Part 1

Transcribed from the [1879] B. Harris & Co. edition by David Price, email [email protected]

BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES

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BRITISH HISTORY.

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London:

B. HARRIS & Co.,

4, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, W.

INDEX.

PAGE à-Becket, Thos. 10 Abercrombie, Sir Ralph 56 Addison, Joseph 37 Agricola 3 Alban, Saint 3 Alfred, King 6 Arkwright, Sir Richard 52 Arthur, King 4 Asser 7 Augustine, Saint 5 Bacon, Francis 29 Bacon, Roger 11 Barbauld, Mrs. 67 Bede, Venerable 6 Black Prince 17 Blackstone, Sir William 49 Blake, Admiral 32 Boadicea 2 Brindley, James 46 Bruce, Sir Robert 14 Brunel, Sir I. K. 81 Bunyan, John 35 Burke, Edmund 54 Butler, Joseph 41 Byron, Lord 67 Cabot, Sebastian 24 Cæsar, Julius 1 Campbell, Thomas 74 Canute 8 Caractacus 2 Caxton, William 20 Cecil, William 26 Chantrey, Sir Francis 73 Chaucer 18 Clive, Lord 46 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 72 Constantine 4 Cook, Captain 48 Cornwallis, Lord 57 Cowper, William 56 Crabbe, George 69 Cranmer, Thomas 23 Davy, Sir Humphrey 68 Defoe, Daniel 40 Dickens, Charles 84 Drake, Sir Francis 25 Dunstan, Saint 8 Dryden, John 35 Edgeworth, Maria 77 Edward I. 3 Edward III. 16 Evelyn, John 36 Fielding, Henry 42 Flamstead, John 37 Flaxman, John 68 Franklin, Sir John 76 Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth 74 Fox, Charles James 60 Gainsborough, Thos. 51 Garrick, David 48 Gibbon, Edward 53 Gildas the Wise 5 Goldsmith, Oliver 47 Gower, John 18 Hampden, John 30 Harvey, Dr. 33 Hastings, Warren 63 Hengist and Horsa 4 Henry V. 18 Herschel, Sir William 65 Hogarth, William 43 Hume, David 47 Jenner, Dr. 66 Johnson, Dr. 49 Jones, Inigo 32 Jonson, Ben 30 Keats, John 64 Keble, John 83 Kemble, John 66 Ken, Bishop 36 Langton, Cardinal 11 Laud, William 31 Lawrence, Sir Thomas 69 Lely, Sir Peter 34 Llewellyn 13 Locke, John 36 Marlborough, Duke of 38 Milton, John 34 Montfort, Simon de 12 Moore, Sir John 62 Moore, Thomas 80 More, Hannah 71 More, Sir Thomas 22 Mortimer, Roger 15 Nelson, Lord 57 Neville, Earl of Warwick 19 Newton, Sir Isaac 40 O’Connell, Daniel 75 Palmerston, Lord 82 Park, Mungo 61 Paulinus 2 Peel, Sir Robert 77 Peter the Hermit 9 Philippa, Queen 16 Pitt, Lord Chatham 47 Pitt, William 59 Pope, Alexander 41 Raleigh, Sir Walter 28 Reynolds, Sir Joshua 53 Richard Cœur de Lion 10 Richardson, Samuel 43 Rodney, Lord 52 Rogers, Samuel 80 Scott, Sir Walter 70 Shakespeare 28 Shelley, Sir Percy 65 Sheridan 62 Sidney, Sir Philip 24 Smollett 45 Southey 73 Spenser, Edmund 27 Steele 40 Sterne 44 Stephenson, Sir Robert 81 Stuart, James 44 Stuart, Charles Edward 49 Swift, Dean 41 Taylor, Jeremy 83 Thackeray, William M. 82 Tyndale, William 23 Tyrrell, Sir Walter 9 Vandyke 31 Wallace, Sir William 13 Walsingham, Sir Francis 25 Watt, James 64 Wedgwood, Josiah 53 Wellington, Duke of 79 Wesley, John 51 Whitfield, George 45 Wilberforce, William 71 Wilkie, Sir David 72 Wolfe, General 42 Wolsey, Cardinal 20 Wordsworth, William 78 Wren, Sir Christopher 39

JULIUS CÆSAR.

