="sidenote">End of the French and Scottish wars.</span>
+his death the French turned from the struggle with
+England to indulge in furious civil wars. Calais,
+Bordeaux and Bayonne still remained safe under the English
+banner. The Scottish war had ended even earlier. Prince James,
+the heir of Robert III., had been captured at sea in 1406. The
+duke of Albany, who became regent when Robert died, had no
+wish to see his nephew return, and concluded a corrupt agreement
+with the king of England, by which he undertook to keep
+Scotland out of the strife, if Henry would prevent the rightful
+heir from returning to claim his own.<a name="fa3a" id="fa3a" href="#ft3a"><span class="sp">3</span></a> Hence Albany and his
+son ruled at Edinburgh for seventeen years, while James was
+detained in an honourable captivity at Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>From 1408 till his death in 1413 Henry was freed from all
+the dangers which had beset his earlier years. But he got small
+enjoyment from the crown which no longer tottered
+on his brow. Soon after his execution of Archbishop
+<span class="sidenote">Illness of the king. Faction in the court.</span>
+Scrope he had been smitten with a painful disorder,
+which his enemies declared to be the punishment
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page512" id="page512"></a>512</span>
+inflicted on him by heaven for the prelate&rsquo;s death. It grew
+gradually worse, and developed into what his contemporaries
+called leprosy&mdash;a loathsome skin disease accompanied by bouts
+of fever, which sometimes kept him bedridden for months at a
+time. From 1409 onwards he became a mere invalid, only able
+to assert himself in rare intervals of convalescence. The domestic
+politics of the realm during his last five years were nothing
+more than a struggle between two court factions who desired
+to use his name. The one was headed by his son Henry, prince
+of Wales, and his half-brothers John, Henry and Thomas Beaufort,
+the base-born but legitimized children of John of Gaunt.
+The other was under the direction of Archbishop Arundel, the
+king&rsquo;s earliest ally, who had already twice served him as chancellor,
+and had the whole church party at his back. Arundel
+was backed by Thomas duke of Clarence, the king&rsquo;s second son,
+who was an enemy of the Beauforts, and not on the best terms
+with his own elder brother, the prince of Wales. The fluctuating
+influence of each party with the king was marked by the passing
+of the chancellorship from Arundel to Henry Beaufort and back
+again during the five years of Henry&rsquo;s illness. The rivalry
+between them was purely personal; both were prepared to go on
+with the &ldquo;Lancastrian experiment,&rdquo; the attempt to govern
+the realm in a constitutional fashion by an alliance between the
+king and the parliament; both were eager persecutors of the
+Lollards; both were eager to make profit for England by interfering
+in the civil wars of the Orleanists and Burgundians which
+were now devastating France.</p>
+
+<p>The prince of Wales, it is clear, gave much umbrage to his
+father by his eagerness to direct the policy of the crown ere yet
+it had fallen to him by inheritance. The king suspected,
+and with good reason, that his son wished
+<span class="sidenote">Prince Hal.</span>
+him to abdicate, and resented the idea. It seems that
+a plot with such an object was actually on foot, and that the
+younger Henry gave it up in a moment of better feeling, when
+he realized the evil impression that the unfilial act would make
+upon the nation. At this time the prince gave small promise of
+developing into the model monarch that he afterwards became.
+There was no doubt of his military ability, which had been fully
+demonstrated in the long Welsh wars, but he is reputed to have
+shown himself arrogant, contentious and over-given to loose-living.
+There were many, Archbishop Arundel among them,
+who looked forward with apprehension to his accession to the
+throne.</p>
+
+<p>The two parties in the council of Henry IV. were agreed that
+it would be profitable to intervene in the wars of France, but
+they differed as to the side which offered the most
+advantages. Hence came action which seemed inconsistent,
+<span class="sidenote">English expedition to France.</span>
+if not immoral; in 1411, under the prince&rsquo;s
+influence, an English contingent joined the Burgundians
+and helped them to raise the siege of Paris. In 1412,
+by Arundel&rsquo;s advice, a second army under the duke of Clarence
+crossed the Channel to co-operate with the Orleanists. But the
+French factions, wise for once, made peace at the time of
+Clarence&rsquo;s expedition, and paid him 210,000 gold crowns to leave
+the country! The only result of the two expeditions was to give
+the English soldiery a poor opinion of French military capacity,
+and a notion that money was easily to be got from the distracted
+realm beyond the narrow seas.</p>
+
+<p>On the 20th of March 1413, King Henry&rsquo;s long illness at last
+reached a fatal issue, and his eldest son ascended the throne.
+The new king had everything in his favour; his father
+had borne the odium of usurpation and fought down
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of Henry V.</span>
+the forces of anarchy. The memory of Richard II.
+had been forgotten; the young earl of March had
+grown up into the most harmless and unenterprising of men,
+and the nation seemed satisfied with the new dynasty, whose
+first sovereign had shown himself, under much provocation, the
+most moderate and accommodating of constitutional monarchs.</p>
+
+<p>Henry V. on his accession bade farewell to the faults of his
+youth. He seems to have felt a genuine regret for the unfilial
+conduct which had vexed his father&rsquo;s last years, and showed a
+careful determination to turn over a new leaf and give his
+enemies no scope for criticism. From the first he showed a sober
+and grave bearing; he reconciled himself to all his enemies,
+<span class="sidenote">His character.</span>
+gave up his youthful follies, and became a model king
+according to the ideas of his day. There is no doubt
+that he had a strong sense of moral responsibility,
+and that he was sincerely pious. But his piety inspired him to
+redouble the persecution of the unfortunate Lollards, whom his
+father had harried only in an intermittent fashion; and his
+sense of moral responsibility did not prevent him from taking
+the utmost advantage of the civil wars of his unhappy neighbours
+of France.</p>
+
+<p>The first notable event of Henry&rsquo;s reign was his assault upon
+the Lollards. His father had spared their lay chiefs, and contented
+himself with burning preachers or tradesmen.
+<span class="sidenote">Persecution of the Lollards.</span>
+Henry arrested John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, their
+leading politician, and had him tried and condemned
+to the stake. But Oldcastle escaped from the Tower
+before the day fixed for his execution, and framed a wild plot
+for slaying or deposing his persecutor. He planned to gather
+the Lollards of London and the Home Counties under arms,
+and to seize the person of the king&mdash;a scheme as wild
+<span class="sidenote">Rising under Oldcastle.</span>
+as the design of Guy Fawkes or the Fifth Monarchy
+Men in later generations, for the sectaries were not
+strong enough to coerce the whole nation. Henry
+received early notice of the plot, and nipped it in the bud,
+scattering Oldcastle&rsquo;s levies in St Giles&rsquo; Fields (Jan. 10, 1414)
+and hanging most of his lieutenants. But their reckless leader
+escaped, and for three years led the life of an outlaw, till in 1417
+he was finally captured, still in arms, and sent to the stake.</p>
+
+<p>This danger having passed, Henry set himself to take advantage
+of the troubles of France. He threatened to invade that
+realm unless the Orleans faction, who had for the
+moment possession of the person of the mad king
+<span class="sidenote">Henry V. and France.</span>
+Charles VI., should restore to him all that Edward III.
+had owned in 1360, with Anjou and Normandy in
+addition. The demand was absurd and exorbitant and was
+refused, though the French government offered him the hand of
+their king&rsquo;s daughter Catherine with a dowry of 800,000 crowns
+and the districts of Quercy and Périgord&mdash;sufficiently handsome
+terms. When he began to collect a fleet and an army, they added
+to the offer the Limousin and other regions; but Henry was
+determined to pick his quarrel, and declared war in an impudent
+and hypocritical manifesto, in which he declared that he was
+driven into strife against his will. The fact was that he had
+secured the promise of the neutrality or the co-operation of the
+Burgundian faction, and thought that he could crush the
+Orleanists with ease.</p>
+
+<p>He sailed for France in August 1415, with an army compact
+and well-equipped, but not very numerous. On the eve of his
+departure he detected and quelled a plot as wild and
+futile as that of Oldcastle. The conspirators were his
+<span class="sidenote">Henry invades France.</span>
+cousin, Richard, earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope, and
+Sir Thomas Grey, a kinsman of the Percies. They
+had planned to raise a rebellion in the name of the earl of March,
+in whose cause Wales and the North were to have been called
+to arms. But March himself refused to stir, and betrayed them
+to the king, who promptly beheaded them, and set sail five days
+later. He landed near the mouth of the Seine, and commenced
+his campaign by besieging and capturing Harfleur, which the
+Orleanists made no attempt to succour. But such a large
+number of his troops perished in the trenches by a pestilential
+disorder, that he found himself too weak to march on Paris, and
+took his way to Calais across Picardy, hoping, as it seems, to lure
+the French to battle by exposing his small army to attack.
+The plan was hazardous, for the Orleanists turned out in great
+numbers and almost cut him off in the marshes of the Somme.
+When he had struggled across them, and was half-way to Calais,
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Agincourt.</span>
+the enemy beset him in the fields of Agincourt (Oct. 25,
+1415). Here Henry vindicated his military reputation
+by winning a victory even more surprising than those
+of Creēy, and Poitiers, for he was outnumbered in an even greater
+proportion than the two Edwards had been in 1346 and 1356,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page513" id="page513"></a>513</span>
+and had to take the offensive instead of being attacked in a strong
+position. The heavily armoured French noblesse, embogged
+in miry meadows, proved helpless before the lightly equipped
+English archery. The slaughter in their ranks was terrible, and
+the young duke of Orleans, the head of the predominant faction
+of the moment, was taken prisoner with many great nobles. However,
+so exhausted was the victorious army that Henry merely
+led it back to Calais, without attempting anything more in this
+<span class="sidenote">Effect of the battle.</span>
+year. The sole tangible asset of the campaign was
+the possession of Harfleur, the gate of Normandy,
+a second Calais in its advantages when future invasions
+were taken in hand. The moral effects were more important.
+The Orleanist party was shaken in its power; the
+rival Burgundian faction became more inclined to commit itself
+to the English cause, and the terror of the English arms weighed
+heavily upon both.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till the next year but one that Henry renewed his
+invasion of France&mdash;the intervening space was spent in negotiations
+with Burgundy, and with the emperor
+<span class="sidenote">England and the council of Constance.</span>
+Sigismund, whose aid the king secured in return for
+help in putting an end to the scandalous &ldquo;great
+schism&rdquo; which had been rending the Western Church
+for so many years. The English deputation lent their aid to
+Sigismund at the council of Constance, when Christendom was
+at last reunited under a single head, though all the reforms
+which were to have accompanied the reunion were postponed,
+and ultimately avoided altogether, by the restored papacy.</p>
+
+<p>In July 1417 Henry began his second invasion of France, and
+landed at the mouth of the Seine with a powerful army of 17,000
+men. He had resolved to adopt a plan of campaign
+<span class="sidenote">Henry&rsquo;s second invasion of France.</span>
+very different from those which Edward III. or the
+Black Prince had been wont to pursue, having in view
+nothing more than the steady and gradual conquest
+of the province of Normandy. This he was able to accomplish
+without any interference from the government at Paris, for the
+constable Armagnac, who had succeeded the captive Orleans
+at the head of the anti-Burgundian party, had no troops to spare.
+<span class="sidenote">Conquest of Normandy.</span>
+He was engaged in a separate campaign with Henry&rsquo;s
+ally John the Fearless, and left Normandy to shift
+for itself. One after another all the towns of the duchy
+were reduced, save Rouen, the siege of which, as the
+hardest task, King Henry postponed till the rest of the countryside
+was in his hands. He sat down to besiege it in 1418, and
+was detained before its walls for many months, for the citizens
+made an admirable defence. Meanwhile a change had taken
+place in the domestic politics of France; the Burgundians seized
+Paris in May 1418; the constable Armagnac and many of his
+<span class="sidenote">Triumph of the Burgundians.</span>
+partisans were massacred, and John the Fearless got
+possession of the person of the mad Charles VI.,
+and became the responsible ruler of France. He had
+then to choose between buying off his English allies
+by great concessions, or taking up the position of champion of
+French interests. He selected the latter rōle, broke with Henry,
+and tried to relieve Rouen. But all his efforts were foiled, and the
+Norman capital surrendered, completely starved out, on
+<span class="sidenote">Henry takes Rouen.</span>
+the 19th of January 1419. On this Burgundy resolved
+to open negotiations with Henry; he wished to free
+his hands for an attack on his domestic enemies, who
+had rallied beyond the Loire under the leadership of the dauphin
+Charles&mdash;from whom the party, previously known first as Orleanists
+and then as Armagnacs, gets for the future the name
+of the &ldquo;Dauphinois.&rdquo; The English king, however, seeing the
+manifest advantage of his position, tried to drive too hard a
+bargain; he demanded the old boundaries of 1360, with his new
+conquest of Normandy, the hand of the princess Catherine, and
+a great sum of ready money. Burgundy dared not concede so
+much, under pain of alienating all his more patriotic
+<span class="sidenote">Murder of John of Burgundy.</span>
+supporters. He broke off the conference of Meulan,
+and tried to patch up a peace with the dauphin, in
+order to unite all Frenchmen against the foreign invader.
+This laudable intention was wrecked by the treachery
+of the young heir to the French throne; on the bridge of
+Montereau Charles deliberately murdered the suppliant duke, as
+he knelt to do homage, thinking thereby that he would make
+an end of the Burgundian party (Sept. 9, 1419).</p>
+
+<p>This abominable deed gave northern France for twenty years
+to an English master. The young duke of Burgundy, Philip
+the Good, and his supporters in Paris and the north,
+<span class="sidenote">The Burgundians acknowledge Henry as heir of France.</span>
+were so incensed with the dauphin&rsquo;s cruel treachery
+that they resolved that he should never inherit his
+father&rsquo;s crown. They proffered peace to King Henry,
+and offered to recognize his preposterous<a name="fa4a" id="fa4a" href="#ft4a"><span class="sp">4</span></a> claim to
+the French throne, on condition that he should marry
+the princess Catherine and guarantee the constitutional
+liberties of the realm. The insane Charles VI. should keep nominal
+possession of the royal title till his death, but meanwhile the
+Burgundians would do homage to Henry as &ldquo;heir of France.&rdquo;
+These terms were welcomed by the English king,
+<span class="sidenote">Treaty of Troyes.</span>
+and ratified at the treaty of Troyes (May 21, 1420).
+Henry married the princess Catherine, received the
+oaths of Duke Philip and his partisans, and started forth to
+conquer the Dauphinois at the head of an army of which half
+was composed of Burgundian levies. Paris, Picardy, Champagne,
+and indeed the greater part of France north of the Loire,
+acknowledged him as their sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>Henry had only two years longer to live; they were spent in
+incessant and successful campaigning against the partisans of
+his brother-in-law, the dauphin Charles; by a long
+series of sieges the partisans of that worthless prince
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Henry V.</span>
+were evicted from all their northern strongholds.
+They fought long and bitterly, nor was this to be marvelled at,
+for Henry had a custom of executing as traitors all who withstood
+him, and those who had once defied him did well to fight
+to the last gasp, in order to avoid the block or the halter. In
+the longest and most desperate of these sieges, that of Meaux
+(Oct. 1421-March 1422), the king contracted a dysenteric ailment
+which he could never shake off. He survived for a few months,
+but died, worn out by his incessant campaigning, on the 31st of
+August 1422, leaving the crown of England and the heirship of
+France to his only child Henry of Windsor, an infant less than
+two years old.</p>
+
+<p>Few sovereigns in history have accomplished such a disastrous
+life&rsquo;s work as this much-admired prince. If he had not been
+a soldier of the first ability and a diplomatist of the
+most unscrupulous sort, he could never have advanced
+<span class="sidenote">Effects of his conquests.</span>
+so far towards his ill-chosen goal, the conquest of
+France. His genius and the dauphin&rsquo;s murderous act
+of folly at Montereau conspired to make the incredible almost
+possible. Indeed, if Henry had lived five years longer, he would
+probably have carried his arms to the Mediterranean, and have
+united France and England in uneasy union for some short space
+of time. It is clear that they could not have been held together
+after his death, for none but a king of exceptional powers could
+have resisted their natural impulse to break apart. As it was,
+Henry had accomplished just enough to tempt his countrymen
+to persevere for nearly thirty years in the endeavour to complete
+the task he had begun. France was ruined for a generation,
+England was exhausted by her effort, and (what was worse) her
+governing classes learnt in the long and pitiless war lessons of
+demoralization which were to bear fruit in the ensuing struggle
+of the two Roses. It is a strange fact that Henry, though he was
+in many respects a conscientious man, with a strong sense of
+responsibility, and a sincere piety, was so blind to the unrighteousness
+of his own actions that he died asserting that
+&ldquo;neither ambition nor vainglory had led him into France, but
+a genuine desire to assert a righteous claim, which he desired
+his heirs to prosecute to the bitter end.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The guardianship of the infant Henry VI. fell to his two
+uncles, John of Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester, the two
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page514" id="page514"></a>514</span>
+surviving brothers of the late king. Bedford became regent
+in France, and took over the heritage of the war, in which he
+<span class="sidenote">Henry VI.</span>
+was vigorously aided by the young Philip of Burgundy,
+whose sister he soon after married. Almost
+his first duty was to bury the insane Charles VI., who only
+survived his son-in-law for a few months, and to proclaim his
+little nephew king of France under the name of Henry II.
+Gloucester, however, had personal charge of the child, who was
+to be reared in England; he had also hoped to become protector
+of the realm, and to use the position for his own private
+interests, for he was a selfish and ambitious prince. But the
+council refused to let him assume the full powers of a regent,
+and bound him with many checks and restrictions, because they
+were well aware of his character. The tiresome and monotonous
+domestic history of England during the next twenty years
+consisted of little else than quarrels between Gloucester and
+the lords of the council, of whom the chief was the duke&rsquo;s half-uncle
+Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, the last to survive
+of all the sons of John of Gaunt. The duke and the bishop were
+both unscrupulous; but the churchman, with all his faults,
+was a patriotic statesman, while Gloucester cared far more for
+his own private ends than for the welfare of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>While these two well-matched antagonists were wrangling
+in England, Bedford, a capable general and a wise administrator,
+was doing his best to carry out the task which the
+dying Henry V. had laid upon him, by crushing the
+<span class="sidenote">Bedford&rsquo;s rule in France.</span>
+dauphin, or Charles VII. as he now called himself since
+his father&rsquo;s death. As long as the Burgundian party
+lent the regent their aid, the limits of the land still unsubdued
+continued to shrink, though the process was slow. Two considerable
+victories, Cravant (1423) and Verneuil (1424), marked
+the early years of Bedford&rsquo;s campaigning; at each, it may be
+noted, a very large proportion of his army was composed of
+Burgundian auxiliaries. But after a time their assistance began
+to be given less freely; this was due to the selfish intrigues of
+<span class="sidenote">Humphrey of Gloucester.</span>
+Humphrey of Gloucester, who, regardless of the general
+policy of England, had quarrelled with Philip the
+Good. He had married Jacoba (Jacquelaine), countess
+of Hainaut and Holland, a cousin of the Burgundian
+duke, who coveted and hoped to secure her lands. Pressing her
+claims, Gloucester came to open blows with Philip in Flanders
+and Hainaut (1424). In his anger the Burgundian ceased to
+support Bedford, and would have joined Charles VII. if revenge
+on the murderers of his father had not still remained his dominant
+passion. But Gloucester&rsquo;s attempt to seize Hainaut failed, and
+Philip, when he had got possession of his cousin&rsquo;s person and
+estates, allowed himself to be pacified by Bedford, who could
+prove that he had no part in his brother&rsquo;s late intrigues.</p>
+
+<p>This quarrel having been appeased, the advance against the
+territories of Charles VII. was resumed. It went slowly on, till
+in 1428 the tide of war reached the walls of Orleans,
+how the only place north of the Loire which remained
+<span class="sidenote">Siege of Orleans.</span>
+unsubdued. The siege was long; but after the last
+army which the Dauphinois could raise had been beaten at the
+battle of Rouvray (Feb. 1429) it seemed that the end was near.
+Charles VII. was in such a state of despair after this last check,
+that he was actually taking into consideration a flight to Italy
+or Spain, and the abandonment of the struggle. He had shown
+himself so incapable and apathetic that his followers were sick
+of fighting for such a despicable master.</p>
+
+<p>From this depth of despair the party which, with all its faults,
+represented the national sentiment of France was rescued by
+the astonishing exploits of Joan of Arc. Charles and
+his counsellors had no great confidence in the mission
+<span class="sidenote">Joan of Arc.</span>
+of this prophetess and champion, when she presented
+herself to them, promising to relieve Orleans and turn back the
+English. But all expedients are worth trying in the hour of
+ruin, and seeing that Joan was disinterested and sincere, and
+that her preaching exercised a marked influence over the people
+and the soldiery, Charles allowed her to march with the last
+levies that he put into the field for the relief of Orleans. From
+that moment the fortune of war turned; the presence of the
+prophetess with the French troops had an immediate and incalculable
+effect. Under the belief that they were now led by
+a messenger from heaven, the Dauphinois fought with a fiery
+courage that they had never before displayed. Their movements
+were skilfully directed&mdash;whether by Joan&rsquo;s generalship or that of
+her captains it boots not to inquire&mdash;and after the first successes
+which she achieved, in entering Orleans and capturing some of
+the besiegers&rsquo; forts around it, the English became panic-stricken.
+They were cowed, as they said, &ldquo;by that disciple and limb of
+the fiend called La Pucelle, that used false enchantments and
+sorcery.&rdquo; Suffolk, their commander, raised the siege, and sent
+to Bedford for reinforcements; but as he retreated he was set
+upon by the victorious army, and captured with most of his men
+at Jargeau and Beaugency (June 1429). The succours which
+were coming to his aid from Paris were defeated by the Maid at
+Patay a few days later, and for the most part destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>The regent Bedford was now in a desperate position. His field
+army had been destroyed, and on all sides the provinces which
+had long lain inert beneath the English yoke were
+beginning to stir. When Joan led forth the French
+<span class="sidenote">Coronation of Charles VII. at Reims.</span>
+king to crown him at Reims, all the towns of Champagne
+opened their gates to her one after another.
+A large reinforcement received from England only just
+enabled Bedford to save Paris and some of the fortresses of the
+Īle de France. The rest revolted at the sight of the Maid&rsquo;s
+white banner. If Joan had been well supported by her master
+and his counsellors, it is probable that she might have completed
+her mission by expelling the English from France. But, despite
+all that she had done, Charles VII. and his favourites had a
+profound disbelief in her inspiration, and generally thwarted
+her plans. After an ill-concerted attack on Paris, in which Joan
+was wounded, the French army broke up for the winter. They
+had shaken the grip of the English on the north, and reconquered
+a vast stretch of territory, but they had failed by their own fault
+to achieve complete success. Nevertheless the crucial point of
+the war had passed; after 1429 the Burgundian party began
+to slacken in its support of the English cause, and to pass over
+piecemeal to the national side. This was but natural: the
+partisans who could remember nothing but the foul deed of
+Montereau were yearly growing fewer, and it was clear that
+Charles VII., personally despicable though he might be, represented
+the cause of French nationality.</p>
+
+<p>The natural drift of circumstances was not stayed even by the
+disastrous end of the career of Joan of Arc in 1430. The king&rsquo;s
+ministers had refused to take her counsels or to entrust
+her with another army, but she went forth with a small
+<span class="sidenote">Capture and execution of Joan.</span>
+force of volunteers to relieve the important fortress of
+Compičgne. The place was saved, but in a sortie she
+was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her for 10,000 francs
+to Bedford. The regent handed her over for punishment as
+a sorceress to the French clergy of his own party. After a long
+trial, carried out with elaborate formality and great unfairness,
+the unhappy Joan was found guilty of proclaiming as divine
+visions what were delusions of the evil one, or of her own vain
+imagination, and when she persisted in maintaining their reality
+she was declared a relapsed heretic, and burnt at Rouen on the
+30th of May 1431. Charles VII. took little interest in her fate,
+which he might easily have prevented by threatening to retaliate
+on the numerous English prisoners who were in his power.
+Seldom had a good cause such an unworthy figurehead as that
+callous and apathetic prince.</p>
+
+<p>The movement which Joan had set on foot was in no way
+crushed by her execution. For the next four years the limits
+of the English occupation continued to recede. It
+was to no profit that Bedford brought over the young
+<span class="sidenote">Philip of Burgundy joins Charles. Treaty of Arras.</span>
+Henry VI. and had him crowned at Paris, in order to
+appeal to the loyalty of his French partisans by means
+of the king&rsquo;s forlorn youth and simplicity. Yet by
+endless feats of skilful generalship the regent continued
+to maintain a hold on Paris and on Normandy. The fatal blow
+was administered by Philip of Burgundy, who, tired of maintaining
+a failing cause, consented at last to forget his father&rsquo;s murder,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page515" id="page515"></a>515</span>
+and to be reconciled to Charles VII. Their alliance was celebrated
+by the treaty of Arras (Sept. 6, 1435), at which the English
+were offered peace and the retention of Normandy and Guienne
+if they would evacuate Paris and the rest of France. They
+would have been wise to accept the agreement; but with
+obstinate and misplaced courage they refused to acknowledge
+Charles as king of France, or to give up to him the capital.</p>
+
+<p>Bedford, worn out by long campaigning, died at Rouen on
+the 14th of September 1435, just before the results of the treaty
+of Arras began to make themselves felt. With him
+died the best hope of the English party in France,
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Bedford. English defeats.</span>
+for he had been well loved by the Burgundians, and
+many had adhered to the cause of Henry VI. solely
+because of their personal attachment to him. No worthy
+successor could be found&mdash;England had many hard-handed
+soldiers but no more statesmen of Bedford&rsquo;s calibre. It was
+no wonder that Paris was lost within six months of the regent&rsquo;s
+death, Normandy invaded, and Calais beleaguered by an army
+headed by England&rsquo;s new enemy, Philip of Burgundy. But the
+council, still backed by the nation, refused to give up the game;
+Burgundy was beaten off from Calais, and the young duke of
+York, the heir of the Mortimers, took the command at Rouen,
+and recovered much of what had been lost on the Norman side.</p>
+
+<p>The next eight years of the war were in some respects the
+most astonishing period of its interminable length. The English
+fought out the losing game with a wonderful obstinacy.
+Though every town that they held was eager to revolt,
+<span class="sidenote">Truce with France.</span>
+and though they were hopelessly outnumbered in
+every quarter, they kept a tight grip on the greater part of
+Normandy, and on their old domain in the Bordelais and about
+Bayonne. They lost nearly all their outlying possessions, but
+still made head against the generals of Charles VII. in these
+two regions. The leaders of this period of the war were the duke
+of York, and the aged Lord Talbot, afterwards earl of Shrewsbury.
+The struggle only ceased in 1444, when the English
+council, in which a peace party had at last been formed, concluded
+a two-year truce with King Charles, which they hoped to
+turn into a permanent treaty, on the condition that their king
+should retain what he held in Normandy and Guienne, but sign
+away his claim to the French crown, and relinquish the few
+places outside the two duchies which were still in his power&mdash;terms
+very similar to those rejected at Arras nine years before&mdash;but
+there was now much less to give up. To mark the reconciliation
+of the two powers Henry VI. was betrothed to the French
+king&rsquo;s niece, Margaret of Anjou. The two years&rsquo; truce was repeatedly
+prorogued, and lasted till 1449, but no definitive treaty
+was ever concluded, owing to the bad faith with which both
+parties kept their promises.</p>
+
+<p>The government in England was now in the hands of the
+faction which Bishop Beaufort had originally led, for after long
+struggles the churchman had at last crushed his nephew
+Humphrey. In 1441 the duchess of Gloucester had
+<span class="sidenote">Supremacy of the Beauforts in England.</span>
+been arrested and charged with practising sorcery
+against the health of the young king&mdash;apparently not
+without justification. She was tried and condemned
+to imprisonment for life; her guilt was visited on her husband,
+on whose behalf she was acting, for if Henry had died his uncle
+would have come to the throne. For some years he was constrained
+to take a minor part in politics, only emerging occasionally
+to make violent and unwise protests against peace with
+France. The bishop now ruled, with his nephew Edmund
+Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and William de la Pole, earl of
+Suffolk, as his chief instruments. As he grew older he let the
+power slip into their hands, as it was they who were mainly
+responsible for the truce of 1444. King Henry, though he had
+reached the age of 23 at the time of his marriage, counted for
+<span class="sidenote">Character of Henry VI.</span>
+nothing. He was a pious young man, simple to the
+verge of imbecility; a little later he developed actual
+insanity, the heritage of his grandfather Charles VI.
+He showed a blind confidence in Suffolk and Somerset,
+who were wholly unworthy of it, for both were tricky and unscrupulous
+politicians. His wife Margaret of Anjou, though she
+possessed all the fire and energy which her husband lacked,
+was equally devoted to these two ministers, and soon came to
+share their unpopularity.</p>
+
+<p>The truce with France had offended the natural pride of the
+nation, which still refused to own itself beaten. The evacuation
+of the French fortresses in Maine and elsewhere, which
+was the price paid for the suspension of arms, was
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Humphrey of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort.</span>
+bitterly resented. Indeed the garrisons had to be
+threatened with the use of force before they would
+quit their strongholds. A violent clamour was raised
+against Suffolk and Somerset, and Humphrey of
+Gloucester emerged from his retirement to head the agitation.
+This led to his death; he was arrested by the order of the queen
+and the ministers at the parliament of Bury. Five days later
+he died suddenly in prison, probably by foul play, though it
+was given out that he had been carried off by a paralytic stroke.
+His estates were confiscated, and distributed among the friends
+of Suffolk and the queen. Six weeks later the aged Bishop
+Beaufort followed him to the grave&mdash;he had no share in Gloucester&rsquo;s
+fate, having long before made over his power and the
+leadership of his party to his nephew Edmund of Somerset
+(1447).</p>
+
+<p>The truce with France lasted for two years after the death
+of Duke Humphrey, and came to an end partly owing to the
+eagerness of the French to push their advantages, but
+much more from the treachery and bad faith of Suffolk
+<span class="sidenote">Renewal of the war with France.</span>
+and Somerset, who gave the enemy an admirable
+<i>casus belli</i>. By their weakness, or perhaps with their
+secret connivance, the English garrisons of Normandy carried out
+plundering raids of the most impudent sort on French territory.
+When summoned to punish the offenders, and to make monetary
+compensation, Suffolk and Somerset shuffled and prevaricated,
+but gave no satisfaction. Thereupon the French king once more
+declared war (July 1449) and invaded Normandy. Somerset
+was in command; he showed hopeless incapacity and timidity,
+and in a few months the duchy which had been so long held by
+<span class="sidenote">Loss of Normandy.</span>
+the swords of Bedford, York and Shrewsbury was
+hopelessly lost. The final blow came when a small
+army of relief sent over from England was absolutely
+exterminated by the French at the battle of Formigny
+(April 15, 1450). Somerset, who had retired into Caen,
+surrendered two months later after a feeble defence, and the
+English power in northern France came to an end.</p>
+
+<p>Even before this final disaster the indignation felt against
+Suffolk and Somerset had raised violent disturbances at home.
+Suffolk was impeached on many charges, true and
+false; it was unfair to accuse him of treason, but
+<span class="sidenote">Jack Cade&rsquo;s Rebellion.</span>
+quite just to lay double-dealing and bad faith to his
+charge. The king tried to save him from the block
+by banishing him before he could be tried. But while he was
+sailing to Flanders his ship was intercepted by some London
+vessels, which were on the look-out for him, and he was deliberately
+murdered. The instigators of the act were never discovered.
+But, though Suffolk was gone, Somerset yet survived,
+and their partisans still engrossed the confidence of the king.
+To clear out the government, and punish those responsible for
+the late disasters, the commons of Kent rose in insurrection
+under a captain who called himself John Mortimer, though his
+real name seems to have been John Cade. He was a soldier of
+fortune who had served in the French wars, and claimed to be in
+the confidence of the duke of York, the person to whom the eyes
+of all who hated Somerset and the present régime were now
+directed.</p>
+
+<p>Cade was not a social reformer, like his predecessor Wat Tyler,
+with whom he has often been compared, but a politician.
+Though he called himself &ldquo;John Amend-all,&rdquo; and promised
+to put down abuses of every kind, the main part of the programme
+which he issued was intended to appeal to national
+sentiment, not to class feeling. Whether he was the tool of other
+and more highly placed malcontents, or whether he was simply
+a ready-witted adventurer playing his own game, it is hard to
+determine. His first success was marvellous; he defeated the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page516" id="page516"></a>516</span>
+king&rsquo;s troops, made a triumphant entry into London and held
+the city for two days. He seized and beheaded Lord Saye, the
+treasurer, and several other unpopular persons, and might have
+continued his dictatorship for some time if the Kentish mob
+that followed him had not fallen to general pillage and arson.
+This led to the same results that had been seen in Tyler&rsquo;s day.
+The propertied classes in London took arms to suppress anarchy,
+and beat the insurgents out of the city. Cade, striving to keep
+up the rising outside the walls, was killed in a skirmish a month
+later, and his bands dispersed.</p>
+
+<p>But the troubles of England were only just beginning; the
+protest against the misgovernment of Somerset and the rest
+of the confidants of the king and queen was now
+taken up by a more important personage than the
+<span class="sidenote">Richard, duke of York, heads the opposition.</span>
+adventurer Cade. Richard, duke of York, the heir
+to the claims of the house of Mortimer&mdash;his mother
+was the sister of the last earl of March&mdash;now placed
+himself at the head of the opposition. He had plausible grounds
+for doing so; though he had distinguished himself in the French
+wars, and was, since the death of Humphrey of Gloucester, the
+first prince of the blood royal, he had been ignored and flouted
+by the king&rsquo;s ministers, who had sent him into a kind of honourable
+banishment as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and had forbidden
+him to re-enter the realm. When, in defiance of this mandate,
+he came home and announced his intention of impeaching
+Somerset, he took the first step which was to lead to the Wars
+of the Roses.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he was a cautious and in the main a well-intentioned
+prince, and the extreme moderation of his original demands
+seems to prove that he did not at first aim at the crown. He
+merely required that Somerset and his friends should be dismissed
+from office and made to answer for their misgovernment.
+Though he backed his demands by armed demonstration&mdash;twice
+calling out his friends and retainers to support his policy&mdash;he
+carefully refrained for five long years from actual violence.
+Indeed in 1452 he consented to abandon his protests, and to
+lend his aid to the other party for a great national object, the
+recovery of Guienne. For in the previous year Charles VII.
+had dealt with Bordeaux and Bayonne as he had already dealt
+with Normandy, and had met with no better resistance while
+completing the conquest. Six months&rsquo; experience of French rule,
+however, had revealed to the Bordelais how much they had
+lost when they surrendered. Their old loyalty to the house of
+Plantagenet burst once more into flame; they rose in arms and
+called for aid to England. For a moment the quarrel of York
+and Somerset was suspended, and the last English army that
+crossed the seas during the Hundred Years&rsquo; War landed in Guienne,
+joined the insurgents, and for a time swept all before it. But
+there seemed to be a curse on whatever Henry VI. and Somerset
+took in hand. On the 17th of July 1453 the veteran earl of
+Shrewsbury and the greater part of his Anglo-Gascon host were
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Castillon. Loss of Guienne.</span>
+cut to pieces at the hard-fought battle of Castillon.
+Bordeaux, though left to defend itself, held out for
+eighty days after Talbot&rsquo;s defeat and death, and then
+made its final submission to the French. The long
+struggle was over, and England now retained nothing of her old
+transmarine possessions save Calais and the Channel Islands.
+The ambition of Henry V. had finally cost her the long-loyal
+Guienne, as well as all the ephemeral conquests of his own sword.</p>
+
+<p>The last crowning disaster of the administration of the
+favourites of Henry VI. put an end to the chance that a way out
+of domestic strife might be found in the vigorous prosecution of
+the French war. For the next twenty years the battles of England
+were to be fought on her own soil, and between her own
+sons. It was a righteous punishment for her interference in the
+unnatural strife of Orleanists and Burgundians that the struggle
+between York and Lancaster was to be as bitter and as bloody
+as that between the two French factions.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">V. The Wars of the Roses (1453-1497)</p>
+
+<p>The Wars of the Roses have been ascribed to many different
+causes by different historians. To some their origin is mainly
+constitutional. Henry VI., it is argued, had broken the tacit compact
+which the house of Lancaster had made with the nation;
+<span class="sidenote">Origin of the Wars of the Roses.</span>
+instead of committing the administration of the realm
+to ministers chosen for him by, or at least approved
+by, his parliament, he persisted in retaining in office
+persons like Suffolk and Somerset, who had forfeited
+the confidence of the people by their many failures in
+war and diplomacy, and were suspected of something worse
+than incapacity. They might not be so personally odious as
+the favourites of Edward II. or of Henry III., but they were
+even more dangerous to the state, because they were not foreign
+adventurers but great English peers. In spite of the warnings
+given by the assault on Suffolk in 1450, by Jack Cade&rsquo;s insurrection,
+and by the first armed demonstrations of Richard of
+York in 1450 and 1452, the king persisted in keeping his friends
+in office, and they had to be removed by the familiar and forcible
+methods that had been applied in earlier ages by the lords
+ordainers or the lords appellant. Undoubtedly there is much
+truth in this view of the situation; if Henry VI., or perhaps we
+should rather say, if his queen Margaret of Anjou, had been
+content to accept ministries in which the friends of Richard of
+York were fairly represented, it is probable that he might have
+died a king, and have transmitted his crown to his natural heir.
+But this explanation of the Wars of the Roses is not complete;
+it accounts for their outbreak, but not for their long continuance.</p>
+
+<p>According to another school the real key to the problem is
+simply the question of the succession to the crown. If the
+wedlock of Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou had
+been fruitful during the first few years after their
+<span class="sidenote">Claims of the duke of York to the crown.</span>
+marriage, no one would have raised the question of a
+change of dynasty. But when they remained childless
+for seven years, and strong suspicion arose that there was a
+project on foot to declare the Beauforts heirs to the throne,
+the claim of Richard of York, as the representative of the houses
+of Clarence and March, was raised by those who viewed the
+possible accession of the incapable and unpopular Somerset with
+terror and dislike. When once the claims of York had been
+displayed and stated by his imprudent partisan, Thomas Yonge,
+in the parliament of 1451, there was no possibility of hiding the
+fact that in the strict legitimate line of succession he had a better
+claim than the reigning king. He disavowed any pretensions
+to the crown for nine years; it was only in 1460 that he set forth
+his title with his own mouth. But his friends and followers were
+not so discreet; hence when a son was at last born to Henry
+and Margaret, in 1453, the succession question was already
+in the air and could no longer be ignored. If the claim of
+<span class="sidenote">Birth of Edward, prince of Wales.</span>
+York was superior to that of Lancaster in the eyes of a considerable
+part of the nation, it was no longer possible to
+consider the problem solved by the birth of a direct
+heir to the actual occupant of the throne. Though
+Duke Richard behaved in the most correct fashion,
+acknowledged the infant Edward as prince of Wales, and made
+no attempt to assert dynastic claims during his two regencies
+in 1454 and 1455-1456, yet the queen and her partisans already
+looked upon him as a pretender to the throne. It is this fact
+which accounts for the growing bitterness of the Yorkist and
+<span class="sidenote">Queen Margaret.</span>
+Lancastrian parties during the last years of Henry VI.
+Margaret believed herself to be defending the rights
+of her son against a would-be usurper. Duke Richard,
+on the other hand, considered himself as wrongfully oppressed,
+and excluded from his legitimate position as a prince of the blood
+and a chief councillor of the crown. Nor can there be any
+doubt that the queen took every opportunity of showing her
+suspicion of him, and deliberately kept him and his friends from
+sharing in the administration of the realm. This might have
+been more tolerable if the Lancastrian party had shown any
+governing power; but both while Somerset was their leader,
+down to his death in the first battle of St Albans, and while in
+1456-1459 Exeter, Wiltshire, Shrewsbury and Beaumont were
+the queen&rsquo;s trusted agents, the condition of England was deplorable.
+As a contemporary chronicler wrote, &ldquo;the realm was
+out of all good governance&mdash;as it has been many days before:
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page517" id="page517"></a>517</span>
+the king was simple, and led by covetous councillors, and owed
+more than he was worth. His debts increased daily, but payment
+<span class="sidenote">Condition of the country.</span>
+was there none, for all the manors and possessions
+that pertained to the crown he had given away,
+so that he had almost nought to live on. For these
+misgovernances the hearts of the people were turned
+from them that had the land in rule, and their blessing was
+turned to cursing. The officers of the realm, and especially
+the earl of Wiltshire the treasurer, for to enrich himself plundered
+poor people and disinherited rightful heirs, and did many wrongs.
+The queen was defamed, that he that was called the prince was
+not the king&rsquo;s son, but a bastard gotten in adultery.&rdquo; When
+it is added that the Lancastrian party avoided holding a parliament
+for three years, because they dared not face it, and that
+the French were allowed to sack Fowey, Sandwich and other
+places because there was no English fleet in existence, it is not
+wonderful that many men thought that the cup of the iniquities
+of the house of Lancaster was full. In the military classes it
+was felt that the honour of the realm was lost; in mercantile
+circles it was thought that the continuance for a few years more
+of such government would make an end of English trade. Some
+excuse must be found for getting rid of the queen and her
+friends, and the doubtful legitimacy of the Lancastrian claim
+to the crown afforded such an excuse. Hence came the curious
+paradox, that the party which started as the advocates of the
+rights of parliament against the incapable ministers appointed
+by the crown, ended by challenging the right of parliament,
+exercised in 1399, to depose a legitimate king and substitute for
+him another member of the royal house. For Richard of York
+in 1460 and Edward IV. in 1461 put in their claim to the throne,
+not as the elect of the nation, but as the possessors of a divine
+hereditary right to the succession, there having been no true
+king of England since the death of Richard II. Hence Edward
+assumed the royal title in March 1461, was crowned in June, but
+called no parliament till November. When it met, it acknowledged
+him as king, but made no pretence of creating or electing
+him to be sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>But putting aside the constitutional aspects of the Wars of
+the Roses, it is necessary to point out that they had another
+aspect. From one point of view they were little more
+than a great faction fight between two alliances of
+<span class="sidenote">Motives of the contending parties.</span>
+over-powerful barons. Though the Lancastrians
+made much play with the watchword of loyalty to the
+crown, and though the Yorkists never forgot to speak of the
+need for strong and wise governance, and the welfare of the realm,
+yet personal and family enmities had in many cases more effect
+in determining their action than a zeal for King Henry&rsquo;s rights
+or for the prosperity of England. It is true that some classes
+were undoubtedly influenced in their choice of sides mainly by
+the general causes spoken of above; the citizens of London and
+the other great towns (for example) inclined to the Yorkist
+faction simply because they saw that under the Lancastrian rule
+the foreign trade of England was being ruined, and insufficient
+security was given for life and property. But the leading men
+among the baronage were undoubtedly swayed by ambition and
+resentment, by family ties and family feuds, far more than by
+enlightened statesmanship or zeal for the king or the commonweal.
+It would be going too far to seek the origin of the Yorkist
+party&mdash;as some have done&mdash;in the old enmity of the houses of
+March, Norfolk and Salisbury against Henry IV. But it is
+not so fantastic to ascribe its birth to the personal hatred that
+existed between Richard of York and Edmund of Somerset,
+to the old family grudge (going back to 1405) between the
+Percies and the Nevilles, to the marriage alliance that bound the
+houses of York and Neville together, and to other less well-remembered
+quarrels or blood-ties among the lesser baronage.
+As an example of how such motives worked, it may suffice to
+quote the case of those old enemies, the Bonvilles and Courtenays,
+in the west country. While Lord Bonville supported the queen,
+the house of Courtenay were staunch Yorkists, and the earl of
+Devon joined in the armed demonstration of Duke Richard in
+1452. But when the earl changed his politics and fought on the
+Lancastrian side at St Albans in 1455, the baron at once became
+a strenuous adherent of the duke, adhered firmly to the white
+rose and died by the axe for its cause.</p>
+
+<p>Richard of York, in short, was not merely the head of a
+constitutional opposition to misgovernment by the queen&rsquo;s
+friends, nor was he merely a legitimist claimant
+to the crown, he was also the head of a powerful
+<span class="sidenote">The baronial party. The Nevilles.</span>
+baronial league, of which the most prominent members
+were his kinsmen, the Nevilles, Mowbrays and
+Bourchiers. The Nevilles alone, enriched with the
+ancient estates of the Beauchamps and Montagus, and with
+five of their name in the House of Lords, were a sufficient nucleus
+for a faction. They were headed by the two most capable
+politicians and soldiers then alive in England, the two Richards,
+father and son, who held the earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick,
+and were respectively brother-in-law and nephew to York. It
+must be remembered that a baron of 1450 was not strong merely
+by reason of the spears and bows of his household and his
+tenantry, like a baron of the 13th century. The pernicious
+practice of &ldquo;livery and maintenance&rdquo; was now at its zenith;
+all over England in times of stress the knighthood and gentry
+were wont to pledge themselves, by sealed bonds of indenture, to
+follow the magnate whom they thought best able to protect
+them. They mounted his badge, and joined his banner when
+strife broke out, in return for his championship of their private
+interests and his promise to &ldquo;maintain&rdquo; them against all their
+enemies. A soldier and statesman of the ability and ambition
+of Richard of Warwick counted hundreds of such adherents,
+scattered over twenty shires. The system had spread so far that
+the majority of the smaller tenants-in-chief, and even many
+of the lesser barons, were the sworn followers of an insignificant
+number of the greater lords. An alliance of half-a-dozen of these
+over-powerful subjects was a serious danger to the crown. For
+the king could no longer count on raising a national army against
+them; he could only call out the adherents of the lords of his
+own party. The factions were fairly balanced, for if the majority
+of the baronage were, on the whole, Lancastrian, the greatest
+houses stood by the cause of York.</p>
+
+<p>Despite all this, there was still, when the wars began, a very
+strong feeling in favour of compromise and moderation. For
+this there can be no doubt that Richard of York was
+mainly responsible. When he was twice placed in
+<span class="sidenote">Attitude of Richard of York.</span>
+power, during the two protectorates which followed
+Henry&rsquo;s two long fits of insanity in 1454 and 1455-1456,
+he carefully avoided any oppression of his enemies, though he
+naturally took care to put his own friends in office. Most of all
+did he show his sincere wish for peace by twice laying down the
+protectorate when the king was restored to sanity. He was
+undoubtedly goaded into his last rebellion of 1459 by the queen&rsquo;s
+undisguised preparations for attacking him. Yet because he
+struck first, without waiting for a definite <i>casus belli</i>, public
+opinion declared so much against him that half his followers
+<span class="sidenote">Suppression of York&rsquo;s rebellion. Executions and confiscations.</span>
+refused to rally to his banner. The revulsion only came when
+the queen, victorious after the rout of Ludford,
+applied to the vanquished Yorkists those penalties of
+confiscation and attainder which Duke Richard had
+always refused to employ in his day of power. After
+the harsh doings at the parliament of Coventry (1459),
+and the commencement of political executions by the
+sending of Roger Neville and his fellows to the scaffold,
+the trend of public opinion veered round, and Margaret and her
+friends were rightly held responsible for the embittered nature
+of the strife. Hence came the marvellous success of the Yorkist
+counterstroke in June 1460, when the exiled Warwick, landing
+in Kent with a mere handful of men, was suddenly
+<span class="sidenote">The earl of Warwick defeats the Lancastrians at Northampton.</span>
+joined by the whole of the south of England and the
+citizens of London, and inflicted a crushing defeat on
+the Lancastrians at Northampton before he had been
+fifteen days on shore (July 10, 1460). The growing
+rancour of the struggle was marked by the fact that
+the Yorkists, after Northampton, showed themselves
+by no means so merciful and scrupulous as in their earlier
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page518" id="page518"></a>518</span>
+days. Retaliatory executions began, though on a small scale,
+and when York reached London he at last began to talk of his
+rights to the crown, and to propose the deposition of Henry VI.
+Yet moderation was still so far prevalent in the ranks of his
+adherents that they refused to follow him to such lengths.
+Warwick and the other leading men of the party dictated a
+compromise, by which Henry was to reign for the term of his
+<span class="sidenote">Richard of York declared heir to the throne.</span>
+natural life, but Duke Richard was to be recognized
+as his heir and to succeed him on the throne. They
+had obviously borrowed the expedient from the terms
+of the treaty of Troyes. But the act of parliament
+which embodied it did not formally disinherit the
+reigning king&rsquo;s son, as the treaty of Troyes had done, but merely
+ignored his existence.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been well for England if this agreement had
+held, and the crown had passed peaceably to the house of York,
+after the comparatively short and bloodless struggle which had
+just ended. But Duke Richard had forgotten to reckon with
+the fierce and unscrupulous energy of Queen Margaret, when she
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Wakefield. Richard slain.</span>
+was at bay in defence of her son&rsquo;s rights. Marching with a trifling
+force to expel her from the north, he was surprised and
+slain at Wakefield (Dec. 30, 1460). But it was not his
+death that was the main misfortune, but the fact
+that in the battle the Lancastrians gave no quarter
+to small or great, and that after it they put to death York&rsquo;s
+brother-in-law Salisbury and other prisoners. The heads of the
+duke and the earl were set up over the gates of York. This
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of St Albans.</span>
+ferocity was repeated when Margaret and her northern
+host beat Warwick at the second battle of St Albans
+(Feb. 17, 1461), where they had the good fortune to
+recover possession of the person of King Henry. Lord Bonville
+and the other captives of rank were beheaded next morning.</p>
+
+<p>After this it was but natural that the struggle became a mere
+record of massacres and executions. The Yorkists proclaimed
+Edward, Duke Richard&rsquo;s heir, king of England; they
+took no further heed of the claims of King Henry,
+<span class="sidenote">Edward, earl of March, proclaimed as Edward IV.</span>
+declared their leader the true successor of Richard II.,
+and stigmatized the whole period of the Lancastrian
+rule as a mere usurpation. They adopted a strict
+legitimist theory of the descent of the crown, and
+denied the right of parliament to deal with the succession.
+This was the first step in the direction of absolute monarchy
+which England had seen since the short months of King
+Richard&rsquo;s tyranny in 1397-1399. It was but the first of many
+encroachments of the new dynasty upon the liberties that had
+been enjoyed by the nation under the house of Lancaster.</p>
+
+<p>The revenge taken by the new king and his cousin Richard of
+Warwick for the slaughter at Wakefield and St Albans was prompt
+and dreadful. They were now well supported by the
+whole of southern England; for not only had the
+<span class="sidenote">Changed character of the war.</span>
+queen&rsquo;s ferocity shocked the nation, but the reckless
+plundering of her northern moss-troopers in the home
+counties had roused the peasantry and townsfolk to an interest
+in the struggle which they had never before displayed. Up to
+this moment the civil war had been conducted like a great faction
+fight; the barons and their liveried retainers had been wont to
+seek some convenient heath or hill and there to fight out their
+quarrel with the minimum of damage to the countryside. The
+deliberate harrying of the Midlands by Margaret&rsquo;s northern
+levies was a new departure, and one bitterly resented. The
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Towton.</span>
+house of Lancaster could never for the future count on an
+adherent south of Trent or east of Chiltern. The Yorkist army
+that marched in pursuit of the raiders, and won the
+bloody field of Towton under Warwick&rsquo;s guidance,
+gave no quarter. Not only was the slaughter in that
+battle and the pursuit more cruel than anything that had been
+seen since the day of Evesham, but the executions that followed
+were ruthless. Ere Edward turned south he had beheaded
+<span class="sidenote">Ruthless reprisals of the Yorkists.</span>
+two earls&mdash;Devon and Wiltshire&mdash;and forty-two
+knights, and had hanged many prisoners of lesser
+estate. The Yorkist parliament of November 1461
+carried on the work by attainting 133 persons, ranging from
+Henry VI. and Queen Margaret down through the peerage and
+the knighthood to the clerks and household retainers of the late
+king. All the estates of the Lancastrian lords, living or dead,
+were confiscated, and their blood was declared corrupted.
+This brought into the king&rsquo;s hands such a mass of plunder as no
+one had handled since William the Conqueror. Edward IV.
+<span class="sidenote">Personal rule of Edward IV.</span>
+could not only reward his adherents with it, so as to
+create a whole new court noblesse, but had enough
+over to fill his exchequer for many years, and to
+enable him to dispense with parliamentary grants of
+money for an unexampled period. Between 1461 and 1465
+he only asked for £37,000 from the nation&mdash;and won no small
+popularity thereby. For, in their joy at being quit of taxation,
+men forgot that they were losing the lever by which their
+fathers had been wont to move the crown to constitutional
+concessions.</p>
+
+<p>After Towton peace prevailed south of the Tyne and east of
+the Severn, for it was only in Northumberland and in Wales that
+the survivors of the Lancastrian faction succeeded
+in keeping the war alive. King Edward, as indolent
+<span class="sidenote">Civil war in the north and west.</span>
+and pleasure-loving in times of ease as he was active
+and ruthless in times of stress and battle, set himself
+to enjoy life, handing over the suppression of the rebels to his
+ambitious and untiring cousin Richard of Warwick. The annals
+of the few contemporary chroniclers are so entirely devoted to
+the bickerings in the extreme north and west, that it is necessary
+to insist on the fact that from 1461 onwards the civil war was
+purely local, and nine-tenths of the realm enjoyed what passed
+for peace in the 15th century. The campaigns of 1462-63-64,
+though full of incident and bloodshed, were not of first-rate
+political importance. The cause of Lancaster had been lost at
+Towton, and all that Queen Margaret succeeded in accomplishing
+was to keep Northumberland in revolt, mainly by means
+of French and Scottish succours. Her last English partisans,
+attainted men who had lost their lands and lived with the
+shadow of the axe ever before them, fought bitterly enough.
+But the obstinate and hard-handed Warwick beat them down
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Hexham. Imprisonment of Henry VI.</span>
+again and again, and the old Lancastrian party was
+almost exterminated when the last of its chiefs went
+to the block in the series of wholesale executions that
+followed the battle of Hexham (May 15, 1464). A
+year later Henry VI. himself fell into the hands of his
+enemies, as he lurked in Lancashire, and with his consignment
+to the Tower the dynastic question seemed finally solved in
+favour of the house of York.</p>
+
+<p>The first ten years of the reign of Edward IV. fall into two
+parts, the dividing point being the avowal of the king&rsquo;s marriage
+to Elizabeth Woodville in November 1464. During the
+first of these periods Edward reigned but Warwick
+<span class="sidenote">Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.</span>
+governed; he was not only the fighting man, but the
+statesman and diplomatist of the Yorkist party, and
+enjoyed a complete ascendancy over his young master, who long
+preferred thriftless ease to the toils of personal monarchy.
+Warwick represented the better side of the victorious cause;
+he was no mere factious king-maker, and his later nickname of
+&ldquo;the last of the barons&rdquo; by no means expresses his character
+or his position. He was strong, not so much by reason of his
+vast estates and his numerous retainers, as by reason of the
+confidence which the greater part of the nation placed in him.
+He never forgot that the Yorkist party had started as the
+advocates of sound and strong administration, and the mandatories
+of the popular will against the queen&rsquo;s incapable and
+corrupt ministers. &ldquo;He ever had the goodwill of the people
+because he knew how to give them fair words, and always spoke
+not of himself but of the augmentation and good governance
+of the kingdom, for which he would spend his life; and thus he
+had the goodwill of England, so that in all the land he was the
+lord who was held in most esteem and faith and credence.&rdquo; As
+long as he remained supreme, parliaments were regularly held,
+and the house of York appeared to be keeping its bargain with
+the nation. His policy was sound; peace with France, the rehabilitation
+of the dwindling foreign trade of England, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page519" id="page519"></a>519</span>
+maintenance of law and justice by strong-handed governance
+were his main aims.</p>
+
+<p>But Warwick was one of those ministers who love to do everything
+for themselves, and chafe at masters and colleagues who
+presume to check or to criticise their actions. He was surrounded
+and supported, moreover, by a group of brothers and
+cousins, to whom he gave most of his confidence, and most of
+the preferment that came to his hands. England has always
+chafed against a family oligarchy, however well it may do its
+work. The Yorkist magnates who did not belong to the clan
+of the Nevilles were not unnaturally jealous of that house, and
+Edward IV. himself gradually came to realize the ignominious
+position of a king who is managed and overruled by a strong-willed
+and arbitrary minister.</p>
+
+<p>His first sign of revolt was his secret marriage to Elizabeth
+Woodville, a lady of decidedly Lancastrian connexions, for her
+father and her first husband were both members of
+the defeated faction. Warwick was at the moment
+<span class="sidenote">Edward IV. marries Elizabeth Woodville.</span>
+suing for the hand of Louis XI.&rsquo;s sister-in-law in
+his master&rsquo;s name, and had to back out of his negotiations
+in a sudden and somewhat ridiculous fashion.
+His pride was hurt, but for two years more there was no open
+breach between him and his master, though their estrangement
+grew more and more marked when Edward continued to heap
+titles and estates on his wife&rsquo;s numerous relatives, and to conclude
+for them marriage alliances with all the great Yorkist families
+who were not of the Neville connexion. In this way
+<span class="sidenote">Breach between Warwick and the king.</span>
+he built up for himself a personal following within the
+Yorkist party; but the relative strength of this faction
+and of that which still looked upon Warwick as the
+true representative of the cause had yet to be tried.
+The king had in his favour the prestige of the royal name, and
+a popularity won by his easy-going affability and his liberal
+gifts. The earl had his established reputation for disinterested
+devotion to the welfare of the realm, and his brilliant record
+as a soldier and statesman. In districts as far apart as Kent
+and Yorkshire, his word counted for a good deal more than that
+of his sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily for England and for himself, Warwick&rsquo;s loyalty
+was not sufficient to restrain his ambition and his resentment.
+He felt the ingratitude of the king, whom he had
+made, so bitterly that he stooped ere long to intrigue
+<span class="sidenote">Warwick organizes a rebellion.</span>
+and treason. Edward in 1467 openly broke with him
+by dismissing his brother George Neville from the
+chancellorship, by repudiating a treaty with France which the
+earl had just negotiated, and by concluding an alliance with
+Burgundy against which he had always protested. Warwick enlisted
+in his cause the king&rsquo;s younger brother George of Clarence,
+who desired to marry his daughter and heiress Isabella Neville,
+and with the aid of this unscrupulous but unstable young man
+began to organize rebellion. His first experiment in treason was
+the so-called &ldquo;rising of Robin of Redesdale,&rdquo; which
+<span class="sidenote">Rising of &ldquo;Robin of Redesdale.&rdquo;</span>
+was ostensibly an armed protest by the gentry and
+commons of Yorkshire against the maladministration
+of the realm by the king&rsquo;s favourites&mdash;his wife&rsquo;s
+relatives, and the courtiers whom he had lately promoted to high
+rank and office. The rebellion was headed by well-known adherents
+of the earl, and the nickname of &ldquo;Robin of Redesdale&rdquo;
+seems to have covered the personality of his kinsman Sir John
+Conyers. When the rising was well started Warwick declared
+his sympathy with the aims of the insurgents, wedded his
+daughter to Clarence despite the king&rsquo;s prohibition of the match,
+and raised a force at Calais with which he landed in Kent.</p>
+
+<p>But his plot was already successful before he reached the scene
+of operations. The Yorkshire rebels beat the royalist army at
+the battle of Edgecott (July 6, 1469). A few days later
+Edward himself was captured at Olney and put into
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Edgecott. Edward a prisoner.</span>
+the earl&rsquo;s hands. Many of his chief supporters, including
+the queen&rsquo;s father, Lord Rivers, and her brother,
+John Woodville, as well as the newly-created earls of Pembroke
+and Devon, were put to death with Warwick&rsquo;s connivance, if
+not by his direct orders. The king was confined for some
+weeks in the great Neville stronghold of Middleham Castle, but
+presently released on conditions, being compelled to accept
+new ministers nominated by Warwick. The earl supposed that
+his cousin&rsquo;s spirit was broken and that he would give
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of the queen&rsquo;s relatives.</span>
+no further trouble. In this he erred grievously.
+Edward vowed revenge for his slaughtered favourites,
+and waited his opportunity. Warwick had lost
+credit by using such underhand methods in his attack on his
+master, and had not taken sufficient care to conciliate public
+opinion when he reconstructed the government. His conduct
+had destroyed his old reputation for disinterestedness and
+honesty.</p>
+
+<p>In March 1470 the king seized the first chance of avenging himself.
+Some unimportant riots had broken out in Lincolnshire,
+originating probably in mere local quarrels, but possibly
+in Lancastrian intrigues. To suppress this rising the
+<span class="sidenote">King Edward drives Warwick into exile.</span>
+king gathered a great force, carefully calling in to his
+banner all the peers who were offended with Warwick
+or, at any rate, did not belong to his family alliance.
+Having scattered the Lincolnshire bands, he suddenly turned
+upon Warwick with his army, and caught him wholly unprepared.
+The earl and his son-in-law Clarence were hunted out of the realm
+before they could collect their partisans, and fled to France;
+Edward seemed for the first time to be master in his own
+realm.</p>
+
+<p>But the Wars of the Roses had one more phase to come.
+Warwick&rsquo;s name was still a power in the land, and his expulsion
+had been so sudden that he had not been given an
+opportunity of trying his strength. His old enmity
+<span class="sidenote">Warwick takes up the cause of Henry VI.</span>
+for the house of Lancaster was completely swallowed
+up in his new grudge against the king that he had
+made. He opened negotiations with the exiled Queen
+Margaret, and offered to place his sword at her disposition for
+the purpose of overthrowing King Edward and restoring King
+Henry. The queen had much difficulty in forcing herself to
+come to terms with the man who had been the bane of her cause,
+but finally, was induced by Louis XI. to conclude a bargain.
+Warwick married his younger daughter to her son Edward, prince
+of Wales, as a pledge of his good faith, and swore allegiance to
+<span class="sidenote">He lands in England.</span>
+King Henry in the cathedral of Angers. He then set himself
+to stir up the Yorkshire adherents of the house of Neville to
+distract the attention of Edward IV. When the king
+had gone northward to attack them, the earl landed
+at Dartmouth (Sept. 1470) with a small force partly
+composed of Lancastrian exiles, partly of his own
+men. His appearance had the effect on which he had calculated.
+Devon rose in the Lancastrian interest; Kent, where the
+earl&rsquo;s name had always been popular, took arms a
+<span class="sidenote">King Edward in exile.</span>
+few days later; and London opened its gates. King
+Edward, hurrying south to oppose the invader, found
+his army melting away from his banner, and hastily
+took ship at Lynn and fled to Holland. He found a refuge
+with his brother-in-law and ally Charles the Bold, the great
+duke of Burgundy.</p>
+
+<p>King Henry was released and replaced on the throne, and for
+six months Warwick ruled England as his lieutenant. But there
+was bitterness and mistrust between the old Lancastrian
+faction and the Nevilles, and Queen Margaret
+<span class="sidenote">Restoration of Henry VI.</span>
+refused to cross to England or to trust her son in the
+king-maker&rsquo;s hands. Her partisans doubted his sincerity,
+while many of the Yorkists who had hitherto followed
+Warwick in blind admiration found it impossible to reconcile
+themselves to the new régime. The duke of Clarence in particular,
+discontented at the triumph of Lancaster, betrayed his
+father-in-law, and opened secret negotiations with his exiled
+brother. Encouraged by the news of the dissensions among his
+enemies, Edward IV. resolved to try his fortune once
+<span class="sidenote">Edward returns to England.</span>
+more, and landed near Hull on the 15th of March
+1471 with a body of mercenaries lent him by the
+duke of Burgundy. The campaign that followed was
+most creditable to Edward&rsquo;s generalship, but must have been
+fatal to him if Warwick had been honestly supported by his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page520" id="page520"></a>520</span>
+lieutenants. But the duke of Clarence betrayed to his brother
+the army which he had gathered in King Henry&rsquo;s name, and
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Barnet. Death of Warwick.</span>
+many of the Lancastrians were slow to join the earl,
+from their distrust of his loyalty. Edward, dashing
+through the midst of the slowly gathering levies of
+his opponents, seized London, and two days later
+defeated and slew Warwick at the battle of Barnet (April 13,
+1471).</p>
+
+<p>On that same day Queen Margaret and her son landed at
+Weymouth, only to hear that the earl was dead and
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Tewkesbury. Death of Edward, prince of Wales.</span>
+his army scattered. But she refused to consider the
+struggle ended, and gathered the Lancastrians of the
+west for a final rally. On the fatal day of Tewkesbury
+(May 3, 1471) her army was beaten, her son
+was slain in the flight, and the greater part of her
+chief captains were taken prisoner. She herself was
+captured next day. The victorious Edward sent to the block
+the last Beaufort duke of Somerset, and nearly all
+the other captains of rank, whether Lancastrians or
+<span class="sidenote">Capture of Queen Margaret and murder of Henry VI.</span>
+followers of Warwick. He then moved to London,
+which was being threatened by Kentish levies raised
+in Warwick&rsquo;s name, delivered the city, and next day
+caused the unhappy Henry VI. to be murdered in the
+Tower (May 21, 1471).</p>
+
+<p>The descendants of Henry IV. were now extinct, and the
+succession question seemed settled for ever. No one dreamed
+of raising against King Edward the claims of the
+remoter heirs of John of Gaunt&mdash;the young earl of
+<span class="sidenote">Edward IV.</span>
+Richmond, who represented the Beauforts by a female
+descent, or the king of Portugal, the grandson of Gaunt&rsquo;s eldest
+daughter. Edward was now king indeed, with no over-powerful
+cousin at his elbow to curb his will. He had, moreover, at his
+disposal plunder almost as valuable as that which he had divided
+up in 1461&mdash;the estates of the great Neville clan and their adherents.
+A great career seemed open before him; he had proved
+himself a fine soldier and an unscrupulous diplomatist; he was
+in the very prime of life, having not yet attained his thirty-first
+year. He might have devoted himself to foreign politics and
+have rivalled the exploits of Edward III. or Henry V.&mdash;for the
+state of the continent was all in his favour&mdash;or might have set
+himself to organize an absolute monarchy on the ruins of the
+parliament and the baronage. For the successive attainders
+of the Lancastrians and the Nevilles had swept away many of
+the older noble families, and Edward&rsquo;s house of peers consisted
+for the main part of new men, his own partisans promoted for
+good service, who had not the grip on the land that their
+predecessors had possessed.</p>
+
+<p>But Edward either failed to see his opportunity or refused to
+take it. He did not plunge headlong into the wars of Louis XI.
+and Charles of Burgundy, nor did he attempt to recast
+the institutions of the realm. He settled down into
+<span class="sidenote">Character of the reign.</span>
+inglorious ease, varied at long intervals by outbursts
+of spasmodic tyranny. It would seem that the key
+to his conduct was that he hated the hard work without which
+a despotic king cannot hope to assert his personality, and
+preferred leisure and vicious self-indulgence. In many ways
+the later years of his reign were marked with all the signs of
+absolutism. Between 1475 and 1483 he called only one single
+parliament, and that was summoned not to give him advice,
+or raise him money, but purely and solely to attaint his brother, <span class="correction" title="'the duke' was missing">the duke</span>
+of Clarence, whom he had resolved to destroy. The
+<span class="sidenote">Murder of the duke of Clarence.</span>
+duke&rsquo;s fate (Feb. 17, 1478) need provoke no sympathy,
+he was a detestable intriguer, and had given his brother
+just offence by a series of deeds of high-handed violence
+and by perpetual cavilling. But he had committed no act of
+real treason since his long-pardoned alliance with Warwick,
+and was not in any way dangerous; so that when the king
+caused him to be attainted, and then privately murdered in the
+Tower, there was little justification for the fratricide.</p>
+
+<p>Edward was a thrifty king; he was indeed the only medieval
+monarch of England who succeeded in keeping free of debt and
+made his revenue suffice for his expenses. But his methods
+of filling his purse were often unconstitutional and sometimes
+<span class="sidenote">Fiscal policy.</span>
+ignominious. When the resources drawn from confiscations
+were exhausted, he raised &ldquo;benevolences&rdquo;&mdash;forced
+gifts extracted from men of wealth by the unspoken
+threat of the royal displeasure&mdash;instead of applying to
+parliament for new taxes. But his most profitable source of
+revenue was drawn from abroad. Having allied himself with his
+brother-in-law Charles of Burgundy against the king of France,
+he led an army into Picardy in 1475, and then by the treaty of
+Picquigny sold peace to Louis XI. for 75,000 gold crowns down,
+and an annual pension (or tribute as he preferred to call it) of
+50,000 crowns more. It was regularly paid up to the last year
+of his reign. Charles the Bold, whom he had thus deliberately
+deserted in the middle of their joint campaign, used the strongest
+language about this mean act of treachery, and with good cause.
+But the king cared not when his pockets were full. Another
+device of Edward for filling his exchequer was a very stringent
+enforcement of justice; small infractions of the laws being
+made the excuse for exorbitant fines. This was a trick which
+Henry VII. was to turn to still greater effect. In defence of
+both it may be pleaded that after the anarchy of the Wars of the
+Roses a strong hand was needed to restore security for life and
+property, and that it was better that penalties should be over-heavy
+rather than that there should be no penalties at all.
+Another appreciable source of revenue to Edward was his private
+commercial ventures. He owned many ships, and traded with
+great profit to himself abroad, because he could promise, as a
+king, advantages to foreign buyers and sellers with which no
+mere merchant could compete.</p>
+
+<p>During the last period of Edward&rsquo;s rule England might have
+been described as a despotism, if only the king had cared to be
+a despot. But except on rare occasions he allowed his power
+to be disguised under the old machinery of the medieval
+monarchy, and made no parade of his autocracy. Much was
+pardoned by the nation to one who gave them comparatively
+efficient and rather cheap government, and who was personally
+easy of access, affable and humorous. It is with little justification
+that he has been called the &ldquo;founder of the new monarchy,&rdquo;
+and the spiritual ancestor of the Tudor despotism. Another
+king in his place might have merited such titles, but Edward
+was too careless, too unsystematic, too lazy, and too fond of self-indulgence
+to make a real tyrant. He preferred to be a man of
+pleasure and leisure, only awaking now and then to perpetrate
+some act of arbitrary cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>England was not unprosperous under him. The lowest point
+of her fortunes had been reached under the administration of
+Margaret of Anjou, during the weary years that preceded
+the outbreak of the civil wars in 1459. At that
+<span class="sidenote">Condition of the country.</span>
+time the government had been bankrupt, foreign
+trade had almost disappeared, the French and pirates
+of all nations had possession of the Channel, and the nation had
+lost heart, because there seemed no way out of the trouble save
+domestic strife, to which all looked forward with dismay. The
+actual war proved less disastrous than had been expected. It
+fell heavily upon the baronage and their retainers, but passed
+lightly, for the most part, over the heads of the middle classes.
+The Yorkists courted the approval of public opinion by their
+careful avoidance of pillage and requisitions; and the Lancastrians,
+though less scrupulous, only once launched out into
+general raiding and devastation, during the advance of the
+queen&rsquo;s army to St Albans in the early months of 1461. As
+a rule the towns suffered little or nothing&mdash;they submitted to
+the king of the moment, and were always spared by the victors.
+It is one of the most curious features of these wars that no town
+ever stood a siege, though there were several long and arduous
+sieges of baronial castles, such as Harlech, Alnwick and Bamborough.
+Warwick, with his policy of conciliation for the masses
+and hard blows for the magnates, was mainly responsible for
+this moderation. In battle he was wont to bid his followers
+spare the commons in the pursuit, and to smite only the knights
+and nobles. Towton, where the Yorkist army was infuriated by
+the harrying of the Midlands by their enemies in the preceding
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page521" id="page521"></a>521</span>
+campaign, was the only fight that ended in a general
+massacre. There were, of course, many local feuds and riots
+which led to the destruction of property; well-known instances
+are the private war about Caister Castle between the duke of
+Norfolk and the Pastons, and the &ldquo;battle of Nibley Green,&rdquo;
+near Bristol, between the Berkeleys and the Talbots. But on
+the whole there was no ruinous devastation of the land. Prosperity
+seems to have revived early during the rule of York;
+Warwick had cleared the seas of pirates, and both he and King
+Edward were great patrons of commerce, though the earl&rsquo;s
+policy was to encourage trade with France, while his master
+wished to knit up the old alliance with Flanders by adhering
+<span class="sidenote">Commercial development.</span>
+to the cause of Charles of Burgundy. Edward did
+much in his later years to develop interchange of
+commodities with the Baltic, making treaties with
+the Hanseatic League which displeased the merchants
+of London, because of the advantageous terms granted to the
+foreigner. The east coast ports seem to have thriven under his
+rule, but Bristol was not less prosperous. On the one side,
+developing the great salt-fish trade, her vessels were encompassing
+Iceland, and feeling their way towards the Banks of
+the West; on the other they were beginning to feel their way
+into the Mediterranean. The famous William Canynges, the
+patriarch of Bristol merchants, possessed 2500 tons of shipping,
+including some ships of 900 tons, and traded in every sea. Yet
+we still find complaints that too much merchandize reached
+and left England in foreign bottoms, and King Edward&rsquo;s treaty
+with the Hansa was censured mainly for this reason. Internal
+commerce was evidently developing in a satisfactory style,
+despite of the wars; in especial raw wool was going out of
+England in less bulk than of old, because cloth woven at home
+was becoming the staple export. The woollen manufactures
+which had begun in the eastern counties in the 14th century
+were now spreading all over the land, taking root especially in
+<span class="sidenote">Manufactures and wool trade.</span>
+Somersetshire, Yorkshire and some districts of the
+Midlands. Coventry, the centre of a local woollen
+and dyeing industry, was probably the inland town
+which grew most rapidly during the 15th century.
+Yet there was still a large export of wool to Flanders, and the
+long pack-trains of the Cotswold flockmasters still wound
+eastward to the sea for the benefit of the merchants of the staple
+and the continental manufacturer.</p>
+
+<p>As regards domestic agriculture, it has been often stated that
+the 15th century was the golden age of the English peasant, and
+that his prosperity was little affected either by the
+unhappy French wars of Henry VI. or by the Wars
+<span class="sidenote">State of the rural population.</span>
+of the Roses. There is certainly very little evidence of
+any general discontent among the rural population,
+such as had prevailed in the times of Edward III. or Richard II.
+Insurrections that passed as popular, like the risings of Jack
+Cade and Robin of Redesdale, produced manifestos that spoke
+of political grievances but hardly mentioned economic ones.
+There is a bare mention of the Statute of Labourers in Jack
+Cade&rsquo;s ably drafted chapter of complaints. It would seem that
+the manorial grudges between landowner and peasant, which
+had been so fierce in the 14th century, had died down as the lords
+abandoned the old system of working their demesne by villein
+labour. They were now for the most part letting out the soil
+to tenant-farmers at a moderate rent, and the large class of
+yeomanry created by this movement seem to have been prosperous.
+The less popular device of turning old manorial arable
+land into sheep-runs was also known, but does not yet seem
+to have grown so common as to provoke the popular discontents
+which were to prevail under the Tudors. Probably such labour
+as was thrown out of work by this tendency was easily absorbed
+by the growing needs of the towns. Some murmurs are heard
+about &ldquo;enclosures,&rdquo; but they are incidental and not widely
+spread.</p>
+
+<p>One of the best tests of the prosperity of England under the
+Yorkist rule seems to be the immense amount of building that
+was on hand. Despite the needs of civil war, it was not
+on castles that the builders&rsquo; energy was spent; the government
+<span class="sidenote">Architecture.</span>
+discouraged fortresses in private hands, and the dwellings of the
+new nobility of Edward IV. were rather splendid manor-houses,
+with some slight external protection of moat and gate-house,
+than old-fashioned castles. But the church-building
+of the time is enormous and magnificent.
+A very large proportion of the great Perpendicular churches of
+England date back to this age, and in the cathedrals also much
+work was going on.</p>
+
+<p>Material prosperity does not imply spiritual development,
+and it must be confessed that from the intellectual and moral
+point of view 15th-century England presents an unpleasing
+picture. The Wycliffite movement, the one
+<span class="sidenote">Religious condition of the country.</span>
+phenomenon which at the beginning of the century
+seemed to give some promise of better things, had
+died down under persecution. It lingered on in a subterranean
+fashion among a small class in the universities and the minor
+clergy, and had some adherents among the townsfolk and even
+among the peasantry. But the Lollards were a feeble and helpless
+minority; they no longer produced writers, organizers or
+missionaries. They continued to be burnt, or more frequently
+to make forced recantations, under the Yorkist rule, though the
+list of trials is not a long one. Little can be gathered concerning
+them from chronicles or official records. We only know that
+they continued to exist, and occasionally produced a martyr.
+But the governing powers were not fanatics, bent on seeking
+out victims; the spirit of Henry V. and Archbishop Arundel
+was dead. The life of the church seems, indeed, to have been
+in a more stagnant and torpid condition in this age than at any
+other period of English history. The great prelates from Cardinal
+Beaufort down to Archbishops Bourchier and Rotherham, and
+Bishop John Russell&mdash;trusted supporters of the Yorkist dynasty&mdash;were
+mere politicians with nothing spiritual about them.
+Occasionally they appear in odious positions. Rotherham was
+the ready tool of Edward IV. in the judicial murder of Clarence.
+Russell became the obsequious chancellor of Richard III.
+Bourchier made himself responsible in 1483 for the taking of the
+little duke of York from his mother&rsquo;s arms in order to place him
+in the power of his murderous uncle. It is difficult to find a single
+bishop in the whole period who was respected for his piety or
+virtue. The best of them were capable statesmen, the worst were
+mean time-servers. Few of the higher clergy were such patrons
+of learning as many prelates of earlier ages. William Grey of
+Ely and James Goldwell of Norwich did something for scholars,
+and there was one bishop in the period who came to sad grief
+through an intellectual activity which was rare among his
+contemporaries. This was the eccentric Reginald Pecock of
+Chichester, who, while setting himself to confute Lollard controversialists,
+lapsed into heresy by setting &ldquo;reason&rdquo; above
+&ldquo;authority.&rdquo; He taught that the organization and many of
+the dogmas of the medieval church should be justified by an
+appeal to private judgment and the moral law, rather than to
+the scriptures, the councils, or the fathers. For taking up this
+dangerous line of defence, and admitting his doubts about
+several received articles of faith, he was attacked by the Yorkist
+archbishop Bourchier in 1457, compelled to do penance, and shut
+up in a monastery for the rest of his life. He seems to have had
+no school of followers, and his doctrines died with him.</p>
+
+<p>In nothing is the general stagnation of the church in the later
+15th century shown better than by the gradual cessation of the
+monastic chronicles. The stream of narrative was
+still flowing strongly in 1400; by 1485 it has run dry,
+<span class="sidenote">The monasteries.</span>
+even St Albans, the mother of historians, produced
+no annalist after Whethamstede, whose story ceases
+early in the Wars of the Roses. The only monastic chronicler
+who went on writing for a few years after the extinction of the
+house of York was the &ldquo;Croyland continuator.&rdquo; For the last
+two-thirds of the century the various &ldquo;London chronicles,&rdquo;
+the work of laymen, are much more important than anything
+which was produced in the religious houses. The regular clergy
+indeed seem to have been sunk in intellectual torpor. Their
+numbers were falling off, their zeal was gone; there is little good to
+be said of them save that they were still in some cases endowing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page522" id="page522"></a>522</span>
+England with splendid architectural decorations. But even in the
+wealthier abbeys we find traces of thriftless administration,
+idleness, self-indulgence and occasionally grave moral scandals.
+The parochial clergy were probably in a healthier condition;
+but the old abuses of pluralism and non-residence were as
+rampant as ever, and though their work may have been in many
+cases honourably carried out, it is certain that energy and
+intelligence were at a low ebb.</p>
+
+<p>The moral faults of the church only reflected those of the
+nation. It was a hard and selfish generation which witnessed
+the Wars of the Roses and the dictatorship of
+Edward IV. The iniquitous French war, thirty years
+<span class="sidenote">Moral decay of the nation.</span>
+of plunder and demoralization, had corrupted the
+minds of the governing classes before the civil strife
+began. Afterwards the constant and easy changes of allegiance,
+as one faction or the other was in the ascendant, the wholesale
+confiscations and attainders, the never-ending executions, the
+sudden prosperity of adventurers, the premium on time-serving
+and intrigue, sufficed to make the whole nation cynical and
+sordid. The claim of the Yorkists to represent constitutional
+opposition to misgovernment became a mere hypocrisy. The
+claim of the Lancastrians to represent loyalty soon grew almost
+as hollow. Edward IV. with his combination of vicious self-indulgence
+and spasmodic cruelty was no unfit representative
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Paston Letters.&rdquo;</span>
+of his age. The <i>Paston Letters</i>, that unique collection
+of the private correspondence of a typical family of
+<i>nouveaux riches</i>, thriftless, pushing, unscrupulous, give
+us the true picture of the time. All that can be said in
+favour of the Yorkists is that they restored a certain measure of
+national prosperity, and that their leaders had one redeeming
+virtue in their addiction to literature. The learning which had
+died out in monasteries began to flourish again in the corrupt soil
+of the court. Most of Edward&rsquo;s favourites had literary tastes.
+His constable Tiptoft, the &ldquo;butcher earl&rdquo; of Worcester, was a
+figure who might have stepped out of the Italian Renaissance.
+<span class="sidenote">Influence of the Italian Renaissance.</span>
+A graduate of Pavia, a learned lawyer, who translated
+Caesar and Cicero, composed works both in Latin
+and English, and habitually impaled his victims, he
+was a man of a type hitherto unknown in England.
+Antony, Lord Rivers, the queen&rsquo;s brother, was a mere adventurer,
+but a poet of some merit, and a great patron of
+Caxton. Hastings, the Bourchiers, and other of the king&rsquo;s
+friends were minor patrons of literature. It is curious to find
+that Caxton, an honest man, and an enthusiast as to the future
+of the art of printing, which he had introduced into England,
+waxes enthusiastic as to the merits of the intelligent but unscrupulous
+peers who took an interest in his endeavours. Of
+the detestable Tiptoft he writes that &ldquo;there flowered in virtue
+and cunning none like him among the lords of the temporalty in
+science and moral virtue&rdquo;! And this is no time-serving praise
+of a patron, but disinterested tribute to a man who had perished
+long before on the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>The uneventful latter half of the reign of Edward IV. ended
+with his death at the age of forty-one on the 9th of April 1483.
+He had ruined a splendid constitution by the combination
+of sloth and evil living, and during his last
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Edward IV.</span>
+years had been sinking slowly into his grave, unable
+to take the field or to discharge the more laborious
+duties of royalty. Since Clarence&rsquo;s death he had been gradually
+falling into the habit of transferring the conduct of great matters
+of state to his active and hard-working youngest brother,
+Richard, duke of Gloucester, who had served him well
+and faithfully ever since he first took the field at Barnet.
+<span class="sidenote">Richard, duke of Gloucester.</span>
+Gloucester passed as a staid and religious prince, and
+if there was blood on his hands, the same could be said
+of every statesman of his time. His sudden plunge into crime
+and usurpation after his brother&rsquo;s death was wholly unexpected
+by the nation. Indeed it was his previous reputation for loyalty
+and moderation which made his scandalous <i>coup d&rsquo;état</i> of 1483
+possible. No prince with a sinister reputation would have had
+the chance of executing the series of crimes which placed him
+on the throne. But when Richard declared that he was the
+victim of plots and intrigues, and was striking down his enemies
+only to defend his own life and honour, he was for some time
+believed.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment of King Edward&rsquo;s death his elder son by
+Elizabeth Woodville, Edward, prince of Wales, was twelve;
+his younger son Richard, duke of York, was nine. It
+was clear that there would be a long minority, and
+<span class="sidenote">Gloucester proclaims himself protector.</span>
+that the only possible claimants for the regency were
+the queen and Richard of Gloucester. Elizabeth was
+personally unpopular, and the rapacity and insolence of her
+family was well known. Hence when Richard of Gloucester
+seized on the person of the young king, and imprisoned Lord
+Rivers and Sir Richard Grey, the queen&rsquo;s brother and son, on
+the pretence that they were conspiring against him, his action
+was regarded with equanimity by the people. Nor did the fact
+that the duke took the title of &ldquo;protector and defender of the
+realm&rdquo; cause any surprise. Suspicions only became rife after
+Richard had seized and beheaded without any trial, Lord
+Hastings, the late king&rsquo;s most familiar friend, and had arrested
+at the same moment the archbishop of York, Morton, bishop of
+Ely, and Lord Stanley, all persons of unimpeachable loyalty to
+the house of Edward IV. It was not plausible to accuse such
+persons of plotting with the queen to overthrow the protector,
+and public opinion began to turn against Gloucester. Nevertheless
+he went on recklessly with his design, having already
+enlisted the support of a party of the greater peers, who were
+ready to follow him to any length of treason. These confidants,
+the duke of Buckingham, the lords Howard and Lovel, and a few
+more, must have known from an early date that he was aiming
+at the crown, though it is improbable that they suspected that
+his plan involved the murder of the rightful heirs as well as mere
+usurpation.</p>
+
+<p>On the 16th of June, Richard, using the aged archbishop
+Bourchier as his tool, got the little duke of York out of his
+mother&rsquo;s hands, and sent him to join his brother in the Tower.
+A few days later, having packed London with his own armed
+retainers and those of Buckingham and his other confidants, he
+openly put forward his pretensions to the throne. Edward IV.,
+as he asserted, had been privately contracted to Lady Eleanor
+Talbot before he ever met Queen Elizabeth. His children
+therefore were bastards, the offspring of a bigamous union. As
+to the son and daughter of the duke of Clarence, their blood had
+been corrupted by their father&rsquo;s attainder, and they could not
+be reckoned as heirs to the crown. He himself, therefore, was the
+legitimate successor of Edward IV. This preposterous theory
+was set forth by Buckingham, first to the mayor and corporation
+of London, and next day to an assembly of the estates of the realm
+held in St Paul&rsquo;s. Cowed by the show of armed force, and
+remembering the fate of Hastings, the two assemblies received
+the claim with silence which gave consent. Richard, after a
+<span class="sidenote">Richard III. crowned.</span>
+hypocritical show of reluctance, allowed himself to
+be saluted as king, and was crowned on the 6th of July
+1483. Before the coronation ceremony he had issued
+orders for the execution of the queen&rsquo;s relatives, who
+had been in prison since the beginning of May. He paid his
+adherents lavishly for their support, making Lord Howard duke
+of Norfolk, and giving Buckingham enormous grants of estates
+and offices.</p>
+
+<p>Having accomplished his <i>coup d&rsquo;état</i> Richard started for a
+royal progress through the Midlands, and a few days after his
+departure sent back secret orders to London for the
+murder of his two nephews in the Tower. There is
+<span class="sidenote">Murder of the princes.</span>
+no reason to doubt that they were secretly smothered
+on or about the 15th of July by his agent Sir James
+Tyrrell, or that the bones found buried under a staircase in the
+fortress two hundred years after belonged to the two unhappy
+lads. But the business was kept dark at the time, and it was
+long before any one could assert with certainty that they were
+dead or alive. Richard never published any statement as to
+their end, though some easy tale of a fever, a conflagration,
+or an accident might have served him better than the mere
+silence that he employed. For while many persons believed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page523" id="page523"></a>523</span>
+that the princes still existed there was room for all manner of
+impostures and false rumours.</p>
+
+<p>The usurper&rsquo;s reign was from the first a troubled one. Less
+than three months after his coronation the first insurrection
+broke out; it was headed&mdash;strangely enough&mdash;by the
+duke of Buckingham, who seems to have been shocked
+<span class="sidenote">Buckingham&rsquo;s rebellion.</span>
+by the murder of the princes; he must have been
+one of the few who had certain information of the
+crime. He did not take arms in his own cause, though after the
+house of York the house of Buckingham had the best claim
+to the throne, as representing Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest
+son of Edward III. His plan was to unite the causes of York and
+Lancaster by wedding the Lady Elizabeth, the eldest sister of the
+murdered princes, to Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, a young
+exile who represented the very doubtful claim of the Beauforts
+to the Lancastrian heritage. Henry was the son of Margaret
+Beaufort, the daughter of John, first duke of Somerset, and the
+niece of Edmund, second duke, who fell at St Albans. All her
+male kinsmen had been exterminated in the Wars of the Roses.</p>
+
+<p>This promising scheme was to be supported by a rising of
+those Yorkists who rejected the usurpation of Richard III.,
+and by the landing on the south coast of Henry of
+Richmond with a body of Lancastrian exiles and
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of Buckingham.</span>
+foreign mercenaries. But good organization was
+wanting, and chance fought for the king. A number
+of scattered risings in the south were put down by Richard&rsquo;s
+troops, while Buckingham, who had raised his banner in Wales,
+was prevented from bringing aid by a week of extraordinary
+rains which made the Severn impassable. Finding that the rest
+of the plan had miscarried, Buckingham&rsquo;s retainers melted away
+from him, and he was forced to fly. A few days later he was
+betrayed, handed over to the king, and beheaded (Nov. 2, 1483).
+Meanwhile Richmond&rsquo;s little fleet was dispersed by the same
+storms that scattered Buckingham&rsquo;s army, and he was forced
+to return to Brittany without having landed in England.</p>
+
+<p>Here King Richard&rsquo;s luck ended. Though he called a parliament
+early in 1484, and made all manner of gracious promises
+of good governance, he felt that his position was insecure. The
+nation was profoundly disgusted with his unscrupulous policy,
+and the greater part of the leaders of the late insurrection had
+escaped abroad and were weaving new plots. Early in the spring
+he lost his only son and heir, Edward, prince of Wales, and the
+question of the succession to the crown was opened from a new
+point of view. After some hesitation Richard named his nephew
+John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, a son of his sister, as his heir.
+But he also bethought him of another and a most repulsive plan
+for strengthening his position. His queen, Anne Neville, the
+daughter of the kingmaker, was on her death-bed. With indecent
+haste he began to devise a scheme for marrying his niece Elizabeth,
+whose brothers he had murdered but a year before. Knowledge
+of this scheme is said to have shortened the life of the
+unfortunate Anne, and many did not scruple to say that her
+husband had made away with her.</p>
+
+<p>When the queen was dead, and some rumours of the king&rsquo;s
+intentions got abroad, the public indignation was so great that
+Richard&rsquo;s councillors had to warn him to disavow the
+projected marriage, if he wished to retain a single
+<span class="sidenote">Henry of Richmond lands at Milford.</span>
+adherent. He yielded, and made public complaint
+that he had been slandered&mdash;which few believed.
+Meanwhile the conspirators of 1483 were busy in organizing
+another plan of invasion. This time it was successfully carried
+out, and the earl of Richmond landed at Milford Haven with
+many exiles, both Yorkists and Lancastrians, and 1000 mercenaries
+lent him by the princess regent of France. The Welsh
+joined him in great numbers, not forgetting that by his Tudor
+descent he was their own kinsman, and when he reached Shrewsbury
+English adherents also began to flock in to his banner, for
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Bosworth.</span>
+the whole country was seething with discontent, and
+Richard III. had but few loyal adherents. When the
+rivals met at Bosworth Field (Aug. 22, 1485) the king&rsquo;s
+army was far the larger, but the greater part of it was determined
+not to fight. When battle was joined some left the field
+and many joined the pretender. Richard, however, refused to
+fly, and was slain, fighting to the last, along with the duke of
+Norfolk and a few other of his more desperate partisans. The
+slaughter was small, for treason, not the sword, had settled the
+day. The battered crown which had fallen from Richard&rsquo;s
+helmet was set on the victor&rsquo;s head by Lord Stanley, the chief
+of the Yorkist peers who had joined his standard, and his army
+hailed him by the new title of Henry VII.</p>
+
+<p>No monarch of England since William the Conqueror, not
+excluding Stephen and Henry IV., could show such a poor title
+to the throne as the first of the Tudor kings. His
+claim to represent the house of Lancaster was of the
+<span class="sidenote">Henry VII.</span>
+weakest&mdash;when Henry IV. had assented to the legitimating
+of his brothers the Beauforts, he had attached a clause
+to the act, to provide that they were given every right save that
+of counting in the line of succession to the throne. The true
+heir to the house of John of Gaunt should have been sought
+among the descendants of his eldest legitimate daughter, not
+among those of his base-born sons. The earl of Richmond had
+been selected by the conspirators as their figure-head mainly
+because he was known as a young man of ability, and because he
+was unmarried and could therefore take to wife the princess Elizabeth,
+and so absorb the Yorkist claim in his own. This had been
+the essential part of the bargain, and Henry was ready to carry
+it out, but he insisted that he should first be recognized as king
+in his own right, lest it might be held that he ruled merely as his
+destined wife&rsquo;s consort. He was careful to hold his first parliament
+and get his title acknowledged before he married the
+princess. When he had done so, he had the triple claim by
+conquest, by election and by inheritance, safely united. Yet
+his position was even then insecure; the vicissitudes of the last
+thirty years had shaken the old prestige of the name of king,
+and a weaker and less capable man than Henry Tudor might
+have failed to retain the crown that he had won. There were
+plenty of possible pretenders in existence; the earl of Lincoln,
+whom Richard III. had recognized as his heir, was still alive;
+the two children of the duke of Clarence might be made the tools
+of conspirators; and there was a widespread doubt as to whether
+the sons of Edward IV. had actually died in the Tower. The
+secrecy with which their uncle had carried out their murder was
+destined to be a sore hindrance to his successor.</p>
+
+<p>Bosworth Field is often treated as the last act of the Wars
+of the Roses. This is an error; they were protracted for twelve
+years after the accession of Henry VII., and did not
+really end till the time of Blackheath Field and the
+<span class="sidenote">Early years of the reign.</span>
+siege of Exeter (1497). The position of the first Tudor
+king is misconceived if his early years are regarded
+as a time of strong governance and well-established order. On
+the contrary he was in continual danger, and was striving
+with all the resources of a ready and untiring mind to rebuild
+foundations that were absolutely rotten. Phenomena like the
+Cornish revolt (which recalls Cade&rsquo;s insurrection) and
+the Yorkshire rising of 1489, which began with the
+<span class="sidenote">Insurrections and plots.</span>
+death of the earl of Northumberland, show that at
+any moment whole counties might take arms in sheer
+lawlessness, or for some local grievance. Loyalty was such an
+uncertain thing that the king might call out great levies yet be
+forced to doubt whether they would fight for him&mdash;at Stoke
+Field it seems that a large part of Henry&rsquo;s army misbehaved,
+much as that of Richard III. had done at Bosworth. The
+demoralization brought about by the evil years between 1453
+and 1483 could not be lived down in a day&mdash;any sort of treason
+was possible to the generation that had seen the career of
+Warwick and the usurpation of Gloucester. The survivors of that
+time were capable of taking arms for any cause that offered a
+chance of unreasonable profit, and no one&rsquo;s loyalty could be
+trusted. Did not Sir William Stanley, the best paid of those
+who betrayed Richard III., afterwards lose his head for a
+deliberate plot to betray Henry VII.? The various attempts
+that were made to overturn the new dynasty seem contemptible
+to the historian of the 20th century. They were not so contemptible
+at the time, because England and Ireland were full
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page524" id="page524"></a>524</span>
+of adventurers who were ready to back any cause, and who
+looked on the king of the moment as no more than a successful
+member of their own class&mdash;a base-born Welshman who had been
+lucky enough to become the figurehead of the movement that
+had overturned an unpopular usurper. The organizing spirits
+of the early troubles of the reign of Henry VII. were irreconcilable
+Yorkists who had suffered by the change of dynasty; but
+their hopes of success rested less on their own strength than on
+the not ill-founded notion that England would tire of any ruler
+who had to raise taxes and reward his partisans. The position
+bore a curious resemblance to that of the early years of Henry IV.,
+a king who, like Henry VII., had to vindicate a doubtful elective
+title to the throne by miracles of cunning and activity. The
+later representative of the house of Lancaster was fortunate,
+however, in having less formidable enemies than the earlier; the
+power of the baronage had been shaken by the Wars of the Roses
+no less than the power of the crown; so many old estates had
+passed rapidly from hand to hand, so many old titles were
+represented by upstarts destitute of local influence, that the
+feudal danger had become far less. Risings like that of the
+Percies in 1403 were not the things which the seventh Henry
+had to fear. He was lucky too in having no adversary of genius
+of the type of Owen Glendower. Welsh national spirit indeed
+was enlisted on his own side. Yet leaderless seditions and the
+plots of obvious impostors sufficed to make his throne tremble,
+and a ruler less resolute, less wary, and less unscrupulous might
+have been overthrown.</p>
+
+<p>The first of the king&rsquo;s troubles was an abortive rising in the
+north riding of Yorkshire, the only district where Richard III.
+seems to have enjoyed personal popularity. It was led by Lord
+Lovel, Richard&rsquo;s chamberlain and admiral; but the insurgents
+dispersed when Henry marched against them with a large force
+(1486), and Lovel took refuge in Flanders with Margaret of York,
+the widow of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, whose dower towns
+were the refuge of all English exiles, and whose coffers were
+always open to subsidize plots against her niece&rsquo;s husband.
+Under the auspices of this rancorous princess the second conspiracy
+was hatched in the following year (1487). Its leaders
+were Lovel and John, earl of Lincoln, whom Richard III. had
+designated as his heir. But the Yorkist banner was to be raised,
+not in the name of Lincoln, but in that of the boy Edward of
+Clarence, then a prisoner in the Tower. His absence and captivity
+might seem a fatal hindrance, but the conspirators had
+<span class="sidenote">Lambert Simnel.</span>
+prepared a &ldquo;double&rdquo; who was to take his name till he
+could be released. This was a lad named Lambert
+Simnel, the son of an Oxford organ-maker, who bore
+a personal resemblance to the young captive. The conspirators
+seem to have argued that Henry VII. would not proceed to
+murder the real Edward, but would rather exhibit him to prove
+the imposition; if he took the more drastic alternative Lincoln
+could fall back on his own claim to the crown.</p>
+
+<p>In May 1487 Lincoln and Lovel landed in Ireland accompanied
+by other exiles and 2000 German mercenaries. The
+cause of York was popular in the Pale, and the Anglo-Irish barons
+seem to have conceived the notion that Henry VII. was likely
+to prove too strong and capable a king to suit their convenience.
+The invading army was welcomed by almost all the lords, and
+the spurious Clarence was crowned at Dublin by the name of
+Edward VI. A few weeks later Lincoln had recruited his army
+with 4000 or 5000 Irish adventurers under Thomas Fitzgerald,
+son of the earl of Kildare, and had taken ship for England. He
+landed in Lancashire, and pushed forward, hoping to gather the
+English Yorkists to his aid. But few had joined him when
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Stoke.</span>
+King Henry brought him to action at Stoke, near
+Newark, on the 17th of July. Despite the doubtful
+conduct of part of the royal army, and the fierce
+resistance of the Germans and Irish, the rebel army was routed.
+Lincoln and Fitzgerald were slain; Lovel disappeared in the
+rout; the young impostor Simnel was taken prisoner. Henry
+treated him with politic contempt, and made him a cook boy
+in his kitchen. He lived for many years after in the royal household.
+The Irish lords were pardoned on renewing their oaths
+of fealty; the king did not wish to entangle himself in costly
+campaigns beyond St George&rsquo;s Channel till he had made his
+position in England more stable.</p>
+
+<p>The Yorkist cause was crushed for four years, till it was raised
+again by Margaret of Burgundy, with an imposture even more
+preposterous than that of Lambert Simnel. In the
+intervening space, however, while Henry VII. was
+<span class="sidenote">Foreign alliances.</span>
+comparatively undisturbed by domestic rebellion, he
+found opportunity for a first tentative experiment at interfering
+in European politics. He allied himself with Ferdinand and
+Isabella of Spain and with Maximilian of Austria, who was
+ruling the Netherlands in behalf of his young son, Philip, the
+heir of the Burgundian inheritance, for the purpose of preventing
+France from annexing Brittany, the last great fief of the crown
+which had not yet been absorbed into the Valois royal domain.
+This struggle, the only continental war in which the first of the
+Tudors risked his fortunes, was not prosecuted with any great
+energy, and came to a necessary end when Anne, duchess of
+Brittany, in whose behalf it was being waged, disappointed her
+allies by marrying Charles VIII. of her own free will (Dec. 1491).
+Henry very wisely proceeded to get out of the war on the best
+terms possible, and, to the disgust of Maximilian, sold peace to
+the French king for 600,000 crowns, as well as an additional
+sum representing arrears of the pension which Louis XI. had
+<span class="sidenote">Treaty of Étaples.</span>
+been bound to pay to Edward IV. This treaty of
+Étaples was, in short, a repetition of Edward&rsquo;s treaty
+of Picquigny, equally profitable and less disgraceful,
+for Maximilian of Austria, whom Henry thus abandoned, had
+given more cause of offence than had Charles of Burgundy in
+1475. Domestic malcontents did not scruple to hint that the
+king, like his father-in-law before him, had made war on France,
+not with any hope of renewing the glories of Creēy or Agincourt,
+still less with any design of helping his allies, but purely to get
+first grants from his parliament, and then a war indemnity from
+his enemies. In any case he was wise to make peace. France
+was now too strong for England, and both Maximilian and
+Ferdinand of Spain were selfish and shifty allies. Moreover, it
+was known that the one dominating desire of Charles VIII. was
+to conquer Italy, and it was clear that his ambitions in that
+direction were not likely to prove dangerous to England.</p>
+
+<p>In the year of the treaty of Étaples the Yorkist conspiracies
+began once more to thicken, and Henry was fortunate to escape
+with profit from the French war before his domestic
+troubles recommenced. Ever since 1483 it had been
+<span class="sidenote">Yorkist plots. Perkin Warbeck.</span>
+rumoured that one or both of the sons of Edward IV.
+had escaped, not having been murdered in the Tower.
+Of this widespread belief the plotters now took advantage;
+they held that much more could be accomplished with such a
+claim than by using that of the unfortunate Edward of Clarence,
+whose chances were so severely handicapped by his being still
+the prisoner of Henry VII. The scheme for producing a false
+Plantagenet was first renewed in Ireland, where Simnel&rsquo;s imposture
+had been so easily taken up a few years before. The tool
+selected was one Perkin Warbeck, a handsome youth of seventeen
+or eighteen, the son of a citizen of Tournai, who had lived
+for some time in London, where Perkin had actually been born.
+There is a bare possibility that the young adventurer may have
+been an illegitimate son of Edward IV.; his likeness to the late
+king was much noticed. When he declared himself to be Richard
+of York, he obtained some support in Ireland from the earl of
+Desmond and other lords; but he did not risk open rebellion
+till he had visited Flanders, and had been acknowledged as
+her undoubted nephew by Duchess Margaret. Maximilian
+of Austria also took up his cause, as a happy means of revenging
+himself on Henry VII. for the treaty of Étaples. There can
+be small doubt that both the duchess and the German King
+(Maximilian had succeeded to his father&rsquo;s crown in 1493) were
+perfectly well aware that they were aiding a manifest fraud. But
+they made much of Perkin, who followed the imperial court for
+two years, while his patron was intriguing with English malcontents.
+The emissaries from Flanders got many promises of
+assistance, and a formidable rising might have taken place had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page525" id="page525"></a>525</span>
+not Henry VII. been well served by his spies. But in the winter
+of 1494-1495 the traitors were themselves betrayed, and a large
+number of arrests were made, including not only Lord Fitzwalter
+and a number of well-known knights of Yorkist families,
+but Sir William Stanley, the king&rsquo;s chamberlain, who had been
+rewarded with enormous gifts for his good service at Bosworth,
+and was reckoned one of the chief supports of the throne.
+Stanley and several others were beheaded, the rest hanged or
+imprisoned. This vigorous action on the part of the king seems
+to have cowed all Warbeck&rsquo;s supporters on English soil. But the
+pretender nevertheless sailed from Flanders in July 1495 with
+a following of 2000 exiles and German mercenaries. He attempted
+to land at Deal, but his vanguard was destroyed by
+Kentish levies, and he drew off and made for Ireland. Suspecting
+that this would be his goal, King Henry had been doing his
+best to strengthen his hold on the Pale, whither he had sent his
+capable servant Sir Edward Poynings as lord deputy. Already
+before Warbeck&rsquo;s arrival Poynings had arrested the earl of
+Kildare, Simnel&rsquo;s old supporter, cowed some of the Irish by
+military force, and bought over others by promises of subsidies
+and pensions. But his best-remembered achievement was that
+he had induced the Irish parliament to pass the ordinances known
+as &ldquo;Poynings&rsquo; Law,&rdquo; by which it acknowledged that it could
+pass no legislation which had not been approved by the king
+and his council, and agreed that all statutes passed by the
+English parliament should be in force in Ireland. That such
+terms could be imposed shows the strength of Poynings&rsquo; arm,
+and his vigour was equally evident when Warbeck came ashore
+in Munster in July 1495. Few joined the impostor save the earl
+of Desmond, and he was repulsed from Waterford, and dared not
+face the army which the lord deputy put into the field against
+him. Thereupon, abandoning his Irish schemes, Warbeck sailed
+to Scotland, whose young king James IV. had just been seduced
+by the emperor Maximilian into declaring war on England.
+He promised the Scottish king Berwick and 50,000 crowns in
+return for the aid of an army. James took the offer, gave him
+the hand of his kinswoman Catherine Gordon, daughter of the
+earl of Huntly, and took him forth for a raid into Northumberland
+(1496). But a pretender backed by Scottish spears did
+not appeal to the sympathies of the English borderers. The
+expedition fell flat; not a man joined the banner of the white
+rose, and James became aware that he had set forth on a fool&rsquo;s
+errand. But Warbeck soon found other allies of a most unexpected
+sort. The heavy taxation granted by the English
+parliament for the Scottish war had provoked discontent and
+rioting in the south-western counties. In Cornwall especially
+<span class="sidenote">Cornish rebellion.</span>
+the disorders grew to such a pitch that local demagogues
+called out several thousand men to resist the
+tax-collectors, and finally raised open rebellion, proposing
+to march on London and compel the king to dismiss his
+ministers. These spiritual heirs of Jack Cade were Flammock,
+a lawyer of Bodmin, and a farrier named Michael Joseph.
+Whether they had any communication with Warbeck it is impossible
+to say; there is no proof of such a connexion, but their
+acts served him well. A Cornish army marched straight on
+London, picking up some supporters in Devon and Somerset on
+their way, including a discontented baron, Lord Audley, whom
+they made their captain.</p>
+
+<p>So precarious was the hold of Henry VII. on the throne that
+he was in great danger from this outbreak of mere local turbulence.
+The rebels swept over five counties unopposed,
+and were only stopped and beaten in a hard fight on
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Blackheath.</span>
+Blackheath, when they had reached the gates of
+London. Audley, the farrier and the lawyer were all
+captured and executed (June 18, 1497). But the crisis was not
+yet at an end. Warbeck, hearing of the rising, but not of its
+suppression, had left Scotland, and appeared in Devonshire in
+August. He rallied the wrecks of the west country rebels, and
+presently appeared before the gates of Exeter with nearly 8000
+men. But the citizens held out against him, and presently the
+approach of the royal army was reported. The pretender led
+off his horde to meet the relieving force, but when he reached
+Taunton he found that his followers were so dispirited that disaster
+was certain. Thereupon he absconded by night, and took
+sanctuary in the abbey of Beaulieu. He offered to confess his
+imposture if he were promised his life, and the king accepted
+the terms. First at Taunton and again at Westminster, Perkin
+publicly recited a long narrative of his real parentage, his frauds
+and his adventures. He was then consigned to not over strict
+confinement in the Tower, and might have fared no worse than
+Lambert Simnel if he had possessed his soul in patience. But
+in the next year he corrupted his warders, broke out from his
+prison, and tried to escape beyond seas. He was captured, but
+the king again spared his life, though he was placed for the
+future in a dungeon &ldquo;where he could see neither moon nor
+sun.&rdquo; Even this did not tame the impostor&rsquo;s mercurial temperament.
+In 1499 he again planned an escape, which was to
+be shared by another prisoner, the unfortunate Edward of
+Clarence, earl of Warwick, whose cell was in the storey above
+his own. But there were traitors among the Tower officials
+whom they suborned to help them, and the king was warned of
+the plot. He allowed it to proceed to the verge of execution,
+and then arrested both the false and the true Plantagenet.
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of Warbeck and Edward of Clarence.</span>
+Evidence of a suspicious character was produced to
+show that they had planned rebellion as well as mere
+escape, and both were put to death with some of their
+accomplices. Warbeck deserved all that he reaped,
+but the unlucky Clarence&rsquo;s fate estranged many hearts
+from the king. The simple and weakly young man, who had
+spent fifteen of his twenty-five years in confinement, had, in all
+probability, done no more than scheme for an escape from his
+dungeon. But as the true male heir of the house of Plantagenet
+he was too dangerous to be allowed to survive.</p>
+
+<p>The turbulent portion of the reign of Henry VII. came to an
+end with Blackheath Field and the siege of Exeter. From that
+time forward the Tudor dynasty was no longer in
+serious danger; there were still some abortive plots,
+<span class="sidenote">Establishment of the Tudor dynasty.</span>
+but none that had any prospect of winning popular
+support. The chances of Warbeck and Clarence had
+vanished long before they went to the scaffold. The Yorkist
+claim, after Clarence&rsquo;s death, might be supposed to have passed
+to his cousin Edmund, earl of Suffolk, the younger brother of that
+John, earl of Lincoln, who had been declared heir to the crown
+by Richard III., and had fallen at Stoke field. Fully conscious
+of the danger of his position, Suffolk fled to the continent, and
+lived for many years as a pensioner of the emperor Maximilian.
+Apparently he dabbled in treason; it is at any rate certain that
+in 1501 King Henry executed some, and imprisoned others, of his
+relatives and retainers. But his plots, such as they were, seem
+to have been futile. There was no substratum of popular discontent
+left in England on which a dangerous insurrection
+might be built up. It was to be forty years before another
+outbreak of turbulence against the crown was to break
+forth.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">VI. The Tudor Despotism and the Beginnings of the
+Reformation (1497-1528)</p>
+
+<p>The last twelve years of the reign of Henry VII. present in
+most respects a complete contrast to the earlier period, 1485-1497.
+There were no more rebellions, and&mdash;as we have already seen&mdash;no
+more plots that caused any serious danger. Nor did the king
+indulge his unruly subjects in foreign wars, though he was
+constantly engaged in negotiations with France, Scotland, Spain
+and the emperor, which from time to time took awkward turns.
+But Henry was determined to win all that he could by diplomacy,
+and not by force of arms. His cautious, but often unscrupulous,
+dealings with the rival continental powers had two main ends:
+the first was to keep his own position safe by playing off France
+against the Empire and Spain; the second was to get commercial
+advantages by dangling his alliance before each power in turn.
+Flanders was still the greatest customer of England, and it was
+therefore necessary above all things to keep on good terms with
+the archduke Philip, the son of Maximilian, who on coming of
+age had taken over the rule of the Netherlands from his father.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page526" id="page526"></a>526</span>
+The king&rsquo;s great triumphs were the conclusion of the <i>Intercursus
+Magnus</i> of 1496 and the <i>Intercursus Malus</i> (so called by the
+<span class="sidenote">Commercial treaties.</span>
+Flemings, not by the English) of 1506. The former
+provided for a renewal of the old commercial alliance
+with the house of Burgundy, on the same terms under
+which it had existed in the time of Edward IV.; the
+rupture which had taken place during the years when Maximilian
+was backing Perkin Warbeck had been equally injurious to both
+parties. The <i>Malus Intercursus</i> on the other hand gave England
+some privileges which she had not before enjoyed&mdash;exemption
+from local tolls in Antwerp and Holland, and a licence for
+English merchants to sell cloth retail as well as wholesale&mdash;a
+concession which hit the Netherland small traders and middlemen
+very hard. Another great commercial advantage secured
+by Henry VII. for his subjects was an increased share of the trade
+to the Scandinavian countries. The old treaties of Edward IV.
+with the Hanseatic League had left the Germans still in control of
+the northern seas. Nearly all the Baltic goods, and most of those
+from Denmark and Norway, had been reaching London or Hull
+in foreign bottoms. Henry allied himself with John of Denmark,
+who was chafing under the monopoly of the Hansa, and obtained
+the most ample grants of free trade in his realms. The Germans
+murmured, but the English shipping in eastern and northern
+waters continued to multiply. Much the same policy was
+pursued in the Mediterranean. Southern goods hitherto had
+come to Southampton or Sandwich invariably in Venetian
+carracks, which took back in return English wool and metals.
+Henry concluded a treaty with Florence, by which that republic
+undertook to receive his ships in its harbours and to allow them
+to purchase all eastern goods that they might require. From
+this time forward the Venetian monopoly ceased, and the visits
+of English merchant vessels to the Mediterranean became
+frequent and regular.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was it in dealing with old lines of trade alone that Henry
+Tudor showed himself the watchful guardian of the interests of
+his subjects. He must take his share of credit for the
+encouragement of the exploration of the seas of the
+<span class="sidenote">English navigators.</span>
+Far West. The British traders had already pushed far
+into the Atlantic before Columbus discovered America;
+fired by the success of the great navigator they continued their
+adventures, hoping like him to discover a short &ldquo;north-west
+passage&rdquo; to Cathay and Japan. With a charter from the king
+giving him leave to set up the English banner on all the lands
+he might discover, the Bristol Genoese trader John Cabot
+successfully passed the great sea in 1497, and discovered Newfoundland
+and its rich fishing stations. Henry rewarded him
+with a pension of £20 a year, and encouraged him to further
+exploration, in which he discovered all the American coastline
+from Labrador to the mouth of the Delaware&mdash;a great heritage
+for England, but one not destined to be taken up for colonization
+till more than a century had passed.</p>
+
+<p>Henry&rsquo;s services to English commerce were undoubtedly of
+far more importance to the nation than all the tortuous details
+of his foreign policy. His chicanery need not, however,
+be censured over much, for the princes with whom
+<span class="sidenote">Foreign policy of Henry VII.</span>
+he had to deal, and notably Ferdinand and Maximilian,
+were as insincere and selfish as himself. Few
+diplomatic hagglings have been so long and so sordid as that
+between England and Spain over the marriage treaty which
+gave the hand of Catherine of Aragon first to Henry&rsquo;s eldest
+son Arthur, and then, on his premature death in 1502, to his
+second son Henry. The English king no doubt imagined that
+he had secured a good bargain, as he had kept the princess&rsquo;s
+dowry, and yet never gave Ferdinand any practical assistance
+in war or peace. It is interesting to find that he had for some
+time at the end of his reign a second Spanish marriage in view;
+his wife Elizabeth of York having died in 1503, he seriously
+proposed himself as a suitor for Joanna of Castile, the elder
+sister of Catherine, and the widow of the archduke Philip,
+though she was known to be insane. Apparently he hoped thereby
+to gain vantage ground for an interference in Spanish politics,
+which would have been most offensive to Ferdinand. Nothing
+came of the project, which contrasts strangely with the greater
+part of Henry&rsquo;s sober and cautious schemes.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand a third project of marriage alliance which
+Henry carried out in 1503 was destined to be consummated,
+and to have momentous, though long-deferred, results.
+<span class="sidenote">Marriage of James IV. of Scotland and Margaret Tudor.</span>
+This was the giving of the hand of his daughter
+Margaret to James IV. of Scotland. Thereby he
+bought quiet on the Border and alliance with Scotland
+for no more than some ten years. But&mdash;as it chanced&mdash;the
+issue of this alliance was destined to unite the
+English and the Scottish crowns, when the male line of
+the Tudors died out, and Henry, quite unintentionally, had his
+share in bringing about the consummation, by peaceful means,
+of that end which Edward I. had sought for so long to win by
+the strong hand.</p>
+
+<p>All the foreign politics of the reign of Henry VII. have small
+importance compared with his work within the realm. The
+true monument of his ability was that he left England
+tamed and orderly, with an obedient people and a full
+<span class="sidenote">Character of Henry&rsquo;s internal rule.</span>
+exchequer, though he had taken it over wellnigh
+in a state of anarchy. The mere suppression of insurrections
+like those of Simnel and Warbeck was a small part
+of his task. The harder part was to recreate a spirit of order
+and subordination among a nation accustomed to long civil strife.
+His instruments were ministers of ability chosen from the
+clergy and the gentry&mdash;he seems to have been equally averse
+to trusting the baronage at the one end of the social scale, or
+mere upstarts at the other, and it is notable that no one during
+his reign can be called a court favourite. The best-known
+names among his servants were his great chancellor, Archbishop
+Morton, Foxe, bishop of Winchester, Sir Reginald Bray, and
+the lawyers Empson and Dudley. These two last bore the brunt
+of the unpopularity of the financial policy of the king during
+the latter half of his reign, when the vice of avarice seems to
+have grown upon him beyond all reason. But Henry was such
+a hard-working monarch, and so familiar with all the details
+of administration, that his ministers cannot be said to have had
+any independent authority, or to have directed their master&rsquo;s
+course of action.</p>
+
+<p>The machinery employed by the first of the Tudors for the
+suppression of domestic disorder is well known. The most
+important item added by him to the administrative
+machinery of the realm was the famous Star Chamber,
+<span class="sidenote">The Star Chamber.</span>
+which was licensed by the parliament of 1487. It
+consisted of a small committee of ministers, privy councillors
+and judges, which sat to deal with offences that seemed to lie
+outside the scope of the common law, or more frequently with
+the misdoings of men who were so powerful that the local courts
+could not be trusted to execute justice upon them, such as great
+landowners, sheriffs and other royal officials, or turbulent
+individuals who were the terror of their native districts. The
+need for a strong central court directly inspired by the king,
+which could administer justice without respect of persons, was
+so great, that the constitutional danger of establishing an
+autocratic judicial committee, untrammelled by the ordinary
+rules of law, escaped notice at the time. It was not till much
+later that the nation came to look upon the Star Chamber as
+the special engine of royal tyranny and to loathe its name. In
+1500 it was for the common profit of the realm that there should
+exist such a court, which could reduce even the most powerful
+offender to order.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most notable parts of the king&rsquo;s policy was his
+long-continued and successful assault on the abuse of &ldquo;livery
+and maintenance,&rdquo; which had been at its height during
+the Wars of the Roses. We have seen the part which
+<span class="sidenote">Suppression of livery and maintenance.</span>
+it had taken in strengthening the influence of those
+who were already too powerful, and weakening the
+ordinary operation of the law. Henry put it down
+with a strong hand, forbidding all liveries entirely, save for the
+mere domestic retainers of each magnate. His determination
+to end the system was well shown by the fact that he heavily
+fined even the earl of Oxford, the companion of his exile, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page527" id="page527"></a>527</span>
+victor of Bosworth, and the most notoriously loyal peer in the
+realm, for an ostentatious violation of the statute. Where
+Oxford was punished, no less favoured person could hope to
+escape. By the end of the reign the little hosts of badged adherents
+which had formed the nucleus for the armies of the
+Wars of the Roses had ceased to exist.</p>
+
+<p>Edward IV., as has been already remarked, had many of the
+opportunities of the autocrat, if only he had cared to use them;
+but his sloth and self-indulgence stood in the way.
+Henry VII., the most laborious and systematic of men,
+<span class="sidenote">Personal rule.</span>
+turned them to account. He formed his personal
+opinion on every problem of administration and intervened
+himself in every detail. In many respects he was his own prime
+minister, and nothing was done without his knowledge and
+consent. A consistent policy may be detected in all his acts&mdash;that
+of gathering all the machinery of government into his own
+hands. Under the later Plantagenets and the Lancastrian
+kings the great check on the power of the crown had been that
+financial difficulties were continually compelling the sovereign
+to summon parliaments. The estates had interfered perpetually
+in all the details of governance, by means of the power of the
+purse. Edward IV., first among English sovereigns, had been
+able to dispense with parliaments for periods of many years,
+because he did not need their grants save at long intervals.
+Henry was in the same position; by strict economy, by the use
+of foreign subsidies, by the automatic growth of his revenues
+during a time of peace and returning prosperity, by confiscation
+and forfeitures, he built himself up a financial position which
+rendered it unnecessary for him to make frequent appeals to
+parliament. Not the least fertile of his expedients was that
+regular exploitation of the law as a source of revenue, which
+had already been seen in the time of his father-in-law. This
+part of Henry&rsquo;s policy is connected with the name of his two
+extortionate &ldquo;fiscal judges&rdquo; Empson and Dudley, who &ldquo;turned
+law and justice into rapine&rdquo; by their minute inquisition into
+all technical breaches of legality, and the nice fashion in which
+they adapted the fine to the wealth of the misdemeanant,
+without any reference to his moral guilt or any regard for extenuating
+circumstances. The king must take the responsibility
+for their unjust doings; it was his coffers which mainly
+profited by their chicane. In his later years he fell into the vice
+of hoarding money for its own sake; so necessary was it to his
+policy that he should be free, as far as possible, from the need
+for applying to parliament for money, that he became morbidly
+anxious to have great hoards in readiness for any possible day
+of financial stress. At his death he is said to have had £1,800,000
+in hard cash laid by. Hence it is not strange to find that he was
+able to dispense with parliaments in a fashion that would have
+seemed incredible to a 14th-century king. In his whole reign
+he only asked them five times for grants of taxation, and three
+of the five requests were made during the first seven years of
+his reign. In the eyes of many men parliament lost the main
+reason for its existence when it ceased to be the habitual provider
+of funds for the ordinary expenses of the realm. Those who had
+a better conception of its proper functions could see that it had
+at any rate been stripped of its chief power when the king no
+longer required its subsidies. There are traces of a want of public
+interest in its proceedings, very different from the anxiety
+with which they used to be followed in Plantagenet and Lancastrian
+times. Legislation, which only incidentally affects
+him, is very much less exciting to the ordinary citizen than
+taxation, which aims directly at his pocket. It is at any rate
+clear that during the latter years of his reign, when the time
+of impostures and rebellions had ended, Henry was able to dispense
+with parliaments to a great extent, and incurred no unpopularity
+by doing so. Indeed he was accepted by the English
+people as the benefactor who had delivered them from anarchy;
+and if they murmured at his love of hoarding, and cursed his
+inquisitors Empson and Dudley, they had no wish to change the
+Tudor rule, and were far from regarding the times of the &ldquo;Lancastrian
+experiment&rdquo; as a lost golden age. The present king
+might be unscrupulous and avaricious, but he was cautious,
+intelligent and economical; no one would have wished to recall
+the régime of that &ldquo;crowned saint&rdquo; Henry VI.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless when the first of the Tudors died, on the 21st
+of April 1509, there were few who regretted him. He was not
+a monarch to rouse enthusiasm, while much was expected
+from his brilliant, clever and handsome son
+<span class="sidenote">Henry VIII.</span>
+Henry VIII., whose magnificent presence and manly
+vigour recalled the early prime of Edward IV. Some years later
+England realized that its new king had inherited not only the
+physical beauty and strength of his grandfather, but also every
+one of his faults, with the sole exception of his tendency to sloth.
+Henry VIII. indeed may be said, to sum up his character in
+brief, to have combined his father&rsquo;s brains with his grandfather&rsquo;s
+passions. Edward IV. was selfish and cruel, but failed to become
+a tyrant because he lacked the energy for continuous work.
+Henry VII. was unscrupulous and untiring, but so cautious and
+wary that he avoided violent action and dangerous risks. Their
+descendant had neither Edward&rsquo;s sloth nor Henry&rsquo;s moderation;
+he was capable of going to almost any lengths in pursuit of the
+gratification of his ambition, his passions, his resentment or his
+simple love of self-assertion. Yet, however far he might go on
+the road to tyranny, Henry had sufficient cunning, versatility
+and power of cool reflection, to know precisely when he had
+reached the edge of the impossible. He had his father&rsquo;s faculty
+for gauging public opinion, and estimating dangers, and though
+his more venturous temperament led him to press on far beyond
+the point at which the seventh Henry would have halted, he
+always stopped short on the hither side of the gulf. It was the
+most marvellous proof of his ability that he died on his throne
+after nearly forty years of autocratic rule, during which he had
+roused more enmities and done more to change the face of the
+realm than any of the kings that were before him.</p>
+
+<p>But it was long before the nation could estimate all the features
+of the magnificent but sinister figure which was to dominate
+England from 1509 to 1547. At his accession Henry VIII. was
+only eighteen years of age, and, if his character was already
+formed, it was only the attractive side of it that was yet visible.
+His personal beauty, his keen intelligence, his scholarship, his
+love of music and the arts, his kingly ambition, were all obvious
+enough. His selfishness, his cruelty, his ingratitude, his fierce
+hatred of criticism and opposition, his sensuality, had yet to be
+discovered by his subjects. A suspicious observer might have
+detected something ominous in the first act of his reign&mdash;the
+arrest and attainder of his father&rsquo;s unpopular ministers, Empson
+and Dudley, whose heads he flung to the people in order to win
+a moment&rsquo;s applause. Whatever their faults, they had served
+the house of Tudor well, and it was a grotesque perversion of
+justice to send them to the scaffold on a charge of high treason.
+A similar piece of cruelty was the execution, some time later, of
+the earl of Suffolk, who had been languishing long years in the
+Tower; he was destroyed not for any new plots, but simply for
+his Yorkist descent. But in Henry&rsquo;s earlier years such acts were
+still unusual; it was not till he had grown older, and had learnt
+how much the nation would endure, that judicial murder became
+part of his established policy.</p>
+
+<p>Henry&rsquo;s first outburst of self-assertion took the form of
+reversing his father&rsquo;s thrifty and peaceful policy, by plunging
+into the midst of the continental wars from which
+England had been held back by his cautious parent.
+<span class="sidenote">Continental projects of Henry VIII.</span>
+The adventure was wholly unnecessary, and also
+unprofitable. But while France was engaged in the
+&ldquo;Holy War&rdquo; against the pope, Venice, the emperor,
+and Ferdinand of Spain, Henry renewed the old claims of the
+Plantagenets, and hoped, if not to win back the position of
+Edward III., at least to recover the duchy of Aquitaine, or some
+parts of it. He lent an army to Ferdinand for the invasion of
+Gascony, and landed himself at Calais with 25,000 men, to beat
+up the northern border of France. Little good came of his
+efforts. The Spanish king gave no assistance, and the northern
+campaign, though it included the brilliant battle of the Spurs
+(August 16th, 1513), accomplished nothing more than the
+capture of Tournai and Thérouanne. It was soon borne in upon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page528" id="page528"></a>528</span>
+King Henry that France, even when engaged with other enemies,
+was too strong to be overrun in the old style. Moreover, his
+allies were giving him no aid, though they had eagerly accepted
+his great subsidies. With a sudden revulsion of feeling Henry
+offered peace to France, which King Louis XII. gladly bought,
+<span class="sidenote">Treaty of Étaples.</span>
+agreeing to renew the old pension or tribute that
+Henry VII. had received by the treaty of Étaples.
+Their reconciliation and alliance were sealed by the
+marriage of the French king to Henry&rsquo;s favourite sister Mary,
+who was the bridegroom&rsquo;s junior by more than thirty years.
+Their wedlock and the Anglo-French alliance lasted only till the
+next year, when Louis died, and Mary secretly espoused an
+old admirer, Charles Brandon, afterwards duke of Suffolk, King
+Henry&rsquo;s greatest friend and confidant.</p>
+
+<p>While the French war was still in progress there had been
+heavy fighting on the Scottish border. James IV., reverting to
+the traditionary policy of his ancestors, had taken the
+opportunity of attacking England while her king
+<span class="sidenote">War with Scotland. Battle of Flodden.</span>
+and his army were overseas. He suffered a disaster
+which recalls that of David II. at Neville&rsquo;s Cross&mdash;a
+fight which had taken place under precisely similar
+political conditions. After taking a few Northumbrian castles,
+James was brought to action at Flodden Field by the earl of
+Surrey (September 9th, 1513). After a desperate fight lasting
+the greater part of a day, the Scots were outman&oelig;uvred and
+surrounded. James IV.&mdash;who had refused to quit the field&mdash;was
+slain in the forefront of the battle, with the greater part of
+his nobles; with him fell also some 10,000 or 12,000 of his men.
+Scotland, with her military power brought low, and an infant
+king on the throne, was a negligible quantity in international
+politics for some years. The queen dowager, Margaret Tudor,
+aided by a party that favoured peace and alliance with England,
+was strong enough to balance the faction under the duke of
+Albany which wished for perpetual war and asked for aid from
+France.</p>
+
+<p>With the peace of 1514 ended the first period of King Henry&rsquo;s
+reign. He was now no longer a boy, but a man of twenty-three,
+with his character fully developed; he had gradually
+got rid of his father&rsquo;s old councillors, and had chosen
+<span class="sidenote">Thomas Wolsey.</span>
+for himself a minister as ambitious and energetic as
+himself, the celebrated Thomas Wolsey, whom he had just made
+archbishop of York, and who obtained the rank of cardinal
+from the pope in the succeeding year. Wolsey was the last of
+the great clerical ministers of the middle ages, and by no means
+the worst. Like so many of his predecessors he had risen from
+the lower middle classes, through the royal road of the church;
+he had served Henry VII.&rsquo;s old councillor Foxe, bishop of Winchester,
+as secretary, and from his household had passed into that
+of his master. He had been an admirable servant to both, full
+of zeal, intelligence and energy, and not too much burdened with
+scruples. The young king found in him an instrument well fitted
+to his hand, a man fearless, ingenious, and devoted to the furtherance
+of the power of the crown, by which alone he had reached
+his present position of authority. For fourteen years he was his
+master&rsquo;s chief minister&mdash;the person responsible in the nation&rsquo;s
+eyes for all the more unpopular assertions of the royal prerogative,
+and for all the heavy taxation and despotic acts which
+Henry&rsquo;s policy required. It mattered little to Henry that the
+cardinal was arrogant, tactless and ostentatious; indeed it
+suited his purpose that Wolsey should be saddled by public
+opinion with all the blame that ought to have been laid on his
+own shoulders. It was convenient that the old nobility should
+detest the upstart, and that the commons should imagine him
+to be the person responsible for the demands for money required
+for the royal wars. As long as his minister served his purposes
+and could execute his behests Henry gave him a free hand, and
+supported him against all his enemies. It was believed at the
+time, and is still sometimes maintained by historians, that
+Wolsey laid down schemes of policy and persuaded his master
+to adopt them; but the truth would appear to be that Henry
+was in no wise dominated by the cardinal, but imposed on him
+his own wishes, merely leaving matters of detail to be settled
+by his minister. Things indifferent might be trusted to him,
+but the main lines of English diplomacy and foreign policy
+show rather the influence of the king&rsquo;s personal desires of the
+moment than that of a statesman seeking national ends.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been alleged that Henry, under the guidance of
+Wolsey, followed a consistent scheme for aggrandizing England,
+by making her the state which kept the balance of power of
+Europe in her hands. And it is pointed out that during the
+years of the cardinal&rsquo;s ascendancy the alliance of England was
+sought in turn by the great princes of the continent, and proved
+the make-weight in the scales. This is but a superficial view
+of the situation. Henry, if much courted, was much deceived
+by his contemporaries. They borrowed his money and his armies,
+but fed him with vain promises and illusory treaties. He and
+his minister were alternately gulled by France and by the
+emperor, and the net result of all their activity was bankruptcy
+and discontent at home and ever-frustrated hopes abroad. It
+is hard to build up a reputation for statecraft for either Henry
+or Wolsey on the sum total of English political achievement
+during their collaboration.</p>
+
+<p>During the first few years of the cardinal&rsquo;s ascendancy the
+elder race of European sovereigns, the kings with whom
+Henry VII. had been wont to haggle, disappeared one
+after the other. Louis of France died in 1515, Ferdinand
+<span class="sidenote">Henry VIII. and the rivalry of Francis I. and Charles V.</span>
+of Aragon in 1516, the emperor Maximilian&mdash;the
+last survivor of his generation&mdash;in 1519. Louis
+was succeeded by the active, warlike and shifty
+Francis I.; the heritage of both Ferdinand and
+Maximilian&mdash;his maternal and paternal grandfathers&mdash;fell to
+Charles of Habsburg, who already possessed the Netherlands
+in his father&rsquo;s right and Castile in that of his mother. The
+enmity of the house of Valois and the house of Habsburg,
+which had first appeared in the wars of Charles VIII. and
+Maximilian, took a far more bitter shape under Francis I. and
+Charles V., two young princes who were rivals from their youth.
+Their wars were almost perpetual, their peaces never honestly
+carried out. Their powers were very equally balanced; if
+Charles owned broader lands than Francis, they were more
+scattered and in some cases less loyal. The solid and wealthy
+realm of France proved able to make head against Spain and
+the Netherlands, even when they were backed by the emperor&rsquo;s
+German vassals. Charles was also distracted by many stabs in
+the back from the Ottoman Turks, who were just beginning their
+attack on Christendom along the line of the Danube. To each
+of the combatants it seemed that the English alliance would
+turn the scale in his own favour. Henry was much courted,
+and wooed with promises of lands to be won from the other side
+by his ally of the moment. But neither Charles nor Francis
+wished him to be a real gainer, and he himself was a most untrustworthy
+friend, for he was quite ready to turn against his ally
+if he seemed to be growing too powerful, and threatened to
+dominate all Europe; the complete success of either party
+would mean that England would sink once more into a second-rate
+power. How faithless and insincere was Henry&rsquo;s policy
+may be gauged from the fact that in 1520, after all the pageantry
+of the &ldquo;Field of the Cloth of Gold&rdquo; and his vows of undying
+friendship for Francis, he met Charles a few weeks later at
+Gravelines, and concluded with him a treaty which pledged
+England to a defensive alliance against the king&rsquo;s &ldquo;good
+brother&rdquo; of France. Such things happened not once nor twice
+during the years of Wolsey&rsquo;s ministry. It was hardly to be
+wondered at, therefore, if Henry&rsquo;s allies regularly endeavoured
+<span class="sidenote">Failure of Henry&rsquo;s diplomacy.</span>
+to cheat him out of his share of their joint profits.
+What use was there in rewarding a friend who might
+become an enemy to-morrow? The greatest deception
+of all was in 1522, when Charles V., who had
+made the extraordinary promise that he would get Wolsey made
+pope, and lend Henry an army to conquer northern France,
+failed to redeem his word in both respects. He caused his
+own old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, to be crowned with the papal
+tiara, and left the English to invade Picardy entirely unassisted.
+But this was only one of many such disappointments.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page529" id="page529"></a>529</span></p>
+
+<p>The result of some twelve years of abortive alliances and
+ill-kept treaties was that Henry had obtained no single one
+of the advantages which he had coveted, and that he
+had lavished untold wealth and many English lives
+<span class="sidenote">Beginnings of parliamentary resistance.</span>
+upon phantom schemes which crumbled between his
+fingers. His subjects had already begun to murmur;
+the early parliaments of his reign had been passive
+and complaisant; but by 1523 the Commons had been goaded
+into resistance. They granted only half the subsidies asked from
+them, pleading that three summers more of such taxation as
+the cardinal demanded for his master would leave the realm
+drained of its last penny, and reduced to fall back on primitive
+forms of barter, &ldquo;clothes for victuals and bread for cheese,&rdquo;
+out of mere want of coin. Fortunately for the king his subjects
+laid all the blame upon his mouthpiece the cardinal, instead of
+placing it where it was due. On Wolsey&rsquo;s back also was saddled
+the most iniquitous of Henry&rsquo;s acts of tyranny against individuals&mdash;the
+judicial murder of the duke of Buckingham, the
+highest head among the English nobility. For some hasty words,
+amplified by the doubtful evidence of treacherous retainers,
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of the duke of Buckingham.</span>
+together with a foolish charge of dabbling with astrologers,
+the heir of the royal line of Thomas of Woodstock
+had been tried and executed with scandalous haste.
+His only real crime was that, commenting on the lack
+of male heirs to the crown&mdash;for after many years of
+wedlock with Catherine of Aragon Henry&rsquo;s sole issue was one sickly
+daughter&mdash;he had been foolish enough to remark that if anything
+should happen to the king he himself was close in succession
+to the crown. The cardinal bore the blame, because he and
+Buckingham had notoriously disliked each other; but the deed
+had really been of the king&rsquo;s own contriving. He was roused
+to implacable wrath by anyone who dared to speak on the forbidden
+topic of the succession question.</p>
+
+<p>In the later years of Wolsey&rsquo;s ascendancy, nevertheless, that
+same question was the subject of many anxious thoughts.
+From Henry&rsquo;s own mind it was never long absent; he
+yearned for a male heir, and he was growing tired of
+<span class="sidenote">Question of the king&rsquo;s divorce.</span>
+his wife Catherine, who was some years older than
+himself, had few personal attractions, and was growing
+somewhat of an invalid. Somewhere about the end of 1526
+those who were in the king&rsquo;s intimate confidence began to be
+aware that he was meditating a divorce&mdash;a thing not lightly
+to be taken in hand, for the queen was the aunt of the emperor
+Charles V., who would be vastly offended at such a proposal.
+But Henry&rsquo;s doubts had been marvellously stimulated by the
+fact that he had become enamoured of another lady&mdash;the
+beautiful, ambitious and cunning Anne Boleyn, a niece of the
+duke of Norfolk, who had no intention of becoming merely the
+king&rsquo;s mistress, but aspired to be his consort.</p>
+
+<p>The question of the king&rsquo;s divorce soon became inextricably
+confused with another problem, whose first beginnings go back
+to a slightly earlier date. What was to be the attitude
+of England towards the Reformation? It was now
+<span class="sidenote">England and the Reformation.</span>
+nearly ten years since Martin Luther had posted up
+his famous theses on the church door at Wittenberg,
+and since he had testified to his faith before the diet of Worms.
+All Germany was now convulsed with the first throes of the revolt
+against the papacy, and the echoes of the new theological
+disputes were being heard in England. King Henry himself
+in 1521 had deigned to write an abusive pamphlet against Luther,
+for which he had been awarded the magnificent title of <i>Fidei
+Defensor</i> by that cultured sceptic Pope Leo X. About the same
+time we begin to read of orders issued by the bishops for the
+discovery and burning of all Lutheran books&mdash;a clear sign
+that they were reaching England in appreciable quantities.
+Hitherto it had been only the works of Wycliffe that had
+merited this attention on the part of inquisitors. In the
+Wycliffite remnant, often persecuted but never exterminated,
+there already existed in England the nucleus of a Protestant
+party. All through the reign of Henry VII. and the early years
+of Henry VIII. the intermittent burning of &ldquo;heretics,&rdquo; and
+their far more frequent recantations, had borne witness to the
+fact that the sect still lingered on. The Wycliffites were a feeble
+folk, compelled to subterraneous ways, and destitute of learned
+leaders or powerful supporters. But they survived to see
+Luther&rsquo;s day, and to merge themselves in one body with the
+first English travelling scholars and merchants who brought
+back from the continent the doctrines of the German Reformation.
+The origins of a Protestant party, who were not mere
+Wycliffites, but had been first interested in dogmatic controversy
+by coming upon the works of Luther, can be traced back to the
+year 1521 and to the university of Cambridge. There a knot of
+scholars, some of whom were to perish early at the stake, while
+others were destined to become the leaders of the English
+Reformation, came together and encouraged each other to test
+the received doctrines of contemporary orthodoxy by searching
+the Scriptures and the works of the Fathers. The sect spread
+in a few years to London, Oxford and other centres of intellectual
+life, but for many years its followers were not numerous; like
+the old Lollardy, Protestantism took root only in certain
+places and among certain classes&mdash;notably the lesser clergy
+and the merchants of the great towns.</p>
+
+<p>King Henry and those who wished to please him professed
+as great a hatred and contempt for the new purveyors of German
+doctrines as for the belated disciples of Wycliffe. But there
+was another movement, whose origins went back for many
+centuries, which they were far from discouraging, and were
+prepared to utilize when it suited their convenience. This was
+the purely political feeling against the tyranny of the papacy,
+and the abuses of the national church, which in early ages had
+given supporters to William the Conqueror and Henry II.,
+which had dictated the statutes of Mortmain and of Praemunire.
+Little had been heard of the old anti-clerical party in England
+since the time of Henry IV.; it had apparently been identified
+in the eyes of the orthodox with that Lollardy with which it had
+for a time allied itself, and had shared in its discredit. But it
+had always continued to exist, and in the early years of
+Henry VIII. had been showing unmistakable signs of vitality.
+The papacy of the Renaissance was a fair mark for criticism.
+It was not hard to attack the system under which Rodrigo Borgia
+wore the tiara, while Girolamo Savonarola went to the stake;
+or in which Julius II. exploited the name of Christianity to serve
+his territorial policy in Italy, and Leo X. hawked his indulgences
+round Europe to raise funds which would enable him to gratify
+his artistic tastes. At no period had the official hierarchy of
+the Western Church been more out of touch with common
+righteousness and piety. Moreover, they were sinning under
+the eyes of a laity which was far more intelligent and educated,
+more able to think and judge for itself, less the slave of immemorial
+tradition, than the old public of the middle ages. In
+Italy the Renaissance might be purely concerned with things
+intellectual or artistic, and seem to have little or no touch with
+things moral. Beyond the Alps it was otherwise; among the
+Teutonic nations at least the revolt against the scholastic
+philosophy, the rout of the obscurantists, the eager pursuit of
+Hellenic culture, had a religious aspect. The same generation
+which refused to take thrice-translated and thrice-garbled
+screeds from Aristotle as the sum of human knowledge, and
+went back to the original Greek, was also studying the Old and
+New Testaments in their original tongues, and drawing from them
+conclusions as unfavourable to the intelligence as to the scholarship
+of the orthodox medieval divines. Such a discovery as that
+which showed that the &ldquo;False Decretals,&rdquo; on which so much
+of the power of the papacy rested, were mere 9th-century forgeries
+struck deep at the roots of the whole traditional relation between
+church and state.</p>
+
+<p>The first English scholars of the Renaissance, like Erasmus
+on the continent, did not see the logical outcome of their own
+discoveries, nor realize that the campaign against obscurantism
+would develop into a campaign against Roman orthodoxy.
+Sir Thomas More, the greatest of them, was actually driven into
+reaction by the violence of Protestant controversialists, and the
+fear that the new doctrines would rend the church in twain.
+He became himself a persecutor, and a writer of abusive
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page530" id="page530"></a>530</span>
+pamphlets unworthy of the author of the <i>Utopia</i>. But to the
+younger generation the irreconcilability of modern scholarship
+and medieval formulae of faith became more and more
+evident. One after another all the cardinal doctrines were
+challenged by writers who were generally acute, and almost
+invariably vituperative. For the controversies of the Reformation
+were conducted by both sides, from kings and prelates
+down to gutter pamphleteers, in language of the most unseemly
+violence.</p>
+
+<p>But, as has been already said, the scholars and theologians
+had less influence in the beginning of the English Reformation
+than the mere lay politicians, whose anti-clerical tendencies
+chanced to fit in with King Henry&rsquo;s convenience when he
+quarrelled with the papacy. It is well to note that the first
+attacks of parliament on the church date back to two years before
+Luther published his famous theses. The contention began
+in 1515 with the fierce assault by the Commons on the old abuse
+of benefit of clergy, and the immunity of clerical criminals from
+due punishment for secular crimes&mdash;a question as old as the
+times of Henry II. and Becket. But the discussion spread in
+later years from this particular point into a general criticism
+of the church and its relations to the state, embracing local
+grievances as well as the questions which turned on the dealings
+of the papacy with the crown. The old complaints which had
+been raised against the Church of England in the days of
+Edward I. or Richard II. had lost none of their force in 1526.
+The higher clergy were more than ever immersed in affairs of
+state, &ldquo;Caesarean&rdquo; as Wycliffe would have called them. It
+was only necessary to point to the great cardinal himself, and
+to ask how far his spiritual duties at York were properly discharged
+while he was acting as the king&rsquo;s prime minister. The
+cases of Foxe and Morton were much the same; the former
+passed for a well-meaning man, yet had been practically absent
+from his diocese for twenty years. Pluralism, nepotism, simony
+and all the other ancient abuses were more rampant than ever.
+The monasteries had ceased to be even the nurseries of literature;
+their chronicles had run dry, and secular priests or laymen had
+taken up the pens that the monks had dropped. They were
+wealthier than ever, yet did little to justify their existence;
+indeed the spirit of the age was so much set against them that
+they found it hard to keep up the numbers of their inmates.
+Truculent pamphleteers like Simon Fish, who wrote <i>Beggars&rsquo;
+Supplication</i>, were already demanding &ldquo;that these sturdy
+boobies should be set abroad into the world, to get wives of their
+own, and earn their living by the sweat of their brows, according
+to the commandment of God; so might the king be better
+obeyed, matrimony be better kept, the gospel better preached,
+and none should rob the poor of his alms.&rdquo; It must be added
+that monastic scandals were not rare; though the majority
+of the houses were decently ordered, yet the unexceptionable
+testimony of archiepiscopal and episcopal visitations shows that
+in the years just before the Reformation there was a certain
+number of them where chastity of life and honesty of administration
+were equally unknown. But above all things the church
+was being criticized as an <i>imperium in imperio</i>, a privileged
+body not amenable to ordinary jurisdiction, and subservient
+to a foreign lord&mdash;the pope. And it was true that, much as
+English churchmen might grumble at papal exactions, they
+were generally ready as a body to support the pope against the
+crown; the traditions of the medieval church made it impossible
+for them to do otherwise. That there would in any case have
+been a new outbreak of anti-clerical and anti-papal agitation
+in England, under the influence of the Protestant impulse started
+by Luther in Germany, is certain. But two special causes gave
+its particular colour to the opening of the English Reformation;
+the one was that the king fell out with the papacy on the question
+of his divorce. The other was that the nation at this moment
+was chafing bitterly against a clerical minister, whom it (very
+unjustly) made responsible for the exorbitant taxation which
+it was enduring, in consequence of the king&rsquo;s useless and unsuccessful
+foreign wars. The irony of the situation lay in the
+facts that Henry was, so far as dogmatic views were concerned,
+a perfectly orthodox prince; he had a considerable knowledge
+of the old theological literature, as he had shown in his pamphlet
+against Luther, and though he was ready to repress clerical
+immunities and privileges that were inconvenient to the crown,
+he had no sympathy whatever with the doctrinal side of the new
+revolt against the system of the medieval church. Moreover,
+Wolsey, whose fall was to synchronize with the commencement
+of the reforming movement, was if anything more in sympathy
+with change than was his master. He was an enlightened
+patron of the new learning, and was inclined to take vigorous
+measures in hand for the pruning away of the abuses of the
+church. It is significant that his great college at Oxford&mdash;&ldquo;Cardinal&rsquo;s
+College&rdquo; as he designed to call it, &ldquo;Christ Church&rdquo;
+as it is named to-day&mdash;was endowed with the revenues of some
+score of small monasteries which he had suppressed on the
+ground that they were useless or ill-conducted. His master
+turned the lesson to account a few years later; but Henry&rsquo;s
+wholesale destruction of religious houses was carried out not in
+the interests of learning, but mainly in those of the royal
+exchequer.</p>
+<div class="author">(C. W. C. O.)</div>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">VII. The Reformation and the Age of Elizabeth
+(1528-1603)</p>
+
+<p>Wolsey did not fall through any opposition to reform; nor
+was he opposed to the idea of a divorce. Indeed, both in France
+and Spain he was credited with the authorship of the
+project. But he differed from Henry on the question
+<span class="sidenote">Fall of Wolsey.</span>
+of Catherine&rsquo;s successor. Wolsey desired a French
+marriage to consummate the breach upon which he was now
+bent with the emperor; and war, in fact, was precipitated with
+Spain in 1528. This is said to have been done without Henry&rsquo;s
+consent; he certainly wished to avoid war with Charles V., and
+peace was made after six months of passive hostility. Nor did
+Henry want a French princess; his affections were fixed for
+the time on Anne Boleyn, and she was the hope of the anti-clerical
+party. The crisis was brought to a head by the failure of
+Wolsey&rsquo;s plan to obtain a divorce. Originally it had been suggested
+that the ecclesiastical courts in England were competent
+without recourse to Rome. Wolsey deprecated this procedure,
+and application was made to Clement VII. Wolsey relied upon
+his French and Italian allies to exert the necessary powers of
+persuasion; and in 1528 a French army crossed the Alps,
+marched through Italy and threatened to drive Charles V. out
+of Naples. Clement was in a position to listen to Henry&rsquo;s
+prayer; and Campeggio was commissioned with Wolsey to hear
+the suit and grant the divorce.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had Campeggio started than the fortunes of war
+changed. The French were driven out of Naples, and the
+Imperialists again dominated Rome; the Church,
+wrote Clement to Campeggio, was completely in the
+<span class="sidenote">Question of the divorce.</span>
+power of Charles V. The cardinal, therefore, must on
+no account pronounce against Charles&rsquo;s aunt; if he
+could not persuade Henry and Catherine to agree on a mutual
+separation, he must simply pass the time and come to no conclusion.
+Hence it was June 1529 before the court got to work at
+all, and then its proceedings were only preparatory to an adjournment
+and revocation of the suit to Rome in August. Clement VII.
+had, in his own words, made up his mind to live and die an
+imperialist; the last remnants of the French army in Italy had
+been routed, and the pope had perforce concluded the treaty
+of Barcelona, a sort of family compact between himself and
+Charles, whereby he undertook to protect Charles&rsquo;s aunt, and the
+emperor to support the Medici dynasty in Florence. This peace
+was amplified at the treaty of Cambrai (August 1529) into a
+general European pacification in which England had no voice.
+So far had it fallen since 1521.</p>
+
+<p>In every direction Wolsey had failed, and his failure involved
+the triumph of the forces which he had opposed. The fate of
+the papal system in England was bound up with his personal
+fortunes. It was he and he alone who had kept parliament at
+arm&rsquo;s length and the enemies of the church at bay. He had
+interested the king, and to some extent the nation, in a spirited
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page531" id="page531"></a>531</span>
+foreign policy, had diverted their attention from domestic
+questions, and had staved off that parliamentary attack on the
+church which had been threatened fifteen years before. Now
+he was doomed, and both Campeggio and Cardinal du Bellay
+were able to send their governments accurate outlines of the
+future policy of Henry VIII. The church was to be robbed of
+its wealth, its power and its privileges, and the papal jurisdiction
+was to be abolished. In October Wolsey was deprived of the
+great seal, and surrendered many of his ecclesiastical preferments,
+though he was allowed to retain his archbishopric of York
+which he now visited for the first time. The first lay ministry
+since Edward the Confessor&rsquo;s time came into office; Sir Thomas
+More became lord chancellor, and Anne Boleyn&rsquo;s father lord
+privy seal; the only prominent cleric who remained in office
+was Stephen Gardiner, who succeeded Wolsey as bishop of
+Winchester.</p>
+
+<p>Parliament met in November 1529 and passed many acts
+against clerical exactions, mortuaries, probate dues and
+pluralities, which evoked a passionate protest from
+Bishop Fisher: &ldquo;Now, with the Commons,&rdquo; he cried
+<span class="sidenote">Attack on the church in parliament.</span>
+in the House of Lords, &ldquo;is nothing but &lsquo;Down with
+the Church.&rsquo;&rdquo; During 1530 Henry&rsquo;s agents were busy
+abroad making that appeal on the divorce to the universities
+which Cranmer had suggested. In 1531 the clergy
+in convocation, terrified by the charge of <i>praemunire</i> brought
+against them for recognizing Wolsey&rsquo;s legatine authority, paid
+Henry a hundred and eighteen thousand pounds and recognized
+him as supreme head of the church so far as the law of Christ
+would allow. The details of this surrender were worked out
+by king and Commons in 1532; but Gardiner and More secured
+the rejection by the Lords of the bill in which they were embodied,
+and it was not till 1533, when More had ceased to be chancellor
+and Gardiner to be secretary, that a parliamentary statute
+annihilated the independent legislative authority of the church.
+An act was, however, passed in 1532 empowering the king, if
+he thought fit, to stop the payment of annates to Rome. Henry
+suspended his consent in order to induce the pope to grant
+Cranmer his bulls as archbishop of Canterbury where he succeeded
+Warham late in 1532. The stratagem was successful, and
+Henry cast off all disguise. The act of annates was confirmed;
+another prohibiting appeals to Rome and providing for the
+appointment of bishops without recourse to the papacy was
+passed; and Cranmer declared Henry&rsquo;s marriage with Catherine
+<span class="sidenote">Henry VIII. marries Anne Boleyn.</span>
+null and void and that with Anne Boleyn, which had
+taken place about January 25, 1533, valid. Anne
+was crowned in June, and on the 7th of September the
+future Queen Elizabeth was born. At length in 1534
+Clement VII. concluded the case at Rome, pronouncing
+in favour of Catherine&rsquo;s marriage, and drawing up a bull of excommunication
+against Henry and his abettors. But he did
+not venture to publish it; public opinion in England, while
+hostile to the divorce, was not in favour of the clergy or the pope,
+and the rivalry between Charles V. and Francis I. was too bitter
+to permit of joint, or even isolated, action against Henry.
+Charles was only too anxious to avoid the duty of carrying out
+the pope&rsquo;s commands, and a year later he was once more involved
+in war with France. Henry was able to deal roughly with such
+manifestations as Elizabeth Barton&rsquo;s visions, and in the autumn
+<span class="sidenote">The Act of Supremacy.</span>
+of 1534 to obtain from parliament the Act of Supremacy
+which transferred to him the juridical, though not the
+spiritual, powers of the pope. No penalties were
+attached to this act, but another passed in the same
+session made it treason to attempt to deprive the king of any
+of his titles, of which supreme head of the church was one,
+being incorporated in the royal style by letters patent of January
+1535. Fisher and More were executed on this charge; they had
+been imprisoned in the previous year for objecting to take the
+form of oath to the succession as vested in Anne Boleyn&rsquo;s children
+which the commissioners prescribed. But their lives could only
+be forfeit on the supposition that they sought to deprive the
+king of his royal supremacy. Many of the friars observant of
+Greenwich and monks of the Charterhouse were involved in a
+similar fate, but there was no general resistance, and Henry, now
+inspired or helped by Thomas Cromwell, was able to proceed
+with the next step in the Reformation, the dissolution of the
+monasteries.</p>
+
+<p>It was Cecil&rsquo;s opinion twenty-five years later that, but for
+the dissolution, the cause of the Reformation could not have
+succeeded. Such a reason could hardly be avowed,
+and justification had to be sought in the condition of
+<span class="sidenote">Dissolution of the monasteries.</span>
+the monasteries themselves. The action of Wolsey and
+other bishops before 1529, the report of a commission
+of cardinals appointed by Paul III. in 1535, the subsequent
+experience of other, even Catholic, countries give collateral
+support to the conclusions of the visitors appointed by Cromwell,
+although they were dictated by a desire not to deal out impartial
+justice, but to find reasons for a policy already adopted in
+principle. That they exaggerated the evils of monastic life
+hardly admits of doubt; but even a Henry VIII. and a Thomas
+Cromwell would not have dared to attack, or succeeded in destroying,
+the monasteries had they retained their original purity and
+influence. As it was their doubtful reputation and financial
+embarrassments enabled Henry to offer them as a gigantic bribe
+to the upper classes of the laity, and the Reformation parliament
+met for its last session early in 1536 to give effect to the reports
+of the visitors and to the king&rsquo;s and their own desires.</p>
+
+<p>But it had barely been dissolved in April when it became
+necessary to call another. In January the death of Catherine
+had rejoiced the hearts of Henry and Anne Boleyn, but Anne&rsquo;s
+happiness was short-lived. Two miscarriages and the failure
+to produce the requisite male heir linked her in Henry&rsquo;s mind
+and in misfortune to Catherine; unlike Catherine she was unpopular
+and not above suspicion. The story of her tragedy is
+still one of the most horrible and mysterious pages in English
+history. It is certain that Henry was tired and wanted to get
+rid of her; but if she were innocent, why were charges brought
+against her which were not brought against Catherine of Aragon
+and Anne of Cleves? and why were four other victims sacrificed
+when one would have been enough? The peers a year before
+could acquit Lord Dacre; would they have condemned the queen
+without some show of evidence? and unless there was suspicious
+evidence, her daughter was inhuman in making no effort subsequently
+to clear her mother&rsquo;s character. However that may be,
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of Queen Anne Boleyn.</span>
+Anne was not only condemned and executed, but her
+marriage was declared invalid and her daughter a
+bastard. Parliament was required to establish the
+succession on the new basis of Henry&rsquo;s new queen,
+Jane Seymour. It also empowered the king to leave the crown
+by will if he had no legitimate issue; but the illegitimate son,
+the duke of Richmond, in whose favour this provision is said to
+have been conceived, died shortly afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for Henry, Queen Jane roused no domestic or
+foreign animosities; Charles V. and Francis I. were at war;
+and the pope&rsquo;s and Pole&rsquo;s attempt to profit by the
+Pilgrimage of Grace came too late to produce any effect
+<span class="sidenote">The Pilgrimage of Grace.</span>
+except the ruin of Pole&rsquo;s family. The two risings of
+1536 in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were provoked
+partly by the dissolution of the monasteries, partly by the collection
+of a subsidy and fears of fresh taxation on births, marriages
+and burials, and partly by the protestantizing Ten Articles of
+1536 and Cromwell&rsquo;s <i>Injunctions</i>. They were conservative
+demonstrations in favour of a restoration of the old order by
+means of a change of ministry, but not a change of dynasty.
+The Lincolnshire rising was over before the middle of October,
+the more serious revolt in Yorkshire under Aske lasted through
+the winter. Henry&rsquo;s lieutenants were compelled to temporize
+and make concessions. Aske was invited to come to London and
+hoodwinked by Henry into believing that the king was really
+bent on restoration and reform. But an impatient outburst of
+the insurgents and a foolish attempt to seize Hull and Scarborough
+gave Henry an excuse for repudiating the concessions
+made in his name. He could afford to do so because England
+south of the Trent remained stauncher to him than England
+north of it did to the Pilgrimage. Aske and other leaders were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page532" id="page532"></a>532</span>
+tried and executed, and summary vengeance was wreaked on
+the northern counties, especially on the monasteries. The one
+satisfactory outcome was the establishment of the Council of
+the North, which gave the shires between the Border and the
+Trent a stronger and more efficient government than they had
+ever had before.</p>
+
+<p>Probably the Pilgrimage had some effect in moderating
+Henry&rsquo;s progress. The monasteries did not benefit and in
+1538-1539 the greater were involved in the fate which
+had already overtaken the less. But no further advances
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Six Articles.&rdquo;</span>
+were made towards Protestantism after the
+publication and authorization of the &ldquo;Great&rdquo; Bible in English.
+The Lutheran divines who came to England in 1538 with a
+project for a theological union were rebuffed; the parliament
+elected in 1539 was Catholic, and only the reforming bishops in
+the House of Lords offered any resistance to the Six Articles
+which reaffirmed the chief points in Catholic doctrine and
+practice. The alliance between pope, emperor and French
+king induced Henry to acquiesce in Cromwell&rsquo;s scheme for a
+political understanding with Cleves and the Schmalkaldic League,
+which might threaten Charles V.&rsquo;s position in Germany and the
+Netherlands, but could not be of much direct advantage to
+England. Cromwell rashly sought to wed Henry to this policy,
+proposed Anne of Cleves as a bride for Henry, now once more
+a widower, and represented the marriage as England&rsquo;s sole
+protection against a Catholic league. Henry put his neck under
+the yoke, but soon discovered that there was no necessity; for
+Charles and Francis were already beginning to quarrel and had
+<span class="sidenote">Fall of Thomas Cromwell.</span>
+no thought of a joint attack on England. The discovery
+was fatal to Cromwell; after a severe struggle
+in the council he was abandoned to his enemies,
+attainted of treason and executed. Anne&rsquo;s marriage
+was declared null, and Henry found a fifth queen in Catherine
+Howard, a niece of Norfolk, a protégée of Gardiner, and a friend
+of the Catholic church.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless there was no reversal of what had been done,
+only a check to the rate of progress. Cranmer remained archbishop
+and compiled an English Litany, while Catherine Howard
+soon ceased to be queen; charges of loose conduct, which in her
+case at any rate were not instigated by the king, were made
+against her and she was brought to the block; she was succeeded
+by Catherine Parr, a mild patron of the new learning. The Six
+Articles were only fitfully put in execution, especially in 1543
+and 1546: all the plots against Cranmer failed; and before he
+died Henry was even considering the advisability of further
+steps in the religious reformation, apart from mere spoliation
+like the confiscation of the chantry lands.</p>
+
+<p>But Scotland, Ireland and foreign affairs concerned him most.
+Something substantial was achieved in Ireland; the papal
+sovereignty was abolished and Henry received from
+the Irish parliament the title of king instead of lord of
+<span class="sidenote">Policy in Ireland and Scotland.</span>
+Ireland. The process was begun of converting Irish
+chieftains into English peers which eventually divorced
+the Irish people from their natural leaders; and principles of
+English law and government were spread beyond the Pale.
+In Scotland Henry was less fortunate. He failed to win over
+James V. to his anti-papal policy, revived the feudal claim to
+suzerainty, won the battle of Solway Moss (1542), and then after
+James&rsquo;s death bribed and threatened the Scots estates into
+concluding a treaty of marriage between their infant queen and
+Henry&rsquo;s son. The church in Scotland led by Beaton, and the
+French party led by James V.&rsquo;s widow, Mary of Guise, soon
+reversed this decision, and Hertford&rsquo;s heavy hand was (1544)
+laid on Edinburgh in revenge. France was at the root of the
+evil, and Henry was thus induced once more to join Charles V.
+in war (1543). The joint invasion of 1544 led to the capture of
+Boulogne, but the emperor made peace in order to deal with the
+Lutherans and left Henry at war with France. The French
+attempted to retaliate in 1545, and burnt some villages in the
+Isle of Wight and on the coast of Sussex. But their expedition
+was a failure, and peace was made in 1546, by which Henry
+undertook to restore Boulogne in eight years&rsquo; time on payment
+of eight hundred thousand crowns. Scotland was not included in
+the pacification, and when Henry died (January 28, 1547) he was
+busy preparing to renew his attempt on Scotland&rsquo;s independence.</p>
+
+<p>He left a council of sixteen to rule during his son&rsquo;s minority.
+The balance of parties which had existed since Cromwell&rsquo;s fall
+had been destroyed in the last months of the reign
+by the attainder of Norfolk and his son Surrey, and
+<span class="sidenote">Edward VI.</span>
+the exclusion of Gardiner and Thirlby from the council
+of regency. Men of the new learning prevailed, and Hertford
+(later duke of Somerset), as uncle to Edward VI., was made protector
+of the realm and governor of the king&rsquo;s person. He soon
+succeeded in removing the trammels imposed upon his authority,
+and made himself king in everything but name. He used his
+arbitrary power to modify the despotic system of the Tudors;
+all treason laws since Edward III., all heresy laws, all restrictions
+upon the publication of the Scriptures were removed in the first
+parliament of the reign, and various securities for liberty were
+<span class="sidenote">Progress of the Reformation.</span>
+enacted. The administration of the sacrament of
+the altar in both elements was permitted, the Catholic
+interpretation of the mass was rendered optional,
+images were removed, and English was introduced
+into nearly the whole of the church service. In the following
+session (1548-1549) the first Act of Uniformity authorized the
+first Book of Common Prayer. It met with strenuous resistance
+in Devon and in Cornwall, where rebellions added to the thickening
+troubles of the protector.</p>
+
+<p>His administration was singularly unsuccessful. In 1547 he
+won the great but barren victory of Pinkie Cleugh over the
+Scots, and attempted to push on the marriage and
+union by a mixture of conciliation and coercion. He
+<span class="sidenote">Administration of the protector Somerset.</span>
+made genuine and considerable concessions to Scottish
+feeling, guaranteeing autonomy and freedom of trade,
+and suggesting that the two realms should adopt the
+indifferent style of the empire of Great Britain. But he also
+seized Haddington in 1548, held by force the greater part of the
+Lowlands, and, when Mary was transported to France, revived
+the old feudal claims which he had dropped in 1547. France
+was, as ever, the backbone of the Scots resistance; men and
+money poured into Edinburgh to assist Mary of Guise and the
+French faction. The protector&rsquo;s offer to restore Boulogne could
+not purchase French acquiescence in the union of England and
+Scotland; and the bickerings on the borders in France and
+open fighting in Scotland led the French to declare war on
+England in August 1549. They were encouraged by dissensions
+in England. Somerset&rsquo;s own brother, Thomas Seymour, jealous
+of the protector, intrigued against the government; he sought
+to secure the hand of Elizabeth, the favour of Edward VI. and
+the support of the Suffolk line, secretly married Catherine Parr,
+and abused his office as lord high admiral to make friends with
+pirates and other enemies of order. Foes of the family, such as
+Warwick and Southampton, saw in his factious conduct the
+means of ruining both the brothers. Seymour was brought
+to the block, and the weak consent of the protector seriously
+damaged him in the public eye. His notorious sympathy with
+the peasantry further alienated the official classes and landed
+gentry, and his campaign against enclosures brought him into
+conflict with the strongest forces of the time. The remedial
+measures which he favoured failed; and the rising of Ket in
+Norfolk and others less important in nearly all the counties of
+England, made Somerset&rsquo;s position impossible. Bedford and
+Herbert suppressed the rebellion in the west, Warwick that in
+Norfolk (July-August 1549). They then combined with the
+majority of the council and the discontented Catholics to remove
+the protector from office and imprison him in the Tower (October).</p>
+
+<p>The Catholics hoped for reaction, the restoration of the mass,
+and the release of Gardiner and Bonner, who had been imprisoned
+for resistance to the protector&rsquo;s ecclesiastical
+policy. But Warwick meant to rely on the Protestant
+<span class="sidenote">Administration of the duke of Northumberland.</span>
+extremists; by January 1550 the Catholics had been
+expelled from the council, and the pace of the Reformation
+increased instead of diminishing. Peace was made
+with France by the surrender of Boulogne and abandonment
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page533" id="page533"></a>533</span>
+of the policy of union with Scotland (March 1550); and the
+approach of war between France and the emperor, coupled
+with the rising of the princes in Germany, relieved Warwick from
+foreign apprehensions and gave him a free hand at home.
+Gardiner, Bonner, Heath, Day and Tunstall were one by one
+deprived of their sees; a new ordinal simplified the ritual of
+ordination, and a second Act of Uniformity and Book of Common
+Prayer (1552) repudiated the Catholic interpretation which had
+been placed on the first and imposed a stricter conformity to
+the Protestant faith. All impediments to clerical marriage were
+<span class="sidenote">Establishment of Protestantism.</span>
+removed, altars and organs were taken down, old
+service books destroyed and painted windows broken;
+it was even proposed to explain away the kneeling at
+the sacrament. The liberal measures of the protector
+were repealed, and new treasons were enacted; Somerset himself,
+who had been released and restored to the council in 1550,
+became an obstacle in Warwick&rsquo;s path, and was removed by
+means of a bogus plot, being executed in January 1552; while
+Warwick had himself made duke of Northumberland, his friend
+Dorset duke of Suffolk, and Herbert earl of Pembroke.</p>
+
+<p>But his ambition and violence made him deeply unpopular, and
+the failing health of Edward VI. opened up a serious prospect
+for Northumberland. He was only safe so long as he controlled
+the government, and prevented the administration of justice,
+and the knowledge that not only power but life was at stake
+drove him into a desperate plot for the retention of both. He
+could trade upon Edward&rsquo;s precocious hatred of Mary&rsquo;s religion,
+he could rely upon French fears of her Spanish inclinations, and
+the success which had attended his schemes in England deluded
+him into a belief that he could supplant the Tudor with a Dudley
+dynasty. His son Guilford Dudley was hastily married to Lady
+Jane Grey, the eldest granddaughter of Henry VIII.&rsquo;s younger
+sister Mary. Henry&rsquo;s two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, the
+descendants of his elder sister Margaret, and Lady Jane&rsquo;s mother,
+the duchess of Suffolk, were all to be passed over, and the succession
+was to be vested in Lady Jane and her heirs male.
+Edward was persuaded that he could devise the crown by will,
+the council and the judges were browbeaten into acquiescence,
+and three days after Edward&rsquo;s death (July 6, 1553), Lady Jane
+Grey was proclaimed queen in London. Northumberland had
+miscalculated the temper of the nation, and failed to kidnap
+Mary. She gathered her forces in Norfolk and Suffolk, Northumberland
+rode out from London to oppose her, but defection
+dogged his steps, and even in London Mary was proclaimed
+queen behind his back by his fellow-conspirators. Mary entered
+London amid unparalleled popular rejoicings, and Northumberland
+was sent to a well-deserved death on the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was determined from the first to restore papalism as
+well as Catholicism, but she had to go slowly. The papacy
+had few friends in England, and even Charles V., on
+whom Mary chiefly relied for guidance, was not eager
+<span class="sidenote">Queen Mary. Restoration of the old religion.</span>
+to see the papal jurisdiction restored. He wanted
+England to be first firmly tied to the Habsburg interests
+by Mary&rsquo;s marriage with Philip. Nor was it generally
+anticipated that Mary would do more than restore
+religion as it had been left by her father. She did not attempt
+anything further in 1553 than the repeal of Edward VI.&rsquo;s legislation
+and the accomplishment of the Spanish marriage. The
+latter project provoked fierce resistance; various risings were
+planned for the opening months of 1554, and Wyat&rsquo;s nearly
+proved successful. Only his arrogance and procrastination
+and Mary&rsquo;s own courage saved her throne. But the failure of
+this protest enabled Mary to carry through the Spanish marriage,
+which was consummated in July; and in the ensuing parliament
+(Oct.-Jan. 1554-1555) all anti-papal legislation was repealed;
+Pole was received as legate; the realm was reconciled to Rome;
+and, although the holders of abbey lands were carefully protected
+against attempts at restitution, the church was empowered to
+work its will with regard to heresy. The Lollard statutes were
+revived, and between February 1555 and November 1558 some
+three hundred Protestants were burnt at the stake. They began
+with John Rogers and Rowland Taylor, and Bishops Ferrar of
+St Davids and Hooper of Gloucester. Ridley and Latimer were
+not burnt until October 1555, and Cranmer not till March 1556.
+London, Essex, Hertfordshire, East Anglia, Kent and Sussex
+provided nearly all the victims; only one was burnt north of the
+Trent, and only one south-west of Wiltshire. But in the Protestant
+districts neither age nor sex was spared; even the dead
+were dug up and burnt. The result was to turn the hearts of
+Mary&rsquo;s people from herself, her church and her creed. Other
+causes helped to convert their enthusiastic loyalty into bitter
+<span class="sidenote">Unpopularity of the Spanish marriage. Philip II.</span>
+hatred. The Spanish marriage was a failure from
+every point of view. In spite of Mary&rsquo;s repeated delusions,
+she bore no child, and both parliament and
+people resisted every attempt to deprive Elizabeth of
+her right to the succession. Philip did all he could to
+conciliate English affections, but they would not have
+Spanish control at any price. They knew that his blandishments
+were dictated by ulterior designs, and that the absorption of
+England in the Habsburg empire was his ultimate aim. As it
+was, the Spanish connexion checked England&rsquo;s aspirations; her
+adventurers were warned off the Spanish Main, and even trade
+with the colonies of Philip&rsquo;s ally Portugal was prohibited. They
+had to content themselves with the Arctic Ocean and Muscovy;
+and they soon found themselves at war in Philip&rsquo;s interests.
+Philip himself refused to declare war on Scotland on England&rsquo;s
+behalf, but he induced Mary to declare war on France on his
+own (1557). The glory of the war fell to the Spaniards at
+St Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558), but the shame to
+England by the loss of Calais (Jan. 1558). Ten months later
+Mary died (Nov. 17), deserted by her husband and broken-hearted
+at the loss of Calais and her failure to win English
+hearts back to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish and Venetian ambassadors in London were
+shocked at what they regarded as the indecent rejoicings over
+Elizabeth&rsquo;s accession. The nation, indeed, breathed
+a new life. Papal control of its ecclesiastical, and
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of Elizabeth. English national struggle with Spain.</span>
+Spanish control of its foreign policy ceased, and it had
+a queen who gloried in being &ldquo;mere English.&rdquo; There
+was really no possible rival sovereign, and no possible
+alternative policy. The English were tugging at the
+chain and Elizabeth had to follow; her efforts throughout
+were aimed at checking the pace at which her people wanted
+to go. She could not have married Philip had she wished to, and
+she could not have kept her sea-dogs off the Spanish Main.
+They were willing to take all the risks and relieve her of all
+responsibility; they filled her coffers with Spanish gold which
+they plundered as pirates, knowing that they might be hanged
+if caught; and they fought Elizabeth&rsquo;s enemies in France and
+in the Netherlands as irregulars, taking their chance of being shot
+if taken prisoners. While Elizabeth nursed prosperity in peace,
+her subjects sapped the strength of England&rsquo;s rivals by attacks
+which were none the less damaging because they escaped the
+name of war.</p>
+
+<p>It required all Elizabeth&rsquo;s finesse to run with the hare and hunt
+with the hounds; but she was, as Henry III. of France said,
+<i>la plus fine femme du monde</i>, and she was ably seconded by Cecil
+who had already proved himself an adept in the art of taking
+cover. Nevertheless, English policy in their hands was essentially
+aggressive. It could not be otherwise if England was to
+emerge from the slough in which Mary had left it. The first step
+was to assert the principle of England for the English; the queen
+would have no foreign husband, though she found suitors useful
+as well as attractive. Spanish counsels were applauded and
+neglected, and the Spaniards soon departed. Elizabeth was
+glad of Philip&rsquo;s support at the negotiations for peace at Cateau
+Cambrésis (1559), but she took care to assert the independence
+<span class="sidenote">Triumph of the new religion. The Act of Uniformity.</span>
+of her diplomacy and of England&rsquo;s interests. At
+home the church was made once more English. All
+foreign jurisdiction was repudiated, and under the
+style &ldquo;supreme governor&rdquo; Elizabeth reclaimed nearly
+all the power which Henry VIII. had exercised as
+&ldquo;supreme head.&rdquo; The Act of Uniformity (1559)
+restored with a few modifications the second prayer-book of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page534" id="page534"></a>534</span>
+Edward VI. The bishops almost unanimously refused to conform,
+and a clean sweep was made of the episcopal bench. An eminently
+safe and scholarly archbishop was found in Matthew Parker,
+who had not made himself notorious by resistance to authority
+even under Mary. The lower clergy were more amenable; the
+two hundred who alone are said to have been ejected should
+perhaps be multiplied by five; but even so they were not
+one in seven, and these seven were clergy who had been promoted
+in Mary&rsquo;s reign, or who had stood the celibate and other
+tests of 1553-1554. Into the balance must be thrown the
+hundreds, if not thousands, of zealots who had fled abroad
+and returned in 1558-1559. The net result was that a few
+years later the lower house of convocation only rejected by
+one vote a very puritanical petition against vestments and other
+&ldquo;popish dregs.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The next step was to expand the principle of England for
+the English into that of Britain for the British, and Knox&rsquo;s
+reformation in 1559-1560 provided an opportunity
+for its application. By timely and daring intervention
+<span class="sidenote">Elizabeth and Scotland.</span>
+in Scotland Elizabeth procured the expulsion of the
+French bag and baggage from North Britain, and that
+French avenue to England was closed for ever. The logic of this
+plan was not applied to Ireland; there it was to be Ireland for
+the English for many a generation yet to come; and so Ireland
+remained Achilles&rsquo; heel, the vulnerable part of the United Kingdom.
+The Protestant religion was forced upon the Irish in a
+foreign tongue and garb and at the point of foreign pikes; and
+national sentiment supported the ancient faith and the ancient
+habits in resistance to the Saxon innovations. In other directions
+the expansion of England, the third stage in the development of
+Elizabeth&rsquo;s policy, was more successful. The attractions of the
+Spanish Main converted the seafaring folk of south-west England
+<span class="sidenote">Struggle against the Spanish dominion at sea.</span>
+into hardy Protestants, who could on conscientious
+as well as other grounds contest a papal allocation
+of new worlds to Spain and Portugal. Their monopoly
+was broken up by Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh,
+and scores of others who recognized no peace beyond
+the line; and although, as far as actual colonies went,
+the results of Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign were singularly meagre, the idea
+had taken root and the ground had been prepared. In every
+direction English influence penetrated, and Englishmen before
+1603 might be found in every quarter of the globe, following
+Drake&rsquo;s lead into the Pacific, painfully breaking the ice in search
+of a north-east or a north-west passage, hunting for slaves in the
+wilds of Africa, journeying in caravans across the steppes of
+Russia into central Asia, bargaining with the Turks on the
+shores of the Golden Horn, or with the Greeks in the Levant,
+laying the foundations of the East India Company, or of the
+colonies of Virginia and Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>This expansion was mainly at the expense of Spain; but at
+first Spain was regarded as Elizabeth&rsquo;s friend, not France.
+France had a rival candidate for Elizabeth&rsquo;s throne
+in Mary Stuart, the wife of the dauphin who soon
+<span class="sidenote">Mary, queen of Scots.</span>
+(1559) became king as Francis II.; and Spanish favour
+was sought to neutralize this threat. Fortunately for
+Elizabeth, Francis died in 1560, and the French government
+passed into the hands of Catherine de&rsquo; Medici, who had no cause
+to love her daughter-in-law and the Guises. France, too, was
+soon paralysed by the wars of religion which Elizabeth judiciously
+fomented with anything but religious motives. Mary Stuart
+returned to Scotland with nothing but her brains and her charms
+on which to rely in her struggle with her people and her rival.
+She was well equipped in both respects, but human passions
+spoilt her chance; her heart turned her head. Elizabeth&rsquo;s head
+was stronger and she had no heart at all. When Mary married
+Darnley she had the ball at her feet; the pair had the best
+claims to the English succession and enjoyed the united affections
+of the Catholics. But they soon ceased to love one another, and
+could not control their jealousies. There followed rapidly the
+murders of Rizzio and Darnley, the Bothwell marriage, Mary&rsquo;s
+defeat, captivity, and flight into England (1568). It was a
+difficult problem for Elizabeth to solve; to let Mary go to
+France was presenting a good deal more than a pawn to her
+enemies; to restore her by force to her Scottish throne might
+have been heroic, but it certainly was not politics; to hand her
+over to her Scottish foes was too mean even for Elizabeth; and to
+keep her in England was to nurse a spark in a powder-magazine.
+Mary was detained in the hope that the spark might be carefully
+isolated.</p>
+
+<p>But there was too much inflammable material about. The
+duke of Norfolk was a Protestant, but his convictions were
+weaker than his ambition, and he fell a victim to
+Mary&rsquo;s unseen charms. The Catholic north of England
+<span class="sidenote">Rebellion of 1569 and excommunication of Elizabeth.</span>
+was to rise under the earls of Westmorland and
+Northumberland, who objected to Elizabeth&rsquo;s seizure
+of their mines and jurisdictions as well as to her proscription
+of their faith; and the pope was to assist
+with a bull of deposition. Norfolk, however, played the coward;
+the bull came nearly a year too late, and the rebellion of the earls
+(1569) was easily crushed. But the conspiracies did not end,
+and Spain began to take a hand. Elizabeth, partly in revenge
+for the treatment of Hawkins and Drake at San Juan de Ulloa,
+seized some Spanish treasure on its way to the Netherlands
+(Dec. 1569). Alva&rsquo;s operations were fatally handicapped by
+this disaster, but Philip was too much involved in the Netherlands
+to declare war on England. But his friendship for Elizabeth
+<span class="sidenote">Plots against Elizabeth. Relations with France and Spain.</span>
+had received a shock, and henceforth his finger
+may be traced in most of the plots against her, of which
+the Ridolfi conspiracy was the first. It cost Norfolk
+his head and Mary more of her scanty liberty. Elizabeth
+also began to look to France, and in 1572, by the
+treaty of Blois, France instead of Spain became England&rsquo;s
+ally, while Philip constituted himself as Mary&rsquo;s
+patron. The massacre of St Bartholomew placed a severe strain
+upon the new alliance, but was not fatal to it. A series of
+prolonged but hollow marriage negotiations between Elizabeth
+and first Anjou (afterwards Henry III.) and then Alenēon
+(afterwards duke of Anjou) served to keep up appearances.
+But the friendship was never warm; Elizabeth&rsquo;s relations with
+the Huguenots on the one hand and her fear of French designs
+on the Netherlands on the other prevented much cordiality.
+But the alliance stood in the way of a Franco-Spanish agreement,
+limited Elizabeth&rsquo;s sympathy with the French Protestants, and
+enabled her to give more countenance than she otherwise might
+have done to the Dutch.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually Philip grew more hostile under provocation;
+slowly he came to the conclusion that he could never subdue
+the Dutch or check English attacks on the Spanish
+Main without a conquest of England. Simultaneously
+<span class="sidenote">The Jesuit missions.</span>
+the counter-Reformation began its attacks; the
+&ldquo;Jesuit invasion&rdquo; took place in 1580, and Campion
+went to the block. A papal and Spanish attempt upon Ireland
+in the same year was foiled at Smerwick. But more important
+was Philip&rsquo;s acquisition of the throne of Portugal with its harbours,
+its colonies and its marine. This for the first time gave him a
+real command of the sea, and at least doubled the chances of
+a successful attack upon England. But Philip&rsquo;s mind moved
+slowly and only on provocation. It took a year or two to satisfy
+him that Portugal was really his; not until 1583 was the fleet
+of the pretender Don Antonio destroyed in the Azores. The
+victor, Santa Cruz, then suggested an armada against England,
+but the English Catholics could not be brought into line with a
+Spanish invasion. The various attempts to square James VI.
+of Scotland had not been successful, and events in the Netherlands
+and in France disturbed Philip&rsquo;s calculations. But his
+purpose was now probably fixed. After the murder of William
+the Silent (1584) Elizabeth sided more openly with the Dutch;
+the Spanish ambassador Mendoza was expelled from England
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of Mary, queen of Scots, 1587.</span>
+for his intrigues with Elizabeth&rsquo;s enemies (1586); and
+on the discovery of Babington&rsquo;s plot Elizabeth yielded
+to the demand of her parliament and her ministers
+for Mary&rsquo;s execution (1587); her death removed the
+only possible centre for a Catholic rebellion in case
+of a Spanish attack. It also removed Philip&rsquo;s last doubts;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page535" id="page535"></a>535</span>
+Mary had left him her claims to the English throne, and he
+might, now that she was out of his path, hope to treat England
+like Portugal. Drake&rsquo;s &ldquo;singeing of Philip&rsquo;s beard&rdquo; in Cadiz
+harbour in 1587 delayed the expedition for a year, and a storm
+again postponed it in the early summer of 1588. At length the
+armada sailed in July under the incompetent duke of Medina
+Sidonia; its object was to secure command of the narrow seas
+and facilitate the transport of Parma&rsquo;s army from the Netherlands
+to England. But Philip after his twenty years&rsquo; experience
+in the Netherlands can hardly have hoped to conquer a bigger
+and richer country with scantier means and forces. He relied
+<span class="sidenote">The Great Armada, 1588.</span>
+in fact upon a domestic explosion, and the armada
+was only to be the torch. This miscalculation made
+it a hopeless enterprise from the first. Scarcely an
+English Catholic would have raised a finger in Philip&rsquo;s
+favour; and when he could not subdue the two provinces of
+Holland and Zeeland, it is absurd to suppose that he could have
+simultaneously subdued them and England as well. English
+armies were not perhaps very efficient, but they were as good
+as the material with which William of Orange began his
+task. Philip, however, was never given the opportunity.
