Henry II was much troubled in his latter years by the disobedience of
his children. At his death, in 1189, he was succeeded by his son
RICHARD, styled _Cœur de Lion_, or the _Lion-hearted_, from his head
strong courage, and who was much liked by his subjects on that
account, though it does not appear that he possessed any other good
qualities. At the coronation of Richard, the people were permitted to
massacre many thousands of unoffending Jews throughout the kingdom.
Almost immediately after his accession, he joined the king of France
in a second Crusade; landed in Palestine (1191) and fought with
prodigious valor, but with no good result. On one occasion, being
offended at a breach of truce by his opponent Saladin, he beheaded
5000 prisoners; whose deaths were immediately revenged by a similar
massacre of Christian prisoners. In 1192, he returned with a small
remnant of his gallant army, and being shipwrecked at Aquileia,
wandered in disguise into the dominions of his mortal enemy the Duke
of Austria, who, with the Emperor of Germany, detained him till he was
redeemed by a ransom, which impoverished nearly the whole of his
subjects. This prince spent the rest of his life in unavailing wars
with Philip of France, and was killed at the seige of a castle in
Limousin, in 1199, after a reign of ten years, of which he had spent
only about three months in England.
JOHN, the younger brother of Richard, succeeded, although Arthur, Duke
of Bretagne, the son of an intermediate brother, was the proper heir.
John, who was at once vain, cruel, and weak, alienated the affections
of his subjects almost at the very first by the assassination of his
nephew, which he is said to have performed with his own hands. The
weakness of kings is often the means of giving increased liberties and
privileges to the people. The paltry tyranny and wickedness of John
caused his barons to rise against him, and the result was that, on the
19th June, 1215, he was compelled by them to sign what is called the
_Magna Charta_, or great Charter, granting them many privileges and
exemptions, and generally securing the personal liberty of his
subjects. The principal point concerning the nation at large was, that
no tax or supply should be levied from them without their own consent
in a great Council――the first idea of a Parliament. Some excellent
provisions were also made regarding courts of law and justice, so as
to secure all but the guilty.
The Pope, it appears, regarded the Magna Charta as a shameful
violation of the royal prerogative, and excommunicated its authors, as
being worse, in his estimation, than infidels. The opinion of a
leading modern historian is very different. He says, ‘To have produced
the Great Charter, to have preserved it, to have matured it,
constitute the immortal claim of England on the esteem of mankind.’