CHAPTER XII.

EDWARD II.

Character of Edward II.--Piers Gaveston--The Ordinances--Thomas of Lancaster--The Despensers--The King’s ruin and death.

[Sidenote:

Reactionary policy of Edward II. ]

It is not often that a strong son succeeds a strong father, and where that is the case the result is not always salutary. If Edward I. had left a son like himself, a new fabric of despotism might have been raised on the foundation of strong government which he had laid. Sometimes such alternations have worked well; a weak administration following on a strong one has enabled the nation to advance all the more firmly and strongly for the discipline to which it has been subjected; and a strong reign following a weak one has taught them how to obtain from the strong successor the consolidation of reforms won from the weakness of the predecessor. But more commonly the result has been a simple reaction, and the weak son has had to bear the consequences of his father’s exercise of power, the strong son has had to repair the mischief caused by his father’s weakness. The case of Edward II., however, does not come exactly under either generalization. It was no mere reaction that caused his reign to stand in so strong contrast to his father’s. Instead of following out his father’s plans he reversed them; and his fate was the penalty exacted by hatreds which he had drawn upon himself, not the result of a reaction upon a policy which he had inherited. He cast away at the beginning of the reign his father’s friends, and he made himself enemies where he ought to have looked for friends, in his own household and within the narrowest circle of home.

[Sidenote:

Personal tastes and favorites of Edward II. ]

[Sidenote:

Piers Gaveston. ]

Edward II. was the fourth son of Edward I. and Eleanor. John, their eldest boy, had died in 1272; Henry, the next, died in 1274; Alfonso, the third, lived to be twelve years old, and died in 1285. Edward was born in 1284, at Carnarvon, became heir-apparent on his brother’s death, and in 1301 was made Earl of Chester and Prince of Wales. Losing his mother in 1290, he was deprived of the early teaching which might have changed his whole history. His father, although he showed his characteristic care in directing the management of his son’s household, in choosing his companions, and rebuking his faults, was far too busy to devote to him the personal supervision which would have trained him for government and secured his affections. He grew up to dread rather than to love him, hating his father’s ministers as spies and checks upon his pleasures, and spending his time in amusements unbecoming a prince and a knight. His most intimate friend, Piers Gaveston, the son of an old Gascon servant of his father, had been assigned him by the King as his companion, and had gained a complete mastery over him. Gaveston was an accomplished knight, brave, ambitious, insolent and avaricious, like the foreign favorites of Henry III. Edward, although a handsome, strong lad, did not care to practice feats of arms or to follow the pursuits of war. He was fond of hunting and country life, averse to public labor, but splendid to extravagance in matters of feasting and tournament. He was indolent, careless about making new friends or enemies; the only strong feeling which marked him was his obstinate championship of the men whom he believed to be attached to himself. Edward was not a vicious man, but he was very foolish, idle, and obstinate, and there was nothing about him that served to counterbalance these faults or invite sympathy with him in his misfortunes. Edward I. some months before his death had found out this to his sorrow. He saw in the influence that Gaveston had won a sign that the scenes were to be repeated which, as he so well remembered, had marked the stormy period of his own youth. He had banished Gaveston from court and made him swear not to return without his leave. No sooner was he dead than the favorite was recalled, and by his return began that series of miseries which overwhelmed himself first, and then his master, and the consequences of which ran on in long succession until the great house of Plantagenet came to an end.

[Sidenote:

Peace with Scotland. ]

Edward was absent when his father died, but within a few days he had rejoined the army, was received as king, without waiting for coronation, by the English and Scottish lords, and proclaimed his royal peace. One of his father’s last injunctions, that he should promptly and persistently follow up the war, was set aside from the first; Aymer de Valence was made commander and governor of Scotland, and the king himself moved southwards. Another of his father’s commands was set at nought directly after: Gaveston was recalled and raised to the earldom of Cornwall. Walter Langton, the late king’s treasurer and chief minister, was removed from office and imprisoned, and the chancellor also was displaced. Edward I. was not yet buried, and his son’s first parliament, called at Northampton, in October, 1307, was asked to provide money for the expenses of the funeral and the coronation; for already it was said the favorite had got hold of the treasure and was sending it to his foreign kinsfolk. But the jealous nobles were not inclined to hurry matters as yet: the Parliament granted money; Edward I. was solemnly buried; and orders were given to prepare for the coronation in February, 1308.

[Sidenote:

Marriage of the king with Isabella of France. ]

The young king had been betrothed to Isabella of France, the daughter of Philip the Fair. He wished that his young bride should be crowned with him, and so crossed over to Boulogne to marry her. The indignation of the lords and of the country at the recall and promotion of Gaveston was fanned into a flame by the announcement that, as it was necessary to appoint a regent during the king’s short absence, the Earl of Cornwall with full and even peculiar powers was appointed to the place. It became clear that the coronation could scarcely take place without an uproar.

[Sidenote: The Coronation.]

[Sidenote:

The coronation oath. ]

Nor was the question of coronation itself without some difficulties; for Archbishop Winchelsey, although invited by the new king, had not yet returned from banishment, and it was by no means safe for any other prelate to act in his stead. After a little delay Winchelsey consented to empower a substitute; and Edward II. and Isabella were crowned on the 25th of February by the Bishop of Winchester. The form of the coronation oath taken on this occasion, perhaps for the first time in this shape, is worth careful remark. In it the king promises to maintain the ancient laws, to keep the peace of God and the people, and to do right judgment and justice. So much was found in the older formula: but another question was put: “Will you consent to hold and keep the laws and righteous customs which the community of your realm shall have chosen, and will you defend them and strengthen them to the honor of God, to the utmost of your power?” If, as is supposed, these words were new, they seemed to contain a recognition of the fact that the community of the realm had now entered into their place as entitled to control by counsel and consent the legislative action and policy of the king. And so construed they form a valuable comment on the results of the last reign, which had seen the community organized in a perfect parliament and admitted to a share of the responsibilities of government. The lords heard them with interest; even if they had been used at the coronation of Edward I. few were old enough to remember them. They saw in them either an earnest of good government or a lever by which they themselves could remedy the evils of misgovernment, and they proceeded to try the maiden weapon against the favorite whom they now hated as well as feared.

[Sidenote:

Thomas Earl of Lancaster. ]

Gaveston had at first tried to propitiate the more powerful lords of the court, especially Earl Thomas of Lancaster and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. The latter was an old and trusted servant of Edward I. Thomas of Lancaster was the son of Earl Edmund of Lancaster, the younger son of Henry III., who had been titular King of Sicily; his mother was Blanche, the Queen Dowager of Navarre, whose daughter by her first husband had married Philip the Fair. He was thus cousin to the king and uncle to the queen; he possessed the great estates with which his grandfather and uncle had founded the Lancaster earldom; he was Earl of Leicester and Derby also, and had thus succeeded to the support of those vassals of the Montforts and the Ferrers who had sustained them in their struggle against the crown; and he was the son-in-law and heir of Henry de Lacy. Distantly following out the policy of Earl Simon, he had set himself up as a friend of the clergy and of the liberties of the people. Personally he was a haughty, vicious, and selfish man, whom the mistakes and follies of Edward II. raised into the fame of a popular champion, and whom his bitter sufferings and cruel death promoted to the rank of a martyr and a saint. But he was not a man of high principle or great capacity, as the result proved.

[Sidenote:

Gaveston and the Earls. ]

[Sidenote:

Banishment of Gaveston. ]

[Sidenote:

Schism between the king and the lords. ]

[Sidenote:

Recall of Gaveston. ]

No sooner had Gaveston made good his position than by his wanton insolence he incurred the hatred of Earl Thomas, and by the same folly provoked the animosity of the Earl of Pembroke, the king’s cousin, of the Earl of Hereford, his brother-in-law, and of the strong and unscrupulous Earl of Warwick, Guy Beauchamp. Some of them he had defeated in a tournament; nicknames he bestowed on all. One good friend Edward had tried to secure him; he had married him to a sister of Earl Gilbert of Gloucester, the king’s nephew and their common playfellow; but even Earl Gilbert only cared sufficiently for him to try to mediate in his favor; he would not openly take his side. The storm rose steadily. Shortly after the coronation a great council was held in which his promotion was the chief topic of debate, and on the 18th of May he was banished. Edward tried to lighten the blow by appointing him lieutenant of Ireland, and besought the interposition of the King of France and the Pope in his favor. All the business of the kingdom was delayed by the hostility of the king and the great lords. Money was wanted, and could be got only through the Italian bankers, whom the people looked on as extortioners. The divided Scots were left to fight their own battles. Such a state of things could not last long. Edward had to meet his parliament in April 1309. He wanted money, the country wanted reform, but the king desired the return of Gaveston even more than money, and the nation dreaded it more than they desired reform. When the estates met they presented to Edward a schedule of eleven articles: if these were granted they would grant money. The articles concerned several important matters; the exaction of corn and other provisions by the king’s agents under the name of purveyance, the maladministration of justice and usurped jurisdictions; but the most important was one touching the imposts on wine, wool, and other merchandise which had been instituted by Edward I. in 1303, after consultation with the merchants. Edward, however, thought little of the bearing of the request; he proposed to agree to it if he might recall Gaveston. The Parliament refused to listen to him, and he adjourned the discussion until July. Then in a session of the baronage at Stamford he yielded the points in question, and received the promised subsidy. But he had already recalled Gaveston and by one means or another had obtained the tacit consent of all the great lords except the Earl of Warwick. Scarcely two months had elapsed when the storm rose again. The king summoned the earls to council. The Earl of Lancaster refused to meet the Earl of Cornwall. Gradually the parties were reformed as before, and the quarrel assumed larger dimensions. Gaveston was still the great offence, but the plan now broached by the lords extended to the whole administrative work of the kingdom.

[Sidenote:

Parliament of 1310. ]

At the parliament which met in March 1310 a new scheme of reform was promulgated, which was framed on the model of that of 1258 and the Provisions of Oxford. It was determined that the task of regulating the affairs of the realm and of the king’s household should be committed to an elective body of twenty-one members, or Ordainers, the chief of whom was Archbishop Winchelsey. Both parties were represented, the royal party by the earls of Gloucester, Pembroke, and Richmond, the opposition by the earls of Lincoln, Lancaster, Hereford, Warwick, and Arundel. But the preponderance both in number and influence was against Gaveston. They were empowered to remain in office until Michaelmas 1311, and to make ordinances for the good of the realm agreeable to the tenor of the king’s coronation oath. The whole administration of the kingdom thus passed into their hands; and Edward, seeing himself superseded, joined the army now engaged in war with Scotland, and in company with Gaveston continued on the border until the Ordainers were ready to report. During this time the Earl of Lincoln, who had been left as regent, died and the Earl of Gloucester took his place. The Ordainers immediately on their appointment issued six articles directing the observance of the charters, the careful collection of the customs, and the arrest of the foreign merchants; but the great body of the ordinances was reserved for the parliament which met in August 1311.

[Sidenote:

The Ordinances of 1311. ]

[Sidenote:

Control of the king by the barons. ]

The famous document or statute known as the Ordinances of 1311 contained forty-one clauses, all aimed at existing abuses. Some of these abuses were old long-standing evils, such as the miscarriage and delay of justice, the misconduct of officials, and the maladministration and misapplication of royal property. Others were founded on the policy of the late reign, which Edward’s ministers had perverted and abused; the Ordainers had no hesitation in declaring the customs duties established by Edward I. to be illegal and contrary to the charter. But two classes of enactments are of more special interest. Four whole clauses were devoted to the punishment of the favorite and of those courtiers who had cast in their lot with him. Gaveston had stolen the king’s heart from his people, and led him into every sort of tyranny and dishonesty; the Lord Henry de Beaumont, to whom Edward had given the Isle of Man, and the lady de Vescy, his sister, were little better; the Friscobaldi, the Italian bankers who received the customs, were the enemies of the people and mere instruments of oppression. Gaveston was to be banished for life, Beaumont to be expelled from the council, and the Friscobaldi to be sent home. Not content with this, the Ordainers further enacted some very important limitations on the king’s power. All the great officers of state were to be appointed with the counsel and consent of the baronage, and to be sworn in parliament; the king was not go to war or to quit the kingdom without the consent of the barons in parliament; parliaments were to be called every year, and the king’s servants were to be brought to justice. The articles thus seem to sum up not only the old and new grievances, but the ideas of government entertained by the Ordainers: they are to punish the favorite, to remedy the points in which the charter has failed, and to restrain the power of the king. The power is only transferred from the king to the barons. There is no provision analogous to the principle laid down by Edward I., that the whole nation shall join in the tasks and responsibilities of national action. The baronage, not the three estates in parliament, are to admonish, to restrain, to compel the king.

