obliged to surrender, and to retire from England. From his marriage with a French princess, Henry acquired a partiality for foreigners, whom he appointed to several high offices in the state. This circumstance gave great offence to the nation, while the large sums required for the long and unsuccessful warfare on the continent caused continual disputes between the monarch and the nobles. The defeat of the English forces in 1242 brought matters to a crisis, and the supplies asked for the king were peremptorily refused. In 1253 Henry again met his nobles; but, distrustful of him, they compelled him to swear to observe the charters of the nation. A mortgage by the monarch of the kingdom, to help to pay the expenses incurred in conquering Sicily, was the next circumstance which disgusted the nation, as on the conquest of the island the king was obliged to ask for supplies to liquidate the amount. A committee of barons was then appointed to manage the affairs of the nation, in conjunction with the king. Though at first distinguished for moderation, the barons afterwards became so arbitrary in their proceedings that civil war broke out between the king and them. Prince Edward, the son of Henry, took the field with an army. At the battle of Lewes the royalists were defeated by the Earl of Leicester, and the King and Prince Edward taken prisoners. The earl then took the affairs of the kingdom into his own keeping, and compelled the king to do whatever he bade. Leicester was, however, far from popular. Partly to increase his popularity, as well as from other causes, Leicester in 1265 "directed the sheriffs to elect and return two knights for each county, two citizens for each city, and two burgesses for each borough in the county," thus laying the foundation of the English House of Commons. The fortunes of war are, however, proverbially uncertain. Prince Edward subsequently escaped from his confinement, and again took the field with the royal forces. Success crowned the efforts of the royalists at Kenilworth and Evesham, and at the latter place Leicester was killed. Henry was restored to the throne, and his subsequent

career was distinguished by moderation and prudence. Henry III, after reigning 57 years, was succeeded by his son Edward I.

In the reign of EDWARD I. numerous laws were passed. Among the most important were the Confirmation of the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest; the abolition of the exaction of aids, unless with the consent and to the common profit of the realm; and the institution of conservators of the peace, or justices of the peace, as they are now called. In this reign were also enacted the statutes: DE DONIS CONDITIONALIBUS, to which estates tail owe their origin, and QUIA EMPLORES, prohibiting the subinfendation of land.

EDWARD II., the son of Edward I. was the next king, and succeeded to the crown in 1307, on the death of his father. His reign was an unfortunate one, from his selection of favourites, and his incapacity as a monarch. His memorable defeat at Bannockburn by the Scotch increased the discontent of his subjects. Discontent ripened into revolt, and the monarch was deposed. Upon his deposition the crown was conferred upon his son, Edward III., and the late monarch was shortly afterwards cruelly murdered, at the instigation of his queen and the Earl of Mortimer. During the reign of Edward II. the Articuli Cleri, defining the boundaries between the jurisdiction of the temporal and ecclesiastical courts, and the privileges of the clergy, were passed; and the first instance of a petition by the commons, for the redress of grievances, occurred.

The first act of EDWARD III., when he came of age, was to cause the overthrow of Mortimer and the late queen. The former was brought to trial for the murder of Edward II. and executed. The latter, mother of the monarch, was confined to perpetual seclusion for life. The famous battle of Cressy, in 1346, with Philip of France, occurred in this reign. The enactment of the STATUTE OF TREASONS, defining what acts committed by a subject constitute treason, and the right to impeach offending ministers, are, however, the occurrences which render this reign memorable in constitutional history.

Edward III. died in 1377, and was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II., son of the Black Prince.

RICHARD II. was an ill-fated monarch. At the beginning of his reign occurred the memorable insurrection of the peasantry, led by Wat the Tyler. The causes of the revolt are too well known to need to be stated here. At this period, society in England may be divided into the three classes of nobles, burgesses, and peasantry. In this reign the rising power of the commons was shown by their vigorous representations of grievances, and their impeachment of the Earl of Suffolk. For several years after 1389, however, Richard changed his mode of administration, and governed vigorously and well. The tyrannical conduct of the monarch during the last two years of his reign caused Henry Bolingbroke and the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland to take the field against him, while absent in Ireland. On the monarch's return to England he was obliged to succumb to Henry Bolingbroke, and shortly afterwards, in 1399, abdicated the throne. Richard's end is doubtful, but he is supposed to have been murdered.

