Normans move into their homes and force them to work like slaves on the
very places they themselves had owned. But the Normans had the power and
the Saxons could not help themselves. For hundreds of years the Normans
spoke the French language, and the Saxons, the English. The very names
of the meats on your table at home are signs of the Norman Conquest,
nearly nine hundred years ago. The animals in the pastures and stables
of England were called by the names the Saxons gave them--as cow, calf,
sheep, swine. But the meats of those animals when cooked and served upon
the tables of the masters are still known by the Norman French names, as
beef (Norman name for cow), veal (Norman for calf), mutton (Norman for
sheep), pork (Norman for hog or swine). Milk is a Saxon word, but cream
is from the French, because the Saxons had to milk the cows and drink
only milk, while they served their Norman lords the cream.
The Norman traits of keenness, tact, and worldly wisdom have been
mingling for many centuries with the honest, sturdy integrity of the
Anglo-Saxons. Little by little, as the races grew together, the nobles
became less haughty and cruel and the poorer people were lifted out of
their poverty. But it took many centuries for men to learn the lesson
that
“Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.”
LION-HEARTED RICHARD AND WOLF-HEARTED JOHN
The great-grandson of William the Conqueror was Henry the Second of
England, a great and powerful king. At his death, in 1189, he left two
sons, Richard and John. As Richard was the older he was at once
proclaimed king and duly crowned in Westminster Abbey. He was also Duke
of Normandy, and thought this a greater honor than to be king of
England.
About a hundred years before the time of Richard, great armies had begun
to sail from several of the countries of western Europe to the Holy Land
in Syria. The rock-hewn tomb of Jesus, near Jerusalem, was in possession
of the followers of Mohammed--Turks, Arabs, and Saracens--who controlled
the country. The Christian people of Europe thought it very wrong that
the Saracens owned the Holy City of Jerusalem and could keep Christians
from coming to worship at the tomb of their Lord. So throngs of soldiers
went to the Holy Land to rescue the Holy Sepulchre, or tomb. The wars
which they fought for this cause were known as the Crusades.
[Illustration: KING RICHARD GENEROUSLY FORGIVES BERTRAND DE GURDUN, WHO
HAD ATTEMPTED TO ASSASSINATE HIM.
_From the painting by John Cross_]
In the First Crusade, the Christian knights captured not only the Holy
Sepulchre but also the city of Jerusalem. In the Second Crusade, about
fifty years later, the crusaders were beaten back by the Saracens. Two
years before Richard became king, the Mohammedans again captured
Jerusalem and the sacred tomb.
Young King Richard was fired with a holy zeal to win back the Holy City
and the Sepulchre, and, if possible, to find the cross upon which Jesus
of Nazareth was crucified. This relic was believed to have been hidden
by the Saracens.
King Richard made many sacrifices to raise money for a Third Crusade.
His brother John was glad to have Richard go away on such a distant and
dangerous mission, leaving the younger brother to rule over England
during the king’s long absence. John was as cowardly as Richard was
brave, and, down in his heart, he hoped the Turk would kill his brother
so that he could have the throne. Because of the king’s knightly courage
he was given the title of Richard Lion-heart. If John had been named for
the animal he was most like, he would have been called John Wolf-heart.
Richard was joined by King Philip of France, and the two kings, with
their armies and those of the Archduke of Austria, reached the Holy Land
in due time. They attacked the walled city of Acre--called Akka by the
Arabs--and captured it after a long, hard fight and the loss of many
thousands of soldiers.
But Richard was as overbearing as he was brave. He ordered other kings
and dukes about, and his manner was so masterful that he made Philip and
the Archduke of Austria very angry. After several bitter quarrels, the
king of France left Richard to fight on without him. The French king
sailed away home with most of his army, and plotted with Prince John to
injure the absent brother and make John King of England while Richard
was still alive.
Many tales are told of the struggle between Richard, king of England,
and Saladin, the sultan of the Saracens. For hundreds of years after
Richard Lion-heart’s campaign in the Holy Land, Arab mothers would
frighten their children by warning them that Richard would get them if
they were not good. Sir Walter Scott’s great novels, “Ivanhoe” and “The
Talisman,” are stories of life in England at this time, and of knightly
tournaments which took place between Richard and Saladin during this
Crusade.
