FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE
SECOND.--1216 TO 1377.
[Illustration: DEATH OF LLEWELLYN.]
1. The reign of Henry the Third, who was only nine years of age when
he succeeded his father, was a very long and a very unhappy one.
2. At first, things went on very well, because the king had a good
guardian, the Earl of Pembroke, who managed the government wisely;
but he, in a few years, died, and others came into power who did
not act so well, and the king was too young to know what was right
himself.
3. It was a pity the good earl died, for, if Henry had been fortunate
enough to have had a wise instructer, he might have been a better
sovereign, but, as it was, he was a very bad one.
4. The great mischief was this. He married a French princess, who had
no more wisdom than himself; and they were both so extravagant that
they spent a great deal more money than they could afford; and, then,
to get fresh supplies, the king ordered the people to pay more taxes,
and began to do all the unjust things that had caused so much misery
in the time of his father.
5. Sometimes the Barons assembled and obliged him to promise he would
abide by the terms of Magna Charta; but he soon forgot his promises,
and went on the same as before, so that the people were worse and
worse off every year, and many men became robbers on the highways,
because they could not support their families by honest industry.
6. This was the state of affairs for many years, till at last, there
was a civil war again, and, after a great deal of fighting and
bloodshed, the king and his eldest son, Edward, were made prisoners
in a battle, fought at Lewes, in Sussex, in 1264, and the Earl of
Leicester, the king’s brother-in-law, took the government upon
himself.
7. This was an important event, because the earl summoned a
parliament to consult as to what it would be best to do under these
circumstances; and he desired that, besides the nobles and bishops,
there should come to this parliament knights, or gentlemen from
every county, and citizens and burghers, from every city and burgh
to state what the condition of the people really was, and to help
to advise what could be done for them; so that the commoners were
now, probably, for the first time, admitted to some share in the
government of the country, which was a great step gained by the
people, who, before this, had no representatives in the national
council, or parliament, to take their part; and this was the
beginning of our House of Commons, so it is worth remembering.
8. Prince Edward, after this, escaped from Hereford, where he had
been kept a prisoner, and gained a great victory over the Barons, and
replaced his father Henry on the throne; after which, he went on a
crusade to the Holy Land.
9. He had married a Spanish princess, named Eleanor, who was the
first person, in England, that had a carpet, which she brought from
Spain, for the floors of the best apartments in the palace were
strewed with rushes; and, in houses, where they could not get rushes,
they used straw.
10. Henry the Third died about seven years after his restoration,
in the year 1272, having reigned fifty-seven years; and, although
the news was sent to his son as soon as possible, it was nearly two
years before he returned to England; such was the difference between
travelling then and now; for the journey to and from the Holy Land
may now be accomplished in a few weeks.
11. Edward the First was a much wiser and better prince than his
father, but he was too fond of war, and too anxious to be renowned as
a conqueror, which was the cause of the long wars in Scotland, for
his great ambition was to conquer that country.
12. But, the first thing he thought of, when he came home, was to
make such regulations as were most likely to protect the people from
robbery; so he had watchmen and patrols appointed in all the cities,
and ordered that nobody should be abroad in the streets of London,
nor any taverns kept open, after the curfew bell had tolled.
13. The curfew was instituted by William the Conqueror, to prevent
fires, which were very frequent, when houses were in general built
of wood, and thatched; so, when this bell tolled at eight o’clock,
the people, for a long time after the conquest, were obliged to put
out their fires and candles; but the custom of tolling the bell was
continued after that of putting out fire and candle was done away
with, and even to this day, in many places.
14. Edward the First took care that the magistrates should do their
duty, and punished those who broke the laws, which the kings had been
afraid to do in the last two reigns, because their lives would have
been in danger if they had.
15. I must also tell you that this wise monarch did not alter what
the Earl of Leicester had done about the parliament; but he made it
a rule that the people should continue to send their members, and
every freeholder of land in the counties, and, in general, all men,
in the cities and burghs, who paid taxes, had a right to vote at the
election of members of parliament.
16. I should be glad to have nothing to say about warfare in this
reign; but the Scottish wars form so large a portion of the history
of the times, that you ought to know something about them.
17. First, however, the king invaded the northern part of Wales,
which had never been conquered by the English, and was then governed
by a prince, named Llewellyn.
18. This chief made a gallant resistance, but he was killed, and the
whole country was then united to England, and afterwards, in the
reign of Henry the Eighth, divided into shires.
