JOHN.

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CHAPTER XVII.

JOHN, 1199-THE GREAT CHARTER, 1215.

(From 1199 to 1216.)

RICHARD THE FIRST left no children, and desired that his brother John might be king after him, though there was a prince who seemed to have a better right to the throne. This was Arthur, the son of that Prince Geoffrey who had been killed by falling from his horse. But Arthur was only twelve years old, and the English gave the crown to John. The King of France took Arthur's part, and this led to a war which lasted till poor Arthur was taken prisoner, and put to death by order of his cruel uncle. Most persons believed that John had murdered his nephew with his own hands, and the chief men of Normandy declared that so wicked a prince was not fit to rule over them. They gave up their fine province to the King of France, and by degrees John was driven out of all his French possessions, excepting Guienne, part of the country which had belonged to his mother Eleanor.

He might still have been a powerful king if he had endeavoured to rule England well, but he governed so badly that the people could not endure him. He was fearfully cruel. Other princes had put men to death unjustly, and had been guilty of many barbarous actions; but John was the first English sovereign who had shut up men, women, and children in dungeons, and left them to die by the slow agony of hunger. He was cowardly as well as cruel. He quarrelled with the pope, and defied him to do his worst; then, becoming afraid, he was so base as to

give up his crown and kingdom of England into the pope's hands, and to say that he would only be his servant and king under him.

At last the patience of the English people was quite worn out. There was, at that time, a very wise Archbishop of Canterbury, named Stephen Langton. He helped the barons to draw up a writing called The Great Charter (or Magna Charta), by which liberty and just laws might be secured to England, so that they could no more be taken away. The barons resolved that John should set his seal to this writing, or that he should be no longer king.

John was furious; he hated just laws, and only wished to have power to do as he pleased with everybody. But the barons were stronger than he was; the citizens of the towns and the farmers were all on their side, and not ten of the chief men in England were on the side of John. So he was forced to promise that he would govern justly in future, and on the 19th June, 1215, he set his seal to the Great Charter, in the meadow called Runnymede, which is on the banks of the Thames, between Staines and Windsor. We ought to remember the place and the day on which this famous writing became the Charter of England; for the more we know of the history of our country, the better we are able to understand how precious a thing that Charter was. It has been the root from which our free government and just laws have grown up, and made England a great and happy country.

King John had no intention of keeping his promise. He sent abroad secretly and hired soldiers, and as soon as these foreign troops landed in England, he set the barons at defiance, and began to ravage their

land as if he had been in an enemy's country. This shameful breach of faith provoked some of them to do a very un-English thing-they offered the crown of England to Louis, the French king's eldest son, if he would come and help them to put down John. But the other barons refused to give the kingdom to a foreigner; and there would, perhaps, have been a long civil war, like that in Stephen's time, if the wicked John had not died, October 19th, 1216. His death was hastened by grief for the loss of his treasure. Passing from Lynn to Lincolnshire, his road lay along the sea-shore, which was overflowed at high water; and not choosing the proper time for his journey, the returning tide washed away all his baggage, money, and jewels.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HENRY III.

(From 1216 to 1272.)

JOHN's eldest son, Henry, was hardly nine years old when his father died; but he had a wise guardian, the Earl of Pembroke, who got rid of Prince Louis and the foreign soldiers, and restored England to order and peace. Unhappily, the good earl lived but a few years, and Henry the Third grew up to be a foolish man and a bad king. He was so idle that he hated to take any trouble; he spent money in the most wasteful manner possible, and gave himself up to be guided by favourites, most of whom were foreigners. These men did not care what became of the country, so long as they

If any

could gain riches and power for themselves. one told them they were breaking the laws-"What are the English laws to us?" was the insolent reply.

When the king was very much in want of money, he used to promise that he would govern better and keep the Great Charter faithfully; but as soon as the people had given him what he wanted, he forgot all his promises. Yet he was not wicked like his father, but so feeble-minded that his favourites could persuade him to do anything they liked.

After bearing with the king's follies for a great many years, the barons took all power out of his hands, and put the kingdom in charge of twenty-four councillors, with Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at their head. De Montfort did not govern very well, and after some time the king's eldest son, Prince Edward, a very brave and clever young man, overcame the earl and killed him, and Henry was restored to power.

When Edward had made peace between his father and the barons, he set out upon a crusade, for he was as anxious to deliver Jerusalem as Richard, the Lionhearted, had been eighty years before. And, like Richard, he gained a great name by his brave deeds; but he could not win Jerusalem from the Mahometans. They were very much afraid of him, nevertheless, and tried to murder him. He was wounded by a poisoned dagger, and was in great danger of losing his life; but, after much suffering, he recovered. It is said that Edward's wife, Eleonora of Castile, sucked the poison from his wound; we do not know if this is true, but he always said he owed his life to her tender care and nursing.

While these things were happening in Palestine, there was much trouble in England. Poor King Henry did not rule much more wisely than before, and as no one felt afraid of displeasing him, bad men did almost as much mischief as they chose. But the worst thing of all was the wickedness of the judges. In those days, there were judges in England who would take bribes to condemn the innocent and let the guilty go free. At last, after a long reign of fifty-six years, Henry the Third died, November 16th, 1272-and his death did more than his life for the peace of the country: for as soon as his son Edward was proclaimed king, bad men began to stand in awe of him, and to fear the weight of his anger even while he was far away.

Henry the Third would have made a better architect than king; he possessed a fine taste, and a large portion of Westminster Abbey was built under his direction. Several most beautiful churches were erected about this time. The first stone bridge over the Thames had been built in the reign of King John; before his time, London Bridge was of wood. This stone bridge lasted till 1831; it was then pulled down because the new London Bridge was completed. But for hundreds of years after old London Bridge was built, it looked like a street with houses and shops on each side.