of his age and the thirty-fifth of his reign. Edward I. has been called "the greatest of the Plantagenets."

ENGLAND.

Edward II. of Caernarvon, 1307-1327, succeeded his father at the age of twenty-three, and his reign. was one of the saddest in English history. Piers Gaveston, a vicious and trifling minion, whom the king appointed regent when on a journey to Paris to marry Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fair, disgusted the barons to such a pitch, that they compelled the king to delegate all the authority of government to certain commissioners, and to abandon his favorite to their resentment. Gaveston was doomed to perpetual imprisonment, and, on attempting to escape, was seized and beheaded. The same year (1312) witnessed a most remarkable event in the suppression of the military religious order of the Knights of the Holy Temple, or Templars, by the pope's bull. This powerful body, which orig

inated in the zeal of the Crusaders, and had rendered splendid services to the Christian cause in the East, had long incurred the suspicion of aiming at supreme power in Europe. They were charged moreover with the practice of unlawful arts, as well as with gross immorality, and their suppression was carried out with great severity. Their estates in England were granted in 1324 to the rival order of the Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.

Ed

The king now prepared for a final effort to conquer Scotland, where Robert Bruce, after years of wandering, had recovered nearly all the country, and was in the field with a formidable army. ward marched against him with 100,000 men. King Robert Bruce met this immense force with 30,000 at Bannockburn, June 24, 1314, and inflicted. on the English the most signal overthrow, defeating them with prodigious slaughter. This important victory secured the independence of Scotland. The following year witnessed the close of a long war with Scotland by a truce for thirteen years. A new favorite, Spencer, now supplied the place of Gaveston, his undeserved elevation and overbearing character completing the disaffection of the nobles to their sovereign. The queen, a vicious adulteress, joined the malcontents, and, passing over

to France, obtained from her brother, Charles IV., an army to invade England, and dethrone her husband. Her enterprise was successful. Spencer and his father perished on the scaffold. Edward was carried to Berkeley Castle, and Mortimer, the queen's paramour, sent secret orders to despatch him. His jailers threw him on a bed and burnt out his intestines with a hot iron, while his screams of agony revealed the murder, of which they had sought to avoid all external marks by their horrid means of perpetrating it. He perished on the 21st of September, 1327, in the forty-fourth year of his age, having reigned nineteen years and a half to the time of his deposition. His unhappy reign and miserable death bear witness to the fact so often noticed, that in this world the penalty of weakness is worse than that of wickedness.

Edward III. of Windsor, 1327-1377, where he was born on November 13, 1312, was in his fifteenth year when he was placed on the throne by his father's deposition, January 20, 1327. He took the field in person against the Scots, and narrowly escaped falling at the hands of the formidable Douglas. This campaign was closed by an inglorious treaty, by which the king resigned the claim to homage set up by Edward I., acknowledged the independence of Scotland, and restored the regalia, 1328. A marriage was agreed upon between Jane, the sister of Edward III., and David, the heir of Robert Bruce, who became king David II. of Scotland by his father's death in the same year, June 7, 1328. This eventful year witnessed also the death of Charles IV. of France, with mighty consequences to England, as will presently be seen.

The queen, with Mortimer, still claimed control. Edward took counsel with several of his nobles, and surprised the queen and Mortimer in the castle of Nottingham, to which his party gained entrance by an old subterranean passage. Mortimer was condemned, without trial, by the parliament, and hanged at Tyburn, November 29, 1330. The queen remained in captivity at Castle Rising, near Lynn, for the rest of her life.

The first few years of the reign which Edward now really commenced were occupied in the restoration of internal order and in a war with Scotland. Several of the English nobility, complaining that they had not been restored to their estates in Scotland in accordance with the late treaty, set up Ed

ward Baliol, son of the late John Baliol, as a claimant of the crown, and Edward III. espoused his cause, 1332. David fled to France, and the regent Douglas was defeated and slain at Halidon Hill near Berwick, July 19, 1333. Baliol was acknowledged as king by a parliament at Perth; but on the discovery that he had ceded the south of Scotland to Edward, he was obliged to flee to Berwick, 1334. In the war which followed the Scots received large succors from the king of France, who thus furnished Edward with a provocation to urge the claim which he had already made to the crown of France.

Thus began those wars with France which exhausted both countries for a century, and bequeathed to after generations the foolish and fatal legacy of a supposed "natural énmity."

