force, and put them all to death. On the 28th of March, 1199, as he was taking a survey of the castle, and giving directions for the assault, he was wounded by an arrow from the cross bow of Bertrame de Gourdon. The wound appeared trifling at first, but it soon turned to a gangrene, and in a few days his life was despaired of. "that you Before Richard died, the castle was taken, and all the garrison were instantly hanged, excepting Betrame, whom the king ordered to be brought into his presence. "What harm have I done to you?" said he to him, should thus have attempted my death?" "You killed my father and brother with your own hands," replied the man; "and intended to have killed me, and I am ready to suffer any torments you can invent with joy, since I have been so happy as to kill one who has brought so many miser ies on mankind." Richard, conscious of the truth of this bold reply, bore it with patience, and ordered the man to be set at liberty : but this command was not obeyed, and Bertrame was put to death as soon as the king had expired. Richard died on the 6th of April, 1199, A. D. 1199. in the forty-second year of his age, and tenth of his reign. He left all his dominions to his brother John. He had at one time appointed Arthur of Brittany his heir; but on his death-bed he altered his will. When he was dying, he remembered with bitter anguish his undutiful conduct to his father, and desired to be buried near him. He had no children. During this reign (only four months of which the king passed in England) the disorders of that country arrived at a pitch that had been before unknown. No man's life or property was secure; and there was at one time a regular band of robbers, which, till their leader, William Fitzosbert, was taken and hanged, threatened London itself with destruction. How was Richard reproved on his death-bed? Who was Richard's successor? What was the condition of England in this reign? 9* CHAPTER XII. JOHN. [Years after Christ, 1199-1216.] John came to the crown of England without having one heart in his favor. His perfidiousness, cruelty, and rapacity were already well known; and he had neither personal bravery, nor mental ability, to make up for his faults. He had early shown his incapacity for government. For his father, Henry the Second, intending that Ireland should be his inheritance, sent him there, to accustom the people to him. But he insulted the Irish chiefs, ridiculed their customs and habits, and behaved with so much folly and levity, that his father thought fit to alter his purpose. At the time of king Richard's death, Arthur of Bretagne was of an age and temper to feel the disappointment of being excluded from his inheritance. His mother was a woman of violent temper; and by her advice he placed his cause in the hands of the king of France, who was glad enough to have an opportunity of interfering with the affairs of England. John, however, found means to persuade Philip that it would be more to his advantage to abandon Arthur; and the two kings entered into a treaty, in which it was settled that Philip's son Louis should marry Blanche of Castile, John's niece; and that Arthur should be given up to John, who would have immediately put him to death, had he not found means to escape. Three years afterwards, Arthur married A. D. 1202. a daughter of Philip, who then undertook his cause, and assisted him to besiege the castle of Mirabel, in Poitou, where his grandmother,queen Eleanor, who had always been his enemy, lived. He had nearly got possession of the castle, when John, acting with a vigor quite unusual to him, came suddenly to his mother's rescue, and took the unfortunate Arthur prisoner, with his sister the Was John prepared to be a good king? What was John's treatment of his nephew, prince Authur? damsel of Bretagne, who was carried to England, and kept in perpetual imprisonment in Bristol castle. Arthur was taken to the castle of Falaise, where the king gave orders to Hubert de Burgh, the governor, to put him to death. Hubert, desirous to save the unhappy young prince, placed him in concealment; and, pretending that he was dead, had the funeral service publicly performed for him. But the Bretons were so much exasperated at the supposed murder of their prince, that Hubert found it necessary to inform them of his being alive. But no sooner did John hear of it, than he had Arthur removed to Rouen, where he himself resided; and it is generally believed that he murdered his unfortunate nephew with his own hands. This barbarity filled every mind with horror, and John became an object of universal detestation. And, partly because his barons refused him assistance, and partly from his own sloth and cowardice, he made but little opposition to the wily Philip, who drove him step by step out of Normandy, and severed that province from the crown of England, after it had been for three hundred years in the possession of the descendants of the Norman Rollo. His mother's inheritance also, and nearly all the rest of John's territories in France, yielded themselves up to Philip. John