and towns assembled in one house; but afterwards they divided themselves into two: and hence arose the House of Lords, and the House of Commons; the one composed of noblemen who attend there in right of birth, and the other of gentlemen who are elected by the people. Before laws were written, and lawyers contended for law to be enforced, and judges were appointed to explain the law and what it demanded, it has been stated, that nobles settled disputes, or wars decided them; but besides those modes of deciding the right, trials by combat and ordeals were admitted. The trial by combat was a duel, or trial of arms. Two angry persons fought together and the disabled person was pronounced the offender, and the conqueror the justified man. The ordeal required an accused person to walk over burning ploughshares, or hot irons blindfold, and if he escaped burning he was pronounced innocent, and discharged from punishment of the imputed crime. In the reign of Henry III. trials by ordeal were abolished. A license was granted in this reign to the people of Newcastle, allowing them to dig for coals, the first mention we find of that useful mineral. In this reign, though the class of gentry arose, the condition of the lower orders remained unchanged; and slaves were bought and sold like brute animals at the fairs. There were no regular shops, and the merchants and traders travelled from place to place to dispose of their goods. Roger Bacon was the most eminent man of the age of Henry III. This extraordinary person was a monk at Oxford, and was the most learned man of his age. He ap plied his learning to the discovery of useful knowledge. He invented telescopes, reading glasses, microscopes, and many other astronomical and mathematical instruments. He discovered gunpowder, though he considered it as an object of mere curiosity, rather than as an invention that could be applied to the destruction of human life. How were disputes settled before laws were written, and courts of aw established? What was the trial by combat, and what the ordeal? What circumstances are memorable in the reign of Henry III. Who was the most eminent man of this age in England, and for what? Bacon's genius soared so far above all his contempora rics, that he was looked upon as a magician, and thrown into prison, where he was kept for many years. He at length returned to Oxford and lied there, a very old man in 1292 CHAPTER XIV. EDWARD I. A D. 1274. [Years after Christ, 1272-1307.] On receiving news of his father's death, Prince Edward set out for England, but ne delayed so long on the road, that he did not arrive there till the 2d of May, 1274. His first business was to restore the police of the kingdom, and he made many excellent laws and regulations. His expedient to fill his coffers was not so commendable. He employed commissioners to examine into the titles by which all persons held their estates; and if any one had not a legal title, that is, a writing which recorded that the estate was given or sold to the proprietor, or his ancestors, he was compelled either to pay a great fine, or to forfeit his land to the king. When the commissioners came to earl Warrenne, and desired him to produce the title by which he held his estate, he drew an old rusty sword out of the scabbard, and said, "This is the instrument by which my ancestors gained their estate, and by which I will keep it as long as I live " When this answer was reported to Edward, he became sensible of the hazard he was incurring, and put an end to the commission. When did Edward I. come to the throne, and what was his policy? How did Earl Warrenne assert the title of his estate, and what is title to landed property? The Welsh, under their Prince Llewei A D. 1282. lyn, had long been very troublesome neighbors to the English. They had joined in Leicester's rebellions, and did not keep the terms of peace which Edward made with them on coming to the throne. Perhaps Edward was not sorry to have this pretext for making war on them; and they, presuming too much on their own strength, attacked his army on the 11th of December, 1282, and were totally defeated. The Welsh king, Llewellyn, was killed in the battle, and his brother David was taken prisoner, and beheaded like a common traitor. His head was put on the walls of the tower of London, and his limbs were quartered, according to the barbarous custom of those times, and were hung up in four different places, at York, Winchester Bristol, and Northampton. David being the last branch of that family of ancient kings, Edward took undisputed possession of Wales, and promising the people a prince of their own country, who could speak no English, presented to them his own eldest son, born a few days before in Carnarvon castle, who was thence called prince of Wales, as all the eldest sons of the English kings have been called since. The kings of England and Scotland had lived in