[Sidenote:

The struggle of the king in favor of Gaveston. ]

[Sidenote:

Death of Gaveston. ]

Edward, after such a struggle as he could make to save Gaveston--a matter which was to him far more important than any of the legal questions involved in the Ordinances--consented that they should become a law, intending perhaps to obtain absolution when it was needed, or to allege that his consent was given under compulsion. He went back into the North, was rejoined by Gaveston, and after some short consideration annulled the ordinances which were made against him. The barons immediately on hearing of this prepared to enforce the law in arms. Winchelsey excommunicated the favorite; the king left no means untried to save him. After a narrow escape at Newcastle, where he lost his baggage and the vast collection of jewels which he had accumulated, many of them belonging to the hereditary hoard of the crown, Gaveston was besieged in Scarborough Castle. In May, 1312, he surrendered, and was conducted by the Earl of Pembroke into the South, to await his sentence in parliament. His enemies, however, were too impatient to wait for justice. The Earl of Warwick carried him off whilst Pembroke was off his guard, and he was beheaded in the presence of the Earl of Lancaster. It is more easy to account for than to justify the hatred which the earls felt towards Gaveston. His conduct had been offensive, his influence was no doubt dangerous, but the actual mischief done by him had been small; neither he nor Edward had exercised power with sufficient freedom as yet to merit such a punishment, and no policy of mere caution or apprehension could excuse the cruelty of the act. It was a piece of vile personal revenge, for insults which any really great man would have scorned to avenge.

[Sidenote:

Changes in the administration. ]

From the time of Gaveston’s death the unhappy king remained for some years the sport or tool of contending parties. He was indeed incompetent to reign alone, or to choose ministers who could rule in his name. The Earl of Pembroke, Aymer de Valence, the son of that William of Lusignan, Henry III.’s half-brother, who was banished in 1258, first attempted to take the reins. Walter Langton had made his peace and become treasurer again; and on the death of Archbishop Winchelsey, in 1313, Walter Reynolds, the king’s old tutor and present chancellor, became primate. But these were not men to withstand the great weight of the opposition. Thomas of Lancaster, who on the death of Henry de Lacy had added the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury to the three which he already held, treated on equal terms with the king as a belligerent. The mediation of the clergy brought the two together at the close of 1312, and in the autumn of 1313 a general pacification was brought about, followed by an amnesty and a liberal supply of money in Parliament. The Ordinances were recognized as the law of the land; the birth of an heir to the crown was hailed as a good omen, and better hopes were entertained for the future. The war with Scotland was to be resumed, and with secure peace order in the government must follow.

[Sidenote:

Successes of Robert Bruce in Scotland. ]

[Sidenote:

Battle of Bannockburn. ]

[Sidenote:

Despotism of Lancaster. ]

[Sidenote:

War of the Earls. ]

The Scots had been indeed left alone too long. Short truces, desultory warfare, the defeat of any spasmodic effort on the part of the English by a determined policy on the Scottish side of evading battle, had resulted in a great increase of strength in the hands of Robert Bruce. He had taken advantage of the domestic troubles of England, to recover one by one the strongholds of his kingdom. It is believed that he had intrigued both with Gaveston and with Lancaster. The Castle of Linlithgow came into his hands in 1311, Perth in 1312, Roxburgh and Edinburgh in 1313. Stirling, almost the only fortress left in the hands of the English, was besieged, and had promised to surrender if not relieved before midsummer 1314. Edward prepared to take the command of his forces and to raise the siege. But it was no part of Lancaster’s policy to support him. Taking advantage of the article of the Ordinances which forbade the king to go to war without the consent of the baronage in Parliament, he declined to obey the summons to war until Parliament had spoken. Edward protested that there was no time; Lancaster and his confederate earls stood aloof. The King and Pembroke, with such of the barons as they could influence, and a great host of English warriors, who had no confidence in their commander, met the Scots at Bannockburn, on the 24th of June, and were shamefully defeated. Edward lost all control over the country in consequence. The young Earl of Gloucester, whose adhesion had been a tower of strength to him, fell in the battle; the Earl of Pembroke, who had fled with him, shared the contempt into which he fell. Lancaster was practically supreme; he and his fellows, the survivors of the Ordainers, appointed and displaced ministers, put the king on an allowance, and removed his personal friends and attendants as they chose. In 1316 Lancaster was chosen official president of the royal council; he was already commander-in-chief of the army. He now sought the support of the clergy, forced the king to order the execution of the Ordinances, and conducted himself as an irresponsible ruler. But he had not a capacity equal to his ambition, and his greed of power served to expose his real weakness. He acted as a clog upon all national action; he would not act with the king, for he hated him; he dared not act without him, lest his own failure should give his rivals the chance of overthrowing him. The country, notwithstanding his personal popularity, was miserable under him. The Scots plundered and ravaged as they chose. He would not engage in war. He would not attend parliament or council. The court became filled with intrigue. The barons split up into parties; Edward, rejoicing in the removal of control, launched into extravagant expenditure, and began to form a new party of his own. With general anarchy it is no wonder that private war broke out, or that private war assumed the dimensions of public war. The Countess of Lancaster was carried off from her husband; the Earl of Warenne was accused, and the king was suspected of conniving at the elopement. The earls went to war. Edward forbade Lancaster to stir, and Lancaster of course disobeyed the order. In the midst of all this Robert Bruce, in April 1318, took Berwick.

[Sidenote:

Conflict of parties. ]

[Sidenote:

Effects of the loss of Berwick. ]

There were now three parties in the kingdom. Lancaster had lost ground, but the king had gained none. The Earl of Pembroke had been gradually alienated, and now aimed at acquiring power for himself. The death of the Earl of Gloucester had left his earldom to be divided between the husbands of his three sisters, Hugh le Despenser, Roger d’Amory, and Hugh of Audley. The division of the great estates was in itself sufficient to create a new division of parties. D’Amory and Pembroke framed a league for gaining influence over the king in conjunction with Sir Bartholomew Badlesmere, a bitter enemy of Lancaster. Hugh le Despenser, the father of the one just mentioned, took on himself to reform the king’s personal party, and was aided by the few barons and bishops whom Edward had been strong enough to promote. The capture of Berwick had one salutary effect: it stopped the private war, and shamed the three parties into a compromise; but the compromise was itself a proof of common weakness. It was concluded in August, 1318, between Lancaster alone on his own part, and ten bishops and fourteen temporal lords as sureties for the king. It provided a new form of council--eight bishops, four earls, and four barons; one other member was to be nominated by Lancaster, who did not deign to accept a seat. But this constitution had no more permanence than the former. The official preponderance was maintained by Pembroke and Badlesmere, and they could do nothing whilst the Earl of Lancaster continued to stand aloof. Edward in 1319 made a vain attempt to recover Berwick, but only gave the Scots an opportunity of evading Yorkshire, and matters grew worse and worse. Men could not help seeing that even Edward himself could not mismanage matters more than they were being now mismanaged, and that, whether incapable or no, he had never yet had a chance of showing what capacity he had.

[Sidenote:

New favorites of the king. ]

[Sidenote: The Despensers.]

The fate of Gaveston might have warned any who counted on acquiring power by Edward’s favor, and in fact for several years he remained unburdened and uncomforted by a confidential servant. But the waning popularity of Lancaster seemed now to render the position of the king’s friend less hazardous, and an aspirant was found in the younger Hugh le Despenser. He was the grandson of that Hugh le Despenser, the justiciar of the baronial government, who had fallen with Simon de Montfort at Evesham. His father, now the elder Hugh, had been a courtier and minister of Edward I., and had been throughout the early troubles of the reign faithful to Edward II., but he was regarded as a deserter by the barons and had a bitter personal enemy in the Earl of Lancaster. Father and son were alike ambitious and greedy; they showed little regard for either the person or the reputation of their master, and sacrificed his interest whenever it came in competition with their own. The younger Hugh, like Piers Gaveston, was married to one of the heiresses of Gloucester, and had been appointed in 1318 chamberlain to the king under the government of compromise. Edward in his weakness and isolation clung tenaciously to these men; they had inherited some of the political ideas of the barons of 1258, and had perhaps an indistinct notion of overthrowing the influence of Lancaster by an alliance with the commons. The younger Hugh, at all events, from time to time uttered sentiments concerning the position of the king which were inconsistent with the theory of absolute royalty; he had said that the allegiance sworn to the king was due to the crown rather than to the person of the sovereign, and that if the king inclined to do wrong it was the duty of the liegeman to compel him to do right. Another part of the programme of the Despensers involved a more distinct recognition of the right of parliament than had ever been put forth by Lancaster, and it would seem probable that they hoped by maintaining the theory of national action, as stated by Edward I., to strengthen their master’s position, and through it to strengthen their own. So low, however, was the political morality of the time, that the same selfish objects were hidden under widely different professions. The Despensers had sadly miscalculated the force of the old prejudice against court favorites, and did not see how every step in advance made them new enemies. The Earl of Lancaster saw in their unpopularity a chance of recovering his place as a national champion, and a quarrel among the coheirs of Gloucester gave the opportunity for an outcry. Hugh of Audley, who had married Piers Gaveston’s widow, and who was therefore a rival and brother-in-law of Hugh le Despenser, showed some signs of contumacious conduct in the marches. The Earl of Hereford and Roger Mortimer, the Lord of Wigmore, declined to join in the measures necessary to reduce him to order, and refused to meet the Despensers in council; and in a parliament which the king called to meet on the 15th of July, 1321, the whole baronage turned against the favorites. Their attempts to influence the king, their greedy use of the king’s name for their own purposes, the rash words of the younger Hugh, the vast acquisitions of his father, their unauthorized interference in the administration of government, and their perversion of justice were alleged as demanding condign punishment.

[Sidenote:

Sentence against the Despensers. ]

[Sidenote:

War between the king and the barons. ]

[Sidenote:

Battle of Boroughbridge. ]

[Sidenote:

Execution of Lancaster. ]

[Sidenote:

Ulterior consequences of the execution. ]

The Earl of Hereford, Edward’s brother-in-law, made the charge before the three estates, and the lords, “peers of the land,” as they now perhaps for the first time called themselves, passed the sentence of forfeiture and exile on the two. They were not to be recalled except by consent of parliament, and a separate act was passed to ensure the immunity of the prosecutors and the pardon of those who had taken up arms to overthrow them. This was Lancaster’s last triumph, and it was very short-lived. In the month of October the Lady Badlesmere shut the gates of Leeds Castle against the queen, and Edward raised a force to avenge the insult offered to his wife. All the earls of his party joined him, and the Earl of Lancaster, who hated Badlesmere for his old rivalry, did not interfere to protect him. Finding himself for the first time at the head of a sufficient force, the king determined to enforce order in the marches and to avenge his friends the Despensers. He marched against the border castles of the Earl of Hereford, Audley, and D’Amory. On receiving news of this Lancaster at once discovered his mistake, and called a meeting of his party--the good lords, as they were called--at Doncaster. Both parties showed great energy, but the king had got the start. He obtained from the convocation of the clergy of Canterbury, under the influence of the archbishop, his old tutor, a declaration that the sentence against the Despensers was illegal, and lost no time in forcing his way towards Hereford to punish the earl who had procured it. On his way he defeated the Mortimers. He took Hereford; and having reached Gloucester in triumph, on the 11th of February, recalled his friends to his side. Lancaster and his party were not idle, but they underrated the importance of the crisis and divided their forces. One part was sent to secure the king’s castle of Tickhill, the other, under Lancaster himself, moved slowly towards the south. Edward, in the hope of intercepting the latter division, moved northwards from Cirencester, and the earl, when he reached Burton-on-Trent, did not venture any farther. On the news of his flight his castles of Kenilworth and Tutbury surrendered, and Edward started in pursuit. The unfortunate earl had reached Boroughbridge on his way to his castle of Dunstanburgh, with his enemies close behind him, when he learned that his way was blocked by Sir Andrew Harclay, the governor of Carlisle, who was coming to meet the king. A battle ensued, in which the Earl of Hereford was slain, the forces of Lancaster were defeated, and the earl himself forced to surrender. He was taken on the 17th of March, and on the 22nd was tried by the king’s judges, in the presence of the hostile earls, in his own castle of Pomfret. He was condemned as a traitor. Evidence of his intrigues with the Scots was adduced to give color to the sentence, and he was beheaded at once. So the blood of Gaveston was avenged, and the tide of savage cruelty began to flow in a broader stream, to be avenged, like Lamech, seventy and sevenfold. At once the people, hating the Despensers and misdoubting Edward, declared that the martyr of Pomfret was worthy of canonization; miracles were wrought at his tomb; it was a task worthy of heroes and patriots to avenge his death. His name became a watchword of liberty; the influence which he had labored to build up became a rival interest to that of the crown. First, Edward II. and the Despensers fell before it; then, in the person of Henry IV., the heir of Lancaster swept from the throne the heir of Edward’s unhappy traditions. In the next century the internecine struggle of the Roses wore out the force of the impulse, and yet enough was left to stain from time to time the scaffolds of the Tudors, long after the last male heir of the Plantagenets had perished.

