incidents. Taillage was exacted from them ward in the Holy Land, adorned by romanall; an impost founded on a conjectural and tic adventures, and distinguished by the very uncertain estimate of the fortunes of prince's feats of arms, could not, however, individuals. The nature of this very ar- stay the downfall of Acre, the last remains bitrary imposition made it difficult to settle of Christian conquest in Palestine, which, the amount, and to procure the payment of twenty years after, fell under the power of it, without intercourse between the king's the Mamaluke sultans of Egypt. agents and the burgesses, or their author- The remaining years of Henry's reign ized proxies. These negotiations were gen- were of little importance. He died in Noerally committed to the judges of assize. vember, 1272, after a nominal reign of fiftySpecial commissioners often supplied their six years: a memorable period, which owes place. Nothing was more natural than to no part of its interest to the monarch from simplify these dealings by convoking a gen- whose sway it derives its name. eral meeting of delegates from burghs in Though Simon de Montfort was slain, London, to negotiate the taillages of the his lifeless remains outraged, his acts brandtowns with the king's plenipotentiaries. ed as those of an usurper, and his name, When the consent of parliament was made held in abhorrence by the powerful, was necessary to the levy of taillage, of subsi- distinguished only by the blessings of the dies, and, in effect, of all taxes, as well as poor and the praise of the learned, yet, in of the feudal dues, in the latter years of spite of authority and prejudice, his bold Edward I., the burgesses became integral and fortunate innovation survived. and essential parts of the legislature. The When the barons originally took up union, so pregnant with momentous and arms against John, they exercised the inbeneficial consequences, of the deputies of disputable right of resistance to oppresthe minor nobility in the same house with sion. They gave a wholesome warning to those of the industrious classes, was not sovereigns, and breathed into the hearts of systematically adopted till a somewhat later nations a high sense of their rights. But period; but the tendency of two bodies of in this first stage they knew not how to imelective members, whose chief concerns in prove their victory: they took no securities;' legislation were of the same nature, to and made no lasting provision for the time form an united body, is too apparent to re- to come. Both parties might have won sucquire more than the shortest allusion. cessive victory, with no other fruit than al

After the battle of Evesham, and the ternate tyranny. death of Montfort, the baronial party ap- In the second stage of the contest the peared to be extinct. The parliament as-national leaders obtained, in the Great sembled by the royalists was the pliant in- Charter, a solemn recognition of the rights strument of their rapacity and revenge. of mankind; and some provisions which, The followers of Leicester were proscribed: by reserving to a national assembly the their lands were distributed among the vic-power over many taxes, laid the foundation tors. The king distinguished himself by of a permanent and effective control over nothing but the unmanly insolence of a the crown. Still, the means of redressing feeble mind intoxicated by undeserved suc- grievances chiefly lay in an appeal to arms: cess. His sagacious and intrepid son re-a coarse and perilous expedient, which, duced the baronial castles, and dispersed however justifiable by extreme necessity, the assemblages of the malcontent party. is always of uncertain issue, and of which The earl of Gloucester, who, after the the frequent repetition is incompatible with death of his great rival, once more took up the peace and order of human society. arms for the commons, was compelled to Such were the plans of government in the make his peace. Edward entered as a con- Great Charter, the provisions of Oxford, queror into the Isle of Ely, which again, and the mise or agreement of Lewes. after an interval of two centuries, seemed The third epoch is distinguished by the to be the last strong-hold of English liber- establishment of a permanent assembly, ty. The swell left behind by such tempests which was on ordinary occasions capable subsided; and in no long period after the of checking the prerogative by a quiet and battle of Evesham, quiet and security ap- constant action, yet strong enough to oppeared to be so generally established, that pose it more decisively, if no other means prince Edward took up the cross. In two of preventing tyranny should be left. years after, he began his expedition, visit- Hence the unspeakable importance of the ing on his voyage his illustrious ally St. new constitution given to parliament by Louis at Tunis, where that monarch, who, Simon de Montfort. Hence also arose the if his judgment had been as sound as his necessity under which the succeeding king, conscience was pure, would have been just- with all his policy and energy, found himly accounted the most excellent of men, self of adopting this precedent from a died of the plague. The campaign of Ed-[hated usurper. It would have been vain

to have legally strengthened parliament policy of his continental territories, and inagainst the crown, unless it had been actu- dulging himself in those martial amuseally strengthened by widening its founda- ments to which a great captain in the tions, by rendering it a bond of union be- prime of manhood was by habit as well as tween orders of men jealous of each other, nature prone. His reign was calculated, and by multiplying its points of contact not from the day of his father's demise, but with the people, the sole allies from whom from that on which he was publicly recogsuccor could be hoped. The introduction nized ;t according to an usage which still of knights, citizens, and burgesses into the manifested a show of respect for the conlegislature, by its continuance in circum-sent of the people.