singular harmony, during the last two reigns, in which the intermarriages between the royal families of Scotland and England had made a family as well as a national union. Alexander the Third had married king Edward's sister who died leaving only one child, Margaret, who afterwards married the king of Norway, and died, leaving a little daughter about three years old. Alexander himself died in 1286, and his infant grand-child became heiress of his dominions. Edward proposed to the king of Norway that the prince of Wales should marry his daughter, the little queen of On what pretext did Edward make war with the Wel: h? How did Edward treat the Welsh princes? Whom did Edward offer the Welsh for a king? Was the royal family of Scotland connected with that of England? What hir.dered the marriage of the prince of Wales with the queen of Scotland? Scotland. Such early marriages were then not uncommon. Indeed Alexander and his queen had been betrothed, or promised to each other, when neither of them was a year old. The king of Norway and the parliament of Scotland having consented to this match, the young queen was on her way to Scotland, when, being taken ill, she was obliged to be landed at the Orkneys, and there she died. The death of a little girl of three years old was never before so much lamented, nor has ever since produced such disastrous consequences. But her death prevented the union between the two nations, and plunged Scotland into long and bloody private feuds and public wars. No fewer than thirteen competitors for the throne sprung up. Robert Bruce and John Baliol were the two whose claims were the strongest; and they agreed to refer the decision to Edward, who was so much looked up to by the princes of Europe, that he had before been applied to, to determine a competition for the crown of Sicily. In that case, where his interest was not concerned, he had given a wise and equitable decision. Happy had it been for both England and Scotland, would he have done so now: but the temptation offered was too great for him to resist. Edward came to Norham, on the border of Scotland, with a numerous army; and first insisted that his supremacy over Scotland should be admitted; which the Scots agreed to after much hesitation. He then required that the royal castles, and places of strength should be put into his hands; and, when this was done, he gave judgment in favor of Baliol, who was proclaimed king of Scotland. But the mere name of king was all that he obtained, for being of a weak capacity, he could make no resistance to the encroachments and exactions of Edward, who treated him like a child, and was disposed to treat the Scots like slaves. On their refusing to submit tamely, he marched into Scotland, and defeated at Dunbar the army of Baliol, What event threw the Scots into a state of civil warfare? What was the end of John Baliol? Baliol then threw himself into the hands of the king of England, who obliged him to make a solemn renunciation of his crown, and detained him a prisoner for three years. He was then allowed to retire to France, where he died at an advanced age, having been nominally a king for four years. While Edward was thus endeavoring to increase his dominions in one quarter by injustice and violence, he lost part of them in another by an artifice more contemptible, but not more unjust, than those he himself practised. Guienne, the inheritance of the old queen Eleanor, had still remained to her posterity, when almost every thing else they had possessed in France was gone. Some disputes arising with Philip the Fair, king of France, about the ceremony of doing homage for that duchy, Edward, by way of a form of acknowledgment of the feudal superiority of the king of France, was persuaded to surrender the duchy to Philip, who promised, on the word of a king, to restore it immediately; but when that wily monarch had got possession, he would not resign it, and Edward was too deeply engaged in the affairs of Scotland to be able at that time to avenge himself. In 1291 Edward had the affliction of losing his queen. She died at Harby, in Nottinghamshire, and Edward accompanied her body from thence to its burial place at Westminster, and, to commemorate her worth, and his own grief, he caused a stone cross to be erected at every place where the body stopped in this melancholy journey. After the imprisonment of Baliol, Edward A. D 1296. treated Scotland like a conquered country. Earl Warrenne was appointed governor of the kingdom, and all the offices of state were given to Englishmen. The Scots groaned bitterly under this degradation; and, in 1297, William Wallace, whose name will never be for gotten, stood forth, though only a private gentleman of small estate, to rescue his fallen country. By wnat right was Guienne retained by the English? How did the king deceive Edward I. ? How did Edward express his grief for the death of his queen? |