CHAPTER X.

FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND.--1216 TO 1377.

1. The reign of Henry the Third, who was only nine years of age when he succeeded his father, was a very long and a very unhappy one.

2. At first, things went on very well, because the king had a good guardian, the Earl of Pembroke, who managed the government wisely; but he, in a few years, died, and others came into power who did not act so well, and the king was too young to know what was right himself.

3. It was a pity the good earl died, for, if Henry had been fortunate enough to have had a wise instructer, he might have been a better sovereign, but, as it was, he was a very bad one.

4. The great mischief was this. He married a French princess, who had no more wisdom than himself; and they were both so extravagant that they spent a great deal more money than they could afford; and, then, to get fresh supplies, the king ordered the people to pay more taxes, and began to do all the unjust things that had caused so much misery in the time of his father.

5. Sometimes the Barons assembled and obliged him to promise he would abide by the terms of Magna Charta; but he soon forgot his promises, and went on the same as before, so that the people were worse and worse off every year, and many men became robbers on the highways, because they could not support their families by honest industry.

6. This was the state of affairs for many years, till at last, there was a civil war again, and, after a great deal of fighting and bloodshed, the king and his eldest son, Edward, were made prisoners in a battle, fought at Lewes, in Sussex, in 1264, and the Earl of Leicester, the king’s brother-in-law, took the government upon himself.

7. This was an important event, because the earl summoned a parliament to consult as to what it would be best to do under these circumstances; and he desired that, besides the nobles and bishops, there should come to this parliament knights, or gentlemen from every county, and citizens and burghers, from every city and burgh to state what the condition of the people really was, and to help to advise what could be done for them; so that the commoners were now, probably, for the first time, admitted to some share in the government of the country, which was a great step gained by the people, who, before this, had no representatives in the national council, or parliament, to take their part; and this was the beginning of our House of Commons, so it is worth remembering.

8. Prince Edward, after this, escaped from Hereford, where he had been kept a prisoner, and gained a great victory over the Barons, and replaced his father Henry on the throne; after which, he went on a crusade to the Holy Land.

9. He had married a Spanish princess, named Eleanor, who was the first person, in England, that had a carpet, which she brought from Spain, for the floors of the best apartments in the palace were strewed with rushes; and, in houses, where they could not get rushes, they used straw.

10. Henry the Third died about seven years after his restoration, in the year 1272, having reigned fifty-seven years; and, although the news was sent to his son as soon as possible, it was nearly two years before he returned to England; such was the difference between travelling then and now; for the journey to and from the Holy Land may now be accomplished in a few weeks.

11. Edward the First was a much wiser and better prince than his father, but he was too fond of war, and too anxious to be renowned as a conqueror, which was the cause of the long wars in Scotland, for his great ambition was to conquer that country.

12. But, the first thing he thought of, when he came home, was to make such regulations as were most likely to protect the people from robbery; so he had watchmen and patrols appointed in all the cities, and ordered that nobody should be abroad in the streets of London, nor any taverns kept open, after the curfew bell had tolled.

13. The curfew was instituted by William the Conqueror, to prevent fires, which were very frequent, when houses were in general built of wood, and thatched; so, when this bell tolled at eight o’clock, the people, for a long time after the conquest, were obliged to put out their fires and candles; but the custom of tolling the bell was continued after that of putting out fire and candle was done away with, and even to this day, in many places.

14. Edward the First took care that the magistrates should do their duty, and punished those who broke the laws, which the kings had been afraid to do in the last two reigns, because their lives would have been in danger if they had.

15. I must also tell you that this wise monarch did not alter what the Earl of Leicester had done about the parliament; but he made it a rule that the people should continue to send their members, and every freeholder of land in the counties, and, in general, all men, in the cities and burghs, who paid taxes, had a right to vote at the election of members of parliament.

16. I should be glad to have nothing to say about warfare in this reign; but the Scottish wars form so large a portion of the history of the times, that you ought to know something about them.

17. First, however, the king invaded the northern part of Wales, which had never been conquered by the English, and was then governed by a prince, named Llewellyn.

18. This chief made a gallant resistance, but he was killed, and the whole country was then united to England, and afterwards, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, divided into shires.

19. The queen, Eleanor, of Castile, Edward’s first wife, went to visit Wales soon afterwards, and her son Edward was born there, so the king said he should be called prince of Wales, and that is the reason why the eldest son of the English sovereign has since had that title.