+His armada was severely handled in a week&rsquo;s fighting on its
+way up the Channel, and was driven off the English ports
+into the German Ocean; there a south-west gale drove it
+far from its rendezvous, and completed the havoc which the
+English ships had begun. A miserable remnant alone escaped
+destruction in its perilous flight round the north and west of
+Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat of the armada was the beginning and not the end
+of the war; and there were moments between 1588 and 1603
+when England was more seriously alarmed than in 1588. The
+Spaniards seized Calais in 1596; at another time they threatened
+England from Brest, and the &ldquo;invisible&rdquo; armada of 1599
+created a greater panic than the &ldquo;invincible&rdquo; armada of 1588.
+It was not till the very end of the reign that what was in some
+ways the most dangerous of Spanish aggressions was foiled at
+Kinsale. Nor were the English counter-attacks very happy;
+the attempt on Portugal in 1589 under Drake and Norris proved
+a complete failure. The raid on Cadiz under Essex and Raleigh
+in 1596 was attended with better results, but the &ldquo;Islands&rdquo;
+voyage to the Azores in 1597 was a very partial success. Still
+it was now a war upon more or less equal terms, and there was
+little more likelihood that it would end with England&rsquo;s than
+with Spain&rsquo;s loss of national independence. The subjection
+of the Netherlands was now almost out of the question, and
+although Elizabeth&rsquo;s help had not enabled the Protestant cause
+to win in France, Henry IV. built up a national monarchy
+which would be quite as effectual a bar to the ambitions of
+Spain.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth had in fact safely piloted England through the
+struggle to assert its national independence in religion and
+politics and its claim to a share in the new inheritance
+which had been opened up for the nations of Europe;
+<span class="sidenote">Last years of Elizabeth.</span>
+and the passionate loyalty which had supported her as
+the embodiment of England&rsquo;s aspirations somewhat
+cooled in her declining years. She herself grew more cautious
+and conservative than ever, and was regarded as an obstacle
+by the hotheads in war and religion. She sided with the
+&ldquo;scribes,&rdquo; Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil, against the men of
+war, Essex and Raleigh; and she abetted Whitgift&rsquo;s rigorous
+persecution of the Puritans whose discontent with her <i>via media</i>
+was rancorously expressed in the Martin Marprelate tracts.
+Essex&rsquo;s folly and failure to crush Hugh O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s rebellion (1599),
+the most serious effort made in the reign to throw off the English
+yoke in Ireland, involved him in treason and brought him to
+the block. Parliament was beginning to quarrel with the royal
+prerogative, particularly when expressed in the grant of monopolies,
+and even Mountjoy&rsquo;s success in Ireland (1602-1603)
+failed to revive popular enthusiasm for the dying queen. Strange
+as it may seem, the accession of James I. was hailed as heralding
+a new and gladder age by Shakespeare, and minor writers
+(March 24, 1603).</p>
+<div class="author">(A. F. P.)</div>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">VIII. The Stuart Monarchy, the Great Rebellion and
+the Restoration (1603-1689)</p>
+
+<p>The defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 had been the final
+victory gained on behalf of the independence of the English
+church and state. The fifteen years which followed
+had been years of successful war; but they had been
+<span class="sidenote">James I. 1603-1625.</span>
+also years during which the nation had been preparing
+itself to conform its institutions to the new circumstances
+in which it found itself in consequence of the great
+victory. When James arrived from Scotland to occupy the
+throne of Elizabeth he found a general desire for change.
+Especially there was a feeling that there might be some relaxation
+in the ecclesiastical arrangements. Roman Catholics and
+Puritans alike wished for a modification of the laws which bore
+hardly on them. James at first relaxed the penalties under
+which the Roman Catholics suffered, then he grew frightened
+by the increase of their numbers and reimposed the penalties.
+The gunpowder plot (1605) was the result, followed by a sharper
+persecution than ever (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Gunpowder Plot</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>The Puritans were invited to a conference with the king
+at Hampton Court (1604). They no longer asked, as many
+of them had asked in the beginning of Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign, to
+substitute the presbyterian discipline for the episcopal government.
+All they demanded was to be allowed permission, whilst
+remaining as ministers in the church, to omit the usage of
+certain ceremonies to which they objected. It was the opinion
+of Bacon that it would be wise to grant their request. James
+thought otherwise, and attempted to carry out the Elizabethan
+conformity more strictly than it had been carried out in his
+predecessor&rsquo;s reign.</p>
+
+<p>In 1604 the Commons agreed with Bacon. They declared that
+they were no Puritans themselves, but that, with such a dearth
+of able ministers, it was not well to lose the services
+of any one who was capable of preaching the gospel.
+<span class="sidenote">James I. and the Commons.</span>
+By his refusal to entertain their views James placed
+himself in opposition to the Commons in a matter
+which touched their deeper feelings. As a necessary consequence
+every dispute on questions of smaller weight assumed an exaggerated
+importance. The king had received a scanty revenue
+with his crown, and he spent freely what little he had. As the
+Commons offered grudging supplies, the necessity under which
+he was of filling up the annual deficit led him to an action by
+which a grave constitutional question was raised.</p>
+
+<p>From the time of Richard II. to the reign of Mary no attempt
+had been made to raise duties on exports and imports without
+consent of parliament. But Mary had, under a specious pretext,
+recommenced to a slight extent the evil practice, and Elizabeth
+had gone a little further in the same direction. In 1606 a
+merchant named John Bates (<i>q.v.</i>) resisted the payment of an
+imposition&mdash;as duties levied by the sole authority of the crown
+were then called. The case was argued in the court of exchequer,
+and was there decided in favour of the crown. Shortly afterwards
+new impositions were set to the amount of £70,000 a year.
+When parliament met in 1610 the whole subject was discussed,
+and it was conclusively shown that, if the barons of the exchequer
+had been right in any sense, it was only in that narrow technical
+sense which is of no value at all. A compromise attempted broke
+down, and the difficulty was left to plague the next generation.
+The king was always able to assert that the judges were on his
+side, and it was as yet an acknowledged principle of the constitution
+that parliament could not change the law without the
+express consent of the crown, even if, which was not the case
+in this matter, the Lords had sided with the Commons. James&rsquo;s
+attempt to obtain further supplies from the Commons by opening
+a bargain for the surrender of some of his old feudal prerogatives,
+such as wardship and marriage, which had no longer any real
+meaning except as a means of obtaining money in an oppressive
+way, broke down, and early in 1611 he dissolved his first
+parliament in anger. A second parliament, summoned in 1614,
+met with the same fate after a session of a few weeks.</p>
+
+<p>The dissolution of this second parliament was followed by a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page536" id="page536"></a>536</span>
+short imprisonment of some of the more active members, and
+by a demand made through England for a benevolence to make
+up the deficiency which parliament had neglected to meet. The
+court represented that, as no compulsion was used, there was
+nothing illegal in this proceeding. But as the names of those
+who refused to pay were taken down, it cannot be said that
+there was no indirect pressure.</p>
+
+<p>The most important result of the breach with the parliament of
+1614, however, was the resolution taken by James to seek refuge
+from his financial and other troubles in a close alliance
+with the king of Spain. His own accession had done
+<span class="sidenote">Attempted union with Scotland.</span>
+much to improve the position of England in its relation
+with the continental powers. Scotland was no longer
+available as a possible enemy to England, and though an attempt
+to bind the union between the two nations by freedom of commercial
+intercourse had been wrecked upon the jealousy of the
+English Commons (1607), a legal decision had granted the status
+of national subjects to all persons born in Scotland after the king&rsquo;s
+accession in England. Ireland, too, had been thoroughly overpowered
+at the end of Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign, and the flight of the
+<span class="sidenote">The colonization of Ulster.</span>
+earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel in 1607 had been
+followed by the settlement of English and Scottish
+colonists in Ulster, a measure which, in the way in
+which it was undertaken, sowed the seeds of future
+evils, but undoubtedly conduced to increase the immediate
+strength of the English government in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Without fear of danger at home, therefore, James, who as king
+of Scotland had taken no part in Elizabeth&rsquo;s quarrel with
+Philip II., not only suspended hostilities immediately
+on his accession, and signed a peace in the following
+<span class="sidenote">The Spanish alliance.</span>
+year, but looked favourably on the project of a Spanish
+marriage alliance, so that the chief Protestant and the
+chief Catholic powers might join together to impose peace on
+Europe, in the place of those hideous religious wars by which
+the last century had been disfigured. In 1611 circumstances had
+disgusted him with his new ally, but in 1614 he courted him
+again, not only on grounds of general policy, but because he
+hoped that the large portion which would accompany the hand
+of an infanta would go far to fill the empty treasury.</p>
+
+<p>In this way the Spanish alliance, unpopular in itself, was
+formed to liberate the king from the shackles imposed on
+him by the English constitution. Its unpopularity, great
+from the beginning, became greater when Raleigh&rsquo;s execution
+(1618) caused the government to appear before the world as
+truckling to Spain. The obloquy under which James laboured
+increased when the Thirty Years&rsquo; War broke out (1618), and
+when his daughter Elizabeth, whose husband, the elector palatine,
+was the unhappy claimant to the Bohemian crown (1619),
+stood forth as the lovely symbol of the deserted Protestantism
+of Europe. Yet it was not entirely in pity for German Protestants
+that the heart of Englishmen beat. Men felt that their
+own security was at stake. The prospect of a Spanish infanta
+as the bride of the future king of England filled them with
+suspicious terrors. In Elizabeth&rsquo;s time the danger, if not entirely
+external, did not come from the government itself. Now the
+favour shown to the Roman Catholics by the king opened up a
+source of mischief which was to some extent real, if it was to a
+still greater extent imaginary. Whether the danger were real or
+imaginary, the consequence of the distrust resulting from the
+suspicion was the reawakening of the slumbering demand for
+fresh persecution of the Roman Catholics, a demand which
+made a complete reconciliation between the crown and the Lower
+House a matter of the greatest difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>In 1621 the third parliament of James was summoned to
+provide money for the war in defence of his son-in-law&rsquo;s inheritance,
+the Palatinate, which he now proposed to
+undertake. But it soon appeared that he was not
+<span class="sidenote">Parliament and the monopolies.</span>
+prepared immediately to come to blows, and the
+Commons, voting a small sum as a token of their
+loyalty, passed to other matters. Indolent in his temper, James
+had been in the habit of leaving his patronage in the hands of
+a confidential favourite, and that position was now filled by
+George Villiers, marquess and afterwards duke of Buckingham.
+The natural consequence was that men who paid court to him
+were promoted, and those who kept at a distance from him
+had no notice taken of their merits. Further, a system of granting
+monopolies and other privileges had again sprung up. Many of
+these grants embodied some scheme which was intended to serve
+the interests of the public, and many actions which appear
+startling to us were covered by the extreme protectionist theories
+then in vogue. But abuses of every kind had clustered round
+them, and in many cases the profits had gone into the pockets
+of hangers-on of the court, whilst officials had given their assistance
+to the grantors even beyond their legal powers. James
+was driven by the outcry raised to abandon these monopolies, and
+an act of Parliament in 1624 placed the future grant of protections
+to new inventions under the safeguard of the judges.</p>
+
+<p>The attack on the monopolies was followed by charges brought
+by the Commons before the Lords against persons implicated
+in carrying them into execution, and subsequently
+against Lord Chancellor Bacon as guilty of corruption.
+<span class="sidenote">Fall of Bacon.</span>
+The sentence passed by the Lords vindicated the right
+of parliament to punish officials who had enjoyed the favour
+of the crown, which had fallen into disuse since the accession
+of the house of York. There was no open contest between
+parliament and king in this matter. But the initiative of demanding
+justice had passed from the crown to the Commons. It is
+impossible to overestimate the effect of these proceedings on
+the position of parliament. The crown could never again be
+regarded as the sum of the governmental system.</p>
+
+<p>When the Commons met after the summer adjournment a
+new constitutional question was raised. The king was at last
+determined to find troops for the defence of the Palatinate, and
+asked the Commons for money to pay them. They in turn
+petitioned the crown to abandon the Spanish alliance, which
+they regarded as the source of all the mischief. James told them
+that they had no right to discuss business on which he had not
+asked their opinion. They declared that they were privileged
+to discuss any matter relating to the commonwealth which they
+chose to take in hand, and embodied their opinion in a protest,
+which they entered on their journals. The king tore the protest
+out of the book and dissolved parliament.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed a fresh call for a benevolence, this time more
+sparingly answered than before. A year of fruitless diplomacy
+failed to save the Palatinate from total loss. The ill-considered
+journey to Madrid, in which Prince Charles, accompanied by
+Buckingham, hoped to wring from the Spanish statesmen a
+promise to restore the Palatinate in compliment for his marriage
+with the infanta, ended also in total failure. In the autumn of
+1623 Charles returned to England without a wife, and without
+hope of regaining the Palatinate with Spanish aid.</p>
+
+<p>He came back resolved to take vengeance upon Spain. The
+parliament elected in 1624 was ready to second him. It voted
+some supplies on the understanding that, when the
+king had matured his plans for carrying on the war,
+<span class="sidenote">The French alliance.</span>
+it should come together in the autumn to vote the
+necessary subsidies. It never met again. Charles had
+promised that, if he married a Roman Catholic, he would grant
+no toleration to the English Catholics in consideration of the
+marriage. In the autumn he had engaged himself to marry
+Henrietta Maria, the sister of the king of France, and had bound
+himself to grant the very conditions which he had declared to
+the Commons that he never would concede. Hence it was that
+he did not venture to recommend his father to summon parliament
+till the marriage was over. But though there was but little
+money to dispose of, he and Buckingham, who, now that James
+was sick and infirm, were the real leaders of the government,
+could not endure to abstain from the prosecution of the war.
+Early in 1625 an expedition, under Count Mansfeld, was sent to
+Holland that it might ultimately cut its way to the Palatinate.
+Left without pay and without supplies, the men perished by
+thousands, and when James died in March the new king had
+to meet his first parliament burthened by a broken promise
+and a disastrous failure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page537" id="page537"></a>537</span></p>
+
+<p>When parliament met (1625) the Commons at first contented
+themselves with voting a sum of money far too small to carry on
+the extensive military and naval operations in which
+Charles had embarked. When the king explained his
+<span class="sidenote">Charles I. 1625-1649.</span>
+necessities, they intimated that they had no confidence
+in Buckingham, and asked that, before they granted
+further supply, the king would name counsellors whom they
+could trust to advise him on its employment. Charles at once
+dissolved parliament. He knew that the demand for ministerial
+responsibility would in the end involve his own responsibility,
+and, believing as he did that Buckingham&rsquo;s arrangements had
+been merely unlucky, he declined to sacrifice the minister whom
+he trusted.</p>
+
+<p>Charles and Buckingham did their best to win back popularity
+by strenuous exertion. They attempted to found a great Protestant
+alliance on the continent, and they sent a great expedition
+to Cadiz. The Protestant alliance and the expedition
+to Cadiz ended in equal failure. The second parliament of the
+reign (1626) impeached Buckingham for crimes against the state.
+As Charles would not dismiss him simply because the Commons
+were dissatisfied with him as a minister, they fell back on charging
+him with criminal designs. Once more Charles dissolved
+parliament to save Buckingham. Then came fresh enterprises
+and fresh failures. A fleet under Lord Willoughby (afterwards
+earl of Lindsey) was almost ruined by a storm. The king of
+Denmark, trusting to supplies from England which never came,
+was defeated at Lutter. A new war in addition to the Spanish
+war, broke out with France. A great expedition to Ré, under
+Buckingham&rsquo;s command (1627), intended to succour the
+Huguenots of La Rochelle against their sovereign, ended in
+disaster. In order to enable himself to meet expenditure on
+so vast a scale, Charles had levied a forced loan from his subjects.
+Men of high rank in society who refused to pay were imprisoned.
+Soldiers were billeted by force in private houses, and military
+officers executed martial law on civilians. When the imprisoned
+gentlemen appealed to the king&rsquo;s bench for a writ of <i>habeas
+corpus</i>, it appeared that no cause of committal had been assigned,
+and the judges therefore refused to liberate them. Still Charles
+believed it possible to carry on the war, and especially to send
+relief to La Rochelle, now strictly blockaded by the forces of the
+French crown. In order to find the means for this object he
+summoned his third parliament (1628). The Commons at once
+<span class="sidenote">The Petition of Right.</span>
+proceeded to draw a line which should cut off the
+possibility of a repetition of the injuries of which they
+complained. Charles was willing to surrender his claims
+to billet soldiers by force, to order the execution of
+martial law in time of peace, and to exact forced loans, benevolences,
+or any kind of taxation, without consent of parliament;
+but he protested against the demand that he should surrender
+the right to imprison without showing cause. It was argued on
+his behalf that in case of a great conspiracy it would be necessary
+to trust the crown with unusual powers to enable it to preserve
+the peace. The Commons, who knew that the crown had used
+the powers which it claimed, not against conspirators, but
+against the commonwealth itself, refused to listen to the argument,
+and insisted on the acceptance of the whole Petition of
+Right, in which they demanded redress for all their grievances.
+The king at last gave his consent to it, as he could obtain money
+in no other way. In after times, when any real danger occurred
+which needed a suspension of the ordinary safeguards of liberty,
+a remedy was found in the suspension of the law by act of parliament;
+such a remedy, however, only became possible when
+king and parliament were on good terms of agreement with one
+another.</p>
+
+<p>That time was as yet far distant. The House of Commons
+brought fresh charges against Buckingham, whose murder soon
+after the prorogation removed one subject of dispute.
+But when they met again (1629) they had two quarrels
+<span class="sidenote">Crown and parliament.</span>
+left over from the preceding session. About a third
+part of the king&rsquo;s revenue was derived from customs
+duties which had for many generations been granted by parliament
+to each sovereign for life. Charles held that this grant
+was little more than a matter of form, whilst the Commons held
+that it was a matter of right. But for the other dispute the
+difficulty would probably have been got over. The strong
+Protestantism of Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign had assumed a distinctly
+Calvinistic form, and the country gentlemen who formed the
+majority of the House of Commons were resolutely determined
+that no other theology than that of Calvin should be taught in
+England. In the last few years a reaction against it had arisen
+especially in the universities, and those who adopted an unpopular
+creed, and who at the same time showed tendencies to
+a more ceremonial form of worship, naturally fell back on the
+support of the crown. Charles, who might reasonably have
+exerted himself to secure a fair liberty for all opinions, promoted
+these unpopular divines to bishoprics and livings, and the divines
+in turn exalted the royal prerogative above parliamentary rights.
+He now proposed that both sides should keep silence on the points
+in dispute. The Commons rejected his scheme, and prepared
+to call in question the most obnoxious of the clergy. In this
+irritated temper they took up the question of tonnage and
+poundage, and instead of confining themselves to the great
+public question, they called to the bar some custom-house
+officers who happened to have seized the goods of one of their
+members. Charles declared that the seizure had taken place
+by his orders. When they refused to accept the excuse, he dissolved
+parliament, but not before a tumult took place in the
+House, and the speaker was forcibly held down in his chair
+whilst resolutions hostile to the government were put to the vote.</p>
+
+<p>For eleven years no parliament met again. The extreme
+action of the Lower House was not supported by the people,
+and the king had the opportunity, if he chose to use it, of putting
+himself right with the nation after no long delay. But he never
+understood that power only attends sympathetic leadership.
+He contented himself with putting himself technically in the
+right, and with resting his case on the favourable decisions of
+the judges. Under any circumstances, neither the training nor
+the position of judges is such as to make them fit to be the final
+arbiters of political disputes. They are accustomed to declare
+what the law is, not what it ought to be. These judges, moreover,
+were not in the position to be impartial. They had been
+selected by the king, and were liable to be deprived of their office
+when he saw fit. In the course of Charles&rsquo;s reign two chief
+justices and one chief baron were dismissed or suspended.
+Besides the ordinary judges there were the extraordinary
+tribunals, the court of high commission nominated by the crown
+to punish ecclesiastical offenders, and the court of star chamber,
+composed of the privy councillors and the chief justices, and
+therefore also nominated by the crown, to inflict fine, imprisonment,
+and even corporal mutilation on lay offenders.
+Those who rose up in any way against the established order
+were sharply punished.</p>
+
+<p>The harsh treatment of individuals only calls forth resistance
+when constitutional morality has sunk deeply into the popular
+mind. The ignoring of the feelings and prejudices
+of large classes has a deeper effect. Charles&rsquo;s foreign
+<span class="sidenote">Ship-money.</span>
+policy, and his pretentious claim to the sovereignty
+of the British seas, demanded the support of a fleet, which might
+indeed be turned to good purpose in offering a counterpoise
+to the growing navies of France and Holland. The increasing
+estrangement between him and the nation made him averse from
+the natural remedy of a parliament, and he reverted to the
+absolute practices of the middle ages, in order that he might
+strain them far beyond the warrant of precedent to levy a
+tax under the name of ship-money, first on the port towns and
+then on the whole of England. Payment was resisted by John
+Hampden, a Buckinghamshire squire; but the judges declared
+that the king was in the right (1638). Yet the arguments used
+by Hampden&rsquo;s lawyers sunk deeply into the popular mind, and
+almost every man in England who was called on to pay the tax
+looked upon the king as a wrong-doer under the forms of law.</p>
+
+<p>In his ecclesiastical policy Charles was equally out of touch
+with the feelings of his people. He shared to the full his father&rsquo;s
+dislike and distrust of the Puritans, and he supported with the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page538" id="page538"></a>538</span>
+whole weight of the crown the attempt of William Laud (<i>q.v.</i>),
+<span class="sidenote">The Church.</span>
+since 1633 archbishop of Canterbury, to enforce conformity to
+the ritual prescribed by the Prayer Book. At the same
+time offence was given to the Puritans by an order
+that every clergyman should read the Declaration
+of Sports, in which the king directed that no one should be
+prevented from dancing or shooting at the butts on Sunday
+afternoon. Many of the clergy were suspended or deprived,
+many emigrated to Holland or New England, and of those who
+remained a large part bore the yoke with feelings of ill-concealed
+dissatisfaction. Suspicion was easily aroused that a deep plot
+existed, of which Laud was believed to be the centre, for carrying
+the nation over to the Church of Rome, a suspicion which
+seemed to be converted into a certainty when it was known
+that Panzani and Conn, two agents of the pope, had access to
+Charles, and that in 1637 there was a sudden accession to the
+number of converts to the Roman Catholic Church amongst the
+lords and ladies of the court.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1638 Charles had long ceased to reign in
+the affections of his subjects. But their traditionary loyalty
+had not yet failed, and if he had not called on them
+for fresh exertions, it is possible that the coming revolution
+<span class="sidenote">Charles and Scotland.</span>
+would have been long delayed. Men were
+ready to shout applause in honour of Puritan martyrs
+like Prynne, Burton and Bastwick, whose ears were cut off in 1637,
+or in honour of the lawyers who argued such a case as that of
+Hampden. But no signs of active resistance had yet appeared.
+Unluckily for Charles, he was likely to stand in need of the active
+co-operation of Englishmen. He had attempted to force a new
+Prayer Book upon the Scottish nation. A riot at Edinburgh in
+1637 quickly led to national resistance, and when in November
+1638 the general assembly at Glasgow set Charles&rsquo;s orders at
+defiance, he was compelled to choose between tame submission
+and immediate war. In 1639 he gathered an English force, and
+marched towards the border. But English laymen, though
+asked to supply the money which he needed for the support of
+his army, deliberately kept it in their pockets, and the contributions
+of the clergy and of official persons were not sufficient
+to enable him to keep his troops long in the field. The king,
+therefore, thought it best to agree to terms of pacification.
+Misunderstandings broke out as to the interpretation of the
+treaty, and Charles having discovered that the Scots were
+intriguing with France, fancied that England, in hatred of its
+ancient foe, would now be ready to rally to his standard. After
+an interval of eleven years, in April 1640 he once more called
+a parliament.</p>
+
+<p>The Short Parliament, as it was called, demanded redress of
+grievances, the abandonment of the claim to levy ship-money,
+and a complete change in the ecclesiastical system.
+Charles thought that it would not be worth while even
+<span class="sidenote">The Short Parliament.</span>
+to conquer Scotland on such terms, and dissolved
+parliament. A fresh war with Scotland followed.
+Wentworth, now earl of Strafford, became the leading adviser of
+the king. With all the energy of his disposition he threw himself
+into Charles&rsquo;s plans, and left no stone unturned to furnish the
+new expedition with supplies and money. But no skilfulness of
+a commander can avail when soldiers are determined not to fight.
+The Scots crossed the Tweed, and Charles&rsquo;s army was
+<span class="sidenote">The Scottish invasion.</span>
+well pleased to fly before them. In a short time the
+whole of Northumberland and Durham were in the
+hands of the invaders. Charles was obliged to leave
+these two counties in their hands as a pledge for the payment
+of their expenses; and he was also obliged to summon parliament
+to grant him the supplies which he needed for that object.</p>
+
+<p>When the Long Parliament met in November 1640 it was in
+a position in which no parliament had been before. Though
+nominally the Houses did not command a single
+soldier, they had in reality the whole Scottish army at
+<span class="sidenote">The Long Parliament.</span>
+their back. By refusing supplies they would put it
+out of the king&rsquo;s power to fulfil his engagements to
+that army, and it would immediately pursue its onward march
+to claim its rights. Hence there was scarcely anything which
+the king could venture to deny the Commons. Under Pym&rsquo;s
+leadership, they began by asking the head of Strafford. Nominally
+he was accused of a number of acts of oppression
+<span class="sidenote">Attainder of Strafford.</span>
+in the north of England and in Ireland. His real
+offence lay in his attempt to make the king absolute,
+and in the design with which he was credited of intending
+to bring over an Irish army to crush the liberties of England.
+If he had been a man of moderate abilities he might have escaped.
+But the Commons feared his commanding genius too much to
+let him go free. They began with an impeachment. Difficulties
+arose, and the impeachment was turned into a bill of attainder.
+The king abandoned his minister, and the execution of Strafford
+left Charles without a single man of supreme ability on his side.
+Then came rapidly a succession of blows at the supports by
+which the Tudor monarchy had been upheld. The courts of
+star chamber and high commission and the council of the north
+were abolished. The raising of tonnage and poundage without
+a parliamentary grant was declared illegal. The judges who
+had given obnoxious decisions were called to answer for their
+fault and were taught that they were responsible to the House
+of Commons as well as the king. Finally a bill was passed providing
+that the existing House should not be dissolved without its
+own consent.</p>
+
+<p>It was clearly a revolutionary position which the House had
+assumed. But it was assumed because it was impossible to expect
+that a king who had ruled as Charles had ruled could take
+up a new position as the exponent of the feelings which were
+represented in the Commons. As long as Charles lived he could
+not be otherwise than an object of suspicion; and yet if he were
+dethroned there was no one available to fill his place. There arose
+therefore two parties in the House, one ready to trust the king,
+the other disinclined to put any confidence in him at all. The
+division was the sharper because it coincided with a difference
+in matters of religion. Scarcely any one wished to see the
+Laudian ceremonies upheld. But the members who favoured
+the king, and who formed a considerable minority, wished to see
+a certain liberty of religious thought, together with a return
+under a modified Episcopacy to the forms of worship which
+prevailed before Laud had taken the church in hand. The other
+side, which had the majority by a few votes, wished to see the
+Puritan creed prevail in all its strictness, and were favourable to
+the establishment of the Presbyterian discipline. The king by
+his unwise action threw power into the hands of his opponents.
+He listened with tolerable calmness to their Grand Remonstrance,
+but his attempt to seize the five members whom he accused
+of high treason made a good understanding impossible. The
+Scottish army had been paid off some months before, and civil
+war was the only means of deciding the quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>At first the fortune of war wavered. Edgehill was a drawn
+battle (1642), and the campaign of 1643, though it was on the
+whole favourable to the king, gave no decisive results.
+Before the year was at an end parliament invited a
+<span class="sidenote">The civil war.</span>
+new Scottish army to intervene in England. As an
+inducement, the Solemn League and Covenant was signed by all
+Parliamentarian Englishmen, the terms of which were interpreted
+by the Scots to bind England to submit to Presbyterianism,
+though the most important clauses had been purposely left
+vague, so as to afford a loophole of escape. The battle of Marston
+Moor, with the defeat of the Royalist forces in the north,
+was the result. But the battle did not improve the
+<span class="sidenote">Presbyterians and Independents.</span>
+position of the Scots. They had been repulsed, and
+the victory was justly ascribed to the English contingent.
+The composition of that contingent was such
+as to have a special political significance. Its leader was Oliver
+Cromwell. It was formed by men who were fierce Puritan
+enthusiasts, and who for the very reason that the intensity of
+their religion separated them from the mass of their countrymen,
+had learnt to uphold with all the energy of zeal the doctrine that
+neither church nor state had a right to interfere with the forms
+of worship which each congregation might select for itself (see
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Congregationalism</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Cromwell, Oliver</a></span>). The principle
+advocated by the army, and opposed by the Scots and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page539" id="page539"></a>539</span>
+majority of the House of Commons, was liberty of sectarian
+association. Some years earlier, under the dominion of Laud,
+another principle had been proclaimed by Chillingworth and
+Hales, that of liberty of thought within the unity of the church.
+Both these movements conduced to the ultimate establishment
+of toleration, but for the present the Independents were to have
+their way.</p>
+
+<p>The Presbyterian leaders, Essex and Manchester, were not
+successful leaders. The army was remodelled after Cromwell&rsquo;s
+pattern, and the king was finally crushed at Naseby
+(1645). The next year (1646) he surrendered to the
+<span class="sidenote">The second civil war.</span>
+Scots. Then followed two years of fruitless negotiation,
+in which after the Scots abandoned the king to the
+English parliament, the army took him out of the hands of the
+parliament, whilst each in turn tried to find some basis of arrangement
+on which he might reign without ruling. Such a basis
+could not be found, and when Charles stirred up a fresh civil war
+and a Scottish invasion (1648) the leaders of the army vowed
+that, if victory was theirs, they would bring him to justice. To
+do this it was necessary to drive out a large number of the
+members of the House of Commons by what was known as
+<span class="sidenote">Execution of the king.</span>
+Pride&rsquo;s Purge, and to obtain from the mutilated
+Commons the dismissal of the House of Lords, and
+the establishment of a high court of justice, before
+which the king was brought to trial and sentenced
+to death. He was beheaded on a scaffold outside the windows
+of Whitehall (1649).<a name="fa5a" id="fa5a" href="#ft5a"><span class="sp">5</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The government set up was a government by the committees
+of a council of state nominally supporting themselves on the
+House of Commons, though the members who still
+retained their places were so few that the council of
+<span class="sidenote">The Commonwealth.</span>
+state was sufficiently numerous to form a majority
+in the House. During eleven years the nation passed
+through many vicissitudes in its forms of government. These
+forms take no place in the gradual development of English
+institutions, and have never been referred to as affording precedents
+to be followed. To the student of political science,
+however, they have a special interest of their own, as they show
+that when men had shaken themselves loose from the chain of
+habit and prejudice, and had set themselves to build up a
+political shelter under which to dwell, they were irresistibly
+attracted by that which was permanent in the old constitutional
+forms of which the special development had of late years been
+so disastrous. After Cromwell had suppressed resistance in
+Ireland (1649), had conquered Scotland (1650), and had overthrown
+the son of the late king, the future Charles II., at Worcester
+(1651), the value of government by an assembly was tested
+and found wanting. After Cromwell had expelled the remains
+of the Long Parliament (1653), and had set up another assembly
+of nominated members, that second experiment was found
+equally wanting. It was necessary to have recourse to one head
+of the executive government, controlling and directing its
+<span class="sidenote">Cromwell&rsquo;s protectorate.</span>
+actions. Cromwell occupied this position as lord
+protector. He did all that was in his power to do to
+prevent his authority from degenerating into tyranny.
+He summoned two parliaments, of only one House, and
+with the consent of the second parliament he erected a second
+House, so that he might have some means of checking the Lower
+House without constantly coming into personal collision with its
+authority. As far as form went, the constitution in 1658, so
+far as it differed from the Stuart constitution, differed for the
+better. But it suffered from one fatal defect. It was based
+on the rule of the sword. The only substitute for traditional
+authority is the clearly expressed expression of the national will,
+and it is impossible to doubt that if the national will had been
+expressed it would have swept away Cromwell and all his system.
+The majority of the upper and middle classes, which had united
+together against Laud, was now reunited against Cromwell.
+The Puritans themselves were but a minority, and of that
+minority considerable numbers disliked the free liberty accorded
+to the sects. Whilst the worship of the Church of England was
+proscribed, every illiterate or frenzied enthusiast was allowed
+to harangue at his pleasure. Those who cared little for religion
+felt insulted when they saw a government with which they had
+no sympathy ruling by means of an army which they dreaded
+and detested. Cromwell did his best to avert a social revolution,
+and to direct the energies of his supporters into the channels of
+merely political change. But he could not prevent, and it cannot
+be said that he wished to prevent, the rise of men of ability from
+positions of social inferiority. The nation had striven against
+the arbitrary government of the king; but it was not prepared
+to shake off the predominance of that widely spreading aristocracy
+which, under the name of country gentlemen, had rooted
+itself too deeply to be easily passed by. Cromwell&rsquo;s rule was
+covered with military glory, and there can be no doubt that he
+honestly applied himself to solve domestic difficulties as well.
+But he reaped the reward of those who strive for something better
+than the generation in which they live is able to appreciate.
+His own faults and errors were remembered against him. He
+tried in vain to establish constitutional government and religious
+toleration (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Cromwell, Oliver</a></span>). When he died (1658) there
+remained branded on the national mind two strong impressions
+which it took more than a century to obliterate&mdash;the dread of
+the domination of a standing army, and abhorrence of the very
+name of religious zeal.</p>
+
+<p>The eighteen months which followed deepened the impression
+thus formed. The army had appeared a hard master when it
+lent its strength to a wise and sagacious rule. It was
+worse when it undertook to rule in its own name, to
+<span class="sidenote">The anarchy.</span>
+set up and pull down parliaments and governments.
+The only choice left to the nation seemed to be one between
+military tyranny and military anarchy. Therefore it was that
+when Monk advanced from Scotland and declared for a free
+parliament, there was little doubt that the new parliament would
+recall the exiled king, and seek to build again on the old
+foundations.</p>
+
+<p>The Restoration was effected by a coalition between the
+Cavaliers, or followers of Charles I., and the Presbyterians
+who had originally opposed him. It was only after
+the nature of a great reaction that the latter should for
+<span class="sidenote">The Restoration.</span>
+a time be swamped by the former. The Long Parliament
+of the Restoration met in 1661, and the Act of Uniformity
+entirely excluded all idea of reform in the Puritan direction,
+and ordered the expulsion from their benefices of all clergymen
+who refused to express approval of the whole of the Book of
+Common Prayer (1662). A previous statute, the Corporation
+Act (1661), ordered that all members of corporations should
+renounce the Covenant and the doctrine that subjects might
+in any case rightfully use force against their king, and should
+receive the sacrament after the forms of the Church of England.
+The object for which Laud had striven, the compulsory imposition
+of uniformity, thus became part of the law of the land.</p>
+
+<p>Herein lay the novelty of the system of the Restoration.
+The system of Laud and the system of Cromwell had both
+been imposed by a minority which had possessed itself of the
+powers of government. The new uniformity was imposed by
+parliament, and parliament had the nation behind it. For the
+first time, therefore, all those who objected to the established
+religion sought, not to alter its forms to suit themselves, but
+to gain permission to worship in separate congregations. Ultimately,
+the dissenters, as they began to be called, would obtain
+their object. As soon as it became clear to the mass of the nation
+that the dissenters were in a decided minority, there would be no
+reason to fear the utmost they could do even if the present
+liberty of worship and teaching were conceded to them. For
+the present, however, they were feared out of all proportion
+to their numbers. They counted amongst them the old soldiers
+of the Protectorate, and though that army had been dissolved,
+it always seemed possible that it might spring to arms once more.
+A bitter experience had taught men that a hundred of Oliver&rsquo;s
+Ironsides might easily chase a thousand Cavaliers; and as long
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page540" id="page540"></a>540</span>
+as this danger was believed to exist, every effort would be made
+to keep dissent from spreading. Hence the Conventicle Act
+(1664) imposed penalties on those taking part in religious
+meetings in private houses, and the Five Mile Act (1665) forbade
+an expelled clergyman to come within five miles of a corporate
+borough, the very place where he was most likely to secure
+adherence, unless he would swear his adhesion to the doctrine
+of non-resistance.</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine of non-resistance was evidently that by which,
+at this time, the loyal subject was distinguished from those
+whom he stigmatized as disloyal. Yet even the most
+loyal found that, if it was wrong to take up arms
+<span class="sidenote">Doctrine of non-resistance.</span>
+against the king, it might be right to oppose him in
+other ways. Even the Cavaliers did not wish to see
+Charles II. an absolute sovereign. They wished to reconstruct
+the system which had been violently interrupted by the events
+of the autumn of 1641, and to found government on the co-operation
+between king and parliament, without defining to
+themselves what was to be done if the king&rsquo;s conduct became
+insufferable. Openly, indeed, Charles II. did not force them
+to reconsider their position. He did not thrust members of the
+Commons into prison, or issue writs for ship-money. He laid no
+claim to taxation which had not been granted by parliament.
+But he was extravagant and self-indulgent, and he wanted
+more money than they were willing to supply. A war with the
+<span class="sidenote">The first Dutch war.</span>
+Dutch broke out, and there were strong suspicions that
+Charles applied money voted for the fleet to the maintenance
+of a vicious and luxurious court. Against the
+vice and luxury, indeed, little objection was likely to
+be brought. The over-haste of the Puritans to drill England
+into ways of morality and virtue had thrown at least the upper
+classes into a slough of revelry and baseness. But if the vice did
+not appear objectionable the expense did, and a new chapter in
+the financial history of the government was opened when the
+Commons, having previously gained control over taxation, proceeded
+to vindicate their right to control expenditure.</p>
+
+<p>As far, indeed, as taxation was concerned, the Long Parliament
+had not left its successor much to do. The abolition of
+feudal tenures and purveyance had long been demanded,
+and the conclusion of an arrangement which
+<span class="sidenote">The Commons aim at control over expenditure.</span>
+had been mooted in the reign of James I. is only notable
+as affording one instance out of many of the tendency
+of a single class to shift burdens off its own shoulders.
+The predominant landowners preferred the grant of an
+excise, which would be taken out of all pockets, to a land-tax
+which would exclusively be felt by those who were relieved by
+the abolition of the tenures. The question of expenditure was
+constantly telling on the relations between the king and the
+House of Commons. After the Puritan army had been disbanded,
+the king resolved to keep on foot a petty force of 5000 men, and
+he had much difficulty in providing for it out of a revenue which
+had not been intended by those who voted it to be used for such
+a purpose. Then came the Dutch war, bringing with it a suspicion
+that some at least of the money given for paying sailors
+and fitting out ships was employed by Charles on very different
+objects. The Commons accordingly, in 1665, succeeded in
+enforcing, on precedents derived from the reigns of Richard II.
+and Henry IV., the right of appropriating the supplies granted
+to special objects; and with more difficulty they obtained, in
+1666, the appointment of a commission empowered to investigate
+irregularities in the issue of moneys. Such measures were the
+complement of the control over taxation which they had
+previously gained, and as far as their power of supervision went,
+it constituted them and not the king the directors of the course
+of government. If this result was not immediately felt, it was
+because the king had a large certain revenue voted to him for
+life, so that, for the present at least, it was only his extraordinary
+expenses which could be brought under parliamentary control.
+Nor did even the renewal of parliamentary impeachment, which
+ended in the banishment of Lord Chancellor Clarendon (1667),
+bring on any direct collision with the king. If the Commons
+wished to be rid of him because he upheld the prerogative, the
+king was equally desirous to be rid of him because he looked
+coldly on the looseness of the royal morals.</p>
+
+<p>The great motive power of the later politics of the reign was
+to be found beyond the Channel. To the men of the days of
+Charles II., Louis XIV. of France was what Philip II.
+of Spain had been to the men of the days of Elizabeth.
+<span class="sidenote">Charles II. and Louis XIV.</span>
+Gradually, in foreign policy, the commercial emulation
+with the Dutch, which found vent in one war in the
+time of the Commonwealth, and in two wars in the time of
+Charles II., gave way to a dread, rising into hatred, of the arrogant
+potentate who, at the head of the mightiest army in Europe,
+treated with contempt all rights which came into collision with
+his own wishes. Louis XIV., moreover, though prepared to
+quarrel with the pope in the matter of his own authority over
+the Gallican Church, was a bigoted upholder of Catholic orthodoxy,
+and Protestants saw in his political ambitions a menace
+to their religion. In the case of England there seemed a special
+danger to Protestantism; for whatever religious sympathies
+Charles II. possessed were with the Roman Catholic faith, and
+in his annoyance at the interference of the Commons with his
+expenditure he was not ashamed to stoop to become the pensioner
+of the French king. In 1670 the secret treaty of Dover
+was signed. Charles was to receive from Louis £200,000 a year
+and the aid of 6000 French troops to enable him to declare himself
+a convert, and to obtain special advantages for his religion,
+whilst he was also to place the forces of England at Louis&rsquo;s disposal
+for his purposes of aggression on the continent of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Charles had no difficulty in stirring up the commercial jealousy
+of England so as to bring about a second Dutch war (1672).
+The next year, unwilling to face the dangers of his
+larger plan, he issued a declaration of indulgence,
+<span class="sidenote">Second Dutch war, and declaration of indulgence.</span>
+which, by a single act of the prerogative, suspended
+all penal laws against Roman Catholics and dissenters
+alike. To the country gentlemen who constituted the
+cavalier parliament, and who had long been drifting
+into opposition to the crown, this was intolerable. The predominance
+of the Church of England was the prime article of
+their political creed; they dreaded the Roman Catholics; they
+hated and despised the dissenters. Under any circumstances
+an indulgence would have been most distasteful to them. But
+the growing belief that the whole scheme was merely intended
+to serve the purposes of the Roman Catholics converted their
+dislike into deadly opposition. Yet the parliament resolved
+to base its opposition upon constitutional grounds. The right
+claimed by the king to suspend the laws was questioned, and
+his claim to special authority in ecclesiastical matters was
+treated with contempt. The king gave way and withdrew his
+declaration. But no solemn act of parliament declared it to
+be illegal, and in due course of time it would be heard of again.</p>
+
+<p>The Commons followed up their blow by passing the Test Act,
+making the reception of the sacrament according to the forms
+of the Church of England, and the renunciation of the
+doctrine of transubstantiation, a necessary qualification
+<span class="sidenote">The Test Act.</span>
+for office. At once it appeared what a hold the
+members of the obnoxious church had had upon the administration
+of the state. The lord high admiral, the lord treasurer,
+and a secretary of state refused to take the test. The lord
+high admiral was the heir to the throne, the king&rsquo;s brother, the
+duke of York.</p>
+
+<p>Charles, as usual, bent before the storm. In Danby (see
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Leeds, 1st Duke of</a></span>) he found a minister whose views answered
+precisely to the views of the existing House of Commons.
+Like the Commons, Danby wished to silence both
+<span class="sidenote">Danby&rsquo;s ministry.</span>
+Roman Catholics and dissenters. Like the Commons,
+too, he wished to embark on a foreign policy hostile to France.
+But he served a master who regarded Louis less as a possible
+adversary than as a possible paymaster. Sometimes Danby
+was allowed to do as he liked, and the marriage of the duke of
+York&rsquo;s eldest daughter Mary to her cousin the prince of Orange
+was the most lasting result of his administration. More often
+he was obliged to follow where Charles led, and Charles was
+constantly ready to sell the neutrality of England for large sums
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page541" id="page541"></a>541</span>
+of French gold. At last one of these negotiations was detected,
+and Danby, who was supposed to be the author instead of the
+unwilling instrument of the intrigue, was impeached. In order
+to save his minister, Charles dissolved parliament (1678). He
+could not have chosen a more unlucky time for his own quiet.
+<span class="sidenote">The Popish plot.</span>
+The strong feeling against the Roman Catholics had
+been quickened into a flame by a great imposture.
+The inventors of the so-called popish plot charged the
+leading English Roman Catholics with a design to
+murder the king. Judges and juries alike were maddened with
+excitement, and listened greedily to the lies which poured forth
+from the lips of profligate informers. Innocent blood was shed
+in abundance.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement had its root in the uneasy feeling caused by
+the knowledge that the heir to the throne was a Roman Catholic.
+Three parliaments were summoned and dissolved. In
+each parliament the main question at issue between
+<span class="sidenote">The Exclusion Bill.</span>
+the Commons and the crown was the Exclusion Bill,
+by which the Commons sought to deprive the duke
+of York of his inheritance; and it was notorious that the
+leaders of the movement wished the crown to descend to the
+king&rsquo;s illegitimate son, the duke of Monmouth.</p>
+
+<p>The principles by which the Commons were guided in these
+parliaments were very different from those which had prevailed
+in the first parliament of the Restoration. Those
+principles, to which that party adhered which about
+<span class="sidenote">Whigs and Tories.</span>
+this time became known as the Tory party, had been
+formed under the influence of the terror caused by militant
+Puritanism. In the state the Tory inherited the ideas of
+Clarendon, and, without being at all ready to abandon the
+claims of parliaments, nevertheless somewhat inconsistently
+spoke of the king as ruling by a divine and indefeasible title, and
+wielding a power which it was both impious and unconstitutional
+to resist by force. In the church he inherited the ideas of Laud,
+and saw in the maintenance of the Act of Uniformity the safeguard
+of religion. But the hold of these opinions on the nation
+had been weakened with the cessation of the causes which had
+produced them. In 1680 twenty years had passed since the
+Puritan army had been disbanded. Many of Cromwell&rsquo;s soldiers
+had died, and most of them were growing old. The dissenters
+had shown no signs of engaging in plots or conspiracies. They
+were known to be only a comparatively small minority of the
+population, and though they had been cruelly persecuted, they
+had suffered without a thought of resistance. Dread of the
+dissenters, therefore, had become a mere chimaera, which only
+those could entertain whose minds were influenced by prejudice.
+On the other hand, dread of the Roman Catholics was a living
+force. Unless the law were altered a Roman Catholic would
+be on the throne, wielding all the resources of the prerogative,
+and probably supported by all the resources of the king of France.
+Hence the leading principle of the Whigs, as the predominant
+party was now called, was in the state to seek for the highest
+national authority in parliament rather than in the king, and
+in the church to adopt the rational theology of Chillingworth
+and Hales, whilst looking to the dissenters as allies against the
+Roman Catholics, who were the enemies of both.</p>
+
+<p>Events were to show that it was a wise provision which led
+the Whigs to seek to exclude the duke of York from the throne.
+But their plan suffered under two faults, the conjunction
+of which was ruinous to them for the time.
+<span class="sidenote">Tory reaction.</span>
+In the first place, their choice of Monmouth as the heir
+was infelicitous. Not only was he under the stain of illegitimacy,
+but his succession excluded the future succession of Mary, whose
+husband, the prince of Orange, was the hope of Protestant
+Europe. In the second place, drastic remedies are never generally
+acceptable when the evil to be remedied is still in the future.
+When, in the third of the short parliaments held at Oxford the
+Whigs rode armed into the city, the nation decided that the
+future danger of a Roman Catholic succession was incomparably
+less than the immediate danger of another civil war. Loyal
+addresses poured in to the king. For the four remaining years
+of his reign he ruled without summoning any parliament. Whigs
+were brought before prejudiced juries and partial judges. Their
+blood flowed on the scaffold. The charter of the city of London
+was confiscated. The reign of the Tories was unquestioned.
+Yet it was not quite what the reign of the Cavaliers had been
+in 1660. The violence of the Restoration had been directed
+primarily against Puritanism, and only against certain forms
+of government so far as they allowed Puritans to gain the upper
+hand. The violence of the Tories was directed against rebellion
+and disorder, and only against dissenters so far as they were
+believed to be the fomenters of disorder. Religious hatred had
+less part in the action of the ruling party, and even from its
+worst actions a wise man might have predicted that the day of
+toleration was not so far off as it seemed.</p>
+
+<p>The accession of James II. (1685) put the views of the opponents
+of the Exclusion Bill to the test. A new parliament
+was elected, almost entirely composed of decided
+Tories. A rebellion in Scotland, headed by the earl
+<span class="sidenote">James II., 1685-1688.</span>
+of Argyll, and a rebellion in England, headed by the
+duke of Monmouth, were easily suppressed. But the
+inherent difficulties of the king&rsquo;s position were not thereby overcome.
+It would have been hard, in days in which religious
+questions occupied so large a space in the field of politics, for
+a Roman Catholic sovereign to rule successfully over a Protestant
+nation. James set himself to make it, in his case, impossible. It
+may be that he did not consciously present to himself any object
+other than fair treatment for his co-religionists. On the one
+hand, however, he alienated even reasonable opponents by
+offering no guarantees that equality so gained would not be converted
+into superiority by the aid of his own military force and
+of the assistance of the French king; whilst on the other hand
+he relied, even more strongly than his father had done, on the
+technical legality which exalted the prerogative in defiance of
+the spirit of the law. He began by making use of the necessity
+of resisting Monmouth to increase his army, under the pretext
+of the danger of a repetition of the late rebellion; and in the
+regiments thus levied he appointed many Roman Catholic officers
+who had refused to comply with the Test Act. Rather than
+submit to the gentlest remonstrance, he prorogued parliament,
+and proceeded to obtain from the court of king&rsquo;s bench a judgment
+in favour of his right to dispense with all penalties due
+by law, in the same way that his grandfather had appealed to
+the judges in the matter of the post-nati. But not only was
+the question put by James II. of far wider import than the
+question put by James I., but he deprived the court to which
+he applied of all moral authority by previously turning out of
+office the judges who were likely to disagree with him, and by
+appointing new ones who were likely to agree with him. A
+court of high commission of doubtful legality was subsequently
+erected (1686) to deprive or suspend clergymen who made
+themselves obnoxious to the court, whilst James appointed
+Roman Catholics to the headship of certain colleges at Oxford.
+The legal support given him by judges of his own selection was
+fortified by the military support of an army collected at Hounslow
+Heath; and a Roman Catholic, the earl of Tyrconnel, was
+sent as lord-deputy to Ireland (1687) to organize a Roman
+Catholic army on which the king might fall back if his English
+forces proved insufficient for his purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Thus fortified, James issued a declaration of indulgence (1687)
+granting full religious liberty to all his subjects. The belief, that
+the grant of liberty to all religions was only intended
+to serve as a cloak for the ascendancy of one, was so
+<span class="sidenote">James&rsquo;s declaration of indulgence.</span>
+strong that the measure roused the opposition of all
+those who objected to see the king&rsquo;s will substituted for
+the law, even if they wished to see the Protestant dissenters
+tolerated. In spite of this opposition, the king thought it
+possible to obtain a parliamentary sanction for his declaration.
+The parliament to which he intended to appeal was, however,
+to be as different a body from the parliament which met in the
+first year of his reign as the bench of judges which had approved
+of the dispensing power had been different from the bench
+which existed at his accession. A large number of the borough
+members were in those days returned by the corporations, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page542" id="page542"></a>542</span>
+the corporations were accordingly changed. But so thoroughly
+was the spirit of the country roused, that many even of the new
+corporations were set against James&rsquo;s declaration, and he had
+therefore to abandon for a time the hope of seeing it accepted
+even by a packed House of Commons. All, however, that he
+could do to give it force he did. He ordered the clergy to read
+<span class="sidenote">Trial of the seven bishops.</span>
+it in all pulpits (1688). Seven bishops, who presented
+a petition asking him to relieve the clergy from the
+burthen of proclaiming what they believed to be
+illegal, were brought to trial for publishing a seditious
+libel. Their acquittal by a jury was the first serious blow to the
+system adopted by the king.</p>
+
+<p>Another event which seemed likely to consolidate his power
+was in reality the signal of his ruin. The queen bore him a son.
+There was thus no longer a strong probability that
+the king would be succeeded at no great distance of
+<span class="sidenote">Revolution of 1688.</span>
+time by a Protestant heir. Popular incredulity expressed
+itself in the assertion that, as James had attempted to
+gain his ends by means of a packed bench of judges and a packed
+House of Commons, he had now capped the series of falsifications
+by the production of a supposititious heir. The leaders of both
+parties combined to invite the prince of Orange to come to the
+rescue of the religion and laws of England. He landed on the
+5th of November at Brixham. Before he could reach London
+every class of English society had declared in his favour. James
+was deserted even by his army. He fled to France, and a convention
+parliament, summoned without the royal writ, declared
+that his flight was equivalent to abdication, and offered the crown
+in joint sovereignty to William and Mary (1689).</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">IX. The Revolution and the Age of Anne (1689-1714)</p>
+
+<p>The Revolution, as it was called, was more than a mere change
+of sovereigns. It finally transferred the ultimate decision in
+the state from the king to parliament. What parliament
+had been in the 15th century with the House of
+<span class="sidenote">William III. and Mary II., 1689.</span>
+Lords predominating, that parliament was to be again
+in the end of the 17th century with the House of
+Commons predominating. That House of Commons was far
+from resting on a wide basis of popular suffrage. The county
+voters were the freeholders; but in the towns, with some
+important exceptions, the electors were the richer inhabitants
+who formed the corporations of the boroughs, or a body of select
+householders more or less under the control of some neighbouring
+landowner. A House so chosen was an aristocratic body,
+but it was aristocratic in a far wider sense than the House of Lords
+was aristocratic. The trading and legal classes found their
+representation there by the side of the great owners of land.
+The House drew its strength from its position as a true representative
+of the effective strength of the nation in its social and
+economical organization.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the body which firmly grasped the control over every
+branch of the administration. Limiting in the Bill of Rights
+the powers assumed by the crown, the Commons declared that
+the king could not keep a standing army in time of peace without
+consent of parliament; and they made that consent effectual,
+as far as legislation could go, by passing a Mutiny Act year by
+year for twelve months only, so as to prevent the crown from
+exercising military discipline without their authority. Behind
+these legal contrivances stood the fact that the army was organized
+in the same way as the nation was organized, being
+officered by gentlemen who had no desire to overthrow a constitution
+through which the class from which they sprung controlled
+the government. Strengthened by the cessation of any
+fear of military violence, the Commons placed the crown in
+financial dependence on themselves by granting a large part of
+the revenue only for a limited term of years, and by putting
+strictly in force their right of appropriating that revenue to
+special branches of expenditure.</p>
+
+<p>Such a revolution might have ended in the substitution of the
+despotism of a class for the despotism of a man. Many causes
+combined to prevent this result. The landowners, who formed
+the majority of the House, were not elected directly, as was
+the case with the nobility of the French states-general, by their
+own class, but by electors who, though generally loyal to them,
+<span class="sidenote">Causes in favour of liberty.</span>
+would have broken off from them if they had attempted
+to make themselves masters of their fellow citizens.
+No less important was the almost absolute independence
+of the judges, begun at the beginning of
+the reign, by the grant of office to them during good behaviour
+instead of during the king&rsquo;s pleasure, and finally secured by the
+clause in the Act of Settlement in 1701, which protected them
+against dismissal except on the joint address of both Houses of
+Parliament. Such an improvement, however, finds its full
+counterpart in another great step already taken. The more
+representative a government becomes, the more necessary it is
+for the well-being of the nation that the expression of individual
+thought should be free in every direction. If it is not so, the
+government is inclined to proscribe unpopular opinion, and to
+forget that new opinions by which the greatest benefits are likely
+to be conferred are certain at first to be entertained by a very
+few, and are quite certain to be unpopular as soon as they come
+into collision with the opinions of the majority. In the middle
+ages the benefits of the liberation of thought from state control
+had been secured by the antagonism between church and state.
+The Tudor sovereigns had rightfully asserted the principle that
+in a well-ordered nation only one supreme power can be allowed
+to exist; but in so doing they had enslaved religion. It was
+fortunate that, just at the moment when parliamentary control
+was established over the state, circumstances should have arisen
+which made the majority ready to restore to the individual
+conscience that supremacy over religion which the medieval
+ecclesiastics had claimed for the corporation of the universal
+church. Dissenters had, in the main, stood shoulder to shoulder
+with churchmen in rejecting the suspicious benefits of James,
+and both gratitude and policy forbade the thought of replacing
+them under the heavy yoke which had been imposed on them
+at the Restoration. The exact mode in which relief should be
+afforded was still an open question. The idea prevalent with the
+more liberal minds amongst the clergy was that of comprehension&mdash;that
+is to say, of so modifying the prayers and ceremonies
+of the church as to enable the dissenters cheerfully to enter
+in. The scheme was one which had approved itself to minds
+of the highest order&mdash;to Sir Thomas More, to Bacon, to Hales and
+to Jeremy Taylor. It is one which, as long as beliefs are not
+very divergent, keeps up a sense of brotherhood overruling
+the diversity of opinion. It broke down, as it always will break
+down in practice, whenever the difference of belief is so strongly
+felt as to seek earnestly to embody itself in diversity of outward
+practice. The greater part of the clergy of the church felt that
+to surrender their accustomed formularies was to surrender
+somewhat of the belief which those formularies signified, while
+the dissenting clergy were equally reluctant to adopt the common
+<span class="sidenote">The Toleration Act.</span>
+prayer book even in a modified form. Hence the
+Toleration Act, which guaranteed the right of separate
+assemblies for worship outside the pale of the church,
+though it embodied the principles of Cromwell and
+Milton, and not those of Chillingworth and Hales, was carried
+without difficulty, whilst the proposed scheme of comprehension
+never had a chance of success (1689). The choice was one which
+posterity can heartily approve. However wide the limits of
+toleration be drawn, there will always be those who will be left
+outside. By religious liberty those inside gain as much as those
+who are without. From the moment of the passing of the
+Toleration Act, no Protestant in England performed any act
+of worship except by his own free and deliberate choice. The
+literary spokesman of the new system was Locke. His <i>Letters
+concerning Toleration</i> laid down the principle which had been
+maintained by Cromwell, with a wider application than was
+possible in days when the state was in the hands of a mere
+minority only able to maintain itself in power by constant and
+suspicious vigilance.</p>
+
+<p>One measure remained to place the dissenters in the position of
+full membership of the state. The Test Act excluded them from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page543" id="page543"></a>543</span>
+office. But the memory of the high-handed proceedings of
+Puritan rulers was still too recent to allow Englishmen to run
+the risk of a reimposition of their yoke, and this feeling, fanciful
+as it was, was sufficient to keep the Test Act in force for years
+to come.</p>
+
+<p>The complement of the Toleration Act was the abolition of
+the censorship of the press (1695). The ideas of the author of the
+<i>Areopagitica</i> had at last prevailed. The attempt to
+fix certain opinions on the nation which were pleasing
+<span class="sidenote">Liberty of the press.</span>
+to those in power was abandoned by king and parliament
+alike. The nation, or at least so much of it as cared to
+read books or pamphlets on political subjects, was acknowledged
+to be the supreme judge, which must therefore be allowed to
+listen to what counsellors it pleased.</p>
+
+<p>This new position of the nation made itself felt in various ways.
+It was William&rsquo;s merit that, fond as he was of power, he recognized
+the fact that he could not rule except so far as he carried
+the goodwill of the nation with him. No doubt he was helped
+to an intelligent perception of the new situation by the fact that,
+as a foreigner, he cared far more for carrying on war successfully
+against France than for influencing the domestic legislation of
+a country which was not his own, and by the knowledge that the
+conduct of the struggle which lasted till he was able to treat with
+France on equal terms at Ryswick (1697) was fairly trusted to
+his hands. Nevertheless these years of war called for the united
+action of a national government, and in seeking to gain this
+support for himself, he hit upon an expedient which opened
+a new era in constitutional politics.</p>
+
+<p>The supremacy of the House of Commons would have been
+an evil of no common magnitude, if it had made government
+impossible. Yet this was precisely what it threatened
+to do. Sometimes the dominant party in the House
+<span class="sidenote">Beginning of cabinet government.</span>
+pressed with unscrupulous rancour upon its opponents.
+Sometimes the majority shifted from side to side as
+the House was influenced by passing gusts of passion or sympathy,
+so that, as it was said at the time, no man could foretell
+one day what the House would be pleased to do on the next.
+Against the first of these dangers William was to a great extent
+able to guard by the exercise of his right of dissolution, so as
+to appeal to the constituencies, which did not always share in
+<span class="correction" title="the appeared twice">the</span> passions of their representatives. But the second danger
+could not be met in this way. The only cure for waywardness
+is responsibility, and not only was this precisely what the
+Commons had not learned to feel, but it was that which it was
+impossible to make them feel directly. A body composed of
+several hundred members cannot carry on government with the
+requisite steadiness of action and clearness of insight. Such
+work can only fitly be entrusted to a few, and whenever difficult
+circumstances arise it is necessary that the action of those few
+be kept in harmony by the predominance of one. The scheme
+on which William hit, by the advice of the earl of Sunderland,
+was that which has since been known as cabinet government.
+He selected as his ministers the leading members of the two
+Houses who had the confidence of the majority of the House of
+Commons. In this way, the majority felt an interest in supporting
+the men who embodied their own opinions, and fell in turn
+under the influence of those who held them with greater prudence
+or ability than fell to the lot of the average members of the
+House. All that William doubtless intended was to acquire a
+ready instrument to enable him to carry on the war with success.
+In reality he had refounded, on a new basis, the government of
+England. His own personal qualities were such that he was able
+to dominate over any set of ministers; but the time would come
+when there would be a sovereign of inferior powers. Then the
+body of ministers would step into his place. The old rude
+arrangements of the middle ages had provided by frequent depositions
+that an inefficient sovereign should cease to rule, and
+those arrangements had been imitated in the cases of Charles I.
+and James II. Still the claim to rule had, at least from the time
+of Henry III., been derived from hereditary descent, and the
+interruption, however frequently it might occur, had been regarded
+as something abnormal, only to be applied where there
+was an absolute necessity to prevent the wielder of executive
+authority from setting at defiance the determined purpose of the
+nation. After the Revolution not only had the king&rsquo;s title been
+so changed as to make him more directly than ever dependent
+on the nation, but he now called into existence a body which
+derived its own strength from its conformity with the wishes
+of the representatives of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>For the moment it seemed to be but a temporary expedient.
+When the war came to an end, the Whig party which had sustained
+William in his struggle with France split up. The dominant
+feeling of the House of Commons was no longer the desire
+to support the crown against a foreign enemy, but to make
+government as cheap as possible, leaving future dangers to the
+chances of the future. William had not so understood the new
+invention of a united ministry as binding him to take into his
+service a united ministry of men whom he regarded as fools and
+knaves. He allowed the Commons to reduce the army to a
+skeleton, to question his actions, and to treat him as if he were
+a cipher. But it was only by slow degrees that he was brought
+to acknowledge the necessity of choosing his ministers from
+amongst the men who had done these things.</p>
+
+<p>The time came when he needed again the support of the
+nation. The death of Charles II., the heirless king of the huge
+Spanish monarchy, had long been expected. Since
+the peace of Ryswick, William and Louis XIV. had
+<span class="sidenote">The Spanish succession.</span>
+come to terms by two successive partition treaties for
+a division of those vast territories in such a way that
+the whole of them should not fall into the hands of a near relation
+either of the king of France or of the emperor, the head of the
+house of Austria. When the king of Spain actually died in 1700,
+William seemed to have no authority in England whatever;
+and Louis was therefore encouraged to break his engagements,
+and to accept the whole of the Spanish inheritance for his
+grandson, who became Philip V. of Spain. William saw clearly
+that such predominance of France in Europe would lead to the
+development of pretensions unbearable to other states. But the
+House of Commons did not see it, even when the Dutch garrisons
+were driven by French troops out of the posts in the Spanish
+Netherlands which they had occupied for many years (1701).</p>
+
+<p>William had prudently done all that he could to conciliate
+the Tory majority. In the preceding year (1700) he had given
+office to a Tory ministry, and he now (1701) gave his
+assent to the Act of Settlement, which secured the
+<span class="sidenote">The Act of Settlement.</span>
+succession of the crown to the electress Sophia of
+Hanover, daughter of James I.&rsquo;s daughter Elizabeth,
+to the exclusion of all Roman Catholic claimants, though it
+imposed several fresh restrictions on the prerogative. William
+was indeed wise in keeping his feelings under control. The
+country sympathized with him more than the Commons did,
+and when the House imprisoned the gentlemen deputed by the
+freeholders of Kent to present a petition asking that its loyal
+addresses might be turned into bills of supply, it simply advertised
+its weakness to the whole country.</p>
+
+<p>The reception of this Kentish petition was but a foretaste of
+the discrepancy between the Commons and the nation, which
+was to prove the marked feature of the middle of the
+century now opening. For the present the House
+<span class="sidenote">The Grand Alliance.</span>
+was ready to give way. It requested the king to enter
+into alliance with the Dutch. William went yet further in the
+direction in which he was urged. He formed an alliance with
+the emperor, as well as with the Netherlands, to prevent the
+union of the crowns of France and Spain, and to compel France
+to evacuate the Netherlands. An unexpected event came to
+give him all the strength he needed. James II. died, and Louis
+acknowledged his son as the rightful king of England. Englishmen
+of both parties were stung to indignation by the insult.
+William dissolved parliament, and the new House of Commons,
+Tory as it was by a small majority, was eager to support the
+king. It voted men and money according to his wishes. England
+was to be the soul of the Grand Alliance against France.
+But before a blow was struck William was thrown from his horse.
+He died on the 8th of March 1702. &ldquo;The man,&rdquo; as Burke said
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page544" id="page544"></a>544</span>
+of him, &ldquo;was dead, but the Grand Alliance survived in which
+King William lived and reigned.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Upon the accession of Anne, war was at once begun. The
+Grand Alliance became, as William would have wished, a league
+to wrest the whole of the Spanish dominions from
+Philip, in favour of the Austrian archduke Charles.
+<span class="sidenote">Queen Anne, 1702-1714.</span>
+It found a chief of supreme military and diplomatic
+genius in the duke of Marlborough. His victory at
+Blenheim (1704) drove the French out of Germany. His victory
+of Ramillies (1706) drove them out of the Netherlands. In
+Spain, Gibraltar was captured by Rooke (1704) and Barcelona
+by Peterborough (1705). Prince Eugene relieved Turin from a
+French siege, and followed up the blow by driving the besiegers
+out of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of Marlborough at home was the result partly
+of the prestige of his victories, partly of the dominating influence
+of his strong-minded duchess (&ldquo;Mrs Freeman&rdquo;) over the queen
+(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Anne</a></span>, queen of England). The duke cared little for home
+politics in themselves; but he had his own ends, both public
+and private, to serve, and at first gave his support to the Tories,
+whose church policy was regarded with favour by the queen.
+Their efforts were directed towards the restriction of the Toleration
+Act within narrow limits. Many dissenters had evaded the Test
+Act by partaking of the communion in a church, though they
+subsequently attended their own chapels. An Occasional Conformity
+Bill, imposing penalties on those who adopted this
+practice, twice passed the Commons (1702, 1703), but was rejected
+by the House of Lords, in which the Whig element predominated.
+The church was served in a nobler manner in 1704
+by the abandonment of first-fruits and tenths by the queen for
+<span class="sidenote">Union with Scotland.</span>
+the purpose of raising the pittances of the poorer
+clergy (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Queen Anne&rsquo;s Bounty</a></span>). In 1707 a piece
+of legislation of the highest value was carried to a
+successful end. The Act of Union, passed in the
+parliaments of England and Scotland, joined the legislatures of
+the two kingdoms and the nations themselves in an indissoluble
+bond.</p>
+
+<p>The ministry in office at the time of the passing of the Act
+of Union had suffered important changes since the commencement
+of the reign. The Tories had never been as
+earnest in the prosecution of the war as the Whigs;
+<span class="sidenote">United Whig ministry.</span>
+and Marlborough, who cared above all things for the
+furtherance of the war, gradually replaced Tories by
+Whigs in the ministry. His intention was doubtless to conciliate
+both parties by admitting them both to a share of power; but
+the Whigs were determined to have all or none, and in 1708 a
+purely Whig ministry was formed to support the war as the first
+purely Whig ministry had supported it in the reign of William.
+The years of its power were the years of the victories of Oudenarde
+(1708) and of Malplaquet (1709), bringing with them the
+entire ruin of the military power of Louis XIV.</p>
+
+<p>Such successes, if they were not embraced in the spirit of
+moderation, boded no good to the Whigs. It was known that
+even before the last battle Louis had been ready to abandon
+the cause of his grandson, and that his offers had been rejected
+because he would not consent to join the allies in turning him
+out of Spain. A belief spread in England that Marlborough
+wished the endless prolongation of the war for his own selfish
+ends. Spain was far away, and, if the Netherlands were safe,
+enough had been done for the interests of England. The Whigs
+were charged with refusing to make peace when an honourable
+and satisfactory peace was not beyond their reach.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the demand for a vigorous prosecution of the war
+relaxed, the Whigs could but rely on their domestic policy,
+in which they were strongest in the eyes of posterity but weakest
+in the eyes of contemporaries. It was known that they looked
+for the principle on which the queen&rsquo;s throne rested to the
+national act of the Revolution, rather than to the birth of the
+sovereign as the daughter of James II., whilst popular feeling
+preferred, however inconsistently, to attach itself to some fragment
+of hereditary right. What was of greater consequence was,
+that it was known that they were the friends of the dissenters,
+and that their leaders, if they could have had their way, would
+not only have maintained the Toleration Act, but would also
+have repealed the Test Act. In 1709 a sermon preached by
+Dr Sacheverell (<i>q.v.</i>) denounced toleration and the right of
+resistance in tones worthy of the first days of the Restoration.
+Foolish as the sermon was, it was but the reflection of folly
+which was widely spread amongst the rude and less educated
+classes. The Whig leaders unwisely took up the challenge and
+impeached Sacheverell. The Lords condemned the man, but
+they condemned him to an easy sentence. His trial was the
+<span class="sidenote">Tory Ministry.</span>
+signal for riot. Dissenting chapels were sacked to the
+cry of High Church and Sacheverell. The queen, who
+had personal reasons for disliking the Whigs, dismissed
+them from office (1710), and a Tory House of Commons
+was elected amidst the excitement to support the Tory ministry
+of Harley and St John.</p>
+
+<p>After some hesitation the new ministry made peace with
+France, and the treaty of Utrecht (1713), stipulating for the
+permanent separation of the crowns of France and
+Spain, and assigning Milan, Naples and the Spanish
+<span class="sidenote">Peace of Utrecht.</span>
+Netherlands to the Austrian claimant, accomplished
+all that could reasonably be desired, though the abandonment
+to the vengeance of the Spanish government of her Catalan
+allies, and the base desertion of her continental confederates
+on the very field of action, brought dishonour on the good
+name of England. The Commons gladly welcomed the cessation
+of the war. The approval of the Lords had been secured
+by the creation of twelve Tory peers. In home politics the new
+ministry was in danger of being carried away by its more violent
+supporters. St John, now Viscount Bolingbroke, with unscrupulous
+<span class="sidenote">Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act.</span>
+audacity placed himself at their head. The
+Occasional Conformity Bill was at last carried (1711).
+To it was added the Schism Act (1714), forbidding
+dissenters to keep schools or engage in tuition. Bolingbroke
+went still farther. He engaged in an intrigue
+for bringing over the Pretender to succeed the queen
+upon her death. This wild conduct alienated the moderate
+Tories, who, much as they wished to see the throne occupied
+by the heir of the ancient line, could not bring themselves to
+consent to its occupation by a Roman Catholic prince. Such
+men, therefore, when Anne died (1714) joined the Whigs in
+proclaiming the elector of Hanover king as George I.</p>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">X. The Hanoverian Kings (1714-1793)</p>
+
+<p>The accession of George I. brought with it the predominance
+of the Whigs. They had on their side the royal power, the
+greater part of the aristocracy, the dissenters and the
+higher trading and commercial classes. The Tories
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of the House of Hanover.</span>
+appealed to the dislike of dissenters prevalent amongst
+the country gentlemen and the country clergy, and
+to the jealousy felt by the agricultural classes towards those
+who enriched themselves by trade. Such a feeling, if it was
+aroused by irritating legislation, might very probably turn to
+the advantage of the exiled house, especially as the majority
+of Englishmen were to be found on the Tory side. It was therefore
+advisable that government should content itself with as
+little action as possible, in order to give time for old habits to
+wear themselves out. The landing of the Pretender in Scotland
+(1715), and the defeat of a portion of his army which had advanced
+to Preston&mdash;a defeat which was the consequence of the
+apathy of his English supporters, and which was followed by
+the complete suppression of the rebellion&mdash;gave increased
+strength to the Whig government. But they were reluctant to
+face an immediate dissolution, and the Septennial Act was
+<span class="sidenote">Repeal of Occasional Conformity Act and Schism Act.</span>
+passed (1716) to extend to seven years the duration
+of parliaments, which had been fixed at three years by
+the Triennial Act of William and Mary. Under General
+Stanhope an effort was made to draw legislation in a
+more liberal direction. The Occasional Conformity
+Act and the Schism Act were repealed (1719); but
+the majorities on the side of the government were unusually
+small, and Stanhope, who would willingly have repealed the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page545" id="page545"></a>545</span>
+Test Act so far as it related to dissenters, was compelled to
+abandon the project as entirely impracticable. The Peerage
+Bill, introduced at the same time to limit the royal power of
+creating peers, was happily thrown out in the Commons. It
+was proposed, partly from a desire to guard the Lords against
+such a sudden increase of their numbers as had been forced
+on them when the treaty of Utrecht was under discussion, and
+partly to secure the Whigs in office against any change in the
+royal councils in a succeeding reign. It was in fact conceived
+by men who valued the immediate victory of their principles
+more than they trusted to the general good sense of the nation.
+The Lords were at this time, as a matter of fact, not merely
+wealthier but wiser than the Commons; and it is no wonder
+that, in days when the Commons, by passing the Septennial
+Act, had shown their distrust of their own constituents, the
+peers should show, by the Peerage Bill, their distrust of that
+House which was elected by those constituencies. Nevertheless,
+the remedy was worse than the disease, for it would have established
+a close oligarchy, bound sooner or later to come into
+conflict with the will of the nation, and only to be overthrown
+by a violent alteration of the constitution.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement following on the bursting of the South Sea
+Bubble (<i>q.v.</i>), and the death or ruin of the leading ministers,
+brought Sir Robert Walpole to the front (1721). As
+a man of business when men of business were few in
+<span class="sidenote">Walpole&rsquo;s ministry.</span>
+the House of Commons, he was eminently fit to
+manage the affairs of the country. But he owed his long continuance
+in office especially to his sagacity. He clearly saw,
+what Stanhope had failed to see, that the mass of the nation was
+not fitted as yet to interest itself wisely in affairs of government,
+and that therefore the rule must be kept in the hands of the upper
+classes. But he was too sensible to adopt the coarse expedient
+which had commended itself to Stanhope, and he preferred
+humouring the masses to contradicting them.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle of the preceding century had left its mark in every
+direction on the national development. Out of the reaction
+against Puritanism had come a widely-spread relaxation of
+morals, and also, as far as the educated class was concerned, an
+eagerness for the discussion of all social and religious problems.
+The fierce excitement of political life had quickened thought,
+and the most anciently received doctrines were held of little
+worth until they were brought to the test of reason. It was a
+time when the pen was more powerful than the sword, when a
+secretary of state would treat with condescension a witty
+pamphleteer, and when such a pamphleteer might hope, not in
+vain, to become a secretary of state.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this world of reason and literature that the Whigs
+of the Peerage Bill moved. Walpole perceived that there was
+another world which understood none of these things. With
+cynical insight he discovered that a great government cannot rest
+on a clique, however distinguished. If the mass of the nation
+was not conscious of political wants, it was conscious of material
+wants. The merchant needed protection for his trade; the
+voters gladly welcomed election days as bringing guineas to their
+pockets. Members of parliament were ready to sell their votes
+for places, for pensions, for actual money. The system was not
+new, as Danby is credited with the discovery that a vote in the
+House of Commons might be purchased. But with Walpole it
+reached its height.</p>
+
+<p>Such a system was possible because the House of Commons
+was not really accountable to its constituents. The votes of its
+members were not published, and still less were their speeches
+made known. Such a silence could only be maintained around
+the House when there was little interest in its proceedings.
+The great questions of religion and taxation which had agitated
+the country under the Stuarts were now fairly settled. To reawaken
+those questions in any shape would be dangerous.
+Walpole took good care never to repeat the mistake of the
+Sacheverell trial. When on one occasion he was led into the
+proposal of an unpopular excise he at once drew back. England
+in his days was growing rich. Englishmen were bluff and independent,
+in their ways often coarse and unmannerly. Their life
+was the life depicted on the canvas of Hogarth and the pages
+of Fielding. All high imagination, all devotion to the public
+weal, seemed laid asleep. But the political instinct was not
+dead, and it would one day express itself for better ends than
+an agitation against an excise bill or an outcry for a popular
+war. A government could no longer employ its powers for
+direct oppression. In his own house and in his own conscience,
+every Englishman, as far as the government was concerned, was
+the master of his destiny. By and by the idea would dawn on
+the nation that anarchy is as productive of evil as tyranny, and
+that a government which omits to regulate or control allows
+the strong to oppress the weak, and the rich to oppress the
+poor.</p>
+
+<p>Walpole&rsquo;s administration lasted long enough to give room
+for some feeble expression of this feeling. When George I. was
+succeeded by George II. (1727), Walpole remained in
+power. His eagerness for the possession of that power
+<span class="sidenote">George II. 1727-1760.</span>
+which he desired to use for his country&rsquo;s good, together
+with the incapacity of two kings born and bred in a
+foreign country to take a leading part in English affairs, completed
+the change which had been effected when William first entrusted
+the conduct of government to a united cabinet. There was now
+for the first time a prime minister in England, a person who was
+himself a subject imposing harmonious action on the cabinet.
+The change was so gradually and silently effected that it is
+difficult to realize its full importance. So far, indeed, as it only
+came about through the incapacity of the first two kings of the
+house of Hanover, it might be undone, and was in fact to a great
+extent undone by a more active successor. But so far as it was
+the result of general tendencies, it could never be obliterated.
+In the ministries in which Somers and Montagu on the one hand
+and Harley and St John on the other had taken part, there was
+no prime minister except so far as one member of the administration
+dominated over his colleagues by the force of character
+and intelligence. In the reign of George III., even North and
+Addington were universally acknowledged by that title, though
+they had little claim to the independence of action of a Walpole
+or a Pitt.</p>
+
+<p>The change was, in fact, one of the most important of those
+by which the English constitution has been altered from an
+hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary regulative agency
+to a parliamentary government with an hereditary regulative
+agency. In Walpole&rsquo;s time the forms of the constitution had
+become, in all essential particulars, what they are now. What
+was wanting was a national force behind them to set them to
+their proper work.</p>
+
+<p>The growing opposition which finally drove Walpole from
+power was not entirely without a nobler element than could be
+furnished by personal rivalry, or ignorant distrust of
+commercial and financial success. It was well that
+<span class="sidenote">The Opposition.</span>
+complaints that a great country ought not to be
+governed by patronage and bribery should be raised, although,
+as subsequent experience showed, the causes which rendered
+corruption inevitable were not to be removed by the expulsion
+of Walpole from office. But for one error, indeed, it is probable
+that Walpole&rsquo;s rule would have been still further prolonged.
+In 1739 a popular excitement arose for a declaration
+<span class="sidenote">War with Spain.</span>
+of war against Spain. Walpole believed that war
+to be certainly unjust, and likely to be disastrous.
+He had, however, been so accustomed to give way to popular
+pressure that he did not perceive the difference between a wise
+and timely determination to leave a right action undone in the
+face of insuperable difficulties, and an unwise and cowardly
+determination to do that which he believed to be wrong and
+imprudent. If he had now resigned rather than demean himself by
+acting against his conscience, it is by no means unlikely that he
+would have been recalled to power before many years were over.
+As it was, the failures of the war recoiled on his own head, and
+in 1742 his long ministry came to an end.</p>
+
+<p>After a short interval a successor was found in Henry Pelham.
+All the ordinary arts of corruption which Walpole had practised
+were continued, and to them were added arts of corruption
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page546" id="page546"></a>546</span>
+which Walpole had disdained to practise. He at least understood
+<span class="sidenote">Ministry of Henry Pelham.</span>
+that there were certain principles in accordance with which
+he wished to conduct public affairs, and he had driven
+colleague after colleague out of office rather than allow
+them to distract his method of government. Pelham
+and his brother, the Thomas Pelham, duke of
+Newcastle, had no principles of government whatever. They
+offered place to every man of parliamentary skill or influence.
+There was no opposition, because the ministers never attempted
+to do anything which would arouse opposition, and because
+they were ready to do anything called for by any one who had
+power enough to make himself dangerous; and in 1743 they
+embarked on a useless war with France in order to please the
+king, who saw in every commotion on the continent of Europe
+some danger to his beloved Hanover.</p>
+
+<p>At most times in the history of England such a ministry
+would have been driven from office by the outcry of an offended
+people. In the days of the Pelhams, government was
+regarded as lying too far outside the all-important
+<span class="sidenote">The Rebellion of 1745.</span>
+private interests of the community to make it worth
+while to make any effort to rescue it from the degradation
+into which it had fallen; yet the Pelhams had not been
+long in power before this serene belief that the country could
+get on very well without a government in any real sense of
+the word was put to the test. In 1745 Charles Edward, the
+son of the Pretender, landed in Scotland. He was followed by
+many of the Highland clans, always ready to draw the sword
+against the constituted authorities of the Lowlands; and even
+in the Lowlands, and especially in Edinburgh, he found adherents,
+who still felt the sting inflicted by the suppression of the
+national independence of Scotland. The British army was in as
+chaotic a condition as the British government, and Charles
+Edward inflicted a complete defeat on a force which met him
+at Prestonpans. Before the end of the year the victor, at the
+head of 5000 men, had advanced to Derby. But he found no
+support in England, and the mere numbers brought against him
+compelled him to retreat, to find defeat at Culloden in the
+following year (1746). The war on the continent had been waged
+with indifferent success. The victory of Dettingen (1743) and
+the glorious defeat of Fontenoy (1745) had achieved no objects
+worthy of English intervention, and the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
+put an end in 1748 to hostilities which should never have been
+begun. The government pursued its inglorious career as long
+as Henry Pelham lived. He had at least some share in the financial
+ability of Walpole, and it was not till he died in 1754 that
+the real difficulties of a system which was based on the avoidance
+of difficulties had fairly to be faced.</p>
+
+<p>The change which was needed was not any mere re-adjustment
+of the political machine. Those who cared for religion or morality
+had forgotten that man is an imaginative and emotional
+being. Defenders of Christianity and of deism alike
+<span class="sidenote">Moral and religious atmosphere.</span>
+appealed to the reason alone. Enthusiasm was treated
+as a folly or a crime, and earnestness of every kind was
+branded with the name of enthusiasm. The higher order of
+minds dwelt with preference upon the beneficent wisdom of the
+Creator. The lower order of minds treated religion as a kind
+of life assurance against the inconvenience of eternal death.
+Upon such a system as this human nature was certain to revenge
+itself. The preaching of Wesley and Whitefield
+<span class="sidenote">Wesley and Whitefield.</span>
+appealed direct to the emotions, with its doctrine of
+&ldquo;conversion,&rdquo; and called upon each individual not
+to understand, or to admire, or to act, but vividly
+to realize the love and mercy of God. In all this there was
+nothing new. What was new was that Wesley added an organization,
+Methodism (<i>q.v.</i>), in which each of his followers unfolded
+to one another the secrets of their heart, and became accountable
+to his fellows. Large as the numbers of the Methodists ultimately
+became, their influence is not to be measured by their numbers.
+The double want of the age, the want of spiritual earnestness and
+the want of organized coherence, would find satisfaction in many
+ways which would have seemed strange to Wesley, but which
+were, nevertheless, a continuance of the work which he began.</p>
+
+<p>As far as government was concerned, when Henry Pelham
+died (1754) the lowest depth of baseness seemed to have been
+reached. The duke of Newcastle, who succeeded his
+brother, looked on the work of corruption with absolute
+<span class="sidenote">Ministry of Newcastle.</span>
+pleasure, and regarded genius and ability as an
+awkward interruption of that happy arrangement which
+made men subservient to flattery and money. Whilst he was
+in the very act of trying to drive from office all men who were
+possessed of any sort of ideas, he was surprised by a great war.
+In America, the French settlers in Canada and the English settlers
+on the Atlantic coast were falling to blows for the possession of
+the vast territories drained by the Ohio and its tributaries.
+In India, Frenchmen and Englishmen had striven during the last
+war for authority over the native states round Pondicherry and
+Madras, and the conflict threatened to break out anew. When
+war began in earnest, and the reality of danger came home to
+Englishmen by the capture of Minorca (1756), there arose a
+demand for a more capable government than any which Newcastle
+could offer. Terrified by the storm of obloquy which he
+aroused, he fled from office. A government was formed, of which
+the soul was William Pitt. Pitt was, in some sort, to the
+political life of Englishmen what Wesley was to their religious
+life. He brought no new political ideas into their minds, but
+he ruled them by the force of his character and the example
+of his purity. His weapons were trust and confidence. He
+appealed to the patriotism of his fellow-countrymen, to their
+imaginative love for the national greatness, and he did not appeal
+in vain. He perceived instinctively that a large number, even
+of those who took greedily the bribes of Walpole and the Pelhams,
+took them, not because they loved money better than their
+country, but because they had no conception that their country
+had any need of them at all. It was a truth, but it was not the
+<span class="sidenote">Ministry of Pitt and Newcastle.</span>
+whole truth. The great Whig families rallied under
+Newcastle and drove Pitt from office (1757). But if
+Pitt could not govern without Newcastle&rsquo;s corruption,
+neither could Newcastle govern without Pitt&rsquo;s energy.
+At last a compromise was effected, and Newcastle undertook
+the work of bribing, whilst Pitt undertook the work of governing
+(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Chatham, William Pitt, 1st earl of</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>The war which had already broken out, the Seven Years&rsquo;
+War (1756-1763), was not confined to England alone. By the
+side of the duel between France and England, a war
+was going on upon the continent of Europe, in which
+<span class="sidenote">The Seven Years&rsquo; War.</span>
+Austria&mdash;with its allies, France, Russia and the
+German princes&mdash;had fallen upon the new kingdom
+of Prussia and its sovereign Frederick II. England and
+Prussia therefore necessarily formed an alliance. Different
+as the two governments were, they were both alike in recognizing,
+in part at least, the conditions of progress. Even in Pitt&rsquo;s
+day England, however imperfectly, rested its strength on the
+popular will. Even in Frederick&rsquo;s day Prussia was ruled by
+administrators selected for their special knowledge. Neither
+France nor Austria had any conception of the necessity of fulfilling
+these requirements. Hence the strength of England
+and of Prussia. The war seemed to be a mere struggle for territory.
+There was no feeling in either Pitt or Frederick, such as
+there was in the men who contended half a century later against
+Napoleon, that they were fighting the battles of the civilized
+world. There was something repulsive as well in the enthusiastic
+nationalism of Pitt as in the cynical nationalism of Frederick.
+Pitt&rsquo;s sole object was to exalt England to a position in which she
+would fear no rival. But in so doing he exalted that which, in
+spite of all that had happened, best deserved to be exalted. The
+habits of individual energy fused together by the inspiration of
+patriotism conquered Canada. The unintelligent over-regulation
+of the French government could not maintain the colonies
+which had been founded in happier times. In 1758 Louisburg
+was taken, and the mouth of the St Lawrence guarded against
+France. In 1759 Quebec fell before Wolfe, who died at the
+moment of victory. In the same year the naval victories of
+Lagos and Quiberon Bay established the supremacy of the British
+at sea. The battle of Plassey (1757) had laid Bengal at the feet
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page547" id="page547"></a>547</span>
+of Clive; and Coote&rsquo;s victory at Wandiwash (1760) led to the
+final ruin of the relics of French authority in southern India.
+When George II. died (1760) England was the first maritime
+and colonial power in the world (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Seven Years&rsquo; War</a></span>;
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Canada</a></span>: <i>History</i>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">India</a></span>: <i>History</i>).</p>
+
+<p>In George III. the king once more became an important factor
+in English politics. From his childhood he had been trained
+by his mother and his instructors to regard the breaking
+down of the power of the great families as the task
+<span class="sidenote">George III., 1760-1820.</span>
+of his life. In this he was walking in the same direction
+as Pitt. If the two men could have worked together,
+England might have been spared many misfortunes. Unhappily,
+the king could not understand Pitt&rsquo;s higher qualities, his bold confidence
+in the popular feeling, and his contempt for corruption
+and intrigue. And yet the king&rsquo;s authority was indispensable to
+Pitt, if he was to carry on his conflict against the great families
+with success. When the war came to an end, as it must come
+to an end sooner or later, Pitt&rsquo;s special predominance, derived
+as it was from his power of breathing a martial spirit into the
+fleets and armies of England, would come to an end too. Only
+the king, with his hold upon the traditional instincts of loyalty and
+the force of his still unimpaired prerogative, could, in ordinary
+times, hold head against the wealthy and influential aristocracy.
+Unfortunately, George III. was not wise enough to deal with the
+difficulty in a high-minded fashion. With a well-intentioned
+but narrow mind, he had nothing in him to strike the imagination
+of his subjects. He met influence with influence, corruption with
+corruption, intrigue with intrigue. Unhappily, too, his earliest
+relations with Pitt involved a dispute on a point on which he
+<span class="sidenote">Pitt&rsquo;s resignation.</span>
+was right and Pitt was wrong. In 1761 Pitt resigned
+office, because neither the king nor the cabinet were
+willing to declare war against Spain in the midst of the
+war with France. As the war with Spain was inevitable, and as,
+when it broke out in the following year (1762), it was followed
+by triumphs for which Pitt had prepared the way, the prescience
+of the great war-minister appeared to be fully established. But
+it was his love of war, not his skill in carrying it on, which was
+really in question. He would be satisfied with nothing short
+of the absolute ruin of France. He would have given England
+that dangerous position of supremacy which was gained for
+France by Louis XIV. in the 17th century, and by Napoleon in
+the 19th century. He would have made his country still more
+haughty and arrogant than it was, till other nations rose against
+it, as they have three times risen against France, rather than
+submit to the intolerable yoke. It was a happy thing for England
+that peace was signed (1763).</p>
+
+<p>Even as it was, a spirit of contemptuous disregard of the rights
+of others had been roused, which would not be easily allayed.
+The king&rsquo;s premature attempt to secure a prime
+minister of his own choosing in Lord Bute (1761)
+<span class="sidenote">Bute and Grenville.</span>
+came to an end through the minister&rsquo;s incapacity
+(1763). George Grenville, who followed him, kept the king in
+leading strings in reliance upon his parliamentary majority.
+Something, no doubt, had been accomplished by the incorruptibility
+of Pitt. The practice of bribing members of parliament
+by actual presents in money came to an end, though the practice
+of bribing them by place and pension long continued. The
+arrogance which Pitt displayed towards foreign nations was
+displayed by Grenville towards classes of the population of the
+British dominions. It was enough for him to establish a right.
+He never put himself in the position of those who were to suffer
+by its being put in force.</p>
+
+<p>The first to suffer from Grenville&rsquo;s conception of his duty
+were the American colonies. The mercantile system, which had
+sprung up in Spain in the 16th century, held that
+colonies were to be entirely prohibited from trading,
+<span class="sidenote">The American colonies.</span>
+except with the mother country. Every European
+country had adopted this view, and the acquisition
+of fresh colonial dominions by England, at the peace of 1763,
+had been made not so much through lust of empire as through
+love of trade. Of all English colonies, the American were the
+most populous and important. Their proximity to the Spanish
+colonies in the West Indies had naturally led to a contraband
+trade. To this trade Grenville put a stop, as far as lay in his
+power. Obnoxious as this measure was in America, the colonists
+had acknowledged the principle on which it was founded too
+long to make it easy to resist it. Another step of Grenville&rsquo;s
+met with more open opposition. Even with all the experience
+of the century which followed, the relations between a mother
+country and her colonies are not easy to arrange. If the burthen
+of defence is to be borne in common, it can hardly be left to the
+mother country to declare war, and to exact the necessary
+taxation, without the consent of the colonies. If, on the other
+hand, it is to be borne by the mother country alone, she may well
+complain that she is left to bear more than her due share of the
+weight. The latter alternative forced itself upon the attention
+of Grenville. The British parliament, he held, was the supreme
+legislature, and, as such, was entitled to raise taxes in America
+to support the military forces needed for the defence of America.
+The act (1765) imposing a stamp tax on the American colonies
+was the result.</p>
+
+<p>As might have been expected, the Americans resisted. For
+them, the question was precisely that which Hampden had
+fought out in the case of ship-money. As far as they
+were concerned, the British parliament had stepped
+<span class="sidenote">The Rockingham ministry.</span>
+into the position of Charles I. If Grenville had remained
+in office he would probably have persisted in
+his resolution. He was driven from his post by the king&rsquo;s resolve
+no longer to submit to his insolence, and a new ministry was
+formed under the marquess of Rockingham, composed of some of
+those leaders of the Whig aristocracy who had not followed the
+Grenville ministry. They were well-intentioned, but weak, and
+without political ability; and the king regarded them with
+distrust, only qualified by his abhorrence of the ministry which
+they superseded.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the bad news came from America, the ministry
+was placed between two recommendations. Grenville, on the
+one hand, advised that the tax should be enforced.
+Pitt, on the other, declared that the British parliament
+<span class="sidenote">The Declaratory Act and repeal of Stamp Act.</span>
+had absolutely no right to tax America, though he
+held that it had the right to regulate, or in other words
+to tax, the commerce of America for the benefit of the
+British merchant and manufacturer. Between the
+two the government took a middle course. It obtained from
+parliament a total repeal of the Stamp Act, but it also passed
+a Declaratory Act, claiming for the British parliament the
+supreme power over the colonies in matters of taxation, as well
+as in matters of legislation.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that the course thus adopted was chosen simply
+because it was a middle course. But it was probably suggested
+by Edmund Burke, who was then Lord Rockingham&rsquo;s
+private secretary, but who for some time to come was
+<span class="sidenote">Burke&rsquo;s political theory.</span>
+to furnish thought to the party to which he attached
+himself. Burke carried into the world of theory those
+politics of expediency of which Walpole had been the practical
+originator. He held that questions of abstract right had no
+place in politics. It was therefore as absurd to argue with Pitt
+that England had a right to regulate commerce, as it was to argue
+with Grenville that England had a right to levy taxes. All that
+could be said was, that it was expedient in a widespread empire
+that the power of final decision should be lodged somewhere,
+and that it was also expedient not to use that power in such
+a way as to irritate those whom it was the truest wisdom to
+conciliate.</p>
+
+<p>The weak side of this view was the weak side of all Burke&rsquo;s
+political philosophy. Like all great innovators, he was intensely
+conservative where he was not an advocate of change.
+With new views on every subject relating to the
+<span class="sidenote">Arguments of Pitt and Burke.</span>
+exercise of power, he shrank even from entertaining the
+slightest question relating to the distribution of power.
+He recommended to the British parliament the most self-denying
+wisdom, but he could not see that in its relation to the colonies
+the British parliament was so constituted as to make it entirely
+unprepared to be either wise or self-denying. It is true that if
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page548" id="page548"></a>548</span>
+he had thought out the matter in this direction, he would have
+been led further than he or any other man in England or America
+was at that time prepared to go. If the British parliament was
+unfit to legislate for America, and if, as was undoubtedly the case,
+it was impossible to create a representative body which was fit
+to legislate, it would follow that the American colonies could only
+be fairly governed as practically independent states, though
+they might possibly remain, like the great colonies of our own
+day, in a position of alliance rather than of dependence. It was
+because the issues opened led to changes so far greater than the
+wisest statesman then perceived, that Pitt&rsquo;s solution, logically
+untenable as it was, was preferable to Burke&rsquo;s. Pitt would have
+given bad reasons for going a step in the right direction. Burke
+gave excellent reasons why those who were certain to go wrong
+should have the power to go right.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely were the measures relating to America passed when
+the king turned out the ministry. The new ministry was formed
+by Pitt, who was created earl of Chatham (1766),
+on the principle of bringing together men who had
+<span class="sidenote">Ministry of Lord Chatham.</span>
+shaken themselves loose from any of the different
+Whig cliques. Whatever chance the plan had of
+succeeding was at an end when Chatham&rsquo;s mind temporarily
+gave way under stress of disease (1767). Charles Townshend, a
+brilliant, headstrong man, led parliament in the way which had
+been prepared by the Declaratory Act, and laid duties on tea
+and other articles of commerce entering the ports of America.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible that the position thus claimed by the
+British parliament towards America should affect America
+alone. The habit of obtaining money otherwise than by the
+consent of those who are required to pay it would be certain
+to make parliament careless of the feelings and interests of
+that great majority of the population at home, which was unrepresented
+in parliament. The resistance of America to the
+taxation imposed was therefore not without benefit to the people
+of the mother country. Already there were signs of a readiness
+in parliament to treat even the constituencies with contempt.
+<span class="sidenote">Wilkes and &ldquo;The North Briton.&rdquo;</span>
+In 1763, in the days of the Grenville ministry, John
+Wilkes, a profligate and scurrilous writer, had been
+arrested on a general warrant&mdash;that is to say, a warrant
+in which the name of no individual was mentioned&mdash;as
+the author of an alleged libel on the king, contained in No. 45
+of <i>The North Briton</i>. He was a member of parliament, and as
+such was declared by Chief Justice Pratt to be privileged against
+arrest. In 1768 he was elected member for Middlesex. The
+House of Commons expelled him. He was again elected, and
+again expelled. The third time, the Commons gave the seat to
+which Wilkes was a third time chosen to Colonel Luttrell, who
+was far down in the poll. Wilkes thus became the representative
+of a great constitutional principle, the principle that the electors
+have a right to choose their representatives without restriction,
+save by the regulations of the law.</p>
+
+<p>For the present the contention of the American colonists
+and of the defenders of Wilkes at home was confined within the
+compass of the law. Yet in both cases it might easily pass beyond
+that compass, and might rest itself upon an appeal to the duty of
+governments to modify the law, and to enlarge the basis of their
+authority, when law and authority have become too narrow.</p>
+
+<p>As regards America, though Townshend died, the government
+persisted in his policy. As resistance grew stronger in America,
+the king urged the use of compulsion. If he had not
+the wisdom of the country on his side, he had its
+<span class="sidenote">Lord North&rsquo;s ministry.</span>
+prejudices. The arrogant spirit of Englishmen made
+them <span class="correction" title="amended from comtemptuous">contemptuous</span> towards the colonists, and the
+desire to thrust taxation upon others than themselves made
+the new colonial legislation popular. In 1770 the king made
+Lord North prime minister. He had won the object on which
+he had set his heart. A new Tory party had sprung up, not
+distinguished, like the Tories of Queen Anne&rsquo;s reign, by a special
+ecclesiastical policy, but by their acceptance of the king&rsquo;s claim to
+nominate ministers, and so to predominate in the ministry himself.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily the opposition, united in the desire to conciliate
+America, was divided on questions of home policy. Chatham
+would have met the new danger by parliamentary reform, giving
+increased voting power to the freeholders of the counties.
+Burke from principle, and his noble patrons mainly from lower
+motives, were opposed to any such change. As Burke had wished
+the British parliament to be supreme over the colonies, in confidence
+that this supremacy would not be abused, so he wished
+the great landowning connexion resting on the rotten boroughs
+to rule over the unrepresented people, in confidence that this
+power would not be abused. Amid these distractions the king
+had an easy game to play. He had all the patronage of the
+government in his hands, and beyond the circle which was
+influenced by gifts of patronage, he could appeal to the ignorance
+and self-seeking of the nation, with which, though he knew it
+not, he was himself in the closest sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder resistance grew more vigorous in America. In
+1773 the inhabitants of Boston threw ship-loads of tea into the
+harbour rather than pay the obnoxious duty. In 1774
+the Boston Port Bill deprived Boston of its commercial
+<span class="sidenote">The American War of Independence.</span>
+rights, whilst the Massachusetts Government Bill took
+away from that colony the ordinary political liberties
+of Englishmen. The first skirmish of the inevitable
+war was fought at Lexington in 1775. In 1776 the thirteen
+colonies united in the continental congress issued their Declaration
+of Independence. England put forth all its strength to beat
+down resistance; but the task, which seemed easy at a distance,
+proved impossible. It might have been so even had the war
+been conducted on the British side with greater military skill
+and with more insight into the conditions of the struggle, which
+was essentially a civil contest between men of the same race.
+But the initial difficulties of the vast field of operations were
+greatly increased by the want of skill of the British leaders in
+adapting themselves to new conditions, while even loyalist
+sentiment was shocked by the employment of German mercenaries
+and Red Indian savages against men of English blood.
+Even so, the issue of the struggle was for long doubtful, and
+there were moments when it might have ended by a policy of
+wise concession; but the Americans, though reduced at times
+to desperate straits, had the advantage of fighting in their own
+country, and above all they found in George Washington a leader
+after the model of the English country gentleman who had upheld
+the standard of liberty against the Stuarts, and worthy of
+the great cause for which they fought. In 1777 a British army
+under Burgoyne capitulated at Saratoga; and early in 1778
+France, eager to revenge the disasters of the Seven Years&rsquo; War,
+formed an alliance with the revolted colonies as free and independent
+states, and was soon joined by Spain.</p>
+
+<p>Chatham, who was ready to make any concession to America
+short of independence, and especially of independence at the
+dictation of France, died in 1778. The war was continued for
+some years with varying results; but in 1781 the capitulation
+of a second British army under Cornwallis at Yorktown was a
+decisive blow, which brought home to the minds of the dullest
+the assurance that the conquest of America was an impossibility.</p>
+
+<p>Before this event happened there had been a great change
+in public feeling in England. The increasing weight of taxation
+gave rise in 1780 to a great meeting of the freeholders of Yorkshire,
+which in turn gave the signal for a general agitation for
+the reduction of unnecessary expense in the government. To this
+desire Burke gave expression in his bill for economical reform,
+though he was unable to carry it in the teeth of interested
+opposition. The movement in favour of economy was necessarily
+also a movement in favour of peace; and when the surrender of
+Yorktown was known (1782), Lord North at once resigned office.</p>
+
+<p>The new ministry formed under Lord Rockingham comprised
+not only his own immediate followers, of whom the most prominent
+was Charles Fox, but the followers of Chatham,
+of whom Lord Shelburne was the acknowledged leader.
+<span class="sidenote">The second Rockingham ministry.</span>
+A treaty of peace acknowledging the independence
+of the United States of America was at once set on
+foot; and the negotiation with France was rendered easy by
+the defeat of a French fleet by Rodney, and by the failure
+of the combined forces of France and Spain to take Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page549" id="page549"></a>549</span></p>
+
+<p>Already the ministry on which such great hopes had been
+placed had broken up. Rockingham died in July 1782. The
+two sections of which the government was composed had different
+aims. The Rockingham section, which now looked up to Fox,
+rested on aristocratic connexion and influence; the Shelburne
+section was anxious to gain popular support by active reforms,
+and to gain over the king to their side. Judging by past experience,
+the combination might well seem hopeless, and honourable
+men like Fox might easily regard it with suspicion. But
+Fox&rsquo;s allies took good care that their name should not be associated
+with the idea of improvement. They pruned Burke&rsquo;s
+Economical Reform Bill till it left as many abuses as it suppressed;
+and though the bill prohibited the grant of pensions
+above £300, they hastily gave away pensions of much larger
+value to their own friends before the bill had received the royal
+assent. They also opposed a bill for parliamentary reform
+brought in by young William Pitt. When the king chose
+Shelburne as prime minister, they refused to follow him, and
+put forward the incompetent duke of Portland as their candidate
+for the office. The struggle was thus renewed on the old ground
+of the king&rsquo;s right to select his ministers. But while the king
+now put forward a minister notoriously able and competent to the
+task, his opponents put forward a man whose only claim to office
+was the possession of large estates. They forced their way back
+to power by means as unscrupulous as their claim to it was unjustifiable.
+They formed a coalition with Lord North, whose
+<span class="sidenote">The coalition.</span>
+politics and character they had denounced for years.
+The coalition, as soon as the peace with America and
+France had been signed (1783), drove Shelburne from
+office. The duke of Portland became the nominal head of the
+government, Fox and North its real leaders.</p>
+
+<p>Such a ministry could not afford to make a single blunder.
+The king detested it, and the assumption by the Whig houses
+of a right to nominate the head of the government
+without reference to the national interests, could never
+<span class="sidenote">The India Bill.</span>
+be popular. The blunder was soon committed.
+Burke, hating wrong and injustice with a bitter hatred, had
+descried in the government of British India by the East India
+Company a disgrace to the English name. For many of the
+actions of that government no honourable man can think of
+uttering a word of defence. The helpless natives were oppressed
+and robbed by the company and its servants in every possible
+way. Burke drew up a bill, which was adopted by the coalition
+government, for taking all authority in India out of the hands
+of the company, and even placing the company&rsquo;s management
+of its own commercial affairs under control. The governing
+and controlling body was naturally to be a council appointed
+at home. The question of the nomination of this council at once
+drew the whole question within the domain of party politics.
+The whole patronage of India would be in its hands, and, as
+parliament was then constituted, the balance of parties might
+be more seriously affected by the distribution of that patronage
+than it would be now. When, therefore, it was understood that
+the government bill meant the council to be named in the bill
+for four years, or, in other words, to be named by the coalition
+ministry, it was generally regarded as an unblushing attempt to
+turn a measure for the good government of India into a measure
+for securing the ministry in office. The bill of course passed the
+Commons. When it came before the Lords, it was thrown out
+in consequence of a message from the king, that he would regard
+any one who voted for it as his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The contest had thus become one between the influence of
+the crown and the influence of the great houses. Constitutional
+historians, who treat the question as one of merely
+theoretical politics, leave out of consideration this
+<span class="sidenote">Ministry of the younger Pitt.</span>
+essential element of the situation, and forget that, if
+it was wrong for the king to influence the Lords by
+his message, it was equally wrong for the ministry to acquire
+for themselves fresh patronage with which to influence the
+Commons. But there was now, what there had not been in the
+time of Walpole and the Pelhams, a public opinion ready to throw
+its weight on one side or the other. The county members still
+formed the most independent portion of the representation,
+and there were many possessors of rotten boroughs, who were
+ready to agree with the county members rather than with the
+great landowners. In choosing Pitt, the young son of Chatham,
+for his prime minister, as soon as he had dismissed the coalition,
+George III. gave assurance that he wished his counsels to be
+directed by integrity and ability. After a struggle of many
+weeks, parliament was dissolved (1784), and the new House of
+Commons was prepared to support the king&rsquo;s minister by a large
+majority.</p>
+
+<p>As far as names go, the change effected placed the new Tory
+party in office for an almost uninterrupted period of forty-six
+years. It so happened, however, that after the first eight years
+of that period had passed by, circumstances occurred which
+effected so great a change in the composition and character of
+that party as to render any statement to this effect entirely
+illusive. During eight years, however, Pitt&rsquo;s ministry was not
+merely a Tory ministry resting on the choice of the king, but a
+Liberal ministry resting on national support and upon advanced
+political knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>The nation which Pitt had behind him was very different from
+the populace which had assailed Walpole&rsquo;s Excise Bill, or had
+shouted for Wilkes and liberty. At the beginning
+of the century the intellect of thoughtful Englishmen
+<span class="sidenote">Material progress.</span>
+had applied itself to speculative problems of religion
+and philosophy. In the middle of the century it applied itself
+to practical problems affecting the employment of industry.
+In 1776 Adam Smith published the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. Already
+in 1762 the work of Brindley, the Bridgewater canal, the first
+joint of a network of inland water communication, was opened.
+In 1767 Hargreaves produced the spinning-jenny; Arkwright&rsquo;s
+spinning machine was exhibited in 1768; Crompton&rsquo;s mule was
+finished in 1779; Cartwright hit upon the idea of the power-loom
+in 1784, though it was not brought into profitable use till
+1801. The Staffordshire potteries had been flourishing under
+Wedgwood since 1763, and the improved steam-engine was
+brought into shape by Watt in 1768. During these years the
+duke of Bedford, Coke of Norfolk, and Robert Bakewell were
+busy in the improvement of stock and agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>The increase of wealth and prosperity caused by these changes
+went far to produce a large class of the population entirely outside
+the associations of the landowning class, but with sufficient
+intelligence to appreciate the advantages of a government carried
+on without regard to the personal interests and rivalries of the
+aristocracy. The mode in which that increase of wealth was
+effected was even more decisive on the ultimate destinies of the
+country. The substitution of the organization of hereditary
+monarchy for the organization of wealth and station would
+ultimately have led to evils as great as those which it superseded.
+It was only tolerable as a stepping-stone to the organization of
+intelligence. The larger the numbers admitted to influence the
+affairs of state, the more necessary is it that they respect the
+powers of intellect. It would be foolish to institute a comparison
+between an Arkwright or a Crompton and a Locke or a
+Newton. But it is certain that for one man who could appreciate
+the importance of the treatise <i>On the Human Understanding</i> or
+the theory of gravitation, there were thousands who could understand
+the value of the water-frame, or the power-loom. The
+habit of looking with reverence upon mental power was fostered
+in no slight measure by the industrial development of the second
+half of the 18th century.</p>
+
+<p>The supremacy of intelligence in the political world was,
+for the time, represented in Pitt. In 1784 he passed an India
+Bill, which left the commerce and all except the highest
+patronage of India in the hands of the East India
+<span class="sidenote">Pitt&rsquo;s India Bill.</span>
+Company, but which erected a department of the home
+government, named the board of control, to compel the company
+to carry out such political measures as the government
+saw fit. A bill for parliamentary reform was, however, thrown
+out by the opposition of his own supporters in parliament, whilst
+outside parliament there was no general desire for a change in
+a system which for the present produced such excellent fruits.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page550" id="page550"></a>550</span>
+Still more excellent was his plan of legislation for Ireland. Irishmen
+had taken advantage of the weakness of England during
+the American War to enforce upon the ministry of the day, in
+1780 and 1782, an abandonment of all claim on the part of the
+English government and the English judges to interfere in any
+way with Irish affairs. From 1782, therefore, there were two
+independent legislatures within the British Isles&mdash;the one sitting
+at Westminster and the other sitting in Dublin. With these
+political changes Fox professed himself to be content. Pitt, whose
+mind was open to wider considerations, proposed to throw open
+commerce to both nations by removing all the restrictions placed
+on the trade of Ireland with England and with the rest of the
+world. The opposition of the English parliament was only
+removed by concessions continuing some important restrictions
+upon Irish exports, and by giving the English parliament the
+right of initiation in all measures relating to the regulation of
+the trade which was to be common to both nations. The Irish
+parliament took umbrage at the superiority claimed by England,
+and threw out the measure as an insult, though, even as it stood,
+it was undeniably in favour of Ireland. The lesson of the incompatibility
+of two coordinate legislatures was not thrown
+away upon Pitt.</p>
+
+<p>In 1786 the commercial treaty with France opened that
+country to English trade, and was the first result of the theories
+laid down by Adam Smith ten years previously. The first attack
+upon the horrors of the slave-trade was made in 1788; and in
+the same year, in the debates on the Regency Bill caused by the
+king&rsquo;s insanity, Pitt defended against Fox the right of parliament
+to make provision for the exercise of the powers of the crown
+when the wearer was permanently or temporarily disabled from
+exercising his authority.</p>
+
+<p>When the king recovered, he went to St Paul&rsquo;s to return thanks
+on the 23rd of April 1789. The enthusiasm with which he was
+greeted showed how completely he had the nation on his side.
+All the hopes of liberal reformers were now with him. All the
+hopes of moral and religious men were on his side as well. The
+seed sown by Wesley had grown to be a great tree. A spirit
+of thoughtfulness in religious matters and of moral energy was
+growing in the nation, and the king was endeared to his subjects,
+as much by his domestic virtues as by his support of the great
+minister who acted in his name. The happy prospect was soon
+to be overclouded. On the 4th of May, eleven days after the
+appearance of George III. at St Paul&rsquo;s, the French states-general
+met at Versailles.</p>
+
+<p>By the great mass of intelligent Englishmen the change was
+greeted with enthusiasm. It is seldom that one nation understands
+the tendencies and difficulties of another; and
+the mere fact that power was being transferred from
+<span class="sidenote">The French Revolution; English feeling.</span>
+an absolute monarch to a representative assembly
+led superficial observers to imagine that they were
+witnessing a mere repetition of the victory of the
+English parliament over the Stuart kings. In fact,
+that which was passing in France was of a totally different nature
+from the English struggle of the 17th century. In England, the
+conflict had been carried on for the purpose of limiting the power
+of the king. In France, it was begun in order to sweep away
+an aristocracy in church and state which had become barbarously
+oppressive. The French Revolution was not, therefore, a conflict
+for the reform of the political organization of the state, but one
+for the reorganization of the whole structure of society; and
+in proportion as it turned away from the path which English
+ignorance had marked out for it, Englishmen turned away from it
+in disgust. As they did not understand the aims of the French
+Revolutionists, they were unable to make that excuse for even
+so much of their conduct as admits of excuse. Three men, Fox,
+Burke and Pitt, however, represented three varieties of opinion
+into which the nation was very unequally divided.</p>
+
+<p>Fox, generous and trustful towards the movements of large
+masses of men, had very little intellectual grasp of the questions
+at issue in France. He treated the struggle as one simply for
+the establishment of free institutions; and when at last the
+crimes of the leaders became patent to the world, he contented
+himself with lamenting the unfortunate fact, and fell back on
+the argument that though England could not sympathize with
+the French tyrants, there was no reason why she should go to
+war with them.</p>
+
+<p>Burke, on the other hand, while he failed to understand the
+full tendency of the Revolution for good as well as for evil,
+understood it far better than any Englishman of that day understood
+it. He saw that its main aim was equality, not liberty,
+and that not only would the French nation be ready, in pursuit
+of equality, to welcome any tyranny which would serve its
+purpose, but would be the more prone to acts of tyranny over
+individuals. This would arise from the remodelling of institutions,
+with the object of giving immediate effect to the will of the
+masses, which was especially liable to be counterfeited by designing
+and unscrupulous agitators. There is no doubt that in all
+this Burke was in the right, as he was in his denunciation of the
+mischief certain to follow when a nation tries to start afresh, and
+to blot out all past progress in the light of simple reason, which
+is often most fallible when it believes itself to be most infallible.
+Where he went wrong was in his ignorance of the special circumstances
+of the French nation, and his consequent blindness to
+the fact that the historical method of gradual progress was impossible
+where institutions had become so utterly bad as they
+were in France, and that consequently the system of starting
+afresh, to which he reasonably objected, was to the French a
+matter not of choice but of necessity. Nor did he see that the
+passion for equality, like every great passion, justified itself,
+and that the problem was, not how to obtain liberty in defiance
+of it, but how so to guide it as to obtain liberty by it and
+through it.</p>
+
+<p>Burke did not content himself with pointing out speculatively
+the evils which he foreboded for the French. He perceived
+clearly that the effect of the new French principles could no more
+be confined to French territory than the principles of Protestantism
+in the 16th century could be confined to Saxony. He knew
+well that the appeal to abstract reason and the hatred of aristocracy
+would spread over Europe like a flood, and, as he was in
+the habit of considering whatever was most opposed to the
+object of his dislike to be wholly excellent, he called for a crusade
+of all established governments against the anarchical principles
+of dissolution which had broken loose in France.</p>
+
+<p>Pitt occupied ground apart from either Fox or Burke. He
+had neither Fox&rsquo;s sympathy for popular movements, nor Burke&rsquo;s
+intellectual appreciation of the immediate tendencies of the
+Revolution. Hence, whilst he pronounced against any active
+interference with France, he was an advocate of peace, not
+because he saw more than Fox or Burke, but because he saw
+less. He fancied that France would be so totally occupied with
+its own troubles that it would cease for a long time to be
+dangerous to other nations.</p>
+
+<p>This view was soon to be stultified by the effect of the coalition
+against France in 1792 of Prussia and Austria. The proclamation
+of the allies calling on the French to restore the royal
+authority was answered by a passionate outburst of
+<span class="sidenote">Beginning of the revolutionary wars.</span>
+defiance. The king himself was suspected of complicity
+with the invaders of his country, and the rising
+of the 10th of August was followed by the proclamation of the
+republic and by the awful &ldquo;September massacres&rdquo; of helpless
+prisoners, guilty of no crime but noble birth, and therefore presumably
+of attachment to the old régime, and treason towards
+the new. This passionate attachment to the Revolution, which
+in France displayed itself in a carnival of insane suspicion and
+cruelty, inspired on the frontiers an astonishing patriotic resistance.
+Before the end of the year the invasion was repulsed,
+and the ragged armies of the Revolution had overrun Savoy
+and the Austrian Netherlands, and were threatening the aristocratic
+Dutch republic.</p>
+
+<p>Very few governments in Europe were so rooted in the
+affections of their people as to be able to look without terror
+on the challenge thus thrown out to them. The English government
+was one of those very few. No mere despotism was here
+exercised by the king. No broad impassable line here divided
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page551" id="page551"></a>551</span>
+the aristocracy from the people. The work of former generations
+of Englishmen had been too well done to call for that
+<span class="sidenote">Change of feeling in England.</span>
+breach of historical continuity which was a dire
+necessity in France. There was much need of reform.
+There was no need of a revolution. The whole of the
+upper and middle classes, with few exceptions, clung
+together in a fierce spirit of resistance; and the mass of the
+lower classes, especially in the country, were too well off to wish
+for change. The spirit of resistance to revolution quickly
+developed into a spirit of resistance to reform, and those who
+continued to advocate changes, more or less after the French
+model, were treated as the enemies of mankind. A fierce hatred
+of France and of all that attached itself to France became the
+predominating spirit of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>Such a change in the national mind could not but affect the
+constitution of the Whig party. The reasoning of Burke would,
+in itself, have done little to effect its disruption. But
+the great landowners, who contributed so strong an
+<span class="sidenote">Division of the Whig party.</span>
+element in it, composed the very class which had most
+to fear from the principles of the Revolution. The old
+questions which had divided them from the king and Pitt in
+1783 had dwindled into nothing before the appalling question of
+the immediate present. They made themselves the leaders of
+the war party, and they knew that that party comprised almost
+the whole of the parliamentary classes.</p>
+
+<p>What could Pitt do but surrender? The whole of the intellectual
+basis of his foreign policy was swept away when it became
+evident that the continental war would bring with it an accession
+of French territory. He did not abandon his opinions. His
+opinions rather abandoned him. A wider intelligence might have
+held that, let France gain what territorial aggrandizement it
+might upon the continent of Europe, it was impossible to resist
+such changes until the opponents of France had so purified
+themselves as to obtain a hold upon the moral feelings of mankind.
+Pitt could not take this view; perhaps no man in his
+day could be fairly expected to take it. He did not indeed
+declare war against France; but he sought to set a limit to her
+conquests in the winter, though he had not sought to set a limit
+to the conquests of the allied sovereigns in the preceding summer.
+He treated with supercilious contempt the National Convention,
+which had dethroned the king and proclaimed a republic. Above
+all, he took up a declaration by the Convention, that they would
+give help to all peoples struggling for liberty against their respective
+governments, as a challenge to England. The horror
+caused in England by the trial and execution of Louis XVI.
+completed the estrangement between the two countries, and
+though the declaration of war came from France (1793), it had
+been in great part brought about by the bearing of England and
+its government.</p>
+<div class="author">(S. R. G.)</div>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">XI. The Revolutionary Epoch, the Reaction, and the
+Triumph of Reform (1793-1837)</p>
+
+<p>In appearance the great Whig landowners gave their support
+to Pitt, and in 1794 some of their leaders, the duke of Portland,
+Lord Fitzwilliam, and Windham, entered the cabinet
+to serve under him. In reality it was Pitt who had
+<span class="sidenote">The government and the &ldquo;revolutionary&rdquo; agitation.</span>
+surrendered. The ministry and the party by which
+it was supported might call themselves Tory still;
+but the great reforming policy of 1784 was at an
+end, and the government, unconscious of its own
+strength, conceived its main function to be at all
+costs to preserve the constitution, which it believed to be
+in danger of being overwhelmed by the rising tide of revolutionary
+feeling. That this belief was idle it is now easy
+enough to see; at the time this was not so obvious. Thomas
+Paine&rsquo;s <i>Rights of Man</i>, published in 1791, a brilliant and bitter
+attack on the British constitution from the Jacobin point of
+view, sold by tens of thousands. Revolutionary societies with
+high-sounding names were established, of which the most conspicuous
+were the Revolution Society, the Society for Constitutional
+Information, the London Corresponding Society, and the
+Friends of the People. Of these, indeed, only the two last
+were directly due to the example of France. The Revolution
+Society, founded to commemorate the revolution of 1688, had
+long carried on a respectable existence under the patronage
+of cabinet ministers; the Society for Constitutional Information,
+of which Pitt himself had been a member, was founded
+in 1780 to advocate parliamentary reform; both had, however,
+developed under the influence of the events in France in a
+revolutionary direction. The London Corresponding Society,
+composed mainly of working-men, was the direct outcome of
+the excitement caused by the developments of the French Revolution.
+Its leaders were obscure and usually illiterate men,
+who delighted to propound their theories for the universal
+reformation of society and the state in rhetoric of which the
+characteristic phrases were borrowed from the tribune of the
+Jacobin Club. Later generations have learned by repeated
+experience that the eloquence of Hyde Park orators is not the
+voice of England; there were some even then&mdash;among those
+not immediately responsible for keeping order&mdash;who urged the
+government &ldquo;to trust the people&rdquo;;<a name="fa6a" id="fa6a" href="#ft6a"><span class="sp">6</span></a> but with the object-lesson
+of France before them it is not altogether surprising that ministers
+refused to believe in the harmlessness of societies, which not
+only kept up a fraternal correspondence with the National
+Convention and the Jacobin Club, but, by attempting to establish
+throughout the country a network of affiliated clubs, were
+apparently aiming at setting up in Great Britain the Jacobin
+idea of popular control.</p>
+
+<p>The danger, of course, was absurdly exaggerated; as indeed
+was proved by the very popularity of the repressive measures
+to which the government thought it necessary to resort, and
+which gave to the vapourings of a few knots of agitators the
+dignity of a widespread conspiracy for the overthrow of the
+constitution. On the 1st of December 1792 a proclamation was
+issued calling out the militia on the ground that a dangerous
+spirit of tumult and disorder had been excited by evil-disposed
+persons, acting in concert with persons in foreign parts, and this
+statement was repeated in the king&rsquo;s speech at the opening of
+parliament on the 13th. In spite of the protests of Sheridan and
+other members of the opposition, a campaign of press and other
+prosecutions now began which threatened to extinguish the most
+cherished right of Englishmen&mdash;liberty of speech. The country
+was flooded with government spies and informers, whose efforts
+were seconded by such voluntary societies as the Association
+for preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and
+Levellers, founded by John Reeves, the historian of English
+law. No one was safe from these zealous and too often credulous
+defenders of the established order; and a few indiscreet words
+spoken in a coffee house were enough to bring imprisonment
+and ruin, as in the case of John Frost, a respectable attorney,
+condemned for sedition in March 1793. In Scotland the panic,
+and the consequent cruelty, were worse than in England. The
+meeting at Edinburgh of a &ldquo;convention of delegates of the
+associated friends of the people,&rdquo; at which some foolish and
+exaggerated language was used, was followed by the trial
+of Thomas Muir, a talented young advocate whose brilliant
+defence did not save him from a sentence of fourteen years&rsquo;
+transportation (August 30, 1793), while seven years&rsquo; transportation
+was the punishment of the Rev. T. Fyshe Palmer for
+circulating an address from &ldquo;a society of the friends of liberty
+to their fellow-citizens&rdquo; in favour of a reform of the House of
+Commons. These sentences and the proceedings which led up
+to them, though attacked with bitter eloquence by Sheridan
+and Fox, were confirmed by a large majority in parliament.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, however, till late in the session of 1794 that
+ministers laid before parliament any evidence of seditious
+practices. In May certain leaders of democratic societies were
+arrested and their papers seized, and on the 13th a king&rsquo;s message
+directed the books of certain corresponding societies to be laid
+before both Houses. The committee of the House of Commons
+at once reported that there was evidence of a conspiracy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page552" id="page552"></a>552</span>
+to supersede the House of Commons by a national convention,
+and Pitt proposed and carried a bill suspending the
+Habeas Corpus Act. This was followed by further reports of
+the committees of both Houses, presenting evidence of the secret
+manufacture of arms and of other proceedings calculated to
+endanger the public peace. A series of state prosecutions
+followed. The trials of Robert Watt and David Downie for
+high treason (August and September 1794) actually revealed
+a treasonable plot on the part of a few obscure individuals at
+Edinburgh, who were found in the possession of no less than
+fifty-seven pikes of home manufacture, wherewith to overthrow
+the British government. The execution of Watt gave to this
+trial a note of tragedy which was absent from that of certain
+members of the Corresponding Society, accused of conspiring
+to murder the king by means of a poisoned arrow shot from
+an air-gun. The ridicule that greeted the revelation of the
+&ldquo;Pop-gun Plot&rdquo; marked the beginning of a reaction that found
+a more serious expression in the trials of Thomas Hardy, John
+Horne Tooke and John Thelwall (October and November 1794).
+The prisoners were accused of high treason, their chief offence
+consisting in their attempt to assemble a general convention
+of the people, ostensibly for the purpose of obtaining parliamentary
+reform, but really&mdash;as the prosecution urged&mdash;for subverting
+the constitution. This latter charge, though proved to
+the satisfaction of the committees of both Houses of Parliament,
+broke down under the cross-examination of the government
+witnesses by the counsel for the defence, and could indeed only
+have been substantiated by a dangerous stretching of the
+doctrine of constructive treason. Happily the jury refused to
+convict, and its verdict saved the nation from the disgrace
+of meting out the extreme penalty of high treason to an attempt
+to hold a public meeting for the redress of grievances.</p>
+
+<p>The common sense of a British jury had preserved, in spite
+of parliament and ministry, that free right of meeting which
+was to be one of the strongest instruments of future reform.
+The government, however, saw little reason in the events of
+the following months for reversing their coercive policy. The
+year 1795 was one of great suffering and great popular unrest;
+for the effect of the war upon industry was now beginning to
+be felt, and the distress had been aggravated by two bad harvests.
+The sudden determination of those in power, who had hitherto
+advocated reform, to stereotype the existing system, closed the
+avenues of hope to those who had expected an improvement of
+their lot from constitutional changes, and the disaffected temper
+of the populace that resulted was taken advantage of by the
+London Corresponding Society, emboldened by its triumph in
+the courts, to organize open and really dangerous demonstrations,
+such as the vast mass meeting at Copenhagen House on the 26th
+of October. On the 29th of October the king, on his way to open
+parliament, was attacked by an angry mob shouting, &ldquo;Give
+us bread,&rdquo; &ldquo;No Pitt,&rdquo; &ldquo;No war,&rdquo; &ldquo;No famine,&rdquo;; and the glass
+panels of his state coach were smashed to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>The result of these demonstrations was the introduction in
+the House of Lords, on the 4th of November, of the Treasonable
+Practices Bill, the main principle of which was that it modified
+the law of treason by dispensing with the necessity for the proof
+of an overt act in order to secure conviction; and in the House
+of Commons, on the 10th, of the Seditious Meetings Bill, which
+seriously limited the right of public meeting, making all meetings
+of over fifty persons, as well as all political debates and lectures,
+subject to the previous consent and active supervision of the
+magistrates. In spite of the strenuous resistance of the opposition,
+led by Fox, and of numerous meetings of protest held
+outside the walls of parliament, both bills passed into law by
+enormous majorities. The inevitable result followed. The
+London Corresponding Society and other political clubs, deprived
+of the right of public meeting, became secret societies pledged
+to the overthrow of the existing system by any means. United
+Englishmen and United Scotsmen plotted with United Irishmen
+for a French invasion, and sedition was fomented in the
+army and the navy. Their baneful activities were exposed in
+the inquiries that followed the Irish rebellion of 1798, and the
+result was the Corresponding Societies Bill, introduced by Pitt
+on the 19th of April 1799, which completed the series of repressive
+measures and practically suspended the popular constitution
+of England. The right of public meeting, of free speech, of the
+free press had alike ceased for the time to exist.</p>
+
+<p>The justification of the government in all this was the life and
+death struggle in which Great Britain was engaged with the
+power of republican France in Europe. Yet Pitt&rsquo;s
+conduct of the war, so far as the continent was concerned,
+<span class="sidenote">The Revolutionary War.</span>
+had hitherto led to nothing but failure after
+failure. In 1794, in spite of the presence of an English
+army under the duke of York, the Austrian Netherlands had
+been finally conquered and annexed to the French republic;
+in 1795 the Dutch republic was affiliated to that of France, and
+the peace of Basel between Prussia and the French republic left
+Austria to continue the war alone with the aid of British subsidies.
+On the sea Great Britain had been more successful,
+Howe&rsquo;s victory of the 1st of June 1794 being the first of the long
+series of defeats inflicted on the French navy, while in 1795 a
+beginning was made of the vast expansion of the British Empire
+by the capture of Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from the
+Dutch (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">French Revolutionary Wars</a></span>). The war, however,
+had become so expensive, and its results were evidently so small,
+that there was a growing feeling in England in favour of peace,
+especially as the Reign of Terror had come to an end in 1794,
+and a regular government, the Directory, had been appointed
+in 1795. At last Pitt was forced to yield to the popular clamour,
+and in 1796 Lord Malmesbury was sent to France to treat for
+peace. The negotiation, however, was at once broken off by his
+demand that France should abandon the Netherlands.</p>
+
+<p>The French government, assured now of the assistance of
+Spain and Holland, and freed of the danger from La Vendée,
+now determined to attempt the invasion of Ireland.
+On the 16th of December a fleet of 17 battle-ships,
+<span class="sidenote">Hoche&rsquo;s expedition to Ireland.</span>
+13 frigates and 15 smaller vessels set sail from Brest,
+carrying an expeditionary force of some 13,000 men
+under General Hoche. The British fleet, under Lord Bridport,
+was wintering at Spithead; and before it could put to sea the
+French had slipped past. Before it reached the coast of Ireland,
+however, the French fleet had already suffered serious losses,
+owing partly to the attacks of British frigate detachments,
+partly to the bad seamanship of the French crews and the
+rottenness of the ships. Only a part of the fleet succeeded in
+reaching Bantry Bay on the 20th of December, and of these a
+large number were scattered by a storm on the 23rd. Hoche
+himself, with the French admiral, had been driven far to the
+westward in an effort to avoid capture; the attempt of Grouchy,
+in his absence, to land a force was defeated by the weather,
+and by the end of the month the whole expedition was in full
+retreat for Brest. A French diversion on the coast of Pembroke
+was even less successful; a force of 1500 men, under Colonel
+Tate, an American adventurer, landed in Cardigan Bay on the
+22nd of February 1797, but was at once surrounded by the local
+militia and surrendered without a blow.</p>
+
+<p>A more serious attempt was now made to renew the enterprise
+by means of a junction of the French, Spanish and Dutch fleets.
+The victory of Jervis over the Spanish fleet at
+St Vincent on the 14th of February postponed the
+<span class="sidenote">Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore.</span>
+imminence of the danger; but this again became acute
+owing to the general disaffection in the fleet, which in
+April and May found vent in the serious mutinies at Spithead
+and the Nore. The mutiny at Spithead, which was due solely
+to the intolerable conditions under which the seamen served at
+the time, was ended on the 17th of May by concessions: an
+increase of pay, the removal of officers who had abused their
+power of discipline, and the promise of a general free pardon.
+More serious was the outbreak at the Nore. The disaffection
+had spread practically to the whole of Admiral Duncan&rsquo;s fleet,
+and by the beginning of June the mutineers were blockading
+the Thames with no less than 26 vessels. The demands of the
+seamen were more extensive than at Spithead; their resistance
+was better organized; and they were suspected, though without
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page553" id="page553"></a>553</span>
+reason, of harbouring revolutionary designs. The return of the
+Channel fleet to its duty emboldened the admiralty to refuse
+any concessions, and the vigorous measures of repression taken
+proved effective. One by one the mutinous crews surrendered;
+and the arrest of the ringleader, Richard Parker, on board the
+&ldquo;Sandwich,&rdquo; on the 14th of June, brought the affair to an end.<a name="fa7a" id="fa7a" href="#ft7a"><span class="sp">7</span></a>
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Camperdown.</span>
+The seamen regained their reputation, and those who
+had been imprisoned their liberty, by Duncan&rsquo;s victory
+over the Dutch fleet at Camperdown (October 11), by
+which the immediate danger was averted. Though
+the French attempt at a concerted invasion had failed, however,
+the Directory did not abandon the enterprise, and commissioned
+Bonaparte to draw up fresh plans.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the year 1797 the position of Great Britain
+was indeed sufficiently alarming. On the 18th of April, during
+the very crisis of the mutiny at Spithead, Austria had signed
+with Bonaparte the humiliating terms of the preliminary peace
+of Leoben, which six months later were embodied in the treaty
+of Campo Formio (October 17). On the 10th of August Portugal
+had concluded a treaty with the French Republic; and Great
+Britain was left without an ally in Europe. The mutiny at the
+Nore, the threat of rebellion in Ireland, the alarming fall in
+consols, argued strongly against continuing the war single-handed,
+and in July Lord Malmesbury had been sent to Lille to
+open fresh negotiations with the plenipotentiaries of France.
+The negotiations broke down on the refusal of England to restore
+the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch. But though forced, in
+spite of misgivings, to continue the struggle, the British government
+in one very important respect was now in a far better
+position to do so. For though Great Britain was now isolated
+and her policy in Europe advertised as a failure, the temper of
+the British people was less inclined to peace in 1798 than it had
+been three years before. The early enthusiasm of the disfranchised
+classes for French principles had cooled with the later
+developments of the Revolution; the attempted invasions had
+roused the national spirit; and in the public imagination the
+sinister figure of Bonaparte, the rapacious conqueror, was beginning
+to loom large to the exclusion of lesser issues. Henceforth,
+in spite of press prosecutions and trials for political libel, the
+government was supported by public opinion in its vigorous
+prosecution of the war.</p>
+
+<p>If the danger of French invasion was a reality, it was so
+mainly owing to the deplorable condition of Ireland, where the
+natural disaffection of the Roman Catholic majority
+of the population&mdash;deprived of political and many
+<span class="sidenote">The Act of Union with Ireland.</span>
+social rights, and exposed to the insults and oppression
+of a Protestant minority corrupted by centuries of
+ascendancy&mdash;invited the intervention of a foreign enemy. The
+full measure of the intolerable conditions prevailing in the
+country was revealed by the horrors of the rebellion of 1798,
+and after this had been suppressed Pitt decided that the only
+way to deal with the situation was to establish a union between
+Great Britain and Ireland, similar to that which had proved so
+successful in the case of England and Scotland. He saw that
+to establish peace in Ireland the Roman Catholics would have
+to be enfranchised; he realized that to enfranchise them in a
+separated Ireland would be to subject the proud Protestant
+minority to an impossible domination, and to establish not peace
+but war. The Union, then, was in his view the necessary preliminary
+to Catholic emancipation, which was at the same time
+the reward held out to the majority of the Irish people for the
+surrender of their national quasi-independence. It was a bribe
+little likely to appeal to the Protestant minority which constituted
+the Irish parliament, and to them other inducements
+had to be offered if the scheme was to be carried through. These
+inducements were not all corrupt. Those members who stood
+out were, indeed, bought by a lavish distribution of money and
+coronets; but the advantages to Ireland which might reasonably
+be expected from the Union were many and obvious; and
+if all the promises held out by the promoters of the measure
+have even now not been realized, the fault is not theirs. The
+Act of Union was placed on the statute-book in 1800; Catholic
+emancipation was to have been accomplished in the following
+session, the first of the united parliament. But Pitt&rsquo;s policy
+broke on the stubborn obstinacy of George III., who believed
+himself bound by his coronation oath to resist any concession
+to the enemies of the Established Church. The disadvantage
+of the possession of too strait a conscience in politics was never
+<span class="sidenote">Resignation of Pitt.</span>
+more dismally illustrated. To the Irish people it was
+the first breach of faith in connexion with the Union,
+and threw them into opposition to a settlement into
+which they believed themselves to have been drawn
+under false pretences. Pitt, realizing this, had no option but
+to resign.</p>
+
+<p>The resignation of the great minister who had so long held
+the reins of power coincided with a critical situation in Europe.
+The isolation of Bonaparte in Egypt, as the result
+of Nelson&rsquo;s victory of the Nile (1798), had enabled
+<span class="sidenote">Bonaparte breaks up the coalition.</span>
+the allies to recover some of the ground lost to France.
+But this had merely increased Bonaparte&rsquo;s prestige,
+and on his return in 1799 he found no difficulty in making himself
+master of France by the <i>coup d&rsquo;état</i> of the 18th Brumaire.
+The campaign of Marengo followed (1800) and the peace of
+Lunéville, which not only once more isolated Great Britain, but
+raised up against her new enemies, to the list of whom she added
+by using her command of the sea to enforce the right of search
+in order to seize enemies&rsquo; goods in neutral vessels. Russia joined
+with Sweden and Denmark, all hitherto friendly powers, in
+resistance to this claim.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the position when Addington became prime minister.
+He was a man of weak character and narrow intellect, whose
+main claim to succeed Pitt was that he shared to
+<span class="sidenote">Addington ministry.</span>
+the full the Protestant prejudices of king and people.
+His tenure of power was, indeed, marked by British
+successes abroad; by Nelson&rsquo;s victory at Copenhagen, which
+broke up the northern alliance, and by Abercromby&rsquo;s victory
+at Alexandria, which forced the French to evacuate Egypt;
+but these had been prepared by the previous administration.
+Addington&rsquo;s real work was the peace of Amiens (1802),
+<span class="sidenote">The peace of Amiens.</span>
+an experimental peace, as the king called it, to see
+if the First Consul could be contented to restrain
+himself within the very wide limits by which his authority in
+Europe was still circumscribed.</p>
+
+<p>In a few months Great Britain was made aware that the
+experiment would not succeed. Interference and annexation
+became the standing policy of the new French government;
+and Britain, discovering how little intention
+<span class="sidenote">Renewal of the war.</span>
+Bonaparte had of carrying out the spirit of the treaty,
+refused to abandon Malta, as she had engaged to do by the terms
+of peace. The war began again, no longer a war against revolutionary
+principles and their propaganda, but against the
+boundless ambitions of a military conqueror. This time the
+British nation was all but unanimous in resistance. This time
+its resistance would be sooner or later supported by all that was
+healthy in Europe. The news that Bonaparte was making
+preparations on a vast scale for the invasion of England roused
+a stubborn spirit of resistance in the country. Volunteers were
+enrolled, and the coast was dotted with Martello towers, many
+of which yet remain as monuments of the time when the &ldquo;army
+of England&rdquo; was encamped on the heights near Boulogne within
+sight of the English cliffs. To meet so great a crisis Addington
+was not the man. He had been ceaselessly assailed, in and out
+of parliament, by the trenchant criticism, and often unmannerly
+wit, of &ldquo;Pitt&rsquo;s friends,&rdquo; among whom George Canning was now
+conspicuous. Pitt himself had remained silent; but in view
+of the seriousness of the crisis and of a threatened illness of the
+king, which would have necessitated a regency and&mdash;in view of
+the prince of Wales&rsquo;s dislike for him&mdash;his own permanent
+exclusion from office, he now put himself forward once more.
+The government majorities in the House now rapidly dwindled;
+on the 26th of April 1804, Addington resigned; and Pitt, after
+his attempt to form a national coalition ministry had broken
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page554" id="page554"></a>554</span>
+down on the king&rsquo;s refusal to admit Fox, became head of a
+government constructed on a narrow Tory basis. Of the
+<span class="sidenote">Pitt returns to office.</span>
+members of the late government Lord Eldon, the duke
+of Portland, Lord Westmorland, Lord Castlereagh and
+Lord Hawkesbury retained office, the latter surrendering
+the foreign office to Lord Harrowby and going to
+the home office. Dundas, now Lord Melville, became first lord
+of the admiralty, and the cabinet further included Lord Camden,
+Lord Mulgrave and the duke of Montrose. Canning, Huskisson
+and Perceval were given subordinate offices.</p>
+
+<p>Save for the commanding personality of Pitt, the new government
+was scarcely stronger than that which it had replaced. It
+had to face the same Whig opposition, led by Fox, who scoffed
+at the French peril, and reinforced by Addington and his friends;
+and the whole burden of meeting this opposition fell upon Pitt;
+for Castlereagh, the only other member of the cabinet in the
+House of Commons, was of little use in debate. Nevertheless,
+fresh vigour was infused into the conduct of the war. The
+Additional Forces Act, passed in the teeth of a strenuous opposition,
+introduced the principle of a modified system of compulsion
+to supplement the deficiencies of the army and reserve,
+while the navy was largely increased. Abroad, Pitt&rsquo;s whole
+energies were directed to forming a fresh coalition against
+Bonaparte, who, on the 14th of May 1804, had proclaimed himself
+emperor of the French; but it was a year before Russia
+signed with Great Britain the treaty of St Petersburg (April 11,
+1805), and the accession to the coalition of Austria, Sweden and
+<span class="sidenote">Battle of Trafalgar.</span>
+Naples was not obtained till the following September. In the
+following month (October 21) Nelson&rsquo;s crowning victory
+at Trafalgar over the allied fleets of France and Spain
+relieved England of the dread of invasion. It served,
+however, to precipitate the crisis on the continent of Europe;
+the great army assembled at Boulogne was turned eastwards;
+by the capitulation of Ulm (October 19) Austria lost a large
+part of her forces; and the last news that reached Pitt on his
+<span class="sidenote">Austerlitz.</span>
+death-bed was that of the ruin of all his hopes by the
+crushing victory of Napoleon over the Russians and
+Austrians at Austerlitz (December 2).</p>
+
+<p>Pitt died on the 23rd of January, and the refusal of Lord
+Hawkesbury to assume the premiership forced the king to
+summon Lord Grenville, and to agree to the inclusion
+of Fox in the cabinet as secretary for foreign affairs.
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Pitt. &ldquo;Ministry of all the Talents.&rdquo;</span>
+Several members of Pitt&rsquo;s administration were admitted
+to this &ldquo;Ministry of all the Talents,&rdquo; including
+Addington (now Lord Sidmouth), who had rejoined
+the ministry in December 1804 and again resigned, owing to
+a disagreement with Pitt as to the charges against Lord Melville
+(<i>q.v.</i>) in July 1805. The new ministry remained in office for a
+year, a disastrous year which saw the culmination of Napoleon&rsquo;s
+power: the crushing of Prussia in the campaign of Jena, the
+formation of the Confederation of the Rhine and the end of the
+Holy Roman Empire. In the conduct of the war the British
+government had displayed little skill, frittering away its forces
+<span class="sidenote">Abolition of the slave-trade.</span>
+on distant expeditions, instead of concentrating them
+in support of Prussia or Russia, and the chief title
+to fame of the Ministry of all the Talents is that it
+secured the passing of the bill for the abolition of the
+slave-trade (March 25, 1807).</p>
+
+<p>The death of Fox (September 13, 1806) deprived the ministry
+of its strongest member, and in the following March it fell on
+the old question of concessions to the Roman Catholics.
+True to his principles, Fox had done his best to negotiate
+<span class="sidenote">Catholic question.</span>
+terms of peace with Napoleon; but the breakdown
+of the attempt had persuaded even the Whigs that an arrangement
+was impossible, and in view of this fact Grenville thought
+it his duty to advise the king that the disabilities of Roman
+Catholics and dissenters in the matter of serving in the army
+and navy should be removed, in order that all sections of the
+nation might be united in face of the enemy. The situation,
+moreover, was in the highest degree anomalous; for by an act
+passed in 1793 Roman Catholics might hold commissions in the
+army in Ireland up to the rank of colonel, and this right had
+not been extended to England, though by the Act of Union the
+armies had become one. The king, however, was not to be
+moved from his position; and he was supported in this attitude
+not only by public opinion, but by a section of the ministry itself,
+of which Sidmouth made himself the mouthpiece. The demand
+of George III. that ministers should undertake never again
+to approach him on the subject of concessions to the Catholics
+was rejected by Grenville, rightly, as unconstitutional, and on
+the 18th of March 1807 he resigned.</p>
+
+<p>The new ministry, under the nominal headship of the valetudinarian
+duke of Portland, included Perceval as chancellor
+of the exchequer, Canning as foreign secretary and
+Castlereagh as secretary for war and the colonies.
+<span class="sidenote">Portland ministry.</span>
+It had given the undertaking demanded by the king;
+those of its members who, like Canning, were in favour of
+Catholic emancipation, arguing that, in view of greater and more
+pressing questions, it was useless to insist in a matter which
+could never be settled so long as the old king lived. Of more
+importance to Great Britain, for the time being, than any
+constitutional issues, was the life-and-death struggle with
+Napoleon, which had now entered on a new phase. Defeated
+at sea, but master now of the greater part of the continent of
+Europe, the French emperor planned to bring Great Britain
+<span class="sidenote">The continental system.</span>
+to terms by ruining her commerce with the vast
+territories under his influence. In November 1806
+he issued from Berlin the famous decree prohibiting
+the importation of British goods and excluding from
+the harbours under his control even neutral ships that had
+touched at British ports. The British government replied by
+the famous Orders in Council of 1807, which declared
+<span class="sidenote">The Orders in Council.</span>
+all vessels trading with France liable to seizure, and
+that all such vessels clearing from France must touch
+at a British port to pay customs duties. To this
+Napoleon responded with the Milan decree (December 17), forbidding
+neutrals to trade in any articles imported from the
+British dominions. The effects of these measures were destined
+to be far-reaching. The Revolution had made war on princes
+and privilege, and the common people had in general gained
+wherever the Napoleonic régime had been substituted for their
+effete despotisms; but the &ldquo;Continental System&rdquo; was felt
+as an oppression in every humble household, suddenly deprived
+of the little imported luxuries, such as sugar and coffee, which
+custom had made necessaries; and from this time date the
+beginnings of that popular revolt against Napoleon that was
+to culminate in the War of Liberation. Great Britain, too,
+was to suffer from her own retaliatory policy. The Americans
+<span class="sidenote">War with America.</span>
+had taken advantage of the war to draw into their own
+hands a large part of the British carrying trade, a
+process greatly encouraged by the establishment of
+the Continental System. This brought them into conflict
+with the British acting under the Orders in Council, and the
+consequent ill-feeling culminated in the war of 1812.</p>
+
+<p>It was not only the completion of the Continental System,
+however, that made the year 1807 a fateful one for Great Britain.
+On the 7th of July the young emperor Alexander I.
+of Russia, fascinated by Napoleon&rsquo;s genius and bribed
+<span class="sidenote">Treaty of Tilsit.</span>
+by the offer of a partition of the world, concluded the
+treaty of Tilsit, which not only brought Russia into the Continental
+System, but substituted for a coalition against France
+a formidable coalition against England. A scheme for wresting
+from the British the command of the sea was only defeated by
+Canning&rsquo;s action in ordering the English fleet to capture the
+Danish navy, though Denmark was still nominally a friendly
+power (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Canning, George</a></span>). Meanwhile, in order to complete
+the ring fence round Europe against British commerce,
+<span class="sidenote">French Invasion of Spain and Portugal.</span>
+Napoleon had ordered Junot to invade Portugal;
+Lisbon was occupied by the French, and the Portuguese
+royal family migrated to Brazil. In the following
+year Napoleon seized the royal family of Spain,
+and gave the crown, which Charles VI. resigned on behalf of
+himself and his heir, to his brother Joseph, king of Naples.
+The revolt of the Spanish people that followed was the first of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page555" id="page555"></a>555</span>
+the national uprisings against his rule by which Napoleon was
+destined to be overthrown. In England it was greeted with
+immense popular enthusiasm, and the government, without
+realizing the full import of the step it was taking, sent an expedition
+to the Peninsula. It disembarked, under the command
+<span class="sidenote">Peninsular War.</span>
+of Sir Arthur Wellesley, at Figueras on the 1st of
+August. It was the beginning of the Peninsular War,
+which was destined not to end until, in 1814, the
+British troops crossed the Pyrenees into France, while the Allies
+were pressing over the Rhine. The political and military events
+on the continent of Europe do not, however, belong strictly to
+English history, though they profoundly affected its development,
+and they are dealt with elsewhere (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Europe</a></span>: <i>History</i>;
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleon</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleonic Campaigns</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Peninsular War</a></span>;
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Waterloo Campaign</a></span>).</p>
+
+<p>The war, while it lasted, was of course the main preoccupation
+of British ministers and of the British people. It entailed
+enormous sacrifices, which led to corresponding discontents;
+and differences as to its conduct produced
+<span class="sidenote">Walcheren expedition. Cabinet crisis.</span>
+frequent friction within the government itself. A
+cabinet crisis was the result of the outcome of the
+unfortunate Walcheren expedition of 1809. It had been Castlereagh&rsquo;s
+conception and, had it been as well executed as it was
+conceived, it might have dealt a fatal blow at Napoleon&rsquo;s hopes
+of recovering his power at sea, by destroying his great naval
+establishments at Antwerp. It failed, and it became the subject
+of angry dispute between Canning and Castlereagh, a dispute
+embittered by personal rivalry and the friction due to the ill-defined
+relations of the foreign secretary to the secretary for
+war; the quarrel culminated in a duel, and in the resignation
+of both ministers (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Londonderry, 2nd Marquess of</a></span>, and
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Canning, George</a></span>). The duke of Portland resigned at the same
+time, and in the reconstruction of the ministry, under Perceval
+<span class="sidenote">Perceval ministry.</span>
+as premier, Lord Wellesley became foreign secretary,
+while Lord Liverpool, with Palmerston as his under-secretary,
+succeeded Castlereagh at the war office.
+The most conspicuous member of this government was Wellesley,
+whose main object in taking office was to second his brother&rsquo;s
+efforts in the Peninsula. In this he was, however, only partially
+successful, owing to the incapacity of his colleagues to realize
+the unique importance of the operations in Spain. In November
+1810 the old king&rsquo;s mind gave way, and on the 11th of February
+1811, an act of parliament bestowed the regency, under certain
+<span class="sidenote">The regency.</span>
+restrictions, upon the prince of Wales. The prince
+had been on intimate terms with the Whig leaders,
+and it was assumed that his accession to power would
+mean a change of government. He had, however, been offended
+by their attitude on the question of the restriction of his authority
+as regent, and he continued Perceval in office. A year later,
+the king&rsquo;s insanity being proved incurable, the regency was
+definitively established (February 1812). Lord Wellesley took
+advantage of the reconstruction of the cabinet to resign a
+position in which he had not been given a free hand, and his
+post of foreign secretary was offered to Canning. Canning,
+however, refused to serve with Castlereagh as minister of war,
+and the latter received the foreign office, which he was to hold
+till his death in 1822. A month later, on the 11th of May,
+Perceval was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons,
+and Lord Liverpool became the head of a government that was
+to last till 1827.</p>
+
+<p>The period covered by the Liverpool administration was a
+fateful one in the history of Europe. The year 1812 saw
+Napoleon&rsquo;s invasion of Russia, and the disastrous
+retreat from Moscow. In the following year Wellington&rsquo;s
+<span class="sidenote">Liverpool ministry.</span>
+victory at Vitoria signalled the ruin of the French
+cause in Spain; while Prussia threw off the yoke of France, and
+Austria, realizing after cautious delay her chance of retrieving
+the humiliations of 1809, joined the alliance, and in concert with
+Russia and the other German powers overthrew Napoleon at
+Leipzig. The invasion of France followed in 1814, the abdication
+of Napoleon, the restoration of the Bourbons and the assembling
+of the congress of Vienna. The following year saw the return
+of Napoleon from Elba, the close of the congress of Vienna, and
+the campaign that ended with the battle of Waterloo. The
+succeeding period, after so much storm and stress, might seem
+dull and unprofitable; but it witnessed the instructive experiment
+of the government of Europe by a concert of the great
+powers, and the first victory of the new principle of nationality
+in the insurrection of the Greeks. The share taken by Great
+Britain in all this, for which Castlereagh pre-eminently must
+take the praise or blame, is outlined in the article on the history
+<span class="sidenote">Foreign policy of Castlereagh.</span>
+of Europe (<i>q.v.</i>). Here it must suffice to point out
+how closely the development of foreign affairs was
+interwoven with that of home politics. The great
+war, so long as it lasted, was the supreme affair of
+moment; the supreme interest when it was over was to prevent
+its recurrence. For above all the world needed peace, in order
+to recover from the exhaustion of the revolutionary epoch; and
+this peace, bought at so great a cost, could be preserved only
+by the honest co-operation of Great Britain in the great international
+alliance based on &ldquo;the treaties.&rdquo; This explains
+Castlereagh&rsquo;s policy at home and abroad. He was grossly
+attacked by the Opposition in parliament and by irresponsible
+critics, of the type of Byron, outside; historians, bred in the
+atmosphere of mid-Victorian Liberalism, have re-echoed the
+cry against him and the government of which he was the most
+distinguished member; but history has largely justified his
+attitude. He was no friend of arbitrary government; but he
+judged it better that &ldquo;oppressed nationalities&rdquo; and &ldquo;persecuted
+Liberals&rdquo; should suffer than that Europe should be again
+plunged into war. He was hated in his day as the arch-opponent
+of reform, yet the triumph of the reform movement would have
+been impossible but for the peace his policy secured.</p>
+
+<p>To say this is not to say that the attitude of the Tory government
+towards the great issues of home politics was wholly,
+or even mainly, inspired by a far-sighted wisdom. It
+had departed widely from the Toryism of Pitt&rsquo;s
+<span class="sidenote">Character of the Tory party.</span>
+younger years, which had sought to base itself on
+popular support, as opposed to the aristocratic exclusiveness
+of the Whigs. It conceived itself as the trustee of
+a system of government which, however theoretically imperfect,
+alone of the governments of Europe had survived the storms
+of the Revolution intact. To tamper with a constitution that
+had so proved its quality seemed not so much a sacrilege as a
+folly. The rigid conservatism that resulted from this attitude
+served, indeed, a useful purpose in giving weight to Castlereagh&rsquo;s
+counsels in the European concert; for Metternich at least,
+wholly occupied with &ldquo;propping up mouldering institutions,&rdquo;
+could not have worked harmoniously with a minister suspected
+of an itch for reform. At home, however, it undoubtedly
+tended to provoke that very revolution which it was intended
+to prevent. This was due not so much to the notorious corruption
+of the representative system as to the fact that it represented
+social and economic conditions that were rapidly passing away.</p>
+
+<p>Both Houses of Parliament were in the main assemblies of
+aristocrats and landowners; but agriculture was ceasing to
+be the characteristic industry of the country and the
+old semi-feudal relations of life were in process of
+<span class="sidenote">Parliament and the industrial revolution.</span>
+rapid dissolution. The invention of machinery and
+the concentration of the working population in manufacturing
+centres had all but destroyed the old village
+industries, and great populations were growing up outside the
+traditional restraints of the old system of class dependence.
+The distress inevitable in connexion with such an industrial
+revolution was increased by the immense burden of the war
+and by the high protective policy of the parliament, which
+restricted trade and deliberately increased the price of food
+in the interests of the agricultural classes. Between 1811 and
+1814 bands of so-called &ldquo;Luddites,&rdquo; starving operatives out of
+work, scoured the country, smashing machinery&mdash;the immediate
+cause of their misfortunes&mdash;and committing every sort of outrage.
+The fault of the government lay, not in taking vigorous
+measures for the suppression of these disorders, but in remaining
+obstinately blind to the true causes that had produced them.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page556" id="page556"></a>556</span>
+Ministers saw in the Luddite organization only another conspiracy
+against the state; and, so far from seeking means for
+removing the grievances that underlay popular disaffection,
+the activity of parliament, inspired by the narrowest class
+interests, only tended to increase them. The price of food,
+already raised by the war, was still further increased by successive
+<span class="sidenote">Corn Laws and Enclosure Acts.</span>
+Corn Laws, and the artificial value thus given
+to arable land led to the passing of Enclosure Bills,
+under which the country people were deprived of their
+common rights with very inadequate compensation,
+and life in the village communities was made more and more
+difficult. In the circumstances it is not surprising that the
+spirit of unrest grew apace. In 1815 the passing of a new Corn
+Law, forbidding the importation of corn so long as the price
+for home-grown wheat was under 80s. the quarter, led to riots
+in London. An attack made on the prince regent at the opening
+of parliament on the 28th of January 1817 led to an inquiry,
+which revealed the existence of an elaborate organization for
+the overthrow of the existing order. The repressive measures
+<span class="sidenote">Repressive legislation.</span>
+of 1795 and 1799 were now revived and extended, and
+a bill suspending the Habeas Corpus Act for a year
+was passed through both Houses by a large majority.
+On the 27th of March Lord Sidmouth opened the
+government campaign against the press by issuing a circular to
+the lords-lieutenants, directing them to instruct the justices of
+the peace to issue warrants for the arrest of any person charged
+on oath with publishing blasphemous or seditious libels. The
+legality of this suggestion was more than doubtful, but it was
+none the less acted on, and a series of press prosecutions followed,
+some&mdash;as in the case of the bookseller William Hone&mdash;on grounds
+so trivial that juries refused to convict. William Cobbett, the
+most influential of the reform leaders, in order to avoid arbitrary
+imprisonment, &ldquo;deprived of pen, ink and paper,&rdquo; suspended
+the <i>Political Register</i> and sailed for America. A disturbance
+that was almost an armed insurrection, which broke out in
+Derbyshire in June of this year, seemed to justify the severity
+of the government; it was suppressed without great difficulty,
+and three of the ringleaders were executed.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, in 1819 that the conflict between the government
+and the new popular forces culminated. Distress was
+acute; and in the manufacturing towns mass meetings
+were held to discuss a remedy, which, under the guidance
+<span class="sidenote">Agitation for reform.</span>
+of political agitators, was discovered in universal
+suffrage and annual parliaments. The right to return members
+to parliament was claimed for all communities; and since
+this right was unconstitutionally withheld, unrepresented
+towns were invited to exercise it in anticipation of its formal
+concession. At Birmingham, accordingly, Sir Charles Wolseley
+was duly elected &ldquo;legislatorial attorney and representative&rdquo;
+of the town. Manchester followed suit; but the meeting
+arranged for the 9th of August was declared illegal by the
+magistrates, on the strength of a royal proclamation against
+seditious meetings issued on the 30th of July. Another meeting
+was accordingly summoned for the undoubtedly legal purpose
+of petitioning parliament in favour of reform. On the appointed
+day (August 16) thousands poured in from the surrounding
+districts. These men had been previously drilled, for the purpose,
+as their own leaders asserted, of enabling the vast assemblage
+to be conducted in an orderly manner; for the purpose,
+as the magistrates suspected, of preparing them for an armed
+insurrection. An attempt was made by a party of yeomanry
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Manchester Massacre.&rdquo;</span>
+to arrest a popular agitator, Henry Hunt; the angry
+mob surged round the horsemen, who found themselves
+powerless; the Riot Act was read, and the 15th
+Hussars charged the crowd with drawn swords. The
+meeting rapidly broke up, but not before six had been killed
+and many injured. The &ldquo;Manchester Massacre&rdquo; gave an
+immense impetus to the movement in favour of reform. The
+employment of soldiers to suppress liberty of speech stirred
+up the resentment of Englishmen as nothing else could have
+done, and this resentment was increased by the conviction that
+the government was engaged with the &ldquo;Holy Alliance&rdquo; in an
+unholy conspiracy against liberty everywhere. The true tendency
+of Castlereagh&rsquo;s foreign policy was not understood, nor had
+he any of the popular arts which would have enabled Canning
+to carry public opinion with him in cases where a frank explanation
+was impossible. The Liberals could see no more than
+that he appeared to be committed to international engagements,
+the logical outcome of which might be&mdash;as an orator of the
+Opposition put it&mdash;that Cossacks would be encamped in Hyde
+Park for the purpose of overawing the House of Commons.</p>
+
+<p>The dangerous agitation that gave expression to this state
+of feeling was met by the government in the session of November
+1819 by the passing of the famous Six Acts. The first
+of these deprived the defendant of the right of traversing,
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Six Acts.&rdquo;</span>
+but directed that he should be brought to trial
+within a year; the second increased the penalties for seditious
+libel; the third imposed the newspaper stamp duty on all
+pamphlets and the like containing news; the fourth (Seditious
+Meetings Act) once more greatly curtailed the liberty of public
+meetings; the fifth forbade the training of persons in the use
+of arms; the sixth empowered magistrates to search for and
+seize arms.</p>
+
+<p>The apparent necessity for the passing of these exceptional
+measures was increased by the imminent death of the old king,
+the tragic close of whose long reign had won for him
+a measure of popular sympathy which was wholly
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of George IV.</span>
+lacking in the case of the prince regent. On the 23rd
+of February 1820 George III. died, and the regent
+became king as George IV. This was the signal for an outburst
+of popular discontent with the existing order of a far more
+ominous character than any that had preceded it. The king
+was generally loathed, not so much for his vices&mdash;which would
+have been, in this case as in others, condoned in a more popular
+monarch&mdash;but for the notorious meanness and selfishness of
+his character. Of these qualities he took the occasion of his
+accession to make a fresh display. He had long been separated
+from his wife, Caroline of Brunswick; he now refused her the
+title of queen consort, forbade the mention of her name in the
+liturgy, and persuaded the government to promote an inquiry
+in parliament into her conduct, with a view to a divorce. Whatever
+grounds there may have been for this action, popular sympathy
+was wholly with Queen Caroline, who became the centre
+round which all the forces of discontent rallied. The failure of
+the Bill of Pains and Penalties against the queen, which was
+dropped after it had passed its third reading in the Lords by a
+majority of only seven, was greeted as a great popular triumph.
+The part played by the government in this unsavoury affair
+had discredited them even in the eyes of the classes whose fear
+of revolution had hitherto made them supporters of the established
+system; and the movement for reform received a new stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>The Tory government itself realized the necessity for some
+concessions to the growing public sentiment. In 1821 a small
+advance was made. The reform bill (equal electoral
+districts) introduced by Lambton (afterwards Lord
+<span class="sidenote">Beginnings of reform.</span>
+Durham) was thrown out; but the corrupt borough
+of Grampound in Cornwall was disfranchised and the
+seats transferred to the county of York. Even more significant
+was the change in the cabinet, which was strengthened by the
+admission of some of the more conservative section of the
+Opposition, Lord Sidmouth retiring and Robert Peel becoming
+home secretary. A bill for the removal of Catholic disabilities,
+too, was carried in the Commons, though rejected in the Lords;
+and the appointment of Lord Wellesley, an advocate of the
+Catholic claims, to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland marked yet
+another stage in the settlement of a question which, more than
+anything else at that time, kept Ireland and Irishmen in a state
+of chronic discontent and agitation.</p>
+
+<p>It is not without significance that this modification of the
+policy of the Tory government at home coincided with a modification
+of its relations with the European powers. The tendency
+of Metternich&rsquo;s system had long been growing distasteful to
+Castlereagh, who had consistently protested against the attempt
+to constitute the Grand Alliance general police of Europe and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page557" id="page557"></a>557</span>
+had specially protested against the Carlsbad Decrees (<i>q.v.</i>). The
+first steps towards the inevitable breach with the reactionary
+powers had already been taken before Castlereagh&rsquo;s tragic
+death on the eve of the congress of Verona brought George
+Canning into office as the executor of his policy. With
+<span class="sidenote">George Canning.</span>
+Canning, foe of the Revolution and all its works though
+he was, the old liberal Toryism of Pitt&rsquo;s younger days
+seemed once more to emerge. It might have emerged in any
+case; but Canning, with his brilliant popular gifts and his frank
+appeal to popular support, gave it a revivifying stimulus which
+it would never have received from an aristocrat of the type of
+Castlereagh.</p>
+
+<p>The new spirit was most conspicuous in foreign affairs; in
+the protest of Great Britain against the action of the continental
+powers at Verona (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Verona, Congress of</a></span>), in
+the recognition of the South American republics, and
+<span class="sidenote">Changed tendency of British policy.</span>
+later in the sympathetic attitude of the government
+towards the insurrection in Greece. This policy had
+been foreshadowed in the instructions drawn up by Castlereagh
+for his own guidance at Verona; but Canning succeeded in giving
+it a popular and national colour and thus removing from the
+government all suspicion of sympathy with the reactionary spirit
+of the &ldquo;Holy Alliance.&rdquo; In home affairs, too, the government
+made tentative advances in a Liberal direction. In January
+1823 Vansittart was succeeded as chancellor of the exchequer
+by Robinson (afterwards Lord Goderich), and Huskisson became
+president of the Board of Trade. The term of office of the latter
+was marked by the first tentative efforts to modify the high
+protective system by which British trade was hampered, especially
+by the Reciprocity of Duties Act (1823), a modification of
+the Navigation Acts, by which British and foreign shipping
+were placed on an equal footing, while the right to impose restrictive
+duties on ships of powers refusing to reciprocate was
+retained. In spite, however, of the improvement in trade that
+ultimately resulted from these measures, there was great depression;
+in 1825 there was a financial crisis that caused widespread
+ruin, and in 1826 the misery of the labouring poor led
+to renewed riots and machinery smashing. It became increasingly
+clear that a drastic alteration in the existing system
+was absolutely inevitable. As to this necessity, however, the
+ministry was in fact hopelessly divided. The government was
+one of compromise, in which even so burning a question as
+Catholic emancipation had been left open. Among its members
+were some&mdash;like the lord chancellor Eldon, the duke of Wellington,
+and the premier, Lord Liverpool, himself&mdash;whose Toryism
+was of the type crystallized under the influence of the Revolution,
+adamant against change. Such progressive measures as it had
+passed had been passed in the teeth of its own nominal supporters,
+even of its own members. In 1826 Lord Palmerston,
+himself a member of the government, wrote: &ldquo;On the Catholic
+question, on the principles of commerce, on the corn laws, on
+the settlement of the currency, on the laws relating to trade in
+money, on colonial slavery, on the game laws...; on all these
+questions, and everything like them, the government will find
+support from the Whigs and resistance from their self-denominated
+friends.&rdquo; It was, in fact, only the personal influence
+of Liverpool that held the ministry together, and when, on the
+17th of February 1827, he was seized with an apoplectic fit, a
+crisis was inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>The crisis, indeed, arose before the nominal expiration of the
+Liverpool administration. Two questions were, in the view of
+Canning and his supporters, of supreme importance&mdash;Catholic
+emancipation and the reform of the Corn Laws.
+<span class="sidenote">Catholic Emancipation and Corn Laws.</span>
+The first of these had assumed a new urgency since the
+formation in 1823 of the Catholic Association, which
+under the brilliant leadership of Daniel O&rsquo;Connell
+established in Ireland a national organization that threatened
+the very basis of the government. In March 1826 Sir Francis
+Burdett had brought in a Catholic Relief Bill, which, passed
+in the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. A year later
+Burdett&rsquo;s motion that the affairs of Ireland required immediate
+attention, though supported by Canning, was rejected in the
+Commons. A bill modifying the Corn Laws, introduced by
+Canning and Huskisson, passed the House of Commons on the
+12th of April 1827, but was rejected by the Lords.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile (April 10) Canning had become prime minister,
+his appointment being followed by the resignation of all the most
+conspicuous members of the Liverpool administration:
+<span class="sidenote">Canning ministry.</span>
+Wellington, Eldon, Melville, Bathurst, Westmorland
+and Peel, the latter of whom resigned on account
+of his opposition to Catholic emancipation. The new government
+had perforce to rely on the Whigs, who took their seats
+on the government side of the House, Lord Lansdowne being
+included in the cabinet. Before this coalition could be completed,
+however, Canning died (August 8). The short-lived
+Goderich administration followed; and in January 1828 the king,
+<span class="sidenote">Wellington ministry.</span>
+weary of the effort to arrange a coalition, summoned
+the duke of Wellington to office as head of a purely
+Tory cabinet. Yet the logic of facts was too strong
+even for the stubborn spirit of the Iron Duke. In
+May 1828, on the initiative of Lord John Russell, the Test and
+Corporation Acts were repealed; in the same session a Corn
+Bill, differing but little from those that Wellington had hitherto
+opposed, was passed; and finally, after a strenuous agitation
+which culminated in the election of O&rsquo;Connell for Clare, and in
+<span class="sidenote">Catholic emancipation passed. Revolution of 1830.</span>
+spite of the obstinate resistance of King George IV.,
+the Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed (April 10,
+1829) by a large majority. On the 26th of June 1830
+the king died, exactly a month before the outbreak
+of the revolution in Paris that hurled Charles X. from
+the throne and led to the establishment of the Liberal
+Monarchy under Louis Philippe; a revolution that was to exert a
+strong influence on the movement for reform in England.</p>
+
+<p>King William IV. ascended the throne at a critical moment
+in the history of the English constitution. Everywhere misery
+and discontent were apparent, manifesting themselves
+in riots against machinery, in rick-burning on a large
+<span class="sidenote">William IV.</span>
+scale, and in the formation of trades unions which
+tended to develop into organized armies of sedition. All the
+elements of violent revolution were present. Nor was there
+anything in the character of the new king greatly calculated
+to restore the damaged prestige of the crown; for, if he lacked
+the evil qualities that had caused George IV. to be loathed as
+well as despised, he lacked also the sense of personal dignity
+that had been the saving grace of George, while he shared the
+conservative and Protestant prejudices of his predecessors.
+Reform was now inevitable. The Wellington ministry, hated
+by the Liberals, denounced even by the Tories as traitorous for
+the few concessions made, resigned on the 16th of November;
+<span class="sidenote">Whig ministry under Lord Grey.</span>
+and the Whigs at last came into office under Lord
+Grey, the ministry also including a few of the more
+Liberal Tories. Lord Durham, perhaps the most
+influential leader of the reform movement, became
+privy seal, Althorp chancellor of the exchequer, Palmerston
+foreign secretary, Melbourne home secretary, Goderich colonial
+secretary. Lord John Russell, as paymaster-general, and
+Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby), as secretary for Ireland, held
+office outside the cabinet. With the actual House of Commons,
+however, the government was powerless to effect its purpose.
+Though it succeeded in carrying the second reading
+<span class="sidenote">The great Reform Bill.</span>
+of the Reform Bill (March 21, 1831), it was defeated
+in committee, and appealed to the country. The
+result was a great governmental majority, and the
+bill passed the Commons in September. Its rejection by the
+Lords on the 8th of October was the signal for dangerous rioting;
+and in spite of the opposition of the king, the bill was once more
+passed by the Commons (December 12). A violent agitation
+marked the recess. On the 14th of April 1832 the bill was read
+a second time in the Lords, but on the 7th of May was again
+rejected, whereupon the government resigned. The attempt
+of Wellington, at the king&rsquo;s instance, to form a ministry failed;
+of all the Tory obstructionists he alone had the courage to face
+the popular rage. On the 15th Lord Grey was in office again;
+the demand was made for a sufficient creation of peers to swamp
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page558" id="page558"></a>558</span>
+the House of Lords; the king, now thoroughly alarmed, used
+his influence to persuade the peers to yield, and on the 4th of
+June the great Reform Bill became law. Thus was England
+spared the crisis of a bloody revolution, and proof given to the
+world that her ancient constitution was sufficiently elastic to
+expand with the needs of the times.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the Reform Bill, which abolished fifty-six
+&ldquo;rotten&rdquo; boroughs, and by reducing the representation of others
+set free 143 seats, which were in part conferred on the new industrial
+centres, was to transfer a large share of political power
+from the landed aristocracy to the middle classes. Yet the
+opposition of the Tories had not been wholly inspired by the
+desire to maintain the political predominance of a class. Canning,
+who had the best reason for knowing, defended the unreformed
+system on the ground that its very anomalies opened a variety
+of paths by which talent could make its way into parliament,
+and thus produced an assembly far more widely representative
+than could be expected from a more uniform and logical system.
+This argument, which the effect of progressive extensions of the
+franchise on the intellectual level of parliament has certainly
+not tended to weaken, was however far outweighed&mdash;as Canning
+himself would have come to see&mdash;by the advantage of reconciling
+with the old constitution the new forces which were destined
+during the century to transform the social organization of the
+country. Nor, in spite of the drastic character of the Reform
+Bill, did it in effect constitute a revolution. The 143 seats set
+free were divided equally between the towns and the counties;
+and in the counties the landowning aristocracy was still supreme.
+In the towns the new £10 household franchise secured a democratic
+constituency; in the counties the inclusion of tenants at
+will (of £50 annual rent), as well as of copyholders and lease-holders,
+only tended to increase the influence of the landlords.
+There was as yet no secret ballot to set the voter free.</p>
+
+<p>The result was apparent in the course of the next few years.
+The first reformed parliament, which met on the 29th of January
+1833, consisted in the main of Whigs, with a sprinkling of Radicals
+and a compact body of Liberal Tories under Sir Robert Peel.
+Its great work was the act emancipating the slaves in the British
+colonies (August 30). Other burning questions were the condition
+of Ireland, the scandal of the established church there,
+the misery of the poor in England. In all these matters the
+House showed little enough of the revolutionary temper; so
+little, indeed, that in March Lord Durham resigned. To the
+Whig leaders the church was all but as sacrosanct as to the
+Tories, the very foundation of the constitution, not to be touched
+save at imminent risk to the state; the most they would adventure
+was to remedy a few of the more glaring abuses of an
+establishment imposed on an unwilling population. As for
+O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s agitation for the repeal of the Union, that met with
+but scant sympathy in parliament; on the 27th of May 1834
+his repeal motion was rejected by a large majority.</p>
+
+<p>In July the Grey ministry resigned, and on the 16th Lord
+Melbourne became prime minister. His short tenure of office
+is memorable for the passing of the bill for the reform
+of the Poor Law (August). The reckless system of
+<span class="sidenote">Melbourne ministry.</span>
+outdoor relief, which had pauperized whole neighbourhoods,
+was abolished, and the system of unions and workhouses
+established (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Poor Law</a></span>). An attempt to divert some of the
+revenues of the Irish Church led in the autumn to serious differences
+of opinion in the cabinet; the king, as tenacious as his
+father of the exact obligations of his coronation oath, dismissed
+the ministry, and called the Tories to office under Sir Robert
+Peel and the duke of Wellington. Thus, within three years of the
+passing of the Reform Bill, the party which had most strenuously
+opposed it was again in office. Scarcely less striking testimony
+to the constitutional temper of the English was given by the new
+attitude of the party under the new conditions. In the &ldquo;Tamworth
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Conservative&rdquo; party.</span>
+manifesto&rdquo; of January 1835 Peel proclaimed
+the principles which were henceforth to guide the
+party, no longer Tory, but &ldquo;Conservative.&rdquo; The
+Reform Bill and its consequences were frankly accepted;
+further reforms were promised, especially in the matter of the
+municipal corporations and of the disabilities of the dissenters.
+The new parliament, however, which met on the 19th of February,
+was not favourable to the ministry, which fell on the 8th of April.
+Lord Melbourne once more came into office, and the Municipal
+Corporations Act of the 7th of September was the work of a
+Liberal government. This was the last measure of first-rate
+importance passed before the death of King William, which
+occurred on the 20th of June 1837.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to exaggerate the importance, not only for
+England but for the world at large, of the epoch which culminated
+in the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832. All Europe,
+whether Liberal or reactionary, was watching the constitutional
+struggle with strained attention; the principles of monarchy
+and of constitutional liberty were alike at stake. To foreign
+observers it seemed impossible that the British monarchy could
+survive. Baron Brunnow, the Russian ambassador in London,
+sent home to the emperor Nicholas I. the most pessimistic reports.
+According to Brunnow, King William, by using his influence to
+secure the passage of the Reform Bill, had &ldquo;cast his crown into
+the gutter&rdquo;; the throne might endure for his lifetime, but the
+next heir was a young and inexperienced girl, and, even were the
+princess Victoria ever to mount the throne&mdash;which was unlikely&mdash;she
+would be speedily swept off it again by the rising tide
+of republicanism. The course of the next reign was destined
+speedily to convince even Nicholas I. of the baselessness of
+these fears, and to present to all Europe the exemplar of a
+progressive state, in which the principles of traditional
+authority and democratic liberty combined for the common
+good.</p>
+<div class="author">(W. A. P.)</div>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">XII. The Reign of Victoria (1837-1901)</p>
+
+<p>The death of William IV., on the 20th of June 1837, placed
+on the throne of England a young princess, who was destined
+to reign for a longer period than any of her predecessors.
+The new queen, the only daughter of the
+<span class="sidenote">Queen Victoria&rsquo;s accession.</span>
+duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III., had just
+attained her majority. Educated in comparative
+seclusion, her character and her person were unfamiliar to her
+future subjects, who were a little weary of the extravagances
+and eccentricities of her immediate predecessors. Her accession
+gave them a new interest in the house of Hanover. And their
+loyalty, which would in any case have been excited by the
+accession of a young and inexperienced girl to the throne of the
+greatest empire in the world, was stimulated by her conduct
+and appearance. She displayed from the first a dignity and
+good sense which won the affection of the multitude who merely
+saw her in public, and the confidence of the advisers who were
+admitted into her presence.</p>
+
+<p>The ministry experienced immediate benefit from the change.
+The Whigs, who had governed England since 1830, under Lord
+Grey and Lord Melbourne, were suffering from the reaction
+which is the inevitable consequence of revolution. The country
+which, in half-a-dozen years, had seen a radical reform of parliament,
+a no less radical reform of municipal corporations, the
+abolition of slavery, and the reconstruction of the poor laws,
+was longing for a period of political repose. The alliance, or
+understanding, between the Whigs and the Irish was increasing
+the distrust of the English people in the ministry, and Lord
+Melbourne&rsquo;s government, in the first half of 1837, seemed
+doomed to perish. The accession of the queen gave it a new
+lease of power. The election, indeed, which followed her accession
+did not materially alter the composition of the House
+of Commons. But the popularity of the queen was extended
+to her government. Taper&rsquo;s suggestion in <i>Coningsby</i> that the
+Conservatives should go to the country with the cry, &ldquo;Our
+young queen and our old institutions,&rdquo; expressed, in an epigram,
+a prevalent idea. But the institution which derived most
+immediate benefit from the new sovereign was the old Whig
+ministry.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties of the ministry, nevertheless, were great.
+In the preceding years it had carried most of the reforms
+which were demanded in Great Britain; but it had failed to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page559" id="page559"></a>559</span>
+obtain the assent of the House of Lords to its Irish measures.
+<span class="sidenote">Lord Melbourne&rsquo;s difficulties.</span>
+It had desired (1) to follow up the reform of English corporations
+by a corresponding reform of Irish municipalities;
+(2) to convert the tithes, payable to the
+Irish Church, into a rent charge, and to appropriate
+its surplus revenues to other purposes; (3) to deal
+with the chronic distress of the Irish people by extending to
+Ireland the principles of the English poor law. In the year which
+succeeded the accession of the queen it accomplished two of
+these objects. It passed an Irish poor law and a measure
+commuting tithes in Ireland into a rent charge. The first of
+these measures was carried in opposition to the views of the Irish,
+who thought that it imposed an intolerable burden on Irish
+property. The second was only carried on the government consenting
+to drop the appropriation clause, on which Lord Melbourne&rsquo;s
+administration had virtually been founded.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, however, in domestic politics alone that the
+ministry was hampered. In the months which immediately
+followed the queen&rsquo;s accession news reached England of disturbances,
+or even insurrection in Canada. The rising was easily
+put down; but the condition of the colony was so grave that
+the ministry decided to suspend the constitution of lower Canada
+for three years, and to send out Lord Durham with almost dictatorial
+powers. Lord Durham&rsquo;s conduct was, unfortunately,
+marked by indiscretions which led to his resignation; but before
+leaving the colony he drew up a report on its condition and on its
+future, which practically became a text-book for his successors,
+and has influenced the government of British colonies ever since.
+Nor was Canada the only great colony which was seething with
+discontent. In Jamaica the planters, who had sullenly accepted
+the abolition of slavery, were irritated by the passage of an act
+of parliament intended to remedy some grave abuses in the
+management of the prisons of the island. The colonial House
+of Assembly denounced this act as a violation of its rights, and
+determined to desist from its legislative functions. The governor
+dissolved the assembly, but the new house, elected in its place,
+reaffirmed the decision of its predecessor; and the British
+ministry, in face of the crisis, asked parliament in 1839 for
+authority to suspend the constitution of the island for five years.
+The bill introduced for this purpose placed the Whig ministry
+in a position of some embarrassment. The advocates of popular
+government, they were inviting parliament, for a second time, to
+suspend representative institutions in an important colony.
+Supported by only small and dwindling majorities, they saw
+that it was hopeless to carry the measure, and they decided on
+placing their resignations in the queen&rsquo;s hands. The queen
+naturally sent for Sir Robert Peel, who undertook to form
+a government. In the course of the negotiations, however, he
+stated that it would be necessary to make certain changes in the
+household, which contained some great ladies closely connected
+<span class="sidenote">The bed-chamber question.</span>
+with the leaders of the Whig party. The queen
+shrank from separating herself from ladies who had
+surrounded her since she came to the throne, and
+Sir Robert thereupon declined the task of forming a
+ministry. Technically he was justified in adopting this course,
+but people generally felt that there was some hardship in compelling
+a young queen to separate herself from her companions
+and friends, and they consequently approved the decision of
+Lord Melbourne to support the queen in her refusal, and to
+resume office. The Whigs returned to place, but they could not
+be said to return to power. They did not even venture to renew
+the original Jamaica Bill. They substituted for it a modified
+proposal which they were unable to carry. They were obviously
+indebted for office to the favour of the queen, and not to the
+support of parliament.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the session of 1839 was not without important results.
