INDIA AND THE COLONIES.
1815-1902.
Down to the end of the great struggle with Revolutionary and Imperial
France, the history of the rise and development of the British empire
beyond seas is intimately connected with the history of Britain's wars
in Europe. The contest for colonial and commercial supremacy is at the
root alike of the war of the Austrian succession, the Seven Years' War,
the war of American Independence, and the war with Bonaparte.
But after 1815 this close interpenetration of the European and colonial
affairs of England comes to an abrupt end. For the last eighty years
they have touched each other at very rare intervals; the only occasions
of importance when European complications have reacted on our dominions
over-sea have been when our strained relations with Russia have led to
troubles on the north-western frontier of India.
For the most part, the development of the colonial and Indian empire
of Britain has gone on unvexed by any interference from without. We
have therefore relegated our treatment of it to a separate chapter, set
apart from our domestic annals.
[Sidenote: =The British Empire in 1815.=]
In 1815 the British territories in India were already by far the
most important of our possessions, but they comprised not one-fourth
of the dominions which now acknowledge Edward VII. as their direct
sovereign. In Africa we owned only a few fever-smitten ports on the
Gulf of Guinea, and the newly annexed Dutch colony of the Cape of
Good Hope, inhabited by a scanty and disaffected population of Boers
and a multitude of wild Kaffirs. In Australia, the small convict
settlements of New South Wales and Tasmania gave little signs of
development, blighted as they were by the unsatisfactory character
of the unwilling emigrants. Our group of colonies in North America
was the most promising possession of the crown; granted a liberal
constitution by Pitt's wise Canada Act, they were growing rapidly in
wealth and population. They had shown a most commendable loyalty during
the American war of 1812-14, and the divergence in race and religion
between the old French _habitans_ of the province of Quebec and the new
English settlers in Upper Canada had not as yet brought any trouble.
But the greatest part of British North America was still a wilderness.
The limit of settled land was only just approaching Lake Huron; even
in the more eastern provinces, such as Quebec and Nova Scotia, there
were still vast unexplored tracts of waste and forest. Into the far
West, the basins of the Columbia and Mackenzie rivers, only a few
adventurers--fur-traders of the Hudson's Bay Company and French
half-breed trappers--had as yet penetrated.
[Sidenote: =The West Indian Islands.=]
The West Indian colonies, somewhat increased in number by the results
of our wars between 1793 and 1815, had suffered many evils from French
privateering and negro rebellions, but were now at the height of their
prosperity. Vigorously if recklessly developed by the slave-owning
planters, they were at this moment the main producers of sugar and
coffee for the whole world. The colonies of France and Spain had
suffered so fearfully that they could hardly attempt competition.
Other outlying possessions were in the hands of England, some destined
to prosperity, some to obscurity--such as Mauritius, the Falklands, St.
Helena, Bermuda--but we have no space for more than a hasty mention of
them.
The history of the more important groups--India, Australia, Canada, and
South Africa--requires a more detailed treatment.
[Sidenote: =British territorial possessions in India.=]
At the great peace of 1815 we were masters in Northern India of
the great province of Bengal, lately increased by the "North-West
Provinces," the territory between Allahabad and Delhi which we had
taken from Scindiah in 1801-3. We had also annexed in the same year
the possessions of the Rajah of Berar in Orissa. These three tracts
constituted the presidency of Bengal, and were governed from Calcutta.
South of Orissa the whole east coast of Hindostan was in our hands, the
Carnatic having been annexed in 1799. The Carnatic, the lands taken
from Sultan Tippoo, and the "Circars" which the Nizam had ceded to us,
formed the presidency of Madras. Our possessions in this quarter were
completed by Ceylon, which we had acquired from the Dutch at the treaty
of Amiens. In Western India the Bombay presidency consisted as yet of
no more than the islands of Bombay and Salsette and a few ports along
the coast.
[Illustration: INDIA
1815-90.]
[Sidenote: =The vassal states.=]
But in addition to these dominions, ruled directly by the Company,
English influence was predominant in a much larger tract of India.
The Nawab of Oude in the north, the Nizam in the Deccan, the Rajah of
Mysore in the south, the Peishwa in the west, and many smaller princes,
were all bound to us by subsidiary treaties; they had covenanted to
guide their foreign policy by our own, and to supply us with troops and
subsidies in time of war.
[Sidenote: =The Mahratta and Rajput states.=]
In all the Indian Peninsula there were only three groups of states
which were still independent of the British power. The more remote
Mahratta powers--the realms governed by Scindiah, Holkar, the Gaikwar,
and the Rajah of Berar--were still for all intents and purposes
autonomous. The treaties which Lord Wellesley had made with them
were not enforced by his weaker successors, and the Mahratta princes
continued their feuds with each other and their incursions into those
parts of India which were not yet under British control. Their chief
victims were the unfortunate states of Rajputana, where a cluster of
native princes of ancient stock were as yet unprotected by treaties
with the East India Company.
[Sidenote: =The Sikhs.--Runjit Singh.=]
Beyond the Rajputs lay the third district of India which was still
independent--the Sikh principality of the Punjab. The Sikhs were a sect
of religious enthusiasts who had revolted against the misgovernment
of the Great Mogul some fifty years before, and had formed themselves
into a disorderly commonwealth. But one great chief, Runjit Singh,
had taught them to combine, and forced them into union. He ruled
them for many years, and organized the whole sect into an army which
combined the courage of fanaticism with the strictest discipline. He
was friendly to the British, and took care never to come into collision
with them.
Thus in 1815 the British in India held a position dominating half the
peninsula, but unprovided with any solid frontier on the land side.
They were charged with the care of several weak and imbecile dependent
states, surrounded by greedy and vigorous neighbours. Unless they were
to make up their minds to go back, they were bound to go forward, for
no final peace was possible till it should be settled whether the East
India Company or the Mahrattas and Sikhs were to be the dominating
power in the whole land between the Indus and the Bay of Bengal.
[Sidenote: =Lord Hastings Governor-General.--The Nepaulese war.=]
The first important advance after the departure of Wellesley was made
by the Marquis of Hastings, Governor-General from 1814 to 1823. This
active ruler was resolved not to permit the petty insults to British
territory, and the plundering of British allies which the unsettled
condition of the frontier made possible. In 1814 he attacked and drove
back into their hills the Gurkhas, the hill tribes of Nepaul, who had
been wont to harass the northern frontier of Bengal and Oude. They
offered a desperate resistance, but when once beaten became the fast
friends of the British, and have given valuable aid in every war which
we have since waged in India.
[Sidenote: =Extinction of the Pindarees.=]
The Nepaul war having ended in 1815, Hastings took a larger matter in
hand: the dominions of our vassal the Nizam and of the other princes
of Central India were much vexed by the Pindarees, organized bands
of marauders--like the free companies of the Middle Ages--who found
harbourage in the territories of the Mahrattas, and, when not employed
in the civil wars of those chiefs, plundered on their own account all
over the Deccan. Under a great captain of adventurers named Cheetoo,
these hordes became a public danger to all India. Hastings had them
hunted down and destroyed by armies which started simultaneously from
Madras, Bengal, and Bombay. They were completely exterminated, and
their leader Cheetoo fled alone to the jungle, and was devoured by a
tiger.
[Sidenote: =The third Mahratta war.=]
The Pindarees had long received the secret countenance of the Mahratta
chiefs, and while the British were still engaged in chasing the
marauders, three of the great chiefs of Western India took arms. The
Peishwa Bajee Rao was anxious to free himself from the dependence which
Wellesley had imposed on him in 1801. He conspired with the Rajah of
Berar and the regents who ruled for the young Holkar. But the event of
the third Mahratta war (1817-18) was not for a moment doubtful. The
allied chiefs never succeeded in joining each other: Bajee Rao was
defeated in front of Poona by a mere handful of British troops, and
after long wanderings was forced to lay down his arms and surrender.
The army of the Holkar state was routed, after a much harder struggle,
at Mehidpore; the hordes of the Rajah of Berar fled before 1500 British
troops at Seetabuldee. Each of the confederates fought for his own hand
without aid from his neighbour, and all alike were crushed.
The campaign of 1817-18 made an end of the independence of the
Mahrattas. The Peishwa's whole realm was annexed to the Bombay
presidency: he himself was sent to live on a government pension at
Cawnpore, far away in Oude. One third of the dominions of Holkar
was confiscated; the Rajah of Berar was deposed. Stringent terms
of subjection were imposed on both their states. All the Mahratta
principalities now came under British control, for Scindiah and the
Gaikwar of Baroda, who had taken no part in the war, consented to sign
treaties which made them the vassals of the Company. The same position
was gladly assumed by the chiefs of Rajputana, who had suffered many
ills at the hands of their Mahratta neighbours, and were only too glad
to gain immunity from assault under the protection of the Company's
flag. In all India only the realm of Runjit Singh beyond the Sutlej was
now outside the sphere of British influence.
[Sidenote: =Internal tranquillity.--The Burmese war.=]
Owing to the wisdom of that aged prince, it was to be yet many years
before the English and the Sikhs came into collision. For some years
after the victories of Lord Hastings in 1817-18, India enjoyed a term
of comparative peace. Lord Amherst and Lord William Bentinck, the two
next Governor-Generals, were more noted for the internal reforms which
they carried out than for the wars which they waged. The only important
annexation of the period 1823-35 resulted from a struggle with a
power which lay altogether outside the bounds of India. The King of
Burmah assailed the eastern limits of Bengal and was punished by being
deprived of Assam and Aracan.
[Sidenote: =Reforms of Lord Amherst and Lord W. Bentinck.=]
But the times of Lord Amherst and Lord William Bentinck have a far
better distinction from the liberal measures of reform which they
introduced than from any annexations. The latter Governor-General, a
man of a strong will and a very enlightened mind, put down the horrible
practice of _suttee_, or widow-burning, and crushed the Thugs, the
disguised gang-robbers who infested the roads and took life half for
plunder and half as a religious Sacrifice. He lent his support to
Christian missions, which the Company had hitherto discouraged, from a
dread of offending native susceptibilities. He introduced steamships on
the Ganges, and worked out a scheme for the carrying of the mails to
Europe by way of the Red Sea and the short overland journey from Suez
to Alexandria. But this wise plan was not finally adopted till many
years after.
[Sidenote: =Renewal of the Company's charter.=]
In 1833, while Lord William Bentinck was still in power, the East India
Company's charter from the crown ran out, and was only renewed by the
Whig government of Lord Grey on the condition that the Company should
entirely give up its old commercial monopolies, and confine itself to
the exercise of patronage and the duties of administration. For the
last twenty-five years of its rule the tone of the great corporation
was vastly improved, now that dividends were not the sole aim of its
directors.
