This important establishment attracted little notice at the time, though contemporary writers dwell with much satisfaction upon what they call the piety of the king, in erecting some monastic establishments.

Though this king was obliged partly to yield to the encroachments of the clergy, he enforced the strict administration of justice on the laity; and in numerous instances treated with severity all thieves, idle and marauding followers of the Court, and those who adulterated or debased the coin. The latter practice had been carried so far as to become a national grievance. The debased money was called in, but the difficulty of replacing it with a better circulating medium, caused a scarcity, from which the kingdom suffered severely. The ministers of justice were terrified by the severe conduct of the king, which was often covered by dissimulation; so that Bluett, Bishop of Lincoln, and Chief Justice, when told that the king had praised him, expressed his fears that his ruin was intended.

LONDON'S SECOND CHARTER.-Henry, on his accession to the throne, granted a charter to London, which seems to have been the first step towards rendering that city a corporation. By this charter the city was empowered to keep the farm of Middlesex at 3007. a year; to elect its own sheriff and justiciary, and to hold pleas of the crown; and it was exempted from scot, Danegelt, trials by combat, and lodging the king's retinue. These, with a confirmation of the privileges of their court of hustings, wardmotes and common-halls, and their liberty of hunting in Middlesex and Surrey, are the chief articles of this charter.

DEATH OF PRINCE WILLIAM.-Henry's only son, William, having reached his eighteenth year, and having been

recognised as successor to the kingdom, his father carried him over to Normandy, that he might receive the homage of the barons of that duchy. The king, on his return, set sail from Harfleur, and was soon carried by a fair wind out of sight of land. The prince was detained by some accident; and his sailors, as well as their captain, Thomas Fitz-Stephens, having spent the interval in drinking, in their hurry to follow the king, heedlessly suffered the ship to strike on a rock, in consequence of which she immediately foundered. Prince William was put into the long-boat and had got clear of the ship, when, hearing the cries of his natural sister, Mary, Countess of Perche, he ordered the seamen to row back, in hopes of saving her; but the numbers who then crowded in, soon sunk the boat, and the prince, with all his retinue, perished. Above a hundred and forty young noblemen of the principal families of England and Normandy were lost on this occasion. A butcher of Rouen was the only person on board who escaped; he clung to the mast, and was taken up next morning by some fishermen. Fitz-Stephens, the captain, also clung to the mast, but being informed by the butcher that Prince William had perished, he said he would not survive the disaster, and threw himself headlong into the sea. King Henry entertained hopes for three days that his son had put into some distant port in England; but when certain intelligence of the calamity was brought to him, he fainted away, and it was remarked that he never after was seen to smile, and never recovered his wonted cheerfulness.

"Woe was in England's halls that day,

Woe in her royal towers,

While low her haughty monarch lay,
To wail his smitten flowers:

And though protracted years bestow
Bright honour's envied store,
Yet on that crown'd and lofty brow

The smile sat nevermore!"

Sigourney.

HENRY'S DEATH.-Henry had resided in Normandy for a considerable time previous to his death; but was preparing for a journey to England, when he was seized with a sudden illness at St. Denis le Forment, from eating too plentifully of lampreys, a food which agreed better with his palate than his constitution. He died on the 1st of December, 1135, leaving, by his will, his daughter Maude, or Matilda, heiress of all his dominions; but a rival appeared in the person of Stephen, son of the Count de Blois, who had married Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror. On Henry's death, Stephen hastened to England, and, through the influence of a party who favoured his pretensions, was proclaimed king, at London. The cause of Matilda, however, was espoused by a large portion of the nobility; and a desolating civil war was the consequence, attended with great changes of fortune to both parties.

In the year 1100, Henry restored to the English people the liberty of using fire and candle by night, of which they had been deprived by William the Conqueror.

IV.

CHARACTER OF STEPHEN.

STEPHEN was a prince of considerable courage, fortitude, and activity. He would have been greatly beloved by his people, had he not been harassed by the efforts of a powerful competitor. This obliged him to take such measures for his safety as were inconsistent with the dictates of honour. His necessities compelled him to infringe the charter of privileges which he granted at his accession. His vices, as a king, appear to have been the effect of the troubles in which he was involved; for as a man, he was brave, open, liberal, and just; and during the short calm that succeeded the tempest of his reign, he published an edict, to restrain all rapine and violence, and disbanded the foreign mercenaries who had preyed so long upon his people.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

THE CIVIL WARS.-Stephen endeavoured to strengthen himself and his pretensions against Maude, by taking a foreign army into his pay, and by signing a charter, in which he acknowledged his being elected king by the clergy and people. He also confirmed the rights of the Church, abolished the forest laws, and revived the favourite laws of Edward the Confessor; but being unable to reward the nobles according to their expectations, a rebellion was soon raised against him, and he was obliged to conclude a disadvantageous peace with the inhabitants of Wales and Scotland. He then fell into a

:

lethargy, and the Normans, imagining that he was dead, invited Theobald, his brother, to seize the duchy however, Stephen recovering, went into Normandy, expelled his brother, and then returned to England, where the friends of Matilda were ready to declare in her favour, assisted by the King of Scotland; but Stephen invaded Scotland, compelled King David to conclude another peace with him, and reduced the refractory English barons to submission.

He now reigned with great tranquillity for some time : but being jealous of the power of the clergy, he seized the castles belonging to the Bishops of Salisbury, Lincoln, and Ely; upon which the Bishop of Winchester, legate of England, and the king's own brother, became his most inveterate enemy. The clergy, also, who possessed not only castles, but garrisons, made their ambition the cause of the people; and the Empress Maude took this opportunity of personally asserting her right to the throne.

England was now distracted by all the rage of civil war, while the people were plundered by both parties. The king faced the storm with noble fortitude, he besieged the empress in Wallingford, pursued her to Lincoln, and gave battle to the Earl of Gloucester before that city, when, after a great effusion of blood, the earl was victorious; and the king, having broken his battleaxe and sword in pieces by the force of his blows, was struck down on his knees with a stone before he could be taken; after which he was confined in Bristol Castle, and ignominiously loaded with irons.

While Stephen was in prison, the Duke of Anjou seized upon Normandy; and the sovereignty of Maude was everywhere acknowledged; but, on her behaving