This remarkable change was probably owing to the high degree of favour in which the Earl of Leicester stood with the clergy, who considered him as a saint and champion of the church. Writs were also sent to all the sheriffs in England, commanding them to cause two of the most discreet krights of each county to come to this parliament. Similar writs were directed to the citizens of several cities, and burgesses of several burghs, requiring each city to send two of its most discreet and honest citizens, and each burgh two of its most wise and upright burgesses. Each of the cinque-ports was also commanded to send two barons. In what manner these knights, citizens, burgesses, and barons, of the cinque-ports, were chosen, we have no account. But as they appeared as the representatives of those by whom they were sent, their expenses were to be borne by their constituents. We have no hint in any of our historians, that this parliament was divided into two houses, but with whatever views this plan was formed, it was a near approach to that system which has now been established in England nearly six hundred years.

The Earl of Gloucester, not daring to trust his person within the reach of his daring and powerful rival, retired to his estate, repaired and garrisoned his castles, and made all possible preparations for his own defence. Leicester, determining to crush the Earl of Gloucester and his adherents, proclaimed them traitors in the king's name, raised an army, and marched towards them, carrying the king and prince with him. As the two armies drew near to one another, the Earl of Gloucester formed a scheme for the deliverance of Prince Edward out of the hands of Leicester; and he found means of communicating this scheme to the prince, and of getting a horse of extraordinary fleetness conveyed to him. The prince, in consequence of this plan, feigned himself indisposed for some days, and then pretending to recover, he proposed to take an airing on horseback for the benefit of his health. Leicester suspecting nothing, and trusting to the fidelity and vigilance of the gentlemen he had placed about the prince's person, made no opposition. As the prince and his company, or rather guards, were riding along, he artfully proposed some matches between the several gentlemen who were best mounted; while he himself, as hardly recovered from his indisposition, moved gently along on the horse conveyed to him by the Earl of Gloucester. At length, when he observed the horses of his attendants sufficiently blown by their diversion, the prince, suddenly clapping spurs to his horse, rode off at full speed. As soon as the attendants recovered from their surprise, they pursued him till they saw the prince received by a party of horse, which had been sent by Gloucester to favour his escape.

Though Leicester was greatly astonished at the prince's escape, he was not wanting to himself, but took every measure he could think of for his own preservation. Having the king in his own hands, he obliged that

unhappy prince to issue a proclamation, declaring his son Prince Edward, the Earl of Gloucester, and all his adherents, traitors, and forbidding his subjects to give them any assistance. He wrote to his eldest son, Simon de Montfort, to make all possible haste to join him with an army from London. But this junction never took effect; for Prince Edward, making forced marches, surprised young Montfort and his army at Kennilworth, and cut the greater part of them in pieces, on the first of August, 1265. The prince then, without losing a moment's time, turned about and directed his march toward the Severn, in order to meet and attack the father before he heard of his son's defeat. Leicester had passed the Severn, and had advanced as far as Evesham, expecting every moment to be joined by his son with his army from London, of whose misfortune he had received no information. Prince Edward commanded one part of his army to approach Evesham by the road from Kennilworth, displaying the banners which had been taken from young Montfort's army; and the Earl of Leicester's spies, deceived by that appearance, brought him word, that his son, with his army, was at hand. But the earl did not long enjoy the pleasure of this mistake; for he soon discovered with his own eyes, that they were enemies who advanced; and observing their great numbers, and excellent order, he had a presage of his approaching fate; which made him cry out, "God have mercy on our souls; for our bodies are Prince Edward's."

The armies soon engaged and being animated by the example of their respective leaders, fought with uncommon fury. In the heat of the action, King Henry was wounded, and in great danger of being slain by a soldier of his son's army; but crying out, "I am Henry of Winchester, thy sovereign; don't kill me," he was known and conducted to a place of safety. The Welsh troops in Leicester's army were the first who turned their backs; but even after their flight, his other forces for some time maintained their ground, until the Earl himself, and his son, Henry Montfort, were slain; which put an end to the bloody contest. Prince Edward obtained this complete victory, near Evesham, on the 4th of August, 1265. Besides the Earl of Leicester and his son Henry, many other barons of theirparty we re killed; and Guy de Montfort, another of Leicester's sons, and several other barons, were taken prisoners.

Thus fell Simon de Montfort, the great Earl of Leicester, who raised himself to a degree of greatness hardly inferior to royalty, and of wealth superior to that of some of our monarchs. Nothing is more difficult than to form a just idea of the real character of this illustrious person. He was unquestionably one of the greatest generals and politicians of his age; bold, ambitious, and enterprising; ever considered, both by friends and enemies, as the very soul of the party which he espoused. He was fierce and clamorous in the cause of liberty, till he arrived at power, which he

employed in aggrandising and enriching his own family. But whether he did this in order to enable him to establish the liberties of the country on a solid foundation, or only to gratify his own avarice and ambition, it is now impossible to determine. This is certain, that he laid the foundation of the constitution as it still exists, by calling a parliament, which at that time was elected by the people; and for this alone he ought always to be regarded as one of the worthies of the nation.