[Sidenote: =The First Afghan war.--Lord Auckland restores Shah Sujah.=]
In 1836 Lord Auckland took over the governor-generalship. His tenure of
power is mainly notable for the commencement of the disastrous first
Afghan war. Frightened by the intrigues of the Russians with Dost
Mohammed, the ruler of Afghanistan, Lord Auckland unwisely determined
to interfere with the internal politics of that barren and warlike
country. There was living in exile in India Shah Sujah, a prince
who had once ruled at Cabul, but had long been driven out by his
countrymen. The Governor-General determined to restore him by force
of arms, and to make him the vassal of England. Though we could only
approach Afghanistan by crossing the neutral territory of the Sikhs,
this distant enterprise was taken in hand. An English army passed the
Suleiman mountains, occupied Candahar, stormed Ghuznee, and finally
entered Cabul (1839). Shah Sujah was placed on his ancient throne, and
part of the victorious troops were withdrawn to India.
[Sidenote: =Destruction of the British force at Cabul.=]
But the Afghan tribes hated the nominee of the stranger, and refused
to obey the Shah. Lord Auckland was compelled to leave an English
force at Candahar and another at Cabul to support his feeble vassal.
For two uneasy years the garrison held its own (1839-41) against
sporadic risings. But in the winter of 1841-42 a general insurrection
of the whole of the tribes of Afghanistan swept all before it. The
very townsmen of Cabul took arms and murdered the English resident
almost under the eyes of the Shah. General Elphinstone, who commanded
the brigade at Cabul, was a feeble old invalid. He allowed himself
to be shut up in his entrenched camp, saw his supplies cut off, and
was finally compelled to make a retreat in the depth of winter, after
signing a humiliating treaty with the Afghan chiefs, and giving them
hostages. But the treacherous victors attacked the retreating army as
it struggled through the snow of the Khoord Cabul Pass, and massacred
the whole force. One British regiment, three sepoy regiments, and
12,000 camp-followers were cut to pieces. Only a single horseman,
Dr. Brydon, made his way through to Jelalabad, the nearest English
garrison, to bear the tidings of the annihilation of the whole army.
[Sidenote: =End of the war.--Dost Mohammed reinstated.=]
Shah Sujah was murdered by his rebellious subjects, and all Afghanistan
was lost save the two fortresses of Candahar and Jelalabad, whose
gallant defence forms the only redeeming episode in the war. But to
revenge our disaster, if for no better purpose, a new English army
under General Pollock forced the Khyber Pass, defeated the Afghans,
and reoccupied Cabul. They evacuated it after destroying its chief
buildings, and Dost Mohammed, whom we had deposed in 1839, was
permitted to return to the throne from which we had evicted him. For
long years after we left Afghanistan alone, the memory of the massacre
in the Khoord Cabul Pass sufficing to deter even the most enterprising
Governor-Generals from interfering with its treacherous and fanatical
tribes.
[Sidenote: =Lord Ellenborough annexes Scinde.=]
Ere the Afghan war was over, Lord Auckland had been superseded by Lord
Ellenborough, an able and active ruler, whose qualities were only
marred by a tendency to grandiloquence and proclamations in the style
of the Great Napoleon. He not only brought the Afghan war to its close,
but annexed Scinde, the barren lower valley of the Indus. We were drawn
into a quarrel with the Ameers of that country, and it was overrun by
a small army under Sir Charles Napier, who beat the Ameers at Meanee,
though their forces outnumbered him twelvefold. Scinde was annexed to
the Bombay Presidency, and by its possession we encompassed on two
sides the Punjab, the only remaining independent state in India.
[Sidenote: =Lord Hardinge and the Sikh invasion.=]
Runjit Singh had died in 1839, and his successors were weak princes who
perished in civil wars or by palace conspiracies. They were utterly
unable to restrain their arrogant and unruly army, which made and
unmade sovereigns at Lahore like the Roman praetorians of the third
century. In 1845 the rash and ignorant generals of the Sikhs resolved
to attack the British, and dreamed of overrunning all India. They
crossed the Sutlej and invaded the North-Western provinces ere the new
Governor-General, Lord Hardinge, had fully realized that war was at
hand.
[Sidenote: =Battles of Ferozeshah and Sobraon.=]
Our Sikh wars saw the hardest fighting which has ever taken place in
India. The army which Runjit Singh had spent his life in training
was a splendid force, and proved able in the shock of battle to beat
the sepoys of the Company. It was only by the desperate fighting of
the British troops, little aided by their native auxiliaries, that
the Sikhs were finally driven back. Unfortunately, Lord Gough, the
commander-in-chief, was a reckless general, whose only idea of tactics
was to dash his men at the centre of the enemy's position, regardless
of batteries, obstacles, and earthworks. A more circumspect officer
could probably have attained his end at a much less cost of life. At
Ferozeshah he was completely foiled in his first attempt to force
the entrenched camp of the Sikhs, and only succeeded on the next day
because the enemy, who had suffered as heavily as the British, had not
the heart to stand up to a second battle within twenty-four hours, and
retired from his position. Sobraon, the decisive engagement of the
campaign, was even more bloody; but on this occasion the Sikhs fought
with the Sutlej at their backs; and when at last they were driven from
their lines, a fourth of their army perished in the river (February 10,
1846). The Lahore government then asked for peace, which was granted
them on condition that Dhulip Singh, the young son of Runjit Singh,
should acknowledge the suzerainty of the British.
[Sidenote: =Battles of Chillianwallah and Guzerat.=]
But the brave and obstinate Sikhs did not yet consider themselves
beaten. Less than two years after the first struggle was over they
again tried the fortune of war. In March, 1848, Moolraj, the Governor
of Mooltan, rose in rebellion to throw off the British suzerainty. The
whole Sikh army fell away to him, and a campaign not less desperate
than that of 1845-6 began. Lord Gough, who was still in command,
repeated his former tactics at Chillianwallah, and flung his army
against a line of batteries hidden by jungle. The British only carried
them with heavy loss, the 24th foot being completely cut to pieces.
The old general's disregard for common prudence and the lives of his
men so irritated his officers, that when they again met the enemy at
the decisive battle of Guzerat (February 22, 1849) they clandestinely
confined him on a housetop, till the Sikh entrenchments had been
pounded for three hours by an overwhelming fire of artillery. The
British infantry were then let loose, carried the earthworks with
little loss, and brought the campaign to a prompt end, for the whole
Sikh army surrendered a few days later (March 12, 1849).
[Sidenote: =Lord Dalhousie annexes the Punjab.=]
The Punjab was now annexed, for Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General
who had succeeded Lord Hardinge, did not intend to give the Sikhs
the opportunity of raising a third war. Dhulip Singh, the titular
Maharajah, was sent to live in England on a pension. Certain outlying
districts, such as Cashmere, were left to chiefs who had not opposed
us in the struggle of 1848; but Lahore and the whole of the plain of
the "Five Rivers" were put under British rule. The officers to whom
the settlement of the Punjab was given over were the picked men of
India: so ably and genially did they do their work, that the Sikhs
soon settled down into quiet and loyal subjects. When next the British
empire in Hindostan was in danger, it was largely saved by the gallant
aid of levies from the Punjab.
[Sidenote: =The second Burmese war.=]
After the great struggle with the Sikhs was over, the rest of Lord
Dalhousie's administration was comparatively uneventful. The second
Burmese war of 1852, provoked by the ill-treatment of English merchants
at Rangoon, was a short and easy campaign, which resulted in the
annexation of Pegu, the coast district of the Burmese kingdom, and the
mouths of the Irrawaddy.
[Sidenote: =Further annexations by Lord Dalhousie.=]
But some of the doings of Dalhousie in India itself, though they made
little noise at the time, were fated to have grave consequences. He
held strongly the doctrine that direct British administration was the
best thing for natives, and took every opportunity of annexing vassal
states where the ruling houses died out. This was much against the
prejudices of the Hindoos, who always try to perpetuate their family by
adoption when natural heirs fail. By refusing to allow of this custom
Lord Dalhousie was able to annex the great Mahratta state of the Rajahs
of Berar, the old opponents of Wellesley and Hastings. He also took
over the smaller Mahratta states of Jhansi and Satara, and refused to
allow the deposed peishwa, Bajee Rao, to pass on his title and pension
to his adopted son, the Nana Sahib. There is no doubt that these acts
gravely displeased pious Hindoos.
[Sidenote: =Dethronement of the King of Oude.=]
Moreover, in 1856, Dalhousie, more by the Company's wish than his own,
completed his wide annexations by dethroning the King of Oude, the
chief Moslem state of northern India, and the oldest of the vassals
of the British. His abominable misgovernment and folly drew down his
fate deservedly enough; but the seizure of Oude was not popular even
among the subjects who were delivered from the tyrant's rule, and it
created a feeling of distrust and resentment among all the surviving
feudatories of the Company.
[Sidenote: =Lord Canning Governor-General.=]
Lord Dalhousie, broken down by hard work, returned to England to die,
soon after the annexation of Oude. He was succeeded by Lord Canning,
the son of the great Tory prime minister of 1827. Scarcely had Canning
gathered up the reins of power when the terrible sepoy mutiny of 1857
broke out.
[Sidenote: =The native army in India.=]
A power which undertakes to hold down a vast empire by a great
mercenary army raised from among the peoples of the land, is always
exposed to the danger of military rebellion. The army has no other
incentives than its pay, its habit of disciplined obedience, and its
loyalty to its officers, to keep it true to its foreign masters. If the
soldiery realize their power, and are ready to unite with each other
for a common end, they may aspire to cast out their employers and rule
for their own benefit. Mutinies of single regiments were not unfrequent
episodes in the history of the Indian army, but hitherto no general
revolt had occurred.
In 1857 the proportion of British to native troops in India was
abnormally low. The regiments withdrawn for the Crimean war had never
been replaced, and small expeditions to Persia and China[69] were
absorbing many more. In the whole peninsula the European stood to the
sepoy troops in the ratio of only one to six--at present one to three
is considered the least that is safe. Moreover, the spirit of many of
the native troops was very bad. They had been so flattered and pampered
by the government that they believed themselves to be the masters of
the situation, and despised the few white regiments scattered among
them.