While the Crusaders were trying to capture Ascalon, it became necessary
for them to work like stone masons in rebuilding certain walls. Richard
went to work with a royal will, and most of the nobles and knights
followed his example. But the Archduke of Austria said he was the son
neither of a carpenter nor of a mason, and flatly refused to help. This
made King Richard so angry that he struck the Archduke a blow with his
mailed fist and gave him a resounding kick with his heavy iron boot.
With all his holy zeal to take the Holy City, Richard Lion-heart had not
learned that “he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a
city.” Then the Archduke and his Austrian army also left Richard to
fight on alone with his few remaining soldiers.
What Richard had found hard enough with the help of the king of France
and the Archduke of Austria was impossible without them. But Lion-heart
was not only a very brave man but a fine general. He defeated the army
of Saladin in a great battle at Arsuf and twice led the Christian forces
within a few miles of Jerusalem. Quarrels among the crusaders however
made it impossible to continue the war. King Richard also received bad
news from home, that his brother John was plotting against him aided by
King Philip of France. So he and Saladin made a truce to stop fighting
for three years, three months, three weeks, and three days. Then the
brave king of England started for home. Richard sent his army the long
way round by water, while he and a few knights, disguised as pilgrims,
tried to go the short way by land, across Austria and Germany. In spite
of his disguise, Richard was recognized by an Austrian soldier. When the
Archduke heard that Richard was crossing his dukedom, he sent soldiers
at once to capture the king who had insulted him.
Richard was a prisoner in a great castle for two years. A story is told
of a young troubadour, or wandering minstrel, who started out to find
his royal master by playing a lute and singing songs of love and hymns
of the Crusaders. After months of wandering, he sang under a castle wall
a favorite song of Richard’s, and heard, to his great joy, a deep bass
voice within the German fortress joining in the hymn. He well knew that
the voice was none other than Richard Lion-heart’s. Saying nothing, he
hurried away and told some English friends where their lost king was.
They rushed to Richard’s rescue and paid the Emperor of Germany, who was
over the Archduke in rank and power, a royal ransom to have their brave
king set free.
When Philip of France heard that Richard was out of prison, he sent word
to John, who had been making believe that his brother the king was dead,
“Take care of yourself. The devil has broke loose!” When Richard reached
London, John pretended to be very glad to receive his dear brother back
as from the dead.
Richard reigned only a few years after that, for he was killed in one of
his wars with Philip of France. While he was as brave as a lion, Richard
was also as fierce and cruel as the king of beasts. He was not a good
man as people to-day regard manhood, but he was much better than his
cowardly brother John, who became king after Richard’s death.
JOAN OF ARC AND THE LILIES OF FRANCE
Five hundred years ago a little French peasant girl was working outside
the stone hut where her father’s large family lived, when she heard, or
thought she heard, a voice saying to her, “Joan, be a good child; go
often to church.”
This Joan of Arc was so kind-hearted and so thoughtful for others that
her friends made fun of her and said she was not like other girls; and
her parents feared that she was growing too good to live. But Joan only
wondered and smiled, said her prayers, and went often to church. When
she was twelve or thirteen, she began to see visions and hear what she
called “the Voices,” saying over and over, “Joan, trust in God; for
there is great sorrow in the kingdom of France.”
“It must be St. Catherine and St. Margaret,” Joan said to herself, as
she sat spinning for hours at a time. What was the sorrow in France, and
how could _she_ make things better just by being good? She even doubted
whether the visions she had seen and the Voices she had heard were
anything but her own half-waking dreams.
One day she overheard the parish priest of Domremy, where she lived,
telling of the troubles of France. For almost a hundred years the kings
of England had claimed and fought for the right to rule over France, and
lately, under their soldier king, Henry the Fifth, had defeated the
French and driven their armies into the southern part of their own land.
Henry the Fifth had died, but his son still claimed the French throne;
and the French prince, or Dauphin, as he was called, had not been
crowned king, because the English held the city of Rheims, where all
French kings were crowned. The English armies were pushing southward to
lay siege to the French city of Orleans.