19. The queen, Eleanor, of Castile, Edward’s first wife, went to
visit Wales soon afterwards, and her son Edward was born there, so
the king said he should be called prince of Wales, and that is the
reason why the eldest son of the English sovereign has since had that
title.
20. After this, there were a few years of peace, before the wars with
Scotland were begun; so I will fill up the time by saying a little
about the manners and customs of the English at this period.
21. The nobles lived in, what we should think, a very rough way
indeed. Their large comfortless rooms, and floors without carpets,
unglazed windows, and clumsy furniture, would not suit our modern
notions, either of comfort or convenience.
22. They had their dinner at ten o’clock in the morning, in the
great hall of the castle; lords, ladies, knights, esquires, priests,
dependents, and strangers, all together; for, when there were
no inns, it was usual for travellers to stop at any castle, or
monastery, on the road, where they were never refused lodging and
entertainment.
23. There were no table cloths, and the dishes and cups were mostly
of wood, but they were well filled with meat, game, fish, or poultry,
which, with bread and ale, constituted the rude, but substantial fare.
24. The Baron, with his friends, sat at an upper table, which was
served with wine; and, sometimes he would have his hounds lying at
his feet, and his favorite hawk, upon a perch, beside him.
25. The supper, at five o’clock, was just like the dinner, and these
were the only regular meals at that period.
26. I said there were no inns in those days, which reminds me to
speak of the difficulty and danger of travelling. The roads were very
bad and lonely, often running through forests and across wide heaths,
infested with robbers.
27. Then there were no public conveyances of any kind, nor any way of
making a journey, but on horseback, or on foot; and, as to stopping
at the country towns, there was very little accommodation to be had
there, for they were poor places, the houses in them being very
little better than wooden sheds.
28. There were no shops, so that every thing was bought, as formerly,
at the markets and fairs.
29. A great many merchants, from London, France, and Flanders, used
to bring goods to the fairs for sale, and they were obliged to pay
tolls and duties to the lord of the manor, which came to a great deal
of money, because they brought a quantity of valuable merchandise,
as the nobles themselves purchased their wearing apparel, jewellery,
spices, and many other commodities, at the fairs, which sometimes
lasted fifteen days.
30. The dress of the great nobility, in the fourteenth century, was
very handsome, for they wore mantles of satin or velvet, with borders
worked in gold, over jackets highly embroidered; and their velvet
caps were often adorned with jewels.
31. The middle classes wore close coats of cloth, with leather belts
round the waist, such as the Blue-Coat Boys now wear, and they had
tight pantaloons, short boots, and cloth caps.
32. The clothing of the working people was made of very coarse wool,
sometimes undyed, and all spun and woven at home by the women, who
had nothing else for their own wearing, as there were no cottons or
stuffs made in England then, nor any of the nice comfortable things
that the poor people can get so cheap now.
33. The country towns were at this period inhabited chiefly by free
artisans, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, and others, of different
trades; but there were still a great many villeins and serfs, on all
the cultivated lands, for slavery was never abolished in England by
any act of parliament, but gradually died away with the feudal laws.
34. The armies were not raised then as they were at an earlier
period, by feudal service, but soldiers were hired and paid by the
day; but there was no standing army, as there is at present; for, as
soon as the wars were over, the men were all discharged, which was a
bad thing, as it often happened they had no homes or employment to
return to, and so formed themselves into bands of robbers.
35. However, fighting men had plenty of occupation during the reign
of Edward the First, of whose wars in Scotland I am now about to
speak.
36. The king of Scotland died about this time, and as he left no
son, and his grand-daughter and heiress, Margaret, died soon after,
unmarried, there were two princes, who each thought he had a right
to succeed to the throne; so they agreed to let the king of England
decide the dispute, which he readily took upon himself to do. One
prince was named Robert Bruce, the other, John Baliol.
37. Edward said Baliol ought to be king, and he was crowned
accordingly; but the English monarch soon began to find fault with
him, and at last went to war, for he made up his mind to try to unite
England and Scotland into one kingdom, and to be the king of both
countries himself; but he did not succeed, although he dethroned
Baliol, and was at war with Scotland for nearly eleven years.
38. I dare say you have heard of a renowned Scottish chief, called
Sir William Wallace. He fought bravely for his country in these wars,
but he was taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk; and, I am sorry
to say, king Edward was so cruel and unjust as to have his head cut
off.
39. But this did not put an end to the war, for another chief, Robert
Bruce, grandson of him before-mentioned, took the place of Wallace,
gained several victories, and was crowned king.