[Sidenote:=Outbreak of the mutiny.=]
The army was arrogant and discontented; the old ruling families of the
lately annexed states were intriguing and conspiring all over northern
India. A widely spread prophecy that the rule of the British was only
to last for a hundred years, dating from Plassey and the annexation of
Bengal, was disturbing the minds of the masses, when a trivial incident
let loose the elements of discord. The government was introducing among
the native troops the use of rifles, in place of the old musket. The
new weapons required greased cartridges, which were being duly issued,
when some mischievous incendiary spread among the Bengal sepoys the
rumour that they were being defiled. The cartridges, it was said,
were lubricated with the grease of pigs and cattle, in order that the
Hindoos might lose their caste by touching the flesh of the sacred
cow, and the Mussulmans might be polluted by the contamination of the
unholy swine. When all had become unclean, it was said, the government
intended to make Christians of them. This foolish rumour sufficed to
set the army in a flame. Two regiments which mutinied near Calcutta
were easily disbanded; but a formidable and successful revolt of the
sepoy brigade at Meerut, near Delhi (May 10, 1857), was the signal for
the outbreak of well-nigh the whole Bengal army.
[Sidenote: =The heir of the Moguls proclaimed Emperor at Delhi.=]
In the months of May and June, more than forty garrisons in the valleys
of the Ganges and the Jumna mutinied. In most cases their rising was
followed by hideous cruelty; the European officers were treacherously
shot, and hundreds of women and children massacred. Both Hindoos and
Mussulmans eagerly joined the rising, but the main guidance of the
mutiny was in the hands of the latter. They proclaimed the descendant
of the great Mogul, who still resided at Delhi, the heir of the empire
of his ancestors. Delhi itself, where there was no British garrison,
fell into their hands, after the great magazine had been blown up by
the desperate courage of Lieutenant Willoughby.
[Sidenote: =Rising in Oude.--Siege of Lucknow.=]
The ancient city became the centre of the rebellion in the north, while
further south, in Oude, the whole population rose in arms to restore
their late king, and beleaguered in the residency of Lucknow the one
British regiment which formed part of the garrison of the newly annexed
state.
[Sidenote: =Spread of the rebellion.=]
Except in Oude and certain parts of the North-West Provinces the
rebellion was purely military, and the peasantry preserved a timid
neutrality in the strife. But the whole Bengal army, with hardly an
exception, rose--or tried to rise--against its masters. Fortunately
for England, the mutiny did not affect the Madras presidency at
all, and only spread to a small corner of the Bombay presidency.
But all northern India from Benares to the Sutlej was lost for a
time. Unwarlike Bengal remained quiet, and the Punjab--where English
regiments were more numerous than in any other part of India--was
kept under control by its able governor, Sir John Lawrence. But all
that lay between them was a seething flood of rebellion, where a few
English garrisons lay scattered like islands in a tempestuous sea.
Agra, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Allahabad, were all insufficiently held--only
at the third of them was there so much as a single regiment of British
infantry.
[Sidenote: =The siege of Delhi.=]
While the authorities at Calcutta were collecting the few European
troops who could be gathered from Burmah and Madras, and were making
desperate appeals for prompt aid from home, the governor of the Punjab
struck the first blow for the reconquest of the lost provinces. Four
thousand Europeans and some hastily raised Sikh levies crossed the
Sutlej and marched on Delhi, now held by at least 30,000 mutineers.
They defeated the rebels in the field, and commenced the siege of the
royal city on June 10, 1857. This bold move threw the enemy on the
defensive, and the rising spread no further in the north. But Delhi was
beleaguered for fourteen weeks, and even when every available British
soldier had been drawn from the Punjab, the storming of the place was
a hazardous task, only carried to a successful end by the reckless
courage of the assailants. After six days of deadly street fighting
(September 14-20, 1857), the rebels were driven out, and their titular
leader, the aged Grand Mogul, with all his family, was captured.
Bahadur Shah himself was only banished to Burmah, but his sons and
grandson were shot without trial by Major Hodson, the daring cavalry
officer who had tracked and captured them.
[Sidenote: =The massacre of Cawnpore.=]
While the siege of Delhi was still in progress, a small force had been
collected at Calcutta and hurried northward to attack Oude and relieve
the beleaguered garrisons of Cawnpore and Lucknow. General Havelock
commanded this brigade, a mere handful of 1200 men. He pushed on from
Allahabad on June 30, but when he had cut his way to Cawnpore after
four considerable fights, he found that he was too late. The small
garrison there, hampered with many hundreds of women and children, had
held out for a month, but surrendered on June 27 to the chief of the
rebels, Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the late Peishwa, whose pension
and title had been denied him.[70] This revengeful and treacherous
ruffian promised the besieged a safe passage to Allahabad. But as soon
as they had evacuated their entrenchments, he massacred them all in
cold blood, save two hundred women and children, whom he saved alive.
When the news of Havelock's victorious advance was heard, he had these
poor survivors hacked to death and cast into the famous "well of
Cawnpore" (July 15). The British brigade cut its way into the city a
day too late to save the prisoners, but was able to wreak a terrible
vengeance on their murderers, though the Nana himself, to the bitter
disappointment of all, got safely away and died a fugitive in the
jungles of Nepaul.
[Sidenote: =The relief of Lucknow.=]
Havelock had to wait some time at Cawnpore for reinforcements before
he could march on Lucknow, where the garrison, some 1000 strong, had
maintained themselves for eighty-seven days behind the walls of the
hastily fortified Residency. The much-tried defenders were cheered by
the arrival of Havelock, who with 3000 men forced his way into the
Residency after a day's street fighting. But 60,000 rebels, the whole
fighting population of the province of Oude, still hung round the
place, and Havelock could not drive them away. The final relief of
Lucknow was only accomplished by Lord Clyde, the Colin Campbell of the
Crimean war, who had arrived in India with the first reinforcements
from home. On November 9 he swept away the rebels, and liberated the
garrison, but Havelock died the very day after he and his troops were
delivered.
[Sidenote: =Lord Clyde defeats the Mahrattas and the Oude rebels.=]
Lord Clyde drew back to Cawnpore with the rescued garrison, leaving
Lucknow to be reoccupied by the rebels. He was forced to turn because
the Mahratta army of Scindiah had just revolted and joined the Oude
insurgents. Clyde beat them on December 6, just outside Cawnpore, and
drove them back on to Central India.
[Sidenote: =Lucknow stormed.--Battles of Bareilly and Gwalior.=]
The final stage of the war was reached in March, 1858, when Clyde
marched for the second time against Lucknow, stormed the city, and
drove the remnants of the rebel army of Oude to Bareilly, where they
were crushed in the last general engagement but one of the war (May
7). Meanwhile Sir Hugh Rose had collected an army from the Bombay
presidency and overrun Scindiah's dominions and Bundelkund, where the
rebellion of the Mahrattas had been headed by the Ranee of Jhansi and
Tantia Topee, a clever leader of irregular troops. On June 16 he beat
them in front of Gwalior, the Ranee was slain, and her army dispersed.
But Tantia Topee took to the jungles, and was not finally caught and
hung till the spring of the succeeding year.
Thus ended the great mutiny of 1857-58, a ferocious struggle in which
the treachery and cruelty of the sepoys were amply punished by the
ruthless severity of their victors, who gave no quarter, blew prominent
traitors from the cannon's mouth, and hung meaner prisoners by the
hundred.
[Sidenote: =Abolition of the East India Company.=]
The English nation were convinced that something must be done to
reform the administration of India, and the East India Company was
abolished by Act of Parliament in 1858, the whole administration, civil
and military, of the peninsula being now taken over by the Queen's
government. To mark that no blame was thrown on the Governor-General,
Lord Canning, whose conduct all through the war had been most cool and
courageous, he was made the first viceroy of the new empire.
[Sidenote: =India under the rule of the Crown.=]
Since the Mutiny the annals of India have been comparatively peaceful,
and hardly a shot has been fired within the bounds of the peninsula.
The history of the last thirty years has been a record of growing
prosperity, of the development of trade and industries, the building of
railways and canals, and the marvellous increase of sea-borne trade.
Since the Suez Canal has brought India so close to Europe, the arable
land is everywhere encroaching on the jungle, and the main difficulty
of the future appears likely to be the overgrowth of population in the
thickly settled districts, where, more than once, a year of dearth has
slain thousands and brought tens of millions to the edge of starvation.
The terrible Madras famine of 1877, the worst of its kind, is said to
have cost the lives of 1,500,000 peasants.
[Sidenote: =The second Afghan war.=]
The one great warlike episode in the history of British India remaining
to be chronicled is the second Afghan war, of 1878-80. This struggle
was a consequence of the Russo-Turkish war of the previous year, and of
the estrangement between Russia and England which resulted therefrom.
Lord Lytton, the viceroy of the years 1876-80, was a disciple of Lord
Beaconsfield, and a believer in a spirited foreign policy. He found
that Shere Ali, the Ameer of Afghanistan, was intriguing with the
Russian governor of Turkestan, and promptly summoned him to sign a
treaty of alliance and receive a British resident at his court. The
Ameer refused, and at once saw his dominions invaded. When General
Roberts stormed the Peiwar Kotal and advanced within a few miles
of Cabul, the Ameer fled towards the Russian frontier, and died on
the way. His son, Yakoob Khan, accepted the British suzerainty,
and promised all that was required. But when the army had retired,
the populace of Cabul rose just as in 1842, and murdered Sir Lewis
Cavagnari, the British resident, and all his escort. A second invasion
at once began, and Yakoob Khan was deposed and sent to India. Lord
Lytton would probably have annexed the whole country but for the
troubles which broke out in the winter of 1879-80, when the Afghan
tribes took arms and assailed the garrisons of Cabul and Candahar.
Roberts was besieged in his entrenchments at Cabul, but finally drove
off the insurgents, and held his own. But in the south General Burrows,
advancing to attack the pretender Eyoob Khan, was totally defeated
at Maiwand, with the loss of half his brigade, and chased back into
Candahar. He was only saved by the rapid and masterly march of Roberts,
who in twenty-three days forced his way from Cabul to Candahar, routed
the army of Eyoob, and liberated the Candahar garrison (September 1,
1880). But the disaster of Maiwand had troubled English public opinion,
and a Liberal government had now replaced Lord Beaconsfield at home.
Afghanistan was evacuated, and Abdurrhaman Khan, a nephew of Shere
Ali, was recognized as ruler of the whole country, where he maintained
himself with success till his death in 1901, and proved faithful to the
English alliance.
[Sidenote: =The Queen proclaimed Empress of India.=]
Perhaps Lord Lytton's administration may ultimately be remembered less
for his unhappy Afghan war than for his proclamation of the Queen as
Empress of India in the great _Durbar_ held in Delhi in 1877. This step
marked the commencement of a new and more intimate relation of England
and India, of which an earnest had been given two years before by the
Prince of Wales's tour through the peninsula. Since then every attempt
has been made to enlist the sympathies of the natives on behalf of the
British rule. Their princes have been encouraged to visit England, to
interest themselves in public works, education, and internal reforms,
and to supply troops for the general service of the empire. Elective
municipalities have been created in the cities, to teach their motley
population the art of self-government--which they are still very far
from having learnt. A share in the administration--which some think
unduly large--is granted to native civil servants, and the native
press has been granted a liberty which it often abuses. All financial
and agrarian legislation is framed to press as lightly as possible
on the masses. But the results of these efforts are still somewhat
problematic, and the British bayonet is still needed to keep the peace
between contending races and creeds.
