mark this period, it was amidst such storms as these that the cradle of English liberty was rocked. An overruling Providence was preparing the way for the establishment of religion and justice, by the very sufferings which appeared to ensure the ruin of England. Thus, on the one hand, the extortions of the Pope disposed men's minds to question his authority; and a manly protest was made against them by Robert Grosteste, bishop of Lincoln from A.D. 1234-1253, a prelate of great piety, as well as learning and courage. On the other hand, the necessity which Leicester felt of some support in his violent course, led him to assemble a parliament, in which the Commons were for the first time represented. Knights chosen by the shires were at first added to the nobles and prelates, and in a later assembly, (A.D. 1265,) the towns also were represented by burgesses. The proceedings of these early parliaments were perhaps rude and tumultuous; but the principle was thus established, that the commonalty have a right to a voice by representatives, in the great national council. A jealousy having sprung up between Leicester and Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, the latter nobleman aided Prince Edward to escape from those who had him in custody. The prince was suffered to ride out, surrounded by guards and soldiers; and being one day mounted on a very swift horse, he proposed to his guards that they should ride races with each other; which they consented to do, for the sake of sport. When Edward saw that their horses were quite tired, he set spurs to his own, and soon left the guards behind. He rode to a hill on which he had seen a man mounted on a grey horse, who waved his bonnet; and the prince knew by this signal that his friends were at hand. Having assembled an army, the prince defeated the barons in the battle of Evesham (A.D. 1265), in which Leicester lost his life. This nobleman had put the aged king in front of the battle, that he might be killed by his own friends; and Henry would have been slain, had he not cried out to the soldier who was on the point of cutting him down, “I am Henry of Winchester, your king." Prince Edward was able, after this victory, to re-establish his father's authority so firmly, that he was not afraid to join in the seventh and last of the enterprises called crusades, with Louis, king of France, called St. Louis. That monarch lost his life in the course of this expedition from an epidemic fever before Tunis (A.D. 1270). It is remarkable that on a former crusade, the sixth, he had been taken prisoner by the sultan of Egypt, in A.D. 1250. Prince Edward was still absent from England when his father died, A.D. 1272. The sentiment which he expressed when he heard of that event, is worthy of being remembered. He had received at the same time news of the death of his son John; and on being asked why he mourned for his father more than for his child, he answered, "That God might give him many children, but he could have but one father." The reign of Henry is the longest in English history, except the reign of George III. During it and the reign of his predecessor, in spite of the disturbance of the times, the fine arts had made progress; the choirs of Worcester, and Wells, and the greater portion of Salisbury, cathedrals are monuments of the advances made in Church architecture. The prevailing style was that called the Early English or first pointed style. Henry III. was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his fine tomb may still be seen. The two reigns also are not wanting in literary names: John of Wallingford; Walter of Coventry; John Fordeham, chaplain to King John; and Matthew of Paris, a monk of St. Alban's, are those most worthy of note. CHAPTER XIV. EDWARD I. (LONG-SHANKS.) Born at Westminster. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Archbishops of Canterbury. Robert Kilwarby, A.D. 1273—1278. | Robert Winchelsea, A.D. 1294— John Peckham, A.D. 1278—1292. (Vacancy two years.) 1313. EDWARD was surnamed Long-shanks, from his remarkable length of limb. While in Palestine he distinguished himself by his valour against the infidels, and was wounded by an assassin whom they hired to kill him. He was able himself to dispatch his cowardly foe; but the dagger with which he had been struck was poisoned, and the wound was likely to be fatal. It has been said that Edward owed his life to the affection of his queen, who ventured to suck the venom from his arm. He was welcomed by his subjects on his return; and by the wisdom of his laws, and his just severity in enforcing them, he restored the kingdom to its former prosperity. This king has been called the English Justinian, from his resemblance to the celebrated Eastern emperor, who arranged and digested the civil law. In this reign the constitution of parliament was more fixed, the principles of just taxation were more plainly admitted, and the means of obtaining justice were more sure. It was now that the principal landowners in the several shires were made justices of the peace. A restraint was also laid on the practice of making over landed property to the Church, by certain laws called the statutes of mortmain, from two Latin words, which signify, "in dead hands;' implying that lands so disposed of were lost to the country, so far as the "living" and active participation in its burdens was concerned. This restraint was absolutely necessary; for by practising on the fears of men in their last moments, the monks had obtained vast grants of land all over the kingdom; and since what was thus bestowed could