+After a long struggle, in which ministers narrowly escaped defeat
+in the Commons, and in the course of which they
+suffered severe rebuffs in the Lords, they succeeded
+<span class="sidenote">Penny postage.</span>
+in laying the foundation of the English system of
+national education. In the same session they were forced against
+their will to adopt a reform, which had been recommended by
+Rowland Hill, and to confer on the nation the benefit of a
+uniform penny postage. No member of the cabinet foresaw the
+consequences of this reform. The postmaster-general, Lord
+Lichfield, in opposing it, declared that, if the revenue of his
+office was to be maintained, the correspondence of the country,
+on which postage was paid, must be increased from 42,000,000
+to 480,000,000 letters a year, and he contended that there were
+neither people to write, nor machinery to deal with, so prodigious
+a mass of letters. He would have been astonished to
+hear that, before the end of the century, his office had to deal
+with more than 3,000,000,000 postal packets a year, and that the
+net profit which it paid into the exchequer was to be more than
+double what it received in 1839.</p>
+
+<p>In 1840 the ministry was not much more successful than it
+had proved in 1839. After years of conflict it succeeded indeed
+in placing on the statute book a measure dealing with
+Irish municipalities. But its success was purchased
+<span class="sidenote">Fiscal policy.</span>
+by concessions to the Lords, which deprived the
+measure of much of its original merit. The closing years of the
+Whig administration were largely occupied with the financial
+difficulties of the country. The first three years of the queen&rsquo;s
+reign were memorable for a constantly deficient revenue. The
+deficit amounted to £1,400,000 in 1837, to £400,000 in 1838,
+and to £1,457,000 in 1839. Baring, the chancellor of the exchequer,
+endeavoured to terminate this deficiency by a general
+increase of taxation, but this device proved a disastrous failure.
+The deficit rose to £1,842,000 in 1840. It was obvious that the
+old expedient of increasing taxation had failed, and that some
+new method had to be substituted for it. This new method
+Baring tried to discover in altering the differential duties on
+timber and sugar, and substituting a fixed duty of 8s. per quarter
+for the sliding duties hitherto payable on wheat. By these
+alterations he expected to secure a large increase of revenue,
+and at the same time to maintain a sufficient degree of protection
+for colonial produce. The Conservatives, who believed in protection,
+at once attacked the proposed alteration of the sugar
+duties. They were reinforced by many Liberals, who cared very
+little for protection, but a great deal about the abolition of
+slavery, and consequently objected to reducing the duties on
+foreign or slave-grown sugar. This combination of interests
+proved too strong for Baring and his proposal was rejected. As
+ministers, however, did not resign on their defeat, Sir Robert Peel
+followed up his victory by moving a vote of want of confidence,
+and this motion was carried in an exceptionally full house by
+312 votes to 311.</p>
+
+<p>Before abandoning the struggle, the Whigs decided on appealing
+from the House of Commons to the country. The general
+election which ensued largely increased the strength
+of the Conservative party. On the meeting of the
+<span class="sidenote">Sir R. Peel forms a ministry.</span>
+new parliament in August 1841, votes of want of
+confidence in the government were proposed and
+carried in both houses; the Whigs were compelled to resign
+office, and the queen again charged Sir Robert Peel with the task
+of forming a government. If the queen had remained unmarried,
+it is possible that the friction which had arisen in 1839 might
+have recurred in 1841. In February 1840, however, Her Majesty
+had married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
+She was, therefore, no longer dependent on the Whig ladies, to
+whose presence in her court she had attached so much importance
+in 1839. By the management of the prince&mdash;who later in the reign
+was known as the prince consort&mdash;the great ladies of the household
+voluntarily tendered their resignations; and every obstacle
+to the formation of the new government was in this way removed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the Whigs retired from the offices which, except for a
+brief interval in 1834-1835, they had held for eleven years.
+During the earlier years of their administration they had succeeded
+in carrying many memorable reforms: during the later
+years their weakness in the House of Commons had prevented
+their passing any considerable measures. But, if they had failed
+in this respect, Lord Melbourne had rendered conspicuous service
+to the queen. Enjoying her full confidence, consulted by her on
+every occasion, he had always used his influence for the public
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page560" id="page560"></a>560</span>
+good; and perhaps those who look back now with so much satisfaction
+at the queen&rsquo;s conduct during a reign of unexampled
+length, imperfectly appreciate the debt which in this respect is
+owed to her first prime minister. The closing years of the Whig
+government were marked by external complications. A controversy
+on the boundary of Canada and the United States was
+provoking increasing bitterness on both sides of the Atlantic.
+The intervention of Lord Palmerston in Syria, which resulted
+in a great military success at Acre, was embittering the relations
+between France and England, while the unfortunate expedition
+to Afghanistan, which the Whigs had approved, was already
+producing embarrassment, and was about to result in disaster.
+Serious, however, as were the complications which surrounded
+British policy in Europe, in the East, and in America, the country,
+in August 1841, paid more attention to what a great writer called
+the &ldquo;condition of England&rdquo; question. There had never been
+a period in British history when distress and crime had been so
+general. There had hardly ever been a period when food had been
+so dear, when wages had been so low, when poverty had been so
+widespread, and the condition of the lower orders so depraved
+and so hopeless, as in the early years of the queen&rsquo;s reign. The
+condition of the people had prompted the formation of two great
+associations. The Chartists derived their name from the charter
+which set out their demands. The rejection of a monster petition
+which they presented to parliament in 1839 led to a formidable
+riot in Birmingham, and to a projected march from South Wales
+on London, in which twenty persons were shot dead at Newport.
+Another organization, in one sense even more formidable than
+the Chartist, was agitating at the same time for the repeal of
+the corn laws, and was known as the Anti-Corn Law League.
+It had already secured the services of two men, Cobden and
+Bright, who, one by clear reasoning, the other by fervid eloquence,
+were destined to make a profound impression on all classes of the
+people.</p>
+
+<p>The new government had, therefore, to deal with a position
+of almost unexampled difficulty. The people were apparently
+sinking into deeper poverty and misery year after year.
+As an outward and visible sign of the inward distress,
+<span class="sidenote">Budget reforms.</span>
+the state was no longer able to pay its way. It was
+estimated that the deficit, which had amounted to £1,842,000
+in 1840, would reach £2,334,000 in 1841. It is the signal merit
+of Sir Robert Peel that he terminated this era of private distress
+and public deficits. He accomplished this task partly by
+economical administration&mdash;for no minister ever valued economy
+more&mdash;and partly by a reform of the financial system, effected
+in three great budgets. In the budget of 1842 Sir Robert Peel
+terminated the deficit by reviving the income tax. The proceeds
+of the tax, which was fixed at 7d. in the £, and was granted in
+the first instance for three years, were more than sufficient to
+secure this object. Sir Robert used the surplus to reform the
+whole customs tariff. The duties on raw materials, he proposed,
+should never exceed 5%, the duties on partly manufactured
+articles 12%, and the duties on manufactured articles 20% of
+their value. At the same time he reduced the duties on stage
+coaches, on foreign and colonial coffee, on foreign and colonial
+timber, and repealed the export duties on British manufactures.
+The success of this budget in stimulating consumption and in
+promoting trade induced Sir Robert Peel to follow it up in 1845
+with an even more remarkable proposal. Instead of allowing the
+income tax to expire, he induced parliament to continue it for
+a further period, and with the resources which were thus placed
+at his disposal he purged the tariff of various small duties which
+produced little revenue, and had been imposed for purposes of
+protection. He swept away all the duties on British exports;
+he repealed the duties on glass, on cotton wool, and still further
+reduced the duties on foreign and colonial sugar. This budget
+was a much greater step towards free trade than the budget of
+1842. The chief object in his third budget in 1846&mdash;the reduction
+of the duty on corn to 1s. a quarter&mdash;was necessitated by
+causes which will be immediately referred to. But it will be
+convenient at once to refer to its other features. Sir Robert
+Peel told the house that, in his previous budgets, he had given
+the manufacturers of the country free access to the raw materials
+which they used. He was entitled in return to call upon them
+to relinquish the protection which they enjoyed. He decided,
+therefore, to reduce the protective duties on cotton, woollen, silk,
+metal and other goods, as well as on raw materials still liable to
+heavy taxation, such as timber and tallow. As the policy of
+1842 and 1845 had proved unquestionably successful in stimulating
+trade, he proposed to extend it to agriculture. He
+reduced the duties on the raw materials which the farmers used,
+such as seed and maize, and in return he called on them to give
+up the duties on cattle and meat, to reduce largely the duties
+on butter, cheese and hops, and to diminish the duty on corn by
+gradual stages to 1s. a quarter. In making these changes Sir
+Robert Peel avowed that it was his object to make the country
+a cheap one to live in. There is no doubt that they were followed
+by a remarkable development of British trade. In the twenty-seven
+years from 1815 to 1842 the export trade of Great Britain
+diminished from £49,600,000 to £47,280,000; while in the
+twenty-seven years which succeeded 1842 it increased from
+£47,280,000 to nearly £190,000,000. These figures are a simple
+and enduring monument to the minister&rsquo;s memory. It is fair
+to add that the whole increase was not due to free trade. It was
+partly attributable to the remarkable development of communications
+which marked this period.</p>
+
+<p>Two other financial measures of great importance were
+accomplished in Sir Robert Peel&rsquo;s ministry. In 1844 some
+£250,000,000 of the national debt still bore an interest of 3½%.
+The improvement in the credit of the country enabled the
+government to reduce the interest on the stock to 3¼% for the
+succeeding ten years, and to 3% afterwards. This conversion,
+which effected an immediate saving of £625,000, and an ultimate
+saving of £1,250,000 a year, was by far the most important
+measure which had hitherto been applied to the debt; and no
+operation on the same scale was attempted for more than forty
+years. In the same year the necessity of renewing the charter
+of the Bank of England afforded Sir Robert Peel an opportunity
+of reforming the currency. He separated the issue department
+from the banking department of the bank, and decided that in
+future it should only be at liberty to issue notes against (1) the
+debt of £14,000,000 due to it from the government, and (2) any
+bullion actually in its coffers. Few measures of the past century
+have been the subject of more controversy than this famous act,
+and at one time its repeated suspension in periods of financial
+crises seemed to suggest the necessity of its amendment. But
+opinion on the whole has vindicated its wisdom, and it has
+survived all the attacks which have been made upon it.</p>
+
+<p>The administration of Sir Robert Peel is also remarkable for
+its Irish policy. The Irish, under O&rsquo;Connell, had constantly
+supported the Whig ministry of Lord Melbourne.
+But their alliance, or understanding, with the Whigs
+<span class="sidenote">Ireland.</span>
+had not procured them all the results which they had expected
+from it. The two great Whig measures, dealing with the church
+and the municipalities, had only been passed after years of
+controversy, and in a shape which deprived them of many
+expected advantages. Hence arose a notion in Ireland that
+nothing was to be expected from a British parliament, and hence
+began a movement for the repeal of the union which had been
+accomplished in 1801. This agitation, which smouldered during
+the reign of the Whig ministry, was rapidly revived when Sir
+Robert Peel entered upon office. The Irish contributed large
+sums, which were known as repeal rent, to the cause, and they
+held monster meetings in various parts of Ireland to stimulate
+the demand for repeal. The ministry met this campaign by
+coercive legislation regulating the use of arms, by quartering
+large bodies of troops in Ireland, and by prohibiting a great
+meeting at Clontarf, the scene of Brian Boru&rsquo;s victory, in the
+immediate neighbourhood of Dublin. They further decided
+in 1843 to place O&rsquo;Connell and some of the leading agitators on
+their trial for conspiracy and sedition. O&rsquo;Connell was tried
+before a jury chosen from a defective panel, was convicted on
+an indictment which contained many counts, and the court
+passed sentence without distinguishing between these counts.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page561" id="page561"></a>561</span>
+These irregularities induced the House of Lords to reverse the
+judgment, and its reversal did much to prevent mischief.
+O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s illness, which resulted in his death in 1847, tended
+also to establish peace. Sir Robert Peel wisely endeavoured to
+stifle agitation by making considerable concessions to Irish
+sentiment. He increased the grant which was made to the
+Roman Catholic College at Maynooth; he established three
+colleges in the north, south and west of Ireland for the undenominational
+education of the middle classes; he appointed
+a commission&mdash;the Devon commission, as it was called, from the
+name of the nobleman who presided over it&mdash;to investigate the
+conditions on which Irish land was held; and, after the report
+of the commission, he introduced, though he failed to carry, a
+measure for remedying some of the grievances of the Irish
+tenants. These wise concessions might possibly have had
+<span class="sidenote">Free trade.</span>
+some effect in pacifying Ireland, if, in the autumn of
+1845, they had not been forgotten in the presence of
+a disaster which suddenly fell on that unhappy country. The
+potato, which was the sole food of at least half the people of an
+overcrowded island, failed, and a famine of unprecedented
+proportions was obviously imminent. Sir Robert Peel, whose
+original views on protection had been rapidly yielding to the
+arguments afforded by the success of his own budgets, concluded
+that it was impossible to provide for the necessities of Ireland
+without suspending the corn laws; and that, if they were once
+suspended, it would be equally impossible to restore them. He
+failed, however, to convince two prominent members of his
+cabinet&mdash;Lord Stanley and the duke of Buccleuch&mdash;that protection
+must be finally abandoned, and considering it hopeless
+to persevere with a disunited cabinet he resigned office. On
+Sir Robert&rsquo;s resignation the queen sent for Lord John Russell,
+who had led the Liberal party in the House of Commons with
+conspicuous ability for more than ten years, and charged him
+with the task of forming a new ministry. Differences, which
+it proved impossible to remove, between two prominent Whigs&mdash;Lord
+Palmerston and Lord Grey&mdash;made the task impracticable,
+and after an interval Sir Robert Peel consented to resume power.
+Sir Robert Peel was probably aware that his fall had been only
+postponed. In the four years and a half during which his
+ministry had lasted he had done much to estrange his party.
+They said, with some truth, that, whether his measures were
+right or wrong, they were opposed to the principles which he
+had been placed in power to support. The general election
+of 1841 had been mainly fought on the rival policies of
+protection and free trade. The country had decided for
+protection, and Sir R. Peel had done more than all his predecessors
+to give it free trade. The Conservative party, moreover,
+was closely allied with the church, and Sir Robert had
+offended the church by giving an increased endowment to
+Maynooth, and by establishing undenominational colleges&mdash;&ldquo;godless
+colleges&rdquo; as they were called&mdash;in Ireland. The
+Conservatives were, therefore, sullenly discontented with the
+conduct of their leader. They were lashed into positive fury
+by the proposal which he was now making to abolish the corn
+laws. Lord George Bentinck, who, in his youth, had been
+private secretary to Canning, but who in his maturer years had
+devoted more time to the turf than to politics, placed himself
+at their head. He was assisted by a remarkable man&mdash;Benjamin
+Disraeli&mdash;who joined great abilities to great ambition, and who,
+embittered by Sir Robert Peel&rsquo;s neglect to appoint him to office,
+had already displayed his animosity to the minister. The policy
+on which Sir Robert Peel resolved facilitated attack. For the
+minister thought it necessary, while providing against famine
+by repealing the corn laws, to ensure the preservation of order
+by a new coercion bill. The financial bill and the coercion bill
+were both pressed forward, and each gave opportunities for
+discussion and, what was then new in parliament, for obstruction.
+At last, on the very night on which the fiscal proposals of the
+ministers were accepted by the Lords, the coercion bill was
+defeated in the Commons by a combination of Whigs, radicals
+and protectionists; and Sir R. Peel, worn out with a protracted
+struggle, placed his resignation in the queen&rsquo;s hands.</p>
+
+<p>Thus fell the great minister, who perhaps had conferred more
+benefits on his country than any of his predecessors. The
+external policy of his ministry had been almost as
+remarkable as its domestic programme. When he
+<span class="sidenote">Peel&rsquo;s foreign policy.</span>
+accepted office the country was on the eve of a great
+disaster in India; it was engaged in a serious dispute
+with the United States; and its relations with France were so
+strained that the two great countries of western Europe seemed
+unlikely to be able to settle their differences without war. In
+the earlier years of his administration the disaster in Afghanistan
+was repaired in a successful campaign; and Lord Ellenborough,
+who was sent over to replace Lord Auckland as governor-general,
+increased the dominion and responsibilities of the East India
+Company by the unscrupulous but brilliant policy which led
+to the conquest of Sind. The disputes with the United States
+were satisfactorily composed; and not only were the differences
+with France terminated, but a perfect understanding was formed
+between the two countries, under which Guizot, the prime
+minister of France, and Lord Aberdeen, the foreign minister of
+England, agreed to compromise all minor questions for the sake
+of securing the paramount object of peace. The good understanding
+was so complete that a disagreeable incident in the
+Sandwich Islands, in which the injudicious conduct of a French
+agent very nearly precipitated hostilities, was amicably settled;
+and the ministry had the satisfaction of knowing that, if their
+policy had produced prosperity at home, it had also maintained
+peace abroad.</p>
+
+<p>On Sir R. Peel&rsquo;s resignation the queen again sent for Lord
+John Russell. The difficulties which had prevented his forming
+a ministry in the previous year were satisfactorily arranged,
+and Lord Palmerston accepted the seals of the foreign office,
+while Lord Grey was sent to the colonial office. The history of
+the succeeding years was destined, however, to prove that Lord
+Grey had had solid reasons for objecting to Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s
+return to his old post; for, whatever judgment may ultimately
+be formed on Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s foreign policy, there can be
+little doubt that it did not tend to the maintenance of peace.
+The first occasion on which danger was threatened arose immediately
+after the installation of the new ministry on the
+<span class="sidenote">The Spanish marriages.</span>
+question of the Spanish marriages. The queen of
+Spain, Isabella, was a young girl still in her teens; the
+heir to the throne was her younger sister, the infanta
+Fernanda. Diplomacy had long been occupied with
+the marriages of these children; and Lord Aberdeen had
+virtually accepted the principle, which the French government
+had laid down, that a husband for the queen should be found
+among the descendants of Philip V., and that her sister&rsquo;s marriage
+to the duc de Montpensier&mdash;a son of Louis Philippe&mdash;should
+not be celebrated till the queen was married and had issue.
+While agreeing to this compromise, Lord Aberdeen declared
+that he regarded the Spanish marriages as a Spanish, and not as
+a European question, and that, if it proved impossible to find a
+suitable consort for the queen among the descendants of Philip
+V., Spain must be free to choose a prince for her throne elsewhere.
+The available descendants of Philip V. were the two sons of Don
+Francis, the younger brother of Don Carlos, and of these the
+French government was in favour of the elder, while the British
+government preferred the younger brother. Lord Palmerston
+strongly objected to the prince whom the French government
+supported; and, almost immediately after acceding to office,
+he wrote a despatch in which he enumerated the various candidates
+for the queen of Spain&rsquo;s hand, including Prince Leopold
+of Saxe-Coburg, a near relation of the prince consort, among the
+number. Louis Philippe regarded this despatch as a departure
+from the principle on which he had agreed with Lord Aberdeen,
+and at once hurried on the simultaneous marriages of the queen
+with the French candidate, and of her sister with the duc de
+Montpensier. His action broke up the <i>entente cordiale</i> which
+had been established between Guizot and Lord Aberdeen.</p>
+
+<p>The second occasion on which Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s vigorous
+diplomacy excited alarm arose out of the revolution which broke
+out almost universally in Europe in 1848. A rising in Hungary
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page562" id="page562"></a>562</span>
+was suppressed by Austria with Russian assistance, and after
+its suppression many leading Hungarians took refuge in Turkish
+territory. Austria and Russia addressed demands to the
+Porte for their surrender. Lord Palmerston determined to support
+the Porte in its refusal to give up these exiles, and actually
+sent the British fleet to the Dardanelles with this object. His
+success raised the credit of Great Britain and his own reputation.
+The presence of the British fleet, however, at the Dardanelles
+suggested to him the possibility of settling another long-standing
+controversy. For years British subjects settled in Greece had
+raised complaints against the Greek government. In particular
+<span class="sidenote">Don Pacifico.</span>
+Don Pacifico, a Jew, but a native of Gibraltar, complained
+that, at a riot, in which his house had been
+attacked, he had lost jewels, furniture and papers
+which he alleged to be worth more than £30,000. As Lord
+Palmerston was unable by correspondence to induce the Greek
+government to settle claims of this character, he determined to
+enforce them; and by his orders a large number of Greek vessels
+were seized and detained by the British fleet. The French
+government tendered its good offices to compose the dispute,
+and an arrangement was actually arrived at between Lord
+Palmerston and the French minister in London. Unfortunately,
+before its terms reached Greece, the British minister at Athens
+had ordered the resumption of hostilities, and had compelled
+the Greek government to submit to more humiliating conditions.
+News of this settlement excited the strongest feelings both in
+Paris and London. In Paris, Prince Louis Napoleon, who had
+acceded to the presidency of the French republic, decided on
+recalling his representative from the British court. In London
+the Lords passed a vote of censure on Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s proceedings;
+and the Commons only sustained the minister by
+adopting a resolution approving in general terms the principles
+on which the foreign policy of the country had been conducted.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuing the vigorous policy which characterized his
+tenure of the foreign office, Lord Palmerston frequently omitted
+to consult his colleagues in the cabinet, the prime
+minister, or the queen. In the course of 1849 Her
+<span class="sidenote">Palmerston dismissed.</span>
+Majesty formally complained to Lord John Russell
+that important despatches were sent off without her
+knowledge; and an arrangement was made under which Lord
+Palmerston undertook to submit every despatch to the queen
+through the prime minister. In 1850, after the Don Pacifico
+debate, the queen repeated these commands in a much stronger
+memorandum. But Lord Palmerston, though all confidence
+between himself and the court was destroyed, continued in office.
+In the autumn of 1851 the queen was much annoyed at hearing
+that he had received a deputation at the foreign office, which
+had waited on him to express sympathy with the Hungarian
+refugees, and to denounce the conduct of &ldquo;the despots and
+tyrants&rdquo; of Russia and Austria, and that he had, in his reply,
+expressed his gratification at the demonstration. If the queen
+had had her way, Lord Palmerston would have been removed
+from the foreign office after this incident. A few days later the
+<i>coup d&rsquo;état</i> in Paris led to another dispute. The cabinet decided
+to do nothing that could wear the appearance of interference
+in the internal affairs of France; but Lord Palmerston, in conversation
+with the French minister in London, took upon himself
+to approve the bold and decisive step taken by the president.
+The ministry naturally refused to tolerate this conduct, and
+Lord Palmerston was summarily removed from his office.</p>
+
+<p>The removal of Lord Palmerston led almost directly to the
+fall of the Whig government. Before relating, however, the
+exact occurrences which produced its defeat, it is necessary to
+retrace our steps and describe the policy which it had pursued
+in internal matters during the six years in which it had been in
+power. Throughout that period the Irish famine had been its
+chief anxiety and difficulty. Sir Robert Peel had attempted
+to deal with it (1) by purchasing large quantities of Indian corn,
+which he had retailed at low prices in Ireland, and (2) by enabling
+the grand juries to employ the people on public works, which were
+to be paid out of moneys advanced by the state, one-half being
+ultimately repayable by the locality. These measures were not
+entirely successful. It was found, in practice, that the sale of
+Indian corn at low prices by the government checked the efforts
+<span class="sidenote">Irish famine.</span>
+of private individuals to supply food; and that the
+offer of comparatively easy work to the poor at the
+cost of the public, prevented their seeking harder
+private work either in Ireland or in Great Britain. The new
+government, with this experience before it, decided on trusting
+to private enterprise to supply the necessary food, and on throwing
+the whole cost of the works which the locality might undertake
+on local funds. If the famine had been less severe, this
+policy might possibly have succeeded. Universal want, however,
+paralysed every one. The people, destitute of other means
+of livelihood, crowded to the relief works. In the beginning of
+1847 nearly 750,000 persons&mdash;or nearly one person out of every
+ten in Ireland&mdash;were so employed. With such vast multitudes
+to relieve, it proved impracticable to exact the labour which
+was required as a test of destitution. The roads, which it was
+decided to make, were blocked by the labourers employed upon
+them, and by the stones, which the labourers were supposed
+to crush for their repair. In the presence of this difficulty the
+government decided, early in 1847, gradually to discontinue the
+relief works, and to substitute for them relief committees charged
+with the task of feeding the people. At one time no less than
+3,000,000 persons&mdash;more than one-third of the entire population
+of Ireland&mdash;were supported by these committees. At the same
+time it decided on adopting two measures of a more permanent
+character. The poor law of 1838 had made no provision for the
+relief of the poor outside the workhouse, and outdoor relief was
+sanctioned by an act of 1847. Irish landlords complained that
+their properties, ruined by the famine, and encumbered by the
+extravagances of their predecessors, could not bear the cost of
+this new poor law; and the ministry introduced and carried
+a measure enabling the embarrassed owners of life estates to
+sell their property and discharge their liabilities. It is the
+constant misfortune of Ireland that the measures intended for
+her relief aggravate her distress. The encumbered estates act,
+though it substituted a solvent for an insolvent proprietary,
+placed the Irish tenants at the mercy of landlords of whom they
+had no previous knowledge, who were frequently absentees,
+who bought the land as a matter of business, and who dealt
+with it on business principles by raising the rent. The new
+poor law, by throwing the maintenance of the poor on the soil,
+encouraged landlords to extricate themselves from their responsibilities
+by evicting their tenants. Evictions were made on a
+scale which elicited from Sir Robert Peel an expression of the
+deepest abhorrence. The unfortunate persons driven from their
+holdings and forced to seek a refuge in the towns, in England,
+or&mdash;when they could afford it&mdash;in the United States, carried
+with them everywhere the seeds of disease, the constant handmaid
+of famine.</p>
+
+<p>Famine, mortality and emigration left their mark on Ireland.
+In four years, from 1845 to 1849, its population decreased from
+8,295,000 to 7,256,000, or by more than a million persons; and
+the decline which took place at that time went on to the end of
+the century. The population of Ireland in 1901 had decreased
+to 4,457,000 souls. This fact is the more remarkable, because
+Ireland is almost the only portion of the British empire, or
+indeed of the civilized world, where such a circumstance has
+occurred. We must go to countries like the Asiatic provinces
+of Turkey, devastated by Ottoman rule, to find such a diminution
+in the numbers of the people as was seen in Ireland during the
+last half of the 19th century. It was probably inevitable that
+the distress of Ireland should have been followed by a renewal
+of Irish outrages. A terrible series of agrarian crimes was committed
+in the autumn of 1847; and the ministry felt compelled,
+<span class="sidenote">Rebellion of 1848.</span>
+in consequence, to strengthen its hands by a new
+measure of coercion, and by suspending the Habeas
+Corpus Act in Ireland. The latter measure at once
+brought to a crisis the so-called rebellion of 1848, for his share
+in which Smith O&rsquo;Brien, an Irish member of parliament, was
+convicted of high treason. The government, however, did not
+venture to carry out the grim sentence which the law still applied
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page563" id="page563"></a>563</span>
+to traitors, and introduced an act enabling it to commute the
+death penalty to transportation. The &ldquo;insurrection&rdquo; had from
+the first proved abortive. With Smith O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s transportation
+it practically terminated.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile the difficulties which the government was
+experiencing from the Irish famine had been aggravated by a
+grave commercial crisis in England. In the autumn of 1847
+a series of failures in the great commercial centres created a panic
+in the city of London, which forced consols down to 78, and
+induced the government to take upon itself the responsibility
+of suspending the Bank Charter Act. That step, enabling the
+directors of the Bank of England to issue notes unsecured by
+bullion, had the effect of gradually restoring confidence. But a
+grave commercial crisis of this character is often attended with
+other than financial consequences. The stringency of the money
+market increases the distress of the industrial classes by diminishing
+the demand for work; and, when labour suffers, political
+agitation flourishes. Early in 1848, moreover, revolutions on
+the continent produced a natural craving for changes at home.
+Louis Philippe was driven out of Paris, the emperor of Austria
+was driven out of Vienna, the Austrian soldiery had to withdraw
+from Milan, and even in Berlin the crown had to make terms
+with the people. While thrones were falling or tottering in
+every country in Europe, it was inevitable that excitement and
+agitation should prevail in Great Britain. The Chartists, reviving
+the machinery which they had endeavoured to employ in 1839,
+decided on preparing a monster petition to parliament, which
+was to be escorted to Westminster by a monster procession.
+Their preparations excited general alarm, and on the invitation
+<span class="sidenote">Chartism.</span>
+of the government no less than 170,000 special constables
+were sworn in to protect life and property
+against a rabble. By the judicious arrangements, however,
+which were made by the duke of Wellington, the peace of the
+metropolis was secured. The Chartists were induced to abandon
+the procession which had caused so much alarm, and the monster
+petition was carried in a cab to the House of Commons. There
+it was mercilessly picked to pieces by a select committee. It
+was found that, instead of containing nearly 6,000,000 signatures,
+as its originators had boasted, less than 2,000,000 names were
+attached to it. Some of the names, moreover, were obviously
+fictitious, or even absurd. The exposure of these facts turned
+the whole thing into ridicule, and gave parliament an excuse
+for postponing measures of organic reform which might otherwise
+have been brought forward.</p>
+
+<p>If the ministry thus abstained from pressing forward a large
+scheme of political reform, it succeeded in carrying two measures
+of the highest commercial and social importance. In
+1849 it supplemented the free trade policy, which
+<span class="sidenote">Navigation Acts.</span>
+Sir Robert Peel had developed, by the repeal of the
+Navigation Acts. Briefly stated, these acts, which had been
+originated during the Protectorate of Cromwell, and continued
+after the Restoration, reserved the whole coasting trade of the
+country for British vessels and British seamen, and much of the
+foreign trade for British vessels, commanded and chiefly manned
+by British subjects. The acts, therefore, were in the strictest
+sense protective, but they were also designed to increase the
+strength of Great Britain at sea, by maintaining large numbers
+of British seamen. They had been defended by Adam Smith on
+the ground that defence was &ldquo;of much more importance than
+opulence,&rdquo; and by the same reasoning they had been described
+by John Stuart Mill as, &ldquo;though economically disadvantageous,
+politically expedient.&rdquo; The acts, however, threw a grave
+burden on British trade and British shipowners. Their provisions
+by restricting competition naturally tended to raise freights,
+and by restricting employment made it difficult for shipowners
+to man their vessels. Accordingly the government wisely
+determined on their repeal; and one of the last and greatest
+battles between Free Trade and Protection was fought over the
+question. The second reading of the government bill was carried
+in the House of Lords by a majority of only ten: it would not
+have been carried at all if the government had not secured a
+much larger number of proxies than their opponents could obtain.</p>
+
+<p>If the repeal of the Navigation Acts constituted a measure of
+the highest commercial importance, the passage of the Ten
+Hours Bill in 1847 marked the first great advance in
+factory legislation. Something, indeed, had already
+<span class="sidenote">Ten Hours Bill.</span>
+been done to remedy the evils arising from the employment
+of women and very young children in factories and
+mines. In 1833 Lord Ashley, better known as Lord Shaftesbury,
+had carried the first important Factory Act. In 1842 he had
+succeeded, with the help of the striking report of a royal commission,
+in inducing parliament to prohibit the employment of
+women and of boys under ten years of age in mines. And in
+1843 Sir James Graham, who was home secretary in Sir Robert
+Peel&rsquo;s administration, had been compelled by the pressure of
+public opinion to introduce a measure providing for the education
+of children employed in factories, and for limiting the hours of
+work of children and young persons. The educational clauses
+of this bill were obviously framed in the interests of the Church
+of England, and raised a heated controversy which led to the
+abandonment of the measure; and in the following year Sir
+James Graham introduced a new bill dealing with the labour
+question alone. Briefly stated, his proposal was that no child
+under nine years of age should be employed in a factory, and that
+no young person under eighteen should be employed for more
+than twelve hours a day. This measure gave rise to the famous
+controversy on the ten hours clause, which commenced in 1844
+and was protracted till 1847. Lord Ashley and the factory
+reformers contended, on the one hand, that ten hours were long
+enough for any person to work; their opponents maintained,
+on the contrary, that the adoption of the clause would injure
+the working-classes by lowering the rate of wages, and ruin the
+manufacturers by exposing them to foreign competition. In
+1847 the reform was at last adopted. It is a remarkable fact
+that it was carried against the views of the leading statesmen on
+both sides of the House. It was the triumph of common sense
+over official arguments.</p>
+
+<p>During the first four years of Lord John Russell&rsquo;s government,
+his administration had never enjoyed any very large measure
+of popular support, but it had been partly sustained
+by the advocacy of Sir Robert Peel. The differences
+<span class="sidenote">Death of Peel.</span>
+which estranged Sir Robert from his old supporters
+were far greater than those which separated him from the Whigs,
+and the latter were therefore constantly able to rely on his
+assistance. In the summer of 1850, however, a lamentable
+accident&mdash;a fall from his horse&mdash;deprived the country of the
+services of its great statesman. His death naturally affected
+the position of parties. The small remnant of able men, indeed,
+who had been associated with him in his famous administration,
+still maintained an attitude of neutrality. But the bulk of the
+Conservative party rallied under the lead of Lord Stanley
+(afterwards Derby) in the House of Lords, and gradually submitted
+to, rather than accepted, the lead of Disraeli in the
+House of Commons.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn which succeeded Sir Robert Peel&rsquo;s death, an
+event which had not been foreseen agitated the country and
+produced a crisis. During the years which had succeeded
+the Reform Bill a great religious movement
+<span class="sidenote">Oxford movement.</span>
+had influenced politics both in England and Scotland.
+In England, a body of eminent men at Oxford&mdash;of whom J.H.,
+afterwards Cardinal, Newman was the chief, but who numbered
+among their leaders Hurrell Froude, the brother of the historian,
+and Keble, the author of the <i>Christian Year</i>&mdash;endeavoured to
+prove that the doctrines of the Church of England were identical
+with those of the primitive Catholic Church, and that every
+Catholic doctrine might be held by those who were within its
+pale. This view was explained in a remarkable series of tracts,
+which gave their authors the name of Tractarians. The most
+famous of these, and the last of the series, Tract XC., was published
+three years after the queen&rsquo;s accession to the throne. In
+Scotland, the Presbyterian Church&mdash;mainly under the guidance
+of Dr Chalmers, one of the most eloquent preachers of the century&mdash;was
+simultaneously engaged in a contest with the state on the
+subject of ecclesiastical patronage. Both movements had this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page564" id="page564"></a>564</span>
+in common, that they indicated a revival of religious energy,
+and aimed at vindicating the authority of the church, and resisting
+the interference of the state in church matters. The Scottish
+movement led to the disruption of the Church of Scotland and the
+formation of the Free Church in 1843. The Tractarian movement
+was ultimately terminated by the secession of Newman and many
+of his associates from the Church of England, and their admission
+to the Church of Rome. These secessions raised a feeling of
+alarm throughout England. The people, thoroughly Protestant,
+were excited by the proofs&mdash;which they thought were afforded&mdash;that
+the real object of the Tractarians was to reconcile
+England with Rome; and practices which are now regarded as
+venial or even praiseworthy&mdash;such as the wearing of the surplice
+in the pulpit, and the institution of the weekly offertory&mdash;were
+denounced because they were instituted by the Tractarians, and
+were regarded as insidious devices to lead the country Romewards.
+The sympathies of the Whigs, and especially of the Whig prime
+minister, Lord John Russell, were with the people; and Lord
+John displayed his dislike to the Romanizing tendencies of the
+Tractarians by appointing Renn Dickson Hampden&mdash;whose
+views had been formally condemned by the Hebdomadal Board
+at Oxford&mdash;to the bishopric of Hereford. The High Church party
+endeavoured to oppose the appointment at every stage; but
+their attempts exposed them to a serious defeat. The courts
+held that, though the appointment of a bishop by the crown
+required confirmation in the archbishop&rsquo;s court, the confirmation
+was a purely ministerial act which could not be refused. The
+effort which the High Church party had made to resist Dr
+Hampden&rsquo;s appointment had thus resulted in showing conclusively
+that authority resided in the crown, and not in the archbishop.
+It so happened that about the same time this view was
+confirmed by another judicial decision. The lord chancellor
+presented the Rev. G.C. Gorham to a living in Devonshire; and
+Dr Phillpotts, the bishop of Exeter, declined to institute him,
+on the ground that he held heretical views on the subject of
+baptism. The court of arches upheld the bishop&rsquo;s decision.
+The finding of the court, however, was reversed by the privy
+council, and its judgment dealt a new blow at the Tractarian
+party. For it again showed that authority&mdash;even in doctrine&mdash;resided
+in the crown and not in the church. Within a few
+months of this famous decision the pope&mdash;perhaps encouraged
+by the activity and despondency of the High Church party&mdash;issued
+a brief &ldquo;for re-establishing and extending the Catholic
+faith in England,&rdquo; and proceeded to divide England and Wales
+into twelve sees. One of them&mdash;Westminster&mdash;was made an
+archbishopric, and the new dignity was conferred on Nicholas
+Patrick Stephen Wiseman, who was almost immediately afterwards
+created cardinal. The publication of this brief caused
+much excitement throughout the country, which was fanned by
+a letter from the prime minister to the bishop of Durham, condemning
+the brief as &ldquo;insolent and insidious&rdquo; and &ldquo;inconsistent
+with the queen&rsquo;s supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and
+clergy, and with the spiritual independence of the nation.&rdquo;
+Somewhat unnecessarily the prime minister went on to condemn
+the clergymen of the Church of England who had subscribed the
+Thirty-nine Articles, &ldquo;who have been the most forward in
+leading their own flocks, step by step, to the very edge of the
+precipice.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In accordance with the promise of Lord John Russell&rsquo;s letter,
+the ministry, at the opening of the session of 1851, introduced
+a measure forbidding the assumption of territorial
+titles by the priests and bishops of the Roman Catholic
+<span class="sidenote">Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.</span>
+Church, declaring all gifts made to them and all acts
+done by them under these titles null and void, and
+forfeiting to the crown all property bequeathed to them. The
+bill naturally encountered opposition from many Liberals,
+while it failed to excite any enthusiasm among Conservatives,
+who thought its remedies inadequate. In the middle of the
+debates upon it the government was defeated on another question&mdash;a
+proposal to reduce the county franchise&mdash;and, feeling that
+it could no longer rely on the support of the House of Commons,
+tendered its resignation. But Lord Stanley, whom the queen
+entrusted with the duty of forming a new administration, was
+compelled to decline the task, and Lord John resumed office.
+Mild as the original Ecclesiastical Titles Bill had been thought,
+the new edition of it, which was introduced after the restoration
+of the Whigs to power, was still milder. Though, after protracted
+debates, it at last became law, it satisfied nobody. Its
+provisions, as was soon found, could be easily evaded, and the
+bill, which had caused so much excitement, and had nearly
+precipitated the fall of a ministry, remained a dead letter. The
+government, in fact, was experiencing the truth that, if a defeated
+ministry may be occasionally restored to place, it cannot be
+restored to power. The dismissal of Lord Palmerston from the
+foreign office in 1851 further increased the embarrassments of
+the government. In February 1852 it was defeated on a proposal
+to revive the militia, and resigned.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances which directly led to the defeat of the
+Whigs were, in one sense, a consequence of the revolutionary
+wave which had swept over Europe in 1848. The
+fall of Louis Philippe in that year created a panic in
+<span class="sidenote">French scare.</span>
+Great Britain. Men thought that the unsettled state
+of France made war probable, and they were alarmed at the
+defenceless condition of England. Lord Palmerston, speaking
+in 1845, had declared that &ldquo;steam had bridged the Channel&rdquo;;
+and the duke of Wellington had addressed a letter to Sir John
+Burgoyne, in which he had demonstrated that the country was
+not in a position to resist an invading force. The panic was so
+great that the ministry felt it necessary to make exceptional
+provisions for allaying it. Lord John Russell decided on asking
+parliament to sanction increased armaments, and to raise the
+income tax to 1s. in the pound in order to pay for them. The
+occasion deserves to be recollected as one on which a prime
+minister, who was not also chancellor of the exchequer, has
+himself proposed the budget of the year. But it was still more
+memorable because the remedy which Lord John proposed at once
+destroyed the panic which had suggested it. A certain increase
+of the income tax to a shilling seemed a much more serious
+calamity than the uncertain prospect of a possible invasion.
+The estimates were recast, the budget was withdrawn, and the
+nation was content to dispense with any addition to its military
+and naval strength. Events in France, in the meanwhile, moved
+with railway speed. Louis Napoleon became president of the
+French Republic: in 1852 he became emperor of the French.
+The new emperor, indeed, took pains to reassure a troubled
+continent that &ldquo;the empire was peace.&rdquo; The people insisted
+on believing&mdash;and, as the event proved, rightly&mdash;that the empire
+was war. Notwithstanding the success of the Great Exhibition
+of 1851, which was supposed to inaugurate a new reign of peace,
+the panic, which had been temporarily allayed in 1848, revived
+at the close of 1851, and the government endeavoured to
+allay it by reconstituting the militia. There were two possible
+expedients. An act of 1757 had placed under the direct authority
+of the crown a militia composed of men selected in each parish
+by ballot, liable to be called out for active service, and to be
+placed under military law. But the act had been supplemented
+by a series of statutes passed between 1808 and 1812, which had
+provided a local militia, raised, like the regular militia, by ballot,
+but, unlike the latter, only liable for service for the suppression
+of riots, or in the event of imminent invasion. Lord John
+Russell&rsquo;s government, forced to do something by the state of
+public opinion, but anxious&mdash;from the experience of 1848&mdash;to
+make that something moderate, decided on reviving the local
+militia. Lord Palmerston at once suggested that the regular
+and not the local militia should be revived; and, in a small house
+of only 265 members, he succeeded in carrying a resolution to
+that effect. He had, in this way, what he called his &ldquo;tit for tat&rdquo;
+with Lord John; and the queen, accepting her minister&rsquo;s
+resignation, sent for Lord Derby&mdash;for Lord Stanley had now
+succeeded to this title&mdash;and charged him with the task of forming
+a ministry.</p>
+
+<p>The government which Lord Derby succeeded in forming
+was composed almost exclusively of the men who had rebelled
+against Sir Robert Peel in 1845. It was led in the House of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page565" id="page565"></a>565</span>
+Commons by the brilliant, but somewhat unscrupulous statesman
+<span class="sidenote">Lord Derby.</span>
+who had headed the revolt. With the exception of
+Lord Derby and one other man, its members had
+no experience of high office; and it had no chance
+of commanding a majority of the House of Commons
+in the existing parliament. It owed its position to the divisions
+of its opponents. Profiting by their experience, it succeeded
+in framing and passing a measure reconstituting the regular
+militia, which obtained general approval. It is perhaps worth
+observing that it maintained the machinery of a ballot, but
+reserved it only in case experience should prove that it was
+necessary. Voluntary enlistment under the new Militia Bill
+was to be the rule: compulsory service was only to be resorted
+to if voluntary enlistment should fail. This success, to a certain
+extent, strengthened the position of the new ministry. It was
+obvious, however, that its stability would ultimately be determined
+by its financial policy. Composed of the men who had
+resisted the free trade measures of the previous decade, its fate
+depended on its attitude towards free trade. In forming his
+administration Lord Derby had found it necessary to declare
+that, though he was still in favour of a tax on corn, he should
+take no steps in this direction till the country had received an
+opportunity of expressing its opinion. His leader in the House
+of Commons went much further, and declared that the time had
+gone by for reverting to protection. The view which Disraeli
+thus propounded in defiance of his previous opinions was confirmed
+by the electors on the dissolution of parliament. Though
+the new government obtained some increased strength from the
+result of the polls, the country, it was evident, had no intention
+of abandoning the policy of free trade, which by this time, it was
+clear, had conferred substantial benefits on all classes. When
+the new parliament met in the autumn of 1852, it was at once
+plain that the issue would be determined on the rival merits
+of the old and the new financial systems. Disraeli courted the
+decision by at once bringing forward the budget, which custom,
+and perhaps convenience, would have justified him in postponing
+till the following spring. His proposal&mdash;in which he avowedly
+threw over his friends on the ground that &ldquo;he had greater
+subjects to consider than the triumph of obsolete opinions&rdquo;&mdash;was,
+in effect, an attempt to conciliate his old supporters by
+a policy of doles, and to find the means for doing so by the
+increased taxation of the middle classes. He offered to relieve
+the shipping interest by transferring some of the cost of lighting
+the coasts to the Consolidated Fund; the West India interest
+by sanctioning the refining of sugar in bond; and the landed
+classes by reducing the malt tax by one-half, and by repealing
+the old war duty on hops. He suggested that the cost of these
+measures should be defrayed by extending the income tax to
+Ireland to industrial incomes of £100 and to permanent incomes
+of £50 a year, as well as by doubling the house tax, and extending
+it to all £10 householders. The weight, therefore, of these
+measures was either purposely or unintentionally thrown mainly
+on persons living in houses worth from £10 to £20 a year, or on
+persons in receipt of incomes from £50 to £150 a year. This
+defect in the budget was exposed in a great speech by Gladstone,
+which did much to ensure the defeat of the scheme and the fall
+of the ministry.</p>
+
+<p>On the resignation of Lord Derby, the queen, anxious to
+terminate a period of weak governments, decided on endeavouring
+to combine in one cabinet the chiefs of the Whig
+party and the followers of Sir Robert Peel. With this
+<span class="sidenote">Coalition, 1853.</span>
+view she sent both for Lord Aberdeen, who had held
+the foreign office under Sir Robert, and for Lord Lansdowne,
+who was the Nestor of the Whigs; and with Lord Lansdowne&rsquo;s
+concurrence charged Lord Aberdeen with the task of forming a
+government. In the new ministry Lord Aberdeen became first
+lord of the treasury, Gladstone chancellor of the exchequer,
+Lord John Russell foreign minister&mdash;though he was almost
+immediately replaced in the foreign office by Lord Clarendon,
+and himself assumed the presidency of the council. Lord
+Palmerston went to the home office. One other appointment
+must also be mentioned. The secretary of state for the colonies
+was also at that time secretary of state for war. No one in 1852,
+however, regarded that office as of material importance, and it
+was entrusted by Lord Aberdeen to an amiable and conscientious
+nobleman, the duke of Newcastle.</p>
+
+<p>The first session of the Aberdeen administration will be
+chiefly recollected for the remarkable budget which Gladstone
+brought forward. It constituted a worthy supplement
+to the measures of 1842, 1845 and 1846. Gladstone
+<span class="sidenote">Budget of 1853.</span>
+swept away the duty on one great necessary of life&mdash;soap;
+he repealed the duties on 123 other articles; he reduced
+the duties on 133 others, among them that on tea; and he found
+means for paying for these reforms and for the gradual reduction
+and ultimate abolition of the income tax, which had become
+very unpopular, by (1) extending the tax to incomes of £100 a
+year; (2) an increase of the spirit duties; and (3) applying the
+death duties to real property, and to property passing by settlement.
+There can be little doubt that this great proposal was
+one of the most striking which had ever been brought forward
+in the House of Commons; there can also, unhappily, be no
+doubt that its promises and intentions were frustrated by events
+which proved too strong for its author. For Gladstone, in
+framing his budget, had contemplated a continuance of peace,
+and the country was, unhappily, already drifting into war.</p>
+
+<p>For some years an obscure quarrel had been conducted at
+Constantinople about the custody of the holy places at Jerusalem.
+France, relying on a treaty concluded in the first half
+of the 18th century, claimed the guardianship of these
+<span class="sidenote">The holy places.</span>
+places for the Latin Church. But the rights which
+the Latin Church had thus obtained had practically fallen into
+disuse, while the Greek branch of the Christian Church had
+occupied and repaired the shrines which the Latins had neglected.
+In the years which preceded 1853, however, France had shown
+more activity in asserting her claims; and the new emperor of
+the French, anxious to conciliate the church which had supported
+his elevation to the throne, had a keen interest in upholding
+them. If, for reasons of policy, the emperor had grounds for his
+action, he had personal motives for thwarting the tsar of Russia;
+for the latter potentate had been foolish enough, in recognizing
+the second empire, to address its sovereign as &ldquo;Mon Cher Ami,&rdquo;
+instead of, in the customary language of sovereigns, as &ldquo;Monsieur
+Mon Frčre.&rdquo; Thus, at the close of 1852, and in the beginning
+of 1853, Russia and France were both addressing opposite and
+irreconcilable demands to the Porte, and France was already
+talking of sending her fleet to the Dardanelles, while Russia was
+placing an army corps on active service and despatching Prince
+Menshikov on a special mission to Constantinople. So far the
+quarrel which had occurred at the Porte was obviously one in
+which Great Britain had no concern. The Aberdeen ministry,
+however, thought it desirable that it should be represented in
+the crisis by a strong man at Constantinople; and it selected
+Lord Stratford de Redcliffe for the post, which he had filled in
+former years with marked ability. Whatever merits Lord
+Stratford possessed&mdash;and he stands out in current diplomacy
+as the one strong man whom England had abroad&mdash;there was
+no doubt that he had this disqualification: the emperor Nicholas
+had refused some years before to receive him as ambassador at
+St Petersburg, and Lord Stratford had resented, and never
+forgiven, the discourtesy of this refusal. Lord Stratford soon
+discovered that Prince Menshikov was the bearer of larger
+demands, and that he was requiring the Porte to agree to a
+treaty acknowledging the right of Russia to protect the Greek
+Church throughout the Turkish dominions. By Lord Stratford&rsquo;s
+advice the Porte&mdash;while making the requisite concession respecting
+the holy places&mdash;refused to grant the new demand; and
+Prince Menshikov thereupon withdrew from Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>The rejection of Prince Menshikov&rsquo;s ultimatum was followed
+by momentous consequences. Russia&mdash;or rather her tsar&mdash;resolved
+on the occupation of the Danubian principalities; the
+British ministry&mdash;though the quarrel did not directly concern
+Great Britain&mdash;sent a fleet to the Dardanelles and placed it
+under Lord Stratford&rsquo;s orders. Diplomacy, however, made a
+fresh attempt to terminate the dispute, and in July 1853 a note
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page566" id="page566"></a>566</span>
+was agreed upon by the four neutral powers, France, Great
+Britain, Austria and Prussia, which it was decided to present
+to Constantinople and St Petersburg. This note, the adoption of
+which would have ensured peace, was accepted at St Petersburg;
+at Constantinople it was, unfortunately, rejected, mainly on Lord
+Stratford&rsquo;s advice, and in opposition to his instructions from
+home. Instead, however, of insisting on the adoption of the note
+to which it had agreed, Lord Aberdeen&rsquo;s ministry recommended
+the tsar to accept some amendments to it suggested by Lord
+Stratford, which it was disposed to regard as unimportant. It
+then discovered, however, that the tsar attached a meaning to
+the original note differing from that which it had itself applied
+to it, and in conjunction with France it thereupon ceased to
+recommend the Vienna note&mdash;as it was called&mdash;for acceptance.
+This decision separated the two western powers from Austria
+and Prussia, who were disposed to think that Russia had done
+all that could have been required of her in accepting the note
+which the four powers had agreed upon.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious that the control of the situation was passing
+from the hands of the cabinet at home into those of Lord Stratford
+at Constantinople. The ambassador, in fact, had the great
+advantage that he knew his own mind; the cabinet laboured
+under the fatal disadvantage that it had, collectively, no mind.
+Its chief, Lord Aberdeen, was dominated by a desire to preserve
+peace; but he had not the requisite force to control the stronger
+men who were nominally serving under him. Lord John Russell
+was a little sore at his own treatment by his party. He thought
+that he had a claim to the first place in the ministry, and he did
+not, in consequence, give the full support to Lord Aberdeen
+which the latter had a right to expect from him. Lord Palmerston,
+on the other hand, had no personal grudge to nurture, but he was
+convinced that the first duty of England was to support Turkey
+and to resist Russia. He represented in the cabinet the views
+which Lord Stratford was enforcing at Constantinople, and
+step by step Lord Stratford, thus supported, drove the country
+nearer and nearer to war.</p>
+
+<p>In October the Porte, encouraged by the presence of the
+British fleet in the Bosporus, took the bold step of summoning
+the Russians to evacuate the principalities. Following up this
+demand the Turkish troops attacked the Russian army, and
+inflicted on it one or two sharp defeats. The Russians retaliated
+by loosing their squadron from Sevastopol, and on the 30th of
+November it attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope.
+The massacre of Sinope&mdash;as it was rather inaccurately called
+in Great Britain, for it is difficult to deny that it was a legitimate
+act of a belligerent power&mdash;created an almost irresistible demand
+for war among the British people. Yielding to popular opinion,
+the British ministry assented to a suggestion of the French
+emperor that the fleets of the allied powers should enter the
+Black Sea and &ldquo;invite&rdquo; every Russian vessel to return to
+Sevastopol. The decision was taken at an unfortunate hour.
+<span class="sidenote">Crimean War.</span>
+Diplomatists, pursuing their labours at Vienna, had
+succeeded in drawing up a fresh note which they thought
+might prove acceptable both at St Petersburg and at
+Constantinople. This note was presented almost at the moment
+the tsar learned that the French and British fleets had entered the
+Black Sea, and the Russian government, instead of considering
+it, withdrew its ministers from London and Paris; the French
+and British ambassadors were thereupon withdrawn from St
+Petersburg. An ultimatum was soon afterwards addressed to
+Russia requiring her to evacuate the principalities, and war
+began. In deciding on war the British government relied on
+the capacity of its fleet, which was entrusted to the command
+of Sir Charles Napier, to strike a great blow in the Baltic. The
+fleet was despatched with extraordinary rejoicings, and amidst
+loud and confident expressions of its certain triumph. As a
+matter of fact it did very little. In the south of Europe, however,
+the Turkish armies on the Danube, strengthened by the advice
+of British officers, were more successful. The Russians were
+forced to retire, and the principalities were evacuated. A prudent
+administration might possibly have succeeded in stopping the
+war at this point. But the temper of the country was by this
+time excited, and it was loudly demanding something more than
+a preliminary success. It was resolved to invade the Crimea
+and attack the great arsenal, Sevastopol, whence the Russian
+fleet had sailed to Sinope, and in September 1854 the allied
+armies landed in the Crimea. On the 20th the Russian army,
+strongly posted on the banks of the Alma, was completely defeated,
+and it is almost certain that, if the victory had been at once
+followed up, Sevastopol would have fallen. The commanders
+of the allied armies, however, hesitated to throw themselves
+against the forts erected to the north of the town, and decided
+on the hazardous task of marching round Sevastopol and attacking
+it from the south. The movement was successfully carried out,
+but the Allies again hesitated to attempt an immediate assault.
+The Russians, who were advised by Colonel Todleben, the only
+military man who attained a great reputation in the war, thus
+gained time to strengthen their position by earthworks; and
+the Allies found themselves forced, with scanty preparations, to
+undertake a regular siege against an enemy whose force was
+numerically superior to their own. In the early days of the
+siege, indeed, the allied armies were twice in great peril. A
+formidable attack on the 25th October on the British position
+at Balaklava led to a series of encounters which displayed the
+bravery of British troops, but did not enhance the reputation of
+British commanders. A still more formidable sortie on the 5th
+of November was with difficulty repulsed at Inkerman. And
+the Russians soon afterwards found, in the climate of the country,
+a powerful ally. The allied armies, imperfectly organized, and
+badly equipped for such a campaign, suffered severely from the
+hardships of a Crimean winter. The whole expedition seemed
+likely to melt away from want and disease.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible condition of the army, vividly described in the
+letters which the war correspondents of the newspapers sent home,
+aroused strong feelings of indignation in Great Britain. When
+parliament met Roebuck gave notice that he would move for
+a committee of inquiry. Lord John Russell&mdash;who had already
+vainly urged in the cabinet that the duke of Newcastle should be
+superseded, and the conduct of the war entrusted to a stronger
+minister&mdash;resigned office. His resignation was followed by the
+defeat of the government, and Lord Aberdeen, thus driven from
+power, was succeeded by Lord Palmerston. In selecting him
+for the post, the queen undoubtedly placed her seal on the wish
+<span class="sidenote">Palmerston&rsquo;s ministry.</span>
+of the country to carry out the war to the bitter end.
+But it so happened that the formation of a new
+ministry was accompanied by a fresh effort to make
+terms of peace. Before the change of administration
+a conference had been decided on, and Lord Palmerston
+entrusted its management to Lord John Russell. While the
+latter was on his way to Vienna an event occurred which seemed
+at first to facilitate his task. The tsar, worn out with disappointment,
+suddenly died, and was succeeded by his son Alexander.
+Unfortunately the conference failed, and the war went on for
+another year. In September 1855 the allied troops succeeded
+in obtaining possession of the southern side of Sevastopol, and
+the emperor of the French, satisfied with this partial success, or
+alarmed at the expense of the war, decided on withdrawing from
+the struggle. The attitude of Napoleon made the conclusion
+of peace only a question of time. In the beginning of 1856 a
+congress to discuss the terms was assembled at Paris; in February
+hostilities were suspended; and in April a treaty was concluded.
+The peace set back the boundaries of Russia from the Danube
+to the Pruth; it secured the free navigation of the first of these
+rivers; it opened the Black Sea to the commercial navies of the
+world, closing it to vessels of war, and forbidding the establishment
+of arsenals upon its shores. The last condition, to which
+Great Britain attached most importance, endured for about
+fourteen years. Peace without this provision could undoubtedly
+have been secured at Vienna, and the prolongation of the war
+from 1855 to 1856 only resulted in securing this arrangement for
+a little more than one decade.</p>
+
+<p>The Crimean War left other legacies behind it. The British
+government had for some time regarded with anxiety the
+gradual encroachments of Russia in central Asia. Russian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page567" id="page567"></a>567</span>
+diplomacy was exerting an increasing influence in Persia, and
+the latter had always coveted the city of Herat, which was
+popularly regarded as the gate of India. In 1856 the Persian
+government, believing that England had her hands fully occupied
+in the Crimea, seized Herat, and, in consequence, a fresh war&mdash;in
+which a British army under Sir James Outram rapidly secured
+a victory&mdash;broke out. The campaign, entered upon when
+parliament was not in session, was unpopular in the country.
+A grave constitutional question, which was ultimately settled
+by legislation, was raised as to the right of the government to
+undertake military operations beyond the boundaries of India
+<span class="sidenote">Wars with Persia and China.</span>
+without the consent of parliament. But the incidents
+of the Persian war were soon forgotten in the presence
+of a still graver crisis; for in the following year, 1857,
+the country suddenly found itself involved in war
+with China, and face to face with one of the greatest dangers
+which it has ever encountered&mdash;the mutiny of the sepoy army in
+India. The Chinese war arose from the seizure by the Chinese
+authorities of a small vessel, the &ldquo;Arrow&rdquo; commanded by a
+British subject, and at one time holding a licence (which, however,
+had expired at the time of the seizure) from the British superintendent
+at Hongkong, and the detention of her crew on the
+charge of piracy. Sir John Bowring, who represented Great
+Britain in China, failing to secure the reparation and apology
+which he demanded, directed the British admiral to bombard
+Canton. Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s cabinet decided to approve and
+support Sir John Bowring&rsquo;s vigorous action. Cobden, however,
+brought forward a motion in the House of Commons condemning
+these high-handed proceedings. He succeeded in securing the
+co-operation of his own friends, of Lord John Russell, and of
+other independent Liberals, as well as of the Conservative party,
+and in inflicting a signal defeat on the government. Lord
+Palmerston at once appealed from the House to the country.
+The constituencies, imperfectly acquainted with the technical
+issues involved in the dispute, rallied to the minister, who was
+upholding British interests. Lord Palmerston obtained a
+decisive victory, and returned to power apparently in irresistible
+strength. Lord Elgin had already been sent to China with a
+considerable force to support the demand for redress. On his
+way thither he learned that the British in India were reduced
+to the last extremities by the mutiny of the native army in
+Bengal, and, on the application of Lord Canning, the governor-general,
+he decided on diverting the troops, intended to bring
+the Chinese to reason, to the more pressing duty of saving India
+for the British crown.</p>
+
+<p>During the years which had followed the accession of the
+queen, the territories and responsibilities of the East India
+Company had been considerably enlarged by the
+annexation of Sind by Lord Ellenborough, the conquest
+<span class="sidenote">Indian mutiny.</span>
+of the Punjab after two desperate military campaigns
+under Lord Dalhousie, the conquest of Pegu, and the annexation
+of Oudh. These great additions to the empire had naturally
+imposed an increased strain on the Indian troops, while the
+British garrison, instead of being augmented, had been depleted
+to meet the necessities of the Russian war. Several circumstances,
+moreover, tended to propagate disaffection in the Indian
+army. Indian troops operating outside the Company&rsquo;s dominions
+were granted increased allowances, but these were automatically
+reduced when conquest brought the provinces in which they
+were serving within the British pale. The Sepoys again had
+an ineradicable dislike to serve beyond the sea, and the invasion
+of Pegu necessitated their transport by water to the seat of war.
+Finally, the invention of a new rifle led to the introduction of a
+cartridge which, though it was officially denied at the moment,
+was in fact lubricated with a mixture of cow&rsquo;s fat and lard.
+The Sepoys thought that their caste would be destroyed if they
+touched the fat of the sacred cow or unclean pig; they were even
+persuaded that the British government wished to destroy their
+caste in order to facilitate their conversion to Christianity.
+Isolated mutinies in Bengal were succeeded by much more serious
+events at Cawnpore in Oudh, and at Meerut in the North-West
+Provinces. From Meerut the mutineers, after some acts of
+outrage and murder, moved on Delhi, the capital of the old
+Mogul empire, which became the headquarters of the mutiny.
+In Oudh the native regiments placed themselves under a Mahratta
+chief, Nana Sahib, by whose orders the British in Cawnpore,
+including the women and children, were foully murdered. In
+the summer of 1857 these events seemed to imperil British rule
+in India. In the autumn the courage of the troops and the arrival
+of reinforcements gradually restored the British cause. Delhi,
+after a memorable siege, was at last taken by a brilliant assault.
+Lucknow, where a small British garrison was besieged in the
+residency, was twice relieved, once temporarily by Sir James
+Outram and General Havelock, and afterwards permanently
+by Sir Colin Campbell, who had been sent out from England to
+take the chief command. Subsequent military operations broke
+up the remnants of the revolt, and in the beginning of 1858 the
+authority of the queen was restored throughout India. The
+mutiny, however, had impressed its lesson on the British people,
+and, as the first consequence, it was decided to transfer the
+government from the old East India Company to the crown.
+Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s administration was defeated on another issue
+before it succeeded in carrying the measure which it introduced
+for the purpose, though Lord Derby&rsquo;s second ministry, which
+succeeded it, was compelled to frame its proposals on somewhat
+similar lines. The home government of India was entrusted to a
+secretary of state, with a council to assist him; and though the
+numbers of the council have been reduced, the form of government
+which was then established has endured.</p>
+
+<p>The cause which led to the second fall of Lord Palmerston
+was in one sense unexpected. Some Italian refugees living
+in London, of whom Orsini was the chief, formed a
+design to assassinate the emperor of the French. On
+<span class="sidenote">Orsini.</span>
+the evening of 14th January 1858, while the emperor, accompanied
+by the empress, was driving to the opera, these men threw
+some bombs under his carriage. The brutal attempt happily
+failed. Neither the emperor nor the empress was injured by the
+explosion, but the carriage in which they were driving was
+wrecked, and a large number of persons who happened to be in
+the street at the time were either killed or wounded. This
+horrible outrage naturally created indignation in France, and
+it unfortunately became plain that the conspiracy had been
+hatched in England, and that the bombs had been manufactured
+in Birmingham. On these facts becoming known, Count
+Walewski, the chief of the French foreign office, who was united
+by ties of blood to the emperor, called on the British government
+to provide against the danger to which France was exposed.
+&ldquo;Ought the right of asylum to protect such a state of things?&rdquo;
+he asked. &ldquo;Is hospitality due to assassins? Ought the British
+legislature to continue to favour their designs and their plans?
+And can it continue to shelter persons who by these flagrant acts
+place themselves beyond the pale of common rights?&rdquo; Lord
+Clarendon, the head of the British foreign office, told the French
+ambassador, who read him this despatch, that &ldquo;no consideration
+on earth would induce the British parliament to pass a measure
+for the extradition of political refugees,&rdquo; but he added that it
+was a question whether the law was as complete and as stringent
+as it should be, and he stated that the government had already
+referred the whole subject to the law officers of the crown for
+their consideration. Having made these remarks, however, he
+judged it wise to refrain from giving any formal reply to Count
+Walewski&rsquo;s despatch, and contented himself with privately
+communicating to the British ambassador in Paris the difficulties
+of the British government. After receiving the opinion of the
+law officers the cabinet decided to introduce a bill into parliament
+increasing in England the punishment for a conspiracy
+to commit a felony either within or without the United Kingdom.
+The first reading of this bill was passed by a considerable
+majority. But, before the bill came on for a second reading, the
+language which was being used in France created strong resentment
+in England. The regiments of the French army sent
+addresses to the emperor congratulating him on his escape and
+violently denouncing the British people. Some of these addresses,
+which were published in the <i>Moniteur</i>, spoke of London as &ldquo;an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page568" id="page568"></a>568</span>
+assassins&rsquo; den,&rdquo; and invited the emperor to give his troops the
+order to destroy it. Such language did not make it easier to
+alter the law in the manner desired by the government. The
+House of Commons, reflecting the spirit of the country, blamed
+Lord Clarendon for neglecting to answer Count Walewski&rsquo;s
+despatch, and blamed Lord Palmerston for introducing a bill
+at French dictation. The feeling was so strong that, when the
+Conspiracy Bill came on for a second reading, an amendment
+hostile to the government was carried, and Lord Palmerston
+at once resigned.</p>
+
+<p>For a second time Lord Derby undertook the difficult task
+of carrying on the work of government without the support of
+a majority of the House of Commons. If the Liberal
+party had been united his attempt would have failed
+<span class="sidenote">Lord Derby&rsquo;s second ministry.</span>
+immediately. In 1858, however, the Liberal party
+had no cohesion. The wave of popularity which had
+carried Lord Palmerston to victory in 1857 had lost its strength.
+The Radicals, who were slowly recovering the influence they had
+lost during the Crimean War, regarded even a Conservative
+government as preferable to his return to power, while many
+Liberals desired to entrust the fortunes of their party to the
+guidance of their former chief, Lord John Russell. It was obvious
+to most men that the dissensions thus visible in the Liberal
+ranks could be more easily healed in the cold shade of the
+opposition benches than in the warmer sunlight of office. And
+therefore, though no one had much confidence in Lord Derby,
+or in the stability of his second administration, every one was
+disposed to acquiesce in its temporary occupation of office.</p>
+
+<p>Ministries which exist by sufferance are necessarily compelled
+to adapt their measures to the wishes of those who permit them
+to continue in power. The second ministry of Lord Derby
+experienced the truth of this rule. For some years a controversy
+had been conducted in the legislature in reference to the admission
+of the Jews to parliament. This dispute had been raised in 1847
+into a question of practical moment by the election of Baron
+Lionel Nathan Rothschild as representative of the City of London,
+and its importance had been emphasized in 1851 by the return
+of another Jew, Alderman Salomons, for another constituency.
+The Liberal party generally in the House of Commons was in
+favour of such a modification of the oaths as would enable the
+<span class="sidenote">Jews in parliament.</span>
+Jews so elected to take their seats. The bulk of the
+Conservative party, on the contrary, and the House
+of Lords, were strenuously opposed to the change.
+Early in 1858 the House of Commons, by an increased
+majority, passed a bill amending the oaths imposed by law on
+members of both Houses, and directing the omission of the words
+&ldquo;on the true faith of a Christian&rdquo; from the oath of abjuration
+when it was taken by a Jew. If the Conservatives had remained
+in opposition there can be little doubt that this bill would have
+shared the fate of its predecessors and have been rejected by the
+Lords. The lord chancellor, indeed, in speaking upon the clause
+relieving the Jews, expressed a hope that the peers would not
+hesitate to pronounce that our &ldquo;Lord is king, be the people never
+so impatient.&rdquo; But some Conservative peers realized the inconvenience
+of maintaining a conflict between the two Houses
+when the Conservatives were in power; and Lord Lucan, who
+had commanded the cavalry in the Crimea, suggested as a compromise
+that either House should be authorized by resolution to
+determine the form of oath to be administered to its members.
+This solution was reluctantly accepted by Lord Derby, and
+Baron Rothschild was thus enabled to take the seat from which
+he had been so long excluded. Eight years afterwards parliament
+was induced to take a fresh step in advance. It imposed a new
+oath from which the words which disqualified the Jews were
+omitted. The door of the House of Lords was thus thrown open,
+and in 1885 Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, raised to the
+peerage, was enabled to take his seat in the upper chamber.</p>
+
+<p>This question was not the only one on which a Conservative
+government, without a majority at its back, was compelled to
+make concessions. For some years past a growing disposition
+had been displayed among the more earnest Liberals to extend
+the provisions of the Reform Act of 1832. Lord John Russell&rsquo;s
+ministry had been defeated in 1851 on a proposal of Locke
+King to place £10 householders in counties on the same footing
+<span class="sidenote">Reform Bill, 1859.</span>
+as regards the franchise as £10 householders in towns,
+and Lord John himself in 1854 had actually introduced
+a new Reform Bill. After the general election of
+1857 the demand for reform increased, and, in accepting office
+in 1858, Lord Derby thought it necessary to declare that, though
+he had maintained in opposition that the settlement of 1832, with
+all its anomalies, afforded adequate representation to all classes,
+the promises of previous governments and the expectations of
+the people imposed on him the duty of bringing forward legislation
+on the subject. The scheme which Lord Derby&rsquo;s government
+adopted was peculiar. Its chief proposal was the extension of
+the county franchise to £10 householders. But it also proposed
+that persons possessing a 40s. freehold in a borough should in
+future have a vote in the borough in which their property was
+situated, and not in the county. The bill also conferred the
+franchise on holders of a certain amount of stock, on depositors
+in savings banks, on graduates of universities, and on other
+persons qualified by position or education. The defect of the
+bill was that it did nothing to meet the only real need of reform&mdash;the
+enfranchisement of a certain proportion of the working classes.
+On the contrary, in this respect it perpetuated the settlement
+of 1832. The £10 householder was still to furnish the bulk of
+the electorate, and the ordinary working man could not afford
+to pay £10 a year for his house. While the larger proposals of
+the bill were thus open to grave objection, its subsidiary features
+provoked ridicule. The suggestions that votes should be conferred
+on graduates and stockholders were laughed at as &ldquo;fancy
+franchises.&rdquo; The bill, moreover, was not brought forward with
+the authority of a united cabinet. Two members of the government&mdash;Spencer
+Walpole and Henley&mdash;declined to be responsible
+for its provisions, and placed their resignations in Lord Derby&rsquo;s
+hands. In Walpole&rsquo;s judgment the bill was objectionable because
+it afforded no reasonable basis for a stable settlement. There
+was nothing in a £10 franchise which was capable of permanent
+defence, and if it was at once applied to counties as well as
+boroughs it would sooner or later be certain to be extended.
+He himself advocated with some force that it would be wiser
+and more popular to fix the county franchise at £20 and the
+borough franchise at £6 rateable value; and he contended that
+such a settlement could be defended on the old principle that
+taxation and representation should go together, for £20 was the
+minimum rent at which the house tax commenced, and a rateable
+value of £6 was the point at which the householder could not
+compound to pay his rates through this landlord. Weakened
+by the defection of two of its more important members, the government
+had little chance of obtaining the acceptance of its scheme.
+An amendment by Lord John Russell, condemning its main
+provisions, was adopted in an unusually full house by a substantial
+majority, and the cabinet had no alternative but to
+resign or dissolve. It chose the latter course. The general
+election, which almost immediately took place, increased to
+some extent the strength of the Conservative party. For the
+first time since their secession from Sir Robert Peel the Conservatives
+commanded more than three hundred votes in the
+House of Commons, but this increased strength was not sufficient
+to ensure them a majority. When the new parliament assembled,
+Lord Hartington, the eldest son of the duke of Devonshire, was
+put forward to propose a direct vote of want of confidence in the
+administration. It was carried by 323 votes to 310, and the
+second Derby administration came to an end.</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that the House of Commons had withdrawn its
+support from Lord Derby, but it was not clear that any other
+leading politician would be able to form a government.
+The jealousies between Lord John Russell and Lord
+<span class="sidenote">Palmerston&rsquo;s second ministry.</span>
+Palmerston still existed; the more extreme men, who
+were identified with the policy of Cobden and Bright,
+had little confidence in either of these statesmen; and it was
+still uncertain whether the able group who had been the friends
+of Sir Robert Peel would finally gravitate to the Conservative
+or to the Liberal camp. The queen, on the advice of Lord Derby,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page569" id="page569"></a>569</span>
+endeavoured to solve the first of these difficulties by sending
+for Lord Granville, who led the Liberal party in the Lords, and
+authorizing him to form a government which should combine,
+as far as possible, all the more prominent Liberals. The attempt,
+however, failed, and the queen thereupon fell back upon Lord
+Palmerston. Lord John Russell agreed to accept office as foreign
+minister; Gladstone consented to take the chancellorship of
+the exchequer. Cobden was offered, but declined, the presidency
+of the Board of Trade; and the post which he refused was
+conferred on a prominent free trader, who had associated
+himself with Cobden&rsquo;s fortunes, Milner Gibson. Thus Lord
+Palmerston had succeeded in combining in one ministry the
+various representatives of political progress. He had secured
+the support of the Peelites, who had left him after the fall of
+Lord Aberdeen in 1855, and of the free traders, who had done
+so much to defeat him in 1857 and 1858. His new administration
+was accordingly based on a broader bottom, and contained
+greater elements of strength than his former cabinet. And the
+country was requiring more stable government. The first three
+ministries of the queen had endured from the spring of 1835 to
+the spring of 1852, or for very nearly seventeen years; but the
+next seven years had seen the formation and dissolution of no
+less than four cabinets. It was felt that these frequent changes
+were unfortunate for the country, and every one was glad to
+welcome the advent of a government which seemed to promise
+greater permanence. That promise was fulfilled. The administration
+which Lord Palmerston succeeded in forming in 1859
+endured till his death in 1865, and with slight modifications,
+under its second chief Lord John (afterwards Earl) Russell, till
+the summer of 1866. It had thus a longer life than any cabinet
+which had governed England since the first Reform Act. But
+it owed its lasting character to the benevolence of its opponents
+rather than to the enthusiasm of its supporters. The Conservatives
+learned to regard the veteran statesman, who had
+combined all sections of Liberals under his banner, as the most
+powerful champion of Conservative principles; a virtual truce
+of parties was established during his continuance in office; and,
+for the most part of his ministry, a tacit understanding existed
+that the minister, on his side, should pursue a Conservative
+policy, and that the Conservatives, on theirs, should abstain
+from any real attempt to oust him from power. Lord John
+Russell, indeed, was too earnest in his desire for reform to abstain
+from one serious effort to accomplish it. Early in 1860 he proposed,
+with the sanction of the cabinet, a measure providing
+for the extension of the county franchise to £10 householders,
+of the borough franchise to £6 householders, and for a moderate
+redistribution of seats. But the country, being in enjoyment of
+considerable prosperity, paid only a languid attention to the
+scheme; its indifference was reflected in the House; the Conservatives
+were encouraged in their opposition by the lack of
+interest which the new bill excited, and the almost unconcealed
+dislike of the prime minister to its provisions. The bill, thus
+steadily opposed and half-heartedly supported, made only slow
+progress; and at last it was withdrawn by its author. He did
+not again attempt during Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s life to reintroduce
+the subject. Absorbed in the work of the foreign office, which
+at this time was abnormally active, he refrained from pressing
+home the arguments for internal reform.</p>
+
+<p>In one important department, however, the ministry departed
+from the Conservative policy it pursued in other matters.
+Gladstone signalized his return to the exchequer by
+introducing a series of budgets which excited keen
+<span class="sidenote">Gladstone&rsquo;s budgets.</span>
+opposition at the time, but in the result largely added
+to the prosperity of the country. The first of these
+great budgets, in 1860, was partly inspired by the necessity of
+adapting the fiscal system to meet the requirements of a commercial
+treaty which, mainly through Cobden&rsquo;s exertions, had
+been concluded with the emperor of the French. The treaty
+bound France to reduce her duties on English coal and iron, and
+on many manufactured articles; while, in return, Great Britain
+undertook to sweep away the duties on all manufactured goods,
+and largely to reduce those on French wines. But Gladstone
+was not content with these great alterations, which involved a
+loss of nearly £1,200,000 a year to the exchequer; he voluntarily
+undertook to sacrifice another million on what he called a supplemental
+measure of customs reform. He proposed to repeal the
+duties on paper, by which means he hoped to increase the
+opportunities of providing cheap literature for the people. The
+budget of 1860 produced a protracted controversy. The French
+treaty excited more criticism than enthusiasm on both sides of
+the Channel. In France the manufacturers complained that
+they would be unable to stand against the competition of English
+goods. In England many people thought that Great Britain
+was wasting her resources and risking her supremacy by giving
+the French increased facilities for taking her iron, coal and
+machinery, and that no adequate advantage could result from
+the greater consumption of cheap claret. But the criticism
+which the French treaty aroused was drowned in the clamour
+which was created by the proposed repeal of the paper duties.
+The manufacture of paper was declared to be a struggling
+industry, which would be destroyed by the withdrawal of
+protection. The dissemination of cheap literature and the
+multiplication of cheap newspapers could not compensate the
+nation for the ruin of an important trade. If money could be
+spared, moreover, for the remission of taxation, the paper duties
+were much less oppressive than those on some other articles.
+The tax on tea, for example, which had been raised during the
+late war to no less than 1s. 5d. a &#8468;, was much more injurious;
+and it would be far wiser&mdash;so it was contended&mdash;to reduce the
+duty on tea than to abandon the duties on paper. Notwithstanding
+<span class="sidenote">Paper duties repealed.</span>
+the opposition which the Paper Duties Bill
+undoubtedly excited, the proposal was carried in the
+Commons; it was, however, thrown out in the Lords,
+and its rejection led to a crisis which seemed at one
+time to threaten the good relations between the two houses of
+parliament. It was argued that if the Lords had the right to
+reject a measure remitting existing duties, they had in effect the
+right of imposing taxation, since there was no material difference
+between the adoption of a new tax and the continuance of an
+old one which the Commons had determined to repeal. Lord
+Palmerston, however, with some tact postponed the controversy
+for the time by obtaining the appointment of a committee to
+search for precedents; and, after the report of the committee,
+he moved a series of resolutions affirming the right of the
+Commons to grant aids and supplies as their exclusive privilege,
+stating that the occasional rejection of financial measures by
+the Lords had always been regarded with peculiar jealousy,
+but declaring that the Commons had the remedy in their own
+hands by so framing bills of supply as to secure their acceptance.
+In accordance with this suggestion the Commons in the following
+year again resolved to repeal the paper duties; but, instead
+of embodying their decision in a separate bill, they included it
+in the same measure which dealt with all the financial arrangements
+of the year, and thus threw on the Lords the responsibility
+of either accepting the proposal, or of paralysing the whole
+machinery of administration by depriving the crown of the
+supplies which were required for the public services. The Lords
+were not prepared to risk this result, and they accordingly
+accepted a reform which they could no longer resist, and the bill
+became law. In order to enable him to accomplish these great
+changes, Gladstone temporarily raised the income tax, which he
+found at 9d. in the £, to 10d. But the result of his reforms
+was so marked that he was speedily able to reduce it. The
+revenue increased by leaps and bounds, and the income tax was
+gradually reduced till it stood at 4d. in the closing years of the
+administration. During the same period the duty on tea was
+reduced from 1s. 5d. to 6d. a &#8468;; and the national debt
+was diminished from rather more than £800,000,000 to rather
+less than £780,000,000, the charge for the debt declining, mainly
+through the falling in of the long annuities, by some £2,600,000
+a year. With the possible exception of Sir Robert Peel&rsquo;s term
+of office, no previous period of British history had been memorable
+for a series of more remarkable financial reforms. Their
+success redeemed the character of the administration. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page570" id="page570"></a>570</span>
+Liberals, who complained that their leaders were pursuing a
+Conservative policy, could at least console themselves by the
+reflection that the chancellor of the exchequer was introducing
+satisfactory budgets. The language, moreover, which Gladstone
+was holding on other subjects encouraged the more advanced
+Liberals to expect that he would ultimately place himself at the
+head of the party of progress. This expectation was the more
+remarkable because Gladstone was the representative in the
+cabinet of the old Conservative party which Sir Robert Peel
+had led to victory. As lately as 1858 he had reluctantly refused
+to serve under Lord Derby; he was still a member of the Carlton
+Club; he sat for the university of Oxford; and on many questions
+he displayed a constant sympathy with Conservative
+traditions. Yet, on all the chief domestic questions which came
+before parliament in Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s second administration,
+Gladstone almost invariably took a more Liberal view than his
+chief. It was understood, indeed, that the relations between the
+two men were not always harmonious; that Lord Palmerston
+disapproved the resolute conduct of Gladstone, and that Gladstone
+deplored the Conservative tendencies of Lord Palmerston.
+It was believed that Gladstone on more than one occasion
+desired to escape from a position which he disliked by resigning
+office, and that the resignation was only averted through a
+consciousness that the ministry could not afford to lose its most
+eloquent member.</p>
+
+<p>While on domestic matters, other than those affecting finance,
+the Liberal ministry was pursuing a Conservative policy, its
+members were actively engaged on, and the attention of the
+public was keenly directed to, affairs abroad. For the period
+was one of foreign unrest, and the wars which were then waged
+have left an enduring mark on the map of the world, and have
+affected the position of the Anglo-Saxon race for all time. In
+the far East, the operations which it had been decided to undertake
+in China were necessarily postponed on account of the
+diversion of the forces, intended to exact redress at Peking, to
+the suppression of mutiny in India. It was only late in 1858
+that Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, the French plenipotentiary
+(for France joined England in securing simultaneous redress of
+grievances of her own), were enabled to obtain suitable reparation.
+It was arranged that the treaty, which was then provisionally
+concluded at Tientsin, should be ratified at Peking in the following
+<span class="sidenote">China war, 1859-60.</span>
+year; and in June 1859 Mr (afterwards Sir
+Frederick) Bruce, Lord Elgin&rsquo;s brother, who had been
+appointed plenipotentiary, attempted to proceed up
+the Peiho with the object of securing its ratification. The allied
+squadron, however, was stopped by the forts at the mouth of
+the Peiho, which fired on the vessels; a landing party, which
+was disembarked to storm the forts, met with a disastrous check,
+and the squadron had to retire with an acknowledged loss of
+three gunboats and 400 men. This reverse necessitated fresh
+operations, and in 1860 Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were directed
+to return to China, and, at the head of an adequate force, were
+instructed to exact an apology for the attack on the allied fleets,
+the ratification and execution of the treaty of Tientsin, and the
+payment of an indemnity for the expenses of the war. The weakness
+of the Chinese empire was not appreciated at that time;
+the unfortunate incident on the Peiho in the previous summer had
+created an exaggerated impression of the strength of the Chinese
+arms, and some natural anxiety was felt for the success of the
+expedition. But the allied armies met with no serious resistance.
+The Chinese, indeed, endeavoured to delay their progress by
+negotiation rather than by force; and they succeeded in treacherously
+arresting some distinguished persons who had been sent
+into the Chinese lines to negotiate. But by the middle of October
+the Chinese army was decisively defeated; Peking was occupied;
+those British and French prisoners who had not succumbed to
+the hardships of their confinement were liberated. Lord Elgin
+determined on teaching the rulers of China a lesson by the
+destruction of the summer palace; and the Chinese government
+was compelled to submit to the terms of the Allies, and to ratify
+the treaty of Tientsin. There is no doubt that these operations
+helped to open the Chinese markets to British trade; but
+incidentally, by regulating the emigration of Chinese coolies,
+they had the unforeseen effect of exposing the industrial markets
+of the world to the serious competition of &ldquo;cheap yellow&rdquo;
+labour. A distinguished foreign statesman observed that Lord
+Palmerston had made a mistake. He thought that he had
+opened China to Europe; instead, he had let out the Chinese.
+It was perhaps a happier result of the war that it tended to the
+continuance of the Anglo-French alliance. French and British
+troops had again co-operated in a joint enterprise, and had
+shared the dangers and successes of a campaign.</p>
+
+<p>War was not confined to China. In the beginning of 1859
+diplomatists were alarmed at the language addressed by the
+emperor of the French to the Austrian ambassador at Paris,
+which seemed to breathe the menace of a rupture. Notwithstanding
+the exertions which Great Britain made to avert
+hostilities, the provocation of Count Cavour induced Austria
+to declare war against Piedmont, and Napoleon thereupon
+moved to the support of his ally, promising to free Italy from
+the Alps to the Adriatic. As a matter of fact, the attitude of
+northern Germany, which was massing troops on the Rhine,
+and the defenceless condition of France, which was drained of
+soldiers for the Italian campaign, induced the emperor to halt
+before he had carried out his purpose, and terms of peace
+were hastily concerted at Villafranca, and were afterwards
+<span class="sidenote">Unification of Italy.</span>
+confirmed at Zurich, by which Lombardy was given
+to Piedmont, while Austria was left in possession of
+Venice and the Quadrilateral, and central Italy was
+restored to its former rulers. The refusal of the Italians to take
+back the Austrian grand dukes made the execution of these
+arrangements impracticable. Napoleon, indeed, used his
+influence to carry them into effect; but Lord John Russell,
+who was now in charge of the British foreign office, and who had
+Lord Palmerston and Gladstone on his side in the cabinet, gave
+a vigorous support to the claim of the Italians that their country
+should be allowed to regulate her own affairs. The French
+emperor had ultimately to yield to the determination of the
+inhabitants of central Italy, when it was backed by the arguments
+of the British foreign office, and Tuscany, Modena, Parma, as
+well as a portion of the states of the Church, were united to
+Piedmont. There was no doubt that through the whole of the
+negotiations the Italians were largely indebted to the labours
+of Lord John Russell. They recognized that they owed more
+to the moral support of England than to the armed assistance
+of France. The French emperor, moreover, took a step which
+lost him the sympathy of many Italians. Before the war he
+had arranged with Count Cavour that France should receive,
+as the price of her aid, the duchy of Savoy and the county of
+Nice. After Villafranca, the emperor, frankly recognizing that
+he had only half kept his promise, consented to waive his claim
+to these provinces. But, when he found himself unable to resist
+the annexation of central Italy to Piedmont, he reverted to the
+old arrangement. The formation of a strong Piedmontese
+kingdom, with the spoliation of the papal dominion, was unpopular
+in France; and he thought&mdash;perhaps naturally&mdash;that
+he must have something to show his people in return for sacrifices
+which had cost him the lives of 50,000 French soldiers, and
+concessions which the whole Catholic party in France resented.
+Count Cavour consented to pay the price which Napoleon thus
+exacted, and the frontier of France was accordingly extended
+to the Alps. But it is very doubtful whether Napoleon did not
+lose more than he gained by this addition to his territory. It
+certainly cost him the active friendship of Great Britain. The
+Anglo-French alliance had been already strained by the language
+of the French colonels in 1858 and the Franco-Austrian War of
+1859; it never fully recovered from the shock which it received
+by the evidence, which the annexation of Savoy and Nice gave,
+of the ambition of the French emperor. The British people gave
+way to what Cobden called the last of the three panics. Lord
+Palmerston proposed and carried the provision of a large sum
+of money for the fortification of the coasts; and the volunteer
+movement, which had its origin in 1859, received a remarkable
+stimulus in 1860. In this year the course of events in Italy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page571" id="page571"></a>571</span>
+emphasized the differences between the policy of Great Britain
+and that of France. Garibaldi, with a thousand followers, made
+his famous descent on the coast of Sicily. After making himself
+master of that island, he crossed over to the mainland, drove the
+king of Naples out of his capital, and forced him to take refuge
+in Gaeta. In France these events were regarded with dismay.
+The emperor wished to stop Garibaldi&rsquo;s passage across the strait,
+and stationed his fleet at Gaeta to protect the king of Naples.
+Lord John Russell, on the contrary, welcomed Garibaldi&rsquo;s
+success with enthusiasm. He declined to intervene in the
+affairs of Italy by confining the great liberator to Sicily; he
+protested against the presence of the French fleet at Gaeta;
+and when other foreign nations denounced the conduct of Piedmont,
+he defended it by quoting Vattel and citing the example
+of William III. When, finally, Italian troops entered the
+dominions of the pope, France withdrew her ambassador from
+the court of Turin, and England under Lord John Russell&rsquo;s
+advice at once recognized the new kingdom of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>In these great events&mdash;for the union of Italy was the greatest
+fact which had been accomplished in Europe since the fall of
+the first Napoleon&mdash;the British ministry had undoubtedly
+acquired credit. It was everywhere felt that the new kingdom
+owed much to the moral support which had been steadily and
+consistently given to it by Great Britain. Soon afterwards,
+however, in the autumn of 1863, the death of the king of Denmark
+led to a new revolution in the north of Europe, in which Lord
+Palmerston&rsquo;s government displayed less resolution, and lost
+much of the prestige which it had acquired by its Italian policy.
+The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein had been for centuries
+united to the kingdom of Denmark by the golden link of the
+<span class="sidenote">Schleswig-Holstein question.</span>
+crown; in other respects they had been organically
+kept distinct, while one of them&mdash;Holstein&mdash;was a
+member of the German confederation. The succession
+to the crown of Denmark, however, was different
+from that in the duchies. In Denmark the crown could descend,
+as it descends in Great Britain, through females. In the duchies
+the descent was confined to the male line; and, as Frederick
+VII., who ascended the Danish throne in 1848, had no direct
+issue, the next heir to the crown of Denmark under this rule
+was Prince Christian of Glücksburg, afterwards king; the next
+heir to the duchies being the duke of Augustenburg. In 1850
+an arrangement had been made to prevent the separation of
+the duchies from the kingdom. As a result of a conference held
+in London, the duke of Augustenburg was induced to renounce
+his claim on the receipt of a large sum of money. Most of the
+great powers of Europe were parties to this plan. But the
+German confederation was not represented at the conference,
+and was not therefore committed to its conclusions. During the
+reign of Frederick VII. the Danish government endeavoured to
+cement the alliance between the duchies and the kingdom, and
+specially to separate the interests of Schleswig, which was largely
+Danish in its sympathies, from those of Holstein, which was
+almost exclusively German. With this object, in the last year
+of his life, Frederick VII. granted Holstein autonomous institutions,
+and bound Schleswig more closely to the Danish monarchy.
+The new king Christian IX. confirmed this arrangement. The
+German diet at Frankfort at once protested against it. Following
+up words with acts, it decided on occupying Holstein, and it
+delegated the duty of carrying out its order to Hanover and
+Saxony. While this federal execution was taking place, the duke
+of Augustenburg&mdash;regardless of the arrangements to which he had
+consented&mdash;delegated his rights in the duchies to his son, who
+formally claimed the succession. So far the situation, which
+was serious enough, had been largely dependent on the action
+of Germany. In the closing days of 1863 it passed mainly into
+the control of the two chief German powers. In Prussia Bismarck
+had lately become prime minister, and was animated by ambitious
+projects for his country&rsquo;s aggrandizement. Austria, afraid of
+losing her influence in Germany, followed the lead of Prussia,
+and the two powers required Denmark to cancel the arrangements
+which Frederick VII. had made, and which Christian IX. had
+confirmed, threatening in case of refusal to follow up the occupation
+of Holstein by that of Schleswig. As the Danes gave only
+a provisional assent to the demand, Prussian and Austrian
+troops entered Schleswig. These events created much excitement
+in England. The great majority of the British people, who
+imperfectly understood the merits of the case, were unanimous
+in their desire to support Denmark by arms. Their wish had
+been accentuated by the circumstance that the marriage in the
+previous spring of the prince of Wales to the daughter of the new
+king of Denmark had given them an almost personal interest
+in the struggle. Lord Palmerston had publicly expressed the
+views of the people by declaring that, if Denmark were attacked,
+her assailants would not have to deal with Denmark alone.
+The language of the public press and of Englishmen visiting
+Denmark confirmed the impression which the words of the prime
+minister had produced; and there is unfortunately no doubt
+that Denmark was encouraged to resist her powerful opponents
+by the belief, which she was thus almost authorized in entertaining,
+that she could reckon in the hour of her danger on the active
+assistance of the United Kingdom. If Lord Palmerston had been
+supported by his cabinet, or if he had been a younger man, he
+might possibly, in 1864, have made good the words which he
+had rashly uttered in 1863. But the queen, who, it is fair to add,
+understood the movement which was tending to German unity
+much better than most of her advisers, was averse from war.
+A large section of the cabinet shared the queen&rsquo;s hesitation, and
+Lord Palmerston&mdash;with the weight of nearly eighty summers
+upon him&mdash;was not strong enough to enforce his will against
+both his sovereign and his colleagues. He made some attempt
+to ascertain whether the emperor of the French would support
+him if he went to war. But he found that the emperor had not
+much fancy for a struggle which would have restored Holstein
+to Denmark; and that, if he went to war at all, his chief object
+would be the liberation of Venice and the rectification of his own
+frontiers. Even Lord Palmerston shrank from entering on a
+campaign which would have involved all Europe in conflagration
+and would have unsettled the boundaries of most continental
+nations; and the British government endeavoured thenceforward
+to stop hostilities by referring the question immediately
+in dispute to a conference in London. The labours of the conference
+proved abortive. Its members were unable to agree
+upon any methods of settlements, and the war went on. Denmark,
+naturally unable to grapple with her powerful antagonists, was
+forced to yield, and the two duchies which were the subject of
+dispute were taken from her.</p>
+
+<p>The full consequences of this struggle were not visible at the
+time. It was impossible to foresee that it was the first step
+which was to carry Prussia forward, under her ambitious minister,
+to a position of acknowledged supremacy on the continent.
+But the results to Great Britain were plain enough. She had
+been mighty in words and weak in deeds. It was no doubt open
+to her to contend, as perhaps most wise people consider, that
+the cause of Denmark was not of sufficient importance to justify
+her in going to war. But it was not open to her to encourage
+a weak power to resist and then desert her in the hour of her
+necessity. Lord Palmerston should not have used the language
+which he employed in 1863 if he had not decided that his brave
+words would be followed by brave action. His conduct lowered
+the prestige of Great Britain at least as much as his Italian policy
+had raised it. Continental statesmen thenceforward assumed
+that Great Britain, however much she might protest, would
+not resort to arms, and the influence of England suffered, as it
+was bound to suffer, in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in this period of warfare, another struggle was
+being fought out on a still greater scale in North America. The
+election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United
+States emphasized the fact that the majority of the inhabitants
+of the Northern States were opposed to the further spread of
+<span class="sidenote">American civil war.</span>
+slavery; and, in the beginning of 1861, several of the
+Southern States formally seceded from the union. A
+steamer sent by the Federal government with reinforcements
+to Fort Sumter was fired upon, and both parties made preparations
+for the civil war which was apparently inevitable. On
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page572" id="page572"></a>572</span>
+the one side the Confederate States&mdash;as the seceding states were
+called&mdash;were animated by a resolution to protect their property.
+On the other side the &ldquo;conscience&rdquo; of the North was excited
+by a passionate desire to wipe out the blot of slavery. Thus
+both parties were affected by some of the most powerful considerations
+which can influence mankind, while the North were
+further actuated by the natural incentive to preserve the union,
+which was threatened with disruption. The progress of the
+great struggle was watched with painful attention in England.
+The most important manufacturing interest in England was
+paralysed by the loss of the raw cotton, which was obtained
+almost exclusively from the United States, and tens of thousands
+of workpeople were thrown out of employment. The distress
+which resulted naturally created a strong feeling in favour of
+intervention, which might terminate the war and open the
+Southern ports to British commerce; and the initial successes
+which the Confederates secured seemed to afford some justification
+for such a proceeding. In the course of 1862 indeed, when the
+Confederate armies had secured many victories, Gladstone,
+speaking at Newcastle, used the famous expression that President
+Jefferson Davis had &ldquo;made a nation&rdquo;; and Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s
+language in the House of Commons&mdash;while opposing a motion
+for the recognition of the South&mdash;induced the impression that
+his thoughts were tending in the same direction as Mr Gladstone&rsquo;s.
+The emperor Napoleon, in July of the same year, confidentially
+asked the British minister whether the moment had not come
+for recognizing the South; and in the following September
+Lord Palmerston was himself disposed in concert with France
+to offer to mediate on the basis of separation. Soon afterwards,
+however, the growing exhaustion of the South improved the
+prospects of the Northern States: an increasing number of
+persons in Great Britain objected to interfere in the interests of
+slavery; and the combatants were allowed to fight out their
+quarrel without the interference of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell (who was
+made a peer as Earl Russell in 1861) acknowledged the Southern
+States as belligerents. His decision caused some ill-feeling at
+Washington; but it was inevitable. For the North had proclaimed
+a blockade of the Southern ports; and it would have
+been both inconvenient and unfair if Lord Russell had
+decided to recognize the blockade and had refused to acknowledge
+the belligerent rights of the Southern States. Lord Russell&rsquo;s
+decision, however, seemed to indicate some latent sympathy
+for the Southern cause; and the irritation which was felt in the
+North was increased by the news that the Southern States were
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Trent&rdquo; incident.</span>
+accrediting two gentlemen to represent them at Paris
+and at London. These emissaries, Messrs Mason and
+Slidell, succeeded in running the blockade and in
+reaching Cuba, where they embarked on the &ldquo;Trent,&rdquo;
+a British mail steamer sailing for England. On her passage
+home the &ldquo;Trent&rdquo; was stopped by the Federal steamer &ldquo;San
+Jacinto&rdquo;; she was boarded, and Messrs Mason and Slidell were
+arrested. There was no doubt that the captain of the &ldquo;San
+Jacinto&rdquo; had acted irregularly. While he had the right to stop
+the &ldquo;Trent,&rdquo; examine the mails, and, if he found despatches
+for the enemy among them, carry the vessel into an American
+port for adjudication, he had no authority to board the vessel
+and arrest two of her passengers. &ldquo;The British government,&rdquo;
+to use its own language, &ldquo;could not allow such an affront to the
+national honour to pass without due reparation.&rdquo; They decided
+on sending what practically amounted to an ultimatum to the
+Federal government, calling upon it to liberate the prisoners
+and to make a suitable apology. The presentation of this
+ultimatum, which was accompanied by the despatch of troops
+to Canada, was very nearly provoking war with the United
+States. If, indeed, the ultimatum had been presented in the
+form in which it was originally framed, war might have ensued.
+But at the prince consort&rsquo;s suggestion its language was considerably
+modified, and the responsibility for the outrage was thrown
+on the officer who committed it, and not on the government
+of the Republic. It ought not to be forgotten that this important
+modification was the last service rendered to his adopted country
+by the prince consort before his fatal illness. He died before the
+answer to the despatch was received; and his death deprived
+the queen of an adviser who had stood by her side since the
+earlier days of her reign, and who, by his prudence and conduct,
+had done much to raise the tone of the court and the influence
+of the crown. Happily for the future of the world, the government
+of the United States felt itself able to accept the despatch
+which had been thus addressed to it, and to give the reparation
+which was demanded; and the danger of war between the two
+great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race was averted. But, in
+the following summer, a new event excited fresh animosities,
+and aroused a controversy which endured for the best part of
+ten years.</p>
+
+<p>The Confederates, naturally anxious to harass the commerce
+of their enemies, endeavoured from the commencement of
+hostilities to purchase armed cruisers from builders of neutral
+nations. In June 1862 the American minister in London drew
+Lord Russell&rsquo;s attention to the fact that a vessel, lately launched
+at Messrs Laird&rsquo;s yard at Birkenhead, was obviously intended
+to be employed as a Confederate cruiser. The solicitor to the
+commissioners of customs, however, considered that no facts had
+been revealed to authorize the detention of the vessel, and this
+opinion was reported in July to the American minister, Charles
+Francis Adams. He thereupon supplied the government with
+additional facts, and at the same time furnished them with the
+opinion of an eminent English lawyer, R.P. Collier (afterwards
+<span class="sidenote">The &ldquo;Alabama.&rdquo;</span>
+Lord Monkswell), to the effect that &ldquo;it would be
+difficult to make out a stronger case of infringement
+of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which if not enforced
+on this occasion is little better than a dead letter.&rdquo;
+These facts and this opinion were at once sent to the law officers.
+They reached the queen&rsquo;s advocate on Saturday the 26th of July;
+but, by an unfortunate mischance, the queen&rsquo;s advocate had
+just been wholly incapacitated by a distressing illness; and the
+papers, in consequence, did not reach the attorney- and solicitor-general
+till the evening of the following Monday, when they at
+once advised the government to detain the vessel. Lord Russell
+thereupon sent orders to Liverpool for her detention. In the
+meanwhile the vessel&mdash;probably aware of the necessity for haste&mdash;had
+put to sea, and had commenced the career which made
+her famous as the &ldquo;Alabama.&rdquo; Ministers might even then have
+taken steps to stop the vessel by directing her detention in any
+British port to which she resorted for supplies. The cabinet,
+however, shrank from this course. The &ldquo;Alabama&rdquo; was allowed
+to prey on Federal commerce, and undoubtedly inflicted a vast
+amount of injury on the trade of the United States. In the
+autumn of 1862 Adams demanded redress for the injuries which
+had thus been sustained, and this demand was repeated for many
+years in stronger and stronger language. At last, in 1871, long
+after Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s death and Lord Russell&rsquo;s retirement,
+a joint commission was appointed to examine into the many
+cases of dispute which had arisen between the United States
+and Great Britain. The commissioners agreed upon three rules
+by which they thought neutrals should in future be bound, and
+recommended that they should be given a retrospective effect.
+They decided also that the claims which had arisen out of the
+depredations of the &ldquo;Alabama&rdquo; should be referred to arbitration.
+In the course of 1872 the arbitrators met at Geneva.
+Their finding was adverse to Great Britain, which was condemned
+to pay a large sum of money&mdash;more than £3,000,000&mdash;as
+compensation. A period of exceptional prosperity, which
+largely increased the revenue, enabled a chancellor of the
+exchequer to boast that the country had drunk itself out of the
+&ldquo;Alabama&rdquo; difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>In October 1805 Lord Palmerston&rsquo;s rule, which had been
+characterized by six years of political inaction at home and by
+constant disturbance abroad, was terminated by his
+death. The ministry, which had suffered many losses
+<span class="sidenote">Lord Russell&rsquo;s second ministry.</span>
+from death during its duration, was temporarily reconstructed
+under Lord Russell; and the new minister
+at once decided to put an end to the period of internal
+stagnation, which had lasted so long, by the introduction of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page573" id="page573"></a>573</span>
+new Reform Bill. Accordingly, in March 1866 Gladstone, who
+now led the House of Commons, introduced a measure which
+proposed to extend the county franchise to £14 and the borough
+franchise to £7 householders. The bill did not create much
+enthusiasm among Liberals, and it was naturally opposed by
+the Conservatives, who were reinforced by a large section of
+moderate Liberals, nicknamed, in consequence of a phrase
+in one of Bright&rsquo;s speeches, Adullamites. After many debates,
+in which the Commons showed little disposition to give the
+ministry any effective support, an amendment was carried by
+Lord Dunkellin, the eldest son of Lord Clanricarde, basing the
+borough franchise on rating instead of rental. The cabinet,
+recognizing from the division that the control of the House had
+passed out of its hands, resigned office, and the queen was compelled
+to entrust Lord Derby with the task of forming a new
+administration.</p>
+
+<p>For the third time in his career Lord Derby undertook the
+formidable task of conducting the government of the country
+with only a minority of the House of Commons to
+support him. The moment at which he made this
+<span class="sidenote">Lord Derby&rsquo;s third ministry.</span>
+third attempt was one of unusual anxiety. Abroad,
+the almost simultaneous outbreak of war between
+Prussia and Austria was destined to affect the whole aspect of
+continental politics. At home, a terrible murrain had fallen
+on the cattle, inflicting ruin on the agricultural interest; a grave
+commercial crisis was creating alarm in the city of London, and,
+in its consequences, injuring the interests of labour; while the
+working classes, at last roused from their long indifference, and
+angry at the rejection of Lord Russell&rsquo;s bill, were assembling in
+their tens of thousands to demand reform. The cabinet determined
+to prohibit a meeting which the Reform League decided
+to hold in Hyde Park on the 23rd of July, and closed the gates
+of the park on the people. But the mob, converging on the park
+in thousands, surged round the railings, which a little inquiry
+might have shown were too weak to resist any real pressure.
+Either accidentally or intentionally, the railings were overturned
+in one place, and the people, perceiving their opportunity, at
+once threw them down round the whole circuit of the park.
+Few acts in Queen Victoria&rsquo;s reign were attended with greater
+consequences. For the riot in Hyde Park led almost directly
+to a new Reform Act, and to the transfer of power from the
+middle classes to the masses of the people.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, though the new government found it necessary to introduce
+a Reform Bill, a wide difference of opinion existed in the
+cabinet as to the form which the measure should take.
+Several of its members were in favour of assimilating
+<span class="sidenote">Reform, 1867.</span>
+the borough franchise to that in force in municipal
+elections, and practically conferring a vote on every householder
+who had three years&rsquo; residence in the constituency. General
+Peel, however&mdash;Sir Robert Peel&rsquo;s brother&mdash;who held the seals
+of the war office, objected to this extension; and the cabinet
+ultimately decided on evading the difficulty by bringing forward
+a series of resolutions on which a scheme of reform might ultimately
+be based. Their success in 1858, in dealing with the
+government of India in this way, commended the decision to
+the acceptance of the cabinet. But it was soon apparent that
+the House of Commons required a definite scheme, and that it
+would not seriously consider a set of abstract resolutions which
+committed no one to any distinct plan. Hence on the 23rd of
+February 1867 the cabinet decided on withdrawing its resolutions
+and reverting to its original bill. On the following day Lord
+Cranborne&mdash;better known afterwards as Lord Salisbury&mdash;discovered
+that the bill had more democratic tendencies than he
+had originally supposed, and refused to be a party to it. On
+Monday, the 25th, the cabinet again met to consider the new
+difficulty which had thus arisen; and it decided (as was said
+afterwards by Sir John Pakington) in ten minutes to substitute
+for the scheme a mild measure extending the borough franchise
+to houses rated at £6 a year, and conferring the county franchise
+on £20 householders. The bill, it was soon obvious, would be
+acceptable to no one; and the government again fell back on
+its original proposal. Three members of the cabinet, however,
+Lord Cranborne, Lord Carnarvon and General Peel, refused
+to be parties to the measure, and resigned office, the government
+being necessarily weakened by these defections. In the large
+scheme which the cabinet had now adopted, the borough franchise
+was conferred on all householders rated to the relief of the poor,
+who had for two years occupied the houses which gave them the
+qualification; the county franchise was given to the occupiers
+of all houses rated at £15 a year or upwards. But it was proposed
+that these extensions should be accompanied by an educational
+franchise, and a franchise conferred on persons who had paid
+twenty shillings in assessed taxes or income tax; the taxpayers
+who had gained a vote in this way being given a second vote
+in respect of the property which they occupied. In the course
+of the discussion on the bill in the House of Commons, the
+securities on which its authors had relied to enable them to stem
+the tide of democracy were, chiefly through Gladstone&rsquo;s exertions,
+swept away. The dual vote was abandoned, direct payment
+of rates was surrendered, the county franchise was extended
+to £12 householders, and the redistribution of seats was largely
+increased. The bill, in the shape in which it had been introduced,
+had been surrounded with safeguards to property. With their
+loss it involved a great radical change, which placed the working
+classes of the country in the position of predominance which
+the middle classes had occupied since 1832.</p>
+
+<p>The passage of the bill necessitated a dissolution of parliament;
+but it had to be postponed to enable parliament to supplement
+the English Reform Act of 1867 with measures applicable
+to Scotland and Ireland, and to give time for
+<span class="sidenote">Disraeli prime minister.</span>
+settling the boundaries of the new constituencies
+which had been created. This delay gave the Conservatives
+another year of office. But the first place in the
+cabinet passed in 1868 from Lord Derby to his lieutenant,
+Disraeli. The change added interest to political life. Thenceforward,
+for the next thirteen years, the chief places in the two
+great parties in the state were filled by the two men, Gladstone
+and Disraeli, who were unquestionably the ablest representatives
+of their respective followers. But the situation was also remarkable
+because power thus definitely passed from men who,
+without exception, had been born in the 18th century, and had
+all held cabinet offices before 1832, to men who had been born
+in the 19th century, and had only risen to cabinet rank in the
+&rsquo;forties and the &rsquo;fifties. It was also interesting to reflect that
+Gladstone had begun life as a Conservative, and had only
+gradually moved to the ranks of the Liberal party; while
+Disraeli had fought his first election under the auspices of
+O&rsquo;Connell and Hume, had won his spurs by his attacks on Sir
+Robert Peel, and had been only reluctantly adopted by the
+Conservatives as their leader in the House of Commons.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle commenced in 1868 on an Irish question. During
+the previous years considerable attention had been paid to a
+secret conspiracy in Ireland and among the Irish in America.
+The Fenians, as they were called, actually attempted insurrection
+in Ireland, and an invasion of Canada from the United States.
+At the beginning of 1866 Lord Russell&rsquo;s government thought
+itself compelled to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland;
+and in 1867 Lord Derby&rsquo;s government was confronted in the
+spring by a plot to seize Chester Castle, and in the autumn by
+an attack on a prison van at Manchester containing Fenian
+prisoners, and by an atrocious attempt to blow up Clerkenwell
+prison. Conservative politicians deduced from these circumstances
+the necessity of applying firm government to Ireland.
+Liberal statesmen, on the contrary, desired to extirpate rebellion
+<span class="sidenote">Irish Church.</span>
+by remedying the grievances of which Ireland still
+complained. Chief among these was the fact that
+the Established Church in Ireland was the church of
+only a minority of the people. In March 1868 John Francis
+Maguire, an Irish Catholic, asked the House of Commons to
+resolve itself into a committee to take into immediate consideration
+the affairs of Ireland. Gladstone, in the course of the
+debate, declared that in his opinion the time had come when
+the Irish Church, as a political institution, should cease; and
+he followed up his declaration by a series of resolutions, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page574" id="page574"></a>574</span>
+were accepted by considerable majorities, pledging the House to
+its disestablishment. Disraeli, recognizing the full significance
+of this decision, announced that, as soon as the necessary preparations
+could be made, the government would appeal from
+the House to the country. Parliament was dissolved at the end
+of July, but the general election did not take place till the end
+of the following November. The future of the Irish Church
+naturally formed one of the chief subjects which occupied the
+attention of the electors, but the issue was largely determined
+by wider considerations. The country, after the long political
+truce which had been maintained by Lord Palmerston, was
+again ranged in two hostile camps, animated by opposing views.
+It was virtually asked to decide in 1868 whether it would put
+its trust in Liberal or Conservative, in Gladstone or Disraeli.
+By an overwhelming majority it threw its lot in favour of
+Gladstone; and Disraeli, without even venturing to meet
+parliament, took the unusual course of at once placing his
+resignation in the queen&rsquo;s hands.</p>
+
+<p>The Conservative government, which thus fell, will be chiefly
+recollected for its remarkable concession to democratic principles
+by the passage of the Reform Act of 1867; but it
+deserves perhaps a word of praise for its conduct of
+<span class="sidenote">Abyssinian war.</span>
+a distant and unusual war. The emperor of Abyssinia
+had, for some time, detained some Englishmen
+prisoners in his country; and the government, unable to obtain
+redress in other ways, decided on sending an army to release
+them. The expedition, entrusted to Sir Robert Napier, afterwards
+Lord Napier of Magdala, was fitted out at great expense,
+and was rewarded with complete success. The prisoners were
+released, and the Abyssinian monarch committed suicide.
+Disraeli&mdash;whose oriental imagination was excited by the triumph&mdash;incurred
+some ridicule by his bombastic declaration that
+&ldquo;the standard of St George was hoisted upon the mountains
+of Rasselas.&rdquo; But the ministry could at least claim that the
+war had been waged to rescue Englishmen from captivity, that
+it had been conducted with skill, and that it had accomplished
+its object. The events of the Abyssinian war, however, were
+forgotten in the great political revolution which had swept the
+Conservatives from office and placed Gladstone in power. His
+government was destined to endure for more than five years.
+During that period it experienced the alternate prosperity and
+decline which nearly forty years before had been the lot of the
+Whigs after the passage of the first Reform Act. During its
+first two sessions it accomplished greater changes in legislation
+than had been attempted by any ministry since that of Lord
+Grey. In its three last sessions it was destined to sink into
+gradual disrepute; and it was ultimately swept away by a wave
+of popular reaction, as remarkable as that which had borne it
+into power.</p>
+
+<p>It was generally understood that Gladstone intended to deal
+with three great Irish grievances&mdash;&ldquo;the three branches of the
+upas tree&rdquo;&mdash;the religious, agricultural and educational
+grievances. The session of 1869 was devoted
+<span class="sidenote">Gladstone&rsquo;s first ministry.</span>
+to the first of these subjects. Gladstone introduced
+a bill disconnecting the Irish Church from the state,
+establishing a synod for its government, and&mdash;after leaving it in
+possession of its churches and its parsonages, and making ample
+provision for the life-interest of its existing clergy&mdash;devoting
+the bulk of its property to the relief of distress in Ireland. The
+bill was carried by large majorities through the House of Commons;
+and the feeling of the country was so strong that the
+Lords did not venture on its rejection. They satisfied themselves
+with engrafting on it a series of amendments which, on the
+whole, secured rather more liberal terms of compensation for
+existing interests. Some of these amendments were adopted
+by Gladstone; a compromise was effected in respect of the
+others; and the bill, which had practically occupied the whole
+session, and had perhaps involved higher constructive skill than
+any measure passed in the previous half-century, became law.
+Having dealt with the Irish Church in 1869, Gladstone turned
+to the more complicated question of Irish land. So far back as
+the &rsquo;forties Sir R. Peel had appointed a commission, known
+from its chairman as the Devon commission, which had recommended
+that the Irish tenant, in the event of disturbance,
+should receive some compensation for certain specified
+improvements which he had made in his holding.
+Parliament neglected to give effect to these recommendations;
+in a country where agriculture was the chief or
+almost only occupation, the tenant remained at his landlord&rsquo;s
+mercy. In 1870 Gladstone proposed to give the tenant a
+pecuniary interest in improvements, suitable to the holding,
+which he had made either before or after the passing of the act.
+He proposed also that, in cases of eviction, the smaller tenantry
+<span class="sidenote">Irish land.</span>
+should receive compensation for disturbance. The larger
+tenantry, who were supposed to be able to look after their own
+interests, were entirely debarred, and tenants enjoying leases
+were excluded from claiming compensation, except for tillages,
+buildings and reclamation of lands. A special court, it was
+further provided, should be instituted to carry out the provisions
+of the bill. Large and radical as the measure was, reversing many
+of the accepted principles of legislation by giving the tenant a
+<i>quasi</i>-partnership with the landlord in his holding, no serious
+opposition was made to it in either House of Parliament. Its
+details, indeed, were abundantly criticized, but its principles
+were hardly disputed, and it became law without any substantial
+alteration of its original provisions. In two sessions two branches
+of the upas tree had been summarily cut off. But parliament
+in 1870 was not solely occupied with the wrongs of Irish tenantry.
+In the same year Forster, as vice-president of the council,
+succeeded in carrying the great measure which for the first time
+made education compulsory. In devising his scheme, Forster
+endeavoured to utilize, as far as possible, the educational
+machinery which had been voluntarily provided by various
+religious organizations. He gave the institutions, which had
+been thus established, the full benefit of the assistance which the
+government was prepared to afford to board schools, on their
+adopting a conscience clause under which the religious susceptibilities
+of the parents of children were protected. This provision
+led to many debates, and produced the first symptoms of disruption
+in the Liberal party. The Nonconformists contended
+that no such aid should be given to any school which was not
+<span class="sidenote">Elementary education.</span>
+conducted on undenominational principles. Supported
+by the bulk of the Conservative party, Forster
+was enabled to defeat the dissenters. But the victory
+which he secured was, in one sense, dearly purchased.
+The first breach in the Liberal ranks had been made; and the
+government, after 1870, never again commanded the same
+united support which had enabled it to pursue its victorious
+career in the first two sessions of its existence.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the session of 1870 other events, for
+which the government had no direct responsibility, introduced
+new difficulties. War unexpectedly broke out between
+France and Prussia. The French empire fell; the
+<span class="sidenote">Black Sea neutrality.</span>
+German armies marched on Paris; and the Russian
+government, at Count Bismarck&rsquo;s instigation, took advantage
+of the collapse of France to repudiate the clause in the treaty of
+1856 which neutralized the Black Sea. Lord Granville, who had
+succeeded Lord Clarendon at the foreign office, protested against
+this proceeding. But it was everywhere felt that his mere
+protest was not likely to affect the result; and the government
+at last consented to accept a suggestion made by Count Bismarck,
+and to take part in a conference to discuss the Russian proposal.
+Though this device enabled them to say that they had not
+yielded to the Russian demand, it was obvious that they entered
+the conference with the foregone conclusion of conceding the
+Russian claim. The attitude which the government thus chose
+to adopt was perhaps inevitable in the circumstances, but it
+confirmed the impression, which the abandonment of the cause
+of Denmark had produced in 1864, that Great Britain was not
+prepared to maintain its principles by going to war. The weakness
+of the British foreign office was emphasized by its consenting,
+almost at the same moment, to allow the claims of the United
+States, for the depredations of the &ldquo;Alabama,&rdquo; to be settled
+under a rule only agreed upon in 1871. Most Englishmen now
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page575" id="page575"></a>575</span>
+appreciate the wisdom of a concession which has gained for them
+the friendship of the United States. But in 1871 the country
+resented the manner in which Lord Granville had acted. Whatever
+credit the government might have derived from its domestic
+measures, it was discredited, or it was thought to be, by its
+foreign policy. In these circumstances legislation in 1871 was
+not marked with the success which had attended the government
+in previous sessions. The government succeeded in terminating
+a long controversy by abolishing ecclesiastical tests at universities.
+But the Lords ventured to reject a measure for the introduction
+of the ballot at elections, and refused to proceed with a bill
+for the abolition of purchase in the army. The result of these
+decisions was indeed remarkable. In the one case, the Lords
+in 1872 found it necessary to give way, and to pass the Ballot Bill,
+which they had rejected in 1871. In the other, Gladstone
+decided on abolishing, by the direct authority of the crown,
+the system which the Lords refused to do away with by
+legislation. But his high-handed proceeding, though it forced
+the Lords to reconsider their decision, strained the allegiance of
+many of his supporters, and still further impaired the popularity
+of his administration. Most men felt that it would have been
+permissible for him, at the commencement of the session, to have
+used the queen&rsquo;s authority to terminate the purchase system;
+<span class="sidenote">Army purchase.</span>
+but they considered that, as he had not taken this
+course, it was not open to him to reverse the decision
+of the legislature by resorting to the prerogative.
+Two appointments, one to a judicial office, the other to an
+ecclesiastical preferment, in which Gladstone, about the same
+time, showed more disposition to obey the letter than the spirit
+of the law, confirmed the impression which the abolition of
+purchase had made. Great reforming ministers would do well
+to recollect that the success of even liberal measures may be
+dearly purchased by the resort to what are regarded as unconstitutional
+expedients.</p>
+
+<p>In the following years the embarrassments of the government
+were further increased. In 1872 Bruce, the home secretary,
+succeeded in passing a measure of licensing reform.
+But the abstainers condemned the bill as inadequate;
+<span class="sidenote">1872-1874.</span>
+the publicans denounced it as oppressive; and the
+whole strength of the licensed victuallers was thenceforward
+arrayed against the ministry. In 1873 Gladstone attempted to
+complete his great Irish measures by conferring on Ireland the
+advantage of a university which would be equally acceptable
+to Protestants and Roman Catholics. But his proposal again
+failed to satisfy those in whose interests it was proposed. The
+second reading of the bill was rejected by a small majority, and
+Gladstone resigned; but, as Disraeli could not form a government,
+he resumed office. The power of the great minister was,
+however, spent; his ministry was hopelessly discredited.
+History, in fact, was repeating itself. The ministry was suffering,
+as Lord Grey&rsquo;s government had suffered nearly forty years
+before, from the effect of its own successes. It had accomplished
+more than any of its supporters had expected, but in doing so it
+had harassed many interests and excited much opposition.
+Gladstone endeavoured to meet the storm by a rearrangement
+of his crew. Bruce, who had offended the licensed victuallers,
+was removed from the home office, and made a peer and president
+of the council. Lowe, who had incurred unpopularity by his
+fiscal measures, and especially by an abortive suggestion for
+the taxation of matches, was transferred from the exchequer
+to the home office, and Gladstone himself assumed the duties
+of chancellor of the exchequer. He thereby created a difficulty
+for himself which he had not foreseen. Up to 1867 a minister
+leaving one office and accepting another vacated his seat; after
+1867 a transfer from one post to another did not necessitate a
+fresh election. But Gladstone in 1873 had taken a course which
+had not been contemplated in 1867. He had not been transferred
+from one office to another. He had accepted a new in addition
+to his old office. It was, to say the least, uncertain whether
+his action in this respect had, or had not, vacated his seat. It
+would be unfair to suggest that the inconvenient difficulty with
+which he was thus confronted determined his policy, though he
+was probably insensibly influenced by it. However this may be,
+on the eve of the session of 1874 he suddenly decided to dissolve
+parliament and to appeal to the country. He announced his
+decision in an address to his constituents, in which, among other
+financial reforms, he promised to repeal the income tax. The
+course which Gladstone took, and the bait which he held out
+to the electors, were generally condemned. The country,
+wearied of the ministry and of its measures, almost everywhere
+supported the Conservative candidates. Disraeli found himself
+restored to power at the head of an overwhelming majority, and
+the great minister who, five years before, had achieved so marked
+a triumph temporarily withdrew from the leadership of the party
+with whose aid he had accomplished such important results.
+His ministry had been essentially one of peace, yet its closing
+days were memorable for one little war in which a great soldier
+increased a reputation already high. Sir Garnet Wolseley
+triumphed over the difficulties which the climate of the west
+coast of Africa imposes on Europeans, and brought a troublesome
+contest with the Ashantis to a successful conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>The history of Disraeli&rsquo;s second administration affords an
+exact reverse to that of Gladstone&rsquo;s first cabinet. In legislation
+the ministry attempted little and accomplished less.
+They did something to meet the wishes of the publicans,
+<span class="sidenote">Disraeli&rsquo;s second ministry.</span>
+whose discontent had contributed largely to Gladstone&rsquo;s
+defeat, by amending some of the provisions of Bruce&rsquo;s
+licensing bill; they supported and succeeded in passing a measure,
+brought in by the primate, to restrain some of the irregularities
+which the Ritualists were introducing into public worship; and
+they were compelled by the violent insistence of Plimsoll to pass
+an act to protect the lives of merchant seamen. Disraeli&rsquo;s
+government, however, will be chiefly remembered for its foreign
+policy. Years before he had propounded in <i>Tancred</i> the theory
+that England should aim at eastern empire. Circumstances in
+his second term of office enabled him to translate his theory into
+practice. In 1875 the country was suddenly startled at hearing
+that it had acquired a new position and assumed new responsibilities
+in Egypt by the purchase of the shares which the khedive
+of Egypt held in the Suez Canal. In the following spring a new
+surprise was afforded by the introduction of a measure authorizing
+the queen to assume the title of empress of India. But
+these significant actions were almost forgotten in the presence
+of a new crisis; for in 1876 misgovernment in Turkey had produced
+its natural results, and the European provinces of the Porte
+were in a state of armed insurrection. In the presence of a grave
+danger, Count Andrassy, the Austrian minister, drew up a note
+which was afterwards known by his name, declaring that the
+Porte had failed to carry into effect the promises of reform which
+she had made, and that some combined action on the part of
+Europe was necessary to compel her to do so. The note was
+accepted by the three continental empires, but Great Britain
+refused in the first instance to assent to it, and only ultimately
+consented at the desire of the Porte, whose statesmen seem to
+<span class="sidenote">Bulgarian &ldquo;atrocities.&rdquo;</span>
+have imagined that the nominal co-operation of
+England would have the effect of restraining the action
+of other powers. Turkey accepted the note and
+renewed the promises of reform, which she had so often
+made, and which meant so little. The three northern powers
+thereupon agreed upon what was known as the Berlin Memorandum,
+in which they demanded an armistice, and proposed
+to watch over the completion of the reforms which the Porte
+had promised. The British government refused to be a party
+to this memorandum, which in consequence became abortive.
+The insurrection increased in intensity. The sultan Abdul
+Aziz, thought unequal to the crisis, was hastily deposed; he
+was either murdered or led to commit suicide; and insurrection
+in Bulgaria was stamped out by massacre. The story of the
+&ldquo;Bulgarian atrocities&rdquo; was published in Great Britain in the
+summer of 1876. Disraeli characteristically dismissed it as
+&ldquo;coffee-house babble,&rdquo; but official investigation proved the
+substantial accuracy of the reports which had reached England.
+The people regarded these events with horror. Gladstone,
+emerging from his retirement, denounced the conduct of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page576" id="page576"></a>576</span>
+Turks. In a phrase which became famous he declared that the
+only remedy for the European provinces of the Porte was to
+turn out the Ottoman government &ldquo;bag and baggage.&rdquo; All
+England was at once arrayed into two camps. One party was
+led by Disraeli, who was supposed to represent the traditional
+policy of England of maintaining the rule of the Turk at all
+hazards; the other, inspired by the example of Gladstone, was
+resolved at all costs to terminate oppression, but was at the same
+time distrusted as indirectly assisting the ambitious views by
+which the Eastern policy of Russia had always been animated.
+The crisis soon became intense. In June 1876 Servia and
+Montenegro declared war against Turkey. In a few months
+Servia was hopelessly beaten. Through the insistence of Russia
+an armistice was agreed upon; and Lord Beaconsfield&mdash;for
+Disraeli had now been raised to the peerage&mdash;endeavoured to
+utilize the breathing space by organizing a conference of the
+great powers at Constantinople, which was attended on behalf
+of Great Britain by Lord Salisbury. The Constantinople conference
+proved abortive, and in the beginning of 1877 Russia
+declared war. For some time, however, her success was hardly
+equal to her expectations. The Turks, entrenched at Plevna,
+delayed the Russian advance; and it was only towards the
+close of 1877 that Plevna at last fell and Turkish resistance
+collapsed. With its downfall the war party in England, which
+was led by the prime minister, increased in violence. From the
+refrain of a song, sung night after night at a London music hall,
+its members became known as Jingoes. The government ordered
+the British fleet to pass the Dardanelles and go up to Constantinople;
+and though the order was subsequently withdrawn, it
+asked for and obtained a grant of £6,000,000 for naval and military
+purposes. When news came that the Russian armies had
+reached Adrianople, that they had concluded some arrangement
+with the Turks, and that they were pressing forward towards Constantinople,
+the fleet was again directed to pass the Dardanelles.
+Soon afterwards the government decided to call out the reserves
+and to bring a contingent of Indian troops to the Mediterranean.
+Lord Derby,<a name="fa8a" id="fa8a" href="#ft8a"><span class="sp">8</span></a> who was at the foreign office, thereupon retired
+from the ministry, and was succeeded by Lord Salisbury. Lord
+Derby&rsquo;s resignation was everywhere regarded as a proof that
+Great Britain was on the verge of war. Happily this did not
+occur. At Prince Bismarck&rsquo;s suggestion Russia consented to
+refer the treaty which she had concluded at San Stefano to a
+congress of the great powers; and the congress, at which Great
+Britain was represented by Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury,
+<span class="sidenote">Berlin treaty.</span>
+succeeded in substituting for the treaty of San Stefano
+the treaty of Berlin. The one great advantage derived
+from it was the tacit acknowledgment by Russia
+that Europe could alone alter arrangements which Europe had
+made. In every other sense it is doubtful whether the provisions
+of the treaty of Berlin were more favourable than those of the
+treaty of San Stefano. On Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s return, however,
+he claimed for Lord Salisbury and himself that they had brought
+back &ldquo;peace with honour,&rdquo; and the country accepted with wild
+delight the phrase, without taking much trouble to analyse
+its justice.</p>
+
+<p>If Lord Beaconsfield had dissolved parliament immediately
+after his return from Berlin, it is possible that the wave of
+popularity which had been raised by his success would have
+borne him forward to a fresh victory in the constituencies. His
+omission to do so gave the country time to meditate on the consequences
+of his policy. One result soon became perceptible.
+Differences with Russia produced their inevitable consequences
+in fresh complications on the Indian frontier. The Russian
+government, confronted with a quarrel with Great Britain in
+<span class="sidenote">Afghan wars.</span>
+eastern Europe, endeavoured to create difficulties in
+Afghanistan. A Russian envoy was sent to Kabul,
+where Shere Ali, who had succeeded his father Dost
+Mahommed in 1863, was amir; and the British government,
+alarmed at this new embarrassment, decided on sending a mission
+to the Afghan capital. The mission was stopped on the frontier
+by an agent of Shere Ali, who declined to allow it to proceed.
+The British government refused to put up with an affront of
+this kind, and their envoy, supported by an army, continued
+his advance. Afghanistan was again invaded. Kabul and
+Kandahar were occupied; and Shere Ali was forced to fly, and
+soon afterwards died. His successor, Yakub Khan, came to the
+British camp and signed, in May 1879, the treaty of Gandamak.
+Under the terms of this treaty the Indian government undertook
+to pay the new amir a subsidy of £60,000 a year; and Yakub
+Khan consented to receive a British mission at Kabul, and to
+cede some territory in the Himalayas which the military advisers
+of Lord Beaconsfield considered necessary to make the frontier
+more &ldquo;scientific.&rdquo; This apparent success was soon followed
+by disastrous news. The deplorable events of 1841 were re-enacted
+in 1879. The new envoy reached Kabul, but was soon
+afterwards murdered. A British army was again sent into
+Afghanistan, and Kabul was again occupied. Yakub Khan,
+who had been made amir in 1879, was deposed, and Abdur
+Rahman Khan was selected as his successor. The British did
+not assert their superiority without much fighting and some
+serious reverses. Their victory was at last assured by the excellent
+strategy of Sir Donald Stewart and Sir Frederick (afterwards
+Lord) Roberts. But before the final victory was gained
+Lord Beaconsfield had fallen. His policy had brought Great
+Britain to the verge of disaster in Afghanistan: the credit of
+reasserting the superiority of British arms was deferred till his
+successors had taken office.</p>
+
+<p>It was not only in Afghanistan that the new imperial policy
+which Lord Beaconsfield had done so much to encourage was
+straining the resources of the empire. In South Africa a still
+more serious difficulty was already commencing. At the time
+at which Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s administration began, British
+territory in South Africa was practically confined to Cape Colony
+and Natal. Years before, in 1852 and 1854 respectively, the
+British government, at that time a little weary of the responsibilities
+of colonial rule, had recognized the independence of the
+two Dutch republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
+Powerful native tribes occupied the territory to the north of
+Natal and the east of the Transvaal. War broke out between
+the Transvaal Republic and one of the most powerful of these
+native chieftains, Sikukuni; and the Transvaal was worsted
+in the struggle. Weary of the condition of anarchy which
+existed in the republic, many inhabitants of the Transvaal were
+ready to welcome its annexation to Great Britain&mdash;a proposal
+favoured by the colonial secretary, Lord Carnarvon, who wished
+to federate the South African states, after the manner in which
+the North American colonies had become by confederation the
+Dominion of Canada. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who was sent
+to inquire into the proposal, mistook the opinion of a party for
+the verdict of the republic, and declared (April 1877) the Transvaal
+a part of the British Empire. His policy entailed far more
+serious consequences than the mission to Afghanistan. The first
+<span class="sidenote">Zulu War.</span>
+was a war with the Zulus, the most powerful and
+warlike of the South African natives, who under their
+ruler, Cetewayo, had organized a formidable army. A dispute
+had been going on for some time about the possession of a strip
+of territory which some British arbitrators had awarded to the
+Zulu king. Sir Bartle Frere, who had won distinction in India,
+and was sent out by Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s government to the Cape,
+kept back the award; and, though he ultimately communicated
+it to Cetewayo, thought it desirable to demand the disbandment
+of the Zulu army. In the war which ensued, the British troops
+who invaded Zulu territory met with a severe reverse; and,
+though the disaster was ultimately retrieved by Lord Chelmsford,
+the war involved heavy expenditure and brought little credit
+to the British army, while one unfortunate incident, the death
+of Prince Napoleon, who had obtained leave to serve with the
+British troops, and was surprised by the Zulus while <span class="correction" title="amended from reconnoitring">reconnoitering</span>,
+created a deep and unfortunate impression. Imperialism,
+which had been excited by Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s policy in 1878,
+and by the prospect of a war with a great European power, fell
+into discredit when it degenerated into a fresh expedition into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page577" id="page577"></a>577</span>
+Afghanistan, and an inglorious war with a savage African tribe.
+A period of distress at home increased the discontent which Lord
+Beaconsfield&rsquo;s external policy was exciting; and, when parliament
+was at last dissolved in 1880, it seemed no longer certain
+that the country would endorse the policy of the minister, who
+only a short time before had acquired such popularity. Gladstone,
+emerging from his retirement, practically placed himself again at
+the head of the Liberal party. In a series of speeches in Midlothian,
+where he offered himself for election, he denounced the
+whole policy which Lord Beaconsfield had pursued. His impassioned
+eloquence did much more than influence his own
+election. His speeches decided the contest throughout the
+kingdom. The Liberals secured an even more surprising success
+than that which had rewarded the Conservatives six years before.
+For the first time in the queen&rsquo;s reign, a solid Liberal majority,
+independent of all extraneous Irish support, was returned, and
+Gladstone resumed in triumph his old position as prime minister.</p>
+
+<p>The new minister had been swept into power on a wave of
+popular favour, but he inherited from his predecessors difficulties
+in almost every quarter of the world; and his own
+language had perhaps tended to increase them. He
+<span class="sidenote">Gladstone&rsquo;s second ministry.</span>
+was committed to a reversal of Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s
+policy; and, in politics, it is never easy, and perhaps
+rarely wise, suddenly and violently to change a system. In one
+quarter of the world the new minister achieved much success.
+The war in Afghanistan, which had begun with disaster, was
+creditably concluded. A better understanding was gradually
+established with Russia; and, before the ministry went out,
+steps had been taken which led to the delimitation of the Russian
+and Afghan frontier. In South Africa, however, a very different
+result ensued. Gladstone, before he accepted office, had denounced
+the policy of annexing the Transvaal; his language
+was so strong that he was charged with encouraging the Boers to
+maintain their independence by force; his example had naturally
+been imitated by some of his followers at the general election;
+and, when he resumed power, he found himself in the difficult
+dilemma of either maintaining an arrangement which he had
+declared to be unwise, or of yielding to a demand which the
+Boers were already threatening to support in arms. The events
+of the first year of his administration added to his difficulty.
+Before its close the Boers seized Heidelberg and established a
+republic; they destroyed a detachment of British troops at
+Bronkhorst Spruit; and they surrounded and attacked the
+British garrisons in the Transvaal. Troops were of course sent
+from England to maintain the British cause; and Sir George
+Colley, who enjoyed a high reputation and had experience in
+South African warfare, was made governor of Natal, and entrusted
+with the military command. The events which immediately
+followed will not be easily forgotten. Wholly miscalculating
+the strength of the Boers, Sir George Colley, at the
+end of January 1881, attacked them at Laing&rsquo;s Nek, in the north
+of Natal, and was repulsed with heavy loss. Some ten days
+afterwards he fought another action on the Ingogo, and was again
+forced to retire. On the 26th February, with some 600 men, he
+occupied a high hill, known as Majuba, which, he thought,
+dominated the Boer position. The following day the Boers
+attacked the hill, overwhelmed its defenders, and Sir George
+Colley was himself killed in the disastrous contest on the summit.
+News of these occurrences was received with dismay in England.
+It was, no doubt, possible to say a good deal for Gladstone&rsquo;s
+indignant denunciation of his predecessor&rsquo;s policy in annexing
+the Transvaal; it would have been equally possible to advance
+many reasons for reversing the measures of Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s
+<span class="sidenote">Boer War, 1881.</span>
+cabinet, and for conceding independence to the
+Transvaal in 1880. But the great majority of persons
+considered that, whatever arguments might have been
+urged for concession in 1880, when British troops had suffered
+no reverses, nothing could be said for concession in 1881, when
+their arms had been tarnished by a humiliating disaster. Great
+countries can afford to be generous in the hour of victory; but
+they cannot yield, without loss of credit, in the hour of defeat.
+Unfortunately this reasoning was not suited to Gladstone&rsquo;s
+temperament. The justice or injustice of the British cause
+seemed to him a much more important matter than the vindication
+of military honour; and he could not bring himself to
+acknowledge that Majuba had altered the situation, and that
+the terms which he had made up his mind to concede before
+the battle could not be safely granted till military reputation
+was restored. The retrocession of the Transvaal was decided
+upon, though it was provided that the country should
+remain under the suzerainty of the queen. Even this great
+concession did not satisfy the ambition of the Boers, who were
+naturally elated by their victories. Three years later some
+Transvaal deputies, with their president, Kruger, came to London
+and saw Lord Derby, the secretary of state for the colonies. Lord
+Derby consented to a new convention, from which any verbal
+reference to suzerainty was excluded; and the South African
+republic was made independent, subject only to the condition
+that it should conclude no treaties with foreign powers without
+the approval of the crown. (For the details and disputes concerning
+the terms of this convention the reader is referred to
+the articles <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Transvaal</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Suzerainty</a></span>.)</p>
+
+<p>Gladstone&rsquo;s government declined in popularity from the date
+of the earliest of these concessions. Gladstone, in fact, had
+succeeded in doing what Lord Beaconsfield had failed to accomplish.
+Annoyance at his foreign policy had rekindled the
+imperialism which the embarrassments created by Lord Beaconsfield
+had done so much to damp down. And, if things were
+going badly with the new government abroad, matters were not
+progressing smoothly at home. At the general election of 1880,
+the borough of Northampton, which of late years has shown an
+unwavering preference for Liberals of an advanced type, returned
+as its members Henry Labouchere and Charles Bradlaugh.
+<span class="sidenote">Bradlaugh.</span>
+Bradlaugh, who had attained some notoriety for an
+aggressive atheism, claimed the right to make an
+affirmation of allegiance instead of taking the customary oath,
+which he declared was, in his eyes, a meaningless form. The
+speaker, instead of deciding the question, submitted it to the
+judgment of the House, and it was ultimately referred to a
+select committee, which reported against Bradlaugh&rsquo;s claim.
+Bradlaugh, on hearing the decision of the committee, presented
+himself at the bar and offered to take the oath. It was objected
+that, as he had publicly declared that the words of the oath had
+no clear meaning for him, he could not be permitted to take it;
+and after some wrangling the matter was referred to a fresh
+committee, which supported the view that Bradlaugh could not
+be allowed to be sworn, but recommended that he should be
+permitted to make the affirmation at his own risk. The House
+refused to accept the recommendation of this committee when
+a bill was introduced to give effect to it. This decision naturally
+enlarged the question before it. For, while hitherto the debate
+had turned on the technical points whether an affirmation could
+be substituted for an oath, or whether a person who had declared
+that an oath had no meaning for him could properly be sworn,
+the end at which Bradlaugh&rsquo;s opponents were thenceforward
+aiming was the imposition of a new religious test&mdash;the belief
+in a God&mdash;on members of the House of Commons. The controversy,
+which thus began, continued through the parliament
+of 1880, and led to many violent scenes, which lowered the
+dignity of the House. It was quietly terminated, in the parliament
+of 1886, by the firm action of a new speaker. Mr Peel,
+who had been elected to the chair in 1884, decided that neither
+the speaker nor any other member had the right to intervene to
+prevent a member from taking the oath if he was willing to
+take it. Parliament subsequently, by a new act, permitted
+affirmations to be used, and thenceforward religion, or the
+absence of religion, was no disqualification for a seat in the
+House of Commons. The atheist, like the Roman Catholic and
+the Jew, could sit and vote.</p>
+
+<p>The Bradlaugh question was not the only difficulty with
+which the new government was confronted. Ireland was again
+attracting the attention of politicians. The Fenian movement
+had practically expired; some annual motions for the
+introduction of Home Rule, made with all the decorum of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page578" id="page578"></a>578</span>
+parliamentary usage, had been regularly defeated. But the
+Irish were placing themselves under new leaders and adopting
+new methods. During the Conservative government of 1874, the
+Irish members had endeavoured to arrest attention by organized
+obstruction. Their efforts had increased the difficulties of
+<span class="sidenote">Parnell.</span>
+government and taxed the endurance of parliament.
+These tactics were destined to be raised to a fine art
+by Parnell, who succeeded to the head of the Irish party about
+the time of the formation of Gladstone&rsquo;s government. It was
+Parnell&rsquo;s determination to make legislation impracticable, and
+parliament unendurable, till Irish grievances were redressed.
+It was his evident belief that by pursuing such tactics he could
+force the House of Commons to concede the legislation which
+he desired. The Irish members were not satisfied with the
+legislation which parliament had passed in 1869-1870. The
+land act of 1870 had given the tenant no security in the case
+of eviction for non-payment of rent; and the tenant whose
+rent was too high or had been raised was at the mercy of his
+landlord. It so happened that some bad harvests had temporarily
+increased the difficulties of the tenantry, and there was no doubt
+that large numbers of evictions were taking place in Ireland.
+In these circumstances, the Irish contended that the relief which
+the act of 1870 had afforded should be extended, and that, till
+such legislation could be devised, a temporary measure should
+be passed giving the tenant compensation for disturbance.
+Gladstone admitted the force of this reasoning, and a bill was
+introduced to give effect to it. Passed by the Commons, it was
+thrown out towards the end of the session by the Lords; and
+the government acquiesced&mdash;perhaps could do nothing but
+acquiesce&mdash;in this decision. In Ireland, however, the rejection
+of the measure was attended with disastrous results. Outrages
+increased, obnoxious landlords and agents were &ldquo;boycotted&rdquo;&mdash;the
+name of the first gentleman exposed to this treatment adding
+a new word to the language; and Forster, who had accepted the
+office of chief secretary, thought it necessary, in the presence of
+outrage and intimidation, to adopt stringent measures for
+enforcing order. A measure was passed on his initiation, in
+1881, authorizing him to arrest and detain suspected persons;
+and many well-known Irishmen, including Parnell himself and
+other members of parliament, were thrown into prison. It was
+an odd commentary on parliamentary government that a Liberal
+ministry should be in power, and that Irish members should
+be in prison; and early in 1882 Gladstone determined to liberate
+the prisoners on terms. The new policy&mdash;represented by what
+was known as the Kilmainham Treaty&mdash;led to the resignation
+of the viceroy, Lord Cowper, and of Forster, and the appointment
+of Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish as their
+successors. On the 6th of May 1882 Lord Spencer made his entry
+into Dublin, and on the evening of the same day Lord Frederick,
+unwisely allowed to walk home alone with Burke, the under-secretary
+to the Irish government, was murdered with his
+companion in Phoenix Park. This gross outrage led to fresh
+measures of coercion. The disclosure, soon afterwards, of a
+conspiracy to resort to dynamite still further alienated the
+sympathies of the Liberal party from the Irish nation. Gladstone
+might fairly plead that he had done much, that he had risked
+much, for Ireland, and that Ireland was making him a poor
+return for his services.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile another difficulty was further embarrassing
+a harassed government. The necessities of the khedive of Egypt
+had been only temporarily relieved by the sale to
+Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s government of the Suez Canal
+<span class="sidenote">Egypt.</span>
+shares. Egyptian finance, in the interests of the bondholders,
+had been placed under the dual control of England and France.
+The new arrangement naturally produced some native resentment,
+and Arabi Pasha placed himself at the head of a movement
+which was intended to rid Egypt of foreign interference. His
+preparations eventually led to the bombardment of Alexandria
+by the British fleet, and still later to the invasion of Egypt by a
+British army under Sir Garnet, afterwards Lord Wolseley, and
+to the battle of Tell-el-Kebir, after which Arabi was defeated
+and taken prisoner. The bombardment of Alexandria led to the
+immediate resignation of Bright, whose presence in the cabinet
+had been of importance to the government; the occupation of
+Egypt broke up the dual control, and made Great Britain
+responsible for Egyptian administration. The effects of British
+rule were, in one sense, remarkable. The introduction of good
+government increased the prosperity of the people, and restored
+confidence in Egyptian finance. At the same time it provoked
+the animosity of the French, who were naturally jealous of the
+increase of British influence on the Nile, and it also threw new
+responsibilities on the British nation. For south of Egypt
+lay the great territory of the Sudan, which to some extent
+commands the Nile, and which had been added to the Egyptian
+dominions at various periods between 1820 and 1875. In 1881
+a fanatic sheikh&mdash;known as the mahdi&mdash;had headed an insurrection
+against the khedive&rsquo;s authority; and towards the close
+of 1883 an Egyptian army under an Englishman, Colonel Hicks,
+was annihilated by the mahdi&rsquo;s followers. The insurrection
+increased the responsibilities which intervention had imposed
+on England, and an expedition was sent to Suakin to guard
+the littoral of the Red Sea; while, at the beginning of 1884,
+General Gordon&mdash;whose services in China had gained him a high
+reputation, and who had had previous experience in the Sudan&mdash;was
+sent to Khartum to report on the condition of affairs. These
+decisions led to momentous results. The British expedition to
+Suakin was engaged in a series of battles with Osman Digna,
+<span class="sidenote">Gordon.</span>
+the mahdi&rsquo;s lieutenant; while General Gordon, after
+alternate reverses and successes, was isolated at
+Khartum. Anxious as Gladstone&rsquo;s ministry was to restrict the
+sphere of its responsibilities, it was compelled to send an expedition
+to relieve General Gordon; and Lord Wolseley, who was
+appointed to the command, decided on moving up the Nile to
+his relief. The expedition proved much more difficult than
+Lord Wolseley had anticipated. And before it reached its goal,
+Khartum was forced to surrender, and General Gordon and his
+few faithful followers were murdered (January 1885). General
+Gordon&rsquo;s death inflicted a fatal blow on the Liberal government.
+It was thought that the general, whose singular devotion to
+duty made him a popular hero, had been allowed to assume an
+impossible task; had been feebly supported; and that the
+measures for his relief had been unduly postponed and at last
+only reluctantly undertaken. The ministry ultimately experienced
+defeat on a side issue. The budget, which Childers brought
+forward as chancellor of the exchequer, was attacked by the
+Conservative party; and an amendment proposed by Sir Michael
+Hicks-Beach, condemning an increase in the duties on spirits
+and beer, was adopted by a small majority. Gladstone resigned
+office, and Lord Salisbury, who, after Lord Beaconsfield&rsquo;s death,
+had succeeded to the lead of the Conservative party, was instructed
+to form a new administration.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious that the new government, as its first duty,
+would be compelled to dissolve the parliament that had been
+elected when Gladstone was enjoying the popularity
+which he had lost so rapidly in office. But it so happened
+<span class="sidenote">Reform Act, 1884.</span>
+that it was no longer possible to appeal to the old constituencies.
+For, in 1884, Gladstone had introduced a new
+Reform Bill; and, though its passage had been arrested by the
+Lords, unofficial communications between the leaders of both
+parties had resulted in a compromise which had led to the
+adoption of a large and comprehensive Reform Act. By this
+measure, household franchise was extended to the counties.
+But counties and boroughs were broken up into a number of
+small constituencies, for the most part returning only one
+member each; while the necessity of increasing the relative
+weight of Great Britain, and the reluctance to inflict disfranchisement
+on Ireland, led to an increase in the numbers of the House
+of Commons from 658 to 670 members. This radical reconstruction
+of the electorate necessarily made the result of the elections
+doubtful. As a matter of fact, the new parliament comprised
+334 Liberals, 250 Conservatives and 86 Irish Nationalists. It
+was plain beyond the possibility of doubt that the future depended
+on the course which the Irish Nationalists might adopt.
+It they threw in their lot with Gladstone, Lord Salisbury&rsquo;s
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page579" id="page579"></a>579</span>
+government was evidently doomed. If, on the contrary, they
+joined the Conservatives, they could make a Liberal administration
+impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1885 it was doubtful what course the Irish
+Nationalists would take. It was generally understood that
+Lord Carnarvon, who had been made viceroy of
+Ireland, had been in communication with Parnell;
+<span class="sidenote">Home Rule.</span>
+that Lord Salisbury was aware of the interviews
+which had taken place; and it was whispered that Lord
+Carnarvon was in favour of granting some sort of administrative
+autonomy to Ireland. Whatever opinion Lord Carnarvon may
+have formed&mdash;and his precise view is uncertain&mdash;a greater man
+than he had suddenly arrived at a similar conclusion. In his
+election speeches Gladstone had insisted on the necessity of the
+country returning a Liberal majority which could act independently
+of the Irish vote; and the result of the general election
+had left the Irish the virtual arbiters of the political situation.
+In these circumstances Gladstone arrived at a momentous
+decision. He recognized that the system under which Ireland
+had been governed in the past had failed to win the allegiance
+of her people; and he decided that it was wise and safe to
+entrust her with a large measure of self-government. It was
+perhaps characteristic of Gladstone, though it was unquestionably
+unfortunate, that, in determining on this radical change
+of policy, he consulted few, if any, of his previous colleagues.
+On the meeting of the new parliament Lord Salisbury&rsquo;s government
+was defeated on an amendment to the address, demanding
+facilities for agricultural labourers to obtain small holdings for
+gardens and pasture&mdash;the policy, in short, which was described
+as &ldquo;three acres and a cow.&rdquo; Lord Salisbury resigned, and
+Gladstone resumed power. The attitude, however, which
+Gladstone was understood to be taking on the subject of Home
+Rule threw many difficulties in his way. Lord Harrington, and
+others of his former colleagues, declined to join his administration;
+Mr Chamberlain, who, in the first instance, accepted
+office, retired almost at once from the ministry; and Bright,
+whose eloquence and past services gave him a unique position
+in the House, threw in his lot in opposition to Home Rule. A
+split in the Liberal party thus began, which was destined to
+endure; and Gladstone found his difficulties increased by the
+defection of the men on whom he had hitherto largely relied.
+He persevered, however, in the task which he had set himself,
+and introduced a measure endowing Ireland with a parliament,
+and excluding the Irish members from Westminster. He was
+defeated, and appealed from the House which had refused to
+support him to the country. For the first time in the queen&rsquo;s
+reign two general elections occurred within twelve months. The
+country showed no more disposition than the House of Commons
+to approve the course which the minister was taking. A large
+majority of the members of the new parliament were pledged
+to resist Home Rule. Gladstone, bowing at once to the verdict
+of the people, resigned office, and Lord Salisbury returned to
+power.</p>
+
+<p>The new cabinet, which was formed to resist Home Rule, did
+not succeed in combining all the opponents to this measure.
+The secessionists from the Liberal party&mdash;the Liberal
+Unionists, as they were called&mdash;held aloof from it;
+<span class="sidenote">Unionism.</span>
+and Lord Salisbury was forced to form his cabinet out of his
+immediate followers. The most picturesque appointment was
+that of Lord Randolph Churchill, who was made chancellor of
+the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. But
+before many months were over, Lord Randolph&mdash;unable to
+secure acceptance of a policy of financial retrenchment&mdash;resigned
+office, and Lord Salisbury was forced to reconstruct his ministry.
+Though he again failed to obtain the co-operation of the Liberal
+Unionists, one of the more prominent of them&mdash;Goschen&mdash;accepted
+the seals of the Exchequer. W.H. Smith moved from
+the war office to the treasury, and became leader of the House
+of Commons; while Lord Salisbury himself returned to the
+foreign office, which the dramatically sudden death of Lord
+Iddesleigh, better known as Sir Stafford Northcote, vacated.
+These arrangements lasted till 1891, when, on Smith&rsquo;s death,
+the treasury and the lead of the Commons were entrusted to
+Lord Salisbury&rsquo;s nephew, Mr Arthur Balfour, who had made
+a great reputation as chief secretary for Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>The ministry of 1886, which endured till 1892, gave to London
+a county council; introduced representative government into
+every English county; and made elementary education free
+throughout England. The alliance with the Liberal Unionists
+was, in fact, compelling the Conservative government to promote
+measures which were not wholly consistent with the stricter
+Conservative traditions, or wishes. In other respects, the legislative
+achievements of the government were not great; and
+the time of parliament was largely occupied in devising rules
+for the conduct of its business, which the obstructive attitude
+of the Irish members made necessary, and in discussing the
+charges brought against the Nationalist party by <i>The Times</i>,
+of complicity in the Phoenix Park murders. Under the new
+rules, the sittings of the House on ordinary days were made to
+commence at 3 <span class="scs">P.M.</span>, and opposed business was automatically
+interrupted at midnight, while for the first time a power was
+given to the majority in a House of a certain size to conclude
+debate by what was known as the closure. Notwithstanding
+these new rules obstructive tactics continued to prevail; and,
+in the course of the parliament, many members were suspended
+for disorderly conduct. The hostility of the Irish members was
+perhaps increased by some natural indignation at the charges
+brought against Parnell. <i>The Times</i>, in April 1887, printed
+the facsimile of a letter purporting to be signed by Parnell, in
+which he declared that he had no other course open to him but
+to denounce the Phoenix Park murders, but that, while he
+regretted &ldquo;the accident&rdquo; of Lord Frederick Cavendish&rsquo;s death,
+he could not &ldquo;refuse to admit that Burke got no more than his
+deserts.&rdquo; The publication of this letter, and later of other
+similar documents, naturally created a great sensation; and
+the government ultimately appointed a special commission of
+three judges to inquire into the charges and allegations that were
+made. In the course of the inquiry it was proved that the
+letters had emanated from a man named Pigott, who had at one
+time been associated with the Irish Nationalist movement, but
+who for some time past had earned a precarious living by writing
+begging and threatening letters. Pigott, subjected to severe
+cross-examination by Sir Charles Russell (afterwards Lord
+Russell of Killowen), broke down, fled from justice and committed
+suicide. His flight practically settled the question; and an
+inquiry, which many people had thought at its inception would
+brand Parnell as a criminal, raised him to an influence which
+he had never enjoyed before. But in the same year which
+witnessed his triumph, he was doomed to fall. He was made
+co-respondent in a divorce suit brought by Captain O&rsquo;Shea&mdash;another
+Irishman&mdash;for the dissolution of his marriage; and the
+disclosures made at the trial induced Gladstone, who was
+supported by the Nonconformists generally throughout the
+United Kingdom, to request Parnell to withdraw from the
+leadership of the Irish party. Parnell refused to comply with
+this request, and the Irish party was shattered into fragments
+<span class="sidenote">Nationalist split.</span>
+by his decision. Parnell himself did not long survive
+the disruption of the party which he had done so
+much to create. The exertions which he made to
+retrieve his waning influence proved too much for his strength,
+and in the autumn of 1891 he died suddenly at Brighton.
+Parnell&rsquo;s death radically altered the political situation. At the
+general elections of 1885 and 1886 the existence of a strong,
+united Irish party had exercised a dominating influence. As the
+parliament of 1886 was drawing to a close, the dissensions among
+the Irish members, and the loss of their great leader, were
+visibly sapping the strength of the Nationalists. At the general
+election of 1892 Home Rule was still the prominent subject
+before the electors. But the English Liberals were already a
+little weary of allies who were quarrelling among themselves,
+and whose disputes were introducing a new factor into politics.
+The political struggle virtually turned not on measures, but on
+men. Gladstone&rsquo;s great age, and the marvellous powers which
+he displayed at a time when most men seek the repose of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page580" id="page580"></a>580</span>
+retirement, were the chief causes which affected the results. His
+influence enabled him to secure a small Liberal majority. But
+it was noticed that the majority depended on Scottish, Irish and
+Welsh votes, and that England&mdash;the &ldquo;predominant partner,&rdquo;
+as it was subsequently called by Lord Rosebery&mdash;returned a
+majority of members pledged to resist any attempt to dissolve
+the union between the three kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>On the meeting of the new parliament Lord Salisbury&rsquo;s
+government was defeated on a vote of want of confidence, and
+for a fourth time Gladstone became prime minister.
+In the session of 1893 he again introduced a Home
+<span class="sidenote">Home Rule Bill, 1893.</span>
+Rule Bill. But the measure of 1893 differed in many
+respects from that of 1886. In particular, the Irish were
+no longer to be excluded from the imperial parliament at
+Westminster. The bill which was thus brought forward was
+actually passed by the Commons. It was, however, rejected
+by the Lords. The dissensions among the Irish themselves, and
+the hostility which English constituents were displaying to the
+proposal, emboldened the Peers to arrive at this decision. Some
+doubt was felt as to the course which Gladstone would take in
+this crisis. Many persons thought that he should at once have
+appealed to the country, and have endeavoured to obtain a
+distinct mandate from the constituencies to introduce a new
+Home Rule Bill. Other persons imagined that he should have
+followed the precedent which had been set by Lord Grey in 1831,
+and, after a short prorogation, have reintroduced his measure in
+a new session. As a matter of fact, Gladstone adopted neither
+of these courses. The government decided not to take up the
+gauntlet thrown down by the Peers, but to proceed with the rest
+of their political programme. With this object an autumn session
+was held, and the Parish Councils Act, introduced by Mr Fowler
+(afterwards Lord Wolverhampton), was passed, after important
+amendments, which had been introduced into it in the House of
+Lords, had been reluctantly accepted by Gladstone. On the other
+hand, an Employers&rsquo; Liability Bill, introduced by Mr Asquith,
+the home secretary, was ultimately dropped by Gladstone after
+passing all stages in the House of Commons, rather than that an
+amendment of the Peers, allowing &ldquo;contracting out,&rdquo; should be
+accepted.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, the session had quite run out (3rd March
+1894), Gladstone, who had now completed his eighty-fourth
+year, laid down a load which his increasing years made it impossible
+for him to sustain (see the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Gladstone</a></span>). He was
+succeeded by Lord Rosebery, whose abilities and attainments
+had raised him to a high place in the Liberal counsels. Lord
+Rosebery did not succeed in popularizing the Home Rule
+<span class="sidenote">Lord Rosebery.</span>
+proposal which Gladstone had failed to carry. He
+declared, indeed, that success was not attainable till
+England was converted to its expediency. He hinted
+that success would not even then be assured until something was
+done to reform the constitution of the House of Lords. But if,
+on the one hand, he refused to introduce a new Home Rule Bill,
+he hesitated, on the other, to court defeat by any attempt to
+reform the Lords. His government, in these circumstances,
+while it failed to conciliate its opponents, excited no enthusiasm
+among its supporters. It was generally understood, moreover,
+that a large section of the Liberal party resented Lord Rosebery&rsquo;s
+appointment to the first place in the ministry, and thought that
+the lead should have been conferred on Sir W. Harcourt. It was
+an open secret that these differences in the party were reflected
+in the cabinet, and that the relations between Lord Rosebery and
+Sir W. Harcourt were too strained to ensure either the harmonious
+working or the stability of the administration. In these circumstances
+the fall of the ministry was only a question of time.
+It occurred&mdash;as often happens in parliament&mdash;on a minor issue
+which no one had foreseen. Attention was drawn in the House of
+Commons to the insufficient supply of cordite provided by the
+war office, and the House&mdash;notwithstanding the assurance of the
+war minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) that the supply
+was adequate&mdash;placed the government in a minority. Lord
+Rosebery resigned office, and Lord Salisbury for the third time
+became prime minister, the duke of Devonshire, Mr Chamberlain
+and other Liberal Unionists joining the government. Parliament
+was dissolved, and a new parliament, in which the Unionists
+obtained an overwhelming majority, was returned.</p>
+
+<p>The government of 1892-1895, which was successively led by
+Gladstone and Lord Rosebery, will, on the whole, be remembered
+for its failures. Yet it passed two measures which have exercised
+a wide influence. The Parish Councils Act introduced electoral
+institutions into the government of every parish, and in 1894
+Sir W. Harcourt, as chancellor of the exchequer, availed himself
+of the opportunity, which a large addition to the navy invited, to
+reconstruct the death duties. He swept away in doing so many
+of the advantages which the owner of real estate and the life
+tenant of settled property had previously enjoyed, and drove
+home a principle which Goschen had tentatively introduced a few
+years before by increasing the rate of the duty with the amount
+of the estate. Rich men, out of their superfluities, were thenceforward
+to pay more than poor men out of their necessities.</p>
+
+<p>The Unionist government which came into power in 1895
+lasted, with certain changes of <i>personnel</i>, till 1905, with a break
+caused by the dissolution of 1900. History may hereafter
+conclude that the most significant circumstance of the earlier
+period is to be found in the demonstration of loyalty and
+affection to which the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria&rsquo;s
+accession led in 1897. Ten years before, her jubilee had been the
+occasion of enthusiastic rejoicings, and the queen&rsquo;s progress
+through London to a service of thanksgiving at Westminster
+had impressed the imagination of her subjects and proved the
+<span class="sidenote">The two jubilees.</span>
+affection of her people. But the rejoicings of 1887 were
+forgotten amid the more striking demonstrations ten
+years later. It was seen then that the queen, by her
+conduct and character, had gained a popularity which has had no
+parallel in history, and had won a place in the hearts of her
+subjects which perhaps no other monarch had ever previously
+enjoyed. There was no doubt that, if the opinion of the English-speaking
+races throughout the world could have been tested by a
+plebiscite, an overwhelming majority would have declared that
+the fittest person for the rule of the British empire was the
+gracious and kindly lady who for sixty years, in sorrow and in joy,
+had so worthily discharged the duties of her high position. This
+remarkable demonstration was not confined to the British
+empire alone. In every portion of the globe the sixtieth anniversary
+of the queen&rsquo;s reign excited interest; in every country
+the queen&rsquo;s name was mentioned with affection and respect;
+while the people of the United States vied with the subjects of the
+British empire in praise of the queen&rsquo;s character and in expressions
+of regard for her person. Only a year or two before, an obscure
+dispute on the boundary of British Venezuela had brought the
+United States and Great Britain within sight of a quarrel. The
+jubilee showed conclusively that, whatever politicians might say,
+the ties of blood and kinship, which united the two peoples, were
+too close to be severed by either for some trifling cause; that the
+wisest heads in both nations were aware of the advantages which
+must arise from the closer union of the Anglo-Saxon races; and
+that the true interests of both countries lay in their mutual
+friendship. A war in which the United States was subsequently
+engaged with Spain cemented this feeling. The government and
+the people of the United States recognized the advantage which
+they derived from the goodwill of Great Britain in the hour of
+their necessity, and the two nations drew together as no other
+two nations had perhaps ever been drawn together before.</p>
+
+<p>If the jubilee was a proof of the closer union of the many
+sections of the British empire, and of their warm attachment to
+their sovereign, it also gave expression to the &ldquo;imperialism&rdquo;
+which was becoming a dominant factor in British politics. Few
+people realized the mighty change which in this respect had been
+effected in thought and feeling. Forty years before, the most
+prominent English statesmen had regarded with anxiety the
+huge responsibilities of a world-wide empire. In 1897 the whole
+tendency of thought and opinion was to enlarge the burden of
+which the preceding generation had been weary. The extension
+of British influence, the protection of British interests, were
+almost universally advocated; and the few statesmen who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page581" id="page581"></a>581</span>
+repeated in the &rsquo;nineties the sentiments which would have been
+generally accepted in the &rsquo;sixties, were regarded as &ldquo;Little
+Englanders.&rdquo; It is important to note the consequences which
+these new ideas produced in Africa. Both in the north and
+in the south of this great and imperfectly explored continent,
+memories still clung which were ungrateful to imperialism. In
+the north, the murder of Gordon was still unavenged; and the
+vast territory known as the Sudan had escaped from the control of
+Egypt. In the south, war with the Transvaal had been concluded
+by a British defeat; and the Dutch were elated, the English
+irritated, at the recollection of Majuba. In 1896 Lord Salisbury&rsquo;s
+government decided on extending the Anglo-Egyptian rule over
+the Sudan, and an expedition was sent from Egypt under the
+command of Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener to Khartum.
+Few military expeditions have been more elaborately organized,
+or have achieved a more brilliant success. The conquest of the
+country was achieved in three separate campaigns in successive
+years. In September 1898 the Sudanese forces were decisively
+beaten, with great slaughter, in the immediate neighbourhood of
+<span class="sidenote">Omdurman, Fashoda.</span>
+Omdurman; and Khartum became thenceforward the
+capital of the new province, which was placed under
+Lord Kitchener&rsquo;s rule. Soon after this decisive
+success, it was found that a French expedition under
+Major Marchand had reached the upper Nile and had hoisted the
+French flag at Fashoda. It was obvious that the French could
+not be allowed to remain at a spot which the khedive of Egypt
+claimed as Egyptian territory; and after some negotiation, and
+some irritation, the French were withdrawn. In South Africa
+still more important events were in the meanwhile progressing.
+Ever since the independence of the South African Republic had
+been virtually conceded by the convention of 1884, unhappy
+differences had prevailed between the Dutch and British
+residents in the Transvaal. The discovery of gold at Johannesburg
+and elsewhere in 1885-1886 had led to a large immigration
+of British and other colonists. Johannesburg had grown into
+a great and prosperous city. The foreign population of the
+Transvaal, which was chiefly English, became in a few years more
+numerous than the Boers themselves, and they complained that
+they were deprived of all political rights, that they were subjected
+to unfair taxation, and that they were hampered in their industry
+and unjustly treated by the Dutch courts and Dutch officials.
+Failing to obtain redress, at the end of 1895 certain persons
+among them made preparations for a revolution. Dr Jameson,
+the administrator of Rhodesia, accompanied by some British
+officers, actually invaded the Transvaal. His force, utterly
+<span class="sidenote">Jameson Raid.</span>
+inadequate for the purpose, was stopped by the Boers,
+and he and his fellow-officers were taken prisoners.
+There was no doubt that this raid on the territory of
+a friendly state was totally unjustifiable. Unfortunately, Dr
+Jameson&rsquo;s original plans had been framed at the instance of
+Cecil Rhodes, the prime minister at the Cape, and many persons
+thought that they ought to have been suspected by the colonial
+office in London. England at any rate would have had no valid
+ground of complaint if the leaders of a buccaneering force had
+been summarily dealt with by the Transvaal authorities. The
+president of the republic, Kruger, however, handed over his
+prisoners to the British authorities, and parliament instituted an
+inquiry by a select committee into the circumstances of the raid.
+The inquiry was terminated somewhat abruptly. The committee
+acquitted the colonial office of any knowledge of the plot; but a
+good many suspicions remained unanswered. The chief actors in
+the raid were tried under the Foreign Enlistment Act, found
+guilty, and subsequently released after short terms of imprisonment.
+Rhodes himself was not removed from the privy council,
+as his more extreme accusers demanded; but he had to abandon
+his career in Cape politics for a time, and confine his energies to
+the development of Rhodesia, which had been added to the
+empire through his instrumentality in 1888-1889.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of these proceedings, the Transvaal authorities
+at once set to work to accumulate armaments, and they succeeded
+in procuring vast quantities of artillery and military stores.
+The British government would undoubtedly have been entitled to
+insist that these armaments should cease. It was obvious that
+they could only be directed against Great Britain; and no
+nation is bound to allow another people to prepare great
+armaments to be employed against itself. The criminal folly of
+the raid prevented the British government from making this
+demand. It could not say that the Transvaal government had no
+cause for alarm when British officers had attempted an invasion
+of its territory, and had been treated rather as heroes than as
+criminals at home. Ignorant of the strength of Great Britain,
+and elated by the recollection of their previous successes, the
+Boers themselves believed that a new struggle might give them
+predominance in South Africa. The knowledge that a large
+portion of the population of Cape Colony was of Dutch extraction,
+and that public men at the Cape sympathized with them in their
+aspirations, increased their confidence. In the meantime, while
+the Boers were silently and steadily continuing their military
+preparations, the British settlers at Johannesburg&mdash;the
+Uitlanders, as they were called&mdash;continued to demand consideration
+for their grievances. In the spring of 1899, Sir Alfred
+<span class="sidenote">Boer War, 1899.</span>
+Milner, governor of the Cape, met President Kruger at
+Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and
+endeavoured to accomplish that result by negotiation.
+He thought, at the time, that if the Uitlanders were given the
+franchise and a fair proportion of influence in the legislature, other
+difficulties might be left to settle themselves. The negotiations
+thus commenced unfortunately failed. The discussion, which
+had originally turned on the franchise, was enlarged by the
+introduction of the question of suzerainty or supremacy; and at
+last, in the beginning of October, when the rains of an African
+spring were causing the grass to grow on which the Boer armies
+were largely dependent for forage, the Boers declared war and
+invaded Natal. The British government had not been altogether
+happy in its conduct of the preceding negotiations. It was certainly
+unhappy in its preparations for the struggle. It made the great
+mistake of underrating the strength of its enemy; it suffered its
+agents to commit the strategical blunder of locking up the few
+troops it had in an untenable position in the north of Natal.
+It was not surprising, in such circumstances, that the earlier
+months of the war should have been memorable for a series of
+exasperating reverses. These reverses, however, were redeemed
+by the valour of the British troops, the spirit of the British
+nation, and the enthusiasm which induced the great autonomous
+colonies of the empire to send men to support the cause of the
+mother country. The gradual arrival of reinforcements, and the
+appointment of a soldier of genius&mdash;Lord Roberts&mdash;to the
+supreme command, changed the military situation; and,
+before the summer of 1900 was concluded, the places which had
+been besieged by the Boers&mdash;Kimberley, Ladysmith and
+Mafeking&mdash;had been successively relieved; the capitals of the
+Orange Free State and of the Transvaal had been occupied; and
+the two republics, which had rashly declared war against the
+British empire, had been formally annexed.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat and dispersal of the Boer armies, and the apparent
+collapse of Boer resistance, induced a hope that the war was
+over; and the government seized the opportunity in
+1900 to terminate the parliament, which had already
+<span class="sidenote">The close of 1900.</span>
+endured for more than five years. The election was
+conducted with unusual bitterness; but the constituencies
+practically affirmed the policy of the government by maintaining,
+almost unimpaired, the large majority which the Unionists had
+secured in 1895. Unfortunately, the expectations which had
+been formed at the time of the dissolution were disappointed.
+The same circumstances which had emboldened the Boers to
+declare war in the autumn of 1899, induced them to renew a
+guerilla warfare in the autumn of 1900&mdash;the approach of an
+African summer supplying the Boers with the grass on which
+they were dependent for feeding their hardy horses. Guerilla
+bands suddenly appeared in different parts of the Orange River
+Colony and of the Transvaal. They interrupted the communications
+of the British armies; they won isolated victories
+over British detachments; they even invaded Cape Colony.
+Thus the last year of the century closed in disappointment
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page582" id="page582"></a>582</span>
+and gloom. The serious losses which the war entailed, the
+heavy expenses which it involved, and the large force which
+it absorbed, filled thoughtful men with anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>No one felt more sincerely for the sufferings of her soldiers, and
+no one regretted more truly the useless prolongation of the
+struggle, than the venerable lady who occupied the
+throne. She had herself lost a grandson (Prince
+<span class="sidenote">The death of the queen.</span>
+Christian Victor) in South Africa; and sorrow and
+anxiety perhaps told even on a constitution so unusually
+strong as hers. About the middle of January 1901 it
+was known that she was seriously ill; on the 22nd she died.
+The death of the queen thus occurred immediately after the close
+of the century over so long a period of which her reign had
+extended.</p>
+
+<p>The queen&rsquo;s own life is dealt with elsewhere (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Victoria,
+Queen</a></span>), but the Victorian era is deeply marked in English
+history. During her reign the people of Great Britain doubled
+their number; but the accumulated wealth of the country
+increased at least threefold, and its trade sixfold. All classes
+shared the prevalent prosperity. Notwithstanding the increase
+of population, the roll of paupers at the end of the reign,
+compared with the same roll at the beginning, stood as 2 stands
+to 3; the criminals as 1 to 2. The expansion abroad was still
+more remarkable. There were not 200,000 white persons in
+Australasia when the queen came to the throne; there were
+nearly 5,000,000 when she died. The great Australian colonies
+were almost created in her reign; two of them&mdash;Victoria and
+Queensland&mdash;owe their name to her; they all received those
+autonomous institutions, under which their prosperity has been
+built up, during its continuance. Expansion and progress were
+not confined to Australasia. The opening months of the queen&rsquo;s
+reign were marked by rebellion in Canada. The close of it saw
+Canada one of the most loyal portions of the Empire. In Africa,
+the advance of the red line which marks the bounds of British
+dominion was even more rapid; while in India the Punjab,
+Sind, Oudh and Burma were some of the acquisitions added to
+the British empire while the queen was on the throne. When
+she died one square mile in four of the land in the world was under
+the British flag, and at least one person out of every five persons
+alive was a subject of the queen.</p>
+
+<p>Material progress was largely facilitated by industry and
+invention. The first railways had been made, the first steamship
+had been built, before the queen came to the throne. But, so
+far as railways are concerned, none of the great trunk lines had
+been constructed in 1837; the whole capital authorized to be
+spent on railway construction did not exceed £55,000,000; and,
+five years after the reign had begun, there were only 18,000,000
+passengers. The paid-up capital of British railways in 1901
+exceeded £1,100,000,000; the passengers, not including season
+ticket-holders, also numbered 1,100,000,000; and the sum
+annually spent in working the lines considerably exceeded the
+whole capital authorized to be spent on their construction in
+1837. The progress of the commercial marine was still more
+noteworthy. In 1837 the entire commercial navy comprised
+2,800,000 tons, of which less than 100,000 tons were moved by
+steam. At the end of the reign the tonnage of British merchant
+vessels had reached 13,700,000 tons, of which more than
+11,000,000 tons were moved by steam. At the beginning of the
+reign it was supposed to be impossible to build a steamer which
+could either cross the Atlantic, or face the monsoon in the Red
+Sea. The development of steam navigation since then had
+made Australia much more accessible than America was in 1837,
+and had brought New York, for all practical purposes, nearer
+to London than Aberdeen was at the commencement of the reign.
+Electricity had even a greater effect on communication than
+steam on locomotion; and electricity, as a practical invention,
+had its origin in the reign. The first experimental telegraph
+line was only erected in the year in which Queen Victoria came
+to the throne. Submarine telegraphy, which had done so much
+to knit the empire together, was not perfected for many years
+afterwards; and long ocean cables were almost entirely constructed
+in the last half of the reign.</p>
+<div class="author">(S. W.)</div>
+
+<p>On the death of Queen Victoria, the prince of Wales succeeded
+to the throne, with the title of Edward VII. (<i>q.v.</i>). The coronation
+fixed for June in the following year was at the
+last moment stopped by the king&rsquo;s illness with appendicitis,
+<span class="sidenote">Reign of Edward VII.</span>
+but he recovered marvellously from the operation
+and the ceremony took place in August. His excellent
+health and activity in succeeding years struck every one with
+astonishment. The Boer War had at last been brought to an end
+in May 1902 (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Transvaal</a></span>), and the king had the satisfaction of
+seeing South Africa settle down and eventually receive self-government.
+The political history of his reign, which ended with his
+death in May 1910, is dealt with in detail in separate biographical
+and other articles in this work (see especially those on Lord
+Salisbury, Mr A.J. Balfour, Mr J. Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery,
+Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, Mr H.H. Asquith, Mr D. Lloyd
+George, and on the history of the various portions of the British
+Empire); and in this place only a summary need be given.
+The king himself (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Edward VII.</a></span>), who nobly earned the title
+of Edward the Peacemaker, played no small part in the domestic
+and international politics of these years; and contemporary publicists,
+who had become accustomed to Victorian traditions, gradually
+realized that, within the limits of the constitutional monarchy,
+there was much more scope for the initiative of a masculine
+sovereign in public life than had been supposed by the generation
+which grew up after the death of his father in 1862. Edward
+VII. made the Crown throughout all classes of society a popular
+power which it had not been in England for long ages. And
+while the growing rivalry between England and Germany, in
+international relations, was continually threatening danger,
+his influence in cementing British friendship on all other sides
+was of the most marked description. His sudden death was
+felt, not only throughout the empire but throughout the world,
+with even more poignant emotion than that of Queen Victoria
+herself, for his personality had been much more in the forefront.</p>
+
+<p>The end of his reign coincided with a domestic constitutional
+crisis, to which party politics had been working up more and
+more acutely for several years. The Tariff Reform
+propaganda of Mr Chamberlain (<i>q.v.</i>) in 1903 convulsed
+<span class="sidenote">The Crisis of 1910.</span>
+the Conservative party, and the long period of Unionist
+domination came to an end in November 1905. Mr
+Balfour (<i>q.v.</i>), who became prime minister in 1902 on Lord
+Salisbury&rsquo;s retirement, resigned, and was succeeded by Sir H.
+Campbell-Bannerman (<i>q.v.</i>), as head of the Liberal party; and
+the general election of January 1906 resulted in an overwhelming
+victory for the Liberals and their allies, the Labour party (now
+a powerful force in politics) and the Irish Nationalists. Just
+before Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman&rsquo;s death in April 1908 he
+was succeeded as prime minister by Mr Asquith, a leader of far
+higher personal ability though with less hold on the affections of
+his party. The Liberals had long arrears to make up in their
+political programme, and their supremacy in the House of
+Commons was an encouragement to assert their views in legislation.
+In several directions, and notably in administration, they
+carried their policy into effect; but the House of Lords (see
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Parliament</a></span>) was an obvious stumbling-block to some of their
+more important Bills, and the Unionist control of that House
+speedily made itself felt, first in wrecking the Education Bill of
+1906, then in throwing out the Licensing Bill of 1908, and finally
+(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Lloyd George, D.</a></span>) in forcing a dissolution by the rejection
+of the budget of 1909, with its novel proposals for the increased
+taxation of land and licensed houses. The Unionist party in
+the country had, meanwhile, been recovering from the Tariff
+Reform divisions of 1903, and was once more solid under Mr
+Balfour in favour of its new and imperial policy; but the campaign
+against the House of Lords started by Mr Lloyd George
+and the Liberal leaders, who put in the forefront the necessity
+of obtaining statutory guarantees for the passing into law of
+measures deliberately adopted by the elected Chamber, resulted
+in the return of Mr Asquith&rsquo;s government to office at the election
+of January 1910. The Unionists came back equal in numbers to
+the Liberals, but the latter could also count on the Labour party
+and the Irish Nationalists; and the battle was fully arrayed for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page583" id="page583"></a>583</span>
+a frontal attack on the powers of the Second Chamber when the
+king&rsquo;s death in May upset all calculations. This unthought-of
+complication seemed to act like the letting of blood in an
+apoplectic patient.</p>
+
+<p>The prince of Wales became king as George V. (<i>q.v.</i>), and a
+temporary truce was called; and the reign began with a serious
+attempt between the leaders of the two great parties,
+by private conference, to see whether compromise was
+<span class="sidenote">Accession of George V.</span>
+not possible (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Parliament</a></span>). Apart from the
+parliamentary crisis, really hingeing on the difficulty
+of discovering a means by which the real will of the people should
+be carried out without actually making the House of Commons
+autocratically omnipotent, but also without allowing the House
+of Lords to obstruct a Liberal government merely as the organ
+of the Tory party, the new king succeeded to a noble heritage.
+The monarchy itself was popular, the country was prosperous and
+in good relations with the world, except for the increasing naval
+rivalry with Germany, and the consciousness of imperial solidarity
+had made extraordinary progress among all the dominions.
+However the domestic problems in the United Kingdom might
+be solved, the future of the greatness of the English throne lay
+with its headship of an empire, loyal to the core, over which the
+sun never sets.</p>
+<div class="author">(H. Ch.)</div>
+
+<p class="pt2 center sc">XIII.&mdash;Sources and Writers of English History</p>
+
+<p>The attempt here made to combine a bibliography of English
+history with some account of the progress of English historical
+writing is beset with some difficulty. The evidential value of
+what a writer says is quite distinct from the literary art with
+which he says it; the real sources of history are not the works
+of historians, but records and documents written with no desire
+to further any literary purpose. Domesday Book is unique as a
+source of medieval history, but it does not count in the development
+of English historical writing. That is quite a secondary
+consideration; for there was much English history before any
+Englishman could write; and even after he could write, his
+compositions constitute a minor part of the evidence.</p>
+
+<p>Our earliest information about the land and its people is derived
+from geological, ethnological and archaeological studies, from
+the remains in British barrows and caves, Roman roads, walls
+and villas, coins, place-names and inscriptions. The writings
+of Caesar and Tacitus, and a few scattered notices in other
+Roman authors, supplement this evidence. But the scientific
+accuracy of Tacitus&rsquo; <i>Germania</i> is not beyond dispute, and that
+light fails centuries before the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Great
+Britain. The history of that conquest itself is mainly inferential;
+there is the <i>flebilis narratio</i> of Gildas, vague and rhetorical, moral
+rather than historical in motive, and written more than a century
+after the conquest had begun, and the narrative of the Welsh
+Nennius, who wrote two and a half centuries after Gildas, and
+makes no critical distinction between the deeds of dragons and
+those of Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons themselves could not
+write until Christian missionaries had reintroduced the art at
+the end of the 6th century, and history was not by any means
+the first purpose to which they applied it. It was first used to
+compile written statements of customs and dooms which were
+their nearest approach to law, and these codes and charters
+are the earliest written materials for Anglo-Saxon history.