stances so apparently inauspicious, showed Laying aside his disputes with his neighhow exactly it suited the necessities and bors as a French prince, his active and demands of society at that moment. No splendid reign may be considered as an atsooner had events thrown forward the tempt to subject the whole island of Great measure, than its fitness to the state of the Britain to his sway. Feudal superiority community became apparent. It is often was the instrument which he employed thus, that in the clamors of men for a suc- against Wales with final success, and against cession of objects, society, by a sort of elec- Scotland with the appearance of having tive attraction, seems to select from among discomfited every adversary. them what has an affinity with itself, and It has been already observed, that in the what easily combines with it in its state at first ages after the Saxon invasion, at least the time. The enlargement of the basis six principalities, peopled by the Cambroof the legislature thus stood the test which British race, occupied the west coast of discriminates visionary projects from neces- Britain from the Clyde to the Land's End. sary repair and prudent reformation. It In the end of the eleventh century this would be nowise inconsistent with this people were known by the name of Walview of the subject, if we were to suppose lenses or Welshmen: names very similar that, De Montfort, by this novelty, paid to those applied on the continent by the court to the lower orders to gain allies Teutonic tribes to denote the Gaulish race against the nobility,-the surmise of one in their neighborhood, called by them ancient chronicler, eagerly adopted by Walloons in Flanders, and Welsh in Switseveral modern historians.* That he might zerland as well as Italy. The history of entertain such a project as a temporary ex- this native race has not yet been extricated pedient, is by no means improbable. To from fable; nor has any Welshman yet ascribe to him a more extensive foresight, arisen who has made such attempts to rewould be unreasonable in times better than cover the perhaps still remaining materials, his. If the supposition could be substan- as will warrant us in asserting that they tiated, it would only prove more clearly have altogether perished. An early conthat his ambition was guided by sagacity; quest damped the national feeling, which that he saw the part of society which was would have fondly clung to the slenderest growing in strength, and with which a fragment of such memorials, from the purprovident government ought to seek an al- suit and preservation of which at the favorliance; that amidst the noise and confusion able time they were diverted by their long of popular complaint, he had learned the reliance on the legends of Geoffrey of Monart of deciphering its often wayward lan- mouth. Their subjection was not, like guage, and of discriminating the clamor of a moment from demands rooted in the nature and circumstances of society.

EDWARD I. 1272-1307.

that of Ireland, imperfect; and their very inferior numbers, as well as their local situation, prevented that indignation from growing among them which ages of oppression kept up in the bosoms of the Irish nation. Although there be no evidence of their subjugation by the invaders, yet THE renown of Edward secured his neither do we before the ninth century peaceable succession during his absence in find authenticated accounts of their appearthe Holy land, as perfectly as if he were ance in the territory of their enemies, in London and had immediately stepped under chiefs of name, and in a somewhat upon the throne. Conscious of security, regular form. he returned slowly, not neglecting the

* "Comes Leycestriæ cauté prævidens ne forté magnates regni quos flexibiles et mutabiles reputavit contra se aliquid acceptare præsumerent, præmeditatis cautelis disposuit majores deprimere et eorum potentiam annihilare ut exinanitis majorum viribus liberius et facilius vulgares sibi populos subjugaret." -Chron. Thom. Wykes. Gale, 66. VOL. I. 10

About the year 876 their country was divided into three divisions-North Wales,

† Palgrave, Parl. Writs, E. 1.
Doomsday Book.

The interchange of G and W is one of the most frequent. Ward and guard, war and guerre, Willhelm and Guillaume, will suggest many similar examples.