[Sidenote:

Revocation of the Ordinances of 1311. ]

Some few of the other hostile barons perished in the first flush of the triumph; Badlesmere, in particular, was taken and hanged. Roger D’Amory was dead. The Audleys were spared. About thirty were put to death; many were imprisoned; many more paid fines or forfeitures which helped to enrich the Despensers. Edward was now supreme, and took, as might be expected, the opportunity to undo all that his enemies had tried to do. In his first parliament, held at York, six weeks after the battle, he procured the revocation of the Ordinances, and an important declaration on the part of the assembled estates that from henceforth “matters to be established for the estate of our lord the king and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established in parliaments by our lord the king and by the consent of the prelates, earls and barons, and commonalty of the realm, according as hath been hitherto accustomed.” No ordinances were to be made any more like the Ordinances of 1311. The declaration, intended to secure the crown from the control of the barons, enunciates the theory of constitutional government. And thus the Despensers tried to turn the tables against their foes. But although they determined to annul the Ordinances they did not venture to withdraw the material benefits which the Ordinances had secured. The king, immediately after the revocation, re-issued in the form of an ordinance of his own some of the most beneficial provisions; and the parliament responded by reversing the acts against the favorites and granting money for defence against the Scots.

[Sidenote:

Campaign of Edward in the North. ]

[Sidenote:

Truce with Scotland. ]

It was indeed high time, for such had been the course of recent events that the attitude of the two kingdoms were reversed, and England seemed more likely to become tributary to Scotland than to exercise sovereignty over it. Edward’s campaign, was, however, as usual unsuccessful. He narrowly escaped capture amongst the Yorkshire hills, and the whole county was in such alarm that he found it scarcely possible to hold a parliament at York. Nor did his troubles end there. Early in the following year he found that Sir Andrew Harclay, whom he had just made Earl of Carlisle, was negotiating treasonably with Robert Bruce; he was taken, condemned, and executed. Well might the unhappy king throw himself more desperately than ever on the support of the Despensers, for he knew none others, even of those who had served him best or whom he had most richly rewarded, who were not ready to turn and betray him. With the Despensers he was safe, for they, he was sure, could only stand with him and must fall when he fell. One thing, however, he did, in itself wise and just--concluding with Scotland a truce for thirteen years. This was done in May 1323. Prudent as it was, it alienated from him the adventurers who like Henry de Beaumont were intent on carving out for themselves counties in conquered Scotland. Everything was interpreted in the worst sense against him; the men who refused to follow him to war cried out against the peace; and the men who had followed him to war deserted him. Thus when he at last found himself without a rival in the kingdom, it seemed as if he were left alone to discover how great depths of abasement were still to be sounded; new calamities which, whoever really caused them, seemed to result from his own incapacity. In truth, partly owing to Edward’s neglect of the duty of a king, and partly owing to the inveterate animosities following on the death of Lancaster, the tide of public and private hatred was too high to be long resisted. Yet the last impulse came from a quarter from which it might have been least expected and from which it was certainly least deserved.

[Sidenote:

Position and policy of the queen. ]

Edward, with all his faults, had been a kind husband and father; but he had trusted his wife less implicitly than she desired to be trusted. In this he was justified by the fact of her close relationship to the Earl of Lancaster, and still more by the jealousy which she displayed towards his confidential ministers. Not only the Despensers but Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, the Treasurer, and Baldock, the Chancellor, were the objects of her settled aversion; and she lent a ready ear to all who fancied that these men had injured them or stood in the way of their advancement. The court contained many such men, who were ambitious of becoming ministers of state or bishops and ready to take either side for gain; men who hated the Despensers, and who saw their own prospects blighted by the fall of Lancaster. Regularly, as the tide had turned, as the king or the Ordainers had gained or lost, the great offices of state had changed hands, and there was all the grudging, all the personal animosities, which in later ages appear to be inseparable from government by party.

[Sidenote:

Avarice and arrogance of the Despensers. ]

The events which followed the peace with Scotland brought these influences more strongly into play. The shadows gathered rapidly round the miserable king almost from that hour. The constitutional struggle had ceased. The death of the Earl of Lancaster had rid the Despensers of their most dangerous rival, the revocation of the Ordinances had left the government in their hands, and the death of the Earl of Pembroke in 1324 left them without competitors. The elder Hugh, now made Earl of Winchester, set no limit to his acquisitiveness; he was an old man, and might have considered that it would be more conducive to his son’s welfare to make friends than to multiply estates. The younger Hugh, himself a man of mature years, was made, by his violence and pride, even more conspicuous than his father. Henry of Lancaster, the brother and heir of Earl Thomas, was reduced to practical insignificance by the detention of his brother’s estates in the king’s hands; and although the Despensers sought to purchase his services, and he had no personal dislike to the king, he could not be regarded as a safe and sound pillar of the falling state. The ministers Baldock and Stapleton were faithful men, but neither wise enough to counteract nor strong enough to guide the policy of the favorites.

[Sidenote:

Summons to Edward to do homage to the new French king. ]

[Sidenote:

Departure of the queen for France, followed by that of Prince Edward. ]

Philip V. died in January, 1322, and the homage of Edward for the provinces of Ponthieu and Gascony was forthwith demanded for his successor, Charles IV. A series of negotiations followed which early in 1324 led to a peremptory summons and a threat of forfeiture, no indistinct prelude to war. Edward might easily have crossed over to his brother-in-law’s court, as he had done more than once before, but the Despensers would not allow it. They dared not suffer him to escape from their direct control, they dared not accompany him; if he left them in England they knew their doom. The French court too was filled with their enemies; Roger Mortimer, the lord of Wigmore, who had been taken prisoner in 1322, had escaped from the Tower and gone to France. Henry of Lancaster was waiting to supplant them at home. War was the only alternative. Still negotiations proceeded. First Pembroke was sent; he died on the mission; then Edmund of Kent, the king’s half-brother; he failed to obtain terms. The king’s most trusted chaplains were sent to the Pope; but they spent their labor and treasure in securing their own promotion. At last in 1325 the queen went over. She parted apparently on the best terms with both Edward and the Despensers, and continued in friendly correspondence until she had prevailed on the king to send over his eldest son. It was arranged that the provinces should be made over to him and that he should do the homage. This was done in September, 1325, and almost immediately afterwards she threw off the mask. How long she had worn it we cannot tell. Possibly she left Edward in good faith and fell on her arrival in France into the hands of those who were embittered against him; possibly she was a conspirator long before. Anyhow the tie to the king, which could be so easily broken, could not, in the case of either mother or son, have been a strong one. As early as December the king was warned that Isabella and Edward would not return to him.

[Sidenote:

Intrigues of Isabella in France. ]

Quickly she gathered round her all whom the king had cause to fear. Roger Mortimer, whether by reason of passion or of policy, gained complete ascendency over her. The young Edward was instructed that it was his duty to deliver his father out of the hands of the Despensers or to deliver England out of the hand of Edward. Edmund of Kent, the king’s brother, was persuaded to join, and the conspirators, if not actually supported by promises from England, were too willing to believe that to be victorious they had only to show themselves. As the French king was slow to commit himself, Isabella contracted an alliance with the Count of Hainault, and obtained money from the Italian bankers. They furnished supplies, the count furnished men and ships.

[Sidenote:

Helplessness of the king. ]

[Sidenote:

Landing of Isabella on the coast of Suffolk. ]

Edward knew all this, but he knew not how to meet it. In vain he summoned parliaments that would do nothing when they met, and ordered musters that would not meet at all. He found that all whom he trusted deceived him; that, except the Despensers and the two detested ministers, none even pretended to support him; and that he was obliged to depend on the very men who had the most to avenge. At last Isabella landed, on September, 24, 1326, on the coast of Suffolk, proclaiming herself the avenger of the blood of Lancaster and the sworn foe of the favorites. Edward, who was in London, tried to obtain help from the citizens, and prevailed on the bishops to excommunicate the invaders. But early in October he fled into the West, where he thought the Despensers were strong; on the 15th the Londoners rose and murdered the treasurer; Archbishop Reynolds retired into Kent and began to make terms with the queen.

[Sidenote:

Triumphant march of Isabella to the West of England. ]

[Sidenote: Fall of Bristol.]

[Sidenote:

Overthrow and deposition of the king. ]

[Sidenote:

Murder of Edward II. ]

She in the meantime moved on in triumph; Henry of Lancaster, the king’s brothers, the earls, save Arundel and Warenne, the bishops almost to a man, joined her either in person or with effective help. Adam Orlton, the Bishop of Hereford, who had been the confidential friend of Bohun, and Henry Burghersh, the Bishop of Lincoln, the nephew of Badlesmere, led the councils of aggression. They advanced by Oxford to attack Bristol, where they expected to find Edward and the Earl of Winchester. On October 26 the queen reached Bristol, but her husband had gone into Wales and was attempting to escape to Ireland. The capture of Bristol, however, was the closing event of his reign. The Earl of Winchester was hanged forthwith. The young Edward was declared by the lords on the spot guardian of the kingdom, and he summoned a parliament to meet in his father’s absence. The king, with Hugh le Despenser and Baldock, were taken on November 16; on the 17th the Earl of Arundel was beheaded at Hereford; on the 24th Hugh le Despenser was hanged, drawn and quartered at the same place. The parliament was to settle the fate of the king, and the parliament met at Westminster on January 7. There matters were formally discussed, but the conclusion was, as all the world knew, foregone. Even if any had thought that, now that the country was rid of the Despensers, the king might be allowed to reign on, the dread of the London mob and of the armed force which Mortimer brought up silenced them. The wretched archbishop declared that the voice of the people was the voice of God. Bishop Orlton, professing to believe that if the king were released the queen’s life would not be safe, insisted that the parliament should choose between father and son. Bishop Stratford of Winchester, who led the Lancaster party and had no love for Mortimer, drew the articles on which the sentence of renunciation was founded. The king, he said, was incompetent or too indolent to judge between right and wrong; he had obstinately refused the advice of the wise and listened to evil counsel; he had lost Ireland, Scotland, and Gascony, he had injured the Church, oppressed the barons, he had broken his coronation oath, and he was ruining the land. After some debate the articles were placed before the unhappy king, who confessed that they were true and that he was not worthy to reign. On January 20 he resigned the crown and the parliament renounced their allegiance and set his son in his place. For eight months longer he dragged on a miserable life, of which but little is known. Men told sad stories of suffering and insult which after his death provoked his kinsmen to avenge him, but none interfered to save him now. The reign of Mortimer and Isabella was a reign of terror; and before the terror abated Edward was murdered. The place of his death, the Castle of Berkeley, and the date, September 21, are known. Henry of Lancaster, who was at first appointed to guard him, had treated him too well. His new keepers, either prompted by the queen and Mortimer or anxious to win a reward, slew him in some secret way. And thus ended a reign full of tragedy, a life that may be pitied but affords no ground for sympathy. Strange infatuation, unbridled vindictiveness, recklessness beyond belief, the breach of all natural affection, of love, of honor, and loyalty, are here; but there is none who stands forth as a hero. There are great sins and great falls and awful vengeances, but nothing to admire, none to be praised.