B.C. 100–44.

THIS greatest of the Roman generals, and afterwards the first Roman emperor, having subdued the whole of Gaul, beyond and on this side the Alps (now France, Switzerland, and part of Italy), invaded Britain, and landing near Deal, defeated the Britons and obliged them to pay tribute, B.C. 55. The next year he led a second and larger army to Britain, and having conquered the British tribes in several battles, he took possession of the southern provinces, and paved the way for the total occupation of Britain by the Romans.

CARACTACUS.

Died A.D. 43.

A brave British general (son of a native king, Cunobolin) who resisted the Romans when, under the Emperor Claudius, they extended their conquests in Britain. Taken prisoner to Rome, and led in triumph, he expressed his surprise that a nation possessed of such magnificence could covet his humble cottage in Britain.

PAULINUS.

Died A.D. 59.

A Roman general sent to Britain under the Emperor Nero. He attacked and destroyed the Druids in the island of Anglesea, and so roused the Britains that, under their queen, Boadicea, they defeated the Romans with great slaughter, and burned London.

BOADICEA.

Died A.D. 61.

Queen of the Iceni, who occupied Norfolk and the valley of the great Ouse. She and her daughter being shamefully and cruelly treated by the Romans, under Paulinus, attacked and defeated them and burned London. She was, however, soon after defeated by them in Essex, and eighty thousand Britons were slain, when in despair she poisoned herself.

AGRICOLA.

Died A.D. 78.

A Roman general under the Emperor Vespasian, conquered most of Britain and part of Scotland (called Caledonia). He taught the Britons Roman arts and customs, made roads, and built two walls to keep out the unsubdued tribes in the far north. His sailors sailed round Great Britain, and so discovered it to be an island.

SAINT ALBAN.

Died A.D. 303.

A British officer of the Roman army, who became the first Christian martyr in England at Verulam, now called St. Albans.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.

Born A.D. 309.—Died A.D. 337.

The first Christian Roman emperor. The son of the Emperor Constantius, who came over to Britain, had married a British princess, and died at York A.D. 309; where Constantine assumed the rank of emperor. He is said by some historians to have been born in England. He greatly promoted Christianity.

HENGIST AND HORSA.

A.D. 449.

Two Saxon chiefs, who came over at the invitation of the Britons, under their chief, Vortigern, to help them drive back the Picts and Scots, who, coming from the north, invaded the country when the Romans abandoned Britain.

KING ARTHUR.

Reigned 508–533.

When the Romans left Britain, A.D. 409, the country split up into principalities and petty kingdoms, under chiefs. Vortigern brought in the Saxons to help him reign, and they took possession of most of southern England. King Arthur is said to have stemmed the invasion and conquered them in twelve pitched battles, and to have formed a league of chiefs reaching from Somersetshire to the Frith of Forth. Beautiful legends have been written about this league and the chiefs who joined in it. Arthur’s reign lasted twenty-five years.

GILDAS THE WISE.

A.D. 570.

The first British historian. A native of Wales, and a monk. He died A.D. 570.

SAINT AUGUSTINE.

Died A.D. 596.

A Benedictine monk, who was sent over from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great, at the invitation of the Saxon king Ethelbert, to preach the Gospel in Britain. Two of the kings were soon converted to Christianity, who pulled down the heathen temples and began to build churches.

VENERABLE BEDE.

Born 672.—Died 735.

A Benedictine monk of great learning, and an early author and historian; he translated the Scriptures into Anglo-Saxon. Died A.D. 735.

ALFRED THE GREAT.

Born 849.—Died 901.—Ethelwulf.—Ethelbald—Ethelbert.—Ethelred.—Alfred.