[Sidenote: =The Australian penal settlements.--New South Wales.=]
In strong contrast with the stirring annals of British India are the
unromantic details of the development of our Australian Colonies. We
have alluded to the unpromising foundation of our first establishment
in Botany Bay, by the despatch thither of the gangs of convicts who in
an earlier age used to be sent into servitude in America (1788). For
many years this annual crop of ruffianism swamped all attempts at real
colonization in New South Wales. But after a time the extraordinary
fertility of the soil began to attract more immigrants, while the
mitigation of the English penal law under the hands of Sir Robert Peel
decreased the number of convicts. As the free population grew they
began to protest so strongly against the companions who were drafted
in upon them, that the government diverted the stream of convicts to
new settlements in Tasmania and Western Australia. For long years New
South Wales remained a purely pastoral colony, and its immense plains
were inhabited only by the "squatters"--the proprietors who had bought
large tracts of land from the government. They dwelt in stations thinly
scattered over the face of the country, rearing vast herds of cattle
and sheep. It was as exporting wool, hides, and tallow alone that
Australia first became known to the commercial world of Europe.
[Sidenote: =Discovery of gold-fields.--Victoria.=]
In 1851, however, an enormous difference was made by the discovery of
rich alluvial gold deposits near Port Phillip, on the southern shore
of New South Wales. The washings proved so productive that thousands
of immigrants of all sorts and conditions poured in to profit by them.
The Port Phillip district was cut off from New South Wales, and made
into the new colony of Victoria (1851). Its population went up from
80,000 to 450,000 in the ten years that followed the discovery of gold.
When the alluvial deposits were exhausted, it was found that large
reefs of auriferous quartz lay below them, and a steady development of
scientific mining by machinery superseded the haphazard work of the
early diggers. Victoria still continues one of the great gold-producing
centres of the world.
[Sidenote: =Queensland.--The labour difficulty.=]
New South Wales still remains a mainly pastoral country, though
here too considerable gold-fields have been found. After throwing
off its southern districts to form the colony of Victoria, it ceded
its northern territory to form the colony of Queensland (1859). The
semi-tropical climate of this last province differentiates it from
the rest of Australia. The great heat makes European labour difficult
during the greater part of the year.
[Sidenote: =South Australia.--Western Australia.--Tasmania.=]
South Australia, settled in 1836, is mainly an agricultural country
with some copper-mines. Western Australia, originating in a convict
settlement in 1829, has lagged behind the rest of the sister colonies
for want of any of the natural advantages which attract immigrants,
but the tardy discovery of gold in 1892 may suffice at last to draw
thither the much-needed population. Tasmania, originating, like Western
Australia, in a penal colony, has developed into a small island
community of steady prosperity.
[Sidenote: =New Zealand.--The Maori war.=]
Far to the east of Australia lie the twin islands of New Zealand,
first explored by Captain Cook in 1773, but not planted with English
colonists till 1839. Unlike the aborigines of Australia, the lowest and
feeblest savages in the world, the natives of New Zealand were a fierce
and clever race of cannibals, named Maoris. They bitterly resented the
settlement of their islands, and raised two considerable wars, for the
second of which (1861-66) British troops had to be brought to this
remote colony, and had hard work to expel the Maoris from their _pahs_,
or stockades. After their defeat they quieted down, and are now slowly
dying out before the progress of civilization, which seems fatal to
them, though they are a vigorous and intelligent race. New Zealand more
resembles Great Britain in climate and situation than does any other
of our colonies, and has enjoyed a long career of prosperity, somewhat
checked of late by a tendency to a rash extension of the public debt.
[Sidenote: =The Cape Colony.--The Boers.=]
Passing westward across the Indian Ocean, we come to the second great
group of English colonies, those of South Africa. The old Dutch
dominion of the Cape of Good Hope was conquered by the British in 1806,
and secured to us by the treaty of Vienna in 1815. It reached only as
far as the Orange River, and was thinly settled by Dutch farmers, or
Boers, scattered among a population of Kaffirs, whom they had in many
cases reduced to slavery.
[Sidenote: =Natal.--The Orange Free State and the Transvaal.=]
When English emigration was directed to the Cape, the Boers resented
the intrusion of the foreigner, and many of them _trekked_, _i.e._
migrated, into the wilderness to conquer new homes among the Kaffirs.
But the British government followed them, and annexed their first
settlement in Natal (1843). They then moved inland, and finally
established (1852-54) the two republics of the Orange Free State and
the Transvaal, which still remain, though each of them was for a short
time under British control.
[Sidenote: =The Kaffir wars.=]
The history of the Cape Colony, till within the last few years, was one
of comparatively slow development and of frequent Kaffir wars. No less
than eight such struggles with the natives are recorded between 1815
and 1881, some of them of considerable length and difficulty.
[Sidenote: =The diamond mines.--Kimberley.=]
Each led to an annexation, till at last all the country south of the
Orange River had passed into the hands of the settlers, though large
reserved tracts were set aside for the native tribes. Meanwhile the
Dutch and English colonists held apart, and have always remained more
or less estranged. The first rapid development of the settlement began
in 1867, when the discovery of diamond-mines in Griqualand West,
beyond the Orange River, led to the northward extension of the British
boundary, to the grave discontent of the Boers of the Orange Free State
(1872). The great mining town of Kimberley has arisen as the centre of
this arid but busy district.
[Sidenote: =Annexation of the Transvaal.=]
The most formidable difficulty which the English have met in South
Africa came from the annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. The Boers
of that republic having engaged themselves in dangerous wars with the
natives, Lord Beaconsfield's government resolved to place them under
British rule. This was done, and, as heirs to the Boers' quarrels, we
fought out the sanguinary Zulu war of 1879.
[Sidenote: =The Zulu war.=]
The Zulus, an immigrant tribe from the north, had built up a military
monarchy over their neighbours under a despot named Chaka, who had
disciplined them and formed them into regiments in imitation of
European organization. We made war on his grandson Cetewayo, and
incurred, on our first meeting with the formidable Zulu army, the
disaster of Isandula, where a whole British battalion and 1000 native
auxiliaries were exterminated to the last man. It required the dispatch
of 10,000 men from England under Sir Garnet Wolseley, and three sharp
battles at Ekowe, Kambula, and Ulundi to break Cetewayo's army and
restore the prestige of the British arms.
Hardly was the Zulu war over when the Boers of the Transvaal revolted,
and defeated the small British force in Natal at Laing's Neck and
Majuba Hill. We have related elsewhere how the Gladstone government
thereupon made peace, and gave the Boers their independence.[71]
[Sidenote: =The scramble for Africa.=]
The history of British Africa during the years 1885-95 was mainly the
story of a scramble with the other European powers for the possession
of the unoccupied parts of the continent. Since the Germans began
to seize large tracts of southern Africa, and the French to extend
their power into the Sahara and the valley of the Niger, the British
government was forced in self-defence to make similar seizures, in
order to prevent its colonies from being cut off from the interior.
This has resulted in the annexation of three great tracts--one reaching
from the Orange River and Griqualand up to the Zambezi, and circling
round three sides of the Transvaal Republic; a second round Lake
Nyassa; a third further north, including a slip of coast about Mombasa
and Witu, and running up inland to the great equatorial lakes which
feed the Nile, so as to include the kingdom of Uganda. At the same
time the Niger Company has been allowed to establish a protectorate
over the lower valley of that great river, where a colony is being
built up which throws into the shade the old pestilential seaports at
Sierra Leone and on the Gold Coast, which were once the only British
possessions in Guinea. The annals of South Africa from the day of the
Jameson raid (December 29, 1895) onward have possessed so much more
than local importance, that they will be found recorded in the general
chapter dealing with the closing years of Queen Victoria.
[Sidenote: =Upper and Lower Canada.=]
The history of the British colonies in North America is of a very
different character from that of British South Africa. We have spoken
in an earlier page of the gallant aid which the colonists gave to
England in her struggle with the United States during the years
1812-15. When the excitement of this war had died down, there arose a
slowly increasing estrangement between the two provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada; the English settlers of the former and the old French
_habitans_ of the latter were separated from each other by race,
language, religion, and prejudices. They were, moreover, administered
as wholly different colonies. Gradually a dangerous spirit developed
itself among the French Canadians, who complained that their governors
and officials were unsympathetic, and chafed against the limited
self-government allowed them by Pitt's Canada Act of 1791. Even some of
the settlers of the Upper Province expressed disloyal sentiments on
this latter grievance, and spoke of asking for annexation to the United
States.
[Sidenote: =The Canadian rebellion.=]
This discontent took shape in the Canadian rebellion of 1837, a
movement almost entirely confined to the French-speaking districts,
and easily suppressed by the loyalists, aided by a few British troops.
After investigating the grievances which had led to the rising, the
Home Government resolved to unite the two provinces into a single
colony, that the French districts might be more closely linked to and
controlled by the English. At the same time a more liberal measure of
self-government was conceded. The constitution for the future comprised
an elective Lower House and an Upper House of life-members, who stood
to the governor much as the two Houses of the English Parliament stand
to the Queen (1840).
[Sidenote: =Canadian federation.=]
The most important event in the history of British North America has
been the federation of all its colonies into the single "Dominion
of Canada" in the years 1867-1871. The danger which the British
possessions had experienced during the threatened war with the
United States in 1862 and the Fenian invasions of 1866-7 impelled
the provinces towards the union which gives strength. Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, consented to
federate themselves with Canada. Only the remote and thinly populated
fishing-station of Newfoundland has preferred to remain outside the
alliance. The four other colonies send deputies to the Dominion
Parliament, which meets at Ottawa, though they retain for local
purposes provincial legislatures of their own.
[Sidenote: =The Canadian Pacific Railway.=]
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, so that free
communication exists across the whole continent from Nova Scotia to
British Columbia. Since then the broad plains between the great lakes
and the Rocky Mountains are being rapidly peopled. The old settlement
of Manitoba and the newer provinces of Assinboia, Saskatchewan, and
Alberta are all being put under the plough or turned into cattle runs.