[Sidenote:

Importance and significance of the reign of Edward II. ]

So the son of the great king Edward perished; and with a sad omen the first crowned head went down before the offended nation; with a sad omen, for it was not done in calm or righteous judgment. The unfaithful wife, the undutiful son, the vindictive prelate, the cowardly minister were unworthy instruments of a nation’s justice.

Such as it is, however, the reign of Edward II. is chiefly important as a period of transition. It winds up much that was left undone by his father; it is the seed-time of the influences which ripened under his son. The constitutional acts of 1309, 1310 and 1311 are the supplement to those of 1297; the tragedy of Piers Gaveston and Earl Thomas is the primary cause of much of the personal history that follows. So, too, the reign closes the great interest of Scottish warfare, and contains the germ of the long struggle with France. But viewed by itself its tragic interest is the greatest; and it is rich in moral and material lessons. It tells us that the greatest sin for which a king can be brought to account is not personal vice or active tyranny, but the dereliction of kingly duty; the selfish policy which treats the nation as if it were made for him, not he for the nation. It is the greatest sin and the greatest folly, for it at once draws down the penalty and leaves the sinner incapable of avoiding it or resisting it; it leaves the nation to be oppressed by countless tyrants, and is by so much worse than the tyranny of one. It allows the corruption of justice at the fountain’s head.

[Sidenote:

Constitutional results of the epoch closing with his downfall. ]

So we close a long and varied epoch. The sum of its influences and results must be read in the history of the following age, in which, in many important points, the reign of Richard II. repeats the tragedy of Edward II.; and the struggles of York and Lancaster consummate the series of events which begin at Warwick and at Pomfret; in which the constitution that we have seen organized and consolidated under Henry II. and Edward I. is tested to the utmost, strained and bent and warped, but still survives to remedy the tyranny of the Tudors and overthrow the factitious absolutism of the Stewarts.

INDEX.

Accursi, Francesco, 221

Acre, siege of, 116; the English at, 118; double siege at, 118; taken, 120

Adeliza, queen, 95

Adrian IV., pope, 30, 46

Alexander III., pope, 3, 71, 92

Alexander IV., pope, 186

Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, 21

Alfonso, King of Castile, 99

Alnwick, battle of, 96

Amalric, Count of Montfort, 193

Amiens, council at, 202

Amory, Roger d’, 278; his death, 281

Anarchy in the reign of Stephen, 22

Anglo-Saxon militia system, 88

Anjou, house of, at Jerusalem, 104; loss of, 142

Anselm, 63

Aquitaine, feudal rights of, 51

Archbishops, disputed election of, at Canterbury, 145

Arthur, grandson of Henry II., 125; his claims to the throne, 136; his claims in France, 140; murder of, 142

Arundel, earl of, 95

Ascalon rebuilt, 121

Audley, Hugh of, 278

Aumâle, William of, 45

Azai, conference at, 109

Badlesmere, Sir Bartholomew, 278; his death, 281

Badlesmere, Lady, 279

Baldock, chancellor, 283

Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, 116

Baldwin of Redvers, 18

Baldwin the Leper, 104

Balliol, John, made king of Scotland, 241; summoned by Edward I., 257; at war with Edward I., 258; surrender of, 258

Bannockburn, battle of, 277

Barbarossa, Frederick, 37

Barons, disputes with, 151; refuse to serve under John, 153; their appeal to the laws of Henry I., 154; their quarrels with John, 156; granting of the Magna Carta by John, 157; their long list of grievances, 197, 198; disunion among, 200; the differences with the king referred to arbitration, 201; refuse to abide by the decision, 202, 203; victory of, at the battle of Lewes, 205; defeated at Evesham, 209; their discontent under the growth of the royal power, 248; assembly of, at Salisbury, 249; control of Edward II. by, 273; at war with Edward II., 279

Barons’ War, the, 202

Battles, Alnwick, 96; Bannockburn, 277; Boroughbridge, 280; Bouvines, 155; Consilt, 48; Dunbar, 258; Evesham, 208; Lewes, 205; Lincoln, 23, 169; Standard, 19

Bavaria, 8

Beauchamp, Guy, Earl of Warwick, 270

Beaumont, Henry de, 273

Becket, Thomas, 30; appointed chancellor, 42; at the siege of Toulouse, 53; his early life, 66; rises into note, 66; as chancellor, 66; becomes archbishop of Canterbury, 67; Henry’s confidence in him, 67; resigns the chancery, 70; enforces the feudal rights of his see, 70; opposes the king on a financial point, 72; his new enemies, 74; quarrels with Henry II., 75; defends the clerical immunities, 75; his conduct regarding the Constitutions of Clarendon, 77; is summoned to Northampton, 78; his trial, 78; his flight, 79; is exiled, 79; under the protection of Lewis VII., 79; his interviews with the king, 80; reconciliation with Henry II., 82; returns to England, 82; murder of, 82; the true glory of, 83; pilgrimage to his grave, 96

Berengaria, Princess of Navarre, her marriage with Richard I., 120

Berksted, Stephen, 216

Berwick sacked by Edward I., 258; capture of, by the Scotch, 277

Bibars, Sultan, 215

Bigot, Hugh, 13, 14, 18, 31, 46, 93, 199

Bigot, Roger, Earl of Norfolk, 248

Bishops, indemnity for their losses caused by John, 154

Bishops, Norman, 63

Blanche of Castile, marries Lewis of France, 141, 142

Bohun, Humfrey, Earl of Hereford, 248

Boniface, Archbishop, 181, 185, 199

Boniface VIII., pope, 247, 259

Boroughbridge, battle of, 280

Bouvines, battle of, 155

Brabançon mercenaries, 94

Bracton, Henry, 221

Breauté, Falkes de, 170, 171

Bridgenorth, siege of, 46

Bristol, fall of, 287

Brito, Richard, 83

Britton, judge, 221

Bruce, Robert, Earl of Carrick, as regent, 259

Bruce, Robert, son of the Earl of Carrick, lays claim to the crown of Scotland, 240; his successor in Scotland, 275

Burgh, Hubert de, justiciar, 169; as regent, 171; work of, 173; fall of, 178; reinstatement of, 180

Burghersh, Henry, Bishop of Lincoln, 286

Burnell, Robert, 216, 221

Cadwalader, 48

Cambuskenneth, 258

Campaign of 1301, 259

Camvill, Gerard, warden of Lincoln castle, 125

Camvill, Nicolaa de, 167

Canterbury, Archbishop of, his power, 60; disputed election of the Archbishop at, 145

Castles, destruction of, by Henry II., 43

Celestine III., pope, 126

Chalus-Chabrol, castle of, 134

Chancellor, his duties, 66

Charles IV., King of France, 284

Charters, confirmation of the, 250; reconfirmation of the, 252

Christianity in England, 59

Church, English, its history, 58; national unity first realized, 59; under the heptarchy, 59; great power of the clergy, 60; alliance with the State, 60; effect of the Conquest on, 61; policy of William I. regarding, 62; in Stephen’s reign, 64; quarrel of John with, 145; plunder of the clergy, 152; state of, in 1213, 151

Clare, Richard de (Strongbow), his conquests of Ireland, 91

Clare, Richard de, Earl of Gloucester, 197, 198; his death, 201

Clarendon, council at, 76; constitutions of, 76; council at, 81; assize of, passed, 81; constitutions of, renounced, 91

Clement III., pope, 126

Clement V., pope, 254

Clergy, the, Stephen’s breach with, 20; great power of, 61; plunder of, 153; representation of, under Edward I., 236; relations of Edward I. with, 245; taxation of, 246; Edward I. quarrels with, 247

Clericis, Laicos, Bull, 247

Clerkenwell, council of, 105

Clifford, Roger, justiciar of Wales, 219

Coinage, debased by Stephen, 20

Commons, House of, 235

Comnenus, Isaac, King of Cyprus, 120

Comyn, John, Earl of Badenoch, 259, 261

Confirmatio cartarum, 86

Conquest, the effects of, on the Church, 61

Conrad of Hohenstaufen, 29

Conrad of Montferrat, 119

Conradin, 5

Consilt, battle of, 48

Constance of Brittany, 127

Constantia of France married to Eustace, 31

Constitutional crisis, 248, 249

Constitutional grievances in 1245, 180

Constitutions of Clarendon, 76; renounced, 91

Corbeuil, William of, Archbishop, 15

Coronation, ceremony of, 47

Court of Common Pleas, 225

Court of Exchequer, 225

Court of King’s Bench, 225

Court of Rome, character of, 91

Coutances, Walter of, 127

Cowton Moor, 18

Crisis of 1258, 175; why it was delayed, 189

Crusade, second, 29

Crusade, third, 105, 116

Crusade of Prince Edward, 215

Customs, the revenue, 231; the new, 255

Danegeld, abolition of, 17, 58, 73

David I., King of Scotland, first invasion by, 17; second invasion by, 19

David, son of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, rebels against Edward I., 219; his death, 219

De Religiosis statute, 223, 246

Despenser, Hugh le, the baron’s justiciar, 199; his death, 209

Despenser, Hugh le, the favorite of Edward II., 279; sentence against, 277; avarice and arrogance of, 284

Despenser, Hugh le, Earl of Winchester, hanged, 287

Dictum de Kenilworth, 209

Dunbar, battle of, 258

Durham, Bishop of, 114

Earls, appointment of, 20

Ecclesiastical school in the reign of Stephen, 64

Ecclesiastical quarrels, 247

Edmund of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 179; driven into exile, 185

Edmund of Cornwall, as regent, 238

Edmund, Earl of Kent, 288

Edward I., at the battle of Lewes, 205; proclaimed king, 210; joins the crusade, 210; political education of, 212; motives determining his crusade, 213; his English policy, 213; his idea of kingship, 214; crusade of 1270, 215; his accession to the throne, 216; administration of the kingdom during his pilgrimage, 216; his coronation, 217; rebellion of the prince of North Wales, 218; conquest of Wales, 219; as a lawgiver, 220; principles of his legislation, 222; his legal reforms, 222; parliamentary settlement of revenue on, 232; his first parliament, 233; national policy of, 237; evil consequence caused by his absence, 237; his claims upon Scotland, 239; his relations with Philip IV., 243; quarrel with Philip IV., 243; consequences thereof, 244; his relations with the clergy, 245; quarrels with the clergy, 247; resistance of his subjects, 248, 249; dissatisfied with his subjects, 252; quarrels with Archbishop Winchelsey, 254; his relations with foreign merchants, 255; concludes peace with France, 258; marries Margaret, sister of Philip IV., 258; truce concluded with Scotland, 258; his new constitution for Scotland, 260; his death, 261; his character and motives, 262

Edward II., reactionary policy of, 263; personal tastes and favorites of, 264; his character, 264; peace with Scotland, 266; married to Isabelle of France, 267; coronation of, 267; controlled by the barons, 273; his struggles in favor of Gaveston, 273; changes in the administration, 274; new favorites of, 278; at war with the barons, 282; his campaign in the north, 282; truce concluded with Scotland, 282; summoned to do homage to Charles IV., 284; intrigues of the queen against, 285; helplessness of, 286; overthrow and deposition of, 287; murder of, 288; importance and significance of his reign, 288; constitutional results of the epoch closing with his downfall, 290

Edward III., 287; appointed governor of the kingdom, 288

Eleanor, daughter of Henry II., 99, 100

Eleanor de Montfort, wife of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, 219

Eleanor of Aquitaine, 28; her marriage with Henry II., 31; resent on the death of her husband, 116; her relations with John, 140; her death, 143

Eleanor of Provence marries Henry III., 181

Eleanor, widow of William Marshall, her second marriage with Simon de Montfort, 181