This extraordinary man, who has with justice been called the greatest of all the line of English kings, was the son of Ethelwulf and Osburga, and was born at Wantage in Berkshire. He learnt to read at six years old, and steadily set himself to gain and spread the love of learning, when he began his reign at seventeen. The Danes overran his kingdom, and he was forced to take refuge in the Isle of Athelney, between the rivers Parret and Tone; it was then that he was set to watch the cakes baking in the ashes, in a hut in which he had asked shelter. After he had subdued the Danes, Alfred enlarged his fleet, and sent envoys to other countries to obtain a knowledge of their state and productions. His name was well known at Rome, Constantinople, Bagdad, and even in India. Alfred first sketched out the English Constitution in his Code of Laws. He built and endowed schools, had books written and chained in the churches, and invented a wax-candle clock, which measured the time by burning an inch of wax in twenty minutes. After a reign of thirty-four years, spent in unceasing toil for the good of his people, Alfred died in 901.

ASSER.

Died 909.

A native of Wales, a learned monk, and Bishop of Sherbourne, who was tutor to King Alfred. He afterwards wrote his life. Died A.D. 909.

ST. DUNSTAN, ABBOT.

Born 945.—Died 978.

A Saxon nobleman, who became a Benedictine monk, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, and Archbishop of Canterbury, was the most learned man of his time. He learnt every art then known, and first used stained glass and organs in England. He lived for some time in a cave, and is said to have had personal battles with Satan, who appeared under different shapes to tempt him.

CANUTE THE GREAT.

Reigned 1017–1035.

A Danish king who came to the throne in 1017, he ruled over England, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and was therefore called “The Great.” He rebuked his courtiers, who flattered him, by commanding the waves to retire, and when they wetted his feet reminded them that there was only One who could say to the ocean, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” He died A.D. 1035.

PETER THE HERMIT.

Died 1115.

A poor French priest who, on his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, went about from country to country persuading princes and people to join in the crusades against the Saracens with great enthusiasm.

SIR WALTER TYRRELL.

William II.

All that we read of this character is the story of his accidentally shooting King William II. while they were hunting together in the New Forest. It is supposed by many historians that the arrow was aimed intentionally at the king. By most modern authors the story is entirely discredited.

THOMAS À BECKET.

Born 1117.—Died 1170.—Henry I.—Stephen.—Henry II.

Chancellor to Henry II. and tutor to his son, he became a great favourite with the king, who afterwards made him Archbishop of Canterbury. He then espoused the cause of the clergy against the king, and so exasperated him by turning against him, that he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights, in whose presence the king had a short time previously rashly exclaimed: “Is there nobody that will rid me of this turbulent priest?”

RICHARD CŒUR DE LION.

Reigned 1189–1199.

Son of Henry II.; succeeded his father in 1189 as King Richard I. Of the ten years of his reign, six months only were spent in England; his life was passed in the crusades in the Holy Land, when after taking Acre he attacked Jerusalem, but without success. On his return through Germany, after being shipwrecked, he was imprisoned by the emperor, and was not released until he had paid a heavy ransom. Shortly after his return he was besieging a castle in France, when he was shot by an arrow.

STEPHEN CARDINAL LANGTON.

Born 1151—Died 1228.—John.

Stephen Langton, English Chancellor of the University of Paris, was made Archbishop of Canterbury, but, owing to the king’s opposition, did not enter into possession till 1213, when John was obliged to give way. Langton formed a solemn league with the English barons against the king’s tyranny; and the Great Charter of English liberty which they drew up was signed by John at Runnymead, near Windsor, in 1215. In the Great Charter the first idea of the House of Lords is drawn out.

ROGER BACON.

Born 1214.—Died 1294.

A Franciscan monk, born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire. A natural philosopher and man of science. He is acknowledged to have introduced the study of chemistry into England, and was the first to combine the ingredients of gunpowder, though he did not foresee to what the discovery would lead.

SIMON DE MONTFORT,

Died 1265.—Henry III.