Joan heard the good priest and her father and mother sighing over the
sad day that had come when foreigners were fighting to make slaves of
the French people. And the dear Dauphin whom God had given them for
their king was now flying from place to place before the armies of
England.
After that day the Voices grew more earnest and definite. “Go to the
governor,” they urged her; “go and ask him to give you soldiers, and
send you to the help of the king.” Poor little Joan’s heart sank within
her, and she protested, “I am only a young girl. I don’t know how to
ride or to fight. They will only laugh at me.” But the Voices kept on
insisting, “Go! go! go! and we will help you save France.”
Joan told her parents what the Voices were telling her to do. Her father
laughed and threatened to punish her if he heard any more of such talk,
and her mother was afraid her strange little daughter was going to die.
Joan’s brothers and sisters made fun of her and asked if she wished to
marry the Dauphin and be Queen of France.
But Joan had a kind uncle who loved and sympathized with her. Her mother
let her go to visit Uncle Durant, hoping her poor little girl might
forget the Voices. When Joan told her uncle what she kept seeing and
hearing, he promised to help her all he could. So he went with his
anxious little niece to the governor of that part of France, and stood
by her as she told the great man about the Voices, and repeated the
latest command they had given her for him:
“Send and tell the Dauphin to wait, and not offer battle to his
enemies; because God will give him help before the middle of Lent. The
kingdom belongs not to the Dauphin, but to my Lord; but my Lord wishes
that the Dauphin shall be king and hold it in trust. In spite of his
enemies he shall be king of France, and I will lead him to be crowned.”
“And who is your lord?” demanded the governor with a sneer. “The King of
Heaven,” said Joan of Arc proudly. The governor, who was a rough
military man, laughed loud and long at the faith of the little peasant
girl in a white cap, red petticoat, and wooden shoes. Instead of doing
as she asked, he told her uncle to give her a good whipping, to beat the
foolishness out of her head, and send her home to her father.
Baffled and discouraged, Joan went home with her uncle. But the Voices
kept saying in her ears, “Go! go!” Back to the governor she went, but he
treated her as badly as before. Then they found another man to whom she
told her story and added, “God in Heaven has told me to go to the
Dauphin; with His help I must do it, even if I have to go on my knees.”
This friendly gentleman was deeply touched by her earnest words.
The people in the country who knew and believed in Joan of Arc pleaded
with the men of influence in the neighborhood, and it was at last
arranged that Joan should go and tell her story to the young king of
France. To see if God were guiding her, as she claimed, the king changed
places with a noble in his court; but instead of going up to the
pretended king who sat in the seat of honor, Joan walked straight to the
prince, where he stood behind some men of the court.
It is easy to believe what we will. The Dauphin listened to the burning
words of the peasant girl with the pure,
[Illustration: THE VICTORIOUS RETURN OF JOAN OF ARC TO ORLEANS.
_From the painting by J. J. Scherer_]
Madonna-like face. After she had won the king’s approval it was not so
hard for Joan to go on obeying the Voices. Dressed in a suit of armor
which shone like silver, she led a French army to the relief of Orleans.
She carried everywhere a beautiful white banner, embroidered with
lilies.
The English laughed at that silly girl trying to be a man, and called
her insulting names; but Joan did not mind, for she felt safe under the
protection of the saints in heaven. One day, in an attack upon a fort
held by the English, the Maid, as the French army now called her, was
wounded in the foot; but she would not stop fighting. She mounted her
horse again and led the charge as though nothing had happened. The
English then thought she was a witch--that is, a woman working for the
devil.
In another battle an arrow was shot clear through her shoulder so that
the barb stuck out five inches. Then the enemy raised a shout of
triumph. “The Maid can be wounded and killed,” they yelled. “She is not
a witch, so we are not afraid of her.” But one of Joan’s company pulled
out the arrow and she led them fiercely in the assault. The English
soldiers were frightened, for in those days every one believed in
witches. Joan drove the enemy from one place to another until all the
south country was cleared of the English forces. Then the Maid of
Orleans, as she was now called, led the king, with his court and the
French army, to the old city of Rheims, where he was crowned, with great
joy and splendor, as Charles the Seventh.
The Maid had put the lilies on her banner as the symbol of purity and of
God’s love and care over France. The French lily, or fleur-de-lys, has
been the emblem of France through all the centuries since the days of
Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans.