Election at Canterbury, 143

Evesham, battle of, 209

Exchequer under Henry I., 227

Empire, relations with the papacy, 3

England, importance of its work during this epoch, 5; state of, during the absence of Henry II., 54; under the heptarchy, 59; national unity first realized, 59; alliance with Germany, 80; during the crusade, 122; state of, on the death of Richard, 137; separation from Normandy, 143; laid under interdict, 149; national inactivity of, 184; at war with Scotland, 257; truce concluded, 258

Essex, Earl of, 263

Eugenius III., 30

Eustace, son of Stephen, 31; his marriage with Constantia of France, 31; his death, 32

Ferrers, Earl of Derby, joins a league against Henry II., 94

Ferrers, William of, Earl of Derby, 197

Feudal laws, 50

Feudal lords, power of, 223

Finance, system of, during the reign of Edward I., 225

Fitz Osbert, William, 133, 134

Fitz Peter, Geoffrey, justiciar, 133, 153, 154

Fitz Urse, Reginald, 82

Fitz Walter, Robert, 159, 169

Flemings, invasion of Normandy by, 93

Foliot, Gilbert, 30

Foreign affairs in 1258, 176

France, alliance of, with Scotland, 259

Franconia, 6

Frederick I., Emperor, 3, 37, 71, 80, 117

Frederick II., Emperor, 3, 220; marries Isabella, sister to Henry III., 181, 220

Frederick of Swabia, 117

French history, character of the epoch of, 2

Friscobaldi, the, 273

Fulk the Good, Count of Anjou, 161

Gascons, the rebellion of, 189

Gaveston, Piers, favorite of Edward II., 264; his hatred of the earls, 270; banishment of, 270; recall of, 271; his death, 274

Geddington, assembly at, 105

Geoffrey of Anjou, 14, 16, 25, 28

Geoffrey of Brittany, 103; his death, 104

Geoffrey of Nantes rebels against his brother Henry II., 58

Geoffrey, son of Henry II., Archbishop of York, 127

Geographical summary, 6

German history, character of the epoch of, 3

Germany, 3; condition of, under the early Plantagenets, 7; alliance with England, 80

Giffard, Archbishop of York, appointed regent, 216

Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, 204, 206, 208, 209; swears fealty to Edward I., 216; marries Johanna, daughter of Edward I., 239; his death, 248

Gilbert of Vacœuil, 55

Gilbert, son of the Earl of Gloucester, regent, 272

Glanvill, Ranulf, the justiciar, 95, 103, 111, 116; his death, 118

Gray, John de, Bishop of Norwich, elected Archbishop of Canterbury, 146

Gregory IX., pope, 185

Grosseteste, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, 182, 185

Gualo, 160, 166, 170

Gwynneth, Owen, 50

Harclay, Sir Andrew, governor of Carlisle, 280; execution of, 282

Hawisia, daughter of William, Earl Gloucester, 99; wife of John, 142

Henry I., question of succession at his death, 12; precautions taken by, 13; competitors for the succession, 14; his funeral, 16

Henry II., knighted at Carlisle, 31; marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, 32; his arrival in England, 32; leaves England, 33; importance attached to his succession, 34; his youth and education, 35; his character, 36; his family policy, 36; his great position in Christendom, 37; mismanagement of his children, 38; his personal appearance, 38; early reforms of, 39; his advisers, 41; coronation of, 42; disputes regarding the resumption of lands, 43; surrender of the malcontents, 45; frequent councils, 45; second coronation of, 47; first war against Wales, 49; visits France, 49; his foreign possessions, 49; his relations with his vassals, 50; his relations to the King of France, 50; questions of boundary, 52; personal questions, 52; his true policy, 52; crushes his brother Geoffrey’s rebellion, 53; desists from attacking Toulouse, 53; his children, 54; conclusion of peace with Lewis VII., 54; his legal reforms, 54, 55; increase of national unity, 57; his confidence in Thomas Becket, 67; returns from France, 69; second war with Wales, 70; his disputes with Becket, 71-75; appeal to the ancient customs, 75; his motives, 76; exasperated at Becket, 77; his cruel measures towards Becket, 80; third war with Wales, 80; proceedings during the quarrel, 80; reconciliation with Becket, 83; perseverance in reform, 85; training of the people in self-government, 87; his political object in crowning his son, 90; applies to the pope on Becket’s death, 91; his penitence and absolution, 91; quarrels with his son Henry, 93; his success against Lewis VII., 95; in France, 95; his arrival in England, 96; his policy, 97; importance of this struggle, 98; resumes his schemes, 99; his visit to England, 100; his last quarrel, 105; at war with Philip II., 106; his flight to Normandy, 107; his last days, 107; his death, 109

Henry III., 5; character of the reign of, 161; his character, 162; division of his reign, 164; his party, 166; coronation of, 166; his foreign policy, 173; his personal administration, 174; internal misgovernment, 174; his first act, 175; his ingratitude, 177; his plan of governing, 180; marries Eleanor of Provence, 180; his unconstitutional means for raising money, 183; his impolicy, 183; his relations with the popes, 184; accepts the kingdom of Sicily, 186; his French transactions, 187; visits France, 189; his dynastic policy, 190; political troubles of, 200; the award of Lewis IX., 201; its effects, 203; military successes of, 204; defeated at the battle of Lewes, 205; conduct of the new government, 207; defeats the barons at Evesham, 209; his death, 210

Henry VI., Emperor of Germany, 122-129

Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 22, 24; retires from court, 25

Henry, Earl of Lancaster, 284, 286

Henry of Essex, constable, 48, 71

Henry, son of Henry II., his marriage, 54; coronation of, without his queen, 81; second coronation of, with his queen, 92; quarrels with his father, 92; intrigues of, 100; second revolt against his father, 103; his death, 104

Henry, son of the King of the Romans, his death, 210

Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, his marriage, 80

Heraclius, patriarch, mission of, 104

Herbert, Bishop of Salisbury, 133

Hildebrandine revival, 62

History, human, various areas and stages of, 1; under the early Plantagenets, 5

Hohenstaufen, drama of, 3; empire of, 8

Honorius III., pope, 166

House of Commons, 235

House of Lords, 235

Hoveden, Roger, 35

Hugh de Gournay, 142

Hugh of Beauchamp, 104

Hugh of la Marche, 141

Hugh of Lincoln, 133

Hugh of Nunant, Bishop of Coventry, 131

Imported merchandise, taxes on, 221

Income tax, 55

Ingeburga of Denmark, 141

Innocent III., pope, 4, 133, 149, 150

Innocent IV., pope, 185

Interdict, England laid under, 149

Ireland, proposal to conquer, 45; expedition of Henry II. to, 91

Isabella, betrothed wife of Hugh of la Marche, 141

Isabella of France, wife of Edward II., 268; position and policy of, 282; her intrigues in France, 285; her triumphant march to the West of England, 286; rule under, 288

Isabella, sister to Henry III., married to Emperor Frederick II., 180

Italy, condition of, 7

Itinerant judges first go their circuits, 90

Jerusalem, captured by Saladin, 106; Richard’s march on, 121

Jews, persecution of, 112; banished from England, 239

Jocelin de Bailleul, 76

Johanna, daughter of Henry II., marries Gilbert of Gloucester, 239

Johanna, daughter of Henry II., 99; wife of William the Good, 119

John, son of Henry II., his marriage, 99; cursed by his dying father, 109; provision made for, by his brother Richard, 115; position of, 125; intrigues with Philip II., 127; rebellion of, 130; secures Normandy, 137; his coronation, 138; division of the history of his reign, 139; at peace with Philip II., 141; his second marriage, 141; loses Normandy and Anjou, 142; his ecclesiastical troubles, 145; excommunication of, 149; his obduracy, 149; swears fealty to the pope, 150; quarrels with the barons, 151; his journey to the North, 154; goes to France, 155; the crown offered to Lewis, 159; his successes against the barons, 159; his death, 160

John of Salisbury, 30

John of Brienne, 4

John the Marshall, 74, 78

John XXII., 3

Judges, punishment of, 239; itinerant, 86; fiscal work of, 86; first go their circuits, 87

Judicature, restoration of, 46; central, 87

Jurisdiction, provincial reform of, 86, 87

Justice, administration of, 55

Kenilworth, dictum de, 209

Lacy, Henry de, Earl of Lincoln, 269; his death, 272

Lands, resumption of, 44

Langton, Stephen, elected Archbishop of Canterbury, 148; absolves the king, 153; crowns Henry III., 171; his death, 177

Langton, Walter, 249, 255, 266, 274

Laudabiliter Bull, 46

Laws, appeal to the, of Henry I., 154; probable plan for the codification of, 221; Edward’s principles of legislation, 222

League against Henry II., 93

Leicester, Earl of, joins a league against Henry II., 94

Leopold, Duke of Austria, 222

Lewes, battle of, 203

Lewes, Mise of, 206

Lewis VI., King of France, 9

Lewis VII., King of France, 5; joins the second crusade, 28; his character, 37; his relation to Henry II., 50; takes up the cause of Becket, 79; joins a league against Henry II., 93; utterly routed by Henry II., 97; his death, 102

Lewis IX., King of France, 5; arbitrates between Henry III. and his barons, 201; award of, 201; effects of the award, 203; motives for his decision, 205; his death, 215

Lewis of Bavaria, 3

Lewis, son of Philip of France, his marriage, 142; the crown of England offered to him, 159; his successes against John, 159; lands in England, 159; treaty concluded with Henry III., 167; defeated at Lincoln and departure from England, 168

Liege, Bishop of, 130

Lincoln, battle of, 23, 168

Lincoln, parliament at, 254

Linlithgow castle, 259

Lisbon, 10

Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, 204; rebellion of, against Edward I., 218; married to Eleanor de Montfort, 219; his death, 219

Longchamp, William, bishop of Ely, 115; chancellor, 123; as supreme justiciar, 124; demands the royal castles, 125; removed from the justiciarship, 127

Lords, House of, 235

Lorraine, Lower, 9

Lothar II., 7

Lucy, Richard de, 30, 41, 76, 94, 95; appointed regent during the king’s absence, 54

Lusignan, Ethelmer, Bishop of Winchester, 190

Lusignan, Guy of, 105

Mabilia, Countess of Gloucester, 25

Madoc, rebellion of, 256

Magna Carta, granted at Runnymede, 157; attempts to annul it, 158; re-issued, 166; third issue of, 169; confirmed, 239

Malcolm IV., King of Scotland, 44

Mandeville, Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, 26, 142, 167

Mandeville, William, 115

Manners during this epoch, 4

Mans, le, capture of, by Philip II., 106

Margaret of France, daughter of Lewis VII., 54; wife of Henry, son of Henry II., 104

Margaret, sister of Philip IV., marries Edward I., 258

Marlborough, parliament of, 209

Marshall, Richard, 179

Marshall, William, Earl of Pembroke, 166; his death, 169; work of, 171

Martel, William, 30

Martin, master, 185

Matilda, daughter of Henry I., fealty sworn to, 14, 17; her arrival in England, 22; elected Lady of England, 23; her imprudent rule, 24; her struggles against Stephen, 25; flies to Oxford, 25; the kingdom divided, 26; her government in Normandy, 42

Matilda, daughter of Henry II., her marriage, 80

Maurienne, Count of, 93

Mercenaries, importation of, 20; expulsion of, 42

Merchandize, taxation on importation of, 231

Merchants, foreign, relations of Edward I. with, 255

Merlin, prophecies of, 39

Miles of Hereford, 28

Military system in Henry II.’s time, 88

Mise of Lewes, 206

Monasteries, 63

Monks of Canterbury, their quarrels regarding the election of Archbishop, 146

Montfort, Simon de, Earl of Leicester, marries Eleanor, daughter of John, 181; his character, 193; military successes of, 204; parliament of, 207; impolicy of his sons, 208; killed in the battle of Evesham, 209; his character as a great and good man, 210, 211

