surprised by his foes in the pass of CONSILT, near Flint, and his army was saved with difficulty. The engagement is sometimes spoken of as the battle of Coleshil. The king again invaded Wales in 1165, and an encounter took place on the banks of the CIEROC, in Denbighshire, in which the English were victorious; but as the natives still mustered in force, and as the season was most unpropitious, Henry was compelled to retire from the country. With great barbarity he ordered the eyes of the male hostages to be rooted out, and the ears and noses of the female hostages to be cut off.

In 1159, Henry laid claim to Toulouse in right of his wife, and besieged the city, but without success. It was on this occasion that he excused his vassals from military service on payment of a sum of money, called escuage or scutage. This practice, which afterwards became common, tended gradually to the downfall of the feudal system.

On the death of Theobald, Thomas à Becket, the king's chancellor, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury (1162). Contrary to the expectation of the king, he refused to aid him in checking the aggressive disposition of the clergy, who claimed exemption from all secular jurisdiction, and who, by this means escaped with impunity even when they had committed the most heinous offences. Henry, however, succeeded in securing the consent of the barons and the bishops to a series of articles, sixteen in number, known as the Constitutions of Clarendon, by which the power and the privileges of the ecclesiastics were much limited (1164). Becket afterwards openly expressed his sorrow that he had signed the Constitutions, and gave manifest proof that he was determined to maintain the alleged immunities of his order. The king was so displeased, that, at a council held at Northampton in the same year, he directed certain charges to be laid against the archbishop, who, believing that his life was in peril, escaped to France, where he resided for about six years-first at Pontigny, and then at Sens. The shelter and countenance which Louis VII afforded the pre

late led to a war between the sovereigns, which was concluded by the peace of Montmirail (1169).

An apparent reconciliation was effected between Henry and Becket, and the latter returned to England in the beginning of December, 1170; but his conduct was so imprudent, that Henry, on hearing of it, at his castle near Bayeux, gave vent to his displeasure in exceedingly angry terms, which led four knights to hasten secretly to England to compel him to adopt a more pacific course. As he refused to accede to their demands, they assassinated him before the altar of St. Benedict, in Canterbury Cathedral, Dec. 29.

Soon after the king's accession, he obtained permission from Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman who ever wore the tiara), to conquer Ireland; but it was not till 1168 that his attention was directed specially to the project. It was then that Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, by his consent, aided Dermot, King of Leinster, a licentious prince, who had violently taken away the wife of one of the other chieftains, and who had, on that account, been expelled from his kingdom. The English assistance proved most efficacious; and Henry himself landed in the island in the winter of 1171, and received the homage of most of the native kings in the following year.

The king's elder sons, as they grew towards manhood, proved very disobedient; and being encouraged both by their mother, from dislike of her husband, and by the sovereign of France from political motives, they went to war with their father. They were also supported by William the Lion, King of Scotland. To arouse the feelings of the people of England in his favour, Henry did penance at Becket's tomb; and on the same day, as he afterwards learned, the Scottish monarch, who had invaded Northumbria, was captured at ALNWICK by Ralph de Glanville (July 12, 1174).

A peace followed; but some years later, Henry and Geoffrey, the king's sons, made war on their brother Richard, which was followed by the death of the two former. In the last year

of his reign, Henry was expelled from Touraine by his son Richard and Philip, King of France; and such was the posture of his affairs, that he found it necessary to make a humiliating peace.

Henry very much improved the administration of the law by the appointment of justices in eyre, who made periodical circuits through the country. A new mode of trial was adopted in certain cases, called the trial by grand assize, in which we may trace the germ of our modern trial by jury. Trial by compurgation was abolished; and not long after the accession of his grandson, trial by ordeal went out of use. From Henry II's reign dates, according to the opinion of our best constitutional writers, the English system of common law.

In 1176, London Bridge began to be built of stone, and to divert the course of the river for the time, a trench was dug between Battersea and Rotherhithe.

[Bank of Venice instituted, A.D. 1157. Jerusalem taken by Saladin, A.D. 1187.]