The claim of Edward to the French crown was utterly untenable. It was founded on his descent from Philip III., from whom also the right of the reigning king, Philip VI., was derived. The relation of both to their common ancestor is seen in the following table:

On the death of Charles IV. without male issue, the crown of France was claimed by Edward III. of England, in right of his mother, the sister of Charles. In the meantime the throne was occupied by Philip of Valois, a distant relation of the previous king, whose daughters Philip superseded on the ground that the succession to the crown was regulated by the Salic law, which excluded females. This rule of succession would have equally excluded Edward, who claimed through a female title as the representative of his mother; but he had those material means of urging his claims in which the young princesses were deficient.

At length, in 1346, Edward prepared for a campaign in Guienne, but he was compelled by adverse winds to land at Cape la Hogue in Normandy. His army consisted only of 4,000 men-at-arms, 10,000 archers, 10,000 Welsh infantry, and 6,000 Irish; but, besides the king, it had a chief who proved in

himself a host, though then only sixteen years of age, Edward, Prince of Wales, called, from the favorite color of his armor, the Black Prince. The English ravaged the country on the left bank of the Seine almost up to the gates of Paris, and then retreated towards Flanders, pursued by the French king with an immense army. The delay caused in crossing the Somme enabled the French to come up with Edward, who turned to meet them at the village of Crecy, about fifteen miles to the east of Abbeville. His position was a gentle slope, on which he formed his army in three lines, with trenches to protect their flanks, and the baggage in the rear. He gave the post of honor at the head of the first line to his son, who had been knighted only a month before, and himself took the command of the reserve. In his front he placed some cannons, the first that had been used in any great battle; but so little value was yet attached to the invention that the French king had not waited to bring up his artillery. The host of France reached the field after a long day's march from Abbeville, already fatigued, and with their ranks disordered. They, also, were disposed in three lines. The first consisted of Genoese crossbowmen, under Doria and Grimaldi; the second was intrusted to the king's brother, the Count of Alençon; and Philip himself was with the third. Around him were all his nobility and great vassals, with the king of Bohemia and his son, the king of the Romans. The total force of his army was 120,000 men, while that of Edward was only 30,000; but the French were over-confident and undisciplined, under leaders jealous of each other and blindly contemptuous of the little English army which discipline and a wise general made irresistible.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, on Saturday the 26th of August, 1346, when the Genoese advanced to attack the English army, who remained firm in their ranks. A thunder-shower had relaxed their bowstrings, and their arrows fell short of the mark, while the English archers, taking their bows out of their cases, poured in their cloth-yard shafts with unerring arm, and put the Genoese to flight. They were cut down by the men-at-arms of their own side; but these also were thrown into confusion by the steady fire of the English archers. D'Alençon, leading a body of knights past the flank of the archers, closed with the main

body of the English. The Prince of Wales was hard beset; and a knight rode out of the battle to Edward, who watched the battle from a windmillhill, and asked for help. "Is my son dead, or hurt, or felled to the ground?" said the king; and when the knight answered "No," he bade him return and tell those who sent him to let the prince win his spurs that day, and to send for no help while he was alive. The like chivalrous devotion was shown by the aged king of Bohemia, who, being almost blind, caused his knights to tie their bridles together, placing him in the midst, and they all fell slain together. Their fate was shared by Alençon and the flower of the French nobility. In vain did Philip try to bring up the reserve, he was forced back by the tide of battle, and his routed army was pursued and slaughtered-for on that day no quarter was given-till the night fell. Then the field of victory was lighted up by torches, and Edward came down from the little hill to reward the prince, who knelt before him, with such words of praise as these: "Fair son, God give you good perseverance. You are my good son, that have acquitted yourself so nobly. You are worthy to keep a realm." This great battle, in which the French left between 30,000 and 40,000 dead upon the field, cost the English only three knights, one esquire, and a very few of inferior rank. In those days of complete armor the loss of life was not so much in the battle as in the pursuit.

In the following week Edward invested Calais, the siege of which lasted just a year.

The king of France made a vain attempt to relieve Calais at the Whitsuntide of 1347. This town had been taken by the English, and remained in their possession two hundred and ten years. The beautiful story of the self-devotion of the six burgesses of Calais, who presented themselves before Edward with halters round their necks, as victims in place of their fellow-citizens, and of their pardon on the intercession of Queen Philippa, can hardly be surrendered to romance without regret. In this same year, 1349, Edward founded the chief of the English orders of knighthood, that of the Garter.