Now the Maid, who had done all that the Voices had commanded, was ready
to return home to spin and to tend the sheep on the hills of Domremy;
but weak-hearted King Charles begged her to stay long enough to drive
all the English out of France.
Against her wish, Joan yielded. While fighting outside the walls of a
town not far from Paris, she was surrounded by armed men of the enemy.
By mistake or through fear, some French people shut the gate in such
haste that the Maid was left outside fighting a dozen soldiers
single-handed. She was captured and put in a dark, damp prison. Here the
poor girl, then only nineteen, was frightened and tortured to make her
sign a paper confessing that she was a wicked witch, and that all she
had done was by the help of the devil.
After waiting a long time in vain for the ungrateful prince, whom she
had made king of France, to come and save her with his army, or to pay a
large sum of money to ransom her, she was compelled to stand an unjust
trial during which she was many times abused and insulted. This wicked
trial was conducted by a false bishop, who condemned that sweet, heroic
young girl to be burned at the stake in the market-place of Rouen on the
24th of May, 1431.
Twenty-five years after her death the Pope reversed the decision of the
corrupt bishop. In 1920, nearly five hundred years after the Maid was
burned to death, high and holy men in the ancient Church to which she
belonged took the great step of declaring Joan of Arc, the peasant girl
of Domremy, one of the noble army of martyrs in the communion of
saints.
FOUR LEADERS IN THE OLD WORLD
SHAKESPEARE, THE GREATEST MAKER OF PLAYS
Perhaps there is no one who has done so much for the world, yet about
whose life so little is known, as William Shakespeare. His father was a
farmer and market man, and his mother was Mary Arden, a prosperous
farmer’s daughter. The father was so highly respected that he was made
high bailiff, or mayor, of Stratford-upon-Avon, where the Shakespeare
family lived.
It was one of the father’s duties to give out licenses to players or
actors who went from town to town performing their plays. Sometimes they
gave their shows out of doors; and when theaters were built they were
galleries around a space of ground. The people who paid the most stood
or sat in the galleries and the poor people saw the play from the
ground, called the pit. Strolling players were looked upon in those days
almost as tramps are to-day. They had to have licenses like street bands
nowadays. They often gave their shows in a town square and took up a
collection for their pay.
John Shakespeare was fond of these shows, and there is no doubt that his
son William was taken to see them before he went to the Stratford
Grammar School when he was seven years old. Here the boy is said to have
studied Latin, writing, and arithmetic. Judging from the specimens that
are still to be seen of William Shakespeare’s penmanship, it was not a
great success. One of the great
[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE AMONG HIS FRIENDS IN LONDON.
_From the painting by John Ford_]
play-writers of Shakespeare’s time wrote that Will had learned “small
Latin and less Greek” at school. But Latin was the chief study in the
schools of that time. It was sung and spoken in church, and it was
thought necessary for even a farmer’s son to study that language.
When William was thirteen his father was unfortunate in business, and
the boy had to leave school to earn his living. There is a legend that
he started in to learn the butcher’s trade, but it seems more likely
that he worked as a lawyer’s boy and clerk. If all accounts are true, he
must have been a mischievous lad, for the story goes that he was once
taken up for poaching, or shooting a deer, in the park of one of the
great men in the county.
When he was eighteen Will Shakespeare married a farmer’s daughter eight
years older than himself. By the time he was twenty-one the young father
had three children. Two of these, Hamnet and Judith, were twins. Hamnet
died before he grew to manhood, and about all that is known of Judith
Shakespeare is that she, like her mother, never learned to read. It was
not thought necessary then for farmers’ wives and daughters to read and
write.
A lawyer’s clerk with five mouths to feed could hardly find enough to do
in Stratford to earn a living, so William Shakespeare went to London to
seek his fortune. It is said that he began life in the great city by
holding horses in front of one of the theaters, as they did not have
hitching-posts in Shakespeare’s days. Then he was promoted to be
prompter’s boy. One of his duties was to tell the actors when it was
time for them to go on the stage and play their parts.