Moral lessons, 5

Mortimer, Hugh, 45

Mortimer, Roger, 199; appointed regent, 216

Mortimer, Roger, Lord of Wigmore, 278, 284, 285, 288

Morville, Hugh de, 82

Mowbray, Roger, 106

Neville, Ralph, Bishop of Chichester, 180

New Custom, the, 255

Nicolas IV., pope, 246

Nicolas, Bishop of Tusculum, 154

Nigel, Bishop of Ely, 42

Norman bishops, 63

Normandy, invasion of, 104; forfeiture of, 142; separation from England, 143

Normans, results of rule under, 12

Northampton, council at, 77; parliament at, 268

Nottingham, castle of, 125

Ordainers, the, 272

Ordinances of 1311, the, 272; revocation of, 281

Orlton, Adam, Bishop of Hereford, 286, 287

Otho, Cardinal, 185

Otho, of Saxony, Emperor, 134

Oxford, siege of, 26; parliament of, 198; provisions of, 199

Pacification, terms of, in 1153, 39

Palestine, condition of, 104

Pandulf, 150; as legate, 171; resigns, 173

Papacy, relations with the empire, 3; demands in Henry III.’s time, 169; taxation, 177; Henry III.’s relations with the popes, 184; list of papal assumptions, 185; papal claims over Scotland, 253

Paris, Matthew, 139, 183, 195

Parliament, 181; discussions in, 182; of 1258, 197; origin of our modern, 207; under Edward I., 234; growth of, 234; Lincoln, 253

Peckham, Archbishop, 247

Pembroke, Earl of, 270

Perche, Count of, 169

Peter de Vineis, 220

Peter of Wakefield, 150

Petronilla, Lady, 96

Peverell, William, 45

Philip II., King of France, his hatred of Henry II., 103; at war with Henry II., 106; joins the third crusade, 116; at Messina, 119; intrigues of, against Richard, 128; concludes a two months’ peace with John, 140; at peace with John, 141; takes Normandy and Anjou, 142

Philip III., King of France, 216; his death, 243

Philip IV., the Fair, King of France, his relations with Edward I., 243; quarrels with Edward I., 244

Philip V., King of France, 284

Philip of Flanders joins a league against Henry II., 94

Pipewell, council of, 114

Political history during this epoch, 2

Politicians, ecclesiastical, 64

Portugal during the age of the early Plantagenets, 10

Provisions of Oxford, 199

Provisions of Westminster, 200

Puiset, Hugh de, Bishop of Durham, 94; justiciar, 124, 125; expelled, 126

Quia Emptores statute, 223, 235

Ranulf, Earl of Chester, 23, 26

Ranulf, Earl of Chester, 136, 166, 178

Raymond of Toulouse, 195

Rebellion of 1136, 18

Reform, Henry II.’s plans of, 39; progress of, 55; Henry’s perseverance in, 85; political object of it, 86; new schemes of, 271

Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, 95

Reginald, sub-prior, elected Archbishop of Canterbury, 147

Religion during this epoch, 4

Revenue, nature of, in the time of Henry II., 55; under Henry III., 228; sources of, during Edward I.’s reign, 225; customs, 231; parliamentary settlement on Edward I., 230

Reynolds, Walter, 275

Richard I., Cœur de Lion, son of Henry II., 53; quarrels with his brother Henry, 103; his father’s distrust of, 104; joins the third crusade, 105; does homage to Philip II., 106; joins in a conspiracy against his father, 106; character of his reign, 110; his accession to the throne, 111; his coronation, 112; his personal appearance and character, 112, 113; his mode of procuring means for the third crusade, 114; starts on the crusade, 115; his journey along the Italian shore, 118; at Messina, 119; his campaigns in Palestine, 120; exploits of, 121; his retreat and truce, 122; captivity of, 122; negotiations for his release, 129; ransom raised for his release, 129; his release, 130; his second visit to England, 131; money refused him by the great council, 133; his last years, 134; events of the war with Philip II., 134; his death, 135

Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, 177

Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, brother to Henry III., 173, 178; his marriage, 181; his character, 192; at the battle of Lewes, 205; his death, 210

Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 16; swears fealty to Stephen, 17; his power, 19; taken prisoner, 26; his death, 29

Robert, Earl of Leicester, regent, during the king’s absence, 55

Roches, Peter des, Bishop of Winchester, regent, 166, 170; the king’s adviser, 178; fall of, 179

Rochester castle besieged, 159

Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, 15; justiciar of Henry I., 21; arrested, 21

Roger, Earl of Leicester, 28

Roger of Hereford, 44

Roger of Pont l’Eveque, Archbishop of York, 81

Rome, proceedings at, 30; character of the court of, 91, 92

Rudolf of Hapsburg, 3

Runnymede, granting of the Magna Carta at, 157

Saer de Quincy, 168

St. Albans, assembly at, 154

St. Andrew’s, Bishop of, 259

St. Bernard, 4, 30

St. Edmund, 85

St. Edmund’s, coronation at, 47, 48

St. Gregory, 59

St. Hugh, 133

St. Paul’s, council at, 154

St. William, 30

Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, 104

Salisbury, Earl of, 160

Salisbury, meeting of barons at, 249

Saragossa, 11

Saxony, 8

Scotland, invasion of England by, 17, 19; submission of to Henry III., 97; claims of Edward I. upon, 239; the kingdom of, 240; papal claims over, 254; alliance of, with France, 257; troubles in, 257; war against England, 258; truce with England, affairs in, after the fall of Balliol, 259; Edward’s new constitution for, 259; truce concluded with Edward II., 282

Scottish independence, war of, 258

Scutage, institution of, 56

Segrave, Sir John, 259

Segrave, Stephen, justiciar, 177

Shrewsbury, assembly at, 234

Sybilla, queen of Jerusalem, sister of Baldwin the Leper, 104, 119

Simon de Montfort, _see_ Montfort, Simon de

Spain, state of, 9

Standard, battle of the, 19

Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, 283

Statute De Religiosis, 246

Statute of Wales, 220

Statute of Westminster, the first, 234

Statute of Westminster, 224

Stephen of Blois, his claim to the throne, 14; his reception in England, 15; his election and coronation, 15; his first charter, 16; his second charter, 17; invaded by the Scots, 17, 19; rebellion of 1136, 18; beginning of troubles, 18; his imprudent policy, 19; debases coinage, 20; his new earls, 20; imports mercenaries, 20; his breach with the clergy, 20; arrests the bishops, 21; beginning of anarchy, 22; taken prisoner, 22; is released, 25; his success in 1142, 26; division of the kingdom, 27; period of anarchy, 28; proceedings at Rome, 30; quarrels with the archbishop, 30; question of succession, 31; negotiates for peace, 32; his death, 33; estimation of his character, 33

Stigand, Archbishop, 61

Stirling, English defeated near, 259

Stratford, John, Bishop of Winchester, 287

Swabia, 6

Tancred, King of Sicily, 119

Taxation, variety of, in Henry II.’s reign, 87; papal, 177; changes in the mode of, 228; summoning of representative assemblies for the purposes of, 232; of the clergy, 246; confirmation of the charter establishing the right of the people to determine, 240

Templars, the, 53, 54

Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, 21; quarrels with Stephen, 30; negotiates the succession of Henry II., 41; adviser to Henry II., 42; his death, 55

Theobald, Count, 14, 16

Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, 269; despotism of, 276, 277; execution of, 280; interior consequences of his execution, 281

Thurstan, Archbishop, 19

Tickhill, castle of, 125

Toledo, 11

Toulouse, war of, 53

Tracy, William de, 82

Valence, Aymer de, Earl of Pembroke, 261, 274, 276; made governor of Scotland, 266; his death, 285

Vescy, Lady de, 273; Eustace de, 159, 167

Waleran of Meulan, 28

Wales, at war with Henry II., 48; second war with Henry II., 71; third war with Henry II., 80; turbulence of the princes, 217; conquest of, 219; statute of, 220; rebellion in, under Madoc, 256

Wallace, Sir William, 258, 260

Wallingford, peace negotiations at, 32

Walter, Hubert, Bishop of Salisbury, 115, 116, 119, 130; made Archbishop of Canterbury, 130; government of, 131; resignation of, 133; transfers his devotion to John on the death of Richard, 137; his death, 144

Walter of Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, 197, 199

Wareham, 27

Warenne, Earl, 238

Warenne, William of, surrender of his estates in Norfolk, 46; knighthood conferred on, 47

Westminster, treaty at, 32; council at, 74; provisions of, 200; courts at, 226; statute of, the first, 234

William II., King of Scotland, joins a league against Henry II., 94; taken prisoner, 96

William, Earl of Salisbury, 164

William of Aumâle, 171

William of Eynesford, 74

William of Ferrers, 197

William, son of Henry I., 12

William the Good, of Sicily, his marriage, 99

Winchelsey, Robert, 246, 249; quarrels with the king, 254, 268

Winchester, Bishop of, brother of Stephen, 41

Winchester, Bishop of, 114

Winchester, statute of, 225

Woodstock, council at, 71, 72

Worms, diet of, 128

Ypres, William of, 44

“_The volumes contain the ripe results of the studies of men who are authorities in their respective fields._”--THE NATION.

EPOCHS OF HISTORY

=EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY=

Eleven volumes, 16mo, each $1.00.

=EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY=

Eighteen volumes, 16mo, each $1.00.

The Epoch volumes have most successfully borne the test of experience, and are universally acknowledged to be the best series of historical manuals in existence. They are admirably adapted in form and matter to the needs of colleges, schools, reading circles, and private classes. Attention is called to them as giving the utmost satisfaction as class hand-books.

NOAH PORTER, _President of Yale College_.

“The ‘Epochs of History’ have been prepared with knowledge and artistic skill to meet the wants of a large number of readers. To the young they furnish an outline or compendium. To those who are older they present a convenient sketch of the heads of the knowledge which they have already acquired. The outlines are by no means destitute of spirit, and may be used with great profit for family reading, and in select classes or reading clubs.”

CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, _President of Cornell University_.

“A series of concise and carefully prepared volumes on special eras of history. Each is also complete in itself, and has no especial connection with the other members of the series. The works are all written by authors selected by the editor on account of some especial qualifications for a portrayal of the period they respectively describe. The volumes form an excellent collection, especially adapted to the wants of a general reader.”

_The Publishers will supply these volumes to teachers at SPECIAL NET RATES, and would solicit correspondence concerning terms for examination and introduction copies._

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, Publishers 153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York.

THE GREAT SUCCESS OF THE SERIES

is the best proof of its general popularity, and the excellence of the various volumes is further attested by their having been adopted as text-books in many of our leading educational institutions. The publishers beg to call attention to the following list comprising some of the most prominent institutions using volumes of the series:

Smith College, Northampton, Mass. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, Vt. Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass. Bellewood Sem., Anchorage, Ky. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn. State Univ., Minneapolis, Minn. Christian Coll., Columbia, Mo. Adelphi Acad., Brooklyn, N. Y. Earlham Coll., Richmond, Ind. Granger Place School, Canandaigua, N. Y. Salt Lake Acad., Salt Lake City, Utah. Beloit Col., Beloit, Wis. Logan Female Coll., Russellville, Ky. No. West Univ., Evanston, Ill. State Normal School, Baltimore, Md. Hamilton Coll., Clinton, N. Y. Doane Coll., Crete, Neb. Princeton College, Princeton, N. J. Williams Coll., Williamstown, Mass. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N. Y. Illinois Coll., Jacksonville, Ill. Univ. of South, Sewanee, Tenn. Wesleyan Univ., Mt. Pleasant, Ia. Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, Cal. So. Car. Coll., Columbia, S. C. Amsterdam Acad., Amsterdam, N. Y. Carleton Coll., Northfield, Minn. Wesleyan Univ., Middletown, Mass. Albion Coll., Albion, Mich. Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, N. H. Wilmington Coll., Wilmington, O. Madison Univ., Hamilton, N. Y. Syracuse Univ., Syracuse, N. Y. Univ. of Wis., Madison, Wis. Union Coll., Schenectady, N. Y. Norwich Free Acad., Norwich, Conn. Greenwich Acad., Greenwich, Conn. Univ. of Neb., Lincoln, Neb. Kalamazoo Coll., Kalamazoo, Mich. Olivet Coll., Olivet, Mich. Amherst Coll., Amherst, Mass. Ohio State Univ., Columbus, O. Free Schools, Oswego, N. Y.