South Wales, and the intermediate district|dations against which the utmost knowcalled Powis; of which the reigning prin- ledge and skill cannot insure a country ces were held together by some loose ties rescued from the sea, implored Henry I. to of confederacy, and by an arrangement assign them land which was void of inhabwhich made each of them the arbitrators itants. He planted them in Dyrfed or of disputes between the remaining two.* West Wales, since called Pembrokeshire, The jealousies between Wessex and Mer- where their posterity, mixing easily with cia, and the long contest between the the Anglo-Normans, are still distinguished Danes and Saxons, exposed Wales to fre- by language from their Cambrian neighbors, quent inroad and ravage, but guarded it whom they long treated as natural enefrom absolute conquest. mies, agreeably to the policy which occaIn the end of the tenth century, Howel sioned the plantation. South Wales beDha appears as the lawgiver of Wales; a came a scene of carnage. Contests with character under which most nations are the English and with each other kept up pleased to embody and personify the rea- constant wars. "For the least offence, nay, son of ages, and the feelings out of which for suspicion, murder was openly comtheir national usages have sprung. The mitted." In so many petty states owing slight difference between the Saxon and only a nominal homage to the distant king the British Christians, respecting the ob- of London, the chiefs without scruple servance of Easter, was sufficient to foster blinded or murdered their formidable relaan animosity conducive to the independence tions, and thought it no more dishonorable to of the weaker party. The monasteries destroy their enemies by assassination than from Bangor to St. David's seem, from the to encounter them in battle. examples of Pelagius and of Asser, not to The ruins of castles still mark the have been wanting in the learning of the strong-holds of the Anglo-Normans against times. Neighborhood, intermixture, contact the natives, and the line by which the inat many points, gave the atrocity of civil vaders marched to embark in the expedidiscord to their warfare, and thus engender- tion against Ireland. The Normans, howed a new abhorrence of each other, of ever they might pretend to more advanced which the only alleviation was that it was civilization, did not yield in faithless and most keenly felt by the feebler nation, and merciless deeds to the unhappy Britons, that it sometimes supplied their defect in whom the rapacious invaders had driven to number and strength. despair. In the midst of their distractions

Athelstan, in 933, compelled the Welsh they drove back Henry II., and obliged him principalities to become his tributaries. to make peace in 1157. Rhys prince of Upon this treaty, which may have been South Wales, in spite of the mutilation of broken by the conqueror or cancelled by his principality, refused to consent to the subsequent events, and of which we know treaty, and took refuge from slavery in the nothing but its existence, the Normans wilderness of the Tivy. Henry was once built their system of lordship paramount more obliged to make a dishonorable re over all England, soon after extended by treat before them; and he is charged by them to the whole island; though founded the Welsh writers with the inhuman re on the feudal relation of lord and vassal, venge of "plucking out the eyes of the which is no necessary inference from the hostages, the sons of the princes of North payment of tribute, especially at a period and South Wales.' The principality of when the feudal system was everywhere North Wales, called by the English the imperfect, and probably little known to the principality of Aberfraw or Snauden, which Cambro-Britons. Powis was the central had always exercised some supremacy over part of the eastern frontier of Wales, the other Cambrian states, was still almost which had been early dismembered by the untouched by the English arms. But its Mercians; its princes gradually sunk into princes unfortunately mingled in the baEnglish barons, and took an unnatural part ronial wars; they became members of Engin the Norman conquest of their country. lish factions, whose adverse as well as prosThe beautiful country of South Wales perous fortune it seemed meet that they soon attracted the rapacity of the Norman should share: they apparently acquiesced adventurers. In the year 1091, Fitzhamond, in their own vassalage, by exchanging their a relation of the duke of Normandy, being independence for a high place amidst the called in by a native chief to aid him in a Anglo-Norman lords. Though nothing effecquarrel, reduced Glamorgan, and shared it tual was done for their subjugation during among his most considerable followers. In 1105 a multitude of Flemings, compelled to seek refuge abroad by one of those inun

Chronicle of Caradoc of Llanearvon, who flourished about 1157; a work which is similar in its origin

Powell, 155., a translation from the Welsh

and materials to the Saxon Chronicle and the Irish Annals, but which has not hitherto had the like good fortune in an industrious and critical editor.