Nothing is really known of what the young man from Stratford was doing
for six or seven years. He made his living in one way or another in
connection with the theaters. At the end of that time a dying actor left
some bitter lines about Will “Shake-scene.” But another actor at this
time called Shakespeare a good man, a graceful actor, and a witty writer
of plays. Shakespeare seems not to have been a leading actor. It is said
that he took the part of the Ghost in his own play of “Hamlet.” He
became so successful as a writer that he was “commanded” to bring his
company and produce a play before Queen Elizabeth in one of her palaces.
It is recorded that Shakespeare was paid from thirty to seventy-five
dollars for one of his plays. While it is true that thirty dollars would
buy as much then as three hundred dollars to-day, yet that was a very
small price to pay for the greatest dramas ever written. But the real
value of the greatest things of the world cannot be measured by money.
Every one is said to have at least one great chance in life.
Shakespeare’s Door of Opportunity was the door of a theater. He did not
wait for it to open; he opened it himself. Shakespeare’s life showed
that “poets are born, not made.” He had the keenest insight into the
human heart and life of all the writers who ever lived.
HOW CROMWELL CHANGED PLACES WITH THE KING
In Shakespeare’s day Queen Elizabeth came first in the thoughts of all
the people of England. She was almost worshiped by the men of wealth and
genius whom she gathered at her court, and by the people at large. By
her cleverness and wisdom she kept England peaceful and prosperous
almost all through her reign. But she never married; so, when she died,
her cousin, James Stuart, king of Scotland, became king of England.
James had been brought up to think that because he was king, everybody
must bow to him as the Lord’s anointed. It was he and his councilors who
drove the Pilgrim Fathers out of England because they would not worship
God, as James wished them to, in the Church of England, of which he was
the head.
On his way down to London to be crowned, James stopped at the beautiful
estate of Sir Oliver Cromwell. In the royal company was the king’s
eldest son, Charles, called by the Scottish people “the bonnie prince.”
The little Scotch boy, only six years old, already thought that the
world was created for him and that no other boy had any rights which he,
Prince Charles, was bound to respect.
The story goes that Sir Oliver Cromwell sent for his nephew, whose name
was Oliver Cromwell also, to play with the prince. When little Noll, as
they nicknamed Oliver, came in, his uncle presented him to the boy
prince. Young Oliver tried to shake hands with Charles. Old Oliver, who
wanted the boy to bow and kiss the prince’s hand, said, “Pay your duty
to Prince Charles.”
“I owe him no duty,” said Noll Cromwell. “Why should I kiss that boy’s
hand?”
King James only laughed at the Cromwell lad’s spirit, and Charles and
Noll were left to play together. The prince soon struck the other boy,
as he was in the habit of doing, but naughty Noll struck back and sent
“the bonnie prince” howling to the king with royal blood streaming from
his little freckled nose.
Sir Oliver and the members of the royal party looked with holy horror
at the boy who had laid his hands on the Lord’s anointed. Some of them
thought young Oliver ought to be imprisoned in the Tower of London or
even beheaded for his wickedness. But King James had sense enough to see
that it was well for the prince to get “tit for tat” once in a while; so
he only looked hard at little Oliver and said:
[Illustration: OLIVER CROMWELL VISITING THE POET MILTON. CROMWELL IS
CARRYING THE LARGE HAT AFFECTED BY THE ROUNDHEADS.
_From the painting by David Neal_]
“Thou art a bold lad; and if thou live to be a man, my son Charlie would
do wisely to be friends with thee.” Then he turned to Sir Oliver and the
frightened friends standing there, saying, “Harm not the lad. He has
taught my son a good lesson, if heaven do but give him grace to profit
by it. If he be tempted to play the tyrant over the stubborn English,
let him remember little Oliver Cromwell.”
Young Oliver went to Free School and then to a Puritan college in
Cambridge University; but he had to leave school on account of the death
of his father. Before he was thirty Cromwell was elected to Parliament,
of which his cousin, John Hampden, was also a member.
Meanwhile King James died and his son, the prince with whom Oliver had
quarreled when a boy, became King Charles the First. King James had been
so sensible at times and so foolish at others that he has been called
“the wisest fool in Europe.” But Charles had even less sense than his
royal father. He tried to abolish Parliament, thus setting up his own
will against the will of the people of all England and Scotland.