The king is said to have picked up a lady's garter at a ball (the Countess of Salisbury's), and to have said, Honi soit qui mal y pense,-in English, “Evil be to him who evil thinks of it." The courtiers were usually glad to imitate what the king said or

did, and hence from a slight incident the Order of the Garter was instituted, and became a great dignity.

This year was also marked by the first great visitation of that horrible disease known as the Plague, which is said to have originated in the north of Asia. Its victims in London alone were more than 50,000.

The truce with France expired in 1355, and John had succeeded his father, Philip VI., in 1350. Edward invaded France via Calais, while his son the Black Prince invaded France from the south, where he was met near Poitiers by King John with 60,000 men. The Black Prince gained a splendid victory, and John yielded himself prisoner. The citizenɛ got up a banquet for him, and he himself waited upon the king at table, Sept. 19, 1356. Having signed a truce for two years with France, he conducted his royal prisoner to London, a fellow prisoner with King David of Scotland, which he entered in procession, riding on a little palfrey by the side of the king, who was mounted on a splendid white steed, and attired in royal apparel.

The French continued the war with great vigor during the captivity of their sovereign, who died in London, 1364; and they obtained a peace by the cession to the English of Poitou, St. Onge, Perigord, etc.; while Edward consented to renounce his claim to the crown of France. The death of the Black Prince, 1376, a most heroic and virtuous character, plunged the nation in grief, and broke the spirits of his father, who did not long survive him. Charles V. of France availed himself of this untimely loss, and Edward's advanced age, to recover almost all that the father and son had wrested from her. His policy, though far from being pure, obtained for this monarch the surname of Wise.

The English constitution may be said to have been considerably advanced during the reign of Edward III., particularly in regard to the three following grand securities. First, the more complete establishment of the illegality of raising money without the consent of the people; secondly, the necessity of the concurrence of the two houses of parliament in any alteration of the law; and thirdly, the right of the commons to inquire into public abuses, and to impeach the king's counsellors.

"At the latter part of this king's reign," says Sir Matthew Hale, "the law seemed to be near its me

ridian." A new era was opened for commerce by statutes allowing foreign traders within the realm, and by the king's encouragement of Flemish weavers who wished to settle in the kingdom.

Richard II., of Bordeaux, 1377-1399, was the grandson of Edward III., and son of Edward the Black Prince. He ascended the throne at eleven years of age.

The wars with France and Scotland were carried on without any events of importance, but the taxes required to support them led to the celebrated insurrection of the common people under Wat Tyler. In 1380 a poll-tax of three groats (twelve pence) imposed on every person above fifteen led to an almost universal discontent among the lower orders, on whom it of course pressed most severely. The flame was kindled by an outrage committed at Dartford by one of the collectors upon a peasant girl, under the pretence of assuring himself of her age. Her father, one Walter, a tiler, struck him dead upon the spot with a blow of his hammer. The men of Kent flew to arms, and the insurrection spread to all the eastern and south-eastern counties. Besides Wat Tyler, the insurgents had leaders, whose names, partly real and partly affected, proclaimed their mean origin, as Hob Carter, Tom Miller, and Jack Straw, whose name survives on Hampstead Heath. They assembled, to the number of 100,000, on Blackheath, June 12, 1381, where an itinerant preacher, named John Ball, addressed them on the natural equality of all men, asking

"When Adam delved, and Eve span,

Where was then the gentleman?" Their demands were in accordance with this text: the abolition of villenage, fixed rents in lieu of compulsory service, and freedom in exercising their trades. The king, meeting them in person, promised compliance; but, at another meeting in Smithfield, Walworth, the mayor of London, stabbed Wat Tyler, who was despatched by the king's attendants.

The war with Scotland gave occasion to one of the finest ballads in the English language, 1388, "Chevy Chase," the fight between the Percy and the Douglas. In England the contests for power between the king's uncles, "Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster," York, and Gloucester, embroiled all public measures; and the consequent

disorders required a stronger hand to compose them than that of the weak and facile Richard. Taking advantage of the king's absence, then engaged in quelling an insurrection in Ireland, Henry of Lancaster, who had succeeded to the title on the death of the king's uncle, being at the time in a state of exile, rose in open rebellion, and compelled Richard, at his return, to resign the crown. The parliament confirmed his deposition, and he was soon after privately assassinated. Thus began the contentions between the houses of York and Lancaster.

With Richard's death closed the fourteenth century, a period during which England made a progress in civilization as great as her advance in military fame, and far more lasting in results.