[Sidenote: =Imperial federation.=]
Our general survey of the history of the British colonial empire
brings us to the topic which will be all-important in the twentieth
century--the practicability of Imperial Federation. At the present
moment the Crown is the only formal link between the many colonies
and possessions over which the Union Jack floats. Is a closer
connection desirable, and practicable? May we look forward to a firm
and well-compacted league of all the British lands? Such a union might
almost control the world, but it is hard to bring about. First among
the difficulties in the way is the doubt whether Great Britain would
ever allow herself to be outvoted by her colonies in an Imperial
Parliament, and whether Canada would submit to the dictation of
Australia, or Australia to the dictation of South Africa, in matters
where their interests clashed. Next comes the question of free trade
and protection. Most of the colonies are zealously protectionist
in spirit, and as a condition of federation they would probably
demand that the mother country should give their goods a preference
over those of foreign states, by means of a revised customs tariff.
A third set of objections turn on the likelihood of the colonies
refusing to countenance the purely European policy of England. A
fourth and formidable question is the place which India would have
to take in the confederacy; she is not yet fit for self-government
and equal partnership with the rest. If she were, the votes of her
250,000,000 inhabitants would swamp those of all the other members of
the league. Yet none of these difficulties appear wholly insuperable.
The idea of federation is in the air both in Great Britain and in her
daughter-states. The day has long gone by when a not inconsiderable
number of English statesmen looked forward to the time when the
colonies should, as it was phrased, "cut the painter" and steer their
own course. The consciousness of common origin and interests grows
stronger; the interdependence of the mother country and her colonies is
more realized; the development of rapid communication by sea and land
makes the distance between the various British communities in different
hemispheres less felt as every year rolls by. Facts like the splendid
aid granted by all the colonies for the late South African War, speak
for themselves. But there are still difficulties in the way. If local
jealousies prevail, and the English-speaking peoples drift asunder,
each must be content to play a comparatively unimportant part in the
annals of the twentieth century. If, on the other hand, the project of
federation can be worked out to a successful end, the future of the
world lies in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon race.
FOOTNOTES:
[69] See pp. 692, 693.
[70] See p. 739.
[71] See p. 713.
INDEX.
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), treaty of, 510
Abdullah, the Khalifa, crushed by Lord Kitchener, 726
Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, his victories in Egypt, 594
Aberdeen, Lord, joins the Whigs, 667;
prime minister, 681;
engages in Crimean war, 684;
resigns, 689
Abyssinian war, the, 705, 706
Acre, captured by Richard I., 117;
besieged by Bonaparte, 592;
taken by the English, 661
Addington, Henry, prime minister, 596;
resigns, 603;
frames the "Six Acts," 640;
resigns again, 641
Adrian IV., Pope, grants Ireland to Henry II., 99
Aelfthryth, Queen, murders Edward the Martyr, 52
Aella, South Saxon king, 15
----, Northumbrian king, slain by Danes, 36
Aethelbald, King of Wessex, 36
Aethelbert, King of Kent, 23;
converted by Augustine, 24
----, King of Wessex, 36
Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred, subdues the Danes, 45
Aethelfrith, King of Northumbria, 19
Aethelred, King of Wessex, defeats the Danes, 37
---- the Redeless, 52;
raises Danegelt, 53;
deposed and recalled, 54
Aethelstan, King of England, 45;
beats the Danes at Brunanburgh, 46
Aethelwulf, King of Wessex, 34;
his Danish wars, 35, 36
Afghan war, the first, 724, 725;
the second, 733
Africa, S., English in, 724, 725, 727-733, 752-754
Agincourt, battle of, 224
Agricola, Julius, governor of Britain, 6
Aidan, St., Bishop of York, 27
_Alabama_, case of the, 697;
arbitration concerning, 707, 708
Alberoni, Cardinal, aids Jacobites, 490
Albert of Saxe-Coburg (the Prince Consort) marries Queen Victoria, 661
Albuera, battle of, 620
Alcuin at court of Charles the Great, 29
Alexander II., Pope, encourages William I. to invade England, 62
Alexander III., Pope, reconciled with Henry II., 109
---- VI., Pope, 289
Alexander I. of Russia, 595;
his wars with Napoleon, 608, 610, 623, 624
---- II. of Russia, his war with England, 690;
conquers Turkey, 710
Alfred, his wars with the Danes, 37, 39;
his government, 40-42;
greatness of, 43
----, son of Aethelred II., murdered, 56
Alma, battle of the, 685
Almanza, battle of, 470
America, English explorers in, 333;
English settlements in, 361;
wars with French in, 511, 519-521, 527-529.
_See under_ Canada and United States
American Colonies, disputes with the, 540-544
---- war of Independence, 546-552
Amherst, Lord, Viceroy of India, 739
Amiens, Mise of, 141
----, Peace of, 596
Angles, settlements of, in Britain, 14-16
Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II., 207
---- Neville, married to Prince Edward, 257;
married to Richard III., 263;
death of, 269
---- Boleyn, marries Henry VIII., 294;
divorced and executed, 300
---- of Cleves, married to and divorced by Henry VIII., 304
----, Queen, 461;
ruled by Lady Churchill, 461;
dismisses her, 475;
death, 480
----, Duchess of Brittany, 274-275
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 84;
withstands William II., 85;
disputes with Henry I., 89
Anson, Commodore, voyage of, 511
Antoninus, wall of, 8
Appellants, Lords, rising of, 208;
punished by Richard II., 210
Aquitaine, united to England by Henry II., 97;
rebellions in, 109, 121, 139;
seized by Philip the Fair, 163;
recovered, 168;
enlarged by Edward III., 194;
falls away, 198;
lost by Henry VI., 244
Arabi Pasha stirs up rebellion in Egypt, 713
Argyle, Archibald, Earl of, leader of the Covenanters, 395;
execution of, 421
----, Archibald, Marquis of, rebellion and execution of, 437
----, John, Duke of, at death-bed of Queen Anne, 480;
wins battle of Sheriffmuir, 489
Armada, the Spanish, 337-339
Armagnac faction in France, 218, 222, 226
Armed Neutrality, the, 595
Arthur, legendary hero of Britain, 13
---- of Brittany, 111;
his claims on England, 122;
murdered by John, 124
----, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII., marriage and death of, 280
Asaf-ud-Dowlab, Nawab of Oude, his dealings with Warren
Hastings, 568, 569
Ashdown, battle of, 37
Assaye, battle of, 604
Auckland, Lord, Viceroy of India, his Afghan war, 740, 741
Augustine, St., converts Kent, 23, 24
Aulus Plautius, Roman general, 5
Austerlitz, battle of, 608
Australia, British settlement in, 565;
history of the colonies of, 750-752
Austria, allied to William III., 447;
engages in war of Spanish Succession, 463, 477;
aided by England, 500-510;
wars of, with Frederic the Great, 522-537;
with French Republic, 579-594;
with Napoleon, 608-625;
wars of, in Italy, 670, 695;
with Prussia, 705
Austrian Succession, war of the, 500
Babington, Anthony, his plot against Elizabeth, 336
Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam, 343;
impeached, 359
Baeda (Venerable Bede), 29
Balaclava, battle of, 687
Ball, John, Lollard preacher, 204, 206
Balliol, Edward, wins and loses Scottish throne, 182, 183
----, John, claims Scottish throne, 160;
his reign, 162, 163;
deposed by Edward I., 164
Bank of England founded, 456;
panic at, in 1797, 586
Bannockburn, battle of, 176
Bantry Bay, French fleet at, 588
Barbados colonized, 361
Bareilly, battle of, 732
Barnet, battle of, 258
Barons' war, the, 141-145
Bartholemew, St., Massacre of, 332
Bastille, storming of the, 576
Bastwick, John, cruel sentence on, 369
Bavaria, Charles, Elector of, claimant for the empire, 500
Bavaria, Joseph, Prince of, claims crown of Spain, 457, 458
----, Maximilian, Elector of, defeated by Marlborough, 466
Baylen, capitulation of, 614
Beaufort, family of, 217.
_See under_ Somerset, Dukes of
----, Cardinal, quarrels with Humphrey of Gloucester, 233;
advocates peace, 238;
dies, 240
Beaugé, battle of, 229
Becket, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, 100;
quarrels with Henry II., 101, 102;
exiled, 103, 104;
murdered, 105
Bedford, John, Duke of, regent of France, 231;
his victories, 233;
foiled by Jeanne d'Arc, 236, 237;
dies, 239
----, Russell, Duke of, minister of George III., 538, 539
Benevolences, raised by Edward IV., 261;
by Richard III., 269;
by Henry VIII., 288;
by Charles I., 364
Bentinck, Lord George, leader of Protectionists, 667, 680
----, Lord William, Governor-general of India, 739, 740
----, William, Duke of Portland, 609
Bermuda colonized, 361
Bible translated into English, 302
Bigod, Roger, Earl of Norfolk, resists Edward I., 166
Black Death, the, 189
---- Hole of Calcutta, the, 523
---- Prince, the. _See_ Edward the Black Prince
Bladensburg, battle of, 627
Blake, Admiral, defeats the Dutch, 409;
defeats Spaniards, 413
Blenheim, battle of, 466, 467
Blücher, Marshal, commands Prussians at Ligny and Waterloo, 628, 629
Boadicea. _See_ Boudicca
Boleyn. _See_ Anne
Bolingbroke, Henry of. _See_ Henry IV.
----, Henry St. John, Viscount of, minister under Queen Anne, 479;
Jacobite intrigues of, 480;
joins the Pretender, 486
Bonaparte, Jerome, King of Westphalia, 610
----, Joseph, King of Naples, 609;
of Spain, 613-625
----, Louis, King of Holland, 609;
dethroned, 622
----, Louis Napoleon. _See_ Napoleon III.
----, Napoleon. _See_ Napoleon I.