Death.-Henry died at his castle at Chinon, about twenty-six miles from Tours, July 6, 1189. He was sovereign of conspicuous ability, but devoid of high principle, and much devoted to immoral pleasures. Like many princes, he neglected to secure an efficient religious training for his sons, and their breach of the Divine command of filial obedience led to the troubles of the latter half of the reign.

RICHARD I (CŒUR DE LION).

Reigned from 1189 to 1199.

Birth.-Richard was born at Oxford, September 13, 1157. Descent. He was the eldest surviving son of Henry II. Marriage. He espoused Berengaria, daughter of Sancho the Wise, King of Navarre. He died without issue.

Important Events.-The popular hatred of the Jews was intensely manifested on the occasion of the king's coronation

by an atrocious massacre of the unfortunate race, which commenced in London (1189), and was renewed at many other towns, and more especially at York (1190).

Richard having resolved to take part in the third crusade, adopted all possible expedients to raise money for the enterprise. The suzerainty of Scotland was resigned for 10,000 marks, and many important offices were sold to the highest bidders. He joined Philip Augustus of France at Vezelay, where the aggregate army amounted to more than 100,000 men (1190). Thence he proceeded to Messina, in Sicily, where he quarrelled with Tancred, the sovereign, but afterwards terminated the hostilities by a peace. On his voyage towards Palestine part of his vessels were wrecked at Cyprus; and as Isaac, the emperor of the island, had seized and plundered some of the ships, he dethroned the tyrant and bound him with silver chains.

Having arrived in Palestine, the siege of Acre was prosecuted with great vigour, and the town soon surrendered (July, 1191). But Philip, being apparently dissatisfied with the greater renown which Richard had achieved, determined on returning to France, and left 10,000 of his troops under the command of his vassal, the Duke of Burgundy. During Richard's stay in the Holy Land he defeated the Saracens, led by their illustrious leader, Saladin, and advanced towards Jerusalem; but unfavourable weather and the sickness of his soldiers convinced him that he could not hope to conquer the city, and he abandoned the enterprise. As intelligence had reached him that his brother, John, and Philip were in league to dethrone him, he resolved on an immediate return to Europe. The vessel in which he himself sailed was driven on the Dalmatian coast, and he landed at Zara disguised as a pilgrim (1192). He was, however, recognised on his journey, near Vienna, and delivered into the hands of his bitter enemy, Leopold, Duke of Austria, who afterwards surrendered him to Henry VI, the Emperor of Germany. By him he was confined

in a castle in the Tyrol; but the place of his imprisonment becoming known, and indignation being aroused at the detention of so celebrated a crusader, Henry brought him before a diet at Hagenau, to answer certain charges alleged against him. Of these he cleared himself; but a large sum was nevertheless demanded for his ransom, which was raised by means of heavy exactions on the English. He, at last, landed at Sandwich, March, 1194.

William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, had been appointed by the king guardian of the realm during his absence; but, by the influence and intrigues of Prince John, he was driven from his office, and retired to France (1191). John, who thus became practically head of the government, entered, as just said, into treasonable communications with Philip; and these princes, when they heard of Richard's capture, promised large bribes to the emperor to continue his imprisonment. On Richard's return he pardoned his brother (who pretended that he repented of his treachery) and made war upon Philip, which proved to be at once sanguinary and desultory. The most important battle of the five years' contest was fought at GISORS in 1198, where the French sovereign was in imminent peril.

In 1196 there was a serious rising in London, caused by William Fitz-Osbert, who had inflamed the popular discontent against the wealthy citizens of the metropolis, because they laid the burden of taxation chiefly upon the poor. The tumult was suppressed by Archbishop Hubert, and Fitz-Osbert was executed.

Richard established uniformity of weights and measures throughout the country, and mitigated the harshness of the law relative to wrecks. His predecessor had enacted that if only an animal escaped from the vessel, by means of which the owner could be ascertained, three months should be allowed in which to claim the property; by Richard's law that privilege was extended in case of the owner's death to his children, or,

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