20. After this, there were a few years of peace, before the wars with Scotland were begun; so I will fill up the time by saying a little about the manners and customs of the English at this period.

21. The nobles lived in, what we should think, a very rough way indeed. Their large comfortless rooms, and floors without carpets, unglazed windows, and clumsy furniture, would not suit our modern notions, either of comfort or convenience.

22. They had their dinner at ten o’clock in the morning, in the great hall of the castle; lords, ladies, knights, esquires, priests, dependents, and strangers, all together; for, when there were no inns, it was usual for travellers to stop at any castle, or monastery, on the road, where they were never refused lodging and entertainment.

23. There were no table cloths, and the dishes and cups were mostly of wood, but they were well filled with meat, game, fish, or poultry, which, with bread and ale, constituted the rude, but substantial fare.

24. The Baron, with his friends, sat at an upper table, which was served with wine; and, sometimes he would have his hounds lying at his feet, and his favorite hawk, upon a perch, beside him.

25. The supper, at five o’clock, was just like the dinner, and these were the only regular meals at that period.

26. I said there were no inns in those days, which reminds me to speak of the difficulty and danger of travelling. The roads were very bad and lonely, often running through forests and across wide heaths, infested with robbers.

27. Then there were no public conveyances of any kind, nor any way of making a journey, but on horseback, or on foot; and, as to stopping at the country towns, there was very little accommodation to be had there, for they were poor places, the houses in them being very little better than wooden sheds.

28. There were no shops, so that every thing was bought, as formerly, at the markets and fairs.

29. A great many merchants, from London, France, and Flanders, used to bring goods to the fairs for sale, and they were obliged to pay tolls and duties to the lord of the manor, which came to a great deal of money, because they brought a quantity of valuable merchandise, as the nobles themselves purchased their wearing apparel, jewellery, spices, and many other commodities, at the fairs, which sometimes lasted fifteen days.

30. The dress of the great nobility, in the fourteenth century, was very handsome, for they wore mantles of satin or velvet, with borders worked in gold, over jackets highly embroidered; and their velvet caps were often adorned with jewels.

31. The middle classes wore close coats of cloth, with leather belts round the waist, such as the Blue-Coat Boys now wear, and they had tight pantaloons, short boots, and cloth caps.

32. The clothing of the working people was made of very coarse wool, sometimes undyed, and all spun and woven at home by the women, who had nothing else for their own wearing, as there were no cottons or stuffs made in England then, nor any of the nice comfortable things that the poor people can get so cheap now.

33. The country towns were at this period inhabited chiefly by free artisans, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, and others, of different trades; but there were still a great many villeins and serfs, on all the cultivated lands, for slavery was never abolished in England by any act of parliament, but gradually died away with the feudal laws.

34. The armies were not raised then as they were at an earlier period, by feudal service, but soldiers were hired and paid by the day; but there was no standing army, as there is at present; for, as soon as the wars were over, the men were all discharged, which was a bad thing, as it often happened they had no homes or employment to return to, and so formed themselves into bands of robbers.

35. However, fighting men had plenty of occupation during the reign of Edward the First, of whose wars in Scotland I am now about to speak.

36. The king of Scotland died about this time, and as he left no son, and his grand-daughter and heiress, Margaret, died soon after, unmarried, there were two princes, who each thought he had a right to succeed to the throne; so they agreed to let the king of England decide the dispute, which he readily took upon himself to do. One prince was named Robert Bruce, the other, John Baliol.

37. Edward said Baliol ought to be king, and he was crowned accordingly; but the English monarch soon began to find fault with him, and at last went to war, for he made up his mind to try to unite England and Scotland into one kingdom, and to be the king of both countries himself; but he did not succeed, although he dethroned Baliol, and was at war with Scotland for nearly eleven years.

38. I dare say you have heard of a renowned Scottish chief, called Sir William Wallace. He fought bravely for his country in these wars, but he was taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk; and, I am sorry to say, king Edward was so cruel and unjust as to have his head cut off.

39. But this did not put an end to the war, for another chief, Robert Bruce, grandson of him before-mentioned, took the place of Wallace, gained several victories, and was crowned king.