Bonner, Bishop, opposes Reformation, 308, 309;
persecutes Protestants, 319
Boscawen, Admiral, wins victory of Lagos, 526
Boston, riots in, 543, 545;
besieged and taken by Washington, 546, 547
Bothwell Brig, battle of, 433
----, James Hepburn, Earl of, murders
Darnley, 327;
marries Mary, Queen of Scots, 328
Boudicca, Queen, rebellion of, 6
Bouvines, battle of, 128
Boyne, battle of the, 451
Bradshaw, John, regicide, 401
Bramham Moor, battle of, 217
Breda, Declaration of, 419
----, Peace of, 428
Bretigny, Treaty of, 194
Bretwalda, meaning of title, 23
Britain, early inhabitants of, 1;
conquered by Romans, 5
Britons, occupy England and Wales, 2
Brittany, under Henry II., 106;
wars of Edward III. in, 186;
of Henry VII. in, 274
Broad Church Party, the, 677
Brooklyn, battle of, 547
Brougham, Henry Lord, chancellor, 648;
resigns, 657
Bruce, Edward, King of Ireland, 177
----, Robert, claims Scottish throne, 160;
slays Comyn, 168;
King of Scotland, 170;
wars with Edward II., 172-174;
victorious at Bannockburn, 176;
invades England, 177, 180
Brunanburgh, battle of, 46
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, favourite of James I., 357;
his journey to Madrid, 360;
minister of Charles I., 363;
Rochelle expedition of, 364;
assassinated, 365
----, George, Duke of, minister of Charles II., 428
Buller, Sir R., defeats of, in S. Africa, 729, 730
Bunker's Hill, battle of, 546
Burgundy, Chas., Duke of, aids Edward IV., 258;
quarrels with him, 262
----, Philip, Duke of, allied to the English, 228, 233;
joins the French, 238
Burke, Edmund, advocates reform, 544;
speeches on French revolution, 577, 578;
joins Pitt, 580
Burleigh, Robert Cecil, Lord, minister of Elizabeth, 326;
dies, 348
Burmah, first war with, 739;
second war with, 743
Bute, John, Earl of, minister of George III., 535;
concludes peace of Paris, 537;
resigns, 538
Buxar, battle of, 566
Byng, Admiral, George, wins battle of Cape Passaro, 490
----, Admiral, John, fails at Minorca, 523;
executed, 523
Byron, George, Lord, joins Greeks, 643
Cabal, the, 428
Cabinet government, beginning of, 483
Cabul, British disaster at, 740, 741;
taken by General Roberts, 749
Cade, Jack, rebellion of, 242
Cadiz, Drake's expedition to, 337;
taken by Essex, 341
Cæsar, Julius, invades Britain, 4
Calais, captured by Edward III., 188;
lost under Mary, 321
Calder, Admiral, defeats Villeneuve off Finesterre, 606
Calendar, reform of the, 543
Cambridge, Richard, Earl of, conspires against Henry V., 222
Camden, battle of, 550
Campeggio, Cardinal, Papal legate to Henry VIII., 291, 292
Camperdown, battle of, 587
Campo Formio, treaty of, 585
Canada, French and English struggle for, 526, 529;
invaded by Americans, 626;
subsequent history of, 735
Canning, George, his war-policy, 614;
takes office under Lord Liverpool, 641;
his foreign policy, 643;
prime minister, 644
----, George, Lord, Governor-General of India, 744;
Viceroy, 748
Cape Colony, annexed by Britain, 631;
subsequent history of, 752, 753
Carausius, Emperor, in Britain, 11
Carnatic, the, wars of Clive in, 518, 519;
annexed by Wellesley, 594
Caroline of Anspach, Queen of George II., her influence, 495
---- of Brunswick, wife of George IV., 628;
quarrels with her husband, 641
Carpenter, General, wins battle of Preston, 488;
of Glenshiel, 490
Carteret, George Granville, Lord, minister of George II., 499;
his war-policy, 501;
at Congress of Worms, 502;
his fall, 503
Cassivelaunus, British chief, 4
Castlereagh, Viscount, reactionary policy of, 637;
frames the "Six Acts," 640;
commits suicide, 641
Catesby, William, favourite of Richard III., 270;
executed, 271
----, Thomas, frames Gunpowder Plot, 354
Catherine of France, marries Henry V., 228
---- of Aragon, married to Arthur, Prince of Wales, 280;
to Henry VIII., 291;
divorced by him, 294
---- Howard, married to Henry VIII., 304;
divorced and executed, 305
---- Parr, married to Henry VIII., 305
---- of Portugal, Queen of Charles II., 425
Cato Street conspiracy, 640
Cawnpore, massacre at, 747;
battle of, 748
Ceadda (St. Chad) converts Mercia, 27
Ceawlin, King of Wessex, 18
Cecil. _See_ Burleigh and Salisbury
Celts conquer Britain, 2
Cerdic, first King of Wessex, 16
Cetewayo, Zulu king, conquered, 753
Charles I., his journey to Madrid, 360;
accession of, 362;
character and policy of, 362-364;
his disputes with Parliament, 364-377;
misgovernment of, 366-370;
defeated by Scots, 371, 372;
engages in the Civil War, 379-396;
a prisoner, 396;
his intrigues, 396-399;
tried and executed, 401
---- II., in Scotland, 404;
defeated at Worcester, 405;
accession of, 420;
allied to France, 429;
unconstitutional rule of, 430-434;
dies, 435
---- Edward, Prince (the Young Pretender), invades Scotland, 504;
his successes, 505, 506;
defeated, 508;
dies, 509
---- V., King of France, his wars with England, 197, 198, 202
---- VI., King of France, miserable reign of, 218;
his madness, 228;
dies, 232
---- VII. of France, murders John of Burgundy, 228;
proclaimed king, 232;
crowned by Jeanne d'Arc, 235
---- VIII. of France, his wars with Henry VII., 274, 275
---- IX. of France, orders Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 332
---- X. of France, deposed, 647
Charles V., Emperor, allied to Henry VIII., 286;
his wars in Italy, 291;
abdication of, 320
---- VI., Emperor (Archduke Charles), claims the Spanish crown, 458;
becomes Emperor, 477;
dies, 500
---- VII., Emperor, his wars with Austria, 500-502
Charles II. of Spain, declares Philip of Anjou his heir, 458
---- III. of Spain, makes war on England, 535, 548
---- IV. of Spain, deposed by Napoleon, 613
Charles XII. of Sweden, his dealings with Marlborough, 470;
supports the Jacobites, 490
Charlotte, Princess, marriage and death of, 639
Charter, the Great, 130, 131;
confirmed by Edward I., 166
Chartist agitation, 660, 663, 670
Chatham, first Earl of. _See_ William Pitt
----, second Earl of, his expedition to Walcheren, 618
Chicheley, Archbishop, urges war with France, 221
Chillianwallah, battle of, 743
China, first war with, 661;
second war with, 693
Christianity, in early Britain, 13;
brought to the Saxons by Augustine, 23, 24;
in northern Britain, 25, 27
Churchill. _See_ Marlborough
Clarence, Edward of, Earl of Warwick, beheaded by Henry VII., 277
----, George, Duke of, conspires against Edward IV., 256;
executed, 263
----, Thomas, Duke of, slain at Beaugé, 229
----, William, Duke of. _See_ William IV.
Clarendon, Constitutions of, 102
----, Edward Hyde, Lord, minister of Charles II., 425;
his fall, 428
Claudius, Emperor, invades Britain, 5
Claverhouse, John Graham of, Viscount Dundee, leads Scottish
Jacobites, 448
Clement VII., Pope, his action on the divorce of Henry VIII., 291-294
_Clericis Laicos_, the Bull, 165
Clive, Robert Lord, his victories in British India, 519;
conquers Bengal, 530;
his second governorship in Bengal, 566
Clyde, Colin Campbell, Lord, in Crimea, 684;
suppresses Indian Mutiny, 748
Cnut, his war with Eadmund Ironside, 54;
his reign, 55
Coalition Ministry, the, 558;
its fall, 559
Cobden, Richard, Free Trader, 666
Cobham's plot, 354
Codrington, Admiral, wins battle of Navarino, 643
Colonies, rise of, under Elizabeth, 341;
under James I., 361;
history of the. _See under_ Canada, Australia, etc.
Columba, St., founds abbey of Iona, 26
Commonwealth, the, proclaimed, 403;
history of the, 403-419
Comyn, John, Regent of Scotland, 168;
slain by Bruce, 169
_Confirmatio Cartarum_, the, 166
Conservatives, name adopted by Tories, 656
Consols, creation of the, 513
Constance of Brittany, marries Geoffrey Plantagenet, 104
Constantine, Roman emperor, 11
----, King of Scots, 46
Conventicle Act, the, 424
Convention Parliament, the first, 421;
the second, 445
Convention, the French, 579;
declares war on England, 581
Cook, Captain, his discoveries, 752
Coote, Sir Eyre, wins battle of Wandewash, 531;
battle of Porto Novo, 569
Cope, Sir John, defeated at Prestonpans, 508
Copenhagen, battle of, 595
Coroners first instituted, 122
Corn Laws, the, 635;
repeal of the, 667
Cornwallis, Lord, his campaigns in America, 550, 551;
Governor-General of India, 571, 572;
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 590
Corporation Act, the, 424
Corporations, reform of the, 654
Cotton Famine, the, 697
Courtenays, Earls of Devon. _See_ Devon
Covenant, the Scottish, 371
Covenanters, the, 371;
allied with Parliamentarians, 378;
risings of, in Scotland, 433;
join William of Orange, 448
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, counsels Henry VIII.'s divorce, 293;
favours Protestantism, 302;
compiles the Prayer-book, 309;
deposed by Mary, 316;
burnt, 320
Crécy, battle of, 187, 188
Crimea, invasion of, 685. _See_ Russian War
Cromwell, Oliver, member for Huntingdon, 365;
his ability as cavalry leader, 387;
at Marston Moor, 390;
at Naseby, 395;
wins battle of Preston, 400;
campaign in Ireland, 403;
campaign of Dunbar and Worcester, 405;
character, 406;
dissolves the Rump, 410;
his rule as Protector, 412, 416
----, Richard, Protector, 416;
resigns, 417
----, Thomas, minister of Henry VIII., 293;
favours reformers, 302;
disgraced and executed, 304
Crusade, the first, 84;
the third, 111, 116
Culloden, battle of, 508
Cumberland, Ernest, Duke of, King of Hanover, 659
----, George, Duke of, defeated at Fontenoy, 503;
wins battle of Culloden, 508;
defeated at Lawfeldt, 510;
capitulates at Closter-Seven, 525
----, conquered by William II., 83
Cumbria, kingdom of. _See_ Strathclyde
Cunobelinus (Cymbeline), British king, 5
Dalhousie, Lord, Governor-General of India, 743;
his annexations, 744
Danby, Thomas Osborne, Lord, minister of Charles II., 431;
impeached, 431;
invites William of Orange, 442;
minister of William III., 455
Danegelt, raised by Aethelred, 53;
by William I., 78;
abolished by Henry II., 101
Danelagh, the, 40;
conquered by Edward the Elder, 45
Danes, incursions of, 32;
settle in England, 35;
conquer Northumbria, 36;
conquer Mercia, 38;
wars of, with Alfred, 39, 41;
conquered by Edward the Elder, 45;
conciliated by Eadgar, 49, 50;
invade England under Swegen, 53;
oppose William I., 70
Darien Scheme, the, 472
David I., King of Scotland, aids Queen Matilda, 73
---- II., King of Scotland, expelled by Balliol, 182;
defeated at Neville's Cross, 189;
prisoner in England, 193;
released, 195
Declaration of Right, the, 446
Delhi, captured by British, 604;
siege of, during mutiny, 746;
Durbar at, 750
Deorham, battle of, 18
Derby, Edward Stanley, Earl of, prime minister in 1852, 680;
in 1858, 694;
in 1866, 703
Dermot of Leinster, introduces English into Ireland, 107
Derry, siege of, 450
Derwentwater, Earl, Jacobite leader, 487-489
Desmond, Garrett, Earl of, rebellion of, 346
Despencer, Hugh, favourite of Edward II., 177-179
