CHAP. XII. JOHN. [Years after Christ, 1199-1216.] John came to the crown of England without having one heart in his favor. His perfidiousness, cruelty, and rapa city, were already well known; and he had neither personal bravery, nor mental ability, to make up for his faults. He had early shown his incapacity for government. For his father, Henry the Second, intending that Ireland should be his inheritance, sent him there, to accustom the people to him. But he insulted the Irish chiefs, ridiculed their customs and habits, and behaved with so much folly and levity, that his father thought fit to alter his purpose. At the time of king Richard's death, Arthur of Bretagne was of an age and temper to feel the disappointment of being excluded from his inheritance. His mother was a woman of violent temper; and by her advice he placed his cause in the hands of the king of France, who was glad enough to have an opportunity of interfering with the affairs of England. John, however, found means to persuade Philip that it would be more to his advantage to abandon Arthur; and the two kings entered into a treaty, in which it was settled that Philip's son Louis should marry Blanche of Castile, John's niece; and that Arthur should be given up to John, who would have immediately put him to death, had he not found means to escape. Three years afterwards, Arthur married A. D. 1202. a daughter of Philip, who then undertook his cause, and assisted him to besiege the castle of Mirabel, in Poitou, where his grandmother, queen Eleanor, who had always been his enemy, lived. He had nearly got possession of the castle, when John, acting with a vigor quite unusual to him, came suddenly to his mother's rescue, and took the unfortunate Arthur prisoner, with his sister the Was John prepared to be a good king? What was John's treatment of his nephew, prince Arthur? damsel of Bretagne, who was carried to England, and kept in perpetual imprisonment in Bristol castle. Arthur was taken to the castle of Falaise, where the king gave orders to Hubert de Burgh, the governor, to put him to death. Hubert, desirous to save the unhappy young prince, placed him in concealment; and, pretending that he was dead, had the funeral service publicly performed for him. But the Bretons were so much exasperated at the supposed murder of their prince, that Hubert found it necessary to inform them of his being alive. But no sooner did John hear of it, than he had Arthur removed to Rouen, where he himself resided; and it is generally believed that he murdered his unfortunate nephew with his own hands. His This barbarity filled every mind with horror, and John became an object of universal detestation. And, partly because his barons refused him assistance, and partly from his own sloth and cowardice, he made but little opposition to the wily Philip, who drove him step by step out of Normandy, and severed that province from the crown of England, after it had been for three hundred years in the possession of the descendants of the Danish Rollo. mother's inheritance also, and nearly all the rest of John's territories in France, yielded themselves up to Philip. John had a quarrel with the pope, InnoA. D. 1208. cent III., about the choice of an archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent insisted on the election of Stephen Langton, an Englishman, whose superior abilities had raised him to the dignity of cardinal; and John refusing to confirm his choice, the pope laid the kingdom under an interdict. This, however, John did not much regard. John occupied himself during the next two years in expeditions against the Irish and Welsh, and in extorting money from his own subjects, and from the Jews especially, by many unjust and cruel methods. One of his contrivances was to assemble all the abbots and abbesses of the religious houses in London; and when he had collected them together, What was the death of Arthur? Who separated Normandy from the dominions of the king of England? What quarrel between king John and the pope broke out A. D. 1208? How did John treat the Jews and the religious houses? he kept them prisoners till they had paid him a very large sum of money. The pope, finding that his interdict was of no avail, now resolved on a more effectual way of bringing John to obedience. He excommunicated him, absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and published a sort of crusade against him, exhorting all Christian princes and barons to unite in making war upon and dethroning him. To the king of France the pope applied particularly; and Philip, who, you may believe, was not slow in availing himself of the opportunity thus offered, assembled a numerous fleet and army at Boulogne for the invasion of England. The dread of being conquered by the French overpow ered the dislike the English had to John. They flocked to him in great numbers on this emergency, and a large army was soon collected at Dover. While affairs were in this state, the pope, who only wished to humble John, and not to increase the power of Philip, sent his legate Pandulf to England, and promised John that if he would receive Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, he would recal the sentence of excommunication. When John had agreed