+The remarkable outburst of literary culture in Northumbria
+during the 7th and 8th centuries produced a real historian in
+Bede; Bede, however, knows little or nothing of English
+history between 450 and 596, and he is valuable only for the
+7th and early part of the 8th centuries. Almost contemporary
+is the <i>Vita Wilfridi</i> by Eddius, but more valuable are the letters
+we possess of Boniface and Alcuin. The famous Anglo-Saxon
+Chronicle was probably started under the influence of Alfred
+the Great towards the end of the 9th century. Its chronology
+is often one, two or three years wrong even when it seems to be a
+contemporary authority, and the value of its evidence on the conquest
+and the first two centuries after it is very uncertain. But
+from Ecgbert&rsquo;s reign onwards it supplies a good deal of apparently
+trustworthy information. For Alfred himself we have also
+Asser&rsquo;s biography and the <i>Annals of St Neots</i>, a very imaginative
+compilation, while most of the stories which have made Alfred&rsquo;s
+name a household word are fabulous. Even the Chronicle
+becomes meagre a few years after Alfred&rsquo;s death, and its value
+depends largely upon the ballads which it incorporates; nor is
+it materially supplemented by the lives of St Dunstan, for
+hagiologists have never treated historical accuracy as a matter
+of moment; and our knowledge of the last century of Anglo-Saxon
+history is derived mainly from Anglo-Norman writers
+who wrote after the Norman Conquest. Some collateral light
+on the Danish conquest of England is thrown by the <i>Heimskringla</i>
+and other materials collected in Vigfusson and Powell&rsquo;s
+<i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i>, and for the reign of Canute and his
+sons there is the contemporary <i>Encomium Emmae</i>, which is a
+dishonest panegyric on the widow of Ęthelred and Canute.
+For Edward the Confessor there is an almost equally biased
+biography.</p>
+
+<p>For the Norman Conquest itself strictly contemporary evidence
+is extremely scanty, and historians have exhausted their own
+and their readers&rsquo; patience in disputing the precise significance
+of some phrases about the battle of Hastings used by Wace, a
+Norman poet who wrote nearly a century after the battle. One
+version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle goes down to 1079 and
+another to 1154, but their notices of current events are brief
+and meagre. The Bayeux tapestry affords, however, valuable
+contemporary evidence, and there are some facts related by
+eye-witnesses in the works of William of Poitiers and William
+of Jumičges. A generation of copious chroniclers was, moreover,
+springing up, and among them were Florence of Worcester,
+Henry of Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham and William of
+Malmesbury. Their ambition was almost invariably to write the
+history of the world, and they generally begin with the Creation.
+They only become original and contemporary authorities
+towards the end of their appointed tasks, and the bulk of
+their work is borrowed from their predecessors. Frequently
+they embody materials which would otherwise have perished,
+but their transcription is marred by an amount of conscious
+or unconscious falsification which seriously impairs their
+value. All the above-mentioned writers lived in the half-century
+immediately following the Norman Conquest, but their
+critical acumen and their literary art vary considerably. William
+of Malmesbury, Eadmer and Ordericus Vitalis attain a higher
+historical standard than had yet been reached in England by
+any one, with the possible exception of Bede. They are not
+mere annalists; they practise an art and cultivate a style;
+history has become to them a form of literature. They have
+also their philosophy and interpretation of history. It is mainly
+a theological conception, blind to economic influences, and
+attaching excessive importance to the effects of the individual
+action of emperors and popes, kings and cardinals. Even their
+characters are painted in different colours according to their
+action on quite irrelevant questions, as, for instance, their
+benefactions to the monastery, to which the historian happens
+to belong, or to rival houses; and the character once determined
+by such considerations, history is made to point the moral of
+their fortunes, or their fate. It is regarded as the record of moral
+judgments and the proof of orthodox doctrine, and it is long
+before ecclesiastical historians expel the sermon from their text.</p>
+
+<p>The line of monastic historians stretches out to the close of
+the middle ages. Most of the great monasteries had their official
+annalists, who produced such works as the Annals of Tewkesbury,
+Gloucester, Burton, Waverley, Dunstable, Bermondsey, Oseney,
+Winchester (see <i>Annales Monastici</i>, 5 vols., ed. Luard, and other
+volumes in the Rolls series). Some of them are mainly local
+chronicles; others are almost national histories. In particular,
+St Albans developed a remarkable school of historians extending
+over nearly three centuries to the death of Whethamstede in
+1465 (see <i>Chronica Monasterii S. Albani</i>, Rolls series, 7 vols.,
+ed. Riley). Only a few of the 235 volumes published under the
+direction of the master of the Rolls, and called the Rolls series,
+can here be mentioned. Other medieval writers have been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page584" id="page584"></a>584</span>
+edited for the earlier English Historical Society; some of them
+have been re-edited without being superseded in the Rolls
+series. For the reign of Stephen we have the anonymous
+<i>Gesta Stephani</i> in addition to the writers already mentioned,
+several of whom continue into Stephen&rsquo;s reign. For Henry II.
+we have William of Newburgh, who reaches the highest point
+attained by historical composition in the 12th century; the
+so-called Benedict of Peterborough&rsquo;s <i>Gesta Henrici</i>, which Stubbs
+tentatively and without sufficient authority ascribed to Richard
+Fitznigel; Robert of Torigni; and seven volumes of &ldquo;Materials
+for the History of Thomas Becket,&rdquo; which contain some of the
+best and worst samples of hagiological history. For Richard
+and John the chronicles of Roger of Hoveden, Ralph de Diceto
+(Diss), Gervase of Canterbury, Ralph of Coggeshall, and a later
+continuation of Hoveden, known under the name of Walter of
+Coventry, are the best narrative authorities.</p>
+
+<p>With the accession of Henry III., Roger of Wendover, the
+first of the St Albans school whose writings are extant, becomes
+our chief authority. He was re-edited and continued after 1236
+by Matthew Paris, the greatest of medieval historians. His work,
+which goes down to 1259, is picturesque, vivid, and marked by
+considerable breadth of view and independence of judgment.
+The story is carried on by a series of jejune compilations known
+as the <i>Flores historiarum</i> (ed. Luard). Better authorities for
+Edward I. are Rishanger, Trokelowe and Blaneforde, Wykes,
+Walter of Hemingburgh, Nicholas Trevet, Oxnead and Bartholomew
+Cotton, and others contained in Stubbs&rsquo;s <i>Chronicles of
+Edward I. and Edward II.</i> In the 14th century there is a
+significant deterioration in the monastic chroniclers, and their
+place is taken by the works of secular clergy like Adam Murimuth,
+Geoffrey the Baker, Robert of Avesbury, Henry Knighton and
+the anonymous author of the <i>Eulogium historiarum</i>. Monastic
+history is represented by Higden&rsquo;s voluminous <i>Polychronicon</i>,
+which succeeds the <i>Flores historiarum</i>. A brief revival of the
+St Albans school towards the end of the century is seen in the
+<i>Chronicon Angliae</i> and the works of T. Walsingham, which
+continue into the reign of Henry V. For Richard II. we have
+also Malverne and the Monk of Evesham; for the early Lancastrians,
+Capgrave, Elmham, Otterbourne, Adam of Usk;
+and for Henry VI., Amundesham, Whethamstede, William of
+Worcester and John Hardyng, as well as a number of anonymous
+briefer chronicles, edited, though not in the Rolls series, by
+J. Gairdner, C.L. Kingsford, N.H. Nicolas and J.S. Davies.</p>
+
+<p>These are the principal English historical writers for the
+middle ages; but as the connexion between England and the
+continent grew closer, and international relations developed,
+an increasing amount of light is thrown on English history by
+foreign writers. Of these authorities one of the earliest is the
+<i>Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d&rsquo;Angleterre</i> (ed.
+Michel); briefer are the <i>Chronique de l&rsquo;Anonyme de Béthune</i>
+and the <i>Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal</i>. A large number
+of French and Flemish chronicles illustrate the history of the
+Hundred Years&rsquo; War, by far the most important being Froissart
+(best edition by Luce, though Lettenhove&rsquo;s is bigger). Next
+come Jehan le Bel, Waurin&rsquo;s <i>Recueil</i>, Monstrelet, Chastellain,
+Juvenal des Ursins, and more limited works such as Créton&rsquo;s
+<i>Chronique de la traison et mort de Richard II</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Chronicles, however, grow less important as sources of history
+as time goes on. Their value is always dependent upon the
+absence of the more satisfactory materials known as records,
+and these records gradually become more copious and complete.
+They develop with the government, of whose activity and policy
+they are the real test and evidence. Perhaps the most important
+thing in history is the evolution of government, the development
+of consciousness and a will on the part of the state. This will
+is expressed in records; and, as the state progresses from infancy
+through the stage of tutelage under the church to its modern
+&ldquo;omnicompetence,&rdquo; so its will is expressed in an ever widening
+and differentiating series of records. The first need of a government
+is finance; the earliest organized machinery for exerting
+its will is the exchequer; and the earliest great record in English
+history is Domesday Book. It is followed by a series of exchequer
+records, called the Pipe Rolls, which begin in the reign of Henry I.,
+and dating from that of Henry II. is the <i>Dialogus de scaccario</i>,
+which explains in none too lucid language the intricate working
+of the exchequer system. It was Henry II. who gave the greatest
+impetus to the development of the machinery for expressing
+the will of the state. He began with finance and went on to
+justice, recognizing that <i>justitia magnum emolumentum</i>, the
+administration of justice was a great source of revenue. So
+national courts of law are added to the national exchequer, and
+by the end of the 12th century legal records become an even
+more important source of history than financial documents.
+The judicial system is described by Glanvill at the end of the
+12th, and by Bracton and Fleta in the 13th century (for the
+exchequer see the <i>Testa de Nevill</i> and the <i>Red Book of the
+Exchequer</i>). During that period the Curia Regis threw off three
+offshoots&mdash;the courts of exchequer, king&rsquo;s bench and common
+pleas; and records of their judicial proceedings survive in the
+Plea Rolls and Year Books, some of which have been edited for
+the Rolls series, the Selden and other societies. Numerous other
+classes of legal and administrative records gradually develop,
+the Patent and Close Rolls (first calendared by the Record
+Commission, and subsequently treated more adequately under
+the direction of the deputy keeper of the Records), Charters
+(which were first grants to individuals, then to collective groups,
+monasteries or boroughs, then to classes, and finally expanded&mdash;as
+in Magna Carta&mdash;into grants to the whole nation), Escheats,
+Feet of Fines, Inquisitiones post mortem, Inquisitiones ad quod
+damnum, Placita de Quo Warranto, and others for which the
+reader is referred to S.R. Scargill-Bird&rsquo;s <i>Guide to the Principal
+Classes of Documents preserved in the Record Office</i> (3rd ed., 1908).
+Every branch of administration comes to be represented in
+records almost as soon as it is developed. The evolution of the
+army which won Creēy and Poitiers is accompanied by the
+accumulation of a mass of indentures and other military documents,
+the value of which has been illustrated in Dr Morris&rsquo;s
+<i>Welsh Wars of Edward I</i>. and George Wrottesley&rsquo;s <i>Creēy and
+Calais from the Public Records</i>. The growth of naval organization
+is reflected in the <i>Black Book of the Admiralty</i>; the growth of
+taxation in the <i>Liber custumarum</i> and <i>Subsidy Rolls</i>; the rise
+of parliament in the <i>Parliamentary Writs</i> (ed. Palgrave), in the
+<i>Rotuli parliamentorum</i>, in the <i>Official Return of Members of
+Parliament</i>, and in the <i>Statutes of the Realm</i>; that of Convocation
+in David Wilkins&rsquo;s <i>Concilia</i>. The register of the privy
+council does not begin until later in the 14th century, and then
+is broken off between the middle of the 15th and 1539.</p>
+
+<p>Local as well as central government begets records as it grows.
+From the <i>Extenta manerii</i> of the 12th century we get to the
+<i>Manorial Rolls</i> of the 13th, when also we have <i>Hundred Rolls</i>,
+records of forest courts, of courts leet and of coroners&rsquo; courts,
+and a variety of municipal documents, for which the reader is
+referred to Dr C. Gross&rsquo;s <i>Bibliography of British Municipal
+History</i> and to Mrs J.R. Green&rsquo;s more popular <i>Town Life in the
+Fifteenth Century</i>. The municipal records of London, its hustings
+court and city companies, are too multifarious to describe;
+some classes of these documents have been exemplified in the
+works of Dr R.R. Sharpe. Ecclesiastical records are represented
+by the episcopal registers (for the most part still unpublished),
+monastic cartularies, and other documents rendered comparatively
+scarce by the spoliation of the monasteries, and
+scattered proceedings of ecclesiastical courts. (See also the
+article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Record</a></span>.)</p>
+
+<p>Documents, other than records strictly so called, begin to
+grow with the habit of correspondence and the necessity of
+communication. A few letters survive from the time of the
+Norman kings, but the earliest collection of English royal letters
+is the <i>Letters of Henry III</i>. (Rolls series). Contemporary are the
+<i>Letters of Grosseteste</i>, and a little later come the <i>Letters of Archbishop
+Peckham</i> and Raine&rsquo;s <i>Letters from Northern Registers</i>
+(all in the Rolls series). Private correspondence appeared earlier
+in the voluminous epistles of Peter of Blois, archdeacon of Bath
+(ed. Giles). This is a somewhat intermittent source of history
+until we come to the 15th century, when the well-known <i>Paston Letters</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page585" id="page585"></a>585</span>
+(ed. Gairdner) begin a stream which never fails thereafter
+and soon becomes a torrent. The most important series of
+official correspondence is the <i>Papal Letters</i>, calendared from 1198
+to 1404 in 4 vols. (ed. Bliss, Johnson and Twemlow). Subsidiary
+sources are the <i>Political Songs</i> (ed. Wright), treatises like those
+of John of Salisbury, Gerald of Wales, and, later, Wycliffe&rsquo;s
+works, Netter&rsquo;s <i>Fasciculi Zizaniorum</i>, Gascoigne&rsquo;s <i>Loci e libro
+veritatum</i>, Pecock&rsquo;s <i>Repressor</i>, and the literary writings of
+Chaucer, Langland, Gower, Richard Rolle and others.</p>
+
+<p>During the 15th century the transition, which marks the
+change from medieval to modern history, affects also the
+character of historical sources and historical writing. In the first
+place, history ceases to be the exclusive province of the church;
+monastic chronicles shrink to a trickle and then dry up; the last
+of their kind in England is the <i>Greyfriars Chronicle</i> (Camden
+Society), which ends in 1554. Their place is taken by the city
+chronicle compiled by middle-class laymen, just as the Renaissance
+was not a revival of clerical learning, but the expression
+of new intellectual demands on the part of the laity. Secondly,
+the definite disappearance of the medieval ideas of a cosmopolitan
+world and the emergence of national states begat diplomacy, and
+with it an ever-swelling mass of diplomatic material. Diplomacy
+had hitherto been occasional and intermittent, and embassies
+rare; now we get resident ambassadors carrying on a regular
+correspondence (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Diplomacy</a></span>). The mercantile interests of
+Venice made it the pioneer in this direction, though its representatives
+abroad were at first commercial rather than diplomatic
+agents. The <i>Calendar of Venetian State Papers</i> goes back to the
+14th century, but does not become copious till the reign of
+Henry VII., when also the Spanish Calendar begins. Resident
+French ambassadors in England only begin in the 16th century,
+and later still those from the emperor, the German and Italian
+states other than Venice. In the third place, the development
+of the new monarchy involved an enormous extension of the
+activity of the central government, and therefore a corresponding
+expansion in the records of its energy.</p>
+
+<p>The political records of this energy are the State Papers, a
+class of document which soon dwarfs all others, and renders
+chroniclers, historians and the like almost negligible quantities as
+sources of history; but in another way their value is enhanced,
+for these hundreds of thousands of documents provide a test of
+the accuracy of modern historians which is imperfect in the case
+of medieval chroniclers and almost non-existent in that of
+ancient writers. These state papers are either &ldquo;foreign&rdquo; or
+&ldquo;domestic,&rdquo; that is to say, the correspondence of the English
+government with its agents abroad, or at home. There is also the
+correspondence of foreign ambassadors resident in England with
+their governments. This last class of documents exists in England
+mainly in the form of transcripts from the originals in foreign
+archives, which have been made for the purpose of the Venetian
+and Spanish Calendars of state papers. The Venetian Calendar
+had by 1909 been carried well into the 17th century; the Spanish
+(which includes transcripts from the Habsburg archives at
+Vienna, Brussels and Simancas) covered only the reigns of
+Henry VII. and VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. No attempt had
+yet been made to calendar the French correspondence in a similar
+way, though the French Foreign Office published some fragmentary
+collections, such as the <i>Correspondance de MM. de
+Castillon et de Marillac</i> and that of Odet de Selve. There are
+other collections too numerous to enumerate, such as Lettenhove&rsquo;s
+edition of Philip II.&rsquo;s correspondence relating to the Netherlands,
+Diegerick and Müller&rsquo;s, Teulet&rsquo;s and Albéri&rsquo;s collections,
+the French <i>Documents inédits</i> and the Spanish <i>Documentos
+ineditos</i>, all containing state papers relating to England&rsquo;s
+foreign policy in the 16th century. The Scottish and Irish state
+papers are calendared in separate series and without much
+system. Thus for Scottish affairs there are four series, the
+Border Papers, the Hamilton Papers, Thorp&rsquo;s Calendar, and,
+more recent and complete, Bain&rsquo;s Calendar. For Ireland,
+besides the regular Irish state papers, there are the Carew Papers,
+almost as important. Anarchy, indeed, pervades the whole
+method of publication. For the reign of Henry VII. we have,
+besides the Venetian and Spanish Calendars, only three volumes&mdash;Gairdner&rsquo;s
+<i>Letters and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII.</i>
+and Campbell&rsquo;s <i>Materials</i> (2 vols., Rolls series). Then with the
+reign of Henry VIII. begins the magnificent and monumental
+<i>Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.</i>, the one modern series for
+which the Record Office deserves unstinted praise. This is not
+limited to state papers, domestic and foreign, nor to documents in
+the Record Office; it calendars private letters, grants, &amp;c.,
+extant in the British Museum and elsewhere. It extends to
+21 volumes, each volume consisting of two or more parts, and
+some parts (as in vol. iv.) containing over a thousand pages;
+it comprises at least fifty thousand documents. Its value, however,
+varies; the earlier volumes are not so full as the later, the
+documents are not so well calendared, and some classes are
+excluded from earlier, which appear in the later, volumes.</p>
+
+<p>After 1547 a different plan is adopted, though not consistently
+followed. Only state papers are calendared, and as a rule only
+those in the Record Office; and the domestic are separated from
+the foreign. The great fault is the neglect of the vast quantities
+of state papers in the British Museum. The Domestic Calendar
+(the first volume of which is very inadequate) extended in 1909
+in a series of more than seventy volumes nearly to the end of the
+17th century; the mass of MSS. calendared therein may be
+gathered from the fact that for the reign of Elizabeth the Domestic
+state papers fill over three hundred MS. volumes. The Foreign
+Calendar had only got to 1582, but it occupied sixteen printed
+volumes against one of the Domestic Calendar. For the masses
+of MSS. uncalendared in the British Museum there is no guide
+except the imperfect indexes to the Cotton, Harleian, Lansdowne,
+Additional and other collections. Hardly less important than the
+calendars are the reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission
+and the appendices thereto, which extend to over a
+hundred volumes; twelve are occupied by Lord Salisbury&rsquo;s
+16th-century MSS. at Hatfield House. The dispersion of these
+state papers is due to the fact that they were in those days
+treated not as the property of the state, but as the private
+property of individual secretaries.</p>
+
+<p>State papers represent only one side of the activity of the
+central government. The register of the privy council, extending
+with some lacunae from 1539 to 1604, has been printed in
+thirty-two volumes. The <i>Rotuli parliamentorum</i> end with
+Henry VII., but in 1509 begin the journals of the House of
+Lords, and in 1547 the journals of the House of Commons.
+These are supplemented by private diaries of members of
+parliament, several of which were used in D&rsquo;Ewes&rsquo;s <i>Journals</i>.
+Legal history can now be followed in a continuous series of law
+reports, beginning with Keilway, Staunford and Dyer, and
+going on with Coke and many others; documentary records of
+various courts are exemplified in the <i>Select Cases</i> from the
+star chamber, the court of requests and admiralty courts,
+published by the Selden Society; and there are voluminous
+records of the courts of augmentations, first-fruits, wards and
+liveries in the Record Office. For Ireland, besides the state
+papers, there are the Calendars of Patents and of Fiants, and
+for Scotland the Exchequer Rolls and Registers of the Privy
+Council and of the Great Seal, both extending to many volumes.</p>
+
+<p>Unofficial sources multiply with equal rapidity, but it is
+impossible to enumerate the collections of private letters, &amp;c.,
+only a few of which have been published. The chronicles,
+which in the 15th century are usually meagre productions like
+Warkworth&rsquo;s (Camden Society), get fuller, especially those
+emanating from London. Fabyan is succeeded by Hall, an
+indispensable authority for Henry VIII., and Hall by Grafton.
+Other useful books are Wriothesley&rsquo;s <i>Chronicle</i> and Machyn&rsquo;s
+<i>Diary</i>, and they have numerous successors; some of their works
+have been edited for the Camden Society, which now takes the
+place of the Rolls series. The most important are Holinshed,
+Stow and Camden; and gradually, with Speed and Bacon, the
+chronicle develops into the history, and early in the 17th century
+we get such works as Lord Herbert&rsquo;s <i>Reign of Henry
+VIII.</i>, Hayward&rsquo;s <i>Edward VI.</i>, and, on the ecclesiastical side,
+Heylyn, Fuller, Burnet and Collier&rsquo;s histories of the church and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page586" id="page586"></a>586</span>
+Reformation. Foxe, who died in 1587, included a vast and
+generally accurate collection of documents in his <i>Acts and
+Monuments</i>, popularized as the <i>Book of Martyrs</i>, though his own
+contributions have to be discounted as much as those of Sanders,
+Parsons and other Roman Catholic controversialists. Two other
+great collections are the Parker Society&rsquo;s publications (56 vols.),
+which contain besides the works of the reformers a considerable
+number of their letters, and Strype&rsquo;s works (26 vols.). The
+naval epic of the period is Hakluyt&rsquo;s <i>Navigations</i>, re-edited in 12
+vols. in 1902, and continued in Purchas&rsquo;s <i>Pilgrims</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the 17th century the domestic and foreign state papers
+eclipse other sources almost more completely than in the 16th.
+The colonial state papers now become important and extensive,
+those relating to America and the West Indies being most
+numerous (18 vols. to 1700). Parliamentary records naturally
+expand, and the journals of both houses become more detailed.
+Parliamentary diarists like D&rsquo;Ewes, Burton and Walter Yonge,
+only a fragment of whose shorthand notes in the British Museum
+has been published (Camden Society), elucidate the bare official
+statements; and from 1660 the series of parliamentary debates
+is fairly complete, though not so full or authoritative as it
+becomes with Hansard in the 19th century. Social diarists of
+great value appear after the Restoration in Pepys, Evelyn,
+Reresby, Narcissus Luttrell and Swift (<i>Journal to Stella</i>), and
+political writing grows more important as a source of history,
+whether it takes the form of Bacon&rsquo;s (ed. Spedding) or Milton&rsquo;s
+treatises, or of satires like Dryden&rsquo;s and political pamphlets like
+Halifax&rsquo;s and then Swift&rsquo;s, Defoe&rsquo;s and Steele&rsquo;s. Clarendon&rsquo;s
+<i>Great Rebellion</i> and Burnet&rsquo;s <i>History of My Own Time</i> are the
+first modern attempts at contemporary history, as distinct from
+chronicles and annals, in England, although it is difficult to
+exclude the work of Matthew Paris from the category. The
+innumerable tracts and newsletters are a valuable source for
+the Civil Wars and Commonwealth period (see J.B. Williams,
+<i>A History of English Journalism</i>, 1909), while Thurloe&rsquo;s,
+Clarendon&rsquo;s and Nalson&rsquo;s collections of state papers deserve a
+mention apart from the Domestic Calendar. There is a still
+more monumental collection&mdash;the Carte Papers&mdash;on Irish affairs
+in the Bodleian Library, where also the Tanner MSS. and other
+collections have only been very partially worked. The volumes
+of the Historical MSS. Commission are of great value for the
+later Stuart period, notably the House of Lords MSS.</p>
+
+<p>For the 18th century the only calendars are the Home Office
+Papers and the Treasury Books and Papers, the further specialization
+of government having made it necessary to differentiate
+domestic state papers into several classes. But it need hardly
+be said that the bulk of correspondence in the Record Office
+does not diminish. Outside its walls the most important single
+collection is perhaps the duke of Newcastle&rsquo;s papers among the
+Additional MSS. in the British Museum; the Stuart papers at
+Windsor, Mr Fortescue&rsquo;s at Dropmore, Lord Charlemont&rsquo;s
+(Irish affairs), Lord Dartmouth&rsquo;s (American affairs) and Lord
+Carlisle&rsquo;s, all calendared by the Historical MSS. Commission,
+are also valuable. Chatham&rsquo;s correspondence with colonial
+governors has been published (2 vols., 1906), as have the <i>Grenville
+Papers</i>, <i>Bedford Correspondence</i>, Malmesbury&rsquo;s <i>Diaries</i>, Auckland&rsquo;s
+<i>Journals and Correspondence</i>, Grafton&rsquo;s <i>Correspondence</i>,
+Lord North&rsquo;s <i>Correspondence with George III.</i>, and other correspondence
+in <i>The Memoirs of Rockingham</i>, and the duke of
+Buckingham&rsquo;s <i>Court and Cabinets of George III.</i> Mention should
+also be made of Gower&rsquo;s <i>Despatches</i>, the <i>Cornwallis Correspondence</i>,
+Rose&rsquo;s <i>Correspondence</i> and Lord Colchester&rsquo;s <i>Correspondence</i>.
+Of special interest is the series of naval records, despatches to
+and from naval commanders, proceedings of courts-martial, and
+logs in the Record Office which have never been properly utilized.</p>
+
+<p>Among unofficial sources the most characteristic of the 18th
+century are letters, memoirs and periodical literature. Horace
+Walpole&rsquo;s <i>Letters</i> (Clarendon Press, 16 vols.) are the best comment
+on the history of the period; his <i>Memoirs</i> are not so good,
+though they are superior to Wraxall, who succeeds him.
+Periodical literature becomes regular in the reign of Queen Anne,
+chiefly in the form of journals like the <i>Spectator</i>; but several
+daily newspapers, including <i>The Times</i>, were founded during
+the century. <i>The Craftsman</i> provided a vehicle for Bolingbroke&rsquo;s
+attacks on Walpole, while the <i>Gentleman&rsquo;s Magazine and Annual
+Register</i> begin a more serious and prolonged career. Both contain
+occasional state papers, and not very trustworthy reports of
+parliamentary proceedings. The publication of debates was not
+authorized till the last quarter of the century; parliamentary
+papers begin earlier, but only slowly attain their present portentous
+dimensions. Political writing is at its best from Halifax
+to Cobbett, and its three greatest names are perhaps Swift,
+&ldquo;Junius&rdquo; and Burke, though Steele, Defoe, Bolingbroke and
+Dr Johnson are not far behind, while Canning&rsquo;s contributions
+to the <i>Anti-Jacobin</i> and Gillray&rsquo;s caricatures require mention.</p>
+
+<p>The sources for 19th-century history are somewhat similar
+to those for the 18th. Diaries continue in the <i>Creevey Papers</i>,
+Greville&rsquo;s Diary, and lesser but not less voluminous writers like
+Sir M.E. Grant-Duff. The most important series of letters is
+Queen Victoria&rsquo;s (ed. Lord Esher and A.C. Benson, 1908), and
+the correspondence of most of her prime ministers and many of
+her other advisers has been partially published. Of political
+biographies there is no end. The great bulk of material, however,
+consists of blue-books, Hansard&rsquo;s <i>Parliamentary Debates</i>, and
+newspapers&mdash;which are better as indirect than direct evidence.
+The real truth is not of course revealed at once, and many episodes
+in 19th-century history are still shrouded by official secrecy. In
+this respect English governments are more cautious or reactionary
+than many of those on the continent of Europe, and access to
+official documents is denied when it is granted elsewhere; even
+the lapse of a century is not considered a sufficient salve for
+susceptibilities which might be wounded by the whole truth.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the 19th century witnessed a great development
+in historical writing. In the middle ages the stimulus to write
+was mainly of a moral or ecclesiastical nature, though the
+patriotic impulse which had suggested the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
+was perhaps never entirely absent, and the ecclesiastical motive
+often degenerated into a desire to glorify, sometimes even by
+forgery, not merely the church as a whole, but the particular
+monastery to which the writer belonged. As nationalism
+developed, the patriotic motive supplanted the ecclesiastical,
+and stress is laid on the &ldquo;famous&rdquo; history of England. Insular
+self-glorification was, however, modified to some extent by the
+Renaissance, which developed an interest in other lands, and the
+Reformation, which gave to much historical writing a partisan
+theological bias. This still colours most of the &ldquo;histories&rdquo; of
+the Reformation period, because the issues of that time are
+living issues, and the writers of these histories are committed
+beforehand by their profession and their position to a particular
+interpretation. In the 17th century political partisanship
+coloured historical writing, and that, too, remained a potent
+motive so long as historians were either Whigs or Tories.
+Histories were often elaborate party pamphlets, and this race
+of historians is hardly yet extinct. Macaulay is not greatly
+superior in impartiality to Hume; Gibbon and Robertson were
+less open to temptation because they avoided English subjects.
+Hallam deliberately aimed at impartiality, but he could not
+escape his Whig atmosphere. Nevertheless, the effort to be
+impartial marks a new conception of history, which is well
+expressed in Lord Acton&rsquo;s admonition to his contributors in the
+<i>Cambridge Modern History</i>. Historians are to serve no cause
+but that of truth; in so far even as they desire a line of investigation
+to lead to a particular result, they are not, maintains
+Professor Bury, real historians. S.R. Gardiner perhaps attained
+most nearly this severe ideal among English historians, and
+Ranke among Germans. But, even when all conscious bias is
+eliminated, the unconscious bias remains, and Ranke&rsquo;s history
+of the Reformation is essentially a middle-class, even <i>bourgeois</i>,
+presentment. Stubbs&rsquo;s medievalist sympathies colour his
+history throughout, and still more strongly does Froude&rsquo;s anti-clericalism.
+Freeman&rsquo;s bias was peculiar; he is really a West
+Saxon of Godwine&rsquo;s time reincarnated, and his Somerset hatred
+of French, Scots and Mercian foreigners sets off his robust
+loyalty to the house of Wessex. Lecky and Creighton are almost
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page587" id="page587"></a>587</span>
+as dispassionate as Gardiner, but are more definitely committed
+to particular points of views, while democratic fervour pervades
+the fascinating pages of J.R. Green, and an intellectual secularism,
+which is almost religious in its intensity and idealism, inspired
+the genius of Maitland.</p>
+
+<p>The latest controversy about history is whether it is a science
+or an art. It is, of course, both, simply because there must be
+science in every art and art in every science. The antithesis
+is largely false; science lays stress on analysis, art on synthesis.
+The historian must apply scientific methods to his materials
+and artistic methods to his results; he must test his documents
+and then turn them into literature. The relative importance
+of the two methods is a matter of dispute. There are some who
+still maintain that history is merely an art, that the best history is
+the story that is best told, and that what is said is less important
+than the way in which it is said. This school generally ignores
+records. Others attach little importance to the form in which
+truth is presented; they are concerned mainly with the principles
+and methods of scientific criticism, and specialize in palaeography,
+diplomatic and sources. The works of this school are little read,
+but in time its results penetrate the teaching in schools and
+universities, and then the pages of literary historians; it is
+represented in England by a fairly good organization, the Royal
+Historical Society (with which the Camden Society has been
+amalgamated), and by an excellent periodical, <i>The English
+Historical Review</i> (founded in 1884), while some sort of propaganda
+is attempted by the Historical Association (started in
+1906). Its standards have also been upheld with varying success
+in great co-operative undertakings, such as the <i>Dictionary of
+National Biography</i>, the <i>Cambridge Modern History</i>, and Messrs
+Longmans&rsquo; <i>Political History of England</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="condensed">
+<p>These 19th-century products require some sort of classification
+for purposes of reference, and the chronological is the most convenient.
+Lingard&rsquo;s, J.R. Green&rsquo;s and Messrs Longmans&rsquo; histories
+are the only notable attempts to tell the history of England as a
+whole, though Stubbs&rsquo;s <i>Constitutional History</i> (3 vols.) covers the
+middle ages and embodies a political survey as well (for corrections
+and modifications see Petit-Dutaillis, <i>Supplementary Studies</i>, 1908),
+while Hallam&rsquo;s <i>Constitutional History</i> (3 vols.) extends from 1485
+to 1760 and Erskine May&rsquo;s (3 vols.) from 1760 to 1860. Sir James
+Ramsay&rsquo;s six volumes also cover the greater part of medieval
+English history. There is no work on a larger scale than Lappenberg
+and Kemble, dealing with England before the Norman Conquest,
+though J.R. Green&rsquo;s <i>Making of England</i> and <i>Conquest of England</i>
+deal with certain portions in some detail, and Freeman gives a
+preliminary survey in his <i>Norman Conquest</i> (6 vols.). For the
+succeeding period see Freeman&rsquo;s <i>William Rufus</i>, J.H. Round&rsquo;s
+<i>Feudal England</i> and <i>Geoffrey de Mandeville</i>, and Miss Norgate&rsquo;s
+<i>England under the Angevins and John Lackland</i>. From 1216 we have
+nothing but Ramsay, Stubbs, Longmans&rsquo; <i>Political History</i> and
+monographs (some of them good), until we come to Wylie&rsquo;s <i>Henry IV</i>.
+(4 vols.); and again from 1413 the same is true (Gairdner&rsquo;s <i>Lollardy
+and the Reformation</i> being the most elaborate monograph) until we
+come to Brewer&rsquo;s <i>Reign of Henry VIII</i>. (2 vols.; to 1530 only),
+Froude&rsquo;s <i>History</i> (12 vols., 1529-1588) and R.W. Dixon&rsquo;s <i>Church
+History</i> (6 vols., 1529-1570). From 1603 to 1656 we have Gardiner&rsquo;s
+<i>History</i> (England, 10 vols.; Civil War, 4 vols.; Commonwealth and
+Protectorate, 3 vols.), and to 1714 Ranke&rsquo;s <i>History of England</i> (6
+vols.; see also Firth&rsquo;s <i>Cromwell</i> and <i>Cromwell&rsquo;s Army</i>, and various
+editions of texts and monographs). For Charles II. there is no good
+history; then come Macaulay, and Stanhope and Wyon&rsquo;s <i>Queen
+Anne</i>, and for the 18th century Stanhope and Lecky (England,
+7 vols.; Ireland, 5 vols.). From 1793 to 1815 is another gap only
+partially filled. Spencer Walpole deals with the period from 1815 to
+1880, and Herbert Paul with the years 1846-1895.</p>
+
+<p>A few books on special subjects deserve mention. For legal
+history see Pollock and Maitland&rsquo;s <i>History of English Law</i> (2 vols.
+to Edward I.), Maitland&rsquo;s <i>Domesday Book and Beyond</i>, and Anson&rsquo;s
+<i>Law and Custom of the Constitution</i>; for economic history, Cunningham&rsquo;s
+<i>Growth of Industry and Commerce</i>, and Ashley&rsquo;s <i>Economic
+History</i>; for ecclesiastical history, Stephens and Hunt&rsquo;s series (7
+vols.); for foreign and colonial, Seeley&rsquo;s <i>British Foreign Policy</i> and
+<i>Expansion of England</i>, and J.A. Doyle&rsquo;s books on the American
+colonies; for military history, Fortescue&rsquo;s <i>History of the British
+Army</i>, Napier&rsquo;s and Oman&rsquo;s works on the <i>Peninsular War</i>, and
+Kinglake&rsquo;s <i>Invasion of the Crimea</i>; and for naval history, Corbett&rsquo;s
+<i>Drake and the Tudor Navy, Successors of Drake, English in the Mediterranean</i>
+and <i>Seven Years&rsquo; War</i>, and Mahan&rsquo;s <i>Influence of Sea-Power
+on History</i> and <i>Influence of Sea-Power upon the French Revolution
+and Empire</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Bibliography of Bibliographies</span>.&mdash;The sources for the middle
+ages have been enumerated in C. Gross&rsquo;s <i>Sources and Literature of
+English History ... to about 1485</i> (London, 1900), but there is
+nothing similar for modern history. G.C. Lee&rsquo;s <i>Source Book of
+English History</i> is not very satisfactory. More information can be
+obtained from the bibliographies appended to the volumes in
+Longmans&rsquo; <i>Political History</i>, or the chapters in the <i>Cambridge
+Modern History</i>, or to the biographical articles in the <i>D.N.B.</i> and
+<i>Ency. Brit.</i> A series of bibliographical leaflets for the use of teachers
+is issued by the Historical Association. For MSS. sources see
+Scargill-Bird&rsquo;s <i>Guide to the Record Office</i>, and the class catalogues
+in the MSS. Department of the British Museum. Lists of the state
+papers and other documents printed and calendared under the direction
+of the master of the Rolls and deputy keeper of the Records
+are supplied at the end of many of their volumes.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="author">(A. F. P.)</div>
+
+<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note">
+
+<p><a name="ft1a" id="ft1a" href="#fa1a"><span class="fn">1</span></a> As the name Edith (Eadgyth) sounded uncouth to Norman ears,
+she assumed the continental name Maheut or Mahelt (Eng. Mahald,
+later Mold and Maud), in Latin Matildis or Matilda. Sir J.H.
+Ramsay, <i>Foundations of England</i>, ii. 235. (Ed.)</p>
+
+<p><a name="ft2a" id="ft2a" href="#fa2a"><span class="fn">2</span></a> The Nottingham of 1387, who had been promoted to the higher
+title.</p>
+
+<p><a name="ft3a" id="ft3a" href="#fa3a"><span class="fn">3</span></a> Mr Andrew Lang takes a different view of the character of
+Albany and his attitude in this matter. See <i>Hist. of Scotland</i>, i.
+289, and the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Scotland</a></span>: <i>History</i>.&mdash;<span class="sc">Ed.</span></p>
+
+<p><a name="ft4a" id="ft4a" href="#fa4a"><span class="fn">4</span></a> The peculiar absurdity of Henry&rsquo;s claim to be king of France was
+that if, on the original English claim as set forth by Edward III.,
+heirship through females counted, then the earl of March was
+entitled to the French throne. A vote of the English parliament
+superseding March&rsquo;s claim in favour of that of Henry IV. could
+obviously have no legal effect in France.</p>
+
+<p><a name="ft5a" id="ft5a" href="#fa5a"><span class="fn">5</span></a> The events of the reign of Charles I. are treated in greater
+detail in the articles <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Charles I.</a></span>, King of Great Britain and Ireland;
+<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Strafford</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Hampden</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Pym</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Great Rebellion</a></span>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Cromwell</a></span>, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><a name="ft6a" id="ft6a" href="#fa6a"><span class="fn">6</span></a> The position of the Corresponding Society was greatly
+strengthened by the establishment of the Friends of the People by
+Erskine and Grey.</p>
+
+<p><a name="ft7a" id="ft7a" href="#fa7a"><span class="fn">7</span></a> A vivid account of the mutiny and its causes is given in
+Captain Marryat&rsquo;s <i>King&rsquo;s Own</i>.</p>
+
+<p><a name="ft8a" id="ft8a" href="#fa8a"><span class="fn">8</span></a> Edward Henry Stanley, 15th earl of Derby, son of the 14th earl
+and former prime minister.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="art" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th
+Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 9 SL 5 ***
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+***** This file should be named 35236-h.htm or 35236-h.zip *****
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition,
+Volume 9, Slice 5, by Various
+
+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: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5
+       English History
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35236]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYC. BRITANNICA, VOL 9 SL 5 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+
+(1) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
+
+(2) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
+      paragraphs.
+
+(3) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
+      inserted.
+
+(4) The following typographical errors have been corrected:
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "Though he disguised himself, he was
+      detected by his old enemy and imprisoned." 'himself' amended from
+      'himelf'.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "Having so done they dispersed, not
+      guessing that Lancaster had yielded so easily because he was set on
+      undoing their work the moment that they were gone." 'Lancaster'
+      amended from 'Lancester'.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "... but purely and solely to attaint his
+      brother, the duke of Clarence, whom he had resolved to destroy."
+      'the duke' was missing.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "... so as to appeal to the
+      constituencies, which did not always share in the passions of their
+      representatives." 'the' appeared twice.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "The arrogant spirit of Englishmen made
+      them contemptuous towards the colonists, and the desire to thrust
+      taxation upon others than themselves made the new colonial
+      legislation popular." 'contemptuous' amended from 'comtemptuous'.
+
+    ARTICLE ENGLISH HISTORY: "... and was surprised by the Zulus while
+      reconnoitering, created a deep and unfortunate impression."
+      'reconnoitering' amended from 'reconnoitring'.
+
+
+
+
+          ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
+
+  A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
+           AND GENERAL INFORMATION
+
+              ELEVENTH EDITION
+
+
+             VOLUME IX, SLICE V
+
+              English History
+
+
+
+
+ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
+
+
+  ENGLISH HISTORY
+
+
+
+
+ENGLISH HISTORY.--The general account of English history which follows
+should be supplemented for the earlier period by the article BRITAIN.
+See also SCOTLAND, IRELAND, WALES.
+
+
+I. FROM THE LANDING OF AUGUSTINE TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST (600-1066)
+
+With the coming of Augustine to Kent the darkness which for nearly two
+centuries had enwrapped the history of Britain begins to clear away.
+From the days of Honorius to those of Gregory the Great the line of
+vision of the annalists of the continent was bounded by the Channel. As
+to what was going on beyond it, we have but a few casual gleams of
+light, just enough to make the darkness visible, from writers such as
+the author of the life of St Germanus, Prosper Tiro, Procopius, and
+Gregory of Tours. These notices do not, for the most part, square
+particularly well with the fragmentary British narrative that can be
+patched together from Gildas's "lamentable book," or the confused story
+of Nennius. Nor again do these British sources fit in happily with the
+English annals constructed long centuries after by King Alfred's scribes
+in the first edition of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_. But from the date
+when the long-lost communication between Britain and Rome was once more
+resumed, the history of the island becomes clear and fairly continuous.
+The gaps are neither broader nor more obscure than those which may be
+found in the contemporary annals of the other kingdoms of Europe. The
+stream of history in this period is narrow and turbid throughout the
+West. Quite as much is known of the doings of the English as of those of
+the Visigoths of Spain, the Lombards, or the later Merovingians. The 7th
+century was the darkest of all the "dark ages," and England is
+particularly fortunate in possessing the _Ecclesiastica historia_ of
+Bede, which, though its author was primarily interested in things
+religious, yet contains a copious chronicle of things secular. No
+Western author, since the death of Gregory of Tours, wrote on such a
+scale, or with such vigour and insight.
+
+[Illustration: Map--Anglo-Saxon Britain 597-825.]
+
+
+  Conversion of England.
+
+The conversion of England to Christianity took, from first to last, some
+ninety years (A.D. 597 to 686), though during the last thirty the
+ancestral heathenism was only lingering on in remote comers of the land.
+The original missionary impulse came from Rome, and Augustine is rightly
+regarded as the evangelist of the English; yet only a comparatively
+small part of the nation owed its Christianity directly to the mission
+sent out by Pope Gregory. Wessex was won over by an independent
+adventurer, the Frank Birinus, who had no connexion with the earlier
+arrivals in Kent. The great kingdom of Northumbria, though its first
+Christian monarch Edwin was converted by Paulinus, a disciple of
+Augustine, relapsed into heathenism after his death. It was finally
+evangelized from quite another quarter, by Irish missionaries brought by
+King Oswald from Columba's monastery of Iona. The church that they
+founded struck root, as that of Paulinus and Edwin had failed to do, and
+was not wrecked even by Oswald's death in battle at the hands of Penda
+the Mercian, the one strong champion of heathenism that England
+produced. Moreover, Penda was no sooner dead, smitten down by Oswald's
+brother Oswio at the battle of the Winwaed (A.D. 655), than his whole
+kingdom eagerly accepted Christianity, and received missionaries, Irish
+and Northumbrian, from the victorious Oswio. It is clear that, unlike
+their king, the Mercians had no profound enthusiasm for the old gods.
+Essex, which had received its first bishop from Augustine's hands but
+had relapsed into heathenism after a few years, also owed its ultimate
+conversion to a Northumbrian preacher, Cedd, whom Oswio lent to King
+Sigeberht after the latter had visited his court and been baptized, hard
+by the Roman wall, in 653.
+
+Yet even in those English regions where the missionaries from Iona were
+the founders of the Church, the representatives of Rome were to be its
+organizers. In 664 the Northumbrian king Oswio, at the synod of Whitby,
+declared his adhesion to the Roman connexion, whether it was that he saw
+political advantage therein, or whether he realized the failings and
+weaknesses of the Celtic church, and preferred the more orderly methods
+of her rival. Five years later there arrived from Rome the great
+organizer, Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, who bound the hitherto
+isolated churches of the English kingdoms into a well-compacted whole,
+wherein the tribal bishops paid obedience to the metropolitan at
+Canterbury, and met him frequently in national councils and synods.
+England gained a spiritual unity long ere she attained a political
+unity, for in these meetings, which were often attended by kings as well
+as by prelates, Northumbrian, West Saxon and Mercian first learnt to
+work together as brothers.
+
+
+  The English church.
+
+In a few years the English church became the pride of Western
+Christendom. Not merely did it produce the great band of missionaries
+who converted heathen Germany--Willibrord, Suidbert, Boniface and the
+rest--but it excelled the other national churches in learning and
+culture. It is but necessary to mention Bede and Alcuin. The first, as
+has been already said, was the one true historian who wrote during the
+dark time of the 7th-8th centuries; the second became the pride of the
+court of Charles the Great for his unrivalled scholarship. At the coming
+of Augustine England had been a barbarous country; a century and a half
+later she was more than abreast of the civilization of the rest of
+Europe.
+
+
+  Formation of the kingdoms.
+
+But the progress toward national unity was still a slow one. The period
+when the English kingdoms began to enter into the commonwealth of
+Christendom, by receiving the missionaries sent out from Rome or from
+Iona, practically coincides with the period in which the occupation of
+central Britain was completed, and the kingdoms of the conquerors
+assumed their final size and shape. AEthelfrith, the last heathen among
+the Northumbrian kings, cut off the Britons of the North from those of
+the West, by winning the battle of Chester (A.D. 613), and occupying the
+land about the mouths of the Mersey and the Dee. Cenwalh, the last
+monarch who ascended the throne of Wessex unbaptized, carried the
+boundaries of that kingdom into Mid-Somersetshire, where they halted for
+a long space. Penda, the last heathen king of Mercia, determined the
+size and strength of that state, by absorbing into it the territories of
+the other Anglian kingdoms of the Midlands, and probably also by
+carrying forward its western border beyond the Severn. By the time when
+the smallest and most barbarous of the Saxon states--Sussex--accepted
+Christianity in the year 686, the political geography of England had
+reached a stage from which it was not to vary in any marked degree for
+some 200 years. Indeed, there was nothing accomplished in the way of
+further encroachment on the Celt after 686, save Ine's and Cuthred's
+extension of Wessex into the valleys of the Tone and the Exe, and Offa's
+slight expansion of the Mercian frontier beyond the Severn, marked by
+his famous dyke. The conquests of the Northumbrian kings in Cumbria were
+ephemeral; what Oswio won was lost after the death of Ecgfrith.
+
+
+  The "Bretwaldas."
+
+That the conversion of the English to Christianity had anything to do
+with their slackening from the work of conquest it would be wrong to
+assert. Though their wars with the Welsh were not conducted with such
+ferocious cruelty as of old, and though (as the laws of Ine show) the
+Celtic inhabitants of newly-won districts were no longer exterminated,
+but received as the king's subjects, yet the hatred between Welsh and
+English did not cease because both were now Christians. The westward
+advance of the invaders would have continued, if only there had remained
+to attract them lands as desirable as those they had already won. But
+the mountains of Wales and the moors of Cornwall and Cumbria did not
+greatly tempt the settler. Moreover, the English states, which had
+seldom turned their swords against each other in the 5th or the 6th
+centuries, were engaged during the 7th and the 8th in those endless
+struggles for supremacy which seem so purposeless, because the hegemony
+which a king of energy and genius won for his kingdom always disappeared
+with his death. The "Bretwaldaship," as the English seem to have called
+it, was the most ephemeral of dignities. This was but natural: conquest
+can only be enforced by the extermination of the conquered, or by their
+consent to amalgamate with the conquerors, or by the garrisoning of the
+land that has been subdued by settlers or by military posts. None of
+these courses were possible to a king of the 7th or 8th centuries: even
+in their heathen days the English were not wont to massacre their beaten
+kinsmen as they massacred the unfortunate Celt. After their conversion
+to Christianity the idea of exterminating other English tribes grew even
+more impossible. On the other hand, local particularism was so strong
+that the conquered would not, at first, consent to give up their natural
+independence and merge themselves in the victors. Such amalgamations
+became possible after a time, when many of the local royal lines died
+out, and unifying influences, of which a common Christianity was the
+most powerful, sapped the strength of tribal pride. But it is not till
+the 9th century that we find this phenomenon growing general. A kingdom
+like Kent or East Anglia, even after long subjection to a powerful
+overlord, rose and reasserted its independence immediately on hearing of
+his death. His successor had to attempt a new conquest, if he felt
+himself strong enough. To garrison a district that had been overrun was
+impossible: the military force of an English king consisted of his
+military household of _gesiths_, backed by the general levy of the
+tribe. The strength of Mercia or Northumbria might be mustered for a
+single battle, but could not supply a standing army to hold down the
+vanquished. The victorious king had to be content with tribute and
+obedience, which would cease when he died, or was beaten by a competitor
+for the position of Bretwalda.
+
+
+  Supremacy of Northumbria.
+
+  Supremacy of Mercia.
+
+In the ceaseless strife between the old English kingdoms, therefore, it
+was the personality of the king which was the main factor in determining
+the hegemony of one state over another. If in the 7th century the
+successive great Northumbrians--Edwin, Oswald, Oswio and Ecgfrith--were
+reckoned the chief monarchs of England, and exercised a widespread
+influence over the southern realms, yet each had to win his supremacy by
+his own sword; and when Edwin and Oswald fell before the savage heathen
+Penda, and Ecgfrith was cut off by the Picts, there was a gap of anarchy
+before another king asserted his superior power. The same phenomenon
+was seen with regard to the Mercian kings of the 8th century; the long
+reigns of the two conquerors AEthelbald and Offa covered eighty years
+(716-796), and it might have been supposed that after such a term of
+supremacy Mercia would have remained permanently at the head of the
+English kingdoms. It was not so, AEthelbald in his old age lost his
+hegemony at the battle of Burford (752), and was murdered a few years
+after by his own people. Offa had to win back by long wars what his
+kinsman had lost; he became so powerful that we find the pope calling
+him _Rex Anglorum_, as if he were the only king in the island. He
+annexed Kent and East Anglia, overawed Northumbria and Wessex, both
+hopelessly faction-ridden at the time, was treated almost as an equal by
+the emperor Charles the Great, and died still at the height of his
+power. Yet the moment that he was dead all his vassals revolted; his
+successors could never recover all that was lost. Kent once more became
+a kingdom, and two successive Mercian sovereigns, Beornwulf and Ludica,
+fell in battle while vainly trying to recover Offa's supremacy over East
+Anglia and Wessex.
+
+
+  Supremacy of Wessex.
+
+The ablest king in England in the generation that followed Offa was
+Ecgbert of Wessex, who had long been an exile abroad, and served for
+thirteen years as one of the captains of Charles the Great. He beat
+Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellandune (A.D. 823), permanently annexed Kent,
+to whose crown he had a claim by descent, in 829 received the homage of
+all the other English kings, and was for the remainder of his life
+reckoned as "Bretwalda." But it is wrong to call him, as some have done,
+"the first monarch of all England." His power was no greater than that
+of Oswio or Offa had been, and the supremacy might perhaps have tarried
+with Wessex no longer than it had tarried with Northumbria or Mercia if
+it had not chanced that the Danish raids were now beginning. For these
+invasions, paradoxical as it may seem, were the greatest efficient cause
+in the welding together of England. They seemed about to rend the land
+in twain, but they really cured the English of their desperate
+particularism, and drove all the tribes to take as their common rulers
+the one great line of native kings which survived the Danish storm, and
+maintained itself for four generations of desperate fighting against the
+invaders. On the continent the main effect of the viking invasions was
+to dash the empire of Charles the Great into fragments, and to aid in
+producing the numberless petty states of feudal Europe. In this island
+they did much to help the transformation of the mere Bretwaldaship of
+Ecgbert into the monarchy of all England.
+
+
+  Danish invasions.
+
+Already ere Ecgbert ascended the throne of Kent the new enemy had made
+his first tentative appearance on the British shore. It was in the reign
+of Beorhtric, Ecgbert's predecessor, that the pirates of the famous
+"three ships from Heretheland" had appeared on the coast of Dorset, and
+slain the sheriff "who would fain have known what manner of men they
+might be." A few years later another band appeared, rising unexpectedly
+from the sea to sack the famous Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne
+(793). After that their visits came fast and furious on the shore-line
+of every English kingdom, and by the end of Ecgbert's reign it was they,
+and not his former Welsh and Mercian enemies, who were the old monarch's
+main source of trouble. But he brought his Bretwaldaship to a good end
+by inflicting a crushing defeat on them at Hingston Down, hard by the
+Tamar, probably in 836, and died ere the year was out, leaving the
+ever-growing problem to his son AEthelwulf.
+
+
+  Influence of viking sea-power.
+
+The cause of the sudden outpouring of the Scandinavian deluge upon the
+lands of Christendom at this particular date is one of the puzzles of
+history. So far as memory ran, the peoples beyond the North Sea had been
+seafaring races addicted to piracy. Even Tacitus mentions their fleets.
+Yet since the 5th century they had been restricting their operations to
+their own shores, and are barely heard of in the chronicles of their
+southern neighbours. It seems most probable that the actual cause of
+their sudden activity was the conquest of the Saxons by Charles the
+Great, and his subsequent advance into the peninsula of Denmark. The
+emperor seemed to be threatening the independence of the North, and in
+terror and resentment the Scandinavian peoples turned first to strike at
+the encroaching Frank, and soon after to assail the other Christian
+kingdoms which lay behind, or on the flank of, the Empire. But their
+offensive action proved so successful and so profitable that, after a
+short time, the whole manhood of Denmark and Norway took to the pirate
+life. Never since history first began to be recorded was there such a
+supreme example of the potentialities of sea-power. Civilized Europe had
+been caught at a moment when it was completely destitute of a war-navy;
+the Franks had never been maritime in their tastes, the English seemed
+to have forgotten their ancient seafaring habits. Though their ancestors
+had been pirates as fierce as the vikings of the 9th century, and though
+some of their later kings had led naval armaments--Edwin had annexed for
+a moment Man and Anglesea, and Ecgfrith had cruelly ravaged part of
+Ireland--yet by the year 800 they appear to have ceased to be a
+seafaring race. Perhaps the long predominance of Mercia, an essentially
+inland state, had something to do with the fact. At any rate England was
+as helpless as the Empire when first the Danish and Norwegian galleys
+began to cross the North Sea, and to beat down both sides of Britain
+seeking for prey. The number of the invaders was not at first very
+great; their fleets were not national armaments gathered by great kings,
+but squadrons of a few vessels collected by some active and enterprising
+adventurer. Their original tactics were merely to land suddenly near
+some thriving seaport, or rich monastery, to sack it, and to take to the
+water again before the local militia could turn out in force against
+them. But such raids proved so profitable that the vikings soon began to
+take greater things in hand; they began to ally themselves in
+confederacies: two, six or a dozen "sea-kings" would join their forces
+for something more than a desultory raid. With fifty or a hundred ships
+they would fall upon some unhappy region, harry it for many miles
+inland, and offer battle to the landsfolk unless the latter came out in
+overpowering force. And as their crews were trained warriors chosen for
+their high spirit, contending with a raw militia fresh from the plough,
+they were generally successful. If the odds were too great they could
+always retire to their ships, put to sea, and resume their predatory
+operations on some other coast three hundred miles away. As long as
+their enemies were unprovided with a navy they were safe from pursuit
+and annihilation. The only chance against them was that, if caught too
+far from the base-fort where they had run their galleys ashore, they
+might find their communication with the sea cut off, and be forced to
+fight for their lives surrounded by an infuriated countryside. But in
+the earlier years of their struggles with Christendom the vikings seldom
+suffered a complete disaster; they were often beaten but seldom
+annihilated. Ere long they grew so bold that they would stay ashore for
+months, braving the forces of a whole kingdom, and sheltering themselves
+in great palisaded camps on peninsulas or islands when the enemy pressed
+them too hard. On well-guarded strongholds like Thanet or Sheppey in
+England, Noirmoutier at the Loire mouth, or the Isle of Walcheren, they
+defied the local magnates to evict them. Finally they took to wintering
+on the coast of England or the Empire, a preliminary to actual
+settlement and conquest. (See VIKING.)
+
+
+  Progress of Danish conquest.
+
+King Ecgbert died long ere the invaders had reached this stage of
+insolence. AEthelwulf, his weak and kindly son, would undoubtedly have
+lost the titular supremacy of Wessex over the other English kingdoms if
+there had been in Mercia or Northumbria a strong king with leisure to
+concentrate his thoughts on domestic wars. But the vikings were now
+showering such blows on the northern states that their unhappy monarchs
+could think of nothing but self-defence. They slew Redulf--king of
+Northumbria--in 844, took London in 851, despite all the efforts of
+Burgred of Mercia, and forced that sovereign to make repeated appeals
+for help to AEthelwulf as his overlord. For though Wessex had its full
+share of Danish attacks it met them with a vigour that was not seen in
+the other realms. The defence was often, if not always, successful; and
+once at least (at Aclea in 851) AEthelwulf exterminated a whole Danish
+army with "the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that had been
+heard of down to that day," as the Anglo-Saxon chronicler is careful to
+record. But though he might ward off blows from his own realm, he was
+helpless to aid Mercia or East Anglia, and still more the distant
+Northumbria.
+
+It was not, however, till after AEthelwulf's death that the attack of the
+vikings developed its full strength. The fifteen years (856-871) that
+were covered by the reigns of his three short-lived sons, AEthelbald,
+AEthelbert and AEthelred, were the most miserable that England was to see.
+Assembling in greater and ever greater confederacies, the Danes fell
+upon the northern kingdoms, no longer merely to harry but to conquer and
+occupy them. A league of many sea-kings which called itself the "great
+army" slew the last two sovereigns of Northumbria and stormed York in
+867. Some of the victors settled down there to lord it over the
+half-exterminated English population. The rest continued their advance
+southward. East Anglia was conquered in 870; its last king, Edmund,
+having been defeated and taken prisoner, the vikings shot him to death
+with arrows because he would not worship their gods. His realm was
+annexed and partly settled by the conquerors. The fate of Mercia was
+hardly better: its king, Burgred, by constant payment of tribute, bought
+off the invaders for a space, but the eastern half of his realm was
+reduced to a wilderness.
+
+Practically masters of all that lay north of Thames, the "great army"
+next moved against Wessex, the only quarter where a vigorous resistance
+was still maintained against them, though its capital, Winchester, had
+been sacked in 864. Under two kings named Halfdan and Bacsceg, and six
+earls, they seized Reading and began to harry Berkshire, Surrey and
+Hampshire. King AEthelred, the third son of AEthelwulf, came out against
+them, with his young brother Alfred and all the levies of Wessex. In the
+year 871 these two gallant kinsmen fought no less than six pitched
+battles against the invaders. Some were victories--notably the fight of
+Ashdown, where Alfred first won his name as a soldier--but the English
+failed to capture the fortified camps of the vikings at Reading, and
+were finally beaten at Marten ("Maeretun") near Bedwyn, where AEthelred
+was mortally wounded.
+
+
+  Alfred the Great.
+
+He left young sons, but the men of Wessex crowned Alfred king, because
+they needed a grown man to lead them in their desperate campaigning. Yet
+his reign opened inauspiciously: defeated near Wilton, he offered in
+despair to pay the vikings to depart. He must have known, from the
+experience of Mercian, Northumbrian and Frankish kings, that such
+blackmail only bought a short respite, but the condition of his realm
+was such that even a moderate time for reorganization might prove
+valuable. The enemy had suffered so much in the "year of the six
+battles" that they held off for some space from Wessex, seeking easier
+prey on the continent and in northern England. In 874 they harried
+Mercia so cruelly that King Burgred fled in despair to Rome; the victors
+divided up his realm, taking the eastern half for themselves, and
+establishing in it a confederacy, whose jarls occupied the "five
+boroughs" of Stamford, Lincoln, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. But the
+western half they handed over to "an unwise thegn named Ceolwulf," who
+bought for a short space the precarious title of king by paying great
+tribute.
+
+Alfred employed the four years of peace, which he had bought in 871, in
+the endeavour to strengthen his realm against the inevitable return of
+the raiders. His wisdom was shown by the fact that he concentrated his
+attention on the one device which must evidently prove effective for
+defence, if only he were given time to perfect it--the building of a
+national navy. He began to lay down galleys and "long ships," and hired
+"pirates"--renegade vikings no doubt--to train crews for him and to
+teach his men seamanship. The scheme, however, was only partly completed
+when in 876 three Danish kings entered Wessex and resumed the war. But
+Alfred blockaded them first in Wareham and then in Exeter. The fleet
+which was coming to carry them off, or to bring them reinforcements,
+fought an indecisive engagement with the English ships, and was wrecked
+immediately after on the cliffs of the Isle of Purbeck, where more than
+100 galleys and all their crews perished. On hearing of this disaster
+the vikings in Exeter surrendered the place on being granted a free
+departure.
+
+[Illustration: Map--England, 886, after Alfred & Guthrum's Peace.]
+
+Yet within a few months of this successful campaign Alfred was attacked
+at midwinter by the main Danish army under King Guthrum. He was
+apparently taken by surprise by an assault at such an unusual time of
+the year, and was forced to escape with his military household to the
+isle of Athelney among the marshes of the Parrett. The invaders harried
+Wiltshire and Hampshire at their leisure, and vainly thought that Wessex
+was at last subdued. But with the spring the English rallied: a Danish
+force was cut to pieces before Easter by the men of Devonshire. A few
+weeks later Alfred had issued from Athelney, had collected a large army
+in Selwood, and went out to meet the enemy in the open field. He beat
+them at Edington in Wiltshire, blockaded them in their great camp at
+Chippenham, and in fourteen days starved them into surrender. The terms
+were that they should give hostages, that they should depart for ever
+from Wessex, and that their king Guthrum should do homage to Alfred as
+overlord, and submit to be baptized, with thirty of his chiefs. Not only
+were all these conditions punctually fulfilled, but (what is more
+astonishing) the Danes had been so thoroughly cured of any desire to try
+their luck against the great king that they left him practically
+unmolested for fourteen years (878-892). King Guthrum settled down as a
+Christian sovereign in East Anglia, with the bulk of the host that had
+capitulated at Chippenham. Of the rest of the invaders one section
+established a petty kingdom in Yorkshire, but those in the Midlands were
+subject to no common sovereign but lived in a loose confederacy under
+the jarls of the "Five Boroughs" already named above. The boundary
+between English and Danes established by the peace of 878 is not
+perfectly ascertainable, but a document of a few years later, called
+"Alfred and Guthrum's frith," gives the border as lying from Thames
+northward up the Lea to its source, then across to Bedford, and then
+along the Ouse to Watling Street, the old Roman road from London to
+Chester. This gave King Alfred London and Middlesex, most of
+Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and the larger half of Mercia--lands
+that had never before been an integral part of Wessex, though they had
+some time been tributary to her kings. They were now taken inside the
+realm and governed by the ealdorman AEthelred, the king's son-in-law. The
+Mercians gladly mingled with the West Saxons, and abandoned all memories
+of ancient independence. Twenty years of schooling under the hand of the
+Dane had taught them to forget old particularism.
+
+Alfred's enlarged kingdom was far more powerful than any one of the
+three new Danish states which lay beyond the Lea and Watling Street: it
+was to be seen, ere another generation was out, that it was stronger
+than all three together. But Alfred was not to see the happy day when
+York and Lincoln, Colchester and Leicester, were to become mere
+shire-capitals in the realm of United England.
+
+
+  Alfred's reforms.
+
+The fourteen years of comparative peace which he now enjoyed were
+devoted to perfecting the military organization of his enlarged kingdom.
+His fleet was reconstructed: in 882 he went out with it in person and
+destroyed a small piratical squadron: in 885 we hear of it coasting all
+along Danish East Anglia. But his navy was not yet strong enough to hold
+off all raids: it was not till the very end of his reign that he
+perfected it by building "long ships that were nigh twice as large as
+those of the heathen; some had 60 oars, some more; and they were both
+steadier and swifter and lighter than the others, and were shaped
+neither after the Frisian nor after the Danish fashion, but as it seemed
+to himself that they would be most handy." This great war fleet he left
+as a legacy to his son, but he himself in his later campaigns had only
+its first beginnings at his disposal.
+
+His military reforms were no less important. Warned by the failures of
+the English against Danish entrenched camps, he introduced the
+long-neglected art of fortification, and built many "burhs"--stockaded
+fortresses on mounds by the waterside--wherein dwelt permanent garrisons
+of military settlers. It would seem that the system by which he
+maintained them was that he assigned to each a region of which the
+inhabitants were responsible for its manning and its sustentation. The
+landowners had either to build a house within it for their own
+inhabiting, or to provide that a competent substitute dwelt there to
+represent them. These "burh-ware," or garrison-men, are repeatedly
+mentioned in Alfred's later years. The old national levy of the "fyrd"
+was made somewhat more serviceable by an ordinance which divided it into
+two halves, one of which must take the field when the other was
+dismissed. But it would seem that the king paid even more attention to
+another military reform--the increase of the number of the professional
+fighting class, the thegnhood as it was now called. All the wealthier
+men, both in the countryside and in the towns, were required to take up
+the duties as well as the privileges of membership of the military
+household of the king. They became "of thegn-right worthy" by receiving,
+really or nominally, a place in the royal hall, with the obligation to
+take the field whenever their master raised his banner. The document
+which defines their duties and privileges sets forth that "every ceorl
+who throve so that he had fully five hides of land, and a helm, and a
+mail-shirt, and a sword ornamented with gold, was to be reckoned
+gesithcund." A second draft allowed the man who had the military
+equipment complete, but not fully the five hides of land, to slip into
+the list, and also "the merchant who has fared thrice over the high seas
+at his own expense." How far the details of the scheme are Alfred's own,
+how far they were developed by his son Edward the Elder, it is
+unfortunately impossible to say. But there is small doubt that the
+system was working to some extent in the later wars of the great king,
+and that his successes were largely due to the fact that his army
+contained a larger nucleus of fully armed warriors than those of his
+predecessors.
+
+Military reforms were only one section of the work of King Alfred during
+the central years of his reign. It was then that he set afoot his
+numerous schemes for the restoration of the learning and culture of
+England which had sunk so low during the long years of disaster which
+had preceded his accession. How he gathered scholars from the continent,
+Wales and Ireland; how he collected the old heroic poems of the nation,
+how he himself translated books from the Latin tongue, started schools,
+and set his scribes to write up the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, is told
+elsewhere, as are his mechanical inventions, his buildings, and his
+dealings with missionaries and explorers (see ALFRED).
+
+The test of the efficiency of his work was that it held firm when, in
+his later years, the Danish storm once more began to beat against the
+shores of Wessex. In the years 892-896 Alfred was assailed from many
+sides at once by viking fleets, of which the most important was that led
+by the great freebooter Hasting. Moreover, the settled Danes of eastern
+England broke their oaths and gave the invaders assistance. Yet the king
+held his own, with perfect success if not with ease. The enemy was
+checked, beaten off, followed up rapidly whenever he changed his base of
+operation, and hunted repeatedly all across England. The campaigning
+ranged from Appledore in Kent to Exeter, from Chester to Shoeburyness;
+but wherever the invaders transferred themselves, either the king, or
+his son Edward, or his son-in-law Ethelred, the ealdorman of Mercia, was
+promptly at hand with a competent army. The camps of the Danes were
+stormed, their fleet was destroyed in the river Lea in 895, and at last
+the remnant broke up and dispersed, some to seek easier plunder in
+France, others to settle down among their kinsmen in Northumbria or East
+Anglia.
+
+Alfred survived for four years after his final triumph in 896, to
+complete the organization of his fleet and to repair the damages done by
+the last four years of constant fighting. He died on the 26th of October
+900, leaving Wessex well armed for the continuance of the struggle, and
+the inhabitants of the "Danelagh" much broken in spirit. They saw that
+it would never be in their power to subdue all England. Within a few
+years they were to realize that it was more probable that the English
+kings would subdue them.
+
+
+  Edward the Elder.
+
+The house of Wessex continued to supply a race of hard-fighting and
+capable monarchs, who went on with Alfred's work. His son, Edward the
+Elder, and his three grandsons, AEthelstan, Edmund and Edred, devoted
+themselves for fifty-five years (A.D. 900-955) to the task of conquering
+the Danelagh, and ended by making England into a single unified kingdom,
+not by admitting the conquered to homage and tribute, in the old style
+of the 7th century, but by their complete absorption. The process was
+not so hard as might be thought; when once the Danes had settled down,
+had brought over wives from their native land or taken them from among
+their English vassals, had built themselves farmsteads and accumulated
+flocks and herds, they lost their old advantage in contending with the
+English. Their strength had been their mobility and their undisputed
+command of the sea. But now they had possessions of their own to defend,
+and could not raid at large in Wessex or Mercia without exposing their
+homes to similar molestation. Moreover, the fleet which Alfred had
+built, and which his successors kept up, disputed their mastery of the
+sea, and ended by achieving a clear superiority over them. Unity of plan
+and unity of command was also on the side of the English. The
+inhabitants of the three sections of the Danelagh were at best leagued
+in a many-headed confederacy. Their opponents were led by kings whose
+orders were punctually obeyed from Shrewsbury to Dover and from London
+to Exeter. It must also be remembered that in the greater part of the
+land which they possessed the Danes were but a small minority of the
+population. After their first fury was spent they no longer exterminated
+the conquered, but had been content to make the Mercians and Deirans
+their subjects, to take the best of the land, and exact tribute for the
+rest. Only in Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire and parts of Nottinghamshire
+and Leicestershire do they seem to have settled thickly and formed a
+preponderating element in the countryside. In the rest of the Midlands
+and in East Anglia they were only a governing oligarchy of scanty
+numbers. Everywhere there was an English lower class which welcomed the
+advent of the conquering kings of Wessex and the fall of the Danish
+jarls.
+
+Edward the Elder spent twenty-five laborious years first in repelling
+and repaying Danish raids, then in setting to work to subdue the
+raiders. He worked forward into the Danelagh, building _burhs_ as he
+advanced, to hold down each district that he won. He was helped by his
+brother-in-law, the Mercian ealdorman AEthelred, and, after the death of
+that magnate, by his warlike sister AEthelflaed, the ealdorman's widow,
+who was continued in her husband's place. While Edward, with London as
+his base, pushed forward into the eastern counties, his sister, starting
+from Warwick and Stafford, encroached on the Danelagh along the line of
+the Trent. The last Danish king of East Anglia was slain in battle in
+918, and his realm annexed. AEthelflaed won Derby and Leicester, while her
+brother reduced Stamford and Nottingham. Finally, in 921, not only was
+the whole land south of the Humber subdued, but the Yorkshire Danes, the
+Welsh, and even--it is said--the remote Scots of the North, did homage
+to Edward and became his men.
+
+
+  AEthelstan.
+
+In 925 Edward was succeeded by his eldest, son AEthelstan, who completed
+the reduction of the Danelagh by driving out Guthfrith, the Danish king
+of York, and annexing his realm. But this first conquest of the region
+beyond Humber had to be repeated over and over again; time after time
+the Danes rebelled and proclaimed a new king, aided sometimes by bands
+of their kinsmen from Ireland or Norway, sometimes by the Scots and
+Strathclyde Welsh. AEthelstan's greatest and best-remembered achievement
+was his decisive victory in 937 at Brunanburh--an unknown spot, probably
+by the Solway Firth or the Ribble--over a great confederacy of rebel
+Danes of Yorkshire, Irish Danes from Dublin, the Scottish king,
+Constantine, and Eugenius, king of Strathclyde. Yet even after such a
+triumph AEthelstan had to set up a Danish under-king in Yorkshire,
+apparently despairing of holding it down as a shire governed by a mere
+ealdorman. But its overlordship he never lost, and since he also
+maintained the supremacy which his father had won over the Welsh and
+Scots, it was not without reason that he called himself on his coins and
+in his charters _Rex totius Britanniae_. Occasionally he even used the
+title _Basileus_, as if he claimed a quasi-imperial position.
+
+
+  Edmund: Edred.
+
+The trampling out of the last embers of Danish particularism in the
+North was reserved for AEthelstan's brothers and successors, Edmund and
+Edred (940-955), who put down several risings of the Yorkshiremen, one
+of which was aided by a rebellion of the Midland Danes of the Five
+Boroughs. But the untiring perseverance of the house of Alfred was at
+last rewarded by success. After the expulsion of the last rebel king of
+York, Eric Haraldson, by Edred in 948, we cease to hear of trouble in
+the North. When next there was rebellion in that quarter it was in
+favour of a Wessex prince, not of a Danish adventurer, and had no
+sinister national significance. The descendants of the vikings were
+easily incorporated in the English race, all the more so because of the
+wise policy of the conquering kings, who readily employed and often
+promoted to high station men of Danish descent who showed themselves
+loyal--and this not only in the secular but in spiritual offices. In 942
+Oda, a full-blooded Dane, was made archbishop of Canterbury. The
+Danelagh became a group of earldoms, ruled by officials who were as
+often of Danish as of English descent.
+
+It is notable that when, after Edred's death, there was civil strife,
+owing to the quarrel of his nephew Edwy with some of his kinsmen,
+ministers and bishops, the rebels, who included the majority of the
+Mercians and Northumbrians, set up as their pretender to the throne not
+a Dane but Edwy's younger brother Edgar, who ruled for a short time
+north of Thames, and became sole monarch on the death of his unfortunate
+kinsman.
+
+
+  Edgar.
+
+The reign of Edgar (959-975) saw the culmination of the power of the
+house of Alfred. It was untroubled by rebellion or by foreign
+invasions, so that the king won the honourable title of _Rex Pacificus_.
+The minor sovereigns of Britain owned him as overlord, as they had owned
+his grandfather Edward and his uncle AEthelstan. It was long remembered
+"how all the kings of this island, both the Welsh and the Scots, eight
+kings, came to him once upon a time on one day and all bowed to his
+governance." The eight were Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Strathclyde,
+Maccus of Man, and five Welsh kings. There is fair authority for the
+well-known legend that, after this meeting at Chester, he was rowed in
+his barge down the Dee by these potentates, such a crew as never was
+seen before or after, and afterwards exclaimed that those who followed
+him might now truly boast that they were kings of all Britain.
+
+Edgar's chief counsellor was the famous archbishop Dunstan, to whom no
+small part of the glory of his reign has been ascribed. This great
+prelate was an ecclesiastical reformer--a leader in a movement for the
+general purification of morals, and especially for the repressing of
+simony and evil-living among the clergy--a great builder of churches,
+and a stringent enforcer of the rules of the monastic life. But he was
+also a busy statesman; he probably had a share in the considerable body
+of legislation which was enacted in Edgar's reign, and is said to have
+encouraged him in his policy of treating Dane and Englishman with exact
+equality, and of investing the one no less than the other with the
+highest offices in church and state.
+
+Edgar's life was too short for the welfare of his people--he was only in
+his thirty-third year when he died in 975, and his sons were young boys.
+The hand of a strong man was still needed to keep the peace in the
+newly-constituted realm of all England, and the evils of a minority were
+not long in showing themselves. One section of the magnates had
+possession of the thirteen-year-old king Edward, and used his name to
+cover their ambitions. The other was led by his step-mother AElfthryth,
+who was set on pushing the claims of her son, the child AEthelred. After
+much factious strife, and many stormy meetings of the Witan, Edward was
+murdered at Corfe in 978 by some thegns of the party of the
+queen-dowager. The crime provoked universal indignation, but since there
+was no other prince of the house of Alfred available, the magnates were
+forced to place AEthelred on the throne: he was only in his eleventh
+year, and was at least personally innocent of complicity in his
+brother's death.
+
+
+  AEthelred the Unready.
+
+  Danish invasions.
+
+With the accession of AEthelred, the "Redeless," as he was afterwards
+called from his inability to discern good counsel from evil, and the
+consistent incapacity of his policy, an evil time began. The retirement
+from public life of Edgar's old minister Dunstan was the first event of
+the new reign, and no man of capacity came forward to take his place.
+The factions which had prevailed during the reign of Edward "the Martyr"
+seem to have continued to rage during his brother's minority, yet
+AEthelred's earliest years were his least disastrous. It was hoped that
+when he came to man's estate things would improve, but the reverse was
+the case. The first personal action recorded of him is an unjust
+harrying of the goods of his own subjects, when he besieged Rochester
+because he had quarrelled with its bishop over certain lands, and was
+bribed to depart with 100 pounds of silver. Yet from 978 to 991 no
+irreparable harm came to England; the machinery for government and
+defence which his ancestors had established seemed fairly competent to
+defend the realm even under a wayward and incapable king. Two or three
+small descents of vikings are recorded, but the ravaging was purely
+local, and the invader soon departed. No trouble occurred in the
+Danelagh, where the old tendency of the inhabitants to take sides with
+their pagan kinsmen from over the sea appears to have completely
+vanished. But the vikings had apparently learnt by small experiments
+that England was no longer guarded as she had been in the days of Alfred
+or AEthelstan, and in 991 the first serious invasion of AEthelred's reign
+took place. A large fleet came ashore in Essex, and, after a hard fight
+with the ealdorman Brihtnoth at Maldon, slew him and began to ravage the
+district north of the Thames. Instead of making a desperate attempt to
+drive them off, the king bribed them to depart with 10,000 pounds of
+silver, accepting it is said this cowardly advice from archbishop
+Sigeric. The fatal precedent soon bore fruit: the invaders came back in
+larger numbers, headed by Olaf Tryggveson, the celebrated adventurer who
+afterwards made himself king of Norway, and who was already a pretender
+to its throne. He was helped by Sweyn, king of Denmark, and the two
+together laid siege to London in 994, but were beaten off by the
+citizens. Nevertheless AEthelred for a second time stooped to pay
+tribute, and bought the departure of Dane and Norwegian with 16,000
+pounds of silver. There was a precarious interval of peace for three
+years after, but in 997 began a series of invasions led by Sweyn which
+lasted for seventeen years, and at last ended in the complete subjection
+of England and the flight of AEthelred to Normandy. It should be noted
+that the invader during this period was no mere adventurer, but king of
+all Denmark, and, after Olaf Tryggveson's death in 1000, king of Norway
+also. His power was something far greater than that of the Guthrums and
+Anlafs of an earlier generation, and--in the end of his life at
+least--he was aiming at political conquest, and not either at mere
+plunder or at finding new settlements for his followers. But if the
+strength of the invader was greater than that of his predecessors,
+AEthelred also was far better equipped for war than his ancestors of the
+9th century. He owned, and he sometimes used--but always to little
+profit--a large fleet, while all England instead of the mere realm of
+Wessex was at his back. Any one of the great princes of the house of
+Egbert who had reigned from 871 to 975, would have fought a winning
+fight with such resources, and it took nearly twenty years of AEthelred's
+tried incapacity to lose the game. He did, however, succeed in undoing
+all the work of his ancestors, partly by his own slackness and sloth,
+partly by his choice of corrupt and treacherous ministers. For the two
+ealdormen whom he delighted to honour and placed at the head of his
+armies, AElfric and Eadric Streona, are accused, the one of persistent
+cowardice, the other of underhand intrigue with the Danes. Some of the
+local magnates made a desperate defence of their own regions, especially
+Ulfkytel of East Anglia, a Dane by descent; but the central government
+was at fault. AEthelred's army was always at the wrong place--"if the
+enemy were east then was the _fyrd_ held west, and if they were north
+then was our force held south." When AEthelred did appear it was more
+often to pay a bribe to the invaders than to fight. Indeed the
+_Danegeld_, the tax which he raised to furnish tribute to the invaders,
+became a regular institution: on six occasions at least AEthelred bought
+a few months of peace by sums ranging from 10,000 to 48,000 pounds of
+silver.
+
+
+  Canute.
+
+At last in the winter of 1013-1014, more as it would seem from sheer
+disgust at their king's cowardice and incompetence than because further
+resistance was impossible, the English gave up the struggle and
+acknowledged Sweyn as king. First Northumbria, then Wessex, then London
+yielded, and AEthelred was forced to fly over seas to Richard, duke of
+Normandy, whose sister he had married as his second wife. But Sweyn
+survived his triumph little over a month; he died suddenly at
+Gainsborough on the 3rd of February 1014. The Danes hailed his son
+Canute, a lad of eighteen, as king, but many of the English, though they
+had submitted to a hard-handed conqueror like Sweyn, were not prepared
+to be handed over like slaves to his untried successor. There was a
+general rising, the old king was brought over from Normandy, and Canute
+was driven out for a moment by force of arms. He returned next year with
+a greater army to hear soon after of AEthelred's death (1016). The witan
+chose Edmund "Ironside," the late king's eldest son, to succeed him, and
+as he was a hard-fighting prince of that normal type of his house to
+which his father had been such a disgraceful exception, it seemed
+probable that the Danes might be beaten off. But AEthelred's favourite
+Eadric Streona adhered to Canute, fearing to lose the office and power
+that he had enjoyed for so long under AEthelred, and prevailed on the
+magnates of part of Wessex and Mercia to follow his example. For a
+moment the curious phenomenon was seen of Canute reigning in Wessex,
+while Edmund was making head against him with the aid of the Anglo-Danes
+of the "Five Boroughs" and Northumbria. There followed a year of
+desperate struggle: the two young kings fought five pitched battles,
+fortune seemed to favour Edmund, and the traitor Eadric submitted to him
+with all Wessex. But the last engagement, at Assandun (Ashingdon) in
+Essex went against the English, mainly because Eadric again betrayed the
+national cause and deserted to the enemy.
+
+Edmund was so hard hit by this last disaster that he offered to divide
+the realm with Canute; they met on the isle of Alney near Gloucester,
+and agreed that the son of AEthelred should keep Wessex and all the
+South, London and East Anglia, while the Dane should have Northumbria,
+the "five boroughs" and Eadric's Mercian earldom. But ere the year was
+out Edmund died: secretly murdered, according to some authorities, by
+the infamous Eadric. The witan of Wessex made no attempt to set on the
+throne either one of the younger sons of AEthelred by his Norman wife, or
+the infant heir of Edmund, but chose Canute as king, preferring to
+reunite England by submission to the stranger rather than to continue
+the disastrous war.
+
+They were wise in so doing, though their motive may have been despair
+rather than long-sighted policy. Canute became more of an Englishman
+than a Dane: he spent more of his time in his island realm than in his
+native Denmark. He paid off and sent home the great army with whose aid
+he had won the English crown, retaining only a small bodyguard of
+"house-carls" and trusting to the loyalty of his new subjects. There was
+no confiscation of lands for the benefit of intrusive Danish settlers.
+On the contrary Canute had more English than Danish courtiers and
+ministers about his person, and sent many Englishmen as bishops and some
+even as royal officers to Denmark. It is strange to find that--whether
+from policy or from affection--he married King AEthelred's young widow
+Emma of Normandy, though she was somewhat older than himself--so that
+his son King Harthacnut and that son's successor Edward the Confessor,
+the heir of the line of Wessex, were half-brothers. It might have been
+thought likely that the son of the pagan Sweyn would have turned out a
+mere hard-fighting viking. But Canute developed into a great
+administrator and a friend of learning and culture. Occasionally he
+committed a harsh and tyrannical act. Though he need not be blamed for
+making a prompt end of the traitor Eadric Streona and of Uhtred, the
+turbulent earl of Northumbria, at the commencement of his reign, there
+are other and less justifiable deeds of blood to be laid to his account.
+But they were but few; for the most part his administration was just and
+wise as well as strong and intelligent.
+
+As long as he lived England was the centre of a great Northern empire,
+for Canute reconquered Norway, which had lapsed into independence after
+his father's death, and extended his power into the Baltic. Moreover,
+all the so-called Scandinavian colonists in the Northern Isles and
+Ireland owned him as overlord. So did the Scottish king Malcolm, and the
+princes of Wales and Strathclyde. The one weak point in his policy that
+can be detected is that he left in the hands of Malcolm the Bernician
+district of Lothian, which the Scot had conquered during the anarchy
+that followed the death of AEthelred. The battle of Carham (1018) had
+given this land to the Scots, and Canute consented to draw the border
+line of England at the Tweed instead of at the Firth of Forth, when
+Malcolm did him homage. Strangely enough it was this cession of a
+Northumbrian earldom to the Northern king that ultimately made Scotland
+an English-speaking country. For the Scottish kings, deserting their
+native Highlands, took to dwelling at Edinburgh among their new
+subjects, and first the court and afterwards the whole of their Lowland
+subjects were gradually assimilated to the Northumbrian nucleus which
+formed both the most fertile and the most civilized portion of their
+enlarged realm.
+
+The fact, that England recovered with marvellous rapidity from the evil
+effects of AEthelred's disastrous reign, and achieved great wealth and
+prosperity under Canute, would seem to show that the ravages of Sweyn,
+widespread and ruthless though they had been, had yet fallen short of
+the devastating completeness of those of the earlier vikings. He had
+been more set on exacting tribute than on perpetrating wanton massacres.
+A few years of peace and wise administration seem to have restored the
+realm to a satisfactory condition. A considerable mass of his
+legislation has survived to show Canute's care for law and order.
+
+Canute died in 1035, aged not more than forty or forty-one. The crown
+was disputed between his two sons, the half-brothers Harold and
+Harthacnut; it was doubtful whether the birth of the elder prince was
+legitimate, and Queen Emma strove to get her own son Harthacnut
+preferred to him. In Denmark the younger claimant was acknowledged by
+the whole people, but in England the Mercian and Northumbrian earls
+chose Harold as king, and Wessex only fell to Harthacnut. Both the young
+kings were cruel, dissolute and wayward, most unworthy sons of a wise
+father. It was to the great profit of England that they died within two
+years of each other, the elder in 1040, the younger in 1042.
+
+
+  Edward the Confessor.
+
+  Harold.
+
+On Harthacnut's death he was succeeded not by any Danish prince but by
+his half-brother Edward, the elder son of AEthelred and Emma, whom he had
+entertained at his court, and had apparently designated as his heir, for
+he had no offspring. There was an end of the empire of Canute, for
+Denmark fell to the great king's nephew, Sweyn Estrithson, and Norway
+had thrown off the Danish yoke. Engaged in wars with each other, Dane
+and Norseman had no leisure to think of reconquering England. Hence
+Edward's accession took place without any friction. He reigned, but did
+not rule, for twenty-four years, though he was well on in middle age
+before he was crowned. Of all the descendants of Alfred he was the only
+one who lived to see his sixtieth birthday--the house of Wessex were a
+short-lived race. In character he differed from all his ancestors--he
+had Alfred's piety without his capacity, and AEthelred's weakness without
+his vices. The mildest of men, a crowned monk, who let slip the reins of
+government from his hands while he busied himself in prayer and church
+building, he lowered the kingly power to a depth to which it had never
+sunk before in England. His sole positive quality, over and above his
+piety, was a love for his mother's kin, the Normans. He had spent his
+whole life from 1013 to 1040 as an exile at the court of Rouen, and was
+far more of a Norman than an Englishman. It was but natural, therefore,
+that he should invite his continental relatives and the friends of his
+youth to share in his late-coming prosperity. But when he filled his
+court with them, made them earls and bishops, and appointed one of them,
+Robert of Jumieges, to the archbishopric of Canterbury, his undisguised
+preference for strangers gave no small offence to his English subjects.
+In the main, however, the king's personal likes and dislikes mattered
+little to the realm, since he had a comparatively small share in its
+governance. He was habitually overruled and dominated by his earls, of
+whom three, Leofric, Godwine and Siward--all old servants of Canute--had
+far more power than their master. Holding respectively the great
+earldoms of West Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria, they reigned almost
+like petty sovereigns in their domains, and there seemed some chance
+that England might fall apart into semi-independent feudal states, just
+as France had done in the preceding century. The rivalries and intrigues
+of these three magnates constitute the main part of the domestic
+politics of Edward's reign. Godwine, whose daughter had wedded the king,
+was the most forcible and ambitious of the three, but his pre-eminence
+provoked a general league against him and in 1051 he was cast out of the
+kingdom with his sons. In the next year he returned in arms, raised
+Wessex in revolt, and compelled the king to in-law him again, to restore
+his earldom, and to dismiss with ignominy the Norman favourites who were
+hunted over seas. The old earl died in 1053, but was succeeded in power
+by his son Harold, who for thirteen years maintained an unbroken mastery
+over the king, and ruled England almost with the power of a regent.
+There seems little doubt that he aspired to be Edward's successor: there
+was no direct heir to the crown, and the nearest of kin was ah infant,
+Edgar, the great-nephew of the reigning sovereign and grandson of
+Edmund Ironside. England's experience of minors on the throne had been
+unhappy--Edwy and AEthelred the Redeless were warnings rather than
+examples. Moreover, Harold had before his eye as a precedent the
+displacement of the effete Carolingian line in France, by the new house
+of Robert the Strong and Hugh Capet, seventy years before. He prepared
+for the crisis that must come at the death of Edward the Confessor by
+bestowing the governance of several earldoms upon his brothers.
+Unfortunately for him, however, the eldest of them, Tostig, proved the
+greatest hindrance to his plans, provoking wrath and opposition wherever
+he went by his high-handedness and cruelty.
+
+Harold's governance of the realm seems to have been on the whole
+successful. He put down the Scottish usurper Macbeth with the swords of
+a Northumbrian army, and restored Malcolm III. to the throne of that
+kingdom (1055-1058). He led an army into the heart of Wales to punish
+the raids of King Griffith ap Llewelyn, and harried the Welsh so
+bitterly that they put their leader to death, and renewed their homage
+to the English crown (1063). He won enthusiastic devotion from the men
+of Wessex and the South, but in Northumbria and Mercia he was less
+liked. His experiment in taking the rule of these earldoms out of the
+hands of the descendants of Siward and Leofric proved so unsuccessful
+that he had to resign himself to undoing it. Ultimately one of Leofric's
+grandsons, Edwin, was left as earl of Mercia, and the other, Morcar,
+became earl of Northumbria instead of Harold's unpopular brother Tostig.
+It was on this fact that the fortune of England was to turn, for in the
+hour of crisis Harold was to be betrayed by the lords of the Midlands
+and the North.
+
+
+  Origin of the Norman Conquest.
+
+Somewhere about the end of his period of ascendancy, perhaps in 1064,
+Harold was sailing in the Channel when his ship was driven ashore by a
+tempest near the mouth of the Somme. He fell into the hands of William
+the Bastard, duke of Normandy, King Edward's cousin and best-loved
+relative. The duke brought him to Rouen, and kept him in a kind of
+honourable captivity till he had extorted a strange pledge from him.
+William alleged that his cousin had promised to make him his heir, and
+to recommend him to the witan as king of England. He demanded that
+Harold should swear to aid him in the project. Fearing for his personal
+safety, the earl gave the required oath, and sailed home a perjured man,
+for he had assuredly no intention of keeping the promise that had been
+extorted from him. Within two years King Edward expired (Jan. 5, 1066)
+after having recommended Harold as his successor to the thegns and
+bishops who stood about his death-bed. The witan chose the earl as king
+without any show of doubt, though the assent of the Mercian and
+Northumbrian earls must have been half-hearted. Not a word was said in
+favour of the claim of the child Edgar, the heir of the house of Alfred,
+nothing (of course) for the preposterous claim of William of Normandy.
+Harold accepted the crown without a moment's hesitation, and at once
+prepared to defend it, for he was aware that the Norman would fight to
+gain his purpose. He endeavoured to conciliate Edwin and Morcar by
+marrying their sister Ealdgyth, and trusted that he had bought their
+loyal support. When the spring came round it was known that William had
+begun to collect a great fleet and army. Aware that the resources of his
+own duchy were inadequate to the conquest of England, he sent all over
+Europe to hire mercenaries, promising every knight who would join him
+broad lands beyond the Channel in the event of victory. He gathered
+beneath his banner thousands of adventurers not only from France,
+Brittany and Flanders, but even from distant regions such as Aragon,
+Apulia and Germany. The native Normans were but a third part of his
+host, and he himself commanded rather as director of a great joint-stock
+venture than as the feudal chief of his own duchy. He also obtained the
+blessing of Pope Alexander II. for his enterprise, partly on the plea
+that Harold was a perjurer, partly because Stigand, the archbishop of
+Canterbury, had acknowledged the late anti-pope Benedict.
+
+All through the summer Harold held a fleet concentrated under the lee
+of the Isle of Wight, waiting to intercept William's armament, while the
+fyrd of Wessex was ready to support him if the enemy should succeed in
+making a landing. By September the provisions were spent, and the ships
+were growing unseaworthy. Very reluctantly the king bade them go round
+to London to refit and revictual themselves. William meanwhile had been
+unable to sail, because for many weeks the wind had been unfavourable.
+If it had set from the south the fortune of England would have been
+settled by a sea-fight. At this moment came a sudden and incalculable
+diversion; Harold's turbulent brother Tostig, banished for his crimes in
+1065, was seeking revenge. He had persuaded Harold Hardrada, king of
+Norway, almost the last of the great viking adventurers, to take him as
+guide for a raid on England. They ran into the Humber with a great
+fleet, beat the earls Edwin and Morcar in battle, and captured York.
+Abandoning his watch on the south coast Harold of England flew northward
+to meet the invaders; he surprised them at Stamford Bridge, slew both
+the Norse king and the rebel earl, and almost exterminated their army
+(Sept. 25? 1066). But while he was absent from the Channel the wind
+turned, and William of Normandy put to sea. The English fleet and the
+English army were both absent, and the Normans came safely to shore on
+the 28th of September. Harold had to turn hastily southward to meet
+them. On the 13th of October his host was arrayed on the hill of Senlac,
+7 miles from the duke's camp at Hastings. The ranks of his thegnhood and
+house-carles had been thinned by the slaughter of Stamford Bridge, and
+their place was but indifferently supplied by the hasty levies of
+London, Wessex and the Home Counties. Edwin and Morcar, who should have
+been at his side with their Mercians and Northumbrians, were still far
+away--probably from treachery, slackness and jealousy.
+
+Next morning (October 14) William marched out from Hastings and attacked
+the English host, which stood at bay in a solid mass of spear and axemen
+behind a slight breastwork on the hillside. After six hours of desperate
+fighting the victory fell to the duke, who skilfully alternated the use
+of archers and cavalry against the unwieldy English phalanx. (See
+HASTINGS: _Battle of_.) The disaster was complete, Harold himself was
+slain, his two brothers had fallen with him, not even the wreck of an
+army escaped. There was no one to rally the English in the name of the
+house of Godwine. The witan met and hastily saluted the child Edgar
+AEtheling as king. But the earls Edwin and Morcar refused to fight for
+him, and when William appeared in front of the gates of London they were
+opened almost without resistance. He was elected king in the old English
+fashion by the surviving magnates, and crowned on Christmas Day 1066.
+
+
+II. THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN MONARCHY (1066-1199)
+
+  William the Conqueror.
+
+When William of Normandy was crowned at Westminster by Archbishop Aldred
+of York and acknowledged as king by the witan, it is certain that few
+Englishmen understood the full importance of the occasion. It is
+probable that most men recalled the election of Canute, and supposed
+that the accession of the one alien sovereign would have no more
+permanent effect on the realm than that of the other. The rule of the
+Danish king and his two short-lived sons had caused no break in the
+social or constitutional history of England. Canute had become an
+Englishman, had accepted all the old institutions of the nation, had
+dismissed his host of vikings, and had ruled like a native king and for
+the most part with native ministers. Within twenty years of his
+accession the disasters and calamities which had preceded his triumph
+had been forgotten, and the national life was running quietly in its old
+channels. But the accession of William the Bastard meant something very
+different. Canute had been an impressionable lad of eighteen or nineteen
+when he was crowned; he was ready and eager to learn and to forget. He
+had found himself confronted in England with a higher civilization and a
+more advanced social organization than those which he had known in his
+boyhood, and he accepted them with alacrity, feeling that he was thereby
+getting advantage. With William the Norman all was different: he was a
+man well on in middle age, too old to adapt himself easily to new
+surroundings, even if he had been willing to do so. He never even learnt
+the language of his English subjects, the first step to comprehending
+their needs and their views. Moreover, unlike his Danish predecessor, he
+looked down upon the English from the plane of a higher civilization;
+the Normans regarded the conquered nation as barbarous and boorish. The
+difference in customs and culture between the dwellers on the two sides
+of the Channel was sufficient to make this possible; though it is hard
+to discern any adequate justification for the Norman attitude. Probably
+the bar of language was the most prominent cause of estrangement. In
+five generations the viking settlers of Normandy had not only completely
+forgotten their old Scandinavian tongue, but had come to look upon those
+who spoke the kindred English idiom not only as aliens but as inferiors.
+For three centuries French remained the court speech, and the mark of
+civilization and gentility.
+
+
+  Progress of Norman Settlement.
+
+Despite all this the Conquest would not have had its actual results if
+William, like Canute, had been able to dismiss his conquering army, and
+to refrain from a general policy of confiscation. But he had won his
+crown not as duke of Normandy, but as the head of a band of cosmopolitan
+adventurers, who had to be rewarded with land in England. Some few
+received their pay in hard cash, and went off to other wars; but the
+large majority, Breton and Angevin, French and Fleming, no less than
+Norman, wanted land. William could only provide it by a wholesale
+confiscation of the estates of all the thegnhood who had followed the
+house of Godwine. Almost his first act was to seize on these lands, and
+to distribute them among his followers. In the regions of the South,
+which had supplied the army that fell at Hastings, at least four-fifths
+of the soil passed to new masters. The dispossessed heirs of the old
+owners had either to sink to the condition of peasants, or to throw
+themselves upon the world and seek new homes. The friction and hatred
+thus caused were bitter and long enduring. And this same system of
+confiscation was gradually extended to the rest of England. At first the
+English landowners who had not actually served in Harold's host were
+permitted to "buy back their lands," by paying a heavy fine to the new
+king and doing him homage. What would have happened supposing that
+England had made no further stir, and had not vexed William by
+rebellion, it is impossible to say. But, as a matter of fact, during the
+first few years of his reign one district after another took up arms and
+endeavoured to cast out the stranger. As it became gradually evident
+that William's whole system of government was to be on new and
+distasteful lines, the English of the Midlands, the North and the West
+all went into rebellion. The risings were sporadic, ill-organized, badly
+led, for each section of the realm fought for its own hand. In some
+parts the insurrections were in favour of the sons of Harold, in others
+Edgar AEtheling was acclaimed as king: and while the unwise earls Edwin
+and Morcar fought for their own hand, the Anglo-Danes of the East sent
+for Sweyn, king of Denmark, who proved of small help, for he abode but a
+short space in England, and went off after sacking the great abbey of
+Peterborough and committing other outrages. The rebels cut up several
+Norman garrisons, and gave King William much trouble for some years, but
+they could never face him in battle. Their last stronghold, the
+marsh-fortress of Ely, surrendered in 1071, and not long after their
+most stubborn chief, Hereward "the Wake," the leader of the fenmen, laid
+down his arms and became King William's man (see HEREWARD).
+
+The only result of the long series of insurrections was to provoke the
+king to a cruelty which he had not at first shown, and to give him an
+excuse for confiscating and dividing among his foreign knights and
+barons the immense majority of the estates of the English thegnhood.
+William could be pitiless when provoked; to punish the men of the North
+for persistent rebellion and the destruction of his garrison at York, he
+harried the whole countryside from the Aire to the Tees with such
+remorseless ferocity that it did not recover its ancient prosperity for
+centuries. The population was absolutely exterminated, and the great
+Domesday survey, made nearly twenty years later, shows the greater part
+of Yorkshire as "waste." This act was exceptional only in its extent:
+the king was as cruel on a smaller scale elsewhere, and not contented
+with the liberal use of the axe and the rope was wont to inflict his
+favourite punishments of blinding and mutilation on a most reckless
+scale.
+
+The net result of the king's revenge on the rebellious English was that
+by 1075 the old governing class had almost entirely disappeared, and
+that their lands, from the Channel to the Tweed, had everywhere been
+distributed to new holders. To a great extent the same horde of
+continental adventurers who had obtained the first batch of grants in
+Wessex and Kent were also the recipients of the later confiscations, so
+that their newly acquired estates were scattered all over England. Many
+of them came to own land in ten or a dozen counties remote from each
+other, a fact which was of the greatest importance in determining the
+character of English feudalism. While abroad the great vassals of the
+crown generally held their property in compact blocks, in England their
+power was weakened by the dispersion of their lands. This tendency was
+assisted by the fact that even when the king, as was his custom,
+transferred to a Norman the estates of an English landowner just as they
+stood, those estates were already for the most part not conterminous.
+Even before the Conquest the lands of the magnates were to a large
+extent held in scattered units, not in solid patches. Only in two cases
+did William establish lordships of compact strength, and these were
+created for the special purpose of guarding the turbulent Welsh March.
+The "palatine" earls of Chester and Shrewsbury were not only endowed
+with special powers and rights of jurisdiction, but were almost the only
+tenants-in-chief within their respective shires. These rare exceptions
+prove the general rule: William probably foresaw the dangers of such
+accumulation of territory in private hands. He made a complete end of
+the old English system by which great earls ruled many shires: there
+were to be no Godwines or Leofrics under the Norman rule. This
+particular feudal danger was avoided: where earls were created, and they
+were but few, their authority was usually restricted to a single shire.
+
+
+  Feudalism.
+
+It remains to speak of the most important change which William's
+rearrangements made in the polity of England. It is of course untrue to
+say--as was so often done by early historians--that he "introduced the
+feudal system into England." In some aspects feudalism was already in
+the land before he arrived: in others it may be said that it was never
+introduced at all. He did not introduce the practice by which the small
+man commended himself to the great man, and in return for his protection
+divested himself of the full ownership of his own land, and became a
+customary tenant in what later ages called a "manor." That system was
+already in full operation in England before the Conquest. In some
+districts the wholly free small landowner had already disappeared,
+though in the regions which had formed the Danelagh he was still to be
+found in large numbers. Nor did William introduce the system of great
+earldoms, passing from father to son, which gave over-great subjects a
+hereditary grip on the countryside. On the contrary, as has been already
+said, he did much to check that tendency, which had already developed in
+England.
+
+What he really did do was to reconstruct society on the essentially
+feudal theory that the land was a gift from the king, held on conditions
+of homage and military service. The duties which under the old system
+were national obligations resting on the individual as a citizen, he
+made into duties depending on the relation between the king as supreme
+landowner and the subject as tenant of the land. Military service and
+the paying of the feudal taxes--aids, reliefs, &c.--are incidents of the
+bargain between the crown and the grantee to whom land has been given.
+That grantee, the tenant-in-chief, has the right to demand from his
+sub-tenants, to whom he has given out fractions of his estate, the same
+dues that the king exacts from himself. As at least four-fifths of the
+land of England had fallen into the king's hands between 1066 and 1074,
+and had been actually regranted to new owners--foreigners to whom the
+feudal system was the only conceivable organization of political
+existence--the change was not only easy but natural. The few surviving
+English landholders had to fall into line with the newcomers. England,
+in short, was reorganized into a state of the continental type, but one
+differing from France or Germany in that the crown had not lost so many
+of its regalities as abroad, and that even the greater earls had less
+power than the ordinary continental tenant-in-chief.
+
+The English people became aware of this transformation in the "theory of
+the state" mainly through the fact that the new tenants-in-chief,
+bringing with them the ideas in which they had been reared, failed to
+comprehend the rather complicated status of the rural population on this
+side of the Channel. To the French or Norman knight all peasants on his
+manor seemed to be villeins, and he failed to understand the distinction
+between freemen who had personally commended themselves to his English
+predecessor but still owned their land, and the mass of ordinary servile
+tenants. There can be no doubt that the first effect of the Conquest was
+that the upper strata of the agricultural classes lost the comparative
+independence which they had hitherto enjoyed, and were in many cases
+depressed to the level of their inferiors. The number of freemen began
+to decrease, from the encroachments of the landowner, and continued to
+dwindle for many years: even in districts where Domesday Book shows them
+surviving in considerable numbers, it is clear that a generation or two
+later they had largely disappeared, and became merged in the villein
+class.
+
+
+  Domesday.
+
+In this sense, therefore, England was turned into a feudal state by the
+results of the work of William the Conqueror. But it would be wrong to
+assert that all traces of the ancient social organization of the realm
+were swept away. The old Saxon customs were not forgotten, though they
+might in many cases be twisted to fit new surroundings. Indeed William
+and his successors not infrequently caused them to be collected and put
+on record. The famous Domesday Book (q.v.) of 1086 is in its essential
+nature an inquiry into the state of England at the moment of the
+Conquest, compiled in order that the king may have a full knowledge of
+the rights that he possesses as the heir of King Edward. Being primarily
+intended to facilitate the levy of taxation, it dwells more on the
+details of the actual wealth and resources of the country in 1066 and
+1086, and less on the laws and customs that governed the distribution of
+that wealth, than could have been wished. But it is nevertheless a
+monument of the permanence of the old English institutions, even after
+the ownership of four-fifths of the soil has been changed. The king
+inquires into the state of things in 1066 because it is on that state of
+things that his rights of taxation depend. He does not claim to have
+rearranged the whole realm on a new basis, or to be levying his revenue
+on a new assessment made at his own pleasure. Nor is it in the sphere of
+taxation alone that William's organization of the realm stands on the
+old English customs. In the military sphere, though his normal army is
+the feudal force composed of the tenants-in-chief and the knights whom
+they have enfeoffed, he retains the power to call out the _fyrd_, the
+old national _levee en masse_, without regard to whether its members are
+freemen or villeins of some lord. And in judicial matters the higher
+rights of royal justice remain intact, except in the few cases where
+special privileges have been granted to one or two palatine earls. The
+villein must sue in his lord's manorial courts, but he is also subject
+to the royal courts of hundred and shire. The machinery of the local
+courts survives for the most part intact.
+
+
+  Position of the Church.
+
+William's dealings with the Church of England were no less important
+than his dealings with social organization. In the earlier years of his
+reign he set himself to get rid of the whole of the upper hierarchy, in
+order to replace them by Normans. In 1070 Archbishop Stigand was deposed
+as having been uncanonically chosen, and six or seven other bishops
+after him. All the vacancies, as well as those which kept occurring
+during the next few years, were immediately filled up with foreigners.
+By the time that William had been ten years on the throne there were
+only three English bishops left. At his death there was only one--the
+saintly Wulfstan of Worcester. The same process was carried out with
+regard to abbacies, and indeed with all important places of
+ecclesiastical preferment. By 1080 the English Church was officered
+entirely by aliens. Just as with the lay landholders, the change of
+_personnel_ made a vast difference, not so much in the legal position of
+the new-comers as in the way in which they regarded their office. The
+outlook of a Norman bishop was as unlike that of his English predecessor
+as that of a Norman baron. The English Church had got out of touch with
+the ideals and the spiritual movements of the other Western churches. In
+especial the great monastic revival which had started from the abbey of
+Cluny and spread all over France, Italy and Germany had hardly touched
+this island. The continental churchmen of the 11th century were brimming
+over with ascetic zeal and militant energy, while the majority of the
+English hierarchy were slack and easy-going. The typical faults of the
+dark ages, pluralism, simony, lax observation of the clerical rules,
+contented ignorance, worldliness in every aspect, were all too prevalent
+in England. There can be no doubt that the greater part of William's
+nominees were better men than those who preceded them; his great
+archbishop, Lanfranc, though a busy statesman, was also an energetic
+reformer and a man of holy life. Osmund, Remigius and others of the
+first post-Conquest bishops have left a good name behind them. The
+condition of the church alike in the matter of spiritual zeal, of hard
+work and of learning was much improved. But there was a danger behind
+this revival; for the reformers of the 11th century, in their zeal for
+establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, were not content with raising
+the moral and intellectual standards prevailing in Christendom, but
+sought to bring the whole scheme of life under the church, by asserting
+the absolute supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power,
+wherever the two came in contact or overlapped. The result, since the
+feudal and ecclesiastical systems had become closely interwoven, and the
+frontier between the religious and secular spheres must ever be vague
+and undefined, was the conflict between the spiritual and temporal
+powers which, for two centuries to come, was to tear Europe into warring
+factions (see the articles CHURCH HISTORY; PAPACY; INVESTITURE). The
+Norman Conquest of England was contemporaneous with the supreme
+influence of the greatest exponent of the theory of ecclesiastical
+supremacy, the archdeacon Hildebrand, who in 1073 mounted the papal
+throne as Gregory VII. (q.v.). William, despite all his personal faults,
+was a sincerely pious man, but it could not be expected that he would
+acquiesce in these new developments of the religious reformation which
+he had done his best to forward. Hence we find a divided purpose in the
+policy which he pursued with regard to church affairs. He endeavoured to
+keep on the best terms with the papacy: he welcomed legates and
+frequently consulted the pope on purely spiritual matters. He even took
+the hazardous step of separating ecclesiastical courts and lay courts,
+giving the church leave to establish separate tribunals of her own, a
+right which she had never possessed in Saxon England. The spiritual
+jurisdiction of the bishop had hitherto been exercised in the ordinary
+national courts, with lay assessors frequently taking part in the
+proceedings, and mixing their dooms with the clergy's canonical
+decisions. William in 1076 granted the church a completely independent
+set of courts, a step which his successors were to regret for many a
+generation.
+
+At the same time, however, he was not blind to the possibilities of
+papal interference in domestic matters, and of the danger of conflict
+between the crown and the recently-strengthened clerical order. To guard
+against them he laid down three general rules: (1) that no one should be
+recognized as pope in England till he had himself taken cognizance of
+the papal election, and that no papal letters should be brought into the
+realm without his leave; (2) that no decisions of the English
+ecclesiastical synods should be held valid till he had examined and
+sanctioned them; (3) that none of his barons or ministers should be
+excommunicated unless he approved of such punishment being inflicted on
+them. These rules seem to argue a deeply rooted distrust of the possible
+encroachments of the papacy on the power of the state. The question of
+ecclesiastic patronage, which was to be the source of the first great
+quarrel between the crown and the church in the next generation, is not
+touched upon. William retained in his own hands the choice of bishops
+and abbots, and Alexander II. and Gregory VII. seem to have made no
+objection to his doing so, in spite of the claim that free election was
+the only canonical way of filling vacancies. The Conqueror was allowed
+for his lifetime to do as he pleased, since he was recognized as a true
+friend of the church. But the question was only deferred and not
+settled.
+
+
+  William's later reign.
+
+The political history of William's later years is unimportant; his main
+energy was absorbed in the task of holding down and organizing his new
+kingdom. His rather precarious conquest of the county of Maine, his long
+quarrels with Philip I. of France, who suborned against him his
+undutiful and rebellious eldest son Robert, his negotiation with
+Flanders and Germany, deserve no more than a mention. It is more
+necessary to point out that he reasserted on at least one occasion (when
+King Malcolm Canmore did him homage) the old suzerainty of the English
+kings over Scotland. He also began that encroachment on the borders of
+Wales which was to continue with small interruptions for the next two
+centuries. The advance was begun by his great vassals, the earls of
+Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford, all of whom occupied new districts on
+the edge of the mountains of Powys and Gwynedd. William himself led an
+expedition as far as St Davids in 1081, and founded Cardiff Castle to
+mark the boundary of his realm north of the Bristol Channel.
+
+Perhaps the most noteworthy event of the second portion of the
+Conqueror's reign was a rebellion which, though it made no head and was
+easily suppressed, marks the commencement of that feudal danger which
+was to be the constant trouble of the English kings for the next three
+generations. Two of the greatest of his foreign magnates, Roger, earl of
+Hereford, and Ralph, earl of Norfolk, rose against him in 1075, with no
+better cause than personal grievances and ambitions. He put them down
+with ease; the one was imprisoned for life, the other driven into exile,
+while Waltheof, the last of the English earls, who had dabbled in a
+hesitating way in this plot, was executed. There was never any serious
+danger, but the fact that under the new regime baronial rebellion was
+possible, despite of all William's advantages over other feudal kings,
+and despite of the fact that the rebels were hardly yet settled firmly
+into their new estates, had a sinister import for the future of England.
+With the new monarchy there had come into England the anarchic spirit of
+continental feudalism. If such a man as the Conqueror did not overawe
+it, what was to be expected in the reigns of his successors? William had
+introduced into his new realm alike the barons, with their personal
+ambition, and the clerics of the school of Hildebrand, with their
+intense jealousy for the rights of the church. The tale of the dealings
+of his descendants with these two classes of opponents constitutes the
+greater part of English history for a full century.
+
+
+  William Rufus.
+
+William died at Rouen on the 7th of September 1087; on his death-bed he
+expressed his wish that Normandy should pass to his elder son, Robert,
+in spite of all his rebellions, but gave his second son William (known
+by the nickname of Rufus) the crown of England, and sent him thither
+with commendatory letters to archbishop Lanfranc and his other
+ministers. There was at first no sign of opposition to the will of the
+late king, and William Rufus was crowned within three weeks of his
+father's decease. But the results of the Conquest had made it hard to
+tear England and Normandy apart. Almost every baron in the duchy was now
+the possessor of a smaller or a greater grant of lands in the kingdom,
+and the possibility of serving two masters was as small in 1087 as at
+any other period of the world's history. By dividing his two states
+between his sons the Conqueror undid his own work, and left to his
+subjects the certainty of civil war. For the brothers Robert and William
+were, and always had been, enemies, and every intriguing baron had
+before him the tempting prospect of aggrandizing himself, by making his
+allegiance to one of the brothers serve as an excuse for betraying the
+other. Robert was thriftless, volatile and easy-going, a good knight but
+a most incompetent sovereign. These very facts commended him to the more
+turbulent section of the baronage; if he succeeded to the whole of the
+Conqueror's heritage they would have every opportunity of enjoying
+freedom from all governance. William's private character was detestable:
+he was cruel, lascivious, greedy of gain, a habitual breaker of oaths
+and promises, ungrateful and irreligious. But he was cunning,
+strong-handed and energetic; clearly the "Red King" would be an
+undesirable master to those who loved feudal anarchy. Hence every
+turbulent baron in England soon came to the conclusion that Robert was
+the sovereign whom his heart desired.
+
+The greater part of the reign of William II. was taken up with his fight
+against the feudal danger. Before he had been six months on the throne
+he was attacked by a league comprising more than half the baronage, and
+headed by his uncles, bishop Odo of Bayeux and Robert of Mortain. They
+used the name of the duke of Normandy and had secured his promise to
+cross the Channel for their assistance. A less capable and unscrupulous
+king than Rufus might have been swept away, for the rising burst out
+simultaneously in nearly every corner of the realm. But he made head
+against it with the aid of mercenary bands, the loyal minority of the
+barons, and the shire-levies of his English subjects. When he summoned
+out the fyrd they came in great force to his aid, not so much because
+they trusted in the promises of good governance and reduced taxation
+which he made, but because they saw that a horde of greedy barons would
+be worse to serve than a single king, however hard and selfish he might
+be. With their assistance William fought down the rebels, expelled his
+uncle Odo and several other leaders from the realm, confiscated a
+certain amount of estates, and then pardoned the remainder of the
+rebels. Such mercy, as he was to discover, was misplaced. In 1095 the
+same body of barons made a second and a more formidable rising, headed
+by the earls of Shrewsbury, Eu and Northumberland. It was put down with
+the same decisive energy that William had shown in 1088, and this time
+he was merciless; he blinded and mutilated William of Eu, shut up
+Mowbray of Northumberland for life in a monastery, and hanged many men
+of lesser rank. Of the other rebels some were deprived of their English
+estates altogether, others restored to part of them after paying
+crushing fines. This second feudal rebellion was only a distraction to
+William from his war with his brother Robert, which continued
+intermittently all through the earlier years of his reign. It was raging
+from 1088 to 1091, and again from 1093 to 1096, when Robert tired of the
+losing game, pawned his duchy to his brother and went off on the First
+Crusade. Down to this moment William's position had been somewhat
+precarious; with the Norman war generally on hand, feudal rebellion
+always imminent, and Scottish invasions occasionally to be repelled, he
+had no easy life. But he fought through his troubles, conquered
+Cumberland from the Scots (1092), in dealing with his domestic enemies
+used cunning where force failed, and generally got his will in the end.
+His rule was expensive, and he made himself hated by every class of his
+subjects, baronage, clergy and people alike, by his ingenious and
+oppressive taxation. His chosen instrument, a clerical lawyer named
+Ranulf Flambard (q.v.), whom he presently made bishop of Durham, was
+shameless in his methods of twisting feudal or national law to the
+detriment of the taxpayer. William supported him in every device,
+however unjust, with a cynical frankness which was the distinguishing
+trait of his character; for he loved to display openly all the vices and
+meannesses which most men take care to disguise. In dealing with the
+baronage Ranulf and his master extorted excessive and arbitrary
+"reliefs" whenever land passed in succession to heirs. When the church
+was a landholder their conduct was even more unwarrantable; every clerk
+installed in a new preferment was forced to pay a large sum down--which
+in that age was considered a clear case of simony by all conscientious
+men. But in addition the king kept all wealthy posts, such as
+bishoprics and abbacies, vacant for years at a time and appropriated the
+revenue meanwhile.
+
+
+  Anselm.
+
+This policy, when pursued with regard to the archbishopric of
+Canterbury, brought on Rufus the most troublesome of his quarrels. When
+the wise primate Lanfranc, his father's friend, died in 1089, he made no
+appointment till 1093, extracting meanwhile great plunder from the see.
+In a moment of sickness, when his conscience was for a space troubling
+him or his will was weak, he nominated the saintly Anselm (q.v.) to the
+archbishopric. When enthroned the new primate refused to make the
+enormous gift which the king expected from every recipient of
+preferment. Soon after he began to press for leave to hold a national
+synod, and when it was denied him, spoke out boldly on the personal
+vices as well as the immoral policy of the king. From this time William
+and Anselm became open enemies. They fought first upon the question of
+acknowledging Urban II. as pope--for the king, taking advantage of the
+fact that there was an antipope in existence, refused to allow that
+there was any certain and legitimate head of the Western church at the
+moment. Then, after William had reluctantly yielded on this point, the
+far more important question of lay investitures cropped up. The council
+of Clermont (Nov. 1095) had just issued its famous decree to the effect
+that bishops must be chosen by free election, and not invested with
+their spiritual insignia or enfeoffed with their estates by the hands of
+a secular prince. Anselm felt himself obliged to accept this decision,
+and refused to accept his own pallium from William when Urban sent it
+across the sea by the hands of a legate. The king replied by harrying
+him on charges of having failed in his feudal obligation to provide
+well-equipped knights for a Welsh expedition, and imposed ruinous fines
+on him. It was even said that his life was threatened, and he fled to
+Rome in 1097, not to return till his adversary was dead. There was much
+to be said for the theory of the king as to the relations between church
+and state; he was indeed only carrying on in a harsh form his father's
+old policy. But the fact that he was a tyrant and an evil-liver, while
+Anselm was a saint, so much influenced public opinion that William was
+universally regarded as in the wrong, and the sympathy of the laity no
+less than the clergy was with the archbishop. For the remaining three
+years of his life the Red King was considered to be in a state of
+reprobation and at open strife with righteousness.
+
+Yet so far as secular affairs went William seemed prosperous enough.
+Since his brother had pawned the duchy of Normandy to him, so that he
+reigned at Rouen no less than at London, the danger of rebellion was
+almost removed. His foreign policy was successful: he installed a
+nominee of his own, Edgar, the son of Malcolm Canmore, on the throne of
+Scotland (1097); he reconquered Maine, which his brother Robert had
+lost; he made successful war upon King Philip of France. His barons
+subdued much of South Wales, though his own expeditions into North
+Wales, which he had designed to conquer and annex, had a less fortunate
+ending. He dreamed, we are told, of attacking Ireland, even of crowning
+himself king at Paris. But on the 2nd of August 1100 he was suddenly cut
+off in the midst of his sins. While hunting with some of his godless
+companions in the New Forest, he was struck by an arrow, unskilfully
+shot by one of the party. The knight Walter Tyrrell, who was
+persistently accused of being the author of his master's death, as
+persistently denied his responsibility for it; and whether the arrow was
+his or no, it was not alleged that malice guided it. William's
+favourites had all to lose by his death.
+
+
+  Succession of Henry I.
+
+The king's death was unexpected: he was only in his fortieth year, and
+men's minds had not even begun to ponder over the question of who would
+succeed him. The crown of England was left vacant for the boldest
+kinsman to snatch at, if he dared. William had two surviving brothers,
+beside several nephews. Robert's claim seemed the more likely to
+succeed, for not only was he the elder, but England was full of barons
+who desired his accession, and had already taken up arms for him in 1087
+or 1095. But he was far away--being at the moment on his return journey
+from Jerusalem--while on the spot was his brother Henry, an ambitious
+prince, whose previous efforts to secure himself a territorial
+endowment had failed more from ill-luck than from want of enterprise or
+ability. Seeing his opportunity, Henry left his brother's body unburied,
+rode straight off to Winchester with a handful of companions, and seized
+the royal treasure. This and his ready tongue were the main arguments by
+which he convinced the few magnates present, and persuaded them to back
+him, despite the protests of some supporters of Robert. There was hardly
+the semblance of an election, and the earl of Warwick and the chancellor
+William Giffard were almost the only persons of importance on the spot.
+But Henry, once hailed as king, rode hard for London and persuaded
+bishop Maurice to crown him without delay at Westminster, since the
+primate Anselm was absent beyond seas. He certainly lost no time: Rufus
+was shot on Thursday, the 2nd of August--his successor was crowned on
+Sunday the 5th of August! The realm heard almost by the same messengers
+that it had lost one king and that it had gained another.
+
+Henry at once issued a proclamation and charter promising the redress of
+all the grievances with which his brother had afflicted his feudal
+tenants, the clergy and the whole nation. He would keep the ancient laws
+of King Edward, as amended by his father the Conqueror, and give all men
+good justice. These promises he observed more faithfully than Norman
+kings were wont to do; if the pledge was not redeemed in every detail,
+he yet kept England free from anarchy, abandoned the arbitrary and
+unjust taxation of his brother, and set up a government that worked by
+rule and order, not by the fits and starts of tyrannical caprice. He was
+a man of a cold and hard disposition, but full of practical wisdom, and
+conscious that his precarious claim to the crown must be secured by
+winning the confidence of his subjects. Almost the first and quite the
+wisest of his inspirations was to wed a princess of the old English
+line--Edith,[1] the niece of Edgar AEtheling, the child of his sister
+Margaret of Scotland and Malcolm Canmore. The match, though his Norman
+barons sneered at it, gave him the hearts of all his English subjects,
+who supported him with enthusiasm, and not merely (as had been the case
+with Rufus) because they saw that a strong king would oppress them less
+than a factious and turbulent baronage. Henry won much applause at the
+same time by filling up all the bishoprics and abbacies which his
+brother had kept so long vacant, by inviting the exiled Anselm to return
+to England, and by imprisoning William's odious minister Ranulf
+Flambard. He had just time to create a favourable impression by his
+first proceedings, when his brother Robert, who had returned from
+Palestine and resumed possession of Normandy, landed at Portsmouth to
+claim the crown and to rouse his partisans among the English baronage.
+Henry bought him off, before the would-be rebels had time to join him,
+by promising him an annual tribute of 3000 marks and surrendering to him
+all his estates in Normandy (1101). His policy seemed tame and cautious,
+but was entirely justifiable, for within a few months of Robert's
+departure the inevitable feudal rebellion broke out. If the duke and his
+army had been on the spot to support it, things might have gone hardly
+with the king. The rising was led by Robert of Belesme, earl of
+Shrewsbury, a petty tyrant of the most ruffianly type, the terror of the
+Welsh marches. He was backed by his kinsmen and many other barons, but
+proved unable to stand before the king, who was loyally supported by the
+English shire levies. After taking the strong castles of Arundel,
+Tickhill, Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury, Henry forced the rebels to submit.
+He confiscated their estates and drove them out of the realm; they fled
+for the most part to Normandy, to spur on duke Robert to make another
+bid for the English crown. From the broad lands which they forfeited
+Henry made haste to reward his own servants, new men who owed all to him
+and served him faithfully. From them he chose the sheriffs, castellans
+and councillors through whom he administered the realm during the rest
+of his long reign.
+
+This minor official nobility was the strength of the crown, and was
+sharply divided in spirit and ambition from the older feudal aristocracy
+which descended from the original adventurers who had followed William
+the Conqueror. Yet the latter still remained strong enough to constitute
+a danger to the crown whenever it should fall to a king less wary and
+resolute than Henry himself.
+
+Henry was by nature more of an administrator and organizer than of a
+fighting man. He was a competent soldier, but his wish was rather to be
+a strong king at home than a great conqueror abroad. Nevertheless he was
+driven by the logic of events to attack Normandy, for as long as his
+brother reigned there, and as long as many English barons retained great
+holdings on both sides of the Channel and were subjects of the duke as
+well as of the king, intrigues and plots never ceased. The Norman war
+ended in the battle of Tenchebrai (Sept. 28, 1106), where Duke Robert
+was taken prisoner. His brother shut him up in honourable confinement
+for the rest of his life, though otherwise he was not ill-treated. For
+the rest of his reign Henry was ruler of all the old dominions of the
+Conqueror, and none of his subjects could cloak disloyalty by the
+pretence of owing a divided allegiance to two masters. With this he was
+content, and made no great effort to extend his dominions farther; his
+desire was to reign as a true king in England and Normandy, rather than
+to build up a loosely compacted empire around them.
+
+
+  Henry's difficulties with the church.
+
+Throughout the time of Henry's Norman war, he was engaged in a tiresome
+controversy with the primate on the question of lay investitures, the
+continuation of the struggle which had begun in his brother's reign.
+Every English king for five generations had to face the danger from the
+church, no less than the danger from the barons. Anselm had come back
+from Rome confirmed in the theories for which he had contended with
+Rufus--nay, taught to extend them to a further extreme. He now
+maintained not only that it was a sin that kings should invest prelates
+with their spiritual insignia, the pallium, the staff, the ring, but
+claimed that no clerk ought to do homage to the king for the lands of
+his benefice, though he himself seven years before had not scrupled to
+make his oath to his earlier master. He now refused to swear allegiance
+to the new monarch, though he had recalled him and had restored him to
+the possession of his see. He also refused to consecrate Henry's
+nominees to certain bishoprics and abbacies on the ground that they had
+not been chosen by free election by their chapters or their monks. The
+king was loath to take up the quarrel, for he highly respected the
+archbishop; yet he was still more loath to surrender the ancient claims
+and privileges of the crown. Anselm was equally reluctant to force
+matters to an open breach, yet would not shift from his position. There
+followed an interminable series of arguments, interrupted by truces,
+till at last Anselm, at the king's suggestion, went to Rome to see if
+the pope could arrange some _modus vivendi_. Paschal II. for some time
+refused to withdraw from his fixed theory of the relation of church and
+state, and Anselm, in despair, preferred to remain abroad rather than to
+press matters to the rupture that seemed the only logical issue of the
+controversy. But in 1107 the pope consented to a compromise, which
+satisfied the king, and yet was acceptable to the church. Bishops and
+abbots were for the future to be canonically elected by the clergy, and
+were no longer to receive the ring and staff from lay hands. But they
+were to do homage to the king for their lands, and since they thus
+acknowledged him as their temporal lord Henry was content. Moreover, he
+retained in practice, if not in theory, his power to nominate to the
+vacant offices; chapters and monasteries seldom dared to resist the
+pressure which the sovereign could bring to bear upon them in favour of
+the candidate whom he had selected. The arrangement was satisfactory,
+and served as the model for the similar compromise arrived at between
+Pope Calixtus II. and the emperor Henry V. fifteen years later.
+
+From 1107 onward Henry was freed from both the dangers which had
+threatened him in his earlier years, and was free to develop his policy
+as he pleased. He had yet twenty-eight years to reign, for he survived
+to the age of sixty-seven, an age unparalleled by any of his
+predecessors, and by all his successors till Edward I.
+
+
+  Constitutional machinery.
+
+It is to Henry, aided by his great justiciar, Roger, bishop of
+Salisbury, that England owed the institution of the machinery of
+government by which it was to be ruled during the earlier middle ages.
+This may be described as a primitive kind of bureaucracy, which
+gradually developed into a much more complicated system of courts and
+offices. Around the sovereign was his _Curia Regis_ or body of
+councillors, of whom the most important were the justiciar, the
+chancellor and the treasurer, though the feudal officers, the constable
+and marshal, were also to be found there. The bulk of the council,
+however, was composed of knights and clerks selected by the king for
+their administrative or financial ability. The Curia, besides advising
+the king on ordinary matters of state, had two special functions. It
+sat, or certain members of it sat, under the presidency of the king or
+the justiciar, as the supreme court of justice of the realm. In this
+capacity it tried the suits of tenants-in-chief, and all appeals from
+the local courts. But Henry, not contented with this, adopted the custom
+of sending forth certain members of the Curia throughout the realm at
+intervals, to sit in the shire court, along with or in place of the
+sheriff, and to hear and judge all the cases of which the court had
+cognizance. From these itinerant commissioners (justices in eyre)
+descend the modern justices of assize. The sheriff, the original
+president of the shire court, was gradually extruded by them from all
+important business.
+
+But there were other developments of the Curia. The justiciar,
+chancellor and treasurer sat with certain other members of the council
+as the court of exchequer, not only to receive and audit the accounts of
+the royal revenue, but to give legal decisions on all questions
+connected with finance. Twice in every year the sheriffs and other royal
+officials came up to the exchequer court, which originally sat at
+Winchester, with their bags of money and their sheaves of accounts.
+Their figures were subjected to a severe scrutiny, and the law was laid
+down on all points in which the interests of the sheriff and the king,
+or the sheriff and the taxpayer, came into conflict. In this way the
+exchequer grew into a law court of primary importance, instead of
+remaining merely a court of receipt. Though its members were originally
+the same men who sat in the Curia Regis, the character of the question
+to be tried settled the capacity in which they should sit, and two
+separate courts were evolved. (See EXCHEQUER.)
+
+Under the superintendence of the Curia Regis and the exchequer, the
+sheriff still remained the king's factotum in local affairs. He led the
+shire-levies, collected the royal revenues both feudal and non-feudal,
+and presided in the shire-court as judge, till in the course of years
+his functions in that sphere were gradually taken over by the itinerant
+justices. On his fidelity the king had to rely both for military aid in
+times of baronial revolt and for the collection of the money which
+formed the sinews of war. Hence the position was one of the highest
+importance, and Henry's new nobility, the men of ability whom he
+selected and promoted, found their special occupation in holding the
+office of sheriff. It was they who had to see that the shire court, and
+in minor affairs the hundred court, did not allow cases to slip away
+into the jurisdiction of the feudal courts of the baronage.
+
+Henry I. must count not merely as the father of the English bureaucracy,
+but as a fosterer of the municipal independence of the towns. He gave
+charters of a very liberal character to many places, and in especial to
+London, where the citizens were allowed to choose their own sheriff, and
+to deal directly with the exchequer in matters of revenue. He even
+farmed out to them the charge of the taxes of the whole shire of
+Middlesex, outside the city walls. Such a grant was exceptional--though
+Lincoln also seems to have been granted the privilege of dealing
+directly with the exchequer. But in many other smaller towns the first
+grants--the smaller beginnings of autonomy--may be traced back to this
+period (see BOROUGH).
+
+Though Henry was an autocrat, and governed through bureaucratic
+officials who were entirely under his hand, yet a reign of law and order
+such as his was indirectly favourable to the growth of constitutional
+liberty. It was equally favourable to the growth of national unity: it
+was in his time that Norman and English began to melt together:
+intermarriage in all classes became common, and only thirty years after
+his death a contemporary writer could remark that it was hard for any
+man to call himself either Norman or English, so much had blood been
+intermingled.
+
+It is unnecessary to go into the very uninteresting and unimportant
+history of Henry's later years. A long war with France, prosecuted
+without much energy, led to no results, for the French king's attempts
+to stir up rebellions in the name of William the Clito (q.v.), the son
+of Duke Robert, came to an end with that prince's death in 1129. But the
+extension of the English borders in South Wales by the conquests of the
+lords marcher as far as Pembroke and Cardigan deserves a word of notice.
+
+
+  Henry's heir.
+
+The question of the succession was the main thing which occupied the
+mind of the king and the whole nation in Henry's later years. It had a
+real interest for every man in an age when any doubt as to the heir
+meant the outbreak of civil war such as had occurred at the death of the
+Conqueror and of Rufus. There was now a problem of some difficulty to be
+solved. Henry's only son William had been drowned at sea in 1120. He had
+no other child born in wedlock save a daughter, Matilda, who married the
+emperor Henry V., but had no issue by him. On the emperor's decease she
+wedded as her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou (1127), to whom during
+her father's last years she bore two sons. But the succession of a woman
+to the crown was as unfamiliar to English as to Norman ideas, nor did it
+seem natural to either to place a young child on the throne. Moreover,
+Matilda's husband Geoffrey was unpopular among the Normans; the Angevins
+had been the chief enemies of the duchy for several generations, and the
+idea that one of them might become its practical ruler was deeply
+resented. The old king, as was but natural, had determined that his
+daughter should be his successor; he made the great council do homage to
+her in 1126, and always kept her before the eyes of his people as his
+destined heir. But though he had forced or cajoled every leading man in
+England and Normandy to take his oath to serve her, he must have been
+conscious that there was a large chance that such pledges would be
+forgotten at his death. The prejudice against a female heir was strong,
+and there were too many turbulent magnates to whom the anarchy that
+would follow a disputed succession presented temptations which could not
+be resisted.
+
+
+  Matilda, and Stephen.
+
+Henry died suddenly on the 25th of November 1135, while he was on a
+visit to his duchy of Normandy. The moment that his death was reported
+the futility of oaths became apparent. A majority of the Norman barons
+appealed to Theobald, count of Blois, son of the Conqueror's daughter
+Adela, to be their duke, and to save them from the yoke of the hated
+Angevin. His supporters and those of Matilda were soon at blows all
+along the frontier of Normandy. Meanwhile in England another pretender
+had appeared. Stephen, count of Boulogne, the younger brother of
+Theobald, had landed at Dover within a few days of Henry's death,
+determined to make a snatch at the crown, though he had been one of the
+first who had taken the oath to his cousin a few years before. The
+citizens of London welcomed him, but he was not secure of his success
+till by a swift swoop on Winchester he obtained possession of the royal
+treasure--an all-important factor in a crisis, as Henry I. had shown in
+1100. At Winchester he was acknowledged as king by the bishop, his own
+brother Henry of Blois, and by the great justiciar, Roger, bishop of
+Salisbury, and the archbishop, William of Corbeil. The allegiance of
+these prelates was bought by an unwise promise to grant all the demands
+of the church party, which his predecessor had denied, or conceded only
+in part. He would permit free election to all benefices, and free
+legislation by ecclesiastical synods, and would surrender any claims of
+the royal courts to have jurisdiction over clerks or the property of
+clerks. It then remained necessary to buy the baronage, of which only a
+few members had as yet committed themselves to his side. It was done by
+grants of lands and privileges, the first instalment of a never-ending
+crop of ruinous concessions which Stephen continued to make from the day
+of his accession down to the day of his death.
+
+The pretender was crowned at Westminster on the 22nd of December
+1135--less than a month after his uncle's death. No one yet openly
+withstood him, but he was well aware that his position was precarious,
+and that the claims of Matilda would be brought forward ere long by the
+section of the baronage which had not yet got from him all they desired.
+Meanwhile, however, he was encouraged to persevere by the fact that his
+brother Theobald had withdrawn his claim to the duchy of Normandy, and
+retired in his favour. For a space he was to be duke as well as king;
+but this meant merely that he would have two wars, not one, in hand ere
+long. Matilda's adherents were already in the field in Normandy; in
+England their rising was only delayed for a few months.
+
+
+  Civil war.
+
+Stephen, though he had shown some enterprise and capacity in his
+successful snatch at the crown, was a man far below his three
+predecessors on the throne in the matter of perseverance and foresight.
+He was a good fighter, a liberal giver, and a faithful friend, but he
+lacked wisdom, caution and the power to organize. Starting his career as
+a perjurer, it is curious that he was singularly slow to suspect perjury
+in others; he was the most systematically betrayed of all English kings,
+because he was the least suspicious, and the most ready to buy off and
+to forgive rebels. His troubles began in 1136, when sporadic rebellions,
+raised in the name of Matilda, began to appear; they grew steadily
+worse, though Stephen showed no lack of energy, posting about his realm
+with a band of mercenary knights whenever trouble broke out. But in 1138
+the crisis came; the baronage had tried the capacity of their new master
+and found him wanting. The outbreak was now widespread and
+systematic--caused not by the turbulence of a few wild spirits, but by
+the deliberate conspiracy of all who saw their advantage in anarchy.
+Matilda had a few genuine partisans, such as her half-brother Robert,
+earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I., but the large
+majority of those who took arms in her name were ready to sell their
+allegiance to either candidate in return for lands, or grants of rank or
+privilege. A long list of doubly and triply forsworn nobles, led by
+Geoffrey de Mandeville, Aubrey de Vere and Ralph of Chester, made the
+balance of war sway alternately from side to side, as they transferred
+themselves to the camp of the highest bidder. It is hard to trace any
+meaning in the civil war--it was not a contest between the principle of
+hereditary succession and the principle of elective kingship, as might
+be supposed. It was rather, if some explanation must be found for it, a
+strife between the kingly power and feudal anarchy. Unfortunately for
+England the kingly power was in the hands of an incapable holder, and
+feudal anarchy found a plausible mask by adopting the disguise of
+loyalty to the rightful heiress.
+
+The civil war was not Stephen's only trouble; foreign invasion was
+added. David I., king of Scotland, was the uncle of Matilda, and used
+her wrongs as the plea for thrice invading northern England, which he
+ravaged with great cruelty. His most formidable raid was checked by the
+Yorkshire shire levies, at the battle of the Standard (Aug. 22, 1138).
+Yet in the following year he had to be bought off by the grant of all
+Northumberland (save Newcastle and Bamborough) to his son Earl Henry.
+Carlisle and Cumberland were already in his hands. Some years later the
+Scottish prince also got possession of the great "Honour of Lancaster."
+It was not Stephen's fault that the boundary of England did not
+permanently recede from the Tweed and the Solway to the Tyne and the
+Ribble.
+
+But the affairs of the North attracted little attention while the civil
+war was at its height in the South. In 1139 Stephen had wrought himself
+fatal damage by quarrelling with the ecclesiastical bureaucrats, the
+kinsmen and allies of Roger of Salisbury, who had been among his
+earliest adherents. Jealous of their power and their arrogance, and
+doubting their loyalty, he imprisoned them and confiscated their lands.
+This threw the whole church party on to the side of Matilda; even Henry,
+bishop of Winchester, the king's own brother, disowned him and passed
+over to the other side. Moreover, the whole machinery of local
+government in the realm fell out of gear, when the experienced ministers
+who were wont to control it were removed from power.
+
+Matilda had landed in England in the winter of 1139-1140; for a year her
+partisans made steady progress against the king, and on the 2nd of
+February 1141 Stephen was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of
+Lincoln. All England, save the county of Kent and a few isolated castles
+elsewhere, submitted to Matilda. She was hailed as a sovereign by a
+great assembly at Winchester, over which Stephen's own brother Bishop
+Henry presided (April 7, 1141) and entered London in triumph in June. It
+is doubtful whether she would have obtained complete possession of the
+realm if she had played her cards well, for there were too many powerful
+personages who were interested in the perpetuation of the civil war. But
+she certainly did her best to ruin her own chances by showing an unwise
+arrogance, and a determination to resume at once all the powers that her
+father had possessed. When she annulled all the royal acts of the last
+six years, declared charters forfeited and lands confiscated, and began
+to raise heavy and arbitrary taxes, she made the partisans of Stephen
+desperate, and estranged many of her own supporters. A sudden rising of
+the citizens drove her out of London, while she was making preparations
+for her coronation. The party of the imprisoned king rallied under the
+wise guidance of his wife Matilda of Boulogne and his brother Henry, and
+many other of the late deserters adhered to it. Their army drove the
+lately triumphant party out of Winchester, and captured its military
+chief, Robert, earl of Gloucester. So much was his loss felt that his
+sister exchanged him a few months later for King Stephen.
+
+After this the war went on interminably, without complete advantage to
+either side, Stephen for the most part dominating the eastern and
+Matilda the western shires. It was the zenith of the power of the
+baronial anarchists, who moved from camp to camp with shameless
+rapidity, wresting from one or other of the two rival sovereigns some
+royal castle, or some dangerous grant of financial or judicial rights,
+at each change of allegiance. The kingdom was in the desperate state
+described in the last melancholy pages of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_,
+when life and property were nowhere safe from the objectless ferocity of
+feudal tyrants--when "every shire was full of castles and every castle
+filled with devils and evil men," and the people murmured that "Christ
+and his saints slept."
+
+Such was England's fate till 1153, when Matilda had retired from the
+strife in favour of her son, Henry of Anjou, and Stephen was grown an
+old man, and had just lost his heir, Eustace, to whom he had desired to
+pass on the crown. Both parties were exhausted, both were sick of the
+incessant treachery of their more unscrupulous barons, and at last they
+came to the compromise of Wallingford (October 1153), by which it was
+agreed that Stephen should reign for the remainder of his life, but that
+on his death the crown should pass to Henry. Both sides promised to lay
+down their arms, to dismiss their mercenaries, and to acquiesce in the
+destruction of unlicensed castles, of which it is said, with no very
+great exaggeration, that there were at the moment over 1000 in the
+realm. Henry then returned to Normandy, of which his mother had been in
+possession since 1145, while Stephen turned his small remaining strength
+to the weary task of endeavouring to restore the foundations of law and
+order. But he had accomplished little when he died in October 1154. The
+task of reconstruction was to be left to Henry of Anjou: his predecessor
+was only remembered as an example of the evil that may be done by a weak
+man who has been reckless enough to seize a throne which he is incapable
+of defending. England has had many worse kings, but never one who
+wrought her more harm. If his successor had been like him, feudal
+anarchy might have become as permanent in England as in Poland.
+
+
+  Henry II.
+
+Fortunately the young king to whom Stephen's battered crown now fell was
+energetic and capable, if somewhat self-willed and hasty. He was
+inferior in caution and self-control to his grandfather Henry I., though
+he resembled him in his love of strong and systematic governance. From
+the point of view of his English subjects his main achievement was that
+he restored in almost every detail the well-organized bureaucracy which
+his ancestor had created, and with it the law and order that had
+disappeared during Stephen's unhappy reign. But there was this essential
+difference between the position of the two Henries, that the elder
+aspired to be no more than king of England and duke of Normandy, while
+the younger strove all his life for an imperial position in western
+Europe. Such an ambition was almost forced upon him by the consequences
+of his descent and his marriage. Besides his grandfather's Anglo-Norman
+inheritance, he had received from his father Geoffrey the counties of
+Anjou and Touraine, and the predominance in the valley of the Lower
+Loire. But it was his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, two years before
+his accession to the English throne, which gave him the right to dream
+of greatness such as his Norman forbears had never enjoyed. This lady,
+the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, brought to her second husband
+the whole of the lands from Poitou to the Pyrenees, the accumulated
+gains of many warlike ancestors. In wealth and fighting strength the
+duchy of Aquitaine was a full third of France. Added to Anjou and
+Normandy it made a realm far more important than England. Hence it came
+that Henry's ambitions and interests were continental more than English.
+Unlike his grandfather he dwelt for the greater part of his time beyond
+seas. It must be remembered, too, that his youth had been spent abroad,
+and that England only came to him when he was already a grown man. The
+concerns of his island realm were a matter of high importance to him,
+but only formed a part of his cares. Essentially he was an Angevin,
+neither a Norman nor an Englishman, and his primary ambition was to make
+the house of Anjou supreme in France. Nor did this seem impossible; he
+owned a far broader and wealthier domain beyond the Channel than did his
+nominal suzerain King Louis VII., and--what was of more importance--he
+far excelled that prince both in vigour and in capacity.
+
+On succeeding to the English crown, however, he came over at once to
+take possession of the realm, and abode there for over a year,
+displaying the most restless energy in setting to rights the governance
+of the realm. He expelled all Stephen's mercenaries, took back into his
+hands the royal lands and castles which his predecessor had granted
+away, and destroyed hundreds of the "adulterine" castles which the
+barons and knights had built without leave during the years of the
+anarchy. Hardly a single magnate dared to oppose him--Bridgnorth, now a
+castle of the Mortimers, was the only place which he had to take by
+force. His next care was to restore the bureaucracy by which Henry I.
+had been wont to govern. He handed over the exchequer to Nigel, bishop
+of Ely, the nephew of the old justiciar Roger of Salisbury, and the heir
+of his traditions. His chancellor was a young clerk, Thomas Becket, who
+was recommended to him by archbishop Theobald as the most capable
+official in the realm. A short experience of his work convinced the king
+that his merits had not been exaggerated. He proved a zealous and
+capable minister, and such a strong exponent of the claims of the crown
+that no one could have foreseen the later developments by which he was
+to become their greatest enemy.
+
+The machine of government was beginning to work in a satisfactory
+fashion, and the realm was already settling down into order, when Henry
+was called abroad by a rebellion raised in Anjou by his brother
+Geoffrey--the first of the innumerable dynastic troubles abroad which
+continued throughout his reign to distract his attention from his duties
+as an English king. He did not return for fifteen months; but when he
+did reappear it was to complete the work which he had begun in 1155, to
+extort from the greater barons the last of the royal fortresses which
+still remained in their hands, and to restore the northern boundaries of
+the realm. Malcolm IV., the young king of Scotland, was compelled to
+give up the earldoms of Northumberland and Cumberland, which his father
+Henry had received from Stephen. He received instead only the earldom of
+Huntingdon, too far from the border to be a dangerous possession, to
+which he had a hereditary right as descending from Earl Waltheof. He did
+homage to the king of England, and actually followed him with a great
+retinue on his next continental expedition. In the same year (1157)
+Henry made an expedition into North Wales, and forced its prince Owen to
+become his vassal, not without some fighting, in which the English army
+received several sharp checks at the commencement of the campaign.
+
+Yet once more Henry's stay on the English side of the Channel was but
+for a year. In 1158 he again departed to plunge into schemes of
+continental conquest. This time it was an attempt to annex the great
+county of Toulouse, and so to carry the borders of Aquitaine to the
+Mediterranean, which distracted him. Naturally Louis of France was
+unwilling to see his great vassal striding all across his realm, and did
+what he could to hinder him. Into the endless skirmishes and
+negotiations which followed the raising of the question of Toulouse it
+would be fruitless to enter. Henry did not achieve his purpose, indeed
+he seems to have failed to use his strength to its best advantage, and
+allowed himself to be bought off by a futile marriage treaty by which
+his eldest son was to marry the French king's daughter (1160). This was
+to be but the first of many disappointments in this direction; there was
+apparently some fatal scruple, both in Henry's own mind and in that of
+his continental subjects, as to pressing their suzerain too hard. But it
+must also be remembered that a feudal army was an inefficient weapon for
+long wars, and that the mercenaries, by whom alone it could be replaced,
+were both expensive and untrustworthy. Henry developed as far as he was
+able the system of "scutage" (q.v.) which his grandfather had apparently
+invented; by this the vassal compounded for his forty days' personal
+service by paying money, with which the king could hire professional
+soldiers. But even with this help he could never keep a large enough
+army together.
+
+
+  Quarrel with the church.
+
+  Becket.
+
+Meanwhile England, though somewhat heavily taxed, was at least enjoying
+quiet and strong governance. There is every sign that Henry's early
+years were a time of returning prosperity. But there was also much
+friction between the crown and its subjects. The more turbulent part of
+the baronage, looking back to the boisterous times of Stephen with
+regret, was reserving itself for a favourable opportunity. The danger of
+feudal rebellion was not yet past, as was to be shown ten years later.
+The towns did not find Henry an easy master. He took away from London
+some of the exceptional privileges which his grandfather had granted,
+such as the free election of sheriffs of Middlesex, and the right of
+farming the shire at a fixed rent. He asserted his power to raise
+"tallages"--arbitrary taxation--from the citizens on occasion. Yet he
+left the foundations of municipal liberty untouched, and he was fairly
+liberal in granting charters which contained moderate privileges to
+smaller towns. His most difficult task, however, was to come to a
+settlement with the Church. The lavish grants of Stephen had made an end
+of the old authority which the Conqueror and Henry I. had exercised over
+the clergy. Their successor was well aware of the fact, and was resolved
+to put back the clock, so far as it was in his power. It was not,
+however, on the old problems of free election, of lay investiture, that
+his quarrel with the clerical body broke out, but on the comparatively
+new question of the conflicting claims of ecclesiastical and secular
+courts. The separate tribunals of the church, whose erection William I.
+had favoured, had been developing in power ever since, and had begun to
+encroach on the sphere of the courts of the state. This was more than
+ever the case since Stephen had formally granted them jurisdiction over
+all suits concerning clerics and clerical property. During the first few
+years of his reign Henry had already been in collision with the
+ecclesiastical authorities over several such cases; he had chafed at
+seeing two clerks accused of murder and blackmailing claimed by and
+acquitted in the church courts; and most of all at the frequency of
+unlicensed appeals to Rome--a flagrant breach of one of the three rules
+laid down by William the Conqueror. Being comparatively at leisure after
+the pacification with France, he resolved to turn his whole attention to
+the arrangement of a new _modus vivendi_ with the church. As a
+preliminary move he appointed his able chancellor Thomas Becket to the
+archbishopric of Canterbury, which fell vacant in 1162. This was the
+greatest mistake of his reign. Becket was one of those men who, without
+being either hypocrites or consciously ambitious, live only to magnify
+their office. While chancellor he was the most zealous servant of the
+crown, and had seemed rather secular than clerical in his habits and his
+outlook on life. But no sooner had he been promoted to the archbishopric
+than he put away his former manners, became the most formal and austere
+of men, and set himself to be the champion of the church party in all
+its claims, reasonable or unreasonable, against the state. The king's
+astonishment was even greater than his indignation when he saw the late
+chancellor setting himself to oppose him in all things. Their first
+quarrel was about a proposed change in some details of taxation, which
+seems to have had no specially ecclesiastical bearing at all. But Becket
+vehemently opposed it, and got so much support when the great council
+met at Woodstock that Henry withdrew his schemes. This was only a
+preliminary skirmish; the main battle opened in the following year, when
+the king, quite aware that he must for the future look on Thomas as his
+enemy, brought forward the famous _Constitutions of Clarendon_, of which
+the main purport was to assert the jurisdiction of the state over
+clerical offenders by a rather complicated procedure, while other
+clauses provided that appeals to Rome must not be made without the
+king's leave, that suits about land or the presentation to benefices, in
+which clerics were concerned, should be tried before the royal courts,
+and that bishops should not quit the realm unless they had obtained
+permission to do so from the king (see CLARENDON, CONSTITUTIONS OF).
+Somewhat to the king's surprise, Becket yielded for a moment to his
+pressure, and declared his assent to the constitutions. But he had no
+sooner left the court than he proclaimed that he had grievously sinned
+in giving way, suspended himself from his archiepiscopal functions, and
+wrote to the pope to beg for pardon and absolution. He then made a
+clandestine attempt to escape from the realm, but was detected on the
+seashore and forced to return.
+
+Incensed with Becket for his repudiation of his original submission,
+Henry proceeded to open a campaign of lawsuits against him, in order to
+force him to plead in secular courts. He also took the very mean step of
+declaring that he should call him to account for all the moneys that had
+passed through his hands when he was chancellor, though Becket had been
+given a quittance for them when he resigned the office more than two
+years before. The business came up at the council of Northampton
+(October 1164), when the archbishop was tried for refusing to recognize
+the jurisdiction of the king's courts, and declared to have forfeited
+his movable goods. The sentence was passed by the lay members of the
+Curia Regis alone, the bishops having been forbidden to sit, and
+threatened with excommunication if they did so, by the accused primate.
+When Becket was visited by the justiciar who came to rehearse the
+judgment, he started to his feet, refused to listen to a word, declared
+his repudiation of all lay courts and left the hall. That same night he
+made a second attempt to escape from England and this time succeeded in
+getting off to Flanders. From thence he fled to the court of the pope,
+where he received less support than he had expected. Alexander III.
+privately approved of all that he had done, and regarded him as the
+champion of the Church, but he did not wish to quarrel with King Henry.
+He had lately been driven from Rome by the emperor Frederick I., who had
+installed an antipope in his place, and had been forced to retire to
+France. If he sided with Becket and thundered against his persecutor,
+there was small doubt that the king of England would adhere to the
+schism. Accordingly he endeavoured to temporize and to avoid a rupture,
+to the archbishop's great disgust. But since he also declared the
+Constitutions of Clarendon uncanonical and invalid, Henry was equally
+offended, and opened negotiations with the emperor and the antipope.
+This conduct forced Alexander's hand, and he gave Becket leave to
+excommunicate his enemies. The exile, who had taken refuge in a French
+abbey, placed the justiciar and six other of the king's chief
+councillors under the ban of the Church, and intimated that he should
+add Henry himself to the list unless he showed speedy signs of
+repentance (April 1166).
+
+Thus the quarrel had come to a head. Church and State were at open war.
+Henry soon found that Becket's threats had more effect than he liked.
+Many of the English clergy were naturally on the side of the primate in
+a dispute which touched their loyalty to the Church and their class
+feeling. Several bishops declared to the king that, since his ministers
+had been duly excommunicated, they did not see how they could avoid
+regarding them as men placed outside the pale of Christendom.
+Fortunately the pope interfered for a moment to lighten the friction;
+being threatened with a new invasion by the emperor Frederick, he
+suspended the sentences and sent legates to patch up a peace. They
+failed, for neither the king nor the archbishop would give way. At this
+juncture Henry was desirous of getting his eldest son and namesake
+crowned as his colleague, the best mode that he could devise for
+avoiding the dangers of a disputed succession at his death. He induced
+the archbishop of York, assisted by the bishops of London and Salisbury,
+to perform the ceremony. This was a clear invasion of the ancient rights
+of the primate, and Becket took it more to heart than any other of his
+grievances.
+
+Yet the next move in the struggle was a hollow reconciliation between
+the combatants--a most inexplicable act on both sides. The king offered
+to allow Becket to return from exile, and to restore him to his
+possessions, without exacting from him any promise of submission, or
+even a pledge that he would not reopen the dispute on his return.
+Apparently he had made a wrong interpretation of the primate's mental
+attitude, and thought him desirous of a truce, if not ready for a
+compromise. He had wholly misjudged the situation; Becket made neither
+promises nor threats, but three weeks after he reached Canterbury
+publicly excommunicated the bishops of London and Salisbury for the part
+that they had taken in the coronation of the young king, and suspended
+from their functions the other prelates who had been present at the
+ceremony. He then proceeded to excommunicate a number of his minor lay
+enemies.
+
+
+  Becket's murder.
+
+The news was carried overseas to Henry, who was then in Normandy. It
+roused one of the fits of wild rage to which he was not unfrequently
+liable; he burst out into ejaculations of wrath, and cursed "the
+cowardly idle servants who suffered their master to be made the
+laughing-stock of a low-born priest." Among those who stood about him
+were four knights, some of whom had personal grudges against Becket, and
+all of whom were reckless ruffians, who were eager to win their master's
+favour by fair means or foul. They crossed the Channel with astonishing
+speed; two days after the king's outburst they stood before Becket at
+Canterbury and threatened him with death unless he should remove the
+excommunications and submit to his master. The archbishop answered with
+words as scornful as their own, and took his way to the minster to
+attend vespers. The knights went out to seek their weapons, and when
+armed followed him into the north transept, where they fell upon him and
+brutally slew him with many sword-strokes (December 29, 1170). Thomas
+had been given time to fly, and his followers had endeavoured to
+persuade him to do so. It seems that he deliberately courted martyrdom,
+anxious apparently that his death should deal the king the bitterest
+blow that it was in his power to inflict (see BECKET).
+
+
+  Its results.
+
+Nothing could have put Henry in such an evil plight; the whole world
+held him responsible for the murder, and he was forced to buy pardon for
+it by surrendering many of the advantages over the Church which he had
+hoped to gain by enforcing the Constitutions of Clarendon. Especially
+the immunity of clerical offenders from the jurisdiction of lay courts
+had to be conceded; for the rest of the middle ages the clerk guilty of
+theft or assault, riot or murder, could plead his orders, and escape
+from the harsh justice of the king's officers to the milder penalties of
+the bishop's tribunal. "Benefit of clergy" became an intolerable
+anomaly, all the more so because the privilege was extended in practice
+not only to all persons actually in minor orders, but to all who claimed
+them; any criminal who could read had a fair chance of being reckoned a
+clerk. Another concession which Henry was forced to make was that the
+appeals to Rome of litigants in ecclesiastical suits should be freely
+permitted, provided that they made an oath that they were not
+contemplating any wrong to the English crown or the English church, a
+sufficiently easy condition. Such appeals became, and remained,
+innumerable and vexatious. Pope Alexander also extorted from the king a
+pledge that he would relinquish any customs prejudicial to the rights of
+the Church which had been introduced since his accession. To the pope
+this meant that the Constitutions of Clarendon were disavowed; to the
+king, who maintained that they were in the main a mere restatement of
+the customs of William I., it bore no such general interpretation. The
+points were fought out in detail, and not settled for many years.
+Practically it became the rule to regard suits regarding land, or
+presentations to benefices, as pertaining to the king's court, while
+those regarding probate, marriage and divorce fell to the ecclesiastical
+tribunal. The question of election to bishoprics and abbacies went back
+to the stage which it had reached in the time of Henry I.; the choice
+was made in canonical form, by the chapters or the monasteries, but the
+king's recommendation was a primary factor in that choice. When the
+electors disregarded it, as was sometimes the case, there was friction;
+a weak king was sometimes overruled; a strong one generally got his way
+in the end.
+
+Becket's death, then, gave a qualified triumph to the church party, and
+he was rightly regarded as the successful champion of his caste. Hence
+they held his death in grateful remembrance; the pope canonized him in
+1173, and more churches were dedicated to him during the next two
+centuries than to any other English saint. In the eyes of most men his
+martyrdom had put the king so much in the wrong that the obstinacy and
+provocative conduct which had brought it about passed out of memory. His
+life of ostentatious austerity, and the courage with which he met his
+death, had caused all his faults to be forgotten. Henry himself felt so
+much the invidious position in which he was placed that even after
+making his submission to the pope's legates at Avranches in 1172, he
+thought it necessary to do penance before Becket's tomb in 1174, on
+which occasion he allowed himself to be publicly scourged by the monks
+of Canterbury, who inflicted on him three cuts apiece.
+
+Between the outbreak of the king's quarrel with Becket at the council of
+Woodstock and the compromise of Avranches no less than ten years had
+elapsed--the best years of Henry's manhood. During this period his
+struggle with the Church had been but one of his distractions. His
+policy of imperial aggrandisement had been in progress. In 1163 he had
+completed the conquest of South Wales; the marcher lords were now in
+possession of the greater part of the land; the surviving Welsh princes
+did homage for the rest. In 1166 Henry got practical possession of the
+duchy of Brittany, the only remaining large district of western France
+which was not already in his hands. Conan, the last prince of the old
+Breton house, recognized him as his lord, and gave the hand of his
+heiress Constance to Geoffrey, the king's third son. When the count died
+in 1171 Henry did not transfer the administration of the land to the
+young pair, who were still but children, but retained it for himself,
+and clung to it jealously long after his son came of age. Intermittent
+wars with France during these years were of small importance; Henry
+never pushed his suzerain to extremity. But the Angevin dominions were
+extended in a new direction, where no English king had yet made his
+power felt.
+
+
+  Conquest of Ireland.
+
+The distressful island of Ireland was at this moment enjoying the
+anarchy which had reigned therein since the dawn of history. Its state
+had grown even more unhappy than before since the Danish invasions of
+the 10th century, which had not welded the native kingdoms into unity
+by pressure from without--as had been the case in England--but had
+simply complicated affairs, by setting up two or three alien
+principalities on the coastline. As in England, the vikings had
+destroyed much of the old civilization; but they had neither succeeded
+in occupying the whole country nor had they been absorbed by the
+natives. The state of the island was much like that of England in the
+days of the Heptarchy: occasionally a "High King" succeeded in forcing
+his rivals into a precarious submission; more usually there was not even
+a pretence of a central authority in the island, and the annals of
+objectless tribal wars formed its sole history. King Henry's eyes had
+been fixed on the faction-ridden land since the first years of his
+reign. As early as 1155 he had asked and obtained the approval of Pope
+Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever sat upon the papal throne, for
+a scheme for the conquest of Ireland. The Holy See had always regarded
+with distaste the existence in the West of a nation who repudiated the
+Roman obedience, and lived in schismatical independence, under local
+ecclesiastical customs which dated back to the 5th century, and had
+never been brought into line with those of the rest of Christendom.
+Hence it was natural to sanction an invasion which might bring the Irish
+within the fold. But Henry made no endeavour for many years to utilize
+the papal grant of Ireland, which seems to have been made under the
+preposterous "Donation of Constantine," the forged document which gave
+the bishop of Rome authority over all islands. It was conveniently
+forgotten that Ireland had never been in the Roman empire, and so had
+not even been Constantine's to give away.
+
+Not till 1168, thirteen years after the agreement with Pope Adrian, did
+the interference of the English king in Ireland actually begin. Even
+then he did not take the conquest in hand himself, but merely sanctioned
+a private adventure of some of his subjects. Dermot MacMorrough, king of
+Leinster, an unquiet Irish prince who for good reasons had been expelled
+by his neighbours, came to Henry's court in Normandy, proffering his
+allegiance in return for restoration to his lost dominions. The quarrel
+with Becket, and the French war, were both distracting the English king
+at the moment. He could not spare attention for the matter, but gave
+Dermot leave to enlist auxiliaries among the turbulent barons of the
+South Welsh Marches. The Irish exile enlisted first the services of
+Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen, two half-brothers, both noted
+fighting men, and afterwards those of Richard de Clare, earl of
+Pembroke, an ambitious and impecunious magnate of broken fortunes. The
+two barons were promised lands, the earl a greater bribe--the hand of
+Dermot's only daughter Eva and the inheritance of the kingdom of
+Leinster. Fitzgerald and Fitzstephen crossed to Ireland in 1169 with a
+mere handful of followers. But they achieved victories of an almost
+incredible completeness over Dermot's enemies. The undisciplined hordes
+of the king of Ossory and the Danes of Wexford could not stand before
+the Anglo-Norman tactics--the charge of the knights and the arrow-flight
+of the archers, skilfully combined by the adventurous invaders. Dermot
+was triumphant, and sent for more auxiliaries, aspiring to evict Roderic
+O'Connor of Connaught from the precarious throne of High King of
+Ireland. In 1170 the earl of Pembroke came over with a larger force,
+celebrated his marriage with Dermot's daughter, and commenced a series
+of conquests. He took Waterford and Dublin from the Danes, and scattered
+the hosts of the native princes. Early in the next spring Dermot died,
+and Earl Richard, in virtue of his marriage, claimed the kingship of
+Leinster. He held his own, despite the assaults of a great army gathered
+by Roderic the High King, and of a viking fleet which came to help the
+conquered jarls of Waterford and Dublin. At this moment King Henry
+thought it necessary to interfere; if he let more time slip away, Earl
+Richard would become a powerful king and forget his English allegiance.
+Accordingly, with a large army at his back, he landed at Waterford in
+1171 and marched on Dublin. Richard did him homage for Leinster,
+engaging to hold it as a palatine earldom, and not to claim the name or
+rights of a king. The other adventurers followed his example, as did,
+after an interval, most of the native Irish princes. Only Roderic of
+Connaught held aloof in his western solitudes, asserting his
+independence. The clergy, almost without a murmur, submitted themselves
+to the Roman Church.
+
+Such was the first conquest of Ireland, a conquest too facile to be
+secure. Four years later it appeared to be completed by the submission
+of the king of Connaught, who did homage like the rest of the island
+chiefs. But their oaths were as easily broken as made, and the real
+subjection of the island was not to be completed for 400 years. What
+happened was that the Anglo-Norman invaders pushed gradually west,
+occupying the best of the land and holding it down by castles, but
+leaving the profitless bogs and mountains to the local princes. The
+king's writ only ran in and about Dublin and a few other harbour
+fortresses. Inland, the intruding barons and the Irish chiefs fought
+perpetually, with varying fortunes. The conquest hardly touched central
+and western Ulster, and left half Connaught unsubdued: even in the
+immediate vicinity of Dublin the tribes of the Wicklow Hills were never
+properly tamed. The English conquest was incomplete; it failed to
+introduce either unity or strong governance. After a century and a half
+it began to recede rather than to advance. Many of the districts which
+had been overrun in the time of the Angevin kings were lost; many of the
+Anglo-Norman families intermarried with and became absorbed by the
+Irish; they grew as careless of their allegiance to the crown as any of
+the native chiefs. The "Lordship of Ireland" was never a reality till
+the times of the Tudors. But as long as Henry II. lived this could not
+have been foreseen. The first generation of the conquerors pushed their
+advance with such vigour that it seemed likely that they would complete
+the adventure. (See IRELAND: _History_.)
+
+
+  Rebellion of Henry's sons.
+
+It was in 1173, the year after his return from Ireland and his
+submission to the papal legates at Avranches, that King Henry became
+involved in the first of a series of troubles which were to pursue him
+for the rest of his life--the rebellions of his graceless sons. His wife
+Eleanor of Aquitaine had borne him many children. Henry, the eldest
+surviving son, had already been crowned in 1170 as his father's
+colleague and successor; not only he, but Richard the second, and
+Geoffrey the third son, were now old enough to chafe against the
+restraints imposed upon them by an imperious and strong-willed father.
+The old king very naturally preferred to keep his dominions united under
+his own immediate government, but he had designated his eldest son as
+his successor in England and Normandy, while Richard was to have his
+mother's heritage of Aquitaine, and Geoffrey's wife's dowry, the duchy
+of Brittany, was due to him, now that he had reached the verge of
+manhood. The princes were shamelessly eager to enter on their
+inheritance, the king was loath to understand that by conferring a
+titular sovereignty on his sons he had given them a sort of right to
+expect some share of real power. Their grudge against their father was
+sedulously fostered by their mother Eleanor, a clever and revengeful
+woman, who could never forgive her husband for keeping her in the
+background in political matters and insulting her by his frequent
+amours. Her old subjects in Aquitaine were secretly encouraged by her to
+follow her son Richard against his father, whom the barons of the south
+always regarded as an alien and an intruder. The Bretons were equally
+willing to rise in the name of Geoffrey and Constance against the
+guardian who was keeping their prince too long waiting for his
+inheritance. In England the younger Henry had built himself up a party
+among the more turbulent section of the baronage, who remembered with
+regret and longing the carnival of licence which their fathers had
+enjoyed under King Stephen. Secret agreements had also been made with
+the kings of France and Scotland, who were eager to take advantage of
+the troubles which were about to break out.
+
+In 1173 the plot was complete, and Henry's three elder sons all took
+arms against him, collecting Norman, Breton and Gascon rebels in great
+numbers, and being backed by a French army. At the same moment the king
+of Scots invaded Northumberland, and the earls of Norfolk, Chester and
+Leicester rose in the name of the younger Henry. This was in all
+essentials a feudal rebellion of the old type. The English barons were
+simply desirous of getting rid of the strong and effective governance of
+the king, and the alleged wrongs of his sons were an empty excuse. For
+precisely the same reason all classes in England, save the more
+turbulent section of the baronage, remained faithful to the elder king.
+The bureaucracy, the minor landholders, the towns, and the clergy
+refused to join in the rising, and lent their aid for its suppression,
+because they were unwilling to see anarchy recommence. Hence, though the
+rebellious princes made head for a time against their father abroad, the
+insurrection of their partisans in England was suppressed without much
+difficulty. The justiciar, Richard de Lucy, routed the army of the earl
+of Leicester at Fornham in Suffolk, the castles of the rebel earls were
+subdued one after another, and William of Scotland was surprised and
+captured by a force of northern loyalists while he was besieging Alnwick
+(1173-1174). The war lingered on for a space on the continent; but Henry
+raised the siege of Rouen, which was being attacked by his eldest son
+and the king of France, captured most of Richard's castles in Poitou,
+and then received the submission of his undutiful children. Showing
+considerable magnanimity, he promised to grant to each of them half the
+revenues of the lands in which they were his destined heirs, and a
+certain number of castles to hold as their own. Their allies fared less
+well; the rebel earls were subjected to heavy fines, and their
+strongholds were demolished. The king of Scots was forced to buy his
+liberty by doing homage to Henry for the whole of his kingdom. Queen
+Eleanor, whom her husband regarded as responsible for the whole
+rebellion, was placed in a sort of honourable captivity, or retirement,
+and denied her royal state.
+
+Henry appeared completely triumphant; but the fourteen years which he
+had yet to live were for the most part to be times of trouble and
+frustrated hopes. He was growing old; the indomitable energy of his
+early career was beginning to slacken; his dreams of extended empire
+were vanishing. In the last period of his life he was more set on
+defending what he already enjoyed, and perfecting the details of
+administration in his realms, than on taking new adventures in hand.
+Probably the consciousness that his dominions would be broken up among
+his sons after his death had a disheartening effect upon him. At any
+rate his later years bear a considerable resemblance to the
+corresponding period of his grandfather's reign. The machinery of
+government which the one had sketched out the other completed. Under
+Henry II. the circuits of the itinerant justices became regular instead
+of intermittent; the judicial functions of the Curia Regis were
+delegated to a permanent committee of that body which took form as the
+court of king's bench (_Curia Regis in Banco_). The sheriffs were kept
+very tightly in hand, and under incessant supervision; once in 1170
+nearly the whole body of them were dismissed for misuse of their office.
+The shire levies which had served the king so well against the feudal
+rebels of 1173 were reorganized, with uniformity of weapons and armour,
+by the _Assize of Arms_ of 1181. There was also a considerable amount of
+new legislation with the object of protecting the minor subjects of the
+crown, and the system of trial by jurors was advanced to the detriment
+of the absurd old practices of trial by ordeal and trial by wager of
+battle. The 13th-century jury was a rough and primitive institution,
+which acted at once as accuser, witness and judge--but it was at any
+rate preferable to the chances of the red-hot iron, or the club of the
+duellist.
+
+The best proof that King Henry's orderly if autocratic regime was
+appreciated at its true value by his English subjects, is that when the
+second series of rebellions raised by his undutiful sons began in 1182,
+there was no stir whatever in England, though in Normandy, Brittany and
+Aquitaine the barons rose in full force to support the young princes,
+whose success would mean the triumph of particularism and the
+destruction of the Angevin empire. Among the many troubles which broke
+down King Henry's strong will and great bodily vigour in those unhappy
+years, rebellion in England was not one. For this reason he was almost
+constantly abroad, leaving the administration of the one loyal section
+of his realm to his great justiciar. Hence the story of the unnatural
+war between father and sons has no part in English history. It is but
+necessary to note that the younger Henry died in 1183, that Geoffrey
+perished by accident at a tournament in 1186, and that in 1189, when the
+old king's strength finally gave out, it was Richard who was leading the
+rebellion, to which John, the youngest and least worthy of the four
+undutiful sons, was giving secret countenance. It was the discovery of
+the treachery of this one child whom he had deemed faithful, and loved
+over well, that broke Henry's heart. "Let things go as they will; I have
+nothing to care for in the world now," he murmured on his death-bed, and
+turned his face to the wall to breathe his last.
+
+
+  Richard I.
+
+The death of the younger Henry had made Richard heir to all his father's
+lands from the Tweed to the Bidassoa save Brittany, which had fallen to
+Arthur, the infant son of the unlucky Geoffrey. John, the new king's
+only surviving brother, had been declared "Lord of Ireland" by his
+father in 1185, but Henry had been forced to remove him for persistent
+misconduct, and had left him nothing more than a titular sovereignty in
+the newly conquered island. In this Richard confirmed him at his
+accession, and gave him a more tangible endowment by allowing him to
+marry Isabella, the heiress of the earldom of Gloucester, and by
+bestowing on him the honour of Lancaster and the shires of Derby, Devon,
+Cornwall and Somerset. The gift was over-liberal and the recipient was
+thankless; but John was distinctly treated as a vassal, not granted the
+position of an independent sovereign.
+
+Of all the medieval kings of England, Richard I. (known as Coeur de
+Lion) cared least for his realm on the English side of the Channel, and
+spent least time within it. Though he chanced to have been born in
+Oxford, he was far more of a foreigner than his father; his soul was
+that of a south French baron, not that of an English king. Indeed he
+looked upon England more as a rich area for taxation than as the centre
+of a possible empire. His ambitions were continental: so far as he had a
+policy at all it was Angevin--he would gladly have increased his
+dominions on the side of the upper Loire and Garonne, and was set on
+keeping in check the young king of France, Philip Augustus, though the
+latter had been his ally during his long struggle with his father.
+Naturally the policy of Richard as a newly crowned king was bound to
+differ from that which he had pursued as a rebellious prince. As regards
+his personal character he has been described, not without truth, as a
+typical man of his time and nothing more. He was at heart a chivalrous
+adventurer delighting in war for war's sake; he was not destitute of a
+conscience--his undutiful conduct to his father sat heavily on his soul
+when that father was once dead; he had a strong sense of knightly honour
+and a certain magnanimity of soul in times of crisis; but he was harsh,
+thriftless, often cruel, generally lacking in firmness and continuity of
+purpose, always careless of his subjects' welfare when it interfered
+with his pleasure or his ambitions of the moment. If he had stayed long
+in England he would have made himself hated; but he was nearly always
+absent; it was only as a reckless and spasmodic extorter of taxation,
+not as a personal tyrant, that he was known on the English side of the
+Channel.
+
+
+  The Crusade.
+
+At the opening of his reign Richard had one all-engrossing desire; he
+was set on going forth to the Crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem
+which had been proclaimed in 1187, partly from chivalrous instincts,
+partly as a penance for his misconduct to his father. He visited England
+in 1189 only in order to be crowned, and to raise as much money for the
+expedition as he could procure. He obtained enormous sums, by the most
+unwise and iniquitous expedients, mainly by selling to any buyer that he
+could find valuable pieces of crown property, high offices and dangerous
+rights and privileges. The king of Scotland bought for 15,000 marks a
+release from the homage to the English crown which had been imposed upon
+him by Henry II. The chancellorship, one of the two chief offices in
+the realm, was sold to William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, for L3000,
+though he was well known as a tactless, arrogant and incapable person.
+The earldom of Northumberland, with palatine rights, was bought by Hugh
+Puiset, bishop of Durham. Countless other instances of unwise bargains
+could be quoted. Having raised every penny that he could procure by
+legal or illegal means, Richard crossed the Channel, and embarked at
+Marseilles with a great army on the 7th of August 1190. The only
+security which he had for the safety of his dominions in his absence was
+that his most dangerous neighbour, the king of France, was also setting
+out on the Crusade, and that his brother John, whose shifty and
+treacherous character gave sure promise of trouble, enjoyed a
+well-merited unpopularity both in England and in the continental
+dominions of the crown.
+
+Richard's crusading exploits have no connexion with the history of
+England. He showed himself a good knight and a capable general--the
+capture of Acre and the victory of Arsuf were highly to his credit as a
+soldier. But he quarrelled with all the other princes of the Crusade,
+and showed himself as lacking in tact and diplomatic ability as he was
+full of military capacity. The king of France departed in wrath, to
+raise trouble at home; the army gradually melted away, the prospect of
+recovering Jerusalem disappeared, and finally Richard must be reckoned
+fortunate in that he obtained from Sultan Saladin a peace, by which the
+coastland of Palestine was preserved for the Christians, while the Holy
+City and the inland was sacrificed (Sept. 2, 1192). While returning to
+his dominions by the way of the Adriatic, the king was shipwrecked, and
+found himself obliged to enter the dominions of Leopold, duke of
+Austria, a prince whom he had offended at Acre during the Crusade.
+Though he disguised himself, he was detected by his old enemy and
+imprisoned. The duke then sold him to the emperor Henry VI., who found
+pretexts for forcing him to buy his freedom by the promise of a ransom
+of 150,000 marks. It was not till February 1194 that he got loose, after
+paying a considerable instalment of this vast sum. The main bulk of it,
+as was to be expected, was never made over; indeed it could not have
+been raised, as Richard was well aware. But, once free, he had no
+scruple in cheating the imperial brigand of his blackmail.
+
+
+  John's treachery.
+
+For five years Richard was away from his dominions as a crusader or a
+captive. There was plenty of trouble during his absence, but less than
+might have been expected. The strong governance set up by Henry II.
+proved competent to maintain itself, even when Richard's ministers were
+tactless and his brother treacherous. A generation before it is certain
+that England would have been convulsed by a great feudal rising when
+such an opportunity was granted to the barons. Nothing of the kind
+happened between 1190 and 1194. The chancellor William Longchamp made
+himself odious by his vanity and autocratic behaviour, and was
+overthrown in 1191 by a general rising, which was headed by Prince John,
+and approved by Walter, archbishop of Rouen, whom Richard had sent to
+England with a commission to assume the justiciarship if William should
+prove impossible as an administrator. Longchamp fled to the continent,
+and John then hoped to seize on supreme power, even perhaps to grasp the
+crown. But he was bitterly disappointed to find that he could gather few
+supporters; the justiciar and the bureaucrats of the Curia Regis would
+give him no assistance; they worked on honestly in the name of the
+absent king. Among the baronage hardly a man would commit himself to
+treason. In vain John hired foreign mercenaries, garrisoned his castles,
+and leagued himself with the king of France when the latter returned
+from the Crusade. It was only the news of his brother's captivity in
+Austria which gave the intriguing prince a transient hope of success.
+Boldly asserting that Richard would never be seen alive again he went to
+France, and did homage to King Philip for Normandy and Aquitaine, as if
+they were already his own. Then he crossed to England with a band of
+mercenaries, and seized Windsor and Wallingford castles. But no one rose
+to aid him, and his garrisons were soon being besieged by loyal levies,
+headed by the justiciar and by Hubert Walter, the newly elected
+archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time King Philip's invasion of
+Normandy was repulsed by the barons of the duchy. Richard's faithful
+ministers, despite of all their distractions, succeeded in raising the
+first instalment of his ransom by grinding taxation--a fourth part of
+the revenue of all lay persons, a tithe from ecclesiastical land, was
+raised, and in addition much church plate was seized, though the
+officials who exacted it were themselves prelates. John and Philip wrote
+to the emperor to beg him to detain his captive at all costs, but Henry
+VI. pocketed the ransom money and set Richard free. He reached England
+in March 1194, just in time to receive the surrender of the last two
+castles which were holding out in his treacherous brother's name. With
+astonishing, and indeed misplaced, magnanimity, Richard pardoned his
+brother, when he made a grovelling submission, and restored him to his
+lordship of Ireland and to a great part of his English lands.
+
+The king abode for no more than three months in England; he got himself
+recrowned at Winchester, apparently to wipe out the stain of his German
+captivity and of an enforced homage which the emperor had extorted from
+him. Then he raised a heavy tax from his already impoverished subjects,
+sold a number of official posts and departed to France--never to return,
+though he had still five years to live. He left behind Archbishop Hubert
+Walter as justiciar, a faithful if a somewhat high-handed minister.
+
+Richard's one ruling passion was now to punish Philip of France for his
+unfriendly conduct during his absence. He plunged into a war with this
+clever and shifty prince, which lasted--with certain short breaks of
+truces and treaties--till his death. He wasted his considerable military
+talents in a series of skirmishes and sieges which had no great results,
+and after spending countless treasures and harrying many regions,
+perished obscurely by a wound from a cross-bow-bolt, received while
+beleaguering Chalus, a castle of a rebellious lord of Aquitaine, the
+viscount of Limoges (April 6, 1199).
+
+
+  English constitutional development.
+
+During these years of petty strife England was only reminded at
+intervals of her king's existence by his intermittent demands for money,
+which his ministers did their best to satisfy. The machine of government
+continued to work without his supervision. It has been observed that,
+from one point of view, England's worst kings have been her best; that
+is to say, a sovereign like Richard, who persistently neglected his
+duties, was unconsciously the foster father of constitutional liberty.
+For his ministers, bureaucrats of an orderly frame of mind, devised for
+their own convenience rules and customs which became permanent, and
+could be cited against those later kings who interfered more actively in
+the details of domestic governance. We may trace back some small
+beginnings of a constitution to the time of Henry II.--himself an
+absentee though not on the scale of his son. But the ten years of
+Richard's reign were much more fruitful in the growth of institutions
+which were destined to curb the power of the crown. His justiciars, and
+especially Hubert Walter, were responsible for several innovations which
+were to have far-spreading results. The most important was an extension
+of the use of juries into the province of taxation. When the government
+employs committees chosen by the taxpayers to estimate and assess the
+details of taxation, it will find it hard to go back to arbitrary
+exactions. Such a practice had been first seen when Henry II., in his
+last year, allowed the celebrated "Saladin Tithe" for the service of the
+crusade to be assessed by local jurors. In Richard's reign the practice
+became regular. In especial when England was measured out anew for the
+great carucage of 1197--a tax on every ploughland which replaced the
+rough calculation of Domesday Book--knights elected by the shires shared
+in all the calculations then made for the new impost. Another
+constitutional advance was that which substituted "coroners," knights
+chosen by the county court, for the king's old factotum the sheriff in
+the duty of holding the "pleas of the crown," i.e. in making the
+preliminary investigations into such offences as riot, murder or injury
+to the king's rights or property. The sheriff's natural impulse was to
+indict every man from whom money could be got; the new coroners were
+influenced by other motives than financial rapacity, and so were much
+more likely to deal equitably with accusations. The towns also profited
+in no small degree from Richard's absence and impecuniosity. One of the
+most important charters to London, that which granted the city the right
+of constituting itself a "commune" and choosing itself a mayor, goes
+back to October 1191, the troubled month of Longchamp's expulsion from
+England. It was given by Prince John and the ministers, who were then
+supporting him against the arrogant chancellor, to secure the adherence
+of London. Richard on his return seems to have allowed it to stand.