40. The two sovereigns then prepared for a long war, and Edward was
on his way to Scotland, with his army, when he was taken ill, and
died in the year 1307, having reigned thirty-four years.
41. His son, Edward the Second, was so careless of every thing but
his own pleasure, that he neglected the affairs of both England and
Scotland, so that the Scots recovered all they had lost; and when,
at last, the king was persuaded to renew the war, he met with such
a terrible defeat at the battle of Bannockburn, that the Scots are
proud of it to this very day.
42. There is nothing more worth telling about the reign of Edward
the Second, whose misconduct caused many of the barons to rebel, and
he was, at last, made prisoner by them, and cruelly murdered, in
Berkeley castle, in 1327, having reigned about twenty years.
43. His son, Edward the Third, was scarcely fifteen, at the time of
his father’s death; but he was a very clever prince, and soon began
to manage the affairs of the country himself.
44. He married a Flemish princess, named Philippa, who was much
beloved by the English people, as, indeed, she deserved to be, for
she was both good and beautiful, as well as one of the cleverest
ladies of her time, and she employed her talents in doing all the
good she could for England.
45. She knew that the people of her own country, which was Flanders,
had grown rich by their trade and manufactures, so she did all in
her power to increase the trade of England, and paid a number of
Flemish weavers to come over here and settle at Norwich, that they
might improve the people there, in the art of making woollen cloth
and stuffs, for which a manufactory had been established by Edward
the First.
46. She also founded several schools, and was a friend to those who
distinguished themselves by their learning.
47. I must not forget to tell you that Chaucer, the first great poet
that wrote in English, lived at this time, and received much kindness
from the king and queen.
48. The English language was now beginning to be spoken by the higher
classes, instead of French, and was not very unlike the English
spoken now, as you might see, if you were to look at the poems
written by Chaucer.
49. Edward the Third was, unfortunately, as fond of war as his
grandfather. He renewed the war with Scotland, but his great wars
were in France, for his ambition was to be king of that country, and
he pretended he had a right to the throne, because his mother was
the sister of the late king.
50. But the French thought otherwise, and chose another prince for
their king, so Edward invaded France, where he commenced a long and
destructive war, which lasted nearly forty years, and was carried on,
for a great part of that time, by his eldest son, who was called the
Black Prince, because he wore black armour.
51. He made great conquests in the south of France, and, at the
celebrated battle of Poictiers, took the French king prisoner, and
brought him to England, where he remained a captive for the rest of
his life, but was treated with so much kindness and respect, that he
had little to complain of but the loss of his liberty.
52. The Black Prince was not only a brave warrior, but was a good and
clever man; therefore, his death, which happened a few months before
that of his father, was a great grief to the English people.
53. Edward the Third died in 1377, after a long reign of fifty years.
He had been a pretty good king, had made the people obey the laws,
and, in general, observed them himself.
54. When he wanted money for the French wars, he had allowed the
villeins and serfs, on his manors, or crown lands, to buy their
freedom, so that there were now, comparatively, but few of the lower
orders remaining in bondage; and the agricultural labourers were paid
for their labour, as well as the artisans and mechanics.
55. Their wages were, in general, from twopence to threepence a
day, but you must remember that twopence, at that time, was equal,
in purchasing the necessaries of life, to about one shilling and
eightpence of our money, and would buy much more than sufficient food
for a whole family.
56. They lived chiefly on meat, brown bread, and ale; for there were
no vegetables for the table, cultivated by the people in England,
till the time of Henry the Eighth; nor any potatoes, till that of
queen Elizabeth; and then they were considered a dainty dish, and
only seen at the tables of very rich people.
57. However, there were gardens, orchards, and vineyards, belonging
to the monasteries, and to persons of high rank and fortune.
QUESTIONS.
1. Who succeeded king John?
2. What were the consequences of the king’s misconduct?
7. What great change was made in parliament, and how?
9. Who first brought a carpet into England?
10. How long did Henry the Third reign? and by whom was he
succeeded?
11. What was the character of Edward the First?
12. Mention some of his first acts.
15. How did he regulate the parliament?
18. How was Wales united to England?
37. What gave rise to the Scottish wars?
38. Who was the great Scottish chief and patriot; and what was his
fate?
39. Who was made king of Scotland?
40. When did Edward die? and who succeeded him?
41. What became of Edward the Second?
43. Who was the next king?
44. Whom did he marry?
47. Who was the first great English poet?
49. Why did Edward the Third invade France?
53. When did the death of Edward take place?
54. How did Edward the Third raise money for the wars?