Bishop J. F. HURST, _ex-President of Drew Theol. Sem._

“It appears to me that the idea of Morris in his Epochs is strictly in harmony with the philosophy of history--namely, that great movements should be treated not according to narrow geographical and national limits and distinction, but universally, according to their place in the general life of the world. The historical Maps and the copious Indices are welcome additions to the volumes.”

EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.

_A SERIES OF BOOKS NARRATING THE HISTORY OF GREECE AND ROME, AND OF THEIR RELATIONS TO OTHER COUNTRIES AT SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS._

_Edited by_ Rev. G. W. COX and CHARLES SANKEY, M.A.

=Eleven volumes, 16mo, with 41 Maps and Plans. Sold separately. Price per vol., $1.00. The Set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $11.00.=

=TROY--ITS LEGEND, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE.= By S. G. W. BENJAMIN.

“The task of the author has been to gather into a clear and very readable narrative all that is known of legendary, historical, and geographical Troy, and to tell the story of Homer, and weigh and compare the different theories in the Homeric controversy. The work is well done. His book is altogether candid, and is a very valuable and entertaining compendium.”--_Hartford Courant._

“As a monograph on Troy, covering all sides of the question, it is of great value, and supplies a long vacant place in our fund of classical knowledge.”--_N. Y. Christian Advocate._

=THE GREEKS AND THE PERSIANS.= By Rev. G. W. COX.

“It covers the ground in a perfectly satisfactory way. The work is clear, succinct, and readable.”--_New York Independent._

“Marked by thorough and comprehensive scholarship and by a skillful style.”--_Congregationalist._

“It would be hard to find a more creditable book. The author’s prefatory remarks upon the origin and growth of Greek civilization are alone worth the price of the volume.”--_Christian Union._

=THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE--From the Flight of Xerxes to the Fall of Athens.= By Rev. G. W. COX.

“Mr. Cox writes in such a way as to bring before the reader everything which is important to be known or learned; and his narrative cannot fail to give a good idea of the men and deeds with which he is concerned.”--_The Churchman._

“Mr. Cox has done his work with the honesty of a true student. It shows persevering scholarship and a desire to get at the truth.”--_New York Herald._

=THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES.= By CHARLES SANKEY, M.A.

“This volume covers the period between the disasters of Athens at the close of the Peloponnesian war and the rise of Macedon. It is a very striking and instructive picture of the political life of the Grecian commonwealth at that time.”--_The Churchman._

“It is singularly interesting to read, and in respect to arrangement, maps, etc., is all that can be desired.”--_Boston Congregationalist._

=THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE--Its Rise and Culmination to Death of Alexander the Great.= By A. M. CURTEIS, M.A.

“A good and satisfactory history of a very important period. The maps are excellent, and the story is lucidly and vigorously told.”--_The Nation._

“The same compressive style and yet completeness of detail that have characterized the previous issues in this delightful series, are found in this volume. Certainly the art of conciseness in writing was never carried to a higher or more effective point.”--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._

⁂ _The above five volumes give a connected and complete history of Greece from the earliest times to the death of Alexander._

=EARLY ROME--From the Foundation of the City to its Destruction by the Gauls.= By W. IHNE, Ph.D.

“Those who want to know the truth instead of the traditions that used to be learned of our fathers, will find in the work entertainment, careful scholarship, and sound sense.”--_Cincinnati Times._

“The book is excellently well done. The views are those of a learned and able man, and they are presented in this volume with great force and clearness.”--_The Nation._

=ROME AND CARTHAGE--The Punic Wars.= By R. BOSWORTH SMITH.

“By blending the account of Rome and Carthage the accomplished author presents a succinct and vivid picture of two great cities and people which leaves a deep impression. The story is full of intrinsic interest, and was never better told.”--_Christian Union._

“The volume is one of rare interest and value.”--_Chicago Interior._

“An admirably condensed history of Carthage, from its establishment by the adventurous Phœnician traders to its sad and disastrous fall.”--_New York Herald._

=THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SULLA.= By A. H. BEESLEY.

“A concise and scholarly historical sketch, descriptive of the decay of the Roman Republic, and the events which paved the way for the advent of the conquering Cæsar. It is an excellent account of the leaders and legislation of the republic.”--_Boston Post._

“It is prepared in succinct but comprehensive style, and is an excellent book for reading and reference.”--_New York Observer._

“No better condensed account of the two Gracchi and the turbulent careers of Marius and Sulla has yet appeared.”--_New York Independent._

=THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES.= By the Very Rev. CHARLES MERIVALE, D.D.

“In brevity, clear and scholarly treatment of the subject, and the convenience of map, index, and side notes, the volume is a model.”--_New York Tribune._

“An admirable presentation, and in style vigorous and picturesque.”--_Hartford Courant._

=THE EARLY EMPIRE--From the Assassination of Julius Cæsar to the Assassination of Domitian.= By Rev. W. WOLFE CAPES, M.A.

“It is written with great clearness and simplicity of style, and is as attractive an account as has ever been given in brief of one of the most interesting periods of Roman History.”--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._

“It is a clear, well-proportioned, and trustworthy performance, and well deserves to be studied.”--_Christian at Work._

=THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES--The Roman Empire of the Second Century.= By Rev. W. WOLFE CAPES, M.A.

“The Roman Empire during the second century is the broad subject discussed in this book, and discussed with learning and intelligence.”--_New York Independent._

“The writer’s diction is clear and elegant, and his narration is free from any touch of pedantry. In the treatment of its prolific and interesting theme, and in its general plan, the book is a model of works of its class.”--_New York Herald._

“We are glad to commend it. It is written clearly, and with care and accuracy. It is also in such neat and compact form as to be the more attractive.”--_Congregationalist._

⁂ _The above six volumes give the History of Rome from the founding of the City to the death of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus._

EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY.

_A SERIES OF BOOKS NARRATING THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND EUROPE AT SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS SUBSEQUENT TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA._

_Edited by_

EDWARD E. MORRIS.

=Eighteen volumes, 16mo, with 74 Maps, Plans, and Tables. Sold separately. Price per vol., $1.00. The Set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $18.00.=

=THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES--England and Europe in the Ninth Century.= By the Very Rev. R. W. CHURCH, M.A.

“A remarkably thoughtful and satisfactory discussion of the causes and results of the vast changes which came upon Europe during the period discussed. The book is adapted to be exceedingly serviceable.”--_Chicago Standard._

“At once readable and valuable. It is comprehensive and yet gives the details of a period most interesting to the student of history.”--_Herald and Presbyter._

“It is written with a clearness and vividness of statement which make it the pleasantest reading. It represents a great deal of patient research, and is careful and scholarly.”--_Boston Journal._

=THE NORMANS IN EUROPE--The Feudal System and England under the Norman Kings.= By Rev. A. H. JOHNSON, M.A.

“Its pictures of the Normans in their home, of the Scandinavian exodus, the conquest of England, and Norman administration, are full of vigor and cannot fail of holding the reader’s attention.”--_Episcopal Register._

“The style of the author is vigorous and animated, and he has given a valuable sketch of the origin and progress of the great Northern movement that has shaped the history of modern Europe.”--_Boston Transcript._

=THE CRUSADES.= By Rev. G. W. COX.

“To be warmly commended for important qualities. The author shows conscientious fidelity to the materials, and such skill in the use of them, that, as a result, the reader has before him a narrative related in a style that makes it truly fascinating.”--_Congregationalist._

“It is written in a pure and flowing style, and its arrangement and treatment of subject are exceptional.”--_Christian Intelligencer._

=THE EARLY PLANTAGENETS--Their Relation to the History of Europe; The Foundation and Growth of Constitutional Government.= By Rev. W. STUBBS, M.A.

“Nothing could be desired more clear, succinct, and well arranged. All parts of the book are well done. It may be pronounced the best existing brief history of the constitution for this, its most important period.”--_The Nation._

“Prof. Stubbs has presented leading events with such fairness and wisdom as are seldom found. He is remarkably clear and satisfactory.”--_The Churchman._

=EDWARD III.= By Rev. W. WARBURTON, M.A.

“The author has done his work well, and we commend it as containing in small space all essential matter.”--_New York Independent._

“Events and movements are admirably condensed by the author, and presented in such attractive form as to entertain as well as instruct.”--_Chicago Interior._

=THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK--The Conquest and Loss of France.= By JAMES GAIRDNER.

“Prepared in a most careful and thorough manner, and ought to be read by every student.”--_New York Times._

“It leaves nothing to be desired as regards compactness, accuracy, and excellence of literary execution.”--_Boston Journal._

=THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION.= By FREDERIC SEEBOHM. With Notes, on Books in English relating to the Reformation, by Prof. GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D.

“For an impartial record of the civil and ecclesiastical changes about four hundred years ago, we cannot commend a better manual.”--_Sunday-School Times._

“All that could be desired, as well in execution as in plan. The narrative is animated, and the selection and grouping of events skillful and effective.”--_The Nation._

=THE EARLY TUDORS--Henry VII., Henry VIII.= By Rev. C. E. MOBERLEY, M.A., late Master in Rugby School.

“Is concise, scholarly, and accurate. On the epoch of which it treats, we know of no work which equals it.”--_N. Y. Observer._

“A marvel of clear and succinct brevity and good historical judgment. There is hardly a better book of its kind to be named.”--_New York Independent._

=THE AGE OF ELIZABETH.= By Rev. M. CREIGHTON, M.A.

“Clear and compact in style; careful in their facts, and just in interpretation of them. It sheds much light on the progress of the Reformation and the origin of the Popish reaction during Queen Elizabeth’s reign; also, the relation of Jesuitism to the latter.”--_Presbyterian Review._

“A clear, concise, and just story of an era crowded with events of interest and importance.”--_New York World._

=THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR--1618-1648.= By SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER.

“As a manual it will prove of the greatest practical value, while to the general reader it will afford a clear and interesting account of events. We know of no more spirited and attractive recital of the great era.”--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._

“The thrilling story of those times has never been told so vividly or succinctly as in this volume.”--_Episcopal Register._

=THE PURITAN REVOLUTION; and the First Two Stuarts, 1603-1660.= By SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER.

“The narrative is condensed and brief, yet sufficiently comprehensive to give an adequate view of the events related.”--_Chicago Standard._

“Mr. Gardiner uses his researches in an admirably clear and fair way.”--_Congregationalist._

“The sketch is concise, but clear and perfectly intelligible.”--_Hartford Courant._

=THE ENGLISH RESTORATION AND LOUIS XIV., from the Peace of Westphalia to the Peace of Nimwegen.= By OSMUND AIRY, M.A.

“It is crisply and admirably written. An immense amount of information is conveyed and with great clearness, the arrangement of the subjects showing great skill and a thorough command of the complicated theme.”--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._

“The author writes with fairness and discrimination, and has given a clear and intelligible presentation of the time.”--_New York Evangelist._

=THE FALL OF THE STUARTS; and Western Europe.= By Rev. EDWARD HALE, M.A.

“A valuable compend to the general reader and scholar.”--_Providence Journal._

“It will be found of great value. It is a very graphic account of the history of Europe during the 17th century, and is admirably adapted for the use of students.”--_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._

“An admirable handbook for the student.”--_The Churchman._

=THE AGE OF ANNE.= By EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A.

“The author’s arrangement of the material is remarkably clear, his selection and adjustment of the facts judicious, his historical judgment fair and candid, while the style wins by its simple elegance.”--_Chicago Standard._

“An excellent compendium of the history of an important period.”--_The Watchman._

=THE EARLY HANOVERIANS--Europe from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.= By EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A.

“Masterly, condensed, and vigorous, this is one of the books which it is a delight to read at odd moments; which are broad and suggestive, and at the same time condensed in treatment.”--_Christian Advocate._

“A remarkably clear and readable summary of the salient points of interest. The maps and tables, no less than the author’s style and treatment of the subject, entitle the volume to the highest claims of recognition.”--_Boston Daily Advertiser._

=FREDERICK THE GREAT, AND THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR.= By F. W. LONGMAN.