+Lincoln was also given the right of electing its own magistrates in
+1194, and many smaller places owe grants of more or less of municipal
+privilege to Hubert Walter acting in the name of the absent king. The
+English nation began to have some conception of a regime of fixed
+custom, in which its rights depended on some other source than the
+sovereign's personal caprice. The times, it may be remembered, were not
+unprosperous. There had been no serious civil war since the baronial
+rising of 1173. Prince John's turbulence had only affected the
+neighbourhood of a few royal castles. Despite of the frequent and heavy
+demands for money for the king's service, wealth seems to have been
+increasing, and prosperity to have been widespread. Strong and regular
+governance had on the whole prevailed ever since Henry II. triumphed
+over baronial anarchy.
+
+
+III. THE STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY (1199-1337)
+
+  Accession of John.
+
+Richard's queen, Berengaria of Navarre, had borne him no children. At
+the moment of his premature death his nearest kinsmen were his worthless
+brother John, and the boy Arthur of Brittany, the heir of Geoffrey, the
+third son of Henry II. On his death-bed the king had designated John as
+his successor, holding apparently that a bad ruler who was at least a
+grown man was preferable to a child. John's claim prevailed both in
+Normandy and in England, though in each, as we are told, there were
+those who considered it a doubtful point whether an elder brother's son
+had not a better right than a younger brother. But the ministers
+recognized John, and the baronage and nation acquiesced, though with
+little enthusiasm. In the lands farther south, however, matters went
+otherwise. The dowager duchess Constance of Brittany raised her son's
+claim, and sent an army into Anjou, and all down the Loire many of the
+nobles adhered to his cause. The king of France announced that he should
+support them, and allowed Arthur to do him homage for Anjou, Maine and
+Touraine. There would have been trouble in Aquitaine also, if the aged
+Queen Eleanor had not asserted her own primary and indefeasible right to
+her ancestral duchy, and then declared that she transferred it to her
+best loved son John. Most of her subjects accepted her decision, and
+Arthur's faction made no head in this quarter.
+
+
+  War with Phillip Augustus.
+
+  Loss of Normandy.
+
+It seemed for a space as if the new king would succeed in retaining the
+whole of his brother's inheritance, for King Philip very meanly allowed
+himself to be bought off by the cession of the county of Evreux, and,
+when his troops were withdrawn, the Angevin rebels were beaten down, and
+the duchess of Brittany had to ask for peace for her son. But it had not
+long been granted, when John proceeded to throw away his advantage by
+acts of reckless impolicy. Though cunning, he was destitute alike of
+foresight and of self-control; he could never discern the way in which
+his conduct would be judged by other men, because he lacked even the
+rudiments of a conscience. Ere he had been many months on the throne he
+divorced his wife, Isabella of Gloucester, alleging that their marriage
+had been illegal because they were within the prohibited degrees. This
+act offended the English barons, but in choosing a new queen John gave
+much greater offence abroad; he carried off Isabella of Angouleme from
+her affianced husband, Hugh of Lusignan, the son of the count of la
+Marche, his greatest vassal in northern Aquitaine, and married her
+despite the precontract. This seems to have been an amorous freak, not
+the result of any deep-laid policy. Roused by the insult the Lusignans
+took arms, and a great part of the barons of Poitou joined them. They
+appealed for aid to Philip of France, who judged it opportune to
+intervene once more. He summoned John to appear before him as suzerain,
+to answer the complaints of his Poitevin subjects, and when he failed to
+plead declared war on him and declared his dominions escheated to the
+French crown for non-fulfilment of his feudal allegiance. He enlisted
+Arthur of Brittany in his cause by recognizing him once more as the
+rightful owner of all John's continental fiefs save Normandy, which he
+intended to take for himself. Philip then entered Normandy, while Arthur
+led a Breton force into Anjou and Poitou to aid the Lusignans. The
+fortune of war at first turned in favour of the English king. He
+surprised his nephew while he was besieging the castle of Mirebeau in
+Poitou, where the old Queen Eleanor was residing. The young duke and
+most of his chief supporters were taken prisoners (August 1, 1202).
+Instead of using his advantage aright, John put Arthur in secret
+confinement, and after some months caused him to be murdered. He is said
+also to have starved to death twenty-two knights of Poitou who had been
+among his captives. The assassination of his nearest kinsman, a mere boy
+of sixteen, was as unwise as it was cruel. It estranged from the king
+the hearts of all his French subjects, who were already sufficiently
+disgusted by many minor acts of brutality, as well as by incessant
+arbitrary taxation and by the reckless ravages in which John's mercenary
+troops had been indulging. The French armies met with little or no
+resistance when they invaded Normandy, Anjou and Poitou. John sat inert
+at Rouen, pretending to take his misfortunes lightly, and boasting that
+"what was easily lost could be as easily won back." Meanwhile Philip
+Augustus conquered all western Normandy, without having to fight a
+battle. The great castle of Chateau Gaillard, which guards the Lower
+Seine, was the only place which made a strenuous resistance. It was
+finally taken by assault, despite of the efforts of the gallant
+castellan, Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester, who had made head
+against the besiegers for six months (September 1203-March 1204) without
+receiving any assistance from his master. John finally absconded to
+England in December 1203; he failed to return with an army of relief, as
+he had promised, and before the summer of 1204 was over, Caen, Bayeux
+and Rouen, the last places that held out for him, had been forced to
+open their gates. The Norman barons had refused to strike a blow for
+John, and the cities had shown but a very passive and precarious loyalty
+to him. He had made himself so well hated by his cruelty and vices that
+the Normans, forgetting their old hatred of France, had acquiesced in
+the conquest. Two ties alone had for the last century held the duchy to
+the English connexion: the one was that many Norman baronial families
+held lands on this side of the Channel; the second was the national
+pride which looked upon England as a conquered appendage of Normandy.
+But the first had grown weaker as the custom arose of dividing family
+estates between brothers, on the principle that one should take the
+Norman, the other the English parts of a paternal heritage. By John's
+time there were comparatively few landholders whose interests were
+fairly divided between the duchy and the kingdom. Such as survived had
+now to choose between losing the one or the other section of their
+lands; those whose holding was mainly Norman adhered to Philip; those
+who had more land in England sacrificed their transmarine estates. For
+each of the two kings declared the property of the barons who did not
+support him confiscated to the crown. As to the old Norman theory that
+England was a conquered land, it had gradually ceased to exist as an
+operative force, under kings who, like Henry II. or Richard I., were
+neither Norman nor English in feeling, but Angevin. John did not, and
+could not, appeal as a Norman prince to Norman patriotism.
+
+
+  Loss of Anjou, Touraine and Poitou.
+
+The successes of Philip Augustus did not cease with the conquest of
+Normandy. His armies pushed forward in the south also; Anjou, Touraine
+and nearly all Poitou submitted to him. Only Guienne and southern
+Aquitaine held out for King John, partly because they preferred a weak
+and distant master to such a strenuous and grasping prince as King
+Philip, partly because they were far more alien in blood and language to
+their French neighbours than were Normans or Angevins. The Gascons were
+practically a separate nationality, and the house of Capet had no
+ancient connexion with them. The kings of England were yet to reign at
+Bordeaux and Bayonne for two hundred and fifty years. But the connexion
+with Gascony meant little compared with the now vanished connexion with
+Normandy. Henry I. or Henry II. could run over to his continental
+dominions in a day or two days; Dieppe and Harfleur were close to
+Portsmouth and Hastings. It was a different thing for John and his
+successors to undertake the long voyage to Bordeaux, around the stormy
+headlands of Brittany and across the Bay of Biscay. Visits to their
+continental dominions had to be few and far between; they were long,
+costly and dangerous when a French fleet--a thing never seen before
+Philip Augustus conquered Normandy--might be roaming in the Channel. The
+kings of England became perforce much more home-keeping sovereigns after
+1204.
+
+It was certainly not a boon for England that her present sovereign was
+destined to remain within her borders for the greater part of his
+remaining years. To know John well was to loathe him, as every
+contemporary chronicle bears witness. The two years that followed the
+loss of Normandy were a time of growing discontent and incessant
+disputes about taxation. The king kept collecting scutages and tallages,
+yet barons and towns complained that nothing seemed to be done with the
+money he collected. At last, however, in 1206, the king did make an
+expedition to Poitou, and recovered some of its southern borders. Yet,
+with his usual inconsequence, he did not follow up his success, but made
+a two years' truce with Philip of France on the basis of _uti
+possidetis_--which left Normandy and all the territories on and about
+the Loire in the hands of the conqueror.
+
+
+  Quarrel with the Papacy.
+
+It is probable that this pacification was the result of a new quarrel
+which John had just taken up with a new enemy--the Papacy. The dispute
+on the question of free election, which was to range over all the
+central years of his reign, had just begun. In the end of 1205 Hubert
+Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, had died. The king announced his
+intention of procuring the election of John de Gray, bishop of Norwich,
+as his successor; but, though his purpose was well known, the chapter
+(i.e. the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury) met secretly and elected
+their sub-prior Reginald as archbishop. They sent him to Rome at once,
+to receive confirmation from Pope Innocent III., whom they knew to be a
+zealous champion of the rights of the Church. But John descended upon
+them in great wrath, and by threats compelled them to hold a second
+meeting, and to elect his nominee Gray, in whose name application for
+confirmation was also made to the pope. Innocent, however, seeing a
+splendid chance of asserting his authority, declared both the elections
+that had taken place invalid, the first because it had been clandestine,
+the second because it had been held under _force majeure_, and proceeded
+to nominate a friend of his own--Cardinal Stephen Langton, an Englishman
+of proved capacity and blameless life, then resident in Rome. He was far
+the worthiest of the three candidates, but it was an intolerable
+invasion of the rights of the English crown and the English Church that
+an archbishop should be foisted on them in this fashion. The
+representatives of the chapter who had been sent to Rome were persuaded
+or compelled to elect him in the pope's presence (Dec. 1206).
+
+King John was furious, and not without good reason; he refused to accept
+Langton, whom he declared (quite unjustly) to be a secret friend of
+Philip of France, and sequestrated the lands of the monks of Canterbury.
+On this the pope threatened to lay an interdict on himself and his
+realm. The king replied by issuing a proclamation to the effect that he
+would outlaw any clerk who should accept the validity of such an
+interdict and would confiscate his lands. Despising such threats
+Innocent carried out his threat, and put England under the ban of the
+Church on the 23rd of March 1208.
+
+In obedience to the pope's orders the large majority of the English
+clergy closed their churches, and suspended the ordinary course of the
+services and celebration of the sacraments. Baptism and extreme unction
+only were continued, lest souls should be lost; and marriages were
+permitted but not inside the walls of churches. Foreseeing the wrath of
+the king against all who obeyed the mandate from Rome, the larger number
+of the bishops and many others of the higher clergy fled overseas to
+escape the storm. Those who were bold enough to remain behind had much
+to endure. John, openly rejoicing at the plunder that lay before him,
+declared the temporalities of all who had accepted the interdict,
+whether they had exiled themselves or no, to be confiscated. His
+treasury was soon so well filled that he could dispense with ordinary
+taxation. He also outlawed the whole body of the clergy, save the timid
+remnant who promised to disregard the papal commands.
+
+
+  Character of John's rule.
+
+Nothing proves more conclusively the strength of the Angevin monarchy,
+and the decreasing power of feudalism, than that an unpopular king like
+John could maintain his strife with the pope, and suppress the
+discontents of his subjects, for nearly five years before the inevitable
+explosion came. Probably his long immunity was due in the main to the
+capacity of his strong-handed justiciar Geoffrey Fitz-Peter; the king
+hated him bitterly, but generally took his advice. The crash only came
+when Geoffrey died in 1213; his ungrateful master only expressed joy.
+"Now by God's feet am I for the first time king of England," he
+exclaimed, when the news reached him. He proceeded to fill the vacancy
+with a mere Poitevin adventurer, Peter des Roches, whom he had made
+bishop of Winchester some time before. Indeed John's few trusted
+confidants were nearly all foreigners, such men as the mercenary
+captains Gerard of Athies and Engelhart of Cigogne, whom he made
+sheriffs and castellans to the discontent of all Englishmen. He spent
+all his money in maintaining bands of hired _Brabancons_ and _routiers_,
+by whose aid he for some time succeeded in terrorizing the countryside.
+There were a few preliminary outbreaks of rebellion, which were
+suppressed with vigour and punished with horrible cruelty. John starved
+to death the wife and son of William de Braose, the first baron who took
+arms against him, and hanged in a row twenty-eight young boys, hostages
+for the fidelity of their fathers, Welsh princes who had dabbled in
+treason. Such acts provoked rage as well as fear, yet the measure of
+John's iniquities was not full till 1212. Indeed for some time his
+persistent prosperity provoked the indignant surprise of those who
+believed him to be under a curse. If his renewed war with Philip of
+France was generally unsuccessful, yet at home he held his own. The most
+astounding instance of his success is that in 1210 he found leisure for
+a hasty expedition to Ireland, where he compelled rebellious barons to
+do homage, and received the submission of more than twenty of the local
+kinglets. It is strange that he came back to find England undisturbed
+behind him.
+
+
+  John does homage to the pope.
+
+His long-deserved humiliation only began in the winter of 1212-1213,
+when Innocent III., finding him so utterly callous as to the interdict,
+took the further step of declaring him deposed from the throne for
+contumacy, and handing over the execution of the penalty to the king of
+France. This act provoked a certain amount of indignation in England,
+and in the spring of 1213 the king was able to collect a large army on
+Barham Down to resist the threatened French invasion. Yet so many of his
+subjects were discontented that he dared not trust himself to the
+chances of war, and, when the fleet of King Philip was ready to sail, he
+surprised the world by making a sudden and grovelling submission to the
+pope. Not only did he agree to receive Stephen Langton as archbishop, to
+restore all the exiled clergy to their benefices, and to pay them
+handsome compensation for all their losses during the last five years,
+but he took the strange and ignominious step of declaring that he ceded
+his whole kingdom to the pope, to hold as his vassal. He formally
+resigned his crown into the hands of the legate Cardinal Pandulf, and
+took it back as the pope's vassal, engaging at the same time to pay a
+tribute of 1000 marks a year for England and Ireland. This was felt to
+be a humiliating transaction by many of John's subjects, though to
+others the joy at reconciliation with the Church caused all else to be
+forgotten. The political effect of the device was all that John had
+desired. His new suzerain took him under his protection, and forbade
+Philip of France to proceed with his projected invasion, though ships
+and men were all ready (May 1213). John's safety, however, was secured
+in a more practical way when his bastard brother, William Longsword,
+earl of Salisbury, made a descent on the port of Damme and burnt or sunk
+a whole squadron of the French transports. After this John's spirits
+rose, and he talked of crossing the seas himself to recover Normandy and
+Anjou. But he soon found that his subjects were not inclined to follow
+him; they were resigned to the loss of the Angevin heritage, whose union
+with England brought no profit to them, however much it might interest
+their king. The barons expressed their wish for a peace with France, and
+when summoned to produce their feudal contingents pleaded poverty, and
+raised a rather shallow theory to the effect that their services could
+not be asked for wars beyond seas--against which there were conclusive
+precedents in the reigns of Henry I. and Henry II. But any plea can be
+raised against an unpopular king. John found himself obliged to turn
+back, since hardly a man save his mercenaries had rallied to his
+standard at Portsmouth. In great anger and indignation he marched off
+towards the north, with his hired soldiery, swearing to punish the
+barons who had taken the lead in the "strike" which had defeated his
+purpose. But the outbreak of war was to be deferred for a space.
+Archbishop Langton, who on assuming possession of his see had shown at
+once that he was a patriotic English statesman, and not the mere
+delegate of the pope, besought his master to hold back, and, when he
+refused, threatened to renew the excommunication which had so lately
+been removed. The old justiciar Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, now on his
+death-bed, had also refused to pronounce sentence on the defaulters.
+John hesitated, and meanwhile his enemies began to organize their
+resistance.
+
+
+  Opposition of the barons.
+
+A great landmark in the constitutional history of England was reached
+when Langton assembled the leading barons, rehearsed to them the charter
+issued by Henry I. on his accession, and pointed out to them the rights
+and liberties therein promised by the crown to the nation. For the
+future they agreed to take this document as their programme of demands.
+It was the first of the many occasions in English history when the
+demand for reform took the shape of a reference back to old precedents,
+and now (as on all subsequent occasions) the party which opposed the
+crown read back into the ancient grants which they quoted a good deal
+more than had been actually conceded in them. To Langton and the barons
+the charter of Henry I. seemed to cover all the customs and practices
+which had grown up under the rule of the bureaucracy which had served
+Henry II. and Richard I. A correct historical perspective could hardly
+be expected from men whose constitutional knowledge only ran back as far
+as the memory of themselves and their fathers. The Great Charter of 1215
+was a commentary on, rather than a reproduction of, the old accession
+pledges of Henry I.
+
+
+  Alliance against France.
+
+  Battle of Bouvines.
+
+Meanwhile John, leaving his barons to discuss and formulate their
+grievances, pushed on with a great scheme of foreign alliances, by which
+he hoped to crush Philip of France, even though the aid of the feudal
+levies of England was denied him. He leagued himself with his nephew the
+emperor Otto IV. (his sister's son), and the counts of Flanders and
+Boulogne, with many other princes of the Netherlands. Their plan was
+that John should land in Poitou and distract the attention of the French
+by a raid up the Loire, while the emperor and his vassals should
+secretly mobilize a great army in Brabant and make a sudden dash at
+Paris. The scheme was not destitute of practical ability, and if it had
+been duly carried out would have placed France in such a crisis of
+danger as she has seldom known. It was not John's fault that the
+campaign failed. He sent the earl of Salisbury with some of his
+mercenaries to join the confederates in Flanders, while he sailed with
+the main body of them to La Rochelle, whence he marched northward,
+devastating the land before him. Philip came out to meet him with the
+whole levy of France (April 1214), and Paris would have been left
+exposed if Otto and his Netherland vassals had struck promptly in. But
+the emperor was late, and by the time that he was approaching the French
+frontier Philip Augustus had discovered that John's invasion was but a
+feint, executed by an army too weak to do much harm. Leaving a small
+containing force on the Loire in face of the English king, Philip
+hurried to the north with his main army, and on the 27th of July 1214
+inflicted a crushing defeat on the emperor and his allies at Bouvines
+near Lille. This was the greatest victory of the French medieval
+monarchy. It broke up the Anglo-German alliance, and gave the conqueror
+undisturbed possession of all that he had won from the Angevin house and
+his other enemies.
+
+
+  Magna Carta.
+
+Indirectly Bouvines was almost as important in the history of England as
+in that of France. John returned to England foiled, and in great anger;
+he resolved to give up the French war, secured a truce with King Philip
+by abandoning his attempt to reconquer his lost lands on the Loire, and
+turned to attack the recalcitrant subjects who had refused to join him
+in his late campaign beyond the Channel. Matters soon came to a head: on
+hearing that the king was mobilizing his mercenary bands, the barons met
+at Bury St Edmunds, and leagued themselves by an oath to obtain from the
+king a confirmation of the charter of Henry I. (November 1214). At the
+New Year they sent him a formal ultimatum, to which he would not assent,
+though he opened up futile negotiation with them through the channel of
+the archbishop, who did not take an open part in the rising. At Easter,
+nothing having been yet obtained from the king, an army headed by five
+earls, forty barons, and Giles Braose, bishop of Hereford, mustered at
+Stamford and marched on London. Their captain was Robert FitzWalter,
+whom they had named "marshal of the army of God and Holy Church." When
+they reached the capital its gates were thrown open to them, and the
+mayor and citizens adhered to their cause (May 17). The king, who had
+tried to turn them back by taking the cross and declaring himself a
+crusader, and by making loud appeals for the arbitration of the pope,
+was forced to retire to Windsor. He found that he had no supporters save
+a handful of courtiers and officials and the leaders of his mercenary
+bands; wherefore in despair he accepted the terms forced upon him by the
+insurgents. On the 15th of June 1215 he sealed at Runnymede, close to
+Windsor, the famous _Magna Carta_, in face of a vast assembly among
+which he had hardly a single friend. It is a long document of 63
+clauses, in which Archbishop Langton and a committee of the barons had
+endeavoured to recapitulate all their grievances, and to obtain redress
+for them. Some of the clauses are unimportant concessions to
+individuals, or deal with matters of trifling importance--such as the
+celebrated weirs or "kiddles" on Thames and Medway, or the expulsion of
+the condottieri chiefs Gerard d'Athies and Engelhart de Cigogne. But
+many of them are matters of primary importance in the constitutional
+history of England. The Great Charter must not, however, be overrated as
+an expression of general constitutional rights; to a large extent it is
+a mere recapitulation of the claims of the baronage, and gives redress
+for their feudal grievances in the matters of aids, reliefs, wardships,
+&c., its object being the repression of arbitrary exactions by the king
+on his tenants-in-chief. One section, that which provides against the
+further encroachments of the king's courts on the private manorial
+courts of the landowners, might even be regarded as retrograde in
+character from the point of view of administrative efficacy. But it is
+most noteworthy that the barons, while providing for the abolition of
+abuses which affect themselves, show an unselfish and patriotic spirit
+in laying down the rule that all the concessions which the king makes to
+them shall also be extended by themselves to their own sub-tenants. The
+clauses dealing with the general governance of the realm are also as
+enlightened as could be expected from the character of the committee
+which drafted the charter. There is to be no taxation without the
+consent of the Great Council of the Realm--which is to consist of all
+barons, who are to be summoned by individual units; and of all smaller
+tenants-in-chief, who are to be called not by separate letters, but by a
+general notice published by the sheriff. It has been pointed out that
+this provides no representation for sub-tenants or the rest of the
+nation, so that we are still far from the ideal of a representative
+parliament. John himself had gone a step farther on the road towards
+that ideal when in 1213 he had summoned four "discreet men" from every
+shire to a council at Oxford, which (as it appears) was never held. But
+this would seem to have been a vain bid for popularity with the middle
+classes, which had no result at the time, and the barons preferred to
+keep things in their own hands, and to abide by ancient precedents. It
+was to be some forty years later that the first appearance of elected
+shire representatives at the Great Council took place. In 1215 the
+control of the subjects over the crown in the matter of taxation is
+reserved entirely for the tenants-in-chief, great and small.
+
+There is less qualified praise to be bestowed on the clauses of Magna
+Carta which deal with justice. The royal courts are no longer to attend
+the king's person--a vexatious practice when sovereigns were always on
+the move, and litigants and witnesses had to follow them from manor to
+manor--but are to be fixed at Westminster. General rules of indisputable
+equity are fixed for the conduct of the courts--no man is to be tried or
+punished more than once for the same offence; no one is to be arrested
+and kept in prison without trial; all arrested persons are to be sent
+before the courts within a reasonable time, and to be tried by a jury of
+their peers. Fines imposed on unsuccessful litigants are to be
+calculated according to the measure of their offence, and are not to be
+arbitrary penalties raised or lowered at the king's good pleasure
+according to the sum that he imagined that the offender could be induced
+to pay. No foreigners or other persons ignorant of the laws of England
+are to be entrusted with judicial or administrative offices.
+
+There is only a single clause dealing with the grievances of the English
+Church, although Archbishop Langton had been the principal adviser in
+the drafting of the whole document. This clause, "that the English
+church shall be free," was, however, sufficiently broad to cover all
+demands. The reason that Langton did not descend to details was that the
+king had already conceded the right of free canonical election and the
+other claims of the clerical order in a separate charter, so that there
+was no need to discuss them at length.
+
+The special clauses for the benefit of the city of London were
+undoubtedly inserted as a tribute of gratitude on the part of the barons
+for the readiness which the citizens had shown in adhering to their
+cause. There are other sections for the benefit of the commons in
+general, such as that which gives merchants full right of leaving or
+entering the realm with their goods on payment of the fixed ancient
+custom dues. But these clauses are less numerous than might have been
+expected--the framers of the document were, after all, barons and not
+burghers.
+
+The most surprising part of the Great Charter to modern eyes is its
+sixty-first paragraph, that which openly states doubts as to the king's
+intention to abide by his promise, and appoints a committee of
+twenty-five guardians of the charter (twenty-four barons and the mayor
+of London), who are to coerce their master, by force of arms if
+necessary, to observe every one of its clauses. The twenty-five were to
+hear and decide upon any claims and complaints preferred against the
+king, and to keep up their numbers by co-optation, so that it would seem
+that the barons intended to keep a permanent watch upon the crown. The
+clause seems unnecessarily harsh and violent in its wording; but it must
+be remembered that John's character was well known, and that it was
+useless to stand on forms of politeness when dealing with him. It seems
+certain that the drafters of the charter were honest in their
+intentions, and did not purpose to set up a feudal oligarchy in the
+place of a royal autocracy. They were only insisting on the maintenance
+of what they believed to be the ancient and laudable customs of the
+realm.
+
+That the barons were right to suspect John is sufficiently shown by his
+subsequent conduct. His pretence of keeping his promise lasted less
+than two months; by August 1215 he was already secretly collecting money
+and hiring more mercenaries. He wrote to Rome to beg the pope to annul
+the charter, stating that all his troubles had come upon him in
+consequence of his dutiful conduct to the Holy See. He also stated that
+he had taken the cross as a crusader, but could not sail to Palestine as
+long as his subjects were putting him in restraint. Innocent III. at
+once took the hint; in September Archbishop Langton was suspended for
+disobedience to papal commands, and the charter was declared
+uncanonical, null and void. The "troublers of the king and kingdom" were
+declared excommunicate.
+
+
+  Civil War.
+
+  Death of John.
+
+Langton departed at once to Rome, to endeavour to turn the heart of his
+former patron, a task in which he utterly failed. Many of the clergy who
+had hitherto supported the baronial cause drew back in dismay at the
+pope's attitude. But the laymen were resolute, and prepared for open
+war, which broke out in October 1215. The king, who had already gathered
+in many mercenaries, gained the first advantage by capturing Rochester
+Castle before the army of the barons was assembled. So formidable did he
+appear to them for the moment that they took the deplorable step of
+inviting the foreign foe to join in the struggle. Declaring John deposed
+because he had broken his oath to observe the charter, they offered the
+crown to Louis of France, the son of King Philip, because he had married
+John's niece Blanche of Castile and could assert in her right a claim to
+the throne. This was a most unhappy inspiration, and drove into
+neutrality or even into the king's camp many who had previously inclined
+to the party of reform. But John did his best to disgust his followers
+by adopting the policy of carrying out fierce and purposeless raids of
+devastation all through the countryside, while refusing to face his
+enemies in a pitched battle. He bore himself like a captain of banditti
+rather than a king in his own country. Presently, when the French prince
+came over with a considerable army to join the insurgent barons, he
+retired northward, leaving London and the home counties to his rival. In
+all the south country only Dover and Windsor castles held out for him.
+His sole success was that he raised the siege of Lincoln by driving off
+a detachment of the baronial army which was besieging it. Soon after,
+while marching from Lynn towards Wisbeach, he was surprised by the tide
+in the fords of the Wash and lost part of his army and all his baggage
+and treasure. Next day he fell ill of rage and vexation of spirit,
+contracted a dysenteric ailment, and died a week later at Newark (Oct.
+19, 1216). It was the best service that he could do his kingdom. Owing
+to the unwise and unpatriotic conduct of the barons in summoning over
+Louis of France to their aid, John had become in some sort the
+representative of national independence. Yet he was so frankly
+impossible as a ruler that, save the earls of Pembroke and Chester, all
+his English followers had left him, and he had no one to back him but
+the papal legate Gualo and a band of foreign mercenaries. When once he
+was dead, and his heritage fell to his nine-year-old son Henry III.,
+whom none could make responsible for his father's doings, the whole
+aspect of affairs was changed.
+
+
+  Henry III.
+
+The aged William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, by far the most important
+and respectable personage who had adhered to John's cause, assumed the
+position of regent. He at once offered in the name of the young king
+pardon and oblivion of offences to all the insurgent barons. At the same
+time he reissued the Great Charter, containing all the important
+concessions which John had made at Runnymede, save that which gave the
+control of taxation to the tenants-in-chief. Despite this and certain
+other smaller omissions, it was a document which would satisfy most
+subjects of the crown, if only it were faithfully observed. The youth of
+the king and the good reputation of the earl marshal were a sufficient
+guarantee that, for some years at any rate, an honest attempt would be
+made to redeem the pledge. Very soon the barons began to return to their
+allegiance, or at least to slacken in their support of Louis, who had
+given much offence by his openly displayed distrust of his partisans
+and his undisguised preference for his French followers. The papal
+influence was at the same time employed in the cause of King Henry, and
+Philip of France was forced to abandon open support of his son, though
+he naturally continued to give him secret help and to send him succours
+of men and money.
+
+
+  Battle of Lincoln.
+
+The fortune of war, however, did not turn without a battle. At Lincoln,
+on the 20th of May 1217, the marshal completely defeated an Anglo-French
+army commanded by the count of Perche and the earls of Winchester and
+Hereford. The former was slain, the other two taken prisoners, with more
+than 300 knights and barons. This was the death-blow to the cause of
+Louis of France; when it was followed up by the defeat in the Dover
+Straits of a fleet which was bringing him reinforcements (Aug. 17), he
+despaired of success and asked for terms. By the treaty of Lambeth
+(Sept. 11, 1217) he secured an amnesty for all his followers and an
+indemnity of 10,000 marks for himself. Less than a month later he
+quitted England; the victorious royalists celebrated his departure by a
+second reissue of the Great Charter, which contained some new clauses
+favourable to the baronial interest.
+
+After the departure of Prince Louis and his foreigners the earl marshal
+had to take up much the same task that had fallen to Henry II. in 1154.
+Now, as at the death of Stephen, the realm was full of "adulterine
+castles," of bands of robbers who had cloaked their plundering under the
+pretence of loyal service to the king or the French prince, and of local
+magnates who had usurped the prerogatives of royalty, each in his own
+district. It was some years before peace and order were restored in the
+realm, and the aged Pembroke died in 1219 before his work was completed.
+After his decease the conduct of the government passed into the hands of
+the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, and the papal legate Pandulf, to whom the
+marshal had specially recommended the young king. Their worst enemies
+were those who during the civil war had been their best friends, the
+mercenary captains and upstart knights whom John had made sheriffs and
+castellans. From 1219 to 1224 de Burgh was constantly occupied in
+evicting the old loyalists from castles which they had seized or offices
+which they had disgraced. In several cases it was necessary to mobilize
+an army against a recalcitrant magnate. The most troublesome of them was
+Falkes de Breaute, the most famous of King John's foreign _condottieri_,
+whose minions held Bedford castle against the justiciar and the whole
+shire levy of eastern England for nearly two months in 1224. The castle
+was taken and eighty men-at-arms hanged on its surrender, but Falkes
+escaped with his life and fled to France. It was not till this severe
+lesson had been inflicted on the faction of disorder that the
+pacification of England could be considered complete.
+
+The fifty-six years' reign of Henry III. forms one of the periods during
+which the mere chronicle of events may seem tedious and trivial, yet the
+movement of national life and constitutional progress was very
+important. Except during the stirring epoch 1258-1265 there was little
+that was dramatic or striking in the events of the reign. Yet the
+England of 1272 was widely different from the England of 1216. The
+futile and thriftless yet busy and self-important king was one of those
+sovereigns who irritate their subjects into opposition by injudicious
+activity. He was not a ruffian or a tyrant like his father, and had
+indeed not a few of the domestic virtues. But he was constitutionally
+incapable of keeping a promise or paying a debt. Not being strong-handed
+or capable, he could never face criticism nor suppress discontent by
+force, as a king of the type of Henry I. or Henry II. would have done.
+He generally gave way when pressed, without attempting an appeal to
+arms; he would then swear an oath to observe the Great Charter, and be
+detected in violating it again within a few months. His greatest fault
+in the eyes of his subjects was his love of foreigners; since John had
+lost Normandy the English baronage had become as national in spirit as
+the commons. The old Anglo-Norman houses had forgotten the tradition of
+their origin, and now formed but a small section of the aristocracy; the
+newer families, sprung from the officials of the first two Henries, had
+always been English in spirit. Unfortunately for himself the third
+Henry inherited the continental cosmopolitanism of his Angevin
+ancestors, and found himself confronted with a nation which was growing
+ever more and more insular in its ideals. He had all the ambitions of
+his grandfather Henry II.; his dreams were of shattering the
+newly-formed kingdom of France, the creation of Philip Augustus, and of
+recovering all the lost lands of his forefathers on the Seine and Loire.
+Occasionally his views grew yet wider--he would knit up alliances all
+over Christendom and dominate the West. Nothing could have been wilder
+and more unpractical than the scheme on which he set his heart in
+1255-1257, a plan for conquering Naples and Sicily for his second son.
+Moreover it was a great hindrance to him that he was a consistent friend
+and supporter of the papacy. He had never forgotten the services of the
+legates Pandulf and Gualo to himself and his father, and was always
+ready to lend his aid to the political schemes of the popes, even when
+it was difficult to see that any English interests were involved in
+them. His designs, which were always shifting from point to point of the
+continent, did not appeal in the least to his subjects, who took little
+interest in Poitou or Touraine, and none whatever in Italy. After the
+troubled times which had lasted from 1214 to 1224 they desired nothing
+more than peace, quietness and good governance. They had no wish to
+furnish their master with taxation for French wars, or to follow his
+banner to distant Aquitaine. But most of all did they dislike his
+practice of flooding England with strangers from beyond seas, for whom
+offices and endowments had to be found. The moment that he had got rid
+of the honest and capable old justiciar Hubert de Burgh, who had
+pacified the country during his minority, and set the machinery of
+government once more in regular order, Henry gave himself over to
+fostering horde after horde of foreign favourites. There was first his
+Poitevin chancellor, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, with a
+numerous band of his relations and dependents. As a sample of the king's
+methods it may be mentioned that he once made over nineteen of the
+thirty-five sheriffdoms, within a fortnight, to Peter of Rivaux, a
+nephew of the chancellor. Des Roches was driven from office after two
+years (1234), and his friends and relatives fell with him. But they were
+only the earliest of the king's alien favourites; quite as greedy were
+the second family of his mother, Isabella of Angouleme, who after King
+John's death had married her old betrothed, Hugh of Lusignan. Henry
+secured great English marriages for three of them, and made the fourth,
+Aymer, bishop of Winchester. Their kinsmen and dependents were equally
+welcomed. Even more numerous and no less expensive to the realm were the
+Provencal and Savoyard relatives of Henry's queen, Eleanor of Provence.
+The king made one of her uncles, Boniface of Savoy, archbishop of
+Canterbury--it was three years before he deigned to come over to take up
+the post, and then he was discovered to be illiterate and unclerical in
+his habits, an unworthy successor for Langton and Edmund of Abingdon,
+the great primates who went before him. Peter of Savoy, another uncle,
+was perhaps the most shameless of all the beggars for the king's bounty;
+not only was he made earl of Richmond, but his debts were repeatedly
+paid and great sums were given him to help his continental adventures.
+
+
+  Simon de Monfort.
+
+King Henry's personal rule lasted from 1232, the year in which he
+deprived Hubert de Burgh of his justiciarship and confiscated most of
+his lands, down to 1258. It was thriftless, arbitrary, and lacking in
+continuity of policy, yet not tyrannical or cruel. If he had been a
+worse man he would have been put under control long before by his
+irritated subjects. All through these twenty-six years he was being
+opposed and criticised by a party which embraced the wisest and most
+patriotic section of the baronage and the hierarchy. It numbered among
+its leaders the good archbishop, Edmund of Abingdon, and Robert
+Grosseteste, the active and learned bishop of Lincoln; it was not
+infrequently aided by the king's brother Richard, earl of Cornwall, who
+did not share Henry's blind admiration for his foreign relatives. But it
+only found its permanent guiding spirit somewhat late in the reign, when
+Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, became the habitual mouthpiece of
+the grievances of the nation. The great earl had, oddly enough,
+commenced his career as one of the king's foreign favourites. He was the
+grandson of Amicia, countess of Leicester, but his father, Simon the
+Elder, a magnate whose French interests were greater than his English,
+had adhered to the cause of Philip Augustus in the days of King John and
+the Leicester estates had been confiscated. Simon, reared as a
+Frenchman, came over in 1230 to petition for their restoration. He not
+only obtained it, but to the great indignation of the English baronage
+married the king's sister Eleanor in 1238. For some time he was in high
+favour with his brother-in-law, and was looked upon by the English as no
+better than Aymer de Valence or Peter of Savoy. But he quarrelled with
+the fickle king, and adhered ere long to the party of opposition. A long
+experience of his character and actions convinced barons and commons
+alike that he was a just and sincere man, a friend of good governance,
+and an honest opponent of arbitrary and unconstitutional rule. He had
+become such a thorough Englishman in his views and prejudices, that by
+1250 he was esteemed the natural exponent of all the wrongs of the
+realm. He was austere and religious; many of his closest friends were
+among the more saintly of the national clergy. By the end of his life
+the man who had started as the king's unpopular minion was known as
+"Earl Simon the Righteous," and had become the respected leader of the
+national opposition to his royal brother-in-law.
+
+
+  Condition of England under Henry III.
+
+  Beginnings of Parliament.
+
+Though Henry's taxes were vexatious and never-ending, though his
+subservience to the pope and his flighty interference in foreign
+politics were ever irritating the magnates and the people, and though
+outbreaks of turbulence were not unknown during his long period of
+personal rule, it would yet be a mistake to regard the central years of
+the 13th century as an unprosperous period for England. Indeed it would
+be more correct to regard the period as one of steady national
+development in wealth, culture and unity. The towns were growing fast,
+and extending their municipal liberties; the necessities of John and the
+facile carelessness of Henry led to the grant of innumerable charters
+and privileges. As was to be seen again during the first period of the
+reign of Charles I., political irritation is not incompatible either
+with increasing material prosperity or with great intellectual
+development. The king's futile activity led to ever more frequent
+gatherings of the Great Council, in which the theory of the constitution
+was gradually hammered out by countless debates between the sovereign
+and his subjects. Every time that Henry confirmed the Great Charter, the
+fact that England was already a limited monarchy became more evident. It
+is curious to find that--like his father John--he himself contributed
+unconsciously to advances towards representative government. John's writ
+of 1213, bidding "discreet men" from each shire to present themselves at
+Oxford, found its parallel in another writ of 1253 which bids four
+knightly delegates from each county to appear along with the
+tenants-in-chief, for the purpose of discussing the king's needs. When
+county members begin to present themselves along with the barons at the
+national assembly, the conception of parliament is already reached. And
+indeed we may note that the precise word "parliament" first appears in
+the chroniclers and in official documents about the middle of Henry's
+reign. By its end the term is universally acknowledged and employed.
+
+
+  Intellectual life.
+
+We may discern during these same years a great intellectual activity.
+This was the time of rapid development in the universities, where not
+only were the scholastic philosophy and systematic theology eagerly
+studied, but figures appear like that of the great Roger Bacon, a
+scientific researcher of the first rank, whose discoveries in optics and
+chemistry caused his contemporaries to suspect him of magical arts. His
+teaching at Oxford in 1250-1257 fell precisely into the years of the
+worst misgovernance of Henry III. It was the same with law, an
+essentially 13th-century study; it was just in this age that the
+conception of law as something not depending on the pleasure of the
+king, nor compiled from mere collected ancestral customs, but existing
+as a logical entity, became generally prevalent. The feeling is
+thoroughly well expressed by the partisan of Montfort who wrote in his
+jingling Latin verse:--
+
+  "Dicitur vulgariter 'ut rex vult lex vadit':
+   Veritas vult aliter: nam lex stat, rex cadit."
+
+Law has become something greater than, and independent of, royal
+caprice. The great lawyers of the day, of whom Bracton is the most
+celebrated name, were spinning theories of its origin and development,
+studying Roman precedents, and turning the medley of half-understood
+Saxon and Norman customs into a system.
+
+
+  Religious life: the friars.
+
+Intellectual growth was accompanied by great religious activity; it is
+no longer merely on the old questions of dispute between church and
+state that men were straining their minds. The reign of Henry III. saw
+the invasion of England by the friars, originally the moral reformers of
+their day, who preached the superiority of the missionary life over the
+merely contemplative life of the old religious orders, and came,
+preaching holy poverty, to minister to souls neglected by worldly
+incumbents and political prelates (see MENDICANT MOVEMENT). The
+mendicants, Dominican and Franciscan, took rapid root in England; the
+number of friaries erected in the reign of Henry III. is astounding. For
+two generations they seem to have absorbed into their ranks all the most
+active and energetic of those who felt a clerical vocation. It is most
+noteworthy that they were joined by thinkers such as Grosseteste, Adam
+Marsh, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. Still more
+striking is the fact that the friars threw themselves energetically into
+the cause of political reform, and that several of their leading
+brothers were the close friends and counsellors of Simon de Montfort.
+
+
+  Literature and art.
+
+Architecture and art generally were making rapid strides during this
+stirring time. The lofty Early English style had now completely
+superseded the more heavy and sombre Norman, and it was precisely during
+the years of the maladministration of Henry III. that some of the most
+splendid of the English cathedrals, Salisbury (1220-1258) and Wells
+(1230-1239), were built. The king himself, when rearing the new
+Westminster Abbey over the grave of Edward the Confessor, spent for once
+some of his money on a worthy object. It may be noted that he showed a
+special reverence for the old English royal saint, and christened his
+eldest son after him; while his second bore the name of Edmund, the East
+Anglian martyr. These were the first occasions on which princes of the
+Angevin house received names that were not drawn from the common
+continental stock, but recalled the days before the Conquest. The
+reappearance of these old English names bears witness to the fact that
+the vernacular was reasserting itself. Though French was still the
+language of the court and of law, a new literature was already growing
+up in the native tongue, with such works as Layamon's _Brut_ and the
+_Ormulum_ as its first fruits. Henry III. himself on rare occasions used
+English for a state document.
+
+All these facts make it sufficiently clear that England was irritated
+rather than crushed by Henry's irregular taxation and thriftless
+expenditure. The nation was growing and prospering, despite of its
+master's maladministration of its resources. On several occasions when
+he endeavoured to commit parliaments to back his bills and endorse his
+policy, they refused to help him, and left him to face his debts as best
+he might. This was especially the case with the insane contract which he
+made with Pope Innocent IV. in 1254, when he bound the realm of England
+to find 140,000 marks to equip an army for the conquest of Naples and
+Sicily. Henry lacked the energy to attempt to take by force what he
+could not obtain by persuasion, and preferred to break his bargain with
+the pope rather than to risk the chance of civil war at home.
+
+
+  Public discontent. The Provisions of Oxford.
+
+It was over this Sicilian scheme, the crowning folly of the king, that
+public opinion at last grew so hot that the intermittent criticism and
+grumbling of the baronage and the nation passed into vigorous and
+masterful action. At the "Mad Parliament," which met at Oxford, 1258,
+the barons informed their master that his misgovernment had grown so
+hopeless that they were resolved to put him under constitutional
+restraints. They appointed a committee of twenty-four, in which Simon de
+Montfort was the leading spirit, and entrusted it with the duty, not
+only of formulating lists of grievances, but of seeing that they were
+redressed. Henry found that he had practically no supporters save his
+unpopular foreign relatives and favourites, and yielded perforce. To
+keep him in bounds the celebrated "Provisions of Oxford" were framed.
+They provided that he was to do nothing without the consent of a
+permanent council of fifteen barons and bishops, and that all his
+finances were to be controlled by another committee of twenty-four
+persons. All aliens were to be expelled from the realm, and even the
+king's household was to be "reformed" by his self-constituted guardians.
+The inevitable oath to observe honestly all the conditions of the Great
+Charter of 1215 was, as usual, extorted from him with special
+formalities. Though Montfort and the barons voiced the public
+discontent, the constitution which they thus imposed on the king had
+nothing popular about it. The royal functions of which Henry was
+stripped were to be exercised by a series of baronial committees. The
+arrangement was too cumbersome, for there was nothing which would be
+called a central executive; the three bodies (two of twenty-four members
+each, the third of fifteen) were interdependent, and none of them
+possessed efficient control over the others. It was small wonder that
+the constitution established by the Provisions of Oxford was found
+unworkable. They were not even popular--the small landholders and
+subtenants discovered that their interests had not been sufficiently
+regarded, and lent themselves to an agitation against the provisional
+government, which was got up by Edward, the king's eldest son, who now
+appeared prominently in history for the first time. To conciliate them
+the barons allowed the "Provisions of Westminster" to be enacted in
+1259, in which the power of feudal courts was considerably restricted,
+and many classes of suit were transferred to the royal tribunals, a
+sufficient proof that the king's judges did not share in the odium which
+appertained to their master, and were regarded as honest and impartial.
+
+The limited monarchy established by the Provisions of Oxford lasted only
+three years. Seeing the barons quarrelling among themselves, and
+Montfort accused of ambition and overweening masterfulness by many of
+his colleagues, the king took heart. Copying the example of his father
+in 1215, he obtained from the pope a bull, which declared the new
+constitution irregular and illegal, and absolved him from his oath to
+abide by it. He then began to recall his foreign friends and relatives,
+and to assemble mercenaries. De Montfort answered by raising an army,
+arresting prominent aliens, and seizing the lands which the king had
+given them. Henry thereupon, finding his forces too weak to face the
+earl, took refuge in the Tower of London and proposed an arbitration. He
+offered to submit his case to Louis IX., the saintly king of France,
+whose virtues were known and respected all over Europe, if the baronial
+party would do the same. An appeal to the pope they would have laughed
+to scorn; but the confidence felt in the probity of the French king was
+so great that Montfort advised his friends to accede to the proposal.
+This was an unwise step. Louis was a saint, but he was also an
+autocratic king, and had no knowledge of the constitutional customs of
+England. Having heard the claims of the king and the barons, he issued
+the mise of Amiens (Jan. 23, 1264), so called from the city at which he
+dated it, a document which stated that King Henry ought to abide by the
+terms of Magna Carta, to which he had so often given his assent, but
+that the Provisions of Oxford were wholly invalid and derogatory to the
+royal dignity. "We ordain," he wrote, "that the king shall have full
+power and free jurisdiction over his realm, as in the days before the
+said Provisions." The pope shortly afterwards confirmed the French
+king's award.
+
+Simon de Montfort and his friends were put in an awkward position by
+this decision, to which they had so unwisely committed themselves. But
+they did not hesitate to declare that they must repudiate the mise.
+Simon declared that it would be a worse perjury to abandon his oath to
+keep the Provisions of Oxford than his oath to abide by the French
+king's award. He took arms again at the head of the Londoners and his
+personal adherents and allies. But many of the barons stood neutral, not
+seeing how they could refuse to accept the arbitration they had courted,
+while a number not inconsiderable joined the king, deciding that
+Leicester had passed the limits of reasonable loyalty, and that their
+first duty was to the crown.
+
+
+  The barons' war: battle of Lewes.
+
+Hence it came to pass that in the campaign of 1264 Simon was supported
+by a minority only of the baronial class, and the king's army was the
+larger. The fortune of war inclined at first in favour of the royalists,
+who captured Northampton and Nottingham. But when it came to open
+battle, the military skill of the earl sufficed to compensate for the
+inferiority of his numbers. At Lewes, on the 14th of May, he inflicted a
+crushing defeat on the king's army. Henry himself, his brother Richard
+of Cornwall, and many hundreds of his chief supporters were taken
+prisoners. His son Prince Edward, who had been victorious on his own
+flank of the battle, and had not been caught in the rout, gave himself
+up next morning, wishing to share his father's fate, and not to prolong
+a civil war which seemed to have become hopeless.
+
+
+  Montfort's parliament.
+
+On the day that followed his victory Leicester extorted from the captive
+king the document called the "mise of Lewes," in which Henry promised to
+abide by all the terms of the Provisions of Oxford, as well as to uphold
+the Great Charter and the old customs of the realm. Montfort was
+determined to put his master under political tutelage for the rest of
+his life. He summoned a parliament, in which four knights elected by
+each shire were present, to establish the new constitution. It appointed
+Simon, with his closest allies, the young earl of Gloucester and the
+bishop of Chichester, as electors who were to choose a privy council for
+the king and to fill up all offices of state. The king was to exercise
+no act of sovereignty save by the consent of the councillors, of whom
+three were to follow his person wherever he went. This was a far simpler
+constitution than that framed at Oxford in 1258, but it was even more
+liable to criticism. For if the "Provisions" had established a
+government by baronial committees, the parliament of 1264 created one
+which was a mere party administration. For the victorious faction,
+naturally but unwisely, took all power for themselves, and filled every
+sheriffdom, castellany and judicial office with their own firm friends.
+Simon's care to commit the commons to his cause by summoning them to his
+parliament did not suffice to disguise the fact that the government
+which he had set up was not representative of the whole nation. He
+himself was too much like a dictator; even his own followers complained
+that he was over-masterful, and the most important of them, the young
+earl of Gloucester, was gradually estranged from him by finding his
+requests often refused and his aims crossed by the old earl's action.
+The new government lasted less than two years, and was slowly losing
+prestige all the time. Its first failure was in the repression of the
+surviving royalists. Isolated castles in several districts held out in
+the king's name, and the whole March of Wales was never properly
+subdued. When Simon turned the native Welsh prince Llewelyn against the
+marcher barons, he gave great offence; he was accused of sacrificing
+Englishmen to a foreign enemy. The new regime did not give England the
+peace which it had promised; its enemies maintained that it did not even
+give the good governance of which Simon had made so many promises. It
+certainly appears that some of his followers, and notably his three
+reckless sons, had given good cause for offence by high-handed and
+selfish acts. Much indignation was provoked by the sight of the king
+kept continually in ward by his privy councillors and treated with
+systematic neglect; but the treatment of his son was even more resented.
+Edward, though he had given little cause of offence, and had behaved
+admirably in refusing to continue the civil war, was deprived of his
+earldom of Chester, and put under the same restraint as his father.
+There was no good reason for treating him so harshly, and his state was
+much pitied.
+
+Montfort attempted to strengthen his position, and to show his
+confidence in the commons, by summoning to his second and last
+parliament, that of 1265, a new element--two citizens from each city and
+two burgesses from each borough in the realm. It must be confessed that
+his object was probably not to introduce a great constitutional
+improvement, and to make parliament more representative, but rather to
+compensate for the great gaps upon the baronial benches by showing a
+multitude of lesser adherents, for the towns were his firm supporters.
+The actual proceedings of this particular assembly had no great
+importance.
+
+
+  Battle of Evesham.
+
+Two months later Prince Edward escaped from his confinement, and fled to
+the earl of Gloucester, who now declared himself a royalist. They raised
+an army, which seized the fords of the Severn, in order to prevent de
+Montfort--who was then at Hereford with the captive king--from getting
+back to London or the Midlands. The earl, who could only raise a
+trifling force in the Marches, where the barons were all his enemies,
+failed in several attempts to force a passage eastward. But his friends
+raised a considerable host, which marched under his son Simon the
+Younger and the earl of Oxford, to fall on the rear of the royalists.
+Prince Edward now displayed skilful generalship--hastily turning
+backward he surprised and scattered the army of relief at Kenilworth
+(Aug. 1); he was then free to deal with the earl, who had at last
+succeeded in passing the Severn during his absence. On the 4th of August
+he beset Montfort's little force with five-fold numbers, and absolutely
+exterminated it at Evesham. Simon fought most gallantly, and was left
+dead on the field along with his eldest son Henry, his justiciar Hugh
+Despenser, and the flower of his party. The king fell into the hands of
+his son's followers, and was once more free.
+
+It might have been expected that the victorious party would now
+introduce a policy of reaction and autocratic government. But the king
+was old and broken by his late misfortunes: his son the prince was wise
+beyond his years, and Gloucester and many other of the present
+supporters of the crown had originally been friends of reform, and had
+not abandoned their old views. They had deserted Montfort because he was
+autocratic and masterful, not because they had altogether disapproved of
+his policy. Hence we find Gloucester insisting that the remnant of the
+vanquished party should not be subjected to over heavy punishment, and
+even making an armed demonstration, in the spring of 1267, to demand the
+re-enactment of the Provisions of Oxford. Ultimately the troubles of the
+realm were ended by the Dictum of Kenilworth (Oct. 31, 1266) and the
+Statute of Marlborough (Nov. 1267). The former allowed nearly all of
+Montfort's faction to obtain amnesty and regain their estates on the
+payment of heavy fines; only Simon's own Leicester estates and those of
+Ferrers, earl of Derby, were confiscated. The latter established a form
+of constitution in which many, if not all, of the innovations of the
+Provisions of Oxford were embodied. The only unsatisfactory part of the
+pacification was that Llewelyn of Wales, who had ravaged the whole March
+while he was Montfort's ally, was allowed to keep a broad region (the
+greater part of the modern shire of Denbigh) which he had won back from
+its English holders. His power in a more indirect fashion extended
+itself over much of Mid-Wales. The line of the March was distinctly
+moved backward by the treaty of 1267.
+
+
+  Death of Henry III.
+
+King Henry survived his restoration to nominal, if not to actual,
+authority for seven years. He was now too feeble to indulge in any of
+his former freaks of foreign policy, and allowed the realm to be
+governed under his son's eye by veteran bureaucrats, who kept to the old
+customs of the land. Everything settled down so peacefully that when the
+prince took the cross, and went off to the Crusades in 1270, no trouble
+followed. Edward was still absent in Palestine when his father died, on
+the 16th of November 1272. For the first time in English history there
+was no form of election of the new king, whose accession was quietly
+acknowledged by the officials and the nation. It was nearly two years
+after his father's death that he reached England, yet absolutely no
+trouble had occurred during his absence. He had taken advantage of his
+leisurely journey home to pacify the turbulent Gascony, and to visit
+Paris and make a treaty with King Philip III. by which the frontiers of
+his duchy of Aquitaine were rectified, to some slight extent, in his
+favour. He, of course, did homage for the holding, as his father had
+done before him.
+
+
+  Edward I.
+
+The reign which began with this unwonted quietness was perhaps the most
+important epoch of all English medieval history in the way of the
+definition and settlement of the constitution. Edward I. was a
+remarkable figure, by far the ablest of all the kings of the house of
+Plantagenet. He understood the problem that was before him, the
+construction of a working constitution from the old ancestral customs of
+the English monarchy plus the newer ideas that had been embodied in the
+Great Charter, the Provisions of Oxford, and the scanty legislation of
+Simon de Montfort. Edward loved royal power, but he was wise in his
+generation, and saw that he could best secure the loyalty of his
+subjects by assenting to so many of the new constitutional restraints as
+were compatible with his own practical control of the policy of the
+realm. He was prepared to refer all important matters to his parliament,
+and (as we shall see) he improved the shape of that body by
+reintroducing into it the borough members who had appeared for the first
+time in Montfort's assembly of 1265. He would have liked to make
+parliament, no doubt, a mere meeting for the voting of taxation with the
+smallest possible friction. But he fully realized that this dream was
+impossible, and was wise enough to give way, whenever opposition grew
+too strong and bitter. He had not fought through the civil wars of
+1263-66 without learning his lesson. There was a point beyond which it
+was unwise to provoke the baronage or the commons, and, unlike his
+flighty and thriftless father, he knew where that point came. The
+constitutional quarrels of his reign were conducted with decency and
+order, because the king knew his own limitations, and because his
+subjects trusted to his wisdom and moderation in times of crisis. Edward
+indeed was a man worthy of respect, if not of affection. His private
+life was grave and seemly, his court did not sin by luxury or
+extravagance. His chosen ministers were wise and experienced officials,
+whom no man could call favourites or accuse of maladministration. He was
+sincerely religious, self-restrained and courteous, though occasionally,
+under provocation, he could burst out into a royal rage. He was a good
+master and a firm friend. Moreover, he had a genuine regard for the
+sanctity of a promise, the one thing in which his father had been most
+wanting. It is true that sometimes he kept his oaths or carried out his
+pledges with the literal punctuality of a lawyer, rather than with the
+chivalrous generosity of a knight. But at any rate he always endeavoured
+to discharge an obligation, even if he sometimes interpreted it by the
+strict letter of the law and not with liberality. A conscientious man
+according to his lights, he took as his device the motto _Pactum serva_,
+"keep troth," which was afterwards inscribed on his tomb, and did his
+best to live up to it. Naturally he expected the same accuracy from
+other men, and when he did not meet it he could be harsh and unrelenting
+in the punishment that he inflicted. To sum up his character it must be
+added that he was a very great soldier. The headlong courage which he
+showed at Lewes, his first battle, was soon tempered by caution, and
+already in 1265 he had shown that he could plan a campaign with skill.
+In his later military career he was the first general who showed on a
+large scale how the national English weapon, the bow, could win fights
+when properly combined with the charge of the mailed cavalry. He
+inaugurated the tactics by which his grandson and great-grandson were to
+win epoch-making victories abroad.
+
+Edward's reign lasted for thirty-five years, and was equally important
+in constitutional development and in imperial policy. The first period
+of it, 1272-1290, may be defined as mainly notable for his great series
+of legislative enactments and his conquest of Wales. The second,
+1290-1307, contains his long and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to
+incorporate Scotland into his realm, and his quarrels with his
+parliament.
+
+
+  Constitutional changes. Statutes of Westminster and Gloucester.
+
+The changes made by Edward in constitutional law by his great series of
+statutes commenced very soon after his return to his kingdom in 1274. We
+may trace in all of them the same purpose of strengthening the power of
+the crown by judicious and orderly definition of its privileges. The
+great enactments start with the First Statute of Westminster (1275), a
+measure directed to the improvement of administrative details, which was
+accompanied by a grant to the king of a permanent customs-revenue on
+imports and exports, which soon became more valuable to the royal
+exchequer than the old feudal taxes on land. In 1278 followed the
+Statute of Gloucester, an act empowering the king to make inquiry as to
+the right by which old royal estates, or exceptional franchises which
+infringed on the royal prerogative of justice or taxation, had passed
+into the hands of their present owners. This inquest was made by the
+writ _Quo Warranto_, by which each landholder was invited to show the
+charter or warrant in which his claims rested. The baronage were angry
+and suspicious, for many of their customary rights rested on immemorial
+and unchartered antiquity, while others were usurpations from the
+weakness of John or Henry III. They showed signs of an intention to make
+open resistance; but to their surprise the king contented himself with
+making complete lists of all franchises then existing, and did no more;
+this being his method of preventing the growth of any further trespasses
+on his prerogative.
+
+
+  Statute of Mortmain.
+
+Edward's next move was against clerical encroachments. In 1279 he
+compelled Archbishop Peckham to withdraw some legislation made in a
+synod called without the royal permission--a breach of one of the three
+great canons of William the Conqueror. Then he took the offensive
+himself, by persuading his parliament to pass the Statute of Mortmain
+(de religiosis). This was an act to prevent the further accumulation of
+landed property in the "dead hand" of religious persons and communities.
+The more land the church acquired, the less feudal taxation came into
+the royal exchequer. For undying corporations paid the king neither
+"reliefs" (death duties) nor fees on wardship and marriage, and their
+property would never escheat to the crown for want of an heir. The
+Statute of Mortmain forbade any man to alienate land to the church
+without royal licence. It was very acceptable to the baronage, who had
+suffered, on a smaller scale, the same grievance as the king, for when
+their subtenants transferred estates to the church, they (like their
+masters) suffered a permanent loss of feudal revenue. A distinct check
+in the hitherto steady growth of clerical endowments began from this
+time, though licences in mortmain were by no means impossible to obtain.
+
+
+  Second Statute of Westminster.
+
+The great group of statutes that date from Edward's earlier years ends
+with the legislative enactments of 1285, the Second Statute of
+Westminster and the Statute of Winchester. The former contains the
+clause _De Donis Conditionalibus_, a notable landmark in the history of
+English law, since it favoured the system of entailing estates. Hitherto
+life-owners of land, holding as subtenants, had possessed large powers
+of alienating it, to the detriment of their superior lords, who would
+otherwise have recovered it, when their vassals died heirless, as an
+"escheat." This custom was primarily harmful to the king--the greatest
+territorial magnate and the one most prone to distribute rewards in land
+to his servants. But it was also prejudicial to all tenants-in-chief. By
+_De Donis_ the tenant for life was prevented from selling his estate,
+which could only pass to his lawful heir; if he had none, it fell back
+to his feudal superior. Five years later this legislation was
+supplemented by the statute _Quia Emptores_, equally beneficial to king
+and barons, which provided that subtenants should not be allowed to make
+over land to other persons, retaining the nominal possession and feudal
+rights over it, but should be compelled to sell it out and out, so that
+their successor in title stood to the overlord exactly as the seller had
+done. Hitherto they had been wont to dispose of the whole or parts of
+their estates while maintaining their feudal rights over it, so that the
+ultimate landlord could not deal directly with the new occupant, whose
+reliefs, wardship, &c., fell to the intermediate holder who had sold
+away the land. The main result of this was that, when a baron parted
+with any one of his estates, the acquirer became a tenant-in-chief
+directly dependent on the king, instead of being left a vassal of the
+person who had passed over the land to him. Subinfeudation came to a
+complete stop, and whenever great family estates broke up the king
+obtained new tenants-in-chief. The number of persons holding immediately
+of the crown began at once to multiply by leaps and bounds. As the
+process of the partition of lands continued, the fractions grew smaller
+and smaller, and many of the tenants-in-chief were ere long very small
+and unimportant persons. These, of course, would not form part of the
+baronial interest, and could not be distinguished from any other
+subjects of the crown.
+
+
+  Statute of Winchester.
+
+The Statute of Winchester, the other great legislative act of 1285, was
+mainly concerned with the keeping of the peace of the realm. It revised
+the arming and organization of the national militia, the lineal
+descendent of the old _fyrd_, and provided a useful police force for the
+repression of disorder and robbery by the reorganization of _watch and
+ward_. This was, of course, one more device for strengthening the power
+of the crown.
+
+
+  Welsh wars.
+
+In the intervals of the legislation which formed the main feature of the
+first half of his reign, Edward was often distracted by external
+matters. He was, on the whole, on very good terms with his first cousin,
+Philip III. of France; the trouble did not come from this direction,
+though there was the usual crop of feudal rebellions in Gascony. Nor did
+Edward's relations with the more remote states of the continent lead to
+any important results, though he had many treaties and alliances in
+hand. It was with Wales that his most troublesome relations occurred.
+Llewelyn-ap-Gruffydd, the old ally of de Montfort, had come with profit
+out of the civil wars of 1263-66, and having won much land and more
+influence during the evil days of Henry III., was reluctant to see that
+his time of prosperity had come to an end, now that a king of a very
+different character sat on the English throne.
+
+
+  Conquest of Wales.
+
+Friction had begun the moment that Edward returned to his kingdom from
+the crusade. Llewelyn would not deign to appear before him to render the
+customary homage due from Wales to the English crown, but sent a series
+of futile excuses lasting over three years. In 1277, however, the king
+grew tired of waiting, invaded the principality and drove his
+recalcitrant vassal up into the fastnesses of Snowdon, where famine
+compelled him to surrender as winter was beginning. Llewelyn was
+pardoned, but deprived of all the lands he had gained during the days of
+the civil war, and restricted to his old North Welsh dominions. He
+remained quiescent for five years, but busied himself in knitting up
+secret alliances with the Welsh of the South, who were resenting the
+introduction of English laws and customs by the strong-handed king. In
+1282 there was a sudden and well-planned rising, which extended from the
+gates of Chester to those of Carmarthen; several castles were captured
+by the insurgents, and Edward had to come to the rescue of the
+lords-marchers at the head of a very large army. After much checkered
+fighting Llewelyn was slain at the skirmish of Orewyn Bridge near Builth
+on the 11th of December 1282. On his death the southern rebels
+submitted, but David his brother continued the struggle for three months
+longer in the Snowdon district, till his last bands were scattered and
+he himself taken prisoner. Edward beheaded him at Shrewsbury as a
+traitor, having the excuse that David had submitted once before, had
+been endowed with lands in the Marches, and had nevertheless joined his
+brother in rebellion. After this the king abode for more than a year in
+Wales, organizing the newly conquered principality into a group of
+counties, and founding many castles, with dependent towns, within its
+limits. The "statute of Wales," issued at Rhuddlan in 1284, provided for
+the introduction of English law into the country, though a certain
+amount of Celtic customs was allowed to survive. For the next two
+centuries and a half the lands west of Dee and Wye were divided between
+the new counties, forming the "principality" of Wales, and the "marches"
+where the old feudal franchises continued, till the marcher-lordships
+gradually fell by forfeiture or marriage to the crown. Edward's grip on
+the land was strong, and it had need to be so, for in 1287 and 1294-1295
+there were desperate and widespread revolts, which were only checked by
+the existence of the new castles, and subdued by the concentration of
+large royal armies. In 1301 the king's eldest surviving son Edward, who
+had been born at Carnarvon in 1284, was created "prince of Wales," and
+invested with the principality, which henceforth became the regular
+appanage of the heirs of the English crown. This device was apparently
+intended to soothe Welsh national pride, by reviving in form, if not in
+reality, the separate existence of the old Cymric state. For four
+generations the land was comparatively quiet, but the great rebellion of
+Owen Glendower in the reign of Henry IV. was to show how far the spirit
+of particularism was from extinction.
+
+
+  Expulsion of the Jews.
+
+Some two years after his long sojourn in Wales Edward made an even
+longer stay in a more remote corner of his dominions. Gascony being, as
+usual, out of hand, he crossed to Bordeaux in 1286, and abode in Guienne
+for no less than three years, reducing the duchy to such order as it had
+never known before, settling all disputed border questions with the new
+king of France, Philip IV., founding many new towns, and issuing many
+useful statutes and ordinances. He returned suddenly in 1289, called
+home by complaints that reached him as to the administration of justice
+by his officials, who were slighting the authority of his cousin Edmund
+of Cornwall, whom he had left behind as regent. He dismissed almost the
+whole bench of judges, and made other changes among his ministers. At
+the same time he fell fiercely upon the great lords of the Welsh
+Marches, who had been indulging in private wars; when they returned to
+their evil practice he imprisoned the chief offenders, the earls of
+Hereford and Gloucester, forfeited their estates, and only gave them
+back when they had paid vast fines (1291). Another act of this period
+was Edward's celebrated expulsion of the Jews from England (1290). This
+was the continuation of a policy which he had already carried out in
+Guienne. It would seem that his reasons were partly religious, but
+partly economic. No earlier king could have afforded to drive forth a
+race who had been so useful to the crown as bankers and money-lenders;
+but by the end of the 13th century the financial monopoly of the Jews
+had been broken by the great Italian banking firms, whom Edward had been
+already employing during his Welsh wars. Finding them no less
+accommodating than their rivals, he gratified the prejudices of his
+subjects and himself by forcing the Hebrews to quit England. The
+Italians in a few years became as unpopular as their predecessors in the
+trade of usury, their practices being the same, if their creed was not.
+
+
+  Edward I. and Scotland.
+
+Meanwhile in the same year that saw the expulsion of the Jews, King
+Edward's good fortune began to wane, with the rise of the Scottish
+question, which was to overshadow the latter half of his reign.
+Alexander III., the last male in direct descent of the old Scottish
+royal house, had died in 1286. His heiress was his only living
+descendant, a little girl, the child of his deceased daughter Margaret
+and Eric, king of Norway. After much discussion, for both the Scottish
+nobles and the Norse king were somewhat suspicious, Edward had succeeded
+in obtaining from them a promise that the young queen should marry his
+heir, Edward of Carnarvon. This wedlock would have led to a permanent
+union of the English and Scottish crowns, but not to an absorption of
+the lesser in the greater state, for the rights of Scotland were
+carefully guarded in the marriage-treaty. But the scheme was wrecked by
+the premature death of the bride, who expired by the way, while being
+brought over from Norway to her own kingdom, owing to privations and
+fatigue suffered on a tempestuous voyage.
+
+She had no near relatives, and more than a dozen Scottish or
+Anglo-Scottish nobles, distantly related to the royal line, put in a
+claim to the crown, or at least to a part of the royal heritage. The
+board of six regents, who had been ruling Scotland for the young queen,
+seeing their own power at an end and civil war likely to break out,
+begged Edward of England to arbitrate between the claimants. The history
+of the next twenty years turned on the legal point whether the
+arbitrator acted--as he himself contended--in the capacity of suzerain,
+or--as the Scots maintained--in that of a neighbour of acknowledged
+wisdom and repute, invited to settle a domestic problem. This question
+of the relations between the English and the Scottish crowns had been
+raised a dozen times between the days of Edward the Elder and those of
+Henry III. There was no denying the fact that the northern kings had
+repeatedly done homage to their greater neighbours. But, save during the
+years when William the Lion, after his captivity, had owned himself the
+vassal of Henry II. for all his dominions, there was considerable
+uncertainty as to the exact scope of the allegiance which had been
+demanded and given. And William's complete submission had apparently
+been cancelled, when Richard I. sold him in 1190 a release from the
+terms of the treaty of Falaise. Since that date Alexander II. and
+Alexander III. had repeatedly owned themselves vassals to the English
+crown, and had even sat in English parliaments. But it was possible for
+patriotic Scots to contend that they had done so only in their capacity
+as English barons--for they held much land south of Tweed--and to point
+to the similarity of their position to that of the English king when he
+did homage for his duchy of Guienne at Paris, without thereby admitting
+any suzerainty of the French crown over England or Ireland. On the last
+occasion when Alexander III. had owned himself the vassal of Edward I.,
+there had been considerable fencing on both sides as to the form of the
+oath, and, as neither sovereign at the moment had wished to push matters
+to a rupture, the words used had been intentionally vague, and both
+parties had kept their private interpretations to themselves. But now,
+when Edward met the Scottish magnates, who had asked for his services as
+arbitrator, he demanded that they should acknowledge that he was acting
+as suzerain and overlord of the whole kingdom of Scotland. After some
+delay, and with manifest reluctance, the Scots complied; their hand was
+forced by the fact that most of the claimants to the crown had hastened
+to make the acknowledgment, each hoping thereby to prejudice the English
+king in his own favour.
+
+This submission having been made, Edward acted with honesty and
+fairness, handing over the adjudication to a body of eighty Scottish and
+twenty-four English barons, knights and bishops. These commissioners,
+after ample discussion and taking of evidence, adjudged the crown to
+John Baliol, the grandson of the eldest daughter of Earl David, younger
+brother of William the Lion. They ruled out the claim of Robert Bruce,
+the son of David's second daughter, who had raised the plea that his
+descent was superior because he was a generation nearer than Baliol to
+their common ancestor. This theory of affinity had been well known in
+the 12th century, and had been urged in favour of King John when he was
+contending with his nephew Arthur. But by 1291 it had gone out of
+favour, and the Scottish barons had no hesitation in declaring Baliol
+their rightful king. Edward at once gave him seizin of Scotland, and
+handed over to him the royal castles, which had been placed in his hands
+as a pledge during the arbitration. In return Baliol did him homage as
+overlord of the whole kingdom of Scotland.
+
+This, unfortunately, turned out to be the beginning, not the end, of
+troubles. Edward was determined to exact all the ordinary feudal rights
+of an overlord--whatever might have been the former relations of the
+English and Scottish crowns. The Scots, on the other hand, were resolved
+not to allow of the introduction of usages which had not prevailed in
+earlier times, and to keep the tie as vague and loose as possible.
+Before Baliol had been many months on the throne there was grave
+friction on the question of legal appeals. Scottish litigants defeated
+in the local courts began to appeal to the courts of Westminster, just
+as Gascon litigants were wont to appeal from Bordeaux to Paris. King
+John and his baronage, relying on the fact that such evocation of cases
+to a superior court had never before been known, refused to allow that
+it was valid. King Edward insisted that by common feudal usage it was
+perfectly regular, and announced his intention of permitting it. Grave
+friction had already begun when external events precipitated an open
+rupture between the king of England and his new vassal.
+
+
+  Edward I. and Philip IV.
+
+  The "model parliament" of 1295.
+
+Philip III. of France, who had always pursued a friendly policy with his
+cousin of England, had died in 1285, and had been succeeded by his son
+Philip IV., a prince of a very different type, the most able and
+unscrupulous of all the dynasty of Capet. In 1294 he played a most
+dishonourable trick upon King Edward. There had been some irregular and
+piratical fighting at sea between English and Norman sailors, in which
+the latter had been worsted. When called to account for the doings of
+his subjects, as well as for certain disputes in Gascony, the English
+king promised redress, and, on the suggestion of Philip, surrendered, as
+a formal act of apology, the six chief fortresses of Guienne, which were
+to be restored when reparation had been made. Having garrisoned the
+places, Philip suddenly changed his line, refused to continue the
+negotiations, and declared the whole duchy forfeited. Edward was forced
+into war, after having been tricked out of his strongholds. Just after
+his first succours had sailed for the Gironde, the great Welsh rebellion
+of 1294 broke out, and the king was compelled to turn aside to repress
+it. This he accomplished in the next spring, but meanwhile hardly a
+foothold remained to him in Gascony. He was then preparing to cross the
+Channel in person, when Scottish affairs began to become threatening.
+King John declared himself unable to restrain the indignation of his
+subjects at the attempt to enforce English suzerainty over Scotland, and
+in July 1295 leagued himself with Philip of France, and expelled from
+his realm the chief supporters of the English alliance. Finding himself
+involved in two wars at once, Edward made an earnest appeal to his
+subjects to rise to the occasion and "because that which touches all
+should be approved of all" summoned the celebrated "model parliament" of
+November 1295, which exactly copied in its constitution Montfort's
+parliament of 1265, members from all cities and boroughs being summoned
+along with the knights of the shires, and the inferior clergy being also
+represented by their proctors. This system henceforth became the normal
+one, and the English parliament assumed its regular form, though the
+differentiation of the two houses was not fully completed till the next
+century. Edward was voted liberal grants by the laity, though the clergy
+gave less than he had hoped; but enough money was obtained to fit out
+two armies, one destined for the invasion of Scotland, the other for
+that of Gascony.
+
+
+  Invasion of Scotland.
+
+The French expedition, which was led by the king's brother Edmund, earl
+of Lancaster, failed to recover Gascony, and came to an ignominious end.
+But Edward's own army achieved complete success in Scotland. Berwick was
+stormed, the Scottish army was routed at Dunbar (April 27), Edinburgh
+and Stirling were easily captured, and at last John Baliol, deserted by
+most of his adherents, surrendered at Brechin. Edward pursued his
+triumphant march as far as Aberdeen and Elgin, without meeting further
+resistance. He then summoned a parliament at Berwick, and announced to
+the assembled Scots that he had determined to depose King John, and to
+assume the crown himself. The ease with which he had subdued the realm
+misled him; he fancied that the slack resistance, which was mainly due
+to the incapacity and unpopularity of Baliol, implied the indifference
+of the Scots to the idea of annexation. The alacrity with which the
+greater part of the baronage flocked in to do him homage confirmed him
+in the mistaken notion. He appointed John, earl Warenne, lieutenant of
+the realm, with Hugh Cressingham, an English clerk, as treasurer, but
+left nearly all the minor offices in Scottish hands, and announced that
+Scottish law should be administered. He then returned to England, and
+began to make preparations for a great expedition to France in 1297.
+
+
+  Disputes with the clergy and baronage.
+
+His plan was something more ambitious than a mere attempt to recover
+Bordeaux; succours were to go to Gascony, but he himself and the main
+army were to invade France from the north with the aid of the count of
+Flanders. Much money was, of course, needed for the double expedition,
+and in raising it Edward became involved in two desperate constitutional
+disputes. Though the barons and the commons voted a liberal grant at the
+parliament of Bury (Nov. 1296) the clergy would give nothing. This was
+owing to a bull--the celebrated _Clericis Laicos_, recently issued by
+the arrogant and contentious pope Boniface VIII., which forbade the
+clergy to submit to any taxation by secular princes. Robert Winchelsea,
+the archbishop of Canterbury, an enthusiastic exponent of clerical
+rights and grievances, declared himself in conscience bound to obey the
+pontiff, and persuaded the representatives of the Church in the
+parliament to refuse supplies. The king, indignant that an attempt
+should be made to exempt the vast ecclesiastical lands from taxation at
+a time of national crisis, sequestrated the estates of the see of
+Canterbury, and copied John's conduct in 1208 by outlawing the whole
+body of the clergy. Winchelsea in return excommunicated all those who
+refused to recognize the authority of the pope's bull.
+
+Scarcely was this quarrel developed when Edward found himself involved
+in an equally hot dispute with the commons and the baronage. In his
+eagerness to collect the sinews of war he had issued orders for the levy
+of a heavy customs duty on wool, the main export of the land, and in
+some cases laid hands on the wool itself, which lay ready for shipping,
+though this had not been granted him by the late parliament. The
+"maltolt"--or illegal tax--as his subjects called it, provoked the anger
+of the whole body of merchants in England. At the same time the barons,
+headed by the earls of Norfolk and Hereford, raised the old grievance
+about feudal service beyond seas, which had been so prominent in the
+time of King John. Norfolk, who had been designated to lead the
+expedition to Guienne; declared that though he was ready to follow his
+master to Flanders in his capacity of marshal, he would not be drafted
+off to Gascony against his own will. Hereford and a number of other
+barons gave him hearty support.
+
+Harassed by these domestic troubles, the king could not carry out his
+intention of sailing for Flanders in the spring, and spent the greater
+part of the campaigning season in wrangles with his subjects. He was
+obliged to come to a compromise. If the clergy would give him a
+voluntary gift, which was in no way to be considered a tax, he agreed to
+inlaw them. They did so, and even Winchelsea, after a time, was
+reconciled to his master. As to the barons, the king took the important
+constitutional step of conceding that he would not ask them to serve
+abroad as a feudal obligation, but would pay them for their services, if
+they would oblige him by joining his banner. Even then Norfolk and
+Hereford refused to sail; but the greater part of the minor magnates
+consented to serve as stipendiaries. The commons were conciliated by a
+promise that the wool which the royal officers had seized should be paid
+for, when a balance was forthcoming in the exchequer.
+
+
+  Insurrection in Scotland. Wallace.
+
+By these means Edward succeeded at last in collecting a considerable
+army, and sailed for Flanders at the end of August. But he was hardly
+gone when dreadful news reached him from Scotland. An insurrection, to
+which no great importance was attached at first, had broken out in the
+summer. Its first leader was none of the great barons, but a
+Renfrewshire knight, Sir William Wallace; but ere long more important
+persons, including Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick (grandson of Robert
+Bruce of Annandale, one of the competitors for the crown of Scotland),
+and the bishop of Glasgow, were found to be in communication with the
+rebels. Earl Warenne, the king's lieutenant in Scotland, mustered his
+forces to put down the rising. On the 11th of September 1297 he
+attempted to force the passage of the Forth at Stirling Bridge, and was
+completely beaten by Wallace, who allowed half the English army to pass
+the river and then descended upon it and annihilated it, while Warenne
+looked on helplessly from the other bank. Almost the whole of Scotland
+rose in arms on hearing of this victory, but the barons showed less zeal
+than the commons, owing to their jealousy of Wallace. Warenne retired to
+Berwick and besought his master for aid.
+
+
+  The "Confirmatio Cartarum."
+
+Edward, who was just commencing an autumn campaign in Flanders which was
+to lead to no results, sent home orders to summon a parliament, which
+should raise men and money for the Scottish war. It was called, and made
+a liberal grant for that purpose, but Archbishop Winchelsea and the
+earls of Norfolk and Hereford took advantage of their master's needs,
+and of his absence, to assert themselves. Taking up the position of
+defenders of the constitution, they induced the parliament to couple its
+grants of money with the condition that the king should not only confirm
+Magna Carta--as had been so often done before--but give a specific
+promise that no "maltolts," or other taxes not legally granted him,
+should be raised for the future. Edward received the petition at Ghent,
+and made the required oath. The document to which he gave his assent,
+the _Confirmatio Cartarum_ (less accurately called the statute _De
+Tallagio non concedendo_) marked a distinct advance beyond the theories
+of Magna Carta; for the latter had been drawn up before England
+possessed a parliament, and had placed the control of taxation in the
+hands of the old feudal council of tenants-in-chief, while the
+_Confirmatio_ gave it to the assembly, far more national and
+representative, which had now superseded the Great Council as the
+mouthpiece of the whole people of the realm.
+
+The Scottish revolt had become so formidable that Edward was compelled
+to abandon his unfruitful Flemish campaign; he patched up an
+unsatisfactory truce with the king of France, which left four-fifths of
+his lost Gascon lands in the power of the enemy, and returned to England
+in the spring of 1298. In July he invaded Scotland at the head of a
+formidable army of 15,000 men, and on the 22nd of that month brought
+Wallace to action on the moors above Falkirk. The steady Scottish
+infantry held their own for some time against the charge of the English
+men-at-arms. But when Edward brought forward his archers to aid his
+cavalry, as William I. had done at Hastings, Wallace's columns broke up,
+and a dreadful slaughter followed. The impression made on the Scots was
+so great that for some years they refused to engage in another pitched
+battle. But the immediate consequences were not all that might have been
+expected. Edward was able to occupy many towns and castles, but the
+broken bands of the insurgents lurked in the hills and forests, and the
+countryside as a whole remained unsubdued. Wallace went to France to
+seek aid from King Philip, and his place was taken by John Comyn, lord
+of Badenoch, a nephew of Baliol, who was a more acceptable leader to the
+Scottish nobles than the vanquished knight of Falkirk. Edward was
+detained in the south for a year, partly by negotiations with France,
+partly by a renewed quarrel with his parliament, and during his absence
+Comyn recovered Stirling and most of the other places which had received
+English garrisons. It was not till 1300 that the king was able to resume
+the invasion of Scotland, with an army raised by grants of money that he
+had only bought by humiliating concessions to the will of his
+parliament, formulated in the _Articuli super cartas_ which were drawn
+up in the March of that year. Even then he only succeeded in recovering
+some border holds, and the succeeding campaign of 1301 only took him as
+far as Linlithgow. But in the following year his position was suddenly
+changed by unexpected events abroad; the king of France became involved
+in a desperate quarrel with the pope, and at the same moment his army
+received a crushing defeat before Courtrai at the hands of the Flemings.
+To free himself for these new struggles Philip made up his mind to
+conclude peace with England, even at the cost of sacrificing his
+conquests in Gascony. Bordeaux had already revolted from him, and he
+gave up the rest of his ill-gotten gains of 1294 by the treaty of Paris
+(May 20, 1303).
+
+
+  Edward again invades Scotland, 1303.
+
+Now that he had only a single war upon his hands Edward's position was
+entirely changed. There was no more need to conciliate the magnates nor
+the parliament. His displeasure fell mainly on the archbishop and the
+earl of Norfolk, who had so long led the opposition. Winchelsea was put
+in disgrace, and ultimately exiled. Norfolk, who was childless, was
+forced to sign a grant by which his lands went to the king after his
+death--a harsh and illegal proceeding, for he had collateral heirs. But
+the Scots, as was natural, bore the brunt of the king's wrath. In June
+1303, a month after the peace of Paris, he advanced from Roxburgh,
+determined to make a systematic conquest of the realm, and not to return
+till it was ended. He kept up his campaign throughout the winter,
+reduced every fortress that held out, and carried his arms as far as
+Aberdeen and Elgin. In February 1304 the regent Comyn and most of the
+Scottish baronage submitted, on the promise that they should retain
+their lands on doing homage. Wallace, who had returned from France, kept
+up a guerilla warfare in the hills for a year more, but was captured in
+July 1305, and sent to London to be executed as a traitor. Even before
+his capture it seemed that Scotland was thoroughly tamed, and was
+destined to share the fate of Wales.
+
+Edward's arrangements for the administration of the conquered kingdom
+were wise and liberal, if only the national spirit of the Scots could
+have tolerated them. The Scottish parliament was to continue, though
+representatives from beyond Tweed were also to be sent to the English
+parliament. The sheriffdoms and most of the ministerial posts were left
+in the hands of Scots, though the supreme executive authority was put in
+the hands of John of Brittany, earl of Richmond, the king's nephew. The
+land seemed for a time to be settling down, and indeed the baronage were
+to such a large extent English in both blood and feeling, that there was
+no insuperable difficulty in conciliating them. A considerable fraction
+of them adhered consistently to the English cause from this time forth,
+and ultimately lost their lands for refusing to follow the rest of the
+nation in the next insurrection.
+
+But the delusion that Scotland had been finally subdued was to last only
+for a year, although in 1305 Edward seemed to have accomplished his
+task, and stood triumphant, with the northern realm at his feet, his
+domestic foes humbled, and France and the papacy defeated. His last
+short interval of peaceful rule was distinguished by the passing of the
+Statute of Trailbaston in the parliament of 1305. This was a measure for
+the repression of local riots, empowering justices in every shire to
+suppress clubmen (_trailbastons_), gangs of marauders who had been
+rendering the roads unsafe.
+
+
+  Robert Bruce.
+
+In the first month of 1306, however, the weary Scottish war broke out
+again, with the appearance of a new insurgent chief. Robert Bruce, earl
+of Carrick, grandson of the claimant to the throne of 1292, had hitherto
+pursued a shifty policy, wavering between submission and opposition to
+the English invader. He had been in arms more than once, but had finally
+adhered to the pacification of 1304, and was now entirely trusted by the
+king. But he was secretly plotting rebellion, disgusted (as it would
+seem) that Edward had not transferred the crown of Scotland to the line
+of Bruce when the house of Baliol was found wanting. Though he found
+himself certain of a considerable amount of support, he yet could see
+that there would be no general rising in his favour, for many of the
+magnates refused to help in making king a baron whom they regarded as no
+more important than one of themselves. But the insurrection was
+precipitated by an unpremeditated outrage. Bruce was conferring at
+Dumfries with John Comyn, the late regent, whom he was endeavouring to
+tempt into his plots, on the 10th of January 1306. An angry altercation
+followed, for Comyn would have nothing to do with the scheme, and Bruce
+and his followers finally slew him before the altar of a church into
+which he had fled. After this crime, which combined the disgrace of
+sacrilege with that of murder under tryst, Bruce was forced to take arms
+at once, though his preparations were incomplete. He raised his banner,
+and was hastily crowned at Scone on the 25th of March; by that time the
+rising had burst out in many shires of Scotland, but it was neither
+unanimous nor complete. Edward by no means despaired of crushing it, and
+had raised a large army, when he was smitten with an illness which
+prevented him from crossing the border. But his troops, under Aymer de
+Valence, earl of Pembroke, pressed north, and surprised and routed Bruce
+at Methven near Perth. The pretender's brother Nigel and many of his
+chief supporters were taken prisoners, and he himself escaped with a
+handful of followers and took refuge in the Western islands. Edward
+ordered young Nigel Bruce and many other captives to be executed; for he
+was provoked to great wrath by the rebellion of a magnate who had given
+him every assurance of loyalty. He intended to follow de Valence to
+Scotland, and to complete the suppression of the rising in person. But
+this proved beyond his strength; he struggled as far as the border in
+July, but could not shake off his disease, and was forced to linger, a
+broken invalid, in the neighbourhood of Carlisle for many months.
+Meanwhile his lieutenants failed to follow up with energy the victory
+gained at Methven, and in the next spring Bruce reappeared in the
+Lowlands, gathered new levies, and inflicted a defeat on de Valence at
+Loudoun Hill. Roused to anger King Edward rose from his bed, mounted his
+horse, and started for Scotland. But after struggling on for a few miles
+he fell by the way, and died at Burgh-on-Sands, just inside the English
+border, on the 7th of July 1307.
+
+
+  Character of Edward I.'s rule.
+
+Despite the chequered fortunes of his later years the reign of Edward
+had been a time of progress and prosperity for England. He had given his
+realm good and strong governance; according to his lights he had striven
+to keep faith and to observe his coronation oath. He had on more than
+one occasion quarrelled with his subjects, but matters had never been
+pushed to an open rupture. The king knew how to yield, and even
+opponents like Winchelsea and the earls of Norfolk and Hereford
+respected him too much to drive him to an extremity. The nation, however
+much it might murmur, would never have been willing to rebel against a
+sovereign whose only fault was that he occasionally pressed his
+prerogative too far. Edward's rule was seldom or never oppressive, the
+seizure of the merchants' wool in 1297 was the only one of his acts
+which caused really fierce and widespread indignation. For his other
+arbitrary proceedings he had some show of legal justification in every
+case. It would have been absurd to declare that his rule was tyrannical
+or his policy disastrous. The realm was on the whole contented and even
+flourishing. Population was steadily increasing, and with it commerce;
+the intellectual activity which had marked the reign of Henry III. was
+still alive; architecture, religious and military, was in its prime. He
+was himself a great builder, and many of the perfected castles of that
+concentric style, which later ages have called the "Edwardian type,"
+were of his own planning. In ecclesiastical architecture his reign
+represents the early flower of the "Decorated" order, perhaps the most
+beautiful of all the developments of English art. In many respects the
+reign may be regarded as the culmination and crowning point of the
+middle ages. It certainly gave a promise of greatness and steady
+progress which the 14th century was far from justifying.
+
+
+  Edward II.
+
+With the great king's death a sudden change for the worse was at once
+visible. The individual character of the reigning king was still the
+main factor in political history, and Edward II. was in every respect a
+contrast to his father. He was incorrigibly frivolous, idle and
+apathetic; his father had given him much stern schooling, but this seems
+only to have inspired him with a deeply rooted dislike for official work
+of any kind. He has been well described as "the first king since the
+Conquest who was not a man of business." Even Stephen and Henry III. had
+been active and bustling princes, though their actions were misguided
+and inconsequent. But Edward II. hated all kingly duties; he detested
+war, but he detested even more the routine work of administration. He
+was most at his ease in low company, his favourite diversion was
+gambling, his best trait a love for farming and the mechanical arts of
+the smith and the gardener.
+
+
+  Piers Gaveston.
+
+His first acts on coming to the throne caused patriotic Englishmen to
+despair. His father, on his death-bed, had made him swear to conduct the
+Scottish expedition to its end. But he marched no further than Dumfries,
+and then turned back, on the vain pretext that he must conduct his
+parent's funeral in person. Leaving Bruce to gather fresh strength and
+to commence the tedious process of reducing the numerous English
+garrisons in Scotland, he betook himself to London, and was not seen on
+the border again for more than three years. He then dismissed all his
+father's old ministers, and replaced them by creatures of his own, for
+the most part persons of complete incompetence. But his most offensive
+act was to promote to the position of chief councillor of the crown, and
+disperser of the royal favours, a clever but vain and ostentatious
+Gascon knight, one Piers Gaveston, who had been the companion of his
+boyhood, and had been banished by Edward I. for encouraging him in his
+follies and frivolity. Piers was given the royal title of earl of
+Cornwall, and married to the king's niece; when Edward went over to
+France to do homage for Gascony, he even made his friend regent during
+his absence, in preference to any of his kinsmen. It was his regular
+habit to refer those who came to him on matters of state to "his good
+brother Piers," and to refuse to discuss them in person.
+
+
+  Baronial opposition.
+
+It was of course impossible that the nation or the baronage should
+accept such a preposterous regime, and Edward was soon involved in a
+lively struggle with his subjects. Of the leaders of opposition in his
+father's reign both Hereford and Norfolk were now dead. But Archbishop
+Winchelsea had returned from exile in a belligerent mood, and the place
+of Norfolk and Hereford was taken by an ambitious prince of the royal
+house, Thomas, earl of Lancaster, the son of the younger brother of
+Edward I. Thomas was selfish and incompetent, but violent and
+self-assertive, and for some years was able to pose successfully as a
+patriot simply because he set himself to oppose every act of the
+unpopular king. He had several powerful baronial allies--the earls of
+Warwick, Pembroke and Warenne, with Humphrey Bohun of Hereford, who had
+succeeded to his father's politics, though he had married the king's own
+sister.
+
+
+  Progress of Bruce in Scotland.
+
+  The "Lords Ordainers."
+
+The annals of the early years of Edward II. are mainly filled by
+contemporary chroniclers with details of the miserable strife between
+the king and his barons on the question of Gaveston's unconstitutional
+position. But the really important feature of the time was the gradual
+reconquest of Scotland by Robert Bruce, during the continuance of the
+domestic strife in England. Edward I. had laid such a firm grip on the
+northern realm that it required many years to undo his work. A very
+large proportion of the Scottish nobility regarded Bruce as a usurper
+who had opened his career with murder and sacrilege, and either openly
+opposed him or denied him help. His resources were small, and it was
+only by constant effort, often chequered by failures, that he gradually
+fought down his local adversaries, and reduced the English garrisons one
+by one. Dumbarton and Linlithgow were only mastered in 1312. Perth did
+not finally fall into his hands till 1313; Edinburgh, Roxburgh and
+Stirling were still holding out in 1314. During all this time the
+English king only once went north of the Border--in 1311--and then with
+a very small army, for Lancaster and his friends had refused to join his
+banner. Yet even under such conditions Bruce had to retire to the
+mountains, and to allow the invaders to range unopposed through Lothian
+and Fife, and even beyond the Tay. With ordinary capacity and
+perseverance Edward II. might have mastered his enemy; indeed the Comyns
+and Umfravilles and other loyalist barons of Scotland would have carried
+out the business for him, if only he had given them adequate support.
+But he spent what small energy he possessed in a wretched strife of
+chicanery and broken promises with Thomas of Lancaster and his party,
+dismissing and recalling Gaveston according to the exigencies of the
+moment, while he let the Scottish war shift for itself. It must be
+confessed that the conduct of his adversaries was almost as contemptible
+and unpatriotic. They refused to aid in the war, as if it was the
+king's private affair and not that of the nation. And repeatedly, when
+they had Edward at their mercy and might have dictated what terms they
+pleased to him, they failed to rise to the situation. This was
+especially the case in 1311, when the king had completely submitted in
+face of their armed demonstrations. Instead of introducing any general
+scheme of reform they contented themselves with putting him under the
+tutelage of twenty-one "lords ordainers," a baronial committee like that
+which had been appointed by the Provisions of Oxford, fifty years back.
+Edward was not to levy an army, appoint an official, raise a tax, or
+quit the realm without their leave. He had also to swear an obedience to
+a long string of constitutional limitations of his power, and to promise
+to remove many practical grievances of administration. But there were
+two great faults in the proceedings of Thomas of Lancaster and his
+friends. The first was that they ignored the rights of the commons--save
+indeed that they got their ordinances confirmed by parliament--and put
+all power into the hands of a council which represented nothing but the
+baronial interest. The second, and more fatal, was that this council of
+"ordainers," when installed in office, showed energy in nothing save in
+persecuting the friends of Edward and Gaveston; it neglected the general
+welfare of the realm, and in particular made no effort whatever to end
+the Scottish war. It was clearly their duty either to make peace with
+Robert Bruce, or to exert themselves to crush him; but they would do
+neither.
+
+
+  Battle of Bannockburn.
+
+Gaveston's unhappy career came to an end in 1312. After he had been
+twice exiled, and had been twice recalled by the king, he was besieged
+in Scarborough and captured by the earl of Pembroke. He was being
+conducted to London to be tried in parliament, when his two greatest
+enemies, Thomas of Lancaster and Guy, earl of Warwick, took him out of
+the hands of his escort, and beheaded him by the wayside without any
+legal authority or justification. The unhappy king was compelled to
+promise to forget and forgive this offence, and was then restored to a
+certain amount of freedom and power; the barons believed that when freed
+from the influence of Gaveston he would prove a less unsatisfactory
+sovereign. The experiment did not turn out happily. Bruce having at last
+made an almost complete end of the English garrisons within his realm,
+laid siege to Stirling, the last and strongest of them all, in the
+spring of 1313. Compelled by the pressure of public opinion to attempt
+its relief, Edward crossed the border in June 1314, with an army of
+20,000 foot and 4000 men-at-arms. He found Bruce prepared to dispute his
+advance on the hillside of Bannockburn, 2 m. in front of Stirling, in a
+strong position with a stream in front and his flanks covered by rows of
+pitfalls, dug to discomfit the English cavalry. The Scots, as at
+Falkirk, were ranged in solid clumps of pikemen above the burn, with
+only a small reserve of horse. The English king, forgetting his father's
+experiences, endeavoured to ride down the enemy by headlong frontal
+charges of his men-at-arms, and made practically no attempt to use his
+archery to advantage. After several attacks had been beaten off with
+heavy loss, the English host recoiled in disorder and broke up--the
+king, who had kept in the rear all day, was one of the first to move
+off. The flower of his knights had fallen, including his nephew, the
+earl of Gloucester, who was the only one of the great magnates of the
+realm who had shown loyalty to him during the last six years. The Scots
+also made many prisoners; the disaster was complete, and the wrecks of
+the beaten army dispersed before reaching the border. Bruce followed
+them up, and spent the autumn in ravaging Northumberland and Cumberland.
+
+
+  Thomas, earl of Lancaster.
+
+Thomas of Lancaster, who had refused to join in the late campaign, took
+advantage of its results to place the king once more in complete
+tutelage. His household was dismissed, he was bidden to live as best he
+could on an allowance of L10 a day, and all his ministers and officials
+were changed. For more than three years Lancaster practically reigned in
+his cousin's name; it was soon found that the realm got no profit
+thereby, for Earl Thomas, though neither so apathetic nor so frivolous
+as Edward, was not a whit more competent to conduct either war or
+domestic administration. The Scots swept everything before them,
+ravaging the north at their will, and capturing Berwick. They even made
+a great expedition to Ireland, where Bruce's brother Edward was
+proclaimed king by the rebellious Celtic septs, and rode across the
+whole island, exterminating the Anglo-Irish population in many districts
+(1315-1317). But the colonists rallied, and cut to pieces a great Irish
+army at Athenry (1316), while in the next year Roger Mortimer, a
+hard-handed baron of the Welsh march, crossed with reinforcements and
+drove back Edward Bruce into the north. Resuming his advance after a
+space, the rebel king was routed and slain at Dundalk (Oct. 14, 1318)
+and the insurrection died out. But it had had the permanent result of
+weakening the king's grip on the north and west of Ireland, where the
+Englishry had been almost exterminated. From this time forth until the
+reign of Henry VIII. the limit of the country in full subjection to the
+crown was always shrinking, and the Irish chiefs of the inland continued
+to pay less and less attention to orders issued from Dublin or London.
+
+Though the Scottish expedition to Ireland had been beaten off, this was
+not in the least to be ascribed to the credit of Lancaster, who was
+showing the grossest incompetence as an administrator. He could neither
+protect the Border, nor even prevent private civil wars from breaking
+out, not only on the Welsh marches (where they had always been common),
+but even in the heart of England. The most extraordinary symptom of the
+time was a civic revolt at Bristol (1316), where the townsfolk expelled
+the royal judges, and actually stood a siege before they would submit.
+Such revolts of great towns were normal in Germany or Italy, but almost
+unknown on this side of the Channel. All this unrest might well be
+ascribed to Lancaster's want of ability, but he had also to bear--with
+less justice--the discontent caused by two years of famine and
+pestilence. In August 1318 he was removed from power by a league formed
+by Pembroke, Warenne, Arundel and others of the lords ordainers, who put
+a new council in power, and showed themselves somewhat less hostile to
+the king than Earl Thomas had been. Edward was allowed to raise an army
+for the siege of Berwick, and was lying before its walls, when the
+Scots, turning his flank, made a fierce foray into Yorkshire, and routed
+the shire-levy under Archbishop Melton at the battle of Myton. This so
+disheartened the king and the council that controlled him that they
+concluded a two years truce with Robert of Scotland, thus for the first
+time acknowledging him as a regular enemy and no mere rebel (1319).
+
+
+  The Despensers.
+
+  Execution of Lancaster.
+
+The time of comparative quiet that followed was utilized by the king in
+an attempt to win back some of his lost authority. For a short space
+Edward showed more capacity and energy than he had ever been supposed to
+possess. Probably this was due entirely to the fact that he had come
+under the influence of two able men who had won his confidence and had
+promised him revenge for the murdered Gaveston. These were the two Hugh
+Despensers, father and son; the elder was an ambitious baron who hated
+Lancaster, the younger had been made Edward's chamberlain in 1318 and
+had become his secret councillor and constant companion. Finding that
+the king was ready to back them in all their enterprises, the Despensers
+resolved to take the fearful risk of snatching at supreme power by using
+their master's name to oust the barons who were now directing affairs
+from their position. The task was the more easy because Lancaster was at
+open discord with the men who had supplanted him, so that the baronial
+party was divided; while the mishaps of the last six years had convinced
+the nation that other rulers could be as incompetent and as unlucky as
+the king. Indeed, there was a decided reaction in Edward's favour, since
+Lancaster and his friends had been tried and found wanting. Moreover,
+the Despensers felt that they had a great advantage over Gaveston in
+that they were native-born barons of ancient ancestry and good estate:
+the younger Hugh, indeed, through his marriage with the sister of the
+earl of Gloucester who fell at Bannockburn, was one of the greatest
+landowners on the Welsh border: they could not be styled upstarts or
+adventurers. Edward's growing confidence in the Despensers at last
+provoked the notice and jealousy of the dominant party. The barons
+brought up many armed retainers to the parliament of 1321, and forced
+the king to dismiss and to condemn them to exile. But their discomfiture
+was only to last a few months; in the following October a wanton outrage
+and assault on the person and retinue of Edward's queen, Isabella of
+France, by the retainers of Lord Badlesmere, one of Pembroke's
+associates, provoked universal reprobation. The king made it an excuse
+for gathering an army to besiege Badlesmere's castle at Leeds; he took
+it and hanged the garrison. He then declared the Despensers pardoned,
+and invited them to return to England. On this Thomas of Lancaster and
+the more resolute of his associates took arms, but the majority both of
+the baronage and of the commons remained quiescent, public opinion being
+rather with than against the king. The rebels displayed great
+indecision, and Lancaster proved such a bad general that he was finally
+driven into the north and beaten at the battle of Boroughbridge (March
+16, 1322), where his chief associate, the earl of Hereford, was slain.
+Next day he surrendered, with the wreck of his host. But the king, who
+showed himself unexpectedly vindictive, beheaded him at once; three
+other peers, Badlesmere, Clifford and Mowbray, were subsequently
+executed, with a score of knights.
+
+
+  Rebellion of Queen Isabella and Mortimer.
+
+Such severity was most impolitic, and Lancaster was ere long hailed as a
+saint and a martyr. But for the moment the king seemed triumphant; he
+called a parliament which revoked the "ordinances" of 1311, and replaced
+the Despensers in power. For the remaining four years of his reign they
+were omnipotent; but able and unscrupulous as they were, they could not
+solve the problem of successful governance. To their misfortune the
+Scottish war once more recommenced, King Robert having refused to
+continue the truce. The fortune of Edward II. now hung on the chance
+that he might be able to maintain the struggle with success; he raised a
+large army and invaded Lothian, but Bruce refused a pitched battle, and
+drove him off with loss by devastating the countryside around him.
+Thereupon Edward, to the deep humiliation of the people, sued for
+another cessation of hostilities, and obtained it by conceding all that
+Robert asked, save the formal acknowledgment of his kingly title. But
+peace did not suffice to end Edward's troubles; he dropped back into his
+usual apathy, and the Despensers showed themselves so harsh and greedy
+that the general indignation only required a new leader in order to take
+once more the form of open insurrection. The end came in an unexpected
+fashion. Edward had quarrelled with his wife Isabella, who complained
+that he made her the "handmaid of the Despensers," and excluded her from
+her proper place and honour. Yet in 1325 he was unwise enough to send
+her over to France on an embassy to her brother Charles IV., and to
+allow his eldest son Edward, prince of Wales, to follow her to Paris.
+Having the boy in her power, and being surrounded by the exiles of
+Lancaster's faction, she set herself to plot against her husband, and
+opened up communications with the discontented in England. It was in
+vain that Edward besought her to return and to restore him his son; she
+came back at last, but at the head of an army commanded by Roger, Lord
+Mortimer, the most prominent survivor of the party of Earl Thomas, with
+whom she had formed an adulterous connexion which they for some time
+succeeded in keeping secret.
+
+
+  Deposition and murder of Edward II.
+
+When she landed with her son in Essex in September 1326, she was at once
+joined by Henry of Lancaster, the heir of Earl Thomas, and most of the
+baronage of the eastern counties. Even the king's half-brother, the earl
+of Norfolk, rallied to her banner. Edward and the Despensers, after
+trying in vain to raise an army, fled into the west. They were all
+caught by their pursuers; the two Despensers were executed--the one at
+Bristol, the other at Hereford. Several more of Edward's scanty band of
+friends--the earl of Arundel and the bishop of Exeter and others--were
+also slain. Their unhappy master was forced to abdicate on the 20th of
+January 1327, his fourteen-year old son being proclaimed king in his
+stead. He was allowed to survive in close prison some eight months
+longer, but when his robust constitution defied all attempts to kill him
+by privations, he was murdered by the orders of the queen and Mortimer
+at Berkeley Castle on the 21st of September.
+
+
+  Regency of Isabella and Mortimer.
+
+The three years regency of Isabella, during the minority of Edward III.,
+formed a disgraceful episode in the history of England. She was as much
+the tool of Mortimer as her husband had been the tool of the Despensers,
+and their relations became gradually evident to the whole nation. All
+posts of dignity and emolument were kept for their personal adherents,
+and a new and formidable dignity was conferred on Mortimer himself, when
+he was made both justiciar of the principality of Wales, and also earl
+of March, in which lay both his own broad lands and the estates of
+Despenser and Arundel, which he had shamelessly appropriated. It is
+surprising that the adulterous pair succeeded in maintaining themselves
+in power for so long, since the ignominy of the situation was evident.
+They were even able to quell the first attempt at a reaction, by seizing
+and beheading Edmund, earl of Kent, the late king's half-brother, who
+was betrayed while organizing a plot for their destruction. The one
+politic act of Mortimer's administration, the conclusion of a permanent
+peace with Scotland by acknowledging Bruce as king (1328), was not one
+which made him more popular. The people called it "the shameful peace of
+Northampton," and firmly believed that he had been bribed by the Scots.
+
+
+  Edward III.
+
+Yet Isabella and her paramour held on to power for two years after the
+peace, and were only overthrown by a blow from an unexpected quarter.
+When the young king had reached the age of eighteen he began to
+understand the disgraceful nature of his own situation. Having secured
+promise of aid from Henry of Lancaster, his cousin, and other barons, he
+executed a _coup de main_, and seized Mortimer in his chamber at
+midnight. The queen was also put under guard till a parliament could be
+called. It met, and at the king's demand passed sentence on the earl for
+the murder of Edward II. and other crimes. He was hanged at Tyburn (Nov.
+1330); the queen suffered nothing worse than complete exclusion from
+power, and lived for more than twenty years in retirement on the manors
+of her dowry.
+
+Edward III., who thus commenced his reign ere he was out of his boyhood,
+was, as might have been foretold from his prompt action against
+Mortimer, a prince of great vigour and enterprise. He showed none of his
+father's weakness and much of his grandfather's capacity. He fell short
+of Edward I. in steadiness of character and organizing power, but
+possessed all his military capacity and his love of work. Unfortunately
+for England his ambition was to be the mirror of chivalry rather than a
+model administrator. He took up and abandoned great enterprises with
+equal levity; he was reckless in the spending of money; and in times of
+trouble he was careless of constitutional precedent, and apt to push his
+prerogative to extremes. Yet like Edward I. he was popular with his
+subjects, who pardoned him much in consideration of his knightly
+virtues, his courage, his ready courtesy and his love of adventure. In
+most respects he was a perfect exponent of the ideals and foibles of his
+age, and when he broke a promise or repudiated a debt he was but
+displaying the less satisfactory side of the habitual morality of the
+14th century the chivalry of which was often deficient in the less showy
+virtues. With all his faults Edward during his prime was a capable and
+vigorous ruler; and it was not without reason that not England only but
+all western Europe looked up to him as the greatest king of his
+generation.
+
+
+  Edward III. invades Scotland.
+
+His early years were specially fortunate, as his rule contrasted in the
+most favourable way with that of his infamous mother and his
+contemptible father. The ministers whom he substituted for the creatures
+of Mortimer were capable, if not talented administrators. He did much to
+restore the internal peace of the realm, and put down the local
+disorders which had been endemic for the last twenty years. Moreover,
+when the war with Scotland recommenced he gave the English a taste of
+victory such as they had not enjoyed since Falkirk. Robert Bruce was now
+dead and his throne was occupied by the young David II., whose factious
+nobles were occupied in civil strife when, in 1332, a pretender made a
+snatch at the Scottish throne. This was Edward, the son of John Baliol,
+an adventurous baron who collected all the "disinherited" Scots lords,
+the members of the old English faction who had been expelled by Bruce,
+and invaded the realm at their head. He beat the regent Mar at the
+battle of Dupplin, seized Perth and Edinburgh, and crowned himself at
+Scone. But knowing that his seat was precarious he did homage to the
+English king, and made him all the promises that his father had given to
+Edward I. The temptation was too great for the young king to refuse; he
+accepted the homage, and offered the aid of his arms. It was soon
+required, for Baliol was ere long expelled from Scotland. Edward won the
+battle of Halidon Hill (July 19, 1333)--where he displayed considerable
+tactical skill--captured Berwick, and reconquered a considerable portion
+of Scotland for his vassal. Unfortunately for himself he made the
+mistake of requiring too much from Baliol--forcing him to cede Lothian,
+Tweeddale and the larger part of Galloway, and to promise a tribute.
+These terms so irritated the Scots, who had shown signs of submission up
+to this moment, that they refused to accept the pretender, and kept up a
+long guerilla warfare which ended in his final expulsion. But the
+fighting was all on Scottish ground, and Edward repeatedly made
+incursions, showy if not effective, into the very heart of the northern
+realm; on one occasion he reached Inverness unopposed. He held Perth
+till 1339, Edinburgh till 1341, and was actually in possession of much
+Scottish territory when his attention was called off from this minor war
+to the greater question of the struggle with France. Meanwhile he had
+acquired no small military reputation, had collected a large body of
+professional soldiers whose experience was to be invaluable to him in
+the continental war, and had taught his army the new tactics which were
+to win Crecy and Poitiers. For the devices employed against the Scottish
+"schiltrons" of pikemen at Dupplin and Halidon, were the same as those
+which won all the great battles of the Hundred Years' War--the
+combination of archery, not with cavalry (the old system of Hastings and
+Falkirk), but with dismounted men-at-arms. The nation, meanwhile
+prosperous, not vexed by overmuch taxation, and proud of its young king,
+was ready and willing to follow him into any adventure that he might
+indicate.
+
+
+IV. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (1337-1453)
+
+  Causes of the Hundred Years' War.
+
+Wars between England and France had been many, since William the
+Conqueror first linked their fortunes together by adding his English
+kingdom to his Norman duchy. They were bound to recur as long as the
+kings who ruled on this side of the Channel were possessed of
+continental dominions, which lay as near, or nearer, to their hearts
+than their insular realm. While the kingdom of France was weak, monarchs
+like Henry II. and Richard I. might dream of extending their transmarine
+possessions to the detriment of their suzerain at Paris. When France had
+grown strong, under Philip Augustus, the house of Plantagenet still
+retained a broad territory in Gascony and Guienne, and the house of
+Capet could not but covet the possession of the largest surviving feudal
+appanage which marred the solidarity of their kingdom. There had been a
+long interval of peace in the 13th century, because Henry III. of
+England was weak, and Louis IX. of France an idealist, much more set on
+forwarding the welfare of Christendom than the expansion of France. But
+the inevitable struggle had recommenced with the accession of the
+unscrupulous Philip IV. Its cause was simple; France was incomplete as
+long as the English king ruled at Bordeaux and Bayonne, and far up the
+valleys of the Garonne and the Adour. From 1293 onward Philip and his
+sons had been striving to make an end of the power of the Plantagenets
+in Aquitaine, sometimes by the simple argument of war, more frequently
+by the insidious process of encroaching on ducal rights, summoning
+litigants to Paris, and encouraging local magnates and cities alike to
+play off their allegiance to their suzerain against that to their
+immediate lord. Both in the time of Edward II. and in that of his son
+active violence had several times been called in to aid legal chicanery.
+Fortunately for the duke of Guienne the majority of his subjects had no
+desire to become Frenchmen; the Gascons felt no national sympathy with
+their neighbours of the north, and the towns in especial were linked to
+England by close ties of commerce, and had no wish whatever to break off
+their allegiance to the house of Plantagenet. The English rule, if often
+weak, had never proved tyrannical, and they had a great dread of French
+taxes and French officialism. But there were always individuals, more
+numerous among the noblesse than among the citizens, whose private
+interests impelled them to seek the aid of France.
+
+The root of the Hundred Years' War, now just about to commence, must be
+sought in the affairs of Guienne, and not in any of the other causes
+which complicated and obscured the outbreak of hostilities. These,
+however, were sufficiently important in themselves. The most obvious was
+the aid which Philip VI. had given to the exiled David Bruce, when he
+was driven out of Scotland by Edward and his ally Baliol. The English
+king replied by welcoming and harbouring Robert of Artois, a cousin whom
+Philip VI. had expelled from France. He also made alliances with several
+of the dukes and counts of the Netherlands, and with the emperor Louis
+the Bavarian, obviously with the intention of raising trouble for France
+on her northern and eastern frontiers.
+
+
+  Beginning of the war.
+
+It was Philip, however, who actually began the war, by declaring Guienne
+and the other continental dominions of Edward III. forfeited to the
+French crown, and sending out a fleet which ravaged the south coast of
+England in 1337. In return Edward raised a claim to the throne of
+France, not that he had any serious intention of pressing it--for
+throughout his reign he always showed himself ready to barter it away in
+return for sufficient territorial gains--but because such a claim was in
+several ways a useful asset to him both in war and in diplomacy. It was
+first turned to account when the Flemings, who had scruples about
+opposing their liege lord the king of France, found it convenient to
+discover that, since Edward was the real king and not Philip, their
+allegiance was due in the same direction whither their commercial
+interests drew them. Led by the great demagogue dictator, Jacob van
+Artevelde, they became the mainstay of the English party in the
+Netherlands.
+
+
+  Edward III. and the French crown.
+
+Edward's claim--such as it was--rested on the assertion that his mother,
+Isabella, was nearer of kin to her brother Charles IV., the last king of
+the main line of the house of Capet, than was Charles's cousin Philip of
+Valois. The French lawyers ruled that heiresses could not succeed to the
+crown themselves, but Edward pleaded that they could nevertheless
+transmit their right to their sons. He found it convenient to forget
+that the elder brother of Charles IV., King Louis X., had left a
+daughter, whose son, the king of Navarre, had on this theory a title
+preferable to his own. This prince, he said, had not been born at the
+time of his grandfather's death, and so lost any rights that might have
+passed to him had he been alive at that time. A far more fatal bar to
+Edward's claim than the existence of Charles of Navarre was the fact
+that the peers of France, when summoned to decide the succession
+question nine years before, had decided that Philip of Valois had the
+sole valid claim to the crown, and that Edward had then done homage to
+him for Guienne. If he pleaded that in 1328 he had been the mere tool of
+his mother and Mortimer, he could be reminded of the unfortunate fact
+that in 1331, after he had crushed Mortimer, and taken the power into
+his own hands, he had deliberately renewed his oath to King Philip.
+
+Edward's claim to the French crown embittered the strife in a most
+unnecessary fashion. It was an appeal to every discontented French
+vassal to become a traitor under a plausible show of loyalty, and from
+first to last many such persons utilized it. It also gave Edward an
+excuse for treating every loyal Frenchman as guilty of treason, and, to
+his shame, he did not always refrain from employing such a discreditable
+device. Yet, as has been already said, he showed his consciousness of
+the fallacy of his claim by offering to barter it again and again during
+the course of the war for land or money. But he finally passed on the
+wretched fiction as a heritage of his descendants, to cause untold woes
+in the 15th century. It is seldom in the world's history that a hollow
+legal device such as this has had such long enduring and deplorable
+results.
+
+
+  Battle of Sluys.
+
+In the commencement of his continental war Edward took little profit
+either from his assumption of the French royal title, or from the
+lengthy list of princes of the Low Countries whom he enrolled beneath
+his banner. His two land-campaigns of 1339 and 1340 led to no victories
+or conquests, but cost enormous sums of money. The Netherland allies
+brought large contingents and took high pay from the king, but they
+showed neither energy nor enthusiasm in his cause. When Philip of Valois
+refused battle in the open, and confined his operations to defending
+fortified towns, or stockading himself in entranched camps, the allies
+drifted off, leaving the king with his English troops in force too small
+to accomplish anything. The sole achievement of the early years of the
+war which was of any profit to Edward or his realm was the great naval
+triumph of Sluys (June 24, 1340), which gave the English the command of
+the sea for the next twenty years. The French king had built or hired an
+enormous fleet, and with it threatened to invade England. Seeing that he
+could do nothing on land while his communications with the Low Countries
+were endangered by the existence of this armada, Edward levied every
+ship that was to be found, and brought the enemy to action in the
+Flemish harbour of Sluys. After a day of desperate hand to hand
+fighting--for the vessels grappled and the whole matter was settled by
+boarding--the French fleet was annihilated. Henceforth England was safe
+from coast raids, could conduct her commerce with Flanders without
+danger, and could strike without difficulty at any point of the French
+littoral. But it was not for some years that Edward utilized the
+advantage that Sluys had given him. As long as he persevered in the
+attempt to conduct the invasion of the northern frontier of France he
+achieved nothing.
+
+
+  Financial crisis. Trial of Archbishop Stratford.
+
+Such schemes were finally abandoned simply because the king discovered
+that his allies were worthless and that his money was all spent. On his
+return from Flanders in 1340 he became involved in an angry controversy
+with his ministers, whom he accused, quite unjustly, of wasting his
+revenue and wrecking his campaign thereby. He imprisoned some of them,
+and wished to try his late chancellor, Archbishop Stratford, for
+embezzlement, in the court of the exchequer. But the primate contended
+very vigorously for the right to be tried before his peers, and since
+the king could get no subsidies from his parliament till he acknowledged
+the justice of this claim, he was forced to concede it. Stratford was
+acquitted--the king's thriftlessness and not the chancellor's
+maladministration had emptied the treasury. Edward drifted on along the
+path to financial ruin till he actually went bankrupt in 1345, when he
+repudiated his debts, and ruined several great Italian banking houses,
+who had been unwise enough to continue lending him money to the last.
+The Flemings were also hard hit by this collapse of the king's credit,
+and very naturally lost their enthusiasm for the English alliance. Van
+Artevelde, its chief advocate, was murdered by his own townsmen in this
+same year.
+
+
+  War in Brittany.
+
+The second act of the Hundred Years' War, after King Edward had
+abandoned in despair his idea of invading France from the side of the
+Netherlands, was fought out in another quarter--the duchy of Brittany.
+Here a war of succession had broken out in which (oddly enough) Edward
+took up the cause of the pretender who had male descent, while Philip
+supported the one who represented a female line--each thus backing the
+theory of heritage by which his rival claimed the throne of France. By
+espousing the cause of John of Montfort Edward obtained a good foothold
+on the flank of France, for many of the Breton fortresses were put into
+his hands. But he failed to win any decisive advantage thereby over King
+Philip. It was not till 1346, when he adopted the new policy of trusting
+nothing to allies, and striking at the heart of France with a purely
+English army, that Edward found the fortune of war turning in his
+favour.
+
+
+  Edward invades France.
+
+  Battle of Crecy.
+
+  Capture of Calais.
+
+In this year he landed in Normandy, where the English banner had not
+been seen since the days of King John, and executed a destructive raid
+through the duchy, and up the Seine, till he almost reached the gates of
+Paris. This brought out the king of France against him, with a mighty
+host, before which Edward retreated northward, apparently intending to
+retire to Flanders. But after crossing the Somme he halted at Crecy,
+near Abbeville, and offered battle to the pursuing enemy. He fought
+relying on the tactics which had been tried against the Scots at Dupplin
+and Halidon Hill, drawing up his army with masses of dismounted
+men-at-arms flanked on either side by archery. This array proved as
+effective against the disorderly charges of the French noblesse as it
+had been against the heavy columns of the Scottish pikemen. Fourteen
+times the squadrons of King Philip came back to the charge; but mowed
+down by the arrow-shower, they seldom could get to handstrokes with the
+English knights, and at last rode off the field in disorder. This
+astonishing victory over fourfold numbers was no mere chivalrous feat of
+arms, it had the solid result of giving the victors a foothold in
+northern France. For Edward took his army to beleaguer Calais, and after
+blockading it for nearly a year forced it to surrender. King Philip,
+after his experience at Crecy, refused to fight again in order to raise
+the siege. From henceforth the English possessed a secure landing-place
+in northern France, at the most convenient point possible, immediately
+opposite Dover. They held it for over two hundred years, to their own
+inestimable advantage in every recurring war.
+
+
+  Battle of Neville's Cross.
+
+The years 1345-1347 saw the zenith of King Edward's prosperity; in them
+fell not only his own triumphs at Crecy and Calais, but a victory at
+Auberoche in Perigord won by his cousin Henry of Lancaster, which
+restored many long-lost regions of Guienne to the English suzerainty
+(Oct. 21, 1345), and another and more famous battle in the far north. At
+Neville's Cross, near Durham, the lords of the Border defeated and
+captured David Bruce, king of Scotland (Oct. 17, 1346). The loss of
+their king and the destruction of a fine army took the heart out of the
+resistance of the Scots, who for many years to come could give their
+French allies little assistance.
+
+
+  Truce with France. The Black Death.
+
+In 1347 Edward made a short truce with King Philip: even after his late
+victories he felt his strength much strained, his treasury being empty,
+and his army exhausted by the year-long siege of Calais. But he would
+have returned to the struggle without delay had it not been for the
+dreadful calamity of the "Black Death," which fell upon France and
+England, as upon all Europe, in the years 1348-1349. The disease, on
+which the 14th century bestowed this name, was the bubonic plague, still
+familiar in the East. After devastating western Asia, it reached the
+Mediterranean ports of Europe in 1347, and spread across the continent
+in a few months. It was said that in France, Italy and England a third
+of the population perished, and though this estimate may be somewhat
+exaggerated, local records of unimpeachable accuracy show that it cannot
+be very far from the truth. The bishop's registers of the diocese of
+Norwich show that many parishes had three and some four successive
+vicars admitted in eighteen months. In the manor rolls it is not
+uncommon to find whole families swept away, so that no heir can be
+detected to their holdings. Among the monastic orders, whose crowded
+common life seems to have been particularly favourable to the spread of
+the plague, there were cases where a whole community, from the abbot
+down to the novices, perished. The upper classes are said to have
+suffered less than the poor; but the king's daughter Joan and two
+archbishops of Canterbury were among the victims. The long continuance
+of the visitation, which as a rule took six or nine months to work out
+its virulence in any particular spot, seems to have cowed and
+demoralized society. Though it first spread from the ports of Bristol
+and Weymouth in the summer of 1348, it had not finished its destruction
+in northern England till 1350, and only spread into Scotland in the
+summer of that year.
+
+
+  Economic and social effects of the Black Death.
+
+When the worst of the plague was over, and panic had died down, it was
+found that the social conditions of England had been considerably
+affected by the visitation. The condition of the realm had been stable
+and prosperous during the earlier years of Edward III., the drain on its
+resources caused by heavy war-taxation having been more than compensated
+by the increased wealth that arose from growing commerce and developing
+industries. The victory of Sluys, which gave England the command of the
+seas, had been a great landmark in the economic no less than in the
+naval history of this island. But the basis of society was shaken by the
+Black Death; the kingdom was still essentially an agricultural
+community, worked on the manorial system; and the sudden disappearance
+of a third of the labouring hands by which that system had been
+maintained threw everything into disorder. The landowners found
+thousands of the crofts on which their villeins had been wont to dwell
+vacant, and could not fill them with new tenants. Even if they exacted
+the full rigour of service from the survivors, they could not get their
+broad demesne lands properly tilled. The landless labourers, who might
+have been hired to supply the deficiency, were so reduced in numbers
+that they could command, if free competition prevailed, double and
+triple rates of payment, compared with their earnings in the days before
+the plague. Hence there arose, almost at once, a bitter strife between
+the lords of manors and the labouring class, both landholding and
+landless. The lords wished to exact all possible services from the
+former, and to pay only the old two or three pence a day to the latter.
+The villeins, as hard hit as their masters, resented the tightening of
+old duties, which in some cases had already been commuted for small
+money rents during the prosperous years preceding the plague. The
+landless men formed combinations, disputed with the landlords, and asked
+and often got twice as much as the old rates, despite of the murmurings
+of the employer.
+
+
+  The Statute of Labourers.
+
+After a short experience of these difficulties the king and council,
+whose sympathies were naturally with the landholders, issued an
+ordinance forbidding workmen of any kind to demand more than they had
+been wont to receive before 1348. This was followed up by the famous
+Statute of Labourers of 1351, which fixed rates for all wages
+practically identical with those of the times before the Black Death.
+Those workmen who refused to accept them were to be imprisoned, while
+employers who went behind the backs of their fellows and secretly paid
+higher sums were to be punished by heavy fines. Later additions to the
+statute were devised to terrorize the labourer, by adding stripes and
+branding to his punishment, if he still remained recalcitrant or
+absconded. And landowners were empowered to seize all vagrant
+able-bodied men, and to compel them to work at the statutory wages. As
+some compensation for the low pay of the workmen, parliament tried to
+bring down the price of commodities to their former level, for (like
+labour) all manufactured articles had gone up immensely in value.
+
+Thirty years of friction followed, while the parliament and the ruling
+classes tried in a spasmodic way to enforce the statute, and the
+peasantry strove to evade it. It proved impossible to carry out the
+scheme; the labourers were too many and too cunning to be crushed. If
+driven over hard they absconded to the towns, where hands were needed as
+much as in the countryside, or migrated to districts where the statute
+was laxly administered. Gradually the landowners discovered that the
+only practical way out of their difficulties was to give up the old
+custom of working the manorial demesne by the forced labour of their
+villeins, and to cut it up into farms which were rented out to free
+tenants, and cultivated by them. In the course of two generations the
+"farmers" who paid rent for these holdings became more and more
+numerous, and demesne land tilled by villein-service grew more and more
+rare. But enough old-fashioned landlords remained to keep up the
+struggle with the peasants to the end of the 14th century and beyond,
+and the number of times that the Statute of Labourers was re-enacted and
+recast was enormous. Nevertheless the struggle turned gradually to the
+advantage of the labourer, and ended in the creation of the sturdy and
+prosperous farming yeomanry who were the strength of the realm for
+several centuries to come.
+
+
+  Renewal of the war with France.
+
+  Battle of Poitiers.
+
+One immediate consequence of the "Black Death" was the renewal of the
+truce between England and France by repeated agreements which lasted
+from 1347 to 1355. During this interval Philip of France died, in 1350,
+and was succeeded by his son John. The war did not entirely cease, but
+became local and spasmodic. In Brittany the factions which supported the
+two claimants to the ducal title were so embittered that they never laid
+down their arms. In 1351 the French noblesse of Picardy, apparently
+without their master's knowledge or consent, made an attempt to surprise
+Calais, which was beaten off with some difficulty by King Edward in
+person. There was also constant bickering on the borders of Guienne. But
+the main forces on both sides were not brought into action till the
+series of truces ran out in 1355. From that time onward the English took
+the offensive with great vigour. Edward, prince of Wales, ravaged
+Languedoc as far as the Mediterranean, while his younger brother John of
+Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, executed a less ambitious raid in Picardy and
+Artois. In the south this campaign marked real progress, not mere
+objectless plunder, for it was followed by the reconquest of great
+districts in Perigord and the Agenais, which had been lost to England
+since the 13th century. A similar double invasion of France led to even
+greater results in the following year, 1356. While Lancaster landed in
+Normandy, and with the aid of local rebels occupied the greater part of
+the peninsula of the Cotentin, the prince of Wales accomplished greater
+things on the borders of Aquitaine. After executing a great circular
+sweep through Perigord, Limousin and Berry, he was returning to Bordeaux
+laden with plunder, when he was intercepted by the king of France near
+Poitiers. The battle that followed was the most astonishing of all the
+English victories during the Hundred Years' War. The odds against the
+prince were far heavier than those of Crecy, but by taking up a strong
+position and using the national tactics which combined the use of
+archery and dismounted men-at-arms, the younger Edward not merely beat
+off his assailants in a long defensive fight, but finally charged out
+upon them, scattered them, and took King John prisoner (Sept. 19, 1356).
+
+
+  The English ravage France.
+
+  Peace of Bretigny.
+
+This fortunate capture put an enormous advantage in the hands of the
+English; for John, a facile and selfish prince, was ready to buy his
+freedom by almost any concessions. He signed two successive treaties
+which gave such advantageous terms to Edward III. that the dauphin
+Charles, who was acting as regent, and the French states-general refused
+to confirm them. This drove the English king to put still further
+pressure on the enemy; in 1359 he led out from Calais the largest
+English army that had been seen during the war, devastated all northern
+France as far as Reims and the borders of Burgundy, and then--continuing
+the campaign through the heart of the winter--presented himself before
+the gates of Paris and ravaged the Ile de France. This brought the
+regent Charles and his counsellors to the verge of despair; they
+yielded, and on the 8th of May 1360, signed an agreement at Bretigny
+near Chartres, by which nearly all King Edward's demands were granted.
+These preliminaries were ratified by the definitive peace of Calais
+(Oct. 24, 1360), which brought the first stage of the Hundred Years' War
+to an end.
+
+By this treaty King Edward formally gave up his claim to the French
+throne, which he had always intended to use merely as an asset for
+barter, and was to receive in return not only a sum of 3,000,000 gold
+crowns for King John's personal ransom, but an immense cession of
+territory which--in southern France at least--almost restored the old
+boundaries of the time of Henry II. The duchy of Aquitaine was
+reconstructed, so as to include not only the lands that Edward had
+inherited, and his recent conquests, but all Poitou, Limousin,
+Angoumois, Quercy, Rouergue and Saintonge--a full half of France south
+of the Loire. This vast duchy the English king bestowed not long after
+on his son Edward, the victor of Poitiers, who reigned there as a
+vassal-sovereign, owing homage to England but administering his
+possessions in his own right. In northern France, Calais and the county
+of Guines, and also the isolated county of Ponthieu, the inheritance of
+the wife of Edward I., were ceded to the English crown. All these
+regions, it must be noted, were to be held for the future free of any
+homage or acknowledgment of allegiance to an overlord, "in perpetuity,
+and in the manner in which the kings of France had held them." There was
+to be an end to the power of the courts of Paris to harass the duke of
+Aquitaine, by using the rights of the suzerain to interfere with the
+vassal's subjects. It was hoped that for the future the insidious legal
+warfare which had been used with such effect by the French kings would
+be effectually prevented.
+
+
+  Submission of David of Scotland.
+
+To complete the picture of the triumph of Edward III. at this, the
+culminating point of his reign, it must be mentioned that some time
+before the peace of Calais he had made terms with Scotland. David Bruce
+was to cede Roxburgh and Berwick, but to keep the rest of his dominions
+on condition of paying a ransom of 100,000 marks. This sum could never
+be raised, and Edward always had it in his power to bring pressure to
+bear on the king of Scots by demanding the instalments, which were
+always in arrear. David gave no further trouble; indeed he became so
+friendly to England that he offered to proclaim Lionel of Clarence,
+Edward's second son, as his heir, and would have done so but for the
+vigorous opposition of his parliament.
+
+
+  Economic progress in England.
+
+The English people had expected that a sort of Golden Age would follow
+the conclusion of the peace with Scotland and France. Freed from the
+war-taxes which had vexed them for the last twenty years, they would be
+able to repair the ravages of the Black Death, and to develop the
+commercial advantages which had been won at Sluys, and secured by the
+dominion of the seas which they had held ever since. In some respects
+this expectation was not deceived; the years that followed 1360 seem to
+have been prosperous at home, despite the continued friction arising
+from the Statute of Labourers. The towns would seem to have fared better
+than the countryside, partly indeed at its expense, for the discontented
+peasantry migrated in large numbers to the centres of population where
+newly-developed manufactures were calling for more hands. The weaving
+industry, introduced into the eastern counties by the king's invitation
+to Flemish settlers, was making England something more than a mere
+producer of raw material for export. The seaports soon recovered from
+their losses in the Black Death, and English shipping was beginning to
+appear in the distant seas of Portugal and the Baltic. Nothing
+illustrates the growth of English wealth better than the fact that the
+kingdom had, till the time of Edward III., contrived to conduct all its
+commerce with a currency of small silver, but that within thirty years
+of his introduction of a gold coinage in 1343, the English "noble" was
+being struck in enormous quantities. It invaded all the markets of
+western Europe, and became the prototype of the gold issues of the
+Netherlands, Scotland, and even parts of Germany. It is in the latter
+years of Edward III. that we find the first forerunners of that class of
+English merchant princes who were to be such a marked feature in the
+succeeding reigns. The Poles of Hull, whose descendants rose in three
+generations to ducal rank, were the earliest specimens of their class.
+The poet Chaucer may serve as a humbler example of the rise of the
+burgher class--the son of a vintner, he became the father of a knight,
+and the ancestor, through female descents, of many baronial families.
+The second half of the 14th century is the first period in English
+history in which we can detect a distinct rise in the importance of the
+commercial as opposed to the landed interest. The latter, hard hit by
+the manorial difficulties that followed the plague of 1348-1349, found
+their rents stationary or even diminishing, while the price of the
+commodities from which the former made their wealth had permanently
+risen. As to intellectual vigour, the age that produced two minds of
+such marked originality in different spheres as Wycliffe and Chaucer
+must not be despised, even if it failed to carry out all the promise of
+the 13th century.
+
+
+  English rule in France.
+
+For a few years after the peace of 1360 the political influence of
+Edward III. in western Europe seemed to be supreme. France, prostrated
+by the results of the English raids, by peasant revolts, and municipal
+and baronial turbulence, did not begin to recover strength till the
+thriftless king John had died (1364) and had been succeeded by his
+capable if unchivalrous son Charles V. Yet the state of the English
+dominions on the continent was not satisfactory; in building up the vast
+duchy of Aquitaine Edward had made a radical mistake. Instead of
+contenting himself with creating a homogeneous Gascon state, which might
+have grown together into a solid unit, he had annexed broad regions
+which had been for a century and a half united to France, and had been
+entirely assimilated to her. From the first Poitou, Quercy, Rouergue and
+the Limousin chafed beneath the English yoke; the noblesse in especial
+found the comparatively orderly and constitutional governance to which
+they were subjected most intolerable. They waited for the first
+opportunity to revolt, and meanwhile murmured against every act of their
+duke, the prince of Wales, though he did his best to behave as a
+gracious sovereign.
+
+
+  The Black Prince in Spain.
+
+The younger Edward ended by losing his health and his wealth in an
+unnecessary war beyond the Pyrenees. He was persuaded by the exiled
+Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, to restore him to the throne which he
+had forfeited by his misgovernment. In 1367 he gathered a great army,
+entered Castile, defeated the usurper Henry of Trastamara at the battle
+of Najera, and restored his ally. But Peter, when once re-established as
+king, forgot his obligations and left the prince burdened with the whole
+expense of the campaign. Edward left Spain with a discontented and
+unpaid army, and had himself contracted the seeds of a disease which was
+to leave him an invalid for the rest of his life. To pay his debts he
+was obliged to resort to heavy taxation in Aquitaine, which gave his
+discontented subjects in Poitou and the other outlying districts an
+excuse for the rebellion that they had been for some time meditating. In
+1368 his greatest vassals, the counts of Armagnac, Perigord and
+Comminges, displayed their disloyalty by appealing to the king of France
+as their suzerain against the legality of Edward's imposts. The French
+overlordship had been formally abolished by the treaty of 1360, so this
+appeal amounted to open rebellion. And when Charles V. accepted it, and
+cited Edward to appear before his parlement to answer the complaints of
+the counts, he was challenging England to renewed war. He found a
+preposterous excuse for repudiating the treaty by which he was bound, by
+declaring that some details had been omitted in its formal ratification.
+
+
+  Renewal of the war with France.
+
+The Hundred Years' War, therefore, broke out again in 1369, after an
+interval of nine years. Edward III. assumed once more the title of king
+of France, while Charles V., in the usual style, declared that the whole
+duchy of Aquitaine had been forfeited for treason and rebellion on the
+part of its present holder. The second period of war, which was to last
+till the death of the English king, and for some years after, was
+destined to prove wholly disastrous to England. All the conditions had
+changed since 1360. Edward, though only in his fifty-seventh year, was
+entering into a premature and decrepit old age, in which he became the
+prey of unworthy favourites, male and female. The men of the 14th
+century, who commanded armies and executed _coups d'etat_ at eighteen,
+were often worn out by sixty. The guidance of the war should have fallen
+into the hands of his eldest son, the victor of Poitiers and Najera, but
+the younger Edward had never recovered from the fatigues of his Spanish
+campaign; his disease having developed into a form of dropsy, he had
+become a confirmed invalid and could no longer take the field. The
+charge of the military operations of the English armies had passed to
+John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, the king's younger son, a prince far
+inferior in capacity to his father and brother. Though not destitute of
+good impulses Lancaster was hasty, improvident and obstinate; he was
+unfortunate in his choice of friends, for he allied himself to all his
+father's unscrupulous dependents. He was destitute of military skill,
+and wrecked army after army by attempting hard tasks at inappropriate
+times and by mistaken methods. Despite of all checks and disasters he
+remained active, self-confident and ambitious, and, since he had
+acquired a complete control over his father, he had ample opportunity to
+mismanage the political and military affairs of England.
+
+
+  Character of the war.
+
+Lancaster's strategy, in the early years of the renewed war, consisted
+mainly of attempts to wear down the force of France by devastating
+raids; he hoped to provoke the enemy to battle by striking at the heart
+of his realm, but never achieved his purpose. Warned by the disasters of
+Crecy and Poitiers, Charles V. and his great captain Bertrand du
+Guesclin would never commit themselves to an engagement in the open
+field. They let the English invaders pass by, garrisoning the towns but
+abandoning the countryside. Since Lancaster, in his great circular
+raids, had never the leisure to sit down to a siege--generally a matter
+of long months in the 14th century--he repeatedly crossed France leaving
+a train of ruined villages behind him, but having accomplished nothing
+else save the exhaustion of his own army. For the French always followed
+him at a cautious distance, cutting off his stragglers, and restricting
+the area of his ravages by keeping flying columns all around his path.
+But while the duke was executing useless marches across France, the
+outlying lands of Aquitaine were falling away, one after the other, to
+the enemy. The limit of the territory which still remained loyal was
+ever shrinking, and what was once lost was hardly ever regained. Almost
+the only reconquest made was that of the city of Limoges, which was
+stormed in September 1370 by the troops of the Black Prince, who rose
+from his sick-bed to strike his last blow at the rebels. His success did
+almost as much harm as good to his cause, for the deliberate sack of the
+city was carried out with such ruthless severity that it roused wild
+wrath rather than terror in the neighbouring regions. Next spring the
+prince returned to England, feeling himself physically unable to
+administer or defend his duchy any longer.
+
+
+  English reverses.
+
+The greater part of Poitou, Quercy and Rouergue had been lost, and the
+English cause was everywhere losing ground, when a new danger was
+developed. Since Sluys the enemy had never disputed the command of the
+seas; but in 1372 a Spanish fleet joined the French, and destroyed off
+La Rochelle a squadron which was bringing reinforcements for Guienne.
+The disaster was the direct result of the campaign of Najera--for Henry
+of Trastamara, who had long since dethroned and slain his brother Peter
+the Cruel, remained a consistent foe of England. From this date onward
+Franco-Spanish fleets were perpetually to be met not only in the Bay of
+Biscay but in the Channel; they made the voyage to Bordeaux unsafe, and
+often executed descents on the shores of Kent, Sussex, Devon and
+Cornwall. It was to no effect that, in the year after the battle of La
+Rochelle, Lancaster carried out the last, the most expensive, and the
+most fruitless of his great raids across France. He marched from Calais
+to Bordeaux, inflicted great misery on Picardy, Champagne and Berry, and
+left half his army dead by the way.
+
+This did not prevent Bertrand du Guesclin from expelling from his
+dominions John of Brittany, the one ally whom King Edward possessed in
+France, or from pursuing a consistent career of petty conquest in the
+heart of Aquitaine. By 1374 little was left of the great possessions
+which the English had held beyond the Channel save Calais, and the coast
+slip from Bordeaux to Bayonne, which formed the only loyal part of the
+duchy of Guienne. Next year King Edward sued for peace--he failed to
+obtain it, finding the French terms too hard for acceptance--but a
+truce at least was signed at Bruges (Jan. 1375) which endured till a few
+weeks before his death.
+
+
+  Domestic strife.
+
+  Agitation against the Church.
+
+  Wycliffe.
+
+These two last years of Edward's reign were filled with an episode of
+domestic strife, which had considerable constitutional importance. The
+nation ascribed the series of disasters which had filled the space from
+1369 to 1375 entirely to the maladministration of Lancaster and the
+king's favourites, failing to see that it was largely due to the mere
+fact that England was not strong enough to hold down Aquitaine, when
+France was administered by a capable king and served by a great general.
+Hence there arose, both in and out of parliament, a violent agitation
+for the removal of Lancaster from power, and the punishment of the
+favourites, who were believed, with complete justification, to be
+misusing the royal name for their own private profit. Among the leaders
+of this agitation were the clerical ministers whom John of Gaunt had
+expelled from office in 1371, and chiefly William of Wykeham, bishop of
+Winchester, the late chancellor; they were helped by Edmund Mortimer,
+earl of March, a personal enemy of Lancaster, and could count on the
+assistance of the prince of Wales when he was well enough to take a part
+in politics. The greater part of the House of Commons was on their side,
+and on the whole they may be regarded as the party of constitutional
+protest against maladministration. But there was another movement on
+foot at the same time, which cut across this political agitation in the
+most bewildering fashion. Protests against the corruption of the Church
+and the interference of the papacy in national affairs had always been
+rife in England. At this moment they were more prevalent than ever,
+largely in consequence of the way in which the popes at Avignon had made
+themselves the allies and tools of the kings of France. The Statutes of
+Praemunire and Provisors had been passed a few years before (1351-1365)
+to check papal pretensions. There was a strong anti-clerical party,
+whose practical aim was to fill the coffers of the state by large
+measures of disendowment and confiscations of Church property. The
+intellectual head of this party at the time was John Wycliffe, a famous
+Oxford teacher, and for some time master of Balliol College. In his
+lectures and sermons he was always laying stress on the unsatisfactory
+state of the national church and the infamous corruption of the papacy.
+The doctrine which first made him famous, and commended him to all
+members of the anti-clerical faction, was that unworthy holders of
+spiritual endowments ought to be dispossessed of them, because
+"dominion" should depend on "grace." Churchmen, small and great, as he
+held, had been corrupted, because they had fallen away from the early
+Christian idea of apostolic poverty. Instead of discharging their proper
+functions, bishops and abbots had become statesmen or wealthy barons,
+and took no interest in anything save politics. The monasteries, with
+their vast possessions, had become corporations of landlords, instead of
+associations for prayer and good works. The papacy, with its secular
+ambitions, and its insatiable greed for money, was the worst abuse of
+all. A bad pope, and most popes were bad, was the true Antichrist, since
+he was always overruling the divine law of the scriptures by his human
+ordinances. Every man, as Wycliffe taught--using the feudal analogies of
+contemporary society--is God's tenant-in-chief, directly responsible for
+his acts to his overlord; the pope is always thrusting himself in
+between, like a mesne-tenant, and destroying the touch between God and
+man by his interference. Sometimes his commands are merely presumptuous;
+sometimes--as when, for example, he preaches crusades against Christians
+for purely secular reasons--they are the most horrible form of
+blasphemy. Wycliffe at a later period of his life developed views on
+doctrinal matters, not connected with his original thesis about the
+relations between Church and State, and foreshadowed most of the leading
+tenets of the reformers of the 16th century. But in 1376-1377 he was
+known merely as the outspoken critic of the "Caesarean clergy" and the
+papacy. He had a following of enthusiastic disciples at Oxford, and
+scattered adherents both among the burghers and the knighthood, the
+nucleus of the party that afterwards became famous as the Lollards. But
+they had not yet differentiated themselves from the body of those who
+were merely anti-clerical, without being committed to any theories of
+religious reform.
+
+
+  John of Gaunt and Wycliffe.
+
+Since Wycliffe was, above all things, the enemy of the political clergy
+of high estate, and since those clergy were precisely the leaders of the
+attack upon John of Gaunt, it came to pass that hatred of a common foe
+drew the duke and the doctor together for a space. There was a strange
+alliance between the advocate of clerical reform, and the practical
+exponent of secular misgovernment. The only point on which they were
+agreed was that it would be highly desirable to strip the Church of most
+of her endowments, in order to fill the exchequer of the state.
+Lancaster hoped to use Wycliffe as his mouthpiece against his enemies;
+Wycliffe hoped to see Lancaster disendowing bishops and monasteries and
+defying the pope. Hence the attempt of the political bishops to get
+Wycliffe condemned as a heretic became inextricably mixed with the
+attempt of the constitutional party, to which the bishops belonged, to
+evict the duke from his position of first councillor to the king and
+director of the policy of the realm.
+
+
+  The "Good Parliament."
+
+  Overthrow of the king's favourites.
+
+  Constitutional reforms.
+
+The struggle began in the parliament of 1376, called by the
+anti-Lancastrian party the "Good Parliament." Headed by the earl of
+March, William Courtenay, bishop of London, and Sir Peter de la Mare,
+the daring speaker of the House of Commons, the duke's enemies began
+their campaign by accusing the king's ministers and favourites of
+corruption. Here they were on safe ground, for the misdeeds of Lord
+Latimer--the king's chamberlain, Lord Neville--his steward, Richard
+Lyons--his financial agent, and Alice Perrers--his greedy and shameless
+mistress, had been so flagrant that it was hard for Lancaster to defend
+them. In face of the evidence brought forward the old king and his son
+had to abandon their friends to the angry parliament. Latimer and Lyons
+were condemned to imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods, Alice
+Perrers was banished from court. Encouraged by this victory, the
+parliament passed on to constitutional reforms, forced on the king a
+council of twelve peers nominated by themselves, who were to exercise
+over him much the same control that the lords ordainers had held over
+his father, and compelled him to assent to a long list of petitions
+which, if properly carried out, would have removed most of the practical
+grievances of the nation. Having so done they dispersed, not guessing
+that Lancaster had yielded so easily because he was set on undoing their
+work the moment that they were gone.
+
+
+  John of Gaunt re-establishes the royal power.
+
+  Death of the Black Prince.
+
+This, however, was the case; after the shortest of intervals the duke
+executed something like a _coup d'etat_. In his father's name he
+released Latimer and Lyons, dismissed the council of twelve, imprisoned
+Peter de la Mare, sequestrated the temporalities of Bishop Wykeham, and
+sent the earl of March out of the realm. Alice Perrers took possession
+again of the king, and all his corrupt courtiers came back to him. A
+royal edict declared the statutes of the "Good Parliament" null and
+void. Lancaster would never have dared to defy public opinion and
+challenge the constitutional party to a life-and-death struggle in this
+fashion, had it not been that his brother the prince of Wales had died
+while the "Good Parliament" was sitting; thus the opposition had been
+deprived of their strongest support. The prince's heir was a mere child,
+Richard of Bordeaux, aged only nine. It was feared by some that Duke
+John might carry his ambitions so far as to aim at the throne--he could
+do what he pleased with his doting father, and flaws might have been
+picked in the marriage of the Black Prince and his wife Joan of Kent,
+who were cousins, and therefore within the "prohibited degrees." As a
+matter of fact Lancaster was a more honest man than his enemies
+suspected; he hastened to acknowledge his little nephew's rights,
+acknowledged him as prince of Wales, and introduced him as his
+grandfather's heir before the parliament of January 1377.
+
+
+  Death of Edward III.
+
+The character of this body was a proof of the great strength of the
+royal name and power even in days when parliamentary institutions had
+been long in existence, and were supposed to act as a check on the
+crown. To legalize his arbitrary acts Duke John dared to summon the
+estates together, after he had issued stringent orders to the sheriffs
+to exclude his enemies and return his friends when the members for the
+Commons were chosen. He obtained a house of the complexion that he
+desired, and having a strong following among the peers actually
+succeeded in undoing all the work of 1376. No sign of trouble or
+rebellion followed, the opposition being destitute of a fighting leader.
+March had left the realm; Bishop Wykeham showed an unworthy subservience
+by suing for pardon through the mediation of Alice Perrers. Only Bishop
+Courtenay refused to be terrorized; he chose this moment to open a
+campaign against the duke's ally, John Wycliffe, who was arraigned for
+heresy before the ecclesiastical courts. His trial, however, ended in a
+scandalous fiasco. Lancaster and his friend Lord Percy came to St
+Paul's, and so insulted and browbeat the bishop, that the proceedings
+degenerated into a riot, and reached no conclusion (Feb. 19). Courtenay
+dared not recommence them, and Lancaster ruled as he pleased till his
+father, five months later, died. Deserted by his worthless courtiers and
+plundered on his death-bed by his greedy mistress, the victor of Sluys
+and Crecy sank into an unhonoured grave. It was a relief to the nation
+that he was gone. Yet there was a general feeling that chaos might
+follow. If Lancaster should justify the malevolent rumours that were
+afloat by making a snatch at the crown, the last state of the realm
+might be worse than the first.
+
+
+  Richard II.
+
+Duke John, however, was a better man than his enemies supposed. He was
+loyal to the crown according to his lights, and showed a chivalrous
+self-denial that had hardly been expected from him. He saluted his
+little nephew as king without a moment's hesitation, though he was aware
+that with the commencement of a new reign his own dictatorship had come
+to an end. The princess of Wales, in whose hands the young Richard II.
+was placed, had never been his friend, and was surrounded by adherents
+of her deceased husband, who belonged to the constitutional party.
+Disarmed, however, by the duke's frank submission they wisely resolved
+not to push him to extremes, and the first council which was appointed
+to act for the new monarch was a sort of "coalition ministry" in which
+Lancaster's followers as well as his foes were represented. For that
+very reason it was lacking in strength and unity of purpose, and proved
+lamentably incapable of dealing with the problems of the moment.
+
+
+  The French war.
+
+Of these the most pressing was the renewal of the French war; the truce
+had expired a few weeks before the death of Edward III., and the new
+reign began with a series of military disasters. The French fleet landed
+in great force in Sussex, burnt Rye and Hastings and routed the shire
+levies. Simultaneously the seneschal of Aquitaine was defeated in
+battle, and Bergerac, the last great town in the inland which remained
+in English hands, was captured by the duke of Anjou.
+
+
+  First parliament of Richard. Reforms.
+
+The first parliament of Richard II. met in October under the most gloomy
+auspices. It showed its temper by taking up the work of the "Good
+Parliament." Lancaster's adherents were turned out of the council; the
+persons condemned in 1376 were declared incapable of serving in it;
+Alice Perrers was sentenced to banishment and forfeiture, and the little
+king was made to repudiate the declaration whereby his uncle had quashed
+the statutes of 1376 by declaring that "no act of parliament can be
+repealed save with parliament's consent." John of Gaunt bowed before the
+storm, retired to his estates, and for some time took little part in
+affairs of state.
+
+Unfortunately the new government proved wholly unable either to conduct
+the struggle with France successfully or to pluck up courage to make a
+humiliating peace--the only wise course before them. The nation was too
+proud to accept defeat, and persevered in the unhappy attempt to reverse
+the fortunes of war. An almost unbroken series of petty disasters
+marked the first three years of King Richard. The worst was the failure
+of the last great devastating raid which the English launched against
+France. Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III., took a
+powerful army to Calais, and marched through Picardy and Champagne, past
+Orleans, and finally to Rennes in Brittany, but accomplished nothing
+save the ruin of his own troops and the wasting of a vast sum of money.
+Meanwhile taxation was heavy, the whole nation was seething with
+discontent, and--what was worst--no way was visible out of the miserable
+situation; ministers and councillors were repeatedly displaced, but
+their successors always proved equally incompetent to find a remedy.
+
+
+  The Great Revolt of 1381.
+
+This period of murmuring and misery culminated in the Great Revolt of
+1381, a phenomenon whose origins must be sought in the most complicated
+causes, but whose outbreak was due in the main to a general feeling that
+the realm was being misgoverned, and that some one must be made
+responsible for its maladministration. It was actually provoked by the
+unwise and unjust poll-tax of one shilling a head on all adult persons,
+voted by the parliament of Northampton in November 1380. The last
+poll-tax had been carefully graduated on a sliding scale so as to press
+lightly on the poorest classes; in this one a shilling for each person
+had to be exacted from every township, though it was provided that "the
+strong should help the weak" to a certain extent. But in hundreds of
+villages there were no "strong" residents, and the poorest cottager had
+to pay his three groats. The peasantry defended themselves by the simple
+device of understating the numbers of their families; the returns made
+it appear that the adult population of England had gone down from
+1,355,000 to 896,000 since the poll-tax of 1379. Thereupon the
+government sent out commissioners to revise the returns and exact the
+missing shillings. Their appearance led to a series of widespread and
+preconcerted riots, which soon spread over all England from the Wash to
+the Channel, and in a few days developed into a formidable rebellion.
+The poll-tax was no more than the spark which fired the mine; it merely
+provided a good general grievance on which all malcontents could unite.
+In the districts which took arms two main causes of insurrection may be
+differentiated; the first and the most widespread was the discontent of
+the rural population with the landowners and the Statute of Labourers.
+Their aim was to abolish all villein-service, and to wring from their
+lords the commutation of all manorial customs and obligations for a
+small rent--fourpence an acre was generally the sum suggested. But there
+was a simultaneous outbreak in many urban districts. In Winchester,
+London, St Albans, Canterbury, Bury, Beverley, Scarborough and many
+other places the rioting was as violent as in the countryside. Here the
+object of the insurgents was in most cases to break down the local
+oligarchy, who engrossed all municipal office and oppressed the meaner
+citizens; but in less numerous instances their end was to win charters
+from lords (almost always ecclesiastical lords) who had hitherto refused
+to grant them. But it must not be forgotten that there was also a tinge
+of purely political discontent about the rising; the insurgents
+everywhere proclaimed their intention to destroy "traitors," of whom the
+most generally condemned were the chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, and
+the treasurer, Sir Robert Hailes, the two persons most responsible for
+the levy of the poll-tax. Often the rebels added the name of John of
+Gaunt to the list, looking upon him as the person ultimately responsible
+for the mismanagement of the war and the misgovernment of the realm. It
+must be added that though the leaders of the revolt were for the most
+part local demagogues, the creatures of the moment, there were among
+them a few fanatics like the "mad priest of Kent," John Ball, who had
+long preached socialist doctrines from the old text:
+
+  "When Adam delved and Eve span
+   Who was then the gentleman?"
+
+and clamoured for the abolition of all differences of rank, status and
+property. Though many clerics were found among the rebels, it does not
+seem that any of them were Wycliffites, or that the reformer's teaching
+had played any part in exciting the peasantry at this time. No
+contemporary authority ascribes the rising to the Lollards.
+
+
+  Wat Tyler.
+
+The riots had begun, almost simultaneously in Kent and Essex: from
+thence they spread through East Anglia and the home counties. In the
+west and north there were only isolated and sporadic outbreaks, confined
+to a few turbulent towns. In the countryside the insurrection was
+accompanied by wholesale burnings of manor-rolls, the hunting down of
+unpopular bailiffs and landlords, and a special crusade against the
+commissioners of the poll-tax and the justices who had been enforcing
+the Statute of Labourers. There was more arson and blackmailing than
+murder, though some prominent persons perished, such as the judge, Sir
+John Cavendish, and the prior of Bury. In many regions the rising was
+purely disorderly and destitute of organization. This was not, however,
+the case in Kent and London. The mob which had gathered at Maidstone and
+Canterbury marched on the capital many thousands strong, headed by a
+local demagogue named Wat Tyler, whom they had chosen as their captain;
+his most prominent lieutenant was the preacher John Ball. They announced
+their intention of executing all "traitors," seizing the person of the
+king, and setting up a new government for the realm. The royal council
+and ministers showed grievous incapacity and cowardice--they made no
+attempt to raise an army, and opened negotiations with the rebels. While
+these were in progress the malcontent party in London, headed by three
+aldermen, opened the gates of the city to Tyler and his horde. They
+poured in, and, joined by the London mob, sacked John of Gaunt's palace
+of the Savoy, the Temple, and many other buildings, while the ministers
+took refuge with the young king in the Tower. It was well known that not
+only the capital and the neighbouring counties but all eastern England
+was ablaze, and the council in despair sent out the young king to parley
+with Tyler at Mile End. The rebels at first demanded no more than that
+Richard should declare villeinage abolished, and that all feudal dues
+and services should be commuted for a rent of fourpence an acre. This
+was readily conceded, and charters were drawn up to that effect and
+sealed by the king. But, while the meeting was still going on, Tyler
+went off to the Tower with a part of his horde, entered the fortress
+unopposed, and murdered the unhappy chancellor, Archbishop Sudbury, the
+treasurer, and several victims more. This was only the beginning of
+massacre. Instead of dispersing with their charters, as did many of the
+peasants, Tyler and his confederates ran riot through London, burning
+houses and slaying lawyers, officials, foreign merchants and other
+unpopular persons. This had the effect of frightening the propertied
+classes in the city, who had hitherto observed a timid neutrality, and
+turned public opinion against the insurgents. Next day the rebel leaders
+again invited the king to a conference, in the open space of Smithfield,
+and laid before him a programme very different from that propounded at
+Mile End. Tyler demanded that all differences of rank and status should
+cease, that all church lands should be confiscated and divided up among
+the laity, that the game laws should be abolished, and that "no lord
+should any longer hold lordship except civilly." Apparently he was set
+on provoking a refusal, and thus getting an excuse for seizing the
+person of the king. But matters went otherwise than he had expected;
+when he waxed unmannerly, and unsheathed his dagger to strike one of the
+royal retinue who had dared to answer him back, the mayor of London,
+William Walworth, drew his cutlass and cut him down. The mob strung
+their bows, and were about to shoot down the king and his suite. But
+Richard--who showed astounding nerve and presence of mind for a lad of
+fourteen--cantered up to them shouting that he would be their chief and
+captain and would give them their rights. The conference was continued,
+but, while it was in progress, the mayor brought up the whole civic
+militia of London, who had taken arms when they saw that the triumph of
+the rebels meant anarchy, and rescued the king out of the hands of the
+mob. Seeing such a formidable body of armed men opposed to them, the
+insurgents dispersed--without their reckless and ready-witted captain
+they were helpless (June 15, 1381).
+
+
+  Suppression of the rising.
+
+This was the turning-point of the rebellion; within a few days the
+council had collected a considerable army, which marched through Essex
+scattering such rebel bands as still held together. Kent was pacified at
+the same time; and Henry Despenser, the warlike bishop of Norwich, made
+a separate campaign against the East Anglian insurgents, defeating them
+at the skirmish of North Walsham, and hanging the local leader Geoffrey
+Lister, who had declared himself "king of the commons" (June 25, 1381).
+After this there was nothing remaining save to punish the leaders of the
+revolt; a good many scores of them were hanged, though the vengeance
+exacted does not seem to have been greater than was justified by the
+numerous murders and burnings of which they had been guilty; the fanatic
+Ball was, of course, among the first to suffer. On the 30th of August
+the rough methods of martial law were suspended, and on the 14th of
+December the king issued an amnesty to all save certain leaders who had
+hitherto escaped capture. A parliament had been called in November; it
+voted that all the charters given by the king at Mile End were null and
+void, no manumissions or grants of privileges could have been valid
+without the consent of the estates of the realm, "and for their own
+parts they would never consent to such, of their own free will nor
+otherwise, even to save themselves from sudden death."
+
+
+  Decline of the manorial system.
+
+The rebellion, therefore, had failed either to abolish villeinage in the
+countryside or to end municipal oligarchy in the towns, and many lords
+took the opportunity of the time of reaction in order to revindicate old
+claims over their bondsmen. Nevertheless serfdom continued to decline
+all through the latter years of the 14th century, and was growing
+obsolete in the 15th. This, however, was the result not of the great
+revolt of 1381, but of economic causes working out their inevitable
+progress. The manorial system was already doomed, and the rent-paying
+tenant farmers, who had begun to appear after the Black Death, gradually
+superseded the villeins as the normal type of peasantry during the two
+generations that followed the outbreak that is generally known as "Wat
+Tyler's rebellion."
+
+
+  Wycliffe and the Lollards.
+
+King Richard, though he had shown such courage and ready resources at
+Smithfield, was still only a lad of fourteen. For three years more he
+was under the control of tutors and governors appointed by his council.
+Their rule was incompetent, but the chief danger to the realm had passed
+away when both Charles V. of France and his great captain Du Guesclin
+died in 1380. The new king at Paris was a young boy, whose councils were
+swayed by a knot of quarrelsome and selfish uncles; the vigour of the
+attack on England began to slacken. Nevertheless there was no change in
+the fortune of war, which continued to be disastrous, if on a smaller
+scale than before. The chief domestic event of the time was the attack
+of the clerical party on Wycliffe and his followers. The reformer had
+begun to develop dogmatic views, in addition to his old theories about
+the relations of Church and State. When he proceeded to deny the
+doctrine of transubstantiation, to assert the all-sufficiency of the
+Scriptures as a rule of life, to denounce saint-worship, pilgrimages,
+and indulgences, and to declare the pope to be Antichrist, he frightened
+his old supporter John of Gaunt and the politicians of the anti-clerical
+clique. They ceased to support him, and his followers became a sect
+rather than a political party. He and his disciples were expelled from
+Oxford, and ere long the bishops began to arrest and try them for
+heresy. Wycliffe himself, strange to say, was not molested. He survived
+to publish his translation of the Bible and to die in peace in December
+1383. But his followers were being hunted, and imprisoned or forced to
+recant, all through the later years of Richard II. Yet they continued to
+multiply, and exercised at times considerable influence; though they had
+few supporters among the baronage, yet among the lesser gentry and still
+more among the burgher class and in the universities they were strong.
+It was not till the next reign, when the bishops succeeded in calling
+in the crown to their aid, and passed the statute _De heretico
+comburendo_, that Lollardy ceased to flourish.
+
+
+  Richard's personal rule.
+
+  Impeachment of the king's "favourites."
+
+  The "lords appellant."
+
+  Execution of the king's friends.
+
+King Richard meanwhile had grown to man's estate, and had resolved to
+take the reins of power into his own hands. He was wayward,
+high-spirited and self-confident. He wished to restore the royal powers
+which had slipped into the hands of the council and parliament during
+his minority, and had small doubts of his capacity to restore it. His
+chosen instruments were two men whom his enemies called his
+"favourites," though it was absurd to apply the name either to an
+elderly statesman like Michael de la Pole, who was made chancellor in
+1384, or to Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, a young noble of the oldest
+lineage, who was the king's other confidant. Neither of them was an
+upstart, and both, the one from his experience and the other from his
+high station, were persons who might legitimately aspire to a place
+among the advisers of the king. But Richard was tactless; he openly
+flouted his two uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock, and took
+no pains to conciliate either the baronage or the commons. His
+autocratic airs and his ostentatious preference for his confidants--of
+whom he made the one earl of Suffolk and the other marquess of
+Dublin--provoked both lords and commons. Pole was impeached on a
+groundless charge of corruption and condemned, but Richard at once
+pardoned him and restored him to favour. De Vere was banished to
+Ireland, but at his master's desire omitted to leave the realm. The
+contemptuous disregard for the will of parliament which the king
+displayed brought on him a worse fate than he deserved. His youngest
+uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, was a designing and
+ambitious prince who saw his own advantage in embittering the strife
+between Richard and his parliament. John of Gaunt having departed to
+Spain, where he was stirring up civil strife in the name of his wife,
+the heiress of Peter the Cruel, Gloucester put himself at the head of
+the opposition. Playing the part of the demagogue, and exaggerating all
+his nephew's petulant acts and sayings, he declared the constitution in
+danger, and took arms at the head of a party of peers, the earls of
+Warwick, Arundel and Nottingham, and Henry, earl of Derby, the son of
+John of Gaunt, who called themselves the lords appellant, because they
+were ready to "appeal" Richard's councillors of treason. Public opinion
+was against the king, and the small army which his confidant De Vere
+raised under the royal banner was easily scattered by Gloucester's
+forces at the rout of Radcot Bridge (Dec. 20, 1387). Oxford and Suffolk
+succeeded in escaping to France, but the king and the rest of his
+adherents fell into the hands of the lords appellant. They threatened
+for a moment to depose him, but finally placed him under the control of
+a council and ministers chosen by themselves, and to put him in a proper
+state of terror, executed Lord Beauchamp, the judge, Sir Robert
+Tressilian, and six or seven more of his chief friends. This was a piece
+of gratuitous cruelty, for the king, though wayward and unwise, had done
+nothing to justify such treatment.
+
+
+  Richard rules constitutionally.
+
+  Peace with France.
+
+To the surprise of the nation Richard took his humiliation quietly. But
+he was merely biding his time; he had sworn revenge in his heart, but he
+was ready to wait long for it. For the next nine years he appeared an
+unexceptionable sovereign, anxious only to conciliate the nation and
+parliament. He got rid of the ministers imposed upon him by the lords
+appellant, but replaced them by Bishop Wykeham and other old statesmen
+against whom no objection could be raised. He disarmed Gloucester by
+making a close alliance with his elder uncle John of Gaunt, who had been
+absent in Spain during the troubles of 1387-1388, and was displeased at
+the violent doings of his brother. His rule was mild and moderate, and
+he succeeded at last in freeing himself from the incubus of the French
+war--the source of most of the evils of the time, for it was the heavy
+taxation required to feed this struggle which embittered all the
+domestic politics of the realm. After two long truces, which filled the
+years 1390-1395, a definitive peace was at last concluded, by which the
+English king kept Calais and the coast-strip of Guienne, from Bordeaux
+to Bayonne, which had never been lost to the enemy. To confirm the
+peace, he married Isabella, the young daughter of Charles VI. (Nov.
+1396); he had lost his first wife, the excellent Anne of Bohemia, two
+years before.
+
+
+  Richard reduces Ireland to obedience.
+
+  His revenge on Gloucester and the lords appellant.
+
+  Banishment of Bolingbroke and Norfolk.
+
+The king seemed firmly seated on his throne--so much so that in 1395 he
+had found leisure for a long expedition to Ireland, which none of his
+ancestors had visited since King John. He compelled all the native
+princes to do him homage, and exercised the royal authority in such a
+firm manner as had never before been known in the island. But those who
+looked forward to quiet and prosperous times both for Ireland and for
+England were destined to be undeceived. In 1397 Richard carried out an
+extraordinary and unexpected _coup d'etat_, which he had evidently
+premeditated for many years. Having lived down his unpopularity, and
+made himself many powerful friends, he resolved to take his
+long-deferred revenge on Gloucester and the other lords appellant. He
+trumped up a vain story that his uncle was once more conspiring against
+him, arrested him, and sent him over to Calais, where he was secretly
+murdered in prison. At the same time Gloucester's two chief confederates
+of 1387, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, were tried and sentenced to
+death: the former was actually executed, the latter imprisoned for life.
+The other two lords appellant, Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,[2] and Henry of
+Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, were dealt with a year later.
+Richard pretended to hold them among his best friends, but in 1398
+induced Bolingbroke to accuse Norfolk of treasonable language. Mowbray
+denied it, and challenged his accuser to a judicial duel. When they were
+actually facing each other in the lists at Coventry, the king forbade
+them to fight, and announced that he banished them both--Henry for six
+years, Norfolk for life.
+
+
+  Arbitrary rule of Richard.
+
+Having thus completed his vengeance on those who had slain his friends
+ten years before--their respective punishments were judiciously adapted
+to their several responsibilities in that matter--Richard began to
+behave in an arbitrary and unconstitutional fashion. He evidently
+thought that no one would dare to lift a hand against him after the
+examples that he had just made. This might have been so, if he had
+continued to rule as cautiously as during the time when he was nursing
+his scheme of revenge. But now his brain seemed to be turned by
+success--indeed his wild language at times seemed to argue that he was
+not wholly sane. He declared that all pardons issued since 1387 were
+invalid, and imposed heavy fines on persons, and even on whole shires,
+that had given the lords appellant aid. He made huge forced loans, and
+employed recklessly the abuse of purveyance. He browbeat the judges on
+the bench, and kept many persons under arrest for indefinite periods
+without a trial. But the act which provoked the nation most was that he
+terrified the parliament which met at Shrewsbury in 1398 into voting
+away its powers to a small committee of ten persons, all creatures of
+his own. This body he used as his instrument of government, treating its
+assent as equivalent to that of a whole parliament in session. There
+seemed to be an end to the constitutional liberties of England.
+
+
+  Second expedition to Ireland.
+
+  Henry of Bolingbroke lands in England_.
+
+  Flight of Richard.
+
+  Surrender and abdication of Richard.
+
+Such violence, however, speedily brought its own punishment. In 1399
+Richard sailed over to Ireland to put down a revolt of the native
+princes, who had defeated and slain the earl of March, his cousin and
+their lord-lieutenant. While he was absent Henry of Bolingbroke landed
+at Ravenspur with a small body of exiles and mercenaries. He pretended
+that he had merely come to claim the estates and title of his father
+John of Gaunt, who had died a few months before. The adventurer was at
+once joined by the earl of Northumberland and all the lords of the
+north; the army which was called out against him refused to fight, and
+joined his banner, and in a few days he was master of all England (July
+1399). King Richard, hurrying back from Ireland, landed at Milford Haven
+just in time to learn that the levies raised in his name had dispersed
+or joined the enemy. He still had with him a considerable force, and
+might have tried the fortune of war with some prospect of success. But
+his conduct seemed dictated by absolute infatuation; he might have
+fought, or he might have fled to his father-in-law in France, if he
+judged his troops untrustworthy. Instead of taking either course, he
+deserted his army by night, and fled into the Welsh mountains,
+apparently with the intention of collecting fresh adherents from North
+Wales and Cheshire, the only regions where he was popular. But
+Bolingbroke had already seized Chester, and was marching against him at
+the head of such a large army that the countryside refused to stir.
+After skulking for three weeks in the hills, Richard surrendered to his
+cousin at Flint, on the 19th of August 1399, having previously
+stipulated that if he consented to abdicate his life should be spared,
+his adherents pardoned, and an honourable livelihood assured to him.
+This surrender put the crown to his career of folly. He should have
+known that Henry would never feel safe while he survived, and that no
+oaths could be trusted in such circumstances. At all costs he should
+have endeavoured to escape abroad, a course that was still in his power.
+
+
+  Accession of Henry IV.
+
+Richard carried out his part of the bargain; he executed a deed of
+abdication in which he owned himself "insufficient and useless." It was
+read to a parliament summoned in his name on the 30th of September, and
+the throne was declared vacant. There was small doubt as to the
+personality of his successor; possession is nine points of the law, and
+Henry of Bolingbroke for the moment had the whole nation at his back.
+His hereditary title indeed was imperfect; though he was the eldest
+descendant of Edward III. in the male line after Richard, yet there was
+a whole family which stood between him and the crown. From Lionel of
+Clarence, the second son of Edward III. (John of Gaunt was only the
+third) descended the house of March, and the late king had proclaimed
+that Edmund of March would be his heir if he should die childless.
+Fortunately for Bolingbroke the young earl was only six years of age;
+not a voice was raised in his favour in parliament. When Henry stood
+forward and claimed the vacant throne by right of conquest and also by
+right of descent, no one gainsaid him. Lords and commons voted that they
+would have him for their king, and he was duly crowned on the 13th of
+October 1399. No faith was kept with the unhappy Richard; he was placed
+in close and secret confinement, and denied the ordinary comforts of
+life. Moreover the adherents for whose safety he had stipulated were at
+once impeached of treason.
+
+
+  Position of the new king.
+
+Henry of Lancaster came to the throne, for all intents and purposes as
+an elective king; he had to depend for the future on his ability to
+conciliate and satisfy the baronage and the commons by his governance.
+For by his usurpation he had sanctioned the theory that kings can be
+deposed for incapacity and maladministration. If he himself should
+become unpopular, all the arguments that he had employed against Richard
+might be turned against himself. The prospect was not reassuring; his
+revenue was small, and parliament would certainly murmur if he tried to
+increase it. The late king was not without partisans and admirers. There
+was a considerable chance that the French king might declare
+war--nominally to avenge his son-in-law, really to win Calais and
+Bordeaux. Of the partisans who had placed Henry on the throne many were
+greedy, and some were wholly unreasonable. But he trusted to his tact
+and his energy, and cheerfully undertook the task of ruling as a
+constitutional king--the friend of the parliament that had placed him on
+the throne.
+
+
+  Rebellion of the earls.
+
+  Murder of Richard.
+
+The problem proved more weary and exhausting than he had suspected. From
+the very first his reign was a time of war, foreign and domestic, of
+murmuring, and of humiliating shifts and devices. Henry commenced his
+career by granting the adherents of Richard II. their lives, after they
+had been first declared guilty of treason and had been deprived of the
+titles, lands and endowments given them by the late king. Their reply to
+this very modified show of mercy was to engage in a desperate conspiracy
+against him. If they had waited till his popularity had waned, they
+might have had some chance of success, but in anger and resentment they
+struck too soon. The earls of Kent and Huntingdon, close kinsmen of
+Richard on his mother's side, the earl of Salisbury--a noted
+Lollard--and the lords Despenser and Lumley took arms at midwinter (Jan.
+4, 1400) and attempted to seize the king at Windsor. They captured the
+castle, but Henry escaped, raised the levies of London against them, and
+beat them into the west. Kent and Salisbury were slain at Cirencester,
+the others captured and executed with many of their followers. Their
+rebellion sealed the fate of the master in whose cause they had risen.
+Henry and his counsellors were determined that there should be no
+further use made of the name of the "lawful king," and Richard was
+deliberately murdered by privation--insufficient clothing, food and
+warmth--in his dungeon at Pontefract Castle (Feb. 17, 1400). It is
+impossible not to pity his fate. He had been wayward, unwise and
+occasionally revengeful; but his provocation had been great, and if few
+tyrants have used more violent and offensive language, few have
+committed such a small list of actual crimes. It was a curious
+commentary on Henry's policy, that Richard, even when dead, did not
+cease to give him trouble. Rumour got abroad, owing to the secrecy of
+his end, that he was not really dead, and an impostor long lived at the
+Scottish court who claimed to be the missing king, and was recognized as
+Richard by many malcontents who wished to be deceived.
+
+
+  Welsh rising under Owen Glendower.
+
+The rising of the earls was only the first and the least dangerous of
+the trials of Henry IV. Only a few months after their death a rebellion
+of a far more formidable sort broke out in Wales--where Richard II. had
+been popular, and the house of March, his natural heirs, held large
+estates. The leader was a gentleman named Owen Glendower, who had the
+blood of the ancient kings of Gwynedd in his veins. Originally he had
+taken to the hills as a mere outlaw, in consequence of a quarrel with
+one of the marcher barons; but after many small successes he began to be
+recognized as a national leader by his countrymen, and proclaimed
+himself prince of Wales. The king marched against him in person in 1400
+and 1401, but Glendower showed himself a master of guerrilla warfare; he
+refused battle, and defied pursuit in his mountains, till the stores of
+the English army were exhausted and Henry was forced to retire. His
+prestige as a general was shaken, and his treasury exhausted by these
+fruitless irregular campaigns.
+
+
+  Discontent of the commons.
+
+  Statute De heretico comburendo.
+
+Meanwhile worse troubles were to come. The commons were beginning to
+murmur at the king's administration; they had obtained neither the peace
+nor the diminished taxation which they had been promised. Moreover,
+among some classes at least, he had won desperate hatred by his policy
+in matters of religion. One of his chief supporters in 1399 had been
+Archbishop Arundel, an old enemy of Richard II. and brother to the earl
+who had been beheaded in 1397. Arundel was determined to extirpate the
+Lollards, and used his influence on the king to induce him to frame and
+pass through parliament the detestable statute _De heretico comburendo_,
+which recognized death by burning at the stake as the penalty of heresy,
+and bound the civil authorities to arrest, hand over to the church
+courts, and receive back for execution, all contumacious Lollards. Henry
+himself does not seem to have been particularly enthusiastic for
+persecution, but in order to keep the church party on his side he was
+forced to sanction it. The burnings began with that of William Sawtre, a
+London vicar, on the 2nd of March 1401; they continued intermittently
+throughout the reign. The victims were nearly all clergy or citizens;
+the king shrank from touching the Lollards of higher rank, and even
+employed in his service some who were notoriously tainted with heresy.
+
+
+  War with Scotland.
+
+  Battle of Homildon Hill.
+
+  Conspiracy of Northumberland with Glendower.
+
+External troubles continued to multiply during Henry's earlier years.
+The Scots had declared war, and there was every sign that the French
+would soon follow suit, for the king's failure to crush Glendower had
+destroyed his reputation for capacity. The rebel achieved his greatest
+success in June 1402, when he surprised and routed the whole levy of the
+marcher lords at Bryn G'las, between Pilleth and Knighton, capturing
+(among many other prisoners) Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle and guardian
+of the young earl of March, whom all malcontents regarded as the
+rightful monarch of England. A few months after the king's fortune
+seemed to take a turn for the better, when the Scots were defeated at
+Homildon Hill by the earl of Northumberland and his son Henry Percy, the
+celebrated "Hotspur." But this victory was to be the prelude to new
+dangers: half the nobility of Scotland had been captured in the battle,
+and Northumberland intended to fill his coffers with their ransoms; but
+the king looked upon them as state prisoners and announced his intention
+of taking them out of the earl's hands. Northumberland was a greedy and
+unscrupulous Border chief, who regarded himself as entitled to exact
+whatever he chose from his master, because he had been the first to join
+him at his landing in 1399, and had lent him a consistent support ever
+since. He had been amply rewarded by grants of land and money, but was
+not yet satisfied. In indignation at the first refusal that he had met,
+the earl conspired with Glendower to raise rebellion in the name of the
+rightful heirs of King Richard, the house of March. The third party in
+the plot was Sir Edmund Mortimer, Glendower's captive, who was easily
+persuaded to join a movement for the aggrandizement of his own family.
+He married Owen's daughter, and became his trusted lieutenant.
+Northumberland also enlisted the services of his chief Scottish
+prisoner, the earl of Douglas, who promised him aid from beyond Tweed.
+
+
+  Insurrection in the north and west.
+
+  Defeat of the rebels at Shrewsbury.
+
+In July 1403 came the crisis of King Henry's reign; while Glendower
+burst into South Wales, and overran the whole countryside as far as
+Cardiff and Carmarthen, the Percies raised their banner in the North.
+The old earl set himself to subdue Yorkshire; his son Hotspur and the
+earl of Douglas marched south and opened communication with the Welsh.
+All Cheshire, a district always faithful to the name of Richard II.,
+rose in their favour, and they were joined by Hotspur's uncle, the earl
+of Worcester. They then advanced towards Shrewsbury, where they hoped
+that Glendower might meet them. But long ere the Welsh could appear,
+King Henry was on the spot; he brought the rebels to action at Hately
+Field, just outside the gates of Shrewsbury, and inflicted on them a
+complete defeat, in which his young son Henry of Monmouth first won his
+reputation as a fighting man. Hotspur was slain, Worcester taken and
+beheaded, Douglas desperately wounded (July 23, 1403). On receiving this
+disastrous news the earl of Northumberland sued for pardon; the king was
+unwise enough to grant it, merely punishing him by fining him and taking
+all his castles out of his hands.
+
+
+  War with France renewed.
+
+  Parliament assumes control of the finances.
+
+By winning the battle of Shrewsbury Henry IV. had saved his crown, but
+his troubles were yet far from an end. The long-expected breach with
+France had at last come to pass; the duke of Orleans, without any
+declaration of war, had entered Guienne, while a French fleet attacked
+the south-west of England, and burnt Plymouth. Even more menacing to the
+king's prosperity was the news that another squadron had appeared off
+the coast of Wales, and landed stores and succours for Glendower, who
+had now conquered the whole principality save a few isolated fortresses.
+The drain of money to meet this combination of foreign war and domestic
+rebellion was more than the king's exchequer could meet. He was driven
+into unconstitutional ways of raising money, which recalled all the
+misdoings of his predecessor. Hence came a series of rancorous quarrels
+with his parliaments, which grew more disloyal and clamorous at every
+new session. The cry was raised that the taxes were heavy not because of
+the French or Welsh wars, but because Henry lavished his money on
+favourites and unworthy dependents. He was forced to bow before the
+storm, though the charge had small foundation: the greater part of his
+household was dismissed, and the war-taxes were paid not to his
+treasurer but to a financial committee appointed by parliament.
+
+
+  Rising of 1405 in the North.
+
+It was not till 1405 that the worst of Henry's troubles came to an end.
+This year saw the last of the convulsions that threatened to overturn
+him,--a rising in the North headed by the old earl of Northumberland, by
+Richard Scrope, archbishop of York, and by Thomas Mowbray the earl
+marshal. It might have proved even more dangerous than the rebellion of
+1403, if Henry's unscrupulous general Ralph, earl of Westmorland, had
+not lured Scrope and Mowbray to a conference, and then arrested them
+under circumstances of the vilest treachery. He handed them over to the
+king, who beheaded them both outside the gate of York, without any
+proper trial before their peers. Northumberland thereupon fled to
+Scotland without further fighting. He remained in exile till January
+1408, when he made a final attempt to raise rebellion in the North, and
+was defeated and slain at the battle of Bramham Moor.
+
+
+  Suppression of the Welsh rising.
+
+Long before this last-named fight Henry's fortunes had begun to mend.
+Glendower was at last checked by the untiring energy of the king's
+eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, who had been given charge of the Welsh
+war. Even when French aid was sent him, the rebel chief proved unable to
+maintain his grip on South Wales. He was beaten out of it in 1406, and
+Aberystwyth Castle, where his garrison made a desperate defence for two
+years, became the southern limit of his dominions. In the end of 1408
+Prince Henry captured this place, and six weeks later Harlech, the
+greatest stronghold of the rebels, where Sir Edmund Mortimer, Owen's
+son-in-law and most trusted captain, held out till he died of
+starvation. From this time onwards the Welsh rebellion gradually died
+down, till Owen relapsed into the position from which he had started,
+that of a guerrilla chief maintaining a predatory warfare in the
+mountains. From 1409 onward he ceased to be a public danger to the
+realm, yet so great was his cunning and activity that he was never
+caught, and died still maintaining a hopeless rebellion so late as 1416.
+
+
+  End of the French and Scottish wars.
+
+The French war died down about the same time that the Welsh rebellion
+became insignificant. Louis of Orleans, the head of the French war
+party, was murdered by his cousin John, duke of Burgundy, in November
+1407, and after his death the French turned from the struggle with
+England to indulge in furious civil wars. Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne
+still remained safe under the English banner. The Scottish war had ended
+even earlier. Prince James, the heir of Robert III., had been captured
+at sea in 1406. The duke of Albany, who became regent when Robert died,
+had no wish to see his nephew return, and concluded a corrupt agreement
+with the king of England, by which he undertook to keep Scotland out of
+the strife, if Henry would prevent the rightful heir from returning to
+claim his own.[3] Hence Albany and his son ruled at Edinburgh for
+seventeen years, while James was detained in an honourable captivity at
+Windsor.