the confusions of the reigns of John and of solemnizing his nuptials with Elinor de Henry III., their alienation and estrange- Montfort, to whom he had been for a conment from their native country, during siderable time affianced. As soon as Edthat period, silently sapped the foundations ward heard of the voyage of this lady from of their authority. France, he dispatched vessels in pursuit of With the reign of Edward the prepara- her, who brought her prisoner into Engtions for an attack on Llewellyn prince of land, where she was detained for more than Wales began. The king's claims as liege two years, in a period of peace, without lord stood him in good stead. This feudal any color of justice or even pretext of law. superiority often appeared no more than an The English parliament pronounced the alliance equally eligible to both parties. It doom of forfeiture against Llewellyn. Senmight, at other times, be represented as a tence of excommunication issued against mere solemnity in which great princes him. The first campaign against Wales often acquiesced. Yet, when once recog- either languished, or was divided between nized, it was capable of being so stretched, petty inroads and mighty preparations; but in favorable circumstances, as to become Edward summoned all his vassals to take a pretext for the vexations of perpetual the field in 1277. He opened roads into interference, out of which endless provo- the utmost fastnesses of Snowdon. In his cations and wrongs were sure to arise. advance he repaired or rebuilt the castles The liege lord might excite the discontents of Rhuddland and Flint, manifesting at of the subordinate tenants against their every step the wariness of a statesman immediate lords. Appeals from the courts and a commander preparing for the subjuof the obnoxious tenant were easily pro- gation of a gallant people. Surrounded by cured. Wherever the vassal of the crown such formidable enemies, and touched by proved too powerful and obstinate, it was the hope of delivering his beloved Elinor, seldom difficult for the lord paramount to the prince of North Wales acquiesced in find a decent pretext for retreat till a more conditions of peace imposed by the confavorable opportunity should arise. He had queror, and equivalent to conquest. The the great advantage of acting under those whole principality was, in effect, ceded, exforms of law, and with that tone of legiti- cept Anglesea, the ancient refuge of prinmate authority, which often shelter the ces and retreat of bards, which was itself most cruel wrongs. The confiscation of to revert to the liege lord in case of failure the Plantagenet territory in France, though of issue male of Llewellyn. Even this not so unequivocal an act of injustice as remnant of dominion was ransomed by a many others of the same kind, was a strik- stipulation to pay the enormous sum of fifty ing instance of the account to which this thousand pounds sterling, which, if it was jurisdiction might be turned. afterwards remitted, was probably not exImmediately after the recognition of Ed- acted only because it could not be paid. ward, a summons had issued to Llewellyn The natural consequences of all treaties of to do homage as one of the great vassals. submission soon manifested themselves; The duties of vassalage were indisputable, Llewellyn reproached himself for the sacand they are uniformly acknowledged by rifice of his country; he read reproof in Llewellyn. The advantage of form and the countenance of every faithful subject. the plausibilities of legal reasoning were To restrain the indignation of his people on the side of Edward; but much of the he soon discovered to be impracticable, and substantial justice of the case is kept out probably felt to be intolerable. The inso of view by the specious language of the lence of the victors rendered the treaty state papers which issued from Edward's daily more hateful. In the mean time ministers.* The prince of Wales urged David the brother of Llewellen was indigthat he could not with safety repair to the nant at a treaty more injurious to himself court of a monarch who had violated the and his family than to the childless prince, terms of a solemn treaty, recently con- and recoiled probably from the too complete cluded under the mediation of the pope, success of his own treason against his counand who received disaffected and even re-try. The prophecies of ancient poets easily bellious Welshmen with favor and distinc- assumed the meaning most suitable to the tion. He demanded hostages to insure his excited feelings of a brave and superstisecurity; and he appealed to the pope, and tious nation. Llewellyn's grievances, if even to the English primate, for the rea- founded in fact, certainly absolved him sonableness of such an assurance. In the from the observance of the slavish comcourse of the negotiations Edward gave pact. "The brave people of Snowdon deLlewellyn a new proof of very ungenerous clared, that though the prince should give enmity. The Welsh prince was desirous

* Rymer, ii. 504. 550.

Ratific. Pacis cum Princ. Walliæ apud Rhudd land, 10 Nov. 1277.-Rymer, ii. 546.