“The subject is most important, and the author has treated it in a way which is both scholarly and entertaining.”--_The Churchman._

“Admirably adapted to interest school boys, and older heads will find it pleasant reading.”--_New York Tribune._

=THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, AND FIRST EMPIRE.= By WILLIAM O’CONNOR MORRIS. With Appendix by ANDREW D. WHITE, LL.D., ex-President of Cornell University.

“We have long needed a simple compendium of this period, and we have here one which is brief enough to be easily run through with, and yet particular enough to make entertaining reading.”--_New York Evening Post._

“The author has well accomplished his difficult task of sketching in miniature the grand and crowded drama of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, showing himself to be no servile compiler, but capable of judicious and independent criticism.”--_Springfield Republican._

=THE EPOCH OF REFORM--1830-1850.= By JUSTIN MCCARTHY.

“Mr. McCarthy knows the period of which he writes thoroughly, and the result is a narrative that is at once entertaining and trustworthy.”--_New York Examiner._

“The narrative is clear and comprehensive, and told with abundant knowledge and grasp of the subject.”--_Boston Courier._

IMPORTANT HISTORICAL WORKS.

=CIVILIZATION DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. Especially in its Relation to Modern Civilization.= By GEORGE B. ADAMS, Professor of History in Yale University. 8vo, $2.50.

Professor Adams has here supplied the need of a text-book for the study of Mediæval History in college classes at once thorough and yet capable of being handled in the time usually allowed to it. He has aimed to treat the subject in a manner which its place in the college curriculum demands, by presenting as clear a view as possible of the underlying and organic growth of our civilization, how its foundations were laid and its chief elements introduced.

Prof. KENDRIC C. BABCOCK, University of Minnesota:--“It is one of the best books of the kind which I have seen. We shall use it the coming term.”

Prof. MARSHALL S. BROWN, Michigan University:--“I regard the work as a very valuable treatment of the great movements of history during the Middle Ages, and as one destined to be extremely helpful to young students.”

BOSTON HERALD:--“Professor Adams admirably presents the leading features of a thousand years of social, political, and religious development in the history of the world. It is valuable from beginning to end.”

=HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.= By E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown University. With maps. Two vols., crown octavo, $4.00.

BOSTON ADVERTISER:--“We doubt if there has been so complete, graphic, and so thoroughly impartial a history of our country condensed into the same space. It must become a standard.”

ADVANCE:--“One of the best popular, general histories of America, if not the best.”

HERALD AND PRESBYTER:--“The very history that many people have been looking for. It does not consist simply of minute statements, but treats of causes and effects with philosophical grasp and thoughtfulness. It is the work of a scholar and thinker.”

=THE HISTORY OF ROME, from the Earliest Time to the Period of Its Decline.= By Dr. THEODOR MOMMSEN. Translated by W. P. DICKSON, D.D., LL.D. A New Edition, Revised throughout, and embodying recent additions. Five vols., with Map. Price per set, $10.00.

“A work of the very highest merit; its learning is exact and profound; its narrative full of genius and skill; its descriptions of men are admirably vivid.”--_London Times._

“Since the days of Niebuhr, no work on Roman History has appeared that combines so much to attract, instruct, and charm the reader. Its style--a rare quality in a German author--is vigorous, spirited, and animated.”--Dr. SCHMITZ.

=THE PROVINCES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. From Cæsar to Diocletian.= By THEODOR MOMMSEN. Translated by WILLIAM P. DICKSON, D.D., LL.D. With maps. Two vols., 8vo, $6.00.

“The author draws the wonderfully rich and varied picture of the conquest and administration of that great circle of peoples and lands which formed the empire of Rome outside of Italy, their agriculture, trade, and manufactures, their artistic and scientific life, through all degrees of civilization, with such detail and completeness as could have come from no other hand than that of this great master of historical research.”--Prof. W. A. PACKARD, Princeton College.

=THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.= Abridged from the History by Professor THEODOR MOMMSEN, by C. BRYANS and F. J. R. HENDY. 12mo, $1.75.

“It is a genuine boon that the essential parts of Mommsen’s Rome are thus brought within the easy reach of all, and the abridgment seems to me to preserve unusually well the glow and movement of the original.”--Prof. TRACY PECK, Yale University.

“The condensation has been accurately and judiciously effected. I heartily commend the volume as the most adequate embodiment, in a single volume, of the main results of modern historical research in the field of Roman affairs.”--Prof. HENRY M. BAIRD, University of City of New York.

=THE DAWN OF HISTORY. An Introduction to Pre-Historic Study.= New and Enlarged Edition. Edited by C. F. KEARY. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.

This work treats successively of the earliest traces of man; of language, its growth, and the story it tells of the pre-historic users of it; of early social life, the religions, mythologies, and folk-tales, and of the history of writing. The present edition contains about one hundred pages of new matter, embodying the results of the latest researches.

“A fascinating manual. In its way, the work is a model of what a popular scientific work should be.”--_Boston Sat. Eve. Gazette._

=THE ORIGIN OF NATIONS.= By Professor GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A. 12mo, with maps, $1.00.

The first part of this book discusses the antiquity of civilization in Egypt and the other early nations of the East. The second part is an examination of the ethnology of Genesis, showing its accordance with the latest results of modern ethnographical science.

“A work of genuine scholarly excellence, and a useful offset to a great deal of the superficial current literature on such subjects.”--_Congregationalist._

=MANUAL OF MYTHOLOGY. For the Use of Schools, Art Students, and General Readers. Founded on the Works of Petiscus, Preller, and Welcker.= By ALEXANDER S. MURRAY, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum. With 45 Plates. Reprinted from the Second Revised London Edition. Crown 8vo, $1.75.

“It has been acknowledged the best work on the subject to be found in a concise form, and as it embodies the results of the latest researches and discoveries in ancient mythologies, it is superior for school and general purposes as a handbook to any of the so-called standard works.”--_Cleveland Herald._

“Whether as a manual for reference, a text-book for school use, or for the general reader, the book will be found very valuable and interesting.”--_Boston Journal._

=THE HISTORY OF GREECE.= By Prof. Dr. ERNST CURTIUS. Translated by ADOLPHUS WILLIAM WARD, M.A., Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge, Prof. of History in Owen’s College, Manchester. Five volumes, crown 8vo. Price per set, $10.00.

“We cannot express our opinion of Dr. Curtius’ book better than by saying that it may be fitly ranked with Theodor Mommsen’s great work.”--_London Spectator._

“As an introduction to the study of Grecian history, no previous work is comparable to the present for vivacity and picturesque beauty, while in sound learning and accuracy of statement it is not inferior to the elaborate productions which enrich the literature of the age.”--_N. Y. Daily Tribune._

=CÆSAR: a Sketch.= By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M.A. 12mo, gilt top, $1.50.

“This book is a most fascinating biography and is by far the best account of Julius Cæsar to be found in the English language.”--_The London Standard._

“He combines into a compact and nervous narrative all that is known of the personal, social, political, and military life of Cæsar; and with his sketch of Cæsar includes other brilliant sketches of the great man, his friends, or rivals, who contemporaneously with him formed the principal figures in the Roman world.”--_Harper’s Monthly._

=CICERO. Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero.= By WILLIAM FORSYTH, M.A., Q.C. 20 Engravings. New Edition. 2 vols., crown 8vo, in one, gilt top, $2.50.

The author has not only given us the most complete and well-balanced account of the life of Cicero ever published; he has drawn an accurate and graphic picture of domestic life among the best classes of the Romans, one which the reader of general literature, as well as the student, may peruse with pleasure and profit.

“A scholar without pedantry, and a Christian without cant, Mr. Forsyth seems to have seized with praiseworthy tact the precise attitude which it behooves a biographer to take when narrating the life, the personal life of Cicero. Mr. Forsyth produces what we venture to say will become one of the classics of English biographical literature, and will be welcomed by readers of all ages and both sexes, of all professions and of no profession at all.”--_London Quarterly._

VALUABLE WORKS ON CLASSICAL LITERATURE.

=THE HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE. From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius.= With Chronological Tables, etc., for the use of Students. By C. T. CRUTTWELL, M.A. Crown 8vo, $2.50.

Mr. Cruttwell’s book is written throughout from a purely literary point of view, and the aim has been to avoid tedious and trivial details. The result is a volume not only suited for the student, but remarkably readable for all who possess any interest in the subject.

“Mr. Cruttwell has given us a genuine history of Roman literature, not merely a descriptive list of authors and their productions, but a well elaborated portrayal of the successive stages in the intellectual development of the Romans and the various forms of expression which these took in literature.”--_N. Y. Nation._

_UNIFORM WITH THE ABOVE._

=A HISTORY OF GREEK LITERATURE. From the Earliest Period of Demosthenes.= By FRANK BYRON JEVONS, M.A., Tutor in the University of Durham. Crown 8vo, $2.50.

The author goes into detail with sufficient fullness to make the history complete, but he never loses sight of the commanding lines along which the Greek mind moved, and a clear understanding of which is necessary to every intelligent student of universal literature.

“It is beyond all question the best history of Greek literature that has hitherto been published.”--_London Spectator._

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, 153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note

Minor punctuation and formatting errors have been changed without notice; otherwise spelling and punctuation has been retained as published. The following Printer errors have been changed.

=CHANGED= =FROM= =TO= Page ii: “1830-1850. By Justin “1830-1850. By Justin Macarthy” McCarthy” Page 11: “the supreme law-giver and” “the supreme lawgiver and” Page 19: “Whether or no they loved “Whether or not they loved Stephen” Stephen” Sidenote Page 32: “Negotiations f r peace.” “Negotiations for peace.” Page 84: “peace-maker rather than “peacemaker rather than that” that” Sidenote Page 87 “Training of the “Training of the people in self people in government.” self-government.” Page 88: “requisite counter-balance “requisite counterbalance to the” to the” Page 95: “to ignominous flight “to ignominious flight at Conches” at Conches” Page 105: “then to his syster “then to his sister Sibylla” Sibylla” Page 109: “funeral, at Font Evraud” “funeral, at Fontevraud” Page 117: “Month after month passsed “Month after month passed on” on” Page 119: “Baldwin and Hurbert “Baldwin and Hubert Walter” Walter” Page 129: “little Provencal kingdom” “little Provençal kingdom” Page 139: “granting of Magna Charta” “granting of Magna Carta” Page 142: “love or territorial “love or territorial covetousnesss” covetousness” Page 154: “Geoffrey Fitz-Peter” “Geoffrey Fitz Peter” Sidenote Page 171: “William of “William of Aumale and Aumâle and Falkes de Falkes de Breaute” Breauté” Page 177: “Geoffrey Fitz-Peter” “Geoffrey Fitz Peter” Page 248: “opportunity asserting” “opportunity of asserting” Page 265: “that series of miseeries” “that series of miseries” Page 268: “the son-in law and “was the son-in-law and heir of Henry” heir of Henry” Page 270: “parties were re-formed as” “parties were reformed as” Page 288: “lost Ireland, Seotland” “lost Ireland, Scotland” Page 291: “Aumale, William of, 45” “Aumâle, William of, 45” Page 292: “Breaute, Falkes de, 170, “Breauté, Falkes de, 170, 171” 171” Page 293: “as a law-giver, 220” “as a lawgiver, 220” Page 293: “quarrels with Archbishop “quarrels with Archbishop Winchessey” Winchelsey” Page 295: “internal mis-government, “internal misgovernment, 174” 174” Page 296: “Laudibiliter Bull, 46” “Laudabiliter Bull, 46” Page 297: “Martell, William, 30” “Martel, William, 30” Page 298: “Reginald, subprior, “Reginald, sub-prior, elected” elected” Page 299: “Scottish independance” “Scottish independence” Page 299: “negotiates the succesion “negotiates the succession of Henry” of Henry” Page 300: “rebel-bellion in, under “rebellion in, under Madoc” Madoc” Page 300: “Walfran of Meulan, 28” “Waleran of Meulan, 28” Page 300: “William of Aumale, 171” “William of Aumâle, 171” Page 302: “Univ. of South, Sewaunee, “Univ. of South, Sewanee, Tenn.” Tenn.” Page 304: “close of the “close of the Pelopenesian war” Peloponnesian war”

Page number references in the index are as published in the original publication and have not been checked for accuracy in this eBook.

All other inconsistencies are as in the original.