had a quarrel with the Pope, InnoA. D. 1208. cent III., about the choice of an archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent insisted on the election of Stephen Langton, an Englishman, whose superior abilities had raised him to the dignity of cardinal; and John refusing to confirm his choice, the pope laid the kingdom under an interdict. This, however, John did not much regard. John occupied himself during the next two years in expeditions against the Irish and Welsh, and in extorting money from his own subjects, and from the Jews especially, by many unjust and cruel methods. One of his contrivances was to assemble all the abbots and abbesses of the religious houses in London; and when he had col What was the death of Arthur? Who separated Normandy from the dominions of the king of Eng. land? What quarrel between king John and the pope broke out A. D. 1208? How d.d John treat the Jews and the religious houses? lected them together, he kept them prisoners till they had paid him a large sum of money. The pope, finding that his interdict was of no avail, now resolved on a more effectual way of bringing John to obedience. He excommunicated him, absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and published a sort of crusade against him, exhorting all Christian princes and barons to unite in making war upon and dethroning him. To the king of France the pope applied particularly; and Philip, who was not slow in availing himself of the opportunity thus offered, assembled a numerous fleet and army at Boulogne for the invasion of England. The dread of being conquered by the French overpow ered the dislike the English had to John. They flocked to him in great numbers on this emergency, and a large army was soon collected at Dover. While affairs were in this state, the pope, who only wished to humble John, and not to increase the power of Philip, sent his legate Panduli to England, and promised John that if he would receive Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, he would recal the sentence of excommunication. When John had agreed to this, the legate required him to resign his crown to the pope, and promised that the pope would restore it to him again, on condition of receiving a yearly tribute; and would forbid Philip to invade the realm of England. John agreed to these ignominious terms; and it is said that when he took his crown, and laid it at the feet of the legate, the pope's representative, that haughty cardinal spurned it with his foot, and that it was some time before he consented to replace it on the king's head. Philip, when he heard of these arrangements, and was ordered by Pandulf to withdraw his forces from the coast, was enraged beyond measure. But, as he did not dare to make the pope his enemy, he found himself obliged to submit. Unwilling, however, that his great preparations Dia the Pope persevere in nis nostility to John, and who aided him? should be thrown away, he determined to attack the territories of Ferrand, earl of Flanders. In this extremity Ferrand applied to John, who sent to his assistance the fleet that had been collected for the defence of England. A battle ensued between the English and French fleets, and the English were completely victorious. Philip, on the loss of his fleet, returned home with his army in disorder. John was so much elated by this victory, that he wanted to follow it up by the invasion of France; but his barons refused to accompany him. He therefore entered into an alliance with Otho, emperor of Germany, and some other princes, who engaged to enter France on one side, w'aile John, with some foreign troops that he had collected, attacked it on the other. Otho accordingly entered the Netherlands; and John landed an army at Poitou, and penetrated into Anjou and Bretagne. The army of the emperor being completely defeated at Bouvines, John made a five years truce with Philip, and hastily returned to England. There a most unwelcome reception awaited him. His barons, tired out by his weakness and wickedness, had been long conspiring together against him. They were now joined by Stephen Langton, the new archbishop, who, having discovered a concealed copy of the charter granted by Henry I., drew up from it a bill of rights and privileges, which the barons, in full assembly, approved of. A. D. 1215. This the king, on his return from France, was called on to sign: but he refused to do so. At last, finding himself abandoned by every body, and in a most desolate condition, he sent the earl of Pembroke, a nobleman distinguished for virtue and ability, to propose a conference with the barons. A meeting accordingly took place on Friday, the 15th of June, 1215, in a large meadow, between Windsor and Staines, called Runimede, which means the meadow of council, and which was so called because it had been used by the Saxons as a Did John continue the war with France, and how did the war ter minate ? Who opposed the arbitrary measures of king John? What measure was proposed by the English barons to king John? When and where was the great charter signed? |