Dettingen, battle of, 502
Devon, John, Earl of, beheaded by Edward IV., 253;
Edward, Earl of, conspires against Queen Mary, 317
Directory, proclaimed in France, 584;
fall of, 593
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, leads Protectionists,
666, 667;
minister under Lord Derby, 680;
his Reform Bills, 694, 703;
prime minister, 705;
second ministry of, 709;
at Congress of Berlin, 711;
loses office, 712;
dies, 716
Divine Right of kings, 351
Domesday Book, 70-78
Douglas, James, the Black, invades England, 180
----, Archibald, Earl of, captured at Homildon, 216;
at Shrewsbury, 216
Dover, riot at, 58;
naval battle of, 135;
treaty of, 429
Drake, Sir Francis, his voyages, 334, 335;
expedition of Cadiz, 337;
to South America, 341
Druids, the, 4
Dudley, Edmund, minister of Henry VII., 273;
beheaded, 283
----, Lord Guilford, marries Lady Jane Grey, 312;
beheaded, 318
----. _See_ Northumberland and Leicester
Dunbar, victory of Edward I. at, 164;
victory of Cromwell at, 405
Dundee. _See_ Claverhouse
Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, his reforms, 47, 48;
exiled by Eadwig, 48;
archbishop and prime minister, 49;
exiled, 52
Dupleix, his career in Southern India, 512, 518;
recalled, 519
Eadgar, King of England, 48;
his prosperous reign, 49, 50
---- the Etheling, 61;
proclaimed king, 67;
risings in favour of, 69, 70
Eadmund (St.), King of East Anglia, martyred by Danes, 36
---- I., King of England, his reign, 47
---- II., Ironside, his wars with Cnut, 54
Eadred, King of England, his reign, 47
Eadric Streona, favourite of Aethelred II., 53;
his treachery, 54, 55
Eadric the Wild, his rebellion, 69
Eadwig, King of England, his reign, 48
Eadwine, King of Northumbria, 25;
slain at Heathfield, 26
----, Earl of Mercia, 60, 63, 64;
rebels against William I., 71
Ecclesiastical courts, founded by William I., 76;
claims of, urged by Becket, 101;
their powers restricted by Edward I., 150;
under Charles I., 369;
abolished, 374;
revived by James II., 440
Ecclesiastical Titles Act, the, 679
Ecgbert, King of Wessex, 31;
suzerain of all Britain, 32;
defeats the Danes, 34
Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria, slain by the Picts, 29
Edgehill, battle of, 383, 384
Education Act, the, 707
Edward the Elder, King of England, 44;
his victorious campaigns, 45
---- the Martyr, his reign and murder, 51
---- the Confessor, accession of, 57;
reign of, 58-61
---- I., at battle of Lewis, 142;
wins battle of Evesham, 146;
at the Crusades, 147;
King of England, 148;
character and policy of, 149-153;
conquers Wales, 153-157;
arbiter in Scotland, 159, 162;
war with France, 162;
his conflicts with the Church, 165;
with the barons, 165;
invades Scotland, 164, 168;
dies, 170
---- II. of Carnarvon, Prince of Wales, 157;
King of England, 171;
disastrous reign of, 173-178;
deposed and murdered, 179
---- III., King of England, 179;
crushes Mortimer, 181;
wins battle of Halidon Hill, 182;
his first war with France, 183-194;
contest with Parliament, 186;
misfortunes of his later years, 197-200
---- IV., Earl of March, leads Yorkists, 252;
proclaimed king, 253;
victorious at Towton, 254;
marriage of, 255;
his struggle with Warwick, 256, 257;
regains his throne, 258;
dies, 264
---- V., his short reign and death, 264-268
---- VI., birth of, 303; accession of, 308;
his reign, 308-312;
dies, 313
---- the Black Prince, at Crécy, 188;
his victory at Poictiers, 191, 192;
his wars in Spain, 196;
long illness and death of, 197
----, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI., born, 248;
married to Anne Neville, 257;
slain at Tewkesbury, 258
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Richard III., dies, 269
Egypt, Bonaparte in, 591;
taken by English, 595;
English interference in, 661;
under Ismail, 709;
conquered by Lord Wolseley, 713, 714
Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of Henry II., 97;
incites her sons to rebellion, 109;
supports King John, 122, 123
---- of Provence, queen of Henry III., 136
---- of Castille, queen of Edward I., 148
Eliot, Sir John, opposes Charles I., 365;
imprisoned, 366
Elizabeth Woodville, marries Edward IV., 255;
claims regency, 264
---- of York, heiress of Edward IV., 269;
marries Henry VII., 273
----, Queen, birth of, 294;
imprisoned by Mary, 320;
accession, 322;
religious policy of, 323-326;
troubles with Mary of Scotland, 327, 328;
foreign policy, 330;
her prosperous rule, 333;
war with Spain, 335, 341;
the "Elizabethan Age," 343-349;
her Irish policy, 345;
dies, 348
----, daughter of James I., marries Elector Palatine, 358
Ellenborough, Lord, Governor-General of India, 741
Elliot, General, defends Gibraltar, 552
Emancipation, Catholic, Pitt's scheme for, 590, 591;
vetoed by George III., 596;
again, 609;
granted by Wellington, 646
Emmet, Robert, his rebellion, 603
Empson, Richard, minister of Henry VII., 273;
beheaded by Henry VIII., 283
English, coming of the, to Britain, 14;
social organization of the, 20, 21;
religion of the, 22;
receive Christianity, 23
Enniskillen, siege of, 451
Essex, kingdom of East Saxons, 16
----, Robert Devereux, Earl of, his expedition to Cadiz, 341;
to Ireland, 347;
his intrigues and execution, 348
----, Robert Devereux, second Earl of, his divorce, 356;
leader of Parliamentarians, 379;
at Edgehill, 383, 384;
at Newbury, 387;
capitulates at Lostwithiel, 392;
removed by "Self-denying Ordinance," 393
----, Frances, Countess of, poisons Sir T. Overbury, 356
Ethandun, battle of, 39
Eugéne of Savoy, commands Austrian army, 463;
joins Marlborough before Blenheim, 456;
his campaigns in Italy, 469-470
Eustace of Boulogne, 58
Evesham, battle of, 145, 146
Excise Bill of Walpole, 495
Exclusion Bill, the, 433, 434
Exeter, taken by West Saxons, 31;
taken by William I., 69;
besieged by Warbeck, 276
----, Henry Courtenay, Marquis of, beheaded by Henry VIII., 301
Eylau, battle of, 610
Factory Acts, the, 675
Fairfax, Ferdinand, Lord, Parliamentary general, 386
----, Sir Thomas, besieged in Hull, 386;
wins battle of Nantwich, 390;
at Marston Moor, 391;
leader of the "New Model," 393;
wins Naseby fight, 395;
suppresses Royalist risings, 400;
refuses to try the king, 401;
resigns, 404
Falkirk, victory of Edward I. at, 168;
of Charles Edward at, 508
Falkland, Lord, slain at Newbury, 387
Family compact, the, 496
Fashoda difficulty, the, 726, 727
Fawkes, Guy, his plot, 354
Fenians, the, their outrages, 704, 705
Fenwick, Sir John, conspires against William III., 456
Ferdinand of Aragon, allied to Henry VII., 279, 280
---- of Brunswick, wins battle of Crefeldt, 526;
of Minden, 527
---- VII. of Spain, kidnapped by Napoleon, 613
Ferozeshah, battle of, 742
Feudalism, character of English, after the Conquest, 72
Finan, St., Bishop of York, 27
Fire, the Great, of London, 427
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, executed by Henry VIII., 295
Fitzgerald, Garrett, rebellion of, 346
----, Lord Edward, heads "United Irishmen," 588;
slain, 589
"Five Boroughs," the, of Mercia, 38, 39;
conquered by Edward the Elder, 44
Five Mile Act, the, 424
Flambard, Ralf, minister of William II., 84
Flanders, alliance of Edward III. with, 184, 185;
English trade with, 195;
commercial treaty with, 279;
campaigns of Marlborough in, 468-472
Fontenoy, battle of, 503, 504
Formigny, battle of, 242
Fornham, battle of, 110
Forster, Thomas, leads Jacobite rising, 487;
defeated at Preston, 488
"Forty-Five, the," 504-508
Fox, Charles James, character of, 556;
his coalition with North, 557;
his India Bill, 558;
resigns, 559;
approves of French Revolution, 577, 581;
takes office with Grenville, 608;
dies, 609
Francis I. of France, 286, 287;
at Field of Cloth of Gold, 288;
wars of, with Henry VIII., 305
Francis II. of France, married to Mary, Queen of Scots, 310
Francis I., Emperor, 510
---- II., Emperor, makes war on France, 578;
surrenders imperial title, 608;
_See under_ Austria
----, Sir Philip, his "Letters of Junius," 567;
opposes Warren Hastings, 570
Fraternity, edict of, 579
Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor, goes on third crusade, 116
---- II. of Prussia, in war of Austrian Succession, 500, 502-510;
in Seven Years' war, 522, 537;
his victories of Rossbach and Leuthen, 525;
estranged from England, 537, 549
---- William III. of Prussia, his wars with Napoleon, 610, 631
Free Trade, advocated by William Pitt, 563;
by Huskisson, 642;
by Peel, 666
Frobisher, Martin, his voyages, 334
Fuentes d'Onoro, battle of, 620
Fyrd, the old English militia, 42
Gael, the, conquer Scotland and Ireland, 2
Gage, General, besieged in Boston, 546
Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester, imprisoned by Somerset, 309;
restored by Mary, 316
Gates, General, defeats Burgoyne, 548;
defeated by Cornwallis, 556
Gaveston, Piers, favourite of Edward II., 171;
slain, 174
Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, son of Henry II., 106, 111
---- Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, father of Henry II., 91, 93
George I., his character and policy, 482;
his reign, 480-494
---- II., his quarrels with his father, 483;
accession, 495;
his campaigns in Germany, 501;
victorious at Dettingen, 502;
dies, 531
---- III., accession of, 532;
his character and policy, 533, 534;
his struggles with the Whigs, 533, 538, 541, 543;
his American policy, 549;
action on the India Bill, 549;
vetoes Catholic Emancipation, 596;
his madness, 596;
final quarrel with the Whigs, 609;
renewed madness, 622;
dies, 641
---- IV., character of, 564;
his regency, 622;
abandons the Whigs, 638;
accession of, 641;
his quarrels with Queen Caroline, 641;
dies, 647
----, Prince of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne, deserts James
II., 443;
his character, 461
Gerberoi, battle of, 77
Ghuznee, stormed by the English, 740
Gibraltar, won by the English, 468;
great siege of, 532
Ginckel, General, commander in Ireland, 452
Gladstone, William E., a Peelite, 667;
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 698;
prime minister, 705;
his ministry, 706-709;
speeches on Bulgarian atrocities, 710;
second ministry of, 712-716;
introduces Home Rule, 717;
its rejection, 717;
his last ministry, 721;
fails to pass his second Home Rule Bill, 722;
dies, 726
Glencoe, massacre of, 453
Glenshiel, battle of, 490
Gloucester, taken by the Saxons, 18;
besieged by Charles I., 387
----, Gilbert (1) de Clare, Earl of, overthrows De Montfort, 145, 149
----, Gilbert (2) de Clare, Earl of, slain at Bannockburn, 175
----, Thomas, Duke of, rises against Richard II., 207;
dismissed from power, 209;
murdered, 210
----, Humphrey, Duke of, Protector of Henry VI., 231;
his expedition to Hainault, 232;
his war-policy, 238, 239;
dies, 240
----, Richard, Duke of. _See_ Richard III.