The death of the Earl of Leicester was followed by the total ruin of his family, and destruction of his party. The great estates of the barons were confiscated without mercy; which drove such of them as had escaped from the fatal battle of Evesham to despair. A number of these, under the command of Simon de Montfort, eldest son of the Earl of Leicester, seized and fortified the isle of Axholm, and stood upon their defence; but, after a brave resistance, they were obliged to surrender to Prince Edward, and their leader, Simon de Montfort, was banished the kingdom. One Adam de Gurdon was at the head of another party in Hampshire; and being a person of great strength and courage, he was reduced with some difficulty, Prince Edward having taken Adam prisoner with his own hand, after a very fierce and dangerous combat. The prince, charmed with the bravery of the man, though exerted against his own person, not only saved his life, but granted him his liberty: a favour which he returned by the most zealous and devoted services. The garrison of the Castle of Kennilworth was not so easily subdued, holding out against the royal army several months, and were at last obliged by famine to surrender, in November, 1266. But the most formidable body of the remains of the late powerful and triumphant faction had taken refuge in the Isle of Ely, and made great depredation on all the neighbouring country. In order, therefore, to extinguish these surviving sparks of civil dissension, a parliament was held in the town of Kennilworth, during the siege of the castle, where more moderate counsels prevailed, and certain commissioners were appointed to compound with the rebellious barons; and many who had been disinherited, made compositions, and were restored to their estates.

As the power of the pope and the church appear to have been at their greatest height in England in this age, it may not be improper to take a short view of this prodigious fabric of ecclesiastical tyranny, and of the deplorable oppressions under which our ancestors groaned in this superstitious age. Some of those oppressions are not ill expressed in that letter of complaint which was written to the pope by the king, the prelates, and the barons of England, A. D. 1246. In that letter they complain 1. That the pope, not content with the annual payment of Peter-pence, exacted from the clergy great contributions, without the king's consent, and against the customs, rights, and liberties of the realm of England. 2. That the patrons of churches could not

present fit persons to the vacant livings, the pope conferring them generally on Italians, who understood not the English language, and carried out of the kingdom the money arising from their benefices. 3. That the pope oppressed the churches, by exacting pensions from them. 4. That Italians were invested in their livings without trouble or charges; whereas the English were obliged to prosecute their rights at Rome at a great expense. 5. That in the churches filled by Italians, there were neither alms nor hospitality; neither was there any preaching; and the care of the souls was entirely neglected. 6. That the clause of non obstante, generally inserted in the pope's bulls, absolutely destroyed all laws, customs, statutes, and privileges, of the church and kingdom. To these were added many other grievances no less oppressive and intolerable; such as,-the pope's filling the highest dignities of the church by his own power, and making the archbishops and others pay exorbitant sums for their preferments ;-his drawing all causes of any importance to Rome, and keeping the parties long waiting for their determination, at a great expense ;—we add to all these that great sums went annually to Rome, for pardons, indulgencies, dispensations, &c. so that the kingdom was drained of all its wealth.

Besides all these oppressions and exactions of the court of Rome, the clergy at home claimed many privileges which were quite inconsistent with the peace and prosperity of the kingdom; such as an exemption from all civil authority and jurisdiction, by which they were at liberty to commit the greatest crimes almost with impunity. The ecclesiastical courts encroached greatly on the jurisdiction of the civil courts, and claimed the sole right to judge all causes relating to tithes, marriaages, testaments, and many other things, under a pretence that they had some connexion with spirituals. The possessions of the clergy too, never diminishing, but daily increasing, were swelled to an enormous bulk, and threatened to swallow up the whole lands of the kingdom,

A most absurd irrational credulity still reigned in all the nations of Europe, not only among the vulgar, but among persons of the highest rank and best education. Pope Innocent VI. firmly believed that Petrarch was a magician, because he read Virgil. Many miracles were reported and believed to be wrought in different places, on the most trifling occasions, and are recorded by our gravest historians as unquestionable facts. No prince engaged in any undertaking of importance till his astrologers had consulted the stars, and discovered the auspicious moment for carrying it into execution.

Robbery was the reigning vice, not only in Britain, but in all the nations of Europe, in the present period; and robbers were then more numerous, cruel, and destructive, than at any other time. These pests of human society were frequently formed into companies, under the pro

tection of powerful barons, who sheltered them in their castles, and shared with them in their booty. During the feeble reign of Henry III. many strong castles belonging to great men were no better than dens of thieves and robbers, who from thence infested the whole country. In Hampshire their numbers were so great, that the judges could not prevail upon any jury to find any of them guilty; and the king himself complained, that when he travelled through that county, they plundered his baggage, drank his wine, and treated him with contempt. It was afterwards discovered, that several members of the king's household were in confederacy with the robbers.

Many other things conspired to render the condition of the great body of the people of Britain, in this period, uncomfortable and unhappy. They were almost necessarily condemned to live in ignorance, and had hardly any means of acquiring either civil or religious knowledge. Religious liberty was quite unknown; and the clergy enslaved the minds of the laity, as well as preyed upon their fortunes, in many different ways. The common people, and even those in the middle ranks of life, enjoyed but a very small share of civil liberty; and all the protection they received from law and government was frequently insufficient to defend them from the oppression of the too powerful barons, who were many of them petty tyrants. The devastations of war, and the imperfection of agriculture, occasioned frequent famines, in which many of the common people perished. Some of these famines were so severe, that many mothers, it is said, committed the most unnatural acts of cruelty to prolong their miserable lives; and some were followed by epidemical diseases, or rather plagues, which swept off great multitudes.

Latin was the language of the church, of the schools, of the courts of justice, and in general of the learned of all professions, who frequently conversed and corresponded with one another in that tongue. Divines, philosophers, historians, and even poets, composed the far greater part of their works in Latin, especially before the middle of the fourteenth century. All acts of parliament to A. D. 1266, and many of them long after, were in that language. It was not till A. D. 1258, that the great charter itself was translated into English, and read to the people in their mother-tongue. To the very end of this period the royal proclamations were for the most part in Latin, a language which was understood by none of the common people, and by very few of the nobility or gentry.

The Norman or French was the language of the court of England, of the nobility, and of all who wished to be thought persons of rank and fashion, for about three centuries after the conquest.-Anglo-Saxon or English was the language of the great body of the people of England. This language they derived from their ancestors the Anglo-Saxons, and