their bravest commander, was slain. This was the beginning of their total overthrow the French being now without a competent leader, were thrown into confusion: their whole army took to flight, and were put to the sword by the pursuers without mercy, till night stopped the carnage. Never was a victory more seasonable, or less bloody to the English than this. Notwithstanding the great slaughter of the enemy, the conquerors lost but one esquire, three knights, and a few of inferior rank. It is said, that cannon were first used by the English in this battle, of which their army was provided with four pieces. But this victory was attended with still more substantial advantages; for Edward, as moderate in conquest as prudent in his methods to obtain it, resolved to secure an easy entrance into France for the future. With this view, he laid siege to Calais, that was then defended by John de Vienne, an experienced commander, and supplied with every thing necessary for defence. These operations, though slow, were at length successful. It was in vain that the governor made a noble defence, and that he excluded all the useless mouths from the city, which Edward generously permitted to pass. Edward resolved to reduce it by famine; and it was at length taken, after a twelvemonth's siege, the defendants having been reduced to the last extremity. He resolved to punish the obstinacy of the townsmen, by the death of six of the most considerable citizens, who offered themselves, with ropes round their necks, to satiate his indignation; but he spared their lives, at the intercession of the queen. While Edward was reaping victories upon the continent, the Scotch, willing to embrace a favourable opportunity of rapine and revenge, invaded the frontiers with a numerous army, headed by David Bruce, their king. This unexpected invasion, at such a juncture, alarmed the English, but was not capable of intimidating them. Lionel, Edward's son, who was left guardian of England during his father's absence, was yet too young to take upon him the command of an army; but the victories on the continent seemed to inspire even women with valour; Philippa, Edward's queen, took upon her the conduct of the field, and prepared to repulse the enemy in person. Accordingly, having made lord Percy general under her, she met the Scots at a place called Nevil's Cross, near Durham, and offered them battle. A. D. The 1346. Scotch king, no less impatient to engage, imagined that he might obtain an easy victory against undisciplined troops and headed by a woman. But he was miserably deceived. His army was quickly routed, and driven from the field. Fifteen thousand of his men were cut to pieces; and he himself, with many of his nobles and knights, was taken prisoner, and carried in triumph to London. A victory gained by the Black Prince near Poictiers followed not long after, in which John, king of France, was taken prisoner, and led in triumph through London, amidst an amazing concourse of spectators. Two kings prisoners in the same court, and at the same time, were considered as glorious atchievements; but all that England gained by them was only glory. Whatever was won in France, with all the dangers of war, and the expence of preparations, was successively, and in a manner silently lost, without the mortification of a defeat. The English, by their frequent supplies, had been quite exhausted, and were unable to continue an army in the field. Charles, who had succeeded his father, John who died a prisoner in the Savoy, on the other hand, cautiously forbore coming to any decisive engagement; but was contented to let his enemies waste their strength in attempts to plunder a fortified country. When they were tired, he then was sure to sally forth, and possess himself of such places as they were not strong enough to defend. He first fell upon Ponthieu ; the citizens of Abbeville opened their gates to him; those of St. Valois, Rue, and Crotoy, imitated the example; and the whole country was, in a little time, reduced to total submission. The southern provinces were, in the same manner, invaded by his generals with equal success; while the Black Prince, destitute of supplies from England, and wasted by a cruel and consumptive disorder, was obliged to return to his native country, leaving the affairs of the south of France in a most desperate condition. What, indeed, served to darken the latter part of this splendid reign, was the approaching death of this prince, whose constitution shewed but too manifestly the symptoms of a speedy dissolution. He died in the forty-sixth year of his age, leaving behind him a character without a single blemish; and a degree of sorrow among the people, that time could scarcely alleviate. The king was most sensibly affected with the loss of his son; and tried every art to allay his uneasiness. He removed himself entirely from the duties and burdens of the state, and left his kingdom to be plundered by a set of rapacious ministers. He did not, however, long survive the consequences of his bad conduct; but died about a year after the prince, at Shene, in Surry, deserted by all his courtiers, even by those who had grown rich by his bounty. He expired in the sixtyfifth year of his age, and fifty-first of his reign, 1377; a prince more admired than beloved by his subjects, and more an object of their applause than their sorrow. A. D. It was in this reign that the order of the Garter was instituted; the number was to consist of twenty-four 1340. persons beside the king. A story prevails, but unsupported by any ancient authority, that the countess of Salisbury, at a ball, happening to drop her garter, the king took it up, and presented it to her with these words, " Honi soit qui mal y pense;" Evil be to him that evil thinks. This accident, it is said, gave rise to the order and the motto. Edward left many children by his queen Philippa of Hainault his eldest son, the Black Prince, died before him; but left a son, named Richard, who succeeded to the throne, CHAP. XV. R ICHARD II. was but eleven years old when he came to the throne of his grandfather, and found the people discontented and poor, the nobles proud and rebellious. As he wasa minor, the government was vested in the hands of his three uncles, the dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester; and as the late king had left the kingdom involved in many dangerous and expensive wars, which demanded large and constant supplies, the murmurs of