not be alienated, and was not subject to the same taxes with which other property was burdened for the defence of the kingdom, great injury was done to the commerce as well as the military strength of the country. Creditors were, in like manner, often defrauded of their rights, by the power which landowners possessed of so entailing their estates upon their children as to evade the payment of just debts. This and similar abuses were remedied by several laws of this king, who did more to settle the administration of justice on its present footing, than any other of our earlier kings. He punished offenders without respect of persons; and once when his son, Prince Edward, was influenced by Gaveston, his favourite, to insult the Bishop of Lichfield, the king gave orders to commit him to prison, that he might learn to respect the laws which he was afterwards to administer. His severe inquiries into many abuses often exposed him to the resentment of his nobles; and when Earl Warenne was questioned as to his right to his estate, that nobleman unsheathed a rusty sword, as the title by which his ancestors gained their property, and with which he was prepared to defend it to the last. It must be owned, that in the wars which Edward carried on, whether in Wales or Scotland, he did not always follow those principles of justice which he did so much to establish among his subjects. The conquest of Wales was one of the great events of this reign. It was then governed by Prince Llewellyn, who was induced to withdraw the allegiance which the Welsh princes had usually owned to the kings of England, and thus gave Edward a plea for attempting the conquest of that part of the island. His first invasion was boldly resisted; but Llewellyn was after a time defeated and slain (A.D. 1282), and his brother David was taken and executed with great barbarity. As the Welsh were easily excited by their bards, who rehearsed the ancient glories of their fathers, and their descent from the Britons, the original possessors of the whole island, the king most ruthlessly commanded that those national minstrels should be assembled and put to death; and his execution of this purpose is a lasting stain on his memory. He built strong castles at Conway, Caernarvon, and elsewhere, of which such noble ruins still remain; and, to reconcile the Welsh to their loss of independence, he presented to them his infant son, born at Caernarvon, as their prince. He had promised to give them a ruler born in Wales, who could not speak a word of English. The Welsh could not charge him with having broken the letter of his word, though perhaps they expected a very different performance of it. From this time, the eldest son of our sovereign has always had the title of Prince of Wales conferred on him soon after his birth. Having added Wales to his kingdom, Edward next sought some plea for taking part in the affairs of Scotland, and soon found one to his purpose. The heiress of that country was the daughter of the king of Norway, and had been betrothed to Prince Edward. She was called the Maid of Norway, and died before she arrived in Scotland. The crown was then claimed by twelve competitors; and Edward took advantage of such divided interests, to obtain a recognition of his claim (as lord superior) to act as umpire in the question. The principal claimants were Robert Bruce and John Balliol; and the crown was awarded by Edward to Balliol, because the feebleness of his character was likely to favour his designs. He soon began to treat Balliol as a subject; and on his unexpected revolt, defeated him at Dunbar (A.D. 1296), and forced him to resign his crown. Edward on that occasion brought away from Scotland the famous stone on which the kings were always crowned, and he destroyed the records of the kingdom. The stone thus brought away had long been regarded by the Scotch as a kind of pledge of empire. It was placed by Edward in Westminster Abbey. Indignant at Edward's usurpation, the Scotch made Sir William Wallace their regent; but after most heroic efforts, that great leader was defeated at the battle of Falkirk (A.D. 1298); and having been taken prisoner, was executed with the same cruelty which had been exercised on David, the Welsh prince. With all his severity, Edward could not break the national spirit of the Scotch. A new conspiracy was formed by Bruce and Cumin, who succeeded Wallace as regent. Cumin betrayed the design to Edward; and was himself killed in a monastery at Dumfries by Bruce, who asserted his own title to the throne, and was soon crowned at Scone. This great prince was afterwards reduced to such extremity, that he was hunted even by his own countrymen from one hiding place to another, while Edward reduced the Scotch to the most helpless misery, and wreaked his vengeance even on Bruce's sisters, and on the Countess of Buchan, whom he inclosed in cages, and hung over the battlements of different castles. Nothing, however, could make the noble Bruce despair of delivering his country; and his renewed efforts provoked the king to swear that he would march into Scotland, and never return until he had subdued it. He kept his word so far, that he never returned. He was taken ill at Carlisle, and died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, A.D. 1307. Stern as Edward showed himself to his enemies, he was tenderly attached to Eleanor his queen; and several records of that attachment still exist in the crosses which he built at the several places where her remains rested on their way from Lincoln to be interred at Westminster. [H. s. 1.] D |