We have seen the growth of constitutional liberty and of freedom in the administration of justice, under the Edwards. In ecclesiastical matters, the ground surrendered by preceding kings to the see of Rome was in a great measure recovered. The parliament, in the twentieth year of Edward III., declared the homage to the pope, which had been imposed on John, to be null and void, 1367; and in the sixteenth of Richard II. was passed the celebrated statute of Præmunire, outlawing all persons who should introduce into the realm any papal bull or other instrument affecting the king, 1393. But, more than this, the new doctrine of liberty of conscience had been openly proclaimed, and that even more clearly than it was asserted by the reformers in the next century. John de Wickliffe, a clergyman of Oxford, announced, in the latter part of Edward III.'s reign, the great principle of the reformation-that the doctrines and practices of religion should be conformed to the Holy Scriptures, which he himself translated for the first time into English. Protected by John of Gaunt, he survived the attempts of the church to crush him, and closed his life peacefully at his rectory of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, in 1385. The royal descendants of his patron cruelly persecuted his followers, who were known by the nickname of Lollards.

The latter part of this century was a bright epoch in English literature. Geoffrey Chaucer, the friend of Wickliffe, uniting to a poetic genius, which only a very few of his successors have surpassed, a culture derived from the Italian models, and especially from Dante, produced, in his "Canterbury Tales,"

a work immeasurably superior to all efforts of England's earlier writers. In this work, and Wickliffe's translation of the Bible, the English Language is at length seen perfected in all essential points; and in the reign of Edward III. the English tongue took the place of French in public documents. Latin was, however, still much used, and the earliest state paper that exists in English belongs to the year 1386. Natural science began to shake off the trammels of superstition, and Roger Bacon announced, from his retreat at Oxford, some great discoveries in mechanics and chemistry, including a hint of the discovery of gunpowder.

The glorious art of English architecture advanced to perfection; many cathedrals and churches were built or enlarged; and Edward III. erected the truly regal monument of Windsor Castle; and Westminster Hall, the grandest single chamber in the Pointed style of architecture, was built by Richard II. The splendid works of William of Wykeham at Winchester and Oxford exhibit the noblest use of art in the service of learning and religion. In one word, England had achieved that greatness in arms and law, in arts and letters, which has never since been forfeited.

THE HUSSITES.

Wickliffe's principal follower was John Huss, a professor at Prague, a man remarkable both for his learning and his blameless life, and also for his Christian gentleness. The writings and preaching of Huss were condemned, and the propagation of many of his teachings forbidden, under pain of death. Numbers of the German students thereupon left Prague, and other German universities were founded, especially that of Leipsic, 1409. burning of Wickliffe's writings by the archbishop of Prague, and the papal excommunication of Huss, had produced great excitement in Bohemia; and hosts of people followed the reformer and listened to his preachings. Provided with an imperial passport, which assured him of a safe return, Huss

The

set out for Constance, but was immediately thrown into prison, and accused of propagation of heretical doctrines. When Huss refused to abjure his opinions, he was burnt as a heretic, 1415, and later Hieronymus of Prague also underwent the same fearful penalty. The intelligence of these executions excited the Hussites, who were burning with hatred and fanaticism, to a religious war. A sacramental cup was their symbol, which they declared should be given to the laity; hence, they were called Calixtines and Ultraquists. In vain did the pope hurl anathemas; the maddened people scorned all menaces; and when Wenceslaus died, in a fit of apoplexy, brought on by rage at the storming of the council-house at Prague, and the murder of the councillors, and the execrated Sigismund became king of Bohemia, the whole people took up arms to prevent the emperor, who had undertaken the extermination of heresy, from gaining possession of the country.

In vain did Sigismund now lead his powerful armies against the undisciplined troops; his bands of mercenaries recoiled before the angry populace, led by the bold, warlike general, Johann Ziska, who called himself "John Ziska of the Cup, Captain of the Taborites in the hope of God." In accordance with their reading of Old Testament history, the Hussites called the mountains on which they met together by biblical names, such as Horeb, Tabor, Mount of Olives, etc. The monks and old Catholics they called Philistines, Heathens, and Mahometans, and considered all measures against them as warranted. After Ziska's death, the Moderates, or Calixtines, separated from the Radicals, or Taborites; but not until the latter had experienced a severe defeat at Prague, and their leaders, the elder and younger Procopius, had fallen, did the emperor succeed, through the wisdom of his judicious chancellor, Count Caspar Schlick, in compelling them to accept conditions of peace, the privilege of the cup being conceded to them; whereupon Sigismund was recognized as king, 1436. But the prosperity of Bohemia had been for a long time destroyed.