----, William, Duke of, son of Queen Anne, dies, 459
Glyndower, Owen, his rebellion against Henry IV., 214-216
Goderich, Lord, prime minister, 644
Godolphin, Lord, prime minister, 462;
his alliance with Marlborough, 472;
prosecutes Sacheverell, 474;
dismissed, 475
Godwine, Earl of Wessex, 55, 56, 57;
exiled, 58;
restored, 59
Gondomar, Spanish ambassador, 358
Gordon, Lord George, stirs up riots in London, 551
----, Charles George, General, his defence of Khartoum and
death, 714, 715
Goring, George, Lord, Cavalier general, 390;
defeated by Fairfax, 396
Gough, Hugh, Lord, commands against the Sikhs, 742, 743
Grafton, Augustus Fitzroy, Duke of, his ministry, 539-541;
American policy of, 542
Grand Remonstrance, the, 377
Great Council, the, under William I., 75
Greek war of independence, 642, 643
Gregory I., Pope, sends Augustine to England, 23
---- VII., Pope, quarrel of, with William I., 76
Grenville, George, prime minister, 538;
prosecutes Wilkes, 539;
his American policy, 539
----, William, Lord, prime minister, 608;
defeated on Catholic question, 609;
abolishes slave-trade, 609
Grey, Lady Jane, marries Guildford Dudley, 312;
proclaimed queen, 313;
imprisoned, 315;
executed, 317
Grey, Charles, Lord, leader of Whigs, 638;
prime minister, 648;
carries Reform Bill, 650;
his Poor Law, 654;
resigns, 656
----, John de, favourite of John, 125
----, Lord Leonard, his conquests in Ireland, 302
Griqualand, diamond-fields of, 753
Guesclin, Bertram du, prisoner at Navarette, 196;
his successes, 198
Gunpowder Plot, the, 354
Guthrum, Danish chief, 37, 39;
his treaty with Alfred, 40
Guzerat, battle of, 743
Gwalior, stormed by British, 568;
battle of, 748
Gwynedd, Welsh kingdom of, 18, 26, 59, 83;
conquered by Edward I., 156
Habeas Corpus Act, passed, 433;
suspended by Pitt, 580
Hadrian, Emperor, visits Britain, his wall, 7
Haider Ali, his wars with the British, 568, 569
Hale's Case, 439
Halidon Hill, battle of, 182
Hamilton, William, Duke of, invades England, 399;
defeated at Preston, 400
Hampden, John, opposes Charles I., 365;
refuses to pay ship-money, 369;
killed at Chalgrove, 386
Hampton Court Conference, the, 352, 353
Hanover, House of, become kings of England, 482
----, electorate of, overrun by French, 525;
separated from England, 659
Harald Hardrada, slain at Stamford Bridge, 63
Hardinge, Henry, Lord, Governor-General of India, 742
Harfleur, siege of, by Henry V., 223
Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford. _See_ Oxford
Harold, son of Cnut, King of England, 56
----, son of Godwine, minister of Edward the Confessor, 58;
his oath to William of Normandy, 59;
King of England, 61;
defeats Hardrada, 63;
slain at Hastings, 65
Harthacnut, King of England, 56
Hastenbeck, battle of, 525
Hastings, battle of, 65
----, Francis, Marquis of, Governor-General of India, his Pindaree
and Mahratta wars, 738, 739
----, William, Lord, executed by Richard III., 266
----, Warren, Governor-General of India, 567;
his Mahratta and Mysore wars, 569;
his impeachment and acquittal, 570, 571
Havelock, General, at Cawnpore and Lucknow, 747, 748
Hawke, Admiral, wins battle of Quiberon, 527
Hawkins, Sir John, American explorer, 333
Heathfield, battle of, 26
Heavenfield, battle of the, 26
Hedgely Moor, battle of, 255
Heligoland, seized by British, 612;
secured by treaty of Vienna, 631
Hengist the Jute, conquers Kent, 14, 15
Hengistesdun, battle of, 34
Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., 363;
raises supplies for the royal army, 378
Henry I., King of England, 84;
his wars with Robert of Normandy, 87;
quarrels with Anselm, 89;
dies, 92
---- II., declared heir of Stephen, 96;
his accession, 97;
his strong rule, 99;
quarrels with Becket, 100-105;
subdues Ireland, 108;
quells insurrection of his sons, 110, 111;
death, 113
---- III., King of England, 134;
his misgovernment, 137;
wars with France, 137;
his servility to the Pope, 138;
signs Provisions of Oxford, 140;
defeated and captured by de Montfort, 142;
restored to the throne, 146;
dies, 147
---- IV., plots against Richard II., 208;
exiled, 210;
seizes the crown, 211;
quells rebellion of Glyndower and Percy, 214-216;
dies, 219
---- V., at battle of Shrewsbury, 216;
his father's minister, 218;
accession of, 220;
persecutes Lollards, 221;
invades France, 222;
wins Agincourt, 224;
conquers Normandy, 227, 228;
master of Northern France, 229;
dies, 230
---- VI., King of England, 231;
his minority, 231-240;
weak rule of, 241-244;
his madness, 248;
in Wars of the Roses, 249-253;
imprisoned by Edward IV., 256;
restored to throne, 258;
murdered, 259
---- VII., Earl of Richmond, and heir of Lancaster, 260;
overthrows Richard III., 270, 271;
marries Elizabeth of York, 273;
suppresses Simnel and Warbeck, 274, 275;
his foreign policy, 277, 279;
dies, 281
---- VIII., wedded to Catherine of Aragon, 280;
character and policy of, 282;
his Scottish wars, 285;
his foreign policy, 288;
his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, 291-294;
quarrel with the Papacy, 292-295;
his religious changes, 297;
suppresses Pilgrimage of Grace, 301;
dissolves monasteries, 299-302;
his tyranny, 303-305;
later wars of, 305;
dies, 307
Henry, son of Henry II., crowned king, 104;
rebels against his father, 109;
dies, 111
----, Prince of Wales, son of James I., dies, 357
----, Cardinal of York, the last of the Stuarts, 509
Henry II., King of France, his wars with England, 310, 321
---- IV., King of France, aided by Elizabeth, 340
---- of Trastamara, King of Spain, his war with the Black Prince, 196
Hereford, Roger Bohun, Earl of, quarrels with Edward I., 166
----, Henry, Duke of. _See_ Henry IV.
_Heretico Comburendo_, statute _de_, 215;
revived by Mary Tudor, 319
Hereward the Wake, rebellion and submission of, 71
High Commission, court of, arbitrary acts of, 369, 370;
abolished, 374;
revived by James II., 440
Hexham, battle of, 255
Hoche, General, his attempts on Ireland, 588
Hogue, La, battle of, 454
Hohenlinden, battle of, 593
Holkar state, the, made vassal to the British, 739
Holland, Henry, Earl of, executed, 401
----, John and Thomas, 202;
rebel against Henry IV., 214
----, rebels against Philip of Spain, 330;
aided by Elizabeth, 332, 335;
aids England against the Armada, 339;
shelters Royalists, 408;
wars with Cromwell, 409, 410;
wars of, with Charles II., 426, 430;
invaded by Lewis XIV., 430;
in war of the Spanish Succession, 463-476;
makes war on George III., 548;
conquered by French republicans, 584;
at war with England, 586, 587;
annexed by Napoleon, 622;
restored to House of Orange, 632;
coerced by England in 1830, 656
Holy Alliance, the, 643
Home Rule, party in Ireland headed by Parnell, 709, 712;
bill for, proposed by Mr. Gladstone, 717;
second bill for, rejected, 722
Homildon Hill, battle of, 215
Honorius, Emperor, evacuates Britain, 12
Hooper, John, Bishop of Gloucester, martyred, 319
Horsa, Jutish leader, 14, 15
Hotham, Sir John, repels Charles I. from Hull, 379
Howard, Catherine, wife of Henry VIII., executed, 304
----, Lady Frances, her crime and trial, 356
---- of Effingham, Charles, Lord, defeats Armada, 338, 339
Howe, General, wins battle of Brooklyn, 547;
takes Philadelphia, 548
Howe, Richard, Lord, defeats the French fleet, 582
Hubba, Danish chief, 36, 38
Humble Petition and Advice, the, 415
Hundred Days, the, 628
----, Ordinance of the, 50
---- years' war, the, 183
Huskisson, William, president of the Board of Trade, 641;
his commercial policy, 642;
dismissed by Wellington, 645;
death of, 653
Hyde, Anne, marries James, Duke of York, 425
Imperial Federation, 756
Impey, Sir Elijah, condemns Nuncomar, 567
Income tax, origin of the, 663
Independence, American, declaration of the, 547
Independents, the, their disputes with the Presbyterians, 397;
offer terms to Charles I., 399;
in power, 401
India, first English trade to, 341;
Mogul empire in, 511;
first struggle of French and English in, 512;
Clive and Dupleix in, 518, 519;
English disasters in, 523;
conquests of English in, 529, 530;
governed by Clive and Warren Hastings, 566-570;
governed by Cornwallis, 571-573;
by Lord Wellesley, 594;
conquests of Lake and Wellesley in, 603, 604;
later history of, 735-749;
Indian Mutiny, the, 745
Indulgence, the Declaration of, 430