Richard II. was succeeded by Henry Bolingbroke, who became king with the title of HENRY IV. He was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III. That monarch had, however, an older son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, whose grandson, the Earl of March, was the legal heir to the throne. Insurrections to place the earl on the throne were suppressed, and Henry was left undisturbed in his regal functions during the remainder of his life. In this reign the right of the commons to originate money bills was first conceded. Henry IV. died in 1413, and was succeeded by his son, Henry V.

The reign of HENRY V. is memorable for his wars with France. At Agincourt, in 1415, the French met with a disastrous defeat. The following year the war was renewed, and continued until 1420, when the treaty of Troyes took place. Henry died in 1422, and was succeeded by his son, Henry VI.

During the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., Edward V., and Richard III., the attention of the nation was principally engaged by the long civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster. In the reign of Henry VI., however, a statute was passed confining the right of election for knights of the shire to owners of free land or tenement to the value of forty shillings by the year at least, above all charges. By the decision of the judges, in the reign of Edward IV., declaring a common recovery a sufficient bar of an estate tail, the evil effects of the statute DE DONIS were much diminished. This important decision is known by the name of TALTARUM'S CASE. The civil wars at length were terminated, in 1485, by the decisive battle of Bosworth-field, when Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, utterly defeated the forces of Richard, who was slain in the battle; while the earl was saluted by cries of "Long live King Henry."

HENRY VII., the first of the House of Tudor, was a descendant of John, Earl of Somerset, an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Henry's title to the throne was therefore quite worthless, in a legal point of view, and he therefore wisely strengthened his position by his marriage with the Princess Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV. Thus were the contending factions of the Houses of York and Lancaster reconciled. In this reign occurred two memorable insurrections; the first on the occasion of the personation of the Earl of Warwick, by Lambert Simnel; and the second when Perkin Warbeck assumed the name and character of the Duke of York, who, with his brother, Edward V., was generally supposed to have been murdered in the Tower. Both insurrections were, however, speedily suppressed, and the nobles and gentry who had taken part in them, attainted. Simnel was considered too ignoble for resentment, while Warbeck was sent to the Tower. There he entered into correspondence with the Earl of Warwick, for the purpose of effecting their escape. This unfortunate nobleman was the son of the Duke of Clarence, and being the nearest

male heir of the House of York, had been kept in close confinement by Henry. The correspondence was discovered, Warwick and Warbeck were brought to trial for treason, and executed. The remainder of this reign was undisturbed by civil discord.

In this reign a statute was enacted making allegiance to a monarch de facto a protection to a subject from criminal process, while by another statute a fine levied with proclamations in court was, after five years, made a bar to all claims on land.

Henry kept his nobles in great subjection. From the numerous attainders, the enforcement of statutes inflicting penalties, and the king's parsimonious habits, Henry became exceedingly wealthy. Henry died in 1509, leaving an immense patrimony to his son and successor Henry VIII.

HENRY VIII. was a monarch whose equal for tyranny, rapacity and cruelty, has never occupied the English throne. Henry's famous quarrel with the Pope, its cause and results, the suppression of the monasteries, and the king's assumption of the ecclesiastical supremacy in this realm are too well known to require notice here. Notwithstanding Henry's illegal exactions, and his cruel execution of Anne Boleyn and others, he was popular with his subjects, but only on account of his support of the Reformation. Henry's parliaments were characterised by servility, of which we have a notable instance in the act passed in 1539, giving to the proclamations of the king and council the force of statutes, so that should not be prejudicial to any person's inheritance, offices, liberties, goods, and chattels, or infringe the established laws. However, the words restricting the force of the proclamations might as well have been omitted, for in an age when parliament cowered beneath the frown of a sanguinary tyrant, his will was law. In 1539, the LAW OF THE SIX ARTICLES was passed, establishing the real presence, communion in one kind, the perpetual obligation of vows of chastity, the utility of private masses, the celibacy of the clergy, and the necessity of auricular confession.