further resolved, that to wipe off as it were the stain of captivity the king should be crowned anew. The ceremony was performed at Winchester (Apr. 17.) Richard then embarked his troops on board one hundred ships for the war against the king of France, and landed at Barfleur.

The war, like most of those of the time, consisted merely of skirmishes and taking of castles on both sides. Prince John, who was at Evreux, resolved to throw himself on his brother's mercy. Ever base and treacherous, he invited the officers of the French garrison to dinner, and massacred them while at the entertainment, then with the aid of the townsmen he fell on and slaughtered the garrison. He threw himself at his brother's feet imploring forgiveness; queen Eleanor interceded, and Richard pardoned him, saying, “I forgive him, and hope I shall as easily forget his injuries as he will my pardon.” He did not however as yet restore him his possessions.

The war was terminated by a truce (July 23, 1195), on the expiration of which it was again resumed, and during the short remnant of king Richard's reign it was only occasionally intermitted. That monarch’s death occurred in the following manner (1199): Vidomar viscount of Limoges, who was his vassal, having found a treasure of ancient coins, sent the king a part as a present; but Richard as superior lord claimed the whole, and on the viscounts refusal to surrender it he placed himself at the head of a body of Brabançons and laid siege to his castle of Chaluz. As he and Marcadee, the leader of his mercenaries, were one day (Mar. 26) taking a view of the castle, one of the garrison, named Bertram de Gourdon, discharged a bolt from his crossbow which hit the king in the left shoulder. Richard returned to his tent and gave orders for the assault; the castle was taken, and, as the king had menaced, all its defenders were hanged except Gourdon, who was probably reserved for a more cruel fate. But the want of skill of his

had rendered the king's wound mortal, and feeling the approach of death he summoned Gourdon to his presence. "Wretch!" said he, “what have I ever done to thee that thou shouldst seek my life?” “You have killed,” replied he, “ with your own hands my father and two brothers, and you intended to hang me; I am now in your power, and you may torment me as you will; but I shall endure with joy, happy in having rid the world of such a pest.” The king, struck with his reply, ordered him a sum of money and his liberty; but Marcadee unknown to him seized the unhappy man, flayed him alive, and then hanged him. Richard died on the tenth day, in the forty-second year of his age, expressing great penitence for his vices, and having undergone a severe flagellation at his own desire from the clergy who attended him.

The epithet of Lion-heart (Cour de Lion) which his courage procured for him, has apparently been the cause of investing this prince with qualities to which he had little claim; as we (erroneously we believe) couple magnanimity and generosity with an idea of the courage of the monarch of the woods. But Richard was in reality selfish, passionate, cruel, revengeful, and capricious; he had all his father's bad and few of his good qualities. Like him, however, he had a fondness for the Gay Science, or lyric poetry of the South of France, and he even practised that art himself; and like him too he had a ready wit* and could express himself with eloquence. No monarch drew larger sums from his subjects' purses, and for this purpose he scrupled at neither violence nor meanness.

In the latter part of this king's reign (1196) a riot took place in London excited by one William Fitz-Osbert, surnamed Longbeard, “the patriarch,” as Hallam says, “ of a long line of city demagogues,” styling himself the “ advocate of the People.” The cause was the heavy taxes imposed by the king for his war in France, which Longbeard asserted to be necessary, but maintained that they were eluded by the rich and great and thrown entirely on the poor. He went over to France to the king: on his return he resumed his agitation, and so inflamed the people by his speeches from St. Paul's Cross, that no less than fifty-two thousand persons bound themselves to obey his orders. Archbishop Hubert however assembled the citizens and prevailed upon them to give him hostages. Fitz-Osbert clove with an axe the head of the officer sent to arrest him, and then took refuge in the tower of the church of St. Mary le Bow; but the church was set on fire, and as he attempted to escape he was stabbed by the son of the man whom he had slain, and was then dragged to Tyburn, and there hung from the Elms. Miracles were, as usual, said by his partisans to have been wrought at his grave.

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CHAPTER III.

JOHN (LACKLAND.)*

1199-1216.

Accession of John ;-his marriage.--Capture and murder of Prince Arthur.--

Loss of Normandy.—Contest with the pope.-John becomes a vassal of the

Holy See.—Magna Charta.—War between John and his barons ;-his death. KING RICHARD, it is said, left his dominions to his brother John, though Arthur duke of Brittany, as representative of his father Geoffrey, was, by the feudal law the next heir, and had already been regarded as such by the king his uncle. But, as we have seen, the principles of primogeniture and representation had been hitherto little attended to in the Anglo-Norman line, and Richard may have thought his nephew (who was but twelve years of age) too young, or, as is more probable, he may have been influenced by queen Eleanor, who hated. Constance the mother of Arthur, and feared the power she might acquire during the minority.

To secure England John sent thither his fast friends, Hubert archbishop of Canterbury, and the earl-marshal William earl of Strigul, and he induced Robert de Turnham, who held the castle of Chinon, where the late king's treasure was deposited, to yield it up to him. Normandy, Poitou, and Guienne submitted, but Anjou, Maine, and Touraine declared for Arthur, whose side the king of France also took, with the design of embarrassing John, and he sent the young duke to Paris to be brought up with his own son Louis. Meantime the primate and the earl-marshal had held a conference with the English nobility and clergy, and by presents and by promises of good government had prevailed on them to swear allegiance to John. On his arrival he was crowned (May 27) by the primate at Westminster, and shortly after he recrossed the sea to carry on the war against the king of France.

The war, as usual, consisted in the taking of castles and the making of truces. William des Roches, the governor of the young duke of Brittany, perceiving that Philip was making the cause of that prince merely the stalking-horse to his own ambition, carried him and his mother away, and reconciled them with king John. Ere long, however, Constance fearing for the life of her son fled with him to Angers. As John by an alliance with the emperor of Germany and the earl of Flanders was now too powerful for king Philip, who was also embroiled with the pope, the latter gladly consented to a peace. Louis, son to the French king, espoused Blanche of Castile, the English king's niece, whom queen Eleanor conducted out of Spain for the purpose. He was to receive Berri and Auvergne, and a dowry of twenty thousand marks with her. Philip on his part abandoned the cause of prince Arthur, who lost in consequence the provinces he claimed, and had moreover to do homage to his uncle for Brittany.

Being now secure in his dominions, John, who never knew a moral or religious restraint, proceeded by his disregard of justice to raise up new enemies for himself. He fell in love with Isabel, the beautiful daughter of his vassal the count of Angoulême, and though she was actually betrothed to the count of la Marche, and his own wife the heiress of Gloucester was living, he resolved to espouse her. He therefore made the discovery that himself and his wife were too near akin; and the archbishop of Bordeaux and two other prelates, to whom the pope committed the inquiry, declared the marriage void. Her father having meantime stolen away Isabel from the count of La Marche, the bishop of Bordeaux performed the marriage ceremony.