+ Powel, 288.

the king possession of it, they would never burnt before his face, was beheaded and cut submit to strangers." "-"The prince," said into four parts-the head being exposed bethe Welsh chiefs, "cannot in honesty re-side that of his brother, on the Tower of sign his paternal inheritance, and accept London, and the members distributed over other lands among the English, of whose four of the chief towns of the kingdom;customs and language he is ignorant."* probably the earliest instance of that horriEdward's army penetrated Anglesea by a ble punishment afterwards appointed for bridge of boats over the Menai; now cross-treason, of which it required all the power ed by a more lasting bridge, one of the of reason, eloquence, and character, united greatest works of useful and magnificent in the person of Sir Samuel Romilly, five art. But prince David, at the head of his hundred years afterwards, to procure the generous mountaineers, carried on a vigor- abolition; as if to warn mankind how easily ous warfare on them; and Llewellyn him- the most execrable example may be introself defeated the English invaders killing duced, and with what difficulty a country or drowning the greater part of them in is purified from it.

their retreat to the main land. In another The mind is often perplexed about estiaction the lords Audley and Clifford were mating the comparative demerits of both slain, and the king reduced to the necessity parties in such contests as that between of seeking safety in one of his castles. In Edward and Llewellyn; but the only printhe mean time Llewellyn, pressed by Mor- ciple by which a just judgment can be timer the border chief towards the south, formed, is that of invariable regard to the went with a few attendants to a place near intention of the contending chiefs. EdBuilth, where he appears to have appointed ward's object was aggrandizement. Whatthe lords of the neighborhood to concert ever occasional breaches of treaty or violameasures. Either lukewarm and fearful, tions of humanity the Welsh may have or, as the Welsh annalist intimates, more committed, their deliberate aim never could deliberately perfidious, the degenerate have reached beyond the defence of their chiefs deserted their gallant prince, who rights. His ambition tainted all his acts, had remained in his defenceless position, and renders his conformity to the letter of till Roger Mortimer with a large force fell the law a fraudulent evasion of the rules upon him. Thus taken by surprise, and of justice. Their cause was in itself saperhaps betrayed, Llewellyn fell,t the vic- cred, and entitles them to some excuse for tim seemingly rather of assassination than having maintained it by those means of of fair battle: Adam Frankton ran him warfare which the barbarity of that age through the body unarmed, the 10th of De- deemed lawful.

cember, 1282. As soon as his rank was The massacre of the bards is an act of discovered, his head was cut off; sent to cruelty imputed to Edward without eviEdward, then at Shrewsbury; by whose dence, and is inconsistent with his temper, command it was placed on the Tower. of which fitted him for what stern policy reLondon, with a crown of willows, in base quired, but was not infected by wanton mockery of those ancient songs which were ferocity. It is one of those traditions of fondly believed by the Welsh to prefigure which the long prevalence attests the deeptheir deliverer, as adorned by this symbol rooted hatred of a nation towards conquerof sovereignty. Thus perished the last sov- ors. From the death of Llewellyn, one of ereign of one of the most ancient ruling the most ancient branches of the Celtic families of Europe. race lost its national character. For two In 1283, the prince David was made centuries more, Wales suffered all the evils prisoner; tried before an English parlia- of anarchy and misrule. The marches were ment at Shrewsbury; convicted by them governed by arbitrary maxims: in the inof high treason for the defence of his coun- terior the people suffered alike from bantry; and, after being drawn asunder by ditti and from tyrannical magistrates. It horses, and having his heart and bowels was not till the reigns of the Tudors, "Britannia's issue," that wise attempts Sed ista guerra erat ferox et fortis.-Knighton, laws. Their language withheld many of were made to humanize them by equal them from contributing to English litera

* Powell, 295.

lib. iii. c. i.

Hearne, Ann. de Dunst. 474.

The calm and decent language of the summons ture; and yet their small numbers, their to this parliament shows the impartiality which Da- constant disorder, and their multiplied links

vid had to expect.

Rudland, 28 June, 1283. The like writs issued to the

"Dictum David qui quasi ultimus superstes de dic- of dependence, repressed a genius which torum proditorum genere habebatur." Rymer, ii. 630. might have otherwise assumed a national city of London and to twenty-one cities and towns. form. If considered, as they now should All the sheriffs were in the same manner required be, as a part of the people of England, their who were to meet the king in parliament at Shrews contributions have been by no means inadequate to reasonable expectations. But the

to cause two knights to be elected for each county

bury on the morrow of St. Michael.