+
+
+  Illness of the king. Faction in the court.
+
+From 1408 till his death in 1413 Henry was freed from all the dangers
+which had beset his earlier years. But he got small enjoyment from the
+crown which no longer tottered on his brow. Soon after his execution of
+Archbishop Scrope he had been smitten with a painful disorder, which his
+enemies declared to be the punishment inflicted on him by heaven for
+the prelate's death. It grew gradually worse, and developed into what
+his contemporaries called leprosy--a loathsome skin disease accompanied
+by bouts of fever, which sometimes kept him bedridden for months at a
+time. From 1409 onwards he became a mere invalid, only able to assert
+himself in rare intervals of convalescence. The domestic politics of the
+realm during his last five years were nothing more than a struggle
+between two court factions who desired to use his name. The one was
+headed by his son Henry, prince of Wales, and his half-brothers John,
+Henry and Thomas Beaufort, the base-born but legitimized children of
+John of Gaunt. The other was under the direction of Archbishop Arundel,
+the king's earliest ally, who had already twice served him as
+chancellor, and had the whole church party at his back. Arundel was
+backed by Thomas duke of Clarence, the king's second son, who was an
+enemy of the Beauforts, and not on the best terms with his own elder
+brother, the prince of Wales. The fluctuating influence of each party
+with the king was marked by the passing of the chancellorship from
+Arundel to Henry Beaufort and back again during the five years of
+Henry's illness. The rivalry between them was purely personal; both were
+prepared to go on with the "Lancastrian experiment," the attempt to
+govern the realm in a constitutional fashion by an alliance between the
+king and the parliament; both were eager persecutors of the Lollards;
+both were eager to make profit for England by interfering in the civil
+wars of the Orleanists and Burgundians which were now devastating
+France.
+
+
+  Prince Hal.
+
+The prince of Wales, it is clear, gave much umbrage to his father by his
+eagerness to direct the policy of the crown ere yet it had fallen to him
+by inheritance. The king suspected, and with good reason, that his son
+wished him to abdicate, and resented the idea. It seems that a plot with
+such an object was actually on foot, and that the younger Henry gave it
+up in a moment of better feeling, when he realized the evil impression
+that the unfilial act would make upon the nation. At this time the
+prince gave small promise of developing into the model monarch that he
+afterwards became. There was no doubt of his military ability, which had
+been fully demonstrated in the long Welsh wars, but he is reputed to
+have shown himself arrogant, contentious and over-given to loose-living.
+There were many, Archbishop Arundel among them, who looked forward with
+apprehension to his accession to the throne.
+
+
+  English expedition to France.
+
+The two parties in the council of Henry IV. were agreed that it would be
+profitable to intervene in the wars of France, but they differed as to
+the side which offered the most advantages. Hence came action which
+seemed inconsistent, if not immoral; in 1411, under the prince's
+influence, an English contingent joined the Burgundians and helped them
+to raise the siege of Paris. In 1412, by Arundel's advice, a second army
+under the duke of Clarence crossed the Channel to co-operate with the
+Orleanists. But the French factions, wise for once, made peace at the
+time of Clarence's expedition, and paid him 210,000 gold crowns to leave
+the country! The only result of the two expeditions was to give the
+English soldiery a poor opinion of French military capacity, and a
+notion that money was easily to be got from the distracted realm beyond
+the narrow seas.
+
+
+  Accession of Henry V.
+
+  His character.
+
+On the 20th of March 1413, King Henry's long illness at last reached a
+fatal issue, and his eldest son ascended the throne. The new king had
+everything in his favour; his father had borne the odium of usurpation
+and fought down the forces of anarchy. The memory of Richard II. had
+been forgotten; the young earl of March had grown up into the most
+harmless and unenterprising of men, and the nation seemed satisfied with
+the new dynasty, whose first sovereign had shown himself, under much
+provocation, the most moderate and accommodating of constitutional
+monarchs.
+
+Henry V. on his accession bade farewell to the faults of his youth. He
+seems to have felt a genuine regret for the unfilial conduct which had
+vexed his father's last years, and showed a careful determination to
+turn over a new leaf and give his enemies no scope for criticism. From
+the first he showed a sober and grave bearing; he reconciled himself to
+all his enemies, gave up his youthful follies, and became a model king
+according to the ideas of his day. There is no doubt that he had a
+strong sense of moral responsibility, and that he was sincerely pious.
+But his piety inspired him to redouble the persecution of the
+unfortunate Lollards, whom his father had harried only in an
+intermittent fashion; and his sense of moral responsibility did not
+prevent him from taking the utmost advantage of the civil wars of his
+unhappy neighbours of France.
+
+
+  Persecution of the Lollards.
+
+  Rising under Oldcastle.
+
+The first notable event of Henry's reign was his assault upon the
+Lollards. His father had spared their lay chiefs, and contented himself
+with burning preachers or tradesmen. Henry arrested John Oldcastle, Lord
+Cobham, their leading politician, and had him tried and condemned to the
+stake. But Oldcastle escaped from the Tower before the day fixed for his
+execution, and framed a wild plot for slaying or deposing his
+persecutor. He planned to gather the Lollards of London and the Home
+Counties under arms, and to seize the person of the king--a scheme as
+wild as the design of Guy Fawkes or the Fifth Monarchy Men in later
+generations, for the sectaries were not strong enough to coerce the
+whole nation. Henry received early notice of the plot, and nipped it in
+the bud, scattering Oldcastle's levies in St Giles' Fields (Jan. 10,
+1414) and hanging most of his lieutenants. But their reckless leader
+escaped, and for three years led the life of an outlaw, till in 1417 he
+was finally captured, still in arms, and sent to the stake.
+
+
+  Henry V. and France.
+
+This danger having passed, Henry set himself to take advantage of the
+troubles of France. He threatened to invade that realm unless the
+Orleans faction, who had for the moment possession of the person of the
+mad king Charles VI., should restore to him all that Edward III. had
+owned in 1360, with Anjou and Normandy in addition. The demand was
+absurd and exorbitant and was refused, though the French government
+offered him the hand of their king's daughter Catherine with a dowry of
+800,000 crowns and the districts of Quercy and Perigord--sufficiently
+handsome terms. When he began to collect a fleet and an army, they added
+to the offer the Limousin and other regions; but Henry was determined to
+pick his quarrel, and declared war in an impudent and hypocritical
+manifesto, in which he declared that he was driven into strife against
+his will. The fact was that he had secured the promise of the neutrality
+or the co-operation of the Burgundian faction, and thought that he could
+crush the Orleanists with ease.
+
+
+  Henry invades France.
+
+  Battle of Agincourt.
+
+  Effect of the battle.
+
+He sailed for France in August 1415, with an army compact and
+well-equipped, but not very numerous. On the eve of his departure he
+detected and quelled a plot as wild and futile as that of Oldcastle. The
+conspirators were his cousin, Richard, earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope,
+and Sir Thomas Grey, a kinsman of the Percies. They had planned to raise
+a rebellion in the name of the earl of March, in whose cause Wales and
+the North were to have been called to arms. But March himself refused to
+stir, and betrayed them to the king, who promptly beheaded them, and set
+sail five days later. He landed near the mouth of the Seine, and
+commenced his campaign by besieging and capturing Harfleur, which the
+Orleanists made no attempt to succour. But such a large number of his
+troops perished in the trenches by a pestilential disorder, that he
+found himself too weak to march on Paris, and took his way to Calais
+across Picardy, hoping, as it seems, to lure the French to battle by
+exposing his small army to attack. The plan was hazardous, for the
+Orleanists turned out in great numbers and almost cut him off in the
+marshes of the Somme. When he had struggled across them, and was
+half-way to Calais, the enemy beset him in the fields of Agincourt (Oct.
+25, 1415). Here Henry vindicated his military reputation by winning a
+victory even more surprising than those of Crecy, and Poitiers, for he
+was outnumbered in an even greater proportion than the two Edwards had
+been in 1346 and 1356, and had to take the offensive instead of being
+attacked in a strong position. The heavily armoured French noblesse,
+embogged in miry meadows, proved helpless before the lightly equipped
+English archery. The slaughter in their ranks was terrible, and the
+young duke of Orleans, the head of the predominant faction of the
+moment, was taken prisoner with many great nobles. However, so exhausted
+was the victorious army that Henry merely led it back to Calais, without
+attempting anything more in this year. The sole tangible asset of the
+campaign was the possession of Harfleur, the gate of Normandy, a second
+Calais in its advantages when future invasions were taken in hand. The
+moral effects were more important. The Orleanist party was shaken in its
+power; the rival Burgundian faction became more inclined to commit
+itself to the English cause, and the terror of the English arms weighed
+heavily upon both.
+
+
+  England and the council of Constance.
+
+It was not till the next year but one that Henry renewed his invasion of
+France--the intervening space was spent in negotiations with Burgundy,
+and with the emperor Sigismund, whose aid the king secured in return for
+help in putting an end to the scandalous "great schism" which had been
+rending the Western Church for so many years. The English deputation
+lent their aid to Sigismund at the council of Constance, when
+Christendom was at last reunited under a single head, though all the
+reforms which were to have accompanied the reunion were postponed, and
+ultimately avoided altogether, by the restored papacy.
+
+
+  Henry's second invasion of France.
+
+  Conquest of Normandy.
+
+  Triumph of the Burgundians.
+
+  Henry takes Rouen.
+
+  Murder of John of Burgundy.
+
+In July 1417 Henry began his second invasion of France, and landed at
+the mouth of the Seine with a powerful army of 17,000 men. He had
+resolved to adopt a plan of campaign very different from those which
+Edward III. or the Black Prince had been wont to pursue, having in view
+nothing more than the steady and gradual conquest of the province of
+Normandy. This he was able to accomplish without any interference from
+the government at Paris, for the constable Armagnac, who had succeeded
+the captive Orleans at the head of the anti-Burgundian party, had no
+troops to spare. He was engaged in a separate campaign with Henry's ally
+John the Fearless, and left Normandy to shift for itself. One after
+another all the towns of the duchy were reduced, save Rouen, the siege
+of which, as the hardest task, King Henry postponed till the rest of the
+countryside was in his hands. He sat down to besiege it in 1418, and was
+detained before its walls for many months, for the citizens made an
+admirable defence. Meanwhile a change had taken place in the domestic
+politics of France; the Burgundians seized Paris in May 1418; the
+constable Armagnac and many of his partisans were massacred, and John
+the Fearless got possession of the person of the mad Charles VI., and
+became the responsible ruler of France. He had then to choose between
+buying off his English allies by great concessions, or taking up the
+position of champion of French interests. He selected the latter role,
+broke with Henry, and tried to relieve Rouen. But all his efforts were
+foiled, and the Norman capital surrendered, completely starved out, on
+the 19th of January 1419. On this Burgundy resolved to open negotiations
+with Henry; he wished to free his hands for an attack on his domestic
+enemies, who had rallied beyond the Loire under the leadership of the
+dauphin Charles--from whom the party, previously known first as
+Orleanists and then as Armagnacs, gets for the future the name of the
+"Dauphinois." The English king, however, seeing the manifest advantage
+of his position, tried to drive too hard a bargain; he demanded the old
+boundaries of 1360, with his new conquest of Normandy, the hand of the
+princess Catherine, and a great sum of ready money. Burgundy dared not
+concede so much, under pain of alienating all his more patriotic
+supporters. He broke off the conference of Meulan, and tried to patch up
+a peace with the dauphin, in order to unite all Frenchmen against the
+foreign invader. This laudable intention was wrecked by the treachery of
+the young heir to the French throne; on the bridge of Montereau Charles
+deliberately murdered the suppliant duke, as he knelt to do homage,
+thinking thereby that he would make an end of the Burgundian party
+(Sept. 9, 1419).
+
+
+  The Burgundians acknowledge Henry as heir of France.
+
+  Treaty of Troyes.
+
+This abominable deed gave northern France for twenty years to an English
+master. The young duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, and his supporters
+in Paris and the north, were so incensed with the dauphin's cruel
+treachery that they resolved that he should never inherit his father's
+crown. They proffered peace to King Henry, and offered to recognize his
+preposterous[4] claim to the French throne, on condition that he should
+marry the princess Catherine and guarantee the constitutional liberties
+of the realm. The insane Charles VI. should keep nominal possession of
+the royal title till his death, but meanwhile the Burgundians would do
+homage to Henry as "heir of France." These terms were welcomed by the
+English king, and ratified at the treaty of Troyes (May 21, 1420). Henry
+married the princess Catherine, received the oaths of Duke Philip and
+his partisans, and started forth to conquer the Dauphinois at the head
+of an army of which half was composed of Burgundian levies. Paris,
+Picardy, Champagne, and indeed the greater part of France north of the
+Loire, acknowledged him as their sovereign.
+
+
+  Death of Henry V.
+
+Henry had only two years longer to live; they were spent in incessant
+and successful campaigning against the partisans of his brother-in-law,
+the dauphin Charles; by a long series of sieges the partisans of that
+worthless prince were evicted from all their northern strongholds. They
+fought long and bitterly, nor was this to be marvelled at, for Henry had
+a custom of executing as traitors all who withstood him, and those who
+had once defied him did well to fight to the last gasp, in order to
+avoid the block or the halter. In the longest and most desperate of
+these sieges, that of Meaux (Oct. 1421-March 1422), the king contracted
+a dysenteric ailment which he could never shake off. He survived for a
+few months, but died, worn out by his incessant campaigning, on the 31st
+of August 1422, leaving the crown of England and the heirship of France
+to his only child Henry of Windsor, an infant less than two years old.
+
+
+  Effects of his conquests.
+
+Few sovereigns in history have accomplished such a disastrous life's
+work as this much-admired prince. If he had not been a soldier of the
+first ability and a diplomatist of the most unscrupulous sort, he could
+never have advanced so far towards his ill-chosen goal, the conquest of
+France. His genius and the dauphin's murderous act of folly at Montereau
+conspired to make the incredible almost possible. Indeed, if Henry had
+lived five years longer, he would probably have carried his arms to the
+Mediterranean, and have united France and England in uneasy union for
+some short space of time. It is clear that they could not have been held
+together after his death, for none but a king of exceptional powers
+could have resisted their natural impulse to break apart. As it was,
+Henry had accomplished just enough to tempt his countrymen to persevere
+for nearly thirty years in the endeavour to complete the task he had
+begun. France was ruined for a generation, England was exhausted by her
+effort, and (what was worse) her governing classes learnt in the long
+and pitiless war lessons of demoralization which were to bear fruit in
+the ensuing struggle of the two Roses. It is a strange fact that Henry,
+though he was in many respects a conscientious man, with a strong sense
+of responsibility, and a sincere piety, was so blind to the
+unrighteousness of his own actions that he died asserting that "neither
+ambition nor vainglory had led him into France, but a genuine desire to
+assert a righteous claim, which he desired his heirs to prosecute to the
+bitter end."
+
+
+  Henry VI.
+
+The guardianship of the infant Henry VI. fell to his two uncles, John of
+Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester, the two surviving brothers of the
+late king. Bedford became regent in France, and took over the heritage
+of the war, in which he was vigorously aided by the young Philip of
+Burgundy, whose sister he soon after married. Almost his first duty was
+to bury the insane Charles VI., who only survived his son-in-law for a
+few months, and to proclaim his little nephew king of France under the
+name of Henry II. Gloucester, however, had personal charge of the child,
+who was to be reared in England; he had also hoped to become protector
+of the realm, and to use the position for his own private interests, for
+he was a selfish and ambitious prince. But the council refused to let
+him assume the full powers of a regent, and bound him with many checks
+and restrictions, because they were well aware of his character. The
+tiresome and monotonous domestic history of England during the next
+twenty years consisted of little else than quarrels between Gloucester
+and the lords of the council, of whom the chief was the duke's
+half-uncle Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, the last to survive of
+all the sons of John of Gaunt. The duke and the bishop were both
+unscrupulous; but the churchman, with all his faults, was a patriotic
+statesman, while Gloucester cared far more for his own private ends than
+for the welfare of the realm.
+
+
+  Bedford's rule in France.
+
+  Humphrey of Gloucester.
+
+While these two well-matched antagonists were wrangling in England,
+Bedford, a capable general and a wise administrator, was doing his best
+to carry out the task which the dying Henry V. had laid upon him, by
+crushing the dauphin, or Charles VII. as he now called himself since his
+father's death. As long as the Burgundian party lent the regent their
+aid, the limits of the land still unsubdued continued to shrink, though
+the process was slow. Two considerable victories, Cravant (1423) and
+Verneuil (1424), marked the early years of Bedford's campaigning; at
+each, it may be noted, a very large proportion of his army was composed
+of Burgundian auxiliaries. But after a time their assistance began to be
+given less freely; this was due to the selfish intrigues of Humphrey of
+Gloucester, who, regardless of the general policy of England, had
+quarrelled with Philip the Good. He had married Jacoba (Jacquelaine),
+countess of Hainaut and Holland, a cousin of the Burgundian duke, who
+coveted and hoped to secure her lands. Pressing her claims, Gloucester
+came to open blows with Philip in Flanders and Hainaut (1424). In his
+anger the Burgundian ceased to support Bedford, and would have joined
+Charles VII. if revenge on the murderers of his father had not still
+remained his dominant passion. But Gloucester's attempt to seize Hainaut
+failed, and Philip, when he had got possession of his cousin's person
+and estates, allowed himself to be pacified by Bedford, who could prove
+that he had no part in his brother's late intrigues.
+
+
+  Siege of Orleans.
+
+This quarrel having been appeased, the advance against the territories
+of Charles VII. was resumed. It went slowly on, till in 1428 the tide of
+war reached the walls of Orleans, how the only place north of the Loire
+which remained unsubdued. The siege was long; but after the last army
+which the Dauphinois could raise had been beaten at the battle of
+Rouvray (Feb. 1429) it seemed that the end was near. Charles VII. was in
+such a state of despair after this last check, that he was actually
+taking into consideration a flight to Italy or Spain, and the
+abandonment of the struggle. He had shown himself so incapable and
+apathetic that his followers were sick of fighting for such a despicable
+master.
+
+
+  Joan of Arc.
+
+From this depth of despair the party which, with all its faults,
+represented the national sentiment of France was rescued by the
+astonishing exploits of Joan of Arc. Charles and his counsellors had no
+great confidence in the mission of this prophetess and champion, when
+she presented herself to them, promising to relieve Orleans and turn
+back the English. But all expedients are worth trying in the hour of
+ruin, and seeing that Joan was disinterested and sincere, and that her
+preaching exercised a marked influence over the people and the soldiery,
+Charles allowed her to march with the last levies that he put into the
+field for the relief of Orleans. From that moment the fortune of war
+turned; the presence of the prophetess with the French troops had an
+immediate and incalculable effect. Under the belief that they were now
+led by a messenger from heaven, the Dauphinois fought with a fiery
+courage that they had never before displayed. Their movements were
+skilfully directed--whether by Joan's generalship or that of her
+captains it boots not to inquire--and after the first successes which
+she achieved, in entering Orleans and capturing some of the besiegers'
+forts around it, the English became panic-stricken. They were cowed, as
+they said, "by that disciple and limb of the fiend called La Pucelle,
+that used false enchantments and sorcery." Suffolk, their commander,
+raised the siege, and sent to Bedford for reinforcements; but as he
+retreated he was set upon by the victorious army, and captured with most
+of his men at Jargeau and Beaugency (June 1429). The succours which were
+coming to his aid from Paris were defeated by the Maid at Patay a few
+days later, and for the most part destroyed.
+
+
+  Coronation of Charles VII. at Reims.
+
+The regent Bedford was now in a desperate position. His field army had
+been destroyed, and on all sides the provinces which had long lain inert
+beneath the English yoke were beginning to stir. When Joan led forth the
+French king to crown him at Reims, all the towns of Champagne opened
+their gates to her one after another. A large reinforcement received
+from England only just enabled Bedford to save Paris and some of the
+fortresses of the Ile de France. The rest revolted at the sight of the
+Maid's white banner. If Joan had been well supported by her master and
+his counsellors, it is probable that she might have completed her
+mission by expelling the English from France. But, despite all that she
+had done, Charles VII. and his favourites had a profound disbelief in
+her inspiration, and generally thwarted her plans. After an
+ill-concerted attack on Paris, in which Joan was wounded, the French
+army broke up for the winter. They had shaken the grip of the English on
+the north, and reconquered a vast stretch of territory, but they had
+failed by their own fault to achieve complete success. Nevertheless the
+crucial point of the war had passed; after 1429 the Burgundian party
+began to slacken in its support of the English cause, and to pass over
+piecemeal to the national side. This was but natural: the partisans who
+could remember nothing but the foul deed of Montereau were yearly
+growing fewer, and it was clear that Charles VII., personally despicable
+though he might be, represented the cause of French nationality.
+
+
+  Capture and execution of Joan.
+
+The natural drift of circumstances was not stayed even by the disastrous
+end of the career of Joan of Arc in 1430. The king's ministers had
+refused to take her counsels or to entrust her with another army, but
+she went forth with a small force of volunteers to relieve the important
+fortress of Compiegne. The place was saved, but in a sortie she was
+captured by the Burgundians, who sold her for 10,000 francs to Bedford.
+The regent handed her over for punishment as a sorceress to the French
+clergy of his own party. After a long trial, carried out with elaborate
+formality and great unfairness, the unhappy Joan was found guilty of
+proclaiming as divine visions what were delusions of the evil one, or of
+her own vain imagination, and when she persisted in maintaining their
+reality she was declared a relapsed heretic, and burnt at Rouen on the
+30th of May 1431. Charles VII. took little interest in her fate, which
+he might easily have prevented by threatening to retaliate on the
+numerous English prisoners who were in his power. Seldom had a good
+cause such an unworthy figurehead as that callous and apathetic prince.
+
+
+  Philip of Burgundy joins Charles. Treaty of Arras.
+
+The movement which Joan had set on foot was in no way crushed by her
+execution. For the next four years the limits of the English occupation
+continued to recede. It was to no profit that Bedford brought over the
+young Henry VI. and had him crowned at Paris, in order to appeal to the
+loyalty of his French partisans by means of the king's forlorn youth and
+simplicity. Yet by endless feats of skilful generalship the regent
+continued to maintain a hold on Paris and on Normandy. The fatal blow
+was administered by Philip of Burgundy, who, tired of maintaining a
+failing cause, consented at last to forget his father's murder, and to
+be reconciled to Charles VII. Their alliance was celebrated by the
+treaty of Arras (Sept. 6, 1435), at which the English were offered peace
+and the retention of Normandy and Guienne if they would evacuate Paris
+and the rest of France. They would have been wise to accept the
+agreement; but with obstinate and misplaced courage they refused to
+acknowledge Charles as king of France, or to give up to him the capital.
+
+
+  Death of Bedford. English defeats.
+
+Bedford, worn out by long campaigning, died at Rouen on the 14th of
+September 1435, just before the results of the treaty of Arras began to
+make themselves felt. With him died the best hope of the English party
+in France, for he had been well loved by the Burgundians, and many had
+adhered to the cause of Henry VI. solely because of their personal
+attachment to him. No worthy successor could be found--England had many
+hard-handed soldiers but no more statesmen of Bedford's calibre. It was
+no wonder that Paris was lost within six months of the regent's death,
+Normandy invaded, and Calais beleaguered by an army headed by England's
+new enemy, Philip of Burgundy. But the council, still backed by the
+nation, refused to give up the game; Burgundy was beaten off from
+Calais, and the young duke of York, the heir of the Mortimers, took the
+command at Rouen, and recovered much of what had been lost on the Norman
+side.
+
+
+  Truce with France.
+
+The next eight years of the war were in some respects the most
+astonishing period of its interminable length. The English fought out
+the losing game with a wonderful obstinacy. Though every town that they
+held was eager to revolt, and though they were hopelessly outnumbered in
+every quarter, they kept a tight grip on the greater part of Normandy,
+and on their old domain in the Bordelais and about Bayonne. They lost
+nearly all their outlying possessions, but still made head against the
+generals of Charles VII. in these two regions. The leaders of this
+period of the war were the duke of York, and the aged Lord Talbot,
+afterwards earl of Shrewsbury. The struggle only ceased in 1444, when
+the English council, in which a peace party had at last been formed,
+concluded a two-year truce with King Charles, which they hoped to turn
+into a permanent treaty, on the condition that their king should retain
+what he held in Normandy and Guienne, but sign away his claim to the
+French crown, and relinquish the few places outside the two duchies
+which were still in his power--terms very similar to those rejected at
+Arras nine years before--but there was now much less to give up. To mark
+the reconciliation of the two powers Henry VI. was betrothed to the
+French king's niece, Margaret of Anjou. The two years' truce was
+repeatedly prorogued, and lasted till 1449, but no definitive treaty was
+ever concluded, owing to the bad faith with which both parties kept
+their promises.
+
+
+  Supremacy of the Beauforts in England.
+
+  Character of Henry VI.
+
+The government in England was now in the hands of the faction which
+Bishop Beaufort had originally led, for after long struggles the
+churchman had at last crushed his nephew Humphrey. In 1441 the duchess
+of Gloucester had been arrested and charged with practising sorcery
+against the health of the young king--apparently not without
+justification. She was tried and condemned to imprisonment for life; her
+guilt was visited on her husband, on whose behalf she was acting, for if
+Henry had died his uncle would have come to the throne. For some years
+he was constrained to take a minor part in politics, only emerging
+occasionally to make violent and unwise protests against peace with
+France. The bishop now ruled, with his nephew Edmund Beaufort, duke of
+Somerset, and William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, as his chief
+instruments. As he grew older he let the power slip into their hands, as
+it was they who were mainly responsible for the truce of 1444. King
+Henry, though he had reached the age of 23 at the time of his marriage,
+counted for nothing. He was a pious young man, simple to the verge of
+imbecility; a little later he developed actual insanity, the heritage of
+his grandfather Charles VI. He showed a blind confidence in Suffolk and
+Somerset, who were wholly unworthy of it, for both were tricky and
+unscrupulous politicians. His wife Margaret of Anjou, though she
+possessed all the fire and energy which her husband lacked, was equally
+devoted to these two ministers, and soon came to share their
+unpopularity.
+
+
+  Death of Humphrey of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort.
+
+The truce with France had offended the natural pride of the nation,
+which still refused to own itself beaten. The evacuation of the French
+fortresses in Maine and elsewhere, which was the price paid for the
+suspension of arms, was bitterly resented. Indeed the garrisons had to
+be threatened with the use of force before they would quit their
+strongholds. A violent clamour was raised against Suffolk and Somerset,
+and Humphrey of Gloucester emerged from his retirement to head the
+agitation. This led to his death; he was arrested by the order of the
+queen and the ministers at the parliament of Bury. Five days later he
+died suddenly in prison, probably by foul play, though it was given out
+that he had been carried off by a paralytic stroke. His estates were
+confiscated, and distributed among the friends of Suffolk and the queen.
+Six weeks later the aged Bishop Beaufort followed him to the grave--he
+had no share in Gloucester's fate, having long before made over his
+power and the leadership of his party to his nephew Edmund of Somerset
+(1447).
+
+
+  Renewal of the war with France.
+
+  Loss of Normandy.
+
+The truce with France lasted for two years after the death of Duke
+Humphrey, and came to an end partly owing to the eagerness of the French
+to push their advantages, but much more from the treachery and bad faith
+of Suffolk and Somerset, who gave the enemy an admirable _casus belli_.
+By their weakness, or perhaps with their secret connivance, the English
+garrisons of Normandy carried out plundering raids of the most impudent
+sort on French territory. When summoned to punish the offenders, and to
+make monetary compensation, Suffolk and Somerset shuffled and
+prevaricated, but gave no satisfaction. Thereupon the French king once
+more declared war (July 1449) and invaded Normandy. Somerset was in
+command; he showed hopeless incapacity and timidity, and in a few months
+the duchy which had been so long held by the swords of Bedford, York and
+Shrewsbury was hopelessly lost. The final blow came when a small army of
+relief sent over from England was absolutely exterminated by the French
+at the battle of Formigny (April 15, 1450). Somerset, who had retired
+into Caen, surrendered two months later after a feeble defence, and the
+English power in northern France came to an end.
+
+
+  Jack Cade's Rebellion.
+
+Even before this final disaster the indignation felt against Suffolk and
+Somerset had raised violent disturbances at home. Suffolk was impeached
+on many charges, true and false; it was unfair to accuse him of treason,
+but quite just to lay double-dealing and bad faith to his charge. The
+king tried to save him from the block by banishing him before he could
+be tried. But while he was sailing to Flanders his ship was intercepted
+by some London vessels, which were on the look-out for him, and he was
+deliberately murdered. The instigators of the act were never discovered.
+But, though Suffolk was gone, Somerset yet survived, and their partisans
+still engrossed the confidence of the king. To clear out the government,
+and punish those responsible for the late disasters, the commons of Kent
+rose in insurrection under a captain who called himself John Mortimer,
+though his real name seems to have been John Cade. He was a soldier of
+fortune who had served in the French wars, and claimed to be in the
+confidence of the duke of York, the person to whom the eyes of all who
+hated Somerset and the present regime were now directed.
+
+Cade was not a social reformer, like his predecessor Wat Tyler, with
+whom he has often been compared, but a politician. Though he called
+himself "John Amend-all," and promised to put down abuses of every kind,
+the main part of the programme which he issued was intended to appeal to
+national sentiment, not to class feeling. Whether he was the tool of
+other and more highly placed malcontents, or whether he was simply a
+ready-witted adventurer playing his own game, it is hard to determine.
+His first success was marvellous; he defeated the king's troops, made a
+triumphant entry into London and held the city for two days. He seized
+and beheaded Lord Saye, the treasurer, and several other unpopular
+persons, and might have continued his dictatorship for some time if the
+Kentish mob that followed him had not fallen to general pillage and
+arson. This led to the same results that had been seen in Tyler's day.
+The propertied classes in London took arms to suppress anarchy, and beat
+the insurgents out of the city. Cade, striving to keep up the rising
+outside the walls, was killed in a skirmish a month later, and his bands
+dispersed.
+
+
+  Richard, duke of York, heads the opposition.
+
+But the troubles of England were only just beginning; the protest
+against the misgovernment of Somerset and the rest of the confidants of
+the king and queen was now taken up by a more important personage than
+the adventurer Cade. Richard, duke of York, the heir to the claims of
+the house of Mortimer--his mother was the sister of the last earl of
+March--now placed himself at the head of the opposition. He had
+plausible grounds for doing so; though he had distinguished himself in
+the French wars, and was, since the death of Humphrey of Gloucester, the
+first prince of the blood royal, he had been ignored and flouted by the
+king's ministers, who had sent him into a kind of honourable banishment
+as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and had forbidden him to re-enter the
+realm. When, in defiance of this mandate, he came home and announced his
+intention of impeaching Somerset, he took the first step which was to
+lead to the Wars of the Roses.
+
+
+  Battle of Castillon. Loss of Guienne.
+
+Yet he was a cautious and in the main a well-intentioned prince, and the
+extreme moderation of his original demands seems to prove that he did not
+at first aim at the crown. He merely required that Somerset and his
+friends should be dismissed from office and made to answer for their
+misgovernment. Though he backed his demands by armed demonstration--twice
+calling out his friends and retainers to support his policy--he carefully
+refrained for five long years from actual violence. Indeed in 1452 he
+consented to abandon his protests, and to lend his aid to the other party
+for a great national object, the recovery of Guienne. For in the previous
+year Charles VII. had dealt with Bordeaux and Bayonne as he had already
+dealt with Normandy, and had met with no better resistance while
+completing the conquest. Six months' experience of French rule, however,
+had revealed to the Bordelais how much they had lost when they
+surrendered. Their old loyalty to the house of Plantagenet burst once
+more into flame; they rose in arms and called for aid to England. For a
+moment the quarrel of York and Somerset was suspended, and the last
+English army that crossed the seas during the Hundred Years' War landed
+in Guienne, joined the insurgents, and for a time swept all before it.
+But there seemed to be a curse on whatever Henry VI. and Somerset took in
+hand. On the 17th of July 1453 the veteran earl of Shrewsbury and the
+greater part of his Anglo-Gascon host were cut to pieces at the
+hard-fought battle of Castillon. Bordeaux, though left to defend itself,
+held out for eighty days after Talbot's defeat and death, and then made
+its final submission to the French. The long struggle was over, and
+England now retained nothing of her old transmarine possessions save
+Calais and the Channel Islands. The ambition of Henry V. had finally cost
+her the long-loyal Guienne, as well as all the ephemeral conquests of his
+own sword.
+
+The last crowning disaster of the administration of the favourites of
+Henry VI. put an end to the chance that a way out of domestic strife
+might be found in the vigorous prosecution of the French war. For the
+next twenty years the battles of England were to be fought on her own
+soil, and between her own sons. It was a righteous punishment for her
+interference in the unnatural strife of Orleanists and Burgundians that
+the struggle between York and Lancaster was to be as bitter and as
+bloody as that between the two French factions.
+
+
+V. THE WARS OF THE ROSES (1453-1497)
+
+  Origin of the Wars of the Roses.
+
+The Wars of the Roses have been ascribed to many different causes by
+different historians. To some their origin is mainly constitutional.
+Henry VI., it is argued, had broken the tacit compact which the house of
+Lancaster had made with the nation; instead of committing the
+administration of the realm to ministers chosen for him by, or at least
+approved by, his parliament, he persisted in retaining in office persons
+like Suffolk and Somerset, who had forfeited the confidence of the
+people by their many failures in war and diplomacy, and were suspected
+of something worse than incapacity. They might not be so personally
+odious as the favourites of Edward II. or of Henry III., but they were
+even more dangerous to the state, because they were not foreign
+adventurers but great English peers. In spite of the warnings given by
+the assault on Suffolk in 1450, by Jack Cade's insurrection, and by the
+first armed demonstrations of Richard of York in 1450 and 1452, the king
+persisted in keeping his friends in office, and they had to be removed
+by the familiar and forcible methods that had been applied in earlier
+ages by the lords ordainers or the lords appellant. Undoubtedly there is
+much truth in this view of the situation; if Henry VI., or perhaps we
+should rather say, if his queen Margaret of Anjou, had been content to
+accept ministries in which the friends of Richard of York were fairly
+represented, it is probable that he might have died a king, and have
+transmitted his crown to his natural heir. But this explanation of the
+Wars of the Roses is not complete; it accounts for their outbreak, but
+not for their long continuance.
+
+
+  Claims of the duke of York to the crown.
+
+  Birth of Edward, prince of Wales.
+
+  Queen Margaret.
+
+  Condition of the country.
+
+According to another school the real key to the problem is simply the
+question of the succession to the crown. If the wedlock of Henry VI. and
+Margaret of Anjou had been fruitful during the first few years after
+their marriage, no one would have raised the question of a change of
+dynasty. But when they remained childless for seven years, and strong
+suspicion arose that there was a project on foot to declare the
+Beauforts heirs to the throne, the claim of Richard of York, as the
+representative of the houses of Clarence and March, was raised by those
+who viewed the possible accession of the incapable and unpopular
+Somerset with terror and dislike. When once the claims of York had been
+displayed and stated by his imprudent partisan, Thomas Yonge, in the
+parliament of 1451, there was no possibility of hiding the fact that in
+the strict legitimate line of succession he had a better claim than the
+reigning king. He disavowed any pretensions to the crown for nine years;
+it was only in 1460 that he set forth his title with his own mouth. But
+his friends and followers were not so discreet; hence when a son was at
+last born to Henry and Margaret, in 1453, the succession question was
+already in the air and could no longer be ignored. If the claim of York
+was superior to that of Lancaster in the eyes of a considerable part of
+the nation, it was no longer possible to consider the problem solved by
+the birth of a direct heir to the actual occupant of the throne. Though
+Duke Richard behaved in the most correct fashion, acknowledged the
+infant Edward as prince of Wales, and made no attempt to assert dynastic
+claims during his two regencies in 1454 and 1455-1456, yet the queen and
+her partisans already looked upon him as a pretender to the throne. It
+is this fact which accounts for the growing bitterness of the Yorkist
+and Lancastrian parties during the last years of Henry VI. Margaret
+believed herself to be defending the rights of her son against a
+would-be usurper. Duke Richard, on the other hand, considered himself as
+wrongfully oppressed, and excluded from his legitimate position as a
+prince of the blood and a chief councillor of the crown. Nor can there
+be any doubt that the queen took every opportunity of showing her
+suspicion of him, and deliberately kept him and his friends from sharing
+in the administration of the realm. This might have been more tolerable
+if the Lancastrian party had shown any governing power; but both while
+Somerset was their leader, down to his death in the first battle of St
+Albans, and while in 1456-1459 Exeter, Wiltshire, Shrewsbury and
+Beaumont were the queen's trusted agents, the condition of England was
+deplorable. As a contemporary chronicler wrote, "the realm was out of
+all good governance--as it has been many days before: the king was
+simple, and led by covetous councillors, and owed more than he was
+worth. His debts increased daily, but payment was there none, for all
+the manors and possessions that pertained to the crown he had given
+away, so that he had almost nought to live on. For these misgovernances
+the hearts of the people were turned from them that had the land in
+rule, and their blessing was turned to cursing. The officers of the
+realm, and especially the earl of Wiltshire the treasurer, for to enrich
+himself plundered poor people and disinherited rightful heirs, and did
+many wrongs. The queen was defamed, that he that was called the prince
+was not the king's son, but a bastard gotten in adultery." When it is
+added that the Lancastrian party avoided holding a parliament for three
+years, because they dared not face it, and that the French were allowed
+to sack Fowey, Sandwich and other places because there was no English
+fleet in existence, it is not wonderful that many men thought that the
+cup of the iniquities of the house of Lancaster was full. In the
+military classes it was felt that the honour of the realm was lost; in
+mercantile circles it was thought that the continuance for a few years
+more of such government would make an end of English trade. Some excuse
+must be found for getting rid of the queen and her friends, and the
+doubtful legitimacy of the Lancastrian claim to the crown afforded such
+an excuse. Hence came the curious paradox, that the party which started
+as the advocates of the rights of parliament against the incapable
+ministers appointed by the crown, ended by challenging the right of
+parliament, exercised in 1399, to depose a legitimate king and
+substitute for him another member of the royal house. For Richard of
+York in 1460 and Edward IV. in 1461 put in their claim to the throne,
+not as the elect of the nation, but as the possessors of a divine
+hereditary right to the succession, there having been no true king of
+England since the death of Richard II. Hence Edward assumed the royal
+title in March 1461, was crowned in June, but called no parliament till
+November. When it met, it acknowledged him as king, but made no pretence
+of creating or electing him to be sovereign.
+
+
+  Motives of the contending parties.
+
+But putting aside the constitutional aspects of the Wars of the Roses,
+it is necessary to point out that they had another aspect. From one
+point of view they were little more than a great faction fight between
+two alliances of over-powerful barons. Though the Lancastrians made much
+play with the watchword of loyalty to the crown, and though the Yorkists
+never forgot to speak of the need for strong and wise governance, and
+the welfare of the realm, yet personal and family enmities had in many
+cases more effect in determining their action than a zeal for King
+Henry's rights or for the prosperity of England. It is true that some
+classes were undoubtedly influenced in their choice of sides mainly by
+the general causes spoken of above; the citizens of London and the other
+great towns (for example) inclined to the Yorkist faction simply because
+they saw that under the Lancastrian rule the foreign trade of England
+was being ruined, and insufficient security was given for life and
+property. But the leading men among the baronage were undoubtedly swayed
+by ambition and resentment, by family ties and family feuds, far more
+than by enlightened statesmanship or zeal for the king or the
+commonweal. It would be going too far to seek the origin of the Yorkist
+party--as some have done--in the old enmity of the houses of March,
+Norfolk and Salisbury against Henry IV. But it is not so fantastic to
+ascribe its birth to the personal hatred that existed between Richard of
+York and Edmund of Somerset, to the old family grudge (going back to
+1405) between the Percies and the Nevilles, to the marriage alliance
+that bound the houses of York and Neville together, and to other less
+well-remembered quarrels or blood-ties among the lesser baronage. As an
+example of how such motives worked, it may suffice to quote the case of
+those old enemies, the Bonvilles and Courtenays, in the west country.
+While Lord Bonville supported the queen, the house of Courtenay were
+staunch Yorkists, and the earl of Devon joined in the armed
+demonstration of Duke Richard in 1452. But when the earl changed his
+politics and fought on the Lancastrian side at St Albans in 1455, the
+baron at once became a strenuous adherent of the duke, adhered firmly to
+the white rose and died by the axe for its cause.
+
+
+  The baronial party. The Nevilles.
+
+Richard of York, in short, was not merely the head of a constitutional
+opposition to misgovernment by the queen's friends, nor was he merely a
+legitimist claimant to the crown, he was also the head of a powerful
+baronial league, of which the most prominent members were his kinsmen,
+the Nevilles, Mowbrays and Bourchiers. The Nevilles alone, enriched with
+the ancient estates of the Beauchamps and Montagus, and with five of
+their name in the House of Lords, were a sufficient nucleus for a
+faction. They were headed by the two most capable politicians and
+soldiers then alive in England, the two Richards, father and son, who
+held the earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick, and were respectively
+brother-in-law and nephew to York. It must be remembered that a baron of
+1450 was not strong merely by reason of the spears and bows of his
+household and his tenantry, like a baron of the 13th century. The
+pernicious practice of "livery and maintenance" was now at its zenith;
+all over England in times of stress the knighthood and gentry were wont
+to pledge themselves, by sealed bonds of indenture, to follow the
+magnate whom they thought best able to protect them. They mounted his
+badge, and joined his banner when strife broke out, in return for his
+championship of their private interests and his promise to "maintain"
+them against all their enemies. A soldier and statesman of the ability
+and ambition of Richard of Warwick counted hundreds of such adherents,
+scattered over twenty shires. The system had spread so far that the
+majority of the smaller tenants-in-chief, and even many of the lesser
+barons, were the sworn followers of an insignificant number of the
+greater lords. An alliance of half-a-dozen of these over-powerful
+subjects was a serious danger to the crown. For the king could no longer
+count on raising a national army against them; he could only call out
+the adherents of the lords of his own party. The factions were fairly
+balanced, for if the majority of the baronage were, on the whole,
+Lancastrian, the greatest houses stood by the cause of York.
+
+
+  Attitude of Richard of York.
+
+  Suppression of York's rebellion. Executions and confiscations.
+
+  The earl of Warwick defeats the Lancastrians at Northampton.
+
+  Richard of York declared heir to the throne.
+
+Despite all this, there was still, when the wars began, a very strong
+feeling in favour of compromise and moderation. For this there can be no
+doubt that Richard of York was mainly responsible. When he was twice
+placed in power, during the two protectorates which followed Henry's two
+long fits of insanity in 1454 and 1455-1456, he carefully avoided any
+oppression of his enemies, though he naturally took care to put his own
+friends in office. Most of all did he show his sincere wish for peace by
+twice laying down the protectorate when the king was restored to sanity.
+He was undoubtedly goaded into his last rebellion of 1459 by the queen's
+undisguised preparations for attacking him. Yet because he struck first,
+without waiting for a definite _casus belli_, public opinion declared so
+much against him that half his followers refused to rally to his banner.
+The revulsion only came when the queen, victorious after the rout of
+Ludford, applied to the vanquished Yorkists those penalties of
+confiscation and attainder which Duke Richard had always refused to
+employ in his day of power. After the harsh doings at the parliament of
+Coventry (1459), and the commencement of political executions by the
+sending of Roger Neville and his fellows to the scaffold, the trend of
+public opinion veered round, and Margaret and her friends were rightly
+held responsible for the embittered nature of the strife. Hence came the
+marvellous success of the Yorkist counterstroke in June 1460, when the
+exiled Warwick, landing in Kent with a mere handful of men, was suddenly
+joined by the whole of the south of England and the citizens of London,
+and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Lancastrians at Northampton
+before he had been fifteen days on shore (July 10, 1460). The growing
+rancour of the struggle was marked by the fact that the Yorkists, after
+Northampton, showed themselves by no means so merciful and scrupulous as
+in their earlier days. Retaliatory executions began, though on a small
+scale, and when York reached London he at last began to talk of his
+rights to the crown, and to propose the deposition of Henry VI. Yet
+moderation was still so far prevalent in the ranks of his adherents that
+they refused to follow him to such lengths. Warwick and the other
+leading men of the party dictated a compromise, by which Henry was to
+reign for the term of his natural life, but Duke Richard was to be
+recognized as his heir and to succeed him on the throne. They had
+obviously borrowed the expedient from the terms of the treaty of Troyes.
+But the act of parliament which embodied it did not formally disinherit
+the reigning king's son, as the treaty of Troyes had done, but merely
+ignored his existence.
+
+
+  Battle of Wakefield. Richard slain.
+
+  Battle of St Albans.
+
+It would have been well for England if this agreement had held, and the
+crown had passed peaceably to the house of York, after the comparatively
+short and bloodless struggle which had just ended. But Duke Richard had
+forgotten to reckon with the fierce and unscrupulous energy of Queen
+Margaret, when she was at bay in defence of her son's rights. Marching
+with a trifling force to expel her from the north, he was surprised and
+slain at Wakefield (Dec. 30, 1460). But it was not his death that was
+the main misfortune, but the fact that in the battle the Lancastrians
+gave no quarter to small or great, and that after it they put to death
+York's brother-in-law Salisbury and other prisoners. The heads of the
+duke and the earl were set up over the gates of York. This ferocity was
+repeated when Margaret and her northern host beat Warwick at the second
+battle of St Albans (Feb. 17, 1461), where they had the good fortune to
+recover possession of the person of King Henry. Lord Bonville and the
+other captives of rank were beheaded next morning.
+
+
+  Edward, earl of March, proclaimed as Edward IV.
+
+After this it was but natural that the struggle became a mere record of
+massacres and executions. The Yorkists proclaimed Edward, Duke Richard's
+heir, king of England; they took no further heed of the claims of King
+Henry, declared their leader the true successor of Richard II., and
+stigmatized the whole period of the Lancastrian rule as a mere
+usurpation. They adopted a strict legitimist theory of the descent of
+the crown, and denied the right of parliament to deal with the
+succession. This was the first step in the direction of absolute
+monarchy which England had seen since the short months of King Richard's
+tyranny in 1397-1399. It was but the first of many encroachments of the
+new dynasty upon the liberties that had been enjoyed by the nation under
+the house of Lancaster.
+
+
+  Changed character of the war.
+
+  Battle of Towton.
+
+  Ruthless reprisals of the Yorkists.
+
+  Personal rule of Edward IV.
+
+The revenge taken by the new king and his cousin Richard of Warwick for
+the slaughter at Wakefield and St Albans was prompt and dreadful. They
+were now well supported by the whole of southern England; for not only
+had the queen's ferocity shocked the nation, but the reckless plundering
+of her northern moss-troopers in the home counties had roused the
+peasantry and townsfolk to an interest in the struggle which they had
+never before displayed. Up to this moment the civil war had been
+conducted like a great faction fight; the barons and their liveried
+retainers had been wont to seek some convenient heath or hill and there
+to fight out their quarrel with the minimum of damage to the
+countryside. The deliberate harrying of the Midlands by Margaret's
+northern levies was a new departure, and one bitterly resented. The
+house of Lancaster could never for the future count on an adherent south
+of Trent or east of Chiltern. The Yorkist army that marched in pursuit
+of the raiders, and won the bloody field of Towton under Warwick's
+guidance, gave no quarter. Not only was the slaughter in that battle and
+the pursuit more cruel than anything that had been seen since the day of
+Evesham, but the executions that followed were ruthless. Ere Edward
+turned south he had beheaded two earls--Devon and Wiltshire--and
+forty-two knights, and had hanged many prisoners of lesser estate. The
+Yorkist parliament of November 1461 carried on the work by attainting
+133 persons, ranging from Henry VI. and Queen Margaret down through the
+peerage and the knighthood to the clerks and household retainers of the
+late king. All the estates of the Lancastrian lords, living or dead,
+were confiscated, and their blood was declared corrupted. This brought
+into the king's hands such a mass of plunder as no one had handled since
+William the Conqueror. Edward IV. could not only reward his adherents
+with it, so as to create a whole new court noblesse, but had enough over
+to fill his exchequer for many years, and to enable him to dispense with
+parliamentary grants of money for an unexampled period. Between 1461 and
+1465 he only asked for L37,000 from the nation--and won no small
+popularity thereby. For, in their joy at being quit of taxation, men
+forgot that they were losing the lever by which their fathers had been
+wont to move the crown to constitutional concessions.
+
+
+  Civil war in the north and west.
+
+  Battle of Hexham. Imprisonment of Henry VI.
+
+After Towton peace prevailed south of the Tyne and east of the Severn,
+for it was only in Northumberland and in Wales that the survivors of the
+Lancastrian faction succeeded in keeping the war alive. King Edward, as
+indolent and pleasure-loving in times of ease as he was active and
+ruthless in times of stress and battle, set himself to enjoy life,
+handing over the suppression of the rebels to his ambitious and untiring
+cousin Richard of Warwick. The annals of the few contemporary
+chroniclers are so entirely devoted to the bickerings in the extreme
+north and west, that it is necessary to insist on the fact that from
+1461 onwards the civil war was purely local, and nine-tenths of the
+realm enjoyed what passed for peace in the 15th century. The campaigns
+of 1462-63-64, though full of incident and bloodshed, were not of
+first-rate political importance. The cause of Lancaster had been lost at
+Towton, and all that Queen Margaret succeeded in accomplishing was to
+keep Northumberland in revolt, mainly by means of French and Scottish
+succours. Her last English partisans, attainted men who had lost their
+lands and lived with the shadow of the axe ever before them, fought
+bitterly enough. But the obstinate and hard-handed Warwick beat them
+down again and again, and the old Lancastrian party was almost
+exterminated when the last of its chiefs went to the block in the series
+of wholesale executions that followed the battle of Hexham (May 15,
+1464). A year later Henry VI. himself fell into the hands of his
+enemies, as he lurked in Lancashire, and with his consignment to the
+Tower the dynastic question seemed finally solved in favour of the house
+of York.
+
+
+  Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.
+
+The first ten years of the reign of Edward IV. fall into two parts, the
+dividing point being the avowal of the king's marriage to Elizabeth
+Woodville in November 1464. During the first of these periods Edward
+reigned but Warwick governed; he was not only the fighting man, but the
+statesman and diplomatist of the Yorkist party, and enjoyed a complete
+ascendancy over his young master, who long preferred thriftless ease to
+the toils of personal monarchy. Warwick represented the better side of
+the victorious cause; he was no mere factious king-maker, and his later
+nickname of "the last of the barons" by no means expresses his character
+or his position. He was strong, not so much by reason of his vast
+estates and his numerous retainers, as by reason of the confidence which
+the greater part of the nation placed in him. He never forgot that the
+Yorkist party had started as the advocates of sound and strong
+administration, and the mandatories of the popular will against the
+queen's incapable and corrupt ministers. "He ever had the goodwill of
+the people because he knew how to give them fair words, and always spoke
+not of himself but of the augmentation and good governance of the
+kingdom, for which he would spend his life; and thus he had the goodwill
+of England, so that in all the land he was the lord who was held in most
+esteem and faith and credence." As long as he remained supreme,
+parliaments were regularly held, and the house of York appeared to be
+keeping its bargain with the nation. His policy was sound; peace with
+France, the rehabilitation of the dwindling foreign trade of England,
+and the maintenance of law and justice by strong-handed governance were
+his main aims.
+
+But Warwick was one of those ministers who love to do everything for
+themselves, and chafe at masters and colleagues who presume to check or
+to criticise their actions. He was surrounded and supported, moreover,
+by a group of brothers and cousins, to whom he gave most of his
+confidence, and most of the preferment that came to his hands. England
+has always chafed against a family oligarchy, however well it may do its
+work. The Yorkist magnates who did not belong to the clan of the
+Nevilles were not unnaturally jealous of that house, and Edward IV.
+himself gradually came to realize the ignominious position of a king who
+is managed and overruled by a strong-willed and arbitrary minister.
+
+
+  Edward IV. marries Elizabeth Woodville.
+
+  Breach between Warwick and the king.
+
+His first sign of revolt was his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville,
+a lady of decidedly Lancastrian connexions, for her father and her first
+husband were both members of the defeated faction. Warwick was at the
+moment suing for the hand of Louis XI.'s sister-in-law in his master's
+name, and had to back out of his negotiations in a sudden and somewhat
+ridiculous fashion. His pride was hurt, but for two years more there was
+no open breach between him and his master, though their estrangement
+grew more and more marked when Edward continued to heap titles and
+estates on his wife's numerous relatives, and to conclude for them
+marriage alliances with all the great Yorkist families who were not of
+the Neville connexion. In this way he built up for himself a personal
+following within the Yorkist party; but the relative strength of this
+faction and of that which still looked upon Warwick as the true
+representative of the cause had yet to be tried. The king had in his
+favour the prestige of the royal name, and a popularity won by his
+easy-going affability and his liberal gifts. The earl had his
+established reputation for disinterested devotion to the welfare of the
+realm, and his brilliant record as a soldier and statesman. In districts
+as far apart as Kent and Yorkshire, his word counted for a good deal
+more than that of his sovereign.
+
+
+  Warwick organizes a rebellion.
+
+  Rising of "Robin of Redesdale."
+
+Unhappily for England and for himself, Warwick's loyalty was not
+sufficient to restrain his ambition and his resentment. He felt the
+ingratitude of the king, whom he had made, so bitterly that he stooped
+ere long to intrigue and treason. Edward in 1467 openly broke with him
+by dismissing his brother George Neville from the chancellorship, by
+repudiating a treaty with France which the earl had just negotiated, and
+by concluding an alliance with Burgundy against which he had always
+protested. Warwick enlisted in his cause the king's younger brother
+George of Clarence, who desired to marry his daughter and heiress
+Isabella Neville, and with the aid of this unscrupulous but unstable
+young man began to organize rebellion. His first experiment in treason
+was the so-called "rising of Robin of Redesdale," which was ostensibly
+an armed protest by the gentry and commons of Yorkshire against the
+maladministration of the realm by the king's favourites--his wife's
+relatives, and the courtiers whom he had lately promoted to high rank
+and office. The rebellion was headed by well-known adherents of the
+earl, and the nickname of "Robin of Redesdale" seems to have covered the
+personality of his kinsman Sir John Conyers. When the rising was well
+started Warwick declared his sympathy with the aims of the insurgents,
+wedded his daughter to Clarence despite the king's prohibition of the
+match, and raised a force at Calais with which he landed in Kent.
+
+
+  Battle of Edgecott. Edward a prisoner.
+
+  Execution of the queen's relatives.
+
+But his plot was already successful before he reached the scene of
+operations. The Yorkshire rebels beat the royalist army at the battle of
+Edgecott (July 6, 1469). A few days later Edward himself was captured at
+Olney and put into the earl's hands. Many of his chief supporters,
+including the queen's father, Lord Rivers, and her brother, John
+Woodville, as well as the newly-created earls of Pembroke and Devon,
+were put to death with Warwick's connivance, if not by his direct
+orders. The king was confined for some weeks in the great Neville
+stronghold of Middleham Castle, but presently released on conditions,
+being compelled to accept new ministers nominated by Warwick. The earl
+supposed that his cousin's spirit was broken and that he would give no
+further trouble. In this he erred grievously. Edward vowed revenge for
+his slaughtered favourites, and waited his opportunity. Warwick had lost
+credit by using such underhand methods in his attack on his master, and
+had not taken sufficient care to conciliate public opinion when he
+reconstructed the government. His conduct had destroyed his old
+reputation for disinterestedness and honesty.
+
+
+  King Edward drives Warwick into exile.
+
+In March 1470 the king seized the first chance of avenging himself. Some
+unimportant riots had broken out in Lincolnshire, originating probably
+in mere local quarrels, but possibly in Lancastrian intrigues. To
+suppress this rising the king gathered a great force, carefully calling
+in to his banner all the peers who were offended with Warwick or, at any
+rate, did not belong to his family alliance. Having scattered the
+Lincolnshire bands, he suddenly turned upon Warwick with his army, and
+caught him wholly unprepared. The earl and his son-in-law Clarence were
+hunted out of the realm before they could collect their partisans, and
+fled to France; Edward seemed for the first time to be master in his own
+realm.
+
+
+  Warwick takes up the cause of Henry VI.
+
+  He lands in England.
+
+  King Edward in exile.
+
+But the Wars of the Roses had one more phase to come. Warwick's name was
+still a power in the land, and his expulsion had been so sudden that he
+had not been given an opportunity of trying his strength. His old enmity
+for the house of Lancaster was completely swallowed up in his new grudge
+against the king that he had made. He opened negotiations with the
+exiled Queen Margaret, and offered to place his sword at her disposition
+for the purpose of overthrowing King Edward and restoring King Henry.
+The queen had much difficulty in forcing herself to come to terms with
+the man who had been the bane of her cause, but finally, was induced by
+Louis XI. to conclude a bargain. Warwick married his younger daughter to
+her son Edward, prince of Wales, as a pledge of his good faith, and
+swore allegiance to King Henry in the cathedral of Angers. He then set
+himself to stir up the Yorkshire adherents of the house of Neville to
+distract the attention of Edward IV. When the king had gone northward to
+attack them, the earl landed at Dartmouth (Sept. 1470) with a small
+force partly composed of Lancastrian exiles, partly of his own men. His
+appearance had the effect on which he had calculated. Devon rose in the
+Lancastrian interest; Kent, where the earl's name had always been
+popular, took arms a few days later; and London opened its gates. King
+Edward, hurrying south to oppose the invader, found his army melting
+away from his banner, and hastily took ship at Lynn and fled to Holland.
+He found a refuge with his brother-in-law and ally Charles the Bold, the
+great duke of Burgundy.
+
+
+  Restoration of Henry VI.
+
+  Edward returns to England.
+
+  Battle of Barnet. Death of Warwick.
+
+King Henry was released and replaced on the throne, and for six months
+Warwick ruled England as his lieutenant. But there was bitterness and
+mistrust between the old Lancastrian faction and the Nevilles, and Queen
+Margaret refused to cross to England or to trust her son in the
+king-maker's hands. Her partisans doubted his sincerity, while many of
+the Yorkists who had hitherto followed Warwick in blind admiration found
+it impossible to reconcile themselves to the new regime. The duke of
+Clarence in particular, discontented at the triumph of Lancaster,
+betrayed his father-in-law, and opened secret negotiations with his
+exiled brother. Encouraged by the news of the dissensions among his
+enemies, Edward IV. resolved to try his fortune once more, and landed
+near Hull on the 15th of March 1471 with a body of mercenaries lent him
+by the duke of Burgundy. The campaign that followed was most creditable
+to Edward's generalship, but must have been fatal to him if Warwick had
+been honestly supported by his lieutenants. But the duke of Clarence
+betrayed to his brother the army which he had gathered in King Henry's
+name, and many of the Lancastrians were slow to join the earl, from
+their distrust of his loyalty. Edward, dashing through the midst of the
+slowly gathering levies of his opponents, seized London, and two days
+later defeated and slew Warwick at the battle of Barnet (April 13,
+1471).
+
+
+  Battle of Tewkesbury. Death of Edward, prince of Wales.
+
+  Capture of Queen Margaret and murder of Henry VI.
+
+On that same day Queen Margaret and her son landed at Weymouth, only to
+hear that the earl was dead and his army scattered. But she refused to
+consider the struggle ended, and gathered the Lancastrians of the west
+for a final rally. On the fatal day of Tewkesbury (May 3, 1471) her army
+was beaten, her son was slain in the flight, and the greater part of her
+chief captains were taken prisoner. She herself was captured next day.
+The victorious Edward sent to the block the last Beaufort duke of
+Somerset, and nearly all the other captains of rank, whether
+Lancastrians or followers of Warwick. He then moved to London, which was
+being threatened by Kentish levies raised in Warwick's name, delivered
+the city, and next day caused the unhappy Henry VI. to be murdered in
+the Tower (May 21, 1471).
+
+
+  Edward IV.
+
+The descendants of Henry IV. were now extinct, and the succession
+question seemed settled for ever. No one dreamed of raising against King
+Edward the claims of the remoter heirs of John of Gaunt--the young earl
+of Richmond, who represented the Beauforts by a female descent, or the
+king of Portugal, the grandson of Gaunt's eldest daughter. Edward was
+now king indeed, with no over-powerful cousin at his elbow to curb his
+will. He had, moreover, at his disposal plunder almost as valuable as
+that which he had divided up in 1461--the estates of the great Neville
+clan and their adherents. A great career seemed open before him; he had
+proved himself a fine soldier and an unscrupulous diplomatist; he was in
+the very prime of life, having not yet attained his thirty-first year.
+He might have devoted himself to foreign politics and have rivalled the
+exploits of Edward III. or Henry V.--for the state of the continent was
+all in his favour--or might have set himself to organize an absolute
+monarchy on the ruins of the parliament and the baronage. For the
+successive attainders of the Lancastrians and the Nevilles had swept
+away many of the older noble families, and Edward's house of peers
+consisted for the main part of new men, his own partisans promoted for
+good service, who had not the grip on the land that their predecessors
+had possessed.
+
+
+  Character of the reign.
+
+  Murder of the duke of Clarence.
+
+But Edward either failed to see his opportunity or refused to take it.
+He did not plunge headlong into the wars of Louis XI. and Charles of
+Burgundy, nor did he attempt to recast the institutions of the realm. He
+settled down into inglorious ease, varied at long intervals by outbursts
+of spasmodic tyranny. It would seem that the key to his conduct was that
+he hated the hard work without which a despotic king cannot hope to
+assert his personality, and preferred leisure and vicious
+self-indulgence. In many ways the later years of his reign were marked
+with all the signs of absolutism. Between 1475 and 1483 he called only
+one single parliament, and that was summoned not to give him advice, or
+raise him money, but purely and solely to attaint his brother, the duke
+of Clarence, whom he had resolved to destroy. The duke's fate (Feb. 17,
+1478) need provoke no sympathy, he was a detestable intriguer, and had
+given his brother just offence by a series of deeds of high-handed
+violence and by perpetual cavilling. But he had committed no act of real
+treason since his long-pardoned alliance with Warwick, and was not in
+any way dangerous; so that when the king caused him to be attainted, and
+then privately murdered in the Tower, there was little justification for
+the fratricide.
+
+
+    Fiscal policy.
+
+Edward was a thrifty king; he was indeed the only medieval monarch of
+England who succeeded in keeping free of debt and made his revenue
+suffice for his expenses. But his methods of filling his purse were
+often unconstitutional and sometimes ignominious. When the resources
+drawn from confiscations were exhausted, he raised "benevolences"--forced
+gifts extracted from men of wealth by the unspoken threat of the royal
+displeasure--instead of applying to parliament for new taxes. But his
+most profitable source of revenue was drawn from abroad. Having allied
+himself with his brother-in-law Charles of Burgundy against the king of
+France, he led an army into Picardy in 1475, and then by the treaty of
+Picquigny sold peace to Louis XI. for 75,000 gold crowns down, and an
+annual pension (or tribute as he preferred to call it) of 50,000 crowns
+more. It was regularly paid up to the last year of his reign. Charles the
+Bold, whom he had thus deliberately deserted in the middle of their joint
+campaign, used the strongest language about this mean act of treachery,
+and with good cause. But the king cared not when his pockets were full.
+Another device of Edward for filling his exchequer was a very stringent
+enforcement of justice; small infractions of the laws being made the
+excuse for exorbitant fines. This was a trick which Henry VII. was to
+turn to still greater effect. In defence of both it may be pleaded that
+after the anarchy of the Wars of the Roses a strong hand was needed to
+restore security for life and property, and that it was better that
+penalties should be over-heavy rather than that there should be no
+penalties at all. Another appreciable source of revenue to Edward was his
+private commercial ventures. He owned many ships, and traded with great
+profit to himself abroad, because he could promise, as a king, advantages
+to foreign buyers and sellers with which no mere merchant could compete.
+
+During the last period of Edward's rule England might have been
+described as a despotism, if only the king had cared to be a despot. But
+except on rare occasions he allowed his power to be disguised under the
+old machinery of the medieval monarchy, and made no parade of his
+autocracy. Much was pardoned by the nation to one who gave them
+comparatively efficient and rather cheap government, and who was
+personally easy of access, affable and humorous. It is with little
+justification that he has been called the "founder of the new monarchy,"
+and the spiritual ancestor of the Tudor despotism. Another king in his
+place might have merited such titles, but Edward was too careless, too
+unsystematic, too lazy, and too fond of self-indulgence to make a real
+tyrant. He preferred to be a man of pleasure and leisure, only awaking
+now and then to perpetrate some act of arbitrary cruelty.
+
+
+  Condition of the country.
+
+  Commercial development.
+
+  Manufactures and wool trade.
+
+England was not unprosperous under him. The lowest point of her fortunes
+had been reached under the administration of Margaret of Anjou, during
+the weary years that preceded the outbreak of the civil wars in 1459. At
+that time the government had been bankrupt, foreign trade had almost
+disappeared, the French and pirates of all nations had possession of the
+Channel, and the nation had lost heart, because there seemed no way out
+of the trouble save domestic strife, to which all looked forward with
+dismay. The actual war proved less disastrous than had been expected. It
+fell heavily upon the baronage and their retainers, but passed lightly,
+for the most part, over the heads of the middle classes. The Yorkists
+courted the approval of public opinion by their careful avoidance of
+pillage and requisitions; and the Lancastrians, though less scrupulous,
+only once launched out into general raiding and devastation, during the
+advance of the queen's army to St Albans in the early months of 1461. As
+a rule the towns suffered little or nothing--they submitted to the king
+of the moment, and were always spared by the victors. It is one of the
+most curious features of these wars that no town ever stood a siege,
+though there were several long and arduous sieges of baronial castles,
+such as Harlech, Alnwick and Bamborough. Warwick, with his policy of
+conciliation for the masses and hard blows for the magnates, was mainly
+responsible for this moderation. In battle he was wont to bid his
+followers spare the commons in the pursuit, and to smite only the
+knights and nobles. Towton, where the Yorkist army was infuriated by the
+harrying of the Midlands by their enemies in the preceding campaign,
+was the only fight that ended in a general massacre. There were, of
+course, many local feuds and riots which led to the destruction of
+property; well-known instances are the private war about Caister Castle
+between the duke of Norfolk and the Pastons, and the "battle of Nibley
+Green," near Bristol, between the Berkeleys and the Talbots. But on the
+whole there was no ruinous devastation of the land. Prosperity seems to
+have revived early during the rule of York; Warwick had cleared the seas
+of pirates, and both he and King Edward were great patrons of commerce,
+though the earl's policy was to encourage trade with France, while his
+master wished to knit up the old alliance with Flanders by adhering to
+the cause of Charles of Burgundy. Edward did much in his later years to
+develop interchange of commodities with the Baltic, making treaties with
+the Hanseatic League which displeased the merchants of London, because
+of the advantageous terms granted to the foreigner. The east coast ports
+seem to have thriven under his rule, but Bristol was not less
+prosperous. On the one side, developing the great salt-fish trade, her
+vessels were encompassing Iceland, and feeling their way towards the
+Banks of the West; on the other they were beginning to feel their way
+into the Mediterranean. The famous William Canynges, the patriarch of
+Bristol merchants, possessed 2500 tons of shipping, including some ships
+of 900 tons, and traded in every sea. Yet we still find complaints that
+too much merchandize reached and left England in foreign bottoms, and
+King Edward's treaty with the Hansa was censured mainly for this reason.
+Internal commerce was evidently developing in a satisfactory style,
+despite of the wars; in especial raw wool was going out of England in
+less bulk than of old, because cloth woven at home was becoming the
+staple export. The woollen manufactures which had begun in the eastern
+counties in the 14th century were now spreading all over the land,
+taking root especially in Somersetshire, Yorkshire and some districts of
+the Midlands. Coventry, the centre of a local woollen and dyeing
+industry, was probably the inland town which grew most rapidly during
+the 15th century. Yet there was still a large export of wool to
+Flanders, and the long pack-trains of the Cotswold flockmasters still
+wound eastward to the sea for the benefit of the merchants of the staple
+and the continental manufacturer.
+
+
+  State of the rural population.
+
+As regards domestic agriculture, it has been often stated that the 15th
+century was the golden age of the English peasant, and that his
+prosperity was little affected either by the unhappy French wars of
+Henry VI. or by the Wars of the Roses. There is certainly very little
+evidence of any general discontent among the rural population, such as
+had prevailed in the times of Edward III. or Richard II. Insurrections
+that passed as popular, like the risings of Jack Cade and Robin of
+Redesdale, produced manifestos that spoke of political grievances but
+hardly mentioned economic ones. There is a bare mention of the Statute
+of Labourers in Jack Cade's ably drafted chapter of complaints. It would
+seem that the manorial grudges between landowner and peasant, which had
+been so fierce in the 14th century, had died down as the lords abandoned
+the old system of working their demesne by villein labour. They were now
+for the most part letting out the soil to tenant-farmers at a moderate
+rent, and the large class of yeomanry created by this movement seem to
+have been prosperous. The less popular device of turning old manorial
+arable land into sheep-runs was also known, but does not yet seem to
+have grown so common as to provoke the popular discontents which were to
+prevail under the Tudors. Probably such labour as was thrown out of work
+by this tendency was easily absorbed by the growing needs of the towns.
+Some murmurs are heard about "enclosures," but they are incidental and
+not widely spread.
+
+
+  Architecture.
+
+One of the best tests of the prosperity of England under the Yorkist
+rule seems to be the immense amount of building that was on hand.
+Despite the needs of civil war, it was not on castles that the builders'
+energy was spent; the government discouraged fortresses in private
+hands, and the dwellings of the new nobility of Edward IV. were rather
+splendid manor-houses, with some slight external protection of moat and
+gate-house, than old-fashioned castles. But the church-building of the
+time is enormous and magnificent. A very large proportion of the great
+Perpendicular churches of England date back to this age, and in the
+cathedrals also much work was going on.
+
+
+  Religious condition of the country.
+
+Material prosperity does not imply spiritual development, and it must be
+confessed that from the intellectual and moral point of view
+15th-century England presents an unpleasing picture. The Wycliffite
+movement, the one phenomenon which at the beginning of the century
+seemed to give some promise of better things, had died down under
+persecution. It lingered on in a subterranean fashion among a small
+class in the universities and the minor clergy, and had some adherents
+among the townsfolk and even among the peasantry. But the Lollards were
+a feeble and helpless minority; they no longer produced writers,
+organizers or missionaries. They continued to be burnt, or more
+frequently to make forced recantations, under the Yorkist rule, though
+the list of trials is not a long one. Little can be gathered concerning
+them from chronicles or official records. We only know that they
+continued to exist, and occasionally produced a martyr. But the
+governing powers were not fanatics, bent on seeking out victims; the
+spirit of Henry V. and Archbishop Arundel was dead. The life of the
+church seems, indeed, to have been in a more stagnant and torpid
+condition in this age than at any other period of English history. The
+great prelates from Cardinal Beaufort down to Archbishops Bourchier and
+Rotherham, and Bishop John Russell--trusted supporters of the Yorkist
+dynasty--were mere politicians with nothing spiritual about them.
+Occasionally they appear in odious positions. Rotherham was the ready
+tool of Edward IV. in the judicial murder of Clarence. Russell became
+the obsequious chancellor of Richard III. Bourchier made himself
+responsible in 1483 for the taking of the little duke of York from his
+mother's arms in order to place him in the power of his murderous uncle.
+It is difficult to find a single bishop in the whole period who was
+respected for his piety or virtue. The best of them were capable
+statesmen, the worst were mean time-servers. Few of the higher clergy
+were such patrons of learning as many prelates of earlier ages. William
+Grey of Ely and James Goldwell of Norwich did something for scholars,
+and there was one bishop in the period who came to sad grief through an
+intellectual activity which was rare among his contemporaries. This was
+the eccentric Reginald Pecock of Chichester, who, while setting himself
+to confute Lollard controversialists, lapsed into heresy by setting
+"reason" above "authority." He taught that the organization and many of
+the dogmas of the medieval church should be justified by an appeal to
+private judgment and the moral law, rather than to the scriptures, the
+councils, or the fathers. For taking up this dangerous line of defence,
+and admitting his doubts about several received articles of faith, he
+was attacked by the Yorkist archbishop Bourchier in 1457, compelled to
+do penance, and shut up in a monastery for the rest of his life. He
+seems to have had no school of followers, and his doctrines died with
+him.
+
+
+  The monasteries.
+
+In nothing is the general stagnation of the church in the later 15th
+century shown better than by the gradual cessation of the monastic
+chronicles. The stream of narrative was still flowing strongly in 1400;
+by 1485 it has run dry, even St Albans, the mother of historians,
+produced no annalist after Whethamstede, whose story ceases early in the
+Wars of the Roses. The only monastic chronicler who went on writing for
+a few years after the extinction of the house of York was the "Croyland
+continuator." For the last two-thirds of the century the various "London
+chronicles," the work of laymen, are much more important than anything
+which was produced in the religious houses. The regular clergy indeed
+seem to have been sunk in intellectual torpor. Their numbers were
+falling off, their zeal was gone; there is little good to be said of
+them save that they were still in some cases endowing England with
+splendid architectural decorations. But even in the wealthier abbeys we
+find traces of thriftless administration, idleness, self-indulgence and
+occasionally grave moral scandals. The parochial clergy were probably in
+a healthier condition; but the old abuses of pluralism and non-residence
+were as rampant as ever, and though their work may have been in many
+cases honourably carried out, it is certain that energy and intelligence
+were at a low ebb.
+
+
+  Moral decay of the nation.
+
+  The "Paston Letters."
+
+  Influence of the Italian Renaissance.
+
+The moral faults of the church only reflected those of the nation. It
+was a hard and selfish generation which witnessed the Wars of the Roses
+and the dictatorship of Edward IV. The iniquitous French war, thirty
+years of plunder and demoralization, had corrupted the minds of the
+governing classes before the civil strife began. Afterwards the constant
+and easy changes of allegiance, as one faction or the other was in the
+ascendant, the wholesale confiscations and attainders, the never-ending
+executions, the sudden prosperity of adventurers, the premium on
+time-serving and intrigue, sufficed to make the whole nation cynical and
+sordid. The claim of the Yorkists to represent constitutional opposition
+to misgovernment became a mere hypocrisy. The claim of the Lancastrians
+to represent loyalty soon grew almost as hollow. Edward IV. with his
+combination of vicious self-indulgence and spasmodic cruelty was no
+unfit representative of his age. The _Paston Letters_, that unique
+collection of the private correspondence of a typical family of
+_nouveaux riches_, thriftless, pushing, unscrupulous, give us the true
+picture of the time. All that can be said in favour of the Yorkists is
+that they restored a certain measure of national prosperity, and that
+their leaders had one redeeming virtue in their addiction to literature.
+The learning which had died out in monasteries began to flourish again
+in the corrupt soil of the court. Most of Edward's favourites had
+literary tastes. His constable Tiptoft, the "butcher earl" of Worcester,
+was a figure who might have stepped out of the Italian Renaissance. A
+graduate of Pavia, a learned lawyer, who translated Caesar and Cicero,
+composed works both in Latin and English, and habitually impaled his
+victims, he was a man of a type hitherto unknown in England. Antony,
+Lord Rivers, the queen's brother, was a mere adventurer, but a poet of
+some merit, and a great patron of Caxton. Hastings, the Bourchiers, and
+other of the king's friends were minor patrons of literature. It is
+curious to find that Caxton, an honest man, and an enthusiast as to the
+future of the art of printing, which he had introduced into England,
+waxes enthusiastic as to the merits of the intelligent but unscrupulous
+peers who took an interest in his endeavours. Of the detestable Tiptoft
+he writes that "there flowered in virtue and cunning none like him among
+the lords of the temporalty in science and moral virtue"! And this is no
+time-serving praise of a patron, but disinterested tribute to a man who
+had perished long before on the scaffold.
+
+
+  Death of Edward IV.
+
+  Richard, duke of Gloucester.
+
+The uneventful latter half of the reign of Edward IV. ended with his
+death at the age of forty-one on the 9th of April 1483. He had ruined a
+splendid constitution by the combination of sloth and evil living, and
+during his last years had been sinking slowly into his grave, unable to
+take the field or to discharge the more laborious duties of royalty.
+Since Clarence's death he had been gradually falling into the habit of
+transferring the conduct of great matters of state to his active and
+hard-working youngest brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester, who had
+served him well and faithfully ever since he first took the field at
+Barnet. Gloucester passed as a staid and religious prince, and if there
+was blood on his hands, the same could be said of every statesman of his
+time. His sudden plunge into crime and usurpation after his brother's
+death was wholly unexpected by the nation. Indeed it was his previous
+reputation for loyalty and moderation which made his scandalous _coup
+d'etat_ of 1483 possible. No prince with a sinister reputation would
+have had the chance of executing the series of crimes which placed him
+on the throne. But when Richard declared that he was the victim of
+plots and intrigues, and was striking down his enemies only to defend
+his own life and honour, he was for some time believed.
+
+
+  Gloucester proclaims himself protector.
+
+At the moment of King Edward's death his elder son by Elizabeth
+Woodville, Edward, prince of Wales, was twelve; his younger son Richard,
+duke of York, was nine. It was clear that there would be a long
+minority, and that the only possible claimants for the regency were the
+queen and Richard of Gloucester. Elizabeth was personally unpopular, and
+the rapacity and insolence of her family was well known. Hence when
+Richard of Gloucester seized on the person of the young king, and
+imprisoned Lord Rivers and Sir Richard Grey, the queen's brother and
+son, on the pretence that they were conspiring against him, his action
+was regarded with equanimity by the people. Nor did the fact that the
+duke took the title of "protector and defender of the realm" cause any
+surprise. Suspicions only became rife after Richard had seized and
+beheaded without any trial, Lord Hastings, the late king's most familiar
+friend, and had arrested at the same moment the archbishop of York,
+Morton, bishop of Ely, and Lord Stanley, all persons of unimpeachable
+loyalty to the house of Edward IV. It was not plausible to accuse such
+persons of plotting with the queen to overthrow the protector, and
+public opinion began to turn against Gloucester. Nevertheless he went on
+recklessly with his design, having already enlisted the support of a
+party of the greater peers, who were ready to follow him to any length
+of treason. These confidants, the duke of Buckingham, the lords Howard
+and Lovel, and a few more, must have known from an early date that he
+was aiming at the crown, though it is improbable that they suspected
+that his plan involved the murder of the rightful heirs as well as mere
+usurpation.
+
+
+  Richard III. crowned.
+
+On the 16th of June, Richard, using the aged archbishop Bourchier as his
+tool, got the little duke of York out of his mother's hands, and sent
+him to join his brother in the Tower. A few days later, having packed
+London with his own armed retainers and those of Buckingham and his
+other confidants, he openly put forward his pretensions to the throne.
+Edward IV., as he asserted, had been privately contracted to Lady
+Eleanor Talbot before he ever met Queen Elizabeth. His children
+therefore were bastards, the offspring of a bigamous union. As to the
+son and daughter of the duke of Clarence, their blood had been corrupted
+by their father's attainder, and they could not be reckoned as heirs to
+the crown. He himself, therefore, was the legitimate successor of Edward
+IV. This preposterous theory was set forth by Buckingham, first to the
+mayor and corporation of London, and next day to an assembly of the
+estates of the realm held in St Paul's. Cowed by the show of armed
+force, and remembering the fate of Hastings, the two assemblies received
+the claim with silence which gave consent. Richard, after a hypocritical
+show of reluctance, allowed himself to be saluted as king, and was
+crowned on the 6th of July 1483. Before the coronation ceremony he had
+issued orders for the execution of the queen's relatives, who had been
+in prison since the beginning of May. He paid his adherents lavishly for
+their support, making Lord Howard duke of Norfolk, and giving Buckingham
+enormous grants of estates and offices.
+
+
+  Murder of the princes.
+
+Having accomplished his _coup d'etat_ Richard started for a royal
+progress through the Midlands, and a few days after his departure sent
+back secret orders to London for the murder of his two nephews in the
+Tower. There is no reason to doubt that they were secretly smothered on
+or about the 15th of July by his agent Sir James Tyrrell, or that the
+bones found buried under a staircase in the fortress two hundred years
+after belonged to the two unhappy lads. But the business was kept dark
+at the time, and it was long before any one could assert with certainty
+that they were dead or alive. Richard never published any statement as
+to their end, though some easy tale of a fever, a conflagration, or an
+accident might have served him better than the mere silence that he
+employed. For while many persons believed that the princes still
+existed there was room for all manner of impostures and false rumours.
+
+
+  Buckingham's rebellion.
+
+The usurper's reign was from the first a troubled one. Less than three
+months after his coronation the first insurrection broke out; it was
+headed--strangely enough--by the duke of Buckingham, who seems to have
+been shocked by the murder of the princes; he must have been one of the
+few who had certain information of the crime. He did not take arms in
+his own cause, though after the house of York the house of Buckingham
+had the best claim to the throne, as representing Thomas of Woodstock,
+the youngest son of Edward III. His plan was to unite the causes of York
+and Lancaster by wedding the Lady Elizabeth, the eldest sister of the
+murdered princes, to Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, a young exile who
+represented the very doubtful claim of the Beauforts to the Lancastrian
+heritage. Henry was the son of Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of John,
+first duke of Somerset, and the niece of Edmund, second duke, who fell
+at St Albans. All her male kinsmen had been exterminated in the Wars of
+the Roses.
+
+
+  Execution of Buckingham.
+
+This promising scheme was to be supported by a rising of those Yorkists
+who rejected the usurpation of Richard III., and by the landing on the
+south coast of Henry of Richmond with a body of Lancastrian exiles and
+foreign mercenaries. But good organization was wanting, and chance
+fought for the king. A number of scattered risings in the south were put
+down by Richard's troops, while Buckingham, who had raised his banner in
+Wales, was prevented from bringing aid by a week of extraordinary rains
+which made the Severn impassable. Finding that the rest of the plan had
+miscarried, Buckingham's retainers melted away from him, and he was
+forced to fly. A few days later he was betrayed, handed over to the
+king, and beheaded (Nov. 2, 1483). Meanwhile Richmond's little fleet was
+dispersed by the same storms that scattered Buckingham's army, and he
+was forced to return to Brittany without having landed in England.
+
+Here King Richard's luck ended. Though he called a parliament early in
+1484, and made all manner of gracious promises of good governance, he
+felt that his position was insecure. The nation was profoundly disgusted
+with his unscrupulous policy, and the greater part of the leaders of the
+late insurrection had escaped abroad and were weaving new plots. Early
+in the spring he lost his only son and heir, Edward, prince of Wales,
+and the question of the succession to the crown was opened from a new
+point of view. After some hesitation Richard named his nephew John de la
+Pole, earl of Lincoln, a son of his sister, as his heir. But he also
+bethought him of another and a most repulsive plan for strengthening his
+position. His queen, Anne Neville, the daughter of the kingmaker, was on
+her death-bed. With indecent haste he began to devise a scheme for
+marrying his niece Elizabeth, whose brothers he had murdered but a year
+before. Knowledge of this scheme is said to have shortened the life of
+the unfortunate Anne, and many did not scruple to say that her husband
+had made away with her.
+
+
+  Henry of Richmond lands at Milford.
+
+  Battle of Bosworth.
+
+When the queen was dead, and some rumours of the king's intentions got
+abroad, the public indignation was so great that Richard's councillors
+had to warn him to disavow the projected marriage, if he wished to
+retain a single adherent. He yielded, and made public complaint that he
+had been slandered--which few believed. Meanwhile the conspirators of
+1483 were busy in organizing another plan of invasion. This time it was
+successfully carried out, and the earl of Richmond landed at Milford
+Haven with many exiles, both Yorkists and Lancastrians, and 1000
+mercenaries lent him by the princess regent of France. The Welsh joined
+him in great numbers, not forgetting that by his Tudor descent he was
+their own kinsman, and when he reached Shrewsbury English adherents also
+began to flock in to his banner, for the whole country was seething with
+discontent, and Richard III. had but few loyal adherents. When the
+rivals met at Bosworth Field (Aug. 22, 1485) the king's army was far the
+larger, but the greater part of it was determined not to fight. When
+battle was joined some left the field and many joined the pretender.
+Richard, however, refused to fly, and was slain, fighting to the last,
+along with the duke of Norfolk and a few other of his more desperate
+partisans. The slaughter was small, for treason, not the sword, had
+settled the day. The battered crown which had fallen from Richard's
+helmet was set on the victor's head by Lord Stanley, the chief of the
+Yorkist peers who had joined his standard, and his army hailed him by
+the new title of Henry VII.
+
+
+  Henry VII.
+
+No monarch of England since William the Conqueror, not excluding Stephen
+and Henry IV., could show such a poor title to the throne as the first
+of the Tudor kings. His claim to represent the house of Lancaster was of
+the weakest--when Henry IV. had assented to the legitimating of his
+brothers the Beauforts, he had attached a clause to the act, to provide
+that they were given every right save that of counting in the line of
+succession to the throne. The true heir to the house of John of Gaunt
+should have been sought among the descendants of his eldest legitimate
+daughter, not among those of his base-born sons. The earl of Richmond
+had been selected by the conspirators as their figure-head mainly
+because he was known as a young man of ability, and because he was
+unmarried and could therefore take to wife the princess Elizabeth, and
+so absorb the Yorkist claim in his own. This had been the essential part
+of the bargain, and Henry was ready to carry it out, but he insisted
+that he should first be recognized as king in his own right, lest it
+might be held that he ruled merely as his destined wife's consort. He
+was careful to hold his first parliament and get his title acknowledged
+before he married the princess. When he had done so, he had the triple
+claim by conquest, by election and by inheritance, safely united. Yet
+his position was even then insecure; the vicissitudes of the last thirty
+years had shaken the old prestige of the name of king, and a weaker and
+less capable man than Henry Tudor might have failed to retain the crown
+that he had won. There were plenty of possible pretenders in existence;
+the earl of Lincoln, whom Richard III. had recognized as his heir, was
+still alive; the two children of the duke of Clarence might be made the
+tools of conspirators; and there was a widespread doubt as to whether
+the sons of Edward IV. had actually died in the Tower. The secrecy with
+which their uncle had carried out their murder was destined to be a sore
+hindrance to his successor.
+
+
+  Early years of the reign.
+
+  Insurrections and plots.
+
+Bosworth Field is often treated as the last act of the Wars of the
+Roses. This is an error; they were protracted for twelve years after the
+accession of Henry VII., and did not really end till the time of
+Blackheath Field and the siege of Exeter (1497). The position of the
+first Tudor king is misconceived if his early years are regarded as a
+time of strong governance and well-established order. On the contrary he
+was in continual danger, and was striving with all the resources of a
+ready and untiring mind to rebuild foundations that were absolutely
+rotten. Phenomena like the Cornish revolt (which recalls Cade's
+insurrection) and the Yorkshire rising of 1489, which began with the
+death of the earl of Northumberland, show that at any moment whole
+counties might take arms in sheer lawlessness, or for some local
+grievance. Loyalty was such an uncertain thing that the king might call
+out great levies yet be forced to doubt whether they would fight for
+him--at Stoke Field it seems that a large part of Henry's army
+misbehaved, much as that of Richard III. had done at Bosworth. The
+demoralization brought about by the evil years between 1453 and 1483
+could not be lived down in a day--any sort of treason was possible to
+the generation that had seen the career of Warwick and the usurpation of
+Gloucester. The survivors of that time were capable of taking arms for
+any cause that offered a chance of unreasonable profit, and no one's
+loyalty could be trusted. Did not Sir William Stanley, the best paid of
+those who betrayed Richard III., afterwards lose his head for a
+deliberate plot to betray Henry VII.? The various attempts that were
+made to overturn the new dynasty seem contemptible to the historian of
+the 20th century. They were not so contemptible at the time, because
+England and Ireland were full of adventurers who were ready to back any
+cause, and who looked on the king of the moment as no more than a
+successful member of their own class--a base-born Welshman who had been
+lucky enough to become the figurehead of the movement that had
+overturned an unpopular usurper. The organizing spirits of the early
+troubles of the reign of Henry VII. were irreconcilable Yorkists who had
+suffered by the change of dynasty; but their hopes of success rested
+less on their own strength than on the not ill-founded notion that
+England would tire of any ruler who had to raise taxes and reward his
+partisans. The position bore a curious resemblance to that of the early
+years of Henry IV., a king who, like Henry VII., had to vindicate a
+doubtful elective title to the throne by miracles of cunning and
+activity. The later representative of the house of Lancaster was
+fortunate, however, in having less formidable enemies than the earlier;
+the power of the baronage had been shaken by the Wars of the Roses no
+less than the power of the crown; so many old estates had passed rapidly
+from hand to hand, so many old titles were represented by upstarts
+destitute of local influence, that the feudal danger had become far
+less. Risings like that of the Percies in 1403 were not the things which
+the seventh Henry had to fear. He was lucky too in having no adversary
+of genius of the type of Owen Glendower. Welsh national spirit indeed
+was enlisted on his own side. Yet leaderless seditions and the plots of
+obvious impostors sufficed to make his throne tremble, and a ruler less
+resolute, less wary, and less unscrupulous might have been overthrown.
+
+
+  Lambert Simnel.
+
+The first of the king's troubles was an abortive rising in the north
+riding of Yorkshire, the only district where Richard III. seems to have
+enjoyed personal popularity. It was led by Lord Lovel, Richard's
+chamberlain and admiral; but the insurgents dispersed when Henry marched
+against them with a large force (1486), and Lovel took refuge in
+Flanders with Margaret of York, the widow of Charles the Bold of
+Burgundy, whose dower towns were the refuge of all English exiles, and
+whose coffers were always open to subsidize plots against her niece's
+husband. Under the auspices of this rancorous princess the second
+conspiracy was hatched in the following year (1487). Its leaders were
+Lovel and John, earl of Lincoln, whom Richard III. had designated as his
+heir. But the Yorkist banner was to be raised, not in the name of
+Lincoln, but in that of the boy Edward of Clarence, then a prisoner in
+the Tower. His absence and captivity might seem a fatal hindrance, but
+the conspirators had prepared a "double" who was to take his name till
+he could be released. This was a lad named Lambert Simnel, the son of an
+Oxford organ-maker, who bore a personal resemblance to the young
+captive. The conspirators seem to have argued that Henry VII. would not
+proceed to murder the real Edward, but would rather exhibit him to prove
+the imposition; if he took the more drastic alternative Lincoln could
+fall back on his own claim to the crown.
+
+
+  Battle of Stoke.
+
+In May 1487 Lincoln and Lovel landed in Ireland accompanied by other
+exiles and 2000 German mercenaries. The cause of York was popular in the
+Pale, and the Anglo-Irish barons seem to have conceived the notion that
+Henry VII. was likely to prove too strong and capable a king to suit
+their convenience. The invading army was welcomed by almost all the
+lords, and the spurious Clarence was crowned at Dublin by the name of
+Edward VI. A few weeks later Lincoln had recruited his army with 4000 or
+5000 Irish adventurers under Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the earl of
+Kildare, and had taken ship for England. He landed in Lancashire, and
+pushed forward, hoping to gather the English Yorkists to his aid. But
+few had joined him when King Henry brought him to action at Stoke, near
+Newark, on the 17th of July. Despite the doubtful conduct of part of the
+royal army, and the fierce resistance of the Germans and Irish, the
+rebel army was routed. Lincoln and Fitzgerald were slain; Lovel
+disappeared in the rout; the young impostor Simnel was taken prisoner.
+Henry treated him with politic contempt, and made him a cook boy in his
+kitchen. He lived for many years after in the royal household. The Irish
+lords were pardoned on renewing their oaths of fealty; the king did not
+wish to entangle himself in costly campaigns beyond St George's Channel
+till he had made his position in England more stable.
+
+
+  Foreign alliances.
+
+  Treaty of Etaples.
+
+The Yorkist cause was crushed for four years, till it was raised again
+by Margaret of Burgundy, with an imposture even more preposterous than
+that of Lambert Simnel. In the intervening space, however, while Henry
+VII. was comparatively undisturbed by domestic rebellion, he found
+opportunity for a first tentative experiment at interfering in European
+politics. He allied himself with Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and
+with Maximilian of Austria, who was ruling the Netherlands in behalf of
+his young son, Philip, the heir of the Burgundian inheritance, for the
+purpose of preventing France from annexing Brittany, the last great fief
+of the crown which had not yet been absorbed into the Valois royal
+domain. This struggle, the only continental war in which the first of
+the Tudors risked his fortunes, was not prosecuted with any great
+energy, and came to a necessary end when Anne, duchess of Brittany, in
+whose behalf it was being waged, disappointed her allies by marrying
+Charles VIII. of her own free will (Dec. 1491). Henry very wisely
+proceeded to get out of the war on the best terms possible, and, to the
+disgust of Maximilian, sold peace to the French king for 600,000 crowns,
+as well as an additional sum representing arrears of the pension which
+Louis XI. had been bound to pay to Edward IV. This treaty of Etaples
+was, in short, a repetition of Edward's treaty of Picquigny, equally
+profitable and less disgraceful, for Maximilian of Austria, whom Henry
+thus abandoned, had given more cause of offence than had Charles of
+Burgundy in 1475. Domestic malcontents did not scruple to hint that the
+king, like his father-in-law before him, had made war on France, not
+with any hope of renewing the glories of Crecy or Agincourt, still less
+with any design of helping his allies, but purely to get first grants
+from his parliament, and then a war indemnity from his enemies. In any
+case he was wise to make peace. France was now too strong for England,
+and both Maximilian and Ferdinand of Spain were selfish and shifty
+allies. Moreover, it was known that the one dominating desire of Charles
+VIII. was to conquer Italy, and it was clear that his ambitions in that
+direction were not likely to prove dangerous to England.
+
+
+  Yorkist plots. Perkin Warbeck.
+
+  Cornish rebellion.
+
+In the year of the treaty of Etaples the Yorkist conspiracies began once
+more to thicken, and Henry was fortunate to escape with profit from the
+French war before his domestic troubles recommenced. Ever since 1483 it
+had been rumoured that one or both of the sons of Edward IV. had
+escaped, not having been murdered in the Tower. Of this widespread
+belief the plotters now took advantage; they held that much more could
+be accomplished with such a claim than by using that of the unfortunate
+Edward of Clarence, whose chances were so severely handicapped by his
+being still the prisoner of Henry VII. The scheme for producing a false
+Plantagenet was first renewed in Ireland, where Simnel's imposture had
+been so easily taken up a few years before. The tool selected was one
+Perkin Warbeck, a handsome youth of seventeen or eighteen, the son of a
+citizen of Tournai, who had lived for some time in London, where Perkin
+had actually been born. There is a bare possibility that the young
+adventurer may have been an illegitimate son of Edward IV.; his likeness
+to the late king was much noticed. When he declared himself to be
+Richard of York, he obtained some support in Ireland from the earl of
+Desmond and other lords; but he did not risk open rebellion till he had
+visited Flanders, and had been acknowledged as her undoubted nephew by
+Duchess Margaret. Maximilian of Austria also took up his cause, as a
+happy means of revenging himself on Henry VII. for the treaty of
+Etaples. There can be small doubt that both the duchess and the German
+King (Maximilian had succeeded to his father's crown in 1493) were
+perfectly well aware that they were aiding a manifest fraud. But they
+made much of Perkin, who followed the imperial court for two years,
+while his patron was intriguing with English malcontents. The emissaries
+from Flanders got many promises of assistance, and a formidable rising
+might have taken place had not Henry VII. been well served by his
+spies. But in the winter of 1494-1495 the traitors were themselves
+betrayed, and a large number of arrests were made, including not only
+Lord Fitzwalter and a number of well-known knights of Yorkist families,
+but Sir William Stanley, the king's chamberlain, who had been rewarded
+with enormous gifts for his good service at Bosworth, and was reckoned
+one of the chief supports of the throne. Stanley and several others were
+beheaded, the rest hanged or imprisoned. This vigorous action on the
+part of the king seems to have cowed all Warbeck's supporters on English
+soil. But the pretender nevertheless sailed from Flanders in July 1495
+with a following of 2000 exiles and German mercenaries. He attempted to
+land at Deal, but his vanguard was destroyed by Kentish levies, and he
+drew off and made for Ireland. Suspecting that this would be his goal,
+King Henry had been doing his best to strengthen his hold on the Pale,
+whither he had sent his capable servant Sir Edward Poynings as lord
+deputy. Already before Warbeck's arrival Poynings had arrested the earl
+of Kildare, Simnel's old supporter, cowed some of the Irish by military
+force, and bought over others by promises of subsidies and pensions. But
+his best-remembered achievement was that he had induced the Irish
+parliament to pass the ordinances known as "Poynings' Law," by which it
+acknowledged that it could pass no legislation which had not been
+approved by the king and his council, and agreed that all statutes
+passed by the English parliament should be in force in Ireland. That
+such terms could be imposed shows the strength of Poynings' arm, and his
+vigour was equally evident when Warbeck came ashore in Munster in July
+1495. Few joined the impostor save the earl of Desmond, and he was
+repulsed from Waterford, and dared not face the army which the lord
+deputy put into the field against him. Thereupon, abandoning his Irish
+schemes, Warbeck sailed to Scotland, whose young king James IV. had just
+been seduced by the emperor Maximilian into declaring war on England. He
+promised the Scottish king Berwick and 50,000 crowns in return for the
+aid of an army. James took the offer, gave him the hand of his kinswoman
+Catherine Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntly, and took him forth for
+a raid into Northumberland (1496). But a pretender backed by Scottish
+spears did not appeal to the sympathies of the English borderers. The
+expedition fell flat; not a man joined the banner of the white rose, and
+James became aware that he had set forth on a fool's errand. But Warbeck
+soon found other allies of a most unexpected sort. The heavy taxation
+granted by the English parliament for the Scottish war had provoked
+discontent and rioting in the south-western counties. In Cornwall
+especially the disorders grew to such a pitch that local demagogues
+called out several thousand men to resist the tax-collectors, and
+finally raised open rebellion, proposing to march on London and compel
+the king to dismiss his ministers. These spiritual heirs of Jack Cade
+were Flammock, a lawyer of Bodmin, and a farrier named Michael Joseph.
+Whether they had any communication with Warbeck it is impossible to say;
+there is no proof of such a connexion, but their acts served him well. A
+Cornish army marched straight on London, picking up some supporters in
+Devon and Somerset on their way, including a discontented baron, Lord
+Audley, whom they made their captain.
+
+
+  Battle of Blackheath.
+
+  Execution of Warbeck and Edward of Clarence.
+
+So precarious was the hold of Henry VII. on the throne that he was in
+great danger from this outbreak of mere local turbulence. The rebels
+swept over five counties unopposed, and were only stopped and beaten in
+a hard fight on Blackheath, when they had reached the gates of London.
+Audley, the farrier and the lawyer were all captured and executed (June
+18, 1497). But the crisis was not yet at an end. Warbeck, hearing of the
+rising, but not of its suppression, had left Scotland, and appeared in
+Devonshire in August. He rallied the wrecks of the west country rebels,
+and presently appeared before the gates of Exeter with nearly 8000 men.
+But the citizens held out against him, and presently the approach of the
+royal army was reported. The pretender led off his horde to meet the
+relieving force, but when he reached Taunton he found that his
+followers were so dispirited that disaster was certain. Thereupon he
+absconded by night, and took sanctuary in the abbey of Beaulieu. He
+offered to confess his imposture if he were promised his life, and the
+king accepted the terms. First at Taunton and again at Westminster,
+Perkin publicly recited a long narrative of his real parentage, his
+frauds and his adventures. He was then consigned to not over strict
+confinement in the Tower, and might have fared no worse than Lambert
+Simnel if he had possessed his soul in patience. But in the next year he
+corrupted his warders, broke out from his prison, and tried to escape
+beyond seas. He was captured, but the king again spared his life, though
+he was placed for the future in a dungeon "where he could see neither
+moon nor sun." Even this did not tame the impostor's mercurial
+temperament. In 1499 he again planned an escape, which was to be shared
+by another prisoner, the unfortunate Edward of Clarence, earl of
+Warwick, whose cell was in the storey above his own. But there were
+traitors among the Tower officials whom they suborned to help them, and
+the king was warned of the plot. He allowed it to proceed to the verge
+of execution, and then arrested both the false and the true Plantagenet.
+Evidence of a suspicious character was produced to show that they had
+planned rebellion as well as mere escape, and both were put to death
+with some of their accomplices. Warbeck deserved all that he reaped, but
+the unlucky Clarence's fate estranged many hearts from the king. The
+simple and weakly young man, who had spent fifteen of his twenty-five
+years in confinement, had, in all probability, done no more than scheme
+for an escape from his dungeon. But as the true male heir of the house
+of Plantagenet he was too dangerous to be allowed to survive.
+
+
+  Establishment of the Tudor dynasty.
+
+The turbulent portion of the reign of Henry VII. came to an end with
+Blackheath Field and the siege of Exeter. From that time forward the
+Tudor dynasty was no longer in serious danger; there were still some
+abortive plots, but none that had any prospect of winning popular
+support. The chances of Warbeck and Clarence had vanished long before
+they went to the scaffold. The Yorkist claim, after Clarence's death,
+might be supposed to have passed to his cousin Edmund, earl of Suffolk,
+the younger brother of that John, earl of Lincoln, who had been declared
+heir to the crown by Richard III., and had fallen at Stoke field. Fully
+conscious of the danger of his position, Suffolk fled to the continent,
+and lived for many years as a pensioner of the emperor Maximilian.
+Apparently he dabbled in treason; it is at any rate certain that in 1501
+King Henry executed some, and imprisoned others, of his relatives and
+retainers. But his plots, such as they were, seem to have been futile.
+There was no substratum of popular discontent left in England on which a
+dangerous insurrection might be built up. It was to be forty years
+before another outbreak of turbulence against the crown was to break
+forth.
+
+
+VI. THE TUDOR DESPOTISM AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION
+(1497-1528)
+
+  Commercial treaties.
+
+The last twelve years of the reign of Henry VII. present in most
+respects a complete contrast to the earlier period, 1485-1497. There
+were no more rebellions, and--as we have already seen--no more plots
+that caused any serious danger. Nor did the king indulge his unruly
+subjects in foreign wars, though he was constantly engaged in
+negotiations with France, Scotland, Spain and the emperor, which from
+time to time took awkward turns. But Henry was determined to win all
+that he could by diplomacy, and not by force of arms. His cautious, but
+often unscrupulous, dealings with the rival continental powers had two
+main ends: the first was to keep his own position safe by playing off
+France against the Empire and Spain; the second was to get commercial
+advantages by dangling his alliance before each power in turn. Flanders
+was still the greatest customer of England, and it was therefore
+necessary above all things to keep on good terms with the archduke
+Philip, the son of Maximilian, who on coming of age had taken over the
+rule of the Netherlands from his father. The king's great triumphs were
+the conclusion of the _Intercursus Magnus_ of 1496 and the _Intercursus
+Malus_ (so called by the Flemings, not by the English) of 1506. The
+former provided for a renewal of the old commercial alliance with the
+house of Burgundy, on the same terms under which it had existed in the
+time of Edward IV.; the rupture which had taken place during the years
+when Maximilian was backing Perkin Warbeck had been equally injurious to
+both parties. The _Malus Intercursus_ on the other hand gave England
+some privileges which she had not before enjoyed--exemption from local
+tolls in Antwerp and Holland, and a licence for English merchants to
+sell cloth retail as well as wholesale--a concession which hit the
+Netherland small traders and middlemen very hard. Another great
+commercial advantage secured by Henry VII. for his subjects was an
+increased share of the trade to the Scandinavian countries. The old
+treaties of Edward IV. with the Hanseatic League had left the Germans
+still in control of the northern seas. Nearly all the Baltic goods, and
+most of those from Denmark and Norway, had been reaching London or Hull
+in foreign bottoms. Henry allied himself with John of Denmark, who was
+chafing under the monopoly of the Hansa, and obtained the most ample
+grants of free trade in his realms. The Germans murmured, but the
+English shipping in eastern and northern waters continued to multiply.
+Much the same policy was pursued in the Mediterranean. Southern goods
+hitherto had come to Southampton or Sandwich invariably in Venetian
+carracks, which took back in return English wool and metals. Henry
+concluded a treaty with Florence, by which that republic undertook to
+receive his ships in its harbours and to allow them to purchase all
+eastern goods that they might require. From this time forward the
+Venetian monopoly ceased, and the visits of English merchant vessels to
+the Mediterranean became frequent and regular.
+
+
+  English navigators.
+
+Nor was it in dealing with old lines of trade alone that Henry Tudor
+showed himself the watchful guardian of the interests of his subjects.
+He must take his share of credit for the encouragement of the
+exploration of the seas of the Far West. The British traders had already
+pushed far into the Atlantic before Columbus discovered America; fired
+by the success of the great navigator they continued their adventures,
+hoping like him to discover a short "north-west passage" to Cathay and
+Japan. With a charter from the king giving him leave to set up the
+English banner on all the lands he might discover, the Bristol Genoese
+trader John Cabot successfully passed the great sea in 1497, and
+discovered Newfoundland and its rich fishing stations. Henry rewarded
+him with a pension of L20 a year, and encouraged him to further
+exploration, in which he discovered all the American coastline from
+Labrador to the mouth of the Delaware--a great heritage for England, but
+one not destined to be taken up for colonization till more than a
+century had passed.
+
+
+  Foreign policy of Henry VII.
+
+Henry's services to English commerce were undoubtedly of far more
+importance to the nation than all the tortuous details of his foreign
+policy. His chicanery need not, however, be censured over much, for the
+princes with whom he had to deal, and notably Ferdinand and Maximilian,
+were as insincere and selfish as himself. Few diplomatic hagglings have
+been so long and so sordid as that between England and Spain over the
+marriage treaty which gave the hand of Catherine of Aragon first to
+Henry's eldest son Arthur, and then, on his premature death in 1502, to
+his second son Henry. The English king no doubt imagined that he had
+secured a good bargain, as he had kept the princess's dowry, and yet
+never gave Ferdinand any practical assistance in war or peace. It is
+interesting to find that he had for some time at the end of his reign a
+second Spanish marriage in view; his wife Elizabeth of York having died
+in 1503, he seriously proposed himself as a suitor for Joanna of
+Castile, the elder sister of Catherine, and the widow of the archduke
+Philip, though she was known to be insane. Apparently he hoped thereby
+to gain vantage ground for an interference in Spanish politics, which
+would have been most offensive to Ferdinand. Nothing came of the
+project, which contrasts strangely with the greater part of Henry's
+sober and cautious schemes.
+
+
+  Marriage of James IV. of Scotland and Margaret Tudor.
+
+On the other hand a third project of marriage alliance which Henry
+carried out in 1503 was destined to be consummated, and to have
+momentous, though long-deferred, results. This was the giving of the
+hand of his daughter Margaret to James IV. of Scotland. Thereby he
+bought quiet on the Border and alliance with Scotland for no more than
+some ten years. But--as it chanced--the issue of this alliance was
+destined to unite the English and the Scottish crowns, when the male
+line of the Tudors died out, and Henry, quite unintentionally, had his
+share in bringing about the consummation, by peaceful means, of that end
+which Edward I. had sought for so long to win by the strong hand.
+
+
+  Character of Henry's internal rule.
+
+All the foreign politics of the reign of Henry VII. have small
+importance compared with his work within the realm. The true monument of
+his ability was that he left England tamed and orderly, with an obedient
+people and a full exchequer, though he had taken it over wellnigh in a
+state of anarchy. The mere suppression of insurrections like those of
+Simnel and Warbeck was a small part of his task. The harder part was to
+recreate a spirit of order and subordination among a nation accustomed
+to long civil strife. His instruments were ministers of ability chosen
+from the clergy and the gentry--he seems to have been equally averse to
+trusting the baronage at the one end of the social scale, or mere
+upstarts at the other, and it is notable that no one during his reign
+can be called a court favourite. The best-known names among his servants
+were his great chancellor, Archbishop Morton, Foxe, bishop of
+Winchester, Sir Reginald Bray, and the lawyers Empson and Dudley. These
+two last bore the brunt of the unpopularity of the financial policy of
+the king during the latter half of his reign, when the vice of avarice
+seems to have grown upon him beyond all reason. But Henry was such a
+hard-working monarch, and so familiar with all the details of
+administration, that his ministers cannot be said to have had any
+independent authority, or to have directed their master's course of
+action.
+
+
+  The Star Chamber.
+
+The machinery employed by the first of the Tudors for the suppression of
+domestic disorder is well known. The most important item added by him to
+the administrative machinery of the realm was the famous Star Chamber,
+which was licensed by the parliament of 1487. It consisted of a small
+committee of ministers, privy councillors and judges, which sat to deal
+with offences that seemed to lie outside the scope of the common law, or
+more frequently with the misdoings of men who were so powerful that the
+local courts could not be trusted to execute justice upon them, such as
+great landowners, sheriffs and other royal officials, or turbulent
+individuals who were the terror of their native districts. The need for
+a strong central court directly inspired by the king, which could
+administer justice without respect of persons, was so great, that the
+constitutional danger of establishing an autocratic judicial committee,
+untrammelled by the ordinary rules of law, escaped notice at the time.
+It was not till much later that the nation came to look upon the Star
+Chamber as the special engine of royal tyranny and to loathe its name.
+In 1500 it was for the common profit of the realm that there should
+exist such a court, which could reduce even the most powerful offender
+to order.
+
+
+  Suppression of livery and maintenance.
+
+One of the most notable parts of the king's policy was his
+long-continued and successful assault on the abuse of "livery and
+maintenance," which had been at its height during the Wars of the Roses.
+We have seen the part which it had taken in strengthening the influence
+of those who were already too powerful, and weakening the ordinary
+operation of the law. Henry put it down with a strong hand, forbidding
+all liveries entirely, save for the mere domestic retainers of each
+magnate. His determination to end the system was well shown by the fact
+that he heavily fined even the earl of Oxford, the companion of his
+exile, the victor of Bosworth, and the most notoriously loyal peer in
+the realm, for an ostentatious violation of the statute. Where Oxford
+was punished, no less favoured person could hope to escape. By the end
+of the reign the little hosts of badged adherents which had formed the
+nucleus for the armies of the Wars of the Roses had ceased to exist.
+
+
+  Personal rule.
+
+Edward IV., as has been already remarked, had many of the opportunities
+of the autocrat, if only he had cared to use them; but his sloth and
+self-indulgence stood in the way. Henry VII., the most laborious and
+systematic of men, turned them to account. He formed his personal
+opinion on every problem of administration and intervened himself in
+every detail. In many respects he was his own prime minister, and
+nothing was done without his knowledge and consent. A consistent policy
+may be detected in all his acts--that of gathering all the machinery of
+government into his own hands. Under the later Plantagenets and the
+Lancastrian kings the great check on the power of the crown had been
+that financial difficulties were continually compelling the sovereign to
+summon parliaments. The estates had interfered perpetually in all the
+details of governance, by means of the power of the purse. Edward IV.,
+first among English sovereigns, had been able to dispense with
+parliaments for periods of many years, because he did not need their
+grants save at long intervals. Henry was in the same position; by strict
+economy, by the use of foreign subsidies, by the automatic growth of his
+revenues during a time of peace and returning prosperity, by
+confiscation and forfeitures, he built himself up a financial position
+which rendered it unnecessary for him to make frequent appeals to
+parliament. Not the least fertile of his expedients was that regular
+exploitation of the law as a source of revenue, which had already been
+seen in the time of his father-in-law. This part of Henry's policy is
+connected with the name of his two extortionate "fiscal judges" Empson
+and Dudley, who "turned law and justice into rapine" by their minute
+inquisition into all technical breaches of legality, and the nice
+fashion in which they adapted the fine to the wealth of the
+misdemeanant, without any reference to his moral guilt or any regard for
+extenuating circumstances. The king must take the responsibility for
+their unjust doings; it was his coffers which mainly profited by their
+chicane. In his later years he fell into the vice of hoarding money for
+its own sake; so necessary was it to his policy that he should be free,
+as far as possible, from the need for applying to parliament for money,
+that he became morbidly anxious to have great hoards in readiness for
+any possible day of financial stress. At his death he is said to have
+had L1,800,000 in hard cash laid by. Hence it is not strange to find
+that he was able to dispense with parliaments in a fashion that would
+have seemed incredible to a 14th-century king. In his whole reign he
+only asked them five times for grants of taxation, and three of the five
+requests were made during the first seven years of his reign. In the
+eyes of many men parliament lost the main reason for its existence when
+it ceased to be the habitual provider of funds for the ordinary expenses
+of the realm. Those who had a better conception of its proper functions
+could see that it had at any rate been stripped of its chief power when
+the king no longer required its subsidies. There are traces of a want of
+public interest in its proceedings, very different from the anxiety with
+which they used to be followed in Plantagenet and Lancastrian times.
+Legislation, which only incidentally affects him, is very much less
+exciting to the ordinary citizen than taxation, which aims directly at
+his pocket. It is at any rate clear that during the latter years of his
+reign, when the time of impostures and rebellions had ended, Henry was
+able to dispense with parliaments to a great extent, and incurred no
+unpopularity by doing so. Indeed he was accepted by the English people
+as the benefactor who had delivered them from anarchy; and if they
+murmured at his love of hoarding, and cursed his inquisitors Empson and
+Dudley, they had no wish to change the Tudor rule, and were far from
+regarding the times of the "Lancastrian experiment" as a lost golden
+age. The present king might be unscrupulous and avaricious, but he was
+cautious, intelligent and economical; no one would have wished to
+recall the regime of that "crowned saint" Henry VI.
+
+
+  Henry VIII.
+
+Nevertheless when the first of the Tudors died, on the 21st of April
+1509, there were few who regretted him. He was not a monarch to rouse
+enthusiasm, while much was expected from his brilliant, clever and
+handsome son Henry VIII., whose magnificent presence and manly vigour
+recalled the early prime of Edward IV. Some years later England realized
+that its new king had inherited not only the physical beauty and
+strength of his grandfather, but also every one of his faults, with the
+sole exception of his tendency to sloth. Henry VIII. indeed may be said,
+to sum up his character in brief, to have combined his father's brains
+with his grandfather's passions. Edward IV. was selfish and cruel, but
+failed to become a tyrant because he lacked the energy for continuous
+work. Henry VII. was unscrupulous and untiring, but so cautious and wary
+that he avoided violent action and dangerous risks. Their descendant had
+neither Edward's sloth nor Henry's moderation; he was capable of going
+to almost any lengths in pursuit of the gratification of his ambition,
+his passions, his resentment or his simple love of self-assertion. Yet,
+however far he might go on the road to tyranny, Henry had sufficient
+cunning, versatility and power of cool reflection, to know precisely
+when he had reached the edge of the impossible. He had his father's
+faculty for gauging public opinion, and estimating dangers, and though
+his more venturous temperament led him to press on far beyond the point
+at which the seventh Henry would have halted, he always stopped short on
+the hither side of the gulf. It was the most marvellous proof of his
+ability that he died on his throne after nearly forty years of
+autocratic rule, during which he had roused more enmities and done more
+to change the face of the realm than any of the kings that were before
+him.
+
+But it was long before the nation could estimate all the features of the
+magnificent but sinister figure which was to dominate England from 1509
+to 1547. At his accession Henry VIII. was only eighteen years of age,
+and, if his character was already formed, it was only the attractive
+side of it that was yet visible. His personal beauty, his keen
+intelligence, his scholarship, his love of music and the arts, his
+kingly ambition, were all obvious enough. His selfishness, his cruelty,
+his ingratitude, his fierce hatred of criticism and opposition, his
+sensuality, had yet to be discovered by his subjects. A suspicious
+observer might have detected something ominous in the first act of his
+reign--the arrest and attainder of his father's unpopular ministers,
+Empson and Dudley, whose heads he flung to the people in order to win a
+moment's applause. Whatever their faults, they had served the house of
+Tudor well, and it was a grotesque perversion of justice to send them to
+the scaffold on a charge of high treason. A similar piece of cruelty was
+the execution, some time later, of the earl of Suffolk, who had been
+languishing long years in the Tower; he was destroyed not for any new
+plots, but simply for his Yorkist descent. But in Henry's earlier years
+such acts were still unusual; it was not till he had grown older, and
+had learnt how much the nation would endure, that judicial murder became
+part of his established policy.
+
+
+  Continental projects of Henry VIII.
+
+  Treaty of Etaples.
+
+Henry's first outburst of self-assertion took the form of reversing his
+father's thrifty and peaceful policy, by plunging into the midst of the
+continental wars from which England had been held back by his cautious
+parent. The adventure was wholly unnecessary, and also unprofitable. But
+while France was engaged in the "Holy War" against the pope, Venice, the
+emperor, and Ferdinand of Spain, Henry renewed the old claims of the
+Plantagenets, and hoped, if not to win back the position of Edward III.,
+at least to recover the duchy of Aquitaine, or some parts of it. He lent
+an army to Ferdinand for the invasion of Gascony, and landed himself at
+Calais with 25,000 men, to beat up the northern border of France. Little
+good came of his efforts. The Spanish king gave no assistance, and the
+northern campaign, though it included the brilliant battle of the Spurs
+(August 16th, 1513), accomplished nothing more than the capture of
+Tournai and Therouanne. It was soon borne in upon King Henry that
+France, even when engaged with other enemies, was too strong to be
+overrun in the old style. Moreover, his allies were giving him no aid,
+though they had eagerly accepted his great subsidies. With a sudden
+revulsion of feeling Henry offered peace to France, which King Louis
+XII. gladly bought, agreeing to renew the old pension or tribute that
+Henry VII. had received by the treaty of Etaples. Their reconciliation
+and alliance were sealed by the marriage of the French king to Henry's
+favourite sister Mary, who was the bridegroom's junior by more than
+thirty years. Their wedlock and the Anglo-French alliance lasted only
+till the next year, when Louis died, and Mary secretly espoused an old
+admirer, Charles Brandon, afterwards duke of Suffolk, King Henry's
+greatest friend and confidant.
+
+
+  War with Scotland. Battle of Flodden.
+
+While the French war was still in progress there had been heavy fighting
+on the Scottish border. James IV., reverting to the traditionary policy
+of his ancestors, had taken the opportunity of attacking England while
+her king and his army were overseas. He suffered a disaster which
+recalls that of David II. at Neville's Cross--a fight which had taken
+place under precisely similar political conditions. After taking a few
+Northumbrian castles, James was brought to action at Flodden Field by
+the earl of Surrey (September 9th, 1513). After a desperate fight
+lasting the greater part of a day, the Scots were outmanoeuvred and
+surrounded. James IV.--who had refused to quit the field--was slain in
+the forefront of the battle, with the greater part of his nobles; with
+him fell also some 10,000 or 12,000 of his men. Scotland, with her
+military power brought low, and an infant king on the throne, was a
+negligible quantity in international politics for some years. The queen
+dowager, Margaret Tudor, aided by a party that favoured peace and
+alliance with England, was strong enough to balance the faction under
+the duke of Albany which wished for perpetual war and asked for aid from
+France.
+
+
+  Thomas Wolsey.
+
+With the peace of 1514 ended the first period of King Henry's reign. He
+was now no longer a boy, but a man of twenty-three, with his character
+fully developed; he had gradually got rid of his father's old
+councillors, and had chosen for himself a minister as ambitious and
+energetic as himself, the celebrated Thomas Wolsey, whom he had just
+made archbishop of York, and who obtained the rank of cardinal from the
+pope in the succeeding year. Wolsey was the last of the great clerical
+ministers of the middle ages, and by no means the worst. Like so many of
+his predecessors he had risen from the lower middle classes, through the
+royal road of the church; he had served Henry VII.'s old councillor
+Foxe, bishop of Winchester, as secretary, and from his household had
+passed into that of his master. He had been an admirable servant to
+both, full of zeal, intelligence and energy, and not too much burdened
+with scruples. The young king found in him an instrument well fitted to
+his hand, a man fearless, ingenious, and devoted to the furtherance of
+the power of the crown, by which alone he had reached his present
+position of authority. For fourteen years he was his master's chief
+minister--the person responsible in the nation's eyes for all the more
+unpopular assertions of the royal prerogative, and for all the heavy
+taxation and despotic acts which Henry's policy required. It mattered
+little to Henry that the cardinal was arrogant, tactless and
+ostentatious; indeed it suited his purpose that Wolsey should be saddled
+by public opinion with all the blame that ought to have been laid on his
+own shoulders. It was convenient that the old nobility should detest the
+upstart, and that the commons should imagine him to be the person
+responsible for the demands for money required for the royal wars. As
+long as his minister served his purposes and could execute his behests
+Henry gave him a free hand, and supported him against all his enemies.
+It was believed at the time, and is still sometimes maintained by
+historians, that Wolsey laid down schemes of policy and persuaded his
+master to adopt them; but the truth would appear to be that Henry was in
+no wise dominated by the cardinal, but imposed on him his own wishes,
+merely leaving matters of detail to be settled by his minister. Things
+indifferent might be trusted to him, but the main lines of English
+diplomacy and foreign policy show rather the influence of the king's
+personal desires of the moment than that of a statesman seeking national
+ends.
+
+It has often been alleged that Henry, under the guidance of Wolsey,
+followed a consistent scheme for aggrandizing England, by making her the
+state which kept the balance of power of Europe in her hands. And it is
+pointed out that during the years of the cardinal's ascendancy the
+alliance of England was sought in turn by the great princes of the
+continent, and proved the make-weight in the scales. This is but a
+superficial view of the situation. Henry, if much courted, was much
+deceived by his contemporaries. They borrowed his money and his armies,
+but fed him with vain promises and illusory treaties. He and his
+minister were alternately gulled by France and by the emperor, and the
+net result of all their activity was bankruptcy and discontent at home
+and ever-frustrated hopes abroad. It is hard to build up a reputation
+for statecraft for either Henry or Wolsey on the sum total of English
+political achievement during their collaboration.
+
+
+  Henry VIII. and the rivalry of Francis I. and Charles V.
+
+  Failure of Henry's diplomacy.
+
+During the first few years of the cardinal's ascendancy the elder race
+of European sovereigns, the kings with whom Henry VII. had been wont to
+haggle, disappeared one after the other. Louis of France died in 1515,
+Ferdinand of Aragon in 1516, the emperor Maximilian--the last survivor
+of his generation--in 1519. Louis was succeeded by the active, warlike
+and shifty Francis I.; the heritage of both Ferdinand and
+Maximilian--his maternal and paternal grandfathers--fell to Charles of
+Habsburg, who already possessed the Netherlands in his father's right
+and Castile in that of his mother. The enmity of the house of Valois and
+the house of Habsburg, which had first appeared in the wars of Charles
+VIII. and Maximilian, took a far more bitter shape under Francis I. and
+Charles V., two young princes who were rivals from their youth. Their
+wars were almost perpetual, their peaces never honestly carried out.
+Their powers were very equally balanced; if Charles owned broader lands
+than Francis, they were more scattered and in some cases less loyal. The
+solid and wealthy realm of France proved able to make head against Spain
+and the Netherlands, even when they were backed by the emperor's German
+vassals. Charles was also distracted by many stabs in the back from the
+Ottoman Turks, who were just beginning their attack on Christendom along
+the line of the Danube. To each of the combatants it seemed that the
+English alliance would turn the scale in his own favour. Henry was much
+courted, and wooed with promises of lands to be won from the other side
+by his ally of the moment. But neither Charles nor Francis wished him to
+be a real gainer, and he himself was a most untrustworthy friend, for he
+was quite ready to turn against his ally if he seemed to be growing too
+powerful, and threatened to dominate all Europe; the complete success of
+either party would mean that England would sink once more into a
+second-rate power. How faithless and insincere was Henry's policy may be
+gauged from the fact that in 1520, after all the pageantry of the "Field
+of the Cloth of Gold" and his vows of undying friendship for Francis, he
+met Charles a few weeks later at Gravelines, and concluded with him a
+treaty which pledged England to a defensive alliance against the king's
+"good brother" of France. Such things happened not once nor twice during
+the years of Wolsey's ministry. It was hardly to be wondered at,
+therefore, if Henry's allies regularly endeavoured to cheat him out of
+his share of their joint profits. What use was there in rewarding a
+friend who might become an enemy to-morrow? The greatest deception of
+all was in 1522, when Charles V., who had made the extraordinary promise
+that he would get Wolsey made pope, and lend Henry an army to conquer
+northern France, failed to redeem his word in both respects. He caused
+his own old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, to be crowned with the papal
+tiara, and left the English to invade Picardy entirely unassisted. But
+this was only one of many such disappointments.
+
+
+  Beginnings of parliamentary resistance.
+
+  Execution of the duke of Buckingham.
+
+The result of some twelve years of abortive alliances and ill-kept
+treaties was that Henry had obtained no single one of the advantages
+which he had coveted, and that he had lavished untold wealth and many
+English lives upon phantom schemes which crumbled between his fingers.
+His subjects had already begun to murmur; the early parliaments of his
+reign had been passive and complaisant; but by 1523 the Commons had been
+goaded into resistance. They granted only half the subsidies asked from
+them, pleading that three summers more of such taxation as the cardinal
+demanded for his master would leave the realm drained of its last penny,
+and reduced to fall back on primitive forms of barter, "clothes for
+victuals and bread for cheese," out of mere want of coin. Fortunately
+for the king his subjects laid all the blame upon his mouthpiece the
+cardinal, instead of placing it where it was due. On Wolsey's back also
+was saddled the most iniquitous of Henry's acts of tyranny against
+individuals--the judicial murder of the duke of Buckingham, the highest
+head among the English nobility. For some hasty words, amplified by the
+doubtful evidence of treacherous retainers, together with a foolish
+charge of dabbling with astrologers, the heir of the royal line of
+Thomas of Woodstock had been tried and executed with scandalous haste.
+His only real crime was that, commenting on the lack of male heirs to
+the crown--for after many years of wedlock with Catherine of Aragon
+Henry's sole issue was one sickly daughter--he had been foolish enough
+to remark that if anything should happen to the king he himself was
+close in succession to the crown. The cardinal bore the blame, because
+he and Buckingham had notoriously disliked each other; but the deed had
+really been of the king's own contriving. He was roused to implacable
+wrath by anyone who dared to speak on the forbidden topic of the
+succession question.
+
+
+  Question of the king's divorce.
+
+In the later years of Wolsey's ascendancy, nevertheless, that same
+question was the subject of many anxious thoughts. From Henry's own mind
+it was never long absent; he yearned for a male heir, and he was growing
+tired of his wife Catherine, who was some years older than himself, had
+few personal attractions, and was growing somewhat of an invalid.
+Somewhere about the end of 1526 those who were in the king's intimate
+confidence began to be aware that he was meditating a divorce--a thing
+not lightly to be taken in hand, for the queen was the aunt of the
+emperor Charles V., who would be vastly offended at such a proposal. But
+Henry's doubts had been marvellously stimulated by the fact that he had
+become enamoured of another lady--the beautiful, ambitious and cunning
+Anne Boleyn, a niece of the duke of Norfolk, who had no intention of
+becoming merely the king's mistress, but aspired to be his consort.
+
+
+  England and the Reformation.
+
+The question of the king's divorce soon became inextricably confused
+with another problem, whose first beginnings go back to a slightly
+earlier date. What was to be the attitude of England towards the
+Reformation? It was now nearly ten years since Martin Luther had posted
+up his famous theses on the church door at Wittenberg, and since he had
+testified to his faith before the diet of Worms. All Germany was now
+convulsed with the first throes of the revolt against the papacy, and
+the echoes of the new theological disputes were being heard in England.
+King Henry himself in 1521 had deigned to write an abusive pamphlet
+against Luther, for which he had been awarded the magnificent title of
+_Fidei Defensor_ by that cultured sceptic Pope Leo X. About the same
+time we begin to read of orders issued by the bishops for the discovery
+and burning of all Lutheran books--a clear sign that they were reaching
+England in appreciable quantities. Hitherto it had been only the works
+of Wycliffe that had merited this attention on the part of inquisitors.
+In the Wycliffite remnant, often persecuted but never exterminated,
+there already existed in England the nucleus of a Protestant party. All
+through the reign of Henry VII. and the early years of Henry VIII. the
+intermittent burning of "heretics," and their far more frequent
+recantations, had borne witness to the fact that the sect still
+lingered on. The Wycliffites were a feeble folk, compelled to
+subterraneous ways, and destitute of learned leaders or powerful
+supporters. But they survived to see Luther's day, and to merge
+themselves in one body with the first English travelling scholars and
+merchants who brought back from the continent the doctrines of the
+German Reformation. The origins of a Protestant party, who were not mere
+Wycliffites, but had been first interested in dogmatic controversy by
+coming upon the works of Luther, can be traced back to the year 1521 and
+to the university of Cambridge. There a knot of scholars, some of whom
+were to perish early at the stake, while others were destined to become
+the leaders of the English Reformation, came together and encouraged
+each other to test the received doctrines of contemporary orthodoxy by
+searching the Scriptures and the works of the Fathers. The sect spread
+in a few years to London, Oxford and other centres of intellectual life,
+but for many years its followers were not numerous; like the old
+Lollardy, Protestantism took root only in certain places and among
+certain classes--notably the lesser clergy and the merchants of the
+great towns.
+
+King Henry and those who wished to please him professed as great a
+hatred and contempt for the new purveyors of German doctrines as for the
+belated disciples of Wycliffe. But there was another movement, whose
+origins went back for many centuries, which they were far from
+discouraging, and were prepared to utilize when it suited their
+convenience. This was the purely political feeling against the tyranny
+of the papacy, and the abuses of the national church, which in early
+ages had given supporters to William the Conqueror and Henry II., which
+had dictated the statutes of Mortmain and of Praemunire. Little had been
+heard of the old anti-clerical party in England since the time of Henry
+IV.; it had apparently been identified in the eyes of the orthodox with
+that Lollardy with which it had for a time allied itself, and had shared
+in its discredit. But it had always continued to exist, and in the early
+years of Henry VIII. had been showing unmistakable signs of vitality.
+The papacy of the Renaissance was a fair mark for criticism. It was not
+hard to attack the system under which Rodrigo Borgia wore the tiara,
+while Girolamo Savonarola went to the stake; or in which Julius II.
+exploited the name of Christianity to serve his territorial policy in
+Italy, and Leo X. hawked his indulgences round Europe to raise funds
+which would enable him to gratify his artistic tastes. At no period had
+the official hierarchy of the Western Church been more out of touch with
+common righteousness and piety. Moreover, they were sinning under the
+eyes of a laity which was far more intelligent and educated, more able
+to think and judge for itself, less the slave of immemorial tradition,
+than the old public of the middle ages. In Italy the Renaissance might
+be purely concerned with things intellectual or artistic, and seem to
+have little or no touch with things moral. Beyond the Alps it was
+otherwise; among the Teutonic nations at least the revolt against the
+scholastic philosophy, the rout of the obscurantists, the eager pursuit
+of Hellenic culture, had a religious aspect. The same generation which
+refused to take thrice-translated and thrice-garbled screeds from
+Aristotle as the sum of human knowledge, and went back to the original
+Greek, was also studying the Old and New Testaments in their original
+tongues, and drawing from them conclusions as unfavourable to the
+intelligence as to the scholarship of the orthodox medieval divines.
+Such a discovery as that which showed that the "False Decretals," on
+which so much of the power of the papacy rested, were mere 9th-century
+forgeries struck deep at the roots of the whole traditional relation
+between church and state.
+
+The first English scholars of the Renaissance, like Erasmus on the
+continent, did not see the logical outcome of their own discoveries, nor
+realize that the campaign against obscurantism would develop into a
+campaign against Roman orthodoxy. Sir Thomas More, the greatest of them,
+was actually driven into reaction by the violence of Protestant
+controversialists, and the fear that the new doctrines would rend the
+church in twain. He became himself a persecutor, and a writer of abusive
+pamphlets unworthy of the author of the _Utopia_. But to the younger
+generation the irreconcilability of modern scholarship and medieval
+formulae of faith became more and more evident. One after another all
+the cardinal doctrines were challenged by writers who were generally
+acute, and almost invariably vituperative. For the controversies of the
+Reformation were conducted by both sides, from kings and prelates down
+to gutter pamphleteers, in language of the most unseemly violence.
+
+But, as has been already said, the scholars and theologians had less
+influence in the beginning of the English Reformation than the mere lay
+politicians, whose anti-clerical tendencies chanced to fit in with King
+Henry's convenience when he quarrelled with the papacy. It is well to
+note that the first attacks of parliament on the church date back to two
+years before Luther published his famous theses. The contention began in
+1515 with the fierce assault by the Commons on the old abuse of benefit
+of clergy, and the immunity of clerical criminals from due punishment
+for secular crimes--a question as old as the times of Henry II. and
+Becket. But the discussion spread in later years from this particular
+point into a general criticism of the church and its relations to the
+state, embracing local grievances as well as the questions which turned
+on the dealings of the papacy with the crown. The old complaints which
+had been raised against the Church of England in the days of Edward I.
+or Richard II. had lost none of their force in 1526. The higher clergy
+were more than ever immersed in affairs of state, "Caesarean" as
+Wycliffe would have called them. It was only necessary to point to the
+great cardinal himself, and to ask how far his spiritual duties at York
+were properly discharged while he was acting as the king's prime
+minister. The cases of Foxe and Morton were much the same; the former
+passed for a well-meaning man, yet had been practically absent from his
+diocese for twenty years. Pluralism, nepotism, simony and all the other
+ancient abuses were more rampant than ever. The monasteries had ceased
+to be even the nurseries of literature; their chronicles had run dry,
+and secular priests or laymen had taken up the pens that the monks had
+dropped. They were wealthier than ever, yet did little to justify their
+existence; indeed the spirit of the age was so much set against them
+that they found it hard to keep up the numbers of their inmates.
+Truculent pamphleteers like Simon Fish, who wrote _Beggars'
+Supplication_, were already demanding "that these sturdy boobies should
+be set abroad into the world, to get wives of their own, and earn their
+living by the sweat of their brows, according to the commandment of God;
+so might the king be better obeyed, matrimony be better kept, the gospel
+better preached, and none should rob the poor of his alms." It must be
+added that monastic scandals were not rare; though the majority of the
+houses were decently ordered, yet the unexceptionable testimony of
+archiepiscopal and episcopal visitations shows that in the years just
+before the Reformation there was a certain number of them where chastity
+of life and honesty of administration were equally unknown. But above
+all things the church was being criticized as an _imperium in imperio_,
+a privileged body not amenable to ordinary jurisdiction, and subservient
+to a foreign lord--the pope. And it was true that, much as English
+churchmen might grumble at papal exactions, they were generally ready as
+a body to support the pope against the crown; the traditions of the
+medieval church made it impossible for them to do otherwise. That there
+would in any case have been a new outbreak of anti-clerical and
+anti-papal agitation in England, under the influence of the Protestant
+impulse started by Luther in Germany, is certain. But two special causes
+gave its particular colour to the opening of the English Reformation;
+the one was that the king fell out with the papacy on the question of
+his divorce. The other was that the nation at this moment was chafing
+bitterly against a clerical minister, whom it (very unjustly) made
+responsible for the exorbitant taxation which it was enduring, in
+consequence of the king's useless and unsuccessful foreign wars. The
+irony of the situation lay in the facts that Henry was, so far as
+dogmatic views were concerned, a perfectly orthodox prince; he had a
+considerable knowledge of the old theological literature, as he had
+shown in his pamphlet against Luther, and though he was ready to repress
+clerical immunities and privileges that were inconvenient to the crown,
+he had no sympathy whatever with the doctrinal side of the new revolt
+against the system of the medieval church. Moreover, Wolsey, whose fall
+was to synchronize with the commencement of the reforming movement, was
+if anything more in sympathy with change than was his master. He was an
+enlightened patron of the new learning, and was inclined to take
+vigorous measures in hand for the pruning away of the abuses of the
+church. It is significant that his great college at Oxford--"Cardinal's
+College" as he designed to call it, "Christ Church" as it is named
+to-day--was endowed with the revenues of some score of small monasteries
+which he had suppressed on the ground that they were useless or
+ill-conducted. His master turned the lesson to account a few years
+later; but Henry's wholesale destruction of religious houses was carried
+out not in the interests of learning, but mainly in those of the royal
+exchequer.     (C. W. C. O.)
+
+
+VII. THE REFORMATION AND THE AGE OF ELIZABETH (1528-1603)
+
+  Fall of Wolsey.
+
+Wolsey did not fall through any opposition to reform; nor was he opposed
+to the idea of a divorce. Indeed, both in France and Spain he was
+credited with the authorship of the project. But he differed from Henry
+on the question of Catherine's successor. Wolsey desired a French
+marriage to consummate the breach upon which he was now bent with the
+emperor; and war, in fact, was precipitated with Spain in 1528. This is
+said to have been done without Henry's consent; he certainly wished to
+avoid war with Charles V., and peace was made after six months of
+passive hostility. Nor did Henry want a French princess; his affections
+were fixed for the time on Anne Boleyn, and she was the hope of the
+anti-clerical party. The crisis was brought to a head by the failure of
+Wolsey's plan to obtain a divorce. Originally it had been suggested that
+the ecclesiastical courts in England were competent without recourse to
+Rome. Wolsey deprecated this procedure, and application was made to
+Clement VII. Wolsey relied upon his French and Italian allies to exert
+the necessary powers of persuasion; and in 1528 a French army crossed
+the Alps, marched through Italy and threatened to drive Charles V. out
+of Naples. Clement was in a position to listen to Henry's prayer; and
+Campeggio was commissioned with Wolsey to hear the suit and grant the
+divorce.
+
+
+  Question of the divorce.
+
+No sooner had Campeggio started than the fortunes of war changed. The
+French were driven out of Naples, and the Imperialists again dominated
+Rome; the Church, wrote Clement to Campeggio, was completely in the
+power of Charles V. The cardinal, therefore, must on no account
+pronounce against Charles's aunt; if he could not persuade Henry and
+Catherine to agree on a mutual separation, he must simply pass the time
+and come to no conclusion. Hence it was June 1529 before the court got
+to work at all, and then its proceedings were only preparatory to an
+adjournment and revocation of the suit to Rome in August. Clement VII.
+had, in his own words, made up his mind to live and die an imperialist;
+the last remnants of the French army in Italy had been routed, and the
+pope had perforce concluded the treaty of Barcelona, a sort of family
+compact between himself and Charles, whereby he undertook to protect
+Charles's aunt, and the emperor to support the Medici dynasty in
+Florence. This peace was amplified at the treaty of Cambrai (August
+1529) into a general European pacification in which England had no
+voice. So far had it fallen since 1521.
+
+In every direction Wolsey had failed, and his failure involved the
+triumph of the forces which he had opposed. The fate of the papal system
+in England was bound up with his personal fortunes. It was he and he
+alone who had kept parliament at arm's length and the enemies of the
+church at bay. He had interested the king, and to some extent the
+nation, in a spirited foreign policy, had diverted their attention from
+domestic questions, and had staved off that parliamentary attack on the
+church which had been threatened fifteen years before. Now he was
+doomed, and both Campeggio and Cardinal du Bellay were able to send
+their governments accurate outlines of the future policy of Henry VIII.
+The church was to be robbed of its wealth, its power and its privileges,
+and the papal jurisdiction was to be abolished. In October Wolsey was
+deprived of the great seal, and surrendered many of his ecclesiastical
+preferments, though he was allowed to retain his archbishopric of York
+which he now visited for the first time. The first lay ministry since
+Edward the Confessor's time came into office; Sir Thomas More became
+lord chancellor, and Anne Boleyn's father lord privy seal; the only
+prominent cleric who remained in office was Stephen Gardiner, who
+succeeded Wolsey as bishop of Winchester.
+
+
+  Attack on the church in parliament.
+
+  Henry VIII. marries Anne Boleyn.
+
+  The Act of Supremacy.
+
+Parliament met in November 1529 and passed many acts against clerical
+exactions, mortuaries, probate dues and pluralities, which evoked a
+passionate protest from Bishop Fisher: "Now, with the Commons," he cried
+in the House of Lords, "is nothing but 'Down with the Church.'" During
+1530 Henry's agents were busy abroad making that appeal on the divorce
+to the universities which Cranmer had suggested. In 1531 the clergy in
+convocation, terrified by the charge of _praemunire_ brought against
+them for recognizing Wolsey's legatine authority, paid Henry a hundred
+and eighteen thousand pounds and recognized him as supreme head of the
+church so far as the law of Christ would allow. The details of this
+surrender were worked out by king and Commons in 1532; but Gardiner and
+More secured the rejection by the Lords of the bill in which they were
+embodied, and it was not till 1533, when More had ceased to be
+chancellor and Gardiner to be secretary, that a parliamentary statute
+annihilated the independent legislative authority of the church. An act
+was, however, passed in 1532 empowering the king, if he thought fit, to
+stop the payment of annates to Rome. Henry suspended his consent in
+order to induce the pope to grant Cranmer his bulls as archbishop of
+Canterbury where he succeeded Warham late in 1532. The stratagem was
+successful, and Henry cast off all disguise. The act of annates was
+confirmed; another prohibiting appeals to Rome and providing for the
+appointment of bishops without recourse to the papacy was passed; and
+Cranmer declared Henry's marriage with Catherine null and void and that
+with Anne Boleyn, which had taken place about January 25, 1533, valid.
+Anne was crowned in June, and on the 7th of September the future Queen
+Elizabeth was born. At length in 1534 Clement VII. concluded the case at
+Rome, pronouncing in favour of Catherine's marriage, and drawing up a
+bull of excommunication against Henry and his abettors. But he did not
+venture to publish it; public opinion in England, while hostile to the
+divorce, was not in favour of the clergy or the pope, and the rivalry
+between Charles V. and Francis I. was too bitter to permit of joint, or
+even isolated, action against Henry. Charles was only too anxious to
+avoid the duty of carrying out the pope's commands, and a year later he
+was once more involved in war with France. Henry was able to deal
+roughly with such manifestations as Elizabeth Barton's visions, and in
+the autumn of 1534 to obtain from parliament the Act of Supremacy which
+transferred to him the juridical, though not the spiritual, powers of
+the pope. No penalties were attached to this act, but another passed in
+the same session made it treason to attempt to deprive the king of any
+of his titles, of which supreme head of the church was one, being
+incorporated in the royal style by letters patent of January 1535.
+Fisher and More were executed on this charge; they had been imprisoned
+in the previous year for objecting to take the form of oath to the
+succession as vested in Anne Boleyn's children which the commissioners
+prescribed. But their lives could only be forfeit on the supposition
+that they sought to deprive the king of his royal supremacy. Many of the
+friars observant of Greenwich and monks of the Charterhouse were
+involved in a similar fate, but there was no general resistance, and
+Henry, now inspired or helped by Thomas Cromwell, was able to proceed
+with the next step in the Reformation, the dissolution of the
+monasteries.
+
+
+  Dissolution of the monasteries.
+
+It was Cecil's opinion twenty-five years later that, but for the
+dissolution, the cause of the Reformation could not have succeeded. Such
+a reason could hardly be avowed, and justification had to be sought in
+the condition of the monasteries themselves. The action of Wolsey and
+other bishops before 1529, the report of a commission of cardinals
+appointed by Paul III. in 1535, the subsequent experience of other, even
+Catholic, countries give collateral support to the conclusions of the
+visitors appointed by Cromwell, although they were dictated by a desire
+not to deal out impartial justice, but to find reasons for a policy
+already adopted in principle. That they exaggerated the evils of
+monastic life hardly admits of doubt; but even a Henry VIII. and a
+Thomas Cromwell would not have dared to attack, or succeeded in
+destroying, the monasteries had they retained their original purity and
+influence. As it was their doubtful reputation and financial
+embarrassments enabled Henry to offer them as a gigantic bribe to the
+upper classes of the laity, and the Reformation parliament met for its
+last session early in 1536 to give effect to the reports of the visitors
+and to the king's and their own desires.
+
+
+  Execution of Queen Anne Boleyn.
+
+But it had barely been dissolved in April when it became necessary to
+call another. In January the death of Catherine had rejoiced the hearts
+of Henry and Anne Boleyn, but Anne's happiness was short-lived. Two
+miscarriages and the failure to produce the requisite male heir linked
+her in Henry's mind and in misfortune to Catherine; unlike Catherine she
+was unpopular and not above suspicion. The story of her tragedy is still
+one of the most horrible and mysterious pages in English history. It is
+certain that Henry was tired and wanted to get rid of her; but if she
+were innocent, why were charges brought against her which were not
+brought against Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves? and why were
+four other victims sacrificed when one would have been enough? The peers
+a year before could acquit Lord Dacre; would they have condemned the
+queen without some show of evidence? and unless there was suspicious
+evidence, her daughter was inhuman in making no effort subsequently to
+clear her mother's character. However that may be, Anne was not only
+condemned and executed, but her marriage was declared invalid and her
+daughter a bastard. Parliament was required to establish the succession
+on the new basis of Henry's new queen, Jane Seymour. It also empowered
+the king to leave the crown by will if he had no legitimate issue; but
+the illegitimate son, the duke of Richmond, in whose favour this
+provision is said to have been conceived, died shortly afterwards.
+
+
+  The Pilgrimage of Grace.
+
+Fortunately for Henry, Queen Jane roused no domestic or foreign
+animosities; Charles V. and Francis I. were at war; and the pope's and
+Pole's attempt to profit by the Pilgrimage of Grace came too late to
+produce any effect except the ruin of Pole's family. The two risings of
+1536 in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were provoked partly by the
+dissolution of the monasteries, partly by the collection of a subsidy
+and fears of fresh taxation on births, marriages and burials, and partly
+by the protestantizing Ten Articles of 1536 and Cromwell's
+_Injunctions_. They were conservative demonstrations in favour of a
+restoration of the old order by means of a change of ministry, but not a
+change of dynasty. The Lincolnshire rising was over before the middle of
+October, the more serious revolt in Yorkshire under Aske lasted through
+the winter. Henry's lieutenants were compelled to temporize and make
+concessions. Aske was invited to come to London and hoodwinked by Henry
+into believing that the king was really bent on restoration and reform.
+But an impatient outburst of the insurgents and a foolish attempt to
+seize Hull and Scarborough gave Henry an excuse for repudiating the
+concessions made in his name. He could afford to do so because England
+south of the Trent remained stauncher to him than England north of it
+did to the Pilgrimage. Aske and other leaders were tried and executed,
+and summary vengeance was wreaked on the northern counties, especially
+on the monasteries. The one satisfactory outcome was the establishment
+of the Council of the North, which gave the shires between the Border
+and the Trent a stronger and more efficient government than they had
+ever had before.
+
+
+  The "Six Articles."
+
+  Fall of Thomas Cromwell.
+
+Probably the Pilgrimage had some effect in moderating Henry's progress.
+The monasteries did not benefit and in 1538-1539 the greater were
+involved in the fate which had already overtaken the less. But no
+further advances were made towards Protestantism after the publication
+and authorization of the "Great" Bible in English. The Lutheran divines
+who came to England in 1538 with a project for a theological union were
+rebuffed; the parliament elected in 1539 was Catholic, and only the
+reforming bishops in the House of Lords offered any resistance to the
+Six Articles which reaffirmed the chief points in Catholic doctrine and
+practice. The alliance between pope, emperor and French king induced
+Henry to acquiesce in Cromwell's scheme for a political understanding
+with Cleves and the Schmalkaldic League, which might threaten Charles
+V.'s position in Germany and the Netherlands, but could not be of much
+direct advantage to England. Cromwell rashly sought to wed Henry to this
+policy, proposed Anne of Cleves as a bride for Henry, now once more a
+widower, and represented the marriage as England's sole protection
+against a Catholic league. Henry put his neck under the yoke, but soon
+discovered that there was no necessity; for Charles and Francis were
+already beginning to quarrel and had no thought of a joint attack on
+England. The discovery was fatal to Cromwell; after a severe struggle in
+the council he was abandoned to his enemies, attainted of treason and
+executed. Anne's marriage was declared null, and Henry found a fifth
+queen in Catherine Howard, a niece of Norfolk, a protegee of Gardiner,
+and a friend of the Catholic church.
+
+Nevertheless there was no reversal of what had been done, only a check
+to the rate of progress. Cranmer remained archbishop and compiled an
+English Litany, while Catherine Howard soon ceased to be queen; charges
+of loose conduct, which in her case at any rate were not instigated by
+the king, were made against her and she was brought to the block; she
+was succeeded by Catherine Parr, a mild patron of the new learning. The
+Six Articles were only fitfully put in execution, especially in 1543 and
+1546: all the plots against Cranmer failed; and before he died Henry was
+even considering the advisability of further steps in the religious
+reformation, apart from mere spoliation like the confiscation of the
+chantry lands.
+
+
+  Policy in Ireland and Scotland.
+
+But Scotland, Ireland and foreign affairs concerned him most. Something
+substantial was achieved in Ireland; the papal sovereignty was abolished
+and Henry received from the Irish parliament the title of king instead
+of lord of Ireland. The process was begun of converting Irish chieftains
+into English peers which eventually divorced the Irish people from their
+natural leaders; and principles of English law and government were
+spread beyond the Pale. In Scotland Henry was less fortunate. He failed
+to win over James V. to his anti-papal policy, revived the feudal claim
+to suzerainty, won the battle of Solway Moss (1542), and then after
+James's death bribed and threatened the Scots estates into concluding a
+treaty of marriage between their infant queen and Henry's son. The
+church in Scotland led by Beaton, and the French party led by James V.'s
+widow, Mary of Guise, soon reversed this decision, and Hertford's heavy
+hand was (1544) laid on Edinburgh in revenge. France was at the root of
+the evil, and Henry was thus induced once more to join Charles V. in war
+(1543). The joint invasion of 1544 led to the capture of Boulogne, but
+the emperor made peace in order to deal with the Lutherans and left
+Henry at war with France. The French attempted to retaliate in 1545, and
+burnt some villages in the Isle of Wight and on the coast of Sussex. But
+their expedition was a failure, and peace was made in 1546, by which
+Henry undertook to restore Boulogne in eight years' time on payment of
+eight hundred thousand crowns. Scotland was not included in the
+pacification, and when Henry died (January 28, 1547) he was busy
+preparing to renew his attempt on Scotland's independence.
+
+
+  Edward VI.
+
+  Progress of the Reformation.
+
+He left a council of sixteen to rule during his son's minority. The
+balance of parties which had existed since Cromwell's fall had been
+destroyed in the last months of the reign by the attainder of Norfolk
+and his son Surrey, and the exclusion of Gardiner and Thirlby from the
+council of regency. Men of the new learning prevailed, and Hertford
+(later duke of Somerset), as uncle to Edward VI., was made protector of
+the realm and governor of the king's person. He soon succeeded in
+removing the trammels imposed upon his authority, and made himself king
+in everything but name. He used his arbitrary power to modify the
+despotic system of the Tudors; all treason laws since Edward III., all
+heresy laws, all restrictions upon the publication of the Scriptures
+were removed in the first parliament of the reign, and various
+securities for liberty were enacted. The administration of the sacrament
+of the altar in both elements was permitted, the Catholic interpretation
+of the mass was rendered optional, images were removed, and English was
+introduced into nearly the whole of the church service. In the following
+session (1548-1549) the first Act of Uniformity authorized the first
+Book of Common Prayer. It met with strenuous resistance in Devon and in
+Cornwall, where rebellions added to the thickening troubles of the
+protector.
+
+
+  Administration of the protector Somerset.
+
+His administration was singularly unsuccessful. In 1547 he won the great
+but barren victory of Pinkie Cleugh over the Scots, and attempted to
+push on the marriage and union by a mixture of conciliation and
+coercion. He made genuine and considerable concessions to Scottish
+feeling, guaranteeing autonomy and freedom of trade, and suggesting that
+the two realms should adopt the indifferent style of the empire of Great
+Britain. But he also seized Haddington in 1548, held by force the
+greater part of the Lowlands, and, when Mary was transported to France,
+revived the old feudal claims which he had dropped in 1547. France was,
+as ever, the backbone of the Scots resistance; men and money poured into
+Edinburgh to assist Mary of Guise and the French faction. The
+protector's offer to restore Boulogne could not purchase French
+acquiescence in the union of England and Scotland; and the bickerings on
+the borders in France and open fighting in Scotland led the French to
+declare war on England in August 1549. They were encouraged by
+dissensions in England. Somerset's own brother, Thomas Seymour, jealous
+of the protector, intrigued against the government; he sought to secure
+the hand of Elizabeth, the favour of Edward VI. and the support of the
+Suffolk line, secretly married Catherine Parr, and abused his office as
+lord high admiral to make friends with pirates and other enemies of
+order. Foes of the family, such as Warwick and Southampton, saw in his
+factious conduct the means of ruining both the brothers. Seymour was
+brought to the block, and the weak consent of the protector seriously
+damaged him in the public eye. His notorious sympathy with the peasantry
+further alienated the official classes and landed gentry, and his
+campaign against enclosures brought him into conflict with the strongest
+forces of the time. The remedial measures which he favoured failed; and
+the rising of Ket in Norfolk and others less important in nearly all the
+counties of England, made Somerset's position impossible. Bedford and
+Herbert suppressed the rebellion in the west, Warwick that in Norfolk
+(July-August 1549). They then combined with the majority of the council
+and the discontented Catholics to remove the protector from office and
+imprison him in the Tower (October).
+
+
+  Administration of the duke of Northumberland.
+
+  Establishment of Protestantism.
+
+The Catholics hoped for reaction, the restoration of the mass, and the
+release of Gardiner and Bonner, who had been imprisoned for resistance
+to the protector's ecclesiastical policy. But Warwick meant to rely on
+the Protestant extremists; by January 1550 the Catholics had been
+expelled from the council, and the pace of the Reformation increased
+instead of diminishing. Peace was made with France by the surrender of
+Boulogne and abandonment of the policy of union with Scotland (March
+1550); and the approach of war between France and the emperor, coupled
+with the rising of the princes in Germany, relieved Warwick from foreign
+apprehensions and gave him a free hand at home. Gardiner, Bonner, Heath,
+Day and Tunstall were one by one deprived of their sees; a new ordinal
+simplified the ritual of ordination, and a second Act of Uniformity and
+Book of Common Prayer (1552) repudiated the Catholic interpretation
+which had been placed on the first and imposed a stricter conformity to
+the Protestant faith. All impediments to clerical marriage were removed,
+altars and organs were taken down, old service books destroyed and
+painted windows broken; it was even proposed to explain away the
+kneeling at the sacrament. The liberal measures of the protector were
+repealed, and new treasons were enacted; Somerset himself, who had been
+released and restored to the council in 1550, became an obstacle in
+Warwick's path, and was removed by means of a bogus plot, being executed
+in January 1552; while Warwick had himself made duke of Northumberland,
+his friend Dorset duke of Suffolk, and Herbert earl of Pembroke.
+
+But his ambition and violence made him deeply unpopular, and the failing
+health of Edward VI. opened up a serious prospect for Northumberland. He
+was only safe so long as he controlled the government, and prevented the
+administration of justice, and the knowledge that not only power but
+life was at stake drove him into a desperate plot for the retention of
+both. He could trade upon Edward's precocious hatred of Mary's religion,
+he could rely upon French fears of her Spanish inclinations, and the
+success which had attended his schemes in England deluded him into a
+belief that he could supplant the Tudor with a Dudley dynasty. His son
+Guilford Dudley was hastily married to Lady Jane Grey, the eldest
+granddaughter of Henry VIII.'s younger sister Mary. Henry's two
+daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, the descendants of his elder sister
+Margaret, and Lady Jane's mother, the duchess of Suffolk, were all to be
+passed over, and the succession was to be vested in Lady Jane and her
+heirs male. Edward was persuaded that he could devise the crown by will,
+the council and the judges were browbeaten into acquiescence, and three
+days after Edward's death (July 6, 1553), Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed
+queen in London. Northumberland had miscalculated the temper of the
+nation, and failed to kidnap Mary. She gathered her forces in Norfolk
+and Suffolk, Northumberland rode out from London to oppose her, but
+defection dogged his steps, and even in London Mary was proclaimed queen
+behind his back by his fellow-conspirators. Mary entered London amid
+unparalleled popular rejoicings, and Northumberland was sent to a
+well-deserved death on the scaffold.
+
+
+  Queen Mary. Restoration of the old religion.
+
+  Unpopularity of the Spanish marriage. Philip II.
+
+Mary was determined from the first to restore papalism as well as
+Catholicism, but she had to go slowly. The papacy had few friends in
+England, and even Charles V., on whom Mary chiefly relied for guidance,
+was not eager to see the papal jurisdiction restored. He wanted England
+to be first firmly tied to the Habsburg interests by Mary's marriage
+with Philip. Nor was it generally anticipated that Mary would do more
+than restore religion as it had been left by her father. She did not
+attempt anything further in 1553 than the repeal of Edward VI.'s
+legislation and the accomplishment of the Spanish marriage. The latter
+project provoked fierce resistance; various risings were planned for the
+opening months of 1554, and Wyat's nearly proved successful. Only his
+arrogance and procrastination and Mary's own courage saved her throne.
+But the failure of this protest enabled Mary to carry through the
+Spanish marriage, which was consummated in July; and in the ensuing
+parliament (Oct.-Jan. 1554-1555) all anti-papal legislation was
+repealed; Pole was received as legate; the realm was reconciled to Rome;
+and, although the holders of abbey lands were carefully protected
+against attempts at restitution, the church was empowered to work its
+will with regard to heresy. The Lollard statutes were revived, and
+between February 1555 and November 1558 some three hundred Protestants
+were burnt at the stake. They began with John Rogers and Rowland Taylor,
+and Bishops Ferrar of St Davids and Hooper of Gloucester. Ridley and
+Latimer were not burnt until October 1555, and Cranmer not till March
+1556. London, Essex, Hertfordshire, East Anglia, Kent and Sussex
+provided nearly all the victims; only one was burnt north of the Trent,
+and only one south-west of Wiltshire. But in the Protestant districts
+neither age nor sex was spared; even the dead were dug up and burnt. The
+result was to turn the hearts of Mary's people from herself, her church
+and her creed. Other causes helped to convert their enthusiastic loyalty
+into bitter hatred. The Spanish marriage was a failure from every point
+of view. In spite of Mary's repeated delusions, she bore no child, and
+both parliament and people resisted every attempt to deprive Elizabeth
+of her right to the succession. Philip did all he could to conciliate
+English affections, but they would not have Spanish control at any
+price. They knew that his blandishments were dictated by ulterior
+designs, and that the absorption of England in the Habsburg empire was
+his ultimate aim. As it was, the Spanish connexion checked England's
+aspirations; her adventurers were warned off the Spanish Main, and even
+trade with the colonies of Philip's ally Portugal was prohibited. They
+had to content themselves with the Arctic Ocean and Muscovy; and they
+soon found themselves at war in Philip's interests. Philip himself
+refused to declare war on Scotland on England's behalf, but he induced
+Mary to declare war on France on his own (1557). The glory of the war
+fell to the Spaniards at St Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558), but
+the shame to England by the loss of Calais (Jan. 1558). Ten months later
+Mary died (Nov. 17), deserted by her husband and broken-hearted at the
+loss of Calais and her failure to win English hearts back to Rome.
+
+
+  Accession of Elizabeth. English national struggle with Spain.
+
+The Spanish and Venetian ambassadors in London were shocked at what they
+regarded as the indecent rejoicings over Elizabeth's accession. The
+nation, indeed, breathed a new life. Papal control of its
+ecclesiastical, and Spanish control of its foreign policy ceased, and it
+had a queen who gloried in being "mere English." There was really no
+possible rival sovereign, and no possible alternative policy. The
+English were tugging at the chain and Elizabeth had to follow; her
+efforts throughout were aimed at checking the pace at which her people
+wanted to go. She could not have married Philip had she wished to, and
+she could not have kept her sea-dogs off the Spanish Main. They were
+willing to take all the risks and relieve her of all responsibility;
+they filled her coffers with Spanish gold which they plundered as
+pirates, knowing that they might be hanged if caught; and they fought
+Elizabeth's enemies in France and in the Netherlands as irregulars,
+taking their chance of being shot if taken prisoners. While Elizabeth
+nursed prosperity in peace, her subjects sapped the strength of
+England's rivals by attacks which were none the less damaging because
+they escaped the name of war.
+
+
+  Triumph of the new religion. The Act of Uniformity.
+
+It required all Elizabeth's finesse to run with the hare and hunt with
+the hounds; but she was, as Henry III. of France said, _la plus fine
+femme du monde_, and she was ably seconded by Cecil who had already
+proved himself an adept in the art of taking cover. Nevertheless,
+English policy in their hands was essentially aggressive. It could not
+be otherwise if England was to emerge from the slough in which Mary had
+left it. The first step was to assert the principle of England for the
+English; the queen would have no foreign husband, though she found
+suitors useful as well as attractive. Spanish counsels were applauded
+and neglected, and the Spaniards soon departed. Elizabeth was glad of
+Philip's support at the negotiations for peace at Cateau Cambresis
+(1559), but she took care to assert the independence of her diplomacy
+and of England's interests. At home the church was made once more
+English. All foreign jurisdiction was repudiated, and under the style
+"supreme governor" Elizabeth reclaimed nearly all the power which Henry
+VIII. had exercised as "supreme head." The Act of Uniformity (1559)
+restored with a few modifications the second prayer-book of Edward VI.
+The bishops almost unanimously refused to conform, and a clean sweep was
+made of the episcopal bench. An eminently safe and scholarly archbishop
+was found in Matthew Parker, who had not made himself notorious by
+resistance to authority even under Mary. The lower clergy were more
+amenable; the two hundred who alone are said to have been ejected should
+perhaps be multiplied by five; but even so they were not one in seven,
+and these seven were clergy who had been promoted in Mary's reign, or
+who had stood the celibate and other tests of 1553-1554. Into the
+balance must be thrown the hundreds, if not thousands, of zealots who
+had fled abroad and returned in 1558-1559. The net result was that a few
+years later the lower house of convocation only rejected by one vote a
+very puritanical petition against vestments and other "popish dregs."
+
+
+  Elizabeth and Scotland.
+
+  Struggle against the Spanish dominion at sea.
+
+The next step was to expand the principle of England for the English
+into that of Britain for the British, and Knox's reformation in
+1559-1560 provided an opportunity for its application. By timely and
+daring intervention in Scotland Elizabeth procured the expulsion of the
+French bag and baggage from North Britain, and that French avenue to
+England was closed for ever. The logic of this plan was not applied to
+Ireland; there it was to be Ireland for the English for many a
+generation yet to come; and so Ireland remained Achilles' heel, the
+vulnerable part of the United Kingdom. The Protestant religion was
+forced upon the Irish in a foreign tongue and garb and at the point of
+foreign pikes; and national sentiment supported the ancient faith and
+the ancient habits in resistance to the Saxon innovations. In other
+directions the expansion of England, the third stage in the development
+of Elizabeth's policy, was more successful. The attractions of the
+Spanish Main converted the seafaring folk of south-west England into
+hardy Protestants, who could on conscientious as well as other grounds
+contest a papal allocation of new worlds to Spain and Portugal. Their
+monopoly was broken up by Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh, and scores
+of others who recognized no peace beyond the line; and although, as far
+as actual colonies went, the results of Elizabeth's reign were
+singularly meagre, the idea had taken root and the ground had been
+prepared. In every direction English influence penetrated, and
+Englishmen before 1603 might be found in every quarter of the globe,
+following Drake's lead into the Pacific, painfully breaking the ice in
+search of a north-east or a north-west passage, hunting for slaves in
+the wilds of Africa, journeying in caravans across the steppes of Russia
+into central Asia, bargaining with the Turks on the shores of the Golden
+Horn, or with the Greeks in the Levant, laying the foundations of the
+East India Company, or of the colonies of Virginia and Newfoundland.
+
+
+  Mary, queen of Scots.
+
+This expansion was mainly at the expense of Spain; but at first Spain
+was regarded as Elizabeth's friend, not France. France had a rival
+candidate for Elizabeth's throne in Mary Stuart, the wife of the dauphin
+who soon (1559) became king as Francis II.; and Spanish favour was
+sought to neutralize this threat. Fortunately for Elizabeth, Francis
+died in 1560, and the French government passed into the hands of
+Catherine de' Medici, who had no cause to love her daughter-in-law and
+the Guises. France, too, was soon paralysed by the wars of religion
+which Elizabeth judiciously fomented with anything but religious
+motives. Mary Stuart returned to Scotland with nothing but her brains
+and her charms on which to rely in her struggle with her people and her
+rival. She was well equipped in both respects, but human passions spoilt
+her chance; her heart turned her head. Elizabeth's head was stronger and
+she had no heart at all. When Mary married Darnley she had the ball at
+her feet; the pair had the best claims to the English succession and
+enjoyed the united affections of the Catholics. But they soon ceased to
+love one another, and could not control their jealousies. There followed
+rapidly the murders of Rizzio and Darnley, the Bothwell marriage, Mary's
+defeat, captivity, and flight into England (1568). It was a difficult
+problem for Elizabeth to solve; to let Mary go to France was presenting
+a good deal more than a pawn to her enemies; to restore her by force to
+her Scottish throne might have been heroic, but it certainly was not
+politics; to hand her over to her Scottish foes was too mean even for
+Elizabeth; and to keep her in England was to nurse a spark in a
+powder-magazine. Mary was detained in the hope that the spark might be
+carefully isolated.
+
+
+  Rebellion of 1569 and excommunication of Elizabeth.
+
+  Plots against Elizabeth. Relations with France and Spain.
+
+But there was too much inflammable material about. The duke of Norfolk
+was a Protestant, but his convictions were weaker than his ambition, and
+he fell a victim to Mary's unseen charms. The Catholic north of England
+was to rise under the earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, who
+objected to Elizabeth's seizure of their mines and jurisdictions as well
+as to her proscription of their faith; and the pope was to assist with a
+bull of deposition. Norfolk, however, played the coward; the bull came
+nearly a year too late, and the rebellion of the earls (1569) was easily
+crushed. But the conspiracies did not end, and Spain began to take a
+hand. Elizabeth, partly in revenge for the treatment of Hawkins and
+Drake at San Juan de Ulloa, seized some Spanish treasure on its way to
+the Netherlands (Dec. 1569). Alva's operations were fatally handicapped
+by this disaster, but Philip was too much involved in the Netherlands to
+declare war on England. But his friendship for Elizabeth had received a
+shock, and henceforth his finger may be traced in most of the plots
+against her, of which the Ridolfi conspiracy was the first. It cost
+Norfolk his head and Mary more of her scanty liberty. Elizabeth also
+began to look to France, and in 1572, by the treaty of Blois, France
+instead of Spain became England's ally, while Philip constituted himself
+as Mary's patron. The massacre of St Bartholomew placed a severe strain
+upon the new alliance, but was not fatal to it. A series of prolonged
+but hollow marriage negotiations between Elizabeth and first Anjou
+(afterwards Henry III.) and then Alencon (afterwards duke of Anjou)
+served to keep up appearances. But the friendship was never warm;
+Elizabeth's relations with the Huguenots on the one hand and her fear of
+French designs on the Netherlands on the other prevented much
+cordiality. But the alliance stood in the way of a Franco-Spanish
+agreement, limited Elizabeth's sympathy with the French Protestants, and
+enabled her to give more countenance than she otherwise might have done
+to the Dutch.
+
+
+  The Jesuit missions.
+
+  Execution of Mary, queen of Scots, 1587.
+
+  The Great Armada, 1588.
+
+Gradually Philip grew more hostile under provocation; slowly he came to
+the conclusion that he could never subdue the Dutch or check English
+attacks on the Spanish Main without a conquest of England.
+Simultaneously the counter-Reformation began its attacks; the "Jesuit
+invasion" took place in 1580, and Campion went to the block. A papal and
+Spanish attempt upon Ireland in the same year was foiled at Smerwick.
+But more important was Philip's acquisition of the throne of Portugal
+with its harbours, its colonies and its marine. This for the first time
+gave him a real command of the sea, and at least doubled the chances of
+a successful attack upon England. But Philip's mind moved slowly and
+only on provocation. It took a year or two to satisfy him that Portugal
+was really his; not until 1583 was the fleet of the pretender Don
+Antonio destroyed in the Azores. The victor, Santa Cruz, then suggested
+an armada against England, but the English Catholics could not be
+brought into line with a Spanish invasion. The various attempts to
+square James VI. of Scotland had not been successful, and events in the
+Netherlands and in France disturbed Philip's calculations. But his
+purpose was now probably fixed. After the murder of William the Silent
+(1584) Elizabeth sided more openly with the Dutch; the Spanish
+ambassador Mendoza was expelled from England for his intrigues with
+Elizabeth's enemies (1586); and on the discovery of Babington's plot
+Elizabeth yielded to the demand of her parliament and her ministers for
+Mary's execution (1587); her death removed the only possible centre for
+a Catholic rebellion in case of a Spanish attack. It also removed
+Philip's last doubts; Mary had left him her claims to the English
+throne, and he might, now that she was out of his path, hope to treat
+England like Portugal. Drake's "singeing of Philip's beard" in Cadiz
+harbour in 1587 delayed the expedition for a year, and a storm again
+postponed it in the early summer of 1588. At length the armada sailed in
+July under the incompetent duke of Medina Sidonia; its object was to
+secure command of the narrow seas and facilitate the transport of
+Parma's army from the Netherlands to England. But Philip after his
+twenty years' experience in the Netherlands can hardly have hoped to
+conquer a bigger and richer country with scantier means and forces. He
+relied in fact upon a domestic explosion, and the armada was only to be
+the torch. This miscalculation made it a hopeless enterprise from the
+first. Scarcely an English Catholic would have raised a finger in
+Philip's favour; and when he could not subdue the two provinces of
+Holland and Zeeland, it is absurd to suppose that he could have
+simultaneously subdued them and England as well. English armies were not
+perhaps very efficient, but they were as good as the material with which
+William of Orange began his task. Philip, however, was never given the
+opportunity. His armada was severely handled in a week's fighting on its
+way up the Channel, and was driven off the English ports into the German
+Ocean; there a south-west gale drove it far from its rendezvous, and
+completed the havoc which the English ships had begun. A miserable
+remnant alone escaped destruction in its perilous flight round the north
+and west of Scotland.
+
+The defeat of the armada was the beginning and not the end of the war;
+and there were moments between 1588 and 1603 when England was more
+seriously alarmed than in 1588. The Spaniards seized Calais in 1596; at
+another time they threatened England from Brest, and the "invisible"
+armada of 1599 created a greater panic than the "invincible" armada of
+1588. It was not till the very end of the reign that what was in some
+ways the most dangerous of Spanish aggressions was foiled at Kinsale.
+Nor were the English counter-attacks very happy; the attempt on Portugal
+in 1589 under Drake and Norris proved a complete failure. The raid on
+Cadiz under Essex and Raleigh in 1596 was attended with better results,
+but the "Islands" voyage to the Azores in 1597 was a very partial
+success. Still it was now a war upon more or less equal terms, and there
+was little more likelihood that it would end with England's than with
+Spain's loss of national independence. The subjection of the Netherlands
+was now almost out of the question, and although Elizabeth's help had
+not enabled the Protestant cause to win in France, Henry IV. built up a
+national monarchy which would be quite as effectual a bar to the
+ambitions of Spain.
+
+
+  Last years of Elizabeth.
+
+Elizabeth had in fact safely piloted England through the struggle to
+assert its national independence in religion and politics and its claim
+to a share in the new inheritance which had been opened up for the
+nations of Europe; and the passionate loyalty which had supported her as
+the embodiment of England's aspirations somewhat cooled in her declining
+years. She herself grew more cautious and conservative than ever, and
+was regarded as an obstacle by the hotheads in war and religion. She
+sided with the "scribes," Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil, against the men
+of war, Essex and Raleigh; and she abetted Whitgift's rigorous
+persecution of the Puritans whose discontent with her _via media_ was
+rancorously expressed in the Martin Marprelate tracts. Essex's folly and
+failure to crush Hugh O'Neill's rebellion (1599), the most serious
+effort made in the reign to throw off the English yoke in Ireland,
+involved him in treason and brought him to the block. Parliament was
+beginning to quarrel with the royal prerogative, particularly when
+expressed in the grant of monopolies, and even Mountjoy's success in
+Ireland (1602-1603) failed to revive popular enthusiasm for the dying
+queen. Strange as it may seem, the accession of James I. was hailed as
+heralding a new and gladder age by Shakespeare, and minor writers (March
+24, 1603).     (A. F. P.)
+
+
+VIII. THE STUART MONARCHY, THE GREAT REBELLION AND THE RESTORATION
+(1603-1689)
+
+  James I. 1603-1625.
+
+The defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 had been the final victory
+gained on behalf of the independence of the English church and state.
+The fifteen years which followed had been years of successful war; but
+they had been also years during which the nation had been preparing
+itself to conform its institutions to the new circumstances in which it
+found itself in consequence of the great victory. When James arrived
+from Scotland to occupy the throne of Elizabeth he found a general
+desire for change. Especially there was a feeling that there might be
+some relaxation in the ecclesiastical arrangements. Roman Catholics and
+Puritans alike wished for a modification of the laws which bore hardly
+on them. James at first relaxed the penalties under which the Roman
+Catholics suffered, then he grew frightened by the increase of their
+numbers and reimposed the penalties. The gunpowder plot (1605) was the
+result, followed by a sharper persecution than ever (see GUNPOWDER
+PLOT).
+
+The Puritans were invited to a conference with the king at Hampton Court
+(1604). They no longer asked, as many of them had asked in the beginning
+of Elizabeth's reign, to substitute the presbyterian discipline for the
+episcopal government. All they demanded was to be allowed permission,
+whilst remaining as ministers in the church, to omit the usage of
+certain ceremonies to which they objected. It was the opinion of Bacon
+that it would be wise to grant their request. James thought otherwise,
+and attempted to carry out the Elizabethan conformity more strictly than
+it had been carried out in his predecessor's reign.
+
+
+  James I. and the Commons.
+
+In 1604 the Commons agreed with Bacon. They declared that they were no
+Puritans themselves, but that, with such a dearth of able ministers, it
+was not well to lose the services of any one who was capable of
+preaching the gospel. By his refusal to entertain their views James
+placed himself in opposition to the Commons in a matter which touched
+their deeper feelings. As a necessary consequence every dispute on
+questions of smaller weight assumed an exaggerated importance. The king
+had received a scanty revenue with his crown, and he spent freely what
+little he had. As the Commons offered grudging supplies, the necessity
+under which he was of filling up the annual deficit led him to an action
+by which a grave constitutional question was raised.
+
+From the time of Richard II. to the reign of Mary no attempt had been
+made to raise duties on exports and imports without consent of
+parliament. But Mary had, under a specious pretext, recommenced to a
+slight extent the evil practice, and Elizabeth had gone a little further
+in the same direction. In 1606 a merchant named John Bates (q.v.)
+resisted the payment of an imposition--as duties levied by the sole
+authority of the crown were then called. The case was argued in the
+court of exchequer, and was there decided in favour of the crown.
+Shortly afterwards new impositions were set to the amount of L70,000 a
+year. When parliament met in 1610 the whole subject was discussed, and
+it was conclusively shown that, if the barons of the exchequer had been
+right in any sense, it was only in that narrow technical sense which is
+of no value at all. A compromise attempted broke down, and the
+difficulty was left to plague the next generation. The king was always
+able to assert that the judges were on his side, and it was as yet an
+acknowledged principle of the constitution that parliament could not
+change the law without the express consent of the crown, even if, which
+was not the case in this matter, the Lords had sided with the Commons.
+James's attempt to obtain further supplies from the Commons by opening a
+bargain for the surrender of some of his old feudal prerogatives, such
+as wardship and marriage, which had no longer any real meaning except as
+a means of obtaining money in an oppressive way, broke down, and early
+in 1611 he dissolved his first parliament in anger. A second parliament,
+summoned in 1614, met with the same fate after a session of a few weeks.
+
+The dissolution of this second parliament was followed by a short
+imprisonment of some of the more active members, and by a demand made
+through England for a benevolence to make up the deficiency which
+parliament had neglected to meet. The court represented that, as no
+compulsion was used, there was nothing illegal in this proceeding. But
+as the names of those who refused to pay were taken down, it cannot be
+said that there was no indirect pressure.
+
+
+  Attempted union with Scotland.
+
+  The colonization of Ulster.
+
+The most important result of the breach with the parliament of 1614,
+however, was the resolution taken by James to seek refuge from his
+financial and other troubles in a close alliance with the king of Spain.
+His own accession had done much to improve the position of England in
+its relation with the continental powers. Scotland was no longer
+available as a possible enemy to England, and though an attempt to bind
+the union between the two nations by freedom of commercial intercourse
+had been wrecked upon the jealousy of the English Commons (1607), a
+legal decision had granted the status of national subjects to all
+persons born in Scotland after the king's accession in England. Ireland,
+too, had been thoroughly overpowered at the end of Elizabeth's reign,
+and the flight of the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel in 1607 had been
+followed by the settlement of English and Scottish colonists in Ulster,
+a measure which, in the way in which it was undertaken, sowed the seeds
+of future evils, but undoubtedly conduced to increase the immediate
+strength of the English government in Ireland.
+
+
+  The Spanish alliance.
+
+Without fear of danger at home, therefore, James, who as king of
+Scotland had taken no part in Elizabeth's quarrel with Philip II., not
+only suspended hostilities immediately on his accession, and signed a
+peace in the following year, but looked favourably on the project of a
+Spanish marriage alliance, so that the chief Protestant and the chief
+Catholic powers might join together to impose peace on Europe, in the
+place of those hideous religious wars by which the last century had been
+disfigured. In 1611 circumstances had disgusted him with his new ally,
+but in 1614 he courted him again, not only on grounds of general policy,
+but because he hoped that the large portion which would accompany the
+hand of an infanta would go far to fill the empty treasury.
+
+In this way the Spanish alliance, unpopular in itself, was formed to
+liberate the king from the shackles imposed on him by the English
+constitution. Its unpopularity, great from the beginning, became greater
+when Raleigh's execution (1618) caused the government to appear before
+the world as truckling to Spain. The obloquy under which James laboured
+increased when the Thirty Years' War broke out (1618), and when his
+daughter Elizabeth, whose husband, the elector palatine, was the unhappy
+claimant to the Bohemian crown (1619), stood forth as the lovely symbol
+of the deserted Protestantism of Europe. Yet it was not entirely in pity
+for German Protestants that the heart of Englishmen beat. Men felt that
+their own security was at stake. The prospect of a Spanish infanta as
+the bride of the future king of England filled them with suspicious
+terrors. In Elizabeth's time the danger, if not entirely external, did
+not come from the government itself. Now the favour shown to the Roman
+Catholics by the king opened up a source of mischief which was to some
+extent real, if it was to a still greater extent imaginary. Whether the
+danger were real or imaginary, the consequence of the distrust resulting
+from the suspicion was the reawakening of the slumbering demand for
+fresh persecution of the Roman Catholics, a demand which made a complete
+reconciliation between the crown and the Lower House a matter of the
+greatest difficulty.
+
+
+  Parliament and the monopolies.
+
+In 1621 the third parliament of James was summoned to provide money for
+the war in defence of his son-in-law's inheritance, the Palatinate,
+which he now proposed to undertake. But it soon appeared that he was not
+prepared immediately to come to blows, and the Commons, voting a small
+sum as a token of their loyalty, passed to other matters. Indolent in
+his temper, James had been in the habit of leaving his patronage in the
+hands of a confidential favourite, and that position was now filled by
+George Villiers, marquess and afterwards duke of Buckingham. The
+natural consequence was that men who paid court to him were promoted,
+and those who kept at a distance from him had no notice taken of their
+merits. Further, a system of granting monopolies and other privileges
+had again sprung up. Many of these grants embodied some scheme which was
+intended to serve the interests of the public, and many actions which
+appear startling to us were covered by the extreme protectionist
+theories then in vogue. But abuses of every kind had clustered round
+them, and in many cases the profits had gone into the pockets of
+hangers-on of the court, whilst officials had given their assistance to
+the grantors even beyond their legal powers. James was driven by the
+outcry raised to abandon these monopolies, and an act of Parliament in
+1624 placed the future grant of protections to new inventions under the
+safeguard of the judges.
+
+
+  Fall of Bacon.
+
+The attack on the monopolies was followed by charges brought by the
+Commons before the Lords against persons implicated in carrying them
+into execution, and subsequently against Lord Chancellor Bacon as guilty
+of corruption. The sentence passed by the Lords vindicated the right of
+parliament to punish officials who had enjoyed the favour of the crown,
+which had fallen into disuse since the accession of the house of York.
+There was no open contest between parliament and king in this matter.
+But the initiative of demanding justice had passed from the crown to the
+Commons. It is impossible to overestimate the effect of these
+proceedings on the position of parliament. The crown could never again
+be regarded as the sum of the governmental system.
+
+When the Commons met after the summer adjournment a new constitutional
+question was raised. The king was at last determined to find troops for
+the defence of the Palatinate, and asked the Commons for money to pay
+them. They in turn petitioned the crown to abandon the Spanish alliance,
+which they regarded as the source of all the mischief. James told them
+that they had no right to discuss business on which he had not asked
+their opinion. They declared that they were privileged to discuss any
+matter relating to the commonwealth which they chose to take in hand,
+and embodied their opinion in a protest, which they entered on their
+journals. The king tore the protest out of the book and dissolved
+parliament.
+
+Then followed a fresh call for a benevolence, this time more sparingly
+answered than before. A year of fruitless diplomacy failed to save the
+Palatinate from total loss. The ill-considered journey to Madrid, in
+which Prince Charles, accompanied by Buckingham, hoped to wring from the
+Spanish statesmen a promise to restore the Palatinate in compliment for
+his marriage with the infanta, ended also in total failure. In the
+autumn of 1623 Charles returned to England without a wife, and without
+hope of regaining the Palatinate with Spanish aid.
+
+
+  The French alliance.
+
+He came back resolved to take vengeance upon Spain. The parliament
+elected in 1624 was ready to second him. It voted some supplies on the
+understanding that, when the king had matured his plans for carrying on
+the war, it should come together in the autumn to vote the necessary
+subsidies. It never met again. Charles had promised that, if he married
+a Roman Catholic, he would grant no toleration to the English Catholics
+in consideration of the marriage. In the autumn he had engaged himself
+to marry Henrietta Maria, the sister of the king of France, and had
+bound himself to grant the very conditions which he had declared to the
+Commons that he never would concede. Hence it was that he did not
+venture to recommend his father to summon parliament till the marriage
+was over. But though there was but little money to dispose of, he and
+Buckingham, who, now that James was sick and infirm, were the real
+leaders of the government, could not endure to abstain from the
+prosecution of the war. Early in 1625 an expedition, under Count
+Mansfeld, was sent to Holland that it might ultimately cut its way to
+the Palatinate. Left without pay and without supplies, the men perished
+by thousands, and when James died in March the new king had to meet his
+first parliament burthened by a broken promise and a disastrous
+failure.