to this, the legate required him to resign his crown to the pope, and promised that the pope would restore it to him again, on condition of receiving a yearly tribute; and would forbid Philip to invade the realm of England. John agreed to these ignominious terms; and it is said that when he took his crown, (for kings in those days often wore them,) and laid it at the feet of the legate, the pope's representative, that haughty cardinal spurned it with his foot, and that it was some time before he consented to replace it on the king's head. Philip, when he heard of these arrangements, and was ordered by Pandulf to withdraw his forces from the coast, was enraged beyond measure. But, as he did not dare to make the pope his enemy, he found himself obliged to sub Did the Pope persevere in his hostility to John, and who aided him? Did the Pope offer conditions of reconciliation to John? Did John disgracefully submit to these terms? What caused a battle between the French and English? Did John continue the war with France, and how did the war terminate? mit. Unwilling, however, that his great preparations should be thrown away, he determined to attack the territories of Ferrand, earl of Flanders. In this extremity Ferrand applied to John, who sent to his assistance the fleet that had been collected for the defence of England. A battle ensued between the English and French fleets, and the English were completely victorious. Philip, on the loss of his fleet, returned home with his army in great dis order John was so much elated by this victory, that he wanted to follow it up by the invasion of France; but his barons refused to accompany him. He therefore entered into an alliance with Otho, emperor of Germany, and some other princes, who engaged to enter France on one side, while. John, with some foreign troops that he had collected, attacked it on the other. Otho accordingly entered the Netherlands; and John landed an army in Poitou, and penetrated into Anjou and Bretagne. The army of the emperor being completely defeated at Bouvines, John made a five years' truce with Philip, and hastily returned to England. There a most unwelcome reception awaited him. His barons, tired out by his weakness and wickedness, had been long conspiring together against him. They were now joined by Stephen Langton, the new archbishop, who, having discovered a concealed copy of the charter granted by Henry I., drew up from it a bill of rights and privileges, which the barons, in full assembly, approved of A. D. 1215. This the king, on his return from France, was called on to sign: but he refused to do so. At last, finding himself abandoned by every body, and in a most desolate condition, he sent the earl of Pembroke, a nobleman distinguished for virtue and ability, to propose a conference with the barons. A meeting according y took place on Friday, the 15th of June, 1215, in a large meadow, between Windsor and Staines, called Runimede, which means the meadow of council, and which was so called because it had been used by the Saxons as a place Who opposed the arbitrary measures of king John? What measure was proposed by the English barons to king John? When and where was the great charter signed? for public meetings. At this meeting was signed the famous Magna Charta. Under the feudal system, the power of the kings was very oppressive, and had become more and more so, till no subject could act in the commonest affairs of life without the king's consent, which could be obtained only for money. Nobody could marry without the king's consent; and he could oblige heiresses to marry whom he liked ; and even widows, who often paid fines, to save themselves from being compelled to marry again. We read of a countess of Chester, who paid king Stephen five hundred marks, that she might not be obliged to marry again for five years; and of a countess of Warwick, who paid king John five hundred marks that she might not be obliged to marry till she pleased. The Magna Charta was a writing declaring the people of England exempted from certain oppressions, and entitled to certain privileges; and it contained sixty-three different clauses: only the most vexatious tyranny which kings could exercise over people, could make such clauses necessary. These, for instance: that the goods of every free man shall be disposed of, after his death, according to his will: that, if he die without making a will, his children shall succeed to his property that no officer of the crown shall take horses, carts, or wood, without the consent of the owner: that no free man shall be imprisoned, outlawed, or banished, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land: that even a rustic shall not by any fine be deprived of his carts, ploughs, and implements of husbandry. This last was the only article in that great charter for the protection of the laboring people. Laws there were before this time, but they were very ill kept. Till men are civilized, the will of the strongest is the law, to which the weakest must submit. While the Did the first kings of England interfere in the private concerns of their subjects? Did the Magna Charta improve the condition of the English people? Were laws of much efficacy previously to the grant of Magna Chaw 2 |