Earl of Leicester, headed a rebellion against King Henry III., whom he defeated and took prisoner, with his son, Prince Edward, in a battle at Lewes. During the king’s imprisonment he called together a Parliament, the first to which the boroughs sent members. Prince Edward soon after this escaped, and collecting an army, attacked Montfort near Evesham, who, although he was an experienced general, was utterly defeated, and he and one of his sons were killed and almost torn to pieces.

LLEWELLYN,

Died 1282.—Henry III.—Edward I.

The last king of Wales, who refusing to do homage to King Edward I., was attacked by him, and taken prisoner to London. He was released on paying a heavy tribute and giving up the whole of Wales, excepting the island of Angelsea; resisting the heavy yoke put upon him, he was surprised and slain a few years afterwards, in 1282.

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.

Born 1276.—Died 1305.—Henry III.—Edward I.

A brave Scottish warrior who resisted the English under Edward I. He gained a great victory over the English near Stirling, and for several years kept the English at bay. He was, however, at length defeated, betrayed and sent to London, and beheaded in 1305.

EDWARD I.

Reigned 1272–1307.

Son of Henry III. Married (1) Eleanor of Castile and (2) Margaret of France. Annexed Wales to England. Began the conquest of Scotland, and removed the block of marble on which the Scottish kings were crowned, from Scone (now in Westminster Abbey). The nobles, asserting the privileges of the Great Charter, began to assemble and act in this reign as the first House of Lords; and by creating “Barons by writ” Edward broke in upon the monopolies of the nobles, and laid the foundations of the House of Commons.

ROBERT BRUCE,

Born 1274.—Died 1320.—Edward I.—Edward II.

Who had been educated in King Edward I.’s household, succeeded Wallace as leader of the Scots against Edward I. Having slain his rival claimant the Red Comyn in the Grey Friars Church at Dumfries, Bruce borrowed robes, chain, and gold rim from some saint’s image, and had himself crowned King of Scotland at Scone. After the most romantic escapes and adventures, and retaking all the castles Edward I. had gained, except Stirling, Bruce defeated Edward II. at the great battle of Bannockburn, not far from Stirling, and freed Scotland from the English yoke.

ROGER MORTIMER,

Born 1287.—Died 1330.—Edward I.—Edward II.—Edward III.

Earl of March. The wicked queen of Edward II. (Isabella) having joined with Mortimer, Earl of March, in the murder of her husband at Berkeley Castle, they governed England as they pleased. Mortimer set up a new order of Knights of the Round Table, in imitation of King Arthur. Edward III., still only a boy, surprised the guilty queen’s favourite in Nottingham Castle, and after a trial by his peers, Mortimer was hanged at Tyburn, 1330.

EDWARD III.

Reigned 1327–1377.

Son of Edward II. First claimed the crown of France. Won the battles of Cressy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), and took Calais. Great part of France made over to the (Black) Prince of Wales. First Speaker of House of Commons (1376), and great development of the Commons’ privileges. Edward III. reigned half a century, and was one of the wisest, ablest, and most useful of the English kings.

QUEEN PHILIPPA.

Mar. 1327.—Died 1369.—Edward III.

Philippa of Hainault, the queen of Edward III., was the sister of the Count of Hainault in Flanders (Belgium). She was a most religious, wise, and able woman, who ruled the country while the king was at war in France as well as he did himself. She went with the army against the Scots, and defeated them at Nevil’s Cross, close to Durham, 1346. After the siege of Calais Queen Philippa begged the lives of Eustace de St. Pierre and five other French gentlemen, whom the king had condemned to death. When Queen Philippa died, Edward fell under the power of a wretched woman, and lost the confidence of his nobles and people.

THE BLACK PRINCE.

Born 1330.—Died 1376.—Edward III.