+
+
+  Charles I. 1625-1649.
+
+When parliament met (1625) the Commons at first contented themselves
+with voting a sum of money far too small to carry on the extensive
+military and naval operations in which Charles had embarked. When the
+king explained his necessities, they intimated that they had no
+confidence in Buckingham, and asked that, before they granted further
+supply, the king would name counsellors whom they could trust to advise
+him on its employment. Charles at once dissolved parliament. He knew
+that the demand for ministerial responsibility would in the end involve
+his own responsibility, and, believing as he did that Buckingham's
+arrangements had been merely unlucky, he declined to sacrifice the
+minister whom he trusted.
+
+
+  The Petition of Right.
+
+Charles and Buckingham did their best to win back popularity by
+strenuous exertion. They attempted to found a great Protestant alliance
+on the continent, and they sent a great expedition to Cadiz. The
+Protestant alliance and the expedition to Cadiz ended in equal failure.
+The second parliament of the reign (1626) impeached Buckingham for
+crimes against the state. As Charles would not dismiss him simply
+because the Commons were dissatisfied with him as a minister, they fell
+back on charging him with criminal designs. Once more Charles dissolved
+parliament to save Buckingham. Then came fresh enterprises and fresh
+failures. A fleet under Lord Willoughby (afterwards earl of Lindsey) was
+almost ruined by a storm. The king of Denmark, trusting to supplies from
+England which never came, was defeated at Lutter. A new war in addition
+to the Spanish war, broke out with France. A great expedition to Re,
+under Buckingham's command (1627), intended to succour the Huguenots of
+La Rochelle against their sovereign, ended in disaster. In order to
+enable himself to meet expenditure on so vast a scale, Charles had
+levied a forced loan from his subjects. Men of high rank in society who
+refused to pay were imprisoned. Soldiers were billeted by force in
+private houses, and military officers executed martial law on civilians.
+When the imprisoned gentlemen appealed to the king's bench for a writ of
+_habeas corpus_, it appeared that no cause of committal had been
+assigned, and the judges therefore refused to liberate them. Still
+Charles believed it possible to carry on the war, and especially to send
+relief to La Rochelle, now strictly blockaded by the forces of the
+French crown. In order to find the means for this object he summoned his
+third parliament (1628). The Commons at once proceeded to draw a line
+which should cut off the possibility of a repetition of the injuries of
+which they complained. Charles was willing to surrender his claims to
+billet soldiers by force, to order the execution of martial law in time
+of peace, and to exact forced loans, benevolences, or any kind of
+taxation, without consent of parliament; but he protested against the
+demand that he should surrender the right to imprison without showing
+cause. It was argued on his behalf that in case of a great conspiracy it
+would be necessary to trust the crown with unusual powers to enable it
+to preserve the peace. The Commons, who knew that the crown had used the
+powers which it claimed, not against conspirators, but against the
+commonwealth itself, refused to listen to the argument, and insisted on
+the acceptance of the whole Petition of Right, in which they demanded
+redress for all their grievances. The king at last gave his consent to
+it, as he could obtain money in no other way. In after times, when any
+real danger occurred which needed a suspension of the ordinary
+safeguards of liberty, a remedy was found in the suspension of the law
+by act of parliament; such a remedy, however, only became possible when
+king and parliament were on good terms of agreement with one another.
+
+
+  Crown and parliament.
+
+That time was as yet far distant. The House of Commons brought fresh
+charges against Buckingham, whose murder soon after the prorogation
+removed one subject of dispute. But when they met again (1629) they had
+two quarrels left over from the preceding session. About a third part of
+the king's revenue was derived from customs duties which had for many
+generations been granted by parliament to each sovereign for life.
+Charles held that this grant was little more than a matter of form,
+whilst the Commons held that it was a matter of right. But for the other
+dispute the difficulty would probably have been got over. The strong
+Protestantism of Elizabeth's reign had assumed a distinctly Calvinistic
+form, and the country gentlemen who formed the majority of the House of
+Commons were resolutely determined that no other theology than that of
+Calvin should be taught in England. In the last few years a reaction
+against it had arisen especially in the universities, and those who
+adopted an unpopular creed, and who at the same time showed tendencies
+to a more ceremonial form of worship, naturally fell back on the support
+of the crown. Charles, who might reasonably have exerted himself to
+secure a fair liberty for all opinions, promoted these unpopular divines
+to bishoprics and livings, and the divines in turn exalted the royal
+prerogative above parliamentary rights. He now proposed that both sides
+should keep silence on the points in dispute. The Commons rejected his
+scheme, and prepared to call in question the most obnoxious of the
+clergy. In this irritated temper they took up the question of tonnage
+and poundage, and instead of confining themselves to the great public
+question, they called to the bar some custom-house officers who happened
+to have seized the goods of one of their members. Charles declared that
+the seizure had taken place by his orders. When they refused to accept
+the excuse, he dissolved parliament, but not before a tumult took place
+in the House, and the speaker was forcibly held down in his chair whilst
+resolutions hostile to the government were put to the vote.
+
+For eleven years no parliament met again. The extreme action of the
+Lower House was not supported by the people, and the king had the
+opportunity, if he chose to use it, of putting himself right with the
+nation after no long delay. But he never understood that power only
+attends sympathetic leadership. He contented himself with putting
+himself technically in the right, and with resting his case on the
+favourable decisions of the judges. Under any circumstances, neither the
+training nor the position of judges is such as to make them fit to be
+the final arbiters of political disputes. They are accustomed to declare
+what the law is, not what it ought to be. These judges, moreover, were
+not in the position to be impartial. They had been selected by the king,
+and were liable to be deprived of their office when he saw fit. In the
+course of Charles's reign two chief justices and one chief baron were
+dismissed or suspended. Besides the ordinary judges there were the
+extraordinary tribunals, the court of high commission nominated by the
+crown to punish ecclesiastical offenders, and the court of star chamber,
+composed of the privy councillors and the chief justices, and therefore
+also nominated by the crown, to inflict fine, imprisonment, and even
+corporal mutilation on lay offenders. Those who rose up in any way
+against the established order were sharply punished.
+
+
+  Ship-money.
+
+The harsh treatment of individuals only calls forth resistance when
+constitutional morality has sunk deeply into the popular mind. The
+ignoring of the feelings and prejudices of large classes has a deeper
+effect. Charles's foreign policy, and his pretentious claim to the
+sovereignty of the British seas, demanded the support of a fleet, which
+might indeed be turned to good purpose in offering a counterpoise to the
+growing navies of France and Holland. The increasing estrangement
+between him and the nation made him averse from the natural remedy of a
+parliament, and he reverted to the absolute practices of the middle
+ages, in order that he might strain them far beyond the warrant of
+precedent to levy a tax under the name of ship-money, first on the port
+towns and then on the whole of England. Payment was resisted by John
+Hampden, a Buckinghamshire squire; but the judges declared that the king
+was in the right (1638). Yet the arguments used by Hampden's lawyers
+sunk deeply into the popular mind, and almost every man in England who
+was called on to pay the tax looked upon the king as a wrong-doer under
+the forms of law.
+
+
+  The Church.
+
+In his ecclesiastical policy Charles was equally out of touch with the
+feelings of his people. He shared to the full his father's dislike and
+distrust of the Puritans, and he supported with the whole weight of the
+crown the attempt of William Laud (q.v.), since 1633 archbishop of
+Canterbury, to enforce conformity to the ritual prescribed by the Prayer
+Book. At the same time offence was given to the Puritans by an order
+that every clergyman should read the Declaration of Sports, in which the
+king directed that no one should be prevented from dancing or shooting
+at the butts on Sunday afternoon. Many of the clergy were suspended or
+deprived, many emigrated to Holland or New England, and of those who
+remained a large part bore the yoke with feelings of ill-concealed
+dissatisfaction. Suspicion was easily aroused that a deep plot existed,
+of which Laud was believed to be the centre, for carrying the nation
+over to the Church of Rome, a suspicion which seemed to be converted
+into a certainty when it was known that Panzani and Conn, two agents of
+the pope, had access to Charles, and that in 1637 there was a sudden
+accession to the number of converts to the Roman Catholic Church amongst
+the lords and ladies of the court.
+
+
+  Charles and Scotland.
+
+In the summer of 1638 Charles had long ceased to reign in the affections
+of his subjects. But their traditionary loyalty had not yet failed, and
+if he had not called on them for fresh exertions, it is possible that
+the coming revolution would have been long delayed. Men were ready to
+shout applause in honour of Puritan martyrs like Prynne, Burton and
+Bastwick, whose ears were cut off in 1637, or in honour of the lawyers
+who argued such a case as that of Hampden. But no signs of active
+resistance had yet appeared. Unluckily for Charles, he was likely to
+stand in need of the active co-operation of Englishmen. He had attempted
+to force a new Prayer Book upon the Scottish nation. A riot at Edinburgh
+in 1637 quickly led to national resistance, and when in November 1638
+the general assembly at Glasgow set Charles's orders at defiance, he was
+compelled to choose between tame submission and immediate war. In 1639
+he gathered an English force, and marched towards the border. But
+English laymen, though asked to supply the money which he needed for the
+support of his army, deliberately kept it in their pockets, and the
+contributions of the clergy and of official persons were not sufficient
+to enable him to keep his troops long in the field. The king, therefore,
+thought it best to agree to terms of pacification. Misunderstandings
+broke out as to the interpretation of the treaty, and Charles having
+discovered that the Scots were intriguing with France, fancied that
+England, in hatred of its ancient foe, would now be ready to rally to
+his standard. After an interval of eleven years, in April 1640 he once
+more called a parliament.
+
+
+  The Short Parliament.
+
+  The Scottish invasion.
+
+The Short Parliament, as it was called, demanded redress of grievances,
+the abandonment of the claim to levy ship-money, and a complete change
+in the ecclesiastical system. Charles thought that it would not be worth
+while even to conquer Scotland on such terms, and dissolved parliament.
+A fresh war with Scotland followed. Wentworth, now earl of Strafford,
+became the leading adviser of the king. With all the energy of his
+disposition he threw himself into Charles's plans, and left no stone
+unturned to furnish the new expedition with supplies and money. But no
+skilfulness of a commander can avail when soldiers are determined not to
+fight. The Scots crossed the Tweed, and Charles's army was well pleased
+to fly before them. In a short time the whole of Northumberland and
+Durham were in the hands of the invaders. Charles was obliged to leave
+these two counties in their hands as a pledge for the payment of their
+expenses; and he was also obliged to summon parliament to grant him the
+supplies which he needed for that object.
+
+
+  The Long Parliament.
+
+  Attainder of Strafford.
+
+When the Long Parliament met in November 1640 it was in a position in
+which no parliament had been before. Though nominally the Houses did not
+command a single soldier, they had in reality the whole Scottish army at
+their back. By refusing supplies they would put it out of the king's
+power to fulfil his engagements to that army, and it would immediately
+pursue its onward march to claim its rights. Hence there was scarcely
+anything which the king could venture to deny the Commons. Under Pym's
+leadership, they began by asking the head of Strafford. Nominally he was
+accused of a number of acts of oppression in the north of England and in
+Ireland. His real offence lay in his attempt to make the king absolute,
+and in the design with which he was credited of intending to bring over
+an Irish army to crush the liberties of England. If he had been a man of
+moderate abilities he might have escaped. But the Commons feared his
+commanding genius too much to let him go free. They began with an
+impeachment. Difficulties arose, and the impeachment was turned into a
+bill of attainder. The king abandoned his minister, and the execution of
+Strafford left Charles without a single man of supreme ability on his
+side. Then came rapidly a succession of blows at the supports by which
+the Tudor monarchy had been upheld. The courts of star chamber and high
+commission and the council of the north were abolished. The raising of
+tonnage and poundage without a parliamentary grant was declared illegal.
+The judges who had given obnoxious decisions were called to answer for
+their fault and were taught that they were responsible to the House of
+Commons as well as the king. Finally a bill was passed providing that
+the existing House should not be dissolved without its own consent.
+
+It was clearly a revolutionary position which the House had assumed. But
+it was assumed because it was impossible to expect that a king who had
+ruled as Charles had ruled could take up a new position as the exponent
+of the feelings which were represented in the Commons. As long as
+Charles lived he could not be otherwise than an object of suspicion; and
+yet if he were dethroned there was no one available to fill his place.
+There arose therefore two parties in the House, one ready to trust the
+king, the other disinclined to put any confidence in him at all. The
+division was the sharper because it coincided with a difference in
+matters of religion. Scarcely any one wished to see the Laudian
+ceremonies upheld. But the members who favoured the king, and who formed
+a considerable minority, wished to see a certain liberty of religious
+thought, together with a return under a modified Episcopacy to the forms
+of worship which prevailed before Laud had taken the church in hand. The
+other side, which had the majority by a few votes, wished to see the
+Puritan creed prevail in all its strictness, and were favourable to the
+establishment of the Presbyterian discipline. The king by his unwise
+action threw power into the hands of his opponents. He listened with
+tolerable calmness to their Grand Remonstrance, but his attempt to seize
+the five members whom he accused of high treason made a good
+understanding impossible. The Scottish army had been paid off some
+months before, and civil war was the only means of deciding the quarrel.
+
+
+  The civil war.
+
+  Presbyterians and Independents.
+
+At first the fortune of war wavered. Edgehill was a drawn battle (1642),
+and the campaign of 1643, though it was on the whole favourable to the
+king, gave no decisive results. Before the year was at an end parliament
+invited a new Scottish army to intervene in England. As an inducement,
+the Solemn League and Covenant was signed by all Parliamentarian
+Englishmen, the terms of which were interpreted by the Scots to bind
+England to submit to Presbyterianism, though the most important clauses
+had been purposely left vague, so as to afford a loophole of escape. The
+battle of Marston Moor, with the defeat of the Royalist forces in the
+north, was the result. But the battle did not improve the position of
+the Scots. They had been repulsed, and the victory was justly ascribed
+to the English contingent. The composition of that contingent was such
+as to have a special political significance. Its leader was Oliver
+Cromwell. It was formed by men who were fierce Puritan enthusiasts, and
+who for the very reason that the intensity of their religion separated
+them from the mass of their countrymen, had learnt to uphold with all
+the energy of zeal the doctrine that neither church nor state had a
+right to interfere with the forms of worship which each congregation
+might select for itself (see CONGREGATIONALISM and CROMWELL, OLIVER).
+The principle advocated by the army, and opposed by the Scots and the
+majority of the House of Commons, was liberty of sectarian association.
+Some years earlier, under the dominion of Laud, another principle had
+been proclaimed by Chillingworth and Hales, that of liberty of thought
+within the unity of the church. Both these movements conduced to the
+ultimate establishment of toleration, but for the present the
+Independents were to have their way.
+
+
+  The second civil war.
+
+  Execution of the king.
+
+The Presbyterian leaders, Essex and Manchester, were not successful
+leaders. The army was remodelled after Cromwell's pattern, and the king
+was finally crushed at Naseby (1645). The next year (1646) he
+surrendered to the Scots. Then followed two years of fruitless
+negotiation, in which after the Scots abandoned the king to the English
+parliament, the army took him out of the hands of the parliament, whilst
+each in turn tried to find some basis of arrangement on which he might
+reign without ruling. Such a basis could not be found, and when Charles
+stirred up a fresh civil war and a Scottish invasion (1648) the leaders
+of the army vowed that, if victory was theirs, they would bring him to
+justice. To do this it was necessary to drive out a large number of the
+members of the House of Commons by what was known as Pride's Purge, and
+to obtain from the mutilated Commons the dismissal of the House of
+Lords, and the establishment of a high court of justice, before which
+the king was brought to trial and sentenced to death. He was beheaded on
+a scaffold outside the windows of Whitehall (1649).[5]
+
+
+  The Commonwealth.
+
+  Cromwell's protectorate.
+
+The government set up was a government by the committees of a council of
+state nominally supporting themselves on the House of Commons, though
+the members who still retained their places were so few that the council
+of state was sufficiently numerous to form a majority in the House.
+During eleven years the nation passed through many vicissitudes in its
+forms of government. These forms take no place in the gradual
+development of English institutions, and have never been referred to as
+affording precedents to be followed. To the student of political
+science, however, they have a special interest of their own, as they
+show that when men had shaken themselves loose from the chain of habit
+and prejudice, and had set themselves to build up a political shelter
+under which to dwell, they were irresistibly attracted by that which was
+permanent in the old constitutional forms of which the special
+development had of late years been so disastrous. After Cromwell had
+suppressed resistance in Ireland (1649), had conquered Scotland (1650),
+and had overthrown the son of the late king, the future Charles II., at
+Worcester (1651), the value of government by an assembly was tested and
+found wanting. After Cromwell had expelled the remains of the Long
+Parliament (1653), and had set up another assembly of nominated members,
+that second experiment was found equally wanting. It was necessary to
+have recourse to one head of the executive government, controlling and
+directing its actions. Cromwell occupied this position as lord
+protector. He did all that was in his power to do to prevent his
+authority from degenerating into tyranny. He summoned two parliaments,
+of only one House, and with the consent of the second parliament he
+erected a second House, so that he might have some means of checking the
+Lower House without constantly coming into personal collision with its
+authority. As far as form went, the constitution in 1658, so far as it
+differed from the Stuart constitution, differed for the better. But it
+suffered from one fatal defect. It was based on the rule of the sword.
+The only substitute for traditional authority is the clearly expressed
+expression of the national will, and it is impossible to doubt that if
+the national will had been expressed it would have swept away Cromwell
+and all his system. The majority of the upper and middle classes, which
+had united together against Laud, was now reunited against Cromwell. The
+Puritans themselves were but a minority, and of that minority
+considerable numbers disliked the free liberty accorded to the sects.
+Whilst the worship of the Church of England was proscribed, every
+illiterate or frenzied enthusiast was allowed to harangue at his
+pleasure. Those who cared little for religion felt insulted when they
+saw a government with which they had no sympathy ruling by means of an
+army which they dreaded and detested. Cromwell did his best to avert a
+social revolution, and to direct the energies of his supporters into the
+channels of merely political change. But he could not prevent, and it
+cannot be said that he wished to prevent, the rise of men of ability
+from positions of social inferiority. The nation had striven against the
+arbitrary government of the king; but it was not prepared to shake off
+the predominance of that widely spreading aristocracy which, under the
+name of country gentlemen, had rooted itself too deeply to be easily
+passed by. Cromwell's rule was covered with military glory, and there
+can be no doubt that he honestly applied himself to solve domestic
+difficulties as well. But he reaped the reward of those who strive for
+something better than the generation in which they live is able to
+appreciate. His own faults and errors were remembered against him. He
+tried in vain to establish constitutional government and religious
+toleration (see CROMWELL, OLIVER). When he died (1658) there remained
+branded on the national mind two strong impressions which it took more
+than a century to obliterate--the dread of the domination of a standing
+army, and abhorrence of the very name of religious zeal.
+
+
+  The anarchy.
+
+The eighteen months which followed deepened the impression thus formed.
+The army had appeared a hard master when it lent its strength to a wise
+and sagacious rule. It was worse when it undertook to rule in its own
+name, to set up and pull down parliaments and governments. The only
+choice left to the nation seemed to be one between military tyranny and
+military anarchy. Therefore it was that when Monk advanced from Scotland
+and declared for a free parliament, there was little doubt that the new
+parliament would recall the exiled king, and seek to build again on the
+old foundations.
+
+
+  The Restoration.
+
+The Restoration was effected by a coalition between the Cavaliers, or
+followers of Charles I., and the Presbyterians who had originally
+opposed him. It was only after the nature of a great reaction that the
+latter should for a time be swamped by the former. The Long Parliament
+of the Restoration met in 1661, and the Act of Uniformity entirely
+excluded all idea of reform in the Puritan direction, and ordered the
+expulsion from their benefices of all clergymen who refused to express
+approval of the whole of the Book of Common Prayer (1662). A previous
+statute, the Corporation Act (1661), ordered that all members of
+corporations should renounce the Covenant and the doctrine that subjects
+might in any case rightfully use force against their king, and should
+receive the sacrament after the forms of the Church of England. The
+object for which Laud had striven, the compulsory imposition of
+uniformity, thus became part of the law of the land.
+
+Herein lay the novelty of the system of the Restoration. The system of
+Laud and the system of Cromwell had both been imposed by a minority
+which had possessed itself of the powers of government. The new
+uniformity was imposed by parliament, and parliament had the nation
+behind it. For the first time, therefore, all those who objected to the
+established religion sought, not to alter its forms to suit themselves,
+but to gain permission to worship in separate congregations. Ultimately,
+the dissenters, as they began to be called, would obtain their object.
+As soon as it became clear to the mass of the nation that the dissenters
+were in a decided minority, there would be no reason to fear the utmost
+they could do even if the present liberty of worship and teaching were
+conceded to them. For the present, however, they were feared out of all
+proportion to their numbers. They counted amongst them the old soldiers
+of the Protectorate, and though that army had been dissolved, it always
+seemed possible that it might spring to arms once more. A bitter
+experience had taught men that a hundred of Oliver's Ironsides might
+easily chase a thousand Cavaliers; and as long as this danger was
+believed to exist, every effort would be made to keep dissent from
+spreading. Hence the Conventicle Act (1664) imposed penalties on those
+taking part in religious meetings in private houses, and the Five Mile
+Act (1665) forbade an expelled clergyman to come within five miles of a
+corporate borough, the very place where he was most likely to secure
+adherence, unless he would swear his adhesion to the doctrine of
+non-resistance.
+
+
+  Doctrine of non-resistance.
+
+  The first Dutch war.
+
+The doctrine of non-resistance was evidently that by which, at this
+time, the loyal subject was distinguished from those whom he stigmatized
+as disloyal. Yet even the most loyal found that, if it was wrong to take
+up arms against the king, it might be right to oppose him in other ways.
+Even the Cavaliers did not wish to see Charles II. an absolute
+sovereign. They wished to reconstruct the system which had been
+violently interrupted by the events of the autumn of 1641, and to found
+government on the co-operation between king and parliament, without
+defining to themselves what was to be done if the king's conduct became
+insufferable. Openly, indeed, Charles II. did not force them to
+reconsider their position. He did not thrust members of the Commons into
+prison, or issue writs for ship-money. He laid no claim to taxation
+which had not been granted by parliament. But he was extravagant and
+self-indulgent, and he wanted more money than they were willing to
+supply. A war with the Dutch broke out, and there were strong suspicions
+that Charles applied money voted for the fleet to the maintenance of a
+vicious and luxurious court. Against the vice and luxury, indeed, little
+objection was likely to be brought. The over-haste of the Puritans to
+drill England into ways of morality and virtue had thrown at least the
+upper classes into a slough of revelry and baseness. But if the vice did
+not appear objectionable the expense did, and a new chapter in the
+financial history of the government was opened when the Commons, having
+previously gained control over taxation, proceeded to vindicate their
+right to control expenditure.
+
+
+  The Commons aim at control over expenditure.
+
+As far, indeed, as taxation was concerned, the Long Parliament had not
+left its successor much to do. The abolition of feudal tenures and
+purveyance had long been demanded, and the conclusion of an arrangement
+which had been mooted in the reign of James I. is only notable as
+affording one instance out of many of the tendency of a single class to
+shift burdens off its own shoulders. The predominant landowners
+preferred the grant of an excise, which would be taken out of all
+pockets, to a land-tax which would exclusively be felt by those who were
+relieved by the abolition of the tenures. The question of expenditure
+was constantly telling on the relations between the king and the House
+of Commons. After the Puritan army had been disbanded, the king resolved
+to keep on foot a petty force of 5000 men, and he had much difficulty in
+providing for it out of a revenue which had not been intended by those
+who voted it to be used for such a purpose. Then came the Dutch war,
+bringing with it a suspicion that some at least of the money given for
+paying sailors and fitting out ships was employed by Charles on very
+different objects. The Commons accordingly, in 1665, succeeded in
+enforcing, on precedents derived from the reigns of Richard II. and
+Henry IV., the right of appropriating the supplies granted to special
+objects; and with more difficulty they obtained, in 1666, the
+appointment of a commission empowered to investigate irregularities in
+the issue of moneys. Such measures were the complement of the control
+over taxation which they had previously gained, and as far as their
+power of supervision went, it constituted them and not the king the
+directors of the course of government. If this result was not
+immediately felt, it was because the king had a large certain revenue
+voted to him for life, so that, for the present at least, it was only
+his extraordinary expenses which could be brought under parliamentary
+control. Nor did even the renewal of parliamentary impeachment, which
+ended in the banishment of Lord Chancellor Clarendon (1667), bring on
+any direct collision with the king. If the Commons wished to be rid of
+him because he upheld the prerogative, the king was equally desirous to
+be rid of him because he looked coldly on the looseness of the royal
+morals.
+
+
+  Charles II. and Louis XIV.
+
+The great motive power of the later politics of the reign was to be
+found beyond the Channel. To the men of the days of Charles II., Louis
+XIV. of France was what Philip II. of Spain had been to the men of the
+days of Elizabeth. Gradually, in foreign policy, the commercial
+emulation with the Dutch, which found vent in one war in the time of the
+Commonwealth, and in two wars in the time of Charles II., gave way to a
+dread, rising into hatred, of the arrogant potentate who, at the head of
+the mightiest army in Europe, treated with contempt all rights which
+came into collision with his own wishes. Louis XIV., moreover, though
+prepared to quarrel with the pope in the matter of his own authority
+over the Gallican Church, was a bigoted upholder of Catholic orthodoxy,
+and Protestants saw in his political ambitions a menace to their
+religion. In the case of England there seemed a special danger to
+Protestantism; for whatever religious sympathies Charles II. possessed
+were with the Roman Catholic faith, and in his annoyance at the
+interference of the Commons with his expenditure he was not ashamed to
+stoop to become the pensioner of the French king. In 1670 the secret
+treaty of Dover was signed. Charles was to receive from Louis L200,000 a
+year and the aid of 6000 French troops to enable him to declare himself
+a convert, and to obtain special advantages for his religion, whilst he
+was also to place the forces of England at Louis's disposal for his
+purposes of aggression on the continent of Europe.
+
+
+  Second Dutch war, and declaration of indulgence.
+
+Charles had no difficulty in stirring up the commercial jealousy of
+England so as to bring about a second Dutch war (1672). The next year,
+unwilling to face the dangers of his larger plan, he issued a
+declaration of indulgence, which, by a single act of the prerogative,
+suspended all penal laws against Roman Catholics and dissenters alike.
+To the country gentlemen who constituted the cavalier parliament, and
+who had long been drifting into opposition to the crown, this was
+intolerable. The predominance of the Church of England was the prime
+article of their political creed; they dreaded the Roman Catholics; they
+hated and despised the dissenters. Under any circumstances an indulgence
+would have been most distasteful to them. But the growing belief that
+the whole scheme was merely intended to serve the purposes of the Roman
+Catholics converted their dislike into deadly opposition. Yet the
+parliament resolved to base its opposition upon constitutional grounds.
+The right claimed by the king to suspend the laws was questioned, and
+his claim to special authority in ecclesiastical matters was treated
+with contempt. The king gave way and withdrew his declaration. But no
+solemn act of parliament declared it to be illegal, and in due course of
+time it would be heard of again.
+
+
+  The Test Act.
+
+The Commons followed up their blow by passing the Test Act, making the
+reception of the sacrament according to the forms of the Church of
+England, and the renunciation of the doctrine of transubstantiation, a
+necessary qualification for office. At once it appeared what a hold the
+members of the obnoxious church had had upon the administration of the
+state. The lord high admiral, the lord treasurer, and a secretary of
+state refused to take the test. The lord high admiral was the heir to
+the throne, the king's brother, the duke of York.
+
+
+  Danby's ministry.
+
+  The Popish plot.
+
+Charles, as usual, bent before the storm. In Danby (see LEEDS, 1ST DUKE
+OF) he found a minister whose views answered precisely to the views of
+the existing House of Commons. Like the Commons, Danby wished to silence
+both Roman Catholics and dissenters. Like the Commons, too, he wished to
+embark on a foreign policy hostile to France. But he served a master who
+regarded Louis less as a possible adversary than as a possible
+paymaster. Sometimes Danby was allowed to do as he liked, and the
+marriage of the duke of York's eldest daughter Mary to her cousin the
+prince of Orange was the most lasting result of his administration. More
+often he was obliged to follow where Charles led, and Charles was
+constantly ready to sell the neutrality of England for large sums of
+French gold. At last one of these negotiations was detected, and Danby,
+who was supposed to be the author instead of the unwilling instrument of
+the intrigue, was impeached. In order to save his minister, Charles
+dissolved parliament (1678). He could not have chosen a more unlucky
+time for his own quiet. The strong feeling against the Roman Catholics
+had been quickened into a flame by a great imposture. The inventors of
+the so-called popish plot charged the leading English Roman Catholics
+with a design to murder the king. Judges and juries alike were maddened
+with excitement, and listened greedily to the lies which poured forth
+from the lips of profligate informers. Innocent blood was shed in
+abundance.
+
+
+  The Exclusion Bill.
+
+The excitement had its root in the uneasy feeling caused by the
+knowledge that the heir to the throne was a Roman Catholic. Three
+parliaments were summoned and dissolved. In each parliament the main
+question at issue between the Commons and the crown was the Exclusion
+Bill, by which the Commons sought to deprive the duke of York of his
+inheritance; and it was notorious that the leaders of the movement
+wished the crown to descend to the king's illegitimate son, the duke of
+Monmouth.
+
+
+  Whigs and Tories.
+
+The principles by which the Commons were guided in these parliaments
+were very different from those which had prevailed in the first
+parliament of the Restoration. Those principles, to which that party
+adhered which about this time became known as the Tory party, had been
+formed under the influence of the terror caused by militant Puritanism.
+In the state the Tory inherited the ideas of Clarendon, and, without
+being at all ready to abandon the claims of parliaments, nevertheless
+somewhat inconsistently spoke of the king as ruling by a divine and
+indefeasible title, and wielding a power which it was both impious and
+unconstitutional to resist by force. In the church he inherited the
+ideas of Laud, and saw in the maintenance of the Act of Uniformity the
+safeguard of religion. But the hold of these opinions on the nation had
+been weakened with the cessation of the causes which had produced them.
+In 1680 twenty years had passed since the Puritan army had been
+disbanded. Many of Cromwell's soldiers had died, and most of them were
+growing old. The dissenters had shown no signs of engaging in plots or
+conspiracies. They were known to be only a comparatively small minority
+of the population, and though they had been cruelly persecuted, they had
+suffered without a thought of resistance. Dread of the dissenters,
+therefore, had become a mere chimaera, which only those could entertain
+whose minds were influenced by prejudice. On the other hand, dread of
+the Roman Catholics was a living force. Unless the law were altered a
+Roman Catholic would be on the throne, wielding all the resources of the
+prerogative, and probably supported by all the resources of the king of
+France. Hence the leading principle of the Whigs, as the predominant
+party was now called, was in the state to seek for the highest national
+authority in parliament rather than in the king, and in the church to
+adopt the rational theology of Chillingworth and Hales, whilst looking
+to the dissenters as allies against the Roman Catholics, who were the
+enemies of both.
+
+
+  Tory reaction.
+
+Events were to show that it was a wise provision which led the Whigs to
+seek to exclude the duke of York from the throne. But their plan
+suffered under two faults, the conjunction of which was ruinous to them
+for the time. In the first place, their choice of Monmouth as the heir
+was infelicitous. Not only was he under the stain of illegitimacy, but
+his succession excluded the future succession of Mary, whose husband,
+the prince of Orange, was the hope of Protestant Europe. In the second
+place, drastic remedies are never generally acceptable when the evil to
+be remedied is still in the future. When, in the third of the short
+parliaments held at Oxford the Whigs rode armed into the city, the
+nation decided that the future danger of a Roman Catholic succession was
+incomparably less than the immediate danger of another civil war. Loyal
+addresses poured in to the king. For the four remaining years of his
+reign he ruled without summoning any parliament. Whigs were brought
+before prejudiced juries and partial judges. Their blood flowed on the
+scaffold. The charter of the city of London was confiscated. The reign
+of the Tories was unquestioned. Yet it was not quite what the reign of
+the Cavaliers had been in 1660. The violence of the Restoration had been
+directed primarily against Puritanism, and only against certain forms of
+government so far as they allowed Puritans to gain the upper hand. The
+violence of the Tories was directed against rebellion and disorder, and
+only against dissenters so far as they were believed to be the fomenters
+of disorder. Religious hatred had less part in the action of the ruling
+party, and even from its worst actions a wise man might have predicted
+that the day of toleration was not so far off as it seemed.
+
+
+  James II., 1685-1688.
+
+The accession of James II. (1685) put the views of the opponents of the
+Exclusion Bill to the test. A new parliament was elected, almost
+entirely composed of decided Tories. A rebellion in Scotland, headed by
+the earl of Argyll, and a rebellion in England, headed by the duke of
+Monmouth, were easily suppressed. But the inherent difficulties of the
+king's position were not thereby overcome. It would have been hard, in
+days in which religious questions occupied so large a space in the field
+of politics, for a Roman Catholic sovereign to rule successfully over a
+Protestant nation. James set himself to make it, in his case,
+impossible. It may be that he did not consciously present to himself any
+object other than fair treatment for his co-religionists. On the one
+hand, however, he alienated even reasonable opponents by offering no
+guarantees that equality so gained would not be converted into
+superiority by the aid of his own military force and of the assistance
+of the French king; whilst on the other hand he relied, even more
+strongly than his father had done, on the technical legality which
+exalted the prerogative in defiance of the spirit of the law. He began
+by making use of the necessity of resisting Monmouth to increase his
+army, under the pretext of the danger of a repetition of the late
+rebellion; and in the regiments thus levied he appointed many Roman
+Catholic officers who had refused to comply with the Test Act. Rather
+than submit to the gentlest remonstrance, he prorogued parliament, and
+proceeded to obtain from the court of king's bench a judgment in favour
+of his right to dispense with all penalties due by law, in the same way
+that his grandfather had appealed to the judges in the matter of the
+post-nati. But not only was the question put by James II. of far wider
+import than the question put by James I., but he deprived the court to
+which he applied of all moral authority by previously turning out of
+office the judges who were likely to disagree with him, and by
+appointing new ones who were likely to agree with him. A court of high
+commission of doubtful legality was subsequently erected (1686) to
+deprive or suspend clergymen who made themselves obnoxious to the court,
+whilst James appointed Roman Catholics to the headship of certain
+colleges at Oxford. The legal support given him by judges of his own
+selection was fortified by the military support of an army collected at
+Hounslow Heath; and a Roman Catholic, the earl of Tyrconnel, was sent as
+lord-deputy to Ireland (1687) to organize a Roman Catholic army on which
+the king might fall back if his English forces proved insufficient for
+his purpose.
+
+
+  James's declaration of indulgence.
+
+  Trial of the seven bishops.
+
+Thus fortified, James issued a declaration of indulgence (1687) granting
+full religious liberty to all his subjects. The belief, that the grant
+of liberty to all religions was only intended to serve as a cloak for
+the ascendancy of one, was so strong that the measure roused the
+opposition of all those who objected to see the king's will substituted
+for the law, even if they wished to see the Protestant dissenters
+tolerated. In spite of this opposition, the king thought it possible to
+obtain a parliamentary sanction for his declaration. The parliament to
+which he intended to appeal was, however, to be as different a body from
+the parliament which met in the first year of his reign as the bench of
+judges which had approved of the dispensing power had been different
+from the bench which existed at his accession. A large number of the
+borough members were in those days returned by the corporations, and
+the corporations were accordingly changed. But so thoroughly was the
+spirit of the country roused, that many even of the new corporations
+were set against James's declaration, and he had therefore to abandon
+for a time the hope of seeing it accepted even by a packed House of
+Commons. All, however, that he could do to give it force he did. He
+ordered the clergy to read it in all pulpits (1688). Seven bishops, who
+presented a petition asking him to relieve the clergy from the burthen
+of proclaiming what they believed to be illegal, were brought to trial
+for publishing a seditious libel. Their acquittal by a jury was the
+first serious blow to the system adopted by the king.
+
+
+  Revolution of 1688.
+
+Another event which seemed likely to consolidate his power was in
+reality the signal of his ruin. The queen bore him a son. There was thus
+no longer a strong probability that the king would be succeeded at no
+great distance of time by a Protestant heir. Popular incredulity
+expressed itself in the assertion that, as James had attempted to gain
+his ends by means of a packed bench of judges and a packed House of
+Commons, he had now capped the series of falsifications by the
+production of a supposititious heir. The leaders of both parties
+combined to invite the prince of Orange to come to the rescue of the
+religion and laws of England. He landed on the 5th of November at
+Brixham. Before he could reach London every class of English society had
+declared in his favour. James was deserted even by his army. He fled to
+France, and a convention parliament, summoned without the royal writ,
+declared that his flight was equivalent to abdication, and offered the
+crown in joint sovereignty to William and Mary (1689).
+
+
+IX. THE REVOLUTION AND THE AGE OF ANNE (1689-1714)
+
+  William III. and Mary II., 1689.
+
+The Revolution, as it was called, was more than a mere change of
+sovereigns. It finally transferred the ultimate decision in the state
+from the king to parliament. What parliament had been in the 15th
+century with the House of Lords predominating, that parliament was to be
+again in the end of the 17th century with the House of Commons
+predominating. That House of Commons was far from resting on a wide
+basis of popular suffrage. The county voters were the freeholders; but
+in the towns, with some important exceptions, the electors were the
+richer inhabitants who formed the corporations of the boroughs, or a
+body of select householders more or less under the control of some
+neighbouring landowner. A House so chosen was an aristocratic body, but
+it was aristocratic in a far wider sense than the House of Lords was
+aristocratic. The trading and legal classes found their representation
+there by the side of the great owners of land. The House drew its
+strength from its position as a true representative of the effective
+strength of the nation in its social and economical organization.
+
+Such was the body which firmly grasped the control over every branch of
+the administration. Limiting in the Bill of Rights the powers assumed by
+the crown, the Commons declared that the king could not keep a standing
+army in time of peace without consent of parliament; and they made that
+consent effectual, as far as legislation could go, by passing a Mutiny
+Act year by year for twelve months only, so as to prevent the crown from
+exercising military discipline without their authority. Behind these
+legal contrivances stood the fact that the army was organized in the
+same way as the nation was organized, being officered by gentlemen who
+had no desire to overthrow a constitution through which the class from
+which they sprung controlled the government. Strengthened by the
+cessation of any fear of military violence, the Commons placed the crown
+in financial dependence on themselves by granting a large part of the
+revenue only for a limited term of years, and by putting strictly in
+force their right of appropriating that revenue to special branches of
+expenditure.
+
+
+  Causes in favour of liberty.
+
+  The Toleration Act.
+
+Such a revolution might have ended in the substitution of the despotism
+of a class for the despotism of a man. Many causes combined to prevent
+this result. The landowners, who formed the majority of the House, were
+not elected directly, as was the case with the nobility of the French
+states-general, by their own class, but by electors who, though
+generally loyal to them, would have broken off from them if they had
+attempted to make themselves masters of their fellow citizens. No less
+important was the almost absolute independence of the judges, begun at
+the beginning of the reign, by the grant of office to them during good
+behaviour instead of during the king's pleasure, and finally secured by
+the clause in the Act of Settlement in 1701, which protected them
+against dismissal except on the joint address of both Houses of
+Parliament. Such an improvement, however, finds its full counterpart in
+another great step already taken. The more representative a government
+becomes, the more necessary it is for the well-being of the nation that
+the expression of individual thought should be free in every direction.
+If it is not so, the government is inclined to proscribe unpopular
+opinion, and to forget that new opinions by which the greatest benefits
+are likely to be conferred are certain at first to be entertained by a
+very few, and are quite certain to be unpopular as soon as they come
+into collision with the opinions of the majority. In the middle ages the
+benefits of the liberation of thought from state control had been
+secured by the antagonism between church and state. The Tudor sovereigns
+had rightfully asserted the principle that in a well-ordered nation only
+one supreme power can be allowed to exist; but in so doing they had
+enslaved religion. It was fortunate that, just at the moment when
+parliamentary control was established over the state, circumstances
+should have arisen which made the majority ready to restore to the
+individual conscience that supremacy over religion which the medieval
+ecclesiastics had claimed for the corporation of the universal church.
+Dissenters had, in the main, stood shoulder to shoulder with churchmen
+in rejecting the suspicious benefits of James, and both gratitude and
+policy forbade the thought of replacing them under the heavy yoke which
+had been imposed on them at the Restoration. The exact mode in which
+relief should be afforded was still an open question. The idea prevalent
+with the more liberal minds amongst the clergy was that of
+comprehension--that is to say, of so modifying the prayers and
+ceremonies of the church as to enable the dissenters cheerfully to enter
+in. The scheme was one which had approved itself to minds of the highest
+order--to Sir Thomas More, to Bacon, to Hales and to Jeremy Taylor. It
+is one which, as long as beliefs are not very divergent, keeps up a
+sense of brotherhood overruling the diversity of opinion. It broke down,
+as it always will break down in practice, whenever the difference of
+belief is so strongly felt as to seek earnestly to embody itself in
+diversity of outward practice. The greater part of the clergy of the
+church felt that to surrender their accustomed formularies was to
+surrender somewhat of the belief which those formularies signified,
+while the dissenting clergy were equally reluctant to adopt the common
+prayer book even in a modified form. Hence the Toleration Act, which
+guaranteed the right of separate assemblies for worship outside the pale
+of the church, though it embodied the principles of Cromwell and Milton,
+and not those of Chillingworth and Hales, was carried without
+difficulty, whilst the proposed scheme of comprehension never had a
+chance of success (1689). The choice was one which posterity can
+heartily approve. However wide the limits of toleration be drawn, there
+will always be those who will be left outside. By religious liberty
+those inside gain as much as those who are without. From the moment of
+the passing of the Toleration Act, no Protestant in England performed
+any act of worship except by his own free and deliberate choice. The
+literary spokesman of the new system was Locke. His _Letters concerning
+Toleration_ laid down the principle which had been maintained by
+Cromwell, with a wider application than was possible in days when the
+state was in the hands of a mere minority only able to maintain itself
+in power by constant and suspicious vigilance.
+
+One measure remained to place the dissenters in the position of full
+membership of the state. The Test Act excluded them from office. But
+the memory of the high-handed proceedings of Puritan rulers was still
+too recent to allow Englishmen to run the risk of a reimposition of
+their yoke, and this feeling, fanciful as it was, was sufficient to keep
+the Test Act in force for years to come.
+
+
+  Liberty of the press.
+
+The complement of the Toleration Act was the abolition of the censorship
+of the press (1695). The ideas of the author of the _Areopagitica_ had
+at last prevailed. The attempt to fix certain opinions on the nation
+which were pleasing to those in power was abandoned by king and
+parliament alike. The nation, or at least so much of it as cared to read
+books or pamphlets on political subjects, was acknowledged to be the
+supreme judge, which must therefore be allowed to listen to what
+counsellors it pleased.
+
+This new position of the nation made itself felt in various ways. It was
+William's merit that, fond as he was of power, he recognized the fact
+that he could not rule except so far as he carried the goodwill of the
+nation with him. No doubt he was helped to an intelligent perception of
+the new situation by the fact that, as a foreigner, he cared far more
+for carrying on war successfully against France than for influencing the
+domestic legislation of a country which was not his own, and by the
+knowledge that the conduct of the struggle which lasted till he was able
+to treat with France on equal terms at Ryswick (1697) was fairly trusted
+to his hands. Nevertheless these years of war called for the united
+action of a national government, and in seeking to gain this support for
+himself, he hit upon an expedient which opened a new era in
+constitutional politics.
+
+
+  Beginning of cabinet government.
+
+The supremacy of the House of Commons would have been an evil of no
+common magnitude, if it had made government impossible. Yet this was
+precisely what it threatened to do. Sometimes the dominant party in the
+House pressed with unscrupulous rancour upon its opponents. Sometimes
+the majority shifted from side to side as the House was influenced by
+passing gusts of passion or sympathy, so that, as it was said at the
+time, no man could foretell one day what the House would be pleased to
+do on the next. Against the first of these dangers William was to a
+great extent able to guard by the exercise of his right of dissolution,
+so as to appeal to the constituencies, which did not always share in the
+the passions of their representatives. But the second danger could not
+be met in this way. The only cure for waywardness is responsibility, and
+not only was this precisely what the Commons had not learned to feel,
+but it was that which it was impossible to make them feel directly. A
+body composed of several hundred members cannot carry on government with
+the requisite steadiness of action and clearness of insight. Such work
+can only fitly be entrusted to a few, and whenever difficult
+circumstances arise it is necessary that the action of those few be kept
+in harmony by the predominance of one. The scheme on which William hit,
+by the advice of the earl of Sunderland, was that which has since been
+known as cabinet government. He selected as his ministers the leading
+members of the two Houses who had the confidence of the majority of the
+House of Commons. In this way, the majority felt an interest in
+supporting the men who embodied their own opinions, and fell in turn
+under the influence of those who held them with greater prudence or
+ability than fell to the lot of the average members of the House. All
+that William doubtless intended was to acquire a ready instrument to
+enable him to carry on the war with success. In reality he had
+refounded, on a new basis, the government of England. His own personal
+qualities were such that he was able to dominate over any set of
+ministers; but the time would come when there would be a sovereign of
+inferior powers. Then the body of ministers would step into his place.
+The old rude arrangements of the middle ages had provided by frequent
+depositions that an inefficient sovereign should cease to rule, and
+those arrangements had been imitated in the cases of Charles I. and
+James II. Still the claim to rule had, at least from the time of Henry
+III., been derived from hereditary descent, and the interruption,
+however frequently it might occur, had been regarded as something
+abnormal, only to be applied where there was an absolute necessity to
+prevent the wielder of executive authority from setting at defiance the
+determined purpose of the nation. After the Revolution not only had the
+king's title been so changed as to make him more directly than ever
+dependent on the nation, but he now called into existence a body which
+derived its own strength from its conformity with the wishes of the
+representatives of the nation.
+
+For the moment it seemed to be but a temporary expedient. When the war
+came to an end, the Whig party which had sustained William in his
+struggle with France split up. The dominant feeling of the House of
+Commons was no longer the desire to support the crown against a foreign
+enemy, but to make government as cheap as possible, leaving future
+dangers to the chances of the future. William had not so understood the
+new invention of a united ministry as binding him to take into his
+service a united ministry of men whom he regarded as fools and knaves.
+He allowed the Commons to reduce the army to a skeleton, to question his
+actions, and to treat him as if he were a cipher. But it was only by
+slow degrees that he was brought to acknowledge the necessity of
+choosing his ministers from amongst the men who had done these things.
+
+
+  The Spanish succession.
+
+The time came when he needed again the support of the nation. The death
+of Charles II., the heirless king of the huge Spanish monarchy, had long
+been expected. Since the peace of Ryswick, William and Louis XIV. had
+come to terms by two successive partition treaties for a division of
+those vast territories in such a way that the whole of them should not
+fall into the hands of a near relation either of the king of France or
+of the emperor, the head of the house of Austria. When the king of Spain
+actually died in 1700, William seemed to have no authority in England
+whatever; and Louis was therefore encouraged to break his engagements,
+and to accept the whole of the Spanish inheritance for his grandson, who
+became Philip V. of Spain. William saw clearly that such predominance of
+France in Europe would lead to the development of pretensions unbearable
+to other states. But the House of Commons did not see it, even when the
+Dutch garrisons were driven by French troops out of the posts in the
+Spanish Netherlands which they had occupied for many years (1701).
+
+
+  The Act of Settlement.
+
+William had prudently done all that he could to conciliate the Tory
+majority. In the preceding year (1700) he had given office to a Tory
+ministry, and he now (1701) gave his assent to the Act of Settlement,
+which secured the succession of the crown to the electress Sophia of
+Hanover, daughter of James I.'s daughter Elizabeth, to the exclusion of
+all Roman Catholic claimants, though it imposed several fresh
+restrictions on the prerogative. William was indeed wise in keeping his
+feelings under control. The country sympathized with him more than the
+Commons did, and when the House imprisoned the gentlemen deputed by the
+freeholders of Kent to present a petition asking that its loyal
+addresses might be turned into bills of supply, it simply advertised its
+weakness to the whole country.
+
+
+  The Grand Alliance.
+
+The reception of this Kentish petition was but a foretaste of the
+discrepancy between the Commons and the nation, which was to prove the
+marked feature of the middle of the century now opening. For the present
+the House was ready to give way. It requested the king to enter into
+alliance with the Dutch. William went yet further in the direction in
+which he was urged. He formed an alliance with the emperor, as well as
+with the Netherlands, to prevent the union of the crowns of France and
+Spain, and to compel France to evacuate the Netherlands. An unexpected
+event came to give him all the strength he needed. James II. died, and
+Louis acknowledged his son as the rightful king of England. Englishmen
+of both parties were stung to indignation by the insult. William
+dissolved parliament, and the new House of Commons, Tory as it was by a
+small majority, was eager to support the king. It voted men and money
+according to his wishes. England was to be the soul of the Grand
+Alliance against France. But before a blow was struck William was thrown
+from his horse. He died on the 8th of March 1702. "The man," as Burke
+said of him, "was dead, but the Grand Alliance survived in which King
+William lived and reigned."
+
+
+  Queen Anne, 1702-1714.
+
+Upon the accession of Anne, war was at once begun. The Grand Alliance
+became, as William would have wished, a league to wrest the whole of the
+Spanish dominions from Philip, in favour of the Austrian archduke
+Charles. It found a chief of supreme military and diplomatic genius in
+the duke of Marlborough. His victory at Blenheim (1704) drove the French
+out of Germany. His victory of Ramillies (1706) drove them out of the
+Netherlands. In Spain, Gibraltar was captured by Rooke (1704) and
+Barcelona by Peterborough (1705). Prince Eugene relieved Turin from a
+French siege, and followed up the blow by driving the besiegers out of
+Italy.
+
+
+  Union with Scotland.
+
+The influence of Marlborough at home was the result partly of the
+prestige of his victories, partly of the dominating influence of his
+strong-minded duchess ("Mrs Freeman") over the queen (see ANNE, queen of
+England). The duke cared little for home politics in themselves; but he
+had his own ends, both public and private, to serve, and at first gave
+his support to the Tories, whose church policy was regarded with favour
+by the queen. Their efforts were directed towards the restriction of the
+Toleration Act within narrow limits. Many dissenters had evaded the Test
+Act by partaking of the communion in a church, though they subsequently
+attended their own chapels. An Occasional Conformity Bill, imposing
+penalties on those who adopted this practice, twice passed the Commons
+(1702, 1703), but was rejected by the House of Lords, in which the Whig
+element predominated. The church was served in a nobler manner in 1704
+by the abandonment of first-fruits and tenths by the queen for the
+purpose of raising the pittances of the poorer clergy (see QUEEN ANNE'S
+BOUNTY). In 1707 a piece of legislation of the highest value was carried
+to a successful end. The Act of Union, passed in the parliaments of
+England and Scotland, joined the legislatures of the two kingdoms and
+the nations themselves in an indissoluble bond.
+
+
+  United Whig ministry.
+
+The ministry in office at the time of the passing of the Act of Union
+had suffered important changes since the commencement of the reign. The
+Tories had never been as earnest in the prosecution of the war as the
+Whigs; and Marlborough, who cared above all things for the furtherance
+of the war, gradually replaced Tories by Whigs in the ministry. His
+intention was doubtless to conciliate both parties by admitting them
+both to a share of power; but the Whigs were determined to have all or
+none, and in 1708 a purely Whig ministry was formed to support the war
+as the first purely Whig ministry had supported it in the reign of
+William. The years of its power were the years of the victories of
+Oudenarde (1708) and of Malplaquet (1709), bringing with them the entire
+ruin of the military power of Louis XIV.
+
+Such successes, if they were not embraced in the spirit of moderation,
+boded no good to the Whigs. It was known that even before the last
+battle Louis had been ready to abandon the cause of his grandson, and
+that his offers had been rejected because he would not consent to join
+the allies in turning him out of Spain. A belief spread in England that
+Marlborough wished the endless prolongation of the war for his own
+selfish ends. Spain was far away, and, if the Netherlands were safe,
+enough had been done for the interests of England. The Whigs were
+charged with refusing to make peace when an honourable and satisfactory
+peace was not beyond their reach.
+
+
+  Tory Ministry.
+
+As soon as the demand for a vigorous prosecution of the war relaxed, the
+Whigs could but rely on their domestic policy, in which they were
+strongest in the eyes of posterity but weakest in the eyes of
+contemporaries. It was known that they looked for the principle on which
+the queen's throne rested to the national act of the Revolution, rather
+than to the birth of the sovereign as the daughter of James II., whilst
+popular feeling preferred, however inconsistently, to attach itself to
+some fragment of hereditary right. What was of greater consequence was,
+that it was known that they were the friends of the dissenters, and
+that their leaders, if they could have had their way, would not only
+have maintained the Toleration Act, but would also have repealed the
+Test Act. In 1709 a sermon preached by Dr Sacheverell (q.v.) denounced
+toleration and the right of resistance in tones worthy of the first days
+of the Restoration. Foolish as the sermon was, it was but the reflection
+of folly which was widely spread amongst the rude and less educated
+classes. The Whig leaders unwisely took up the challenge and impeached
+Sacheverell. The Lords condemned the man, but they condemned him to an
+easy sentence. His trial was the signal for riot. Dissenting chapels
+were sacked to the cry of High Church and Sacheverell. The queen, who
+had personal reasons for disliking the Whigs, dismissed them from office
+(1710), and a Tory House of Commons was elected amidst the excitement to
+support the Tory ministry of Harley and St John.
+
+
+  Peace of Utrecht.
+
+  Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act.
+
+After some hesitation the new ministry made peace with France, and the
+treaty of Utrecht (1713), stipulating for the permanent separation of
+the crowns of France and Spain, and assigning Milan, Naples and the
+Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian claimant, accomplished all that
+could reasonably be desired, though the abandonment to the vengeance of
+the Spanish government of her Catalan allies, and the base desertion of
+her continental confederates on the very field of action, brought
+dishonour on the good name of England. The Commons gladly welcomed the
+cessation of the war. The approval of the Lords had been secured by the
+creation of twelve Tory peers. In home politics the new ministry was in
+danger of being carried away by its more violent supporters. St John,
+now Viscount Bolingbroke, with unscrupulous audacity placed himself at
+their head. The Occasional Conformity Bill was at last carried (1711).
+To it was added the Schism Act (1714), forbidding dissenters to keep
+schools or engage in tuition. Bolingbroke went still farther. He engaged
+in an intrigue for bringing over the Pretender to succeed the queen upon
+her death. This wild conduct alienated the moderate Tories, who, much as
+they wished to see the throne occupied by the heir of the ancient line,
+could not bring themselves to consent to its occupation by a Roman
+Catholic prince. Such men, therefore, when Anne died (1714) joined the
+Whigs in proclaiming the elector of Hanover king as George I.
+
+
+X. THE HANOVERIAN KINGS (1714-1793)
+
+  Accession of the House of Hanover.
+
+  Repeal of Occasional Conformity Act and Schism Act.
+
+The accession of George I. brought with it the predominance of the
+Whigs. They had on their side the royal power, the greater part of the
+aristocracy, the dissenters and the higher trading and commercial
+classes. The Tories appealed to the dislike of dissenters prevalent
+amongst the country gentlemen and the country clergy, and to the
+jealousy felt by the agricultural classes towards those who enriched
+themselves by trade. Such a feeling, if it was aroused by irritating
+legislation, might very probably turn to the advantage of the exiled
+house, especially as the majority of Englishmen were to be found on the
+Tory side. It was therefore advisable that government should content
+itself with as little action as possible, in order to give time for old
+habits to wear themselves out. The landing of the Pretender in Scotland
+(1715), and the defeat of a portion of his army which had advanced to
+Preston--a defeat which was the consequence of the apathy of his English
+supporters, and which was followed by the complete suppression of the
+rebellion--gave increased strength to the Whig government. But they were
+reluctant to face an immediate dissolution, and the Septennial Act was
+passed (1716) to extend to seven years the duration of parliaments,
+which had been fixed at three years by the Triennial Act of William and
+Mary. Under General Stanhope an effort was made to draw legislation in a
+more liberal direction. The Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act
+were repealed (1719); but the majorities on the side of the government
+were unusually small, and Stanhope, who would willingly have repealed
+the Test Act so far as it related to dissenters, was compelled to
+abandon the project as entirely impracticable. The Peerage Bill,
+introduced at the same time to limit the royal power of creating peers,
+was happily thrown out in the Commons. It was proposed, partly from a
+desire to guard the Lords against such a sudden increase of their
+numbers as had been forced on them when the treaty of Utrecht was under
+discussion, and partly to secure the Whigs in office against any change
+in the royal councils in a succeeding reign. It was in fact conceived by
+men who valued the immediate victory of their principles more than they
+trusted to the general good sense of the nation. The Lords were at this
+time, as a matter of fact, not merely wealthier but wiser than the
+Commons; and it is no wonder that, in days when the Commons, by passing
+the Septennial Act, had shown their distrust of their own constituents,
+the peers should show, by the Peerage Bill, their distrust of that House
+which was elected by those constituencies. Nevertheless, the remedy was
+worse than the disease, for it would have established a close oligarchy,
+bound sooner or later to come into conflict with the will of the nation,
+and only to be overthrown by a violent alteration of the constitution.
+
+
+  Walpole's ministry.
+
+The excitement following on the bursting of the South Sea Bubble (q.v.),
+and the death or ruin of the leading ministers, brought Sir Robert
+Walpole to the front (1721). As a man of business when men of business
+were few in the House of Commons, he was eminently fit to manage the
+affairs of the country. But he owed his long continuance in office
+especially to his sagacity. He clearly saw, what Stanhope had failed to
+see, that the mass of the nation was not fitted as yet to interest
+itself wisely in affairs of government, and that therefore the rule must
+be kept in the hands of the upper classes. But he was too sensible to
+adopt the coarse expedient which had commended itself to Stanhope, and
+he preferred humouring the masses to contradicting them.
+
+The struggle of the preceding century had left its mark in every
+direction on the national development. Out of the reaction against
+Puritanism had come a widely-spread relaxation of morals, and also, as
+far as the educated class was concerned, an eagerness for the discussion
+of all social and religious problems. The fierce excitement of political
+life had quickened thought, and the most anciently received doctrines
+were held of little worth until they were brought to the test of reason.
+It was a time when the pen was more powerful than the sword, when a
+secretary of state would treat with condescension a witty pamphleteer,
+and when such a pamphleteer might hope, not in vain, to become a
+secretary of state.
+
+It was in this world of reason and literature that the Whigs of the
+Peerage Bill moved. Walpole perceived that there was another world which
+understood none of these things. With cynical insight he discovered that
+a great government cannot rest on a clique, however distinguished. If
+the mass of the nation was not conscious of political wants, it was
+conscious of material wants. The merchant needed protection for his
+trade; the voters gladly welcomed election days as bringing guineas to
+their pockets. Members of parliament were ready to sell their votes for
+places, for pensions, for actual money. The system was not new, as Danby
+is credited with the discovery that a vote in the House of Commons might
+be purchased. But with Walpole it reached its height.
+
+Such a system was possible because the House of Commons was not really
+accountable to its constituents. The votes of its members were not
+published, and still less were their speeches made known. Such a silence
+could only be maintained around the House when there was little interest
+in its proceedings. The great questions of religion and taxation which
+had agitated the country under the Stuarts were now fairly settled. To
+reawaken those questions in any shape would be dangerous. Walpole took
+good care never to repeat the mistake of the Sacheverell trial. When on
+one occasion he was led into the proposal of an unpopular excise he at
+once drew back. England in his days was growing rich. Englishmen were
+bluff and independent, in their ways often coarse and unmannerly. Their
+life was the life depicted on the canvas of Hogarth and the pages of
+Fielding. All high imagination, all devotion to the public weal, seemed
+laid asleep. But the political instinct was not dead, and it would one
+day express itself for better ends than an agitation against an excise
+bill or an outcry for a popular war. A government could no longer employ
+its powers for direct oppression. In his own house and in his own
+conscience, every Englishman, as far as the government was concerned,
+was the master of his destiny. By and by the idea would dawn on the
+nation that anarchy is as productive of evil as tyranny, and that a
+government which omits to regulate or control allows the strong to
+oppress the weak, and the rich to oppress the poor.
+
+
+  George II. 1727-1760.
+
+Walpole's administration lasted long enough to give room for some feeble
+expression of this feeling. When George I. was succeeded by George II.
+(1727), Walpole remained in power. His eagerness for the possession of
+that power which he desired to use for his country's good, together with
+the incapacity of two kings born and bred in a foreign country to take a
+leading part in English affairs, completed the change which had been
+effected when William first entrusted the conduct of government to a
+united cabinet. There was now for the first time a prime minister in
+England, a person who was himself a subject imposing harmonious action
+on the cabinet. The change was so gradually and silently effected that
+it is difficult to realize its full importance. So far, indeed, as it
+only came about through the incapacity of the first two kings of the
+house of Hanover, it might be undone, and was in fact to a great extent
+undone by a more active successor. But so far as it was the result of
+general tendencies, it could never be obliterated. In the ministries in
+which Somers and Montagu on the one hand and Harley and St John on the
+other had taken part, there was no prime minister except so far as one
+member of the administration dominated over his colleagues by the force
+of character and intelligence. In the reign of George III., even North
+and Addington were universally acknowledged by that title, though they
+had little claim to the independence of action of a Walpole or a Pitt.
+
+The change was, in fact, one of the most important of those by which the
+English constitution has been altered from an hereditary monarchy with a
+parliamentary regulative agency to a parliamentary government with an
+hereditary regulative agency. In Walpole's time the forms of the
+constitution had become, in all essential particulars, what they are
+now. What was wanting was a national force behind them to set them to
+their proper work.
+
+
+  The Opposition.
+
+  War with Spain.
+
+The growing opposition which finally drove Walpole from power was not
+entirely without a nobler element than could be furnished by personal
+rivalry, or ignorant distrust of commercial and financial success. It
+was well that complaints that a great country ought not to be governed
+by patronage and bribery should be raised, although, as subsequent
+experience showed, the causes which rendered corruption inevitable were
+not to be removed by the expulsion of Walpole from office. But for one
+error, indeed, it is probable that Walpole's rule would have been still
+further prolonged. In 1739 a popular excitement arose for a declaration
+of war against Spain. Walpole believed that war to be certainly unjust,
+and likely to be disastrous. He had, however, been so accustomed to give
+way to popular pressure that he did not perceive the difference between
+a wise and timely determination to leave a right action undone in the
+face of insuperable difficulties, and an unwise and cowardly
+determination to do that which he believed to be wrong and imprudent. If
+he had now resigned rather than demean himself by acting against his
+conscience, it is by no means unlikely that he would have been recalled
+to power before many years were over. As it was, the failures of the war
+recoiled on his own head, and in 1742 his long ministry came to an end.
+
+
+  Ministry of Henry Pelham.
+
+After a short interval a successor was found in Henry Pelham. All the
+ordinary arts of corruption which Walpole had practised were continued,
+and to them were added arts of corruption which Walpole had disdained
+to practise. He at least understood that there were certain principles
+in accordance with which he wished to conduct public affairs, and he had
+driven colleague after colleague out of office rather than allow them to
+distract his method of government. Pelham and his brother, the Thomas
+Pelham, duke of Newcastle, had no principles of government whatever.
+They offered place to every man of parliamentary skill or influence.
+There was no opposition, because the ministers never attempted to do
+anything which would arouse opposition, and because they were ready to
+do anything called for by any one who had power enough to make himself
+dangerous; and in 1743 they embarked on a useless war with France in
+order to please the king, who saw in every commotion on the continent of
+Europe some danger to his beloved Hanover.
+
+
+  The Rebellion of 1745.
+
+At most times in the history of England such a ministry would have been
+driven from office by the outcry of an offended people. In the days of
+the Pelhams, government was regarded as lying too far outside the
+all-important private interests of the community to make it worth while
+to make any effort to rescue it from the degradation into which it had
+fallen; yet the Pelhams had not been long in power before this serene
+belief that the country could get on very well without a government in
+any real sense of the word was put to the test. In 1745 Charles Edward,
+the son of the Pretender, landed in Scotland. He was followed by many of
+the Highland clans, always ready to draw the sword against the
+constituted authorities of the Lowlands; and even in the Lowlands, and
+especially in Edinburgh, he found adherents, who still felt the sting
+inflicted by the suppression of the national independence of Scotland.
+The British army was in as chaotic a condition as the British
+government, and Charles Edward inflicted a complete defeat on a force
+which met him at Prestonpans. Before the end of the year the victor, at
+the head of 5000 men, had advanced to Derby. But he found no support in
+England, and the mere numbers brought against him compelled him to
+retreat, to find defeat at Culloden in the following year (1746). The
+war on the continent had been waged with indifferent success. The
+victory of Dettingen (1743) and the glorious defeat of Fontenoy (1745)
+had achieved no objects worthy of English intervention, and the peace of
+Aix-la-Chapelle put an end in 1748 to hostilities which should never
+have been begun. The government pursued its inglorious career as long as
+Henry Pelham lived. He had at least some share in the financial ability
+of Walpole, and it was not till he died in 1754 that the real
+difficulties of a system which was based on the avoidance of
+difficulties had fairly to be faced.
+
+
+  Moral and religious atmosphere.
+
+  Wesley and Whitefield.
+
+The change which was needed was not any mere re-adjustment of the
+political machine. Those who cared for religion or morality had
+forgotten that man is an imaginative and emotional being. Defenders of
+Christianity and of deism alike appealed to the reason alone. Enthusiasm
+was treated as a folly or a crime, and earnestness of every kind was
+branded with the name of enthusiasm. The higher order of minds dwelt
+with preference upon the beneficent wisdom of the Creator. The lower
+order of minds treated religion as a kind of life assurance against the
+inconvenience of eternal death. Upon such a system as this human nature
+was certain to revenge itself. The preaching of Wesley and Whitefield
+appealed direct to the emotions, with its doctrine of "conversion," and
+called upon each individual not to understand, or to admire, or to act,
+but vividly to realize the love and mercy of God. In all this there was
+nothing new. What was new was that Wesley added an organization,
+Methodism (q.v.), in which each of his followers unfolded to one another
+the secrets of their heart, and became accountable to his fellows. Large
+as the numbers of the Methodists ultimately became, their influence is
+not to be measured by their numbers. The double want of the age, the
+want of spiritual earnestness and the want of organized coherence, would
+find satisfaction in many ways which would have seemed strange to
+Wesley, but which were, nevertheless, a continuance of the work which he
+began.
+
+
+  Ministry of Newcastle.
+
+  Ministry of Pitt and Newcastle.
+
+As far as government was concerned, when Henry Pelham died (1754) the
+lowest depth of baseness seemed to have been reached. The duke of
+Newcastle, who succeeded his brother, looked on the work of corruption
+with absolute pleasure, and regarded genius and ability as an awkward
+interruption of that happy arrangement which made men subservient to
+flattery and money. Whilst he was in the very act of trying to drive
+from office all men who were possessed of any sort of ideas, he was
+surprised by a great war. In America, the French settlers in Canada and
+the English settlers on the Atlantic coast were falling to blows for the
+possession of the vast territories drained by the Ohio and its
+tributaries. In India, Frenchmen and Englishmen had striven during the
+last war for authority over the native states round Pondicherry and
+Madras, and the conflict threatened to break out anew. When war began in
+earnest, and the reality of danger came home to Englishmen by the
+capture of Minorca (1756), there arose a demand for a more capable
+government than any which Newcastle could offer. Terrified by the storm
+of obloquy which he aroused, he fled from office. A government was
+formed, of which the soul was William Pitt. Pitt was, in some sort, to
+the political life of Englishmen what Wesley was to their religious
+life. He brought no new political ideas into their minds, but he ruled
+them by the force of his character and the example of his purity. His
+weapons were trust and confidence. He appealed to the patriotism of his
+fellow-countrymen, to their imaginative love for the national greatness,
+and he did not appeal in vain. He perceived instinctively that a large
+number, even of those who took greedily the bribes of Walpole and the
+Pelhams, took them, not because they loved money better than their
+country, but because they had no conception that their country had any
+need of them at all. It was a truth, but it was not the whole truth. The
+great Whig families rallied under Newcastle and drove Pitt from office
+(1757). But if Pitt could not govern without Newcastle's corruption,
+neither could Newcastle govern without Pitt's energy. At last a
+compromise was effected, and Newcastle undertook the work of bribing,
+whilst Pitt undertook the work of governing (see CHATHAM, WILLIAM PITT,
+1ST EARL OF).
+
+
+  The Seven Years' War.
+
+The war which had already broken out, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763),
+was not confined to England alone. By the side of the duel between
+France and England, a war was going on upon the continent of Europe, in
+which Austria--with its allies, France, Russia and the German
+princes--had fallen upon the new kingdom of Prussia and its sovereign
+Frederick II. England and Prussia therefore necessarily formed an
+alliance. Different as the two governments were, they were both alike in
+recognizing, in part at least, the conditions of progress. Even in
+Pitt's day England, however imperfectly, rested its strength on the
+popular will. Even in Frederick's day Prussia was ruled by
+administrators selected for their special knowledge. Neither France nor
+Austria had any conception of the necessity of fulfilling these
+requirements. Hence the strength of England and of Prussia. The war
+seemed to be a mere struggle for territory. There was no feeling in
+either Pitt or Frederick, such as there was in the men who contended
+half a century later against Napoleon, that they were fighting the
+battles of the civilized world. There was something repulsive as well in
+the enthusiastic nationalism of Pitt as in the cynical nationalism of
+Frederick. Pitt's sole object was to exalt England to a position in
+which she would fear no rival. But in so doing he exalted that which, in
+spite of all that had happened, best deserved to be exalted. The habits
+of individual energy fused together by the inspiration of patriotism
+conquered Canada. The unintelligent over-regulation of the French
+government could not maintain the colonies which had been founded in
+happier times. In 1758 Louisburg was taken, and the mouth of the St
+Lawrence guarded against France. In 1759 Quebec fell before Wolfe, who
+died at the moment of victory. In the same year the naval victories of
+Lagos and Quiberon Bay established the supremacy of the British at sea.
+The battle of Plassey (1757) had laid Bengal at the feet of Clive; and
+Coote's victory at Wandiwash (1760) led to the final ruin of the relics
+of French authority in southern India. When George II. died (1760)
+England was the first maritime and colonial power in the world (see
+SEVEN YEARS' WAR; CANADA: _History_; INDIA: _History_).
+
+
+  George III., 1760-1820.
+
+  Pitt's resignation.
+
+In George III. the king once more became an important factor in English
+politics. From his childhood he had been trained by his mother and his
+instructors to regard the breaking down of the power of the great
+families as the task of his life. In this he was walking in the same
+direction as Pitt. If the two men could have worked together, England
+might have been spared many misfortunes. Unhappily, the king could not
+understand Pitt's higher qualities, his bold confidence in the popular
+feeling, and his contempt for corruption and intrigue. And yet the
+king's authority was indispensable to Pitt, if he was to carry on his
+conflict against the great families with success. When the war came to
+an end, as it must come to an end sooner or later, Pitt's special
+predominance, derived as it was from his power of breathing a martial
+spirit into the fleets and armies of England, would come to an end too.
+Only the king, with his hold upon the traditional instincts of loyalty
+and the force of his still unimpaired prerogative, could, in ordinary
+times, hold head against the wealthy and influential aristocracy.
+Unfortunately, George III. was not wise enough to deal with the
+difficulty in a high-minded fashion. With a well-intentioned but narrow
+mind, he had nothing in him to strike the imagination of his subjects.
+He met influence with influence, corruption with corruption, intrigue
+with intrigue. Unhappily, too, his earliest relations with Pitt involved
+a dispute on a point on which he was right and Pitt was wrong. In 1761
+Pitt resigned office, because neither the king nor the cabinet were
+willing to declare war against Spain in the midst of the war with
+France. As the war with Spain was inevitable, and as, when it broke out
+in the following year (1762), it was followed by triumphs for which Pitt
+had prepared the way, the prescience of the great war-minister appeared
+to be fully established. But it was his love of war, not his skill in
+carrying it on, which was really in question. He would be satisfied with
+nothing short of the absolute ruin of France. He would have given
+England that dangerous position of supremacy which was gained for France
+by Louis XIV. in the 17th century, and by Napoleon in the 19th century.
+He would have made his country still more haughty and arrogant than it
+was, till other nations rose against it, as they have three times risen
+against France, rather than submit to the intolerable yoke. It was a
+happy thing for England that peace was signed (1763).
+
+
+  Bute and Grenville.
+
+Even as it was, a spirit of contemptuous disregard of the rights of
+others had been roused, which would not be easily allayed. The king's
+premature attempt to secure a prime minister of his own choosing in Lord
+Bute (1761) came to an end through the minister's incapacity (1763).
+George Grenville, who followed him, kept the king in leading strings in
+reliance upon his parliamentary majority. Something, no doubt, had been
+accomplished by the incorruptibility of Pitt. The practice of bribing
+members of parliament by actual presents in money came to an end, though
+the practice of bribing them by place and pension long continued. The
+arrogance which Pitt displayed towards foreign nations was displayed by
+Grenville towards classes of the population of the British dominions. It
+was enough for him to establish a right. He never put himself in the
+position of those who were to suffer by its being put in force.
+
+
+  The American colonies.
+
+The first to suffer from Grenville's conception of his duty were the
+American colonies. The mercantile system, which had sprung up in Spain
+in the 16th century, held that colonies were to be entirely prohibited
+from trading, except with the mother country. Every European country had
+adopted this view, and the acquisition of fresh colonial dominions by
+England, at the peace of 1763, had been made not so much through lust of
+empire as through love of trade. Of all English colonies, the American
+were the most populous and important. Their proximity to the Spanish
+colonies in the West Indies had naturally led to a contraband trade. To
+this trade Grenville put a stop, as far as lay in his power. Obnoxious
+as this measure was in America, the colonists had acknowledged the
+principle on which it was founded too long to make it easy to resist it.
+Another step of Grenville's met with more open opposition. Even with all
+the experience of the century which followed, the relations between a
+mother country and her colonies are not easy to arrange. If the burthen
+of defence is to be borne in common, it can hardly be left to the mother
+country to declare war, and to exact the necessary taxation, without the
+consent of the colonies. If, on the other hand, it is to be borne by the
+mother country alone, she may well complain that she is left to bear
+more than her due share of the weight. The latter alternative forced
+itself upon the attention of Grenville. The British parliament, he held,
+was the supreme legislature, and, as such, was entitled to raise taxes
+in America to support the military forces needed for the defence of
+America. The act (1765) imposing a stamp tax on the American colonies
+was the result.
+
+
+  The Rockingham ministry.
+
+As might have been expected, the Americans resisted. For them, the
+question was precisely that which Hampden had fought out in the case of
+ship-money. As far as they were concerned, the British parliament had
+stepped into the position of Charles I. If Grenville had remained in
+office he would probably have persisted in his resolution. He was driven
+from his post by the king's resolve no longer to submit to his
+insolence, and a new ministry was formed under the marquess of
+Rockingham, composed of some of those leaders of the Whig aristocracy
+who had not followed the Grenville ministry. They were well-intentioned,
+but weak, and without political ability; and the king regarded them with
+distrust, only qualified by his abhorrence of the ministry which they
+superseded.
+
+
+  The Declaratory Act and repeal of Stamp Act.
+
+As soon as the bad news came from America, the ministry was placed
+between two recommendations. Grenville, on the one hand, advised that
+the tax should be enforced. Pitt, on the other, declared that the
+British parliament had absolutely no right to tax America, though he
+held that it had the right to regulate, or in other words to tax, the
+commerce of America for the benefit of the British merchant and
+manufacturer. Between the two the government took a middle course. It
+obtained from parliament a total repeal of the Stamp Act, but it also
+passed a Declaratory Act, claiming for the British parliament the
+supreme power over the colonies in matters of taxation, as well as in
+matters of legislation.
+
+
+  Burke's political theory.
+
+It is possible that the course thus adopted was chosen simply because it
+was a middle course. But it was probably suggested by Edmund Burke, who
+was then Lord Rockingham's private secretary, but who for some time to
+come was to furnish thought to the party to which he attached himself.
+Burke carried into the world of theory those politics of expediency of
+which Walpole had been the practical originator. He held that questions
+of abstract right had no place in politics. It was therefore as absurd
+to argue with Pitt that England had a right to regulate commerce, as it
+was to argue with Grenville that England had a right to levy taxes. All
+that could be said was, that it was expedient in a widespread empire
+that the power of final decision should be lodged somewhere, and that it
+was also expedient not to use that power in such a way as to irritate
+those whom it was the truest wisdom to conciliate.
+
+
+  Arguments of Pitt and Burke.
+
+The weak side of this view was the weak side of all Burke's political
+philosophy. Like all great innovators, he was intensely conservative
+where he was not an advocate of change. With new views on every subject
+relating to the exercise of power, he shrank even from entertaining the
+slightest question relating to the distribution of power. He recommended
+to the British parliament the most self-denying wisdom, but he could not
+see that in its relation to the colonies the British parliament was so
+constituted as to make it entirely unprepared to be either wise or
+self-denying. It is true that if he had thought out the matter in this
+direction, he would have been led further than he or any other man in
+England or America was at that time prepared to go. If the British
+parliament was unfit to legislate for America, and if, as was
+undoubtedly the case, it was impossible to create a representative body
+which was fit to legislate, it would follow that the American colonies
+could only be fairly governed as practically independent states, though
+they might possibly remain, like the great colonies of our own day, in a
+position of alliance rather than of dependence. It was because the
+issues opened led to changes so far greater than the wisest statesman
+then perceived, that Pitt's solution, logically untenable as it was, was
+preferable to Burke's. Pitt would have given bad reasons for going a
+step in the right direction. Burke gave excellent reasons why those who
+were certain to go wrong should have the power to go right.
+
+
+  Ministry of Lord Chatham.
+
+Scarcely were the measures relating to America passed when the king
+turned out the ministry. The new ministry was formed by Pitt, who was
+created earl of Chatham (1766), on the principle of bringing together
+men who had shaken themselves loose from any of the different Whig
+cliques. Whatever chance the plan had of succeeding was at an end when
+Chatham's mind temporarily gave way under stress of disease (1767).
+Charles Townshend, a brilliant, headstrong man, led parliament in the
+way which had been prepared by the Declaratory Act, and laid duties on
+tea and other articles of commerce entering the ports of America.
+
+
+  Wilkes and "The North Briton."
+
+It was impossible that the position thus claimed by the British
+parliament towards America should affect America alone. The habit of
+obtaining money otherwise than by the consent of those who are required
+to pay it would be certain to make parliament careless of the feelings
+and interests of that great majority of the population at home, which
+was unrepresented in parliament. The resistance of America to the
+taxation imposed was therefore not without benefit to the people of the
+mother country. Already there were signs of a readiness in parliament to
+treat even the constituencies with contempt. In 1763, in the days of the
+Grenville ministry, John Wilkes, a profligate and scurrilous writer, had
+been arrested on a general warrant--that is to say, a warrant in which
+the name of no individual was mentioned--as the author of an alleged
+libel on the king, contained in No. 45 of _The North Briton_. He was a
+member of parliament, and as such was declared by Chief Justice Pratt to
+be privileged against arrest. In 1768 he was elected member for
+Middlesex. The House of Commons expelled him. He was again elected, and
+again expelled. The third time, the Commons gave the seat to which
+Wilkes was a third time chosen to Colonel Luttrell, who was far down in
+the poll. Wilkes thus became the representative of a great
+constitutional principle, the principle that the electors have a right
+to choose their representatives without restriction, save by the
+regulations of the law.
+
+For the present the contention of the American colonists and of the
+defenders of Wilkes at home was confined within the compass of the law.
+Yet in both cases it might easily pass beyond that compass, and might
+rest itself upon an appeal to the duty of governments to modify the law,
+and to enlarge the basis of their authority, when law and authority have
+become too narrow.
+
+
+  Lord North's ministry.
+
+As regards America, though Townshend died, the government persisted in
+his policy. As resistance grew stronger in America, the king urged the
+use of compulsion. If he had not the wisdom of the country on his side,
+he had its prejudices. The arrogant spirit of Englishmen made them
+contemptuous towards the colonists, and the desire to thrust taxation
+upon others than themselves made the new colonial legislation popular.
+In 1770 the king made Lord North prime minister. He had won the object
+on which he had set his heart. A new Tory party had sprung up, not
+distinguished, like the Tories of Queen Anne's reign, by a special
+ecclesiastical policy, but by their acceptance of the king's claim to
+nominate ministers, and so to predominate in the ministry himself.
+
+Unhappily the opposition, united in the desire to conciliate America,
+was divided on questions of home policy. Chatham would have met the new
+danger by parliamentary reform, giving increased voting power to the
+freeholders of the counties. Burke from principle, and his noble patrons
+mainly from lower motives, were opposed to any such change. As Burke had
+wished the British parliament to be supreme over the colonies, in
+confidence that this supremacy would not be abused, so he wished the
+great landowning connexion resting on the rotten boroughs to rule over
+the unrepresented people, in confidence that this power would not be
+abused. Amid these distractions the king had an easy game to play. He
+had all the patronage of the government in his hands, and beyond the
+circle which was influenced by gifts of patronage, he could appeal to
+the ignorance and self-seeking of the nation, with which, though he knew
+it not, he was himself in the closest sympathy.
+
+
+  The American War of Independence.
+
+No wonder resistance grew more vigorous in America. In 1773 the
+inhabitants of Boston threw ship-loads of tea into the harbour rather
+than pay the obnoxious duty. In 1774 the Boston Port Bill deprived
+Boston of its commercial rights, whilst the Massachusetts Government
+Bill took away from that colony the ordinary political liberties of
+Englishmen. The first skirmish of the inevitable war was fought at
+Lexington in 1775. In 1776 the thirteen colonies united in the
+continental congress issued their Declaration of Independence. England
+put forth all its strength to beat down resistance; but the task, which
+seemed easy at a distance, proved impossible. It might have been so even
+had the war been conducted on the British side with greater military
+skill and with more insight into the conditions of the struggle, which
+was essentially a civil contest between men of the same race. But the
+initial difficulties of the vast field of operations were greatly
+increased by the want of skill of the British leaders in adapting
+themselves to new conditions, while even loyalist sentiment was shocked
+by the employment of German mercenaries and Red Indian savages against
+men of English blood. Even so, the issue of the struggle was for long
+doubtful, and there were moments when it might have ended by a policy of
+wise concession; but the Americans, though reduced at times to desperate
+straits, had the advantage of fighting in their own country, and above
+all they found in George Washington a leader after the model of the
+English country gentleman who had upheld the standard of liberty against
+the Stuarts, and worthy of the great cause for which they fought. In
+1777 a British army under Burgoyne capitulated at Saratoga; and early in
+1778 France, eager to revenge the disasters of the Seven Years' War,
+formed an alliance with the revolted colonies as free and independent
+states, and was soon joined by Spain.
+
+Chatham, who was ready to make any concession to America short of
+independence, and especially of independence at the dictation of France,
+died in 1778. The war was continued for some years with varying results;
+but in 1781 the capitulation of a second British army under Cornwallis
+at Yorktown was a decisive blow, which brought home to the minds of the
+dullest the assurance that the conquest of America was an impossibility.
+
+Before this event happened there had been a great change in public
+feeling in England. The increasing weight of taxation gave rise in 1780
+to a great meeting of the freeholders of Yorkshire, which in turn gave
+the signal for a general agitation for the reduction of unnecessary
+expense in the government. To this desire Burke gave expression in his
+bill for economical reform, though he was unable to carry it in the
+teeth of interested opposition. The movement in favour of economy was
+necessarily also a movement in favour of peace; and when the surrender
+of Yorktown was known (1782), Lord North at once resigned office.
+
+
+  The second Rockingham ministry.
+
+The new ministry formed under Lord Rockingham comprised not only his own
+immediate followers, of whom the most prominent was Charles Fox, but the
+followers of Chatham, of whom Lord Shelburne was the acknowledged
+leader. A treaty of peace acknowledging the independence of the United
+States of America was at once set on foot; and the negotiation with
+France was rendered easy by the defeat of a French fleet by Rodney, and
+by the failure of the combined forces of France and Spain to take
+Gibraltar.
+
+
+  The coalition.
+
+Already the ministry on which such great hopes had been placed had
+broken up. Rockingham died in July 1782. The two sections of which the
+government was composed had different aims. The Rockingham section,
+which now looked up to Fox, rested on aristocratic connexion and
+influence; the Shelburne section was anxious to gain popular support by
+active reforms, and to gain over the king to their side. Judging by past
+experience, the combination might well seem hopeless, and honourable men
+like Fox might easily regard it with suspicion. But Fox's allies took
+good care that their name should not be associated with the idea of
+improvement. They pruned Burke's Economical Reform Bill till it left as
+many abuses as it suppressed; and though the bill prohibited the grant
+of pensions above L300, they hastily gave away pensions of much larger
+value to their own friends before the bill had received the royal
+assent. They also opposed a bill for parliamentary reform brought in by
+young William Pitt. When the king chose Shelburne as prime minister,
+they refused to follow him, and put forward the incompetent duke of
+Portland as their candidate for the office. The struggle was thus
+renewed on the old ground of the king's right to select his ministers.
+But while the king now put forward a minister notoriously able and
+competent to the task, his opponents put forward a man whose only claim
+to office was the possession of large estates. They forced their way
+back to power by means as unscrupulous as their claim to it was
+unjustifiable. They formed a coalition with Lord North, whose politics
+and character they had denounced for years. The coalition, as soon as
+the peace with America and France had been signed (1783), drove
+Shelburne from office. The duke of Portland became the nominal head of
+the government, Fox and North its real leaders.
+
+
+  The India Bill.
+
+Such a ministry could not afford to make a single blunder. The king
+detested it, and the assumption by the Whig houses of a right to
+nominate the head of the government without reference to the national
+interests, could never be popular. The blunder was soon committed.
+Burke, hating wrong and injustice with a bitter hatred, had descried in
+the government of British India by the East India Company a disgrace to
+the English name. For many of the actions of that government no
+honourable man can think of uttering a word of defence. The helpless
+natives were oppressed and robbed by the company and its servants in
+every possible way. Burke drew up a bill, which was adopted by the
+coalition government, for taking all authority in India out of the hands
+of the company, and even placing the company's management of its own
+commercial affairs under control. The governing and controlling body was
+naturally to be a council appointed at home. The question of the
+nomination of this council at once drew the whole question within the
+domain of party politics. The whole patronage of India would be in its
+hands, and, as parliament was then constituted, the balance of parties
+might be more seriously affected by the distribution of that patronage
+than it would be now. When, therefore, it was understood that the
+government bill meant the council to be named in the bill for four
+years, or, in other words, to be named by the coalition ministry, it was
+generally regarded as an unblushing attempt to turn a measure for the
+good government of India into a measure for securing the ministry in
+office. The bill of course passed the Commons. When it came before the
+Lords, it was thrown out in consequence of a message from the king, that
+he would regard any one who voted for it as his enemy.
+
+
+  Ministry of the younger Pitt.
+
+The contest had thus become one between the influence of the crown and
+the influence of the great houses. Constitutional historians, who treat
+the question as one of merely theoretical politics, leave out of
+consideration this essential element of the situation, and forget that,
+if it was wrong for the king to influence the Lords by his message, it
+was equally wrong for the ministry to acquire for themselves fresh
+patronage with which to influence the Commons. But there was now, what
+there had not been in the time of Walpole and the Pelhams, a public
+opinion ready to throw its weight on one side or the other. The county
+members still formed the most independent portion of the
+representation, and there were many possessors of rotten boroughs, who
+were ready to agree with the county members rather than with the great
+landowners. In choosing Pitt, the young son of Chatham, for his prime
+minister, as soon as he had dismissed the coalition, George III. gave
+assurance that he wished his counsels to be directed by integrity and
+ability. After a struggle of many weeks, parliament was dissolved
+(1784), and the new House of Commons was prepared to support the king's
+minister by a large majority.
+
+As far as names go, the change effected placed the new Tory party in
+office for an almost uninterrupted period of forty-six years. It so
+happened, however, that after the first eight years of that period had
+passed by, circumstances occurred which effected so great a change in
+the composition and character of that party as to render any statement
+to this effect entirely illusive. During eight years, however, Pitt's
+ministry was not merely a Tory ministry resting on the choice of the
+king, but a Liberal ministry resting on national support and upon
+advanced political knowledge.
+
+
+  Material progress.
+
+The nation which Pitt had behind him was very different from the
+populace which had assailed Walpole's Excise Bill, or had shouted for
+Wilkes and liberty. At the beginning of the century the intellect of
+thoughtful Englishmen had applied itself to speculative problems of
+religion and philosophy. In the middle of the century it applied itself
+to practical problems affecting the employment of industry. In 1776 Adam
+Smith published the _Wealth of Nations_. Already in 1762 the work of
+Brindley, the Bridgewater canal, the first joint of a network of inland
+water communication, was opened. In 1767 Hargreaves produced the
+spinning-jenny; Arkwright's spinning machine was exhibited in 1768;
+Crompton's mule was finished in 1779; Cartwright hit upon the idea of
+the power-loom in 1784, though it was not brought into profitable use
+till 1801. The Staffordshire potteries had been flourishing under
+Wedgwood since 1763, and the improved steam-engine was brought into
+shape by Watt in 1768. During these years the duke of Bedford, Coke of
+Norfolk, and Robert Bakewell were busy in the improvement of stock and
+agriculture.
+
+The increase of wealth and prosperity caused by these changes went far
+to produce a large class of the population entirely outside the
+associations of the landowning class, but with sufficient intelligence
+to appreciate the advantages of a government carried on without regard
+to the personal interests and rivalries of the aristocracy. The mode in
+which that increase of wealth was effected was even more decisive on the
+ultimate destinies of the country. The substitution of the organization
+of hereditary monarchy for the organization of wealth and station would
+ultimately have led to evils as great as those which it superseded. It
+was only tolerable as a stepping-stone to the organization of
+intelligence. The larger the numbers admitted to influence the affairs
+of state, the more necessary is it that they respect the powers of
+intellect. It would be foolish to institute a comparison between an
+Arkwright or a Crompton and a Locke or a Newton. But it is certain that
+for one man who could appreciate the importance of the treatise _On the
+Human Understanding_ or the theory of gravitation, there were thousands
+who could understand the value of the water-frame, or the power-loom.
+The habit of looking with reverence upon mental power was fostered in no
+slight measure by the industrial development of the second half of the
+18th century.
+
+
+  Pitt's India Bill.
+
+The supremacy of intelligence in the political world was, for the time,
+represented in Pitt. In 1784 he passed an India Bill, which left the
+commerce and all except the highest patronage of India in the hands of
+the East India Company, but which erected a department of the home
+government, named the board of control, to compel the company to carry
+out such political measures as the government saw fit. A bill for
+parliamentary reform was, however, thrown out by the opposition of his
+own supporters in parliament, whilst outside parliament there was no
+general desire for a change in a system which for the present produced
+such excellent fruits. Still more excellent was his plan of legislation
+for Ireland. Irishmen had taken advantage of the weakness of England
+during the American War to enforce upon the ministry of the day, in 1780
+and 1782, an abandonment of all claim on the part of the English
+government and the English judges to interfere in any way with Irish
+affairs. From 1782, therefore, there were two independent legislatures
+within the British Isles--the one sitting at Westminster and the other
+sitting in Dublin. With these political changes Fox professed himself to
+be content. Pitt, whose mind was open to wider considerations, proposed
+to throw open commerce to both nations by removing all the restrictions
+placed on the trade of Ireland with England and with the rest of the
+world. The opposition of the English parliament was only removed by
+concessions continuing some important restrictions upon Irish exports,
+and by giving the English parliament the right of initiation in all
+measures relating to the regulation of the trade which was to be common
+to both nations. The Irish parliament took umbrage at the superiority
+claimed by England, and threw out the measure as an insult, though, even
+as it stood, it was undeniably in favour of Ireland. The lesson of the
+incompatibility of two coordinate legislatures was not thrown away upon
+Pitt.
+
+In 1786 the commercial treaty with France opened that country to English
+trade, and was the first result of the theories laid down by Adam Smith
+ten years previously. The first attack upon the horrors of the
+slave-trade was made in 1788; and in the same year, in the debates on
+the Regency Bill caused by the king's insanity, Pitt defended against
+Fox the right of parliament to make provision for the exercise of the
+powers of the crown when the wearer was permanently or temporarily
+disabled from exercising his authority.
+
+When the king recovered, he went to St Paul's to return thanks on the
+23rd of April 1789. The enthusiasm with which he was greeted showed how
+completely he had the nation on his side. All the hopes of liberal
+reformers were now with him. All the hopes of moral and religious men
+were on his side as well. The seed sown by Wesley had grown to be a
+great tree. A spirit of thoughtfulness in religious matters and of moral
+energy was growing in the nation, and the king was endeared to his
+subjects, as much by his domestic virtues as by his support of the great
+minister who acted in his name. The happy prospect was soon to be
+overclouded. On the 4th of May, eleven days after the appearance of
+George III. at St Paul's, the French states-general met at Versailles.
+
+
+  The French Revolution; English feeling.
+
+By the great mass of intelligent Englishmen the change was greeted with
+enthusiasm. It is seldom that one nation understands the tendencies and
+difficulties of another; and the mere fact that power was being
+transferred from an absolute monarch to a representative assembly led
+superficial observers to imagine that they were witnessing a mere
+repetition of the victory of the English parliament over the Stuart
+kings. In fact, that which was passing in France was of a totally
+different nature from the English struggle of the 17th century. In
+England, the conflict had been carried on for the purpose of limiting
+the power of the king. In France, it was begun in order to sweep away an
+aristocracy in church and state which had become barbarously oppressive.
+The French Revolution was not, therefore, a conflict for the reform of
+the political organization of the state, but one for the reorganization
+of the whole structure of society; and in proportion as it turned away
+from the path which English ignorance had marked out for it, Englishmen
+turned away from it in disgust. As they did not understand the aims of
+the French Revolutionists, they were unable to make that excuse for even
+so much of their conduct as admits of excuse. Three men, Fox, Burke and
+Pitt, however, represented three varieties of opinion into which the
+nation was very unequally divided.
+
+Fox, generous and trustful towards the movements of large masses of men,
+had very little intellectual grasp of the questions at issue in France.
+He treated the struggle as one simply for the establishment of free
+institutions; and when at last the crimes of the leaders became patent
+to the world, he contented himself with lamenting the unfortunate fact,
+and fell back on the argument that though England could not sympathize
+with the French tyrants, there was no reason why she should go to war
+with them.
+
+Burke, on the other hand, while he failed to understand the full
+tendency of the Revolution for good as well as for evil, understood it
+far better than any Englishman of that day understood it. He saw that
+its main aim was equality, not liberty, and that not only would the
+French nation be ready, in pursuit of equality, to welcome any tyranny
+which would serve its purpose, but would be the more prone to acts of
+tyranny over individuals. This would arise from the remodelling of
+institutions, with the object of giving immediate effect to the will of
+the masses, which was especially liable to be counterfeited by designing
+and unscrupulous agitators. There is no doubt that in all this Burke was
+in the right, as he was in his denunciation of the mischief certain to
+follow when a nation tries to start afresh, and to blot out all past
+progress in the light of simple reason, which is often most fallible
+when it believes itself to be most infallible. Where he went wrong was
+in his ignorance of the special circumstances of the French nation, and
+his consequent blindness to the fact that the historical method of
+gradual progress was impossible where institutions had become so utterly
+bad as they were in France, and that consequently the system of starting
+afresh, to which he reasonably objected, was to the French a matter not
+of choice but of necessity. Nor did he see that the passion for
+equality, like every great passion, justified itself, and that the
+problem was, not how to obtain liberty in defiance of it, but how so to
+guide it as to obtain liberty by it and through it.
+
+Burke did not content himself with pointing out speculatively the evils
+which he foreboded for the French. He perceived clearly that the effect
+of the new French principles could no more be confined to French
+territory than the principles of Protestantism in the 16th century could
+be confined to Saxony. He knew well that the appeal to abstract reason
+and the hatred of aristocracy would spread over Europe like a flood,
+and, as he was in the habit of considering whatever was most opposed to
+the object of his dislike to be wholly excellent, he called for a
+crusade of all established governments against the anarchical principles
+of dissolution which had broken loose in France.
+
+Pitt occupied ground apart from either Fox or Burke. He had neither
+Fox's sympathy for popular movements, nor Burke's intellectual
+appreciation of the immediate tendencies of the Revolution. Hence,
+whilst he pronounced against any active interference with France, he was
+an advocate of peace, not because he saw more than Fox or Burke, but
+because he saw less. He fancied that France would be so totally occupied
+with its own troubles that it would cease for a long time to be
+dangerous to other nations.
+
+
+  Beginning of the revolutionary wars.
+
+This view was soon to be stultified by the effect of the coalition
+against France in 1792 of Prussia and Austria. The proclamation of the
+allies calling on the French to restore the royal authority was answered
+by a passionate outburst of defiance. The king himself was suspected of
+complicity with the invaders of his country, and the rising of the 10th
+of August was followed by the proclamation of the republic and by the
+awful "September massacres" of helpless prisoners, guilty of no crime
+but noble birth, and therefore presumably of attachment to the old
+regime, and treason towards the new. This passionate attachment to the
+Revolution, which in France displayed itself in a carnival of insane
+suspicion and cruelty, inspired on the frontiers an astonishing
+patriotic resistance. Before the end of the year the invasion was
+repulsed, and the ragged armies of the Revolution had overrun Savoy and
+the Austrian Netherlands, and were threatening the aristocratic Dutch
+republic.
+
+
+  Change of feeling in England.
+
+Very few governments in Europe were so rooted in the affections of their
+people as to be able to look without terror on the challenge thus thrown
+out to them. The English government was one of those very few. No mere
+despotism was here exercised by the king. No broad impassable line here
+divided the aristocracy from the people. The work of former generations
+of Englishmen had been too well done to call for that breach of
+historical continuity which was a dire necessity in France. There was
+much need of reform. There was no need of a revolution. The whole of the
+upper and middle classes, with few exceptions, clung together in a
+fierce spirit of resistance; and the mass of the lower classes,
+especially in the country, were too well off to wish for change. The
+spirit of resistance to revolution quickly developed into a spirit of
+resistance to reform, and those who continued to advocate changes, more
+or less after the French model, were treated as the enemies of mankind.
+A fierce hatred of France and of all that attached itself to France
+became the predominating spirit of the nation.
+
+
+  Division of the Whig party.
+
+Such a change in the national mind could not but affect the constitution
+of the Whig party. The reasoning of Burke would, in itself, have done
+little to effect its disruption. But the great landowners, who
+contributed so strong an element in it, composed the very class which
+had most to fear from the principles of the Revolution. The old
+questions which had divided them from the king and Pitt in 1783 had
+dwindled into nothing before the appalling question of the immediate
+present. They made themselves the leaders of the war party, and they
+knew that that party comprised almost the whole of the parliamentary
+classes.
+
+What could Pitt do but surrender? The whole of the intellectual basis of
+his foreign policy was swept away when it became evident that the
+continental war would bring with it an accession of French territory. He
+did not abandon his opinions. His opinions rather abandoned him. A wider
+intelligence might have held that, let France gain what territorial
+aggrandizement it might upon the continent of Europe, it was impossible
+to resist such changes until the opponents of France had so purified
+themselves as to obtain a hold upon the moral feelings of mankind. Pitt
+could not take this view; perhaps no man in his day could be fairly
+expected to take it. He did not indeed declare war against France; but
+he sought to set a limit to her conquests in the winter, though he had
+not sought to set a limit to the conquests of the allied sovereigns in
+the preceding summer. He treated with supercilious contempt the National
+Convention, which had dethroned the king and proclaimed a republic.
+Above all, he took up a declaration by the Convention, that they would
+give help to all peoples struggling for liberty against their respective
+governments, as a challenge to England. The horror caused in England by
+the trial and execution of Louis XVI. completed the estrangement between
+the two countries, and though the declaration of war came from France
+(1793), it had been in great part brought about by the bearing of
+England and its government.     (S. R. G.)
+
+
+XI. THE REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH, THE REACTION, AND THE TRIUMPH OF REFORM
+(1793-1837)
+
+  The government and the "revolutionary" agitation.
+
+In appearance the great Whig landowners gave their support to Pitt, and
+in 1794 some of their leaders, the duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam,
+and Windham, entered the cabinet to serve under him. In reality it was
+Pitt who had surrendered. The ministry and the party by which it was
+supported might call themselves Tory still; but the great reforming
+policy of 1784 was at an end, and the government, unconscious of its own
+strength, conceived its main function to be at all costs to preserve the
+constitution, which it believed to be in danger of being overwhelmed by
+the rising tide of revolutionary feeling. That this belief was idle it
+is now easy enough to see; at the time this was not so obvious. Thomas
+Paine's _Rights of Man_, published in 1791, a brilliant and bitter
+attack on the British constitution from the Jacobin point of view, sold
+by tens of thousands. Revolutionary societies with high-sounding names
+were established, of which the most conspicuous were the Revolution
+Society, the Society for Constitutional Information, the London
+Corresponding Society, and the Friends of the People. Of these, indeed,
+only the two last were directly due to the example of France. The
+Revolution Society, founded to commemorate the revolution of 1688, had
+long carried on a respectable existence under the patronage of cabinet
+ministers; the Society for Constitutional Information, of which Pitt
+himself had been a member, was founded in 1780 to advocate parliamentary
+reform; both had, however, developed under the influence of the events
+in France in a revolutionary direction. The London Corresponding
+Society, composed mainly of working-men, was the direct outcome of the
+excitement caused by the developments of the French Revolution. Its
+leaders were obscure and usually illiterate men, who delighted to
+propound their theories for the universal reformation of society and the
+state in rhetoric of which the characteristic phrases were borrowed from
+the tribune of the Jacobin Club. Later generations have learned by
+repeated experience that the eloquence of Hyde Park orators is not the
+voice of England; there were some even then--among those not immediately
+responsible for keeping order--who urged the government "to trust the
+people";[6] but with the object-lesson of France before them it is not
+altogether surprising that ministers refused to believe in the
+harmlessness of societies, which not only kept up a fraternal
+correspondence with the National Convention and the Jacobin Club, but,
+by attempting to establish throughout the country a network of
+affiliated clubs, were apparently aiming at setting up in Great Britain
+the Jacobin idea of popular control.
+
+The danger, of course, was absurdly exaggerated; as indeed was proved by
+the very popularity of the repressive measures to which the government
+thought it necessary to resort, and which gave to the vapourings of a
+few knots of agitators the dignity of a widespread conspiracy for the
+overthrow of the constitution. On the 1st of December 1792 a
+proclamation was issued calling out the militia on the ground that a
+dangerous spirit of tumult and disorder had been excited by
+evil-disposed persons, acting in concert with persons in foreign parts,
+and this statement was repeated in the king's speech at the opening of
+parliament on the 13th. In spite of the protests of Sheridan and other
+members of the opposition, a campaign of press and other prosecutions
+now began which threatened to extinguish the most cherished right of
+Englishmen--liberty of speech. The country was flooded with government
+spies and informers, whose efforts were seconded by such voluntary
+societies as the Association for preserving Liberty and Property against
+Republicans and Levellers, founded by John Reeves, the historian of
+English law. No one was safe from these zealous and too often credulous
+defenders of the established order; and a few indiscreet words spoken in
+a coffee house were enough to bring imprisonment and ruin, as in the
+case of John Frost, a respectable attorney, condemned for sedition in
+March 1793. In Scotland the panic, and the consequent cruelty, were
+worse than in England. The meeting at Edinburgh of a "convention of
+delegates of the associated friends of the people," at which some
+foolish and exaggerated language was used, was followed by the trial of
+Thomas Muir, a talented young advocate whose brilliant defence did not
+save him from a sentence of fourteen years' transportation (August 30,
+1793), while seven years' transportation was the punishment of the Rev.
+T. Fyshe Palmer for circulating an address from "a society of the
+friends of liberty to their fellow-citizens" in favour of a reform of
+the House of Commons. These sentences and the proceedings which led up
+to them, though attacked with bitter eloquence by Sheridan and Fox, were
+confirmed by a large majority in parliament.
+
+It was not, however, till late in the session of 1794 that ministers
+laid before parliament any evidence of seditious practices. In May
+certain leaders of democratic societies were arrested and their papers
+seized, and on the 13th a king's message directed the books of certain
+corresponding societies to be laid before both Houses. The committee of
+the House of Commons at once reported that there was evidence of a
+conspiracy to supersede the House of Commons by a national convention,
+and Pitt proposed and carried a bill suspending the Habeas Corpus Act.
+This was followed by further reports of the committees of both Houses,
+presenting evidence of the secret manufacture of arms and of other
+proceedings calculated to endanger the public peace. A series of state
+prosecutions followed. The trials of Robert Watt and David Downie for
+high treason (August and September 1794) actually revealed a treasonable
+plot on the part of a few obscure individuals at Edinburgh, who were
+found in the possession of no less than fifty-seven pikes of home
+manufacture, wherewith to overthrow the British government. The
+execution of Watt gave to this trial a note of tragedy which was absent
+from that of certain members of the Corresponding Society, accused of
+conspiring to murder the king by means of a poisoned arrow shot from an
+air-gun. The ridicule that greeted the revelation of the "Pop-gun Plot"
+marked the beginning of a reaction that found a more serious expression
+in the trials of Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John Thelwall
+(October and November 1794). The prisoners were accused of high treason,
+their chief offence consisting in their attempt to assemble a general
+convention of the people, ostensibly for the purpose of obtaining
+parliamentary reform, but really--as the prosecution urged--for
+subverting the constitution. This latter charge, though proved to the
+satisfaction of the committees of both Houses of Parliament, broke down
+under the cross-examination of the government witnesses by the counsel
+for the defence, and could indeed only have been substantiated by a
+dangerous stretching of the doctrine of constructive treason. Happily
+the jury refused to convict, and its verdict saved the nation from the
+disgrace of meting out the extreme penalty of high treason to an attempt
+to hold a public meeting for the redress of grievances.
+
+The common sense of a British jury had preserved, in spite of parliament
+and ministry, that free right of meeting which was to be one of the
+strongest instruments of future reform. The government, however, saw
+little reason in the events of the following months for reversing their
+coercive policy. The year 1795 was one of great suffering and great
+popular unrest; for the effect of the war upon industry was now
+beginning to be felt, and the distress had been aggravated by two bad
+harvests. The sudden determination of those in power, who had hitherto
+advocated reform, to stereotype the existing system, closed the avenues
+of hope to those who had expected an improvement of their lot from
+constitutional changes, and the disaffected temper of the populace that
+resulted was taken advantage of by the London Corresponding Society,
+emboldened by its triumph in the courts, to organize open and really
+dangerous demonstrations, such as the vast mass meeting at Copenhagen
+House on the 26th of October. On the 29th of October the king, on his
+way to open parliament, was attacked by an angry mob shouting, "Give us
+bread," "No Pitt," "No war," "No famine,"; and the glass panels of his
+state coach were smashed to pieces.
+
+The result of these demonstrations was the introduction in the House of
+Lords, on the 4th of November, of the Treasonable Practices Bill, the
+main principle of which was that it modified the law of treason by
+dispensing with the necessity for the proof of an overt act in order to
+secure conviction; and in the House of Commons, on the 10th, of the
+Seditious Meetings Bill, which seriously limited the right of public
+meeting, making all meetings of over fifty persons, as well as all
+political debates and lectures, subject to the previous consent and
+active supervision of the magistrates. In spite of the strenuous
+resistance of the opposition, led by Fox, and of numerous meetings of
+protest held outside the walls of parliament, both bills passed into law
+by enormous majorities. The inevitable result followed. The London
+Corresponding Society and other political clubs, deprived of the right
+of public meeting, became secret societies pledged to the overthrow of
+the existing system by any means. United Englishmen and United Scotsmen
+plotted with United Irishmen for a French invasion, and sedition was
+fomented in the army and the navy. Their baneful activities were exposed
+in the inquiries that followed the Irish rebellion of 1798, and the
+result was the Corresponding Societies Bill, introduced by Pitt on the
+19th of April 1799, which completed the series of repressive measures
+and practically suspended the popular constitution of England. The right
+of public meeting, of free speech, of the free press had alike ceased
+for the time to exist.
+
+
+  The Revolutionary War.
+
+The justification of the government in all this was the life and death
+struggle in which Great Britain was engaged with the power of republican
+France in Europe. Yet Pitt's conduct of the war, so far as the continent
+was concerned, had hitherto led to nothing but failure after failure. In
+1794, in spite of the presence of an English army under the duke of
+York, the Austrian Netherlands had been finally conquered and annexed to
+the French republic; in 1795 the Dutch republic was affiliated to that
+of France, and the peace of Basel between Prussia and the French
+republic left Austria to continue the war alone with the aid of British
+subsidies. On the sea Great Britain had been more successful, Howe's
+victory of the 1st of June 1794 being the first of the long series of
+defeats inflicted on the French navy, while in 1795 a beginning was made
+of the vast expansion of the British Empire by the capture of Ceylon and
+the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS).
+The war, however, had become so expensive, and its results were
+evidently so small, that there was a growing feeling in England in
+favour of peace, especially as the Reign of Terror had come to an end in
+1794, and a regular government, the Directory, had been appointed in
+1795. At last Pitt was forced to yield to the popular clamour, and in
+1796 Lord Malmesbury was sent to France to treat for peace. The
+negotiation, however, was at once broken off by his demand that France
+should abandon the Netherlands.
+
+
+  Hoche's expedition to Ireland.
+
+The French government, assured now of the assistance of Spain and
+Holland, and freed of the danger from La Vendee, now determined to
+attempt the invasion of Ireland. On the 16th of December a fleet of 17
+battle-ships, 13 frigates and 15 smaller vessels set sail from Brest,
+carrying an expeditionary force of some 13,000 men under General Hoche.
+The British fleet, under Lord Bridport, was wintering at Spithead; and
+before it could put to sea the French had slipped past. Before it
+reached the coast of Ireland, however, the French fleet had already
+suffered serious losses, owing partly to the attacks of British frigate
+detachments, partly to the bad seamanship of the French crews and the
+rottenness of the ships. Only a part of the fleet succeeded in reaching
+Bantry Bay on the 20th of December, and of these a large number were
+scattered by a storm on the 23rd. Hoche himself, with the French
+admiral, had been driven far to the westward in an effort to avoid
+capture; the attempt of Grouchy, in his absence, to land a force was
+defeated by the weather, and by the end of the month the whole
+expedition was in full retreat for Brest. A French diversion on the
+coast of Pembroke was even less successful; a force of 1500 men, under
+Colonel Tate, an American adventurer, landed in Cardigan Bay on the 22nd
+of February 1797, but was at once surrounded by the local militia and
+surrendered without a blow.
+
+
+  Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore.
+
+  Battle of Camperdown.
+
+A more serious attempt was now made to renew the enterprise by means of
+a junction of the French, Spanish and Dutch fleets. The victory of
+Jervis over the Spanish fleet at St Vincent on the 14th of February
+postponed the imminence of the danger; but this again became acute owing
+to the general disaffection in the fleet, which in April and May found
+vent in the serious mutinies at Spithead and the Nore. The mutiny at
+Spithead, which was due solely to the intolerable conditions under which
+the seamen served at the time, was ended on the 17th of May by
+concessions: an increase of pay, the removal of officers who had abused
+their power of discipline, and the promise of a general free pardon.
+More serious was the outbreak at the Nore. The disaffection had spread
+practically to the whole of Admiral Duncan's fleet, and by the beginning
+of June the mutineers were blockading the Thames with no less than 26
+vessels. The demands of the seamen were more extensive than at Spithead;
+their resistance was better organized; and they were suspected, though
+without reason, of harbouring revolutionary designs. The return of the
+Channel fleet to its duty emboldened the admiralty to refuse any
+concessions, and the vigorous measures of repression taken proved
+effective. One by one the mutinous crews surrendered; and the arrest of
+the ringleader, Richard Parker, on board the "Sandwich," on the 14th of
+June, brought the affair to an end.[7] The seamen regained their
+reputation, and those who had been imprisoned their liberty, by Duncan's
+victory over the Dutch fleet at Camperdown (October 11), by which the
+immediate danger was averted. Though the French attempt at a concerted
+invasion had failed, however, the Directory did not abandon the
+enterprise, and commissioned Bonaparte to draw up fresh plans.
+
+At the close of the year 1797 the position of Great Britain was indeed
+sufficiently alarming. On the 18th of April, during the very crisis of
+the mutiny at Spithead, Austria had signed with Bonaparte the
+humiliating terms of the preliminary peace of Leoben, which six months
+later were embodied in the treaty of Campo Formio (October 17). On the
+10th of August Portugal had concluded a treaty with the French Republic;
+and Great Britain was left without an ally in Europe. The mutiny at the
+Nore, the threat of rebellion in Ireland, the alarming fall in consols,
+argued strongly against continuing the war single-handed, and in July
+Lord Malmesbury had been sent to Lille to open fresh negotiations with
+the plenipotentiaries of France. The negotiations broke down on the
+refusal of England to restore the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch. But
+though forced, in spite of misgivings, to continue the struggle, the
+British government in one very important respect was now in a far better
+position to do so. For though Great Britain was now isolated and her
+policy in Europe advertised as a failure, the temper of the British
+people was less inclined to peace in 1798 than it had been three years
+before. The early enthusiasm of the disfranchised classes for French
+principles had cooled with the later developments of the Revolution; the
+attempted invasions had roused the national spirit; and in the public
+imagination the sinister figure of Bonaparte, the rapacious conqueror,
+was beginning to loom large to the exclusion of lesser issues.
+Henceforth, in spite of press prosecutions and trials for political
+libel, the government was supported by public opinion in its vigorous
+prosecution of the war.
+
+
+  The Act of Union with Ireland.
+
+  Resignation of Pitt.
+
+If the danger of French invasion was a reality, it was so mainly owing
+to the deplorable condition of Ireland, where the natural disaffection
+of the Roman Catholic majority of the population--deprived of political
+and many social rights, and exposed to the insults and oppression of a
+Protestant minority corrupted by centuries of ascendancy--invited the
+intervention of a foreign enemy. The full measure of the intolerable
+conditions prevailing in the country was revealed by the horrors of the
+rebellion of 1798, and after this had been suppressed Pitt decided that
+the only way to deal with the situation was to establish a union between
+Great Britain and Ireland, similar to that which had proved so
+successful in the case of England and Scotland. He saw that to establish
+peace in Ireland the Roman Catholics would have to be enfranchised; he
+realized that to enfranchise them in a separated Ireland would be to
+subject the proud Protestant minority to an impossible domination, and
+to establish not peace but war. The Union, then, was in his view the
+necessary preliminary to Catholic emancipation, which was at the same
+time the reward held out to the majority of the Irish people for the
+surrender of their national quasi-independence. It was a bribe little
+likely to appeal to the Protestant minority which constituted the Irish
+parliament, and to them other inducements had to be offered if the
+scheme was to be carried through. These inducements were not all
+corrupt. Those members who stood out were, indeed, bought by a lavish
+distribution of money and coronets; but the advantages to Ireland which
+might reasonably be expected from the Union were many and obvious; and
+if all the promises held out by the promoters of the measure have even
+now not been realized, the fault is not theirs. The Act of Union was
+placed on the statute-book in 1800; Catholic emancipation was to have
+been accomplished in the following session, the first of the united
+parliament. But Pitt's policy broke on the stubborn obstinacy of George
+III., who believed himself bound by his coronation oath to resist any
+concession to the enemies of the Established Church. The disadvantage of
+the possession of too strait a conscience in politics was never more
+dismally illustrated. To the Irish people it was the first breach of
+faith in connexion with the Union, and threw them into opposition to a
+settlement into which they believed themselves to have been drawn under
+false pretences. Pitt, realizing this, had no option but to resign.
+
+
+  Bonaparte breaks up the coalition.
+
+The resignation of the great minister who had so long held the reins of
+power coincided with a critical situation in Europe. The isolation of
+Bonaparte in Egypt, as the result of Nelson's victory of the Nile
+(1798), had enabled the allies to recover some of the ground lost to
+France. But this had merely increased Bonaparte's prestige, and on his
+return in 1799 he found no difficulty in making himself master of France
+by the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th Brumaire. The campaign of Marengo
+followed (1800) and the peace of Luneville, which not only once more
+isolated Great Britain, but raised up against her new enemies, to the
+list of whom she added by using her command of the sea to enforce the
+right of search in order to seize enemies' goods in neutral vessels.
+Russia joined with Sweden and Denmark, all hitherto friendly powers, in
+resistance to this claim.
+
+
+  Addington ministry.
+
+  The peace of Amiens.
+
+Such was the position when Addington became prime minister. He was a man
+of weak character and narrow intellect, whose main claim to succeed Pitt
+was that he shared to the full the Protestant prejudices of king and
+people. His tenure of power was, indeed, marked by British successes
+abroad; by Nelson's victory at Copenhagen, which broke up the northern
+alliance, and by Abercromby's victory at Alexandria, which forced the
+French to evacuate Egypt; but these had been prepared by the previous
+administration. Addington's real work was the peace of Amiens (1802), an
+experimental peace, as the king called it, to see if the First Consul
+could be contented to restrain himself within the very wide limits by
+which his authority in Europe was still circumscribed.
+
+
+  Renewal of the war.
+
+  Pitt returns to office.
+
+In a few months Great Britain was made aware that the experiment would
+not succeed. Interference and annexation became the standing policy of
+the new French government; and Britain, discovering how little intention
+Bonaparte had of carrying out the spirit of the treaty, refused to
+abandon Malta, as she had engaged to do by the terms of peace. The war
+began again, no longer a war against revolutionary principles and their
+propaganda, but against the boundless ambitions of a military conqueror.
+This time the British nation was all but unanimous in resistance. This
+time its resistance would be sooner or later supported by all that was
+healthy in Europe. The news that Bonaparte was making preparations on a
+vast scale for the invasion of England roused a stubborn spirit of
+resistance in the country. Volunteers were enrolled, and the coast was
+dotted with Martello towers, many of which yet remain as monuments of
+the time when the "army of England" was encamped on the heights near
+Boulogne within sight of the English cliffs. To meet so great a crisis
+Addington was not the man. He had been ceaselessly assailed, in and out
+of parliament, by the trenchant criticism, and often unmannerly wit, of
+"Pitt's friends," among whom George Canning was now conspicuous. Pitt
+himself had remained silent; but in view of the seriousness of the
+crisis and of a threatened illness of the king, which would have
+necessitated a regency and--in view of the prince of Wales's dislike for
+him--his own permanent exclusion from office, he now put himself forward
+once more. The government majorities in the House now rapidly dwindled;
+on the 26th of April 1804, Addington resigned; and Pitt, after his
+attempt to form a national coalition ministry had broken down on the
+king's refusal to admit Fox, became head of a government constructed on
+a narrow Tory basis. Of the members of the late government Lord Eldon,
+the duke of Portland, Lord Westmorland, Lord Castlereagh and Lord
+Hawkesbury retained office, the latter surrendering the foreign office
+to Lord Harrowby and going to the home office. Dundas, now Lord
+Melville, became first lord of the admiralty, and the cabinet further
+included Lord Camden, Lord Mulgrave and the duke of Montrose. Canning,
+Huskisson and Perceval were given subordinate offices.
+
+
+  Battle of Trafalgar.
+
+  Austerlitz.
+
+Save for the commanding personality of Pitt, the new government was
+scarcely stronger than that which it had replaced. It had to face the
+same Whig opposition, led by Fox, who scoffed at the French peril, and
+reinforced by Addington and his friends; and the whole burden of meeting
+this opposition fell upon Pitt; for Castlereagh, the only other member
+of the cabinet in the House of Commons, was of little use in debate.
+Nevertheless, fresh vigour was infused into the conduct of the war. The
+Additional Forces Act, passed in the teeth of a strenuous opposition,
+introduced the principle of a modified system of compulsion to
+supplement the deficiencies of the army and reserve, while the navy was
+largely increased. Abroad, Pitt's whole energies were directed to
+forming a fresh coalition against Bonaparte, who, on the 14th of May
+1804, had proclaimed himself emperor of the French; but it was a year
+before Russia signed with Great Britain the treaty of St Petersburg
+(April 11, 1805), and the accession to the coalition of Austria, Sweden
+and Naples was not obtained till the following September. In the
+following month (October 21) Nelson's crowning victory at Trafalgar over
+the allied fleets of France and Spain relieved England of the dread of
+invasion. It served, however, to precipitate the crisis on the continent
+of Europe; the great army assembled at Boulogne was turned eastwards; by
+the capitulation of Ulm (October 19) Austria lost a large part of her
+forces; and the last news that reached Pitt on his death-bed was that of
+the ruin of all his hopes by the crushing victory of Napoleon over the
+Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz (December 2).
+
+
+  Death of Pitt. "Ministry of all the Talents."
+
+  Abolition of the slave-trade.
+
+Pitt died on the 23rd of January, and the refusal of Lord Hawkesbury to
+assume the premiership forced the king to summon Lord Grenville, and to
+agree to the inclusion of Fox in the cabinet as secretary for foreign
+affairs. Several members of Pitt's administration were admitted to this
+"Ministry of all the Talents," including Addington (now Lord Sidmouth),
+who had rejoined the ministry in December 1804 and again resigned, owing
+to a disagreement with Pitt as to the charges against Lord Melville
+(q.v.) in July 1805. The new ministry remained in office for a year, a
+disastrous year which saw the culmination of Napoleon's power: the
+crushing of Prussia in the campaign of Jena, the formation of the
+Confederation of the Rhine and the end of the Holy Roman Empire. In the
+conduct of the war the British government had displayed little skill,
+frittering away its forces on distant expeditions, instead of
+concentrating them in support of Prussia or Russia, and the chief title
+to fame of the Ministry of all the Talents is that it secured the
+passing of the bill for the abolition of the slave-trade (March 25,
+1807).
+
+
+  Catholic question.
+
+The death of Fox (September 13, 1806) deprived the ministry of its
+strongest member, and in the following March it fell on the old question
+of concessions to the Roman Catholics. True to his principles, Fox had
+done his best to negotiate terms of peace with Napoleon; but the
+breakdown of the attempt had persuaded even the Whigs that an
+arrangement was impossible, and in view of this fact Grenville thought
+it his duty to advise the king that the disabilities of Roman Catholics
+and dissenters in the matter of serving in the army and navy should be
+removed, in order that all sections of the nation might be united in
+face of the enemy. The situation, moreover, was in the highest degree
+anomalous; for by an act passed in 1793 Roman Catholics might hold
+commissions in the army in Ireland up to the rank of colonel, and this
+right had not been extended to England, though by the Act of Union the
+armies had become one. The king, however, was not to be moved from his
+position; and he was supported in this attitude not only by public
+opinion, but by a section of the ministry itself, of which Sidmouth made
+himself the mouthpiece. The demand of George III. that ministers should
+undertake never again to approach him on the subject of concessions to
+the Catholics was rejected by Grenville, rightly, as unconstitutional,
+and on the 18th of March 1807 he resigned.
+
+
+  Portland ministry.
+
+  The continental system.
+
+  The Orders in Council.
+
+  War with America.
+
+The new ministry, under the nominal headship of the valetudinarian duke
+of Portland, included Perceval as chancellor of the exchequer, Canning
+as foreign secretary and Castlereagh as secretary for war and the
+colonies. It had given the undertaking demanded by the king; those of
+its members who, like Canning, were in favour of Catholic emancipation,
+arguing that, in view of greater and more pressing questions, it was
+useless to insist in a matter which could never be settled so long as
+the old king lived. Of more importance to Great Britain, for the time
+being, than any constitutional issues, was the life-and-death struggle
+with Napoleon, which had now entered on a new phase. Defeated at sea,
+but master now of the greater part of the continent of Europe, the
+French emperor planned to bring Great Britain to terms by ruining her
+commerce with the vast territories under his influence. In November 1806
+he issued from Berlin the famous decree prohibiting the importation of
+British goods and excluding from the harbours under his control even
+neutral ships that had touched at British ports. The British government
+replied by the famous Orders in Council of 1807, which declared all
+vessels trading with France liable to seizure, and that all such vessels
+clearing from France must touch at a British port to pay customs duties.
+To this Napoleon responded with the Milan decree (December 17),
+forbidding neutrals to trade in any articles imported from the British
+dominions. The effects of these measures were destined to be
+far-reaching. The Revolution had made war on princes and privilege, and
+the common people had in general gained wherever the Napoleonic regime
+had been substituted for their effete despotisms; but the "Continental
+System" was felt as an oppression in every humble household, suddenly
+deprived of the little imported luxuries, such as sugar and coffee,
+which custom had made necessaries; and from this time date the
+beginnings of that popular revolt against Napoleon that was to culminate
+in the War of Liberation. Great Britain, too, was to suffer from her own
+retaliatory policy. The Americans had taken advantage of the war to draw
+into their own hands a large part of the British carrying trade, a
+process greatly encouraged by the establishment of the Continental
+System. This brought them into conflict with the British acting under
+the Orders in Council, and the consequent ill-feeling culminated in the
+war of 1812.
+
+
+  Treaty of Tilsit.
+
+  French Invasion of Spain and Portugal.
+
+  Peninsular War.
+
+It was not only the completion of the Continental System, however, that
+made the year 1807 a fateful one for Great Britain. On the 7th of July
+the young emperor Alexander I. of Russia, fascinated by Napoleon's
+genius and bribed by the offer of a partition of the world, concluded
+the treaty of Tilsit, which not only brought Russia into the Continental
+System, but substituted for a coalition against France a formidable
+coalition against England. A scheme for wresting from the British the
+command of the sea was only defeated by Canning's action in ordering the
+English fleet to capture the Danish navy, though Denmark was still
+nominally a friendly power (see CANNING, GEORGE). Meanwhile, in order to
+complete the ring fence round Europe against British commerce, Napoleon
+had ordered Junot to invade Portugal; Lisbon was occupied by the French,
+and the Portuguese royal family migrated to Brazil. In the following
+year Napoleon seized the royal family of Spain, and gave the crown,
+which Charles VI. resigned on behalf of himself and his heir, to his
+brother Joseph, king of Naples. The revolt of the Spanish people that
+followed was the first of the national uprisings against his rule by
+which Napoleon was destined to be overthrown. In England it was greeted
+with immense popular enthusiasm, and the government, without realizing
+the full import of the step it was taking, sent an expedition to the
+Peninsula. It disembarked, under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, at
+Figueras on the 1st of August. It was the beginning of the Peninsular
+War, which was destined not to end until, in 1814, the British troops
+crossed the Pyrenees into France, while the Allies were pressing over
+the Rhine. The political and military events on the continent of Europe
+do not, however, belong strictly to English history, though they
+profoundly affected its development, and they are dealt with elsewhere
+(see EUROPE: _History_; NAPOLEON; NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS; PENINSULAR WAR;
+WATERLOO CAMPAIGN).
+
+
+  Walcheren expedition. Cabinet crisis.
+
+  Perceval ministry.
+
+  The regency.
+
+The war, while it lasted, was of course the main preoccupation of
+British ministers and of the British people. It entailed enormous
+sacrifices, which led to corresponding discontents; and differences as
+to its conduct produced frequent friction within the government itself.
+A cabinet crisis was the result of the outcome of the unfortunate
+Walcheren expedition of 1809. It had been Castlereagh's conception and,
+had it been as well executed as it was conceived, it might have dealt a
+fatal blow at Napoleon's hopes of recovering his power at sea, by
+destroying his great naval establishments at Antwerp. It failed, and it
+became the subject of angry dispute between Canning and Castlereagh, a
+dispute embittered by personal rivalry and the friction due to the
+ill-defined relations of the foreign secretary to the secretary for war;
+the quarrel culminated in a duel, and in the resignation of both
+ministers (see LONDONDERRY, 2ND MARQUESS OF, and CANNING, GEORGE). The
+duke of Portland resigned at the same time, and in the reconstruction of
+the ministry, under Perceval as premier, Lord Wellesley became foreign
+secretary, while Lord Liverpool, with Palmerston as his under-secretary,
+succeeded Castlereagh at the war office. The most conspicuous member of
+this government was Wellesley, whose main object in taking office was to
+second his brother's efforts in the Peninsula. In this he was, however,
+only partially successful, owing to the incapacity of his colleagues to
+realize the unique importance of the operations in Spain. In November
+1810 the old king's mind gave way, and on the 11th of February 1811, an
+act of parliament bestowed the regency, under certain restrictions, upon
+the prince of Wales. The prince had been on intimate terms with the Whig
+leaders, and it was assumed that his accession to power would mean a
+change of government. He had, however, been offended by their attitude
+on the question of the restriction of his authority as regent, and he
+continued Perceval in office. A year later, the king's insanity being
+proved incurable, the regency was definitively established (February
+1812). Lord Wellesley took advantage of the reconstruction of the
+cabinet to resign a position in which he had not been given a free hand,
+and his post of foreign secretary was offered to Canning. Canning,
+however, refused to serve with Castlereagh as minister of war, and the
+latter received the foreign office, which he was to hold till his death
+in 1822. A month later, on the 11th of May, Perceval was assassinated in
+the lobby of the House of Commons, and Lord Liverpool became the head of
+a government that was to last till 1827.
+
+
+  Liverpool ministry.
+
+  Foreign policy of Castlereagh.
+
+The period covered by the Liverpool administration was a fateful one in
+the history of Europe. The year 1812 saw Napoleon's invasion of Russia,
+and the disastrous retreat from Moscow. In the following year
+Wellington's victory at Vitoria signalled the ruin of the French cause
+in Spain; while Prussia threw off the yoke of France, and Austria,
+realizing after cautious delay her chance of retrieving the humiliations
+of 1809, joined the alliance, and in concert with Russia and the other
+German powers overthrew Napoleon at Leipzig. The invasion of France
+followed in 1814, the abdication of Napoleon, the restoration of the
+Bourbons and the assembling of the congress of Vienna. The following
+year saw the return of Napoleon from Elba, the close of the congress of
+Vienna, and the campaign that ended with the battle of Waterloo. The
+succeeding period, after so much storm and stress, might seem dull and
+unprofitable; but it witnessed the instructive experiment of the
+government of Europe by a concert of the great powers, and the first
+victory of the new principle of nationality in the insurrection of the
+Greeks. The share taken by Great Britain in all this, for which
+Castlereagh pre-eminently must take the praise or blame, is outlined in
+the article on the history of Europe (q.v.). Here it must suffice to
+point out how closely the development of foreign affairs was interwoven
+with that of home politics. The great war, so long as it lasted, was the
+supreme affair of moment; the supreme interest when it was over was to
+prevent its recurrence. For above all the world needed peace, in order
+to recover from the exhaustion of the revolutionary epoch; and this
+peace, bought at so great a cost, could be preserved only by the honest
+co-operation of Great Britain in the great international alliance based
+on "the treaties." This explains Castlereagh's policy at home and
+abroad. He was grossly attacked by the Opposition in parliament and by
+irresponsible critics, of the type of Byron, outside; historians, bred
+in the atmosphere of mid-Victorian Liberalism, have re-echoed the cry
+against him and the government of which he was the most distinguished
+member; but history has largely justified his attitude. He was no friend
+of arbitrary government; but he judged it better that "oppressed
+nationalities" and "persecuted Liberals" should suffer than that Europe
+should be again plunged into war. He was hated in his day as the
+arch-opponent of reform, yet the triumph of the reform movement would
+have been impossible but for the peace his policy secured.
+
+
+  Character of the Tory party.
+
+To say this is not to say that the attitude of the Tory government
+towards the great issues of home politics was wholly, or even mainly,
+inspired by a far-sighted wisdom. It had departed widely from the
+Toryism of Pitt's younger years, which had sought to base itself on
+popular support, as opposed to the aristocratic exclusiveness of the
+Whigs. It conceived itself as the trustee of a system of government
+which, however theoretically imperfect, alone of the governments of
+Europe had survived the storms of the Revolution intact. To tamper with
+a constitution that had so proved its quality seemed not so much a
+sacrilege as a folly. The rigid conservatism that resulted from this
+attitude served, indeed, a useful purpose in giving weight to
+Castlereagh's counsels in the European concert; for Metternich at least,
+wholly occupied with "propping up mouldering institutions," could not
+have worked harmoniously with a minister suspected of an itch for
+reform. At home, however, it undoubtedly tended to provoke that very
+revolution which it was intended to prevent. This was due not so much to
+the notorious corruption of the representative system as to the fact
+that it represented social and economic conditions that were rapidly
+passing away.
+
+
+  Parliament and the industrial revolution.
+
+  Corn Laws and Enclosure Acts.
+
+  Repressive legislation.
+
+Both Houses of Parliament were in the main assemblies of aristocrats and
+landowners; but agriculture was ceasing to be the characteristic
+industry of the country and the old semi-feudal relations of life were
+in process of rapid dissolution. The invention of machinery and the
+concentration of the working population in manufacturing centres had all
+but destroyed the old village industries, and great populations were
+growing up outside the traditional restraints of the old system of class
+dependence. The distress inevitable in connexion with such an industrial
+revolution was increased by the immense burden of the war and by the
+high protective policy of the parliament, which restricted trade and
+deliberately increased the price of food in the interests of the
+agricultural classes. Between 1811 and 1814 bands of so-called
+"Luddites," starving operatives out of work, scoured the country,
+smashing machinery--the immediate cause of their misfortunes--and
+committing every sort of outrage. The fault of the government lay, not
+in taking vigorous measures for the suppression of these disorders, but
+in remaining obstinately blind to the true causes that had produced
+them. Ministers saw in the Luddite organization only another conspiracy
+against the state; and, so far from seeking means for removing the
+grievances that underlay popular disaffection, the activity of
+parliament, inspired by the narrowest class interests, only tended to
+increase them. The price of food, already raised by the war, was still
+further increased by successive Corn Laws, and the artificial value thus
+given to arable land led to the passing of Enclosure Bills, under which
+the country people were deprived of their common rights with very
+inadequate compensation, and life in the village communities was made
+more and more difficult. In the circumstances it is not surprising that
+the spirit of unrest grew apace. In 1815 the passing of a new Corn Law,
+forbidding the importation of corn so long as the price for home-grown
+wheat was under 80s. the quarter, led to riots in London. An attack made
+on the prince regent at the opening of parliament on the 28th of January
+1817 led to an inquiry, which revealed the existence of an elaborate
+organization for the overthrow of the existing order. The repressive
+measures of 1795 and 1799 were now revived and extended, and a bill
+suspending the Habeas Corpus Act for a year was passed through both
+Houses by a large majority. On the 27th of March Lord Sidmouth opened
+the government campaign against the press by issuing a circular to the
+lords-lieutenants, directing them to instruct the justices of the peace
+to issue warrants for the arrest of any person charged on oath with
+publishing blasphemous or seditious libels. The legality of this
+suggestion was more than doubtful, but it was none the less acted on,
+and a series of press prosecutions followed, some--as in the case of the
+bookseller William Hone--on grounds so trivial that juries refused to
+convict. William Cobbett, the most influential of the reform leaders, in
+order to avoid arbitrary imprisonment, "deprived of pen, ink and paper,"
+suspended the _Political Register_ and sailed for America. A disturbance
+that was almost an armed insurrection, which broke out in Derbyshire in
+June of this year, seemed to justify the severity of the government; it
+was suppressed without great difficulty, and three of the ringleaders
+were executed.
+
+
+  Agitation for reform.
+
+  The "Manchester Massacre."
+
+It was, however, in 1819 that the conflict between the government and
+the new popular forces culminated. Distress was acute; and in the
+manufacturing towns mass meetings were held to discuss a remedy, which,
+under the guidance of political agitators, was discovered in universal
+suffrage and annual parliaments. The right to return members to
+parliament was claimed for all communities; and since this right was
+unconstitutionally withheld, unrepresented towns were invited to
+exercise it in anticipation of its formal concession. At Birmingham,
+accordingly, Sir Charles Wolseley was duly elected "legislatorial
+attorney and representative" of the town. Manchester followed suit; but
+the meeting arranged for the 9th of August was declared illegal by the
+magistrates, on the strength of a royal proclamation against seditious
+meetings issued on the 30th of July. Another meeting was accordingly
+summoned for the undoubtedly legal purpose of petitioning parliament in
+favour of reform. On the appointed day (August 16) thousands poured in
+from the surrounding districts. These men had been previously drilled,
+for the purpose, as their own leaders asserted, of enabling the vast
+assemblage to be conducted in an orderly manner; for the purpose, as the
+magistrates suspected, of preparing them for an armed insurrection. An
+attempt was made by a party of yeomanry to arrest a popular agitator,
+Henry Hunt; the angry mob surged round the horsemen, who found
+themselves powerless; the Riot Act was read, and the 15th Hussars
+charged the crowd with drawn swords. The meeting rapidly broke up, but
+not before six had been killed and many injured. The "Manchester
+Massacre" gave an immense impetus to the movement in favour of reform.
+The employment of soldiers to suppress liberty of speech stirred up the
+resentment of Englishmen as nothing else could have done, and this
+resentment was increased by the conviction that the government was
+engaged with the "Holy Alliance" in an unholy conspiracy against
+liberty everywhere. The true tendency of Castlereagh's foreign policy
+was not understood, nor had he any of the popular arts which would have
+enabled Canning to carry public opinion with him in cases where a frank
+explanation was impossible. The Liberals could see no more than that he
+appeared to be committed to international engagements, the logical
+outcome of which might be--as an orator of the Opposition put it--that
+Cossacks would be encamped in Hyde Park for the purpose of overawing the
+House of Commons.
+
+
+  The "Six Acts."
+
+The dangerous agitation that gave expression to this state of feeling
+was met by the government in the session of November 1819 by the passing
+of the famous Six Acts. The first of these deprived the defendant of the
+right of traversing, but directed that he should be brought to trial
+within a year; the second increased the penalties for seditious libel;
+the third imposed the newspaper stamp duty on all pamphlets and the like
+containing news; the fourth (Seditious Meetings Act) once more greatly
+curtailed the liberty of public meetings; the fifth forbade the training
+of persons in the use of arms; the sixth empowered magistrates to search
+for and seize arms.
+
+
+  Accession of George IV.
+
+The apparent necessity for the passing of these exceptional measures was
+increased by the imminent death of the old king, the tragic close of
+whose long reign had won for him a measure of popular sympathy which was
+wholly lacking in the case of the prince regent. On the 23rd of February
+1820 George III. died, and the regent became king as George IV. This was
+the signal for an outburst of popular discontent with the existing order
+of a far more ominous character than any that had preceded it. The king
+was generally loathed, not so much for his vices--which would have been,
+in this case as in others, condoned in a more popular monarch--but for
+the notorious meanness and selfishness of his character. Of these
+qualities he took the occasion of his accession to make a fresh display.
+He had long been separated from his wife, Caroline of Brunswick; he now
+refused her the title of queen consort, forbade the mention of her name
+in the liturgy, and persuaded the government to promote an inquiry in
+parliament into her conduct, with a view to a divorce. Whatever grounds
+there may have been for this action, popular sympathy was wholly with
+Queen Caroline, who became the centre round which all the forces of
+discontent rallied. The failure of the Bill of Pains and Penalties
+against the queen, which was dropped after it had passed its third
+reading in the Lords by a majority of only seven, was greeted as a great
+popular triumph. The part played by the government in this unsavoury
+affair had discredited them even in the eyes of the classes whose fear
+of revolution had hitherto made them supporters of the established
+system; and the movement for reform received a new stimulus.
+
+
+  Beginnings of reform.
+
+The Tory government itself realized the necessity for some concessions
+to the growing public sentiment. In 1821 a small advance was made. The
+reform bill (equal electoral districts) introduced by Lambton
+(afterwards Lord Durham) was thrown out; but the corrupt borough of
+Grampound in Cornwall was disfranchised and the seats transferred to the
+county of York. Even more significant was the change in the cabinet,
+which was strengthened by the admission of some of the more conservative
+section of the Opposition, Lord Sidmouth retiring and Robert Peel
+becoming home secretary. A bill for the removal of Catholic
+disabilities, too, was carried in the Commons, though rejected in the
+Lords; and the appointment of Lord Wellesley, an advocate of the
+Catholic claims, to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland marked yet another
+stage in the settlement of a question which, more than anything else at
+that time, kept Ireland and Irishmen in a state of chronic discontent
+and agitation.
+
+
+  George Canning.
+
+It is not without significance that this modification of the policy of
+the Tory government at home coincided with a modification of its
+relations with the European powers. The tendency of Metternich's system
+had long been growing distasteful to Castlereagh, who had consistently
+protested against the attempt to constitute the Grand Alliance general
+police of Europe and had specially protested against the Carlsbad
+Decrees (q.v.). The first steps towards the inevitable breach with the
+reactionary powers had already been taken before Castlereagh's tragic
+death on the eve of the congress of Verona brought George Canning into
+office as the executor of his policy. With Canning, foe of the
+Revolution and all its works though he was, the old liberal Toryism of
+Pitt's younger days seemed once more to emerge. It might have emerged in
+any case; but Canning, with his brilliant popular gifts and his frank
+appeal to popular support, gave it a revivifying stimulus which it would
+never have received from an aristocrat of the type of Castlereagh.
+
+
+  Changed tendency of British policy.
+
+The new spirit was most conspicuous in foreign affairs; in the protest
+of Great Britain against the action of the continental powers at Verona
+(see VERONA, CONGRESS OF), in the recognition of the South American
+republics, and later in the sympathetic attitude of the government
+towards the insurrection in Greece. This policy had been foreshadowed in
+the instructions drawn up by Castlereagh for his own guidance at Verona;
+but Canning succeeded in giving it a popular and national colour and
+thus removing from the government all suspicion of sympathy with the
+reactionary spirit of the "Holy Alliance." In home affairs, too, the
+government made tentative advances in a Liberal direction. In January
+1823 Vansittart was succeeded as chancellor of the exchequer by Robinson
+(afterwards Lord Goderich), and Huskisson became president of the Board
+of Trade. The term of office of the latter was marked by the first
+tentative efforts to modify the high protective system by which British
+trade was hampered, especially by the Reciprocity of Duties Act (1823),
+a modification of the Navigation Acts, by which British and foreign
+shipping were placed on an equal footing, while the right to impose
+restrictive duties on ships of powers refusing to reciprocate was
+retained. In spite, however, of the improvement in trade that ultimately
+resulted from these measures, there was great depression; in 1825 there
+was a financial crisis that caused widespread ruin, and in 1826 the
+misery of the labouring poor led to renewed riots and machinery
+smashing. It became increasingly clear that a drastic alteration in the
+existing system was absolutely inevitable. As to this necessity,
+however, the ministry was in fact hopelessly divided. The government was
+one of compromise, in which even so burning a question as Catholic
+emancipation had been left open. Among its members were some--like the
+lord chancellor Eldon, the duke of Wellington, and the premier, Lord
+Liverpool, himself--whose Toryism was of the type crystallized under the
+influence of the Revolution, adamant against change. Such progressive
+measures as it had passed had been passed in the teeth of its own
+nominal supporters, even of its own members. In 1826 Lord Palmerston,
+himself a member of the government, wrote: "On the Catholic question, on
+the principles of commerce, on the corn laws, on the settlement of the
+currency, on the laws relating to trade in money, on colonial slavery,
+on the game laws...; on all these questions, and everything like them,
+the government will find support from the Whigs and resistance from
+their self-denominated friends." It was, in fact, only the personal
+influence of Liverpool that held the ministry together, and when, on the
+17th of February 1827, he was seized with an apoplectic fit, a crisis
+was inevitable.
+
+
+  Catholic Emancipation and Corn Laws.
+
+The crisis, indeed, arose before the nominal expiration of the Liverpool
+administration. Two questions were, in the view of Canning and his
+supporters, of supreme importance--Catholic emancipation and the reform
+of the Corn Laws. The first of these had assumed a new urgency since the
+formation in 1823 of the Catholic Association, which under the brilliant
+leadership of Daniel O'Connell established in Ireland a national
+organization that threatened the very basis of the government. In March
+1826 Sir Francis Burdett had brought in a Catholic Relief Bill, which,
+passed in the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. A year later
+Burdett's motion that the affairs of Ireland required immediate
+attention, though supported by Canning, was rejected in the Commons. A
+bill modifying the Corn Laws, introduced by Canning and Huskisson,
+passed the House of Commons on the 12th of April 1827, but was rejected
+by the Lords.
+
+
+  Canning ministry.
+
+  Wellington ministry.
+
+  Catholic emancipation passed. Revolution of 1830.
+
+Meanwhile (April 10) Canning had become prime minister, his appointment
+being followed by the resignation of all the most conspicuous members of
+the Liverpool administration: Wellington, Eldon, Melville, Bathurst,
+Westmorland and Peel, the latter of whom resigned on account of his
+opposition to Catholic emancipation. The new government had perforce to
+rely on the Whigs, who took their seats on the government side of the
+House, Lord Lansdowne being included in the cabinet. Before this
+coalition could be completed, however, Canning died (August 8). The
+short-lived Goderich administration followed; and in January 1828 the
+king, weary of the effort to arrange a coalition, summoned the duke of
+Wellington to office as head of a purely Tory cabinet. Yet the logic of
+facts was too strong even for the stubborn spirit of the Iron Duke. In
+May 1828, on the initiative of Lord John Russell, the Test and
+Corporation Acts were repealed; in the same session a Corn Bill,
+differing but little from those that Wellington had hitherto opposed,
+was passed; and finally, after a strenuous agitation which culminated in
+the election of O'Connell for Clare, and in spite of the obstinate
+resistance of King George IV., the Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed
+(April 10, 1829) by a large majority. On the 26th of June 1830 the king
+died, exactly a month before the outbreak of the revolution in Paris
+that hurled Charles X. from the throne and led to the establishment of
+the Liberal Monarchy under Louis Philippe; a revolution that was to
+exert a strong influence on the movement for reform in England.
+
+
+  William IV.
+
+  Whig ministry under Lord Grey.
+
+  The great Reform Bill.
+
+King William IV. ascended the throne at a critical moment in the history
+of the English constitution. Everywhere misery and discontent were
+apparent, manifesting themselves in riots against machinery, in
+rick-burning on a large scale, and in the formation of trades unions
+which tended to develop into organized armies of sedition. All the
+elements of violent revolution were present. Nor was there anything in
+the character of the new king greatly calculated to restore the damaged
+prestige of the crown; for, if he lacked the evil qualities that had
+caused George IV. to be loathed as well as despised, he lacked also the
+sense of personal dignity that had been the saving grace of George,
+while he shared the conservative and Protestant prejudices of his
+predecessors. Reform was now inevitable. The Wellington ministry, hated
+by the Liberals, denounced even by the Tories as traitorous for the few
+concessions made, resigned on the 16th of November; and the Whigs at
+last came into office under Lord Grey, the ministry also including a few
+of the more Liberal Tories. Lord Durham, perhaps the most influential
+leader of the reform movement, became privy seal, Althorp chancellor of
+the exchequer, Palmerston foreign secretary, Melbourne home secretary,
+Goderich colonial secretary. Lord John Russell, as paymaster-general,
+and Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby), as secretary for Ireland, held
+office outside the cabinet. With the actual House of Commons, however,
+the government was powerless to effect its purpose. Though it succeeded
+in carrying the second reading of the Reform Bill (March 21, 1831), it
+was defeated in committee, and appealed to the country. The result was a
+great governmental majority, and the bill passed the Commons in
+September. Its rejection by the Lords on the 8th of October was the
+signal for dangerous rioting; and in spite of the opposition of the
+king, the bill was once more passed by the Commons (December 12). A
+violent agitation marked the recess. On the 14th of April 1832 the bill
+was read a second time in the Lords, but on the 7th of May was again
+rejected, whereupon the government resigned. The attempt of Wellington,
+at the king's instance, to form a ministry failed; of all the Tory
+obstructionists he alone had the courage to face the popular rage. On
+the 15th Lord Grey was in office again; the demand was made for a
+sufficient creation of peers to swamp the House of Lords; the king, now
+thoroughly alarmed, used his influence to persuade the peers to yield,
+and on the 4th of June the great Reform Bill became law. Thus was
+England spared the crisis of a bloody revolution, and proof given to the
+world that her ancient constitution was sufficiently elastic to expand
+with the needs of the times.
+
+The effect of the Reform Bill, which abolished fifty-six "rotten"
+boroughs, and by reducing the representation of others set free 143
+seats, which were in part conferred on the new industrial centres, was
+to transfer a large share of political power from the landed aristocracy
+to the middle classes. Yet the opposition of the Tories had not been
+wholly inspired by the desire to maintain the political predominance of
+a class. Canning, who had the best reason for knowing, defended the
+unreformed system on the ground that its very anomalies opened a variety
+of paths by which talent could make its way into parliament, and thus
+produced an assembly far more widely representative than could be
+expected from a more uniform and logical system. This argument, which
+the effect of progressive extensions of the franchise on the
+intellectual level of parliament has certainly not tended to weaken, was
+however far outweighed--as Canning himself would have come to see--by
+the advantage of reconciling with the old constitution the new forces
+which were destined during the century to transform the social
+organization of the country. Nor, in spite of the drastic character of
+the Reform Bill, did it in effect constitute a revolution. The 143 seats
+set free were divided equally between the towns and the counties; and in
+the counties the landowning aristocracy was still supreme. In the towns
+the new L10 household franchise secured a democratic constituency; in
+the counties the inclusion of tenants at will (of L50 annual rent), as
+well as of copyholders and lease-holders, only tended to increase the
+influence of the landlords. There was as yet no secret ballot to set the
+voter free.
+
+The result was apparent in the course of the next few years. The first
+reformed parliament, which met on the 29th of January 1833, consisted in
+the main of Whigs, with a sprinkling of Radicals and a compact body of
+Liberal Tories under Sir Robert Peel. Its great work was the act
+emancipating the slaves in the British colonies (August 30). Other
+burning questions were the condition of Ireland, the scandal of the
+established church there, the misery of the poor in England. In all
+these matters the House showed little enough of the revolutionary
+temper; so little, indeed, that in March Lord Durham resigned. To the
+Whig leaders the church was all but as sacrosanct as to the Tories, the
+very foundation of the constitution, not to be touched save at imminent
+risk to the state; the most they would adventure was to remedy a few of
+the more glaring abuses of an establishment imposed on an unwilling
+population. As for O'Connell's agitation for the repeal of the Union,
+that met with but scant sympathy in parliament; on the 27th of May 1834
+his repeal motion was rejected by a large majority.
+
+
+  Melbourne ministry.
+
+  The "Conservative" party.
+
+In July the Grey ministry resigned, and on the 16th Lord Melbourne
+became prime minister. His short tenure of office is memorable for the
+passing of the bill for the reform of the Poor Law (August). The
+reckless system of outdoor relief, which had pauperized whole
+neighbourhoods, was abolished, and the system of unions and workhouses
+established (see POOR LAW). An attempt to divert some of the revenues of
+the Irish Church led in the autumn to serious differences of opinion in
+the cabinet; the king, as tenacious as his father of the exact
+obligations of his coronation oath, dismissed the ministry, and called
+the Tories to office under Sir Robert Peel and the duke of Wellington.
+Thus, within three years of the passing of the Reform Bill, the party
+which had most strenuously opposed it was again in office. Scarcely less
+striking testimony to the constitutional temper of the English was given
+by the new attitude of the party under the new conditions. In the
+"Tamworth manifesto" of January 1835 Peel proclaimed the principles
+which were henceforth to guide the party, no longer Tory, but
+"Conservative." The Reform Bill and its consequences were frankly
+accepted; further reforms were promised, especially in the matter of the
+municipal corporations and of the disabilities of the dissenters. The
+new parliament, however, which met on the 19th of February, was not
+favourable to the ministry, which fell on the 8th of April. Lord
+Melbourne once more came into office, and the Municipal Corporations Act
+of the 7th of September was the work of a Liberal government. This was
+the last measure of first-rate importance passed before the death of
+King William, which occurred on the 20th of June 1837.
+
+It is impossible to exaggerate the importance, not only for England but
+for the world at large, of the epoch which culminated in the passing of
+the Reform Bill of 1832. All Europe, whether Liberal or reactionary, was
+watching the constitutional struggle with strained attention; the
+principles of monarchy and of constitutional liberty were alike at
+stake. To foreign observers it seemed impossible that the British
+monarchy could survive. Baron Brunnow, the Russian ambassador in London,
+sent home to the emperor Nicholas I. the most pessimistic reports.
+According to Brunnow, King William, by using his influence to secure the
+passage of the Reform Bill, had "cast his crown into the gutter"; the
+throne might endure for his lifetime, but the next heir was a young and
+inexperienced girl, and, even were the princess Victoria ever to mount
+the throne--which was unlikely--she would be speedily swept off it again
+by the rising tide of republicanism. The course of the next reign was
+destined speedily to convince even Nicholas I. of the baselessness of
+these fears, and to present to all Europe the exemplar of a progressive
+state, in which the principles of traditional authority and democratic
+liberty combined for the common good.     (W. A. P.)
+
+
+XII. THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (1837-1901)
+
+  Queen Victoria's accession.
+
+The death of William IV., on the 20th of June 1837, placed on the throne
+of England a young princess, who was destined to reign for a longer
+period than any of her predecessors. The new queen, the only daughter of
+the duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III., had just attained her
+majority. Educated in comparative seclusion, her character and her
+person were unfamiliar to her future subjects, who were a little weary
+of the extravagances and eccentricities of her immediate predecessors.
+Her accession gave them a new interest in the house of Hanover. And
+their loyalty, which would in any case have been excited by the
+accession of a young and inexperienced girl to the throne of the
+greatest empire in the world, was stimulated by her conduct and
+appearance. She displayed from the first a dignity and good sense which
+won the affection of the multitude who merely saw her in public, and the
+confidence of the advisers who were admitted into her presence.
+
+The ministry experienced immediate benefit from the change. The Whigs,
+who had governed England since 1830, under Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne,
+were suffering from the reaction which is the inevitable consequence of
+revolution. The country which, in half-a-dozen years, had seen a radical
+reform of parliament, a no less radical reform of municipal
+corporations, the abolition of slavery, and the reconstruction of the
+poor laws, was longing for a period of political repose. The alliance,
+or understanding, between the Whigs and the Irish was increasing the
+distrust of the English people in the ministry, and Lord Melbourne's
+government, in the first half of 1837, seemed doomed to perish. The
+accession of the queen gave it a new lease of power. The election,
+indeed, which followed her accession did not materially alter the
+composition of the House of Commons. But the popularity of the queen was
+extended to her government. Taper's suggestion in _Coningsby_ that the
+Conservatives should go to the country with the cry, "Our young queen
+and our old institutions," expressed, in an epigram, a prevalent idea.
+But the institution which derived most immediate benefit from the new
+sovereign was the old Whig ministry.
+
+
+  Lord Melbourne's difficulties.
+
+The difficulties of the ministry, nevertheless, were great. In the
+preceding years it had carried most of the reforms which were demanded
+in Great Britain; but it had failed to obtain the assent of the House
+of Lords to its Irish measures. It had desired (1) to follow up the
+reform of English corporations by a corresponding reform of Irish
+municipalities; (2) to convert the tithes, payable to the Irish Church,
+into a rent charge, and to appropriate its surplus revenues to other
+purposes; (3) to deal with the chronic distress of the Irish people by
+extending to Ireland the principles of the English poor law. In the year
+which succeeded the accession of the queen it accomplished two of these
+objects. It passed an Irish poor law and a measure commuting tithes in
+Ireland into a rent charge. The first of these measures was carried in
+opposition to the views of the Irish, who thought that it imposed an
+intolerable burden on Irish property. The second was only carried on the
+government consenting to drop the appropriation clause, on which Lord
+Melbourne's administration had virtually been founded.
+
+
+  The bed-chamber question.
+
+It was not, however, in domestic politics alone that the ministry was
+hampered. In the months which immediately followed the queen's accession
+news reached England of disturbances, or even insurrection in Canada.
+The rising was easily put down; but the condition of the colony was so
+grave that the ministry decided to suspend the constitution of lower
+Canada for three years, and to send out Lord Durham with almost
+dictatorial powers. Lord Durham's conduct was, unfortunately, marked by
+indiscretions which led to his resignation; but before leaving the
+colony he drew up a report on its condition and on its future, which
+practically became a text-book for his successors, and has influenced
+the government of British colonies ever since. Nor was Canada the only
+great colony which was seething with discontent. In Jamaica the
+planters, who had sullenly accepted the abolition of slavery, were
+irritated by the passage of an act of parliament intended to remedy some
+grave abuses in the management of the prisons of the island. The
+colonial House of Assembly denounced this act as a violation of its
+rights, and determined to desist from its legislative functions. The
+governor dissolved the assembly, but the new house, elected in its
+place, reaffirmed the decision of its predecessor; and the British
+ministry, in face of the crisis, asked parliament in 1839 for authority
+to suspend the constitution of the island for five years. The bill
+introduced for this purpose placed the Whig ministry in a position of
+some embarrassment. The advocates of popular government, they were
+inviting parliament, for a second time, to suspend representative
+institutions in an important colony. Supported by only small and
+dwindling majorities, they saw that it was hopeless to carry the
+measure, and they decided on placing their resignations in the queen's
+hands. The queen naturally sent for Sir Robert Peel, who undertook to
+form a government. In the course of the negotiations, however, he stated
+that it would be necessary to make certain changes in the household,
+which contained some great ladies closely connected with the leaders of
+the Whig party. The queen shrank from separating herself from ladies who
+had surrounded her since she came to the throne, and Sir Robert
+thereupon declined the task of forming a ministry. Technically he was
+justified in adopting this course, but people generally felt that there
+was some hardship in compelling a young queen to separate herself from
+her companions and friends, and they consequently approved the decision
+of Lord Melbourne to support the queen in her refusal, and to resume
+office. The Whigs returned to place, but they could not be said to
+return to power. They did not even venture to renew the original Jamaica
+Bill. They substituted for it a modified proposal which they were unable
+to carry. They were obviously indebted for office to the favour of the
+queen, and not to the support of parliament.
+
+
+  Penny postage.
+
+Yet the session of 1839 was not without important results. After a long
+struggle, in which ministers narrowly escaped defeat in the Commons, and
+in the course of which they suffered severe rebuffs in the Lords, they
+succeeded in laying the foundation of the English system of national
+education. In the same session they were forced against their will to
+adopt a reform, which had been recommended by Rowland Hill, and to
+confer on the nation the benefit of a uniform penny postage. No member
+of the cabinet foresaw the consequences of this reform. The
+postmaster-general, Lord Lichfield, in opposing it, declared that, if
+the revenue of his office was to be maintained, the correspondence of
+the country, on which postage was paid, must be increased from
+42,000,000 to 480,000,000 letters a year, and he contended that there
+were neither people to write, nor machinery to deal with, so prodigious
+a mass of letters. He would have been astonished to hear that, before
+the end of the century, his office had to deal with more than
+3,000,000,000 postal packets a year, and that the net profit which it
+paid into the exchequer was to be more than double what it received in
+1839.
+
+
+  Fiscal policy.
+
+In 1840 the ministry was not much more successful than it had proved in
+1839. After years of conflict it succeeded indeed in placing on the
+statute book a measure dealing with Irish municipalities. But its
+success was purchased by concessions to the Lords, which deprived the
+measure of much of its original merit. The closing years of the Whig
+administration were largely occupied with the financial difficulties of
+the country. The first three years of the queen's reign were memorable
+for a constantly deficient revenue. The deficit amounted to L1,400,000
+in 1837, to L400,000 in 1838, and to L1,457,000 in 1839. Baring, the
+chancellor of the exchequer, endeavoured to terminate this deficiency by
+a general increase of taxation, but this device proved a disastrous
+failure. The deficit rose to L1,842,000 in 1840. It was obvious that the
+old expedient of increasing taxation had failed, and that some new
+method had to be substituted for it. This new method Baring tried to
+discover in altering the differential duties on timber and sugar, and
+substituting a fixed duty of 8s. per quarter for the sliding duties
+hitherto payable on wheat. By these alterations he expected to secure a
+large increase of revenue, and at the same time to maintain a sufficient
+degree of protection for colonial produce. The Conservatives, who
+believed in protection, at once attacked the proposed alteration of the
+sugar duties. They were reinforced by many Liberals, who cared very
+little for protection, but a great deal about the abolition of slavery,
+and consequently objected to reducing the duties on foreign or
+slave-grown sugar. This combination of interests proved too strong for
+Baring and his proposal was rejected. As ministers, however, did not
+resign on their defeat, Sir Robert Peel followed up his victory by
+moving a vote of want of confidence, and this motion was carried in an
+exceptionally full house by 312 votes to 311.
+
+
+  Sir R. Peel forms a ministry.
+
+Before abandoning the struggle, the Whigs decided on appealing from the
+House of Commons to the country. The general election which ensued
+largely increased the strength of the Conservative party. On the meeting
+of the new parliament in August 1841, votes of want of confidence in the
+government were proposed and carried in both houses; the Whigs were
+compelled to resign office, and the queen again charged Sir Robert Peel
+with the task of forming a government. If the queen had remained
+unmarried, it is possible that the friction which had arisen in 1839
+might have recurred in 1841. In February 1840, however, Her Majesty had
+married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She was,
+therefore, no longer dependent on the Whig ladies, to whose presence in
+her court she had attached so much importance in 1839. By the management
+of the prince--who later in the reign was known as the prince
+consort--the great ladies of the household voluntarily tendered their
+resignations; and every obstacle to the formation of the new government
+was in this way removed.
+
+Thus the Whigs retired from the offices which, except for a brief
+interval in 1834-1835, they had held for eleven years. During the
+earlier years of their administration they had succeeded in carrying
+many memorable reforms: during the later years their weakness in the
+House of Commons had prevented their passing any considerable measures.
+But, if they had failed in this respect, Lord Melbourne had rendered
+conspicuous service to the queen. Enjoying her full confidence,
+consulted by her on every occasion, he had always used his influence for
+the public good; and perhaps those who look back now with so much
+satisfaction at the queen's conduct during a reign of unexampled length,
+imperfectly appreciate the debt which in this respect is owed to her
+first prime minister. The closing years of the Whig government were
+marked by external complications. A controversy on the boundary of
+Canada and the United States was provoking increasing bitterness on both
+sides of the Atlantic. The intervention of Lord Palmerston in Syria,
+which resulted in a great military success at Acre, was embittering the
+relations between France and England, while the unfortunate expedition
+to Afghanistan, which the Whigs had approved, was already producing
+embarrassment, and was about to result in disaster. Serious, however, as
+were the complications which surrounded British policy in Europe, in the
+East, and in America, the country, in August 1841, paid more attention
+to what a great writer called the "condition of England" question. There
+had never been a period in British history when distress and crime had
+been so general. There had hardly ever been a period when food had been
+so dear, when wages had been so low, when poverty had been so
+widespread, and the condition of the lower orders so depraved and so
+hopeless, as in the early years of the queen's reign. The condition of
+the people had prompted the formation of two great associations. The
+Chartists derived their name from the charter which set out their
+demands. The rejection of a monster petition which they presented to
+parliament in 1839 led to a formidable riot in Birmingham, and to a
+projected march from South Wales on London, in which twenty persons were
+shot dead at Newport. Another organization, in one sense even more
+formidable than the Chartist, was agitating at the same time for the
+repeal of the corn laws, and was known as the Anti-Corn Law League. It
+had already secured the services of two men, Cobden and Bright, who, one
+by clear reasoning, the other by fervid eloquence, were destined to make
+a profound impression on all classes of the people.
+
+
+  Budget reforms.
+
+The new government had, therefore, to deal with a position of almost
+unexampled difficulty. The people were apparently sinking into deeper
+poverty and misery year after year. As an outward and visible sign of
+the inward distress, the state was no longer able to pay its way. It was
+estimated that the deficit, which had amounted to L1,842,000 in 1840,
+would reach L2,334,000 in 1841. It is the signal merit of Sir Robert
+Peel that he terminated this era of private distress and public
+deficits. He accomplished this task partly by economical
+administration--for no minister ever valued economy more--and partly by
+a reform of the financial system, effected in three great budgets. In
+the budget of 1842 Sir Robert Peel terminated the deficit by reviving
+the income tax. The proceeds of the tax, which was fixed at 7d. in the
+L, and was granted in the first instance for three years, were more than
+sufficient to secure this object. Sir Robert used the surplus to reform
+the whole customs tariff. The duties on raw materials, he proposed,
+should never exceed 5%, the duties on partly manufactured articles 12%,
+and the duties on manufactured articles 20% of their value. At the same
+time he reduced the duties on stage coaches, on foreign and colonial
+coffee, on foreign and colonial timber, and repealed the export duties
+on British manufactures. The success of this budget in stimulating
+consumption and in promoting trade induced Sir Robert Peel to follow it
+up in 1845 with an even more remarkable proposal. Instead of allowing
+the income tax to expire, he induced parliament to continue it for a
+further period, and with the resources which were thus placed at his
+disposal he purged the tariff of various small duties which produced
+little revenue, and had been imposed for purposes of protection. He
+swept away all the duties on British exports; he repealed the duties on
+glass, on cotton wool, and still further reduced the duties on foreign
+and colonial sugar. This budget was a much greater step towards free
+trade than the budget of 1842. The chief object in his third budget in
+1846--the reduction of the duty on corn to 1s. a quarter--was
+necessitated by causes which will be immediately referred to. But it
+will be convenient at once to refer to its other features. Sir Robert
+Peel told the house that, in his previous budgets, he had given the
+manufacturers of the country free access to the raw materials which they
+used. He was entitled in return to call upon them to relinquish the
+protection which they enjoyed. He decided, therefore, to reduce the
+protective duties on cotton, woollen, silk, metal and other goods, as
+well as on raw materials still liable to heavy taxation, such as timber
+and tallow. As the policy of 1842 and 1845 had proved unquestionably
+successful in stimulating trade, he proposed to extend it to
+agriculture. He reduced the duties on the raw materials which the
+farmers used, such as seed and maize, and in return he called on them to
+give up the duties on cattle and meat, to reduce largely the duties on
+butter, cheese and hops, and to diminish the duty on corn by gradual
+stages to 1s. a quarter. In making these changes Sir Robert Peel avowed
+that it was his object to make the country a cheap one to live in. There
+is no doubt that they were followed by a remarkable development of
+British trade. In the twenty-seven years from 1815 to 1842 the export
+trade of Great Britain diminished from L49,600,000 to L47,280,000; while
+in the twenty-seven years which succeeded 1842 it increased from
+L47,280,000 to nearly L190,000,000. These figures are a simple and
+enduring monument to the minister's memory. It is fair to add that the
+whole increase was not due to free trade. It was partly attributable to
+the remarkable development of communications which marked this period.
+
+Two other financial measures of great importance were accomplished in
+Sir Robert Peel's ministry. In 1844 some L250,000,000 of the national
+debt still bore an interest of 31/2%. The improvement in the credit of the
+country enabled the government to reduce the interest on the stock to
+31/4% for the succeeding ten years, and to 3% afterwards. This conversion,
+which effected an immediate saving of L625,000, and an ultimate saving
+of L1,250,000 a year, was by far the most important measure which had
+hitherto been applied to the debt; and no operation on the same scale
+was attempted for more than forty years. In the same year the necessity
+of renewing the charter of the Bank of England afforded Sir Robert Peel
+an opportunity of reforming the currency. He separated the issue
+department from the banking department of the bank, and decided that in
+future it should only be at liberty to issue notes against (1) the debt
+of L14,000,000 due to it from the government, and (2) any bullion
+actually in its coffers. Few measures of the past century have been the
+subject of more controversy than this famous act, and at one time its
+repeated suspension in periods of financial crises seemed to suggest the
+necessity of its amendment. But opinion on the whole has vindicated its
+wisdom, and it has survived all the attacks which have been made upon
+it.
+
+
+  Ireland.
+
+  Free trade.
+
+The administration of Sir Robert Peel is also remarkable for its Irish
+policy. The Irish, under O'Connell, had constantly supported the Whig
+ministry of Lord Melbourne. But their alliance, or understanding, with
+the Whigs had not procured them all the results which they had expected
+from it. The two great Whig measures, dealing with the church and the
+municipalities, had only been passed after years of controversy, and in
+a shape which deprived them of many expected advantages. Hence arose a
+notion in Ireland that nothing was to be expected from a British
+parliament, and hence began a movement for the repeal of the union which
+had been accomplished in 1801. This agitation, which smouldered during
+the reign of the Whig ministry, was rapidly revived when Sir Robert Peel
+entered upon office. The Irish contributed large sums, which were known
+as repeal rent, to the cause, and they held monster meetings in various
+parts of Ireland to stimulate the demand for repeal. The ministry met
+this campaign by coercive legislation regulating the use of arms, by
+quartering large bodies of troops in Ireland, and by prohibiting a great
+meeting at Clontarf, the scene of Brian Boru's victory, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of Dublin. They further decided in 1843 to place O'Connell
+and some of the leading agitators on their trial for conspiracy and
+sedition. O'Connell was tried before a jury chosen from a defective
+panel, was convicted on an indictment which contained many counts, and
+the court passed sentence without distinguishing between these counts.
+These irregularities induced the House of Lords to reverse the
+judgment, and its reversal did much to prevent mischief. O'Connell's
+illness, which resulted in his death in 1847, tended also to establish
+peace. Sir Robert Peel wisely endeavoured to stifle agitation by making
+considerable concessions to Irish sentiment. He increased the grant
+which was made to the Roman Catholic College at Maynooth; he established
+three colleges in the north, south and west of Ireland for the
+undenominational education of the middle classes; he appointed a
+commission--the Devon commission, as it was called, from the name of the
+nobleman who presided over it--to investigate the conditions on which
+Irish land was held; and, after the report of the commission, he
+introduced, though he failed to carry, a measure for remedying some of
+the grievances of the Irish tenants. These wise concessions might
+possibly have had some effect in pacifying Ireland, if, in the autumn of
+1845, they had not been forgotten in the presence of a disaster which
+suddenly fell on that unhappy country. The potato, which was the sole
+food of at least half the people of an overcrowded island, failed, and a
+famine of unprecedented proportions was obviously imminent. Sir Robert
+Peel, whose original views on protection had been rapidly yielding to
+the arguments afforded by the success of his own budgets, concluded that
+it was impossible to provide for the necessities of Ireland without
+suspending the corn laws; and that, if they were once suspended, it
+would be equally impossible to restore them. He failed, however, to
+convince two prominent members of his cabinet--Lord Stanley and the duke
+of Buccleuch--that protection must be finally abandoned, and considering
+it hopeless to persevere with a disunited cabinet he resigned office. On
+Sir Robert's resignation the queen sent for Lord John Russell, who had
+led the Liberal party in the House of Commons with conspicuous ability
+for more than ten years, and charged him with the task of forming a new
+ministry. Differences, which it proved impossible to remove, between two
+prominent Whigs--Lord Palmerston and Lord Grey--made the task
+impracticable, and after an interval Sir Robert Peel consented to resume
+power. Sir Robert Peel was probably aware that his fall had been only
+postponed. In the four years and a half during which his ministry had
+lasted he had done much to estrange his party. They said, with some
+truth, that, whether his measures were right or wrong, they were opposed
+to the principles which he had been placed in power to support. The
+general election of 1841 had been mainly fought on the rival policies of
+protection and free trade. The country had decided for protection, and
+Sir R. Peel had done more than all his predecessors to give it free
+trade. The Conservative party, moreover, was closely allied with the
+church, and Sir Robert had offended the church by giving an increased
+endowment to Maynooth, and by establishing undenominational
+colleges--"godless colleges" as they were called--in Ireland. The
+Conservatives were, therefore, sullenly discontented with the conduct of
+their leader. They were lashed into positive fury by the proposal which
+he was now making to abolish the corn laws. Lord George Bentinck, who,
+in his youth, had been private secretary to Canning, but who in his
+maturer years had devoted more time to the turf than to politics, placed
+himself at their head. He was assisted by a remarkable man--Benjamin
+Disraeli--who joined great abilities to great ambition, and who,
+embittered by Sir Robert Peel's neglect to appoint him to office, had
+already displayed his animosity to the minister. The policy on which Sir
+Robert Peel resolved facilitated attack. For the minister thought it
+necessary, while providing against famine by repealing the corn laws, to
+ensure the preservation of order by a new coercion bill. The financial
+bill and the coercion bill were both pressed forward, and each gave
+opportunities for discussion and, what was then new in parliament, for
+obstruction. At last, on the very night on which the fiscal proposals of
+the ministers were accepted by the Lords, the coercion bill was defeated
+in the Commons by a combination of Whigs, radicals and protectionists;
+and Sir R. Peel, worn out with a protracted struggle, placed his
+resignation in the queen's hands.
+
+
+  Peel's foreign policy.
+
+Thus fell the great minister, who perhaps had conferred more benefits on
+his country than any of his predecessors. The external policy of his
+ministry had been almost as remarkable as its domestic programme. When
+he accepted office the country was on the eve of a great disaster in
+India; it was engaged in a serious dispute with the United States; and
+its relations with France were so strained that the two great countries
+of western Europe seemed unlikely to be able to settle their differences
+without war. In the earlier years of his administration the disaster in
+Afghanistan was repaired in a successful campaign; and Lord
+Ellenborough, who was sent over to replace Lord Auckland as
+governor-general, increased the dominion and responsibilities of the
+East India Company by the unscrupulous but brilliant policy which led to
+the conquest of Sind. The disputes with the United States were
+satisfactorily composed; and not only were the differences with France
+terminated, but a perfect understanding was formed between the two
+countries, under which Guizot, the prime minister of France, and Lord
+Aberdeen, the foreign minister of England, agreed to compromise all
+minor questions for the sake of securing the paramount object of peace.
+The good understanding was so complete that a disagreeable incident in
+the Sandwich Islands, in which the injudicious conduct of a French agent
+very nearly precipitated hostilities, was amicably settled; and the
+ministry had the satisfaction of knowing that, if their policy had
+produced prosperity at home, it had also maintained peace abroad.
+
+
+  The Spanish marriages.
+
+On Sir R. Peel's resignation the queen again sent for Lord John Russell.
+The difficulties which had prevented his forming a ministry in the
+previous year were satisfactorily arranged, and Lord Palmerston accepted
+the seals of the foreign office, while Lord Grey was sent to the
+colonial office. The history of the succeeding years was destined,
+however, to prove that Lord Grey had had solid reasons for objecting to
+Lord Palmerston's return to his old post; for, whatever judgment may
+ultimately be formed on Lord Palmerston's foreign policy, there can be
+little doubt that it did not tend to the maintenance of peace. The first
+occasion on which danger was threatened arose immediately after the
+installation of the new ministry on the question of the Spanish
+marriages. The queen of Spain, Isabella, was a young girl still in her
+teens; the heir to the throne was her younger sister, the infanta
+Fernanda. Diplomacy had long been occupied with the marriages of these
+children; and Lord Aberdeen had virtually accepted the principle, which
+the French government had laid down, that a husband for the queen should
+be found among the descendants of Philip V., and that her sister's
+marriage to the duc de Montpensier--a son of Louis Philippe--should not
+be celebrated till the queen was married and had issue. While agreeing
+to this compromise, Lord Aberdeen declared that he regarded the Spanish
+marriages as a Spanish, and not as a European question, and that, if it
+proved impossible to find a suitable consort for the queen among the
+descendants of Philip V., Spain must be free to choose a prince for her
+throne elsewhere. The available descendants of Philip V. were the two
+sons of Don Francis, the younger brother of Don Carlos, and of these the
+French government was in favour of the elder, while the British
+government preferred the younger brother. Lord Palmerston strongly
+objected to the prince whom the French government supported; and, almost
+immediately after acceding to office, he wrote a despatch in which he
+enumerated the various candidates for the queen of Spain's hand,
+including Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, a near relation of the prince
+consort, among the number. Louis Philippe regarded this despatch as a
+departure from the principle on which he had agreed with Lord Aberdeen,
+and at once hurried on the simultaneous marriages of the queen with the
+French candidate, and of her sister with the duc de Montpensier. His
+action broke up the _entente cordiale_ which had been established
+between Guizot and Lord Aberdeen.
+
+
+  Don Pacifico.
+
+The second occasion on which Lord Palmerston's vigorous diplomacy
+excited alarm arose out of the revolution which broke out almost
+universally in Europe in 1848. A rising in Hungary was suppressed by
+Austria with Russian assistance, and after its suppression many leading
+Hungarians took refuge in Turkish territory. Austria and Russia
+addressed demands to the Porte for their surrender. Lord Palmerston
+determined to support the Porte in its refusal to give up these exiles,
+and actually sent the British fleet to the Dardanelles with this object.
+His success raised the credit of Great Britain and his own reputation.
+The presence of the British fleet, however, at the Dardanelles suggested
+to him the possibility of settling another long-standing controversy.
+For years British subjects settled in Greece had raised complaints
+against the Greek government. In particular Don Pacifico, a Jew, but a
+native of Gibraltar, complained that, at a riot, in which his house had
+been attacked, he had lost jewels, furniture and papers which he alleged
+to be worth more than L30,000. As Lord Palmerston was unable by
+correspondence to induce the Greek government to settle claims of this
+character, he determined to enforce them; and by his orders a large
+number of Greek vessels were seized and detained by the British fleet.
+The French government tendered its good offices to compose the dispute,
+and an arrangement was actually arrived at between Lord Palmerston and
+the French minister in London. Unfortunately, before its terms reached
+Greece, the British minister at Athens had ordered the resumption of
+hostilities, and had compelled the Greek government to submit to more
+humiliating conditions. News of this settlement excited the strongest
+feelings both in Paris and London. In Paris, Prince Louis Napoleon, who
+had acceded to the presidency of the French republic, decided on
+recalling his representative from the British court. In London the Lords
+passed a vote of censure on Lord Palmerston's proceedings; and the
+Commons only sustained the minister by adopting a resolution approving
+in general terms the principles on which the foreign policy of the
+country had been conducted.
+
+
+  Palmerston dismissed.
+
+In pursuing the vigorous policy which characterized his tenure of the
+foreign office, Lord Palmerston frequently omitted to consult his
+colleagues in the cabinet, the prime minister, or the queen. In the
+course of 1849 Her Majesty formally complained to Lord John Russell that
+important despatches were sent off without her knowledge; and an
+arrangement was made under which Lord Palmerston undertook to submit
+every despatch to the queen through the prime minister. In 1850, after
+the Don Pacifico debate, the queen repeated these commands in a much
+stronger memorandum. But Lord Palmerston, though all confidence between
+himself and the court was destroyed, continued in office. In the autumn
+of 1851 the queen was much annoyed at hearing that he had received a
+deputation at the foreign office, which had waited on him to express
+sympathy with the Hungarian refugees, and to denounce the conduct of
+"the despots and tyrants" of Russia and Austria, and that he had, in his
+reply, expressed his gratification at the demonstration. If the queen
+had had her way, Lord Palmerston would have been removed from the
+foreign office after this incident. A few days later the _coup d'etat_
+in Paris led to another dispute. The cabinet decided to do nothing that
+could wear the appearance of interference in the internal affairs of
+France; but Lord Palmerston, in conversation with the French minister in
+London, took upon himself to approve the bold and decisive step taken by
+the president. The ministry naturally refused to tolerate this conduct,
+and Lord Palmerston was summarily removed from his office.
+
+
+  Irish famine.
+
+The removal of Lord Palmerston led almost directly to the fall of the
+Whig government. Before relating, however, the exact occurrences which
+produced its defeat, it is necessary to retrace our steps and describe
+the policy which it had pursued in internal matters during the six years
+in which it had been in power. Throughout that period the Irish famine
+had been its chief anxiety and difficulty. Sir Robert Peel had attempted
+to deal with it (1) by purchasing large quantities of Indian corn, which
+he had retailed at low prices in Ireland, and (2) by enabling the grand
+juries to employ the people on public works, which were to be paid out
+of moneys advanced by the state, one-half being ultimately repayable by
+the locality. These measures were not entirely successful. It was
+found, in practice, that the sale of Indian corn at low prices by the
+government checked the efforts of private individuals to supply food;
+and that the offer of comparatively easy work to the poor at the cost of
+the public, prevented their seeking harder private work either in
+Ireland or in Great Britain. The new government, with this experience
+before it, decided on trusting to private enterprise to supply the
+necessary food, and on throwing the whole cost of the works which the
+locality might undertake on local funds. If the famine had been less
+severe, this policy might possibly have succeeded. Universal want,
+however, paralysed every one. The people, destitute of other means of
+livelihood, crowded to the relief works. In the beginning of 1847 nearly
+750,000 persons--or nearly one person out of every ten in Ireland--were
+so employed. With such vast multitudes to relieve, it proved
+impracticable to exact the labour which was required as a test of
+destitution. The roads, which it was decided to make, were blocked by
+the labourers employed upon them, and by the stones, which the labourers
+were supposed to crush for their repair. In the presence of this
+difficulty the government decided, early in 1847, gradually to
+discontinue the relief works, and to substitute for them relief
+committees charged with the task of feeding the people. At one time no
+less than 3,000,000 persons--more than one-third of the entire
+population of Ireland--were supported by these committees. At the same
+time it decided on adopting two measures of a more permanent character.
+The poor law of 1838 had made no provision for the relief of the poor
+outside the workhouse, and outdoor relief was sanctioned by an act of
+1847. Irish landlords complained that their properties, ruined by the
+famine, and encumbered by the extravagances of their predecessors, could
+not bear the cost of this new poor law; and the ministry introduced and
+carried a measure enabling the embarrassed owners of life estates to
+sell their property and discharge their liabilities. It is the constant
+misfortune of Ireland that the measures intended for her relief
+aggravate her distress. The encumbered estates act, though it
+substituted a solvent for an insolvent proprietary, placed the Irish
+tenants at the mercy of landlords of whom they had no previous
+knowledge, who were frequently absentees, who bought the land as a
+matter of business, and who dealt with it on business principles by
+raising the rent. The new poor law, by throwing the maintenance of the
+poor on the soil, encouraged landlords to extricate themselves from
+their responsibilities by evicting their tenants. Evictions were made on
+a scale which elicited from Sir Robert Peel an expression of the deepest
+abhorrence. The unfortunate persons driven from their holdings and
+forced to seek a refuge in the towns, in England, or--when they could
+afford it--in the United States, carried with them everywhere the seeds
+of disease, the constant handmaid of famine.