40. The two sovereigns then prepared for a long war, and Edward was on his way to Scotland, with his army, when he was taken ill, and died in the year 1307, having reigned thirty-four years.

41. His son, Edward the Second, was so careless of every thing but his own pleasure, that he neglected the affairs of both England and Scotland, so that the Scots recovered all they had lost; and when, at last, the king was persuaded to renew the war, he met with such a terrible defeat at the battle of Bannockburn, that the Scots are proud of it to this very day.

42. There is nothing more worth telling about the reign of Edward the Second, whose misconduct caused many of the barons to rebel, and he was, at last, made prisoner by them, and cruelly murdered, in Berkeley castle, in 1327, having reigned about twenty years.

43. His son, Edward the Third, was scarcely fifteen, at the time of his father’s death; but he was a very clever prince, and soon began to manage the affairs of the country himself.

44. He married a Flemish princess, named Philippa, who was much beloved by the English people, as, indeed, she deserved to be, for she was both good and beautiful, as well as one of the cleverest ladies of her time, and she employed her talents in doing all the good she could for England.

45. She knew that the people of her own country, which was Flanders, had grown rich by their trade and manufactures, so she did all in her power to increase the trade of England, and paid a number of Flemish weavers to come over here and settle at Norwich, that they might improve the people there, in the art of making woollen cloth and stuffs, for which a manufactory had been established by Edward the First.

46. She also founded several schools, and was a friend to those who distinguished themselves by their learning.

47. I must not forget to tell you that Chaucer, the first great poet that wrote in English, lived at this time, and received much kindness from the king and queen.

48. The English language was now beginning to be spoken by the higher classes, instead of French, and was not very unlike the English spoken now, as you might see, if you were to look at the poems written by Chaucer.

49. Edward the Third was, unfortunately, as fond of war as his grandfather. He renewed the war with Scotland, but his great wars were in France, for his ambition was to be king of that country, and he pretended he had a right to the throne, because his mother was the sister of the late king.

50. But the French thought otherwise, and chose another prince for their king, so Edward invaded France, where he commenced a long and destructive war, which lasted nearly forty years, and was carried on, for a great part of that time, by his eldest son, who was called the Black Prince, because he wore black armour.

51. He made great conquests in the south of France, and, at the celebrated battle of Poictiers, took the French king prisoner, and brought him to England, where he remained a captive for the rest of his life, but was treated with so much kindness and respect, that he had little to complain of but the loss of his liberty.

52. The Black Prince was not only a brave warrior, but was a good and clever man; therefore, his death, which happened a few months before that of his father, was a great grief to the English people.

53. Edward the Third died in 1377, after a long reign of fifty years. He had been a pretty good king, had made the people obey the laws, and, in general, observed them himself.

54. When he wanted money for the French wars, he had allowed the villeins and serfs, on his manors, or crown lands, to buy their freedom, so that there were now, comparatively, but few of the lower orders remaining in bondage; and the agricultural labourers were paid for their labour, as well as the artisans and mechanics.

55. Their wages were, in general, from twopence to threepence a day, but you must remember that twopence, at that time, was equal, in purchasing the necessaries of life, to about one shilling and eightpence of our money, and would buy much more than sufficient food for a whole family.

56. They lived chiefly on meat, brown bread, and ale; for there were no vegetables for the table, cultivated by the people in England, till the time of Henry the Eighth; nor any potatoes, till that of queen Elizabeth; and then they were considered a dainty dish, and only seen at the tables of very rich people.

57. However, there were gardens, orchards, and vineyards, belonging to the monasteries, and to persons of high rank and fortune.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who succeeded king John?

2. What were the consequences of the king’s misconduct?

7. What great change was made in parliament, and how?

9. Who first brought a carpet into England?

10. How long did Henry the Third reign? and by whom was he succeeded?

11. What was the character of Edward the First?

12. Mention some of his first acts.

15. How did he regulate the parliament?

18. How was Wales united to England?

37. What gave rise to the Scottish wars?

38. Who was the great Scottish chief and patriot; and what was his fate?

39. Who was made king of Scotland?

40. When did Edward die? and who succeeded him?

41. What became of Edward the Second?

43. Who was the next king?

44. Whom did he marry?

47. Who was the first great English poet?

49. Why did Edward the Third invade France?

53. When did the death of Edward take place?

54. How did Edward the Third raise money for the wars?