The Prince of Wales, son of King Edward III., called the Black Prince from the colour of his armour, was knighted on the sands at La Hogue, in the midst of the war between England and France about the succession to Bretagne (Brittany). He distinguished himself with extraordinary valour at the battles of Cressy and Poitiers, and the siege of Calais. He married Joan of Kent, and held his court chiefly at Bordeaux, and having ruined his health by an excessive love of fighting, his last years were spent in a sick room.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER,

Born 1321.—Died 1400.—Edward II.—Edward III.—Richard III.

Born in London, and called the first English poet, wrote the twenty-four _Canterbury Tales_. The scene is laid in the Tabard inn, Southwark, and the characters of noble, knight, yeoman, prioress, pardoner, parson, clerk of Oxford, reeve or steward, and Robin the miller, etc., give the best pictures of the Plantagenet times that exist.

JOHN GOWER.

Born 1325.—Died 1402.—Edward II.—Edward III.—Richard II.—Henry IV.—Henry V.

An early English poet, born in Yorkshire, who flourished about the same time as Chaucer. His poems are chiefly on moral subjects, the first edition of them being printed by Caxton. He was a liberal benefactor to the church of St. Saviour, Southwark, and died in London.

HENRY V.

Reigned 1413–1422.

Son of Henry IV. When Prince of Wales called “Madcap Hal.” Invaded France and fought the battle of Agincourt. Was acknowledged Regent of France and successor to the crown. Lived chiefly in Paris, and died at Vincennes, when in the full glory of his reign.

RICHARD NEVILLE,

Born about 1420.—Died 1471.—Harry V.—Henry VI.—Edward IV.

Earl of Warwick (the king maker). This famous nobleman, also known as the last of the Barons, was the son of the Earl of Salisbury, and first cousin of Edward IV., son of the Duke of York. After the first great battle of the Rose wars (St. Albans) Warwick joined the Yorkists. After the battles of Bloreheath, Northampton, Wakefield, and Mortimer’s Cross, Warwick was defeated in the second battle of St. Albans. He again won the bloodiest struggle of the Rose wars, Towton, but was slain at Barnet, fighting against Edward IV. With him English feudalism died.

WILLIAM CAXTON.

Born 1410.—Died 1491.—Henry IV.—Henry V.—Henry VI.—Edward IV.—Edward V.—Richard III.—Henry VII.

William Caxton was born in Kent. He seems to have begun authorship long before printing. He went to Bruges in 1468 with the English bride of Duke Charles of Burgundy, and translated for her the _Recueil des Histoires de Troye_, by the duke’s chaplain. Having learnt in Germany (Cologne) to print, he brought out this translation in 1471. He removed in 1474 to Westminster, where he lived in the Reed Pale, near the Almonry, and set up his printing-press there. The first book printed there was _The Game and Playe of the Chesse_, _translated out of the French_. When he died in 1491, Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson worked the press.

CARDINAL WOLSEY.

Born 1471.—Died 1530.—Edward IV.—Edward V.—Richard III.—Henry VII.—Henry VIII.

Thomas Wolsey, the son of a butcher at Ipswich, became a fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford. He was a friend of the famous Erasmus, and helped him in pushing the study of Greek. While Bursar of Magdalen College he built the college chapel tower. He was sent as envoy to Bruges on a negociation of marriage between Margaret of Savoy, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian, and Henry VII., and was rewarded for the speed of his journey by the deanery of Lincoln. Under Henry VIII. Wolsey was successively made king’s almoner, chancellor of the garter, archbishop of York, cardinal legate, and lord chancellor of England. His splendour and state surpassed that of any minister ever seen in England. York Place (now Whitehall), Esher, and Hampton Court were his residences in and near London. He built Christ Church College in Oxford, and a grammar school at Ipswich. When Wolsey failed to induce Cardinal Campeggio to annul Henry’s marriage with Katherine of Arragon, the king refused to see him again. The great seal was taken from him, and he was ordered to retire to York. He was arrested for high treason, and on his way to London, died in Leicester Abbey, wishing he had served God as faithfully as he had the king.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

Born 1480.—Died 1535.—Edward IV.—Edward V.—Richard III.—Henry VII.—Henry VIII.