+
+
+  Rebellion of 1848.
+
+Famine, mortality and emigration left their mark on Ireland. In four
+years, from 1845 to 1849, its population decreased from 8,295,000 to
+7,256,000, or by more than a million persons; and the decline which took
+place at that time went on to the end of the century. The population of
+Ireland in 1901 had decreased to 4,457,000 souls. This fact is the more
+remarkable, because Ireland is almost the only portion of the British
+empire, or indeed of the civilized world, where such a circumstance has
+occurred. We must go to countries like the Asiatic provinces of Turkey,
+devastated by Ottoman rule, to find such a diminution in the numbers of
+the people as was seen in Ireland during the last half of the 19th
+century. It was probably inevitable that the distress of Ireland should
+have been followed by a renewal of Irish outrages. A terrible series of
+agrarian crimes was committed in the autumn of 1847; and the ministry
+felt compelled, in consequence, to strengthen its hands by a new measure
+of coercion, and by suspending the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. The
+latter measure at once brought to a crisis the so-called rebellion of
+1848, for his share in which Smith O'Brien, an Irish member of
+parliament, was convicted of high treason. The government, however, did
+not venture to carry out the grim sentence which the law still applied
+to traitors, and introduced an act enabling it to commute the death
+penalty to transportation. The "insurrection" had from the first proved
+abortive. With Smith O'Brien's transportation it practically terminated.
+
+
+  Chartism.
+
+In the meanwhile the difficulties which the government was experiencing
+from the Irish famine had been aggravated by a grave commercial crisis
+in England. In the autumn of 1847 a series of failures in the great
+commercial centres created a panic in the city of London, which forced
+consols down to 78, and induced the government to take upon itself the
+responsibility of suspending the Bank Charter Act. That step, enabling
+the directors of the Bank of England to issue notes unsecured by
+bullion, had the effect of gradually restoring confidence. But a grave
+commercial crisis of this character is often attended with other than
+financial consequences. The stringency of the money market increases the
+distress of the industrial classes by diminishing the demand for work;
+and, when labour suffers, political agitation flourishes. Early in 1848,
+moreover, revolutions on the continent produced a natural craving for
+changes at home. Louis Philippe was driven out of Paris, the emperor of
+Austria was driven out of Vienna, the Austrian soldiery had to withdraw
+from Milan, and even in Berlin the crown had to make terms with the
+people. While thrones were falling or tottering in every country in
+Europe, it was inevitable that excitement and agitation should prevail
+in Great Britain. The Chartists, reviving the machinery which they had
+endeavoured to employ in 1839, decided on preparing a monster petition
+to parliament, which was to be escorted to Westminster by a monster
+procession. Their preparations excited general alarm, and on the
+invitation of the government no less than 170,000 special constables
+were sworn in to protect life and property against a rabble. By the
+judicious arrangements, however, which were made by the duke of
+Wellington, the peace of the metropolis was secured. The Chartists were
+induced to abandon the procession which had caused so much alarm, and
+the monster petition was carried in a cab to the House of Commons. There
+it was mercilessly picked to pieces by a select committee. It was found
+that, instead of containing nearly 6,000,000 signatures, as its
+originators had boasted, less than 2,000,000 names were attached to it.
+Some of the names, moreover, were obviously fictitious, or even absurd.
+The exposure of these facts turned the whole thing into ridicule, and
+gave parliament an excuse for postponing measures of organic reform
+which might otherwise have been brought forward.
+
+
+  Navigation Acts.
+
+If the ministry thus abstained from pressing forward a large scheme of
+political reform, it succeeded in carrying two measures of the highest
+commercial and social importance. In 1849 it supplemented the free trade
+policy, which Sir Robert Peel had developed, by the repeal of the
+Navigation Acts. Briefly stated, these acts, which had been originated
+during the Protectorate of Cromwell, and continued after the
+Restoration, reserved the whole coasting trade of the country for
+British vessels and British seamen, and much of the foreign trade for
+British vessels, commanded and chiefly manned by British subjects. The
+acts, therefore, were in the strictest sense protective, but they were
+also designed to increase the strength of Great Britain at sea, by
+maintaining large numbers of British seamen. They had been defended by
+Adam Smith on the ground that defence was "of much more importance than
+opulence," and by the same reasoning they had been described by John
+Stuart Mill as, "though economically disadvantageous, politically
+expedient." The acts, however, threw a grave burden on British trade and
+British shipowners. Their provisions by restricting competition
+naturally tended to raise freights, and by restricting employment made
+it difficult for shipowners to man their vessels. Accordingly the
+government wisely determined on their repeal; and one of the last and
+greatest battles between Free Trade and Protection was fought over the
+question. The second reading of the government bill was carried in the
+House of Lords by a majority of only ten: it would not have been carried
+at all if the government had not secured a much larger number of proxies
+than their opponents could obtain.
+
+
+  Ten Hours Bill.
+
+If the repeal of the Navigation Acts constituted a measure of the
+highest commercial importance, the passage of the Ten Hours Bill in 1847
+marked the first great advance in factory legislation. Something,
+indeed, had already been done to remedy the evils arising from the
+employment of women and very young children in factories and mines. In
+1833 Lord Ashley, better known as Lord Shaftesbury, had carried the
+first important Factory Act. In 1842 he had succeeded, with the help of
+the striking report of a royal commission, in inducing parliament to
+prohibit the employment of women and of boys under ten years of age in
+mines. And in 1843 Sir James Graham, who was home secretary in Sir
+Robert Peel's administration, had been compelled by the pressure of
+public opinion to introduce a measure providing for the education of
+children employed in factories, and for limiting the hours of work of
+children and young persons. The educational clauses of this bill were
+obviously framed in the interests of the Church of England, and raised a
+heated controversy which led to the abandonment of the measure; and in
+the following year Sir James Graham introduced a new bill dealing with
+the labour question alone. Briefly stated, his proposal was that no
+child under nine years of age should be employed in a factory, and that
+no young person under eighteen should be employed for more than twelve
+hours a day. This measure gave rise to the famous controversy on the ten
+hours clause, which commenced in 1844 and was protracted till 1847. Lord
+Ashley and the factory reformers contended, on the one hand, that ten
+hours were long enough for any person to work; their opponents
+maintained, on the contrary, that the adoption of the clause would
+injure the working-classes by lowering the rate of wages, and ruin the
+manufacturers by exposing them to foreign competition. In 1847 the
+reform was at last adopted. It is a remarkable fact that it was carried
+against the views of the leading statesmen on both sides of the House.
+It was the triumph of common sense over official arguments.
+
+
+  Death of Peel.
+
+During the first four years of Lord John Russell's government, his
+administration had never enjoyed any very large measure of popular
+support, but it had been partly sustained by the advocacy of Sir Robert
+Peel. The differences which estranged Sir Robert from his old supporters
+were far greater than those which separated him from the Whigs, and the
+latter were therefore constantly able to rely on his assistance. In the
+summer of 1850, however, a lamentable accident--a fall from his
+horse--deprived the country of the services of its great statesman. His
+death naturally affected the position of parties. The small remnant of
+able men, indeed, who had been associated with him in his famous
+administration, still maintained an attitude of neutrality. But the bulk
+of the Conservative party rallied under the lead of Lord Stanley
+(afterwards Derby) in the House of Lords, and gradually submitted to,
+rather than accepted, the lead of Disraeli in the House of Commons.
+
+
+  Oxford movement.
+
+In the autumn which succeeded Sir Robert Peel's death, an event which
+had not been foreseen agitated the country and produced a crisis. During
+the years which had succeeded the Reform Bill a great religious movement
+had influenced politics both in England and Scotland. In England, a body
+of eminent men at Oxford--of whom J. H., afterwards Cardinal, Newman was
+the chief, but who numbered among their leaders Hurrell Froude, the
+brother of the historian, and Keble, the author of the _Christian
+Year_--endeavoured to prove that the doctrines of the Church of England
+were identical with those of the primitive Catholic Church, and that
+every Catholic doctrine might be held by those who were within its pale.
+This view was explained in a remarkable series of tracts, which gave
+their authors the name of Tractarians. The most famous of these, and the
+last of the series, Tract XC., was published three years after the
+queen's accession to the throne. In Scotland, the Presbyterian
+Church--mainly under the guidance of Dr Chalmers, one of the most
+eloquent preachers of the century--was simultaneously engaged in a
+contest with the state on the subject of ecclesiastical patronage. Both
+movements had this in common, that they indicated a revival of
+religious energy, and aimed at vindicating the authority of the church,
+and resisting the interference of the state in church matters. The
+Scottish movement led to the disruption of the Church of Scotland and
+the formation of the Free Church in 1843. The Tractarian movement was
+ultimately terminated by the secession of Newman and many of his
+associates from the Church of England, and their admission to the Church
+of Rome. These secessions raised a feeling of alarm throughout England.
+The people, thoroughly Protestant, were excited by the proofs--which
+they thought were afforded--that the real object of the Tractarians was
+to reconcile England with Rome; and practices which are now regarded as
+venial or even praiseworthy--such as the wearing of the surplice in the
+pulpit, and the institution of the weekly offertory--were denounced
+because they were instituted by the Tractarians, and were regarded as
+insidious devices to lead the country Romewards. The sympathies of the
+Whigs, and especially of the Whig prime minister, Lord John Russell,
+were with the people; and Lord John displayed his dislike to the
+Romanizing tendencies of the Tractarians by appointing Renn Dickson
+Hampden--whose views had been formally condemned by the Hebdomadal Board
+at Oxford--to the bishopric of Hereford. The High Church party
+endeavoured to oppose the appointment at every stage; but their attempts
+exposed them to a serious defeat. The courts held that, though the
+appointment of a bishop by the crown required confirmation in the
+archbishop's court, the confirmation was a purely ministerial act which
+could not be refused. The effort which the High Church party had made to
+resist Dr Hampden's appointment had thus resulted in showing
+conclusively that authority resided in the crown, and not in the
+archbishop. It so happened that about the same time this view was
+confirmed by another judicial decision. The lord chancellor presented
+the Rev. G. C. Gorham to a living in Devonshire; and Dr Phillpotts, the
+bishop of Exeter, declined to institute him, on the ground that he held
+heretical views on the subject of baptism. The court of arches upheld
+the bishop's decision. The finding of the court, however, was reversed
+by the privy council, and its judgment dealt a new blow at the
+Tractarian party. For it again showed that authority--even in
+doctrine--resided in the crown and not in the church. Within a few
+months of this famous decision the pope--perhaps encouraged by the
+activity and despondency of the High Church party--issued a brief "for
+re-establishing and extending the Catholic faith in England," and
+proceeded to divide England and Wales into twelve sees. One of
+them--Westminster--was made an archbishopric, and the new dignity was
+conferred on Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman, who was almost
+immediately afterwards created cardinal. The publication of this brief
+caused much excitement throughout the country, which was fanned by a
+letter from the prime minister to the bishop of Durham, condemning the
+brief as "insolent and insidious" and "inconsistent with the queen's
+supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the
+spiritual independence of the nation." Somewhat unnecessarily the prime
+minister went on to condemn the clergymen of the Church of England who
+had subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, "who have been the most forward
+in leading their own flocks, step by step, to the very edge of the
+precipice."
+
+
+  Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
+
+In accordance with the promise of Lord John Russell's letter, the
+ministry, at the opening of the session of 1851, introduced a measure
+forbidding the assumption of territorial titles by the priests and
+bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, declaring all gifts made to them
+and all acts done by them under these titles null and void, and
+forfeiting to the crown all property bequeathed to them. The bill
+naturally encountered opposition from many Liberals, while it failed to
+excite any enthusiasm among Conservatives, who thought its remedies
+inadequate. In the middle of the debates upon it the government was
+defeated on another question--a proposal to reduce the county
+franchise--and, feeling that it could no longer rely on the support of
+the House of Commons, tendered its resignation. But Lord Stanley, whom
+the queen entrusted with the duty of forming a new administration, was
+compelled to decline the task, and Lord John resumed office. Mild as the
+original Ecclesiastical Titles Bill had been thought, the new edition of
+it, which was introduced after the restoration of the Whigs to power,
+was still milder. Though, after protracted debates, it at last became
+law, it satisfied nobody. Its provisions, as was soon found, could be
+easily evaded, and the bill, which had caused so much excitement, and
+had nearly precipitated the fall of a ministry, remained a dead letter.
+The government, in fact, was experiencing the truth that, if a defeated
+ministry may be occasionally restored to place, it cannot be restored to
+power. The dismissal of Lord Palmerston from the foreign office in 1851
+further increased the embarrassments of the government. In February 1852
+it was defeated on a proposal to revive the militia, and resigned.
+
+
+  French scare.
+
+The circumstances which directly led to the defeat of the Whigs were, in
+one sense, a consequence of the revolutionary wave which had swept over
+Europe in 1848. The fall of Louis Philippe in that year created a panic
+in Great Britain. Men thought that the unsettled state of France made
+war probable, and they were alarmed at the defenceless condition of
+England. Lord Palmerston, speaking in 1845, had declared that "steam had
+bridged the Channel"; and the duke of Wellington had addressed a letter
+to Sir John Burgoyne, in which he had demonstrated that the country was
+not in a position to resist an invading force. The panic was so great
+that the ministry felt it necessary to make exceptional provisions for
+allaying it. Lord John Russell decided on asking parliament to sanction
+increased armaments, and to raise the income tax to 1s. in the pound in
+order to pay for them. The occasion deserves to be recollected as one on
+which a prime minister, who was not also chancellor of the exchequer,
+has himself proposed the budget of the year. But it was still more
+memorable because the remedy which Lord John proposed at once destroyed
+the panic which had suggested it. A certain increase of the income tax
+to a shilling seemed a much more serious calamity than the uncertain
+prospect of a possible invasion. The estimates were recast, the budget
+was withdrawn, and the nation was content to dispense with any addition
+to its military and naval strength. Events in France, in the meanwhile,
+moved with railway speed. Louis Napoleon became president of the French
+Republic: in 1852 he became emperor of the French. The new emperor,
+indeed, took pains to reassure a troubled continent that "the empire was
+peace." The people insisted on believing--and, as the event proved,
+rightly--that the empire was war. Notwithstanding the success of the
+Great Exhibition of 1851, which was supposed to inaugurate a new reign
+of peace, the panic, which had been temporarily allayed in 1848, revived
+at the close of 1851, and the government endeavoured to allay it by
+reconstituting the militia. There were two possible expedients. An act
+of 1757 had placed under the direct authority of the crown a militia
+composed of men selected in each parish by ballot, liable to be called
+out for active service, and to be placed under military law. But the act
+had been supplemented by a series of statutes passed between 1808 and
+1812, which had provided a local militia, raised, like the regular
+militia, by ballot, but, unlike the latter, only liable for service for
+the suppression of riots, or in the event of imminent invasion. Lord
+John Russell's government, forced to do something by the state of public
+opinion, but anxious--from the experience of 1848--to make that
+something moderate, decided on reviving the local militia. Lord
+Palmerston at once suggested that the regular and not the local militia
+should be revived; and, in a small house of only 265 members, he
+succeeded in carrying a resolution to that effect. He had, in this way,
+what he called his "tit for tat" with Lord John; and the queen,
+accepting her minister's resignation, sent for Lord Derby--for Lord
+Stanley had now succeeded to this title--and charged him with the task
+of forming a ministry.
+
+
+  Lord Derby.
+
+The government which Lord Derby succeeded in forming was composed almost
+exclusively of the men who had rebelled against Sir Robert Peel in 1845.
+It was led in the House of Commons by the brilliant, but somewhat
+unscrupulous statesman who had headed the revolt. With the exception of
+Lord Derby and one other man, its members had no experience of high
+office; and it had no chance of commanding a majority of the House of
+Commons in the existing parliament. It owed its position to the
+divisions of its opponents. Profiting by their experience, it succeeded
+in framing and passing a measure reconstituting the regular militia,
+which obtained general approval. It is perhaps worth observing that it
+maintained the machinery of a ballot, but reserved it only in case
+experience should prove that it was necessary. Voluntary enlistment
+under the new Militia Bill was to be the rule: compulsory service was
+only to be resorted to if voluntary enlistment should fail. This
+success, to a certain extent, strengthened the position of the new
+ministry. It was obvious, however, that its stability would ultimately
+be determined by its financial policy. Composed of the men who had
+resisted the free trade measures of the previous decade, its fate
+depended on its attitude towards free trade. In forming his
+administration Lord Derby had found it necessary to declare that, though
+he was still in favour of a tax on corn, he should take no steps in this
+direction till the country had received an opportunity of expressing its
+opinion. His leader in the House of Commons went much further, and
+declared that the time had gone by for reverting to protection. The view
+which Disraeli thus propounded in defiance of his previous opinions was
+confirmed by the electors on the dissolution of parliament. Though the
+new government obtained some increased strength from the result of the
+polls, the country, it was evident, had no intention of abandoning the
+policy of free trade, which by this time, it was clear, had conferred
+substantial benefits on all classes. When the new parliament met in the
+autumn of 1852, it was at once plain that the issue would be determined
+on the rival merits of the old and the new financial systems. Disraeli
+courted the decision by at once bringing forward the budget, which
+custom, and perhaps convenience, would have justified him in postponing
+till the following spring. His proposal--in which he avowedly threw over
+his friends on the ground that "he had greater subjects to consider than
+the triumph of obsolete opinions"--was, in effect, an attempt to
+conciliate his old supporters by a policy of doles, and to find the
+means for doing so by the increased taxation of the middle classes. He
+offered to relieve the shipping interest by transferring some of the
+cost of lighting the coasts to the Consolidated Fund; the West India
+interest by sanctioning the refining of sugar in bond; and the landed
+classes by reducing the malt tax by one-half, and by repealing the old
+war duty on hops. He suggested that the cost of these measures should be
+defrayed by extending the income tax to Ireland to industrial incomes of
+L100 and to permanent incomes of L50 a year, as well as by doubling the
+house tax, and extending it to all L10 householders. The weight,
+therefore, of these measures was either purposely or unintentionally
+thrown mainly on persons living in houses worth from L10 to L20 a year,
+or on persons in receipt of incomes from L50 to L150 a year. This defect
+in the budget was exposed in a great speech by Gladstone, which did much
+to ensure the defeat of the scheme and the fall of the ministry.
+
+
+  Coalition, 1853.
+
+On the resignation of Lord Derby, the queen, anxious to terminate a
+period of weak governments, decided on endeavouring to combine in one
+cabinet the chiefs of the Whig party and the followers of Sir Robert
+Peel. With this view she sent both for Lord Aberdeen, who had held the
+foreign office under Sir Robert, and for Lord Lansdowne, who was the
+Nestor of the Whigs; and with Lord Lansdowne's concurrence charged Lord
+Aberdeen with the task of forming a government. In the new ministry Lord
+Aberdeen became first lord of the treasury, Gladstone chancellor of the
+exchequer, Lord John Russell foreign minister--though he was almost
+immediately replaced in the foreign office by Lord Clarendon, and
+himself assumed the presidency of the council. Lord Palmerston went to
+the home office. One other appointment must also be mentioned. The
+secretary of state for the colonies was also at that time secretary of
+state for war. No one in 1852, however, regarded that office as of
+material importance, and it was entrusted by Lord Aberdeen to an amiable
+and conscientious nobleman, the duke of Newcastle.
+
+
+  Budget of 1853.
+
+The first session of the Aberdeen administration will be chiefly
+recollected for the remarkable budget which Gladstone brought forward.
+It constituted a worthy supplement to the measures of 1842, 1845 and
+1846. Gladstone swept away the duty on one great necessary of
+life--soap; he repealed the duties on 123 other articles; he reduced the
+duties on 133 others, among them that on tea; and he found means for
+paying for these reforms and for the gradual reduction and ultimate
+abolition of the income tax, which had become very unpopular, by (1)
+extending the tax to incomes of L100 a year; (2) an increase of the
+spirit duties; and (3) applying the death duties to real property, and
+to property passing by settlement. There can be little doubt that this
+great proposal was one of the most striking which had ever been brought
+forward in the House of Commons; there can also, unhappily, be no doubt
+that its promises and intentions were frustrated by events which proved
+too strong for its author. For Gladstone, in framing his budget, had
+contemplated a continuance of peace, and the country was, unhappily,
+already drifting into war.
+
+
+  The holy places.
+
+For some years an obscure quarrel had been conducted at Constantinople
+about the custody of the holy places at Jerusalem. France, relying on a
+treaty concluded in the first half of the 18th century, claimed the
+guardianship of these places for the Latin Church. But the rights which
+the Latin Church had thus obtained had practically fallen into disuse,
+while the Greek branch of the Christian Church had occupied and repaired
+the shrines which the Latins had neglected. In the years which preceded
+1853, however, France had shown more activity in asserting her claims;
+and the new emperor of the French, anxious to conciliate the church
+which had supported his elevation to the throne, had a keen interest in
+upholding them. If, for reasons of policy, the emperor had grounds for
+his action, he had personal motives for thwarting the tsar of Russia;
+for the latter potentate had been foolish enough, in recognizing the
+second empire, to address its sovereign as "Mon Cher Ami," instead of,
+in the customary language of sovereigns, as "Monsieur Mon Frere." Thus,
+at the close of 1852, and in the beginning of 1853, Russia and France
+were both addressing opposite and irreconcilable demands to the Porte,
+and France was already talking of sending her fleet to the Dardanelles,
+while Russia was placing an army corps on active service and despatching
+Prince Menshikov on a special mission to Constantinople. So far the
+quarrel which had occurred at the Porte was obviously one in which Great
+Britain had no concern. The Aberdeen ministry, however, thought it
+desirable that it should be represented in the crisis by a strong man at
+Constantinople; and it selected Lord Stratford de Redcliffe for the
+post, which he had filled in former years with marked ability. Whatever
+merits Lord Stratford possessed--and he stands out in current diplomacy
+as the one strong man whom England had abroad--there was no doubt that
+he had this disqualification: the emperor Nicholas had refused some
+years before to receive him as ambassador at St Petersburg, and Lord
+Stratford had resented, and never forgiven, the discourtesy of this
+refusal. Lord Stratford soon discovered that Prince Menshikov was the
+bearer of larger demands, and that he was requiring the Porte to agree
+to a treaty acknowledging the right of Russia to protect the Greek
+Church throughout the Turkish dominions. By Lord Stratford's advice the
+Porte--while making the requisite concession respecting the holy
+places--refused to grant the new demand; and Prince Menshikov thereupon
+withdrew from Constantinople.
+
+The rejection of Prince Menshikov's ultimatum was followed by momentous
+consequences. Russia--or rather her tsar--resolved on the occupation of
+the Danubian principalities; the British ministry--though the quarrel
+did not directly concern Great Britain--sent a fleet to the Dardanelles
+and placed it under Lord Stratford's orders. Diplomacy, however, made a
+fresh attempt to terminate the dispute, and in July 1853 a note was
+agreed upon by the four neutral powers, France, Great Britain, Austria
+and Prussia, which it was decided to present to Constantinople and St
+Petersburg. This note, the adoption of which would have ensured peace,
+was accepted at St Petersburg; at Constantinople it was, unfortunately,
+rejected, mainly on Lord Stratford's advice, and in opposition to his
+instructions from home. Instead, however, of insisting on the adoption
+of the note to which it had agreed, Lord Aberdeen's ministry recommended
+the tsar to accept some amendments to it suggested by Lord Stratford,
+which it was disposed to regard as unimportant. It then discovered,
+however, that the tsar attached a meaning to the original note differing
+from that which it had itself applied to it, and in conjunction with
+France it thereupon ceased to recommend the Vienna note--as it was
+called--for acceptance. This decision separated the two western powers
+from Austria and Prussia, who were disposed to think that Russia had
+done all that could have been required of her in accepting the note
+which the four powers had agreed upon.
+
+It was obvious that the control of the situation was passing from the
+hands of the cabinet at home into those of Lord Stratford at
+Constantinople. The ambassador, in fact, had the great advantage that he
+knew his own mind; the cabinet laboured under the fatal disadvantage
+that it had, collectively, no mind. Its chief, Lord Aberdeen, was
+dominated by a desire to preserve peace; but he had not the requisite
+force to control the stronger men who were nominally serving under him.
+Lord John Russell was a little sore at his own treatment by his party.
+He thought that he had a claim to the first place in the ministry, and
+he did not, in consequence, give the full support to Lord Aberdeen which
+the latter had a right to expect from him. Lord Palmerston, on the other
+hand, had no personal grudge to nurture, but he was convinced that the
+first duty of England was to support Turkey and to resist Russia. He
+represented in the cabinet the views which Lord Stratford was enforcing
+at Constantinople, and step by step Lord Stratford, thus supported,
+drove the country nearer and nearer to war.
+
+
+  Crimean War.
+
+In October the Porte, encouraged by the presence of the British fleet in
+the Bosporus, took the bold step of summoning the Russians to evacuate
+the principalities. Following up this demand the Turkish troops attacked
+the Russian army, and inflicted on it one or two sharp defeats. The
+Russians retaliated by loosing their squadron from Sevastopol, and on
+the 30th of November it attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet at
+Sinope. The massacre of Sinope--as it was rather inaccurately called in
+Great Britain, for it is difficult to deny that it was a legitimate act
+of a belligerent power--created an almost irresistible demand for war
+among the British people. Yielding to popular opinion, the British
+ministry assented to a suggestion of the French emperor that the fleets
+of the allied powers should enter the Black Sea and "invite" every
+Russian vessel to return to Sevastopol. The decision was taken at an
+unfortunate hour. Diplomatists, pursuing their labours at Vienna, had
+succeeded in drawing up a fresh note which they thought might prove
+acceptable both at St Petersburg and at Constantinople. This note was
+presented almost at the moment the tsar learned that the French and
+British fleets had entered the Black Sea, and the Russian government,
+instead of considering it, withdrew its ministers from London and Paris;
+the French and British ambassadors were thereupon withdrawn from St
+Petersburg. An ultimatum was soon afterwards addressed to Russia
+requiring her to evacuate the principalities, and war began. In deciding
+on war the British government relied on the capacity of its fleet, which
+was entrusted to the command of Sir Charles Napier, to strike a great
+blow in the Baltic. The fleet was despatched with extraordinary
+rejoicings, and amidst loud and confident expressions of its certain
+triumph. As a matter of fact it did very little. In the south of Europe,
+however, the Turkish armies on the Danube, strengthened by the advice of
+British officers, were more successful. The Russians were forced to
+retire, and the principalities were evacuated. A prudent administration
+might possibly have succeeded in stopping the war at this point. But the
+temper of the country was by this time excited, and it was loudly
+demanding something more than a preliminary success. It was resolved to
+invade the Crimea and attack the great arsenal, Sevastopol, whence the
+Russian fleet had sailed to Sinope, and in September 1854 the allied
+armies landed in the Crimea. On the 20th the Russian army, strongly
+posted on the banks of the Alma, was completely defeated, and it is
+almost certain that, if the victory had been at once followed up,
+Sevastopol would have fallen. The commanders of the allied armies,
+however, hesitated to throw themselves against the forts erected to the
+north of the town, and decided on the hazardous task of marching round
+Sevastopol and attacking it from the south. The movement was
+successfully carried out, but the Allies again hesitated to attempt an
+immediate assault. The Russians, who were advised by Colonel Todleben,
+the only military man who attained a great reputation in the war, thus
+gained time to strengthen their position by earthworks; and the Allies
+found themselves forced, with scanty preparations, to undertake a
+regular siege against an enemy whose force was numerically superior to
+their own. In the early days of the siege, indeed, the allied armies
+were twice in great peril. A formidable attack on the 25th October on
+the British position at Balaklava led to a series of encounters which
+displayed the bravery of British troops, but did not enhance the
+reputation of British commanders. A still more formidable sortie on the
+5th of November was with difficulty repulsed at Inkerman. And the
+Russians soon afterwards found, in the climate of the country, a
+powerful ally. The allied armies, imperfectly organized, and badly
+equipped for such a campaign, suffered severely from the hardships of a
+Crimean winter. The whole expedition seemed likely to melt away from
+want and disease.
+
+
+  Palmerston's ministry.
+
+The terrible condition of the army, vividly described in the letters
+which the war correspondents of the newspapers sent home, aroused strong
+feelings of indignation in Great Britain. When parliament met Roebuck
+gave notice that he would move for a committee of inquiry. Lord John
+Russell--who had already vainly urged in the cabinet that the duke of
+Newcastle should be superseded, and the conduct of the war entrusted to
+a stronger minister--resigned office. His resignation was followed by
+the defeat of the government, and Lord Aberdeen, thus driven from power,
+was succeeded by Lord Palmerston. In selecting him for the post, the
+queen undoubtedly placed her seal on the wish of the country to carry
+out the war to the bitter end. But it so happened that the formation of
+a new ministry was accompanied by a fresh effort to make terms of peace.
+Before the change of administration a conference had been decided on,
+and Lord Palmerston entrusted its management to Lord John Russell. While
+the latter was on his way to Vienna an event occurred which seemed at
+first to facilitate his task. The tsar, worn out with disappointment,
+suddenly died, and was succeeded by his son Alexander. Unfortunately the
+conference failed, and the war went on for another year. In September
+1855 the allied troops succeeded in obtaining possession of the southern
+side of Sevastopol, and the emperor of the French, satisfied with this
+partial success, or alarmed at the expense of the war, decided on
+withdrawing from the struggle. The attitude of Napoleon made the
+conclusion of peace only a question of time. In the beginning of 1856 a
+congress to discuss the terms was assembled at Paris; in February
+hostilities were suspended; and in April a treaty was concluded. The
+peace set back the boundaries of Russia from the Danube to the Pruth; it
+secured the free navigation of the first of these rivers; it opened the
+Black Sea to the commercial navies of the world, closing it to vessels
+of war, and forbidding the establishment of arsenals upon its shores.
+The last condition, to which Great Britain attached most importance,
+endured for about fourteen years. Peace without this provision could
+undoubtedly have been secured at Vienna, and the prolongation of the war
+from 1855 to 1856 only resulted in securing this arrangement for a
+little more than one decade.
+
+
+  Wars with Persia and China.
+
+The Crimean War left other legacies behind it. The British government
+had for some time regarded with anxiety the gradual encroachments of
+Russia in central Asia. Russian diplomacy was exerting an increasing
+influence in Persia, and the latter had always coveted the city of
+Herat, which was popularly regarded as the gate of India. In 1856 the
+Persian government, believing that England had her hands fully occupied
+in the Crimea, seized Herat, and, in consequence, a fresh war--in which
+a British army under Sir James Outram rapidly secured a victory--broke
+out. The campaign, entered upon when parliament was not in session, was
+unpopular in the country. A grave constitutional question, which was
+ultimately settled by legislation, was raised as to the right of the
+government to undertake military operations beyond the boundaries of
+India without the consent of parliament. But the incidents of the
+Persian war were soon forgotten in the presence of a still graver
+crisis; for in the following year, 1857, the country suddenly found
+itself involved in war with China, and face to face with one of the
+greatest dangers which it has ever encountered--the mutiny of the sepoy
+army in India. The Chinese war arose from the seizure by the Chinese
+authorities of a small vessel, the "Arrow" commanded by a British
+subject, and at one time holding a licence (which, however, had expired
+at the time of the seizure) from the British superintendent at Hongkong,
+and the detention of her crew on the charge of piracy. Sir John Bowring,
+who represented Great Britain in China, failing to secure the reparation
+and apology which he demanded, directed the British admiral to bombard
+Canton. Lord Palmerston's cabinet decided to approve and support Sir
+John Bowring's vigorous action. Cobden, however, brought forward a
+motion in the House of Commons condemning these high-handed proceedings.
+He succeeded in securing the co-operation of his own friends, of Lord
+John Russell, and of other independent Liberals, as well as of the
+Conservative party, and in inflicting a signal defeat on the government.
+Lord Palmerston at once appealed from the House to the country. The
+constituencies, imperfectly acquainted with the technical issues
+involved in the dispute, rallied to the minister, who was upholding
+British interests. Lord Palmerston obtained a decisive victory, and
+returned to power apparently in irresistible strength. Lord Elgin had
+already been sent to China with a considerable force to support the
+demand for redress. On his way thither he learned that the British in
+India were reduced to the last extremities by the mutiny of the native
+army in Bengal, and, on the application of Lord Canning, the
+governor-general, he decided on diverting the troops, intended to bring
+the Chinese to reason, to the more pressing duty of saving India for the
+British crown.
+
+
+  Indian mutiny.
+
+During the years which had followed the accession of the queen, the
+territories and responsibilities of the East India Company had been
+considerably enlarged by the annexation of Sind by Lord Ellenborough,
+the conquest of the Punjab after two desperate military campaigns under
+Lord Dalhousie, the conquest of Pegu, and the annexation of Oudh. These
+great additions to the empire had naturally imposed an increased strain
+on the Indian troops, while the British garrison, instead of being
+augmented, had been depleted to meet the necessities of the Russian war.
+Several circumstances, moreover, tended to propagate disaffection in the
+Indian army. Indian troops operating outside the Company's dominions
+were granted increased allowances, but these were automatically reduced
+when conquest brought the provinces in which they were serving within
+the British pale. The Sepoys again had an ineradicable dislike to serve
+beyond the sea, and the invasion of Pegu necessitated their transport by
+water to the seat of war. Finally, the invention of a new rifle led to
+the introduction of a cartridge which, though it was officially denied
+at the moment, was in fact lubricated with a mixture of cow's fat and
+lard. The Sepoys thought that their caste would be destroyed if they
+touched the fat of the sacred cow or unclean pig; they were even
+persuaded that the British government wished to destroy their caste in
+order to facilitate their conversion to Christianity. Isolated mutinies
+in Bengal were succeeded by much more serious events at Cawnpore in
+Oudh, and at Meerut in the North-West Provinces. From Meerut the
+mutineers, after some acts of outrage and murder, moved on Delhi, the
+capital of the old Mogul empire, which became the headquarters of the
+mutiny. In Oudh the native regiments placed themselves under a Mahratta
+chief, Nana Sahib, by whose orders the British in Cawnpore, including
+the women and children, were foully murdered. In the summer of 1857
+these events seemed to imperil British rule in India. In the autumn the
+courage of the troops and the arrival of reinforcements gradually
+restored the British cause. Delhi, after a memorable siege, was at last
+taken by a brilliant assault. Lucknow, where a small British garrison
+was besieged in the residency, was twice relieved, once temporarily by
+Sir James Outram and General Havelock, and afterwards permanently by Sir
+Colin Campbell, who had been sent out from England to take the chief
+command. Subsequent military operations broke up the remnants of the
+revolt, and in the beginning of 1858 the authority of the queen was
+restored throughout India. The mutiny, however, had impressed its lesson
+on the British people, and, as the first consequence, it was decided to
+transfer the government from the old East India Company to the crown.
+Lord Palmerston's administration was defeated on another issue before it
+succeeded in carrying the measure which it introduced for the purpose,
+though Lord Derby's second ministry, which succeeded it, was compelled
+to frame its proposals on somewhat similar lines. The home government of
+India was entrusted to a secretary of state, with a council to assist
+him; and though the numbers of the council have been reduced, the form
+of government which was then established has endured.
+
+
+  Orsini.
+
+The cause which led to the second fall of Lord Palmerston was in one
+sense unexpected. Some Italian refugees living in London, of whom Orsini
+was the chief, formed a design to assassinate the emperor of the French.
+On the evening of 14th January 1858, while the emperor, accompanied by
+the empress, was driving to the opera, these men threw some bombs under
+his carriage. The brutal attempt happily failed. Neither the emperor nor
+the empress was injured by the explosion, but the carriage in which they
+were driving was wrecked, and a large number of persons who happened to
+be in the street at the time were either killed or wounded. This
+horrible outrage naturally created indignation in France, and it
+unfortunately became plain that the conspiracy had been hatched in
+England, and that the bombs had been manufactured in Birmingham. On
+these facts becoming known, Count Walewski, the chief of the French
+foreign office, who was united by ties of blood to the emperor, called
+on the British government to provide against the danger to which France
+was exposed. "Ought the right of asylum to protect such a state of
+things?" he asked. "Is hospitality due to assassins? Ought the British
+legislature to continue to favour their designs and their plans? And can
+it continue to shelter persons who by these flagrant acts place
+themselves beyond the pale of common rights?" Lord Clarendon, the head
+of the British foreign office, told the French ambassador, who read him
+this despatch, that "no consideration on earth would induce the British
+parliament to pass a measure for the extradition of political refugees,"
+but he added that it was a question whether the law was as complete and
+as stringent as it should be, and he stated that the government had
+already referred the whole subject to the law officers of the crown for
+their consideration. Having made these remarks, however, he judged it
+wise to refrain from giving any formal reply to Count Walewski's
+despatch, and contented himself with privately communicating to the
+British ambassador in Paris the difficulties of the British government.
+After receiving the opinion of the law officers the cabinet decided to
+introduce a bill into parliament increasing in England the punishment
+for a conspiracy to commit a felony either within or without the United
+Kingdom. The first reading of this bill was passed by a considerable
+majority. But, before the bill came on for a second reading, the
+language which was being used in France created strong resentment in
+England. The regiments of the French army sent addresses to the emperor
+congratulating him on his escape and violently denouncing the British
+people. Some of these addresses, which were published in the _Moniteur_,
+spoke of London as "an assassins' den," and invited the emperor to give
+his troops the order to destroy it. Such language did not make it easier
+to alter the law in the manner desired by the government. The House of
+Commons, reflecting the spirit of the country, blamed Lord Clarendon for
+neglecting to answer Count Walewski's despatch, and blamed Lord
+Palmerston for introducing a bill at French dictation. The feeling was
+so strong that, when the Conspiracy Bill came on for a second reading,
+an amendment hostile to the government was carried, and Lord Palmerston
+at once resigned.
+
+
+  Lord Derby's second ministry.
+
+For a second time Lord Derby undertook the difficult task of carrying on
+the work of government without the support of a majority of the House of
+Commons. If the Liberal party had been united his attempt would have
+failed immediately. In 1858, however, the Liberal party had no cohesion.
+The wave of popularity which had carried Lord Palmerston to victory in
+1857 had lost its strength. The Radicals, who were slowly recovering the
+influence they had lost during the Crimean War, regarded even a
+Conservative government as preferable to his return to power, while many
+Liberals desired to entrust the fortunes of their party to the guidance
+of their former chief, Lord John Russell. It was obvious to most men
+that the dissensions thus visible in the Liberal ranks could be more
+easily healed in the cold shade of the opposition benches than in the
+warmer sunlight of office. And therefore, though no one had much
+confidence in Lord Derby, or in the stability of his second
+administration, every one was disposed to acquiesce in its temporary
+occupation of office.
+
+
+  Jews in parliament.
+
+Ministries which exist by sufferance are necessarily compelled to adapt
+their measures to the wishes of those who permit them to continue in
+power. The second ministry of Lord Derby experienced the truth of this
+rule. For some years a controversy had been conducted in the legislature
+in reference to the admission of the Jews to parliament. This dispute
+had been raised in 1847 into a question of practical moment by the
+election of Baron Lionel Nathan Rothschild as representative of the City
+of London, and its importance had been emphasized in 1851 by the return
+of another Jew, Alderman Salomons, for another constituency. The Liberal
+party generally in the House of Commons was in favour of such a
+modification of the oaths as would enable the Jews so elected to take
+their seats. The bulk of the Conservative party, on the contrary, and
+the House of Lords, were strenuously opposed to the change. Early in
+1858 the House of Commons, by an increased majority, passed a bill
+amending the oaths imposed by law on members of both Houses, and
+directing the omission of the words "on the true faith of a Christian"
+from the oath of abjuration when it was taken by a Jew. If the
+Conservatives had remained in opposition there can be little doubt that
+this bill would have shared the fate of its predecessors and have been
+rejected by the Lords. The lord chancellor, indeed, in speaking upon the
+clause relieving the Jews, expressed a hope that the peers would not
+hesitate to pronounce that our "Lord is king, be the people never so
+impatient." But some Conservative peers realized the inconvenience of
+maintaining a conflict between the two Houses when the Conservatives
+were in power; and Lord Lucan, who had commanded the cavalry in the
+Crimea, suggested as a compromise that either House should be authorized
+by resolution to determine the form of oath to be administered to its
+members. This solution was reluctantly accepted by Lord Derby, and Baron
+Rothschild was thus enabled to take the seat from which he had been so
+long excluded. Eight years afterwards parliament was induced to take a
+fresh step in advance. It imposed a new oath from which the words which
+disqualified the Jews were omitted. The door of the House of Lords was
+thus thrown open, and in 1885 Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, raised to
+the peerage, was enabled to take his seat in the upper chamber.
+
+
+  Reform Bill, 1859.
+
+This question was not the only one on which a Conservative government,
+without a majority at its back, was compelled to make concessions. For
+some years past a growing disposition had been displayed among the more
+earnest Liberals to extend the provisions of the Reform Act of 1832.
+Lord John Russell's ministry had been defeated in 1851 on a proposal of
+Locke King to place L10 householders in counties on the same footing as
+regards the franchise as L10 householders in towns, and Lord John
+himself in 1854 had actually introduced a new Reform Bill. After the
+general election of 1857 the demand for reform increased, and, in
+accepting office in 1858, Lord Derby thought it necessary to declare
+that, though he had maintained in opposition that the settlement of
+1832, with all its anomalies, afforded adequate representation to all
+classes, the promises of previous governments and the expectations of
+the people imposed on him the duty of bringing forward legislation on
+the subject. The scheme which Lord Derby's government adopted was
+peculiar. Its chief proposal was the extension of the county franchise
+to L10 householders. But it also proposed that persons possessing a 40s.
+freehold in a borough should in future have a vote in the borough in
+which their property was situated, and not in the county. The bill also
+conferred the franchise on holders of a certain amount of stock, on
+depositors in savings banks, on graduates of universities, and on other
+persons qualified by position or education. The defect of the bill was
+that it did nothing to meet the only real need of reform--the
+enfranchisement of a certain proportion of the working classes. On the
+contrary, in this respect it perpetuated the settlement of 1832. The L10
+householder was still to furnish the bulk of the electorate, and the
+ordinary working man could not afford to pay L10 a year for his house.
+While the larger proposals of the bill were thus open to grave
+objection, its subsidiary features provoked ridicule. The suggestions
+that votes should be conferred on graduates and stockholders were
+laughed at as "fancy franchises." The bill, moreover, was not brought
+forward with the authority of a united cabinet. Two members of the
+government--Spencer Walpole and Henley--declined to be responsible for
+its provisions, and placed their resignations in Lord Derby's hands. In
+Walpole's judgment the bill was objectionable because it afforded no
+reasonable basis for a stable settlement. There was nothing in a L10
+franchise which was capable of permanent defence, and if it was at once
+applied to counties as well as boroughs it would sooner or later be
+certain to be extended. He himself advocated with some force that it
+would be wiser and more popular to fix the county franchise at L20 and
+the borough franchise at L6 rateable value; and he contended that such a
+settlement could be defended on the old principle that taxation and
+representation should go together, for L20 was the minimum rent at which
+the house tax commenced, and a rateable value of L6 was the point at
+which the householder could not compound to pay his rates through this
+landlord. Weakened by the defection of two of its more important
+members, the government had little chance of obtaining the acceptance of
+its scheme. An amendment by Lord John Russell, condemning its main
+provisions, was adopted in an unusually full house by a substantial
+majority, and the cabinet had no alternative but to resign or dissolve.
+It chose the latter course. The general election, which almost
+immediately took place, increased to some extent the strength of the
+Conservative party. For the first time since their secession from Sir
+Robert Peel the Conservatives commanded more than three hundred votes in
+the House of Commons, but this increased strength was not sufficient to
+ensure them a majority. When the new parliament assembled, Lord
+Hartington, the eldest son of the duke of Devonshire, was put forward to
+propose a direct vote of want of confidence in the administration. It
+was carried by 323 votes to 310, and the second Derby administration
+came to an end.
+
+
+  Palmerston's second ministry.
+
+It was plain that the House of Commons had withdrawn its support from
+Lord Derby, but it was not clear that any other leading politician would
+be able to form a government. The jealousies between Lord John Russell
+and Lord Palmerston still existed; the more extreme men, who were
+identified with the policy of Cobden and Bright, had little confidence
+in either of these statesmen; and it was still uncertain whether the
+able group who had been the friends of Sir Robert Peel would finally
+gravitate to the Conservative or to the Liberal camp. The queen, on the
+advice of Lord Derby, endeavoured to solve the first of these
+difficulties by sending for Lord Granville, who led the Liberal party in
+the Lords, and authorizing him to form a government which should
+combine, as far as possible, all the more prominent Liberals. The
+attempt, however, failed, and the queen thereupon fell back upon Lord
+Palmerston. Lord John Russell agreed to accept office as foreign
+minister; Gladstone consented to take the chancellorship of the
+exchequer. Cobden was offered, but declined, the presidency of the Board
+of Trade; and the post which he refused was conferred on a prominent
+free trader, who had associated himself with Cobden's fortunes, Milner
+Gibson. Thus Lord Palmerston had succeeded in combining in one ministry
+the various representatives of political progress. He had secured the
+support of the Peelites, who had left him after the fall of Lord
+Aberdeen in 1855, and of the free traders, who had done so much to
+defeat him in 1857 and 1858. His new administration was accordingly
+based on a broader bottom, and contained greater elements of strength
+than his former cabinet. And the country was requiring more stable
+government. The first three ministries of the queen had endured from the
+spring of 1835 to the spring of 1852, or for very nearly seventeen
+years; but the next seven years had seen the formation and dissolution
+of no less than four cabinets. It was felt that these frequent changes
+were unfortunate for the country, and every one was glad to welcome the
+advent of a government which seemed to promise greater permanence. That
+promise was fulfilled. The administration which Lord Palmerston
+succeeded in forming in 1859 endured till his death in 1865, and with
+slight modifications, under its second chief Lord John (afterwards Earl)
+Russell, till the summer of 1866. It had thus a longer life than any
+cabinet which had governed England since the first Reform Act. But it
+owed its lasting character to the benevolence of its opponents rather
+than to the enthusiasm of its supporters. The Conservatives learned to
+regard the veteran statesman, who had combined all sections of Liberals
+under his banner, as the most powerful champion of Conservative
+principles; a virtual truce of parties was established during his
+continuance in office; and, for the most part of his ministry, a tacit
+understanding existed that the minister, on his side, should pursue a
+Conservative policy, and that the Conservatives, on theirs, should
+abstain from any real attempt to oust him from power. Lord John Russell,
+indeed, was too earnest in his desire for reform to abstain from one
+serious effort to accomplish it. Early in 1860 he proposed, with the
+sanction of the cabinet, a measure providing for the extension of the
+county franchise to L10 householders, of the borough franchise to L6
+householders, and for a moderate redistribution of seats. But the
+country, being in enjoyment of considerable prosperity, paid only a
+languid attention to the scheme; its indifference was reflected in the
+House; the Conservatives were encouraged in their opposition by the lack
+of interest which the new bill excited, and the almost unconcealed
+dislike of the prime minister to its provisions. The bill, thus steadily
+opposed and half-heartedly supported, made only slow progress; and at
+last it was withdrawn by its author. He did not again attempt during
+Lord Palmerston's life to reintroduce the subject. Absorbed in the work
+of the foreign office, which at this time was abnormally active, he
+refrained from pressing home the arguments for internal reform.
+
+
+  Gladstone's budgets.
+
+  Paper duties repealed.
+
+In one important department, however, the ministry departed from the
+Conservative policy it pursued in other matters. Gladstone signalized
+his return to the exchequer by introducing a series of budgets which
+excited keen opposition at the time, but in the result largely added to
+the prosperity of the country. The first of these great budgets, in
+1860, was partly inspired by the necessity of adapting the fiscal system
+to meet the requirements of a commercial treaty which, mainly through
+Cobden's exertions, had been concluded with the emperor of the French.
+The treaty bound France to reduce her duties on English coal and iron,
+and on many manufactured articles; while, in return, Great Britain
+undertook to sweep away the duties on all manufactured goods, and
+largely to reduce those on French wines. But Gladstone was not content
+with these great alterations, which involved a loss of nearly L1,200,000
+a year to the exchequer; he voluntarily undertook to sacrifice another
+million on what he called a supplemental measure of customs reform. He
+proposed to repeal the duties on paper, by which means he hoped to
+increase the opportunities of providing cheap literature for the people.
+The budget of 1860 produced a protracted controversy. The French treaty
+excited more criticism than enthusiasm on both sides of the Channel. In
+France the manufacturers complained that they would be unable to stand
+against the competition of English goods. In England many people thought
+that Great Britain was wasting her resources and risking her supremacy
+by giving the French increased facilities for taking her iron, coal and
+machinery, and that no adequate advantage could result from the greater
+consumption of cheap claret. But the criticism which the French treaty
+aroused was drowned in the clamour which was created by the proposed
+repeal of the paper duties. The manufacture of paper was declared to be
+a struggling industry, which would be destroyed by the withdrawal of
+protection. The dissemination of cheap literature and the multiplication
+of cheap newspapers could not compensate the nation for the ruin of an
+important trade. If money could be spared, moreover, for the remission
+of taxation, the paper duties were much less oppressive than those on
+some other articles. The tax on tea, for example, which had been raised
+during the late war to no less than 1s. 5d. a lb., was much more
+injurious; and it would be far wiser--so it was contended--to reduce the
+duty on tea than to abandon the duties on paper. Notwithstanding the
+opposition which the Paper Duties Bill undoubtedly excited, the proposal
+was carried in the Commons; it was, however, thrown out in the Lords,
+and its rejection led to a crisis which seemed at one time to threaten
+the good relations between the two houses of parliament. It was argued
+that if the Lords had the right to reject a measure remitting existing
+duties, they had in effect the right of imposing taxation, since there
+was no material difference between the adoption of a new tax and the
+continuance of an old one which the Commons had determined to repeal.
+Lord Palmerston, however, with some tact postponed the controversy for
+the time by obtaining the appointment of a committee to search for
+precedents; and, after the report of the committee, he moved a series of
+resolutions affirming the right of the Commons to grant aids and
+supplies as their exclusive privilege, stating that the occasional
+rejection of financial measures by the Lords had always been regarded
+with peculiar jealousy, but declaring that the Commons had the remedy in
+their own hands by so framing bills of supply as to secure their
+acceptance. In accordance with this suggestion the Commons in the
+following year again resolved to repeal the paper duties; but, instead
+of embodying their decision in a separate bill, they included it in the
+same measure which dealt with all the financial arrangements of the
+year, and thus threw on the Lords the responsibility of either accepting
+the proposal, or of paralysing the whole machinery of administration by
+depriving the crown of the supplies which were required for the public
+services. The Lords were not prepared to risk this result, and they
+accordingly accepted a reform which they could no longer resist, and the
+bill became law. In order to enable him to accomplish these great
+changes, Gladstone temporarily raised the income tax, which he found at
+9d. in the L, to 10d. But the result of his reforms was so marked that
+he was speedily able to reduce it. The revenue increased by leaps and
+bounds, and the income tax was gradually reduced till it stood at 4d. in
+the closing years of the administration. During the same period the duty
+on tea was reduced from 1s. 5d. to 6d. a lb.; and the national debt was
+diminished from rather more than L800,000,000 to rather less than
+L780,000,000, the charge for the debt declining, mainly through the
+falling in of the long annuities, by some L2,600,000 a year. With the
+possible exception of Sir Robert Peel's term of office, no previous
+period of British history had been memorable for a series of more
+remarkable financial reforms. Their success redeemed the character of
+the administration. The Liberals, who complained that their leaders
+were pursuing a Conservative policy, could at least console themselves
+by the reflection that the chancellor of the exchequer was introducing
+satisfactory budgets. The language, moreover, which Gladstone was
+holding on other subjects encouraged the more advanced Liberals to
+expect that he would ultimately place himself at the head of the party
+of progress. This expectation was the more remarkable because Gladstone
+was the representative in the cabinet of the old Conservative party
+which Sir Robert Peel had led to victory. As lately as 1858 he had
+reluctantly refused to serve under Lord Derby; he was still a member of
+the Carlton Club; he sat for the university of Oxford; and on many
+questions he displayed a constant sympathy with Conservative traditions.
+Yet, on all the chief domestic questions which came before parliament in
+Lord Palmerston's second administration, Gladstone almost invariably
+took a more Liberal view than his chief. It was understood, indeed, that
+the relations between the two men were not always harmonious; that Lord
+Palmerston disapproved the resolute conduct of Gladstone, and that
+Gladstone deplored the Conservative tendencies of Lord Palmerston. It
+was believed that Gladstone on more than one occasion desired to escape
+from a position which he disliked by resigning office, and that the
+resignation was only averted through a consciousness that the ministry
+could not afford to lose its most eloquent member.
+
+
+  China war, 1859-60.
+
+While on domestic matters, other than those affecting finance, the
+Liberal ministry was pursuing a Conservative policy, its members were
+actively engaged on, and the attention of the public was keenly directed
+to, affairs abroad. For the period was one of foreign unrest, and the
+wars which were then waged have left an enduring mark on the map of the
+world, and have affected the position of the Anglo-Saxon race for all
+time. In the far East, the operations which it had been decided to
+undertake in China were necessarily postponed on account of the
+diversion of the forces, intended to exact redress at Peking, to the
+suppression of mutiny in India. It was only late in 1858 that Lord Elgin
+and Baron Gros, the French plenipotentiary (for France joined England in
+securing simultaneous redress of grievances of her own), were enabled to
+obtain suitable reparation. It was arranged that the treaty, which was
+then provisionally concluded at Tientsin, should be ratified at Peking
+in the following year; and in June 1859 Mr (afterwards Sir Frederick)
+Bruce, Lord Elgin's brother, who had been appointed plenipotentiary,
+attempted to proceed up the Peiho with the object of securing its
+ratification. The allied squadron, however, was stopped by the forts at
+the mouth of the Peiho, which fired on the vessels; a landing party,
+which was disembarked to storm the forts, met with a disastrous check,
+and the squadron had to retire with an acknowledged loss of three
+gunboats and 400 men. This reverse necessitated fresh operations, and in
+1860 Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were directed to return to China, and, at
+the head of an adequate force, were instructed to exact an apology for
+the attack on the allied fleets, the ratification and execution of the
+treaty of Tientsin, and the payment of an indemnity for the expenses of
+the war. The weakness of the Chinese empire was not appreciated at that
+time; the unfortunate incident on the Peiho in the previous summer had
+created an exaggerated impression of the strength of the Chinese arms,
+and some natural anxiety was felt for the success of the expedition. But
+the allied armies met with no serious resistance. The Chinese, indeed,
+endeavoured to delay their progress by negotiation rather than by force;
+and they succeeded in treacherously arresting some distinguished persons
+who had been sent into the Chinese lines to negotiate. But by the middle
+of October the Chinese army was decisively defeated; Peking was
+occupied; those British and French prisoners who had not succumbed to
+the hardships of their confinement were liberated. Lord Elgin determined
+on teaching the rulers of China a lesson by the destruction of the
+summer palace; and the Chinese government was compelled to submit to the
+terms of the Allies, and to ratify the treaty of Tientsin. There is no
+doubt that these operations helped to open the Chinese markets to
+British trade; but incidentally, by regulating the emigration of
+Chinese coolies, they had the unforeseen effect of exposing the
+industrial markets of the world to the serious competition of "cheap
+yellow" labour. A distinguished foreign statesman observed that Lord
+Palmerston had made a mistake. He thought that he had opened China to
+Europe; instead, he had let out the Chinese. It was perhaps a happier
+result of the war that it tended to the continuance of the Anglo-French
+alliance. French and British troops had again co-operated in a joint
+enterprise, and had shared the dangers and successes of a campaign.
+
+
+  Unification of Italy.
+
+War was not confined to China. In the beginning of 1859 diplomatists
+were alarmed at the language addressed by the emperor of the French to
+the Austrian ambassador at Paris, which seemed to breathe the menace of
+a rupture. Notwithstanding the exertions which Great Britain made to
+avert hostilities, the provocation of Count Cavour induced Austria to
+declare war against Piedmont, and Napoleon thereupon moved to the
+support of his ally, promising to free Italy from the Alps to the
+Adriatic. As a matter of fact, the attitude of northern Germany, which
+was massing troops on the Rhine, and the defenceless condition of
+France, which was drained of soldiers for the Italian campaign, induced
+the emperor to halt before he had carried out his purpose, and terms of
+peace were hastily concerted at Villafranca, and were afterwards
+confirmed at Zurich, by which Lombardy was given to Piedmont, while
+Austria was left in possession of Venice and the Quadrilateral, and
+central Italy was restored to its former rulers. The refusal of the
+Italians to take back the Austrian grand dukes made the execution of
+these arrangements impracticable. Napoleon, indeed, used his influence
+to carry them into effect; but Lord John Russell, who was now in charge
+of the British foreign office, and who had Lord Palmerston and Gladstone
+on his side in the cabinet, gave a vigorous support to the claim of the
+Italians that their country should be allowed to regulate her own
+affairs. The French emperor had ultimately to yield to the determination
+of the inhabitants of central Italy, when it was backed by the arguments
+of the British foreign office, and Tuscany, Modena, Parma, as well as a
+portion of the states of the Church, were united to Piedmont. There was
+no doubt that through the whole of the negotiations the Italians were
+largely indebted to the labours of Lord John Russell. They recognized
+that they owed more to the moral support of England than to the armed
+assistance of France. The French emperor, moreover, took a step which
+lost him the sympathy of many Italians. Before the war he had arranged
+with Count Cavour that France should receive, as the price of her aid,
+the duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice. After Villafranca, the
+emperor, frankly recognizing that he had only half kept his promise,
+consented to waive his claim to these provinces. But, when he found
+himself unable to resist the annexation of central Italy to Piedmont, he
+reverted to the old arrangement. The formation of a strong Piedmontese
+kingdom, with the spoliation of the papal dominion, was unpopular in
+France; and he thought--perhaps naturally--that he must have something
+to show his people in return for sacrifices which had cost him the lives
+of 50,000 French soldiers, and concessions which the whole Catholic
+party in France resented. Count Cavour consented to pay the price which
+Napoleon thus exacted, and the frontier of France was accordingly
+extended to the Alps. But it is very doubtful whether Napoleon did not
+lose more than he gained by this addition to his territory. It certainly
+cost him the active friendship of Great Britain. The Anglo-French
+alliance had been already strained by the language of the French
+colonels in 1858 and the Franco-Austrian War of 1859; it never fully
+recovered from the shock which it received by the evidence, which the
+annexation of Savoy and Nice gave, of the ambition of the French
+emperor. The British people gave way to what Cobden called the last of
+the three panics. Lord Palmerston proposed and carried the provision of
+a large sum of money for the fortification of the coasts; and the
+volunteer movement, which had its origin in 1859, received a remarkable
+stimulus in 1860. In this year the course of events in Italy emphasized
+the differences between the policy of Great Britain and that of France.
+Garibaldi, with a thousand followers, made his famous descent on the
+coast of Sicily. After making himself master of that island, he crossed
+over to the mainland, drove the king of Naples out of his capital, and
+forced him to take refuge in Gaeta. In France these events were regarded
+with dismay. The emperor wished to stop Garibaldi's passage across the
+strait, and stationed his fleet at Gaeta to protect the king of Naples.
+Lord John Russell, on the contrary, welcomed Garibaldi's success with
+enthusiasm. He declined to intervene in the affairs of Italy by
+confining the great liberator to Sicily; he protested against the
+presence of the French fleet at Gaeta; and when other foreign nations
+denounced the conduct of Piedmont, he defended it by quoting Vattel and
+citing the example of William III. When, finally, Italian troops entered
+the dominions of the pope, France withdrew her ambassador from the court
+of Turin, and England under Lord John Russell's advice at once
+recognized the new kingdom of Italy.
+
+
+  Schleswig-Holstein question.
+
+In these great events--for the union of Italy was the greatest fact
+which had been accomplished in Europe since the fall of the first
+Napoleon--the British ministry had undoubtedly acquired credit. It was
+everywhere felt that the new kingdom owed much to the moral support
+which had been steadily and consistently given to it by Great Britain.
+Soon afterwards, however, in the autumn of 1863, the death of the king
+of Denmark led to a new revolution in the north of Europe, in which Lord
+Palmerston's government displayed less resolution, and lost much of the
+prestige which it had acquired by its Italian policy. The duchies of
+Schleswig and Holstein had been for centuries united to the kingdom of
+Denmark by the golden link of the crown; in other respects they had been
+organically kept distinct, while one of them--Holstein--was a member of
+the German confederation. The succession to the crown of Denmark,
+however, was different from that in the duchies. In Denmark the crown
+could descend, as it descends in Great Britain, through females. In the
+duchies the descent was confined to the male line; and, as Frederick
+VII., who ascended the Danish throne in 1848, had no direct issue, the
+next heir to the crown of Denmark under this rule was Prince Christian
+of Gluecksburg, afterwards king; the next heir to the duchies being the
+duke of Augustenburg. In 1850 an arrangement had been made to prevent
+the separation of the duchies from the kingdom. As a result of a
+conference held in London, the duke of Augustenburg was induced to
+renounce his claim on the receipt of a large sum of money. Most of the
+great powers of Europe were parties to this plan. But the German
+confederation was not represented at the conference, and was not
+therefore committed to its conclusions. During the reign of Frederick
+VII. the Danish government endeavoured to cement the alliance between
+the duchies and the kingdom, and specially to separate the interests of
+Schleswig, which was largely Danish in its sympathies, from those of
+Holstein, which was almost exclusively German. With this object, in the
+last year of his life, Frederick VII. granted Holstein autonomous
+institutions, and bound Schleswig more closely to the Danish monarchy.
+The new king Christian IX. confirmed this arrangement. The German diet
+at Frankfort at once protested against it. Following up words with acts,
+it decided on occupying Holstein, and it delegated the duty of carrying
+out its order to Hanover and Saxony. While this federal execution was
+taking place, the duke of Augustenburg--regardless of the arrangements
+to which he had consented--delegated his rights in the duchies to his
+son, who formally claimed the succession. So far the situation, which
+was serious enough, had been largely dependent on the action of Germany.
+In the closing days of 1863 it passed mainly into the control of the two
+chief German powers. In Prussia Bismarck had lately become prime
+minister, and was animated by ambitious projects for his country's
+aggrandizement. Austria, afraid of losing her influence in Germany,
+followed the lead of Prussia, and the two powers required Denmark to
+cancel the arrangements which Frederick VII. had made, and which
+Christian IX. had confirmed, threatening in case of refusal to follow up
+the occupation of Holstein by that of Schleswig. As the Danes gave only
+a provisional assent to the demand, Prussian and Austrian troops entered
+Schleswig. These events created much excitement in England. The great
+majority of the British people, who imperfectly understood the merits of
+the case, were unanimous in their desire to support Denmark by arms.
+Their wish had been accentuated by the circumstance that the marriage in
+the previous spring of the prince of Wales to the daughter of the new
+king of Denmark had given them an almost personal interest in the
+struggle. Lord Palmerston had publicly expressed the views of the people
+by declaring that, if Denmark were attacked, her assailants would not
+have to deal with Denmark alone. The language of the public press and of
+Englishmen visiting Denmark confirmed the impression which the words of
+the prime minister had produced; and there is unfortunately no doubt
+that Denmark was encouraged to resist her powerful opponents by the
+belief, which she was thus almost authorized in entertaining, that she
+could reckon in the hour of her danger on the active assistance of the
+United Kingdom. If Lord Palmerston had been supported by his cabinet, or
+if he had been a younger man, he might possibly, in 1864, have made good
+the words which he had rashly uttered in 1863. But the queen, who, it is
+fair to add, understood the movement which was tending to German unity
+much better than most of her advisers, was averse from war. A large
+section of the cabinet shared the queen's hesitation, and Lord
+Palmerston--with the weight of nearly eighty summers upon him--was not
+strong enough to enforce his will against both his sovereign and his
+colleagues. He made some attempt to ascertain whether the emperor of the
+French would support him if he went to war. But he found that the
+emperor had not much fancy for a struggle which would have restored
+Holstein to Denmark; and that, if he went to war at all, his chief
+object would be the liberation of Venice and the rectification of his
+own frontiers. Even Lord Palmerston shrank from entering on a campaign
+which would have involved all Europe in conflagration and would have
+unsettled the boundaries of most continental nations; and the British
+government endeavoured thenceforward to stop hostilities by referring
+the question immediately in dispute to a conference in London. The
+labours of the conference proved abortive. Its members were unable to
+agree upon any methods of settlements, and the war went on. Denmark,
+naturally unable to grapple with her powerful antagonists, was forced to
+yield, and the two duchies which were the subject of dispute were taken
+from her.
+
+The full consequences of this struggle were not visible at the time. It
+was impossible to foresee that it was the first step which was to carry
+Prussia forward, under her ambitious minister, to a position of
+acknowledged supremacy on the continent. But the results to Great
+Britain were plain enough. She had been mighty in words and weak in
+deeds. It was no doubt open to her to contend, as perhaps most wise
+people consider, that the cause of Denmark was not of sufficient
+importance to justify her in going to war. But it was not open to her to
+encourage a weak power to resist and then desert her in the hour of her
+necessity. Lord Palmerston should not have used the language which he
+employed in 1863 if he had not decided that his brave words would be
+followed by brave action. His conduct lowered the prestige of Great
+Britain at least as much as his Italian policy had raised it.
+Continental statesmen thenceforward assumed that Great Britain, however
+much she might protest, would not resort to arms, and the influence of
+England suffered, as it was bound to suffer, in consequence.
+
+
+  American civil war.
+
+Meanwhile, in this period of warfare, another struggle was being fought
+out on a still greater scale in North America. The election of Abraham
+Lincoln to the presidency of the United States emphasized the fact that
+the majority of the inhabitants of the Northern States were opposed to
+the further spread of slavery; and, in the beginning of 1861, several of
+the Southern States formally seceded from the union. A steamer sent by
+the Federal government with reinforcements to Fort Sumter was fired
+upon, and both parties made preparations for the civil war which was
+apparently inevitable. On the one side the Confederate States--as the
+seceding states were called--were animated by a resolution to protect
+their property. On the other side the "conscience" of the North was
+excited by a passionate desire to wipe out the blot of slavery. Thus
+both parties were affected by some of the most powerful considerations
+which can influence mankind, while the North were further actuated by
+the natural incentive to preserve the union, which was threatened with
+disruption. The progress of the great struggle was watched with painful
+attention in England. The most important manufacturing interest in
+England was paralysed by the loss of the raw cotton, which was obtained
+almost exclusively from the United States, and tens of thousands of
+workpeople were thrown out of employment. The distress which resulted
+naturally created a strong feeling in favour of intervention, which
+might terminate the war and open the Southern ports to British commerce;
+and the initial successes which the Confederates secured seemed to
+afford some justification for such a proceeding. In the course of 1862
+indeed, when the Confederate armies had secured many victories,
+Gladstone, speaking at Newcastle, used the famous expression that
+President Jefferson Davis had "made a nation"; and Lord Palmerston's
+language in the House of Commons--while opposing a motion for the
+recognition of the South--induced the impression that his thoughts were
+tending in the same direction as Mr Gladstone's. The emperor Napoleon,
+in July of the same year, confidentially asked the British minister
+whether the moment had not come for recognizing the South; and in the
+following September Lord Palmerston was himself disposed in concert with
+France to offer to mediate on the basis of separation. Soon afterwards,
+however, the growing exhaustion of the South improved the prospects of
+the Northern States: an increasing number of persons in Great Britain
+objected to interfere in the interests of slavery; and the combatants
+were allowed to fight out their quarrel without the interference of
+Europe.
+
+
+  The "Trent" incident.
+
+At the beginning of the war, Lord John Russell (who was made a peer as
+Earl Russell in 1861) acknowledged the Southern States as belligerents.
+His decision caused some ill-feeling at Washington; but it was
+inevitable. For the North had proclaimed a blockade of the Southern
+ports; and it would have been both inconvenient and unfair if Lord
+Russell had decided to recognize the blockade and had refused to
+acknowledge the belligerent rights of the Southern States. Lord
+Russell's decision, however, seemed to indicate some latent sympathy for
+the Southern cause; and the irritation which was felt in the North was
+increased by the news that the Southern States were accrediting two
+gentlemen to represent them at Paris and at London. These emissaries,
+Messrs Mason and Slidell, succeeded in running the blockade and in
+reaching Cuba, where they embarked on the "Trent," a British mail
+steamer sailing for England. On her passage home the "Trent" was stopped
+by the Federal steamer "San Jacinto"; she was boarded, and Messrs Mason
+and Slidell were arrested. There was no doubt that the captain of the
+"San Jacinto" had acted irregularly. While he had the right to stop the
+"Trent," examine the mails, and, if he found despatches for the enemy
+among them, carry the vessel into an American port for adjudication, he
+had no authority to board the vessel and arrest two of her passengers.
+"The British government," to use its own language, "could not allow such
+an affront to the national honour to pass without due reparation." They
+decided on sending what practically amounted to an ultimatum to the
+Federal government, calling upon it to liberate the prisoners and to
+make a suitable apology. The presentation of this ultimatum, which was
+accompanied by the despatch of troops to Canada, was very nearly
+provoking war with the United States. If, indeed, the ultimatum had been
+presented in the form in which it was originally framed, war might have
+ensued. But at the prince consort's suggestion its language was
+considerably modified, and the responsibility for the outrage was thrown
+on the officer who committed it, and not on the government of the
+Republic. It ought not to be forgotten that this important modification
+was the last service rendered to his adopted country by the prince
+consort before his fatal illness. He died before the answer to the
+despatch was received; and his death deprived the queen of an adviser
+who had stood by her side since the earlier days of her reign, and who,
+by his prudence and conduct, had done much to raise the tone of the
+court and the influence of the crown. Happily for the future of the
+world, the government of the United States felt itself able to accept
+the despatch which had been thus addressed to it, and to give the
+reparation which was demanded; and the danger of war between the two
+great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race was averted. But, in the
+following summer, a new event excited fresh animosities, and aroused a
+controversy which endured for the best part of ten years.
+
+
+  The "Alabama."
+
+The Confederates, naturally anxious to harass the commerce of their
+enemies, endeavoured from the commencement of hostilities to purchase
+armed cruisers from builders of neutral nations. In June 1862 the
+American minister in London drew Lord Russell's attention to the fact
+that a vessel, lately launched at Messrs Laird's yard at Birkenhead, was
+obviously intended to be employed as a Confederate cruiser. The
+solicitor to the commissioners of customs, however, considered that no
+facts had been revealed to authorize the detention of the vessel, and
+this opinion was reported in July to the American minister, Charles
+Francis Adams. He thereupon supplied the government with additional
+facts, and at the same time furnished them with the opinion of an
+eminent English lawyer, R. P. Collier (afterwards Lord Monkswell), to
+the effect that "it would be difficult to make out a stronger case of
+infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which if not enforced on
+this occasion is little better than a dead letter." These facts and this
+opinion were at once sent to the law officers. They reached the queen's
+advocate on Saturday the 26th of July; but, by an unfortunate mischance,
+the queen's advocate had just been wholly incapacitated by a distressing
+illness; and the papers, in consequence, did not reach the attorney- and
+solicitor-general till the evening of the following Monday, when they at
+once advised the government to detain the vessel. Lord Russell thereupon
+sent orders to Liverpool for her detention. In the meanwhile the
+vessel--probably aware of the necessity for haste--had put to sea, and
+had commenced the career which made her famous as the "Alabama."
+Ministers might even then have taken steps to stop the vessel by
+directing her detention in any British port to which she resorted for
+supplies. The cabinet, however, shrank from this course. The "Alabama"
+was allowed to prey on Federal commerce, and undoubtedly inflicted a
+vast amount of injury on the trade of the United States. In the autumn
+of 1862 Adams demanded redress for the injuries which had thus been
+sustained, and this demand was repeated for many years in stronger and
+stronger language. At last, in 1871, long after Lord Palmerston's death
+and Lord Russell's retirement, a joint commission was appointed to
+examine into the many cases of dispute which had arisen between the
+United States and Great Britain. The commissioners agreed upon three
+rules by which they thought neutrals should in future be bound, and
+recommended that they should be given a retrospective effect. They
+decided also that the claims which had arisen out of the depredations of
+the "Alabama" should be referred to arbitration. In the course of 1872
+the arbitrators met at Geneva. Their finding was adverse to Great
+Britain, which was condemned to pay a large sum of money--more than
+L3,000,000--as compensation. A period of exceptional prosperity, which
+largely increased the revenue, enabled a chancellor of the exchequer to
+boast that the country had drunk itself out of the "Alabama" difficulty.
+
+
+  Lord Russell's second ministry.
+
+In October 1805 Lord Palmerston's rule, which had been characterized by
+six years of political inaction at home and by constant disturbance
+abroad, was terminated by his death. The ministry, which had suffered
+many losses from death during its duration, was temporarily
+reconstructed under Lord Russell; and the new minister at once decided
+to put an end to the period of internal stagnation, which had lasted so
+long, by the introduction of a new Reform Bill. Accordingly, in March
+1866 Gladstone, who now led the House of Commons, introduced a measure
+which proposed to extend the county franchise to L14 and the borough
+franchise to L7 householders. The bill did not create much enthusiasm
+among Liberals, and it was naturally opposed by the Conservatives, who
+were reinforced by a large section of moderate Liberals, nicknamed, in
+consequence of a phrase in one of Bright's speeches, Adullamites. After
+many debates, in which the Commons showed little disposition to give the
+ministry any effective support, an amendment was carried by Lord
+Dunkellin, the eldest son of Lord Clanricarde, basing the borough
+franchise on rating instead of rental. The cabinet, recognizing from the
+division that the control of the House had passed out of its hands,
+resigned office, and the queen was compelled to entrust Lord Derby with
+the task of forming a new administration.
+
+
+  Lord Derby's third ministry.
+
+For the third time in his career Lord Derby undertook the formidable
+task of conducting the government of the country with only a minority of
+the House of Commons to support him. The moment at which he made this
+third attempt was one of unusual anxiety. Abroad, the almost
+simultaneous outbreak of war between Prussia and Austria was destined to
+affect the whole aspect of continental politics. At home, a terrible
+murrain had fallen on the cattle, inflicting ruin on the agricultural
+interest; a grave commercial crisis was creating alarm in the city of
+London, and, in its consequences, injuring the interests of labour;
+while the working classes, at last roused from their long indifference,
+and angry at the rejection of Lord Russell's bill, were assembling in
+their tens of thousands to demand reform. The cabinet determined to
+prohibit a meeting which the Reform League decided to hold in Hyde Park
+on the 23rd of July, and closed the gates of the park on the people. But
+the mob, converging on the park in thousands, surged round the railings,
+which a little inquiry might have shown were too weak to resist any real
+pressure. Either accidentally or intentionally, the railings were
+overturned in one place, and the people, perceiving their opportunity,
+at once threw them down round the whole circuit of the park. Few acts in
+Queen Victoria's reign were attended with greater consequences. For the
+riot in Hyde Park led almost directly to a new Reform Act, and to the
+transfer of power from the middle classes to the masses of the people.
+
+
+  Reform, 1867.
+
+Yet, though the new government found it necessary to introduce a Reform
+Bill, a wide difference of opinion existed in the cabinet as to the form
+which the measure should take. Several of its members were in favour of
+assimilating the borough franchise to that in force in municipal
+elections, and practically conferring a vote on every householder who
+had three years' residence in the constituency. General Peel,
+however--Sir Robert Peel's brother--who held the seals of the war
+office, objected to this extension; and the cabinet ultimately decided
+on evading the difficulty by bringing forward a series of resolutions on
+which a scheme of reform might ultimately be based. Their success in
+1858, in dealing with the government of India in this way, commended the
+decision to the acceptance of the cabinet. But it was soon apparent that
+the House of Commons required a definite scheme, and that it would not
+seriously consider a set of abstract resolutions which committed no one
+to any distinct plan. Hence on the 23rd of February 1867 the cabinet
+decided on withdrawing its resolutions and reverting to its original
+bill. On the following day Lord Cranborne--better known afterwards as
+Lord Salisbury--discovered that the bill had more democratic tendencies
+than he had originally supposed, and refused to be a party to it. On
+Monday, the 25th, the cabinet again met to consider the new difficulty
+which had thus arisen; and it decided (as was said afterwards by Sir
+John Pakington) in ten minutes to substitute for the scheme a mild
+measure extending the borough franchise to houses rated at L6 a year,
+and conferring the county franchise on L20 householders. The bill, it
+was soon obvious, would be acceptable to no one; and the government
+again fell back on its original proposal. Three members of the cabinet,
+however, Lord Cranborne, Lord Carnarvon and General Peel, refused to be
+parties to the measure, and resigned office, the government being
+necessarily weakened by these defections. In the large scheme which the
+cabinet had now adopted, the borough franchise was conferred on all
+householders rated to the relief of the poor, who had for two years
+occupied the houses which gave them the qualification; the county
+franchise was given to the occupiers of all houses rated at L15 a year
+or upwards. But it was proposed that these extensions should be
+accompanied by an educational franchise, and a franchise conferred on
+persons who had paid twenty shillings in assessed taxes or income tax;
+the taxpayers who had gained a vote in this way being given a second
+vote in respect of the property which they occupied. In the course of
+the discussion on the bill in the House of Commons, the securities on
+which its authors had relied to enable them to stem the tide of
+democracy were, chiefly through Gladstone's exertions, swept away. The
+dual vote was abandoned, direct payment of rates was surrendered, the
+county franchise was extended to L12 householders, and the
+redistribution of seats was largely increased. The bill, in the shape in
+which it had been introduced, had been surrounded with safeguards to
+property. With their loss it involved a great radical change, which
+placed the working classes of the country in the position of
+predominance which the middle classes had occupied since 1832.
+
+
+  Disraeli prime minister.
+
+The passage of the bill necessitated a dissolution of parliament; but it
+had to be postponed to enable parliament to supplement the English
+Reform Act of 1867 with measures applicable to Scotland and Ireland, and
+to give time for settling the boundaries of the new constituencies which
+had been created. This delay gave the Conservatives another year of
+office. But the first place in the cabinet passed in 1868 from Lord
+Derby to his lieutenant, Disraeli. The change added interest to
+political life. Thenceforward, for the next thirteen years, the chief
+places in the two great parties in the state were filled by the two men,
+Gladstone and Disraeli, who were unquestionably the ablest
+representatives of their respective followers. But the situation was
+also remarkable because power thus definitely passed from men who,
+without exception, had been born in the 18th century, and had all held
+cabinet offices before 1832, to men who had been born in the 19th
+century, and had only risen to cabinet rank in the 'forties and the
+'fifties. It was also interesting to reflect that Gladstone had begun
+life as a Conservative, and had only gradually moved to the ranks of the
+Liberal party; while Disraeli had fought his first election under the
+auspices of O'Connell and Hume, had won his spurs by his attacks on Sir
+Robert Peel, and had been only reluctantly adopted by the Conservatives
+as their leader in the House of Commons.
+
+
+  Irish Church.
+
+The struggle commenced in 1868 on an Irish question. During the previous
+years considerable attention had been paid to a secret conspiracy in
+Ireland and among the Irish in America. The Fenians, as they were
+called, actually attempted insurrection in Ireland, and an invasion of
+Canada from the United States. At the beginning of 1866 Lord Russell's
+government thought itself compelled to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act in
+Ireland; and in 1867 Lord Derby's government was confronted in the
+spring by a plot to seize Chester Castle, and in the autumn by an attack
+on a prison van at Manchester containing Fenian prisoners, and by an
+atrocious attempt to blow up Clerkenwell prison. Conservative
+politicians deduced from these circumstances the necessity of applying
+firm government to Ireland. Liberal statesmen, on the contrary, desired
+to extirpate rebellion by remedying the grievances of which Ireland
+still complained. Chief among these was the fact that the Established
+Church in Ireland was the church of only a minority of the people. In
+March 1868 John Francis Maguire, an Irish Catholic, asked the House of
+Commons to resolve itself into a committee to take into immediate
+consideration the affairs of Ireland. Gladstone, in the course of the
+debate, declared that in his opinion the time had come when the Irish
+Church, as a political institution, should cease; and he followed up his
+declaration by a series of resolutions, which were accepted by
+considerable majorities, pledging the House to its disestablishment.
+Disraeli, recognizing the full significance of this decision, announced
+that, as soon as the necessary preparations could be made, the
+government would appeal from the House to the country. Parliament was
+dissolved at the end of July, but the general election did not take
+place till the end of the following November. The future of the Irish
+Church naturally formed one of the chief subjects which occupied the
+attention of the electors, but the issue was largely determined by wider
+considerations. The country, after the long political truce which had
+been maintained by Lord Palmerston, was again ranged in two hostile
+camps, animated by opposing views. It was virtually asked to decide in
+1868 whether it would put its trust in Liberal or Conservative, in
+Gladstone or Disraeli. By an overwhelming majority it threw its lot in
+favour of Gladstone; and Disraeli, without even venturing to meet
+parliament, took the unusual course of at once placing his resignation
+in the queen's hands.
+
+
+  Abyssinian war.
+
+The Conservative government, which thus fell, will be chiefly
+recollected for its remarkable concession to democratic principles by
+the passage of the Reform Act of 1867; but it deserves perhaps a word of
+praise for its conduct of a distant and unusual war. The emperor of
+Abyssinia had, for some time, detained some Englishmen prisoners in his
+country; and the government, unable to obtain redress in other ways,
+decided on sending an army to release them. The expedition, entrusted to
+Sir Robert Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala, was fitted out at
+great expense, and was rewarded with complete success. The prisoners
+were released, and the Abyssinian monarch committed suicide.
+Disraeli--whose oriental imagination was excited by the
+triumph--incurred some ridicule by his bombastic declaration that "the
+standard of St George was hoisted upon the mountains of Rasselas." But
+the ministry could at least claim that the war had been waged to rescue
+Englishmen from captivity, that it had been conducted with skill, and
+that it had accomplished its object. The events of the Abyssinian war,
+however, were forgotten in the great political revolution which had
+swept the Conservatives from office and placed Gladstone in power. His
+government was destined to endure for more than five years. During that
+period it experienced the alternate prosperity and decline which nearly
+forty years before had been the lot of the Whigs after the passage of
+the first Reform Act. During its first two sessions it accomplished
+greater changes in legislation than had been attempted by any ministry
+since that of Lord Grey. In its three last sessions it was destined to
+sink into gradual disrepute; and it was ultimately swept away by a wave
+of popular reaction, as remarkable as that which had borne it into
+power.
+
+
+  Gladstone's first ministry.
+
+  Irish land.
+
+  Elementary education.
+
+It was generally understood that Gladstone intended to deal with three
+great Irish grievances--"the three branches of the upas tree"--the
+religious, agricultural and educational grievances. The session of 1869
+was devoted to the first of these subjects. Gladstone introduced a bill
+disconnecting the Irish Church from the state, establishing a synod for
+its government, and--after leaving it in possession of its churches and
+its parsonages, and making ample provision for the life-interest of its
+existing clergy--devoting the bulk of its property to the relief of
+distress in Ireland. The bill was carried by large majorities through
+the House of Commons; and the feeling of the country was so strong that
+the Lords did not venture on its rejection. They satisfied themselves
+with engrafting on it a series of amendments which, on the whole,
+secured rather more liberal terms of compensation for existing
+interests. Some of these amendments were adopted by Gladstone; a
+compromise was effected in respect of the others; and the bill, which
+had practically occupied the whole session, and had perhaps involved
+higher constructive skill than any measure passed in the previous
+half-century, became law. Having dealt with the Irish Church in 1869,
+Gladstone turned to the more complicated question of Irish land. So far
+back as the 'forties Sir R. Peel had appointed a commission, known from
+its chairman as the Devon commission, which had recommended that the
+Irish tenant, in the event of disturbance, should receive some
+compensation for certain specified improvements which he had made in his
+holding. Parliament neglected to give effect to these recommendations;
+in a country where agriculture was the chief or almost only occupation,
+the tenant remained at his landlord's mercy. In 1870 Gladstone proposed
+to give the tenant a pecuniary interest in improvements, suitable to the
+holding, which he had made either before or after the passing of the
+act. He proposed also that, in cases of eviction, the smaller tenantry
+should receive compensation for disturbance. The larger tenantry, who
+were supposed to be able to look after their own interests, were
+entirely debarred, and tenants enjoying leases were excluded from
+claiming compensation, except for tillages, buildings and reclamation of
+lands. A special court, it was further provided, should be instituted to
+carry out the provisions of the bill. Large and radical as the measure
+was, reversing many of the accepted principles of legislation by giving
+the tenant a _quasi_-partnership with the landlord in his holding, no
+serious opposition was made to it in either House of Parliament. Its
+details, indeed, were abundantly criticized, but its principles were
+hardly disputed, and it became law without any substantial alteration of
+its original provisions. In two sessions two branches of the upas tree
+had been summarily cut off. But parliament in 1870 was not solely
+occupied with the wrongs of Irish tenantry. In the same year Forster, as
+vice-president of the council, succeeded in carrying the great measure
+which for the first time made education compulsory. In devising his
+scheme, Forster endeavoured to utilize, as far as possible, the
+educational machinery which had been voluntarily provided by various
+religious organizations. He gave the institutions, which had been thus
+established, the full benefit of the assistance which the government was
+prepared to afford to board schools, on their adopting a conscience
+clause under which the religious susceptibilities of the parents of
+children were protected. This provision led to many debates, and
+produced the first symptoms of disruption in the Liberal party. The
+Nonconformists contended that no such aid should be given to any school
+which was not conducted on undenominational principles. Supported by the
+bulk of the Conservative party, Forster was enabled to defeat the
+dissenters. But the victory which he secured was, in one sense, dearly
+purchased. The first breach in the Liberal ranks had been made; and the
+government, after 1870, never again commanded the same united support
+which had enabled it to pursue its victorious career in the first two
+sessions of its existence.
+
+
+  Black Sea neutrality.
+
+  Army purchase.
+
+Towards the close of the session of 1870 other events, for which the
+government had no direct responsibility, introduced new difficulties.
+War unexpectedly broke out between France and Prussia. The French empire
+fell; the German armies marched on Paris; and the Russian government, at
+Count Bismarck's instigation, took advantage of the collapse of France
+to repudiate the clause in the treaty of 1856 which neutralized the
+Black Sea. Lord Granville, who had succeeded Lord Clarendon at the
+foreign office, protested against this proceeding. But it was everywhere
+felt that his mere protest was not likely to affect the result; and the
+government at last consented to accept a suggestion made by Count
+Bismarck, and to take part in a conference to discuss the Russian
+proposal. Though this device enabled them to say that they had not
+yielded to the Russian demand, it was obvious that they entered the
+conference with the foregone conclusion of conceding the Russian claim.
+The attitude which the government thus chose to adopt was perhaps
+inevitable in the circumstances, but it confirmed the impression, which
+the abandonment of the cause of Denmark had produced in 1864, that Great
+Britain was not prepared to maintain its principles by going to war. The
+weakness of the British foreign office was emphasized by its consenting,
+almost at the same moment, to allow the claims of the United States, for
+the depredations of the "Alabama," to be settled under a rule only
+agreed upon in 1871. Most Englishmen now appreciate the wisdom of a
+concession which has gained for them the friendship of the United
+States. But in 1871 the country resented the manner in which Lord
+Granville had acted. Whatever credit the government might have derived
+from its domestic measures, it was discredited, or it was thought to be,
+by its foreign policy. In these circumstances legislation in 1871 was
+not marked with the success which had attended the government in
+previous sessions. The government succeeded in terminating a long
+controversy by abolishing ecclesiastical tests at universities. But the
+Lords ventured to reject a measure for the introduction of the ballot at
+elections, and refused to proceed with a bill for the abolition of
+purchase in the army. The result of these decisions was indeed
+remarkable. In the one case, the Lords in 1872 found it necessary to
+give way, and to pass the Ballot Bill, which they had rejected in 1871.
+In the other, Gladstone decided on abolishing, by the direct authority
+of the crown, the system which the Lords refused to do away with by
+legislation. But his high-handed proceeding, though it forced the Lords
+to reconsider their decision, strained the allegiance of many of his
+supporters, and still further impaired the popularity of his
+administration. Most men felt that it would have been permissible for
+him, at the commencement of the session, to have used the queen's
+authority to terminate the purchase system; but they considered that, as
+he had not taken this course, it was not open to him to reverse the
+decision of the legislature by resorting to the prerogative. Two
+appointments, one to a judicial office, the other to an ecclesiastical
+preferment, in which Gladstone, about the same time, showed more
+disposition to obey the letter than the spirit of the law, confirmed the
+impression which the abolition of purchase had made. Great reforming
+ministers would do well to recollect that the success of even liberal
+measures may be dearly purchased by the resort to what are regarded as
+unconstitutional expedients.
+
+
+  1872-1874.
+
+In the following years the embarrassments of the government were further
+increased. In 1872 Bruce, the home secretary, succeeded in passing a
+measure of licensing reform. But the abstainers condemned the bill as
+inadequate; the publicans denounced it as oppressive; and the whole
+strength of the licensed victuallers was thenceforward arrayed against
+the ministry. In 1873 Gladstone attempted to complete his great Irish
+measures by conferring on Ireland the advantage of a university which
+would be equally acceptable to Protestants and Roman Catholics. But his
+proposal again failed to satisfy those in whose interests it was
+proposed. The second reading of the bill was rejected by a small
+majority, and Gladstone resigned; but, as Disraeli could not form a
+government, he resumed office. The power of the great minister was,
+however, spent; his ministry was hopelessly discredited. History, in
+fact, was repeating itself. The ministry was suffering, as Lord Grey's
+government had suffered nearly forty years before, from the effect of
+its own successes. It had accomplished more than any of its supporters
+had expected, but in doing so it had harassed many interests and excited
+much opposition. Gladstone endeavoured to meet the storm by a
+rearrangement of his crew. Bruce, who had offended the licensed
+victuallers, was removed from the home office, and made a peer and
+president of the council. Lowe, who had incurred unpopularity by his
+fiscal measures, and especially by an abortive suggestion for the
+taxation of matches, was transferred from the exchequer to the home
+office, and Gladstone himself assumed the duties of chancellor of the
+exchequer. He thereby created a difficulty for himself which he had not
+foreseen. Up to 1867 a minister leaving one office and accepting another
+vacated his seat; after 1867 a transfer from one post to another did not
+necessitate a fresh election. But Gladstone in 1873 had taken a course
+which had not been contemplated in 1867. He had not been transferred
+from one office to another. He had accepted a new in addition to his old
+office. It was, to say the least, uncertain whether his action in this
+respect had, or had not, vacated his seat. It would be unfair to suggest
+that the inconvenient difficulty with which he was thus confronted
+determined his policy, though he was probably insensibly influenced by
+it. However this may be, on the eve of the session of 1874 he suddenly
+decided to dissolve parliament and to appeal to the country. He
+announced his decision in an address to his constituents, in which,
+among other financial reforms, he promised to repeal the income tax. The
+course which Gladstone took, and the bait which he held out to the
+electors, were generally condemned. The country, wearied of the ministry
+and of its measures, almost everywhere supported the Conservative
+candidates. Disraeli found himself restored to power at the head of an
+overwhelming majority, and the great minister who, five years before,
+had achieved so marked a triumph temporarily withdrew from the
+leadership of the party with whose aid he had accomplished such
+important results. His ministry had been essentially one of peace, yet
+its closing days were memorable for one little war in which a great
+soldier increased a reputation already high. Sir Garnet Wolseley
+triumphed over the difficulties which the climate of the west coast of
+Africa imposes on Europeans, and brought a troublesome contest with the
+Ashantis to a successful conclusion.
+
+
+  Disraeli's second ministry.
+
+  Bulgarian "atrocities."
+
+  Berlin treaty.
+
+The history of Disraeli's second administration affords an exact reverse
+to that of Gladstone's first cabinet. In legislation the ministry
+attempted little and accomplished less. They did something to meet the
+wishes of the publicans, whose discontent had contributed largely to
+Gladstone's defeat, by amending some of the provisions of Bruce's
+licensing bill; they supported and succeeded in passing a measure,
+brought in by the primate, to restrain some of the irregularities which
+the Ritualists were introducing into public worship; and they were
+compelled by the violent insistence of Plimsoll to pass an act to protect
+the lives of merchant seamen. Disraeli's government, however, will be
+chiefly remembered for its foreign policy. Years before he had propounded
+in _Tancred_ the theory that England should aim at eastern empire.
+Circumstances in his second term of office enabled him to translate his
+theory into practice. In 1875 the country was suddenly startled at
+hearing that it had acquired a new position and assumed new
+responsibilities in Egypt by the purchase of the shares which the khedive
+of Egypt held in the Suez Canal. In the following spring a new surprise
+was afforded by the introduction of a measure authorizing the queen to
+assume the title of empress of India. But these significant actions were
+almost forgotten in the presence of a new crisis; for in 1876
+misgovernment in Turkey had produced its natural results, and the
+European provinces of the Porte were in a state of armed insurrection. In
+the presence of a grave danger, Count Andrassy, the Austrian minister,
+drew up a note which was afterwards known by his name, declaring that the
+Porte had failed to carry into effect the promises of reform which she
+had made, and that some combined action on the part of Europe was
+necessary to compel her to do so. The note was accepted by the three
+continental empires, but Great Britain refused in the first instance to
+assent to it, and only ultimately consented at the desire of the Porte,
+whose statesmen seem to have imagined that the nominal co-operation of
+England would have the effect of restraining the action of other powers.
+Turkey accepted the note and renewed the promises of reform, which she
+had so often made, and which meant so little. The three northern powers
+thereupon agreed upon what was known as the Berlin Memorandum, in which
+they demanded an armistice, and proposed to watch over the completion of
+the reforms which the Porte had promised. The British government refused
+to be a party to this memorandum, which in consequence became abortive.
+The insurrection increased in intensity. The sultan Abdul Aziz, thought
+unequal to the crisis, was hastily deposed; he was either murdered or led
+to commit suicide; and insurrection in Bulgaria was stamped out by
+massacre. The story of the "Bulgarian atrocities" was published in Great
+Britain in the summer of 1876. Disraeli characteristically dismissed it
+as "coffee-house babble," but official investigation proved the
+substantial accuracy of the reports which had reached England. The people
+regarded these events with horror. Gladstone, emerging from his
+retirement, denounced the conduct of the Turks. In a phrase which became
+famous he declared that the only remedy for the European provinces of the
+Porte was to turn out the Ottoman government "bag and baggage." All
+England was at once arrayed into two camps. One party was led by
+Disraeli, who was supposed to represent the traditional policy of England
+of maintaining the rule of the Turk at all hazards; the other, inspired
+by the example of Gladstone, was resolved at all costs to terminate
+oppression, but was at the same time distrusted as indirectly assisting
+the ambitious views by which the Eastern policy of Russia had always been
+animated. The crisis soon became intense. In June 1876 Servia and
+Montenegro declared war against Turkey. In a few months Servia was
+hopelessly beaten. Through the insistence of Russia an armistice was
+agreed upon; and Lord Beaconsfield--for Disraeli had now been raised to
+the peerage--endeavoured to utilize the breathing space by organizing a
+conference of the great powers at Constantinople, which was attended on
+behalf of Great Britain by Lord Salisbury. The Constantinople conference
+proved abortive, and in the beginning of 1877 Russia declared war. For
+some time, however, her success was hardly equal to her expectations. The
+Turks, entrenched at Plevna, delayed the Russian advance; and it was only
+towards the close of 1877 that Plevna at last fell and Turkish resistance
+collapsed. With its downfall the war party in England, which was led by
+the prime minister, increased in violence. From the refrain of a song,
+sung night after night at a London music hall, its members became known
+as Jingoes. The government ordered the British fleet to pass the
+Dardanelles and go up to Constantinople; and though the order was
+subsequently withdrawn, it asked for and obtained a grant of L6,000,000
+for naval and military purposes. When news came that the Russian armies
+had reached Adrianople, that they had concluded some arrangement with the
+Turks, and that they were pressing forward towards Constantinople, the
+fleet was again directed to pass the Dardanelles. Soon afterwards the
+government decided to call out the reserves and to bring a contingent of
+Indian troops to the Mediterranean. Lord Derby,[8] who was at the foreign
+office, thereupon retired from the ministry, and was succeeded by Lord
+Salisbury. Lord Derby's resignation was everywhere regarded as a proof
+that Great Britain was on the verge of war. Happily this did not occur.
+At Prince Bismarck's suggestion Russia consented to refer the treaty
+which she had concluded at San Stefano to a congress of the great powers;
+and the congress, at which Great Britain was represented by Lord
+Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury, succeeded in substituting for the treaty
+of San Stefano the treaty of Berlin. The one great advantage derived from
+it was the tacit acknowledgment by Russia that Europe could alone alter
+arrangements which Europe had made. In every other sense it is doubtful
+whether the provisions of the treaty of Berlin were more favourable than
+those of the treaty of San Stefano. On Lord Beaconsfield's return,
+however, he claimed for Lord Salisbury and himself that they had brought
+back "peace with honour," and the country accepted with wild delight the
+phrase, without taking much trouble to analyse its justice.
+
+
+  Afghan wars.
+
+If Lord Beaconsfield had dissolved parliament immediately after his
+return from Berlin, it is possible that the wave of popularity which had
+been raised by his success would have borne him forward to a fresh
+victory in the constituencies. His omission to do so gave the country
+time to meditate on the consequences of his policy. One result soon
+became perceptible. Differences with Russia produced their inevitable
+consequences in fresh complications on the Indian frontier. The Russian
+government, confronted with a quarrel with Great Britain in eastern
+Europe, endeavoured to create difficulties in Afghanistan. A Russian
+envoy was sent to Kabul, where Shere Ali, who had succeeded his father
+Dost Mahommed in 1863, was amir; and the British government, alarmed at
+this new embarrassment, decided on sending a mission to the Afghan
+capital. The mission was stopped on the frontier by an agent of Shere
+Ali, who declined to allow it to proceed. The British government refused
+to put up with an affront of this kind, and their envoy, supported by an
+army, continued his advance. Afghanistan was again invaded. Kabul and
+Kandahar were occupied; and Shere Ali was forced to fly, and soon
+afterwards died. His successor, Yakub Khan, came to the British camp and
+signed, in May 1879, the treaty of Gandamak. Under the terms of this
+treaty the Indian government undertook to pay the new amir a subsidy of
+L60,000 a year; and Yakub Khan consented to receive a British mission at
+Kabul, and to cede some territory in the Himalayas which the military
+advisers of Lord Beaconsfield considered necessary to make the frontier
+more "scientific." This apparent success was soon followed by disastrous
+news. The deplorable events of 1841 were re-enacted in 1879. The new
+envoy reached Kabul, but was soon afterwards murdered. A British army
+was again sent into Afghanistan, and Kabul was again occupied. Yakub
+Khan, who had been made amir in 1879, was deposed, and Abdur Rahman Khan
+was selected as his successor. The British did not assert their
+superiority without much fighting and some serious reverses. Their
+victory was at last assured by the excellent strategy of Sir Donald
+Stewart and Sir Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts. But before the
+final victory was gained Lord Beaconsfield had fallen. His policy had
+brought Great Britain to the verge of disaster in Afghanistan: the
+credit of reasserting the superiority of British arms was deferred till
+his successors had taken office.
+
+
+  Zulu War.
+
+It was not only in Afghanistan that the new imperial policy which Lord
+Beaconsfield had done so much to encourage was straining the resources
+of the empire. In South Africa a still more serious difficulty was
+already commencing. At the time at which Lord Beaconsfield's
+administration began, British territory in South Africa was practically
+confined to Cape Colony and Natal. Years before, in 1852 and 1854
+respectively, the British government, at that time a little weary of the
+responsibilities of colonial rule, had recognized the independence of
+the two Dutch republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
+Powerful native tribes occupied the territory to the north of Natal and
+the east of the Transvaal. War broke out between the Transvaal Republic
+and one of the most powerful of these native chieftains, Sikukuni; and
+the Transvaal was worsted in the struggle. Weary of the condition of
+anarchy which existed in the republic, many inhabitants of the Transvaal
+were ready to welcome its annexation to Great Britain--a proposal
+favoured by the colonial secretary, Lord Carnarvon, who wished to
+federate the South African states, after the manner in which the North
+American colonies had become by confederation the Dominion of Canada.
+Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who was sent to inquire into the proposal,
+mistook the opinion of a party for the verdict of the republic, and
+declared (April 1877) the Transvaal a part of the British Empire. His
+policy entailed far more serious consequences than the mission to
+Afghanistan. The first was a war with the Zulus, the most powerful and
+warlike of the South African natives, who under their ruler, Cetewayo,
+had organized a formidable army. A dispute had been going on for some
+time about the possession of a strip of territory which some British
+arbitrators had awarded to the Zulu king. Sir Bartle Frere, who had won
+distinction in India, and was sent out by Lord Beaconsfield's government
+to the Cape, kept back the award; and, though he ultimately communicated
+it to Cetewayo, thought it desirable to demand the disbandment of the
+Zulu army. In the war which ensued, the British troops who invaded Zulu
+territory met with a severe reverse; and, though the disaster was
+ultimately retrieved by Lord Chelmsford, the war involved heavy
+expenditure and brought little credit to the British army, while one
+unfortunate incident, the death of Prince Napoleon, who had obtained
+leave to serve with the British troops, and was surprised by the Zulus
+while reconnoitering, created a deep and unfortunate impression.
+Imperialism, which had been excited by Lord Beaconsfield's policy in
+1878, and by the prospect of a war with a great European power, fell
+into discredit when it degenerated into a fresh expedition into
+Afghanistan, and an inglorious war with a savage African tribe. A
+period of distress at home increased the discontent which Lord
+Beaconsfield's external policy was exciting; and, when parliament was at
+last dissolved in 1880, it seemed no longer certain that the country
+would endorse the policy of the minister, who only a short time before
+had acquired such popularity. Gladstone, emerging from his retirement,
+practically placed himself again at the head of the Liberal party. In a
+series of speeches in Midlothian, where he offered himself for election,
+he denounced the whole policy which Lord Beaconsfield had pursued. His
+impassioned eloquence did much more than influence his own election. His
+speeches decided the contest throughout the kingdom. The Liberals
+secured an even more surprising success than that which had rewarded the
+Conservatives six years before. For the first time in the queen's reign,
+a solid Liberal majority, independent of all extraneous Irish support,
+was returned, and Gladstone resumed in triumph his old position as prime
+minister.
+
+
+  Gladstone's second ministry.
+
+  Boer War, 1881.
+
+The new minister had been swept into power on a wave of popular favour,
+but he inherited from his predecessors difficulties in almost every
+quarter of the world; and his own language had perhaps tended to
+increase them. He was committed to a reversal of Lord Beaconsfield's
+policy; and, in politics, it is never easy, and perhaps rarely wise,
+suddenly and violently to change a system. In one quarter of the world
+the new minister achieved much success. The war in Afghanistan, which
+had begun with disaster, was creditably concluded. A better
+understanding was gradually established with Russia; and, before the
+ministry went out, steps had been taken which led to the delimitation of
+the Russian and Afghan frontier. In South Africa, however, a very
+different result ensued. Gladstone, before he accepted office, had
+denounced the policy of annexing the Transvaal; his language was so
+strong that he was charged with encouraging the Boers to maintain their
+independence by force; his example had naturally been imitated by some
+of his followers at the general election; and, when he resumed power, he
+found himself in the difficult dilemma of either maintaining an
+arrangement which he had declared to be unwise, or of yielding to a
+demand which the Boers were already threatening to support in arms. The
+events of the first year of his administration added to his difficulty.
+Before its close the Boers seized Heidelberg and established a republic;
+they destroyed a detachment of British troops at Bronkhorst Spruit; and
+they surrounded and attacked the British garrisons in the Transvaal.
+Troops were of course sent from England to maintain the British cause;
+and Sir George Colley, who enjoyed a high reputation and had experience
+in South African warfare, was made governor of Natal, and entrusted with
+the military command. The events which immediately followed will not be
+easily forgotten. Wholly miscalculating the strength of the Boers, Sir
+George Colley, at the end of January 1881, attacked them at Laing's Nek,
+in the north of Natal, and was repulsed with heavy loss. Some ten days
+afterwards he fought another action on the Ingogo, and was again forced
+to retire. On the 26th February, with some 600 men, he occupied a high
+hill, known as Majuba, which, he thought, dominated the Boer position.
+The following day the Boers attacked the hill, overwhelmed its
+defenders, and Sir George Colley was himself killed in the disastrous
+contest on the summit. News of these occurrences was received with
+dismay in England. It was, no doubt, possible to say a good deal for
+Gladstone's indignant denunciation of his predecessor's policy in
+annexing the Transvaal; it would have been equally possible to advance
+many reasons for reversing the measures of Lord Beaconsfield's cabinet,
+and for conceding independence to the Transvaal in 1880. But the great
+majority of persons considered that, whatever arguments might have been
+urged for concession in 1880, when British troops had suffered no
+reverses, nothing could be said for concession in 1881, when their arms
+had been tarnished by a humiliating disaster. Great countries can afford
+to be generous in the hour of victory; but they cannot yield, without
+loss of credit, in the hour of defeat. Unfortunately this reasoning was
+not suited to Gladstone's temperament. The justice or injustice of the
+British cause seemed to him a much more important matter than the
+vindication of military honour; and he could not bring himself to
+acknowledge that Majuba had altered the situation, and that the terms
+which he had made up his mind to concede before the battle could not be
+safely granted till military reputation was restored. The retrocession
+of the Transvaal was decided upon, though it was provided that the
+country should remain under the suzerainty of the queen. Even this great
+concession did not satisfy the ambition of the Boers, who were naturally
+elated by their victories. Three years later some Transvaal deputies,
+with their president, Kruger, came to London and saw Lord Derby, the
+secretary of state for the colonies. Lord Derby consented to a new
+convention, from which any verbal reference to suzerainty was excluded;
+and the South African republic was made independent, subject only to the
+condition that it should conclude no treaties with foreign powers
+without the approval of the crown. (For the details and disputes
+concerning the terms of this convention the reader is referred to the
+articles TRANSVAAL and SUZERAINTY.)
+
+
+  Bradlaugh.
+
+Gladstone's government declined in popularity from the date of the
+earliest of these concessions. Gladstone, in fact, had succeeded in
+doing what Lord Beaconsfield had failed to accomplish. Annoyance at his
+foreign policy had rekindled the imperialism which the embarrassments
+created by Lord Beaconsfield had done so much to damp down. And, if
+things were going badly with the new government abroad, matters were not
+progressing smoothly at home. At the general election of 1880, the
+borough of Northampton, which of late years has shown an unwavering
+preference for Liberals of an advanced type, returned as its members
+Henry Labouchere and Charles Bradlaugh. Bradlaugh, who had attained some
+notoriety for an aggressive atheism, claimed the right to make an
+affirmation of allegiance instead of taking the customary oath, which he
+declared was, in his eyes, a meaningless form. The speaker, instead of
+deciding the question, submitted it to the judgment of the House, and it
+was ultimately referred to a select committee, which reported against
+Bradlaugh's claim. Bradlaugh, on hearing the decision of the committee,
+presented himself at the bar and offered to take the oath. It was
+objected that, as he had publicly declared that the words of the oath
+had no clear meaning for him, he could not be permitted to take it; and
+after some wrangling the matter was referred to a fresh committee, which
+supported the view that Bradlaugh could not be allowed to be sworn, but
+recommended that he should be permitted to make the affirmation at his
+own risk. The House refused to accept the recommendation of this
+committee when a bill was introduced to give effect to it. This decision
+naturally enlarged the question before it. For, while hitherto the
+debate had turned on the technical points whether an affirmation could
+be substituted for an oath, or whether a person who had declared that an
+oath had no meaning for him could properly be sworn, the end at which
+Bradlaugh's opponents were thenceforward aiming was the imposition of a
+new religious test--the belief in a God--on members of the House of
+Commons. The controversy, which thus began, continued through the
+parliament of 1880, and led to many violent scenes, which lowered the
+dignity of the House. It was quietly terminated, in the parliament of
+1886, by the firm action of a new speaker. Mr Peel, who had been elected
+to the chair in 1884, decided that neither the speaker nor any other
+member had the right to intervene to prevent a member from taking the
+oath if he was willing to take it. Parliament subsequently, by a new
+act, permitted affirmations to be used, and thenceforward religion, or
+the absence of religion, was no disqualification for a seat in the House
+of Commons. The atheist, like the Roman Catholic and the Jew, could sit
+and vote.
+
+
+  Parnell.
+
+The Bradlaugh question was not the only difficulty with which the new
+government was confronted. Ireland was again attracting the attention of
+politicians. The Fenian movement had practically expired; some annual
+motions for the introduction of Home Rule, made with all the decorum of
+parliamentary usage, had been regularly defeated. But the Irish were
+placing themselves under new leaders and adopting new methods. During
+the Conservative government of 1874, the Irish members had endeavoured
+to arrest attention by organized obstruction. Their efforts had
+increased the difficulties of government and taxed the endurance of
+parliament. These tactics were destined to be raised to a fine art by
+Parnell, who succeeded to the head of the Irish party about the time of
+the formation of Gladstone's government. It was Parnell's determination
+to make legislation impracticable, and parliament unendurable, till
+Irish grievances were redressed. It was his evident belief that by
+pursuing such tactics he could force the House of Commons to concede the
+legislation which he desired. The Irish members were not satisfied with
+the legislation which parliament had passed in 1869-1870. The land act
+of 1870 had given the tenant no security in the case of eviction for
+non-payment of rent; and the tenant whose rent was too high or had been
+raised was at the mercy of his landlord. It so happened that some bad
+harvests had temporarily increased the difficulties of the tenantry, and
+there was no doubt that large numbers of evictions were taking place in
+Ireland. In these circumstances, the Irish contended that the relief
+which the act of 1870 had afforded should be extended, and that, till
+such legislation could be devised, a temporary measure should be passed
+giving the tenant compensation for disturbance. Gladstone admitted the
+force of this reasoning, and a bill was introduced to give effect to it.
+Passed by the Commons, it was thrown out towards the end of the session
+by the Lords; and the government acquiesced--perhaps could do nothing
+but acquiesce--in this decision. In Ireland, however, the rejection of
+the measure was attended with disastrous results. Outrages increased,
+obnoxious landlords and agents were "boycotted"--the name of the first
+gentleman exposed to this treatment adding a new word to the language;
+and Forster, who had accepted the office of chief secretary, thought it
+necessary, in the presence of outrage and intimidation, to adopt
+stringent measures for enforcing order. A measure was passed on his
+initiation, in 1881, authorizing him to arrest and detain suspected
+persons; and many well-known Irishmen, including Parnell himself and
+other members of parliament, were thrown into prison. It was an odd
+commentary on parliamentary government that a Liberal ministry should be
+in power, and that Irish members should be in prison; and early in 1882
+Gladstone determined to liberate the prisoners on terms. The new
+policy--represented by what was known as the Kilmainham Treaty--led to
+the resignation of the viceroy, Lord Cowper, and of Forster, and the
+appointment of Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish as their
+successors. On the 6th of May 1882 Lord Spencer made his entry into
+Dublin, and on the evening of the same day Lord Frederick, unwisely
+allowed to walk home alone with Burke, the under-secretary to the Irish
+government, was murdered with his companion in Phoenix Park. This gross
+outrage led to fresh measures of coercion. The disclosure, soon
+afterwards, of a conspiracy to resort to dynamite still further
+alienated the sympathies of the Liberal party from the Irish nation.
+Gladstone might fairly plead that he had done much, that he had risked
+much, for Ireland, and that Ireland was making him a poor return for his
+services.
+
+
+  Egypt.
+
+  Gordon.
+
+In the meanwhile another difficulty was further embarrassing a harassed
+government. The necessities of the khedive of Egypt had been only
+temporarily relieved by the sale to Lord Beaconsfield's government of
+the Suez Canal shares. Egyptian finance, in the interests of the
+bondholders, had been placed under the dual control of England and
+France. The new arrangement naturally produced some native resentment,
+and Arabi Pasha placed himself at the head of a movement which was
+intended to rid Egypt of foreign interference. His preparations
+eventually led to the bombardment of Alexandria by the British fleet,
+and still later to the invasion of Egypt by a British army under Sir
+Garnet, afterwards Lord Wolseley, and to the battle of Tell-el-Kebir,
+after which Arabi was defeated and taken prisoner. The bombardment of
+Alexandria led to the immediate resignation of Bright, whose presence
+in the cabinet had been of importance to the government; the occupation
+of Egypt broke up the dual control, and made Great Britain responsible
+for Egyptian administration. The effects of British rule were, in one
+sense, remarkable. The introduction of good government increased the
+prosperity of the people, and restored confidence in Egyptian finance.
+At the same time it provoked the animosity of the French, who were
+naturally jealous of the increase of British influence on the Nile, and
+it also threw new responsibilities on the British nation. For south of
+Egypt lay the great territory of the Sudan, which to some extent
+commands the Nile, and which had been added to the Egyptian dominions at
+various periods between 1820 and 1875. In 1881 a fanatic sheikh--known
+as the mahdi--had headed an insurrection against the khedive's
+authority; and towards the close of 1883 an Egyptian army under an
+Englishman, Colonel Hicks, was annihilated by the mahdi's followers. The
+insurrection increased the responsibilities which intervention had
+imposed on England, and an expedition was sent to Suakin to guard the
+littoral of the Red Sea; while, at the beginning of 1884, General
+Gordon--whose services in China had gained him a high reputation, and
+who had had previous experience in the Sudan--was sent to Khartum to
+report on the condition of affairs. These decisions led to momentous
+results. The British expedition to Suakin was engaged in a series of
+battles with Osman Digna, the mahdi's lieutenant; while General Gordon,
+after alternate reverses and successes, was isolated at Khartum. Anxious
+as Gladstone's ministry was to restrict the sphere of its
+responsibilities, it was compelled to send an expedition to relieve
+General Gordon; and Lord Wolseley, who was appointed to the command,
+decided on moving up the Nile to his relief. The expedition proved much
+more difficult than Lord Wolseley had anticipated. And before it reached
+its goal, Khartum was forced to surrender, and General Gordon and his
+few faithful followers were murdered (January 1885). General Gordon's
+death inflicted a fatal blow on the Liberal government. It was thought
+that the general, whose singular devotion to duty made him a popular
+hero, had been allowed to assume an impossible task; had been feebly
+supported; and that the measures for his relief had been unduly
+postponed and at last only reluctantly undertaken. The ministry
+ultimately experienced defeat on a side issue. The budget, which
+Childers brought forward as chancellor of the exchequer, was attacked by
+the Conservative party; and an amendment proposed by Sir Michael
+Hicks-Beach, condemning an increase in the duties on spirits and beer,
+was adopted by a small majority. Gladstone resigned office, and Lord
+Salisbury, who, after Lord Beaconsfield's death, had succeeded to the
+lead of the Conservative party, was instructed to form a new
+administration.
+
+
+  Reform Act, 1884.
+
+It was obvious that the new government, as its first duty, would be
+compelled to dissolve the parliament that had been elected when
+Gladstone was enjoying the popularity which he had lost so rapidly in
+office. But it so happened that it was no longer possible to appeal to
+the old constituencies. For, in 1884, Gladstone had introduced a new
+Reform Bill; and, though its passage had been arrested by the Lords,
+unofficial communications between the leaders of both parties had
+resulted in a compromise which had led to the adoption of a large and
+comprehensive Reform Act. By this measure, household franchise was
+extended to the counties. But counties and boroughs were broken up into
+a number of small constituencies, for the most part returning only one
+member each; while the necessity of increasing the relative weight of
+Great Britain, and the reluctance to inflict disfranchisement on
+Ireland, led to an increase in the numbers of the House of Commons from
+658 to 670 members. This radical reconstruction of the electorate
+necessarily made the result of the elections doubtful. As a matter of
+fact, the new parliament comprised 334 Liberals, 250 Conservatives and
+86 Irish Nationalists. It was plain beyond the possibility of doubt that
+the future depended on the course which the Irish Nationalists might
+adopt. It they threw in their lot with Gladstone, Lord Salisbury's
+government was evidently doomed. If, on the contrary, they joined the
+Conservatives, they could make a Liberal administration impracticable.
+
+
+  Home Rule.
+
+In the autumn of 1885 it was doubtful what course the Irish Nationalists
+would take. It was generally understood that Lord Carnarvon, who had
+been made viceroy of Ireland, had been in communication with Parnell;
+that Lord Salisbury was aware of the interviews which had taken place;
+and it was whispered that Lord Carnarvon was in favour of granting some
+sort of administrative autonomy to Ireland. Whatever opinion Lord
+Carnarvon may have formed--and his precise view is uncertain--a greater
+man than he had suddenly arrived at a similar conclusion. In his
+election speeches Gladstone had insisted on the necessity of the country
+returning a Liberal majority which could act independently of the Irish
+vote; and the result of the general election had left the Irish the
+virtual arbiters of the political situation. In these circumstances
+Gladstone arrived at a momentous decision. He recognized that the system
+under which Ireland had been governed in the past had failed to win the
+allegiance of her people; and he decided that it was wise and safe to
+entrust her with a large measure of self-government. It was perhaps
+characteristic of Gladstone, though it was unquestionably unfortunate,
+that, in determining on this radical change of policy, he consulted few,
+if any, of his previous colleagues. On the meeting of the new parliament
+Lord Salisbury's government was defeated on an amendment to the address,
+demanding facilities for agricultural labourers to obtain small holdings
+for gardens and pasture--the policy, in short, which was described as
+"three acres and a cow." Lord Salisbury resigned, and Gladstone resumed
+power. The attitude, however, which Gladstone was understood to be
+taking on the subject of Home Rule threw many difficulties in his way.
+Lord Harrington, and others of his former colleagues, declined to join
+his administration; Mr Chamberlain, who, in the first instance, accepted
+office, retired almost at once from the ministry; and Bright, whose
+eloquence and past services gave him a unique position in the House,
+threw in his lot in opposition to Home Rule. A split in the Liberal
+party thus began, which was destined to endure; and Gladstone found his
+difficulties increased by the defection of the men on whom he had
+hitherto largely relied. He persevered, however, in the task which he
+had set himself, and introduced a measure endowing Ireland with a
+parliament, and excluding the Irish members from Westminster. He was
+defeated, and appealed from the House which had refused to support him
+to the country. For the first time in the queen's reign two general
+elections occurred within twelve months. The country showed no more
+disposition than the House of Commons to approve the course which the
+minister was taking. A large majority of the members of the new
+parliament were pledged to resist Home Rule. Gladstone, bowing at once
+to the verdict of the people, resigned office, and Lord Salisbury
+returned to power.
+
+
+  Unionism.
+
+The new cabinet, which was formed to resist Home Rule, did not succeed
+in combining all the opponents to this measure. The secessionists from
+the Liberal party--the Liberal Unionists, as they were called--held
+aloof from it; and Lord Salisbury was forced to form his cabinet out of
+his immediate followers. The most picturesque appointment was that of
+Lord Randolph Churchill, who was made chancellor of the exchequer and
+leader of the House of Commons. But before many months were over, Lord
+Randolph--unable to secure acceptance of a policy of financial
+retrenchment--resigned office, and Lord Salisbury was forced to
+reconstruct his ministry. Though he again failed to obtain the
+co-operation of the Liberal Unionists, one of the more prominent of
+them--Goschen--accepted the seals of the Exchequer. W. H. Smith moved
+from the war office to the treasury, and became leader of the House of
+Commons; while Lord Salisbury himself returned to the foreign office,
+which the dramatically sudden death of Lord Iddesleigh, better known as
+Sir Stafford Northcote, vacated. These arrangements lasted till 1891,
+when, on Smith's death, the treasury and the lead of the Commons were
+entrusted to Lord Salisbury's nephew, Mr Arthur Balfour, who had made a
+great reputation as chief secretary for Ireland.
+
+
+  Nationalist split.
+
+The ministry of 1886, which endured till 1892, gave to London a county
+council; introduced representative government into every English county;
+and made elementary education free throughout England. The alliance with
+the Liberal Unionists was, in fact, compelling the Conservative
+government to promote measures which were not wholly consistent with the
+stricter Conservative traditions, or wishes. In other respects, the
+legislative achievements of the government were not great; and the time
+of parliament was largely occupied in devising rules for the conduct of
+its business, which the obstructive attitude of the Irish members made
+necessary, and in discussing the charges brought against the Nationalist
+party by _The Times_, of complicity in the Phoenix Park murders. Under
+the new rules, the sittings of the House on ordinary days were made to
+commence at 3 P.M., and opposed business was automatically interrupted
+at midnight, while for the first time a power was given to the majority
+in a House of a certain size to conclude debate by what was known as the
+closure. Notwithstanding these new rules obstructive tactics continued
+to prevail; and, in the course of the parliament, many members were
+suspended for disorderly conduct. The hostility of the Irish members was
+perhaps increased by some natural indignation at the charges brought
+against Parnell. _The Times_, in April 1887, printed the facsimile of a
+letter purporting to be signed by Parnell, in which he declared that he
+had no other course open to him but to denounce the Phoenix Park
+murders, but that, while he regretted "the accident" of Lord Frederick
+Cavendish's death, he could not "refuse to admit that Burke got no more
+than his deserts." The publication of this letter, and later of other
+similar documents, naturally created a great sensation; and the
+government ultimately appointed a special commission of three judges to
+inquire into the charges and allegations that were made. In the course
+of the inquiry it was proved that the letters had emanated from a man
+named Pigott, who had at one time been associated with the Irish
+Nationalist movement, but who for some time past had earned a precarious
+living by writing begging and threatening letters. Pigott, subjected to
+severe cross-examination by Sir Charles Russell (afterwards Lord Russell
+of Killowen), broke down, fled from justice and committed suicide. His
+flight practically settled the question; and an inquiry, which many
+people had thought at its inception would brand Parnell as a criminal,
+raised him to an influence which he had never enjoyed before. But in the
+same year which witnessed his triumph, he was doomed to fall. He was
+made co-respondent in a divorce suit brought by Captain O'Shea--another
+Irishman--for the dissolution of his marriage; and the disclosures made
+at the trial induced Gladstone, who was supported by the Nonconformists
+generally throughout the United Kingdom, to request Parnell to withdraw
+from the leadership of the Irish party. Parnell refused to comply with
+this request, and the Irish party was shattered into fragments by his
+decision. Parnell himself did not long survive the disruption of the
+party which he had done so much to create. The exertions which he made
+to retrieve his waning influence proved too much for his strength, and
+in the autumn of 1891 he died suddenly at Brighton. Parnell's death
+radically altered the political situation. At the general elections of
+1885 and 1886 the existence of a strong, united Irish party had
+exercised a dominating influence. As the parliament of 1886 was drawing
+to a close, the dissensions among the Irish members, and the loss of
+their great leader, were visibly sapping the strength of the
+Nationalists. At the general election of 1892 Home Rule was still the
+prominent subject before the electors. But the English Liberals were
+already a little weary of allies who were quarrelling among themselves,
+and whose disputes were introducing a new factor into politics. The
+political struggle virtually turned not on measures, but on men.
+Gladstone's great age, and the marvellous powers which he displayed at a
+time when most men seek the repose of retirement, were the chief causes
+which affected the results. His influence enabled him to secure a small
+Liberal majority. But it was noticed that the majority depended on
+Scottish, Irish and Welsh votes, and that England--the "predominant
+partner," as it was subsequently called by Lord Rosebery--returned a
+majority of members pledged to resist any attempt to dissolve the union
+between the three kingdoms.
+
+
+  Home Rule Bill, 1893.
+
+On the meeting of the new parliament Lord Salisbury's government was
+defeated on a vote of want of confidence, and for a fourth time
+Gladstone became prime minister. In the session of 1893 he again
+introduced a Home Rule Bill. But the measure of 1893 differed in many
+respects from that of 1886. In particular, the Irish were no longer to
+be excluded from the imperial parliament at Westminster. The bill which
+was thus brought forward was actually passed by the Commons. It was,
+however, rejected by the Lords. The dissensions among the Irish
+themselves, and the hostility which English constituents were displaying
+to the proposal, emboldened the Peers to arrive at this decision. Some
+doubt was felt as to the course which Gladstone would take in this
+crisis. Many persons thought that he should at once have appealed to the
+country, and have endeavoured to obtain a distinct mandate from the
+constituencies to introduce a new Home Rule Bill. Other persons imagined
+that he should have followed the precedent which had been set by Lord
+Grey in 1831, and, after a short prorogation, have reintroduced his
+measure in a new session. As a matter of fact, Gladstone adopted neither
+of these courses. The government decided not to take up the gauntlet
+thrown down by the Peers, but to proceed with the rest of their
+political programme. With this object an autumn session was held, and
+the Parish Councils Act, introduced by Mr Fowler (afterwards Lord
+Wolverhampton), was passed, after important amendments, which had been
+introduced into it in the House of Lords, had been reluctantly accepted
+by Gladstone. On the other hand, an Employers' Liability Bill,
+introduced by Mr Asquith, the home secretary, was ultimately dropped by
+Gladstone after passing all stages in the House of Commons, rather than
+that an amendment of the Peers, allowing "contracting out," should be
+accepted.
+
+
+  Lord Rosebery.
+
+Before, however, the session had quite run out (3rd March 1894),
+Gladstone, who had now completed his eighty-fourth year, laid down a
+load which his increasing years made it impossible for him to sustain
+(see the article GLADSTONE). He was succeeded by Lord Rosebery, whose
+abilities and attainments had raised him to a high place in the Liberal
+counsels. Lord Rosebery did not succeed in popularizing the Home Rule
+proposal which Gladstone had failed to carry. He declared, indeed, that
+success was not attainable till England was converted to its expediency.
+He hinted that success would not even then be assured until something
+was done to reform the constitution of the House of Lords. But if, on
+the one hand, he refused to introduce a new Home Rule Bill, he
+hesitated, on the other, to court defeat by any attempt to reform the
+Lords. His government, in these circumstances, while it failed to
+conciliate its opponents, excited no enthusiasm among its supporters. It
+was generally understood, moreover, that a large section of the Liberal
+party resented Lord Rosebery's appointment to the first place in the
+ministry, and thought that the lead should have been conferred on Sir W.
+Harcourt. It was an open secret that these differences in the party were
+reflected in the cabinet, and that the relations between Lord Rosebery
+and Sir W. Harcourt were too strained to ensure either the harmonious
+working or the stability of the administration. In these circumstances
+the fall of the ministry was only a question of time. It occurred--as
+often happens in parliament--on a minor issue which no one had foreseen.
+Attention was drawn in the House of Commons to the insufficient supply
+of cordite provided by the war office, and the House--notwithstanding
+the assurance of the war minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) that
+the supply was adequate--placed the government in a minority. Lord
+Rosebery resigned office, and Lord Salisbury for the third time became
+prime minister, the duke of Devonshire, Mr Chamberlain and other
+Liberal Unionists joining the government. Parliament was dissolved, and
+a new parliament, in which the Unionists obtained an overwhelming
+majority, was returned.
+
+The government of 1892-1895, which was successively led by Gladstone and
+Lord Rosebery, will, on the whole, be remembered for its failures. Yet
+it passed two measures which have exercised a wide influence. The Parish
+Councils Act introduced electoral institutions into the government of
+every parish, and in 1894 Sir W. Harcourt, as chancellor of the
+exchequer, availed himself of the opportunity, which a large addition to
+the navy invited, to reconstruct the death duties. He swept away in
+doing so many of the advantages which the owner of real estate and the
+life tenant of settled property had previously enjoyed, and drove home a
+principle which Goschen had tentatively introduced a few years before by
+increasing the rate of the duty with the amount of the estate. Rich men,
+out of their superfluities, were thenceforward to pay more than poor men
+out of their necessities.
+
+
+  The two jubilees.
+
+The Unionist government which came into power in 1895 lasted, with
+certain changes of _personnel_, till 1905, with a break caused by the
+dissolution of 1900. History may hereafter conclude that the most
+significant circumstance of the earlier period is to be found in the
+demonstration of loyalty and affection to which the sixtieth anniversary
+of Queen Victoria's accession led in 1897. Ten years before, her jubilee
+had been the occasion of enthusiastic rejoicings, and the queen's
+progress through London to a service of thanksgiving at Westminster had
+impressed the imagination of her subjects and proved the affection of
+her people. But the rejoicings of 1887 were forgotten amid the more
+striking demonstrations ten years later. It was seen then that the
+queen, by her conduct and character, had gained a popularity which has
+had no parallel in history, and had won a place in the hearts of her
+subjects which perhaps no other monarch had ever previously enjoyed.
+There was no doubt that, if the opinion of the English-speaking races
+throughout the world could have been tested by a plebiscite, an
+overwhelming majority would have declared that the fittest person for
+the rule of the British empire was the gracious and kindly lady who for
+sixty years, in sorrow and in joy, had so worthily discharged the duties
+of her high position. This remarkable demonstration was not confined to
+the British empire alone. In every portion of the globe the sixtieth
+anniversary of the queen's reign excited interest; in every country the
+queen's name was mentioned with affection and respect; while the people
+of the United States vied with the subjects of the British empire in
+praise of the queen's character and in expressions of regard for her
+person. Only a year or two before, an obscure dispute on the boundary of
+British Venezuela had brought the United States and Great Britain within
+sight of a quarrel. The jubilee showed conclusively that, whatever
+politicians might say, the ties of blood and kinship, which united the
+two peoples, were too close to be severed by either for some trifling
+cause; that the wisest heads in both nations were aware of the
+advantages which must arise from the closer union of the Anglo-Saxon
+races; and that the true interests of both countries lay in their mutual
+friendship. A war in which the United States was subsequently engaged
+with Spain cemented this feeling. The government and the people of the
+United States recognized the advantage which they derived from the
+goodwill of Great Britain in the hour of their necessity, and the two
+nations drew together as no other two nations had perhaps ever been
+drawn together before.
+
+
+  Omdurman, Fashoda.
+
+  Jameson Raid.
+
+If the jubilee was a proof of the closer union of the many sections of
+the British empire, and of their warm attachment to their sovereign, it
+also gave expression to the "imperialism" which was becoming a dominant
+factor in British politics. Few people realized the mighty change which
+in this respect had been effected in thought and feeling. Forty years
+before, the most prominent English statesmen had regarded with anxiety
+the huge responsibilities of a world-wide empire. In 1897 the whole
+tendency of thought and opinion was to enlarge the burden of which the
+preceding generation had been weary. The extension of British influence,
+the protection of British interests, were almost universally advocated;
+and the few statesmen who repeated in the 'nineties the sentiments
+which would have been generally accepted in the 'sixties, were regarded
+as "Little Englanders." It is important to note the consequences which
+these new ideas produced in Africa. Both in the north and in the south
+of this great and imperfectly explored continent, memories still clung
+which were ungrateful to imperialism. In the north, the murder of Gordon
+was still unavenged; and the vast territory known as the Sudan had
+escaped from the control of Egypt. In the south, war with the Transvaal
+had been concluded by a British defeat; and the Dutch were elated, the
+English irritated, at the recollection of Majuba. In 1896 Lord
+Salisbury's government decided on extending the Anglo-Egyptian rule over
+the Sudan, and an expedition was sent from Egypt under the command of
+Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener to Khartum. Few military
+expeditions have been more elaborately organized, or have achieved a
+more brilliant success. The conquest of the country was achieved in
+three separate campaigns in successive years. In September 1898 the
+Sudanese forces were decisively beaten, with great slaughter, in the
+immediate neighbourhood of Omdurman; and Khartum became thenceforward
+the capital of the new province, which was placed under Lord Kitchener's
+rule. Soon after this decisive success, it was found that a French
+expedition under Major Marchand had reached the upper Nile and had
+hoisted the French flag at Fashoda. It was obvious that the French could
+not be allowed to remain at a spot which the khedive of Egypt claimed as
+Egyptian territory; and after some negotiation, and some irritation, the
+French were withdrawn. In South Africa still more important events were
+in the meanwhile progressing. Ever since the independence of the South
+African Republic had been virtually conceded by the convention of 1884,
+unhappy differences had prevailed between the Dutch and British
+residents in the Transvaal. The discovery of gold at Johannesburg and
+elsewhere in 1885-1886 had led to a large immigration of British and
+other colonists. Johannesburg had grown into a great and prosperous
+city. The foreign population of the Transvaal, which was chiefly
+English, became in a few years more numerous than the Boers themselves,
+and they complained that they were deprived of all political rights,
+that they were subjected to unfair taxation, and that they were hampered
+in their industry and unjustly treated by the Dutch courts and Dutch
+officials. Failing to obtain redress, at the end of 1895 certain persons
+among them made preparations for a revolution. Dr Jameson, the
+administrator of Rhodesia, accompanied by some British officers,
+actually invaded the Transvaal. His force, utterly inadequate for the
+purpose, was stopped by the Boers, and he and his fellow-officers were
+taken prisoners. There was no doubt that this raid on the territory of a
+friendly state was totally unjustifiable. Unfortunately, Dr Jameson's
+original plans had been framed at the instance of Cecil Rhodes, the
+prime minister at the Cape, and many persons thought that they ought to
+have been suspected by the colonial office in London. England at any
+rate would have had no valid ground of complaint if the leaders of a
+buccaneering force had been summarily dealt with by the Transvaal
+authorities. The president of the republic, Kruger, however, handed over
+his prisoners to the British authorities, and parliament instituted an
+inquiry by a select committee into the circumstances of the raid. The
+inquiry was terminated somewhat abruptly. The committee acquitted the
+colonial office of any knowledge of the plot; but a good many suspicions
+remained unanswered. The chief actors in the raid were tried under the
+Foreign Enlistment Act, found guilty, and subsequently released after
+short terms of imprisonment. Rhodes himself was not removed from the
+privy council, as his more extreme accusers demanded; but he had to
+abandon his career in Cape politics for a time, and confine his energies
+to the development of Rhodesia, which had been added to the empire
+through his instrumentality in 1888-1889.
+
+
+  Boer War, 1899.
+
+In consequence of these proceedings, the Transvaal authorities at once
+set to work to accumulate armaments, and they succeeded in procuring
+vast quantities of artillery and military stores. The British government
+would undoubtedly have been entitled to insist that these armaments
+should cease. It was obvious that they could only be directed against
+Great Britain; and no nation is bound to allow another people to prepare
+great armaments to be employed against itself. The criminal folly of the
+raid prevented the British government from making this demand. It could
+not say that the Transvaal government had no cause for alarm when
+British officers had attempted an invasion of its territory, and had
+been treated rather as heroes than as criminals at home. Ignorant of the
+strength of Great Britain, and elated by the recollection of their
+previous successes, the Boers themselves believed that a new struggle
+might give them predominance in South Africa. The knowledge that a large
+portion of the population of Cape Colony was of Dutch extraction, and
+that public men at the Cape sympathized with them in their aspirations,
+increased their confidence. In the meantime, while the Boers were
+silently and steadily continuing their military preparations, the
+British settlers at Johannesburg--the Uitlanders, as they were
+called--continued to demand consideration for their grievances. In the
+spring of 1899, Sir Alfred Milner, governor of the Cape, met President
+Kruger at Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and
+endeavoured to accomplish that result by negotiation. He thought, at the
+time, that if the Uitlanders were given the franchise and a fair
+proportion of influence in the legislature, other difficulties might be
+left to settle themselves. The negotiations thus commenced unfortunately
+failed. The discussion, which had originally turned on the franchise,
+was enlarged by the introduction of the question of suzerainty or
+supremacy; and at last, in the beginning of October, when the rains of
+an African spring were causing the grass to grow on which the Boer
+armies were largely dependent for forage, the Boers declared war and
+invaded Natal. The British government had not been altogether happy in
+its conduct of the preceding negotiations. It was certainly unhappy in
+its preparations for the struggle. It made the great mistake of
+underrating the strength of its enemy; it suffered its agents to commit
+the strategical blunder of locking up the few troops it had in an
+untenable position in the north of Natal. It was not surprising, in such
+circumstances, that the earlier months of the war should have been
+memorable for a series of exasperating reverses. These reverses,
+however, were redeemed by the valour of the British troops, the spirit
+of the British nation, and the enthusiasm which induced the great
+autonomous colonies of the empire to send men to support the cause of
+the mother country. The gradual arrival of reinforcements, and the
+appointment of a soldier of genius--Lord Roberts--to the supreme
+command, changed the military situation; and, before the summer of 1900
+was concluded, the places which had been besieged by the
+Boers--Kimberley, Ladysmith and Mafeking--had been successively
+relieved; the capitals of the Orange Free State and of the Transvaal had
+been occupied; and the two republics, which had rashly declared war
+against the British empire, had been formally annexed.
+
+
+  The close of 1900.
+
+The defeat and dispersal of the Boer armies, and the apparent collapse
+of Boer resistance, induced a hope that the war was over; and the
+government seized the opportunity in 1900 to terminate the parliament,
+which had already endured for more than five years. The election was
+conducted with unusual bitterness; but the constituencies practically
+affirmed the policy of the government by maintaining, almost unimpaired,
+the large majority which the Unionists had secured in 1895.
+Unfortunately, the expectations which had been formed at the time of the
+dissolution were disappointed. The same circumstances which had
+emboldened the Boers to declare war in the autumn of 1899, induced them
+to renew a guerilla warfare in the autumn of 1900--the approach of an
+African summer supplying the Boers with the grass on which they were
+dependent for feeding their hardy horses. Guerilla bands suddenly
+appeared in different parts of the Orange River Colony and of the
+Transvaal. They interrupted the communications of the British armies;
+they won isolated victories over British detachments; they even invaded
+Cape Colony. Thus the last year of the century closed in disappointment
+and gloom. The serious losses which the war entailed, the heavy
+expenses which it involved, and the large force which it absorbed,
+filled thoughtful men with anxiety.
+
+
+  The death of the queen.
+
+No one felt more sincerely for the sufferings of her soldiers, and no
+one regretted more truly the useless prolongation of the struggle, than
+the venerable lady who occupied the throne. She had herself lost a
+grandson (Prince Christian Victor) in South Africa; and sorrow and
+anxiety perhaps told even on a constitution so unusually strong as hers.
+About the middle of January 1901 it was known that she was seriously
+ill; on the 22nd she died. The death of the queen thus occurred
+immediately after the close of the century over so long a period of
+which her reign had extended.
+
+The queen's own life is dealt with elsewhere (see VICTORIA, QUEEN), but
+the Victorian era is deeply marked in English history. During her reign
+the people of Great Britain doubled their number; but the accumulated
+wealth of the country increased at least threefold, and its trade
+sixfold. All classes shared the prevalent prosperity. Notwithstanding
+the increase of population, the roll of paupers at the end of the reign,
+compared with the same roll at the beginning, stood as 2 stands to 3;
+the criminals as 1 to 2. The expansion abroad was still more remarkable.
+There were not 200,000 white persons in Australasia when the queen came
+to the throne; there were nearly 5,000,000 when she died. The great
+Australian colonies were almost created in her reign; two of
+them--Victoria and Queensland--owe their name to her; they all received
+those autonomous institutions, under which their prosperity has been
+built up, during its continuance. Expansion and progress were not
+confined to Australasia. The opening months of the queen's reign were
+marked by rebellion in Canada. The close of it saw Canada one of the
+most loyal portions of the Empire. In Africa, the advance of the red
+line which marks the bounds of British dominion was even more rapid;
+while in India the Punjab, Sind, Oudh and Burma were some of the
+acquisitions added to the British empire while the queen was on the
+throne. When she died one square mile in four of the land in the world
+was under the British flag, and at least one person out of every five
+persons alive was a subject of the queen.
+
+Material progress was largely facilitated by industry and invention. The
+first railways had been made, the first steamship had been built, before
+the queen came to the throne. But, so far as railways are concerned,
+none of the great trunk lines had been constructed in 1837; the whole
+capital authorized to be spent on railway construction did not exceed
+L55,000,000; and, five years after the reign had begun, there were only
+18,000,000 passengers. The paid-up capital of British railways in 1901
+exceeded L1,100,000,000; the passengers, not including season
+ticket-holders, also numbered 1,100,000,000; and the sum annually spent
+in working the lines considerably exceeded the whole capital authorized
+to be spent on their construction in 1837. The progress of the
+commercial marine was still more noteworthy. In 1837 the entire
+commercial navy comprised 2,800,000 tons, of which less than 100,000
+tons were moved by steam. At the end of the reign the tonnage of British
+merchant vessels had reached 13,700,000 tons, of which more than
+11,000,000 tons were moved by steam. At the beginning of the reign it
+was supposed to be impossible to build a steamer which could either
+cross the Atlantic, or face the monsoon in the Red Sea. The development
+of steam navigation since then had made Australia much more accessible
+than America was in 1837, and had brought New York, for all practical
+purposes, nearer to London than Aberdeen was at the commencement of the
+reign. Electricity had even a greater effect on communication than steam
+on locomotion; and electricity, as a practical invention, had its origin
+in the reign. The first experimental telegraph line was only erected in
+the year in which Queen Victoria came to the throne. Submarine
+telegraphy, which had done so much to knit the empire together, was not
+perfected for many years afterwards; and long ocean cables were almost
+entirely constructed in the last half of the reign.     (S. W.)
+
+
+  Reign of Edward VII.
+
+On the death of Queen Victoria, the prince of Wales succeeded to the
+throne, with the title of Edward VII. (q.v.). The coronation fixed for
+June in the following year was at the last moment stopped by the king's
+illness with appendicitis, but he recovered marvellously from the
+operation and the ceremony took place in August. His excellent health
+and activity in succeeding years struck every one with astonishment. The
+Boer War had at last been brought to an end in May 1902 (see TRANSVAAL),
+and the king had the satisfaction of seeing South Africa settle down and
+eventually receive self-government. The political history of his reign,
+which ended with his death in May 1910, is dealt with in detail in
+separate biographical and other articles in this work (see especially
+those on Lord Salisbury, Mr A. J. Balfour, Mr J. Chamberlain, Lord
+Rosebery, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, Mr H. H. Asquith, Mr D. Lloyd
+George, and on the history of the various portions of the British
+Empire); and in this place only a summary need be given. The king
+himself (see EDWARD VII.), who nobly earned the title of Edward the
+Peacemaker, played no small part in the domestic and international
+politics of these years; and contemporary publicists, who had become
+accustomed to Victorian traditions, gradually realized that, within the
+limits of the constitutional monarchy, there was much more scope for the
+initiative of a masculine sovereign in public life than had been
+supposed by the generation which grew up after the death of his father
+in 1862. Edward VII. made the Crown throughout all classes of society a
+popular power which it had not been in England for long ages. And while
+the growing rivalry between England and Germany, in international
+relations, was continually threatening danger, his influence in
+cementing British friendship on all other sides was of the most marked
+description. His sudden death was felt, not only throughout the empire
+but throughout the world, with even more poignant emotion than that of
+Queen Victoria herself, for his personality had been much more in the
+forefront.
+
+
+  The Crisis of 1910.
+
+The end of his reign coincided with a domestic constitutional crisis, to
+which party politics had been working up more and more acutely for
+several years. The Tariff Reform propaganda of Mr Chamberlain (q.v.) in
+1903 convulsed the Conservative party, and the long period of Unionist
+domination came to an end in November 1905. Mr Balfour (q.v.), who
+became prime minister in 1902 on Lord Salisbury's retirement, resigned,
+and was succeeded by Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman (q.v.), as head of the
+Liberal party; and the general election of January 1906 resulted in an
+overwhelming victory for the Liberals and their allies, the Labour party
+(now a powerful force in politics) and the Irish Nationalists. Just
+before Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman's death in April 1908 he was succeeded
+as prime minister by Mr Asquith, a leader of far higher personal ability
+though with less hold on the affections of his party. The Liberals had
+long arrears to make up in their political programme, and their
+supremacy in the House of Commons was an encouragement to assert their
+views in legislation. In several directions, and notably in
+administration, they carried their policy into effect; but the House of
+Lords (see PARLIAMENT) was an obvious stumbling-block to some of their
+more important Bills, and the Unionist control of that House speedily
+made itself felt, first in wrecking the Education Bill of 1906, then in
+throwing out the Licensing Bill of 1908, and finally (see LLOYD GEORGE,
+D.) in forcing a dissolution by the rejection of the budget of 1909,
+with its novel proposals for the increased taxation of land and licensed
+houses. The Unionist party in the country had, meanwhile, been
+recovering from the Tariff Reform divisions of 1903, and was once more
+solid under Mr Balfour in favour of its new and imperial policy; but the
+campaign against the House of Lords started by Mr Lloyd George and the
+Liberal leaders, who put in the forefront the necessity of obtaining
+statutory guarantees for the passing into law of measures deliberately
+adopted by the elected Chamber, resulted in the return of Mr Asquith's
+government to office at the election of January 1910. The Unionists came
+back equal in numbers to the Liberals, but the latter could also count
+on the Labour party and the Irish Nationalists; and the battle was fully
+arrayed for a frontal attack on the powers of the Second Chamber when
+the king's death in May upset all calculations. This unthought-of
+complication seemed to act like the letting of blood in an apoplectic
+patient.
+
+
+  Accession of George V.
+
+The prince of Wales became king as George V. (q.v.), and a temporary
+truce was called; and the reign began with a serious attempt between the
+leaders of the two great parties, by private conference, to see whether
+compromise was not possible (see PARLIAMENT). Apart from the
+parliamentary crisis, really hingeing on the difficulty of discovering a
+means by which the real will of the people should be carried out without
+actually making the House of Commons autocratically omnipotent, but also
+without allowing the House of Lords to obstruct a Liberal government
+merely as the organ of the Tory party, the new king succeeded to a noble
+heritage. The monarchy itself was popular, the country was prosperous
+and in good relations with the world, except for the increasing naval
+rivalry with Germany, and the consciousness of imperial solidarity had
+made extraordinary progress among all the dominions. However the
+domestic problems in the United Kingdom might be solved, the future of
+the greatness of the English throne lay with its headship of an empire,
+loyal to the core, over which the sun never sets.     (H. Ch.)
+
+
+XIII.--SOURCES AND WRITERS OF ENGLISH HISTORY
+
+The attempt here made to combine a bibliography of English history with
+some account of the progress of English historical writing is beset with
+some difficulty. The evidential value of what a writer says is quite
+distinct from the literary art with which he says it; the real sources
+of history are not the works of historians, but records and documents
+written with no desire to further any literary purpose. Domesday Book is
+unique as a source of medieval history, but it does not count in the
+development of English historical writing. That is quite a secondary
+consideration; for there was much English history before any Englishman
+could write; and even after he could write, his compositions constitute
+a minor part of the evidence.
+
+Our earliest information about the land and its people is derived from
+geological, ethnological and archaeological studies, from the remains in
+British barrows and caves, Roman roads, walls and villas, coins,
+place-names and inscriptions. The writings of Caesar and Tacitus, and a
+few scattered notices in other Roman authors, supplement this evidence.
+But the scientific accuracy of Tacitus' _Germania_ is not beyond
+dispute, and that light fails centuries before the Anglo-Saxon conquest
+of Great Britain. The history of that conquest itself is mainly
+inferential; there is the _flebilis narratio_ of Gildas, vague and
+rhetorical, moral rather than historical in motive, and written more
+than a century after the conquest had begun, and the narrative of the
+Welsh Nennius, who wrote two and a half centuries after Gildas, and
+makes no critical distinction between the deeds of dragons and those of
+Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons themselves could not write until
+Christian missionaries had reintroduced the art at the end of the 6th
+century, and history was not by any means the first purpose to which
+they applied it. It was first used to compile written statements of
+customs and dooms which were their nearest approach to law, and these
+codes and charters are the earliest written materials for Anglo-Saxon
+history. The remarkable outburst of literary culture in Northumbria
+during the 7th and 8th centuries produced a real historian in Bede;
+Bede, however, knows little or nothing of English history between 450
+and 596, and he is valuable only for the 7th and early part of the 8th
+centuries. Almost contemporary is the _Vita Wilfridi_ by Eddius, but
+more valuable are the letters we possess of Boniface and Alcuin. The
+famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was probably started under the influence of
+Alfred the Great towards the end of the 9th century. Its chronology is
+often one, two or three years wrong even when it seems to be a
+contemporary authority, and the value of its evidence on the conquest
+and the first two centuries after it is very uncertain. But from
+Ecgbert's reign onwards it supplies a good deal of apparently
+trustworthy information. For Alfred himself we have also Asser's
+biography and the _Annals of St Neots_, a very imaginative compilation,
+while most of the stories which have made Alfred's name a household word
+are fabulous. Even the Chronicle becomes meagre a few years after
+Alfred's death, and its value depends largely upon the ballads which it
+incorporates; nor is it materially supplemented by the lives of St
+Dunstan, for hagiologists have never treated historical accuracy as a
+matter of moment; and our knowledge of the last century of Anglo-Saxon
+history is derived mainly from Anglo-Norman writers who wrote after the
+Norman Conquest. Some collateral light on the Danish conquest of England
+is thrown by the _Heimskringla_ and other materials collected in
+Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, and for the reign of
+Canute and his sons there is the contemporary _Encomium Emmae_, which is
+a dishonest panegyric on the widow of AEthelred and Canute. For Edward
+the Confessor there is an almost equally biased biography.
+
+For the Norman Conquest itself strictly contemporary evidence is
+extremely scanty, and historians have exhausted their own and their
+readers' patience in disputing the precise significance of some phrases
+about the battle of Hastings used by Wace, a Norman poet who wrote
+nearly a century after the battle. One version of the Anglo-Saxon
+Chronicle goes down to 1079 and another to 1154, but their notices of
+current events are brief and meagre. The Bayeux tapestry affords,
+however, valuable contemporary evidence, and there are some facts
+related by eye-witnesses in the works of William of Poitiers and William
+of Jumieges. A generation of copious chroniclers was, moreover,
+springing up, and among them were Florence of Worcester, Henry of
+Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham and William of Malmesbury. Their ambition
+was almost invariably to write the history of the world, and they
+generally begin with the Creation. They only become original and
+contemporary authorities towards the end of their appointed tasks, and
+the bulk of their work is borrowed from their predecessors. Frequently
+they embody materials which would otherwise have perished, but their
+transcription is marred by an amount of conscious or unconscious
+falsification which seriously impairs their value. All the
+above-mentioned writers lived in the half-century immediately following
+the Norman Conquest, but their critical acumen and their literary art
+vary considerably. William of Malmesbury, Eadmer and Ordericus Vitalis
+attain a higher historical standard than had yet been reached in England
+by any one, with the possible exception of Bede. They are not mere
+annalists; they practise an art and cultivate a style; history has
+become to them a form of literature. They have also their philosophy and
+interpretation of history. It is mainly a theological conception, blind
+to economic influences, and attaching excessive importance to the
+effects of the individual action of emperors and popes, kings and
+cardinals. Even their characters are painted in different colours
+according to their action on quite irrelevant questions, as, for
+instance, their benefactions to the monastery, to which the historian
+happens to belong, or to rival houses; and the character once determined
+by such considerations, history is made to point the moral of their
+fortunes, or their fate. It is regarded as the record of moral judgments
+and the proof of orthodox doctrine, and it is long before ecclesiastical
+historians expel the sermon from their text.
+
+The line of monastic historians stretches out to the close of the middle
+ages. Most of the great monasteries had their official annalists, who
+produced such works as the Annals of Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Burton,
+Waverley, Dunstable, Bermondsey, Oseney, Winchester (see _Annales
+Monastici_, 5 vols., ed. Luard, and other volumes in the Rolls series).
+Some of them are mainly local chronicles; others are almost national
+histories. In particular, St Albans developed a remarkable school of
+historians extending over nearly three centuries to the death of
+Whethamstede in 1465 (see _Chronica Monasterii S. Albani_, Rolls series,
+7 vols., ed. Riley). Only a few of the 235 volumes published under the
+direction of the master of the Rolls, and called the Rolls series, can
+here be mentioned. Other medieval writers have been edited for the
+earlier English Historical Society; some of them have been re-edited
+without being superseded in the Rolls series. For the reign of Stephen
+we have the anonymous _Gesta Stephani_ in addition to the writers
+already mentioned, several of whom continue into Stephen's reign. For
+Henry II. we have William of Newburgh, who reaches the highest point
+attained by historical composition in the 12th century; the so-called
+Benedict of Peterborough's _Gesta Henrici_, which Stubbs tentatively and
+without sufficient authority ascribed to Richard Fitznigel; Robert of
+Torigni; and seven volumes of "Materials for the History of Thomas
+Becket," which contain some of the best and worst samples of
+hagiological history. For Richard and John the chronicles of Roger of
+Hoveden, Ralph de Diceto (Diss), Gervase of Canterbury, Ralph of
+Coggeshall, and a later continuation of Hoveden, known under the name of
+Walter of Coventry, are the best narrative authorities.
+
+With the accession of Henry III., Roger of Wendover, the first of the St
+Albans school whose writings are extant, becomes our chief authority. He
+was re-edited and continued after 1236 by Matthew Paris, the greatest of
+medieval historians. His work, which goes down to 1259, is picturesque,
+vivid, and marked by considerable breadth of view and independence of
+judgment. The story is carried on by a series of jejune compilations
+known as the _Flores historiarum_ (ed. Luard). Better authorities for
+Edward I. are Rishanger, Trokelowe and Blaneforde, Wykes, Walter of
+Hemingburgh, Nicholas Trevet, Oxnead and Bartholomew Cotton, and others
+contained in Stubbs's _Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II._ In the
+14th century there is a significant deterioration in the monastic
+chroniclers, and their place is taken by the works of secular clergy
+like Adam Murimuth, Geoffrey the Baker, Robert of Avesbury, Henry
+Knighton and the anonymous author of the _Eulogium historiarum_.
+Monastic history is represented by Higden's voluminous _Polychronicon_,
+which succeeds the _Flores historiarum_. A brief revival of the St
+Albans school towards the end of the century is seen in the _Chronicon
+Angliae_ and the works of T. Walsingham, which continue into the reign
+of Henry V. For Richard II. we have also Malverne and the Monk of
+Evesham; for the early Lancastrians, Capgrave, Elmham, Otterbourne, Adam
+of Usk; and for Henry VI., Amundesham, Whethamstede, William of
+Worcester and John Hardyng, as well as a number of anonymous briefer
+chronicles, edited, though not in the Rolls series, by J. Gairdner, C.
+L. Kingsford, N. H. Nicolas and J. S. Davies.
+
+These are the principal English historical writers for the middle ages;
+but as the connexion between England and the continent grew closer, and
+international relations developed, an increasing amount of light is
+thrown on English history by foreign writers. Of these authorities one
+of the earliest is the _Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois
+d'Angleterre_ (ed. Michel); briefer are the _Chronique de l'Anonyme de
+Bethune_ and the _Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal_. A large number of
+French and Flemish chronicles illustrate the history of the Hundred
+Years' War, by far the most important being Froissart (best edition by
+Luce, though Lettenhove's is bigger). Next come Jehan le Bel, Waurin's
+_Recueil_, Monstrelet, Chastellain, Juvenal des Ursins, and more limited
+works such as Creton's _Chronique de la traison et mort de Richard II_.
+
+Chronicles, however, grow less important as sources of history as time
+goes on. Their value is always dependent upon the absence of the more
+satisfactory materials known as records, and these records gradually
+become more copious and complete. They develop with the government, of
+whose activity and policy they are the real test and evidence. Perhaps
+the most important thing in history is the evolution of government, the
+development of consciousness and a will on the part of the state. This
+will is expressed in records; and, as the state progresses from infancy
+through the stage of tutelage under the church to its modern
+"omnicompetence," so its will is expressed in an ever widening and
+differentiating series of records. The first need of a government is
+finance; the earliest organized machinery for exerting its will is the
+exchequer; and the earliest great record in English history is Domesday
+Book. It is followed by a series of exchequer records, called the Pipe
+Rolls, which begin in the reign of Henry I., and dating from that of
+Henry II. is the _Dialogus de scaccario_, which explains in none too
+lucid language the intricate working of the exchequer system. It was
+Henry II. who gave the greatest impetus to the development of the
+machinery for expressing the will of the state. He began with finance
+and went on to justice, recognizing that _justitia magnum emolumentum_,
+the administration of justice was a great source of revenue. So national
+courts of law are added to the national exchequer, and by the end of the
+12th century legal records become an even more important source of
+history than financial documents. The judicial system is described by
+Glanvill at the end of the 12th, and by Bracton and Fleta in the 13th
+century (for the exchequer see the _Testa de Nevill_ and the _Red Book
+of the Exchequer_). During that period the Curia Regis threw off three
+offshoots--the courts of exchequer, king's bench and common pleas; and
+records of their judicial proceedings survive in the Plea Rolls and Year
+Books, some of which have been edited for the Rolls series, the Selden
+and other societies. Numerous other classes of legal and administrative
+records gradually develop, the Patent and Close Rolls (first calendared
+by the Record Commission, and subsequently treated more adequately under
+the direction of the deputy keeper of the Records), Charters (which were
+first grants to individuals, then to collective groups, monasteries or
+boroughs, then to classes, and finally expanded--as in Magna Carta--into
+grants to the whole nation), Escheats, Feet of Fines, Inquisitiones post
+mortem, Inquisitiones ad quod damnum, Placita de Quo Warranto, and
+others for which the reader is referred to S. R. Scargill-Bird's _Guide
+to the Principal Classes of Documents preserved in the Record Office_
+(3rd ed., 1908). Every branch of administration comes to be represented
+in records almost as soon as it is developed. The evolution of the army
+which won Crecy and Poitiers is accompanied by the accumulation of a
+mass of indentures and other military documents, the value of which has
+been illustrated in Dr Morris's _Welsh Wars of Edward I_. and George
+Wrottesley's _Crecy and Calais from the Public Records_. The growth of
+naval organization is reflected in the _Black Book of the Admiralty_;
+the growth of taxation in the _Liber custumarum_ and _Subsidy Rolls_;
+the rise of parliament in the _Parliamentary Writs_ (ed. Palgrave), in
+the _Rotuli parliamentorum_, in the _Official Return of Members of
+Parliament_, and in the _Statutes of the Realm_; that of Convocation in
+David Wilkins's _Concilia_. The register of the privy council does not
+begin until later in the 14th century, and then is broken off between
+the middle of the 15th and 1539.
+
+Local as well as central government begets records as it grows. From the
+_Extenta manerii_ of the 12th century we get to the _Manorial Rolls_ of
+the 13th, when also we have _Hundred Rolls_, records of forest courts,
+of courts leet and of coroners' courts, and a variety of municipal
+documents, for which the reader is referred to Dr C. Gross's
+_Bibliography of British Municipal History_ and to Mrs J. R. Green's
+more popular _Town Life in the Fifteenth Century_. The municipal records
+of London, its hustings court and city companies, are too multifarious
+to describe; some classes of these documents have been exemplified in
+the works of Dr R. R. Sharpe. Ecclesiastical records are represented by
+the episcopal registers (for the most part still unpublished), monastic
+cartularies, and other documents rendered comparatively scarce by the
+spoliation of the monasteries, and scattered proceedings of
+ecclesiastical courts. (See also the article RECORD.)
+
+Documents, other than records strictly so called, begin to grow with the
+habit of correspondence and the necessity of communication. A few
+letters survive from the time of the Norman kings, but the earliest
+collection of English royal letters is the _Letters of Henry III_.
+(Rolls series). Contemporary are the _Letters of Grosseteste_, and a
+little later come the _Letters of Archbishop Peckham_ and Raine's
+_Letters from Northern Registers_ (all in the Rolls series). Private
+correspondence appeared earlier in the voluminous epistles of Peter of
+Blois, archdeacon of Bath (ed. Giles). This is a somewhat intermittent
+source of history until we come to the 15th century, when the well-known
+_Paston Letters_ (ed. Gairdner) begin a stream which never fails
+thereafter and soon becomes a torrent. The most important series of
+official correspondence is the _Papal Letters_, calendared from 1198 to
+1404 in 4 vols. (ed. Bliss, Johnson and Twemlow). Subsidiary sources are
+the _Political Songs_ (ed. Wright), treatises like those of John of
+Salisbury, Gerald of Wales, and, later, Wycliffe's works, Netter's
+_Fasciculi Zizaniorum_, Gascoigne's _Loci e libro veritatum_, Pecock's
+_Repressor_, and the literary writings of Chaucer, Langland, Gower,
+Richard Rolle and others.
+
+During the 15th century the transition, which marks the change from
+medieval to modern history, affects also the character of historical
+sources and historical writing. In the first place, history ceases to be
+the exclusive province of the church; monastic chronicles shrink to a
+trickle and then dry up; the last of their kind in England is the
+_Greyfriars Chronicle_ (Camden Society), which ends in 1554. Their place
+is taken by the city chronicle compiled by middle-class laymen, just as
+the Renaissance was not a revival of clerical learning, but the
+expression of new intellectual demands on the part of the laity.
+Secondly, the definite disappearance of the medieval ideas of a
+cosmopolitan world and the emergence of national states begat diplomacy,
+and with it an ever-swelling mass of diplomatic material. Diplomacy had
+hitherto been occasional and intermittent, and embassies rare; now we
+get resident ambassadors carrying on a regular correspondence (see
+DIPLOMACY). The mercantile interests of Venice made it the pioneer in
+this direction, though its representatives abroad were at first
+commercial rather than diplomatic agents. The _Calendar of Venetian
+State Papers_ goes back to the 14th century, but does not become copious
+till the reign of Henry VII., when also the Spanish Calendar begins.
+Resident French ambassadors in England only begin in the 16th century,
+and later still those from the emperor, the German and Italian states
+other than Venice. In the third place, the development of the new
+monarchy involved an enormous extension of the activity of the central
+government, and therefore a corresponding expansion in the records of
+its energy.
+
+The political records of this energy are the State Papers, a class of
+document which soon dwarfs all others, and renders chroniclers,
+historians and the like almost negligible quantities as sources of
+history; but in another way their value is enhanced, for these hundreds
+of thousands of documents provide a test of the accuracy of modern
+historians which is imperfect in the case of medieval chroniclers and
+almost non-existent in that of ancient writers. These state papers are
+either "foreign" or "domestic," that is to say, the correspondence of
+the English government with its agents abroad, or at home. There is also
+the correspondence of foreign ambassadors resident in England with their
+governments. This last class of documents exists in England mainly in
+the form of transcripts from the originals in foreign archives, which
+have been made for the purpose of the Venetian and Spanish Calendars of
+state papers. The Venetian Calendar had by 1909 been carried well into
+the 17th century; the Spanish (which includes transcripts from the
+Habsburg archives at Vienna, Brussels and Simancas) covered only the
+reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. No attempt had yet
+been made to calendar the French correspondence in a similar way, though
+the French Foreign Office published some fragmentary collections, such
+as the _Correspondance de MM. de Castillon et de Marillac_ and that of
+Odet de Selve. There are other collections too numerous to enumerate,
+such as Lettenhove's edition of Philip II.'s correspondence relating to
+the Netherlands, Diegerick and Mueller's, Teulet's and Alberi's
+collections, the French _Documents inedits_ and the Spanish _Documentos
+ineditos_, all containing state papers relating to England's foreign
+policy in the 16th century. The Scottish and Irish state papers are
+calendared in separate series and without much system. Thus for Scottish
+affairs there are four series, the Border Papers, the Hamilton Papers,
+Thorp's Calendar, and, more recent and complete, Bain's Calendar. For
+Ireland, besides the regular Irish state papers, there are the Carew
+Papers, almost as important. Anarchy, indeed, pervades the whole method
+of publication. For the reign of Henry VII. we have, besides the
+Venetian and Spanish Calendars, only three volumes--Gairdner's _Letters
+and Papers of Richard III. and Henry VII._ and Campbell's _Materials_ (2
+vols., Rolls series). Then with the reign of Henry VIII. begins the
+magnificent and monumental _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, the one
+modern series for which the Record Office deserves unstinted praise.
+This is not limited to state papers, domestic and foreign, nor to
+documents in the Record Office; it calendars private letters, grants,
+&c., extant in the British Museum and elsewhere. It extends to 21
+volumes, each volume consisting of two or more parts, and some parts (as
+in vol. iv.) containing over a thousand pages; it comprises at least
+fifty thousand documents. Its value, however, varies; the earlier
+volumes are not so full as the later, the documents are not so well
+calendared, and some classes are excluded from earlier, which appear in
+the later, volumes.
+
+After 1547 a different plan is adopted, though not consistently
+followed. Only state papers are calendared, and as a rule only those in
+the Record Office; and the domestic are separated from the foreign. The
+great fault is the neglect of the vast quantities of state papers in the
+British Museum. The Domestic Calendar (the first volume of which is very
+inadequate) extended in 1909 in a series of more than seventy volumes
+nearly to the end of the 17th century; the mass of MSS. calendared
+therein may be gathered from the fact that for the reign of Elizabeth
+the Domestic state papers fill over three hundred MS. volumes. The
+Foreign Calendar had only got to 1582, but it occupied sixteen printed
+volumes against one of the Domestic Calendar. For the masses of MSS.
+uncalendared in the British Museum there is no guide except the
+imperfect indexes to the Cotton, Harleian, Lansdowne, Additional and
+other collections. Hardly less important than the calendars are the
+reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission and the appendices
+thereto, which extend to over a hundred volumes; twelve are occupied by
+Lord Salisbury's 16th-century MSS. at Hatfield House. The dispersion of
+these state papers is due to the fact that they were in those days
+treated not as the property of the state, but as the private property of
+individual secretaries.
+
+State papers represent only one side of the activity of the central
+government. The register of the privy council, extending with some
+lacunae from 1539 to 1604, has been printed in thirty-two volumes. The
+_Rotuli parliamentorum_ end with Henry VII., but in 1509 begin the
+journals of the House of Lords, and in 1547 the journals of the House of
+Commons. These are supplemented by private diaries of members of
+parliament, several of which were used in D'Ewes's _Journals_. Legal
+history can now be followed in a continuous series of law reports,
+beginning with Keilway, Staunford and Dyer, and going on with Coke and
+many others; documentary records of various courts are exemplified in
+the _Select Cases_ from the star chamber, the court of requests and
+admiralty courts, published by the Selden Society; and there are
+voluminous records of the courts of augmentations, first-fruits, wards
+and liveries in the Record Office. For Ireland, besides the state
+papers, there are the Calendars of Patents and of Fiants, and for
+Scotland the Exchequer Rolls and Registers of the Privy Council and of
+the Great Seal, both extending to many volumes.
+
+Unofficial sources multiply with equal rapidity, but it is impossible to
+enumerate the collections of private letters, &c., only a few of which
+have been published. The chronicles, which in the 15th century are
+usually meagre productions like Warkworth's (Camden Society), get
+fuller, especially those emanating from London. Fabyan is succeeded by
+Hall, an indispensable authority for Henry VIII., and Hall by Grafton.
+Other useful books are Wriothesley's _Chronicle_ and Machyn's _Diary_,
+and they have numerous successors; some of their works have been edited
+for the Camden Society, which now takes the place of the Rolls series.
+The most important are Holinshed, Stow and Camden; and gradually, with
+Speed and Bacon, the chronicle develops into the history, and early in
+the 17th century we get such works as Lord Herbert's _Reign of Henry
+VIII._, Hayward's _Edward VI._, and, on the ecclesiastical side, Heylyn,
+Fuller, Burnet and Collier's histories of the church and Reformation.
+Foxe, who died in 1587, included a vast and generally accurate
+collection of documents in his _Acts and Monuments_, popularized as the
+_Book of Martyrs_, though his own contributions have to be discounted as
+much as those of Sanders, Parsons and other Roman Catholic
+controversialists. Two other great collections are the Parker Society's
+publications (56 vols.), which contain besides the works of the
+reformers a considerable number of their letters, and Strype's works (26
+vols.). The naval epic of the period is Hakluyt's _Navigations_,
+re-edited in 12 vols. in 1902, and continued in Purchas's _Pilgrims_.
+
+In the 17th century the domestic and foreign state papers eclipse other
+sources almost more completely than in the 16th. The colonial state
+papers now become important and extensive, those relating to America and
+the West Indies being most numerous (18 vols. to 1700). Parliamentary
+records naturally expand, and the journals of both houses become more
+detailed. Parliamentary diarists like D'Ewes, Burton and Walter Yonge,
+only a fragment of whose shorthand notes in the British Museum has been
+published (Camden Society), elucidate the bare official statements; and
+from 1660 the series of parliamentary debates is fairly complete, though
+not so full or authoritative as it becomes with Hansard in the 19th
+century. Social diarists of great value appear after the Restoration in
+Pepys, Evelyn, Reresby, Narcissus Luttrell and Swift (_Journal to
+Stella_), and political writing grows more important as a source of
+history, whether it takes the form of Bacon's (ed. Spedding) or Milton's
+treatises, or of satires like Dryden's and political pamphlets like
+Halifax's and then Swift's, Defoe's and Steele's. Clarendon's _Great
+Rebellion_ and Burnet's _History of My Own Time_ are the first modern
+attempts at contemporary history, as distinct from chronicles and
+annals, in England, although it is difficult to exclude the work of
+Matthew Paris from the category. The innumerable tracts and newsletters
+are a valuable source for the Civil Wars and Commonwealth period (see J.
+B. Williams, _A History of English Journalism_, 1909), while Thurloe's,
+Clarendon's and Nalson's collections of state papers deserve a mention
+apart from the Domestic Calendar. There is a still more monumental
+collection--the Carte Papers--on Irish affairs in the Bodleian Library,
+where also the Tanner MSS. and other collections have only been very
+partially worked. The volumes of the Historical MSS. Commission are of
+great value for the later Stuart period, notably the House of Lords MSS.
+
+For the 18th century the only calendars are the Home Office Papers and
+the Treasury Books and Papers, the further specialization of government
+having made it necessary to differentiate domestic state papers into
+several classes. But it need hardly be said that the bulk of
+correspondence in the Record Office does not diminish. Outside its walls
+the most important single collection is perhaps the duke of Newcastle's
+papers among the Additional MSS. in the British Museum; the Stuart
+papers at Windsor, Mr Fortescue's at Dropmore, Lord Charlemont's (Irish
+affairs), Lord Dartmouth's (American affairs) and Lord Carlisle's, all
+calendared by the Historical MSS. Commission, are also valuable.
+Chatham's correspondence with colonial governors has been published (2
+vols., 1906), as have the _Grenville Papers_, _Bedford Correspondence_,
+Malmesbury's _Diaries_, Auckland's _Journals and Correspondence_,
+Grafton's _Correspondence_, Lord North's _Correspondence with George
+III._, and other correspondence in _The Memoirs of Rockingham_, and the
+duke of Buckingham's _Court and Cabinets of George III._ Mention should
+also be made of Gower's _Despatches_, the _Cornwallis Correspondence_,
+Rose's _Correspondence_ and Lord Colchester's _Correspondence_. Of
+special interest is the series of naval records, despatches to and from
+naval commanders, proceedings of courts-martial, and logs in the Record
+Office which have never been properly utilized.
+
+Among unofficial sources the most characteristic of the 18th century are
+letters, memoirs and periodical literature. Horace Walpole's _Letters_
+(Clarendon Press, 16 vols.) are the best comment on the history of the
+period; his _Memoirs_ are not so good, though they are superior to
+Wraxall, who succeeds him. Periodical literature becomes regular in the
+reign of Queen Anne, chiefly in the form of journals like the
+_Spectator_; but several daily newspapers, including _The Times_, were
+founded during the century. _The Craftsman_ provided a vehicle for
+Bolingbroke's attacks on Walpole, while the _Gentleman's Magazine and
+Annual Register_ begin a more serious and prolonged career. Both contain
+occasional state papers, and not very trustworthy reports of
+parliamentary proceedings. The publication of debates was not authorized
+till the last quarter of the century; parliamentary papers begin
+earlier, but only slowly attain their present portentous dimensions.
+Political writing is at its best from Halifax to Cobbett, and its three
+greatest names are perhaps Swift, "Junius" and Burke, though Steele,
+Defoe, Bolingbroke and Dr Johnson are not far behind, while Canning's
+contributions to the _Anti-Jacobin_ and Gillray's caricatures require
+mention.
+
+The sources for 19th-century history are somewhat similar to those for
+the 18th. Diaries continue in the _Creevey Papers_, Greville's Diary,
+and lesser but not less voluminous writers like Sir M. E. Grant-Duff.
+The most important series of letters is Queen Victoria's (ed. Lord Esher
+and A. C. Benson, 1908), and the correspondence of most of her prime
+ministers and many of her other advisers has been partially published.
+Of political biographies there is no end. The great bulk of material,
+however, consists of blue-books, Hansard's _Parliamentary Debates_, and
+newspapers--which are better as indirect than direct evidence. The real
+truth is not of course revealed at once, and many episodes in
+19th-century history are still shrouded by official secrecy. In this
+respect English governments are more cautious or reactionary than many
+of those on the continent of Europe, and access to official documents is
+denied when it is granted elsewhere; even the lapse of a century is not
+considered a sufficient salve for susceptibilities which might be
+wounded by the whole truth.
+
+Meanwhile the 19th century witnessed a great development in historical
+writing. In the middle ages the stimulus to write was mainly of a moral
+or ecclesiastical nature, though the patriotic impulse which had
+suggested the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was perhaps never entirely absent,
+and the ecclesiastical motive often degenerated into a desire to
+glorify, sometimes even by forgery, not merely the church as a whole,
+but the particular monastery to which the writer belonged. As
+nationalism developed, the patriotic motive supplanted the
+ecclesiastical, and stress is laid on the "famous" history of England.
+Insular self-glorification was, however, modified to some extent by the
+Renaissance, which developed an interest in other lands, and the
+Reformation, which gave to much historical writing a partisan
+theological bias. This still colours most of the "histories" of the
+Reformation period, because the issues of that time are living issues,
+and the writers of these histories are committed beforehand by their
+profession and their position to a particular interpretation. In the
+17th century political partisanship coloured historical writing, and
+that, too, remained a potent motive so long as historians were either
+Whigs or Tories. Histories were often elaborate party pamphlets, and
+this race of historians is hardly yet extinct. Macaulay is not greatly
+superior in impartiality to Hume; Gibbon and Robertson were less open to
+temptation because they avoided English subjects. Hallam deliberately
+aimed at impartiality, but he could not escape his Whig atmosphere.
+Nevertheless, the effort to be impartial marks a new conception of
+history, which is well expressed in Lord Acton's admonition to his
+contributors in the _Cambridge Modern History_. Historians are to serve
+no cause but that of truth; in so far even as they desire a line of
+investigation to lead to a particular result, they are not, maintains
+Professor Bury, real historians. S. R. Gardiner perhaps attained most
+nearly this severe ideal among English historians, and Ranke among
+Germans. But, even when all conscious bias is eliminated, the
+unconscious bias remains, and Ranke's history of the Reformation is
+essentially a middle-class, even _bourgeois_, presentment. Stubbs's
+medievalist sympathies colour his history throughout, and still more
+strongly does Froude's anti-clericalism. Freeman's bias was peculiar; he
+is really a West Saxon of Godwine's time reincarnated, and his Somerset
+hatred of French, Scots and Mercian foreigners sets off his robust
+loyalty to the house of Wessex. Lecky and Creighton are almost as
+dispassionate as Gardiner, but are more definitely committed to
+particular points of views, while democratic fervour pervades the
+fascinating pages of J. R. Green, and an intellectual secularism, which
+is almost religious in its intensity and idealism, inspired the genius
+of Maitland.
+
+The latest controversy about history is whether it is a science or an
+art. It is, of course, both, simply because there must be science in
+every art and art in every science. The antithesis is largely false;
+science lays stress on analysis, art on synthesis. The historian must
+apply scientific methods to his materials and artistic methods to his
+results; he must test his documents and then turn them into literature.
+The relative importance of the two methods is a matter of dispute. There
+are some who still maintain that history is merely an art, that the best
+history is the story that is best told, and that what is said is less
+important than the way in which it is said. This school generally
+ignores records. Others attach little importance to the form in which
+truth is presented; they are concerned mainly with the principles and
+methods of scientific criticism, and specialize in palaeography,
+diplomatic and sources. The works of this school are little read, but in
+time its results penetrate the teaching in schools and universities, and
+then the pages of literary historians; it is represented in England by a
+fairly good organization, the Royal Historical Society (with which the
+Camden Society has been amalgamated), and by an excellent periodical,
+_The English Historical Review_ (founded in 1884), while some sort of
+propaganda is attempted by the Historical Association (started in 1906).
+Its standards have also been upheld with varying success in great
+co-operative undertakings, such as the _Dictionary of National
+Biography_, the _Cambridge Modern History_, and Messrs Longmans'
+_Political History of England_.
+
+  These 19th-century products require some sort of classification for
+  purposes of reference, and the chronological is the most convenient.
+  Lingard's, J. R. Green's and Messrs Longmans' histories are the only
+  notable attempts to tell the history of England as a whole, though
+  Stubbs's _Constitutional History_ (3 vols.) covers the middle ages and
+  embodies a political survey as well (for corrections and modifications
+  see Petit-Dutaillis, _Supplementary Studies_, 1908), while Hallam's
+  _Constitutional History_ (3 vols.) extends from 1485 to 1760 and
+  Erskine May's (3 vols.) from 1760 to 1860. Sir James Ramsay's six
+  volumes also cover the greater part of medieval English history. There
+  is no work on a larger scale than Lappenberg and Kemble, dealing with
+  England before the Norman Conquest, though J. R. Green's _Making of
+  England_ and _Conquest of England_ deal with certain portions in some
+  detail, and Freeman gives a preliminary survey in his _Norman
+  Conquest_ (6 vols.). For the succeeding period see Freeman's _William
+  Rufus_, J. H. Round's _Feudal England_ and _Geoffrey de Mandeville_,
+  and Miss Norgate's _England under the Angevins and John Lackland_.
+  From 1216 we have nothing but Ramsay, Stubbs, Longmans' _Political
+  History_ and monographs (some of them good), until we come to Wylie's
+  _Henry IV_. (4 vols.); and again from 1413 the same is true
+  (Gairdner's _Lollardy and the Reformation_ being the most elaborate
+  monograph) until we come to Brewer's _Reign of Henry VIII_. (2 vols.;
+  to 1530 only), Froude's _History_ (12 vols., 1529-1588) and R. W.
+  Dixon's _Church History_ (6 vols., 1529-1570). From 1603 to 1656 we
+  have Gardiner's _History_ (England, 10 vols.; Civil War, 4 vols.;
+  Commonwealth and Protectorate, 3 vols.), and to 1714 Ranke's _History
+  of England_ (6 vols.; see also Firth's _Cromwell_ and _Cromwell's
+  Army_, and various editions of texts and monographs). For Charles II.
+  there is no good history; then come Macaulay, and Stanhope and Wyon's
+  _Queen Anne_, and for the 18th century Stanhope and Lecky (England, 7
+  vols.; Ireland, 5 vols.). From 1793 to 1815 is another gap only
+  partially filled. Spencer Walpole deals with the period from 1815 to
+  1880, and Herbert Paul with the years 1846-1895.
+
+  A few books on special subjects deserve mention. For legal history see
+  Pollock and Maitland's _History of English Law_ (2 vols. to Edward
+  I.), Maitland's _Domesday Book and Beyond_, and Anson's _Law and
+  Custom of the Constitution_; for economic history, Cunningham's
+  _Growth of Industry and Commerce_, and Ashley's _Economic History_;
+  for ecclesiastical history, Stephens and Hunt's series (7 vols.); for
+  foreign and colonial, Seeley's _British Foreign Policy_ and _Expansion
+  of England_, and J. A. Doyle's books on the American colonies; for
+  military history, Fortescue's _History of the British Army_, Napier's
+  and Oman's works on the _Peninsular War_, and Kinglake's _Invasion of
+  the Crimea_; and for naval history, Corbett's _Drake and the Tudor
+  Navy, Successors of Drake, English in the Mediterranean_ and _Seven
+  Years' War_, and Mahan's _Influence of Sea-Power on _History_ and
+  _Influence_ of Sea-Power upon the French Revolution and Empire_.
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--The sources for the middle ages have
+  been enumerated in C. Gross's _Sources and Literature of English
+  History ... to about 1485_ (London, 1900), but there is nothing
+  similar for modern history. G. C. Lee's _Source Book of English
+  History_ is not very satisfactory. More information can be obtained
+  from the bibliographies appended to the volumes in Longmans'
+  _Political History_, or the chapters in the _Cambridge Modern
+  History_, or to the biographical articles in the _D.N.B._ and _Ency.
+  Brit._ A series of bibliographical leaflets for the use of teachers is
+  issued by the Historical Association. For MSS. sources see
+  Scargill-Bird's _Guide to the Record Office_, and the class catalogues
+  in the MSS. Department of the British Museum. Lists of the state
+  papers and other documents printed and calendared under the direction
+  of the master of the Rolls and deputy keeper of the Records are
+  supplied at the end of many of their volumes.     (A. F. P.)
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [1] As the name Edith (Eadgyth) sounded uncouth to Norman ears, she
+    assumed the continental name Maheut or Mahelt (Eng. Mahald, later
+    Mold and Maud), in Latin Matildis or Matilda. Sir J.H. Ramsay,
+    _Foundations of England_, ii. 235. (Ed.)
+
+  [2] The Nottingham of 1387, who had been promoted to the higher
+    title.
+
+  [3] Mr Andrew Lang takes a different view of the character of Albany
+    and his attitude in this matter. See _Hist. of Scotland_, i. 289, and
+    the article SCOTLAND: _History_.--ED.
+
+  [4] The peculiar absurdity of Henry's claim to be king of France was
+    that if, on the original English claim as set forth by Edward III.,
+    heirship through females counted, then the earl of March was entitled
+    to the French throne. A vote of the English parliament superseding
+    March's claim in favour of that of Henry IV. could obviously have no
+    legal effect in France.
+
+  [5] The events of the reign of Charles I. are treated in greater
+    detail in the articles CHARLES I., King of Great Britain and Ireland;
+    STRAFFORD; HAMPDEN; PYM; GREAT REBELLION; CROMWELL, &c.
+
+  [6] The position of the Corresponding Society was greatly
+    strengthened by the establishment of the Friends of the People by
+    Erskine and Grey.
+
+  [7] A vivid account of the mutiny and its causes is given in Captain
+    Marryat's _King's Own_.
+
+  [8] Edward Henry Stanley, 15th earl of Derby, son of the 14th earl
+    and former prime minister.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th
+Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5, by Various
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