the people increased in proportion. The expences of armaments to face the enemy on every side, and a want of economy in the administration, entirely exhausted the treasury; and a new tax of three groats on every person above fifteen, was granted by parliament as a supply. The indignation of the people had been for some time increasing; but a tax so unequitable, in which the rich paid no more than the poor, kindled the resentment of the latter into a flame. It began in Essex, where a report was industriously spread, that the peasants were to be destroyed, their houses burned, and their farms plundered. A blacksmith, well known by the name of Wat Tyler, was the first who excited them to arms. The tax-gatherers coming to this man's house while he was at work, demanded payment for his daughter, which he refused, alledging she was under the age mentioned in the One of the brutal collectors insisted on her being a full grown woman, and immediately attempted a very indecent proof of his assertion, which provoked the father to such a degree, that he instantly struck him dead with a blow of his ham act. mer. The standers-by applauded his spirit, and, one and all, resolved to defend his conduct. He was considered as a champion in the cause, and appointed the leader and spokesman of the people. It is easy to imagine the disorders committed by this tumultuous rabble: the whole neighbourhood rose in arms; they burnt and plundered wherever they came, and revenged upon their former masters, all those insults which they had long sustained with impunity. As the discon-tent was general, the insurgents increased in proportion as they approached the capital. The flame soon propagated itself into Kent, Hertfordshire, Surry, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge and Lincoln. They were found to amount to above a hundred thousand men by the time they were arrived at Blackheath. At the head of one party of these was Wat Tyler, who led his men into Smithfield, where he was met by the king, who invited him to a conference, under a pretence of hearing and redressing his grievances. Tyler ordering his companions to retire, till he should give them a signal, boldly ventured to meet the king in the midst of his retinue, and accordingly began the conference. The demands of this demagogue are censured by all the historians of the times, as insolent and extravagant; and yet nothing can be more just than those they have delivered for him. He required that all slaves should be set free; that all commonages should be open to the poor as well as the rich; and that a general pardon should be passed for the late outrages. Whilst he made these demands, he now and then lifted up his sword in a menacing manner; which insolence so raised the indignation of William Walworth, then mayor of London, attending on the king, that, without considering the danger to which he exposed his majesty, he stunned Tyler with a blow of his mace; while one of the king's knights, riding up, dispatched im with his sword. The mutineers, seeing their leader fall, prepared themselves to take revenge; and their bows were now bent for execution, when Richard, though not yet quite sixteen years of age, rode up to the rebels, and, with admirable presence of mind, cried out, "What! my people, will you then kill your king? Be not concerned for the loss of your leader; I myself will now be your general; follow me to the field, and you shall have whatever you desire." The awed multitude immediately desisted; they followed the king, as if mechanically, into the fields, and there he granted them the same charter that he had before given to their companions; but which he soon after revoked in parliament. Hitherto the king had acted under the controul of the regency, who did all they could devise to abridge his power; however, in an extraordinary council of the nobility, assem bled after Easter, he, to the astonishment of all present, desired to know his age; and being told that he was turned of two and twenty, he alledged, that it was time then to govern without help; and that there was no reason that he should be deprived of those rights which the meanest of his subjects enjoyed. A. D. 1389. Being thus left at liberty to conduct the business of government at discretion, it quickly appeared that he wanted those arts that procure a lasting respect; he was fond of luxurious pleasures and idle ostentation; he admitted the meanest ranks to his familiarity and his conversation was not adapted to impress them with a reverence for his morals or abilities. The cruelty shown to the duke of Gloucester, who, upon slight suspicions was sent to confinement in Calais, and there murdered in prison, with some other acts equally arbitrary, did not fail to increase those animosities which had already taken deep root in the kingdom. The aggrandizement of some new favourites contributed still more to make the king odious; but though he seemed resolved, by all his actions, to set his subjects against him, it was ac cident that gave occasion for his overthrow. The duke of Hereford appeared in parliament, and accused the duke of Norfolk of having spoken seditious words against his majesty in a private conversation. Norfolk denied the charge, gave Hereford the lie, and offered to prove his innocence by single combat. As proofs were wanting for legal trial, the lords readily acquiesced in that mode of determination: the time and place were appointed; and the whole nation waited with anxious suspence for the event. At length the day arrived on which this duel was to be fought, and the champions having just began their career, the king stopped the combat, and ordered both the combatants to leave the kingdom. The duk of Norfolk he banished for life; but the duke of Hereford only for ten years. Thus the one was condemned to exile without being charged with any offence; and the other without being convicted of any crime. The duke of Norfolk was overwhelmed with grief and despondence at the judgment awarded against him; he retired to Venice, where, in little time after, he died of a broken heart. Hereford's behaviour on this occasion was resigned and submissive, which so pleased the king, that he consented to shorten the date of his banishment four years; and he also granted him letters patent, insuring him the enjoyment of any inheritance which should fall to him during his absence; but upon the death of his father, the duke of Lancaster, which happened shortly after, |